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WE ARE SCIENTISTS: Megaplex, Rise of the Lycans. | You read it here first: http://spillmagazine.com/spill-album-review-we-are-scientists-megaplex-rise-of-the-lycans/
©We Are Scientists
We Are Scientists
Megaplex: Rise of the Lycans
Groenland Records
Spill Rating: “Above average — but won’t change your life”
Powerpop duo, We Are Scientists, released the deluxe version of their 2018 album Megaplex, under the name, Megaplex: Rise of the Lycans, on April 19. Let it be noted that We Are Scientists follow a strict 10-song-per-album formula, however, Megaplex: Rise of the Lycans includes four additional acoustic songs, three full band bonus tracks, five demo tracks, and one remix. We Are Scientists describe the difference between a deluxe and ‘normal’ album like when you eat at a buffet and pile all sorts of mismatched food on your plate, but you’re ecstatic, because of the indulgent madness of it all.
Remix, “Your Song Has Changed”, takes a step back from the edgy, harsher tones taken in the original Megaplexversion. This lighter take makes the track personable, which does the staunch lyrical discussion justice. “You Failed” feels like a harrowing throwback to school, but with the repeat of the words “test of a lifetime”, the song is telling you that, ya fucked up girl. “Properties of Perception” has a Beach Boys vibe with the classic sound of harmonised vocals accompanied by a peppy guitar strum. Slower in build-up, “No Wait at Five Leaves” takes the harmonized vocals and turns them into a slightly sadistic, methodic chant.
This collection is definitely all you can eat. By breaking their 10-songs-per-album rule by throwing in 13 demos and remixes, We Are Scientists experiment with their sound on Megaplex: The Rise of the Lycans which, from a fan’s perspective, concludes with a positive hypothesis. | https://medium.com/@kirstin.bews/we-are-scientists-megaplex-rise-of-the-lycans-87b2ddfe17a4 | ['Kirstin Bews'] | 2019-05-09 22:01:02.244000+00:00 | ['Music Review', 'Music', 'Album Review', 'We Are Scientists', 'The Spill'] |
What Makes an NBA Head Coach? | Above, we see the career progression of our 30 NBA coaches for the upcoming season. Every square represents a year in their career, starting from when they turn 18. There is so much information we can learn just from the graph above — here are the top eight findings that I discovered by putting the visualization together:
1. Almost all NBA coaches played college ball
28 out of the 30 head coaches played college ball at some point in their career. Although this is an overwhelming majority of coaches, it’s not a requirement. Two coaches — Taylor Jenkins of the Memphis Grizzlies as well as Mark Daigneault of OKC did not play basketball in college. Both of these coaches are amongst the youngest, and have only been in their coaching stint for a short time.
2. Most were assistant NBA coaches
Only 5 out of the 30 coaches were never NBA assistant coaches at any point in their careers. If you don’t want to go down the route of being an assistant NBA coach, it seems like you really only have two options: | https://medium.com/swlh/what-makes-an-nba-head-coach-6113073415db | ['William Chon'] | 2020-12-22 12:13:59.308000+00:00 | ['NBA', 'Sports', 'Basketball', 'Data Visualization', 'Data Science'] |
Understanding ‘==’ vs. ‘is’ in Python | Analyzing the Difference
In this post, I will be analyzing the basic difference between them.
For this, we will start with some analogy with twin cats. So, assume that you have twin cats which are very similar. They have the same charcoal fur and the same piercing green eyes. Just by looking, we can’t tell which one is which.
Now, come to our == vs is operators in Python.
The == operator compares by checking for the equality. If these two cats were two Python objects, then if comparing them using the == operator, it will return ‘Both cats are Equal’ as the answer.
The is operator compares by checking for the identity. If we use is for comparing them we will get ‘Both cats are not Equal’ as the answer.
To really understand this, we will write some code.
First, we will create a list named a which contains elements [3, 4, 5] and another list b which will point to the list a .
Let's inspect these two lists. We can see that these looks point to the identical-looking list.
Because the two list objects look the same, we’ll get the expected result
when we compare them for equality by using the == operator.
However, that doesn’t tell us whether a and b are actually pointing to
the same object. Of course, we know they are because we assigned
them earlier, but suppose we didn’t know — how might we find out?
The answer is to compare both variables with the is operator. This
confirms that both variables are, in fact, pointing to one list object.
Now, let’s create another list c using the list() which contains the elements of the list a .
If we look at list c , it looks similar to the list pointed to by a and b .
Now, we will compare a and c using the == and is operators.
Here, the == operator gives True because both of them have the same content.
Python is telling us that c and a are pointing to two different objects, even though their contents might be the same.
So, to recap, let’s try and break down the difference between is and
== into two short definitions.
An is expression evaluates to True if two variables point to the
same (identical) object. A == expression evaluates to True if the objects referred to by
the variables are equal (have the same contents). | https://medium.com/better-programming/understanding-vs-is-in-python-2f8f7ae1dd23 | ['Diwakar Singh Parmar'] | 2020-04-25 10:15:30.297000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Python3', 'Python Programming', 'Programming'] |
“Is Filipino Worth Dying For?” | I am a plain and ordinary citizen who has witnessed the government's and country's progress and flaws. We've been plundered, some of us have been killed, and some have received justice. I want for a more effective means of providing justice and liberty to my folks. Because we are all in this together, don't be frightened to speak the truth.
The pandemic is still raging, and contracting the virus can result in sickness and disability at best, and death at worst. So, certainly, the possibility of someone dying for the sake of another Filipino still exists. We're talking about our medical professionals, as well as those in security, janitorial, delivery, local government, and other fields, who continue to put their lives on the line even during the pandemic to ensure that the economy doesn't collapse, that patients are cared for, and that people have food and other necessities delivered to them, among other things. It's comforting to know that the spirit underlying Ninoy's words lives on, especially in these trying times. Open your eyes and see that still, Filipinos are worth dying for! | https://medium.com/@angelmbacsa/is-filipino-worth-dying-for-7b451e7fabbc | [] | 2021-09-11 12:06:06.946000+00:00 | ['Philippines', 'Government', 'Filipino', 'Democracy'] |
ML World: Learn Machine Learning! Part 2 | Woah! That is a lot to deal with at the moment. Let us get started with the simplest Machine Learning model: Simple Linear Regression.
What is Simple Linear Regression?
Simple Linear Regression/ Univariate Regression in ML is a Supervised Learning algorithm.
Simple Linear Regression allows us to summarize and observe the relationship between two continuous quantitative variables x and y, which is represented by a straight line.
In simple words, Simple Linear Regression is the manifestation of the equation of straight line having coordinates(x,y) given as:
In the above equation,
x: x is the independent variable or feature. It is the input.
y: y is a dependent variable or target variable which our model predicted/estimated.
m: m is the slope. It determines the angle at all times.
c: c is an intercept. It is constant that decides the value of x when y=0.
Similarly, The equation of Simple Linear Regression is as follows:
y is the predicted value of the dependent variable/target variable (y) for any given value of the independent variable/feature (x).
B0 is the intercept, the predicted value of y when the x=0.
B1 is the regression coefficient: the amount of change in y as x tends to increase
x is the independent variable/feature ( the variable we expect is influencing y or the controlling variable).
e is the error function or the difference in the actual and predicted values.
Simple Linear regression finds the line of the best fit line through your data by searching for the regression coefficient (B1) that minimizes the total error (e) of the model.
How does Simple Linear Regression find the best fit line?
To understand this, let us consider an example.
Suppose we have a data set of grades for some students and need to predict the grades of students based on the time they spent studying.
Now, in this case :
y = Grades of students.
x = Time spent Studying.
Let us consider a trend line which represents the possible best fit line. In the above dataset, yellow stars represent the grades of students dependent on the time they spent studying.
Now let us draw a vertical line from these data points onto the best fit line. Thus, you can see where the dataset point is and where it should be placed according to the best fit line.
The yellow star indicates the actual value whereas the green dot represents the value observed by the Simple Linear Regression model.
Now, to get this best fitting line, you take this difference between the actual and estimates (y-y’) and square it and calculate its sum. Once you have the sum, you need to find the minimum out of them.
What a simple linear regression does is it draws lots and lots and lots of these lines and counts the sum of the squares every single time and records it and then it finds the minimum sum of squares.
And that line is called the best fit line, and this method is known as the ordinary least squares method.
What are the Assumptions of Simple Linear Regression?
For a simple linear regression model in practice, the model should conform to the assumptions of linear regression.
There are four assumptions associated with a linear regression model:
Linearity: The first assumption of simple linear regression is that the two variables (target and feature) should have a Linear relationship. Homoscedasticity: The variance of residual is the same for any value of x. Independence: Observations are independent of each other. Normality: For any fixed value of x, y is normally distributed. In other words, it suggests that the linear combination of the random variables should have a normal distribution.
How to Implement a Simple Linear Regression model?
To implement the simplest ML model, first, you need to process the data. I suggest you check out our Data processing series to familiarize yourself with some concepts.
To start building a Simple Linear Regression Model, we first need a dataset and a problem statement. Let us consider a simple dataset having a dependent variable ‘Salary’ and independent variable ‘Years of experience’.
The datasets in real-world applications are endless, but to keep things simple and wrap our heads around the concept, we should start with a much smaller dataset.
Here we have a dataset of a few employees’ salaries corresponding to their years of experience.
The first thing we need to do is import all the necessary libraries. Here we need to import the LinearRegression class from sklearn.linear_model library.
Once we are through with importing libraries, we need to import our dataset.
After successfully importing the dataset and separating it into features and targets, we need to split the dataset into train and test sets.
Now, we need to create an object of the class LinearRegression() and train the model on the training set. After our model is trained, we need to test it on a test set.
We can then visualize the performance of our model on the training set and testing set to get a better intuition of its efficiency.
When to use Simple Linear Regression?
Simple Linear regression helps you in understanding and quantifying the relationship between your numerical data.
You can use simple linear regression when you want to know:
How strong the relationship is between two variables (for example the relationship between area and house prices). The value of the dependent variable at a certain value of the independent variable (For example the price of a house when the area is given).
Learning Parameter for Simple Linear Regression: Cost Function
The goal of any ML model is to learn from data. To make predictions and learn from experience. It is similar to the analogy of a toddler learning life lessons and developing himself according to his/her experience,
Similarly, the cost function helps the learner to learn and correct his mistakes and develop from it to avoid future inaccuracies.
In ML, cost functions are used to estimate how badly models are performing.
A Cost function is a measure of how inaccurately the model performs in terms of its ability to predict the relationship between X and y.
This is generally expressed as a mean squared error, which measures the difference between the actual value (from the dataset) and the estimated value (the prediction). It looks like this:
The objective of an ML model, therefore, is to find these parameters, weights, or a structure that minimizes the cost function.
Function to minimize Cost Function: Gradient Descent
Now that you know that our model functions accurately once the cost function is minimized, we need to think of some parameters to do this task. Thus Gradient Descent comes into play.
Gradient descent is an efficient optimization algorithm that attempts to find a local or global minimum of a function.
What are Local and Global Minima?
Local Minima :
Functions can have an elliptical, hill or valley like structure: a place from where they reach a minimum or maximum value.
It may not be the minimum or maximum for the whole function, but locally it is.
Global Minima :
The minimum over the entire function is called an “Absolute” or “Global” minimum.
There is only one global minimum, but there can be more than one local minimum.
Well, I hope these definitions gave you a little insight. Now we can try and understand the concept of gradient descent much more easily.
Gradient descent enables a model to learn the direction that the model should take to reduce the difference between actual and predicted values.
Gradient Descent in the simple linear regression refers to how the model parameters b0 and b1 should be adjusted or corrected to further minimize the cost function.
As the model iterates, it gradually converges towards a minimum where further adjustments made in the parameters produce little or zero changes in the loss.
This point is also known as convergence. At this point the weights of the model are optimum and the cost function is minimized.
This iteration depends on the learning rate of the model (α).
The learning rate determines how big the step would be on each iteration.
If α is very small, it would take a long time to converge and become computationally expensive.
If α is large, it may fail to converge and surpass the minimum.
What are the limitations of simple linear regression?
Some limitations of simple linear regression are as follows:
So far, we’ve only been able to examine the relationship between two variables. Simple linear regression allows us to predict a target variable only when it is controlled by one feature. It oversimplifies a real-world problem by assuming a linear relationship between variables. Simple Linear Regression is sensitive to outliers. Outliers are the data points that lie outside the scope of the regression line in this case. Thus, accuracy is harmed in the presence of outliers.
Congratulations! I hope you were able to compute your first ever ML model: Linear Regression successfully. There are many concepts to wrap your head around, but with a little dedication, you will surpass this phase.
Keep practicing peeps!
(Image Source: Internet) | https://medium.com/godatascience/ml-world-learn-machine-learning-part-2-3c91440e2e64 | [] | 2020-10-13 08:54:44.048000+00:00 | ['Linear Regression', 'Python', 'Regression', 'Machine Learning'] |
The Great Song Registration Meltdown of 2020–2021 (Edited Version) | BMI writes that:
Songs registered online (at BMI.com) show up in the BMI.com Repertoire and Online Services Catalog application the next day. Titles that do not auto-register require additional processing and may take between 1–7 business days to become available.
ASCAP writes that:
It may take up to seven days to process a new registration.
Many musicians rely on a third party — known as a publishing administrator — to register their songs with these performance rights organizations. So those BMI and ASCAP timelines wouldn’t apply to those using a publishing administrator. Using a third party could take from a week and should at most take three to five months on average. I will dig into how third party song registrations work a bit more deeper in the post.
Songs I recorded with my music group FSQ were submitted for registration with BMI in July of 2020 via my publishing administrator Songtrust. These didn’t appear in BMI’s repertory until 9 months later, late April 2021. And the songs submitted to BMI via Songtrust did not fully appear, only five out of eight songs submitted today in the BMI repertory search.
Also, if there are any errors in filing a song registration, getting those fixed seems impossible. Example here is: another song writer — “Charles Fishman” — was accidentally entered for my writing work on a collaboration with Alex Vans of the group, Bad Business Club. Alex is affiliated with ASCAP. I’m actually “Charles Elliot Fishman” in the world of music publishing, and affiliated with BMI, so we entered the following fix in December of 2020 via ASCAP’s online dashboard.
An update made to the writers of a song on ASCAP.com made in December 2020
In the above screen shot you see that the fix was made in December 2020, and Charles Elliot Fishman was entered at ASCAP.com, as the correct songwriter on this production. However six months later ASCAP still shows the other “Charles Fishman” the mistaken entry, as the writer on this production.
I’m a BMI affiliated songwriter going as “Charles Elliot Fishman” but in the original registration an ASCAP writer “Charles Fishman” was entered instead, by accident.
Even if you don’t know about “song registrations” you would be able to comprehend that a data change made directly with the provider of a database should NOT take months to reflect said change.
Why does the speed of song registrations matter? A musical artist could drop a new song on TikTok coming right out of the recording studio one night, and find that song has billions of listens the next day via TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify and a myriad of other video and music streaming services. If the song isn’t registered properly, publishing royalties aren’t coming in on that fast moving hit.
Three to Five Months to Register a Song
My music group FSQ released an album in 2020 via Soul Clap Records. Part of the plan for release was to have Soul Clap Records own the publishing on the FSQ release. Given Songtrust’s vast expertise in publishing administration and proven track record of serving independent artists, I asked Soul Clap Records to consider moving their music publishing administration over to Songtrust in advance of the release. Soul Clap Records is an artist run record label, led by the dance music duo Soul Clap (Eli Goldstein and Charles Levine) and has a publishing arm, which today is a catalog of about 500 songs. Considering the size of the catalog and how well known Soul Clap is, we certainly got the white glove treatment in terms of onboarding the music publishing catalog to Songtrust.
In July 2020, the eight songs from the FSQ album were submitted to Songtrust and were to be registered via Songtrust with our PRO, BMI. In October of 2020, I expected to see these songs registered at BMI via their public facing search portal known as “Repertory Search” but they were missing by that date.
Given my previous experience with my music attorney being able to quickly file and register songs with BMI, the missing songs seem unexpected.
I contacted Songtrust about the missing song registrations. I was told “there is currently a delay in BMI processing our song registrations. We have been told it can take as long as six months for songs to appear on the public repertoire.”
I mentioned earlier that prior to 2020, a week long period all the way up to three to five month timeline for registrations made by third parties into BMI and ASCAP was common place. So why the delays?
PROs, Publishing Administrators — Millions of New Songs to Register, Drowning in Data
To get a better understanding of what’s going on in the world of publishing beyond the mega deals where major artists are selling off their publishing and other music rights for millions, look to Synchtank’s music publishing 2021 research report “Drowning in Data: Royalty Accounting and Systems in the Digital Age”
One graph that stood out to me was the following.
How many more songs to keep track of and how many royalty sources ?? One music publisher records a 4500% growth rate in data processing ??
Another graph I noted from the Synchtank report, was data from the major UK based PRO, PRS for Music. This side by side graph shows the expense of processing all the increased song data is depressing revenue return on their work to collect royalties.
With the music publishing industry facing an explosion of data with increasing data processing costs, you begin to wonder if publishers, and the PROs will be able to build quickly and invest enough resources to keep up.
ASCAP and BMI did make one big investment in data in 2020, they built a joint repertory search database called Songview.
That being said, the explosion of song data isn’t going to just go away. Another 2021 research report on music publishing was also recently released, this one by MIDiA Research is titled “Rebalancing The Song Economy”. Variety reviews the report and summarizes it: “ a new royalty model is necessary if songwriters are to survive, let alone undertake the kind of ‘risk-taking’ and ‘creativity’ that moves music forward.’
The report’s author, Björn Ulvaeus, a member of the legendary Swedish music group, calls the current model “dysfunctional”.
Björn Ulvaeus is also the President of CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, a consortium of sorts that includes all the PROs and other royalty collection societies all across the globe, including BMI and ASCAP. The organization also maintains the common standard technologies for music publishing including a data format known as Common Works Registrations (CWR) that allow song registrations to be properly delivered to PROs all over the world, and thereby registered.
If Ulvaeus feels the current publishing model (which would include song registrations as part of the model) “dysfunctional”, he is certainly currently in the position as president to ask CISAC members to streamline their processes and invest in data processing power so that delays are less common.
Some music technology partners are stepping into the mix to improve data processing related to music royalties, for instance Music Reports is partnering with PROs on this front. And the IFPI, The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, announced in 2021 that is working with music technology company BMAT and several Asia based performance royalty organizations to create SoundSys, a “fully scalable, shared system for the distribution of sound recording performance rights revenue around the world.”
But are recent these efforts enough to keep up with the flow of data and processing requirements?
If 60,000 new songs are appearing at Spotify daily, and even only 1/2 of those songs are being registered with PROs or via publishing companies, it is still a huge volume of song data to process, given each song can have multiple songwriters affiliated with multiple PROs and multiple publishers.
Could the data processing issues be the reason myself and other songwriters experienced song registration delays in 2020 and into 2021
Hunting Down, Validating Song Registrations
To make matters more complicated, NOT every PRO has a public facing song repertory search like US PRO’s BMI and ASCAP have. So it can be hard to discern if a work you wrote has been properly registered if it is being submitted through a foreign based PRO.
In the following case, a song I co-wrote and produced with a UK artist, was registered with a UK publishing firm affiliated with the UK’s PRS for Music. The writers (me and one other) are affiliated with BMI, and we are not able to log on to PRS for Music to check the song registrations, as we are not members of PRS and that’s the only way you can search their database.
Eventually, our shares of the work should appear in BMI repertory search, but again we are finding the delays to be extended without any insight into what a proper timeframe would be.
A UK publisher who registered a collaboration I made with an artist affiliated with PRS for Music UK validates that our song is in the PRS database, but our BMI affiliated contribution is not yet appearing at BMI’s repertory search (email from April 2021)
Is there a way to track the registration of your songs globally? Maybe. For the past several years, CISAC (the organization I mentioned that is the collective body representing PROs across the globe) has been working on the CIS-Net for Rights Holders Initiative. The idea of CIS-Net is a global look up for song data ; CIS-Net is a global network of databases that share the metadata associated with musical repertoire. So in my case, if I had access to it, I could see where this UK based song collaboration I mentioned, is currently in terms of being registered at PRS for Music and also BMI. I could have skipped reaching out to the UK publisher as I did above.
The CIS-Net “Rights Holder Initiative” is designed empower songwriters, composers, and music publishers to search repertoire and interested party information (IPI) on the CIS-Net worldwide database. Unfortunately, it is not as democratic as they make it sound, you would need to get approval from your home PRO to access CIS-Net. I searched the BMI website and found no FAQ on how to get access to the CIS-Net.
CIS-Net for Rights-Holders besides looking like a Web 1.0 website from 1995, seems practically impossible to access for US songwriters
If you think you can get your PRO to give you a sign up key to access the CIS-Net for Rights Holders, you will find the site here:
https://cisnetrha.cisac.org/
A private French data company called Quansic recently stepped into the world of song registration data search (and beyond to other sources, for instance, Discogs data), but their search engine is a paid service.
A Community of Songwriters Experiencing Registration Delays
Back to tracking down the registrations of my songs that I composed here in the U.S. Remember that in late 2020, I was told by Songtrust, my publishing administrator that it could “take up to six months for songs to appear in BMI repertory”. In January 2021, now more than six months after I initially registered 8 songs with the firm (an album), I filed a support ticket with Songtrust. Given COVID, I was told support tickets were talking longer than usual to respond to at Songtrust. The sub headline of this post is “some independent publishers find their work slowed by technological updates, a rapidly expanding universe of new songs, and a global pandemic.” I get that the pandemic, short staffing etc could also be a cause of song registration delays. Heck, ASCAP even delayed royalty payments earned Q3 2019 that were due in April 2020, blaming the pandemic. It’s hard to fathom how money collected in 2019 would be impacted by the pandemic.
While I waited an answer from Songtrust, I asked music industry colleagues if they were experiencing any issues with their song registrations. By asking around I learned that both other Songtrust users, and non Songtrust users — including major music publishers — were also experiencing delays with their song registrations at BMI and ASCAP.
The more I raised the alarm about delays in terms of getting songs registered with PROs within online music industry forums and communities, the more I heard from other major noted publishers and third party registration companies interested in my own problems. I was told I was not alone with in terms of facing registration delays.
Several interested parties including a strong independent publisher, set up Zoom calls with me to discuss the problems. These conversations were fascinating but off the record. More discussions about the song registration delays with other effected songwriters occurred in Cherie Hu’s Patreon subscriber community, Water & Music, while others happened in an email list I am a member of called Pho, and even some users on Twitter were crowing about their own problems.
My intention with this post is to shine a light on the song registration delays to highlight it as an industry problem and understand what investments are being made to improve the song registration process. | https://medium.com/@musicdatapro/the-great-song-registration-meltdown-of-2020-2021-edited-version-fa8b24e86880 | [] | 2021-07-10 22:23:34.016000+00:00 | ['Music Business', 'Data', 'Media', 'Music', 'Digital Marketing'] |
What Steps Should You Take After a Car Accident? | Accidents happen to the best of drivers. Even the most cautious of us can find ourselves in a car accident at some point or another. There are many different things to think about after a car accident. For example, did you know there is a time limit on reporting your accident? This article gives you an overview of what steps you need to take after a car accident. We also discuss your options if your car is totaled in the crash and how to get back on the road with the best coverage for your needs.
After the Crash
Whether or not you are at fault for the accident, there are some steps you should take right after the crash.
● Call 911. The first thing you should do is call 911. Call 911 first and then call your insurance company after receiving medical attention if someone is injured.
● Exchange information with the other driver(s). Get their names, phone numbers, license plate numbers, addresses, and insurance information before leaving the scene of an accident.
● Check for injury. If anyone gets hurt in the accident, check to see if they need help right away. Do not leave them unattended if they have been injured.
● Call your insurance company from a safe location only if it’s been less than 24 hours since the accident happened or if someone has been injured or killed in the crash. You can also file a claim online through your mobile device at any time of day or night following an auto accident.
Waiting at the scene of the accident
If you’re in an accident, it’s essential to stay at the scene for a few reasons. First, it’s the law. Second, if there are injuries involved, you’ll need to ensure they get help as soon as possible. It might seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised at how many people flee the scene of an accident. If someone is seriously injured or killed in an accident, call 911 and report it immediately.
Reporting the accident
If you are involved in a car accident, it’s essential to report the accident to the police as soon as possible. This is called reporting the incident to law enforcement.
According to state laws, this needs to be done within 10 days of the incident. If you don’t report the incident before both 10 days have passed and one year has gone by since the incident, then it becomes too late.
Some police departments might not take your report unless you go into the station in person. Be sure to ask them about this if they don’t seem keen on coming out to your location.
You should also note that some states require drivers involved in an accident to provide their driver’s license number, vehicle registration number, license plate number, or current address of residence. You may also need this information about your insurance coverage after an accident.
Gather all of your information
The first thing you need to do after an accident is to take care of yourself. This includes getting medical attention if necessary.
However, before you go, you must gather all the information that you’ll need to file a claim. You’ll want to get the other driver’s name and address to start. You may also enjoy their license plate number.
Additionally, be sure to take pictures of your damages and any injuries sustained at the time of the crash. If possible, get contact information for any witnesses or bystanders who may be able to attest to what happened.
Once you’ve gathered this data, it’s time to get out of the car and call for help if necessary. After that, call your insurance company — they will walk you through what needs to happen next!
What to do if your car is totaled?
After a car accident, one of the first things you’ll need is to determine your vehicle’s condition.
If your car has been totaled in the crash, you’ll have two options. You can either have your insurance company total your car or purchase a salvage title and fix it yourself.
If you decide to buy a salvage title, you’ll need to pay for repairs out-of-pocket. However, if you choose to have your insurance company total it, they will pay for the cost of repairing the damage done to the vehicle in exchange for giving them ownership of it.
Regardless of how you decide to go, you must take care of any outstanding debt on your vehicle and protect yourself with proper coverage after an accident.
Getting back on the road with the best coverage for your needs
The first thing to do after an accident is to stop. It’s essential to take time to evaluate your injuries and the damages on both sides of the crash. If you’re not injured, you mustn’t walk away from the scene of the crash.
If you are injured, then you must call emergency services for help. It would be best if you also were sure to get all of your personal information out on the table so that first responders can know who they’re helping at the scene.
Then, it’s time to contact your insurance company or agent right away if your car was in a collision. This will help determine if everything will be covered under your insurance policy and what steps to take next.
Conclusion
When it comes to car accidents, it’s easy to panic and not know what to do. But by following this guide and getting all the right coverage, you’ll be well-prepared to handle any incident that comes your way or you can consult a Houston car accident attorney. | https://medium.com/@dmillerlaw/what-steps-should-you-take-after-a-car-accident-c8beceb1d101 | ['D. Miller', 'Associates'] | 2021-12-30 22:30:56.897000+00:00 | ['Lawyers', 'Attorney', 'Car Accident Lawyer'] |
Contraste: on the stage of a magician, Matias Perdomo | In the midst of one of the most congested streets of Milan, Via Giuseppe Meda 2, you can barely see a garden behind a grey gate. It simply looks like an entrance of a private house, but it is Contraste, the Matias Perdomo’s restaurant.
Crossing the gate, a little cosy garden with some sofas welcomes the guests, although I could not appreciate it since it was raining. The restaurant is inside the basement of an art-deco house. It makes a strong positive impression to an untrained eye. Indeed, the wide white dining room with a fireplace on a side, few tables and huge red chandeliers lying from the unusually high ceiling like the tentacles of an octopus, easily stick in everyone’s mind. On the other hand, the location presents some issues. The tablecloths were worn out, the place was cold and humid.
Donut “alla Bolognese”
The overall atmosphere of the place was little grotesque, guests were dressed in a way that drew attention to their different fashion items, but their overall appearance was quite questionable. Both the place and the people were pretending to have a status above what it really was. In some way, I felt surrounded by plastic.
The service, consisting of women (at least that dinner) who were smartly dressed and seemed super-efficient, because they were fast, polite and ready to fill your glass with water as soon as the level went below the half a glass. On the other hand, they made some unforgivable mistakes, considering it is a Michelin starred restaurant. Indeed, they twice brought dishes to our table belonging to another table. It was only by chance that we had not started before they noticed the mistake.
The food was the reason why I decided to pay a visit to Contraste. All my acquaintances and IG followers highly recommend it. For instance, Conoscounposto was rather in awe of Contraste’s food. My opinion is quite different. Overall, the Perdomo’s dishes looked attractive, but un unremarkable. He changes the appearance of the ingredients; for instance, a tartare of Fassone meat looks like strawberry or scallops takes the shape of spaghetti. These transformations are funny, but they do not add anything to the taste.
At the end, it is a restaurant, not a stage. A chef should not be (only) a magician. The reality is that the majority of dishes were tasteless if it had not been for the use of sauces. They were the only element to give taste to the cooked food.
In conclusion, Contraste restaurant could be a choice if you want to make a good impression on your guest. On the other hand, if you are used to eating at an amazing restaurant, you had best give it a miss. | https://sushimilan.com/contraste-f137c468db12 | [] | 2020-08-15 17:34:08.614000+00:00 | ['Michelin Star', 'Restaurant Reviews Blogs', 'Restaurant Review', 'Foodies', 'Milan'] |
Announcing IoT on Tap | Announcing IoT on Tap
Join Hashmap for a New Weekly Podcast
Hashmap software engineers, Chris Herrera and Randy Pitcher, spend a great deal of time working with clients helping to crack the code on IoT applications and solutions. With this new weekly podcast they will take a developer focus (vs marketing) and an industrial focus (vs consumer) while still looking to make IoT approachable, practical, and useful.
They will be talking about how you can reasonably go from the “hello world” of IoT to actually doing advanced analytics and machine learning on your device data.
Oh yeah, and you’ll have to tune in to find out more about the “on tap” aspect of the podcast!
Here’s an inside view of the “studio” at Hashmap Houston where the magic happens…
Check out the weekly Thursday podcast from our website or from your favorite podcast app…
Hashmap Podcasts Page
IoT on Tap on iTunes
IoT on Tap on SoundCloud
IoT on Tap on Pocket Casts
IoT on Tap on Stitcher
We’ll look to provide you with a nice selection of IoT topics whether you are traveling, commuting, or just in full learning mode…
If you have topics you’d like to hear Chris and Randy discuss or any comments (or would like to join them in studio for an IoT discussion), please reach out to the guys and let them know. Chris can be reached at @cherrera2001 and Randy can be reached somewhere — thanks for listening! | https://medium.com/hashmapinc/announcing-iot-on-tap-cca1a412d8ca | [] | 2018-06-22 11:33:01.299000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Podcast', 'Hashmappers', 'IoT', 'Open Source'] |
I’m Going through This in Thanksgiving With My Nearby Family members | At the point when my girl was three, she found a mouse outside in the grass. Decisively, she snatched it by the tail and got it for us all of us see.
‘Look!’ she screeched, ‘A mostly dead, incompletely alive mouse!’
Despite the fact that she’s currently 9, this second remaining parts probably the soonest memory, and the expression ‘incompletely dead, somewhat alive’ has made it into our family vocabulary.
https://www.facebook.com/UFC-256-Live-Online-Free-105733104662955
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This year, like never before, I’ve been thinking about the expression as far as my family. My family — and yours, and every other person’s — is halfway dead, incompletely alive.
I don’t mean it in the bleak sense like we’re all one minute from a feline assault that leaves us seizing out in the yard.
What I mean is that piece of my family is dead and some portion of my family is as yet alive. At the point when life feels loaded with ill defined situations as it does well currently, it’s practically encouraging to have something so high contrast to consider.
In the alive section are my children, my significant other, and my mother and father. I have three kin and arranged aunties, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews. They are spread out the nation over, wrapped up their own 2020 stories. Also, they’re all fine — as fine as any of us are at this moment.
Be that as it may, since I won’t be seeing any of them over the special seasons this year, I have wound up reasoning a ton about the other piece of my family. This incorporates the individuals who are not, at this point alive yet are in any case, part of my family. In this class are each of the four of my grandparents, just as numerous extraordinary aunties and incredible uncles. Additionally on this side is my mom’s infant sibling, who passed on of disease at 50, which is an age that appeared to be old at that point, however now appears to be heartbreakingly youthful.
I can’t whine about this equilibrium. Life is definitely a moving condition of deductions and increments, and I’m fortunate to have unique individuals in both the dead and alive section.
More often than not however, it’s my living relatives that request consideration. The writings, calls, photographs, zoom meets, and endowments all go to them. In a regular year, the prior week Thanksgiving would be a volley of plans, eating times, guest plans, and lists if people to attend. I’d be giving my children an intensive lesson on social graces and ensuring we as a whole had at any rate one nice outfit to take on the lengthy drive to my folks’ home in upstate New York.
This year however, we are making no arrangements. We are pounding no potatoes and playing no after-supper games.
Thus, in the same way as other of you, I’m confronted with a passionate and strategic void.
What I’ve seen however, is that the other piece of my family — the dead part — continues sneaking in to make up for the shortfall. Like never before, I’ve been considering my grandmas. One kicked the bucket while I was in secondary school and the other died as of late, yet both were a powerhouse in my initial life.
At the point when I was youthful and they were both alive, I considered them just as old women who made meals for chapel dinners and drove enormous long vehicles — consistently five to ten miles more slow than as far as possible.
Be that as it may, recently, I’ve been pondering more about different pieces of their lives. I’ve been pondering which decade was their most joyful and what their greatest second thoughts were. Both survived numerous races, a few wars, and the death of Roe v. Swim. There are things that I gaze upward on Wikipedia that I’m certain both of my grandmas would know all things considered.
I’ve been contemplating whether they wished they had more kids or on the off chance that they wished they never had youngsters. Did they feel fat when they glanced in the mirror and experience the ill effects of profound situated uneasiness that was layered over in beauty care products from the Avon woman and weaved vests?
Is it accurate to say that they were glad in their relationships, or following five or sixty years, were worries about joy pushed aside by the satisfaction that comes from consistency?
This leads me to consider my granddads. One was short, the different was tall. Both were dairy ranchers and both were resolute moderates. I know from their declarations in chapel that they were single-issue citizens: premature birth. In any case, I likewise realize that they would have detested Trump for a hundred different reasons. Furthermore, I can’t help thinking about what they would have done in the democratic corner this year.
One granddad, in dissent of the public authority, consistently would not wear a safety belt. I currently wonder — would he put on a cover for us all, or would he venture to every part of the wide open flagrant, untethered by security restrictions of any sort?
At that point my considerations meander to his sister, my distant auntie. Despite the fact that she passed on in the mid 2000s in her mid-80s, I’ve regularly wanted for the opportunity to return to our last discussion. It occurred on Thanksgiving as we were all pressing in one more bit of pie.
“I figure Hillary Clinton will be president one day,” she stated, radiating.
I lament not requesting a clarification. In a time characterized by 9/11 and a second Bramble in office, what gave her the boldness to recommend quite an abnormal thought? Besides, in a group of preservationists, how did she — my distant Auntie with two white ponytails and purple cowhide mocassins — end up a liberal leftist? Be that as it may, I was a stupid undergrad, most likely tingling to leave the table so I visit my sweetheart or converse with my school companions over Point on my work station, so I didn’t.
On one hand, it’s tragic to consider the number of chances I missed with my dead family members. In any case, I additionally know it’s ridiculous to feel that I would have spent my young years and 20s zeroed in on coaxing astuteness out of older individuals in rockers as opposed to voyaging, considering, and forcefully following the conviction that I definitely realized all I had to think about existence. So as opposed to floundering in lament, I’ve recently been investing energy pondering them with adoration and wistfulness.
For the initial 35 years of my life, seeing my grandma spilling food onto her chest and afterward spotting at it with a wet napkin was as normal as observing a squirrel or a bluejay out my window. The thing that matters is however, that I’ll see squirrels and bluejays for the remainder of my life, yet I’ll never again observe my grandma’s face pretend shock when a deviant cranberry thuds down on her blanketed white shirt.
However, that is alright. Trust me, with a 4 and a 9-year-old, there’s still a lot of smudged shirts in my day to day existence.
What’s more, more often than not, I invest significantly more energy contemplating my children than my grandma. Be that as it may, this year, I’m switching things up. Obviously, I’ll feed my children — I’m not a beast. However, my heart, my psyche, and my considerations — they’ll be with my dead family members, dropping cranberries, anticipating decisions, and attempting to discover answers to the inquiries I never posed.
On the off chance that you like this kind of anecdote about mostly alive-somewhat dead creatures, attempt this:
The Delight and Misery of Cherishing a Decent Canine
How our dead canine Cooper gave us one last glad memory in the woods.medium.com | https://medium.com/@goduli_66805/im-going-through-this-in-thanksgiving-with-my-nearby-family-members-25876049f7c2 | [] | 2020-12-12 18:39:21.116000+00:00 | ['Thanksgiving', 'Family', 'Members', 'Through', 'Going'] |
W1 NFL 2021: Monte Carlo Simulated Scores & Cover Probabilities | Identifying betting value by leveraging fundamentals, data, and simulations to compare our odds to the market.
Value Plays: NFL 2021 Week 1
(1) DET +8.5 (1.5 units)
(2) SF @ DET OVER 46.0 (2U)
(3) WSH Moneyline -125 (1U)
(4) WSH -1.5 (1U)
(5) CAR -3.5 (1U)
(6) IND +3.0 (1U)
(7) MIA +3.5 (1U)
(8) HOU +3.5 (1U)
(9) JAX @ HOU OVER 45.5 (2U)
(10) HOU ML +135 (1U)
(11) PIT @ BUF OVER 48.0 (0.5U)
(12) DEN @ NYG OVER 41.5 (0.5U)
How to interpret the ISW’s Tables
p (win) = Implied win probability per team based on the results stemming from 10,000 monte carlo simulated games (e.g. NYJ won 5,156 / 10,000 simulated games → NYJ’s p(W) % = 51.6%).
Avg. Score = The average (projected) score per team derived from 10,000 simulated games.
Spread = The average point differential between the two average scores.
Avg. Total vs. Market = The average total is equal to the the sum of each team’s average projected scores. The market is what ESPN’s quoted total (‘over /under’) is.
Market Spread = The current line or spread per ESPN’s NFL Daily Lines.
p (cover) % = Estimated likelihood that each team covers the spread given the market spread based on our 10k monte carlo simulations.
p (cover total) % = The likelihood that the total (i.e. the sum of each team’s final scores) goes over ‘O:’ or under ‘U:’ the market total based on 10k monte carlo simulations. | https://medium.com/the-intelligent-sports-wagerer/w1-nfl-2021-monte-carlo-simulated-scores-cover-probabilities-27672a6273af | ['John Culver'] | 2021-09-12 15:08:51.224000+00:00 | ['Sports Betting', 'Predictions', 'NFL', 'Monte Carlo', 'Lean Startup'] |
We can build the perfect Human society where everybody finds their most optimal “cogwheel role” | Question from the Internet:
“Isn’t specialization in a society designed so that we each don’t have to research, test, define, and fix everything ourselves? Doesn’t this eliminate the need for self-reliance for literally everything? Isn’t that progress and a good thing?”
You are on the right track.
The perfect Human society is built on a unique, mutually responsible, and mutually complementing connection network between people. It is built in such a way, where each and every individual can find their most optimal “cogwheel role” in society, mutually contributing to the wellbeing of society with 100% of their abilities, talents, while receiving justly, fully, whatever they need for fulfilling that cogwheel role according to their abilities and conditions.
At this stage, this sounds like a utopia, as we have no idea about our own abilities, talents, we do not know our predetermined, most optimal cogwheel role in Nature’s system. Moreover driven by our inherently egocentric, self-serving, self-justifying nature — that wants to raise the self above everybody else — we do not want to share anything, but want to grab everything only for ourselves.
This is why — as Humanity is desperately sinking into an unsolvable global crisis — we need a unique, purposeful, and practical educational method that can help us find and fulfill our special, irreplaceable role in Human society and the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE2DpkkxkfU&t=4s | https://medium.com/@samechphoto/we-can-build-the-perfect-human-society-where-everybody-finds-their-most-optimal-cogwheel-role-f40be3192dc3 | ['Zsolt Hermann'] | 2020-12-24 18:16:09.038000+00:00 | ['Humanity', 'Education', 'Connection', 'Integration', 'Society'] |
Self talk #1 | Self talk #1
What To do now ? Restricted all the triggers that can distract me now I have free time and nothing to do…
I can feel this urge to use different apps or watch anime to avoid contact with reality, in different way to run from reality…
I have stopped all the triggers since two days and new plan for watching anime..
I love anime so I can’t just stop watching it but i come up with plan to use that addiction in productive work, I have decided that i will watch anime only on Saturday and Sunday,
Saturday sunday will be my anime day, I will only watch anime whole day and nothing that’s the reward i have set for myself for doing of 5 days work,
This may seem time waste because i am gonna only watch anime for two days and it’s kind a time waste but it’s better to waste two days then wasting whole week and if i work five days with my focus on work maybe i can achieve something,
If i work for five days and then watch anime it will feel good because now i am not using anime as excuse to run from reality,
And i don’t want to feel unworthy of watching such beautiful art, i respect anime a lot and if i just that escape from reality i will be disrespecting my love for anime,
Even if this seems stupid plan it’s better then no plan…. | https://medium.com/@know.with.j/self-talk-1-d3e8558d61d | ['Think Wicked'] | 2020-12-24 07:14:23.615000+00:00 | ['Self Talk', 'Storyofmylife', 'Anime'] |
Using Differentiation to Stand Out From The Competition | What is differentiation?
Product differentiation is a marketing management strategy that aims to distinguish or differentiate a company’s products or services from the alternatives offered by competitors.
Businesses communicate their unique and distinctive benefit through the marketing strategy to make it more attractive to a targeted group of customers.
Also referred to as a point of difference, providing customers with a unique and distinct benefit can create a competitive advantage in that marketplace.
It is a powerful strategy when a target group of customers is not price-sensitive (a price increase will not reduce demand), when a market is competitive and saturated with options, or when a group of customers have specific needs that are under-served.
“Point of difference — even seemingly contradictory ones — can be powerful. Strong, favourable, unique associations that distinguish a brand from others in the same frame of reference are fundamental to successful brand positioning.” (Keller, Sternthal & Tybout, 2002)
Objectives of differentiation
The underlying objective of differentiation is to make your brand different to and more attractive than your competitors. Develop a position in the market that potential customers see as unique and valuable.
Perceived differentiation is subjective from customer to customer, from brand to brand. It is marketing’s job to alter this perception and customers’ evaluation of the benefits of one brand’s offering compared to another.
When a product or service becomes more unique, it will attract fewer comparisons with competitors, and it moves away from competing on price.
This uniqueness helps to achieve a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace.
Product differentiation helps develop a strong value proposition, making a product or service attractive to a target market. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/using-differentiation-to-stand-out-from-the-competition-dacc9f2a1777 | ['Daniel Hopper'] | 2020-11-04 21:34:09.188000+00:00 | ['Strategy', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Marketing', 'Business', 'Startup'] |
BOSCore Proposal — BOS Wallets. Proposal Name — BOS Wallets | Proposal Name — BOS Wallets
Problem
BOS is fast growing blockchain, but mostly presented in Asian region. It’s enough difficult for user, which does not understand Chinese to be updated with latest updates and to buy token for local fiat currency. Western and Eastern region is big enough to be ignored but involvement of mentioned requires adaptation and localization of wallets.
Solution
To popularise the BOS for a population of central and eastern Europe through localization of wallet, creation of educational materials, airdrop for new users and etc. We can reach around 1 000 000 users every month on our social media — https://twitter.com/atticlab_it . Besides, we are about to maintain all the functions in the BOS ecosystem. To do this, we will create tutorials and video tutorials. In addition to support the basic function of BOS ecosystem, the BOS wallet should support all dApps so that the user could log in at any time and use his preferable application, also with this wallet you can register in any other wallet with a blink of an eye.
As it was mentioned earlier , we have a large audience coverage in eastern Europe. We definitely could use this audience as a wallet users for BOS. This means that we want to create the wallet that will fully support BOS ecosystem. As a benefit, we will translate it into several European languages (English, Russian, Spanish, French, and etc.) it should be mentioned that we can do the same with the web version. In case you have no chance to use the mobile wallet you can use the web version of it. In addition, all the BOS proposals and REX will be available in the wallet.
The results we are target to:
1. The wallet with its main functions of BOS ecosystem
2. Login to any BOS dApp using the wallet
3. BOS popularization
Attic Lab feels ready to participate in WPS and knows how to improve BOS To get additional funds to allocate more development resource for BOS related tools To promote BOS on Central and Eastern Europe region To have deeper integration into BOS community
Competitors
Meet.one wallet — MEET.ONE is a safe wallet, includes all powerful EOS.IO system contract, helpful information of Dapp projects and Token, and all real EOS news.
Features:
- EOS Token transfer and receive;
- Authority management;
- System Contracts (register, stake, buy/sell RAM, etc.)
- BP vote;
- Support third party Dapps;
- EOS news.
Disadvantages
- Lack of European languages
TokenPocket — TokenPocket is an EOS mobile light-wallet, we strive to provide a powerful and secure digital asset management to users.
