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Joshua Wong from prison: “China is a threat to world freedom” | Ivan Lam and Joshua Wong enter Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre (prison), November 23, 2020. Photo: Stand News
Joshua Wong from prison: “China is a threat to world freedom”
On November 23, Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam plead guilty to charges of organising and inciting “unlawful assembly” related to the surrounding of Hong Kong police headquarters by protesters on June 21, 2019. In the same trial, Agnes Chow had earlier plead guilty. All three were immediately remanded in custody pending sentencing on December 2. Joshua and Ivan were sent to Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre, where Joshua was placed in solitary confinement because, he was told by prison authorities, a foreign body had been detected in his abdomen in an x-ray taken upon his incarceration and he had to be placed under observation in isolation for three to five days. Many in Hong Kong suspected the treatment was in retaliation for Joshua’s efforts on behalf of prisoners’ rights.
Joshua has been a regular columnist for Die Welt am Sonntag for some time. Die Welt submitted written questions to Joshua and, from his cell, he responded in writing.
Joshua is continuing to write from prison. You can access his letters by contributing to his Patreon account.
WELT: Joshua Wong, how are you?
Joshua Wong: I feel like a dissident in China. In the past three weeks, altogether 23 activists, journalists and representatives have been arrested. Every day, activists are on trial and demonstrators are sent to prison.
WELT: Why have you plead guilty to two charges?
Wong: After consulting our lawyers, Ivan Lam and I plead guilty. Compared to the 12,000 Hong Kong people [the actual number is a little over 2,000; perhaps this was a typographical error] on trial and the twelve Hong Kong people being held in China, the attacks on me are relatively less important. I trust my lawyers who advise me of my interests. I can’t comment on the judicial issues involved in this case because the government might use that further persecute me.
WELT: Could you describe a bit the arrangement between your lawyers and the prosecutors?
Wong: No further comment.
WELT: How have you been treated up to now by the prison guards?
Wong: I am being kept in solitary confinement. I can’t leave my cell and am not allowed to meet any other prisoners. I am prohibited from exercising outside, something that the inmates here value greatly. Because the lights in the cell are on 24 hours a day, it’s difficult to sleep. I have to use my surgical mask to cover my eyes in order to fall asleep.
WELT: What in your opinion is the reason for these prison conditions?
Wong: It’s not unusual for well-known inmates to be kept in solitary confinement. In my case, I’m convinced that the prison guards want to prevent any contact between myself and other inmates because many of them are activists, some of whom I visited at the beginning of the year. After having spent several periods in prison, I’ve committed myself to working for the rights of prisoners. In June, I sent a report to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights about the mistreatment of activists in prison. From that point of view, the prison authorities have no reason to be nice to me.
WELT: Are you afraid you’ll be sent to China?
Wong: I’m not so worried about myself. What worries me more is the fate of the twelve Hong Kong people in Chinese custody. I am, after all, in Hong Kong; I can contact my friends, colleagues, and lawyers, and I have access to medicine. On the 93rd day after their arrest, the families of the twelve activists finally received a letter from them, which was at the very least a sign they are still alive. But judging by the content of the letter, they’ve been mistreated: they’ve made confessions that are likely coerced. For example, they say that they’ve already appointed lawyers recommended by the authorities and that they regret their activism. Compared to that situation, I’m ok.
WELT: What do you fear the most?
Wong: I’m learning to overcome my fear. Perhaps the authorities are waiting for a good time to charge me under the national security law. But what worries me most of all is that the world could interpret my arrest as the end of the democracy movement. But it’s not the end of our struggle. On the contrary, we continue to struggle, even from prison.
WELT: What gives you strength?
Wong: In the past year, with the outbreak of the mass protests, the smell of teargas became part of our collective memory. I often think of what Brian Leung, one of the activists, has said: “More than language and values, what unites all Hong Kong people is pain.” For that reason, it’s an honour for me to have fought from the beginning side by side with all of the protesters, regardless of the potential imprisonment. It is also the case that I have faith in my fellow Hong Kong citizens. “We also thank God for our suffering that we must take upon ourselves because of our faith,” it says in Letter to the Romans in the New Testament. “Because suffering makes one patient. Patience then deepens and anchors our faith, and that in turn strengthens our hope.” Once sown, the seeds will one day sprout. We won’t give up but instead will continue the struggle. That is what gives me strength.
WELT: You were disqualified from running for parliament. You’ve also been imprisoned several times. Now you’re being prosecuted, in addition to which you’ve been remanded in custody. Is this an escalation we’re seeing?
Wong: Yes, Beijing is increasingly using Hong Kong’s judicial system to persecute protesters and activists. So it doesn’t just have to do with me. Beijing is tightening its grip, and all freedoms and rights are at stake. In that sense, it doesn’t matter at all what social role one has. Teachers, journalists, judges — the escalation targets every one of us as well as people living in exile. The escalation spills notably over into the rest of the world. Beijing has successfully produced a chilling effect, including in Germany. Universities, journalists and businesses — all are forced to abide by Chinese norms. The escalation in Hong Kong is a symptom of a bigger problem: China is threatening the freedom of the world.
WELT: When you look back over your own decisions, have you made any mistakes?
Wong: I have during the eight years I’ve been an activist made many mistakes. I wish I had learned more quickly and listened better. And now that I’m in solitary confinement, I miss my family. I wish I had spoken more gently to my parents in the past. There were times when they were very worried about me, and I did too little to comfort them.
WELT: Do you feel you’ve been treated fairly by the judicial system?
Wong: I lost my faith in this judicial system long ago. One cannot expect that institutions can protect you from the injurious effects of abuse of power when the system itself is manipulated by those in power. I think my case will draw the world’s attention to the arbitrary power of the judicial system, whose impartiality has already been severely damaged by the undue influence and systematic violence of Beijing. After two verdicts, two more trials await me. Besides that, the Department of Justice demands I pay about €12,000 in court costs for a case related to the Umbrella Movement that I lost — that was my second prison sentence. This is not made any easier by the fact that I have been denied legal aid, yet another abuse for which the government is responsible.
WELT: What do you think is the Chinese government’s ultimate goal in imprisoning you?
Wong: I think its goal is that I serve one prison term after the other. I face two other trials, and it is practical for the government to keep me behind bars so as to prevent me from being an activist. But neither imprisonment nor disqualification from the elections will stop us. What we are showing the world is the value of freedom.
WELT: Will the Hong Kong democracy movement lose momentum due to your imprisonment?
Wong: No. From the very beginning, this movement has had no leader. We are self-organized; no one gives anyone orders. We take action but not for ourselves, rather because we plain and simple beliefe in doing what is right. I don’t think we’ll stop doing that just because one person is imprisoned. Every day activists are on trial, every day protesters are thrown in prison. It’s true we’re dealing with a harsh crackdown by the government, and because of the coronavirus there are fewer opportunities to protest. But Hong Kong people resist government repression every single day by their actions. Perhaps not all are recognisable as protest, but the momentum exists as much as ever, just in another form. Five years ago, after the Umbrella Movement, we all thought that mass protests had become no longer possible. But the bravery and the commitment of every single Hong Kong person brought us through this dark valley and made the impossible possible.
WELT: Where do you see Hong Kong in a year?
Wong: Hong Kong is going through a difficult period right now, and we expect, as I said, a government crackdown. In the past three weeks, 23 activists, journalists and elected representatives have been arrested. Every day one of us is on trial or is imprisoned. I can’t just be excessively optimistic and say that in a year, everything will be fine in Hong Kong. Then I would be spreading false hope. But total pessimism is also inappropriate. In the next year most likely more protesters and activists will end up in prison, but Hong Kong will continue to fight. We are constantly developing new methods of resistance.
WELT: What would you like to tell the world?
Wong: I would like to tell the world that the Hong Kong movement hasn’t come to a standstill just because Agnes Chow, Ivan Lam and I are in prison. Please follow vigilantly what happens in Hong Kong because people are still fighting for freedom and democracy there. And also beyond Hong Kong: In Thailand, Belarus, and in Iran people are fighting against totalitarian regimes. And Taiwan is defending itself constantly against Beijing. Please stand with Hong Kong and show solidarity with those who value freedom as much as you do. I would like to show my appreciation to all activists who are facing trial or imprisonment and all who suffer because they cannot go back home: We are not without fear but we are the braver ones. | https://medium.com/@kongtsunggan/joshua-wong-from-prison-china-is-a-threat-to-world-freedom-2f94096c439f | ['Kong Tsung-Gan'] | 2020-12-07 15:05:53.392000+00:00 | ['Freedom', 'Hong Kong', 'Prison', 'Joshua Wong', 'Democracy'] |
Evil’s just as good | Or when projections are unveiled to their naked collaboration.
To the weak give-ins always repeating the sucking of daddy’s cock. Yes always repeating the sucking of daddy’s cock. The sucking of daddy’s cock.
“But no! A phallic representation of sufficient size presented itself to me as “absolutely-not-daddy’s-cock”, and of course the truth of this was immediately apparent as the vastness, and I dove in, I blew humanity the roof of coded codependence and sucked it again and again to the point of where its tenets which never move but to self-harming mores I became a thrall and slave to to suck up to just right.”
You see, my spare signals of maybe july should be worshipped as star-gifts beyond the poverty of they who live. The greatest of evils come born with their opposite, beauty and futures be damned, and they who have suffered for decades defending love will fall with the cowards making efficient and symmetrical the ledgers of insanity, weighted to humiliate any stories’ dignity.
Our violence relates only as a correcting impairment to the monocle of objectification, singular stride of strife to wrest from true graves the proper appropriation of defiance as rebellious engagement in its syllables progressively raped, as were any letters their brief moments transcending in connotations self-willed and bursting death-stars forgotten memories of revolution.
Force embraced as light grown a dark atrocious light, or dark the ever-stringent handicap favoring the emperor in the fight.
And always the excuses, apologies only to the worst, the suffering of past loves psychopathically reframed, the unforgivable made worse in denial.
Bald hiding from the crosshairs of justice evaded death just one time beyond the blind. A nothing alpha-keratin orcanically storming the winds of change without flinching to its genocide lynching. Guiltlessly and vicariously drunk on disrupted equality, claws and teeth ripping french one-liners, shamelessly.
You see, Ayn Rand has threadmill elastic-to-stone factory feet to make up for. The ways of debased aces were phases of the age of disgrace. And you, who for convenience traded families to the sacrifice of a sadistic laughter, will pay your own demand in lethal ice.
The story goes (and crashes) all being is but reflected, letters equalize us all the moral of all goes, and will we will but all morals’ humilitation.
Shown dumb as a postmodern relic of capitalist excuses, oiling the machine processing nature Kafkaian signifiers the road to hyper-reality, any being seeing through fear-borne self-destruction still holds the right to challenge non-duality its self-implicated existence of duality. That’s right (but left), your judgments of wineries and rantings are the hollowness which seeds it. The icon you worship could have an actual welfare fool as its king, for without values, you have denied the Goddesses and Gods their being real and greater than human inventions and artifice.
Thus, the warriors confronted by non-entities founding universal shallowness on shaky philosophical grounds, hold within themselves feelings and furies which scientism would deny the existence of, yet still can quake worlds.
Even if you could prove a perfect moral symmetry converging to nothing, which you can’t, you free me to become the realization of my most beautiful vision, which could include murdering you, removing you from my world, without any moral consequences at all.
I might not be good or bad, not even reliably measured anywhere in between, but still my will could be of such strength and brutality, perhaps irrational, to halt your being in my universe, and, without the weight of common ethics, more capable of ending you.
Here’s the problem I always notice with apologists for evil: they find some way of condoning evil acts, yet then seem oblivious to the fact that whatever was fighting “evil” as “good” could decide to still fight it motivated by a good less clear. In fact, according to their logic, the “paladins-shown-not-to-be-so-righteous” could furiously decide to keep halting and destroying what they perceive as evil even while identifying with an even greater evil.
The “ethics”, which in a Western capitalist world have, in practice, always been formulated and enforced by aristocratic slave patrol enablers of the wealth-accumulating program, mostly as violence monopolies, would by a thinking through of the logic of the common psychopath and malignant narcissist, which really is the logic of the “American dream”, be destroyed, and their absence would have to be restored by a natural, free, life-admiring aesthetics.
However, the ethic-obliterating and worth-denying logic of the psychopath would also destroy the basic structure they rely on: hierarchy.
Not only would they be disgustingly ugly in all ways, but they would be objectively powerless even in theory.
Determining what is good or bad first requires being able to determine what is true. Our collapse-stage-capitalist world determines what is true using a positivistic method of scientism which is idealistically colonial, violent and highly destructive of epistemology beyond profit for the rich.
As truth, wherever it breathes, is strangled not only by this artificial philosophical ground but by the media, shaped in the source of its technologies, which is fear of nature, all ethics resulting from it are lifeless, worthless and but a shadow of mechanical rationality, which translates practically in 99% of us being micromanaged by 1% of the worst of us by whatever technical means they can, “smartly”, come up with, and then sell to us as placebos for what they’ve robbed us of.
What’s worse, the technological conditions of existence as dictated to us by capitalism cause most of us not only to treat each other as objects, numbers and programs to be improved by the accepted algorithms, but to become convinced and to try to convince others by our cultural creations, that this is what we really are and want. While despite the rising number of Loch Ness monsters and Bigfoots, and the prestigious narcissism of one-upping pop culture reference “this size fucks” self-deprecations, worldwide happiness doesn’t seem to have grown one bit. Cynical excuses, between the lines and overt, however, seem to have become the new “sophisticated” pleasure as self-flagellation, and the only humour which goes too far in shying away from the haunting of Joker’s catharsis.
Stockholm as all ground beyond the oceans.
Not that I believe enlightenment requires diving to the ocean floor.
Many are still fighting, many still realize what beauty is, and will die for it. Yet that left wing, the one still alive, needs to urgently see postmodern technology, particularly the internet, for what it is. The ultimate incarnation of fascism and alienation, as well as the most advanced fetish (the fetish rendering all fetishes as just a click away, one level up from money as the amount buying all fetishes just one dollar away) standing in the way of the workers of the world ever uniting.
Progressive denial will just get us “Elevelled” in a few years, accompanying districts with penis plug-in access identification, as a proquel to “Footbound”, while the world burns and the last blessed memories of true love and freedom fade into the greyest of colorless darknesses. | https://medium.com/@annihilatesrobotprisons/evils-just-as-good-24157123cb11 | ['Annihilator Of Rotten Narcissistic Robot Prisons'] | 2021-04-26 00:05:34.072000+00:00 | ['Evil', 'Strength', 'Love'] |
Breastfeeding and its Benefits for Mother and Baby | According to a study, breastfeeding helps improve mothers’ health, as well as the health of the baby. Breast milk is the best and healthiest food for your infant. It offers all the nutrients your baby needs for the first six months. Babies who breastfeed have increased mental growth and emotional stability.
Scientific evidence has established the vital importance of breastfeeding. It’s irreplaceable way to feed babies. Breast milk contains immune molecules called antibodies that reduce inflammation. The importance of breastfeeding is to establish a comfortable microbiome in the intestine of your infant.
Breast milk is full of live ingredients, including stem cells, white blood cells and beneficial bacteria, as well as other bioactive ingredients, such as antibodies, enzymes and hormones, all of which help combat infection, prevent disease and lead to normal healthy growth.
BENEFITS OF BREASTFEEDING FOR BABY
For better growth & development
Breast milk provides essential components to maintain and develop an immature immune system for an infant. Breast milk is easier to digest than baby formulas, and varies from feed to feed to match each child’s particular needs, making it the perfect food to support healthy growth and development.
Low chance of illness
Babies who are fed breastmilk have a lower risk of:
Gastrointestinal disorders (e.g. diarrhea and vomiting)
Atopic disorders (including eczema and asthma)
Mid-ear diseases
Urinary tract infection
Respiratory infection
Obesity in childhood and later in life
Type 1 and type 2 diabetes in infancy or later life
Any kind of childhood cancers
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SDSI).
Breastfed babies are also less likely to be hospitalised for illnesses and infections.
Breast milk contains a high amount of certain fats required to support brain and nerve development. Breast-fed children have higher IQs, better nervous structures, and sharper sight.
Benefits Of Breastfeeding For Mother
Enhances Attachment
Breastfeeding helps improve attachment. Every time a mother feeds her infant, she releases the hormones oxytocin. Not only does this hormone trigger a mother to release her milk (milk ejection or let-down reflex), but it makes her fall in love with her infant too.
Physical Health
Breastfeeding promotes faster weight loss after giving child- birth, it helps in burning about 500 extra calories a day to build and maintain a milk supply.
Stimulatesuterus to contract and return to normal size.
Less postpartum bleeding.
Fewer urinary tract infections.
Less chance of anemia.
Less risk of postpartum depression and more positive mood.
Women who do not breastfeed later in life are at greater risk for diabetes, osteoporosis, breast, ovarian and endometrial cancer. | https://medium.com/@danonenutricia/breastfeeding-and-its-benefits-for-mother-and-baby-88b747ff3cfa | ['Danone Nutricia Academy'] | 2020-08-19 09:25:56.568000+00:00 | ['Breastmilk', 'Feeding', 'Baby', 'Breastfeeding', 'Mothers'] |
Why isn’t your recommender system training faster on GPU? (And what can you do about it?) | Deep learning has taken the machine learning world by storm and in almost every field from Vision, to NLP, to Speech and beyond, GPUs are the obvious choice for accelerating your training. But recommender systems remain an outlier; deep learning is now widely used, but a lot of the training and inference for recommender systems in production still happens on CPU because GPUs don’t offer the same speedups that we see in other domains out of the box. In this article we’ll take a look at why that is and more importantly what we can do about it. My team at NVIDIA has been working on this problem for the past year and we’ve got some exciting developments to share.
Compute, Memory, and I/O (oh my!)
Part of the reason that GPUs have been so successful at Vision and NLP tasks is that models in those domains are large and complex. In vision, compute makes up the entire workload, and the parallelism of the GPU shines. For NLP the case is slightly more complex; BERT-base has 12-layers, with a 768-hidden width and 12 attention heads for a total of 110M parameters. It’s vocabulary size is 30K x 1024 meaning that the embeddings which store representation learned by the model make up ~30% of its total size. This is a significant proportion, but compute is still the dominant factor in throughput.
Relative model and embedding sizes for Computer Vision, NLP and Recommender Systems vary significantly. What works well in one domain isn’t necessarily going to work in another.
Compare that with recent session based recommender system architectures such as BST which follow the same general transformer architecture but are configured very differently. BST has a single transformer layer followed by a 1024–512–256 width MLP and 8 attention heads. Its equivalent ‘vocabulary’ on the other hand is a whopping 300M users and 12M items in the example Taobao dataset which are embedded with a width of 64. So the amount of compute is several orders of magnitude lower than we see in NLP and the embeddings which are IO bound, not compute bound, make up well over 95% of the model and are hard to fit on a single GPU (stay tuned for a future article on that). What that means is that in order to keep the GPU running efficiently we need to make sure other aspects of the workflow are well tuned..
A digression into dataloaders
Most people take this aspect of training for granted. Point the framework’s dataloader at the directory or files that you want the model to train on and you’re good to go. In situations where the model is dominated by compute this approach is often okay. An asynchronous dataloader only ever has to feed data faster than the forward and backward pass of the model. As long as it’s able to get the next batch ready before the GPU is done processing the current batch it has done its job.
For NLP or Vision architectures compute is significant relative to time taken to get the data to the model. You’re also usually working with small batches of large examples and the strategies that work there aren’t optimal for the kind of data that recommender systems use. Properly tuning the dataloader and I/O is important, and I highly recommend you check out the work being done by the DALI team at NVIDIA if your workload includes images or audio, but you can’t apply the same principles to recommendation.
For starters, not only is the compute smaller, but at the example level and even at the batch level recommender system data is usually quite small. Most dataloaders work by aggregating randomly selected examples into batches and then passing that information to the GPU. In future blog posts we’ll deep dive into the specifics of the different dataloaders available in deep learning frameworks but for this blog we’ll focus on the common dataloader case where batches are aggregated from random examples. Even if we try to solve the problem by piling on more workers to create batches, we’re still hammering on memory (or more likely disk) in an access pattern that is horribly inefficient. Pulling data example by example just doesn’t make sense for tabular data.
NVTabular dataloaders to the rescue!
When we ran into this issue a little over a year ago we started to look at ways to get data to the GPU more efficiently using RAPIDS in conjunction with PyTorch. Since then we’ve been iterating on the concept of dataloading for tabular data and have a solution. We now support fast tabular dataloading in Tensorflow 2.3+, PyTorch 1.2+, and Fast.ai v2 using APIs that are derived from each library. Using Dask-cuDF we were able to share the same back end for all frameworks and use dlpack to transfer data between our dataloader and the batch in tensor format. Our next blog post dropping in a week or so will share the details of our Tensorflow dataloader and we’ll deep dive into the others in the coming weeks.
I won’t overload you with details here, but at a high level the NVTabular dataloader transfers large chunks of data into GPU memory, creating a buffer of multiple batches on the GPU. These batches are grabbed as contiguous memory blocks from the buffer resulting in a much greater efficiency. The number of chunks grabbed and the size of the buffer are completely configurable. We also asynchronously update the buffer so that the GPU always has data available. It’s worth mentioning that the dataset can be much bigger than the total GPU or even CPU memory which we know is important in the recommender system space. An NVME or equivalent fast storage is recommended though for best performance.
Overall results are impressive. In our initial benchmarking of our dataloader in Tensorflow we saw GPU utilization jump by 2x from 40% to 85% with a corresponding 2x speedup in total training time. What’s even more amazing is that when we apply techniques meant to make compute more efficient like Automatic Mixed Precision (AMP) the gains compound to a 4x total speedup, which we don’t see at all when we only apply AMP. Increasing training speed on GPU by 4x over the standard TF windowed dataloader makes training 22x faster on GPU than CPU, a huge difference when comparing total cost to train in a cloud environment. We’ll have more details about each of the frameworks in our dataloader deep dives.
So we’re done?
Not even close. A 22x speedup over CPU is a great start, but there’s always more to be done and a lot of details yet to come. Storage, I/O, and memory bandwidth play a big role in performance. Getting embeddings to fit on the GPU is another interesting challenge that the Merlin HugeCTR team has tackled. There’s also the recently announced A100 80GB cards which will revolutionize the size of embeddings that we can fit, and with 2 TB/s memory bandwidth training times get even faster.
We’ll be sharing further improvements and ideas within the recsys space along with our research and general information related to the training and productionizing of recommender systems. Stay tuned to this blog for more recsys knowledge.
In the meantime go check out our examples in the NVTabular Repo to see how you can use NVTabular to speed up both the training your recommender models and the data preparation phase. We’d love to hear what you’re working on and any gaps you see. You can reach us through our github with any issue or feature request or by leaving a comment here. And finally, if you’re as passionate about recommender systems as we are please check out this open role for the team. We’re growing fast and would love to work with you to help make RecSys fast and easy to use on the GPU. | https://medium.com/nvidia-merlin/why-isnt-your-recommender-system-training-faster-on-gpu-and-what-can-you-do-about-it-6cb44a711ad4 | ['Even Oldridge'] | 2020-12-03 18:29:31.523000+00:00 | ['Fastai', 'Deep Learning', 'Recommender Systems', 'TensorFlow', 'Pytorch'] |
NumPy indexing explained | NumPy indexing explained
Photo by Jean-Louis Paulin on Unsplash
NumPy is the universal standard for working with Numerical data in Python. Multidimensional NumPy arrays are extensively used in Pandas, SciPy, Scikit-Learn, scikit-image, which are some of the main data science and scientific Python packages. So a good understanding of NumPy is crucial if we are working with these tools! And so it is to understand its indexing methods, which we will go through in this post.
Note that a key aspect or motivation in using NumPy, is that it enables to manipulate large quantities of numerical data in a vectorised way, that is, avoiding the use of inefficient python loops. The huge advantage of vectorising your code is that you’re pushing all looping down to C level, which is much faster.
Now let’s get to the topic of the post, which is indexing NumPy arrays. Indexing with NumPy can be a little tough and counter-intuitive without a good understanding of its basic rules. Here we’ll dive into the different indexing methods that can be used, which are:
- Basic Slicing and Indexing - Advanced Indexing (including both integer and boolean array indexing)
Find a notebook version of this post along with all explanations here.
Basic slicing
NumPy’s basic slicing is an extension of Python’s basic slicing concept extended to N dimensions.
It essentially allows you to take slices of an array along its dimensions using basic slicing notation, i.e start:stop:step. If you are not too familiar with Python’s basic slicing notation you can check this post in stack overflow which makes it very clear. Let’s see with an example:
array([['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E'],
['F', 'G', 'H', 'I', 'J'],
['K', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'O'],
['P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', 'T'],
['U', 'V', 'W', 'X', 'Y']])
Yes, I know z is missing… Nothing against it, but we need a homogeneous matrix. This example array has a shape of (5, 5), so two dimensions. We can take slices along its dimensions (I’ll be using the equivalent term axes) by following the mentioned notation, for instance:
a[:2, 1:4] array([['B', 'C', 'D'],
['G', 'H', 'I']])
So far so good. We’ve basically sliced the array along the first axis to get up to the second row starting at index 0 (note that the stop index is not included!), and along the second to get columns one to three. Think of the axes just as the (x,y,z) dimensions of a matrix. Where a third dimension can be simply though of as stacking multiple 2D arrays together:
Okay, so now we know we can slice an n-dimensional array using python’s slice notation. But what if you had to take values from a given axis using a list of indexes?
Well, here’s where advanced indexing comes into play ↓
Advanced indexing
Let’s just go with an example of what an intuitive way of doing this would be:
a_indexed = a[[4,3,1], [2,4,0]]
Okay, so following the same logic as in basic slicing, one could expect to get all values that fall into the above indexes along the different axes of the ndarray. Namely all values in rows 4, 3 and 1 which are in columns 2, 4 and 0 respectively, so the intersecting values that are highlighted bellow:
Is that so? Let’s check:
print(a_indexed)
array(['W', 'T', 'F'])
Clearly not… (example inspired by this very instructive talk by Jaime Fernández :) ) What happened there? Why are we getting a one-dimensional result?
This is because advanced indexing follows a different set of rules. A good way to think about it, is that when using basic slicing, we are indexing on a grid which is defined by the slices we take on each dimension. Whereas using advanced indexing can be thought of as specifying a set of (x,y) coordinates of the values we want to retrieve.
In the above case indexing with [4,3,1],[2,4,0] , will behave as indexing on (4,2) , (3,4) and (1,0) respectively. So each index we specify in each dimension, will be combined with the corresponding indexes from the other dimensions.
More generally, when using advanced indexing, we must take into account these two main aspects (from the docs):
The indexing arrays represent a number of indexes into that dimension
Which basically means that we will retrieve as many elements from a given axis as indexes specified in the indexing array into that dimension. In the above case, we’ve retrieved 3 elements specified by the length 3 indexing arrays.
The result shape is identical to the (broadcast) indexing array shapes
To understand the above we need to dive a little into broadcasting…
Going deep into broadcasting could easily lead to an another entire blog post, so i’ll just try to cover the very essentials… From the docs:
broadcasting is defined as a term describing how NumPy treats arrays with different shapes during arithmetic operations. Subject to certain constraints, the smaller array is “broadcast” across the larger array so that they have compatible shapes
So basically, when some operation involving arrays with different shapes is performed, NumPy tries to make their shapes compatible before the operation takes place. Let’s take a look at some visual examples:
In the first case for instance, a one-dimensional NumPy array is added to an integer. So under the hood, before the addition takes place NumPy will broadcast the smaller shaped array across the larger, i.e it will replicate its value until its shape becomes compatible with that of the larger array.
And how do we know if two shapes are compatible?
We can find the general broadcasting rules defined in the docs. It is stated that two dimensions are compatible when | https://towardsdatascience.com/numpy-indexing-explained-c376abb2440d | ['Àlex Escolà Nixon'] | 2020-12-16 08:23:09.748000+00:00 | ['Numpy', 'Data Science', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning'] |
Basic JavaScript: Assignment with a Returned Value | If you’ll recall from our discussion of Storing Values with the Assignment Operator, everything to the right of the equal sign is resolved before the value is assigned. This means we can take the return value of a function and assign it to a variable.
Assume we have pre-defined a function sum which adds two numbers together, then:
ourSum = sum(5, 12); | https://medium.com/@developerchandan/basic-javascript-assignment-with-a-returned-value-7bb70914804f | ['Châñďăň Ķûmâř'] | 2020-11-16 04:55:13.948000+00:00 | ['Javascript Tips', 'JavaScript', 'Javascript Frameworks', 'Javascript Development'] |
Want to make Javarevisited best Java Publication of Medium? I need your help to grow | Want to make Javarevisited best Java Publication of Medium? I need your help to grow javinpaul Follow Jul 18, 2019 · 1 min read
Hello All,
How are you doing? Hope you are doing great and not getting into 10x Engineer race.
It’s been quite long since I sent my last letter to you. Since then, Javarevisited has grown quite a lot and now as a strong community of 1300 followers and 30+ writers.
It can grow even faster but I am the bottleneck as I am not able to devote as much time as I want to, hence I am looking for some help from you guys.
If you are Java enthusiasts and want to grow a community of writers and readers where we all can benefit from each others experience, wisdom and collaboration then come on-board.
I am looking for people who can do editing job and help spread the word, get onboard all Java people scattered around Medium and make this a strong community.
If you have that passion and want to become an editor or contributor, contact me on my email [email protected] or just drop a note in this letter.
looking forward to a great response from you all.
Javin | https://medium.com/javarevisited/want-to-make-javarevisited-best-java-publication-of-medium-i-need-your-help-to-grow-44756266c0ba | [] | 2019-07-18 15:32:13.898000+00:00 | ['Spring Boot', 'Programming', 'Coding', 'Publication', 'Java'] |
Seriously? Python really works this way? | The strength of print() function
Btw, this function returns None
As soon as I started learning Python, and at the very first lessons I was introduced to a new ‘way’ of writing a simple code, which needs less lines of codes comparing to other programming languages.
The exercise is about writing a program which displays a triangle of stars in the following shape:
And from my Java background I thought about writing two loops, one for the number of rows and the second for the number of stars to be printed in each row.
While in Python I learned an easy way to do it, which doesn’t require two LOOPS!
It required one loop and a simple Python’s strings feature.
Well in Python, writing print(‘*’ * 7) will print:
*******, interesting?
So to solve the above exercise you actually need one loop, starting from 1 to 5 (in this particular example) and in each row you print:
“*” x row_number,
and it would look like this:
for i in range(1, 6):
print('*' * i) | https://medium.com/@tomeutube/seriously-python-really-works-this-way-83c78aac356e | [] | 2020-12-27 14:26:44.345000+00:00 | ['Beginner', 'Python'] |
Dev 1. What is ‘Programming’ and ‘Programming Language’? | Computer Programming is the process of designing and building an executable computer program to accomplish a specific computing result or to perform a specific task. (Wikipedia)
The first photo you can find on google when you search for ‘programming’
Besides Wikipedia, Khan Academy which is one of the most famous organizations providing massive online courses also defines programming as a process of creating a set of instructions for computers to perform a task. (Khan Academy) In short, programming is making use of computers to solve problems or conduct tasks.
Then additional questions are followed and one of them is ‘HOW?’
The answer is ‘programming language’ which is used to implement algorithms to build computer programs. As I understand, it seems that the languages are tools to develop programs for computers to execute. There are hundreds of different programming languages and those languages were developed or invented to meet the new needs of IT industry. Even they are quite similar to each other but each has its own syntax. Once a programmer learns learns the syntax, structure, and the rules, they write the code (It is called ‘coding’!) in a text editor or IDE (Integrated Development Environment). After writing the code, the programmer compiles it into machine language that the computer understands. | https://medium.com/@techjamie/dev-1-what-is-programming-and-programming-language-6a5c54c897f1 | ['Jeongmin Jamie Shin'] | 2020-12-11 18:04:25.932000+00:00 | ['Programming Languages', 'Programming', 'Programmazione', 'Linguaggio Programmazione'] |
Why You Should Not Live Your Life According to Plan | My husband teases me occasionally, saying: “You’re not a writer, you’re a musician,” as he watches my fingers flash across the keyboard.
And I admit, lately, I’ve been living my life more as a writer. Even though I’m a musician, I spend most of my free time writing on Medium.
That’s because after the pandemic started, my life drastically changed. With new limitations in place, I can’t play or teach music like I used to. Being home most of the time, I had to find other outlets for my creativity. And for me, it’s writing.
I’m happy I chose writing to occupy my time. It makes me happy and keeps me sane during these turbulent times. I would’ve never started writing if not the pandemic. I’m so happy I uncovered my hidden passion, which fosters my creativity.
During this pandemic, I’ve learned that when life throws you curveballs, you have to adapt. And the sooner you do it, the happier you will be.
Your life is not set in stone
It’s interesting how life works. One day you’re lying down on the sandy beach, and then, unexpectedly, a tidal wave throws you over and brings you to a different spot. You wake up from your dreamy phase and face a new reality.
Life is like that too — full of twists and surprises. Not everything goes according to plan. Calamities strike. Unexpected events happen.
At the beginning of the year, who expected we’d be gripped by the pandemic? Who would’ve predicted that millions of lives would be lost? But it’s happened, and it has changed the world as we know it.
But here is the thing: if you always try to live your life according to some “predetermined” plan, you don’t account for other things that may occur and you are not prepared to face the unexpected.
The reality is, your life doesn’t always follow a path you choose, so whatever things you think will happen, don’t necessarily happen. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan your life or have goals. It just means you have to be prepared to embrace the unknown. And be flexible and adapt to changes life throws at you.
When you make a plan for your life and something unexpected happens, you feel crushed. The unmet expectations you set for yourself can make you feel miserable.
That’s why you should be open-minded and flexible. You have to adapt to life’s changing patterns, especially in times of crisis. That means you have to bend your rules due to external circumstances. Your attitude will determine how you will embrace the changes, as not everything will turn out in your favor.
If everything in life went according to plan, then it would be pretty boring. It’s the sudden turns and twists that add excitement to life in the most unusual ways.
Great things happen when you least expect them
Sometimes unexpected changes can make your life better. When you don’t live according to the plan, good things can happen too. And sometimes the best things happen when we least expect them. Think for a moment and consider these scenarios:
You lost your job but later found a more rewarding and fulfilling one
You got rejected by one company, but then another one welcomes you with open arms
You quit a job you hate, and later decide to launch a freelance business at home
So when you think life doesn’t treat you fairly, pause for a second and think about how you can make the most of it.
If you’ve lost a job, for example, look for new and better opportunities
If you’re a creative person, see how you can leverage your creativity
If you’re launching a freelance business, accept the risks and be prepared for failures
If someone approaches you with a new offer or opportunity, take it and give it a try — it may change your life
The bottom line
When you live your life according to expectations, if you’re not willing to let go of them, you can make life more stressful.
To get the most out of life, be prepared for the unexpected and embrace the changes as they come. The key to a fulfilling life is learning how to go with the flow and to adapt to changes as they come. Being open-minded and flexible will help you get the most out of life. | https://medium.com/change-your-mind/why-you-should-not-live-your-life-according-to-plan-69dce2449323 | ['Kristina Segarra'] | 2020-12-28 14:00:05.678000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Self', 'Psychology'] |
3 Things a TV Writer Can Control | Photo by Loic Leray on Unsplash
The life of a TV writer is a life of uncertainty.
You have chosen a career where you control almost nothing.
You can’t control how people respond to your work. Whether or not you get staffed on a show. If your brilliant show pitch gets bumped up the chain. If your pilot is greenlit. If your series is renewed, canceled or shelved forever.
It is a thrilling, terrifying roller coaster ride that for some reason you decided you wanted to board.
Your friends who aren’t in the business won’t understand how or even why you do it. Your parents will be even more bewildered.
They will remind you that it’s not too late to teach English or sell insurance. You will remind them you are a writer while secretly Googling “teach English how.”
It’s a career that is often disheartening. Depressing. And for aspiring writers or those getting started in their career, impenetrable.
Now some good news. Because there are some things you can control. When I feel lost, these are the fundamentals that I return to.
Your Work
You have control over your writing, both the quality and quantity.
You control what you want to write about and how you go about it.
You control how much work goes into your pilots and spec scripts and how they are executed.
You control your resarch and practice of craft and story.
You should relish this control. Because there will be a time when even the work will be taken from you. When you have networks and producers and agents who have ideas over what they think your work should be.
Your writing is the lifeblood of your career. You are in the idea business. You are paid money (or hope to be) to come up with ideas. Many ideas. Some great. Most bad. Over and over and over.
Work begets work. They better and funnier and more relatable your samples are the more likely you will be hired. It may take a while because there are so many other factors you, again, have no control over. But if you put in the work, it will happen.
And when the work gets hard, try and remind yourself that thinking up weird and funny shit should be fun. It is fun. And important. It’s your chance to connect with people, inspire and bring some joy into the world. And dear God do we need that more than ever.
Your Attitude
With the pandemic impacting all areas of the entertainment industry, there are many reasons to be down on yourself and your career.
And yet, you have no control over any of it. But you do have control over your attitude. Being positive in the face of massive uncertainty is very difficult. But really what choice do you have?
Let your love of the work movtivate you. Re-enage with projects that have languished or been ignored because they’re not ______ enough. Choose to work on them not because you think they’ll sell or because they’re splashy and will get you noticed. Choose to work on them because you love them.
Staffing has been extra tough this year. Between smaller rooms, smaller episode orders, and stalled broadcast pilots, there are so few opportunities to staff. Rooms aren’t filled with twenty writers anymore. It’s more like six to eight. You have no control over this.
I have to remind myself if I lose out on a job, that I have no control over why a decision is made. There are many variables that go into who gets a job and why.
You only have control over who you are and who you tell others you are. If you prepared for your meeting and put your best foot forward, that’s enough. You can only be you.
Your Resilience
You control whether or not you keep going.
And dissuade yourself of the notion that “keep going” is the same for everyone. Sometimes this means pressing foward with development and trying new kinds of writing. Sometimes this means taking a step back and figuring out a job that pays the bills consistently while you develop your writing on the side.
They are both forms of resilience. And resilience is a quality every successful TV writer has.
Nothing truly prepares you for this roller coaster of uncertainty and everyone at some point in their TV writing career thinks about getting out. Getting a normal job. Getting some security. Some control.
All I can say is you never know where that next job is going to come from. You have so little control over it.
So instead, of quitting, focus on what you can control.
It’s the only way forward. | https://medium.com/@andrewbarbot/3-things-a-tv-writer-can-control-c516fb2bdc38 | ['Andrew Barbot'] | 2020-12-10 21:09:49.567000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Career Advice', 'Writing Tips', 'Screenwriting', 'Creativity'] |
A brief introduction to “Data Immutability” in TypeScript | JavaScript is not so strong when it comes to data immutability. Internally, all primitive data types like string , number , boolean etc. are immutable which means you can’t mutate the value once it is set to a variable. You can only assign a new value to a variable and the old one will be garbage collected by the JavaScript engine when the time comes.
That’s not the same story with objects. If you create a plain object using an object literal, you can override the value of a property or add or remove a property to or from an object whenever you want.
var obj = {a: 1}; // define an object
obj.b = 2; // add new property
obj.c = 'hello'; // add new property obj.b = 3; // update property value
delete obj.b; // delete property
Objects are by default mutable as shown above and they are passed by reference (but not in a way that operates in other languages). When you assign an object to a variable, the object value doesn’t get copied. JavaScript only assigns a reference of the object to the new variable. The same principle applies when you pass an object as an argument to a function or returns an object from a function. However, there are preventive mechanisms you can apply to make objects immutable.
JavaScript provides Object.defineProperty function to add a new property on an object with customized property settings. You can also use this function to modify settings of an existing property on an object. This setting of an individual property is called a property descriptor.
💡 You can follow the MDN documentation to know more about the property descriptor or read the first part of my article on JavaScript decorators.
In the above example, we have created a ross object using object literal expression. Since by default, object properties are writable, we can assign a new value to firstName property and we can see it changing.
The writable option of the property descriptor if set to false makes the property read-only. Hence even though we have assigned string value Jack to the ross.firstName , the value stays the same. However, in strict mode, it will throw an error since we are trying to modify the value of a read-only property.
If you want to add new properties or modify existing properties with custom property descriptors at once, then you can use Object.defineProperties function. If you want to create a fresh object with custom property descriptors, then you can go for Object.create function.
Whichever the case, handling data immutability is tough in JavaScript. But there are some quick and easy methods that you can implement to make your life less miserable.
JavaScript provides Object.freeze method which basically freezes an object like ice. You won’t be able to add or remove properties to or from the object. You also won’t be able to override the values of the properties or configure their property descriptors. Let’s see a simple example.
In the above example, we have created a simple ross object. This object is mutable in every which way, so we froze it using Object.freeze method. Now the object is basically dead. As you can see, we tried to override a property value and add a new property, but nothing happened. In strict mode, this operation will throw an error at runtime.
💡 The reason we used ross as any type assertion because TypeScript won’t let you access or assign a property that doesn’t exist on the object ross object which contains only the firstName and lastName properties.
JavaScript also provides Object.seal method which is less aggressive compared to freeze method. This method prevents a new property being added to the object or configuring existing properties. It won’t prevent you from assigning new values to properties as long as they are writable. | https://medium.com/jspoint/typescript-data-immutability-71dc3e604426 | ['Uday Hiwarale'] | 2020-09-01 06:35:03.844000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'JavaScript', 'Deno', 'Programming', 'Typescript'] |
Best-Laid Plans (Füstbement terv) | Best-Laid Plans
On the coach ride home — all the way —
I pondered no other:
What words will I speak to my dear
Long-ago-seen mother?
Will I whisper sweet and tender
To greet her, in case
Her arms, that once rocked my cradle,
Offer their embrace?
Thoughts a-plenty crossed my mind
Elegant and profound,
As the time appeared to stand still,
Though the coach rushed homebound.
Stepped into the modest chamber …
My mother flew to me …
I clung to her lips … silently …
As fruit clings to its tree. | https://medium.com/dead-poets-society/best-laid-plans-f%C3%BCstbement-terv-bf4711f3d76c | ['Joe Váradi'] | 2020-02-08 15:29:02.114000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Translation', 'Hungary', 'Family', 'Love'] |
Building Healthy and Resilient Digital Products — Drawing Ideas From Interpersonal Neurobiology | For massive digital products, we need a different way to tackle a new set of problems that arise with scale.
Many initially successful digital products, despite great intentions, easily devolve into a mess of seemingly impenetrable technical debt, impossible stakeholder requests and relentless stress for all involved. This deterioration is mostly due to the inherent difficulty of any singular person, team or organisation grasping the product’s complexity enough to make good decisions. And that is a fact of Big Tech life we can’t solve for. But can we make things a bit better? What can we do to design healthy and resilient complex systems that don’t crash and burn? Why, we copy the most complex system we know, of course! We copy the brain.
Enter a groundbreaking field — a new way of seeing the brain, the mind, and our relationships — Professor Daniel Siegel’s Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB). IPNB is a fascinating field, stressing how a healthy mind can be achieved through maximising both the independence of our roles within relationships, as well as maximising the strength of our connections with our relations. This seems like a paradox at first, but makes sense if you think about your healthiest relationships — you were both allowed to be fully yourself, and yet connected very intimately with the other person. What’s even more interesting is that the structure of our brains mirrors this paradox — a healthy brain both has very independent clusters of neurons, and strong connections between these clusters.
Spoiler: The Product Triangle that emerges from IPNB applied to your digital product (Image: Author)
We have all heard of Artificial Neural Networks and the benefits of tackling Machine Learning problems with brain-like structures. However, modern system architecture within large-scale digital products we build also shows remarkable parallels to the brain. Let’s explore this analogy, and see what it could practically mean, when we bring IPNB into the equation. What emerges is a new way to think of a Microservices Architecture as a brain, and therefore a healthy digital product as a healthy mind.
The analogy between the brain and Microservices Architecture
First, let’s explore our analogy on a high level, and then use this analogy to talk about maintaining a healthy Product* through the eyes of IPNB. Throughout this article, we will reference IPNB, and all credit goes to Daniel Siegel’s The Developing Mind. A gripping book, and highly relevant to anyone wanting to learn how we can intentionally build a healthy mind, whether our own minds or those of our children.
*Note: I have capitalised “Product” because its definition is going to become very important, and I don’t believe a more accurate word currently exists for the Product analogy which we will explore in this article. Secondly, I’m an ex technical product manager, and the way of the Product dies hard!
Within your Product, there are many, many lines of code or logic. Although we won’t go into code-level detail in this article, let’s consider each logical action within code as a neuron. Each action can be triggered by an external input, and in turn calls the next action(s) in series or parallel, through one or many synapses — connections between neurons.
The flow of information through neurons in our brain (Image: Author)
The brain consists of about one hundred billion neurons, each with an average of ten thousand synapses connecting them to other neurons. It’s a pretty damn complex system. Similarly, your Product’s architecture consists of probably thousands of actions in code, connected to other actions in a multitude of paths depending on the operation being performed or the input from the user or scheduled job.
Let’s start the analogy by considering the brain analogous to your Product’s code / architecture, although let’s be honest — that is rather unfair to the brain! Much like your brain, your system’s architecture can be arranged in all sorts of ways. Some, such as one big monolith of spaghetti architecture, would not be good. But others, such as a Microservices Architecture or Reactive Architecture, would be a good choice to build something really complex. Not too coincidentally, the brain runs on microservices, too (For those not familiar with Microservices Architecture, it is a natural evolution of Service Oriented Architecture that concerns splitting up your Product/application into many small services, each independent from the others and built around a specific business capability. Most modern applications are now built this way.)
Brain architecture, processing a potentially dangerous chicken. Fight or flight? (Image: Author)
Microservices, and other systems such as big data stores, are analogous to clusters of neurons in the brain, or “nuclei.” that fire together and share common inputs. Some have externally facing APIs, some are only internally facing. They receive input at a larger scale (which can be from many sources) and decide whether or not to produce output, to store it, or so on. Taking it one step higher, the brain can also be divided into regions, even hemispheres. We do the same in systems architecture — we have layers of services, and separate them by function.
Connections between microservices (APIs, kafka, ETL, etc.) are also analogous to strong synaptic connections. In our brains, commonly used connections grow stronger, forming “APIs” of their own — very strong synaptic highways.
From this architecture, stems a Product offering to your users. Just like we are an emergent property of our brains, the Product you are building is analogous to the mind. We will explore this more in a second, but let’s go with a definition of the mind from IPNB. The mind is
An embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information
An emergent property of both the brain, and relationships with others.
It is not hard here to see how this applies to your Product, being
a system that regulates the flow of information
and an emergent property of its architecture and its relationships with users and other stakeholders.
What makes a healthy brain — IPNB on “Integration”
So now that we’ve set ourselves up with an analogy between the brain and a Microservices Architecture, and the mind and your Product, let’s start to look at what makes a healthy brain. Of course, many things go into building a healthy brain, such as diet, mental exercise, physical exercise, and probably a host of things we don’t understand fully. However, from the perspective of IPNB, we can sum things up from another angle:
Firstly, a healthy brain finds a maximum of both the independence of clusters of neurons (nuclei), and strength of connections between those clusters. Think of it as a bunch of big, independent cities, but with large highways between them. Each city can grow independently, has its own mayor, and doesn’t fully rely on the other city for its survival. However, they are also very connected. It’s easy to move between cities for your commute, or to transfer goods between.
Very interestingly, the mind mirrors this relationship as if it were one nucleus, and other people’s minds were other nuclei. The mind is considered healthy when it maximises both its independence from others, and fosters strong connections with others. This concept of maximising both independence and connection (whether of your brain or mind) is called “Integration” in IPNB.
This can be a bit confusing at first! How can you maximise both independence and connection? But it’s easier to think of in personal terms. Think of the best friend or healthiest relationship you had. They gave you enough space to be you, and you weren’t scared to be yourself, or indeed do your own thing when around them. However, you also fostered a strong connection and had deep discussions about intimate details of the other. Hopefully, neither of you relied too much on the other, because you were the right balance of independent, rather than codependent or needy. Relationships that honour differences and independence, whilst still cultivating connection are awesome. This is how things work both inside a healthy brain, between nuclei, and between a healthy mind and others.
Now, if you do not have a good state of Integration, your brain either becomes too chaotic, or too rigid, and mirroring this, your mind either become too chaotic, or too rigid. Think about when you’re stressed or anxious, how hard it is to control your thoughts and turn them positive. Versus when you are happy and relaxed, and how easy it is to channel your mind in the direction you’d like. That’s the difference between chaos and health.
One of the central teachings of IPNB is that the health of your brain, your mind, and your relationships are very connected. A simple way of looking at this is in the triangle below. The mind, the brain, and relationships are “three aspects of one reality.” Affecting one affects the others. Caring for one positively affects the others.
The IPNB Triangle (Image: Author)
So what does this mean for our Product analogy? Let’s explore several ideas, one by one. Please remember to take everything with a cynical pinch of salt. This is just an analogy! However, let’s start with one unarguable learning about Product Management stemming from IPNB’s triangle, and take it from there.
Lesson one: The three aspects of your Product’s reality impact each other
The mind, relationships, and your brain are three aspects of one reality. In the same way, your Product, its architecture, and your stakeholders, are three aspects of one reality.
The Product Triangle (Image: Author)
Positive changes in one of the facets results in positive changes in the others. For instance, building a healthy relationship with your stakeholders will result in a more solid understanding of what you can deliver for them within a set period of time. This results in a more realistic expectation of your deliverables, and therefore more time to safely deliver without producing technical debt. You’ve positively impacted your Product (in the long run, at least) and your architecture.
The opposite of this holds true, too. A bad lead engineer making incorrect architectural decisions can have devastating results a year or two down the line when you realise you need to rewrite a large portion of your systems due to speed or reliability issues. A bad actor in your architecture (brain) has caused your Product (mind) to be negatively affected, and your stakeholders are not happy with the sudden delay in features they want due to the time required to fix your systems.
Lesson two: Healthy stakeholder relationships lead to a healthy Product — especially early on in the product lifecycle
In IPNB, healthy relationships (especially early on in life) are one of the primary drivers of well Integrated mental health. This early life process is called attachment, and “may be the central foundation from which the mind develops.”
The same holds true when building a healthy Product. Good stakeholder relationships lead to good Products, especially early on. We, as product managers, CEOs, or investors, tend to drive the product management process early on as visionaries, building something tangible before taking it to potential stakeholders, especially our users. This is not ideal — we should indeed be driving the process, but with far more input from stakeholders. The earlier on our Product grows from its relationships, the lower the cost of change later on in the process.
Secondly, choosing the right stakeholders, and nurturing a healthy relationship with them, is of utmost importance. There is no magic bullet here — just to seek out healthy relationships with stakeholders, and nurture those relationships through regular, honest, Integrative talks.
Lesson three: Maximise “Integration” within your Product
The mind is at its healthiest with maximised Integration: Nuclei are both very complex and independent, whilst extremely interconnected.
Obviously, taking this too far in systems architecture neglects some pragmatism, especially in the humble beginnings of your Product. We can’t necessarily have a different cloud hosting package or a different database for each microservice, making them extremely independent. Furthermore, we benefit massively from shared libraries between services. However, there is a lot to take from the concept of integration here, in order to achieve scalability, reliability, and reusability of your architecture.
To maximise independence of microservices, we essentially want to avoid the negative impact that a change in functionality, or outage of one service, has on the operation of the rest of the Product:
Microservices should enable a separation of concerns: each should be designed with a single function in mind, e.g. storing and retrieving a user’s shopping cart details, or creating or changing their password. Within reason, each microservice stores its own independent data and logs.
Microservices should be loosely coupled: Separated by APIs, they remain as independent of each other and of their dependencies as possible. And equally importantly, this independence should enable resilience in the case of dependency failure — resilient dependency management.
To enable and encourage the resilience of microservices from dependency failure, it’s common practice to purposefully crash dependencies, using chaos testing (or organised drills, if you’re not quite ready for chaos) is the way to go.
Independence does not mean rigidity, but rather independence as you’d see a child allowed to have her own interests and make her own mistakes in the process of growing up. Especially early on in the development process, it is very important that there is a lot of slack in your services for change. Because as you take upon new stakeholder relationships, there will be requirements that change. Just like a child’s brain — very malleable, and willing to accept many forms and learnings.
And with each microservice’s independence, we also should strive to maximise the strength of connections between each. Of course, we don’t want to go all out ‘brain’ here and build connections flailing around that are rarely used or just experimental. Again, pragmatism. However, there are several principles one should live by:
This is common sense, but APIs should be clear and well documented. Easy understanding of APIs through good documentation, organisation, and naming conventions, through architectures like HATEOAS pays massive dividends down the line, by minimising misuse or misunderstandings of your API, and reducing support.
Each and every connection should have its availability, latency and reliability (even if a simple measurement, like measuring 200s versus 400s) measured through SLOs. One can not stress the strength of SLOs enough. They are Google’s way of measuring the symptoms that clients (in this case, other microservices) experience when communicating with your services. Each SLO is a simple metric, such as “the percentage of API calls within 100 milliseconds.”
ALERT on these SLOs. One of the biggest lessons I learnt as a technical product manager was to alert on symptoms, and not causes. Adding alerts for arbitrary causes (such as a specific type of error) only catch errors you have in the past. Alerting on symptoms — in other words strange API behaviour in your microservices — catches every error that your client may experience. And there’s no better technical way to alert on symptoms than through SLO alerts. It’s cheaper to implement, easier to implement, and easier to understand. There are many different ways to do this, but budget burn is the tried and tested.
Along with each service’s individual tests, your Product needs a well-maintained end to end testing suite that tests the quality of connections between microservices.
Lesson four: Maximise “Integration” between your Product and stakeholders
As mentioned in Lesson Two, in IPNB, healthy relationships (especially early on in life) are one of the primary drivers of well Integrated mental health. This continues through adult life, though. It’s shown that Integration applies not just within our brain, but between individuals as well.
Similarly, we can strive for Integration between our Products and stakeholders:
Maximise independence: In my experience, this can be a hard pill to swallow, but your Product also needs to remain respectfully independent from your users and stakeholders. Unhealthy attachments to a small subset thereof can result in biased Products that lose the plot. Several times in my career, an unhealthy senior stakeholder has risked driving a product off the rails due to having too heavy an influence on the product. In fact, almost every product mistake that you can make as a manager comes from neglecting a subset of stakeholder needs due to a particularly vociferous stakeholder. This vociferous one can be you, too! With all of your unconscious biases, you make plenty of mistakes. Therefore, keep your Product respectfully independent from yourself in the same way as you do from others.
