title
stringlengths 1
200
⌀ | text
stringlengths 10
100k
| url
stringlengths 32
829
| authors
stringlengths 2
392
| timestamp
stringlengths 19
32
| tags
stringlengths 6
263
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
“That’s our Two Satoshis” — Crypto Market Recap (BTC, ETH, XLM, EOS, LINK) | What happened this week in the Crypto markets?
A Sea of Red
Last month’s gains are starting to look like a mirage — as the crypto market continues to hemorrhage following a second straight week of double digit losses. Bitcoin fell 10% to $6300 last week, while the overall Crypto market cap declined by another $40B (not an insignificant number considering the entire asset class now represents just $213 bn in value).
The carnage started on Tuesday when the SEC extended the deadline of the VanEck ETF proposal to September 30th, causing Bitcoin to drop $500 intraday, and the rest of the market reacted in kind. We did not expect the SEC to approve the Van Eck filing in August nor do we expect an approval in 2018. The downward price action continued throughout the week, accelerating into Thursday and Friday. We believe we have entered a “Capitulation phase”, where many retail investors have given up on trying to recoup gains and have sold off their portfolios at a loss, unable to cope with the daily stressors of the market. This is historically the tail end of a bear market.
It is perhaps curious that Bitcoin has such a perceived dependence on the SEC’s looming decision. Cryptocurrency was the brainchild of a group of people disheartened by how ‘money’ was controlled by banks and regulatory agencies — yet here we are in 2018, nearly 10 years after the Bitcoin Whitepaper was written, watching as a regulatory agency’s decision (or lack thereof) dominates the price action of the whole market.
Elsewhere, other large cap tokens such as Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Eos (EOS) were hit much harder than Bitcoin, falling between 20–40% on extremely thin volumes (more on volumes below). Ethereum is particularly interesting to watch. The majority of ICO projects raised funds in Ethereum, but these project owners have no need to hold ETH, especially in a declining market. As a result, there is a consistent overhang from these project owners looking to offload ETH in order to secure enough funds to keep operations afloat. An example of this was seen in EOS, which sold their remaining ETH in June and July of this year — a position that had initially been as high as 3 million ETH. From what we can tell, almost all of the selling pressure at these depressed prices is coming from short-sellers looking to push prices lower until they find resistance, and ICO project owners.
Low volume / wide markets — perspective on illiquid securities
At this point in time, we want to remind our readers that the Arca Funds team has decades of experience trading illiquid assets, like high yield bonds, distressed bonds, emerging markets debt, and reorg equities. It is not uncommon to buy a distressed bond on the way down at 80 cents on the dollar, 60 cents on the dollar and 40 cents on the dollar… in the same day. News comes out, prices adjust, and market participants must react to new prices that may or may not be transactable (i.e. it takes time to get to a market equilibrium where there are equal buyers/sellers on both sides).
Bringing this back to crypto, just because crypto exchanges allow anyone to see real-time prices does NOT mean that any trading is actually happening at these levels. This is an extremely immature market that is lulling people into a false sense of liquidity by showing constantly available prices that appear to be transactable, but really aren’t. Crypto is largely an OTC driven market — and that can mean very wide Bid/Ask spreads as buyers and sellers are miles apart. As a result, liquidity is thin in crypto right now. Prices of many crypto assets are falling dramatically and swiftly on little to no volume. Most of these tokens, including some of the ones that are perceived to be liquid, are moving lower without sellers. Market makers are like casino bookies — they don’t care which side wins, they just want to find a level where there is even action on both sides (so they can make their money on higher volumes). We believe illiquidity was a primary contributor to last week’s price action. The selling largely stopped two weeks ago, but there just were not enough buyers to bring the market to equilibrium — so market makers continue to test the market lower to see where the buyers will step in. When they finally step in and we touch a “floor”, there will be very little volume traded down at the bottom either as we quickly bounce back up to see if any sellers are still there at these lower levels. It takes a different approach and discipline to invest in volatile, illiquid markets — one in which we’re very comfortable.
Macro Concerns
We have been tracking several macro trends that we believe have an impact on crypto, and markets in general. The first trend is inflation and how higher commodity prices will impact digital assets (See our thoughts on commodities and oil here). Inflation is of high concern and the primary mandate for central banks who are preparing for battle by raising rates, first in the US by the Fed, and now by the ECB, as described here. Higher rates have an effect on Emerging Market economies, as their borrowing costs are more reliant on the Fed Funds rate and LIBOR than their own local rates. Hawkish policies by the Fed, ECB, and BoE have hurt Emerging Markets, as demonstrated by the recent depreciation of the Turkish Lira (-20% last week) and the South African Rand (-10% yesterday). Onerous tariffs have also been a catalyst for this move. We have been tracking correlations between crypto and other risk assets, such as EM equities, but we believe that hyper-inflation and currency volatility will drive more adoption into cryptocurrency.
For specific information about Arca or the Arca Funds, click here.
Notable movers and shakers
The overall market fell an astonishing 21% last week, on the heels of a 15% loss the week before. Very few assets were safe in crypto, with a few exceptions and notable movers.
Chainlink (LINK) was up 10.5% last week, and +20% versus BTC. The Chainlink development team has been extremely active — it’s the 18th most active project out of thousands in the last 9 months. A storm seems to be brewing in the background with this project as they gear up for mainnet release.
was up 10.5% last week, and +20% versus BTC. The Chainlink development team has been extremely active — it’s the 18th most active project out of thousands in the last 9 months. A storm seems to be brewing in the background with this project as they gear up for mainnet release. The XRP/XLM battle rages on, with XRP falling 30% and XLM falling 9.5%. Ripple and Stellar have been classified as competitors ever since Jed McCaleb left Ripple to found Stellar in 2013/2014. While they tackle different sectors of banking (transaction fees vs. remittance network), they are always brought up in tandem for comparison. While XRP has been the dominant project thus far, it seems to be losing significant steam to XLM , as depicted in the chart below made by a prominent cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter.
battle rages on, with XRP falling 30% and XLM falling 9.5%. Ripple and Stellar have been classified as competitors ever since Jed McCaleb left Ripple to found Stellar in 2013/2014. While they tackle different sectors of banking (transaction fees vs. remittance network), they are always brought up in tandem for comparison. While has been the dominant project thus far, it seems to be losing significant steam to , as depicted in the chart below made by a prominent cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter. Bitcoin (BTC) dominance has now reached 50.8%, and shows no signs of slowing down. In an extended bear market such as this, Bitcoin continues to be the safe haven in the store of value debate. With markets, traditional and otherwise, suffering (see Turkish Lira and South African Rand), Bitcoin offers stability.
What we’re reading this week
Has Blockchain Hype Peaked?
Blockchain fatigue has begun to hit firms, as evidenced by a decline in the number of times ‘blockchain’ was mentioned on earnings calls. In 2018 companies seem to be more cautious on name dropping crypto related terms.
Real life Security Token use case — Real Estate properties being sold on Blockchain
We’ve argued that the best is yet to come for crypto assets, particularly security tokens. Soon, the fact that you are buying assets on the blockchain won’t even be a topic of conversation, it will be assumed (much like ETFs are assumed to be the vehicle that you buy baskets of stocks now). In this case, the equity of The St. Regis Aspen Resort is being sold to investors via a new “Aspen token”.
Brave Browser Redefining Online Advertisement
Brave will add Twitter and Reddit support by the end of the year, allowing for users to cash in on tweets and posts. This will be done voluntarily by user donations to authors of content they find worthwhile, using the cryptocurrency BAT as payment.
Bitcoin No Longer Dominated by Criminal Use
According to the U.S. DEA, the use of Bitcoin is no longer primarily as a means for illegal activity. One member of the DEA even admitted they’d prefer criminals use Crypto, because of how easy it is to track via the Blockchain’s flawless record-keeping (dispelling a popular myth of crypto as a criminal safe haven).
Cryptocurrency Led by Youth Investors
A survey done by analytics firm Harris Insights shows the age gap of investors in both Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. With the extreme volatility in the new asset class, youth investors are more prone to taking a chance whereas older investors are more hesitant to take the risk. With the youth being more connected to the digital age, Bitcoin seems to resonate more so with them than other adults.
And that’s Our Two Satoshis!
Thanks for reading everyone! Questions or comments, just let us know.
- The Arca Portfolio Management Team
Steven McClurg — Chief Investment Officer
Jeff Dorman — Head Trader
Sasha Fleyshman — Trader
Katie Talati — Head of Research
Disclaimer: This commentary is provided as general information only and is in no way intended as investment advice, investment research, a research report or a recommendation. Any decision to invest or take any other action with respect to the securities discussed in this commentary may involve risks not discussed herein and such decisions should not be based solely on the information contained in this document.
Statements in this communication may include forward-looking information and/or may be based on various assumptions. The forward-looking statements and other views or opinions expressed herein are made as of the date of this publication. Actual future results or occurrences may differ significantly from those anticipated and there is no guarantee that any particular outcome will come to pass. The statements made herein are subject to change at any time. Arca Funds disclaims any obligation to update or revise any statements or views expressed herein.
In considering any performance information included in this commentary, it should be noted that past performance is not a guarantee of future results and there can be no assurance that future results will be realized. Some or all of the information provided herein may be or be based on statements of opinion. In addition, certain information provided herein may be based on third-party sources, which information, although believed to be accurate, has not been independently verified. Arca Funds and/or certain of its affiliates and/or clients hold and may, in the future, hold a financial interest in securities that are the same as or substantially similar to the securities discussed in this commentary. No claims are made as to the profitability of such financial interests, now, in the past or in the future and Arca Funds and/or its clients may sell such financial interests at any time. The information provided herein is not intended to be, nor should it be construed as an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy any securities. This commentary has not been reviewed or approved by any regulatory authority and has been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances or objectives of persons who may receive it. The appropriateness of a particular investment or strategy will depend on an investor’s individual circumstances and objectives. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/thats-our-two-satoshis-crypto-market-recap-btc-eth-xlm-eos-link-5afe8353f1fd | ['Jeff Dorman'] | 2019-05-22 08:54:07.374000+00:00 | ['Currency', 'Trading', 'Inflation', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin'] |
From space truths to basement sleuths, debunking theories about MH370 | How a West Australian startup dispatched a supposed tech sleuth in the time it takes to Instagram a selfie.
239. That’s the number of people lost without a trace on March 8th 2014. Four years later the world is still clueless as to what caused MH370 to disappear. The forensic search has been long an exhaustive and yet still without a conclusion. This void of truth has given space for unfounded theories. While useful as clickbait, these theories prey upon the grieving survivors and discount the immediately available hard science, itself waiting to tell the truth.
In the cruisey outer suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, a cadre of blockchain programmers and geospatial experts have cracked timeless mysteries surrounding the crystal ball of truth when it comes to using aerial images and maps to tell a story.
Digital images (photographs) are imbued with a rich tapestry of pixel based information once thought impossible to fake. Now there’s analytical programs capable of determining altered or anomalous images but there is no program able to tell if a validated, historically accurate, and corroborated, aerial image has been used to tell a fake story, until now. With these three qualifiers, Chris Lowe, head developer and WRX-driving nerd at Soar, quashed notions that MH370 was laying unobserved in Cambodia’s jungle. Chris’ sleuthing took about the same amount of time it takes to scope out urban legend on Snopes.com.
Step One: Chris Lowe utilised Soar to locate and identify the conspicuous image
Hindsight isn’t 2020, it’s 2018 and before
Knowing that he had a comprehensive satellite photo database for this location using Soar, Chris quickly gathered satellite images post March 8, 2014 for evidence of MH370. Coming up trumps with any evidence of the wreckage was Chris’ first indication that this theory was thinly supported. But like any fake news, the idea that MH370 had finally been found after four years was highly emotive or at least ‘click-baitive’. According to Chris, “knowing that I had a collection of images from the same location for various dates after 2014, it was a no-brainer, I could easily prove that the plane never crashed here. Because satellite photos are effectively time lapse photos, I can go back in time and tell you what the earth says”.
Step Two: Soar uncloaks erroneous MH370 discovery claims using satellite imagery from September 2018
One picture tells a thousand stories, but a thousand pictures tell a true story
It’s easy to control the narrative when you only give a singular perspective. Lets try that. An immigrant committed a crime. So because someone else is an immigrant, they’re capable of committing the same crime. Therefore if we ban immigrants, they can’t commit crime. Here’s a another example, I have a grainy photo of an aeroplane in an inaccessible area where people don’t have the internet and because they never found MH370, this must be it! Speaking to the first analogy, were the conversation to be; one immigrant committed a crime, another immigrant came to Australia to learn English where he met his wife and started a family, another came here for the surf but and now writes content for a startup, another came here and now leads a team of developers, the fifth immigrant came here grew up and founded a geospatial company. Four of these five immigrants now work for Soar. All summed up this paints a truer more highly faceted story. People need a tool to quickly truth egregious claims such as this MH370 fumble in the jungle story. We hope you now know what it is.
The MH370 in Cambodia myth, debunked on Soar.
Deep into our development, Soar already delivers timely satellite information and as it grows, will include more drone and manned aircraft images. Just envision of the forthcoming ability news outlets will have to utilise high resolution drone images for airplane crash debris scatter analysis, aerial images for the detection of crash scars on jungle landscapes, and furthermore for access to satellite images useful for terrain and weather conditions associated with the crash site.. “The cumulative analysis from three types of aerial platforms will be incontrovertible” says Amir Farhand, CEO and founder of Soar.
There’s no controlling how news is disseminated. You know it as I do, it takes longer to disprove an assertion than it does to make one and thus fake news, because it’s first, often stays in people’s minds as the real news because they don’t want to be unconvinced — a humbling experience.
Using the blockchain we can soar above the rumblings and grumblings choking our Twitter feeds
Soar proposes that the validation and retention of metadata (descriptive information), is crucial to delivering truthful aerial photos in the news. When unaltered, image metadata gives the full picture about how, when, where, and what settings were used to take the photo. When a transaction occurs on the blockchain, this information is permanent and visible for the world to see. Thus, if at any point an image gets manipulated (location, date, or other parameters are changed), this transaction anomaly rises its own red flag for the entire blockchain to see. “You can think of Soar as a dodgyness-detector for aerial images” says Farhand.
143,400 people. Take 239 people and multiply that by 600 (the average number of people known by a person). 143,400 people are potentially disheartened each time a flagrant MH370 claim gets pimped on the internet. Breeders and feeders of untruths need be aware, the blockchain is watching.
“The truth is always the strongest argument.” Sophocles | https://medium.com/soar-earth/from-space-truths-to-basement-sleuths-debunking-theories-about-mh370-1201b1859898 | ['Darren Smith'] | 2018-09-11 06:19:48.868000+00:00 | ['Satellite Imagery', 'Mh370', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Plane Crashes'] |
Could Virtual Accelerators be the answer to bridging the emerging markets and Silicon Valley? | Written by: Earl Martin Valencia, co-founder
As much as we all take it for granted, Silicon Valley is a special place. With the strip of land between San Francisco and San Jose, a large concentration of the most talented people, most cutting edge ideas, and an ecosystem that fuels this into companies all come into play. I myself feel privileged and lucky. The question is — can we democratize what we have in the Valley and bridge this to emerging markets like Southeast Asia, Africa, LatAm and others? Perhaps.
There are 5 unique traits that Silicon Valley has than any other place in the world:
Access to Networks — the hyper-concentration of experts in their own fields are conveniently in a small geographic footprint Access to Knowledge — with the amazing research universities of Stanford and Berkeley around here plus the tacit knowledge of people that know how to build and scale companies is here Access to Capital — with the majority of the VC money in the Valley, it is a place where capital can find the best ideas with investors competing for great deals Access to Mindsets — being in an environment that values a bias for action, to be able to fail as a badge of honor, and to have people that believe they can change the world is an amazing place Access to the Ecosystem — having an interconnected web of players that a company can tap into when they need the help
As some people know, I got to Silicon Valley through the traditional route of going to school here, specifically at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where I took my MBA. In fact, it was so accidental, that I became one of the first admits of the school never to take the GMAT but got accepted with the GRE. A little-known fact though is that I applied to Stanford multiple times before I got in.
After graduating from Stanford, and working at Cisco helping run their global innovation platform with participants in 100 countries, I decided to come back to the Philippines with the vision to help build the start-up ecosystem in the country and broader Southeast Asia. I did this through my role in starting one of the first emerging-market focused start-up accelerators in the world called IdeaSpace.
IdeaSpace was an amazing success, gathering 1000s of teams applying each year, looking to solve amazing problems like financial inclusion, education, healthcare, energy, water, agriculture, and others. This also became the basis for a number of programs in the private sector and the government. Even with much success, we were limited with geography, and the need to expand the network, and because of this, I opened the first corporate cross-border innovation office between the Philippines and Silicon Valley in an office in Montgomery Street in San Francisco. We had 2 physical offices — one in Manila and another in SF. In the Manila incubator, we saw that there was the friction that we had to pay for housing so that all entrepreneurs don't have to think of the high rent prices in the heat of Manila and move there.
Fast forward to today, I have done a round trip — back again to the Valley after many years, and I realize that our model of connecting emerging markets and the Valley has not changed much — until today. After my talk in the Philippines, inspired by the changes happening in this space, I, together with my co-founders Ping and Mika together with our Advisor Pool and Board of Advisors have crafted one of the first-ever virtual start-up accelerators specific to bridge AI and Data-enabled companies from the emerging markets. We call this Cognity Labs — where we select start-ups and will assemble advisors that can bridge the knowledge, expertise, and networks to the top start-ups — all done virtually — so that even at the early on-set, they build in Silicon Valley standards in their companies. We launched Cognity Labs during the first-ever ASEAN Tech Summit in Silicon Valley on July 18th.
Cognity Labs is not just an accelerator but is a broader movement to accelerate the emerging markets’ adoption towards building an economy based on the Fourth Industrial Revolution of AI, Data, and other cutting edge technologies. This doesn't mean we don't want to build billion-dollar businesses, but rather this actually accelerates the start-ups in this space to be pioneers and take the leadership in the ecosystem. In fact, we expect that each company that Cognity accepts must pledge 0.5% of their most current round for charity while sharing 2.5% to the advisory pool.
Virtual accelerators, like Cognity Labs, provide great flexibility to both the accelerator management but also the start-ups so that regardless if they work in a big city or in more remote areas, you can stand a chance and benefit directly from the program. Our thesis is to connect successful technologists and entrepreneurs in the US, the tech diaspora, to their home country to provide them a platform to be part of the journey of amazing companies but at the same time give back to entrepreneurs in the places where they or their parents came from.
Overall. It's almost 2020, and I am looking forward to virtually build this ecosystem with all of you and bring the best of emerging markets and Silicon Valley in one start-up accelerator program. Will we be successful in completing the vision of bridging the 2 geographies virtually? We are not sure, but one thing we know, it takes all of us, both in the emerging markets and the Valley to build this virtual bridge together.
Note: If you know of any start-up that would benefit from being part of the Cognity Labs Cohort 1.0, please let them know to apply before August 19th at www.cognitylabs.com.
About the Author:
Earl is a strategy and transformation executive, speaker, and venture adviser. He is currently the Managing Director of Digital Transformation for a Fortune 500 company and has advised hundreds of start-up companies, incubators, and VC funds in multiple continents. He is a Stanford MBA graduate and honored as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. He was also awarded by the President of the Philippines as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the country. Find out more about Earl at earlvalencia.com and his podcast “The Digital Mindset” that you can download from iTunes or Stitcher. | https://medium.com/@cognitylabs/could-virtual-accelerators-be-the-answer-to-bridging-the-emerging-markets-and-silicon-valley-b4dcd4f79f81 | ['Cognity Labs'] | 2020-12-15 05:38:35.974000+00:00 | ['Southeast Asia', 'Startupincubators', 'Startup Accelerators', 'Silicon Valley', 'Emerging Markets'] |
Write a How-to Article in 6 Easy Steps | Write a How-to Article in 6 Easy Steps
Do you know how to prepare an exquisite turkey dinner on a shoestring? Execute a perfect rugby tackle? Pay rock-bottom rates for accommodations in exotic destinations all over the world?
If you’ve ever jotted down a recipe or shared do-it-yourself instructions with a friend, you already understand the basic structure of how-to writing. How-tos inform the reader and can often be submitted to an editor with a simple cover letter.
check Plagiarism Content
( 10 Rules for Writing Opinion Pieces.)
A how-to is written as a sequence-first you do this, and then you do this. The essential question the writer asks herself when writing a how-to is, “What happens next?” If you are about to embark on a how-to, start at what you consider the beginning, and just keep answering that question over and over again. Before you know it, you will have sketched out a draft of a how-to article.
Free SEO Service
STEP 1: SELECT YOUR TOPIC
Choose a topic that interests you enough to focus on it for at least a week or two. If your topic is broad, narrow it. Instead of writing about how to decorate your home, try covering how to decorate your home in country style on a shoestring budget. That’s more specific and, as such, easier to tackle.
Then write a rough, rough draft, including everything you can think of. Stay loose, avoid getting analytical, and enjoy the process of sharing what you know. When you’re done, you’ll have the bare bones of an article that only you could write. Then put it aside for a while.
STEP 2: ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE’S NEEDs
Now, come back to your piece. Switch gears and imagine you’re the reader of this article. Pick three words to describe the audience you want to address (e.g., professionals, single men). As this reader, what questions would you like answered? You might not know the answers yet, but list the questions anyway; you’ll find answers in the next step.
STEP 3: RESEARCH
Research will ground your article in fact. Good details to include with your how-to are:
Statistics
Quotes by well-known people
Definitions
Anecdotes (short, illustrative stories about yourself or someone else)
Quotes and examples from people like the reader, or from popular books on the subject
References to other media (film, television, radio)
References to local venues or events (if for a regional/local publication)
Helpful tools, resources or products (if many, consider creating a sidebar)
Collect everything you have gathered and put it in a folder, an electronic document, a notebook or whatever you like. Don’t forget to keep track of sources in case you are later asked by an editor to verify them. You may want to sift through your research at a separate sitting from gathering it. Or just go ahead and sprinkle your research in right when you find it. It’s a lot like cooking-play around until you feel you have it “just right.”
STEP 4: TIGHTEN YOUR DRAFT
Keeping your audience in mind, write a tighter draft incorporating the new supporting information you’ve collected. Sometimes what you’ve learned in Steps 2 and 3 may compel you to start over with a completely fresh draft. Or you may just want to revise what you have as you proceed, retaining a nice conversational tone by directly addressing your audience.
This time when you read your draft, ask yourself: Is it working? Is it too general, too lightweight, uninteresting, unclear or choppy? If so, comb some of your favorite publications for how-to articles. What techniques are those writers using that you might employ?
STEP 5: MAKE IT SPECIFIC
Double-check to see that you’ve included every pertinent step in the process. How-to articles have to be thorough. You want your reader to walk away knowing exactly how to make that Thanksgiving dinner on a shoestring budget, execute that rugby tackle, or locate great accommodations.
If your narrative goes on and on, or off in too many directions, break it down into key points indicated with subheads (as in this article). Synthesizing complicated information and breaking it down into steps is especially crucial for online writing, and is also a trend in print.
STEP 6: READ, REVISE, REPEAT
Read the draft of your how-to article out loud to a supportive friend. Then, ask her a series of questions: Does she now understand the process? Are there any steps missing? Is there anything else she would like to know about the subject? Could she do the task herself? With your friend’s suggestions in mind, use your best judgment in deciding what changes, if any, need to be made.
Here’s a quick list to help you catch errors or omissions:
Did you adequately describe the ingredients/supplies needed in order for the reader to complete the task?
Did you include all the important steps?
Is the order logical?
Did you use words that indicate sequence: first, next, then?
Did you warn readers of possible pitfalls?
Rewrite, read aloud, rewrite, read aloud, rewrite, find a proofreader and, only when you’re satisfied you’ve written an effective how-to article, submit your piece to an appropriate publication with a short cover letter.
*****
Have personal experiences you want to share? WD University’s Pitch an Article: Write for Today’s Marketplace will teach you how to craft a good pitch letter and do it well. Be ready to mine your life for ideas. Start thinking about a great spin on a topic or an unusual personal experience that you’d like to write about in class! | https://medium.com/@noreply-71077/write-a-how-to-article-in-6-easy-steps-be4857e8d727 | [] | 2021-05-31 07:58:27.287000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Seo Services', 'Seo Service Provider'] |
Opposition for the sake of Leadership | Opposition for the sake of Leadership
The biggest threat to democracy is not poor leadership, terrorism or even corruption — it is the absence of good Opposition Jaganathan Raghupathy Apr 27, 2019·2 min read
Pic Courtesy: Internet
Anyone whose election campaign claim is to genuinely clean up politics is either terribly MISTAKEN or is LYING. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely!
If you’re genuinely interested in public service, and also claim to not want to take part in hegemony, corruption and requests for personal favour that follow political power, then it is not the Mayorship, Chief Ministership or Prime Ministership that one should aim for — it should be The Leader of Opposition.
The role of The Leader of Opposition is to: Provide constructive criticism and raise relevant questions against the Govt. Lead the debate on Bills tabled in the legislature and recommends amendments 3. Call upon checks and balances provided by the Constitution 4. Ensure that the minorities are always represented in the ruling party’s policies 5. Lead Parliamentary Committees 6· Not engage in opposition for the sake of opposition
A good LOP has to do all this while wishing away any kind of political or personal mileage in return, which makes the position most sacred of all. | https://medium.com/@noncomposedment/opposition-for-the-sake-of-leadership-4e89d39a2a53 | ['Jaganathan Raghupathy'] | 2019-04-27 07:01:53.205000+00:00 | ['Opposition', 'Leadership', 'Corruption', 'Politics'] |
Why a buyer’s agent may still make sense in purchasing a HDB resale flat | While the procedures on buying a HDB resale flat can be difficult and time-consuming to understand, it is not an insurmountable task. In fact, potential buyers would have to log in to the HDB Resale Portal themselves throughout the process, which further diminishes the argument that hiring a property agent can help to reduce the paperwork that needs to be done by a potential buyer himself or herself.
So why would it make sense for a potential buyer to engage a property agent to represent him or her? After all, an agent’s fee at 1% of the transacted property price for buying a HDB resale flat can easily range from S$3,000 (for a S$300,000 flat) to S$10,000 (for a $1 million flat), money that can potentially go towards upping an offer and sweetening the deal.
Easing the property search: To even get to the stage of buying a HDB resale flat, there must be a flat shortlisted first. While it has become much easier to search for suitable properties for sale on portals such as PropertyGuru, 99.co, etc., having a property agent with strong knowledge of the property landscape and market will facilitate and speed up the process. They may also have exclusive and/or faster access to certain listings. Negotiating with potential sellers and their agents: Buying any property almost always requires some form of negotiation. Even if potential buyers are feeling particularly rich, asking prices are often not quite the same as reserve prices and they can avoid overpaying for the HDB resale flats they want through skilful negotiation. However, not everyone is a born negotiator (I hate to negotiate), and it is a delicate balance between getting the other party to accept a lower offer and lowballing so much that the deal is scuttled altogether. Property agents tend to be able to negotiate better as they know what is acceptable and what is not. Avoiding hidden pitfalls: Reading about or watching a video tutorial on how to drive a car doesn’t mean that one will be able to drive a car. Similarly, reading up on the HDB resale procedures doesn’t guarantee that potential buyers will always know exactly what to do or what not to do. Property agents have the benefit of past experience and will know how to advise their clients and check with the other party to make sure they meet any prerequisites or complete any steps in accordance with HDB’s requirements. Saving time and effort: Purchasing a HDB resale flat without a buyer’s agent requires a lot of time and effort, and sometimes potential buyers would rather delegate the task to a professional simply because they cannot spare the time to do it themselves.
All of the above would have been strong reasons to hire a buyer’s agent, but The Wife felt that we could manage Points 2 to 4 on our own. To her, the biggest value of a buyer’s agent would have been Point 1 — to help us zero in on a particular HDB resale flat that meets our criteria but she had plans of her own. | https://medium.com/@themoneypit/why-a-buyers-agent-may-still-make-sense-in-purchasing-a-hdb-resale-flat-1f97453428ba | ['Money Pit Digger'] | 2020-12-11 09:52:50.460000+00:00 | ['Singapore', 'Property Agent'] |
The New York Jets Win But Still Lose | By: Joe Scurto
It has been clear that the New York Jets have been the talk of the 2020 NFL season, but all for the wrong reasons. On Sunday it continued but ironically because the Jets actually won their first game of the season.
The Jets stunned the football world defeating the Los Angeles Rams 23–20. Who came into the matchup as one of the hottest teams in the league featured by a top ranked defense. The meaningless win now suddenly puts New York out of contention for Trevor Lawrence for the time being. As the Jacksonville Jaguars have leaped them for the number one overall spot — due to the strength of schedule.
Jets fans seem to never get nice things, as they were clearly ready for a winless 0–16 season. For the sake of finally seeing some light on the other side of the tunnel. That light was Trevor Lawrence who is viewed as one of the most promising prospects to enter the draft in the last 20 years. Just one day before the Jets victory, Lawrence dominated Notre Dame in the ACC Championship game going for over 400 total yards and four total touchdowns.
So what now for the Jets?
Technically the dream of landing Lawrence as their franchise quarterback is not completely dead yet. Assuming the Jets lose their remaining two games against the Cleveland Browns and the New England Patriots. They could still take back the first overall pick. That is if the Jags decide to snap their 13-game losing streak versus the Chicago Bears this upcoming week. To give Jets fans some positivity that task is possible. Despite being 7–7, the Bears have lost six out of their last eight games and quarterback Mitch Trubisky is always due for a poor performance.
All of Jet Nation will have to be Gardner Minshew believers this week hoping that he can put together a memorable game. Which will once again give New York some hope for the next decade.
Even with finally getting a win versus the Rams, the Jets still somehow lose which leaves you with three words. “The Goddamn Jets”. | https://medium.com/@joescurtosports/the-new-york-jets-win-but-still-lose-248eaf3db963 | ['Joe Scurto Sports'] | 2020-12-21 17:40:02.912000+00:00 | ['New York Jets', 'New York', 'Football', 'NFL'] |
Salute the Black men who made 2020 not a total trash fire | Welcome to Minority Report, a weekly newsletter from the LEVEL team that packs an entire week into a single email. From our inaugural Best Man awards to the week in racism, from pop-culture picks to a must-read LEVEL story, it’s everything you need and nothing you don’t. If you’re loving what you’re reading, tell a friend to tell a friend.
This week, to celebrate the release of our Best Man 2020 package, we decided to chop it up about the process involved: the genesis of the idea, the execution, and the future of the idea as an ongoing series. Enjoy!
Peter Rubin, executive editor: So, as with every large package that we’ve done, this one started a few months back. Jermaine, it was a pretty open-ended question you first asked: What are we going to do for the end of the year? Because it’s LEVEL’s first birthday, too.
Jermaine Hall, editor in chief: I was looking to create LEVEL’s version of [GQ’s] Men of the Year, LEVEL’s version of Coming Kings, which I really used to love back in the days of King. I thought the class that we could put together this year would be really interesting for the reader, because it gives us a chance to hit on some amazing human-interest stories and get some regular folks in there — not celebrities — to open up the space.
PR: We played with the idea of doing something that was more tongue in cheek and satirical, but we quickly realized that didn’t feel like the right energy to walk out of 2020 with. Like, does this feel right?
John Kennedy, senior editor: The interesting thing about that and about what Jermaine said is there were so many celebs who let us down this year. One idea we got at with our Man in the Mirror piece was, “Where do you find pride in being a Black man in 2020?” It can be hard to find that pride when that’s what you’re seeing from the people who represent you on a broad level. So I loved the spin of Best Men. There were some celebrities in there — Ricky Martin, Dwayne Wade, Swizz, Timbaland, D-Nice — but there are also these great human-interest stories about people that are doing good and putting good out into the world who you might not know otherwise.
JH: Taking the time to look back and see what Anthony Herron, Jr. did — go and sit on somebody’s lawn for 90 days because he felt that person was in danger and needed protection. And he was tired of seeing the performative things that people do on social media. It’s like, no, actually be about it. If you think this person is in danger, how are you going to protect them? That’s an amazing story, incredible story.
PR: As our first year has gone by, there have been these themes that have emerged for us, and “support and protect Black women” is a major one. “Hold each other accountable” is a major one. Letting go of outmoded notions of masculinity. JFK, your conversation with Anthony is one of my favorite stories of the year. These examples that people are setting, whether him or someone like Dwayne Wade, for fathering Zaya and allowing her to teach him, are worth covering. They’re all absolutely fundamental to what LEVEL is about.
JH: The other thing that really grabs me about that story is that this is a man with a full-time job. He’s leaving his full-time job. And then he’s going to make sure that this Black woman is protected, then going back to work. That is the LEVEL man. Right?
JFK: Also, just the fact that he’s also a 30-year-old artist who raps about upliftment — he’s basically everything that represents LEVEL distilled into one person.
PR: In another 10 years, he’s going to be angling to be in 40 Over 40.
(Forwarded this email? Sign up here.)
JH: Question for you guys, now that we’ve had time to live with the John Lewis, Kobe Bryant, and Chadwick Boseman cover: Do you feel that we missed anybody? I was wrestling this weekend with the fact that we don’t have George Floyd on the cover, but I think that’s okay.
JFK: I’m okay with it only because what he represented is different from what the three men on our cover represented. We’re honoring what they did in their lives and the mark they made while they were here. George’s story is tragic — he’s kind of like a martyr. I don’t know if they would’ve necessarily fit together. He would be deserving of his own space or way of paying tribute to him this year.
PR: Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, just countless Black men and women who were killed by the system this year — and by system, I mean either police or people who have internalized the same thinking — and that felt very difficult to grapple with within the awards. We have a series of essays throughout the week that deal with some of the less celebratory aspects of the year. But as an award, it felt strange. Jermaine, we’ve talked a lot about the importance of establishing these sorts of franchises that are tied to the identity of LEVEL itself. How much does Best Man feel like one of those things?
JH: As a franchise, I think we did what we set out to do, but there’s a long way to go. And I say that because we’ve done this while being in quarantine. And if we did this when things were more regular, there’s so many tentacles that I see to go along with this — experiential activations, you name it. There are just so many other things you can do outside of just living on LEVEL.
JFK: 2020 has been crazy. Best Man is an interesting way to show that through the craziness, there was some good that came out of it. There were Black and Brown men who showed up and answered the call.
This Week in Racism
🗑 Kid Rock, We’re Gonna Need You to Come Get Your People
We already knew the Michigan branch of MAGA Nation was on some other shit entirely — see: openly trying to disenfranchise a whole-ass city — but after last week’s voting hearing, we’re gonna need to designate a new level of certifiable delusion and hatred. We’re not talking about this seven-hour hearing of GOP “poll challengers” making all manner of baseless accusations, or future Karen Hall of Fame inductee Melissa Carone going absolutely scorched-earth with concepts like “truth.” No, we’re talking about people leaving voicemails for Cynthia Johnson, the Democratic chair of the state’s House Oversight Committee, that say things like “Dems are going down, especially fuckin’ big-lipped n*****s like you.” Johnson, a Black woman, forwarded the voicemails to her colleagues in the state legislature, only to receive a response from Republican Mary Whiteford that began with “I don’t understand why you would share this with me.” Mary Whiteford, you say? Sounds about right. (Local 4 News)
🗑 Speaking of Michigan, Have We Found Our New Diamond & Silk There?
One of the people to speak at Michigan’s Senate hearings about vote counting last week — if a seven-hour video sounds like a slog, here’s a handy Twitter thread delivering the greatest hits — was Linda Lee Tarver. Tarver, whose bio highlights include serving as an Advisory Board Member on the national Black Voices for Trump coalition, claimed that Republican poll challengers were subjected to harassment. Okay, fine, if that’s your affidavit, that’s your affidavit. Let’s see what else she said [riffling through transcripts] … oh. Here’s something: “The larger the jurisdiction which are people of color, people who look like me, the more fraud that can be inserted into stealing an election.” So predominantly Black voting districts are more likely to be fraudulent? Got it. All of a sudden, the Twitter name “Linda Lee Tarver — Notable Exception” and the avatar photo that’s been lightened to damn near Powder levels start to make a lot more sense. Anyway, it looks like everyone’s as delighted with Tarver’s claims as we are; Lansing’s city council president has asked her to resign from a scholarship advisory board. For more, we’ll just have to stay tuned to whatever Parler account or YouTube talk show she pops up on next. Here we go! (Lansing City Pulse)
🗑 Don’t Worry, Michigan’s Not the Only State on the 85th Parallel With Racism!
Another week, another official being exposed as racistus wildicus. This time, it’s Courtney Rogers, commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of Veterans Services. Before being appointed to that position, Rogers was elected as a state legislator a few years back, during which she described her vision of diversity as “recruiting the best, from light meat to dark meat, across the entire spectrum.” Not a great sign — and she reportedly doubled down on her predilections during her stint at DVS, referring to someone as “another Black guy looking for a free ride” and using a racial slur in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. If you’re wondering about the judgment of the man who put her there, Tennessee governor Bill Lee, all you really need to know is this: homie dressed up as a Confederate soldier when he was in college. Say no more, fam! (The Tennessean)
The LEVEL Up: Culture Picks From the Editors
📺 Big Mouth (Season 4)
This animated series made headlines earlier this year when Jenny Slate (a White comic) relinquished her role in voicing Missy (a biracial character) to allow for a more authentic casting (comedian Ayo Edebiri, a Black woman). But that was just the first step in establishing the toon tween. Here, her identity is at the forefront, as she learns about her hair, gives up her beloved overalls, and grapples with comments that her classmates didn’t consider her Black-Black. Be sure to catch the code-switch song in episode five — and thank us later. (Netflix)
📖 Black Futures
The coffee table book of the season has arrived! Co-editors Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham set out to answer a complex question: What does it mean to be Black and alive right now? The product of that quest is a gorgeous hardcover that compiles photos, essays, conversations, memes, tweets, poetry, and more — all of which paint a picture of the infinite bounds of Black beauty and imagination today and far beyond. (Penguin Random House)
🎥 40 Years a Prisoner
In 1978, Philadelphia police ambushed the headquarters of Black radical liberation group MOVE, a shootout that resulted in one officer dead and nine members of the organization sentenced to 30-to-100 years behind bars. Tommy Oliver’s powerful new documentary chronicles the plight of the unit now known as the Move 9 (which maintains its innocence) and its 40-year struggle for justice — told through the lifelong campaigning of Mike Africa Jr., son to two of the incarcerated members. It’s yet another reminder of the urgent need to abolish the carceral system ASAP. (12/8 at 9 p.m., HBO)
LEVEL Read of the Week
The Unsung Hero Who Protected a Complete Stranger From Her Racist Neighbor For 90 Days
In 2020, activism has meant putting boots to pavement to protest systemic oppression and police brutality — or at its most underwhelming, posting a black square to Instagram. But in the case of New York resident Jennifer McLeggan, a single mother whose note about increasingly menacing harassment by her racist neighbors went viral, symbolic support wasn’t enough. Thankfully, Anthony Herron, Jr., a complete stranger, stepped up by patrolling her home for 90 consecutive nights, serving as a shining example of the mantra “Protect Black women” in action. Read the story.
You are signed up to receive emails from Level. You can adjust your settings at the link in the footer of this email. | https://level.medium.com/salute-the-black-men-who-made-2020-not-a-total-trash-fire-1e5ff16cfcf0 | ['Jermaine Hall'] | 2020-12-08 12:01:51.226000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Celebrity', 'Racism'] |
Predicting Infidelity from Precise Personality Sub-Traits | Predicting Infidelity from Precise Personality Sub-Traits
Photo by Wesley Balten on Unsplash
According to data reviewed by C.J.J. van Zyl, author of a study in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (2021), the most common reason for breakups and divorce is infidelity. Betrayal wreaks the greatest damage on trust, striking love at its roots, undoing years of time spent building relationship, and casting a shadow on the future of shared satisfaction. While many couples weather the injury, many succumb.
Prior research shows that some factors protect against infidelity[1], while others make it more likely[2]. In addition, while for many couples, infidelity is a relationship-ending event, for other couples hidden — and sometimes openly secret infidelity — may help stabilize relationships.
The unfaithful personality
Given the crucial importance of trust in any relationship, and the need for exclusivity in monogamous relationships — which remain the most common in spite of a rise in mutually open relationships as a function of “less restrictive” sociosexuality— researchers naturally have taken a keen interest in understanding what personality traits may increase or decrease the likelihood of infidelity.
Van Zyl notes that the majority of research has looked at personality traits. In addition to the “dark triad” (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy), the Five Factor Model (FFM) or “Big 5” (OCEAN: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism) have been studies with infidelity.
There are consistent associations between infidelity and each of the Big 5 traits. For example, people who cheat in romantic relationships score higher on Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Extraversion. They score lower on Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. However, van Zyl reports, some work has shown different findings for Openness and Extraversion. There is more than meets the eye.
From traits to facets
Facets tell a more nuanced story. While work on personality traits is informative, what many do not realize is that each personality traits is made of sub-traits, called facets Each trait has six facets. For example, Neuroticism is composed of Anxiety, Angry Hostility, Depression, Self-Consciousness, Impulsiveness and Vulnerability (the full facet list is below for the scale used in this study[3]).
The facet level also shows where different personality models overlap and contrast with one another. For example, neurotic impulsivity and hostility are features of psychopathy, part of the dark triad. Yet, not all neurotic people are psychopathic, and some features of neuroticism, such as self-consciousness, may contrast with psychopathy. Correlations with broad brushstroke personality traits are therefore misleading where facets are likely more precise. This is true for personality research in general, and not just with infidelity.
In order to look in more detail at personality correlates of infidelity, van Zyl conducted a study of 685 young adults in a university setting, the majority women (79.2 percent) as part of a larger study on risky behavior. Self-report measures included the Basic Traits Inventory for personality and demographics. Participants were asked about infidelity, how many times had they ever cheated in a romantic partner in their lifetime, coded into “yes” or “no” for purposes of this study. Both traits and facets were analyzed using Bayesian inference, leveraging “fuzzy logic” to discern data patterns.
Findings
On the macro level, Openness and Extraversion were associated with a higher chance of lifetime infidelity, while Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Neuroticism were associated with a lower chance. These results line up with prior findings, with areas of consistency and inconsistency in which Big 5 traits go along with infidelity and which do not. In this case, Neuroticism had a small positive association with infidelity.
The facet analysis told a more interesting story, however, getting at the underlying predictors of infidelity. In descending order, the strongest facets associated with infidelity were Extroversion’s facet Ascendance (aka Assertiveness, social boldness), and to a much smaller extent Excitement Seeking; the Duty facet of Conscientiousness, increasing faithfulness; and the Affective (emotional) Instability facet of Neuroticism, associated with increased cheating risk. Other facets had weak or absent correlations.
How not to get cheated on?
This data is preliminary yet intriguing. There are limitations. First, this is a younger age group, predominantly women. However, at least in this study, controlling for age, gender and other demographic factors did not change which traits and facets predicted infidelity. Furthermore, as a pilot study, infidelity was measured with one basic question, and analyzed as a Yes or No outcome rather than looking at degrees of infidelity over a large span of relationships.
Duration of relationship was also not reported, but as the average age hovered around early 20s, relationship durations are shorter, type of relationship is less mature, and personality characteristics are for younger people. While personality is generally stable over the lifespan, some traits do change with time. Classic research (2017), for example, found that conscientiousness and agreeableness increase with age. This could change the infidelity landscape with age.
Regardless, looking at personality on the level of facets is an important step toward a more refined understanding of how personality interacts with decisions and behavior. Personality traits aren’t accurate predictors. For example, Assertiveness is the biggest infidelity risk factor for extraverts. Yet not all extraverts are high on assertiveness, so being extraverted is OK in the absence of specific risks.
Likewise for neuroticism, being neurotic overall does not appear to be the issue, but being emotionally unstable is a problem because feelings may shift suddenly for positive to negative, for example, temporarily weakening feelings which keep people from dalliance. For conscientiousness, a less dutiful partner, which relates to ethics and morality, potentially overlapping with dark traits, is more of a risk.
Short of assessing personality at the beginning of a relationship to ID potential cheaters before it’s too late to easily uncouple — bear in mind that research (2017) shows that a prior history of infidelity predicts future risk, and people who have been cheated on are more likely to be cheated on again.