Features:
- Account Create
- EOS RAM Free
- First Aid Key Generator
- News
- Chat
- Dapps
Disadvantages
- Lack of European languages
Execution Plan
Phase 1 — Creation proposal & Funding receiving
Phase 2 — Prototyping & UI/UX design
Phase 3 — Development
Phase 4 — Testing and bug fixing
Phase 5 — Language localization
Phase 6 — Promotion of BOS ecosystem using a wallet
Fund Release Plan
More detailed plan — https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bpymOg6HO53SMuFbLLMxkoWR0vvk8PPzdXjd47HbikA/edit?usp=sharing
937 557 BOS that goes for developing and testing
BOS Wallets (Web & Mobile)
Funds — 937 557 BOS
Duration — 2,5 months
Team
Attic Lab is Block Producer at majority blockchains and EOS based blockchains from the mainnet launch — EOS, BOS, ORE, Tezos, IOST, Waves, Cosmos, Irisnet, Dash, Qtum, Decred. We gathered huge experience in optimizing chain as well as creating off-chain tools — https://github.com/atticlab/ for improving blockchain usage and promote mass adoption. Solid knowledge of computer science, software engineering and finance helps us to build blockchain-based solutions from scratch as well as to collaborate with other blockchain teams as an equal partner.
Sergii Vasylchuk
CEO and Co-founder
A former software engineer with thorough knowledge in finance, now Sergii is CEO at Attic Lab. A wide range of business and technical skills allows him to manage complex software projects. Sergii is involved in business development and strategic planning.
Sergii Ropchan
CTO
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at Attic Lab. Proven ability to create and deliver solutions tied to business growth, organizational development and systems/network optimization. Sergii has over 20 years of Unix software engineering, system administration, and DevOps experience.
Dmitry Chernobay
CBDO and Co-founder
Dmitry Chernobay is a Ukrainian national, educated in the UK (MBA Banking & Finance), Slovenia (MBA Intl Business) and Ukraine (MA). Mr Chernobay has worked in the private sector in the Ukraine for Bank Société Générale Ukraine as Head of Corporate Banking & Marketing, JSC UkrGasBank as Deputy Chairman, and in the public sector as a policy advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine on banking & IFIs. Mr. Chernobay is currently a Supervisory Board member of PrJSC Eurocar and serves as director of Ukrainian technology company Attic Lab Ltd specialized in blockchain and fintech applications.
Vlad Makarov
CFO
Vlad studied computer science and software engineering at School 42 (Fremont, CA). His previous experience in consulting and research yielded in an in-depth knowledge of both the business and technical sides of blockchain technology. At Attic Lab, Vlad is in charge of finance.
Bohdan Opryshko
PM
Bohdan holds Master’s degree in Physics. After many years of successful experience in project management, SMM and UI/UX design, Bohdan joined Attic Lab. As a lead designer, he developed UX/UI for Codex. His role at Attic Lab distills down to business planning and customer relations.
Vit Parkhomenko
Community Manager
Vitalii’s is in charge of creating tutorials, educational resources, news, social media management and generally helping community members. Vitalii has been involved in customer service for several years and has worked in the blockchain industry since the beginning of 2018. Vitalii believes that community is the key for the future of any cryptocurrency.
Relevant Links
Attic Lab has experience in making wallets, as example — My EOS wallet made by Attic Lab, was one of the first wallets for EOS and everfirst for BOS blockchain. We have 3 versions | https://medium.com/eosatticlab/boscore-proposal-bos-wallets-da9f83a9d6da | ['Attic Lab'] | 2019-05-23 07:21:03.651000+00:00 | ['Boscore', 'Wallet', 'Atticlab', 'Blockchain'] |
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https://www.fiverr.com/share/l39e4R | https://medium.com/@fagboyoseun49/i-will-do-affiliate-link-promotion-and-click-bank-amazon-db1318376b05 | ['Fagboyo Seun'] | 2020-12-24 09:48:09.062000+00:00 | ['Link Promotion', 'Affiliate Promotion', 'Link Building', 'Affiliate Marketing'] |
Linux monitoring tool: Install OMD (Open Monitoring Distribution) — LinuxTechLab | OMD or Open Monitoring Distribution is one of the best things that will make every System Admin’s day. OMD is an open source server, network monitoring, Linux monitoring tool that comes bundled with a number of pre-installed monitoring applications.
List of all the bundled monitoring tools are as follows,
* Nagios
* Thruk Monitoring interface
* ICINGA
* NagVIS
* PNP4Nagios
& then, we also have DOKU wiki, which is used for creating documentation.
That means if you install OMD, you have all these Linux monitoring tools installed on your machine. You can then use any or all of these tools for monitoring in your network. Installation on OMD is very simple, we only need to install the OMD package & all the tools will be installed along. Then we only have to choose the monitoring tool we want to use & configure the client machine according to that tool.
Recommended Read: Easy guide to setup Nagios monitoring using SSH (check_by_ssh)
Also Read: Install Grafana & integrate with Prometheus for complete monitoring
We will now discuss how to install omd on Ubuntu & CentOS machine…
Installation on Ubuntu Machines
At the time of writing this tutorial, 1.30 is the latest available version for OMD. As mentioned above, to install OMD we need to grab the package for Ubuntu, download the package using the following command,
$ wget http://files.omdistro.org/releases/1.30/omd-1.30.vivid.amd64.deb
NOTE: OMD has recently developed a new version which has some changes to it but this version still a very choice Linux monitoring tool.
That’s the package for Ubuntu 15.04 but it works for Ubuntu 16.04 as well. Now execute the following command to install the package,
$ sudo apt-get install omd-1.30.vivid.amd64.deb
Now let’s see the CentOS installation .
(Recommended Read : Beginner’s guide for installing and configuring Nagios server )
CentOS Installation
We need rpm version to install OMD on CentOS machines, so download the rpm using the following command,
$ wget http://files.omdistro.org/releases/1.30/omd-1.30.rhel7.x86_64.rpm
& install it using,
$ sudo yum install -nogpgcheck omd-1.30.rhel7.x86_64.rpm
We now have our system ready with OMD installed on it we will now configure OMD.
Note: — You can find all the packages on the
Configurations
To start using monitoring tools, we need to create a instance on OMD. To create an instance use the following command,
$ sudo omd create monitoring
this will create a new instance on omd with name ‘monitoring’ along with a user, group & also a home folder for the user ‘monitoring’ & it will be created under ‘/omd/sites/’.
Next switch the user to ‘monitoring’,
$ sudo su — monitoring
& start the omd instance by executing the following command,
$ omd start
Once the instance is up & running, open a browser & enter the following URL to access the instance with all the monitoring tools,
http://localhost/monitoring
Enter IP address of the server in place of localhost, if using any other machine on the network. Default username is ‘omdadmin’ with default password as ‘omd’, as also seen in first screenshot.
To start using any of the listed monitoring tools, just click on it & you can than access the tool. Configure the tool & start monitoring.
These are good Linux monitoring tools, isn’t it ?
In our future tutorials, we will discuss complete configuration of each of these tools. Leave your queries/questions/suggestions in the comment box below.
If you think we have helped you or just want to support us, please consider these :-
Donate us some of you hard earned money:
Linux TechLab is thankful for your continued support. | https://medium.com/@linuxtechlab/linux-monitoring-tool-install-omd-open-monitoring-distribution-linuxtechlab-d7e29a3fd94c | [] | 2020-01-22 15:57:41.853000+00:00 | ['DevOps', 'Linux', 'Open Source', 'Ubuntu', 'Monitoring'] |
EFFECT OF MOLECULAR WEIGHT AND LITERATURE REVIEW OF 3D PRINTING | EFFECT OF MOLECULAR WEIGHT AND LITERATURE REVIEW OF 3D PRINTING
Introduction
3D printing (sometimes referred to as rapid prototyping (RP) or additive manufacturing AM or solid free-forming (SFF)) is used to manufacture 3D solid objects by fusing layers or depositing materials like polymers, metals, powdered substances, liquids, or biological living cells. in layers to produce a 3D object. Producing a digital model is the first step in additive manufacturing. Computer-aided design (CAD) software is used to create a meshed 3D digital model. A surface tessellation language (STL) is commonly created. 2D files are further made by slicing the data of the 3D structure. The coordinates of the virtual object and the two-dimensional structure are then used to steer the motor, which further positions the orifice. Production of customized parts from metals, ceramics, and polymers can be carried out.
Materials suited for 3D printing
Thermoplastic polymer materials such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polylactic acid (PLA), polyamide (PA), polycarbonate (PC). Thermosetting polymers such as epoxy resins could also be processed. In order to complete the polymerization process, epoxy resins are required to undergo UV assisted or thermal curing as the material is quite reactive and to increase the viscosity.
Fused Deposition Modelling or Fused Filament Fabrication
During fabrication, the material passes through the heating element that partially melts the filament. It is fed through the nozzle. The material extruding through the nozzle is kept at a temperature above the melting point with the help of resistive heaters for the ease of flow. The nozzle moves in the X-Y direction and it deposits a layer of material. In the X-Y plane, a 0.001-inch resolution is achievable. After finishing the layer, the platform holding the material moves in the Z direction to begin depositing the new layer on the top of the previous layer. Both layers get fused together.
How do polymers diffuse
Parts produced from FDM suffers poor interfacial adhesion between layers. And it is due to poor diffusion of slow and very large polymer across the inter filament interface. It is already known that smaller polymer diffuses more quickly than the larger counterparts. Entropically it is favorable that the smaller polymer chains migrate the interface preferentially. By utilizing the thermodynamic principle and chemistry, bimodal blends can be prepared by incorporating smaller but identical polymers to the neat filament. Under the same printing condition and the lower molecular weight (LMW) polymer chains readily diffuse across the surface and hence it improves the entanglement.
Another method which improves adhesion between layers is chemical crosslinking. Crosslinking involves the formation of either noncovalent or covalent bonds between polymer chains. A variety of experiments have investigated the formation of noncovalent bonds in polymer systems, including ionic crosslinks in carboxylated-nitrile rubber (XNBR) and hydrogen bonding in the supramolecular network of maleated polyethylene-octene elastomer. | https://medium.com/@G.mathew/effect-of-molecular-weight-and-literature-review-of-3d-printing-3911a0f07a99 | ['Narrations Review.G Mathew'] | 2020-10-12 17:02:58.549000+00:00 | ['3D Printing', 'Polymer', 'Literature Review'] |
I Must Have Forgotten How Good It Felt | I Must Have Forgotten How Good It Felt
It’s easy to forget the important things when life gets too busy
Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
I must have forgotten how smoothly my day went on the days I meditated. I must have forgotten the little miracles I attracted into my life on days when my mind was free of the burdens from the previous day.
I must have forgotten because I stopped. Before the year went nuts, I was meditating twice a day. I stopped because it was all too much.
I didn't realize that's when I needed it the most.
I forgot that I could simply sit wherever comfortable, close my eyes, and just be. I forgot that was enough to fill me up with better thoughts and feelings. | https://medium.com/mystic-minds/i-must-have-forgotten-how-good-it-felt-ea38da3af56f | ['Kimberly Fosu'] | 2020-12-14 14:22:37.730000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Inspiration', 'Meditation', 'Ideas', 'Mindfulness'] |
5 Tips for Staying Awake While Praying the Rosary | Image by Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay
You try your hardest. Over and over again.
It’s not that you don’t want to meditate on the life of our Lord and Savior through the guidance of our Blessed Mother. You absolutely do.
But let’s face it. You’re exhausted.
Your prayer time isn’t exactly your time of optimal alertness. When you wake up in the morning, shaking the sleep off takes a while. Even when you succeed, you get drowsy again the moment you settle into your prayer position.
By evening, after work, school, kids, chores, errands, etc., the moment your body starts to finally relax, you’re unconscious until morning.
Maybe someday you’ll work your way up to praying all the rosaries consecutively every single morning, like a boss (Hi, mom). But for now, you’re just struggling to keep your eyes open through one rosary, or even a decade or two.
First, know that God still loves you and doesn’t fault you for blacking out. Second, check out these 5 tips for staying awake while praying the rosary that I have found helpful.
1. Sip & Pray
Photo by René Porter on Unsplash
You’re already hitting up the coffee pot in the morning, so enjoy your brew while praying your rosary. Take a sip every two or three Hail Marys to stay in rhythm. Let the caffeine work it’s magic as you work your way through the mysteries.
Don’t worry if tea’s more your thing. Even with far less caffeine, the hot beverage generally helps keep you awake. Turmeric gives you energy, so adding a little turmeric root or turmeric powder to your tea will give an extra boost.
2. Change Your Pose
Instead of your usual relaxed, comfy prayer position, get a little uncomfortable. Not painful, just uncomfortable. Listen to your body. Particularly for the Sorrowful Mysteries, lean into the discomfort and reflect on Christ’s pain through each phase of His passion, uniting your feelings in the moment to His.
For example, if you normally pray in a cross-legged position, try straightening your back and then bending downward at the waist, making your way to the floor. Once you get your nose as close to the floor as you can, pulse a little up and down or side to side to keep from lingering in muscle soreness.
If you’re a Yogi of any level, try praying in a lotus position or a tree pose. Even if you are comfortable in those poses, the mere act of balancing awakens your body and keeps your mind alert. If you don’t require much focus to balance, you’re free to focus on the mysteries while your body handles the rest.
3. Move Your Body
Are you the type to fall asleep whether you’re sitting, kneeling, or even standing? Try switching positions throughout the rosary. Pick intervals where you switch, connecting each movement to the prayers to enhance your experience rather than introducing distraction.
For example, stand for most of the rosary, but bow or kneel in reverence at the line “and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus” during each Hail Mary. Or pace back and forth during the mysteries and Hail Marys but kneel or bow to the ground for each Our Father, Glory Be, and Fatima Prayer.
4. Take a Walk
Photo by Arek Adeoye on Unsplash
Walking around outside will definitely keep you awake. Recite your rosary while circling your yard or block. If your dog likes to linger during the morning walk, bring your rosary along. He or she can sniff every blade of grass and mark things every couple of steps all they want to whilst you pray.
The Joyful Mysteries, in particular, largely reflect travel moments surrounding Mary’s pregnancy and Christ’s childhood. So while you’re engaged in your prayer walk, unite your steps with those of the Holy Family.
If the weather’s not great, use your imagination to connect your weather experience with moments reflected upon in the rosary. Consider the different weather conditions the Holy Family may have traveled through in Jesus’ youth or that Jesus and His apostles would have traveled through over the course of His three-year ministry.
5. Add a New Voice
Use a prayer app like Hallow, a livestream like EWTN’s rosaries from the Holy Land and Lourdes, or a YouTube video to pray the rosary while someone else does all the talking. It truly helps sometimes to have an outside voice saying the words while you pray.
Your own head-voice is too familiar and too prone to distracting trains of thought. Even when you’re speaking out loud, you can still get drowsy and mentally distracted. An outside voice can keep you alert and helps keep you on track if you nod in and out.
Enter Into the Sacred Mysteries
Image by Anna Sulencka from Pixabay
You settle down for your scheduled prayer time to say the rosary. Then suddenly, you jolt awake to realize you’ve accidentally slept your prayer hour away. Again.
You feel ashamed to have fallen asleep on God. You believe you’ve committed a grave offense. But it’s okay. Show yourself a little grace.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux used to fall asleep during prayer sometimes. The Pope has openly admitted to falling asleep during prayer. Peter, James, and John struggled to stay awake with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
You’re human. You get sleepy. God knows that and still delights in your best efforts. He works on your heart both when you’re awake and when you’re sleeping, so don’t worry.
With that assurance in mind, try these 5 tips for staying awake during the rosary and work on improving over time. Choose one tip that works best for you, or add a couple to your daily routine. Switch it up by alternating between an outdoor rosary walk and an indoor rosary with switching positions. Employ a different tip for each set of mysteries.
Whatever you decide, may you be blessed by all the graces poured out upon those who faithfully (even drowsily) pray the holy rosary. | https://medium.com/@tiffany-lewis-ccm/5-tips-for-staying-awake-while-praying-the-rosary-6323b6fcdd64 | ['Tiffany Lewis'] | 2020-12-21 16:58:56.969000+00:00 | ['Catholicism', 'Catholic', 'Prayer', 'Rosary'] |
Whole lot of heat, not a lot of maps | Hey guys, my name is Chigozie Nna and I am going to give you the insight on my experience of Strava’s first remote internship. I am originally from Framingham Massachusetts, and am a CS major at the University of Maryland College Park, where I’d like to call myself “Your Typical Entertaining College Student”. This summer at Strava, I worked on the Geo Team as a Platform Engineer.
On Monday April 27th, San Francisco’s Mayor London Breed extended their shelter in place orders until end of May, which marked Strava’s decision to shift the internship program to a fully remote, virtual model. At first I was shocked to hear that my internship would be remote, however I am happy now to know even remotely this ended up being one of my most enjoyable experiences and summers of all time.
Strava, I choose you!
Starting this new internship and experience felt like the pilot episode of a TV show. The first week of the internship felt like the beginning of a new life with all the new software, interns, coworkers, lack of knowledge, and laughable struggles of trying to process everything at once while also experiencing my first internship ever.
Within the first week of the internship, I was already working on my first project that was going to be deployed into live production within the next week. Although the changes were not massive, it definitely felt like a race against time, and I was hyped to be working on a project that people would directly see and notice. I could say, “I did that”. The first change I worked on was one in which I implemented a Pride map treatment triggered by certain keywords used on athlete’s activities during the month of June. By the first Thursday, I was able to have my first pull request opened on Github for my coworkers to review. I was hyped. Within the first minute of the PR being made and announced, I immediately closed it in mistake and was panicking on how to reopen it. I wasn’t surprised, but I also was laughing since it added some humor to my first PR. Clearly, my Github wizardry was at an all time low and my mentor Emma was determined to make me a Github wizard by the end of this internship experience.
Book Two: Heatmaps
As I started to become more situated with the company and my role, about six weeks in, I finally began my major project for the internship. My job was to work with the rest of Geo Team in the process of re-invigorating personal heatmaps for the public and making it a more useful tool for athletes on Strava. Heatmaps is a service provided by Strava that shows aggregated data of an athlete’s activities in a visual way. There is the Global Heatmap which shows your activities along with the users around you as well as the Personal Heatmap which shows only your specific activities. Personal Heatmap has two types of storage — warm and cold.
When a user requests their heatmap, the server merges the two storages together in order for the visual display to be sent and created. This two-storage structure lowers the computational and monetary cost of creating and updating an athlete’s personal heatmap. The cold storage is Amazon’s S3, an object storage system, is often not looked at or touched (hence making it cold). Updating S3 for every single update an athlete has would be cost heavy, so the warm storage is in place to reduce this cost. The warm storage is a Cassandra table where we keep the athlete’s immediate updates. A heatmap is massive and requires an abundant amount of storage space which is why we need S3 to store the majority of the data. However, with the warm storage, we can keep around thirty or more updates from an athlete and then bulk transfer them to S3. Thanks to the server’s merge step, we won’t need to update S3 as often, but the athlete will still be able to request their heatmap and view all of their activities.
This is where my part of the operation kicks in. I created two new components to the Heatmaps service: an SQS message consumer and an updates sentinel. Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service) lets you send, store, and receive messages between software services at any volume. The sentinel’s purpose is to consistently check Cassandra to find which athletes are at thirty updates or so and send an SQS message queue to recreate those athletes’ heatmaps in S3. Once the request is in the queue, these requests will be taken in by the SQS message consumer. This component’s purpose is to receive SQS messages and parse those messages to send a recreate athlete heatmaps with the information in the message.
I loved being assigned to the project, one thing I find important in internships is that I want to consistently be learning and improving myself as a software engineer; this project perfectly set the goal
Culture Hidden in the Peace
Aside from the technical parts of my internship, one aspect that stood out to me the most was the culture of Strava. Having J as my manager and Emma as my mentor made me really feel as if I got lucky, as I progressively gained so much intuition and help from them. Aside from guiding me through my internship, they really did make great friends. From peer programming with Emma and learning our many similarities, to having the dynamic of J’s stern personality with my droll personality, it made the perfect fit. It may have been my first internship experience, however, I truly believe that not many companies have the same type of family-like culture that Strava has. The amount of support each and every worker gets from one another is like no other. I am constantly amazed at the generosity the company has for its employees when it comes to stipend offers supporting WFH and those who have children during this pandemic as well as providing multiple PTO days for the stress that comes along with these hard times. I always felt like I could ask anyone anything and I would get a positive answer back with some kind support.
Aside from meeting great people throughout the company through the many AMA meetings (Ask Me Anything), I loved that I was able to make great friends across many of the people I met through the company. Even from Day One I was able to be a part of Stand By Me (an employee made group of people of color in which we can stand for and support each other through racism and police brutality) in which we were able to comfortably talk about the systematic racism that goes on in the country and personal experiences we have had during this summer.
In general, this summer has been one I will never forget in which I’ve made great memories with the people I’ve met in and out of this company. Overall, this internship has been amazing, challenging, informative and fun. Believe it. | https://medium.com/strava-engineering/whole-lot-of-heat-not-a-lot-of-maps-2268635f3f6c | ['Chigozie Nna'] | 2020-11-16 18:27:36.267000+00:00 | ['Internships', 'Remote Working', 'S3', 'Sqs', 'Work Culture'] |
5 Things to Know When Visiting the Great Wolf Lodge | It’s literally a Vegas for kids.
We recently returned from a 24-hour escape to the Great Wolf Lodge Arizona, and it was amazingly fun-filled, action packed and utterly exhausting (in a good way, of course).
If you’re unfamiliar, Great Wolf Resorts is North America’s largest family of indoor waterpark destinations, but it’s so much more than being a wet and wild getaway. Here are 5 things to know when venturing to the hot spot for your pack of pups.
1. Plot your stay
Yes, the waterpark is the main lure to the Lodge, but oh… that’s not all. When visiting Great Wolf, be strategic in planning your schedule.
Upon walking into the water park, you’ll be greeted with a huge water feature flaunting several slides, spray guns, rope swings and more. This area was enjoyed by my fearless preschooler, cautious middle child, and adventurous 8-year-old.
On the right-side of the indoor facility, lies a huge beach-entry wave pool. Every 10–15 minutes, you’ll hear a big HOWL, and when the wolf sounds, know the waves will go into action (it’s fun!). Towards the backend of the park is an enclosed toddler section with age-appropriate pools and slides, and the left side of the park is dedicated to the big kids: a handful of exhilarating waterslides, a lazy river, and pools with climbing features and games.
We spent a solid four hours in the waterpark and couldn’t tell who had more fun… the kids or my husband.
However, your Great Wolf experience doesn’t stop there.
When you check into the resort, take mental note of the day’s schedule, as there’s always something going on (dance parties, story time, games, etc). And then make a Lodge bucket list of things you want to do. This includes:
MagiQuest: My boys were obsessed with adventure, and honestly- it’s brilliant. Once you get your MagiQuest wand, you’ll be immersed in quite the endeavor- collecting points in fulfilling a live-action quest. This attraction gets kids running around the resort looking for treasures and glowing crystals.
Climbing Wall: The Lodge’s Rustic Ridge offers a 33-ft. climbing challenge for every age and skill level. Note: climbers must wear closed toe/heel shoes with rubber soles.
Ten Paw Alley: Bowling built for toddlers, teens, and tall ones alike. Shorter lanes and smaller bowling balls make this a perfect way to indulge in some friendly family competition. No special shoes required.
Mini Golf: Located in the heart of the Lodge, golf 9 holes of interactive play with plenty of sand traps, tricky shots, giant animals, and ball-eating fish. It’s challenging for more skilled players, while still being easy for young putters.
Ropes Course: My oldest is obsessed! This invigorating aerial adventure will have you balancing on ropes, crossing bridges, and climbing through obstacles- all from the safety of a climbing harness. The high-flying fun will challenge your children in an adventurous manner, testing their stamina and boosting their confidence! Note: closed toed shoes required and height restrictions.
Arcade: The Northern Lights Arcade is packed with games and small rides. Play for tickets and cash them in for prizes. The best part, your Paw Points don’t expire so you can bring your card back for future visits.
2. Reserve the right room
Hotel check-in is at 4, but you can start using the park at one. If you plan on maximizing your time, arrive around 12:45 to avoid front desk lines. Upon check in, you’ll get your pre-purchased pass; your choice of the Pup Pass, Paw Pass, or Wolf Pass. Each pass grants you access to different things and perks (all including waterpark entry). Some passes have free ice cream, while others have credits to the arcade. Explore each pass to determine which best suits your family.
If you’re traveling with a large group, there are plenty of room accommodations to sleep everyone comfortably. The Wolf Den Suites are our fave because they come with themed walls and dens with bunk beds (SO cute). All rooms are nice and spacious.
Adults are given special wristbands that double as a room key and charge card; in other words, you can use your wristband to charge food/attractions to the room (quite hi-tech and very convenient!).
3. Pack + Prepare
What to pack… well, the obvious: bathing suits, water shoes, close-toed shoes, etc. And don’t forget fun pajamas! Why? Because there’s a nightly PJ dance party for kids (9pm). I got my kids matching wolf shirts, as many visitors get into the matchy-matchy thing.
Our room had a fridge, so I brought drinks and snacks for the room. (You’ll surely need some Truly to survive the night.) Surrender the fancy clothes and plan for nightly chill-wear… everything is very casual.
4. Explore packages/seasonal happenings
There’s always something fun and seasonal happening at the Lodge.
Now through Labor Day, enjoy the Summer Camp-In, and in October, Great Wolf gets super spooky for Halloween. Currently, there’s also a great All in one package cutting the cost of your stay.
Free activities often include:
Character appearances: Enjoy special appearances from Great Wolf Lodge’s Wiley the Wolf, Oliver Raccoon, Sammy the Squirrel, and other characters throughout the day. Be prepared to ask for autographs and photo-ops.
Arts & Crafts: Get creative with special arts & crafts activities including create your own button making, letters from camp postcards, friendship bracelet making, DIY bug jars and designing your own dream catchers.
YogaTails + Wolfercise: Stay fit with family-friendly fitness programming like yoga for kids and choreographed exercise classes.
5. Eating… and drinking
There are a bunch of dining options at the Lodge including a sit-down restaurant, pizza parlor, buffet breakfast, Dunkin’ Donuts, candy shop, and Ben & Jerry’s. While I suggest keeping snacks in your room, you won’t go hungry eating out. Plus, inside the waterpark there are two places to order, sit and eat packed with burgers, tacos, chicken strips and nachos.
And as for adult beverages… you won’t go thirsty! The Great Wolf Lodge is incredibly understanding of parents who need sweet sippers. In the heart of the waterpark is a bar with delicious blended cocktails- you can also get beer or margaritas. | https://medium.com/@nadinebubeck/5-things-to-know-when-visiting-the-great-wolf-lodge-931ee6afb9f0 | ['Nadine Bubeck'] | 2021-08-16 19:13:01.553000+00:00 | ['Vacation', 'Travel', 'Adventure', 'Kids', 'Family'] |
LMM — Neural Network That Animates Video Game Characters | Researchers at Ubisoft have proposed an alternative to the Motion Matching algorithm for automated character animation. The Learned Motion Matching approach combines the advantages of the classic Motion Learning algorithm and neural networks. The resulting model does not store animation data or additional metadata in memory, unlike the standard MM algorithm. At the same time, the LMM model retains quality, control, and fast iteration time, as in the MM algorithm.
Limitations of the past approach
Despite the fact that neural network generative models for character animation are capable of learning compact controllers, methods like Motion Matching are still the most popular in the gaming industry. Popularity is driven by adaptability, prediction quality, low preprocessing time, and visual quality. However, the memory cost of such approaches grows linearly with the amount of data used. This leads to a balance between animation diversity and production budget. The researchers propose to combine the neural network approach and the MM algorithm. This solves the linear scalability problem.
How the Learned Motion Matching algorithm works
The LMM algorithm consists of three parts, just like the standard MM algorithm:
Projection; Decompressor; Going to the next step (stepping)
Difference between Motion Matching algorithm and Learned Motion Matching algorithm. Source: Unisoft
Decompressor Algorithm Pseudocode. Source: Unisoft
Details of the network architecture for each of the modules. Source: Unisoft
Model performance evaluation
The researchers compared the proposed algorithm with two basic algorithms: Motion Matching and Motion Matching with the Decompressor. Below you can see that the Learned Motion Matching algorithm uses less memory. This makes the model faster. However, the model was trained on a GPU, while the underlying algorithms were trained on a CPU.
Comparison of standard Motion Matching algorithm, Motion Matching with the Decompressor and Learned Motion Matching in terms of memory consumption, performance and training time. Source: Unisoft
Interested in Deep Learning?
If you found this article helpful, click the💚 or 👏 button below or share the article on Facebook so your friends can benefit from it too. | https://medium.com/deep-learning-digest/lmm-neural-network-that-animates-video-game-characters-537cf429f1d2 | ['Mikhail Raevskiy'] | 2020-08-18 10:36:00.987000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Data Science', 'AI'] |
Co-Creating With God — Luke 1:46–55 and Isaiah 61:1–4, 8–11 | Originally preached on 12/13/20, third Sunday of Advent at Center Church, UCC in South Hadley, MA
So, when I was tapped to preach during a year as wild as 2020 for Joy Sunday, I was like “really Lori?? C’mon!” If there is one sentiment I have received from people during 2020, it’s that this year stinks! Of course, all of these bad things keep happening because 2020! And this has made me realize that somewhere along the timeline of our lives, we have learned to seek out joy in outside items. We have placed our joy in money, in decor, in homes, in cars, in clothing, in trips to Disney World — need I say more? We have taught ourselves that we will finally be happy when we have [insert your item here].
The problem with placing our joy in things, is that when we lose those things, we lose our source of joy.
The other problem with placing our joy in things is that these things cannot love us back the way we love them, and that creates a deeper pain within our psyche. So the natural problem that arises during a lockdown like what we have been in for most of 2020 is that we are now cut off from our sources of joy. Theologian Caroline Myss said on a podcast recently that: “during a year as bleak as 2020 when joy and gratitude are so elusive, it’s not a matter of saying ‘oh well there’s no joy here let’s just be miserable’ but rather it’s a signal to us that we need to reframe our definition and understanding of what it means to be joyful. If someone asks ‘how can I be joyful right now?’ the question is rather ‘why can’t you be?’”
In a year like 2020, we need joy more than ever, yet at some points during the year, it felt like we collectively shut it down. Joy is what sustains us. Joy is not happiness. Joy is internal. It is an inner contentment. It is constant. It is a state of mind and heart. It is a choice. Joy is what we need most in a year like 2020. It will be what gives us the hope for a brighter and better tomorrow. It is the knowledge that God is still love. God is ours forever. God weathers with us through the storm and always remains faithful.
We get a great imagery of joy through Mary, Mother of Jesus in Luke chapter 1. She exclaims “blessed be God for he has done great things for me.” What was the great thing that God did? Well obviously, God picked Mary to birth Jesus. But why is that important? Well, it all depends on who Mary is. And who is Mary? She is a poor, teenage, woman. She is not rich, nor does she hold power or esteem. She isn’t even married! Yet God chose her to carry Jesus. Mary is an important metaphor, or rather, a microcosm of how God wants us to create the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. By choosing lowly Mary to be the bearer of God into the world, it demonstrates that God wants all to be part of the creation of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth — the humble, the poor, the oppressed, the servant, not only should, but must, be part of the creation. We are all Mary, collectively giving birth to a New Creation. We are co-creating with not only each other, but with God. All of us are needed, no matter our status. And isn’t that so freeing that our proximity to power or wealth or status doesn’t matter to God?
So where does all this justice talk fit in? Mary talks about “God scattering the proud, bringing down rulers, lifting the humble, filling the hungry with good things, and sending the rich away empty.” Isaiah says similar ideas: “the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives, release darkness for the prisoners, comfort all who mourn.” Where does that fit in? Why is there all this justice talk on Joy Sunday? It’s not Justice Sunday!
Now, I have not been to seminary yet, but I have two theories. One is our spiritual imagination. I mentioned before that joy is a constant refuge from the torments of the external world where we access the peace and hope and goodness of internal contentment. It is what we need to sustain ourselves in difficult times. Using our spirituality to access God’s love and to imagine a world that Mary and Isaiah describe where there is justice and a source of joy. For me, I am joyfully sustained knowing that the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice, and one day we will achieve the Kingdom of God that Jesus described, and Mary and Isaiah gave us a little taste of.
My other theory is that working towards these actions that Mary and Isaiah laid out, is the only way to create the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth. Just a few minutes ago we prayed “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.” This is not a radical or new idea — I’m literally taking it from Jesus. The joy part comes in knowing that we have a marvelous God who loves us, holds us, and cares for us, and beckons us constantly to create with the Divine. How amazing is it that the Creator of the universe, who turned water to wine and fed 4000 people from just a few loaves of bread calls you – yes you — to work alongside everyone for the creation of a Beloved Community? Since joy is an orientation of the heart, let us orient ourselves towards these visions. Imagine the joy we will feel once we have created the Kingdom of God, with God, and with love.
So, to recap: joy comes from imagining the Kingdom of Heaven, but more importantly, joy comes from creating the Kingdom of Heaven, but most importantly, joy comes from the fact that we are doing both of these things with love and support from God who is always with us and will never
forsake us. We have that power to access. God is as close as your next breath.
My challenge for all of you is to imagine yourselves as Mary. There is a sparkle of something good within you — something that brings hope, peace, love, and joy. That sparkle is the Trinity. It’s the divine within you. We all have it, and we can all reach deep within the depths of our hearts to access it. When the world is falling down among us, put your hand on your heart, and cry out joy like Mary, knowing that you are loved and chosen by the Creator to do amazing things, and you do not have to do it alone; you have everyone beside you, and you have God within you and around you. Joy comes from above and within.
Amen. | https://medium.com/@emilyecarle/co-creating-with-god-luke-1-46-55-and-isaiah-61-1-4-8-11-37102b7ad9f9 | ['Emily Carle'] | 2021-08-31 13:03:08.194000+00:00 | ['God', 'Christainity', 'Mother Mary', 'Jesus', 'Advent'] |
Department of Homeland Security Caught Lying To Federal Court | Allow me to explain this incredible letter filed in United States District Court on July 23d. The Trusted Traveler Program (TTP) includes programs like “Global Entry” that allows Americans who apply, and meet certain requirements, expedited passage through airport security. The Department of Homeland Security, with timing that suspiciously looked like retribution for unrelated New York immigration policies, barred New Yorkers from the program. New York sued.
In court DHS filed motions to dismiss with sworn statements from DHS officials supporting the motions. The motions and SWORN statements presented New York as unique, a veritable pariah among states, in refusing to share certain driver’s license information with it. Because of this DHS insisted it could not verify the TTP applications from New Yorkers.
This incredible letter, admits that all that was, in fact, “inaccurate,” “gave the wrong impression,” and “misleading.” Accordingly, DHS defendants stated they “deeply regret the foregoing inaccurate or misleading statements and apologize to the Court and plaintiffs for the need to make these corrections at this late stage in the litigation.”
DHS further offers to the court that “These revelations undermine a central argument in defendants’ briefs and declarations.” In other words the lies involved, including those made UNDER OATH, were made because they were a central argument. Without the lies DHS had no case.
Accordingly DHS advises the court that it is immediately reinstating New York into the Trusted Traveler Program. DHS tried to clean the slate by asking that the court allow them “to withdraw their motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, along with all briefs and declarations submitted in support of those motions.” Yes, they asked the court to withdraw and forget SWORN STATEMENTS UNDER OATH that were false and misleading. The perjurers request that the court allow them to withdraw their perjury. That’s not how this should work.
Allow me to explain what I believe happened behind the scenes. The letter is signed by Audrey Strauss. Ms. Strauss is in this position against the wishes of President Trump and Attorney General Barr. A month ago Barr tried to replace Strauss’ predecessor, Geoffrey Berman, with a Trump crony and golf buddy. To do this Barr needed Berman to leave voluntarily. So Barr tried to make that happen de facto by lying to the American people, saying that Berman was voluntarily leaving. Berman then humiliated Barr by saying he would not leaving voluntarily. Barr then had to fire him. However, firing Berman, by law, made Audrey Strauss Berman’s replacement. Barr failed to install the Trump crony.
Attorneys for the Southern District of New York represented their “client” DHS in this case. They built a case for their client based on what their client told them. Then the SDNY attorneys discovered that their client was lying to them. These ethical government attorneys of the Southern District of New York then did what they had to do, they informed the court of their client’s lies. That’s never a fun thing to do, particularly when the client is the United States Government, and a Department entrusted with the security of the nation.
That’s another part of the story. The Trump Administration used the Department of Homeland Security as means political retribution to punish a state, and its people, that did unrelated things the Administration did not like. Notably, the Secretary of DHS has not, as is required, been confirmed by the Senate. For nearly a year Chad Wolf has been in the role of “Acting” Secretary as part of a strategy by Trump to circumvent the advice and consent of the Senate mandated by the Constitution for such Presidential appointments.
The story should not end here. In a perfect world, one where the Department of Justice is not itself a corrupt arm of the Administration, the DHS officials who lied under oath should be investigated and charged with perjury. That will not happen in a DOJ run by Trump’s crony, Attorney General Barr.
The judge, however, can take matters in his own hands. He has the authority to hold those who lied under oath in criminal contempt of court. The first step would be a “show cause” notice where the judge notifies those involved that they must show cause as to why they should not be held in contempt. As a minimum that should be done. They deserve to be put on the spot.
Trump corrupts everything, and everyone, he touches. | https://medium.com/@keithdb/department-of-homeland-security-caught-lying-to-federal-court-8010cc15a03d | [] | 2020-07-25 00:06:53.267000+00:00 | ['Trump Corruption', 'Trump Administration', 'Politics', 'DHS', 'Perjury'] |
Here is The Type of Leader You Want to Avoid | In 2011, amid much fanfare, JCPenney appointed Ron Johnson as its new CEO. Hailing from Apple and Target, where he held powerful positions, Johnson was glorified for great innovations at both. He rode into JCPenney waving the flag of change.
However, after a disastrous 17 months that included a $6 billion drop in sales and 40,000 layoffs, JCPenney replaced Johnson with his predecessor before hiring the quieter, humbler Marvin Ellison.
On the surface, hiring superstar leaders may seem like a sexy solution for your business. The problem, especially for startups, is that these “rock stars” sometimes care more about their careers and celebrity than the company.
While many idolize the caricature of an arrogant, self-centered “superstar,” in reality, companies run by narcissistic senior leaders don’t perform as well as those led by their more modest counterparts. While this spells trouble for large companies, it can be ruinous for a startup looking to gain momentum.
Looking back at a decade of hiring, we have found so-called superstars are rarely what they’re cracked up to be. After being ranked #4 by Glassdoor for Best Workplaces, I’m happy with our decision to focus elsewhere.
Forget About Status
When hiring leaders for your organization, people with rock-star reputations can seem like a no-brainer: If they were successful before, they will be again.
But this logic is flawed. Many “superstars” rely on people around them to do a good job and then take a lot of the credit. To ensure that any touted successes are based on real leadership, look for candidates whose natural dispositions are more reserved and humble; assess whether they laud the successes of their teams rather than their own.
Here Are Three Points to Keep in Mind As You Search:
1. Don’t confuse the rising tide with all boats. Just because people ran successful companies doesn’t mean they were the ones driving them. Seek people who will dig in, focus on the company, make hard decisions, and lead their team — even in bad situations.
To gather this evidence, ask for references from supervisors, peers, and subordinates. Question candidates’ strengths and weaknesses, but also evaluate their character by asking references to rate their performance in the context of problematic situations.
2. Beware of confusing correlation with causation. Focus on outcomes versus reputation. Investigate claims of results by asking for specifics on financial outcomes, company growth, and return on investment to ensure the candidate played a true hand in those successes.
Another way to approach this is to use your job description to outline what success at your company looks like at various stages. Be upfront about specific KPIs, responsibilities, and top challenges so candidates are clear about what they’re getting into.
3. Know that the real rock stars don’t always shine the brightest. When leaders of larger companies are brought into entrepreneurial environments, they often struggle because they’re used to operating with a big team, ready to do their bidding.
It’s not bad to bring in talent from top companies — you sometimes find the right person there. Sara Peary, for example, was a rock star in her role at Pfizer when she left to become CEO of a small startup, where she could have a greater impact.
Her previous corporate employers had relatively solid processes in place. But Peary quickly learned the pace of a startup is much faster, with oft-shifting business models, partnerships, and organizational structures.
Still, because she was humble and low-key — more interested in boosting the startup than her own career — she succeeded. This is the kind of leader you want to hire.
Leverage Your Leaders
Leaders can be catalysts for change, but high performance requires team effort and alignment between all areas of the company. Success and growth lie in a unified organization, not in one “great leader.”
To get the most out of a team, its leader must foster cooperation, cultivate camaraderie, and inspire vision. Ignore star power — bring leaders into your organization who have the ability to create that synergy, and your culture will be able to withstand and navigate tough circumstances that arise in the future. | https://medium.com/build-something-cool/the-1-type-of-leader-you-should-actually-avoid-8f0dae85c92 | ['Robert Glazer'] | 2019-01-03 15:35:24.495000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Leadership Development', 'Business', 'Recruitment', 'Leadership'] |
Miro Support Team: it’s not about having enough people there, it’s about hiring the right ones | This is an interview conducted by amazing Robbie Rogulj for the book Scaling Success. The book tells about 10 of Europe’s fastest-growing startups on how to scale your customer support. In this article, you’ll learn from me, the Support Team Lead, how we do it at Miro. Enjoy :-)
Miro Support Team working remotely (April 2020)
Becoming a Remote Team
Robbie: Hi, Polina. So, Miro is definitely no stranger to the scaling process. Just out of curiosity, when you started 3 years ago, how many agents did you guys have?
Polina: I was the 4th agent, now there are 18 people in the team. Overall, in terms of company employees, I was the 45th employee. Now there are more than 300 and we are growing every day!
Are all of your agents located in Perm?
So the majority of us are located in Perm because we cover most of the timezones for Europe and Russia. However, we have customers all around the world, so we have to provide 24/7 support. That’s why we have 2 agents in LA.
Over the last 3 years, what has your experience scaling the team been like?
It’s been super crazy. Since I’ve been team lead we’ve grown from 7 to 18. We layered our team. So we have our first-line, the so-called CSR’s. They are invincible people who can answer any question.
And the second-line?
We call them technical support engineers. They deal with fewer issues but are more deeply technical. We have TSE’s here in Perm and are hiring one in LA as well.
How was the scaling process for you guys? Was it planned or more of a crisis aversion?
We tried different approaches in terms of forecasting. We tied the size of our team to how many tickets we receive and tried to find some sort of correlation with the marketing numbers. We check once per quarter, if we are running ok and as predicted. So it was gradual, with no big spikes. We planned for how many people we need and where they are needed. To cover the entire day in both LA and Europe.
You said you provide 24/7 support. How do you ensure that? Is it shift work or more of a follow-the-sun principle?
Well, when it was the early days, everyone was in Perm. So we had people working late-night shifts, which is super bad for your health. So at some point, we decided to ditch this idea, for a more FTS principle. In Perm, the latest shift ends at 2 am and the LA shift starts at 11 am, this way we cover 24/7 and are covering requests as fast as possible.
Is that why you hired the two agents in LA? To alleviate the pain of working throughout the night? Or is it more of a cultural alignment?
There are several reasons. The first is pretty simple, we wanted to make it healthy for our employees. Number 2, was to build a strong internal culture. We believe to provide a great customer experience it is more fruitful to work closely with your sales, tech and UX teams. That’s why we don’t outsource either. What do I mean by that? Whilst Slack is great, it’s better to be able to communicate with members of different teams immediately in order to solve the problem quickly and to a high standard.
When did you hire your first agent in LA?
That was in January 2019. We definitely noticed a change in terms of how quickly we could respond to urgent requests. We also noticed how our CSAT changed. Most of the appraisal comments customers write to us are about speed.
Making Users Happy
#positive_csat channel in Slack
So your CSAT spiked after the hire?
Yeah, it really helped to improve this metric. In Q1 last year we had a 90% CSAT score, and right now we have 98%.
Woah! That’s incredible.
Thanks! We try to continually improve the quality of how we respond. It’s not only about having people there, but it’s also about hiring the right people. We have a pretty tough hiring process. We only just recently calculated that only 2% of applicants get the offer. So, we try to find the right culture fit as well.
What is unique about the recruiting process that has allowed you to hire such a high standard of an employee?
We have a really nice approach when it comes to the team interview. We used to do a team interview with the managers present. However, 6 months ago we decided to leave the candidate and the team alone. This helps the team to get a good feel for the candidate and for the candidate it gives them an opportunity to be a lot more open and honest and ask those pragmatic questions they may not ask a manager.
It’s definitely working for you. I mean 98% CSAT, come on! What’s your secret?
We are trying not only to have enough people in terms of quantity but to focus on educating them well. This is so that they can resolve issues quickly and to a high standard. We started creating career ladders so that agents knew how they could become more successful and move forward. We promoted great responses by posting them in Slack to give recognition to hard-working agents. We also introduced bonuses, helping us scale without losing quality.
Sharing outstanding responses in #support_mirocles
Awesome, have you ever used internal QA?
Yes, of course. Initially, I rated responses on my own, based on my own criteria. Based on solution correctnesses, voice & tone, language, structure and visual attractiveness of the message. It was my own kind of internal QA.
So you did this all by yourself?
Yes, but as the team started to grow, I couldn’t handle everything myself, we decided to try peer to peer assessment. It was risky because it required a lot of trust from agents. Slowly but surely, it became a weekly routine. We created a bot in Slack that allocated who is reviewing who each week and we pick 8 tickets per week to review.
You obviously have such a strong focus on your team, and you guys work so well together. Have you implemented any sort of automation tools to assist with this?
Uh, yes. We practice different things and play around with them. But the biggest issue we’ve faced with automation is that previously people were asking basic questions about the product. Now they are asking more complicated questions that are often specific. These can’t be answered by the knowledge base or a chatbot. We need real people for these queries.
Do people revert back to calling when it comes to these specific queries?
It’s more chat. First of all, we don’t actually offer any phone support. We actually record live, custom gifs and videos for our users. This is so that we can show them in detail what to do.
