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Water Fasting: Science, Benefits, Dangers, Testimonies, and a Diary | A practical guide to water fasting from a 37-year-old fasting enthusiast who lost 20 lb twice by fasting on water and healing herself.
Anna Szabo at 37 years old in Destin Florida in 2020 after Water Fasting
Introduction
The cover image on this post is a picture of me in 2020 at 37 years old visiting Henderson Beach State Park in Florida. To learn more about me and understand my emotional struggles with weight, food, and health in general, read “Getting to know Anna Szabo.” I lost 20 lb twice by fasting on water. Today, I practice prolonged fasting (24–120 hours) weekly.
I used to be very sick — from head to toe. This is not an exaggeration. I had fungus on my toes and toenails, vaginal yeast infections that resulted in twice-a-year hospitalizations for seven years, gastrointestinal problems that led me to multiple hospitalizations as well, ENT problems, such as ear infections, sinus infections, bronchitis up to five times a year, and a constantly running nose… The list goes on but I won’t bore you with it. I was on meds, drugged up with steroids, and my immune system was almost killed by all the drugs constantly prescribed to me.
Today, I’m healthy, pain-free, aches-free, very active, well-fit, don’t take any meds, don’t spend any time in hospitals or with doctors, can do any activities I want, hula-hoop, walk 10000 steps every day, kayak on the river outside my front door, travel anywhere my soul desires, and wake up with a big smile every morning thanking God for my wellbeing: physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional.
Because I experienced being sick, taking drugs, and spending months at a hospital several times each year, my health today is the top and most important priority on my list. Being healthy is so valuable to me, I am committed to doing whatever it takes to maintain my holistic wellbeing.
Why do I use the word “holistic?”
Well… I told you about my physical health problems already. Now, let’s discuss mental health. I am a two-times suicide survivor and at some point, I suffered severely from suicidal depression. Not wanting to live, being done, being sick, being tired, being at the end of strength — all of these are intimately familiar to me personally. I wrote an essay called What Depression Feels Like describing how miserably sick I was. Water fasting helped me get healthy and strong.
One of the things I decided to try back in 2018 was water fasting. To a layperson who eats three meals a day and snacks whenever, the idea of abstaining from food completely for several days sounds insane. I was that layperson, and yes, fasting on water sounded insane to me. But honestly, I felt the same way about doing the plant-based diet.
Once I learned the science supporting whole-foods plant-based eating style, I went full-on for a very vigorous plant-based diet weight-loss and never looked back!
Similarly, after studying and understanding the scientific support for water fasting and examining what the Bible says about it, I began fasting on water regularly, and my life improved in all of its aspects, so did my holistic wellbeing. Here’s a picture of me from a few days ago in Destin, FL. I am almost 40 years old in this iPhone-captured picture.
Anna Szabo at 37 visiting Destin beach after fasting on water only
Table of Content:
− Water Fasting Resources
− Water Fasting Results
− What Is Water Fasting?
− How Does Water Fasting Work?
− Is Water Fasting Safe?
− Who Can Benefit from Fasting on Water Only?
− Who Should Not Fast on Water?
− What Does The Science Say About Fasting on Water?
− What Is The History of Water Fasting?
− How Do You Fast on Water?
− How Long Can You Fast?
− How Much Water Should You Drink While Fasting?
− Can You Exercise While Fasting on Water Only?
− What Can You Expect on a Water Fast?
− What Are The Benefits of Fasting on Water?
− Can Water Fasting Clean Arteries?
− Can Water Fasting Cure Diseases?
− Are There Any Dangers or Risks To Water Fasting?
− Can Water Fasting Help Lose Weight?
− How Do You Prepare for Water Fasting?
− How Do You Properly Refeed After Water Fasting?
− What Are The Do’s and Don’t’s of Water Fasting?
− How Often Is It Safe To Fast on Water Only?
− Do Doctors Recommend Water Fasting?
− Conclusion
Water Fasting Resources
When I was getting started with water fasting, I did extensive research, watched documentaries, read scientific studies, listened to some thought-provoking interviews with medical doctors, and consumed TED talks on the topic. There were so many blanks in my mind, and so many questions had to be answered for me to be comfortable with fasting.
To help you on your health journey, I created a special and unique resource library, including vlogs, science, healing stories, etc. My goal is to encourage you and help you understand why fasting on water is so healing, as well as how exactly it affects your body, brain, mind, aging, illnesses, mood, skin, metabolism, sleep, energy, and lifespan.
The purpose of my Christian blog for women is to help alleviate suicide among women globally by sharing hope in Christ. Fasting helped my own suicidal depression recovery, which is why I’m so passionate about sharing my knowledge and experience with you.
Jesus expected us to fast after His crucifixion.
Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. Matthew 9:15
To help you fast on water for the purposes of physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional benefits, I created many resources, such as vlogs, diaries, poems, and prayers, as well as the success stories of other people who experienced healing from fasting. Let me share the resources I creaated so you can benefit from them.
Water Fasting Vlog
My first several water fasting experiences were documented on video, and I published a video a day as I fasted. It was intense, but I wanted to help other people. So, I created a playlist of 15 water fasting vlog videos on YouTube and hope these will encourage and empower you.
Today, I don’t vlog about it anymore. Why?
In 2020, I learned that the Bible teaches to fast in secret. That’s why I don’t do vlogs but keep journals instead and share on my blog openly after I finish each water fast.
Here is my original water fasting vlog.
Water Fasting Diary
Learning how people experience fasting, how they conquer their flesh, how they battle their desires, how they handle their food temptations, and how they heal was very encouraging for me when I was getting started on water fasting. That’s why I share my journal here.
Yes, I have my full water fasting diary for you, published right here on this website, unedited! It documents my fasting experiences from 2020, this year. So, for 2018 you have my vlogs and for 2020 you have my diaries. What about 2019?
In 2019, I did not fast.
Below are all my completed water fasts.
Water Fasting Poems
I am a poet. When I have intense emotions, feelings, or thoughts, typically, I give birth to a poem (or ten). Abstaining from food stirred up all kinds of childhood memories for me, especially food abuse and the cruel things my mom would say about my body. I described those in the blog post called Things Narcissistic Mothers Say.
The battle within me was brutal this year when I started fasting again and stopped eating food. My emotions ran high, I actually genuinely suffered as I was working through my trauma in the absence of food. By the way, food was physically present in my home in the fridge but I did not eat it, so it was absent in my daily life.
As a result of all that insense inner work, a few new poems were born. These reflect my conversations with myself, my struggles, and my breakthroughs about so many aspects of living and eating.
May you be encouraged by these poems!
“A Poem About Water Fasting” Water fasting is a difficult journey to optimal health.
Health is a very unique, rare, and special type of wealth. It’s not something you can inherit from relatives or go buy.
You must earn health by sleeping, exercising, and eating to live - not to die. The obstacles to optimal health surround you everywhere:
Ice cream, burger, pizza, fries, chocolates, and soda are found anywhere. These are addictive drugs, which are stronger than cocaine.
They trick, addict, damage, and destroy your one and only precious brain.
These drugs are specifically designed by food scientists to get you hooked,
To get you overeat, crave crap, and to make your wellness overlooked. They are ought to make you fat, miserable, sick, and nearly dead.
They aim to give you diseases so that you’re permanently stuck on your bed. The only way to get unhooked from all the food crap is to do a water fast.
It helps restore your brain, your stomach, your arteries, and heals you best. Though fasting on water won’t make you feel good.
It will however mobilize and cleanse all kinds of crap and get your body to reboot.
That way fasting on water meets your health goals and even exceeds. After your water fast, eat healthy plants, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.That way fasting on water meets your health goals and even exceeds. Don’t put crappy food into your mouth, avoid getting crap-hooked.
Eat raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, as well as whole grains cooked. When you achieve optimal health and people try to get you off track,
When they offer you deep-fried chicken, cheesy mushed potatoes, and other crap... Learn to say "no thank you" and stay true to your values and health priority.
Exercise boundaries and refuse crappy food with determination and authority.
5/3/20 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA
“Water Fasting vs Gluttony” Water fasting is a tough test for your discipline, fortitude, commitment, and spiritual maturity.
It rids your body of addictive food crap, chemicals, and fat. And it helps you achieve spiritual purity. Without food, day after day, you feel deprived, trapped, physically weak, and emotionally unstable.
Only God can help get you through. He gives you strength. God is of divine comforting able. Water fasting journey tests your thinking, wisdom, and your willingness to abide in Christ.
Jesus gave up His life to set you free. The least you can do is just a few meals to sacrifice. Sacrificing food, your temptations, salt and fat addictions, and mental focus isn’t easy at all.
That’s why to be able to fast on water only, you must every day wholeheartedly on God call. You must have strong reasons to fast on water only, not just weight loss, that goal is too vain.
You must set your eyes on the Lord and desire Him more than food, that’s how you can stay sane.
physically, mentally, and spiritually: you’ll no longer be weak and blind. During your water fast, you’ll be tested plenty: your faith, your body, your priorities, your will, your strength, your habits, and your mind. At the end of your water fast, you’ll be renewed physically, mentally, and spiritually: you’ll no longer be weak and blind. You’ll be able to see clearly that food is no longer your master, it can’t control you, you have one master, you belong to God.
You’ll understand what the Bible means in saying: put a knife to your throat if the sin of gluttony the best of you got. You’ll be able to honor God with your body, eat like Daniel did, and flee from the food addiction gluttony sin.
You’ll be able to focus on building mental, emotional, and spiritual strength, abide in Christ, and stay lean.
5/4/20 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA
Water Fasting Unlocks Health and Wealth" Health is an asset like no other.
Money and success don’t matter if
Every day pains and aches you bother
And without drugs you cannot live.
It must be earned day after day
By sleeping, stretching,
And Health can’t be bought with any money.It must be earned day after dayBy sleeping, stretching, walking , running,And eating plants instead of prey. Health benefits from water fasting.
When you don’t eat for several days,
Your body uses time for resting
And activates God’s healing ways. The ways that help you detox deeply,
The ways that cure your DNA,
The ways that heal your gut completely
And keep diseases far away. By fasting, you reduce your waistline,
You also use your long-stored fat.
By this, you reach your healthy baseline,
Stop inflammation, and reset. You were designed by God for health.
Your body is God’s Spirit’s temple.
You must pursue health as your wealth,
And watch your body no more tremble.
You must
You must be fine to go without
To learn to lean on God at all times. You must eat right. You must workout.You must abstain from food sometimes You must be fine to go withoutTo learn to lean on God at all times. By fasting, you improve your wellness,
Refresh your spirit, and start fresh.
You also receive benefits endless
Designed by God to heal your flesh. When you have health, you’re truly rich.
When you’re near-dead and very sick,
No money can your life enrich.
So, build good habits and with them stick! Fast regularly on plain water,
Eat fruits, legumes, veggies, and nuts,
Do not support abuse and slaughter.
To live a healthy life takes guts! To stop yourself from early dying,
Reverse diseases and get healed,
You need to start more veggies buying,
About fresh fruit getting thrilled!
Sleep well, fast often, don’t eat meat!
And that’s the end of your health guide.
Now, it’s up to you to get healthy and fit!
Eat less, move more , get outside,Sleep well, fast often, don’t eat meat!And that’s the end of your health guide.Now, it’s up to you to get healthy and fit! 7/23/20 © Anna Szabo, JD, MBA
Water Fasting Prayers
Prayer is the best source of strength and courage. By praying, I surrender my flesh to God and step into His Spirit. I pray and lean on God every day. Without Him, I can’t do anything.
On my water fasting journey, I wrote several prayers. May these bless you in some way and encourage you on your path to optimal health. I hope you ask God to lead you and show you the way.
A prayer for relief from the food-related temptations. Dear God, I thank you so much for leading me on a path of natural healing, helping me discover and practice water fasting, as Jesus did, and allowing me to experience deep calmness and genuine joy in my communion with you, away from food. Father, rid me of the false beliefs imposed on me by my obese and sick family, don’t let me be conformed to the eating patterns of this Western world, which are enslaving people through food addictions making eating food their master, liberate me from any and all thinking habits that resulted in my binge-eating, gluttony, and animal consumption. I want to serve you, God, and you’re the only one I want to be obsessing about, you’re the only one I want to desire with passion, not food, not eating, not restaurants, not new recipes. But you! I pray for natural and instant healing from the binge-eating disorder as I’m standing on your 3573 promises, God, trusting that all things are possible through Christ. In His name I pray for continued peace in the area of eating. Amen.
A prayer for relief from the binge-eating disorder. Dear God, I am weak, and you are strong. I belong to you, and food is not my master. I can do all things through Christ, and the sin of gluttony has no power over me. Father, help me fight food temptations, which surround me everywhere I go. Heal me from my binge-eating disorder, God. Let me establish and maintain strong food boundaries and practice a simple “no thank you” without feeling awkward or guilty in social situations. Let me only choose the kind of food that brings into my body the nutritional assets needed for my optimal health. Let me only eat as much food as my body truly needs for its optimal health. Let me eat slowly and mindfully with gratitude and peace so that my body can intake, process, and benefit from the food I’m eating. I pray these things in the name of Jesus, my lord and savior who Himself fasted on water for 40 days in the wilderness to honor you, God. Amen.
A prayer for the healing of God’s people. Dear God, I thank you for your great work in me and through me. Thank you for introducing me to the ancient method of natural healing, which is water fasting. Thank you for healing me, Father. I want to use this knowledge to help others experience healing. Guide me on how to help people discover water fasting as a health-optimization tool. Lead me to those people who need this and can benefit from it. Bring those people to me, help them find me. I believe that you made each of us perfect in your own image, designed for health and longevity, and every one of us can experience deep healing if we give our bodies a little break from eating. I pray in the name of Jesus who fasted without food for 40 days. Amen.
A prayer for the woman reading this blog post. Dear God, may the woman reading this blog post be inspired by my water fast results and encouraged by knowing that with Christ all things are possible! Father God, bless the woman who is reading this content. Give her a passion for long-term health. Stir up on the inside her desire to live a healthy life. Help her see herself the way you see her: beautiful, healed, healthy, confident, and worthy! In Jesus’ name. Amen.
If you find my prayers helpful, donate.
Water Fasting Prayers by Anna Szabo in 2020 in Destin, FL
Water Fasting Documentaries
Documentaries matter. Not all of them are good but there are some valuable documentaries that are well-supported by both science and real-life examples of natural healing. My brain craves documentaries when I’m exploring a new topic. Is there a good water fasting documentary? Yes! Before I tell you how I discern, let me tell you about my educational backgroound and how my brain works.
I’ve spent 22 years in school and have graduated from four universities, three of them with high honors. So, my brain is science-oriented. I also have a Doctoral degree in Criminal Justice, so my brain is highly-investigative. That’s why I love documentaries, especially those with solid scientific research and clinical trial data.
Below is the only such documentary on the topic of water fasting, and I’ve rewatched it again and again to learn something new every time. As you know, I am originally from Russia. Though I’ve lived in America for 12 years now, I spent the first 25 years of my life in Kursk, Russia.
The Science of Fasting documentary presents research conducted by international scientists put together by a French filmmaker Sylvie Gilman and released initially in Germany in March of 2012.
The film examines the secret Russian water fasting methodology developed by Dr. Yuri Nikolayev and used for over seven decades to heal various diseases, including mental illness.
To me, this was a shock! I had never heard of this until this year, 2020, but I myself did experience depression healing from water fasting on my own in 2018. So, I know from experience how helpful water fasting can be when it comes to brain health and emotional balance. This water fasting documentary is described in detail below, and you can watch it for free on YouTube at the link provided.
Surgery and pharmaceuticals are Western medicine’s default solution for almost any ailment. But a therapeutic alternative, one that has existed for centuries, is gaining attention among researchers and physicians. This program examines the growing interest in fasting as a treatment for cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and other diseases. Journeying to the Goryaschinsk Spring sanatorium on the shores of Lake Baikal, in southern Siberia, the film shows how decades of secret clinical studies conducted by Soviet and post-Soviet doctors have led to new applications for fasting and caloric restriction — with astonishing results. Viewers also encounter dramatic case studies of liver damage reversal and arthritis mitigation at Germany’s Buchinger Clinic, as well as the findings of an innovative gerontologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Together, these stories suggest a paradigm shift in our understanding of healing and human physiology. The Science of Fasting
Water Fasting Results
People search for water fasting results because they want to see what’s possible if they abstain from food for some time. Everyone’s results from fasting on water will differ based on their starting weight and health conditions, their state of gut microbiome, their intake of medications, their sleep quality, the amount of their physical exercise daily, and their nutrition when they are feasting.
That being said, I want you to have some references to various stories of people who benefited from fasting on water in various different ways. I put together a collection of research and stories for you. See below. Click on each link to read more details.
Note that I am not a doctor and do not provide medical advice. This information is for educational purposes only. If you decide to fast, the consequences are your responsibility. Below is a picture of me from last week after I finished my water fast number ten! I am almost 40 years old, keep that in mind as you see my pictures.
Water Fasting Success Stories
Wow! What a comprehensive list of various results people from all walks of life accomplish regularly and repeatedly by simply not eating! I hope you clicked on the stories shared above and got as inspired as I am now after experiencing so many healing aspects of fasting. As promised, here’s a picture of me last week after another water fast.
If my article is helpful, buy me a coffee.
Anna Szabo at 37 in after experiencing water fasting benefits
What Is Water Fasting?
Water fasting is not an eating pattern. It’s a fasting pattern. When I talk to people about water fasting, they ask me what I typically eat when fasting on water. Um… How do I say this to you? I eat nothing!
Fasting on water implies that you don’t eat.
Fasting is the complete absence of all substances, except water. Dr. Alan Goldhamer
So, when water fasting, you can’t eat.
Fasting is defined as abstinence from consuming food and beverages for different periods of time. Both traditional and modern healthcare systems recommend fasting as a therapeutic intervention for the management of several chronic, non-infectious diseases. Exercise Training and Fasting: Current Insights
No food is allowed when you’re fasting.
Fasting may be defined as a voluntary abstinence from food and drink for specified, recurring periods of time, with the fasting periods typically ranging from 12 hours to three weeks. Fasting as a Therapy in Neurological Disease
What can you drink when fasting? Water!
Water-only fasting is the complete abstinence from all food and liquids except water — for an extended period of time. Dr. Frank Sabatino, Balance for Life
Where does the body get calories from? Your fat.
Fasting is defined as the ability to meet the body’s requirements for macro- and micronutrients during a period of absence of food by using the body’s energy reserves without endangering health. Fasting Therapy by Michael Boschmann and Andreas Michalsen
You take in zero calories when fasting.
Water fasting, also known as a water cleanse, is a type of fasting in which you consume only water for a set period of time. Many cleansing diets are referred to as fasts, but in water fasting, you take in zero calories. It’s distinct from caloric restriction in which a person’s daily caloric intake is reduced by 30–40%. Water-Only Fasting with Dr. Sabatino
When water fasting, you consume only water.
Fasting, as we employ the term, is voluntary and entire abstinence from all food except water. “Little driblet meals,” says Dr. Chas. E. Page, “are not fasting. There should not be a mouthful or sip of anything but water, a few swallows of which would be taken from time to time, according to desire.” We do not employ the word fasting to describe a diet of fruit juice, for example. The Hygienic System by Herbert M. Shelton, D.P., N.D., D.C., D.N.T., D.N. Sc., D.N. Ph., D.N. Litt., Ph. D., D. Orthp.
So, let’s summarize. What is water fasting?
Water fasting is a pattern of not eating and abstaining from any and all food completely for an extended period of time, during which only water is consumed, which results in the profound natural healing of both the body and the brain on a deep cellular level. Anna Szabo
When I see YouTube videos pop up explaining how a person did “water fasting” and drank coffee, tea, smoothies, and broth, I roll my eyes. LOL! If you don’t eat solid food, you do still eat, meaning you aren’t fasting. To fast, you must abstain from food completely.
Many people come to my website looking for answers to such questions as “What can I have on a water fast?” or “Can I drink coffee on a water fast?” and “What can I eat without breaking my water fast?”
The answer to all of the above questions is this: you can’t eat anything on a water fast. If you eat something, you are not fasting. By eating anything, you transition to a restricted feeding diet.
To be on a water diet, you must consume water only. If you want to cheat, go ahead but remember: the one you’re cheating is you. Why cheat yourself? Plus, it’s impossible since you are there! You can’t cheat your body, so your water fasting benefits will be compromised by food consumption. Water fasting implies that you eat nothing.
How Does Water Fasting Work?
When I began abstaining from food and heard about all the miraculous benefits of fasting, I was wondering a lot: “How does water fasting work?” If you have a curious mind, like mine, you may want to explore, too. Understanding how something works helps us stop fearing it.
There’s no need to fear not eating. It’s natural. Eating all the time is unnatural for humans. We as a species evolved by enduring prolonged periods of no food. That’s called famine. Today, all we have is feast but we need famine. Why? That’s how our body is designed to operate: feast, famine, feast, famine. No famine means no rest for the body, and that leads to diseases, early aging, and premature death.
The stages of water fasting outlined below are based on a water-only fast, which doesn’t include any food or tea or coffee or broth or smoothies or whatever else involving eating. Fasting is about not eating, and water fasting implies that you consume water only.
For the first 24 to 48 hours after beginning a water fast, the body burns off circulating blood sugar and sugar stored in the muscles and liver in the form of glycogen. The “real” metabolic fast does not begin until one metabolizes their blood sugar, in approximately 2 to 3 days. At that time, the body begins to burn fat tissue for fuel. When that happens, molecules called ketones enter the blood circulation. These ketones have some very interesting properties. For the faster, the main welcome property of ketones is that they suppress hunger. By day four or five of a water fast, hunger is usually gone and is replaced by a feeling of great well-being. So much of the energy that the body uses all day goes to digesting our food, including muscular contractions of the intestine, chemical energy used to synthesize stomach acid, bile, and digestive enzymes, as well as the billions of immune cells in the intestinal lining that interrogate the chemical nature of the food going by in the digestive tract. When that function is no longer required on a water fast, energy is freed up, and people feel very light and energetic. During a water fast, the body is in “Full Energy Conservation Mode” and it does not want to spend precious chemical energy on chaotic, heat-generating, activities, such as inflammatory reactions and growing tumor tissue. During a fast, hot angry joints in rheumatoid arthritis, gout, and other inflammatory joint diseases (predictably) cool down, inflamed plaques of psoriasis in the skin are becalmed, and wounds in and on the body heal extremely well. If malignant breast cells are multiplying in tissues, the fasting body generates molecules called sirtuins, which put the breaks on cancer growth. Water fasting cleanses the body on a deep, cellular level. All of us, in our body cells, have remnant molecules of every restaurant meal, fast food snack, and processed food dessert we have ever eaten. There are flavorings, colorings, preservatives, dough conditioners, stabilizers, and thousands of other compounds that compose a chemical soup of modern cuisine in all the cells in our body. These substances accumulate in our tissues over time, contributing to feelings of chronic fatigue and bodily dysfunction. A water fast has the effect of “taking your cells through the car wash” where day after day, nothing but pure water washes through each and every cell. This markedly lowers the concentrations of the foreign, disruptive molecules. Thus, it is no wonder that people predictably emerge from a water fast feeling lighter and cleaner on the inside because they really are. The water fast is broken in a gentle matter, starting with vegetable juices or fruit chunks like watermelon, and progressing through phases of gradually increasing fiber content, namely raw vegetables, steamed vegetables, and eventually denser foods, such as rice and beans. One of the greatest benefits of a water fast is that it “re-tunes” the tongue’s taste buds through a process called neuroadaptation. Whole, natural foods begin to taste really delicious again. This opens the way for one to retool their dietary choices and let a truly health-promoting food stream of whole, plant-based foods pour through the body every day, thus creating lasting and glowing health. Dr. Michael Klaper
I hope this explanation helps you visualize the deep-cleansing process the body goes through during a water fast. To help answer the question “How does water fasting work?” I also shared with you my diaries earlier here. I listed the link to each water fast above.
Each one documents all of the specifics of water fasting and the body’s response. Additionally, I recommend reading my other blog posts about this topic, which offer many valuable details to anyone who wants to learn about fasting on water only.
Is Water Fasting Safe?
I was wondering: is water fasting safe? So, I turned to doctors who have practiced this method of healing for decades, and the information I discovered made me realize that fasting on water is safe but not for everyone. Below I share with you what the doctors say. You can also read this chart review by a group of doctors monitoring the safety of water fasting conducted by their peers: “Is fasting safe? Chart review.”
From examining the chart review, I concluded that the doctors do agree that fasting on water is safe. I’m presenting you with some thought-provoking scientific research below. Leverage your own discernment to make accurate conclusions. I’ve completed a water fast eleven times in two years, and I know it’s safe. Today, I’m healthier because of it.
Fasting is no cunning trick of priestcraft, but the most powerful and safest of all medicines. Eating for Strength by M. L. Holbrook In order to be healthier, stronger, and more resistant to illnesses, through our internal organs should flow clean, active, and healthy blood, which will carry nutrients to every cell of our body and take away any accumulated toxic substances. A correctly done fasting is the most powerful form of cleansing starting with the digestive system and finishing up with cells. The organs of the human body are made up of tissues, which are made up of billions of individual cells. When we eat, these cells are fed by nutrients (vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc.) that come from food. As nutrients are “burned,” waste is created within cells that is not completely removed. As time passes and cells are replaced, the waste products are left behind within the tissues of that organ. These toxic wastes poison the cells, weakening them, and making them susceptible to illness and disease. The question is how to gently coax the body, on a cellular level, to release these wastes and, thereby, strengthen the immune system. The answer lies in proper fasting. Our nutrition is based on protein, fats and carbohydrates. Here is what they supposed to do: protein rebuilds new cells and replaces old dead cells, fats build fatty cells, and carbs supply energy. So, what happens when you eat too much of these products, especially if these products are not good quality? Protein is a “construction material.” It is mostly needed for kids during an intense growth period. A grown person, regardless of how much protein they eat, won’t grow more, so the extra goes toward the development of fecal and kidney stones, uric acid, blood impurity, and overwhelming the digestive organs. Over-intake of fats leads to excess weight, overburden for the heart, and all vital organs. Extra fatty cells accumulate a huge amount of toxic elements. Excess carb intake, especially simple carbs which are mostly used in our modern society, leads to the accumulation of big amounts of mucus. The mucus is an ideal environment for infections, bacteria, viruses, and other parasites. Think about it: parasites and bacteria are always inside of the body, so they eat inside and they release it inside, too. So the food that they eat, comes toxic out of them back into the human body. Toxic mucus is bacteria’s fecal matter. It is a thick, glue-like substance, which glues onto the walls of the digestive system, blood vessels, and organs. Depending on where mucus is mainly accumulated, different problems occur. Sinuses, throat, bronchi, lungs, digestive system, clogging of vessels, cells, etc. Toxic mucus is the base for all illnesses: from cold to cancer. When we stop eating, the body turns its attention to “cleaning house” by feeding itself on sick, weak, and old cells first. It also begins to dump any unhealthy materials, such as toxic mucus, tumor, and cancer cells, salts, cholesterol, stored drugs, nicotine, and other stagnated matter, which is stored in the tissues and organs. The body also disposes of the unseen toxic weight stored inside. All cleansings, except fasting, cleanse only the internal surface of the organ. Under that surface, the tissues are still dirty and clogged with toxic waste. Only fasting can reach beneath the surface of the tissues and cleanse down to the cellular level. Dr. Yakov Koyfman, Cell Cleansing Fasting If there were a pill that effectively treated high blood pressure, overcame Type II diabetes, consistently produced dramatic improvements in autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, and provided effective relief for asthma attacks and migraine headaches it would be seen as a wonder drug of the highest order. Yet, such profound improvements in these medical conditions, and many others, are routinely seen during a water fast. Dr. Michael Klaper, Fasting — Effective Therapy For Health Concerns I have to say that in 10 000 consecutive patients, everybody who has walked in for fasting has been able to walk out. We have no mortality associated with fasting to date, and as our safety data indicates, this is a safe and effective process when it is done according to protocol. Dr. Alan Goldhamer, Water Fasting — The Clinical Effectiveness of Rebooting Your Body
Fasting on water is a healing miracle for the body. It offers such significant health benefits as cellar cleansing, anti-aging, cancer prevention and reversal, and even the turning on and off of the DNA! Water fasting is safe if you are someone who is not underweight, not pregnant, not breastfeeding, not on medications, and have access to clean drinking water. Some people should not fast. We will discuss this in a minute but first, let’s review who can benefit from fasting on water.
Who Can Benefit from Fasting on Water Only?
The last three weeks of my life have been dedicated to vigorous research on the topic of water fasting. Why am I obsessing about it? Because the purpose of my ministry and the calling on my life is to help alleviate suicide among women globally.
I am a two-times suicide survivor myself, and water fasting helped significantly and rapidly improve my own mental health. Ultimately, I believe in my heart and know from the scientific research, as well as the results of clinical practice, that water fasting is a simple tool to save people’s lives. This is what truly drives me: I want you to be healthy, fully alive, and living out your purpose while experiencing joy and peace.
The research I’ve conducted indicates that a water fast can help prevent, arrest, and even reverse a wide variety of diseases, such as cancer, type two diabetes, autoimmune disease, arthritis, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, chronic headaches, sinus infections, asthma, depression, obesity, and the list is nearly endless.
Since I’m not a doctor, I want to share with you what a water-fasting-practicing doctor says in response to the question “Who can benefit from fasting on water only?”
The following are six of the most common conditions that respond well to water-only fasting. 1. Obesity is primarily the result of addiction to the artificial stimulation of dopamine in the brain by the consumption of chemicals added to our foods, including oil, sugar, salt, and dairy products. The answer to obesity is to adopt a health-promoting diet derived exclusively from whole natural foods, including fruits and vegetables, raw nuts and seeds, and the variable addition of minimally processed, non-glutinous grains and beans. When fully implemented, in conjunction with adequate sleep and activity, predictable, consistent weight loss will occur that averages 1.5–2 pounds per week for women and 2–3 pounds per week for men. If your goal is to lose excess fat and you have trouble adopting a health-promoting program, a period of fasting may be of benefit. The protected environment of a fasting center provides a focused opportunity for intense education and the social support needed to escape the addictive forces of the dietary pleasure trap. The fasting experience functions like rebooting a corrupted hard drive on a computer. After fasting, whole natural food is appealing, making adopting a health-promoting diet more achievable. If your goal is to lose weight and escape the pleasure trap of processed foods, a period of fasting from a few days to a few weeks may be beneficial. 2. The dietary pleasure trap is insidious, and the consequences of poor dietary choices go beyond obesity. Overstimulation by artificially concentrated calories can confuse normal satiety signals resulting in persistent overeating. Over time, this results in the degenerative diseases of dietary excess, including high blood pressure and the resulting cardiovascular disease. For people who have fallen into the dietary pleasure trap and developed high blood pressure, water-only fasting has been shown to be a safe and effective means of normalizing blood pressure and reversing cardiovascular disease. In a study conducted at the TrueNorth Health Center in conjunction with Cornell University Professor T. Colin Campbell, the use of fasting for 2–4 weeks in patients with stage 3 hypertension resulted in reductions of systolic blood pressure of over 60 mm/Hg. This is the largest effect size of any study published to date. At the TrueNorth Health Center, we routinely see patients normalize their blood pressure and eliminate the need for medications. If your goal is to normalize elevated blood pressure and reverse cardiovascular disease, a period of fasting may be beneficial. 3. Type two diabetes is a condition that is increasing in epidemic proportions. Largely the consequence of dietary excess, the resulting alteration of physiological functions, such as high blood sugar levels and insulin resistance, results in a cascade of consequences, including blindness from retinal damage, heart attacks and stroke, reduced healing capacity, nerve damage, impotence, gangrene, etc. Fasting, along with a health-promoting diet and exercise program, can dramatically increase insulin sensitivity and bring blood sugar levels under control. If your goal is to normalize blood sugar levels and avoid or eliminate the need for medications and their consequences, a period of fasting may prove beneficial. Most patients with type 2 diabetes are capable of achieving normal blood sugar levels without the need for medications. 4. Drug addiction has become the norm. Nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, and a plethora of prescription and recreational drugs dominate the lives of the majority of people living in industrialized society. Fasting can be helpful in getting safely through withdrawal symptoms and more effectively establishing healthy habits while eliminating the perceived need for addictive substances. If your goal is to escape addiction and live a life free of dependence on health-compromising chemicals, a period of fasting may prove to be beneficial. 5. Autoimmune disorders, including arthritis, lupus, colitis, Crohn’s disease, asthma, eczema, psoriasis, and environmental allergies are becoming more common and more debilitating. One possible contributing factor to the aggravation of autoimmune disease involves gut leakage. The absorption of antigenic substances into the bloodstream as a result of increased gut permeability appears to be a factor in the aggravation of these conditions. Fasting can help normalize gut permeability and ease the transition to a health-promoting diet. If your goal is to eliminate the problems associated with autoimmune disorders, a period of medically supervised fasting may be an important component in a comprehensive program designed to save the quality and quantity of your life. 6. Exhaustion, both physical and emotional, has become increasingly common in our fast-paced lives. Feelings of fatigue and depression can compromise the quality of your life. Reliance on artificial stimulants compounds the problem. The lack of adequate sleep and exercise and poor dietary and lifestyle choices work together to interfere with the ability of many people to enjoy their life or fulfill their potential. Fasting can give your body and your mind a complete rest. If your goal is to “recharge” your system, fasting may help you accomplish your goals. When properly utilized, fasting can be a powerful tool in helping your body do what it does best — heal itself. Water fasting is the answer to a number of questions. Who Benefits From Medically Supervised Fasting?
As you can see, Dr. Alan Goldhamer explained very well why so many diseases benefit from water fasting so well: it’s the food and the lifestyle that cause those diseases! So, once you stop aggravating your body and brain with junk food and stop assaulting your system with drugs and lack of sleep as well as exercise, you can power up your natural healing mechanism again, and you’ll heal. Water fasting does miracles. Yet, some people should not fast on water only.
Who Should Not Fast on Water?
People who should not fast on water are pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, those who are underweight and have no “labile reserves” to mobilize (according to Dr. Alan Goldhamer), and also people who must take drugs daily, which must be taken with food, so it is a misfit for water fasting, which is defined as the absence of food.
For people who are on medications that they cannot stop, such as prednisone, antidepressants, etc., a water fast is contraindicated. These people should not water fast, but rather, do a juice cleanse. Fasting — Effective Therapy For Health Concerns
Small children should not be fasting on water only.
Those with illnesses not related to the dietary access should not do a water fast to get better because the source of their disease has nothing to do with their gut health. To see the list of diseases of dietary access, read “The Diseases of Kings.”
I personally want to warn addicts: fasting on water may cause you to binge-eat if you have a history of rebelling against yourself. I am a sex addict in recovery, so I am intimately familiar with the vicious cycle of various addictions.
After water fasting for a few times, I realized that I was apparently addicted to food and developed a binge-eating disorder. Addicts may end up binging after fasting, so beware and take this into consideration. As of today, I am food-addiction free and do not binge anymore but it took time to find my new balance with my new habit of water fasting regularly. By the way, if you plan to fast on water and then go back to your old bad lifestyle and eating habits, you should not fast on water.
People with infectious diseases should not fast.
According to an article about Dr. Georgy Voitovich’s methodology called Indications and Contraindications for Fasting, he believed in the following contraindications for medical fasting:
The period of lactation in the mother The second half of pregnancy Last stage of the immobilized form of tuberculosis patients Last stage form of malignant tumors with motionless of a patient Last stage form of malignant blood diseases with motionless of a patient. Last stage form diffuse disease of connective tissue with motionless of a patient A number of psychoneurological diseases in the far gone stage from being with motionless of a patient or dementia Massive suppuration processes of internal organs (abscesses, gangrene, and a few others) Indications and Contraindications for Fasting by Dr. Georgy Voitovich
According to Dr. Sergei Filonov who has medically supervised thousands of fasts for nearly three decades now, the following conditions indicate that a person should not fast.
Malignant neoplasms and hemoblastosis Tuberculosis of the lungs Thyrotoxicosis and other endocrine disorders Acute and chronic hepatitis Cirrhosis of the liver Purulent-inflammatory diseases of the respiratory system Abdominal cavity Insufficiency of blood circulation Persistent disturbances of cardiac rhythm and conduction Pronounced BMI deficit Thrombophlebitis and thrombosis Period of pregnancy and lactation Early childhood (up to 14 years) Inability to serve oneself Dr. Filonov’s Fasting Method
You can review the links I provided describing the opinions of the doctors, and you can use your own discernment to make accurate and adequate conclusions. Remember that this blog doesn’t offer medical advice. Consult your doctor before you take any actions in relation to your health. This information was collected here for educational purposes only and is not prescriptive in any way.
What Does The Science Say About Fasting on Water?
Science has a lot to say about water fasting benefits. From curing
infertility, acne, and chronic headaches all while reversing aging, inflammation, cancer, type two diabetes, arthritis, and metabolic syndrome, to alleviating the symptoms of depression, PTSD, schizophrenia, epilepsy, and even alcoholism — a water fast heals the body, the brain, the spirit, and the mind.
I’ve collected some incredibly-valuable insights and want to share them with you because I believe this information can change your life for the better and even prolong it. Personally, I never get tired of hearing testimonials of the various miracles people experience after fasting with water only. Currently, I’m learning from a Russian fasting doctor, Dr. Sergei Filonov, who provides many testimonials in his books, and they inspire me. I hope you will also get inspired after reading the body of mind-blowing data I’ve collected for you.
One of the scientific researches I present to you below is by Dr. Yuri Nikolayev, a Russian psychiatrist who cured nearly 70% of his patients via water fasting. It was done behind the “iron curtain” in USSR. He personally spent time teaching Dr. Sergei Filonov, from whom I’m learning now online, and I talk to him via email.
Interestingly, Dr. Yuri Nikolayev’s method was brought from Russia to America and was practiced right here in Atlanta where I live by the Russian doctor, Dr. Yakov Koyfman, who passed away in 2016.
Let the science speak for itself.
Fasting is associated with increased longevity because of its many roles in modifying human health and aging. Moreover, this unique intervention is considered effective for the management of chronic and acute diseases in both traditional and modern healthcare systems. Fasting is a lifestyle management strategy that benefits several chronic, non-infectious diseases. Fasting: Current Insights In clinical trials, fasting results in weight loss and improvements in insulin sensitivity. Fasting: Is the Wait Worth the Weight? Sporadic fasting represents a simple, safe, and inexpensive means to promote therapeutic neuronal autophagy. Short-term fasting induces profound neuronal autophagy Fasting has been shown to be associated with significant improvements in brain function. Clinical evidence has also shown that fasting dietary regime was effective in improving mood states, such as confusion, anger, and tension. Fasting can help protect against many brain diseases, such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and others. The mechanism of acute fasting‐induced antidepressant‐like effects Acute fasting induces antidepressant‐like effects. Fasting is helpful against depression. The mechanism of acute fasting‐induced antidepressant‐like effects Therapeutic effects of fasting: Helps to lose visible weight. Cleanses the body on the cellular level. Helps the body to heal itself. Rejuvenates the body. Supports, strengthens, improves the immune system. Increases belief in one’s own strength. Cleanses on the emotional and psychological levels. Improves digestion. Improves metabolism. Improves vision and hearing. Improves skin condition. Activates the work of the colon. Promotes active and healthy longevity. Dr. Yakov Koyfman, Cell Cleansing Fasting Dr. Yuri Nikolayev, the Director of the Fasting Clinic of The Moscow Institute of Psychiatry for many years claimed to have successfully treated more than 7,000 patients (as of 1972) suffering from neuro-psychiatric conditions by using therapeutic fasting. The Five Stages of Fasting — Dr. Nikolayev [Russian Case Studies] The application of various modifications of fasting for its therapeutic value has been well documented during many different periods of our civilization. In the earliest eras of recorded civilization, humans found in fasting not only a method of treatment and prevention of some diseases, but a potent weapon for self-discipline and moral education. For this reason the fast became an integral part of many religious doctrines and occupied the thinking of physicians and philosophers of Ancient Greek, Tibetan, Indian, and Middle Eastern cultures. Fasting is not starving, and the synonymous use of the two indicates a lack of understanding of the principles of the fast or its meaning. The word “starvation” is derived from the Old English “sterofan,” a form of the Teutonic verb “sterb” — to die. The word “fast” means to abstain from food. In modern usage, “starvation” is used to designate death from lack of food. Whenever fasting is mentioned to the average person and even to many professionals, the immediate response is to think of the dire consequences of going without food for even a few days. If “fasting” is used interchangeably with “starvation,” the inevitable end result is conceived as death. Yet, members of the professions and the press are guilty of confusing the use of the two terms and help to perpetuate the fear of fasting. It is only since the middle of the 19th Century that investigation of fasting as a therapeutic modality was removed from the lore of folk medicine and became the principal method of treatment in clinics and sanatoriums in Switzerland, France, Germany, and to a lesser extent in the United States. At the present time, the fasting experience has been the treatment of
choice for many thousands of physically ill patients. It is used in internal medicine with excellent results in the treatment of metabolic disorders, allergic diseases, skin disorders, arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and cardiovascular disorders. Results obtained in the treatment of grand mal epilepsy by fasting have been very encouraging and require closer attention and serious research. In the U.S.S.R., fasting was first used 25 years ago as a treatment for mentally ill patients by Dr. Yuri Nikolayev. His experience now
extends to over 6,000 patients, and the reported results are unusually encouraging with those patients who have failed to improve on all other treatment regimens. With the ever-increasing list of psychopharmacological drugs used for their psychotropic activity, there has concomitantly arisen an increasing number of patients resistant to those drugs. Many patients exhibit toxic and allergic complications during pharmacotherapy. For these patients, fasting treatment is the most valuable and potent alternative to decompensation and deterioration. The author’s experience with the use of fasting for the treatment of mentally ill patients began in 1970 with an invitation from Prof. Nikolaev to
come to the Moscow Institute to observe in his Therapeutic Fasting Unit and to discuss my work in Orthomolecular treatment with him and his staff of 10 physicians. The treatment as it is used today incorporates the knowledge gained during 28 years of research and clinical experience by Dr. Yuri Nikolayev and his staff. The treatment is conducted in an 80-bed unit in the Moscow Psychiatric Institute, a 3,000-bed psychiatric research center with a staff of 500 physicians. The fast consists of total abstinence from food for a period of 25–30 days. The large majority of patients request voluntary admission to the unit. A small percentage of the patient population is transferred in from other units when all other conventional treatments have failed to produce improvement. All patients must agree to adhere to the required routine of the treatment and may leave the treatment on request. If the patient
voluntarily breaks the fast, the treatment is ended. Hunger diminishes greatly by the end of the second or third day, and appetite is no longer felt by the fifth day. Throughout the fasting period the patients receive as much water as they desire but
they must take a minimum of one liter each day. They adhere to a regimen, which includes outdoor walks and other exercise, breathing exercises, afternoon nap if desired, hydrotherapy procedures (baths and showers), daily cleansing enemas, and general massage. A minimum of three hours of exercise is required, but the patient may have two periods of exercise consisting of three hours each. Patients lose 15–20 percent of their total body weight on a 30-day fast, but their clinical appearance is not that of a person who is starving. Their skin color is good and muscle and skin tone are healthy. The patients do not express any longing or desire for food. Because their prior experiences with treatment have been that of little or no improvement with frequent relapses, many patients request that their fasting period be extended to ensure the permanence of their improved state. When patients are discharged from the hospital, they are advised to take prophylactic fasts of three to five days each month but not to exceed a total of 10 days in the first three months. After this period three- to five-day fasts not to exceed 10 days in any month are recommended. When feeding is begun, the patient remains in hospital for the number of days equal to the length of the fast. Feeding is begun with a saltfree fruit, vegetable, etc. The amounts of food and its caloric value are gradually increased. Bread is not taken until the sixth or seventh day. The treatment has been found to be effective in more than 70 percent of cases of schizophrenia of many years’ duration. Forty-seven percent of patients followed for a period of six years maintained their improvement. Paranoid types do very well during the fast, but their improvement diminishes after feeding begins. I observed many patients who suffered from the form of schizophrenia, which is characterized by a fear of the escape of offending gases and odors from the body. The patient is convinced that everyone near him can hear the sounds and smell the odors. The syndrome generally includes delusions of cosmetic ugliness, small stature, and a variety of similar complaints, which Professor
Nikolaev has labeled “Delusions of Physical Shortcomings.” The syndrome was first described by Charcot and named “Dysmorphobia.” The resulting effect on behavior is similar to that of
patients suffering from other forms of paranoid illness: fear of leaving his room and mingling with other people, fear that people are repelled by him, and then finding corroboration for this in his
misperception of the ordinary changes in the facial expressions of people he passes in the street or on buses or trains. The results in the treatment of these cases had in the past been extremely poor, but when treated with fasting, the results are very
good. The other types of schizophrenia do well
throughout the fasting and recovery period. The manic phase of the manic-depressive illness is brought under control within five to
seven days on the water fast. Fasting Treatment for Schizophrenia by Dr. Yuri Nikolayev, 1974 How do toxins dissolve and eliminate during fasting? When we stop eating, we increase the quantity of liquid intake. This liquid absorbs through the walls of our digestive system into the blood and spreads throughout the body. The increased flow of clean and bio-active fluid flushes and dissolves toxins, flushes out parasites, and pushes it all out to the kidneys, digestive system, lungs, and skin. During the fast, all of these organs become overwhelmed eliminating dirt and parasites, so they need help. The liver also needs help because it has the main responsibility of neutralizing the toxins, which come to the surface during the fast. To help the liver, it is necessary to apply a heating pad for 30–60 minutes on the liver area. Kidneys can be helped with a special message, heating, and special exercises to increase their function and ability. With all the help, kidneys release sand, toxic mucus, small parasites, uric acid, and stones. To increase the elimination functions of the lungs, it is important to do special breathing exercises and heating for the lungs. So, lungs release toxic gas, which accumulates and gets stuck from the cleansing process. To effectively cleanse and increase skin function, use sauna. It is easier to get the dirt off with hot water than cold water. In sauna, toxins dissolve and come out from the very deep levels: blood vessels, lymph, cells, etc. Hot air worms up lungs and dissolves toxins, mucus, kills parasites, and also absorbs into the blood. Wormed up blood and lymph more effectively flush the base of illnesses, tumors, and blockages, toxic mucus in the organs and cells, and releases it through the wide-open pores of the skin. This way cleanses the blood, blood vessels, lungs, kidneys, sinuses, thyroid gland, adrenals, and other glands. The digestive system plays the main role during fasting because it burns and releases the majority of toxins and parasites from the body. To increase the functioning of the digestive system, do internal organ massage, which activates the function of the stomach, liver, pancreas, small, and large intestines. On the cellular level, youth and aging are determined by the relative amount of old and young cells. In youth, the number of young, healthy, and strong cells predominates over the number of old, weak, and sick cells. With time, the cells become polluted and old, and the renewing ability of the body decreases. During fasting, by switching from outer to inner nourishment, the body “eats” old and sick cells (autophagy), and the body’s ability to exchange old cells for new cells increases and speeds up. Metabolism improves. During the breaking of the fast (the renewal period), the body replaces the “eaten” cells for new, healthy, and young cells. The person who does seasonal fasting regularly, without waiting for the disease to come, looks much younger than his or her age. This person is full of energy and has a high resistance to disease. Dr. Yakov Koyfman, Cell Cleansing Fasting Fasting regimens that induce the metabolic switch have the potential to improve body composition in overweight individuals. Moreover, fasting regimens also induce the coordinated activation of signaling pathways that optimize physiological function, enhance performance, and slow aging and disease processes. Flipping the Metabolic Switch: Understanding and Applying Health Benefits of Fasting Fasting has been practiced for millennia, but only recently studies have shed light on its role in adaptive cellular responses that reduce oxidative damage and inflammation, optimize metabolism, and bolster cellular protection. In lower eukaryotes, chronic fasting extends longevity in part by reprogramming metabolic and stress resistance pathways. In rodents intermittent or periodic fasting protects against diabetes, cancers, heart disease, and neurodegeneration, while in humans it helps reduce obesity, hypertension, asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis. Thus, fasting has the potential to delay aging and help prevent and treat diseases while minimizing the side effects caused by chronic dietary interventions. Fasting: Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Applications
Science supports the benefits of water fasting. Many studies have been done to examine the various aspects of genuine holistic healing people experience when abstaining from food. I’ll share more science with you later about water fasting results.
Below is an iPhone-taken picture of me captured last week at the beach in Destin, FL. I am almost 40 years old, in the best shape of my life, peaceful, and genuinely happy. Fasting with water only plays a huge role in my health optimization on a regular basis.
Fasting on water only helps me look young, feel excellent, avoid medications, and save money on medical bills. Below is that iPhone-captured picture from last week at the beach. I had never had any beauty procedures done. All I do is fast periodically and let my body heal itself, just exactly what God created it to do.
Anna Szabo after water fasting in 2020 in Destin FL
What Is The History of Water Fasting?
Why is it important to understand the history of water fasting? Because this health practice isn’t something someone invented yesterday. We as a species have actually evolved by both feasting and fasting. Once we start answering the question “What is the history of water fasting?” you’ll see that sometimes, there was food, and other times, our ancestors faced famine, so they went without food for prolonged periods of time. It’s good for the body.
During the famine seasons, our body is designed to use up its stored fat and self-heal. The smart body God gave us uses old or damaged cells to eat them up for protein, and we end up clean, healthy, and young. This process of autophagy can’t be activated, unless we abstain from food for over 24 hours. Ever fasting on water for one day is good for you!
In the modern world, famine never comes.
We feast all the time, overeating, drinking crap, and assaulting our bodies constantly with toxins. So, we get sick and wonder why. Eating all the time is unnatural. Feasting must be followed by fasting. Abstaining from food is natural to us as humans with millions of years of evolution.
We say: “This disease runs in my family!” Yes, true, but only because eating habits run in families, and not for any other reason. I’ll answer your question “What is the history of water fasting?” in a minute but I want you to understand why diseases run in families and what you can do to stop it. You are in charge of your own health at all times!
Lifestyle habits run in families, and that’s why diseases get passed from generation to generation. There’s no reason for this. You can change your lifestyle, your eating habits, and your exercise regimen, and you’ll stop having the same diseases your family has.
My entire family is obese, sick, addicted, violent, angry, and miserable. I described the abuse endured in my childhood in my article called Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers. Early in life, I decided to not be like them. My father spent most of his life in jail, so I definitely had a high awareness of my bad genes, and trust me, they did play out: I became an alcoholic, a sex addict, and showed violent behaviors at times.
Today, I am healthy and peaceful. Thank God for the journey of healing. He taught me about my identity in Christ, and I replaced my false beliefs embedded in my headspace by my family with the true beliefs from the Bible. I know that I came here from God, not from my family.
God made me for a purpose, and my health is important if I want to fulfill His calling on my life. My body is a temple for The Holy Spirit, and I must honor God with my body. All these breakthroughs helped me embrace healthful living, gain peace, experience joy, and heal.
I don’t eat, think, or live the same way my family members do. When I was with them and followed their lifestyle, I was hospitalized with various diseases multiple times each year. God gave me my own discernment. He told me how to live and eat. It’s all in the Bible.
That’s why I eat plants like Daniel, fast for prolonged periods like Jesus, walk 10000 steps a day like my ancestors, practice Christian guided meditation to have a strong communion with God, keep a gratitude journal to protect my mind from entitlement, and choose peace daily by taking every thought captive and submitting it to the truth of Christ, which is shown in the ITCEBO model I created. That’s how the diseases of my family don’t run my life. God’s healing power runs my life!
We each have a choice, and exploring the question “What is the history of water fasting?” can help us realize how essential famine is in human life. Fasting is healthy. Feasting all the time is unhealthy.
Since we naturally have an excess of food, we must force famine artificially on ourselves using the power of our mind. Dr. Sergei Filonov talks in his books a lot about the mental preparation for the period of abstaining from food. It’s a good practice of conquering flesh.
So, what is the history of water fasting?