If you know that you are attracted to some of the same traits making romantic choices prone to infidelity, especially if it has happened before, it is critical to slow down, strongly consider taking a break from dating and figure out what the attraction is to people who have more risky personality facets. History does not have to repeat, but tends to do so if unchecked.
Learn more about personality, and personality change
How To Polish Your Personality
Doorknob Comments Podcast: Personality Talks
Footnotes
1. Infidelity Protective Factors
Moral Standards
Effects on the Children
Fear of Remaining Alone
Effects on Other People (Especially the Extramarital Sex Partner)
2. Infidelity Warning Signs
Low relationship commitment.
Declining sexual and relationship satisfaction.
Specific personality traits (e.g., avoidant attachment style; extroversion, neuroticism, and lower agreeableness, in terms of the “Big 5” personality traits).
Permissive attitudes about sex/infidelity.
Being in a social context which approves of infidelity.
3. Big 5 Traits and Facets
Openness to Experience: Aesthetic, Ideas, Action, Values, Imagination
Conscientiousness: Effort, Order, Duty, Prudence, Self-Discipline
Extraversion: Ascendance, Liveliness, Positive Affect, Gregariousness, Excitement Seeking
Agreeableness: Straightforwardness, Compliance, Prosocial, Modesty, Tendermindeness
Neuroticism: Affective Instability, Depression, Self-Consciousness, Anxiety
A related list of Big 5 traits and facets
This post (“Our Blog Post”) is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained through Our Blog Post. Please seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, regarding the evaluation of any specific information, opinion, advice, or other content. We are not responsible and will not be held liable for third party comments on Our Blog Post. Any user comment on Our Blog Post that in our sole discretion restricts or inhibits any other user from using or enjoying Our Blog Post is prohibited and may be reported to Medium.com. Grant H. Brenner. All rights reserved. Originally published on Psychology Today, ExperiMentations. | https://medium.com/@granthbrennermd/predicting-infidelity-from-precise-personality-sub-traits-bdc71ffdd1e2 | ['Grant H Brenner'] | 2021-03-06 18:58:29.199000+00:00 | ['Marriage', 'Breakups', 'Infidelity', 'Relationships', 'Personality'] |
BORUTO-ボルト- - Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full Episode GOOGLE*Drive | Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full Episode
CLICK HERE WATCH NOW ▶▶ http://iflix.master-movies.com/tv/70881-1-125/boruto-naruto-next-generations
STREAMING ONLINE HD ▶▶ http://iflix.master-movies.com/tv/70881-1-125/boruto-naruto-next-generations
DOWNLOADNOW HERE ▶▶ http://iflix.master-movies.com/tv/70881-1-125/boruto-naruto-next-generations
Runtime : 24 min
Genre : Action & Adventure, Animation
Stars : Ryuuichi Kijima (Mitsuki (voice)), Kokoro Kikuchi (Uchiha Sarada (voice)), Yuuko Sanpei (Uzumaki Boruto (voice)), Shinji Kawada (Aburame Shino (voice)), Ryoko Shiraishi (Akimichi Chouchou (voice))
Overview : Naruto was a young shinobi with an incorrigible knack for mischief. He achieved his dream to become the greatest ninja in the village and his face sits atop the Hokage Monument. But this is not his story. A new generation of ninja are ready to take the stage, led by Naruto’s own son, Boruto.
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full Episode
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full Episode
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full Episode
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full Episode
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full Episode
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Season 1 Episode 125 Full Episode | https://medium.com/@melisaanisa72/boruto-%E3%83%9C%E3%83%AB%E3%83%88-next-generations-season-1-episode-125-full-episode-google-drive-7d6ee5b29adb | ['Melisa Anisa'] | 2019-09-22 07:16:04.758000+00:00 | ['TV Shows', 'TV Series', 'Television', 'Japanese'] |
Difference Maker: Guest Submission from Jason Gieschen, Special Olympics International Global Messenger and Athlete | 50 years ago, Eunice Kennedy Shriver started Special Olympics. She came to our world and looked at us with dignity. She saw our abilities. She knew that just because we learned differently, we still had feelings. She gave us a chance. She changed the world.
Now, Special Olympics, continues to make a difference with the “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign. This campaign is 10 years old. We ask and encourage everyone to sign the pledge to end the word. Have you heard about it? If you have, then we have been doing something right. If not, then we have more work to do. What is this word that we need to end? The word is “retard” or “retarded.” Like many others, I have been a target of this word. “Hey, retard!” or “You’re retarded.” Or when it was not directed at me but to some action, like “That is so retarded” is very hurtful. I don’t like writing the word. I don’t like hearing the word. I don’t even like saying the word when I am explaining to others how offensive it is. If you have ever been bullied, abused, or hurt by someone, then you understand how certain words remind you of those sad memories. Over time, the hurt will heal but who can know what scars remain?
Mental retardation is not a derogatory term but a medical diagnosis referring to people with an intellectual disability. It later morphed into the slang word of “retard” by many mean-spirited people who thought they were being funny. That slang word was and is used to put people down. It is not funny. It is name calling. It is ugly. It is sad. It became so repulsive that the government passed legislation to strike it from official documents and replace it with the term intellectual disability.
That change was a big step in making a difference. I wear a bracelet that says, “Difference maker, today is the day, I am the one.” You can make a difference too. You can choose to sign the pledge to Spread the Word to End the Word. Choose the other R-word — Respect. I invite you to come to our world. I invite you to sign the pledge. I invite you to be a difference maker. Today is your day. You are the one.
Jason Gieschen
Sargent Shriver International Global Messenger
Special Olympics Athlete
If you have a story, video, photo, poem, essay, guide, dance, (or anything else) to share with the world, follow the three easy steps in this link or publish your story on Medium and email it to [email protected]. If you prefer, you could also put your story into a word document, let us know whether you would like it published under your name or anonymously, and email it to [email protected].
Pledge your support to end the R-Word here. | https://medium.com/specialolympics/guest-submission-special-olympics-athlete-jason-gieschen-b859143f22fb | ['Dan Bellows'] | 2018-04-13 17:56:18.436000+00:00 | ['Special Needs', 'Advocacy', 'Respect', 'Inclusion', 'Special Olympics'] |
Why Python should be your go-to language? | 5. Python is instrumental in Data Science and AI
Python comes with a lot of built-in libraries that provide a lot of the functionality a data scientist might need. In addition to that, there are also a great number of robust and popular libraries you can download for Python and use in your projects.
Now, give it a go if it fits your needs. | https://medium.com/dev-genius/why-python-should-be-your-go-to-language-fb69be1fb0ba | ['Injurious Answer'] | 2020-10-07 19:33:00.183000+00:00 | ['Python', 'IoT', 'Language', 'Data Science', 'Programming'] |
Photowalk: The Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park | Living a creative life, a student of high magic, and hopefully growing wiser as I age. • Ex-Lucasfilm, Netflix, Adobe. • Here are my stories and photos.
Follow | https://medium.com/snap-shots/photowalk-the-conservatory-of-flowers-golden-gate-park-9b4a942b1602 | ['M. H. Rubin'] | 2020-12-25 23:58:51.477000+00:00 | ['Black And White', 'San Francisco', 'Photography', 'Photohaiku', 'Flowers'] |
Rich Lux discount for Surfshark — get the VPN coupon code | Rich Lux is a Youtube content creator that reviews items and accessories both for women and men, also he makes comedy and satire videos, he talks about all the news and dramas that are going on in the celebrity and fashion world. He is inspired by gay community and isn’t afraid to show his drag queen persona.
In his recent videos he also talks about the importance of being safe online and admits that he really cares about his online security and anonymity and uses a VPN for protection. Not just any VPN, but Surfshark. Also he tries to inspire his viewers do the same and provides them with a coupon code for 84% discount.
How to get Surfshark coupon code by Rich Lux
Go to Surfshark home homepage here
Press “Get started”
Insert the coupon code rich
Continue the purchase
You can also follow this link with the coupon code already inserted in: https://surfshark.com/deal/coupon?coupon=rich
With this discount you will get 84% off Surfshark 2-years plan and 1 extra month for free. It will only cost you 1.91$ per month. Which is a small price for a high quality VPN.
Why you should choose Surfshark
Surfshark is a highly secure VPN, that doesn’t collect logs, uses industry leading encryption and by default uses the most secure protocols. This means that Surfshark will be able to keep your traffic and your data absolutely secure and anonymous, so no third party members will be able to see what you are doing online or steal your information. Surfshark supports an unlimited number of devices so you will be able to connect all of your devices, doesn’t matter how much of those you have to one account. You will be able to even share your one account with your friends or family. Surfshark works great with bypassing restrictions online and opening the internet. First of all it works great with such streaming platforms as Netflix. Secondly it is perfect to bypass any geo-restrictions on different pages, for example Surfshark bypasses the Great Firewall of China, so even in China, the internet will be open for you. Surfshark has some advanced features such as built in ad-blocker, protection from malware and trackers, kill-switch. Surfshark has 24/7 working customer support so whenever you have problems you will be able to find help. Surfshark has a 30-day money back guarantee so if you do not like the service you can easily refund it.
Watch Rich Lux YT channel here
Get Surfshark with 84% discount here | https://medium.com/@ttexler841/rich-lux-discount-for-surfshark-get-the-vpn-coupon-code-c38ff6da9a21 | ['Thimmy Texler'] | 2019-06-19 07:15:47.313000+00:00 | ['Discount', 'YouTube', 'Coupon', 'Privacy', 'VPN'] |
What Is Happening With Google in Australia? | Why does this matter? Because of how the news is displayed. Google’s algorithms decide which snippets to show you, and that determines which news providers will receive ad money from your view. When you click on a snippet via mobile, you also pass your data onto Google, rather than the news source.
What is ACCC trying to do?
ACCC is concerned with the power imbalance between Google and Australian news companies. News companies in Australia have little bargaining power when negotiating with Google about how their news gets shown.
Australia is experiencing a local news extinction event. Local newsrooms have been shutting down, accelerated by the impact of Covid-19. Loss of public interest journalism threatens a functioning democracy. Imagine trying to keep your local government accountable when there is no local news reporting — as is now the case in one-third of local councils across Australia.
Meanwhile, more people use Google to read the news than ever before. Google is no longer simply an online search directory; it is now a globally adopted service that acts as a portal to the digital world.
ACCC is attempting to restore balance by redistributing some of Google’s ad revenues to Australian news companies. Globally, this response is not new. For years, countries in Europe have been attempting the same thing.
What might happen as a result?
There’s a chance that the Australian public could be impacted by all this.
Australians who back the ACCC may not be aware that when a similar law was tried in Germany and Spain, Google followed through with their response to limit search results, and the decline of local news in those countries got worse.
In Spain, after a “snippet tax” was passed in 2014, Google shut down their news aggregation service in response. This led to a fall in news consumption across Spain, disproportionately affecting smaller publishers.
If ACCC follows through with their code, and Google follows through with their response, the local news wipeout in Australia could continue.
Why is this happening?
Some say Google’s operations are enabling the decimation of Australia’s news media industry. Others point out that the Australian government is passing a code that may favour larger media companies at the expense of smaller ones.
But really? It seems that both organisations are just doing their best to pursue their missions while abiding by the law.
Google’s loyal users back them for providing a free service. Others support the ACCC for trying to protect public interest journalism.
But as with many complex problems, everyone doing what they think is right can still lead to negative results.
What can we do about it?
The digital economy has grown massively over the past two decades, and these are unprecedented times. The most important thing is to stay educated.
For policymakers, the answers are not obvious because Australian regulators were designed to look after the analog world. What’s different about a digital one?
To find the answer, start by following the data.
Today, data is worth more than oil¹. Data flows are happening at lightning speeds and in immense quantities, on a massive global scale.
Unlike oil, it isn’t obvious to the public how exchange of value happens with data. It’s a complex topic.
However, once we understand that data is the currency that digital businesses deal in, we can perhaps begin to think of ways in which we can co-exist with news and technology. Again, the most important thing is to stay educated.
To make sense of it all, here’s a story about our current global transition to a digital world:
How did we get here? A visual metaphor for the internet in 2020 | https://medium.com/swlh/who-really-loses-accc-google-7ce1d7811428 | ['Justin Cheong'] | 2020-08-29 15:33:03.676000+00:00 | ['Big Tech', 'Media', 'Google', 'Australia', 'Journalism'] |
How I Leveraged My Unpaid Online Writing to Land a Paid Gig | About two months ago I saw a paid writing gig on one of those websites people like me frequent. The ones where some random small business offers to pay you the “generous” sum of $20 for 2000 words. Yet if one is willing to be patient, or forced to because of the sudden unemployment caused by a Pandemic, there are good gigs to be found. This was why after a few days of checking the site religiously with different keywords, I stumbled upon a lifestyle blog in need of content. And they wanted to pay for it.
I gathered 4 pieces, well-liked by audiences thus providing both social proof of my abilities to connect to readers and to formulate a sentence, and sent them in with a quick cover letter. I knew I couldn’t be the only one out there seeking the same job so I won’t lie, I didn’t expect to hear back.
To my surprise, they wrote back 3 days later.
In the email, they said they were impressed and wanted me to get started with 3 posts a week for a set cost. I was ecstatic. I was also lucky. There are millions of writers right now scouring the internet for those well-paying opportunities, the luxury of a guaranteed paycheck. There are some things to keep in mind if you are trying to transfer from personal blog work to paid work.
Write the kinds of articles you want to be paid for
No matter what job you apply for they are going to ask for samples. This means you need to have some on hand. It proves you’re serious about the topic and can research or write in the tone they need for the position. A food blog doesn’t want to see your breakup account, but they will be interested in a personal post in regards to a cake you made for your Grandma’s last birthday.
Produce work that shows you know how to write
Many businesses are unwilling to pay writers a healthy wage. And it shows. Poorly paid writers often produce poor work because they aren’t writers so much as content creators. They may not know the first thing about how to form a sentence or a compelling story. So serious employers who do want good writers have to sort through the noise to find the diamonds who just get it. That’s why your quality will always trump quantity when you are attempting to get a company to hire you. Those that are willing to pay well, want to make sure the writer the hire can write. Show them you can with any online writing you do for free on your blog.
Don’t sell yourself short
One way that companies will try to save money is to claim you “don’t have enough experience” for higher pay. However, prove them wrong. Show them the analytics on stories. I chose my most popular stories for this reason and so should you. At the end of the day, you are expected to write the same content as a professional so you should be paid for that service, not the discounted price. If they argue you can tentatively agree but let them know you are fielding other offers that will pay you your asking rate, so if they really want your skills, they need to show it. Financially.
Writing isn’t easy, but it’s in demand. Content is needed. If online writers could agree to not work for pennies for companies who demand specific posts, then we might see a turning of the tide. A world in which creatives of all calibers were paid well for their labor, and not perceived value based on popularity.
Until then, keep writing on your own blog for free, but keep the end goal in mind. If you want to get paid for your words, you have to write words that people want to pay to read. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/how-i-leveraged-my-unpaid-online-writing-to-land-a-paid-gig-adeced844265 | ['Amber Radcliffe'] | 2020-10-20 04:26:23.214000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Business', 'Jobs', 'Self', 'Writing'] |
Why Flutter will change Mobile Development for the best? | The current scenario
With time, technology is evolving very rapidly. In a matter of a few decades, we successfully covered the journey from brick and mortar buildings to the computer systems and are now leaping in full swing towards the power of smartphones.
As we are bringing in changes to the way we lead our lives, we are getting closer to the technology each day, so much so, that it has become an inevitable part of our lives.
This has also impacted the way businesses operated. As the target audience has conveniently made a move from the offline markets to online shopping, businesses too are eyeing to seize this opportunity at its best.
They have moved from the offline stores to online E-commerce portals, but now are taking even a step further with the mobile application, to get an edge among the competitors.
With the fast-paced modern lives, where everything has to be done on the go, smartphones have fulfilled this demand to a major extent. That is why, smartphones have become the lifeline for the modern audience, who wants everything just at a click.
A Study from Statista shows, that the monthly global mobile data consumption has gone more than double in the last two years from 11.51 exabytes in 2017 to 28.56 in 2019. This is projected to grow more than thrice in the next 3 years until 2022.
With such exponential growth in the global use of mobile internet, we can clearly infer ,that the next big place to reach the target audience is via smartphones using a high performing mobile application.
Are you still waiting to get a mobile app for your business?
Don’t miss the opportunity and make a quick move to the mobile application platforms to expand your reach.
This is where Flutter comes to your rescue.
With the two major mobile application platforms namely Android and iOS, and both having a large set of audience, you cannot afford to miss any of these platforms. And thus, thinking conventionally, you would need to build and maintain two separate apps for these platforms.
But, with Flutter, you save it all. Only a single app development with Flutter can help you build a highly professional mobile application, that is cross-platform compatible and works well on both the platforms.
This makes Flutter the future of mobile app development.
Let us explore this in detail to understand why Flutter will change mobile application development for better.
Flutter: The wave of change in mobile application development
Flutter, which is an open and free cross-platform mobile application development tool backed by Google, is changing the way cross-platform compatible apps were developed.
Here are the reasons why Flutter will bring in change in the mobile application development for better:
Cost efficiency
Flutter helps you save costs in many ways as it is open and source and free to use. Moreover, you can optimize the use of resources and infrastructure with Flutter as it provides amazing features over the conventional Native mobile application development.
Saves resources and time
Now that you don’t have to build separate apps for iOS and Android, you end up saving resources and time that is required in the development, deployment and maintenance of two separate apps.
Rather, you can concentrate them towards building a single app which is more refined and mature in terms of performance and user experience.
Makes the development cycles shorter
With a rich catalogue of numerous tools that are available, you do not need to code each of the components from scratch. This makes the development cycles shorter, where your product can hit the floors with very less time than the conventional mobile application development.
One code for two platforms
You can build apps for both the iOS and Android platforms using a single code in Dart, using Flutter. It helps you target your audience on both the platforms with ease, using consistent applications for both the platforms by just coding it once.
Offers Smart development of Mobile applications
Hot Reload feature of Flutter, lets you witness real-time changes immediately to get you an idea of how would they look like on live application. This helps you experiment better without the need for multiple iterations.
Also, it helps you with syntax errors by correcting it automatically in its smart editor as per the standard definitions of functions. This way it reduces the number of errors in the code before the execution itself.
Help make MVP that is impressive
Flutter with its amazing features and ready-made widgets and plugins offers the best MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that you can have. With high performance and functionality, Flutter offers MVPs that never fail to amaze.
Provides Apps with more functionality
Flutter offers a large number of widgets, tools and plugins that lets you provide over the top highly functional apps. Combining these widgets together, helps you build apps that provide a wide range of advanced functions keeping your target audience hooked to your application.
Provides Apps that have a beautiful UI
It helps you make apps that not just functionally sharp but are equally beautiful. With tons of options to choose from, you can make an impressive UI that enhances customer engagement, delivering the user experience which is par excellent.
Fast paced evolution backed by open source community
Flutter is an open source platform that is backed by the developer community and Google. This makes the evolution even faster with more and more enhancements coming in shorter spans.
Flutter’s quick success and huge fanbase that includes both startups and fortune 500 companies alike, is the evidence for its fast development and evolution, giving hopes of its potential to change the future for good.
On a closing note
With these revolutionary features, Flutter has already proved its mettle in a matter of few years since its inception. Having the support of such a strong community, one can expect a lot more in the store, which is yet to hit the market.
This strong potential speaks for a promising future, that forecasts a bright future ahead for both the Flutter and the mobile application development.
If you too are planning to seize the opportunity, then take the plunge and get an edge over your competition by building a cross-platform mobile application for your enterprise using Flutter.
At Citrus Leaf, we have been working on Flutter since its inception and have delivered some amazing mobile apps for our clients. Having an exciting idea, feel free to contact us at [email protected] and we shall be obliged to assist you in realizing it by delivering a high-end mobile application. | https://medium.com/@info_25473/why-flutter-will-change-mobile-development-for-the-best-83c2d9870313 | ['Jay Singh'] | 2019-06-07 05:16:50.258000+00:00 | ['Flutter App Development', 'Mobile App Development'] |
Peter Andre admits he’s had racism ‘thrown at him’ for years | Peter Andre has opened up in regards to the racism he has confronted through the years amid the Black Lives Matter motion.
The singer backed Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid after they grilled lawyer Earl Grey on Good Morning Britain.
Early Grey is defending Minnesota police officer Thomas Lane after he was charged in relation to the homicide of George Floyd.
What did Peter Andre say about racism?
Sharing a clip of the interview, Peter wrote on Instagram, “Each my mother and father are Greek and we had racism thrown at us left proper and centre for years.
“Whenever you see or expertise racism. Whenever you see it occur to folks over and over.
“Whenever you see what occurred to George Floyd, you’ll be able to’t simply sit again and say nothing. It’s not proper, it by no means has been. #endracism #blacklivesmatter.”
Pete is of Greek first rate and lived in London till the age of six, when his household moved to the Gold Coast in Australia.
He added, “Seeing this man smirk and smile made me so mad. Change is coming although.
“Now that individuals can lastly movie these atrocities, signifies that we’re lastly waking up and seeing what has been taking place for years.
“Racism has been rife for a whole bunch and 1000’s of years in opposition to many cultures and races.
“What’s infuriating although is when folks nearly disregard what’s being protested and are available again with ‘All Lives matter’.
“Nobody ever questioned that. However for all lives to matter signifies that BLACK LIVES MATTER. Oh man.. very unhappy occasions.”
Presenter Piers had been left livid when the lawyer stormed out of the dwell interview on GMB.
After being questioned by Piers on why his shopper ‘didn’t shield’ George Floyd, the interview grew to become heated and Earl angrily mentioned, “Should you suppose I’m going to sit down right here and take heed to you discuss dangerous about my shopper, I’m not listening to that.
“Should you had informed me that an hour in the past after I did agree to remain up, I’d haven’t agreed to it,’ earlier than slamming down his laptop computer and ending the interview. | https://medium.com/@sarfrazqamar00/peter-andre-admits-hes-had-racism-thrown-at-him-for-years-d65bbe0ba618 | ['Sarfraz Qamar'] | 2020-06-17 07:23:46.976000+00:00 | ['Admits', 'Racism', 'Peter', 'Thrown', 'Year In Review'] |
Are you looking for the best immigration consultants in Delhi? | Welcome to one of the top Canadian immigration consultants in India! Are you looking for the best immigration consultants in Delhi? Are you planning to immigrate to Canada? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you have reached the right place. After going about several venues in Delhi if you have been demoralized then don’t worry we’ve got you. Sernexuss provides you with high-quality consultancy services that will make your immigration to Canada a hassle-free process.
Unlike other immigration companies who just fill the application without understanding the client’s needs and requirements which could result in refusal of the application at Sernexuss, we offer end-end services based on the customer profile with an aim to close the case.
Sernexuss offers unique immigration consultancy services, right from application pre-assessment to filling and submitting all the documents till the visa is approved. At Sernexuss, we keep all our services and procedures transparent and keep it updated with the client. Sernexuss has helped people realize their overseas dream. | https://medium.com/@karkidk17/are-you-looking-for-the-best-immigration-consultants-in-delhi-68084266db36 | ['Deepak Karki'] | 2020-12-23 06:55:00.563000+00:00 | ['Immigration Consultants', 'Sernexuss', 'Immigration'] |
Don’t Blame Your Doctor | You need to tell your doctor about your nutrition and it’s super easy with these forms.
Daily, I hear them, the comments at the coffee shop or on phone calls to friends “my doctor doesn’t know anything about nutrition,” or “my doctor didn’t even ask me what I eat…” or “my doctor told me to lose weight, but doesn’t even know I’m keto right now,” etc. Dear patient, if your doctor doesn’t know all about your nutrition, your total nutrition — like what goes in and on your body most often, YOU are to blame…not them.
What a doctor knows about nutrition will depend on their training. But there isn’t a doctor out there that doesn’t know that better nutrition is essential for better health. They might be as confused as you about whether that is to adjust carbs or which carbs to eat, if CBD will help you or not, or what supplements are worthy and not, but it is not that your doctor doesn’t know about nutrition that’s keeping you from better health.
IF YOUR DOCTOR DOESN’T KNOW YOUR TOTAL NUTRITION YOU ARE TO BLAME, NOT THEM.
Whether a doctor knows about YOUR nutrition — that is solely on you. You both know that your nutrition has the power to massively influence your health. But only you know what you eat, what you pop, what you slather on most days and nights. If you don’t share that information with your practitioner, they can not create your better recommendations.
When your doctor doesn’t know what you take, sip, bite into, or apply, they can’t develop your better plan. They can’t tell you NOT to take your statin in the morning because that’s when you take Coq10, or to enjoy your coffee with unsweetened almond milk instead of adding an additional 200 milligrams of calcium as a supplement to reach your daily needs. Your doctor can’t advise that you increase your magnesium intake from foods or from supplements to help equip your body to turn off stress if they don’t know your current magnesium intake from foods and supplements.
Your health depends on your better health efforts. That begins with sharing your current nutrition with your practitioner. Because you can not get nor stay healthy if you don’t have better digestion, the first place to start is to see if your digestion is better. If it’s not, you and your practitioner (doctor, therapist, trainer, dentist (yup even oral health requires healthy digestion!), health coach, nutritionist, dietitian) need to start with fixing your digestion.
ITS SUPER EASY TO SHARE YOUR TOTAL NUTRITION WITH YOUR PRACTITIONER USING THESE FORMS.
Look, you might be right to complain about your doctor (as the daughter of surgeon, I have a lot of complaints about doctors — ha ha ha) BUT complaining doesn’t get you healthier. And in the case of complaining about your doctor’s lack of nutrition knowledge, it is time we patients take responsibility too. We need to make sure our practitioners know about our total nutrition. Then, if they can’t create personalized better health recommendations that’s when we don’t complain, we move on to another practitioner. | https://medium.com/@AshleyKoffRD/dont-blame-your-doctor-d2b26b06da26 | ['Ashley Koff Rd'] | 2019-05-16 16:30:30.175000+00:00 | ['Doctors', 'Nutrition', 'Health', 'Supplements'] |
Racism Is Entropy, Nationalism is Design | Racism Is Entropy, Nationalism is Design
Introduction
In the course of this prose, I would like you to construe 'racism' to include hostility on the basis of differences between human ancestory, heritage or characteristics both at a macro level (as between whole continents) or micro level (as within nations, ethnic groups, etc.). I use 'racism' as an umbrella phenomenon to cover both the macro and micro aspects of said connotation. By this I mean that when I use the word 'racism' you need not only construe it as hostility between races e.g black and caucasian (macro scale) but you should also include micro scale forms e.g as between Hausa and Igbo, South Africa and Nigeria, etc. This is to avoid superfuity of language if I were to use the more appropriate terms of hostile dimensions such as ethnicism, nepotism, xenophobia and so on.
Tribalism Is Normal [1]
As social beings we must naturally interact with one another, thus, each individual becomes part of a social setting of whom they claim association or belonging. The people that form this setting command one's loyalty and affection such that "me" no longer means the individual alone but includes these other people, your tribe.
Relationships between groups are complex but the result of increasing globalization (and perhaps western civilisation) is the denial of the somewhat tribal nature of human beings, this naive inclusivity, forgetting that —
We can all be neighbours but not roommates.
The modern concept of universalism tries to make roommates of 7 billion individuals and this absence of drawn lines, this morbid globalization ignores what will be it’s own undoing. You see, racial blindness and 'the universal' is too abstract and complex a phenomenon for an individual to comprehend because interaction works differently at scale. The whole world is not the same as one continent, one continent: one country and one country is not the same as one municipality, on and on. Looking at it this way, equality cannot really be equality because even though-
we are all brothers, some are more brothers to us than others
When we try to centralise the world as one big happy global village devoid of cultural, ancestral or traditional differences, we dehumanise humanity and counterintuitively all the benefits accrue to the inhumane—the multinational corporations, global trade, Politicians, entitled minorities and businesses. To the individual, his worst fear and highest social punishment is being labelled 'racist’, 'tribalistic' and other equivalents. But for these aforestated class of people/organisations, the absence of racial bounds means boundless power and boundless markets. And so, referring to Covid-19 as the 'China virus' is bad (and racist) but not putting trade restrictions on the chinese market is good; and on a micro level, identifying as biafran is tribalistic but the ruga policy for fulani herdsmen is not and is good for the country, or conversely, people should not elect leaders based on tribal grounds, but producing a President from a particular geopolitical zone is good, but I digress. It is all an endless cycle of self deception. So instead of trying to deny or ignore the fact that we humans are tribal, we should rather make the best of this natural tendency and by so doing avert the unsavory consequences.
Racism is Entropy, Nationalism is Design
The first point to note is that in relation to the tribalistic propensities in human interaction, design is found within the auspices of nationalism but the prejudicial dimensions of racism constitutes entropy. (Again, I have to mention that I speak of nationalism in macro levels, say, love for country and micro levels, say, love for your ethnic group). When individuals act unregulatedly in accordance with their tribalistic tendencies, (either by denying it or by exaggerating it) the result is racism. When this tendency is exploited on moderate bounds, that is, when done regulatedly, the fruit is nationalistic grace. I will try to expound this denial, exaggeration and moderation of the human tribalistic propensity using the philosophical concepts of self interest (egoism) and altruism.
Nobody is Selfless (I do not mean to sound so authoritative, but…)
At the core of every human interaction is perceived self interest. This is the natural trade-off of life. By denial, we ignore this principle and feign altruism which is selflessness —devotion to the interests of others to the complete exclusion of self (what universalism posits). But dear friend, selflessness (altruism) does not exist. For as long as you are a human, some interest of yours lies in every action you take, whether directly or indirectly.
By exaggeration, we take the principle of self interest to an extreme (in an unhealthy manner) — pursuing our interests at the expense of others. Now, the notions of altruism and unhealthy self-interest are at opposite extremes. They are both unsound, though one is subtle and the other overt. The moderate balance between these two notions is "ethical self-interest" or "healthy egoism". Where the principle of self interest maintains it’s proper bounds.
Bringing this same principle to group interests and in relation to human tribalistic tendencies, racism is implicit in any of those two extremes —where one group feigns altruism, say, Western Nigerian Politicians, but are subtly furthering their ethnic interests at national scale —or where another group acts in unhealthy pursuance of their interests, say Northern Nigerian Politicians engaging in obvious nepotism.
The perfect balance is nationalism (whether macro or micro) where we find the moderate or ethical pursuance of collective interests.
Life is Not a Zero-sum Game
Conclusively, I will try to show what racism is not.
Preferring your own race, ethnicity or tribe above others is not racism.
Pursuing first the interests of your own race, ethnicity or tribe before those of others is not racism.
In sharp contrast:
Preferring your own race, ethnicity or tribe at the expense of those of others is racism.
Pursuing the interests of your own race, ethnicity or tribe at the expense of others is racism.
Corollary:
Denying racial differences is a subtle form of racism, much as denying gender differences is in fact sexist and denying that say, identical twins are different individuals is corrupt.
Following this very nuanced thought, a little re-evaluation will have you see that a lot of things being branded as racism today is really not racism and conversely what people think not racism, is racism. With this perspective, you can find peace.
As long as you leave room for the other to thrive: not imposing your position on theirs, but defending your position; Not frustrating their interests, but protecting your interests; Not inflicting injuries, but avoiding injury; Not doing harm to the other, but doing good for your own; you are transforming entropy to design. Nationalism obeys the golden rule.
It is morbidly fallacious to think that you can only procure profit at another's loss. Life and human interactions at scale, complex as they are, are not zero sum games, only if we make them so.
No problem deifying your own, as long as you don't vilify those of others. | https://medium.com/@afannamdi/racism-is-entropy-nationalism-is-design-b8724eee99de | [] | 2020-11-05 17:30:58.701000+00:00 | ['Sociology', 'Racism', 'Nigeria', 'Philosophy', 'Discrimination'] |
Test Case Design and Testing Techniques Of Implementation- Factors to Consider | Test Case Design and Testing Techniques
Software testing is a basic and significant technique for evaluating the quality of specific software products and services. In software testing, exploratory testing plays an unavoidable and a vital job. A strategic plan and execution help to improve the overall software testing experiences.
Software testing is the way toward breaking down a product and knows about what’s required and what’s not required (as of bugs). Testing helps to validate the system is bug-free and it features, functionality is behaving as expected.
We tried to explain test case design, test analysis, quality risk, testing techniques and phases of test development. We covered some checklist to ensure proper testing techniques of implementation.
Test Case Design & Testing Techniques
Test designing is an art and making some effective and useful decisions for testing. That is important to create a test plan, write some test cases and set some cycle what to be covered with testing and what not be covered with testing.
These parameters make a big difference to understand the requirement and execution which will later provide tremendous results.
Test Analysis
Just after the testing planning, it requires doing test analysis and design in software testing. Requires to involve with test-basis, which consists of “requirements, test plan, code repository, business requirements”.
These documents will help in testing when planning to perform test analysis. Once the test-basis review, evaluate the testability objects, identify and prioritize test conditions, test requirements, required test data, test items. Once the test condition is certain, set the high-level test cases as a priority for initialization.
Phases of Test Development
Test development as followed:
Quality Risk Analysis: In this phase, all the risks should be considered and identify all the risks of the system through risk analysis. We may follow information risk analysis techniques, such as functionality, data quality, error handling, performance, recovery plan, localization, usability for example. All the risk should be considered and high-level and low-level test design is required for execution.
High-Level Test Design: Requires to design test suites with the consistences of high-level test design and cover all the risk factors within it. In a broader sense, system functionality should be covered and avoid nitty-gritty of the scenario or in-depth functionality
Low-Level Test Design: Requires as much as detailed scenario and handle the nitty-gritty of the features and functionality. Specific, refined and simple written test cases with detailed steps to follow.
Types of Test Design Techniques
Specification-based Technique: In order to know the system behaves and trace bugs of the system, it requires creating tests, analysis of the test basis. It’s a black-box technique that used to be an equivalence partitioning technique.
Structure-based Technique: The key concept of this structure-based technique is, code coverage, statement, decision coverage and control flow of test design techniques. Based on code analysis, test execution is required to determine how the system works inside, achieve a high level of control flow, data analysis, classes, call flows.
Structure-Based Technique
Experience-based Technique: A dynamic approach for test execution which considers the tester’s skill, expertise, experience. In such techniques, tests are often created during test execution. For example, bug hunting, breaking application based on a checklist, error guessing, exploratory testing. More experience-based testing helps to move along with different scenario execution on different applications.
Test Case Design Checklist
To get maximum software quality throughout the project journey requires test cases and keep covering possible scenario and tracking their coverages as necessary. An iterative process can be followed to keep riching the checklist of test cases and later on different cycles can be applied to increase the test coverage.
Final Verdict
A well-organized test design is crucial to get the proper test results. If the planning goes wrong in test design, unexpected, improper test execution may lead to different results. In the consequence of, with error — the release may take place.
To prevent such avoidable failure, different types of design techniques, based on application type — a different set of techniques can be applied and may bring benefits. The decision required to be made by assessing the patterns of application.
References: | https://medium.com/brainstation23/test-case-design-and-testing-techniques-of-implementation-factors-to-consider-f4e1eca83a7e | ['Md Sakib Al Mahmud'] | 2020-04-17 08:46:41.543000+00:00 | ['Quality Assurance', 'Software Testing'] |
JavaScript is The New Plastic | JavaScript is The New Plastic
Same level of pollution, just different space
JavaScript is an awesome language, it really is. Just like plastic was an awesome invention 100 years ago. But everything comes with consequences, whether it is environmental pollution or computing pollution alike.
Reader discretion advised: this is my personal view, which may or may not align with yours, and this is fine. If you have any constructive criticism to provide, I will be more than happy to reflect on that.
The problem with plastic
While some forms of such synthetic materials existed long before the 20th century, the true breakthrough came when we started making materials from oil. It eventually led to ability of creating durable materials with carefully designed characteristics at the lowest possible price. The economist’s idea of heaven.
It is important to remember that plastic (as a material) is inferior to most other types of materials (metals, carbon fibre, other types of composites) in specific applications. The advantage of plastic was that it was suitable for 90% of massively manufactured goods and this advantage outweighed the obvious superiority of conventional ones.
The fatal consequences of this decision was realized almost half a decade later, when it was a bit too late. All supply chains are centred on oil and plastics, consumers are used to it, alternative materials forgotten or never invented in the first place. “Specialists” in plastic industry deprecated instantly, while scientists and companies working on new types of materials are valued highly. Our ground, water supply, and most of the living organisms on earth are polluted with microplastics and there is no known way for man to filter it our. All thanks to cheapness, convenience, and reusability.
The problem with JavaScript
When JavaScript was invented, its sole purpose was to add a bit more interactivity to the web page. This resulted in a very simple language with many crucial features and practices overlooked. Then, bit by bit we started adding features to it, until it became a giant monolith that is able to run anything anywhere.
When I say a giant monolith, I mean the size of the runtime required to run it. Electron apps are shipped with a whole Chromium installation even for the simplest of apps (like a calculator). While there is an argument that we have all this computing power, might as well use it. Yes. We could use it to cure cancer, to sequence DNA genes, explore the stars. Instead, we use it to draw buttons.
JavaScript, much like plastics, had tied itself deeply in our everyday lives. You will find it in your browser, desktop apps, operating systems, phones, appliances and even rockets. Now, before reading the rest, just suppose that at some point in the future we will have to abandon JavaScript as fast as possible (like we do right now with plastic). Will it be easy?
The similarities with plastic do not end here. Let’s talk about npm packages now. Package-based dependency systems have existed for a long time. It includes both Linux-style package managers ( apt , zypper , packman , ...), ported Linux-style package managers (Homebrew, chocolatey , ...), and language-based managers ( pip , gem , Maven, ...).
Now, if you used any of those, I need not explain why npm is such an abomination to work with. You get tens of thousands of packages in your node_modules that may or may not work with each other, or contain malware, or be simply abandoned. The odds of this happening in a package are minuscule, but when you scale it up exponentially, the situation becomes frightening.
How often did you run rm -r node_modules and npm i again? Does this compare with how often you reinstall your OS? Developers are encouraged to depend on stuff, without thinking of the implications this dependency represents (much like building supply chains). This is all driven by the open-source dogma, saying that since anyone is able to fix the code, someone will. Well, he may or may not.
The last similarity with plastic is that JS is very cheap. Not as in the price for the SDK, like Java, but in terms of manpower. JS, being an overly simple language, allows literally anyone to build an app after watching a 2-week long course.
Not that it is bad as it is, but we use these apps in production. In production in cars, rockets, health systems, private communications and so on. So, JS is a very cheap language, that lets you create very cheap applications. For every use of JavaScript (except websites, for now) there is a more robust language that will be better-suited for the task, but looks like we are not in it for quality.
Do not get me wrong
I love JavaScript. This is the perfect playground, that lets you practice, learn, prototype, and iterate at a backbreaking speed. But I stand on these 3 views that I think are imperative:
JavaScript is not going to be the most popular language. Just because the JavaScript interpreter and the OS that runs the JavaScript interpreter has to be written in something else by definition. In addition, the rise of WebAssembly will bring most of the compiled languages to the browser, creating a very tough competition for JavaScript We should consider the level of responsibility of the system we are building and ask ourselves this question: was the language and framework we are using built using the same level of responsibility? For a lot of apps, this allows the use of JavaScipt and the like. But for systems that human lives depend on, JavaScript is not an answer. For example, if the 9–1–1 call on your phone was implemented in JavaScript, how confident would you be? Or a gas leak detection system? Or your webcam? The situation is getting better both in regards to plastic and JavaScript. You can now see the tree-shaking efforts in popular packages and security audits. But this is only the beginning of our JS detox.
Closing notes
Thank you for reading my rant on JavaScript, I hope we can still be friends. Let me know your views on JavaScript!
Resources | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/javascript-is-the-new-plastic-aba1d6cc59bb | ['Michael Krasnov'] | 2020-07-06 17:40:12.840000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Programming', 'JavaScript', 'Frontend', 'Comparison'] |
Fitting in and finding home | By Carmel Delshad
I lost my father to cancer in August. He was 75. His story isn’t a Hollywood rags-to-riches tale of an immigrant making it big in America; he died with few possessions. But his death taught me a lot about the meaning of home and what it means to finally find comfort in yourself.
My father spent his early life floating around the Middle East, without an anchor and without a place to call home. He was uprooted from his family home in Haifa in 1948. His parents relied on the support of charities to get staple items like flour and sugar after losing their wealth from their successful jewelry business. They died within years of each other, and my father was left an orphan as a teenager. He used to tell me stories of how he went fishing as a teen just to be able to eat. It was a sudden and dramatic change of circumstances for a man who grew up playing with diamonds as if they were marbles on the floor of his father’s jewelry store.
Years later, he ended up in Egypt, where he met my mother. After spending more than a decade there as a successful business owner, the “American Dream” came calling, and my dad, desperate to make it in the world, left for the U.S. in the 1980s. It’s a common beginning to many immigrant stories.
It seems fitting that he ended up working in the hotel industry. How many times did someone check into his little hotel, looking for a place to call home, even if just for one night? | https://medium.com/aj-story-behind-the-story/fitting-in-and-finding-home-bb4cf637c3 | ['Carmel Delshad'] | 2015-10-26 17:52:43.978000+00:00 | ['Immigration', 'Family', 'This Happened To Me'] |
The Unofficial Weekly Stratis Retrospect #62 — Khilone | It’s time for The Unofficial Weekly Stratis Retrospect #62.
For anyone wanting to read my previous blogs, you can find them all here.
Disclaimer: Never take anything I say (or anyone else on the Internet says) to be investment advice. Consult with a professional, and extensively do your own research before ever investing into anything.
Stratis Full Node 3.0.2. Release
Last week Stratis released their Full Node 3.0.2. A significant amount of work has gone into this release to ensure the stability of the node and includes a total of 475 individual commits from our initial production release. In addition to the release of the Stratis Full Node, an updated version of Stratis Core is also immediately available.
The adoption of Stratis Core will lead to the enablement of Cold-Staking on the Stratis mainchain, allowing holders of the Stratis Token to stake while their funds remain secure in an offline wallet. This release is a pivotal step towards becoming a blockchain entirely operated by nodes running on the .NET Framework.
The more people migrating from StratisX to Stratis Core the better, Stratis delivered a guide which helps with the process -> https://stratisplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Migrating-to-Stratis-Core.pdf
You can read Stratis’ full announcement here. C# Corner and Cryptoninjas wrote articles about the release as well.
Stratis Verified ICO Airdrop
Chris Trew, CEO of Stratis, announced on Twitter that 1% of the MediConnect tokens (a Stratis Verified ICO) will be airdropped to $STRAT holders.
On Discord the community asked for some clarification and additional details, Chris explained that it’s the goal of Stratis to do this with all the projects building on the Stratis Platform which is something that gives extra utility to the $STRAT token and it also creates awareness and goodwill for the project itself.
Another thing that a lot of people were wondering is about the details of how one can be eligible for the upcoming airdrop. These details still have to come out, however Chris did give some hints towards it. There is a good chance the airdrop will likely only be supported by Stratis Core, which also benefits the cold staking as it needs people to migrate to Stratis Core.
Stratis Cold Staking
With the release of the Full Node and Stratis Core update, cold staking is coming closer. A lot of people have been asking if Ledger support will be there for cold staking. Chris confirmed that Stratis will implement Ledger support once cold staking is activated.
Since the start of the activation period, 466 blocks, which is 33% of the blocks already mined, have signalled to activate cold staking. You can follow the progress here.
New Stratis Blockchain Explorer
Tokenview released a new Stratis Blockchain Explorer last week which is based on the new node. Multilingual, stable explorer with on-chain data analysis. You can find it here.
Highlights AMA
Recently the CEO of Stratis, Chris Trew, held an AMA at Cryptocopia. Last week Cryptocopia released the highlights video of the AMA.
Vanity Address Generator
Community developer Clint built a new feature on his website stratis.guru which is called the Vanity Address Generator and can be found here.
Mission Stratosphere Publish0x
Recently more and more Stratis articles are coming to the surface on the new platform Publish0x. One of the latest is from community member Cristian and it’s called “Mission Stratosphere — STRAT Price Action Overview” you can read his article here.
That’s it for now. All the best to everyone!
