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Why I Plan to Refer to Myself as Dr. Bush | The Wall Street Journal recently published an essay by Joseph Epstein in which he states that:
the ‘Dr.’ before… ‘Dr. Jill Biden’ sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic
He goes on to question her credentials and disparage the subject of her thesis research, which focused on the retention of students at community colleges. His argument is toxic and poorly reasoned. For example, he states that:
A wise man once said that no one should call himself ‘Dr.’ unless he has delivered a child. Think about it, Dr. Jill, and forthwith drop the doc.
Ashley Biden is evidence that Dr. Jill Biden has delivered more children than the majority of doctors that I know, including those of the medical variety. I wish that I could dismiss Joseph Epstein’s perspectives with a simple “OK boomer”: (1) his views are dated and counterproductive, (2) he held a position for decades at Northwestern University that today would be inaccessible to those without a terminal degree, and (3) he is likely oblivious to the ways that he has benefited from the inaccurate assumption of others that he held a terminal degree in his field of study. Unfortunately, his perspectives are intertwined with broader misconceptions of race, gender, and subject-matter expertise.
Dr. Jill Biden earned her title through her Doctorate of Education from the University of Delaware. From the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a doctor is: “a learned or authoritative teacher” and “a person who has earned one of the highest academic degrees (such as a PhD) conferred by a university”. The title of “Dr.” is widely used by recipients of doctoral degrees, including Doctor of Education, Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Pharmacy, and Doctor of Philosophy. Dr. Jill Biden has clearly surpassed the threshold of being a doctor. On a more personal level, my father, who was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, a veteran of the Vietnam War, and a Colonel in the United States Air Force, used the title of “Dr.”, which he earned through his Doctorate of Education from the University of Southern California. To the best of my knowledge, his use of “Dr.” was neither questioned nor described as “comic”.
I am an educator and a researcher. I was previously indifferent to the use of “Dr.” for myself — I did not feel that I needed my credentials to establish my subject-matter expertise. However, as a white, cis-gendered male, I am cognizant that my perspective came from from a place of privilege. It is important to me that others, including those from underrepresented groups, receive the respect and recognition that they have earned. It is all too common for male educators and researchers to be referred to using “Dr.” and “Prof.”, while female educators and researchers with the same credentials are referred to using “Mrs.” and “Ms.” I have observed these differences in the language of students in my classes as well as the articles that I read in newspapers. I have been especially disappointed in observing these differences during the pandemic — the contributors and voices in our response to COVID-19 (e.g., immunology, public health, and aerosol science researchers) deserve every accolade and title that can be used to convey the preparation, expertise, and track record that enabled their results and perspectives.
Towards the goal of broader recognition of the expertise and credentials of educators and researchers, I plan to:
When referring to other educators and researchers, I will use the titles and credentials that they have earned. When referring to myself, I will use the titles and credentials that I have earned to help normalize the use of titles and credentials. In my courses and in my research, I will highlight the contributions of scientists and select citations that more fully reflect the practitioners in the relevant fields.
Beyond the scope of what I can do as an individual, I implore style guides to revise their recommendations for referring to holders of doctoral degrees. Most style guides require medical doctors to be referred to using the “Dr.” title, but restrict the use of doctor for non-medical doctors (e.g., to individuals who request the use of that title). For those who want to learn more about this subject, I highly recommend Is There a Doctor in the House? and I Look Like A Professor. | https://medium.com/@mattbushseattle/why-i-plan-to-refer-to-myself-as-dr-bush-2a4afdbc31c5 | ['Dr. Matthew F. Bush'] | 2020-12-14 06:37:55.960000+00:00 | ['Equity', 'Science', 'Research', 'Jill Biden', 'Education'] |
Meet Kevin. | In between raising a family and working as a full-time youth detention counselor for the city, Kevin focused on securing funding for the learning center. He received material donations from the community and small foundation grants, but decided to launch a GoFundMe to cover the extra expenses and fund new projects.
The average day brings in about 15 kids, says Kevin, but that number can easily double in the summer months. He realized that in order to continue growing, they simply needed more space.
“I’m always thinking about how to make the learning center better,” he says. “The responsibility that we have to these kids is big. I hate telling somebody that their kid can’t come and learn something because there’s no room.”
To solve that problem, Kevin is working on an expansion of the SMLC. With the help of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, he was able to secure the lot next door to the learning center so they can help more kids every single day. Kevin has big plans for the new building, which include enlarging the bathroom, creating a new kitchen area for cooking lessons, and adding a functional office space for the administration. | https://medium.com/gofundme-stories/meet-kevin-c5e7202abe4c | [] | 2020-01-10 13:31:01.419000+00:00 | ['Philadelphia', 'Gofundme Heroes', 'Education', 'Community'] |
‘Why Can’t I Focus On Them?’ | ‘Why Can’t I Focus On Them?’
It’s an annual consideration the four of us talk about every Christmas…why can’t our eyes focus on the ‘blue ones’?
Since the days of carefully undoing massive ball of glass NOMAs, like Clark Griswold, so not to easily smash them are (mostly) a memory to most households.
The LED Christmas light craze came on scene in 1998/1999.
They boasted a longer lifespan, plastic light coverings which meant almost no breakage, they didn’t fade in colour if left in place all year, less energy was used in their operation and they were smaller in size so took up less room in storage.
A great deal!
I remember one year when I first saw a tree, like the one in the photo, fully decorated with blue LED lights.
A single blue bulb, here and there, amidst the rest of the colours on a strand, I had never paid attention to the fact that I couldn’t focus on the blue ones. Until, that is, that first monochromatic cobalt tree came along.
Thinking at first that my eyes were just tired or getting old (which didn’t make sense because I had 20/20 vision), I soon realized no matter how hard I tried to focus on those blue LED lights, it wasn’t happening.
Well, it just so it happens to be that, “our eyes can easily focus on fine details in red or green light. But our retinas can’thandle blue light very well. Blue light scatters more widely within the eye and tends to be focused in front of the retina, making it appear slightly out of focus.”-assemblymag.com
Interesting.
So if you felt like you were the only one that ‘couldn’t focus on the blue ones’… you are in good company! and happy light-seeing this holiday season.
As a side note: Here’s an interesting history of the Christmas light for those interested: https://www.christmasdesigners.com/blog/from-edison-to-led-the-complete-history-of-christmas-lights/
Enjoy.
-Becky | https://medium.com/@beckyboughton/why-cant-i-focus-on-them-74330c27fe4b | ['Becky Boughton'] | 2020-12-05 18:11:29.659000+00:00 | ['Light', 'Body', 'Christmas', 'Humour', 'Technology'] |
How Walmart Is Disrupting Primary Care in America | Last week, news broke that the retail giant is suspending its $35 online minimum, offering free shipping to anyone who forks up a $98 yearly subscription fee.
Headlines described how Walmart+ was looking to compete with Amazon Prime in a war over the hearts and minds of online shoppers. That might be true, but there’s a deeper, underlying motive at play.
Drug dealer ambitions.
The move also enables members to receive free mail-order pharmacy delivery. Put that next to ongoing disruption across the healthcare landscape and the picture begins to paint itself. Walmart has a bold vision of becoming our “neighborhood health destination”, and they might just accomplish it.
More importantly, it could mean better access and affordability for us.
Live better by having more convenience
Did you know that over 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart?
Probably not too surprising if you’ve been on a cruise in the suburbs. But imagine if you could go to Walmart to see a doctor, fill your script, and understand your insurance coverage. Well, now you basically can.
The retailer is partnering with Oak Street Health on primary care clinics and offering Doctor on Demand telemedicine services to employees. They now also sell pet insurance and care.
This would be a net-positive benefit for consumers, providing closer physical access, but also a one-stop-shop for most preventive care. Revisiting our recently expanded, broader definition of healthcare through the lens of social determinants of health, we can’t forget about what’s on the shelves.
Books, games, technology, and vitamins. Putting healthcare providers and consumers closer to such resources is not just a sign of the times.
It’s a signal of what’s to come. Walmart recently began testing autonomous deliveries with GM Cruise, which could mean our future drug dealer could be a self-driving car. Other players are emerging with different ways of tackling convenience, ranging from virtual pharmacist support to home-based care.
We’re just scratching the surface.
Save money by having better options in time
According to Walmart, their clinic’s prices are 30% to 50% lower than what patients would pay at physician offices. Primary care office visits cost $40, annual checkups cost $30 for adult patients and $20 for children. Mental health counseling and routine vision exams cost $45 and dental exams with x-rays start at $25.
Now you ask, what about drugs? Along with offering $4 generic prescription drug programs and longer-term fill savings, Walmart struck a deal with the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) Capital Rx, giving members more transparency at the point of sale.
This is a pretty big deal. Here’s why.
Researchers recently uncovered that the list price (cost before discounts or insurance payments) for 14 top-selling drugs increased by 129% between 2010–2016, while median insurance payments only grew by 64%. Even after accounting for inflation, OOP spending or cost-sharing for members increased by 85% for specialty and 42% for non-specialty Rx. Insurance payments for these same drugs went up 116% for specialty but only 28% in non-specialty.
This means that the costs of non-specialty drugs are increasingly being passed on to consumers. Which means that the direct-to-consumer model should be focused on reducing prices, engaging in preventive care, and searching for alternatives that result in better outcomes.
In other words, if we’re going to be paying for this, we deserve to…
Know what we’re paying for
Get the best options to inform our decisions
Benefit from exceptional service or convenience
Just like what we’d expect from any other business, whether it’s Netflix, Amazon, or Apple.
A cautiously optimistic future
At the end of the day, let’s not forget that this is healthcare. Aside from being an incredibly complex system, it’s strongly influenced by politics, legislation, and corporate greed.
However, I believe that the lowest common denominator, or standard of care, will rise. And much-needed consumer advocacy will not only help us, because we need it, but also the underserved communities who need it even more.
Which means it’s not just healthcare, it’s the impact of innovation on our lives.
All opinions are my own. | https://medium.com/swlh/how-walmart-is-disrupting-primary-care-in-america-abfa95e5ece1 | ['Sid Khaitan'] | 2020-12-25 22:56:44.182000+00:00 | ['Innovation', 'Disruption', 'Healthcare', 'Retail', 'Health'] |
Designing for Value at Design x Us | When Design x Us founder Stephen Jordan asked me to help the leadership team conceive and write our company values, I was beyond excited. I love helping teams find the words that speak to their company or brand. When developing values, it is important to choose a core group of people to work on it. If you include too many, it can be easy to get distracted. Too few and you won’t be inclusive enough in your thinking. I usually find 3–6 people is the right number. If you have a very large leadership team, make sure you have time for everyone to participate evenly.
Here’s the exercise our leadership team did to find our values.
Each person got digital post-its with their names in a unique color.
We started in Figma. I set everyone participating up with color-coded frames to begin. From there, I asked everyone to spend 5–10 minutes writing down values and descriptions of those values they associated with Design x Us. People had a lot of ideas. From there, we organized our ideas into categories of similar thoughts; for instance “transparency” and “honesty” had overlapping thoughts.
From there, we identified the key points of each column. Once those major words were established, everyone was given 3 large blue stars and infinite small orange stars. I told them to give their top 3 words a blue star and any other words that felt they deserved a “special mention” an orange star. It became apparent very quickly that we had some common ground.
We gathered all our post-its together by category.
But here’s the trick. The orange stars don’t actually matter less than their bigger blue counterparts. I took every word with a star of any kind and called them out. Giving people the focus of those bigger blue stars allows them to be more targeted, but the orange stars allow for flexibility. From this list, we were able to discuss as a group and identify which 4 words resonated most with the group. If not everyone agrees, you can repeat the star process with your chosen words to identify which are resonating the most. If there is still disagreement, you’ll need to identify who the decision-maker is, and have them decide how to handle it.