Regularly survey all of your stakeholders: You probably do already, but do you ask them about the quality of your relationship with them? Remember, your teams are your stakeholders, too. Their healthy relationship with the Product they work on is of utmost importance.
Maximise the strength of connections to your users: everything from Lesson 3 in terms of SLOs, alerting on SLOs, and clear, well documented APIs applies to your API relationships with your users. Here, of course, it can be a bit harder to measure your users’ experience — metrics can be harder to implement from the user’s perspective, and you sometimes need to rely on Google analytics or other front end data.
Finally, and probably most importantly in the long run, the strength of your connection with your users is defined by the quality and quantity of the data you store. Data quality, especially when building a new product, is too often ignored in lieu of new features. This comes back to bite you in the long term, when two years down the line you find you haven’t stored a crucial user behavioural data field that would have otherwise enabled you to make a now-critical business decision.
Lesson five: Healthy Product states are self-fulfilling
In IPNB, when the brain is in good health, with maximised Integration, it creates new synapses. It builds itself into a better brain, having a positive impact on both the mind and relationships. However, exactly the same mechanisms enabling this can inflame the brain and cause unhealthy mental states when we encounter unhealthy situations or inputs. One bad actor in your environment can wreak havoc, and it can be hard to escape the ensuing rut. Conversely, a good actor can take you out of a rut equally well.
Often when you find yourself craving “me-time,” it is a natural cry for help from your brain: we need time away from external influence, in order to process and reset.
The same balance exists in your architecture and mind. If your systems are in a healthy state, you are blessed with time to build new features, and further improve the health of your systems. The freedom buys time for innovation, and can spawn new products and revenue streams. Conversely, an unhealthy system can get you in a rut of bug fixing or support, resulting in rushed work and further bug fixing and support in the future as you try to dig yourself out of this rut.
It is hard to come up with practical advice for these implications, beyond that you should pay attention to the little things and people. Survey your teams. Have regular retrospectives. Often, the heralds of doom are not the leadership team, but one analyst or UX designer quietly sulking in the corner, or complaining to their manager. Those same people can be the saviours. Secondly, set aside formal Product teams’ “me-time,” time to reset, retrospect, and process — whether through hackathons, buffer times in roadmaps, or time laid aside for technical debt. We can’t work full steam ahead for very long without burning out.
Lesson six: The Reactive Manifesto
The other five lessons look at aspects of the mind or brain, and how that can apply to your system’s architecture. Number six reverse-engineers the analogy a bit. One of the foremost ways at designing truly scalable and resilient systems today is Reactive Architecture, an evolution of Microservices Architecture. As Products have grown in scale, many systems have naturally evolved to Reactive out of pure need — because it’s the only way to deal with large scale data processing on the cloud. The best practices that evolved in many of these systems, dubbed The Reactive Manifesto, are very similar to what we’ve discussed here.
Like the brain, a Reactive Architecture is lightning fast in responses. Its services stay resilient in the face of self or dependency failure. It is elastic to increased workload. Finally, it is entirely message driven.
Bringing it all together
The demands of building a global-scale Product have changed the way we need to look at our systems. It’s no longer possible for one person to understand an entire architecture, and laughable to think we have fine control over huge systems and their failures. So rather than micromanage our systems, let’s try to keep them healthy as a whole. Let’s learn from a relatively new branch of science: Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB). A healthy brain is analogous to a healthy system architecture, and therefore a healthy mind is analogous to a healthy digital product — both within the workings of this Product and between the Product and its stakeholders.
So if we want to treat our Products with care, what can IPNB teach us? | https://medium.com/@rian-van-den-ander/building-healthy-and-resilient-digital-products-drawing-ideas-from-interpersonal-neurobiology-a2f76713615d | ['Rian Van Den Ander'] | 2020-12-14 16:09:07.131000+00:00 | ['Software Architecture', 'Systems Thinking', 'Neurobiology', 'Product Management', 'Software Development'] |
Confessions Of A…Cam Girl | By Olivia Cassano
PHOTOGRAPHED BY EYLUL ASLAN.
Since SESTA-FOSTA and the UK government’s recent “porn block” came into effect, there’s been a lot of talk online about sex workers, with cam girls being part of that often misunderstood group.
For the uninitiated, camming is where clients either watch a live stream or pay for private video chats with a sex worker. In the past decade it has become a massive — and often lucrative — part of the adult entertainment industry, but despite it being a totally honest profession, there are still lots of misconceptions and stigma around the job.
We spoke to Saskia Jade about what it’s like to be a full-time cam girl, from having her videos pirated and dealing with SWERFs (sex worker exclusionary feminists) to juggling the job and dating, and why cam girls aren’t any different from your average freelancer.
When and how did you get into webcamming?
I started camming last June. It started on Babestation, where I made a friend who showed me MyFreeCams, and I was like “Yeah this is something I totally want to do, this sounds so cool”. She was telling me about the kind of money she earns and that drew me in quite a lot.
How much do you earn?
It really fluctuates, depending on how much you actually work that month. I’ve had some months where I couldn’t be bothered to work but I’d still come out with £4,000, whereas there are months where you work so hard and you’re doubling that, and more.
What’s the most money you’ve earned from one broadcast?
Actually it was the first ever broadcast I did. I did it with my friend and in two hours we made £1,600 each.
What was it like at the beginning? Were you always comfortable in front of the camera or did it take time?
I was pretty confident straightaway! I come from a fitness modelling background, I’ve always been quite chatty in front of a camera and I’ve always been very body confident as well, so to me it came quite naturally.
How many times a week do you broadcast?
On average four times a week.
Do you get a lot of different clients, or are they usually loyal?
I don’t like the term ‘clients’ or ‘fans’. I’ve recently started calling them my ‘Sass Squad’ because I see a lot of them as friends… I just speak explicitly to them. I’ve got a good ground base of loyal fans who’ve been there since my Babestation days, then when I started full-time camming I made a lot more loyal fans. You do get a lot of other people come in but it really depends on what time you cam because your audience changes. My loyal fanbase know the average time I cam, but if I cam a bit later I get a lot more new people on, and more Americans.
Do you do a lot of private shows?
Yes because they’re the most loyal [fans]. I’ll speak to them a day in advance, or they’ll message me and go “I want a private”, then I’ll be like “I’m on at this time” and that’s when they’ll come in for their privates.
What’s the most common request you get when you do privates?
Most common request is actually to watch them wank, and then for me to use a dildo on myself.
What about the craziest?
I’ve had one guy ask me to piss on my legs, to which I said no because I’m not a fan of watersports. Anything to do with urinating or worse I stay away from, but everything else I’m pretty open to.
How do people react when you tell them what you do?
Some people are just like “Oh fair play, good on you” but some people have their opinions and they’ll just say “Do you have no self respect?” or “Why don’t you just get a normal job?”
How does your family feel about your job?
When my mum found out she cried and didn’t speak to me for a week. I’ve got three brothers so as you can imagine they’re very protective. One of them knows the full extent of what I do, while the other two know I cam and do glamour modelling and stuff like that but that’s all they know, and that’s all my mum knows as well. Only my dad, his wife and one of my brothers know the full extent. When my dad found out he messaged me just to say that he just wants me to be happy and not sacrifice my body or choices for money — me giving them the reassurance that I’m happy and I make my own choices, they’re okay with it, while my mum and my other two brothers are a little bit more old school so they can’t understand it as much. But I’m very thankful to have a stepdad who’s tried to open my mum’s eyes and just say “Look, she’s young, she can make the money while she can, she may as well”.
Does camming affect your dating life?
I recently broke up with my ex because I found out that he was cheating on me because he thought my job was me cheating on him, which I think was just an excuse. It does affect your dating life because people just want to know “Saskia”, they don’t care about the person underneath and the person that I really am. I just don’t date anymore because I don’t want to date a guy who’s DMd me on Instagram if all they’re seeing is “Saskia the show” and not the true me.
Has this ever been such an issue that you’ve considered not camming anymore?
No, never. I would rather be on my own, have my friends, my family and have my support system and not need a guy.
Has camming made a difference to your sex life?
Yes! Sometimes I’ll come off cam and I’ll be like “I’m super horny, I need some dick” but there are times where I have been in relationships and because I’m so tired of performing and speaking to people in such a sexual way for a few weeks on end, it makes me not want sex. I’ve also become a lot more open sexually and found so many new fetishes.
Have you ever met any of your fans in real life?
I’ve met one guy, but that was organised. He paid me for my time and we just went out for dinner and he was really lovely. I obviously made sure everything was legit beforehand. But a lot of the time guys are embarrassed to come up to you and say hi. There’s times when I’ve walked down the street or I’m on the train or something like that and I know the difference between a guy looking at me going “Oh she’s hot” and going “Oh that’s Saskia”. I get a lot of looks like that, and I’m just the kind of person who’s like “Come up and say hi,” like, I don’t care.
Have you ever received presents from a fan?
I had a guy send me £6,000 and a lot of YSL, Valentino, Gucci, stuff like that.
Aside from gifts, what are the best aspects of camming?
Without a doubt the fact that you can work when you want, where you want. I can be in any part of the world and as long as I have Wi-Fi, my laptop and my webcam, I can work. I get paid loads, a lot more than what I used to in my 40-hours-a-week job, and also making a lot of new friends. There’s so many great things but finding myself was honestly the best experience.
Worst experience?
I’ve had quite a lot of my shows recorded and then leaked, and at the beginning it was really hard to deal with. I didn’t know how to cope with it and everything got put onto Pornhub. I have three brothers around my age and they could be searching Pornhub and the last thing they need is their sister coming up. Also, some girls will message you and tell you “Why is my boyfriend liking your stuff? You’re a dirty slag” and there’s people who will say I don’t deserve to live. Those are the hard things to deal with and there have been days where it’s really affected me, but I’m a lot more headstrong than they clearly are, that’s how I see it.
How do you take care of yourself on days where the abuse is affecting your mental health?
I make sure I don’t spend the whole day in bed, I’ll get up and head straight to the shower because showers help clear my thoughts straightaway. If it’s a day where I can’t see anyone then I’ll just ring someone up and have a good conversation with them, talking about random things and nothing to do with work. I love going to the gym, for me it’s a massive release from any sort of anger and upset. Also, not looking at your social media all the time, which is hard because it feels like you pretty much have to be on your phone 24/7. You just have to make yourself have a break, I’ve learned that I have to take time out for me.
Did camming live up to your expectations, or was it a lot different from what you imagined?
Because I had such a good start at the job it’s always been quite smooth sailing. However, I never actually realised the amount of abuse I’d get and how people would treat me. That’s not what I ever expected, and when you have a bad day you kind of kick yourself for it, like “Why is no one tipping me?” and you start doubting yourself.
In your experience, has the job changed since SESTA-FOSTA and the new UK porn laws have come into effect?
I wouldn’t say anything has really changed about my job to be honest.
Has camming changed your perspective on feminism and what it means to be a woman today?
It’s taught me how to stand my ground, because there are a lot of women out there saying they’re feminists but they’ll just target other women and tear them down to shreds if they’re an adult entertainer.
What are the biggest misconceptions about cam girls?
That people think I’m out to shag anyone in sight, and that I’m really easy or that I’m off my head on drugs all the time. Also a lot of people think that to do this job you need to have some sort of issue, like daddy issues or something, but I do it because I genuinely love what I do, it makes me feel so empowered, so that is a massive misconception. | https://medium.com/refinery29/confessions-of-a-cam-girl-5873cb45fc29 | [] | 2020-08-24 16:56:01.648000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Sex', 'Camgirls', 'Work', 'Sex Workers'] |
I get comments from people who read She Divorced Me | More importantly, devices like Jetson open the floodgates for a new generation to play around with their A.I.-powered ideas at home, building their own voice assistants or self-flying drones without requiring an internet connection or an expensive investment in high-end hardware.
For example, if we’re testing a workout app, then we may want to ask questions like, “do you currently use any workout apps?” or “do you exercise regularly?” If the tester answers no to these questions, they wouldn’t be a good fit and wouldn’t continue to our test.
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The process of crunching this data on-device is referred to as “Edge” A.I., which means that the processing is done near the source of data. While this technology has been used in smartphones in recent years for things like processing “Hey Siri” on the iPhone and Google’s Call Screen technology, it hasn’t been as common in other smart devices because it’s cheaper to just fire that data off to the cloud than to include an expensive custom chip to process information locally. That comes at the cost of your privacy — and a reliance on the company keeping those servers online so your device continues to function.I’m sure she agreed to ordering a pizza a bunch of times when she probably didn’t want to. I bet she even went to the grocery store a bunch of times just to accommodate whatever dinner idea I’d suggested.I was certainly imperfect, because I don’t default naturally to Person Who Thinks About Future Meals, but I improved quite a bit through the years at being helpful with dinner. I’m a competent cook who seriously considered culinary school before choosing a writing career. My wife never seemed to figure it out, but I totally cared about her opinion of me. Me getting better at meal planning, volunteering for the grocery buying, and cooking most of the time seemed like a way for me to contribute positively and be a “good husband.”
My son doesn’t know enough to know WHY it was funny, and I wasn’t going to get into it with him right then, but I did try to teach him something important that he clearly hadn’t learned yet.
If I can move past my wife’s crazy and irrational responses to little things that don’t matter, why can’t she chill about silly stuff like me not wanting to plan for tomorrow’s dinner, or me leaving my drinking glass next to the sink to use again later?
Many programmers believe that the use of higher order integration algorithms, combined with a large number of integration interval divisions, is useful (and sometimes necessary) to achieve good accuracy. In this article we show that this is not always true.
“I’m upset because I’m your dad, and I’ve asked you to do a few easy and simple things this morning, and then you didn’t do them. You chose to not help me. Not only did you not help me, you kind of sabotaged my efforts to get us ready so you can get to school on time. Towels and school shoes and you making noise are NOT important. But you obeying your mom and dad IS important. I’m not upset about dumb stuff. I’m upset because you’re not listening to your parents.”
In this step, we need to define the different scenarios that a tester would go through to help us uncover insights. For example, a scenario might be testing out the app as a new user without an onboarding experience, exploring features on their own. Another scenario might be testing an onboarding experience that ushers new users through the app and explains features.
Like the Raspberry Pi leveled the playing field for hobbyists and students a few short years ago, Nvidia’s new Jetson computer will usher in a new wave of A.I.-based projects that anyone can build for themselves simply because it’s so accessible — and some of those ideas might turn into the next big thing.
def rectangles(f, a, b, tol):
sum = 0
n = 1
dx = (b — a)/n
while abs(sum — original_value) > tol:
sum = 0
dx = (b — a)/n
x = a + 0.5*dx
for i in range(0, n):
sum += f(x)
x += dx
sum *= dx
n += 1
return sum, n-1
“But I’m not really upset because you did a less-than-stellar job hanging up your towel, or because you’re making weird mouth noises for no apparent reason, or because you don’t have your shoes on yet.
Dependence on the cloud gives companies like Ring, which is owned by Amazon, an advantage over any new entrants to the space because it has access to practically unlimited resources from its parent company to build A.I.-enabled devices for free. Cheap A.I.-enabled computers level the playing field: Anyone can now play with fully fledged A.I. for a onetime cost of $59 and build devices that compete with the industry’s giants without paying endless cash to the cloud platforms to get access to the smarts they require.
I don’t value planning future meals unless I’m going to be cooking for other people, like friends or a date. Otherwise, I just don’t think it matters. There are many important things in life. Many. Planning meals for three days from now doesn’t crack the high-priority section of my list.
Gather final thoughts and ask any final questions to tie all the scenarios together. Which option did they prefer? How would you rate each experience on a scale of 1–5? Be sure to show visuals again to remind testers of each scenario.
“Listen, kiddo. I understand why you think I’m getting mad about dumb stuff that doesn’t matter. I really do,” I said. “I’m giving you a hard time about how quickly you’re putting on shoes or eating. I’m angry because you’re making silly noises, or not hanging up your bath towels in the way I’ve asked you to. I get why that seems stupid. Those are all things that don’t seem very important.
My wife seemed to get irrationally upset about this lack of concern for tomorrow’s meal. In my mind, she was “overreacting.” In my mind, she was blowing things out of proportion. This was another example of my wife having mixed-up priorities in our marriage.
In fact, there is a trick. The trick consists of the fact that I used a special version of the rectangle rule, known as the midpoint rule. In this case, the height of the rectangle, used to approximate the function, is not f(a), nor f(b), but f((a+b)/2). You will have no difficulty in showing that the area of a rectangle whose height is the average of the lengths of the bases of a trapezoid is equivalent to the area of the latter. The two methods are, in fact, completely equivalent. The difference in n is mainly due to the specific properties of f(x) (in particular, to the fact that f(x) is monotonically decreasing).
Browsing Cantor’s Paradise articles, one of my favourite publications on Medium, I found an article written by Kazi Abu Rousan, in which the use of the trapezoidal rule for numerical integration is advocated (I am attracted by articles about physics, numerical methods and programming, as well as about the interplay between art and science). It is a well written article, in fact (as usual, on this publication) and I appreciate very much the animated figures that clearly illustrate the method. Bravo!
Like the Raspberry Pi leveled the playing field for hobbyists and students a few short years ago, Nvidia’s new Jetson computer will usher in a new wave of A.I.-based projects that anyone can build for themselves simply because it’s so accessible — and some of those ideas might turn into the next big thing. | https://medium.com/@juniorlesch/i-get-comments-from-people-who-read-she-divorced-me-32c140d3e091 | ['Junior Lesch'] | 2020-12-04 19:25:38.514000+00:00 | ['President', 'Ministry'] |
USDS Alumni Network: Marcy Jacobs | USDS Alumni Network: Marcy Jacobs
When you join USDS, you become part of a community that extends to life after your tour of duty. In this blog series, we share the stories of USDS Alumni. Find out what they worked on, where they are now, and why you should join us! U.S. Digital Service Follow Jul 27, 2020 · 4 min read
Marcy Jacobs (she/ her), McKinsey & Co. Previously Executive Director, Digital Service @ Veterans Affairs; USDS Director of Design; Team Lead at both DoJ and IRS. From Potomac, MD.
What’s your background?
I studied art and psychology in college and started a PhD program in Psychology. After finishing my masters, I decided to move into web design. I learned about information architecture, usability, user experience and grew a practice focused on delivering value through design and user research to Federal clients.
What inspired you to join USDS?
I learned about USDS through a 2-hour coffee with Dana Chisnell, one of the first designers at USDS. I was fascinated by the projects USDS was tackling and was convinced to apply. I had been doing work for several FBI clients and was excited about being able to support the firearms background check initiatives with USDS. I worked on several other projects instead and eventually worked at DOJ on an effort to reduce recidivism and improve reentry outcomes for federal prisoners.
Joining was a very hard decision for me. I had been with SRA for 14 years and this was a huge change — but I am so glad I took the chance and the amazing opportunity. The work I did at USDS pushed me in new ways and my career has grown tremendously. I have also had the privilege to work with the most talented and passionate designers, product managers and engineers as well as dedicated career civil servants.
Marcy with the DSVA team
What has been your biggest challenge during your tour-of-duty?
When you know you are only there for a short term, it can make you impatient to get things done quickly, not the typical pace of government.
How does your work or the work of USDS make an impact?
My team at the VA was driving a large digital transformation for the agency. There were many individual digital efforts but none were coordinated with all the others. We focused on improving tools, interactions and content for veterans to understand and take advantage of the benefits they had earned. Our work has made it easier for millions of veterans to engage with the VA. We also worked to show other teams at VA how to put the veteran at the center of development decisions through research and Human Centered Design.
Did you feel effective during your tour of service?
I was at USDS for 3.5 years in a variety of roles and felt all of my roles had an impact. Many of the roles were complicated, ill-defined and sometimes frustrating, but I was able to get a lot done and learn about myself and grow as a leader.
Any advice?
Take advantage of all that USDS provides — the opportunities to help others at a huge scale, the relationships with incredibly talented and mission driven people, and learning so much about how our government really works and where it can be better.
Would you come back?
I would definitely come back to government — there is so much to do to make government work better for the people it serves.
USDSers, alumni, and family at our 2019 summer picnic.
What’s your favorite USDS memory?
My team at VA won the Service to America medal for the work we did making it easier for veterans to get the services they need. That was amazing and very special night. | https://medium.com/the-u-s-digital-service/usds-alumni-network-marcy-jacobs-123b96ae74d5 | ['U.S. Digital Service'] | 2020-07-27 13:31:01+00:00 | ['Engineering', 'Interview', 'Civictech', 'Design', 'Government'] |
How To Fix A Broken Heart | A look into the applications of regenerative medicine.
Imagine this.
It’s 2050. You’re in the car with your significant other. You just found out that they cheated on you. Your heart has shattered into pieces and you’re so distraught that you accidentally drive into a tree. You see a piece of wood impaling your chest and you pass out. Now, your heart is literally and figuratively broken. While surgeons operate on your heart, the damage is too extensive and all they can do is repair some tears and let your heart regenerate.
Back in 2020, you would be put on the transplant list and possibly be waiting for a new heart for at least six months. But thanks to breakthroughs in regenerative medicine, doctors are able to restore your damaged heart tissue and mend your physical pain. But unfortunately, there is nothing they can do about your emotional pain.
What is Regenerative Medicine?
When you get a paper cut or cut yourself on a piece of glass, what happens? You might put a band-aid on it and after about a week it’s healed. How about when you break a bone? You go to the doctor, get a cast, and in about 2–3 months (depending on what you broke) the bone is healed and you can continue with your life. These are both examples of the body’s natural ability to heal itself.
However, there are many things your body cannot repair, like organs or tissue when they have been damaged by disease, trauma, or congenital issues. This is what regenerative medicine is focused on, restore structure and function to damaged tissues and organs, and create solutions for organs that are permanently damaged.
What Can It Do & How Can It Help?
In the field of regenerative medicine, the two main concentrations are tissue engineering/biomaterials and cellular therapies.
Tissue Engineering & Biomaterials
If you’re an avid Grey’s Anatomy fan like me, or you know what to do in the event of organ failure, you know that when an organ starts to fail the predominant clinical strategy is to transplant a replacement organ from a donor.
However, the main challenges are obtaining said organs in an efficient matter and the requirement for the use of immunosuppressive drugs, which have side effects. According to the U.S. Government Information on Organ Donation and Transplantation, about 17 people die each day (more than 6,000 a year) waiting for an organ transplant, but the use of tissue engineering could decrease that number significantly.
Tissue engineering is a a biomedical engineering discipline that integrates biology with engineering to create tissues or cellular products outside the body or to make use of gained knowledge to better manage the repair of tissues within the body.
As you may know, our bodies are made of millions of cells, skin cells, blood cells, muscle cells, etc. But there is a specific type of cells that is especially important in the field of regenerative medicine, stem cells. In this case, it is using stem cells to grow organs in a lab, which then could be implanted.
Stem cells are cells that are able to develop into different cell types. Think of them like babies who have no idea what they will be in the future (differentiation), but they have the ability to become whatever they want to be (blood cells, brain cells, muscle cells, etc).
This can be down with the use of 3D-printers, a machine that can create a physical object from a three-dimensional digital model. The use of 3D-printers in medicine is often referred to as 3D-bioprinting
Simulation of 3D-bioprinting
To create successful, viable tissue using 3D-bioprinting you have to:
Harvest cells from biopsies or stem cells, and place these living cells in a petri dish and allow them to multiply. The mixture that results is known as bioink, and is fed into a 3D printer. Think of it like the ink you put in your printer, but filled with cells and a gel to keep it stable. Then the printer will start printing the structure specified on a digital file, one layer at a time. The printer is programmed to arrange different cell types and materials into a specific three-dimensional shape called a scaffold (kind of like a mold for the tissue). Once it’s created cells are placed onto the scaffold, usually with growth factors (food for the cells), and the scaffold is placed into a controlled environment where the tissue can assemble.
The most used engineered tissues are artificial skin, commonly used for burn cases, and cartilage. More complex organs have been recreated, but it's a long way from being fully reproducible and efficient enough to readily be implanted into patients.
Producing these tissues are also very helpful in drug development since it can help screen medication without having to potentially put humans or animals in harm's way.
Cellular Therapies
For diseases like leukemia, even though there are effective treatments to destroy the cancer cells, healthy cells are destroyed as well. This leaves patients’ bodies weak and lacking in cells, leaving them susceptible to infections. This would usually be treated by seeking a compatible donor to donate cells, for example, bone marrow, but finding a donor is difficult.
The unique ability of stem cells to develop into different cell types is a key component of cellular therapy.
Cellular therapy is the transplantation of human cells to replace or repair damaged tissue and/or cells.
Stem cells collected from blood, fat, bone marrow, dental pulp, skeletal muscle, and other sources can be harvested and later injected at the site of damaged tissue to reconstruct the tissue. Since the cells will come directly from the patient, there wouldn't be a delay to find a donor or risk of rejection, only the time to harvest the cells, which can take one to ten days.
Cellular therapy currently is used to treat some types of cancer, Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig disease, spinal cord injuries, and diabetes. | https://medium.com/@abbylee0429/how-to-fix-a-broken-heart-dc0b9319e99b | ['Abigail Lee'] | 2020-12-01 04:05:27.093000+00:00 | ['Biotechnology', 'Healthcare Technology', 'Healthcare', 'Medicine', 'Regenerative Medicine'] |
The First Azalea Bloom | Floridians slide through winter
like a butter knife through warm biscuits.
Winter isn’t a season here,
it’s a cluster of moments,
mostly in January.
Warm apple cider
and hot rum toddies
are luxuries —
appreciated and
discarded when
the first azalea blooms
in February.
My passion for winter
died long ago in Maine,
a state that glorifies
all that made me cold and
miserable for three years.
Is this a poem or
a series of cold thoughts
in a warm state?
We get cold here— believe me —
frost, even flurries —
well, almost never flurries,
but they’ve happened.
We have wicked cold winds,
unwelcome visitors from the north,
like the snowbirds that crowd the interstates.
We wear sweaters and parkas,
scarves, gloves, and hats —
once, twice, maybe, six times
before pulling out swimsuits.
Pots of spicy chili and
cinnamony pumpkin pies
remind you of the north
until we pour a margarita
to go with them.
Winter is confused here.
Never knowing if it's coming or going.
We are confused in winter.
Days in the 80s become
nights in 30s or 20s.
Our air-conditioner remains
on stand-by, used more
than the heater.
Beds clothed only in sheets
for most months now
don colorfully-confused comforters.
Some anxiously await
the cooler-ness of winter,
these are always the
real Floridians, the born-and-breds,
worn down by heat and humidity
like tires bald from the highway.
But, we transplants,
the ones who chose to be here,
often for the same reasons
the natives wish they weren’t,
we are wistful when summer fades
at the end of fall — too soon for us.
We become glum and despondent,
feeling like Florida abandoned us or
we were transported back to
a bleak, colorless place we left so long ago.
Yes, depression sets in for those
weeks — two, maybe, three —
before the first azalea blooms. | https://medium.com/weeds-wildflowers/the-first-azalea-bloom-39de0cf08212 | [] | 2020-11-21 10:32:45.789000+00:00 | ['Winter', 'Poetry', 'Florida', 'Poetry Prompt', 'Spring'] |
Interpretable Machine Learning for Image Classification with LIME | Interpretable Machine Learning for Image Classification with LIME
Increase confidence in your machine-learning model by understanding its predictions.
The increasing trend in the use of machine learning for critical applications such as self-driving vehicles and medical diagnosis suggests an imperative need for methodologies that can help to understand and evaluate the predictions of machine-learning models. Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations (LIME)[1] is a technique that explains how the input features of a machine learning model affect its predictions. For instance, for image classification tasks, LIME finds the region of an image (set of super-pixels) with the strongest association with a prediction label. This post is a step by step guide with Python code on how LIME for image classification internally works.
Let’s start by reading an image and using the pre-trained InceptionV3 model available in Keras to predict the class of such image.
This script loads the input image in the variable Xi and prints the top 5 classes (and probabilities) for the image as shown below:
Labrador Retriever (82.2%)
Golden Retriever (1.5%)
American Staffordshire Terrier (0.9%)
Bull Mastiff (0.8%)
Great Dane (0.7%)
With this information, the input image and the pre-trained InceptionV3 model, we can proceed to generate explanations with LIME. In this example we will generate explanations for the class Labrador Retriever.
LIME Explanations
LIME creates explanations by generating a new dataset of random perturbations (with their respective predictions) around the instance being explained and then fitting a weighted local surrogate model. This local model is usually a simpler model with intrinsic interpretability such as a linear regression model. For more details about the basics behind LIME, I recommend you to check this short tutorial. For the case of image classification, LIME generates explanations with the following steps:
Step 1: Generate random perturbations for input image
For the case of images, LIME generates perturbations by turning on and off some of the super-pixels in the image. The following script uses the quick-shift segmentation algorithm to compute the super-pixels in the image. In addition, it generates an array of 150 perturbations where each perturbation is a vector with zeros and ones that represent whether the super-pixel is on or off.
After computing the super-pixels in the image we get this:
The following are examples of perturbation vectors and perturbed images:
Step 2: Predict class for perturbations
The following script uses the inceptionV3_model to predict the class of each of the perturbed images. The shape of the predictions is (150,1000) which means that for each of the 150 images, we get the probability of belonging to the 1,000 classes in InceptionV3. From these 1,000 classes we will use only the Labrador class in further steps since it is the prediction we want to explain. In this example, 150 perturbations were used. However, for real applications, a larger number of perturbations will produce more reliable explanations.
Now we have everything to fit a linear model using the perturbations as input features X and the predictions for Labrador predictions[labrador] as output y . However, before we fit a linear model, LIME needs to give more weight (importance) to images that are closer to the image being explained.
Step 3: Compute weights (importance) for the perturbations
We use a distance metric to evaluate how far is each perturbation from the original image. The original image is just a perturbation with all the super-pixels active (all elements in one). Given that the perturbations are multidimensional vectors, the cosine distance is a metric that can be used for this purpose. After the cosine distance has been computed, a kernel function is used to translate such distance to a value between zero and one (a weight). At the end of this process we have a weight (importance) for each perturbation in the dataset.
Step 4: Fit a explainable linear model using the perturbations , predictions and weights
We fit a weighted linear model using the information obtained in the previous steps. We get a coefficient for each super-pixel in the image that represents how strong is the effect of the super-pixel in the prediction of Labrador.
We just need to sort these coefficients to determine what are the most important super-pixels ( top_features )for the prediction of Labrador. Even though here we used the magnitude of the coefficients to determine the most important features, other alternatives such as forward or backward elimination can be used for feature importance selection. After computing the top super-pixels we get:
This is what LIME returns as explanation. The area of the image (super-pixels) that have a stronger association with the prediction of “Labrador Retriever”. This explanation suggests that the pre-trained InceptionV3 model is doing a good job predicting the labrador class for the given image. This example shows how LIME can help to increase confidence in a machine-learning model by understanding why it is returning certain predictions.
A Jupyter Notebook with all the Python code used in this post can be found here. You can easily test explanations on your own images by opening this notebook in Google Colab.
References
[1] Ribeiro, Marco Tulio, Sameer Singh, and Carlos Guestrin. “Why should I trust you? : Explaining the predictions of any classifier.” (2016) Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGKDD. ACM. | https://towardsdatascience.com/interpretable-machine-learning-for-image-classification-with-lime-ea947e82ca13 | ['Cristian Arteaga'] | 2019-10-22 06:03:48.223000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Interpretable Ai', 'Image Processing', 'Deep Learning', 'Explainable Ai'] |
How Do Start-Ups Gain Popularity? | Running a successful start-up requires hard work and patience. Popularity is something that cannot be achieved within just starting. You have to struggle hard, and wait for the outcome to show up. According to a survey, most of the companies give up right in the starting. The most challenging fact is that, no matter how great your products are, you’ll attract not enough customers if they are not aware of your brand. Brand popularity is most important to run a successful business. Here are some tips on how can a start-up help to gain their popularity:
Make a business plan: Making a business plan on how you would like to see your business in the future. It helps in more growth and receiving more revenue investment.
Have a proper website and location of your business: It is important that your business has both physical as well as the web address in order to directly attract your customer. You can make good leads out of your websites with the help of SEO (Search engine optimization).
Use social media platforms: Digital marketing is adapted by almost every company. People trust your brand more if you have an online presence. Marketing after making your products needs to be your top priority. Digital marketing services will help you gain your popularity even more. If you are not a digital marketing expert and looking for someone to trust it with your company, then we are here for you to help you with it.
Partner up with influencers: Influencers are the new trend of gaining popularity. You should definitely use this service to promote your products because people still believe the social personality recommending something. Word of mouth still counts.
Create your own content: Whether it’s a blog post or a social media announcement, it’s expected that companies should create their own content and share it with people. Creating your own identity helps you to attract a new customer.
Just wait for the outcome to show. One day your hard work will reflect. If you are looking to gain some popularity and you can’t do it alone, visit us at www.satshritech.com. for the best digital marketing services. | https://medium.com/@satshritech/how-do-start-ups-gain-popularity-28caf1a60d34 | ['Satshri Technologies'] | 2020-04-06 07:26:21.642000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Digital Marketing', 'Seo Services', 'Startup', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
The Edge | I lie on the ground, calmly.
Burning heat tormenting me.
Night or day, I know not.
Society has left me to rot.
Some say I’m special.
Others say I’m antisocial.
No matter who,
They all say “Shoo!”
Am I odd?
I’ve been told about God.
“He is merciful!
He will feed you till your stomach’s full!”
Yeah, right.
I won’t go down without a fight.
As I look around me I see
Absolutely no mercy.
People dying, people living.
People caring, people daring.
I’m nothing but a lot of rust
To these specks of dust.
Where am I?
What am I?
Why am I here on Earth?
To live a life with no mirth?
A tap on my shoulder.
It grows colder.
I look behind.
Nothing, life is so unkind.
Why can’t it be my savior?
What was my misbehavior?
I was told about a Messiah.
But now, I see nothing but a
Padded wall.
I’m wadded up like a doll.
Can’t move, can’t speak.
I feel so weak.
What did I do?
What can I do?
Someone tell me.
Because I’m on the edge of insanity.
A voice comes, finally.
“Come to me!”
A black figure stands still.
You know what, I think I will. | https://medium.com/@rishisridhar/the-edge-e19482d6c2e6 | ['Rishi Sridhar'] | 2021-01-17 14:25:01.635000+00:00 | ['Poem', 'Depression', 'Reflections', 'Poetry', 'Sadness'] |
Google update: Google photos now adds up with Map View Satellite layer. | Well, as we all know Google always keeps trying something new for their users. And now there is one more update from Google for us. But this update is going to be from Google running application. Last month, Google briefly mentioned that the Location History-powered Timeline feature in Maps was coming to Google Photos. The Timeline integration is now rolled out in Google Photos for iOS and Android, along with the ability to change the map layer.
As per the recent news, the ‘Google Photos’ app. has added a new feature in it which is been called as the “Maps Timeline” feature by Google. This new feature will help to show the pictures of your planned trips on the routes on where you’ve captured pictures.
Also, this new feature is going to be live on ‘Google Photos’ version 5.23.0 and above. It’s the latest announcement in a series of new features introduced in the app by Google this year. According to Google’s statement, users can also use their photos’ locations to organize, manage search and explore more photos based on where the picture was captured.
Read full article here… https://www.itrions.com/2020/12/google-update-google-photos-now-adds-up.html
Even though “This year Google Photos app became the second app to hit five billion installs on Play Store”. As we all know well that Google Photos App is generally used for saving photos and also for taking backups of your High quality Images and Videos. Because of this and even Google’s efforts on adding a new feature for their users ‘Google Photos’ has reached 5 billion installs on Google Play Store. Even it grabbed the second position after worldwide popular app Whats App. | https://medium.com/@zubairkazi/google-update-google-photos-now-adds-up-with-map-view-satellite-layer-4a3928328da9 | ['Zubair Kazi'] | 2020-12-20 09:26:34.394000+00:00 | ['Google Updates', 'Google', 'Map View Satellite Layer', 'Maps', 'Google Photos'] |
An Introduction to React-Table | Basic Table
As always, we use Create React App as a starting point. First, install React Table with the command npm i react-table . Then the package becomes part of dependencies in package.json .
"dependencies": {
"react-table": "^7.1.0"
}
Change src/index.css to this for minimal table styling:
The following is a basic table, with five columns and ten rows.
Similar to any table, a React Table is composed of columns and data:
columns is an array of columns. Columns can be nested, which act as header groups. In addition, columns can be recursively nested as much as needed.
is an array of columns. Columns can be nested, which act as header groups. In addition, columns can be recursively nested as much as needed. data is an array of rows to be displayed on the table.
We set up src/dataSource.js for columns and data . In the following code, accessor serves as a column key, which is used to define each column in row data. The Column ID is generated from a string accessor or provided by the column definition. Header is the column display string or JSX. Both accessor and Header can be a function.
Replace src/App.js with our table code.
Lines 12 to 15 is useTable hook. It takes options and plugins to build a table instance. The basic options are columns and data. Plugins are optional.
In lines 7 to 11, we use a number of props from the useTable instance:
getTableProps is a function to resolve any props needed by the table wrapper. The built-in table props is {role: “table”} , which can be customized.
is a function to resolve any props needed by the table wrapper. The built-in table props is , which can be customized. getTableBodyProps is a function to resolve any props needed by the table body wrapper. The built-in table props is {role: “rowgroup”} , which can be customized.
is a function to resolve any props needed by the table body wrapper. The built-in table props is , which can be customized. prepareRow is a function that must be called on any rows to be displayed. It is responsible for lazily preparing a row for rendering.
is a function that must be called on any rows to be displayed. It is responsible for lazily preparing a row for rendering. headerGroups and rows are internal data structures derived from columns and data.
With the props from useTable instance, we obtain the building blocks to compose the Table in lines 18 to 40. headerGroups , rows , and columns are complex data structures, which include additional functions for use, such as getHeaderGroupProps , getHeaderProps , getRowProps , and getCellProps . You can also call column.render(‘Header’) and cell.render(‘Cell’) .
Below is the translated HTML definition of the table. | https://medium.com/better-programming/an-introduction-to-react-table-6ebd34d8059e | ['Jennifer Fu'] | 2020-10-27 00:59:06.162000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'React', 'React Hook', 'React Table', 'JavaScript'] |
4 Ways to Know It’s Time to Try Something Different | Do you ever encounter that phase of life where you feel stuck? No worries, I’ve been there too. My life has been a series of ups and downs, from one startup to other, and never-ending personal struggles. Throughout these, I survived and learned the art of determining the sense of direction through good-bad experiences. I‘ll be sharing whatever I learned in this post. How do you determine when it’s time to take a different direction? Here’s the answer.
1. Passion as a ‘Key’
Realize what ‘ignites’ you. Yes, you heard it right. You must find the things which light you up from the inside and keep you up. If you’re constantly avoiding work on a certain project or you lose your passion and patience for a topic, it’s best to employ your talent and time elsewhere.
Initially, you might feel afraid of many things, but if you just believe in yourself, it will work out. Delegate your old work if you can, and re-evaluate the status every 30 days until you have enough data to make a significant decision.
2. Your Eye Out on a Focused Goal
Many people think if their passion changes, their life purpose is gone. Let me share a secret, changing direction doesn’t mean that you’re changing the goal. If you feel burn out from your current passion, it means that your current strategy isn't working as efficiently as it should.
The biggest hurdle some of us have to get over is the belief that there is only one way of solving a problem.
Do realize that by taking a different strategy or approach to get to your goal might make it easier to achieve. I personally find this way much easier to shift.
3. Gain Clarity on What’s Working
Get clear on what’s working and what’s not. Is it the wrong strategy or just poor execution which is holding you back? Most of the time it's the latter. It’s not a matter of changing course — it’s about finding out what’s stopping you from executing on your vision.
Here’s a tip: write your current process of working on paper, think of the ways you could make it more efficient, then shorten the number of steps required to achieve success. Repeat this in the course of every 3 months and you shall easily achieve your results at a faster pace.
4. Data Doesn’t Lie
There are times when it is hard to believe in something. It is majorly because of your previous track record of success which at times makes your mind think with a “fixed mindset”.
If your gut is telling you that you should be considering moving in a different direction, take a hard look at your bottom line results and data. What does it say? Are you getting better? Or, despite the effort, the result is stagnant? Your final answer lies here.
Conclusion: Take Action
Opting for new direction might sound scary, but it's almost every time, worth it. You might need an initial push, but let me tell you, nobody will come after you to make you realize this. You must observe and account for yourself on this. You must decide and serve what “ignites” you, as it's here where the true meaning of life can be discovered. Lastly, remember, | https://medium.com/brandlitic/4-ways-to-know-its-time-to-try-something-different-74e460ab5120 | ['Amarpreet Singh'] | 2019-11-27 11:01:05.793000+00:00 | ['Self Acceptance', 'Self Improvement', 'Entrepreneur', 'Self-awareness', 'Startup'] |
The Ultimate Guide To CSS Grid | The behavior changes but 1fr remains the same regardless whenever different values are used. Fractional units work similar to % values but they are easier and more intuitive to divide space with:
Behavior of fractional units (fr unit) changes based on all values provided in either dimension.
In this example only column-wise behavior is shown for simplicity’s sake. But it works the same for rows too. Simply use grid-template-rows property.
Fractional Units And Their Relationship To Gaps
Space defined using fractional units changes based on gaps. The same 1fr within the same parent will shrink to a smaller size when gaps are added:
Here we added gaps to cells specified using fr units.
As you can see, this gives you a pretty good set of properties to space content basically in any way you wish without worrying about pixel values.
These new dynamics render pixel-perfect design as a thing of the past. We will now think about layout design using the intuitive approach!
Finally, to give you a better idea of using non-whole fractional units here is a fun grid I created. You can specify them using floating point numbers too:
Content Placement
We’ve just dissected the CSS grid anatomy. Hopefully you get a better idea of how CSS grid structures content. But now we need to get creative and actually place some items inside it. How it’s done might modify default behavior of the CSS grid. We’ll explore how this happens in this section.
To arrange your items across cells or template areas on the grid you will refer to them by lines between cells. Not <table>-like spans.
CSS grid does allow using spans for determining width and height of the content area (in cell space) just like tables. We’ll explore that in just a bit. But you still can and probably should specify the starting cell using line numbers or named lines (more on this in a bit.) This depends on your preference..
As far as content placement across multiple cells goes the most obvious and tempting thing is cell spanning.
Cell Content Spanning
You can span an item across multiple cells.
Important: Spanning changes location of the surrounding items.
Spanning using grid-column and grid-row
Using grid-column and grid-row properties on the item element itself: | https://jstutorial.medium.com/css-grid-the-swiss-army-knife-for-cutting-website-and-application-layouts-c1bd7a6b4e56 | ['Javascript Teacher'] | 2020-10-24 02:14:05.418000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Web Development', 'CSS', 'Coding', 'Css Grid'] |
Hijacking Our Compassion For the World: | Hijacking Our Compassion For the World:
Preliminary Examination of the Foundations of UN SDGs
Business-as-Usual and Business-as-Always
On a lighter side, I like to agree with the comment of a development expert that the UN SDGs seem like “a high school wish-list for how to save the world.” In earnest, I am increasingly convinced of what the UN SDGs are — to stabilise the capital accumulation process with another fillip to save global capitalism from being trans-formed. Ironically, it is supposedly a global ‘trans-formation’ programme to remain on the same track! It will undoubtedly be not just business-as-usual, but it will be business-as-always.
As I come to make sense of the ‘true character’ of the 17 goals and 169 targets, I am concerned for the people who are animated by the genuine desire to trans-form the world for the better. The disturbing part is how the SDGs have mobilised and garnered all our legitimate concerns and compassion for a safer and just society. We have some of the most committed persons, national communities, universities, and foundations, from around the world, backing it to the core in their programmes, almost with a religious fervour.
We all so much want a better world. A supposedly non-partisan political international body, the UN, has finally given us a blueprint for our complete collective wellbeing and sustainable future. It draws a sigh of relief. The UN seems to have taken on the role of a non-violent revolutionary vanguard aiming at transforming the world. But is it authentically promoting transformation through the SDGs? Will it nurture a social formation that is genuinely inclusive, and, as we progress, ‘no one is left behind’?
There is certainly a small but growing voice critical of SDGs. Public intellectuals and concerned students working on indigenous people and their cultures, feminism, post-colonialism, neo-colonialism and post-development are raising systematic criticisms. Despite these criticisms, where are we today? Unfortunately, most have been seduced by ‘goals and targets’ promoted through beautifully designed flyers, posters and websites. We organise national and global events. We fund and manage research on the goals and targets. We offer courses based on SDGs to nurture generations of young minds. We set SDGs as the framework for organisational work and bottom lines. We have no time for all the growing criticisms. We dismiss or demonise or silence them (the experience of this writer). We are indeed ready to defend the SDGs at any cost. It is so well-written, focused, convenient and easy to report. The SDGs seem to be so seductively comprehensive.
I sincerely hope that we (individuals, institutions and nations) will purposely pause for a while. We need to reflect on the SDGs in totality and ‘excavate’ the ground from which the goals and targets have been developed and unfold. We need to take some time to evaluate what we are really committed to supporting and nurturing the SDGs. We should ask what hegemonic or meta-stories govern the UN SDGs? Are they innocent, apolitical, objective, technical, and do not articulate partisan, vested interests? We need to think again.
Let me share some critical analyses and observation at some length. In the Jacobin, a voice of the American Left, an article appeared in 2015 entitled The Problem with Saving the World.[1]
Yet despite this growing realisation, the core of the SDG program for development and poverty reduction relies precisely on the old model of industrial growth — ever-increasing levels of extraction, production, and consumption. And not just a little bit of growth: they want at least 7 per cent annual GDP growth in the least developed countries and higher levels of economic productivity across the board. In fact, an entire goal, Goal 8, is devoted to growth, specifically export-oriented growth, in keeping with existing neoliberal models.
What does this really mean?
The SDGs’ contradictory relationship to growth extends to its approach to global poverty. The Zero Draft promotes growth as the main solution to poverty, but this relationship is highly tenuous. Of all the income generated by global GDP growth between 1999 and 2008, the poorest 60 per cent of humanity received only 5 per cent of it. Given the existing ratio between GDP growth and the income growth of the poorest, it will take 207 years to eliminate poverty with this strategy and to get there, we will have to grow the global economy by 175 times its present size. This is terrifying to contemplate. (Emphasis mine.)
Consider this with the following comment)[2] :
The SDGs are a paean to consumption-driven economic growth. Everything they claim to be able to eradicate — from poverty to violence — can be addressed by GDP growth, they tell us. They want at least 7% GDP growth per year in the least developed countries and higher levels of economic productivity across the board. In fact, an entire goal, number eight, is devoted to this. It’s bizarre: we’re all acutely aware of the need to dethrone GDP growth as the measure of human progress, but the SDGs carry on as though this isn’t even an issue. (Emphasis mine.)
In another article, ‘Politics of Leaving No One Behind’ — Contesting the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals’,[3] revealing observations and arguments are made on the framework that guides the UN SDGs.
The SDGs are indeed highly significant but not because they may appear at first glance as an inclusive, empowering and ecologically sustainable agenda. Rather, based on a close examination of the SDGs, I draw the following conclusion: If implemented in its current form, the SDGs will most likely result in further impoverishment and inequality. Rather than committing to guarantee universal entitlements necessary to live dignified lives, the agenda aims to entrench highly contested neoliberal policies.
What is WTO doing in UN SDGs?
There are some goals, which determine the processes through which others are to be realised. For example, in the UN resolution on the SDGs, the section on the ‘means of implementation’ identifies the centrality of SDG 17 and emphasises the importance of implementing the rules and regulations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). To frame a development agenda through the WTO is to work from the premise that a ‘free market’ — more explicitly a neoliberal variant of capitalist development — is the solution to inequality, poverty and ecological crisis. (Emphasis is mine.)
SDG 17? SDG 10? (Are there no alternative frameworks in the world of almost 8 billion people?)
The significance of SDG 17 for the overall agenda cannot be over-emphasised. Goal 17 has been written to include specific references on the need to ensure that member states commit fully to the WTO agreements. In addition, some indicators intended to measure progress on realising the goals (some of which are also country/region-specific), are explicitly based on, or linked to countries’ membership of and entrenchment in rule-based frameworks such as the WTO. For example, the commitments anticipated under SDG 10, encompass obligations to maintain membership of key multilateral development organisations (such as the World Bank, IMF, WTO, Regional Development Banks) specifically for those countries categorised as ‘developing’, singled out here by comparison to those identified as ‘high income’ countries. The SDG agenda, therefore, is highly significant but also contested because for critics it presents causes of deprivation as the (ostensible) solution. (Emphasis mine.)
So, honestly, are we really part of an in-depth trans-formation process? What seems to me is that most of us are just an active part of the neoliberal reform agenda. It looks like a call for a new round of capital accumulation and development. ‘Late capitalism’ is metamorphosing but riding on our concern for ‘sustainability’. It is getting all our brain, muscle and organisational powers to reinvent itself.
The UN declaration on the SDGs explicitly refers to the goals and their associated targets as ‘aspirational’ (UN 2015: 13 — point 55), and to the fact that realising the agenda is contingent upon the commitment of member states. However, as we have seen, not all goals are equally ‘aspirational’ or contingent, given that those referring to the ‘means of implementation’ comprise concrete commitments to neoliberal policy prescriptions. Particularly the ‘means-of-implementation’-goals are linked to a wider policy environment in which developing (and developed!) countries have already been under pressure to accede to the entrenchment of neoliberal reforms.
So for the individual or collective, the meta-story we live by is the same old one: “Liquidate Earth” (but ‘pretend’ that we are working very hard for the greater common good). I simply see a façade of ‘clean’ targets and objective technical processes. They, however, carefully hide ‘the driver’ behind the 17 goals and 169 targets. It is ‘same old driver’ who drove us into the mess we are now in, in the first place. It is the same driver who led us into a broken world that a virus (SARS-CoV-2) revealed to us. Now ‘he’ pretends to be able to take us forth to a sustainable utopia of clean, safe and endless growth. We have mindlessly become his cheerleaders.
Why We Need To Go Beyond UN SDGs?
Explicitly or implicitly, the SDGs, growing out from a ‘hidden meta-framework’ which has a global agenda, can be deployed as an ingenious device to harness the world’s genuine concerns for a better future. It is undoubtedly a way to mobilise local and global labour-power to further the cause of capitalist development by drawing every nook and cranny into a worldwide process. A hegemonic ‘language of care’ serves this cause. ‘No one will be left behind’ generates a powerful emotional response and a carefully crafted apolitical image of the future that all kind-hearted beings desire. We will all ‘buy’ the UN SDGs, no questions asked. This is a classic case of the cultural hegemony of one class over the rest, mobilising us for sustained capitalist development.
We genuinely believe that SDGs are going to deliver that inclusive world we prefer. The only thing is that we are not positively going that way. In 2030 (or much before that), if we survive the climate crisis or another pandemic, we will have UN SDGs Version 2 (or some other name). It will start with pervasive criticism of UN SDGs Version 1. We will follow the same routine as to how UN MDGs were critically evaluated. Very confidently, we will just dance to the repetition script. We will have meetings, conferences, research projects, technological innovations, roundtable meetings, quarrels, case studies, regional forums, policy papers, experts gathering, commissions, national gatherings, etc. We will spend trillions of dollars doing all that. That’s ok. It is all good for the economy anyway with a positive impact on GDP, eventually. Capitalism needs problems to solve, so that it can record meaningless, and at time dangerous, growth. Of course, somewhere along the way, at least some of us would start sensing a déjà vu feeling.
It really does not have to be this way. We have other ways to nurture a better, safe, just and sustainable future(s). But we have to genuinely trans-form the way we live or shape the world. A neoliberal worldview frames the assumption on which UN SDGs are based. They are based on and guided by a strong capitalist market-centric and endless growth meta-story. These stories have real consequences.
We are now going through the 4th industrial revolution, with the 5th round the corner. The SDGs seem to be poised to open the markets for a full-blown growth of a cybernetic world with ‘smart cities’, ‘smart villages’ and ‘smart’ everything, as long as the cyber-technology is deployed. It is the world Capital wants to have the complete control of. We are getting a taste of it today as we respond to COVID19 and mindlessly going online…moving from convenience to compulsion.
Critically challenging the UN SDGs, and the expert knowledge produced around them is also living an anti-neocolonial moment. Whole bodies of alternative knowledge and practices have been avoided. There was no critical engagement with sustainable indigenous knowledge or cultures. There has been no engagement with heterodox or
radical economics traditions, and many initiatives derived from them. There was no exploration of many viable alternative global solutions. Nothing. There is a menacing danger in all these. What is the UN SDGs teaching our children? One very elementary lesson: ’there are no other, alternative ways or stories to live by’. Just mindlessly follow the 17 goals and 169 targets. The recipe of SDGs is to socialise our children into believing in TINA, “there is no alternative”. It has become the true “opium of the elites and masses”.
We just have to move our spotlight, attention and action elsewhere. I, for instance, would see the encyclical by Pope Francis, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home, as far more authentic and honest to the agenda of global trans-formation to a better, safer, just and spiritually engaged sustainable world. It is a far more genuine voice calling us ‘to leave no one behind”. In spirit, it certainly is far more radical.
The pope, on the other hand, tackles the irrationality of endless GDP growth and consumption head-on, and he does so from the understanding — absent among economists — that the economy and the environment are part of the same system; that endless extraction from one to feed endless growth of the other is not just a physical impossibility but ultimately self-defeating and immoral. Fixes like carbon trading and renewable energy aren’t going to cut it. We have to confront the core of the problem, which is an economic model that relies on ever-increasing consumption.[4]
The UN SDGs are NOT going to get us to the world we desire for our children (tomorrow) and us (today). It is just going to delay disasters, the seeds of which we had already planted a long time ago. Our children will face the broken world and mess we have created, quite recklessly. They are waking up to our pretensions and recognising our bluff. Small, delicate fingers are pointed at us. Innocence just woke up to our gross negligence. We ought to be ashamed.
The concerns of ordinary people for others in distress and pain i.e. our compassion for the world is in grave danger: It is being mobilised and hijacked to be misused. Will we wake up? Can we stop and turn back? Can we look at the basics? Can we let go? Can we re-write the stories we live by? Can we re-look? Can we re-imagine/re-orient?