Khilone
Follow me on Twitter to get all the news right away: https://twitter.com/Khil0ne
And be sure to read all my stories on Medium over here:
https://medium.com/khilone
Other things to keep your eyes on: | https://medium.com/khilone/the-unofficial-weekly-stratis-retrospect-62-khilone-6a16678c599d | [] | 2019-03-18 15:27:31.999000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Stratis', 'Stratisweekly', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto'] |
[SE1-EP51] DC Super Hero Girls Series 1 Episode 51 || [Online1080p] | ☆~Stream : DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Full ☆ DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Full Episode ☆ Watch DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Full Series ☆ DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Full Episodes ☆ DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Stream Online ~☆
☆ Watch Or Download : DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Full Episode ☆
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 tv shows
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 television
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 series
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 FULL
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Trailer
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Promo
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Full HD
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 FULL EPISODE
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 FULL EPISODES
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Air date
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Sneek peek
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 HD
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 watching
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Full Eps.
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 watch
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 episode
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 google
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 Watch online
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 stream online
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 tv
DC Super Hero Girls Season 1 Episode 51 online
Overview
The world may know them as Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl, but not-so-typical teenagers Diana, Kara and Barbara, alongside their Super Hero friends have much more to deal with than just protecting Metropolis from some of the most sinister school-aged Super-Villains. After all, being teens is tough enough, what with school, friends, family and the chaos that comes with managing a social life. But add super powers and a secret identity to the mix, and things can get a lot more complicated.
❏ STREAMING MEDIA ❏
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb to stream identifies the process of delivering or obtaining media in this manner.[clarification needed] Streaming refers to the delivery method of the medium, instead of the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies particularly to telecommunications networks, as almost all of the delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, music CDs). There are challenges with streaming content on the Internet. For instance, users whose Internet connection lacks satisfactory bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of the content. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain content.
Live streaming is the delivery of Internet content in real-time much as live television broadcasts content over the airwaves with a television signal. Live internet streaming takes a form of source media (e.g. a video camera, an audio tracks interface, screen capture software), an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, although it frequently is.
Streaming is an option to file downloading, a process where the end-user obtains the entire file for this content before watching or listening to it. Through streaming, an end-user can use their media player to get started on playing digital video or digital sound content before the complete file has been transmitted. The word “streaming media” can connect with media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are considered “streaming text”.
❏ COPYRIGHT CONTENT ❏
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time.[1][2][3][4][5] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[6][7][8] A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
Some jurisdictions require “fixing” copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders.[citation needed][9][10][11][12] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.[13]
Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered “territorial rights”. This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not extend beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works “cross” national borders or national rights are inconsistent.[14]
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 50 to 100 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities[5] to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration.
It is widely believed that copyrights are a must to foster cultural diversity and creativity. However, Parc argues that contrary to prevailing beliefs, imitation and copying do not restrict cultural creativity or diversity but in fact support them further. This argument has been supported by many examples such as Millet and Van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, and Monet, etc.[15]
❏ GOODS OF SERVICES ❏
Credit (from Latin credit, “(he/she/it) believes”) is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[1] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and extensible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[2] Credit is extended by a creditor, also known as a lender, to a debtor, also known as a borrower. | https://medium.com/@xafikix658/se1-ep51-dc-super-hero-girls-series-1-episode-51-online1080p-bc08b941a77d | [] | 2020-12-27 14:33:02.686000+00:00 | ['Animation', 'Television', 'Sci Fi Fantasy', 'Dc Super Hero Girls', 'Cartoon'] |
Beauty | I am a spiritual being, I am defined by my quest for kindess and positivity. | https://medium.com/@spiritual-farfari/beauty-2ae43ec19f02 | [] | 2020-12-23 16:48:43.601000+00:00 | ['Surrounds', 'Beauty'] |
Some tales of IT Automation with Ansible | Today’s IT infrastructure is more complex than ever. Our systems span on-premise hardware and software, cloud services, and colocation facilities. We support business applications built on thousands of microservices that need to scale across geographies and respond to changing business requirements rapidly. And, of course, we often have more traditional environments with more requirements for administration and management.
The complexity has grown beyond the point where it can be managed effectively without powerful automation tools to keep all the various components up-to-date and configured correctly. More and more, the automation tools that IT administrators rely on to manage today’s infrastructure are built on Ansible.
What is Ansible?
Ansible is an automation tool used for IT configuration management, deployment, and orchestration. There are other popular tools in this category, such as Puppet and Chef, and debates rage about the relative merits of each.
The popularity of Ansible has exploded since it was acquired by Red Hat in 2015 and the company invested in providing quality support for corporate teams. Another reason for the popularity of Ansible is that it has the shortest learning curve. “Ansible is designed to be minimal in nature, consistent, secure, and highly reliable, with an extremely low learning curve for administrators, developers, and IT managers. Ansible” [1], according to Red Hat.
The Ansible ecosystem is also enormous, with thousands of vendors providing modules that enable their equipment and software to be managed via Ansible. Almost any conceivable component of your IT infrastructure can be integrated into an Ansible-based automation framework. A comprehensive solution is important, as you realize when you consider the administration challenges faced by companies like Equifax.
A Cautionary Tale
In 2017, Equifax suffered a massive security breach caused by an unpatched web application server vulnerability. There was a patch available for the vulnerable software component (Apache Struts CVE-2017–5638), but the company had not applied the patch. As a result, personal information belonging to 143 million customers was accessed by hackers including 209,000 consumer credit card numbers.
For those of us working in IT, how this could happen is, sadly, entirely understandable. The Equifax infrastructure is massive and complex. Keeping all of the thousands of components patched and configured correctly is an overwhelming task for even the best administrative team.
Even if your IT infrastructure is not nearly as complex as Equifax, you have these issues. In most organizations, our administrative processes have not kept up with the explosion in complexity. The only way to solve the problem is with reliable automation. Patching is a great example. With Ansible, a one-time task like a security patch to a vulnerable component in the software stack can be accomplished quickly, across the entire infrastructure, with a simple command.
How Ansible Manages Complex IT Infrastructure
To manage a complex system, you first need to be able to describe it accurately. Ansible is designed to be descriptive, rather than prescriptive. Instructions in an Ansible play describe the end state of a component, rather than how to get to that end state. This approach is known as a declarative model of task specification (rather than an imperative model). Declarative tasks are more effective and reliable for managing complex systems because they are simpler and easier to understand. You don’t need to write out, or even know, all the steps to accomplish a task. You simply need to specify the end state.
By analogy, in a declarative travel application, you would simply write, “Put me in California.” rather than detailed instructions for taking a car to the airport, boarding the correct flight, etc.
In addition to being declarative, Ansible provides a simple, easy to understand, language for specifying tasks. As a result, your entire organization can read Ansible and participate in the automation process. Broader participation improves reliability as teams work together to build the Ansible Playbooks that configure and manage the infrastructure.
Ansible Playbooks and YAML
Playbooks are the documents that describe Ansible automation tasks. They are written in the YAML (rhymes with “camel”) language. YAML is a simple data description language first released in 2001 and initially used for application configuration files in programming languages like Ruby on Rails. Today, YAML has been widely adopted as a language for specifying the configuration of almost anything from applications to virtual machines to networks.
Playbooks can be written to perform discrete tasks like applying a patch to a software component. For more complex operations, like multi-tier rollouts across your infrastructure, Playbooks can be sequenced together. Examples of Playbooks for common tasks are widely shared and easy to find. For example, the Ansible documentation contains these examples of how to create, terminate, start, or stop an instance in AWS EC2.
When faced with an automation task, you can usually find examples of Playbooks for similar tasks, and modify these to meet your needs. The wide availability of Playbook examples is another reason for the increasing popularity of Ansible.
Example of an Ansible Playbook for provisioning a EC2 instances
As you can see in this example, the Playbook specifies an EC2 instance, but it does not include instructions that interact with AWS to provision the instance. The code that provides these instructions is found in the Ansible AWS Cloud modules that you install on the host where you run your Playbook. Modules handle the execution of Playbooks.
Ansible Modules
Another reason for the increasing popularity of Ansible is the wide availability of modules to control almost any component of your IT infrastructure. The most popular open source automation tool on GitHub today, Ansible benefits from having thousands of individuals at hundreds of companies contributing and maintaining modules. As a result, Ansible is becoming a defacto standard for managing IT infrastructure.
Moreover, if you find something in your datacenter that doesn’t have an Ansible module, you can often easily create a module for it by collaborating with people in the Ansible GitHub community.
Even if you are in a situation where a module doesn’t exist, and the means or time are unavailable to develop a module, there are existing modules that allow us to run our legacy scripts and commands. As a result, we can continue to leverage existing investments in automation scripts while migrating to Ansible.
Ansible is succeeding as a framework and as a community. Much of this success goes back to design decisions made by Michael DeHaan, the founder of the original open source project.
Ansible is Well Designed
Ansible is fundamentally well designed, making it easier to adopt and get productive with quickly. Some of the aspects of it’s design that have powered adoption include:
Human readable YAML code — Non-coders can understand an Ansible Playbook. This makes it easier for the community to grow.
Agentless — You don’t need to install agent software on the target components being managed by Ansible. SSH (or WinRM) is used to push changes from a control source to remote resources.
Declarative tasks — Administrators don’t need to know the current state of systems in order to define tasks. All they need to do is specify the end result that they want.
Idempotent — Changes are made only once, which minimizes the danger of side-effects. For example, if a server is already running and the you attempt to provision it again with Ansible, nothing happens. Ansible doesn’t shut down and rebuild the server from scratch.
Simple security model — Ansible respects the credentials supplied by the user running Ansible and does not require you to maintain separate administrative users or credentials.
Extensible — A wide community of GitHub developers are encourage to extend Ansible by creating and maintaining a large ecosystem of modules.
These design decisions, along with the backing of Red Hat, have enabled Ansible to grow into a powerful tool capable of managing complex IT infrastructures, including physical devices.
Provisioning Infrastructure with Ansible
Ansible is not only for managing cloud resources and services. It also supports building out your infrastructure. That includes provisioning hardware like servers, network devices, and storage devices.
For example, Ansible integrates with tools like Stacki to provision bare metal servers. Stacki begins by installing the base operating system via PXE and then Ansible manages the build from there. Similar integrations with tools from companies like Cisco (networking) and NetApp (storage) provide Ansible with the capability to provision a full IT infrastructure from scratch. Once the physical devices are provisioned, Ansible can complete the build of your entire stack.
Virtual machines (VMs), including VMWare and KVM hypervisors like Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) can also be provisioned and managed. All major operating systems are covered as well, such as Linux (including RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu, etc.), Windows and Windows Server, UNIX, and OS X.
So, Ansible can provision, manage, and maintain infrastructure from bare metal to VMs, all the way up your business application stack. To appreciate the complexity of tasks that can be managed, let’s look at a detailed orchestration example.
An Example of Complex Orchestration with Ansible
Modern IT infrastructure is complex to stand up and maintain. Without powerful orchestration tools, it take a lot of manual effort to glue together and supervise a myriad of administrative tasks.
But, by combining a myriad of different tasks into an Ansible Playbook, complex automations can be achieved and performed reliability with minimal supervision. Consider this example of a rolling update to a three-tier web application.
Three-Tier Web Application — Rolling Update
A traditional three-tier web application contains the following components:
Application servers
Database servers
Content servers
Load balancers
A monitoring system to alert administrative staff when issues arise
Ansible can orchestrate these components to complete a rolling update comprised of the following steps.
Consulting a configuration management repository for details about all the servers. Configuring a the base OS on all the machines to ensure the correct state. Identifying the components in the web application servers that need to be updated. Signaling the monitoring system of an outage window. Signaling load balancers to take the applications servers out of the pool during maintenance. Stopping the web application server. Deploying the updated web application code, data, and content. Running validation tests. Signaling load balancers to put the updated application servers back in the pool. Signaling the monitoring system to resume alerts. Repeating this process for all the application servers in the rolling update process. Repeating these rolling update processes for database servers and content servers.
All of the tasks required to complete these steps can be included in an Ansible Playbook that the team develops and reviews together. The Playbook brings together best practices from a number of administrators and codifies them into an automation plan that is simple to execute and transparent to maintain.
In this example, we’ve seen how Ansible supports the orchestration on on-premise resources. But Ansible support hybrid operations as well, and can even help with portability of workloads between cloud and on-premise environments.
Supporting the Hybrid Cloud
Ansible has modules for VMWare, Red Hat Virtualization (RHV), OpenStack, and most virtualization tools that you’ll find in a datacenter. All the public cloud providers are covered as well, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and more. As a result, you can create Playbooks that span on-premise and cloud environments such as a trade processing system running in your datacenter that archives data to cloud-based infrastructure for analytics.
Not only can you provision and manage a hybrid cloud environment with Ansible, but you can create Playbooks to migrate workloads between on-premise and cloud computing environments. In fact, Red Hat even has a program that enables you to use your product subscriptions in the Cloud.
Red Hat Cloud Access
Red Hat Cloud Access is a program that allows their customers to run product subscriptions on certified public cloud providers. As a result, your subscriptions are portable, and you can more easily move virtual machine workloads between cloud and on-premise environments.
This kind of flexibility has made Ansible a popular choice for organizations needing the flexibility to pull computing resources back from cloud environments when faced with regulatory concerns, or better economics on-premise. Red Hat provides enterprise tools, as well, to help you scale your IT automation with Ansible. One of the most popular is Ansible Tower.
Ansible Tower
Ansible Tower helps you operationalize Ansible across your organization, scale up IT automation, and manage complex deployments. Particularly when you manage a large or complex environment, you need a centralized repository and control point to help you govern, manage, and scale. You need to be able to give non-administrative users ability to provision and manage resources using the Playbooks you’ve developed. Ansible Tower is designed to coordinate your automation activities with features such as:
Role-based access control to edit and run playbooks.
Push-button deployment of entire applications.
Central logging for audit and compliance.
Ansible Tower also provides a dashboard view of everything that’s going on in your Ansible environment.
When adopting any new technology, it can help to have an experienced guide to get you started and moving in the right direction. Ansible is no exception. IIS can be the trusted partner you need to ensure that your transition to Ansible is a success.
Ansible Solutions from IIS
International Integrated Solutions (IIS) is a managed service provider and system integrator focused on delivering solid, supportable infrastructure for the datacenter. As a Red Hat Premier Solution Provider, IIS provides deep expertise implementing IT automation with Ansible.
IIS can provide customers with complimentary Ansible Enablement Workshops both pre- and post-sales. These workshops were designed by Red Hat to introduce the concepts around how Ansible works and how to effectively interact with Ansible to achieve greater efficiencies by leveraging automation. IIS can deliver these Workshops in their original format, or craft additional content around potential use cases or desired outcomes that customers specify.
IIS also offers Ansible services from Red Hat’s pre-packaged Ansible Smart Start offerings, where we stand up a high availability instance of Ansible Tower and work with our customer to create Playbooks, operationalize use cases, and design an automation environment that meets their needs.
Save Time and Money with Ansible Automation
In this post, we’ve explained the power of Ansible, and how you can leverage the technology to achieve scalable IT automation. These are benefits that all IT administrators can appreciate.
But there are benefits for the executive suite as well. Ansible will save your organization money. According to a Forrester study commissioned by Red Hat [2], an organization providing managed cloud service operations saved $1.3 million over three years by using Ansible to automate the core activities of bringing servers online, provisioning them for customers, and maintaining them with reconfigurations an patches. Prior to Ansible, this was time-intensive and error-prone work often requiring assistance from expensive hourly contractors.
If it feels like you and your colleagues are often stuck in the same repetitive tasks day after day, doing chores that could be automated, it is probably time to check out Ansible. Chances are, you can automate the grunt work and free yourselves up to focus on problems that add more value — and save your company some money along the way.
Sources
[1] Ansible In Depth Whitepaper, Red Hat, Inc. 2017
[2] The Total Economic Impact Of Red Hat Ansible Tower, Forrester, June 2018
Thank you!!!.. | https://medium.com/@yashrajblogs/some-tales-of-it-automation-with-ansible-2800ed0e52 | ['Yashraj Panda'] | 2020-12-05 15:01:56.733000+00:00 | ['Information Technology', 'Ansible', 'Ansible Playbook', 'Automation', 'Linux'] |
Lesbos 2019 vs. 2020 — Portraits for People | On my first day in the new camp, I was pleasantly surprised to see that everyone had a roof over their head — as most people were still camping on the streets a couple of days earlier. However, it soon became apparent that the camp was not prepared for Lesbos’ extreme weather conditions. On hot days, the terrain turned into a desert that covered everything with a layer of dust. There are about five trees on the stretched land, so almost all tents are in the bare, ruthless sun. After a few weeks, autumn slowly made its entrance with heavy rainfall. Tents flooded and people had to be evacuated.
Additionally, the camp was built alongside the Mediterranean Sea, with some tents only twenty metres away from the water and strong ocean winds driving straight into them. The construction of showers saw an extreme delay, so people could only clean themselves in the sea. This included small children who couldn’t swim and were traumatised by their boat journey. One time, a colleague found a girl who had just rescued her baby sister from the sea. While some showers were installed at the end of October, there is an urgent need for showers with hot water and lighting to increase the security.
Unlike the former camp, where tents and families were placed in a random order, criss-cross against the slopes of the olive grove, the new camp consists of uniform, white emergency tents set up in a relatively orderly way. The camp management divided the main ethnicities into different zones to minimise tensions. Big families have a tent for themselves, smaller families share a tent with only a thin ‘wall’ in the middle. Beside these family tents, there are the so-called rubhalls for single men. It sounds as awful as it is. These are big, damp, sweaty tent halls with each 150 men allocated to it. The men are completely deprived of any privacy, as each tent has three rows of bunkbeds pushed to each other. This basically means that these men are sharing their beds with strangers.
While the rubhalls can raise mental and cultural objections, it is also not responsible from a health point of view — since just a few weeks ago the first Covid-19 cases were detected. The authorities did make an effort to test everyone upon arrival in the camp and the people who had positive results were requested to stay in a quarantine area. After this initial check people could be tested again if they signalled that they had some symptoms. Nonetheless, it wasn’t exactly clear to me how the quarantine area worked, as some areas seemed abandoned, without facilities and with people easily walking in and out.
Not only the quarantine areas are without facilities. The camp has inadequate shelter, no sewage or drainage system, no clean toilets, hardly any running or hot water, continuous power cuts, limited healthcare services and impediments to legal aid. Food is only provided once or twice a day, is insufficient and of poor quality. Only 1,000 people could leave the camp at the time, so there were long lines at the entrance with people waiting for someone to return so they could go out next. On Sundays, the entire camp was closed and no one was allowed to leave. Following a general lockdown imposed on 7 November, it has become even harder for people to exit the camp. According to current measures, they can only leave on substantial grounds for a couple of hours a week.
NGOs and testimonies from the camps have stated that the current conditions are even worse than in the burnt Moria camp. We found some letters from people in the camp voicing their worries and daily horrors. While the Greek government planned to relocate all residents by Easter, NGOs have urged the authorities to speed up this process as they are concerned about worsening conditions in winter.
The priority of my emergency team was to distribute a sleeping bag and thermo mat to every person in the camp. Many people had received some blankets or mats upon arrival, but with winter approaching and a lack of proper flooring in the tents, this wasn’t enough for the people to keep themselves warm. When I went to the burnt camp a month after the fire, I still saw people roaming the sea of melted plastic, burnt wood and deformed metal in search for pallets to put under their tent for isolation and to prevent flooding. NGOs all have their own tasks in the camp and coordinate their priorities. So while other organisations were in charge of the pallet distribution, BWC focused on sleeping bags and thermo mats to keep people warm.
During my first days on the island, we prepared the packages for the distribution. Afterwards, we went to each tent to inform the people about the upcoming distribution. The main aim was to reassure them that there would be enough for everyone and that we would bring the package to their tent. I really enjoyed this moment of contact. I was covering tents in the Afghan zone, and a boy joined me to help translate my information to Farsi. It was good to look people in the eye and reassure them that they would not be forgotten. Their gratefulness and honest smile, while living in these incredibly hard circumstances, confirmed once again their unrelenting resilience.
During the distribution, BWC’s coordinators paired international volunteers with resident volunteers from the camp. We loaded a big truck with packages at the warehouse and parked this close to the camp. Every team had a small, packed van that followed us to the tents. The distribution went smoothly, everyone stayed at their tents and no one came up to us to cause trouble. After 1,5 days and about 6 truck loads, we managed to give all the camp residents a thermo mat and sleeping bag. It was the first camp-wide distribution that didn’t require people to stand in line. To me, this method seems more dignified, since people don’t have to wait endlessly or stand in the hot sun all day. It is a way to make people feel seen and prevent unnecessary tensions. The resident volunteers were a great help and could answer questions from the people in their own language. This prevented miscommunication, confusion and frustration.
It felt great to contribute to this team effort. I saw the effect of the distribution already on the second day, when I asked one of our resident volunteers how he had slept. He replied that he had a good night as he was finally warm with the new mat and sleeping bag. At the same time, I also realised that this was just one of the many things people need. After this distribution, we immediately started preparing next distributions. From packages for pregnant women to school bags for children, winter jackets, cleaning gear, soap, lights, sanitary pads, etc.
As part of the emergency team, my work with BWC lasted for two weeks. By the end of that time, I had gotten to know so many people and organisations that I could easily get access to families for Portraits for People. I stayed one more week on Lesbos, where I spent most of my time at a third refugee camp called Pikpa. Together with the organisation Mikros Dounias, which runs a kindergarten at the camp, we managed to create beautiful memories for the children and their parents. I also took school pictures for students at Tolou’s English school and made photos for the soccer team of Yoga and Sports for Refugees. Afterwards, I went for another week to Athens, where I met more special families who were delighted to get a printed portrait. It was a valuable opportunity to work with BWC and turn my frustration into action and, at the same time, create a good starting point for the third location of my project! | https://medium.com/@aileenvleeuwen/the-unexpected-new-start-portraits-for-people-bc248267988a | ['Aileen Van Leeuwen'] | 2020-12-14 14:33:33.332000+00:00 | ['Refugees', 'Storytelling', 'Human Rights', 'Travel', 'Photography'] |
Do Colleges Really Prepare Graduates for a Successful Career? (Part II) | By Dr. Bjorn Mercer
Program Director, Communication, Humanities, Music, Philosophy, Religion and World Languages Programs, American Public University
This is part II of a four-part series that examines the findings of a report, “Fulfilling the American Dream: Liberal Education and the Future of Work.”
In Part I, we went over the American Association of Colleges & Universities’ (AAC&U) report, “Fulfilling the American Dream: Liberal Education and the Future of Work.” In Part II, we will analyze the report’s findings, especially the skills gaps between the ratings of “very important quality” and “recent grads well prepared.”
The Gaps Between Vital Workplace Skills
One of the shocking aspects of the AAC&U report are the gaps between the skills that are rated as “very important” and those that are rated “recent college grads well prepared.” Early on, the report states: “However, executives and hiring managers see recent college graduates as underprepared in the skills and knowledge areas that they deem most important.” If executives and hiring managers see college grads as underprepared, then colleges and universities need to actively work on closing these gaps to improve student preparedness.
Using the results from the hiring manager, those who actually hire new employees, the largest skills gap is 48 points, the smallest gap is two points, the average gap is 33 points and the median is 37. Please see the hiring manager’s chart on page 14 of the AAC&U report, “Fulfilling the American Dream: Liberal Education and the Future of Work.”
Skills with Smaller Gaps
To start, “proficiency in foreign languages” has the smallest gap of two points because for the most part, hiring managers do not feel a foreign language proficiency is that important a skill to have and students are rarely prepared. Although knowing a second language can be very helpful and knowing Spanish will be a huge benefit in the coming decades, the reality of working in the U.S. is that knowing a second language is not currently a critical skill for general employment.
The other skills with smaller gaps include “work with numbers/stats,” “staying current on changing technology” and being “able to innovate/be creative.” These skills are interesting because although everyone should be competent with numbers, not everyone needs to be proficient with statistics. So hiring managers typically do not require this skill for general positions, although being excellent with stats can get you a highly skilled job in areas like business intelligence or financial planning and analysis.
The next skill, “able to innovate/be creative,” although important, was not rated as high as other skills and is an ambiguous and perplexing skill in its own right. Having a gap of 25, although concerning, is something that can easily be further developed throughout one’s career.
When it comes to being able to “staying current on changing technology,” the hiring managers rated the preparedness at 57. This is one of those skills and knowledge that new graduates have since they are typically younger adults who understand and use current technology.
Skills with Medium Gaps
Two skills that are related and have medium-size gaps are “able to solve problems with people of different backgrounds” and “able to work effectively in teams.” Being able to effectively work in teams is one of the highest rated skills at 87 and has the second highest rating for preparedness at 50.
This is good, but of course it can be better. Being “able to solve problems with people of different backgrounds” is directly related to working in teams. Having an understanding of the many facets of diversity and intercultural communication will help with this skill.
One of the more complex skills that has a lower importance rating of 75 and has a lower preparedness rating of 38 is being “able to analyze/solve complex problems.” Learning how to analyze a problem is something that should have been addressed in many college classes. Solving those problems is a completely different ability and a reflection of the cumulative education that a student has achieved. There is a lot that goes into solving problems.
“Being able to communicate effectively in writing” has a lower importance rating of 75 with a decent preparedness rating of 45. This is somewhat hopeful in that hiring managers see new graduates as somewhat prepared, while not fully viewing this as a critical skill (seven skills are rated higher).
The final skill with a medium gap is “find, organize, evaluate information from multiple sources.” This skill, although not in the top five of most important, is really the basis of good information literacy. Having a gap of 33 is average, but the need to analyze multiple sources while finding and using the best possible information is the foundation for all knowledge workers.
The Skills with the Largest Gaps Are the Most Common Skills Employers Need
The skills that have the largest gaps are the most common that employers need from new and tenured employees. These skills are difficult to develop.
First, being self-motivated and being able to work independently are skills with large gaps. Most people are able to be “self-motivated” and are “able to work independently,” but the difference between doing this in college and at work are completely different.
“Apply knowledge/skills to the real world” is one of the common complaints of the disconnect between higher education and the real world. Since this has the largest gap of 48, this problem must be addressed by faculty and administration, and not just assumed that once students leave them, their part of the educational process is done.
The final three skills with large gaps are “communicate effectively orally,” “critical thinking/analytical reasoning,” and “ethical judgment/decision making.” They are part of the Big 5 career skills because they are needed at the beginning of one’s career, in the mid-career years, and at the end of a career, along with teamwork and written communication.
“Communicate effectively orally” has the highest importance rating of 90. Although it has a higher preparedness rating, oral communication is one of those skills that is always in demand and new grads and professionals in general are always lacking.
The second Big 5 skill is “critical thinking/analytical reasoning” which had a gap of 43. Critical thinking, like oral communication, is one of those skills that needs a great deal of practice and is always asked for and demanded on the job.
The final Big 5 skill, “ethical judgment/decision making,” is a surprisingly complex skill and one that is easy to morally compromise. The gap is one of the largest at 43, so hiring managers recognize the need for improvement while its preparedness is somewhat high compared to the other skills.
In the Part III of the series, we will look at some of the important skills we have talked about and how colleges and universities can alter and update their curriculum to help improve graduate preparedness.
About the Author
Dr. Bjorn Mercer is a Program Director. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Missouri State University, a master’s and doctorate in music from the University of Arizona, and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. He writes about culture, leadership, and why the humanities and liberal arts are critical to career success. Dr. Mercer also writes children’s music. | https://medium.com/@AmericanPublicU/do-colleges-really-prepare-graduates-for-a-successful-career-part-ii-44106f3d2574 | [] | 2020-12-24 13:32:47.763000+00:00 | ['Career Preparation', 'Higher Education', 'Careers', 'Education', 'Skills Gap'] |
How to Stake Tezos (XTZ) on SovereignWallet | Let’s start Baking some Tezos with 3 simple steps
Step 1 — Download and install SovereignWallet app
Go to Apple or Google Store to download SovereignWallet app and install it on your mobile phone. Pass the KYC and then deposit More than 10 Tezos (XTZ) Coin. You even can import SovereignWallet account to Metablock Exchange and use the exchange in full options.
Step 2— Preparing your XTZ tokens
Get XTZ from exchanges and deposit it to your Sovereign Wallet. Open it up to confirm that your balance is showing correctly. Alternatively, from the main wallet screen go to the Wallet tab to see all available tokens that can be staked on your SovereignWallet.
You will see here Tezos (XTZ), tap on it to go directly to the Tezos Wallet.
[Tip! — If you do not see XTZ on your wallet, Tap the “+” sign on the bottom right and search for XTZ, then use the toggle to add the token]
Step 3— Access the Staking Service
Tap on Staking Service to access the Staking Service. You will see here the following information:
Stake Details — Estimated Yearly Earnings, Minimum Holdings, Current Balance
— Estimated Yearly Earnings, Minimum Holdings, Current Balance Password — In order to Stake(Delegate) you have to input password
— In order to Stake(Delegate) you have to input password Delegate(Stake) — Go here if you want to stake(delegate) your tokens. No need to input anything on the XTZ amount. This will always be set to the maximum amount.
Step 4— Confirming the Delegation
Once the delegation process is complete, you can verify the results by seeing “Delegation is successful” message on display and then tap on View Details, It will bring you to “Batch Operation List” for more information on staking.
Also, on the Tezos Staking screen, you can already see here the Delegated tokens with Reward information and even Un-Delegate (Un-Stake) them. Congratulations, you are now staking (delegating) your XTZ tokens.
How to Check the Tezos Blockchain Explorer
You can view your staking status by going to this explorer: https://tzstats.com and then do a search for your Tezos address. You will notice that the Spendable Balance is just the same as the Total Balance. This is because Tezos protocol is a “Liquid Proof-of-Stake” which means that your funds are not locked. The screenshot also shows that the address is already Delegated(Staking), see Current Delegate on the right.
MetaBlock Exchange & SovereignWallet (Mobile Crypto Wallet) offer crypto exchange & staking services
If you have further questions about the staking and rewards mechanism join here https://t.me/MetaBlock_Exchange
✅MetaBlock Exchange: https://metablock.exchange/
✅SovereignWallet Website: https://sovereignwallet.network/
✅Twitter: https://twitter.com/MUItoken
✅Medium Blog: https://medium.com/sovereignwallet-blog
✅Telegram Announcement: https://t.me/SovereignWallet_Official
✅ Telegram Community: https://t.me/MetaBlock_Exchange
✅ YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCrV-0FV_B3nGEkTIq_kx3tg
✅ Q&A: https://sovereignwallet.network/faq | https://medium.com/sovereignwallet-blog/how-to-stake-tezos-xtz-on-sovereignwallet-fe906315fea7 | [] | 2020-08-20 10:32:17.435000+00:00 | ['Metablockexchange', 'Tezos Baking', 'Bitcoin', 'Staking', 'Sovereignwallet'] |
[CodeChain X Bithumb] Series A Investment and Strategic Alliance Partnership | We are thrilled to announce that we have closed our series A round with strategic investments from Bithumb, a global cryptocurrency exchange, who is now expanding its digital securities businesses across the globe. This deal has positioned CodeChain as the only project backed by two of the biggest exchange operators in Korea.
Through our new strategic partnership, CodeChain will provide the technical infrastructure so that the security tokens issued in the highly regulated financial markets can be traded in a regulatory-friendly and secure manner.
CodeChain is a purpose-driven blockchain network with built-in issuance and exchange protocols so that digital assets issued on CodeChain can be programmed and customized to comply with the regulations of the jurisdictions the businesses are operated.
Apart from our new strategic client, we have initiated projects with B-Seed partners, Makestar, STBase, Art Together and many more. So stay tuned for more exciting news! | https://medium.com/codechain/codechain-x-bithumb-series-a-investment-and-strategic-alliance-partnership-b046ea0e30ad | ['Jaewon Park'] | 2019-05-22 01:40:04.465000+00:00 | ['Codechain', 'Events', 'Sto', 'Blockchain', 'Bithumb'] |
gradlew bootRun with spring boot | the default `gradlew bootRun` command is not always working out. The latest error message I got is
as an alternative, the plain build works, even though with a caveat:
caveat: the built out package has been put under libs folder, instead of what the bootScripts is expecting ( lib ). So point to the right path will work.
PS C:\Users\...> .\build\bootScripts\cli.bat
Error: Unable to access jarfile C:\Users\...\build\bootScripts\..\lib\cli-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
PS C:\Users\...\build> java -jar .\libs\cli-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
2020-08-23 10:08:55.583 INFO 53436 --- [ main] : Starting Application on ....
2020-08-23 10:08:56.493 INFO 53436 --- [ main] .s.d.r.c.RepositoryConfigurationDelegate : Bootstrapping Spring Data JPA repositories in DEFAULT mode.
2020-08-23 10:08:56.580 INFO 53436 --- [ main] .s.d.r.c.RepositoryConfigurationDelegate : Finished Spring Data repository scanning in 72ms. Found 3 JPA repository interfaces.
2020-08-23 10:08:57.191 INFO 53436 --- [ main] trationDelegate$BeanPostProcessorChecker : Bean 'org.springframework.transaction.annotation.ProxyTransactionManagementConfiguration' of type [org.springframework.transaction.annotation.ProxyTransactionManagementConfiguration] is not eligible for getting processed by all BeanPostProcessors (for example: not eligible for auto-proxying)
2020-08-23 10:08:57.823 INFO 53436 --- [ main] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer : Tomcat initialized with port(s): 8080 (http) | https://medium.com/@1wpro2/gradlew-bootrun-with-spring-boot-44ec13769c23 | [] | 2020-11-13 03:02:05.913000+00:00 | ['Gradle', 'Intellij', 'Spring', 'Spring Boot'] |
FashionTIY Analysis: Pet product search surged by 328%? Pet lovers let the pet market burst into flames! | For retailers who want to expand pet products, understanding the new pet consumption trends in 2020, mastering the hot-selling categories and market development is a straight channel to help quickly expand the business. Come and follow the footsteps of FashionTIY. By reading the article, you will get the following detailed information：
New Consumption Trends of pet products in 2020
Popular Style Trends of pet products in 2020
Market development of pet products in Europe and America
Pet product searches surged by 328%! In the “Pinterest 100 Mega Trends” report in 2020, the “Love pet economy” took the lead and became a global consumption trend, and the hot trend continued even though during the COVID-19 period. People who love pets are more willing to pay for pets. Pet products have long been expanded from pet food to pet clothing, toys, beauty, and other sub-categories. For retailers who want to expand their pet products that understanding the new consumer trends and market development in 2020 is a straight channel to help quickly expand their business.
Don’t guess the thoughts of pet owners, I’ll present a collection of pet products to help you with your pet products hot-selling trip!
wholesale in fashiontiy.com
New Consumption Trends of pet products in 2020
Consumer groups
The charm of cute pets not only allows a new generation of young people to surrender but it also covers almost all ages. Even parents and elderly people are difficult to parry. More and more people begin to choose pets as their life partners.
Older people: 41% of pet owners are elderly people. They regard pets as indispensable emotional sustenance and are more willing to buy higher quality products for their pets within their economic affordability.
Millennials: 32% of pet owners are millennials. They pay more attention to product quality and like to find innovative products for their pets to improve the life quality of pets. Of course, security has always been the basis for brands to gain and maintain consumer trust. In addition to daily necessities, pet owners also buy decorations for pets on festivals such as Easter and Halloween.
wholesale in fashiontiy.com
Consumer trends
Online shopping trends: Millennial pet owners will buy pet products for their pets online, 70% of them will buy pet food and 66% will buy other pets products.
Other pets: In addition to traditional cat and dog pets, birds, freshwater fish, marine fish, reptiles, horses, and other animals are also favored by more and more millennials, and the market potential should not be underestimated.
Consumer demand
Demand for more subdivided categories: At present, consumer products in the pet market are mainly concentrated in the fields of pet food, pet health care, pet toys, and apparel. These areas are still worthy of digging into sub-categories. In addition, consumers regard pets as family members, which is consistent with human health consumption trends. Pet health is the core of future product innovation.
Demand for brand, design, material, logistics speed: Consumers tend to buy products with exquisite workmanship and high quality. These consumptions are currently mainly concentrated in professional pet products retail stores, but this situation will be impacted by e-commerce channels in the next few years, which is also a big opportunity for many retailers.
wholesale in fashiontiy.com
Popular Style Trends of pet products in 2020
Pet home products
During COVID-19, as the time spent at home increased, consumers’ interest in pets further increased, and many categories showed a rapid growth trend. For example, more and more pet owners began to purchase various pet grooming and hairdressing tools to take care of pet hair; intelligent products such as self-cleaning litter boxes, automatic doors, and electronic pet fences are also favored by more and more young consumers.
wholesale in fashiontiy.com
Pet outdoor business opportunities
Once COVID-19 is over, many people who have stayed at home for a long time will choose to travel. Pet owners in Europe and the United States often bring pets to travel together, so in the long run, the demand for outdoor pet products is another big opportunity. For example, portable food, water bowls, trash trays that needed during the trip, and products needed during flight include seat belts, pet seats, travel beds, and even pet backpacks, etc.
Market development of pet products in Europe and America
The pet industry is developing rapidly, the US market volume exceeds $ 95.7 billion.
The pet industry has been for 100 years in Europe and America. At present, North America and Europe have developed into a large market for the global pet industry. About 69% of US households own at least one pet.
In recent years, the pet industry has prospered thanks to the continuous increase in singles and the elderly population. Euromonitor International research found that the pet industry ’s market size has grown by 66%+ over the past decade, while the global economy has grown by only 43% over the same period. In 2019, Americans spent 52 billion+ dollars on pets; most of them are used for pet food, but more than 18 billion dollars are still used for pet products and accessories.
The above shows that the development potential of the pet market is still very large, and as the best online wholesale market-FashionTIY recently put a new 1,000+ style of pet products on the shelves including Pet Jingle Bells Collar, Pet Absorbent Towel, Dog Molars Bite Toy, Summer Vest Puppy T-Shirt, etc.
Join FashionTIY now with the coupon code：wholesale15, you will get an extra $15 discount.
You can learn more information about the wholesale and retail of pet products here Wholesale Pet Products
Source from: https://www.fashiontiy.com/knowledges/037-FashionTIY-Analysis-Pet-product-search-surged-by-328/ | https://medium.com/@fashiontiy-wholesale/fashiontiy-analysis-pet-product-search-surged-by-328-f244617fcf7d | ['Fashiontiy', 'Online Wholesale Market'] | 2020-06-08 07:11:08.225000+00:00 | ['Pets', 'Coupon', 'Wholesale', 'Analytics', 'Fashiontiy'] |
Estate Planning — What is it and Do You Really Need it? | By Jane Chevalier
Estate planing…what is it? Isn’t it something reserved for people later in their life or wealthy people only? Don’t you have to own a huge property or large “estate”? Shouldn’t you wait until you have children? Do you need to wait until you are “settled” in your career? Isn’t your spouse automatically included in your will once you marry them? Read on to find out the answers to these questions, and why estate planning is for everyone! Especially if you are pregnant, or planning on being pregnant.
First of all, what is an estate? An estate is everything you currently own — cars, home, bank accounts, investments, life insurance, pretty much EVERYTHING you own (Wealth Counsel 2021). Estate Planning is ensuring that when you pass away, all of your possessions will be given to someone or an organization that you care about (Wealth Counsel 2021). Yes, it’s a little bit of a downer to discuss, but a VERY important one!
Other benefits to Estate Planning:
Protects your children, ensuring they will be placed in the proper guardians hands (YES, without properly stating this in a will, a judge will decide who your child goes to if you become incapacitated or pass away)
Protects the right of your special needs child and benefits they receive
Protects your assets, ensuring they will be inherited to the proper person or organization (believe it or not, marrying someone does NOT automatically mean they inherit everything you own)
Enables your spouse, child or loved one to have access to your bank accounts & investments
Ensures that your medical wishes will be carried out in the event you become incapacitated
Minimizes court fees, taxes and unnecessary legal fees
The benefits go on, but to keep it focused and simple, as a parent, these are the most important aspects. If you want to know more, I suggest you contact one of our favorite Estate Planner’s on The List.
Who should do it:
Everyone!
But especially those who have dependents
When you should do it:
As soon as possible
When you find out you are pregnant
Before your baby is born
Not to sound morbid, but honestly, you never know when death knocks. The sooner you can create an estate plan, the better. My husband and I created our estate plan when we were pregnant as part of our birth plan, to ensure that in the event something horrible happened before or during baby’s birth, we were protected. This is not a fun subject to discuss, but it is so IMPORTANT to. Plan for the worst, but hope for the best!
References
Wealth Counsel, LLC. November 25, 2020. “What is Estate Planning?”. Accessed February 12, 2021, https://www.estateplanning.com/what-is-estate-planning | https://medium.com/@mommyindex/estate-planning-what-is-it-and-do-you-really-need-it-e54c48c80b6a | ['Jane Chevalier'] | 2021-03-05 15:18:19.714000+00:00 | ['Parenthood', 'Mommy Bloggers', 'Pregnancy', 'Postpartum', 'Colorado'] |
RUST programming language Part 2 — Full video | We continue with our RUST lesson with Dávid Bíró! He said he could talk a lot more about it, so we’ll dig deeper, double up on RUST with Rollout IT! ️🎉 Our topics for this event: 🌆 Macros 🏙 Trait system 🌃 Threading If you missed the first video check it here: https://medium.com/runios-it-blog/experience-from-first-hand-rust-programming-language-full-webinar-video-inside-fce6e28b6669
The language can still be said to be young, as it was introduced in 2010 and version 1.0 was released in 2015, which is updated every 6 weeks by purposeful creators. RUST builds on C and C ++ and it has also borrowed features from other languages. That’s why it is funny to say that he is a distant cousin, but then our speaker will explain exactly why. Rollout IT and Dávid Bíró initiate everything about Rust at their joint online event. Dávid has been developing in this language for years and has many successful projects and experiences behind him. For more content follow: https://rolloutit.net/
You keep your softwares always up-to-date, right? Be informed about the IT & Remote work news and click on the link: https://mailchi.mp/rolloutit/newsletter | https://medium.com/runios-it-blog/rust-programming-language-part-2-full-video-149d91792528 | ['Rollout It Ltd.'] | 2022-01-27 14:13:33.226000+00:00 | ['It', 'Rust', 'Developement', 'Programming', 'Remote'] |
Pewdiepie discount coupon for NordVPN’s deal — how to get it and is NordVPN really worth it? | Pewdiepie discount coupon for NordVPN’s deal — how to get it and is NordVPN really worth it? Jay Humphy Feb 7, 2019·3 min read
To anyone, who has even heard of the word “YouTube”, this creator doesn’t need an introduction, not to mention if someone is an avid video game fan. His real name is Felix and he’s a Swedish YouTuber also known as Pewdiepie. He rose to fame for his Let’s Play gaming videos and commentary. Pewdiepie is no stranger to hacking, and being the most famous YouTuber, he had his fair share of cyber security breach scares. He emphasizes that online privacy is important and for that — he recommends getting NordVPN.
How to get Pewdiepie’s discount coupon?
Pewdiepie’s NordVPN discount coupon will give you a 72% discount on NordVPN’s special 2-year deal. You will end up paying only $3.30/month plus 3 months FREE. Once you click on the link, you won’t need to type anything in — the discount will be applied automatically in the checkout, giving you the desired discount.
Go here to receive Pewdiepie’s NordVPN discount coupon code!
Get NordVPN with Pewdiepie coupon code
What does the discount coupon code offer?
Pewdiepie’s NordVPN discount code gives 68% off of a 2-year deal. Why would you need a VPN? For various reasons — if you use public WiFi a lot, if you want your personal information to stay secure, even if you just to change your IP and watch your favorite streaming channel with no “Not available in your country”.
Who is Pewdiepie?
Pewdiepie is currently the most subscribed user on YouTube and he holds this title from 2013. Pewdiepie became famous for his gaming videos and insightful as well as funny commentary. He started from horror games and expressive reactions when playing them, but later on played different genres. Also, he started making vlog and news type of videos as well as comedic ones too. Pewdiepie is considered to be one of the most influential people in the medium. He is not only the most subscribed YouTuber, but also holds the title of being the most viewed YouTube channel, receiving over 20 billion video views.
Pewdiepie is not the only one to join the NordVPN hype train and recommend it, other popular YouTubers like Phil DeFranco, Boogie, Alec Steele and others promote it as your go-to cybersecurity and privacy product.
Why NordVPN?
A few more reasons why Pewdiepie recommends NordVPN:
It is based in Panama, where no mandatory data retention laws exist, which means that the VPN can follow its strict no logs policy — it doesn’t monitor or log what users do online. User activities stay private and anonymous.
Want to access something not available in your country? No problem, just connect to one of the 5000+ servers located in 62 countries and watch your favorite content with no restrictions.