Wait, wait. So the videos aren’t pre-recorded? Do you create specific videos for each case?
We do it custom and specific for each case.
Wow. That’s awesome. How did you think of that?
Well, one of our main approaches is to think, “How would I like this question to be answered?” I guess we try to be human beings.
Ok. Well from one human to another, what would be your best piece of advice for anyone reading this whose currently scaling their support team?
Hmm. Be brave, be bold, experiment. It’s ok to try new things and get inspiration from others. But also be responsible and patient. This is how you build a better place to work. | https://medium.com/@pauline_87439/miro-support-team-its-not-about-having-enough-people-there-it-s-about-hiring-the-right-ones-3b1bb2678786 | ['Pauline Parshakova'] | 2020-04-20 13:28:40.336000+00:00 | ['Distributed Teams', 'Support', 'Customer Service'] |
Ms. Knight, YOU hit the proverbial Nail on the Head! | Ms. Knight, YOU hit the proverbial Nail on the Head! — — This is what I have been writing about since I discovered, Medium & Word Press; We all Profess to Love Our Children, yet what kind of Future are we bequeathing to them?…~~~~~Maybe take a Look at the Craters of the Moon that we have Created here, on our only livable Planet, mining for everything, especially Gold!……~~~~~One ton of Ore, crushed to dust, poisoned forever, to extract 1/6 ounce of Gold!……Forest’s turned into mud-slides by human’s seeking out a single flake of that use-less ore…………………………………………………~~~~~What use is it? To sit in Steel-door Vaults until Infinity?…..One cannot burn it to make a fire, One cannot Eat it, it is Inert and therefore indigestible….Of what use is Gold? Maybe to make Pretty Trinkets, Rings, & other useless things? Why would One want to make a Toilet out of Gold, if not to show it’s Worthlessness?……..The Price of Gold is determined by those Countries and Rich Men who Hoard it for themselves……In the last Gold report I received from the “Debt Clock” the demand/supply was 159,000,000 million ounces, think of how many tons of ore had to be converted into 1/6 ounces to provide for that demand?….. China in 2018 ordered 25 Ton’s of Gold to stick in their Coffers……I think, I think, that Greed = Stupidity! …~~~~~When the old Gold Hoarder dies, the Gold is still in the Vault, who owns it now?…….When the last Human Being has departed this Earth, the Gold will still be sitting there in that Vault, buried, to be dug up^ and wondered about, if any future generation has archaeologist’s who are interested in History! ……Done Here!…… | https://medium.com/@alaskamansluckgt/ms-knight-you-hit-the-proverbial-nail-on-the-head-6fd9360f8a1d | ['George Trudeau'] | 2019-11-15 09:23:50.815000+00:00 | ['Parenting', 'Future', 'Children', 'Global Warming', 'Climate Change'] |
Always Know What You’re Signing For | Written By RezonEnt, Edited By Kim Rosenbaum
You may have heard of the new song “Ransom” by Lil Tecca, “Freestyle” by Lil Baby, and “Fuck Love” by xxxtentacion and Trippie Redd. The grammy nominated producer behind these hits is Taz Taylor, the CEO of Internet Money Records. Internet Money Records is a record/production label responsible for providing beats with a unique aesthetic. They have signed a few upcoming artists like Trevor Daniel, Iann Dior, and Chelji.
However, these people are also examples of why it’s never good to sign a deal too early. While every one of them has a story, Chelji is my focus for this message.
Chelji is an artist from the UK. In December of 2018, she signed a deal with Internet Money Records in hopes to help her family financially. Unfortunately, this choice was just the start of her problems to come.
Before even considering signing anything, Chelji made it clear to Internet Money Records and Taz Taylor that she wanted to retain everything about her personal style and fashion. Taz and the team agreed to her conditions but immediately went back on their words once her name was down on paper. They tried to make her change the things about herself that she held dearly in an effort to make her more marketable.
Their attempts fell short when Chelji refused. While her ability to stand up for herself seemed to be a victorious move into control of her as an artist and person, her actions backfired when she was blackballed from the label and everyone in it.
Internet Money Records now refused to fulfill the requirements of their contract, including the provision of all the resources that would let her generate revenue for herself. Now, she was put into a tough situation. Chelji couldn’t release her music or be paid.
And Chelji didn’t have a work visa. Internet Money Records signed Chelji through many loopholes. When she came to the USA, Chelji has an ESTA (Electronic system for travel authorization). This document states that a contract cannot be signed in the USA without a work visa. However, Internet Money hired a lawyer for $25,000 to make the deal look legal and sign her on. While this was a bit of a saving grace to Chelji, it also sunk deep when they decided to take everything away knowing she couldn’t get work elsewhere.
As terrible as this story is, there is some light to it. First, Chelji got by through selling studio time in her home as well as features in other songs. Additionally, despite everything Taz Taylor did to make it look fine, the deal Chelji signed was illegal. It held her back for a while to release music, but essentially the invalid contract was her one-way ticket to artistic freedom — she got out of her deal.
Overall, Chelji signed a deal with Internet Money Records without much knowledge of what that deal would do. She also signed without knowledge of how that label was going to fall back on their words and try to screw her over (almost literally thanks to Taz Taylor). She got lucky, but not everyone does.
According to Chelji “ I don’t want to speak badly or ignite bad blood with my label, but signing was one of the worst things I’ve ever done… if there is one thing I could say to people who find themselves in my position, it’s simple: DO NOT SIGN.”
The moral of this story is: READ YOUR CONTRACT. If you can, also have a lawyer read the contract. If you don’t want to sacrifice your creativity and uniqueness, make sure that your deal gives you FULL ARTISTIC FREEDOM. If you get an offer that doesn’t fit all your needs, it’s okay to wait for the better deals that have yet to come.
https://underviews.com/cheljis-bruises-with-alamo-internet-money-and-the-horrible-reality-of-signing-deals-early/ | https://medium.com/@kimb4rose/always-know-what-youre-signing-for-591ec8e54b2f | ['Kim Rosenbaum'] | 2019-08-21 19:59:24.450000+00:00 | ['Production', 'Music', 'Record Label', 'Rap', 'Deal'] |
Heroku網站部署 | 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/minoyo/heroku%E7%B6%B2%E7%AB%99%E9%83%A8%E7%BD%B2-c1cd79447eee | ['Mino Chen'] | 2021-03-05 00:59:23.060000+00:00 | ['Frontend', 'Webconcent'] |
Edie’s Three | Edie’s Three
My top 3 picks for the week — 09/02–09/08
I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching lately, and it can get to be a bit overwhelming. I love that when it becomes too much, I can just sign-in to Medium and escape my own head for a little while. There’s never a shortage of inspirational, throught-provoking, comical, intellectual, and everything else in between. It’s always hard to pick favourites but these are the three that caught my attention this week!
I hope you can find some nuggets in here the way I did!
I Don’t Care What You Do — Jason Newton
Jason opens the conversation on a topic many of us, I’m sure, have inwardly rolled our eyes at a few times over the years. He talks about how our jobs do not define us, and that we need to start putting more importance on the person rather than the occupation. I couldn’t agree more — there’s a better way to get to know a person than asking about what they do. Let’s stop asking ‘What do you do?’ right away, and find a new ice-breaker, shall we?
2. Being Invisible, Is It My Superpower? — K. A. Bennett
Kerry hit me where it counts with this one. My whole life, I’ve felt rather invisible. But the older I get, the more I find that it’s not such a bad thing. Being invisible to the masses can be a blessing, and gives you more visibility with the people who matter. It really can be a super-power.
3. Fool-Proof Tips To Ace That Job Interview — Jon Peters
Last but definitely not least. I love a laugh — and I love sarcasm and dry humour. I think it’s great when we can take a not-so-nice experience and turn it into something that we can look back on and laugh, and something that will also connect to others. Not only is this piece entertaining, but I also find it relatable. Although I haven’t personally been in a position to conduct interviews, I’ve had friends who have and who can definitely relate to many of the points Jon makes in this piece. Brilliant. | https://medium.com/top-3/edies-three-7e88fc285369 | ['Edie Tuck'] | 2019-09-08 21:46:20.364000+00:00 | ['Perception', 'Opinion', 'Top 3', 'Conversations', 'Life Lessons'] |
Predicting Startup Returns: How VCs Use AI to Make Investment Decisions and Identify Successful… | Meet the AI Game Changer
One VC firm that has implemented data and technology as part of their investing strategy is Connetic Ventures, a VC firm that has developed and launched an AI platform named Wendal. Companies looking for funding from Connetic complete Wendal’s online assessment in less than 15 minutes, and the data gathered allows Connetic to make an extremely informed decision about the strength and viability of the potential deal. Over half of the algorithm is based on behavioral factors because Connetic believes that the personal characteristics of a startup team is a key indicator of their future success. Connetic says Wendal “automates the due diligence process for early-stage companies” and is “essentially 4–5 MBA educated analysts … [but] is self-learning and can recall over a billion data points on command.” Wendal’s exceptional attributes mainly aim to fix three common problems prevailing in the VC industry.
1. Instinctive Investing
We have all probably been there. Not having tried it before, we see food that looks or sounds good, and based solely on instinct, we decide to purchase it and give it a try. To our dismay, what we thought would be a delicious treat ends up giving us a repulsive taste in our mouth and maybe even a bad stomach ache. Similarly, many investment opportunities can sound exciting and enticing, and VC decision-makers may say that the deal “just feels right” to pursue. However, the investment may not be the right fit for a particular VC fund, may have lacking financials, or may not have ideal founders behind the scenes. Using AI allows VC firms like Connetic to get a true and clear picture of their potential investment without having to worry about unforeseeable factors that could turn an investment into a terrible stomach ache, especially when large amounts of money are on the line.
2. Investor Bias
Bias is prevalent everywhere there is human involvement, and this can be a big concern when relying on traditional in-person pitches for VC funding. Bias in the humas designing AI algorithms is another concern about how these algorithms make decisions. Across the board, VC fund managers tend to be male, with only 11% of VC decision-makers being female. Female entrepreneurs can be asked very different questions during VC pitches, and in 2019, only 2.8% of VC capital went to businesses founded or co-founded by women. This is a significant contrast to the fact that women-owned businesses represent 42% of all businesses in the U.S. With Wendal, Connetic is committed to increasing the fairness of the VC funding process and helping remove gender bias. Connetic notes that “Wendal does not know your age, race, or gender when you apply for funding which gives everyone an equal opportunity.” It makes sense for VC firms to escalate their focus on the gender gap because it has been proven that women-led teams generate a 35% higher return on investment than all-male teams. With the implementation of Wendal, Connetic Ventures’ funding for women and minorities has reached a rate that is 8x higher than the industry average.
3. Excessive Time to Analyze Potential Investments
With time being one of the most valuable resources in today’s age, AI can be a win-win for both the VC firm and the pitching company. Using Wendal, Connetic does not have to waste time listening to irrelevant pitches, and on the flip side, businesses do not have to spend hours preparing perfected presentations. The Wendal application takes less than 15 minutes to complete and quickly gives results to Connetic to help them decide if the company would be a good investment for them. Through Wendal, Connetic is able to sift through numerous potential portfolio companies and choose optimal businesses from an expanded investment pool. | https://medium.com/strategica/predicting-startup-returns-how-vcs-use-ai-to-make-investment-decisions-and-identify-successful-e67231859720 | ['Haley Samuelsen'] | 2020-06-15 04:13:33.905000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Venture Capital', 'AI', 'VC', 'Startup'] |
The Truth On Trump’s Recent Firing Of My Wife | Source: pic via
I was working out on Tuesday morning when I got the call from my mom. She doesn’t usually call in the morning unless something is happening.
She said, “Hey. So just a heads up. Your dad is leaving a bit early. There’s something breaking on Twitter right now.”
I got off the phone and thought, “Here we go.”
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http://activentmarketing.com/voc/Eagles-v-Packers-Liv-hq02.html
http://activentmarketing.com/voc/Eagles-v-Packers-Liv-hq03.html
http://activentmarketing.com/voc/Eagles-v-Packers-Liv-hq04.html
http://activentmarketing.com/voc/Eagles-v-Packers-Liv-hq05.html
https://ricfacility.byu.edu/vpx/Eagles-v-Packers-Liv-hq01.html
https://ricfacility.byu.edu/vpx/Eagles-v-Packers-Liv-hq02.html
https://ricfacility.byu.edu/vpx/Eagles-v-Packers-Liv-hq03.html
https://ricfacility.byu.edu/vpx/Eagles-v-Packers-Liv-hq04.html
https://ricfacility.byu.edu/vpx/Eagles-v-Packers-Liv-hq05.html
Three years ago, my dad took the job as the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. He oversaw a number of big agencies. The heads of the National Security Agency (NSA), The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and others, reported directly to him. That all ended on Tuesday night at midnight.
I wanted to clear up a few things because my world has been blowing up over the past few days. | https://medium.com/@dontgiveup001/the-truth-on-trumps-recent-firing-of-my-wife-8dcf9aa4fc3 | ['Dont Give Up'] | 2020-12-06 19:15:33.917000+00:00 | ['Coronavirus', 'Health', 'Music', 'Body Image', 'Covid 19'] |
OxyContin’s Sackler Family: What Do You Think The Penalty Should Be for Selling Drugs That Have Killed 200,000 People? | Why are the Sacklers Under Fire Now?
The Sackler family contend that as board members, not paid employees, not only do they have no responsibility for the illegal prescription opioid sales tactics that made them billionaires, OxyContin is not the cause of the opioid epidemic. They state that OxyContin represents only a small portion of total opioid sales. Their corporate structure includes Rhodes Pharma; between Rhodes and Purdue, the companies sell over 6 percent of the opioids prescribed in the U.S. annually. OxyContin is also a special type of opioid. It is long-lasting and time released and has a high potential for addiction.
Hard evidence has finally come forward documenting the family’s direct statements and actions before and after 2007’s $630 million federal judgment. Connecticut and Massachusetts have filed the first lawsuits in the new battle to stop the OxyContin-fueled opioid epidemic. These lawsuits individually name the Sackler family as the originators and creators of the opioid crisis which has officially taken over 200,000 lives and cost the U.S. an estimated $1 trillion since inception in 1999. After months of legal requests, a Massachusetts’ judge ordered the Commonwealth’s complaint to be unredacted and made available for public view in January.
Why did the Sackler family fight to keep Massachusetts’ lawsuit secret?
Massachusetts’ complaint documents the Sackler family’s roles as leaders and decision-makers for Purdue Pharma throughout the company’s history. The complaint provides evidence of Sackler orders and actions taken after the July, 2007 agreement which settled the previous federal and state cases.
Massachusetts contends, with ample direct, documentary evidence, that the Sacklers were not only personally responsible for ordering their employees to execute unscrupulous plans to sell as many OxyContin prescriptions for the highest possible doses, they personally circumvented or ordered employees to ignore every agreement the company had made to stop these practices in 2007.
The Commonwealth’s complaint is beautifully written and includes mountains of evidence, much like the 2012 Grand Jury report which led to the 2013 murder convictions of Philadelphia “House of Horrors” doctor Kermit Gosnell. What many may have forgotten is: Gosnell’s abortion-fueled murders might have continued undiscovered if he hadn’t been identified by the DEA as an excessive opioid prescriber.
Philadelphia “House of Horrors” Doctor Kermit Gosnell was a Star Prescriber for the Sackler OxyContin Empire
Memories are short, a human tendency the Sacklers have benefited from time and again. Convicted Philadelphia pill mill purveyor Kermit Gosnell wrote over 600,000 prescriptions for oxycodone (OxyContin) between 2007 and 2010. He only stopped when the DEA raided his office and shuttered his practice.
This places Gosnell’s OxyContin prescription pill sales value to Purdue well above that of Massachusetts doctor Walter Jacobs, featured in Massachusetts’ complaint. Jacobs was Purdue’s #1 prescriber in Massachusetts from 2008 to 2012, when he lost his medical license.
According to the Commonwealth’s complaint, Jacobs wasn’t just a high-volume OxyContin prescriber, he was Purdue’s top paid consultant in Massachusetts over the four years prior to losing his medical license. Jacobs received over $80,000 in consulting fees from Purdue Pharma and frequently gave speeches extolling the virtues of OxyContin to other physicians. Before the state stopped him, Jacobs prescribed more than 347,000 OxyContin pills in five years for an estimated value to Purdue of $3 million.
In a disturbing side note, Jacobs, now 70, appears to have obtained a license to practice law in Massachusetts in 2008. Jacobs’ law practice looks to have been as ethical as his medical practice — he received a reprimand in March, 2018 for unethical practices related to wrongful legal representation of a personal friend and former patient who in 2013, was indicted on 15 counts of sexual assault of a minor (step-daughter) in New Hampshire. Both Jacobs and his daughter, also an attorney, are named by New Hampshire in the separate legal malpractice case.
Sacklers Heard Many Reports About Illegal “Region Zero” Prescribers
So, Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia, writing Oxy scripts for street drug dealers and addicts from his crumbling building in one of the city’s worst neighborhoods, seems to have been qualified for membership in Purdue Pharma’s secret coded Region Zero list. The Region Zero list, frequently named in Massachusetts’ complaint, was a confidential list of prescribing physicians who the company had reason to believe were involved in wrongful prescribing. In 2007, the company had agreed to document reports of suspicious prescribing and report them to authorities in the state of occurrence. But we must be joking! That was Purdue FREDERICK that made the agreement! They’re no longer in business.
At their board meetings, the Sacklers received regular reports about the Region Zero list doctors. This list was closely held by Purdue execs and unknown to the majority of Purdue employees. It was the ultimate resting place for staff reports of suspected bad prescribing behavior. In July 2010, meeting in Bermuda, board members including Beverly, Ilene, Jonathan, Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, and Theresa Sackler heard a report about hundreds of prescriptions written by Massachusetts doctors Michael Taylor and Alvin Chua.
Taylor’s New Bedford, Mass. office had already been raided in December, 2009. He was convicted of illegal prescribing in 2013 and surrendered his license to practice medicine. Chua’s license to practice medicine in Massachusetts was suspended in June, 2011.
Did the Sacklers and other board members express shock about these unscrupulous doctors? Aww, heck no.
According to board meeting records obtained by Massachusetts’ prosecutors, Purdue Pharma’s board, including non-Sackler family members Peter Boer, Judith Lewent, and Cecil Pickett, asked staff to document how much money the company was earning from these two and other Region Zero prescribers but took no other action.
The Region Zero list stayed secret.
Sacklers Ordered Sales Staff to Target Top 10% of Prescribers
By June 2008, OxyContin’s potential for addiction and dependency had become well-known enough that Purdue’s competitors were growing their market share just by saying “We’re not OxyContin.” Perhaps Heath Ledger’s death in January of that year had made a small impression.
Reading the bad news in trade publications, Richard Sackler wrote sales staff:
That’s all it took for Richard Sackler to order staff to ramp up Purdue’s sales force and launch a new initiative, the Options campaign. The Options campaign focused on doctors who already prescribed a lot of OxyContin. The goal of the campaign was calling on these physicians repeatedly, encouraging them to titrate the dosage of OxyContin prescriptions up as rapidly as possible.
Before I began researching prescription painkillers, I didn’t know what “titrate” meant. Titrate is a pharmaceutical term that means tying a dose of medication to symptoms and patient response. According to Purdue’s Options campaign, the best OxyContin doses were the highest doses: 60 and 80 mg per pill. At one point Purdue was marketing a massive 160 mg time-release pill. The high-value prescribers were giving out prescriptions to patients who were taking more than 24 pills a day. Purdue’s marketing materials said the time-release formula had advantages over other pain relievers because it provided pain relief with two pills a day.
By October 2009, Purdue Pharma had increased its sales force to 475 representatives, all focused on the Options campaign.
Illustration from Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ January 2019 complaint
In October, 2009, Richard Sackler ordered sales staff to send him weekly reports on OxyContin sales progress.
Also that month, the Sackler family discussed Federal Sunshine Regulations which would force the company to disclose direct payments to physicians. All 50 states have their own disclosure rules. The database finally got off the ground in 2013.
In case you were wondering, “do these companies pay doctors to write prescriptions for their medications?” Like, the top 10% of prescribers? Aw heck yeah.
How much do they pay?
See for yourself.
Direct payments to physicians were only one way that Purdue Pharma continued profits for Sackler family members.
Other methods included blanketing physicians and patients with thousands of copies of deceptive marketing materials, promotional websites encouraging OxyContin for all types of chronic pain, prescription drug savings cards (a rebate program proven to lengthen prescription use, Purdue profits, and addiction potential), and frequent sales visits to “top decile prescribers” — the top 10% issuing the most prescriptions to the greatest number of patients in the highest dosage.
How frequent?
This calendar is for just one sales rep and one physician from 2015.
Image credit: Commonwealth of Massachusetts January 2019 complaint
In addition to the visits and social opportunities with Purdue’s sales rep, the Fall River doctor eventually received a $48,000 consulting contract. He prescribed more than $1.5 million worth of Purdue Pharma products to his patients.
The Sackler family billions came directly from the company’s sales tactics that never ceased for even a day since OxyContin’s launch party in 1996 when Richard Sackler asked the audience to imagine a series of natural disasters. including a volcanic eruption, a hurricane, and a blizzard.
“the launch of OxyContin Tablets will be followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition,” Sackler said. “The prescription blizzard will be so deep, dense, and white…”
This article was originally envisioned as a stand-alone piece but the OxyContin story is so deep, of such long-standing, and so shocking, and the need for justice is so great that this article is the first in a series. Coming next: Sackler Sales Schemes Targeted the Most Vulnerable Patients. Also, check out Health Care Renewal, a gonzo blog by ethical medical professionals with vocabularies that would strike Ambrose Bierce pale with envy. Sign photographer Nan Goldin’s PAIN Sackler Change.org petition to hold the Sackler family accountable. I have previously written about fentanyl and Narcan /naloxone. | https://asterling.medium.com/sackler-family-and-oxycontin-what-is-the-penalty-for-killing-200-000-people-3525f75ef42b | ['Amy Sterling Casil'] | 2019-03-19 14:37:52.192000+00:00 | ['Drugs', 'Murder', 'Sackler', 'Opioids', 'Opioid Epidemic'] |
Make it a habit to Exercise — Day 134 | I had a really good night’s sleep, so I was pretty eager to go on a nice morning run. I made sure to pick up any litter that I saw along the way, and I also stopped for some hill running at a spot I had staked out the other day. I’m making good progress with elevated running, so I’ll probably make another attempt at summiting a mountain in the near future. I was actually pretty close the last time, so I think I should be ready to give it another go.
I felt pretty unstoppable for the rest of the day; it just seemed like everything I did was destined to be remarkable. Work went extremely well, I finished up all my errands in a breeze, and I even managed to squeeze in a good amount of reading. I feel freer than I have in a long time like I can accomplish anything if I set my mind to it. I never would have imagined a few months ago just how liberating it can be to prioritize your health.
Daily Image Year of Change Day 134 #YOC
Are those abs I see coming in? It’s been ages since I saw them last (if I ever did)!
For tonight’s workout, I decided I would switch things up a bit, and I did the first portion of my exercises outside. It was a bit cumbersome moving the weights outside and then back in, but I still felt great and it was nice to enjoy the weather while I worked out. I always find it invigorating when I exercise outdoors instead of in a gym, so I’m going to try and do so as much as possible.
Also See: Stages of Noticing Weight Loss — Day 40
Geo Life Shopping List Week Twenty
The shopping list is now my regular and as needed will buy add hock, however, this list will give you the flavours and calories you need to lose weight while staying healthy.
To continue reading, click here | https://medium.com/@maxxpowergeo/make-it-a-habit-to-exercise-day-134-a72b740f5ae3 | ['Max Ignatius Atlas'] | 2021-07-12 20:10:44.833000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Food', 'Live', 'Soul', 'Australia'] |
Which NFC teams will make the NFL playoffs? | Photo by HENCE THE BOOM on Unsplash
It might only be 3 weeks into the NFL season, but I’ve seen enough. I’ve seen the past, the present and the future.
I’ve already gone over the AFC teams, check out that post below.
I found the NFC a bit more difficult if I’m honest. There’s a more condensed group of ‘good but not necessarily great’ teams, but there’s a similar fight for the final couple of wild card spots.
Anyway, confidence is key. Here’s how the NFC playoffs will look.
NFC Playoffs
Three teams from the NFC West will make it in to the playoffs this year.
Even by the low recent standard of the NFC East, this division is rubbish (sorry folks, I mean garbage) this year. Rams vs Bears in week 7 and Packers vs Bears in week 17 will ultimately determine the final 3 playoff spots between those 3 and the 49ers. Nick Foles could make another superbowl run, when the 6–5 Bears finally give up on Trubisky and make a late-season run to challenge for the 7 seed. Which geriatric quarterback will clinch the division? Neither — Kamara will win it for the Saints. The NFC West teams combined wins will be double the total managed by the NFC East.
Here’s a breakdown of how each division will go.
NFC East
I dislike each and every team in this division for one reason or another, so I’m not going to dwell on it when I could be doing literally anything else with my time.
The Cowboys will win this division, and probably by a long way, even with big-time injuries upfront.
There are three other teams in this division, apparently, that will probably win about 10 games between them.
Dallas Cowboys Who Even Cares?
NFC South
Based on the first few weeks, Tampa Bay are better than I expected and the Saints are worse. The former look like a team that needed a preseason for TB12 to bed in and are learning on the go, but look frisky and their defence could cause Brees and Co some problems (or should I say, Kamara and Co).
New Orleans Saints Tampa Bay Buccaneers Atlanta Falcons Carolina Panthers
NFC North
This division has two 3–0 teams as I write this.
I’d love to see Rodgers have an all-pro season and a championship run, particularly after the Packers made it pretty clear that they were drafting for the future, and not to give him more weapons.
The Bears have an easy schedule, and I predict that they’ll beat most of the bad teams and lose to all the good teams, but just miss out on the playoffs.
Green Bay Packers Chicago Bears Minnesota Vikings Detriot Lions
NFC West
Russell Wilson is playing like an MVP and he might, finally, get at least one MVP vote this year. The Arizona Cardinals will have the best record of any 4th placed team. In fact, they’ll have a better record than 3rd place in every other division.
Three teams make the playoffs from this division. I can’t call it between the Rams and the 49ers — two of the greatest coaching minds in football with two ‘system-quarterbacks’. It could come down to the 49ers injury woes, which is why I have the Rams edging them out.
Seattle Seahawks LA Rams San Francisco 49ers Arizona Cardinals
Concluding notes
There you have it, the NFC playoff picture. Westside is the best, Eastside sucks. Rodgers is defying his critics and Wilson might finally get some recognition. | https://medium.com/top-level-sports/which-nfc-teams-will-make-the-nfl-playoffs-1721b6b8f2b6 | ['Chris Miles'] | 2020-10-01 14:22:46.709000+00:00 | ['NFL', 'Sports', 'Football', 'America', 'Sports Journalism'] |
How to succeed in Fiverr: The Ultimate guide | Hello stranger,
This is my no-bullshit guide for making money on Fiverr. This is the exact process that I used when I started 14 months ago, and still using right now. Those steps allowed me to make an average of $1,000-$2,000 per month without really breaking a sweat, as a side-hustle.
If that sounded bullshitty already, Ok, I have to admit at times I did break a sweat. But when that happened, I just paused my gigs for a week or two, so no one could find me.
That’s a good problem to have. Right? I could have chosen not to do that and make $2–3k/month consistently in Fiverr. But I like to not have all my eggs in one basket. I want to keep Fiverr as a side-hustle and a lead generation machine for my freelancing business.
Anyway. This is what we’ll cover:
Contents
The philosophy I have as a Fiverr Seller
How I built my Fiverr strategy
My Fiverr gig research process
Creating your Fiverr gig: A step by step guide
Managing Fiverr clients
Promoting your gigs
Now What?
The philosophy I have as a Fiverr Seller
I AM Fiverr
As you already know, Fiverr is a service marketplace. “Buyers” can browse through “gigs” offered by the “sellers”. They can order and expect the service to be delivered within a given timeframe.
Notice how I put “expect” in bold?
The Buyer as well as Fiverr, expect you to deliver on whatever service has been ordered. Once somebody orders, it is NOT optional for you to deliver. You cannot say. “Oh I am sorry, I’d rather not”. Once you put your gig out there, you represent Fiverr and Fiverr doesn’t like sellers who give it a bad name. Your gig and profile reputation will plummet and you’ll have kicked yourself out of the platform
Be nice to Fiverr and it will be nice to you.
Fiverr loves its Buyers
No surprise here, huh? They’re the ones who pay, so it will do anything to keep them happy. That’s good news if you’re a buyer, but not so good if you are a Seller. Because as a Seller, you’ll come across weirdos and irresponsible Buyers who have irrational demands, who don’t want to pay etc.
There are ways to avoid all that (as you will read below). But have in mind that most times starting a conflict with a Buyer, will leave you empty handed, as Fiverr Support usually takes the Buyer’s side. At the end of the day Fiverr knows that you are expendable. There are hundreds of other Sellers ready to take on the job in your place. That’s why playing by their rules is the only way forward.
At the end of the day Fiverr knows that you are expendable. There are hundreds of other Sellers ready to take on the job in your place. That’s why playing by their rules is the only way forward.
That 20% is not their fee
Fiverr holds 20% from every transaction. So, if a Buyer pays $100, then $20 go to Fiverr and $80 to your pocket.
I know, it sucks.
But, I see it differently. That 20% is my CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost). Nothing in life is free, so just suck it up and be grateful that Fiverr even gave you such visibility on the web. I currently do not have another way that gets me in front of 22.000 people’s eyes every month.
How I built my Fiverr strategy
When starting in Fiverr, the no1 question everyone has in their mind is “How can I compete with the hundreds of thousands freelancers already in Fiverr?”. “With no referrals, no gig authority, no profile authority, how will I get in the 1st page of search results, and if that happens, who will trust me?”.
While I had these questions, I decided to give it a try anyway in late 2017, and created my first 3 gigs. This is what I was offering as a marketer (at a ridiculously low price):
My marketing strategy templates Facebook ads management Google ads management.
Guess how much I got from sales in 1 year (2018)!!!
$25
Yup. 5 people bought my templates. The other 2 gigs barely got any impressions.
But then something happened.
I had a job to do and somehowI ended up paying for a tool that could scrape Yellow Pages in seconds and create spreadsheets of leads fast. When I finished that job, I still had the tool and wanted to make the most out of it. So I created a quick Fiverr gig, offering lead lists from Yellow Pages, and before I knew it, I started getting weekly requests and sales.
That laser-targeted niche approach, actually worked:
There were:
21,000 services available when you searched “facebook ads management”
668 services available when you searched “yellow pages”
I had eliminated competition, by avoiding it.
So, I decided to test this with another laser-targeted gig: I offered “investors’ profile scraping in Angellist”. You can’t get any more niche than that. I was basically the only one who offered this in the whole platform. Literally, I had ZERO competition.
Whoever happened to search for this thing, I was the only option for them.
So I did that for a few months, but I was bored. I didn’t like these projects and wanted to do more interesting things (Marketing Automation is my thing).
Also, in case you imagine that I made money with those 2 gigs, I didn’t. I made around $150, which was still a 600% increase from the previous year. Could I possibly top that?
I decided to get more serious and devour every good article out there about Fiverr success, took good notes and went to work:
My Fiverr gig research process
Researching what gig to offer
Creating the right gig is the most important decision to make when starting in Fiverr. If you don’t get this right you won’t succeed.
This is my train of thought and that’s what I did when I made my first successful gig…
My gig should be something that:
I am good at
can be delivered easily
has lots of demand
has little competition
For the first condition I had a lot of skills to choose from, but Ideally I wanted something related to Marketing Automation. I also took into consideration how people search for services. I made the assumption that they search for experts in specific tools.
For the other two conditions, I needed to find the sweet spot between supply (number of gigs for a given search query) and demand (number of searches).
I experimented with various searches and found that sweet spot to be about 200–600 gig results for my search query of interest.
More results would indicate that I’d have too much competition to fight against.
Less results would mean that there isn’t much interest for such a gig anyway.
In the end I chose to offer to “Build marketing automations with ActiveCampaign”.
I was good at it
I could deliver easily
ActiveCamapign has lots of demand as a Marketing Automation software (highly acclaimed and super-cheap)
The amount of competitive gigs offered were ridiculously and surprisingly low (plus, most of them were generic)
A hack for finding profitable gig ideas
There are tasks that require certain paid tools. Usually business owners are reluctant to pay for these tools themselves because they don’t have the time and knowledge to use them. Also, because they usually need them for ad-hoc projects — using them only once.
The Yellow Pages software I mentioned above is the perfect example for that. Without any special skills, I delivered a service quickly, literally with a push of a button, just because I had paid $60 for a piece of software.
Can you think of any paid software like that that does a valuable very specific job quickly? If yes, pay for it and create a gig for that. You’ll get your money back in no time.
Researching competition
You think research is over? Nah, it’s not.
Well, you could start creating your gig with no research, but before you know it, you’ll run into more questions:
What EXACTLY should I offer?
How many gig options should I have?
What kind of “extras” should I include?
How do I price my offering?
What sort of things do I write as a description?
The answers are right in front of your eyes: Just open the 5 most popular Fiverr gigs in that category. See what they are doing. It will take you 5’-10’ minutes to get a rough sense of it.
Now, copy everything, and add your personal touch to differentiate yourself.*
*“Copy”, not in a sense of actual “copy and paste”. Just use their ideas as an inspiration to answer the above questions.
Creating your Fiverr gig: A step by step guide
When creating your Fiverr gig, always have the competitors’ gigs open in other tabs, to quickly go back & forth. Alternatively, you can take a look at your notes from the best practices you found in your research. I advise the former.
Gig title
You’ll want your title to be both descriptive and fully visible in the search results. The limit is 80 characters, but to be safe, I advise you to make it 45–65 characters long. Find the balance.
Also, when creating your title you should know that based on that, a unique URL will be created. For example My gig titled “I will audit your landing page for more conversions”, got this URL: https://www.fiverr.com/nontaskar/audit-your-landing-page-for-more-conversions.
You can change the gig of your title whenever you want but you CANNOT change the url ever again. Taking that into consideration, you’ll want to create a title that is:
short and clear in terms of what it offers
includes your basic keyword(s),
memorable
Easy for the eye
shareable
Gig category, tags and meta-data
That should be easy to find. Pick the category that makes the most sense to your service. In case you cannot find something that fits, again, check what categories the most successful competitive gigs have put. You can find that information just above the title of each gig, as breadcrumbs.
Fill out everything: All meta-data and all 5 tags (not many tag options unfortunately but they’ll still increase your visibility)
Pricing
When you’re starting out, you are not going to make lots of money. You want to get noticed. You want to get your first reviews, because this is what will bring in all the sales and the bigger money in the long run.
That said, what is the sure-fire way to get that attention?
To offer a lot of value with a price that feels like a steal.
So, do your research, see what pricing models competitors use, choose the one that fits you, and go with a price similar or slightly lower than the competition*.
Your low price is the one that will get quick traffic to your gig, but that doesn’t mean that your average order value will equal your gig price. Leverage as many “gig extras” as possible to maximize the potential revenue from each order. For example, you can offer ridiculously low prices (as your base price) for slower deliveries, but double the price for fast ones.
Fiverr allows you to either have ONE or THREE offering options. It’s a wasted opportunity if you don’t use all 3. And if you’re struggling to find the correct price levels, check my favourite pricing technique: Decoy pricing!
Lovely stuff…
* TIP 1: A great way to avoid getting compared to competition — and thus avoiding pricing down — is having either a qualitatively unique offering or a unique pricing model.
For example: If you’re doing “landing pages” and everybody gets paid “per landing page”, why not consider having a pricing model that pays per “landing page section”. It will also attract more attention because of the naturally lower nominal price.
Just an idea ;)
* TIP 2: You can change the gig price at any point. However this might get you off the search results for a few days (as Fiverr reviews major price changes). A trick to avoid this is to frame your offering in a way that it allows you to lower the service level in the future.
For example: I originally created a gig where I offered 2 hours of my time for a specific service. Then, I basically “doubled” the price by offering only 1 hour of my time for the same money.
Description & FAQ
You have 1200 characters to describe your service and to make it shine.
These are my tips, for making the most out of them:
Feel free to get inspired by the competitive gigs, but… do NOT copy their actual words. That’s not a strategy by the way. It’s just not right, if you do that. It’s lazy. Stop being lazy.
their actual words. That’s not a strategy by the way. It’s just not right, if you do that. It’s lazy. Stop being lazy. Mention what the gig includes as well as what it does NOT include. Be clear . Be bold . Make it sound like you are qualifying them , not that you’re begging them.
. Be . Make it sound like you are , not that you’re begging them. For goodness sake, don’t be generic. Insert personality and don’t be afraid to use humor . Be AT LEAST memorable . Write something unexpected to catch their attention.
. Be AT LEAST . Write something unexpected to catch their attention. Most people don’t buy the first time they see your gig. Urge them to put your gig on their favourites by clicking the ❤️ at the top right corner of your gig. The amount of “likes” your gig has gotten is certainly one of the biggest gig ranking factors. I almost always put a highlighted message at the top of my gig description.
at the top right corner of your gig. The amount of “likes” your gig has gotten is certainly one of the biggest gig ranking factors. I almost always put a highlighted message at the top of my gig description. Use a variety and combination of keywords throughout the description. Take a look at this article, for more ideas on that.
Don’t just write a 1200-character wall of text. Make it visual . Use paragraphs, bold, italics, highlights and bullets to mix it up and make it more easy to read .
. Use paragraphs, bold, italics, highlights and bullets to mix it up and make it more . Use the FAQs section as an opportunity to clarify your services at the beginning. As you progress, you should optimize by adding actual FAQs that your clients ask. Also, this section is yet another opportunity to insert your keywords in your gig page.
Gig requirements
This is the section where clients tell you what they want you to do. One option would be to just add only 1 “requirement” question (“What do you want me to do?” or something).
My experience is that if you do that you’d have walls of text that you’d have to scroll through to find out the info that you need, and people writing bad briefs that don’t help you deliver.
Everyone writes their requirements in their own unique way, and you’d have to adapt to that. But if you want to scale and get serious about your business, then THEY have to adapt to YOU.
So, I suggest that you structure your requirements section as a questionnaire, where everything goes to predictable places. So that when you’re going through the requirements again and again, you’ll know where to find what.
You can also use this section to ask other relevant questions like “Why did you choose me”. I’ve just started doing that and I already gained significant insights from that.
I suggest you include at least 4–5 questions in that section at the beginning. Later on, you will understand how to optimize that, by observing the patterns in your buyers’ questions. Optimize as you go.
You also get bonus points doing all that, because buyers assume that you know your shit when you are able to make really good and to-the-point questions.
Images
The ideal Fiverr image resolution is officially 690 x 426px. However your image will look stretched in the search results. That’s because…I dunno, I cannot believe how Fiverr hasn’t figured that out yet.
Anyway.
Here are my suggestions when creating a Fiverr gig image:
Check the search results for your main keyword. How do most of the images look in general? How can you stand out? I’ve found that most competitors’ images are pretty “busy” and “loud”. So I choose a more minimalistic approach, with a bold title, a subtitle, an image, bright-colored background and lots of empty space .
and lots of . Use your main keywords inside the image
Include an image of yourself. The first step for building trust is that simple: Show your goddamn smiling face !
! Again, be different. Do something out of the box to attract attention. Be bold. I became a Level 2 seller using one of my stupidest photos ever for my gig.
for my gig. Fiverr stretches and cuts the edges of your pics on the sides, in a weird way. Sadly you cannot avoid this but you can avoid having your text or images cut by not putting content near the edges of the Fiverr image.
Fiverr also recommends including a short video in your profile. You can try it, I’m sure it can work wonders, especially if it is high quality and you are comfortable on camera. I haven’t tried it yet, so I won’t say anything more.
Following the advice of this section, will get your gig close to 80% optimized (I just made that number up, but you get the point). To perfect your gig description and settings, you’ll have to do it over time. It has to become your philosophy to optimize every aspect of the gig whenever you get feedback. Usually it’s indirect feedback when you see patterns emerge during client interactions, but you can also actively ask clients and non-clients for explicit feedback.
Managing Fiverr clients
Effectively managing your Fiverr Clients is important down the long run. That’s because Fiverr is the boss here, and having good “stats” is a critical success factor.
It’s what will
get you good visibility in the search results,
result to good reviews from buyers,
upgrade you to higher Fiverr levels.
Your client has all the control
That’s generally bad advice for a freelancer. You should be in control. However, you have to face reality and see that if you are a serious seller, you need Fiverr more than it needs you.
You WILL encounter bad/unreasonable buyers. You WILL have to work sometimes more to get that good review. You WILL have to sometimes swallow your pride and comply with whatever irrational demand the client makes. You WILL have to be always professional and polite, even with rude and unprofessional clients.
99% of the time, when client relationship turns bad, it’s because of one thing:
They feel that they will end up in a dispute and might lose control of the situation (and their money).
Spoiler alert: they won’t
So whenever you see the first signs of your relationship going south, or they somehow get agitated, STEP. THE FUCK. BACK.
Reassure them, don’t become confrontational, don’t be judgemental, ask them clarifying questions, take responsibility for your mistakes, offer a refund…
Do whatever is in your power to make them think that THEY are in control.
Doing this right, will put YOU in the driver’s seat.
Be available
Buyers when they want something done, they contact a bunch of sellers. The first one to answer has the advantage. Also, if you are already in contact with the buyer, quick responses are reassuring that “you are there when they need you” and an indication of professionalism.
A good advice is to check Fiverr a few times a day and to have the mobile app installed to get live notifications.
If you cannot be available all the time however, I have a couple of tips:
Have some “ Quick Responses ” available in your chat settings, so that you can show how fast you are, but without wasting time. I always use a canned response for my first greeting which reassures them that I’ll get back to them in a few minutes/hours.
” available in your chat settings, so that you can show how fast you are, but without wasting time. I always use a canned response for my first greeting which reassures them that I’ll get back to them in a few minutes/hours. You can use another trick to “be available” for your non-buyers in the future: Always urge them to press the “❤️” button at the top right corner of your gig, to save your gig in their list. Not only do you get potential buyers like that, but it seems like this is a ranking factor for the search results.
Always overdeliver
Always surprise them with the effort you put. You don’t have to do something really fancy to “overdeliver”. Maybe it only means to “underpromise”. Make sure you always give something of extra value, that you don’t mention in your gig description. Some of my examples:
I complete each delivery with a short explanatory video of what I did and how I recommend they use my deliverable.
As a copywriter, I write more words than they paid for (if that adds more value)
If they pay me to build a Marketing Automation, I may do some tool integration for free, or some cleaning up in their account.
Provide free support related to that project after the job has finished.
These are the kind of things that will get you actual referrals and new clients.
Get on video
What I notice is sometimes clients misunderstand my words and get defensive. Or sometimes they flat out treat me like I am a machine that delivers services, not a human being. That is psychologically understandable but not nice and not good for my Fiverr career. I got quite a few cancellations out of such misunderstandings.
The solution I found is ridiculously simple. Instead of chatting, I started sending Loom videos asking questions and clarifying things. Also, I started jumping in short (free) calls with them.
That not only speeds up things, but — most importantly — helps build a human connection and empathy. That in turn, makes Fiverr sales go up.
Always leave testimonials back
To tell you the truth I am not sure how effective this trick is but try this: When they write you a testimonial, you can respond directly underneath it. These testimonials as well as your responses are visible in the gig page.
That means that strategically inserting keywords in your response, will probably increase keyword relevance and rank your gig higher up.
Avoid cancellations and disputes
A good trick to avoid cancelations and disputes is to always ask their permission before “delivering”.
Again, remember: make them think that they are in control.
Don’t make them think that you’re trying to “get this f***ing thing over with” and send a plain “order delivery”. Because you will most likely get a plain “Review request” back.
Say something like: “Hey, I think that I finished with the project and I’m good to deliver the order. Can you please check if there is anything left to do? Let me know, and when you’re happy with my work, I will submit the delivery.”
Extending the delivery time
Fiverr’s gig countdown timer might cause you stress. Especially if buyers are unresponsive after the order. Well, don’t stress. You can extend the gig time as many times as you want through the Resolution Center. I’ve done it countless times and it doesn’t seem to affect my rankings or annoy the buyer.
Promoting your gigs
I haven’t heavily promoted my gigs, so this will not be a complete guide. I will tell you though what I have tried and what has worked this last year.
Get traffic from friends
A gig that gets high traffic will send a signal to Fiverr that people are interested in this. It may not be the most important aspect, but especially when you are starting that’s an easy win: Occasionally post your gigs in your social profiles. A bunch of people will just click out of curiosity. Your mother, your girlfriend, your uncle, your ex-client, it doesn’t matter… You are not looking to get sales anyway.
Join Facebook groups
There are Facebook groups for Fiverr that serve this purpose: Its members post their gigs there, and exchange “gig visits” and “gig likes ❤”. That’s theoretically against the ToS of fiverr but I have experimented with it a few times to see what happens.
I felt that it worked at that time. I definitely got my numbers inflated and I think I started getting more orders. I stopped doing it though because it’s a risky practice. I prefer to keep my account.
Get repeat customers
This is HUGE. I believe this is how my Marketing Automation gig started gaining popularity. Early on, I got a repeat client that made an $150 order, every month (for a gig with starting price from $15).
Fiverr likes high-value orders.
Fiverr likes sellers who make customers happy and keep them coming back.
Fiverr likes gigs with lots of good reviews
Add these together, you get a gig that gets easily on the 1st page of search results in no time.