We then each wrote a small description of what those words meant. It wasn’t meant to be perfect, just a brainstorm of what we now identified as the value. Stephen then took those words and wrote a description for each, based partially on our previous exercise, and partially on his own goals for the company. From there, I identified words within those descriptions that felt extra important.
We did another round of edits from Stephen’s work and came up with some solid descriptions, but they felt very long. We then spent time discussing how to shorten them to one pithy sentence each. It is valuable to shorten your descriptions as much as possible to avoid adding in extra meaning that distracts from your core message. The fewer words you can use to get your point across, the better. Words have different meanings to different people, so the descriptions are a crucial way to explain what we mean.
Now we’re able to identify what we stand for, and how we stay true to our values, both internally, and with our interviewees. | https://medium.com/design-x-us/designing-for-value-at-design-x-us-ee45e8867629 | ['Bonnie Kate Wolf'] | 2021-04-01 00:55:39.810000+00:00 | ['Figma', 'Design', 'Design X Us', 'Values'] |
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How to start construction business after completion of civil engineering | Hello Guys,
My name is Mustafa Rajpurwala. In this blog i will tell you how i started my own work so many of you can start their own work and work like a boss. Lots of students thinks that its not easy to start own work after graduation, But basically they are right. But it is also not to much difficult.we just need little efforts.
I have completed my graduation in 2014. After than i have started working in a contracting firm in Industrial construction field. i was joined as a site engineer and my job timing was minimum 12 hours. where my some friends was working in IT firm with job timing of 8 hours a day. so i was filling sad that time.
But before we start our own work we need knowledge in site work about our work such as how concreting is done, how masonry , plaster work and many other work relating construction work is done. also we have to learn about material purchasing and cost of material, labour cost managing site activity for completing work in time. so i keep working in job for learning all those things and developing my skills which was necessary to start own business.
In job there is lots of frustration of seniors and project managers but it prepare us to face difficult situations and taking decision. I did the job for six years and in 2019 i have started my own construction business.
Also civil engineering field has plethora of scope in which anyone can start their work such as we can be contractor, we can be estimator, We can be planner also we can be structure designer. When we are starting our business it is important to have software skills like Auto CAD, Auto desk Rivet, Google Sketch up etc..
Also with construction work , you can start your trading business in building materials. so you will get more benefits in construction with using your own material like if i took a dealership in cement so i can earn from cement company and save material cost in construction work.
So, I suggest anybody who wants to start up their Establishment in civil engineering field, First he/she have to do job and learn basic things. After than he/she have to create their mentality to being an enter-pruner and should take first steps towards starting their own work.
But guys one important thing that first six months to two years of start up Your earning will not start in most cases. so you must have to keep petitions and have to use your saving till than u start earning. once your business is set up than you will start earning.
So guys , set up your mindset and keep moving towards of your goals.
Thank you. | https://medium.com/@rajpurwala-mustafa/how-to-start-construction-business-after-completion-of-civil-engineering-8b6b86f01b9c | ['Mustafa Rajpurwala'] | 2020-12-13 09:08:28.015000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Contractors', 'Civil Engineering', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Construction'] |
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Join the Bitonomy revolution! Sign up for our ICO now and get up to 20% bonus! | Join the Bitonomy revolution! Sign up for our ICO now and get up to 20% bonus! BITONOMY Follow May 31, 2018 · 1 min read
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Twitter :- https://twitter.com/bitonomy_global | https://medium.com/bitonomy/join-the-bitonomy-revolution-sign-up-for-our-ico-now-and-get-up-to-20-bonus-eba2b767209 | [] | 2018-05-31 13:10:30.648000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Finance'] |
2 Secrets to Making Affirmations Work in Your Favor | 2 Secrets to Making Affirmations Work in Your Favor
They will be working anyways, so better use them to your advantage.
Photo by Taisiia Stupak on Unsplash
“I am not smart enough to get this job” “I don't think he would understand my views” “I think my ideas are always dumb” “I could never be confident like you” “Whatever I eat, goes into my hips” “I don't deserve her” “I could never earn so much”
Did any of these statements make you go like “yeah, that's me”?Then congratulations you have already used affirmations in your life. Chances are you hadn't realized while doing it, but you must have experienced their effects in your reality.
So what are affirmations?
Affirmations are just simple words. Simple, plain words that add great meaning to our lives. Words which are repeated so often that we start to believe it. Everything in us believes it. Our conscious as well as the subconscious mind. And it gets imprinted onto our thinking patterns and behavior and finally in our physical reality.
A study shows that repeating anything, again and again, leave imprints on our behavioral processes. Yet you make such negative statements throughout the day, about your own health, or mentality, or behavior. And you have been using them in your conversations as facts. For years.
So understand that affirmations have been working for you forever, and will continue doing so, regardless of your beliefs.
If it's something natural and you can't actually do anything to stop it, maybe you should try working with it to actually help you in your life. To handle situations better. To let good things flow into your lives. To live the life you have always wanted. | https://medium.com/better-advice/2-secrets-to-making-affirmations-work-in-your-favor-9176c997e636 | ['Anshu Singh'] | 2020-11-07 04:47:02.059000+00:00 | ['Fulfillment', 'Happiness', 'Self', 'Life', 'Love'] |
Satan’s Biggest Lie: Good Things Can Come From Helping Bad People | Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay
You cannot do right by doing wrong.
By David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)
I’m not a religious person, but there are plenty of people who are. Worldwide, more people believe that, at least occasionally, a higher power takes an active role in people’s lives than people who don’t believe it.
Do You Believe That God & Satan Exist?
This column is for those people who do believe in the existence of an active and benevolent God and a malevolent and cunning Devil; a God who wants people to lead a more honorable life and a Devil who wants to lure people into sin.
What God Wants. What The Devil Wants.
If God’s primary rule might be expressed in Martin Luther King’s charge:
“It’s always the right time to do the right thing”
then, I think that the Devil’s fundamental principle would be:
“The ends justify the means.”
A Devil would be skilled in countless ways to fool people into straying from Christ’s path, but his primary technique would be to lure people into sin by promising that by doing what he asks they will get what they want.
Humans who lust for wealth, power or sex would be easy prey, barely taking much effort to trip them up. But those people are already so weak that they’re half lost before Satan ever touches them.
The most desirable of Satan’s victories would be the more difficult candidates, the men and women who think that they are immune to Satan’s lures because they’re sure that their dedication to the Lord will protect them from the Devil’s blandishments.
But they are like an armored soldier heedlessly advancing across a battlefield laced with hidden pits in the foolish belief that his sword and shield will certainly protect him.
You Cannot Do Right By Doing Wrong
Satan is too clever to tempt a righteous person with gold or sex or power. Instead, he offers the reward that the upstanding person most desires, the chance to vanquish God’s enemies. He fools them with the lie that a righteous person can do God’s work by fighting fire with fire, sin with sin.
“There is a bad man over there who is luring others into sin,” Satan, in the guise of an Angel (for Satan, ever the deceiver, would pretend to be an agent of God) tells the righteous man. “Stopping him is doing God’s work. Here, take this gun and kill him.”
This is Satan’s favorite deceit, as a false servant of God convincing people that they can do right by doing wrong.
His favorite lie is: “The ends justify the means” but the inescapable truth is: You cannot do right by doing wrong.
When the terrorist prepares to detonate a bomb in a church, his handler tells him, “You are doing God’s work. The ends justify the means.”
The IRA, the Taliban, mass killer Dylan Roof, on and on, have accepted Satan’s assurance: “Killing these people will help God’s cause. Sometimes you have to do wrong in order to do right. The ends justify the means.”
Many of you are thinking, “I wouldn’t be so foolish as to do a wrong thing in the hope that it would eventually yield many more right things.”
But Satan doesn’t need to be obvious and say, “Kill this man, steal this money, tell this lie and it will help God’s work.”
Evil Once Removed
Satan often justifies evil by disguising it as evil-once-removed. Instead of saying, “Kill this man, steal this money, tell this lie” he’ll tell you that you’re not a killer if you only help the killer in some mundane way.
He may not ask you to plant the bomb, only to feed and hide the terrorist who will explode the bomb.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Satan will assure you. “You didn’t pull the trigger. You just gave the gun and the bullets to the man who pulled the trigger.” Satan will assure you that “You’re not responsible for evil-once-removed.”
Diluting Responsibility
“You were just in the mob. All you did was shout a few slogans and march down the street. You didn’t lynch anyone. Your hand never touched the rope that the others looped over the oak tree’s limb. You couldn’t have stopped them if you’d tried. It’s not your fault.”
“You didn’t build the bomb. You didn’t set it off. You didn’t buy the dynamite. All you did was pick the bomber up at the bus station and drive him around town. If you hadn’t picked him up somebody else would have.
“If you had refused to transport him, nothing would have changed. It was the other people who made the bomb and set it off. They’re the ones who are responsible, not you.”
The lie is that the larger the number of people who help the criminal, the less each one of them is responsible for his crimes.
It’s not true.
The Wages Of Sin
The Catholic church chose to protect pedophiles, to let them continue doing evil things, because the Bishops thought that doing the right thing would hurt the church. The Bishops thought that doing the wrong thing in support of the right cause would have a good result.
They were wrong.
In the long run, doing the wrong thing in support of the right cause will always have a bad result.
How well did doing the wrong thing in support of the right cause work out for the Catholic Church?
Who respects or trusts the Catholic church now?
In the long run:
You cannot get the right result by doing the wrong thing.
You cannot get a good result by helping bad people.
Empowering A Bad Person To Get You What You Want Will End Badly
Let’s say that there’s a man whom you know lies, breaks his promises, and cheats. He’s an adulterer. He’s mean. He does bad things.
Satan, in his guise as an Angel, tells you that in spite of all his sins, this man will do the Lord’s work if you support him, that if you help this man he will use the power you give him to do God’s work.
You see this man’s lies, his deceit, his meanness, how corrupt he is. Should you help him anyway because you think he’s going use the power you give him to fight God’s enemies?
Which are you, an “It’s always the right time to do the right thing,” sort of person or an “The ends justify the means” sort of person?
Shouldn’t you ask yourself:
What if this corrupt man fails to defeat God’s enemies?
What if he only makes them angrier and stronger and more dedicated?
What if after you’ve made him stronger he ends up turning on you?
What if this is a Devil’s trick, that by getting you to lift up this corrupt man his corruption ends up tainting you?
Did protecting the pedophiles help the Catholic church or by doing so did the pedophiles’ sins end up tainting the church itself?
A Question For You
Do you think that Donald Trump is a decent person, that he is honest, faithful to his wife, trustworthy, kind, generous, caring? In your opinion is he a decent, honorable, good person?
If you do, then you can stop reading.
Good Works Do Not Come from Empowering Bad Men
If you think that DT is not a decent, honest, caring, truthful, trustworthy, honorable person, then ask yourself:
“Is giving a dishonest, untrustworthy, narcissist control of the country in the hope that he will use that power to do what I want a good idea?”
Is it a good idea to help the thief rob the bank in the hope that he will do good works with the money he steals?
Is it a good idea to empower bad people in the hope that they will use the power you give them to do good things?
Good results do not come from empowering bad men.
Empowering bad men causes bad things.
Satan’s Trick
Satan’s fundamental strategy is to get good people to do bad things and to help bad people by telling the lie that the bad people will use their power to do good.
The Devil Cheats
In the end, Satan always finds a way to cheat those who bargain with him.
“He who would sup with the Devil had best use a long spoon.”
Are you absolutely sure that in this case you have a long enough spoon?
Are you absolutely sure that empowering a bad man will get you what you want, and that if you get it, in the end, it will actually turn out to be the good thing you think it is?