No data or speed limits, so you can download or stream anything you like without hitting that data cap.
Offers P2P servers, the ability to torrent, a kill-switch as well as a DNS leak protection.
Other features include a built-in ad-blocker, 24/7 live customer support, the ability to bypass the Great Firewall of China and more.
Get the exclusive deal by clicking here | https://medium.com/@jayhumphy1/pewdiepie-discount-coupon-for-nordvpns-deal-how-to-get-it-and-is-nordvpn-really-worth-it-e0b2b350af05 | ['Jay Humphy'] | 2021-06-17 14:56:53.614000+00:00 | ['Coupon', 'Discount', 'Deal', 'Privacy', 'VPN'] |
Be Strong, Bold And Fearless: What I Learnt From Trans Activist Kalki Subramaniam | By Karthik Shankar:
At the height of the sweltering heat that is a common fixture during May, a friend and I biked furiously from Chennai to Auroville in a quest to meet Kalki Subramaniam. We go around Auroville and hesitantly asking people where Sahodari Foundation is. Unfortunately for us, no one seems to know. Then we enquire where Kalki lives. This time a group of people gather around us, each bellowing at a different decibel, and point us towards a house near a turning.
Kalki is one of the most recognisable faces of the transgender movement in India, and has been instrumental in revamping laws related to trans Indians. Armed with two masters’ degrees in journalism and international relations, she established Sahodari Foundation, which aims to uplift the transgender community. She also played the protagonist in a movie and ran for assembly in her home town of Pollachi. Her book of poems, ‘Kuri Aruthean’ (“I cut my phallus”), was published in January last year.
Kalki’s love affair with Auroville began a few years after her sex reassignment surgery. At the world famous Koovagam festival, which mixes religious pomp and carnival celebrations, she met a group of musicians. The multinational group of young men were interested in Kalki and offered her a job at a company called Sarang in Auroville. Tempted by the offer, she packed her bags. Auroville, a tiny experimental township of only 2500, was founded by Mira Alfassa in 1968 near Pondicherry, to promote a renaissance of ‘Indian’ values. Largely populated by foreign nationals, it possesses the close-knit community ties of a small town and the cosmopolitan charm of a big city.
Kalki’s home in a village situated at the outskirts of Auroville is a hub of activism for transgender rights. She is quick to emphasise that her foundation is a community centre and not an NGO; for her the perceived difference lies in bureaucracy and approachability. On most days, her house is filled with the bustling sounds of children. They adore Kalki, who spends her free time teaching them art and English. For women, she conducts programmes that advocate leadership and entrepreneurial activities.
The day we meet her, Kalki is in the company of two British women. One of them is a student from London, who runs an NGO called sexpression.uk and has spent two days with Kalki just to hear her views on sex and gender. We wait an hour to speak with her. Kalki is warm and honest to a fault. She doesn’t shy away from the harder topics like her teenage years of alienation from family, her suicide attempts or sexual desires.
I shoot straight from the horse’s mouth. “How did your journey towards becoming a woman start?” She laughs nervously but delves right into her painful childhood experiences.
Like most transgender people, Kalki’s journey began in her early teens. Born into a typical middle class Brahmin family in the small town of Pollachi, she displayed ‘feminine’ tendencies as a young boy. She loved putting on makeup and frequently stole her older sister’s lipstick and earrings. Kalki never thought about it as a problem but when she was ten she started realising something was amiss. Gender dysphoria forced her to grapple with the fact that her biological sex was constraining her.
Never feeling comfortable in her own skin, Kalki would often steal into her sister’s wardrobe. She describes those times when she wore her sister’s inner-wear and clothes as “liberating and scintillating.” Her phrasing is poetic. “Only in the moments of loneliness was I myself.”
Her school years were “horrible and nightmarish”; marked by increasing alienation from everyone around her as well as several suicide attempts. During eighth grade, Kalki, who was in an all-boys school, had to change into a vest and shorts for the Physical Education class. While societal expectations forced her into playing the part of a boy in school, she was mortified at the prospect of changing in front of the other boys. The second hour on Fridays became a nightmare for her. After waiting for all the boys to leave the class, she would hide under the bench. Unfortunately she was caught after sixteen successful attempts and reported to her parents by the headmaster. That day Kalki broke down. “I didn’t know how to express what I was feeling. I didn’t know the term transgender. I just felt abnormal,” she says.
Her conservative extended family had already taken note of how she always sat with her mother, aunts and sisters, and teased her about it. All these moments were a constant humiliation for the gender confused teenager.
In a quest to find a community, Kalki turned to the internet and found that there were many people like her which fortified her resolve to transition. At the age of twelve, she started speaking about these experiences to her parents but was dismissed by them. However at fifteen, she gave an ultimatum to her mother. “I told her I’m going to change or I’m going to die.” Shattered by this admission, her parents took her to a doctor who administered her female hormones. She started going to therapy but in a small town there was little understanding even from psychiatrists.
Faced with an absence of supportive doctors who could give her counselling or hormone therapy, Kalki took things into her own hands. She contacted Thai doctors online who prescribed a cocktail of medicines. She acquired them from transgender persons who had successfully transitioned. From the age of sixteen Kalki endangered her health by self-administering hormone therapy which increased her depressive tendencies. In one attempt she swallowed pills in to take her life.
After her twelfth board exams, her parents sent her to a mental health centre in Vellore. Understandably, they were unable to find a cure.
After she was let out, Kalki miraculously came to an agreement with her parents. “My parents were frightened because all the people they saw on the streets who had changed their gender identity were begging and being a public nuisance. I promised them that I would always bring dignity to the family rather than shame.” From that day, her parents let Kalki be herself.
Family support wasn’t enough however. Kalki faced constant harassment in college. After she finished her master’s degree in journalism and mass communication, she joined an MNC called 365 Media. The plum job gave her financial independence for the first time. Kalki decided it was the right time to transition. “I sent an email to the CEO that I was going to undergo surgery to change my gender. I even made it clear that I would use the ladies’ toilet when I was back,” she laughs. The CEO agreed and Kalki was granted a 45 day leave of absence for her sex reassignment surgery.
When she came back, she was promoted to the head of team research. However the five men in her team were not ready to take orders from a transgender woman. Moreover, all the men in the office had a problem with her using the ladies’ toilet, even though the women themselves didn’t share these qualms. She laughs girlishly while describing the entire experience. “In retrospect, it was very funny but it ticked me off at the time. I couldn’t work in the company for a long time because people were constantly watching my every move.”
There are several unique cultural traditions that accompany the transgender community in India. One of the most distinct is their form of clapping. Clapping is both an announcement of their presence and a security alarm. If someone teases them or attacks them violently, the clapping brings fellow members of their community from all around to help them and scare off attackers or molesters. It’s literally an act of survival. For Kalki, the clapping is an integral part of the transgender community’s cultural quirks. She learned how to clap at the age of thirteen.
The community also has a unique system of guru-chelas that matches up a young transgender person to a mentor. While the term literally translates to teacher-student, the relationship is more akin to a mother-daughter relationship. The community is made up only of matriarchal relationships. While most transgender familial ties consist of mothers and daughters, several others such as aunts and nieces, grandmothers and granddaughters exist. Kalki also mentions that gurus’ husbands or boyfriends are referred to as papa. “Papas can change but mothers don’t!”
Each guru can have multiple chelas. In turn each chela can have chelas under them as well. Gurus can be the same age as their chelas, although they are usually senior with regards to their experiences. Kalki says that a chela chooses a guru based on qualities they want to emulate. At the age of twelve, Kalki was initiated to these customs when she got her first guru, a Muslim woman called Apsara. Years later, she requested trans actor and activist Lakshmi Tripathi to be her guru as well. Lakshmi has forty-five chelas and Kalki is her first from South India.
The trans community in India exists on the fringes of society. The most recent government calculations put their numbers at an absurdly low 490,000 but that’s because very few choose to identify as such. A majority don’t enjoy supportive home environments and are kicked out of their homes. A lack of education and job prospects force most to beg on the streets. Many turn to sex work as a means of making money too. Harassment from police is relentless and many are charged under Section 377, an antiquated colonial-era law that criminalises unnatural sex. There have been some notable steps in recent years to improve conditions. In April 2014, the Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, declared that trans people should be recognised as a third gender. The state of Tamil Nadu was the first to institute a Transgender Welfare Board. In November last year the state got the country’s first transgender woman police officer.
These and other changes have been a rousing victory for a community that is often rendered invisible in the political arena. But for Kalki and others to have a safe and fulfilling place in society, it will take more than just progressive legislation.
Interested in reading more about Kalki Subramaniam? Watch this space for Part 2 of this story!
Featured Image Source: Kalki Subramaniam/Facebook. | https://medium.com/the-cake/be-strong-bold-and-fearless-what-i-learnt-from-trans-activist-kalki-subramaniam-51ae6ccbb7a5 | [] | 2016-07-02 17:49:44.937000+00:00 | ['Transgender', 'Kalki Subramaniam', 'LGBTQ', 'Interview'] |
Seven Dangerous Lies Trump Spread About the Coronavirus | Seven Dangerous Lies Trump Spread About the Coronavirus
Believing in this fake-news can cost you your life
Source: NBC News
Unfortunately, we are living in Post-Truth and the pandemic has been the biggest testament to that. The last nine months have been fraught with beserk misinformation often times sugar-coated with flimsy research. President Trump seems to have prized the cake for being the leading progenitor of medically incorrect pandemic literature. While it is virtually impossible to call out the fluff from the towering peaks of untruth, it is worthwhile to remind ourselves of the facts that pose serious medical risks for all. Here’s are seven lies that are absolutely ridiculous and you better be careful with them to save your life.
Anti-malarial drugs can treat Coronavirus
The POTUS has shown tremendous confidence in hydroxychloroquine as an effective treatment for the virus. Having stockpiled 63 million doses, one would expect the belief to be backed by some scientific rationale. However, the FDA has warned against taking the drug. Not to mention, that large observational studies have concluded that the drug has no effect on Covid-19 patients. Furthermore, the Trump administration's testing czar, Brett Giroir hs also cautioned against the consumption of this medicine. In case, you do contract the virus, please do not rely on self-medication of chloroquine. It's advisable to seek a proper medical opinion on the prognosis.
Coronavirus is as deadly as common flu
Trump has repeatedly drawn on home-spun data to compare Coronavirus to common flu. The latest instance occurred on 6th October when he was fresh out of Walter Reed. Experts from across the globe have warned against this misconception and have stated that the virus is much more hazardous than the flu. In terms of the statistics as well as in terms of their behavior the two viruses are not comparable. Any allusion to the flu would potentially mellow down the dangers associated with the virus, risking public health and safety. It is extremely important that we take this crisis seriously and refrain from comparisons that embolden callousness.
99 percent of the cases are totally harmless
On 4th July, Trump said that 99% of the cases are harmless and people should not be too bothered about the virus. Quickly defusing this belief WHO launched a statement establishing that about 15% of the cases can be severe with around 5 percent being critical. Moreover, Dr. Fauci has also lambasted the growing misconception that Covid-19 is predominantly a mild disease. Considering the voluminous medical opinion urging for caution, you should be as careful of the virus as you should be of falsehoods like this one.
Children are immune to Covid-19
On multiple occasions has the President claimed that people from ages 0–18 are virtually immune to the virus. However, this claim has been proven wrong time and time again by prominent medical experts and pandemic data. Studies conducted in the US and China have suggested that though children are showing mild symptoms it does not imply that they do not contract the virus. In fact, the CDC believes that about 7% of the cases have occurred in children. Additionally, because they do not show symptoms, children can act as potential carriers of the contagion for older adults. With little research conducted on the long-term impacts of the virus, we are playing in the dark about what the future might hold for the infected children. Therefore, falling for this fad would be exposing oneself to unforeseen dangers in the future.
The vaccine will be ready by Election Day
Donald Trump has expressed his trust in a vaccine becoming available before Election Day. With less than two weeks to 3rd November, experts have warned against waiting for a cure before the deadline. On catching the disease now, one must not wait for the vaccine and immediately follow the established medical protocol. Waiting for a cure must not deter you from deferring your medical help under the pretext that a vaccine would happen in a short while. Such a false belief can lead to extremely devastating consequences.
Injecting Bleach kills Covid-19
On April 23, Trump stated that injecting bleach can be a potential measure against the virus. In his defense, he did roll back the statement and claimed that he was being sarcastic. However, after his remarks, the damage has been done with disinfectant poisoning cases shooting up across the country. In an unrelated case, around 500 people succumbed to methanol poisoning in Iran over Covid related rumors. This shows how dangerous unscientific claims can be when they stem from the helm of leadership. For all intents and purposes, intravenous injections of disinfectants will do nothing but take life and the populace must be crystal clear about that.
Mexicans are responsible for spreading the virus
The President has held no barrels when accusing Mexicans of spreading the contagion in the US borders. With the extreme xenophobia aside, this statement has come under scrutiny by medical experts. Such a belief is baseless and incendiary with the medical reports identifying no relation between the spread and immigration. Even after we have overcome the virus, such strains of hatred can continue to plague our society if we fall for such fallacious beliefs. Falling for this lie would make you more susceptible to unwarranted stereotypes. | https://medium.com/discourse/seven-dangerous-lies-trump-spread-about-the-coronavirus-cbe9dae0689d | ['Shourya Agarwal'] | 2020-10-25 20:05:26.903000+00:00 | ['Election 2020', 'Politics', 'Health', 'Coronavirus', 'Science'] |
HOW IMPORTANT IS SEO? | SEO full-form is search engine optimization. SEO is the process of enhancing the quality and quantity of website visitors to a website or a web page from search engines. The goal of SEO is to extend a company’s visibility in organic search effects. When done correctly, SEO can assist your brand stand above others as a responsible company and further enhance the user’s understanding of your brand and website.
how important is SEO?
There are currently 4.66 billion Internet users. Most of them are young people. The obsession of this population is to search in search engines and try to know something. If you have a company, you should list the information in the search engine. Accordingly, search for the words related to your service. That is called keyword in the SEO Sector. List your information about your service on your website and then bring it to the ranking on search engines. In that case, your web visitors are converting into clients. Let us now discuss in detail:
Visibility and Rankings
When searching for a service or product online, users are more likely to pick one of the top five recommendations that the search engine delivers them. SEO enables you to rank more increased in search results and garner more visibility online, making possible clients more likely to bond over to your site and habilitate.
Web Visitor
Growing the quality of the website Visitor and visits to your website, you are also improving your conversion. Website conversion numbers are a very significant factor in the success of your online marketing plan and your company goals. This indicates you are bringing your visitors to do what you like them to do, whether it is to regale your event, buy your effect. Increasing your conversion ultimately declines the number of new visitors you need to maintain your goals. So you need to SEO.
Faithful
The better your SEO score is, the increased you’ll appear on search engines like Google and Bing. While ranking higher on Google is demanding to all brands because of increased visibility, a secondhand benefit is a faithful you gain with possible clients. Users manage to defer to the advice that a search engine causes, so maintaining a higher position for the keywords a user is scouring for will, in turn, solidify your service as faithful in the user’s mind.
User Understanding
A well-optimized website clearly expresses what service is being delivered, how to get it and replies to any questions covering it. By catering the site build to the user’s understanding, search engines like Google and Bing are able to easily pull the information they need to then dispatch to users. If a user struggles to guide your site, chances are that search engines do as well.
Growth
There’s no doubt about it — SEO is key to the development of your brand. As we said above, the higher you rank on a search engine for a combination of high-volume keywords, the more organic (non-paid) web traffic your site will accept. It’s as simple as that.
A website that is well-optimized is more likely to gain more clients and make more deals. People are also more likely to then share your brand across various social platforms like Facebook or Instagram once they’ve located your website through a search engine.
How is SEO done?
First of all, you need to have a website. Keywords and competitors need to be analyzed. You need to add quality and more content from your competitor. Need to do on-page SEO. Such as: Focus keyword must be determined. The focus keyword should be given inside the heading tag. Meta title and meta description should be given. Keyword density must have complied. Inbound, outbound links must be given to your website.
. Alternate text with focus keyword for any image.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is basically after on-page SEO. But many SEO experts hold the two separately. Let us know how to do technical SEO: -
The sitemap must be added. You have to add robot.txt.
3.404 & Redirection will be maintained. | https://medium.com/@mdimranhuqe/how-important-is-seo-de2f651f7b3a | ['Md. Imran Huqe'] | 2021-12-30 17:10:17.258000+00:00 | ['Seo Services', 'Seo Tips', 'SEO'] |
Eight practical benefits of knowing your purpose and values | In a time of change, when every issue can seem vital and urgent, thinking about your purpose and values might seem like a distraction.
But by investing the time to find your purpose and values you will gain eight very practical benefits:
Better Results
The better you know your purpose and values, the better you will focus on creating the results that matter most to you and the more likely you will be to achieve them. Inner clarity leads to outer results. More Motivation
People who know their purpose and values are more able to keep going in the face of obstacles: and the better you know what really matters to you, the more energy you will have to pursue it, no matter what is happening around you in the world. Fewer Problems and Distractions
Winston Churchill said, “You will never reach your destination if you stop to throw stones at every dog that barks.”
Knowing your purpose and values shows you which issues are worth addressing and which can be ignored. Clearer Opportunities
Knowing your purpose and values shows you which of the potential opportunities that come your way are worth pursuing and which to leave for someone else. Again, this helps to prioritise your limited time and resources. Clearer Outcomes
For the issues you do engage with, knowing your purpose and values will make it quicker and easier to define the outcomes you want to create: what ‘finished’ looks like. This gives you more time and resources to spend working to achieve those outcomes. A Greater Feeling of Control
In a world of constant change, knowing your purpose and values allows you to choose how you respond to any situation. This is true power: this is Inner Leadership. Immediate Results
Your vision of the future has two parts: the outcomes you want to create and the culture you want to live by when you get there.
If you choose to live in line with your purpose and values now you have immediately achieved half your vision. That will help you achieve the other half faster. More Freedom, Flexibility, and Adaptability
Seeing your goals as ways of achieving your deeper purpose helps you adapt to changing circumstances: when things don’t turn out as expected, you simply find new ways of achieving the same purpose. This brings you flexibility, continuity, and stability that enable you to recover faster from setbacks and be more flexible to changing events.
In a churning world, spending the time to define your purpose and values is a practical investment that will pay back many times over.
And combining the greater focus, motivation, efficiency, effectiveness, adaptability that results will bring you another step closer to becoming antifragile: able to use change to become stronger.
Which of these eight benefits would be most useful to you today? Are you willing to invest the time to get clearer on your purpose and values? | https://medium.com/finn-jackson/eight-practical-benefits-of-knowing-your-purpose-and-values-4d86600a3874 | ['Finn Jackson'] | 2020-08-26 11:01:01.181000+00:00 | ['Conscious Leadership', 'Self Leadership', 'Leadership', 'Change Management', 'Antifragility'] |
#Rajpurepisode2 | #Rajpurepisode2
#rajpurepisode2
#rajpur
#Rajpur
Link of previous episode: #Rajpurepisode1, rajpurepisode1
#Author: #RhituparnaChakraborty
#Disclaimer: This is an original work of fiction with no relation to any person/organism living or dead. Every episode, every character is a work of imagination. Any resemblance to any person, organism, place or character is purely coincidental. There is no intention to hurt or rebuke anyone through this work. This story/episode cannot be copied, published or reproduced without the permission of the author RhituparnaChakraborty.
Saanchi looked upstairs. She then told Nihaar, ‘But…. there is a lady here already. When I asked her if she was Sarita, she had nodded.’ Nihaar said with a confused note, ‘Umm, that’s not possible. Are you sure?’ Saanchi said, ‘Yes I am. She is upstairs cleaning up the rooms. Wait a minute. I will hand over the phone to her.’ Nihaar said, ‘Ma’am, I am sure there is some confusion. Please send her away. She can be an imposter.’ Saanchi went upstairs with the phone on ‘speaker’ mode. She went to her bedroom first. That lady was not there. She then went to the other rooms. The lady was nowhere to be seen. Saanchi started shivering. With trembling voice she told Nihaar, ‘I can’t find her now. Where did she go?’ Nihaar said, ‘Ma’am, you might be mistaken. Sarita can’t be there. I will send a picture of Sarita right away. Let me know if the same lady is there.’ Saanchi searched every nook and corner of the house. The lady seemed to have vanished. She looked at the picture Nihaar just sent. No, this lady is not the same lady. Saanchi told Nihaar, ‘No, the lady who was here is not the lady whose picture you just sent. I need to hang up now please.’ Saying that Saanchi hung up. She then went to the shelf from where the lady had picked up the broom. The broom was right there inside the shelf. Saanchi was petrified. She ran to the front door. She turned the knob to open it. The knob seems to have stuck. It did not budge. She tried twisting it again and again. No, it would not move. She pulled it. The door would not open. She cried, ‘HELP…..HELP’. No one was around. Just then a whiff of strong smell passed by her. It smelled like rotten meat. Saanchi felt a cold breeze touch her skin. She kept on screaming but her voice turned mute. After banging on the door endlessly, screaming through out and still unable to open it, Saanchi fell into a deep swoon.
‘Hey Girl, wake up, we need to go out’. Saanchi heard someone saying this to her. She opened her eyes. It was Mushtaque. He was looking at her and smiling. Saanchi looked around. She was lying on the sofa. There was a comfy, cozy blanket on her. Mushtaque looked at her and said, ‘So, my lady had a nice comfortable nap?’ Saanchi sat up. She was in a daze. She said, ‘How come I am here? Who brought me here? I was trying to open the door. Wh…..where…..where is that lady?’ Mushtaque looked at Saanchi confused. He said, ‘Sweetheart, what are you talking about? I kept on ringing the doorbell. Suresh came and opened the door with the key he had. You were fast asleep here on the sofa.’ Saanchi said with tears in her eyes, ‘No…. No…. I was not asleep. I had fainted. That lady…. that lady who had come to clean the house in the morning……you did see her, didn’t you?’ Mushtaque said, ‘Which lady? No one had come today to clean the house. Did anyone come after I left?’ Saanchi tried to convince Mushtaque and said, ‘She had come before you had left. How come you did not see her?’ Mushtaque went closer to Saanchi, brushed her hair gently and said, ‘Maybe it was a dream. Now come on, get ready, we have to go out. Suresh has made yummy lunch. We will have lunch and then we will go for sightseeing.’ Saanchi hugged Mushtaque tight and thought, ‘Was I dreaming, was that a mirage or was it real?’ She looked at Mushtaque and said earnestly, ‘I was not dreaming Mushtaque. Ask Nihaar. He had called me. I had told him that the house help Sarita was here. Nihaar had told me that the lady who was there in the house, can’t be Sarita because Sarita was on leave.’ Saanchi clutched her head in Mushtaque’s broad chest and hid herself there like a little girl and said, ‘I am not lying Mushtaque.’ Mushtaque gently brushed Saanchi’s head and said, ‘I know baby. You will never lie. But, there is no way a lady had come when I was here and I did not see. Maybe you were tired. Now, go wash your face. Let’s have lunch. I am starving.’
Saanchi got off the sofa, washed her face and went ahead to the dining room. Mushtaque could see that Saanchi was still lost. He tried to cheer her up, but in vain. After lunch, Mushtaque took Saanchi for a long drive. They went to some beautiful places for sight seeing. Mushtaque even proposed watching a movie, but Saanchi did not want to go. She was lost through out.
At around 8 pm, Saanchi and Mushtaque reached the service apartment. Suresh was already there making dinner. Seeing Saanchi and Mushtaque, Suresh said, ‘ Dinner is ready. Let me know when to serve. Once you guys are done with dinner, I will clean the kitchen, do the dishes and then leave.’ Mushtaque said, ‘ That’s fine. We will help ourselves. You can go now. Tomorrow when the house help comes, she can do the dishes, or else, when you come tomorrow morning to make breakfast, you can do the dishes then.’ Suresh said, ‘ Sure Sir. No problem.’ Suresh looked at Saanchi and said, ‘Hope you like the food ma’am.’
Just then the doorbell rang. Mushtaque answered the door. Nirali and her sister Naina was at the door. Nirali said, ‘ I am Nirali. I had come in the morning too. I am Mr. Naresh Sharma’s daughter. This is my sister Naina. I had forgotten to keep chocolates in the refrigerator, which we always keep for our guests. Hence, I got the chocolates now. Sorry for the inconvenience.’ Mushtaque smiled and said, ‘That’s so sweet. Thanks.’ Nirali then said, ‘I hope you and your wife like chocolates.’ Mushtaque smiled and said, ‘We sure do.’ Just then Saanchi came near the door. Nirali smiled at Saanchi and said, ‘I hope you like the chocolates.’ Saanchi smiled warmly at Nirali and said, ‘I love chocolates. Thanks a lot.’ Nirali and Naina left after handing over the chocolates to Mushtaque.
After dinner, Mushtaque sat comfortably on the couch and switched on the tv. Saanchi came and snuggled into Mushtaque’s arms. She was wearing a white satin strapless night gown. Mushtaque wrapped his arms around her shoulders and put his chin on her head. While watching a movie, Saanchi said, ‘ Don’t you think we should send a thank you note to Nihaar for sending those chocolates?’. Mushtaque said, ‘Right. I will do that right away.’ Mushtaque texted Nihaar. Nihaar received the message. He was happy and sad at the same time. Happy, because, Nirali and Naina were taking interest in this family business. Sad because, he would have been happy to give those chocolates on his own.
Snuggled in bed, with her head on Mushtaque’s chest, Saanchi slept like a baby. Suddenly the piercing smell of rotten meat engulfed the room. Saanchi woke up startled. Mushtaque was still fast asleep. The windows of the room swung open. The curtains flew in the wind. The lady in red bindi, kohl clad eyes and red saree, looked at Saanchi, smiled. Saanchi screamed at the top of her voice. She shook Mushtaque. She yelled, ‘WAKE UP MUSHTAQUE, WAKE UP’. But, Saanchi’s voice was mute. Mushtaque was still fast asleep.
Naresh Sharma went to Nihaar’s room. Nihaar was still awake. Naresh Sharma said, ‘Got a minute?’ Nihaar looked at Naresh Sharma and said, ‘Sure Dad. Please have a seat.’ Naresh Sharma said, ‘Son, I don’t want to force this decision on you. However, I feel, it’s high time for you to get married. I barely get time to talk to you. I thought, maybe this will be a good time to talk.’ Before Naresh could say something, Nihaar said, ‘Yes Dad, you are right. I should get married. In fact, now I feel, it’s time.’
Saanchi cried, screamed, yelled but her voice was mute. The lady jingled her anklets, smiled at Saanchi and walked away to the other room. Saanchi fainted.
‘The couple looks beautiful. However, they can’t stay together forever’, said a voice deep in someone’s heart.
To be continued………………… | https://medium.com/@rheetuparnachakkravorty/rajpurepisode2-1ae44ccb0c5d | ['Rhituparna Chakraborty'] | 2020-12-15 09:50:01.519000+00:00 | ['Series', 'Stories', 'Fiction', 'Thriller'] |
Top 10 Things to Note About Security Tokens | Top 10 Things to Note About Security Tokens
For those of you that don’t know what a security or security token is: Securities are tradable financial instruments including (but not limited to) bonds, stocks and options. They provide the promise of monetary value in the form of dividends, profit sharing or other mechanisms. A security token is the ownership of this security attached to a cryptographic token.
Last year the Initial Coin Offering, or ICO, saw a massive rise in popularity. The ability to sell the utility of your platform as a crowdfunding mechanism attracted entrepreneurs and investors alike, who were drawn to the lack of the ‘accredited investor’ entry barrier present on standard VC investment.
Much of the recent conversation has now turned to the ICO’s newer, more exciting brother: the Security Token Offering, or better known as the STO. The team at Mo Works and I thought that we would collect ten of the more interesting and valuable insights and facts we’ve heard around the scene surrounding the legendary ‘security token’.
1. Issuing a share-backed security token could replace the traditional IPO
Traditional IPOs can cost upwards of $1 million, and the time invested is very significant. By releasing a share-backed security token, not only will companies be able to effectively fundraise for a fraction of the total cost, but also complete this at a much earlier point in their timeline.
STOs have the potential to be adopted en masse once they become more clearly regulated, which could result in the IPO (as we know it) dying out due to the more convenient alternative.
2. Security tokens open up fractionalised investments to everyday investors
Investments in giants such as Facebook or Google at their IPO stage has been largely impossible for someone with only the resources, or who only wants, to invest a small amount. With fully-divisible security tokens able to be traded almost peer-to-peer, this barrier to entry will be drastically lowered.
3. Large projects could become more public and community-focused
Imagine Apple wanting to please shareholders numbering in the thousands instead of the usual small board of directors. Much more information would need to be made public, and decision-making usually reserved for behind closed doors could potentially fall to a vote by all token-/shareholders.
The focus would shift from ‘please the minority at the expense of the majority’ to a less opaque, more community-driven approach for startups and companies that decide to raise using an STO.
4. Issuer and investor/token holder interests are more aligned
As this past year has demonstrated, utility token issuers do not always make decisions that are beneficial to the value of their token. This is in their nature as a ‘non-investment’ — the business comes first. This may result in a utility-token losing a lot of value.
With security tokens’ value tied instead to an asset that’s worth is tied directly to the success of the company, token purchases do not have to worry about conflicting interests between parties.
5. The Increasing amount of STOs will create new and exciting derivatives
Personalised portfolios with a large range of different investments will become available to individuals that were only previously available to investment funds. A regular joe could have a portfolio that encompasses a wide range of international companies all in their infancy, and fundraising strategies by businesses would change and adapt to suit this.
6. Security tokens are liquid
Traditional investment is often termed ‘illiquid’ due to the difficulty faced trying to find a buyer for an asset. An example of this would be having to find a buyer for a house that you previously invested in — you would struggle to liquidate this instantly.
Security tokens possess the ability to be traded in minimal time (potentially even via decentralised exchanges), and are only fractions of the size that traditional investments are.
7. Security tokens’ value will be much more stable
A utility token’s value is largely speculative and varies with market forces — in the past few years we’ve seen tokens go 10x… or immediately lose their value. As security tokens are tied to an underlying asset, their value will vary much less.
Due to the increased liquidity of security tokens, market forces will still have some impact albeit on a much smaller scale. Strong price resistances and supports will be present, with variation happening largely between them.
8. Tokenization isn’t limited to assets
Tokenization of debts could very well occur once a rigorous security token economy has been established. Where previously investment in debts was largely institutional, investment in debts may become more mainstream. Furthermore, tradable debt tokens representing (for example) mortgages or corporate bonds would be able to undergo a market price discovery based on risk and dividends.
9. Security tokens will help bridge the gap between traditional VCs and cryptocurrency
With regulatory oversight and a few successful STOs, the cryptocurrency space will see much more investment. The ability to purchase an asset-backed security token instead of the traditionally more volatile utility token should see many previously ICO-sceptic VCs participating in STOs and fostering even more growth in the (still) fledgling cryptocurrency space.
10. Security token regulations are on their way
The SEC is an American entity created to look after investor interests after the stock market crash of 1929, and thus far have not provided clear information on regulations surrounding the new asset-class of utility and security tokens.
Statements surrounding ICOs and token sales have however been offered on a semi regular basis. General consensus is that clarification surrounding security tokens and STOs should be coming in the next few months — so get ready!
Disclaimer: The above references an opinion and is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment or legal advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment or legal advice.
I work on the Community and Cryptocurrency team at Mo Works — a Melbournian creative agency specialising in ICO Marketing and tokensale launches. To get in touch or discuss all things blockchain, you can reach me at [email protected]. | https://medium.com/moworks/top-10-facts-to-note-about-security-tokens-cf8225f19874 | ['Sam Webster'] | 2018-09-26 17:50:25.766000+00:00 | ['Security Tokens', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Tokenized Securities', 'Sto', 'Blockchain'] |
太強啦！ | in In Bitcoin We Trust | https://medium.com/@bobanderic2000/%E5%A4%AA%E5%BC%B7%E5%95%A6-4ebd20d81bc2 | [] | 2020-12-20 09:44:39.927000+00:00 | ['金流', '藍新', 'Rails'] |
Four “E’s” of Senior Adults’ Money Deals | Arrows hit the bulls-eye of senior citizen discounts and opportunities.
Oldies Get Goodies
Sometimes the media bogs down in reporting only the negatives of senior citizenhood. How is it that the press discounts all the good things that happen when one’s age passes a magic number?
The advantages below are gotten only by attaining a number — just surviving the requisite number of years on this good earth.
The 4 E’s of Senior Bargains
Eats
The Early Bird Special!
We’ve all seen the signs posted on doors of diners and restaurants. The Early Bird Special is a price reduction for a meal (usually the evening one) if purchased before the most popular seating time. It is an inducement for more customers and more easily managed customer flow at an indoor dining spot. In American stereotypes, the Early Bird Special conjures up images of geriatric folks who want to be in bed by 8:00 p.m., thus enjoy eating supper at 4:00 p.m. Sometimes, proof of age by general visual inspection is also needed to take advantage of this opportunity.
Also, some restaurants will offer a discount or the availability of smaller, cheaper portions at any time with proof of age. These deals may be found in a special Senior Citizen page in the menu.
Exercise
Some national chain gyms offers membership fee discounts to AARP members. Also, some Medicare supplement plans provide gym membership as a benefit. The Silver Sneakers program is one example. Therefore, my father started working out at such a place for the first time in his life at age 79. Way to go, Dad!
In addition, ski resorts and the like sometimes charge admission with a sliding scale based on one’s age and nothing else. At one such establishment in West Virginia, after age 70 you can ski for free! This is good.
Entertainment
Admission price lists often have three groups: children/students, adults, and seniors.
Keep alert for this system in many venues. Movie theatres are prime places that reward advanced age with a ticket discount. Museums and historical associations may also offer these. Sports events such as baseball or hockey games may give the senior citizen a price break.
Education
In my area, some of the colleges and some churches offer courses especially with the senior adult in mind. They are for enrichment, not college credit. Topics are selected with this group in mind and the courses run for a short time, perhaps one or two months at most. This provides opportunities to learn for those who can’t commit to a four-month long semester.
Formal education, however, is where the old folks might hit the real jackpot. Some colleges and other institutions permit senior adults to attend tuition-FREE at age 60! If searching on-line, try the search term “<name of college> tuition senior discount.” It may not work for every institution, but it is a good start for exploring who has the deals.
Update as of December 2020 for Pennsylvania:
Pennsylvania State University — four campuses offer free tuition at age 60, with restrictions, in the GO-60 program
Some community colleges and other PA state colleges offer free tuition at age 65 with restrictions, often that no credit may be earned
Alvernia University — free tuition at age 65
Show Me the Money!
So where others are coy about revealing their age, when you get “old enough” you may want to tell the world. Emblazon it on your T -shirts and flash your ID everywhere.
“I am a senior citizen: show me the money!” | https://medium.com/@writermarenm/four-es-of-senior-adults-money-deals-e10bd322945e | ['Maren E Morgan'] | 2020-12-27 13:09:52.964000+00:00 | ['Discount', 'Save Money', 'Old Age', 'Senior Citizen', 'Retirement'] |
New Year Staking Competition — 50 Staking spots up for grabs — Ends on Monday 3rd Feb at 12:00 UTC | About Verasity
Verasity is a leading company providing rewarded video player technology to major publishers across the globe. The patent-pending video player enables tokenized rewards (VRA) as well as loyalty schemes within a video player wallet. The unique technology is already available to more than 2 million video publishers with 550 million users and 110 billion monthly views bringing engagement and revenues back to publishers’ sites. Verasity’s attention-based model creates a thriving VRA token economy between viewers, video publishers and advertisers.
Verasity is the future of online video.
Verasity Products include: VeraWallet: verawallet.tv
Verasity technology is now integrated into the following video players on publishers’ sites: YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, JWPlayer, Brightcove, Kaltura, VideoJS, Flowplayer, and Ooyala which represents over 95% of all the video players utilized.
📈 Find where VRA/VRAB (ticker) is trading on CoinMarketCap
VRA and VRAB can be staked for 36.5% annual interest at https://verawallet.tv.
Follow Us:
Medium: https://medium.com/verasity
Twitter: https://twitter.com/verasitytech
Website: https://verasity.io
Telegram Token Discussion: http://t.me/verasitychat
Telegram Token Announcements: https://t.me/verasity
Verasity Mobile Telegram: https://t.me/verasity_mobile
Kakao: https://open.kakao.com/o/gh8ZK0cb
Facebook: https://facebook.com/verasitytech
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/verasity
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/verasity
Blockfolio Signals: Follow VRA/VRAB to receive updates straight from the team
Join our local groups, we have support in the following languages
Russian chat 🇷🇺 — https://t.me/VerasityRU
Korean chat 🇰🇷 — https://open.kakao.com/o/gh8ZK0cb
Turkish chat 🇹🇷 — https://t.me/VerasityTR
Vietnamese chat 🇻🇳 — https://t.me/Verasity_Vietnam
Brazilian chat 🇧🇷 — https://t.me/Verasity_BR | https://medium.com/verasity/new-year-staking-competition-50-staking-spots-up-for-grabs-ends-on-friday-31-january-at-12-00-8f35b0bb0b1c | [] | 2020-01-30 17:25:41.174000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Vra', 'Comp', 'Verasity', 'Competition'] |
To Cautious Asian Americans, This is Why I am Alarmed by the issue of Climate Change | When reflecting on myself, I attribute most of my values to my identity as a second-generation Asian American who comes from a comfortable background. If I’m being completely honest, the climate crisis has never really been an issue that I was motivated to fight for. My community values education and stability over anything else, so issues that don’t directly threaten our well-being are often ignored and tossed aside. I wouldn’t generalize Asian Americans as selfish, but our Asian background inclines us to focus on our own self-interests as we are expected to progress through higher education in pursuit of a successful career. As a result, climate change is not an issue that many Asian households value, resulting in inaction from second-generation Asian Americans like myself. Out of the six Americas, Asian Americans are most likely cautious about the climate crisis.
I never doubted the existence of man-made climate change, but I’ve always sat on the sidelines as I viewed it as someone else’s issue, instead of my own. But seeing the impacts of climate change in my community, more recently through the Northern California wildfires, has made it a personal issue for me. Nothing but safety and health mattered to my family as we drove across the Bay Area to pick up my grandparents. As my family was forced to evacuate, my ignorance dawned on me as I realized that climate change doesn’t discriminate nor does it care for your socioeconomic background. All of my school work, extracurriculars, and interests were forgotten as all I could focus on was the uncertain future. Even though my neighborhood was lucky enough to avoid damage that day, I learned my lesson during the evacuation process; living in wealth and comfort can only protect you for so long. I saw the first-hand effects of climate change and I finally understood why so many people viewed it as an issue that they were willing to fight for.
This map, from the National Wildfire Situational Awareness website, depicts the wildfires that forced my family to evacuate in August. Wildfire locations are shown in yellow, orange, and dark red (with dark red being the most serious).
As a result, I started to transform my once closed mindset after that traumatic experience. I decided that any issue that affects those around me is an issue that needs to be taken seriously. After reading Roser-Renouf’s report about global warming’s six Americas, I aligned my past beliefs with the cautious group, the second largest of the six Americas at around 25% of the population. I would classify myself as cautious for most of my life as I paid little attention to the climate crisis and lacked the motivation to be involved in this issue. I believed that my individual actions were insignificant in fighting against climate change, resulting in my view of climate change as a problem that did not need immediate attention. That has now changed as I strive to become both an environmentally sustainable individual and an advocate for this planet’s environment. I will start participating in both individual and, more importantly, collective action to combat climate change.
What can we do as a Group?
Climate change is not a distant issue for us as Asian Americans. We shouldn’t use our careers and education as a reason to ignore such pressing issues that will continue to increasingly threaten the well-being of our communities. We don’t need to choose one or the other, we can strive for success in our fields of choice while protecting our families and future generations by calling others to join the movement for climate justice. We need a full effort from everybody, individual efforts like recycling a few times a week and driving electric cars are not enough to save our planet if only a few people do it.
As Asian Americans, we have the power to bridge the gap between our Asian background and the community that we live in today. I aim to educate my family and my relatives on issues that don’t seem important to them. Regardless of if they agree with me at first, I will make a concerted effort to educate them about the seriousness of climate change and how it is a personal issue for all of us. Focusing on education and prosperity doesn’t mean that we need to avoid these issues and take a backseat on issues regarding politics and legislation. As we fix the disconnect between the political and social climate of America to the values of our Asian communities, we can create unity as combating climate change will require all of us to take part in the movement for climate justice.
What can we Achieve?
We need to participate in voting, instead of sitting back and watching the chaos unfold, we need to take action and fulfill our civic duties. Voter turnout among Asian Americans has been historically low, but we can change the trend. Even though there was a significant increase in Asian American and Pacific Island (AAPI) voter turnouts in 2018, it was still relatively low at only 40.2 percent. I have recently turned 18 and I hope that this can inspire my fellow Asian American college students to use their civil duty to make a difference in federal and local elections. Our voice could be a key group in deciding elections in swing states that will affect how our government reacts to issues such as climate change. In this past election, climate change was an extremely divisive topic as the two candidates disagreed on climate policy and the seriousness of climate change. The presence of climate change as a wedge issue will only increase as the environment around us worsens. For those who are too young to vote, you guys can still make your voice heard. Join environmental and green clubs on campus, spread the word about future events such as walkouts, sign petitions that advocate for environmental justice.
In this day and age, especially with the current global pandemic, social media has become ubiquitous in our everyday lives. The impacts of social media can be monumental, as information regarding climate justice can be spread to frequent consumers of social media. The internet allows us to work together and connect from all around the world. To my fellow Asian Americans, even if you’ve been inactive in the climate justice movement like me, it’s not too late to make an impact. Make your voice heard, educate your community and peers, and fight to protect our environment. Even though we may be young, our voices and our unity will be our weapon against climate change.
References and Sources
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Mike Gainey who has provided me feedback and instruction during this writing process. His lectures have helped me improve my writing strategies throughout this year. I also thank my classmates, Sumedh Prasad and Abel Seyoum, who peer reviewed my rough draft. They provided thoughtful suggestions that were incredibly helpful during my revision process. | https://medium.com/@ahchu/to-cautious-asian-americans-this-is-why-i-am-alarmed-by-the-issue-of-climate-change-acb39605c44c | ['Andre Chu'] | 2020-12-15 06:15:56.049000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Bay Area', 'California', 'Climate Action', 'Asian American'] |
Sentiment Analysis: How it Works, Types & Everything You Need to Know | Work flow Sentiment analysis
Understanding the sentiments of the people is not easy unless they express their feelings, opinions and perspective anything. But if you have such platforms where people are freely speaking up about their thoughts and concerns, you can easily find out their sentiments. Here where Cogito comes in the facility of sentiment analysis.
Sentiment Analysis is the process of determining the conceptions, judgments, feelings, opinions, viewpoints, conclusions, and other notions towards anything. It is a technique to analyze texts, images, emojis and various other actions to know what other people think about a product, service, company, brand name, or a reaction to a specific event, social movement, etc.
The Usefulness of Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis is playing an enormous role in understanding people belonging to different groups and their sentiments. On political grounds, it helps to know how much of the majority is in favor of the Govt. or how many stands opposing to their services and measures undertaken.
While on the other hand, in the business world, it is helping companies to know their customers in a better way. Such a resource becomes useful for the business enterprises to offer products and services as per the expectations of their potential customers and get appropriate results.
Social Media is one the best and biggest platforms where the theory of sentiment analysis is and must be applied, to interpret the feelings of various people. Hence, we need to understand it as a process, how it works, its applications and why it is important for business organizations and other aspects.
What is Sentiment Analysis in NLP ?
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a way to understand the actual meanings of the text words, sentences, or entire written documents. NLP is used to train the machines thereby, helping them understand the language and communication process among humans while discussing a topic.
The main motive of sentiment analysis is to find out expressions of people that are eventually classified as positive, negative, or neutral. It can be used in diverse areas such as company products, market research, marketing analysis, customer targeting, product reviews, customer feedback, reputation management, etc.
How Does Sentiment Analysis Work ?
As mentioned above, sentiment analysis is used in NLP-based Machine Learning algorithms to develop such AI applications that can understand the ways of linguistic context showing the sentiments of different people.
But the question here is, how does sentiment analysis work? The developers begin by creating a text Machine Learning-based algorithm that can detect the contents showing any specific sentiment indicator.