Water-only fasting is one of the most profound, natural, and effective tools for cleansing and health recovery. While fasting has been a part of human culture for millions of years, only in the last few hundred years have we begun to investigate the therapeutic benefits of this practice. Interestingly, modern science has found a variety of verifiable positive effects fasting has on human health. Water-Only Fasting Fasting In Man Man is an animal and, as such, is subject to the same laws of existence and the same conditions of living, as are other animals. As a part of the great organic world, he is not a being that is set apart from the ordinary and regular conditions of life, governed by different laws and requirements of existence. It is not surprising, therefore, that we find man not only able to fast for prolonged periods and able to do so with benefit, but also find him fasting under a wide variety of circumstances and for a wide variety of purposes. We shall briefly review the most important of the conditions, under which man fasts, and the purposes, for which he fasts. RELIGIOUS FASTING Fasting as a religious observance has long been practiced for the accomplishment of certain goods. Religious fasting is of early origin, antedating recorded history. Partial or entire abstinence from food, or from certain kinds of foods, at stated seasons, prevailed in Assyria, Persia, Babylon, Scythia, Greece, Rome, India, Ninevah, Palestine, China, in northern Europe among the Druids, and in America among the Indians. It was a widely diffused practice, often indulged as a means of penitence, in mourning, and as a preparation for participation in religious rites, such as baptism and communion. At the very dawn of civilization, the Ancient Mysteries, a secret worship or wisdom religion that flourished for thousands of years in Egypt, India, Greece, Persia, Thrace, Scandinavia, and the Gothic and Celtic nations, prescribed and practiced fasting. The Druidical religion among the Celtic peoples required a long probationary period of fasting and prayer before the candidate could advance. A fast of fifty days was required in the Mithraic religion in Persia. Indeed, fasting was common to all the mysteries, which were all quite similar to the Egyptian mysteries and were probably derived from these. Moses, who was learned in “all the wisdom of Egypt,” is said to have fasted for more than 120 days on Mount Sinai. The mysteries of Tyre, which were represented in Judea in the days of Jesus, in a secret society known as the Essenes, also prescribed fasting. In the first century A.D., there existed in Alexandria, Egypt, an ascetic sect of Jews, called Therapeutae, who resembled the Essenes and who borrowed much from the Kabala and from the Pythagorian and Orphic systems. These Therapeutae gave great attention to the sick and held fasting in high esteem as a curative measure. Fasting is mentioned quite frequently in the Bible while several fasts of considerable duration are recorded therein, as, Moses forty days (Ex. 24:18; Exodus 34:28); Elijah forty days (1st Kings, 19:8); David seven days (2 Sam. 12:20); Jesus forty days (Matthew 4:2); Luke, “I fast twice in the week” (Luke 18:12); “This kind cometh not out save by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21); a fast throughout all Judea (2 Chronicles 20:8). The Bible cautions against fasting for mere notoriety (Matt. 6:17, 18). It also advises fasters not to wear a sad countenance (Matt. 6:16); but to find pleasure in fasting and to perform one’s work (Isa. 58:3), and that certain fasts shall be fasts of gladness (Zech. 8.19). We may very properly assume that some great good was the object of the many fasts mentioned in the Bible, even though we may be sure that they were not always intended for the “cure” of “disease.” We may also be sure that the ancients had no fear of starving to death by missing a few meals. For two thousand years, the Christian religion has recommended “prayer and fasting” and the story of the forty days’ fast in the wilderness has been told from thousands of pulpits. Religious fasts were frequently practiced in the early days of Christianity and during the Middle Ages. Thomas Campanella tells us that frail nuns often sought relief from attacks of hysteria by fasting “seven times seventy hours,” or twenty and one half days. John Calvin and John Wesley both strongly urged fasting as a beneficial measure for both ministers and people. Among the early Christians, fasting was purification. Fasting is yet a regular practice among the nations of the Far East, especially among the East Indians. The many fasts of Gandhi are generally known. Penance-worn members of the early church frequently retired to the desert for a month or two to fight down temptations. They would drink water from some dilapidated old cistern during the period, but to eat so much as a millet-seed was considered a breach of their vows and destroyed the merits of their penance. At the end of the second month the “gaunt world-renouncers” generally had sufficient strength to return home unassisted. The writer of Peregrinato Silviæ, in describing how Lent was observed in Jerusalem, when she was there about 386 A.D., says: “They abstained entirely from all food during Lent, except on Saturdays and Sundays. They took a meal about midday on Sunday, and after that they took nothing until Saturday morning. This was their rule through Lent.” Although the Catholic Church has no law requiring fasting, as we use the term, it was voluntarily practiced by many individuals in the past. Fasting, whether total abstinence from food or abstinence from proscribed foods, is regarded by this Church as a penance. The Catholic Church also teaches that Jesus fasted in order to instruct and encourage belief in the practice of penance. The Roman Church has both “fast-days” and “abstinence-days,” though they are not necessarily the same. The “law of abstinence” is on a different basis and “is regulated, not by the quantity, but by the quality of food” permitted. “The law of abstinence forbids the use of meat or meat broth, but not eggs, ‘lacticinia’ (milk), or condiments of any kind even from ‘the fat of animals’.” The rule of the church in fasting is: “What constitutes fasting is the taking of only one full meal in a day.” “In earlier times a strict fast was kept until sunset. Now, this full meal may be taken any time after mid-day, or, as the church’s approved authors hold, shortly before. Some even hold that the full meal may be taken at any time during the 24 hours.” But this “one full meal in twenty-four hours” does not prohibit the taking of some food in the morning and evening. Indeed, “local custom,” which is often a somewhat undefined phrase, as determined by the local bishop, determines what extra-food may be taken daily. In America, the rule is that the morning meal should not exceed two ounces of bread; in Westminster (England) the limit is three ounces. Obviously a “fast” of this nature is not what we mean by fasting, for a man may eat enough in this manner to grow fat. Nor can Hygienists accept the so-called moral principle of the Roman Church — “parvum pro nihilo reputatur” and “ne potus noceat” — “a little is reckoned as nothing,” “lest drink unaccompanied by anything solid should be harmful.” We hold that little driblet meals are not fasting. The Lenten fast of Catholics is also merely a period of abstinence from certain proscribed foods, although there are Catholics who take advantage of the period for a real fast. The early practice of fasting until sundown, then feasting, is similar to the practice of Mohammedans in their so-called fast of Ramadan. During this season, people do not eat and cannot drink wine nor smoke cigarettes from sunrise to sunset, but they have their cigarettes handy, ready to begin smoking as soon as the sun goes down, and they enjoy a night of feasting. A grand carouse at night makes up for their abstinence during the day. Their cities hold nightly carnivals, the restaurants are lighted, and the streets are filled with revelers, the bazaars are well-illuminated, and the peddlers of lemonade and sweetmeats are in their glory. The wealthy sit up all night receiving and returning calls and giving dinner parties. After forty days of this feasting and reveling, the people celebrate the end of their month of “fasting” with the feasting of Bairam. At the present time Christians of all sects and denominations rarely undergo real fasts. Most fasts of Roman, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant communicants are merely periods of abstinence from flesh foods. Abstinence from flesh foods other than fish on “fast” days appears to have been enjoined merely to aid the fishing and shipbuilding industries. Among the Jews fasting always means entire abstinence from food, and at least one of their fast days carries with it abstinence from water also. Their periods of fasting are commonly only short ones. While the Hindu Nationalist’s leader, Gandhi, fully understood the hygienic value of the fast, and often fasted for hygienic purposes, most of his fasts were “purification” or penance fasts and political weapons, by which he compelled England to accede to his demands. He even fasted for the purification of India, and not merely for his own cleansing. Fasting formed part of the religious observances of the Aztecs and Toltecs of Mexico, the Incas of Peru, and of other American tribes. Fasting was also practiced by the Pacific Islanders; while there are traces of fasting in China and Japan, even before their contact with Buddhism. In Eastern Asia and wherever Brahmanism and Buddhism have spread, fasting has been kept alive. FASTING AS MAGIC With fasting as magic we have nothing to do, except to study the phenomenon. Tribal fasts, as seen among the American Indians, to avert some threatened calamity, or fasting, as by Gandhi to purify India, is the use of fasting as magic. Fasting was widely observed, both in private and in public ceremonials by the American Indians. Fathers of newborn children are required to fast among the Melanesians. Fasting was often part of the rite of initiation into manhood and womanhood or for sacred and ritual acts among many tribes of people. David’s twelve days’ fast, as recorded in the Bible, while his son was ill, was a magic fast. Ceremonial fasting carried out in several religions may properly be classed as magic fasting. If we carefully distinguish between magic fasting and protest fasting, as in hunger strikes, we may say that magic fasting is fasting undergone to achieve some desired end outside the person of the faster. We are interested in such fasts simply as another part of the evidence that man, like the lower animals, may fast for extended periods and may do so not only without harm, but with positive benefit. DISCIPLINARY FASTS Major W. C. Gotschall, M. S., says: “There is nothing new about fasting. Among the ancients it was recognized as a sovereign method of attaining and maintaining marked mental and physical efficiency. Socrates and Plato, two of the greatest of the Greek philosophers and teachers, fasted regularly for a period of ten days at a time. Pythagoras, another of the Greek philosophers, was also a regular faster, and before he took an examination at the University of Alexandria, fasted for forty days. He required his pupils to fast for forty days before they could enter his class.” H. B. Cushman tells us in his History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians, that the Choctaw warrior and hunter “often indulged in protracted fasts” to train him to “endure hunger.” PERIODIC AND YEARLY FASTS Luke mentions in his Gospel the practice of fasting one day out of each week, which seems to have been very general in his day. Periodic fasting has been practiced by many different people and by many different individuals. It is asserted that the ancient Egyptians were accustomed to fasting for a brief period, about two weeks each summer. Many people of today do this same thing. They have a fast or two fasts each year. Others follow the custom referred to by Luke and fast one day out of each week. Others fast three to five days out of each month. The practice of periodic fasting takes many forms with many different individuals. These fasts are usually of but short duration, but they are always of distinct benefit. HUNGER STRIKES Hunger strikes have become very frequent during the past thirty years. Perhaps the most famous of these have been the protest fasts of Gandhi and the hunger strike of McSwiney and his co-political prisoners in Cork, Ireland, in 1920. Joseph Murphy, who went on the hunger strike with McSwiney, died on the 68th day of his fast; McSwiney on the 74th day. Older readers will recall that some years ago when the suffragettes of England would go on hunger strikes, they would be forcibly fed by a painful process, while, at the same time, there was much talk of letting them “starve” in prison. Gandhi’s frequent fasts were usually protests against some British policy, although sometimes he fasted to purify India because of some wrongs she had committed. He was, however, fully acquainted with the Hygienic value of the fast and was fully conversant with the literature on the subject. His longest fast seems to have been about twenty-one days. Many men and women in all parts of the world have staged hunger-strikes of longer or shorter duration. EXHIBITION OR STUNT FASTS There have been a number of fasters who were more or less professional fasters, fasting largely for show and making money out of the process. These have fasted publicly and have charged admission to the public to get in to see them. Of such were Succi and Merlatti, two Italian exhibition fasters, and Jacques. Jacques fasted 42 days in London in 1890 and 50 days in the same city in 1891. He fasted 30 days in Edinburgh, in 1889. Merlatti fasted 50 days in Paris in 1885. Succi took several long fasts ranging from 21 to 46 days. One of his fasts was carefully studied by Prof. Luciani, famous Italian authority on nutrition. EXPERIMENTAL FASTS Experimental fasts, in which men and women have taken part, are perhaps more numerous than we think. Profs. Carlson and Kunde, of the University of Chicago, made a few experiments of this nature a few years ago. Their fasts were of relatively short duration. At this time, I believe that Dr. Carlson is conducting experiments with the fast and he is said to take occasional short fasts himself. But few experimental fasts of considerable duration have been made in man. Dr. Luigi Luciani, professor of Physiology at the University of Rome, studied a thirty days fast undergone by Succi in 1889. Victor Pashutin, director of the Imperial Military Medical Academy, Petrograd, Russia, performed a number of experiments upon animals, and investigated cases of death from starvation in man and published the results of his researches in his “Pathological Physiology of Inanition.“ Dr. Francis Gano Benedict, of the Carnegie Institute at Roxbury, Mass., published a book some years ago, entitled the “Metabolism of Inanition.” In spite of the care observed in the conduct of his fasting experiments and the skill, with which the various tests and measurements were carried out, very few decisive results came from these experiments, for they were based on short fasts, the longest one of seven days, having been that of a hypochondriac, who, according to Tucsek, being abnormal, could not produce normal physiological results. It is also true that the first few days of the fast witness the worst troubles, so that the results of these short fasts were very misleading, or as Prof. Levanzin says, “that great book, on which the Carnegie Institute squandered six thousand dollars, is not worth the paper, on which it was printed.” Benedict’s discussion of past experiments with the fast is devoted to fasts in healthy subjects, and this can throw but little light on the importance of the fast in disease. In 1912 Professor Agostino Levanzin of Malta came to America to be studied by Prof. Benedict, while he underwent a fast of thirty-one days’ duration. His fast was commenced on April 13, 1912 at a weight of “less than two pounds over 132 pounds, normal weight, according to the Yale University measurements, my height being five feet, six, and one-half inches.” Levanzin thinks that this is an important point in every fast. He points out that professional fasters, like hibernating animals, generally overeat before they start fasting and accumulate a good store of fat and other reserves. He thinks that, due to this fact, the long fasts previously studied were of the destruction of adipose tissue and not of the whole body. He attempted to avoid this “mistake” by starting his fast at “normal” body weight. It was his opinion that the length of the fast is of no importance if it is not started from normal body weight. He was of the opinion that man can lose sixty percent of his normal body-weight without any risk of death or damage to his health. He says that the greatest part of the normal body weight is also a storage of food. “At the outset of my fast, my exact weight was a shade over 133½ pounds (60.6 kilograms). At the conclusion of the thirty-one days of my fast, I weighed barely 104½ pounds (47.4 kilograms), a total loss of twenty-nine pounds during the fast. Throughout the fast, tests were taken of my pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, respiration volume, blood examination, anthropometrical measurements, urine analysis, and growth of hair, not to mention innumerable other observations of my mental and physical condition from day to day.” FASTING WHEN EATING IS IMPOSSIBLE There are pathological conditions, under which eating is impossible. Such conditions as cancer of the stomach, destruction of the stomach by acids, and by other causes, renders it no longer possible to take food. Persons in this condition often go for extended periods without food, before they finally die. In certain conditions of gastric neurosis food is vomited about as fast as it is swallowed, or it is passed into the small intestine with almost equal rapidity and hurried to the exit and expelled without being digested. Such an individual, though eating, is going without food. Such a state of affairs may last for an extended period. SHIPWRECKED SAILORS AND PASSENGERS Shipwrecked sailors and aviators forced down at sea, have, in many instances, been forced to exist for long periods without food, and often without water. Many have survived long periods without food under the many severe conditions that the sea offers. During the recent war, many instances of this nature received much publicity. In “My Debut As A Literary Person,” Mark Twain, seriously in this instance, records some of his experiences with and observations of fasting. He says: “A little starvation can really do more for the average sick man than can the best of medicines and the best of doctors. I do not mean a restricted diet, I mean total abstinence from food for one or two days. I speak from experience; starvation has been my cold and fever doctor for fifteen years, and has accomplished a cure in all instances. The third mate told me in Honolulu that the ‘por-tyghee’ had lain in his hammock for months, raising his family of abscesses and feeding like a cannibal. We have seen that in spite of dreadful weather, deprivation of sleep, scorching, drenching, and all manner of miseries, thirteen days of starvation ‘wonderfully recovered’ him. There were four sailors down sick when the ship was burned. Twenty-five days of pitiless starvation have followed, and now we have this curious record: ‘all men are hearty and strong, even the ones that were down sick are well, except poor Peter.’ When I wrote an article some months ago urging temporary abstinence from food as a remedy for an inactive appetite and for disease, I was accused of jesting, but I was in earnest. ‘We are all wonderfully well and strong, comparatively speaking.’ On this day the starvation regimen drew its belt a couple of buckle-holes tighter; the bread ration was reduced from the usual piece of cracker the size of a silver dollar to the half of that, and one meal was abolished from the daily three. This will weaken the men physically, but if there are any diseases of the ordinary sort left in them, they will disappear.” ENTOMBED MINERS Frequently, when there are mine cave-ins, one or more miners are entombed for shorter or longer periods, during which time they are without food and often without water. Their survival until they can be rescued depends not upon food, but upon air. If the oxygen supply is exhausted before rescuers reach them, they perish, otherwise, they survive days without food. The entombed miner is like the animal buried for days and weeks under a snow-drift. He is able to go for prolonged periods without food and survive, just as are these animals. FASTING IN ILLNESS It is estimated that fasting for the alleviation of human suffering has been practiced uninterruptedly for 10,000 years. No doubt it has been employed from the time man first began to get sick. Fasting was a part of the methods of healing practiced in the Ancient Aesculapian Temples of Toscurd Guido, 1300 years before the time of Jesus. Hippocrates, the mythical Greek “Father of Physics,” seems to have prescribed total abstinence from food while a “disease” was on the increase, and especially at the critical period, and a spare diet on other occasions. Tertullian has left us a treatise on fasting written about 200 A.D. Plutarch said: “Instead of using medicine rather fast a day.” Avicenna, the great Arab physician often prescribed fasting for three weeks or more. I think that there is no room to doubt that man, like the lower animals, has always fasted when acutely ill. In more modern times, the medical profession has taught the sick that they must eat to keep up their strength and that, if they do not eat, their resistance will be lowered and they will lose strength. The thought behind all of this is that unless the sick eat they are likely to die. The reverse of this is the truth: the more they eat, the more likely are they to die. In his “Eating for Strength”, M. L. Holbrook, an outstanding Hygienist of the last century, says: “Fasting is no cunning trick of priestcraft, but the most powerful and safest of all medicines.” When animals are sick, they refuse food. Only when they are well, and not before, will they resume eating. It is as natural or normal for man to refuse food when sick as for animals to do so. His natural repulsion to food is a safe guide to not eating. The aversions and dislikes of the sick, especially to food, noise, motion, light, close air, etc., are not to be lightly dismissed. They express protective measures of the sick body. FAMINE AND WAR War and famine, whether the famine has been produced by drought, insect pests, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, freezes, snows, etc., have frequently deprived whole populations of food for extended periods, so they have been forced to fast. In many of these instances, they have had limited food supplies, but in others, no food has been available for long periods. The ability of man to fast, even for long periods, proves to be, as with the lower animals, an important means of survival under such circumstances. Such prolonged periods of deprivation were much more frequent in past ages than today when rapid transportation and modern means of communication make it possible to get food to people in famine districts in a very short time. FASTING UNDER EMOTIONAL STRESS Grief, worry, anger, shock, and other emotional irritations are almost as potent in suspending the desire for food and in rendering digestion practically impossible as are pain, fever, and severe inflammation. An excellent example of this is that of the young lady, in New York, who a few years ago attempted to drown herself and who explained, when rescued by two sailors, that when her sweetheart who had been in port two days had not called to see her nor communicated with her, she thought she had been jilted. Her sailor friend, kept on duty and not having the opportunity to communicate with her, was permitted to see her. He asked when she had eaten and she replied: “Not since yesterday, Bill, I couldn’t.” Her grief or sense of loss had resulted in a suspension of digestive secretions and a loss of desire for food. FASTING BY THE INSANE The insane commonly manifest a strong aversion to food and, unless forcibly fed, will often go for extended periods without eating. It is customary in institutions devoted to the care of the mentally ill, to force-feed such patients, often by very cruel means. This aversion to food by the insane is undoubtedly an instinctive move in the right direction. In his “Natural Cure,” pp. 140–143, Dr. Page presents a very interesting account of a patient that recovered normal mental health by fasting forty-one days, after other treatment had miserably failed. One case of insanity in a young man who came under my care refused food for thirty-nine days, resuming eating on the morning of the fortieth day of fasting, greatly improved in mental condition. I have used fasting in other cases of mental disease and have no doubt that fasting is distinctly beneficial and, I am convinced that when the insane patient refuses food, this is an instinctive measure designed to assist the body in its reconstructive work. HIBERNATION IN MAN Of possible human hibernation, it has been said that it is “a condition utterly inexplicable on any principle taught in the schools.” Nonetheless, there are a number of people who practice a near approach to hibernation during the winter season. This is true of the Eskimos of northern Canada, as well as of certain tribes of northern Russia. By putting on fat and wintering very much as does the bear, only much less completely, the Eskimo reveals that man has some hibernating power. By keeping warm, usually by huddling together in the home, and moving very little, he goes through the long winter on half the usual food. At the onset of winter, the Eskimo will sew himself up in his fur-lined parka, leaving accessible openings for certain physiological necessities, and will stay in his hut for the duration of the winter, existing on dried salmon, hard-tack, ground corn cakes, and water. The fact that he undertakes very little physical activity reduces the amount of energy spent, thus aiding him in sustaining the food reserves accumulated in his body at a level, at which there is no danger of systemic detriment. Certain Russian peasants of the Pskov region have been known to sleep around a fire during most of the winter, awakening once daily to eat. There is no evidence that this is anything other than a quasi-hibernation, as they employ fire to keep themselves warm, awaken daily to eat, and, it should not be forgotten, it is easily possible to take all the food required by an even active life in one meal daily. INSTINCTIVE FASTING Fasting above all other measures can lay claim to being a strictly natural method. There can be no doubt that it is the oldest of all measures of meeting those crises in the organism called “disease.” It is much older than the human race itself since it is resorted to instinctively by sick and wounded animals. “The fasting-cure instinct,” says Oswald, “is not limited to our dumb fellow-creatures. It is a common experience that pain, fevers, gastric congestions, and even mental afflictions ‘take away the appetite,’ and only unwise nurses will try to thwart the purpose of nature in this respect.” The doctrine of total depravity taught men to distrust the promptings of their natural instincts, and, while the doctrine is slowly fading from religion, it is as strong as ever in medicine. The promptings of instinct are ignored and the sick are stuffed with “good nourishing food” to “keep up their strength.” “There is a very general concurrence of opinion,” says Jennings, “that the aversion to food, which characterizes all cases of acute disease and is fully in proportion to the severity of the symptoms, is one of nature’s blunders that require the intervention of art, and hence enforced feeding regardless of aversion.” Dr. Shew declared: “Abstinence is by far too much feared in the treatment of disease generally. We have a good reason for believing that many a life has been destroyed by the indiscriminate feeding, which is so often practiced among the sick.” In the human realm, instinct prevails only to the extent that we permit. Although one of the first things nature does to the person with acute “disease” is to stop all desire for food, the well-meaning friends of the sick man encourage him to eat. These may bring in tasty and tempting dishes designed to please his taste and excite an appetite but the most they ever succeed in doing is to get the patient to nibble a few bites. The ignorant physician may insist that he must “eat to keep up strength,” but Mother Nature, who is wiser than any doctor who ever lived, continues to say, “do not eat.” The man who is sick, but who is able to be about his work, complains of having lost his appetite. He no longer enjoys his food. This is because his organic instincts know that to eat in the usual way is to increase the “disease.” The man thinks the loss of appetite is a great calamity and seeks a way to restore it. In this, he is encouraged by physicians and friends, who, alike, erroneously think that the sick man must eat to keep up his strength. The doctor prescribes a tonic and stuffing and, of course, the patient is made worse. LONG FASTS IN MAN Animals may go without food for prolonged periods without damage to their bodies or to individual organs. The objection is often raised that, while some animals may do this, man cannot, for there are still those who would place man outside of the uniformities of Nature and make him an exception. Nevertheless, the facts prove that man may go for long periods without food, not alone without injury to himself, but with positive benefit. Old mistakes are repeated year after year in reference works so that the public is at all times misinformed. The New Standard Encyclopedia (1931) says: “Generally death occurs after eight days of deprivation of food.” This encyclopedia mentions the fifteen men survivors of the frigate Medusa (1876), who were thirteen days on an open raft without food, and also a case instanced by Bernard which was “sustained on water alone for 63 days.” Succi’s forty days fast is also mentioned. No mention is made of fasting as a hygienic or remedial measure, and not a single scientific and up-to-date book on fasting is included in the bibliography. Until the 1921 revisions of that work were made, the Encyclopedia Britannica and similar works, carried articles on inanition and fasting, stating, over the signatures of eminent medical authorities, that from ten to fourteen days marked the extreme limit to which the human body could endure without food. Thousands of fasts of much longer duration, even up to 70 and 90 days, had been recorded; but the medical profession and scientists gave no attention to them. That “common sense” may still be arrayed against the demonstrated facts of experiment and experience, and that men who pose as scientists, may deny what may be known about the body because it does not seem to them to harmonize with what they think they now know about the body is amazing proof that there have been ignorant bigots and that they are not all dead. Sinclair says he talked with a well-known and successful physician, “who refused point-blank to believe that a human being could live for more than five days without any sort of nutriment.” “There was no use talking to him about it — it was a physiological impossibility.” He refused to investigate the evidence offered that it could be done. Bigotry we have with us always. Men who form their opinions in advance of investigation and, who, then refuse to investigate, lest they have their opinions swept away, are all too common. The American People’s Encyclopedia says that the survival time of acute “starvation” (complete abstinence from all food) is forty days in man. It says that in individual men the survival time (as determined in laboratory “starvation” experiments) ranges from 17 to 76 days. It is not likely that any such laboratory experiments have ever been made. One thing we may be certain of: namely, the survival times given are not accurate. A baby may survive more than seventeen days of fasting. Numerous fasters have not only survived but benefitted by fasts lasting longer than 76 days. While man is, apparently, not capable of fasting for such long periods as are many of the lower animals, many long fasts have been recorded in man. “Modern science” is said to be very skeptical of these reported long fasts; but “modern science,” despite its proud boasting of its experimental methods and its readiness to investigate, is not willing to investigate fasting. If any of the nit-wits who are called scientists really desire to observe and study long fasts at firsthand, it may be easily arranged. There is no excuse for either doubt or incredulity when knowledge may be had. In this connection, it should be noted that the so-called authorities look well upon the reported fast | https://medium.com/@annaszabojdmba/water-fasting-science-benefits-dangers-testimonies-and-a-diary-e335bc3d4efe | ['Anna Szabo'] | 2020-12-27 00:46:30.902000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Weight Loss', 'Water Fasting', 'Fasting', 'Healthy Lifestyle'] |
Berkeley’s First-Ever Vegan Food Festival Will Debut This Sunday | California carries with it a certain connotation around its gastronomy — a description populated by trendy terminologies and words tied to lifestyle choices. But without question: The Golden State’s food landscape is unmatched anywhere in the country (no matter what any East Coaster might say). And the Bay Area’s a pressure cooker for the very cheffing and cooking and farming that’s made California’s cuisine synonymous with levity and freshness.
So it’s hard to believe that Berkeley — the region’s bastion for liberalism and all things plant-based — has yet to have a fair dedicated to vegan eats. Well, that will all change this upcoming Sunday.
Photo: Screenshot via The Bizerkeley Food Festival
The Bizerkeley Food Festival, Berkeley’s inaugural vegan food festival, is set to debut Sunday, September 5, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 2727 Milvia Street, which will feature a long roster of local plant-based, cruelty-free vendors. Organized by Erika Hazel, who founded the like-named resource for all things hyperlocal and vegan back in 2016. (The Bizerkeley Vegan also specializes in crafting and hosting events, making Hazel’s food blogging venture particularly fit to host the city’s first-ever festival dedicated to veganism.)
The happening, too, will also serve as a conduit for charity — one that will help better adoptable fur babies, specifically.
“The festival was created as a way to bring the community together and support local vegan businesses,” Hazel says about the event. “[The Bizerkeley Food Festival’s] commitment to support local causes, a silent auction with 100% of proceeds will benefit nonprofit Friends of Berkeley Animal Care Services, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to raising much-needed funds to support critical programs and services at Berkeley’s municipal animal shelter, Berkeley Animal Care Services.”
Sponsored in part by Sportsbasment’s Berkeley store, the festival will feature over a dozen food vendors and more to help bring our community together following over a year-and-a-half of social distancing and isolation. Festival attendees can enjoy free food samples, wine and hard kombuchas (read: high ABV bottlings of the effervescent drink), and much more.
Though The Bizerkeley Food Festival is set to be an all-outdoor event, mask-wearing is recommended when not eating with others in your group; hand sanitizer stations will be plentiful, as well.
Hazel’s also said that the entire proceeds from the event’s silent auction will benefit the animal shelter and that she hand-picked each vendor for the event — which will feature both Black-owned and LGBTQ-owned businesses, in addition to ventures started by young entrepreneurs.
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For more information on The Bizerkeley Food Festival, as well as find out more about on-site vendors and events, visit thebizerkeleyvegan.com/foodfest; tickets are $5 each and are available for purchase on Eventbrite. | https://thebolditalic.com/berkeleys-first-ever-vegan-food-festival-will-debut-this-sunday-df7b76167bbc | ['Matt Charnock'] | 2021-09-01 03:50:24.102000+00:00 | ['San Francisco', 'Bay Area News', 'Food And Drink', 'Berkeley'] |
Zen 230 | Susan Brearley is a brilliant strategist and entrepreneur, a published book author, writer, seasoned editor, essayist, occasional comedy writer, and an accidental poet. She’s the happy owner of between 1 and 20 top writer badges on Medium, on any given day.
She is Chef, Elder and Program Director at Elf Works Lane Retreat Center, where she coaches and mentors people, helping them identify and create the life they were born to live, on the planet we all want to live on.
She is currently based in the mid-Hudson Valley, New York.
Stay in touch. Become a part of her Mighty Network. We bring together amazing womxn who inspire each other, so we can all lead the way into living the lives we were born for. | https://medium.com/house-of-haiku/zen-230-85e8ba8f40d1 | ['Susan Brearley'] | 2020-10-10 00:00:56.038000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'Travel', 'Ideas', 'Photography', 'Poetry'] |
Lets Stop Teaching Our Daughters to Hate Themselves | I recently learned that a friend of the family has, at age 13, developed an eating disorder. The last time I saw her, not that long ago, she had been a child — confident in her beauty, oblivious to self-hate.
The same day a professional colleague, beautiful by any standard — womanly, vibrant, clever, strong — said, when complimented on her top, “oh, it’s so slimming; it hides a multitude of sins.”
I usually would have jumped right in to tell her she wasn’t fat (and truth be told, she looked a healthy weight) or to offer her some self-deprecating story of my own designed to make her feel better about herself, as women are want to do.
Welcome to the Self-Hate Club, ladies and girls.
This is where it begins.
But instead of saying these things to her, I froze. I didn’t want to say those things to her. I had decided that I wouldn’t participate in that kind of talk anymore. But I could not immediately think of a single word to utter in place of what I have been so long programmed to say.
It was not until later that evening I realised that, in that context,
I can still tell someone they’re beautiful without making reference to their weight.
My colleague is beautiful with or without that particular top, with or without her curves.
It is easy to see the beauty in others and most of us are careful with what we say to our daughters but we do not take care with what we say to ourselves. And our daughters hear and see this and then emulate it.
We are, unintentionally, teaching our daughters to hate themselves.
While we are aware of social media, advertising and glam rags idealising the thin, no amount of reassuring our young women and girls is going to counteract the fact that they hear women like us, and us, deriding our appearance and often ourselves (replace the word fat with stupid).
Social media plays its part and it’s a bigger part than ever before, but the buck has to stop with us — we are our young women and girls’ role models in the flesh and blood — the older sisters, mothers, aunties, cousins, and grandmothers.
We are teaching our young women and girls to hate themselves.
Let’s make a wake-up call — what would happen to our bodies if they fit the scale of the ideal? Here are some facts not many adult women are aware of and I would estimate next to no young women know:
When you are below your body mass index (BMI — a measurement for healthy weight used by medical practitioners) you are considered underweight, or to be blunt, malnourished. When you are malnourished:
You have mood swings
You are more prone to crying
You have a higher risk of developing long term depression
You don’t have the energy to do the things you love doing
You may experience stunted growth
You may not have periods
You may not develop breasts or your breasts may disappear
You may develop sagging skin and stretch marks from extreme weight loss
You may not be able to have children
If you do get pregnant you have a higher chance of a premature birth
You are more likely to have early onset menopause
You may age prematurely, and
experience hair loss and
dental problems
Your life expectancy shortens
Your internal organs start to shut down
You may do permanent damage to vital parts of your body, such as your heart and bones (osteoporosis).
if taken to the extreme, you will die of malnutrition
As you can see, a person with below normal BMI is hardly likely to be either happy or fulfilled. Give away any idea of achieving any of your life’s dreams.
You are now less than barely surviving, you are in fact killing yourself slowly.
Is this what we want for our daughters?
But negative warnings only go so far.
What needs to happen is the teaching of positive talk, self-love instead of self-hate, and it starts at home, with us.
I have been hating myself since I was very small, because I was taught to compare myself to an unrealistic ideal most people fall short of, so I have almost five decades of training to undo and it is hard.
But what is harder is to see people I love hate themselves enough to hurt themselves and to know that my modeled behaviour had a role to play in that.
We are all beautiful.
That is not an empty platitude. No matter what size or age or whatever else is used to measure beauty, we are all beautiful.
We need to redefine what beauty means.
If beauty means slow death, then
let’s take the word ‘beauty’ back from self-haters, social media, advertising, and magazines and make it mean what it should mean.
We are all beautiful.
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL
and I am beautiful, too. | https://medium.com/a-cornered-gurl/lets-stop-teaching-our-daughters-to-hate-themselves-e317979c8d9e | ['Lowen Puckey'] | 2019-05-06 10:01:00.808000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Women', 'Psychology', 'Non Fiction', 'Anorexia'] |
The Poison of Entitlement | Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay
Entitlement is a poisonous potion you drink that makes you believe you deserve something that you don’t. It is a cocktail of choice that many people get drunk on never realising the damage it is doing.
Entitlement is delusion. You must rip it out of your system like a smouldering piece of cloth and cast it down in the dirt.
Just because you do something, that doesn’t automatically mean you should get the results you want. If what you do sucks, you should get results that suck. And even if you do all the right things, it doesn’t always work out. Perhaps your timing was off? Perhaps it was just plain bad luck?
If you think the world owes you something, it doesn’t. It never has and it never will.
If you give with the expectation of something in return you are setting yourself up for failure. If you give and think that just because you did something someone owes you, you are not going to like what happens. A few people will reciprocate out of guilt. Most people simply won’t. There was no agreed upon contract that stipulates that they are supposed to give you something in return. This is not a bank loan where you owe the bank money. If you give with expectation you are a bank giving away free money expecting the money to be given back. You’re gonna be out of business really fast.
If you give with expectations you create entitlement. People owe you something in your mind. But they have no idea that they owe you something and yet you think they do. It is a figment of your imagination. Pure delusion.
Naturally, if they don’t reciprocate you are gonna be pissed. You will behave in erratic ways, deploying passive aggressive strategies and adopting pessimistic perspectives. The world is full of ungrateful bastards. Everyone is so mean. People hate me.
Entitlement is a poison you choose to ingest. It is a choice you make to believe something that is not true. It is only true in your reality but not in the reality of the person who supposedly owes you something. It is only true in your mind.
Entitlement will ruin your life. It will create resentment and bitterness in your person. People can smell entitlement a mile away. It reeks of arrogance and undesirability. People will avoid you like the plague. You will only attract the flies and rats of life.
Stop thinking you deserve things that weren’t mutually agreed upon by you and the world, people, or things.
“Oh, but this person should know that I expect this,” you say.
Oh, but they don’t. And they shouldn’t. If it is implied it is subject to interpretation. How can I know something you never tell me? If you try to show me with subtle hints without ever saying it, don’t be surprised if I don’t pick up on it. Why hide behind subtleties instead of saying what you actually want? Are you scared? If so that is perfectly fine. Develop courage.
Non-communicated expectations ruin relationships. I expect you to clean the dishes, but I never tell you, resentment builds. You expect me to give you a hug before going to bed, but you never tell me, resentment builds. When enough resentment accumulates the relationship falls appart.
The greatest predictor of whether a couple will stay together in the next five years is this: if either partner expresses contempt for the other through their body language, during a conversation, you can be sure that the couple will not last.
Expectations.
If you have a child, that child doesn’t owe you anything. It is not your property. You don’t deserve anything just because you decided to copulate a while back. They can give you credit for bringing them to life, but even that they didn’t choose. They might even choose to blame you for it.
Your partner doesn’t owe you anything. If you have an expectation you must communicate it. Just because you’ve been together for two years doesn’t mean they owe you anything. It’s a partnership. If you start expecting things that were not clearly communicated you will resort to guilting and shaming, harbouring resentment and frustration.
Your friends don’t owe you anything. Strangers don’t owe you shit. The world doesn’t either.
If you make a product that is terrible, you are not entitled to a profitable business. You deserve to fail. If you didn’t train, you deserve to fail. If you didn’t prepare enough, you deserve to fail. If you’ve made mistakes, you deserve the results you get.
You’ve got to up your deserve-it factor. You only get what you deserve. Do you deserve what you have? Did you put in the work? Are you wishing for one million dollars? Do you deserve them? Are you worth a million dollars? What value are you bringing the world?
You must have the humility to look at actual real world results. What happened? Look at reality. Objectively. Does your product suck? Have you made big mistakes? Are you behaving like a dick?
If you have no friends and girls don’t like you, the real world results are that you have no friends and girls don’t like you. There is probably a good reason for it. Based on your past actions you deserve to have no friends and not be liked.
If your business is failing, the reality is that it is failing. There is probably a good reason for it. You don’t deserve for it to continue thriving just because it did in the past. Circumstances change, the market changes, technology changes.
If your child hates you, the reality is that your child hates you. There is probably a good reason for it. You had better be humble enough to consider it might have something to do with you and your past behaviours.
If your partner just left you, the reality is that they just left you. There is probably a good reason for it. Of course it hurts. Have the humility to learn from what just happened.
You can choose to blame, complain and be bitter, to harbour resentment and continue to feel entitled. But why hang onto the past and continue to tell painful stories when you can just look at what happened, do your best to figure out what went wrong, learn from it, grow from it, use it as motivation to get better and move on?
Sometimes reality isn’t that comfortable. It takes courage to crawl out of your dome full of delusions and expose yourself to the light of truth. To creep out of Plato’s allegorical cavern and face the sun. The sun is blinding and hurts your eyes when you first come out. But your eyes will adjust. The beauty of the world will be revealed to you.
Have the courage to look at reality. Be objective. Cultivate the necessary humility. Learn. Grow. Improve.
The next time you are tempted by the powerful poison of entitlement, exercise your freedom of choice and say no. Opt for some water instead, stay level headed.
And remember: No one owes you shit. | https://adrienjamai.medium.com/the-poison-of-entitlement-87d751e31709 | ['Adrien Jamai'] | 2019-07-19 08:30:28.021000+00:00 | ['Truth', 'Life Lessons', 'Growth', 'Self Improvement', 'Reality'] |
Reserve x Certik Technical Partnership | Meet Certik
Reserve has been working closely with our friends and partners at Certik to ensure the security of the smart contracts that comprise our stablecoin protocol. We wanted to take the time here to shine a light on their services and the ways in which they have contributed to the Reserve mission.
CertiK is a blockchain and smart contract verification platform. It was founded by former senior software engineers from Google and Facebook and formal verification experts from Yale and Columbia University. CertiK is unique among software auditing firms in the blockchain space, in that they perform formal verification services. Formal verification is a process that mathematically shows what a program does and how it may encounter errors. CertiK has received investments from Binance Labs, DHVC, FBG Capital, Bitmain, and Lightspeed. They have also formed partnerships with exchanges like Binance, OKEx, and Huobi, as well as blockchain projects like NEO, ICON, and QuarkChain.
To learn more about Formal Verification, head over to Certik’s blog where they discuss the topic in more detail.
CertiK and Reserve
Our RSV token is a decentralized stablecoin that is backed by a basket of stablecoins including USDC, PAX, and TUSD. Our goal is to make RSV a dollar-independent and universally-accepted currency for people and businesses in emerging markets with high inflation and significant financial frictions.
CertiK has and will continue to work with our team to secure the RSV’s Ownable, ReserveEternalStorage, Reserve, Vault, Basket, Proposal, and Manager smart contracts, as described in our whitepaper.
We chose CertiK to formally verify our contracts because of their unmatched reputation for quality assurance and professionalism within the industry. After carefully examining the architecture of RSV v2, Certik concluded that we have “implemented a well-designed system” for our tokens. They also noted that careful checks are performed during each critical operation, such as issuance and redemption, to ensure that RSV stays collateralized. Every operation is associated with the correct access control to prevent untrusted parties from manipulating the state of the protocol.
Conclusion
Reserve’s mission to become the world’s next reserve currency and to provide sound money to those countries that need it most involves taking on a great deal of responsibility. As such, we want to make sure that we are putting forward the best product possible. We are proud to work with CertiK to ensure the software we release meets the highest security standards. Their industry-leading Formal Verification tools have and will be a great benefit to the Reserve mission. | https://medium.com/reserve-currency/reserve-x-certik-technical-partnership-7a7022d6c02e | [] | 2019-10-30 16:17:51.957000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Certik', 'Updates', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
How to Earn From Blogging 2021 | You need to start a website where you will keep on posting blogs every day or every week it depends on you.
You will find a lot of articles on this topic: How to Earn From Blogging 2021, how to earn money easily from blogging. So in this article, you will get a fair idea about how you make money from blogging.
Look in this article I am here to guide you, everything like your niche, setting up your website and everything needs to start a blog. once you make a website then you will have to figure out how to post a blog that will generate traffic to your website. This is the main important thing to keep in mind.
I have taken more than two different blogs to $1000 per week to per day as a beginner. Look in blogging there is no limitation of making money. All you guys need to be consistent while doing this.
Once you create your own website now you need the traffic to your blog so that you will be able to make money from blogging. So in this video, you will get a fair idea of how you get more traffic to your blog.
If you wanna set up your own blogging website make sure you visit our full blog or our website. You can contact me I will guide you.
Click Below. Thank you. | https://medium.com/@vishhow/how-to-earn-from-blogging-2021-9e9402a3148d | ['Vishal Sharma'] | 2020-09-03 19:07:58.513000+00:00 | ['Blogging Tips', 'Blog Traffic', 'Blog Post Ideas', 'How To Earn From Blogging', 'Tips For Blogging'] |
Apple’s Master Sales Strategy: Upselling | 1.Marketing Strategies, Exposed: Apple’s way to generate enormous profits Definition of Upselling
Upselling is a special sales technique used by companies like Apple that invites us, the customers, to buy expensive items or upgrades for the product you want to purchase. Simple said the sellers try to sell you more than you actually want. This is exactly what Apple does on their website. Let me give you an example:
You’ve decided to buy yourself a new phone, an iPhone 12 Pro, to be exact. So, you go on their website, click on the iPhone 12 Pro, scroll a bit down, and find yourself forced to decide on a model: iPhone 12 Pro or iPhone 12 Pro Max? You may think “oh look, the iPhone Pro Max costs just $100 more than the iPhone Pro, so why not”. This is exactly the moment you got a victim of Upselling. Apple puts you multiple times before choices, where you can choose between a handful of options. This first decision you made, was only the first. Further, you’ll be forced to decide on the battery capacity of your phone and if you’d like to add AppleCare+ coverage. Especially the batteries create Apple enormous amounts of profit: Let’s take a look, why. | https://medium.com/passive-asset/apples-master-sales-strategy-upselling-83003790ec57 | ['Jakov Zauzolkov'] | 2020-12-22 20:04:06.750000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Apple', 'Economy', 'Web Design', 'Marketing Strategies'] |
How to Adapt Your Writing to the New Medium | How to Adapt Your Writing to the New Medium
Photo by Keren Fedida on Unsplash
I was upset about Medium’s changes at first.
Thanks to Tom Kugelrs’ article, I understand what their aim is now. The frustrating changes make more sense. I believe that leadership is not corrupt — which is as good as we could hope for.
They seem to want us writers to succeed, so I will have faith in that and do my best to adapt to the changes.
What are they asking of us?
Focus on writing. Focus on people.
Hallelujah. Many of us have honed the practice of “clickbait” and may be frustrated that it is not going to be as useful going forward. I know that I felt that way.
Instead, I am going to re-focus on my writing and the people that write along with me. Here’s how and why it will lead to success on the new platform:
‘Relational’ Model Rewards Genuine Outreach
OK, I can’t prove this because Medium isn’t going to tell us exactly how the algorithm works. Here’s why I think it is the case:
I see more articles from people I have interacted with in the past.
I see fewer “viral” articles.
My articles all perform moderately well, with no particular viral outlier (unlike before)
Ev Williams — the founder — claims to want it that way.
Deemphasis on curation. Something has to take its place.
Alright, so that is the current state of Medium — like it or not. Once we get over our resentments and frustrations, the question remains: How do we adapt?
If you want more people to see your work and interact with it meaningfully, you have to take the time to meaningfully interact with other people’s work.
Again, we don’t know the algorithm (probably for a good reason), but it is reasonable to assume that it favors content from “communities” that form on the platform. Hence “relational.”
Here’s the behavior I am experimenting with to take advantage of this new model:
Leave at least 10 genuine and thoughtful comments on articles a day.
Focus on building deeper relationships, one at a time
Join writing groups
Offer help whenever I can
Why? Because either Medium is corrupt, and it’s not worth writing for — in which case we should all just stop, OR it’s a good place trying new things, and we should have faith in the process.
Since I’m on Medium, I might as well have faith in the process and assume the best from Medium.
Worst case scenario? I build some new relationships with writers and read much beautiful content I might have otherwise skipped.
Clickbait Is Still a Thing — Just More Artful
Headlines are still important. Clickbait still matters. We just don’t want to feel taken advantage of.
“I Tried to Stop Lying Cold Turkey. It Was Not Easy.” is carefully constructed to play on hopes and curiosity. “13 Unbelievable Truths That Will Make Your Gynecologist Eat More Vegetables” is just manipulation on a cruel (and ridiculous) level.
Medium’s new updates do not mean that you no longer have to take time to craft your headlines. It just means that the goalposts have moved (sorry). If you’ve spent 5 years learning how to craft irresistible clickbait, perhaps you can move your talents to Newsbreak.
For those who want to stay on Medium, we gotta let go of the past and figure out what is being asked of us now.
There Are Faults
Of course, there are faults in every structure. Medium is no different.
I’m sure the change’s scope and meaning are beyond anyone — much less me — to fully understand. Structures are meant to be corrected as they go — not designed perfectly from the start.
Still, if you’re curious, here are my thoughts on the mistakes Medium is making. Take with a grain of salt.
Pareto distribution
99% of the mass in the solar system is in the sun. Most people live in the biggest cities. Almost all human attention goes to Kim Kardashian.
What gives? What does the sun have in common with Kim Kardashian?
It’s a Pareto distribution. It happens everywhere, and it is a fact of reality. Most stuff goes to a tiny minority.
What does this have to do with Medium’s update?
By making the platform more “relational” and doing away with curation and most aspects of virality, they try to undo the Pareto distribution.
The problem? Most stuff isn’t that good.
There is a reason Stephen King makes most book sales, and Tim Denning gets the majority of views — their stuff is the best.
Unfair? Maybe. But people want the best of the best. If you got cancer, what kind of doctor do you want? The best cancer doctor in your area — or a more “relational” approach so all doctors get a chance?
When you shop for something, what do you google? “What is the best ___.”
The possible bad outcome here on Medium? The content isn’t as compelling, people don’t check as often, and another website (willing to promote the best of the best) takes its place.
How do you judge clickbait?
Clickbait is pretty, “you know it when you see it.” But, do you?
Not all instances of clickbait are cut-and-dry. What about parody? What if the content really will knock your socks off!
They certainly have their work cut out for them. I can’t see how it can be done.
However, I am thankful for a place to put my writing that cares enough to try.
I just hope they are willing to learn and grow.
I Have More Faith Than Ever
Medium is a good place for writers—no better place on the internet (yet).
I have my reservations, but I am going to voice them and then put them aside. I’m all in on Medium, and I have full faith that this place can thrive.
We all should set our aims as high as we can manage. If all of us did that, it wouldn’t matter what Medium did. We are much more powerful than our platform.
Stop complaining without solutions, and stop reading content that does the same.
Leave A Comment, Let’s Connect
I’m so thankful for this community — and I’m thankful that leadership wants to encourage us to connect with one another.
Leave me a comment, and let’s connect. If you do, we will be much more likely to connect in the future! | https://medium.com/@foremanjamestaylor/how-to-adapt-your-writing-to-the-new-medium-c62fa9ec196 | ['Taylor Foreman'] | 2020-12-21 19:07:13.452000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Updates', 'Change', 'Ｍedium', 'Writing'] |
Introducing NOW Token Staking — Start Making Profit NOW! | We’ve been looking forward to this day from the very 2018. Back in May that year, we issued NOW Token — the native cryptocurrency of NOW products and the first crypto issued by an instant crypto exchange. A lot has happened ever since — NOW has been the first token issued on Binance Chain with the support of CZ, and has taken an active part in NOW products’ life.
Today, a new major milestone is opening for NOW Token. We’re delighted to introduce NOW Staking — a way to profit for all NOW holders!
What is NOW Staking?
NOW Staking means freezing some (or all) of your NOW Tokens to maintain the proper functioning and the security of its network. For doing this, you get rewarded.
NOW Staking works with the tokens issued on Binance Chain — NOW-BEP2. If you have NOW-ERC20 that you would like to stake, you can easily swap them to NOW-BEP2 at 1:1 rate here.
Why is NOW Staking profitable?
Firstly, you get staking rewards with NOW Token for helping the network run. Secondly, we expect NOW Token to significantly increase in price soon due to the staking introduction and other activity.
Continue reading on ChangeNOW | https://medium.com/@changenow-io/introducing-now-token-staking-start-making-profit-now-299a9521cc10 | [] | 2020-09-04 12:05:07.693000+00:00 | ['Staking'] |
The Geneinno S2 Underwater Scooter Review | Is It Value For Money? | Who says that swimming and surfing are the only enjoyable activities that you can engage in at the beach? If you want to take your summer experience to the next level, maybe it’s time to check out the new Geneinno S2 underwater sea scooter.
Sea Scooter Fun is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.
We hope you enjoy our Geneinno S2 Underwater Scooter Review…
Lets div in (Pardon the pun 🙂
The Geneinno S2 is the successor to the Trident underwater scooter (now known as Geneinno S1) made by the company Geneinno. It is cheaper, more compact, and lighter than the earlier version.
The Geneinno S2 is a second-generation underwater scooter that can propel you through the waves at a maximum speed of 2.7 mph for up to 60 minutes. Unlike the S1, which could dive 50 meters, this gadget can only dive for depths not exceeding 30 meters.
Equipped with two 350W DC brushless motors, this sea scooter provides 22 lbs. of thrust. Moreover, you can choose between speeds modes, depending on how fast you want to reach your destination.
Another exciting feature of this scooter is its compactness — its footprint is equivalent to a laptop, although it’s not as slim. Regardless, this means that it is exceptionally portable and can fit into a backpack.
Besides being compact, another aspect that makes the S2 portable is its lightweight design. According to its manufacturer, this newer model is lighter because it comes with a smaller 97Wh battery. This also makes it possible to carry the device into planes since it doesn’t contradict the 100Wh regulation imposed by some airlines on battery-powered gadgets.
Pros
* Easy to use
* Ergonomic positioning of buttons
* Quick-charging battery
* Anti-rust coating
* 1-year warranty
* Lightweight and portable
* Shipping and delivery takes time
* Available in one color
Product Specifications
* Weigh t: 2.7kg
* Dimension s: 50.4 * 14.8 * 27 centimeters
* Speed: 3.24km/h (low) and 4.3km/h (high)
* Working environment temperature: 0–40oC
* Total thrust: 10kg (22 lbs.)
* Battery: rechargeable Lithium-ion 4400mAh; 25.2V; 97Wh
* Charging time: 1.5–2 hours
Here the standout features of the Geneinno S2 underwater scooter.
The Geneinno S2 has a maximum speed of 2.7 mph (4.3 km/h). When fully charged, it can last for 45 minutes before the battery gets trained. You can check the amount of energy left using the LED battery indicator on the topside.
The material used in the S2’s construction is buoyant and keeps the device afloat whenever you pause it or replace the battery.
2-Speed Interchangeable Gear
The interchangeable gear function enables you to choose your preferred speed mode. The high variability mode propels the device at 4.3 km/h while the low-speed mode moves it at 3.24 km/h
Why You Should Purchase the Geneinno S2 Underwater Scooter
The following are the top reasons to buy the Geneinno S2 underwater scooter.
Lightweight and Portable
The S2 has three main parts — two propellers, one on each side, and the central section that has the LED indicator and houses the battery. Since its weight is 2.7kg, this device is easy to carry around. Moreover, it has a similar size to a 15-inch MacBook Pro, enabling you to take it anywhere.
Thanks to their anti-rust coating, this scooter’s motors can last for up to 1,000 hours in various scenarios, both in salt and freshwater.
The engines also have a waterproof seal and cooling features that guarantee high-performance.
If you want to go for an enjoyable underwater adventure, the Geneinno S2 is your best bet. It can dive 30 meters below the water for up to 45 minutes, allowing you to savor what the undersea offers. Moreover, it has positive buoyancy that makes it easier to control the depth and prevents you from losing direction in the ocean.
This scooter has two 350W DC brushless motors that produce 22 lbs. of thrust, enabling you to move at a maximum speed of 4.3 km/h.
Flight Safe Battery
Many airlines restrict passengers from boarding flights while carrying devices with a battery capacity exceeding 100Wh. Since the S2 has a 97Wh battery, you can travel with it on air.
You can monitor the Geneinno underwater scooter using your smartphone. The app allows you to track the speed, depth, distance covered, and the scooter’s battery percentage. Even better, you can share the information after you finish diving.
The Geneinno S2 is suitable for all ages. However, the app has a parental mode function that allows adults to control the device remotely. This is particularly useful when your kids are learning to swim while you are seated at the poolside.
Lastly, the S2 underwater scooter integrates seamlessly with the GoPro camera, allowing you to record your underwater experience. If you don’t have a camera, you can mount a light in its place to illuminate the undersea.
Frequently Asked Questions
Geneinno S2 is an underwater scooter produce by a High-Tech Chinese company called Geneinno. It is the second product in the startup’s undersea scooters range.
ii. How Heavy is the Geneinno S2?
This scooter weighs 2.7 kg (5.9 lbs.).
iii. How fast is the Geneinno S2?
The Geneinno S2 has an interchangeable gear that allows you to choose between two speed modes. At high speed, it moves at 2.7 mph, while at the low-speed setting, it travels at 2 mph.
iv. How Long Does it Take to Charge the Geneinno S2?
It takes 90 minutes to two hours to charge the S2’s battery.
v. What Charges do I Incur by Purchasing the Geneinno S2?
Besides the selling price and shipping costs, the buyer is also responsible for additional taxes, impose duties and VAT. Familiarize yourself with your countries import regulations before purchasing.
Underwater scooters have made it possible for people to explore the undersea without worrying about their safety. The Geneinno S2 is a significant improvement on its earlier version because it is faster, lighter, and more portable. Interestingly, it also cheaper despite having all of the features mentioned above.
Besides the ocean, you can also use the Geneinno S2 in water parks, aquariums, and swimming pools. Such versatility is another reason to purchase this underwater scooter.
You can head over to Amazon and check out the latest reviews and pricing here
Please follow and like us: | https://medium.com/@martin_78998/the-geneinno-s2-underwater-scooter-review-is-it-value-for-money-1bda6cab4b77 | ['Martin Adams'] | 2020-09-08 15:09:53.873000+00:00 | ['Seascooter', 'Oceans', 'Snorkeling', 'Gadgets', 'Aquascooter'] |
Update 24 XII ‘20 | WHO Deletes Naturally Acquired Immunity from Its Website
Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The American Institute for Economic Research, Maybe you have some sense that something… | https://medium.com/@facts-and-fictions/update-24-xii-20-f15a9c531d5c | ['Facts And Fictions'] | 2020-12-26 11:31:37.625000+00:00 | ['Covid 19'] |
LeetCode problem #27 — Remove Element (JavaScript) | In this LeetCode problem, we’re asked to remove an element from a provided array, and to do so in-place. This is very similar to the previous challenge, and indeed the solution is very similar too.
Solution #1: Loop
In this solution, we loop through the numbers contained within the provided array, whilst checking each to see if it matches the number being removed. Whilst doing this, we also maintain a counter ( j in the code), which tells us where in the original array we should place the next value.
The way this works is that if we start with an array of [1, 2, 3] and want to remove all occurrences of 2 , we will look at 1 , see that it is not being removed, and thus place it at the counter’s current value (which will be 0 to start with), leaving the array unchanged. We’ll then look at 2 , which we see does need to be removed, and so we move onto the next number without incrementing the counter. Finally when we reach 3 , we see that it is not being removed, and so we place it at the counter’s position in the array (the counter is still set to 1 at this point), and increment the counter, giving us an array of [1, 3, 3] and a counter value of 2 . This then allows us to chop the array at the counter’s position, giving us a final array of [1, 3] .
Like with the previous exercise, LeetCode doesn’t require us to chop off the surplus data, so I have left the line to do so in, but commented it out. In addition, LeetCode ask that we return the length of the new array, rather than the array itself, as it is being edited by reference.
Solution #2: .filter() | https://medium.com/@duncan-mcardle/leetcode-problem-27-remove-element-javascript-caaf2aeda108 | ['Duncan Mcardle'] | 2020-12-17 19:02:46.176000+00:00 | ['Leetcode Solution', 'Leetcode Easy', 'Javascript Development', 'Leetcode', 'JavaScript'] |
Peripéteies in Greece — Week 19. Adventures in Greece as we pursue the… | Peripéteies in Greece — Week 19
Progress on the boat in Italy is slow, perhaps not surprising because of Christmas this week, but we did get the Letter of Intent ready and now we are waiting confirmation so we can arrange access for our surveyor to assess the boat for us.
Coronavirus cases continue to drop, there was only 240 new cases today although we suspect that number is impacted by the Christmas break and a likely slowdown in testing, still we’ll take it! They are starting to hint that some things may re-open on the 7th of Jan, although slowly, so let’s see how that turns out.
We spent the week doing the usual walks with people and several larger ones ourselves. One mission was to head to the far side of the Acropolis where there are some large rosemary bushes so we could collect some for Christmas lunch and the chicken Karina was going to roast. | https://timbull.com/perip%C3%A9teies-in-greece-week-19-99964063e227 | ['Tim Bull'] | 2020-12-27 11:43:44.616000+00:00 | ['Greece', 'Lockdown', 'Christmas', 'Athens'] |
Mentoring for the future in reverse | My meeting with the poet was arranged. To be honest I was slightly nervous about meeting her, and whether I was ready for her. What kinds of encounters might we have? Where might our conversations go? I had no idea at all.
I had arranged some Reverse Mentoring with Rising Arts — this is a process of a young person mentoring a more senior one. I had pestered them for a long time after they mentioned that they were thinking about doing it for professionals. They were going to train up some of the diverse young people they work with — just as they do for board membership — to mentor older people.
“Gifts make room, Clear Space.” Malizah
I see her in the zoom square and she is all smiling warmth, and this starts well. I arrived at our first meeting with a question that had been forming in my head for a little time: how can I be a good elder? As a veteran, a senior and highly experienced strategic designer/facilitator/creative how might I act and focus on this next stage of my life, especially if I want to add something? This first session was the unpacking of that question.
As a friend recently said: anything you do is your twenties is cool and if its not cool, then its easily ironic. At later years what you do can so easily be only dull…
Photo of Malizah by Ellie Pipe
So, meet Malizah, the poet, millennial specialist, writer and deliverer of thrilling rhythms, and hypnotic precision workings that open up emotions you never knew you had. If you see her work, you can see and feel just how much emotional and life intelligence she brings to her work and performance.
Its interesting that there are so many kinds of elders. Above: https://flickr.com/photos/rashidasimmons/
Starting with what we thought an elder is or does, she told me her version — of the person in church who passes you a treat, or opens up new things. I had only a tiny inkling of what I meant, and with a much clear image of myself in the past — passionate, challenging, tricksterish, and now and the future with less clarity. In my mind, elders are much older than me, frail or wise, receiving care, or handing out treasures, usually still and highly ponderous. All of the great cultures treat their elders with respect, and have clear roles for them. What version of this would work for me, and what relationship to the sense of future responsibility I have? In or conversation together we walked through how an elder acts with care, and guidance where appropriate — a presence to that supports younger people to be seen, and to open up how they might make the value they bring tangible.
Here is another that I know well.
Our second meeting focused on a new sub-question: How can I make space for others, and when should I get out of the way? We moved through my role now to challenge and stand for those not represented (yet) in spaces where I operate. We spoke about building and setting up new opportunities. By session three we dug into authenticity and genuineness in how I conduct myself, clarifying the internal indicators we all have through self-sensing when it is and is not genuine. And we do know the difference if we stop for a moment. We shared how to be mindful of how we might come across, and to check for that. We discussed how accessibility for others not like us is directly connected to their expectations ( from our instructions and communications) as to what is going to happen, what they need to do to be a part of something, and what they feel they can and can’t do.
We ended these four sessions by landing the idea of an elder as supporting others’ sense of self and their worthiness. By making opportunities for them and finding new ways to support them with small and accessible ways of sharing hard-won experiences in stories and sharing in spaces where they are.
Just a little time with the Poet. She opened up a space for me, just as I do for others in my work and so rarely get a chance to do for my self. This was a precious gift, that I am very grateful for and has catalysed lots of small changes and new thinking. Our Upstarter micro fund (below) is the first of these. | https://medium.com/@gillwildman/mentoring-for-the-future-in-reverse-c7292d5f8f8f | ['Gill Wildman'] | 2021-09-07 11:05:33.421000+00:00 | ['Young People', 'Founders', 'Strategic Design', 'Desinger', 'Mentoring'] |
A Pigeon Crashed My Writing Group. Literally. | A Pigeon Crashed My Writing Group. Literally.
And this was somehow even weirder than it sounds.
On Monday night, in the middle of my writing workshop, a perfectly healthy-looking bird fell right out of the sky. Or maybe off a tree, a power cable, or a rooftop. But wherever it fell from, the poor thing thwacked to the ground HARD. It lay there on its back, flapping its wings in weak little jerks. We all looked on in horror. The workshop leader was closest to the scene of the misfortune, though her back was turned; so she didn’t see the bird until after it had made its crash landing. In fact, she was so close that, just a meter or two closer, the pigeon could have fallen onto her head.
The weird thing is, this happened mere moments after the table had done an activity wherein the organizer of the workshop had tasked us with “killing each other’s monsters.” The monsters of fear and doubt that keep us small and keep us silent. Keep us from soaring.