Sometimes The Worst Punishment Is Getting What You Think You Want
Spock has line in the Star Trek episode, Amok Time, that goes like this:
“After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.”
You want to turn your beliefs on abortion and gay people into the law of the land and you’re willing to give a morally-corrupt person control of the country to do it.
If you succeed, you may find that empowering that bad man will not help you the way you think you will.
Why should people believe that you are a decent, righteous person when you have turned the country over to a bad person in order to get what you want?
The vicious dog you buy to bite others will likely end up biting you, your wife, or your children.
Take a lesson from the Catholic Church.
Helping bad people, for whatever reason, eventually ends up hurting the helper. What goes around, comes around.
Instead, remember that it’s always the right time to do the right thing.
–David Grace (www.DavidGraceAuthor.com)
If you know someone who is a dedicated Christian, please consider sending him or her a link to this column. They may strongly disagree with everything I’ve said, which is fine. My job is to expose people to the issues I have raised. Their agreement or disagreement with my point of view is a matter for their own, personal moral values.
To see a searchable list of all David Grace’s columns in chronological order, CLICK HERE
To see a list of David Grace’s columns sorted by topic/subject matter, CLICK HERE. | https://medium.com/interfaith-now/satans-biggest-lie-good-things-can-come-from-helping-bad-people-a17663cda819 | [] | 2020-05-24 16:29:05.806000+00:00 | ['Evangelicals', 'Religion', 'Christianity', 'Satan', 'Dg012'] |
My Apologies | I can’t count how many times my tongue has pierced through people’s hearts. I’m beginning to think I’m truly cursed. If I was born like this, I guess I’ll have to get used to it. Should I get used to it?
I’m aware enough to know that no number of apologies will make up for the things I’ve said and done. I could say I’ll do better; I’ll be more considerate, I’ll think more. But I keep slipping and end up doing the opposite. It’s my circle of life. There’s no forgive and forget. There’s only pain and numbness.
In the end, I got used to it. You’ll get used to it. Both sides are hurting, and we don’t know when it will end. I wish I could forget, I wish I could erase all of it. But that would be unfair for you. I will carry this burden until the day I die. It’s the least I can do for you.
Not once did I ever think I was perfect or close to perfection. The world has told me multiple times that, no matter how much effort I put into something, it will still lack something. They never told me what was missing. How was I supposed to improve if I don’t even know what I’m missing?
The world is so harsh. I crumble every time. I’m sorry for being weak. I’m sorry for missing so many puzzle pieces.
I apologize to everyone.
But most of all, I apologize to me.
I’m sorry for never loving you the way you deserved to be loved. I was always busy with trying to impress other people. I neglected you for years. Now that we’re alone, now that I have nothing to distract me from the turbulence inside, I see how much rubble had fallen, how many glasses have shattered, and how many emotions have accumulated and flooded over.
What a mess. What a mess you are. I’m sorry for leaving you alone for years. I hurt so many people and never noticed that the person I hurt most was myself.
I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what to say. You poor little thing.
You deserved better. You all deserved better.
I will keep saying I’ll do better. I’ll make more promises. I’ll keep dreaming of a better life.
But we know how the story goes.
So, I’m sorry. For yesterday, for today, and for what will inevitably come.
This is my last-minute apology. Next year, I’ll write a better one. | https://medium.com/@prosesareread/my-apologies-da7a1cb4b2f2 | [] | 2020-12-27 10:50:59.160000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Prose', 'Depression', 'Writing', 'Poems On Medium'] |
Google Cast in iOS(Swift) Sender App | This article is for developers who are looking for integrating Google Cast into their exiting application or want to learn how Google Cast works. Integrating Google Cast seems very straight forward from their documentation but still, you’ll find many headaches while integrating it into your existing application like how to show mini media controller and how to add a controller to your TabView kind of application.
This is going to be a series of 3 articles, this article will walk you through basic integration of Google Cast SDK into iOS SDK. In the second article I’ll walk you through how to show media controller and in the last article we’ll learn about how to customise view controller according to your app theme.
Create New Xcode Project & Install Pod
Now you need to create a new Xcode project and use pod init to generate pod file. Now add we’re going to use no Bluetooth Google Cast SDK for iOS13. By adding no Bluetooth we’re just leaving Guest mode out of our application. If you want more details on Guest Mode you can find out in this article.
Now go with
pod install
and you’ll have Google Cast SDK inside your project. Open Google Cast Demo.xcworkspace. Now open your AppleDelegate.swift and add following lines inside didFinishLaunchingWithOptions. This will start discovering available Casting devices inside your network with options that you’re providing. kReceiverAppID, is the default id for receiver app provided by the framework. You can also create Cast Receiver app for customising receiver app’s styling (like Netflix, Prime Videos).
let criteria = GCKDiscoveryCriteria(applicationID: kReceiverAppID)
let options = GCKCastOptions(discoveryCriteria: criteria)
GCKCastContext.setSharedInstanceWith(options)
GCKLogger.sharedInstance().delegate = self
Cast Button inside Navigation Bar
Now we’re going to add this cast button to our navigation bar. You can add this cast button as per your convenience, inside any other view apart from navigation view. As you can see in documentation GCKUICastButton is an extension of UIButton only.
let castButton = GCKUICastButton(frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 24, height: 24))
castButton.tintColor = UIColor.gray
navigationItem.rightBarButtonItem = UIBarButtonItem(customView: castButton)
Now you can see Cast button inside the navigation bar. This cast button will only appear if there’s any Chrome cast available in your network. It’ll be shown/hidden automatically based on the availability of Chrome cast inside your network.
Now click that Cast button and Voila!! It’ll show you Chrome cast which is available in your network. In my case, it’s Bedroom TV. Now select available Chrome cast and Cast icon will be turned into a connected one.
Cast Video on Chrome Cast
Now it’s time to cast video on your Chrome cast. For Video and it’s information I’m using google’s sample file which they’ve used in their demo. You can find it’s location inside project, labeled as sample.json. I’m displaying this video’s inside TableView Controller and have used SwiftyJSON for parsing JSON.
Preparing Request For Chrome Cast
Now the first thing will be providing proper URL for casting to Chrome cast.
let url = URL.init(string: "URL_OF_YOUR_VIDEO")
guard let mediaURL = url else {
print("invalid mediaURL")
return
}
Providing Metadata to Chrome Cast
You can provide metadata to Chrome Cast via like title, thumbnail and description. It’s completely optional what metadata you’d like to provide for casting. You can find a complete list of metadata that cast SDK provides.
let metadata = GCKMediaMetadata()
metadata.setString(movieModel!.desc, forKey: kGCKMetadataKeyTitle) metadata.setString(movieModel!.desc, forKey: kGCKMetadataKeySubtitle) metadata.addImage(GCKImage(url: URL(string: "https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/images/BigBuckBunny.jpg")!, width: 480, height: 360))
Creating Request
Now that we’ve URL and Metadata, it’s time to cast video. For that, we’ll use GCKMediaInformationBuilder & GCKMediaInformation and provide URL and metadata to that class.
let mediaInfoBuilder = GCKMediaInformationBuilder.init(contentURL: mediaURL)
mediaInfoBuilder.streamType = GCKMediaStreamType.none;
mediaInfoBuilder.contentType = "video/mp4"
mediaInfoBuilder.metadata = metadata; \\(providing metadata) let mediaInformation = mediaInfoBuilder.build() // Now finally handing over all information and load video
if let request = sessionManager.currentSession?.remoteMediaClient?.loadMedia(mediaInformation){
request.delegate = self \\extend GCKRequestDelegate for this
}
Inside of Class declare sessionManager variable and use ViewDidLoad to get a session to which we’re connected in the previous screen.
var sessionManager: GCKSessionManager!
override ViewDidLoad(){
sessionManager = GCKCastContext.sharedInstance().sessionManager
}
Now your complete code block should look like something below.
Click on docPlay method and Done.
You can see Thumbnail, Title and Description that we’ve provided in mediaInformation.
Now that you’ve played the video to your Casting device and you made Google Cast sender App for iOS, To keep things simple, I’m concluding this article here. Download this sample code from github link.
But Wait!!!
what about media controls? How to pause/stop this video, how to add videos in the queue, where’s volume controls?
I’ve made another article where I’m showing you how to add media controls and add videos in the queue. | https://medium.com/macoclock/google-cast-in-ios-swift-sender-app-24254e6ce507 | ['Jay Savsani'] | 2021-05-09 04:20:33.778000+00:00 | ['Google Cast', 'Chromecast', 'iOS', 'iPhone', 'Swift'] |
How to Rule the Masses | binary-chaos | One of the most effective ways to rule people is to create laws and morals that by definition create conditions against power accumulation, for the ones you rule only.
Of course, those who are ruled will call it immoral to be rich and to have that much power. That morality was invented to keep them thinking that way, and thereby unwilling to take the actions necessary to gain that much power within the structure of that system.
Overthrowing this kind of systemic power structure then requires a very different approach. The reason Buckminster Fuller’s quote is so good:
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
It is not just a wise understanding of a method for change, but because as these systems were designed from the first capacity of humans to hoard wealth and create inequity (probably the agricultural revolution), those moral considerations were already being used to get people to control themselves, by design. Yes, that kind of moral thinking was already there to begin the ideas of property protection and law. Rules that until that point were never required to consider as such, as that kind of system never existed to create the inequity before that point.
Yes, I am saying morality like this was created to cause the ruled to disempower themselves, while the rulers understood the power of property could not be maintained without it. This is a root of division humans have lived with for most of the time we would call “civilized”.
What I’m not saying is that this was done as a malevolent manipulation and exploitation of human nature. I don’t think the thinking was that sophisticated. I don’t think that’s how control ultimately works. You need true believers. So it probably was the real creation of organized religion that created this imbalance that’s been maintained for as long as it has, and morality was the tool used, backed up by fear of eternal punishments and all that nonsense, carried forward even into things like humanism and humanitarianism.
Now we try to say it’s “sociopaths/psychopaths” that won’t be subject to it and are the ones running the biggest exploitation rings in the world. That’s nice, trying to pathologize it in order to dehumanize those people and legitimize violence and all that came with the different “revolutions” that didn’t really do anything to change it. But that’s a weak argument. It doesn’t require being a sociopath to understand morality is about control and this is just a natural system. I don’t think most sociopaths even believe that. That just requires a different kind of upbringing, one any human would align with if they were raised in it; just like believers in the religions they are raised in (under the protection of moral “truth”).
As Nietzsche correctly predicted, the slave religion would eventually take everything over… So at this point, everything is a moral war of desired outcomes, and very few people can see it purely phenomenologically. So it’s a shit show in the process of collapse.
So in the vein of Fuller, understanding the nature of this reality and that it is completely fabricated to create power imbalance might give clues to how to make it irrelevant. It won’t be won by those fighting for what’s “right”, because that’s playing the same game that was created thousands of years to protect property and create power to begin with.
Every revolution has shown us that just goes in a circle and creates the same thing with new people.
No… The only way to deal with this and change things, is by redefining reality and not playing by those rules at all. Not for or against either side.
For a deep dive of where I go with this check out The Broken World series. This stuff goes deep. | https://medium.com/@glenallan-binary-chaos/how-to-rule-the-masses-binary-chaos-4e952f132735 | ['Glen Allan'] | 2021-05-22 00:18:25.877000+00:00 | ['Control', 'Morality', 'Rule Of Law'] |
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When the unexpected happens, what’s a survey researcher to do? | (Pew Research Center illustration)
High-quality public opinion surveys can take weeks to conduct. Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Survey, for example, is fielded simultaneously in 30 or more countries each year, and fieldwork can take more than eight weeks in some locations. The potential for a significant, unexpected event to occur during the interviewing phase of a survey is a looming challenge for survey researchers — especially as certain events might make the data collected before the event less comparable with what’s collected after.