Afterwards, they train the ML classifier by feeding it a huge quantity of training datasets containing reactions based on positive, negative, and neutral sentiments. Every piece of content is scattered and divided into basic components such as text words, phrases, sentences, and other entities.
Once this process is completed, the relationship between the topics and the identification process commences. Then, AI model assigns a sentiment score to that particular post. The post can range from 1 representing negative and +4 representing 4 positive comments. If a sentiment is neutral, the score is usually given 0.
As we already know, understanding the different human languages is a very complex task due to their cultural and social diversity. Hence, it is important to train the programs in such a way that they are able to detect and analyse grammatical nuances.
TYPES OF SENTIMENT ANALYSIS
To understand the sentiments of people, there are different types of sentiment analysis used in the market. Apart from normal opinions — positive, negative, or neutral, other types of sentiment analysis help in understanding people’s inner feelings, their actual intentions, and emotions.
Fine-grained Sentiment
This is one of the most simple and common ways of understanding your customers’ sentiments. Yes, fine-grained sentiment analysis helps in studying the ratings and reviews given by the customers.
While analyzing the sentiments, you can use the readily available categories like very positive, positive, neutral, negative, or very negative. Providing a rating option from 1 to 5 is yet another way to scale the feedback given by your customers. Most e-commerce sites use this technique to know the sentiments of their customers.
Aspect-based Analysis
This type of sentiment analysis is more focused on the aspects of a particular product or service. To make it easier to understand, let’s take an example — if you are talking about a soundbar or a wireless speaker system.
Here you can analyze your customer’s sentiments by asking them for feedback about the sound quality, connectivity, and other features, making such devices more useful and productive for the users. It helps in determining specific attributes of the product.
Intent-based Sentiment Analysis
To know the intent of the customers; whether they are looking to buy the product or just browsing around, is achievable through intent analysis. It not only helps to identify the intent of the customers but also to track and target them through advertisements or other ways of online promotions.
With intent analysis, companies can save their time, efforts, and cost while targeting the potential customers as per their intentions. This helps in getting a more vivid understanding of the intentions of the customers.
Emotion Detection Sentiment Analysis
As the name symbolizes, this type of sentiment analysis helps to detect and understand the emotions of the people. Emotions like anger, sadness, happiness, frustration, fear, panic, worry, or anxiety, may all be included.
Understanding the sentiments of people using emotion detection is even more difficult as people use a collection of words having a different sense of meaning. Hence, inaccurate emotion detection can lead to an inaccurate decision while analyzing the true sentiments of the people.
How Can Sentiment Analysis be Used ?
The main motive of using sentiment analysis is to find out the true feelings of the varied people living in our society. It can be used for analyzing the customer’s feedback of a particular company, normal users on social media towards a product, services, social issues, or political agendas.
Companies also use it for brand analysis, reputation crises, campaigns performances, competitor analysis, and improve the service offered to the customers. Analyzing the sentiments of the customers helps the customer support team to prioritize their work for offering better service to end-users.
Why Sentiment Analysis is Difficult ?
Sentiment analysis is a very difficult task due to sarcasm. The words or text data implied in a sarcastic sentence come with a different sense of meaning depending on the senders or situations.
Sarcasm is remarking someone opposite of what you want to say. It is expressed to hurt someone’s feelings or humorously criticize something. On social media, sarcasm is one of the most common behavior you can see nowadays interfering with the results.
Sentiment Analysis using Psychographic Segmentation
Sentiment analysis can be a big game changer in forming a more focused marketing strategy for the companies. But these establishments need to understand their customers by segmenting them into their characteristics like their cultural values, beliefs, desires, goals, interests, and lifestyle choices.
Psychographic Segmentation becomes helpful here in analyzing the customers’ sentiments by segmenting them based on their activities, lifestyle, and interests. It is a more qualitative approach to study consumers according to their psychological characteristics.
Psychographic segmentation not only helps in improving the customer experience but also authorizes companies to offer more tailored products or services to the right customers at the right time improving the return on investment.
Psychographics allows you to learn about the deeper motivations and emotions that influence potential customers. Hence, in the next article, we will learn more about psychographic segmentation, and how it is helpful in sentiment analysis powered by Cogito Tech LLC | https://medium.com/@cogitotech/sentiment-analysis-how-it-works-types-everything-you-need-to-know-822a1f2ddeaf | ['Roger Brown'] | 2021-03-04 09:14:17.822000+00:00 | ['Sentiment Analysis Online', 'Text Sentiment Analysis', 'Sentiment Analysis', 'Sentiment Analysis In Ai', 'Sentiment Analysis Nlp'] |
Phoenix Song | “A gentle creature, the phoenix lives to an immense age because it can regenerate each time it bursts into flames. Phoenix song is magical and its tears have healing properties.” ~from the world of Harry Potter
Detail from the 12th-century Aberdeen Bestiary, featuring a phoenix (public domain)
He must be a Phoenix in disguise;
I’ve see him molt and seen him rise
time and again.
He’s brought light into my darkness;
Fire burns in his eyes
light radiates deep within.
He carries burdens others can’t fathom;
Bearing burdens of those he loves
on top of the heavy ones he owns.
I’ve stared into death’s eyes,
he flew to my aide
his prayers and presence
healing me
as only
tearful Phoenix song can.
He forgets himself;
Doesn’t know his worth.
Impossible for me to not know.
Resurrection is his fate;
I know he’s a Phoenix. | https://medium.com/emphatically-me/phoenix-song-31e590b983f9 | ['Jessica Archuleta'] | 2019-10-22 17:03:22.757000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Religion', 'Harry Potter', 'Spirituality', 'Creative Writing'] |
Sparkling Vertex AI Pipelines | Disclaimer: This article assumes that you already have some prior knowledge of MLOps, machine learning pipelines and Vertex AI. In case you don’t, I would recommend watching these videos from Priyanka Vergadia for a quick overview: Introduction to MLOps and Vertex Pipelines and End-to-end MLOps with Vertex AI.
Premises
Vertex AI Pipelines is one of the most powerful services of the Vertex AI MLOps features launched this year on Google Cloud.They make it really easy to orchestrate machine learning workloads using Kubeflow. Indeed, you can do almost anything inside a pipeline component. And you’re not limited to certain Vertex functions.
So what if you have a PySpark ML pipeline?
In this article, we’ll illustrate that generality by using Spark inside some Vertex Pipeline components. In particular, I will show how to use Vertex AI Pipelines in conjunction with Dataproc to train and deploy a ML model for near-real time predictive maintenance application.
Our scenario
Imagine you are a ML engineer, and now that your company is moving to the cloud, you’ve been told to lead a proof of concept and prove how to train a predictive maintenance pipeline. Basically, the goal is to process machine log files loaded from on-prem to cloud continuously for training and deploying a ML pipeline you already built on prem.
Regarding the process, you need to become more independent on running (ML) workloads compared in order to speed up the experimental phases¹. Also we need to adopt MLOps practices to make the process reliable, scalable and reproducible across the team.
At the end, you found that Vertex AI Pipelines accomplishes all of this.
Indeed, you will be able to submit ML jobs with Kubeflow based technology, which we assume you are already familiar with compared to other cluster orchestration tools like Workflow. Also, they enable you to track artifacts and lineage of data, feature, model and experiment metrics across your ML workflow with the associated metadata store and the other Vertex AI services such as Datasets, Feature Store and Experiments.
The Dataset
In order to implement this scenario, we use the UCI Machine Learning — AI4I 2020 Predictive Maintenance dataset, which is a synthetic dataset that reflects real predictive maintenance data encountered in industry. It consists of 14 features associated with the machine process such as process temperature, rotational speed and torque. And the target machine failure label indicates whether the machine has failed for at least one of the defined failure modes.
The Anatomy of our Pipeline: Architecture, Components and Representation
About Vertex AI Pipeline, we assumed that
each component of the pipeline has to create a Dataproc cluster, process a PySpark job and destroy the cluster.
Someone could argue that this pattern adds extra running time. That’s true, but each step of the pipeline may need different amounts of resources and then it would need a different cluster configuration. One example could be the hyperparameter tuning step which generally needs more processing power. Also, one of the advantages of using Dataproc is related to the idea of ephemeral clusters which gives more control and more flexibility at the same time.
With that said, below you can find the Pipeline Architecture | https://medium.com/google-cloud/sparkling-vertex-ai-pipeline-cfe6e19334f7 | ['Ivan Nardini'] | 2021-09-14 10:52:17.039000+00:00 | ['Spark', 'Vertex', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Pipeline', 'Mlops'] |
Analyze the data through data visualization using Seaborn | Analyze the data through data visualization using Seaborn
Data visualization is an important part of any data analysis. It helps us to recognize relations between variables and also to find which variables are significant or which variable can affect the predicted variable.
Explorative data analysis
In machine learning model while training any model you need to first find which features are important or on which features the result is dependent. This can be done using data analysis and data visualization.
We’ll learn how to visualize different types of data, and what we can infer from that plot, and when to use them.
Seaborn is a library built on matplotlib. It’s easy to use and can work easily with Numpy and pandas data structures.
We’ll be using inbuilt dataset provided by seaborn name tips .
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
Loading the dataset
tips = sns.load_dataset("tips")
tips.head()
Tips dataset head
We can see that sex, smoker, day and time are categorical data. And total_bill, tip, and size are numerical data.
We will retrieve some common information such as min, max, unique and count for given numerical data.
tips.describe()
Descriptive statistics of numerical data.
Now we’ll infer relationships between different variables using plots.
Univariate plots
These plots are based on a single variable and show the frequency of uniques values of a given variable.
Histogram
sns.distplot(tips['tip'], kde=False, bins=10);
Histogram
Larger the bins value more accurate the result.
Histogram for bins=30
We can see that the count of different tip value present in the dataset and infer that most of the tips are between 2 and 4.
Kerner Density Estimate (KDE)
sns.distplot(tips['tip'],hist=False, bins=10);
Kernel density estimate of tip
KDE is a way to estimate the probability density function of a continuous random variable. It is used when you need to know the distribution of the variable.
Bivariate Plots
This type of plots is used when you need to find a relation between two variables and to find how the value of one variable changes the value of another variable. Different types of plots are used based on the data type of the variable.
Statistical data types
Scatterplot
sns.relplot(x="total_bill", y="tip", data=tips);
Scatterplot
Default plot type of relplot is scatterplot. It shows the relationship between two variables. So, if you need to find the correlation between two variables scatterplot can be used.
In the given example we can see that if total_bill is between 10–20 than the tip will be mostly above 2.
We can add the third variable also in scatterplot using different colors or shape of dots.
sns.relplot(x="total_bill", y="tip", hue="smoker", data=tips);
scatterplot for 3 variables
Lineplot
This plot is similar to the scatterplot but instead of dots, it displays the line joining all the dots by arranging the variable value represented on the x-axis.
sns.relplot(x="total_bill", y="tip", kind="line", data=tips)
Lineplot
As we can see that distribution is too random of tips with respect to total_bills. We can infer that tip is not much dependent on the value of total_bill.
As line plot arranges the rows as per total_bill and then joins the points we can disable the sorting.
sns.relplot(x="total_bill", y="tip", sort=False, kind="line", data=tips)
lineplot sort false
The plot is too messy and we cannot infer much accurately in this graph.
This plot takes time for large dataset as sorting is required first.
Categorical data types
Scatterplot
sns.catplot(x="sex", y="tip", data=tips);
categorical scatterplot
We can see that most of the tips are concentrated between 2 and 4 irrespective of the gender .
Different types of scatterplots can be made using attribute kind in seaborn.
The third variable can be used using attribute hue in seaborn.
sns.catplot(x="day", y="total_bill", hue="sex", kind="swarm", data=tips);
scatterplot using hue and kind
The categories to be represented on the x-axis are sorted as per the pandas categories. If you want the order of your demand you can use order attribute in seaborn.
sns.catplot(x="smoker", y="tip", order=["No", "Yes"], data=tips);
scatterplot using order
Boxplot
A box plot (or box-and-whisker plot) shows the distribution of quantitative data in a way that facilitates comparisons between variables or across levels of a categorical variable. It can give all the stats provided in dataset .describe in a single plot. If the dataset is too large and the range of value is too big then it shows some values as outliers based on an inter-quartile function.
boxplot description
sns.catplot(x="day", y="total_bill", kind="box", data=tips);
boxplot
The shaded box represents the values between 25-quartile and 75-quartile. The horizontal line in the shaded box shows the median. Two horizontal lines at the bottom and at the top represent the minimum, and the maximum value respectively. The dots represent the outliers calculated based on the inter-quartile function. Using these plots we can compare values for different categories in a single graph. We can infer from the given graph that the amount of total_bill is higher on weekends than weekdays.
To use the third variable in box plots
sns.catplot(x="day", y="total_bill", hue="sex", kind="box", data=tips);
Boxplot using the third variable
We can get so much information from a single graph. In this graph, we can see that the average amount of total_bill for females is always less than the males. So, we can say that total_bill amount is dependent on sex .
Violin Plot
This plot is used to visualize the distribution of the data and its probability density. This chart is a combination of a Box Plot and a Density Plot. So if you need to find the frequency distribution along with box plot than us violin plot.
Violin plot description
sns.catplot(x="day", y="total_bill", hue="sex",
kind="violin", data=tips);
violin plot
On Friday we can see that female’s total_bill is much less than male’s total_bill.
Point plots
A point plot represents an estimate of central tendency for a numeric variable by the position of scatter plot points and provides some indication of the uncertainty around that estimate using error bars. Point plot shows only mean values and error rate surrounding those mean values. They are not very much informative but are easy to find the change in a variable based on different categories.
sns.catplot(x="day", y="total_bill", hue="sex", kind="point", data=tips);
Point plot
Using this plot it’s so simple to find changes in total_bill according to days. The total_bill is rising for male’s as the weekend arises while it decreases on Friday for females and jumps on Saturday and remains mostly constant on Sunday.
These plots can be used for various data analysis and we can infer information regarding relations between different variables and can help to extract more significant features from the dataset. | https://towardsdatascience.com/analyze-the-data-through-data-visualization-using-seaborn-255e1cd3948e | ['Sanket Doshi'] | 2019-02-09 12:48:17.060000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Matplotlib', 'Python', 'Seaborn'] |
Announcing the Be You & #LiveCivil College Tour, LiveCivil.com | Announcing the Be You & #LiveCivil College Tour, LiveCivil.com webiste revamp and new Civil-merchandise.
Read the third #LiveCivil newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/39Grf
Subscribe here: http://eepurl.com/L4YbX | https://medium.com/ijeoma/announcing-the-be-you-livecivil-college-tour-livecivil-com-f00862b1657c | [] | 2017-04-08 07:46:30.939000+00:00 | ['Live Civil', 'Press Release', 'Karen Civil', 'Newsletter'] |
My first Application in kivy | If you have started learning kivy and your all basic concepts related to kivy are cleared, then you will be excited to build your very first app and looking for a basic idea to build an app.
My suggestion to build a basic app like a calculator because it is easy to build a calculator for a person who’s new to the framework and as well as it will help you understand various new concepts related to the kivy framework.
And one of the main reasons i chose calculator is that when we fail to do our first task successfully we tend to drop learning the language. So my advice is to start with an easy task that can be completed and that will motivate you to learn this framework further, as small achievement gives you great motivation to strive for more
Build an attractive Interface
Before building your application interface, you must keep in mind that your application interface should look attractive and also be simple enough which can be operated by a non-technical user.
Start building
We all are very much familiar with a calculator and must know that a calculator interface consist of numbers of buttons like count(0–9), operators(+,_,*,/), etc.
Problem
Now, most of the newbies will start creating each button separately by writing each button object but this will increase the lines of code and will make your program complex.
How to solve this problem?
If you have experience of any programming language you must be aware of the loop concept and we are going to apply that concept here.
By using for loop we can create multiple buttons by writing a few lines of code and can set different parameters for each button separately.
let me show you how it will work:
from kivy.app import App
from kivy.uix.floatlayout import FloatLayout
from kivy.uix.textinput import TextInput
from kivy.uix.button import Button
from kivy.core.window import Window #window size
w,h=Window.size #class for first screen class Display(FloatLayout):
string=""
def __init__(self,*args):
super().__init__(*args)
self.text_field=TextInput(font_size=60,hint_text="Enter the values here",text="",size_hint=(0.8,0.05),pos_hint={'x':0.1,'y':0.85})
self.add_widget(self.text_field)
btn_list=['C','(',')','/','7','8','9','*','4','5','6','+','1','2','3','-','0','','.','=']
Y=0.5
X=0.025
n=1
for i in range(20):
if n==18:
pass
else:
self.btn=Button(text=btn_list[i],size_hint=(0.2,0.1),pos_hint={'x':X,'y':Y},)
self.add_widget(self.btn)
self.btn.background_color = (1, 1, 1, 1)
self.btn.color=(0,0,0,1)
self.btn.font_size=w*0.05
self.btn.bind(on_press=self.calculation)
if n%4==0:
Y-=0.125
X=0.025
self.btn.background_color=(1,0.49,0.31,1)
self.btn.color=(1,1,1,1)
else:
X+=0.25
if n==17:
self.btn.size_hint_x=0.45
if n==20:
self.btn.background_color=(0,1,0,1)
n+=1
def calculation(self,instance):
pass
#Main class
class calci(App):
def build(self):
return Display()
calci().run()
Output
Explanation
In the above code, we have created one text field where all the calculations part will be displayed.
And then we’ve created a list carrying the button name we want to add in the interface and then started a for loop in which button is being created one by one but we need to put text and position as variable because every button will have different text as well as different position. As you can see we are putting text from the above list that we have created and position is also varying from button to button. We have also given different colours. Like this different parameter is passed to different buttons.
Now, these all buttons should perform a function but if you have noticed that we have bound all the buttons with the same function. So how will the function differentiate which button is clicked by the user?
For that, you will have to understand the concept of instance.
What is an instance?
When we bind a button with a function then it will send all its information like its text, size, position, etc. on doing that binded action.
And all of the information will be store as an instance in that function, so you have to mention a parameter in that function as instance or by any other name.
Now, we will prepare that function so that our application will work according to the demand of the user.
def calculation(self,instance):
a=instance.text
if a=="=":
try:
self.string=self.text_field.text
self.text_field.text=str(eval(self.string))
self.string=self.text_field.text
except SyntaxError:
self.text_field.text="syntax error!"
self.string=""
except TypeError:
self.text_field.text="pass wrong input!"
self.string=""
except NameError:
self.text_field.text="syntax error!"
self.string=""
except:
self.text_field.text="syntax error!"
self.string=""
elif a=="C":
self.string=self.string[0:-1]
self.text_field.text=self.string
else:
self.string+=a
self.text_field.text=self.string
Replace this function with the function of the above code and your application will start working.
Output
Explanation
So what’s going on in this function is, initially, the function is identifying which button is clicked by the user by checking it’s text which is present in instance parameter.
And then if the equal button is clicked, the function is picking the text field input and solving it using an inbuilt function in python which is eval().
eval() function is used to solve the mathematical expression by BODMAS rule.
If it will face any kind of exception then it will be handled by exception handling and will show output according to the type of error.
If the Clear button is clicked, it will decrease the text field value by one letter.
Else every button will do the same thing that adds their value in the text field. Similarly like this you can allot functioning to every button.
That’s how this function works and calculates the values. In this way you can build your own calculator and add more functions to it like trigonometry, power, root etc and also you can make it more attractive. | https://medium.com/tek-society/my-first-application-in-kivy-bdf2a560287f | ['Yugam Sachdeva'] | 2020-10-15 12:18:34.651000+00:00 | ['Crossplatform Mobile App', 'Android App Development', 'Python', 'Application Development', 'Kivy'] |
Real-Life Meet-Cutes | Romance is a strange thing. You can see it everywhere you look: couples on the train holding hands, sneaking kisses…nervous teenagers clasping their sweaty palms together…two strangers meeting eyes and just knowing it’s the beginning of something magical. The idea of meet-cutes are especially enchanting. Though they are most commonly associated with saccharine rom-coms in which two impossibly attractive young people bump into each other in an elevator, make no mistake: They happen in real life, too. I know, because it happened to me. This is my story.
It started, as meet-cutes often seem to, with a ride on public transport. I was coming home from a restaurant shift, exhausted and very much in my own world. Until, that is, the bus driver was forced to slam on the brakes, revealing that the wheelchair seating the man next to me had not been properly hooked into its holder. His chair careened over, but thankfully I was able to grab it before the man fell. We did not fall in love. Instead, I said “Oh my god! Are you alright?” The man gruffly replied that he was. The bus driver apologized profusely and hooked his chair in properly, but the poor guy spent the rest of the ride with an iron grip on the side rail. I would have done the same. Endanger my life once, shame on you. Endanger it twice, well…
If you haven’t spent a lot of time on city buses, it might surprise you to know that this was not, in fact, the worst part of my 30 minute rid home. No, no. The worst part came after the wheelchair incident, after I had resolved to keep my eyes downturned for the rest of the ride. After a few minutes I began to notice a wetness pooling on the floor of the bus, trickling ever closer to my shoes. I didn’t want to look up, but of course I did. There was an older woman on the bus hooked up to a catheter. And, seemingly unbeknownst to her (but definitely knownst to the rest of us) it was leaking. Of course no one said a word. We all just sat in polite, quiet horror. I pulled the rope and got off two stops early. Another guy got off at the same stop. As we were leaving I met his eyes and widened mine, as if to say, I don’t know you, but we just experienced something together. We are forever changed by what we’ve just been through. He smiled blankly at me and said “You live around here?” I kicked myself internally, because what was going to happen now was my fault. I had initiated the eye contact in hopes of a brief moment of connection with a stranger over a shared, fresh trauma. Instead, I told him yes, I did live around here, and was just taking the bus home from work. “Oh my god, really?” He said. I blinked, wondering what part of my answer was so interesting. I didn’t have to wait long to find out. “I work too! That’s crazy!” I studied his face for any hint of irony, but all I saw was a confusing level of sincere excitement. I began to wonder if he had even noticed the piss on the floor.
“Well,” I said. “This is my street.” He waved and said “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime?” I forced a smile. “Yeah, sure.”
Reader, I married him. | https://medium.com/@vblackwood/real-life-meet-cutes-741c97067775 | ['Veronica Blackwood'] | 2020-12-13 21:01:33.788000+00:00 | ['Public Transportation', 'Personal Essay', 'Modern Romance', 'Short Essay', 'Humor'] |
🚀 Becoming a space explorer: digging into problems and opportunities as a new founder | 1. 🙋♀️ empowering women
Women continue to earn less and are underrepresented in the C-Suite, particularly in male-dominated fields.¹ The women who successfully enter fields such as math, science, and technology are more likely to lack confidence in their competence and ability. Even when they are recognized as high-achievers, women in these fields are more likely than male peers to shrug off praise or lowball their own abilities.² Beyond this confidence gap, there’s also a promotion gap. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 85 women were promoted. The gap is worse for Black women and Latinas: only 58 Black women and 71 Latina women were promoted per 100 men.³
A frequently offered “solution” is for professional women to champion other women. One study found that women at Harvard Business School in the top quartile of centrality (central and connected to people with many contacts in the MBA student network) and with an inner circle of 1–3 other women landed leadership positions that were 2.5 times higher in authority and pay than their female peers without this combination. Meanwhile, women in their class whose networks most closely resembled those of their successful male peers (with centrality but no female inner circle) took jobs with some of the lowest authority and compensation.⁴
In the workplace, however, senior-level women who champion younger women are more likely to receive negative performance reviews.⁵ Since there are fewer women promoted to senior-level roles at every level, there are fewer potential senior-level women to champion and uplift other women. This creates overhead for existing senior-level women, who already face additional pressure and stress as compared to their male peers.
Senior-level women in the workplace are significantly more likely than men at the same level to feel burned out, under pressure to work more, and that they have to be “always on”. They’re at higher risk for attrition and are about 1.5 times more likely than male peers to think about downshifting their role or leaving the workforce because of COVID-19, often citing burn out.⁶
Taking an “off-ramp” or career break is a privilege. Off-ramping is increasingly unaffordable, particularly for women with dependents. In January 2019, 15% of women in the workforce said they would like to off-ramp but can’t afford to do so. Moreover, while 89% of off-ramped women want to resume their careers, only 40% successfully return to full-time employment.⁷ Off-ramping often comes with significant opportunity cost: rejoining the workforce is hard and, if women do, they generally earn less and have less job security.⁸
Why should we try to address these problems now? There is some early signal that we may be nearing a tipping point at which meaningful change could be accomplished. At the beginning of 2020, the representation of women in corporate America was trending up and in the right direction. This progress was most pronounced for senior management roles: from January 2015 to January 2020, women in senior-vice-president roles grew from 23 to 28%, while representation in the C-suite grew from 17 to 21%.⁹
So, what opportunities are there to empower women? Some that jump to mind are: | https://medium.com/@nseldeib/becoming-a-space-explorer-digging-into-problems-and-opportunities-as-a-new-founder-86f96d885dfd | ['Nadia Eldeib'] | 2021-03-19 22:57:53.406000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Women', 'Startup', 'Founders', 'Product'] |
Streaming CSV file to Kafka — The easy way | For loading CSV files into Kafka, myriads of different options exist. Most are very technical or make assumptions about the file. Here I would like to show another option which provides a graphical user interface and is built by a long time data integration expert.
File configuration, first tab
When loading CSV files into Kafka, a couple of decisions have to be made:
Who creates the Avro schema? Does it exist already or should the schema match the CSV file definition?
Loading a file once or loading files the instant they appear? How to mark that a file has been loaded already and should not be loaded again?
Files have settings on global level like which character set encoding is used? ASCII, UTF-8, UTF-16, a 8bit codepage of country xyz?
What formatting is used like column separator, escape characters, is text quoted,…?
And of course the per-column settings with column names, data types, conversion from a string into a timestamp-millis Logical Avro type and the such.
The assumption of this method is that files of the same format follow a file name pattern, e.g. load all plan_*.txt files and the instant a new file appears, it is loaded and then renamed by appending the name with “.processed”. If tomorrow the new “plan2020.txt” is uploaded, it will end up in Kafka seconds later. To be more precise, each schema supports a filename regexp pattern. In above example the pattern is “address.*” hence this schema parses all files with address data in it.
Another set of files with the actual data, using the “actual_.*\.txt” has a different structure and hence another schema definition.
Due to the number of settings for CSV files and their dependencies, coming up with the correct flags can be cumbersome. For simple demo cases, no problem. But specifying a column separator as “,” and then some data is wrong because the NAME field can have a comma as well as part of the payload, requires more feedback. Therefore the UI exists and provides immediate visual information about the parsing process. If the file was written on an old system with an uncommon codepage, the user can see the result right away. Either the text makes sense or it does not.
As said, for modern systems no problem, they all use UTF-8 or encode the Unicode encoding version into the first few bytes of the file. Modern systems rarely resort to CSV file though, it is the legacy systems which do!
Similar UI feedback for all other config steps.
Note: At the end, all UI decisions end up in json config files and Avro avsc schema files. This simplifies handling for the IT department.
Once the file schema is defined, either the schema is created in the Kafka Schema Registry 1:1 or a mapping from the file schema into the target schema is defined in addition.
Installation
As Kafka Connect has multiple intrinsic limitations, one of which being the lack of connector specific UIs, this solution is provided as docker image.
For a first quick demo the commands
docker pull rtdi/fileconnector docker run -d -p 80:8080 — rm — name fileconnector \\
rtdi/fileconnector
are sufficient. With the docker pull it is made sure the latest version is used and the docker run line starts the container and removes all after a docker stop command.
As the docker run line routes the application to the port 80, opening this page via the browser connects to the UI:
http://hostname:80/
The next step is to login (default: rtdi / rtdi!io), configure the connectivity to Kafka and schema registry, configure the connectivity to the file system and then define the schemas and producer instances.
The details of these steps can be found in the github repository: https://github.com/rtdi/FileConnector
As with any Open Source project, add Issues, suggestions, code changes in the github repo. | https://medium.com/@werner-daehn/streaming-csv-file-to-kafka-the-easy-way-2284a7f60ec3 | ['Werner Daehn'] | 2020-11-18 07:05:44.989000+00:00 | ['Realtime Data Integration', 'Rtdiio', 'Kafka', 'Csv File', 'Flat Files'] |
Trust-based marketing online. The new reality of B2B marketing | B2B marketing is trust-based marketing. It has been formed offline for a long time (personal meetings, industry exhibitions, conferences, negotiations, etc). But so-called “new reality”, when Covid-19 accelerated the approach of futuristic predictions about total digitalization, all “real” forms of communication we are used to have moved online.
Now you will no longer touch the product at the exhibition and make personal acquaintances at networking sessions. We can deny this, but the business partner asks to call back because he(she) got sick. And we are forced to refuse to participate in industry events because they left the online space with inadequate 3D and VR / AR simulation of real things.
What does B2B marketing look like now? How to build trust online?
For global brands that have been building their reputation for decades, going online is not so painful. Before the lockdown, they managed to accumulate huge social capital, which in the “new reality” reduces transaction costs. However, it can easily go low or negative, because of, for example, an imprudent statement about a topic that is important for society.
But what to do when you are just about to enter a new market looking for those partners who have never seen you in their life? In B2C, e-commerce is already developed, where trust is no longer in the first place. For B2B, where large amounts and large batches are involved, B2C marketing tools are not effective enough.
As we have already said, the basis of B2B marketing is trust, and well-built communications play a key role in its formation. We are talking not only about business communications but also interpersonal and intercultural ones. You need to take into account the business culture of the country or region, understand the cultural code of your interlocutor, and follow digital etiquette.
Almost the entire team is involved in the online communication process. Each employee, in accordance with his job duties and competencies, can solve specific tasks to establish contact, retain attention, identify needs, and develop proposals for their maximum satisfaction. It is very important for the client to prove that the company offering the service or product is able to completely suit the client’s needs with the declared quality.
Your site can be attractive and informative, but incorrect work, for example, feedback forms, poorly established lead generation processes, and even the missing deadline of sending information after the first online meeting, all this can reduce trust points.
Trust-building tools can be a reference list, customer reviews, a list of partners, and in general anything that can increase the weight of your background in front of a new interlocutor. Note that it is not only the logo of the world-famous corporation in the “Our Clients” section of the presentation that makes an impression. Also, the relevant industry experience will give confidence to the person on the other side of the monitor that his problem will be solved.
P.S.: Formation of the evidence base should not turn into “fake it till you make it”. Online, this may work for a sale, but it will not help to do a successful project.
What problems or challenges have you faced in promoting your business? | https://medium.com/@verdestadesign/trust-based-marketing-online-the-new-reality-of-b2b-marketing-48c46bef5404 | [] | 2020-12-16 10:40:39.756000+00:00 | ['B2b Marketing', 'Product Development', 'Covid 19 Crisis', 'Design', 'Marketing'] |
Customer Support — Dutch. ListMinut is a web start-up founded in… | ListMinut is a web start-up founded in 2013 by 3 young entrepreneurs, which raised more than 1M euros. Today, the team is composed of 20+ young motivated people based in Brussels.
ListMinut has launched a new way to provide services and make daily tasks carried out in an easy, fast and interactive manner through a web/mobile application with more than 300.000 users. ListMinut is a two-sided marketplace where we allow our users to find reliable help for everyday tasks in their neighborhood (gardening, assembling IKEA furniture, babysitting,…)
We are currently looking for an outstanding Customer Support who will be in charge of our beloved users (both clients and service providers). He or she will be in charge to build strong relationships with them. Its mission will be to guarantee a super positive experience to all of them. 💪
Our users are the life-blood of ListMinut. Our goal is to have the most satisfied users everywhere in Belgium (and on an international level soon or later). 🚀
Last, but certainly not least, if you’re ready to work in a fast-growing start-up and to work side by side with a passionate team, we can’t wait to meet you! 💎
Mission
Manage by e-mail and phone the questions/issues that our users are facing.
and the questions/issues that our users are facing. Follow on a daily basis the entire customers processes (cancellations, profile validation, moderation, …).
(cancellations, profile validation, moderation, …). Onboard and follow our users for their first steps on the platform.
and follow our users for their first steps on the platform. Give all our users the best experience and solution.
and solution. Support the technical team through user feedback.
In short, becoming THE new pillar of our thousands users !
Required skills
You speak and write fluently Dutch.
You’re a human person.
person. You’re an outgoing and curious person who love contact with people.
and person who love contact with people. You’ve a passion for internet and collaborative economy is a plus.
and is a plus. You are comfortable on the phone .
. Your spelling in Dutch is perfect.
Desired skills | https://medium.com/@listminut/customer-support-dutch-6e602153b50f | [] | 2021-03-19 10:30:09.144000+00:00 | ['Support', 'Dutch', 'Startup', 'Customer Support', 'Jobs'] |
What is really going on in Brazil. | The international community is becoming aware of a deep crisis developing in Brazil: a political, social and economical crisis.
In the last few days, the president of Brazil, who is currently facing an impeachment process, turned to international media to give “her side of the story,” but she is deliberately lying. She and her party are in fact, the ones responsible for the crisis.
That’s why I decided to write this article. People everywhere must know what is really going on in Brazil right now. Brazil is a very complex country and is difficult for most people of other cultures to understand us, especially if you come from an Anglo-Saxon background.
First, a little introduction.
My cockpit at the office in Miami.
I’ve been living in the US for two years now. I’m a Brazilian entrepreneur who came to the US looking for business opportunities and safety. The crime rate in Brazil grew exponentially in the last two decades. Just to give an example: myself, my family, my friends and coworkers all suffered at least one episode of violence in the last years. The most common one is to be robbed at gunpoint while walking in the streets, driving to work or back home, having dinner in a restaurant, and even when you’re at places considered safe, like hospitals.
Violence in Brazil is routine. Last year, we had more than 60 thousand homicides. The United States, with its 50% larger population, had 13 thousand homicides.
Number of homicides in Brazil.
The rise in almost every type of crime in the last 20 years is evidence that the major factor for violence is not poverty, because Brazil had an increase in per capita GDP. The problem is the absence of the Rule of Law.
Brazil has a very expensive and inefficient Justice System. Different from Anglo-Saxon culture, our Latin roots and socialist culture take the responsibilities from the individual and put them in the “society.” So, if someone gets caught committing a crime, it’s not really their fault, it’s society who “failed” them. A criminal have unlimited chances to appeal, making it really difficult to put someone in jail. And even when someone is convicted, the penalties are soft.
If you have a clean record and commit homicide, you can stay out of prison until the end of your trial. The justice is really slow and if you have money to afford good attorneys to use all your appeal rights, a conviction could still take more than 10 years. A lot of trials get dismissed because the statute of limitation on the crime expires during this long process.
It’s important to make this introduction so you can understand better what is going on in Brazil right now.
It’s clear that laws are made to protect the elite, specially politicians, judges and other public servants. They have what is called “privileged forum”: they can be indicted only by the Brazilian Attorney General and judged only by the Supreme Court.
In Brazil, we have an expression to describe our political system: “patrimonialism.” It was introduced by Raimundo Faoro in his most famous work “The Owners of Power” written in 1958. In this book, he explains how the political elite uses the government structure for personal gain. Politicians may not be saints anywhere in the world, but the political class in Brazil is especially dirty. The country has a very high tax burden of 36% of the GDP, but the Estate can’t offer much to society due to widespread corruption. The universal health system is in collapse, the infrastructure of the country is a joke, Brazilian students have the worst grades in international tests and the judiciary system is slow and inefficient. It is almost impossible to run a business with a new tax rule created every 3 seconds!
For politicians and high ranking public servants, it’s a different story. They have very high wages and benefits. This creates the rightful feeling among members of society, especially taxpayers, that they are being exploited by the political elite.
It’s important to present this background as an explanation for the rise of PT (Workers Party) and its leader, Lula, who became president in 2003.
Lula organizing strikes in the 70s.
Lula was a charismatic and popular union leader back in the 70s and 80s. He was one of the leaders of the movement against the military government that ruled Brazil since 64. When the transition to democracy started in 88, he was a presidential candidate, but lost by a small margin to Fernando Collor, an adventurous politician who was elected promising to fight corruption, open the economy and end hyperinflation, a major problem fueled by fiscal populism since the 80s.
Lula arrested in 1980. Romeu Tuma Junior, the son of the Officer who arrested Lula revealed in a recent book that he was actually an confidential informant.
Collor used a kamikaze strategy to tackle inflation, freezing everybody’s assets overnight. In the end, his plan didn’t work and he was himself impeached for corruption. PT was the main political force against Collor and organized dozens of protests that led to the end of Collor’s government. At that point, Collor became the embodiment of the patrimonialist system. His family had been for a long time in power in a very poor state in northeast Brazil, where there’s an even worst form of patrimonialism: your vote for a basket of food.
During the campaign against Collor, PT launched a movement called “Ethics in politics”, showing themselves as pure and honest politicians in contrast to the other corrupt parties.
Lula with protesters in 1992. Your can read “Collor Out” in the black T-shirt.
It looked as if Lula and PT would win the next election, but vice-president Itamar Franco, who succeeded Collor after his impeachment, made a very successful transition. He launched an economic plan led by Finance Minister Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC), who became an astonishing success, killing hyperinflation, modernizing the financial system, and creating a prosperous wave. PT was the main opposition force against the plan and Lula lost the race against FHC for a large margin.
During that time, Brazil had a one-term-only presidency law, and FHC used his popularity to approve a change in the Constitution to allow two terms, producing the wrath of PT and other opponents. FHC’s second term, however, was marked by the effects of the international financial crisis. Just after his reelection, FHC devalued the Brazilian currency (Real) and imposed unpopular measures. The economy went bad and the government lost much of its popular approval. FHC’s second term was marked by a harsh opposition from PT, who asked for his impeachment several times without success.
Annual inflation in Brazil
In 2002, Lula and PT were in a good position to get to power. The economy was in bad shape, and Lula left behind his Marxist approach, showing himself as a moderate, more mature leader, not a union leader anymore. His campaign launched the “Peace and Love” version of Lula: a well-groomed and well-dressed man promising to be a social democrat.
“Peace and Love” Lula, 2002 campaign banner. The headline is “I want a decent Brazil”.
He won the race by a large margin and was saluted as the first president from the working class. A poor and honest guy who would take care of the suffering simple people of Brazil.
It’s a really nice story, but unfortunately it was a big lie.
Lula was never a hard working guy. He was a really clever, but uneducated guy who liked to give speeches and to be treated as a privileged leader.
Since the beginning of his career, he’s been involved in corruption scandals inside the union and the party. Every party member that ever stood up against him was expelled and the stories were muffled. The party needed to maintain the sanctity of Lula’s image.
PT is a very complex party, with a lot of different lines of thought, but the main philosopher studied and followed by party leaders is Antonio Gramsci, an old communist who defends that the class struggle is a cultural one. He defends a long term strategy to occupy all spaces, inside and outside the government, to reach a communist regime at a very slow pace.
In other words, PT is and always has been a revolutionary party who despises democracy and the rule of the law. They believe in democracy only as a way to get to power. They believe that the ends justify the means. And the end is a totalitarian socialist government.
“Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. … In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.” Antonio Gramsci
Most of the people and even the media are not aware of that. A great part of the media played the game of protecting Lula and PT from bad news, hiding a lot of scandals from the eyes of society.
After this needed explanation, let’s go back to the beginning of Lula’s presidency.
He maintained his word and didn’t change the economic policy of his predecessor, FHC. He was lucky enough to be in power during the most powerful boom in commodities market in history, which had great impact in Brazil. The increase in revenues helped him do what is known as fiscal populism, increasing all social benefits created by FHC and, and at the same time, using the Brazilian development bank (BNDES) to give abundant and cheap credit to big companies.
Everybody was happy. Lula was a miracle man! The poor and rich were in peace, enjoying the roaring 2000s.
Brazil GDP Per Capita.
But the major problems weren’t being addressed. Public spending was increasing much faster than revenues, political corruption was reaching new heights, education and health systems remained in very bad shape.
But who cares? Poor people were happy with a new house and new car subsidized directly or indirectly by the government, and big construction firms and auto makers had billionare credits to expand!
In 2005, the party almost went under due to a major corruption scandal that broke out. It was called “Mensalão”, or “big allowance”. The government was buying votes in Congress to pass its projects, paying monthly bribes to congressmen. It was really ugly. The core of PT was prosecuted and convicted. A lot of people in Brazil asked to impeach Lula, who again was spared. He insisted he didn’t know anything about the scheme. Nobody believed him for a second, but the good economic situation helped disperse the willing to impeach him.
Politicians and other people convicted in the “Mensalão” scandal, including Workers Party high ranking members.
This episode marked the end of the belief that PT was an honest party. Actually, a lot of people started to perceive PT as even more corrupt than other parties. Or at least, more hypocrite.
After surviving the “Mesalão” scandal, Lula and PT were ready to put in motion the gramscian strategy of hegemony: occupying and controlling all spaces, inside and outside the government.
Inside the government they occupied the majority of the most important executive positions. The same thing happened in the judiciary: today 8 out of 11 justices were appointed by the party. Ideology was more important than professional skill in almost every case.
Outside the government they increased the federal budget for unions and other social movements, such as MST (landless workers’ movement), who was supposed to fight for land to poor farmers, but became a paramilitary arm of the Workers Party (PT). Transferring federal money to unions started in 2008 after a new law approved in the Lula administration, and has surpassed US$ 1 billion dollars since then.
The budget for federal government advertisement (actual propaganda) rose from R$ 1 billion per year in 2002 to more than R$ 3 billion nowadays. This money is used to pay a network of pro-government blogs and to tame the big media, who became less and less critical of the government over time.
After the 2005 scandal, everything was really going fine to Lula until 2008, when a major financial crisis hit the markets.
The very favorable conditions that helped Lula create a “happiness for all” environment suddenly ended. The response of his government was to inject money in the system with more credit on the one hand and to cut taxes for big companies on the other.
The result was a great GDP increase in 2010, 7.6% at the cost of fiscal discipline. These were the seeds of the major crisis that Brazil is facing right now.
With this large economic stimulus, Lula was able to maintain his popular approval rates and to elect his candidate to succeed him in the presidency. He handpicked Dilma Rousseff, a technocrat and former communist guerrilla fighter from the 60s. Rousseff wasn’t a very popular candidate in the beginning, but as a journalist said at the time, “with Lula’s success, he could turn a light pole into president.” Lula started using this expression as a joke. Dilma was his light pole, he used to say, just as Fernando Haddad, who became the mayor of São Paulo, the biggest and most important Brazilian city.
Dilma Rousseff, before becoming Lula’s “light pole” and after.
Dilma came into power in 2011 in the midst of the global recovery from the financial crisis of 2008. China, the main buyer of Brazilian goods was inflating again the commodities market, which helped Brazil’s economy. But the good times were about to be over. Dilma didn’t have the same surplus to buy universal acceptance, and on top of that, she was a very bad administrator. She wanted to implement a central planning government, making big changes in regulations in the energy sector and interfering with monetary policy, easing it artificially.
With the fiscal situation worsening, she started using “creative accounting techniques,” as one of her ministers put. In 2013, warning signs started to appear, with a lot of protesters taking to Brazilian streets. People were complaining about a wide range of problems, from public fares to corruption. Now it’s clear that people were reacting to the end of the good times. Like Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
In 2014, the “other people’s money” ended, but Dilma and PT had an election to face. And for a gramscian party to let others get to power is not an option.
The “creative accounting” of the public accounts became even more creative, to say the least. She simply froze the price of public companies’ goods and services, like gas and electricity, deepening their deficit. Her popularity started to tank.
PT turned to a very good political marketer, who is now in jail, and invested huge sums of money in the reelection campaign. Dilma lied about almost everything, and used the fact that a lot of people came out of poverty in the last decade as one of their accomplishments. They falsely accused the opposition candidate, saying he would cut social programs. It was a really harsh, negative campaign that she won by a small margin: 51,64% against 48,36% for Aécio Neves, her opponent.
The election polarized the country, the wealthier southern states gave a large margin to Aécio and the poorest states of the north gave their votes to Dilma.
Blue states = Aécio Neves, Red states= Dilma Roussef.
A lot of honest and serious people suspect that the elections were rigged. Brazil have an all electronic vote system, controlled by a Venezuelan company called Smartmatic, involved in other frauds around the world. It was impossible to prove that the election was rigged, and even the auditors came to the conclusion that the system itself is impossible to audit! As a result, Brazilian Congress changed the law about electoral electronic systems, making it mandatory that a paper copy of each vote be printed for auditing purposes. Even so, critics say the system is still flawed.