And then, like some weird collateral damage within the orbit of all our slaying, a bird dropping from the sky. (#notamonster)
Two women next to me, trying to lighten the mood, turned to me and joked, “You did this! You were just talking about weird coincidences” (because the three of us had been talking about writing magic realism, and I mentioned how the genre sort of blends with my actual life). I appreciated their attempts at humor, but, (a) thankfully, I hold no power over such things (nor would I want to), and (b) bizarre though it may be, is a bird’s stone-cold drop from a summer sky truly a “coincidence?”
I felt just as stunned and awkward as I’m assuming they did, and I mused aloud, “Hm, a lot of ‘killing’ energy right here at our table, and a bird plummets to the ground.” (Though to be fair, the “killing each other’s monsters” activity was all about compassion and encouragement. For instance, I tried to encourage the friend whose “monster” I was supposed to “kill” to embrace her fears with non-judgment and kindness; and to root, in moments of anxiety and self-doubt, in love. To let her love be what writes, rather than her analytical mind.)
The whole situation momentarily flashed for me a mental image of something biblical, like the blood sacrifice of a bird at a temple, or the ancient concept of a scapegoat, wherein a village whispered its problems into the ear of a goat and then drove the animal out of the settlement, as if to send everyone’s problems away with it. I didn’t seriously think that we had anything to do with killing a bird, nor that this pigeon-crash had materialized as any kind of sacrifice, but it was just such a strange sequence of events…
Then, after a few seemingly interminable moments, the bird did the unthinkable: it righted itself. As in, it somehow flipped itself over onto its little orange feet.
And then it just stood there.
… And then it took a few steps and hung out on the sidewalk, going nowhere. Yet.
We were expecting none of this: obviously, not that it would crash to the ground without reason, but much less that it would live, that it could flip itself over, that it could walk. I asked someone for the saucer under her espresso cup, and I carried it toward the bird to pour some of my water into the dish; maybe the bird was drunk. Alcoholic berries happen. Birds get plastered. Water helps. But the pigeon didn’t seem to want the drink and moved further across the sidewalk to get away from me when I slid the tasty(/tasteless) beverage toward it. I left the dish near a planter and went back to the table. The group resumed — now (as per the pre-written agenda) on the topic of trauma.
Which I guess is also weird.
Weirder still, though, perhaps, was that the final activity of the evening involved blacking out lines of poetry on our worksheets. One of these poems was “Caged Bird.”
I played with this one without really thinking about it, trimming it down to:
The free bird
floats downstream
till the current
dips his wings
in the
sky.
I liked this pseudo-new creation. It spoke of the liberating serendipity that a zen approach to life can sometimes unlock: go with the flow, no flapping or struggling, and eventually the cosmic current just might flip things around and you’ll end up borne up. Flying.
It wasn’t until last night though that I decided to look up the fuller poem. (No, I cannot remember having read it in its entirety before. Yes, I REALLY need to read Maya Angelou.) That’s when a deeper irony hit me:
Here we were, trying to put each other’s self-limiting, self-silencing fears to rest. Trying to help “free” one another… when a bird, who should have been enjoying the freedom of its birthright to soar, abruptly, for no discernible reason, tumbled to the ground, and we had all gasped and cringed at the prospect of… what if that was the end? So abrupt and without warning?
… and then this poem, already written into our evening in advance, with the lines that remained just out of view: about dreams that have all but died, of “things unknown but longed for still” by a bird who can no longer fly… yet who “opens his throat to sing” all the same.
Too many feels.
I don’t really know what to make of this. Like so many of the weird Synergisms of the Random that life seems fond of concocting, I guess there are a bunch of ways of reading this:
It was purely a coincidence. *(tl;dr: this entire post was a waste — jk!)
or
Maybe we had killed it, with our words and intentions.
But I don’t believe that. Not for a second. The work of liberation is the work of love. Love does not harm. And anyway, humans do not control the fates such that they can pluck a bird from a summer sky with the mere power of their thoughts.
AND anyway, the creature didn’t die; it flipped its situation around and walked it off, taking plenty of time to rest.
Perhaps this pigeon’s fall was previously-scheduled and the universe simply made sure that, whenever the big moment came, it would crash-land right next to our table full of women afraid to sing and to soar. What if the bird’s quick drop was a reminder to us all about our own mortality, or even the mortality of the various sorts of life circumstances that can support our dreams? So maybe the message is write, write now, don’t wait, because you don’t know when you will run out of chances.
BUT — the bird SURVIVED.
While we’d moved on from focusing on our fears about pursuing our dreams and we played silently with a poem about the grounded bird who laments the supposed death of its own dreams and yet sings all the same… this creature found some way to right itself. Kind of like it showed up to say, “Check out this trick!”
So maybe that’s the message. That we should remember it’s never too late. Like a bird can crash from the sky and get a second chance, we can pull ourselves together, no matter how hard the “ow,” and reach for another chance too. And this absolutely applies to our dreams.
In the mean time, damnit, we should SING. We might not be flying just yet, or we might need some recovery time before we’re flying again — but we never lost the ability to sing, did we?
The final stanza of Maya Angelou’s phenomenal poem *(full poem here): | https://lmrosell.medium.com/a-pigeon-literally-crashed-my-writing-group-148cf332583d | ['Laura Rosell'] | 2018-08-08 13:57:51.743000+00:00 | ['Synchronicity', 'Weird', 'Writing', 'Thoughts', 'Life'] |
Healthy optimism vs false optimism | Question from the Internet:
“What is the difference between false optimism and healthy optimism?”
Healthy optimism is based on having a very clear goal, purpose, and having the purposeful, practical method that can lead o that goal, purpose, together with other, fully committed people who are aiming for, working for the same goal, purpose.
Falso optimism lacks the ingredients listed above. | https://medium.com/@samechphoto/healthy-optimism-vs-false-optimism-64f88f12e9a4 | ['Zsolt Hermann'] | 2020-12-24 20:48:22.890000+00:00 | ['Connection', 'Confidence', 'Purpose', 'Optimism', 'Goals'] |
Discover the Balance of Your Imbalance | SPIRITUAL TREE PROMPT
Discover the Balance of Your Imbalance
Learn from your imperfections
Your imperfections Mentor tutor instructing Equilibrium
Francine Fallara, 2020
In response to Simran Kankas weekly prompt ‘Learning’ for Spiritual Tree
I am supporting the wonderful initiative of Share The Love Issue 3 by Martin Rushton #seenonstl.
For each poem I write, I will post someone else’s poem.
Listen O Soul! Spread Thy Glorious Wings And Soar High — A Poem by rtam. | https://medium.com/spiritual-tree/discover-the-balance-of-your-imbalance-10d37bc01a88 | ['Francine Fallara'] | 2020-06-14 09:46:01.115000+00:00 | ['Haiku', 'Life Lessons', 'Culture', 'Poetry', 'Art'] |
Misgendering hurts, no matter who you are. | When someone acts like they know your gender better than you know your own gender or lack of gender, they are misgendering you.
Misgendering goes beyond ignoring, questioning, or forcibly replacing our names, the pronouns we use, or how we choose among words like male, female, other, or n/a, because gender is more complex than labels. Misgendering goes beyond mistaking us for a man or mistaking us for a woman. Misgendering can include these things, yes, but misgendering can also happen on unspoken levels, even without words.
For gender-nonconforming, gendervague, agender, and some genderqueer folks, for example, our names and our pronouns and the boxes we check may have little to nothing to do with gender. We may not experience gender at all. There are nonetheless many deeply toxic ways that people push an unsuitable gender on us. This kind of misgendering can include being shamed, being mischaracterized, or being punished for how we communicate, what we enjoy, how we think, how we spend our time, what we are good at, who we are attracted to, or how we wield personal power, based on how other people perceive what our genders should be. It cuts deep.
Sometimes people set aside these experiences as being less serious than misgendering over identity labels or pronouns. Sometimes people say these experiences are "only minor issues with gender presentation" rather than "actual gender identity." I disagree. Who we are is not only about words. Who we are is also composed of our practice and our lived experience.
When people push unwanted gendered stuff on us, whether that stuff is unwanted gendered pronouns or unwanted gendered clothing or unwanted gendered activities or unwanted gendered names or anything else, none of it is okay. Whether we are trans or not, and whether or not we kept the pronouns and sex assigned at birth, if it is gendered and it is being pushed on us against our wishes, it is misgendering, and it needs to stop. | https://medium.com/@charlottelumae/misgendering-hurts-no-matter-who-you-are-59c0810743df | ['Charlotte Lumae'] | 2021-02-17 02:15:04.818000+00:00 | ['Gender Equality', 'Sex', 'Gender', 'Social Justice', 'Feminism'] |
Chromecast com setup | Chromecast setup on pc,windows or android tv | The common problem with the device we are discussing here is related to the setup. Many people have posting issues related to Chrome cast setup, which has also raised the eyebrows of the company. People have complained that when they insert the device into the TV, they can’t see anything on the screen, as if the TV hasn’t picked anything. The orange light blinks, but there is nothing that could be found on the screen.
People have tried finding the resolution at www Chromecast com setup, but no success. It has been really hard for the people to live with such an issue where they can’t do anything because nothing can be seen on the TV screen.
The common problem with the device we are discussing here is related to the setup. Many people have posting issues related to Chrome cast setup, which has also raised the eyebrows of the company. People have complained that when they insert the device into the TV, they can’t see anything on the screen, as if the TV hasn’t picked anything. The orange light blinks, but there is nothing that could be found on the screen.
People have tried finding the resolution at www Chromecast com setup, but no success. It has been really hard for the people to live with such an issue where they can’t do anything because nothing can be seen on the TV screen.
Plug in Google Chromecast to your HD or Smart TV (as most people have these). The device will get power from the TV through the HDMI port where you attach the device. If that doesn’t happen, then you can use a power adapter in order to start the device.
The next step is to go to www.cast.google.com/chromecast/setup in order to download the Chromecast app. Once you have downloaded it, then you need to install and launch it.
After that, click continue and move ahead with the step process.
You need to select the right Wi-Fi network in order to use your Chromecast. Enter the password and give a name to the network.
That concludes the Google Chromecast setup, and you are ready to cast.
In case, you come across any issue, you have the privilege to get the best Chromecast help. There are many companies that offer a comprehensive support for Google Chromecast. You can just call 866–217–4179 at one of the Chromecast support and get the right assistance regarding your issue. | https://medium.com/@richardhuerta/chromecast-com-setup-chromecast-setup-on-pc-windows-or-android-tv-1ab0949c0fa5 | ['Richard Huerta'] | 2019-08-06 12:19:49.150000+00:00 | ['Google Chromecast Setup', 'Chromecast Setup On Tv', 'Chromecast', 'Chromecast Com Setup', 'Chromecast Setup'] |
We’ve updated our submission guidelines | We know the new year is coming up, but we didn’t want to wait to make changes. We’ve made some updates to our submission guidelines that will be important for all of our contributors. Here are the highlights:
Subject matter
Previously, all content needed to be consistent in either inspiring or educating our audience within the writing or general creative industry. We have broadened this scope to include stories of emotional tales or situations that you have experienced. It doesn’t have to be specifically about creativity, but it must be personal in describing your emotional condition.
How to submit
If you are new to CRY and not already one of our writers, we ask that you email your draft to [email protected]. Please make sure it is a draft within Medium and not already published.
To send a draft, simply click on the three dots beside “publish” on the top right corner of your story. You will then have the option to copy and paste the link which you can then email to the above address.
If you’re already a writer for CRY, simply submit your story in draft form. If you have not heard back from us within three days, it means we will not be publishing your piece.
No more writing prompts
We’ve made a name for ourselves with our regular writing prompts, but we’re giving that a bit of a rest, at least for this upcoming year. Instead, submissions will be open all year round. Feel free to submit whatever you like as long as it fits with what we’ve described in the subject matter heading. | https://medium.com/cry-mag/weve-updated-our-submission-guidelines-7c117ae849b7 | ['Kern Carter'] | 2020-12-14 12:02:40.875000+00:00 | ['Newsletter', 'Writing'] |
Dear Writers, We need fat characters | Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
In this world of representation matters, too often fat characters are left off the table. Or, when they are included, they’re the butt of jokes or the ‘heavy’ (pun intended) of a piece. They’re obsessed with weight loss or making fun of themselves with the same fat jokes that have been used to tear fat people down. They’re often never the main character, much less the romantic lead of any story. Their only acceptance is shown when they’re able to do the miraculous feat of losing weight.
We have to do better.
And we are, slightly. I grew up in the days of Fat Albert and Homer Simpson and Judy Blume’s Blubber — characters who are shown as fat and lazy or comedic. Or, as in Blume’s case, characters we aren’t even shown at all other than through the perspective of an outsider. The reader is never given the opportunity to experience the bullying that Linda endures nor the judgment of life in a larger body firsthand.
When the show This is Us premiered, I was so excited. Finally, a drama that would not only show, but would feature, a fat woman — except my excitement didn’t last very long as it was soon understood that Kate’s purpose on that show was to exist as the stereotype of a fat woman. She would portray the self-loathing, diet obsessed version of herself that society wants us to be. I wanted a role model, I suppose, and instead I got more diet culture wrapped in a fat package. (Disclaimer: I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch the show after the first half of season one, so if someone claims that she has changed and is now accepting of herself as she is, then that’s great. With as much fatphobia that was wrapped in the first 6 episodes, I can’t see that happening, but it could.)
But, this article isn’t about me, not really. It’s more about the girls that I teach, or even the ones I’m raising, whose bodies come in different shapes and sizes and colors and orientations. These girls all deserve to see themselves in books. And they deserve to see real, breathing, living characters.
Just as you wouldn’t put a person of color in your book and have their skin tone be their only focus, or just as you wouldn’t put an lgbtqia+ character in your book and have that be their defining character, neither should your fat characters be only fat.
So, let me help you out with a few points about your fat characters:
Make them real people who live in larger bodies. If they’re the butt of a joke, make it central to the plot. Make it mean something. Don’t just put in fat jokes for the laughs. They’re not funny.
If they’re dieting, make it central to the plot. And make it realistic. But, please, don’t make the diet the entire plot. We’re fed enough ‘weight loss success’ fiction through diet culture. It doesn’t have to be in our actual fiction as well.
Your fat character isn’t fat solely because they overeat. It’s always more complex than that. Be careful of showing binging episodes and make sure that, if you do show them, you’re treating your character with absolute respect. Binges are generally triggered by some sort of trauma (for everybody) and if you want to show that, then you need to go deep and show that.
Your fat character isn’t comic relief. I get it. Fat Amy from Pitch Perfect is hilarious. Rebel Wilson is an incredibly funny person. But not every fat person is a comedian. Not every fat person wants to be. Honor that in your stories about them.
Your fat character deserves a real storyline with a real love interest who doesn’t treat them like a participation trophy. Romance writers, I’m looking at you now. Give your characters some girth and show us what real love looks like among people of size. Not ever heroine needs a 23 inch waist. Not every hero has a sculpted torso. Variety is good.
MG and YA writers — it’s so, so, so very important for you to include characters of varying sizes in your novel. Our kids are bombarded by diet culture messages before they ever have the opportunity to understand what they are even seeing or hearing. They all need role models that look, sound, and think like them — including the ones with the rounder tummies.
Your fat character can be an athlete. Being athletic doesn’t automatically mean svelte. I don’t know how many of you are fans of softball — namely college softball — but the college world series just wrapped up. As a mom of a softball athlete, we watched — a lot. Those women are a prime example of the various shapes and sizes and heights and skin tones that athletes come in. Outside of the uniform, it’s easy to judge many of them as being out of shape. But, inside the uniform, there is no doubt. It’s only our stereotypes that allow us to misjudge. So, don’t do that to your characters. Let them be athletic if that’s who they are and don’t feel the need to make your athlete thin.
And, finally, your fat character’s story should not solely focus around the idea that they are fat. As a fat teenager, I knew that I was fat. I knew that I didn’t fit the mold of what society deems acceptable. I still don’t, and I am still aware of my size. But I also liked to play volleyball and softball and read books and hang out with my friends on the weekends. I worked and I studied and I lived my life. Your characters should do all those things, too. And, if you can find a way to show your fat character dealing with the struggles of being fat while living their life, you’ve hit gold, my friend, and I look forward to reading your story.
This list isn’t extensive by any means. I’m sure there are some big things I forgot. I’m sure there are even some things I got wrong. The point that I want to make in this piece, however, is this — fat people are people who deserve love and respect and that goes for your fat characters, too. Fat is a descriptor of a body size, not a judgment against a person. Let’s remember that as we write our characters into a more diverse world.
Happy writing! | https://brandymontgomery.medium.com/dear-writers-we-need-fat-characters-3c5af59929a8 | ['Brandy Montgomery'] | 2019-06-06 23:26:01.361000+00:00 | ['Fat', 'Writing', 'Body Positive', 'Creative Writing', 'Writing Tips'] |
Christmas without a home in Sutton, London | Hundreds of households in Sutton are at risk of homelessness, according to recent statistics published by the government. Homelessness means not having a home, and whilst this is often associated with living on the streets (‘sleeping rough’), according to the homelessness charity Shelter, being homeless can also include staying with friends and family, in a hostel or bed and breakfast, or being at risk of violence or abuse in the home (known as ‘homeless at home’). Reasons for becoming homeless could be financial or social. People can become homeless due to eviction by a landlord, splitting up with a partner, the loss of a job, or family or friends asking the person to leave. Big cities such as London also tend to have higher rates of homelessness. The Covid-19 pandemic is also adding to financial hardship and it could have a knock-on effect.
In the financial year 2019–2020, 871 households in Sutton were considered to be owed a duty from Sutton Council under new legislation, the Homelessness Reduction Act, to prevent homelessness or to provide relief from homelessness. Around 5 households per 1000 in Sutton were assessed as being under a threat of homelessness. The reasons for threatened homelessness included a change in personal circumstances, a landlord wishing to sell or re-let the property and family or friends no longer willing or able to accommodate them. Other reasons include a relationship breakdown with a partner, domestic abuse and the end of a private or social rented tenancy. Typically these situations lead to financial hardship. In 2018 Shelter placed Sutton in the top 50 local authorities for homelessness in England, at 35th in the national ranking.
The Homelessness Reduction Act, which came into force in April 2018, imposes new duties upon local housing authorities to prevent homelessness and to provide relief measures to those who are homeless. The new legislation includes single adult households, who were not previously afforded protection as a priority need under the Housing Act 1996. This has resulted in a rise in single adult households receiving local authority assistance. These households are most likely to seek relief assistance when they are already homeless, whilst households with children are more likely to seek prevention assistance at an earlier stage, before homelessness. If a household is considered ineligible by the council or if they disagree with aspects of a decision, a person may ask for a review of the decision within 21 days of being notified. The decision will then be reviewed by a senior officer who was not involved in the original decision.
There are currently around 1600 households in Sutton on the waiting list for council or housing association accommodation. The council makes clear that homeless people are unlikely to be placed in council housing due to the long waiting list. Instead those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness will be assessed by the council and assigned a caseworker. The caseworker will draw up a personalised housing plan to prevent homelessness or assist in finding new accommodation. This can include liaising with a landlord to resolve issues, contacting family or friends for temporary accommodation and assistance in finding employment or privately rented accommodation. The caseworker can also assist the person in making a claim for benefits or discretionary housing payments. They may be placed by the council into temporary accommodation, although the availability for this is limited.
With a long waiting list for council housing, temporary measures will only delay the problem. This is why charities such as Shelter are calling for a ‘New Homes Rescue Fund’ to build 50,000 social homes, particularly as the pandemic exacerbates the situation. Sutton Council, in its Homelessness Strategy 2020 report, noted that there was a ‘rehousing shortfall’, admitting that there was ‘insufficient housing to discharge the main homelessness duty’. This is the reason for the temporary accommodation measures, which currently provide homes to 700 households, possibly rising to 1,200 households in three years’ time. Sutton Council has stated in the report an objective of increasing council housing stock as well as working with private sector landlords to increase the amount of properties available in the borough, as well as reducing the reliance on temporary accommodation. Sutton Council has a programme of buying back ex-council stock and has returned over 100 properties through this programme. The council is currently looking at a new acquisition programme to increase social housing stock. It primarily deals with homelessness and housing advice though its trading company Encompass, and this year its total budgeted spend was over £2.5m.
In response to the increasing homelessness figures, Sutton Council has commissioned the charity St Mungo’s to assist people in Sutton experiencing homelessness. The three year contract, awarded in 2019, is worth £2.8 million and will provide services including housing and a tenancy support service. It will particularly assist single vulnerable adults who were considered at risk. Councillor Jayne McCoy said:
‘St Mungo’s will help us make sure single, vulnerable adults can continue to live independently. Increasing rents, low incomes, changes to the welfare system and personal challenges mean more vulnerable people face eviction. We’re ambitious for all Sutton’s residents, whatever their situation, and working with St Mungo’s will help us provide the employment, education and training support our most vulnerable residents need.’
Properties across 40 sites in Sutton will be included in this programme.
Sutton Night Watch, a homelessness charity in Wallington, has recently teamed up with the clothing brand Phase Eight to launch a new clothes outlet to generate income for the charity as they face challenging times, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The charity is currently handing out food parcels and attending local boot sales and fairs to raise funds. During the pandemic a local costume maker, Heather Filby, is donating money from face mask sales to Sutton Night Watch. However, the charity has seen its opening hours cut back during the pandemic and many homeless people have found themselves slipping through the cracks during this time. Fundraising events by the charity have been cancelled or scaled back, and donated items have had to be quarantined.
Sutton is also benefitting from the work of the charity Caysh, an organisation that specifically assists young people aged 16–21 who are often facing homelessness. It operates services in Sutton, as well as in Bromley, Croydon, Royal Greenwich and Lewisham. The charity works through a referral system, with referrals coming from local authorities. In Sutton its youth homelessness pathway can be accessed through the housing centre at Sutton Civic Centre. They offer lodgings, a housing pathway, and advice and support to help young people to live independently.
The implementation of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 should go some way to alleviating the homelessness problem through its preventative and relief measures. Compared to inner city London boroughs such as Lambeth, Hackney or Tower Hamlets, the homelessness rate for Sutton is considerably lower. However, the rate for Sutton is higher than some boroughs outside of London. Homelessness in Sutton is very much a live issue, and the borough still has some way to go. The new St Mungo’s contract and the ongoing work of charities in the area are contributing towards the reduction of homelessness. However, many homes are living precariously at the edge of homelessness with tenancy issues, unable to make the rent. This Christmas, spare a thought for those hundreds of households in Sutton who are teetering on the edge of homelessness. | https://medium.com/@leilazerai/christmas-without-a-home-in-sutton-london-148c8a418f29 | ['Leila Zerai'] | 2020-12-21 20:14:16.856000+00:00 | ['Housing', 'Homelessness', 'Sutton', 'Homeless'] |
God Is Not a Misogynist | A misogynist is a person who hates, dislikes, or mistrusts women; or a person whose views are shaped by ingrained and institutionalized prejudice against women¹. Why would a loving God be perceived as such? We’ll look at two of the most controversial scriptures about women in the Old Testament that make it appear so².
In Deuteronomy 21:10–14, God gave these guidelines on how to treat captured females from the spoils of war:
When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her. (NIV)
Compare this law to what warriors in those times actually did: This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not relent. Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend his borders,” (Amos 1:13).
On the surface, the scripture in Deuteronomy looks like God handing out a “license to kill” in the exploitation of women and their rights. A closer look, however, shows that God was actually providing a merciful, more humane way of treating a woman who found herself in such a situation. The general laws in those times allowed men to forcibly take any female they desired and to do whatever they wished with them. This was not to be so for an Israelite man at war! You had to bring her home, give her time for grief, and then make her your wife. If you changed your mind after you had married her, you were to treat her like any other Israelite woman who gets divorced-leave her to go. She was not to be sold as a slave. In fact, it was so different from what was done in those times that it set the Israelites apart because it was radical.
The second passage, Numbers 5:11–31, describes the test for an unfaithful wife (with or without evidence). It was quite shocking when I first read it! This text reflects a trial by ordeal concept of the laws in those times, where some gruesome treatment was carried out to prove guilt/innocence. In the main law of that era-the Code of Hammurabi, the accused was thrown into a river called God’s river³. If she drowned that would be a sign of guilt; but if she survived, she was innocent. This Old Testament version of this trial by ordeal, makes the accused woman drink a mix of holy water, dust and non-toxic ink. By doing so, God rendered this case outside of human judgement. If the woman was found innocent, she was cleared of all charges and blessed with children (a symbol of honor then) (v.28). If she was guilty, “the woman shall bear her iniquity” (v. 31).
God’s law in the Numbers passage actually worked to curb the potential abuse of power by a suspicious husband. It prevented his possible aggression against his wife within an ancient near-Eastern world where men often abused their authority. So while misogyny may have factored into a man’s particular suspicion of his wife, and may have factored in the enactment of this ritual, the law itself restrained this kind of misogyny and prohibited a man from taking matters into his own hands³. Also, in their honor-shame culture, the innocent woman’s shame at having to go through such an embarrassing process in the first place, may have brought indirect disapproval of the man’s suspicion¹. I think this was a deterrent in itself, so unless a man was almost convinced his wife had been unfaithful, he was better off letting it go than experiencing his version of shame.
Some may find this unsatisfactory. They may retort, “Why does God not do away with these mistreatment of women entirely?” “Isn’t this giving God credit for a more humane way of treating women unequally when the goal is equal treatment of women”? These are valid criticisms and I will explore them in more detail in subsequent articles. The point of this article is that, when seen in the context of the existing traditions of those times, the Old Testament laws appear the handiwork of someone (God) who is actually pro-women.
*For more on the Old Testament time period (Ancient Near Eastern times) and the Code of Hammurabi, see my article: https://awowusu.medium.com/history-old-testament-laws-c2dcccc95455
References | https://medium.com/@awowusu/god-is-not-a-misogynist-c28557c057b5 | ['Awo Wusu'] | 2021-04-26 02:09:51.860000+00:00 | ['Bible Old Testament', 'Old Testament Laws', 'God', 'Misogyny', 'Old Testament'] |
The real reason this elephant chart is terrifying | It’s been called the “elephant graph”: starting low at the tail on the left, gradually rising up to the top of the elephant’s head, sliding down his face and then back up as if he were raising his trunk proudly.
Source: Lakner and Milanovic, 2015
What it’s charting is global cumulative real income growth during the 20-year period from 1988 to 2008: how much people’s income has gone up or down, at every percentile, around the world. It was created by Branko Milanovic, Visiting Presidential Professor, Graduate Center, City University of New York and Senior Scholar, Luxembourg Income Center, and and Christoph Lakner, an Economist in the Development Research Group (Poverty & Inequality team) at the World Bank. Here’s Milanovic’s commentary on it.
As Milanovic says, there are three points on this chart that are particularly interesting: the tip of the trunk, the high point at the elephant’s head, and the dip in between.
Let’s start with the tip of the trunk. This is the global 1%, and they’re doing pretty well. If you were rich to begin with, you’ve gotten richer — your income’s gone up by more than 60% over those two decades. No surprises there.
The top of the elephant’s head, around the 50–60th percentiles, is also a happy story. Those are the jobs created by the industrialization of China and India, where people went from nothing per day to a little better than nothing per day: a huge increase in percentage terms.
It’s reflective of good news from other sources: the number of people living in absolute poverty has dropped by more than half over this period, hitting the Millenium Development Goal 5 years ahead of schedule. In May, the COO of the World Bank noted that, “For the first time in history, the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen below 10%.”
To be fair, this doesn’t necessarily mean these folks are getting rich. As Milanovic points out, “Chinese and Indian GDP per capita has increased by 5.6 and 2.3 times, respectively, over the period… [but the] people around the global median are, however, still relatively poor by Western standards. This emerging ‘global middle class’ is composed of individuals with household per capita incomes of between 5 and 15 international dollars per day.” (Emphasis mine.)
OK, so better off than they were. But still working for what we in the West would consider slave wages.
Let’s move on to where the trunk dips. The 75–90th percentiles. Those are basically poor people in rich countries, and they’re not looking too good.
Sure, if you’re on minimum wage in Poughkeepsie you’re better off than someone in Bombay pulling in less than 50 bucks a week. But your income is growing much more slowly than the rest of the world. In some cases it’s barely holding steady, and in some cases it’s actually going down in real terms. In every case it’s going down relative to those around you.
That this should be the case is also somewhat unsurprising. In a piece published in 2012 Andrew McAfee showed that, after more than 30 years of wages and productivity increasing in lockstep, they began to diverge in the early 1980s. By 2011, while productivity and GDP continued to climb — even factoring in the dip from the GFC — median household income and private employment were both on the decrease.
Sources: Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Andrew McAfee
So the fact that GDP in the US, for example, went up over the 20-year period in the elephant graph doesn’t mean that wages went up, or that workers are better off. They did not, and they are not.
This is the hollowing out of the American middle class. This is the shift from labor to capital. And this, I believe, is the source of a significant amount of global discontent: where phenomena like Brexit and Sanders and Trump find fertile ground.
But this is also not the only reason we should be concerned. | https://medium.com/newco/the-real-reason-this-elephant-chart-is-terrifying-421e34cc4aa6 | ['Kaila Colbin'] | 2016-08-29 17:59:52.165000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Economics', 'Anthro', 'Singularity University', 'Unemployment'] |
Absolute Backstory | Star Trek: Picard, “Absolute Candor”
The best part of this episode.
“Dear Spock” will hopefully be a weekly recap of Star Trek: Picard, bookended by two longer review essays at LARB. You can read the first one of those, here. The rest are on my Medium. Spoilers, ahoy!
Dear Spock,
I truly did not anticipate that the best thing about Picard, four episodes in, would continue to be Patrick Stewart’s outfits. They are outstanding. They are also the only standout part of a season that continues to drag its feet.
This week, we have the rare pleasure of seeing Picard in yet more backstory. 14 years ago, he took on a Romulan refugee planet dressed in what looks like a white linen, Britian-colonial-era suit complete with wide-brimmed, white cowboy hat (see above). Flash forward to the present and we see him on the same planet, which he is visiting on a (literally) galactic guilt trip — one of the few good lines of dialogue here comes from Raffi sniping that he can’t “even do a guilt trip without a starship.” Now, however, the costume designer has changed him into a black leather-and-wool outfit with tailoring that resembles a Starfleet uniform, while unsubtly suggesting a certain complexity of character. It’s a bit on the nose, but the outfit construction is gorgeous and thoughtful. Still, I do wonder why present-day Picard doesn’t have a hat.
This Romulan planet (Vashti) should by rights be a thrilling interlude — it’s a gimme for a brilliant piece of Trek-style single episode drama. For fuck’s sake, there are Romulan warrior nuns who only speak the truth. I repeat: Romulan warrior nuns. But no. We simply see another tiring interlude of people Picard has, in fact, hurt — and hurt deeply — be mad at him for five minutes of screen time before deciding to join his enterprise. By the end of the episode, all that’s happened in the present-day Picard timeline is that he’s added a member to his quest party. The new member isn’t even a warrior nun, he’s a boy Picard abandoned to go fuck off and write books about Dunkirk with his grapes. The the nuns raised the kid instead and taught him to cut peoples’ heads clean off, an enterprise of which Picard firmly disapproves.
That’s it. That’s all she wrote. 7 of 9 does tumble (literally) into the plot in the last thirty seconds, though, so maybe she’ll do something plotty next week. Or maybe we’ll get twenty minutes of her backstory.
I have some thoughts about how the show’s inability to do one-off episodes due to its (1) intensive, single-narrative arc and (2) wildly high production value & how that is what’s causing things like the Vashti plot to fall so flat, but I’ll spare you until the end of the season.
But wait, you ask. What about Soji, Dr. Fuckboy,* and the Creepy Sister? Surely THEY did something exciting?
Oh, they did. They definitely did.
Everyone’s sister wakes them up in bed by pretending to be their lover, at least on Romulus, apparently.
This week we saw Dr. Fuckboy take Soji fake-ice skating in a corridor and “plant a seed” of doubt as to her android nature in her brain. Then his sister got impatient, snuck into his quarters, and woke him up by…stroking his ear, then looming over him like a creepy, sisterly dominatrix. Very normal. Nothing else happened. And unlike the Picard narrative, no one in this present-day section can dress for shit, with the exception of Romulan Cersei Lannister and her leather pants.
I do wonder about the increasing skewering of Romuluan culture as evil because it values secrecy in this episode. It smacks of the old Trek’s subtle valuing of American cultural norms as superior. But we don’t really get into it enough in “Absolute Candor” to say.
The good news here is that the trailer for next week indicated it will be extremely costume-focused, harking back to The Next Generation’s grand, hokey tradition of holodeck episodes where everyone got to play dress-up. Here’s hoping the show can recover a sense of fun and that some shit actually happens for me to write about next week.
Live Long and Prosper,
T.S. Mendola
*credit for Dr. Fuckboy as a nom de (heh) plume here to the InterTREKtional podcast, which may be found here. | https://medium.com/@taramendola/absolute-backstory-2eb2e882be7d | ['T.S. Mendola'] | 2020-02-14 21:01:49.594000+00:00 | ['Game of Thrones', 'Star Trek', 'Feminism', 'Science Fiction', 'Television'] |
Why I chose Popeyes over the Pearl Harbor movie premier | PHAN Ron Reeves | Credit: U.S. Navy
History, His-story, or both?
The attack on Pearl Harbor seventy-nine years ago today was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 08:00, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.
Nineteen years ago I was stationed onboard the USS John C. Stennis CVN-74 homeported out of San Diego, CA. Prior to the premiere of the movie Pearl Harbor movie on its angled flight deck, we pulled up for a few days.
That kind of publicity is good for morale and recruiting if you ask me.
Liberty was on my mind however once the brow hit the pier. Between a basketball tournament at the base gym and the base pool, there was little room in between to do anything else. Except eat chicken.
Luckily next to the base pool at the time however was a brand new Popeyes. Love at first sight. While the remaining crew stayed on board to get the “Chuck Boat” prepared for the Peral Harbor movie premiere I was soaking up Hawaii at the age of 27 the best I could.
I found this stock photo in Canva. Hangar Bays of Navy aircraft carriers were often turned into basketball courts. I played on all 3 carrier courts I served on. Playing basketball at sea is an unforgettable experience. Naval Aircraft Carriers and basketball are no stranger, however. Google “Carrier Classic.”
Carrier Turns Theater
While steaming underway from San Diego to Hawaii working parties were being assembled to assist in the logistics of an event this size. More than 2,000 people, including Hawaii’s governor, Disney executives, local Navy brass, and many of the film’s stars including Ben Affleck, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Alec Baldwin.
All were invited to the gala on the 1,092-foot flight deck, where workers have erected grandstand seating in front of one the world’s largest movie screens.
How was I able to escape all that work and hit the beach? Keeping your ears to the deck plate. As a player on the ship's basketball team, my get out of jail free card was always to represent the colors of our ship proudly on the court.
This came in handy on deployments and port calls. Our CO even allowed our team to exclusively travel from San Diego by any means back to WA one year to play in the PAC-NORWEST basketball tournament. Which we won.
The USS Arizona Memorial, at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines killed on USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and commemorates the events of that day.
Do this in remembrance
Today marks a date where many who served this country in uniform lost their lives as a result of the Pearl Harbor attack. It is important that we remember them.
I took a tour of the USS Arizona memorial above while there. I felt so inspired by the experience I requested to re-enlist there. Although it was too late the memory of seeing the oil slick was enough.
It’s believed between 14,000 and 64,000 gallons of oil have leaked from the USS Arizona since the attack, and the National Park Service estimates it could continue to leak for 500 years.
In addition, other veterans are committing suicide each day. 17 a day to be exact. Due to no established health care with the VA. Due to the increased isolation restrictions with COVID-19. Due to social distancing, and lastly a spike in gun sales during the pandemic. Veterans shoot themselves 69% of the time.
How can you make a difference today? Simply follow me Barry Gipson here on Medium first. Every day I publish fresh content for veterans. Next, join my “Weekly Smoke” newsletter.
Lastly, do this in remembrance. Click your contacts list on your phone, and call that veteran you haven't heard from in years. They need to hear your voice. Give the gift of life this holiday season. Help decrease the BANG. | https://medium.com/@barrygipson/why-i-chose-popeyes-over-the-pearl-harbor-movie-premier-8a3f01389e6f | ['Barry Gipson'] | 2020-12-07 16:33:23.828000+00:00 | ['Navy', 'Pearl Harbor', 'Popeyes', 'Hollywood', 'Hawaii'] |
AdSomeNoise is looking to hire a creative media hero | We’re looking for a hero because we want to hire someone who does good to the media world. Who wants to make a difference. Fix media. Integrate buying with creative. Skills are important but attitude is king. Full description below.
AdSomeNoise is a digital campaign agency that wants to make a genuine difference for its customers. That is why we are fully committed to a different, integrated approach where media play a pivotal role. Within our plug-in method of working this will often result in collaborations with other parties that manage media; more and more often this means the advertisers themselves. We want to respond optimally to this trend so we are looking for someone who can plug in when the media side is being handled by another agency but who also possesses the insight and the knowledge to manage and oversee the process when we do it ourselves. We are looking for someone who is not afraid to get his/her hands dirty but who can also brainstorm strategically on the highest campaign level. The ultimate goal: create the best campaign possible that dovetails perfectly with the needs of the client/the brand…
Your typical Tuesday…
For AdSomeNoise, media is a growth area where we want to make additional strides in the coming months and years. This means we are looking for someone who wants to grow with us in this area and who can oversee the media side of a campaign, whether it’s being organised externally or in-house. Ideally we’d like to hire someone with several years of experience in a media agency, someone with enough experience to perform at a decent level yet still fresh enough to want to make the difference.
What we need:
Good knowledge of the media ecosystem: the market, the agencies, key players and suppliers. Good contacts with technology vendors and publishers are a major asset!
The ability to manage and upgrade the relationship with other media agencies
Motivated to gain a deeper insight and with a passion for research: you want to know everything down to the smallest detail so your next campaign will be even more successful.
Strategically skilled but with a pragmatic, hands-on attitude. You know how to design and carry out a plan but you can also tweak it if necessary.
Hands-on, you can and want to work with the tools yourself.
A feel for creation: how can we ensure the whole is more than the sum of its parts ? How can media and creation reinforce each other?
A feel for clients and their campaigns and a good sense of balance in particular. A bigger budget is not always the answer.
Being able to manage a budget.
The necessary commercial skills to help the client understand what can sometimes be a complex media component of a campaign or a sales trajectory. And — just as important — the ability to explain this properly to your colleagues in order to allow an integrated approach.
Finding the right balance between performance and branding. The best campaigns don’t need to hide behind one of those terms.
Always looking for ways to boost the relevance of individual campaigns.
KPIs are a means, not an end.
The ability to evaluate an existing plan, call it into question and make adjustments if necessary.
Interpreting results, drawing conclusions and establishing reports.
Bottom line: we are looking to recruit someone with a keen mind, common sense and a great deal of motivation to make the difference through media.
Your abilities:
Good knowledge of the Google / Doubleclick stack is very important.
A must: display advertising (DV360, premium / programmatic guaranteed, ..) and social advertising.
An asset: knowledge of adwords.
Knowledge of Analytics (Google, Moat, …)
Knowledge of tag managers and DMPs is a plus
E-commerce experience would also be interesting
AdSomeNoise boasts strong DCO skills so if you have no first-hand experience this will be your №1 priority.
Knowledge of other tech vendors, ad servers, adops lingo, … would come in handy.
Dashboards help you and others keep a finger on the pulse.
The more languages you know the better. French is not unheard of, especially in media. English is an alternative if your French is a bit rusty.
You can work independently but you are also a team player.
In short, you have to be a bit of a nerd and proud of it.
What are we offering? A hell of a ride. We are a fun company — that’s what our staff say when they ask us for a raise — but above all we have one clear and firm mission: to do better. We want to improve the industry and we support anyone who shares this goal. AdSomeNoise wants to lead by example, get its hands dirty, prove that online campaigns can be pretty damn cool… campaigns that work, that are creative and that respect instead of disturb consumers, campaigns that aim for maximum relevance.
In a restaurant you’d never ask a vegetarian if he’d like a juicy steak so why would you ask someone online to buy a pair of shoes he or she obviously doesn’t like? We have to do better as an industry and we will do better because you want to help us make the difference.
Interested?
Stop wasting time and send your resume and cover letter to Steven Verbruggen: [email protected] | https://medium.com/@minorissues/adsomenoise-is-looking-to-hire-a-creative-media-hero-11562f9af0b5 | ['Steven Verbruggen'] | 2019-06-18 07:38:57.478000+00:00 | ['Belgium', 'Advertising', 'Agency', 'Job Search', 'Digital Media'] |
Desserts is “Stressed” Spelled Backwards | Desserts is “Stressed” Spelled Backwards
Rebecca Owens, an entrepreneur with a love of ice cream, shares how to manage stress by comparing it to its opposite — dessert!
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
As a former collegiate swimmer, successful salesperson, entrepreneur, mother of 5, wife turned ex-wife, daughter, sister, friend, business partner, life partner…I always expected myself to be the best. However that can frequently result in feeling stressed. What’s the opposite of stressed? Desserts. As an ice cream lover, here are my tips for working through that stress by considering the much more favorable image of a giant bowl of ice cream with a cherry on top.
Balance. Being an entrepreneur, a mother, or any other title you claim can be as rewarding as that big bowl of ice cream, but it can also be as stressful as trying to lose the 20 pounds associated with consuming too much. Similarly, serving in that role can be thrilling, and you may seek more and devote yourself even further, which can, unfortunately, result in consequences. Personally, I felt as if I never “had enough”, never “did enough”, and quite simply “wasn’t enough”. So I filled my plate — or bowl, in this case — full of everything and anything just to prove to myself, and others, that I could be everything to everyone at all times. If that isn’t a recipe for desserts spelled backwards, well then it is a mud pie with a pig wallowing in it. Those are not realistic expectations of ones’ self. Like anything, moderation is key. Recognizing the balance of knowing when there’s too much ice cream in your bowl is equally important as knowing when you’re taking on too much, even if it means pushing past those doubts in your mind. Melting Point. There is a melting point in all of us, and I hit that point a few years ago. One hot summer weekend it was as though my bowl of ice cream was left out in the sun, sprinkled with dirt, infused with tears and then thrown against the wall. I watched my bowl of life slide to the floor, drip by drip, as “stressed” overtook my body and mind. Within a single weekend, I experienced divorce, moving from my hard earned home, intense work politics, the death of my sister, the death of the most important relationships to me, the death of friendships and loss of a lot of money. This was my own emotional pandemic that spanned every single cell of my body and left me emotionally drained. And, to top it off, I was the one who had to clean up the sticky mess. It is okay — and normal — to have bad days and to hit your melting point. It’s how you clean it up that matters. Cherry on top. There is always a cherry on top, what many of us might call a “silver lining”. Hitting that melting point is an opportunity to reflect and rebuild. “Scoop” by “scoop”, and play by play, identify the negative thoughts, and replace them with positive, tasteful, truths. For example, “I’m stupid so I better prepare more for today’s meeting,” became “I have been studying this topic for 15 years and my knowledge is greater than what is required for the conversation.” As you’re scooping, remember that there is an edge to the bowl, and once that mound piles up so high, it will inevitably topple over. Remember that lesson about balance? It applies when adding to the bowl, as well. Don’t add more than you can eat translates to don’t take on more than you can manage. Set boundaries of what you are and are not willing to accept. Eliminate things that are excessive, ask for help when needed so that the bowl of ice cream is neither too full nor too empty.
Life is a forever “build” of the bowl of ice cream. And the cherry on top? That is the peace that comes when you can allow yourself to accept the imperfect, ask for what you need to keep your bowl full and enjoy the process of building your sundae, fun day!
Rebecca Owens is a healthcare executive who has worked to advance precision medicine over the past 20 years, helping to close gaps between disparate data sources along the way. Rebecca is the President and Co-Founder of Taproot Health, a Data-as-a-Service enterprise with a unique approach to merging biomarker testing and clinical outcome data within a physician-centric business model. Rebecca’s strengths are business strategy, fundraising, marketing and operational efficiencies. Prior to joining Taproot Health, Rebecca held significant leadership, sales and marketing roles in several cancer diagnostic companies. | https://medium.com/been-there-run-that/desserts-is-stressed-spelled-backwards-28676eedeba9 | ['Springboard Enterprises'] | 2020-10-16 15:36:22.969000+00:00 | ['Stress Management Tips', 'Entrepreneur', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Women', 'Stress Management'] |
Service Classes Using Plugins in Nuxt.js | Photo by Max Bender on Unsplash
Architecting Nuxt applications might seem simple at first — you have your components, pages, and maybe a few plugins. However, as your app grows and the business logic becomes more complex, so does the size and structure of your app. It might not be apparent at first, but as more API calls or other integrations make their way into the codebase you’ll quickly realize how fast these issues can become unmanageable, whether that’s due to repeated code or a poorly designed structure, or lack thereof.
Let’s take for example API calls. Every application, from a simple todo app to a large-scale eCommerce platform requires HTTP requests to an external API, whether that’s one that you’ve built yourself or by a third party. In some situations, you’ll likely need to call the same API endpoint twice.
Continuing with the eCommerce platform, consider a feature where you need to display recommendations to a user based on their purchase or viewing history. Rather than only displaying it in one place, you might want to display the recommendations both on the homepage for maximum viewability, but also within their shopping cart to encourage them to purchase more products. These are two completely separate pages, but each needs to load the exact same content from the exact same API endpoint.
You could simply write out the full API call within each page component, and return the data using Nuxt’s asyncData function.
Sure, that works, but this only covers the recommendations page. What about the homepage? Are you going to copy and paste this code there as well? What happens if the API endpoint to retrieve recommendations changes? Are you going to find every instance of this URL and replace it with the new one?
Instead, let’s ensure that the code is DRY (a.k.a. don’t repeat yourself), one of the most important principles in software engineering for writing clean code. Rather than copy and pasting similar lines of code everywhere, we can use a concept called service classes, which will allow us to abstract away common logic, making it clean and reusable.
Plugin Injection
While neither Vue nor Nuxt are built with a dependency injection architecture in mind like Angular or other frameworks might be, there still remains a simple way to make service classes such as these available everywhere in your app, both for server-side rendering and on the client. In Nuxt, this concept is referred to as plugins. These are often used in 3rd party modules, but can be just as useful for structuring your own application logic. Specifically, we’ll want to look further into injecting properties into both the Vue instance and Nuxt app context, documented further down the page.
Injecting properties allows us to make functions or other values available in both the Vue components including lifecycle hooks, templates and methods, as well as in the Nuxt context, which can be accessed in other places such as the asyncData hook within pages, or within additional plugins.
Let’s take a quick look at the documentation’s injection example as a preview of the functionality that it can provide.
Super simple! The method is injected into every place you could need it — the Vue instance and Nuxt’s context included. Nuxt will also automatically prefix the injected method with a $ to differentiate it from first party methods. The documentation also reminds us that you’ll need to register your plugin within the plugins sections of your nuxt.config.js file.
With the plugin registered and $hello injected, let’s see how we could use it.
The $hello method is accessible everywhere, providing the exact same functionality without repeating code. Of course, $hello is quite literally a “Hello World!” function and wouldn’t be all that useful, but the possibilities it provides are endless.
One of the more useful features of the injection functionality, is that injected properties are also available in the VueX store, allowing them to be used within dispatched actions.
Again — not very useful without additional logic, but consider the functionality that it could provide, such as fetching and storing data from an API, dispatching UI notifications or handling form validation.
Service Classes
Forget a single method. Nuxt’s injection supports any type of property, not just functions or static values, but also entire classes.
Although our $hello method wasn’t all that useful, an entire logging service might be more-so.
Although it’s still simple, it provides an idea of the functionality that service classes could provide.
Before we can use the class methods, we’ll need to create an instance of the LoggingService and inject it as we did with the previous $hello function.
Simple enough. After you’ve registered your plugin in your nuxt.config.js the LoggingService will be available under the $logging property, just as $hello was, but this time providing multiple functions all encapsulated within a class.
Let’s put it to work.
Just as before, the LoggingService methods are accessible throughout the component — within the template, lifecycle hooks, or even the methods. No need to copy and paste console.log('[My App] .....') throughout your app anymore.
Service Classes & Dependencies
Arguably, simple logic such as logging could be imported as individual functions from your typical module, and that’s not necessarily wrong. However, this sort of structure becomes significantly more useful when your classes rely on other dependencies for their functionality.
Let’s return to the earlier eCommerce example, where the recommendations page needed to display a list of recommended products from an external API. In that example, we made use of the first-party @nuxt/axios module, which simplified our HTTP requests.
Just as we’ve injected $hello and $logging into the app context, Axios also injected its own $axios property, providing a pre-configured instance of the Axios client for use across components, plugins and VueX. Given that $axios is accessible in the context, we’re just as easily able to inject it into a service class via its constructor, making it accessible to all our class methods.
We’ll assume that when RecommendationsService is constructed (before we inject it), it will receive an instance of an Axios client as its only argument. For the sake of the example, we’ll also assume that getRecommendations() returns data in a format similar to the following:
/api/recommendations {
// array of recommendations
data: [
{ ... },
]
}
As usual, before we can call our service, we’ll have to inject it, this time by passing the $axios instance from the plugin’s app context.
Having seen the previous modifications to this plugin, and with an understanding of the app context, injecting the RecommendationsService should be fairly straightforward. The $axios instance is simply pulled from the context and passed to the constructor before the class instance is injected.
Before wrapping up, let’s take a quick look at this service in use, which is definitely more interesting than logging a few messages with our previous service.
Simply loading a list of recommendations and displaying them to the user, this component offers two methods for accessing the RecommendationsService — either via the asyncData hook, requiring that the data be loaded before the page renders, or via our reloadRecommendations method, which can be called by clicking the button in the template. Although each method accesses the service slightly differently, they both work all the same.
Want to display you recommendations on another page? No need to rewrite the Axios API call when you can simply refer back to the service class.
One last thing to point out about our Axios dependency within the RecommendationsService class! You could simply import Axios directly from its module, but keep in mind that doing so would create a new client with the default configuration — not including any modifications (such as a base URL) that the @nuxt/axios plugin has already configured, which are only available via the instance injected into the app context.
This might not work as you’d expect…
Just as we injected Axios — any other dependency could be injected including the VueX $store or even the $http HTTP client provided by the @nuxt/http module.
Wrapping Up
As you continue to build out your Nuxt apps, the need for decoupling logic and creating some sort of service pattern will quickly become apparent.
There’s various ways to structure such an architecture, but one of the great (but sometimes not so great!) features of Nuxt is that it’s not very opinionated, allowing you to design your app the way that works best for your use cases.
You might create a new folder for your services, or even wrap all of your API services in a single object, for example, making the recommendations and logging services accessible at app.$api.recommendations and app.$api.logging respectively to prevent polluting the context too much.
Check out the code samples here, and stay tuned for a future article covering improved API service classes, as well as TypeScript integration. | https://medium.com/swlh/service-classes-using-plugins-in-nuxt-js-32c0f387ecb9 | ['Jake Engel'] | 2020-11-20 18:39:20.702000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Vuejs', 'Nuxtjs', 'Design Patterns', 'Software Architecture'] |
How to Setup Great Bing Campaigns | If you’re like many businesses this year, you’re starting to realize that more search engines exist rather than just Google. Alternatively, you may have just realized that Bing’s small market share doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t worth an investment. Either way, you’re on our article hoping to learn more about creating great ad campaigns on the platform. Well, we’re happy to oblige!
Benefits of Advertising on Bing
Before spending any money, you’re probably wondering why you should advertise on Bing if you’re already advertising on Google. Don’t you already have the search engine niche covered? Not necessarily, and this is because Bing receives 12 billion monthly search requests from over one billion unique users.
We’ll give you a moment to process these numbers because we know they will come as quite a surprise. For many years, you’ve been told to focus on Google because all other search engines are irrelevant. In 2022, Google might have an 87% market share in the search engine niche but the 6% owned by Bing is still enough to add value to your marketing strategy.
What’s more, around one billion people use Windows 10 and Bing is the default search engine on all these devices. The internet will continually tell you that Bing’s market share is tiny compared to Google’s market share, and this is true. By ignoring Bing, however, you’re missing out on lots of opportunities.
Another benefit of advertising on Bing is that the average user enjoys a higher click-through rate compared to Google (1.25% compared to 0.86%). With less traffic, Bing advertisers have less competition, and the cost of advertising also falls.
Just in case you aren’t persuaded just yet, campaigns on Bing don’t just appear on the Bing search engine. Instead, they will also appear on Yahoo and AOL. Now, you’re reaching 10% of the search engine market with Bing and Yahoo.
Creating an Ad Campaign
Step 1 — Set Up a Microsoft Advertising Account
Before anything else, Bing Ads belongs to Microsoft Advertising, so you’ll need an account with the latter if you want to launch a campaign. Don’t worry, accounts are free, and an existing email address is good enough to get you started. If you don’t already have a Microsoft account, create a new one to start your advertising journey.
If you’ve created an account for anything online before, you shouldn’t have a problem. Just follow the on-screen instructions; Microsoft will ask for your business location and name. Also, you’ll need to agree to the Terms of Service.
Step 2 — Import Google Ads Campaigns
We didn’t include this in the list of benefits because we didn’t want to ruin the surprise, but you can import an existing Google Ads campaign directly into Bing. If you have a successful campaign on Google that you would like to recreate, this could cut your task in half. Of course, this is an optional step because you may want to start from scratch, or you may not have any Google campaigns to copy across.
If you want to import a Google campaign, click on the top menu, and then Import. From here, you’ll have the option to import from Google and log into your Google account. If you want to import the campaign as it is, click on Start Import and the process will begin. For those who want to adjust the campaign, click on ‘Customize Report’ to play around with bidding strategies and other features.
Thankfully, Bing keeps this process simple for marketers. For example, you can import up to 10 Google campaigns at once. After importing, all you need to do is check over the details and then launch the campaigns.
Step 3 — Select Keywords
Next, you’ll need to select some keywords for your campaign — an important component of any advertising strategy, as you probably know. With the wrong keywords, the campaign won’t reach the right people (we assume you want to find people looking for products of your type!).
What if you don’t have any keywords in the business? Use the Keyword Planner tool in Microsoft Advertising; you’ll find this in a list of tools on the top menu. After entering your service, name, and location, the tool will suggest a list of keywords. During this stage, you’ll learn the best keywords to target your audience as well as potential negative keywords to avoid.
When selecting keywords, refine results to learn about trends, search volumes, and cost estimates. Additionally, think about the type of people you’re trying to reach and where they are in the funnel. Are they just discovering your brand? Are they ready to spend money? Depending on where the prospect is in the funnel, they will use different keywords, and this is something on which you can capitalize.
In keyword search results, you’ll see a few different columns including click-through rate, average cost per click, clicks, and impressions. In particular, pay attention to cost per click and click-through rate because these are strong determinants of success. If you already have a favorite keyword suggestion tool, don’t be afraid to return to this tool for Bing campaigns.
Step 4 — Create the Campaign
If you didn’t import a Google campaign, you’ll have a bit more work to do during this stage. When on the Campaigns page, click on Create Campaign and you’ll be asked to choose a goal. For example, those selling products from an online catalog will seek conversions from the campaign. During this process, we find that Bing offers strong advice for all marketers.
After this, it’s all about making the final few edits and reviewing the campaign before it goes live. For instance, you can choose customized parameters to ensure that the ad falls onto the screens of the right people. Do you want to target people at specific hours of the day? What age groups would you like to target? Do you have a specific gender in mind?
Step 5 — Monitor and Optimize
We’re now on a different platform to Google, but this doesn’t give you license to drop your ad campaign and leave it to survive alone. Like all other advertising platforms, success doesn’t come freely. Instead, you’ll need to monitor performance and continually improve.
If you want to check the performance of your campaign, look at the CPC and conversion rate. While the former tells you how much you’re paying for clicks, the latter focuses on the number of people converting. While the mind might automatically jump to sales, the word ‘conversion’ refers to the desired action that you want from your audience. For example, this could be signing up for a newsletter or completing an online form too.
On Bing, all the information you need is available in your account. When reviewing your campaigns, you can also learn about impressions, clicks, spend, and various other metrics. If you’re spending more than planned, you might want to change your bidding strategy or play around with keywords.
Tips for Bing Advertising
How do you succeed with Bing advertising? Here are some top tips to finish!
Import Google Ads
Over the years, you’ve probably shed blood, sweat, and tears to get your Google ads into their current position. Bing offers the chance to avoid all this trauma, so utilize it. Rather than starting from a blank canvas, import your ads from Google and enjoy the head start. As well as saving headaches, this will save time and your campaigns are more likely to perform from much earlier.
When importing from Google, remember that you’ll need to adjust slightly for the Bing platform; this includes the bidding strategy.
Understand Your Audience
Were you really expecting an article on advertising without mentioning the knowledge of your audience? If you want to master the art of advertising on any platform, you cannot do so without advanced knowledge of your audience. The better your understanding, the easier it becomes to target, generate winning creatives, and…well, succeed.
Automate
It might seem like a short word, but it opens a world of possibilities. Using the right tool, you can integrate Bing and benefit from the artificial intelligence and machine learning models. While you focus on other tasks, this technology optimizes the different components of your ad campaign. It looks for better audiences, more optimal bidding strategies, and more effective distribution of your budget.