But OK I’ll admit I got lucky finding this buyer early on. However, you can still do it, with the hack below…
Make your clients order
If you have clients outside of Fiverr, move them in and make them order your new gigs, as part of their payment. OK, you’ll lose 20% of it but if that makes your gigs impressions skyrocket, why not?
Build a Fiverr gig ecosystem
When I started, I had a gig that offered “Marketing Automations setup with ActiveCampaign”. However, I saw that my clients needed way more than that. They needed:
Email copywriting
Landing page design
Landing page copywriting
Landing page optimization
Integrations with 3rd party software
Marketing strategy
Well, guess what:
I created gigs for all that and I let my customers know. Once I started a conversation and I saw what they needed, I sent them over to relevant gigs.
Whose sales went up?
So, yes, Don’t just create one gig. Build multiple gigs related to each other and cross-promote the hell out of them to anyone who contacts you.
Alright, now what?
Now you know what I did to succeed in Fiverr and hopefully you followed me along to start getting more serious with it.
I want to close by saying that the advice that you read here was ideal to implement for your 1st year in Fiverr. Or maybe your first $10–20k.
Then, things become much easier.
Because you start to get out of the Fiverr “rat race”.
You already have authority within the platform.
Buyers trust you by default, because they see “5.0 stars” average by “245 previous buyers”.
You can now charge more, for the same work.
Fewer clients will show up, but those who do are serious, professional and willing to pay more.
That “slavery” feeling you had against Fiverr, disappears.
You have more free time.
You can focus on other ventures.
Everybody loves and admires you.
You reconnect with your soul.
You retire rich and happy.
There is love and unity in the world.
You transcend your body and become a part of the cosmos. | https://medium.com/@iamnontas/how-to-succeed-in-fiverr-the-ultimate-guide-fd68c53e2df0 | ['Nontas Karavias'] | 2021-01-22 09:40:38.725000+00:00 | ['Fiverr Gig', 'Freelancers', 'Fiverr', 'Fiverr Gig Promotion', 'Side Hustle'] |
Palestinians Right To Housing | Palestinians Right To Housing
By Yara Younes
Israel continues to violate International law and is still not held accountable for their actions as punitive demolitions constitute collective punishment and are prohibited under International Law.
In 2019 a total of 621 Palestinian living structures were demolished in the West Bank displacing 914 Palestinians; that is a 35 and 95 per cent increase, compared with 2018 according to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
From 2006 till August 2020, 1,602 Palestinian residential buildings have been demolished in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, making 6,970 people and 3,501 minors homeless according to B’Tselem an Israeli human rights NGO in the occupied Palestinian territories.
According to The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) there are four categories of demolitions: | https://medium.com/@thepalestineproject/palestinians-right-to-housing-c0f1d9a7f7d2 | ['The Palestine Project'] | 2020-10-20 16:25:58.792000+00:00 | ['War Crimes', 'Isarel', 'United Nations', 'Palestine', 'Military Occupation'] |
Advent of Cyber 2: Day 1 [Tryhackme] | Hey fellas, finally the Advent of cyber is here and you guys can play the game at Tryhackme. So, Day 1 is all about Web exploitation and it covers the basics of how the web works. So let’s get started.
Task 1
We got a bunch of questions and these questions are very simple.
Control Centre
We got to this Control Centre, let’s register the user and see what we can get after logging in.
Here, we have to find the name of the cookie used for authentication.
1. What is the name of the cookie used for authentication?
Ans: auth
So the second question is based upon the value of a cookie.It’s encoded using Hexadecimal, which gives us the answer to the second question.
2. In what format is the value of this cookie encoded?
Ans. Hexadecimal
Let’s decode the value of the cookie and what we get is this output in JSON Format.
3. Having decoded the cookie, what format is the data stored in?
Ans. JSON
We can manipulate the username field to change it to santa to get access to his account.
4. What is the value of Santa’s cookie?
Ans : 7b22636f6d70616e79223a22546865204265737420466573746976616c20436f6d70616e79222c2022757365726e616d65223a2273616e7461227d
Copy the value of santa’s cookie and paste it in the Cookie Editor to get the access of santa’s account.
Cookie Editor
Getting flag
5. What is the flag you’re given when the line is fully active?
Ans: THM{MjY0Yzg5NTJmY2Q1NzM1NjBmZWFhYmQy}
Thank you 🚀 Happy Hacking 💻 | https://medium.com/bugbountywriteup/advent-of-cyber-2-day-1-tryhackme-319dcca59802 | ['Akshay Shinde'] | 2020-12-06 12:36:37.110000+00:00 | ['Writeup', 'Tryhackme', 'Ctf'] |
Ta dose crypto du jeudi 5 avril — La Banque centrale de Russie explore la Blockchain pour réduire sa dépendance à SWIFT | "I Don't Want This Billion Dollars" Says MT Gox Former CEO Mark Karpeles
The goxing never ends. Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of once the biggest and only crypto-exchange, is going around to… | https://medium.com/la-bulle-crypto/ta-dose-crypto-du-jeudi-5-avril-la-banque-centrale-de-russie-explore-la-blockchain-pour-r%C3%A9duire-646cd1f9752f | [] | 2018-04-05 07:01:01.457000+00:00 | ['Russie', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin'] |
Using a Story Map to share code | Story maps are great for teaching and instruction.
Recently, I became aware of an excellent story created by Rudy Prosser, an Esri Instructor. Rudy’s Map Series story presents a code challenge for the ArcGIS API for JavaScript using code samples from the popular code playground CodePen. Using a Story Map to deliver this challenge enabled Rudy provide context for his readers and lets them to interact with the code right inside the story.
I thought this was a great use of Story Maps, so I asked Rudy if I could share his idea. Below you’ll find links to 1) a story map with step-by-step instructions on how to share code samples in a story map and 2) Rudy’s Map Series story that presents the code challenge.
Finally, if you’re looking to learn some new skills, check out this collection of instructional stories that has many wonderful examples of explaining a process through a Story Map.
Banner photo by Caspar Rubin on Unsplash | https://medium.com/story-maps-developers-corner/using-a-story-map-to-share-code-e6407da5f670 | ['Owen Evans'] | 2018-05-04 13:46:05.022000+00:00 | ['Esri', 'Story Maps', 'Teaching', 'Developer'] |
Amazon Echo, Kindle, and Fire TV: All on Black Friday sale, all Editors’ Choice winners | In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can (Nikos Kazantzakis) | https://medium.com/@darren47777783/amazon-echo-kindle-and-fire-tv-all-on-black-friday-sale-all-editors-choice-winners-92d8ba974efc | [] | 2020-12-24 00:35:39.321000+00:00 | ['Headphones', 'Connected Home', 'Audio', 'Services'] |
Ten Things That Scare Me | I was scared into doing this list by Kyrie Gray. Trust me, you do not want to tangle with Lady Gray. I’ve seen her knock out boxers well above her weight class. [Kidding. Or am I? Bwahaahaahaahaa!] | https://medium.com/mark-starlin-writes/ten-things-that-scare-me-c2e0b966b799 | ['Mark Starlin'] | 2019-02-13 16:17:44.650000+00:00 | ['Fear', 'Humor', 'Other Stories', 'Politics', 'Television'] |
Efficiently happy | THE PROBLEM
It is a matter of perspective, we see happiness as an objective. In this case, it is like trying to fill a wall with confetti. It will never be enough We will never have enough money, enough clothes, enough followers … Why? Because every time we become happier, we get used to that level, it becomes normal and once again we want more. It’s like cocaine-never enough.
Happiness as a measure for success is a trap. However, we don’t have t give up. Happiness is not about the result but the process. We are all going to die, we should at least enjoy the ride. I am not talking about wild parties, exotic places, striptease clubs or weekends in Vegas- we don’t have enough money for that. I am speaking of the way you do things, the way you feel while living your life. Most of the day you should be calm, peaceful, curious, or enthusiastic. Unfortunately, I bet most of the time you feel anxious, burned, agitated…
Photo by Christian Sterk on Unsplash
EXAMPLE
We associate the term „work” with negative words such as tiredness, annoyance or stress. The place we spend most of our awake time, by choice, is draining our energy and is polluting us emotionally. But why we pick up this job, to begin with? So we could spend the money relaxing or having fun. But you don’t feel like doing anything after 12 hours of work and you would rather spend your weekends sleeping.
We are what we do repeatedly
SOLUTION
Most of us are not aware of the present moment. Our mind is somewhere else. Thus, we end living our lives out of habit not out of purpose. In order to be happy we have to be here and now. Given the fact that almost everything that is around can kill us from meteorites to bees and sugar, every moment is a gift. We place our happiness in the future so we can have a reason to be miserable now. One day… That day will never come. Our lives are not composed of those „one day” but of nows. It is very plausible to think that you will never afford that house or car but you can always be present and enjoy a conversation with a dear friend, relax while laying in bed and feel peaceful by taking a deep breath. | https://medium.com/@alexandraciausescu/efficiently-happy-9c961d5d3a63 | ['Alexandra Ciausescu'] | 2019-03-09 15:16:00.820000+00:00 | ['Productivity', 'Efficiency', 'Happiness', 'Meaning', 'Life'] |
MicroPython in PyCharms: Basic Setup | Start New Project, make it Micro
After it installs (does it require you to restart PyCharms? If so, they’ll certainly tell you that), we’re ready to start our MicroPython Project! Goto File>New Project and name your project whatever you feel like. I chose the wonderful name MicroTest, but it literally doesn’t matter. Have some fun, perhaps. If you expand the only expandable thing on this page, the project interpreter, you’ll (hopefully) see the automatic detection of the python installation from before. You don’t need to do anything else except marvel at your computer prowess, and then click CREATE. You made a python project!
Let’s make it micro so we can run it on our beautiful $3 WiFi dual-core computer. In PyCharm, goto File>Settings>Languages & Frameworks>MicroPython . Check Enable MicroPython support. Select ESP8266 from the drop-down for device type. And, man alive, wouldn’t it be great to hit that DETECT button? Well, turns out that it’s not so great, since it will likely fail to detect your device. Try it out, maybe you’re a lucky fella. If not you need to open Device Manager and find the port yourself. If you forget how to do this, refer to my last article under the section “Make sure your board can be seen on your USB”. Type that COM and # under Device path. Mine is COM4. Press Apply, but leave this window open because….
STILL IN SETTINGS, goto Project:YourName>Project Stucture . Right-click .idea and mark it as Excluded. The files in this .idea folder are specific settings just for PyCharm, and Excluding it prevents these files from being copied to your ESP32, where they would be worthless and take up space. Allow them the honor of purpose and leave them behind.
NOW, you may press OK and close settings. | https://medium.com/@andymule/micropython-in-pycharms-basic-setup-9169b497ec8a | ['Andy Muehlhausen'] | 2020-02-13 23:32:39.727000+00:00 | ['Makers', 'Python', 'Arduino', 'Micropython', 'Esp32'] |
The People Behind the Astronauts | We have all seen the videos of astronauts floating in space or walking on the moon. But behind the daring adventures in space, there are thousands of people working around the clock to make sure the mission is a success. Mission control, engineers, training staff of all aspects, and the thousands of manufacturers that create rockets like the BFR and SpaceX’s newest rocket Starship.
Mission control is responsible for the constant safety of the astronauts. They make standard operating procedures for events that could be unexpected such as a fire on the space station or trouble with the rocket on its way or on its descent. It's split into two different sections: flight control and ground team (NASA). The two teams build procedures for common occurrences and mission-specific guidelines (NASA). Along with mission control in TX, the Russian’s have a mission control room in Korolev, just outside Moscow (NASA). Most importantly, nasa.gov says, “Mission Control is the visible part, but it’s less than 1 percent of the support team. We’re just the tip of the iceberg.”
The engineers and manufacturers, not only at NASA but across the world apply their technical knowledge to be able to make the miracle missions come to fruition. They make parts for the rockets that are so specific and flush that they won’t spark during a launch sequence. They built the mars rover and moon lander and machined the astronaut's ability to walk on the moon. Without their help, it just wouldn’t get done.
“We’re developing cutting-edge technologies in alternative propulsion and supersonic flight to transform the future of aviation, right here on Earth.” — NASA
SpaceX Starship is looking to carry cargo and people eventually to multi-planetary missions (SpaceX). Starship has 37 raptor engines and 6 landing legs. I will leave a link below for a raptor engine test. The amount of testing, prototyping, and rebuilding just to get qualified to fly cargo was strenuous. This was done thanks to the craftsmanship of the machiners and the engineering design department.
References: | https://medium.com/illumination/the-people-behind-the-astronauts-7d06424b2166 | ['Jake Cutter'] | 2020-05-13 22:24:56.368000+00:00 | ['NASA', 'Space', 'Astronauts', 'Engineering', 'Spacex'] |
Plotting the Revolution from a Therapist’s Office | The Reflective Eclectic
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
You might be surprised to hear this about me, but I consider myself a revolutionary. Not a bomb-throwing, Uzi totting, placard-waving, slogan shouting, manifesto writing revolutionary; but a revolutionary, just the same. What makes me a revolutionary, then? Only that I am always plotting, often fomenting, and sometimes initiating a revolt against the Establishment. I love nothing better than to subvert the dominant paradigm.
What kind of revolution do I seek? I’m the kind of revolutionary that traces his lineage all the way back to the French Bohemians of the 1800s, the Anarchists of the 1900s, through the Beats, and up to the Hippies. Many claim earlier notables such as William Blake, Martin Luther, St Francis, and none other than Socrates and Jesus Christ, Himself, agitated for this same revolution. If those worthies accepted my kinship, I would not deny it.
If I had to call myself something, I’d call myself a hippie, now an ageing one, because that’s where I started. You might not recognize me as a hippie today, since I cut my hair, trimmed my beard, and wore out my tie-dye. I no longer say things like groovy, far out, right on, and peace out, man. Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever did. I counsel people off drugs rather than counsel them to take them.
If that’s what you think makes a person a hippie, you don’t understand the movement. The revolution was never just about hairstyle and lifestyle; and the drugs were also supposed to be a means to an end, not the end, itself. This image of the dirty, bizarrely dressed, long-haired, weed-totting hippie trivializes the movement. If that’s all you know about hippies, then you either never heard their message, or you never took it seriously.
So, what is the message that we hippies have been trying to lay on you all these years; and the Beats, Anarchists, Bohemians, and early Protestants, Franciscans, Christians, and philosophers before them? Only that the world is controlled by a very few, for the interests of the very few; but the very few are not where it’s really at. If you believe the lies the very few indoctrinate into you, then you will serve them. But, if you are guided by a spirit within yourself, then you will be in accord with a power greater than yourself.
I know that talking about an inner spirit is vague, flaky, and not a little bit woo-woo; but I can’t help it. Spiritual things are hard to name, and they don’t come when called. The Establishment, that is, the interests of the very few, has taken advantage of this and discredited the movement. Discounting spiritual things, relational things, aesthetic things, and emotional things is part and parcel of its ideology and it’s this ideology that keeps you in the dark, watching flickering shadows, and calling it living.
As far as hippieness goes, I was a latecomer to the movement. Coming of age in 1975, they had already ended the Draft. I was a child during the Summer of Love and Woodstock. By the time I came along, the movement had fragmented, as all groups that empower the individual must. Some hippies became Jesus freaks. Others became second-wave feminists, environmentalists, or gay rights activists. A small cadre went on to develop the Internet. The expand your consciousness crowd attended raves and started calling themselves punks. The ones for whom hippieness was just a hairstyle, cut their hair. I was a Back-to-the-Lander.
My experiences in the Back-to-the-Land movement will have to wait for another essay. I have too much to tell, to tell it now. For today, I just wanted to establish my credentials as having an honest to goodness, bona fide revolutionary past before I describe how I am a revolutionary today.
Most of my present-day revolutionary activities occur in my office when I’m with clients and when I do my writing. If you consider this piece my manifesto, then, I guess I am a manifesto-writing revolutionary. I rebel against the Establishment. A therapy session is a fifty-minute, two-person rebellion against the Establishment. But what is the Establishment, you ask? Is it the Military-Industrial Complex? Yes. The big universities? Yes. Parents? Yes. The Corporations? Hell, Yes. But, when you get right down to it, the Establishment is not a thing; it’s a phase; a normal, predictable phase, in which the very thing that freed you, enslaves you.
You can see this in what has happened to the Internet. It began when a few hippie geeks picked the pocket of the Establishment and developed a machine to empower individuals. Put a computer in everyone’s home, and then in everyone’s hand, and you give them tremendous power to circumvent the authorities. They are then free to develop things and exchange ideas the authorities never thought about and never would have approved. A revolution occurred; but it is this very opening of opportunities that attracts people who seek to control others. I think it’s safe to say that now the Internet, while it continues to be something that empowers individuals, is also a means for the moneyed interests, the Establishment, to pick your pocket, invade your privacy, and boss you around.
Many hippies quite naturally became Jesus People; and why wouldn’t they? The gentle carpenter of Nazareth, oppressed by the Romans, preaching an inversion of the social order until he was killed by the Establishment is where all the best hippie ideas came from. Once becoming Jesus People, they quite naturally wanted to share these ideas with others and started evangelizing. It’s fine to spread the Word, but when they become Evangelical, forming another Establishment, they sold out Jesus to gain political power.
You can also see the process in action with drugs. LSD began as a weapon developed by the Military. They put it in the hands of the wrong people: one novelist, Ken Kesey, and one psychologist, Timothy Leary, who recognized its potential and, like Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, brought it to the people and taught them to use it to expand their minds. The drug did just that; and other drugs: grass, uppers and downers and, later MDMA gave people capabilities that had eluded them before. Having a tool that gives you greater capabilities is a good thing; but like all good things, it’s corruptible and, once it turns bad, it becomes the Establishment. The drugs no longer free you, they make you their slave.
The process is so simple you’ll wonder why it’s not so readily recognized. People are oppressed by the Establishment. Someone steals something from the Establishment that sets everyone free, be it a machine, a gospel, or a chemical compound. Then the establishment steals it back. We follow our new machine, gospel, or chemical compound right back into the Establishment and become slaves again.
My job as a hippie therapist revolutionary is to spot the corruption and call it out. I’m looking for anything that once had enhanced your life but now limits it. That’s what I call the Establishment. It’s completely political work, but it’s not partisan, for every political party becomes the Establishment. It’s religious work, but non-sectarian, for every religion becomes the Establishment. It’s psychotherapy, but not keeping to a single approach, for any particular school becomes the Establishment. I’m a revolutionary reflective eclectic, but if I ever start to seem oppressive with my revolutionary reflective eclecticism, you’ll know the Establishment has taken me hostage and forced me to speak its lines. | https://medium.com/illumination/plotting-the-revolution-from-a-therapists-office-2630fd7cef17 | ['Keith R Wilson'] | 2020-12-26 20:43:16+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Psychotherapy', 'Revolution', 'Progressive'] |
Lord Richard Chartres on Christian contemplation | In 2015, I got the chance to interview the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, for my research on spiritual ecstasy. It was an informal conversation, and it was very kind of the Bishop to give me the benefit of his time and wisdom. I thought he’d be a good interviewee because of his interest in contemplative practices and in Christian mystics like Thomas Traherne. And he was! He’s retired from the Bishopric and now sits in the House of Lords. I’m not a Christian myself, by the way, but I have a deep appreciation for Christian mysticism and think there is a lot to learn from it.
Do you think spiritual ecstasy is dangerous?
It certainly can be. We have forgotten how dangerous religion can be. We think of it as a minority leisure pursuit — another cup of tea, Vicar. To remember how dangerous it can be, you have to go back to before religion became obstinately metaphysical, to the Civil War, when the streets around here were filled with Levellers and Fifth Monarchists and other fanatics, who had caused a social revolution.
St Paul’s cathedral is, in some ways, Christopher Wren’s answer to religious enthusiasm — God as a mathematician rather than the terrifying arbitrary God of the Civil War.
The great Bishop Butler says to John Wesley: ‘pretending to special revelations of the Holy Ghost Mr Wesley is a very horrid thing. It’s a very horrid thing indeed.’ And it is indeed a very horrid thing. Unless it’s held firmly within a community of interpretation, with a shared communal experience of discerning between evil spirits and good spirits, then it’s very dangerous.
It’s happened again and again in the Church. Montanism was a clear example of an ungovernable Dionysian spirit in the early Church. It perhaps was there in the dance crazes of the Middle Ages, and in some of the Millenarian movements of the 14th and 15th centuries, as chronicled by the historian Norman Cohn.
By the 16th and 17th centuries, there was a fear of the irrational, a fear of the ungovernable spirit, in the Church. As a result, the Holy Spirit was occluded, was edited out. If you look at the consecration of prayer in Cranmer’s prayer book [in the 1540s], it does not contain what all the primitive liturgies contain, which is an invocation of the Holy Spirit.
The sixteenth century, which was the century where western churches received their present shape, saw an over-definition of mystery in the interest of polemics, an over-bureaucratization of the church and a cosying up to the nation state.
One of the most feared things as far as the reformed Roman church was concerned was the whole realm of mystical experience — why else did the Church put St John of the Cross in jail? The great spiritual mind of 16th century Spain was persecuted because his kind of mystical exploration is a threat to rigid control, bureaucratic church authority, and the over-definition of mystery in the interest of polemics.
So you’re saying that, in reaction to the unbridled and violent Dionysian ecstasy of the late medieval and early modern era, the Church went too far, and occluded the Holy Spirit entirely?
Yes. The truth expresses itself as an economy in which the various elements of the truth aspect and balance one another. The truth is not to be encapsulated in a neat formula. It exists as a massive symphony, where the truth is given by the interplay of the various parts. If you omit any part of it, then there is a reaction and exaggeration of the missing element.
This is exactly what happened with the occlusion of the Holy Spirit in the West, and the editing out of the Eplicesis [the drawing down of the Holy Spirit] from western liturgies, and the demeaning of the Christian faith into a list of propositions, which turns God into an idea in the mind.
The reaction came in the Romantic revival and finally the Azusa Street Pentecostal movement, which has reshaped the sociology of the world. The Azusa Street explosion of Pentecostalism came because, in the economy of Christianity, the charismatic element is essential to Orthodoxy. In any one life, we see only a very small part of the curve of these great historical movements. It’s our duty to try and see more of the curve, and to knit together fragments of knowledge and relate them to the whole.
The charismatic stream is part of the grand symphony of the Christian faith. And one of the wonderful things about the Church of England in London is that, for various reasons, the charismatic stream has not absolutized itself, has not decided to lead a sectarian apart life, and to leave the church. In fact it is revivifying the church within, and is being saved from folly and rigidity, which always happens when you become sectarian. If you become sectarian in your mentality, and focus on one bit of the Christian economy, what happens is rigidity and eventually disappearance and decline.
The occlusion of the Holy Spirit never really happened to the same extent in the Eastern Church, by the way. The Treatise of St Basil on the Holy Spirit is absolutely central to the Eastern understanding of the Holy Spirit as the Perfector, as the Go-Between.
I rather incline to GK Chesterton’s view — you can’t really be an orthodox Christian without having a charismatic life. That doesn’t necessarily mean special gifts of the Holy Spirit. Such gifts are given to people at various stages of people in their pilgrimage, for good reason, often to break up the crust of convention which is keeping them imprisoned. Once a real fluency in spiritual matters has been achieved, they’re no longer necessary. It’s very dangerous to hold on to some of these psychic phenomena which often attend growing in the Holy Spirit.
So how much importance should we give to Holy Spirit encounters or charismatic gifts in our spiritual life?
I have a simple map of spiritual reality. We spend most of our time at the mental ego level, on the surface, with the self negotiating the world around — a self which we have largely manufactured and confected. It is very difficult to get modern people to understand prayer is not just a form of thinking at that level. That’s one of the fundamental errors and difficulties people encounter at the beginning of learning to pray.
At that mental ego level, there are often things of darkness which are unacknowledged. At the end of The Tempest, Prospero says of Caliban, ‘this thing of darkness I acknowledge mine’, but often those dark things are left unacknowledged within us. And much religion is really dangerous and I would say lethal, because it is in effect the surreptitious re-ascent of the bruised ego.
‘This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine’ — Prospero and Caliban in Shakespeare’s Tempest
We project parts of ourselves — our anger, all kinds of personal psychic material — into the middle distance, deifying it and conducting a solipsist conversation. God is very often a projection of some of this unacknowledged material.
You can see it very clearly: the God which causes people to smite and slay. Sane religious cultures which have lasted for a very long time have discerned that the real fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace and various other things. They certainly aren’t homicidal impulses.
So you have the mental ego level — and the adventure of prayer is to go beyond and beneath that — into the psychic zone, in which very often there are gifts of the spirit, charismatic gifts of various kinds — glossolalia, gifts of prophecy, and ecstatic utterance.
There is a great danger in falling in love with yourself once again as a spiritual person, in becoming too intrigued by these things, and to think ‘because I have these things I am a really serious Christian’. There has to be a continued Copernican revolution, and that revolution always turns us outwards in generosity to our fellows and in adoration to God. St Anthony the Great says we must see the Spirit in our neighbour, and love them.
But instead, what can happen when you have notable charismatic gifts, is once again a turning inwards, an admiration of the self. Lucifer the light-bringer fell, because he fell so in love with his own reflection.
And then after the psychic zone, there is what is called the heart, which for the Hebrews was not the blood pump, the heart for the Hebrews was the vitals, where the spiritual centre was actually located. And once you were quiet enough and had been educated by silence and stillness, and had gone through this journey, from time to time, you tasted from the eternal well-spring that there is at the heart of every life and all life, where the spirit is already there and praying in ways we can’t understand.
So that is the map. Part of being a follower of the spirit of truth in Christ is to make a passage through this dangerous territory, drain the shadows, and acknowledge that this thing of darkness is mine.
And it is a very dangerous thing to enterprise the exploration of the spirit alone and isolated. Unless you do it in community, you are open to delusion and have little way of checking the face of the god that is visiting you.
Our spiritual culture at the moment is so impoverished and primitive. People find it extraordinarily difficult to be serious about angels or discarnate energies. There is a very dangerous and dark realm, which the Christian practice navigates through, by practicing in a community, by modeling oneself on Jesus Christ, by digesting His words not just as ideas in the mind but also as sacramental practice.
Even Luther and Calvin say the Church is a community in which the Gospel is truly preached and the sacraments are duly administered. It’s a very modern tragedy that religion has become ideas in the mind. That’s why western religion is so feeble.
Where can we look to learn contemplative practices?
A truly beautiful book
You’re asking for other people to engage with. Of course, there is the tradition of John Main and Laurence Freeman. I’m a member of the Eckhart Society — there is a huge renewed interest in Meister Eckhart. Then there is the Eastern tradition on the Holy Mountain, where you will find monks who have gone through the psychic phase and started to live an authentic spiritual life. In the UK, the 24 / 7 prayer movement is one place one could look — Pete Greig is the real thing. He’s a good man. And there are some books one could read, such as Olivier Clemont’s The Roots of Christian Mysticism, or Thomas Keating’s Open Heart, Open Mind; or Mark McIntosh’s Mystical Theology.
But alas we do not have many places where one can go today to learn and practice contemplation — we are very needy.
What about academic centres where contemplative practices could be studied and practiced?
The difficulty is that academia has sold out to a methodology which really depends on something all modern people must use — the experimental method, the metrics — and in this realm, that’s not applicable. The only thing you can do is be clear about the fruits of various practices.
The tree of knowledge was so fatal because it was knowledge wrenched from its source, and lying in atomized bits and pieces. We don’t seek illumination from the whole but from bits and pieces. This is one of the reasons why this civilization is in grave peril. Its arrogance is enormous. It still thinks it can preach to the whole world in the name of some very limited and abstract notions. It is indeed a civilization that is deeply needy.
So now we’re looking for an authentic wisdom which is inhabiting the whole Christian economy, with the right kind of balance and poise. Being sane and poised enough to love without distortion or hidden agendas. To be able to relate all knowledge to the whole, to the Pleroma, to the purposes of God. These are some of the aspects of wisdom, as opposed to knowing a hell of a lot.
Do you think there needs to be a contemplative revival in the Church?
The church needs huge reform in this respect, but certainly not the kind of fidgeting we’ve had in the last 50 years — fidgeting about structures and regulations, about the ministry, about this that and the other, and being a dull echo of the secular consensus, which of course says that the supreme value of life is individual choice whether in goods or morals.
The real trouble with the Church is not that it has retrograde social attitudes, or hasn’t embraced the emancipation of women — it’s that it’s spiritual incredible. It’s just as shallow as the rest of us. That’s the real truth, and that’s why people are fascinated by other ways which have remained less disturbed by the gospel that really grips this society, which is that there should be no constraint on individual consumer choice in goods or morals. That’s the very opposite of the truth. Autonomy is the story of the fall, not redemption. The church has accommodated itself so much, and is so lacking in distinction.
A lot of people (including me) believe it’s possible to have spiritual experiences in various different traditions and beyond any tradition.
Spiritual But Not Religious is a new upper middle class religion. You take a bonne bouche of Sufism, season it with Californian Buddhism. It’s delightful. And your deity of course is your taste. There is no genuine spiritual progress without committing yourself to a way.
I don’t deny there are other ways that help people to make spiritual progress. If you start honestly on a way, you find yourself in a place where there is plenty of commerce and conversation with followers of other ways, but you can do it authentically. But you have to commit yourself to a way, because otherwise the Copernican revolution never occurs — you , your ego and your taste, are still in control, and the profound bouleversement does not occur.
So you can get to God via, say, Buddhism or Islam or even humanism?
You can’t to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s not to say there are other ways to different destinations. There is only one Way to God as Jesus Christ has revealed Him, and that way is by feeding on His word and as part of His community and His sacraments. There is no other way to that destination.
But it would be very strange if this was a world created by God and marked by the Noachian covenant with all human flesh, in which God had left no vestige of Himself and His healing and ennobling spirit except within one strand or stream.
So I don’t find the denigration of other ways essential. It is the fact that there is no other way to the Father except through Jesus Christ, that does not mean that all other ways have no element of truth within them. But I am clear that unless you commit yourself to a way, rather than being idly neutral or taking a bit from here and there, there’s no spiritual progress whatsoever.
It’s the balance of practice, conviction, generosity, compassion, community and creativity, properly related to the ultimate pole — God who no man has seen at any time, only Jesus Christ who has revealed the Father. When you come into the presence of God, by this portal — there are other portals which may take you to different places — you come through a passage of self-sacrifice and giving oneself away, which paradoxically does not result in obliteration, but in the most extreme ecstasy and joy at the discovery which lies at the end of all this — that one is fearfully and wonderfully made, one is a unique and beloved child of God.
If I’m a Christian, do I have to agree with everything St Paul says?
Well…I wouldn’t say that, because the Holy Scriptures are, again, symphonic. You’ve got to immerse yourself in the Biblical worldview, which begins to bring into the foreground the grand themes. Of course, bits of the Scriptures are things of their own time. But it isn’t an either / or. You don’t sit in judgement on the Scriptures.
This is the crucial thing: how do you go through the desert of criticism, with spiritual and intellectual integrity, granted that the primordial gift of innocence before the Scriptures is not possible for modern people. You arrive at a point where you develop the critical approach, because doubt is not the opposite of faith. Faith is going beyond, beneath, embracing, saying ‘yes!’ Grasping a vision. The opposite of faith is sin, a turning in on oneself.
That’s the opposite of faith, not doubt. Doubt is extraordinarily creative, as long as it doesn’t turn into corrosive scepticism, stopping us from any kind of commitment. You can be committed as far as you can be.
This largely comes from the astonishing work of Paul Ricouer. His work on Biblical criticism is all about how you can enter with spiritual and intellectual integrity into second innocence. And it’s possible. Indeed, the ‘nubbly bits’ are extraordinary fuel, as long as you continue to live with it.
If you believe you live on a pinnacle of enlightenment and eminence from which you can judge all times and places, there’s very little hope for you. If you’re prepared to read the scriptures with people from other ages and cultures, and prepared to say ‘I can’t take that’ while continuing with engagement, you may find some of those difficult passages yield as our musical taste changes, as our understanding of life and the great pattern changes, you may find they have a different valency.
But I don’t think you have to say, at this particular point, that because St Paul wanted, in the Philemon, to return a slave to his master, that you’re committed to upholding the institution of slavery, as Cardinal Newman thought. That shows the limitation of Cardinal Newman.
If you enjoyed this, sign up for my newsletter at www.philosophyforlife.org or check out my book The Art of Losing Control, which explores how people find and make sense of ecstatic experiences in modern culture. | https://julesevans.medium.com/lord-richard-chartres-on-christian-contemplation-1d2fcbf334e8 | ['Jules Evans'] | 2020-11-13 16:26:47.763000+00:00 | ['Christianity', 'Spirituality', 'Christian Contemplation', 'Mysticism', 'Contemplation'] |
Custom CRM’s vs the template one. Processes automation during the… | Custom CRM’s vs the template one
While traveling, I was invited to a party that I didn’t count on. To get a good look, I decided to buy a blazer. Of course, I didn’t have time to make an individual cut, so I bought it in a mall. It looks good, sits well, fits almost everything, but it is not perfect. And this is not surprising, because you can not buy products designed for the mass market, which would suit everyone. Yes, for a party is enough, but for a business meeting?
In this article, we will look at such products for the mass market and individual development. However, we’ll compare not blazers but CRM’s.
WHAT IS CRM?
In short, a CRM system is a program for structuring work with clients.
What is the value of CRM systems? They store data about current and potential customers from various sources and optimize processes in sales, marketing and customer service. It’s central storage of information about them, transactions and other influences with a user interface with a set of features.
Regardless of the industry, optimizing customer relationships can be a lifeline during an economic recession. According to Bain & Company, in financial services, a 5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit.
WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THE CRM SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION?
Owners, founders and top managers of the business will get:
Control over indicators of operational work;
Quality analytics;
Systematization of the client base;
Planning and forecasting tool;
An additional measure of information security;
A tool for personnel management and task setting, as well as their delegation;
An information base for marketing, promotions and sales development.
On the other hand, employees, managers or specialists will also find a CRM-system as a useful working tool. With its help, it is possible to increase control over their own work and reduce responsibility for potential data loss. Moreover, it is more effective to build relationships with customers and set reminders of important events.
Even HR specialists CAN find CRM beneficial. Using it, they can easily create cards of employees, make notes on them, and evaluate each person’s effectiveness in the company, if it has this functionality.
However, the system does not work by itself ─ it is a tool. Its benefits can be obtained only after the proper implementation and staff training.
What functions and modules should be in your system? Ask yourself:
Which parts of the company’s business process architecture are weakest?
In which tasks, there is a high probability of error due to the human factor?
Do I need methods for collecting, structuring and storing information?
Do I need mechanisms for generating reports of a different type, evaluation of time costs?
What are the main factors that reduce the efficiency of businesses?
3 TYPES OF CRM PURPOSES
We can identify three types of purposes, whose functions often overlap.
Operational. Emphasize the automation of marketing, sales, service processes and achieving short-term goals. Transactions and documents are stored here. Newsletters, etc., are also conducted from it. Reporting in such systems is related, but not leading functionality.
Analytical type of system receives and analyzes the client’s data. Suitable for complex integration, for example, with the online store payment system. In other words, analytical CRM may serve the purpose of segmentation, assortment management, etc.
Strategic. Synchronize communications with customers and partners through different channels: phone calls, emails, chat-bots and social networks. Such CRM-systems may include a personal client cabinet. It is also possible to develop a set of components for project and task management.
There are two ways to implement the system: to buy a ready-made solution or order custom development.
READY-MADE SOLUTIONS
Ready-to-use CRMs include a set of essential tools. They often cover standard business processes and don’t delve into specific industries. Such an option is quite affordable and suits companies that wish to automate one or two aspects of work (such as conducting customer transactions and making calls).
Some solutions offer system additions. In this case, ready components are adjusted to the specifics of business under the requirements specification. The main task of the client is to correctly collect the requirements and present them to the developer.
Benefits:
Cover most of the needs of businesses in favoured industries, such as restaurants and retail stores;
Customer support, but most often you have to pay extra for it;
You can start using it faster. It only takes time to implement and set up.
Drawbacks:
Pre-made solutions are designed for the bulk consumer. They may lack the features you really need. The initial fee for a CRM system is less than for a custom one. But most providers provide their software on a subscription basis, which means you have to pay every month. Different functional modules, technical support and integration can be paid for as separate fees. The list of applications for syncing is often limited. If your business grows, along with the client base’s growth and the number of users of the system increases the fee. Moreover, CRM vendors do not always disclose the full list of paid services on their websites. For example, quite accidentally, you may find a surprise like a fee for overstoring. In the case of template CRM, you rely entirely on its provider. You do not get full control over the software and the accumulated database.
There are also free CRMs, but they are usually limited functionality. For example, it can be a version without technical support, updates, technical limitations, and advertising.
CUSTOM CRM
In a custom system, you can implement the most necessary functions for a particular business. What’s essential, not only the features you need, but also the user-friendly ones. Customized solutions fit those who:
needs to implement unique functions;
works in narrow niches;
interested in maximum security;
has developed complex business processes;
has accumulated considerable data about customers.
Custom CRM gives businesses the flexibility to adapt to new realities. The system can be developed to suit your needs and respond to challenges more effectively.
It’s possible to create your own unique process of working with the clients, where it’s essential to be on time with them when they’re ready to buy. Moreover, to work with the customers after they have already purchased. After all, it’s much easier for them to buy again than a cold customer who doesn’t know you and doesn’t trust you yet.
If many people are working on a project, you can implement a system of rules. For example, suppose a specialist doesn’t respond to an assignment within 24 hours. In that case, a notice should be sent to his or her supervisor.
Mobile adaptability
Smartphone access allows you to connect to the system via a mobile or adaptive cloud CRM web app. The main advantage is that sales managers can use the system’s tools and data, even on the road while communicating with clients. The mobile system can also manage schedules, analyze data, generate reports, and upload and download files. Because employees can get help in real-time, customers will always receive high-quality service.
Webmil web-production offers progressive web app development (PWA). This technology visually and functionally transforms a website into an app (mobile app in a browser). Thus, you can open the application with a mobile browser. For example, You can view previously downloaded information even without being connected to the Internet. You can even temporarily save a certain amount of data downloaded immediately during the next connection to the network.
Benefits
No monthly fee means savings in the long run. After a one-time investment in development, the software is yours.
The private developer can install additional features to the custom application on request.
The developer takes care of the migration of existing databases and synchronizes the new CRM or ERP with your old systems.
Custom software is developed, taking into account the niche, structure, and business processes of a particular company.
One of the disadvantages of custom systems is their cost. The initial investment will definitely be higher than the template version. It depends on the complexity of the project and the rate of the developer. Among the disadvantages are usually mentioned in a more extended period of implementation. After all, the program must first be designed and developed, and only then — to start the implementation and configuration.
The period of development and implementation is directly proportional to the price, because it depends on the complexity, the need to integrate with other applications, etc. However, it’s possible to create an MVP for CRM, a pivotal functionality to get started. This will allow you to launch a working system in a tight timeframe and add new features as needed.
CONCLUSION
Automation during the recession and its aftermath is one of the right ways to overcome it. And CRM is the optimal tool to work with the team and clients to retain them and further business development in 2021.
What CRM to choose depends on the specifics of a particular business. The choice may be influenced by the turnover, security requirements and the need to implement unique features. Unfortunately, template CRM solutions can not be fully adapted to all business processes, so we recommend you pay attention to custom.
The development of a working system can be ordered from us. We know that the ability to work “from anywhere in the program” is vital. Therefore we provide a function to create the necessary information cards from the point in the system where you locate.
We dig deep into our clients’ business goals and processes to develop solutions specifically for them. The goal is to automate the office routine and get rid of the human factor. We also offer system protection against hacking and employee training. | https://medium.com/@webmil/custom-crms-vs-the-template-one-who-wins-aef64d49d6da | [] | 2020-12-24 10:02:33.752000+00:00 | ['CRM'] |
How To Cope With Your Baby From Waking Up To Early | How To Cope With Your Baby From Waking Up To Early Naomi Harrison Apr 1·3 min read
If you’re wondering why early morning waking is a tough sleep problem to fix, then it’s because they have less energy prior to early-morning wake-ups. And the truth is, in less than an hour of sleep we are beginning to stir.
However, it is very important that you remember that your child is waking early only if he has not been receiving the necessary amount of night rest for his age and his body. In other words, even though it seems early to you, your child may be sleeping from 7 PM to 6 AM.
The amount of sleep our children require cannot exceed 11 hours at night, as their bodies will be completely relaxed after this amount and incapable of handling more.
Keeping in mind the following: if your child is awake at night, and if he seems energetic and well-rested in the morning, and if he makes it easy until his naptime, you have guaranteed your child is receiving enough rest.
Sleeping at night when your child wakes up at 5:30 AM can be problematic. You will need to push bedtime back by 15 minutes, and then watch your child until the rest of the morning so you can figure it out.
Although you might consider making the bedtime later, don’t take that route if your child often wakes up earlier. This is why it’s best to go slowly.
For children who are early birds, here are some other ideas to consider:
Your child’s bedroom should be extremely dark.
When sleep-deprived, you should get rid of any possible wake-up noises (garbage trucks, barking dogs, sprinklers) by plugging in white noise machines to drown them out.
Removing all stimulating toys that can be distracting once the sun enters the room will help your child to sleep better.
Your interaction with your child within the last hour of his wake time can prevent him from going back to sleep. Don’t check in on him less than an hour before his wake time.
The bedtime should not be too late for your child’s age. Set the sleep time a little earlier, and observe his behavior in the morning. In so doing, you will allow your child to sleep more hours because he will not have become overtired during the day.
Return to your old bedtime if your child never wakes earlier. If the earlier bedtime doesn’t affect the wake time, you may consider using it despite its earlier time to make sure your child gets the right amount of night sleep for his age.
You may want to slow the process down if you have a child under 12 months old who has just begun to wean from his feedings.
Further, you may need to ensure you give the breast or bottle more often on days when it wasn’t given at night so he doesn’t get hungry before sleep time.
If you’re having problems getting your baby to sleep, CLICK HERE and try this quick quiz and watch the video to learn a simple and effective way of putting your baby to sleep very easy | https://medium.com/@naomiharrison/how-to-cope-with-your-baby-from-waking-up-to-early-291dc19a1e1b | ['Naomi Harrison'] | 2021-04-01 03:11:31.794000+00:00 | ['Baby Sleep Routine', 'Baby Sleep Training', 'Baby Sleep', 'Babys', 'Baby Sleeping'] |
How Napping For Babies Can Have a Positive Effect on Development | How Napping For Babies Can Have a Positive Effect on Development Naomi Harrison Apr 6·4 min read
The nap is more than just a sweet respite for parents — it’s also very important for development.
Sleeping more comfortably isn’t just a dream for new mothers and fathers. There are ways to make getting more sleep a reality, starting with a consistent sleep schedule, both for nighttime sleep and daytime naps.
While it may not seem as complicated as it appears, the process requires precise and planned steps. Getting a baby to sleep gently requires a precise and purposeful approach.
Researchers argued that setting their babies’ internal clocks to regular nap cycles is not only a smart way for parents to get time to work or recharge themselves but it is incredibly important for the development of their brains.
And naps play a valuable role in the development of a child’s body and brain.
Want some assistance in getting baby to sleep click here and check out what’s working for 100’s of women around the world
Clinical studies have shown that children who take regular, adequate naps during the days sleep better at night, go to sleep more easily at night, are less prone to accidents during the day, and do better on cognition tests.
There are also detrimental consequences of inadequate napping. Children who primarily don’t get enough sleep, which is more likely if naps aren’t taken regularly, have an increased risk of obesity during preschool and early school years.
during early school years, as well as a greater tendency to exhibit hyperactivity, have difficulty with emotionally, socially, and physically functioning.
A baby’s sleep isn’t just determined by mother nature. Parents are equally important, and almost always at least one of their first worries is, “How much sleep should my kid get each day?”
Six-month-olds require 13 to 14 hours of sleep, while 12-month-olds only require 12 hours of sleep. Experts have reached an agreement on the matter, and all suggest 13 to 14 hours of sleep a day.
Generally, this amount remains constant as children get older; they stop napping around age four. At that point, they sleep about 11 hours a night.
Of course, this is important to know right out of the gate but is not super useful for establishing consistently scheduled naps. Because infants’ sleep needs fluctuate a lot day-to-day (or even weekly), parents can feel like they’re shooting at a moving target.
Keeping a relentless focus on “How many hours has it been since I last slept?” does not produce solid, regular sleep patterns. Instead, strong sleep patterns require parental involvement and involvement.
Let’s take an example — let’s assume your baby sleeps 10 hours at night from 8 PM to 6 AM, then your goal is to get them up at 6 in the morning once every day before the time you want bedtime, which is 8 every night.
Having that internal clock is what helps set your internal time.
It’s no different with naps.
Yes, you can wake your baby up from a nap to get them into a regular sleep schedule even though it seems counterintuitive.
If you don’t wake them up, but if you leave them lying in bed too long, you start a snowball effect — a situation in which the child will nap for a few hours but not be tired enough to sleep. It’s hard, but keeping a balance helps.
It is because of this that some babies get good daily totals, but still struggle to sleep through the night as they are not tired enough.
To ensure they get enough sleep, make sure they get a few solid hours of good sleep consolidated throughout the day rather than leaving them to sleep as long as possible.
Basically, quality over quantity when it comes to naps — just an hour or two goes a long way. A regular routine is also imperative.
Does Your Baby Need Daytime Sleep?
Infants: Until they are three months old, infants nap constantly. They sleep for upwards of 18 hours a day and only spend a few hours awake per day.
Babies: During the newborn stage, but before they reach the age when they are one year of age, babies need two to four naps each day, which would be anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours.
Young toddlers: One to two naps a day are recommended, usually in the early afternoon, as children near their second birthdays begin to drop from two to one nap.