In the middle of the campaign in 2014, another political scandal broke out involving Brazilian’s biggest company, the state-controlled oil producer Petrobras. A Petrobras executive was arrested by a police operation called “Lava-jato”, which means “Car-wash”. The taskforce received that name because a car wash store was being used as front to launder money from bribes.
This part deserves further explanation: Petrobras was a big showcase for the Lula administration and Dilma herself was the chairwoman of the company at that time. In 2007, the company found huge reserves of oil in deep-sea layers camps, and Lula announced it as a new era for the country. The extraction regulations changed and the government increased its power over the company and the entire oil sector.
The company made a huge offer of stocks in 2010 and borrowed billions of dollars to develop the newly discovered reserves.
The “Car-wash” investigation, led by Judge Sergio Moro and his team of prosecutors and investigators, discovered that most of the money Petrobras had raised was diverted in a wide range of frauds. The most common one was cost-inflated projects paid to big contractors. Part of the money returned to corrupt politicians, most of them linked directed to the Worker’s Party (PT) and other parties that form the Congress base of the Rousseff administration.
We are talking about US$ 20 billion stolen in the Petrobras scandal alone. The investigators now know that the same scheme happened in others public controlled companies, like Eletrobras. And in other instances, like BNDES and public pension funds.
Part of the money was used in Ms. Rousseff’s campaign, and diverted for personal gains. Lula himself is among the suspects of several crimes related to this huge scandal. Justice presented hard evidence that he gained apartments and other real estate, more than R$ 50 million in alleged “speech fees” paid by the construction companies involved in the Petrobras scandal.
More than 100 people were arrested in the operation, and more than 20 confessed to the crimes on plea bargains. Judge Moro was able to recover more than R$ 2.9 billion from offshore accounts.
Judge Sergio Moro
The problem is that the main revelations from this operation came after the election of Ms. Rousseff. In addition, Dilma was forced to make a lot of cuts in the social programs and to let the currency devalue, creating a two digit inflation in 2015. In other words, everything she promised not to do in campaign.
The TCU, Brazilian’s Federal Court of Accounts, just ruled that she committed fraud in the 2014 fiscal year, and that the “creative accounting” methods were actually against the law. This was the basis of the impeachment trial started last week against her by Congress.
This chart shows the brazilian government borrowing money from public banks to increase social benefits in pre-electorate and electoral year. Brazilian law forbids this practice.
But if you think that’s the full extent of the chaos in Brazil right now, you are mistaken.
In the middle of this crisis, other crimes committed by personnel linked to the president or by the president herself were discovered.
The leader of the government in the Senate, Delcidio Amaral, was arrested last December trying to free a Petrobras executive who was under arrest and negotiating a bargain plea. He was recorded by the son of the executive, saying that Ms. Rousseff had the Justices of Supreme Court in her pocket, and she could use her influence to free his father, who later would fly to Spain, receiving an allowance for the rest of his life.
Delcidio Amaral, Senator, Majority Leader in Senate with Dilma.
After that, the Senator himself negotiated a plea bargain stating that Rousseff knew all about the scheme in Petrobras and she participated in the appointment of a Judge to a higher court, with the mission to free the president of the larger construction firm in Brazil, Marcelo Odebrecht. This judge and Ms. Rousseff deny it all, but in court, the judge really tried to free Mr. Odebrecht. Senator Delcidio also testified that Lula participated in the plan.
“Lula ran the scheme. Dilma knew about everything.” Delcidio do Amaral, Senator and former PT member, in his bargain plea.
And it gets even worst…
As Lula was accused of several crimes by judge Moro, he was subpoenaed to testify and his situation became untenable. He was one step away from being arrested when president Rousseff appointed him as Minister. In Brazil, Ministers and other government officials can be prosecuted only by the Supreme Court.
Lula’s countryside property, Renovated by Odebrecht, one of the construction companies involved in the Petrobras scandal.
Protests erupted all over the country, but Ms. Rousseff continued to deny any wrongdoing with this appointment. On that same day, Judge Moro released a wiretapping with conversations between Lula and other PT members, including Rousseff, proving that the plan was to make Lula a Minister to shield him from justice, giving him executive immunity. The recordings also included some really ugly conversations showing he was using his allies in all places to obstruct justice. The conversations used very offensive and vulgar language that shocked Brazilians.
A Justice from the Supreme Court signed a provisory decision impeding Lula of taking office. The case will be judge by Supreme Court in the next days.
In face of the accusations, Dilma should resign, but she did the exact opposite. She is denying any wrongdoing and is accusing the opposition and judge Moro of trying a coup d’etat. She’s lost public support and can only count on her own party members and the so called “social movements,” the ones that received millions in the last years in benefits. Polls show that 93% of the public disapproves of her administration and 70% supports her impeachment.
03/13/2016 — The biggest protest in Brazilian history. Protesters demanded the Impeachment of the president.
What made the problem even worse is that a lot of politicians from other parties are involved in the scandal, including the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate.
The impeachment must be voted in the House in the next three weeks and go to the Senate after that. People are worried that the Supreme Court, with 8 Justices appointed by Lula and Dilma will obstruct the process, or that PT will be able to buy enough support in Congress to stay in power.
It’s important that the international community knows exactly what is going on in Brazil, because again Ms. Rousseff is trying to create a fantasy of a coup d’etat to gain support, and using any means to stay in Office.
Brazil needs the support of other countries to proceed with a necessary “spring-cleaning”, and judge Moro is the leader that we need to preserve.
Ms. Rousseff’s impeachment is a necessary step of this process.
Update: on 04/17 brazilian Lower House passed the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff with the vote o 367 representatives, more than the 2/3 needed. Now the process go to the Senate, where it needs the approval of 1/2 of senators to be opened, what’s is almost certain by now. With this vote, Dilma will step down for no more than 180 days until her judgment take place with a final vote from senate that needs 2/3 of senators to be approved. During this period, Temer, the vice-president will take over. Dilma keep saying that the process represents a coup, despite the overwhelming proofs of wrongdoing.
PS: Revised and edited by my kind friend Lucila Lessard. Thank you very much Lucila. | https://medium.com/@leandroruschel/what-is-really-going-on-in-brazil-659ff3e2ca68 | ['Leandro Ruschel'] | 2016-04-22 14:09:21.446000+00:00 | ['Dilma Rousseff', 'Crisis', 'Brazil'] |
What Do Billionaires Do With All That Money? | What Do Billionaires Do With All That Money?
They have so much
Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash
Finances are extremely inequitable
There are so many people suffering financially now with the coronavirus pandemic continuing for almost a year. Millions of people have applied for unemployment benefits. People have lost their paychecks since they were forced out of their jobs. Although most professional and college educated people are probably not hurting that much since they are able to work from home and continue to receive their salaries or they have substantial savings, there are many who are having severe financial problems.
The government assistance has helped millions of people. A second stimulus should be coming which will offer more help to many people.
A report on the news recently talked about all the new unemployment claims for which people have filed. They said that people should be looking for jobs. There are supposedly LOTS of jobs available, especially for the lower paying jobs for which the unemployed may qualify. Many jobs which do not require a college education and many which do are available even during the pandemic. There are “Now Hiring” signs in the windows of most stores and many other business establishments.
People may not be looking for work. Some restaurant owners had said after they were closed for a while and then reopened that they could not get their workers to come back to work. They were earning as much or more by not working and getting benefits from the government.
Even as these people are suffering with many unable to pay for their housing and food, there are many multi-millionaires and a substantial number of billionaires in the United States. It is surprising that the super wealthy control so much of the world’s riches.
Many billionaires and many multi-millionaires do give away a lot of money and share their wealth with the less fortunate. Some of these super wealthy people seem to enjoy hoarding huge amounts of money.
Many wealthy people, however, do share and help others. Kudos to those who do help others with their foundations and donations to help serve the needy. | https://medium.com/illumination/what-do-billionaires-do-with-all-that-money-e3c30350afd0 | ['Floyd Mori'] | 2020-12-26 21:21:35.141000+00:00 | ['Wealth', 'Coronavirus', 'Money', 'Rich', 'Helping Others'] |
Save Time and Money by Measuring Employee Productivity | Photo by Clayton Cardinalli on Unsplash
Are your employees as efficient as they could be? This is a question that’s constantly on your mind as an employer, project manager, or business owner. Your employees’ productivity is the major factor that impacts the success and profit of a business. Employee speed and quality of work determine how your company will manage year after year. They are the running parts of your business machine.
A company cannot grow if its employees are not at their most productive. If employees who are fully capable of completing their duties promptly are not doing so due to external factors, you could be in trouble. In fact, you could lose up to $7 trillion, according to studies. Your team must understand that every task is urgent in one way or another. This doesn’t mean they must rush every job, or commit endless hours beyond the regular workday. Rather, what you need is for them to work at their best level of efficiency.
So what hampers your team from working at its most productive?
Problems With Productivity
Remote Workers
In remote work settings, the pressure of a superior is less apparent. The threat of reprimands from a manager or owner dissipates, leaving remote workers more comfortable taking their time on projects. Without their superiors around to watch whether they are fully committed to their work, employees may allow themselves to relax, slow their pace, and provide lower-quality material.
However, remote workers may be working at their hardest and trying to be as efficient as possible. It could be household distractions, like children or pets, that consume some of their time. These responsibilities could take a decent amount of time out of their workday, decreasing their productivity levels, despite their intentions to be efficient.
Office Workers
A major influence that impacts employee productivity in the office is people. Offices are a classic social setting where co-workers can bond, discuss work, and share stories of their personal lives. It can be easy to get caught in a conversation that causes a longer lunch break. Or, perhaps a simple coffee break ends up taking an extra 30 minutes because of an extended chat.
Movement around an office can also be a small factor that adds up to a lot of time lost. Consider the time involved if a worker must take the elevator down 20 floors, cross the large hallway, and line up behind numerous others for that sandwich and cup of tea. Furthermore, in shared office buildings especially, the occasional fire drill or fundraiser may impact a worker’s productivity for the day. These events cause a halt that impairs their chances for an efficient day of work.
How Can You Track It?
Whether lack of productivity is intentional or not, it’s a problem. As a business owner, you need to consider what is blocking your employees from working, and decide whether it is detrimental to your success. To do this, you can use one of the following methods to track and measure your team’s efficiency. With this information, you can take the necessary actions to maintain the conditions if you are happy with the data; or improve them if you think they could be better.
1. Consider the Productivity Formula
This equation is a technical approach to productivity measurement. It divides the quantity of the employees’ work (for example, the number of sales or number of reports completed) over a specific period of time. The number left indicates the level of productivity. Considering the factors that determine output or input, you can choose the proper ratio for efficiency. With that number as your indicator, you can investigate who meets or exceeds it or who is falling short.
2. Set Goals/ Deadlines
Setting goals per day, week, month and/or year will help you indicate to your employees how productive they are supposed to be. These goals could be a certain number of sales per month or customer engagement statistics, or the total profits gained annually. Whatever mark of productivity you set, it will determine if your team is meeting the standard where you want them to be. If they are not reaching the required monthly sales, you can take the opportunity to consider whether the employee is delaying your progress as a business, or evaluate what is causing them to fail at meeting these numbers and find a solution.
The indicated dates or required numbers of progress also offer transparency to your team members. They will know your expectations of them and their required productivity levels according to these markers. If they fail to meet them, they understand that you could question their viability as an employee. With this in mind, employees are more likely to push themselves to their most efficient levels to prove their commitment to your business.
3. Time Tracking Software
Tracking the timing of your workers’ day-to-day task completion could also be incredibly helpful for measuring their productivity. Relying on helpful software like actiTIME enables you to monitor the hours that your employees are inputting or that are automatically tracked through their workdays. Remember, productivity is not proven through the number of hours committed to a task. Rather, it’s how much was completed over the hours.
This is why time-tracking can help you determine if your money is being wasted by inefficient work processes. If an employee is committing a full day to one task that should have taken a fraction of their day to complete, you will learn that they are delaying the progress of your whole team and taking advantage of their wages without returning their proper labor load. If the numbers do not look right, you can take necessary action or implement solutions to improve productivity.
4. Compare Productivity Levels Among Employees
Time tracking, established goals, or the productivity formula provide the data you need to determine your employees’ productivity. However, is one person holding up operations? Or does your company have a consistent issue across the board? Do you have an efficiency issue with one employee who you need to sit down and talk to, or do you need to hold a meeting with the group to learn why they are not producing to the level you expect from them?
By comparing the workers’ productivity, you can determine who is delivering and who is not. If the overall data indicates that everyone is having an issue with productivity, you may need to consider these actions:
Re-evaluate your expectations and whether they are realistic
Take necessary steps to improve team performance by boosting morale, incentivizing their efficiency, or making changes in staff
Push for Efficiency, Treat With Dignity
While reviewing whichever productivity tracing method you choose, remember that you are measuring people who have committed to your business. Ensure that your workers feel dignified and respected when working with you. This is the ultimate incentive to inspire them to work at their best efficiency levels to help your business succeed and grow. | https://medium.com/@actitime/save-time-and-money-by-measuring-employee-productivity-5cc2f8c903cc | [] | 2020-12-20 06:42:58.054000+00:00 | ['Remote Working', 'Employee Engagement', 'Productivity', 'Time Tracking', 'Employee Productivity'] |
Story of the Foundation of JST Business Solutions Pvt Ltd | Born in a middle-class family from Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Sahabuddin Siddiqui is the founder and promotor of the JST Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd.- a company providing ITFMS and Cyber Security Services Government and Private institutions.
In his adolescence, he was just like an ordinary student who used to love playing and spending less time on books. However, he loved computers and was also fond of acquiring information on technology. So, despite facing all the odds, he pursued his technical studies and started working at the age of 16 years. Obviously, the payment was not even moderate but it made him sail through the ocean of the IT world.
After completing his Diploma in Hardware and Networking, he officially started his career as Desktop Support Engineer and continued to add experiences and degrees to his portfolio. Along with having an MBA degree in Information Technology, Mr. Sahabuddin Siddiqui has done around 44 IT trainings to acquire technical knowledge and expertise in different domains of ITs.
After spending so much time in the industry, he came across many aspirants of the corporate world who had great knowledge and practical understanding of their field but most of their practical experiences remain unused because their jobs didn’t require all of them. Within 5–6 years of his work experience in corporate, he realized that he is not meant for sitting inside a cubical in from a system. Soon after understanding the fact that he doesn’t see his future in a typical 9 to 5 job, he started to plan big as he was not in favour of being lost in the corporate world. So, he decided to start his own tech venture JST Business Solutions Pvt Ltd.
About JST Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Established in the year 2017, JST Business has transformed into a leader in Comprehensive & Non- Comprehensive Managed IT Services working as a true partner for our clients as Big enterprises, medium sized businesses and Government institutions like PSU & Defence.
JST Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Is Specializes in AMC Services IT Equipment’s, AMC Services of Automation Devices, AMC Services of Electronics Items, Computer Networking Solutions, Cyber Security Consultant, IT Infrastructure Development, IT Outsourcing, and Technology Consultant.
As a privately-held company with a team of experienced professionals, The company is known for being an exceptionally flexible service provider that meets all IT Hardware Solution requirements of the clients. With 24x7 available delivery model for onsite and remote support, it is able to bring on-time services to its clients.
Products and Services
JST Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is primarily engaged in providing a range of IT Services which include AMC Services IT Equipment’s, AMC Services of Automation Devices, AMC Services of Electronics Items, Computer Networking Solutions, Cyber Security Consultant, IT Infrastructure Development, IT Outsourcing, and Technology Consultant to Government PSU, Defence, School, College and Private Institutions. It also deals Digital Data Solutions, Enterprise Mobility, Chat Support, IoT, IT Helpdesk, IT Facility Management, Society Management Services and Political Campaigning more.
The Mission
The mission of JST Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is to provide hassle-free services to its clients with an assurance of offering the best price and quick response. It enables them to be more efficient and agile, therefore, not just being firmer and more unchanging but also very competitive. The company serves all-IT requirements and improves business processes & employee productivity through future proof technology. Transparency, Trust and Truthfulness are their business core values.
http://www.jstbusiness.com/ | https://medium.com/@guestpostingwizard/story-of-the-foundation-of-jst-business-solutions-pvt-ltd-4492c47971e4 | [] | 2021-12-30 10:14:25.290000+00:00 | ['It', 'News', 'Business'] |
France Joins IORA as Member State | Photo by JM Dav on Unsplash
On December 17, 2020, France was accepted as member state of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).
Photo by Anthony DELANOIX on Unsplash
In the 20th IORA Council of Ministers virtual meeting, held in the UAE, France’s application was approved through consensus. Together with France, this inter-governmental ministerial forum, at present has 23 member states.
It’s other nine dialogue partners are: China, Egypt, Germany, Italy, Japan, Turkey, Republic of Korea, UK and the USA.
The IORA takes decision on consensus and it’s member states undertake commitments on non-binding voluntary basis. | https://medium.com/strategic-lenses-international-law-international/france-joins-iora-as-member-state-611914cd3d17 | ['Rubaiyat Rahman'] | 2020-12-18 19:40:39.652000+00:00 | ['France', 'International Relations', 'Maritime', 'Iora', 'Indian Ocean'] |
Gen Zs wants a voice! | Banner for In between
“Kids these days!” This expression has been used for centuries, usually accompanied by a sorrowful shaking of the head.
There are many questions and media coverage about us; “What is happening to our young people?” There are discussions about how we disrespect our elders, our parents, and how morality has declined.
But this isn’t who we are as Gen Zs.
IN BETWEEN is a new, global, and interdisciplinary community that invests in the future of the web 3 creative projects, by providing Gen Zers around the globe with the training and community they need to leverage the power of web3 to secure a brighter future for next-gen creatives.
Our mission is to develop a web3-native creative community that will channel blockchain’s capabilities to generate future generations of web 3 creatives while being who we are.
Why is this project important?
Gen Zs deserve a voice, we are Financially Focused and Entrepreneurial.
IN BETWEEN will go beyond funding web 3 creative projects by providing funds to social causes voted by the community.
XYZ University
How can you get involved?
We are still finding the right collaborators to get our DAO launched.
If you want to get involved with IN BETWEEN, contribute to this campaign or apply to contribute to the project here. We’re looking to build and launch in 6 months. For this project, we’ll hire the following contributors:
Web Designer — We’re going for something clean, educational, accessible, yet fun and exciting. We love something simple with a clean UX.
— We’re going for something clean, educational, accessible, yet fun and exciting. We love something simple with a clean UX. Community Manager — We want someone to help us manage our community with interesting events and conversations.
— We want someone to help us manage our community with interesting events and conversations. Project Managers — If you ever produce, direct or manage creative projects. We need you!
— If you ever produce, direct or manage creative projects. We need you! Tutorial videos — Like Loom video walkthroughs? Are how-to videos your jam? Then this is for you. Got through the process of using the tool on video.
— Like Loom video walkthroughs? Are how-to videos your jam? Then this is for you. Got through the process of using the tool on video. Web 3 Educator — We are looking for a person to introduce more Gen Zs to the web 3 space and educate them on how to use the technology for their work.
— We are looking for a person to introduce more Gen Zs to the web 3 space and educate them on how to use the technology for their work. Other — Have some other magic up your sleeve? Select other and let us know what you want to work on. (Think marketing, communications and etc)
The IN BETWEEN website will include:
A list of past/current creative projects being funded.
The ability to start a creative project
The ability to manage votings
Access to web 3 education
Video demos of our tools
The ability to review creative projects.
Our DAO FAQs
And much more…
Fund usage
Pay Employees
Fund Expenses
Fund Exciting Creative Projects
Fund social causes that’s important to our community.
And much more…
Once the crowdfund closes, everyone who holds $INB tokens should be invited to join a new token-gated Discord. To kick things off, we are on a telegram group where we’ll attempt to answer questions as we build and set up the Discord.
What happens after we launch the site?
Those are just some initial thoughts, and anything’s possible. After we launch the site, the future of IN BETWEEN goes to the community. It will be up to token-holders(hopefully Gen Zs) to decide what happens next. If you want to get involved, please reach out! Here are things we’ve considered:
Find an owner, community manager, or another group to expand on the project
Find Web 3 creative tools and compile them into a list.
How we could amplify the voices of Gen Zs globally.
For now, backers should join IN BETWEEN Telegram community, See you there.
If you have any questions for us, hit us up on Twitter @InBetween23 | https://medium.com/@brianwongjh/gen-zs-wants-a-voice-1cd495ab2331 | [] | 2021-12-31 10:38:40.104000+00:00 | ['Web3', 'Decentralised', 'Dao', 'Crowdsourcing', 'Crowdfunding'] |
Alberta’s concerning approach to COVID-19 and its potential impact | I have called Alberta home for the past 18 years. During these years, I worked hard, paid taxes, and trusted the government to have reasonable (not perfect) public health measures to protect Albertans. The recent changes announced by the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Deena Hinshaw, are far from reasonable! They are unduly risky and fail to protect many Albertans. Hinshaw’s announcements of 13 August 2021 do nothing to mitigate the increasing number of COVID-19 cases or protect schoolchildren who resume school in 2 weeks. It simply deferred the Alberta government’s more reckless changes in public health measures (removal of isolation and restriction of tests for symptomatic individuals) until 27 September 2021. These changes do not have the support of many medical professionals, parents, and Albertans. Organizations such as the Alberta College of Family Physicians, the Alberta Medical Association, and the Canadian Pediatric Association have raised concerns about the changes.
The government of Alberta should not deny Albertans easy access to COVID-19 tests. It is also not acceptable to remove the mandatory isolation and quarantine requirements for people who are COVID-positive and close contacts. COVID-19 is not the flu. Testing allows us to know whether the COVID-19 situation is getting better or not. Testing is the early warning mechanism for letting us know whether public health measures are adequate. Significantly limiting the public’s access to COVID-19 tests hides reality until lagging indicators (e.g., hospitalizations and deaths) start to tell the story. Some may argue that testing wastewater will be sufficient. Where’s the data to show that wastewater testing is a more appropriate form of testing individuals for COVID-19? Reliance on just lagging indicators means that we cannot react to the problem in time.
There’s the issue of children under 12 years who cannot be vaccinated because there are no approved vaccines for them in Canada. What are we doing to protect them? As a dad, I am worried about my daughter being in school without reasonable COVID-19 prevention health measures. Failure to mandate in-class masks at schools poses a significant risk to schoolchildren under 12 years who are 100% unvaccinated. The Alberta government’s decision to leave decisions on masking to schools and school districts is a dereliction of the province’s duties to protect the health of all Albertans.
Removing legal mandates for isolation and quarantine on 27 September 2021 encourages people who test positive for COVID-19 and close contacts to roam around the streets freely. It increases the community spread of COVID-19 across both adults and children. It means there is a higher chance of children contracting COVID-19 at school. While the data from Alberta Health shows that no child in Alberta has died from COVID-19, they still get sick, may require hospitalization, can spread COVID-19, and can suffer from long COVID effects. Alberta reported 21,672 cases for children aged 1 to 9 years, and it reported 32,435 cases for individuals aged 10 to 19 years. Data from the United States show that the wild-spreading dominant delta variant of COVID-19 affects children at a more alarming rate compared to prior variants. As a society, we can reduce this risk by mandating masks in schools and reducing community spread by requiring isolation and quarantine. Ignoring the risks is knowingly putting our unvaccinated children at risk. It is not acceptable to knowingly put children in harm’s way!
Some may argue that children are not adversely affected by COVID-19. The fact is children are “relatively less” affected by COVID-19 compared to other demographics. The keyword is “relative less” affected. The now dominant delta variant of COVID-19 affects children at a higher rate. On 7 August 2021, CNN described why the “idea that kids don’t get hit hard by COVID-19 is losing steam”. The US hospitalization rate is growing (192 children per day as of 3 August 2021 and a 45.7% increase from the week before). The US is 75 times the population of Alberta. Scaling the US numbers down for Alberta, it’s 2.6 children per day. If we adopt the measures announced by Hinshaw, the number will be higher. What if one of those children was your own? Let’s not forget that children can spread COVID-19. 32.5% of Alberta’s population who are 12+ years of age are not fully vaccinated, and 100% of the population under 12 years are not vaccinated. Protecting children helps everyone.
The reality in Alberta is our vaccination number is 57.7% for fully vaccinated people. Our COVID-19 indicators show that the situation is worsening. Hospitalizations increased from 81 (on 25 July 2021) to 161 (15 August 2021) — an increase of 98.8% in three weeks. If this increase continues at the same rate, expect over 200 hospitalizations in two weeks. Daily confirmed cases increased by over 1,906% from 29 (10 July 2021) to 582 (13 August 2021). Alberta’s daily positivity rate increased from 0.5% (10 July 2021) to 7.47% (15 August 2021). Active cases increased from 559 (13 July 2021) to 5,354 (15 August 2021), an increase of 858% in a month. Vaccine effectiveness for delta variant is 57% (partial vaccinated) and 85% (fully vaccinated). It means vaccines fail to protect 3 in 20 people who are full-vaccinated against the delta variant. These are stats from Alberta Health. These metrics will worsen over the next few weeks — and even more so when the 27 September 2021 measures announced by Hinshaw take effect. Unfortunately, we will not know the metrics if the government goes ahead with its plan to limit testing. No tests, no numbers!
My viewpoints and asks in this essay have nothing to do with political ideology. I am seeking what is good for Alberta. Jason Kenney, please don’t make this political. I voted for you and UCP in the 2019 elections because you promised pragmatism and a reasonable balance between fiscal policy and social good. Jason, listen to all views, including those that do not align with yours, and address the real issues.
Transparency for COVID-19 is needed to ensure we make the right decisions and to hold the government accountable. The “data and science” referenced by the Premier and Health Minister should become public information so that we can evaluate it, openly discuss it, and determine whether the government’s approach is right or wrong. Thanks to Hinshaw, we now know that the government’s COVID-19 modeling data failed to predict the latest hospitalization trends by over 62%. The dataset, model, and synthesis should be released immediately for Albertans to review.
Alberta needs common-sense measures for COVID-19. Vaccinations are effective, but this is not sufficient based on our current vaccination rates. The province’s “open for summer” experiment has proven this point. Unvaccinated children need protection from COVID-19 at school, and parents are worried. They need to go to school to get an education. Masking protects children — and we know it worked during the last school year. Testing should also be easily accessible to Albertans who suspect they have COVID-19 symptoms irrespective of severity. It is how we know on time whether public health measures are effective. If people do not know that they are COVID-19 positive, how can they isolate? The province should also cancel its planned removal of public health measures on 27 September 2021. Lastly, Alberta should immediately re-instate legally mandated quarantine for close contacts and bring back contact tracing and notification of close contacts. The data says it is premature to act like the COVID-19 pandemic is over. We cannot yet treat COVID-19 like the flu. If Alberta fails to implement strong public health measures, the COVID-19 situation will rise so much that it overwhelms the health care system and significantly impacts businesses and the economy.
Opinions are my own. | https://skills4ever.com/albertas-concerning-approach-to-covid-19-and-its-potential-impact-12300e780e7b | [] | 2021-08-17 15:04:01.163000+00:00 | ['Alberta', 'Canada', 'Healthcare', 'Covid 19', 'Musings'] |
How Microsoft is using Ansible.. Automation has made setting up of… | Automation has made setting up of infrastructure available on one’s fingertips. Before the age of automation and configuration management, the setup and configuration of large scale infrastructure required a lot of manpower, extra working hours and a deeper understanding of code.
With the advent of tools which provide the facilities like infrastructure as a code and automated configuration management, these things have now been simplified and easy to learn for any individual. Even a user with no prior coding experience can get their hands dirty on setting up infrastructure and its maintenance. Tools like Chef, Puppet, Ansible provide us with such functionality with a gradual learning curve.
What is Ansible?
As stated by the official Ansible website, “Ansible is the simplest way to automate apps and IT infrastructure by providing a variety of features like Application Deployment, Configuration Management, Continuous Delivery and much more”. In simple words, since Ansible is all about automation, it requires all the actions to be performed in the form of a script. It consists of a system of controller node and managed node/s where controller node is responsible for the configuration of all the managed nodes. It is made using python programming language and supports YAML format for writing scripts.
The controller node is a computer that runs Ansible and is responsible for the setting up and execution of scripts. It connects the nodes on a network, and then sends a small program called an Ansible module to that node. Ansible executes these modules over SSH and removes them when finished. But in order to do so, the controller node must have a login access to the managed nodes. Ansible provides a number of authentication options with SSH being the default authentication protocol.
Why Ansible?
The automation sector is now filled with a lot of tools with their own set of syntax and functionalities, which are more than capable of handling today’s configuration management issues. Tools like Chef and Puppet provides us a lot of options and features and are also widely used today. But what makes Ansible different is it’s agent-less architecture. These tools depends upon an agent software which needs to be installed in the managed nodes before a connection is established between the controller node and managed nodes. This makes it very difficult to configure remote systems which are untouched and inaccessible for initial configuration.
Here Ansible shines by providing an agent-less architecture where Ansible software needs to be installed only on the controller node which can be your local machine.
Success Story of Microsoft actively using Ansible:
When it comes to Information Technology domain, Microsoft is a household name throughout the world. Being one of the top tech giants of the world, there is no technological domain where Microsoft haven’t had their hands dirty. Microsoft is literally everywhere and you know it! It does not require any extra description to make anyone understand the global impact this tech giant has had over a past few decades.
To match with the market demands, it worked with RedHat to create a scalable and technology-agnostic automation framework to reduce manual workloads with efficient tools and processes and improve performance and security with standardized and tested code. As a result, they have established collaborative and creative development mindset, and saves thousands of hours of operational work.
The problem: It needed to address increasing complexity across their corporate network infrastructure which comprised of tens of thousands of endpoints that connects Microsoft locations across the globe. Their issues increased by many folds when code created by their respective development and engineering teams were not version controlled or peer-reviewed, leading to the duplication of code and quality issues.
The solution: Microsoft worked alongside RedHat Consulting team and actively used RedHat Ansible Automation Platform to create a standardized and centralized network automation environment to reduce repetitive tasks and complexity. Earlier they used to manually do the same deployment again and again. Using Ansible, they can now create blueprints to deploy it multiple times and every time it gets deployed exactly the same as it was in its first attempt.
The result: Using Ansible and collaboration with RedHat Consulting team, they have evolved their automation journey from from manual scripting to a continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) approach supported by centralized, service-based architecture. The Microsoft team established three main automation environments:
Development, where code is developed and tested on small scale
User Acceptance Testing (UAT), where code is peer-reviewed and tested at scale
Production
Using Ansible, they have successfully created a DevOps culture where team members can focus on learning new skills and collaborating across different teams. | https://medium.com/@akshanshsingh111/how-microsoft-is-using-ansible-254b596edac8 | ['Akshansh Singh'] | 2020-12-05 11:59:49.140000+00:00 | ['Arth', 'DevOps', 'Ansible', 'Ansible Playbook', 'Automation'] |
Are they still pajamas when you’re awake? | More from rstevens Follow
I make cartoons and t-shirts at www.dieselsweeties.com & @rstevens. Send me coffee beans. | https://rstevens.medium.com/are-they-still-pajamas-when-youre-awake-987ea80c9ef8 | [] | 2019-10-22 02:26:50.417000+00:00 | ['Halloween Costumes', 'Fashion', 'Work At Home', 'Comics', 'Halloween'] |
New Maker Rebates for ETH Trades on itBit | We’re excited to share that on itBit, the Paxos exchange, itBit customers will now begin receiving 3.5 bps rebates of the notional value on all confirmed ETH maker trades. We are thrilled to offer even more to our customers on top of the most competitive taker rates available and plan to continue providing the highest quality services in the industry.
All ETH maker rebates will be credited to the customer’s fiat balance(non-ETH maker orders will remain free and not receive any rebate). Our industry-leading, low taker rates will remain the same, structured in tiers based on 30-day rolling volumes.
At itBit, user trading volume is aggregated by fiat base currency, BTC/USD and ETH/USD trades count towards the aggregated USD tier, and BTC/EUR and ETH/EUR count separately towards the aggregated EUR tier. Click here to learn more about itBit’s fee structure. | https://medium.com/paxos/new-maker-rebates-for-eth-trades-on-itbit-bbf62edc5668 | [] | 2019-01-23 20:31:31.848000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Itbit'] |
Déjà Vu | It’s 1959…
I’m sitting on my bed painting my nails, waiting for an ambulance to take me to hospital. I’m in labour and I am alone…. My husband’s gone off to work…. I have little idea what lies ahead for me…. which hospital I’ll be going to or who will be my midwife. Standard in those days…. this was untrod territory.
It’s 1962….
I’m pregnant with my second child and have moments of mild panic, wondering if I can go through childbirth again…. whilst realising that I have no choice.
I can liken that experience to today. When we first went into “Lockdown”, I was surprisingly relaxed about it…. the weather was lovely …..I was sipping Pimms in my garden, as if I was on holiday. Slowly realisation crept in….I couldn’t see my family…. I missed hugging them….
I had to learn how to wear a mask and glasses together without fogging up, how to negotiate Zoom meetings and how to shop online.
Things had radically changed, but we were all in it together…. clapping the NHS…. helping one another…. slowly we got through it….well we thought we had…something to feel proud about with hindsight…. but then we realised that it was far from over and in fact we were slowly going backwards.
This time we know what’s coming, but it’ll be harder in winter time…. there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel. People are fed up…. almost rebellious….different factions are forming…. north versus south, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland slowly going their own ways. The mood has definitely changed, people are confused and unsure of what is permitted, they’ve had enough of restrictions.
This is isolation, unlike my wartime experiences when togetherness was emphasised. I’ve been listening to the lyrics of some popular wartime songs, where this unity is stressed : ‘You’ll find them all, doing the Lambeth Walk’, ‘Come let me hold your hand dear’, and ’ come and have a drink or two.’ All activities banned for us now. Then people danced together, crowded into the pubs, nationalism bound everyone together, and in spite of everything we were sure we were in the right and we would win. The lyrics were optimistic too: ‘Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile’, ‘Keep right on to the end of the road’, and sure of victory, ‘we’re going to hang out our washing on the Siegfried Line!’ All the radio broadcasts were positive, the message was of battling on towards our winning goal. It was censored, but it definitely shielded us from knowing the full horrors and created a stoic atmosphere. We soldiered on, unlike now, when our daily bulletins spell out doom and gloom, in a confusing situation that seems to be never ending.
Recently, my granddaughter had her thirtieth birthday, no large celebration was allowed, instead she had lots of small gatherings, one was with me. It was joyous, a delicious breakfast held outside wearing our coats, eating scrumptious food and enjoying great company. We pretended we were in a ski resort, it certainly was cold enough, but I felt a warmth, I was glowing inside. As usual, when it was time to say goodbye, I found it difficult not being able to hug my family, it feels so unnatural…. It’s simply soul destroying.
Now I’m lying here in bed, digesting the fact that just I was finding it impossible to summon up any optimism, there had been an announcement, a Covid vaccine had been tested and approved! How amazing to have been able to produce this in such a short space of time. Hopefully this will mean that I will soon be allowed to visit my special son once more. Being unable to, creates a pain inside me that is beyond physical, it’s a deep chasm of intolerable agony.
As I snuggle back under my duvet, I luxuriate in thoughts of normality returned, holding a loved one’s hand and sharing a comforting hug. I drift away surrounded by pink candyfloss and fluffy white clouds. Sheer bliss. Stay safe everyone. | https://medium.com/nana-thoughts/d%C3%A9j%C3%A0-vu-1b9d70401ba2 | [] | 2020-11-16 18:09:03.160000+00:00 | ['Family', 'Covid 19', 'Wartime Memories', 'Isolation'] |
Is this you? | Photo by ahmad gunnaivi on Unsplash
It’s so easy to become so ingrained in the 9 to 5, (or the hunt for a new 9 to 5), that we never give a second thought to what it is that we might actually LIKE to do.
We plunge ahead, going through the motions every day, flying a desk and wishing we weren’t and so the possibilities of an alternative lifestyle never even get considered.
We’ll go on holiday and spend the first few days worrying about what we’ve left behind at work and the last few days wondering what we’ll go back to.
In the middle bit of the holiday when we actually do allow ourselves to switch off for just a little while, we will think to ourselves, “You know what? I think I could live here.”
Then before we know it, that fleeting thought is as close as we ever get to actually doing something about changing things in our life and actually moving towards living a less stressful, happier and more fulfilled way of life for ourselves and our family.
For me it took a suspected heart attack to pull me up short and finally take stock.
When you do something you love doing instead, you get to enjoy every day of your life instead of watching it just disappear in soul-sucking sameness.
So make it your goal to discover what your own alternative lifestyle could look like for you.
Start here if you like:- www.DyalProgram.com | https://medium.com/@roycarter-89394/is-this-you-d5b363a5d710 | ['Roy Carter'] | 2020-12-23 02:40:52.713000+00:00 | ['Lifestyle', 'Lifestyle Design', 'Work Life Balance', 'Happiness', 'Stress'] |
You don’t need a DSLR camera, here is why. | This will be a short note where I hopefully convince you against taking the stupid decision of buying an SLR camera and letting it collect dust in the corner of the shelf that you never even bother to open.
Photo by Mario Calvo on Unsplash
Yes, these things.
I own one of them and I know how difficult it is to keep up any motivation of using them regularly.
Now straight to the point
1. If you just want good photographs, get a nice smart-phone with a killer camera. Most modern smart-phones have tremendously capable cameras. In fact you usually get a much larger canvas and a lot more detail, when you are just shooting pictures for Facebook or Instagram.
2. If you are traveling to a new country and want to get a camera to shoot your experiences there — sit down and relax till that feeling goes away. There is no simpler answer to this thought than — just DONT! Pamper yourself with a top-end smart-phone instead. You can take thousands of pictures and it will be easily available to you without any additional load or luggage. Besides, people will not bother you to take pictures of them.
3. If you want to start an amateur photography page on Facebook in the hopes of getting laid — Ha ha ha! Ask fellow photography page owners how that worked out for them. I am sure that they would paint quite the ‘picture’ of their non-existent exploits.
4. If you have money, but never had a hobby and think that Photography will serve as a hobby — You are wrong. This is even more so, if you are bat-shit-lazy. A camera won’t find you a hobby. If you have money, invest in a mutual fund. Save it for a rainy day. Buy a bicycle or better yet, get a short-term gym membership. Don’t get a camera.
5. If you are a good shot with your smart-phone and want to step-up your shooting game — think. Unless you are going to really make shots of wildlife, weddings, architecture or such, you can simply continue using your smart-phone. There is no need for you to splurge money on a camera. Bokeh effects are great on smart-phone cameras that comes with F1.7, 1.6 and even 1.5 apertures
6. If you see someone posting great Instagram photos and want to do the same — Ask that someone or a closer photographer friend to take shots. They will be happy to oblige if you buy them lunch or a beer. It is much easier, much faster and a whole lot cheaper. Praise their photography skills even if they suck. It is worth the great photos you will get from an SLR.
7. If you want to look great at weddings or other occasions, make a special request to any of the thousand DSLR-walas at the wedding. There is surely someone who is close to you or your friends shooting with an SLR, they will happily send you the pictures if you as much as talk to them. The other easier way is, praise the bride’s makeup (yes bluffing works here)and she will ensure that the pro photographer there(there is only one at every wedding) takes 5–6 clicks of you with the bride. Be a bitch/douche and cut her out later. Don’t praise the groom’s make up, at best he will be embarrassed and at worst he break your knuckles with a fist-cruncher handshake for calling your bluff.
So OK, who should actually get a camera then?
1. You should live and breathe photography.
2. You should actually feel the need to keep getting better and better at taking shots
3. You should be active enough to pull your ass out of bed weekend after weekend
4. You should be bold enough to be found with a camera most of the time
5. You should have the time to sit and edit them(if that floats your boat)
6. You should be OK to carry around 2–3 Kilos of extra luggage everywhere you go. Literally — everywhere, even the washrooms.
Hope this helps.
Bottom line - You should actually like taking photographs or have the penchant to become a professional. | https://medium.com/@zarcman/you-dont-need-a-dslr-camera-here-is-why-4c7c66e5bce2 | ['Vijay Balasubramanian'] | 2020-12-21 04:54:18.559000+00:00 | ['Decision Making', 'Camera', 'Dslr', 'Hobbies And Interests', 'Photography'] |
Don’t just test the happy path | The point of this article is grumpy developers can still skip and dance down the happy path when it comes to writing and testing their code.
Code Complete 2 has an interesting paragraph.
Avoid Failure
Petroski argues that many spectacular bridge failures have occurred because of focusing on previous successes and not adequately considering possible failure modes. He concludes that failures like the Tacoma Narrows bridge could have been avoided if the designers had carefully considered the ways the bridge might fail and not just copied the attributes of other successful designs
Developers are too happy
The process of development usually goes
Requirements gathered
Functional requirement specified
Technical requirements specified
Code written to deliver requirements
Test –> fix bugs cycle
Developers often focus on delivering the functionality, which is often known as following the happy path
Wiki describes as the Happy Path
In the context of software or information modeling, a happy path is a default scenario featuring no exceptional or error conditions, and comprises the sequence of activities executed if everything goes as expected.[1][2] For example, the happy path for a function validating credit card numbers would be where none of the validation rules raise an error, thus letting execution continue successfully to the end, generating a positive response.
Focusing on the happy path and creating the required functionality leaves room for bugs, when end users stray from the happy path into the alternative path or the exception path.
Developers naturally gravitate towards the happy path, often focusing on happy path testing. Developer doesn’t see the functionality from the end users point of view, instead the functionality is viewed primarily from the code point of view.
It isn’t obvious to developer why users would use unexpected values, how the users will use the functionality or what they are trying to achieve using the functionality.
Happy path testing can leave gaps for nulls, incorrect values and a host of error checking/validating errors to slip into a production system because no one has tested these paths.
The other area bugs come in is, is developer under estimate the random actions of end users.
Developers are not good testers
Developers are poor at testing their own code it’s considered good practise to get other people to test the code.
One reason developers miss bugs in is they test everything using the System Administrator role which avoids many permission bugs.
The System Administrator role is a benefit and a curse to CRM developers
It’s difficult for developers to step back and test the functionality rather than test the code. Like writers editing their own writing, they feel attached to their creation to the extent they find it hard to evaluate it dispassionately.
How to avoid failure
An effective way of avoiding failure is writing unit tests for the code. The act of writing unit tests make the developer think
What should this functionality do e.g. what am I testing
What values (min, max) are allowed
What alternative values might be presented
What should happen when an error happens
Thinking before coding is beneficial, sometimes developers are eager to get coding they miss this step out.
Once the code is written is unappealing for developers to write unit tests, so the best method of unit testing is to write unit tests while you create the code and use those unit tests to make sure it’s working as expected.
Thinking about errors and failures is very beneficial. You will capture and avoid many errors. The developer will decide how to handle errors and its usually a choice
Fail fast, abort action
continue and warn the user
Errors are not good but code which has blundered on and changed half the values it was expecting can make a greater mess and take longer to clean up, so it’s better to have a plan up front.
Don’t let these often simple errors slip out of your development environment to the end user, make sure you harden your code.
If you don’t write unit tests you should consider doing it
Why CRM Developers should unit test their code
Experiences of Unit testing with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Projects
If you still are not persuaded to write unit tests make sure you go through you code and look for potential errors, validation checks. Make sure you have decided how you will handle errors in the code. It’s much better/quicker/easier to manage errors in a dev environment than having to add it in at a later date.
More reading for you
TEST YOUR SAD PATH FIRST
Happy Path Testing | https://medium.com/dev-genius/dont-just-test-the-happy-path-e3fd565bad53 | ['Ben Hosking'] | 2020-06-19 11:27:51.847000+00:00 | ['Software Engineering', 'Software Development', 'Testing'] |
I am also a feminist. | I am also a feminist. In India we still have lot of inequality. Even now the lady of the house still serves tea & food & no one serves her. | https://medium.com/@preetisingh15/i-am-also-a-feminist-f32414a4d633 | ['Dr. Preeti Singh'] | 2020-12-21 09:39:43.873000+00:00 | ['Inequality'] |
For 2020, we expect an increase in the number of developers of plugins and add-ons over lightning | 2019 was the year of rapid growth for LND Network. But still there is much to be done. This article is aimed at reviewing the trends and repositories that are worth paying attention to this upcoming year. We looked into teams that are actively promoting their development, and will examine products of repositories with commitments in the last two weeks.
1. https://lightningnetworkstores.com — a news and advertisement board for companies and service providers. Managed through Github. Apparently the project is supported.