Optimize Targeting
A marketer’s work is never done, and this is partly because there are so many different settings to tinker with to optimize a campaign. For example, you can adjust the audience, device, geography, keywords, time of day, and so much more. In fact, Bing actually goes further than Google in this regard; we think you’ll enjoy the customization opportunities.
Quality Score and CET
Finally, two important aspects of Bing are the UET (universal event tracking) tag and quality score. Don’t forget to set up the tag to track what people do after clicking on your ad. Meanwhile, your quality score will reveal how you compare to the ads of competitors. | https://medium.com/trapica/how-to-setup-great-bing-campaigns-58d182496528 | ['Trapica Content Team'] | 2021-12-20 20:16:18.675000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Bing Ads', 'Advertising', 'Adwords', 'Facebook Marketing'] |
News Break Just Rejected Me | News Break Just Rejected Me
Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash
News Break Creator Program is the talk of the down these days in the writer fraternity. Any why not, it’s not always that you get such a lucrative offer served on a platter. With $3000 for 36 articles up for grabs and a referral bonus of $250, the proposal looked too good to be true.
The program allows reposting your previous blog or Medium content, making the entire offer feel like a cakewalk. Especially for the established writers with thousands of articles and millions of followers, this was the icing on the cake.
I initially got introduced to the News Break Creator Program through a Quora question. To check out more details, I tried to google it, but nothing much productive was available. The only information accessible was the $3000 price tag for 36 articles over three months timeline.
I decided to give it a skip, as the saying goes —
If something seems too good to be true, it probably is not true.
Over the next few days, Philip Hofmacher and Sinem Günel brought up the topic for discussion in their Facebook group “Medium Writing Academy Mastermind”, of which I was a part.
The topic caught steam, and considering Top Writers were getting enrolled in the program, it gave me confidence, and I decided to follow their trail.
I finally applied for the program on 24th November using Sinem’s referral link. I received a mail confirmation from News Break with a 5–7 days timeline for getting a final response to the application. I was confident of getting the contract as most of the group discussions mentioned that they had not seen any rejections from the company.
Now started the nervous wait. Even though we are used to most of the major publications’ two-week timeline, this wait seemed longer. Most of the newbies like me had never imagined writing for such a price tag. I started thinking of topics for those 36 all important stories that would get me my highest income as a writer to date.
Over the week, News Break was the most discussed topic on the Facebook group. The ones who got in were querying on the functionality and comparing the terms of the contract. The others sitting out like me were keenly watching the discussion to keep ourselves updated and ready for the game.
The feeling was like a runner crouched on a starting block, waiting for the gun, to start a sprint.
There was so much buzz about the program that Phillip decided to open a new group called News Break Creator Program Mastermind to segregate the discussion from the Medium group. I would have been among the first few to get into the group to avoid losing out on any action.
Five days had passed, but there was no response. The only comforting thing was that most of the group members had not received any reply. The group’s consensus was that it would result from staff absenteeism due to the holiday season. All this while, I kept monitoring my mailbox every few hours to ensure that I don’t miss the contract due to the mail dropping in the spam, as Phillip suggested.
On the sixth day, i.e., 30th November, my anxiety took the better of me, and I wrote back to News Break to inquire about my application’s status. But I didn’t hear anything from them. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/news-break-just-rejected-me-6240fdb0f822 | ['Kavish Kamat', 'Kk'] | 2020-12-12 05:26:43.214000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Failure', 'Writing', 'Rejection', 'Motivation'] |
27/03/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere | 1. Kakao Confirms Blockchain Subsidiary, But No ICO
We previously reported on internet giant Kakao Corp.’s plans to launch a blockchain subsidiary, called Ground X. It was also noted that two weeks from the release of the news, more details would be released at a press conference. It has now been confirmed by the company that a blockchain subsidiary has been established. A blockchain-based platform for application developers is currently under development, with the goal of completion by the end of the year. However, the same cannot be said about an ICO. In fact, rumours about a possible launch were debunked on the same day. Kakao Corp. hopes that the move will help the company with its expansion in Asia.
2. 6000 Stores In South Korea To Accept Crypto As Payment By June
Six thousand stores in South Korea will be accepting crypto payments by June. This is due to a partnership between crypto exchange Bithumb and local mobile payment provider Pay’s. The plan is to reach 6000 outlets by June and then expand to 8000 by the end of the year. 200 franchise brands are involved in the project. This comes following previous partnerships of Bithumb with the country’s largest hotel booking provider Yeogi Eottae, and the e-commerce platform WeMakePrice.
3. Twitter Bans Crypto Ads Days After CEO Calls Bitcoin The Currency Of The Future
A week ago we reported that the co-founder and CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, said in an interview that he believed Bitcoin would become the main currency in 10 years, even bigger than the US Dollar. However, Twitter has now confirmed the news that it will ban ads related to crypto. The ban was implemented from today, March 27, and covers Initial Coin Offerings, along with token sales. The news comes after Dorsey announced he would deal with online scams and bots on the Twitter platform, but restricted and/or suspended the wrong accounts instead.
4. Cboe Advocates For a Bitcoin Exchange-Traded-Fund (ETF)
Cboe Global Markets Exchange Operator has penned a letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) advising it not to block the development of a Bitcoin exchange-traded-fund (ETF). The letter argued that they are similar to other types of ETFs. Furthermore, Cboe President Chris Concannon stated that the current regulatory frameworks can be applied in this situation as well. The document was written following a letter by the SEC, which dates back to January 2018. The document covered the risks of manipulation, as well as concerns over the liquidity of the crypto markets. However, Cboe believes that ETFs would actually be a helpful tool, as investors would be exposed to cryptocurrencies in a clear and approachable way.
This news roundup was brought to you by BlockEx. | https://medium.com/swlh/27-03-2018-biggest-stories-in-the-cryptosphere-8cce0aee059a | [] | 2018-03-28 08:37:22.379000+00:00 | ['ICO', 'Bitcoin', 'Twitter', 'Regulation', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Active Medium Publications Organized by Topic | This article is intended to serve as a guide for Medium writers who are looking for active publications that accept new writers and new content. All these publications also have published the work of at least three different authors.
The hope is that this list will help writers identify publications that won’t waste their time and are more likely to publish the work of another writer (beside the publication owner).
In addition to creating this article, I’ve created a new publication to keep track of active publications accepting submissions, called Active Publications.
I will be adding more content to this over the coming weeks, so please follow and subscribe to Active Publications to get the most current information on active Medium Publications.
This collection of publications will not be an attempt to aggregate every publication ever created like Smedian (which I highly recommend all new writers check out). It will contain a small but actively updated list of publications that are great options for writers looking to have their work published.
This article contains a small preview of the publications that will be featured in Active Publications.
If you want to add your publication to Active Publications, read the guidelines and submit the Google form at the bottom of the page:
I’ve organized the publications by subject matter to help make them a bit easier to sort through for this article. Additional topics of publications will be added to Active Publications. However, the publications below cover a broad range of topics and are a good starting point.
Publication Topics
Section 1 — Writing / Publishing
Photo by Lauren Mancke on Unsplash
For the full and most up to date list of Writing Publications, check out the list on Active Publications:
1. The Writing Cooperative
🔗 Publication Link
✍ Editors: Sand Farnia | Justin Cox 🍩 | Jessica Jungton
✎ Publication Description:
“Our publication serves 600k page views a month and 15k unique visitors every day. Everything we publish falls within our mission statement: Helping each other write better.
✉ Article Submission Information: | https://medium.com/blogging-guide/active-medium-publications-organized-by-topic-c39bcc80a329 | ['Casey Botticello'] | 2020-07-10 03:06:50.459000+00:00 | ['Medium', 'Tags', 'Topic', 'Submission Guidelines', 'Publication'] |
Burnout of a Graduate Student | Burnout. A word that all graduate students know regardless of their area of study. This experience occurs when one’s mental, physical, and emotional abilities have been exhausted.
It is kind of ironic (and telling) that students in a doctoral psychology program suffer from burnout given that we are supposed to be “experts” on mental health and self-care. “You’re studying psychology what do you mean you’re having a break down, don’t you know how to fix yourself?” is often a sentiment thrown around by those who are confused as to why we sometimes burst into tears at the slightest inconvenience. However, as myself and my colleagues know, the entity of burnout spares no one.
Where does this burnout come from you ask? It is often a combination of program requirements, money difficulties, and a lack of free time. Sometimes it feels like you are working four jobs at once. You have your regular course load then practicum hours then dissertation work then your actual job that you need to feed and clothe yourself. In the few hours you actually have to yourself, you often find yourself catching up on homework or working at your job. | https://medium.com/@hleckonby/burnout-of-a-graduate-student-dba9d3c579be | ['Hunter Leckonby'] | 2020-12-27 19:25:40.132000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'College', 'Stress', 'Burnout'] |
You Really Should, Because It Really Could, And You Definitely Would | “I should have been there by now. I should have done that by now. I should have found him by now. I should have it all figured out by now. I could have figured it out if only I hadn’t… I would have it all if only I didn’t…” As a child, teenager and a young adult, I never really played ‘coulda shoulda woulda’. Life happened. Things fell into place. As your average but privileged child, I can probably count the number of times I had to lift a finger on my fingers. My seemingly sturdy but actually flimsy bubble made me feel like this is how the rest of my life would roll. Until now.
As a woman in her ‘late 20’s’, I think I’m finally growing up because I’ve stopped getting jaded by all the exhilaratingly happy possibilities that have slipped away. Between the backaches, headaches and heartache, I have begun noticing how my timeline has not added up to the one I had in mind. I should have finished school. I should have been in a nauseatingly happy relationship. I should not have developed anxiety. But it has also made me realise that maybe this timeline wasn’t mine — it was given to me. By the things I watched, the books I read and the standards that the world set. The more “congratulations!” I send out for engagements, weddings and babies, the more I feel like I’m running out of time. But the only reason I feel like I’m losing is because I’m playing by someone else’s rules. How could I possibly win against that clock?
More often than not, the rounds of regret make us feel worse about ourselves. Yes, things should have been a certain way. They could have been another way. But would that have been the best way? For someone else, maybe. For me, maybe not. If it had to be, it would have been. But as long as I keep looking at this as somewhere I have to get, I’m never getting anywhere. Does that mean we just go along for the ride? No. We make our own deadlines, our own rules. Or none at all. The more I think about it, I am the ‘should’ in my ‘coulda shoulda woulda’. If I could just get out of my own way, I’d see things as they are and maybe I would steer them in the direction I want. Or I’d let them be. If I stopped pitting myself against the world I’d realise that my life isn’t a race, but a gift. There is no clock, no gunshot. Just a box full of people, places and things my average but privileged self has been lucky to find. Some great, some terrible and some that have made me dig deeper.
As a child, I didn’t play ‘coulda shoulda woulda’ because I wasn’t chasing or racing. Time never felt like it was running out and regrets were limited to questionable fashion choices. But all of that is because I wasn’t playing by anyone else’s rules. I was here, in the now, and that’s all that mattered. And maybe it still can. If I should play this, moment for moment, I’m pretty sure I could, and I would win. Because who made the rules anyway? | https://medium.com/who-made-the-rules/you-really-should-because-it-really-could-and-you-definitely-would-1baa65731ac1 | ['Rishika Moghe'] | 2020-03-11 06:00:10.187000+00:00 | ['Lifehacks', 'Marriage', 'Single Women', 'Love And Relationships', 'Life Lessons'] |
EV Charging Availability: Myths Busted | Where or how to charge up your EV is no longer a problem.
Are you one of 40 million Americans thinking about switching to an electric vehicle (EV) for their next car? Maybe you still have some questions or doubts.
For instance, EV naysayers are quick to claim that charging is a huge problem. They tell you to figure in hours of wait time every time you need a charge — if you can find a port with the plug that fits your particular car and if no one’s in front of you already waiting.
The good news is that recent improvements in EV charging station availability and technology make it super easy to charge and go — almost as fast as you can say EV.
Here you’ll learn that five common myths about EV charging anxiety are just plain false today. And you’ll find loads of tips to make finding EV charging station availability effortless.
EV Charging at Home
First off, all five of the myths dispelled below can be rendered null and void by considering two simple facts:
1. According to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the United States Department of Energy, 80% of all electric car owners charge at home.
2. The U.S. Census Bureau’s latest survey reports that the average home-to-work commute time is 26.6 minutes which, depending on driving speed, could mean 20–40 miles behind the wheel each way for most Americans.
Because EVs today can travel about 250–300 miles on a single charge (varies depending on car make and model, driving conditions, speed at which you travel, battery age, etc.), most EV owners never worry about having to find a public EV charging station nearby.
Granted, range anxiety and charge availability may have been an issue when EVs were first invented in 1832. Or even just 10 years ago when EVs regained their popularity due to growing concerns about reducing car emissions in the face of climate change and went about 85 miles on a single charge.
But it’s not true any more.
All you have to do is make sure you “fill up” at home when you need to. If you’re commuting short distances or running errands close by, you could easily go for days or even weeks between charges at home.
It’s actually not that different from checking the gas gauge on a gas-powered car. You’re probably already used to doing that. Only difference is: With an EV, you don’t have to hold your breath over the noxious fumes at the filling station.
With an EV, you can leave home every day on a “full tank” — if you so desire — for peace of mind. No stops at the gas station. Just recharge while you’re sleeping.
Today, many states or local jurisdictions are rewriting their building codes to guarantee that new homes, apartment complexes, and commercial centers come equipped with the charging outlets for EVs.
For urban dwellers with on-street parking, charging at retail locations or restaurants while you shop or dine is your best option. In fact, experts predict that much more charging station infrastructure will become available in the near future around shopping and dining hubs.
So it’s no surprise that Tesla recently announced their focus on apartment complexes.
But, what if, despite your best intentions, you’re out and about in need of a charge? No need to panic. Here are the EV charging station availability myths…busted.
Myth #1: There are no or very few places to charge my EV
In the past few years, EV charging station companies have been popping up all over. You can find the latest figures state by state on the website of the U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center.
According to that source, as of November 30, 2020, there were 28,486 EV charging stations with a total of 94,455 charging ports available all across the nation.
Here’s a breakout from that database of the three station types currently available in the USA (followed by their respective charging rates in parentheses):
Level 1: 1,437 (3–5 miles/hr.)
Level 2: 76,146 (12–75 miles/hr.)
DC Fast Charging (DCFC): 16,824 (100–300 miles/hr.)
Levels 1 and 2 provide electricity in the form of alternating current (AC) that your vehicle converts to the direct current (DC) it needs to operate. DC fast charging supplies extremely high-voltage direct current to your battery. Not all electric vehicles on the market today accept DCFC.
If you’re planning a long trip where you will need to recharge along the way, there are currently several EV charging station companies with nationwide locations. Here are a few of the major ones:
● ChargePoint
● EVgo
● EV Connect
● Blink Charging
● Electrify America
Right now, Tesla restricts access to its vast network of charging stations to Tesla car owners only. (Although this may be changing — at least in some countries.)
Individuals driving all other EV car makes and models should consult with at least a couple of companies for charging availability, costs, and fees along your proposed route. Then, maybe from a quick spreadsheet you put together, compare and save.
Myth #2: Charging stations are too far apart
Between the growing number of electric car charging station companies and their ever-expanding networks all over the country, it’s almost a sure bet that you’d be able to find a charge if you needed one.
It may take some planning your route in advance. You’d be smart to purchase a charging subscription or two before you hit the road — or at least register with a couple companies. Some accept credit cards but others may require their own card. Check before you go!
Better safe than sorry.
But, these are really just logistical details that you can deal with. When worked out early, your trip should go smoothly.
But…what if it doesn’t?
Say you’re on a cross-country road trip in your new electric car, lost in the middle of nowhere. You have a charged smartphone but you’re out of range. And you have only 100 miles of charge remaining in your car’s battery. What do you do?
No doubt this is any driver’s nightmare — even if you had a gas-powered car.
Hopefully, before you packed, you’d make sure you had the Level 1 charger that came with your EV when you bought it. You can use it to recharge in an emergency using any standard 120-volt electrical outlet — like at a motel or a small town corner store that you recall passing 50 miles ago before you got lost.
Of course, recharging completely on Level 1 will take a long time, so definitely try to avoid this situation!
Alternatively, you’d have to wait for someone to drive by and hope they’d stop to assist — or at least direct you to somewhere nearby with cell phone reception.
Then when you get internet access, try these suggestions (in no particular order):
● Get on the apps from the companies listed above to find out if there’s an EV charging station close enough to get to. (Hopefully, you installed the apps and registered before you left home.)
● Call customer service at those charging station providers to see if there’s a port suitable for you close to where you’re located, and if it’s currently unoccupied. (You may be able to find all this out from the app without placing a call.)
● Put out a call to help on social media — EV drivers are among the most helpful people on the road!
● Contact local automotive stores or EV car dealerships to see if they sell the Level 1 charger you can use from any electrical outlet.
Unfortunately if you’re stuck, purchasing a Level 2 charger — like the one you use at home — while you’re on the road won’t help. You need an electrician to install it, and they won’t do it without the permission of the owner of the building where you want to use the electrical outlet (like a motel or convenience store).
Tip: Some auto clubs and car insurance companies offer an EV recharge service in their plans. It works much like their flat tire roadside assistance. If you intend to make many long-distance trips with your electric vehicle, it’s worth it.
Myth #3: I never know if a charging station will have the plug I need
Anti-EV folks may try to convince you that unless all electric cars come with a universal plug that’s compatible with all charging ports, it’s a problem. And a good enough reason never to buy an EV.
Fortunately, Level 1 and Level 2 plugs for EVs sold in America use the same “electric vehicle conductive charge coupler” named J-1772. (The one and only exception is Tesla, but they sell an adapter for use with the J-1772.)
For DC fast charging, there are two main types of chargers: the CHAdeMO and the CSS (Combined Charging Standard). The CHAdeMo is used on Asian EVs, while U.S.-made and German cars use the CSS. Tesla has its own unique DC fast charger plug.
There are a few basic points to keep in mind about plugs and adapters when you’re on the road:
1. Charging stations may have many more CHAdeMO ports compared to CSS ports, so if your car takes CSS, plan ahead for sure.
2. Tesla charging stations are for Tesla cars only.
When in doubt, call or text the charging station company ahead of time to confirm that a port you can use is at a specific location on your route.
Tip: Before hooking up to any charging port, make sure:
● The cable isn’t frayed. (You don’t want to get shocked by accident!)
● There aren’t any cobwebs, cocoons or insects (dead or alive!) inside the plug.
● The inner gaskets and connection points are intact and in good shape.
If you spot any irregularities, be a courteous EV driver and call it in for a repair. The next person to use the station will thank you.
Myth #4: I can’t be sure if the charging station I need will be occupied
There are many apps that will let you know what’s available for charging your EV at any given moment. Do your research before you head out and choose the best one for you.
One of the most popular is Plugshare. From its app, you’ll get real-time information on charging stations owned by different companies. When you become a member, you’ll get alerts when chargers compatible to your vehicle become open. Plus a whole lot more!
Besides charging station apps providing the latest information on availability, Google Maps offers this real-time service as well.
If you’re traveling long distance, be sure to:
1. Install several charging station company apps on your phone — or at least something like Plugshare.
2. Check for port availability ahead of time.
3. If possible, make a reservation for the port you need.
4. Show up on time and hook up.
5. If you step away to shop or dine out, be sure to return at the estimated time to remove your vehicle once it’s fully charged. (Check the company’s app to see progress to completion.) Note: Some companies give you a short grace period before they start adding late fees to your bill.
6. Cancel your reservation as far in advance as possible if you need to. You never know — someone else may need that particular port.
Tip: There are many blogs and social media accounts expressly devoted to providing EV owners with charging station information, including charging at private homes. Don’t hesitate to get in the loop! You never know when you might need it.
Myth #5: EV Charging takes too long
The best way to charge your electric vehicle is with a slower charge overnight. By contrast, fast charging too often can damage your battery.
But if you’re in a rush, fast charging may be your only option.
Fortunately, fast EV charging is widely available now and expanding rapidly all over America. But, remember to make sure your EV can handle it before connecting, because not all can.
Currently, for some EVs, you can get a 80% charge in 30 minutes.
And price? Compared to the cost of a full tank of gas, you will most likely pay significantly less — up to $15,000, in fact — over the entire time you own your EV (15 years on average).
Wrap Up on EV Charging Station Anxiety Myths
Driving an electric vehicle without worrying about charging station availability is becoming easier all the time.
Although the huge majority of EV drivers fill up at home overnight with plenty of juice for up to 250+ miles, (depending on the vehicle), you could still find yourself — however unlikely — far from home in need of a charge.
At those times, it’s good to know that there are a growing number of charging station companies with locations all over the USA. A fast charge is literally just an app away on your phone.
With a wide network of EV charging station availability and a little planning, you’ll never look back after making the switch from a gas-powered to an electric car.
If you like this story, follow me and check out my free ‘How Energy Efficient Are You?’ quiz at EricTheEnergyBuff.com.
#ElectricCar #EV #ElectricVehicle | https://medium.com/@ericmelchor/ev-charging-availability-myths-busted-5141fae4183c | ['Eric Melchor'] | 2020-12-16 10:56:41.726000+00:00 | ['Ev', 'Electric Car Charging', 'Electric Vehicles', 'Ev Charging', 'Electric Car'] |
The Best Instances by Level: Classic Dungeons | Instance leveling is a relatively new phenomenon in World of Warcraft. Players who don’t have a large group of friends who also play WoW always used to skip all the quests associated with the five-man instances, especially the lower level ones, but now the dungeon finder allows everyone to experience all of the instances. Here’s a quick rundown of the best instances by level for the classic dungeons, which are all the ones that existed before the Burning Crusade expansion came along. Of course some levels only have one instance to choose from, so choosing the best instances by level for those was very easy. You can’t start using the dungeon finder until you reach level 15, so that’s where we’ll start.
Levels 15–17: Ragefire Chasm — Right out of the gate, players who are instance leveling through the dungeon finder will draw Ragefire Chasm, which always used to be a Horde-only dungeon. However, thanks to the new instance leveling system, Alliance can run this one too.
Levels 17–22: Deadmines — This is the classic early instance for the Alliance. Many players always used to group up and run the Deadmines even without the dungeon finder, but now it’s easier than ever, and Horde can run it too.
Levels 22–27: Blackfathom Deeps — Blackfathom Deeps is an underwater dungeon located in the Ashenvale area. Once again we have an example of Horde players getting the chance to cross over and play an Alliance instance.
Levels 27–32: Gnomeregan or Razorfen Kraul — These two instances are pretty much a toss-up. Gnomeregan is the Alliance dungeon, and Razorfen Kraul is the Horde instance, but the dungeon finder allows players of both factions to play both of these two instances.
Levels 30–42: Scarlet Monastery — Levels 30 and 40 will fly by while you’re running any of the four Scarlet Monastery instances. They’re really about the same, and it’s very difficult to tell the difference between them once you’re inside.
Levels 42–47: Zul’Farrak — ZF is another instance many players use to play even without the dungeon finder. It’s huge, there’s an extra boss to do, and the drops in this instance make it worthwilfe for the entire four levels.
Levels 47–52: Temple of Atal’Hakkar — The Sunken Temple is another instance that seems to come up an awful lot for these levels, but it really can be a rather quick run despite its size, and you learn to either love it or hate it.
Levels 52–60: Blackrock Depths — Players in this level range will get tired of seeing of seeing Blackfathom Depths because it is the only instance for much of this level range. However, the good news is that the more you run it, the more you’ll run across players who have keys to unlock new parts of the instance. Also starting this instance at level 48 will really help you burn on to level 50 quickly.
At level 58, your best bet is to cross over to the Outlands and begin running Burning Crusades instances, but there are a couple of classic ones like Molten Core that are still worth a run or two at this point.
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/169/Home/UPDATED_WoW_Aliance_How_to_make_gold_at_low_levels_for_Mining__Herbalism
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/169/Home/WoW_Beginners_guide_to_the_Auction_House
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/169/Home/Horde_How_to_make_gold_at_low_levels_for_Mining__Herbalism_WoW_World_of_Warcraft
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https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/WoW_Guide_Completing_Instance_Quests_While_Leveling
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/Discovering_the_Best_Way_to_Level_Instances_for_Everyone
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/Everything_You_Ever_Wanted_to_Know_About_Instance_Leveling
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/Features_of_a_Good_Instance_Leveling_Guide_WoW
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/Four_Reasons_to_Do_Your_Instance_Quests
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/Instance_Leveling_Dont_Forget_the_Instance_Quests_WoW
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/Instance_Leveling_Guide_for_World_of_Warcraft_2021
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/Taking_Your_Instance_Leveling_to_the_Next_Level_Instance_Quests_WoW
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/Techniques_for_Completing_Instance_Quests_WoW_2021
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/The_Benefits_of_Instance_Leveling_WoW_Guides
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/The_Best_Instances_by_Level_Burning_Crusade_Dungeons_WoW
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/The_Best_Instances_By_Level_Wrath_of_the_Lich_King_WoW
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/The_Best_Way_to_Level_Instances_WoW_2021
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/The_Best_Way_to_Level_Instances_All_the_Time_WoW
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/The_New_Instance_Leveling_Guide_WoW_Latest_2021
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/Tips_for_Getting_the_Most_Out_of_Instance_Leveling_WoW
https://rlc.instructure.com/eportfolios/170/Home/The_Techniques_of_Instance_Leveling_WoW_Guide
https://www.peeranswer.com/question/5fd9ed573e88babc2e612e66
https://www.posts123.com/post/1151916/wow-guide-2021
http://webhitlist.com/forum/topics/wow-guide-2021
http://www.onfeetnation.com/profiles/blogs/wow-guide-2021
https://www.mydigoo.com/forums-topicdetail-208268.html
https://paiza.io/projects/Ks54eq9Iv__WIjKDyxQAiQ
https://www.topfind88.com/post/1151918/wow-guide-2021
http://network-marketing.ning.com/forum/topics/wow-guide
https://shawarmagaming.substack.com/p/wow-guide-2021-instance-leveling
https://backlinkshawarma.hatenablog.com/entry/2020/12/16/203339
https://steemit.com/wow/@pamelagabriel221/tips-for-getting-the-most-out-of-instance-leveling
https://medium.com/@thomaspoole.972.8.6.6.2/tips-for-getting-the-most-out-of-instance-leveling-6a679e6b7001
https://medium.com/@thomaspoole.972.8.6.6.2/completing-instance-quests-while-leveling-1a07e0aa1243 | https://medium.com/@thomaspoole.972.8.6.6.2/the-best-instances-by-level-classic-dungeons-8632869e3a7c | ['Thomas Poole'] | 2020-12-16 11:41:15.025000+00:00 | ['Guides And Tutorials', 'Social Media', 'Games', 'Business', 'Gaming'] |
The best Ice Cream Maker to have for Summers. | Ice-cream lovers enjoy ice cream on hot sunny afternoons as well as chilly winter evenings. And that is why we know all the trifles we face on our ice-cream craving journey.
So, after having a tour of researches with the assistance of pro-ice-cream makers, we have concluded and picked out the best ice cream maker including Breville Smart Scoop, to please the cravings of die-hard ice-cream fans.
Best Ice Cream Maker: Breville Smart Scoop
Breville ice cream maker received this position for a whole lot of reasons. This smart scoop has many extra features such as automatic signaling, a prep-up manual, etc., which makes it even easier to be used by beginners and It is one of the best cheap ice cream makers online right now. It also received the best ice cream maker consumer reports.
Breville ice cream maker comes with 12 hardness settings. This feature beats down all the other ice-cream makers with a firm blow. Whether you have a soft sorbet texture or super-firm ice cream, Smart Scoop will provide you with the perfect ice-cream texture for your cravings.
It produces 1.5 quarts of sorbet, frozen yogurt, gelato, or ice cream per batch which is more than enough to meet the ice-cream demands of the whole family. Also, this device provides tune-to-tune alerts, such as proper time for mixing the ingredients, and signals you with present ice-cream truck tunes when ice-cream is churned and ready. It does not require any pre-frozen bowls as it is compressor-driven.
Furthermore, the smart scoop has a large, bright which makes it easy to read and the buttons provided are fun and easy to handle. It has an in-built keep cool function that ensures your ice cream stays frozen for up to three hours.
Not only that, but the machine also has a unique cool-down function which brings down the temperature on the base and the machine to the perfect turning temperature before it starts functioning. Moreover, if you are not comfortable with the automation mode, you can turn it to the normal mode which gives you complete control of the device.
Our testers have informed that the ice-creams produced by the Breville Smart Scoop are smoother and they are perfectly churned which makes them possible to be eaten from the maker straight off, without any need of additional freezing.
This makes the ice cream-making process easier and most importantly time-efficient. That means making ice cream at home and having it will not be a patience-testing job and it will enhance your ice cream eating experience.
What we did not like:
According to some users, the features being provided for the extra money than other ice cream makers are not great. They are good and indeed enhance the process but are not worth $400. Some users complained that the alerts the machine provides, are based on guesswork which makes the process a bit confusing. The 12 hardness settings are somewhat unnecessary. It can be concluded with just 4 ice cream hardness texture.
Conclusion: If you want a creamier ice-cream consistently by spending some extra dollars you can get your hands on this Breville ice cream maker available at around $400.
BEST — Breville BCI600XL Smart Scoop Ice Cream Maker This smart scoop has many extra features such as automatic signalling, a prep-up manual etc., which makes it even easier to be used by beginners and kids.
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ALSO CONSIDER: Cuisinart — Ice Cream and Gelato Maker — Black/Stainless Steel Touchpad controls; automatic operation; 60-minute countdown timer; blue LCD readout; 10-minute keep cool feature; see-through lid; BPA-free.
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Second-best ice cream maker: Whynter ICM-15LS
The Whynter ICM-15LS has every feature which is required in an ice-cream maker and that too in an appropriate amount. Neither less nor more, thus making it our 2nd best pick after Breville Smart Scoop.
Though it’s put after smart scoop, it does not lack any feature which Breville has. Just, its ice cream is a little less creamy than the former. But it does not hamper the ice-cream quality.
Whynter ICM-15LS has succeeded in producing some of the best ice-cream with the perfect combination of ice crystals and creaminess. The composition, though airy, was rich and smooth creating ice-cream eating a great experience.
Though not as smooth as Breville ice cream maker, but we should also keep in mind the amount difference between them. Furthermore, the short stature of the machine makes it portable as well as stacked on a bench or shelf when not in use.
Having dimensions measuring 8½ by 15 by 9¼ inches it’s undoubtedly one of the smallest ice-cream makers in the market at present.
Moreover, Whynter ICM-15LS is very simple in terms of usage. It has a 1.5-quart removable bowl which is easy to lift due to the inbuilt handle this helping you to scrape out all the ice cream easily. As the bowl is removable, cleaning the ice-cream maker becomes even easier.
As the machine does not provide too many buttons and alerts, it becomes confusing less and much more convenient to use. One of the most important advantages of ICM-15LS is that it is one of the quietest ice-cream makers, making very little to no noise while churning.
It does require any prior freezing as it is a compressor model. The compressor performance is on par with other compression-driven machines.
Overall, the Whynter ICM-15LS available at $299 is a great bet and a good value for money ice cream maker.
Second-best if Breville not available — Whynter ICM-15LS Ice Cream Maker, Stainless Steel This versatile self–freezing ice cream maker allows you to not only make premium ice cream but also refreshing sorbets, Italian gelato, sherbets, fresh frozen yogurts and other treats. Check price on Amazon
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Affordable ice cream maker: Nostalgia ICMP 400
If ice-cream maker is not your daily business but you still want to enjoy the perks of making an ice-cream at home then you can have Nostalgia ICMP 400 as an ice-cream maker.
This Nostalgia ICMP 400 is the old school ice and salt model. So, that’s pretty obvious that it won’t perform as par the compressor driven ice-cream maker machines. But according to our researcher, among the ice and salt models, Nostalgia ICMP 400 holds a lot better position.
About its ice-cream making capacity, it can make up to 4 quarts of ice-cream which is easily twice over the capacity of average ice-cream makers be it any model. The ice-cream produced by Nostalgia ICMP 400 are denser and icier.
The creaminess was quite missing but it was not a flaw for those who love their ice cream to be a bit icy. In fact, Nostalgia ICMP 400 produced much more quality ice-creams than other salt and ice models. Users have said that ice-creams made in Nostalgia had a nicer texture with a hint of icy.
With simple construction, Nostalgia ICMP 400 comes with a bucket, a canister, a dasher, a cover, and a motor at the top. As a prep-up process, one needs to layer ice and salt in the bucket around the cannister.
One can use Kosher salt if ice-cream rock salt is not available. It works fine with it. And the steps go on as usual as to put the mixture inside the cannister and plug in the motor. Thankfully, the motor is not that noisy and works at a low hum. Having a comfortable handle and big bucket makes Nostalgia ICMP 400 more convenient to use.
What we didn’t like:
Like any other ice and salt models, this Nostalgia ICMP 400 is a lot time-consuming. According to our tests, it took almost two hours to make a complete 4 quarts ice-cream.
Moreover, it does not allow you to add while the machine is on. You have to remove the mover and cover first, and then you can put seasonal nuts, cookies or caramel. Still, you will be having the risk of getting ice and salt mixture on your ice-cream.
Conclusion: The Nostalgia ICMP 400 ice cream maker is a great budgeted product that will suit your needs and won’t hit your pocket at the same time.
Budget pick — Nostalgia ICMP400WD Electric Wood Bucket Ice Cream Maker, 4-Quart Nostalgia ICMP 400 produced much more quality ice-creams than other salt and ice models. Check price at Amazon
Please leave a quick comment below…
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Also read:
5 Motivational Books to add to your 2021 Reading List.
5 (Hand-picked) Top Best Table tennis Table in India Review 2021
7 Best compact cardio machine for small space. | https://medium.com/@rishabhshrivastava275/the-best-ice-cream-maker-to-have-for-summers-b182e781631e | ['Rishabh Shrivastava'] | 2021-04-05 12:14:26.833000+00:00 | ['Ice Cream Flavor', 'Ice Cream', 'Home Appliances Online', 'Electronics', 'Ice Cream Makers'] |
Chainlink, Band Protocol, API3, and Umbrella Network: Exploring the Differences Between Oracles | Oracles are one of the most pressing problems the DeFi industry currently faces.
With no one-size-fits-all solution available, different oracle services take up different approaches to solving the same set of problems the market faces — having a secure and stable pricing source for cryptocurrency assets as well as real world financial data .
In this post, we explore how some of the biggest and most promising oracle services on the market set out to solve this problem and analyze the difference in approaches they took to get there. There are many oracles out there, we couldn’t cover all of them but we are covering most of the major ones.
Chainlink
Chainlink was one of the first decentralized oracle networks to launch in the crypto industry, paving the way for other services to follow suit and offer an oracle service without a single point of failure.
Chainlink leverages credentialed data sources through its Price Reference Contracts, a collection of over 70 different DeFi price feeds secured by decentralized oracle networks. These networks enable smart contracts to synchronously pull external data with a single transaction. Chainlink’s nodes all have built-in credential management capabilities that allow them to access any password-protected APIs using modular external adapters. This includes free open APIs, paid authenticated APIs, and proprietary private APIs.
It doesn’t include randomness as a core part of its protocol, which gives a high level of flexibility to its users when it comes to choosing nodes and connecting to data.
What makes Chainlink different from other oracle services is the fact that it isn’t a blockchain network. Chainlink nodes therefore only operate as oracles and are focused solely on data delivery. Without the need to spend time and resources on block production and validation, Chainlink’s oracles are lightweight and can be put up and used almost instantly. This also means that an almost unlimited number of oracle networks can operate in parallel and run natively on any blockchain or Layer-2 solution.
Diving even deeper, key prices like DAI/USD are updated by Chainlink only once every 24 hours. Another limitation of Chainlink is that it offers data on only about 80 price-pairs while there are thousands of legitimate cryptocurrencies. The data requirements in the DeFi ecosystem also goes beyond just cryptocurrencies. Data like volatility, stocks, real estate etc. is also needed to connect DeFi with the real world, something that Chainlink currently does not support.
Chainlink also uses KYC for Validator onboarding, taking away the “decentralized” from Decentralized Finance. Chainlink is primarily built on Ethereum and projects must take additional measures like back doors and extra layers to use Chainlink oracles if they are not on Ethereum. Chainlink currently uses PoA which is considered centralized in nature since the validation selection is arbitrary in nature.
API3
API3 is an oracle service that set out to create a new generation of blockchain-native, decentralized APIs. The protocol believes that the biggest problems decentralized applications face isn’t the lack of an oracle interface, but rather access to Web APIs.
Instead of utilizing a third-party oracle principle, the protocol sets out to use first-party oracles, which are oracles operated by the API providers themselves. These first-party oracles provide responses which are aggregated into on-chain data feeds, called decentralized APIs, or dAPIs for short.
API providers dispense data for on-chain dAPIs via Airnode, the first-party oracle node, and are compensated periodically at fixed rates, usually in stablecoins. API3 also enables API providers to get paid out in fiat currencies through a DAO-approved grant.
Instead of having oracle-level staking, API3 has a staking pool where anyone holding API3 can delegate to in return for a say in the protocol’s governance. Staking was introduced to provide a financial incentive for users to participate in API3 — the collateral provided by users enables everyone to share both the operational risk of running the protocol and incentivize them to minimize it.
API3 has a form open for those who wish to develop on top of API3 to request data pairs and for data providers to become API providers. The data pairs are unknown and the platform is not live yet. The product theoretically promises low costs and high scalability — but whether the economic incentives will align with the built version of the theoretical concept is yet to be seen.
Band Protocol
Band Protocol is an oracle platform designed to aggregate and connect real-world data and APIs to smart contracts. And while the original project was abandoned last year, the core development team focused on building Band v2, called BandChain.
There are actually two different versions of BandChain, both called Guanyu. The first network is a Proof-of-Authority oracle network where the Band Foundation and select validators run seven nodes, while the second network is a Delegated Proof-of-Stake network. BandChain is a Tendermint-based blockchain using a BFT consensus algorithm and operating within the Cosmos ecosystem.
To utilize BandChain’s oracle service, users send data requests to the network by calling available “Oracle Script” smart contracts. These smart contracts are on-chain executable programs that are able to encode various data request details, such as data source APIs.
The network currently only supports free, low-quality APIs. However, support for password-protected APIs is only theoretically possible.
One of Band’s core components is built-in randomness — the protocol chooses oracle nodes at random, requiring every node to have access to the same data and network security. The oracle service is actually built on a proprietary blockchain and requires nodes to produce and validate blocks.
Band’s data feeds are currently only updated by the permissioned Proof-of-Authority version of Guanyu and lack the decentralization seen in other oracle services on the market.
Band is permissionless, built on Cosmos, and anyone can run a node. They also do not require a validator to undergo KYC to run oracles, and run on their own chain, making it easier to integrate with other chains.
The Umbrella Network
The Umbrella Network is a scalable, community-owned oracle service that set out to create a decentralized financial system. It’s a Layer 2 technology solution that achieves scalability through implementing a Merkle Tree based approach which allows scaling of data which can be cryptographically verified to be genuine. Delegation ensures all participants of the network are economically incentivized to accurately validate the data they provide.
One of the key aspects of the Umbrella Network is its focus on economical viability and scalability. To achieve this, the network greatly reduces the cost of gas by using a system of Merkle Trees to bundle multiple transactions into a single node. This allows each node to validate thousands of transactions for the price it would take to validate one transaction on other networks.
This natural advantage enables Umbrella to make 80 of the most commonly used cryptocurrency data pairs on its Layer 2 system available for free. More than 40 of the most common data pairs on the chain are updated every 5 minutes, also for free. The network will stay profitable by charging developers on a SaaS-based tiered pricing model for less common data pairs.
To create a network that’s resistant to manipulation and attacks, Umbrella has put the control of the protocol into the hands of the community. There are no pre-mined tokens and the community, which includes the public token buyers, developers, validators, and data partners, will own the majority of all publicly available tokens.
To conclude we have created a comparison table that helps you evaluate the current status of the oracle eco-system where we contrast and compare different oracles based on different parameters like speed, data they offer, costing, etc. | https://medium.com/umbrella-network/chainlink-band-protocol-api3-and-umbrella-network-exploring-the-differences-between-oracles-9477d975e142 | ['Priyeshu Garg'] | 2021-02-01 21:03:26.778000+00:00 | ['Umbrella Network Tech', 'Umbrella', 'General', 'Oracle', 'Defi'] |
10 Things Framer Does Better than Figma | I’ll be the first to say that Figma is a godsend for designers.
It’s made my design process more efficient and made me a better designer.
Figma has rocketed to its well-earned position of superiority in the design community not by accident. Still, though, we as designers can’t rely on one tool to do EVERYTHING.
Even as Figma has seemingly gobbled up Abstract, Invision, Zeplin, Sketch, and anything else in its path, Framer may still be a contender.
I still use Figma for all of my UI work, managing design systems, team collaboration, and more. When it comes to creating clickable prototypes for user testing or creating sexy animation for Dribbble, though, I’ve been impressed with the power of Framer.
Why is the design community sleeping on Framer???
Let’s talk about all the ways we can flex Framer to improve our designs.
What is Framer?
As UX Lord put it in his Figma vs Framer article –– “Framer is a prototyping design tool but one that can use real code to create or customize components. While the coding tool may scare designers away, Framer functions perfectly and works great as a stand alone design tool even if you choose not to use coding at all.”
1. Inputs fields
Framer Documentation –– Read More
Input fields play a role in practically every interface in some form or another. With interactive components in Figma you can hack together something that kind of mimicks typing into an input field but it will take forever to create and sitll doesn’t come close to the default input field in Framer.
It’s as easy as clicking insert then dragging and dropping an input field and stylizing however you like. Your design will immediately have the ability for real user input without any headaches or hackiness.
2. Sticky Scroll Elements
Framer Tutorial –– Watch on YouTube
Occasionally a certain frame should to stick to a position while scrolling. This is especially helpful for section headers and floating navigation. It’s really difficult to do in Figma though, so we have to rely on 3rd party examples and documentation to explain this feature to our developers.
In Framer objects in a scrollable stack can be set as a “sticky” object and rules can be set to adjust how it behaves. I recommend following Framer’s tutorial to wrap your head around how it works.
3. Sliders
Framer Documentation –– Read More
I recently created a tutorial on how to create an auto layout slider in Figma and it received great feedback but many people asked, “how do I make it work in prototyping?”
Well you can’t do it in Figma but Framer has a default component that can be dragged around in prototyping just like the real thing. You can also easily attach it to a number value with a small code snippet.
4. Swipe Effects
Framer Documentation –– Read More
The different swipe effects are really fun to play with and easy to use. It reminds me of the old windows movie maker — just drag an effect onto a screen and you’re done!
Cover Flow
View on Framer
It’s frustrating how much time I’ve spent creating a swipe-able prototype with a cover flow effect in Figma. Yes, it can be done but you will need a new screen for every card and it’s a huge pain to manage.
Framer makes this experience a breeze. You can drag out a “page” frame and then just connect the cards that you’d like to be swiped and it works instantly with no auto animate needed.
Cube Effect
View on Framer
Pile Effect
View on Framer
A pile effect is tricky to accomplish in Figma but fun to play around with for achieving something similar to the stacked credit cards like in Apple Wallet.
5. Map Integration
Framer Documentation –– Read More
The map integration is one of hundreds of different integrations that can be used in Framer. Head on over to Framer Packages and browse all the different ways you can blow your design team’s minds.
6. Perspective Hover
This is another package that is really neat and easy to implement. Again, there are hundreds of these packages so go and check them out to see what’s out there — Check it out
7. Sound Effects & Media
If your app has sound effects Framer has you covered. You can also play music, vidoes, GIFs, Youtube videos and other types of content right inside of your prototype.
8. Wheel Effect
Framer Documentation –– Read More
9. Heart Animation
Framer Documentation –– Read More
Framer has an infinite number of possibilities when it comes to code overrides. This is one of them. In Framer you can write functions and apply them to any element on your canvas.
Overrides can be used to pass data between text inputs, dynamically display data from an API and create custom gesture animations.
Code overrides are more complicated than the other options I’ve shared but most of the time copying and pasting a code snippet is all you need to do. See more code overrides here.
10. Drawing Pad
Framer Documentation –– Read More
Having a signature or drawing pad in a prototype seems like black magic but it’s all possible with Framer’s package integrations. | https://uxdesign.cc/10-things-framer-does-better-than-figma-a7e2f2fa3ce | ['Danny Sapio'] | 2021-09-02 01:49:35.284000+00:00 | ['Visual Design', 'Figma', 'Product Design', 'Prototyping', 'UX'] |
Implementing Clean Architecture in GO | Interfaces
Now our business logic is ready. Business logic is the part of code that isn't expected to change much hence it forms the inner layers. The beauty of clean architecture is that at this point, you can decide whatever set of infrastructure you want to use. Let’s say you want to create a command-line application and store your data in a file. Then you can implement interfaces for command line and files. Or if you want to write a Java Program to use your application you can also do that.
In our case, we will be writing a Web interface (APIs) and we will be using Database for persistence. Our aim is to write interfaces for our infrastructure. Our interfaces will be independent of our infrastructure. It will be the responsibility of the infrastructure to implement methods of our interface. So let's say we want to change our database we will only have to make changes in our infrastructure layer.
Now Our application requires two interfaces one for APIs and another for databases. You may want to write more interfaces like command-line, logs, etc. But, to keep it simple I will only implement database and API.
Repository
Following the DDD naming convention, I am using the term repository for our database interface. We have a author-repository.go file for author related database methods and book-repository.go for book related methods. We will also create the file repository.go . This file contains the part of code that is common for both author and book.
Inside the repository.go file, We will implement a DBHandler interface. This interface is a template which the database infrastructure will have to implement. In other words, we are telling the database if you need to connect to our application please provide a struct with the following methods FindAllBooks() , SaveBook() and SaveAuthor() .
Let’s take a look inside the book-repository.go file:
Inside our book-repository.go file we will implement our SaveBook and findAll methods which are bounded by the BookRepo struct. This allows for the DBHandler injection which in-turn allows us to use the dbHandler methods.
Note that we have not actually implemented the DBHandler methods yet. We will be implementing these methods in the infrastructure layer where we write our database related methods. And then inject them in our bookRepository .
Similarly, we have our author-repository.go file.
With this, we have finished our Database Interface. Notice How we have finished writing the Datavinterface but we never discussed which database we are going to use. What this means is that till this layer we are truly independent of the database we are going to use.
Controllers
Controllers will be our API interfaces. Controllers will implement all the functions that our endpoints will call to connect to our application. The controller interface allows for the interaction of our application with the API framework that will be implemented in the infrastructure layer.
Let’s take a look in our book-controller.go file
All our API endpoints related to Book are written as functions. ie. methods for our BookController struct. BookController takes in a BookInteractor parameter that allows for the injection of book-usecase methods.
As you can see that the controller methods are fairly simple because the main business logic is handled by book-usecase with the help of bookInteractor . | https://medium.com/@vidhyanshu/implementing-clean-architecture-in-go-56aca59311b3 | ['Vidhyanshu Jain'] | 2020-10-09 06:30:03.519000+00:00 | ['Backend Development', 'Go', 'Clean Architecture', 'Clean Code'] |
14 Financial Terms That Every New Investor Needs to Know | For many people, taking the first step into the world of investing can be an intimidating and overwhelming experience, not the least of which is because it involves a lot of specialized vocabulary. However, there’s no need to panic: once you break it down, all of this financial jargon isn’t as scary or as complicated as it might seem. If you’re a beginning investor, read on for a look at 14 of the most important terms you need to know to get started.
1. Asset Allocation
This is an umbrella term for your investment strategy. In other words, it’s all about what types of investments you’re going to choose and how much money you’re going to put in them. (Remember that an asset is anything of value that you own. This could be a home or a car, or it could be investment instruments such as stocks or bonds.)
2. Bonds
A bond is a type of debt instrument. When you buy a bond — usually from a government, a municipality, or a company — you’re essentially loaning that money to the seller (also called the issuer) for a set period of time. When the maturity date of the bond arrives, the issuer pays back the principal (the amount you paid for the bond) to you plus interest.
3. Capital Gain
A capital gain occurs when you sell an asset, like an investment, for a higher price than you paid for it. (Conversely, when you sell an asset at a price that is lower than the purchase price, it’s known as a capital loss.)
4. Cash
In the context of an investment, cash refers to money that is readily accessible, usually in the form of certificates of deposit (also known as CDs, Treasury bills, or money market accounts).
5. Diversification
This term is essentially the investment equivalent of the proverb “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” When you diversify your portfolio, it means that you include different types of investments in order to mitigate risk.
6. Equity
Equity refers to the difference between the value of all of your assets and liabilities (your liabilities are what you owe). For example, if you own a property worth $200,000 (this is your asset), but you have a mortgage of $100,000 on that property (liability), your equity is $100,000.
7. Expense Ratio
This is an annual fee that mutual funds charge their investors. In other words, it’s the percentage of the money that goes to the managers of the mutual fund to cover aspects such as administrative fees and other expenses.
8. Fiduciary
A fiduciary is a category of investment advisor that is legally obligated to put their clients’ needs above their own financial interest. For first-time investor, working with a certified fiduciary can help to provide a greater sense of trust and confidence.
9. Index Funds
An index fund is a kind of mutual fund that tracks a specific index (an index is essentially a collection of stocks that represent a broad slice of the overall economy). Therefore, when you invest in an index fund, what you’re doing is betting on the success of the collection of companies represented by the index. Index funds tend to be popular with beginning investors because the costs are usually quite low.
10. Mutual Funds
You can think of a mutual fund like a large pool of money to which many different investors contribute. A fund manager then takes this money and uses it to purchase assets such as stocks and bonds. Some mutual funds hold hundreds of different stocks, which helps to spread the risk. The idea behind a mutual fund is that it allows you to have greater purchasing power as a collective than you would have as an individual investor.
11. Portfolio
A portfolio is the term used to describe all the investments that you own. A portfolio can contain an infinite number and variety of investments, ranging from stocks and bonds to commodities.
12. Prospectus
When you’re doing your homework about what investments you want to choose, you’ll want to ask your financial advisor (or search online) for a prospectus from each company or fund that you’re considering. This is an important legal document that outlines all the relevant, in-depth details — such as the expense ratio, a list of all the fund’s holdings, tax considerations, purchasing rules, and risks associated with the fund — about the investment in question. This allows you to make an informed decision about whether or not you want to invest.
13. Securities
This term refers to many kinds of investments (such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds) that have value and can be transferred or sold to another investor. Note that securities are intangible assets. For example, precious metals are not securities, but precious metal stock is.
14. Stocks
Stocks are pieces of ownership in a company. In other words, when you buy stock in a company, you’re becoming a partial owner of that company. Stocks are also often referred to as shares. | https://medium.com/@goldstonefinancialgroup/14-financial-terms-that-every-new-investor-needs-to-know-44ed8ca1be88 | ['Goldstone Financial Group'] | 2019-07-15 20:03:27.847000+00:00 | ['Risk', 'Investing', 'Finance', 'Financial Planning'] |
The Revolutionary Themes of “Frozen II” | The Revolutionary Themes of Frozen II
The original film was praised for its portrayal of female protagonists that were not only both brave and sensitive but had each other’s backs. They did not always get along, but they were both fearlessly committed to one another and the betterment of the kingdom they reined over. This was in stark contrast to the majority of animated films, which focus on male protagonists and find substantive female characters rarely interacting in a positive way.
The film also generated a lot of discussion over whether Elsa was intended to be a closeted lesbian and whether the first film’s anthem “Let It Go” was intended as a coming out anthem. When asked about this Jennifer Lee, the sole writer and co-director of both films, said: “We know what we made. But at the same time I feel like once we hand the film over, it belongs to the world, so I don’t like to say anything, and let the fans talk. I think it’s up to them.”
Suffice it to say that the revolutionary themes apparent in Frozen II were not shoehorned in to advance someone’s agenda, nor are they out of sync with the spirit of the original film. Progressive themes have been baked into the franchise since its very inception. With that said, the themes of Frozen II go leaps and bounds beyond its predecessor.
The Erasure and Subjugation of Indigenous People
Promotional Image for “Frozen II” (Copyright: Walt Disney Animation Studios)
The introduction of the neighboring kingdom of Northundra provides the springboard for an exploration of themes related to indigenous culture. And the film does an impressive job of running with those themes.
The climax of the film reveals that Anna and Elsa’s grandfather had lied to them. The Northundra people did not massacre the envoy from Arendelle, but rather the melee was caused by her grandfather murdering the chief of their tribe. It turns out that their grandfather was the embodiment of an imperialist. He loathed and feared the indigenous people for their connection to magic and nature and cruelly worked to subjugate them through manipulation and force. This discovery and Anna’s subsequently daring act of rectification finally brings peace to the adjacent kingdoms and pleases the spirits.
Elsa and Anna appeared to implicitly respect the Northundra, which is consistent with their wise, mature, and benevolent natures. But the plot twist described above forces Elsa and Anna to realize several things. First, they learned that their revered grandfather was a murderer at best, orchestrator of genocide at worst. Second, they learned that their kingdom’s peace and prosperity was gained at the expense of betraying and subjugating their neighbors. Third, they learned that the people they loved and respected taught them a version of their own history that was horrifically whitewashed at the detriment of indigenous people.
These are big themes. Dark themes. Morally complex themes. Timely themes. And these are remarkably progressive themes, at least by the standards of a family-friendly animation studio.
Disappointingly, none of the individual Northundra people become particularly well drawn out or plot-essential characters. However, they are portrayed as dignified, intelligent, moral, spiritual, and harmonious people. No matter how you look at it, this is a far cry from the cringe-inducting “What Made the Red Man Red” sequence in the 1953 classic Peter Pan.
The Upending of Gender Norms
The complex and powerful bond between Anna and Elsa is the main focus of the sequel just as it was in the original. And, mercifully, the filmmakers did not throw in a contrived conflict or new love interests that undermine that bond in cheap and predictable ways. Rather than undermine the progressive gender norms depicted in the first film, the sequel underscores them. Anna and Elsa have each other back’s always and make some truly remarkable sacrifices for one another in the film.
Nowhere is the film’s upending of traditional gender norms more apparent than in the relationship of Anna and Kristoff. In contrast to the vast majority of studio films throughout history (animated or live action), the woman is concocting and enacting a heroic plan to save everyone while the man is wandering aimlessly and preoccupied by his romantic feelings. The filmmakers resist the urge to turn Anna frigid and Kristoff impotent, a pitfall lesser screenwriters would not have been able to avoid. They are both immensely likable characters with valid points of view.
In one of the film’s climactic scenes, Kristoff arrives at just the right time to aid Anna. Rather than sweep her off her feet and save the day he says, “What do you need?” It’s a seemingly innocuous statement, but one loaded with meaning for viewers living in a society that constantly denies women roles of autonomy and power and forces them to be at the whim of men in their lives.
Although the LGBT-relevant themes are less obvious than those pertaining to indigenous people and gender roles in Lee’s screenplay, they nevertheless persist and expand in the sequel. Elsa’s journey is one where she is living a life of domesticity, but feels unfulfilled and like she doesn’t belong. Something deep inside of her brings her on a journey that allows her to discover the truth about herself and abandon her traditional role and join a new and affirming community that shares her identity. We’re talking about magic, of course, but the parallels to the process of coming out are too strong to be dismissed.
Frozen II is not a perfect film, but it is a great one. And, thanks to Lee’s screenplay, it is one that is not only spectacularly entertaining for children and adults, but also one portrays urgent and progressive themes about equality. Historically, the films that hail from animated studios — especially those involving princesses — tend to gravitate toward outdated gender roles and a xenophobia-compatible narrative that uses outsiders as villains. Frozen II doesn’t just reject those tendencies, it upends them. And it does so while not being overly preachy. In some ways, it provides a beautiful blue print for how we can maintain the magic of family-oriented fare without peddling the same harmful tropes of their predecessors. | https://medium.com/rants-and-raves/the-revolutionary-themes-of-frozen-ii-e72fdc8e3a0f | ['Richard Lebeau'] | 2020-08-31 17:49:50.567000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Feminism', 'Film', 'Culture', 'LGBTQ'] |
Toxic Hyper-Masculinity/Femininity and how it Effects the new Generation | Beauty and the Beast, Gaston, 1991, Disney
The Effects of Media on adolescents
Media has been, and will continue to be, a big part of many adolescents’ lives. It’s the fastest way people get their information and facts from nowadays. Though what had started of being a device for entertainment has now been changed into a tool of feeding lies into (avoid figure of speech) the young minds of these teens. Social media now negatively affects young adolescents by giving them unrealistic body standards while also crushing their mental well-being.
To stary off, over the media we see many different people being shown as the ideal body shape and/or having the ideal appearance, this for one; can be very detrimental for the mental health and well-being of young adolescents. For example, Maddie McGowan who said “as a young girl, I do feel I need to be perfect and compare myself to others all the time.” (Marsh, 2017) Maddie represents a large portion of young adolescents as we can see published in Prnewswire in their article “New Survey Shows More Than Half (54%) Of US Teens Think Life Would Be Better Without Social Media” they say; “an overwhelming majority (96%) of US teens who are not satisfied with their smile are insecure about their appearance.” (align Technology, Inc. 2014) Seeing other people on social media with what society thinks is the ideal body shape can make teenagers very self conscious and lose confidence in their own bodies. In conclusion these posts take away our life and our dignity, telling us we have to look a certain way in order to be beautiful when that simply isn’t true. The best way to contest this point is to have teachers in school teach us the meaning of self love, to appreciate ourselves and to not care about others opinions.