Unexpected events can take myriad forms, ranging from weather events that might affect fieldwork to global summits, terrorist attacks or snap elections (with potential implications for attitudes toward political leaders, trust in the government, national priorities and foreign relations).
While these types of events certainly may cause researchers some (hopefully temporary) headaches, they may also provide a unique opportunity to look at how events can cause changes in people’s opinions, serving as a type of “natural experiment.”
Here are two recent examples of this from our international survey work and how we approached them.
Phone survey in South Korea: The case of the Singapore Summit
On June 12, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held the first-ever meeting between a U.S. president and North Korean head of state. The meeting, held in Singapore and abruptly canceled then rescheduled, took place about two weeks after we had begun our fieldwork for a survey in South Korea. The Trump-Kim meeting was consequential in South Korea, where President Moon Jae-in pledged support for the talks and expressed optimism about a “new chapter of peace and cooperation.”
Given the praise by the South Korean leadership and the significance of the meeting, we expected that South Koreans’ confidence in Trump might be higher following the event than before it, perhaps inflating public opinion and giving us a misreading when compared to our year-over-year trend. But how could we assess that more precisely?
Our South Korean survey was conducted via mobile phone, and dialing wasn’t designed to be concentrated demographically or geographically at specific points during fieldwork. That meant we could expect phone numbers called before and after the Trump-Kim meeting to result in relatively similar respondents.
Our practice in South Korea is to call every phone number up to seven times to increase the chances that harder-to-reach populations — for example, younger people or those who work long hours — are represented in the final sample of respondents. Since that’s the case, there was a possibility for demographic differences between those we reached earlier in the survey period and those we reached later.
When we examined these unweighted demographic differences, we saw that, by and large, the people reached before the summit and afterward had similar profiles. Given this, we also created separate post-stratification weights for those interviewed before and after the summit.
Having established broad demographic similarity of the two groups, we looked at whether the summit affected respondents’ evaluations of Trump. Before the meeting, 43% had confidence in Trump regarding world affairs, compared with 48% who reported confidence following it. This difference was not statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. This may have been due in part to the relatively limited sample size of the post-summit group, so we examined it more closely via two other checks.
First, we conducted a “placebo” test of sorts by asking ourselves whether South Koreans’ opinions of other world leaders — which we would not expect to be affected by the Singapore Summit — also were different between the time periods in question. As an example, we looked at President Shinzo Abe of Japan, who was not involved in the summit. Among South Koreans, confidence in Abe did not change at all: It was 10% both before and after the Trump-Kim meeting.
Second, we conducted a regression, which allowed us to control for multiple demographic factors concurrently, giving us more confidence that differences we saw with regard to Trump were related to when people were surveyed, rather than who was surveyed.
Results of the regression suggest that even when controlling for age, sex and education, South Koreans interviewed after the summit had more confidence in Trump than those interviewed before the meeting.
Face-to-face surveys in Greece: The case of the snap election
During our 2019 fieldwork for a nationally representative survey of Greek adults, the country’s leaders scheduled a parliamentary snap election that fell midway through our interviewing period. This provided a chance for us to explore some key themes before and after the election, such as general satisfaction with democracy. It also allowed us to analyze how satisfaction with democracy changed among “electoral winners” (those whose preferred candidate or party won) and “electoral losers.”
Unlike South Korea, fieldwork in Greece was conducted through face-to-face interviews in people’s homes. Fieldwork was not rolled out around the country randomly, but instead prioritized certain regions and times because of weather conditions or transportation logistics.
Given this reality, we were concerned that any differences we saw before and after the election were simply because the people interviewed in one region of the country had significantly different attitudes from those in another, regardless of the snap election.
One way to understand these challenges is to look at people’s attitudes before and after the election only in regions where interviews took place in both time periods. For example, if interviews were conducted in the broader Athens region both pre- and post-election, we could feel more confident comparing opinions within Athens to one another.
When we looked just at the geographic regions that had interviews both pre-election and post-election, we saw that the age and education profiles of the respondents were relatively similar. Once again, given these differences, we created separate post-stratification weights for before and after the election.
We were also concerned that some of these geographic regions were quite large and that even within Athens, neighborhoods might differ from one another. Even though we typically return to each household up to three times and over multiple days to complete an interview, there were very few neighborhoods that had interviews before and after the snap election, making statistical inference at that level challenging. Analyzing at the regional level could offer insights, but there were many potential confounding factors that required consideration, such as age, gender, education and ideology. Once again, we returned to using regressions.
Using regressions helped us feel confident that any differences we observed were related to the snap election rather than to different types of people being interviewed at different times. It also allowed us to explore whose attitudes shifted following the election. By interacting our variable indicating when the election took place with the respondent’s ideology, we saw that people on the ideological right appear more satisfied post-election. In other words, those who were more ideologically similar to the center-right party that won the election seem more satisfied with democracy after the results were known. In contrast, people on the left were similarly satisfied with democracy before and after the election.
Other approaches
These are not the only ways to look at differences in public opinion before and after unexpected events like the Singapore Summit or a snap election. For example, researchers might consider a regression discontinuity design, depending on the type of event. If a survey contains measures of political interest or news attentiveness, for example, researchers might also be able to look at changes in attitudes among the more-attuned population, in particular. And if a survey also includes benchmarks, these comparisons might prove helpful in understanding how changes pre- and post-event relate to known parameters.
This post was written by Laura Silver and Patrick Moynihan of Pew Research Center. Laura Silver is senior researcher focusing on global research. Patrick Moynihan is associate director of international research methods. | https://medium.com/pew-research-center-decoded/when-the-unexpected-happens-whats-a-survey-researcher-to-do-8a658e1698ac | ['Laura Silver'] | 2019-11-21 22:33:59.648000+00:00 | ['Polling', 'Statistical Learning', 'Surveys', 'Public Opinion', 'Methodology'] |
SOLID Principles — 1/2 — explained | SOLID are the 5 principles of software design. They were introduced by Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob), in his 2000 paper Design Principles and Design Patterns. For developers, they are a foundation, on top of the 4 Object Oriented Programming (OOP) principles. As a remind, they are Polymorphism, Encapsulation, Inheritance and Abstraction.
SOLID stands for :
Single Responsibility Principle (SRP)
Open-Closed Principle Principle (OCP)
Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP)
Interface segregation Principle (ISP)
Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP)
These 5 principles are meant to be combined together. When applied to code design, so they will make software easier to maintain, extend and re-use, and the code easier to understand. Developers would produce cleaner code.
Reader’s guide
This article may be a bit too long to read, but in Software development, SOLID principles are to be used and applied together as a whole, it makes more sense to have them explained within the same post. To help the reader to better understand them, samples of code will be shown with applications of each of the 5 principles. These samples are part of a codebase as a whole, let’s call it legacy code. From SRP to DIP, we will see that legacy code change continuously, step by step. You may of course skip one or many principles if you do not find them useful, or to gain an overview you need only read the first paragraph of each section.
Single Responsibility Principle — SRP
This principle will help to cut things in smaller pieces to have more focused meaning or purpose of that one part of code. Typically, instead of having one big class that does everything — UserSearchService doing search and display — we want to have smaller classes and smaller methods so each one has its own responsibility and task.
Statement :
A class should have one and only one reason to change. It should do only one thing.
This principle states that one module or class should have one responsibility. It can be summarized with this statement : “Do one thing and do it well”.
Open Close Principle — OCP
This principle will allow us to make sure our code can embrace business changes, while limiting modification to the code. Typically we want to modify code in one place to add or change a functionality, e.g. order by firstname or age.
Statement:
An Object or an entity should be open for extension, but closed for modification.
It states that software entities (classes, modules, functions, …) should be open for extension, but closed for modification. Using polymorphism can help to comply with this, as we can substitute different implementations (behaviours) as subtypes of class/interface referenced in a caller class. Then we can add new behaviour to the existing design of code. Typically, some design patterns, such as strategy, are made compliant to this principle.
Liskov Substitution Principle — LSP
This principle allows us to use abstraction of classes to add more logic, without breaking any existing functionality. For example, we may want to use a level of abstraction for the display functionality, having one class per type of order, so that if we want to be able to display the result in some other order, we just need to add a class that extends the abstract class.
It states as followed:
Let q(x) be a property provable about objects of x of type T. Then q(y) should be provable for objects y of type S where S is a subtype of T.
It states that an object in a program should be replaceable with instances of its subtype without altering the correctness of that program. This is an extension of both Polymorphism and Inheritance principles. Every subclass should be substitutable for their parent class. Inheritance will enable classes to polymorphically substitute for each other. Still the behaviour is not changed. The objects of your subclasses must behave in the same way as the objects of your superclass. In other words, you should be able to use any derived class instead of a parent class and have it behave in the same manner without modification.
To achieve that, we must follow these two rules :
An overridden method of a subclass needs to have the same argument values as the method of the superclass. The overridden method must return the subclass of the value or a subset of the valid return values from the superclass.
Here, the behaviour of your classes is more important than its structure. The compiler normally checks the structure, but it can’t enforce a specific behaviour.
Interface segregation Principle — ISP
This principle addresses a design problem when we use interfaces. Nowadays software is mostly designed with multiple layers and is service oriented, so we are required to expose some API. When exposing APIs, we need to use interfaces. One of the mistakes we often see are big interfaces, then when we need to add an implementation, we have to implement methods that are not required at all. For example, we would throw an exception, such as UnsupportedOperationException, to make sure the client sees it. And that is exactly what we want to avoid. We can split the ResultDisplayer into smaller interfaces so that when we need a ResultOrderByFirstname API, we just need to implement that method only.
Statement:
A client should never be forced to implement an interface that it doesn't use or a client shouldn't be forced to depend on methods it does not use.
It states that no client should be forced to depend on methods it does not use. Don’t create big interface with many methods that a client won’t need, because it will have to implement those methods.
Dependency Inversion Principle — DIP
This last one is the most seen but is often mis-interpreted as the Dependency Injection design pattern. On one hand, it’s very similar and on the other hand, it’s more about the level of detail. We must make sure that the service level (high-level) does not have any dependency on the ordering level (low-level).
Statement:
A high-level module should not depend on low-level module. Both should depend on abstractions. Abstractions should not depend on details, but details should depend on abstractions.
When a class knows explicitly too much about the details of another class, changes to one class may break the other class. That’s what we call tightly coupled. So we must keep these high-level and low-level modules/classes loosely coupled. To do that, we need to make both of them dependent on abstractions. Then we use a well known design pattern called dependency injection.
Conclusion
Now we have a cleaner code, by using one or many of the SOLID principles at each step.
The first principle — SRP — is quite easy to comply with. The second — OCP — is a bit harder, but using polymorphism and inheritance helps. The third principles — LSP — is a lot harder to understand and to satisfy. The fourth principle — ISP — is not so complicated and we must use it when having abstractions so using it along with SRP could be beneficial. The last — DIP — is a familiar and regularly used. Without DIP, all the other principles would not be that powerful. It is important to take away that these principles are to be used together most of the time.
Github Repo: Kata SOLID principles
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Dan MAGIER and Geoffroy VERGNE for reviewing and providing me insights, and James FLYNN to correct my English mistakes. | https://medium.com/@newlight77/solid-principles-1-2-explained-46d31678ba23 | ['Kong To'] | 2020-12-02 21:09:09.382000+00:00 | ['Craftsmanship', 'Software Development', 'Principles', 'Solid', 'Clean Code'] |
The 5 Clustering Algorithms Data Scientists Need to Know | Clustering is a Machine Learning technique that involves the grouping of data points. Given a set of data points, we can use a clustering algorithm to classify each data point into a specific group. In theory, data points that are in the same group should have similar properties and/or features, while data points in different groups should have highly dissimilar properties and/or features. Clustering is a method of unsupervised learning and is a common technique for statistical data analysis used in many fields.