2. There was an attempt to simplify the lightning of wallets using SPV technology while maintaining control over user’s private keys. For example https://nayuta.co/wallet/ and https://phoenix.acinq.co tried to do this. However, most wallets remain custodial.
3. We at ZigZag still see big problems for newbies (for beginners) to start using lightning. Many users don’t understand why we can’t send them Lightning in exchange FOR Bitcoins (the term “inbound capacity” is a big issue for mass adoption). In practise, we cannot add funds to new Wallets, that is why most exchanges are withdrawal transactions. It is also impossible, for example, to top up phoenix from a satishi wallet, etc.
4. That being said, https://kriptode.com/satsforlikes/index.html remains the easiest and cheapest way to open a channel in your direction (by paying less than 1% of the channel volume)
5. There is an increase in the number of support services for development on top of the lightning service. We tried out BTCpayserver by LUNANODE, which gives a full note and api to it only for $5. There is also an interesting service — https://bitclouds.sh, which can be accessed from the command line.
We are confident that in the future, programs using lightning will be put together from pieces like a construction puzzle which will make it easier. For example, Github provided a limitless number of free resources for open source projects, that allows assembling any kind of programs for different platforms.
RGB
A team that claims to be able to make anonymous smart contracts without loading the main network by gradually implementing minimal changes to the lightning protocol. Very ambitious plans.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ccLOmbPGq8xcJSVSaWDOlgHb3KMH1OkU/view?usp=sharing RGBCONN 0 (day 1..3)
Taproot and Shnorr algorithms will soon be used in bitcoin (killers of anonymous cryptocurrencies)
The team is supported by Bitfinex, tether, and Fulgur ventures (our investor). We are following the development of the protocol and are going to support it by implementing it in ZigZag.
LND
There are many changes going on at LND. Four developers are contributing very actively.
We use this node to operate our service, and so far everything is working fine. However, we had to face a change in the api syntax and customize our software for the new one. We hope that there will be fewer changes like these, as well as interoperability, otherwise it is difficult to build a complex long-term software, relying on such quick changes IMHO.
Other projects
https://github.com/shesek/spark-wallet — is a wallet for c-lightning . According to their commitments, they’re not actively developing
https://github.com/nayutaco/ptarmigan/ — one more implementation of the lightening on С++ from Japan.
https://github.com/dan-da/lightning-nodes — is a cool php script that loads into the repository a list of active connections from a lightning node.
https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lightning-rfc — is being actively discussed. Since this is a big topic a separate review will be done.
https://github.com/breez/breezmobile — a non-custodian wallet.
https://github.com/lightningd/plugins — many plugins for c-lightning are good. In general, the marketplace (plugins) is a very cool driver for platform growth. The most successful example is WordPress, which, thanks to countless plugins and themes, has become the most popular platform for websites on the Internet. In this regard, we are betting on the development of c-lightening, as more developers will connect to it. You can see a lot of repositories from external authors, which shows the great interest of independent developers. While lnd only allows you to pay and receive payments.
Custodian backends as https://github.com/BlueWallet/LndHub (btspey) or our payserver continue to develop, but their development slowed down. Unfortunately, we are forced to stop supporting our own payserver and have switched to working directly with the cryptocurrencies api.
For 2020, we expect an increase in the number of developers of plugins and add-ons over lightning. More and more beautiful and complex services will appear that will lead to an increase in the number of use cases. A big step forward was the ability to transfer data within the lightning network. For example, now you can store DEXs orderbook and other layer 3 (for example, swap.online uses the libp2p network for this).
In Zigzag we are going to connect usdt and support the idea of replacing anonymous currencies and cryptocurrencies with smart contracts on layer3 bitcoin solutions.
Your team… | https://medium.com/zigzag-io/for-2020-we-expect-an-increase-in-the-number-of-developers-of-plugins-and-add-ons-over-lightning-1bf6b147228a | ['Саша N'] | 2020-01-17 12:46:30.132000+00:00 | ['Lightning Network', 'C Lightning', 'Bitcoin', 'Layer 2', 'Lnd'] |
I Won’t Be Telling My Daughter to Unlock Her Potential | I was always going to be a ballerina. Unlike every other 6-year-old girl in a pink tutu, I was actually going to make it. The fantasy would dance through my head while I listened to Swan Lake twirling around the lounge room.
Why not me? I was bursting with potential.
I was a unique snowflake, destined for the stage. I would embody grace and the extraordinary potential of the human body.
The reality came crashing down one way or another, in the same way I kept crashing into furniture. I can’t entirely recall the moment but I do remember thinking I didn’t have the body type for it.
The rakishly thin, delicately boned porcelain doll. I was destined to embody a generously sized booty.
Dylan Moran riffs on potential: “You should stay away from your potential. You’ll mess it up! It’s potential, leave it! It’s like your bank balance— you always have much less than you think. You don’t want to find out that the most you could possibly achieve, if you harvested every screed of energy within you, that all you would get to would be maybe eating less cheesy snacks.”
The glut of posts online compelling you to ‘unlock your potential’ is enough to drive anyone into a hole to curl up and be mediocre the rest of your life.
This mysterious box buried deep within you which holds the keys to your best life.
Who wouldn’t be desperately trying to crack the code?
Last night in yoga, a dim-lit room with thunderstorm soundtrack, the teacher with the soothing voice and shaved head was telling us about our in-built search engines.
That in our brains, we have these little Googles constantly searching, ruminating, debating, contemplating.
And the practice of yoga is to be still. Silent. At rest.
I’m sitting cross-legged which is sending shooting pains up my back and I’m trying not to wriggle.
I’m listening to her words but my internal Google is spiralling out of control: that’s interesting, be still, I really need to get better at being still. Maybe I should start mediating again, that would help. I probably need to work out some way to do it, I don’t want Matilda to learn that she always needs to be busy achieving things and..what is this music anyway? Why does yoga music always have to have weird chanting in it?
I’m so conditioned to achieving, improving, that even talk of letting go and being still sends me into action-planning mode, turning it into a large-scale self-improvement project. Maybe I can wake up at 7am every day and track in my bullet journal how still I’m being then I’ll be able to see my progress.
Since becoming a Mum I feel increasingly frustrated by the unicorn of potential, now seemingly even further out of my grasp.
It’s buried under piles of dirty nappies and time lost, shimmering on the horizon while I retrace my steps looking for another sock my baby kicked off 5 kilometres ago.
There’s this German word, fernweh meaning homesickness for a place you’ve never been to. I wonder if that captures how I feel about my potential. I miss it, I haven’t reached it and yet I long to go back to it, like the heady pink tutu days when it was as bounteous as my backside.
Perhaps that maddening unicorn is always out of reach. You climb to the next rung of your potential, and hey! There’s another one. And another, and another. You reach the top, you’re literally the king of the world and there before you is another ladder.
What I’m after is contentment.
The more the days roll into months with my daughter, the more I’ve realised this is life now, it’s happening. I look into her tiny little face while she’s feeding and every now and then feel a flush of deep contentment.
I forget about my plans to study, write a book or finally start that NGO for kids who can’t read good and think, ‘if this is it, this is good.’
I want those moments to punctuate my day, not be the exception.
I don’t want someone with a megaphone shouting down my ear: YOU MUST UNLOCK YOUR POTENTIAL BEFORE YOU DIE!!
I hope my daughter explores her potential. I dearly hope she chases the unicorn, for a time.
But I will be compelling her to be still, let go, enjoy what you’ve got now, because this is life, you’re living it. Don’t wait until you reach that next rung to be content.
But try to eat less cheesy snacks. | https://cherielee-37146.medium.com/i-wont-be-telling-my-daughter-to-unlock-her-potential-c1e71cbf47a0 | ['Cherie Gilmour'] | 2019-10-23 23:56:59.003000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Self', 'Parenting', 'Productivity', 'Life Lessons'] |
15 Topics to Consider as You Review Code in Data Science | Exposure to New Ideas and Technologies
The main reason I have found code review meetings beneficial on a data science team is the exposure to new ideas and technologies. Being apart of a large team means a data scientist may not be aware of everything people are developing. Having the opportunity to sit in on code reviews allows them to see different projects people have been working on, understand how they wrote the code, and even ask questions. There is so much you can learn from talking with others about your code! | https://towardsdatascience.com/15-topics-to-consider-as-you-review-code-in-data-science-10eff0182e71 | ['Rose Day'] | 2020-11-22 03:58:19.139000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Software Development', 'Data Science', 'Code', 'Computer Science'] |
Support The Haven | Support The Haven
The Haven Has a Patreon!
Photo by fran hogan on Unsplash
Throw The Haven a few bucks to demonstrate your love. But you still need to stay off my lawn. Seriously. No walking on my lawn.
https://www.patreon.com/havencomedy
Thanks! | https://medium.com/the-haven/support-the-haven-a2fa948f5c15 | ['Page Barnes'] | 2020-07-16 16:00:57.254000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Satire', 'Life', 'Funny', 'Writing'] |
019 | スマートコントラクト（Smart contract） | in Both Sides of the Table | https://medium.com/%E4%BB%AE%E6%83%B3%E9%80%9A%E8%B2%A8%E3%81%A7%E9%80%B1%E9%A1%8D%EF%BC%95%EF%BC%90%E3%81%AE%E7%A9%8D%E7%AB%8B%E3%82%92%E8%B2%B7%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%BF%E3%81%9F/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9E%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%82%B3%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88%E3%83%A9%E3%82%AF%E3%83%88-smart-contract-d4c78faf72b2 | [] | 2018-08-29 08:19:49.911000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Smartcontract', '日本語'] |
Zippie Monthly Update #10 | Zippie is getting into Holiday spirit!
With Christmas fast approaching, we decided to create the year-end update with a slightly different format, publishing a joint post that includes progress made by the Zippie team in both November and December. This is because for the last two months, we’ve been working on some very exciting Zippie ecosystem related projects, and we didn’t want to announce them before they were ready to be launched to the whole world. It is that time now that all the pieces are in place, so let’s look at what is new in the world of Zippie, what we’ve been up to in the last two months, and how we’re literally making an impact — already today.
Announcing the Zippie ecosystem accelerator
To move forward in our mission to empower application developers in building mass market friendly distributed applications — and in the process a better, more decentralized world — we are launching an ecosystem accelerator which will support teams building great projects on the Zippie platform. In addition to increased visibility towards investors, projects in the accelerator will have full access to all the functionalities of the Zippie product, such as fast and easy onboarding with the Sign in with Zippie solution, complete Zippie token wallet integration which allows the app to send and receive value in the form of Ethereum tokens, as well as the Zippie ID identity management solution.
All together, with the Zippie ecosystem accelerator we want to enable and empower the creation of the next generation of distributed applications. Apps that take the opportunities that blockchain technology provides and create products and services that serve mass market needs. Our first project in the accelerator is AirImpact, a Zippie powered crowd donation platform, which you can learn more about by reading on, or by visiting www.airimpact.org.
First accelerator participant announced at Slush: AirImpact crowd donation platform
In the beginning days of December the Zippie team headed over to Helsinki, Finland for the Slush startup event. This year’s Slush was especially interesting for teams working in the blockchain space, as blockchain and cryptocurrencies were prominently included as one of the main themes of the conference, all the way to a specifically blockchain focused event — Slush Crypto Evening, sponsored by Zippie and PwC. It was at this sold out event where we helped launch the initial marketing campaign for the first mass market application to run on the Zippie platform: a cross-border, peer-to-peer crowd donation platform, called AirImpact.
Slush is the world’s leading startup event with over 20,000 attendees
AirImpact is a Zippie powered app that lets you donate to charitable causes anywhere in the world with a swipe of your finger, while at the same time being certain that 100% of the value you donated went through to the intended receiver. With donations through the AirImpact donation app, you will be able to support elephant guardians in Tanzania, farmers planting co2 reducing trees and dozens of other causes directly and instantly, using AirImpact’s blockchain-powered solution.
AirImpact’s simple donation user interface
As its first campaign, AirImpact will be utilized in protecting the African elephant population in Tanzania, where elephant guardians work tirelessly to prevent the poachings of this endangered species. To support the campaign, you can join today, and download your very own digital elephant, called Fantti — free of charge. For every new signup to the campaign, the project donates one hour’s salary to an elephant guardian tasked with protecting the African elephant in Tanzania. AirImpact is working on the initiative with PAMS Foundation, one of the foremost nature conservation organizations Africa. You can read more and join the campaign here.
Zippie accelerator and AirImpact in the press
Our announcements didn’t just reach the crypto scene, but also got picked up by mainstream publications in Finland. Zippie accelerator and AirImpact as its first project were published on many of Finland’s leading business and technology publications — a sign that our message of using blockchain to do good is something that resonates not only in the blockchain space, but also among the general public. Some of the publications that ran the story were Kauppalehti and Talouselämä (Finland’s 1. and 2. business magazines) as well as Tivi and Tekniikka & Talous (two of the leading technology publications in Finland). Needless to say we are very happy with the exposure, which should help in drumming up interest towards AirImpact in its first launch market of Finland.
Christmas Airdrop
Don’t think we forgot about our token holders either! If you’re one of the 1160 Zippie community members who signed up for the Christmas Airdrop, this Christmas will be extra rich in gifts — especially ones that come in token form. We’ll be distributing the Airdrop tokens to signed up members on the 28th of December, so keep your eye on your wallet!
Product news
On the product side, our Alpha 6 release is officially out and looking great with the new brand visuals integrated into a whole new, rewritten React based UI. With it, Zippie now not only has a fresh UI that looks and feels awesome, but also a more functional, responsive user experience. Besides the look and feel, the new React based user interface also provides a more customizable UI structure for various future use cases.
A peek at our new and improved UI
With the card, we have been working on enabling Zippie ID recovery. This is made possible by an application called Zippie Secretary, which will use a PIN code paired with the card’s NFC capability to enable easy ID recovery as well as control of paired devices. Currently only accessible to our alpha testers, when rolled out to all users, the Zippie Secretary will be the simplest way to recover your Zippie ID if you for example misplace or break your smartphone — or simply want the same great Zippie experience on multiple devices.
And the improvements don’t end there. The R&D team have also been working hard on the wallet, and as a result of this it can now support any generic ERC20 token. In the Alpha 6 release, these tokens now go to their token-specific subwallets that are accessible from the main wallet UI, creating a clear an intuitive structure and improving the overall user experience of sending, receiving and storing any ERC20 token on the Zippie platform. You can read the full Alpha 6 product update here.
Team news
With the Zippie ecosystem growing, that growth is naturally reflected in the need for more hands on deck to build the decentralized future we’re all envisioning. This time it is our aforementioned partner AirImpact who is looking for skilled builders to realize their vision of an easy to use blockchain based peer-to-peer donation platform. The need is for experienced React developers, so if you are one or know somebody with a corresponding skillset, contact us at [email protected].
That’s it for now! A couple of busy months in the bag, and new year just around the corner, we would like to wish all of our followers a very merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!
As always, to follow our projects’ development between updates, you can join our community on Telegram, Twitter, Reddit and YouTube. | https://medium.com/zippie/zippie-monthly-update-10-d852b3e27b93 | ['Heikki Vänttinen'] | 2018-12-20 13:09:12.524000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Ethereum'] |
The walking cure | You are just a walk away from a good mood.
Top corporates across industries often stress the importance of office ergonomics for their employees. Following those guidelines are considered to be good practice for desk jobs with extended hours of being seated, often taking a toll on the body as well as the mind. In the current Covid-19 scenario, the work from home situation further compels the working class to be glued to their chairs from dawn to dusk in many cases. A similar situation is prevalent for the student community too, leading to stress and gradual burnout. So, the question is, what is the remedy?
Photo from Pexels
For starters, get up from that wretched chair! Move your limbs and start walking. Brisk walks of at least 15–20 minutes duration are proven to uplift the mood, take the focus away from stressful thoughts and even reduce chances of depression.
A study conducted by a Stanford University team demonstrated that cognitive creativity in individuals boosted by up to 60% in students who walked in the experiment in comparison to the test results of those who were sitting. Just a 30 minutes walk around your garden or on the road nearby can help the creative juices flow, improve blood circulation and neural activity along with improved divergent thinking. The list of positive effects daily walking can have on diabetes, cholesterol, weight loss and countless other ailments is beyond the scope of this brief article. Although the Stanford study showed no evidence of improved convergent thinking, there have been cases of test subjects claiming to have experienced better concentration and focus while reading as they walked rather than being in a seated position.
Who doesn’t like a change in scenery from the work monotony? A walk in the park, meeting some people, a breath of fresh air is just what you need to bring yourself out of the rut. Choosing a walking route embedded with elements of natural scenery can heal you in more ways than one. Observing mother nature’s greenery does garner a sense of peace and sanctity.
As they say, ‘Well begun is half done.’
In this case, getting out of your seat or bed is the beginning. For some, vibing to your favourite music tracks while walking is a complementary entity. While another category, prefer a walking buddy to brainstorm and have casual talks with, that makes the overall experience even more enriching. Owners of pet dogs would know how much it makes their canine buddies happy and riled up when they take’em out for a brisk stroll. Those who are habituated to the walking ritual, consider it as a mood lifter that makes them feel lighter both mentally and goes without saying, physically as well. To invest in the hobby or rather the lifestyle choice of daily walking is a 100% profitable investment on your health with benefits that last a lifetime.
Happy walking fellas! | https://medium.com/@thegeminiansoul/the-walking-cure-3bb4d1bda745 | ['Sidharth Sathish'] | 2020-12-11 06:35:25.369000+00:00 | ['Walking', 'Health', 'Stress', 'Burnout', 'Lifestyle'] |
Reimagining Love — Romantic Friendships | I’ve only recently uncovered the term “romantic friendship” although I’ve known iterations of it throughout my life. Romantic friendships became popularized in Victorian age. I’m sure romantic friendship has existed as long as friends have. It appears the 19th-century populated it as a term when the roles between men and women were so divided that men felt like they needed other men to achieve their goals out in the world, and women, stuck at home, developed deep bonds with each other.
These relationships were referred to in familiar slang we use for sexual relationships: “smashes,” “crushes,” “spoons.” Sometimes queer relationships were created through romantic friendships, but not always. Often they were profoundly romantic and platonic.
In Bell Hook’s work on love she talks about how,
“we can develop primary bonds in platonic relationships that are constant, committed, and able to last a lifetime. These relationships ensure that the woman who does not find a perfect mate will still know true and abiding love. And at the end of the day it is this love that sustains us and gives life meaning.”
My romantic friendships with a close circle of women is what gave me the courage to acknowledge my life wasn’t as full as I hoped marriage would make it. Many young women I know entered marriages thinking it was the solution to love only to feel emotionally underserved.
When I found out about the affair my husband had, my romantic friends promised I would never have to make any decisions alone. They held me when I left him, gave me rooms and couches to sleep on. Listened to me repeat the same stories as if they had never heard them. Let me weep, snotty-faced weeping. Brought me bubble bath and burritos. Moved me out of the house that was my marriage and my life. Made me music mixes, sent me songs, poetry, gave me books. Traveled across the country to hold me.
My romantic friends gave my life meaning when I thought what my life had meant was over. And in a lot of ways what my life meant was over. Love and connection, however were not. Not with my friends. Love and connection with my friends has more meaning, energy, and vigor than my marriage ever had.
With all this friendship love it’s not surprising that romantic friendships don’t fit well inside patriarchy. People are suspicious of close ties between friends, quick to define them as sexual. One of my close friends and I have encountered this with her ex who is convinced that our bond is sexual. He is suspicious of our relationship despite conversations where she reassures our platonic partnership. It’s not surprising really. But we don’t care. We love each other too much to care.
Bell Hooks talks about this issue too,
“Romantic friendships are a threat to patriarchy and heterosexism because they fundamentally challenge the assumption that being sexual with someone is essential to all meaningful, lasting, intimate bonds.”
Liberated. Like many of us feminists hope we will achieve. Romantic friendships are liberating. I find myself raptured by the satisfaction of romantic friendship.
I had this same rapture when I was a young girl before I chose to marry and invest my energy in that primary relationship exclusively. My lifetime friends watched as this diminished my expression of the romance and love I had always expressed in our friendships. I knew I had disappeared in this way. I just thought I’d grown up.
Grown up girls don’t dance in front of mirrors with their favorite girlfriends or gush over them in love notes or texts. Grown up girls are busy making a life, raising kids, working, building power, wealth and security. Grown up girls don’t build love. They dismantle that shit.
A midlife divorce kind of changes things up. It ends up that grown up girls love. | https://jessiepo.medium.com/reimagining-love-romantic-friendships-e023bfdc2dd3 | ['Jessie Po'] | 2018-02-22 14:31:02.226000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Friendship', 'Romantic Friendships', 'Love', 'Feminism'] |
Bullying & Manipulation At Work — Management’s Responsibility | Bullying In The Workplace — Management’s Obligations and Responsibilities
Photo by Sandra Seitamaa on Unsplash
Summary: Bullying at work is becoming a more recognized problem, and some jurisdictions, (e.g. Quebec, Canada) have introduced anti-bullying legislation. Read more about workplace bullying and the role of managers in dealing with it.
You know the problem. All of us do. Many workplaces have at least one person who is aggressive, selfish, pushy, and seems to be concerned with getting his or her own way rather than doing the job, or helping the organization. Or perhaps you are more familiar with bullying that comes from members of the public. Whatever the source, bullying and self-centered behavior can be stressful, reduce productivity and create supervisory and management problems.
We are going to look at bullying and manipulation and look at how supervisors might address these problems in their workplaces.
What Are We Really Talking About?
Photo by Frida Bredesen on Unsplash
Bullying is probably not the best word to describe self-centered behavior. That’s because we associate bullying with a very aggressive stance where a sense of threat is involved — like the “schoolyard bully”. If we use the word bullying, we may miss other, more “tricky” behavior that is less “in your face”, but is as damaging or more damaging.
A better term is manipulative behavior. Manipulative behavior is designed to help the person using it get his or her way, OR exercise control OVER other people. It may be aggressive, but it may not be. For example, manipulative behavior may take the following forms:
whining
trying to make others feel guilty
the martyr approach (poor poor pitiful me)
passive-aggressive behavior (that’s being nasty but denying there is a problem)
making fun of or inappropriate use of humor to demean others or their ideas
Whether we call these behaviors bullying or manipulative, one thing is held in common by both. Both involve a person trying to get their own way with no concern for the rights, needs, wants and desires of others around them.
The Game of Manipulation
To improve at dealing with manipulative behavior you need to understand what it’s about. Manipulation and bullying are about two things. The first is about getting one’s own way. The second is about control and power. Manipulators tend to use manipulative techniques even when they don’t work because manipulation gives them a sense of importance, power and control. The manipulative person draws other people into the web, and gets to control conversations and discussions, becoming the center of attention. Manipulative people win by getting their own way, becoming the focus of attention or controlling others.
There’s one other thing to keep in mind. Manipulative behavior is a part of being human. Probably most people use it some of the time, particularly the less aggressive forms. It doesn’t just come from people with emotional problems. Of course some people use it as their main way of dealing with the world, and those are the situations we tend to notice. “Chronic manipulators” just manipulate more often than the rest of us.
So, What Steps To Follow: What To DO?
Photo by Heidi Fin on Unsplash
Managers and supervisors have a responsibility to do their best to create a respectful workplace, as free of manipulation as possible. That isn’t to say supervisors are the only ones responsible. Ultimately everyone can help. Let’s look at some suggestions.
1) Policy Issues
Some forms of aggression in the workplace are illegal. The more subtle forms of manipulation that occur are often not illegal. It is important that YOUR work area have a policy (it can be formal, or informal) that identifies the kinds of behavior that are inappropriate and how people in the work unit should treat each other. Involve staff in your work unit in drafting a simple informal policy. A good starting point is for staff to answer the following question: “How should we treat each other in our workplace?” Then, define what the answer to that question means in terms of specific behavior and action (eg. No gossip, dealing with problems directly with an individual, no laying on guilt, no blaming).
2) Abide By The Policy
Staff look to you for guidance. If YOU gossip or blame, your staff will gossip or blame. If YOU use guilt and indirect, “tricky” ways of communicating, so will your staff. Model what you want each and every day, no exceptions. Consider also that your position of authority (such as it is these days) is not reason enough to flaunt it or exercise it indiscriminately. The best use of authority and position is “rare use”.
3) Managing Meeting Behavior
Staff meetings are important. Attempts to monopolize the floor, blame others, innuendo, aggressive behavior in meetings send a signal to employees that manipulative, controlling behavior is acceptable. You can get around this by using proper meeting management techniques, and having a chairperson who will interrupt if discussions go over the line. Having that informal policy in place allows this to work. The chairperson need not be you, but it must be someone who is able to jump in assertively if required.
4) Involvement in Disagreements
Managers and supervisors can be drawn into attempts to convince them to side with one person or another in a manipulative disagreement. If you are “in the middle”, don’t play this game. Focus on solving the problem or addressing the issue, not figuring out who is at fault (often it’s everyone!). Keep in mind that you are not a professional counsellor or mediator. In some cases, particularly involving two difficult employees, the situation can be referred to people who specialize in mediation. Don’t try to go beyond your training and abilities.
5) Helping Staff Develop Better Ways
Apart from your own positive influence, consider this. Many people who use manipulative techniques do so because they don’t know any other way to deal with disagreement, or express themselves in constructive ways. Their difficult behavior may be a result of lacking skill.
In SOME cases, opportunity to attend training in assertiveness, or communication can be helpful. However, if an employee is forced to attend, the chances of change are minimal. Training in communication, conflict resolution and assertiveness works best when people attending recognize they are making their own lives difficult, and want to find better ways.
6) Incorporating “Respectful Behavior” in Performance Discussions
If you have a formal or informal policy in place, you can include or reference it in the expectations regarding work performance that should occur regularly as a result of performance management or communication about job performance. Some organizations will indicate to each employee individually, that they are responsible, not only for their “job tasks” but for ensuring they treat their co-workers with respect (or in accordance with the estalished guidelines or policies). This is helpful in two ways. It allows one-on-one discussion between you and each employee. It also allows the use of progressive discipline in cases where a person is persistently treating others poorly.
Conclusion
Manipulative behavior and its more extreme cousin, bullying, can seriously damage the productivity and effectiveness of everyone in your organization. If you are in the middle, it’s no fun. The best approach is to prevent it from starting, and if it starts, to address it early.
While the subject is a complex one, if you work with staff to create clear understanding of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, act as a role-model for how people should treat each other in your work unit, and help staff develop alternate and better ways of interacting and communicating you will go a long way to reducing the time, stress and aggravation that results from one or more manipulative people in your workplace. | https://medium.com/leading-and-managing/bullying-manipulation-at-work-managements-responsibility-5bbd2430ddd2 | ['Robert Bacal'] | 2020-07-24 18:40:02.678000+00:00 | ['Human Resources', 'Bullying', 'Conflict', 'Management And Leadership', 'Management'] |
10 Steps to Contribute to Open Source Projects | The Contribution Lifecycle
1. Fork the main repository
Forking the repository creates a copy of it in your account. You can make changes and push any code to this fork, without worrying about messing up the original code base. Click on the fork button at the top of the page to create a new fork.
The forked repository will now be available in the “Repositories” section in your account.
2. Clone the forked repository to your machine
Now we need to clone the forked repository to our machine so that we have a local copy of the code. Click on the clipboard icon next to the SSH or HTTPS URL of your forked repository to copy it.
Now open a terminal on your machine and run the following command to clone the forked repository:
git clone [email protected]:theawesomenayak/guava.git
3. Create a feature branch
While making any change to the code, a best practice is to create a new feature branch for the changes we need to make. This ensures that we keep the master branch clean, and are able to simply revert our code or make updates when necessary.
Switch to the directory that was created after you cloned the forked repository:
cd guava
Create a new feature branch with a name that identifies with the changes you are planning to do. For example:
git checkout -b fix-npe-issue
4. Commit your changes to the feature branch
If you have created any new files as part of your change, you will need to add it to the branch you just created.
git add <filename>
For all the changes made, you have to commit them to the branch. Make sure you add a valid commit message (as per the conventions of the project):
git commit -m "Fixed the NPE issue due to a null key used in cache"
5. Push the feature branch to your fork
Now it’s time to push your commit to your forked repository:
git push origin fix-npe-issue
6. Raise a Pull Request against the main repository
Once you have pushed your code to your forked repository, it's time to raise a PR against the main repository. Click on the “Pull Request” button to start a new PR.
This takes you to a screen where the changes in your forked repository are compared with the code in the main repository. You can review the changes and provide a valid description of your changes before submitting them.
7. Address review comments and get your PR merged
The code maintainers will often come back with certain comments around the changes you have made. These could either propose functional changes, or cosmetic changes such as formatting, etc. Once you make these changes, simply push them to your branch and the PR will be automatically updated.
Once the changes are good, a maintainer will merge them to the main repository. Congratulations!!! You are now officially an open-source contributor.
8. Add the main repository as an upstream to your cloned repository
Many other developers, apart from you, also keep merging their code into the main repository. We need to continuously sync our forked repository with it to get the latest code available.
Your cloned repository is linked to your forked repository. To keep your fork in sync with the main repository, you’ll need to connect them by adding the main repository as an upstream in your cloned repository.
git remote add upstream [email protected]:google/guava.git
Verify that the upstream has been set correctly using the following command:
git remote -v
It should display the following values to confirm that the origin and upstream are pointing to the correct repositories:
origin [email protected]:theawesomenayak/guava.git (fetch)
origin [email protected]:theawesomenayak/guava.git (push)
upstream [email protected]:google/guava.git (fetch)
upstream [email protected]:google/guava.git (push)
9. Update your master branch from upstream
Once the upstream is set, you can pull in changes that have been done in the main repository by other developers. This updates the cloned repository on your local machine:
git pull upstream master
10. Push the master branch to your fork
Once you have all the updates on your local machine, you will need to push them to your forked repository so that it's in sync with the main repository:
git push origin master
(Optional) Delete your feature branch
Once the feature has been merged into the main repository, it’s no longer needed and can be deleted:
git branch -d fix-npe-issue
You can also delete the remote branch from your forked repository: | https://medium.com/better-programming/10-step-guide-to-github-contributions-9aeeb38493a8 | ['Siben Nayak'] | 2020-08-04 17:20:12.984000+00:00 | ['Open Source', 'Github', 'Software Development', 'Git', 'Programming'] |
Merry Christmas 🎄 / Ripple sued by SEC / Coinbase filed for IPO | Merry Christmas 🎄 / Ripple sued by SEC / Coinbase filed for IPO
U.S. government is targeting cryptocurrency to expand the reach of its financial surveillance
Coinbase announced on Thursday that it has confidentially filed for a public offering, becoming the latest in a parade of high-profile startups to pursue an IPO in 2020.
Ripple Inc. said it will defend itself against a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission that claims the company violated investor-protection laws when it sold a bitcoin-like digital asset called XRP.
On Friday, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced a proposed regulation that would require money service businesses (which includes, for example, cryptocurrency exchanges) to collect identity data about people who transact with their customers using self-hosted cryptocurrency wallets or foreign exchanges.
Try Bitsgap, professional trading tools, and a Grid bot to improve your trading. Read our Bitsgap review.
Checkout our list of Best crypto trading bots.
Latest News 📰
Tax season is coming, use the best crypto tax software to file your crypto tax.
First-ever crypto rewards credit card from BlockFi. Get 1.5% rewards in Bitcoin on your everyday purchases. Join the waiting list now.
Good Reads 📑
Developers
Wanna become a Etheruem and Web3 developer? Start here.
Miscellaneous
Money movers
Chrome is bad
Swether — design your Christmas sweater NFT
Podcasts & Videos 💽
All the ways crypto can make gaming more Fuf
Diving deep into liquidity mining
Crypto from the Outside
Hackathons, Events & Summits
Inout 7.0 virtual hackathon challenge
Decentralized Web Seattle meets Dec 17th
ETHGlobal’s Market Make hackathon
Crypto Deals and Discount 🔖
Sign up for Bybit exchange and win up to $625 in bonus.
exchange and win up to $625 in bonus. Get 25$ credit which you can use for fees when you join Mudrex .
Try Coinrule and get 7 days of free trial and 25% for 3 months using this link.
Product Reviews and other crypto software📙
Wanna us to showcase your product? Contact us on Twitter @coinmonks
Bitcoin $20K
Jobs 👷
Get published on Coinmonks
If you like to write educational articles on crypto/blockchain space and wanna get published on Coinmonks publication. Just mail me at [email protected] or DM me Twitter | https://medium.com/coinmonks/merry-christmas-ripple-sued-by-sec-coinbase-filed-for-ipo-3b96452fc7e5 | ['Gaurav Agrawal'] | 2020-12-28 13:06:32.804000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum', 'Coinmonks', 'Bitcoin'] |
Statistics on Education | Thirty-six percent of people in India (439 million) are illiterate. That’s right; there are more illiterate Indians than there are people in the United States, Mexico, and one-third of Canada combined.
Of Indian urban cities with more than 1 million people (of which there are 45), 24.1% of the population lives in slums. Of these people, only half can read and write.
In India, if you make more than Rs 32 (62 cents) per day, you are above the government’s poverty line and are thus ineligible for state and federal subsidies. A liter of milk, in comparison, costs Rs 40 (77 cents). It would take more than a day of work to earn a single quart of milk. Even if you worked every single day for a year at this rate, you would only make $226.30. Amazingly, 37% of Indians (448 million people) still live below this line.
My point is this: if you’re poor and uneducated here in India, there are literally millions of people just like you. There are more than 600,000 people living in slums just here in Faridabad! That’s the population of Washington D.C. The slum in which I teach has more than 30,000 residents alone.
These numbers are nearly impossible to comprehend. However, I am beginning to understand the diverse mentalities surrounding this massive dilemma. As the rich become richer, the poor become poorer, and the numbers of each continue to soar, increased selfishness is the logical progression.
I used to wonder how Mukesh Ambani, one of the top-ten wealthiest people in the world, could live in a 27-story nearly $2 billion home in Mumbai overlooking mass poverty. I don’t have $27 billion in the bank like Mr. Ambani –even if I did I wouldn’t spend it like he does– but he is not alone in his actions. I shake my head every time I pass the Rolls Royce dealership in Delhi or see a big BMW zip through traffic with disregard of others.
But even Mr. Ambani can’t single-handedly bring his 448 million fellow countrymen out of abject poverty. None of us can. We must start small, knowing well that we can’t help everyone.
Helping begins with understanding. Throwing money and resources blindly at a cause without proper planning and knowledge of the underlying needs is a path to waste and disorder. It’s easy to look into the school here and say, “They need shoes, desks, Crayons, workbooks…” But, is that really the best way we can help them? What happens when the desks make the room overflow, when the kids would rather just be barefoot, when there is no paper to use the Crayons with, and when the workbooks become covered with scribbles from 80 other students? What happens when the other volunteers and I get on a plane and fly 8000 miles into the horizon?
My goal is to get on that plane knowing that at least one life has been and will continue to be drastically changed by our efforts here. I have a project in the works that I think you will like, that will engage you, and that might just bring a life of opportunity and prosperity to a few lucky kids who would otherwise just be, well, one in 448 million.
Please bear with me as I continue to work out the fine details. In the meantime, hit me up with ideas if you have any. I’ll reveal my own plans once I am certain of their feasibility and efficacy.
Major Sources:
http://ddp-ext.worldbank.org/EdStats/INDgmrpap09b.pdf
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/How-does-one-define-poverty-line-in-India/Article1-754337.aspx
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/business/global/this-luxurious-house-is-not-a-home.html | https://medium.com/squalor-to-scholar/statistics-on-education-f6112e56ee2a | ['John Schupbach'] | 2017-11-11 02:34:46.042000+00:00 | ['India', 'Poverty', 'Education', '005 Ankit', 'Favorites'] |
Best Laid Plans Fail- Why? | Even the best laid plans can fail
It’s the 20th of December, year 2020. As 2021 approaches, I feel a festive vibe. The year 2020 has been Corona-spent and everyone has their hopes pegged high for the New Year. Why not? We are rapidly descending from the pandemic peak and that there’s a vaccination in the offing, too. Unless the virus mutates into a diabolical strain, we are good.
As always, New Year brings in resolutions. I resolve to do things every year and resolutely fail in making things work. I’m more of a journey -person than a goal-person, you see.
Why do our best laid plans fail?
They’re not best laid, after all
Planning requires having a holistic picture of things to come. It takes imagination to come up with a foolproof plan. So, we might just be running headlong into the plan without giving it enough thought.
Excessive planning ruins it all
Elaborate planning without leaving any room for manouvering is more common than not. Something like a virulent pandemic is a Black Swan, but there could be many things that throw a spanner in the works. The more rigid the plan, the greater the chances of it breaking apart.
Being wishy-washy
Once a decent plan is made, it is important to be firm on executing it. Being half-hearted or wishy-washy just doesn’t cut it. Not only will it leave you dispirited but also, what a waste of time!
Not adapting to changes quickly enough
Someone said, if you want change, you should invite chaos into your life. Changes will pour in and will upset your plans. The key is to be adaptable. If you aim for carrying out 💯 percent of the plan, you may achieve 40–50 percent of it, if you adapt quickly enough.
Not celebrating milestones
Traversing through a series of milestones enroute reaching a goal is a way of breaking your journey into miles. A milestone is an occasion to celebrate, which will lift your morale and recharge your batteries for the next sprint.
A year long plan is a campaign
Sometimes, you are a one man army. Other times, you have a team to lead. Irrespective of the size of your unit, when you plan something for the long term (like a year), you’re no longer executing a simple plan. The timespan adds dimensions to your goal. It becomes a campaign.
Negative self-talk
Always find ways to cheer yourself up, because carrying out a plan can be plain drudgery. Positive self-talk has been known to plant seeds of courage. You should keep reminding yourself why you have started your journey and do rest if you must, but do not quit. Morale can make or break your war.
Not enjoying the journey
Every step you take in the right direction should ideally make you more resolute about achieving your goal. But motivation is a fairweather friend. You may need to overhaul your approach to getting things done and it can be a great journey of learning by doing. Journal your journey.
No strategies for spanners
While there will be black swans or black cygnets, there are always ways to cope with certain spanners. If you’ve tried out a plan the year before, you are most likely to be aware of what can throw them into your plans.
Nature doesn’t rush, but always gets things done
All the adrenaline junkies out there, please take note. You can’t rush a campaign. You have to let the idea sink into your mind, first. The human body is a bureaucracy while our plans presume it’s a meritocracy at work. There’s corruption, red tape and all kinds of loopholes that will conspire to slow you down right inside your mind. So, get some more strategies to see you through.
So, now you know what to watch out for.
I wish you a Merry Christmas 🎄 and a life-changing 2021! | https://medium.com/@alekhyah/best-laid-plans-fail-why-3cac09911e8d | [] | 2020-12-26 22:58:05.106000+00:00 | ['Plan B', 'Management And Leadership', 'Planning', 'Planner'] |
The Deutsch-Jozsa Algorithm | To understand how the Deutsch-Jozsa Algorithm works, let's have an input where n=1. The process will be the same regardless of the value of n. If all measurements of n equal to 0, the function was constant. If at least one of the measurements results in a 1, the function would’ve been balanced.
In our example, since n=1, if the result is 0, the function would’ve been constant. Otherwise, if the result is 1, the function would be balanced.
To implement the circuit, we need 2 qubits: the first qubit, q0 , will be our “data qubit” (x), and the second qubit, q1 , will be our “helper/ancilla qubit” (y). We then initialize the qubits with q0 into the |0> state and q1 into the |1> state (We do this by applying an X gate).
Mathematically, it would look like this:
Next, we need to put the qubits in a superposition by applying 2 H gates; an H gate on q0 , and another on q1 . (Ignore the ID , it’s just a placeholder so my Hadamard gates are aligned)
After applying the Hadamard gates on q0 and q1 , we can expand the equation such that it looks like the following:
Now, we need to implement Uₕ , the quantum oracle/unitary operation. Uₕ does 2 things: it implements the function, h(x), and outputs the XOR of the bits of h(x) and the bits of the helper/ancilla qubit. If h(x) is a constant function (h(x) = 0), we don’t need to do anything, but if h(x) is a balanced function (h(x) = 1), all we need to do is to apply an X gate to the helper/ancilla qubit. Uₕ is a lot harder to figure out for balanced functions and is more complicated when n gets larger.
For our n=1 example, the oracle performs a CNOT gate, with q0 as the control qubit and q1 as the target qubit. After implementing Uₕ , the helper/ancilla qubit has a state of y XOR h(x) . This means that if the data qubit is |0> , the helper/ancilla qubit will be y XOR h(0) . If the data qubit is |1> , the helper/ancilla qubit will be y XOR h(1) instead.
We can actually rewrite the states mathematically like this:
And we can factor out the helper/ancilla qubit so it looks like this:
We apply another 2 H gates to our qubits. We do this so the |1> terms can cancel out if h(0) = h(1) and if h(0) ≠ h(1), the |0> terms will be canceled. In other words, for the data qubit, |0> becomes |0> + |1> , and |1> becomes |0> - |1> . For the helper/ancilla qubit, if it’s a |0> - |1> , it will become a |1> .
Now, with a bit more math and simplifying, we can get this: | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/the-deutsch-jozsa-algorithm-f8611e2ff3ff | ['Ryan Lam'] | 2020-03-31 22:31:01.347000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Physics', 'Tech', 'Quantum Computing', 'Computer Science'] |
Secrets to successful growth: Clearly communicating your vision and trusting your team. | So, you’ve done it. You’ve built a company from the ground up, proved product-market fit, and are preparing to grow. Regardless of what led you to this moment, one thing always remains the same: scaling up a business marks the end of an era.
Despite the feeling of success, for you, or your business partners, it’s easy to be feeling more out of sorts than ever. You’ve noticed it’s impossible to continue to be everywhere at once (though let’s be real, was it ever really possible in the first place). You can feel your company’s culture is growing beyond your direct influence. And it’s normal to feel lost as your direct impact on your business’ core operations is less and less.
This all is exciting, but it can also be hard. It can make you question your identity, your value, and your role in your business’ future. How do you usher in a new era of growth and what is your role in it?
From working with a wide range of companies — from small startups to corporates — I’ve noticed a few commonalities in the ones that had successful growth. I wanted to share a few of the observations with those of you who are at the cusp of scaling, to hopefully keep in mind as you move forward into this exciting new adventure.
Vision. Vision. Vision.
Not surprisingly, all of these companies have a strong, clear, easy-to-communicate vision backing them. This is essential for success as it’s a unifying factor (remember, you can’t be everywhere at once).
A strong vision allows the team to make day to day decisions independently, and act autonomously, because it’s clear to them why the business exists (and why they are there). A question I like to ask on team engagement surveys is “Do you feel your work contributes directly to the success of the company?” This score is often lower when the vision is unclear, as the team doesn’t understand how their skills and effort contributes to the company’s purpose.
When the team is on the same page, moving toward the same destination, it becomes much easier to empower them to make decisions without you having to be a part of every single meeting. Instead, your effort goes into establishing communication channels that allow knowledge to be shared throughout the organization, and prevent best practices from getting lost in the shuffle.
Yes, for a long time you might have been able to look across your desk to your colleagues to share new thoughts, discoveries and ideas, but as your business grows, that becomes more difficult, if not impossible. Focus on communicating about and embodying your overall vision, and trust the wonderful team you hired to make the day to day choices that will lead you to fulfilling your purpose.
You need to let go (give autonomy) and trust.
Here’s the bottom line. If you’re afraid to let go and allow your team to be autonomous, or feel in constant conflict with the rest of the company, then it’s time for some honest self reflection.
Accept that your vision many not be clear.
It’s okay. This happens. Check in with what’s driving you forward. Why are you doing this? It’s easy to get lost in motivations only concerning you or your reputation, because the line between your identity and your company’s identity is blurry at best. But a vision is not a dream end state.
Take time to sort out your vision. What was that real belief, that contribution, the reason you brought this company into existence in the first place? If you struggle to find it, bring in the team. They helped you get this far, even if they can’t quite express it themselves. Trust them to help you guide yourself back to the vision. You don’t have to, and shouldn’t, do it alone.
I know it may feel like a step back, but it’s truly a giant leap forward to revisit and clarify this.
Check-in on your company culture & growth plan.
If you don’t trust your team you may have made some very off-base hiring decisions. I won’t go into much detail on this here, as this is an article within itself, but check-in with yourself on any team members that you struggle to trust.