To add on, we see ads and promotions selling us the diets which are said to make us the most idealized and best versions of ourselves. For instance, there are hundreds of diets which all have some form of “be your best self” in marketing. Some examples are “5 Tips to Be Your Best Self in 2018” (amber Specialty, 2018), or in addition; “Become your Best Self with anti-Inflammatory Diet by Louise Steen” (ewfood, 2015). Both of these are examples of companies exploiting our want to feel appreciated and accomplished. They always say that we’ll finally be beautiful once we use their diet and lose weight to become the “best version of ourselves” instead of just letting ourselves grow comfortable in our skin. They’re silently body shaming adolescents and telling them they’re not good enough while hiding behind the mask of saying; “we’re only trying to help you be YOUR best.” all in all they’re exploiting our vulnerabilities and playing sick mind tricks on us. We need to inform more people of these dangers of media and to be more aware of these marketing strategies to make sure that everyone is aware of what’s happening.
Furthermore, mostly everything in the media is hyper-masculised/hyper-feminized, saying we should only act based on gender stereotypes and to behave in certain ways. These stereotypes are yet reinforced and exaggerated in many films and books such as; Gaston from Beauty and the Beast (Disney, 1991), he was portrayed as an assertive and strong man who showed little emotion and who didn’t care about how his actions could affect others. Another great example is Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Disney, 1938), in the film she is mostly only shown cleaning and cooking for the seven dwarves. These are only two examples from stories that everyone has heard of, which are also blatantly sexist as well as outdated. We hear of these stories when we are young and impressionable, we grow up learning to wear dresses and like pink if we’re girls and to play with cars and like blue if we’re boys. If we don’t we feel alienated and different from what our society deems normal. We grow up in a toxic and exaggerated hyper-masculized / hyper-feminized world that tells us what to do and how to act which isn’t okay for growing up in the 21st century. By showing us these stereotypes they’re taking away our rights to be whoever we want, they take away our rightful freedom. Instead big corporations / companies who are in charge or the media should be more mindful of what they’re putting into print / the big screen and show us more characters who stray from the social norm and who pave their own paths.
In conclusion, the media affects teens negatively by giving them outrageous body standards, breaking down their mental health, and supporting stereotypes that are very outdated especially in the 21th century. Adolescents all need to be more informed on these dangers as well as the many other dangers of social media so they can all use it safely and justly. | https://medium.com/@xueur/toxic-hyper-masculinity-femininity-and-how-it-effects-the-new-generation-276affbe08b5 | ['Ashley He'] | 2020-12-18 18:42:38.972000+00:00 | ['Toxic Masculinity', 'Toxic Femininity', 'Media Literacy', 'Media Criticism'] |
I’m Not A Fan Of The #MeToo Movement Anymore. | It is International Day of the Girl Child at the time of me writing this, and I’ve been taking some time to reflect on what this means to me personally. These days, I feel like there is this tendency to create a day and bring awareness to issues-yet there doesn’t seem to be much change happening in recognition of these days or follow up on these initiatives. This year, it’ll be 25 years from the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action — the global agenda for advancing the rights and empowerment of women and girls, everywhere. Earlier this year, Generation Equality was also launched as a multi-year, multi-partner campaign and movement for bold action on gender equality. While these resolutions and big drivers for change are great ideas, I’m extremely doubtful that any real adjustment will actually be made.
I’m not sure that people really understand how powerful the patriarchy as a system is or how much men will fight to hold on to their power by any means necessary. Men, white men in particular, have no plan or desire to “give up” or share their power or wealth with women. Period. If these men really wanted to do it, they would have and women wouldn’t have to be fighting for equality in 2020. But similar towards people of colour, the white patriarchy in particular looks down on anyone it views as lesser than. While people of colour are not looked upon as human, women are looked upon as lesser humans; those not capable of making up their own minds about what they want for their bodies or money, so men need to control them and make decisions for them. The patriarchy is not just a Black or white person issue. It permeates every level of families within different ethnic groups. While there are a handful of men of colour who grew up as feminists and anti-racists, the majority did not. These patriarchal structures are found within Black and Brown homes and are very deeply rooted. There are even some women who have bought so much into these ideas, that they in turn enforce them upon their families. I personally know women who truly believe it is a man’s job to take care of his family (primarily financially) and if he doesn’t do so, he’s not considered a man in their eyes. There are women who have been trained by virtue of their environments to have certain unhealthy ideals of what manhood and fatherhood is, and will tear down a man emotionally and verbally if he isn’t meeting her specific standards of what he should be doing. I have watched these twisted, psychologically damaging and unhealthy relationships for years within my community. While I have witnessed some healthy relationships, they are few and far in between. There is also this lie within the Black community that religion somehow corrects all of these woes because the thought is that religion provides the structure for proper family values. Yet in many of these households, some of the worst physical, verbal and sexual abuse is taking place under the cover of religion.
According to the United Nations, nearly 1 in 4 girls aged 15–19 years old worldwide is neither employed nor in education or training compared to 1 in 10 boys of the same age. By 2021 around 435 million women and girls will be living on less than $1.90 a day — including 47 million pushed into poverty as a result of COVID-19. 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence. Emerging data shows that since the outbreak of COVID-19, violence against women and girls (VAWG), and particularly domestic violence, has intensified. At least 60% of countries still discriminate against daughters’ rights to inherit land and non-land assets in either law or practice. Which means that money, land/assets and sex are still considered powerful to men. These three things seem to be what men worldwide hold to be the most valuable things they can own or wield over a woman. They also seem to be the three things that when women have them, they are considered the most powerful themselves. Many men will attack women that are seen as too independent or too sexually liberated as being “man-haters,” “chauvinists,” and “sluts/whores.” I know men that cannot work for women because they see it as an affront on their manhood to have a female in charge telling them what to do. I know men that cannot tolerate a women making more money than them. Unfortunately, I’ve known men who have hurt women, both physically and sexually because of their subconscious dislike and disrespect for women and issues relating to their mothers or primary female caregivers. I know men who have been severely abused and mistreated by the women in their lives and because of their traumas they use them to excuse misogyny, philandering, abusive and sexist behaviour.
I have been molested 3 times in my life. Twice when I was a teenager and once as an adult. I remember the first time it happened, I went to the guy I was seeing at the time and tried to tell him what had occurred. I remember feeling raw and violated and all I wanted was for someone to hold and comfort me. Instead, he yelled at me, hurled insults, shamed and blamed me in front of his male friends, openly telling them that I “let” someone violate me. I remember feeling numb and alone. I was convinced that anyone else I shared my story with would have the same reaction, so I never told anyone about it after that. Why bother sharing my private pain and one of the most humiliating moments of my life when everyone was going to think I deserved what happened to me? This started a cycle of shame and resignation that my body would be accosted by men at their will and it was just something I’d have to deal with. Being a Black women, I’ve been sexualized all my life in a myriad of ways. Men have felt that my breasts, bottom and lips were created simply for them to fetishize me, sexualize me and keep me in the place they believe I am restricted to. Women of colour, particularly those of us that are more full figured and have curves have been turned into sexual objects that have been mimicked and mocked by white men and women for centuries. The very things on Black women and women of colour that they find distasteful and disgusting, they will cop and rock on themselves and all of a sudden, it’s fashionable and trendy. These reductions of women of colour continue to contribute to white supremacy, white privilege and the patriarchy. White women participate in the patriarchy in ways they seem to be completely or maybe intentionally unaware of.
Take the hijacking of the #MeToo movement by white women. The movement, which was created by Tarana Burke and while open to including all women, was originally supposed to be focused on women of colour because more often than not, women of colour and Black women specifically are not believed whenever we report sexual abuse or assault. I can definitely attest to this from my own personal experience of me trying to tell someone about my abuse. But then Alyssa Milano comes out about a sexual assault experience she had, using the #MeToo, and all of a sudden the movement has been co-opted by white women, almost overnight. Newspapers and media everywhere started reporting about this massive revolution…all while never knowing or acknowledging that a Black woman had started it. When it was originally reported on, the credit for the movement was given to Alyssa Milano and other white female celebrities. It wasn’t until the outpouring of righteous indignation and outrage from the Black female community that they made changes and gave credit to Tarana. It is crazy to me that the Black woman who created this movement barely has 300k followers on Instagram, yet every woman who alleges that she has been the victim of sexual assault or abuse uses her hashtag and follows the white celebrities who made it famous. Even more crazy? There are only a few notable famous white celebrities that follow her, including Brene Brown and Anna Paquin. These two women are some of my favourite humans so I’m not surprised that they continue to do the real work and not just run their mouths about it and display performative allyship.
But when I saw how this movement, that was meant to be a safe space for all women to come and share their horror stories and feel supported has now turned into a cesspit of unhealthy and emotionally traumatized white women projecting their very skewed perspectives of the world and men, I am completely turned off. We have witnessed men being accused of all kinds of assaults and abuses that in some cases, were completely debunked and in others were severely questioned as to their validity. As a survivor, I have been disheartened and discouraged by where I see this movement now. I no longer feel like it is a safe space for women of colour to express their experiences. Rather, it feels like it has now become a space where some unhealthy women feel they can get revenge and destroy men, whether they committed an offense or not, and for others it has become a way for them to receive unconditional and unquestioned attention and affection. I would never dare tell another woman how she should process her sexual abuse or assault trauma. Having said that, I will also state that I do not believe every woman who comes forward and claims she was assaulted. Unfortunately, being a Black woman I have heard and seen women who have lied about such things. This is very predominant in Black history, with white women engaging in sexual activities or relationships with Black men when it was illegal to do so. When caught, they would lie and claim the Black man raped them, to save their lives as they knew the harm that would befall them if white men knew they enjoyed sleeping with Black men. So as a woman of colour, I unfortunately do not have the luxury of blindly believing the victim. This is one of the biggest bones of contention that I have with the current #MeToo movement and its belief that one must believe all survivors, fullstop. Some women lie. That is a fact. Some white women lie. That is also a fact. That has not changed from the days of segregation till now. I believe in critical thinking and listening to the entire story. As a survivor, I will tell you that we have a sixth sense. I cannot explain it, but most of us as survivors, particularly those of us who have gone to therapy and have done and continue to do our healing work, we just know when someone is lying. There is an undeniable truth to a sexual assault or abuse story that most survivors can hear. And some of us can hear when someone is lying. The stories don’t line up, even if you gave leeway for the person not wanting to reveal every single detail. Survivors have an enhanced empathy for each other. So we know when someone is not telling the truth.
Sexual abuse and sexual assault is one of the most dehumanizing and traumatizing experiences a person can go through. It is all about power over another person; taking away their right to choice. Feeling that you have the right to “take” whatever you want, and not ask for consent first. I can’t begin to describe what it does to you psychologically and how for some, it can really mess them up sexually. I had to work through years of therapy to explore all the emotions I had bottled up for years because I didn’t think anyone would care or believe me when I told them. So when I see some women using the #MeToo movement to get revenge on a man or demolish a person’s life who genuinely didn’t deserve it, it feels like the ultimate disrespect to all true survivors. There are many of us that will never be believed about our stories and because of those women who falsely accuse men, it taints the reputation of other women coming forward. Let me be very clear: in no way am I implying or stating that ALL white women lie or are not telling the truth about their sexual abuse claims. I truly believe that the majority of women, no matter what the ethnicity, who share their stories are telling the truth. But I believe that two things can be true at the same time. There are some women who are using this moment to gain attention. There are some women who are using other women’s stories to justify their villany of men. Unhealthy traumatized women can create unjustifiable harm and danger for others through their projections. If we do not hold them accountable when they either lie or tell half truths to skew an opinion, then we are dishonouring the real victims whose voices in some cases may never be heard.
I long for a day when men can truly see women as their human equals and treat them accordingly. I long for the day when #MeToo will be a relic of the past; of a time when humans projected their hurts and unhealed pain on others in unhealthy ways but through therapy, spiritual work and discipline healed themselves and in turn healed others. I have never met an abuser who themselves was not abused. I’m not saying they don’t exist; I’m just saying I’ve never met one. Everything I’ve learned in both Psychology and Psychotherapy has taught me we are born having the ability to love unconditionally. However, our environments, our parents/primary caregivers and our genetics have a huge role to play in our successes or failures in life. In order for the patriarchy to be demolished, men in general need to want to give up their power. In order for white supremacy to end, white people (white men in particular) need to want to become anti-racists and be willing to do whatever it takes to change the way things are. In order for sexual abuse and assault to end, men and women need to want to heal from their own traumas and wounds so they don’t perpetuate them on others. You have to WANT it. It is not going to magically manifest simply because we will it to. Unhealthy people are doing this to other people. So it’s those people we need to hold accountable and address.
To every single sexual abuse and/or assault victim out there who knows you truly have a story…I am so sorry you had to go through what you had to go through. No matter your gender or ethnicity, no one deserves to be violated. Period. My greatest hope for all of us is that we find healing and turn to healthy ways of expressing our anger, rage, disillusionment and disappointment. I pray that we all find a connection to our Source and allow it to heal us. I pray that when we do decide to speak about our experiences, that we will always be truthful and factual and not embellish things to gain attention or validation. We are valid because we exist. Our stories do not need anyone else’s validation. No one gets to tell us how big or small our trauma is or compare it to theirs. All of our stories matter. All of our stories deserve to be heard, if we choose to tell them. And no one has the right to infringe on a space that was created for us to heal and share and support each other, with lies, half truths and bullshit. Period. It dishonours us all. | https://medium.com/@coachwhitneysmart/im-not-a-fan-of-the-metoo-movement-anymore-8654c39f1c66 | ['Whitney Smart'] | 2020-10-12 11:02:52.389000+00:00 | ['White Privilege', 'Metoo', 'Black Women', 'White Supremacy', 'White Women'] |
Thursday | Yech
“…Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.” Derrick Jensen — The Culture of Make Believe ; Emphasis mine
Debates
Again I missed the debates to watch a bland movie about eco-terrorism; “Night Moves”, Netflix. They, the main people in the film, blew up a dam on some river in Oregon, though it may be unclear in the film where the supposed river is. I’m stumped as to why the film got good reviews. The message of destruction of the river was really only delivered by one of the minor characters in passing. If the film was supposed to deliver a massage on the harm of dams on rivers, it failed. I am critical on the bland messages about the destruction of Earth. Dams rearrange the ecosystems of rivers. They kill native species of river life. They eventually fall into disrepair and need to be dealt with somehow. None of these massages were in the film. Sorta, kinda, at best.
Oh yeah, the debate. It was the efforts of the corporatist, centrist, do-nothing faction of the party’s night to get their message out. I’m unclear if Tulsi Gabbard got her non-intervention message out or not. I believe she was the most progressive candidate on the stage. The W Post gave the nod to Bernie and Elizabeth by default. Yep, the Post! Just like the film, bland. The crooks continue to pillage average hard working Americans with nothing offered on ways of actual relief for their issues. Like higher education, Medicare for all, living wages, no more wars, things that improve lives all over, including the ones killed on the US’s war of terror. Here’s a link to an essay on Medium.
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/the-global-pandemic-of-anti-muslim-genocidal-violence-c9e735d4575e
I no longer call it the war on terror. It’s the war of terror. The US and it’s proxies are the largest terrorist cabal in the world. The US is the biggest arms dealer and to sell arms there has to be wars. And as long as the US economy depends on wars to stay afloat we’ll have war, This has to end. If we are to save the planet for future generations, wars must come to an end. The US military is the single biggest emitter of CO2 in the world. Eco-terrorism on a grand scale. Makes a single dam pale by comparison. Until the huge elephant is addressed, head on, the world will continue to heat. Even cutting back excessive use of say, electricity and motorized vehicular travel, won’t help until the militaries of the world are scaled back drastically. Nothing ever like this will appear in any debate. So Green New Deal or not, the military has to be part of the grand calculus to save Earth. And it’s never mentioned.
Activists
The ‘woke’ activists do know how bad wars fought by the various military actions around the world are for the ecology. They do talk about how submarine’s sonars can harm whales. Even worse than subs are the sonic booms used in deep exploration for oil reserves under the seas. Some of the beached whales and dolphins are the result of them committing suicide because their delicate sonar systems above their heads are so damaged they can’t navigate any more, which lets them starve slowly. Some people are so unawares that it makes me sick seeing the damage they do without a thought. Activists know better, They aren’t fooled by the bullshit on corporate(MSM) media outlets. The movies of the 90’s had better eco-messages than the films of recent make. There are though, a lot more post-apocalyptic films. They just skip over what’s happening now. Tree-huggers are a pejorative in today’s parlance. I cried when I viewed some old photos of giant tree stumps with a dozen lumberjacks dancing upon the dead remains of a thousand year old tree. 95% of old growth forests in the US have been decimated by humanity’s disregard for nature, and we are interconnected with all nature. Profit from the death of thousand year old trees. Nature murder. Nature’s not “out there” or a nice photo in a large book. Even cities are part and parcel of nature.
End
So I said yech in the header. That’s the way I feel about things. They continue to deteriorate while a spectral spectacle of vast proportions are displayed to keep us distracted. As long as capitalism has its tentacles firmly interlaced with modern living we will be a large burden to Earth’s ecosystems. The energy giants have been busy spreading lies and disinformation for about forty years or so. There is and never has been controversy on global warming for a long time, at least since WW II. Some few scientists expressed concerns way before the war. It’s time to end war. It’s time for drastic change to save Earth’s ecosystems. We have to. Peace, The Ol’ Hippy | https://medium.com/@jrallen1200/thursday-d278942972fc | ['John Allen'] | 2019-08-01 18:12:05.227000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Politics', 'Environment', 'Ecology', 'Democratic Debate'] |
#SDGs4Universities 2019 Impact Report | A leading youth voice on Climate Change which seeks to build a climate-smart generation across Africa while identifying key development issues affecting population across Africa especially in Nigeria through creative dialogues and innovations.
Follow | https://medium.com/climatewed/sdgs4universities-2019-impact-report-faca5fb5f2d2 | ['Iccdi Africa'] | 2020-01-19 11:16:30.797000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Sdgs', 'Climate Change', 'Nigeria', 'University'] |
Black Genie out of a Box | 🎄It is the night before Christmas. Not a creature is out loitering in the yard, not even a mouse.
In a suburban home, a young housewife named Claudia is in her sexy Christmas lingerie outfit that her husband bought for her weeks ago. Claudia is in a naughty mood and it’s unfortunate that her husband, Eric, isn’t. Eric has had himself one too many rum-punches before retiring to the bedroom upstairs. The house is quiet with nothing to contend with for the night.
Sad, but not wanting to call it a night, Claudia decides to make herself useful by combing through the wrapped gift boxes that surround the Christmas tree. She could wait for morning but figures what the hell, might as well start now while Eric remains passed out.
Claudia picks out a special box bearing no card slip from whoever sent it. She holds the box to her face and says, “I wonder whatever could be lurking inside?”
Only one way to find out.
She tears through the wrapping, opens the box, and is amazed by what she sees: a pristine, golden lamp. Claudia holds the lamp to her face and sees her reflection on its surface, speculating whose silly idea for a joke this might be. She rubs the lamp’s body, wanting to reassure herself that it is real, when the lamp suddenly comes alive and grows hot in her hand.
Claudia drops it on the floor and steps back from it as she sees blue smoke swirling out of its spout. The smoke pours out of the lamp until it becomes too much for Claudia to make out the room. She attempts to flee from the room, fearing a fire outbreak, but stops when she hears a man’s deep voice.
“Hello,” says a black genie dressed in a Santa outfit. “Thank you for setting me free. I am your humble servant.”
Claudia looks at him, baffled by his presence. “Who are you?”
“I am Mo, the Black Genie,” he says. “I have been a prisoner of that lamp for ages, and you just set me free. Now, it is my duty to fulfil your wishes.”
“My wishes?”
“Actually, you get three wishes,” the Genie holds up three fingers. “And nothing more. Shall we begin?”
“I get to just wish for anything? Don’t matter how crazy it might be?”
“As long as it doesn’t involve death or wealth.”
“Ok,” Claudia thinks for a moment, then snaps her fingers. “My husband is drunk in bed right now. I want him to keep sleeping till morning. Can you handle that, Genie?”
The Genie snaps his fingers, then says to her, “You can go check on him. He won’t be up until seven in the morning.”
“Great. As for my second wish, I’m super-horny. I want you, Genie, to take off that ridiculous Santa outfit and fuck me here in my living room.”
Claudia strips off her Christmas outfit and stands, tits and ass, in front of the Genie to show how serious she is.
“Are you game for it, Genie?”
The Genie’s eyes soak up her nude figure without breaking any expression on his face. “If that is your second wish?”
“Yes, it’s my second,” says Claudia, then she adds, “hold on a minute.”
She marches up the stairs and stops at the main bedroom. Claudia opens the door and peers inside. Yes, Eric remains passed out on the bed. She smiles as she shuts the door and returns downstairs to the living room.
Claudia stops as she nears the foot of the stairs when she sees the Genie standing in the middle of the living room without any clothes; his cock is ramrod erect and waiting. Claudia feels herself getting moist as she approaches him. She leads him to the sofa and proceeds to make him feel special.
She falls to her knees and takes the Black Genie’s cock into her mouth. The Genie strokes her hair from her face but gives no subtle expression that he’s enjoying the pleasure. Claudia doesn’t want to waste any time; she barely has a grip on her horny state. She comes up, and the Genie grasps her waist as she mounts him. His cock buries itself inside her cunt with succulent ease. Claudia gives off a sharp gasp as she settles her rump on the Genie’s pelvis. Her butt gets busy riding him while she locks her grip around his shoulders. She cannot believe how real this is — I’m actually fucking a Genie? A Black Genie? This shit is crazy! — yet, there she is, taking the Genie’s cock in her pussy like she would her husband’s.
The Genie grabs her ass cheeks and motivates her towards riding him faster. Claudia picks up the pace. She exhales faster than she takes in air through her lips. The Genie’s cock drives her up the wall and she loves it.
They fall to the side, with the Genie’s hands around her waist while pistoning his rod into her. Claudia locks her feet over his thighs, her arms grip him tighter while she whimpers her pleasure. All attempts to hold in her cries grow lost on her as she continues to enjoy herself. No longer is Claudia bothered about Eric suddenly waking up and coming downstairs to discover her adultery. All that matters is her getting off.
They switch positions afterwards: the Genie has her grabbing at the sofa’s armrest while he fucks her from behind. He pins her arm behind her back and rams into her harder and harder.
Claudia gasps and chokes on her cries. Her body breaks into a frenzy. She cannot hold back her orgasm from exploding beyond her womb.
Claudia falls on her face, gasping hard. She turns around and sees the Genie’s cock dripping with semen on her thigh; he’s breathing heavy, but he isn’t sweating.
“Oh, my God,” Claudia gasps, “that was the most amazing sex, ever.”
“Glad to be of service,” the Genie comes off the sofa. He snaps his fingers and immediately his Santa outfit appears on his body. “Would you be desiring a third and final wish?”
“Give me a moment,” Claudia mutters before coming to her feet. “Yes, I’ve got me a last wish; something I’ve thought of enjoying for a long time. I wish to have myself a gangbang.”
The Genie nods his head. “And how many men would you prefer? And what outlook would you prefer?”
“I want three — no, four — yes, make it four handsome, athletic, black studs with huge cocks.”
“Four handsome, athletic, black studs,” the Genie repeats her request. “All of that you will have right now.”
The Genie snaps his fingers. A puff of smoke gushes out of the lamp, covering the room so that Claudia can’t make out anything, not even the Genie. The smoke suddenly evaporates from the room, and we see the Genie isn’t alone. Four black men stand before him, naked, sporting massive erections. Their eyes are fixated on Claudia, who stands there marvelling at their sudden appearance.
“Here are the four studs you requested,” says the Genie. “Do with them as you please.”
The Genie disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving Claudia with her four naked gentlemen.
“Ok, guys,” Claudia drops to her knees while squeezing her tits in both hands. “Better bring those cocks over right now.”
The four men advance towards her with their penises ahead. Although we would like to see this story to its inevitable end, sorry, we have to end it here. Good night, everyone. And wake up to a Merry Christmas in the morning. | https://myerotica.com/black-genie-out-of-a-box-35d8be4955e6 | ['Damien Dsoul'] | 2020-12-24 14:57:42.867000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Sex', 'Erotica', 'Relationships', 'Fiction'] |
Virtual Economies will be built and controlled by players | We strongly believe that genuine virtual economies will be fuelled by cryptocurrency and the decentralised nature of blockchain. Online games have traditionally used centralised in-game stores, but by using blockchain-based virtual economies players can build and shape online economies on their own terms. This will be an enormous change from the current centralised game world administration found in existing MMO games.
New digital worlds will be blockchain-based
We’ve previously seen online economies created with aspects of activities also found in everyday life, such as working, shopping and leisure activities all taking place in virtual worlds. Introducing blockchain and cryptocurrency, we’re expanding the interconnectivity between virtual worlds and the offline/real world.
Linking virtual and real-world economies
With more than 1.8 billion gamers around the world, opening digital economies and removing the disconnect between real and virtual world economies will demonstrate the usability of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to the mainstream consumer. Blockchain-based online games and virtual worlds become linked to real-world economies when cryptocurrency exchanges offer trading between the world- or game-based tokens to other cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies.
Blockchain-based platforms are appropriate for games and worlds where there is real cash value items and other assets included. When you are dealing with items and virtual assets that have a real cash value, you are connected to the real world. Therefore, we believe token worlds will be the future of virtual worlds and online game economies.
Apply to our Whitelist to participate in the Pre-Sale
The PARSEC Pre-Sale will open on January 24th, 2018. This will be a limited sale, open to applicants who are accepted by the team. Anyone can apply, but only a select number of applicants will be chosen to participate in this phase of the sale. The whitelist process shall ensure diverse token distribution, and help mitigate market risk imposed by single large token holders.
Whitelist-approved participants will be guaranteed to contribute their specific amount of ETH in the PARSEC Pre-Sale. You will need to be a part of our Discord server.
The full details of our token sales can be found in our Pre-Sale Document.
For more information please join the conversation on our Discord or follow us on Twitter.
Also, please stay tuned for further updates from us regarding content, game design, concept art and much more to come in the next couple of weeks. | https://medium.com/parsec-frontiers/virtual-economies-will-be-built-and-controlled-by-players-530d4a526033 | ['Henning Rokling'] | 2018-01-21 19:32:17.257000+00:00 | ['Virtual Worlds', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Happy New Year 2022! | Happy New Year 2022!
The passing year 2021 was the year of the fulfillment of desires… ✨
💡 Literally 4 months ago, two talented people had an incredible idea — to create their own metaverse, in which everyone can succeed and make their life better. They energized like-minded people to create a new reality together! Now you can see the results of this serious and laborious work…
☄️This is the Neon Earth project!
⭐️Creating the Neon Earth metaverse, we dreamed of giving the world a special project full of equal opportunities for profit, personal growth and realizing the potential for all. We are sure that we have laid all the necessary foundation for this and in 2022 we will be able to strengthen it and give you even more!
Thank you for being with us!
🚀You are brave, smart and very ambitious! Without these qualities, you would not dare to become a part of the Neon Earth metaverse. Your faith and support motivate us to get better every day!
❄️In the new year 2022, we wish you to set new ambitious goals, successfully achieve them and keep this up! Do not be afraid to fulfill your wildest dreams, because the more happy people in the world, the more ambitious and cool things we can create TOGETHER!
Just be yourself and don’t be afraid! We will be there for you in the new 2022!
❤️With love, Neon Earth team!
Our resources:
🌐 Website
📃 Whitepaper
🤖 Telegram Bot
🇷🇺 Telegram chat
🇷🇺 Telegram channel
🇬🇧 Telegram chat
🇬🇧 Telegram channel
🇬🇧 Twitter
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📢 Discord | https://medium.com/@neonearthio/happy-new-year-2022-da4fb63fc049 | [] | 2021-12-31 12:00:06.280000+00:00 | ['Metaverse', 'Bnb', 'Gamefi', 'Crypto', 'Nft'] |
Happy Valentine’s Day Quotes! Cupid-Approved Valentine’s Day Quotes for 2022 | No matter how you celebrate Valentine’s Day 2022, perhaps use a home cooking recipe or a fun idea for a day in the car, as long as you are filled with lots of love and energy to feel good, then you are doing well. the fourteenth. February. But go beyond just saying “Happy Valentine’s Day!” For your friends, family, or loved ones, this year goes over the basics and shares with them the perfect Valentine’s Day picks.
Whether you are looking for Valentine’s Day love quotes to share with you other significant or funny V-day Instagram captions to share photos of your Galentine day with all your girls, here is a great list of 150 Cupid’s quotes from V- day is the perfect way to spread love and say “Happy Valentine’s Day!” everyone on your list wish with Happy Valentines Day Quotes:
Happy Valentine’s Quotes
1. “My heart is steadfast, O God, given to me; We will collect them together and discard the keys. Frederick Saunders
2. “No Valentine’s Day, February will be … well, January.” — Jim Gaffigan
3. “The fire called Amar is beyond human comprehension. But perfect for the human soul. “- Aberjhani
4. “Never enough I love you.” — Lenny Bruce
5. “Keep love in your heart. Life without it is like a garden without the sun when the flowers die. “- Oscar Wilde
6. “Love is like a beautiful flower that I cannot touch, but its scent makes the garden a delightful place anyway.” — Helen Keller
7. “Love is the beauty of the soul.” — San August
8. “Great love gives you strength, whereas giving love gives you strength.” — Lao Tse
9. “Love is everlasting; the parts may change, but not the head. “- Vincent van Gogh
10. “Love is a living soul.” — Aristotle
Read More | https://medium.com/@tmadly25/happy-valentines-day-quotes-cupid-approved-valentine-s-day-quotes-for-2022-84a43e21f543 | [] | 2021-12-22 07:09:28.335000+00:00 | ['Valentines Day', 'Valentines Day Gifts'] |
Pandemic and Lock-down as Opportunity for Change | Lacking a more relevant image, our cat Louis keeping me company in my home office during lock-down.
Many years ago a social sciences program on the Austrian National Radio channel ORF-Oe1 spoke about the concept of “fate as opportunity”. What stood out for me and what I still remember is that falling ill may be a sign of something not being quite right, a message from your body. Being forced to tread a bit lighter and pause life during an illness may be an occasion to re-evaluate one’s situation and take it as an opportunity for change.
That being said, perhaps the corona virus(SARS-CoV-2) pandemic could be seen in a similar vein as the world seems to be put on pause with severe social and economic consequences, close to a collapse. Prior to the pandemic, the news was filled with stories on Climate Change; yet very little action followed and the world appeared to continue on its well-established path. Without wishing for a pandemic at the time, I wrote in Alternative Measures of Progress — a Personal Experience long before:
“Perhaps it always needs a tangible and serious threat to our living conditions to start acting. Unfortunately, market mechanisms tend to counter proportionally to the severity of a state, which may not be enough; perhaps we ought to act proportionally to the trend towards a severe state, with providence.”
Perhaps now is the time to re-evaluate our economic system and its metrics, our understanding of growth and development. There are many books on that matter, e.g. Tim Jackson’s Prosperity without Growth: Foundations for the Economy of Tomorrow. In the following I would like to re-hash what I have written in other stories in the context of published articles on the pandemic and lock-down forcing us to adopt a simpler life style.
Cull Consumerism
On April 29th 2020, BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis had some guests in a discussion on how they cope with the lock-down: Salma Shah, presenter of the “Now wash your hands” podcast, actress Tracy-Ann Oberman and Matthew Parris from The Times. The gist was that they all did appreciate the simplicity and quietness of life in lock-down, “away from consumerism, [..] the need to buy frivolous things”, but focus on the essential, on health.
The BBC programme reminded me of my own article, The Environmental Cost of Material Affluence, on how to reduce the material footprint:
… simply to consume less, have less stuff. […] Perhaps adopting a slightly more modest life style would be a start, or at least consider the footprint of items you consume by consulting Mike Berners-Lee’s How Bad are Bananas?
Perhaps a society that is not dependent on an accelerating production — consumption cycle but strives to grow in non-material terms, through education, science and arts would be desirable.
Alternative Shopping
Edit: previous content of this section subsumed in following article:
Public Transport
On 27 March 2020 the BBC Science & Technology published Climate change: ‘Gob-smacking’ vision for future UK transport reported:
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Public transport and active travel will be the natural first choice for our daily activities. “We will use our cars less and be able to rely on a convenient, cost-effective and coherent public transport network.”
Surprising it is to hear that from a Conservative government minister. The statement resonated very much with my personal view on public transport both as a public service and a shared form of mobility, articulated in Thoughts on the Energy (and Carbon) Saving Potential for Personal Mobility:
A public service cannot be a business that creates revenue for its shareholders; it is a service for all stakeholders of society.
This echoes the Business Round Table’s Updated Statement Moves Away from Shareholder Primacy, Includes Commitment to All Stakeholders. Similar statements were made in articles on the Financial Times. Well, the pendulum of economic thought seems to be moving away from the Chicago school of economics as we realise that it needs a bit more than the economy to hold society together; perhaps there is a society after all.
As far as the impact on Climate Change is concerned, like I wrote on Thoughts on the Consequences of an Increasing Personal Mobility Radius, large savings in energy expenditure are to be had with any shared form of mobility, of which public transport is one, or shared autonomous vehicles another.
I was particularly pleased that, in line with SUVs and 4x4s — How can these vehicles remain acceptable?, the BBC publication Climate change: ‘Gob-smacking’ vision for future UK transport articulates an issue with SUV:
Some campaigners say the government needs to start by reducing the sales of big heavy SUVs, which need more fuel than smaller vehicles and create a greater demand for materials — even if they are powered by electricity.
Working from Home
When I was working on Thoughts on the Energy (and Carbon) Saving Potential for Personal Mobility some time ago before the pandemic I stated:
Given modern collaborative tools and high speed networks these days, however, I think that there is quite some energy saving potential in remote work.
My estimate of a savings potential of around 10% was perhaps on the lower side. Given that I find myself working from home 5 days a week, i.e. 100% and that quite a significant portion the working population does so, too, and could continue to do so, the savings in energy and resource expenditure are worth having, with all knock-on effects to transport system such as less needs for office space, or less urban concentration. I could be living in France on the country side (provided a decent internet connection)!
Conclusion
In my opinion, the majority of all economic activities is only there to support mankind as a whole in all our principal endeavours, not the other way round. Economy, technology, industry and finance need to serve mankind, not the other way round where people become enslaved in the system that appears to be created for the benefit of a few. Perhaps working on metrics around that understanding can help to re-focus and grow in different ways. In then end it is all down to the metrics global society chooses to be optimised that will determine our path forward. | https://medium.com/@peter-wurmsdobler/pandemic-and-lock-down-as-opportunity-for-change-f18eb65f13b7 | ['Peter Wurmsdobler'] | 2020-09-16 15:31:51.734000+00:00 | ['Pandemic', 'Consumerism', 'Climate Change', 'Coronavirus', 'Energy Efficiency'] |
Australian AI Software Startup Overturns Court Judgement in Landmark Appeal. | Be careful who you take money from.
In 2015 two of our Shareholders sued our small start-up company, Semantic Software Asia Pacific Limited, “SSAP”. The Shareholders were the superannuation funds of a husband and wife, Simon and Terri Vinson, now divorced. In 2012 Simon Vinson invested $1.25 million in SSAP through his superannuation fund and persuaded Terri Vinson to invest $312,500 through her superannuation fund in 2012 and 2013. In March and May 2014, Simon invested a further $290,000.
After making the initial investments, in early 2013 Terri Vinson requested that Simon Vinson be given a senior role in the Company. Simon was an accountant and property developer, which was not a full-time role, and Terri Vinson felt that an executive role in SSAP would be a suitable role for him and a recognition of their investment. SSAP offered Simon Vinson a Board Adviser role in order to assess his suitability for a Directorship. In mid-2013 the Board decided not to offer Simon a Directorship. Simon appeared relaxed about it but that was not the case with Terri. At a subsequent Annual General Meeting, Terri Vinson made it clear that she was very angry that Simon was not given a substantial role or Board Directorship.
Notwithstanding Terri’s anger, Simon Vinson continued to support SSAP by raising capital for the Company from his friends and business associates from 2012 to early 2014. In late 2014 the relationship with Simon broke down and in early 2015 Simon and Terri Vinson, via their Superannuation Funds, sued both SSAP and its Founder and Managing Director, Mark Bradley, for Breach of Contract and Misleading and Deceptive Conduct. They claimed that the assets of the company, patents and patent applications, had no value and that therefore the Company had failed to meet a guarantee that their shares would triple in value within two years of their investment.
The commencement of litigation had a definite negative impact on the ability of SSAP to raise capital, as the litigation was declared in our Financial Statements. That made life tough for us.
In late 2015 we commissioned a valuation from one of the leading United States valuers of intellectual property. Boston based Brattle Group are frequently appointed as expert witnesses in high profile disputes around the world and were recommended by our US Patent Attorneys as “the best in the US”. Brattle valued our patent portfolio at US$246 million. On a value per share basis that was eight times what Terri Vinson and Simon Vinson paid for their shares. Despite this, the Vinsons continued their course.
In 2016 attempts were made to settle the matter but Simon, representing the Plaintiffs, made demands that were far in excess of the obligations the Company had to the Plaintiffs. In a Court ordered mediation, Simon told the Mediator, in a loud profanity-laden declaration that “if I don’t get what I want I will smash this company to pieces”.
The magnitude of demands made by Simon Vinson and Terri Vinson through late 2016 and early 2017 increased to the extent that they were impossible for SSAP to meet. Despite our offers to buy their shares back at the guaranteed value, all of our many settlement offers were rejected. Instead, Simon demanded a remedy that, in effect, would pass control of the Company and its valuable patent portfolio to them.
Meanwhile in 2016, unbeknown to us, Terry Vinson had filed for divorce from Simon. She had developed a property and was also in Victoria’s Supreme Court refusing to pay the Builder his final payment in Vinson v Neerim Properties Developments Pty Ltd [2016] VSC 321, (9 June 2016).
The SSAP matter was heard in the NSW Supreme Court in early 2017.
The Plaintiffs, the respective superannuation funds of Simon Vinson and Terri Vinson, were represented by Senior and Junior Counsel. The Senior Counsel, Elizabeth Collins, had been Junior Counsel to the Presiding Judge when he was a Senior Counsel. The Judge presumably felt that this did not create any conflict of interest.
The Defendants, SSAP and Mark Bradley, were represented by Mark Bradley (who is not a lawyer).
The Plaintiffs argument, supported by a Melbourne suburban accountant, was that the SSAP shares were “worthless” because SSAP’s extensive patent portfolio was “worthless”.
The Defendants argument was that we had obtained a valuation from a highly credentialed and respected US company that was expert in valuing Intellectual Property for the US Supreme Court, and that the authoritative valuation of our patent portfolio was “at least US$246 million”.
The Presiding Judge, the Honourable Justice James Stevenson advised that he would not allow our expert valuation witness to participate via video-conference, insisting that he travel from Boston to appear early the following week. That proved impossible, so the Presiding Judge struck out our valuation, and all reference to it, from evidence.
During the trial, the Plaintiffs’ Solicitor approached SSAP with offers of settlement that would see damages awarded of more than three times the investment made by the Plaintiffs, that SSAP would be required to enter into an aggressive payment timetable, and that they would be able to keep their “worthless” shares. This would effectively hand ownership of the Company’s patents and software to these two small shareholders and leave the other 200 shareholders with nothing.
On behalf of the Defendants and our Shareholders, Mark Bradley argued to the Court that the claims of the Plaintiffs amounted to a scam, and that they actually believed that the shares were very valuable because the patent portfolio was very valuable, and that they sought to own the patents. In final submissions, the Plaintiffs argued that they should be awarded damages plus be able to keep their shares. Mark Bradley argued that it is a fundamental principle of law that “you can’t have your cake and eat it too”.
Justice Stevenson delivered a Judgement and Orders on February 24, 2017 that was strongly adverse to SSAP and Mark Bradley. However, in awarding damages to the Plaintiffs against SSAP and Mark Bradley, Justice Stevenson supported Mark Bradley’s submissions that, according to Australian Law, the Plaintiffs must surrender their shares in exchange for the claimed damages; that indeed they could not have their cake and eat it too.
As had been foreshadowed to Justice Stevenson, on May 5, 2017 the Defendants filed an Appeal against his Judgement.
On February 14, 2018 the NSW Court of Appeal overturned all judgements against SSAP. [ see judgement here]. The Court also overturned the judgement against Mark Bradley for misleading and deceptive conduct.
Justice was served
In the Appeal Hearing the Barrister for SSAP and Mark Bradley argued that in striking out the SSAP valuation, Justice Stevenson had failed to provide ‘ procedural fairness ‘ which was required of him according to the procedural rules of the Court. A request for leave to appeal to the High Court on this argument of procedural fairness was subsequently made, but in June 2018 leave to Appeal was not granted.
While this whole matter made capital raising very difficult and working capital tight, we managed to struggle through. We had to lower the price at which we sell shares to considerably below true value. Existing Shareholders were very supportive, contributing an additional amount of around $3 million in each of the three years following the Court Case.
We are now working on substantial growth funding and migrating to a US public listing in 2021.
The number of US Patents issued to us has increased nine-fold since the US$246 million valuation. These are very important “Premium Patents” that describe core fundamental technologies for the next generation of computing, Artificial Intelligence.
After 8 years of R&D and some $40 million invested, in January 2000 we released our world-leading “ cognitiveAI” Artificial Intelligence platform on Amazon Web Services. With sophisticated Semantic Technologies based on Ontologies and Semantic Graph “triple stores” at its core, our customers can quite easily build knowledge bases for much more robust and automated Artificial Intelligence. In short, you can build more sophisticated Artificial Intelligence, more quickly, at lower costs, and become self-sufficient sooner.
Forrester Research published “ TechRadar: Artificial Intelligence Technologies Q1 2017” in 2017. They opined “This (Semantic Computing) technology is on a trajectory of moderate success. However this could move to significant success if the market and buyers hit an inflection point where they realize the importance of semantic technologies in making AI systems more robust and automated.”
On Reddit in 2019, Microsoft Founder Bill Gates said “The most amazing thing will be when computers can read and understand the text like humans do. Today computers can do simple things like search for specific words but concepts like vacation or career or family are not “understood”. It has always been kind of a holy grail of software particularly now that vision and speech are largely solved”
Experts’ reading of the market is that in 2021 and beyond Semantic Technologies will be at the heart of the next major advances in Artificial Intelligence because the market has hit Forrester’s “inflection point”, and is now becoming aware that you can’t have Artificial Intelligence without the computer understanding , to recognize the meaning of words and phrases, necessary for true cognitive computing. Bill Gates calls it “the holy grail of software”.
“IDC forecasts the overall AI software market to approach $240.27 billion in revenue in 2024 with a CAGR of 16.7%, with the AI-centric part of it to approach $43.7 billion with a CAGR of 22.4% over the entire period.” — “I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analysing all the data on the Web, the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A Semantic Web, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.” Ritu Jyoti, program vice president, AI research, IDC
Today we are working on some of the most advanced applications of natural language processing in the world today, combining the strengths of semantic technologies and deep learning to gain very deep insights into technical data, both text documents and digital databases. The applications for such technology are broad and the potential benefits are massive, typically productivity gains well above 100% per annum.
To achieve what we did, we had to reinvent the vision of Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee when he said in 1999
We are firmly of the view that we can build a large global software and services company headquartered in the US and building on the rich ingenuity and skills of Australian researchers and developers in our Australian software lab.
I am often asked what happened to Simon and Terri Vinson after the Appeal. Not only do they remain as Shareholders, in 2019 Terri’s Lawyers advised that as part of their divorce settlement Simon had agreed to transfer sufficient of his shares in the Company so that he and Terri had split the “worthless shares” 50/50. Neither Simon or Terri have ever met requests to sell their shares back to the Company or indicated any desire to do so.
As my grandmother used to say, “be careful who you take money from”. | https://medium.com/@mark-bradley/aussie-cognitive-software-startup-overturns-court-judgement-in-landmark-appeal-6bd855c29e6 | ['Mark Bradley'] | 2021-03-23 23:51:11.892000+00:00 | ['Terri Vinson', 'Startup', 'Simon Vinson', 'Funding', 'Legal'] |
“The Internet is Here to Stay,” says Ron Burgundy | via Derek Bernard: In a world where the nature of our being in this place we call reality is so often taken for granted amidst the need to sustain the status quo, Riz Virk (zenentrepreneur.com) explores the very real possibility (and in some schools of thought, a very real PROBability) that what we experience as “real” is in fact a simulation akin to a video game with it’s quests, achievements, and leveling up through our experiences.
“What is Science and what is Religion? Both are attempts to try to find the truth about our physical reality and what is inside or outside of that reality and what the rules are. In the Simulation Hypothesis what science is actually discovering is what we in the video game world would call a physics engine.” — Riz Virk
“The Simulation Hypothesis is a model that we live in an information-based reality that’s being rendered for each of us may end up coming closer to explaining these things than a lot of other models that are out there.” — Riz Virk | https://medium.com/hackernoon/the-internet-is-here-to-stay-says-ron-burgundy-e6b040ea44ed | [] | 2019-08-15 17:00:15.928000+00:00 | ['Cybersecurity Podcast', 'Simulation Hypothesis', 'Hacker Podcast', 'Riz Virk Podcast', 'Tech Podcast'] |
How I Develop a Temporal Database Storage Engine in the Advent of Byte-Addressable NVM | SirixDB stores an in-memory transaction intent log, which is only serialized on memory-pressure. On transaction-commit, SirixDB applies this log during a postorder-traversal. The UberPage, which is the main entry point into the resource-storage, is written last.
Versioning of Record Pages
The database pages in SirixDB, in general, are of variable length and don’t have to be padded to fit into a predefined block-storage size. RecordPages store the application data. Currently, a native layer for XML, as well as JSON documents, exists. Fine-granular, fast random reads due to byte-addressable non-volatile memory allows the versioning of these RecordPages as well.
Versioning of the RecordPages reduces the amount of storage space needed and makes shadow paging more efficient due to less data, which the system has to write. Furthermore, it eliminates the need for fat nodes or modification boxes sometimes used to reduce the space requirements of copy-on-write approaches and path copying.
SirixDB implements several versioning strategies best known from backup systems for copy-on-write operations of record-pages. Namely, it either copies
the full record-page that is any record in the page ( full )
) only the changed records in a record-page regarding the former version ( incremental )
) only the changed records in a record-page since a full-page dump (differential)
Full Dump Versioning
Storing the whole database page, although only a few records might have changed, on the one hand, requires way too much storage space. On the other hand, reading this page to fully reconstruct it in-memory instead of having to read scattered deltas is the most efficient way.
Incremental Versioning
Incremental-versioning is one extreme. Write performance is best, as it stores the optimum (only changed records). On the other hand, reconstructing a page needs intermittent full snapshots of pages. Otherwise, performance deteriorates with each new revision of the page as the number of increments increases with each new version.
Differential Versioning
Differential-versioning tries to balance reads and writes somewhat better, but it’s still not optimal. A system implementing a differential versioning strategy has to write all changed records since a past full dump of the page. Thus, only ever two revisions of the page-fragment have to be read to reconstruct a record-page. However, write-performance also deteriorates with each new revision of the page.
Drawbacks of the three state-of-the-art approaches
Write peaks occur during incremental versioning, due to the requirement of intermittent full dumps of the page. Differential versioning also suffers from the same problem. Without an intermittent full dump, a system using differential versioning has to duplicate vast amounts of data during each new write.
Marc Kramis came up with the idea of a novel sliding snapshot algorithm, which balances read/write-performance to circumvent any write-peaks.
Sliding Snapshot Versioning
The algorithm, as suggested by its name, makes use of a sliding window. First, the system has to write any changed record during a commit. Second, any record, which is older than a predefined length N of the window and which has not been changed during these N-revisions must be written, too. Only these N-revisions at max have to be read. The system might fetch the page-fragments in parallel or strictly linear. In the latter case, the page fragments are read, starting with the most recent revision. The algorithm stops once the full-page is reconstructed. You can find the best high-level overview of the algorithm in Marc’s Thesis Evolutionary Tree-Structured Storage: Concepts, Interfaces, and Applications.
No write-ahead log needed for consistency
SirixDB does not need a write-ahead log. During a transaction-commit the UberPage is swapped in an atomic operation. Thus, the data is always consistent without the need of a WAL, which is basically a second durable storage and completely unnecessary due to SirixDBs design.
Lightweight buffer management
SirixDB bridges the gap between in-memory and disk-oriented database systems. Instead of a heavyweight buffer and concurrency manager, it uses a lightweight buffer manager and stores direct pointers to in-memory data structures, during a fetch of a page from persistent storage. If the buffer manager has to evict a page, it sets the in-memory pointer of the parent page to null.
Next, we’ll describe some of the most important design goals, while engineering SirixDB.
Design Goals
Some of the most important core principles are:
Minimize Storage Overhead
SirixDB shares unchanged data pages as well as records between revisions, depending on a chosen versioning algorithm during the initial bootstrapping of a resources. SirixDB aims to balance read and writer performance in its default configuration. It uses a huge persistent (in the functional programming language sense), durable index structure for the main document storage as well as versioned secondary indexes
SirixDB shares unchanged data pages as well as records between revisions, depending on a chosen versioning algorithm during the initial bootstrapping of a resources. SirixDB aims to balance read and writer performance in its default configuration. It uses a huge persistent (in the functional programming language sense), durable index structure for the main document storage as well as versioned secondary indexes Concurrent
SirixDB contains very few locks and aims to be as suitable for multithreaded systems as possible
SirixDB contains very few locks and aims to be as suitable for multithreaded systems as possible Asynchronous
Operations can happen independently; each transaction is bound to a specific revision and only one read/write-transaction on a resource is permitted concurrently to N read-only-transactions
Operations can happen independently; each transaction is bound to a specific revision and only one read/write-transaction on a resource is permitted concurrently to N read-only-transactions Versioning/Revision history
SirixDB stores a revision history of every resource in the database without imposing extra overhead. It uses a huge persistent, durable page-tree for indexing revisions and data
SirixDB stores a revision history of every resource in the database without imposing extra overhead. It uses a huge persistent, durable page-tree for indexing revisions and data Data integrity
SirixDB, like ZFS, stores full checksums of the pages in the parent pages. That means that almost all data corruption can be detected upon reading in the future, we aim to partition and replicate databases in the future
SirixDB, like ZFS, stores full checksums of the pages in the parent pages. That means that almost all data corruption can be detected upon reading in the future, we aim to partition and replicate databases in the future Copy-on-write semantics
Similarly to the file systems Btrfs and ZFS, SirixDB uses CoW semantics, meaning that SirixDB never overwrites data. Instead, database-page fragments are copied/written to a new location
Similarly to the file systems Btrfs and ZFS, SirixDB uses CoW semantics, meaning that SirixDB never overwrites data. Instead, database-page fragments are copied/written to a new location Per revision and per page versioning
SirixDB does not only version on a per revision, but also on a per page-base. Thus, whenever we change a potentially small fraction
of records in a data-page, it does not have to copy the whole page and write it to a new location on a disk or flash drive. Instead, we can specify one of several versioning strategies known from backup systems or a novel sliding snapshot algorithm during the creation of a database resource. The versioning-type we specify is used by SirixDB to version data-pages
SirixDB does not only version on a per revision, but also on a per page-base. Thus, whenever we change a potentially small fraction of records in a data-page, it does not have to copy the whole page and write it to a new location on a disk or flash drive. Instead, we can specify one of several versioning strategies known from backup systems or a novel sliding snapshot algorithm during the creation of a database resource. The versioning-type we specify is used by SirixDB to version data-pages Guaranteed atomicity and consistency (without a WAL)
The system will never enter an inconsistent state (unless there is hardware failure), meaning that unexpected power-off won’t ever damage the system. This is accomplished without the overhead of a write-ahead-log (WAL)
The system will never enter an inconsistent state (unless there is hardware failure), meaning that unexpected power-off won’t ever damage the system. This is accomplished without the overhead of a write-ahead-log (WAL) Log-structured and making the most out of byte-addressable NVM
SirixDB batches writes and syncs everything sequentially to persistent storage during commits. It never overwrites committed data and only clusters revisions. Database page fragments are of variable size and may be scattered. Thus, SirixDB benefits from fast random access and byte-addressable NVM devices
Conclusion
The advent of fast non-volatile, byte-addressable memory renders most of the assumptions of today’s database systems invalid. Random reads (and even writes) are fast, thus clustering index structures densely on non-volatile storage is not required anymore.
Furthermore, byte-addressable storage upends the key design for block storage devices. Fixed-size blocks are not needed anymore. Instead, reads and writes can be done on a much more fine-granular level. I/O can mostly be done in parallel without a slow head moving around as it’s the case for spinning disks.
As writes are slower than reads on NVM and to save storage space for its evolutionary store, RecordPages are versioned. NVM eliminates the need to store all unchanged records of a page, even if a user only modifies a small number of records or even a single record. Thus, RecordPages are stored in fragments and scattered on persistent storage. Their size is variable, and they might be scattered on persistent storage.
The storage device underlying SirixDB should support fine granular byte-addressability or small block-sizes and fast random reads with possibly slower writes. Pages are never modified in-place. Thus “traditional” SSDs are a good fit as well. However, byte-addressable NVM in the future might be the best storage device.
SirixDB batches writes and syncs these to persistent storage during a commit. It doesn’t need a WAL due to the atomic swapping of an UberPage, which is the main entry point into the storage of a resource. A resource is the equivalent to a table in relational database systems (currently either XML or JSON, but graphs or tables might be added in a future release).
If you like the ideas presented in this article you can visit the Website and the Github Page. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-i-develop-a-temporal-database-storage-engine-in-the-advent-of-byte-addressable-nvm-ba152860e71 | ['Johannes Lichtenberger'] | 2019-12-28 15:02:59.798000+00:00 | ['Database', 'Byte Addressable Nvm', 'Storage', 'Kotlin', 'Java'] |
Can “Pets” be Trans? On Gender Identity and Human Exceptionalism | “Two grey wolf in love” — AB Photographie
Tw: gender dysphoria; mention of sexual violence, transphobia, substance abuse, depression, self harm
During a late-night-early-morning, I encountered a conversation in a trans forum that shook me.
“I’ve seen some cis people claim their (sic)¹ dogs are trans. This isn’t okay, is it???”
Of course it’s not.
It’s blatantly transphobic, for a start. Human gender identity is (at least in part) a social construct — a complex dance of clothing, hairstyles, makeup, voice inflection, pronouns and more, that trans people become so conscious of when transitioning. These are not nuances the owner (sic) sees in dogs. By extension, they don’t see this in us. We’re erased.
On top of this, we receive an onslaught of cultural violence. Trans people face extremely high rates of domestic abuse, and black trans women experience severe physical violence. One of the most insidious brutalities we face is exceptional to humans — the gender construct itself; the violence of language and the violence of thought.
As a child, I was one of the lucky ones; I was allowed to venture outside my assigned box. However, I was still expected to grow out of it; still detected embarrassment from caregivers; still faced sexual and physical violence from peers.
I still ultimately made the decision to suppress.
As the incredible trans advocate, Evey Winters, noted, this leads to substance abuse, depression, and self harm. We don’t just experience our genders viscerally — we suffer, bleed, and die for them.
When a speciesist compares only our experiences to nonhumans, they use the concept of animality to dehumanize us. To be inhuman is to be “less than” — less “real” than our cis counterparts.
The owner’s (sic) comments are also blatantly speciesist; they fetishize transness to objectify the dog.
Unfortunately, even in the most open and inclusive spaces, speciesist rhetoric is still rife.
“Dog’s DON’T have a gender identity”
“WHAT is this?! Animals don’t have genders!”
“AHAHAHAHAHA”
What’s funny, may I ask?
Yes, “Trans” is an exclusively human construct. Thus, a dog cannot be trans in the sociocultural sense. It’s like saying Kevin the dog is a man, or that he’s fiscally rich —it makes no sense.
However, it's equally meaningless to say our early human ancestors were trans, or that “cavemen” (sic) were, well… men. Calling a human “working class” before class had been constructed is also nonsensical. Though note, they may still be materially deprived.
The issue is these individuals are outside our social context. The ridiculousness of this comparison doesn’t stem from biological determinism².
To deny dogs gender altogether is to make sweeping statements about what gender is. If gender is exclusively human, then it stems from an exclusively human trait — language? Reason? Our sense of self? (Note: none of these are exclusively human)
Many trans people feel their genders aren’t rational or linguistic things. In fact, gender is experienced as a deep rooted, emotional entity, for many.
Personally speaking, I was gender nonconforming before the age of three. I had a blue Donald Duck suit that comforted me so much I’d try to sleep in it. I felt innately similar to my father — an experience I now call “gender empathy”. The discovery I’m nonbinary came not from a higher order understanding, but from letting go of the need for one.
I can question my gender over and over, but what it boils down to is “I don’t feel like a woman or a man.” This is why “logically” explaining it to transphobes is so degrading.
What I’m saying here, is that gender for me is a social identification — to be a gender is to feel aligned with a particular group.