In Data Science, we can use clustering analysis to gain some valuable insights from our data by seeing what groups the data points fall into when we apply a clustering algorithm. Today, we’re going to look at 5 popular clustering algorithms that data scientists need to know and their pros and cons!
K-Means Clustering
K-Means is probably the most well-known clustering algorithm. It’s taught in a lot of introductory data science and machine learning classes. It’s easy to understand and implement in code! Check out the graphic below for an illustration.
K-Means Clustering
To begin, we first select a number of classes/groups to use and randomly initialize their respective center points. To figure out the number of classes to use, it’s good to take a quick look at the data and try to identify any distinct groupings. The center points are vectors of the same length as each data point vector and are the “X’s” in the graphic above. Each data point is classified by computing the distance between that point and each group center, and then classifying the point to be in the group whose center is closest to it. Based on these classified points, we recompute the group center by taking the mean of all the vectors in the group. Repeat these steps for a set number of iterations or until the group centers don’t change much between iterations. You can also opt to randomly initialize the group centers a few times, and then select the run that looks like it provided the best results.
K-Means has the advantage that it’s pretty fast, as all we’re really doing is computing the distances between points and group centers; very few computations! It thus has a linear complexity O(n).
On the other hand, K-Means has a couple of disadvantages. Firstly, you have to select how many groups/classes there are. This isn’t always trivial and ideally with a clustering algorithm we’d want it to figure those out for us because the point of it is to gain some insight from the data. K-means also starts with a random choice of cluster centers and therefore it may yield different clustering results on different runs of the algorithm. Thus, the results may not be repeatable and lack consistency. Other cluster methods are more consistent.
K-Medians is another clustering algorithm related to K-Means, except instead of recomputing the group center points using the mean we use the median vector of the group. This method is less sensitive to outliers (because of using the Median) but is much slower for larger datasets as sorting is required on each iteration when computing the Median vector.
Mean-Shift Clustering
Mean shift clustering is a sliding-window-based algorithm that attempts to find dense areas of data points. It is a centroid-based algorithm meaning that the goal is to locate the center points of each group/class, which works by updating candidates for center points to be the mean of the points within the sliding-window. These candidate windows are then filtered in a post-processing stage to eliminate near-duplicates, forming the final set of center points and their corresponding groups. Check out the graphic below for an illustration.
Mean-Shift Clustering for a single sliding window
To explain mean-shift we will consider a set of points in two-dimensional space like the above illustration. We begin with a circular sliding window centered at a point C (randomly selected) and having radius r as the kernel. Mean shift is a hill-climbing algorithm that involves shifting this kernel iteratively to a higher density region on each step until convergence. At every iteration, the sliding window is shifted towards regions of higher density by shifting the center point to the mean of the points within the window (hence the name). The density within the sliding window is proportional to the number of points inside it. Naturally, by shifting to the mean of the points in the window it will gradually move towards areas of higher point density. We continue shifting the sliding window according to the mean until there is no direction at which a shift can accommodate more points inside the kernel. Check out the graphic above; we keep moving the circle until we no longer are increasing the density (i.e number of points in the window). This process of steps 1 to 3 is done with many sliding windows until all points lie within a window. When multiple sliding windows overlap the window containing the most points is preserved. The data points are then clustered according to the sliding window in which they reside.
An illustration of the entire process from end-to-end with all of the sliding windows is shown below. Each black dot represents the centroid of a sliding window and each gray dot is a data point.
The entire process of Mean-Shift Clustering
In contrast to K-means clustering, there is no need to select the number of clusters as mean-shift automatically discovers this. That’s a massive advantage. The fact that the cluster centers converge towards the points of maximum density is also quite desirable as it is quite intuitive to understand and fits well in a naturally data-driven sense. The drawback is that the selection of the window size/radius “r” can be non-trivial.
Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN)
DBSCAN is a density-based clustered algorithm similar to mean-shift, but with a couple of notable advantages. Check out another fancy graphic below and let’s get started!
DBSCAN Smiley Face Clustering
DBSCAN begins with an arbitrary starting data point that has not been visited. The neighborhood of this point is extracted using a distance epsilon ε (All points which are within the ε distance are neighborhood points). If there are a sufficient number of points (according to minPoints) within this neighborhood then the clustering process starts and the current data point becomes the first point in the new cluster. Otherwise, the point will be labeled as noise (later this noisy point might become the part of the cluster). In both cases that point is marked as “visited”. For this first point in the new cluster, the points within its ε distance neighborhood also become part of the same cluster. This procedure of making all points in the ε neighborhood belong to the same cluster is then repeated for all of the new points that have been just added to the cluster group. This process of steps 2 and 3 is repeated until all points in the cluster are determined i.e all points within the ε neighborhood of the cluster have been visited and labeled. Once we’re done with the current cluster, a new unvisited point is retrieved and processed, leading to the discovery of a further cluster or noise. This process repeats until all points are marked as visited. Since at the end of this all points have been visited, each point will have been marked as either belonging to a cluster or being noise.
DBSCAN poses some great advantages over other clustering algorithms. Firstly, it does not require a pe-set number of clusters at all. It also identifies outliers as noises, unlike mean-shift which simply throws them into a cluster even if the data point is very different. Additionally, it can find arbitrarily sized and arbitrarily shaped clusters quite well.
The main drawback of DBSCAN is that it doesn’t perform as well as others when the clusters are of varying density. This is because the setting of the distance threshold ε and minPoints for identifying the neighborhood points will vary from cluster to cluster when the density varies. This drawback also occurs with very high-dimensional data since again the distance threshold ε becomes challenging to estimate.
Expectation–Maximization (EM) Clustering using Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM)
One of the major drawbacks of K-Means is its naive use of the mean value for the cluster center. We can see why this isn’t the best way of doing things by looking at the image below. On the left-hand side, it looks quite obvious to the human eye that there are two circular clusters with different radius’ centered at the same mean. K-Means can’t handle this because the mean values of the clusters are very close together. K-Means also fails in cases where the clusters are not circular, again as a result of using the mean as cluster center.
Two failure cases for K-Means
Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) give us more flexibility than K-Means. With GMMs we assume that the data points are Gaussian distributed; this is a less restrictive assumption than saying they are circular by using the mean. That way, we have two parameters to describe the shape of the clusters: the mean and the standard deviation! Taking an example in two dimensions, this means that the clusters can take any kind of elliptical shape (since we have a standard deviation in both the x and y directions). Thus, each Gaussian distribution is assigned to a single cluster.
To find the parameters of the Gaussian for each cluster (e.g the mean and standard deviation), we will use an optimization algorithm called Expectation–Maximization (EM). Take a look at the graphic below as an illustration of the Gaussians being fitted to the clusters. Then we can proceed with the process of Expectation–Maximization clustering using GMMs.
EM Clustering using GMMs
We begin by selecting the number of clusters (like K-Means does) and randomly initializing the Gaussian distribution parameters for each cluster. One can try to provide a good guesstimate for the initial parameters by taking a quick look at the data too. Though note, as can be seen in the graphic above, this isn’t 100% necessary as the Gaussians start our as very poor but are quickly optimized. Given these Gaussian distributions for each cluster, compute the probability that each data point belongs to a particular cluster. The closer a point is to the Gaussian’s center, the more likely it belongs to that cluster. This should make intuitive sense since with a Gaussian distribution we are assuming that most of the data lies closer to the center of the cluster. Based on these probabilities, we compute a new set of parameters for the Gaussian distributions such that we maximize the probabilities of data points within the clusters. We compute these new parameters using a weighted sum of the data point positions, where the weights are the probabilities of the data point belonging in that particular cluster. To explain this visually we can take a look at the graphic above, in particular the yellow cluster as an example. The distribution starts off randomly on the first iteration, but we can see that most of the yellow points are to the right of that distribution. When we compute a sum weighted by the probabilities, even though there are some points near the center, most of them are on the right. Thus naturally the distribution’s mean is shifted closer to those set of points. We can also see that most of the points are “top-right to bottom-left”. Therefore the standard deviation changes to create an ellipse that is more fitted to these points, to maximize the sum weighted by the probabilities. Steps 2 and 3 are repeated iteratively until convergence, where the distributions don’t change much from iteration to iteration.
There are 2 key advantages to using GMMs. Firstly GMMs are a lot more flexible in terms of cluster covariance than K-Means; due to the standard deviation parameter, the clusters can take on any ellipse shape, rather than being restricted to circles. K-Means is actually a special case of GMM in which each cluster’s covariance along all dimensions approaches 0. Secondly, since GMMs use probabilities, they can have multiple clusters per data point. So if a data point is in the middle of two overlapping clusters, we can simply define its class by saying it belongs X-percent to class 1 and Y-percent to class 2. I.e GMMs support mixed membership.
Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering
Hierarchical clustering algorithms fall into 2 categories: top-down or bottom-up. Bottom-up algorithms treat each data point as a single cluster at the outset and then successively merge (or agglomerate) pairs of clusters until all clusters have been merged into a single cluster that contains all data points. Bottom-up hierarchical clustering is therefore called hierarchical agglomerative clustering or HAC. This hierarchy of clusters is represented as a tree (or dendrogram). The root of the tree is the unique cluster that gathers all the samples, the leaves being the clusters with only one sample. Check out the graphic below for an illustration before moving on to the algorithm steps
Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering
We begin by treating each data point as a single cluster i.e if there are X data points in our dataset then we have X clusters. We then select a distance metric that measures the distance between two clusters. As an example, we will use average linkage which defines the distance between two clusters to be the average distance between data points in the first cluster and data points in the second cluster. On each iteration, we combine two clusters into one. The two clusters to be combined are selected as those with the smallest average linkage. I.e according to our selected distance metric, these two clusters have the smallest distance between each other and therefore are the most similar and should be combined. Step 2 is repeated until we reach the root of the tree i.e we only have one cluster which contains all data points. In this way we can select how many clusters we want in the end, simply by choosing when to stop combining the clusters i.e when we stop building the tree!
Hierarchical clustering does not require us to specify the number of clusters and we can even select which number of clusters looks best since we are building a tree. Additionally, the algorithm is not sensitive to the choice of distance metric; all of them tend to work equally well whereas with other clustering algorithms, the choice of distance metric is critical. A particularly good use case of hierarchical clustering methods is when the underlying data has a hierarchical structure and you want to recover the hierarchy; other clustering algorithms can’t do this. These advantages of hierarchical clustering come at the cost of lower efficiency, as it has a time complexity of O(n³), unlike the linear complexity of K-Means and GMM. | https://towardsdatascience.com/the-5-clustering-algorithms-data-scientists-need-to-know-a36d136ef68 | ['George Seif'] | 2020-12-13 19:23:17.239000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Clustering', 'Data Science', 'Algorithms', 'Towards Data Science'] |
Bad to the “Bone?” | Introduction
Ah, the academic conference! In the good old, pre-COVID-19 days, such meetings were typically something akin to “geeks gone wild” (trust me, I’ve been to more than my share!). Before all the “fun” that 2020 ushered in, the academic conference did provide a forum where professors and researchers could gather yes to exchange their latest findings, but also have a few days away from their classrooms and labs and either kick back with a few alcoholic beverages to network with their colleagues and maybe even take the family on a trip to Orlando or Las Vegas (or both)— hopefully on their university’s dime at a fancy resort!
However today, just like almost every non-life saving meeting of two or more people, these conferences have almost all gone virtual — or at least extremely hybrid! And yes, that means while there’s no need to travel and no need to even wear pants for your presentation, academic conferences have to deal with the same tech issues that accompany every virtual meeting we attend these days, with attendees routinely having connectivity issues and presenters not quite knowing how their message is getting across to those listening — well likely multitasking — to their presentation.