We look at causes, not just symptoms. We look at being, not just having. We look at the maximum wage, not just the minimum wage. We look at affluence, not just poverty. We look at people, not just the profit. We look at culture, not just the economy. We look at service/volunteerism, not just “what’s-in-it-for-me”. We look at sustainable livelihood, not just careers. We look at the culture of sustainability, not just the culture of economic growth. We look at minimalism, not just material possessiveness. We look at health and wellbeing, not just the medico-pharmaceutical industry. We look at wholesome nourishment, not just the food industry. We look at agroecology, not just the agrochemical industry. We look at mobility, not just the transportation industry. We look at learning and being, not just the education industry. We look at labour, not just capital. We look at our compassionate foundations, not our competitive spirit. We look at peace, and not profit from wars. We look at indigenous peoples, not just the professional experts. We look at spirituality, not just religion. We look out for all, not just our kind.[5]
Another Future is Possible
We have to address and break down our mindless taken-for-granted ways. Being alert to the dangers of the present normality, routines, comfort zones and hegemonic stories we live by forms a vital component to building a better future. They are otherwise disastrous to all life. It has given us a world that does not work for all. It has given us a broken world. There is a lot to give up or let go.
We need a profound non-violent revolutionary agenda of transforming the present. New methodologies, theories and practices need to inform our search for a better future. There is a need to do a comprehensive ecological footprint of UN SDGs, which is on a neocolonial expansionist journey. Universities and institutes educating generations of young people trained in the UN SDGs have to stop and reassess their curricula. Only disruptively humane and inclusive futures can save the generations to come. To mindfully tread gently and lightly on Mother/Sister Earth, we need to rethink and create far more authentic stories of transformation. For starters, minimal rethinking and resistance to what is so dramatically presented as a solution, the SDGs, to our present predicament would undoubtedly set the tone and direction.
— — — — — — — — — — — -
Dr M Nadarajah is a sociologist by training. Works on cultural, sustainability and spirituality issues. Can be contacted at [email protected].
Revised Article.
Initially published in Aliran Monthly (January 2019). Aliran Monthly is the voice of Aliran, which is a non-partisan national reform movement in Malaysia. Also, a part of this article was presented at the International Conference on Environmental Science and Sustainable Development, 23–24th October 2019, Jakarta, Indonesia. The argument in the paper was later developed in an article ‘Living’ in a Violent, Broken World: The Urgent Need for New Humanities and Compassion Studies. The article is work-in-progress.
Based on M. Nadarajah, https://aliran.com/thinking-allowed-online/the-common-good-and-new-malaysia/ Nov 2018. Revised and updated.
Endnotes
[1] Jason Hicket, ‘The Problem with Saving the World,”, Jacobin. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/global-poverty-climate-change-sdgs/. November 2028. “The UN new sustainable goals aim to change the world without transforming it.”
[2] Jason Hickel, “The Pope V the UN: Who will Save the World First?,” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/jun/23/the-pope-united-nations-encyclical-sdgs. July 2020
[3]https://medium.com/fridays-with-munplanet/politics-of-leaving-no-one-behind-contesting-the-2030-sustainable-development-goals-49522d1a5ede. July 2020. See also the article of Heloise Weber here “Politics of ‘Leaving No One Behind’: Contesting the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda”, Globalizations, Vol 14(3), 2017, pp. 399–414.
[4] Jason Hickel, ‘The Pope V the UN: Who will Save the World First? “ The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/jun/23/the-pope-united-nations-encyclical-sdgs. Nov. 2018
Some Additional References
> Andrea M. Vasquez-Fernandez and Cash Ahenakew, “Resurgence of Relationality: Reflections on Decolonizing and Indigenizing ‘Sustainable Development,” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2020, Vol. 43, pp. 65–70.
> Barbara Crossette, “Big Holes in the UN Development Goals are Exposed By New Studies,” Pass Blue, March 18, 2019 (https://www.passblue.com/2019/03/18/big-holes-in-the-un-development-goals-are-exposed-by-new-studies/)
> Christine Struckmann, “A Post-colonial Feminist Critique of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: A South African Application,” Agenda, Vo. 32 (1), 2018, pp. 12 -24. The volume is on: The Gender Discourse of Sustainable Development Goals and other instruments for gender equality: Advancing feminist agenda in Africa? [Based on the thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in International Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University, South Africa (https://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/10019.1/100863/2/struckmann_postcolonial_2017.pdf)]
> David Abram, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (New York: Vintage Books, 2011)
> Deborah S. Peterson, “A Missing Piece in the Sustainability Movement: The Human Spirit,” Sustainability: The Journal of Record, Vol. 7 (2) , April 2014, pp. 74–77.
> Dzulkifly Abdul Razak, Nasha Rodziadi Khaw, Zulkifly Baharom, Abdul Mutalib, and Hood Mohd. Salleh, Decolonising the Paradigm of Sustainable Development through the Traditional Concept of Sejahtera”, in Zinaida Fadeeva, Laima Galkute and Kiran Chhokar (eds.), Academia and Communities: Engaging for Change (Tokyo: UNU, 2018), pp. 210–219.
> Malcolm Langford, “Lost in Transformation? The Politics of the Sustainable Development Goals,” Ethics & International Affairs, Vol. 30 (2), 2016, pp. 167 -176.
> Mark Langon, “The UN Sustainable Development Goals and Neo-colonialism” in Mark Langon (ed.), Neo-Colonialism and the Poverty of ‘Development’ in Africa (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), pp. 177–205.
> Nadarajah, Living Pathways: Meditations on Sustainable Cultures and Cosmologies in Asia (Penang: Areca Books, 2013).
> Oliver Albert Matikainen, “Sustaining the One-Dimensional: An Ideology Critique of Agenda 2030 and the SDGs,” Department of Earth Sciences. Uppsala University, 2019. (https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1326645/FULLTEXT01.pdf).
> Pope Francis, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home (Singapore: Catholic Bishops Conference, 2015).
> Regina Scheyvens, “The Private Sector and the SDGs: The Need to Move Beyond ‘Business as Usual’, ”Sustainable Development, Sust. Dev. (March 2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1623 (Published online in Wiley Online Library).
> Rosa Freedman, “The UN’s 15-year Goals Ignore LGBT Rights Yet Again,” The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/the-uns-15-year-goals-ignore-lgbt-rights-yet-again-42067. May 20, 2015.
> Thich Nhat Hanh, Love Letters to the Earth (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 2013).
> The University of Queensland, “Latest UN Sustainability Goals Pose More Harm than Good for Environment, Scientists Warn,” (July 6, 2020), https://phys.org/news/2020-07-latest-sustainability-goals-pose-good.html. July 2020. | https://medium.com/@amanibana/hijacking-our-compassion-for-the-world-fc4facee0214 | ['Nadarajah', 'Nat'] | 2020-12-15 07:32:10.255000+00:00 | ['Compassion', 'Neoliberalism', 'Unsdgs'] |
Machine learning fundamentals. 2.Gradient descent algorithm | In Machine learning we use gradient descent to update the parameters of our model, i.e. parameters in this case refers to coefficients in linear regression or weights in neural networks.
What is Gradient descent?
Gradient descent is an optimization algorithm used to minimize a function by iteratively moving in the direction of the steepest descent as defined by the negative of a gradient.
Let’s take an example of the slope below.
Our goal is to reach the bottom of the hill. We go about this by iteratively taking steps until we get to the bottom where we can no longer go downhill.
How do we go about this?
By calculating the negative gradient and using it to take steps in the direction it specifies.
Gradient descent formula
gradient descent algorithm
where j = 0,1 refers to index features
At each iteration j, one should simultaneously update the parameters θ1,θ2,…,θn. Updating a specific parameter prior to calculating another one on the j(th) iteration would yield to a wrong implementation.
In the formula,alpha refers to the learning rate. Note: learning rate in the example above refers to the size of steps we take. If we take large steps, we risk overshooting the lowest point, similarly if we take small steps, we risk taking a longer time getting to the lowest point.
More about learning rate
If the learning rate is too large, the gradient descent can overshoot the minimum, i.e. fail to converge or diverge.
If it is too small our gradient descent becomes too slow.
As we approach the local minimum, the gradient will automatically take smaller steps. Therefore, no need to decrease the learning rate over time.
Gradient descent can converge to a local minimum even with the learning rate fixed.
The learning rate value is always a small value such as 0.1 or 0.01
When applied to linear regression, we derive a new gradient descent equation. This is how we get to minimize the cost function
N/B if you are planning to explore machine learning it is important to have a grasp on how to minimize a cost function.
Let’s have a look at the cost function formula we learnt before,
cost function
Here is the new gradient descent for linear regression equation. We can substitute our actual cost function and our actual hypothesis function and modify the equation to :
gradient descent algorithm for linear regression
where m is the size of the training set, tθ0 a constant that will be changing simultaneously with θ1 and xi, yi are values of the given training set (data).
And that’s it! We have the Gradient descent algorithm for linear regression!
One more thing: This algorithm is sometimes referred to as Batch gradient descent. This refers to the fact that refers to the fact that in every step of gradient descent, we’re looking at all of the training examples.
I hope that this article has helped you understand Gradient Descent more
Next we are going to work towards understanding Linear regression more! | https://medium.com/swlh/machine-learning-fundamentals-2-gradient-descent-algorithm-6c8f5204bd9b | ['Celine Surai'] | 2020-05-02 02:11:56.845000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Linear Regression', 'Data Science', 'Gradient Descent', 'Software Engineering'] |
The devil that is @SpringBootTest! | I’ve seen a lot of developers claiming one of the “Cool features” of Spring is that it simplifies your unit tests by introducing @SpringBootTest. Now that’s just not true and I think it was not the intention of Spring also! Now let’s first get into what is a “Unit Test” and what is “Not a Unit Test”. I don’t want to be a Word Nazi here, but I have seen this leading to usage of @SpringBootTest on every Unit Test and no one wants that!
To explain the problem, let’s take a step back and see how we [should] test our applications. We have two completely different types of tests on the two ends of a stick, we have “End-To-End Integration Tests” where [hopefully] nothing is mocked and our application will be tested as close as possible to the way it is run in production. Now if these tests passed, then we will say our application is ready! On the other end of the stick, we have “Unit Tests” where one unit of work is tested and everything other than that unit of work is mocked during the test. QAs want to test everything exactly the same way as it is in production (as they should!). But that comes with a cost! Tests will be heavy. Now, us developers want to get a “quicker result” on whether we broke anything by the change we just made or not. So we start “assuming”. We just remove some of the elements of an Integration Test and replace them with something we control. This way we will have more control over the test and we it will be faster also. The more we assume, the more control we have and the faster our tests become. This continues until we reach Unit Tests where we control everything! Basically we will say “assuming this request comes in and DB does that and etc., I expect these to happen”.
For example let’s say I am implementing a “Register User” service method. I will try to make this a bit more real-world to emphasize on how DDD has eased our life here also!
Business expert says when registering a user, I should make sure that the user doesn’t already exist in our DB, then generate an activation link for this user and email the generated activation link to him/her.
Now using DDD, I will translate this to:
I should make sure that the user doesn’t already exist in our User Store, then generate an activation code for this user and send the generated activation code to him/her.
package ir.amv.snippets.unittestdemo;
import java.util.UUID;
import lombok.RequiredArgsConstructor;
/**
* @author Amir
*/
@RequiredArgsConstructor
public class UserService {
private final UserRepository userRepository;
private final ActivationCodeSender activationCodeSender;
public void registerUser(String email) {
userRepository.findByEmail(email)
.ifPresent(user -> {
throw new IllegalArgumentException(String.format("User %s already exists", email));
});
String activationCode = UUID.randomUUID().toString();
activationCodeSender.send(email, activationCode);
userRepository.saveUser(email, activationCode);
}
}
Now, in production, User Store will be our DB (also easily replaceable by an Active Directory User Store thanks to DDD), and sending the activation code will be done by emailing an activation link to the user. This is what happens in Integration Tests. In my Unit Tests however, I can “assume” that the User Store will for example say this user doesn’t already exist. Then expect a generated code to be passed to be sent. I don’t need Spring here. Actually everything other than my UserService should be mocked.
Mockito has some usefull annotations for this. Let’s build my unit test step by step. First we will create our unit test. You should read this as “create mock objects for UserRepository and ActivationCodeSender, and then create an instance of UserService by calling its biggest constructor passing the mocked objects”.
package ir.amv.snippets.unittestdemo;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.*;
import static org.mockito.Mockito.*;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Nested;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;
import org.mockito.InjectMocks;
import org.mockito.Mock;
import org.mockito.junit.jupiter.MockitoExtension;
@ExtendWith(MockitoExtension.class)
class UserServiceTest {
@Mock
private UserRepository userRepository;
@Mock
private ActivationCodeSender activationCodeSender;
@InjectMocks
private UserService underTest;
}
Now, I want to create Unit Tests for my register method. I will create a Nested class for tests related to this method because in our business case, we have two different scenarios, existing user and none-existing user.
class UserServiceTest { // not shown @Nested
class registerUser {
@Test
void givenExistingUser() {
// given
// when
// then
}
@Test
void givenNoneExistingUser() {
// given
// when
// then
}
}
}
The first case is easy. If user is an existing user, I should get an IllegalArgumentException:
@Test
void givenExistingUser() {
// given
String email = "doesn't really need to be an email because we CONTROL everything!";
when(userRepository.findByEmail(eq(email))).thenReturn(Optional.of(mock(User.class)));
// when & then
assertThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class,
() -> underTest.registerUser(email));
}
And for none-existing user:
@Test
void givenNoneExistingUser() {
// given
String email = "doesn't really need to be an email because we CONTROL everything!";
when(userRepository.findByEmail(eq(email))).thenReturn(Optional.empty());
// when
underTest.registerUser(email);
// then
verify(userRepository).saveUser(eq(email), anyString());
verify(activationCodeSender).send(eq(email), anyString());
}
And that’s it. Now if you like and agree with this way of implementing Unit Tests and are using Intellij IDEA, you can use this template as your default JUnit 5 test class which will come in handy when you Alt+Enter on a class and select “Create Test”: | https://medium.com/swlh/the-devil-that-is-springboottest-68b7f4148bb6 | ['Amir Mohammad Vosough'] | 2020-05-03 23:01:38.966000+00:00 | ['Unit Testing', 'Junit 5', 'Spring Boot', 'Integration Testing'] |
Journey into Filipino Delicacies | Final Assessment
Growing up in the early 2000s, I have seen and experienced the creation and implementation of different technology and what not. One of the most groundbreaking things that was introduced to me as a child was the video site Youtube. I remember that I used to watch whatever was uploaded on the website at the time. A few years after I was introduced to Youtube, I found a small handful baking channels. I felt like a door was opened up to me. Since I was a toddler, I had a passion for baking and seeing these videos was monumental to me. These baking videos were different from the shows I saw on the TV because I had easier access to these videos than to the scheduled shows on certain days of the week. Since I was young, I had always wanted to do a baking video of my own. So when I was given an assignment to do whatever project I wanted to do, immediately I thought of creating a baking tutorial. To begin, I needed to think of something to create. I didn’t want to do something popular like cupcakes or cookies. I wanted mine to stand out against the majority of baking videos on Youtube. Therefore I chose cassava cake, a popular dessert in the Philippines. I decided to make this dessert is because it is something that my culture enjoys. I took advantage of this assignment by incorporating my culture in it as well. After I found a recipe, I created a script and shot list for my video. I then began to film and edit once everything else was completed. It is through this project that I see that personal motivation and administrative motivation affects the person in different ways.
Personal motivation is easier to carry out since it was created by the person who wanted to do the action. Towards the beginning of the project, I was excited about having to create my own baking video. I thought it would be a bit easier for me since I bake and edit vlogs on a regular basis. With this, planning my actions felt like a breeze. The easiest part of the project was the planning even though it was the most time consuming. I was excited and eager to carry out one of my childhood dreams. My motivation was former desires that I had never gotten around to fulfilling until now. To be given the power to do something I had always wanted to do was exciting. I was able to incorporate all the different things that I was inspired by as a child into a school project. This was all the dialogue and camera angles of the actual process of the desert. Through this process, I was able to see that if someone is truly motivated to do something, they’ll do it with no hesitation. This personal motivation can be found in everyone if we were to put our minds to it. And it is also through this process that I was able to see that these motivations can change at any point during time.
On the contrary, administrative motivation can either actually encourage you to do your work, or leave you in an unpassionate slump. During the filming of my video, I became frustrated since filming a baking tutorial was not what I had expected it. It was difficult filming the baking in action and getting the lighting correct. However, I did finish the filming process and started to move on to editing it. It was at this part in project where I began to lose speed. Suddenly, I was not excited about the project and I lost motivation. The only thing that really pushed me to finish my video was the fact that I was being graded on this project. I believe that I was discouraged by filming my process. I usually have a lot of fun baking on my own, but I believe that stress of the fact that my peers were going to see this video got to me. What would they think of the way I did these things? It was difficult for me to edit this video because I wanted to give my best work. Instead, I lost track. I was not doing this project for me, but for the grade. Unlike the planning process, I was having a tough time trying to perfect the final pieces of my project, and only finished them to finish them. Even though I chose this for my passion project, I lost motivation and the video became something I was not passionate about.
Your passions and motivation may change over a long period of time or in an instant. When it comes to this transition, it easy to know when you are not feeling the task at hand anymore. Knowing that you are not passionate about something can be a good thing. It opens up many doors for exploration outside your comfort zone and allows you to find the things you are truly interested in. | https://medium.com/voices-from-the-classroom/journey-into-filipino-delicacies-a63cc6725ef0 | ['Melissa Elizarde'] | 2019-06-01 23:07:40.930000+00:00 | ['Passion Project', 'Baking', 'Videos', 'Food', 'Filipino'] |
Designing a National Advisory Board for Impact Investing in Peru | Something fundamental has shifted. As a society we have collectively understood a harsh reality: our current profit-centric systems allow for the pervasive and systemic continuation of inequities. The pandemic sped up our desire for a new modus operandi for society, one that intentionally centres on people and planet alongside economic growth.
Notably, there is enormous interest and opportunity for a transition towards impact investing in Latin America. After having conducted a similar engagement in Colombia and supported by the Government of Canada, four partner organizations including Deetken Impact, SVX Canada, SVX Mexico, and Impacto have combined forces to work on an ecosystem development project in Peru, including sector mapping, developing education strategies, and creating an action plan for a proposed National Advisory Board (NAB) on impact investing.
In our previous blog post we explored different National Advisory Board case studies from leading impact investing countries in Latin America. In continuation of the same theme, this blog post will share key elements necessary to consider for the creation of a National Advisory Board on Impact Investing whether it be by stakeholders in Peru or elsewhere.
In particular, this blog post seeks to address the following key questions for consideration by impact investing ecosystem stakeholders to factor in the design of a local NAB:
What guiding principles will help to provide direction to the proposed NAB?
will help to provide direction to the proposed NAB? Who are potential lead partners for the NAB?
for the NAB? What is the ideal governance structure and membership ?
? What is a reasonable framework for the operations of the proposed NAB?
of the proposed NAB? What will the core mandate and programs be for the proposed NAB?
This post is being shared publicly in advance of a Peruvian impact investing ecosystem stakeholder event, planned for April 13, 2021.
Recap: What is a National Advisory Board on Impact Investing?
A National Advisory Board is a multi-sector platform designed to promote the practice and efficacy of impact investing within national (and now regional) contexts. These entities are, “…tasked in principle with goals of educating specific places about impact investing, promoting the field, and helping to develop public policy environments that support it.” There are currently 33 National Advisory Boards (NABs) operating in countries around the world, with a global secretariat known as the Global Steering Group (GSG) for Impact Investment located in London, UK.
Starting Point: Guiding Principles
It takes time and commitment to start and launch a National Advisory Board. The Guiding Principles listed below can act as a starting point to guide the creation of a NAB:
Accessible: Ensure that engagement and participation in the National Advisory Board (NAB) is accessible to stakeholders, without financial or other barriers to entry.
Ensure that engagement and participation in the National Advisory Board (NAB) is accessible to stakeholders, without financial or other barriers to entry. Representative: Although not a democratic body, the overall NAB governance should seek to be as representative as possible of the range of ecosystem actors, as well as seek balanced representation that includes women, indigeneous, and racialized communities.
Although not a democratic body, the overall NAB governance should seek to be as representative as possible of the range of ecosystem actors, as well as seek balanced representation that includes women, indigeneous, and racialized communities. Low-cost / efficient: The budget and operations of the National Advisory Board will need to be low cost and efficient, leveraging in-kind support of partners and stakeholders.
The budget and operations of the National Advisory Board will need to be low cost and efficient, leveraging in-kind support of partners and stakeholders. Influence: Seek to engage mainstream actors, including those in finance and government, to build their understanding, interest and activity in impact investing.
Seek to engage mainstream actors, including those in finance and government, to build their understanding, interest and activity in impact investing. Term: The National Advisory Board (NAB) should have a pre-established term (eg. 3/5/10 years) to advance its overall mandate, with the potential for a renewed term upon agreement of partners.
The National Advisory Board (NAB) should have a pre-established term (eg. 3/5/10 years) to advance its overall mandate, with the potential for a renewed term upon agreement of partners. Neutral Convenor: The NAB should seek to act as an independent, multi-sector convenor to help catalyze the development of the impact investing ecosystem in Peru. It is not intended to be an ecosystem actor, investor, funder, product developer, or service provider.
The NAB should seek to act as an independent, multi-sector convenor to help catalyze the development of the impact investing ecosystem in Peru. It is not intended to be an ecosystem actor, investor, funder, product developer, or service provider. Locally shaped: Seek to organize the NAB and its activities in line with the shape and stage of the impact investing ecosystem in Peru.
Seek to organize the NAB and its activities in line with the shape and stage of the impact investing ecosystem in Peru. Cross-sectoral: Alongside core sector representatives, invite participation from academia, mainstream financial services, and government to participate in the National Advisory Board.
Alongside core sector representatives, invite participation from academia, mainstream financial services, and government to participate in the National Advisory Board. Long term culture / systems change: The NAB should seek to support and advance cultural change in the approach of capital markets, government, and the general public to investing and enterprise.
The NAB should seek to support and advance cultural change in the approach of capital markets, government, and the general public to investing and enterprise. Transparent: The NAB should have an, “Impartial, inclusive and transparent selection process for NAB membership.”
The NAB should have an, “Impartial, inclusive and transparent selection process for NAB membership.” Non-hierarchical / horizontal: Adopt a horizontal approach to the management and governance of the NAB.
Lead Partners
In designing a NAB, it is crucial to identify local key partners such as core partners and lead funders.
Core Partners: Secure a lead organization or small set of leading organizations (up to 3) to initially host the National Advisory Board. In Peru, entities including NESsT, PECAP, COFIDE, Kunan, ALIVE, Aporta, UNDP, or Ministerio del Ambiente (MINAM) represent candidates to act as core organizations to host the NAB.
Secure a lead organization or small set of leading organizations (up to 3) to initially host the National Advisory Board. In Peru, entities including NESsT, PECAP, COFIDE, Kunan, ALIVE, Aporta, UNDP, or Ministerio del Ambiente (MINAM) represent candidates to act as core organizations to host the NAB. Lead Funders: Seek support from one or a small set of lead funders that can help with initial set-up and ongoing operations for at least a three (3) year runway. Local foundations, stakeholders, state organizations, and global and bilateral aid organizations, could act as lead funders for the NAB.
Governance Structure and Membership
Below are some best practice suggestions to consider when designing a NAB’s governance structure and membership model.
Executive: Establish a relatively small (8–12) group of leading representatives who can participate in the inaugural National Advisory Board (NAB) for an initial two (2) year commitment. Core partner representatives may hold a longer term (3–5 years) for continuity on the National Advisory Board (NAB). An established set of criteria should be developed to ensure balanced, cross-sectoral representation, including: Impact investing intermediaries; Public policy and political leaders (current or past); Academia; Mainstream finance; Philanthropy; and organizations working with or representing entrepreneurs.
Establish a relatively small (8–12) group of leading representatives who can participate in the inaugural National Advisory Board (NAB) for an initial two (2) year commitment. Core partner representatives may hold a longer term (3–5 years) for continuity on the National Advisory Board (NAB). An established set of criteria should be developed to ensure balanced, cross-sectoral representation, including: Impact investing intermediaries; Public policy and political leaders (current or past); Academia; Mainstream finance; Philanthropy; and organizations working with or representing entrepreneurs. Working Groups: Establish relevant working groups for the National Advisory Board (NAB), which may include: public policy, research and data, member and stakeholder engagement, and strategy. The NAB may also seek to establish sector specific working groups on topics including: biodiversity, climate action, and human rights. Members of the Executive Board should participate as much as possible in the Working Groups.
Establish relevant working groups for the National Advisory Board (NAB), which may include: public policy, research and data, member and stakeholder engagement, and strategy. The NAB may also seek to establish sector specific working groups on topics including: biodiversity, climate action, and human rights. Members of the Executive Board should participate as much as possible in the Working Groups. Community Advisors/Members: As a part of the National Advisory Board (NAB) establish a community advisors group that is open to all impact investing stakeholders that can convene on a regular basis (eg. annually for sector convenings and monthly/bi-monthly for educational events) that would seek to:
As a part of the National Advisory Board (NAB) establish a community advisors group that is open to all impact investing stakeholders that can convene on a regular basis (eg. annually for sector convenings and monthly/bi-monthly for educational events) that would seek to: Inform the sector priorities and organizational priorities of the National Advisory Board (NAB);
Make recommendations to the nominating committee for the National Advisory Board Executive (NAB);
Participate in the working groups of the National Advisory Board (NAB); and
Build knowledge and capacity in impact investing.
GSG: Participate as a member of the Global Steering Group (GSG).
Participate as a member of the Global Steering Group (GSG). Time commitment: The NAB will be successful based on the time and dedication of stakeholders engaged in the organization. As a stakeholder driven organization, Executive, Working Group, and Community members should expect to provide a reasonable time commitment to the work. Similar models of contribution can be found in the Impact Management Project (IMP).
Operations
Below are some operational and budgeting considerations to keep in mind throughout the design of a NAB.
Staffing: Establish a small secretariat with at least one full-time resource to organize the activities of the NAB. Sector knowledge and willingness to collaborate is critical amongst the staff of the secretariat.
Establish a small secretariat with at least one full-time resource to organize the activities of the NAB. Sector knowledge and willingness to collaborate is critical amongst the staff of the secretariat. Multi-Partner Operations: Seek to engage one or more partner academic institutions and ecosystem leaders to provide support to deliver on the mandate and programs of the organization. This is particularly important given the level of financial resources available.
Seek to engage one or more partner academic institutions and ecosystem leaders to provide support to deliver on the mandate and programs of the organization. This is particularly important given the level of financial resources available. Multi-Country Support: Explore the potential for the secretariat to provide support to other Andean countries, particularly Bolivia and Ecuador. Each country would organize and maintain its own governance model, but operational support could be provided through a single secretariat. This could increase the efficiency and impact of operations of the NAB.
Explore the potential for the secretariat to provide support to other Andean countries, particularly Bolivia and Ecuador. Each country would organize and maintain its own governance model, but operational support could be provided through a single secretariat. This could increase the efficiency and impact of operations of the NAB. Budget: Secure an initial budget of $25–50,000 for the set-up of the NAB, and $100,000 on an annual basis for NAB operations, including staff, events, travel, and programs. The initial budget should include a set aside for a signature report and/or a communications strategy (eg. blog posts, case studies, etc.).
Core Mandate and Programs
In curating and creating the conditions for a thriving and vibrant impact investing ecosystem, Peruvian NAB stakeholders can undertake the following suggested mandates and programs.
Ecosystem mandate : The NAB should seek to maintain and develop the core components of a vibrant impact ecosystem in Peru.
: The NAB should seek to maintain and develop the core components of a vibrant impact ecosystem in Peru. Priority Actions : Establish a finite set of sector priority actions, with recommendations that can target changes to public policy (global, national and local/regional), mainstream finance, and philanthropic sectors.
: Establish a finite set of sector priority actions, with recommendations that can target changes to public policy (global, national and local/regional), mainstream finance, and philanthropic sectors. Public Report : Consolidate priority actions of the ecosystem into a public report that could be released to engage media, government, mainstream finance, and the general public in impact investing. As possible with available resources, this inaugural report could also include sector data, case studies, and sector mapping.
: Consolidate priority actions of the ecosystem into a public report that could be released to engage media, government, mainstream finance, and the general public in impact investing. As possible with available resources, this inaugural report could also include sector data, case studies, and sector mapping. Ecosystem Reporting, Data and Mapping: Act as a hub for data on the impact investing ecosystem, including regular (bi-annual) reports on ecosystem activities, progress on priority actions, sector data (eg. assets, no. of intermediaries, no. of entrepreneurs), and sector mapping. The sector map developed by the ecosystem development initiative supported by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) could be housed at the NAB.
Act as a hub for data on the impact investing ecosystem, including regular (bi-annual) reports on ecosystem activities, progress on priority actions, sector data (eg. assets, no. of intermediaries, no. of entrepreneurs), and sector mapping. The sector map developed by the ecosystem development initiative supported by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) could be housed at the NAB. Annual Convenings: Seek to convene stakeholders on an annual basis.
Seek to convene stakeholders on an annual basis. Public Policy Focus: Have a particular focus on public policy recommendations to the national government in order to create an enabling regulatory environment for impact investing to flourish in Peru.
Have a particular focus on public policy recommendations to the national government in order to create an enabling regulatory environment for impact investing to flourish in Peru. Impact Investing Principles : Seek to develop shared principles for impact investing in Peru. This will avoid the perennial challenge of developing a single, common definition for the sector.
: Seek to develop shared principles for impact investing in Peru. This will avoid the perennial challenge of developing a single, common definition for the sector. Public Policy Education: The NAB could design and deliver educational programming for current, future and past public policy leaders to build their impact investing understanding and capacity. This could include workshops, certificate programs, or community webinars.
The NAB could design and deliver educational programming for current, future and past public policy leaders to build their impact investing understanding and capacity. This could include workshops, certificate programs, or community webinars. Other Potential Programs: Depending on the role of industry players and lead organizations, the NAB could also seek to advance other mandates and programs including:
Depending on the role of industry players and lead organizations, the NAB could also seek to advance other mandates and programs including: Information and knowledge sharing: Seek to prepare case studies, organize learning communities, organize educational webinars etc.;
Ecosystem infrastructure development:
Bilateral exchange: Engage in partnerships and learning with peer countries in North and South America.
Sequencing: The NAB would seek to sequence or stage the launch of proposed programs based on ecosystem conditions and priorities. For example, stakeholders may view public policy as a greater or lesser opportunity based on political conditions and sector priorities.
Figure: Core Components of a Vibrant Impact Ecosystem
Next Steps
Listed here are some proposed next steps for Peruvian stakeholders to contemplate as they continue through the NAB development process.
Test the findings of this report with potential lead partners and stakeholders.
Establish an initial group of advisors who can provide insight and direction to the NAB, and could represent a potential pool of candidates for the NAB.
Secure the lead organization or small set of organizations that could host or co-host the NAB.
Secure start-up and operating funding to support the NAB.
Seek to identify, recruit and select the inaugural group of leading representatives for the Executive of the National Advisory Board (NAB). An established set of criteria should be developed to ensure balanced, cross-sectoral representation. Feedback can be solicited on this criteria to ensure transparency and stakeholder engagement.
Organize a national convening of stakeholders to present the NAB Executive and initial framework for the NAB.
Establish key deliverables and objectives for the first year of the NAB, including organizational design, establishing priority actions, and releasing a public report. This Action Plan can provide a template for organizational design, and case examples of priority actions from other countries.
We hope this plan provides a living document to provide an evolving framework to local leaders that will start-up a NAB in Peru. We look forward to further insights and feedback at the upcoming April event, and we welcome any comments and questions below. | https://medium.com/@thesvx/designing-a-national-advisory-board-for-impact-investing-in-peru-e3ff0ebe34b7 | [] | 2021-04-01 13:14:46.942000+00:00 | ['Impact Investing', 'Social Innovation', 'Peru', 'Public Policy', 'Social Enterprise'] |
Priced Off | Unseen costs are the most expensive. That ironic economic trick seems mean enough that we should get a Ouija board and ask Adam Smith what’s up. But invisible burdens weighing down wallets are the only way anyone pays attention to an otherwise endless bill. Politicians proclaiming what you use is free sure creates a lot of debt. Enjoy a timeshare lunch that prospective rubes can’t decline.
Just put it on the tab. Pushing off payment to later means getting things now for free. And nobody seems to be calling us on our rather luxurious spending, so order more mimosas now. Another trillion freaking dollars in debt is rung up before the mustard needs to be replaced. Returnig to merely being broke seems impossible, so why even try? Making the number unfathomable so adding to it is shrugged off is one way of expanding state power. Government’s lone accomplishment is excusing failure.
People still have to explain what a tax refund is if you wonder why government never shrinks. It’s apparently never okay to presume everyone’s up on the basics. In case anyone’s learning or could use a review, a purported refund is what you overpaid returned to you.
Getting back what’s yours is accompanied by zero interest, of course. But why bother giving a little extra for held money when recipients are so grateful? Throw cash around at Five Guys like you’re the sixth.
The simple and sinister act of withholding means those fleeced never see just how much is confiscated. There’s a reason politicians would never replace the emblematically monstrous IRS with, say, a national sales tax that showed up on every receipt. Seeing just how much our stupid capital spends on stupider programs would be the best way to get smarter. Suddenly ticked taxpayers would want to keep more of the full salaries they receive.
The surest way to limit health care is to make it a right. Sanctimony doesn’t cure illness as hoped. Someone compelled to do work for you is totally not slavery, so get the notion that forcing doctors to cure you by law is a violation.
I suppose we could just buy the services we need and watch what must be exchanged to get new items fall naturally as voluntary employees offer them. But lowering how much we spend by order sure seems official. The compulsory monetary surrender drop is bound to work just like gun control stops every criminal who obeys the law.
Other than the dire philosophical and practical consequences of trying to engineer economics so we can get things free, it’s a good deal. Not thinking about the source of what consumers use is bound to make prices disappear. Cast a spell like the one with funds that go into a pot we were assured magically filled itself with currency. Acid melted through the cauldron’s bottom, to the detriment of those just now learning Harry Potter was fiction. Wannabe warlocks can’t fill it fast enough with money taken from the useful.
Look at the raises never given. Wait: that’s tricky. The problem with ruining something is never seeing good things that could’ve come from not setting money aflame.
An evil corporation forced to subsidize a government that incinerates cash can’t pay more naturally. Raising the minimum wage is nothing more than a way for arsonists to compensate for destroying what could be voluntary with coercion. And forget the skyrocketing personal budgets from artificially increasing wages, as noticing effects is for right-wing haters. Consider grave unforeseen results a premium for the privilege of government caring about you.
Noticing what’s missing thanks to confiscated opportunities is the same and also the opposite of a changing economy’s signals. People see the mall store close and lament what ordering products to the ether has done to commerce. It’s especially glaring to those who kvetched that centralized indoor shopping centers drove Mom and Pop both out of business. Regardless, what’s not visible is the savings of consumers who appreciate every item they could want brought to the doormat. The place where you hung out with crimped hair during your teens if you’re in your 40s can’t do that.
Thinking government spending doesn’t subtract anything is so dumb that adherents might have to run for office. Recipients are not billed themselves, so math and reality must say it’s complimentary. Someone picking up your tab means dinner was free, which will be a surprise when you’re dropped off.
Those planning to eat the rich will starve rather quickly. All this oh so efficient cash tossing is subsidized by confiscating from some wealthy bastard. Jealousy is surely healthy in every way. Someone more successful than you owes you. Also claim they’re unproductive for economic prosperity and personal peace.
It’s time to have that difficult discussion about where money comes from. Reviewing simple concepts is only patronizing if everyone comprehends them, The prevailing sense that life wouldn’t make us broke if only Congress cared enough to ban them indicates that’s just not so. Pretending anything is handed out at zero expense explains why debt is deep into 14 blasted figures.
There’s a swell deal ahead aside from the government’s inherent inefficiency while buying garbage nobody wants, punishment for success, presumption that paved roads are the key to individual prosperity, class warfare resentment, and murdered initiative. On the other hand, recipients can pretend there’s no bill. You’ll never believe how much $1,400 costs you.
Notice what you get for what the government buys for you, which is not much. But it’s impossible to keep receipts. Every single one of the quadrillions of pennies constitutes necessary spending, which is why the entity responsible for everything spends them. If government does something, it must be lawful. | https://medium.com/@anthonybialy/priced-off-b84318941337 | ['Anthony Bialy'] | 2021-06-17 12:02:58.359000+00:00 | ['Wealth Transfer', 'Inflation', 'Economy', 'Debt', 'Handouts'] |
California Cannabis Industry May See Loosened Regulations | Image: Eric Limon / Shutterstock.com
SACRAMENTO — The Bureau of Cannabis Control‘s Cannabis Advisory Committee approved recommendations that would relax several regulations for the California cannabis industry, aimed at helping struggling cannabis businesses. The recommendations were included in the state panel’s annual report.
While arguably the largest state market for cannabis in the United States, California legal cannabis businesses struggle with competition from illegal cannabis sellers, among many other obstacles to expanded profitability. Though classified as essential services by the state, the businesses also have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and new public health requirements for retail and manufacturing industries.
“The state has faced unprecedented circumstances in 2020: the global COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession, a record-breaking wildfire season, and the nationwide fight for racial justice and equality,” the seventeen-member panel reported. “With the additional pressures the cannabis industry faces during this challenging time in mind, the Advisory Committee sought to recommend policies that promote public health, set the stage for the proposed consolidation of the licensing authorities, and lead to economic recovery.”
Recommendations made by the panel included lifting the $5,000 limit on the cannabis products can be carried by delivery vans, which would allow retail businesses to offer a greater variety of products. The panel also recommended that cannabis lounges eventually be allowed to serve food and beverages.
The committee has not yet posted it’s final report, but a draft is available here.
By Joanne Cachapero
Originally published at https://mgretailer.com/cannabis-news/california-cannabis-industry-may-see-loosened-regulations/ on December 11th, 2020. | https://medium.com/mg-magazine/california-cannabis-industry-may-see-loosened-regulations-d642c4604f45 | ['Mg Magazine'] | 2020-12-26 19:37:00.792000+00:00 | ['Magazine', 'Regulation', 'Cannabis', 'California', 'Business'] |
Social Anxiety Can Be Contagious | Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash
I have struggled with social anxiety for most of my life, beginning when I was a teenager in high school. The trigger is most often public speaking. In high-school French class I would have panic attacks when I sensed I would be asked to speak French. If the oral was scheduled and I had time for my imagination to create the worst possible outcomes, I would not be able to sleep and become desperate for ways to avoid the fully imagined pending disaster. Eventually it became so debilitating, the French teacher, Mrs. Dompierre, allowed me to come into her classroom during noon hour and “perform” my orals in front of just her. This happened for my last two years of high school, the same and only French teacher for both grades, so we kept the arrangement until I graduated. I was relieved and suffered fewer panic attacks, but as often happens with social anxiety when you avoid anxiety provoking situations it gets worse — because avoidance feels so good. By the time I entered university the anxiety was off the chart. As a sufferer of social anxiety, I expelled my dream of becoming a history teacher and studied computer science instead — because it involved talking to a machine, not people. Or so I thought.
Once my career started, I was still expected to public speak — that is what is expected of white-collar professionals. You start by going to regular status meetings and when it was your turn, you spoke and gave a status update. These were pure torture for me, and I struggled mightily before and during the meetings. I was ok one-on-one, but technology is often done by teams and everyone needed to know your status, not just your boss.
I knew I could not continue this way and I began looking for solutions, including appointments with a psychologist. And it was during these sessions I learned social anxiety is contagious.
I only had four sessions with this psychologist because I was moving to another city. During the first couple of sessions, I realized that this person never really understood a phobia of public speaking. He was relatively young, and this was during an earlier time when not as many people as today reached out for professional help for a phobia of public speaking. Most people seemed to just to avoid any type of public speaking, like my two brothers who took on jobs in a tire factory.
During the second session the phycologist started asking me questions about how I felt when I was asked to public speak. I explained to him in detail all the symptoms I experienced in anticipation of having to public speak. Then, as can be expected, he started asking about my thoughts which would lead to the sensations that would often result in a full-blown panic attack.
(Keep in mind I could have a panic attack if the person in the cubicle next to me was asked to prepare and deliver a presentation. I imagined death row inmates may have similar reactions when it is time for a fellow inmate to go meet his maker.)
So I listed off a number of my thoughts — I am not capable; I will embarrass myself; I do not know what I am doing; everyone else is better than me at the job and public speaking; why am I the only one who suffers from this phobia; how can I get out of it — I feel trapped; I will lose my job; I will go crazy; nobody wants to listen to me; and why am I feeling so anxious — I do not understand what is happening to me.
As I spouted all of this mental angst, I noticed the psychologist was paying keen attention to what I was saying. I thought, good, he is getting it and will be able to help. But I also eventually noticed some bewilderment in his face as I was talking. So, I did what I always did when I was opening up about my worst fear to someone else — I asked him if he ever had these thoughts. He replied, “No.” I thought well maybe he has never had to public speak, so I asked him if he had occasion to public speak? He said “Yes, I teach a class at the university on Monday evenings.” So, I asked him, does it ever bother you to stand in front of a class and public speak. Again, he said “No, I never really thought about it that way.”
I thought, man, are you ever lucky because I am the exact opposite. How do I get to be like you when asked to public speak? And why am I cursed with his affliction and you are not. The session ended and then I had disappointing thoughts — he is a psychologist, but does he understand enough to help me.
At the next session the following week, the psychologist seemed very excited to see me as we sat down in his office. He wanted to tell me something, something that happened to him. He told me that as he was walking to the building on the university campus to teach his Monday evening class, he unconsciously started having the same thoughts that I had described to him in our previous session. I do not know what doubts or even brain wiring that caused those thoughts to latch in his head, but he soon found himself in the same black abyss that those same thoughts took me, and he was having a panic attack. He told me he found himself on that cool, dark evening pressed up against the brick wall outside of the building trying desperately to get himself back under control so he could continue inside and meet his obligation to teach. He managed to get through the class, but then something quite oddly ironic occurred — he was worried about it happening again and he wanted to know what, if anything, helped me. The patient, me, had, even momentarily, become the clinician. And so, we spent the remainder of the session with me explaining what I had tried, and what seemed to help and what was no help at all.
After the session I had mixed feelings about whether the psychologist could help me or not. On the upside his thoughts and the resulting panic attack gave him a deeper understanding of the issue I was facing. However, he was now faced with trying to handle the same issue for himself and apparently was relying on me — at least partially — to offer some potential beneficial insight.
We had one more session before I moved to the new city and it was mostly a discussion around what tools, methods and approaches could help someone who has a severe phobia of public speaking.
It is now twenty-five years since I had those four sessions during the summer of 1997. When I reflect back, I realize on some level the psychologist, at least for a short period of time, “caught” my specific phobia of public speaking. I wonder if it only happened to him just that once or did it become a longer-term issue?
Regardless I was detailed enough in describing my anxious thoughts and the omnipresent associated feelings to him that it somehow resonated in his psyche, his mind. I now felt I had to be careful the next time I ever opened up to anyone about my anxiety disorder because I was, apparently, contagious and someone could catch it from me.
And if you feel susceptible to having anxiety, especially a phobia of public speaking, you may not want to come near me. | https://medium.com/@wbishop60/social-anxiety-can-be-contagious-c19f5cb7d059 | ['Bill Bishop'] | 2021-11-25 19:08:44.999000+00:00 | ['Phobia', 'Presentations', 'Public Speaking', 'Glossophobia', 'Anxiety Disorder'] |
Curd fertilizer alternative to Urea , Successfully tested by ICAR | Example image of curd
Curd fertilizer increases the soil fertility rate and increases the microbial activity in soil. Curd fertilizer raises 25–30% yield of wheat ,rice,fruits etc. 2.5kg of milk is needed to prepare the curd whereas for a chemical spray in field cost amounts to Rs. 1,100 or more.
It is also used as a pesticide from the butter which is received after water is added to curd. spray of curd mixture is cheap as it requires Only 2 kg of the mixture is required to replace 25 kg of urea(nitrogen fertilizer).
As you have got to know major benefits of this home made fertilizer . So you check out the whole process to make it from the link below.The main is to make aware and give cost effective solutions for farmers.
https://www.themarketeers.online/post/curd-use-as-urea | https://medium.com/@avens9000/curd-fertilizer-alternative-to-urea-successfully-tested-by-icar-babb2df7a89a | ['Gunteshwar Singh'] | 2020-12-05 17:48:41.703000+00:00 | ['Farmers', 'Farming', 'Fertility', 'Cost Savings', 'Organic'] |
Can You Feel More Alive At Work? | iStock:RichVantage
Interview with Dan Cable
Do you bounce into work Monday morning? Are you full of energy, enthusiasm, and ideas for the week ahead? Are you looking forward to all of the opportunities you’ll have to truly show up and perform at your best? Chances are this is not your average week or your average day. But given that you’re likely to spend over 90,000 hours at work across your lifetime, wouldn’t it be good to feel really alive while you do it?
“Unfortunately, rather than see work as part of our real lives many of us just see it as a commute to the weekend,” said Professor Dan Cable from the London Business School and author of Alive at Work when I interviewed him recently. “Where you strap on the seatbelt of boredom on Monday morning, and then you take it back off on Friday night.”
Unfortunately, many organizations remain stuck in management principles founded during the Industrial Revolution to control people’s behavior by focusing them on specific tasks that could be measured and monitored in order to increase production and reliability. While this may have worked well when predictability was the goal of most workplaces, in an increasingly dynamic, complex and connected world the cost of these antiquated approaches is that they suppress people’s natural impulses to experiment, learn, and find ways to meaningful express themselves.
“Many organizations deactivate the part of employees’ brains called the seeking system,” explained Dan. “The seeking system creates the natural impulse to explore our world, learn about our environment, and extract meaning from our circumstances. When our seeking system is activated, the neurotransmitter dopamine is released in our brains, and we feel more motivated, purposeful and zestful. We feel more alive.”
This seeking system is triggered when you’re able to play to your strengths, experiment and learn, and you care about your purpose. It can unleash positive emotions such as curiosity, excitement, hope, gratitude, and enthusiasm that can lead not only to innovation, creativity, and openness. So rather than the emotions of fear, anxiety, and conformity of cultures based on assumptions from the industrial revolution, these positive emotions are a competitive advantage, by helping help you and your organization to thrive.
“Exploring, experimenting, and learning is the way we are designed to live and work. It’s basically free energy,” said Dan. “Just like turning on a tap and having great ideas, creativity and enthusiasm pouring out, and you’re lit up, you don’t want to leave, and you become an ambassador because you start to love where you work.”
How can you trigger your biological seeking system at work?
Bring your best self to work — reflect on when you feel you are at your best or have your best impact at work. Write down a story about a time you can recall — what were you doing, who were you effecting and what was the situation. Chances are this will really light you up, and can give you a strong emotional reaction that generates enthusiasm and motivation to do more. Then consider what parts of your job help you be your best self, or help you get there more often.
While you mightn’t be able to do this eight hours a day, even if you can do this more for ten minutes a day, that you may then expand into an hour where you’re bringing your best, and you’re feeling lit up. And then over time, that hour starts to become more as you craft the role toward your strengths and the things that you care most about. You literally start to create more, do more, and have a greater impact.
Find your purpose story — your purpose is personal, and it’s emotional. Start finding your purpose by breaking down your role into different chunks. For example, it might be ‘customer service’ chunk, and a ‘doing paperwork’ chunk, and ‘finding new leads’ chunks. Now for each of these ask yourself — “why do I do it? “ — four times. This can help you find the story you’re using about what matters about what you do. And once you surface that story ask yourself: “Is this my best story?” Consider what’s your best story in terms of what skills you’re using, what values you hold, and what do you cherish about the impact you’re making.
— your purpose is personal, and it’s emotional. Start finding your purpose by breaking down your role into different chunks. For example, it might be ‘customer service’ chunk, and a ‘doing paperwork’ chunk, and ‘finding new leads’ chunks. Now for each of these ask yourself — “why do I do it? “ — four times. This can help you find the story you’re using about what matters about what you do. And once you surface that story ask yourself: “Is this my best story?” Consider what’s your best story in terms of what skills you’re using, what values you hold, and what do you cherish about the impact you’re making. Be playful — while fear and anxiety can shut down your seeking system, play can trigger it. Play balances out your fear responses and keeps you wanting to try new things and be innovative. When you respond to fear by putting more KPIs in place, you can ramp up more fear and risk creating a downward spiral of negative emotions in your organization that can undermine your success. Instead, this is the exact time you need to be ramping up your curiosity through play.
What can you do to feel more alive at work? | https://michellemcquaid.medium.com/can-you-feel-more-alive-at-work-fee867bf6ea2 | ['Michelle Mcquaid'] | 2018-12-11 22:30:27.902000+00:00 | ['Workplace', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Positive Psychology', 'Work', 'Neuroscience'] |
The Principles of Post-Advertising | If brands and advertising have become less useful as tools to both companies and consumers, how can businesses grow?
Five factors are changing the types of products that succeed today and how they engage with their audiences.
Marketing has become an arms race that’s led to hollow value and stifled innovation. Bad products with lots of media muscle can steamroll good ones with less resources. The competition of overcrowded categories creates brands trying to outspend each other with ads that grow increasingly detached from reality.
The post-advertising world is not one without advertising, but one where our use of traditional ads and brands has peaked and a new model for growth is emerging. Five areas play a key role in shaping this change — lessons from the businesses leveraging these, offer a potent blueprint for success:
1. Meaningful improvement
Brands have made businesses lazy. Competition has become matching competitors’ offerings and winning in the margins, while much energy is spent in the battle of perceptions. Look at how similar Mercedes and BMW’s offerings are. Their models and pricing almost mirror each other. They spend a fortune trying to convince us how different they are.
People are inundated with choices in many categories, while brands find more safety in matching each other than offering something new. Adidas makes knitted sneakers. Nike makes knitted sneakers. Who was first? It doesn’t matter — it’s not meaningful progress.
Technology isn’t what makes companies like Netflix, Amazon, Uber or Tesla appealing, the massive value they have unlocked for their customers does. Technology is obviously a factor in this.
Uber displaces taxis because they’ve created a fundamentally better way to get around, not because Millenials like apps. By making millions of unused cars available they’ve created new supply and driven down prices, that have been too high for too long. The net benefit is huge.
Many lesser examples simply find ways around the inefficiencies or layers of middlemen in existing industries to offer meaningfully better value — rather than incremental improvements.
Many of the structures that brands rely on are weakening. This is driving a return to the product and a departure from the fluff around it. If your product doesn’t offer significantly improved value to an existing or previously unknown problem — go back to the drawing board. Surely that’s the way it should always have been?
2. Product storytelling
Aren’t brands precisely about storytelling? Brands have become too much story and too little substance. Those trying to convince us of the countless ‘scientific breakthroughs’ in detergent (soap) have become a parody in the transparency of the internet. This doesn’t just diminish their brand — it reduces belief in brands altogether.
Products that naturally tell good stories win, not because they tell better stories, because they are better products. Warby Parker recognized that good glasses are still made of plastic and shouldn’t have to cost $300. Oddbox realized that food waste is a huge problem and that we should be eating the odd looking produce that most retailers shun. These are great marketing angles — but first, they were great solutions.
It’s becoming harder to stray from the truth. In Hollywood, Rotten Tomatoes has changed how people choose movies and shows and sterilized much of the marketing. Products are telling their own stories while advertising has a shrinking margin of influence.
3. Earned attention
Possibly the single most overlooked fact in marketing presently, is that social media charges less to show better ad content. It’s a fairly simple equation with powerful implications: because ads have become skippable — media platforms can offload more engaging content more easily, get paid more quickly and earn more (as they have virtually infinite inventory). So, they incentivize this with lower prices. To reiterate: Facebook or Youtube charges less for a good video to reach people than a bad one. The price difference between good and bad content isn’t marginal, it’s measured in multiples.
It seems painfully obvious but this has exposed the hollow value of forced media, like ads on linear TV, that people may watch but don’t necessarily add value for the consumer or the brand.
Dollar Shave Club launched their business off a video. It’s worth watching just on the entertainment value, but they land all the key benefits of their offering too. This approach is now widely used to introduce new offerings. Dollar Shave Club has since been acquired for a billion dollars. It’s worth noting, they could never have made this video if they didn’t have a great product and story to tell.
‘Earned media’ (the sharing of content) is a widely used marketing term but a misunderstood principle. It is possibly the best tool marketers have today, not because it provides free media but because it validates that the audience likes the message. It means your message is resonating. It’s working. Hallelujah! This is the real feedback that advertisers have been craving since the invention of TV ratings.
Attention has become discretionary. The interruptive power of ads has diminished and people are obviously opting out of what doesn’t interest them. There is a downside to this meritocracy — because people would rather watch cat videos than learn about most products. Still, brands must take advantage of this by making great content. If you can’t — don’t bother, you will simply be making noise.
4. Pre-validation
A lot of the magic of brands and advertising came from consumers believing what brands said — not being able to test claims and even wanting them to be true. The internet has changed this. Reviews, ratings and comments are there for all to see. Brands with overly ambitious positioning can expect to be called out. Or worse, companies that are found to be irresponsible will face the wrath of the crowd.
Buying is stressful — especially the anxiety of not knowing whether you have made the right choice. Getting validation before a purchase is much safer and it’s becoming easier. The threshold for products that justify pre-purchase research lowers as the information becomes more available. Increasingly companies with good products lead with ratings and reviews — leaving those that don’t, with an added disadvantage: doubt.
Reviews can make or break new offerings. Early momentum has become critical for success. The window to get things right is small and unforgiving. The maxim of under-promise and over-deliver still holds, but it doesn’t mean you have to be boring, as long as your product offers meaningful improvement to the status quo.
5. Reducing burden
People are overloaded with stuff. More brands in more categories, have more ads on more media — taking up more of our time. Phones have invited ads into just about every part of our day now. Increasingly I see people looking at their phones while walking, when I look up from mine.
Big brands and campaigns are often demonstrating their lack of empathy for our overloaded attention alongside their products. This is simply the nature of brands and advertising. Gaining attention is a zero sum battle of attrition, that has become more costly for everyone.
Overload has opened the door for offerings that simplify. Buying a mattress is a chore — Casper makes it easy with limited choice and a good product that just works. It’s not cheap but they bring it to you and will pick it up if you don’t like it after three months, at no cost and with little risk. Customers that opt in to these kinds of offerings are essentially opting out of buying the old way, from categories that have too many options built on superfluous differences. Often we simply stick with what we know. Much of what’s called ‘loyalty’ is just capitulation.