Want some assistance in getting baby to sleep click here and check out what’s working for 100’s of women around the world
If that is the case, then napping will most likely continue for more than an hour.
Children under 2: Some youngsters under the age of 3 and over the age of 4 still need a nap. In general, a 2-year-old needs 11 to 13 hours of sleep daily while preschoolers should be getting a solid night’s rest.
You may want to consider shortening your child’s afternoon snooze on the days when he naps, but make sure you adjust his bedtime earlier to compensate.
kids and older children: After age 5, most kids no longer nap. But a 30-minute sleep can work wonders for a child or teen feeling tired. Be sure to wake them by late afternoon, so their naps don’t mess up their bedtime. | https://medium.com/@naomiharrison/how-napping-for-babies-can-have-a-positive-effect-on-development-31e145ce923d | ['Naomi Harrison'] | 2021-04-06 02:26:56.003000+00:00 | ['Baby Sleep Training', 'Baby', 'Baby Sleep Routine', 'Baby Sleeping', 'Baby Sleep'] |
Christmas 2020: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry for Tomorrow You Die | Christmas 2020: Eat, Drink, and Be Merry for Tomorrow You Die
Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash
As I wrapped yet another bottle of spirits and placed it under the tree for my spouse to open on Christmas Day, I decided this was the year to fully embrace Biblical wisdom, specifically this verse:
So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun. Ecclesiastes 8:15 NRSV
Christmas this year is going to be a bit different. There are no trips to gather with distant family members. No fancy restaurant meals with all the decorations and trimmings. The one present ordered online at the beginning of the month might arrive by 2021 if Brexit doesn’t push it off even further.
There are no carol services or nativity plays. No mulled wine in the pub with all our neighbors after the village Christmas tree lighting. No hours spent jostling with crowds shopping.
It is easy to focus on what there won’t be but I’m embracing the spirit of Ecclesiastes and celebrating what is. There will be plenty of eating, drinking, and enjoying ourselves in this household.
Almost everything under our tree and filling our stockings this year is consumable and obtained locally. The exceptions are a couple board games and a video game for our university student kids. After coming out of the UK lockdown in early December we hit a couple of outdoor markets and now we have an abundance of local tipples and nibbles to bring the merriment as we play those games together.
photo by author
We started our celebrations with a homemade advent calendar full of cider. Hard cider that is for you Americans reading. Cider is very popular in our area. I thought I’d have to search to find 24 different varieties but I easily had my pick of more than that at my local grocery store. Every night at dinner we open another pint, split it four ways, savor, analyze, and compare to the previous days' drinks.
We hit our first outdoor, masked, carefully distanced market prepared to spend. We wanted to buy local and support those hit hard by the Covid shutdowns and restrictions. We also wanted gifts that wouldn’t be held up in the mail.
It was only as I started sorting and wrapping our impulse buys that I realized a theme was emerging of eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die.
I’ve decided to embrace it and roll with it. Like most of my intentional living philosophy, it is derived from looking back at what I am already doing and pulling some coherent meaning from it.
This is my takeaway for you, a Christmas gift of self-help wisdom if you will. The easiest way to live intentionally is to look at what you are already doing naturally and then decide what that means about your values and goals. If you can’t spin a story that you are proud of, make some tweaks until you can.
So in that spirit, my household is using our Christmas gift funds to support local small businesses. We are purchasing items that will not clutter up our house but will fill our bellies and delight our tongues with gourmet experiences. We will lift many a glass and toast the end of a strange and terrible year. Then we will play a few games together to pass the time stuck in our humble home. | https://medium.com/@marydj03/christmas-2020-eat-drink-and-be-merry-for-tomorrow-you-die-4e9f90b875bd | ['Mary Devries'] | 2020-12-24 10:19:32.136000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'Bible', 'Covid 19', 'Family', 'Philosophy'] |
Rust reverses research ruin | Rust reverses research ruin
31–07–2019
I’ve been learning how to use Rust. It’s quite the hot-hot thing in the world of programming at the moment. I think I can see why; the safety through interesting borrowing mechanics, the ease of installing libraries and writing tests. It’s all there. I’m a big fan of compiled languages too, despite using Python an awful lot. I’m a bit old-school — I like C++ and C. Hell! I’ve even used Fortran! But I want to see where the modern edge of compiled languages is and I think Rust is it. So much so that I now use it in my research and I like to write a little about why.
Artificial Intelligence and Data
I’m a PhD student at the moment, working with Artificial Intelligence in a biology setting. That pretty much means either MATLAB (which is terrible — fight me internet!), or Python which is now a little boring and getting a little too bloated for my liking. I’ll admit, I couldn’t do my work without Tensorflow or Pytorch (sad as that is, and yes I know I can use other languages in Tensorflow), but before we get to the AI part, we need to work with the data.
AI needs lots of data. Sometimes, there is enough data available but it needs processing and that takes time and processing power. Sometimes the data doesn’t exist at all and you need to make it up. This is where my previous life as a Research Software Engineer comes in. Working with big iron is one of the things I like to do. In such scenarios, C++ is king (Fortran and Python occasionally get a look-in). If I want to write super-fast, close to the metal code I can run over several threads, use GPU compute or MPI over different nodes, I need something powerful.
What is so good about Rust?
I know, I know. Rust is all trendy and new, their website uses funky web-fonts, they have a cute animal mascot and all the rest. Is it just hype like any number of JS variants? Well, it could be, but then Microsoft announced they were looking at it and I’ve heard of a few other large scale projects using it (some of which I can’t talk about because it’s going to be a big sufprise!).
To me, Rust seems to be trying to make low level languages safe. I believe they are going about this by making you, the programmer, very aware of which block of code owns what variables? It’s called Ownership and I think it’s the hardest and coolest concept that Rust brings in (at least so far, I’ve not seen everything the language has to offer yet). Sometimes, this can get very confusing and difficult to follow. I’ve found myself occasionally getting angry at not being able to add or remove from a vector, or passing a string to a function and modifying it, but eventually, it clicks. Guaranteeing memory safety without a garbage collector doing all the cleanup is quite a cool feat.I’ve found this forces me to write code slower but better. I think that’s quite important in any setting but especially for research code.
The second thing I like about Rust is the program Cargo. It’s a sort of program manager, a little bit like the one in Go, in-so-far as it uses a defined directory structure to look after your build variants, dependencies and tests. You don’t have to use it, but the fact that it’s there is a big win. I do really like CMake but for now, I can use Cargo and it all just works.
Speaking of the tests, Rust and cargo make it really easy to add tests. Here’s one I added earlier
#[test]
fn test_distribs() {
let n = log_normal(0.0, 0.5, 1.0);
println!("Sample {}.", n);
assert!((n - 0.7978846).abs() < 0.001); let p = normal(0.0, 1.0, 0.0);
println!("Sample {}.", p);
assert!((p - 0.3989).abs() < 0.001);
}
All you need to do is add it at the end of the file in question (typically main.rs) and then type
cargo test
Job done! I hate writing tests, so making it easy (and dare-I-say-it, fun?) is a really good idea.
Thirdly, the options for parallel programming are quite good. Threads are still around but we also have channels, mutexes and special traits out of the box.
Fourthly, there are some nice modern features that have made their way into the language on the ground floor. Closures are perhaps the most obvious, but also for…in loops, traits and iterators. It’s nice to see these features make it over to a language closer to the metal. They can make for succinct and tight code. I like that.
Fifthly, I think the documentation is pretty darn good! The beginners Rust book is great, the standard library documentation is good and even the various crates I’ve looked at have good documentation too! Excellent!
Finally, I can’t speak generally about the speed of the language but I’ve found it to make small, compact programs that run fast. I’ll need to benchmark a little more in the future but so far, I like what I’m seeing.
So what is bad?
There are a few things that I found tricky and though I’m sure I’ll get around them, I think they might cause a few issues for folks new to the language.
Firstly, the syntax can get quite dense and hard to follow quite quickly. Apostrophes, double full-stops, question marks and all these little punctuation marks can be quite confusing. Not sure how I feel about that but I’m sure I’ll cope.
Secondly, I had a lot of trouble with the mod keyword, the directory structure and how to divide up my code. Partly, this is my fault, coming from a python and C++ background but I couldn’t get my head around it initially, and I still don’t think I’ve fully sorted it out. I think it’s an area where the designers have admitted they are changing things around so perhaps it’s early days.
Finally, the borrowing and ownership I think can result in really verbose or hard to read code. I suspect, there are ways of doing things, much like writing python pythonicly. So often I get the dreaded Cannot move out of borrowed content error when all I want to do is a little modification to a variable — just a little one. No! Wrist slap! I get that this is fine but until I get really good, I have to write lots of lines where previously one would do.
Some of the code in the various libraries I have no idea about. I mean, what does this code really do? I can’t really even parse it in my brain properly!
#[inline(always)]
pub fn err(&mut self, msg: &'static str) -> St {
self.err = Some(types::CodecError { upto: self.pos, cause: msg.into_maybe_owned() });
Default::default()
} impl $dec {
pub fn new() -> Box { box $dec { st: $stmod::$inist } as Box }
}
I think it’s fair to say Rust code is a bit more verbose and to conquer that, the designers use macros and short-hands to keep the absolute number of lines and characters down. It makes the code denser however. I think maybe I’ll get better at this with time.
All of these are surmountable though, with enough time and proper training I think.
Simulators and supercomputers
In my current project I need to simulate a particular protein CEP152. A simulator exists, written by a chap called Christian Sieben. It’s a cool little program but it’s written in MATLAB and not designed for high-throughput of images. I figured, why not write this in Rust? It’ll be tighter, faster and open to being parallelised in an easy way/
The meat of this simulator is a set of distributions and matrix multiplications. So where do we start? We need a good linear algebra set, some useful maths functions and image manipulation. Here is a list of some of the crates (Rust’s name for libraries kinda) I’ve used:
rand — random numbers
probability — some handy stats
nalgebra — a great linear algebra library
image — images in and out
argparse — parsing arguments
pbr — progress bars
scoped_pool — threads
fitrs — images again
nalgebra is a really nice matrix and vector library that I think will be useful for a lot of folks. I’d also recommend the scoped_threadpool library as it made dealing with ownership and threads a little bit easier and tighter for me. argparse is essential for, well, parsing command line arguments. pbr is nice if you like progress bars and why not.
Many of the functions in MATLAB don’t exist in Rust. Inverse cumulative distribution functions don’t quite exist yet so I wrote my own! It took me a while to find the actual algorithms but it was fun. Sadly, some of them I couldn’t manage so I had to generate a set of values from the MATLAB functions, save them as a textfile, and use them inside Rust. It’s not the best solution but it works for now.
fitrs deserves a special mention. I didn’t know this but fits is a NASA built image format that has the nice ability of saving floating point values for pixels which is great, especially, when you are dealing with data that needs a little scaling and normalising.
After writing my simulator in Rust I get an insane speedup over the MATLAB version, although my computer sounds like a hurricane when all 24 cores max out. But I get 100,000 images generated in a few hours, instead of several days.
In conclusion…
I like Rust. It’s being used in embedded systems which is exciting, but I can see a lot of potential for HPC, graphics, research and game engines! I’ve even seen a few folks like Logicoma use it in demoscene work. According to wikipedia and Stack-Overflow, Rust is most loved language of 2019 and I think I can see why. It’s tight, complex and dense, with batteries included. I’ll be using it as my goto language from now on I reckon. | https://benjamin-computer.medium.com/rust-reverses-research-ruin-88641c11a99f | ['Benjamin Blundell'] | 2019-07-30 16:39:01.434000+00:00 | ['Biology', 'PhD', 'Research', 'AI', 'Rust'] |
Reinforcement Learning Digest Part 2: Bellman Equations, Generalized Policy Iteration and Monte Carlo | In the last article, I have introduced Reinforcement learning Markov Decision Process (MDP) framework, discounted expected rewards and value and policy functions definitions. In this article, we will continue the definition of the MDP framework explaining Bellman and Bellman optimality equations. Additionally we will have describe our first reinforcement learning algrithm: Monte Carlo. So let us start…
Bellman equations
In the last article, value and Q functions were defined as:
One important property of value and Q functions is that they can be expressed recursively. The value of state at time-step t can be expressed in terms of time-step t+1:
the last equation can rewritten as:
V function Bellman equation
Similarly, Q-function can be expressed as:
Q function Bellman equation
Bellman Optimality equations
Now we have learnt about value and policy functions and bellman equations, we can start defining optimal value and policy functions. By optimal here we mean that they lead our agent to achieve its goal which is maximizing discounted cumulative returns.
Since value function is expressed as the expected discounted returns of states, this can lead us to a very logical definition of optimal policy with respect to value function:
Policy π is said to be better equal to policy π’ if and only if the
Please note that there can be more than one optimal policies. Optimal policy have associated value functions which can be expressed as:
As we have seen previously, Q-function for policy π expresses the expected cumulative returns for taking action a in state s and following the policy thereafter. It must then follow that the optimal value function can be defined as taking the maximum action on state s and following the optimal policy thereafter. Therefore, the optimal value function can be expressed as follows:
Then by following Q-function Bellman equation. the optimal value fucntion can be rewritten as:
Bellman Optimality equation — value function
Similarity, Q- function can expressed in since q∗ gives expected return for taking an action a in state s and follow the optimal policy thereafter:
Then by substitution of v* by LHS of eq 1, we can express Q* as follows:
Bellman Optimality equation — q function
From the last Bellman optimality equation, we can observe that the policy associated with optimal q function is indeed greedy as it selects the action with maximal value. But since the value function incorporates the expected cumulating future rewards, this simple greedy policy expressed by the Bellman equation is indeed also optimal in the long term. This is significant, as well see that a family of simple algorithms will be based on this greedy property of the Bellman optimality equation.
Generalized Policy Iteration
Generalized Policy Iteration (GPI)
Almost all reinforcement learning algorithms follow policy iteration in their way to oprimality. In this discussion let us assume that reinformcent learning algorithm is on-policy which is defined as using the policy being improved to generate experiences. Each iteration consists of two tasks: policy evaluation and policy improvement. During policy evaluation, the value function is aims at making the value function to be consistent with policy and during policy improvement the policy is improved by making it greedy with respect to the value function(but policy remains soft such π(a|s)>0 ∀ a ∈A, s ∈S to allow for exploration as we will see in next section). Thus policy iteration can be summarized as follows:
Reinforcement Learning Algorithms
Monte Carlo (on policy)
Monte Carlo on policy reinforcement algorithm is one of the simplest RL algrithims. The algorithm is called on policy because the same policy being improved is also used to interact withe environment during policy evaluation process.
Monte Carlo GPI: The main idea of Monte Carlo algorithm is to drive value function for every state-action pair to the average of expected returns observed in episodes(policy evaluation) and then drive policy to be greedy by selecting actions with maximum values for every state.
Exploration vs Exploitation
exploration vs exploitation
The above description makes realize a dilemma RL algorithms face: The need to optimize policy by making them greedy with respect to value function; but the same policy is also used to interact with environment and get experiences. If the policy used is made deterministically greedy during policy improvement, the algorithm will fail to visit several state-action pairs impeding its ability to discover optimal pairs. For instance, the monkey in grid can make go one step up and eat a single bannana and thus receive +1 reward. If we make the policy deterministically greedy, the monkey will tend to be greedy and always exploit the information he learnt and keep going one step up every episode to collect a single banana. This will cause the monkey agent to miss states with much rewarding returns. So it is important for the policy being improved in on policy algorithms to have non zero probabilty for all state-action pairs to allow the agent to continue exploring:
This condition can be achieved by using ϵ-Greedy, where ϵ is the exploration ratio. ϵ-Greedy will select greedy action leading to maximal expected returns most of the time, but with probability ϵ select random action to enable exploration. ϵ-Greedy policy applies to almost all on policy algorithms and not just Mote Carlo.
Now, we are ready to see Monte Carlo implementation.
In next article, we will explore different reinforcement algorithms that do not require to wait for a complete episode to finish to start learning. | https://medium.com/@ahmed-h-elkhouly/reinforcement-learning-bellman-equations-gpi-and-monte-carlo-part-2-464248eb296e | ['Ahmed El-Khouly'] | 2020-11-22 22:13:27.698000+00:00 | ['Reinforcement Learning', 'Bellman Equation', 'Monte Carlo'] |
River Songs | I know we value rivers.
Although from the way we dam, drain and pollute them, it’s not that obvious that we do. Indeed, WWF just released a report, Valuing Rivers, making the case that healthy rivers provide great benefits to societies and economies, but that these benefits are often not recognized or prioritized by decision makers.
So, as an environmental scientist, it’s not all that clear to me that we do value rivers. But, still, I know that we do. Why?
We write songs about them. A lot of songs.
Rivers wind their way through countries’ histories, myths, and stories. And songs. In our hearts, we must really love rivers, because we write more songs about them than any other geographic feature (e.g., forests, islands, deserts…I will admit there are a lot of ocean songs, but half of those are from the Beach Boys).
So, to remind us why we value rivers — and how our management needs to catch up to our emotional love — here I feature my favorite river songs.
My list has an admittedly American bias, but the celebration of river in song is universal. So, I invite all readers to submit their favorite #riversongs via social media and we’ll compile them.
[Listen now on Spotify orYouTube]
© Justin Jin / WWF-US
Johnny Cash: Five Feet High and Rising — “How high is the water mamma?” Johnny repeatedly asks, drawing on his memories of the Mississippi River flooding his family farm in tiny Dyess, Arkansas in 1937. With each verse, the answer is that the river is one foot higher and the chords echo that pattern by modulating up one key higher. But really, all you need to know is that the Man in Black is singing about a flood.
Aaron Neville: Louisiana 1927 — Written by Randy Newman, the song chronicles the heartbreak of the catastrophic 1927 Mississippi River flood, which displaced 700,000 people. The first time I heard this song was when Aaron Neville performed it during a televised benefit concert during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the words mournfully captured the sense of loss and despair of late summer 2005: “Some people got lost in the flood, some people got away all right. Louisiana….Louisiana…they’re trying to wash us away…they’re trying to wash us away.”
Led Zeppelin: When the Levee Breaks — Efforts to reform how we manage river floods should draw sustenance from this song’s relentless drums, wailing harmonica and nasty slide guitar: “Crying won’t help you, praying won’t do you no good…When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.” The song was originally written by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie and chronicles the same 1927 Mississippi flood as Louisiana 1927. That flood inspired numerous songs and left a huge mark on American music: the flood accelerated the great northward migration of African Americans to cities like Chicago, where the Delta Blues got plugged in and contributed the key DNA to rock and roll.
© Day’s Edge / WWF-US
Joni Mitchell: River — On first listen, you may be lulled into thinking this beautiful ballad is a Christmas song. But listen closer and you’ll hear a woman lamenting that she’s torched the relationship with the love of her life. A heartsick Canadian in southern California — disoriented by how it stays green even as “they’re putting up reindeer” — she longs for a river. Not to wash away her sorrow, not to float home, but — being a girl from Alberta — a frozen one that she could “skate away on.”
Drive-By Truckers: Uncle Frank and TVA — Dams are complicated things; they can provide important economic benefits, but they can also cause significant negative impacts to rivers and the people and communities that depend on them. Scientists can tell you that. But so can Drive-By Truckers. The seminal alt-country band has two songs about dams, rivers and people. In one, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) callously inundates a valley for a hydropower dam, flooding out towns and farmers, eventually leading one of the displaced people, Uncle Frank, to commit suicide. In another song, they “thank god for the TVA” for bringing “power to most of the South” and helping to relieve the misery of the Great Depression. These narratives are not conflicting; both can be true because they reflect the varying perspectives of dam beneficiaries and victims affected by impacts that manifest differentially over space and time. In other words, just what a scientist would say — but with guitars!
Randy Newman: Burn On — When I tell people that I’m from Cleveland, Ohio they often respond, “Isn’t that where the river caught on fire?” Randy Newman’s song, with its maudlin arrangement and whimsical lyrics, deftly capture the cognitive dissonance of a river catching fire. Perhaps it took one catching fire for Americans to remember how much they valued rivers. The Cuyahoga fire has been credited with sparking the United States’ Clean Water Act that, along with local efforts, has led to a remarkable recovery for the river, which now is the centerpiece of a national park, has 40 species of fish in places none previously occurred, and is lined by restaurants, pubs and boathouses on the stretch of river that once burned. The only flames that now rise from the Cuyahoga are on the label of “Burning River Pale Ale”, though, elsewhere in the world, rivers, and even lakes, are still catching fire.
© Thomas Nicolon / WWF DRC
Townes Van Zandt: Texas River Song — The Brazos River features prominently in this traditional song, but, as the lyrics remind us, “there’s many a river that waters the land,” so the song glides over nine other rivers from the Lone Star state. Great versions by Texan singers Townes Van Zandt and Lyle Lovett (the Brazos winds its way into at least three other of Lovett’s songs).
Bruce Springsteen: The River — I’ve written about what Springsteen’s approach to performing can teach us about conservation, namely his drive to save and uplift those who need it, carried out with exuberant passion. But on “The River” he explores loss, using a river as a symbol of youthful optimism and love that cannot be sustained into adulthood in a dying industrial town:
At night on them banks I’d lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she’d take.
Now those memories come back to haunt me, they haunt me like a curse.
Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?
That sends me down to the river, though I know the river is dry…
Ike and Tina Turner: Proud Mary — Though written by John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ike and Tina Turner certainly do the most rollicking version of this song about life on the Mississippi and “rolling on the river.”
Charles Lloyd and the Marvels: Shenandoah — A traditional song with lyrics that originated among the voyageurs, Canadian and American fur trappers who traveled by canoe along the rivers that traverse the heart of North America. This is the end of the playlist, so just sit back and relax and let the beautiful notes flow over you, as Lloyd and bandmates interweave instruments from the various forms of music, namely jazz and country, that also arose from the same region. The sax and pedal steel establish themselves and then commingle like tributaries forming a great river of American music.
Listen to Jeff’s playlist along with other recommended #RiverSongs here! [Spotify & YouTube] | https://wwf.medium.com/river-songs-60548fd4f870 | [] | 2018-09-20 05:58:29.206000+00:00 | ['Rivers', 'Guitar', 'Songs', 'Music'] |
Towards Datafication? | Does data know best? Photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash
Understanding the risks associated with EdTech and the drive towards datafication of education is important.
“Government gets AI in transport, in health sciences, in retail,” he says. “It does not get AI in education — it doesn’t get the potential, it doesn’t get the risks. What’s more, it doesn’t know that it doesn’t get it.” — Political commentator and historian Sir Anthony Seldon’s interview with the Financial Times
During the COVID-19 pandemic schools and universities around the world rapidly closed and moved to online learning. Big tech companies such as Google and Microsoft have updated their education packages and software to accommodate the surge in demand.
The pandemic inevitably created markets best suited to the technology industry which gave these companies an advantage in the education sector. As the months went on new habits and norms formed which created a collective consensus around the need to continue learning during the different stages of the virus whilst maintaining high educational standards. However, the aims of government departments and big tech have longer-term plans to interweave EdTech into the day to day lives of students, teachers and educational institutions. Interestingly, the global technology education market is to reach $341B by 2025 so, it is even more important to understand the motives and the risks of EdTech start-ups.
EdTech Start-ups
AI education start-ups such as Up Learn, Knowledgehook and others aim to improve grades for all students by offering personalisation and customisation of learning for each student. It does this by learning the patterns of when a student remembers or forgets a piece of information, akin to reinforcement learning. This allows for more data about student performance and behaviour to be collected. This in theory is meant to help teachers update teaching strategies and inform students of their strengths and weaknesses. However, there is a risk that data points can also be quantified into behavioural insights. For example, looking at the recruitment industry many employers have adopted gamified approaches to sieve out candidates during the early recruitment process.
For example, the candidate downloads an app such as Sky Rise City. Playing the tasks on this app then allows the company to track and collect 5000 data points on a candidate’s personality, usually based on the big 5 personality model such as openness and neuroticism. The app determines these traits through many variables such as speediness of clicks and time taken to bounce back from failure. The collection of personality traits is highly contested. One of the criticisms is not just about the collection but how it can be used and manipulated without the consent of individuals. Most notably, seen with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Looking back to EdTech tools it shows the slippery slope on how behaviour data can be quantified and manipulated.
Datafication
Focusing now on data and quantification, a popular article by William, Eynon and Potter analyses how the pandemic spurred the biggest EdTech social experiment ever seen. The ‘experiment’ is a chance to create and collect vast amounts of student, teacher and parent data. The experience of the experimental subjects e.g. students will start to leave digital footprints in which data engineers clean up, ready for analysis for future policy. They argue that the experiment will redesign educational policy and culture and what education is and what it will look like beyond COVID-19.
For EdTech companies interested in the monetisation of data the virus is an opportunity for conducting and learning from mini-experiments, it is similar to how social media companies use A/B testing to increase user engagement.
One of the problems researchers and policymakers have is using data to determine causality. The pandemic has created a natural experiment. For example, since around March students were required to sit all their exams online. This allows enough data for comparisons to be made with previous years where exams took place in exam halls. This allows for analysis without the problem of selection bias. Supporters suggest that this is a great opportunity to prove the success of virtual education over in-person education.
What happens if the research shows that students performed better online? Do educationists have a responsibility to adopt EdTech tools and online learning? Is educational success only measured by grades?
These are some questions to ask over the coming years. If these stances are adopted this could have knock-on effects on many parts of the education sector such as libraries as well as jobs within schools such as teachers and cleaners being at risk of becoming redundant. The scientific infatuation of measuring big data to develop accurate models to push education to the online world is further pushed by investors and start-ups to exploit the pandemic as a social experiment. This could lead policymakers to consolidate the use of EdTech and spur the rest of the education sector on the road to datafication which could leave jobs in precarious conditions and change the culture and nature of learning and the process of secondary socialisation.
The education sector through marketisation as well as other means has been the sector most affected by datafication. As it promotes efficiency, competition and standardisation. However, at the same time risks have also emerged such as continuing the culture of surveillance, control, privacy, manipulation as well as new and repackaged inequalities.
The quantification of student’s digital footprints during and after the pandemic shows the long-term motivations to lock in as Collingridgedescribes EdTech tools into mainstream education but instead of disrupting inequality or improving student experience these tools may exacerbate existing inequalities, uproot and embed technology risks and leave jobs in precarious conditions. Therefore, if EdTech becomes locked in it may further disenfranchise groups of people from education, reinforce a specific type of learning and success and favour the interests of investors.
Thoughts
Can we go back once datafication of education expands and EdTech tools become locked in?
‘’Control may still be possible, but it has become very difficult, expensive and slow.’’- David Collingridge, The social control of technology, pg. 18
Collingridge’s quote from the 1980s is still significant and may give us some insight. It seems that change within the education sector more so now that it is governed by market forces may be political.
Who defines the problem within the education system as a problem? Is it the teachers, students, politicians or big tech?
Why might the decision process be slow when it comes to education policy? Do we rely too much on the future of EdTech to solves these problems?
It is undoubtedly true that technology has benefited and aided students before and during the pandemic. However, as technology continues to grow exponentially and becomes embedded in traditional sectors it is important to discuss critically the risks that we know of. For risks that we don’t know of, we could follow Ibo van de Poel’s advice of incremental steps which can help us become less ignorant and more critical around the allure of new technologies. Whilst at the same time instead of relying on numbers solely, we can incorporate views from the social sciences such as anthropology to evaluate how these risks affect our behaviour and the development of society. | https://medium.com/@maishaachowdhury/towards-datafication-235e014a2777 | ['Maisha Chowdhury'] | 2021-03-02 16:26:40.643000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Data', 'Technology', 'Education', 'Edtech'] |
Using Docker and Ngrok to deploy machine learning inference | Hello everyone,
I want to celebrate that finally I have a part-time dream job as a coffee barista, and I am on my way of training (well, not that kind of training of course). If you ever met me in person, maybe your impression from my look is not about someone working as an AI product researcher. I drink coffee a lot and hanged out with fellow coffee enthusiast.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Following my previous publication on creating an end-to-end coffee picture classifier on docker–which you can deploy it later on Render, I want to inform you a good news. There is a temporary free alternative to deploy your machine learning or data science project!
I suggest you to read it before, although you can jump into this section if you concerning the deployment side more.
Yes, we will utilise Ngrok for to broadcast our localhost service. Ngrok is a simple tunnel, which I could say–you can share your localhost as long as your process is running.
Get Started!
Since I already provide the repository and explanation in the previous post, I think I will just review on the deployment process. Fortunately, the Fast.ai tutorial already provided scripts for the frontend.
To deploy it on docker, you can follow the steps,
docker build -t coffee . docker run --rm -it -p 5000:5000 coffee
And then you can try it on your browser from the localhost address.
Into Ngrok
Ngrok provides a real-time web UI where you can introspect all HTTP traffic running over your tunnels. In the example, I bind my http docker port to http local port, and ngrok actually bind my http local port into <some_keys>.ngrok.io . As simple as that.
You do not need to actually install ngrok since it has ready-to-use shell.
Download the ngrok zipfile. Click on get started for free, sign-up, and download the file. You can follow the get-started instruction there, but anyway I will write it down. Unzip the file,
unzip /path/to/ngrok.zip
3. Yes it is unzipped! put it on a good directory, maybe you will use it frequently.
4. Note that previously you had your docker container running. if your binded host address is somewhat like localhost:5000 , then you can put it on ngrok http server.
./ngrok http 5000
Then, you will get forwarding address. Here is my example,
Nice, you can copy the forwarding address. Here is mine with widget.
And you will get the http status on your ngrok terminal.
Try to access the page from different network to test the ngrok address. Remember that if you shut down the ngrok process in the previous terminal, you will be assigned to different address when you turn it on later. Maybe you want to try using raspberry pi for hosting?
References
Fast AI course, https://course19.fast.ai/. Repository for Fast AI model deployment, https://github.com/render-examples/fastai-v3. Ngrok, https://ngrok.com/.
About the Author
Salman is a cyberpunk enthusiast that loves coffee, lo-fi music, extragalactic exploration, robot, and self-driving car so much. He is working on Asis and Mata — AI personal assistant products — as an applied researcher in the field of natural language understanding and reinforcement learning-driven self-learning agent. Previously, he was a computer vision applied researcher at the same parent company — Zapps AI, a research assistant at the Department of Astronomy, Institut Teknologi Bandung, and a robotics computer vision engineer at Dago Hoogeshool.
He pursued Astronomy and Astrophysics major at Institut Teknologi Bandung, spent a physics summer school at Princeton University, and Machine Learning Summer School (MLSS) 2020 which he is proudly taught by Max Welling’s AMLab and researchers from DeepMind.
Check his profile on LinkedIn. | https://medium.com/@hiromathknight/using-docker-and-ngrok-to-deploy-machine-learning-inference-a3bcf426350c | ['Salman A. F. Chen'] | 2020-12-15 18:17:55.773000+00:00 | ['Deployment', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Software Engineering', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning'] |
Winter’s Welcoming Pause | Around me gentle
is a familiar tug
on the lips of midnight’s amble
wrapped in meridian blues
with signs of wild moss
soothing solitary fence posts
and watching tree’s elbows
stay knitted to misty hues.
I’ll stay close to the pulse
and wither not as light dwindles.
Even dawn seems uncertain
inside winter’s pause
where a sphere of slowing
is a midpoint to withdraw. | https://medium.com/being-known/winters-welcoming-pause-82e499c9ef75 | ['Carolyn Riker'] | 2020-12-21 17:40:26.279000+00:00 | ['Peace', 'Winter Solstice', 'Poetry', 'Winter', 'Nature'] |
Reinforcement Learning — Part 5 | If you are wondering what is OpenAI Gym, please refer to Reinforcement Learning — Part 4. Today we will be seeing some reinforcement learning in practice, wherein we will try to teach our agent (car in this case) to climb up to the right hill where the goal point is situated in minimum steps (a.k.a minimum time). Officially, you can read Mountain-v0 Environment Gym for more clarity on the problem statement that we are trying to solve.
We will be using good old school technique epsilon-greedy approach to this problem. Just to make sure we are on the same page, please go through basics of Gym and then come back here.
Let’s Code…
import gym
import numpy as np
import operator # create environment
env = gym.make('MountainCar-v0')
possible_actions = env.action_space.n
print 'Possible actions are {}'.format(possible_actions)
In the above snippet, we are instantiating our environment and by calling make method by passing in the environment name as an argument. You can find the full list of possible gym environments here. Next, we would like to see possible actions that our agent can take in this particular environment. This action set is needed to make an informed decision at any time-step during the game-play.
class EpsilonGreedy():
def __init__(self, episodes=1000, epsilon=0.2):
self.episodes = episodes
self.epsilon = epsilon
self.values = {0:0.0, 1:0.0, 2:0.0}
self.counts = {0:0, 1:0, 2:0} def explore(self):
return np.random.choice(self.counts.keys()) def exploit(self):
return max(self.values.items(), \
key=operator.itemgetter(1))[0] def select_action(self, observation):
if np.random.uniform(0,1) < self.epsilon:
# explore
return self.explore()
else:
# exploit
return self.exploit()
def update_counts(self, action):
self.counts[action] = self.counts[action] + 1 def update_values(self, action, reward):
current_value = self.values[action]
n = self.counts[action] self.values[action] = ((n-1)/float(n))* \
current_value + (1/float(n))*reward def update_all(self, action, reward):
self.update_counts(action)
self.update_values(action, reward)
Here, we define a class EpsilonGreedy with instance initializations as greedy , epsilon, values, counts because these are the only ones needed, you can think of episodes as player environment interaction when the game starts and ends (maybe because player died or time-up state was reached) and epsilons as the probability of taking random action, here our agent would explore the environment(take random action) with a probability of 20% and exploit (take highly weighted actions) with 80% probability at every time-step. Certain level of exploration is required for model to find the best possible action in a given situation and avoid trap of local minima. Also values and counts as the weighted average of the previously estimated value and the reward we just received and action taken count respectively. Also, if you see we define six methods — explore, exploit, select_option, update_all, update_values, update_counts. select_option is a method that is responsible for triggering an action of either to explore or exploit at any time-step in the game and update_all is responsible for updating action counts and values dict. If you notice carefully, then you will see that we have specified a value of 0(Zero) to possible actions in count and values dictionary initially.. just because we need to start somewhere with the memory.
epsilonlearn = EpsilonGreedy() for episode in xrange(epsilonlearn.episodes):
observation = env.reset() # get new state while True:
env.render()
action = epsilonlearn.select_action(observation)
next_observation, reward, done, _ = env.step(action)
epsilonlearn.update_all(action, reward) observation = next_observation if done: break # break if the goal is reached env.destroy() # destroy the current environment
Above snippet is the final piece of code that we will be writing for this task. We first get the instance/object of the class EpsilonGreedy (we defined this in one of the above snippets). Next, we iterate through all the episodes (possible lives in a game) and for each of it we reset the environment properties. We then run a (till goal achieved) loop in which we select an action for every time-step and use the reward and next state observation to choose consecutive action wisely (in-order to maximize our total rewards). At last, on completion of the game, we destroy the environment and restart with the next episode.
That’s what it took to create an agent that can now learn it’s environment and educated actions on to be taken at each time-step in-order to maximize the total reward. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/reinforcement-learning-part-5-9dba9ac44369 | ['Prakhar Mishra'] | 2018-05-02 09:30:45.968000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'OpenAI', 'Reinforcement Learning'] |
What did the year 2020 teach me? | Well, this year was hard, for me and for the world collectively.
In January 2020, India recorded its first case of Covid-19 and in March 2020, we went on our first lockdown. Although the process of locking India down was on and off, just like any other decision that the government takes, nothing was ever the same. Since I work in an IT company, I was fortunate enough to work from the comfort of my home. I was living in a 1 bedroom studio apartment in Bangalore, a hip and bustling city, when the first lockdown happened. After living there alone for 6 months till September, I moved to Delhi for the latter half of the year to spend it with my family. I am writing this entry so that I can remember this year, for the things that I learnt and not for the things we lost. (Although, no one is forgetting 2020 anytime soon, that’s for sure.)
Another reason that I wanted to get this out for the world to read is in the hopes of helping someone else. I hope each and everyone of us write this year off as a lesson in our respective journeys and leave all the bitter memories behind. Although, I am aware that nothing is going to change anytime soon in the next year and we have already put so much pressure on the coming year that if 2021 was a person, it would already have performance anxiety.
But all we can do is hope for the better right? So here it goes, the lessons I learnt in 2020 in words.
1. We are all in this together.
However hard this year was, it did bring the world together in its weird way. Every human on this earth was feeling the same way at the same time. We were all fighting for our safety, taking care of our elders and kept wishing that everything gets better soon. It reminded us that we are all cut out from the same cloth and these geographical boundaries are a hoax. We all became people from Pangaea once again. We learnt the importance of asking each other “How are you and how is your family doing?”. Our clients, our house help or the person who delivers our groceries, they all had something in common now. They all became humans to us first and we knew that each and everyone is facing a hard time. This year gave us the quality which is hard to come by, Empathy.
2. Accepting where you are in life, goes a long way.
Acceptance of who I am and where I am at present (both geographically and in the pathway of my life) is something that I have struggled with a lot. I have lived in 4 cities in the last 4 years, so my living situation and personal life changed quite a lot very frequently. It was not in my inherent nature to adapt to changing life situations easily. Its partially because I am an emotional person and I get attached to people and places, that’s common right?
So, this year gave me a chance to live alone voluntarily for 6 months where I could spend some time with myself and my thoughts whenever I wanted to (This is of course after working for my 9–5 job, cooking and eating my meals and cleaning my apartment). And I realized that I am finally okay with who I am, where I am in my life and this feeling is quite fulfilling if you ask me. It is important to accept where you are first to clearly see where you eventually want to be.
3. Helping others helps you.
Well, this is something that is a common knowledge for most people and yet for some, it comes as a surprise. Since I am a Protagonist personality type, this feels natural to me. The warm feeling you get in your heart when you see someone smile at you, knowing that you have made that person feel better on bad day, that’s unmatchable. You will feel a blessing that will come out of their hearts and touch you.
Of course, you don’t want to drown into the White Knight syndrome, which is what happens when you lose yourself helping others. This year I finally learnt how to help others while simultaneously helping yourself stay afloat.
4. Kindness towards your own self is essential.
Being positive for your own self is a very hard thing to do, I know. It’s easy to give another person pep talks and be all supportive, but when it comes down to being positive for ourselves, we fail miserably. Don’t we? This is something new that I tried and I wanted to share it with you. I was dealing with some hard situations in my life both personally and professionally. So instead of being negative and dwelling on the problems, I started focusing on the positive outcomes that I envisioned for myself and my close ones. I won’t say it solved all my problems, but it for sure gave me the strength to sail through them. My bad days were not so bad anymore, because I knew tomorrow will be better. And my better days? I was able to enjoy these beautiful ones to the fullest, as they deserved to be lived. And I realized that being kind to myself helps me more than being hard on myself. This is something I wish to carry on for the years to come.
If you have reached this part of the blog, I want to thank you for giving it a read and being a part of my journey. I wish the year 2021 is filled with more better days for you and gives you strength to sail through the bad ones with a smile. :) | https://medium.com/@muskaannarang95/what-did-the-year-2020-teach-me-627b982fb3d2 | ['Muskaan Narang'] | 2021-01-16 17:33:45.626000+00:00 | ['Love Yourself', 'Self Help', 'Self Healing', 'Mental Health', 'Love'] |
Supporting Tech Innovations at the Department of Energy National Laboratories | Supporting Tech Innovations at the Department of Energy National Laboratories
The Department of Energy’s 17 National Laboratories form a nationwide network that is working to solve some of the world’s greatest scientific challenges.
Since 1947, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Labs have been conducting novel research and leading the charge in significant scientific advancements. Our National Labs installed the first web server in North America, created the optical digital recording technology that enabled the creation of DVDs, and built the fastest and most powerful supercomputers. Today, the National Labs are decoding human DNA, mapping the universe, and developing software and manufacturing technologies that are changing the way we work and live.
Importantly, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the network of labs has been working to determine the protein structures of the coronavirus, inform vaccine development, and model the progression of the epidemic.
The work of the National Laboratories has directly benefited industry and the public at large for nearly three-quarters of a century. This sharing of transformative science and research solutions to help industries and people — known as commercialization or tech transfer — is critical to the Department of Energy’s mission.
Photo Markus Spiske / Unsplash
How RS21 Supports Tech Transfer at the National Labs
Many innovations from the National Labs have made tremendous impacts in healthcare, science, and technology; however, numerous technologies and breakthroughs still remain behind Lab walls. Technical teams at the Labs hold keys to addressing real-world challenges — if only people had access to this incredible repository of information.
To help bridge the gap between research and commercialization, and between technical and semi-technical users, RS21 supports projects across the software maturity spectrum. More specifically, our agile software developers, UX/UI designers, and data scientists work with technical teams to achieve the following:
Transform models and raw data into actionable insights
Streamline workflows for technical clients
Communicate complexity to non-technical audiences through user-friendly dashboards
Transforming Models into Actionable Insights
RS21 transforms technical information, existing models, and prototypes into inspiring, scientific visualizations. Employing best practices in human-centered design and data-driven software development, we partner with the National Labs to create:
Decision support tools
Scientific visualizations
Interactive information visualizations
Complex systems and risk/threat modeling
Environmental modeling
This enables researchers to demonstrate the value of their technology, secure funding, update existing tools, and attract users. In fact, for every dollar spent on design and development, researchers receive an estimated $10 to $100 in return. RS21 helps the National Labs capture that value to advance and promote their innovative work.
Streamlining Technical Workflows
Scientists’ time should be spent building capability instead of navigating and managing infrastructure. Research teams are often overburdened by complex workflows. Our computer science and software engineers can help manage legacy and modern code so different components talk to each other seamlessly. In addition, MOTHR Core handles the infrastructure details, enabling more flexible and efficient workflows while avoiding vendor lock-in.
Design and development of systems that make life easier mean that scientists and analysts can perform the computation they need without having to manage the actual compute resources. This frees up more time to focus on the science.
Creating efficiencies and flexible architectures also ensures the longevity and applicability of research. For example, existing models might only be accessible on certain machines, limiting who and when researchers can access the information. Our tools allow components, functions, or individual models to be easily deployed and managed on different resources while also retaining the portability of containers.
Communicating Complexity to Non-Technical Audiences
Our technical team of UX designers, engineers, and scientists help translate complex science and research into intuitive insights so more people can understand and use it. For example, RS21 partnered with Lawrence Livermore National Labs on an energy and smart meter project.
Smart meters are electronic devices that record grid information such as energy consumption, voltage and current levels. This data enables providers to monitor their system and plan emergency response scenarios. However, smart meters monitoring the energy grid rely on the communication grid to get this important data to utilities. To better understand how to collect and utilize these data to improve grid resiliency, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are modeling this network using a co-simulation framework called HELICS that enables both simulations to run together, leading to a better understanding of interdependencies between the two systems.
In a project funded by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE), RS21 partnered with LLNL to concept out a tool for visualizing HELICS simulation results, enabling scientists to intuitively explore the system interdependencies and identify anomalies. This tool, called CoViz, will help scientists and utilities better understand the implications of smart meter technology and how it can be used to improve power and communications grid resiliency.
CoViz UI Prototype. (LLNL-MI-813334)
RS21 interviewed LLNL scientists, iterating with the LLNL team on wireframes. After developing an early UI concept animation to illustrate how a user might navigate the tool, we built a clickable prototype and tested it out with LLNL scientists. Based on their feedback, we continued to ideate with the LLNL team and ultimately delivered a prototype that can be used as a blueprint for software application development.
Tech Transfer: From Research to Commercialization
At RS21, we work to solve complex problems using data science and visualization. Our team is a unique blend of experienced data scientists, web developers, engineers, user experience architects, user interface designers, and project managers. We apply cutting-edge data science techniques with proprietary and open source data sets to create compelling visualizations that communicate solutions and bring people together across disciplines to facilitate new ways of thinking, creating, and working.
RS21 is a proven reliable partner and trusted advisor to National Laboratories. Our desire to connect people with data and research through beautiful, intuitive interfaces that promote understanding and inspire innovative solutions will help the Labs improve efficiencies, maximize productivity, and achieve tech transfer goals.
For more information about how we might help your team move from research to commercialization, download an overview of capabilities we bring to National Labs. | https://medium.com/rs21/supporting-tech-innovations-at-the-department-of-energy-national-laboratories-ca6dcec26be7 | [] | 2020-09-14 15:25:06.628000+00:00 | ['Technology Transfer', 'Department Of Energy', 'Research And Development', 'Human Centered Design', 'Software Development'] |
Religious Belief is a Mighty Motor of Human Reasoning. | Belief, especially religious belief, is a powerful human essence. It is widespread and an integral part of human reasoning.
Belief and human reasoning. Why can’t belief and facts be in agreement?
Belief in the supernatural is far-and-away the biggest influence on the human mind and human reasoning. Why don’t God, religions, facts, and reality concord? Is it all myth, or is the problem with how humankind reasons?
In 2019, the Age of Science, 84% of the world population are believers in some form of religion. From their own particular view of God or god through the supernatural on down to astrology and ghosts. Why so much belief? Where does belief come from? What should we believe?
In certain circles, belief is enlightenment. But there’s enlightenment and enlightenment! The pendulum swings. What was enlightenment in the 1600s is not the enlightenment of the 21st century. Then there was a belief in the rise of science with discoveries by Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton… Before that, religion had imposed its rule of belief on people. Now they began to speak up and think for themselves. The rational shifted poles to human observation and reasoning. This enlightenment proposed learning, schools, and university. Books became cheaper and more abundant with Gutenberg’s printing press. This excellent article, What was Enlightenment adds “Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own understanding” is, therefore, the motto of the enlightenment. The three key ideas were reason, knowledge, and freedom.