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
Now unless your academic conference has a presentation on a new treatment for the coronavirus, it is unlikely that your group will make much news these days. However, the most recent annual conference of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) did make the news and yes, became something of a social media sensation in the process. No, there wasn’t a discovery of a new giant dinosaur announced. No, there wasn’t a finding that our dino ancestors weren’t wiped out by an asteroid. Rather, what would otherwise have been a little noted online gathering of paleontologists garnered quite a bit of media attention for the way a tech device that has become rather routinely employed for online meetings — a content filter — impacted the conference. And while yes, while the situation does have elements that make one chuckle, it also calls attention to issues that can arise when content filtering gets in the way of actual, needed conversations online and how all organizations — from businesses to educational institutions — need to be aware of how devices meant to filter out possibly objectionable content can get in the way of enabling online meeting participants to communicate effectively today.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
The “Naughty Words” of Paleontology
Now for all of us who have delivered presentations, taught classes or led meetings online — both pre- and post-pandemic, we all know that many times, no matter who the audience is composed of, you simply don’t get true feedback from just those who ask verbal questions. Rather, many participants in such meetings prefer to ask their questions in writing to you, whether in real time if a chat function is available or at the end of a presentation. So, this written feedback is invaluable to the presenter, as it enables he or she to interact with audience members to be able to clarify any misunderstandings and/or to raise any issues with the presenter — and likely in any large group, any question/concern/suggestion raised by one attendee will likely represent an issue that others have as well. So what happens if the written feedback has to go through a filter and that filter is waaaaaaay too strong for the occasion? Of course, communication problems — and yes some hilarity about the perils of modern technology — will ensue!
Photo by Viktor Talashuk on Unsplash
This very thing happened in early October 2020, when the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology was not held in Cincinnati as planned, but rather, was conducted as a virtual conference. The online meeting platform for the SVP conference was provided by Convey Services, a Roswell, Georgia based firm that provides what is yes, a very needed service — what they term “cloud conventions.” But even as the first presentations for the conference were being delivered, participants noticed an issue with the meeting platform. That was because, as you can see below in a Reddit post from Stephanie Drumheller, a paleontologist at the University of Tennessee and an SVP member and conference participant, the meeting platform came with “a pre-packaged naughty-word-filter.”
The filter had the unintended consequence of filtering out words that might have been questionable in some contexts, but that were essential when it comes to discussing paleontology research — including “bone” (kind of key when you are talking about fossils!). And as you can see in Dr. Drumheller’s Reddit post above, her example was a participant having to change the name of an actual place in order to beat the filtering algorithm — altering a reference to “Hell Creek” to “Heck Creek.” As the presentations were ongoing and more questions and comments were typed in by virtual attendees watching them, more words were discovered to be banned by the filter, leading to some interesting situations — and yes, social media posts by SVP participants. These included “sex”…
…”publis”…
… and “stream.”
Thomas R. Holtz Jr., a paleontologist at the University of Maryland, created a spreadsheet of banned words reported by conference attendees so that meeting organizers could keep up to date on the issue…
…and as of the end of the conference, the list had grown to include the following words:
Table 1: The “Banned” Word List
Hell
bone
ass
Fuca
jerk
knob
pubis
pubic
pubes
sexual
stroke
stream
Wang
Dyke
sex
erection
ball
asses
iffy
crack
lies
enlargement
Fuck
damn
Beaver
enterococcus
flange
dinosaur
penetrate
lie
crap
Source: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19ok1-mr4LQnSlR7RAsqfsjynN0x815QS3YMatfnPpyA/edit#gid=0
And yes, you read that right, as even “dinosaur” was on the pre-packaged list of banned words!
Now certainly, the “naughty words” list drew many chuckles and funny comments online…
…and yes, the conference organizers were able to work with Convey Services to quickly update their software to allow for the paleontologists to actually discuss how, where, when and what type of dinosaur bone they found in their presentations — so problem solved.
But correcting the filtering algorithm is by no means the end of this story. That is because the “naughty words” experience generated far, far more publicity for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Conference could ever have expected — or dare I say even wanted. People discovered the conference precisely because of the banned words controversy…
… and major media sources covered the conference precisely because of it…
Such coverage produced articles with chuckle-worthy headlines including:
However, what was not funny about the situation was an issue that arose over the fact that the platform banned the use of “wang.” This was first pointed out to conference organizers by Jack Tseng, a Vertebrate Paleontologist and Functional Morphologist at the University of California. As you can see in his tweet below, he saw a cultural issue in the banning of this particular word, in that it was a common surname of many Chinese researchers in the field.
As such, this caused an even higher even level issue for conference organizers — even though “wang” — like the other words — was corrected in the filter. However, Dr. Tseng was quoted in the Vice article stating that:
“At first, when fellow conference attendees noted on Twitter that ‘Hell’ and ‘bone’ were banned, I was very amused by it.”I figured the filter was simply over-tuned to prevent many slang words used by schoolchildren from being shown in a professional meeting. I became disturbed when I saw that the crowd-sourced list of banned words included ‘Wang.’ I personally know of several vertebrate paleontologists by that surname. It didn’t seem right, so I typed in other synonymous slangs into the Q&A platform and realized the bias that I tweeted about.”
Photo by Emiliano Vittoriosi on Unsplash
Analysis
Of course in the end, the nature of the story (and the fact that it made folks — for the most part — laugh, which is indeed needed today) generated even more buzz for the conference in the media — and social media — culture we live in today. So while the word filter certainly created a problem — and yes an issue that was rather quickly fixable (even if it had to be done on a word-by-word, after the fact basis) by conference organizers and their platform provider, it could just be considered another one of a long list of stories that just attests to the difficulties — and pitfalls — of doing things online and through virtual means today that until the coronavirus outbreak were largely done in person, including the academic conference.
Photo by Headway on Unsplash
However, as more and more of our professional, business, and educational activities have shifted online since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the “naughty words” incident with the recent Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference does highlight issues that managers and administrators do need to have on their radar today. This is because as this story shows, there is a balance to be struck between just how much oversight and protection one can — and should — offer in the online environment. Indeed, devices such as content filtering always provide a tradeoff between the need to ensure civil and polite behavior among participants and the desire to have productive conversations. And yes, there are both practical — and legal — reasons for organizations to want to have filtering in place to ensure that there is nothing offensive taking place. However, at the same time, as this incident shows, the filtering can indeed stifle conversations. And when the matters being discussed do involve language where the terms being used can have multiple meanings — such as “bone” and “sex,” there can be a real complexity to the dialogue. One can think of many other fields — perhaps even your own — where similar conflicts can, and perhaps even are, occurring between content filtering and actual productive conversations due to the homographs (words spelled the same but with multiple meanings) that are omnipresent in the English language.
And so yes, the paleontology case shows just how delicate a balance there is between stifling conversation and protecting civility in the modern age, and how difficult this balance is to achieve in the online environment. This story shows just how important it is for managers, administrators, and yes, software developers and service providers as well, today to be responsive and flexible in just how content filtering is set up and executed in practice in real-life encounters in virtual meetings, classrooms, and yes, conferences. It also shows how there is a need for both constant oversight in such matters, and yes, the willingness and capability to learn from what are not perhaps “mistakes” such as what happened with the SVP conference as much as they are the challenges of modern life and technology.
Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen on Unsplash
And yes, there will be more stories like this to come, especially as our shift to using virtual tools like “cloud conferencing” is only likely to grow in the coming years — pandemic or not. The challenge is to be aware, to be flexible, and yes, to be understanding. But these tools are unfortunately necessary — as one actual conference attendee reminded people in the Vice article:
“‘I would hope that actual swears or slurs would be censored, since paleontology is not a field that’s immune to racist/sexist jerks,’ noted Brigid Christison, a masters’ student in biology at Carleton University.”
The important thing for all of us to remember today is that we will need patience, understanding, good communications, and yes, operational flexibility as we all work through this grand experiment in shifting much of what we have done formerly in-person to virtual environments. And yes, watch out for those homographs!
About David Wyld
David Wyld ([email protected]) is a Professor of Strategic Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, publisher, executive educator, and experienced expert witness.
Social Media Links to David Wyld: | https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/bad-to-the-bone-2e6ae1ea9f3e | ['David Wyld'] | 2020-10-18 18:14:39.546000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Tech', 'Business', 'Online', 'Conference'] |
Contributing to Trans Visibility as a Magic Judge | Art: Mardu Runemark | Viktor Titov
I’m going to start off by telling everyone who is reading this article from a Magic-related space that I promise you’re not going to be bored by me just blasting a ton of queer theory at you, so please don’t close the page. Likewise, if you’re seeing this from a queer space, I’m not just going to talk about nerdy bullshit for five pages, so please sit tight. You’ll see where I’m going with this. With that being said:
Yes, this is a Magic blog, but today I’m talking about International Transgender Day of Visibility.
Many Magic players and judges ask me why I think it’s important for the Magic community to know that I’m transgender. After all, the people who I interact with in this space are generally pretty accepting and chill, and, as all of them say, “it shouldn’t matter”. But it does. To me, I feel that, as a Magic judge, I’m in a unique position to increase visibility in a way that matters.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that before I got really into Magic, I spent a lot of time buried in queer activism. I gave speeches and was on panels at rallies, university organizations, random meetings and events, etc. Rather than the empty moral platitudes and virtue signaling, I had a very clear message for the people in the audience. (“Trans women are women! That’s it we’re done here! I’ll collect my check now please”) My primary thesis was, and always has been, that the best road to trans acceptance is through visibility: for people to actually know and interact with trans people. Most people, at least in my local area of Nowhere in the heart of Flyover State, only interact with trans people within contexts where you would expect to see trans people- mainly activism and rallies. But if more and more people interacted with us outside that context, then the fear-mongering and scare tactics, that so many people love to use against us, are less effective.
I have a working theory that the majority of people in America have not had close interactions with a trans person. You figure that there’s about 700,000 trans people in America, and there’s 330 million Americans, and the sociologists will tell you that each person can only have close relationships with about 150 people, and queer people tend to only hang out in groups- well, the math just doesn’t work out. But if more people knew queer and trans people, their politics would definitely change. The issue of bathroom access is now less “a scary dude is invading the womens’ restroom” and more “I had a beer with a trans person the other day and they were pretty cool.” … Trans and queer people tend to congregate. And it makes sense, right? It’s safe to hang out in groups and only go to places that you know will be friendly. My friends keep lists and stats of each trans person murdered in a hate crime. I can’t do it; it makes the world seem unsafe and scary. That’s why going out of your way to avoid this is brave. Sure I have my trans friends, but I also have my cisgender straight white friends with their pickup trucks and shotguns. And they might surprise you. But we can’t get there as a community unless we put ourselves out there. -Excerpt from my speech template, circa October 2018
Obviously, there are plenty of trans people in Magic who have more visibility than me- in clout, name recognition, twitter followers, whatever you want to call it. And there are plenty of trans Wizards, since Wizards is a Seattle-based company so of course there are queer people working there. But Autumn Burchett, Emma Handy, Alli Steele (Medwin), Loreley Weisel, and others are celebrities. People interact with celebrities in a very different way, and I strive very hard to not become a celebrity. Having big-name trans folks and Magic cards depicting trans characters, like Alesha, is fundamentally different from seeing trans people around you at events going through the same stuff as everyone else in the room.
To be clear, it’s not their fault; it’s very difficult to approach a Magic celebrity at a paper event and have a lengthy conversation with them. And I’m sure they’d much rather worry about their upcoming match than talk to a random person. After all, playing Magic takes a lot of energy, and it’s psychologically draining.