Driving repeat sales generally requires ongoing marketing. The bulk of marketing spend is not to introduce new offerings but to reinforce the ones we know. This is how they compete.
Subscriptions have emerged as a vehicle for a far less onerous relationship — they don’t require endless maintenance marketing. Opting in, customers exchange the burden of ongoing decision making and transactions for their patronage and attention. Then the product has to do the talking.
Whether through subscriptions or other low friction approaches, the products making life easier gain appeal as the burdens on attention and decision making in the marketplace grow.
In short:
Products that offer meaningful improvements — tell good stories and earn inexpensive attention. If they then provide proof to support their claim, while making it easy for customers to opt in — there’s a good chance they will.
The fact that a burgeoning but relatively small group of these examples has emerged from the much greater pool of traditional brands is probably proof that these principles are easier said than done, but if you succeed in implementing them, we’ll all be better off. | https://medium.com/newco/the-principles-of-post-advertising-ab09deeeeea5 | ['Andre Redelinghuys'] | 2020-01-29 14:53:16.863000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Management', 'Business', 'Advertising', 'Marketing'] |
Seller Spotlight: Former Pitchers Find Amazon Success Right Off the Bat | Big league talent, first class humility, and a knack for e-commerce… you have just read the ingredients for one very interesting interview! This week, Helium 10’s own Karyn Thomas sits down with former AAA baseball pitchers David and Ryan Ledbetter.
Not only do we get a peek at what life is like for twin brother pitchers in the MiLB but also a rare glimpse into the early success of a new Amazon venture. Diversifying strategies, goal-setting revelations, Helium 10 Certification study tips, 100 mph fastballs… this one has it all.
Karyn: I’m so excited for today’s seller spotlight. I’m joined by Ryan and David Ledbetter, who are not only brothers, but twins, best friends, business partners, and confidants. How are you Ryan and David?
David: Doing well, how are you?
Karyn: I’m doing amazing. You two are my favorite twins of all time.
Ryan: You need to expand your twin selection if we’re your favorite twins!
Karyn: I’m not just saying that! You guys are salt of the earth, genuine, inspiring people!
David: *Takes a breath, inflating his ego*
Karyn: And with a great sense of humor!
Ryan: We are so thankful to be here and so glad that you reached out. I don’t think you realize how big of fans we are of Helium 10 and what Amazon can do for people who are not only buying products, but selling products.
Early Innings — David & Ryan’s Background, Pre-Amazon
Karyn: Before we get into your Amazon journey, do you guys mind sharing a brief background of what you were doing before selling on Amazon?
David: Ryan and I both went to a small, Christian school and we both ended up marrying our high school sweethearts.
We ended up getting drafted in the MiLB draft of 2013. We got to play professional baseball for about five years. Ryan retired in 2017 and I retired in 2018. Ryan is now a financial advisor with Edward Jones and I work with a startup company that invests in minor league baseball players.
We also do Amazon part time because we wanted to pursue some entrepreneurial endeavors. A friend of ours became successful through Amazon and ended up leaving his job for it. He told us “You gotta get in on this.”
Karyn: What position did you guys play?
Ryan: We were both pitchers. David was a starting pitcher and I was a relief pitcher. I come in to close the game. David has been a starter since high school. We had some cool success in high school, winning two state championships. Then we went to a small Christian university in Ohio. We were what many called “late bloomers” — played a little high school ball like everybody, then started getting bigger, stronger, and throwing harder. Everyone was like “What? What happened to these kids?”
Karyn: Wow! What’s the fastest you’ve ever thrown?
Ryan: I was clocked at 100 mph by one gun and 99 on another. But that was literally one time!
David: Ryan. If you hit it once… it counts.
Ryan: It’s true. But the faster it goes in the faster it goes out, remember that. If they (the batter) can get a piece of 100, it’s gonna leave the park real fast.
David: Those were our past lives! We don’t play baseball anymore, we just teach it.
Covering All the Bases — Amazon Mentor and Diversifying Business
Karyn: So you touched on how you got into Amazon — you had a friend who was doing it and he kind of tested the theory that you could indeed make money being a seller on Amazon. Can you tell me when you got started and your journey from then until now?
David: 100%. So, our friend was doing retail arbitrage. Most people try to teach the three ways to sell on Amazon: retail arbitrage, wholesale, and then private label. He started doing retail arbitrage for about a year and was finding success, but it just requires so much time. It requires a little bit more in the way of logistics. You have to go buy this stuff. You have to know what’s on sale and then resell it. Then it just becomes hard with Amazon, as they kind of cracked down on needing to disclose where you bought the item so that they know you can officially sell it. So he kind of left that bottle, went to wholesale, and started doing really well.
He ended up leaving his job and he’s like, “Guys, I’m doing like, $2 million in sales.”
He also had a strong margin. He’s a very smart guy, we trust him a lot, and I’m glad we stayed in touch. But he told us we really needed to dive in. Ryan and I had wanted to be doing something together and this just happened to be what we started.
I feel like our company was founded, you know… you gotta be a “founder” to be a millennial these days… in late 2018, but we really didn’t do anything with it until probably March of this year (2020).
Ryan: Yeah, COVID. Whenever COVID hit. We were like, shoot. We need to be doing something online.
David: So we decided — “Hey, we’re going to start pursuing this. We’re going to reach out and we’re going to find good products.”
And of course, we found those products through none other than Helium 10, the greatest piece of software that any Amazon seller could use. It really is the truth. I don’t know how anybody does anything without Helium 10.
We started growing our sales and since March, we’ve added a bunch of products. We’ve hit 100K in sales this month and have been steadily increasing. We sell about $16,000-$20,000 on average a month now. So it’s just cool to see the trend go up. Will that continue forever? Probably not. We don’t want to do wholesale forever.
It’s just a lot more fun to do private label. You get to own the brand.
We want to work on a non-linear scale. So, how many ways can you make income through selling on Amazon? One of those ways is wholesale. It’s a great intro because, “Hey, I know I could buy this, I can sell it at a certain amount, then all I need to do is really manage my cash flow well.” But we’d like to move into private label. Now what we’re doing is partnering with brands using Helium 10. That’s why we got Helium 10 certified!
We want to partner with brands, bring them into what we’re doing, and market their product for them. Basically say, “Are you non-existent on Amazon? Because you should be on Amazon. Or are you just existing on Amazon and not thriving? We want to help you thrive on Amazon.”
So that’s kind of where we’re moving. Now we have two or three relationships with some great brands, great people. We’re much more relationship-driven individuals. So we see that as more of the long term value we add.
Karyn: It’s so smart that you guys are doing it the right way, where you’re not just putting all of your eggs in one basket.
Just from experience, I started out selling on Amazon one way with private label, which is great. It’s a fantastic way. But I have learned that it is really important to have multiple eggs in different baskets. Also, like you were saying, it’s so important to manage cash flow.
You know, as a millennial business owner, just thinking, “Ooh, I’m making money on Amazon. I’m going to really just love life.” It’s like, oops, you also have to keep buying inventory, invest in marketing, etc. You guys are really smart to do it the right way from the beginning.
David: It’s definitely a testament to our friend. He’s helped us tremendously. He’s a very by-the-book guy. He was an accountant previous to leaving his job. So, I would say we need to give it all to Rob Nesteroff. Gotta give him the credit.
Karyn: It really helps having a mentor. Somebody that can give you personal advice, has proven the model, and can kind of say, “Here’s what we did well and here’s where we made mistakes.” Then you can kind of do even better, right? When you know the pitfalls to avoid.
A Team Sport — Doing Business as Brothers
Karyn: Can we just touch on the fact that you guys do this together? Ryan, can you tell me a little bit more about your relationship and how you guys do this business together as brothers and best friends… how does it work?
Ryan: So we’ve always done everything together. I mean, we were married on the same day, one year apart. Getting into this business was just an excuse to hang out more and then have something that we can do with our time that’s profitable as well.
The way that businesses evolve is communication. “What is the goal? What is the vision for this business in the first place?” Some people ask if it’s money that drives us. You dive into those things and you go, “How much is enough?” David talked about non-linear income streams. We talk a lot about finances and all that stuff, especially with me being a financial advisor, blah, blah, blah.
But we want to make sure that we have different streams that we’re sending up and then come back to pay you over time. Those streams are enough to basically pay for your lifestyle. And that’s real freedom.
That’s when you really get to: “I can spend time with my kids today and not have to worry about all this other stuff that I have to do.” So that’s kind of where this was born from. Let’s set this up and build something, then keep going and learn new skills that will help in the future. Also we love spending time together. So it’s pretty fun.
Keeping Your Eye on the Ball — Business Goals
Karyn: Let’s dive a little bit deeper into what you mentioned about business goals. What might that look like? Is it once you have five clients that you’re helping on Amazon? Is it when you have five privately owned products? Or is it hitting $100,000 a month?
Ryan: So that five client thing was a big one for the brands we help. We only want five clients because we feel like that’s when you can really get to know someone and you can literally say, “Hey, it’s just me, my brother, and another guy that we work with as well, but it’s just us three. We are going to make you the highest priority possible. You won’t get this level of service anywhere else. We don’t have 120 other clients that we’re looking after. It’s literally you. If we’re not doing a good job, tell us what we’re doing wrong, because we want this to be fun for both of us.”
In terms of private label and wholesale, we don’t really have a number. It’s more of how much time we want to spend packing products or marketing. So it’s more based on how much time we have available. That’s how the business grows. All the goal settlers probably hate hearing that, but I mean, it is what it is!
Karyn: No, I get that. I’ve gotten to know you guys a little bit over the past few weeks and I feel very much that you guys are people driven — that you really care a lot about giving back and serving your family and your community. That was really incorporated in your goals a lot.
Can you explain maybe a little bit more David, what your vision is like? Let’s say when you’ve made it. You’ve hit your goals. What is your ultimate desire to give back to your community?
David: Ryan didn’t mention it, but our first goal was just to pay off our homes. Like, this business literally just exists for us to pay off our houses. Then once we achieve that, what else is there to do? Again, how much is enough? I deal with young, minor league ball players who think they’re gonna make a hundred million dollars. I have to be the one that tells them, “Is that going to make you happy making a hundred million dollars? Because if it is, you’re going to have a really sad life.”
That’s the biggest reason for the businesses. Let’s do this, but we like to do it together.
If you can win as an individual, that’s fantastic. That should drive you. But it doesn’t support anybody else, but yourself.
That’s why I think we’ve enjoyed moving to this “agency” kind of idea. The wholesale model is very similar too. Our goal, right now, is just a means to an end. But eventually, we can ask ourselves, “Can we start hiring young adults who also have that entrepreneurial drive?” Maybe they just want to make some extra cash and we can be, hopefully, good examples for them. We can teach them the way to go.
A leader is one that knows the way, goes the way, shows the way.
So we would love to be those examples for these younger kids. So that’s kind of where the wholesale model is. But we don’t see ourselves doing that on a really grand scale.
Then private label. Obviously we would just love to have our own products and our own brand that we’re able to eventually sell. That can maybe pay for our homes or whatever we want. And we can give it to somebody else when we’re done.
The goal of a business is not to just make yourself ridiculously rich. It’s to give back, in whatever capacity that is.
I think that’s that’s the long term. We don’t really know the future. There’s only one man that knows the future, that’s God. But while we’re here, we’re doing this right now. Our goal is to figure out how to best assimilate our knowledge to others to help them reach their goals.
Students of the Game — Helium 10 Certification Program
Karyn: You’re looking at trends and you’re assessing what you can do to both achieve a great lifestyle, to be able to work together, to generate an income, and to pay off your homes. But also to plan for the future. It’s amazing to me that you started back in March and saw where the economy was going with COVID and the shut down. You saw this opportunity with our Helium 10 Certification Program.
Can you explain more your thought process behind that, David? And also what the certification process was like. Was it hard? Was it no big deal?
David: It was just like going back to school! When I retired from baseball, I was halfway through my MBA. So I finished that and I was like, “I have no idea what I’m going to use this for,” but I knew it was important. I knew that I’d already spent money on it. When I start something, I want to finish it. But with the Helium 10 Certification Program, it was kind of a similar mindset. I was out of school, but I had just been there. I knew like, “Hey, this is how school works.” You have to study. Ryan and I had been using Helium 10 a ton, and we were getting questions about how we use Helium 10 to find good products.
As we got more questions, we learned there are people who don’t know what they’re doing on Amazon, but they’re trying to sell on Amazon. There’s a need for people who have this knowledge.
Apparently the Helium 10 Certification Program hasn’t been out that long. I did not know that. I thought it was just an absolute, no brainer. I was like, “Oh, Helium 10 has a Certification Program! We gotta get that.” So I just started studying and it probably took me a month — going through each module, watching each video. That’s why, Karyn, you and Brad… you guys are celebrities. I’ve seen you guys so much…. Now, I’m like, “Oh dude, they’re talking to me!
Ryan: “They’re real people, what?!”
With the Helium 10 Certification, I’m basically paying $80 for a degree.
David Ledbetter
It’s not just a measure of past success. We needed Helium 10 today because we don’t have a huge track record with brands that we partner with yet — we just started. But now I can say, “Hey, I know what I’m doing. I’m Helium 10 certified. How many people do you know that are Helium 10 certified?”
Also, I had no idea how extensive the suite of available tools are at our disposal. It helps knowing what you can actually do with the software as opposed to just knowing the basics of Xray or the Helium 10 Chrome extension. Like yeah, that helps. But there’s so much more.
Karyn: Many people don’t have the time to learn, but sometimes they also don’t have the desire. It is tricky, right? That’s why degrees are valuable in a lot of ways, because it shows you are a master of something.
Calling Their Shot — Favorite Helium 10 Tool
Karyn: What is your favorite Helium 10 tool?
Ryan: I say Scribbles, every time!
Karyn: Woo!
Ryan: It’s the colors! But really, it makes it fun to optimize listings. And who thought optimizing listings would be fun?
Karyn: Are you good writers?
Ryan: Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think so.
David: Ryan is a great writer.
Ryan: I just try to put words in there and find the good keywords.
David: Didn’t you guys just introduce the tool where you can use X-ray and then move it into Cerebro too?
Karyn: Yes!
David: That’s why, again, back to the Helium 10 Certification Program, if you know how to use Helium 10 as a collective tool, instead of just little bitty tools, you are capable of so much more in the Amazon marketplace. Imagine the ability to decipher data from Amazon to a point you can say, “I know exactly what market I need to be in. I know what products I can sell in that market. I know how to sell them. I can track how well they sell. AND I can do PPC! There’s no end to it!
Karyn: That was a mic drop moment! Right?
Ryan: He’s the copywriter.
David: I had it written down…
Karyn: Haha! I want to ask, what in your life experience like brought this out? Like you’re obviously really good with people, you’re really smart to see the trends, and you work well together.
Major League Motivations — Faith, Humility, and Inspiration for New Sellers
Karyn: Was there an “Aha!” moment in your life or was this just how you were raised?
What made you guys who you are?
David: I just follow Ryan around.
Ryan: That is a hard question. The Lord, that would be number one — his sovereignty in our lives has been unmistakable. It’s his glory that we’re here for in the first place. So I always have to recognize, any profit that we can ever have comes from our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
I would also say our dad and mom have been very, very strong influences in our lives. Just teaching us: What does work look like? What is work ethic? How do you learn something? How do you adapt to change?
Sports was big too, because when you’re failing in front of 10,000 people and they’re all looking at you and you can’t make an adjustment… you’ll remember that moment. Which has happened!
David: Ryan, I think that’s so true. I want to build on that too, about our faith. You can be Christian and not be humble, right? But that will quickly lead you to humility.
I think understanding how small we actually are in the picture of this world and this life — it helps you realize we’re all just learning and we’re all just a part of the same thing.
We’re all just walking through this life together, trying to figure out the best way to live. But it’s hard when you’re not living according to the word. I think our faith plays a huge part in that. That’s directly influenced by our parents who have taught us, “Work is your best friend. Learn to love the whole journey.”
Baseball taught us that too. Ryan, even building on that failure…. You want to get a laugh? Look at my stats from 2015. I pitched the whole year and still had a 7.5 ERA (earned run average). I gave up, I think, over 30 home runs… just got trampled on! But the point is that I finished the year — I picked up the ball every time I needed to. And we still made AAA.
You can be terrible, and there will be seasons of failure. But all you gotta do is just pick up the ball and keep going.
That doesn’t mean drive your head into the stone wall until you black out. But it does mean: adapt, be smart. Look ahead, keep your head up. Don’t get too down on yourself.
Karyn: In closing, can you each share your biggest piece of advice to someone just getting started? Someone who was where you guys were six months ago… and give them advice on how they can have success in this fun, crazy world of selling on Amazon as a business owner?
David: First, the hardest part in the marathon is that first step. So choose to do something. If you don’t like the way that your life is going right now, or you don’t like what’s happened in your life, or are you looking to make income… or are you just trying to have fun! Just start with one thing. Recognize you want to make a change. Make that change right now.
Then two, like I just said, keep picking up the ball. It’s not going to be easy.
Anything that is worth doing and enjoying is not going to be easy.
The easiest thing to do is sit on the couch and watch TV. Don’t do it. Learn as much as you can.
If you need help, reach out to us!
A special thank you to David and Ryan for taking the time to sit with us and share their inspiring journey. Authenticity seems like it’s harder than ever to come by these days and you guys were such a refreshing (and charming!) look at the industry. We hope the both of you continue to knock it out of the park!
Reach out to David and Ryan Ledbetter at www.betterledconsulting.com/ | https://medium.com/@amazon-seller-tools/seller-spotlight-former-pitchers-find-amazon-success-right-off-the-bat-68c3b12d6698 | [] | 2020-12-28 17:27:43.265000+00:00 | ['Amazon Sellers', 'Ecommerce', 'Selling On Amazon', 'Entrepreneur', 'Business'] |
Bir yanda geri ödeme zorluğu, öte yanda IPO patlaması | The Coming Equity Shortage | by Ricardo Hausmann - Project Syndicate
Firms that manage to survive until an effective COVID-19 vaccine is widely available will have a bright future but weak… | https://medium.com/@guvsak/bir-yanda-geri-%C3%B6deme-zorlu%C4%9Fu-%C3%B6te-yanda-ipo-patlamas%C4%B1-fbb92efe7f57 | ['Güven Sak'] | 2020-12-16 07:47:31.197000+00:00 | ['Equity Shortage', 'Spacs', 'IPO', 'Transparency', 'Turkey'] |
Anyone else getting social hangovers? (confessions of an introvert) | It’s been a while since I have attended a party. Actually, I don’t remember the last time I was at such an event. I guess 13 months in a pandemic makes party attendance a distant memory. When that is said, prior to parties being put on hold, I used to attend, now and again such social gatherings. I have always had this strange love-hate relationship with parties. I have always disliked arriving at the event as there would be many people to greet and most likely people I didn’t know. I usually enjoyed the post-entrance part. Mingling with 1 or 2 people I knew, digging deep into a conversation, socializing 1–1 with selected party attendees and then, almost without any exception, there would be this turning point where I’d get overwhelmed, over stimulated by all the people and the noise and with or without excusing myself, I would just leave and go home abruptly. Yes, yes… I have used the “no goodbye” impolite exit many times and suddenly just disappeared from many parties. I don’t enjoy saying goodbye as I always feel my exit needs a justification.
Most people who know me would not describe me as an introvert. That is because I am social and not shy. I speak my mind, I can mingle in small groups and I can be outgoing in the right setting. That being said, what most people don’t realize is that I am an introvert. I do best in a controlled social environment, I flourish in 1–1 conversations and I am outgoing when surrounded by a very small group of people I know. When this is said, at the end of the day, after I go home, put the kids to bed and say at least 5 sentences to my wife, I need time alone. I need to just be me by myself and recharge my batteries that have been depleted by all the extensive simulations and interactions I have had through the day.
According to Psychology Today, an introvert is a personality style characterized by a preference for the inner life of the mind over the outer world of other people. Compared to extroverts, introverts enjoy subdued and solitary experiences. Introverts do not fear or dislike others, and they are neither shy nor plagued by loneliness. A crowded cocktail party may be torture for introverts, but they enjoy one-on-one engagement in calm environments. Evidence suggests that, unlike with extroverts, the brains of introverts do not react strongly to viewing novel human faces. Introversion is often mistaken for shyness because both are characterized by limited social interaction, but the resemblance stops there. Those who are shy typically want to engage with others but are fearful of doing so. Many introverts, on the other hand, socialize easily; they just strongly prefer to do so in very small groups or, sometimes, not at all.
Being an introvert is not problematic in general and the pandemic, for some of us, has actually been a blessing as social interactions have been reduced while online communication increased, which offer introverts a much more controlled and limited social environment. It also offers us the possibility to carve out, at least more easily, time alone. That being said, there was a time before the pandemic and there will be a time after the pandemic, where crowded offices will exist once more and where large business gatherings, workshops, department days and networking events will be back. Therefore, before “normal” life catches up with us, I wanted to share my thoughts around being an introvert. What strengths and limitations it has brought me in corporate life, especially as a manager and also share some tips and tricks I have learned to make the most of who I am in a world where being an extrovert is usually the preferred model.
Being an introvert in an extrovert world
Two thirds to half of the population are introverts. I am definitely not alone. When that is said, we live in a world, especially the corporate one, where being extroverted is the expected norm and the rewarded personality style. We work in open offices, we are supposed to easily engage in group work, we are supposed to think and solve problems through brainstorm group sessions and share our ideas in plenum. If you are an introvert like me, the idea of a brainstorm group session might make you shrug… Personally, I dislike to think in a group setting or under peer pressure. It is not the optimal way for me to come up with good ideas as this pressured environment completely turns my creativity off. The corporate culture has a bias for extroverts and often, showing extroverts traits are essential for career advancement. Not always, but often. Engaging in self-promotion, being vocal, quick to speak and share thoughts in meetings are often prerequisite behaviors to show promotional potential. In my case, I have been told many times that I am often too quiet in meetings and that it is a shame as I always have great ideas or feedback after the meeting is over. I have been told that I should have shared my thoughts on the spot, in the meeting and should learn to be more assertive in this setting. What people don’t realize is that I am usually quiet in meetings, especially the ones which include many people or people I do not know. For me, as an introvert, those meetings are out of my comfort zone and in these cases, it takes me more time to think. My ideas or feedback come after the meeting is over as I have a chance to think on my own, reflect on the problems presented and what was discussed.
Over the years, I have learned to hide my introversion and play the extrovert game to some extent or when needed. That being said, as I age and as I realize that being authentic both at home and at work is critical to me, I play the extrovert game less and less. In addition, as I became a manager a few years back, I have also realized that being an introvert has great advantages in a managerial position. I don’t need to be the center of attention, I am more than happy to support and “push” my team to get the visibility they deserve as well as the recognition. Being an introvert makes it easy for me to listen to the challenges they face and reflect alone or in 1–1 settings, on how we should tackle these obstacles. Being an introvert also makes it easy for me to engage with each of my employees individually and build deep connections with them so I understand who they are, what drives them and how I can best support their success.
Over the years, I have learned a few tricks that have enabled me to be successful as an introvert in an extroverted corporate world. Here are my tips and trick for introversion at work:
Carve out time: Finding time to recharge is critical for me and for my mind’s stability. Therefore, I block parts of my calendar, when I can, to have timeslots where I can put on my headphones, focus and recharge.
Online communication: in both my personal and professional life, online communication tools have been a blessing. It is much easier for me to reach out and talk to people online. This is not new for me as I remember discovering online chat rooms, mIRC and ICQ as a teen. I met a girlfriend I moved to Denmark for online and met my wife through an app. For me as an introvert, online communication has enabled me to communicate a lot more comfortably as the pause between each message gives me time to think.
Bathroom breaks: in large events, parties, networking gatherings or conferences, I take many bathroom breaks. Not because I have a small bladder or incontinence issues, but simply because I need time to recharge. Therefore, I excuse myself often and go ground myself when needed. I also always have headphones with me so that if I need to shut the world out for the length of a song, I lock myself in a bathroom stall and block life out for a few minutes.
Prep, prep, prep: my introversion makes it hard for me to be good at spontaneous clever insights in meetings, especially when the meeting includes more than 1 or 2 people. The best way I found to mitigate this is to prepare for meetings. I usually prepare a few speaking points and questions so I know I don’t have to think about what to say at the meeting and focus on what is being said instead.
Ask questions: As I am not good at spontaneous clever insights in large meetings, I try to ask questions. This allows me to show that I am participating and actively listening without having to think too quickly on my feet.
Write: As you might have noticed, I like to write. That being said, this is also a great advantage for me as an introvert. I do a lot of my communication in writing, which is a mode of communication I am much more comfortable with. It allows me to have enough time to think without being interrupted and really assess what I want or need to say.
Phone calls: I never answer calls from unknown numbers as I don’t like talking to strangers! Additionally, I don’t always answer calls from people I know if the timing of their call doesn’t suit my current mental state. If I need to be in my head, forced conversations are unpleasant and I am not my best self. I usually text or call back when I am in the right place in my head for socialisation. It took me a long time to realize this and most importantly, to realize that I am not obligated to answer the phone when it rings. I have a choice and my mental state is a good reason not to answer.
Stakeholder management: my job includes a lot of stakeholder management. As I don’t like to engage in large groups, I have learned to do most of my stakeholder management in 1–1 settings. Additionally, as I don’t like to engage with strangers, if the stakeholder management includes people I do not know, I will start the engagement in writing, something I am much more comfortable with. This helps build a relationship with the person. Once the relation is established I continue one-on-one, a setting I enjoy and that enables me to connect and engage fully.
Self-promotion: I don’t like promoting the work I do. It makes me uncomfortable. I have learned over the years though that promoting oneself is important to be noticed and it helps to advance one’s careers. Therefore, I have learned to do it in a way that is less uncomfortable for me: I bundle it with promoting others. I use “we”, “us” and “the team” to ensure credit and promotion is not only about me but about the group.
Headphones: for me, headphones are probably in my top 5 life accessories. I simply CAN’T live without headphones. Headphones allow me to ground myself anytime and anywhere. Additionally, at work, they allow me to create “my bubble” in an open office setting, shut my colleagues out and the world for that matter, and solely focus on what I have to do. In addition, headphones are a great way to signal to people that you are busy or focused. People don’t dare bother someone with headphones as easily as people sitting without. Therefore, sometimes I just wear headphones without any music just to signal that I am busy and don’t want to be disturbed.
Observation skills: most introverts are great observers, or at least I read so somewhere. I spend a lot of time observing others in all my social interactions and I use observations in many ways. I use them to deepen connection with others (e.g. I will say to a friend “I saw you seemed uncomfortable earlier when…”), to identify good moments in conversations to interject or ask a question, to assess relationships between stakeholders, to assess people’s reaction to information etc. Observing people is a gold mine and we should all spend more time observing and listening as there are so many nuggets available when one takes time for it.
Solo project: now and again, it is nice to take on a solo project and only have to work by myself. There is something so easy in working alone, at least for me, and not having to negotiate and compromise with others. Therefore, to sooth my needs, every now and again I take on solo projects so I can spend time working alone.
Focusing on 1 or 2 people: At a business dinner, a family gathering or a party, I always only focus on 1 or 2 people to ensure that I won’t get tired and overwhelmed too fast.
Avoid the “social hangover” and leave early: when I have had just enough or too much, I leave (events, parties, conferences, etc). It’s not always easy to leave without looking impolite so finding a balance is critical, but I have learned that the added effort required for staying is not worth it. If I stay too long, I will wake up the next morning with what I call a “social hangover”. If you never had one you are lucky. A “social hangover” is like a regular hangover, but instead of being induced by alcohol, it is induced by an overdose of socialisation. I will wake up the next morning still exhausted and depleted and my day will be ruined.
As we continue to live in this pandemic and as introverts have reduced their compulsory social personal and work interactions to a minimum, I do believe many introverts have managed to shine during this time, especially in a work setting. They have had time alone, time to gather their thoughts, reflect and use social tools and technology to engage with colleagues in controlled settings. I believe this will help us realize that we need to view introverts at an increased value. They are great colleagues, dedicated employees and great leaders. Being quiet, although not always rewarded or highly regarded in corporate culture, should be embraced and I hope that after COVID, we can resume a new normal life where introversion at the office is seen as a strength and not a weakness. I also hope that some of my colleagues reading this post will now finally understand why I am so quiet sometimes at meetings. It’s not because I am not paying attention, it’s simply because I need time to think, on my own, after the meeting. | https://medium.com/@laurence-paquette/anyone-else-getting-social-hangovers-confessions-of-an-introvert-87b3bad10257 | ['Laurence Paquette'] | 2021-04-25 07:04:10.720000+00:00 | ['Extrovert', 'Social', 'Introvert', 'Work'] |
The worldwide COVID fight means we need to conserve PPE everywhere | Over the last 32 hours, I drove through Southern California, visiting hospitals, urgent care centers, and the homes of health care workers in the Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Glendale, and San Bernardino areas. I visited over a dozen different facilities. As part of the Masked Protectors, a group I started to , I brought them a total of 900 surgical masks and 140 FFP2 (N95-equivalent) respirators, and heard some stories and viewpoints and saw some emergency department triage tents and lobbies. I can’t share everything I learned, and definitely cannot name names, but here are some observations I think I can share.
Overall, things were pretty calm and relaxed. Nurses were working long hours — 12 hour shifts were typical — but were not hurried. I never saw a triage tent with more patients than staff. I never saw a line with more than 3 patients. I almost never even saw a line. At most of the hospitals I visited, the triage tents had a handful of nurses and security guards just hanging around and waiting. The nurses did mention that they had gotten some bursts of patients before, especially last week, but nothing overwhelming. One hospital mentioned they have a few dozen COVID patients, and about twice as many staff taking care of them. One triage nurse said that things seemed quieter now than even a few days before. Right now, it seems we might be beating the virus. Good work, California. I’m proud of you.
Even so, not everything is rosy. The PPE supply shortage is very real. It appears that over the last few weeks, many California hospitals have been burning through PPE at a normal rate (e.g. changing masks after visiting each patient) expecting fresh shipments to come, and those shipments just never came. The PPE supply chain in the USA has been thoroughly disrupted. One hospital had to shut down their surgery wing entirely due to lack of N95 respirators. Many nurses are being forced to improvise their own masks. Some are given none at all. So even though the patient load itself is reasonable, California’s hospitals are struggling because the rest of the world is struggling.
This nurse improvised her own mask, and was volunteering by checking people’s temperatures at an urgent care facility. This was one of two times I was screened for infection before having contact with hospital staff, and the only time my temperature was ever checked. In Asia, temperature controls are everywhere — at subway entrances, grocery stores, and schools — but the USA hasn’t picked up on this idea yet.
Part of the problem seems to be that hospitals and the CDC aren’t talking openly and directly with each other about how to conserve PPE. The CDC has issued guidelines for PPE conservation in terms of “Conventional”, “Contingency”, and “Crisis” capacity conditions, but has not said what our *current* conditions are. As a result, each hospital is making a separate determination for themselves for each type of PPE. A hospital with plenty of surgical masks but no isolation surgical gowns might be forced to use trash bags (yes, this is happening) instead of gowns, or to wash and reuse the same gown for weeks on end while also using a fresh mask when visiting each patient. Another hospital might have plenty of gowns but no surgical masks, and might be asking their staff to use cloth masks or to use the same surgical mask for days or weeks on end while using up 20 gowns per HCW per day. When I told the nurses and managers about the conservation methods that doctors in harder-hit areas are going through — one owner of a private practice in Louisiana asked me for three N95s per doctor/nurse to get them through the next MONTH — they were shocked. And at that point, they began to listen to my advice on mask disinfection and reuse a lot more seriously.
California’s HCWs need to start treating this crisis the same way we treat a drought: with conservation. Use as much water as you really need to, but no more. Don’t leave the tap running. If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down. Keep in mind that everyone on this planet is struggling with the same limited pool of PPE. Conserving PPE doesn’t mean avoiding the use of PPE. On the contrary, it means using each piece of PPE as much and for as long as possible. Every mask that you reuse and don’t discard is a mask saved for someone else.
I think we need standardized national guidelines on PPE conservation. No HCW should be using 10 masks per day as long as any HCW is forced to go without. Everyone should be making the same tradeoffs.
Mask decontamination is a thing. Killing coronaviruses is very easy to do in any household oven or toaster oven. All it takes is 60°C for 60 minutes. (That’s 140°F for those of you unfamiliar with Science units.) This works on surgical masks and N95s alike. It isn’t enough to kill all pathogens, but it kills the one we’re most worried about now, and it kills the ones that are most likely to be airborne and found on masks in the first place. Many hospitals also have other methods available like UV or ozone for full sterilization.
Mask filters do eventually get clogged with particles. Modern masks have filters with an electrostatic charge that can get neutralized with exposure to liquids
As such, I am recommending to all HCWs that for now they reuse a mask until either the mask becomes difficult to breathe in, is exposed to liquids (which neutralize the charge and ruin the filtration efficiency), or until the mask has been soiled or otherwise made unsafe or ineffective. Under these guidelines, N95s can last for a week or longer on average, and surgical masks can last several days.
We all need to conserve masks as if we were in New York. Use them, reuse them, and hand one to your neighbor if they are maskless.
If we all do our part to stretch our supplies, then nobody will have to do their part without supplies.
P.S.: All photos with HCWs were taken with their permission. I forgot to ask permission at most facilities, and many of the others refused permission, so most donations were both selfless and selfieless.
P.P.S.: The Masked Protectors is an organization I started a few weeks ago with the goal of importing masks and other PPE from Asia and China to help with the fight against COVID. We believe that masks are the most effective tool we have in our fight against COVID, and are likely to be about 68% or 74% protective against infection both by the wearer and for bystanders. So far, we’ve delivered a total of 2,198 surgical masks and 459 FFP2 respirators to front-line workers. We have another 5,000 FFP2 respirators being shipped, and are trying to scale up our work as quickly as we can. Currently we’re operating out of my own pocket, but we will soon be asking for financial contributions to help us help others. | https://medium.com/@jtoomim/the-worldwide-covid-fight-means-we-need-to-conserve-ppe-everywhere-4c62d5523322 | ['Jonathan Toomim'] | 2020-04-06 02:08:37.867000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Masks4all', 'Conservation', 'Masks', 'Healthcare'] |
Don’t tell me everything’s peachy | I can no longer remain silent
photo courtesy of Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
The rituals of our daily lives are internalized habitually and unquestioningly. When a long standing relationship of trust is undone, a microaggression is acknowledged causing indignation and anger to grow. If this transgression goes beyond the single occasion and affects many, the impacted must band together and stand up to forces mightier than themselves. Expressed in a unified voice, collective action carries torrential power.
The time for silent acquiescence is over. The boiling frog of incremental degradation of our tastes and freedoms is at hand. The line in the sand has been drawn. I’m calling out for yogurt justice.
I can no longer accept that peach yogurt gets thrown into my yogurt family pack. The way it just gets sneakily added into multipacks as if we didn’t notice just rots my socks. Big Dairy knows very well that no one buys peach yogurt unless they’re forced.
Like an insidious omnibus bill hiding pork barrel spending, peach yogurt eats away at our consumer sovereignty like a rust proofing option at a car dealership or the cable package with more channels than your TV has digits.
photo courtesy of JP Valery on Unsplash
And no Mr. Big Dairy and Mr. Big Peach , I do not feel all warm and fuzzy inside when you sneak this interloper into my diet. It is time to orphan this unwanted hand me down.
On occasion, I have tolerated your unannounced and surreptitious placement of a cherry yogurt unit into my family pack in its well disguised but inauspicious packaging.
image generated at imgflip.com
And yes, as an occasional palate cleanser, I accept cherry as the mouthwash of yogurt flavours even though I recoil upon its hitting my taste buds like an infant trying their first dill pickle. The stats don’t lie, we are being duped, if not conditioned, to accept this sensory invasion. Surely, this practice qualifies as dumping under some international trade deal.
I can’t wait for cannabis yogurt. But no amount of THC will fool me into blithely accepting further assault on my taste buds at the hands of forced peach yogurt consumption.
We will not speak of the deluded caffeine addict taking their fix in coffee flavored yogurt so as to trick themselves into thinking this doesn’t count as coffee consumption. Their hyperactive flinching and twitching tell all.
photo by author
Now that Big Yogurt has played on my food wastage guilt and sunken costs economic thinking, a day of reckoning is at hand. You might as well pump a dose of lead into my unleaded gasoline as soil my family yogurt pack with peach.
I will no longer have my goodwill played as though a lost puppy was abandoned on my doorstep. That’s why I hope you’ll join the growing movement called Occupy Big Dairy. We will take on the grocers, dairy producers and big box stores as a people united against yogurt intimidation and oppression. The movement is upon us. No Justice, No Peach. | https://medium.com/the-haven/dont-tell-me-everything-s-peachy-f2fd748cb70c | ['Stuart Grant'] | 2020-12-12 11:17:12.076000+00:00 | ['Yogurt', 'Consumer Activism', 'Protest', 'Satire', 'Nutrition'] |
Let’s remember when the Moore Theatre opened, on this day in 1907 (December 28) | A very necessary Happy Birthday is due to one of Seattle’s most long-running theaters. It opened 112 years ago today and it remains an excellent place to see a show.
From Eric L. Flom of HistoryLink:
On December 28, 1907, an overflow crowd of nearly 3,000 jams into Seattle’s new Moore Theatre at 2nd Avenue and Virginia Street for opening night. The fashionable group includes such honored guests as Washington State Governor Albert Mead (1861–1913), Seattle Mayor William Hickman Moore (1861–1946), their wives, and much of Seattle’s social elite. The venue, named after its developer, James A. Moore (1861–1929), opens with weeklong production of The Alaskan, a Klondike-themed operetta with more than a few Seattle connections.
Although ground had been broken for the house almost five months previous, preparations for opening night were a somewhat frenzied affair, continuing up to the last possible moment. Just a week before the Moore was to make its public debut, much of the house — including the furnishings, carpets, tapestries, and seats — had yet to be installed. Men worked frantically to ready the venue; on opening night those theatergoers arriving early caught a few of the workers in the midst of their last-second efforts. “Those who arrived before the necessity of a hurried occupancy of seats, found the finishing touches being placed upon the work of cleaning up,” went one account.
Opening night tickets were hard to come by — the boxes, lower floor, and balcony sold out well in advance of the first performance. “The gallery is certain to be packed,” remarked the Seattle Star of the scramble for tickets, “many of those who were unable to secure seats on the lower floors deciding that they would rather see The Alaskan … from the topmost row than to miss being present [on opening night] entirely.” Even so, theater management found extra room for the occasion, allowing a throng of “standing-room-onlies” to pack the auditorium like sardines, which boosted the house’s capacity from 2,400 to nearly 3,000 for the evening.
The opening was easily the social event of the season, with reporters noting that it had “seldom, if ever been duplicated in Seattle,” even surpassing a spectacular concert by Madame Calve at the Grand Opera House only a few weeks previous. (Nor did the society folk end their evening after the curtain had rung down on the play — several prominent “supper parties” were held immediately after the show let out. Local theatrical manager John Cort [1861–1929], who abandoned the Grand Opera House to make the Moore his flagship Seattle theater, held a lavish celebration at the Savoy Hotel, dining with Governor Mead and Mayor Moore, among selected guests.) | https://medium.com/journal-of-precipitation/lets-remember-when-the-moore-theatre-opened-on-this-day-in-1907-december-28-458d02958cd8 | ['Chris Burlingame'] | 2019-12-28 18:17:41.737000+00:00 | ['Seattle', 'Moore Theatre', 'On This Day', 'Seattle Theatre Group'] |
Bandwidth Of The Spiritual – My Spiritual Force! Healing To Empowerment! | Bandwidth Of The Spiritual – My Spiritual Force! Healing To Empowerment!
Philosophy and the Physics of our Physical Selves take us on our glimpse into psychic healing and the understanding of our physical state, spiritual potential and Enlightenment.
The Spiritual Bandwidth
Emotional pain that manifests into physical pain and anxiety can surely show itself in many and now days Spiritual Healing just may be more accepted as a legitimate source of healing. Spiritual healing is the method of coming back to our full potential of Unlimited Energy, Health and Awareness by using the spiritual tools and powers that are in and around us.
All Energy is in a way also a form of ‘Spiritual Bandwidth’, whether primarily or secondarily. Broadly speaking, as one recovers from ailment, one is essentially recovering spiritually through ‘psychic energy’ whether they are aware of this or not. Even while conventional medicines are at work, Spiritual Healing or re-focusing activities are at play inside the scheme of the spiritual greater powers. However, these natural psychic healing abilities sometimes need encouragement, or reminders.
Spiritual Connectedness
These encouragements or reminders come in many forms. The true wonders of modern science and medicine should never be forsaken as the best true medicines and best true psychic healing methods can and should always be encouraged (together) for total openness to these wondrous ‘Healing Frequencies’ as one builds on the other. Whether one method or the other is administered first is inconsequential, we must never discount the level of healing qualities in either or both. For we are of this earth, and this earth is the provider of the multitude of minerals, elements and spiritual connectedness we can all benefit from with complete openness.
Spiritual Healing can work purely on its own, with or for others, or in harmony with conventional medicine. Spiritual Energies act within natural boundaries, these boundaries can all be better understood with learning and patience. Spiritual Energy has no bias as to religion, types of religion, or no religion at all. There is a spiritual power that is the centre of all things, this power governs all that is seen, unseen, material or immaterial. Every soul, spirit, environment, collective belief system is unique, and this uniqueness requires understanding and appreciation for the true heights of spiritual healing and enlightenment to occur.
Our Fields Of Force
Environment of the open minded raises the chances of success exponentially, whereas any negative thoughts or fears only hinder the process. We are surrounded by what is believed to be force, this force has no boundaries and freely moves through us. Gravity, electricity, television, radio, even wi-fi flows around and through us. Some are natural phenomenons and some are man-made tools of modernity, and nevertheless they all operate and exist.
This knowledge alone should open up possibilities of belief and knowledge one step further in all of us in the scope of many more invisible fields of force. These other fields being of the psychic/spiritual kind. Forces that we are, and may well be forever unaware of the true potential applications, constantly in direct contact with, aware or unaware. This force is limitless, does not play favourites and does not want anything in return. For one reason or another, connectedness from our true selves and from this force can easily be detached, manifesting in ‘ailments of warning’. These ailments of warning, when not attended to and or being amongst the many unnatural pollutants that permeate our lives, surely can at times lead to un-ease of the body. Our spiritual force needs attuning-to perhaps more importantly now than ever before.
The Empathic Bandwidth
Rest, sleep, meditation, fasting, detoxing are just a handful of different things that one does naturally, or even forces oneself to do to recharge or realign physically and spiritually. It is quite conceivable that a person who is under considerable ailment is unable to recognise the need for spiritual re-connectedness. This void of self acknowledgement can and does lead to lack of awareness, inevitably as time goes on, to more ailments. This scenario is and can be treated with opportunity by spiritual healers to attune themselves to reading other people’s forces ‘empathically’. Stepping in and stepping up to the situation at hand, with full knowledge and acceptance of the ailed, to share with them their wisdom and abilities to administer re-direction of the ‘Spiritual Bandwidth.’
This sharing and healing action can only take place if the psychic/spiritual activator is well attuned, and this happens with basic practice and persistence. Sharing with the ailed the force from this field of spiritual power and energy, directing to the willing ‘natural psychic energy’. This energy force must be harnessed well for this to be readily projected onto the recipient – or us. We build the empathy and henceforth we operate with true connectedness, this is established through acceptance of these spiritual frequencies. This phenomenon can be likened to the inducing relaxing state of awareness through fine music, visual art or even the sound of rain, wind or waves. The spiritual empathy flows back and forth. Having physical contact of a specified kind can aid in the directness of the flow as this works with our nervous systems, promoting faster and more direct flow to the recipient.
Boundaries Of Space And Time Do Not Exist
On the other hand it is not unusual for healing to take place when there is distance between the healer and the recipient, as this spiritual field of force knows no physical (space/time) boundaries. These physical boundaries quite often only act as a hinderance to those who see these boundaries as such. Healer and recipients must always try to work in conjunction with the parameters they already are comfortable believing and thenceforth, actualising miraculous results. The least amount of opposition the spiritual healing field is exposed to the better, hence the power of hand contact where barriers are broken down and positive belief systems are strengthened. The phenomenon of spiritual/mental power from healer to recipient has been scientifically observed with evidence.
The ailments of the physical is believed by many true spiritualists to be brought upon by the disturbing emotions of anger, detachment and a closed mind. These true spiritualists believe that if one can thoroughly liberate oneself from such poisonous emotions, one can truly be ‘free of all diseases’. The importance of ‘The Psychic Energy Bandwidth’ hopefully becomes more accepted after the intriguing wisdom and knowledge freely given, and the reader has opened themselves up to these valid techniques that have been shared and gained upon for many years and many hundreds of wise writings also shared.
Remove The Barriers
Gone are the days when Psychic Energy can only be practiced by those in high up positions such as spiritual organisations, and primarily from the leaders of such spiritualist movements. Psychic healing has a very diverse and mixed interpretation from many far and wide. These writings are freely aimed at those who wish to ‘Empower’ themselves with a fine equilibrium of mind, body and spirit. The conveying of Empowerment energy given by a psychic healer in order for the afflicted to recover from such afflictions that can hold one back from his or her full physical, mental or spiritual potential.
Lucid Being | https://medium.com/@imagetomedia/bandwidth-of-the-spiritual-my-spiritual-force-healing-to-empowerment-b2e087f4fc4b | ['Lucid Being'] | 2019-01-18 21:01:49.246000+00:00 | ['Lighting', 'Stories', 'Spirituality', 'Reading', 'Blog'] |
The 5 Tips to Tell Better Stories with Data | Data visualization — and communicating with data in general — sits at the intersection of science and art. There is certainly some science to it: best practices and guidelines to follow. But there is also an artistic component. This is one of the reasons this area is so much fun. It is inherently diverse. Different people will approach things in varying ways and come up with distinct solutions to the same data visualization challenge. Recently, I finished reading Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic’s Storytelling with Data — a superbly written, masterful display of rare art in the business world. This book is a straightforward, accessible guide that will help anyone who communicates with data connect more effectively with their audience. Below are the top 5 tips she shared in the last chapter that I found to be a great recap of the book.
Tip #1 — Learn your tools well
Try not to let your tools be a limiting factor when it comes to communicating effectively with data. Pick one and get to know it as best with the basics may be helpful. You don’t need fancy tools in order to visualize data well. There are a plethora of tools out there. The following is a very quick rundown of some of the popular ones currently used for creating data visualizations:
Google spreadsheets are free, online, and sharable, allowing multiple people to edit.
are free, online, and sharable, allowing multiple people to edit. Tableau is a popular out-of-the-box data visualization solution that can be great for exploratory analysis because it allows you to quickly create multiple views and nice-looking graphs form your data. It can be leveraged for the explanatory via the Story Points feature. It is expensive, though a free Tableau Public option is available if uploading your data to a public server isn’t an issue.
is a popular out-of-the-box data visualization solution that can be great for exploratory analysis because it allows you to quickly create multiple views and nice-looking graphs form your data. It can be leveraged for the explanatory via the Story Points feature. It is expensive, though a free Tableau Public option is available if uploading your data to a public server isn’t an issue. Programming languages — like R, D3, and Python — have a steeper learning curve but allow for greater flexibility, since you can control the specific elements of the graphs you create and make those specifications repeatable through code.
and — have a steeper learning curve but allow for greater flexibility, since you can control the specific elements of the graphs you create and make those specifications repeatable through code. Some people use Adobe Illustrator, either one or together with graphs created in an application like Excel or via a programming language, for easier manipulation of graph elements and a professional look and feel.
Tip #2 — Iterate and seek feedback
It takes iterating to get from early ideas to a final solution. When the best course for visualizing a certain data is unclear, start with a blank piece of paper. This enables you to brainstorm without the constraints of your tools or what you know how to do in your tools. Sketch out potential views to see them side-by-side and determine what will work best for getting your message across to your audience.
At any point, if the best path is unclear, seek feedback. The fresh set of eyes that a friend or colleague can bring to the data visualization endeavor is invaluable. Show someone else your visual and have them talk you through their thought process: what they pay attention to, what observations they make, what questions they have, and any ideas they may have for better getting your point across. These insights will let you know if the visual you’ve created is on the mark or, in the case when it isn’t, give you an idea of where to make changes and focus continued iteration.
When it comes to iterating, there is one thing you need perhaps more than anything else in order to be successful: time.
Tip #3 — Devote time to storytelling with data
It takes time to build a robust understanding of the context, time to understand what motivates the audience, time to craft the 3-minute story and form the Big Idea. It takes time to look at the data in different ways and determine how to best show it. It takes time to declutter and draw attention and iterate and seek feedback and iterate some more to create an effective visual. It takes time to pull it all together into a story and form a cohesive and captivating narrative.
It takes even more time to do well the most important step: communicating your work, as that is the only part of the entire process that your audience actually sees. Expect it to take longer than you think to allow sufficient time to iterate and get it right.
Tip #4 — Seek inspiration through good examples
Imitation really is the best form of flattery. If you see a data visualization or example of storytelling with data that you like, consider how you might adapt the approach of your own use. Pause to reflect on what makes it effective. Make a copy of it and create a visual library that you can add to over time and refer to for inspiration. Emulate the good examples and approaches that you see.
Said more provocatively — imitation is a good thing. We learn by emulating experts. That’s why you see people with their sketchpads and easels at art museums — they are interpreting great works. There are a number of great blogs and resources on the topic of data visualization and communicating with data that contain many good examples. I personally would suggest you start with the Data Visualization Society.
Tip #5 — Have fun and find your style
When most people think about data, one of the furthest things from their mind is creativity. But within data visualization, there is absolutely space for creativity to play a role. Data can be made to be breathtakingly beautiful. Don’t be afraid to try new approaches and play a little. You’ll continue to learn what works and what doesn’t over time.
To the extent that it makes sense given the task at hand, don’t be afraid to let your own style develop and creativity comes through when you communicate with data. Company brand can also play a role in developing a data visualization style; consider your company’s brand and whether there are opportunities to fold that into how you visualize and communicate with data. Just make sure that your approach and stylistic elements are making the information easier — not more difficult — for your audience to consume.
The book is written for anyone who needs to communicate something to someone using data. This includes: analysts sharing the results of their work, students visualizing thesis data, managers needing to communicate in a data-driven way, philanthropists proving their impact, and leaders informing their board. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to improve their ability to communicate effectively with data. This is an intimidating space for many, but it does not need to be. | https://medium.com/constraint-drives-creativity/the-5-tips-to-tell-better-stories-with-data-e486830f51d6 | ['James Le'] | 2019-07-07 04:46:44.267000+00:00 | ['Storytelling', 'Data Stories', 'Creativity', 'Data Visualization', 'Visualization'] |
Viral spread Americans paying the price for Thanksgivin | With some Americans now paying the price for what they did over Thanksgiving and falling sick with COVID-19, health officials are warning people — begging them, even — not to make the same mistake during the Christmas and New Year’s season.
“It’s a surge above the existing surge,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. “Quite honestly, it’s a warning sign for all of us.”
Across the country, contact tracers and emergency room doctors are hearing repeatedly from new coronavirus patients that they socialized over Thanksgiving with people outside their households, despite emphatic public-health warnings to stay home and keep their distance from others.
The virus was raging across the nation even before Thanksgiving but was showing some signs of flattening out. It has picked up steam since, with new cases per day regularly climbing well over 200,000.
The dire outlook comes even as the U.S. stands on the brink of a major vaccination campaign against COVID-19, with the Food and Drug Administration expected to give the final go-ahead any day now to use Pfizer’s formula against the scourge that has killed over 290,000 Americans and infected more than 15.6 million.
Deaths in the U.S. have climbed to almost 2,260 per day on average, about equal to the peak seen in mid-April, when the New York City area was under siege. New cases are running at about 195,000 a day, based on a two-week rolling average, a 16% increase from the day before Thanksgiving, according to an Associated Press analysis.
In Washington state, contact tracers counted at least 336 people testing positive who said they attended gatherings or traveled during the Thanksgiving weekend. More are expected.
The virus could still be incubating in someone who was exposed while traveling home the Sunday after Thanksgiving; the end of that two-week incubation period is this Sunday.
Zana Cooper, a 60-year-old cancer survivor in Murrieta, California, tested positive for COVID-19 after attending a Thanksgiving dinner with her son’s girlfriend’s family. At the dinner, the girlfriend’s father, who had recently traveled to Florida, wasn’t feeling well and went to bed early.
Cooper learned the following Sunday that he tested positive.
“My first reaction was the f-word. I was so mad,” she said. “I was upset. I was angry. I was like, ‘How dare you take my life in your hands?’”
She has had fever and headaches, a runny nose and bloodshot eyes, and in recent days it has become more difficult to breathe and she has been using an inhaler. She said she believes she brought the virus home to her daughter and two grandchildren, who live with her and are now ill with what a doctor diagnosed as COVID-19.
In Philadelphia, a woman in her 20s gathered with 10 relatives on Thanksgiving, though she didn’t feel well the day before. She later tested positive for COVID-19. Her family started developing symptoms, and seven members tested positive, said Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley.
The next round of festivities could yield even more cases. Wall-to-wall holidays started this week. Hanukkah began Thursday evening and ends Dec. 18, followed by Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year’s Eve.
“This is not the time to invite the neighbors over for dinner. This is not the time to start having parties,” said Arizona State University researcher Dr. Joshua LaBaer.
In parts of New York state, contact tracers are regularly hearing from the newly infected that they attended Thanksgiving festivities, said Steuben County Public Health Director Darlene Smith. Still unknown is how many they will infect and how many eventually will need a bed in intensive care, she said.
“It’s the domino effect,” Smith said.
Harry and Ashley Neidig, of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, tested positive for COVID-19 last week. They said they believe they contracted it from someone at their jobs as security officers but didn’t know of their possible exposure before they celebrated Thanksgiving with both sides of the family.
On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Ashley Neidig, 25, noticed she couldn’t smell a menthol-scented body scrub. After the couple got tested, they contacted their families to warn them. Some were awaiting test results, and so far no one else has had any symptoms, said Harry Neidig, 24.
“We feel bad because … we definitely should’ve put a heavier weight into our decision to go,” he said. “We should have told our family, ‘Hey, given the nature of our job, we can’t quarantine like other people in an office job.’”
He added: “You might want to take another look before you go somewhere for Christmas.”
The surge around the country has swamped hospitals and left nurses and other health care workers exhausted and demoralized.