Like us, gray wolves form medium-large social groups. They enter long term, monogamous relationships, and grieve for their late partners. They have social roles determined by their sex. They’re also self aware —i.e, they experience an identity of sorts.
Considering all of this, is it so unreasonable to suggest gender might be a part of their experience? If they can distinguish sex, and they can distinguish themselves, and sex helps to build their social structures, why wouldn’t they understand their own sex in relation to others’?
Following on from this, why should it be the case that male dogs experience exclusively masculine empathies, and female dogs exclusively feminine ones? The “assumption of least assumptions” here is that there’s natural variation across the species — just like for humans. Presumably, the processes which create social gender (empathy, self awareness, sex recognition, desire) don’t all come from one source?
So often, we deny nonhumans their full emotional experiences. We breed dogs in tiny cages, and separate puppies from their parents. Human supremacy around gender must stem from and reinforce this.
Human gender, for me, is a cluster of deep-rooted feelings that have been filtered through our complex society. Why wouldn’t dogs have similar feelings which are filtered through theirs?
Generally speaking, I reject binaries. I don’t believe gender is merely “a complex social construct” or “doesn’t exist”. Surely there’s more continuity³.
This isn’t to say dogs definitely have gender; I just see no reason to rule it out.
The speciesist owner (sic) wasn’t alluding to these nuances; they were fetishizing transness to objectify the dog. Cis people should not take this as an invitation to compare us to dogs.
What I hope people take from this, is that dogs and other nonhumans aren’t nothing (sic)— they’re someone. They have their own social structures, their own relationships, and their own entrenched feelings. We can fight transphobia without denying this. | https://aninjusticemag.com/can-pets-be-trans-on-gender-identity-and-human-exceptionalism-5d08f98fee7c | ['X Bloggs'] | 2020-10-07 20:26:33.966000+00:00 | ['Animal Rights', 'Transgender', 'Nonbinary', 'Veganism', 'Speciesism'] |
Choosing whether to leave or stay | by: E.B. Johnson
When our relationships face hardship, we can find ourselves faced with the decision of staying to work things out, or walking away to start over somewhere new. The choice isn’t an easy one, but it becomes necessary when we find ourselves fighting and miserable with someone we no longer recognize. Do you want to put in the work it’s going to take to fix things? Or do you want to find happiness elsewhere? The answer is one that doesn’t always come easy.
There are a number of factors that go into informing our decision to stay in a relationship or leave it. From societal and cultural factors, to our own personal hangups and warped views on connection — we have to weigh these factors carefully in order to make a decision that is authentically aligned to our needs. What future are you trying to build? What kind of relationship gives you fulfillment? Once you figure out these things, you can follow through with action.
It’s not always a straight-forward choice.
When our relationships fracture, we tend to find ourselves stuck in a strange purgatory. We see the other lives that are possible, and we long to stray to healthier shores. Our hearts and our memories keep us attached, though, and the waters of love and self-interest become muddied. Do you stay and work it out with someone you’re unhappy with? Or do you call it quits and start over with someone new? The choice is never an easy one, and it’s hardly as straightforward as we think.
Although our friends and family might preach the age-old adage of, “Just break up if you don’t want to be with them,” that’s not always a realistic possibility. Factors like conflicting behavior, investment, and even mutual responsibilities make leaving someone a complicated affair. We can’t always just pick up and run — even when that’s the best choice.
So what makes the decision to end a relationship so hard? Why do we struggle along in misery when we have the choice to free ourselves? Pressure from society, warped ideas on love, and even a commitment to settling can all work together to make the decision that much harder. Although the decision is ours, it doesn’t always feel that way when you consider all the outside elements that touch on and are touched by your partnership.
The factors that influence our decision to stay.
If we’re truly seeking freedom, or a place from which we can rebuild our partnerships, then we first need to understand what influences are keeping the choice of in the air. Are your behaviors conflicting? Does it feel like society will judge you? These are all factors which matter, and considerations we must process, resolve, and shed.
Conflicting behaviors
The way we approach our relationships and the way we act within them are two very different things. When our words and behaviors don’t match, they can make the partnership confusing or conflicting. Perhaps your partner tells you that they love you, but they don’t back it up by showing up when it matters. Maybe you feel unhappy within your relationship, but become confused by a sudden romantic gesture. The ups and the downs never make it easier to see our partnerships for what they really are.
Outer world factors
Although our relationships are a private and inside job, the outside world does a lot to inform the way we view those relationships and the people within them. When the outside world becomes more enjoyable than your relationship, the cracks (and the resentment) begin to show. As things breakdown, you may realize that you have other options. You can start to view your partner as a low-quality alternative to the things you wish you had instead.
Overwhelming comfort
You can be unhappy in a relationship and still experience a great deal of comfort. That’s because there’s comfort in the predictable, and old relationships are nothing if not predictable. This comfort becomes a problem, though, when it starts to outweigh our desire to be happy. You become complacent and lazy in these types of relationships; losing sight of everything from your physical health to your mental and emotional wellbeing.
Misaligned feelings
It’s hard to cut yourself off from someone who still really cares for you. When we’ve fallen out of love with a partner who still loves has feelings, it can create a tremendous sense of guilt and shame. Although you don’t want to be with them, you don’t want to hurt them either, and your damning sense of compassion drags you down into a partnership which is neither enjoyable nor fulfilling. Resentment builds and you can find yourself dealing with an even more toxic mess than before.
Settling for forever
There are some people out there who mean “forever” when they commit to someone they love. As things grow more comfortable, they make peace with staying in the relationship forever (something which is sometimes influenced by social or religious pressures). They may also harbor warped views on love and connection handed down through dysfunctional relationships with family and loved ones. This noble determination to “stay together no matter what” is never healthy for our long-term future, though.
Emotional manipulation
Emotional manipulation is one of the most common reasons we can find ourselves struggling to make a choice in regards to our intimate partnerships. Whenever you approach your partner or spouse about the topic, they may break down and become so emotional that it triggers your guilt. Wanting to avoid causing them any pain or trauma, you’re manipulated into falling back into line and back into a relationship with them (even though you don’t want to).
Overall investment
Overall investment plays a big role in the decisions we make regarding breaking up or staying. When you’ve put a lot of time and effort into someone, it can feel like giving up when it’s time to walk away. You share a lot of memories. You go through a lot of challenging experiences together. You may share a family together. This doesn’t always make for a productive partnership, though. Even though it does make it harder to walk away when you need to.
How to make the right decision (and follow through).
You are the only person who can make the right decision for you. Is this the person you’re ready to fight for? Is your relationship beyond repair? You can break up, or you can stay together. The choice is yours and yours alone. Whatever you decide, though, you must ensure that it’s what’s best for you, what you really want, and what aligns with your greatest happiness.
1. Figure out what you actually want
Establishing a relationship is a bit like going on a long journey with someone. You jump behind the wheel of a car and set out together. Things are going well for a while, but eventually you hit some detours and sometimes discover that the final destination isn’t an option at all. What do you do? There can be no appropriate decision made until you’re crystal clear on what you want and need from an intimate relationship.
Step back from your relationship and look away for a little while. Turn your attention instead to your perfect relationship. If the perfect partner existed, what would they look like to you? What about the perfect relationship? Think about how you would feel. Think about how the other person would believe and act.
Be as specific as you can and leave other people out of it. Don’t imagine who your mother would want you to end up with. Don’t imagine your father’s perfect partner either. Who works for you? Who would make you feel seen and valued every single day of the year? Be realistic, but don’t sell yourself short either. Once you have a clear picture, compare it to your current relationship? How much of what you need is being met?
2. Lean into your passions
Whether you decide to end your relationship, or you commit to making things better — you’re going to need the energy and the motivation to make change happen. This energy is going to come from your sense of self, and the intrinsic self-esteem that empower you to know you are capable of making your relationship work. We can re-establish these things within ourselves and find a better perspective by leaning into our passions and reconnecting with our authentic self.
If you’re running around after a broken relationship, stop it. Before you can effectively rebuild a relationship (or extract yourself from it) you’re going to need to remember precisely who you are and what you’re capable of. Your passions help you do that. Find those activities, pastimes, and social groups which make you laugh, feel content, or otherwise invigorated by life.
When we’re happy on the inside, we have clearer vision. We’re able to better prioritize our happiness and take charge of our destinies. Recapture and recharge your emotional battery by taking an online course, writing, reading, painting, running, or just chatting to a group of close friends. Get back in touch with your genuine self and allow that person to carry you through everything that comes next.
3. Check in with your gut
We live in a society that is (mostly) compelled only by the concrete evidence we can see. We don’t have time for intuition, but that’s a tragic mistake which can have disastrous consequences for our relationships. There can be no denying the power of intuition when it comes to choosing whether to go or whether to stay. This powerful arm of our subconscious often has wisdom for us that we are unable to see. But to get to that wisdom, we have to be brave and embrace the unseen.
Check in with your gut. Listen to your intuition. What is it telling you about this partnership right down in the very pit of who you are? You’ll have all the time you need for evidence and facts later. What is your subconscious understanding that you’re refusing to see?
Our conscious eyes are weak and blinded by those factors which confuse our choices. It’s important that we learn to listen to our quiet mind, and all the subtle truths it holds for us. Be brave enough to embrace your intuition and listen to it. When you’re with the wrong person, you will feel it in every fiber of your being. You’ve got to let go of your ego, though, and all your preconceived notions. In order to see the truth, we have to strip our own lies away.
4. Reach out to support networks
There is little denying the power of our support systems when it comes to deciding the course of our relationships. While we should never rely on the opinion of others to direct the course of our intimate relationships, we can always rely on them for a different view of things. Our friends and families are a powerful mirror by which we can see a more accurate reflection of both ourselves and those we choose to give our hearts to.
Don’t struggle alone with your thoughts. Reach out to the people you love and trust most in the world. Explain where you’re at and what you’re thinking. Ask them how they see your relationship and ask them how they think you should fix things.
Take the advice that is fair and balanced, and leave out anything that doesn’t align with your deeper truths. Take your rose-tinted glasses off, though, and really listen to them. Your loved ones want you to be happy, and they often see things that you don’t have the perspective to see. Filter their advice and keep what makes sense to you. Allow them to be the motivation you need to prioritize your happiness and the relationship you truly want.
5. Make your future a priority
So many of the considerations that keep us stuck in unfulfilling relationships are outside considerations which force us to put our own needs on the back-burner. Instead of what’s right, we put the joy and expectations of our friends, families, churches, and communities before our own happiness. Little-by-little, our sense of self and pride get pushed to the back-burner until we’re totally lost and looking for a way out. If we’re going to be happy we have to break this cycle and make our own futures a priority.
Before you make any decision or take any action, ask yourself one key question: Is this going to make me happy in 10 years? We should always seek to make decisions that are positive. That is to say that they should result in a forward movement that takes us closer to fulfillment.
No one else will make your future a priority but you. We alone are capable of making ourselves happy, and we alone have the power to heal our hurts and resolve our pains. No partner will save you. No perfect partner exists. There is someone out there, though, who is moving in the same direction as you. Is this the person you’re with now? Do they want your happiness as badly as they want their own? You can’t build a long-lasting relationship until they do.
Putting it all together…
There are a lot of factors which feed into our decision to stay in a relationship or leave it. It’s not always as easy as following our feelings; sometimes we get caught up in the opinions of others, and the years of shared investment and memories we share. We must look past these factors, though, and be honest with ourselves. Is this a relationship we want? What about one we need? The answer is one that comes one with some internal digging.
Figure out what you actually want and consider the things that matter most to you within an intimate partnership. Once you’re clear on some realistic expectations, compare them to your current relationship. Are you getting what you want? What about what you absolutely need? Reconnect with your passions and use this to re-engage with that deeper sense of self which can guide you in honesty. Listen to your intuition. What does your gut say about this relationship? What does it say about moving on? Reach out to your support networks and get their perspective if the waters seem too muddied. The only decision you need to make is that one which aligns to your true gratification. Make yourself and your future a priority in order to make the right choice for you. | https://medium.com/lady-vivra/choosing-whether-to-leave-or-stay-5cdcfd561ac1 | ['E.B. Johnson'] | 2020-11-29 07:07:47.531000+00:00 | ['Nonfiction', 'Dating', 'Relationships', 'Self', 'Psychology'] |
Fake It ’Til Your Tests Pass | Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash
The classes, objects and functions in our code have various dependencies to make them work. For example, our frontend code needs to fetch data from the API. However, during testing, we shouldn’t make actual calls to the API. Other than that, it would be hard to spot bugs if we test all components of our code altogether. We need to break down our tests into smaller systems. This leads to the topic of test isolation where we will be using test doubles.
Based on this Google Testing on The Toilet article, an analogy for test doubles is a stuntman who replaces an actor in a movie. Similarly, test double stands for a real object in a test. The test doubles that I’m going to discuss in this article are stubs and mocks.
Stubs
We use stubs when we want to call data. But instead of using a real database or creating real HTTP requests, we can stub it instead. Stubs are used when we need our object to return a specific behavior so our code will be in a certain state. Stubs use no logic and only return the predefined data.
In Flutter, we can use the Mockito package to help us stub and mock data. Here’s an example of stubbing HTTP request in Flutter from our mobile app code:
On the first test ‘Test program progress with image’, it is expected that a camera icon will be displayed on the UI if the image exists. On the second test, a camera icon shouldn’t be displayed if the value of camera key is null. To know if the image exists or not, we must obtain the data first, but instead of fetching actual data from the API, we stubbed the HTTP request to return a specific value.
Mocking
Mocks are used to test interaction between objects. We use mocks to verify whether a certain object is called. It is useful when it’s hard to detect state changes and there is no return value. Below are some example codes from our mobile app repository.
First, let there be a BLoC class called GoodsDonationBloc:
Then, we have another BLoC class called ChangeBottomNavigationBarBloc:
Curious about how to mock this? Here’s the test:
Our GoodsDonationBloc depends on the ChangeBottomNavigationBarBloc because when our user successfully donates something, GoodsDonationBloc will notify ChangeBottomNavigationBloc that a donation has occurred. To test this, we stub the HTTP request first which returns a 204 status code which means that the request succeeded. If the request succeeds, we have to yield the SendingGoodsDonationSuccess() state, where leads to the DonationOccur event in our ChangeBottomNavigationBarBloc. To check if the event occurred or not, we mock it using the help of the verify() function (see line 18). | https://medium.com/pilar-2020/fake-it-til-your-tests-pass-2dae87e76153 | ['Tsamara Esperanti E.'] | 2020-11-17 14:04:18.594000+00:00 | ['Mocking', 'Stub', 'Testing'] |
[Newsletter] Vitamin K clots blood but unclogs our brain slowing its aging — new research | [Newsletter] Vitamin K clots blood but unclogs our brain slowing its aging — new research
Plus, getting to know your stage-5 banana will help your health
Image by Bailey Garrot
My weekly three best insights from me, Medium and the web to help you live longer better.
Should you stretch before running? Seventy-seven percent of runners answer incorrectly— item #3.
We’re learning more about the importance of gut health every day. Bananas feed our gut. Even better if you know the best stage to eat one— item #2.
Cognitive fitness is essential for living longer better. Vitamin K plays a role in slowing the aging of our brain — keep reading —
From around Medium…
1. Scientists discover that vitamin K doesn’t just help our blood clot
People who regularly ate leafy greens (a prime source of vitamin K) showed slower brain aging and slower mental deterioration than those who did not.
In fact, the difference was equivalent to 11 years of aging!
We can’t synthesise vitamin K — we depend on food. It has two forms — K1 and K2, from different sources.
The dietary sources of K2 (cheese, milk products and meat) differ completely from those of K1 (leafy greens and non-hydrogenated oils).
We need to eat egg yolks and high-fat dairy products to get enough K2. Cheese is an important source and, in particular, bacteria-fermented cheese such as Norwegian Jarlsberg cheese and Swiss Emmental cheese.
You can’t really go wrong by adding leafy greens to your diet along with cheese and a good splash of olive oil.
My post: Vitamin K Keeps Our Brain 11 Years Younger — Study
👉 Here is my collection of posts about food which will help you.
2. Stage-5 bananas boost our gut health — that’s good
This week I learnt a lot about bananas from Corinne Kocher and her post — What Does a Stage 5 Banana Mean? It’s an insightful post about what drives the logistics chain between the farmer and the supermarket display.
However, my specific interest was in what a “stage 5” banana looks like, and Google found me the perfect answer, from Corinne.
There is an internationally-accepted, 7-stage banana color chart that vendors and retailers use to agree on certain industry banana standards. In general, most US produce departments aim to offer stage 5 bananas: yellow body, green tips. — Corinne Kocher.
Why would I want to know? I’m glad you asked.
Bananas contain fructooligosaccharides and inulin.
These are classified as fibres, and are not digested in the upper gastrointestinal tract (therefore, they have a reduced caloric value). They stimulate the growth of intestinal bifidobacteria, which in turn are responsible for cardiovascular and many other benefits.
Stage 5 bananas have the highest content of these starches compared to other stages of ripeness.
What this means for us: You can buy tablets with fructooligosaccharides and inulin. But I believe that real food is the best way to improve your diet and health, and bananas are an all-round healthy choice: yellow body, green tips.
The article: What Does a Stage 5 Banana Mean?
Related: Your Gut Is Stopping Your Losing Weight — It’s Not Your Fault
From the web …
3. Stretch before running? When the wisdom of the crowd fails
Forty years ago Japanese sports scientists established that athletes who stretched before competing suffered more injuries than those who did not.
Poll Runnersworld.com July 2020 | Image Credit Runtastic.com
Yet bizarrely, a recent poll at Runnersworld.com found that 77% of respondents believe that stretching is an important part of warming up. I guess that you only have to go to any gym and to see how this mistaken belief is perpetuated.
What this means for us: The Japanese scientists found that, in contrast to stretching, warming-up before competing reduced injuries.
I run every day, and I warm up with about ten minutes of mobility exercises. I stretch when I finish. I don’t believe I would be able to run daily for more than a year and remain injury-free without warming up first and stretching afterwards.
The Runners World Article: Should I Stretch Before Or After My Runs?
Related: Have a Better Shorter Warm-up With This 3D Dynamic Stretch For Your Hips, Ankles and Lower Back
Questions, just HIT REPLY, love to hear from you.
Wishing you a safe and active week,
Walter ⭑Keep Moving⭑ Adamson ⭑Top Food Writer⭑
Never miss a chance to live longer better — sign up for 👉 my weekly four best tips from a week’s reading — newsletter.walteradamson.com | https://medium.com/body-age-buster/vitamin-k-clots-blood-but-unclogs-our-brain-slowing-its-aging-new-research-f6f4001eeb3e | ['Walter Adamson'] | 2020-12-07 06:15:47.429000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Stretching', 'Food', 'Newsletter', 'Running'] |
4 Solar Technologies That Live In Your Solar Farm | By Richard Payne, Managing Director, ReNew Petra
Capturing energy from the sun is not a new concept. In fact, solar energy has been around since the 7th century B.C. Today, solar energy is the most popular and affordable clean energy option. To create energy, photovoltaic panels absorb the energy from the sun, pass it to an inverter, and the resulting electricity is used to power our homes and businesses.
Across the United States, we’ve seen an increase in utility-scale projects, commercial and industrial installations, and residential solar due to falling installation costs. But have you ever wondered what technologies support a solar installation? Here are four technologies that allow us to turn the sun’s rays into electricity.
Photovoltaic Cells
Within each solar module, also called solar panels, there are a string of photovoltaic cells (PV). PV cells, also known as solar cells, convert the sun’s rays into energy. Typically, a solar panel can capture about 30 percent of the sun’s radiation. 70 percent of the sun’s radiation comes from infrared light, 25 percent comes from UV light, and the remaining five percent comes from visible light. Each individual cell can produce three or four watts of power. Location, tilt, orientation, and several other factors determine how much sun can be absorbed by the solar cells.
There are two types of PV cells:
Monocrystalline:
Monocrystalline PV cells are made from slowly pulling one monocrystalline silicon seed crystal out of melted monocrystalline. Since they are made from one large crystal versus tiny ones they are more efficient to make and they outperform polycrystalline PV panels by 10 percent.
Polycrystalline:
The second type of PV solar panels is polycrystalline. They are the more commonly known and are less expensive than the monocrystalline panels. Due to the manufacturing process, polycrystalline panels are typically dark blue but have light blue patches.
Inverters
A vital part of every solar farm are the inverters. Inverters supply the generated power to a grid by converting the direct electricity currents (DC) coming from the solar panels to alternating current (AC).
Types of inverters include:
Central Inverter:
A central inverter is prewired electronic equipment that can be custom made for the demands of large-scale utility solar farms, commercial rooftop solar installations, and grid-tied solar farms. A central box inverter has everything a solar site needs for distribution, automation, security, and monitoring. Since central inverters can withstand almost any climate, customers benefit from the low installation costs and project cycle times.
String Inverter:
String inverters are essentially smaller versions of central inverters. They are extremely efficient, are much easier to install, and have a lower installation cost per peak watt than the other types of inverters. In the past, string inverters have cost more than central inverters, however, costs are continuing to fall as more large solar farms start using more string inverters for better overall solar farm up time.
Micro Inverter:
Small but mighty, micro inverters work panel by panel and are user friendly for customers. Micro inverters can be found on residential rooftop installations and operate at a 190 to 220-watt power point. Despite their size, they have created more opportunity to harvest energy on a smaller level.
Combiner Boxes
Combiner boxes are installed between the PV panels and inverters and offer protection for the systems. The combiner box brings several output solar wires together and have added features integrated into the box such as rapid shutdown, sensors, and monitoring equipment. Combiner boxes cut labor and material costs since they consolidate the wire string output. They offer a reliable, safe solution to maximize the voltage emitting from the system.
Racking
A racking system is used to safely mount solar panels on different surfaces like roofs or in the ground. They can be seen on top of warehouses, business facades, fields, and other locations. There are various types of racking available depending upon the application. For instance, ballasted racking systems are the best fit for slightly uneven surfaces or surfaces that can’t be penetrated, like a roof. Another option is the ground mount which requires additional engineering for various topography. Ground mounts are used in larger utility solar farms, typically between five and 500 acres. | https://medium.com/@thinkrichardpayne/4-solar-technologies-that-live-in-your-solar-farm-db376ac8b7fb | ['Richard Payne'] | 2019-06-30 13:07:16.649000+00:00 | ['Solar Energy', 'Renewable Energy', 'Solar Power', 'Technology'] |
Building a glossary: the importance of a collaborative construction | Building a glossary: the importance of a collaborative construction
More than identifying terms and their meanings, we need to understand what they mean in people’s daily lives.
Scrabble game pieces
Do you know that talk that a company’s voice is unique? Well, in practice it is not that simple because a company is made up of people and each person has their own voice.
Here at Gympass, the voice-building work has several initiatives, one of the most important is our glossary.
Doing this type of work requires time and dedication, but more than that, it requires the effort of many people. After all, all these people stop talking as individuals to speak the same language as the company.
Precisely for this reason we chose to create our glossary in a collaborative way.
Collaboration for satisfactory results
In our experience, involving people from different areas with a common objective — even in many cases, increases the duration of the process — always leads to amazing results.
Now, taking some steps back, how did we come up with the idea of a collaborative creation and how has it worked in practice?
Understanding the pain points
We realized that some words that we use in the product, for example, have different meanings in other areas, which causes a lot of confusion for our clients, users and employees.
Considering that, we decided to interview different areas of the company to discover the most problematic words and understand the biggest pains and language challenges.
By creating a glossary, besides unifying all terms used in the company, both for internal and external audiences, we ensure consistency and clarity in our communications.
Important to know:
All of this we’ve been talking about is beautiful in the theory, but it only works if everyone uses this material daily as a source of truth.
In other words, more than a practical work of research and writing, there is also a serious evangelisation effort.
Beta version
Well, with this first information collected and analyzed, we were able to start the beta version of our glossary.
We did it in a spreadsheet format, with the following columns:
- Term
- Definition
- Example of a sentence using the term
- Name of the contributor
- Department
- Questions (I will explain the last item in a bit)
When we got to a consistent amount of words, we opened the material for collaboration, distributing it through all the company and leaving the access granted to any employee.
“Okay, but what about when there is a question of meaning?”
This is where the ‘question column’ comes in.
Whenever someone has a problem with the meaning, they just have to use this space to talk about it. So, we got together to specifically discuss each question, involving the areas of interest in that word.
How is the glossary nowadays?
The glossary has been progressing a lot, after all it is a living document that evolves with each change of terminology or new appearance of a new term, and has become an official document.
Today it is divided into 5 sections, with terms alphabetically ordered in each one to facilitate navigation.
They are:
Business protagonists, the terms that define our stakeholders, our departments, and our types of business.
Inside the product, the terms used on the product (both app and website) to describe actions, define next steps or describe a section.
Tools and processes, the terms that define the tools used internally or to improve the external stakeholders’ experience, plus our internal processes and methodologies.
Data definitions, those global terms usually used to define important data for business tracking, strategy, and decisions.
Inclusive language, alternative terms everyone can start using in place of more common options, to make language more inclusive and be thoughtful of all kinds of audiences when communicating.
Next steps
The idea is to make the glossary more and more useful.
Ideally, we would like to add hyperlinks and make them interchangeable, as it happens in an online dictionary; if a term is mentioned in one of the descriptions, you could click on it and go to their own definition.
On the platform we currently use, this is not possible, but the plans exist and, as soon as possible, we will evolve the project to this direction :)
—
Someone with a similar experience? Let’s chat! | https://medium.com/gympass/building-a-glossary-the-importance-of-a-collaborative-construction-aa4eecec93b7 | ['Suzana Demetrio'] | 2020-10-21 16:25:08.889000+00:00 | ['Gympass', 'Glossary', 'Ux Writing', 'Content Design', 'UX'] |
We’re A Family. TODAY’S HOROSCOPE — DECEMBER 17th 2020 | Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash
TODAY’S HOROSCOPE — DECEMBER 17th 2020
As Saturn takes flight into Aquarius it carries the cargo of empowerment, freedom, innovation and responsibility. The Capricorn Ascendant opens the door for you to show off this confident mix of attributes. They are a prelude to the dawn of a new Aquarian era which will be initiated when Jupiter joins Saturn, next week.
However, it is not the anticipated Age of Aquarius that has been talked about for decades. Rather, it’s more of a taste of what’s to come when the season starts around 2157 onwards. The current signature led by Saturn throws down the gauntlet for you to reinvent yourself. But don’t fall into the trap that the changes must all be self-serving.
Think more of yourself as a cog in the wheel of life. When you do this, ‘I becomes We’ and you see yourself as part of the collective. Therefore, find a way to shoulder your responsibility of being a member of our human family. How are you personally going to contribute to improve society?
Finding an answer to this question will take you beyond the realm of remaining aloof or disconnected. Saturn is dignified in Aquarius so the inclination for unique, independent authority, is strong. Nonetheless, Uranus is the modern ruler of this group based sign.
So the message coming from these planets is to relegate the autonomy of your personal will. And replace it with contributing to the development of the group consciousness. Now the way in which you can do this can be inventive and transformational. But bear in mind that for the next fifteen months, Saturn and Uranus, will square each other. You may well experience tension between fulfilling your ego versus supporting the collective. It’s time to put your thinking cap on, to resolve this dilemma. | https://medium.com/@bybreensamuels/we-are-a-family-3ed288f7159a | ['Bybreen Samuels'] | 2020-12-17 10:55:09.082000+00:00 | ['Astrology', 'Family', 'Relationships', 'Consciousness', 'Spirituality'] |
Recognizing early signs of dog arthritis | Recognizing early signs of dog arthritis
The one thing I’ll always regret about my first dog — the step fall
Photo credit: Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash
My first dog, Shep, was a wild child — untrained (minus paper training), big, furry, and loved to eat tissue out of garbage cans and snatch Christmas decorations off the tree. My father made the mistake of leaving a slab of BBQ steak on a kitchen counter, and Shep decided it was lunch in the backyard before anyone even knew he ate it.
Thanks to a tornado, he was also terrified of lightning and thunder, and would scratch the wood off of our basement door until we let him upstairs — only to knock over ceramics and anything else that was unlucky enough to get in his way. Considering I didn’t want the dog in the first place, I really didn’t care at first. But once I warmed up to him, it was a little annoying when I’d let him upstairs and my parents would send him back downstairs for wreaking havoc.
But there were two things that Shep always did from his puppy years to adulthood, and it made it much harder to identify his playfulness and semi-dog tantrums versus pet arthritis. Anytime we’d open the outside back door and point to the basement door, he’d almost always resist the final destination. When it was dinner time, he fled downstairs. Any other time though? He was sure to dawdle around and want to see what we were up to. Had he been a house-trained dog (our fault, not his), this wouldn’t have been a problem. But Labrador Retrievers are big, energetic and hard to ignore. So we usually grabbed his collar and sent him to his home (i.e. the basement).
He learned a trick that he used all 13 years though — the handshake. On the fourth-to-bottom basement step, he would stretch his entire body on that stair and refuse to move. He knew two things would happen, especially if we were doing laundry. Sometimes we (me, my parents and my brother) would not feel like stretching our legs up two steps, and would sit on the steps and play with him until he decided to move. Who wants to clutch a laundry basket and do a balancing act at the same time? If he still weren’t ready for us to leave him, he’d stand at his full height — still blocking the steps — and reach his hand out for a handshake. Who could deny a dog who looked like this with a handshake? So we’d get stuck on the steps again until he was good and ready for us to move.
But every blue moon when we weren’t in the mood, we’d just scoot him out of the way to his utter annoyance. It wasn’t often that we didn’t play this territorial game with him, but his stubborn game didn’t always work. Then there was the one day that I really wish I would’ve played his game. | https://medium.com/doggone-world/recognizing-early-signs-of-dog-arthritis-d985c633aece | ['Shamontiel L. Vaughn'] | 2020-09-03 20:53:45.783000+00:00 | ['Arthritis', 'Pets', 'Dog Health', 'Dogs', 'Senior Dog'] |
20 Considerations for Times of Normalcy and Upheaval | 20 Considerations for Times of Normalcy and Upheaval
How to discover, and rediscover, what makes you human
Photo: Grant/Unsplash
Consider home. Discover the way the sun enters a room mid-afternoon. Rediscover a room’s hidden corners. Light a candle. Take care of your home. Clean it, but try to find pleasure in the act: Taking care of the space around you can help reduce anxiety and establish a sense of control and order.
Consider time. Is it lunchtime? Bedtime? If you benefit from a sense of control, work at maintaining a routine. Otherwise, relish the freedom to eat when you’re hungry and sleep when you’re tired.
On that note:
Consider sleep. According to Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep, sleep is the single most important factor for our well-being. It boosts our ability to learn, restocks our immune system, and helps us make logical decisions.
Stress tends to mess with our sleep schedule, so consider making the act of sleeping more pleasurable. Experiment with leaving your phone in another room. Take a nap. Studies show that 20–30 minutes can be enough for an improvement in energy and mood.
And:
Consider food. Cook something. Something familiar or something new. Samin Nosrat’s new podcast might improve your isolation cooking (and her soothing voice doesn’t hurt, either). And Christina Tosi of Milk Bar is helping you bake with what you’ve got in the pantry. Bon Appetit is stepping up with recipes, too.
A kitchen is a good place to be.
Or, if cooking isn’t your jam, simply savor. Taste an orange. Enjoy a slice of fresh-baked bread, if you can.
And if you wish, consider the people who produce the produce. The growers and transporters. The grocery store workers who unpack the trucks and stock the shelves and ring you through.
Consider trees. Trees make for excellent role models. Trees are grounded; their roots go deep in search of sustenance and to prepare for storms. Still, their limbs reach upward and outward in search of light, filling open space for maximum exposure to the sun. Notice how there are no straight lines with trees. And consider their potential, and the imminent arrival of buds. The possibility of transformation.
Consider books. The ideas and stories they contain. The relationship we can have with words. This world-making skill you possess called reading. If the mind is a tad distracted, ditch the need to read one cover-to-cover. Dip into books. Read passages aloud. Appreciate a book for what it is: a tremendous piece of technology, unaffected by blips in the Wi-Fi.
Still:
Consider Wi-Fi. It’s maybe not, as some memes have suggested, the foundation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; but we can’t deny what strong Wi-Fi gives us.
Wi-Fi is a powerful tool for connection. It allows us to connect with so much: with our friends and family, with art and ideas (Google’s Arts & Culture resource is rich and free). Wi-Fi keeps us entertained, social, and yes, at times blissfully distracted.
Consider animals. Pay attention to your pet. Enjoy the act of caring for them, of feeding them, and giving them shelter. Take delight in their behaviors.
And if you don’t have a pet, take a moment to appreciate how amazing animals can be. Take in this thread of a doctor on Twitter reuniting a squirrel mother with her babies.
Or (re)discover programs like BBC’s Planet Earth or CBC’s The Nature of Things. There’s something about nature and animals that lends peace and perspective.
My pal Lukas spotted and photographed this handsome fella, a male House Finch, from his Toronto balcony this week. Photo: Lukas Notten
Consider birds. They’re returning, you know. And you don’t need binoculars or a wide-brim hat to appreciate them. Just peek out a window, and see what you can find in the hedges, on the telephone wires, or gliding high up on an invisible current.
Or read about this month’s miraculous return of the Dwarf Kingfisher, spotted for the first time in 130 years.
Consider photos. They’re everywhere: on your phone, in the cloud. Take a deep dive into your harddrive. Delete the dull ones. Don’t think too hard on it; you’ll know which photos matter. Send photos that bring you joy to the people that do the same.
Consider social media. Or perhaps, a bit of social media distancing. Consume responsibly. Aim for content with depth. Like this clever, beautiful visual essay about Estonia. Or this podcast by Brené Brown on the universal experience of being human.
Consider your strengths. Take the free Signature Strengths test at the VIA Institute on Character. What’s your strength? Is it courage? Creativity? Humor? Identify your strengths, and seek ways of putting them into practice.
Consider the neighborhood. On a (physically distant) walk around the block, take an unfamiliar street. Observe the color and texture of roofs, the sound of a distant dog. Sidewalk art, graffiti. The stamp on the sidewalk concrete. The smell of barbecue.
And while you’re out there:
Consider the neighbors. Notice them on their porches, in their windows. Remember to keep your distance, but also remember to wave or smile or say hello. We’re alone, but we’re together.
Consider the breath. This is a simple one, but also probably the most powerful. There’s no wrong way to go about it; your body knows how to breathe. Follow the air as it enters the body. If you want, you can count to three or five. Then follow the air as it leaves the body. Repeat as needed.
This technique can be especially useful in moments of heightened anxiety. Like the roots of a tree, the breath anchors the rest.
Consider the body. Treat it well. Perform a body scan; where do you carry your tension? Release your jaw. Inspect your nails. Enjoy a hot shower. Moisturize, stretch, and meditate. Eat well. Don’t worry about the loss of structured exercise. Brush your teeth, and brush your hair. Do these things in the middle of the day, if you wish, and especially if it makes you feel better.
(Side note to fellas with isolation beards: Consider cleaning that thing.)
Consider nothing. Simply sit or lie on the floor and observe your thoughts for three to five minutes. Observe what arises without judgment. Put on a timer if helpful. Do things without your phone. Sit by a window, and watch the world do its own form of nothing.
Consider delight. Or, if doing nothing sounds a bit much, do one thing only, and find delight in that thing. Making a cup of coffee, say, or completing a puzzle with your kids.
“Delight is important,” writes Kristin Lin from The On Being Project, “precisely because it grows alongside our sorrow and our ephemerality, much like a flower out of asphalt.”
Consider stars. No, really. In fact, it’s what “consider” used to mean: con (with) + sider (stars). Or, “to be with stars.”
It’s not always easy to get a glimpse of constellations, especially in the city or the suburbs. But even the act of looking skyward somehow feels more hopeful than looking down.
Consider the star. Notice the sun getting stronger with each day. I’m not calling this a metaphor. It’s just a pleasant thing: to feel the sun’s life-giving warmth on your face, growing stronger, making way for growth. For renewal. For the return of those things we’ve missed. | https://humanparts.medium.com/20-considerations-fd88a5acb6da | ['Eric Demore'] | 2020-04-07 17:07:05.937000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'Mindfulness', 'Life Lessons', 'Pandemic', 'Coronavirus'] |
No, the problem isn’t “bad coders” | A recent blog article discussed the fact that 70% of all security bugs in Microsoft products are due to memory safety vulnerabilities. A lot of the comments I’ve seen on social media boil down to “The problem isn’t the use of a memory unsafe language, but that the programmers who wrote this code are bad.”
In this article, I’m going to look at a recent bug that was caught by the Rust compiler, which I think shows that not only is this assertion unreasonable but virtually impossible for reasons I haven’t seen discussed. While the example I’m going to give is about thread safety rather than memory safety, the arguments I’m going to present can be applied to both.
First, let’s talk briefly about the actual bug. The code that I was working on had both a thread pool and a database connection pool. In order to do its work, I would need exactly one thread and at least one database connection. Database connections are likely to be the more limited resource, and I wanted to avoid spawning a thread and immediately just having it block waiting for a database connection. So the code would grab a connection from the pool and then spawn off the new thread.
The problem is that the database connection would sometimes use a re-entrant mutex when it was acquired from the pool. A re-entrant mutex is a concurrency primitive that ensures you are only using some resource on a single thread. The re-entrant part means that you can ask for a lock multiple times as long as it’s on the same thread. With a normal mutex we would be fine, since only one lock can exist and it doesn’t matter if we unlock it on a thread other than the one we locked it from. But since a re-entrant mutex remembers which thread it was locked from, we need to keep the resource on the same thread. Fundamentally, we just can’t have a re-entrant mutex be involved and also be able to pull the connection from the pool on a different thread than it is being used.
If the compiler hadn’t caught this for me, all scenarios would have been bad. The best case scenario is that it would have resulted in a test failure. Debugging “attempting to acquire a lock on this mutex hangs indefinitely” would have taken me several hours at least.
The worst case scenario here would have been that no tests failed. We had a case where we thought we had a resource which is not thread safe and could only be used on one thread, but there is actually another thread which could “acquire” a lock on it at any time. This is the sort of ticking time bomb that might not cause a bug at the time the code is written but leaves a massive hole for some other reasonable looking code to blow up in the future.
But luckily, that’s not what happened here. The compiler told me that the mutex guard didn’t implement Send , which is Rust’s way of saying “You can’t send this to another thread” at which point the problem became clear to me. At this point you might be thinking that this should have been obvious to me as soon as I started writing this code. I disagree with that assertion. But even if we assume that is true, I’ve left out one important detail which makes it baseless.
When this code was written, there were no re-entrant mutexes anywhere in the code base.
This wasn’t caught when I finished writing the code. It was caught weeks later, when rebasing against the other changes of the codebase. The invariants of the code I was working with had fundamentally changed out from underneath me between when the code was written and when I was planning to merge it.
Let me be clear, I disagree with the assertion that programmers can be expected to be perfect on its own. But the assertion that we just need better C programmers goes way farther than that. It’s not just a question of whether people can catch problems in code that they write. It’s also expecting people to be capable of re-contextualizing every invariant in any code they interact with (even indirectly). It sets the expectation that none of this changes between the time code is proposed and when it is merged.
These are not reasonable expectations of a human being. We need languages with guard rails to protect against these kinds of errors. Nobody is arguing that if we just had better drivers on the road we wouldn’t need seatbelts. We should not be making that argument about software developers and programming languages either. | https://medium.com/@sgrif/no-the-problem-isnt-bad-coders-ed4347810270 | ['Sean Griffin'] | 2019-02-13 06:24:58.842000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'C', 'Rust'] |
Digital Billboard for Municipality of Vidigueira | PARTTEAM & OEMKIOSKS, through an important partner, has developed and produced an interactive Digital Billboard for the Municipality of Vidigueira.
In the age of technology, accessibility to information is a decisive factor for an ever-increasing audience of information. The PLASMV Outdoor Digital Billboard with 46'’ touchscreen display manufactured by PARTTEAM & OEMKIOSKS features a Wifi Hotspot that guarantees internet access for everyone within 50 meters.
This Digital Billboard has integrated The Brain system, developed by PARTTEAM & OEMKIOSKS, allowing information managers to have more detailed control of all functionality and access to statistical data relevant to the quality of this information service provided to users.
Digital Billboard emerges as an alternative to traditional forms of information dissemination, with the advantage of contributing to the reduction of information production and distribution costs as well as to the environment.
This project aims to implement more technology, interactivity and dynamism among the citizens. The aim is for mayors and citizens to become even more connected.
Technology is revolutionizing public services, smart cities, urban mobility and other sectors. | https://medium.com/@partteamoemkiosks/digital-billboard-for-municipality-of-vidigueira-391c458b7b04 | ['Partteam'] | 2019-09-03 16:44:47.853000+00:00 | ['Digital Billboards', 'Cities', 'Smart Cities', 'Municipality'] |
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温暖的抱抱 (2020) — 喜剧 电影 1:47:31 分钟. . 对整洁和计划有着超乎常人执念的鲍抱(常远 饰)，本以为自己是一个友情爱情的绝缘体，但在遇到个性率真宋温暖(李沁 饰) 、妙手“神经”贾医生(沈腾 饰)和假仁假义王为仁（乔杉 饰）之后，上演了一段阴差阳错的喜剧故事…… 发布日期: Dec 31, 2020 运行时间: 1:47:31 分钟 类型: 喜剧 明星: Chang Yuan, Li Qin, Shen Teng, Qiao Shan, Ma Li Crew: Chang Yuan (Director), Chang Yuan (Writer)
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In 1889, on November 1 in Gotha, Germany Anna Therese Johanne Hoch, who later would be known as Hannah Hoch was born. Being the eldest of five children, the girl was brought up in a comfortable and quiet environment of the small town. Her parents, a supervisor in an insurance company and an amateur painter sent her to Girl’s High school. However, at the age of 15 Hannah had to quit studying for the long six years to take care of her newborn sister. Only in 1912 she continued her education with Harold Bengen in School of Applied Arts, mastering glass design. As the World War I broke up Hannah returned to the native town to work in the Red Cross.
The first years after war the young woman recommenced her studying, getting to know graphic arts. 1915 was highlighted by an acquaintance with an Austrian artist Raoul Hausmann, which grew into the long-lasting romantic relationship and involvement in Berlin Dada movement. For ten years till 1926 Hoch worked in Berlin’s major publisher of newspapers and magazines. Her task was to design embroidering, knitting and crocheting patterns for the booklets.
Being on vacation with her beloved in 1918, Hannah discovered ‘the principle of photomontage in cut-and-paste images that soldiers sent to their families’ (National gallery of Art). This find affected greatly on her artistic production, and she created mass-media photographs comprising the elements of photomontage and handwork patterns, thus combining traditional and modern culture. Her prior preoccupation was to represent the ‘new woman’ of the Weimar Republic with new social role and given freedoms.
Hoch was the only woman in Berlin Dada, who took part in all kinds of events and exhibitions showcasing her socially critical works of art. Till 1931 she participated in exhibitions but with the rise of National Social regime was forbidden to present her creative work. Till her last breath in 1978 Hannah Hoch lived and worked in the outskirts of Berlin-Heiligensee.
The piece of art which is going to be analyzed in this research is ‘The beautiful girl’ designed in 1919–1920. It combines the elements of technology and females. In the middle of the picture one can clearly see a woman dressed in a modern bathing suit with a light bulb on her head which probably serves as a sun umbrella. In the background a large advertisement with a woman’s hair-do on top is presented. Maud Lavin describes strange human as ‘she is part human, part machine, part commodity’ (Lavin). The woman is surrounded by the images of industrialization as tires, gears, signals and BMW logos. A woman’s profile with the cat eyes, untrusting and skeptical, in the upper right corner is eye-catching as well. This unusually large eye symbolizes DADA movement — a monocle, which is present in almost every Hoch’s work. The colour scheme does not offer rich palette of tints, including mostly black, white, orange and red pieces. The photo is surrounded by the BMW circles which add the spots of blue.
An apt description of the piece is given in the book ‘Cut with the Kitchen Knife’ and states that it is ‘a portrait of a modern woman defined by signs of femininity, technology, media and advertising’ (Lavin). In other words Hannah Hoch focused on the woman of the new age, free and keeping up with the fast-moving world. The artist promoted feministic ideas and from her point of view urbanization and modern technologies were meant to give hope to woman to gain equality of genders. With this photomontage she commented on how the woman was expected to combine the role of a wife and mother with the role of a worker in the industrialized world. The light bulb instead of a face shows that women were perceived as unthinking machines which do not question their position and can be turned on or off at any time at man’s will. But at the same time they were to remain attractive to satisfy men’s needs. The watch is viewed as the representation of how quickly women are to adapt to the changes.
In a nutshell, Hoch concentrated on two opposite visions of the modern woman: the one from the television screens — smoking, working, wearing sexy clothes, voting and the real one who remained being a housewife.
The beautiful girl’ is an example of the art within the DADA movement. An artistic and literal current began in 1916 as the reaction to World War I and spread throughout Northern America and Europe. Every single convention was challenged and bourgeois society was scandalized. The Dadaists stated that over-valuing conformity, classism and nationalism among modern cultures led to horrors of the World War I. In other words, they rejected logic and reason and turned to irrationality, chaos and nonsense. The first DADA international Fair was organized in Berlin in 1920 exposing a shocking discontentment with military and German nationalism (Dada. A five minute history).
Hannah Hoch was introduced to the world of DADA by Raoul Hausman who together with Kurt Schwitters, Piet Mondrian and Hans Richter was one of the influential artists in the movement. Hoch became the only German woman who referred to DADA. She managed to follow the general Dadaist aesthetic, but at the same time she surely and steadily incorporated a feminist philosophy. Her aim was to submit female equality within the canvass of other DADA’s conceptions.
Though Hannah Hoch officially was a member of the movement, she never became the true one, because men saw her only as ‘a charming and gifted amateur artist’ (Lavin). Hans Richter, an unofficial spokesperson shared his opinion about the only woman in their community in the following words: ‘the girl who produced sandwiches, beer and coffee on a limited budget’ forgetting that she was among the few members with stable income.
In spite of the gender oppressions, Hannah’s desire to convey her idea was never weakened. Difficulties only strengthened her and made her an outstanding artist. A note with these return words was found among her possessions: ‘None of these men were satisfied with just an ordinary woman. But neither were they included to abandon the (conventional) male/masculine morality toward the woman. Enlightened by Freud, in protest against the older generation. . . they all desired this ‘New Woman’ and her groundbreaking will to freedom. But — they more or less brutally rejected the notion that they, too, had to adopt new attitudes. . . This led to these truly Strinbergian dramas that typified the private lives of these men’ (Maloney).
Hoch’s technique was characterized by fusing male and female parts of the body or bodies of females from different epochs — a ‘traditional’ woman and ‘modern’, liberated and free of sexual stereotypes one. What’s more, combining male and female parts, the female ones were always more distinctive and vibrant, while the male ones took their place in the background. Hannah created unique works of art experimenting with paintings, collages, graphic and photography. Her women were made from bits and pieces from dolls, mannequins of brides or children as these members of the society were not considered as valuable.
Today Hannah Hoch is most associated with her famous photomontage ‘Cut with the kitchen knife DADA through the last Weimer Beer-Belly Cultural epoch of Germany’ (1919–1920). This piece of art highlights social confusion during the era of Weimar Republic, oppositionists and government radicals (Grabner). In spite of never being truly accepted by the rest of her society, this woman with a quiet voice managed to speak out loud her feministic message.
Looking at Hannah Hoch’s art for the first time I found it confusing, because couldn’t comprehend the meaning. It was quite obvious that every single piece and structure is a symbol of the era, its ideas and beliefs. However, after having learned about her life and constant endeavors to declare about female’s right, little by little I started to realize what’s what. As an object for research I chose ‘The beautiful girl’ as, to my mind, its theme and message intersects with the modern tendency: a successful, clever, beautiful and free woman has to become one in no time, cause the world is moving faster and faster. I enjoyed working with this artist as her example is inspiring and is worth following
WRITTEN BY
Its somewhat ironic that a movie about time travel can’t be reviewed properly until your future self rewatches the movie.
It’s bold of Nolan to make such a thoroughly dense blockbuster. He assumes people will actually want to see ~Tenet more than once so they can understand it properly, which some may not. This movie makes the chronology of Inception look as simplistic as tic-tac-toe.
Ergo, it’s hard for me to give an accurate rating, without having seen it twice, as I’m still trying to figure out whether everything does indeed make sense. If it does, this movie is easily a 9 or 10. If it doesn’t, it’s a 6.
It’s further not helped by the fact that the dialogue in the first 15 minutes of the movie is painfully hard to understand / hear. Either they were behind masks; they were practically mumbling; the sound effects were too loud; or all of the above. The exposition scenes are also waayyy too brief for something this complex — a problem also shared with Interstellar actually.
(Interstellar had this minimalist exposition problem explaining Blight, where if you weren’t careful, you’d miss this one sentence / scene in the entire movie explaining that Blight was a viral bacteria:
“Earth’s atmosphere is 80% nitrogen, we don’t even breathe nitrogen. Blight does, and as it thrives, our air gets less and less oxygen”).
I guess it’s a Nolan quirk. Hopefully, a revision of the film audio sorts the sound mixing out. I do like the soundtrack, but it’s too loud initially.
I liked all the actors. You think John Washington can’t act at first, but he can, and he grows on you as the film progresses. And Pattinson is his usual charming self. Elizabeth is a surprise treat. And so on.
Its worth a watch either way. See it with subtitles if you can. And definitely don’t expect to fully understand whats going on the first time around.
Its one hell of a complicated film. It will be very hard for an average viewer to gather all the information provided by this movie at the first watch. But the more you watch it, more hidden elements will come to light. And when you are able to put these hidden elements together. You will realize that this movie is just a “masterpiece” which takes the legacy of Christopher Nolan Forward
If I talk about acting, Then I have to say that Robert Pattinson has really proved himself as a very good actor in these recent years. And I am sure his acting skills will increase with time. His performance is charming and very smooth. Whenever he is on the camera, he steals the focus John David Washington is also fantastic in this movie. His performance is electrifying, I hope to see more from him in the future. Other characters such as Kenneth Branagh, Elizabeth, Himesh Patel, Dimple Kapadia, Clémence Poésy have also done quite well. And I dont think there is a need to talk about Michael Caine
Talking about Music, its awesome. I dont think you will miss Hans Zimmer’s score. Ludwig has done a sufficient job. There is no lack of good score in the movie
Gotta love the editing and post production which has been put into this movie. I think its fair to say this Nolan film has focused more in its post production. The main problem in the movie is the sound mixing. Plot is already complex and some dialogues are very soft due to the high music score. It makes it harder to realize what is going on in the movie. Other Nolan movies had loud BGM too. But Audio and dialogues weren’t a problem
My humble request to everyone is to please let the movie sink in your thoughts. Let your mind grasp all the elements of this movie. I am sure more people will find it better. Even those who think they got the plot. I can bet they are wrong.
~Tenet is the long awaited new movie from Christopher Nolan. The movie that’s set to reboot the multiplexes post-Covid. It’s a manic, extremely loud, extremely baffling sci-fi cum spy rollercoaster that will please a lot of Nolan fan-boys but which left me with very mixed views.
John David Washington (Denzel’s lad) plays “The Protagonist” — a crack-CIA field operative who is an unstoppable one-man army in the style of Hobbs or Shaw. Recruited into an even more shadowy organisation, he’s on the trail of an international arms dealer, Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh in full villain mode). Sator is bullying his estranged wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki) over custody of their son (and the film unusually has a BBFC warning about “Domestic Abuse”). Our hero jets the world to try to prevent a very particular kind of Armageddon while also keeping the vulnerable and attractive Kat alive.
This is cinema at its biggest and boldest. Nolan has taken a cinema ‘splurge’ gun, filled it with money, set it on rapid fire, removed the safety and let rip at the screen. Given that Nolan is famous for doing all of his ‘effects’ for real and ‘in camera’, some of what you see performed is almost unbelievable. You thought crashing a train through rush-hour traffic in “Inception” was crazy? You ain’t seen nothing yet with the airport scene! And for lovers of Chinooks (I must admit I am one and rush out of the house to see one if I hear it coming!) there is positively Chinook-p*rn on offer in the film’s ridiculously huge finale.
The ‘inversion’ aspects of the story also lends itself to some fight scenes — one in particular in an airport ‘freeport’ — which are both bizarre to watch and, I imagine, technically extremely challenging to pull off. In this regard John David Washington is an acrobatic and talented stunt performer in his own right, and must have trained for months for this role.
Nolan’s crew also certainly racked up their air miles pre-lockdown, since the locations range far and wide across the world. The locations encompassed Denmark, Estonia, India, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, and United States. Hoyte Van Hoytema’s cinematography is lush in introducing these, especially the beautiful Italian coast scenes. Although I did miss the David Arnold strings that would typically introduce these in a Bond movie: it felt like that was missing.
The ‘timey-wimey’ aspects of the plot are also intriguing and very cleverly done. There are numerous points at which you think “Oh, that’s a sloppy continuity error” or “Shame the production design team missed that cracked wing mirror”. Then later in the movie, you get at least a dozen “Aha!” moments. Some of them (no spoilers) are jaw-droppingly spectacular.
Perhaps the best twist is hidden in the final line of the movie. I only processed it on the way home.
And so to the first of my significant gripes with ~Tenet. The sound mix in the movie is all over the place. I’d go stronger than that… it’s truly awful (expletive deleted)! Nolan often implements Shakespeare’s trick of having characters in the play provide exposition of the plot to aid comprehension. But unfortunately, all of this exposition dialogue was largely incomprehensible. This was due to:
the ear-splitting volume of the sound: 2020 movie audiences are going to be suffering from ‘~Tenetis’! (LOL);
the dialogue is poorly mixed with the thumping music by Ludwig Göransson (Wot? No Hans Zimmer?);
a large proportion of the dialogue was through masks of varying description (#covid-appropriate). Aaron Taylor-Johnson was particularly unintelligible to my ears.
Overall, watching this with subtitles at a special showing might be advisable!
OK, so I only have a PhD in Physics… but at times I was completely lost as to the intricacies of the plot. It made “Inception” look like “The Tiger Who Came to Tea”. There was an obvious ‘McGuffin’ in “Inception” — — (“These ‘dream levels’… how exactly are they architected??”…. “Don’t worry… they’ll never notice”. And we didn’t!) In “~Tenet” there are McGuffins nested in McGuffins. So much of this is casually waved away as “future stuff… you’re not qualified” that it feels vaguely condescending to the audience. At one point Sator says to Kat “You don’t know what’s going on, do you?” and she shakes her head blankly. We’re right with you there luv!
There are also gaps in the storyline that jar. The word “~Tenet”? What does it mean. Is it just a password? I’m none the wiser.
The manic pace of ~Tenet and the constant din means that the movie gallops along like a series of disconnected (albeit brilliant) action set pieces. For me, it has none of the emotional heart of the Cobb’s marriage problems from “Inception” or the father/daughter separation of “Interstellar”. In fact, you barely care for anyone in the movie, perhaps with the exception of Kat.
It’s a talented cast. As mentioned above, John David Washington is muscular and athletic in the role. It’s a big load for the actor to carry in such a tent-pole movie, given his only significant starring role before was in the excellent BlacKkKlansman. But he carries it off well. A worthy successor to Gerard Butler and Jason Statham for action roles in the next 10 years.
This is also a great performance by Robert Pattinson, in his most high-profile film in a long time, playing the vaguely alcoholic and Carré-esque support guy. Pattinson’s Potter co-star Clemence Poésy also pops up — rather more un-glam that usual — as the scientist plot-expositor early in the movie.
Nolan’s regular Michael Caine also pops up. although the 87-year old legend is starting to show his age: His speech was obviously affected at the time of filming (though nice try Mr Nolan in trying to disguise that with a mouth full of food!). But in my book, any amount of Caine in a movie is a plus. He also gets to deliver the best killer line in the film about snobbery!
However, it’s Kenneth Branagh and Elizabeth Debicki that really stand out. They were both fabulous, especially when they were bouncing off each other in their marital battle royale.
So, given this was my most anticipated movie of the year, it’s a bit of a curate’s egg for me. A mixture of being awe-struck at times and slightly disappointed at others. It’s a movie which needs a second watch, so I’m heading back today to give my ear drums another bashing! And this is one where I reserve the right to revisit my rating after that second watch… it’s not likely to go down… but it might go up.
(For the full graphical review, check out One Mann’s Movies on t’interweb and Facebook. Thanks.)
As this will be non-spoiler, I can’t say too much about the story. However, what I can is this: ~Tenet’s story is quite dynamic in the sense that you won’t understand it till it wants you to. So, for the first half, your brain is fighting for hints and pieces to puzzle together the story. It isn’t until halfway through the movie that ~Tenet invites you to the fantastic storytelling by Christopher Nolan.
Acting is beyond phenomenal, and I’d be genuinely surprised if neither Robert Pattinson nor John David Washington doesn’t receive an Oscar nomination for best actor. It’s also hard not to mention how good Elizabeth Debicki and Aaron Johnson both are. All around, great acting, and the dialogue amps up the quality of the movie.
The idea of this movie is damn fascinating, and while there are films that explore time-travelling, there’s never been anything quite like this. It has such a beautiful charm and for the most part, explains everything thoroughly. It feels so much more complex than any form of time-travelling we’ve seen, and no less could’ve been expected from Nolan.
Oh my lord, the score for this film fits so perfectly. Every scene that’s meant to feel intense was amped by a hundred because of how good the score was. Let me just say though, none of them will be found iconic, but they fit the story and scenes so well.