The point isn’t to have trans people that you can see on TV (or in this case, on Twitch). You open up Autumn’s stream, you’re actively expecting to see a trans person. You may even be tuning into their stream specifically to see a trans person play Magic.
But as a judge, talking to players is your job. I make a point of inviting players to have a chat with me whenever I’m on the floor and not busy. I engage actively in the sub-community of Legacy and Vintage players, and I’d like to think I’m more known as a “Legacy judge” than as a “trans judge”. The goal is to be on the list of “close relationships”, as I mentioned in my speech excerpt, for as many people as possible.
You can most definitely exact meaningful change this way. I know several local players whose opinions of transgender people have changed because of knowing me. I watched someone, who used to share anti-trans rhetoric on facebook constantly, become someone who defends trans people from his conservative friends. I distinctly remember the line “There’s a trans person in my local Magic scene who is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met”, which warms my heart so much. Sure, he might still have a Blue Lives Matter profile picture where he’s holding an AK-47, but one battle at a time, right?
And not only does this help with trans acceptance on a broader scale, it also helps trans people come out the closet. There’s a very common stereotype that a lot of trans women or transfeminine people play Magic. And, according to this totally-scientific Twitter poll, the vast majority of trans women in Magic start playing Magic before they realize they’re trans.
This could be caused by a variety of different factors, but it should be pretty obvious that if there are more people who are like them in this space, and if they’re surrounded by people who they can talk to and who have been through what they’re going through, it helps them figure out who they are and helps them become their true selves.
People passing on the street expect to see trans people [at rallies]. We need to put forth an effort to be more visible in our daily lives. It’s important to not be someone’s token “trans friend” but to be their friend who happens to be trans. For many of you, I’m just asking you to keep existing. And that’s great. But for the rest of my trans brothers and sisters, this might mean going to that one place that looked cool but you don’t know if they’ll be accepting. And for the allies in the audience, that might mean being somebody’s “plus 1”. Be the change you want to see.
So yes, it’s very important to me that Magic players know I’m trans. I mostly stopped doing activism because I felt that my message wasn’t coming across, though a lot of people seemed to agree with it on principle. And I felt that it would be unfair for me to ask other people to do things that I wasn’t willing to do myself.
Of course, you don’t have to be a judge to contribute to this, but I’m not obligating anybody to take these steps. If you’re not comfortable going to your local store or to a large Magic event (after the quarantine is lifted, of course) because you’re not comfortable with yourself and you want to just sit and home and jam Arena or play EDH with friends, that’s fine. But for those of us who have the headspace to do these things, I think it’s important to be conscious about the actions we take and try to change hearts and minds in a meaningful way. I think that tournament organizers putting queer judges in leadership positions is a form of allyship. I think think that being a judge who does my best to make a great of an experience as possible has an added benefit if I’m visible and public about my identity. And I think that the work that we do is important, not just for the community that we’re in, but for society at large. | https://elaine-cao-93.medium.com/contributing-to-trans-visibility-as-a-magic-judge-ccd1a1a8e2a8 | ['Elaine Cao'] | 2020-03-31 06:25:29.183000+00:00 | ['Magic The Gathering', 'Transgender', 'Tdov'] |
How I Got Guys to Apologize for Their Unsolicited Dick Pics | How I Got Guys to Apologize for Their Unsolicited Dick Pics
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Iwas at the beach, drifting in a wide pink hammock when I received a text message. It was from him. A picture. His dick. His name is N. He’s older than me by a couple of years. I met him almost a year ago, and since then, we’ve been fuckbodies — Uh, I hate that word.
Twice a month, we meet at his place for you-know-what. We have some small talk, previous to fucking because otherwise, it would be like admitting we are a couple of horny mammals that want to throw on top of each other. And of obviously, we are not like that.
N. has a weird and crooked logic that justifies him being unkind to me. He believes being uncaring will prevent me from getting a crush on him. And although it has worked, it has also hurt me.
Days before the dick pic, he texted saying I was such a nice girl and such blablabla, which sent me throwing up to the sea because, although it was what I had been longing to hear, or in this case, read, I still felt there was something not quite honest deep down.
I replied naively: “You are so nice as well” and more blablabla. I felt appreciated, at least from afar. But then, silence. Two blue checks next to my words.
And then the picture. | https://medium.com/some-fears/how-i-got-guys-to-apologize-for-their-unsolicited-dick-pics-582c681425fd | ['Mia Fornes'] | 2020-12-23 20:25:05.945000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Relationships', 'Tinder', 'Dating', 'Men'] |
The Power of Messaging in the Fight Against Climate Change | The Power of Messaging in the Fight Against Climate Change
Rhetoric colors so much of the public perception around the issue.
This year is well-poised to be the hottest on record, and as the impacts of climate change are starting to get more felt, the anxiety setting in from its grave consequences is only getting stronger. It doesn’t matter where you live, what your background is, or what level of economic wherewithal your region has — the battle we’re waging against climate change is a global one, and it’s by recognizing the necessity of all to band together and fight it that we’re aught to make the most profound impact.
What’s weird about the recent narrative of imminent ecological collapse is that the scientific community has been beating its drums for quite some time, but were ignored by those who hold power under the premise that the urgency of their predictions demands an overhaul of our global economy that most were not yet ready to embrace. Under crushing levels of wealth inequality, those who built their fortunes on the mindless exploitation of Earth’s hidden treasures would have to yield their advantage for a more forward-looking approach — the issue is as with most reform efforts, short-term gain is prioritized above prosperity for the long haul. As such, unless there’s mass mobilization to see these issues get taken care of, the prospects of that ever changing remain very slim.
Climate change’s main defining trait is that as profound as its impact is going to be for the globe, the absence of any immediately-felt boons from pursuing a tactful policy in response presents a challenge both for the electorate whose job is to drive that momentum forward, and the climate activism community whose fuel is even more unsustainable than current modes of energy production. Simply put, because the movement’s strides in shifting the discourse can be best described as a stalemate, churn is a real issue within its premises.
The need for a swift response to climate change cannot be understated.
Scientists don’t fare that much better either — climate and energy Vox reporter David Roberts openly expressed his discontent with the scientific community’s lack of an effective rhetoric, one that is often built on false hope rather than accepting a rough, but nonetheless sobering reality of what’s to come. “It is not the job of those of us in the business of observation and analysis to make the public feel or do things. That’s what activists do. We owe the public our best judgment of the situation, even if it might make them sad,” Roberts says. “It looks like we have already locked in levels of climate change that scientists predict will be devastating. I don’t like it, I don’t “accept” it, but I see it, and I reject the notion that I should be silent about it for PR purposes.”
It appears as though the main issue with mobilizing around climate change is one of badly-calibrated expectations — the scientific community seems to have adopted a script of reserved optimism which they think is best, and activists on the other hand have embodied eco-anxiety so well, that it became their fiercest foe.
The remedy for this — at least for someone whose main job is to convince readers of their theses on the regular — is to adopt which ails their souls the least. If fear becomes a handicap in what is otherwise a laudable endeavor, it’s best to substitute it for optimism every now and then — conversely, if you can only muster speaking about climate catastrophe in sugar-coated and fluffy terms, it’s better to emphasize the urgency of your work when the situation demands it. Doing so will allow enough social capital to coalesce around climate change as an issue, hopefully driving change forward as governments once-reluctant to fight it finally cave.
To that end, not only do electorates around the world have to vote out anyone who denies the threat of climate change, but the United States with its agenda-setting power has to step in and lead by example on the global stage. The Trump administration has done everything in its power to undermine environmental policy, and after the drop-out of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee from the presidential race — who ran on climate as the key issue — the only candidate remaining with a strong vision for climate policy is Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders remains the candidate of choice for climate policy.
As the field for Democratic presidential hopefuls starts to clear, it’s become more apparent than ever that rallying behind someone who understands the intersection of climate change with every facet of modern life has to bring about the most fruitful outcome. Sanders gets this better than most — he sees climate change as another vector of inequality, wherein the rich will try to distance themselves as far away as possible from calamity, leaving the rest of us to put down the fires they helped start, both figurative and literal. With the advent of industry, exploitation has merely migrated from plots of lands to big factories — it isn’t until the class-repressive measures of the current status quo are dismantled, that we’ll ever stand a chance of fending off further disaster.
While the rift between poor and rich remains as wide, the incentives to abandon an exploitative mindset, and thus push for climate policy forward, are likely to remain unappealing. In the meantime, our current tools will have to do, and their most powerful remains Democracy. Yes, it is under constant assault, and the far-right has clearly moved itself on the side of climate denialism, but soon enough and at some point, the stars will have to align for something to happen — whether it’s to our peril or benefit, is up to us.
The era of diffusing responsibility is gone — individuals can only do so much on their own, before their efforts are virtually nullified by lackluster climate policy. If climate change is to be addressed, initiative won’t have to only come from members of society to stomach short-term pain for long-term gain, but also from governments who seem to lack all impetus to move on this problem with sharper focus. Australia’s natural ecosystem is in ruins, the Amazon is heading towards collapse, coral reefs will shortly be a thing of the past, ocean acidification is a huge problem, and the only recourse to them all will have to be an effort firstmost driven by knowledge, motivated by the will to save as much of this beautiful planet for our successors as possible. | https://medium.com/swlh/climate-change-bernie-sanders-policy-science-activism-rhetoric-a6e1fb0321ef | ['A. Khaled'] | 2020-02-20 14:39:26.985000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Climate Change', 'Bernie Sanders', 'Science', 'Culture'] |
Service workers and caching strategies explained | Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash
This article will cover other PWAs important topics: service workers (SW) and caching strategies that we can implement to further leverage the full potential of PWAs.
Excited? Let’s start!
What is a service worker?
A SW is a kind of web worker…or, with other words, a service worker is simply a javascript file acting as a proxy between our web application and the network. It can intercept http requests and serve the responses from the network or from a local cache, according to which caching strategy we implemented (more details later).
Let’s list some SW characteristics:
Secure
Service workers will function only on HTTPs connection.
This is a safe decision, because otherwise we would easily expose our application to man-in-the-middle attacks. Let's just imagine what might happen if anybody could substitute our SW with a manipulated one...scary, isn't it?
On the other side, localhost is considered secure, allowing to test the application before deploying it.
If we work with Angular though, we cannot use the ng serve command to build and serve our application locally, as it does not work with service workers. In this case we have to use an HTTP Server of our choice, for example http-server package or the Web Server Chrome extension.
No direct DOM interaction
Service workers cannot access the DOM directly. They can, however, communicate with the pages under their scope through the postMessage interface. Those pages can then manipulate the DOM allowing an indirect access.
Non blocking
SW runs on an independent thread, separate from the one used by our application. From this the definition “non blocking”.
Indeed we do not want that heavy load operations or crashes would affect in any way the performance of our web app.
The capability of running in the background is also the reason why we can deliver push notifications to our users even if the browser and our application are closed. We just need to successfully register the service worker a first time on the user’s side.
Life cycle
if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) {
navigator.serviceWorker.register('/serviceWorker.js')
.then(function(registration) {
// The registration was successful
})
.catch(function(err) {
// The registration failed
});
}
As we saw previously, not all browsers support SW. Therefore we first need to check whether the service worker API is available before attempting to register the SW when the user accesses our app and the page is loaded.
The schema above describes the different lifecycle steps of a service worker.
During the registration phase if an error occur or the SW file cannot be fetched, the whole operation is canceled.
The register method will be newly triggered when the user loads the page again. The browser is able to identify whether the SW is already installed or not and call the method accordingly.
If you open the DevTools now (F12 — in case you use Chrome), access the Application tab and click on the service worker section, you will find the DEV SW registered in our browser:
During the install step, pre-fecth operations are typically executed, whose goal is to ensure target assets are downloaded and made already available in the cache for the SW. This step happens only at the beginning of a SW lifetime or when a new version is delivered.