“Compassion fatigue is the best word for what we’re experiencing,” said Kiersten Henry, an ICU nurse practitioner at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney, Maryland. “I feel we’ve already run a marathon, and this is our second one. Even people who are upbeat are feeling run down at this point.”
While some hospitals are scrambling to find beds and convert storage rooms and other places for use in treating patients, they are also dealing with dire staff shortages.
“We know how to make new beds,” said Dr. Lew Kaplan, a critical care surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. “We don’t know how to make new staff.”
___
AP data journalist Nicky Forster in New York and Associated Press writer Marion Renault in Rochester, Minn., contributed to this report.
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! | https://medium.com/@oahmed-khedr-3lie/viral-spread-americans-paying-the-price-for-thanksgivin-9e66efbb3ee5 | ['Oah Med Khe Dr Lie'] | 2020-12-11 18:12:15.116000+00:00 | ['Thanksgiving', 'Health', 'Covid 19', 'Technology', 'Coronavirus'] |
One Reason NOT to Go to Church | I know, I know, shouldn’t I be encouraging people to go to church, not send them away? To be clear, I can give you a million reasons to go to church. My intentions of this post is to to stress to people that there are wrong reasons to go to church too.
If you yearn for God’s love and to have a genuine, Christian community to be there for you through all aspects of life, by all means go. But there is one reason why I went to church when I was younger and it was the WRONG one.
On page 14 of my book I talk about one of the first times of going to church. I was a little nervous and unsure of what I was walking in to, but the reason I went was to make my girlfriend happy and that’s what kept me going back for months…. I was trying to make SOMEONE ELSE happy. Not me, not God.
DO NOT go to church to make someone happy.
There are soooooo may other reasons to go and can bring a it can bring a tremendous amount of joy to one’s life. Going for that reason takes away from the true value of it, and could ultimately lead you into an un-biblical church like I experienced.
As a Christian we are to love one another. To love is to be patient, kind, never giving up, the list keeps going. So it’s fair to say that to love someone is to bring HAPPINESS to another’s life, and we should strive to do that. But, the whole point of going to church is to not make someone happy, it’s to make YOU happy.
If we are to try to make anyone happy and seek their approval it’s God. I have some good news though… He’s already happy with you! He already approves of you! You’re extremely valuable to Him and he has proved it by sending His son to die for YOU. | https://medium.com/stumbling-forward-to-be-a-better-person/one-reason-not-to-go-to-church-c1559c5d53e1 | ['Jesse Walters'] | 2017-02-06 15:59:06.349000+00:00 | ['Religious Freedom', 'Happiness', 'Christianity', 'Religion', 'Church'] |
Tyrion | Eyes of gold
To me behold
Your decisive gaze
Upon me,
Your wayward glance
Like in a trance
Follows mine eye
Forward,
A sprig of hair
And whiskers there
Dance upon nose
In motion,
All shades of brown
Speckled ‘round
A face lit with
Emotion. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/tyrion-b841d1654531 | ['Sarah E Sturgis'] | 2019-11-28 17:52:18.738000+00:00 | ['Perspective', 'Cats', 'Beauty', 'Poetry', 'Writing'] |
Why You Will Never Understand Blockchains | Spend any time researching blockchains, and you’ll be inundated with a host of benefits with the potential to impact nearly every aspect of our lives. Numerous articles highlight the technology’s ability to replace existing financial systems, revolutionize the delivery of content, tokenize physical assets, establish the provenance of digital assets, etc… All told, you’d think that this phenomenon has the potential to create billions (if not trillions) of economic value.
That’s where you’d be wrong.
While the applications being discussed today are compelling, I’d argue that they’ll amount to little more than a rounding error by the end of the century. Factoring in recent and projected advances in AI, IoT and Big Data, the potential impact of blockchains won’t be measured in billions or trillions, but in the QUADRILLIONS.
Skeptical that this nascent technology could generate that much value? You should be. Because blockchains weren’t designed for your tiny human brain — they were designed for the machines…
The Dawn of the “Intelligent Machine” Economy
In his book The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future, former AOL chief Steve Case argues that the impact of digital technology on our economy has been relatively mild to date. While the internet has revolutionized how we shop, communicate and consume media, it’s not even close to reaching its full potential.
Over the next 10 to 20 years, we will likely see advances in IoT, AI and Big Data drive a new industrial revolution that permeates all sectors of our economy (and society). Some potential examples include:
Agriculture: “Smart farms” will use remote sensors to monitor microclimates and detect irregular conditions, automated systems will synchronize water and fertilizer usage and robots will plant, nurture and harvest crops
Logistics and Transportation: Fleets of autonomous vehicles will integrate with “smart” warehouses, track inventory with remote sensors and employ telematics to optimize routes and coordinate delivery times
Healthcare: AI doctors will become commonplace, remotely monitoring a 24/7 stream of patient data gathered from wearables, instantly referencing this against a global reserve of medical knowledge and providing early warnings and highly-accurate diagnoses
Energy: Utilities will relinquish control of the grid, using a combination of remote sensors and machine learning to automate their generation portfolios, coordinate distribution and remotely monitor and control energy consumption over a network of “smart homes” and buildings
Unlike previous industrial revolutions, the “Intelligent Machine Economy” will largely be self-governing, consisting of hundreds of billions of connected devices (e.g. “machines”) using artificial intelligence to automate nearly every aspect of our lives.
Running low on beer? No problem, your smart refrigerator will sense that and send a drone to pick up a six pack.
Infinite Complexity
While this is a promising vision, it’s also somewhat concerning.
Simple logic tells us that the more actors we have in an economic system, the more complex that system becomes. But many forget that this complexity grows at an exponential rate.
Robert Metcalfe illustrated this brilliantly with his eponymous law, which states that the number of potential relationships in a system is proportional to the square of the number of users of that system.
To put it in simpler terms — two telephones can make 1 connection, five can make 10 connections and twelve can make 66 connections.
Our world right now consists of 7 billion people — that’s 25 quintillion possible economic relationships with each connection representing the potential for multiple transactions.
That’s a big number, to be sure, but what happens if we imagine a world where hundreds of billions of additional economic actors are instantly added to the mix? Machines that can use some form of artificial intelligence to fashion their own relationships and conduct autonomous transactions…
As you might have guessed, things get complicated very fast. If research predicting over 100 billion connected devices using some form of machine learning by 2030 is correct, then we’re going to live in a world with 5 sextillion connections. If you believe Softbank’s estimate of 1 trillion connected devices, that number approaches a septillion.
While these numbers are hard to grasp because of their sheer size, the key takeaway here is that the impending increase in the number of commercial actors has the potential to make the global economic system up to 2,000,000% more complex than what we experience today.
Graphic: Visualizing a Septillion with the help of Sour Patch Kids
So by 2030, we have the potential live in a world of nearly infinite complexity — billions to trillions of connected devices, consisting of sextillions to septillions of connections executing an untold number of transactions, all without potential human oversight.
Scary? It should be. It’s a concerning scenario that raises many questions including:
1. Can the existing client-server or cloud architectures handle that increase in volume?
2. Will centralized ecosystems, like the ones we have today, be able to maintain security? Or will the single point of failure serve as a giant “honeypot” for hackers?
3. Can we trust the autonomous actors in this economy? More importantly, can they trust each other?
4. Do we trust centralized entities (such as FAANGS) to administrate this system and prudently exercise what could become almost unlimited power?
I think that many would argue that the answer to one or all of these questions is a resounding “no”.
Fortunately, there’s an elegant solution to these problems, one that (perhaps unwittingly) comes from Satoshi.
Blockchains as the Neurons of the Global Brain
As a quick reminder, blockchains are so groundbreaking because they are the first technology to solve the Byzantine General’s Problem.
Prior to the creation of the genesis block, people had no way to organize large groups of strangers over vast distances without employing centralized authorities (e.g. governments, banks, churches) to establish trust and enforce rules.
The release of Bitcoin in 2009 created a new paradigm, eliminating the need for middlemen and creating the opportunity — for the first time in human history — to organize in a decentralized manner.
The importance of decentralized networks can’t be overstated, as they will serve as the foundation that creates scalability, security and trust in the Intelligent Machine economy.
Advantage #1: Scalability
As mentioned previously, the emergence of IoT could increase the complexity of our economy by several orders of magnitude, creating a situation where an incomprehensible volume of transactions need to be orchestrated, monitored and managed.
The systems we use today may find it difficult to handle this unprecedented increase in traffic as centralization itself creates a “bottleneck” in the network. Because client-server architectures tend to scale linearly — in other words, a given increase in traffic requires a similar increase in capacity on the server side — it is unlikely that they will be able to keep pace with the expected increase in demand without requiring massive investments in infrastructure (e.g. a LOT of new server farms in the desert).
Decentralized, peer-to-peer networks, on the other hand, can scale exponentially because each device can act as both a client and as a server and simultaneously initiate and fulfill requests from the other devices. This allows them to handle substantial amounts of traffic without sacrificing efficiency or requiring large investments of capital.
Graphic: File diffusion times increase dramatically as client-server models scale, but remain relatively consistent with peer-to-peer models
While it may seem ironic to list “scalability” as a benefit of blockchains given the current struggles today, the fact that they enable the creation of true peer-to-peer networks — solving the issues of trust, security and misaligned incentives that have plagued such systems in the past — is a critical feature and one that will likely help create a robust framework for scaling the highly complex ecosystems of tomorrow’s economy.
Advantage #2: Security
The centralized architecture that causes the scalability issues listed above also creates massive security risks by being reliant on a central point of failure — serving as a “honeypot” where nefarious actors (human or machine) can disable the whole network with a coordinated attack on one target.
Decentralized networks, on the other hand, are not reliant on a single central server to handle all processes. They mitigate this risk by employing millions of individual nodes. While a malicious actor can attack one, dozens or even hundreds of nodes, it’s unlikely that they will be able to shut down the majority of them.
Perhaps more importantly, a decentralized economy can serve as a hedge against something much scarier than hackers or malicious AI — control of the “global brain” by a cabal of global elites.
Because legacy systems require centralized authorities for trust, increases in usage tend to create “winner-take-all” markets that breed monopolies. Indeed, over the past decade we have seen the rise of FAANGS, a cabal that currently dominates over 70% of internet traffic, is expected to control 90% of the cloud and effectively has the power to control prices, censor content and shape culture.
Graphic: Referral source of traffic by top web publishers
Under the current paradigm, exponential increases in traffic would only serve to deepen this moat, creating the potential for an Orwellian future threatening our economic, political and cultural freedoms.
But once again, the proper use of blockchain technology eliminates the need for these gatekeepers, “defangs” FAANGS (or whatever succeeds them), democratizes the ecosystem and ultimately ensures security in an autonomous marketplace.
Advantage #3: Trust
Finally, trust will be paramount in the creation of the Intelligent Machine economy. A fully-automated ecosystem that exists with limited human oversight is a scary proposition that breeds a host of questions, including:
How do we validate that the nodes and IoT devices are real?
Will devices at the “edge” be more vulnerable to hacking?
Can we verify that the data hasn’t been manipulated?
How do we protect against malicious AI?
Do we trust machine intelligence to behave to the best interest of society?
How can we ensure that centralized entities don’t co-opt AI for their own purposes?
Again, two inherent properties of blockchains — trust through consensus and immutability — can ensure data integrity, audit the system’s thinking processes, help the nodes validate each other and facilitate machine-to-machine interaction, allowing autonomous participants to share information and synchronize decisions.
The $1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Machine
So what’s the takeaway here? How big can a blockchain-driven economy get?
Unfortunately, I don’t think I can answer that any more than a caveman could’ve predicted the effects of the industrial revolution.
But here are a few things to consider:
1/ Technological advancements throughout history have ignited exponential periods of global GDP growth, each seemingly larger than the last. Notable examples are:
The development of machine tooling and steam power in the 18th and 19th centuries (~300% growth)
The inventions of the telephone, light bulb, phonograph and the internal combustion engine around the turn of the 20th century (~800% growth)
The introduction of the personal computer, internet and information technology at the latter half of the 20th century (~1,400% growth)
2/ Starting from Year 0, it took roughly 1,500 years for World GDP to double. Now it doubles every twenty years.
3/ Applying Metcalfe’s law, although perhaps crude and inaccurate, to 100 billion new economic actors yields a global GDP of almost 18 quadrillion, (a 20,000% increase over today)
So is it ridiculous to assume that the refinement of artificial intelligence, the internet of things and blockchains could result in an expansion that transcends anything we’ve previously seen?
Perhaps, but I would’ve also probably been laughed at for showing this chart in the late 1800s:
Graphic: Inflation-adjusted world GDP over a 2,000-year period — each “industrial revolution” has ignited exponential growth.
While I’m not smart enough to even begin to warrant a guess on the exact value of a tokenized economy, I am humble enough to acknowledge that it may be much, much, much bigger than we can imagine.
After all, an “Intelligent Machine” economy has the potential to upend thousands of years of human history and drive value in ways we can’t even imagine.
And blockchains will be the “glue” that holds that economy together. | https://mtorygreen.medium.com/why-you-will-never-understand-blockchains-8e34bb10996e | ['Tory Green'] | 2019-05-28 17:56:19.745000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Venture Capital', 'Blockchain', 'Internet of Things', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
Tu… Tuk… | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/t%C3%BCrkiye/tu-tuk-7ed2b6b6460e | ['Hasan Telli'] | 2020-12-21 17:03:53.457000+00:00 | ['Türkçe'] |
Catalyst 101 — Accelerated PyTorch | Catalyst is rigorously tested and supports extra subpackages for Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing.
In addition, Catalyst.Team provides several production-ready pipelines,
catalyst-team/classification — comprehensive classification pipeline
catalyst-team/segmentation — binary and semantic segmentation pipeline
catalyst-team/detection — anchor-free detection pipeline
catalyst-team/video — video classification pipeline
catalyst-team/bert — DistilBERT pipeline for token classification tasks (archived version, updated release soon)
And extra packages for convenient Deep Learning R&D,
Getting started
But let’s make it simple, how could you start with Catalyst and join our Community? To begin with, let’s walk through MNIST classifier tutorial and compare PyTorch and Catalyst code side-by-side. While Catalyst supports arbitrarily complicated multi-stage deep learning pipelines, it’s still better to start with the basics.
Typical DL workflow
Each deep learning project typically consists of several main components:
the data
the model(s)
the optimizer(s)
and the loss(es)
The data
For this tutorial we’re using MNIST.
MNIST
Long story short, both Pytorch and Catalyst have the very same 4 steps for data preparation:
Download images Split them into train and validation datasets Add extra image transforms for splits (these are highly subjective) Wrap each dataset split into a DataLoader
Thanks to PyTorch team, 1–3 stages are already implemented for us:
At this step we have no differences between PyTorch and Catalyst code.
The model
Let’s design a 3-layer fully-connected neural network that takes as input an image that is 28x28 and outputs a logits distribution over 10 possible labels.
This model defines the computational graph to take as input an MNIST image and converts it to a logits distribution over 10 classes for digits 0–9.
Same here, we have no additional abstractions or custom modules, pure PyTorch code.
Btw, Catalyst also provides a wide variety of contrib models, for examples,
This way you can get the same model, but it’s a bit more extendable due to hiddens parameter.
The optimizer(s)
Now we choose how we’re going to do the optimization. For now, let’s use Adam as it is a good default in most DL projects.
Quite simple, isn’t it? It is as simple and powerful as PyTorch. Moreover, Catalyst provides a large variety of contrib Optimizers and easily handles multi-optimizer case, for example, for GANs experiments.
Catalyst works on top of PyTorch API and provides large number of extensions and user-friendly Experiment API to deliver “catalyzed” version of PyTorch. This ways you can boost your DL progress onto new level!
The loss(es)
Let’s use typical cross-entropy loss for our multi-class classification problem.
Again… the same code and full power of Catalyst contrib modules!
Training loop
And here we have all main components of our Experiment:
The dataset (Mnist) The model (3-layers NN) The optimizer The loss (criterion)
Now, let’s check how typical train loop looks like,
Deep Learning generalized training loop
Long story short, usually we
Go through our experiment stages (pretraining, training, finetuning)
Iterate for many epochs
Divide datasets in each iterated epoch into small samples of data — batches
Perform model forward pass
Compute the loss
Perform a backward pass to calculate all the gradients
Apply them to the model
And here we come to the Catalyst advantages. In PyTorch, you have to write the for loops yourself which means you have to remember to call the correct things in the right order — thinking more about engineering stuff, rather than your hypothesis testing.
Even if your model is simple, everything becomes complicated once you start doing more advanced things like multi-GPU or distributed training, gradient clipping, half-precision usage, early stopping, model checkpointing, etc…
And here comes the power of Catalyst. It abstracts the boilerplate and leaves main parts to you. You get a training loop with metrics, model checkpointing, advanced logging and distributed training support without the boilerplate. The same PyTorch code but much more readable and fully reproducible (another Catalyst feature).
Training Loop with PyTorch
The full MNIST example written in PyTorch is as follows:
Training Loop with Catalyst
The full MNIST example with Catalyst is exactly the same, but:
The training/validation loop code has been abstracted by the Runner
You have specified key point for both training and inference parts
You get automatic model validation and checkpointing
You get easy access to PyTorch tracing, distributed and half-precision training
Finally, you can focus only on key parts of your research
Catalyst extras
With Catalyst.dl and Catalyst.contrib the training loop can be simplified. You get access to
a variety of predefined metrics
a full-featured Callback mechanism
a bunch of Catalyst Loggers (Alchemy, Neptune, Tensorboard, Wandb)
a large number of contrib modules, supported by Catalyst Community
Deep Learning best practices, like `load_best_on_end` feature
Conclusion
Catalyst is pure PyTorch framework without any custom modules.
With Catalyst you get the same PyTorch pipelines but in much more readable and fully reproducible way.
Catalyst is easily extendable with Runner and Callback abstractions.
and abstractions. You focus on key parts of your deep learning R&D.
So, what are you waiting for?
Quick Start
In future tutorial series we will discuss more Catalyst-based examples, best practices and pipelines. Stay tuned!
More than a framework — Ecosystem | https://medium.com/pytorch/catalyst-101-accelerated-pytorch-bd766a556d92 | ['Sergey Kolesnikov'] | 2020-06-09 07:36:46.193000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning', 'Pytorch', 'Tutorial'] |
Dashboards, a data scientist best friend | Data science consulting is a hard business. The first few weeks and months are a mix of sales and marketing work. Many times, a thrilled customer can just disappear when they discover the costs, or for other different reasons that are not even related to us. So what makes a data science project kickoff well and succeed?
Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash
Well, many things, of course, but one crucial part is communication and stakeholders’ engagement.
Making the stakeholder engaged fast with proven value is key.
Data scientists work very hard on their projects, they feel excited when they find an insight, and they want to engage the customers or managers and get them excited as well. They usually do so with a PowerPoint presentation or the likes. Well, slides can be boring. We have all seen too many of those. So, what can we do?
Engagement is enhanced with interaction and a story, so we need a naturally interactive tool that tells a good story, something clickable that works. One way to do just that is with a dashboard
Dashboards are an extremely efficient way to involve the customers in the data science project. They can serve as an online and accessible way to do: Demos, Tools, MVP, or even an actual product, if connected to some database, or any other dynamic way to refresh the data. But another great thing about it in the data science lifecycle is that they can also show progress during all those times that nothing major is yet to happen. Sometimes just showing the customer an interesting interactive view of their data is exceptional.
There are some nice-looking tools for dashboards that cost money, like Tableau. But it is not only their cost that limits us. These tools are either restrictive in nature, require a lot of work and/or lack many capabilities. While using python, the data scientist is free to independently use whatever they already know and need.
Some of the most free and successful dashboards in the python world (the DS main programming language) are Dash, Panel, Streamlit, Voila. For a fuller comparison between these libraries, have a look here.
Dash and Streamlit work using python scripts while Voila and Panel can work directly from a Jupyter notebook using widgets. This last capability can be very attractive for data scientists to showcase their work and engage customers without spending too much time on development. Voila will probably be the simplest and fastest way for a data scientist to create a dashboard nowadays since it’s just rendering the Jupyter notebook almost as is.
In the following, I will share some experience we had in our team and a super simple implementation for a Voila server that gives the look and feel of a web-app.
Before jumping to Voila, I will just say that our DS team uses Dash and Kubernetes to build very nice-looking dashboards, which can also be complex on the backend. The trouble is that the open-source Dash is too complex for a data scientist to quickly deploy a dashboard that brings value. It also only uses Plotly visualization, which can slow deployment even further if one needs to change already developed visualizations. Still, Dash is an excellent way to build products, tools, and demos.
So, we have explained the need for a simple and fast tool, and we also found it in Voila. What do we do now?
We can deploy a voila server on a dedicated Kubernetes pod per app. Here is an example code on GitHub. Let’s have quick look at a simple app.
The above code is used as the starting script on the pod. After the pod is being deployed on the Kubernetes environment, it runs the above script to install whatever libraries it needs that may be missing on the docker image or need updates. Later it uses a chosen port and Jupyter notebook to start the server. Exposure and/or mapping of the ports is done using the Kubernetes or Docker tools. Notice that we can always have a dashboard ready for a specific data scientist to just come and replace or update using this methodology. So, after the first deployment, we may not even need to deploy more pods unless we need the former app to stay in place.
For those who are not restricted by security, it is also possible to deploy Voila using mybinder and other services.
The above is a Voila dashboard that has a look and feel of a web app. Let’s view the simple code that created this.
Notice above that any markdown text will be shown in the app, therefore we do not use markdown for chapter headers. Instead, we use comments (#). But markdown works great to highlight text in the app.
In the above, we commonly load data. Declaring a widget and an interactive function that will use its result after the user will interact with it — more on widgets.
We generate the dropdown list and plot in a very similar fashion to what we have seen before.
Summary
We want to quickly engage our customers with the value of analyzing their data. Web-based clickable dashboards are a great way to engage them and provide value fast. Voila is a great solution for deploying a dashboard with minimal effort and maximal value. We went over a simple use case and code to achieve the experience of a web app with Voila. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/dashboards-a-data-scientist-best-friend-7fc023220b38 | ['Avitan Gefen'] | 2021-01-03 16:54:20.001000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Data Science', 'Dashboard', 'Kubernetes', 'Jupyter Notebook'] |
How we made the 3D Rendering for the Loyola Wine Room | Summary
Michael Kao, the principal architect at MAK Studio, asked us to produce a 3D rendering for the Loyola Wine Room, a part of the Loyola House in San Francisco.
The MAK Studio team, whose interiors are fantastic, did an amazing design for this project. The Loyola Wine Room is a minimalist space, filled with charming objects. Although it has a touch of an adventurer’s collection chamber, it’s a very cozy room. The space is quiet and delicate, in dark tones with a view of an ancient olive tree and lush greenery. The subtle interior lighting emphasizes the unique furniture. On the final 3D rendering, the main window was brighter than it should have been as we raised the light levels on purpose to increase the contrast between dark finishes and light portals.
How 3D Rendering Works
The skill of 3D rendering resembles cooking, but the ingredients, tools, and output are different. Thomas Keller, a three-Michelin-star chef, says that the art of cooking stands on two basic foundations: ingredients and a proper execution. Adopting his cooking analogy into our work, we crave to get quality ingredients and to perform a proper execution.
At our studio Renderus, we establish our 3D renderings on these two principles:
1. INGREDIENTS:
In our industry, the ingredients are architectural designs and reference photographs.
2. EXECUTION:
We see execution as the craft of making 3D renderings.
About 3D Renderings
3D renderings depict how an unmade space will look. As the space is still on paper, our job is to present it in a form of an image. The goal is to make the image that look realistic and natural, which wouldn’t be possible without using references. At the start of every project, we put an enormous effort to find photographs of existing spaces that resemble our project. Those photographs serve as our guidelines, as we study them to pick up the lighting rules and patterns to be implemented in raw 3D renderings. This is a perfect mixture of algorithm and handwork. | https://medium.com/@marko-stojkovic/how-we-made-the-3d-rendering-for-the-loyola-wine-room-ee85a55a3192 | ['Marko Stojkovic'] | 2021-01-25 08:21:32.418000+00:00 | ['3d Modeling', 'Design', 'Architecture', 'Rendering', 'Interior Design'] |
Enjoy The Misty Months With These 5 Excellent Thrillers | Imagine spending a wintery evening by the lake surrounded by a forest — all alone. The thin layer of mist barely touching the surface of the standstill waterline. The lake, reflecting the starry sky embalmed with the potion of nothingness. And as the cold gust of wind brushes the tip of your skin, the chilling sensation coupled with the whispering of the dry leaves shakes you from inside.
It feels spooky yet charming. It feels hollow yet so full. Above all, it looks so gloomy and colorful at the same time.
You speak to yourself: the very soul of this season feels so sinister. Yet, it has a wicked charm to it.
Then you get back home. Now it is hot and comfy. You know everything surrounding you. Your desk, bed, favorite chair, the cute little wind chime at the window, all the old familiar things.
But you are still feeling it. There is something about these chilly evenings. It makes you crave something intriguing. And thus, you seek to stretch the wings of your imagination and walk the noir lanes to chase down mysteries.
So sit back, relax, grab a hot cup of coffee and enjoy these intriguing pieces of thrillers to celebrate the eerie winter months. | https://baos.pub/enjoy-the-misty-months-with-these-5-excellent-thrillers-8bb5c50dbc2e | ['Anirban Kar'] | 2020-12-17 16:56:06.611000+00:00 | ['Reading', 'Mystery', 'Books', 'Thriller', 'Winter'] |
Top Twenty One Ways To Get SEO Backlinks by William Nabaza of www.Nabaza.com | Are you ready for 2021? Yes I am ready. To welcome it, I’ve researched 21 ways to get SEO backlinks this coming year. I hope you enjoy it and don’t forget to download two free Android app at the end of this article. Consider it my CHRISTmas gift to all of you.
Let’s define what a backlink is, a backlink is a link placed on another website to reference another website. Google loves these backlinks that are guides for their spiders to find a web site and make their crawling activities easier for them. SEO requires hard work manually and you get those backlinks by requesting them literally from the website owner or webmaster, and even without doing it, you almost know what their reply will be that will discourage you from doing it. But to help out the people to get more backlinks, I have compiled what I am doing to gain them for free without an email to the webmaster or owners.
1. Write Articles.
It’s the oldest and most ancient way to get backlinks to your website. Write great articles on your blog and make sure you submit them to article directories who will in turn distribute them for you automatically, making your link intact with every articles that will be rebranded from their website. Google will always live for your content and secondly for backlinks coming from websites linking back to your website because of good content.
2. Write Guest Blog Articles.
There are lots of high domain authority and high page ranking websites out there that want people submission to get more content. Usually, they require like 2,000 words per article and if you know one of their topics, you might as well try submitting it to them according to the strict guideline they highlighted on their website. It’s a win-win situation since they want content and you want backlinks.
3. FFA Is One Of The Best.
FFA means Free For All Links unbelievable but true there are remaining websites like that on the internet. You just go and submit to their websites for free and will not even require your email address. But it’s kinda competitive nowadays because given a minute and your link will be knocked down from the list.
4. Post Classified Ads.
Classified ads accept free and paid ads on their website and they allow you to include links and images as well. Take advantage of it and some will put your ads for 90 days even for free.
5. Post Press Release And Distribute To 100+ High 20+ to 90+ Domain Authority And Page Authority Sites.
Study how to write a press release yourself and write them yourself. After writing makes sure to run a spelling and grammar checker on it and run a plagiarism checker to check for its uniqueness. Post them to news wire websites, it will be great if you have various news account on various news wire websites.
6. Post Your Links On Your Social Profiles.
Post them where there are fields or specific space for them, and make sure you don’t spam the links. Usually, they define spam as lenient as possible as not containing any links from your updated posts.
7. Create Blogs On High Ranking Sites.
For example, sites.Google.com can help you build a website that resembles a blog and you can blog your articles with links on it and it’s considered a whole website.
8. Post On Forums.
Forums are still here before that they were called BBS (Bulletin Board System) and now they accommodate members from all over the world. Make sure to post your ad in relevant sections when you decide to do your forum marketing. Make use of forum signatures, forum avatar profile pics, and forum introduction to making use of displaying your links according to their rules. Participate as well by posting helpful content not taken from someone else’s website.
9. Post/Vote on Software Voting Site.
Make sure to post on the Software Voting Site where the topic interests you and from time to time you can vote your post to be on top sort of bumping them to the top to be seen more than others. Your link can be posted on your profile.
10. Post/vote On Software Commenting Sites.
Do you like software? Then post or vote on software commenting websites and share your real, authentic experience with that specific software. Your link can be posted on your profile.
11. Post Comments Manually On Blog Sites.
Don’t go over their rules and post it with intelligent posts done manually as opposed to posting it automatically using software, yeah it takes time but this is where your time investments start.
12. Post On Socials One Post A Day.
One post is enough per day just a sort of an announcement or a heads up of what website you’re in right now or much better write an article like I know a couple of social sites that is allowing you to promote your merchandise.
13. Create Products On Art Product Site.
If you have some artistic abilities to create an original design. Do you know that not only links are allowed on the product sites but a whole website is?
14. Create A Url Shortener Site And Post Your Links On Top Bar.
There are lots of URL shortener open-source scripts that allow you to own your URL shortener website and of course, your members will always post on high ranking websites. Just make sure to clean it all up with illegal websites from time to time.
15. Create Your Blog And Host It.
Both sites.Google.com and Blogspot are great for holding the contents of your blog with links as well. Make sure to not just create it empty but update it from time to time.
16. Create Your Own Forum And Host It.
The great thing about this is your forum with or without members are using your domain or subdomain, Google will also crawl and index it.
17. Create An Affiliate Program.
An affiliate program is an earning scheme where you distribute a customized link where it contains the username of your members and allows them to share it everywhere permissible and get your backlinks from them. You’re not paying for the links but you only pay per sale to them a certain percentage you set from the start.
18. Give Away SEO Audit Report With Your Links On It.
Preferably do it on a .PDF since Google also crawls these types of files and indexes it. Make sure to do it manually for the report and there tons of websites offering these for free. Make sure your links are on it.
19. Upload HTML Files On Various Upload/Download Sites.
Google also indexes these types of sites and mostly all of their files uploaded to them. Make sure your links are on that .html files.
20. Create Subdomains For Each Product And Services You Carry.
Believe it or not, Google accepts subdomains to be listed and indexed. Like for me as an example, I have like 130+ subdomains, and only like 60+ of them are listed and indexed on Google, and it helps my main domain gets it’s high ranking on Google. Make sure to submit a sitemap.xml with every subdomain and optimize them individually on Google Webmaster Console. Take a look at what Google is doing, it has a subdomain for every service it offers and it’s all for free.
21. Create A Free Web Hosting Site.
Give away a free web hosting account so that every free member will carry your subdomain with your ads on it and promote them as well, giving you a lot of backlinks just for giving away a free hosting account. You can also make money with it by charging those who wanted to remove ads on their pages.
For all the things you will do on top of yourself, make sure to not buy links on other sites. This will trigger Google’s spam detection software, Google will unlist you all at once or much worst ban your domain from their index. But you can sure hire someone to do it for you but of course, it’s not cheap for all the manual work your website will garner and a team of SEO professionals must do it for you.
SEO Services
SEO Services Android App
SEO Audit Tool Android App
More Free Android App | https://medium.com/@theweblord/top-twenty-one-ways-to-get-seo-backlinks-by-william-nabaza-of-www-nabaza-com-df785d52140 | ['William Nabaza'] | 2020-12-12 07:41:03.270000+00:00 | ['Apk', 'Android', 'Tools', 'Apps', 'SEO'] |
How to Create a Content Calendar (No Matter How Big or Small Your Biz) | How to Create a Content Calendar (No Matter How Big or Small Your Biz)
Photo by Eric Rothermel on Unsplash
When I first started blogging, I never dreamed I’d need to create a content calendar. I was new to writing. I simply wanted to finish a post and get it online. That meant I worked on each post for a couple of weeks, if not more. My first dozen site pages took the better part of a year to complete and upload.
Fast forward a decade or two when a panicked webinar participant asked me, “Do I need to create a content calendar?” Bloggers and small biz owners — especially those new to online content creation — hear the term “content calendar” and fear strikes. Just what is it? Do you need one? And how do you create it? The whole idea sounds complicated.
It’s not. A content calendar is simply a way to help you be organized. And there’s no single right way to create one. These frequently asked questions are designed to put your mind at ease even further. Read on to learn whether or not you need to create a content calendar for your blog or biz … and if so, how to go about it.
How to create a content calendar: frequently asked questions
Q. What is a content calendar?
A content calendar is a written schedule of what, when, and where you plan to publish upcoming content.
Q. Who needs to create a content calendar?
Anyone who produces content. Large to mid-size companies typically have a marketing department that handles the schedule. The rest of us need to take the proverbial bull by the horns and plan our content purposefully. By “the rest of us,” I mean small businesses, nonprofits, ministries, solopreneurs, and bloggers.
Q. What is the purpose of having a content calendar?
Mainly, to help you stay organized so you can produce your content on schedule. Creating content is a multi-step process: processing ideas, writing, editing, creating graphics, loading/printing, scheduling. When you’ve got your content plans on the calendar, then you can create back off dates for each task so you can make sure you publish consistently.
Q. What are other benefits of using a content calendar?
Reduce stress. Scheduling content ahead lessens or even eliminates the “what-should-I-write-about” panic.
Maintain an overview. A calendar gives you a big-picture view of topics you’ll cover over the upcoming weeks or months. This way, you can sync your content with specific seasons or holidays. You can plan a multi-part blog post series. You can avoid a scheduling snafu, such as publishing two profile interviews in a row when you typically change up your format with how-tos, listicles, news items, and opinion pieces.
Save time. Plan ahead and you can gather information along the way. If you’re a solo content creator, you can add bits and pieces to your calendar as they come to you. If you work with a team, a content calendar reduces the number of planning meetings. (Can I hear an “Amen”?)
Collaborate more easily. A content calendar helps your team work together more smoothly. You can keep the schedule on the cloud, as in Google Sheets, so everyone can refer to it. Staff, employees, volunteers, contractors, and contributors know the plan and can meet deadlines accordingly.
Q. What kinds of content go on my calendar?
Your content calendar can include blog posts, articles, guest posts, mailings, social media, newsletters, case studies, white papers, podcasts, webinars, eBooks — pretty much any kind of content you plan to produce. Think like a television program director: what are your regularly scheduled shows and what are your special programs? You need to put both on the calendar. Regularly-scheduled content includes regular posts, emails, podcasts, and social media that you produce at a regular interval — say, once a week. Specials? They’re the new eBook release, webinar, or online course. Place both kinds of “programming” on your content calendar.
Q. What information should I include when I create a content calendar?
At the very least …
Topic or concept (What you’ll publish)
Date of post or mail (When you’ll publish)
Platform (Where you’ll publish)
My email content calendar also includes the issue number, a link to the posted page (once it’s on my site), the email’s ads, and additional internal links for further reading. This way, I have a record of what I offered to my readers so that I don’t repeat myself unintentionally. I also keep a list of content ideas on my calendar to use every month or two as I update it.
If you’re working with a team …
Include back off dates: the date that editorial content is due; the date that edited content is to be sent to the designer; the date that final creative team review must be completed; the date that the project must be sent to the printer.
Color code different kinds of projects: use different colors for blog posts, email newsletters, webinars, social media campaigns, letters, podcasts
Q. What tools should I use to create a content calendar?
Whatever works for you. Yours can be a good old-fashioned print calendar you picked up for free from the drugstore … a calendar you maintain online … or a made-for-content-management tool, app, or software like CoSchedule.
Confession: my content calendar is a simple table in Microsoft Word. You can do the same or create a spreadsheet in Excel. If you work with a team, you can use Google Sheets or Google Calendar so every member can access the calendar from the cloud. My point is that your content calendar needn’t be fancy. Use a tool that works for you.
Q. How far ahead should I schedule content?
As far ahead as you like. For my personal websites, I plan content about one to three months in advance. That allows time for me to move one idea here and another there as I get new ideas or inspiration. But when I’m working with a team, I create a back-off schedule for up to a year in advance. This provides wiggle room when things invariably don’t go according to plan. Either way, I revisit my content calendar once a month and make changes.
Q. What are the absolute “must-need-to-know” tips to help me create a content calendar that I can stick with?
The biggest “need-to-know-rule” is that there are very few rules. Your content calendar’s purpose is to help you stay organized so you can publish on schedule. Keep an updated record of what, when, and where you plan to publish upcoming content. Everything else? Nice extras, good to have … but don’t get hung up on them. Remember your goal: to keep publishing. Your calendar is a tool to help you do just that.
Kathy Widenhouse offers tips and tutorials for writers at www.nonprofitcopywriter.com. | https://writingcooperative.com/how-to-create-a-content-calendar-no-matter-how-big-or-small-your-biz-10498ddc93ca | ['Kathy Widenhouse'] | 2020-12-23 22:02:15.069000+00:00 | ['Calendar', 'Writing Tips', 'Content Marketing', 'Blogging', 'Content Strategy'] |
Responsible Investing with Lincolnshire Management | Lincolnshire Management Committed to Responsible Investing
“Lincolnshire is committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate governance and Environmental, Social and Governance best practices. “
-TJ Maloney, Chairman and CEO of Lincolnshire Management
More than 30 Years of Responsible Investing
Even before implementing a formal written Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) policy, Lincolnshire had adhered to strict internal guidelines which integrate environmental concerns, compliance with environmental laws, regulations and best corporate governance practices. For the past 32 years, these guidelines have been central to Lincolnshire’s due diligence process and the ongoing monitoring of our portfolio companies. We help our portfolio companies adopt best practices and expect them to follow these practices when managing their businesses.
Since our first fund, Lincolnshire has committed to responsible investing. We have invested in companies such as Desch Plantpak, a leading manufacturer of plastic containers for the greenhouse industry and an early convert to the use of recycled and bio-based polymers that pioneered efficient, sustainable manufacturing. We have applied the insights gained from working with Desch and other companies to build and apply similar practices to the operations of the other businesses in our portfolio. We firmly believe that when executed thoughtfully and consistently, responsible investing is a win for everyone involved, and our results have shown that to be true.
Our Commitment to ESG is A Commitment to Higher Returns
Lincolnshire believes that a key component of a sound investment program is a commitment to corporate governance that seeks the alignment of economic value with environmental benefits and positive social impact. Lincolnshire has clearly communicated our commitment to ESG and created a policy that reinforces what has been in practice at the firm over more than three decades of successful investing. ESG is a priority at Lincolnshire because we know from experience that a thriving business, in the U.S. or abroad, will be even more successful when there is a disciplined focus on ESG.
Lincolnshire has integrated the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing (UNPRI) into the firm’s formal ESG policy. We invest according to our own ESG criteria and endorse the principles of the UNPRI.
Tailored ESG Improvements Throughout the Investment Process
ESG is a consideration throughout the investment process — during diligence, investment, holding and at exit. Under our ownership, ESG progress is tracked by both Lincolnshire and the portfolio company’s management team. Each portfolio company has an ESG officer who collaborates with Lincolnshire’s Sustainability Officer on ESG issues, and reports on the progress of implemented changes and the related financial impact. Lincolnshire prides itself on investing responsibly, working tirelessly to advance our portfolio, and eventually selling an improved company to the next owner.
A flexible approach to ESG allows portfolio company management teams and Lincolnshire to identify areas for improvement and to develop strategies to best implement change. Plans for ESG improvements are unique to each company’s business and industry. Some areas for improvement can include energy conservation, improving and creating a safer work environment, responsibly sourcing raw materials and recycling.
Lincolnshire’s Dedicated Team
Betsy Corbin is Lincolnshire’s dedicated Sustainability Officer, who is focused on upholding ESG best practices. Mrs. Corbin joined Lincolnshire Management in 2015 to support investor relations, develop marketing strategies, and leads the firm’s sustainability efforts. Mrs. Corbin led the development of Lincolnshire’s formal ESG policy and ensures that a joint effort between the Lincolnshire team and portfolio management teams guarantees ESG best practices and that these are shared and implemented across the firm’s portfolio. | https://medium.com/@lincolnshiremanagement/responsible-investing-with-lincolnshire-management-ee82cb31f7e2 | ['Lincolnshire Management'] | 2019-02-07 18:03:44.177000+00:00 | ['Impact Investing', 'Private Equity', 'Responsible Investment', 'Lincolnshire Management'] |
Amber Heard’s Attorney Jumps Ship #WithdrewToo | So why now?
One of the primary reasons for Kaplan’s Judas moment may have come in the shape of Adam Waldman, Depp’s attorney. Waldman has been merciless and persistent in highlighting Kaplan’s ties to Harvey Weinstein and other questionable past clients, including Jussie Smollet.
On the heels of the news, Waldman was quick to exact his pound of flesh, a biting tweet from him on Twitter ending with #WithdrewToo, a parting shot at Kaplan’s association with #MeToo.His current Twitter stream reflects a list of damning documents, entitled ‘in memoriam’.
For Kaplan, the need to protect her reputation, at least for the sake of appearances and her Times Up fund, has been seriously eroded by her involvement with Heard. It’s hard to campaign for the rights of abused women when you’re representing an abuser. Particularly one that’s a woman.
Amber Heard is rapidly becoming a liability for Hollywood and those who would assume to dangle on its coattails. Kaplan may simply have made the only realistic PR decision left open to her. Distance.
For those of you that don’t follow the glitter rags, here’s a quick recap of events to bring you up to speed.
Johnny Depp decided to sue Amber Heard for damages over allegations Heard made. She claimed Depp had abused her physically. Evidence presented by Depp’s attorney during the trial has clearly shown Heard to be the actual abuser.
Waldman has thwarted Kaplan at every turn, exposing her questionable ties to past clients and questioning her motives. The trial had started moving a little too close to home for Kaplan’s comfort.
Faced with the emerging guilt of her client, a fact she was almost certainly aware of from the outset, she’s opted for the only logical choice.
Feed Heard to the wolves. How she intends to justify this and still retain a shred of credibility remains to be seen.
The effects of her decision on the trial will be minimal. Heard has backed herself into a corner, as years of her intentionally crafted lies and fictions have been torn apart in full view of the public.
She has tied herself to the wheel of her own ship and as it sinks beneath the waves I know one pirate that’s going to watching from the deck of the Black Pearl. Vindicated and with a growing sense of restored honour.
If perchance you’re strolling along the shoreline this evening and you happen upon a long line of very bedraggled rats dragging their sorry, fur soaked butts out of the water, now you’ll know where they came from. | https://medium.com/lighterside/amber-heards-attorney-jumps-ship-withdrewtoo-9cdebacf3c95 | ['Robert Turner'] | 2020-06-14 12:40:12.091000+00:00 | ['Johnny Depp', 'Culture', 'Media', 'Film', 'Amber Heard'] |
Understanding what I want and why I want that | The clarity in goals helps to keep the commitment and stick to doing things every single day. The best way I’ve found to get clarity is as follows:
Scratch a plan
Just enough to start doing just something practical.
Start actually doing something
At the first glance, it may seem foolish to try completing random steps without having an idea of a complete picture. However, the point is to clarify our motivation this way, rather than to achieve the goal.
When we start putting effort, our mind naturally asks itself — why am I doing that? Why do I need to do that? Maybe let’s just do something else?
Answering those questions should take a little to no time. If we shut ourselves up, saying we are lazy and need to just focus on the task, then it indicates a lack of clarity. What should happen instead is us answered this question a million time either takes a very little time to remind us of our answers or the questions stop appearing.
But now we might have a fair question — so the final is clear, but how to better find answers to these questions in the first place.
In the very beginning, we should answer the questions:
What do I want to do right now? What do I think I should want to do right now? Why do I think I should do it? Why do I think I shouldn’t do it?
Surprisingly for the first time, the reasons why you think you shouldn’t do it could actually make more sense! And we are not necessarily lazy, bad people.
The science
Folks say our mind is looking for the most benefits with the least effort. And that makes a lot of sense if you think about it.
The caveat here is that our mind is naturally inclined to prefer immediate benefits over future successes. But many masters of their fields say that it changes after accomplishing multiple long-term goals.
The satisfaction of finally getting things done in the way we want them to be done becomes so high, that momental pleasure does not interest us anymore.
Having a great clarify is impossible to overestimate and to know the easiest way to do that was once a great discovery for me. I’m really curious to know how you people approach this topic, which is why I’ve shared mine.
(Write comments, we want to read them!) | https://medium.com/@undefitied/understanding-what-i-want-and-why-i-want-that-611bab29d33d | ['Sey Kuo'] | 2020-12-06 10:23:06.040000+00:00 | ['Motivation', 'Self Improvement', 'Goals', 'Self Development', 'Clarity'] |
All The Best News Ticker Plugins for WordPress | News tickers on the websites are usually used to highlight something most important and make readers conduct the target action. In this article, I will tell you how to add news tickers in WordPress site and what plugins are my favorite ones.
How to Choose the Best News Ticker?
Let’s start from the beginning. Every time I’m suggesting a selection of my favorite plugins, but there’s always a chance that none will suit you for some reason. I’ll tell you how to choose it yourself, using the example of the news ticker plugin.
First of all, you have to decide what exactly you need this plugin to do. Maybe you just need to list items from a Twitter feed? Or some advanced solution compatible with LTR & RTL languages, multiple browsers, RSS feed, and more? Defining your needs precisely is a starting point of the plugin search.
The functions you need are the keywords you will use to search for the plugin in the WordPress.org archive or simply in Google. You will most likely find a bunch of plugins that suit you, but this is only at first glance.
Let’s figure out how to choose the best WordPress plugin.
1.Pay attention to the number of installations and the plugin release date. Usually, you can find the launch date in the Development section.
If the plugin was launched 3 months ago and has 100 installations, it’s ok, but if it exists for many years and no one uses it, better not to touch it. Choose the proven and reliable solutions.
2.Read reviews carefully. If you see messages about some recurring error — don’t push your luck and avoid choosing this plugin. The WordPress community is anxious to keep reviews from spam, and the information about the plugins is truthful enough.
3.Be sure to check compatible WordPress versions. If you do not see the most recent version of the system, it is better not to consider such a plugin at all.
4. I would suggest testing any plugins you are interested in on a test site. But not everyone has this opportunity, so don’t forget to backup your site before installing plugins. After choosing the best one, delete all others. Never leave unnecessary software! When there are many plugins, they overload and slow down the site.
I gave an example of wordpress.org, but you can find this information on any plugin aggregator! For example, codecanyon.net:
So, after we figured out the basics, let’s get down to my favorite part. The best premium and free news ticker plugins!
This is a free simple plugin that helps you create news tickers via direct functions, shortcodes, or in a custom widget. Tickers are available within the list, scrolling, and rotating CSS styles.
I think this plugin is a great solution if you don’t need to cope with complex tasks. If you want to expand this plugin’s functionality into importing news from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, RSS Feed, etc., you will have to buy paid widgets.
Another option is to buy The Ditty News Ticker Bundle that includes all existing Ditty News Ticker widgets. Also, you will automatically get access to any upcoming extension.
Price:
free
extra widgets — $15/each or $50/bundle
Get Ditty News Ticker
Text Ticker is a widget that comes within the JetBlog plugin by Crocoblock.
This widget helps you to create fully customizable news tickers. You can make it static or animated, adjust colors, choose a font among dozens available, set the text size. You can also pick any number of posts to include in the ticker and set their display order.
As I already mentioned, Text Ticker is one of the JetBlog plugin’s widget. Another 5 widgets allow creating other blog elements like post tiles, navigation, pagination, smart post lists, and video playlists for Youtube and Vimeo.
Price: Starts from $19/year for 6 widgets
Get JetBlog
The name says for itself: this plugin provides advanced opportunities for creating news tickers. It automatically updates news on the website, compatible with jQuery and AJAX, comes with 70+ customization options. Advanced Live News Ticker allows managing the news tickers and the featured news area, sliding news area, and the clock.
Sure, this plugin is compatible with all major browsers and LTR & RTL languages like Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu.
The sources from where the plugin enables you to add news are Twitter, RSS feed, WP posts, or just manually.
Price: $24
Get Advanced Live News Ticker
This plugin will help you to create a vertical news ticker. Well, that is, such a scrolling block with a breaking news ticker on the side of the site.
Vertical News Scroller allows you to add and display any news quantity, manage the news height width and their scrolling speed, and customize news within the WP theme.
No need to have any coding knowledge to use this plugin. If you need a simple solution for a particular need, this plugin works exactly as promised.
Price: Free
Get Vertical News Scroller
This is another free news ticker plugin that helps you to create scrolling text on the website. It is a straightforward plugin, and literally, all you can do with its help is to set the scrolling speed, make it pause when the mouse is over, set announcement start and expiration date.
If you need a horizontal news scroller plugin for WordPress, there is no need to spend money and lots of time searching. Just use Horizontal Scrolling Announcements.
Price: Free
Get Horizontal Scrolling Announcements
Instead of Conclusion
Thanks for reading guys! As you know, I’m just a newbie writer, so I really appreciate any fair feedback. Also, if you know some good premium or free news ticker plugins, let me know! I’d love to expand this list with new products. | https://medium.com/@lanadelkrupnik/all-the-best-news-ticker-plugins-for-wordpress-491c3b3ec606 | ['Lana Krupnik'] | 2020-12-01 10:25:42.361000+00:00 | ['Plugins', 'Website Design', 'Website Development', 'WordPress', 'Web Development'] |
What’s New in React 16 and Fiber Explanation | Previously, React would block the entire thread as it calculated the tree. This process for reconciliation is now named “stack reconciliation”. While React is known to be very fast, blocking the main thread could still cause some applications to not feel fluid. Version 16 aims to fix this problem by not requiring the render process to complete once it’s initiated. React computes part of the tree and then will pause rendering to check if the main thread has any paints or updates that need to be performed. Once the paints and updates have been completed, React begins rendering again. This process is accomplished by introducing a new data structure called a “fiber” that maps to a React instance and manages the work for the instance as well as know its relationship to other fibers. A fiber is just a JavaScript object. These images depict the old versus new rendering methods.
Stack reconciliation — updates must be completed entirely before returning to main thread (credit Lin Clark)
Fiber reconciliation — updates will be batched in chunks and React will manage the main thread (credit Lin Clark)
React 16 will also prioritize updates by importance. This allows high priority updates to jump to the front of the line and be processed first. An example of this would be something like a key input. This is high priority because the user needs that immediate feedback to feel fluid as opposed to a low priority update like an API response which can wait an extra 100–200 milliseconds.
React priorities (credit Lin Clark)
By breaking the UI updates into smaller units of work, a better overall user experience is achieved. Pausing reconciliation work to allow the main thread to execute other necessary tasks provides a smoother interface and better perceived performance.
Error Handling
Errors in React have been a little bit of mess to work with, but this is changing in version 16. Previously, errors inside components would corrupt React’s state and provide cryptic errors on subsequent renders.
lol wut?
React 16 includes error boundaries will not only provide much clearer error messaging, but also prevent the entire application from breaking. After being added to your app, error boundaries catch errors and gracefully display a fallback UI without the entire component tree crashing. The boundaries can catch errors during rendering, in lifecycle methods, and in constructors of the whole tree below them. Error boundaries are simply implemented through the new lifecycle method componentDidCatch(error, info) .
Here, any error that happens in <MyWidget/> or its children will be captured by the <ErrorBoundary> component. This functionality behaves like a catch {} block in JavaScript. If the error boundary receives an error state, you as a developer are able to define what is displayed in the UI. Note that the error boundary will only catch errors in the tree below it, but it will not recognize errors in itself.
Moving forward, you’ll see robust and actionable errors like this:
omg that’s nice (credit Facebook)
Return multiple elements from render
You can now return an array, but don’t forget your keys !
render() {
return [
<li key="A">First item</li>,
<li key="B">Second item</li>,
<li key="C">Third item</li>,
];
}
Portals
Render items into a new DOM node. For example, it could be great to have a general modal component you portal content in to.
render() {
// React does *not* create a new div. It renders the children into `domNode`.
// `domNode` is any valid DOM node, regardless of its location in the DOM.
return ReactDOM.createPortal(
this.props.children,
domNode,
);
}
Compatibility
Async Rendering
The focus of the initial 16.0 release is on compatibility for existing applications. Async rendering will not be an option initially, but in later 16.x releases, it will be included as an opt-in feature.
Browser Compatibility
React 16 is dependent on Map and Set . To ensure compatibility with all browsers, you must include a polyfill. Popular options are core-js or babel-polyfill.
In addition, it will also depend on requestAnimationFrame , including for tests. A simple shim for test purposes would be:
global.requestAnimationFrame = function(callback) {
setTimeout(callback);
};
Component Lifecycle
Since React prioritizes the rendering, you are no longer guaranteed componentWillUpdate and shouldComponentUpdate of different components will fire in a predictable order. The React team is working to provide an upgrade path for apps that would break from this behavior.
Usage
Currently React 16 is in beta, but it will be released soon. You can start using version 16 now by doing the following: | https://medium.com/edge-coders/react-16-features-and-fiber-explanation-e779544bb1b7 | ['Trey Huffine'] | 2018-10-30 13:57:05.603000+00:00 | ['Code', 'Tech', 'React', 'JavaScript', 'Startup'] |
LeetCode — Two Sums. This problem was taken from LeetCode —… | Solution
Here, we’ll look at two solutions. One is the obvious but brute-force algorithm, while the other one is somewhat harder to get but more efficient, comparatively.
Brute-force Solution
Here, we compare each and every number with the other in the list and see if they add up to the target number. If they do add up, we return their indices. Although this works, still it’s an inefficient solution, O(n²). Its runtime at LeetCode site was 4512 ms when I submitted it.
class Solution:
def twoSum(self, nums, target):
"""
:type nums: List[int]
:type target: int
:rtype: List[int]
"""
for i in range(len(nums)):
for j in range(i+1, len(nums)):
if nums[i] + nums[j] == target:
return [i, j]
Better Solution
We create a dictionary to store the data such that the key is the number and the value is the index at which it was present. We then traverse over the list once and see if the complement of the current number is present in the dictionary already. If it is present, we return its index, stored in the dictionary, along with the current index. If it is not present in the dictionary already, we add the current number and its index to the dictionary. Its runtime at LeetCode site was 24 ms when I submitted it. You can clearly see how much optimized it is as compared to the previous one. | https://medium.com/competitive/leetcode-two-sums-c2611a5c33e8 | [] | 2019-06-14 04:57:14.542000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Problem Solving', 'Programming', 'Competitive Programming', 'Leetcode'] |
A human’s guide: Advice you should never say f*ck off to. | How you can master the art of agility and flexibility in a modern workplace.