In the end, I walked out, feeling very satisfied. Nevertheless, I do have issues with the film that I cannot really express without spoiling bits of the story. There are definitely little inconsistencies that I found myself uncovering as the story progressed. However, I only had one issue that I found impacted my enjoyment. That issue was understanding some of the dialogue. No, not in the sense that the movie is too complicated, but more that it was hard to make out was being said at times. It felt like the movie required subtitles, but that probably was because, at a time in the film, there was far too much exposition.
Nevertheless, I loved this film, I’ll be watching it at least two more times, and I think most of you in this group will enjoy it. I definitely suggest watching it in theatres if possible, just so you can get that excitement.
(4/5) & (8.5/10) for those that care about number scores.
At first, I want to ask Christopher Nolan one question, HOW THE HELL YOU DID THIS? Seriously I want to have an answer, How did he write such as this masterpiece! How did he get this complicated, fabulous and creative idea? What is going on in his mind? The story is written and directed perfectly, the narration style was absolutely unique. I have no idea how can anyone direct such as this story, that was a huge challenge, and as usual Nolan gave us a masterpiece that we’ll put beside (Memento), (Inception) and (Interstellar) The movie is so fast-paced in a good way, there was no boring moment. The chemistry between John David Washington and Robert Pattinson was great and funny and both of their performance was really good. Elizabeth Debicki performance was the best in the movie because she had the chance to show her acting abilities and she cached up that chance and showed us an A level acting.
The music wasn’t unique and distinct as the music of Interstellar for example and I think this movie needed the touch of Hans Zimmer, I’m not saying that Ludwig Göransson failed but Hans Zimmer in another level.
If there was something I’d say that I didn’t like it in the movie would it be that Nolan discarded any set up or characters backgrounds except Elizabeth Debicki dramatic story but it wasn’t that bad for me, I didn’t care about that, the exciting story didn’t give me the chance to focus on it. But the actual problem was the third act, it was really complicated and I got lost and I convinced myself to discard the questions that were in my head and enjoy the well-made action sequences and Elizabeth Debicki performance.
I think this kind of movie that gets better with a second and third watch.
I honestly don’t quite know where to begin with ~Tenet. I love Christopher Nolan’s work but I have never seen a more complicated film (and I understood Memento). ~After nearly three hours, I came away from ~Tenet not knowing myself, my mind reduced to nothing more than piles of ash.
Was there time travel involved? Hmm, there was definitely something about time inversion. I mean, does Nolan even understand what he wrote? Look, I give credit to the director because he’s one of the few directors left who knows how to create a compelling and intelligent blockbuster. ~Tenet is full of Nolan trademarks — the gratuitous Michael Caine cameo, a loud, really loud score, complete with stunning cinematography and slickly inventive action set-pieces.
This time around however, Nolan has finally managed to ‘out-Nolan’ himself: the palindromic plot, whilst creatively ambitious, is simply far too complicated for its own good. ~Tenet is overlong, overstuffed, pretentious and too exhausting to comprehend in its entirety — it makes Inception and Interstellar look like Peppa Pig by comparison.
I’m aware of the technical wizardry and creative mastery in this film and lord knows I’ll have to watch this again. For those who want a puzzle, ~Tenet at least provides a unique cinematic experience. But to actually enjoy solving it Nolan wants you to work very very hard | https://medium.com/@makanbesar319/%E6%B8%A9%E6%9A%96%E7%9A%84%E6%8A%B1%E6%8A%B1-%E5%AE%8C%E6%95%B4%E7%89%88%E6%9C%AC-wen-nuan-de-bao-bao-%E5%AE%8C%E6%95%B4%E7%89%88%E8%A7%80%E7%9C%8B%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1%E5%9C%A8%E7%B7%9A%E5%B0%8F%E9%B4%A8-2020-hd-%E5%AE%8C%E6%95%B4%E7%9A%84%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-edd4fe696e23 | ['Makan Besar'] | 2020-12-26 14:56:09.031000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Zh', 'Romance', 'Comedy', 'Chinese'] |
Brexit, Populism and Nationalism were only Lies Used to Trick the Uneducated into Voting For Trump — Part 1 | Brexit, Populism and Nationalism were only Lies Used to Trick the Uneducated into Voting For Trump — Part 1 Jordan Arizmendi Follow Mar 16, 2019 · 5 min read
50 Muslims died in a brutal mass killing in New Zealand the other day. The tragedy is unspeakable. What makes this disaster even worse, is that the New Zealand mosques shooting suspect called the president of the United States a ‘symbol of white supremacy’ and claimed he was just a ‘regular white man’.
While Obama was president, I doubt any American would believe that our next president would be a hero for the white supremacists. Even today, after the disgusting events in New Zealand, Trump still refuses to denounce white supremacists.
No president, let alone individual person, has compelled such hatred and murder in American history than President Trump. Even the most hardened Trumpkin can not deny that hate crimes are on the rise. According to PoliceOne, in 2018 hate crimes rose by 17% compare to 2017. Trump became president by appealing to the uneducated masses of our country. For the very first time, a president was actually approving their racist hatred. After our first black president, President Trump verified their hatred for minorities. Trump’s message to them was that they were losing America to the minorities. They had to fight to get their country back
It is common that politicians say anything to get elected. However, Trump’s lies were especially grandiose. After all, Trump had never held a political office before. He certainly was not going to win with the usual political hocus-pocus. Trump needed to find dumb people who would believe his lies. And then he began to lie bigly! Turns out all of his campaign promises turned out to be lies. Oh yeah, except the promise to cut his own taxes. His trailer park, cross burning supporters might save 40 bucks a year, but Trump’s tax cuts saved him millions!
Trump campaigned on a ginormous infrastructure bill, twice as big as Hillarys’. From his campaign, Trump really wanted to help his unemployed and uneducated supporters. He was supposed to get those coal mines back open. He campaigned on pulling out of NAFTA and getting us universal healthcare. All popular populism promises. Remember him wearing the hard hat, in front of a cheering and huge audience? All those lies! Guess what? His administration announced the other month that there’d be no infrastructure bill, and no coal mines were opening.
Kicking out Hispanics and banning Muslims, none of this happened. It excited his base though. It even works today when he mentions those promises, and how liberals blocked him from fulfilling them.
None of his promises transpired. Instead, from the first minute he walked into the White House, him and his cronies got to work sculpting the largest tax bill in our history. ALL republicans care about is lowering taxes for themselves. Abortion, immigration, the wall, everything else is just a prop to gain support so their tax cuts are passed.
So when his supporters thought Trump was going to care for them, they were terribly mistaken. Ironically, Obamacare, was designed to help the poor and indigent afford health insurance for themselves and their children. The same people that would have benefited most from Obamacare, were tricked into despising it the most!! LOL!!! Republicans fooled their supporters into hating Obamacare. Why? Because the top elite were the ones who Obamacare would cost the most. And those top elite are the ones calling the shots in the republican party.
Similar right wing think tanks that gave us Trump, are at work in England compelling animosity towards minorities as well as nationalism, resulting in the huge drive for Brexit. But in the end, these think tanks, that are tricking their supporters into thinking that they are working for them, also have a much more capitalistic and self driven agenda.
A web of wealthy think tanks, lobbying groups, and organizations that seem to blur the line between such distinctions are behind them. These individuals and organizations are bound by a shared dream of deregulating the British economy and opening it up to U.S. markets — billed as the “Brexit prize.” In this vision, Britain escapes the EU to become a free-market idyll, shorn of all EU regulations — a nation at once enclosed in a historical sovereignty and exposed to all the market forces of a globalized world. NewRepublic
The mass murder that just took place in New Zealand is one of the most disgusting events I have ever seen. What makes this disturbing event even more heinous is the fact that our president, the very man we elected to president, encourages such slayings.
Do we blame Trump for the mass murder that just took place in New Zealand or do we blame the idiots that voted for him? I hope you have a real tough time sleeping tonight if you did not vote for Hillary. | https://medium.com/politicalhaze/brexit-populism-and-nationalism-were-only-lies-used-to-trick-the-uneducated-into-voting-for-trump-e51e89a317c6 | ['Jordan Arizmendi'] | 2019-03-16 13:09:37.881000+00:00 | ['Brexit', 'Nationalism', 'Populism'] |
When Should I Break Up with My Therapist? | Photo by Jonas Allert on Unsplash
Therapists are meant to provide a space for you to process feelings, voice things that you may feel vulnerable or sad about, get an outside perspective, and have unconditional positive regard. Sometimes, that doesn’t go according to plan, and you can be left with pain and frustration. How do you move forward? And when do you call it quits to start over with a new therapist?
Address the rupture
TalkSpace and other online platforms advertise their services to be positive in part due to “users” beings able to switch therapists at the drop of a hat. With a few clicks, TalkSpace users can manage their subscription and select “change provider” — as if you were requesting a new HBOMax add-on for Hulu. I hate companies like BetterHelp and TalkSpace for several reasons, but this particular aspect of these platforms does not encourage clients to think through this decision carefully (it doesn’t help that BetterHelp offers clinicians “retention incentives” for getting clients to stay in therapy longer, even if they don’t need it).
Changing therapists is always your right, but it’s worth taking some time to think it through. Of course, there are some times that therapists say or do something that makes it unsafe to continue, such as saying something racist, homophobic, ableist, xenophobic or any other statement that undermines your identity or safety. While therapists are expected to hold themselves to an ethical standard, there will always be exceptions. Just like any other field, there are therapists who are not very good at their jobs.
That being said, switching to a new therapist without talking it through should not be the norm when clients feel hurt. Therapists are human too, so they are bound to make mistakes and not always understand how you feel about the way they work with you. If you don’t bring up something uncomfortable or upsetting that happened in session, you are missing an opportunity to experience what it’s like to resolve a conflict in a supportive space. Even worse, you will set yourself up to have the same problem with your next therapist. Without giving your therapist the opportunity to course correct, you will continue to feel misunderstood and frustrated — especially if you keep having to start over.
When you allow your therapist to apologize and move on, it can strengthen your bond and help you trust them even more.
Photo by Fabrizio Verrecchia on Unsplash
Give it time
Clients who have a really great therapeutic relationship in the past may compare their experiences in a way that does not give the new therapist a chance. While your new therapist may not be as talented with explaining the neuroscience behind anxiety, they might have new art-focused techniques or have insights about your family that your last therapist didn’t explore as much. It always takes time to build trust and rapport.
Studies show time and time again that the relationship itself is one of the best indicator of outcomes, or the progress that a client experiences. While it can be obvious at times that you don’t “click” with a therapist, other times you can grow in appreciation for them as time goes on. Most therapists need to gather background information and context so they can understand where you’re coming from, so it usually takes a couple sessions before you can dive in.
Look for the right fit
Think about what’s most important to you when looking for a new therapist, and keep your bullet points in mind when you ask for a consultation. Many therapists will have a 15 minute initial conversation with you to introduce themselves and their style of therapy, and to hear more about what you’d like to work on. Use this time to clearly state what you’re seeking and any specifics that you may have.
For example, some clients might say “I need a really direct therapist who will tell it like it is,” and others might say “I’m looking for EMDR” or “I need a lot of guidance because I’m new to therapy and can be quite shy.” The more honest you are in the beginning, the better of a chance you will match up with your new therapist well. This is especially important for those who have a specific life concern, such as chronic illness, specific mental health diagnoses, being part of a marginalized group or trauma history.
Cost is an important part of the puzzle, as well. Some therapists offer “sliding scale” fees, meaning that for a limited number of clients, they will charge below their typical fee to accommodate your income and life circumstance (such as being a student or single parent). Contacting community mental health agencies and consulting your insurance’s provider directory can help you find someone who takes your insurance.
Leaving therapy for positive reasons
Sometimes, you want to leave therapy because things are going really well! Maybe your depression is beginning to lift, your conflict with your best friend feels resolved, or you found a job you love. This is one of the most exciting moments in a therapeutic journey, because it means that you have done a lot of work and are enjoying the benefits of everything you’ve explored with your therapist. You can say this directly to your therapist — “These days, things seem to be going pretty well and I don’t have much to talk about in session. What can we do to finish up and move on?”
Some people feel more comfortable with “weaning off” of therapy. For example, you may have started with weekly sessions, and then you feel comfortable moving to biweekly. Others like to stay in “maintenance therapy” of once a month, or doing brief check-ins every three months or so. If you aren’t ready to completely end the relationship, you can always ask to see them less frequently until you feel like you can move on. This will also be up to the therapist’s discretion, as they are not always able to keep clients who come very infrequently. Have a discussion about this and find the right solution for you.
Have a clean break
Please don’t ghost your therapist! Unless something really harmful has occurred — such as the therapist saying something bigoted or acting in an inappropriate and/or sexual way toward you — this can be such a good opportunity to practice managing potential conflict and discomfort with saying goodbye. I say this despite having done this in the past, and I’m a therapist myself! My therapist deserved to know why I decided to no longer work with her. While you are the priority in this relationship, it’s important to remember that your therapist would like to improve and avoid making similar mistakes in the future, if something has occurred that upset you. They are a person, too, and this is the most respectful thing to do.
Good therapists will not attack you for wanting to end the relationship, even if the reasons are due to feeling dissatisfied with your care. If it feels too daunting to tell your therapist during session, it is always okay to let them know during a phone call or email. This will always be preferable to simply discontinuing therapy without any stated reasoning. If you decide to start with a new therapist because you don’t feel your needs are being met, your current therapist can help you find someone who is more experienced with your particular concerns or refer you to professionals for other resources, including medication.
Photo by Nathan McBride on Unsplash
Often, one of the most therapeutic aspects of these relationships is saying goodbye. This is especially the case if you are moving on because you feel that you have met your goals, or you are seeking more specialized care. You can always go over your progress, and your therapist will likely have encouraging and positive things to say about your work together. Give them a chance to make a clean break with you — you’ll have the chance to say how you really feel, and your therapist will carry your feedback (positive and negative) with them to future clients. Good luck! | https://medium.com/curious/when-should-i-break-up-with-my-therapist-73c5a9f8c7ff | ['The Transgender Therapist'] | 2021-01-01 02:22:35.835000+00:00 | ['Therapy', 'Advice', 'Mental Health', 'Personal Development'] |
The Negative Reviewers | Photo by visuals on Unsplash
Do you guys remember the time when yelpers demanded free food in exchange for yelp reviews? Yeah, thank goodness the companies and restaurants started standing up for themselves.
I scan a lot of reviews before buying products or ordering services. I do this to see the common denominator in service and quality. I also believe having negative reviews is crucial in understanding the perception of the reviewers versus determining if the product and services are as good as the five star reviews. New profiles equal family and friends, I know, I know.
But recently, I wondered about the negative reviews of loyal customers who write reviews like; I’ve been coming to this restaurant for ten years or we used to call each other by our first names and now the owner doesn’t even say hi.
Never in ten years did this person write a positive review, but the moment when service downgraded, negative was immediately written. Why? How is it we are so quick to write a negative review when there were so many positive experiences?
My take is that the narrative of the customer’s story changed when life didn’t go their way. It’s always easier to villainize another person when life doesn’t go your way.
So many people have problems that exist behind closed doors. Smiles and order are on display to please the customer, but when those same problems seep out from underneath, it seeps into the businesses. It’s all energy; business energy, personal energy, spiritual energy all vibrating at certain frequencies.
So when someone is not having a good day or you have a crappy order. Or the same restaurant you’ve been going to is now doing something completely different, ask yourself. Why? Then ask them how they’re doing, like really doing.
If they’ve been giving you the same treatment for years, then if and when it changes, be kind. You never know what someone is going through at that moment. | https://medium.com/@caroldao/the-negative-reviewers-ae4c510239fa | ['Carol Dao'] | 2020-12-24 15:32:53.869000+00:00 | ['Kindness', 'Review', 'Perception', 'Empathy', 'Human Behavior'] |
Why The Racism Against Kamala Harris Starts With Her Name | Vice President nominee — Kamala Harris
Not long after the long-awaited announcement of the heralded selection of former presidential candidate, Senator Kamala Harris, as presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s official running mate, there was a deluge of supportive statements, and less favorable reactions from both sides.
Donald Trump held his low-energy, messy news briefing, minutes after the confirmation of the Biden/Harris ticket, and his response to the breaking news was exactly what you would expect from a bullish, sexist, racist oaf, who is particularly vile in his dealings with women of color, who dare to call out his bullshit.
The nonsense about Kamala Harris starts at the 49.27 mark
Remember this is the dude who attacked Yamiche Alcindor, the White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, merely hours after the 2018 mid-term elections, and during Trump’s combative press conference, where he cruelly accused a Black woman of being “racist” after she asked the Racist-in-Chief about his racism.
While campaigning on behalf of Senator Ted Cruz in Texas, Trump boastfully declared he was a “nationalist” to the roaring crowd, and the boldness of that choice reaffirmed the mission statement of #MAGA in ways that have resulted in a substantial increase in hate crimes.
Yamiche Alcindor, April Ryan, and a bevy of other Black women reporters have been forced to accommodate this season of normalized hostility, stemming from a rogue administration and the white nationalist president who spews out insults when his deplorable behavior is promptly challenged.
And now with the anointing of Kamala Harris, a woman of color with an East Indian mother and Jamaican father, who has more than earned her entrance into the highest level of government, with the keys to the kingdom, it’s expected that conservative media along with their supreme leader will hit below the belt with racist references.
It’s already happening with Trump’s childish rebuke of his challenger’s recent feat as the future Vice President with a bright future for a repeat 2024 presidential run.
The Liar-in-Chief seized the ample opportunity during his laughable news conference to phonetically mispronounce the first name of the woman who has promised end his dreams for reelection in November.
Truth be told, Donald Trump, the man who proudly never reads, isn’t alone in his failed quest to correctly pronounce what seems simple enough to undertake.
The main difference is how those of us who butchered it the first time, made the effort to learn from our mistakes, while Trump and his henchmen revel in the power of mocking what they consider to be a strike against a woman of color who claims to be American.
The respectful approach would be to admit defeat and apologize for getting it wrong, while making sure that you’ve got it right.
As a young child who lived in the States from birth until relocating to Nigeria at the age of eight, I was acutely aware that my name was different because of the dreaded roll call, that placed me at the bottom of the roster, which led to the agonizing wait for what was surely coming.
The confused silence and stunned look on the teacher’s face would prompt me to offer the westernized version of my Nigerian name in an attempt to minimize the unwanted attention on the strange Black girl.
Those were the moments when I secretly wished I was blessed with a “normal” name, and I made that dream come true during my first day at Sunday school, as we went around the circle for introductions.
When when my turn came, I blurted out “Sandy” without blinking.
But when I returned to my birth country for college, my ethnic name took on a different meaning with a more complimentary reception, served with mix of both fascination and conformed ignorance, that forces names that are “different” to be classified as “beautiful” in order to appease the bearer.
As irritating as it is to keep making corrections, especially when folks have no issue saying “Schwarzenegger” as if it’s their native tongue, it does help when efforts are being made to achieve the correct pronunciation.
We already make it as easy as possible by diluting the real thing, which is something I’ve come to regret, and actively dissuade the younger generation of Nigerian-Americans to avoid doing if they can help it.
Unfamiliarity with foreign dialects is understandable, but what’s unacceptable is the offensive approach to massacring the name of someone who is easy prey to that level of abuse from racist pigs, who weaponize their white privilege to dehumanize targets of color.
Trump’s calculated mispronunciation of “Kamala” is an unsightly preview of what to expect in the chaotic months to come, as his campaign managers ramp up on the signature messaging, seeped in the bigotry that won him the presidency.
As per usual, compromised white anchors at Fox News have also begun the assignment of dehumanizing a highly accomplished woman of color, who’s poised to assume the same role that Mike Pence has laid to waste.
The other night, the worst of the lot, Tucker Carlson was firmly chastised for his refusal to take correction from Democratic political strategist, Richard Goodstein, who stopped by as a guest, but ended up being a frustrated instructor to a man-child.
“Her name is pronounced ‘Comma’ — like the punctuation mark — ‘la.” “Seriously, I’ve heard every sort of bastardization of that. That’s how it is. ‘Comma-la.’”
Carlson retorts, “Ok, so what?”
Goodstein responds:
“I think out of respect for somebody who’s going to be on the national ticket, pronouncing her name right is actually kind of a bare minimum.”
Tucker Carlson had a lot to say in return, and it left his infuriated guest flabbergasted at the notion that a so-called “seasoned journalist,” would choose to anchor his primetime show with the selling point of how a potential future VP’s first name isn’t worth the hassle of an accurate pronunciation on the air.
“You’re not allowed to criticize ‘Ka-MAL-a’ or ‘KAM-a-la’ or whatever it is — “ “On this show, nobody in power is immune from criticism. Our political leaders must be held to account — that’s our job.”
Really?!?!
Tucker Carlson & Co. are employed to advance the nefarious agenda of the criminalized establishment that’s spearheaded by a rogue presidency, that continues to be an active threat to our national security.
Donald Trump enjoys the unyielding loyalty of Fox News, and that dangerous practice has led to the preventable deaths of thousands of viewers, who were vulnerable enough to get infected with the deadly virus, that was formerly peddled as “a hoax” by overpaid anchors who can afford gross negligence.
Carlson’s inappropriate display of nonchalance when Goodstein held him accountable for the racism directed at a Black woman with a name that’s distinct to her cultural heritage, which the Fox News staple venomously ridiculed, is exactly the kind of programming that his millions of ignorant viewers relish.
This form of harassment by conservative bigots is unfortunately the kind of derogatory assault that Kamala Harris will have to face in the months leading up to the victory lap, after what will certainly be the most contentious and high-stakes election in the history of this country.
But while we can’t control the orneriness of white folks in influential positions, who are simply living up to the legacy of hate that’s been passed down from generations, we must raise the alarm about these specific attacks, that Trump has helped elevate for public viewing.
When we ask “what’s in a name?” the answer is almost always damning. | https://nilegirl.medium.com/why-the-racism-against-kamala-harris-starts-with-her-name-c4eb99dd6f93 | ['Ezinne Ukoha'] | 2020-08-17 16:12:39.410000+00:00 | ['Kamala Harris', 'Culture', 'Elections', 'Racism', 'Immigrants'] |
Loudly Into Saturday | Loudly Into Saturday
My exhaustion is exhausted. I didn’t fall asleep until almost one last night. By two Owen decided he needed milk and to go to grandma’s house. There was no convincing him that it was still bedtime and we certainly weren’t going to grandma’s house at two o’clock in the morning. When Owen wants something Owen does not let you forget it. He will remind you about every two point two seconds if he doesn’t remind you quicker. I remind him to breathe, count to ten, and offer distractions only for him to state exactly what he wants once again. And I’m exhausted. Me handling the situation correctly means back to sleep, no screaming, and a happy Owen. Me handling it incorrectly gets him talking about going to grandma’s house all night long, all morning long, and in the car until we got there. When I picked him up he went on to the next phase of our weekend, church. Part of his anxiousness and anxiety is brought on by the fact that these routine things, that he absolutely loves, have been taken away from him during the pandemic. I think back to how many times I had to hold my baby, rocking him on the floor because he couldn’t understand how his life changed so much. All of this has been hard on everyone but Owen can’t even begin to understand this. He doesn’t understand when there are any breaks from his daily routine under normal circumstances and then add in a pandemic and what do I even say. He holds on to the things he can and needs to be reassured over and over and over times a thousand every day that he will be going back to school and church and his grandma’s and and and. My heart aches. I’m going to instead focus on the connections he’s making. He brought me his tablet. He read the title under one of the videos and before we could search it the internet went out for a moment. Luckily only for a moment. I closed YouTube and by the time I opened it again, it was working. “There we go”, he said when YouTube popped back on. He hadn’t said as many words today, I’m sure exhausted from his night so to hear the expression, using his words delighted me. Through pure exhaustion I dragged my feet to get him ready for bed, praying that he would fall asleep quickly. He took his bath, got his pajamas on, started watching “the movie” which is really a calming music video, and was out within ten minutes. This momma needed that. As soon as my head hits the pillow I pray I’m asleep too. Luckily the sleepless nights aren’t as common anymore but boy oh boy are they hard when they do. I rejoice in his growth, strength, and the inspiration he gives me to keep pushing forward. Find your voice, share your story, and know that you are important. Smiles to all and donut daze! | https://medium.com/@lynnbrowder/loudly-into-saturday-92520099d13b | ['Lynn Browder'] | 2020-12-06 02:32:54.538000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Parenting', 'Autism', 'Life Lessons', 'Inspiration'] |
Realme C3 launched in India, has 5000mAh battery, Realme 6 Pro will be launched soon, know the price and features | Realme C3 launched in India, has 5000mAh battery, Realme 6 Pro will be launched soon, know the price and features Technoven Apr 23, 2020·4 min read
HomeRedmi Realme C3 launched in India, has 5000mAh battery, Realme 6 Pro will be launched soon, know the price and features
Realme C3 has been launched in India. The Reality smartphone comes with dual camera setup and 5,000 mAh battery. The phone will also be sold in e-commerce site Flipkart, Realme.com and Realme’s partner offline stores. The Reality C3 Waterdrop comes with a notch and a thin border at the bottom. Talking about other features, Reality C3 is equipped with MediaTek Helio G70 processor, 6.5-inch HD + display and 89.8 percent screen to body ratio. Reality C3 will replace Realme C2 in the market.
Realme C3 price in India, offers
The price of Reality C3 starts at Rs 6,999. This price is of 3 GB RAM + 32 GB inbuilt storage variants. Realme C3’s 4 GB RAM + 64 GB inbuilt storage variants will be sold for Rs 7,999. The phone will be found in Blazing Red and Frozen Blue colors. The sale of this Realme smartphone will begin on February 14 on Flipkart and Realme.com. The phone will also be made available in offline stores soon. Customers buying Reality C3 will get a benefit of Rs 7,550 from Reliance Jio. Apart from this, on exchange of a smartphone on Flipkart, you will get a discount of at least Rs 1,000.
Dual-SIM Realme C3 will run on Realme UI based on Android 10. It has a 6.5-inch HD + (720 × 1600 pixels) waterdrop notch display. The smartphone will be equipped with 89.8 percent screen to body ratio and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The phone will have a MediaTek Helio G70 processor and 4 GB RAM. Inbuilt storage is 64 GB and it will be possible to use up to 256 GB MicroSD card if needed. Realme C3 is a dual camera smartphone.
On the back side is a 12-megapixel primary camera with F / 1.8 aperture and a 2-megapixel secondary camera. Its aperture is F / 2.4. HDR, Nightscape, Croma Boost, Slow Mo, PDAF, Portrait Mode and many other camera features are given. There is a 5 megapixel camera on the front panel. It is equipped with features like HDR, AI beautification, panorama view and time-lapse. The battery of Reality C3 is 5,000 mAh. It claims to provide talk time of up to 43.9 hours and standby time of 727.7 hours.
Realme 6 Pro will be launched soon
Realme 6 Pro has been spotted on a certification website. This phone will be an upgrade to Realme 5 Pro. If the company’s current Reality 5 series is seen, then it may happen that the company will launch more than one phone in the upcoming Reality 6 series. These may include Realme 6, Realme 6 Pro and Realme 6i. Of these, Realme 6 Pro has now been certified by Singapore IMDA. Although there is no information about the specification of this Realme new phone in this certification website, but it has confirmed that Realme is working on the new 6 Pro phone.
According to the IMDA listing of upcoming Realme phones, the company is working on a phone named Realme 6 Pro and its model number will be RMX2061. This listing was first seen by Tipster Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings). Let us know that the phone of this model number has also been seen in the database of certification agency BIS of India along with the model number RMX2040 (reportedly Realme 6). There is no information about the specifications of Realme 6 and Realme 6 Pro in the listing of BIS. Both these listings confirm to a great extent that two of Realme’s smartphones Realme 6 and Realme 6 Pro will be launched in India. As per previous reports, the Reality phone seen in Singapore IMDA with model number RMX2061 will be the Indian version of model number RMX2063 in the US FCC database and the phone will come with a 4,300mAh capacity battery.
Apart from this, let us know that today the company has launched Realme C3 in India. The Reality C3 smartphone comes with dual camera setup and 5,000 mAh battery. The phone will also be sold in e-commerce site Flipkart, Realme.com and Realme’s partner offline stores. The Reality C3 Waterdrop comes with a notch and a thin border at the bottom. Talking about other features, Reality C3 is equipped with MediaTek Helio G70 processor, 6.5-inch HD + display and 89.8 percent screen to body ratio. Reality C3 will replace Realme C2 in the market. | https://medium.com/@technoven/realme-c3-launched-in-india-has-5000mah-battery-realme-6-pro-will-be-launched-soon-know-the-dcb41be7a18 | [] | 2020-04-23 05:11:46.880000+00:00 | ['Technical Analysis', 'Technews', 'Technology News', 'Technology', 'Tech'] |
Image Processing Using OpenCV library in Python (Basics) | Today, we are going to discuss few basic operations which can be performed on images using OpenCv library in Python. Starting from the Installation of Python 3 in Windows and executing the basic operations in the python script.
Image Processing with python using OpenCv
Basically, Image processing is the technical analysis of an image, Like preforming some operations in-order to get an enhanced image/ or to extract some useful information.
As we move on, a lot of applications uses images/frames/videos as an inputs which needs pre-processing them and feeding them to the device or softwares or Scripts.
Applications
Image processing can be entertaining and can be used for many applications.
It can be used to resize the images to fit into our web pages as per the required sizes and can sharpen them to bring out certain features Older black and white images can be brought into colour photos or the latest colour photos can be made to look like old black and white phots using colorization techniques It can be used to enhance medical imaging to screening patients for cancer or other diseases.
Basic Image processing techniques
In this article, we are going to see the functions that read the images from directory, modifies them and stores them in another directory. Below are the main things we are going to discuss.
Read the Image using Python and OpenCV
Resize the Image using OpenCV
Blur/Smoothing the Image
Sharpen the Image
Edge detection algorithm (Canny)
Basic Requirements & Installation:
A Computer/PC/Laptop with Windows Python Software : Can be downloaded and installed as procedure mentioned here. (Mostly try to download and Install latest version from here) If you have not already done so, Download and install VS Code. Next, install the Python extension for VS Code from the Visual Studio Marketplace. The Python extension is named Python and it’s published by Microsoft. Install opencv-python (which is an unofficial pre-built OpenCV package for Python) by issuing the following command in CMD (Command Prompt):
pip install PACKAGE_NAME
where PACKAGE_NAME can be
opencv-python (only contains main modules)
(only contains main modules) opencv-contrib-python (contains both main and contrib modules)
(contains both main and contrib modules) opencv-python-headless (same as opencv-python but without GUI functionality)
(same as but without GUI functionality) opencv-contrib-python-headless (same as opencv-contrib-python but without GUI functionality)
Once the setup is done,
Open a directory and create a folder “Image_Processing”. Download few images (3–4 images) and save in this folder. Create a Python Script file “Test_img_processing.py”(.py is an extension of python scripts)
Implementation & Execution :
Now you are free to use python script. Always start the script with Importing the libraries required. Below are the functions to do the basic image processing.
To read an image, we have a function “imread()”, which takes the image file name as a string and a flag
cv2.imread(/complete/path/to/image,flag) First argument is complete path to the image along with the extension. Second argument is an optional flag which could be any one of the following : cv2.IMREAD_COLOR : Loads a color image. Any transparency of image will be neglected. It is the default flag. cv2.IMREAD_GRAYSCALE : Loads image in grayscale mode cv2.IMREAD_UNCHANGED : Loads image as such including alpha channel Returns numpy array, containing the pixel values. For colored images, each pixel is represented as an array containing Red, Green and Blue channels. Note that the default flag is cv2.IMREAD_COLOR. Hence even if read a png image with transparency, the transparency channel is neglected.
2. To Display the read image, we use “imshow()”
cv2.imshow(window_name, image) First argument is name of the window that is displayed when image is shown. Second argument is the image to be shown in the window.
3. To save the image which we read into another directory, we use “imwrite()”, which takes the destination and the image file.
cv2.imwrite(‘/path/to/destination/image.png’,image) First Argument is Path to the destination on file system, where image is ought to be saved. Second Argument is ndarray containing image Returns True is returned if the image is written to file system, else False.
4. To get the dimensions of an image, we have a property called shape
img = cv2.imread(‘/home/img/python.png’, cv2.IMREAD_UNCHANGED)
# get dimensions of image
dimensions = img.shape
# height, width, number of channels in image
height = img.shape[0]
width = img.shape[1]
channels = img.shape[2]
img.shape returns (Height, Width, Number of Channels) Height represents the number of pixel rows in the image or the number of pixels in each column of the image array. Width represents the number of pixel columns in the image or the number of pixels in each row of the image array. Number of Channels represents the number of components used to represent each pixel.
5. To Blur the image, we use “cv2.blur()”, which takes the image file and the kernel filter. This is called “Averaging”. There are other options as well:
— Gaussian Blurring
— Median Blurring
— Bilateral Filtering
Example Script with all the basic functionalities:
# importing opencv CV2 module
import cv2
# bat.jpg is the batman image.
img = cv2.imread(‘bat.jpg’)
# make sure that you have saved it in the same folder
# Averaging
# You can change the kernel size as you want
Averaging_blur= cv2.blur(img,(10,10))
cv2.imshow(‘Averaging’,Averaging_blur)
cv2.waitKey(0)#waits for the window to close
# Gaussian Blurring
# Again, you can change the kernel size
Gaussian_Blur= cv2.GaussianBlur(img, (5,5),0)
cv2.imshow(‘Gaussian Blurring’, Gaussian_Blur)
cv2.waitKey(0)#waits for the window to close
# Median blurring
Median_Blur= cv2.medianBlur(img,5)
cv2.imshow(‘Median Blurring’, Median_Blur)
cv2.waitKey(0)#waits for the window to close
# Bilateral Filtering
Bilateral_Filter= cv2.bilateralFilter(img,9,75,75)
cv2.imshow(‘Bilateral Filtering’, Bilateral_Filter)
cv2.waitKey(0) #waits for the window to close
cv2.destroyAllWindows()# closes all the open windows in this session
6. To detect the edges of the image, we use the popular canny edge detection algorithm . OpenCV has in-built function cv2.Canny() which takes our input image as first argument and its aperture size(min value and max value) as last two arguments.
edges = cv2.Canny(frame,100,200) # Display edges in a frame cv2.imshow('Edges',edges)
And there are many more operations and open algorithms to perform specific functionalities to images using opencv and python, which can be very easy and flexible to implement in real time videos/frames. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/image-processing-using-opencv-library-in-python-basics-55518bcf08c4 | ['Panisetti Prudhviraj'] | 2020-11-01 16:15:49.234000+00:00 | ['Image Processing', 'Python', 'Canny Edge Detection', 'Opencv', 'Edge Detection'] |
West Bengal tops in Politics violence in India | The data reveals that West Bengal tops the list of states where politics is a motive for murder. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data for politics as a reason for murder shows the numbers are quite small. The all-India figure for people who were murdered because of politics is only 61.
But with 12 murders, West Bengal leaves others behind. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been complaining that many of its cadres are victims of political violence in Bengal, because the police simply looks the other way when its workers are attacked. The party has claimed more than 120
At the crucial meeting, Sonia appealed to the party leaders as a family. However, if sources close to the dissenting leaders are to be believed then no concrete solution has been found for the dispute and more meetings will be held in the coming days.
After several months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Sonia called a meeting of top leaders of the party in which seven leaders of the disgruntled faction also attended. A total of 19 leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi were present.
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“We are all like a family and everyone has to strengthen the party together,” said Sonia. The dissenting leaders also expressed their side to her. According to sources, Sonia told these leaders that she will address their concerns.
According to a top source in the party, Rahul said in the meeting that whatever responsibility the party will give, he will fulfill it. However, when the leaders asked him to assume the responsibility of the president, Rahul responded by saying that it would be better to leave the issue on the electoral process at this time.
Senior Congress leader AK Antony said Rahul should lead the party which was endorsed by other leaders while Vivek Tankha said he himself resigned in solidarity when the Wayanad MP resigned from the post following 2019 disastrous defeat. Tankha said that he has faith in Rahul’s leadership.
Rahul said he values all senior leaders as many of them were friends of his father and they are important for the party, the source added.
A senior leader told that the disgruntled leaders present in the meeting expressed confidence in the Congress leadership and said that they have faith in the party leadership’s ability to take everyone along and the ideological commitment.
However, sources close to disgruntled leaders claimed that this meeting took place because of them and further meetings will be held to resolve the dispute.
On the other hand, sources also told that in the meeting, Sonia said that we will soon organise a ‘Chintan Shivir’ (brainstorming session) to plan a strategy to defeat BJP and will tell the public about the failures of the Modi government.
Speaking to the media after the end of the meeting that lasted for about five hours, Prithviraj Chauhan said that the first meeting was held to decide the future of the party, there will be more such meetings like this, and Chintan Shivir like Panchgani or Shimla will be organised. | https://medium.com/@pinkydaroga/west-bengal-tops-in-politics-violence-in-india-d53396f9b07a | [] | 2020-12-20 20:07:03.474000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'India', 'Riots', 'Violence', 'West Bengal'] |
Flutter Layout Cheat Sheet | IntrinsicWidth and IntrinsicHeight
Want all the widgets inside Row or Column to be as tall/wide as the tallest/widest widget? Search no more!
In case you have this kind of layout:
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(title: Text('IntrinsicWidth')),
body: Center(
child: Column(
children: <Widget>[
RaisedButton(
onPressed: () {},
child: Text('Short'),
),
RaisedButton(
onPressed: () {},
child: Text('A bit Longer'),
),
RaisedButton(
onPressed: () {},
child: Text('The Longest text button'),
),
],
),
),
);
}
But you would like to have all buttons as wide as the widest, just use IntrinsicWidth :
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
appBar: AppBar(title: Text('IntrinsicWidth')),
body: Center(
child: IntrinsicWidth(
child: Column(
crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.stretch,
children: <Widget>[
RaisedButton(
onPressed: () {},
child: Text('Short'),
),
RaisedButton(
onPressed: () {},
child: Text('A bit Longer'),
),
RaisedButton(
onPressed: () {},
child: Text('The Longest text button'),
),
],
),
),
),
);
} | https://medium.com/flutter-community/flutter-layout-cheat-sheet-5363348d037e | ['Tomek Polański'] | 2020-05-13 19:53:40.360000+00:00 | ['Mobile App Development', 'Android App Development', 'AndroidDev', 'Flutter', 'iOS App Development'] |
I Don’t have much Money, Can I still Participate in DRIP? | DRIP: Start with a little, end up with a lot.
Big things have small beginnings
Currently, it takes $440 to participate in DRIP. ($44/DRIP * 10 DRIP).
[NOTE: The minimum has been reduced to 1 DRIP]
This is not chump change, this is a significant amount of money for some people! There has been indications that the minimum amount of DRIP will drop to 1, but nothing official has been communicated.
But, would it be possible to make a much larger sum of money from a small pile of cash?
Indeed, the answer is ‘Yes.’
Oui, bien sûr!
Let’s assume you bought the minimum 10 DRIP crypto when the price of DRIP was “only” $20. We’ll keep the fees off to keep things more simple.
10 DRIP, $20/DRIP = $200 USD equivalent.
Plug that figure into the Daily Compound Calculator with the following entries:
Principal Amount : $10 (“$” Dollars will be used as a proxy for number of tokens)
: $10 (“$” Dollars will be used as a proxy for number of tokens) Interest Rate : 1%
: 1% 365 Days
Daily Reinvest Rate: Leave at the default 100%
Hit “Calculate”:
The Result?
Doesn’t seem like much, right? But this doesn’t represent dollars per se, it represents the number of tokens (377.83), and the July 15th, 2021 price is around $44, making the real USD equivalent $16,624.52.
That’s if you Hydrated/compounded every day for the next 365 days:
On Day 2 you multiply your initial stake of 10 tokens by 1%, making it 10.1 .
you multiply your initial stake of 10 tokens by 1%, making it . On Day 3 , recompound the 10.1 tokens into 10.201 .
, recompound the 10.1 tokens into . Repeat up to 365 Days.
That’s how you arrive at 367.83 DRIP Tokens.
But the price of DRIP at $20 was 5 days ago
The DRIP price is now $44, and rising. The price increased 120% in 5 days. Annualized, that’s 8,760% return in one year. That would make the price of DRIP $1,752.00
Your measly end of year 377.83 DRIP tokens are now worth $661,958.16.
That’s ridiculous!
Is it? Let’s look at the past year’s results of a similar CD-like crypto project HEX:
4,433%
But, that’s not 8,760%.
Well, it’s not nuthin’ either!
And HEX achieved that price despite every podcasting-thought-leader-bitcoin-maxi on the planet castigating the project as the biggest ponzi-scam scheme outside of BitConnect:
Can’t buy that kind of derision
But HEX weathered all the criticism and achieved its 4,433% return in spite of the massive crypto army arrayed against it.
Again, this lovely video:
“Go ahead! Bring your heroes here to die!”
Today, investors have realized that having a CD-like financial instrument using crypto is a viable model.
Just look at the headlines now:
~from Market Realist, June 22, 2021
“According to WalletInvestor, Hex will reach $0.20 a year from now and $0.68 in five years. WalletInvestor’s five-year Hex price outlook suggests an upside of more than 700 percent.” ~from Market Realist
Well, I just checked, and in the time it took to make tea the price rose from $0.08 to $0.16:
A 28.50% gained just today. At this rate they will cross that prediction in the next 24 hours.
The $0.20 HEX price prediction in a year’s time is exceedingly low. The article above was published on June 22nd, 2021 less than a month ago.
Major sandbagging going on.
How about DRIP?
Some Scam accusations, but nothing like the ones HEX faced. And DRIP has better tokenomics in my opinion, with the lowest percentage return being 365%.
The maximum return for one year, if Hydrating/compounding once per day, is 3,678.3%, which doesn’t include the price action.
Compare with HEX:
“Users can enjoy interest payments ranging from 3.69% (if 99% of the total supply is locked) up to an incredible and massive payout of 369%” ~https://crypto-explained.com/services/what-is-hex-cryptocurrency/
DRIP = HEX times 10.
Make your comparisons, but at the end of the day DRIP is starting on better footing, and the price rise reflects that. I bought DRIP at $5.83 on July 1st, 2021. Half a month later on July 15th, 2021, DRIP is now over $44.
Do the math.
Come to a conclusion.
Are you going to let the biggest thing since sliced Satoshi’s pass you by? | https://medium.com/cryptozoa/i-dont-have-much-money-can-i-still-participate-in-drip-27965bcb8803 | [] | 2021-09-12 17:02:53.167000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Passive Investing', 'Passive Income', 'Crypto'] |
My 2nd TEDx Talk is Live and it’s NOT about Detours…(or is it?) | My 2nd TEDx Talk is officially live! It’s about transforming trauma — or any adversity — into a warrior’s adventure through creativity, story, wonder, and a bit of the archetypal hero’s journey.
On February 25th, 2017, I gave my 2nd TEDx Talk on how I healed from trauma, through turning myself into Tigerlilly, the warrior, using my “Four Hard Core Skills to Resilience” that I created from my roadmap….the archetypal hero’s journey.
Creativity was a mindset that literally saved my life. REMEMBER…we’re all artists at heart!
I would love to hear from you.
What does creativity mean to you?
Is there a story you’ve read as a child that’s always stayed with you?
After watching my talk, what step are you in on the hero’s journey?
How can you use that pattern to tell you where you need to go next in your life?
I gave this TEDx Talk for VCU’s theme of PATTERNS. Is there a pattern that has guided you? What’s your favorite pattern?
Oh, and what’s one pattern we all have in our lives?
DETOURS! And what’s a DETOURIST…?
Through sharing our stories, we become empowered, inspired and more comfortable with our life circumstances, as well as with who we are. Telling our stories helps us process it — just like you learn something better yourself when you have to teach someone else. Through our shared experience, we gain confidence and become travel-partners on our detours. And traveling is always less scary when we’re not alone.
Even if you’re not ready to share your story, read a book. Hear the stories of others –courageous, adventure stories! We learn by example, so when that difficult detour surprises you, you’ll be able to pull those heroic stories out of your back pocket and follow your own hero’s journey.
Watch my first TEDx Talk on Detours here…
I’d love to hear from you all on the patterns in your own life — and the stories you’ve heard that stick with you today.
As an artist…I love patterns…
Remember — everyone has a story worth sharing. Even if for now, it’s one that’s been told to us.
They’re your secret weapon!
Don’t believe me? Watch the talk !
More art at amyoes.com/galleries
Safe travels, Detourists and Warriors!
Oestreicher is a multidisciplinary teaching artist, TEDx speaker,PTSD Specialist, author, actress and playwright. See more mixed media artwork, learn about her plays, or catch her touring Gutless & Grateful, her one-woman autobiographical musical. Download a free guide to getting a TEDx Talk at www.amyoes.com/discover. | https://medium.com/tedx-experience/my-2nd-tedx-talk-is-live-and-its-not-about-detours-or-is-it-2853274fc893 | ['Amy Oestreicher'] | 2017-07-24 06:38:27.130000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Inspiration', 'Speaking', 'Ted', 'Tedx'] |
5 Things to Do After Open Enrollment | Most HR departments have reached the end of the annual open enrollment process; for many HR professionals, this is one of the busiest, most consequential seasons of the year. However, just because the open enrollment period has reached its end, that doesn’t mean HR’s work is through. There are a few important steps for HR departments to “debrief” following open enrollment.
What to Do After Open Enrollment Ends
1) Review the invoice for errors.
If you are using FullHR (ASO) or other full-service Administrative Services Outsourcing, the auditing will be handled for you using an automated Human Resource Information System. The automation connects the actual insurance enrollment directly with the insurance carrier using EDI on the more advanced platforms. Otherwise you will need to invest many of your or your team’s hours once the first invoice from your company’s health insurance carrier comes in; be prompt in checking it for errors. Understand that there almost certainly will be some errors that need to be addressed, unless you have absolutely no staffing or enrollment changes from the previous year. Small invoice errors are just part of the process, and the sooner you address them, the better.
Note: Your 2021 mission should be sourcing a solution to connect your payroll information with your HR and benefits information that automatically links with the insurance carrier and greatly reduces the risk of costly enrollment errors and correctly reports W-2 and 1094/1095 electronically to the IRS. This also can generate compliant forms that are mailed or sent electronically to all employees.
2) Communicate with your employees.
Hopefully, HR has kept the lines of communication open throughout the enrollment period, educating employees on how to use their benefits. Don’t stop now. Remind employees to check their first paycheck or invoice promptly and come to you if there are any questions. Also, get on the schedule of your licensed insurance partner to provide education for employees throughout the year about how they can maximize their benefits and get the most out of their insurance. This mitigates liability for your organization and insulates your job role from disseminating incorrect information in an industry where compliance and rules are certain to be quickly changing with a new federal administration.
3) Send out an employee survey.
Don’t delay in requesting that your Administrative Service Outsourced team host a survey soliciting employee feedback; ask them for their thoughts on the open enrollment process now, while it’s still fresh on their minds. Ask whether they felt like all of the options were made clear to them, whether they felt like HR was accessible to answer any questions, whether they had sufficient time to enroll, etc. Were employees able to easily schedule a one-on-one appointment with a licensed professional, were the online educational videos during enrollment up to date, and were the hours for a question-and-answer session adequate? Was the licensed professional enroller friendly and knowledgeable? This feedback can be valuable as you seek to make next year’s open enrollment run even more smoothly. And it helps employees know that their voice is valued.
4) Schedule a time to sit down with your broker.
If you work with an HR benefits broker to help you navigate the open enrollment season, it’s a great idea to touch base with them after the fact. Discuss aspects of open enrollment that you think worked well, as well as any aspect that you’d like to go better next year. Together, you and your broker may also compare enrollment in the new plans versus enrollment in previous plans.
5) Consider outsourcing HR needs.
And what about HR departments that don’t have a dedicated broker? The immediate aftermath of open enrollment is a good time to think critically about some of the time-intensive tasks that are on your plate, including the potentially laborious process of auditing your invoices. If you don’t have a trusted HR partner to help you bear some of the burden and run your department more efficiently, now’s as good a time as any to look for one.
If you’re looking for a trusted partner to help broker your benefits, or if you have any specific questions about what to do in the season following open enrollment, we welcome you to contact the team at FullHR at any time.
A great partner with access to excellent integrated administrative tools will help you save money using the EDI directly with carriers while also preventing enrollment errors and saving time during and after enrollment. Partnering with a pro could provide enhanced communication throughout the year with current employees and new hires by offering continuity of information while mitigating your organization’s liability and allowing you to focus on business during this upcoming year. | https://medium.com/@fullhr/5-things-to-do-after-open-enrollment-d6a6a27ca2b1 | ['Gregg Taylor'] | 2020-12-15 20:30:55.321000+00:00 | ['Open Enrollment', 'Business Strategy', 'Human Resources', 'Business', 'Human Resource Management'] |
Toxic Tolerance | I am not the kind of person who likes conflict. I am the poster child for “can’t we all just get along?” I write about things that I see as important, but I stay away from controversial topics. I wrote the title and thought, “am I really going to do this?” Since I am four sentences in, it looks like I am committed.
Toxic has become the new catchphrase. We have toxic people, toxic masculinity, and many more I don’t want to Google. Today, I want to talk about toxic tolerance. By toxic, I mean tolerance that has become so militant that it leaves no room for differing viewpoints or conversation. I can’t be the only person that recognizes that some of those screaming for tolerance are very intolerant of any thoughts outside their definition of right and wrong.
Maybe I see this more because I am a Christian. Yes, I know that plenty of people have preached hate and intolerance in the name of Christianity. That doesn’t mean that those people represent an entire religion. Does one gay person represent the whole LGBTQ+ community, or does one racist redneck represents an entire state?
We have so much to learn from each other. Tolerance is about accepting differences, not eradicating them. Intolerance, in the name of tolerance, happens from the most extreme right to the most radical left. The guilty include Christians, atheists, Muslims, and all other systems of belief or non-belief. We don’t have to change one another to learn from one another. I don’t think, in everyday life, we are as at odds as the media tries to convince us we are.
Lessons in the storm
I lived in Houston, Texas, during Hurricane Harvey a couple of years ago. During a natural disaster, we all become just people again. It seemed as though every person with a boat, in a tri-state area, descended on the area as the waters rose.
As creeks and rivers continued to rise during the days of rain, neighborhood after the neighborhood was inundated. The boats just kept coming. Did anyone notice that you didn’t have hundreds of pictures of people stranded on rooftops or in attics? That is because the mayor said, “if you have a boat and can help, please come.” They did.
No one cared, for at least that brief few days, about political affiliation, gender identity, skin color, or religion. Some homes in our neighborhood were lost, but in comparison, we faired well. We were trapped on a virtual island for several days, though. We had the NextDoor app, and it was a beautiful thing to witness.
A baby had a fever, and a dozen people were volunteering children’s Tylenol and Ibuprofen. A tree toppled onto the roof of a house. My husband and son, along with another group of men, cut the tree off the roof and found tarps to put over the hole until there could be a permanent repair. These men didn’t know each other, nor the person whose home was damaged.
An older lady started having difficulty breathing. Two nurses responded from each side of the neighborhood. It took other neighbors in jacked-up four-wheel drives to get them to her house, but they made it. Thankfully, it was something a breathing treatment resolved.
The water continued to rise, and no one knew if ours would be the next neighborhood that needed boats to get out safely. Everyone in our community understood all our material possessions might be gone before this was over. It didn’t stop strangers from opening their homes to the single mom who was afraid to remain home alone with her three children.
There was so much decency during and in the aftermath of the storm. Volunteers served at shelters, or in their neighborhoods. Neighborhoods pulled together and neighbors who were strangers before the storm became close friends in the days and weeks afterward.
Those of us fortunate enough to have not lost our possessions or homes during the storm came together for those who had. There was a shelter a few miles away that put out a call for blankets, towels, and clothes. Within an hour, they had to close to donations because they were overrun.
I know it is a broadly sweeping analysis, but I think the hurricane exemplified who most of us are at our core. Funny how the literal and figurative storms always have so much to teach us. Yes, evil walks among us. There is ignorance, crime, and hate, but there is also overwhelming goodness. Which do we choose to see? Why does it take something as catastrophic as a hurricane to see the good in those around us?
The costs of toxic tolerance
When did it become against the rules of civil society to have differing opinions? I can like you, even love you, without agreeing with everything you say or do. However, it often seems that if we dare deviate from absolute agreement on everything, the dreaded label of intolerance becomes the new scarlet letter.
I miss having debates with friends and acquaintances. These debates, usually around a dinner table, could even grow heated at times. That said, it rarely devolved to malice or real anger. In the end, I was always exposed to new thoughts and ideas. Even better, I was forced to be well-versed and articulate about my beliefs.
Now, my kids are growing up in a world where they are not allowed to explore their own belief system and test it against others with differing beliefs. Instead, they must swallow the idea of tolerance only as it extends to absolute liberalism. Whether you like it or not, it is healthy for our country to have more than one political party. It acts as a system of checks and balances.
The irony seems wholly lost that toxic tolerance is really just intolerance couched in a new language. Consider the definitions:
Tolerance: the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular, the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with. Intolerance: unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from one’s own.
In a desperate and legitimate bid to have a more accepting, diverse, and inclusive society, we are producing the opposite effect. I am not talking about politics, although that certainly enters into the conversation. I mean that I see people routinely acting with disdain, hostility, and derision in defending their version of tolerance.
Yes, I know that sadly, we still live in a world where people who are different are hurt and bullied. I know there are things like white nationalism. I understand that LGBTQ youth are at a greater risk of being bullied, and it plays a part in their increased risk of suicide. I know that ignorance and cruelty exist, and I strongly agree we should stand united against them.
I think we need to take a step back and realize that differing opinions do not have to make us enemies. Utopia would be quite boring. It is our diversity, not just culturally, but in our thoughts, morals, and beliefs that make us a fascinating species. If someone is willing to treat you with kindness and respect, but they disagree with your life choices, extend a little of the tolerance you expect. | https://medium.com/med-daily/toxic-tolerance-1d19ac5e8b49 | ['Dena Write-Solutions'] | 2019-12-07 16:17:30.550000+00:00 | ['Community', 'Self Improvement', 'Tolerance', 'Humanity', 'Politics'] |
How to write ETL operations in Python | How to write ETL operations in Python
Clean and transform raw data into an ingestible format using Python
In this article, you’ll learn how to work with Excel/CSV files in a Python environment to clean and transform raw data into a more ingestible format. This is typically useful for data integration.
This example will touch on many common ETL operations such as filter, reduce, explode, and flatten.
Notes
The code for these examples is available publicly on GitHub here, along with descriptions that mirror the information I’ll walk you through.
These samples rely on two open source Python packages:
pandas: a widely used open source data analysis and manipulation tool. More info on their site and PyPi.
a widely used open source data analysis and manipulation tool. More info on their site and PyPi. gluestick: a small open source Python package containing util functions for ETL maintained by the hotglue team. More info on PyPi and GitHub.
Without further ado, let’s dive in!
Introduction
This example leverages sample Quickbooks data from the Quickbooks Sandbox environment, and was initially created in a hotglue environment — a light-weight data integration tool for startups.
Feel free to follow along with the Jupyter Notebook on GitHub below!
Step 1: Read the data
Let’s start by reading the data.
This example is built on a hotglue environment with data coming from Quickbooks. In hotglue, the data is placed in the local sync-output folder in a CSV format. We will use the gluestick package to read the raw data in the input folder into a dictionary of pandas dataframes using the read_csv_folder function.
By specifying index_cols={'Invoice': 'DocNumber'} the Invoices dataframe will use the DocNumber column as an index. By specifying converters, we can use ast to parse the JSON data in the Line and CustomField columns.
Take a peek
Let’s take a look at what data we’re working with. For simplicity, I’ve selected the columns I’d like to work with and saved it to input_df . Typically in hotglue you can configure this using a field map, but I've done it manually here.
Step 2: Rename Columns
Let’s clean up the data by renaming the columns to more readable names.
CustomerRef__value -> CustomerId
CustomerRef__name -> Customer
MetaData_LastUpdatedTime -> LastUpdated
MetaData_CreateTime -> CreatedOn
CurrencyRef__name -> Currency
CurrencyRef__value -> CurrencyCode
Step 3: Extract information
The Line column is actually a serialized JSON object provided by Quickbooks with several useful elements in it. We'll need to start by flattening the JSON and then exploding into unique columns so we can work with the data.
Again, we’ll use the gluestick package to accomplish this. The explode_json_to_rows function handles the flattening and exploding in one step. To avoid exploding too many levels of this object, we'll specify max_level=1
Here is a snippet from one to give you an idea.
[{
'Id': '1',
'LineNum': '1',
'Amount': 275.0,
'DetailType': 'SalesItemLineDetail',
'SalesItemLineDetail': {
'ItemRef': {
'value': '5',
'name': 'Rock Fountain'
},
'ItemAccountRef': {
'value': '79',
'name': 'Sales of Product Income'
},
'TaxCodeRef': {
'value': 'TAX',
'name': None
}
},
'SubTotalLineDetail': None,
'DiscountLineDetail': None
}]
Step 4: Filter rows
For our purposes, we only want to work with rows with a Line.DetailType of SalesItemLineDetail (we dont need sub-total lines). This is a common ETL operation known as filtering and is accomplished easily with pandas
Step 5: More exploding
Look at some of the entries from the Line column we exploded. You'll notice they are name value pairs in JSON.