Today enlightenment is akin to spirituality and riddance of suffering. It is a term borrowed from Eastern esoteric practices that refers to one’s inner spiritual calm. The number of teachers believers is growing in the West. The key practice revolves around forms of meditation. These beliefs match those of spiritual philosophy that I’ve already developed. Beliefs overlap.
Beliefs are plethoric. When it comes to religion, some believe in a young Earth creationism because of their interpretation of certain verses in the book of Genesis. Others believe in an old Earth creationism using these same verses with a different interpretation. Each accompanies this with different views regarding scientific data.
Many believe that birthright promises were passed down from Abraham via Ishmael, his first son with Hagar. While others believe those promises including Messiahship come through Isaac, his son with Sarah. These two opposing beliefs have given rise to Islam and Judaism and a rift in the Middle East that isn’t anywhere near being solved.
Christianity is at loggerheads with both Judaism and Islam because Christians claim Jesus as the Son of God, their Messiah. For Judaism, he is at most a human being and Islam presents him as a prophet, but not more. Then there’s the question of who is responsible for Christ’s death, Romans, Jews…? These are just a few major beliefs.
We’re focusing on the Abrahamic faiths and their beliefs. Here are 3 lists of fundamental beliefs. The do’s and don’ts, if you will, of how to be a good Moslem, Jew or Christian. As you read and compare them, there are similarities and differences. Ask yourself, what’s the origin of these lists? Where do these concepts come from? Can religion be presented this way?
Islam and the Six Articles of Faith
Belief in the existence and oneness of God (Allah). Belief in the existence of Angels. Belief in the existence of the books of which God is the author: The Quran being the last of them revealed to Muhammad, the Gospel is revealed to Jesus and the Torah to Moses. Belief in the existence of Prophets: Muhammad is the last of them, Jesus the penultimate, and Moses sent before them. Belief in the existence of the Day of Judgment Day: in that day, humanity will be divided into two groups: that of paradise and that of hell. These groups are themselves composed of subgroups. Belief in the existence of God’s predestination, whether it involves good or bad.
Judaism and Maimonides’ 13 Principles of Faith
These like so many other beliefs have been criticized and modified by other Jewish scholars. Some think they’re incomplete. Of course, it’s impossible to lay out a religion in 13 sentences, but this surveys the main keys and gives you a point of comparison.
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is the Creator and Guide of everything that has been created; He alone has made, does make, and will make all things. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is One, and that there is no unity in any manner like His, and that He alone is our God, who was, and is, and will be. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, has no body, and that He is free from all the properties of matter, and that there can be no (physical) comparison to Him whatsoever. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is the first and the last. I believe with perfect faith that to the Creator, Blessed be His Name, and to Him alone, it is right to pray, and that it is not right to pray to any being besides Him. I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the prophets are true. I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, was true, and that he was the chief of the prophets, both those who preceded him and those who followed him. I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that is now in our possession is the same that was given to Moses our teacher, peace be upon him. I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be exchanged, and that there will never be any other Torah from the Creator, Blessed be His Name. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, knows all the deeds of human beings and all their thoughts, as it is written, “Who fashioned the hearts of them all, Who comprehends all their actions” (Psalms 33:15). I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, rewards those who keep His commandments and punishes those that transgress them. I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah; and even though he may tarry, nonetheless, I wait every day for his coming. I believe with perfect faith that there will be a revival of the dead at the time when it shall please the Creator, Blessed be His name, and His mention shall be exalted for ever and ever.
Christianity and the Ecumenical version of the Apostle’s Creed
As you can see, at the above link, there are various versions of this Creed. Indeed, there are dozens of versions of Christian Creeds and Confessions of Faith. There are country and Church specific articles depending on the emphasis each group puts on their particular beliefs.
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen.
Human acts, human bickering, human arguments, human hatred, human fighting, human wars have all been fought in the name of these three groups of beliefs and in the name of the God(s) and Prophet(s) behind these beliefs. The human reasoning process based on religious beliefs will never cease to amaze as to its complexity. These beliefs are so strongly embedded in so many human beings they are ready to die for their beliefs rather than renounce them.
This article is an excerpt from chapter 5.15 of the book Audit of Humankind | https://medium.com/the-explanation/religious-belief-is-a-mighty-motor-of-human-reasoning-d83cdd5fb103 | ['Sam Kneller'] | 2020-10-13 19:20:01.402000+00:00 | ['Belief', 'Religion And Spirituality', 'Religion', 'Thinking', 'Spirituality'] |
Role of Technology In Pharma Supply Chain | Source: Healthcare Business Review
As the current pharma supply chain is challenged by the lack of visibility and a number of new compliance regulations, most companies seek enhanced traceability. Pharmaceutical companies must adopt tracking technology to ensure product integrity and achieve global compliance.
Drug counterfeiting is a well-known and documented problem affecting human lives, but also the pharmaceutical industry reputation and ROIs. Within the United States, the FDA has enforced and implemented the Drug Supply Chain Security Act to protect consumers against counterfeit drugs. Act to protect consumers against falsified medicinal products. The Global Traceability Standard for Healthcare (GTSH) defines international process standard, explains and sets minimum requirements for all stakeholders in the healthcare supply chain. However, full implementation as a cohesive solution of global traceability standards is still in progress. Blockchain can be a comprehensive, all-inclusive solution which saves lives and dollars seamlessly in the future.
Critical support for combating counterfeit medicines and vaccines are substantial investments. Indeed, in the folding carton sector, anti-counterfeiting and safety procedures will continue to play a major role. The traceability solutions are one of the four biggest technological developments set to transform the market by 2022, according to the report by the design office of Smithers Pira titled “The Future of Folding Cartons to 2022.”
Indeed, when a drug package can be identified, the risk of receiving a fake product is reduced drastically. Increasing traceability procedures should help a huge worldwide counterfeiting industry, estimated at more than $200 billion worldwide in 2017 by the World Economic Forum.
In the pharmaceutical industry, serialization should help to monitor the supply chain and fight against the spread of fraudulent drugs and vaccines. The process can also bring additional benefits, including a more precise view of inventories with a better history of the origin and quality of the goods purchased. These advantages may also apply to other sectors facing counterfeiting hazards.
Serialization is a chance to modernize current traceability systems. This win-win model would significantly enhance action against parallel markets by controlling the supply chain and applying best practices driven by data. To ensure compliance with customer requirements and eliminate fake products from the global market, the pharmaceutical supply chain should be transformed with the largest track-and-trace network.
Role of AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has proved itself as a game-changing technology, for every industry, and not just pharmaceuticals. In the past few years, people have witnessed the potential of AI, which can benefit the healthcare industry. AI is reinterpreting how scientists developed new drugs and discovered cures, along with how they diagnosed, and how drug adherence was dealt with.
Nevertheless, AI in the pharma supply chain has mainly been ignored in spite of having enormous technological and commercial opportunities in the industry. The time has come to make more investments in AI solutions, primarily targeting the established challenges with the pharma supply chain.
Big pharma is aware of the technological arms race carried out in the worldwide healthcare industry. Recently, people have witnessed an acquisition spree with a few large pharmaceutical companies grabbing biotech start-ups, devoting in state-of-the-art AI solutions, and hiring domestic data scientists to perform together with scientists. Moreover, technology in the pharma supply chain that links the lab to the market is holding up. With the globalization of the pharma industry and the demand growing for new product types, supply chains should also turn smarter.
An ideal supply chain for today and tomorrow is considered as one of the most reactive ones, but proactive as well.
It has the potential to anticipate, as well as accommodate the present and future trends, steering the forces and challenges. Multiple stress factors force the pharma industry to settle in a while developing new and quality medicines at a very affordable price. Numerous stress factors are increasing each year and adding up to the present, the real challenge, especially for the supply chain management.
When it comes to ecological pressures, regulators are forcing stricter environmental controls throughout the design, manufacture, and transportation of the pharma products to help limit the carbon emissions, as well as lessen plastic and water wastes. Multifaceted biologic drugs and gene therapies are growing increasingly famous, but also release enormous challenges for manufacturing and distribution networks, because of their sensitivity and mini life-cycle.
Besides, populations all around the world are growing old, along with the occurrence of associated chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and dementia. The criminal marketplace that sells falsified medicine is now worth more than $200 billion each year, making the safety of medicine quality a priority, including the progress of tamper-proof packaging technologies.
News source: The Increasing Need For Traceability In Pharma Supply Chain | https://medium.com/@georgekaren654/role-of-technology-in-pharma-supply-chain-cac0da88212 | ['Karen George'] | 2020-12-22 13:05:45.977000+00:00 | ['Supply Chain', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Pharmaceutical'] |
Proof of Concept in Automation Testing | Best Practices for Implementation | A Proof of Concept in Automation testing deserves a thorough preparation and implementation to verify the automation venture. Once it is done right, the QA team can leverage valuable insights to have timely adjustments for the application of automation testing.
What is a Proof of Concept in Automation Testing?
Proof of Concept (POC) is a broad technical term used in various industries. Teams and companies use a POC to prove that their idea works in real-world environments. A POC is crucial in the decision-making process because its results can be informative enough to point out potential issues before they happen.
For example, imagine that you are calling for investment on your potential business idea. However, investors hardly believe in plain words unless you have evidence for your success. This is when a POC is necessary to showcase your action plan in a small scale environment.
POC in Automation Testing is usually conducted when the team wants to adopt a new automation testing tool. As a part of the first phase of the automation transformation, the team may consider implementing a POC after evaluating and selecting an automation tool.
Why is a Proof of Concept Necessary in Automation Testing?
For testing projects
Although QA teams may have spent a lot of time on tool evaluation, an Automation Testing POC is the final step to test and challenge all the assumptions. There are certain aspects related to automation that a well-designed POC can help verify, including:
The difference between manual testing and automation testing in terms of outcomes and test quality
The capability to meet the testing requirements of the automation tool
What can and cannot be tested automatically
How much automation testing saves compared to manual testing
The predicted ROI of test automation in the long run
Hidden issues of the projects that require changes
Implementing an automation solution takes time and considerable monetary resources. Instead of jumping right into that process, conducting a POC will get the plan audited in a short time with much less effort.
For stakeholders
As mentioned earlier, stakeholders are the other group that needs a clear POC in addition to QA teams. Without the POC, business owners and investors may venture blindly into the unknown.
Regarding financial viability, which is crucial for all businesses, and automation testing POC shows decision-makers if the planned automation solution is viable and brings out healthy ROI. This is also an excellent way for investors to evaluate better the projects that they are about to invest in.
With all these significant benefits, a POC ensures that teams and businesses will take the best advantages of automation testing, not eroding them.
How to Implement a Proof of Concept in Automation Testing
Decide the scope of work used in the POC
It is unnecessary to cover all test cases of the project in a POC. Instead, the team should pick up some of the most critical test cases. They can be core functions of the software or features that end-users will be most interested in.
2. Know the benchmark
The team should be able to benchmark the POC results against the current testing state. Knowing the current baselines will help with the comparison later on.
3. Demonstrate both automation and manual testing
It should be shown in the POC that there is no degradation in the test quality delivered by automation.
4. Have at least one failed test case to test the functionality of the tool
Ideally, a POC needs to have at least one test case that fails, meaning it results in finding a software defect. A proper automation testing tool must find out the flaw in such cases.
5. State areas that can and cannot apply automation
Although the POC aims to prove the automation tool’s necessity, it needs to show areas in the testing workload that cannot be automated.
6. Expected outcomes for the POC
Setting up a set of requirements for the POC in advance will help analyze the results after completion. There are some key factors that an automation testing POC should highlight:
Is the automation tool able to automate all the intended features of the desired application?
Can the automation tool run on all browsers required by the project?
Will automation call for change in-app implementation?
Will automation call for change in-app implementation?
The standard template for an automation testing POC varies on a case by case basis. In general, it should cover:
A set of requirements for the POC outcomes
Candidates of the POC (Selected automation tools in this case)
Project requirements
Pros and cons of each automation tool according to the project requirements
POC results
After conducting a POC, there are three possible scenarios for the team to take into consideration.
The tool satisfies the project requirements-With this result, the tool can be considered feasible for real-world implementation. However, if there are any issues found during the execution of POC, they should be carefully assessed in order to make changes accordingly. The tool does not satisfy the project requirements-In this scenario, the automation transformation must be either canceled or postponed for further evaluation. The tool partially satisfies the project requirements-This situation requires the team to have more data to be able to make final decisions. Usually, the team can opt to revise their project requirements.
For the first scenario, the POC stated the automation tool’s feasibility and got approved by the management team, the next step is to work on a pilot project.
Conduct a Pilot Project
Basically, a pilot project creates a real-world environment to test a solution with minimum expenses. In automation testing, a pilot project is necessary to challenge the approved POC when it is applied in reality.
A standard pilot project for test automation should include these five steps:
Defining test cases for pilot Developing automation framework Scripting and executing Reporting Maintaining automation scripts
Conclusion
Once the automation testing POC and pilot project are completed, their results come into practice. With insights gathered from the POC, the decision-maker can have a better data-driven approach to their automation transformation process. | https://medium.com/katalon-studio/proof-of-concept-in-automation-testing-best-practices-for-implementation-7f95f8083ff7 | [] | 2020-11-18 07:21:19.330000+00:00 | ['Testing Tools', 'QA', 'Automation Testing', 'Proof Of Concept'] |
Know About Ayurvedic Treatment, Medicine, and Remedies for High Blood Sugar | Diabetes is a chronic disease characterized by high levels of blood sugar or glucose in the body. In this condition, insulin produced by the pancreas is insufficient to help cells get the required amount of glucose from the bloodstream, which results in hyperglycemia or high blood glucose levels.
Generally, people with diabetes have two types of diabetes- type 1 and type 2. Type 1 is a condition in which the pancreas stops producing insulin, while type 2 is a progressive condition in which the body becomes resistant to insulin.
If not treated on time, high blood sugar can cause many health problems such as heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness, and even death. However, many ayurvedic remedies and treatments for high blood sugar can help control the condition effectively.
Ayurvedic Treatment For Diabetes
Ayurvedic treatment for diabetes using the top ayurvedic concoctions like the Nishakathakadi Sookshma Choornam (Powdered Form) and Nisakathakadi Kashayam (Liquid Form) is based on the philosophy that the root cause of the disease is the imbalance in three doshas or body energies- Vata, pitta, and Kapha. Ayurvedic treatment aims to restore the balance of these energies and thereby cure diabetes.
Ayurvedic medicine for diabetes like Nisakathakadi Kashayam includes various herbs that help lower down high blood glucose levels. Some of the most common ayurvedic herbs for diabetes are bitter gourd, fenugreek, garlic, ginger, and turmeric. These herbs help improve the function of the pancreas and increase insulin production.
Ayurvedic remedies for high blood sugar also include dietary changes and lifestyle modifications. A healthy diet is essential for keeping blood glucose at normal levels. Some of the nutritional changes recommended under ayurvedic treatment include reducing processed carbohydrates, refined sugar, and sugary drinks. At the same time, consumption of fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains should be increased. Furthermore, certain spices such as cinnamon or cloves can help lower high blood sugar levels.
Regular exercise is also an essential part of ayurvedic treatment for diabetes. Exercise helps to improve insulin sensitivity and reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Conclusion
Many Ayurvedic treatments, medicines, and remedies are available to help manage high blood sugar levels. The top concoctions like the Nisakathakadi Kashayam for diabetes are made from the most potent and natural ingredients that help to alleviate the ailment naturally.
Ayurveda can be a very effective way to treat high blood sugar levels and other associated health problems. The best part of Ayurveda is that, unlike western medication, it aims to treat the root cause of a health problem. It does not merely suppress symptoms or aim at a quick-fix solution. | https://medium.com/@srikrishnapharmacy/know-about-ayurvedic-treatment-medicine-and-remedies-for-high-blood-sugar-fdaa04d9b9d1 | ['Sri Krishna Pharmacy'] | 2021-12-20 13:28:38.158000+00:00 | ['Ayurvedic', 'Diabetes'] |
Finding Trust and Transparency in Artificial Intelligence | If you work with artificial intelligence technologies you are acutely aware of the implications and consequences for getting it wrong. I wish I could tell you there was a magic wand to be waved that could solve problems like ensuring fairness, removing racial and gender bias, increasing explainability, preventing adversarial attacks, and providing transparency. The reality is that if these are things you care about, and they very well should be, you are going to need to put the work in to understand how to tackle these very important problems. The good news is that there are teams of engineers, data scientists, and researchers at IBM who are building, contributing to and maintaining open source projects and communities to support you in this endeavor.
The Importance of Industry Standards
Globally, more than 50% of enterprise organizations have some form of AI deployment in operation today, with the average company having at least four AI or ML projects running. With this level of rapid adoption, it is imperative that the industry align to ensure that we use this technology in responsible ways. To that end, IBM has joined the LF AI Foundation, underneath the Linux Foundation. The LF AI Foundation supports open source projects within the artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning space. To build trust in the adoption of AI, LF AI has established the Trusted AI Committee. IBM joins a group of member organizations from across the globe to work toward building a set of principles for trustworthy AI and collecting a set of solid public use cases to use as examples of when this work is done right.
As a committee member, I am fortunate to not only share what we are doing at IBM toward this end, but learn from the other member organizations and discover areas for collaboration and knowledge transfer.
Fairness and Bias Mitigation
Defining “what is fair” in the usage of AI is an incredibly difficult thing to do because it is contingent on your particular use case and defined by context. While people may have good intentions with their usage of AI, if they don’t identify systemic racism and cognitive biases that are present in their datasets or the way their models and algorithms are built, they can all too easily perpetuate and AUTOMATE inequalities that exist in society.
The AI Fairness 360 toolkit (AIF360) helps you toward this end. AIF360 is an open source Python library that includes a long list of metrics to help you define and measure individual and group fairness in your models and datasets. Once you’ve got a solid handle on the problem you need to solve you can dive in to the bias mitigation algorithms to actually create some change in the output of your models.
Improving Explainability
For many who want to take advantage of the efficiency gains from AI, the inner workings of machine learning algorithms is a mystery and thus the outcomes from your models are hard to justify or explain. Right now, impressive accuracy is achieved through black box machine learning models, such as deep neural networks and large ensembles, but there are few people who can understand or explain these outcomes. To be able to confidently utilize machine learning for high stakes decisions, explainability and interpretability of the models is essential.
AI Explainability 360 toolkit (AIX360) was built to increase transparency and to allow your machine learning models to explain their decisions. This toolkit includes many ways to explain your machine learning model’s outcomes: data vs. model, directly interpretable vs. post hoc explanation, local vs. global, static vs. interactive; the appropriate choice depends on the platform and audience that needs the explanation. | https://medium.com/codait/finding-trust-and-transparency-in-artificial-intelligence-c064fc9c9a68 | ['Maureen Mcelaney'] | 2019-11-12 16:01:01.867000+00:00 | ['Trustworthy Ai', 'Machine Learning', 'Lf Ai', 'Python', 'Open Source'] |
AEX Operation Weekly Report (11.28–12.4) | The 128th (2020/11/28–2020/12/4)
1. AEX
Founded in 2013, AEX is a global digital asset trading service platform dedicated to building a trustworthy digital asset bank for millions of users. Since its establishment, AEX has held the principle of neutrality and do not be evil, advocates safe investment and stable value-added.
2. GAT Ecology
GAT is a global token officially launched by AEX, with a total circulation of 23 billion without inflation. Since its launch, the GAT ecosystem has been developing vigorously and has achieved more than 12 ecological construction results, more plans to be launched in the future.
Global market capitalization: ¥389 million
Current currency price: ¥0.0281
Total circulation: 13,858,469,746 GAT
On Dec 4th, AEX announced the 127th GAT Buyback and Burning Announcement, with a total of 5,336,911 GAT burned during this period. For now, the sum total of 1,941,530,253 GAT have been burned.
3. AEX New Listing
AEX launched the activity: Grab ETH2.0 First Mining and Get Millions Rewards
AEX launched the activity: Grab ETH2.0 First Mining and Get Millions Rewards on December 1, 2020. ETH2 is a 1:1 anchored beacon chain ETH2.0 token issued by AEX platform, AEX will automatically convert ETH2 held by users into ETH2.0 according to 1:1
4. AEX News
4.1.AEX supports XRP airdrop to Spark
AEX is tentatively scheduled to take a snapshot of users’ XRP assets at 09:00 on December 12, 2020(UTC+8) , as the basis for airdrop distribution. For details, please refer to the upgrade announcement.
4.2. AEX brand ambassador An An appeared at the Wuhan 8BTC booth at the World Blockchain Conference
An An, the brand ambassador of AEX, participated in the World Blockchain Conference·Wuhan event on December 5th. An An dolls achieved IP exposure at the Babbitt booth and received a lot of exposure.
4.3. AEX releases the 10th issue of the mascot trailer of The AEX Show
AEX released the 10th mascot trailer of The AEX Show on Dec 4th, which can be watched simultaneously on Bilibili, Weibo and other platforms.
4.4. AEX IP Publicity Event ended successfully
The AEX IP publicity campaign ended on December 4th. At the end of the campaign, the number of Weibo readings reached 10w+, and the number of forwarding was up to 800+. The event was linked with multiple media and project parties on Weibo. In this event, the AEX brand assistant added 200+ WeChat friends and organized relevant community lottery activities.
4.5. AEX distributes NEO positive contract activity rewards
AEX Anbank has issued NEO positive contract activity rewards on December 3, and you can log in to your personal account to view financial records.
4.6. AEX distributed DFL (DeFIL) event rewards
AEX distributed DFL net purchase ranking rewards on December 2. You can log in to your personal account to view financial records.
4.7. AEX Announces 5% Deep Spot trading Announcement in CNC, USDT, BTC Trading Zone
AEX issued an announcement on CNC, USDT, and BTC trading zone 5% deep transfer currency announcement on December 2. For details, please refer to the announcement.
4.8. AEX upgrades OTC trading section
AEX upgraded OTC trading on December 2, 2020, to give users a better trading service experience. For details, please refer to the upgrade announcement.
4.9. AEX launches an activity: 10,000 ETH @VitalikButerin in Twitter
On December 2nd, AEX launched a Twitter solitaire campaign called 10,000 ETH @VitalikButerin on the official Twitter (@aexplus), where the successful summoners will share 300,000 GAT rewards,, the campaign ends at 18:00 on December 24, 2020.
4.10. AEX launches automatic interest rate hike for VIP customers and adjusts hiking privileges.
On November 30, 2012, AEX increases the interest rate for VIP customers’ defi vault pool mining from 1.5% to 1%, and the system will automatically increase the interest rate according to the exclusive rights and interests of customers who meet the first class criteria when they operate defi vault pool mining business or regular banking business.
4.11. AEX Launches DeFi Mining Feature Page
On November 30th, AEX launched DeFi mining page, which allows you to invest in DeFi machine gun pool mining. | https://medium.com/@aexplus/aex-operation-weekly-report-11-28-12-4-eb66a94e2989 | [] | 2020-12-09 08:57:25.018000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Gat', 'Vatalik', 'Eth', 'Aex'] |
Acquiring Perspective | Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash
Acquiring Perspective
I usually have to do regular checks with my cardiologist. This time was the first time was on Video Conference and of course new protocol. It is weird to get a cardiologist only to check you on video, but the Dr. knows me well to see if there is anything to be checked. After breaking the ice on the conversation, the chat started with the how do you feel and I addressed my answer like even though that it was a crappy year for everyone, I had the immense fortune to keep my job, be healthy, family healthy and also live in what I call home, and yes, I gained a few pounds because I had to be a home shelter, so, taking that perspective, I think I am pretty well
Please don’t take me wrong. I had the most exhausting year for my mind, and also, I guess it was the toughest on learning, so it wasn’t paradise at all. Still, the fact to be able to evaluate facts from different points of view helped me reduce bias and go away from mainstream comments.
Taking it to work-wise, we naturally tend to gather, team, or group with people whose thinking is alike (actually, people do that in every environment). The exercise I started doing is to leverage people’s opinions that aren’t at all alike mine — factoring in, seeing if there was the elephant in the room I wasn’t seeing.
It is a painful exercise, it leads probably to discussions, it is annoying for the first time, and probably you can’t do it every day. Still, it is worth getting everyone’s opinion and building your perspective or opinion among all the thought streams.
I like to be a perspective person, and I encourage everyone to train and use the rearview mirror to see where you come from, where you are, what you are and leverage that into the situation you stay in. There is much suffering, and after the exercise, you may probably find you aren’t in that wrong position after all. | https://medium.com/@varelad/acquiring-perspective-dc323fcfa849 | ['Diego Varela'] | 2020-12-27 19:52:37.623000+00:00 | ['Growth', 'Point Of View', 'Opinions', 'Perspective'] |
7 Steps to Recover From A Breakup | 7 Steps to Recover From A Breakup
Let it hurt.
Cry, scream, breakdown.
Do whatever it takes to get your emotions out. The more it’s bottled up, the harder it’ll be to move forward.
When I first broke up with my ex, I thought it was necessary to be strong for myself. I felt like I had to keep it together, but the anger boiled and bubbled as the months progressed. Eventually, I found myself hysterically crying and angry. I couldn’t control my feelings. However, when I let all my erratic emotions out, I finally felt able to move on.
It’s equally important to know when to stop letting it hurt. Give yourself a week or a month to soak in the grief of your breakup but, don’t destroy yourself in despair.
Revamp your space.
The most hurtful part of breakups is remembering the spaces you and your loved one once shared. It becomes hard to navigate in those spaces because everything reminds you of your relationship.
My advice is to revamp your space, redecorate it! It could be as simple as rearranging furniture or maybe purchasing new bedspreads and pillows. By revamping your space, you reclaim it as your sanctuary. Your space should be a safe and comfortable place to reside. You’re starting a new chapter of your life, and you’ll be making new memories in your space; consider it the necessary preparation to begin anew.
Watch romantic comedies.
I know, this one is weird but, let me explain.
After a breakup, it feels like your whole world is caving it. You can’t see that your breakup might be part of a bigger story. However, romantic comedies like Friends and How I Met Your Mother allow you to see life's bigger picture.
Characters go through dozens of breakups, and they thought each partner was “the one.” But every breakup shapes the characters slightly differently. By the later seasons, characters have learned new things about themselves, they’ve sought different opportunities in different places, and they’ve dated new and interesting people. Eventually, you forget who Joey was dating in season 2.
Like shows, we go through multiple seasons of life; some are great and some not so wonderful. Your relationship was a season, and like those characters, you’re still growing, and you’ll have so many more opportunities to find love.
So watch those romantic comedies and find solace knowing this pain is part of a season.
Make a vision board.
Sometimes in relationships, we push aside things we want to do because our partner isn’t on board. Now is the time to dust off those old dreams and become excited about them again.
No matter how big a dream may be, you now have all the time in the world to make that dream come true. No one is invalidating you, and no one is arguing with your decisions. So, travel the world, cut your hair, start your business, or go back to school.
The best way to reconnect with yourself is to make a vision board. When you see your dreams and goals laid out beautifully on a board, it motivates you to work towards them. It’s a constant reminder that you’re investing in yourself, and you’re worth every single penny.
Your vision board should mark the beginning of something new. It doesn’t matter if you’re halfway through the year or a quarter way through the year. I encourage you to make one! A break up is an opportunity to start fresh, it may not be a new year, but it marks a new you.
Defy your ex.
I’m a sucker for watching Christmas movies from my childhood but, I could never watch Barbie the Nutcracker around my ex. He found it so stupid, and whenever I brought it up, he would shoot the suggestion down. But, this holiday season, I’ve watched it eight times, and I’m still counting. It’s a movie that makes me happy, and now no one shames me for watching it.
If you ever felt shamed for having a particular hobby or interest, that should validate how incompatibility you and your ex were. Someone meant for you will accept everything you are and be supportive of your interests. They’ll want to know the different sides of your personality: the good, the bad, and the quirky.
Defy your ex and reclaim your interests.
Find a medium to de-escalate your pain, like journals.
Journals are great ways to release your emotions throughout your healing period. There will be moments where you’ll have to confront a particular item, memory, or space that your ex and yourself once shared. Those moments will revive painful feelings, but a journal is a lovely place to de-escalate your pain.
When you’re on an emotional high, it’s hard to simmer back down. But through writing, you eventually release those emotions until you return to a neutral, calm state.
There are also other ways to release that energy. Physical activities such as painting, jogging, or yoga are perfectly viable ways to re-center yourself. I can only speak from experience of what’s worked for me. However, every person is different, so find an outlet that best works for you!
Learn patience.
Healing is a process, it takes time, and it’s non-linear. Some days will be more challenging than others. Your emotions will bubble up, and you’ll want to breakdown all over again. But, unlike your first explosion, these explosions will be minuscule. You’ll have the power to control yourself, and the grief won’t debilitate you. Then you’ll be able to get past the memory that elicits that pain.
Acknowledge your emotions, confront them, and release them. | https://medium.com/@simplyy/7-steps-to-recover-from-a-breakup-169c70035e27 | [] | 2020-12-15 15:22:59.501000+00:00 | ['Breakups', 'Relationships', 'Self', 'Psychology', 'Love'] |
About Me — Robert Trakofler. Nice to meet you | A torchier I made from unsold lamps by Robert Trakofler
antiques into other objects I repurpose furniture into more practical uses I have even made a 15 foot mobile out of antique meet hooks and broken mannequins I suspended from the old soda pop factory ceiling here in Pittsburgh that is my store called Zenith.
I don’t waste anything. All of the leftover food I give away at the end of the week, I give all of my food preparation clippings to a worm farm and compost facility. I recycle what I don’t use in my projects at one of my favorite places the Warhola scrap yard (Andy Warhol’s uncle’s place) so you might guess at this point I am very concerned about the environment.
Silent Scream by Robert Trakofler
As a person of whom has neurological issues and experienced rape as a young man I am also passionate and write about human rights, equality, healing and survival. I have been on the other side of life I had a drinking problem was homeless and even arrested on a few occasions. Artful expression for me (and many others) was indeed a way for me to cope and gain a better understanding through introspection it helped me to survive and transcend many difficulties and obstacles and appreciate even revel in the beauty that surrounds us all and it was in these revelations that sparked the inspiration for me to want to share them in my art.
Robert Trakofler
I often say that at the end of every work of art, be it a poem a painting, a photograph or a written article is a hidden post script that says… Take this, make it yours… and then take it further! It is in this spirit that I write and wish to share with you my humble scrawls in the hope that somehow I can touch a witnesses heart and mind to a grand furtherance…
This is a song I worked on…
An example of my poetry…
I often close my writings with this statement… A poem or any form of artistic expression is nothing without a witness, and for yours… I am always grateful thank you for reading! | https://medium.com/about-me-stories/about-me-robert-trakofler-d80fab3d98d5 | ['Robert Trakofler'] | 2020-12-23 16:07:07.840000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Music', 'About Me', 'Art', 'Photography'] |
Why do we make Qurbaani? | Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) was a very great and special Nabi — he was known as ‘Khaleelullah’ which means ‘the special friend of Allah Ta‘ala’.
Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) always wanted to have children, but for years and years and years, he did not have any children. Finally, when Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) had waited for a long, long time, and he was now 86 years old, Allah Ta‘ala blessed him with a beautiful baby boy — Nabi Ismaa‘eel (‘alaihis salaam).
A few years later, when Nabi Ismaa‘eel (‘alaihis salaam) was no longer a small baby, but was now a young boy, running around, playing and helping his father, Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) had a dream. In his dream, he saw that he took a knife, placed it on the throat of his beloved son, Nabi Ismaa‘eel (‘alaihis salaam) and slaughtered him!
Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) knew that the dream of a Prophet is not just a dream — it is a message and a command from Allah Ta‘ala. So, through the dream, Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) knew that Allah Ta‘ala wanted him to slaughter his son. Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) was always ready and happy to do whatever Allah Ta‘ala told him, so he was ready to slaughter his son, even though he loved him so much. But, he wanted to see if his son was also ready to make Allah Ta‘ala happy and do what Allah Ta‘ala told them to do.
Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) went to his son, Nabi Ismaa‘eel (‘alaihis salaam) and told him about the dream. When he heard the dream, Nabi Ismaa‘eel (‘alaihis salaam) immediately said, “O my father! If this is what Allah Ta‘ala wants you to do, then you must do it!”
Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) and Nabi Ismaa‘eel (‘alaihis salaam) started walking together to the place where Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) would slaughter him. But as they were going, Shaitaan came to them! Evil Shaitaan did not want them to make Allah Ta‘ala happy, so he tried to stop Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) from going to slaughter Nabi Ismaa‘eel (‘alaihis salaam). Shaitaan tried three times, but every time, Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) took seven stones and threw them at shaitaan, making him run away. The places where he threw these seven stones are called the jamaraat, and when people go for hajj, they also throw seven stones at these places, to remember Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam).
Finally, when they reached the place of slaughter, Nabi Ismaa‘eel (‘alaihis salaam) lay down on the ground. Then, Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) picked up the knife and put it on his throat. He loved his son so much, but he had to listen to Allah Ta‘ala and do what Allah Ta‘ala said. Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) started to press the knife onto the throat of Nabi Ismaa‘eel (‘alaihis salaam), but Allah Ta‘ala stopped the knife from cutting him and he was safe!
Then Allah Ta‘ala told Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) that He did not really want Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) to slaughter his son. Rather, Allah Ta‘ala wanted to test Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) and see if he loved Allah Ta‘ala more or he loved his son more. If he loved Allah Ta‘ala more, then he would listen to Allah Ta‘ala and slaughter his son.
Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) passed the test and showed Allah Ta‘ala that he loved Allah Ta‘ala more than anything else in the world. Allah Ta‘ala was very happy with him and sent a sheep from Jannah to Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam). Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) slaughtered the sheep, and that is why every year, Muslims make qurbaani and slaughter animals — so we can remember Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) and how he always listened to Allah Ta‘ala.
Lessons
We must always listen to Allah Ta‘ala and do what Allah Ta‘ala tells us to do. 2. We must love Allah Ta‘ala more than we love anything else.
3. We must not try and copy Nabi Ebrahim (‘alaihis salaam) and slaughter someone, because we are not the Nabi of Allah Ta‘ala. Knives are dangerous, so we must not play with knives. | https://medium.com/naseeha-channel/why-do-we-make-qurbaani-36bb42f8b1a6 | ['Tālib Al Ilm', 'An Epistemophile'] | 2020-07-21 17:25:05.584000+00:00 | ['Children', 'Tips', 'Muslim', 'Advice', 'Islam'] |
IoT Investment Trends. The Economist has recently published an… | Photo by Giorgio Tomassetti on Unsplash
The Economist has recently published an IoT survey that looks at the business trends in the IoT industry. This is the third year the Economist has completed this type of survey so they are able to show some interesting trends. There has been some interesting commentary on the survery results.
Some key takeaways:
Rate of Investment is Increasing
Between 2017 and 2020 the rate of investment in IoT has grown substantially. 36% reporting 11–50% increase and 19% reporting greater than 51% growth in IoT investment.
This is good news for IoT vendors that are relying upon this increase growth. It also means companies are seeing real ROI in their IoT investments.
IoT is making an impact on the business
The increased in investment can be attributed to the fact that the IoT projects are having an impact on businesses. An impressive 41% of respondents claim IoT has had a major impact on buisness. 37% expect to have a major impact in the future.
Still Early Days for Extensive Implementations
IoT deployments still appear to be in the early stages. They survey breaks out adoption by internal use of IoT and IoT in external products and services. For internal use, ex. monitoring energy consumption or factory equipment, 22% of companies report extensive use, and only 13% of companies report extensive use for external products and services. However, close to a third of the companies report early implementations for internal and external use and close to half (49%) of companies report external use is only in the research and planning stage.
There appear to be still lots of room for growth for IoT adoption witin these companies.
Final Thoughts
Vendors and customers involved in IoT need to have a long-term view. Implementing IoT applications can be very complicated and take a lot of research, prototyping, and in-house development expertise. The last 5 years have seen a lot of companie in the PoC stage but we are not seeing more and more companies driving real business value. These survey results show companies are achieving real ROI, my experience working with HiveMQ has allowed me to talk with many customers that have deployed business critical IoT systems. We are still in the early days but it really does seem the IoT industry is moving in the right direction. | https://medium.com/@iskerrett/iot-investment-trends-from-economist-survey-5c3557a074a1 | ['Ian Skerrett'] | 2020-02-20 20:23:25.915000+00:00 | ['IoT', 'Iiot', 'Economist', 'Surveys'] |
Lightning Hood Weekly Round-Up For The Past Week In Bitcoin, August 5–11, 2019 | Lightning Hood Weekly Round-Up For The Past Week In Bitcoin, August 5–11, 2019
Major Headlines
1.) The total computing power now dedicated to securing the bitcoin blockchain has set yet another record. According to data from mining services operator BTC.com, the average bitcoin mining hash rate over the last two weeks has reached 71.43 quintillion hashes per second (EH/s), up from 64.49EH/s on July 23. The threshold was breached as bitcoin adjusted its mining difficulty at block height 586,672 on Monday 2:52 UTC — that is a 6.94EH/s, or 10.78 percent jump since mid July
2.) In a major escalation against socialist president Nicolás Maduro, Donald Trump’s administration has frozen all Venezuelan government assets. The United States’ hawkish move has been reflected in a new all-time-high for peer-to-peer trading volume on LocalBitcoins in the country.
3.) Bryan Bishop sent out a design to developers to create “vaults” which are particularly interesting as a bitcoin cold storage security mechanism because they enable a publicly observable delay period during which time a user could be alerted by a “watchtower” that a thief might be in the process of stealing their coins
4.) Coinbase Inc. must face a negligence lawsuit for allegedly botching the launch of its digital currency bitcoin cash, or BCH, through an apparent “incompetence born of haste,” a judge ruled
5.) Blockstream reveals Blockstream Mining and Pool that provides enterprise-class mining equipment colocation in their US & Canada data centers, and the first-ever Better Hash mining pool for a stronger, more decentralized Bitcoin network
6.) Governments of about 15 countries, including Australia, Singapore and the Group of 7 (G7) members, have joined hands to develop a system to fight money laundering in cryptocurrencies
7.) A senior official at China’s central bank announced at the China Finance 40 Group meeting today that the country will soon roll out its central bank digital currency (CBDC.) Mu Changchun, Deputy Chief in the Payment and Settlement Division of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC,) stated that the CBDC prototype exists and the PBOC’s Digital Money Research Group has already fully adopted the blockchain architecture for the currency. China’s CBDC will not rely entirely on a pure blockchain architecture, as this would not allow the currency to achieve the throughput required for retail usage
Community News And Developments
1.) BTC Sessions details how he turned a scam onto the scammer and donated the money to btceven
2.) Blue Wallet gets updated to version 4.2.0 that now allows users to connect to their own full node
3.) Lightning Koala announced that Koala Studio is shutting down and that he will be joining Alto Financial to help build the first US Bitcoin Brokerage with Lightning Network support
4.) Alex Bosworth provides an update on the routing fees his managed to be able to earn over the course of the last year
5.) Bitcoin Magazine switches from Bitpay to OpenNode
6.) The Casa Node gets updated with a variety of changes that address user requests and issues
7.) Rockstar Developer is joining Jack Mallers and the Zap team
8.) Breez Wallet gets updated with a host of new features and bug fixes
9.) Coinkite has created a Lightning Enabled vending machine by utilizing OpenNode as the backend
Research And Thought Pieces
1.) David Molnar in his article analyzes CoinJoins privacy in the perspective of address reuse
2.) Coincenter in their latest article outlines how the IRS’ recent educational letters to cryptocurrency users provides hidden tax guidance
3.) Jake Sylvestre outlines how Bitcoin could be ruined if rehypothecation occurs in Bitcoin
4.) Gigi publishes “Proof of Life,” the first piece of a four-part series on Bitcoin as a living organism
5.) Casa’s latest article details why you should never use your Lightning seed phrase on multiple wallets
6.) Parker Lewis outlines why Bitcoin is not too volatile
Podcasts And Videos
1.) Max Hillebrand, Bitcoin educator and World Crypto Net broadcaster joins Stephan in this newbie episode to talk about good practices with Hardware wallets and what we should think about
2.) Michael Flaxman, Bitcoin Educator and Developer joins Stephan in this episode (part of the SLP Hardware Wallet Interview series) to talk about the current state of Bitcoin Hardware Wallets. This episode covers the differences between some of the current popular Hardware Wallets, and give you a framework on how to think about Hardware Wallet security
Lightning Hood’s Selection For Meme Of The Week
If there are any other major news events or items we may have missed from the week please let us know! You can reach us on twitter @lightning_hood
See you guys next week! Click Here for the Lightning Resources Page.
Ad: Check out the Lightning Hood Store for all kinds of Bitcoin Apparel and Accessories | https://medium.com/@lightninghood/lightning-hood-weekly-round-up-for-the-past-week-in-bitcoin-august-5-11-2019-9733ab6779a3 | [] | 2019-08-11 23:48:56.053000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Lightning Network'] |
The Conversation We Refuse to Have About War and Our Veterans | I went to the market
Where all the families shop
I pulled out my Ka-bar
And started to chop
Your left right left right left right kill
Your left right left right you know I will
-Military cadence
“You can shoot her…” the First Sergeant tells me. “Technically.”
We’re standing on a rooftop watching black smoke pillars rise from a section of the city where two of my teammates are taking machine gun fire. Below, the small cluster of homes we’ve taken over is taking sporadic fire as well. He hands me his rifle with a high powered scope and says, “See for yourself.”
It’s the six year old girl who gives me flowers.
We call her the Flower Girl. She hangs around our combat outpost because we give her candy and hugs. She gives us flowers in return. What everyone else at the outpost knew (except for me, until that day) was that she also carried weapons for insurgents. Sometimes, in the midst of a firefight, she would carry ammunition across the street to unknown assailants.
According to the rules of engagement, we could shoot her. No one ever did. Not even when the First Sergeant morbidly reassured them on a rooftop in the middle of Iraq.
Other soldiers didn’t end up as lucky.
Sometimes they would find themselves paired off against a woman or teenager intent on killing them. So they’d pull the trigger. One of the sniper teams I worked with recounted an evening where he laid up a pile of people trying to plant an IED. It was a “turkey shoot,” he told me laughing. But then he got quiet and said, “Eventually they sent out a woman and this dumb kid.” I didn’t need to ask what happened. His voice said it all.
I often wonder what would have happened if the Flower Girl pointed a rifle at me, but I’m afraid I already know. The thought didn’t matter anyway. There was enough baggage from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq that coming home was full of uncertainty, anger, and confusion — and not, as I had been led to believe, warmth and safety. | https://humanparts.medium.com/the-conversation-about-war-and-our-veterans-we-refuse-to-have-a95c26972aee | ['Benjamin Sledge'] | 2019-06-05 15:11:50.391000+00:00 | ['PTSD', 'Mental Health', 'Veterans', 'War', 'Military'] |
How to Build Deep Focus Into Your Organizational Culture | How to Build Deep Focus Into Your Organizational Culture
Building deep focus into your organizational culture equips you to grow and adapt to changing market conditions. Here’s how to do it.
Let’s say you’ve developed the habit of flexing your focus muscle. Maybe you’ve adopted certain contemplative practices like mindfulness meditation, or invested in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones that are working wonders for you. Perhaps you’ve taken it a step further and dug deep into our BLOCC framework.
Deep focus — those prolonged periods of time when you focus precisely on what you want to focus on — has become an integral part of your life. You simply can’t imagine going back to those work days of darting in and out between brief moments of focus and long stretches of distracted meandering.
For our free book on deep focus, click here.
Whatever got you to this point, let’s say your confidence is developing and you’ve even communicated to a few of your colleagues how important you think focus is.
In getting this far you’ve already completed the two most difficult steps:
(1) You’ve established a personal practice, and
(2) You’ve created a bridge to bring this practice into your organizational culture.
As such, you’ve internalized this crucial lesson:
Focus isn’t just a state, it’s a practice. (tweet this)
But this is where many of us get stuck. Where to from here? What’s the best way to ensure that the habits you’ve formed can begin to change your organizational culture?
After all, a workplace culture that places a premium on focus is one that will be better equipped both to grow and to adapt when market conditions change.
We are a work-in-progress like everybody else, but here are three ways we’ve been able to build our individual commitments into collective commitments and then (sometimes) into team habits so ingrained we barely think to do them anymore:
1. Take Team Size Seriously.
Deep focus can quickly lose its legs when teams are huge and the completion of a seemingly simple task has to go through too many people. This year our team grew significantly, which meant new teams were formed and existing teams now had additional teammates.
While we were ecstatic to hire such incredible people, we also made sure to keep top-of-mind how our own research has aligned with other research in the field to find this:
5–7 member teams are typically the most productive. (tweet this)
This number tends to be where workplace productivity peaks; it’s just the right amount of smart minds and different perspectives, without becoming a distracting party or a time-consuming drain just to make basic decisions.
Evaluate the size of your teams and the nature of their work to see if you can bring them down to an optimal size. This is especially important during those periods of growth when the excitement of bringing new talent on board can cloud the important process of reflecting on your existing project management methodologies.
Likewise, this clouding can happen when projects become more complex. It’s often our first instinct to think, Well, our team must grow to meet this increasing complexity.
But there’s a good chance, when you take a step back, that you’ll realize how you can meet that complexity more efficiently not by growing a team but by splitting it up.
2. Assess task focus and project focus.
And realize that all deep focus at work is not created equal.
In The Two Ways We Lose Focus at Work, Mark Nichols summarized task focus and project focus like this:
Sometimes, we’re losing focus in the moment, at the task level. This is when we’ve decided exactly what we’re going to work on, but we just can’t bring ourselves to get it done. This is a loss of task focus…. If lost task focus is the inability to hunker down and complete a task, lost project focus is the inability to even pick that task.”