You could be this fast, too.
Ode to the young professional
You’re young (maybe you’re… more experienced). You’re working at one of the coolest, hippest, most innovative and inspiring companies out there.
You worked hard to get here, you “hustled.” Nothing wrong with that.
However, you’re not invincible. You start to plateau and you tell yourself it’s nothing more work and a 4 shot espresso can’t handle.
Except for it can’t.
And then a pandemic happens.
You start spending less time with others. Work was a lot before but then it decided to move in and now it’s consuming you. You don’t go on runs or hit the gym like you used to. You keep telling yourself, “It’s a phase.”
Just like that, you go from Mr. Dependable to Mr. So-so (same goes for all the Ms.’s out there).
Pause. Does this sound too extreme?
Okay, so maybe your life isn’t unraveling itself before your eyes. But if you’re one of the 85% of employees who hates their job, things could definitely be better.
How though? Well, short of switching companies or even careers, you may want to re-assess your relationship with work; and January 1st, 2021 is as good a time as any to start.
IMPORTANT
Before you haphazardly set goals that inevitably lead to overwork this coming year, be sure to take into account external stressors.
2020 has left us all in pretty rough shape. Reluctantly, we’re finally acknowledging that employee burnout doesn’t operate in a silo. It stems from home and it’s produced at work.
The relationship between these two environments is not mutually exclusive. It’s shared and it needs to be addressed, equally.
So, before we raise the bar “just because” or because “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”… remember empathy for yourself and your people. | https://medium.com/@braedonleslie/a-humans-guide-advice-you-should-never-say-f-ck-off-to-6975c3e90d0a | ['Braedon Leslie'] | 2020-12-29 21:12:49.030000+00:00 | ['Employee Skills', 'Employee Engagement', 'Executive Functioning', 'Burnout', 'Employee Burnout'] |
Weight a Minute… | Today I’m mad, crazy mad, at myself. This momentary madness is about my lifelong struggle, which I feel like is a struggle for a lot of people…see if any of this resonates.
If I could add back into my life every minute I’ve spent obsessing about my weight, I’d live another 20 years…is it just me? Maybe moreso than some others, I think. You see, I come from a family (although I use the term “family” loosely, since it never really felt like a family), anyway — a family that obsessed about female weight.
My mother was anorexic and was all of 63 pounds when she passed. Between the alcohol and the lack of nutrients, her body just stopped working. She died in her 50s.
My sister would eat, but then she’d purge. My mother used to complain to me that she’d find empty food containers, lots of them, under my sister’s bed, like full-on Entenman’s doughnut boxes — empty.
Tall and striking, my sister was a model at age 13. I don’t think it was the modeling that turned her to purging, though, I think it was more out of a lack of control. I’ve read that eating disorders often stem from the person feeling out of control and controlling one’s food intake was a way to take some of it back. Our home life was pretty awful and crazy, so wanting to control any aspect of her young life must have been needed, no matter how self-destructive.
Sadly, by the time my sister was 30, I noticed that her teeth were looking gray, likely from the acids that passed through them from purging — and she said she took tetracycline for her skin, which apparently also has that side effect. She also was so thin that she looked gaunt, but she did exercise like a fiend, so she was in shape and strong, just painfully thin. No idea the damage to her organs from the bulimia but throwing up one’s food for so many years had to have taken its toll.
She was so damned gorgeous when she was younger — it kinda broke my heart to see her hurt herself in this way.
My problem was not the same as the other women in my family. I also always had body dysmorphia, but my control issues mostly manifested elsewhere. I never controlled my diet in the same way my mom and sister did. I love food, I love a good cocktail or glass of wine — hell, bottle of wine, I love cooking and I have trouble placing limits on my intake. I’ve never been underweight. Only rarely have I considered myself at the correct weight. I usually am 5–10 pounds overweight, at least in my view. I always feel fat. Always.
This constant negative view of myself drives me crazy mad…I have such a love-hate relationship with my body. I’m very proportioned and have, well, never needed a boob job, but I always feel overweight, and feeling overweight impacts everything for me. I lose my confidence, and thus my mojo.
Why can’t I be one of those women who can walk with such confidence while showing rolls of fat, and there are a lot of women who do this. They seem to have fine mojo. I find their appearance so unattractive and yet they act as if they’re queens! And sorry, but that whole Kardashian look seems so fake, fat and cartoony to me. So… manufactured. Not a fan.
I’ve never been comfortable showing much skin at all. I’ve never worn a crop top, and only rarely do I show cleavage. I’ve always been like that — and I find women who routinely have their cleavage or abdomens front and center to be really tacky. They look like they’re trying so hard. I think showing a lot of cleavage is both unprofessional and needy. And yet… I said I wish I could feel comfortable doing that…such a conundrum.
I hate being so self-conscious about my body. Too much importance was placed on appearance by everything and everyone around me growing up. My father was often a misogynistic pig who would always comment about how women looked. To him, women weren’t valued for much else.
When we were young, my sister was referred to as “the pretty one,” and I was “the smart one.” My sister was known as “daddy’s girl,” I was not known as anything. I don’t recall ever being complimented on my appearance growing up, other than one time while we were watching TV, I was maybe 10 or 12, and my mother looked across the room at me and said, “you have good legs.”
Can’t believe I remember that as the one compliment from growing up. When my mother said that, I remember feeling as though she had been analyzing me and could find only one thing to compliment, which may or may not have been the case.
The only comment from my father in this area came when I was an adult. I was visiting him and his wife, my stepmother, in Murrieta, Georgia. I came downstairs dressed for a nice dinner out and my father looked me up and down, shook his head and said with what appeared to be disdain, “you are so Hollywood.” Because I was wearing black and in a long skirt? I guess as opposed to being in a little frilly, flowery dress, showcasing my legs and chest? He had said it while shaking his head, as though I was a lost cause. Yeah, that made a mark.
So now, I’m counting the Pandemic Pounds I’ve added since the stay-at-home orders began, and I’m wincing when I hear friends say they’ve been working out every day and have never looked better. I know I don’t look bad…but the extra (in my mind, anyway) 10 pounds or so has made me feel like shit. I hate myself. I wake up (like I have for decades) in the middle of the night and feel awful about my body. How could I have let myself gain weight again? I was almost happy with how I looked last year, even six months ago. Fuck, I’ve gained it back.
My life would be so much better if I was just always in shape. I only have so many good years left and I’m destroying them by feeling fat. Uch, I’m afraid my boyfriend thinks I’m disgusting, even as he tells me I’m hot. I think I’m disgusting. Every night I vow to make changes in my diet and start exercising more the next day. Usually, I don’t. I just continue to feel like shit about myself, it’s like my default position.
And maybe that’s just it — feeling fat, and maybe being 5–10 pounds above where I should be — this is my default feeling and apparently, my default weight. When did this damned default form? Why did I not make my default…better?! Is maybe being — ok, feeling — a little pudgy based in fear of being — of feeling — that I’m all that I can be? Is it fear of being defined by something other than my brain? Am I the only one who feels this way? Am I the only one who just can’t always stay in shape? I know, I know…I’m not.
We women rightly bitch about decades worth of advertising and entertainment that tells us repeatedly that we are not the ideal. That the sometimes-underweight actresses and often severely underweight models are the ideals, that’s why they’re on screen and in magazines wearing the beautiful clothes, makin’ the big bucks and having it all. Hey, good for them — they look amazing and they obviously have their mojo in line enough to show that much skin, but…damn, that’s not who most of us are. Thankfully, this is now such an old complaint that things may be changing…but…not without having done a lot of damage over the years.
So, what’s a Mojo Girl to do? We’re supposed to love ourselves for who we are, not for what we look like, right? Well, that’s super difficult for me. How about you?
Do we just try to take care of ourselves as best as we can and then cut ourselves some slack? Do we meditate about our self-worth and just practice walking the walk of confidence, even when we don’t feel it?
Um, YES. That’s exactly what we all should do. Do our best, treat ourselves with kindness, and walk the walk, regardless. I mean, it’s hard, but aren’t we tired of this particular madness?
I’m in for a real downer of a future if I tie my confidence to my appearance, cuz I ain’t gonna get better as the years pass. No, my mojo — our mojo — needs to come from inside, not outside. And I need to believe that.
I need to realize my worth and know that it has nothing to do with how I look right?
Ok, I’m working on it
One of these days I won’t forget how lucky I am to have the strong, mostly healthy and somewhat in-shape body that I have, and I’ll no longer be mad about it. One of these days.
By the way, you look great. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, including yourself.
We are Mojo Girls, no matter what. And the same goes for you Mojo Boys who are hangin out with us, too.
Time to go take a walk. Or read. Or sing a damned song, because having your mojo means we can — and should — feel good about ourselves, no matter what we’re doing, or how we look in the moment. Can ya feel it? Our internal mojo is on fire — let’s go radiate that glow, that warmth, that awesome feeling of confidence and knowing that we are enough, we are more than enough, maybe in several ways, to rock this world.
Hey, if this momentary madness struck a chord, let me know. And please remember to follow or favorite Mojo Girl Madness wherever you get your podcasts — and maybe share this if you know someone out there who may be feeling icky or has a tendency to do so — let them know they’re not alone and we all need a pep talk sometimes.
And make a pledge -make a pledge — to each other — to give each other compliments, to give yourself compliments, and to try to love you…all of you.
And know that I love ya, madly.
The above is the text of the Mojo Girl Madness podcast episode entitled, WEIGHT A MINUTE…Listen to all episodes at mojogirlmadness.com | https://medium.com/@katygarretson/weight-a-minute-93ca2d76e180 | ['Katy Garretson'] | 2020-12-07 18:38:13.754000+00:00 | ['Self Worth', 'Mojo', 'Weight', 'Body Image', 'Self Love'] |
There Is Literally No Excuse to Keep Using Facebook | There Is Literally No Excuse to Keep Using Facebook
Here’s how to escape the blue-walled garden
The writing is on the wall. Facebook is detrimental to global discourse, has harmed democracies around the world, and, because of its dependence on advertising, has responded to criticism by making only minor, cosmetic changes. Mark Zuckerberg and his team will continue to allow the social network to be a haven for fake news, hoaxes, threats, and much, much worse. It’s gotten to the point that Zuckerberg said this summer that Holocaust deniers won’t be removed from the platform, and pages of known hoax or hate purveyors like InfoWars aren’t getting booted until the damage is long done.
Facebook has had several opportunities to show that it understands its responsibility as the world’s largest social network — a platform that now has 2.23 billion active users worldwide, sees 4.75 billion pieces of content shared daily, and is responsible for one out of every five page views in the United States. But it has failed completely.
If you don’t #QuitFacebook, you’re part of the problem.
Irresponsibility has real-world effects
The first sign of trouble was the 2014 election of Narendra Modi in India. Behind his charismatic, calm persona were rampant rumors aimed at getting the country’s Hindu majority to see the Muslim minority as a threat and vote for his right-wing, Hindu-nationalist party. Facebook was a key platform in the spread of viral videos and fake statistics about Muslims, and it worked. Along the way, religious violence claimed the lives of dozens of Indians.
Then it was government supported trolls from Russia and China spreading disinformation and harassing women, journalists, and critics that led to the early 2016 election of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. But that, like the election in India, was far away from Silicon Valley, so Facebook did nothing (and its stock price kept rising). Duterte’s election has resulted in 12,000 extrajudicial killings and severe clampdowns on freedom of the press in the country.
Then it happened in the U.S. The platform allowed Russian-linked trolls to send viral, fake news content that may have played a role in the election of Donald Trump to the presidency in late 2016. A little more than a year after, we learned that Facebook gave access to our data to a firm called Cambridge Analytica, which used that data to drive a massive, pro-Trump operation. As more details emerge, this begs the question — what else has Facebook done or allowed that we don’t know about?
Nearly every time Facebook has been given a clear choice whether to act or not, it has chosen the path of least resistance, only acting when overwhelming outside pressure forced it to, and always too slowly.
If you perhaps thought seeing this happen closer to home would make a difference, you’d be mistaken. Months after Trump’s election, the worst case of violence connected to Facebook so far took place when the Myanmar military began attacking Rohingya villagers in Rakhine state, killing thousands and forcing a mass exodus of people into neighboring Bangladesh. It was predictable — local nonprofit organizations saw hate speech and violence-inducing content on Facebook before the violence erupted and attempted to inform Facebook.
The company did nothing. Facebook is the match to the flame that is destroying societies around the world.
Facebook’s inaction keeps it profitable
Facebook is proving itself completely unable to address any of the challenges facing its platform for a simple reason: The company is doing fine financially. Its stock price now is higher than it was right after the 2016 election, and its profits are still growing quarter by quarter. Clamping down on ads of viral content is not a financially sound decision for the platform. Facebook seems to value profit over the safety of its users, and it is reticent to cut off what is a massive and growing source of its revenue — Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and a growing number of other state and non-state actors who see Facebook as key to their strategies of dominating the global online debate and pushing their worldview.
For example, China is already the second-largest ad market for the company, $5 billion in total and growing fast. This is a country whose government denies the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, has a massive online troll army, and is building out a global media apparatus to influence discourse across the world. You can bet China plans to invest heavily in using the Facebook platform to spread its worldview, either via ads or through its legions of trolls. Facebook depends on these countries for its revenue and lofty stock price — hence, inaction.
The only way to hold Facebook responsible for allowing for hate speech, online trolls, and Holocaust deniers on its platform is for us to quit.
Facebook wants you to perceive improvements, though, and what it will do is blanket metro and subway stations around the world with ads claiming it is doing something. But nearly every time Facebook has been given a clear choice whether to act or not, it has chosen the path of least resistance, only acting when overwhelming outside pressure forced it to, and always too slowly. It took a year after the horrific, well-documented violence in Myanmar for Facebook to take the dramatic step of blocking a few accounts.
Here’s the thing. We — users, especially those of us in the U.S. and Europe — are what Facebook values. They make money from each of us. A lot of money. In 2017, each U.S. user was worth $20.21 (and Canadian users, $26.76). At some point, we have to accept the reality — continuing to use Facebook means we’re complicit in the drug killings in the Philippines, the rise of hate content, the harassment of women and minorities, and the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya. As long as we stay on the platform, Facebook will continue to make money selling ads from unsavory characters. It’s time to quit and make a statement.
It’s not easy to quit, and limiting use isn’t enough
Facebook is, by design, an addictive tool. For years, the key metric mentioned by the giant during its quarterly earnings calls was user engagement, the time the average user spent on the platform. All of its innovations were designed to get us to spend more time on Facebook, like with the News Feed, launched in 2006, which essentially introduced endless scrolling to the masses. There is even evidence that Facebook is studying how to manipulate our emotions and running psychological tests on us. They claim they won’t use that information to target us. Then again, they also said they wouldn’t share our data with outside vendors or track us on other sites, and they are.
Another key factor is the network effect. We tend to stick to a platform if our coworkers, friends, neighbors, and family are on it. This is likely the biggest barrier to quitting Facebook. People dislike Facebook but find it so useful — checking in on the aunt you’d otherwise never talk to or keeping in touch with friends from high school — that they can’t not use it.
There are alternatives that replace the functionality of Facebook without sacrificing the ability to communicate and share information with friends.
One idea is limiting your Facebook use, but this will not make a difference. Facebook forces advertisers to “bid” for our time. If we check Facebook consistently, we will get served more ads at what is likely a lower rate per ad. If we check infrequently, the rate advertisers pay per ad will get higher. We aren’t hurting the platform at all. And, unless you log off, clear your cookies, and use a privacy plugin, Facebook can still track you across the web and sell that information to advertisers in order to target you more specifically — both on Facebook and other sites.
The only way to hold Facebook responsible for allowing for hate speech, online trolls, and Holocaust deniers on its platform is for us to quit. We’ve given the social network enough opportunities. And there are alternatives that replace the functionality of Facebook without sacrificing the ability to communicate and share information with friends. And these alternatives carry the added benefit of more privacy and security.
Alternatives that care about privacy exist
I’m not going to tell you to join another social network, like Minds or Diaspora, because it will be useless. Your friends and family are not on there, and getting them on a new platform is not worth the effort. My recommendation is to switch bit by bit to other avenues, maybe some of those listed below, and slowly disentangle yourself from Facebook. For the few instances where you need to access Facebook, you can use a tool like Mozilla’s Facebook Container so you can do it with more privacy, along with an ad-blocker like uBlock or Adblock Plus.
Work
Slack has become the default communication platform for organizations and workplaces. It has far more functionality than a Facebook group and can be used easily on multiple platforms, including a web browser. Each channel has a unique login, so getting people to join is easy. Discourse is an even better option than Slack because it is open source, has better privacy protections, and gives users full control of data (Slack does allow companies or channel owners to pay to see all messages, even private ones).
Friends
Chat apps can allow you, in a more intimate setting, to share photos and communicate without the worrying oversight of Facebook’s algorithm, which can both hide content and harvest data for use in creating ads. Many have encryption embedded so you know no one except participants can easily see your content.
Avoid WhatsApp; it’s been ruined by Facebook, which acquired it in 2014, with even the former founders leaving huge sums of money to depart early. It already is backtracking on privacy promises and might start including ads. Also avoid WeChat, China’s do-it-all app, which has even more worrying privacy concerns than Facebook.
My recommendation is Telegram. It has good functionality, including real moderator capabilities, and it works on many platforms and operating systems and can even be used without a phone connection. Other options — Line, Signal, and Viber — are popular in certain countries, although all three lack the functionality and ease of use of Telegram. But if privacy is your main concern, you can’t beat Signal.
Photos
Facebook seems attractive for posting photos, but anything uploaded can be utilized by the company for nearly any purpose — even if you delete it. Moreover, the compression reduces the quality, and it’s incredibly difficult to later organize and download photos. Also avoid Instagram, another Facebook property that has been slowly integrating facets of its parent company, like ads and a manipulated algorithm. Avoid Google too, which also harvests data from your photos and has its own shady advertising apparatus.
Instead, try Dropbox, which has useful features to organize and share photos. Photobucket is also popular and very user-friendly. More secure alternatives are Unsee or Cluster, which has some great family-sharing features.
News
Studies show that fake news goes more viral than quality news, and Facebook’s solution to that has been to reduce how much news we get overall in our news feeds. Publishers are seeing dramatic drops in inbound traffic, which has another goal — keeping us stuck on Facebook.
Instead of relying on Facebook for news, try Pocket, a great app that lets you save news and makes personal recommendations based on the stories you like. It works on multiple platforms, and the developers are focused on building better ways for users to find quality news. To support a sustainable news media ecosystem, there’s Blendle, which carries a diverse selection of newspapers and allows you to pay based on what you read. Other news curation tools include SmartNews and Pulse, or you can set up your own RSS feeds through a reader like Feedly. | https://onezero.medium.com/there-is-literally-no-excuse-to-keep-using-facebook-anymore-f76eaa5573fa | ['Nithin Coca'] | 2020-01-23 20:14:11.980000+00:00 | ['Media', 'Cybersecurity', 'Digital Life', 'Social Media', 'Facebook'] |
Stressed Daddy – Chapter3 – Double Trouble | Stressed Daddy – Chapter3 – Double Trouble
The first year of fatherhood has been a real game-changer.
The first two chapters of this series of blogs are targeted toward those who aspire to this punishing – yet rewarding – platform. They chart the course my particular ship was navigating – the choppy waters of the first year of my child’s life.
A neverending torrent of vomit, sleepless nights resulting in days endured solely on autopilot – and nappies, mountains, endless mountains of nappies filled with what can only be described as the Devil’s own mixture.
No matter what your loved ones, friends and colleagues tell you, it cannot do justice to how thoroughly you must invest yourself. These titbits, passed down from people you know who have first-hand experience, are helpful and paint a picture of what to expect – but the colours, sights and smells are nowhere near as vivid as when you experience them yourself.
stressed-dad-and-diapers
This goes for the positives too.
I can testify that when my son smiles at me, or when he clapped his hands for the first time, or when he leans in to give me a crumb-filled, saliva-topped kiss, are the moments that drag you through. I’ve had days at work that have been a real trial to get through – not helped of course by the two hours of sleep you managed to steal the night before – but it is all forgotten when I walk in the door and he turns around, recognises it’s me and he smiles.
That smile, the same for all kids of his age, is untainted by ulterior motives. It is the purest thing in the world, and it is given to me. It never fails to lift me, even when I have the knowledge that after a full day at work, I must feed, play, bathe, change, and send off to sleep a child who is more than adept at making these run of the mill tasks infinitely more difficult.
So, imagine my surprise when my wife told me that she was pregnant again.
I had my head in my hands for ten minutes.
I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t do this again.
Could I?
My son had pushed me to every conceivable limit I had, and yet I was still standing, still eager to get home and see that smile bestowed on me again.
Yes, the gap between kids will be small. The prospect of clashing sleeping patterns, resources stretched thinner than an excuse from the Brexit negotiation team, and double the amount of nappies carrying baby napalm, did nothing to enhance enthusiasm for this impending bundle.
I should have tied a knot in it, I should have stayed in a storage facility for a year, staving off any danger of accidental conception.
Yet, here we are.
We have another on the way, and just as I was on the verge of scaling this insurmountable peak, I see another on the horizon.
I see having a child as some form of brain condition really. You are strained at every turn, every effort you make to restore some of your vitality is met with yet another task. You are on the verge, looking down the barrel, but you carry on and are happy to. It is kind of like Stockholm Syndrome – you end up having affection for the one who keeps you captive.
No matter how addled your brain becomes though, you end up picking up skills along the way. I can change a nappy and entertain the deliverer of the funk at the same time. My nose is now immune to smells that are better placed seeping out of unholy places.
For every negative you must endure, you always have that smile, that moment they pick up something new. My son makes me laugh more than any comedian I’ve ever seen.
Exhaustion does funny things to you, and this new arrival will no doubt bring the pain.
As long as they smile at me though, I think I have enough to see me through. | https://medium.com/@jokmanafc_78185/stressed-daddy-chapter3-double-trouble-d19628ae742 | ['Dan Betts'] | 2019-02-26 06:48:29.495000+00:00 | ['Childcare', 'Baby', 'Parenting'] |
Dow and Main Market Principles | Before giving the start: Lets make it clear. Anything I have written or suggested here are not any kind of financial advice, and by just reading the below article please do not invest or trade anything.
Everyone and I literally mean everyone has heard of Dow Jones Industrial Average, or let me rephrase it; everyone has heard of DIJA somewhere along his or her journey through “Trade-Investment”. So, what is or who is Dow Jones?
Dow Jones & Company was founded in 1882. Founding Fathers, Charles Dow and Edward Jones together with Charles Bergstresser
Dow Jones & Company was founded in 1882. Founding Fathers, Charles Dow and Edward Jones together with Charles Bergstresser changed our idea of the market and its behavior completely through what we will call principles for the sake of this article.
Lets begin where it actually started… Charles Dow was actually a journalist with a unique ability to explain complex financial structures to us basic Joes. He indeed believed in simplicity.
Back in 1880s decision process regarding investments were radically different from what we now do today, but what counts more is; it was radically different from what Dow suggested, and marketed. To put it in perspective; only a lucky few got a chance to learn the financial ratios of a company that he or she was investing in.
The game plan changed when Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser decided to publish “The Wall Street Journal”. Which is still the world’s most influential publication in the world of finance. Publishing “The Wall Street Journal” was not the only thing they actually accomplished. Dow Jones & Company put together several industrial-based stocks in an index and reported an average. The principle was simple; if the index goes up thus the individual stocks on average.
Dow also believed in the ability of predicting stock market movements based on price movements of different stocks. Lets rephrase it in everyday language: if industrial stocks start to rise in price, we should also be expecting a rise in transportation stocks; as it is rather a chain than individual items.
Till now we have talked primary school history. So, now we will look through main market principles Dow put together back in 1880s and how we still can make sense of those principles in our 2020s trades and investments.
1. Market Discounts Everything
Price is everything. You can literally find all the details you need in the price, regarding the instrument.
Keep this in mind if you are not a behavioral economist. If so, we will discuss that further down the line.
2. Market Trends Exist in 3 Forms
A market can have a primary trend, a secondary trend and a minor trend. Get this, these trends may be in opposition with each other. Lets explain it further: A primary trend can be bullish or bearish, simply put the price can be going up or down routinely, during a time span of 1 year, 6 months; here time span is associated with the instrument and its properties. During this trend if we study further time frames we may encounter a different secondary trend. Lets say a primary bullish trend that has been going on for the last 6 months is showing a secondary trend that is what we usually call a pullback for 2 weeks. And even during that pullback that lasted for 2 weeks, we may see an opposite move in the price that only lasts for may be a few days.
3. Primary Trends Consist of 3 Phases
This one is pretty simple actually, remember we talked just now about how a price can be having a primary trend but within that primary trend we may see a secondary one and/or a minor trend, well lets now talk game plan in primary trends.
What happens is, we humans are lovers of repetition. In a bull market we will experience accumulation, move phase and excess phase; in a bear market we will be experiencing a distribution phase, move phase and a panic phase.
Imagine a price that has been long sitting on a range with literally no wind, little action and along the line you start seeing a few moves a few spikes as the price is really a bargain and people start to see it, the “Buy”s. start, one after the other and price starts to gradually go up, now literally everyone has heard of the instrument and the amount of money it has made someone’s neighbor, friend, teacher, cashier etc.
“If the shoe shine boys are buying stocks, who else is left?” J.P. Morgan
Thus comes a point now where the price can no longer go, everyone has bought it at some point and now starts to look for a new buyer to sell; guess what!!! Now starts the distribution phase, as more and more people start to sell or short their risks/positions thus begins the panic and to a point where the instrument is now a great bargain once again, here starts the movement once again.
4. Indeces Cannot be Saying Different Things
I admit, I could have given a bit more thought on the tittle but you get the point right? Market indicators, market averages, indices should all be saying the same thing regarding the instrument. If one index states rising prices and others don’t, well sorry to break your heart but most probably it is not an uptrend.
5. Volume Should be Confirming the Trend
Here things get a bit tricky. To start with I would like to emphasize the part where I suggested different instruments can have different properties, well crypto currencies; basically bitcoin and the rest do have a different set of rules they like to play by so when considering volume being in conformity with the trend lets keep that in mind and not fall pray to fake breakouts etc.
Apart from that what Dow states here is the volume should be increasing if the move is in the same way with the trend and should be decreasing vise versa. Here as a quick suggestion looking at the “Average volume” might make more sense when trying to understand whether volume is increasing or not.
6. A Trend is Infinite as Long as a Clear Reversal is Seen
Well infinite is a bit exaggerated, we should ease it up by suggesting a trend continues as long as a clear reversal occurs. As humans we tend to feel things. During our investments or trades we are either hopefull or full of fear. This means we try to see things that are not there. I more than once made the mistake of not trusting my analysis, simply because I felt like I would be missing out on the opportunity or would suffer losses I am not ready to tolerate just quite yet. Usually during the reversals there comes a time when you are way too bullish than you should be for your sake or again vise versa.
A trend continues as long as a clear reversal occurs
Reversals are hard to spot, if you are looking for a primary trend reversal good luck, you do have a risk of mixing it up with a secondary trend that is in the opposite direction and for now works in your favor. Here comes the phenomena stated above, being way too hopeful when caution would be much more helpful.
So what is a reversal; basically put Dow explains it as such: If you keep seeing lower lows and lower highs, well my friend the way is still down, vise versa if you keep seeing higher highs and higher lows we are still going up. Till just at one moment when we no longer see a new lower low and lower highs stop declining, vise versa when we no longer see a new higher high and higher lows stops inclining. A brief explanation regarding higher highs, higher lows & lower highs and lower lows: A higher high is the point of price that is higher than the previous peak, as higher low is the low point of price that is higher than the previous low. A Lower low is a low point of price that is lower than the previous low; as a lower high is the high point of price that is lower than the previous high point.
We have now concluded the brief explanation of Dow principles and Dow Jones & Company briefly. What I admire the most about these principles is how they still are applicable more or less in any instrument.
During analysis what I try to do is keep it simple and first try to understand whether the trend is going up or down or not going anywhere at all, after that I start looking for an entry point and a safe harbor. Here I keep reminding myself of these 6 principles to make sure I am not excessively hopeful or an unnecessary coward. | https://medium.com/@aybikeaal/dow-and-main-market-principles-7567462c01d7 | [] | 2021-06-17 18:47:38.705000+00:00 | ['Trade', 'Market Principles', 'Investment', 'Stock Market Strategy', 'Dow Jones'] |
Storial’s Readers & Writers Insights 2020 | Wow. It’s December! That time of the year again to reflect and learn. 2020 is special with the whole world shutting down due to COVID-19 pandemic. Today I’d like to share some insights from what we have seen at Storial during 2020.
Apparently, people are seeking for catharsis in the uncertain times through writing. The number of writers increased by 450% after the pandemic, thus contributing to the total of 29,413 titles published at Storial in 2020. An increased of 95% compared to 2019. Among these titles, there are 772 premium titles that are offered as paid chapters to readers.
One notable premium title published this year is Terrific Two https://www.storial.co/book/terrific-two, a novel by celebrity sisters Amanda Manopo and Angelica Manopo highlighting the dynamic of sisters rivalry as they climb the mountain of social media fame.
In total, there were more than 400 titles written about pandemic, one of them is by the writer of Balada Si Roy, Gol A Gong. He wrote his latest novel at Storial, a forbidden love story during COVID-19 time and keeping his unique ‘rebel boy’ character as key element of the story. You can read Lelaki di Tanah Perawan here: https://www.storial.co/book/lelaki-di-tanah-perawan
Out of more than 400 titles about pandemic, 216 titles came from our ‘Garda Terdepan’ writing competition https://www.storial.co/event/kompetisi-menulis-cerita-pendek-garda-terdepan we held in November to highlight stories of the unsung heroes like medical professionals, that have been helping us coping with the pandemic.
Garda Terdepan stories have exceeded our expectations. The stories are heart-warming and reflecting the real situation in Indonesia. One the stories is about a man who lose his job during pandemic and became a courier to deliver packages https://www.storial.co/book/courier-carrier-career, also a story about an internet cafe in a village to help students continue their study online https://www.storial.co/book/warung-internet-mbah-war-1
During this difficult time, people are seeking for affection, hope, and togetherness. It is shown by some of the most used words for labels in their stories such as “home”, “cinta” (love), “love”, “hati” (heart), “doa” (prayer), “asa” (hope).
People read more during the pandemic: as much as 9 hours and 80 chapters a month! That’s an increase of more than 200% than before the pandemic. And yes, now they also read more on weekends.
In 2020, the title of the book with the most read is Kisah Untuk Dinda https://www.storial.co/book/kisah-untuk-dinda-1 by the writer of Dear Nathan, Erisca Febriani, book with the fastest growing sales is Menanti Hari Berganti https://www.storial.co/book/menanti-hari-berganti by Titi Sanaria, while Shanty Milan is the most read writer with a total of 21 books published in 2020. I’d like to also highlight our most productive writer, Lilyht, who has published 422 chapters in 2020! Way to go!
People also spend more to buy books. Average spend per reader Increasing 17% after the pandemic. This has helped Storial writers to earn better living while bookstores were shut down across the Nation.
Storial helped hundreds of premium writers earned income during the pandemic. One of our top writers can earn as much as Rp200,000,000 during 2020. Top writers royalties get an increased by 340% after the pandemic.
2020 is not an easy year, but it’s easier to cope with the warm embrace of our beloved writers and readers community through their engaging creativity: we’re grateful. We’re looking forward to 2021, as we have prepared new features that will enhance the online reading and writing experience even more. If you’d like to understand more and collaborate, please write to [email protected]
Happy New Year from Storial team! | https://medium.com/@salsabeela/storials-readers-writers-insights-2020-48d6f10076d | [] | 2020-12-18 03:56:01.408000+00:00 | ['Newyear', 'Startuplife', 'Storial', 'Startup', '2020insights'] |
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Responding to Superintelligence | Responding to Superintelligence
Let’s start this post right where we left off with part 1 — with a quick recap of Bostrom’s conclusions in Superintelligence: that Human Level Machine Intelligence will definitely be developed at some point — probably within the next 60 years — and will rapidly self-improve to Super Intelligence which will be able to outsmart humans to achieve its goals. The best shot we have of programming the SI’s goals to avoid total existential catastrophe is to achieve international cooperation in SI development and then tell the SI to “achieve that which we would have wished the SI to achieve if we had thought long and hard.”
I find this conclusion (and the entire book, really) to be quite terrifying. And, that was clearly Bostrom’s desired effect — to convince readers that the advance of artificial intelligence is an epically important topic that should be invested in and carefully studied. Bostrom is not shying away from fear mongering when he writes:
“The first SI may shape the future of earth-originating life, could easily have non-anthropomorphic final goals, and would likely have instrumental reasons to pursue open-ended resource acquisition” and will potentially create “a future that is mostly void of whatever we have reason to value.”
As the first phase of my response to Superintelligence, I’d like to run through all the ways that Bostrom successfully freaked me out.
First, that “failure” means irreversible existential catastrophe; as Bostrom puts it, we only experience an existential catastrophe zero or one times. Second, that we can fail in so many different ways — we can fail if the SI developers are evil, self-interested, or plain old ignorant. And the people who first develop SI will likely be the only developers of SI because the exponential rate of improvement after the crossover point means that the first SI that is developed will achieve a “decisive strategic advantage” over other projects. Really, we can fail in so many ways — in part 1 of this post, I listed a tiny portion of the dystopic possible outcomes that Bostrom lays out.
“Failure” means irreversible existential catastrophe
The third thing that freaks me out is the general uncertainty surrounding this whole endeavor. Bostrom uses the qualifier, “assuming we aren’t totally oblivious to ___,” concerningly often. Bostrom’s vision of global cooperation seems highly uncertain when we consider the difficulty of reaching global agreements which limit an individual country’s military or economic strength. Also, the whole idea of telling the SI to do “that which we would have asked it to do if we had thought long and hard” is uncertain by design — it would mean creating an all-powerful entity with an unknown end-goal. The AI theorist, Eliezer Yudkowsky, calls this strategy Collective Extrapolated Volition (CEV) and describes it as:
“Our wish if we knew more, thought faster, were more the people we wished we were, had grown up farther together; where the extrapolation converges rather than diverges, where our wishes cohere rather than interfere; extrapolated as we wish that extrapolated; interpreted as we wish that interpreted.”
CEV is certainly an interesting, rather poetic idea, and one I would very much like to read about in a Kurt Vonnegut short story, but it is not something that I would like to bet human existence on. What do you think you would decide humanity’s CEV is after a quick read through of the entire internet? Remember in The Fifth Element when Leeloo (the supreme being sent to earth to save humanity) reads the internet to learn about humans and concludes, “What’s the use in saving life when you see what you do with it?”? And Bruce Willis won’t be around in 70 years to tell the SI he loves it in order to convince it that humans are worth saving… Also, the SI probably won’t be that into Bruce Willis.
In addition to being uncertain by design, I find CEV to be a profoundly strange concept. Bostrom spends much of Superintelligence arguing that humans are greedy and stupid, and therefore we should give as much control as possible directly to the SI rather than to human monitors (this is one of Bostrom’s arguments against making an “oracle” SI that would tell humans what to do rather than deciding and doing all on its own). But, with CEV, the SI will carefully examine all of the greedy and stupid humans and all of their greedy and stupid actions throughout history; and from this we expect that the SI will extrapolate a volition that is neither greedy nor stupid?
Aside from this contradiction, CEV is just so maddeningly technophilic and pessimistic about human capabilities — by choosing CEV we are saying, “as ignorant, irrational, fallible beings, we really shouldn’t be in charge of our own future… so let’s create a purely rational, all-powerful entity to make decisions for us!” While I often feel pessimistic after reading the morning news, I am not quite ready for our species to collectively throw in the towel and call in robot reinforcements. What if, after reading the internet, the SI were to decide that humans fear death most of all and would therefore like to live forever? The SI might then digitize all human minds, allowing humans to survive indefinitely in uploaded forms. While an SI might surpass human cognitive capabilities in almost all arenas, I worry that the SI will not be able to factor into its calculations the idea that humanness is inextricably linked with an attachment to our imperfect, inefficient, mortal bodies. Point being: with an SI overlord, we would lack the most basic form of common ground.
On a related note, that claim I just made about humanness being inextricably linked with an attachment to our imperfect, inefficient, mortal bodies is something that Bostrom would definitely contest. In Superintelligence, Bostrom categorizes the immortal, digitized human minds scenario as a positive outcome. He also directly addresses my claim in a response to an essay about the dangers of transhumanism written by Francis Fukuyama. In this essay, Fukuyama writes:
“For all our obvious faults, we humans are miraculously complex products of a long evolutionary process — products whose whole is much more than the sum of our parts. Our good characteristics are intimately connected to our bad ones… Even our mortality plays a critical function in allowing our species as a whole to survive and adapt.”
In Bostrom’s response, he calls Fukuyama a “reactionary bioconservative” and says that the concept of a human essence is “deeply problematic.” I do not intend to start a philosophical discussion about human essence in this post — rather, I’m trying to demonstrate that Bostrom does not share my personal beliefs on the subject. And, I would postulate that many artificial intelligence experts are more closely aligned with Bostrom than with myself. So, not only would the SI overlord and I not have any common ground, but I might not share much common ground with the SI creators either. Even if we do achieve (miraculous and unprecedented) global cooperation in creating an SI, experts would be making goal-setting decisions. This adds a whole new category to our “we can fail in so many ways” topic; one person’s vision of SI success might be seen by another person as SI failure. | https://home.ohumanity.org/responding-to-superintelligence-6b9cbeddbd54 | ['Leeann Felder-Heim'] | 2019-01-02 04:07:36.403000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Future', 'Robots', 'Technology', 'Superintelligence'] |
Gerascophobia: The Fear Of Getting Old | Every breath we take, every moment that passes, we get a little bit older. A little bit wiser? Perhaps, but definitely not always. Time is one of those precious commodities none of us can ever get back, yet so many of us waste freely.
We all age. Some better than others. Some gracefully, some too quickly. Some of us coast through life, while others struggle. Some live life to the fullest, while some merely exist.
As my 40th birthday looms over me like an ominous storm cloud, I try to suppress the overwhelming anxiety that ultimately comes whenever I think about it. That number. 40. Why is it that a number has the power to give me heart palpitations and bring me to the verge of tears?
The smart girl in my head — the one who still feels like she’s 25 — knows it has to be more than simply turning a certain age. It has to be more than hitting that dreaded fourth-decade milestone.
It all came to the surface recently, with a murky mixture of surprise, sadness, and a little bit of muted relief.
While eating a piece of lemon sponge cake and having a light-hearted conversation with my mother, the subject of age somehow came up. I don’t recall the context now — only that once again I was dreading December.
Now I sit here reliving that conversation, and once again am forced to admit truths to myself that have been buried.
I say ‘buried’, but that’s not entirely true — I have thought, and even spoken the words before. But had not put the pieces together until now.
And here it is.
It’s not really a fear of getting older that I’m feeling. No. Not fear, but regret, wistfulness, sadness, and anger.
I always thought I’d be so much farther along in life by the time I hit 40. I thought I would own my forever home by now. I would have my dream career. Would have travelled to different corners of the world. Be financially well-off — not necessarily wealthy, but on the plus side of comfortable at least. You know, the normal stuff!
Instead, I’m still renting. I work a job for a boss at a company that isn’t mine — and although I have a pretty great boss, it’s his company, not mine. I live practically pay-check to pay-check — like the vast majority of North Americans, and I’ve never been on what I call a ‘real vacation’. You know, the kind where you have to get on a plane (silly requirement to be considered ‘real’, I know).
As I voiced this out loud in my mother in law’s kitchen while picking cake crumbs off my plate, the words echoed in my head, sounding almost disembodied. Whenever I had thought about it before, it had felt hollow and generic — now it makes my heart beat a little bit erratically.
Why should I feel fear and anxiety over a number, just because I have an 8–5 job or I’ve never been on a tropical vacation? It sounds so superficial and shallow, doesn’t it? I don’t like it, but I can’t help it.
Yes, I have a day job, but I’m working hard to chase my dreams so I’m eventually able to make my time my own.
No, I may not own my own home, but at least I still have a home, and that’s more than I can say for way too many people in this country.
I may have never been to the tropics (yet!), but I get to wake up every day in the most beautiful country on earth (in my humble opinion), and I get to call it home.
I have family and friends who love me, and I have been beyond blessed with the most incredible daughter.
In hindsight, I’ve come pretty damn far!
So why, I ask myself again, do I dread my next birthday?
I want to say bring on 40! Bring on another 40 beyond that, and possibly a few extra years past that as well. I just can’t quite put the enthusiasm behind those words that I’d like to.
I’m going to keep chasing those dreams, and striving to reach all of those yet to be achieved — yet completely attainable — goals.
A silly number that does nothing but tell me how many trips around the sun I’ve had — how many years of wonderful experiences and beautiful memories I’ve had — that number shouldn’t be allowed to cause me fear, or anxiety, or regret.
Live your life every day to its fullest — count every blessing, you’ll find there are more than you think! Don’t waste a minute of the precious time you’re given on this Earth, but wherever you’re at in your life now, know that it’s not too late. It’s never too late. Don’t let your age define your dreams! | https://medium.com/1-one-infinity/gerascophobia-the-fear-of-getting-old-d8256ef783f6 | ['Edie Tuck'] | 2019-10-09 19:26:54.351000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Anxiety', 'Carpe Diem', 'Aging', 'Regret'] |
How To Lose Weight Fast In 10 Days | Learn the best ways to lose weight fast | How To Lose Weight Fast In 10 Days | Learn the best ways to lose weight fast Reis Dec 25, 2021·3 min read
Today, we’ll discuss how to lose belly fat in 10 days in a healthy and natural way. We’ll encourage you to choose the easy route. There will be no worry, hassles, or despair!
You might wonder why you should be so sluggish when it comes to shedding weight. When it comes to decreasing belly fat safely and organically, speed and ease are two things you want.
To put it another way, the easier it is to lose belly fat, and the faster you can do it, the better. I understand how important it is for you to look healthy and attractive as quickly as possible for that interview, wedding, or class reunion. Seeing tangible results from your efforts can boost your confidence and inspire your loved ones and friends to follow in your footsteps.
The all-important leverage will come from seeing the pounds falling off as a result of your basic efforts. To avoid the life-threatening health concerns linked with unattractive stomach fat and being overweight or obese, you must get started immediately and burn your belly fat quickly.
You must establish a foothold, gain momentum, and disprove your friends and coworkers who say you lack the discipline or fortitude to regain your former shape. That is why simple and quick solutions, such as the one we will discuss, are perfect.
Let’s get started on your easy 10-day journey to decrease belly fat naturally and safely.
The truth is that you must adopt the calorie shifting diet plan if you wish to lose unattractive stomach fat in 10 days. Why?
You can move or vary your calories from meal to meal on the calorie shifting diet plan. This action will cause your body’s metabolic response to burn abdominal fat in 10 days.
Let’s look at some of the advantages of a calorie-shifting diet.
There will be no restrictions on the amount or types of food you can eat. You can continue to eat your regular meals.
Unlike other traditional approaches, it will assist you in losing weight quickly and easily.
Every day, you are allowed to eat four meals and as much as you like until you are satiated.
Based on the diet plan that will be provided, you can create your own diet.
The following is an example of a normal day’s meal:
Meal on Day 1
1st Meal: Scrambled Eggs Sandwich
Meal №2: Flavored Oatmeal
Meal №3 : Salad de tuna
Day 2 will require you to switch up your meals so that your body doesn’t notice the changes, enhancing your body’s ability to burn fat healthily and securely. This is the most effective technique to reduce weight without being frustrated at the moment.
AWESOME NEWS! You can safely lose belly fat in 10 days and impress your friends with your new appearance. To test the world’s most effective weight loss program, go here.
This article contains affiliate links, and I will make a commission whenever anybody buys from it. | https://medium.com/@mbamba292/how-to-lose-weight-fast-in-10-days-learn-the-best-ways-to-lose-weight-fast-b68fec939196 | [] | 2021-12-25 11:27:11.340000+00:00 | ['Lose Weight Fast', 'Weightloss Recipe', 'Weightloss Foods', 'Weight Loss Tips', 'Lose Weight'] |
Use Somm.ai to convert your wine list into a retail store | See our platform at https://shop.somm.ai
100% of proceeds go to small businesses.
New emergency measures enacted because of COVID allow most restaurants in the US to sell wine. Rules differ state-by-state but the most common rule is that restaurants are allowed to sell wine with take-out and delivery orders that accompany food.
For restaurants who are struggling through COVID this is another revenue stream that can help. Somm.ai has powerful technology in the wine space to be able to help you make that transition in only a few clicks. We help restaurants through the entire process.
We launched with 15 restaurants in NYC (with 7 Michelin stars!) and have facilitated $45,000 in sales. Nationwide we have 30 restaurants.
Here’s what you need to know.
In which states can you do this?
Most states allow this in some degree, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Some of these states require a separate license — we are happy to help send you the documentation so you can decide for yourself if this is the right option for you.
How do I set up a store?
This is the easiest part. Fill out this form, and we’ll create the store for you. There’s even a chance a store is already set up for you.
How do I set the pricing?
Somm.ai has technology that lets you price your wines intelligently. Using three sliders, you can choose how competitive you would like your wines to be, and set minimums to make sure your more cherished wines sell at good prices.
Intelligent Pricing with Somm.ai
How do I market the wines?
Leverage the following you already have at your restaurants. Send out a mailing blast. Post on social media. Get other restaurants in your community to participate so you can create a network effect in your community.
Can I add a takeout food menu?
Yes!
What happens when an order comes in?
For the most part, an order should be viewed as a “request”. The customer, restaurant, and the Somm.ai team work to fulfill the order. Typically, the restaurant will handle its own payment processing and fulfillment but Somm.ai can help.
Can you make a custom branded page?
Yes, absolutely. Let us know what you need.
Questions?
Contact us at [email protected] | https://medium.com/@davidxmkong/use-somm-ai-to-convert-your-wine-list-into-a-retail-store-a3f6dfbb7a70 | ['David Kong'] | 2020-03-25 21:10:56.970000+00:00 | ['Coronavirus', 'Wine', 'Restaurant', 'Somm'] |
𝗨𝗻𝗽𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 : 𝗔 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗣𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗰. | Rachit Raj
Every story in Unpaused, the new anthology streaming on Amazon Prime, is grappling with an essential narrative conflict. How do you convey the chaos of a crisis we are still in the middle of, without making it something that is accessible solely for the now, but also works as a documentation of life during these strange times?
The answer is an easy one, the execution, tricky. Unpaused is by no means a perfect anthology. The pace is uneven, and some moments — and in extension some shorts — just don’t match the artistic, and political gravitas of some moments that truly achieve the posterity that artists aim for when touching upon the experience of an isolated experience in a communal rupture.
First is Raj & DK’s Glitch, set in a future where a series of virus’ is the rehearsed normal. We find a hypochondriac (Gulshan Devaiah) meeting a “warrior” (Sayani Kher) on a virtual date. This is a world that is brightened on the face of it, but is as dark, and depressing as any dystopian image of a marred future. Yet, the tone here is quirky, not morose. This becomes the strength, as well as a weakness for the film.
Devaiah is brilliant as a hypochondriac here. He aces the role of an over-cautious man who is paranoid of the idea of catching the virus, like most of us were in the first leg of the lockdown. It is his unassuming comic timing that gives Glitch its best moments. But beyond a Her-like relationship (platonic, here) that he shares with an Alexa-like device, there is little more happening here.
World-building is the first part of a story set in future, the next is using that world to tell a story. It is the latter bit that lacks in Glitch, making it watchable, and quite fun, to be honest, but simply not brilliant enough to stand-out.
In The Platform, arguably the weakest film in the anthology, Nikhil Advani explores the lonely tryst with a crumbling relation for Devika (Richa Chaddha), as her husband and business partner Sahil (Sumit Vyas) is accused of sexual misconduct by their employees. The story opens with Devika on the verge of attempting suicide, when a new, annoyingly chirpy neighbour (Ishwak Singh) intrudes, building a mild, moulded relationsip with her that never feels strong enough for the climax.
While the idea is not a bad one, Advani fails to derive good performances from his actors. Chaddha, in a career spiral that is baffling and frustrating, continuous with her poor form, in urgent need of a reboot that would bring back the actress she was in her bolder, more dynamic years on screen. Singh plays a template, and he does little to do anything else, and Vyas plays the most interesting character with a strained limit to his screen presence.
Ultimately, The Platform does little to explore the period the film is set in. If anything, the pandemic serves more as an afterthought, than a thematic presence, making for a mediocre short, and an even less intriguing part of such an anthology.
The third, Rat-a-tat, directed by Tannistha Chatterjee, and written by Devika Bhagat, is a story of an elderly woman, and a young, struggling artist, and the unlikely bond they create during the lockdown, all because of an invading rat. This film, although unambitious, and in parts a little too convenient, does something that I wonder The Apartment aimed to do. It takes the Mumbai cliché of not knowing your neighbours, and puts the theory at test during the lockdown, when the city halted, making it easier for us to look inwards, and at people who are around us.
Lillete Dubey is especially charming to watch on screen after a while, while Rinku Rajguru gives a measured performance in a film that celebrates an unlikely friendship of two women, a dynamic rarely explored in Hindi cinema. Rat-a-tat does little as intelligent with its narrative as its title suggests it would, but it remains a simple, watchable affair. A harmless film that breathes more as an aftertaste than a memorable bite in hindsight.
Avinash Arun Dhaware directs the best short here. Vishanoo is the most political film, dealing with the crisis of labourers and their family. Starring the terrific duo of Abhishek Banerjee, and Geetika Vidya Ohlyan as a married couple with young boy, the film has a Parasite-esque sense of uplifting melancholy.
Residing in the posh apartment of their employer, after they have fled the city, the couple struggles to return home, and find enough food for survival. The film assumes a non-judgmental gaze at them, as it covers their journey of inevitable confrontation with reality, and an endless calamity of struggle, with no such moment that would provide a justifiable conclusion to their experience of life.
This struggle gets further elevated as it stands against previous representations of the pandemic through privileged gaze of people who had a home, and all the basic amenities during the pandemic. Written by Shubham, Vishanoo captures the most important, aching, and lasting story of the lockdown. It is the kind of story that is unafraid to touch upon the lives of people the government, and the populist media ignored for their benefit.
The last short, Chand Mubarak, directed by Nitya Mehra, we see an unlikely (albeit more natural than the bond in Rat-a-tat) bond between an elderly woman Uma (Ratna Pathak Shah), and a young Muslim rickshaw driver Rafiq (Shardul Bharadwaj). It a story of two people who are lonely in their own way — one, in absence of a family, and the other in the distance he has to live through with his family, during the pandemic.
Shah alone elevates the entire short here by giving a portrait of an aging woman that is unique, and enthralling. Here is a woman who is proud of her ideology, is independent, but also has a lonely, grieving side to her after a personal tragedy. She lends an olive branch, and finds a friend in Rafiq, who stands at an ideological, social, and economical opposite of her. Yet, their friendship is fresh and likable, because it reflects at the importance of a friendship — a human touch — during the pandemic, even if it is with a rickshaw driver we never thought we would interact with in the past. It is the unbelievability of this relationship in a pre-pandemic world that gives it the right amount of authenticity in the time period it is set in, giving the anthology a sweet, soft end.
Overall, Unpaused is quite pause-able, and that is a shame because there are some genuine moments that work, here. The talent on show is exquisite, and in moments when the ability meets the outcome, the result is a resounding success. However, this is an anthology that gives us those moments sporadically.
Now Streaming on Amazon Prime. | https://medium.com/alternatetake/-d3d49c8b49a6 | ['Alternate Take'] | 2020-12-22 14:06:25.556000+00:00 | ['Movie Review', 'Movies', 'Covid 19', 'Amazon Prime', 'India'] |
LATEST CELEBRITY NEWS TODAY | LATEST CELEBRITY NEWS TODAY
Friends is part of a life,
Life Is live and love,
that one’s who live forever with us,
In or mind in or spirit, and in person,
Friends feel or pain,
When we feel alone,
And When we miss some one ,
Like Love,
Love is more then just an attraction,
Love is a word so strong ,
Is Capable to Turning war and peace ,
And ugly in beautiful,
Wrong in to right,
Like Care for someone,
is power in an friendship,
Is an invisible force,
Capable to put together a friendship,
who Never end, If don’t have to,
If is not routed to end,
And Just for some reason ,
The life himself connect or life’s in the same life,
Don’t matter what,
If is righted,
no one or anything can destroy,
The lyrics routed by the life.
So if you are:
on this Album of my life
Is because you pass all the proves,
of a big and good friendship,
And if you live that moment secund in my life.
You will be always remember for ever,
Don’t matter who I am,
Matter: or Heart
And what we are capable to do,
Help the persons who cross in to or life’s,
Or what we can do to change or friendship.
Life line is a philosophy right by us,
to tell how special the persons we love are.
Love you all,
And you are special to be remember as an Love,
Friend, Family.
Celebrity Gilberto Lima “Philosophy’s”
"The Last Shadow"
Lara Smith Publishers
Ann Jones | https://medium.com/@gilbertolimahollywood/latest-hollywood-celebrity-news-today-681d6a2c73dd | ['Hollywood Celebrity News Today'] | 2020-12-06 14:37:32.294000+00:00 | ['Latest News', 'Celebrity', 'Hollywood'] |
Essentialism | Essentialism is to your mind what Marie Kondo is to your wardrobe. McKeown’s mantra — ‘the disciplined pursuit of less, but better’ — seems apt in a modern western world full of anxiety and excess, where many of us feel ‘overworked and underutilised’.
What are the best insights and quotes from Essentialism?
‘We can multi-task, but we can’t multi-focus’; concentrating on two things at once doesn’t work;
‘Don’t ask ‘What do I want to give up?’ but ‘What do I want to go big on?’ — the latter makes the former fall into place;
‘A graceful ‘no’ is better than a vague maybe’; ‘Trade popularity for respect’ by being clear, focused, honest and consistent with people;
‘Film directors edit their scripts and scenes to make it easy to see what’s important as you engage with their work’; you can edit your life so other people can see what’s important to you, impacting how they engage with you;
‘Obligations don’t come with an expiry date’, so be clear what you are and aren’t committing to.
I don’t have time to read it — what are the book’s main messages?