Often it can be as fundamental as a difference in values, or the wrong skill set at the wrong time. Realign your values, get back in touch with your company culture, and freeze hiring until you’ve figured out how to find the right match.
Embrace that your way is no longer the only or best way.
This is hard. As entrepreneurs we build things from the ground up, we know the ins and outs of our business, and are all hands on deck for a large portion of its early life. We believe we know what’s best.
When things were just starting, yes, you did need to have that control and influence in order to learn and create traction in your business — but the time has come to let that go. The vision must speak for itself, and your team will have their own way of doing things.
They may not do it like you would do it, or maybe they can’t even do it with the skill level that you could, but you’re just going to have to get used to that. It’s necessary for people to be able to work how they work best (just like you had to!). It’s not about creating clones of yourself, or just hiring a bunch of cogs in a machine. It’s about finding people with aligned values.
You want people who think. You want to give them space and motivation to do this. You don’t want a team that’s only acting to make you happy. It’s not about you anymore. It’s about something bigger, the vision.
So, your job has changed, and that’s more than OK.
This means you have to change your own definition of success and understanding of the value you are contributing to your company. You need to update your own metrics of success.
Whether you like it or not you need to take a step back. You’re just not going to be able to work on your company or your product in the same detailed, on the ground, level you have been for so long.
Your job is to live in the future, in the big picture, as a leader and spokesperson for the vision of your company. For some, you will need to have both feet in the future door, others of you will still need one foot in the present. You need to always be thinking about how to translate your knowledge into process and vision and company culture.
Resist the temptation to meddle in the day to day. Too many leaders find new purpose in running into brainstorms, providing (often ungrounded) perspectives or advice, leaving bewildered teams torn between following word for word the decision of the leader or their own beliefs in achieving the vision.
I cannot emphasize this enough: Your job is not to meddle, it is to mentor, to guide, to support.
Your visionary skills need to be focused on your realm, communicating and developing the big picture. Yes, provide mentorship and support, but, give your team the space to think and succeed for themselves. Otherwise they will shut down.
Companies fail when founders or leadership starts competing with the team (often because of their own insecurities) because they feel the need to prove to the team that they have value. Your team knows you have value. Your leadership and your vision inspired them to join in the first place.
Don’t end up with a team that’s stressed, immobile and dependent on you for every tiny movement. This is a team that will likely leave for another company in order to tackle a challenge where they feel trusted and creative.
Your team is where innovation is going to come from.
Innovation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens on the ground floor with the people working on your business on the day to day.
Again, being “visionary” doesn’t mean intruding into your team’s space and trying to unnaturally insert innovation yourself — that’s not your job as a leader. It’s to facilitate your team, grow them as individuals, to be able to find innovations.
Your new role is an exciting one, an essential one, where you keep your eyes set on the future horizon, and where a new observation, perspective, or idea can inspire a path forward.
—
Based on initial observations made at the 2019 BASE conference on how to Build, Advance, Sustain and Elevate businesses. A contribution to the Create Converge project which is supported by the European Union North Sea Region Programme. | https://medium.com/swlh/scale-up-step-back-move-forward-ed6458512832 | ['Melinda Jacobs'] | 2020-03-25 15:28:41.822000+00:00 | ['Vision', 'Growth Mindset', 'Startup', 'Company Culture', 'Scaleup'] |
When you should consider buying and selling Bitcoins | So what I did was pull all price and volume data, at 2 min intervals, for the past 14 days. This means data from Feb 13 (included) until Feb 27 (excluded), just for Bitcoin — I haven’t done other coins yet. And remember that we have two types of volume: trading volume24h and volume delta (which is calculated by: volume24(t)-volume24(t-1) ).
One more thing, I want to make a plot by the hour, but since we have 2min intervals, we need to calculate the average of all data points for their given hour. The end result looks like this:
On the left we have a table, where I’ve inserted the normalized averages, such that they are within the range [0,1]. By normalizing the data we can easily compare their trend/behavior (e.g. compare price and volume). Notice: our date and time corresponds to the UTC (GMT) timezone, so same is true for the “hour” field.
On the right I’ve drawn radar chart for our three (normalized) datasets. Orange is price (in USD $), blue is the trading volume24h and green is the volume delta. Notice that the radius on the radar goes from [ 0 at the center — to → 1 the outer circle ]. This corresponds to our [0,1] of normalized data. Where 0 corresponds to the smallest value, and 1 to the largest one. By looking at the three graphs, I noticed that there seems to be no relationship between price and volume delta. So let’s remove that one for now:
When comparing the price and volume24 we do see some interesting (and pretty obvious) things:
When the price is very low (=0.1 at midnight) then the trading volume24h is at its highest peak (=1).
When the price is at its lowest (=0 at 10:00) then the trading volume is quite low as well (between 0.4 and 0.5).
When the price is at its highest (=1 at 23:00) then the trading volume is pretty high but not highest (=0.8).
These are interesting facts from the observation, but they don’t help us much. So the next thing was to look at the times/hours themselves:
The price is highest at 23:00
The price is lowest at 10:00
The price is very low at 00:00 (midnight)
This got me quite excited, because I can use these finds to create a super simple/dumb trading strategy. The strategy is as follows:
Buy when the price is lowest (at 10:00)
Sell when the price is highest (at 23:00)
A few minutes later I added a new backtesting strategy and started running tests. The first ROI result I obtained was similar to the one you can obtain from the graph above. However, our backtesting system enters a buy/sell trade for 100%, so it uses all its resources for the buy/sell trade. So in our case, if it enters a buy it will do so when the click strikes 10:00, and then it won’t do anything until 23:00 to sell.
A few more things before I post the results:
The charts above were generated from data within a specific date range (13Feb until 27Feb), so they are only true for this respective range. But I wanted to see how this trading strategy would perform outside this range as well. Since our system enters using 100% of the resources in a single shot, we need to create two experiments: one where it enters a trade at its lowest point, and another one where it enters at the 2nd lowest point (at midnight that is).
This is what I’ve obtained from the backtests:
The first data column is “Date”. This indicates until which day (excluded) the backtesting was done. Each backtest spans over 14 days and ends in the indicated Date value. So e.g. 27/feb means from 13 Feb (included) until 27 Feb (excluded) [this is the same range of data as for our previous radar charts].
The second and third columns are the ROIs obtained from the backtesting system. There are two columns, each representing a different experiment, the first one is the one that enters a buy trade at 10:00 (lowest price); the second ROI is from trades entered at midnight (2nd lowest point).
On the right I’ve drawn a 2D-column chart showing both ROIs. The blue columns are from ROIs entered at 10:00, while the orange ones are from trades entered at midnight. What’s interesting is that the ROIs (on average) are higher for trades entered at midnight (which is the 2nd lowest point). This may be true in our case, but it does not mean it’s generally true. Remember that our system enters trades at exactly the given time, but it could be that the real maximum value is reached midway at 23:30. To make more precise calculations one would need to include not only the hour of the day, but also the minute of the given hour to obtain a clearer picture.
However, by looking at the ROIs, it’s pretty amazing to see such big numbers such as 42%! It’s even more mind blowing if we consider the fact that it only does one full trade cycle (buy+sell) per day. So the system only makes 14 buy+sells in total to get those ROIs. We also see something else on this chart, as time goes by the ROIs decrease. My initial thought was that the price of BTC dropped in March, compared to what it was in February, but that appears to be false:
We clearly see that the price in March is increasing, except for March 6 where it started dropping again. I don’t want to spend too much time figuring out what happened to the ROIs, but here is what I think most likely happened: We are running backtests within a 14day window, and from the ROIs we see that they plunge from March 1 onward. So it’s quite likely that the trades between Feb 20 and Feb 26 are having a big impact on the ROIs, because during these periods there was a decline (as shown on the price chart), thus a big chance the ROIs are much lower because of these bad trades.
TL;DR
If you didn’t understand a word of what I just wrote, remember this: Buy Bitcoin either at midnight or 10am (GMT timezone) where it’s most likely to be lowest, and then sell it at 11pm where it’s most likely to be at its highest peak.
Have a great day! :)
- Ilya Nevolin | https://medium.com/swlh/when-you-should-consider-buying-and-selling-bitcoins-508a9724de0 | [] | 2018-03-08 02:37:06.553000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Investing'] |
Holiday Triptych (five month ago, before Coronavirus) | INF
What is to be learned from the modern airport? The milky gloss of its tile reflects nothing; its tough, thin carpet holds no imprint. Outside, between the night sky and a vast flattened desert of asphalt, a portable staircase zips through the darkness, climbing cheerfully into nothingness. On the other side of the perspex, rows and rows of plastic chairs stare fixedly at one another in the harsh light. For a moment a clamshell mirror reflects a set of regulation rouge lips; the stewardess snaps it shut.
Ports were once places of violent, swoopstake ambition and dumb courage; where the detritus of humanity rose above their station only to sink, lifeless, under the waves. Does the driver of that portable staircase have anything to do with Twain’s Mississippi? That stewardess with Melville’s Nantucket? Does any great salty Dickensian romance find its way through the modern airport’s intestines?
— I think not, I think, as the red MRI blob of a headache inexorably blossoms, as I gulp down an absurdly priced, region-specific pint, gazing numbly up at the closed circuit of Hi-Def news highlights: Djokovic punching the air; Merkel’s indifference varnished with stoicism; the fat scarecrow flashed at by crows outside his elegant townhouse, №10; a rusted ute floating through a brown flood somewhere; everything, like a pop-art collage, pasted together with a bright cloying hopelessness.
Is the airport, with its necessary distance from all that is natural and alive, with its soulless, cross-sectionally perfect diversity, with its fetischistic embrace of The Local in pre-fabricated honeycombs of retail space, a symbol, a metaphor, for, phor, something? — No no, its merely a synechdoche, that lazy kicking of the can down meaning’s long road, I think, as I gather my things after a four-hour layover in Athens and shuffle into the boarding queue.
This cheap, Brexitty nostalgia of mine (Melville, Mississippi), cynical in the very remoteness of its idealism, is no match for the bank ads that line the umbilical passage from gate to plane. Here is young Mastercard, an aryan toddler, bushy of blonde ringlet and toothy of grin. In panel one, he frolics in the lensflare of a green day, damp grass and cherry blossoms, a pollen-soaked breeze freshening, perfuming, renewing. In panel two, he forages lollies from the leathery palm of granpa; whose hair is of a softer, silkier floss; whose smile is of the same poetry as his grandson’s; but read from a page wrinkled and dog-eared with use, and care, and the carelessness of others. In panel three, a windowpane of starry night watches over the sleeping boy. His face is calm and quiet, with a touch of angelic seriousness in the set of the mouth. The linen is light blue and well tucked, and a slowly twirling mobile of aircraft guards his dreams. I am, it is all, going away, the myriad questions, the concreteness of time and politics in the city. The engine crescendoes, oh, none of it matters any more, we are going away. | https://medium.com/@NathanielHerz/holiday-triptych-1db1733cdc7d | ['Nathaniel Herz-Edinger'] | 2020-04-17 23:12:03.027000+00:00 | ['Greece', 'Short Story', 'Santorini', 'Travel'] |
Why Your Mind Should Be Your Sanctuary — But For Most Men It’s Not | In a crazy busy world, it’s critical that you have a safe place where you can reset yourself. A place where you can let everything go and just be yourself. A place where you can remove all the responsibilities and weight off your shoulders. That’s the best way to avoid depression, burnout, growing anxiety and improve your overall performance as man and business leader. When you hear the words “safe place”, you’re probably thinking of a physical place or location. Although it’s great to have a place to go to when most need it, it’s not always possible. You can’t just excuse yourself from an important client meeting and head over to a hammock on the beach. Therefore, the safest place should be your mind as it’s the most readily available and you own it, 100%. Your mind should be your sanctuary.
The Harsh Truth
As much as your mind should be your sanctuary, for most men it’s not. Not because you don’t want it to be. More likely because you’ve been trained to be “on” all the time. You’re constantly thinking about work or the other things in your life that aren’t going well or need to be addressed. Everything seems like it needs to be addressed “now” although it rarely does. The Buddhists call this the “monkey mind.” It behaves like a monkey, jumping and climbing from one place to another almost without reason or cause. Don’t worry if this sounds like you because it’s very common.
However, if you don’t train the monkey soon, you’ll not only miss out on enjoying more of your life, you’ll miss out on performing better in every aspect as well. A monkey mind only gets in the way and clouds your judgement without you even knowing. It’s sole purpose is to keep you preoccupied from what really matters. If you find yourself wanting to escape your life or situation, you’re ultimate wanting to escape your mind. Instead of your mind being your sanctuary, it has become the very thing you’re trying to hide from. You may use mindless TV, alcohol or drugs, activities to keep yourself busy or other tactics to distract your mind. If that’s you, then it’s time to take control. Your mind must be the place to go to find refuge.
How To Train Your Mind To Be Your Sanctuary
There are two techniques that I use personally as well as train other men to use to strengthen their mind and whip their monkey into shape.
The first is being a kid again and daydreaming wonderful things. Go back to when you were a little boy. Do you remember what it felt like to daydream? Your parents could be shouting your name, but you were so caught up in your mind that nothing could distract you. Your mind was your safe place back then. That’s where you would go to create your own world and your world was fun and enjoyable. You need to be a boy again. Approach your world with curiosity, playfulness and imagination instead of seriousness.
Second is to calm your mind. The more you calm your mind, the safer it becomes. Instead of running away from it, you’ll run towards it. There are many different methods to calm your mind. You need to find what works for you. I personally find meditation, exercise, mindfulness practices and walking through my orchard the most calming. You could also try yoga, tai chi, or other activities that force you to be more present. Once you find what works for you, do it daily.
Summary
The best performers are those who are able to recoup faster. There’s nothing better than recouping in your own mind rather than depending on external factors that aren’t in your control. Your mind is there with you 24/7. Instead of letting it get the best of you, learn to use it to your advantage. Make it work for you.
All the best!
Purdeep
To get more insight on how to perform at your highest potential, get your FREE copy of my NEW book The Complete Man. Click here. I just ask that you cover basic shipping and handling.
The Complete Man Book
Recent Posts | https://medium.com/@purdeepsangha/why-your-mind-should-be-your-sanctuary-but-for-most-men-its-not-af990aafda66 | ['Purdeep Sangha'] | 2020-12-15 15:23:02.918000+00:00 | ['CEO', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Entrepreneur', 'Business', 'Mind'] |
Get Over Yourself Already | There’s a reason you’re not where you’re “supposed to be.” You know what I mean. Living that bigger, more badass and infinitely better life that you’ve been dreaming of and vision boarding and manifesting so hard it hurts. And in spite of all the victim mindset bullshit that you are absolutely convinced is simply “speaking your truth” and being authentic, somewhere deep down, I mean really deep, you know you’re lying to yourself because you’re scared shitless of actually having what you say you want. I mean, who would you be if you actually had the life you have specialized in wanting but not having all these years?
You and I have both read enough self-help books to know that it’s all about your mindset, right? Thoughts become things, you are what you think about, we get more of what we pay attention to, blah, blah, blah. But if all it really took was to clean up your stinking thinking, we would all be living large on our very own private beach, sipping cocktails and dining on vegan cuisine prepared by our very own private chef, who also happens to double as our private masseuse and personal trainer. And if you stick with me and that fantasy for just a slim minute, try to drop into your mind and body and just imagine what you would be thinking about while living that most enviable lifestyle. Would you even be able to recognize yourself without all your habitual thought errors, limited thinking, and self-sabotage?
One of my very favorite clients once told me that I am the Speaker of Uncomfortable Truths. I love that so much. I know it will never make me popular, but I guess I have kinda given up on that. Now, I am going for honest and real and right between the eyes direct. Because we are all gonna be dead in a minute and then it will be too late for me to tell you. And too late for you to change your mind, literally change your mind or at least the contents of your mind when it comes to the background music that just keeps on playing day after day, year after year. You have been feeling sorry for yourself for as long as you can remember and as a matter of fact, you really can’t remember a time when you weren’t feeling some level of self-pity for something. Either your hair wasn’t thick enough or your waist wasn’t small enough or your eyelashes weren’t long enough or your voice wasn’t husky and sultry enough or your grades weren’t good enough or your wardrobe wasn’t hip enough or your parents weren’t rich enough or your boyfriend wasn’t hot enough.
I could totally go on but you get my point. You feel me, right? I mean you’ve got to know that these really, really are first world problems that aren’t really even important enough for someone in a developing country to have even heard of because they have like real-world problems to contend with such as starvation and warfare and poverty and human trafficking and shit like that. And my point is not to shame you, because suffering is suffering and your pain is no less painful than someone who doesn’t know where their next meal is going to come from, or even if there will be the next meal. My entire point is this, you will absolutely not be able to get past your worries and your doubts and your struggles until the very moment that you decide to simply get over yourself. You will literally have to stand up, walk your ass over to the mirror and have a heart to heart with yourself, making legit eye contact and everything, no glancing at your phone just in case someone might have texted you.
And when you look yourself right in the eye and tell yourself to grow the fuck up, but in a nice, compassionate and totally life-affirming way, like you would imagine someone like Brene Brown would do. I mean she wouldn’t call you out in a mean girl way or shame you for being so self-absorbed, she would simply say it’s time for you to pull up your big girl panties and make the grown-ass woman courageous choice to let go of all of that bullshit that you have been carrying around and story fondling for like half your life already. You aren’t in therapy any longer. Your trauma and drama are in the past. You just need to take a great big gulp of Grow the Fuck Up Already and be done with it. Now blow yourself a kiss in the mirror and get moving. You’ve got shit to do and it’s a new day, girl. | https://medium.com/@diann-wingert/get-over-yourself-already-8c45913de066 | ['Diann Wingert'] | 2020-12-20 19:59:54.458000+00:00 | ['Blog', 'Confidence'] |
The Must-know Tenets of Firearm Safety | The Must-know Tenets of Firearm Safety
Regardless of your political views on the right to keep and bear arms, firearm safety and proficiency is indisputably a valuable survival skillset. Micha Petty Follow Sep 27, 2020 · 8 min read
Let me be clear right off the bat. This article isn’t meant to make you like guns. I’m not here to change your views about the right to keep and bear arms. You’re going to make your own decisions about that issue.
What I am here to do is impress upon you the importance of firearm safety in order to reduce avoidable accidents. Even if you think guns shouldn’t exist, that is no reason to ignore the fact that they are here to stay, and there is no downside to understanding the precepts of firearm safety.
Photo by STNGR Industries on Unsplash
Stop me if you’ve ever heard these:
Stop, Drop, and Roll Look Both Ways Before Crossing The Street Don’t Play With Matches Never Approach a Snake You Cannot Positively Identify as Harmless Wash Your Hands After Using the Bathroom
Hopefully, you’ve known all of those basic health and safety rules since childhood, and there's no reason why you shouldn’t have. Tragically, however, firearm safety rules are often overlooked or neglected either from simple ignorance or because the topic of firearms is highly politicized.
Firearms are tools, just like saws, knives, lighters, stoves, and any number of other potentially dangerous items we deal with regularly. Whether you own a firearm or not (or whether you like them or not), you should memorize the basic rules of gun safety and teach them to your family and children.
To that end, let’s go over these rules. There is one established set of rules for adults and another set for children. Neither set is difficult to learn or understand.
Photo by Jay Rembert on Unsplash
Firearm Safety for Children
IF YOU SEE A FIREARM:
1. STOP 2. DON’T TOUCH 3. WALK AWAY 4. TELL AN ADULT
As you can see, if someone too young to handle a firearm understands these rules and the importance of adhering to them, accidents from unattended firearms could be drastically reduced or virtually eliminated.
Few people would argue that children have a tendency to play with things that fascinate them. Refusing to explain guns and gun safety to children does little except to increase their mystique and consequently make avoidable accidents more likely.
No parent would try to keep it a secret that a pot of boiling water is dangerous. Not explaining how stoves work and their potential for causing burns would obviously be foolhardy. Firearms safety is no different.
Even if there are no guns in your house, that does not mean your child will never encounter one. It is your responsibility to understand and teach them what to do if that happens.
I will also say that, in my opinion, children who have toy guns should be taught to follow the safety rules for adults (shown below). Toys and playtime are learning experiences. Letting children act carelessly with a toy gun increases the chances that they will treat an actual firearm in the same manner.
Conversely, children that are taught to treat a toy gun with care and respect are far more likely to act in a safe manner if they encounter a real gun, either at home, at a friend’s house, or wherever.
Likewise, less-lethal items like BB guns or pellet rifles (and, to some extent, other items such as slingshots) should only be presented to children old enough to understand the following rules for the handling of firearms.
Photo by Jeremy Alford on Unsplash
Firearm Safety for Adults
(Popularized by Jeff Cooper) (Herein paraphrased)
1. Treat every firearm as if it is loaded at all times. 2. Never point a firearm at anything you do not intend to destroy. 3. Never put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to fire. 4. Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
When you contemplate these rules, you realize that any one of them, if adhered to at all times, will prevent accidents. Taken together, they could make unintended and tragic discharges a thing of the past. So, let’s look at them more closely. | https://medium.com/survive-longer/the-must-know-tenets-of-firearm-safety-2563b70c7d69 | ['Micha Petty'] | 2020-09-28 02:39:34.893000+00:00 | ['Outdoors', 'Safety', 'Gun Control', 'Survival', 'Guns'] |
How Crypto Can Benefit Financially Unstable Countries | If you live in the west, you likely take financial stability for granted. Currencies like the US dollar, British pound sterling, and euro are the basis for international trade, have large economies behind them, and relatively stable monetary policies. The same cannot be said for the rest of the world.
A small example of this is Brexit, where British citizens decided to leave the European Union. The British pound fell dramatically on the news. But even this price movement (seen in the chart below) is relatively mild.
In this article, we’re going to explore financially unstable countries around the world and then take a look at how crypto may be able to provide part of the solution.
German Papiermark (1923s)
In the 1910s and 1920s, the Weimar Republic (the precursor to modern Germany) used a currency called the papiermark. Colloquially referred to as the “mark”, this paper currency was originally begged to the price of a gold mark. That said, after the end of World War I, the currency fell into hyperinflation.
In 1914, 1 paper currency mark could be traded for 1 gold mark. By 1919, the exchange rate was 10 paper to 1 gold mark. In July 1923, it took 101,112 park mark to purchase 1 gold mark — and by September 1923, the exchange rate was 13 million to 1!
The money became so worthless that people burn papiermark to fuel fires or as insulation in their walls. The paper had more value itself than as a medium of exchange!
Iraq Dinar (1987–1995)
More recently, the Iraqi Dinar went through a period of sustained hyperinflation. From 1987 to 1995, the Iraqi Dinar had an average annual inflation rate of 315%! This means that if a good cost $1 at the beginning of 1987, it would cost $3.15 at the end of the same year. The cost of basic goods and services became too much for most citizens to bare.
Zimbabwe Dollar (2008)
Zimbabwe went through the most dramatic recent currency crisis. The numbers are scarcely believable. First, we’ll start in 2009, with the news that Zimbabwe officially removed 12 zeros from their currency. In effect, 1 trillion Zimbabwe dollars became 1 Zimbabwe dollar.
Why would they do such a thing? Well, because the central bank routinely printed 100 trillion dollar notes but these bills were not valuable enough to purchase a single loaf of bread! From the early 2000s, Zimbabwe experienced rabid hyperinflation. In November 2008, the estimated inflation rate on a monthly basis was 79,600,000,000% (Cato Journal).
As mentioned in the same Cato Institute source, “Hyperinflations have never occurred when a commodity served as money or when paper money was convertible into a commodity. The curse of hyperinflation has only reared its ugly head when the supply of money had no natural constraints…”
How Crypto Can Benefit Financially Unstable Countries
Cryptocurrencies and blockchain create a unique opportunity for countries that are fraught with inflation, unstable economies, high unemployment, or embezzlement. For example, Bitcoin (BTC) has a set number of coins that can be mined: 21,000,000. Each 1 BTC coin can be divided into 1,000,000 segments, in the same way that a US dollar can be divided in 100 cents.
By having a fixed supply of coins, the Bitcoin protocol ensures that hyperinflation is not a possibility. The BTC:USD price can be volatile, but at the end of the day, two counterparties must agree to trade at that price. In a central bank, a single decision can add billions (or even trillions!) to the money supply, devaluing the currency that its citizens hold.
Furthermore, because each transaction is written to an immutable ledger, it becomes much more clear where funds originated and where funds were sent to. Proving that somebody defrauded another or embezzled funds beyond a reasonable doubt because more obvious.
Lastly, because cryptocurrencies are not tied to a specific geography, language, or federal government, international trade can happen much more freely. Today, it is common for countries to adopt stable currencies from other nations. Zimbabwe, for instance, gave up its own currency and locals use the South African rand and United States dollar (among others) instead.
Similarly, countries can either create their own digital currency or adopt common cryptos in order to facilitate international trade with fast settlements and low transaction fees.
Conclusion
At Hilo, we’re developing the first crypto social network. Hilo combines the best parts of an online community with crypto news, portfolios, and more. Together, we hope to create the best way for newcomers and experts alike to chat and discover new cryptocurrencies and token projects.
As crypto becomes more widely adopted, we anticipate that more governments and central banks will start to take blockchain technology more seriously.
Interested in learning more about crypto or Hilo? | https://medium.com/hilocrypto/how-crypto-can-benefit-financially-unstable-countries-1ae67e697d21 | ['Nicholas Donahue'] | 2018-10-10 17:53:37.817000+00:00 | ['Blogs', 'Trading', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin'] |
The Antidote to Status Anxiety | The Antidote to Status Anxiety
Photo by Mathieu Stern on Unsplash
No matter how sophisticated our choices, how good we are at dominating the odds, randomness will have the last word.” – Nassim Taleb, Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and the Markets
Leaving university and entering “the world of work” can be a difficult transition for many of us. I may not have the authority or experience to tell people what the right choices are to make now, but I thought I’d share some words on career anxiety, since I, for one, am no stranger to it.
Going to a prestigious university means you often come across people who are afraid of failure. People who are afraid of not getting an internship, a graduate role, or getting a first-class degree. It’s fairly common sense to know that this is because we associate these things with our own self-worth.
We cannot be mediocre. We must prove ourselves to be exceptional in some way. We must not only earn a lot of money, but have the status that accompanies this. We must prove to society that we are of high value. Being intelligent isn’t enough, our achievements must showcase our intelligence.
Alain de Botton refers to the above not as career anxiety, but as status anxiety. It may not even be unemployment we’re afraid of. Instead, we’re afraid of being employed in a job that doesn’t demonstrate our brilliance.
De Botton writes that a cause of status anxiety is belief in meritocracy. If we don’t attain what we want in the future, then it will be because of our lack of intelligence or hard work rather than the result of mere chance or bad luck.
Widespread belief in meritocracy isn’t necessarily as strong as it used to be. Many people nowadays won’t shy away from acknowledging the role of privilege and social class in determining one’s success. People are also more aware of the fact that society tends to value certain types of intelligence and skills above others.
But I still believe that meritocracy is a pretty significant ideal among students at prestigious universities who happen to have “made it” here in some way.
Meritocracy isn’t the only ideal that causes status anxiety. The overestimation of free will and underestimation of chance, are also key factors in causing status anxiety.
Let’s apply these beliefs to an actual issue I see on LinkedIn a lot — internships. Imagine two students:
Sally secured an internship at a bank, posted it on LinkedIn as soon as they got it. She’s proud of herself for working hard and being smart enough to get it.
Billy did not secure an internship at a bank. He proceeds to blame it on the fact that his application wasn’t strong enough, and that he didn’t have enough on their CV.
He might then look at all the things which Sally has that he doesn’t have, e.g. a high predicted grade in their economics degree, more work experience.
What tends to happen is things start to spiral. Billy berates himself for not being as smart, hard-working or skilled as Sally, and therefore not likely to be as successful in their career. He starts to believe he is not worth as much as Sally.
Billy is probably right that the reason Sally got an internship, and they didn’t is because she simply had a stronger application. Billy is also right to assume that on some level, Sally has worked harder to build a strong application. Surely this isn’t due to chance or luck, right? It’s due to skill, and it’s due to merit.
However, the extent to which that merit is itself the result of chance and luck is what gets underestimated. Billy and Sally have not just had different academic experiences, but different life experiences.
Those life experiences were largely outside the domain of each students’ control, but influenced their academic ability and motivation to do things. Chance and luck are central to this.
Should those who attain things that are difficult to get not be allowed to celebrate and share news of their achievements? Once again, no. It’s a natural instinct to be proud of yourself for whatever you have achieved. But skill, talent, and hard work aren’t the only things that determine them.
If someone strongly believes in free will, they are likely to hold themselves to a high regard for achieving certain things. Yet, once this mindset is adopted they will also be trapped in believing that any shortfalls in getting what they want (compared to others) are also because of their own lack of merit (talent and hard work).
The result is status anxiety.
The idea that our hard work will earn us some reward and that we have enough free will to get what we want is not a wrong thing to believe at all. But the overestimation of these beliefs is a problem.
As Taleb writes, the role of chance is constantly underestimated in nearly all aspects of life. Even those who work hard may not get what they want, nor are the students with apparently natural talent guaranteed a successful life. This is especially the case for career paths where luck is particularly significant.
Anxiety is a control issue. It’s caused by the feeling that we’re not in control. Often times, the feelings that we are not in control are irrational, but other times it’s because we are trying to control things that simply can’t be controlled.
In the case of status anxiety, our fear is largely based on two things — the future, and our status compared to other people. Can we truly control them?
Meritocracy, and free will may suggest that we can.
We can certainly attempt to control our future by influencing it in the present (that is, by working hard and persevering). Thanks to social media sites like LinkedIn, we can even try to control how people see us. However, forgetting the role of chance and luck among other things will leave us in constant anxiety — trying too hard to control what is outside us.
Worse, this anxiousness itself can sometimes obstruct a person so much that they are unable to do what it takes to improve their skills. Every time they start a new project they are preoccupied with the wrong things. How will this look on my CV? What will people think?
Is seeking status really worth it? | https://medium.com/cosy/i-decided-to-write-this-for-my-peers-who-are-also-graduating-this-academic-year-a2a4de3c1467 | ['Shehzadi Aziz'] | 2021-02-19 15:06:56.486000+00:00 | ['Status', 'Prestige', 'Anxiety', 'University', 'Careers'] |
And God Was Vaping | And God Was Vaping
I searched so far for the answer I looked into the eyes of god
And he was vaping
The answer is there is no answer we are all gonna die and then nothing
And he was vaping
And it means nothing and I am nothing
But I’m not anything I know I am something
I was something
I was someone
When she was laughing
When he was vaping | https://medium.com/@analilliman/and-god-was-vaping-da5e20847288 | ['Ana Lilliman'] | 2020-12-18 04:56:14.531000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Marijuana', 'Philosophy', 'Humour', 'Poetry'] |
The Beauty of Authenticity and Being Real | As we approach the Christmas season, we are aware that a number of countries and cities are still in full or partial lock down. We wouldn’t be doing ourselves any favors if we say that we’re doing OK, when in reality we are not. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought up a number of uncertainties, challenges and radical changes globally never foreseen before. The press and media are increasingly reporting on the toll of lockdown on people’s mental health and how people are struggling to cope. There is no shame in admitting our struggles first to ourselves. Being transparent and honest with ourselves is the first step to recovery in my opinion. Let’s remove the stigma and the shame today. There is innate strength and courage when we are upfront and honest with ourselves about our struggles. We are humans after all -aren’t we?
The fact that you are reading this blog, tells me that you are an Overcomer, and that you are more than a Conqueror. You will finish this year strong. You have a hope and a future.
No matter what struggles you have faced this year, no matter the battles you have fought during this season, you, my friend are a Warrior. You got up today — didn’t you.. You are reading this blog. Just by you being here is a victory and a win itself. Don’t you agree? You showed up for you and you showed up for your loved ones. Celebrate your wins, however minuscule.
My hope and prayer is that if you are struggling that you will reach out to a family member, or a close friend, or even the Samaritans. There is beauty and strength in being real.
Let me conclude by saying that there is ONE who truly knows what we are going through now. God understands our struggles. He only asks that we come to Him in prayer, where will be treated with kindness and where we can find help in our time of need.
“For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but One who has been tempted [knowing exactly how it feels to be human] in every respect as we are, Therefore let us approach the throne of grace [that is, the throne of God’s gracious favor] with confidence and without fear, so that we may receive mercy and find [His amazing] grace to help in time of need” — Hebrews, 4:15–16 | https://medium.com/@menchoosingsafety/the-beauty-of-authenticity-and-being-real-c3789217d56e | ['Joana G - Men Choosing Safety'] | 2020-12-12 11:52:37.272000+00:00 | ['Suicide', 'Mental Health', 'Men', 'Hope'] |
Open sourcing ptracer, a syscall-tracing library for Python | Elvis Pranskevichus, Pinterest engineer, Core Experience
Making Pinterest faster and more reliable is a constant focus for our engineering team, and using hardware resources more efficiently is a major part of this effort. Improving efficiency and reliability requires good diagnostic tools. That’s why today we’re announcing our newest tracing tool, ptracer, which provides granular syscall tracing in Python programs. In this post we’ll cover background on Pinterest’s codebase, why we needed a better tracer and how ptracer can help solve certain engineering problems.
Background
Pinterest is powered by a large Python codebase. Traditionally, the most efficient way to run a Python server from the CPU utilization standpoint is to spawn multiple worker processes (the number of workers is usually close to the total number of CPU cores). The multi-process shared-nothing architecture is safe and efficient, and there’s no GIL or other issues associated with multithreaded programming. That’s why multi-process configuration is a preferred way of running things at Pinterest.
However, using multiple processes has a price to pay–increased memory usage. In a large codebase, just the memory allocated for Python code objects and strings can reach into hundreds of megabytes, with a similar amount needed for application data. The total memory usage across several dozen workers can quickly get out of hand.
Notably, a large portion of data across workers is the same, like the Python code objects and other static bits. The solution to decrease memory usage is to make the worker processes share that data. Thankfully, there’s a way to do just that.
In POSIX systems, new processes are created by invoking the fork() system call which creates an almost identical copy of the calling process. Most importantly, the memory of the process isn’t physically copied right away. Instead, all memory pages shared between the parent and the child processes are marked with the special copy-on-write bit which triggers a copy only when a memory page is modified by one of the processes.
Figure 1. Memory sharing in forked processes
The worker processes start with almost perfect memory sharing but will gradually diverge.
The main source of memory divergence in Python programs is reference counting. In CPython, every Python object is represented by a structure which includes a reference counter that’s incremented whenever a reference to the object is made. Thus, in Python, just accessing an object is enough to trigger the memory page copy.
Similarly, the CPython garbage collector maintains a special record in every tracked Python object and will modify that record when a collection run is made. There are remedies to the latter problem, and Python 3.7 will provide a standard solution in the form of a gc.freeze() call.
Despite these limitations, a large proportion of memory can stay shared, leading to significant overall savings.
From supervisord to fork-server
An external process manager like supervisord knows very little about the program it runs, and it spawns workers as independent processes which share almost no memory. In order to use the benefits of fork(), the Python program must itself call it at the most appropriate moment–just before the server starts accepting connections and after all shared code and data has been loaded.
Besides memory, the child process created by fork() also shares all open file descriptors with its parent and siblings. A file descriptor includes the current offset within the file, and sharing it between processes leads to interleaved reads and writes (which most programs will not expect and fail).
The usual solution to this problem is to immediately close all file descriptors (except stdin, stdout and stderr) after fork() returns in the child process. In our case this wouldn’t work, because the code that opened the file might rely on it to continue being open. Instead, we have to ensure no files or sockets are left open when we call fork() to spawn the workers.
Manually finding all places that open files without closing them is a daunting task. In a large codebase like ours it’s downright impossible, especially considering numerous third-party modules we depend on. Furthermore, fixing this issue once isn’t enough. We need to make sure new code doesn’t introduce regressions.
The only workable solution to this problem is to automate the checks and incorporate them into the regression test suite. To do this we need a mechanism to trace the program and intercept all system calls that create new file descriptors.
Many systems, including Linux, have the ptrace() system call, which allows tracing and interrupting the execution of other processes. Debuggers like gdb use it as well as the venerable strace tool. But we couldn’t simply use strace. While it does report the fact that a certain file was opened or closed, it doesn’t show where in the program this happened which makes finding the spot unnecessarily hard.
That’s why we built our own tracer–ptracer–to solve this problem.
ptracer
ptracer is a module that makes tracing system calls in Python programs trivial.
Under the hood, ptracer uses a combination of threads and subprocesses to make the above possible.
Figure 2. ptracer architecture
When a ptracer context is entered, ptracer spawns a new thread in which the syscall callback will be executed, in addition to another thread used to extract a Python traceback from a given thread. It also spawns a subprocess which does the actual tracing.
Whenever a tracing subprocess detects a system call being made, it checks the syscall against the specified filter (if there is any). If the system call matches the filter, the traceback thread is called to extract the call stack, which is attached to the syscall record and put into the queue. The callback is called for each item in the syscall queue.
Solving the problem of open files pre-fork()
With ptracer, we’re now able to reliably find code locations that leave behind unclosed files.
Future work
ptracer is not limited to tracing file-related syscalls. At Pinterest we use the non-blocking I/O model and making it possible to reliably identify the blocking calls and their latency is our next goal.
We welcome any issues, feedback and pull requests. For all our open source projects, check out our GitHub.
Acknowledgements: I’d like to thank Yury Selivanov, Jon Parise, Sam Meder and Joe Gordon for their help and feedback on the project. | https://medium.com/pinterest-engineering/open-sourcing-ptracer-a-syscall-tracing-library-for-python-b0fe0d91105d | ['Pinterest Engineering'] | 2017-11-20 04:37:52.711000+00:00 | ['Infrastructure', 'Python', 'Tracing', 'Open Source', 'Efficiency'] |
Query Parameters in Google Analytics | How do I identify URLs with query parameters in Google Analytics?
To find URLs with query parameters in Google Analytics, visit your pages report (Behaviour>Site Content>All Pages) and filter for \?|\= (Regex saying “any page including = or ?). this may provide you with a list of pages that contain query parameters.
You can then bear your pages (either manually or using Excel’s text-to-columns) to settle on out common ones. an issue parameter is that the string that comes between “?” and “=”.
Make a listing of these parameters, determine what function they have, and choose what needs to be through with them. I exploit three options:
Strip from URL
Rewrite to be more useful
Leave
This can be determined by the role they play on your website. As a rough guide, if a change in query parameter doesn’t change the content on the page, strip it from the URL. If there’s some useful information that’s difficult to read, re-write it. If it’s entirely useful, leave it as is.
How to rewrite URL query parameters in Google Analytics
To rewrite URLs in Google Analytics you will be ready to use a search-and-replace filter by visiting Admin>Filters and creating a replacement custom filter.
Select “Request URI” from the filter field
Put the \?[query1,quer2]=.* within the search string where query1 and query2 are those you’d prefer to switch with useful information
Add whatever text you’d prefer to figure out instead of the query parameter in “Replace String”
Save the filter and annotate your changes.
Filters
We can also use filters to urge obviate some or all query parameters from our pages. Filters are configured at the account level and will be applied to multiple views immediately, so this will be likely a more robust option if you’re working with several views.
To remove query parameters with filters, we’ll want to use the exploration and Replace filter. enter your Admin panel and find “All Filters” under your account. Click to feature a replacement filter and alter the filter type to “Custom” and choose “Search and Replace.” The filter field should be “Request URI” to tell Google Analytics that we wish to look in our page paths.
We will use the Search String to identify the query parameter to induce elimination.
Three sorts of query parameters
Before throwing salt and H2O at any query parameter you see in Google Analytics, ask yourself — why does it exist, and does it should be exercised?
I’ve noticed there are 3 kinds of query parameters:
Rubbish query parameters that just pollute the data (e.g. Marketing tags). These allow your analytics software to understand what campaign they’re associated with. They (usually) don’t serve a singular a definite version of the page, and within the URL report should show in one line of information.
Fewer rubbish tags that serve a special version of an existing page (e.g. filters).
These tags are things like /bedsheets/?colour=1235. Maybe you’d wish to grasp if filters were used (in which case you simply must show two pages:
/bedsheets/ and /bedsheets/filtered, for example) otherwise, you need to get actual data out of this like what colour corresponds to “1235”.
Not rubbish query parameters that are different pages when. Occasionally, entire websites are built on query parameters, and each one encompasses a purpose and maybe a private page which is ok (maybe).
Query Parameters Splinter Data
Query parameters slice URLs in Google Analytics. the identical webpage on your site is additionally variable into tens, hundreds, or (for highly trafficked sites) thousands of assorted pages in GA when combinations of parameters are tacked onto this URL. Hence, all associated metrics are splintered additionally. this could make cohesive analysis extremely difficult and in some cases impossible.
For instance, imagine you’re trying to tug the very best viewed pages of the past month. With parameters ending the identical page into unique URLs, the number of pageviews is fragmented. At a high level, this undermines the page view-based performance of anybody page. If you wanted to dig further into these pages, common questions like where this traffic is coming from, what the bounce rate is, and also the way people are interacting with it become nearly impossible.
2. Query Parameters end in High Cardinality
We already know that question parameters can multiply the number of pages in your content reports. If this causes the number of rows in your page reports to exceed 50K day by day, you’ll run into high cardinality issues. Essentially, Google sets limits on the number of values a dimension can have. For the page dimension, after 50K values (or rows) of information has been filled, pages will begin to be the (other) value (here’s Google’s exact explanation of this problem).
Thousands of pages are often lumped into (other), and this data is largely inaccessible to research. Making any judgments on this incomplete data will end in highly inaccurate assumptions and misguided decision-making.
3. Personally Identifiable Information Can Often Linger in These Parameters
In the depths of query parameter combinations (especially for eCommerce companies) may lurk an unnecessary evil: personally identifiable information (PII).
PII is any information that may be traced back to a minimum of one specific individual. It can are available in the form of:
Names
Phone numbers
Addresses
Emails
Credit card numbers
Social security numbers
If users are ever prompted to enter any of this information on your website, you want to be wary that you simply aren’t sending this data through Google’s servers (which would then end up within the URL or page title of your Google Analytics Data).
*Email addresses, telephone numbers, and personal street addresses in data
Unfortunately, when URLs have large combinations of parameters, it’s going to be difficult to differentiate this PII.
Failure to exclude this information from your Google Analytics data and to cease sending it to Google’s server might be an immediate violation of Google’s policy and will end in termination of your account — see ya later data. to forestall this wrongful termination, you will not only remove these parameters at the view level but also strip these parameters at the information collection level through Google Tag Manager.
Hopefully, this, and also the explanations above, have a minimum of make you consider identifying and omitting extraneous query parameters from your data.
Now you’d possibly be thinking, how do I exclude the “extraneous”? | https://medium.com/@ziad-ismail-taha/query-parameters-in-google-analytics-d6856ac66e6b | ['Ziad Ismail'] | 2020-11-23 19:49:51.689000+00:00 | ['Google', 'Google Analytics', 'Query'] |
How I Accidentally Became Vegan | How I Accidentally Became Vegan
Vegan burger at Friends & Brgrs
Last winter while I was living in Key West, I became chronically dehydrated. I was biking at least 4 miles every day going back and forth between my apartment and work. And in case you don’t know, it’s hot in Key West. Like extremely hot. Every single day.
So if you aren’t drinking enough water, you’re going to get dehydrated — fast.
I started to notice it when the skin on my face was becoming increasingly dry and nothing I did was working. No matter how much I spent on skincare products or hydrating moisturizing cream, nothing seemed to work.
My diet at the time was pretty crappy, I’m not going to lie. I was a snack queen. I only liked junk food or greasy food. The thought of cutting out things like sugar or meat, made me cringe. I couldn’t do it. In fact, I wouldn’t do it.
I’d eaten this way pretty much my entire life, why would I stop now?
But after doing a ton of research I ultimately decided the only way I was going to get my sink back to normal was to drink water. And a lot of it. So that’s what I did. I started buying cases of water along with these hydration packets to put inside and I went with it.
It actually took a while for me to see any results because that’s how dehydrated I was, but I did start to notice that I was feeling better and I had more energy overall. Who would have thought that all this time, all I needed was a bit of water. Not me. | https://medium.com/@jennicajanae/how-i-accidentally-became-vegan-86333f481957 | ['Jennica Janae'] | 2020-12-14 23:24:07.917000+00:00 | ['Vegan', 'Self Improvement', 'Water', 'Personal', 'Self'] |
Subsets and Splits