Few of us as individuals have mastered the art of task focus and project focus, so what does this mean when we add in the complex dynamics of working on a team?
It means chaos, usually, and that it’s ultra-important to put a process in place so that everybody is on the same page.
Robin Kwong, Special Projects Editor at The Financial Times, told us he believes project clarity at the outset is paramount. Kwong makes sure each individual member of his team, before beginning any project, knows exactly what they should work on, when they should work on it, and why they are working on it in this particular order.
It seems simple, but this team-based ability to seriously organize task and project focus before pursuit of the larger goal means that each member of the team can establish deep focus because they know precisely what they should be working on.
It also means focus, depending on the influence of your particular team, is to some degree becoming embedded into the fabric of your organizational culture.
This strategy works for Kwong in one of the world’s preeminent business and economic newsrooms, it works for us, and we believe it (or some variant thereof) will work for you.
3. Establish focus signals.
This one can be as fun and creative as it is important.
As individual commitments to deep focus start rolling out, it’s important to grow them into habits (especially if you’re working in an open layout) that allow you to easily and quickly identify whether or not your colleagues are in deep focus.
Some teams signify this simply by wearing headphones. If an individual is wearing headphones, it’s a signal to their team that they are going deep.
Another focus signal can simply be sitting and working together.
In an open layout office, for example, members of a team within a tech company may be spread all over the workplace. They may communicate primarily through an app. But to avoid shoulder nudges from other members of the company, and otherwise make sure everybody knows that they’re focusing with their team, creating a signal by sitting together can do the trick — and through presentation alone can build deep focus into a part of your organizational culture.
As we have remote employees at Flow, and as many of our customers do as well, we needed a way to create a focus signal that worked for everybody. So we created a switch within our app called “Focus Mode.”
When an individual switches it on, all employees at the company know that that employee is focusing. Messages won’t be delivered to the focusing teammate until Focus Mode is switched off.
The possibilities for creating focus signals are limited only by your creativity, but we’ve found them to be an important component for simultaneously achieving and communicating the state of focus we’re in.
Truth is, focus is rarely brought up in discussions around organizational culture. But with important books like Group Genius from Dr. Keith Sawyer (which brings the individual concept of Flow State into the context of teams) paving the way for new books like Deep Work from Cal Newport, we think all signs are pointing to how business success will increasingly depend on a company’s collective ability to focus.
***
People illustrations: Jacob Dewey | https://medium.com/flow/how-to-build-deep-focus-into-your-organizational-culture-ef840ea62ce6 | [] | 2017-02-17 01:16:52.571000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Productivity', 'Management'] |
Giving Text an Inner Shadow with ImageMagick and Perl | Giving Text an Inner Shadow with ImageMagick and Perl
Creating a CGI script that composites text with fancy effects onto an existing image is easier than you think
Image licensed from Bigstock
My memoir, The Accidental Terrorist, is about my youthful misadventures as a Mormon missionary. Missionaries always wear black name tags, so to promote my book I thought it would be nice to give fans a way to create and share their own customized name tag images.
To accomplish this, I figured a simple CGI script written in Perl would be best. I had a vague sense that I could use the Perl interface to ImageMagick to overlay a name in bold white text onto a blank name tag image like this one:
Blank name tag graphic (image-magick-step-1.jpg)
What’s more, I wanted the name to look like it had actually been stamped or drilled into the name tag, with maybe a slightly pebbled white surface to give things a nice feeling of texture.
I had used ImageMagick before for some simple applications, and I knew it was a very powerful graphics-processing package. However, it’s also very arcane, without much in the way of user-friendly documentation. (Oh, there’s plenty of documentation. It just helps to be fluent already in graphics-processing-ese to understand it.) Stack Overflow, to name just one forum, overflows with questions about how to do this or that with ImageMagick.
I scoured the web for an answer to what I thought was my very simple question about how to make an inner shadow, but I came up empty. Finally, all I could do was start playing around until I figured it out for myself.
I did figure it out, and I’ll lay out my method below in case there’s anyone else out there looking for an answer to the same question. I’m not claiming this is the best solution, in fact, I’m sure there’s probably some fiendishly clever way to do this in ImageMagick with a single convoluted command. Me, though, I like to take things step-by-step so I can easily see what’s happening at every point and why.
Having said that, my method is pretty straightforward, though a few of the details are a little tricky. We’ll start with the declarations, initializing a bunch of variables we’ll need later (some of which we can futz around with to adjust our output):
That all should be pretty self-explanatory, though we’ll talk more about some of these variables below.
Next, we declare a couple of Image::Magick objects and load them with, respectively, the blank name tag graphic from above and the pebbled texture graphic below:
Pebbled texture graphic (image-magick-step-2.jpg)
So far, so good. But before we actually try to print any text on either of these images, we need to gather some information about the text itself — specifically, how wide it will be when rendered:
QueryFontMetrics is a method of Image::Magick that, when passed some text descriptors, returns an array of stats about how that text will be rendered. The only return value we're interested in for our purposes here is $width , which will help us center the text properly.
Our variables $startx and $starty describe the point on the name tag around which we'll center the text. Knowing the width of the text, we can easily calculate where the upper left corner will need to fall:
If we wanted to center the text vertically as well, we could calculate that from the $height value, but in this case, we only need to know where the top edge of the text will fall.
Now we start getting to the interesting stuff. Our next step is to construct a mask, which is a grayscale image used as a filter when compositing one image onto another. The black parts of a mask will render the composited layer transparent, while the white parts will render it opaque. The levels of gray in between provides varying degrees of opacity.
I find it a little difficult to think of masks in those terms, though. It might be simpler to think of a mask as a stencil. You can lay your stencil down on the base layer of the image you want to composite, then sort of “spray-paint” your top layer through it.
You’ll see what I mean after a couple more steps. For now, we’re going to create our mask image by initializing a new Image::Magick object, filling it with black, and then printing our (properly positioned) text on it in white:
The chunk of code above results in the following image:
Our mask layer, stored in the $mask object
See, doesn’t that look like a stencil? We’ll be using this mask in our final step to spray bits of one image onto another while blocking out other bits.
Okay, now we’re going to construct our shadow. This is what we’ll eventually composite with our text layer to give our name tag the 3-D look that we want. To create this shadow, we need to construct a new image that looks a lot like a mask but really isn’t.
The process is very similar to making our mask above. We want our shadow to be shaped like our text, so we again build an image with white text on a black background (though we could just as easily use a brown or purple background, or anything else we feel like):
But this time we do two things differently. We offset the text a little, in this case moving it down vertically by two pixels. Then we apply a Gaussian blur effect to the image, using a couple of variables that affect the degree to which the image gets blurred (play around with those values to see what happens). This gives us the following result:
Our shadow layer, stored in the $shadow object
Like I said, while this looks very similar to our mask image, it’s not exactly the same sort of thing. What we’re going to do with it — and this is where the magic really starts to happen — is layer a translucent version of it on top of our texture image. The code to do this is very simple:
And that gives us the following image:
Our composite shadow/texture layer, now stored in the $texture object
We now have a composite image that looks like bright fuzzy letters projected onto a pebbled charcoal wall. The fact that the texture is only faintly visible is the result of our $opacity parameter, which we could easily dial up or down, depending on the effect we wanted.
Now we’re ready for the final step. We take that stencil from way back and spray our composite shadow layer through it onto our original blank name tag:
We write the result to the file system, and voilà! Here’s our final image, looking quite fine:
Our final composite image (image-magick-step-6.jpg)
There’s no doubt a way to do this in fewer steps, but what we have here was certainly acceptable for my purposes and not all that difficult.
If you try this code out with your own images, I’d suggest spending time playing around with the values of the initial parameters, and with different colors for the shadow layer. You might be surprised what you end up with!
Hellfire bevel: $offsetx = -2, $offsety = -2, $sigma = 2, $opacity = ‘85%’, $shadow->ReadImage( ‘canvas:brown’ )
In the end, my script was a little more complicated than what I’ve presented here, giving users a way to input a name and also choose from different image sizes with various slogans. But the code above is where the magic (or rather, the Magick!) all happens.
Resources | https://medium.com/better-programming/giving-text-an-inner-shadow-with-imagemagick-and-perl-d8efd83affb8 | ['William Shunn'] | 2019-06-19 17:07:55.715000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Image Processing', 'Perl', 'Programming'] |
There is a New Way to Be | There is a New Way to Be
Walking Your Own True Path
There is a new way to be.
Not the way your mind works,
not the way you receive everything, filtered and shaped to please, as if you fear anything bigger than yourself,
not even the way you were shown, through others’ teachings in carefully scripted bestsellers.
There is a new way to be.
The way you search for footholds as you clamber up the hill,
the way you try, and fail, and try again,
the way you honor the butterfly crossing your path,
the dream waking you in the night,
the words pouring from your pen,
the feelings bringing you back to yourself.
To be,
Being,
is not shapeable, not negotiable.
Being stands alone,
emanating like fire floating on the dark ocean –
a source of light to illuminate a limitless path.
Not given to one,
but ever existent in all,
coalescing at points of intersection with Truth. | https://medium.com/blueinsight/there-is-a-new-way-to-be-5a905d08dbe8 | ['Tanya Buchko Green'] | 2020-12-31 15:58:00.430000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Blue Insights', 'Self Improvement', 'Creativity', 'Poetry'] |
Python Packages in Artifact Registry | Today, Google announced a public preview of support for Python packages (using the Pypi repository format) in Artifact Registry. With this feature, you can create a private repository in your project where you can publish your packages, instead of pushing them to the public repository at Pypi.org.
Uploading Python Packages with Cloud Build
Google recommends authenticating to Artifact Registry PyPi repositories using the Python keyring library. Here is an example of how you can do this in your cloudbuild.yaml :
steps:
- name: python:3.9
entrypoint: /bin/bash
dir: package
args:
- -c
- |
pip install --upgrade pip setuptools twine wheel
pip install keyring
pip install keyrings.google-artifactregistry-auth
mkdir -p ~/.config/pip
printf "[distutils]
index-servers =
${_REPO}
[${_REPO}]
repository:
printf "[global]
index-url =
python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
twine upload --repository-url ---steps:- name: python:3.9entrypoint: /bin/bashdir: packageargs:- -c- |pip install --upgrade pip setuptools twine wheelpip install keyringpip install keyrings.google-artifactregistry-authmkdir -p ~/.config/pipprintf "[distutils]
index-servers =
${_REPO}
[${_REPO}]
repository: https://${_REGION}-pypi.pkg.dev/${PROJECT_ID}/${_REPO}/
" > ~/.pypircprintf "[global]
index-url = https://${_REGION}-pypi.pkg.dev/${PROJECT_ID}/${_REPO}/simple/
" > ~/.config/pip/pip.confpython setup.py sdist bdist_wheeltwine upload --repository-url https://${_REGION}-pypi.pkg.dev/${PROJECT_ID}/${_REPO}/ dist/*
This Cloud Build config handles the following steps:
install setuptools , twine , wheel , keyring and the Artifacts Registry backend
, , , and the Artifacts Registry backend create the ~/.config/pip directory
directory populate the pip.conf
build the wheels and sdists
upload to the registry
and it assumes the PROJECT_ID of the Pypi repository is the same project where Cloud Build is running and depends on the following substitutions:
_REPO : the name of the Pypi repository ( mypypi for example)
: the name of the Pypi repository ( for example) _REGION : the region
Your Cloud Build GitHub Trigger could look something like this:
---
description: Upload Package to Artifact Registry PyPi Repository filename: package/cloudbuild.yaml github:
name: my-package
owner: my-org
push:
branch: ^main$
includedFiles:
- package/setup.py name: upload-package substitutions:
_REGION: us-east4
_REPO: mypypi
This way, when you push a new commit to the main branch in GitHub with changes to the package/setup.py file (since you need to update the version anytime you push to a repository), the Cloud Build job will run and will update the package in the Artifact Registry Repository.
Using Python Packages with Cloud Functions
What if you want to use these private Artifact Registry packages in your Cloud Functions? Google provides instructions for how to install a package, so you could use that to install the package in your local environment or to include it in one of container images which you could then use with Cloud Run. But what about Cloud Functions?
The first undocumented trick you need to know is there is support for authenticating with an oauth2accesstoken by adding the following line to the beginning of your requirements.txt .
--extra-index-url https://oauth2accesstoken:{{ACCESS_TOKEN}}@{{REGION}}-pypi.pkg.dev/{{PROJECT}}/{{REPO}}/simple/
where {{ACCESS_TOKEN}} is replaced by the output of:
gcloud auth print-access-token
and {{REGION}} , {{PROJECT}} and {{REPO}} describe the location of your Artifact Registry Pypi repository.
In order to get this working in a cloudbuild.yaml , I did a couple of other things.
Renamed my requirements.txt to requirements.txt.tmpl and added the templated line above with the {{}}’s . Added requirements.txt to my .gitignore so that the file with the access token never gets committed to GitHub. Added !requirements.txt to my .gcloudignore so that the requirements.txt file does get pushed when I run gcloud functions deploy . Added a shell script to prepare the requirements.txt file called prepare-requirements.sh (see below). Added a step to the cloudbuild.yaml that deploys my Cloud Function
Here is an example of the prepare-requirements.sh shell script that turns the requirements.txt.tmpl into the requirements.txt with the --extra-index-url populated.
#!/bin/bash ACCESS_TOKEN="$(gcloud auth print-access-token)"
REGION="${REGION:="us-east4"}"
REPO="${REPO:="mypypi"}"
PROJECT="${PROJECT:="broad-gaia-karlsson"}" sed -e "s/{{ACCESS_TOKEN}}/${ACCESS_TOKEN}/" \
-e "s/{{PROJECT}}/${PROJECT}/" \
-e "s/{{REGION}}/${REGION}/" \
-e "s/{{REPO}}/${REPO}/" \
requirements.txt.tmpl > requirements.txt echo "Created requirements.txt from requirements.txt.tmpl"
Then, in my cloudbuild.yaml for deploying the Cloud Function, I added a step at the beginning to prepare the requirements.txt .
---
steps:
- name: gcr.io/google.com/cloudsdktool/cloud-sdk:alpine
dir: functions/my-fancy-function
entrypoint: bash
args:
- ../../scripts/prepare-requirements.sh
env:
- PROJECT=${PROJECT_ID}
- REGION=${_REGION}
- REPO=${_REPO} - name: gcr.io/google.com/cloudsdktool/cloud-sdk:alpine
dir: functions/my-fancy-function
entrypoint: gcloud
args:
- functions
- deploy
- my-fancy-function
- --memory=1024MB
- --project=${PROJECT_ID}
- --region=us-east4
- --runtime=python38
- --timeout=300
- --trigger-http
- -q
Finally, I created a Cloud Build GitHub Trigger to deploy the Cloud Function:
---
description: Deploy my-fancy-function filename: functions/my-fancy-function/cloudbuild.yaml github:
name: my-package
owner: my-org
push:
branch: ^main$
includedFiles:
- functions/my-fancy-function/** name: deploy-my-fancy-function substitutions:
_REGION: us-east4
_REPO: mypypi
Now, when I push a new commit to the main branch in GitHub, if it includes changes to this Cloud Function, the Cloud Build Job will run and will populate the requirements.txt and deploy the function.
Conclusion
Support for Pypi packages in Artifact Registry is currently in the Preview launch stage, so it is very possible that this process will change, almost certainly to make it easier to do than the current keychain approach. In the meantime, you should be able to start using private Pypi repositories with your Cloud Functions today!
Check back here for updates as things change! | https://medium.com/@lukwam/python-packages-in-artifact-registry-d2f63643d2b7 | ['Lukas Karlsson'] | 2021-06-08 00:28:11.096000+00:00 | ['Gcp', 'Cloud Functions', 'Python', 'Artifact Registry', 'Serverless'] |
About me! | Hi! My name is Laura Bundy and I’m a final year student studying BA(Hons) English @ Bournemouth University. I was raised in practically the middle of nowhere, basically a field, not one bar of signal. But let me tell you this, you won’t ever catch me without this phone!
Alongside my studies I have worked at the lovely Debenhams. Three years being part of a huge retail family. With the recent news I have nothing but happy memories of the store and I am sad to see it go. But I’ll be leaving in style because of my over obsessive shopping habit! I’m sure we’ve all been there, especially with the lockdowns of 2020 proving that the new ‘Netflix and chill’ is simply ‘watch and shop’. However, I also think this year has taught me a lot; to appreciate what we have and to fight for what we want. It’s been tough, but if anything has shown me how crucial our connections are. And how incredible social media can be at keeping us together as one.
After I have graduated I would like to follow a career path into this and discover how journalists too can keep this connection alive. Thank you for reading, more content to come soon! | https://medium.com/@laurabundy/about-me-a54cc605976b | ['Laura Bundy'] | 2020-12-22 22:04:18.507000+00:00 | ['About Me', 'Blog', 'Journalism', 'Welcome', 'Social Media'] |
#StopAsianHate: the largest global campaign against anti-Asian hate crimes: | The COVID-19 pandemic, which was first reported in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China, has led to an increased amount of racism against Asians and Asian Americans.
A study found that 58% of Asian Americans believed that racist views had increased towards them during the pandemic.
One recent study published by the American Journal of Public Health argues that former President Donald Trump’s first “China virus” tweet on March 16, 2020 was directly responsible for a major increase in anti-Asian hashtags. Before his tweet, the dominant hashtag on Twitter was #covid19. But after that, it was #chinesevirus, which saw a surge in use by 8,351 percent. The study added that people who used that term were more likely to post other anti-Asian content.
#StopAsianHate is the name of several anti-Asian-violence rallies which have been held across the United States in 2021 in response to racism against Asian Americans related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these rallies occurred in the wake of a series of shootings which occurred at three Atlanta spas in which eight people were killed, six of whom were Asian women.
Almost a month after the Atlanta massage parlor shootings, rallies against anti-Asian hate crimes have sprung up across the world.From the U.S., Canada, to Germany, France, to New Zealand and even Asian countries, people have started speaking out both on social media platforms and in the real world.
How to intervene, when a victim’s life is at stake:
During the pandemic, hate crimes towards east and southeast asians have tripled. We, the global community,stands with the East and SouthEast Asian community against racism in all its forms. Here it is important to be an active bystander…this can include amplifying the voices of those who are being silenced by sharing their stories and experiences, and calling out racism.
If your friend, colleague, or a member of the public is being harassed, it’s important to be an active bystander. If someone is in immediate danger, call Police immediately. Never put yourself in physical danger.
when it comes to intervening safely, some key things to remember are:
Call out negative behaviour, tell the person to stop. Do this as a group if you can. Be polite and try not to aggravate the situation – remain calm. Don’t physically intervene – you could get hurt.
Try and get the victim out of the situation – make any excuse to get them away to safety.
Alternatively, try distracting, or redirecting the situation by starting a conversation with the perpetrator to allow their potential target to move away or have friends intervene.
Make sure to ask the victim if they’re okay – they’ll probably be in shock and feeling upset. Listen. Allow them to have a space to talk.Emotional support is important.
These tips can be handy and helpful if you need to report:
If it is safe to do so, take a photograph or video on your phone.
Record details of times, number plates, descriptions and so on. If you don’t have a pen with you, leave a voicemail message on your phone. As soon as you can, write down the information in as much detail as possible.
If someone is in immediate danger, call Police.
Report it when it’s safe to do so. You don’t need to visit a police station and you can report it online.
#StopAsianHate: The most prominent slogan and hashtag on Google:
According to Google Trends, global search interest for “Stop Asian Hate,” the most prominent slogan and hashtag for the anti-Asian violence movement, has hit record highs, with a surge of more than 5,000 percent last month.
Prez Biden & White House on #StopAsianHate campaign:
A couple of days ago, the Biden administration announced a set of measures responding to rising anti-Asian violence, including deploying $49.5 million from COVID-19 relief funds for U.S. community programs that help victims.
The White House has also promised to set up a new task force dedicated to countering xenophobia against Asians and carry out new efforts to enforce hate crime laws and report data on racial crimes. | https://medium.com/@cprw.richasingh/stopasianhate-the-largest-global-campaign-against-anti-asian-hate-crimes-a6fa6f0dd3a0 | ['Richa Singh'] | 2021-05-17 08:42:25.700000+00:00 | ['Stopasianhate', 'Racism', 'Asian American', 'Covid-19', 'Asia'] |
The Price of a Popsicle | When I look back at almost a decade of experience at my middle school, I see thousands of decisions I rushed into without thinking about, actions I took without examining the consequences. There were plenty of times I said things I shouldn’t have, didn’t prepare enough for an exam or missed out on an opportunity. Out of all of that, only one day stands out.
It was like most advisory meetings before, except instead of the controlling Mrs. Gigounas, who was on sick leave, we were meeting with her substitute, the beloved Mr. Penn. His steel-rimmed glasses, jackets, vests, and slacks made him look like a college professor, and he always ready with a story from when he was our age at boarding school, nearly everyone in the class held him in the highest regard — he was safe from the ridicule that most teachers were subjected to every time a group of students was out in the halls. But that being said, he was still a substitute, and they never knew the rules; that’s why when Conner, a friend of mine who always seemed to be ahead of the coolness-curve, told me about the extra popsicles in the teacher’s lounge freezer, I figured it was an easy way to earn some low-risk street cred.
I got us some popsicles and easily deflected the little suspicion that Mr. Penn cast on me. We always get a snack, and he didn’t seem to pay much attention. We had been a well-behaved advisory, attentive and enthusiastic. He trusted us.
Everything was going according to plan, we just had to finish and dispose of the evidence. Just as I was enjoying the bites, it all came crashing down around me. Mr. Lee, a teacher battle-hardened from other schools and constantly on the lookout for plots such as mine, had decided now would be the perfect time to check in on Mr. Penn about something. He noticed instantly.
“Where did you get that Will?”
“Uhhh. My locker.”
This exact moment is where it all went wrong. I am sure that up to that sentence, there were dozens of escapes. If I had eaten a little faster, or maybe even sat in a different seat, I would have gotten away scot-free. Of course, confession would be an easy out as well. But such a feeble attempt to deny the deed had completely sentenced me to my fate. What kid would keep popsicles in a locker?
The rest of the conversation turned trail was a blur.
I confessed to Mr. Lee almost instantly and he quickly delivered my sentence. Friday detention, in which I would write a letter of apology. Completely standard. But the real punishment was when he left the room. Mr. Penn stared at me for an instant. It was more than enough. Suddenly, as though it had been building up, a wave of emotions hit. I felt shame I had attempted to sneak by a man I had so much respect for, I was furious at myself for violating his trust, and I was filled with regret that I had violated the trust of a man whose opinions I deeply valued and whose ideals I admired. I was borderline whiplashed from the speed of it all.
It felt a whole lot for a stupid popsicle. | https://medium.com/the-ma-voice/the-price-of-a-popsicle-7c2aa72833be | ['William Taylor'] | 2019-09-10 17:29:50.782000+00:00 | ['Regret', 'Personal Essay'] |
Centering Equity in Journalism during the 2020 Election — and Beyond | 2020 was a marathon for journalists preparing for an election that seemed very likely to go off the rails. They did it while also facing unprecedented issues of safety, security, and stability in a global pandemic, a census year, and becoming increased targets for police violence. Journalists of color, Black journalists in particular, tackled all of the above while continuing to navigate systemic racism and leading a reckoning over racial justice in the industry.
In the lead-up to November and throughout election week, many of us were tuned into cable networks and refreshing news feeds around the clock, but national election coverage — predictably — failed us in many ways. As in past years, it often dealt in generalizations and erased identities. In one notable high-profile failure, CNN labeled Native Americans and presumably other unidentified voters as “something else,” rather than naming their demographics. Communities of color were also overwhelmingly targeted by misinformation.
Credit: Tony Webster
But reporters and newsrooms around the country rose to the challenge of engaging communities, holding candidates accountable, and centering equity. If you’re a regular EJ Lab reader, it will come as no surprise that the best place to look for examples of equity-first election coverage is from newsrooms by and serving people of color. Here’s a snapshot of what these newsrooms did:
The accomplishments above didn’t just happen by chance. They are the result of long-term commitment and relationship building between journalists of color and their communities, and they were fueled by funders who understood the urgency of 2020 and worked together to coordinate and drive resources to support capacity building, staffing, and targeted projects focused on serving communities. As we turn the corner into 2021, the urgency is still with us, and the need for more coordination, more resources and more commitment to journalists of color continues.
As we turn the corner into 2021, the urgency is still with us, and the need for more coordination, more resources and more commitment to journalists of color continues.
We have seen what we can do when we work together to drive support to these newsrooms — and it’s time to keep building momentum. Here’s what funders can do to support engaged, equitable reporting in 2021:
Give more. Join the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund to deliver resources directly to newsrooms led by and serving communities of color. Many of the newsrooms mentioned above are grantees of the Fund.
Join the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund to deliver resources directly to newsrooms led by and serving communities of color. Many of the newsrooms mentioned above are grantees of the Fund. Make some noise. Use your communication channels to share examples of ongoing equity-first reporting. Newsrooms like The Atlanta Voice, Bridge Detroit and Wisconsin Watch, in places subject to widespread false claims of election fraud, are working around the clock to ensure ongoing accountability, and they need more support.
Use your communication channels to share examples of ongoing equity-first reporting. Newsrooms like The Atlanta Voice, Bridge Detroit and Wisconsin Watch, in places subject to widespread claims of election fraud, are working around the clock to ensure ongoing accountability, and they need more support. Continue the work in 2021. The full story of the 2020 election — and the state of elections coverage — hasn’t yet been told. Pay attention to what worked and what didn’t. Tune in for learning and debriefs from projects like Election SOS who is analyzing how the Citizens Agenda, newsroom fellowships, Experts Network, Rapid Response Fund and other initiatives fueled more engaged, trusted, and representative election coverage.
For our part, the Engaged Journalism team at Democracy Fund will be identifying clear action steps to shift our internal structures and practices to put equity first in our grantmaking. Stay tuned for updates on how this goes in 2021.
Published with research support from Public Square Intern Areeba Shah. | https://medium.com/the-engaged-journalism-lab/centering-equity-in-journalism-during-the-2020-election-and-beyond-ddfea410b041 | ['Angelica Das'] | 2020-12-16 17:57:10.289000+00:00 | ['Elections', 'Equity', 'Journalism', 'Diversity', 'Community'] |
Making New Year’s Resolutions That Benefit the Planet | Making New Year’s Resolutions That Benefit the Planet
Photo by Carson Arias on Unsplash
It’s time to think about those dreaded New Year’s resolutions. Every year, we make them and most years we give up before the end of January. This year, I challenge you to take action for the planet. Your actions will make a difference.
Every time you do something it matters, even if it feels minuscule. For example, by starting the conversation around straws it elevated the conversation around single-use items and plastic waste. The issue made many restaurants, manufacturers, and individuals think differently. It also meant more eco-friendly options were made as an alternative.
When you make eco-friendly choices others take note. If you consciously buy more items with less packaging, your friends and family notice and many do the same. Likewise, manufacturers take note of the increase in sales of those items and produce more eco-friendly items. Meanwhile, manufacturers of the other items take note as well, after all, their sales begin to suffer. They learn they will either have to adapt to consumer will or go out of business.
Of course, small changes won’t get us where we need to be in the fight against climate change on their own.
We need new government policies and support for clean energy, water, and air.
We need to elect politicians that will implement policies for the environment and aren’t outwardly climate change deniers.
We need to let governments and companies know that this is THE fight for our survival and we won’t allow greenwashing or further destruction of the land, water, and air.
We need to listen to Indigenous peoples and give them the tools, land, money, and resources they need to allow the traditional knowledge they have practiced for centuries to heal our planet. | https://medium.com/climate-conscious/making-new-years-resolutions-that-benefit-the-planet-352dd6bcebf0 | ['Sandra Barrett'] | 2020-12-14 16:44:04.184000+00:00 | ['Environment', 'Climate Action', 'Climate Change', 'Activism', 'New Year Resolution'] |
DeepDive: Independence Day | Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
We just celebrated Independence Day, the holiday many Americans would agree is the most important day in the history of our nation. It is important to reflect on what this day means for our country and for Americans as humans. This day represents the date where we declared independence from Great Britain. Over a century before that, the founding of America was arguably the biggest exploration event in history.
The reason I am talking about this, and why it relates to business and entrepreneurship is that exploration and discovery has long been one of the unique motivations of humans as opposed to any other species. For whatever unknown reason, we are curious beings that want to find new things. Going back in history, before the modern day we now know, exploring the world and finding new places was the most noble and adventurous thing that someone could do.
When we think about it retrospectively, explorers were really the entrepreneurs of their time. Those individuals had a vision of a desired world, and saw the opportunity of discovering it. They built a team, and made plans, and pulled together resources to make that dream become a reality. That is all that entrepreneurs do right? We simply dream up a better situation and figure out how to bring it to life.
Now, it is also good to note that before America was ever discovered, and before Christopher Columbus decided to put together his expedition, there were certainly other people who dreamed of finding an unknown place. What separates Columbus from everyone else before him, was a perfect combination of luck and determination.
Starting with luck, we can imagine that there had to have been other explorers with a similar dream and opportunity. But for some reason they never made it. Maybe their ship got swallowed by the sea, or they lost direction in a storm, or the tides simply took them on the wrong path. Regardless, they never made it because luck wasn’t on their side. And this is always going to be the case with everything we do. There will always be a level of luck and timing that plays into the outcome of success.
But we cannot discredit what Columbus did to successfully discover our great nation. He started with a dream, just like any entrepreneur or explorer, he believed in something that was not yet tangible. With that dream he was able to build a story, and translate it into something that could inspire others to believe with him. Through that story he was able to define a plan of action. Leading him to build a worthy crew, acquire boats, supplies, funding, and all kinds of different support. All of which was necessary to even embark on this journey.
Through intense planning and preparation they increased the chance of success. Still though, they didn’t even know if there was anything to discover, and you can imagine that during the more than 2 months of sailing, plenty went wrong, and the spirits of the crew were challenged. But they were determined and believed in a vision that was bigger than all of them combined. A world of equal opportunity for all. A country built off the idea of exploration.
That is what has always made America so great! The fact that this country was founded with the understanding that dreams are possible and that people can do whatever it is we put our minds to. So with that, I would like to say that being an American is a great luxury. We are blessed to live in a country where opportunities are endless and innovation is infinite.
We all have the ability to be explorers through entrepreneurship. Just make sure to embark on ventures that you truly believe in, and are willing to risk it all for. It is never guaranteed that you will reach the destination, but if the destination does exist, then you will only get there through committing to what you believe in. | https://medium.com/@loganoo8/deepdive-independence-day-a3eb8010abf8 | ['Logan Higuera'] | 2021-07-05 18:22:02.207000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'America', 'Entrepreneur', 'American Dream', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
How To Hire Nearshore Developers In The Dominican Republic | You might know the Dominican Republic for its colorful cities, tropical beaches, and vacation resorts. This country has everything you need to get your mind off work! Still, this is also a fantastic place to do business, especially when it comes to nearshore outsourcing. There’s so much potential in the Dominican Republic software development scene that hiring Dominican developers comes with several competitive advantages. Because of the different benefits, knowing how to hire nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic is essential for any US-based company looking for effective coding solutions.
If you’re wondering why you should start hiring nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic, this article will help you make up your mind. We’re dedicating this post to the ins and out of software outsourcing to the Dominican Republic. So keep reading to learn how to hire Dominican developers!
Benefits of hiring nearshore software developers in the Dominican Republic
#1 Physical proximity and similar time zones to the US.
The Dominican Republic is conveniently located in the Caribbean, only a few hours away from the United States. This allows your remote software development team to reach the US in merely 4.5 hours by plane if they ever need to, increasing collaboration opportunities. The time zone difference is almost insignificant as well, with the Dominican Republic being only an hour ahead of the EST time zone. With the working hours correlating almost at all times, it’s easy to work in real-time with nearshore developers and complete projects faster than with an offshore development team.
#2 Software development in the Dominican Republic keeps growing.
If you’re wondering how to hire nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic, you probably already know this country has a strong software development background. The Government allows flexible taxes to IT operations and is even investing in renewable energy to supercharge the local tech industry. Dominican developers have been increasingly dedicated to nearshoring to the United States, Canada, and Europe. This shows the country’s inclination towards exporting its coding solutions and the efforts made to position itself as a top nearshore outsourcing destination.
The major tech hubs are located in the country’s capital, Santo Domingo, and the smaller city of Santiago. These two locations boast the majority of IT operations in the country, being also the place of residency of many Dominican developers. When it comes to the GDP annual growth rate, the Dominican Republic faced complications due to the pandemic, as most of the world’s economies did. Still, you can see in the infographic down below that the GDP growth had remained steady during previous years. There’s no doubt that the Dominican Republic will bounce back from COVID-19 related growth issues and remain a prime location for nearshore outsourcing.
(The World Bank, GDP Data — The Dominican Republic)
#3 The Dominican Republic software development education is competitive.
As mentioned before, the major tech hubs of this top nearshore outsourcing destination are Santo Domingo and Santiago. In consequence, most technological universities and learning centers are located within these two cities. Many Dominican universities offer computer science, information technologies, and computing as undergraduate degrees. These institutions allow aspiring Dominican developers to perfect their coding skills and train for the competitive job market.
If there are aspiring nearshore developers in the Dominican republic who can’t or won’t attend university, there are still several online and in-person learning centers, virtual courses, and free internet resources available. This allows Dominican developers to fine-tune their skills without going through an undergraduate or master’s degree program. Though you can always vet candidates according to their level of education!
#4 Dominican developers have a strong command of the English language.
One of the most competitive advantages of choosing to hire nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic is their strong command of the English language. We know communication is a key factor when building trust with a remote software development team, so it’s always best to assure all developers are fluent in English. Lucky for you, Dominican developers have a high English level and will face no issues when communicating with the rest of your team.
According to the EF EPI Index, the Dominican Republic has a moderate English level with an overall score of 520 EPI points. It ranks #44 out of 112 countries and has the third highest English level in all of Latin America. This proves Dominican developers are ready to work with a US-based team and can handle projects conducted entirely in English.
#5 Hiring nearshore developers in The Dominican Republic costs less.
Considering that 1 Dominican peso equals 0.018 of a United States Dollar, it’s easy to see why the costs of hiring Dominican developers are lower compared to the average salaries of American IT professionals. The cost of living in the Dominican Republic is significantly cheaper than in the US, which means local professionals charge lower rates. Because of it, the USD salaries offered to nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic can be up to 40% lower than in the US while still being competitive within the local market.
Here is an estimate of the cost of hiring nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic:
Junior developers: $3000-$4000 USD per month.
Mid-level developers: $4000-$5000 USD per month.
Senior developers: $6000-$7000 USD per month.
Those are the standard rates for nearshore software outsourcing in the Dominican Republic. Please consider up to 40% extra costs if you’re working with a third-party firm.
#6 Nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic know different coding languages.
Because the Dominican Republic software development scene caters to a worldwide audience, Dominican developers understand the importance of having versatile expertise. These IT professionals know a variety of coding languages and technologies that can be applied to different types of projects.
Here are the most popular programming languages for software outsourcing to the Dominican Republic:
Django
Java
Javascript
PHP
ASP.NET
Python
Node.JS
Ruby
Ruby On Rails
jQuery
How to hire nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic
#1 Hire nearshore software development services through a staff augmentation firm.
The easiest way to start hiring nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic is through a staff augmentation agency. These firms (like we do at Next Idea Tech!) provide you with a curated network of Dominican developers to choose from. We also take care of the recruitment process and handle all the payments to nearshore developers, helping you save both time and money. Your company only needs to worry about vetting the candidates we select and deciding which developers are the right fit for your coding needs.
#2 Ask your contacts for an industry referral.
Referrals are great because they help you streamline the recruitment process. If you have a contact in the region or are familiar with nearshore software development, don’t hesitate to ask for a personal recommendation. This referral can be the difference between a week-long hiring process and a month’s worth of recruitment efforts!
#3 Work with a direct contractor.
Working with a direct contractor can save you money and give you more flexibility than some of these other options. Since you’re directly hiring Dominican developers to work for your company, there’s no third-party involvement or freelancing platform to take into account. Though keep in mind that most of these contractors have limited availability, so hiring them might take longer than expected. If you still want to recruit one, you can search for independent contractors on LinkedIn or via Google search.
#3 Post a job ad on different online communities and job boards.
Job boards and online communities are efficient places to post about any vacant positions. You can filter them by location, coding language, or IT field. Nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic and all of Latin America are constantly looking for new opportunities, so it’s a smart move to let them know of any openings. Many Dominican developers join online communities like Reddit or LinkedIn groups to find fellow coders or potential employers. It’s definitely worth giving these platforms a try!
#4 Contact a Global Employment Agency.
Global Employment Agencies and Global Employment Organizations are another way to start software outsourcing to the Dominican Republic. You can hire Dominican developers through them, so it’s easier to find talent than when you search for them on your own. GEAs and GEOs are very involved in all the processes, therefore this option includes a heavily present third party. They also charge the total cost of the nearshore developers’ salary, perks and benefits, and a fee of 10% or more for their services.
#5 Look for Dominican developers at local events.
Since the Dominican Republic software development scene is always growing, there are more coding conferences every year. Almost all local developers join these events usually held in the major tech hubs of the country. Since the rise of COVID-19, the conferences are held both virtually and in person, so there’s plenty of options if you want to join. Try to attend a few of these events to scout for Dominican developers interested in nearshoring for US-based companies!
#6 Search for contractors on freelancing platforms.
Nearshoring has become a solid alternative to traditional recruitment for increasingly more US-based companies, prompting the launch of services that facilitate it. That’s why many freelancing platforms, like UpWork and Fiverr, are popular options for hiring nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic. These platforms have their fair share of advantages, like the ability to upload a job posting and get responses to it within hours or even minutes. Still, the difficulties when vetting freelancers and the fact that they get a cut of the developer’s rate tend to undermine the benefits of these sites.
#7 Set up a local company for software development in the Dominican Republic.
Establishing a local company to get into the Dominican Republic software development scene is an ambitious yet effective nearshoring strategy. Setting up your own local subsidiary allows you to have complete control over all operations and expand your presence within the region. You can hire both in-person or remote developers depending on the infrastructure of the company and your personal preferences. Though you need to be sure you’re complying with all local regulations to avoid any legal hassle!
Want to know how to hire nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic? We can help!
Hiring nearshore developers in the Dominican Republic provides several long-term benefits to your company. Not only is remote work the future of employment relations, but nearshoring also helps you cut down any software development expenses. Hiring Dominican developers allows you to get the same quality coding solutions for a lower cost!
At Next Idea Tech, we work hard to provide US-based businesses with nearshore software development services delivered by remote professionals that understand your creative vision. We are here to bring your ideas to life! That’s why we work with a broad network of talented nearshore software developers and UI/UX designers skilled in many programming languages. We offer both staff augmentation and direct placement arrangements to help you hire nearshore software developers in the Dominican Republic and all of Latin America. Schedule a consultation with us to learn how you can start software outsourcing to the Dominican Republic! | https://medium.com/@realnextideatech/how-to-hire-nearshore-developers-in-the-dominican-republic-c0b45d4ffa58 | ['Next Idea Tech'] | 2021-11-24 22:06:54.566000+00:00 | ['Nearshore', 'Nearshore Development', 'Nearshoring', 'Software Development', 'Outsourcing'] |
Making Betrayal into Lemonade, Part 12 | As the weeks passed, Ward was damaging more and more of our possessions. One morning we were getting dressed in our bedroom and heard a sharp clatter and tinkling noises. We rushed out to discover Ward sweeping up one of our stoneware teacups. The handle had become brittle from being ‘double-boiled’ while resting directly on the bottom of a saucepan. When it broke, the cup fell and shattered on the ground. Beyond the stoneware in the kitchen, Ward apparently didn’t know that using metal mixing utensils in non-stick cookware ruins it for safe use.
When I was at work on the couch with my laptop, Ward would find something inconsequential in the corner of the room on the other side of my laptop power-cord that he wanted to investigate. He’d trip over the cord every time, even though it laid flat on the floor. My laptop stopped charging after the millionth time. Thankfully, Luke is familiar with coaxial cable repair. Otherwise our only means of earning money would have been gone.
One by one, the list of things we would have to either replace or repair was getting longer. Three weeks of entertaining morning stories and midnight hallway yelling later, I called Bob to ask how his progress was coming on Ward’s living quarters.
“He’s still screaming at night, Bob. And he truly thinks that the Illuminati are out to get him. And we’re running out of stuff for him to break. Please tell me you’ll be done with construction soon.”
Bob apologized that he didn’t have a completion estimate yet. “We’re waiting on some plumbing parts to come in, and then it’s going to have to be warm enough to work.”
Being late February, it had been extremely cold recently, I had to admit. Lately we were running the propane heater much more often to keep the house a decent temperature, and the tank beside the house had run dry.
“We’re out of propane over here, and we’re running out of scrap wood from the yard to keep a fire going.” The house’s fireplace was actually only intended to be used for cosmetic purposes only, but we were desperate for warmth and stretching its capabilities.
“I’ll see what I can do. Oh, and I called Ward’s daughter to ask about that screaming, and about the stories. She says he’s pulling your leg. He likes to joke around like that.”
“Bob, nobody jokes around like this. He’s very serious.”
Bob wasn’t convinced, but he did come over and chop down one of the nearly dead trees in the front yard so that we could better heat our home with the cosmetic fireplace that lost 80% of its heat out of the back wall. It was sweet of him for at least trying.
About six weeks into his stay with us, Ward got morbidly serious about a number of things relating to our life choices. He didn’t agree that Luke should be content staying home with Tora while I was out seeking new business. After Luke repaired and double-reinforced the laptop power cord, Ward finally voiced that he didn’t like the way my constant attention on work bled into the time that he considered adult play time in the evening hours. (I suppose he did have a point there, but we were desperate for earnings.) He would have preferred to watch television or movies instead of watching me work.
Ward voiced his opinion that we were bad parents to Tora for a few reasons: The first was that I was the mother, the more natural nurturer in his opinion, and I wasn’t insisting upon staying home; The second was that we weren’t doing enough to keep the house warm, in his opinion; The third was that we allowed cats with sharp claws to occupy our home with our toddler.
One day Tora had started crying about being scratched on the hand by one of the cats. It was the kind of minor scratch that was likely to be healed and gone in a matter of hours, but her feelings had been hurt. Luke, as always, was quickly on the scene and comforted her like a champ.
Ward ambled into the living room where I was taking a break from website design to do some yoga. Looking down at where I was twisted into a ball on the floor, he declared, “Someone’s going to find out that you allow your daughter to be abused by the cats in your home. And the spirits had an all-out party in her room last night. Are you going to do anything about them? Someone’s going to find out about that too, eventually.”
Ward continually refreshed my memory on which population groups he didn’t approve of living. He didn’t like the government for controlling lives more than what was laid out in the original constitution, for asking him to pay taxes (which he didn’t pay on principle.) He didn’t like Germans because they were conniving and evil. He didn’t like Asians because they were too smart and sneaky. I certainly remembered that he didn’t like Catholics. And then he didn’t like Jews because of their secret holy documents allowing the rape of two-year-old children.
“Let me stop you right there. You know that Tora is two, right?” I could feel my blood pressure rising.
“I know!” He blurted. “That’s why I knew you’d want to be well informed about what they’re capable of.”
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing that Jewish people don’t live in the Ozarks, huh.” My snarky comment covered up the battle that was happening in my mind. Why was he so specific about the age of the alleged rape victims of Jews? Was he setting up a scapegoat scenario to avoid punishment for a future crime that he’d perpetrate on my daughter? This man was getting to me.
If he was kidding, as Bob had suggested, his humor resembled that of a sociopath. If he wasn’t kidding, then he was, at best, battling schizophrenia. And at the very worst, he was a pedophile grooming a situation where he could freely justify his urges, likely fueled on by the E. D. pills. Adult sexual predation was never not a possibility in our living situation. I had to keep my Tora safe.
At one of Patty’s performance group rehearsals, I relayed the state of things to her. “Patty, it’s like a looney bin in our house right now. We’re not getting sleep. I’m not totally sure that Tora is safe around Ward, and that possibility is eating me up inside.” The truth was, we did not know this man who was suddenly sleeping in the bedroom next to our daughter’s, using our new bedding, breaking our dishes and accusing us of being unfit parents.
“Joy, I don’t know what you want me to say. You’re living in my dad’s house. This is his factory. It’s all we have to give. He’s doing the best he can with what he has. Do you want me to say that he’s mistreating you? Because I can’t say that. He’s my dad.”
Patty was right, of course. It was just time to end the experiment. | https://medium.com/doing-our-part/making-betrayal-into-lemonade-fd96c4ffc47b | ['Joy Ellsworth'] | 2019-02-24 06:19:29.704000+00:00 | ['Aging', 'Housing Crisis', 'Geriatrics', 'Mental Health', 'Schizophrenia'] |
The Is How Antidepressants Changed My Life and May Change Yours | How did my story begin?
It was a cold day in December 2018. I remember waking up at 2 pm, after spending the whole night awake trying to convince my mind to stop thinking and give me the peace to be able to close my eyes. I woke up, looked through my window and a couple of questions came to my mind about whether I should get out of my bed or stay there for a couple of more hours. I remember feeling an intense sorrow at that time. It was then that I remembered that I have my first appointment with the psychiatrist. I couldn’t eat that time, I remember grabbing a small piece of chocolate to shut my starving stomach up and went out without even caring about the way I dressed or the way I smelled.