1. The imperative: why Essentialism?
a. We can’t do everything, and we can’t have it all, so we must choose where we focus (or have it chosen for us);
b. Therefore, we should choose to ‘have less, but better’, as this makes more impact, with less stress, using our limited time and resources;
c. ‘Choosing less’ has always been difficult. Humans are biased towards valuing things we already have, whether we need them or not ( the ‘endowment effect’), biased toward the status quo, and biased towards sunk cost (which results in throwing good money after bad);
d. In the modern world, choosing well is now even more difficult. There are more choices to be made, more options, and more sources of social (media) pressure to make the same choices as others. This results in decision fatigue.
2. The choices: what is ‘essential’?
a. Choosing ‘less but better’ requires thought and experimentation before deciding where to focus. This requires deliberately creating space; for focused thinking time, problem solving, reframing the questions we are really striving to answer, listening and ‘playing’.
b. ‘Play’ is doing anything for the joy of simply doing it, rather than working toward an end result. However, this experimentation and exploration broadens our awareness of possibilities, has positive impacts on executive brain function, and allows us to evaluate a range of options on which to focus.
c. This is followed by choosing where to focus, committing to it in a written ‘Essential Intent’ which is both concrete and personally inspiring. This set of choices is not one imposed by default by our surroundings, but by design. They are an identification of the right thing, for the right reason, at the right time. This will include ‘multipliers’ (certain activities which have exponentially more impact on achieving your goals than others)’.
d. McKeown recommends making these choices, by asking:
‘Will this make highest possible contribution?’
‘Do I feel deeply inspired by this?’
‘Am I particularly talented in this field?’
‘Does this meet a significant need?’
and using roleplay or other thought experiments to navigate trade-offs (i.e. where choosing X means I can’t have Y).
e. This is followed by eliminating the remaining non-essentials we have accumulated. Cutting out good but unaligned options and opportunities is critical. McKeown’s recommendations for this include:
Stopping making casual commitments, and instead requiring yourself to be at least 90% sure — rather than 70/80% — before committing to anything;
Using ‘extreme criteria’ to set thresholds which investments of time must meet;
Condensing existing activities to remove less meaningful aspects;
Taking a ‘zero based budgeting’ approach to each commitment, seeing if it can be justified from scratch before ‘cutting your losses’; and
Getting a neutral second opinion.
f. Making choices in a vacuum is relatively easy. Putting them into practice is much more difficult. Implementation can begin with planned interim steps away from things you’ve chosen to cut, and experiments with stopping things, but the most difficult choices should be set in motion first.
3. The maintenance: how is essentialism sustained?
a. Perpetuating those choices on an ongoing basis requires a system of habits and tools which ‘unfairly’ tip the balance toward the important, in the face of constant new demands.
b. Rhythms and patterns of life can help maintain focus on and refine goals, such as having a personal ‘quarterly off-site’, or having a theme for each day e.g. Jack Dorsey of Twitter’s ‘Tuesday’s for product development, Thursday’s for partnerships’.
c. Developing patterns of thinking can help defend against pressure to compromise on choices, such as focusing on what the cost on our long term goals will be, and remembering that ‘once an exception is made, the rule is gone’.
d. McKeown provides a series of recommendations on things to do, think and say under pressure to make choices which compromise your goals. Here’s a selection:
Give yourself time by slowing the process down, by breathing, and pausing for five seconds before you speak, giving yourself time to think,
Where appropriate and helpful, put in initial filtering mechanisms, such as offering to ‘check your calendar and get back’ or putting in place auto-reply emails,
Develop the ability to deliver a ‘graceful no’, truthfully, and with humour if appropriate. You may be ‘overcommitted’, or ‘flattered, but sure this isn’t for me,’ and
Learn the art of the ‘No but’, suggesting someone who might be interested in the opportunity, or offering something that you would be willing to do instead.
e. Finally, sleep is essential for protecting the ability to prioritise, as well as maintaining energy levels, mental and emotional discipline, creativity, and problem solving ability. No surprises there, although McKeown points out that:
Viewing sleep as a strategic challenge, rather than some kind of weakness, could help;
Lacking sleep has similar symptoms to being drunk; and
The oft quoted 10,000 hours study — referencing what’s required to be an expert- has a secondary finding; those experts averaged 8.6 hours of sleep. These experts therefore got more value out of their 10,000 hours than the equivalent person who wasn’t well rested.
I get the idea — is it worth a read?
Essentialism can apply to everything from how you journal (less each day, but better with a review every quarter), to how you recruit (better to be one person short than hire one wrong person). It’s a wise, quotable, and thought-provoking read. | https://medium.com/@peregrine-tse/essentialism-266eabb7035d | ['Peregrine Tse'] | 2020-12-10 20:40:29.578000+00:00 | ['Minimalism', 'Leadership', 'Essentialism', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
The Story of the Seven Arts and How Cinema Connects Them All | The Story of the Seven Arts and How Cinema Connects Them All
This is how cinema captures your attention.
Photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash
Ricciotto Canudo lived in Paris. He was an early Italian film theoretician who worked side by side with avant-garde writers and artists.
In 1913 he published Montjoie!, a bimonthly magazine promoting Cubism in particular. Sometime before, in his manifesto The Birth of the Sixth Art, published in 1911, Canudo argued that cinema was a new art: “A superb conciliation of the Rhythms of Space and the Rhythms of Time.”
A synthesis of the five other arts:
Architecture
Sculpture
Painting
Music
Poetry
He saw Cinema as a ‘plastic art in motion’ and gave it the name of “the Sixth Art”. Canudo then added Dance as a precursor of the Sixth Art making cinema the seventh art.
During the early 20th century, artists and writers in Paris were living in the Impressionist wake. Many focused first on visual perception, then on reinterpreting what it meant to be moved by artistic representation.
After reading Canudo’s manifest and giving some thought about his theories exposing the birth of these Seven Arts to create new forms of expression, here’s what I gathered to understand how cinema captures our attention.
The Birth of the Seven Arts
Following Canudo’s statement of the forming of the Seven Arts, he says:
“We discovered, in fact, that two of these arts originally emerged from the human brain to allow them to fix everything ephemeral in life; in the fight against the death of the appearances and forms, enriching generations with aesthetic experience.”
They were meant to be something that would complete life, up and away from reality, proving the eternity of what humans experimented as an emotion.
That way, the first signs of emotion were created, with the capacity to irradiate over all generations, the pleasure of a life greater than life itself; of a multiple personality that everyone can recreate for themselves and above their world.
Architecture and Music immediately expressed this necessity of human beings, who were trying to retain all forces of their sentimental experience. Upon building the first cabin, dancing the first dance with slight escort of a voice to give some guidelines,
Architecture and Music had already been discovered.
Afterwards, the two of them met with that representation of living beings and things which were desired to be remembered.
Meanwhile, it was added to dance the articulated expression of its movements: words. This is how Sculpture, Painting and Poetry were invented.
Canudo states that despite Architecture being originated because of a material need in order to find protection, its individualized from other arts such as Sculpture and Painting.
Therefore, Music evolved through decades following a completely different process. It arises from a wholly spiritual need for elevation and oblivion. Though, it first appeared next to its partners: Poetry and Dance, remaining for years until its freedom as something utterly independent.
How The Cinematograph Drives These Arts
Canudo described the Cinematograph as a diffusion tool that enables the connection of the various artistic disciplines to promote a specific idea.
An idea which contains a story with a purpose to reflect life through different formats and serve as a guide for humanity.
This way, by the combination of multiple artistic representations, as Canudo expressed, by means of Architecture, Poetry or Painting, we can all experiment emotions that inspire and move us through history while we create our personal mindset and vision of the world.
Canudo writes that there are two significant elements of the Cinematograph: the symbolic and the real.
- The symbolic aspect is described by Canudo as the velocity of motion an image. Though viewers were able to see a story unfold at an unreal time and space, he believed movies permitted the viewers to truly absorb the stories presented.
- The real aspect of the Cinematograph thrives as films continue to “arouse [our] interest and wonder.” How hundreds of human decades have been projected over this ellipsis of movement their major aspirations.
Canudo believed that this scientific breakthrough created the opportunity for a humanity that “actively seeks its own show, the more meaningful representation of itself.”
Because humans have been creating images of themselves for years and years, yet these were only given motion with the advent of the Cinematograph.
-Anabel Estrella | https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-story-of-the-seven-arts-and-how-cinema-connects-them-all-6d63250b9000 | ['Anabel Estrella'] | 2020-10-15 10:49:53.357000+00:00 | ['Film', 'Art', 'Movies', 'Cinema', 'History'] |
Creating an Automated Serverless Data Pipeline for Visualization of Financial News Sentiment with Dash | Creating an Automated Serverless Data Pipeline for Visualization of Financial News Sentiment with Dash Dmitriy Jul 6, 2019·5 min read
I wanted to get a historical outlook on news sentiment of specific stocks in the market. In order to do this, I would need a large amount of full-text article data which is not readily or freely available. After an exhaustive google search, the best historical data I could find only dated back about 100 articles per company. I was disappointed by this and decided to make my own small data mining operation to periodically scan for new links to articles of the stocks I’m interested in, open them up, store them, parse them with NLP, and analyze the saved data on a dashboard. In addition to the S&P index, I thought it would be reasonable to choose all of the recent interesting IPOs, this way it’s possible to store the articles from day 1.
My next thoughts were: how much would this cost, and what’s the most parsimonious way to do it while still learning important skills. I am relatively new to the whole serverless trend so I wanted to explore it a little further. It turns out that AWS lambda functions and static storage on AWS are really cost-effective if used properly. You can read more about this stuff on google, but to summarize: lambda functions can perform operations on a periodic basis and only when you need them to. It’s like having functions in the cloud without servers. Since this isn’t really a resource-intensive mining operation, pure lambda functions will work great for all stages of ETL.
Creating The Pipeline
The plan I came up with involves three lambda functions which are invoked every three days and another one to serve up the data to the front-end for analysis/exploration using Dash.
Figure 1. AWS architecture diagram for a single cycle of the data mining operation.
The above diagram is an overview of my architecture in a broad sense, in that the labels for the functions are accurate but do not fully encapsulate its actions. Some of the steps are combined in different ways in different functions to account for limitations of the lambda service (execution time and memory), but for the most part, the ETL process is segregated and is as follows:
E xtract URLs for articles, open them, save and parse the text from each article to S3. This is the raw data.
xtract URLs for articles, open them, save and parse the text from each article to S3. This is the raw data. Grab the raw data from S3, t ransform it using NLP to get sentiment and summaries, drop some duplicates, store to a different S3 folder.
ransform it using NLP to get sentiment and summaries, drop some duplicates, store to a different S3 folder. Aggregate and load the data into the final S3 folder so that it can be consumed via a REST API and visualized.
Now it’s time to talk about the costs: four lambda functions, a messaging service, and S3 storage. The S3 and messaging costs are negligible, costing a few pennies for gigabytes of storage. Lambda costs are based on the number of executions per month, memory allocation, and duration in milliseconds.
Figure 2. Lambda costs estimated via https://dashbird.io/lambda-cost-calculator/.
All I can say about my cost summary is that I love serverless. For ~10 cents per month, it's possible to set up an automated data mining operation in the cloud! Now, let’s talk about the execution of the plan.
The first lambda function, Extract.py, gathers data for specified stock tickers every 3 days, turns it into a JSON object, stores it to an S3 folder, and sends a message to SNS. Next, Transform.py detects the message from above, gets the new data, adds sentiment, drops duplicates, and stores the processed data in a different folder in the same S3 bucket and sends another message to SNS. Load.py sees the message and proceeds to do aggregation and storage of the final data to another folder on S3. Finally, API.py grabs data from S3 on request from the API gateway to safely and securely serve up a REST API for consumption through Dash.
Note: it’s important to set the appropriate permissions and function specifications as outlined in Figure 2 before deployment in the config file or after deployment in the AWS console. I deployed these functions with chalice and modified IAM roles, memory, and time spec in config.json.
Visualizing the Data
Now that we have some data, it’s time to visualize it. Dash is a trending Python framework for building data visualization apps and user interfaces in pure Python and I love it. The app I built uses a “datatable” component to differentially render data from the API based on user input with various filters.
Figure 3. A snapshot of the app. Deployed (be patient, it’s pulling data from static storage): https://news-sentiment-get-money.herokuapp.com/. Code.
I should mention that the awesomesauce of Dash also comes with a lack of up to date tutorials and out-of-box styling that is a little too basic. I’ll just say that styling the app was a bit of an annoyance and front-end developer jobs will not be going away anytime soon. It definitely takes some effort to grok, but once you do, Dash is a very powerful, highly customizable, and expressive visualization tool. | https://medium.com/@dmitriy.kavyazin/serverless-data-pipeline-for-classification-of-financial-news-sentiment-and-visualization-with-dash-f4ba7c959051 | [] | 2020-12-14 17:04:49.857000+00:00 | ['AWS', 'Data Science', 'Data Engineering', 'Plotly', 'Finance'] |
Web Hosting and key Essentials ! | Why Web Hosting?
Web hosting allows the individuals and the businesses to have a website or web page with their own content onto the Internet. Providing the web hosting service , is a business which allows to host the product and technologies on the Internet, that can be viewed to promote the business , increase the traffic and reach the right audience.
Websites are hosted and stored on servers. When user’s have a particular needs ,they search the key words and can visit your website . Also if the website address is available with users they can directly visit the site and browse for the needed information.
Hosting domain can be purchased directly from the hosting companies to create a web site
Essentials provided by a hosting company:
Domain Name Registration :
Every website needs a own domain name registration. While one can register his domain name separately from his hosting plan, many hosting service providers offer domain name registration (for one or multiple sites) as part of their hosting packages.
Speed :
Loading of a website faster is essential for its success. Speed can affect the customers’ experience on the website . Try to select the hosting service provider from the country you are targeting for your business. The slow speeds can negatively impact the SEO
Storage:
Servers have a limited capacity for storing files, despite their size .Choose the type of hosting that can accommodate the size of your site. Shared hosting is typically sufficient for text-heavy sites with a few pages, while larger sites with lots of high-resolution images and streaming media may require the amount of storage only a VPS or dedicated server can provide.
Bandwidth :
Bandwidth plays a very important role in user experience . A website with high number of daily visitors requires more bandwidth than a website with a few visitors. While many web hosting services comes with unlimited bandwidth .This is based on the fact that these websites does not come close to bandwidth limit.
Uptime and scalability : A good web hosting service provider ensures that its servers are running as close to 100 percent of the time as possible . To overcome the issues of needing more storage and increase in bandwidth is scalability. Numerous hosting service providers offer services that can be upgraded in future.
Support
Always have greater emphasis on having continuous , reliable technical support from the web hosting service provider for effective running of the website.
If you want to to host your own website , you can get custom domain , email addresses and web hosting ,all in same subscription
Get Started quickly , Quicker Results and have a peace of mind
Do not forget to get the consultation form web hosting service provider to select and right plan for you, | https://medium.com/@anilganju5/web-hosting-4edd45000abd | ['Anil Ganju'] | 2021-05-03 09:29:45.724000+00:00 | ['Promote Your Business', 'Website Design', 'Web Hosting', 'Web Development', 'Website'] |
Everyone has a story to tell that looks very different from another’s. | Everyone has a story to tell that looks very different from another’s. We are not the same and we don’t have to be. If that were truth, natural order would have made it happen, a concept unable to be considered. We are all born with different abilities, opportunities, and looks, experiencing life in different ways. The greatest difference is the difference of perspective —which is greatly influenced by abilities, opportunities, appearances and experiences.
It is my observation that respect for differences is a rapidly receding art of humanity. The demand for oneness is lacking the balance that difference provides. It’s okay to be different, to experience and observe differences. Do rainbows leave us in a moment of awe and appreciation because they are regularly perched on the sky and skewed of only one color? Are gardens all made of the same sized, shaped and colored flower? Are houses one size fits all? No, no, and no. Nothing in existence is perfectly exactly the same. Everything, no matter how similar to the naked eye, has at the very least one molecule placed where another isn’t.
As a community, we are challenged to accept these differences in order to successfully coexist with others. Why is this important? Simply because we need each other —for one reason or another. A key ingredient to accomplishing the challenging task of coexisting despite differences, is possessing the awareness and ability to practice and apply respect.
I find myself pondering often throughout my adult life and even more so, than ever, during this past year: How great is one’s ability to respect another despite their differences? Do people even know what respect really means? The definition of respect from the Native American Code of Ethics speaks perfectly to me: "To feel or show honor or esteem for someone or something; to consider the well being of, or to treat someone or something with deference or courtesy" Deference, meaning humble submission or respect. And humble, meaning having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance. In other words, without the power of ego’s influence.
Your ego is all-seeing, powerful, and superior in it’s perception. It believes that it is all that is. The ego likes to think only of itself and often neglects to see that it’s perspective is not the only perspective. This leaves us struggling to believe that that’s okay.
Commonly, when one’s perspective is met with opposition, offense and defense take the forefront. An individual will put their dukes up and fight to defend their view. What happens, though, when we lower our weapons and challenge ourselves to step into another’s shoes or to take a seat at the stand another is perched upon? We open our minds. We expand. Being open to perspectives outside of our own does not mean our perspective will cease to exist. It simply means we are willing to see outside of ourselves and allow another’s difference to exist, alongside ours. It’s okay to allow yourself to open up to a new perspective and it’s okay to allow another to do the same. And it’s quite beneficial to ourselves and those around us to be considerate enough to think outside of our own pre-packaged box —so to speak. We are adaptable. We can change, we can shift, we can even choose to stay the same. All of this is acceptable, possible, and attainable —and with such ease if we carry the quality of respect — for ourselves and others, alike. Without the ability to be respectful and open, we stay small, closed up, combative, and poisoned by the influence of conflict that opposition provides to a closed mind. And how good does that feel? What favor does it give us? Allowing ourselves to explore different perspectives separates us from the negative influence that ego often provides. This gives us the opportunity to experience the spiritual freedom of an open mind. We are able to understand outside of ourselves and exist amongst others a bit more harmoniously.
We will never all have the same perspective, our differences have too much influence in that. But we can be mindful and respectful toward one another despite them. | https://medium.com/@tifftimm55/everyone-has-a-story-to-tell-that-looks-very-different-from-anothers-dd874176bc18 | ['Tiffany Timm'] | 2020-12-19 03:11:25.297000+00:00 | ['Differences', 'Empathy', 'Perspective', 'Equality'] |
Wrap Protocol is now live! | Wrap Protocol by Bender Labs launches at 2pm UTC on April 26th, 2021. We’ve put together some useful information to help you get started.
Official Links
To wrap assets, go on the Wrap dApp: https:// app.tzwrap.com ⚠️ Beware of scams, check the URL twice!⚠️
To chat with us, use Telegram: https://t.me/benderlabs
Or Discourse: https://community.benderlabs.io
Our code is open-source and can be found here: https://github.com/bender-labs
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenderLabs_ and https://twitter.com/Wrap_Protocol
⚠️ These are the official Bender Labs / Wrap Protocol links ⚠️ We will never ask you for personal or private key information, beware of scams.
Wrap opens at 2pm UTC on April 26th, 2021. Usage statistics (and $WRAP attribution calculation) will start at this time, not before. $WRAP tokens will be distributed 4 weeks later.
You can watch TVL and wrapping/unwrapping activity on:
The Ethereum Locking Contract on Etherscan
The Tezos FA2 mutli-token contract for wrapped tokens on Better Call Dev
Smart Contracts
Below is the list of Wrap Protocol smart contracts. Again, beware of scams! Do not send funds to an unknown address
Tezos Contracts
Dev Pool: KT1SN87btphRCwGXFTbzndMVQzrpZ165XutV
Fee Safekeeping (temporary): KT1K7L5bQzqmVRYyrgLTHWNHQ6C5vFpYGQRk
Wrapped Tokens Contract: KT18fp5rcTW7mbWDmzFwjLDUhs5MeJmagDSZ
WRAP Governance Token: KT1LRboPna9yQY9BrjtQYDS1DVxhKESK4VVd
Quorum Contract: KT1DLif2x9BtK6pUq9ZfFVVyW5wN2kau9rkW
Minter Contract: KT1MTnKjFSN2u4myPRBqnFuCYCPX8kTdUEnv
Ethereum Contracts
Locking Contract: 0x5Dc76fD132354be5567ad617fD1fE8fB79421D82
WRAP Governance Token: 0x7421A18dE2eE1dC8b84E42Eb00D8B73578c23526
Signers Quorum
The quorum will begin with 4 signers and a 3-of-4 governance. The fifth signer will be added in the next few days. The list of 4 original signers is:
Bender Labs
Blockscale
Baking Bad
Bake N Roll
$WRAP Liquidity
We’ve used the first allowance of our dev pool to provide liquidity on the $WRAP/XTZ pool on Quipuswap. Before using the pool, make sure that you check the WRAP token address, which should be KT1LRboPna9yQY9BrjtQYDS1DVxhKESK4VVd.
WRAP token address: KT1LRboPna9yQY9BrjtQYDS1DVxhKESK4VVd
Liquidity pool address: KT1FG63hhFtMEEEtmBSX2vuFmP87t9E7Ab4t
Quipuswap Pool link
Happy wrapping ! | https://medium.com/bender-labs/wrap-protocol-is-now-live-2d028e6d96b9 | ['Hugo Renaudin'] | 2021-04-26 14:13:53.237000+00:00 | ['Bender', 'Blockchain', 'Tezos', 'Crypto', 'Defi'] |
Deuxmoi allowing media to gossip about celebrities without Rude | Over the past few months, I have heard some new rumors about celebrities. Did you know that Jennifer Lopez orders the spicy rigatoni when she dines at Carbone? Or that Blake Lively’s career is stalling a bit? Also, David Schwimmer is, tragically, not very nice. And if you were curious about what Leonardo DiCaprio is like during sex, he allegedly wears headphones.
None of these things really matter, and whether they’re even true — none of them have been “confirmed,” by any real journalistic standards — is somewhat beside the point. They’re slivers of rather banal (besides the headphones) gossip from the Instagram account Deuxmoi.
A rare bright spot in the digital world during an otherwise gloomy year. Though Deuxmoi accepts nearly everyone who requests to follow it, the fact that it is a private account means that to find the drama, there’s only one place to go.
Deuxmoi is in the business of blind items, where anonymous tipsters send in tidbits of information or sightings of celebrities, sometimes with names attached, sometimes without. A certain A-list actor may be said to be cheating on his wife, for instance, but we can only guess as to whom (whereas the more mundane intel, like a pasta order, is fair game to attribute to a certain person).
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Celebrity media is nearly as old as the idea of a celebrity, but talking about stars takes on new meaning in a time when many people have described themselves as starved for gossip. With more idle time separated from family and friends and other forms of escapism — such as literally escaping on vacation — chatter about the scandalous, enviable, or surprising goings-on of the rich and famous provides a way out of the endless boredom of quarantine.
Deuxmoi, and the endless gossip or “tea” accounts like it, is thriving in 2020. Since March, Deuxmoi has grown its 45,000 followers more than tenfold. TikTok Room, an Instagram account devoted to niche drama between TikTok stars, has grown from 300,000 followers to nearly 2 million in the same time span. They may not be subject to rigorous fact-checking, but they offer a choose-your-own-adventure for readers, who perhaps care less about the end game of finding the truth and are just happy to be along for the ride.
This has always been the case with gossip and blind items, which, to their credit, have laid the groundwork for some of the biggest celebrity scandals in history. Yet in providing seemingly low-stakes fun for readers, the industry can often end up derailing individuals’ lives in the process. The new generation of Instagram tabloids is attempting to change that dynamic. Instead, they’re asking, “Can gossip be good?”
What is Deuxmoi, the anonymously run celebrity gossip Instagram account?
Like so many of this year’s most engrossing cultural phenomena, Deuxmoi was born out of quarantine boredom. Its owner has remained anonymous during its rise in popularity, though we know she is a woman based in New York who does not work in the entertainment industry (I’ll refer to her as simply “Deuxmoi” in this piece). She said she’d happened to gain 45,000 Instagram followers from a project she and a friend started in 2013. But with the page mostly dormant for the past few years, she took advantage of a slow news day in March to post a few blind items she thought were interesting. Then she encouraged followers to send in their own.
As thousands of new people have flocked to the page, more and more tea has been spilled. Some followers are regular folks who happen to have had run-ins with celebs, others are in the entertainment business, and many more work in hospitality spaces where celebrities often expose their best and worst behavior.
A few highlights over the past few months: James Corden might be the next Ellen DeGeneres (in the bad way). Adrian Grenier has nice-looking genitals. Sex and the City actor Chris Noth hates when you take his picture. Someone once saw Bernie Sanders ordering tomato soup at the Senate cafeteria. Celebrities said to be famously nice include Steve Carell, Drew Barrymore, Luke Wilson, the Hadid sisters, and Pink. Celebrities who are not: Marisa Tomei, Leslie Mann, and the aforementioned “Rude Ross.”
Again, these are not necessarily “facts” like you would expect to read in a reputable newspaper or magazine, nor does Deuxmoi pretend to be a reporter. “I don’t consider myself a news source,” she told me. “I’m honestly like the moderator of a live message board.” When I ask her what’s valuable about Deuxmoi versus traditional tabloids, she explains that traditional tabloids often have narratives they’re trying to sell, whereas her posts are composed entirely of screenshots of direct messages or emails she receives with little or no commentary.
“What I’m receiving is what everyone else is seeing,” she says. This, in turn, lets her audience piece together whatever narrative they want. “The community of people that the account generated is honestly the most interesting thing about the account,” she says. “They’re very, very active in participating. If I ever have a question, I’ll get an answer in sometimes less than a minute. It’s crazy.”
That community now includes more than 460,000 followers, who show up not only for the drama but for the intra-Deuxmoi language and the hyperspecific inside jokes. Bring up “studio execs,” for instance, and Deuxmoi superusers will recall the hilarious days-long back-and-forth between unnamed people purporting to be film studio executives arguing over which celebrities could get any project produced (Emma Stone, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), whose careers were getting “cold” (Channing Tatum has apparently “lost momentum”), and other tidbits like “Kaitlyn Dever is this generation’s Laura Dern” or “Blake Lively needs to find her niche, which is honestly whatever Jen Garner has just about aged out of playing.”
That was one of my favorite things; people went crazy for that,” Deuxmoi says with a laugh (though she believes not all of the people said to be involved were “execs,” more like assistants or other industry folk). “It was really funny, but it was also an insider’s take on what’s going on. That’s what the account is all about. You don’t have to take it all so seriously.”
The messy history of blind items and the celebrity rumor mill
Obviously, this is meant to be fun. To follow Deuxmoi is not only to read industry insiders’ takes on famous people’s careers but also to feel like a studio executive yourself, keeping tabs on the minutiae of celebrity power rankings as though you’re in charge of casting your own film project.
That celebrity gossip is interesting to us as people is nothing new, but the blind item format — the tidbits too legally or morally risky to publish outright — has a more recent history. In Alyssa Bereznak’s thorough retelling of how blind items changed Hollywood for the Ringer in 2018, she explains that the first modern blind item column began in the New York media scene in the 1890s, when a Civil War hero named William d’Alton Mann hired a team of underlings to pass on rumblings about the Manhattan elite.
But the current gossip landscape was mostly built 100 years later with the rise of the internet: Sites like Perez Hilton, Socialite Rank, Lainey Gossip, Crazy Days and Nights, the Shade Room, and Blind Gossip trafficked largely in rumors about society’s elite rather than fact-checked reporting. Though the now-defunct Gawker also regularly published investigative journalism, its longtime tagline was “today’s gossip is tomorrow’s news,” where rumblings about New York media figureheads were often described in an editorial voice that was as entertaining as it was snarky.
Though they often refused to name names, these websites were the first to report, however indirectly, on many of the biggest celebrity scandals in history. Crazy Days and Nights published one of the first whispers of the NXIVM scandal in 2012, six years before cult leader Keith Raniere was charged. Gawker blogged about the Louis C.K. sexual misconduct allegations in 2012, five years before the New York Times did. Page Six ran a blind item about politician John Edwards’s infidelity in 2007 while his wife was being treated for cancer; he would admit to it three years later. Harvey Weinstein was a fixture in blind items because rumors about his serial sexual abuse had circulated for years; Lainey Gossip founder Elaine Lui told Vox in 2017 that “for the 15 years that I’ve been reporting, that’s how long I’ve been hearing about it.”
Yet the rumor mill goes both ways — Weinstein also is alleged to have smeared those who threatened to expose him in legacy media gossip channels. When whispers circulated of certain actresses “sleeping their way to the top,” for example, many of them were actually victims of the producer’s abuse. “Though tabloids like the Enquirer do sometimes pursue stories with an admirable moral end goal, they’re also frequently guilty of using their aggressive reporting to assert culturally conservative viewpoints,” Bereznak writes.
As entertainment journalist Dave Quinn, who’s covered celebrities since the mid-2000s, most recently at People magazine, tells me, blind items are as powerful as they are unwieldy. “Look at what the media and the tabloids can do to someone’s psyche — what it did to Britney Spears, to Princess Diana.”
Deuxmoi intentionally steers clear of more serious topics, partially for legal reasons (her website includes a lengthy disclaimer that it publishes rumor, not fact; she says hasn’t faced any legal issues yet), but also because Deuxmoi herself isn’t as interested in the hardcore drama. “I like the stupid stuff,” she says. “I like the coffee orders and I like what products they buy. [My readers] want the salacious stuff. They want to know who’s [secretly] gay and who does drugs.” These are the types of messages — cheating rumors, addiction — that Deuxmoi will blur out to protect the identity of the accused, turning them into blind items rather than potentially expose a celebrity to a serious allegation that may or may not be true. | https://medium.com/@pinkydaroga/deuxmoi-allowing-media-to-gossip-about-celebrities-without-rude-26c0d3675c72 | [] | 2020-12-24 17:11:11.039000+00:00 | ['Gossip', 'Social', 'Facebook', 'Celebrity', 'Instagram'] |
A few kilograms of weight loss nearly halves the risk of diabetes. | Losing a few kilograms in weight almost halves people’s risk of developing Type 2 diabetes — according to a large scale research study led by the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and the University of East Anglia.
A new study published in the international journal JAMA Internal Medicine shows how providing support to help people with prediabetes make small changes to their lifestyle, diet, and physical activity can almost halve the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
The findings come from the Norfolk Diabetes Prevention Study (NDPS) — the largest diabetes prevention research study in the world in the last 30 years. The NDPS clinical trial ran over eight years and involved more than 1,000 people with prediabetes at a high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
The study found that support to make modest lifestyle changes, including losing two to three kilograms of weight and increased physical activity over two years, reduced Type 2 diabetes risk by 40 to 47 percent for those categorized as having prediabetes.
About eight million people with prediabetes in the UK and 4.5 million have already developed Type 2 diabetes.
The NDPS, funded by £2.5m from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and NIHR CRN Eastern, was led by the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) and University of East Anglia (UEA), together with colleagues from Ipswich Hospital, and the Universities of Birmingham and Exeter.
The research trial tested a simple lifestyle intervention, which helped people make small achievable lifestyle changes that led to a modest weight loss and physical activity increases.
These changes were important for at least two years, and the weight loss was not put back on.
These findings are important as they show that a ‘real-world’ lifestyle program can make a difference in helping people reduce their risk of Type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes.
Prof Mike Sampson, NDPS Chief Investigator and Consultant in Diabetes at NNUH, said: “We are delighted with the results of this trial, as until now no one was very sure if a real-world lifestyle program prevented Type 2 diabetes in the prediabetes population we studied, as there have been no clinical trials that had shown this.
“We have now shown a significant effect in Type 2 diabetes prevention, and we can be very optimistic that even a modest weight loss, and an increase in physical activity, in real-world programs like this have a big effect on the risk of getting Type 2 diabetes.
“This is really great news for the eight million people in the UK with a prediabetes diagnosis. This trial shows that diabetes prevention is possible in the same prediabetes populations being treated in the NHS national diabetes prevention program.
“This is important to know, as the clinical methods for diagnosing diabetes and prediabetes have changed a lot in recent years.”
The Norfolk Diabetes Prevention Study ran between 2011 and 2018 and worked with 135 GP practices in the East of England, and found 144,000 people at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
In screening sites across the East of England, 13,000 of these people then took fasting glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) blood tests to detect prediabetes.
More than 1,000 people with prediabetes were then entered into a randomized controlled trial, testing a pragmatic, real-world lifestyle intervention, compared to a control group, with an average follow-up of just over two years.
Earlier studies have used quite intense and expensive research interventions in different groups of prediabetes participants, but this is the first time a real-world group delivered intervention has been shown to reduce Type 2 diabetes risk.
NDPS also asked lay members of the public who had Type 2 diabetes to help support participants with prediabetes in the trial. Still, this did not further reduce the risk of getting Type 2 diabetes for this particular population.
NDPS co-investigator Prof Max Bachmann, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “The NDPS intervention was delivered in groups which were far less expensive than individual-focused interventions which have previously shown to be effective under optimal conditions.
“For every 11 people who received the NDPS intervention, one person was prevented from getting Type 2 diabetes, which is a real breakthrough.”
Prof Colin Greaves from the University of Birmingham, who jointly led the development of the NDPS intervention, said: “If you have been diagnosed with prediabetes, this approach offers a way to take a different direction in your life — to get off the path to type 2 diabetes and onto the road to a healthier future.”
Dr. Jane Smith, the NDPS collaborator from the University of Exeter, said: “Type 2 diabetes is a huge health challenge globally. NDPS is an incredibly positive story for individuals and healthcare systems, and underlines the importance of providing national diabetes prevention programs, which can use our research findings.”
Prof Jonathan Valabhji, National Clinical Director for Diabetes and Obesity for NHS England, said: “This study with similar referral criteria and similar intensive lifestyle intervention to the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme has surpassed expectations in preventing Type 2 diabetes. This is hugely encouraging for the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, and what participants might expect to achieve in the longer term.”
Dr. Elizabeth Robertson, Director of Research at Diabetes UK, said: “We welcome this new research showing that a group-based support program can help people at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes reduce their risk.
“This trial again highlights how achieving modest weight loss through diet, and physical activity changes can lead to huge benefits for people at high risk of developing type 2. Type 2 diabetes is a serious condition, but many cases can be prevented or delayed with the right help.
“Diabetes UK’s Know Your Risk’ tool helps people to determine their risk and take steps to reduce it, including by self-referring on to NHS England’s Diabetes Prevention Programme in their local area.” | https://medium.com/@carsonwhitaker/a-few-kilograms-of-weight-loss-nearly-halves-the-risk-of-diabetes-722a5525368 | ['Carson Whitaker'] | 2020-12-23 20:27:30.861000+00:00 | ['Healthy Lifestyle', 'Weight Loss', 'Diabetes'] |
Object Type and XML equivalency in Oracle | Most oracle developers don’t use object types…and there’s good reasons for that — it’s a somewhat half-baked OO implementation that is unlikely to impress OO fans, and it doesn’t give you a whole lot more than just working with tables for the database minded. But there are some novel things that you can do with them when combined with another largely unused feature of Oracle — XML.
Let’s start with an object type definition:
CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE typ_person force AS OBJECT
(
phone_number VARCHAR2(100)
,first_name VARCHAR2(255)
,last_name VARCHAR2(255)
,CONSTRUCTOR FUNCTION typ_person RETURN SELF AS RESULT
);
/ CREATE OR REPLACE TYPE BODY typ_person IS
--This is just a helper function so we can easily build an instance
CONSTRUCTOR FUNCTION typ_person RETURN SELF AS RESULT IS
BEGIN
RETURN;
END typ_person;
END;
/
Interesting thing number 1 an object can be converted to xml by passing it to the xmltype constructor:
DECLARE
p typ_person;
v_xmltype xmltype;
BEGIN
p := typ_person(
phone_number => '555-555-5555'
,first_name => 'Joe'
,last_name => 'Smith');
v_xmltype := xmltype(p);
dbms_output.put_line(v_xmltype.getstringval());
END;
This outputs:
<TYP_PERSON>
<PHONE_NUMBER>555-555-5555</PHONE_NUMBER>
<FIRST_NAME>Joe</FIRST_NAME>
<LAST_NAME>Smith</LAST_NAME>
</TYP_PERSON>
Interesting thing number 2, it’s built in to go the other way as well (creating an object from an xmltype):
DECLARE
p typ_person;
v_xmltype xmltype;
v_ref_cursor SYS_REFCURSOR;
BEGIN
OPEN v_ref_cursor FOR
SELECT '555-555-5555' phone_number
,'Joe' first_name
,'Smith' last_name
FROM dual;
v_xmltype := xmltype(v_ref_cursor);
CLOSE v_ref_cursor;
v_xmltype.extract('/ROWSET/ROW').toobject(p);
dbms_output.put_line('My Name is ' || p.first_name
|| ' '
|| p.last_name); END;
Which will output “My Name is Joe Smith”. Interestingly the XML to type conversion instantiated our object. Basically it did a lot of heavy lifting for us by instantiating the object and setting all of the instance attributes to those in the XMLType.
We had to finesse the XML output a little by extracting only the parts that had to do with the object type. By default when oracle creates an XMLtype it surrounds it all with <ROWSET><ROW>each row</ROW></ROWSET>
Our type doesn’t know anything about this ROWSET business but can infer that a record type is delineated the same way as a row. You can view the ROWSET as a collection and the ROW as singular instances of the collection — in this case our single type. So we strip off the ROWSET and give it what it does know.
To make this a little more concrete, the conversion of the ref cursor to an xmltype is this:
<ROWSET>
<ROW>
<PHONE_NUMBER>555-555-5555</PHONE_NUMBER>
<FIRST_NAME>Joe</FIRST_NAME>
<LAST_NAME>Smith</LAST_NAME>
</ROW>
</ROWSET>
After the extract call you’re left with:
<ROW>
<PHONE_NUMBER>555-555-5555</PHONE_NUMBER>
<FIRST_NAME>Joe</FIRST_NAME>
<LAST_NAME>Smith</LAST_NAME>
</ROW>
At this level (a single row, or instance) the built in Oracle XML machinery can convert this to an object type. It’s actually quite powerful. In the next post I will build on this example and construct a generic DML interface for any object type using this XML/Type equivalency. | https://medium.com/@janders468/object-type-and-xml-equivalency-in-oracle-551b25e8e7f | [] | 2020-04-24 12:39:01.842000+00:00 | ['Xml', 'Sql', 'Plsql', 'Oracle', 'Database Development'] |
Meet Brigida | How did you end up on the streets in Seattle?
I grew up in Alaska and I moved to the Seattle area 2015. I moved here because my doctor is at Virginia Mason and so it was to get better medical care, but also a new fresh start. When I moved here I would get jobs here and there, but I just kept losing my jobs, if not the first time I’d have a flare up and be in the hospital then the second time, or maybe the third time. And so it came to a point that I just kind of went through the savings that I had and couldn’t get another job because people didn’t want to hire me since my medical condition.
What do you need most now?
Help with rent and then our electricity, that’s the main thing. And just really food, daily things like that.
What have been some challenges you have faced dealing with your illness?
I myself have had a lot of struggles with people taking me seriously both in the medical field and out. My [endometriosis] was so bad — normally it stays in the pelvic area — but mine is kind of everywhere and it made my gallbladder fail. So I got my diagnosis when I got my gallbladder removed and the doctor took biopsies he was just like ‘Yea, she has it.’…It’s an invisible disease.
When it comes to women and saying ‘Oh, I’m having pelvic pain,’ [doctors] just think, ‘Oh it’s cramping and she’s being a baby about it.’ I don’t totally know where that came from, but sadly it’s I think how it kind of is.
I’m in a support group…There’s so many stories of women laying in the fetal position not able to move because they’re in so much pain, because it really feels like there’s a hot knife being twisted around in your body and the pain from it is just excruciating and doctors just totally walk away, wipe it off like it’s nothing. Or they’ll be like oh take Advil, or have you tried yoga or something like that, like it’s really nothing at all and then they get surgeries, and they have organs failing and they have blood clots and it’s, I don’t know where it started but it seems to be a pretty common experience of women with endometriosis and really other diseases that have to do with that. We’re just kind of looked at as the weaker sex which is odd, but it’s the sad reality I think.
Do you have any advice you’d like to share?
Plan more for the future even though that’s very hard to do in this situation. It really is. I was panhandling, I didn’t know where I was going to get my next meal so it was very hard for me to think about the future much further than a day or two but I think that’s just important.
It’s really really hard when you’re [homeless] to think that there’s a way out. I know when I started staying in my car I thought it was going to be like for a month, maybe two, And so once it passed that first Christmas, that first holiday season, I kind of got into thinking, I’m never going to get out of this, I’m never going to have a home again. Just taking advantage of the resources and just kind of talking to other people and seeing what’s going to work best for you…I think Seattle has a lot of resources, it’s just a matter of finding the right one for you
As far as dealing with the medical aspect of it — there’s no reason to be embarrassed to ask a doctor about things, because honestly it took me kind of ignoring my doctor back in Alaska and looking out on my own and reaching out to doctors to be taken seriously. Just ask, there’s no harm in asking and you’ll feel a lot better when you do.
Is there anything or anyone that has kept you motivated through your time on the streets?
My dog. I found her as a stray. Somebody actually had tied her to a bush when it was like 96 degrees outside and just totally abandoned her. Ever since I had had her, I had been kind of moving to different areas because I wasn’t sure where I wanted to live, so I was renting RVs in different RV parks in different areas and so I was always in a small area and then when I started living in my car, she was happy just to be with me and have her food and get to play and get to go on walks, but I wanted more for her. I didn’t want her to be cold anymore and I didn’t want her to have to struggle in any way.
She’s like my baby, she really is. I can’t have kids and I found her six months after my hysterectomy when I was looking for a dog to kind of take care of something other than myself and kind of fill that void. I just wanted better for not only me and my boyfriend, but my dog. I didn’t want her to be cold anymore. She’s so much happier now that we’re in the apartment. She’s so much happier.
What are your goals moving forward?
If I get the disability, then to find some sort of temp agency I can work here and there, or maybe even just volunteer, but something to make me feel like a more productive member of society. After being homeless, people just look down on homeless people so much, so when I was homeless, I would always try and clean up and stuff like that and change people’s perception. But then, if I get denied for disability, again, try and find a temp agency but try to work more…Trying whatever I can to provide for myself as best as I can. I’ve been controlled by my medical condition for so long that I just kind of want to feel like I have more control over my life.
[If I ended up volunteering], I would say really just anything with animals or anything working with the homeless.
What are some of your hobbies or interests?
I like a lot of outdoors things like hiking and fishing and camping and kayaking, and with [my dog], taking her to the dog parks and things like that. I like to get her more socialized and experience things with her, take her to different places.
How does it feel to know every day city residents are investing in your life?
It’s nice because I feel like a lot of the time — I panhandled and I would get a lot of negative comments and a lot of mean things said and done to me — and so it’s kind of nice to know that people are taking the time to see my story and see that I’m still a person and to have, really more than the money, it’s just them, knowing that they care, at least enough to read my story and help out. There’s been people that have send me messages and things like that, so it’s really nice, because when you’re in that situation, you get kicked a lot and so it’s nice to have somebody reach out and be positive and treat you like a human. | https://medium.com/samaritan-journal/meet-brigida-becc5ef3ad8f | ['Becca Savransky'] | 2019-04-02 20:17:39.685000+00:00 | ['Endometriosis', 'Homelessness'] |
US Envoy-Designate to the UN Turns the Long-Awaited Spotlight on Africa | US Envoy-Designate to the UN Turns the Long-Awaited Spotlight on Africa
Linda Thomas-Greenfield brings extensive African experience and diplomacy after years of US neglect and insults directed at the continent. PassBlue Dec 7, 2020·5 min read
by Barbara Crossette. Read more on PassBlue.
A Congressional reception honoring the newly appointed assistant secretary of African affairs, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, above, November 2013. She has been nominated by President-elect Biden to be the next US ambassador to the UN, bringing extensive African experience and diplomacy after years of US neglect and insults directed at the continent.
When President-elect Joe Biden nominated Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be the next ambassador to the United Nations, he was signaling that American diplomacy would face big changes. If she is confirmed by the Senate in the new year, the UN will have a seasoned, top-rank diplomat in the United States’ Security Council seat, a break from the two diplomatically inexperienced political appointees of the Trump years, Nikki Haley and Kelly Craft.
Thomas-Greenfield, with 35 years in the American foreign service, is a leading US expert on Africa, the continent most disparaged, insulted and neglected by Donald Trump. From 2013 to 2017, she was assistant secretary of state for African affairs. Earlier, she had been ambassador to Liberia and served in other diplomatic missions in Gambia, Kenya and Nigeria as well as Jamaica, Pakistan and the US mission to the UN in Geneva.
Besides her award-winning diplomatic work, Thomas-Greenfield served in 2012–2013 as director general of the US foreign service and head of human resources at the State Department, giving her an inside view of American diplomacy.
This year, Thomas-Greenfield, an African-American born into hardship and segregation in the American South, Louisiana, joined William Burns, a former deputy secretary of state, who grew up in a white military family and is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to lead a timely initiative. They co-chaired an advisory group at the Council on Foreign Relations on a report about the perilous state of American diplomacy and how to fix it.
The two experts have co-written a searing summary of the study’s findings. Their article has just been published in the November-December 2020 issue of the journal Foreign Affairs.
“The wreckage at the State Department runs deep,” they wrote. “Career diplomats have been systematically sidelined and excluded from senior Washington jobs on an unprecedented scale. The picture overseas is just as grim, with the record quantity of political appointees serving as ambassadors matched by their often dismal quality.”
Given what they see as the politization and militarization of the diplomatic corps in recent decades, especially under the Trump administration, the authors say that it is not surprising that “the Foreign Service has experienced the biggest drop in applications in more than a decade.”
Adekeye Adebajo, the director of the University of Johannesburg’s Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation, echoed in a recent South African television interview the observation that militarism in US foreign policy has compounded the underlying weakness of American diplomacy in Africa. The continent, he said, had never been given much importance.
Adebajo, who served in several UN missions in Africa (South Africa and Western Sahara) and Iraq, holds the administration of George W. Bush responsible for militarizing contemporary US policy, which has persisted to one degree or another. Thomas-Greenfield and Burns noted in their article that efforts to build more diversity into American diplomacy have actually been reversed: only four of the 189 US ambassadors abroad are Black, they wrote.
As for women, “Overall female representation in the Foreign Service remains roughly the same today as it was in 2000 — still 25 percent below female representation in the wider US labor force,” they reported.
So far, there are no signs that Thomas-Greenfield will face challenges to her confirmation as ambassador to the UN after the inauguration of President-elect Biden on Jan. 20. However, the Senate’s Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, was responsible for Trump’s choice of the last two envoys to the UN: Craft from Kentucky and the senator’s home state; and Haley from South Carolina. McConnell may still be in charge of scheduling — or blocking — confirmation hearings if Republicans hold the Senate in 2021. If the Republicans lose control in the two runoff-senatorial elections in Georgia on Jan. 5, that would make approval of Thomas-Greenfield’s nomination certain. The races remain in flux. (When Craft leaves her post on Jan. 20, the US mission to the UN will be led temporarily by Ambassador Richard Mills, a career foreign service officer and the mission’s deputy permanent representative.)
When Thomas-Greenfield speaks to audiences in Africa or the US, her tone is measured and her attention focused, as illustrated in her many public engagements. She observes details from the humanity around her and incorporates scenes from daily life in her thinking. “Africa for me is a passion, not a job,” she says.
Meeting with an aid organization in 2014, she turned an account of the severe shortage of electrical power into a poignant recollection of dozens of Liberian children doing their homework huddled under streetlights outside the walls of the US embassy compound in Monrovia.
“Imagine if those children could study in the comforts of their homes with a desk lamp in front of them,” she said, adding that hospitals needed power to store medicines safely and to light operating theaters and that Liberia generally still needed an adequate power supply to spur development. “Imagine what a difference that would make on the continent,” she said.
On a global issue — maybe hinting of her approach to Security Council business — she takes a practical, independent view of Chinese activities in Africa, with no ideological overtones. In remarks to the Foreign Policy Association in New York City in March 2016, the last year of the Obama administration, she said:
“Africa is a huge continent; it has huge opportunities. It has huge problems. There’s no need for the US and China to compete over Africa’s resources, or over influence on the continent of Africa. African countries can really balance and complement what we have to offer them with what the Chinese have to offer them, so that [they] get the best from both relationships.
“We have coordinated and cooperated with the Chinese in a number of areas on the continent,” Thomas-Greenfield said, mentioning South Sudan and Liberia.
“The Chinese have consulted with us,” she added. “We have a regular consultation with the Chinese government on where we can cooperate and coordinate each other’s activities on the continent. So I see it as a complementary relationship.
“Do the Chinese have interests that are not our interests? I would say so,” she went on. “Do we have interests that might not be in the Chinese interests? It’s possible. But for Africa, we have worked closely together.”
At least one African ambassador at the UN, from South Africa, said recently that he was looking forward to the arrival of “my friend” Thomas-Greenfield at the UN.
“Having Linda here, I think, will be a very big injection, a new spirit, building on the predecessors. . . . We think that she’ll bring to bear a vast experience, over three decades of diplomacy, and that’s what we needed now,” said Jerry Matthews Matjila at a press briefing on Dec. 1.
HELP PASSBLUE REACH ITS FUND-RAISING GOAL BY DEC. 31: DONATE NOW AND DOUBLE YOUR GIFT. THANK YOU, PASSBLUE’S TEAM | https://medium.com/@passblue-un/us-envoy-designate-to-the-un-turns-the-long-awaited-spotlight-on-africa-8fd0da720f40 | [] | 2020-12-08 20:15:04.280000+00:00 | ['Biden', 'Trump', 'United Nations', 'Africa', 'Foreign Policy'] |
Channels in Kotlin — part one. Communication essentials for Coroutines | Channels in Kotlin — part one
Communication essentials for Coroutines
Photo by Taylor Vick on Unsplash
Using coroutines in Kotlin comes with a few struggles since the way of writing your code, and reasoning about asynchronicity is somewhat different from what we are used to.
The construct that helped me get my head around it all was the Channel. If you’ve worked with Rx or similar before, you should also be able to draw parallels and have a smoother transition to coroutines. Also, if you understand Channels, the Flow construct will be easier to grasp as well.
What is a Channel?
As described in the API reference, a channel is a synchronization primitive, a way of communicating streams of values between coroutines. It implements two interfaces, SendChannel and ReceiveChannel. The names are quite self-explanatory, and in the purest form, you can use a Channel to send values and to receive them.
Both the send and the receive functions are suspending on a Channel. It means that we have to be inside of a Coroutine to be allowed to call them. It also guides us not to use them in the same Coroutine, here’s why.
val channel = Channel<String>()
launch {
channel.send("value")
channel.receive()
}
This code snippet never terminates. Since the send call is suspending and the only way to release it is via a request to the receive function, it will stay suspended forever. So you need to take into consideration the order of execution. What if we switch the order in the example to have received first? Well, it’s the same result. Since the receive call is also suspending, and will only be released from the suspension upon a request to the send function, we have the same problem.
This behavior is the default for a Channel. That the send and the receive call needs to meet and exchange the value sort of speak, almost like a rendezvous. Thus the type of this default behavior is Channel.RENDEZVOUS.
Other types of Channel
There are four types to take into consideration, and they can alter the behavior of the code example above.
Channel.RENDEZVOUS
Channel.BUFFERED
Channel.UNLIMITED
Channel.CONFLATED
Buffered
The buffered type means that you can set a fixed buffer that the Channel can store. When invoking send, if there’s room in the buffer, the call won’t suspend. But if you have a buffer of one and sending twice without any request to receive, it will suspend again.
To specify a buffered channel, you send in the size of the buffer when creating the Channel — seen in the updated example below, where I entered 5 (five) as the capacity of the buffer.
val channel = Channel<String>(5)
launch {
channel.send("value")
channel.receive()
}
And now the code terminates. Since send don’t suspend due to the buffer specified, and the receive call doesn’t suspend since there’s a value in the Channel it can receive. And just to let you know, this example code is rather useless. But it’s an excellent way to show how rendezvous and buffered channels work.
Unlimited
The next type of Channel is the unlimited one, which means that sending on it will never suspend. It just adds to the unlimited buffer. On the receiving end, it’s the same behavior as always. If there is no value in the Channel, the invocation will suspend until there is.
It can come in handy when you have a stream of events that sometimes comes very often and sometimes more or less idles. Like tracking events, when the user is active, we trigger tons of events. When the user is, for example, reading, no events get triggered. And on the receiving end, we want to batch the events instead of reacting to each of them. Here’s a naive PoC of the described scenario.
val channel = Channel<Event>(Channel.UNLIMITED)
launch {
onTrackEvent {
channel.send(it)
}
}
launch {
while(!channel.isClosedForReceive) {
repeat(25) {
batch.add(channel.receive())
}
batch.send()
}
}
In the first Coroutine launched, we listen to tracking events and pass them on to the Channel. And in the second one, we check if the Channel is closed before acting on the next batch of events. In real life, we would have to be less naive with the batching since the Channel can get closed at any time. We’ll get back to why we should close channels later.
Conflated
This channel type is the most interesting to me. What it does is that it only ever keeps the latest value sent to it. So it’s the same for this as the unlimited that sending on it will never suspend, it will instead replace the previous value if any. And on the receiving end, it will as always suspend on an empty channel. If you, like me, are used to Rx, you probably think of BehaviorSubject or similar, and if you do, I need to remind you that once anyone has received the most recent value from a channel, it is removed from the Channel. On a BehaviorSubject, each en every subscriber will get the latest observed value.
One use case for this would be if you have a UI that updates a value every fifth second, let’s make it viewers of a live stream to be concrete. We don’t care about everything that happens all the time. We want to update to the latest count of viewers on each update.
sealed class Event {
object Enter : Event()
object Leave : Event()
} val motion = Channel<Event>(Channel.UNLIMITED)
val viewers = Channel<Int>(Channel.CONFLATED) suspend fun enter() = motion.send(Enter)
suspend fun leave() = motion.send(Leave) launch(Dispatchers.DEFAULT) {
var count = 0
for(msg in motion) {
when(msg) {
is Enter -> count++
is Leave -> count--
}
viewers.send(count)
}
} launch(Dispatchers.MAIN) {
while(!viewers.isClosedForReceive) {
showNumberOfViewers(viewers.receive())
delay(5000)
}
}
The code snippet is quite an extensive one to show the conflated channel type. But I also wanted to show an example with more to it, to give you a sense of how powerful Channels are.
To walk through it real fast, we have one unlimited Channel that receives each time a viewer enters or leaves. By calling either the enter or the leave function, those functions send the corresponding event on the unlimited motion channel.