Let’s use gluestick again to explode these into new columns via the json_tuple_to_cols function. We'll need to specify lookup_keys - in our case, the key_prop=name and value_prop=value
Step 6: Some more exploding
Take a look at the CustomField column. Below is an example of an entry
[{'DefinitionId': '1', 'Name': 'Crew #', 'Type': 'StringType', 'StringValue': '102'}]
You can see this is JSON encoded data, specifying one custom field: Crew # with value 102
To explode this, we’ll need to reduce this as we only care about the Name and StringValue . We can use gluestick's explode_json_to_cols function with an array_to_dict_reducer to accomplish this.
Conclusion
Our final data looks something like below. In this sample, we went through several basic ETL operations using a real world example all with basic Python tools.
Feel free to check out the open source hotglue recipes for more samples in the future. Thanks for reading! | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-write-etl-operations-in-python-baffbceeadf4 | ['Hassan Syyid'] | 2020-08-25 23:26:01.574000+00:00 | ['Etl', 'B2B', 'Data Integration', 'Python'] |
Improving Employee Experience With AI | Boosting employee engagement is a top priority in any organization. With the help of AI tools, employee experiences are noted, and improvements are suggested for better functioning of the organization.
The success of an organization is dependent mainly on employee productivity. Employee engagement and satisfaction are one of the factors which have a permanent effect on employee productivity. The ways of achieving these have changed over the years. Different companies have various ways to assess and determine their workforce’s wellbeing.
As technology evolves, employees have come to expect a personalized life experience — including job experience. In a small organization, HR and the rest of the leadership team have enough time with the team members to make the employees aware and have a real personal connection to the company. As businesses grow, the amount of relationships between leaders and more than a couple of staff is considerably difficult.
Most organizations still use outdated methods, including employee reviews or engagement surveys. However, few forward-thinking organizations have begun to use tools which provide more useful and frequent information. One of these important tools is artificial intelligence (AI). Fortunately, developments in AI and machine learning help businesses to bridge the communication gap. Al can address the issue of personal interaction with every individual in an organization. AI also transforms the environment inside the workplace by affecting employee interaction, performing critical tasks, and even receiving notifications.
How can AI Improve Employee Engagement?
• Creating Insight: The ability to gain valuable insight from large amounts of data is a key advantage for AI. Organizations can use the data obtained from Big Data with AI and ML-based apps. These data are mostly used to produce additional revenues. It can also be used, however, to make staff more happy and efficient. Thus, an AI-powered tool will assist employers in understanding the team trend with the moment, with a device such as AI that can evaluate the language sort, including emojis, e-mail signatures, and sentences used by staff for the communication purposes.
• Automation: AI can enhance its employee experience through the automation of tedious or highly accurate repeat tasks. This is one example of how AI can replace human workers. Some cases of automation conducted by AI include how processors or data are improved. AI ensures quick access and viewing of information and much more comfortable use of things like feedback from employees.
On-job Training: Learning does not stop as soon as the employee assumes his job role. AI will play a pivotal role to ensure that employees are learning something new even when they are at work. AI will also help transfer skills from one generation to the next — AI can ensure that when employees retire or join other companies, they leave behind their valuable expertise; they can draw on it for other employees.
Source: How AI Can Improve the Employee Experience | https://medium.com/@fionadevid5/improving-employee-experience-with-ai-a18930865b03 | ['Fiona Devid'] | 2019-10-03 11:15:17.881000+00:00 | ['Human Resources', 'Employees', 'AI', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Employee Engagement'] |
20+ Essential Java Libraries and APIs Every Programmer Should Learn in 2021 | 20+ Essential Java Libraries and APIs Every Programmer Should Learn in 2021
Most essential Java libraries you can learn to become a better Java developer. It includes Java libraries for logging, unit testing, mocking, networking, JSON, etc, and resources to learn them. javinpaul Follow May 12 · 14 min read
Hello Java programmers, if you are looking for the most essential Java libraries to learn and become a more competent Java developer in 2021 then you have come to the right place.
Earlier, I have shared essential Java Frameworks and the best courses to learn Spring Boot, one of the most popular Java frameworks and in this article, I am going to share the most popular and useful Java libraries you can learn to become a better Java programmer in 2021.
One of the traits of a good and experienced Java developer is the extensive knowledge of API, including JDK and third-party libraries. I spent a good deal of time learning API, especially after reading Effective Java 3rd Edition, where Joshua Bloch advised how to use existing APIs for development rather than writing new pieces of code for common stuff.
That advice made sense to me because of the testing exposure 2nd-party libraries get. In this article, I am going to share some of the most useful and essential libraries and APIs that a Java developer should be familiar with.
However, I am not including frameworks, like. Spring and Hibernate, because they are pretty well known and have specific features.
In general, I am including useful libraries for day-to-day projects, including logging libraries like Log4j, JSON parsing libraries like Jackson, and unit testing APIs like JUnit and Mockito.
If you need to use them in your project, then, you can either include JARs of these libraries in your project’s classpath to start using them or you can use Maven for dependency management.
When you use Maven for dependency management, it will automatically download these libraries, including the libraries they depend on, known as the transitive dependency.
For example, if you download the Spring Framework, it will also download all other JARs on which Spring is dependent, for example, Log4j.
You might not realize, but having the right version of dependent JARs is a big headache. If you have the wrong versions of the JAR, then, you will get the ClassNotFoundException, NoClassDefFoundError, or the UnsupportedClassVersionError in Java. If you have faced them before then you know how painful they are to solve.
20 Essential Libraries and APIs for Java Programmers in 2021
Here is my collection of some of the useful third-party libraries Java developers can use in their applications to do a lot of useful tasks. In order to use these libraries, Java developers should be familiar with that, and this is the whole point of this article. If you have an idea then you can research that library and use it.
1. Unit Testing Libraries [JUnit and Mockito]
Unit testing is the single most important thing that separates an average developer from a good developer. Programmers often are given excuses for not writing unit tests, but the most common excuse for avoiding unit testing is lack of experience and knowledge of popular unit testing libraries, including JUnit, Mockito, and PowerMock.
I always have a goal to improve my knowledge of unit testing and integration testing libraries, like JUnit 5, Cucumber, Robot framework, and a few others.
If you want to learn JUnit and Mockito and you need a resource, I highly recommend Learn Java Unit Testing with Junit & Mockito in 30 Steps by Ranga Karnam on Udemy. It’s a great, hands-on course to learn these useful libraries. | https://medium.com/javarevisited/20-essential-java-libraries-and-apis-every-programmer-should-learn-5ccd41812fc7 | [] | 2021-06-17 13:07:30.514000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Java', 'Libraries', 'Coding', 'Software Development'] |
6 Best Maven Online Courses for Beginners in 2021 | 6 Best Maven Online Courses for Beginners in 2021
These are the best online courses to learn Apache Maven for Java developers from Udemy, Pluralsight, and other online learning portals.
Hello guys, if you want to learn Maven and looking for the best Maven courses then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared free Maven and Jenkins courses and in this article, I will share the best courses to learn Maven, an essential tool for Java developers.
The Apache Maven or commonly known as just “Maven,” is an essential tool for Java Programmers. It allows you to build your project, manage dependencies, generate documentation, and a lot more.
I can vouch for Maven’s usefulness because I have come from the pre-Maven world of Software development, where you need to manage all the JAR files required by your project. It may seem easy to you that just download the JAR file but it’s not so easy in practice.
For example, you added a new library in your project say Spring framework which also needs log4j but you thought log4j is already there so you didn’t do anything, only to realize that your application is not starting anymore and throwing long and convoluted errors.
This can happen because of version mismatch like Spring needed a higher version of log4j than available in your project.
This is just a tiny bit of an example, which shows how manually managing dependencies can create nightmares. Maven took away all those pain by not only automatically downloading those JAR files for you but also created a central place, known as Maven repository to store those JAR files for better management.
Btw, Maven is not just a dependency management tool, it’s in fact much more than that. The most significant advantage of using Maven is the following convention, which makes software development easy.
In a Maven project, you know where is your source code, where is your test code and where are your resources. You don’t need to spend countless hours going through a large ANT build file to figure out how exactly is your artifact is created.
Because of these useful qualities, the Java ecosystem adopted Maven generously. Most of the open-source project is a Maven project, which makes it easy for developers to understand them and contribute better.
6 Things Java Developers should Know about Maven
If you still have doubts about learning Maven, here is some of the vital information about Maven which will help you to realize it’s valued as the most popular build tools for Java developers:
1. Maven has almost 70% of the market, 20% Gradle, and 10% ANT.
2. A maven is a build tool like make or ANT, take your source code and generate a JAR file, a distributable library. It can also run tests and generate Javadoc when you build your software. It also helps in build-automation. It allows each developer to kick-off the same build to make the same deployable.
3. Maven is also a Dependency management tool — we build an application that requires a third-party library. Maven helps to bring those JAR and keep them up-to-date
4. Maven command-line tool — you can use maven from the command prompt, but you can also use Maven from IDE, also like Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA.
5. Maven as a project management tool — It helps to tell you about what is being used in your project. It can also hold an artifact in a repository like Nexus.
6. Maven provides a standardized approach to building software, a consistent approach like source and test directory, build artifacts as it promotes “Convention over Configuration.”
You can further read my post 10 Maven things Java developer should learn to learn more about Maven and here is a snapshot of the common Maven lifecycle in Java application:
5 Best Maven Courses for Java Developers
Even though Gradle is making inroads, 70% market is still using Maven, and that’s a big enough reason to learn Maven. If you also think so, here are some of the best courses to learn Apache Maven online by yourself.
In this course, you will learn about the Maven Build Lifecycles, how to use Maven to build and package Java projects, understand how to use Maven with popular alternative JVM languages, including Groovy, Kotlin, and Scala, etc.
I am a big fan of John Thompson, having attended his Spring 5 course, Spring 5: Beginner to Guru I have hooked to his teaching style and information delivery.
When I found that John has a Maven course, I immediately bought it even though I know Maven and worked on several Maven projects, including a multi-module Maven project.
Though I wasn’t disappointed, and the course helps me to fill some of the gaps I had in my learning. It’s particularly useful if you are coming with no Maven experience as information density is perfect from a beginner’s perspective.
Here is the link to join this course — Apache Maven: Beginner to Guru
You will also learn to configure Maven to run your unit and integration tests written in JUnit 3, JUnit 4, JUnit 5, TestNG, and Spock framework generate source code from XML and JSON Schemas, and leverage annotation processing at compile time for Project Lombok and Mapstruct.
The course also covers the Apache Maven plugin system and teaches you how plugins are used in the build lifecycle.
Finally, you will also learn to build Spring Boot applications with Apache Maven, learn about the Spring Boot Maven plugin, deploying project artifacts to Maven repositories, and how to develop multi-module Maven projects.
In short, a perfect course to master Maven and ideal for both intermediate and senior Java developers. | https://medium.com/javarevisited/6-best-maven-courses-for-beginners-in-2020-23ea3cba89 | [] | 2020-12-14 06:37:41.003000+00:00 | ['Tools', 'Software Development', 'Maven', 'Java', 'Programming'] |
Nuro’s New Funding Round | Nuro’s R2 vehicle
Nuro was founded a little over 4 years ago with the mission of accelerating the benefits of robotics for everyday life.
Today, we are excited to announce a new $500 million Series C funding round, led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., with participation from new investors including Fidelity Management & Research Company, LLC. and Baillie Gifford. Existing investors SoftBank Vision Fund 1 and Greylock are also investing in the round.
When we started Nuro, my co-founder Dave and I set out to build a team that would apply its core expertise in robotics to develop products that can free us to use our own time on the things and people we value most. For our first product, we decided to focus on building an all-new electric self-driving vehicle to transport goods instead of people. Something that could dramatically reduce the time we spend in cars picking things up from stores. It turns out that we all spend so much time doing this that it’s roughly equivalent to a month’s worth of unpaid work every year for each American.
We have now developed two generations of our lightweight autonomous delivery vehicle. R2, our second generation vehicle, received the first and only federal exemption for an autonomous vehicle granted by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). R2 was also the first vehicle to operate fully autonomously on public roads in three different states — California, Texas, and Arizona — with no drivers, no occupants, and no chase cars.
We now know that our industry, self-driving local delivery, will not only make it easier to buy groceries, hot food, prescription drugs, and other products, but will also positively impact local economies, and serve low-income communities living in food deserts. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have learned that contactless delivery of goods — the service R2 provides — can help reduce the spread. The underlying need and excitement for a better way of moving local goods is shared by our growing list of partners, including Domino’s, Walmart, Kroger, and CVS.
With this latest round of funding securing a long runway of future technology development and commercialization, we at Nuro could not be more excited about what the next 4 years will bring.
Join us. | https://medium.com/nuro/nuros-new-funding-round-a97141c3650b | ['Jiajun Zhu'] | 2020-11-09 16:14:07.685000+00:00 | ['Robotics', 'Autonomous Cars', 'Automation', 'Self Driving Cars', 'Fundraising'] |
AppExchange and the Salesforce Ecosystem | What was your inspiration for founding marGo?
The genesis of marGo was a family matter. I wanted to help my wife Kathy change her direct-selling business and, therefore, change her life. The direct-selling industry is based on the B2B2C business model, where the “middle B” represents micro-business owners like Kathy, who, as independent contractors, sell on behalf of direct-selling companies. Micro-business owners have traditionally lacked the time and tools to effectively market to existing and new customers.
Although there are more than 120M direct sellers globally, approximately half of new direct sellers exit the business within their first year, an abysmal retention rate for any industry’s collective sales force. At less than $5,000 in annual sales performance, the relatively low average revenue-per-salesperson in the direct-selling industry prohibited wide-spread adoption of historically available, yet expensive, modern productivity tools.
How did you bring your vision to life?
I launched marGo in 2013 with the goal of making it easy, fast, and affordable for direct sellers to market their micro-businesses with branded content. Until this point, no purpose-built, price-sensitive systems focused on optimizing the direct-selling micro-business world existed.
As I examined Kathy’s go-to-market workflows, I identified myriad opportunities for productivity gains through process improvements and automation. I then addressed the most obvious areas for contribution.
Our first platform was developed prior to the advent of Multichannel Marketing Hubs (MMH). The initial solution delivered increased revenue-per-salesperson, as well as the collection of new customer buying data that enabled precision marketing. Yet it became apparent that marGo’s “dream” roadmap could be fulfilled by reimagining our system to one built on top of a world-class MMH, such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
What made you choose the Salesforce platform to develop your solution and grow your business?
We felt strongly that Salesforce was the best technology partner to serve with us in our commitment to transform direct selling across the globe. True to its name and history, Salesforce offered an MMH built to modernize not only marketing, but sales itself. The partnership allowed us to focus on the needs of the direct-selling industry, while leveraging Salesforce’s continuous investment in its technology and seasonal release of new features.
The new marGo services unleash the power of Salesforce to the benefit of direct-selling companies and their micro-business owners, who never had the time, skill, or money to leverage the world’s best technologies to market their businesses. Now, with marGo, direct sellers can compete with top retailers by professionally marketing their businesses, which requires less than one hour per month of their time.
How has the Salesforce Business Builder program enabled you to overcome challenges and innovate?
It is an honor to be the first partner company embraced by the Business Builder program in AMER. Collaboration with internal Salesforce teams has been particularly powerful, accelerating awareness of our dedicated vertical solution among the Salesforce Account Executives (AEs) that call on the direct-selling industry. Each AE can now offer a fit-for-purpose “quick win” to their direct-selling customers as those companies contemplate their own roadmaps for corporate transformation.
By partnering with Salesforce, we have been able to leverage a best-in-breed marketing automation tool with a complete roadmap that is invested in ongoing platform innovation. This has enabled us to shift our focus away from MMH development and spend more time solving the currently unmet needs of direct selling and MLM companies.
Innovation has also been sped up as a result of leveraging the collective value of the wider platform and ecosystem which serves all the key business motions, enabling us to focus on industry-specific requirements.
Can you expand on how the partner ecosystem has been a source of support to you along this journey?
World-class technology alone cannot guarantee the required time-to-market for entrepreneurs who have staked their companies on technology partnerships. Salesforce’s partner ecosystem provides the professional heft necessary for marGo to get to market quickly and communicate our message of transformation across the direct-selling industry.
When we were evaluating the alternative underlying MMH platforms for our service offering, speaking to existing Salesforce partners assured us that Salesforce would be both a provider of world-class technologies and a superior go-to-market partner. In addition, Salesforce recommended a systems integrator, who has been exceptional in assisting in the design and development of our platform. The Salesforce partner ecosystem emboldens us as we anticipate implementing marGo across the world.
As a founder, what do you think the key to success is?
First, identify an unmet need that you sense you can meet before others spot it, and move on it. David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett Packard Company, once inspired his people with a simple call to action, “Make a contribution, and the profits will follow.” Many great ideas come from entrepreneurs who first spot potential clients in need of breakthrough help. Then, those entrepreneurs often think outside the box to offer novel solutions that meet the needs of those clients.
Second, listen to your people and your partners, just as you listen to the marketplace. In the counsel of many you will find great wisdom. Finally, nurture your own tenacity to persevere where others might fade from the required course. Remind yourself that you are making a broader contribution than simply building a company.
What has been your biggest learning curve from founding your own business?
It takes far more time than one might think to envision, build, and deliver a market-changing contribution. By far, the go-to-market challenges can present the highest hurdles for any entrepreneur. I had to adjust my expectations to the reality of how difficult it is to stimulate early adoption in a previously unaddressed market, which has been collectively skeptical that any technology provider will meet their unique needs, including the inherent cost constraints of direct-selling companies. I’ve learned to celebrate small victories, which indicate that our vision is correct and that the marketplace will embrace and take full advantage of the contributions we deliver. | https://medium.com/inside-the-salesforce-ecosystem/business-builders-to-know-dean-yellets-journey-to-success-50ea64f971ef | ['Rebeccah Yeadon'] | 2021-09-07 14:17:26.470000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Founder Stories', 'Apps', 'Trailblazer', 'Startup'] |
It just hit me | The vaccines are rolling out…
The vaccines.
Are rolling.
Out.
I’ve seen it across headlines these last few days, but I’ve been so busy with life that I haven’t stopped to let that sink in.
This is an Advent/Christmas like no other I’ve ever lived through. The hope of this season is more real than it’s ever been.
Think of it…
This coming spring/summer, we may actually get to be together.
Like, in the flesh.
With no guilt or awkwardness.
Maybe even without masks?
We may be able to hug each other.
To laugh together.
To sing together.
To cry into each other’s arms.
Oh my God.
This is real incarnational hope.
Fleshy hope. | https://medium.com/@jonasellison/it-just-hit-me-785ebb5bb22f | ['Jonas Ellison'] | 2020-12-21 05:27:22.249000+00:00 | ['Faith', 'Life', 'Joy', 'Love', 'Hope'] |
Page One: ‘The Princess Bride’ (1987) | Screenplay by William Goldman based on his novel
The movie version of the opening:
Considerable differences between script and screen. No foretelling of the swordsmanship from the novel. No backstory about the boy having been in the hospital. Thus on the one hand, the movie version of the opening slows the entrance into the fictional world, but speeds up the appearance of the grandfather. Perhaps the decision was about grounding the story in the Ordinary World: a sick boy playing a video game. Everyone can relate to that. Sets up a more dramatic juxtaposition when the father’s reading of the book dissolves into the world of the Princess Bride.
The Princess Bride was released in 1987. That was the year I broke into Hollywood and was introduced to industry screenings and premieres. I was invited to a special screening of The Princess Bride on the 20th Century Fox lot on Pico Boulevard. That is one premiere I’ll never forget. What a special movie. Later, when Castle Rock was producing my movie Alaska, I had a chat with director Rob Reiner about The Princess Bride. They made that movie on a shoestring budget, but this circumstance benefited the film in that with minimal special and practical effects, the actors were given leeway to really run with their characters. It shows on screen, each character fully realized and entertaining to the max.
Page One is a daily Go Into The Story series featuring the first page of notable movie scripts from the classic era to contemporary times. Comparing them is an excellent way to study a variety of writing styles and see how professional writers start a story.
For more Page One posts, go here.
You may follow the daily conversation on Twitter as I cross-post there: @GoIntoTheStory. | https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/page-one-the-princess-bride-1987-a5a02310718b | ['Scott Myers'] | 2020-12-26 12:01:16.464000+00:00 | ['Cinema', 'Film', 'Screenwriting', 'Movies', 'Screenplay'] |
My Case for Bernie | May 26th, 2015, the day America’s Dad, Bernie Sanders first announced his intent to run for president gave new life to an ongoing political revolution that continues on today. His entire political career has been largely based on the same message since at least 1972 when he penned an opinion piece months before Roe v Wade in support of women’s choice. Although one could argue it started the day he was arrested protesting segregated housing in Chicago in 1963. Bernie has continued to speak truth to power for over forty year without missing a beat. Add in his constant reminders for regular folks to run for political office from dog catcher to Congress because he knows no president can make substantive change alone. That’s integrity in action.
In his 40-plus years serving the American people as mayor, as the “amendment king” of the House, and now as Senator that until 2015 Bernie had been largely ignored by the media, portrayed by his detractors as being too far to the left, a communist, a socialist, a radical whose entire platform was rainbows and unicorns. Yet here we are today and magically, pun very much intended, every Democrat running for the nomination has grabbed a hold of portions of Bernie’s platform, a platform most of whom were calling fantasy barely two years ago. None, save Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) were interested in making their voices heard back then on the importance and need of Bernie’s most notable platform issues; Medicare for all, tuition free college, $15 minimum wage, criminal justice reforms, and combating global climate change are today trying to make the case they are worthy of your vote.
Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is at best 70% Bernie, at worst 75% HRC (unlike Tulsi Gabbard who bravely resigned as 3rd vice-chair of the DNC in protest of their treatment of Sanders in 2016 who then strongly endorsed Bernie for president) refused to endorse Senator Sanders at a time when her voice was so desperately needed back in 2016. Now she wants you to believe she’s a good progressive despite not being willing to thumb her nose at the very status quo that made Trump even possible in the way Mrs. Gabbard was and still is willing to do. Today, the very same establishment that laughed at Bernie’s platform is now “warming up” to Mrs. Warren as an alternative to Bernie. I wonder why?
With that said, I am nonetheless one hundred percent convinced Senator Warren to be an unapologetically strong advocate for the economic rights of the people. That short of her gaining the Democratic Party nomination, I absolutely believe she should become the Chairwoman of the Senate Banking and Finance Committee. Banking and finances are without a doubt Senator Warren’s strongest suit and she deserves to be there as she is the only Senate Democrat who has the guts and willingness, maybe even more so than Bernie to take on and stare down the “too big, to fail” Wall Street banksters that nearly took down the entire global economy in 2008 due to their collective insatiable greed and recklessness and not blink.
As for Bernie Sanders, does his recent mild heart attack and subsequent stent procedure mean he’s unhealthy or should drop out of the race? Of course not! The procedure is common even among 20 year olds. In my mind, there should be a money bomb sent to Bernie for every article, thread, poll, or news segment that attempts to attack Bernie’s overall health and age. And just recently AOC, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib announced their endorsement of Bernie, and it turned out AOC had called Bernie while he was resting in the hospital to tell him the news. (As of this posting Ayanna Pressley, the fourth member of the Squad has not endorsed any Democratic candidate)
It is a tossup whether Elizabeth Warren could defeat Trump if she were to become the nominee. How she ultimately runs her campaign would determine the end result. Of the remaining candidates there is little hope of any of them, save Tulsi Gabbard exciting the base or receiving much crossover votes to defeat Trump. In my mind there is little doubt that Bernie is the only Democratic candidate who can defeat Donald Trump’s faux right-wing populism and hurtful and hateful rhetoric with relative ease. Because Bernie is the only presidential candidate with which no article could be honestly written that calls out flip flopping, hemming, hawing, or lying by Bernie. He consistently gets 25% of Republican votes in Vermont and there is little reason to believe that won’t be the case across the nation next November.
For more information on Sen. Bernie Sanders, please go to berniesanders.com. I now leave you with this truth bomb; for every bad decision our government has made these past forty years, you’ll probably find a YouTube video, newspaper column, or magazine article of or from Bernie warning us of dangers ahead, that’s integrity in action. | https://medium.com/@davids-il/my-case-for-bernie-889f7c96d77f | ['David Soll'] | 2019-10-17 17:59:23.545000+00:00 | ['Medicare For All', 'Rise Up', 'Bernie Sanders'] |
Financial Update — September 2019 | Our regular Financial Updates are published on the second Thursday of the following month. They will help you gain insight into the Foundation’s current financial health with a breakdown of total assets held, expenses and portfolio changes had during the previous month. The Lisk Foundation is registered in Zug, Switzerland — because of this, all financial reports are created in Swiss Francs (CHF). You can find the most up-to-date conversions here.
Total Assets Held by the Lisk Foundation
In this section, you can check up on all fiat currency and cryptocurrency assets currently in possession of the Foundation. We will also use this part of the update to let you know about any major changes in our portfolio.
Crypto Asset Liquidation in September
The Lisk Foundation is liquidating its assets in an on-going strategy to provide enough liquidity for the projects expenses. Currently, we are following the rule to have enough fiat to cover 12 months of expenses. In the month of September, we have liquidated the following cryptocurrencies into fiat currency through Bitcoin Suisse:
4.000,00 BCH
We liquidated them into:
1.159.162,17 CHF
Total Expenditures for the Month of September
In the expenditures section of the Financial Update, you can see how much the Foundation has spent on various aspects of Lisk’s growth. For your convenience, we have divided this section into four areas:
Development — by far the biggest area of expenditure by the Lisk Foundation, this encompasses everything spent on the research, development, and design of Lisk Core, SDK, Hub, Mobile and Explorer.
Marketing — this key area of growth for Lisk includes not only traditional marketing like public relations, or performance, but extends to everything spent on business development, event management, and creative design. It also includes our new Developer Relations department.
Bounties & Sponsorships — the stronger the Lisk community, the stronger our blockchain is going to be. Under this area of expenditure we outline all money spent on bug bounties, supporting proof-of-concept blockchain applications built with the Lisk SDK, or joint efforts with community members like the Lisk Center in Utrecht.
Operations — here, we mention all expenses needed in the day-to-day running of the Lisk Foundation, such as salaries, office costs, or administrative contractors dealing with accounting or legal compliance.
Disclaimer: The information contained in the monthly Financial Updates are primarily of informational value. Minor differences from their actual state may occur due to different moments of booking of certain inflows and expenses, as well as their possible subsequent corrections. Thus, this information cannot serve as an accurate reference point to the exact state of finances of the Lisk Foundation and the costs associated with developing the Lisk Project.
Lisk is on a mission to enable you to create decentralized, efficient, and transparent blockchain applications. Join us: | https://medium.com/lisk-blog/financial-update-september-2019-aca579f1f144 | [] | 2019-10-10 12:25:54.090000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
“Marveling” at moral confusion | I’ve committed myself to finish reading the first Star Wars: Doctor Aphra series from Marvel Comics. Now I’m quite behind in my comic book reading in general, which explains why I’m about to comment on an older issue. I am making good progress in my attempt to catch up, but todays progress was abruptly halted when I read this panel in Doctor Aphra issue 33.
From a Christian perspective, the spirit of this age of the world is all about personal autonomy. Making ones own choices about anything and everything is seen as the ultimate good, especially over and above what traditional morality would see as duties to a higher authority. Popular culture including fictional media is filled with characters who take this philosophy as manifestly true and lecture the “unenlightened” about the “evils” of allowing one’s choices to be limited. Here, in a flashback sequence to her childhood, Doctor Aphra’s mother is instructing her on the meaning of evil. Predictably, she defines evil as anything that limits another’s choices. Then in a surprising, if momentary hiccup of intellectual honesty on the part of the writer, Chelli destroys her mother’s argument by pointing out the potential benefit of allowing a greater authority to limit personal autonomy in service to a greater good. Then the mother ends the discussion with the bewildering conclusion that the concept of evil is “stupid” because she personally has a demonstrably and dangerously-wrong notion of what evil is.
The Christian worldview tells us that God alone is good and that any external manifestation of goodness is actually just a reflection of God’s own nature. Evil, then, can rightfully be defined as anything that opposes or subverts the goodness and truth of God that He has revealed both in nature and in holy scripture. In fact, the first example of this is described in Genesis 3 with the declaration that we can be “like God”, deciding for ourselves what is good and what is evil. This declaration has never been more blindly accepted than it is now in our morally confused society.
Sometimes one just has to stop and point out some of the philosophical nonsense that pops up even in comic book panels, if only to inoculate ourselves against the notion that a medium like comics is always harmless entertainment. I hope the remaining issues of Doctor Aphra don’t force me to interrupt my reading like this too often, because I really have a lot of other comics to get through! | https://medium.com/@James317/marveling-at-moral-confusion-88f25fe8a7f8 | ['James Sweeney'] | 2021-01-18 21:19:08.039000+00:00 | ['Doctor Aphra', 'Evil', 'Morality', 'Marvel', 'Comics'] |
Weekly Digest: Instant Cashouts To Card, CPO Livestream & USDC | Ready, steady, go!
Cryptocurrencies are great. They are secure, fast and reliable. But there is one thing most of them are still lacking: stability. That’s precisely why we’ve added support for USD Coin (USDC) — one of the world’s most popular and trusted stablecoins. This digital currency is pegged to the U.S. dollar, allowing you to fix profits, reduce your downside risk exposure & more!
Learn more
About Crypterium
Crypterium is one of the most promising fintech companies, according to KPMG and H2Ventures. We are building a mobile app that meets the banking needs of the digital assets era.
Our goal is clear: with Crypterium, whatever you can do with traditional money you will able to do with digital assets. This idea is supported, among others, by the co-founder of TechCrunch Keith Teare and over 400,000 registered users, and the number is growing by day.
The team is led by former General Manager of Visa Central & Eastern Europe Steven Parker, and C-level executives from global financial institutions, like Renaissance Insurance, London Derivatives Exchange, American Express etc.
Join our Telegram news channel or other social media to stay updated!
Website ๏ Telegram ๏ Facebook ๏ Twitter ๏ Reddit ๏ YouTube ๏ LinkedIn | https://medium.com/crypterium/weekly-digest-instant-cashouts-to-card-cpo-livestream-usdc-92fed6188dcc | [] | 2019-05-25 11:31:00.892000+00:00 | ['Fintech', 'Finance', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin'] |
Hi! I am just going to document what I’ve been learning since quarantine and hopefully I will gain… | Hi! I am just going to document what I’ve been learning since quarantine and hopefully I will gain a following and start making some money for school. I want to be real honest and open. I love Jesus and am a Christian. I love to travel and go out on adventures. Being a Christian in this world brings on a lot of stereotypes and some can be true but generally we are misunderstood. I would love to share with you and can’t wait to see this grow! | https://medium.com/@hgymnast/hi-i-am-just-going-to-document-what-ive-been-learning-since-quarantine-and-hopefully-i-will-gain-68f235d32c47 | [] | 2020-12-18 05:04:46.918000+00:00 | ['Christian', 'I Am New Here', 'Live', 'Hey'] |
Securing Kubernetes environments with Check Point CloudGuard | Many organizations are proactively moving their developments and application workloads to cloud, wholeheartedly embracing the rise of cloud-native applications. From virtualized machines in physical data centers, to Infrastructure-as-a-service, to containers, to serverless compute platforms — the innovation has come a long way. We’ve also been completely mesmerized by immense potentials of cloud-native applications and microservices architectures, and what they can offer to us.
Now that you’ve also decided to go cloud-native, and implemented kubernetes clusters for your containers and cloud native applications. Kubernetes is really awesome, there is no doubt about that. However, how can you be sure that the kubernetes clusters you’ve created are in line with security best practices? Misconfigurations in Kubernetes clusters can introduce tons of serious security challenges for development, test and production environments. Be it self-hosted or cloud provider-managed, misconfigurations in Kubernetes happen all the time for various reasons. For example, if you explicitly allow containers with allowPrivilegeEscalation flag set to true, that’s a misconfiguration. This kind of misconfiguration introduces both security and compliance challenges.
It’s time to put “Sec” in DevOps
It is time to instill “security” into your DevOps methodology. In this article, I’ll share how to take the first step in securing your Kubernetes environments. IT security also should play an integrated role in the full lifecycle of cloud-native applications, and that also means applying security on container orchestration tool such as Kubernetes. We’ll start with “compliance”, and you can explore more once you’ve taken the first step.
Check Point CloudGuard
Check Point’s CloudGuard secures your Kubernetes environments by assessing the clusters for misconfigurations and policy violations, scanning your container images for vulnerabilities, and keeping you informed of the security posture of your Kubernetes environments. CloudGuard can provide the same security for your cloud assets on public cloud service providers such as AWS, Azure, and GCP. But let’s focus on Kubernetes for now.
Let’s secure your Kubernetes clusters
And here is how you can start securing your Kubernetes environments in less than 30 minutes.
First, get your free CloudGuard CSPM account — go to https://secure.dome9.com/v2/register/invite and register for a 15-days trial account with your business email.
Then you’ll need to Onboard your Kubernetes clusters to CloudGuard Cloud Security Posture Management platform. You can do the onboarding on CloudGuard web console in less than 15 minutes, following a few simple steps below.
Go to “Asset Management”, and “Onboarding”.
Choose “Get started with Kubernetes”
(You’ll need CloudGuard API Key and API secret, which you can generate on CloudGuard web console.)
Enter the following:
Cluster Name
API Key
API Secret
Enter namespace
Select desired features — choose “Compliance”
(If you’d like to explore vulnerability assessment and network traffic analysis, feel free to choose all.)
Click “Next”.
Choose an organization if there is one. And click “Next”.
And basically execute the Helm commands as instructed by the onboarding Wizard.
You’ll see that onboarding process is in progress, and finally see that you’ve a Kubernetes cluster onboarded to CloudGuard!
Automate onboarding
If you don’t prefer the manual onboarding, you can completely automate the onboarding process using python or bash shell scripts. I’ve developed both python and bash shell scripts which basically do the same thing. The python version was improved and contributed by my Check Point colleague from Spain. Check out my Github URL here for more details. https://github.com/jaydenaung/cloudguardk8s
You can use either way to onboard your Kubernetes clusters to CloudGuard. Once the cluster is onboarded, you can then go to “Posture Management”, “Compliance Rulesets”, and Search the Kubernetes-related compliance rulesets. (Use “Add filter”.)
e
Choose one ruleset that you prefer . I’m using CloudGuard Best Practices. Click “Run Assessment” , and choose the cluster that you’ve just onboarded. The compliance engine will start running the assessment.
And in a couple of minutes, you will get a complete compliance and security report! This is only on-demand assessment. This compliance assessment can be automated by using “Continuous compliance” feature. The idea is to remain compliance at all times.
CloudGuard CSPM — Kubernetes Compliance
Now you can view how secure your Kubernetes environment is, and analyze the report! You can basically dive into each assessment result, see which entities are not compliant, and read the recommended actions to address the misconfigurations. (We have plans to add auto-remediation feature which automates the responses to address misconfigurations.)
You should also explore GSL builder. GSL stands for Global Security Language, which is a simple, easy-to-use yet very powerful query language which can allow you to easily find any misconfiguration or even create your own custom compliance rule.
GSL builder
Check Point CloudGuard is 100 percent API-driven and you can integrate CloudGuard into your CICD pipeline with ease. Your automation tool can call CloudGuard API to run the assessment, and CloudGuard can then send the findings to third party systems such as SIEM as well.
Congratulations! You’ve taken the first step in securing your Kubernetes environment — using CloudGuard posture management. We still need to talk about container image vulnerabilities, workload runtime security and pods network access control. Maybe for another time! | https://jaydenaung.medium.com/securing-kubernetes-environments-with-check-point-cloudguard-cspm-ea23e69d5f7c | ['Jayden Aung'] | 2020-10-01 01:49:43.830000+00:00 | ['Devsecops', 'Checkpoint', 'Container', 'DevOps', 'Kubernetes'] |
What Will It Take | Photo by Robin Harwick, 2016
What will it take for you to see
it is more than just a tree
What will it take for you to know
the knowledge you gain depends on what you sow
What will it take for you to see
I’m sure you won’t listen to me
For who am I? I have no degree
what I learn doesn’t come from a university
but from all that I see
Although your schools will give you status
Now is the time to Let US
…teach you
Let us teach you of things you don’t know
and the seed we plant will surely grow
What will it take for you to see
the hurt in my eyes is NOT for me
What will it take for you to know
each one you push down will not grow
What will it take for you to see
he is YOUR god and not for me
Stop fighting and hating then you will see
that there is more than one way to truly be free
©Robin Harwick
Note: Originally written in the 1990s, before I had any degrees. The sentiments are still valid. | https://robinharwick.medium.com/what-will-it-take-8e514479b86d | ['Robin Harwick'] | 2020-03-15 02:55:07.325000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Sustainability', 'Equality', 'Poetry', 'Freedom'] |
Global Ballistic Protection Industry Analysis By Geography | Stratistics MRC’s Ballistic Protection Market report explains company profiling, key segments, market trends, top players and regional, country-level segments.
Based on application, the homeland security segment is estimated to have lucrative growth. Ballistic-resistant body armor is worn by homeland security officers while in the field to protect against specific ballistic threats. To ensure safety during any mission, homeland security officers use personal protective equipment; involve body vests, ballistic helmets, and gloves.. Homeland security officers combat systems used by are ballistic resistant as ceramics and thermoplastics reinforce them.
Browse complete “Ballistic Protection Market” report with TOC @ https://www.strategymrc.com/report/ballistic-protection-market
By geography, Asia Pacific is going to have high growth during forecast period, owing to the economic growth of countries in this region and increased defense spending in countries such as India, China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. The governments of these countries and local industries are also joining-up with the contractors and supporting them through the procurement process by providing necessary financial and infrastructure aids. The increase in the number of insurgent groups entering the territories and using deadly explosives such as IEDs and bombs has further uplift requirement for ballistic protection systems.
Some of the key players profiled in the Ballistic Protection Market include BAE Systems, Craig International Ballistics Pty Ltd, Elmon, FMS Enterprises Migun Ltd, Koninklijke Ten Cate bv, MKU Limited, Permali Point Blank Enterprises Inc, Revision Military, Rheinmetall AG, Saab AB, Urvitec Group Limited Company.
Request a Sample of “Ballistic Protection Market” @ https://www.strategymrc.com/report/ballistic-protection-market/request-sample
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All the customers of this report will be entitled to receive one of the following free customization options:
Company Profiling
Comprehensive profiling of additional market players (up to 3)
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Competitive Benchmarking
Benchmarking of key players based on product portfolio, geographical presence, and strategic alliances
For more information about this report visit https://www.strategymrc.com/report/ballistic-protection-market
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Stratistics MRC offer a wide spectrum of research and consulting services with in-depth knowledge of different industries. Our research reports and publications are routed to help our clients to design their business models and enhance their business growth in the competitive market scenario. We have a strong team with hand-picked consultants including project managers, implementers, industry experts, researchers, research evaluators and analysts with years of experience in delivering the complex projects.
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Website: https://www.strategymrc.com | https://medium.com/@srinath.smrc1/global-ballistic-protection-industry-analysis-by-geography-ad3fc3e9300f | ['Srinath Smrc'] | 2021-12-25 04:55:01.262000+00:00 | ['Report', 'Market Research Reports', 'Market', 'Business', 'Aerospace'] |
The Marketing Funnel is Dead (Part 1) | The Marketing Funnel is Dead (Part 1)
And Three Reasons Why
Funnels represent what people think digital marketing success looks like (see arrow on the left), but in reality it looks a lot more like the non-linear arrow on the right. Image via Business Insider.
Right now, when most business owners and marketers think about how customers interact with their businesses, they think in terms of a funnel that looks something like this:
The idea behind a marketing funnel is very simple — a large volume of customers get to know your product, and some of them become interested. Then some of these interested people consider buying. Finally, some of these people buy and become your loyal customers.
Along the way, some people may “drop off” from the funnel, and marketers need to recover these “drop-outs” as much as possible via advertising.
The simplicity of the funnel makes perfect sense even to a layperson. Personally, it became one of my guiding lights in my consulting engagements to help my clients improve their customer experiences.
However, as digital channels become one of the main mediums for customers to find information for products and services, their decision-making process have become significantly more iterative and complex.
This increasing complexity makes the funnel analogy (which was developed way back in 1924) more and more insufficient in fully capturing the dynamic nature of the modern customer experience.
We all love Mad Men and the charms of traditional advertising, but it’s not the 1960s anymore. Image via Vulture.
I will go so far as to say that if you are still using the funnel to measure the effectiveness of your digital strategy, you are probably getting inaccurate insights about how customers actually behave — and you are probably making incorrect business decisions as a result.
In this article, I will show you three reasons why this is the case.
Reason 1: The funnel is not compatible with the new, digital customer experience
While the original purpose of the funnel was to provide business analysts with a simplified model of customer experiences, it is now too simple to support marketing decisions in a digital world.
In recent years, because of the overwhelming amount of information made available to the customers, the power of consumer decisions has shifted significantly from firms to customers.
This means that firms can no longer produce a product, run advertisements, and expect customers to flood through the door, as a traditional marketing funnel would suggest.
Instead, they have to design the product, branding, and messaging with their customers’ specific needs and wants in mind. Firms must now constantly engage with the customers with not only their product offerings, but also relevant information to keep customers interested in their brand.
Popular websites like Wirecutter and Sweethome publish expert reviews of consumer products like headphones. The rise of these review sites illustrate the immense amount of product research and comparisons that consumers now conduct before purchasing.
The complexity in modern marketing is the main reason that funnels are no longer the best model for firms to use to make decisions. While the funnel is great at providing an overarching view of the customer decision process, it does not accurately capture the new, customer-centric model for three main reasons:
1) First of all, when customers today are making a purchase decision, they usually compare and contrast offerings from multiple companies.
This means that, as a marketer, you will be competing with many other companies for the customer’s attention and money, and the funnel fails to capture the dynamics of this competition.
2) Secondly, modern customers, especially millennials, want to be more involved with the business and the values it represents (you can read more about this here).
This means that companies should start to focus more and more on engaging customers with a variety of content on their website, instead of merely convincing them to make a purchase. The traditional funnel does not incorporate these engagement objectives into consideration.
Millennial consumers sometimes care more about the idea, identity, and story of the company than about the product offerings. For example, TOMS’ social mission to give to the developing world resonated with young consumers. Image via TOMS.
3) Last but not least, with the onset of the digital age, massive amounts of information became available to customers via channels such as social media and review websites.
The vast improvement in the availability of information has made the customer journey to purchase significantly longer, and much more iterative (more on this in the next two reasons). These factors can no longer be captured by a linear conception of the marketing funnel.
For all of these reasons, the firm-centric funnel analogy can no longer meet the need of a consumer-centric, iterative framework. As such, this model must be modified or changed.
Reason 2: The funnel does not capture the full customer journey
The second reason the funnel is no longer sufficient stems directly from the first reason. Funnels usually paint an extremely simple picture of how customers interact with your company through digital channels, and they miss key components of the complete customer journey.
For example, a classical digital marketing funnel for ecommerce might look like the following:
Customers visit the homepage of your ecommerce store Some of these customers then visit a product page in your store Some of these customers enter checkout Some of those customers completes the checkout process and buys your product
While this funnel captured the essence of a customer’s purchase experience in your store, it does not capture their full experience.
For example, the funnel cannot capture a customer journey like this one:
A customer visits an ecommerce store The customer visits a product page because she is interested in the product The customer added the product to her cart just to see how expensive it is The customer exits the website because she does not completely trust the product yet The customer compares alternatives on Amazon and other review platforms The customer visits the website again to read more about the story of the company The customer makes a decision to finally purchase a product
Platforms like Amazon have made product comparisons based on reviews, price, and other factors a normal part of the digital customer journey for many consumers.
Even this journey I described above is a simplified version of how customers actually make a purchase in the real world, and the restrictive nature of the funnel will inevitably fail to capture the multi-session, cross-platform nature of your online customer journey.
When making business decisions, a simplified model of your customer behavior based on the traditional funnel may lead to drastically different conclusions for why your customers do what they do.
Let’s use cart abandonment as an example.
In a funnel-centric world, the best way to avoid funnel abandonment is through checkout recovery mechanisms such as follow-up emails and retargeting campaigns with Facebook and Google Display ads.
However, as illustrated in the more realistic customer journey described above (and the article linked here), people may abandon their cart simply because they were comparing prices or looking at a product. They may never have had any intent of purchasing in the first place.
The rise of the “comparison shopper” has led some creative ecommerce stores to offer price matching as a way to increase conversion. Image via SalesCycle.
That’s why, while you can recover some customers who experienced checkout issues or just simply got distracted, what you really need to do is to convince those people that are still in their comparison and evaluation stage that your product is the best one in their consideration set — a tactic that is not supported by the funnel. This leads to Reason 3.
Reason 3: The funnel doesn’t capture the iterative nature of the customer experience
The final reason ties very closely with the previous one. Not only does the funnel not fully capture your entire customer experience, it also does not cover the “iterative” nature of their interaction with your business.
The funnel view of the customer journey describes customer experiences in a linear fashion: the customer comes in, becomes more and more engaged, and ultimately purchases.
In reality, however, the decision processes of your customers are not so linear. In fact, it is possible for a customer to fall back to a previous stage of engagement. Even if a firm is actively running ads to reach that specific customer, more ads are not always better if an ad does not give the customer the right information they need at the right time to make their decision.
This concept of the iterative customer journey is thoroughly discussed in an article published by McKinsey couple of years ago, and I would strongly recommend that you read it.
The funnel’s inability to represent iterative experiences will result in two major decision problems for businesses.
First of all, it makes companies believe that more advertisements are always better than less because you will always be able to push customers through the funnel and convert.
However, when you start to consider the iterative nature of the customer journey, you will realize that bad or misplaced advertisements will actually decrease customer’s tendency to purchase, therefore harming the revenue potential of the company.
Secondly, the concept of funnels favors converting customers (pushing them through the funnel) much more than engaging with customers.
In reality, the decision to engage versus convert should be made based on a sophisticated ROI analysis taking into account two factors:
1) The current engagement levels of your customers, and
2) The conversion rate for customers at each of the engagement levels
Only with this kind of consideration can marketers truly optimize their messaging to their customers — and funnels do not provide you with a good framework to analyze this.
The way out — an iterative framework for the customer journey
As we illustrated in this article, the funnel is a marketing framework that is so deeply ingrained in the minds of almost all marketers — but it is outdated and insufficient for the modern needs of a more customer-centric and interactive marketing world.
However, criticizing an existing solution without offering an alternative is never very helpful.
That’s why in the next few articles I publish, I will present a new marketing framework that we use at Humanlytics that solves many of the challenges of the funnel model that I presented in this article.
To stay updated on those articles, please follow our publication at Analytics for Humans, or sign up for our monthly newsletter. You can also follow us on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to get more news and updates about what is coming next.
Until next time! | https://medium.com/analytics-for-humans/funnel-is-dead-9a03bf1de4cd | ['Bill Su'] | 2018-06-08 19:55:44.538000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Google Analytics', 'Startup', 'Digital Marketing', 'Critical Thinking'] |
9 COOLEST GADGETS 2020 | AVAILABLE ON AMAZON ►10 | Hey Guys Some amazing gadgets have been released recently and today we’ve compiled a list of 9 advanced gadgets that can be found on Amazon and from other retailers welcome to Amazon Products 4 U.
1.Vortex vortex is an amazing new technology that can work alongside your favorite video games movies and other devices and help to create a more immersive entertainment experience the vortex device connects to your computer with a usb cable all you need to do is download the vortex app and install it then let the module do the rest this product is perfect for vr gamers that want the most enjoyable experience possible vortex can accurately emulate various environments adjusting the air around you to mimic the air in your game or movie it can provide hot or cold air super quickly so your surroundings feel like the in-game environment this makes your games much more realistic and is an incredible product vortex was designed by whirlwind effects and can be found online right now we don’t expect these to stay in stock much longer so be sure to check them out before they are gone vortex is the future of vr gaming.
2.Airbank airbank is the world’s smallest wireless charging power bank offering 5500 mah of charging power without needing cables or other accessories to operate the power bank can stick to your phone without the use of magnets or specialty cases making it perfect for any type of phone that offers wireless charging just charge the bank using a normal wall outlet then press the airbag’s vacuum coils against your device and wait for it to charge there is no adhesive or additional component necessary you can then check the percentage display on the airbank to see how much charge is left 10 watts quick charging means you can charge your phone in a fraction of the time that it may take with a normal wall adapter you can even charge your wireless earbuds this device is just six centimetres wide making it super compact and perfect for any occasion it works with any device that supports wireless charging including tablets and other smart devices.
3.Mastio by ampulla ampulla is a company that has been around for many years but they have revolutionized bedside lamps with their new mostio device this product is a lamp that can be placed on your bedside table or office desk it will allow you to wirelessly charge your Smartphone or other device giving you instant access to fast charging you can also use the lamp as a Bluetooth speaker offering superior sound and performance in an affordable compact package there’s even a sleep mode that will automatically turn off the lamp after a preset amount of time you can find the lamp online right now on Amazon though it is also available at many other retailers these lamps were created with sound quality in mind with the built-in Bluetooth speaker offering incredibly rich and powerful base the solid wood design of the lampshade provides a comforting glow in any room allowing you to feel peaceful and connected with the world around you convenient audio buttons are on the top of the lamp allowing you to play pause or skip songs instantly.
4.Yorego Drummi Portable washing machines are extremely helpful products that allow us to clean our clothes in a fraction of the time of hand washing your ego Drummi has now invented a washing machine that can fit in any home or business allowing you access to clean clothes no matter how small or space maybe this portable washer allows you to wash clothes in as little as 10 minutes using the built-in manual agitator just toss your dirty clothes inside add water and detergent then shut the lid you can then press the foot pedal to spin your clothes throughout the cleaning solution removing any dirt or debris from them just flush the system with clean water to rinse your clothes drain the system and spin-dry them they are then ready to be hang dried or put in a normal electric dryer the stainless steel construction means you never have to worry about the unit rusting or getting built-up dirt or other particles it is self-cleaning and requires no maintenance other than regular use.
5. Cleansebot this is a potentially life-saving product cleansebot can disinfect most common areas in your home in just 30 minutes without needing abrasive cleaners or other harmful chemicals the cleanse bot uses simple uvc led light to disinfect making it safe for any application just place the bot in any room in your home turn it on and wait about 30 minutes for the job to complete cleansebot will shine a bright uvc on all the surrounding areas killing any bacteria making your home much cleaner this specialize is able to destroy the molecular structure of bacteria making them fade away leaving you with a clean workspace you can take it with you on business trips to clean hotel rooms bed sheets or restrooms in much less time than it may take to do so with chemicals and cleaners cleansebot is available now for worldwide purchase you can find it online on amazon and from many other national retailers.
6.Baseus 6 In 1 Adapter the iPad Pro is an amazing tablet but a company known as baseus has taken things to the next level this small adapter can attach to the USB-C port of your iPad Pro and then mount on top of the device giving you extra ports and features this gives you several new options including a headphone jack USB c port two USB type a ports a micro-sd card slot and a 4k HDMI output the basis USB c port still supplies all the features of the normal USB-C port giving you access to 60 watts quick charging and lightning-fast transfer speeds the 4k video output on the product will let you send images directly to your television with 4k 30 hertz or 2k 60hz if you have a 2018 iPad pro though the most amazing feature of this product is the micro-sd card slot which allows you to expand the storage of your device you can then easily remove or upgrade it in the future, this is the perfect all-in-one device for your iPad pro.
7.Ultra Lock U-Bolt Pro many smart locks can be difficult to operate and are even more difficult to install ultra lock takes the worry out of smart lock technology and is one of the greatest locks on the market this lock is packed with features providing you with a biometric fingerprint scanner to gain access to your home or business you can program multiple fingers or multiple key codes to the device allowing access to all of your family members or business associates the deadbolt design is tamper-proof giving you peace of mind that your belongings are secured no matter what you can even unlock the device with your Smartphone or give guests a Smartphone pass to gain entry to your home if the battery happens to deplete there is also built-in mechanical key override so that you can open the lock no matter what Bluetooth functionality also means that this lock will work with virtually every modern Smartphone or tablet.
8.Nomodo 360 nomodo has designed a brand new attachment for the Amazon echo dot giving you incredible sound quality at a reasonable price this dock offers up to 10 hours of music playback on a single charge of its rechargeable battery the 360 degree sound means that you can fill any room with rich and powerful music without having to break the bank to set up the speaker just slide your echo dot into the top of the device then follow the instructions in your Alexa app it’s super simple to set up and doesn’t require any additional cables or hardware it is available in a variety of colors and has a built-in battery that can power not only the speaker but your echo dot as well allowing you to take Alexa with you wherever you go.
9.Run-Up this incredible device allows you to carry a personal Bluetooth speaker wherever you go taking the place of a normal pair of earbuds this headband offers built-in Bluetooth speakers that can project sound directly to your ears without worrying about disturbing others the band was designed with athletes in mind giving you an easy and reliable way to listen to music during a workout just pair the headband to your phone the same way you would pair a new set of earbuds the run up will take care of the rest giving you full bodied sound wherever you are the snug fit helps the band to not slide around or change orientation it remains firmly secured on your head no matter what the band is completely flexible and offers silicone backing to keep it in place you.
For More Products Click Here | https://medium.com/@oneandonelee/9-coolest-gadgets-2020-available-on-amazon-10-48c2eb5e611b | ['O N E', 'O N E L E E'] | 2021-03-31 17:52:07.210000+00:00 | ['Wireless', 'Power Bank', 'Charger', 'Gadgets', 'Top 10'] |
Find your closest luggage storage and enjoy your journey | Finding a spot to stow their baggage when they arrive in a city too early to check into a hotel or Airbnb, or after they’ve checked out of their rooms and have excursions planned before travelling to the airport, is a perplexing dilemma travellers.
One alternative is to bring your luggage to restaurants, museums, or a meeting with a possible customer. However, an increasing number of start-ups offer apps that connect visitors looking for short-term luggage storage with coffee shops, restaurants, gift stores, and other businesses with safe storage space to spare.
New York City luggage storage near grand central terminal is the obvious solution when your trip hours do not coincide with your check-in or check-out times. Who wants to be carrying large luggage and duffel bags around between appointments? NYC is full of things to view, events to attend, and activities to participate in, and baggage storage will allow you to carry only what you need while taking advantage of every minute you have in the city.
Luggage Storage Areas That Are Convenient For Your Luggage
Travel delivers a sense of freedom that can only be obtained by leaving your mundane routine behind in quest of fresh experiences. The last thing you want to do when visiting museums, restaurants, and other important attractions in your holiday area is to have to carry your luggage wherever you go.
When it’s time to store a suitcase, these baggage storage firms provide handy locations. We’ll start with our preferred choice and then go over a couple more options for baggage storage in NYC.
In New York, Where Can I Store My Luggage?
In New York, there are several baggage storage facilities. Luggage storage in New York City is never more than a short walk away, whether you’re at Penn Station, Washington Square, or the Museum of Natural History. With so many alternatives, the question isn’t so much where you can keep your goods in New York City as it is where you should put baggage. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a city guide to where you may keep your luggage in New York so that you can pick the best choice for you.
Is it secure?
It’s reasonable to be concerned about protecting your belongings when keeping your luggage with luggage storage near grand central terminal. We all want to know that our possessions are in excellent care. Vertoe guarantees that only approved local companies will be found on their site. Furthermore, every reservation you make with them is covered, and guarantee and security seals are offered for your peace of mind.
Excellent advice on how to acquire baggage storage
TIP : Because there is a strong demand for baggage storage, finding a location to keep your possessions might be difficult, but it is not impossible!
: Because there is a strong demand for baggage storage, finding a location to keep your possessions might be difficult, but it is not impossible! Travel Tip : Enter a random hotel and pretend to be a guest. Certain hotels provide luggage storage for their guests and, in some cases, visitors who are not staying at the hotel; inquire! Remember to include a wonderful tip in case they wish to save it.
: Enter a random hotel and pretend to be a guest. Certain hotels provide luggage storage for their guests and, in some cases, visitors who are not staying at the hotel; inquire! Remember to include a wonderful tip in case they wish to save it. Luggage storage at hotels: Most hotels will retain your baggage for a few hours before or after you check-in or out. Simply asking is your best bet. If your hotel is a bit out of the way from your tour schedule or mode of transportation, you might wish to investigate a more conveniently placed luggage storage service.
Today Is The Date To Reserve A Space For Your Bag.
Whether you’re visiting a new city for the first time or returning to a special place, rely on Vertoe for secure and convenient luggage storage. Why risk the pain and bother of losing your things when a safe reservation is just a few mouse clicks away? Contact us online today to learn more about luggage storage near grand central terminal.
To skip the trouble and leave your trip behind you, book your baggage into a luggage storage facility instead and take in some of New York’s most renowned landmarks. Whether you’re in town for a stopover, a day excursion, or to wait for your hotel check-in, renting baggage storage is a terrific way to keep your possessions secure while still having fun! | https://medium.com/@vertoeofficial/find-your-closest-luggage-storage-and-enjoy-your-journey-a827631d2ccc | [] | 2021-12-26 20:15:17.869000+00:00 | ['NYC', 'Travel', 'Newyork'] |
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