My appointment with my psychiatrist was urgently requested by my university after I wasn’t able to write my final exams for the first time in my life. It was heartbreaking for me to see myself completely paralyzed and not being able to do the basic things of life. I was sad and felt miserable because I wasn’t able to keep up with school. I felt empty because my situation affected the education that I worked very hard all my life for and which was the most valuable thing for me.
So I finally met with the psychiatrist, and after a couple of hours of discussion, and asking a battery of questions, he evaluated my symptoms and gave me the bad news by telling me straight out “Mohamed, I am very sorry but you are Severely Depressed”. That day will remain in my memory. I was diagnosed with severe major depression along with other disorders such as anxiety and adjustment disorders. My doctor also explained to me how I most likely spent most of my life living with the disease.
How did I take the news?
I looked at him, my eyes filled with tears and I took my first deep breath in a very long time.
I honestly can’t remember not being depressed. Even before I knew what it was, I knew I wasn’t like everyone else. My teen years were especially tough and I struggled on many levels. I was always either too sad or too happy, I was never in a normal situation, never in between, and even my happy moments seemed fake, very short and always missing something that I was never able to clearly identify.
I had no idea how removed I was from myself. I had been living life holding my breath and smiling and people-pleasing to avoid people seeing me as I saw myself. Because I admit that I spent a long time seeing myself as an unloveable unworthy person.
When I got the diagnosis, I was both relieved and overwhelmed. Finally, something made sense and I’m going to get the help I need. Having my official diagnosis was a bit like staring at an elephant for many years before declaring it an elephant.
Now that I have the diagnosis, what’s the plan of action?
The doctor said that there were enough pieces of evidence to suggest prescribing medications. I was terrified and I asked my doctor if he would advise his own son to take medications for depression and he said yes without hesitation, which was encouraging.
After my session, I went directly to the pharmacy to get the pills, but what’s funny is that I was too convinced that I would just buy them without taking them.
I was scared and lost. I reached out to some of my good friends, who helped me think about the pros and cons of taking the medication, and after taking the time to think about the decision of taking the medications I was convinced that it was probably the right thing to do because at that time nothing seemed to work with me despite having two therapists and a strong support system.
How do I describe the moment I took the medication?
I remember taking my first pill of antidepressant the same day of diagnosis and sleeping eight hours. The day I took the pills was the last time I felt the way I used to feel all my life.
My doctor suggested that I start on a low dose of the antidepressant for the week and then increase it and see how it goes.
Many doctors advise their patients to wait a duration of four to six weeks for their antidepressants to work, but some medications can kick out quickly and that was exactly what happened to me.
On the first day on the pills, I felt different, I woke up having a stable mood, I couldn’t believe it because in the past my mood used to swing between four to five states in one hour, but that day I had a stable mood. I couldn’t believe it and I reached out to some friends asking them if that was how they usually feel. I felt like people without depression has a great advantage that I never had, which was having a stable mood. I felt like I was cheated on by my brain for not having that privilege before.
I also felt no anxiety whatsoever. It felt good. Like being cured of a terrible disease, and it felt like a miracle to me.
On that day, I didn’t feel the need to cry and life seemed crystal clear for the first time. As clear as a very sunny day in the middle of an ocean.
The time when I was outside I didn’t feel a bit of fear. I was out in the dark and everything was normal, and I never knew I can smile that wide.
But….There is always a but
My medication came with a cost that I had to pay. My pills had some side effects that affected my life somehow, but I was ready to tolerate it as long as I don’t feel depressed or hopeless again. Here are the major side effects of my antidepressants:
Anorgasmia: Which means since I took the pills I could never achieve orgasm anymore, and my sex life was completely destroyed
Having numb emotions: The thing with the type of medication I was taking is that no only it muted the negative emotions, but also the positive ones, I felt my emotions were flat, and I faced a hard time caring about people the way I used to do before, which affected my relationships
After a few months of being on medications, I was still experiencing some symptoms of my depression, because what my medication did was that it eased my symptoms, it didn’t cure the disease completely.
My doctor added a new medication to fight my insomnia because I remember I used to stay awake for three days in a row. I was lucky with my first antidepressants, but with this second one I was easily falling asleep for seventeen hours directly and I felt so sad because I had the pressure of my academic obligations, so sleeping that long didn’t help at all. I spoke to my doctor and after a process of trial and error, we found the right medications and the right dosage that I had to take.
I believe that my life is getting back on track gradually. I can do anything with fewer obstacles than the past. I am experimenting and learning new things.
Do antidepressants really work?
There is such a wide range of anti-depressants that I, nor anyone really, can answer that question as a blanket statement.
I can definitely say medication is what saved myself. I was lucky to be prescribed the right medications for the first time, however, in most cases, it is a trial and error process. It requires a lot of courage, patience, and empathy towards oneself.
There are a lot of antidepressants, and everyone needs to communicate with their doctor to find the right medication along with the right dose
Side effects are also a thing and the choice of medication should take all the factors that contribute to living a quality life. In the beginning, I sacrificed my sex life, and my ability to feel things in an intense way, but now I feel I am in a better place to ask my doctor to prescribe me a new medication that doesn’t have a side effect that would affect me or reduce my dosage as he mentioned in our last session and on my god I am so excited for that.
Lessons learned from my experience?
Depression took a huge part of my life, It was very hard for me to imagine my self experiencing the feeling of not being depressed. These are the lessons I learned from my mental condition: | https://medium.com/invisible-illness/the-is-how-antidepressants-changed-my-life-and-may-change-yours-ae87ef04733d | ['Mohamed Maoui'] | 2020-04-16 19:35:27.113000+00:00 | ['Depression', 'Mental Health', 'Advice', 'Awareness', 'Antidepressants'] |
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Urban gardening and a discussion on sustainable food production | Urban gardening and a discussion on sustainable food production
Why should you bother to grow your own miniscule amount of food?
Photo by Author.
Let’s talk about urban gardening today! I’m going to be using it as a prop to discuss sustainable food production, so get ready. 🙂 Urban gardening is a modern term that separates traditional gardening and small scale farming from home gardens in cities and urban environment. Essentially, it covers small house or rented plot gardens, balcony and terrace gardens in apartment buildings and all other tiny gardens people use to grow a bit of food at home.
The importance of green spaces
Urban gardening is a bit of a contradicting phenomenon — traditionally people grew food on the large scale to be as self-sufficient as possible and reduce the cost of their food. Now, unless you actually rent a plot of land outside the city or are lucky enough that your house comes with a proper garden that is almost farmable land and usually in the suburbs, you are likely hard pressed to grow enough food to even being to talk about reducing your food costs. However, a lot of people, including me, still do it, and personally I think most of us should if we can. All the photos in this post are from my 2020 terrace garden.
Photo by Author.
The mental health benefits of having access to green spaces are quite well known at this point, which is why cities have parks and people like to go for nature walks. This year in particular, various coronavirus lockdowns around the world have shown us the importance of having enough living space and preferably a park nearby, as some people were confined inside their tiny apartments with no breathing space for months. If you had a balcony or a garden, you were fine, but what about people stuck in concrete neighbourhoods in the middle of the city?
The amount of urbanized land is steadily increasing due to overpopulation and the ever-increasing need for housing, service facilities, work spaces etc., which means there is les and less land available for food production and general greenery. Here’s is a great science-based post about it and the importance of urban gardening with UK statistics as an example. At the same time, we as a global consumerist society are more spoiled than ever and we demand more and more from the shops and suppliers: more fresh produce, more availability no matter the season and more diversity. Everything, no matter how exotic or out of season must be available always and in unlimited quantities, because if I want an avocado or a strawberry in winter, I want it now.
Sustainable food production and seasonality
Although I’m not one to subscribe to the romantic ideology of “returning to nature” and “synchronising with our natural cycles”, I do feel that we have completely lost touch with the passing of the seasons and the enormity of the process that is food production, which is both unsustainable and unhealthy in the long run. If we focus just on fruit and vegetables for now, most of us are already completely disconnected from the very idea that fruits and vegetables take time to grow and that they don’t just grow at any time, let alone that milk comes from a cow. Having fruit and vegetables available out of season necessarily means that their growth had to be helped along with fertilizers and artificial maturation, which ultimately shows in both taste and poorer quality of the produce. Tomatoes in winter are a perfect example, they just never taste quite right and have a rather metallic smell…
While I am lucky enough that I get to buy my greens directly from the farmers in Slovenia, almost everything I ate while I lived in Sweden was imported, grown in greenhouses and matured in warehouse units. Even though I eat everything and my body naturally craves seasonal produce in the right season, it can be hard to resist those tempting bright red strawberries on the shelf in winter, which are also super expensive, because it takes an unnatural amount of effort and energy to grow them. Or perhaps they were grown in a country with a more suitable climate and then had to be transported halfway around the world, harvested half-ripe to survive the journey. Both production and transport require additional energy and resources that we usually don’t even think about, and the strawberries can potentially end up as food waste, because they are just that expensive and not even very tasty. It’s bad enough for the environment that some food must necessarily be imported in plenty of countries where the climate and soil are just not right to grow enough of it, but we escalate it further by demanding everything, all the time.
Photo by Author.
But what does all this have to do with urban gardening, you may ask?
Well, while you will likely never grow enough food in your urban garden to be self-sufficient, urban gardening is the perfect way for city people to get more in touch with food production and the sustainability aspects of it. There’s a certain undeniable satisfaction in planting something, watching it grow and ultimately getting to eat it, which can be almost meditative and is apparently supposed to have a positive effect on your mental health. It will definitely test your patience, reminding you that every piece of food you are buying took its time to grow. There’s also an undeniable difference between homegrown food and that bought in the supermarket in terms of quality and availability, reminding you that seasonality is important and hopefully influencing your demand, inspiring you to purchase more seasonal produce and pay attention to it.
Plants as carbon sinks
Beyond that however, there are other benefits: every single plant, no matter how small, is a carbon sink. Plants use CO2 during photosynthesis and produce oxygen, which is a much needed thing these days. If all roofs were covered in grass, which is an incredibly efficient carbon sink, we’d be a small step closer to mitigating the climate change problem. Now, you might say I’m exaggerating, but check this out: most of the food in the world is currently grown with traditional farming practices, which includes ploughing, i.e. overturning of the soil. Although the invention of the plough is considered the start of an agricultural revolution, it is increasingly clear that it was actually an environmental disaster. Ploughing both harms biodiversity and releases all the accumulated CO2 back into the atmosphere when it disrupts the upper layers of the soil and the plant and fungal systems inside them. Here’s an article with more specifics, but the significant thing about ploughing and the environment is this: within the EU, half of the agricultural greenhouse gas emissions come from agricultural soil ( source). Soil, not animals! That part about carbon sinks doesn’t seem so useless now, right? If we don’t reduce our emissions it won’t make a difference in the long run, but every bit is better than nothing.
Photo by Author.
Accountability
Next up: homegrown food is always accountable and grown in controlled circumstances. If you used a fertilizer, you know exactly what you used, where you bought the seeds and how much child labour was exploited in the process (urban gardening is a great way to teach your kids about patience and where food comes from). Even if you buy supermarket food with the sustainable/organic/local labels on it, it can often be grown in foreign countries, where the environmental and fair trade regulations may not be the same and there is unfortunately no real, foolproof way to hold the entire supply chain accountable. It is better than nothing though, and by shopping food with labels like fair trade, you are indirectly investing into the possibility of creating and one day sustaining a system where all the workers are paid fairly, because consumer demand allows organisations that regulate these things to grow and increase the number and efficiency of accountability checks. In a perfect world, of course…
Photo by Author.
However, there’s a fair argument that local and organic labels aren’t worth a damn, if we don’t change the way we farm and produce food on the mass scale. Most of our food is still produced from intensive monoculture farming, which relies heavily on ploughing and fertilisers and is known for thoroughly exhausting and depleting the soil. All of it is of course still classified as eco, organic and local, if it doesn’t use harmful chemicals and practices, because we are a long way from officially embracing regenerative farming (which happens to involve grazing animals, so vegans are not always right about their sustainable diet) and no-till soil preparation. Here is a great opinion article about it.
But, back to urban gardening!
As you can see, sustainable food production and facilitating it by influencing consumer demand with our shopping habits often ends up being a catch 22, much like many other environmental issues. However, there are also purely practical reasons to start an urban garden.
Money savings
We’ve covered the model sustainability impacts and the mental health benefits of it, so now we can talk about how urban gardening saves you money. Now, obviously unless you rent a plot of land or have a decently-sized garden, you won’t be saving that much on your fruits and vegetables, but it is entirely possible to be practically self-sustainable with herbs, even in a tiny apartment. Most herbs will grow on your windowsill, even in a tiny cup, with limited light and during winter. During the summer, your herbs will grow like crazy and, if you prune and harvest them regularly, you can amass quite a lot and dry them for later use. I don’t know about your country, but most herbs are about 1–3 euros per 5–30 g packages in mine. If you actually use them to cook and season your food, that is not an insignificant cost on a yearly basis, particularly when you consider that a package of seeds will cost you about the same as one package of herbs and will last for multiple seasons. Just saying.
Self-sufficiency
Additionally, every single piece of food is a tiny step towards being self-sufficient and a piece of food that didn’t need to be transported anywhere. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, food supply chains across the world were disrupted, and governments everywhere began to be painfully aware just how self-sufficient they are (not). Slovenia for example, is 100%+ covered when it comes to meat needs, but only about 30–50% self-sufficient when it comes to grains and greens. In the recent years, farmers all across Slovenia turned from fields to livestock, because the produce prices were at an all time low, the government refused to significantly subsidize it and all that effort was just not worth it anymore. Raising livestock requires significantly less physical work than working the land and an animal doesn’t care if the season is unusually dry or too wet, or there’s hail or a bad freeze. I suppose we’ll all just eat burgers and die of scurvy?
Photo by Author.
One of the more memorable official pandemic statements was, that “citizens should be encouraged to practice urban gardening and grow as much food as possible”. Because yes, me planting some radishes during my lockdown will magically make the country’s demand for food less dire, right? However, despite the ridiculousness and the timing of that statement, I can’t help but agree. We all know that it ultimately takes official legislation and encouragement for people to move and change, so if even just one more person started their garden or took advantage of a local subsidized garden plot, then that’s a good thing.
How to start your urban garden
And this brings us to how to start your own urban garden. First and foremost, start small and use the space you have efficiently. Most things that grow in pots require very little effort: you plant them, water them and they grow. You can maximise your growing space by taking advantage of companion planting, i.e. planting together those plants that are considered good neighbours and require compatible soil nutrients and water levels. I find that herbs grow great in just about anything and they don’t need much space if you prune them regularly, while larger vegetables require larger pots and proper planting soil.
Besides herbs such as rosemary, sage, savoury, basil, mint, dill, parsley, oregano, chives etc., plants that work well for small urban gardens in individual pots or balcony trays are cherry tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens, kale and chard, strawberries, raspberries, chillies etc. Radishes are also great, because they grow fast and large, as well as carrots, but you need a large pot to get them to grow to a decent size. If you want to start a proper garden on a larger plot of land, there are tons of options and advice on the Internet, but for that you need to commit a bit more, because it requires a bit more wok.
If you want minimal effort gardening, however, grow sprouts. Radish or watercress sprouts will be edible within a week and can literally grow in a cup of water. Speaking of, lots of herbs will also grow in hydroponics, i.e. water, so there’s no soil involved at all.
There’s really no excuse not to have an urban garden now, right? And after you’ve harvested your first herbs, you can check out my post about storing and preserving them for as long as possible. Or, if you’re not starting a garden, maybe at least consider where your food comes from and what could be done better… 🙂
Originally published at https://erraticengineeress.blog on September 8, 2020. | https://medium.com/an-idea/urban-gardening-and-a-discussion-on-sustainable-food-production-58ee5a2a50ac | ['Petra', 'Erratic Engineeress'] | 2020-10-07 12:32:30.371000+00:00 | ['Urban Farming', 'Sustainability', 'Food Production', 'Urban Gardening', 'Sustainable Farming'] |
St John, my young lover’s fetish | Nancy Fairchild
“I tried to relax so he could go deeper inside me. Finally, he pushed his tongue inside my sphincter and swirled it around my rim, the first time a man had done that.”
One of the things that melts my heart is when a man fixates on my feet. It’s not so much that I am into foot worship, although it is fun, but if a man has a thing for my feet, I know I own him.
One warm London evening I was sitting on our balcony. At the time our apartment was in Notting Hill, in a new apartment block which had an inner courtyard surrounded on all sides by a rectangular building and each apartment had a balcony. We were on the first floor and the apartment directly above us was occupied by a Dutch couple. They were nice, a little kinky and more than a little boring.
I was just wearing a short purple satin robe which barely covered my holdup stockings, my bra and knickers and I was still wearing the heels I had worn out to dinner with my husband earlier that evening. For some reason I assumed I was unobserved.
I was having a glass of wine and it was a little late and my husband had gone to bed. I was still up and looking for something interesting to do so I was sexting my lovers. On one occasion I undid my robe and took off my bra and tossed it on the balcony floor and took a picture of my breasts and sent them to Adrian, a professor in Oxford who had been fucking me very well for the last five years. He also has an apartment in London in the same building, but he wasn’t home at the time. If he had been, I would have knocked on his door earlier that evening, because I really wanted to be fucked.
I happened to look up at that instance to see two handsome men, leaning over the balcony directly above, ogling me. One of them was my Dutch neighbor and the other I had never seen before. They both had big smiles on their faces.
“It looks like you aren’t sending that picture to your husband,” Ruud, my Dutch neighbor said. “I saw him earlier today, so I know he’s home. Who’s the lucky man?”
“Somebody I’ve known for a long time,” I replied, amused at his cleverness. “Just something to let him know what’s he’s missing.”
“I bet you sent it to Adrian,” Ruud replied. “You should tell him to close his curtains. You two have been putting on a regular sex show for years for the entire building. Whenever we see you enter his apartment, we get a bottle of wine and come out on our balcony to watch the show.”
“I don’t believe you,” I said, stunned at the realization that the entire building seemed to know I was Adrian’s lover. I also had never thought of closing the curtains when I went to Adrian’s apartment. He liked to make love to me with the lights on.
“Come up and see,” he replied. “We have plenty of wine so leave your glass at home. My wife’s not here, thank god. She doesn’t approve of you.”
I looked up again at the two and studied the one I didn’t know and liked what I saw. He was young, handsome and had an intelligent look about him. He also had a totally charming smile.
If I was a different sort of woman, I would have put something a little less slutty on. I thought about that for a second and just stepped into the bathroom and sprayed a little perfume on my neck.
When I entered Ruud’s apartment five minutes later, I could tell immediately that his friend was very interested in me despite our age gap. His name was St John, which is pronounced ‘Sinjen’ in England. It’s one of my favorite men’s names.
He was about two inches taller than me, slim, blonde and very fit. He reminded me of a more virile and younger version of my husband, Brian. As a Jewish American Princess from New York I have a thing for young gentiles, particularly from a refined class. Sinjen’s name alone, identified him as just that type. Nobody would have the audacity to name their child that unless they were assuredly from the aristocratic stratosphere that looked at the rest of England with contempt.
I did go out on the balcony and realized I could look directly into Adrian’s apartment, including the bedroom, kitchen and living room where Adrian had taken me hundreds of times. Thank god my husband didn’t have the same view one floor below.
We made small talk for a bit and I sat on the sofa right next to Sinjen who couldn’t keep his eyes off my stocking tops. I made sure they were visible as well as a swath of my bare thighs. We had a glass of wine and shared some small talk but there was a sexual energy running through the room that was impossible to ignore.
It didn’t take long for me to lift Sinjen’s hand and place it on my thigh. Ruud wasn’t pleased with my actions, but what did he expect? He and his wife had spent years seeing me get fucked by Adrian, so it wasn’t as if he didn’t know what I was capable of. I put down my glass and opened my robe and put his other hand on my breasts. Then we started kissing. Admittedly, I had met Sinjen only fifteen minutes before, but I’m not known for my restraint.
As soon as it became obvious to Ruud that Sinjen and I were destined to spend the night together he went to bed and we went into the guest bedroom. He was just 24 years old and his body still looked like that of a teenager. I have a huge thing for young men. There was something about Sinjen that just made me want to devour him. I did that as soon as we took our clothes off. I grabbed his cock, gripping it tightly, just below the head, and started to give him a blow job, just concentrating on his helmet, the most sensitive part of a cock. It’s a way to tease a man and drive him crazy. After ten minutes he was going nuts and every time he tried to unlock my grip, I pushed him away, laughing.
The thing I most love about fucking young men is that it’s fun. There’s nothing serious about it. It’s just pure lust.
Sinjen’s cock is really nice. Long, thick and circumcised, and he is considerate enough to shave. I fell in love with it on first sight and really enjoyed playing with it. I have a big thing for large cocks because my pussy is made for them. Sinjen’s prick is a little larger than my husband’s and an inch or two smaller than my black lover, Colin’s cock, which really stretches my limits. I can only take Colin once a week because he ruins me for a day or so afterwards. I could handle Sinjen’s cock every day of the week.
I was really just happy to continue doing what I was doing until Sinjen lost it and came in my mouth, but he insisted on moving my legs, so I was directly over him. What he did next really endeared him to me. He started worshipping my ass, exploring me with his tongue and trying to force it in my rosebud. I love that so much it made me lose concentration on his cock. I just closed my eyes and lost myself in the sensation because it also checks a few psychological boxes for me. I gave up the grip on his cock and put my hands on my ass cheeks and pulled them apart, so he had greater access to my anus. He literally started French kissing it and I could feel the tip of his tongue enter me slightly. I tried to relax so he could go deeper inside me. Finally, he pushed his tongue inside my sphincter and swirled it around my rim, the first time a man had done that. A wave of erotic pleasure went through me and I put two of my fingers on my clit and came after about thirty seconds of touching it. It was one of the most powerful orgasms I had ever had, and it further relaxed my anus allowing Sinjen to probe me deeper with his tongue. I brought myself off twice more, each time just by barely touching my clit. I was coated with perspiration when I finally collapsed on the bed and Sinjen gently removed his tongue.
I was almost too spent to fuck and rolled over on my back as jolts of pleasure ran through my body. Sinjen sensed it wasn’t the time to rush things. He started kissing my legs and thighs and then traveled down to my feet and began sucking my toes. That is another erotic hot spot for me, and it felt perfect. I could tell he was doing something he enjoyed doing so I felt no guilt about receiving pleasure. He licked the bottom of my feet and took each toe in his mouth and sucked it like he was sucking a tiny cock.
My husband gives me pedicures like no expensive salon in London could. There was never any rough skin on them and my toenails were works of art. I knew I have pretty feet. They aren’t tiny but they are perfect for my height. Like my husband, I am 5’6’’. We both have the same shoe size, a 6 UK. After 20 minutes my fingers moved down to my clit again and I brought myself off slowly as I concentrated on the pleasure Sinjen was giving me. I looked down at his cock and saw it was rock hard. When he looked up at me, I suggested he fuck my feet with his cock. He broke out in a smile and put his hand in his mouth and coated his cock with his saliva and put my feet tightly on his cock and began fucking them. He didn’t last long and spurted his hot spunk on the top of my right foot. His cum looked beautiful there and we both burst out in laughter at the sight.
We held each other after that, and he told me who he was. He had graduated from Cambridge two years before and now worked at an investment bank. He didn’t tell me his salary, but I knew it was probably in the six figures. He said that was never his dream, but his father had pushed him into a career in finance. He loved music, dancing and art. So do I. I told him about my marriage which gave me the freedom to do what I want and my love of travel. And my insatiable sex drive.
I liked him a lot right from the beginning and he liked me even more. We had a lot of sex that night and then we started dating. Not one of his friends were in the least bit judgmental about our relationship, our age difference and my marital status. It is fun going out dancing in East End clubs and then spending the night at Sinjen’s apartment.
Besides my husband, I miss Sinjen more than any other man, and that includes my black lover, Colin. Colin and I are just about sex, Sinjen and I have a blast with each other both in bed and on the dance floor.
Sinjen fills a part of my life my husband never could. Brian is too introspective and shy to do the things that Sinjen and I do. I take my husband’s complete devotion to me sometimes for granted. I am going to change that next year, but I am not going to change Sinjen’s place in my life.
Sinjen’s foot fetish doesn’t extend to anyone else except me. I awakened that in him on the first night we spent together. Since then he has bought me the most beautiful, expensive and vividly designed shoes every week. Not just heels. Prada flats, Christian Louboutin heels and beautiful white tennis shoes. I have a closet full of expensive shoes waiting for me back in London, some of them I’ve never worn. I love that Sinjen has a huge thing for my feet and makes enough money to indulge me. My absence in his life has probably saved him a small fortune.
When we make love, Sinjen is happiest worshipping my ass and then my feet. It’s a pretty luxurious feeling. Our sex is electrifying, and I love being spoiled.
He would marry me if I asked him to but my husband, Brian, came first. But knowing that he would gladly enter into the same sort of relationship my husband enjoys with me, makes me feel very lucky. He’s incredibly handsome and he could have his pick of women, but I’ve got him addicted to me. I can do that with a few men in the world. When a man is addicted to me, he will do anything to make me happy. Brian is one of those men. Sinjen is now Brian’s back-up, although that’s a secret I keep to myself.
He’s remained faithful to me the entire time we have been apart. I didn’t ask him to do that, but I do encourage him to masturbate and think of me. I’ve never even considered the possibility of my husband, Brian, not being faithful to me literally since the day we met.
I could really fall in love with Sinjen and have considered allowing myself to do that, but that might take the fun we have together out of it, and we would have serious questions to face. I know he’s on the verge of falling in love with me, if he hasn’t already.
When I left for the island I am now on in February, I spent the night before I caught the flight with Sinjen, not with my husband. We didn’t sleep. Now we write to each other three or four times a week and I usually send him a picture of my feet to keep him happy. He is going to fuck me a lot in the coming years and we will start again as soon as I get back.
Author’s Note: This was written before Sinjen and I married. He now shares his wife with her other husband. | https://medium.com/take-my-wife-please/st-john-my-young-lovers-fetish-2e6fcdeedb0c | ['Nancy Fairchild'] | 2020-11-23 12:41:42.278000+00:00 | ['Sexuality', 'Polyamory', 'Erotica', 'Affairs', 'Fetish'] |
Authenticating Laravel 8.6 API’s using jwt-auth & document with knuckleswtf /scribe | Laravel is a PHP framework that is used to develop web applications and application programming interfaces (API’s). Developing API’s for a web based or mobile application will require one to develop a security based authentication feature implying only registered users can gain access. In this article, the feature focus on the following API’s :- login, refresh token, forgot password, change password and logout. Third party packages used in the development are jwt-auth and scribe . Jwt-auth generates a jason web token while scribe facilitates documenting API’s.
Create a laravel project
Create a new Laravel 8.6 project by opening the command prompt (cmd or terminal) and change directory to your desired location for the project. i.e
cd /var/www/html/
Then run the command
composer create-project laravel/laravel my-app
Once the project created successfully, navigate the root of the application to locate the .env file to set the database connection. As of now, the assumption being one is using mysql or mariadb and has already created a database for the application in local machine. Locate the section below and DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME and DB_PASSWORD.
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=your_database
DB_USERNAME=your_database_username
DB_PASSWORD=your_database_password
Use composer to install third party packages — jwt-auth and scribe
Now, proceed with the installation of third party packages. In the open command prompt, change directory to that of the application if applications root directory not open on the command prompt.
cd my-app
Run the following command using composer to install jwt-auth.
composer require tymon/jwt-auth
Configure jwt-auth
Navigate to config folder in the the project’s root to access the app.php file. In the app.php file, locate providers and add jwt-auth provider as shown below. Copy Tymon\JWTAuth\Providers\LaravelServiceProvider::class, and paste in the providers array as illustrated.
'providers' => [
...other providers
Tymon\JWTAuth\Providers\LaravelServiceProvider::class,
]
2. A config file for jwt-auth is generated by running the following command.
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Tymon\JWTAuth\Providers\LaravelServiceProvider"
3. Navigate to jwt.php file in config and make the following changes
'defaults' => [
'guard' => 'api',
'passwords' => 'users',
],
...
'guards' => [
'api' => [
'driver' => 'jwt',
'provider' => 'users',
],
],
4. The jwt-auth package is set; at this point a key needs generation using the command below. It will update the .env file.
php artisan jwt:secret
Once the installation is complete and through with configuration, do the same for scribe.
Install and configure scribe
Use the following command to install scribe.
composer require --dev knuckleswtf/scribe
Configure scribe
Publish scribe.php config file with the following command.
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Knuckles\Scribe\ScribeServiceProvider" --tag=scribe-config
Run the following command to test if the installation works.
php artisan scribe:generate
NB: Naviagate to providers in the app folder and locate AppServiceProviders to make a few changes indicated as:
<?php namespace App\Providers; use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
use Illuminate\Http\Resources\Json\JsonResource; class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
// other lines of code ommitted
public function boot()
{
JsonResource::withoutWrapping();
Schema::defaultStringLength('255');
}
}
The default string length increases the limit of the possible characters to store in a database table field. The without wrapping ensures response from API calls has no data wrapping around it.
configure the default user model in models/user.php to work with jwt-auth
The first thing is class User to implement the contract JWTSubject followed by implementing two methods from the contract. The implementation facilitates jwt-auth to work with the user model.
Ensure it has the following look as explained in documentation | https://medium.com/@patricknzambu/authentication-apis-in-laravel-8-6-with-jwt-auth-token-knuckleswtf-scribe-for-api-documentation-e165163c1e15 | [] | 2021-01-19 05:13:08.690000+00:00 | ['Jwt Token', 'Json Api', 'Jwt Auth', 'Laravel', 'Scribe'] |
How the Watergate Scandal Showed Corruption in American Politic. | How the Watergate Scandal Showed Corruption in American Politic.
Photo by Greg Bulla on Unsplash
The Watergate scandal or the Watergate affair was an American political scandal in the 1970s that revealed illicit methods had been used during the 1972 presidential campaign. The scandal eventually led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon (R-California) in 1974.
Presidential election campaign
In November 1972, Republican Richard Nixon won the US presidential election against Democratic candidate U.S. Senator George McGovern (D-South Dakota). The proportions were very different a year earlier. In the Democratic camp, the left-wing McGovern had no chance against moderate Senator Edmund Muskie (D-Maine).
The latter seemed promising against unpopular President Nixon, who had failed to deliver on his promise to end the Vietnam War.
Strange things happened during the campaign. The Republicans seemed to know Muskie’s strategy exactly. In their speeches, information came out from the Democrats’ campaign team, driving Muskie to despair. George McGovern, unaware of anything, took advantage of Muskie’s weakening and won primary after primary, and finally the nomination.
And that was what Nixon had been all about. McGovern was far too radical to stand a chance. Moreover, he was now bothered by the inside information that the Republicans seemed to have.
Watergate
On the night of June 17, 1972, five men were arrested during a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate Complex in Washington. The purpose of the break-in was likely to be eavesdropping.
However, it was also speculated that the break-in was intended to obtain incriminating papers on billionaire Howard Hughes’ payments to Nixon and to link the Democrats to Hughes. Larry O’Brien, the chairman of the Democrats’ campaign team whose office was broken into, had been a paid lobbyist for Hughes since 1968. Later, the burglars paid their first visit to the headquarters on May 28, 1972.
Documents were photographed, and eavesdropping equipment was installed. Unsatisfied with the results, John Mitchell of the Republican Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP) ordered the burglars to visit again, aiming to get better material.
Sentencing
A year later, the five, plus Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt was found guilty of the burglary by Judge John Sirica.
The journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post revealed the real cause of the burglary. The reporters found that the break-in was just part of a covert operation led by President Richard Nixon to thwart the Democrats’ election campaign. However, the president claimed to have nothing to do with the illegal actions at all levels.
Woodward and Bernstein had been writing about the Watergate affair for months at the time. The trail the reporters followed brought them higher up the political ladder. At one point, it even led directly through the gates of the White House: the president’s personal assistant and attorney gave orders to sabotage the Democratic campaign.
The young Woodward and Bernstein's detective work revealed the links between the burglary and the Republican committee for re-election of the president and illegal acts in financing his 1972 election campaign.
President Nixon was also heard tape recordings of his meetings routinely and tracked phone calls. Nixon himself continued to maintain his innocence. When the tapes were claimed, he fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, who refused to have the proceedings stopped, further troubling Nixon.
Step down
In 1973, the effects of the scandal were felt in the White House. On April 30, 1973, Nixon asked his two principal advisers, Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, to resign. Both were eventually charged with, among other things, perjury and sentenced to prison. At the same time, White House attorney John Dean was put on hold.
In 1974 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the tape recordings should be released. This proved Nixon's involvement in both the break-in and covering up the events, although an important passage appeared to have been deleted.
To avoid impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. His successor Gerald Ford (R-Michigan) granted him amnesty for all criminal acts he committed or allegedly committed during his presidency.
In 2003, Jeb Magruder, Nixon’s special assistant and leader of the President’s Re-election Committee, stated that Nixon was not only involved in the cover-up of the Watergate burglaries but had ordered it by phone.
Effects
One of the Watergate scandals was that it did not make China a superpower since the promises made by Henry Kissinger to Mao could no longer be fulfilled. This concerned the lifting of the arms embargo and the embargo on the supply of advanced technology to China | https://medium.com/history-in-context/how-the-watergate-scandal-showed-corruption-in-american-aa24414c09fc | ['Bryan Dijkhuizen'] | 2021-01-25 13:42:02.225000+00:00 | ['Watergate', 'Government', 'United States', 'History', 'Politics'] |
Home Alarm System Suppliers In Hyderabad | Godrej gives the best home alarm system like Infrared LED for night vision, Audio-video recording, water&dust resistant outdoor unit, Built-In loudspeaker for the siren and two way talking and much more equipment which we do bring the best.
We provide the top class service to be done by the highly talented technical personnel which consists of the highest quality products. We build a quality relationship with our customer without any loopholes in our work system. We make a good investment of time and service with customer
Our MNR Global Technologies will give the best home Alarm system suppliers in Hyderabad and will become the most trustworthy service to our customers | https://medium.com/@mnrglobaltech/home-alarm-system-suppliers-in-hyderabad-b740d8983911 | [] | 2020-12-26 10:04:48.382000+00:00 | ['Hyderabad', 'Home', 'Homealarms', 'Mncglobal', 'Technology'] |
mppeb group 2 subgroup 4 various post online form 2020 | mppeb group 2 subgroup 4 various post online form 2020 Dsaienterprises ·Dec 18, 2020
Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board MPPEB Are Invited Online Application Form for Various Post s. some eligibility is for this all notifications are given below. if you are interested then apply on their official website. if you are eligible for this post and all requirements are clear then fill the form. all-important dates are given below.
Application Start: 01–12–2020 | https://medium.com/@dsaienterprises2018/mppeb-group-2-subgroup-4-various-post-online-form-2020-6fefd174c44f | [] | 2020-12-18 16:30:56.145000+00:00 | ['Job Hunting', 'Government', 'Job Search', 'Jobs'] |
Crying in the Back | Chronic physical pains sometimes have intense flare-ups that can leave one bedbound
I have chronic pain. I have had chronic pain since I was at least in my teen years. The primary cause of my pain is hypermobility syndrome. In simple English, it means I am so flexible that it causes my joints to be in pain and constantly swollen on some level. The areas on my body that cause the most pain (in no particular order) are my lower back and hips. The most unstable joints in my body (in no particular order) are my knees, ankles, and elbows.
I am regularly seeing a pain management doctor. We have figured out a medicine regime that has worked relatively well. I take the pain meds as needed but sometimes, even with the pain meds, I am left on the floor in the fetal position because of how much pain I am in. Even with my strongest pain medicine.
My back pain flares up particularly bad when I’m stressed out. My parents (I’m adopted, I have no idea of my family medical history, my adoptive parents have never had any kind of chronic pain) never really quite understood the degree of pain I was in until I was in college. I remember being in my college apartment and suddenly had a very painful flare-up. I took medicine (at that time I only had access to over the counter medicines) and I ended up laying on the floor on my back and calling my mother. My roommate was not home (thank God). My mom asked why I called so late at night (it was at a time in the night when she was normally asleep). I told my Mom that I was sorry but I was just in so much pain and I needed someone to talk to. Anytime I called her after that, she seemed to understand the pain I was experiencing on a daily basis.
My back pain was not diagnosed until I was in my twenties because I was considered “too young” to have an “old person disease” like degenerative disc disease. During my first flare-up of pain, I practically crawled to the nurse’s office I was in so much pain. The nurse ordered me two days of rest and the doctor thought I was just stressed out from school. No doctor could give me a straight answer until I was in my twenties for the source of my pain.
At first, my romantic partner didn’t quite understand the level of pain I was in. He had family who had physical pains from war but when he saw on my worst days I was practically bedbound in pain, he realized how bad it was.
One thing that has honestly comforted me is learning about the biology of chronic pain. Studies say that our bodies are incredibly adaptive. We learn to live with the pain. If our pain was magically given to a random person on the street who has never been through chronic pain, they would likely be completely crippled. I know on my bad days that this kind of pain in this scenario would likely cause someone to blackout from the pain. It’s given me a sense of strength knowing that I have kept trekking along with this type of chronic pain. | https://medium.com/@alekseevna/crying-in-the-back-5ef189b0b790 | [] | 2020-12-15 01:14:26.722000+00:00 | ['Disability', 'Pain', 'Chronic Pain', 'Pain Management', 'Joint Pain'] |
Do flashcards help learn English vocabulary? | English vocabulary serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and gaining knowledge. Obtaining a substantial English vocabulary is one of the biggest challenges in learning a second language.
When you have a hard time remembering vocabulary words then flashcards are more helpful for studying and remembering English vocabulary.
The flashcards are a very useful and effective tool to learn English vocabulary because flashcards generally come with three different types of inputs,
You see a picture of the word
You see the spelling of the word
You hear what the word sounds like
Using three different types of input will help you remember vocabulary words so you don’t forget. It is a great away to expand your vocabulary words. The picture cards with audio are great for learning English and memorising information.
How to practice vocabulary using flashcards?
Each vocabulary flashcard will have a word, picture, and audio file. To practice, the vocabulary, see a picture of the word, hear the audio try listening, and saying the word aloud. This will help you learn quickly and help to remember the word.
Do you like practicing English vocabulary?
Red Fox Education collection of flashcards consists of over 700 flashcards. The flashcards have a voice recording from a British speaker that helps students to improve their pronunciation. It helps students to improve their English accent. We have created these flashcards to help all level students to practice and learn new words and improve their pronunciation. We want to empower our student’s learning so that they can learn English vocabulary in a fun and effective manner.
Try Red Fox Education flashcards for free for your child by visiting our website
https://www.redfoxeducation.com/flashcards
Vocabulary serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and gaining knowledge. Obtaining a substantial vocabulary is one of the biggest challenges in learning a second language.
Download our mobile app to access our flashcards, eBooks and vocabulary collection. | https://medium.com/@redfoxeducation/do-flashcards-help-learn-english-vocabulary-553bc6379a6a | ['Red Fox Education'] | 2020-12-22 10:37:38.006000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Learning', 'Reading', 'Vocabulary', 'English'] |
I’m Forcing Myself Not to Shave Until Spring | I’m Forcing Myself Not to Shave Until Spring
Why I’m going razor free this winter, whether I like it or not
Photo: Vika Aleksandrova / Unsplash
Shaving was never presented as an option, not really.
I remember first deciding to shave my legs at the age of thirteen, aware that other girls had already been doing it longer. I barely had any hair on my legs; I was fortunate to be blonde with fine hair. My mum was disappointed to see I had started shaving, insisting I don’t go above the knee, which seems ironic now as she is quick to point out when I haven’t shaved. Maybe it’s because she knew that once I did it, once I entered this club, there was no going back.
You could forgive a child for not shaving, but never a woman.
I started shaving before I had a chance even to know what the hair would look like. I started getting Brazilian waxes before anyone had ever seen the area.
I have been partaking in the ritual of removing all body hair for so long, horrified by even a few prickles. To arrive at the gym and realise it had been three days, rather than one or two, since I last shaved my armpits. I was keeping them low, minimising my movements to hide this fact. To be about to leave for the beach when I realise that I didn’t shave my bikini line, imagine the potential horror. To be out in public, see my trousers rise, and the new hairs sprouting by my ankle. Convinced someone would notice, convinced that it was enough to change their perception of me.
These tiny hairs hold so much shame and embarrassment. Something natural has somehow transformed into a sign of poor hygiene. It marks the ‘radical feminist’ to actually grow bodily hair, yet all it truly marks is stopping the fight against mother nature.
I am growing out my hair because every negative voice in my head tells me it is disgusting, unattractive and inappropriate, and I need to prove them wrong. | https://medium.com/write-like-a-girl/im-forcing-myself-not-to-shave-until-spring-1cc6afde05e5 | ['Fleurine Tideman'] | 2020-12-16 17:12:23.258000+00:00 | ['Self Love', 'Patriarchy', 'Beauty', 'Feminism', 'Women'] |
簡易教學：Pysyft入門(1) | OpenMined/PySyft
You can't perform that action at this time. You signed in with another tab or window. You signed out in another tab or… | https://medium.com/mess-up/%E7%B0%A1%E6%98%93%E6%95%99%E5%AD%B8-pysyft%E5%85%A5%E9%96%80-1-ae25af834346 | ['Yuan Ko'] | 2020-11-24 11:35:27.700000+00:00 | ['Federated Learning', 'Machine Learning', 'Privacy', 'AI', '联邦学习'] |
A Bright New Generation Battles Inequality | When I first shared the foundation’s statement “Toward a New Gospel of Wealth” in October 2015, I had hoped we might kindle a larger conversation (like this one) about the complex relationship between philanthropy and inequality. What I didn’t entirely anticipate — and have been deeply gratified to see — are the numerous ways that our colleagues across philanthropy are not just preaching but practicing this new gospel of giving.
We see it in the work of new philanthropists like Cari Tuna and Dustin Moskovitz. We see it in Leonardo DiCaprio’s bold commitment to those most vulnerable in the face of climate change. We see it in the inspiring commitments of Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg. Indeed, we see it in an entire generation of philanthropists — visionaries committed to driving social justice by putting grantees and beneficiaries behind the wheel.
This is an exciting moment for philanthropy. The injection of new ideas, new institutions, new money, and new technology all contribute to my own optimism that our sector will continue to build on the progress of the last several decades.
Moreover, this is a pivotal time in our national (and global) conversation about, and our evolving consciousness of, inequality. During this presidential season alone, we’ve seen the rise of populism on both the left and the right — a clear reaction to the unprecedented levels of inequality afflicting both our country and the world. We’ve also seen polls showing that dissatisfaction with the capitalist system is on the rise, particularly among young people — a reminder that these frustrations will only continue, if not increase, in the coming years. This discontent will inevitably (and necessarily) raise hard questions that all of us must be prepared to answer.
At the same time, as more people — particularly those in positions of power — become more comfortable addressing this crisis of inequality in all its forms, our chances of disrupting this pervasive imbalance improve.
For institutions like the Ford Foundation, which have accumulated large amounts of capital since their founding, we must find new ways to leverage that capital for positive social and financial outcomes. Right now, the foundation is investigating how we might make our endowment strategy align with our program strategy.
For the new generation of donors, this is a tremendous opportunity to get in front of questions about how philanthropy and our economic system intertwine, and to find new ways forward.
Ultimately, the “New Gospel of Wealth” calls on all of us to think differently about how philanthropy operates in the 21st century. New and established institutional donors alike must take this opportunity to evolve our philanthropic enterprise to grapple with the many challenges that we see in our sector, and our world. I could not be more thrilled by — or more hopeful for — the work we’ll do together in the years ahead, or to see this “New Gospel” increasingly preached and practiced across philanthropy.
Please subscribe to our weekly newsletter, and follow us on Facebook ,Twitter, and Instagram. If you would like to reproduce this story, please contact us at [email protected].
This article was originally published in BRIGHT Magazine on July 27, 2016. | https://brightthemag.com/a-bright-new-generation-battles-inequality-a72fe024f7f | ['Bright Magazine'] | 2019-07-16 07:06:15.437000+00:00 | ['Social Change', 'Development', 'Philanthropy', 'Essay'] |
This Word Best Describes People Who Try To Make Themselves Look Good By Putting Others Down | This Word Best Describes People Who Try To Make Themselves Look Good By Putting Others Down
Photo by Kat J on Unsplash
Of course, it’s easy to label such people as simply Narcissistic, Bullies, Sociopaths, Insecure and so on, but doing that ignores the struggles those people are going through.
People that try to make themselves look good by putting others down do this for the same reason we all do things: To be happy.
I know this sounds backward but this is how they learned to be happy.
They may have modeled their parents, may have not found happiness in anything until they put others down, or maybe had to fight for their happiness so long that this seemed like a natural thing for them to do.
But this gains them happiness, confidence, self-worth and love.
When they get to put others down these people feel better themselves, speaking for a lack inside of them that they do not know how else to fill.
If you go around labeling those people as Sociopaths you will look at them in disdain, furthering their reason to keep pushing others down.
The best way to counter this is to smile at them, love them through their hate and give them what they are not getting anywhere else.
“Those who are hardest to love need it the most.” — Socrates
Of course you will find that person that truly has a lesion in their brain that causes them to act this way, but that’s rather rare.
Most people that put others down have had a hard time gaining love, acceptance and happiness and are not doing this because they want to, but because they do not know any other way.
Putting those people down in turn by fighting their fire with fire will only result in them becoming more sure of their approach. | https://medium.com/@lukas-schwekendiek/this-word-best-describes-people-who-try-to-make-themselves-look-good-by-putting-others-down-c1c4ab6d61c0 | ['Lukas Schwekendiek'] | 2019-07-22 19:21:02.672000+00:00 | ['Help', 'Advice', 'Self Improvement', 'Depression', 'Happiness'] |
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