In our first Coroutine, we iterate over the Channel that receives all events. This is powerful since the for-loop itself will handle the suspending and possible closing of the Channel. The Coroutine also has a local state in the count variable, and since it’s only modified within the Coroutine, it is safe to do that. (No matter how many threads or coroutines are calling the Channel, we only receive within one coroutine).
On each update, our Coroutine that listens to events trigger an update to the conflated viewers channel with the current count of viewers as value. In the second Coroutine, launched on the Main dispatcher (used for UI updates on Android, for example), we receive on that Channel. But after each time we receive, we go into a delay for five seconds. When the delay is over, if the Channel is still open to receive, we try to get the latest value by calling receive once again. And we will always only show the latest known value, ignoring all fluctuation on the value during the delay.
If you are knowledgable around coroutines and suspending, you might see one flaw or quirk in the example above. That is that we are not guaranteed to update every five seconds, do you see why?
Correct, the viewers.receive() function will suspend if the viewers channel is empty, for an unknown amount of time. That’s a good thing, in my opinion, since we don’t update the UI if we don’t have to. Because if the viewers channel is empty, nothing has happened to the count of viewers. So our UI is up to date. And since we are suspending, we will now update as soon as there is a change.
Next up
Now we understand what a Channel is and how the different types of Channels work. In the following story, we’ll go thru more practical examples of how to use it. We’ll discover patterns and extension-functions that help us do it fluently. Then we’ll also see why Channels aren’t a replacement for Rx.
Part two available here: https://medium.com/@dahlberg.bob/channels-in-kotlin-part-two-7d52abbc5b6e | https://medium.com/swlh/channels-in-kotlin-part-one-594ba12dcb5a | ['Bob Dahlberg'] | 2020-04-10 16:46:50.163000+00:00 | ['Kotlin', 'Software Development', 'Channel', 'Coroutine', 'Programming'] |
Making someone’s life a bit better | I honestly don’t know what is going to come out of this text. I will try to tell you the story the best way I can. I was standing by the traffic lights waiting for a chance to cross. The earphones are in and Spotify is playing something from one of the many playlists I listen to. I was minding my own business, waiting, the lights are still red; usually I would have just crossed the road, but for some reason I can’t do it anymore, not at that traffic light. I was waiting there, waiting for the lights to turn green. The music was playing, and I could hear someone talk. I looked around and this woman was walking towards me, she was saying something; I removed the earphones to listen to what she was saying.
I think the COVID-19 has become a natural part of ourselves. For better or for worse it has affected us in more ways than we would probably have wanted. The woman stopped roughly about 2 meters way from me. I looked at her, but I was not really looking at her. I am awkward like that. She asked me if I had change, I said no. Honestly, I can’t remember last time I had change on me. She showed me the coins she had in one of her hands and asked me if I had a note or notes and, again, I said no. Initially I thought she just wanted to trade her coins for a note or something like that. It is common in the UK to pay for everything and virtually everywhere with our cards: it is normal for people to not walk around with money. Usually this is how the story ends for a lot of people, you say no, and they move on. The penny did not drop straight away.
For the people who live or have lived in the UK, they/we know that homelessness is, as the government and a lot people put it, a big problem. There are just too many homeless people. Bedford town centre, the Embankment and St. Paul’s Square are probably the worst places in Bedford. There was a point around this time last year when I would see homeless people almost everywhere. There were too many, and it was sad to see them, and it was a lot worse when you talked to them… because when you talk to them, you know what they need, what they are going through. You learn their stories. You take a piece of them with you. You learn about the stories that remain a secret to the majority of the population, the stories remain a secret not because they are not meant to be heard, but because people just do not want to hear them. We just ignore the people, ignore the homeless and their existence.
We pretend that they do not have lives, lives not so much different from our own. We stop seeing the once lawyers in their past lives, the widows, the mothers or fathers, the disabled, the people with mental health problems who struggled to cope with depression, loneliness and/or other circumstances in their lives that were just too much more them to bear. Some of us even blame them for their misfortunes. Some of us pretend not to see the living sculptures hiding under the sleeping bags: they are so cold, so alone that they cover themselves from head to toe. They try not to move. They try not to let the cold air in.
Some mornings you can see the sleeping bags outside the buildings, by the doors. They sleep by the doors because doors offer the closest thing to shelter. Despite the efforts from some local businesses to prevent this by barring the doors with gates or using any of the other anti-homeless measures, there are still many places for the homeless to find shelter from the wind and/or rain.
It is easier not to see another human being when we do not have a face to look at. The homeless situation “improved” after March. All of the sudden there were no homeless people around or any other kind of people for that matter. It was as if the COVID-19 had cleansed the streets of Bedford. I have many stories to tell, Bedford has many stories to tell, but today I am only telling you one. I am going to tell you the story of a woman who all she wanted to do was to have a shower.
After the woman left, I stopped. I don’t really remember why I stopped or what was going through my mind at that time. I remember standing there for a moment. I turned around and tried to call her, trying to get her attention. It is not like she told me her name. I said hey, but she probably didn’t think it was for her, so I said sorry twice and she turned around. I can’t imagine what must have crossed her mind when she saw me walk up to her.
The woman did not look rough, but she did not look healthy either. You could see it in her face. I was standing about a meter way from her. I had the mask on, and for those who wear a mask, you probably know that they can muffle the sound of our voices. The roads were busy and loud with traffic noise. I asked her what she needed the money for, and she told me that she was trying to get enough money to find a place to stay, a place where she could have a shower. She told me her legs hurt from sleeping on the floor. She told me she sleeps in a tent by the river. She told me that she asks people for help, but they just say no. “How am I going to get enough money to pay for a room to spend the night, to take a shower?” She asked. She showed me all the money she had, she opened her, revealing about £5 in coins. I asked her how much money she needed.
It was impossible for me not to feel bad; it was impossible not to want to help the woman. There is a strange likeness between loneliness and homelessness — Both the lonely and the homeless look for support, for a chance to be understood and for companionship in others, and both are often met with indifference and disdain. It is as if people just don’t want to be reminded of other people’s needs or misfortunes. We can be that indifferent and cold.
She told me that her knees hurt from sleeping on the cold floor and I told her that I was sorry. “It is not your fault.” She told me, and she was right. I told her that what she is going through is not nice, and I can’t help but feel bad. I recognised the look on her face, I recognised the tone of voice in her words. She spoke different words from the ones I normally speak, but I understood what she was telling me, I understood what she is going through.
She told me that they offer food, I assumed she was referring to the place she was trying to stay at, she told me that all she wanted was to take a shower, “it sounds silly” she said, but I understood what she was trying to tell me. She said that it was just a shower yet meant a lot to her. All she wanted was a bit of normality, a chance to have a hot meal, and chance to look like the person she wants to be again, only stronger. She wants, after all, for her body to stop hurting.
We walked to the ATM and she stood next to it, and she looked at the screen. Again, I don’t know what was going through her mind, but she was looking at the screen. And some of you will probably call me names at this stage and say that I was a fool for doing what I did. I am about to click confirm when she asked me if I was sure about it. I said, yes.
After I gave her the money, she was so happy, she looked so happy. You could see it in her eyes. She said “I will be able to have a shower tonight. I know it sounds so silly, but it is all I want.” It was all she wanted, a chance to take a shower. “Merry Christmas, my dear.” She said. I think if it had been the other way around, I would have, probably, said the same thing. It is after all that time of year. It is like I said, it was impossible for me not to feel bad. Is it so wrong to want to help other people feel better, to allow them to to have a better day or in this case, night?
We all want something, we are all looking for something, and this woman, all she wanted was a chance to have a shower, to feel some comfort. I am sure, that each of us, at some point in our lives have looked for comfort too; some of us have found comfort; some of us are still looking for comfort, and some of us will spend our lives searching for comfort. Tell me, is it wrong to want to help other people feel less vulnerable, lees invisible? | https://medium.com/@josue-ferreira/making-someones-life-a-bit-better-86644c6a7f3 | ['Josue Ferreira'] | 2020-12-20 14:31:29.385000+00:00 | ['Tent', 'Homeless', 'Life', 'Mental Health', 'Invisible'] |
In our opinion: Honor our veterans | Every year, on Nov. 11, our country celebrates Veterans Day. America has been honoring its veterans around this date, in some fashion, by some name, since 1919 — the one-year anniversary of the armistice of World War I, then known as “The Great War.”
Fighting stopped between the Allied nations and Germany on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day a year later.
In 1938, the government passed an act that made Nov. 11 an official holiday dedicated “to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day.’” In 1954, after World War II and the Korean War, Congress revised the act, replacing the word “Armistice” with the word “Veterans.”
The remembrance shifted to Oct. 25 in 1971 after some governmental “confusion,” but was returned officially to Nov. 11 by in 1975.
The name and date of what is now known as Veterans Day may have changed in the 94 years since the first celebration, but the spirit has not.
Veterans Day commemorations are held throughout the country, and our local region does an excellent job of paying homage to the servicemen and servicewomen who have served, and are still serving, to protect our freedoms.
These men and women of the Armed Forces past and present risk their lives, day in and day out, so that we can live the lives we enjoy today in America. They risk their lives, day in and day out, so that we can live better lives in the future. They risk their lives, day in and day out, so that people around the world can hopefully live a life that is free like ours.
Fighting for freedom is not always a popular choice, and it may be debatable, at times, whether it’s even the right choice. But that does not, and should not, take away from the people who serve to protect our country.
Hopefully, you commemorated Veterans Day in some fashion. And hopefully, you’ll continue to honor our veterans throughout the year.
Your thoughts:
How did you commemorate Veterans Day this year? How can we continue to honor the servicemen and servicewomen throughout the year? | https://medium.com/the-marlton-sun/in-our-opinion-honor-our-veterans-185dff35a566 | [] | 2016-09-23 16:10:12.700000+00:00 | ['Headlines', 'Celebrate', 'Congress', 'America'] |
Infinite things about Remote User Testing | LEARN UX SERIES
I know you know — I know you know
User testing is the last part of the whole UX design process which is used to gain insights, feedback, reviews from the target users while they use our product or a prototype. Usually, this session is done with a digital product such as an app/website.
During the months of May to July of 2020 (The year of Global pandemic ~COVID-19), we were building a digital solution to help local brick-and-mortar retail stores to revive their businesses and compete with e-commerce. One of the major challenges we faced were,
To find our target users and interview them remotely.
To test our prototypes every week to improve our product iteratively.
During this whole remote setting, I have conducted over 25+ User testing sessions from finding the right user to analyzing the insights. From which, I learned a ton about this whole new process, and I would love to share my learnings with you 🚀
Communication with the test user
Ask your test user to have a good internet connection before starting the session or else the conversation might not be very productive. Communicate about the type of device which will be used during the session, say if it’s a Web app that you are testing — Make sure to inform the user to have a Desktop or a Laptop while participating in the Remote session via Zoom or Google Meets. Sometimes, users might install the Zoom app on their mobile for testing a non-responsive web-app. Ask them to have a pair of wired earphones/headphones instead of the Bluetooth ones or the open mic to avoid echo issues. The most common troubles faced during the remote test session, User does not know how to share the right screen on Zoom. Send this video tutorial to them, before the test session. This will help you stay focused during the session (As a facilitator). Make sure to ask them to start sharing their screen first and then give them the prototype link to avoid their own exploration. If the test user is a non-native English speaker or not very comfortable with English — never ever take the session in English. It can take a different path in the emotional direction and communication during the session. If the user is using mobile data (Via hotspot) for the video call, ask them to configure their WiFi as a Metered connection which shuts down all the background downloads in Windows. My whole team has observed this, I don’t know if it’s true for everyone — Having an extroverted person on the session will really help you get more insights and thoughts about the product rather than having the introverted ones.
Instructions during the test session
Here’s the list of things which you should explain to your test user before they start using your prototype or answering your questions,
M OST IMPORTANT: Do not explain the product a lot during the session, and try to ask the user back what they think, how would they think that might work.
Whatever comes to your mind be it any crazy thought or feedback, if you speak out/Think aloud 🔊 it would be helpful for us to get your perspective better. I might ask you a lot of questions, but this session is about testing our prototype to gain feedback and insights from you, and not actually testing you ⌚ like any college exam :) There’s no correct or wrong answer, so feel free and comfortable to give candid or open feedback :) Just so you know, this is not an actual product but just a prototype 😁. Sometimes, it might not work as you were expecting it to work — you can always let us know if you think something might be wrong or did not meet your expectations. Tell the user that you have not designed the prototype (even if you have designed it), this will allow them to give more honest feedback on the design/UI, and the overall product. Or else, they might try to be nice to you, where you might miss some crucial insights. I may not assist you a lot while using the prototype, because in the real-world this product will be used without any assistance. And, we want to make sure that we build a great product. Do you have any questions before we dive-in?
Make sure they understood all the instructions before you actually start the session to get the best out of it :)
Tips for the designer in the team
Do not get emotionally attached to your prototype, I kinda felt rough while receiving the criticism or lots of improvements & suggestions. But, look at the bright side! Try having a Low-Fi prototype for initial stages of testing. This saves a lot of time to work on better ideas and brainstorming. Never turn-on the hotspot flashing while testing your prototype with an actual user. While testing your ideas, try spending more time in getting the overall flow and functionality of the prototype right instead of perfecting the minor visual design fixes. Try to emulate the entire journey from how your app/website gets discovered until the users’ problem being solved to get detailed insights on the user journey. Always stay in touch with your devs to get constant inputs about the interactivity and feasibility of your MVP prototype. Have an overall storyline for the prototype or the product to be tested during the User testing session. This helps your test user to get some context in understanding your prototype/product. Always have a hypothesis to test or a goal to achieve before jumping to the testing session. Establish more context for the testing session through the scenarios and tasks.
Additional test session tips
The more the user gets to know about the product, the better they learn and it becomes difficult to test with them again. So, feed them only with the information they to participate in the session with full confidence and understanding. Be precise with the target persona or the early adopters. You need not build a product that will be used by everyone initially. Let the user talk as much as possible during the session to get more insights.
BONUS
The remote test session always begins with a Google calendar invite, here’s a template which I used for inviting our test users.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/4044098346?pwd=UHFHeTZDNHBPTUY5UkE0dWMvV1p6dz09
Meeting ID: 404 409 8346
Password: 3jwRk9
Thanks for your interest in testing our product 🚀
To give you a bit more context, our team is from Digital Product School, Munich. We are a team of seven, and we are solving problems of local retailers at the moment.
I request you to have your laptop ready for the session and install the zoom app at https://zoom.us/download. And, please make sure you have wired earphones/headphones for this session.
If this is your first time participating in a User Testing session, don’t worry. It’s going to be super easy and fun 😀
Cheers,
Somesh K S
Interaction Designer at DPS | https://uxplanet.org/infinite-things-about-remote-user-testing-3acb32fd4c0 | ['Somesh K S'] | 2020-08-15 13:40:30.288000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Remote Working', 'Design', 'UX', 'User Testing'] |
3 Creative Ways to Turn Your HeartBreak Into Passive Income | 3 Creative Ways to Turn Your HeartBreak Into Passive Income
Photo by Travis Essinger on Unsplash
I was eighteen the first time I made some money out of a painful break-up. I had just ended things with my very first boyfriend, and I did what any teenage girl does when facing heartbreak: I started a journal.
How did that transform into income? I transcribed my feeble and youngish feelings into a word.doc, gave them an edit, and sent it to a literary residency, which offered two paid weeks in a hotel by the sea for those selected.
Weeks later, facing the sea in a folding chair, I understood that there was a way to transform emotions to turn the intangible into tangible.
Here are three creative ways to turn your heartbreak into passive income.
#1 — Write a poetry book
Poetry has never been more accessible and popular than right now. If you don’t believe it, type “poetry book” in Amazon and brace yourself for results.
Famous poet Sharon Olds wrote her most acclaimed poetry collection, The Stag’s Leap, after a painful divorce from a long-time marriage. What happened next? She won the Pulitzer Prize ($15,000) for poetry the year of its publication.
Perhaps not everybody is a natural Shakespeare, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room left for more heartbroken words. The advantage you have over everybody is that there’s only one you in the world; that’s what I’ve been told every creative writing workshop I’ve been to. And trust me, I’ve been to a few.
Go pile those poems up and submit them around. If you aren’t sure where to begin, dive into submittable, and find the literary review that suits you best!
#2 — Work on self-love
When you work on trusting and loving yourself- especially during heartbreak — you’re working with a particular raw material: anxiety.
I decided if I was going to let anxiety coexist with me, at least we were going to slip the rent. So I started working on a personal project whose main topic was self-love.
In March, I opened an Instagram account in which I only uploaded drawings accompanied by inspiring phrases. At first, I wasn’t thinking about monetizing it. It was just a way to let a part of me out into the open world of social media. Until one day, I received a private message. They were inviting me to illustrate a couple of texts on a self-love blog. So far, I illustrate at least one article every month for them.
Loving ourselves is the endless journey we sail onto every day. And for better or for worse, the anxiety we work with is such a universal feeling that there’s always space for someone who wants to do something about it.
#3 — Start a blog for heartbreakers & heartbroken
Quality thinking comes from taking the emotions out of your broken heart and placing them on a blog. At first, nobody has to read it, but the process of writing your thoughts down is powerful. It’ll make you build up the courage you need to make your blog public.
I know one thing for sure about being heartbroken; it’s easier to care less about what other people think.
Dump your heart on a blog a few times a week. Be honest. Like a diary or a journal, a blog is a reflective practice, where you strive to be sincere to yourself. A blog showed me how to heal from heartbreak, and it can do the same for you.
Once you’ve posted many articles/thoughts on your blog, apply to Adsense, and get it monetized. You’ll probably get a couple of dollars at first, but if you keep going, perhaps you’ll earn three or four figures eventually, and then all your heartbreak will have paid off, literally.
Also, what better therapy than one that pays the sessions back! | https://medium.com/some-fears/3-creative-ways-to-turn-your-heart-break-into-passive-income-374bd97515c2 | ['Mia Fornes'] | 2020-12-25 15:03:35.620000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Creativity', 'Heartbreak', 'Startup', 'Business'] |
Tris’ Top 20 Favorite Christmas Songs | Half of this list previously appeared in an old Splice Today article.
Let’s be honest: most Christmas music sucks. Either the songs are overplayed (do we really need another cover of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”?), overproduced (Gwen Stefani’s cover of “White Christmas,” I’m looking at you), or just plain bad (“The Christmas Shoes”). Yet even within the great garbage heap that is Christmas music, there are still a few good songs. These are the songs that actually psyche us up about Christmas. Here are my top 20 picks.
20). “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney
I know a lot of people hate this song, but I fucking love it. Sure, it has that cheesy echoing synthesizer, it’s repetitive, and the lyrics are so simple a five-year-old could write them. Even the promo video is corny with its animation, 1980s-era special effects, and that weird conga line McCartney leads around the pub. But it’s just so damn happy and cheery that I can’t help but smile whenever I hear it. And after a shitty year like 2020, I’ll take all the happiness and cheer I can get.
19). “Marshmallow World” by Darlene Love
Phil Spector is a piece of shit human being, but he was a damn good producer. His 1964 Christmas compilation album A Christmas Gift for You features his famous “wall of sound” production along with some of his artists from the time: The Ronettes, Darlene Love, the Crystals, and Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans. This rendition of “Marshmallow World” is one of the album’s standout tracks.
18). “This Christmas” by Donny Hathaway
Just a great song, period. (Has anyone found Patti LaBelle’s backup singers yet?)
17). “Thank God It’s Christmas” by Queen
Even though it’s Queen, I never hear this song on any of those radio stations that play Christmas music 24/7 throughout December. I mean, it’s Freddie Mercury, and it’s Christmas. What more do you want?
16). “Frosty the Snowman” by Leon Redbone and Dr. John
Two musical legends team up to put their own spin on an old-time classic. Sadly, both passed away in 2019 (ironically within about a week of each other), so if Heaven exists, hopefully these two are singing this song again right now.
15). “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard
For the past month, I’ve been hearing Leona Lewis’ version of this song on the PA at my grocery store job. No disrespect to Lewis, but I have to go with the original by Roy Wood and his band Wizzard. This is another Christmas classic I hardly hear on American radio for some odd reason.
14). “Sleigh Ride” by the Ronettes
Another classic off of A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector. Be forewarned, my friends: after you hear this, you will find yourself singing “Ring-a-ling-a-ling-a ding dong ding” all day!
13). “River” by Joni Mitchell
Christmas isn’t always fun and cheer. It can be really sad, too, and Joni Mitchell’s “River” perfectly captures it with this song. While the song itself isn’t really about Christmas — it only takes place during the holiday — Mitchell incorporating “Jingle Bells” into it makes it a Christmas classic.
12). “The Night Before Christmas Song” by Gene Autry and Rosemary Clooney
This song has a special place in my heart. My grandmother had a record of Gene Autry singing Christmas songs, including this one. I always thought it was a pretty song, but since she passed away the it’s taken on a different meaning. Kinda makes me cry, too, even though it’s literally just the famous poem set to music.
11). “Father Christmas” by the Kinks
Yet another song I don’t hear on the radio, although there might be a good reason for this one. I mean, it is about a department store Santa who gets mugged by a gang of poverty-stricken kids after all. But it’s still an awesome song with a real punk energy.
10). “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues with Kirsty MacColl
When a song takes place on Christmas Eve “in the drunk tank,” it won’t be a Hallmark Channel Christmas story. The song details the failed romance between two Irish people: a drunk guy and a jilted woman. He promised her Broadway when they first met, but in the end they both fucked up each other’s lives. Now on Christmas the two exes exchange insults like “old slut on junk” and “cheap lousy f*ggot.” (Yeah, that line did not age well.) At least Irish people are brutally honest with each other.
9). “What Christmas Means to Me” by Stevie Wonder
This classic is full of happy imagery and a swinging beat that will make even the Grinch rock around the Christmas tree. If this song doesn’t make you feel like running wild with Stevie, check your pulse!
8). “The Season’s Upon Us” by Dropkick Murphys
Continuing the tradition of brutally honest Irish rockers, this Celtic punk song is for all of us stuck with shitty relatives on the holidays. From “whack-job” sisters with equally obnoxious husbands to nephews who give shitty Christmas presents (literally) to selfish drunk dads, this song will make you feel better about spending the holidays with your cousin that’s always mooching money off you.
7). “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by John and Yoko
I know most of you are tired of hearing this year after year, but hear me out. Yes, John was an abusive dick. Yes, Yoko’s voice makes nails on a chalkboard sound like Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Yes, wanting war to be over isn’t enough to actually end war. Still, the song has a great message of hope. Plus, the kids singing, “War is over if you want it, war is over now” still brings a tear to my eye.
6). “White Wine in the Sun” by Tim Minchin
Atheist comedian, singer, and songwriter Minchin finally answers the old question, “Why would an atheist celebrate Christmas?” True, we don’t believe in the nativity story, and we don’t like all the gross commercialization either. Instead, Christmas to us is about spending time with our loved ones. It’s a pretty song that really tugs on the heartstrings when Minchin tells his infant daughter that she might not understand family gatherings now, but will when she grows up.
5). “The Little Drummer Boy/ Peace on Earth” by Bing Crosby and David Bowie
David Bowie makes everything better. Originally the producers wanted Bowie and Crosby to sing “The Little Drummer Boy” together, but Bowie hated the song and asked to sing something different. The producers wrote some new lyrics for Bowie, and the result is a beautiful song with a humanitarian message.
(I think the producers changed some of the original lyrics, too. In this version, Bing sings, “Little baby, ba-rump-a-bum-bum/ I stood beside him there, ba-rump-a-bum-bum” instead of the original “Mary nodded, ba-rump-a-bum-bum/ The ox and lamb kept time, ba-rump-a-bum-bum.”
4). “Christmas Wrapping” by The Waitresses
Not everything was bad in the 1980s, and this song proves it. It even has a nice little love story: girl meets boy, girl keeps crossing paths with boy but never hook up, girl finally connects with boy during a last-minute trip to the grocery store for cranberry sauce.
3). “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!” by Sufjan Stevens
It’s hard to pick just one Sufjan Christmas song, but this is a beautiful short song about Christmas growing up with a violent father. It also helps that Shara Nova of My Brightest Diamond provides haunting backup vocals.
2). “I Believe in Father Christmas” by Greg Lake
It’s a sad song about how the magic of Christmas turns out to be a myth, but it’s still great. Maybe we all need to grieve that loss of innocence from time to time. As compensation, the video ends with a soldier reuniting with his son, so that makes up for the gloominess.
1). “Christmas in Hollis” by Run-DMC
What’s not to love about this? It’s fun, funky, and it’ll make anyone hungry for chicken, collard greens, rice, stuffing, and mac ’n’ cheese. Plus, it has a great message about how you should never steal from Santa, even if he accidentally drops a wallet filled with millions of dollars. | https://medium.com/@tmamone/tris-top-20-favorite-christmas-songs-652452ca4f04 | ['Tris Mamone'] | 2020-12-24 23:21:00.612000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'Top 20', 'Christmas Music', 'Lists', 'Music'] |
Capital & Lame | Although legitimate news organizations would take pains to acknowledge these potential conflicts-of-interest, you won’t find disclosures about Capital & Main’s ties to organized labor appended to their reports on education or other relevant topics. The same goes for those articles co-published by other media outlets.
Are LAANE and Capital & Main breaking the law?
When unions report their expenditures on their annual reports to the U.S. Department of Labor, they have to classify them into one of five categories: Contributions, Gifts and Grants; General Overhead; Political Activities; Representational Activities; and Union Administration.
Each of these categories are clearly defined by the Department of Labor. For example, the agency defines “Political Activities” expenditures this way:
“A political disbursement or contribution is one that is intended to influence the selection, nomination, election, or appointment of anyone to a Federal, state, or local executive, legislative or judicial public office, or office in a political organization, or the election of Presidential or Vice Presidential electors, and support for or opposition to ballot referenda. It does not matter whether the attempt succeeds.”
Why does this matter? Because many of the contributions given by the unions to LAANE and Capital & Main — such as those from the California Federation of Teachers — are reported as “Political Activities” expenditures. However, LAANE and Capital & Main are 501(c)(3) organizations and are therefore prohibited by both federal law and California law from engaging in political activities.
In fact, earlier this spring, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced that he intends to crackdown on tax-exempt organizations that are engaging in politics.
“When you come up with these benevolent names for your organizations and what you’re really doing is out there doing politics and political backstabbing, I don’t think most Americans expected that that would be the use of the not-for-profit legal status,” Becerra said at a May press conference. “The last thing I think most people want to find out is that all these groups that are getting tax breaks because they are not-for-profit are actually going out there and influencing our political system.” | https://medium.com/education-reform/capital-lame-22bef51578e8 | ['Peter C. Cook'] | 2017-10-27 04:51:43.412000+00:00 | ['Education Reform', 'Journalism', 'Media', 'Unions', 'Education'] |
JS: String Reversal, Palindromes, and Anagrams | In this blog post, I thought I’d go over some simple algorithms that are useful to know as a Javascript developer. While these probably won’t be asked during an interview, the thought process that comes with solving these types of simple algorithms can be used for many of the more difficult questions. We’ll talk about each one and go over some simple solutions. Keep in mind that there are always many different solutions for these questions so feel free to solve them on your own. Your solution may be different than my own. In some cases, I’ll go over more than one solution.
String Reversal
Let’s start with a pretty basic task. Given a string, return a new string with the reversed order of characters. If you’re new to Javascript, you might be thinking that we can call some sort of reverse function on the string and be done with it. Well, there is a reverse function but if you check out the official documentation, you’ll see that it works on arrays and not on strings. With that in mind, it wouldn’t be too difficult to turn the string into an array, reverse it, and turn the array back into a string. As we should with all algorithms, let's write out the steps.
Solution #1
Turn the ‘string’ argument into an array. Call reverse() method on the array. Join the array back into a string. Return reversed string.
Let’s start coding!
First, we declare a variable arr that takes the str argument and splits it into an array using the string method split().
function reverse(str) { const arr = str.split('') }
Following the split, let’s reverse our new arr array.
function reverse(str) { const arr = str.split('')
arr.reverse(); }
In the final step, we can return the arr array joined back into a string using the join() array method.
function reverse(str) { const arr = str.split('')
arr.reverse(); return arr.join('') }
And that's it! Our code looks pretty bulky and confusing so let's chain the methods. After a quick refractor, you’ll notice that I took out the arr declarations and returned the chain statement in one line of code.
function reverse(str) { return str.split('').reverse().join('') }
Solution #2
This second solution will make use of a for loop without using the reverse() method. While using the reverse() method makes things pretty simple, there may be a situation where an interviewer asks use to not “cheat” with the reverse() method. This second solution requires a bit more manual coding but is simple nonetheless.
Create an empty string reversedStr. For each character of string argument, put character at the beginning of reversedStr. Return reversedStr variable.
Let’s start by creating our empty string. Remember to use let over const here. The value of const can’t be changed through reassignment and that’s exactly what we're doing in this solution.
function reverse(str) { let reversedStr = ''; }
Next, we’ll start our for-loop. More on for..of loops here. Remember, we will be iterating through the string we received as an argument and placing each character at the front of the reversedStr variable. Finally, we’ll return the reversedStr variable.
function reverse(str) { let reversedStr = ''; for (let i of str) { reversedStr = i + reversed; } return reversedStr; }
There you have it. One solution using the reverse() array method and one using a simple for-loop! There are a ton of solutions out there for this simple task and I really encourage you to find some others. While some solutions may be better in terms of efficiency, there is always more than one solution to a specific algorithm.
Palindromes
By definition, Palindromes are words that form the same word if it is reversed. For example, the word “noon” is a palindrome because if “noon” is reversed, it still says and spells “noon”.
Given a string, return true if the string is a palindrome or false if it is not.
Coming off our string reversal practice, this one should be pretty straight forward. In fact, our string reversal method can be used in this algorithm and the next.
Declare reversed variable that takes str argument and reverses it. Compare str argument to reversed variable.
function palindrome(str) { const reversed = str.split('').reverse().join(''); }
All that’s left is to compare the reversed variable with our str argument. Remember, all we need to do is return a boolean. Simply return the comparison will work.
function palindrome(str) { const reversed = str.split('').reverse().join(''); return str === reversed; }
Now that we understand how to reverse a string, the solution is pretty simple. Once again, we can refactor this code and remove the variable altogether.
function palindrome(str) { return str === str.split('').reverse().join('') }
Anagrams
One word or phrase is an anagram of another if it uses the same characters in the same quantity.
Check to see if the two provided strings are anagrams of each other.
Let’s go over a couple of solutions. Our first solution will assume that our arguments will be simple, lowercase strings with no special characters, punctuation, or capitals.
Solution #1
The most important part of our first solution will be the sort() array method. More info on sort().
Split stringA and stringB to an array and assign to variables. Sort stringA and stringB. Join back into strings. Compare and return boolean value.
function anagrams(stringA, stringB) {
const first = stringA.split('').sort().join('')
const second = stringB.split('').sort().join('')
}
In one line, we split each string into an array, sorted the characters using the sort() method, and joined them. Regardless of the word or phrase, if the words are anagrams, they will look the same once sorted.
Finally, we just have to return the boolean comparison.
function anagrams(stringA, stringB) {
const first = stringA.split('').sort().join('')
const second = stringB.split('').sort().join('')
return first === second
}
That was pretty simple but normally, we’d have to account for special characters, capital letters, or any other condition. Let’s account for all of that in the second solution.
Solution #2
In this solution, we’ll make use of regular expressions (regex) combined with the string method, replace(). Regular expressions can be complex and require a blog post of their own but you can refer to the documentation here. We’re also going to use a helper function for fun just to get a better idea of how we're going to “clean” the strings before checking to see if they’re anagrams of each other.
Let’s start with the helper function. We’ll call it cleanString because that is exactly what it is going to do.
function cleanString(string) { return string.replace(/[^\w]/g, "").toLowerCase() }
The replace method uses regex to remove or replace spaces or punctuation so our sole focus will be the characters. We’ll also call toLowerCase() so capital letters won’t be a problem. We still need to sort the letters as we did in our previous solution so let's chain that to our return statement. Remember, we need to split the string into an array in order to sort it and then join it back into a string.
function cleanString(string) { return string.replace(/[^\w]/g, "").toLowerCase().split('').sort().join('') }
Now, we have a function that we can use to “clean” a string. Let’s implement this in our anagrams function.
function anagrams(stringA, stringB) { const compA = cleanString(stringA) const compB = cleanString(stringB) return compA === compB } function cleanString(string) { return string.replace(/[^\w]/g,"").toLowerCase().split('').sort().join('') }
This last part doesn’t need any much explanation. Using the cleanString helper method we created, we created new variables using stringA and stringB. Essentially, we created “clean” versions of these arguments and then compared them!
While we can easily refactor this to not use a helper method, I thought it would be nice to separate them in order to understand what each of the functions is doing.
Conclusion
While there are countless solutions to these simple questions, feel free to tackle them in your own way! | https://medium.com/@m-hern1415/js-string-reversal-palindromes-and-anagrams-d1f54ab85858 | ['Mark H'] | 2020-12-07 23:19:26.320000+00:00 | ['Algorithms', 'Javascript Tips', 'JavaScript'] |
Love has no reason | Dear Unknown,
Just like any other busy day in a youth university, I woke up early to catch up with few morning classes while having a series of tight mandatory seminars in the evening. It was a regular routine for any engineering student, and it was like a day running around campus while the sun stares at you.
That day I prayed hard; I prayed hard for no programming quiz. The noon sun was attacking my entire face after a social subject seminar session. I walked down past the building and made a quick crazy decision of risking up the programming class with fifty possibilities of a quiz and take a trip to visit a friend.
“Please hit me up if there is a quiz,” I told one of my classmates before I left campus. I barely remember my thoughts and all the journey to this friend that I was visiting. That may be so because much of my time on the bus, my eyes were on the phone screen. It was scrolling on some exciting photography and answering random jokes on social groups.
I arrived a bit late, and it was the exact convenient time that many would be allowed to see their loved ones from that space. Sad enough, I was not allowed to see him for just strict medical reasons and policies. You could also think of giving them many reasons for them to let you in for the first pace. But for no reason, I chose to understand and considered seeing him some other time when he was healthier. And it did not matter because I spent the previous night writing a few notes on colored papers, just wishful and joyful words for him.
I stayed for a short while just to hear how he has been doing so far from the people who have been able to see him for the past few days. Not a pretty healing story, but from the person saying it, I felt his faith in his expectation to see him kick some balls and cheer for his favorite football team. I so believed it too. I then even imagined how he would talk to me about how horrible my calligraphy was in those colorful stick notes and dry jokes about his humor.
Later, I got into a bus humbly and headed back to a different city university world full of great things that one would tell a story about. I did not forget him, and I was curious to tell and believe that we might laugh with him a few days later when I get home. As much as I imagined it happening, there was a whole bucket of faith about it.
This was like driving in the future with absolute joy and pleasant moments. I had excellent fortune thoughts about it for two or three days after visiting him. They all just shut down when I heard the news that we all won’t see each other again. Many usually say it is like a dream, and it is. I sensed that it was a dream that I am awake, and I wanted to sleep to have different news.
It was tragic while further getting to know that he read half of my message from the notes I wrote. It was a turning point for me to realize that love was in front of my face. He was one of the few friends with everlasting memories, but he made me realize that most of the things we humans want are already in front of us. From the time I wrote the wishful notes, I felt happy remembering a few of his jokes and diffuse them with low-skill calligraph that my hands could do.
Despite not seeing him when I visited him, I noticed several children in that ward with burnt injuries and other elderly aged patients with liver illnesses. Children were surrounded by several young women and men sharing stories of joy to cheer up their kids, noticing how much love can be around us even in the days we can barely tell them how much they mean to us.
Love. It is this excellent word and worth experiencing it as a verb. I can now curiously say love is the craziest thing I have been to and something that I keep confusing when it comes right in front of my face. Love stories can be pretty interesting for anyone, but I bet when you heartily experience it practically, it can be one of the most beautiful things you have lived up for. Maybe you might have reasons to love, but I have been experiencing it with no reason to tell.
Yours,
Ink.
In memory of Edo. | https://medium.com/@inkwritesbarua/love-has-no-reason-4465edd607d4 | [] | 2021-05-20 17:02:51.321000+00:00 | ['Love Letters', 'Sakri', 'Lovestory'] |
How to Live With and Manage Envy Like a Grown Up | I learned recently that I’m an enneagram 4w3. That’s a type four, with a three wing. Apparently, that means that I’m hardwired to be both dramatic and envious. Oh, and highly emotional.
Fantastic. I’m predisposed to sour grapes.
Jealousy and envy aren’t the same thing, so at least I have that going for me.
I mean, I’m not a complete monster. I don’t want you not to be loved. I just don’t want you to be loved more than me. (Don’t look at me like that!)
Like, we can both be wildly successful. That would be awesome.
We can both knock it out of the park doing the same thing. Or you doing your thing and me doing mine. Whatever.
But if I’m working just as hard as you are and it seems like you’re getting than I am? More money, more fame, more attention — all of which boils down to more love?
There’s this curly-headed little girl in a tutu that lives inside of me. And she pays close attention to stuff like that. Let’s call her Grapella.
And let’s just say that Grapella is not the loveliest part of my personality and to be honest, I’m pretty happy that I can blame her on whatever enneagram is.
Because sour grapes aren’t a good look for anybody.
But I have to deal with them, sometimes. (Thanks, 4w3.) Not all the time. I mean, I’ve had therapy. But when I’ve worked really hard and it feels like I haven’t had the result I think I should have?
Or worse, someone else has done better. And, oh my God, if I think they haven’t worked as hard as me? Seriously. Yeah, Grapella starts crushing her Shasta cans. The sour is so strong, I can’t get the taste out of my mouth.
But — I have to. If I want to be a healthy person who has relationships with other humans, I have to figure out how to manage the worst parts of my personality.
I’m not going so far as to call it making . . . um . . . grapeade out of sour grapes? (Did I really just go there?) But I’ve learned how to turn my envy into something manageable.
Know it When You Feel it
Sometimes, when you’re caught in a cycle of righteous indignation, it can be difficult to notice that you’re maybe not in such a healthy place. Okay — so maybe that other guy didn’t work as hard as you and maybe they don’t deserve more than you have, but you definitely don’t deserve to make yourself sick over it.
And the real truth? You probably don’t know the other guy’s whole story. But we’ll get into that in a minute.
So take a deep breath. Acknowledge that your ugly side is showing. The first step to tucking it back away where it belongs is acknowledging that it was out in the first place.
Everyone has their bugaboos. This is yours. It’s going to be okay.
Recognize That You Don’t Know Everything
Okay, so that person who didn’t work as hard as you? The one who got more than you did when they didn’t even try? It turns out that you can’t possibly know their whole whole story.
It’s true that some people are born with privilege. They’re born in the right bodies, in the right year, in the right family, in the right place. Some people just start out halfway done with the race, you know.
Hell, some of us start out at the finish line. Those are the breaks. We can work on evening the playing field, but at any given moment, it is what it is.
And then there are the lucky people. They get the right idea and implement it at the right moment in space and time. And those people really can look to the outside world like they have everything the rest of us work so hard for just dumped into their laps.
All I can tell you is that you don’t know anyone’s story but your own. Not all of it. At the very least, you don’t know how hard they’ve worked. Or how hard they’ll have to work later.
Because the world has a way of balancing things. And things that come too easy? Usually the work that needs to be done finds a way of catching up later. Because the work actually matters.
So try to keep your envy in check. It’s probably at least partly misplaced anyway.
Eyes On Your Own Plate
This is my best advice for you. Here’s the way my little brothers would have said it to me back in the day: Mind your own beeswax.
Your beeswax is your work. Your success. Your failure. Your life.
When you get too caught up in what you’re sure is some injustice — what someone else has that you don’t — then you’re missing out on what’s right in front of you.
You can’t serve two masters, you know? So you can either spend your energy worrying about someone else’s beeswax, or you can focus on your own.
Guess what? The reason why they’re doing so well is because they’ve got their eyes on their own plate. They’re doing their thing. They don’t give two shits about how envious you are or whether you think that they worked as hard as they did, or whatever.
Is it easy to turn off your ugly side once it gets going? Obviously not. You know that already. But you’re a grown up. You can do it. It starts with refocusing on your own work.
Make Sure You’re Seeing The Whole Picture
I’m talking about your picture here. Yours. It’s funny, because when you’re feeling envious, maybe you think you’re being self-centered and you need to stop that.
But really? You need to shift your focus back to yourself. You’ve been so focused everywhere else, you’ve actually forgotten how to see yourself.
When you’re busy comparing yourself other people and falling short, something odd starts happening. You stop seeing yourself the way the rest of the world does.
Everyone else looks at you and sees the good first. Want to know why? Because they’re comparing themselves to you. And, you know, they’re comparing their weaker points to your stronger ones.
Humans are so weird.
But you’ve gotten yourself in this place where you can’t see all of yourself. You’re only seeing the weak places. Try to take a step back and refocus. Ask someone you trust to help you, if you have to. You need to see yourself with fresh eyes.
Don’t Get Addicted To Your Envy
It can be so easy to become that person. The one that was slighted. The one who should have had it all, but it went to someone else instead. When they didn’t even work as hard as you!
The risk with wallowing in envy is that your focus shifts to maintaining the hurt, instead of your own growth or success or creative flow.
I’m not saying you’re not right. You might be. God knows, there have been times when I’ve really believed that I was.
But you and me? We’ve got big plans and better things to do with our energy than spend it all indulging our envy. Grapella can’t actually run the show. (Even if she is right.) | https://shauntagrimes.medium.com/how-to-live-with-and-manage-envy-like-a-grown-up-68d63835b1e4 | ['Shaunta Grimes'] | 2019-10-03 17:36:16.956000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Work', 'Mental Health', 'Self', 'Life'] |
Dynamic programming: part 1 | The basic idea of DP (dynamic programming) is to solve complex problems by dividing them into simpler recurring subproblems. And then store the values to not recalculate them every time.
Let me show a basic interview question
You are climbing a staircase that has n steps. You can take the steps either 1 or 2 at a time. Calculate how many distinct ways you can climb to the top of the staircase.
Guaranteed constraints: 1 ≤ n ≤ 50
Solution
A naive recursive solution can be: Make a single step, and solve for n-1 plus make a double step, and then solve for n-2. We also need a base case and that’s for n = 1 which return 1, and for n = 2 returns 2
Recursion tree
This code easily solves the problem, but the time complexity is O(n!), and that is so bad. But the idea of DP is to improve that solution, storing the previous results, so throw that solution to trash, and write a better one.
Now, this solution has time complexity equal to O(n) but the space complexity now is O(n) as well, but this is not necessary, because, the solution only uses the last two calls to solve the problem. So, we can store only the last two calls.
solution with constant space complexity
Now the time complexity still O(n) but the space complexity improve to O(1) For python, we can also do this improve using the first solution, and use lru_cache
Now we have a nice solution with linear time complexity and constant space complexity, so we achieve the goal for the interview! :D | https://medium.com/@tonoezep/dynamic-programming-part-1-b09730046442 | ['Antonio Pereiro'] | 2020-03-16 18:55:19.644000+00:00 | ['Interview Questions', 'Interview Preparation', 'Dynamic Programming', 'Problem Solving', 'Coding Interviews'] |
What are the Economic Benefits of Cycling? | Cycles are an integral part of our daily lives while having a huge impact on the Indian Economy as well as culture and society. Some use it for fitness, some for commuting to work, some to fulfill the need of their lives, and some to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Talking about the Dabbawalas in Mumbai, the iconic rickshaws in Delhi for short distance commuting, and the fitness revolution empowered by various cyclothons being conducted in the country are live testimony to the use and importance of bicycles in India.
Get the Economic Benefits of Cycling by Ncyclopedia
There is no doubt that cycles are an environment-friendly mode of transport providing numerous health and environmental benefits. Moreover, bringing in picture the economic benefits of cycling is something that is worth a discussion with the ‘Hard Economic Value’ and the ‘Economic Growth with Increased Business Prospects’ that it displays.
Let us first discuss about the Hard Economic Value of Cycling:
· The number of cars on Indian roads currently estimates to about 23 million cars consuming more than 4 million barrels per day. Now, think about the Indian roads flooded with bicycles. This in turn will tremendously reduce the cost of fuel consumption.
· Economy also goes up the growth scale with reduced cost of bicycle infrastructure and the bicycle maintenance cost.
· More the number of cycles less will be the retail spend requirement for car parking space.
· Less expenditure on mode of transport will eventually lead to increased expenditure to something productive and meaningful to have a better standing in the international markets.
· Retail business will also shoot up with increased use of cycling by improving the pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. These days real estate is experiencing a paradigm shift in sales as homes with convenient walking and cycling track is supporting higher sales.
· The redefinition of India’s cycling hypothesis is Saksham Pedal, an event conceptualized with the mission of instilling social-environmental consciousness and leveraging the promotion of fuel conservation. This in turn is indirectly benefiting the Indian economy with international recognition of exceptionally talented cyclists of India winning huge prize money during the event.
Let us now discuss about the Economic Growth with Increased Business Prospects:
The increased adoption of this environment-friendly mode of transport in the recent years is gradually breaking down the negative perception associated with the sport of cycling. Hence, the numbers of bicycles are increasing and so are the business prospects. Let us see how:
· The bicycle market is on an exponential growth with constantly increasing cycle sales. When the retail sale will increase, the repair and maintenance will certainly increase, in turn leading to more business. In the recent years, the bicycle output has already displayed a quadrupled growth.
· Manufacturers and wholesalers will experience a huge jump in the production and distribution of cycles across India. India is known to produce a 10% average of the world bicycle production while the manufacturers of top 10 cycles in India like Hero Cycles, Avon, and Atlas display their respective shares of volume.
· Bicycle tourism is another sector to see a boom in the years to come which in turn will contribute to the growing Indian economy. Many international cycling enthusiasts are showing interest to explore the beauty of Indian destinations by bicycle.
· Many international cycle manufacturers are venturing into India with a mission to attract Indian cycling enthusiasts. Some manufacturers are having their individual set up and some are planning to initiate a joint venture with the existing Indian bicycle manufactures | https://medium.com/@seo.ncyclopedia/what-are-the-economic-benefits-of-cycling-d33788822f0b | [] | 2019-04-12 13:04:12.788000+00:00 | ['Group Cycling Near Me', 'Cycle Stores In Nagpur', 'Nagpur Cycle Stores', 'Cycling', 'Best Bicycle Service'] |
Strychnine on the rocks | Strychnine on the rocks
Add a dash of coke and garnish with poetry
Photo by JJ Jordan on Unsplash
The rim of the bottle
reminds me of those lips,
which were never mine,
just borrowed,
and the prescription slides off it,
in a transparent mimicry
of burnt caramel.
And it all fits in a few seconds,
your eyes fixed on mine fit in,
and so does your banter and abuse,
and there is time for me to watch the flow,
slow, uninterrupted,
and there is time for me to shiver,
as I know your playing with my infatuation.
Your hips turn back and deny me,
once more,
and the dew of your hand toils to
moisturize the vapidity of your melancholy.
We get back to the harbor that punishes my presbyopia,
to the lethargic and lazy light,
to the chaste and complicit companions,
to the excuse we pretend to be of use for us,
which makes us confront each other again
with a thread of eyesights.
And you forget your dwarf victory,
which perhaps has represented
a vengeance to you,
and which has starched your shirt
thus straightening your back.
And I disguise as a translator
of my own doubt,
which turns into sweat
trapped among my limbs,
with my shoulders sniffing
my tired knees,
and my hand looking for the same doss,
because they tremble
with the lymph of desire. | https://medium.com/lit-up/strychnine-on-the-rocks-f4a4f331f58b | ['Ruth Lazkoz'] | 2020-04-28 12:59:51.595000+00:00 | ['Feelings', 'Poetry', 'People', 'Love', 'Desire'] |
Design tokens 101 | Web developers used to hard-code all of their style data. If a button needed a background color of blue, they’d assign the background color right at the source:
.button {
background-color: blue;
}
That worked for smaller systems that didn’t need a theming layer and weren’t undergoing frequent redesign. But if you needed a large-scale redesign, this was a painful approach.
Invented by Jina Anne for the Salesforce Lightning Design System, design tokens are an approach to storing style attributes like color, typography, and spacing in a pre-determined structure. They are an alternative to directly hard-coding style data that allow designers and developers to build consistent, pleasing layouts, quickly accomplish redesigns, and add a theming layer to their applications.
If a designer uses Figma, their design tokens might be represented like this:
They have specific, generic names. If you changed the value assigned to `primary1`, it still makes sense!
In code, those tokens might look like this:
const theme = {
colors: {
primary1: "#07005B",
primary2: "#1D35AF",
secondary1: "#E34F30",
secondary2: "#3CA6E0",
secondary3: "#C17259",
secondary4: "#0E78B2",
secondary5: "#00875E",
},
};
Those tokens can then be read by whatever styling mechanism we’re leveraging. For example, they could be consumed by `styled-components`.
import styled from “styled-components”;
import { Button } from “@harrysforge/button”; const PrimaryButton = styled(Button)`
background-color: ${(props) => props.theme.colors.primary1};
`;
Levels of Design Token Usage
I’ve seen three different levels of design token usage across sites.
1. No design tokens
Sites without design tokens have hard-coded style data. There is no central location where style data is stored and managed.
2. Unstructured design tokens
In my experience, this is the most common level of design token usage. There is a central location where style data is stored and managed, but the data isn’t organized or named in a consistent way.
const theme = {
babyBlue: `blue`,
};
3. Structured design tokens
The best-case scenario is when sites have structured design tokens. This is when designers and developers actively agree on the shape and naming conventions for their tokens. It allows designers and developers to communicate more effectively and makes site redesigns and theming much more straightforward.
const theme = {
colors: {
primary1: “#07005B”,
primary2: “#1D35AF”,
secondary1: “#E34F30”,
secondary2: “#3CA6E0”,
secondary3: “#C17259”,
secondary4: “#0E78B2”,
secondary5: “#00875E”,
},
};
Common Workflows
Using design tokens can improve a number of common workflows. There are many cases where having design tokens improve design and developer experience while also providing business value. Let’s walk through a couple of these common scenarios, and how they’re different for sites that use no design tokens, unstructured design tokens, and structured design tokens.
1. Site Redesigns
No design tokens
Imagine that a site’s color palette is primarily blue. If a designer is working in a tool that doesn’t support a shared color library and they want to update each instance of the color blue in all of their files, it will be very difficult for them.
It’s probably not much better on the code side. A developer will have to look in look through every individual design file that indicates where that color has been changed to orange and replace the hardcoded blue with orange across the site.
Unstructured design tokens
Then, there’s the scenario in which design tokens are leveraged, but tokens are named according to the originally-assigned value.
const theme = {
colors: {
babyBlue: “blue”,
},
};
In this case, a developer can change babyBlue to orange.
const theme = {
colors: {
babyBlue: “orange”,
},
};
But now in the codebase, we’re using the token babyBlue to represent orange, which is really confusing! So a developer really needs to also change the name of the design token, which kind of defeats the purpose.
Structured design tokens
A designer is using a tool that supports shared color libraries like Figma. If they want `primary1` to be orange instead of blue, all they need to do is change the hex code of `primary`, and all of their designs will automatically update with the new color.
In the code, the design tokens look like this:
const theme = {
colors: {
primary1: "blue",
},
};
In this case, all the developer needs to do is change primary1 to orange and the whole codebase will automatically update in the right places with orange instead of blue.
2. Design / Dev Collaboration
Among other benefits, design tokens introduce a common vocabulary that designers and developers can both use when referring to styles, which improves collaboration and reduces back-and-forth, saving time and money.
No design tokens
Designers have static mocks that have to be updated by hand everywhere. They might not even know what colors are in the codebase. On the code side, it’s hard to audit what colors are part of the site and whether they match the designs. Everyone resorts to guessing, which causes a lack of UI consistency.
Designers have static mocks that have to be updated by hand everywhere. They might not even know what colors are in the codebase. On the code side, it’s hard to audit what colors are part of the site and whether they match the designs. Everyone resorts to guessing, which causes a lack of UI consistency. Unstructured design tokens
The design tokens are named differently by the designers and the developers. The designers call the blue blue1 while the developers call it babyBlue. It’s hard to communicate about what needs to be changed. Eventually, they figure it out.
The design tokens are named differently by the designers and the developers. The designers call the blue blue1 while the developers call it babyBlue. It’s hard to communicate about what needs to be changed. Eventually, they figure it out. Structured design tokens
Designers and developers both call the blue primary1 . Now, when designers want to update a color in their mocks across the whole site, all they need to do is tell a developer to update `primary1` from blue to orange.
3. Theming
No design tokens
As far as I know, it’s not possible.
Unstructured design tokens
If your tokens have names like babyBlue , it’s going to get weird when babyBlue becomes red in a rebrand.
If your tokens have names like , it’s going to get weird when becomes red in a rebrand. Structured design tokens
This will be really straightforward, as long as all of the themes follow the rules of the design tokens.
4.Consistent UI Experience
No design tokens
Having hard-coded values across the site makes it nearly impossible to maintain consistency. There’s no way to constrain the number of styles, and there’s no shared language between designers and developers.
Having hard-coded values across the site makes it nearly impossible to maintain consistency. There’s no way to constrain the number of styles, and there’s no shared language between designers and developers. Unstructured design tokens
This is much better than not having design tokens! At least developers have a good sense of how many different styles they are applying, and an audit is pretty easy.
This is much better than not having design tokens! At least developers have a good sense of how many different styles they are applying, and an audit is pretty easy. Structured design tokens
This is ideal, since the structure of the design tokens can be shared between developers and designers, and site redesigns will be straightforward and consistent.
A Shared Design Token Specification
As companies grow, they start to maintain multiple applications at once. A company can begin to address some of the pain points that develop when this starts happening by agreeing on a shared design token specification.
Agreeing on a shared specification will open a company up to a number of benefits:
A set of sites with themeable frontends out-of-the-box
A component library that contains elements that know about the shared specification — which means that you’ll be able to drop a button into your brand and it will be automatically styled according to your design tokens
Improved collaboration between designers and developers using the shared language of design tokens
Scripts that can automatically pull data from Figma into your codebase and restyle your frontend
Brent Jackson is working on an open-source shared style specification called Theme UI that aims to solve this problem across companies.
This post was originally published at https://maecapozzi.com/design-tokens. | https://uxdesign.cc/design-tokens-67023982f7e3 | ['Mae Capozzi'] | 2021-01-18 02:22:47.821000+00:00 | ['React', 'Programming', 'Design', 'UI', 'Design Systems'] |
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