Once registered, a SW does not remain constantly active. In fact the browser can unpredictably terminate it and reactivate it again when an event needs to be triggered. That’s the reason why, if we need to persist a state used within the service worker (I do not mean caching assets or API requests here), we should better use IndexeDB, or a similar solution.
Unregister a service worker
To remove a SW, you can click on the Unregister link inside the developer tools of the browser.
Or it is also possible programmatically:
navigator.serviceWorker.getRegistration()
.then(function(registration) {
if(registration){
registration.unregister()
.then(
function(success) {
// if success = true, unregister was successful
});
}
});
Note: unregistering a SW will not free its cache. For this we have to click the “Clear storage” button in the Application panel of the developer tools (Chrome):
Via code we can use caches.delete() :
if ('caches' in window) {
caches.keys()
.then(function(keyList) {
return Promise.all(keyList.map(function(key) {
return caches.delete(key);
}));
})
}
The caches.keys() method returns the keys of the CacheStorage , an interface representing the storage for the Cache objects that can be accessed by the service worker.
Caching strategies
There are several different caching strategies we can adopt to improve performances.
If a data request is cached, we can deliver it without the need to access the network at all. This brings different advantages: on one side the response will be much faster, and on the other side we can provide the data even when the client is offline, since we have it already available locally.
Before starting though, we need to understand that we need to instruct the SW on how to cache data requests, since this isn’t done by default.
General caching strategies
Below some common caching strategies, not bound to any framework.
Cache only
Diagrams source: Google web fundamentals guide
self.addEventListener('fetch', function(event) {
event.respondWith(caches.match(event.request));
// If the requested data isn't in the cache, the response
// will look like a connection error
});
Probably the simplest one. The SW expects to find the requested assets already here. This strategy can be used for the static resources that constitute our “app shell”. Usually those are fetched while the SW is installing, in order to be available in the cache after this phase.
Network only
self.addEventListener('fetch', function(event) {
// We can put some custom logic here, otherwise
// the request will follow the default browser behaviour
});
This strategy is exactly the opposite of the previous one: we always access the network, without even querying the cache. This is best suited for logs or anything we do not need to make it available offline.
Stale while revalidate
self.addEventListener('fetch', function(event) {
event.respondWith(
caches.open('www.my-web-app.com')
.then(function(cache) {
return cache.match(event.request)
.then(function(response) {
var fetchPromise = fetch(event.request).then(function(networkResponse) {
cache.put(event.request, networkResponse.clone());
return networkResponse;
})
// response contains cached data, if available
return response || fetchPromise;
})
})
);
});
Similarly to the cache only strategy, the goal is to ensure a fast responses by delivering the data from the cache.
However, while the client request is served, a separate request is triggered to the server to fetch a newer version, if available, and store it into the cache. This way, while we guarantee fast data delivery on one side, we also update the cached data on the other, so next requests will receive a more actual version.
Angular caching strategies
Angular provides only two kind of caching strategy:
Performance (default)
Here the goal is to optimise the response time. If a resource is available in the cache, this version is delivered. Otherwise a network request is executed to fetch and then cache it.
This strategy is adapt for resources that do not change often, like the user profile images. In these cases we want to provide the fastest response to the user without worries to deliver potentially obsolete data.
Freshness
When it is required to deliver the latest data from the network. We can specify a timeout after which the request falls back to the cache and tries to deliver the required data from there.
A typical use of this strategy is when we need to deliver the mostly up to date information that changes frequently. We can think to an application dealing with stock prices or blog articles written.
I won’t go too much in detail for the Angular strategies since we will see them more in detail in the next post, where we will also write some code to implement both of them.
How much data can we store?
The amount available is not the same in any context, but it differs for each browser according to the device and storage conditions.
Chrome and Opera base the available storage per origin (our site domain). To verify the remaining space we can use the Quota Management API :
navigator.storageQuota.queryInfo("temporary")
.then(function(info) {
console.log(info.quota);
// It gives us the quota in bytes
console.log(info.usage);
// It gives us the used data in bytes
});
Some browsers starts prompting the users whether they agree in continuing storing further data when specific thresholds are reached.
Firefox after 50MB of data stored
Safari mobile can use only 50MB max
Safari desktop does not have storage limits, but starts requesting for confirms after 5MB stored.
These initial posts focused on the theoretical fundaments of PWAs.
Next article will present us tools to create PWAs.
Moreover we will create a demo with Angular and I will guide you step by step to make it a complete progressive web app. You can then use it as starting point for your next project!
Read more articles about PWAs | https://medium.com/swlh/service-workers-and-caching-strategies-explained-5abbaa2583ca | ['Francesco Leardini'] | 2019-08-06 09:33:29.997000+00:00 | ['Angular', 'Web Development', 'JavaScript', 'Performance', 'Pwa'] |
Why Earl Didn’t Have to Die and Other Hard Truths about Perpetuating Oppression & Disempowerment | Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Some Background
I’m a Dixie Chicks fan for life. I loved the Dixie Chicks before I even liked country music. They embodied so much of what I stood for — they even had short blonde spikey hair like I did when I first encountered them. I admire them because they push the envelope socially and politically and don’t seem to care about what anyone thinks. I can think of very little that draws me to a person, place or group more than the ability and willingness to use creative practice as a means of putting a message out into the world that’s bigger than they are — whether I agree with the message or not. I self-identify as a recovering critical theorist. This means that I’ve spent too many hours of my life slicing, dicing and critiquing the so-called political messages and ramifications of all kinds of media.
I’m re-entering my outward political life after a several-year hiatus completing a doctoral dissertation, creating an institute and, most importantly, moving through an inward political revolution — the one that every effective political revolutionary embarks upon and, ultimately perhaps, the only one that really matters. While part of me wants to release my political training altogether, I couldn’t if I tried because I come out of the womb with my fist raised. Even if I could, in this moment of great opportunity for change, it would be irresponsible to throw away my most important and expensive skills because I just didn’t feel like transforming myself, yet again. Though articulated in different ways throughout my life, the only mission I’ve ever had, be it ever so humble, is the complete liberation of the planet. With a mission like that, there are no excuses at all, especially “not feeling like it”.
I believe in being more curious than critical. And yet, my training and extensive practice in critical theorizing offers me a unique creative process that, when executed properly, has the potential to catalyze deep personal and cultural reflection, to offer a route into creative practice, to facilitate deep transformation for those engaged in the process and to connect people from diverse communities, backgrounds and geographies that might not otherwise find themselves in a power balance. There’s a difference between critiquing and being critical. Being critical means always finding the negative, always looking for the imbalance. A critique is an assessment — good and bad, right and wrong, all possibilities laid out on the table. It’s the same as the fearless moral inventory that is familiar to anyone who’s worked through the 12 steps.
So even though my own perspective has, in some ways, taken a 180-degree turn towards being appreciative, 180 degree turns happen on straight lines. So I see this as an axis, a continuum. I am no longer critical, but I value deeply how the process of critique can catalyze and facilitate the inner political revolution — aka the healing journey, the hero’s journey, the awakening, moving into consciousness, getting woke, etc. I am just as reflective as always, but now I have chosen to turn my reflection inward. That is, I engage in the same method, but I connect constantly my observations of the outside world to what is happening with my inside world. You see, the liberation of the world requires the complete balance of power — the elimination of the oppressor and the oppressed. Equally, if not more importantly, the idea that there is always an oppressor and an oppressed, that the world is divided into the haves and the have nots, that the world is divided into the colonized and the colonizers must die. The inconvenient truth about this most radical idea is that it means that my capacity for healing on the outside is proportionate only to what I am willing to heal and take responsibility for inside of myself.
On that note, I return to the Dixie Chicks and a reflection that I imagine might resonate with a few people — especially those who are gung-ho about social justice, equity, feminism and gender equality. And it starts with “Goodbye Earl”. To be clear — I use creative practices for my own healing and my coaching practice clients every day. It is our natural inclination as beings on this planet to use our creativity to transform matter and energy into new matter and energy. So your favorite remix is someone’s evolutionary obligation. I have plenty of my own songs and poems that could be included on a compilation right next to “Goodbye Earl” and I will still sing it with gusto anytime it comes on so this article is not about the song, but about my reaction to the song and how it illuminates a relationship to the personal healing journey and broader ideas and work surrounding feminism and gender equity.
Why Earl Didn’t Have to Die — and what DOES have to die
If you’re unfamiliar, you can listen to the song HERE. It describes two best friends who take different paths in life. Maryann goes out to take on the world and Wanda stays in the town where they grew up and marries an abusive boyfriend. Wanda covers her bruises with makeup and suffers along. Eventually, she ends up in intensive care and Maryann returns, supposedly to “save the day” like a badass and help drive Earl away “Cause Earl had to die.” Earl disappears without clear explanation (though there’s a reference to some black-eyed peas) and Maryann leaves her other life so that she and her friend can start a farm together.
The song was criticized with, perhaps, the feminist version of “all lives matter” because, what sort of outrage would emerge if a male group wrote, recorded and performed a song about how a female partner (regardless of whether or not she’s abusive) “had to die”?
I wonder how many people reading this, like me, cheered Earl’s mystery disappearance following the meal with the black-eyed peas. Because, of course, any good friend and any good feminist would leave the life she created behind to save the day, would save her friend from the husband (that terrible abusive man) that she returned to of her own free will and would move back to the town she left to live with her friend for the rest of her life and make Strawberry Jam … right?
I bring this up not to undermine relationship violence and abuse or to blame victims of abuse. This is not to diminish the effects that millenia of patriarchal conditioning have on people of every sexual and gender identity daily, but to shed light on how that very conditioning penetrates the psyche and disempowers it. I bring this up because I realized that my long-term response to it until, seriously, only a couple of weeks ago, in many ways, perpetuates the very inequality and disempowerment that I claim to oppose. I bring it up because of how my response illuminates my own subconscious beliefs about gender and relationships that, quite honestly, I don’t want to admit still exist in my psyche at this point, beliefs that are counter to all I’ve worked hard to cultivate in my belief garden over the past several years … beliefs like:
· Revenge is ok (especially for women in heterosexual relationships)
· Women in heterosexual relationships are powerless or hold less power than their male counterparts and maintaining a defensive posture helps balance the power dynamic
· Women’s only power in heterosexual relationships is violence and counter-violence (be it physical, emotional, verbal, or any other form)
· Wanda is a victim who doesn’t have to be held accountable for returning to an abusive husband or for suffering along
· Wanda isn’t responsible, after a certain period of time, for setting boundaries or walking away, for allowing her husband to steal the energy she was given to find her destiny and live it out in the world or for working through whatever childhood/family/life issues probably caused her to end up and stay with him in the first place
· Maryann is responsible for “saving” Wanda
· Being a “good” friend (or a “good” whatever — partner, sibling, parent, child, person) means stopping or changing your life at the drop of a hat and “saving” someone else who’s “in trouble” (again) based on their own choices — whether they asked for your help or not.
Earl didn’t have to die, but these beliefs sure do. Earl needed rehabilitation — and so did Wanda. And it’s so clear to me how these beliefs have been weeds choking out the gorgeous flowers I’ve been trying to cultivate in my mental garden. It demonstrates that sometimes I focus so much on what I want to grow, that I sometimes neglect letting go and getting rid of what’s really getting in the way of what I want. As a grower, I know how critical weeding is. I forget (or, perhaps, choose to ignore) that all living things, people and beliefs (even I) need space to grow — physically, emotionally and spiritually. Weeds are what you don’t want to grow, anything taking up space and energy from what you DO want to grow. They need to be harvested and returned to the soil so that they can be transformed into a fertile growing medium for whatever it is you want to cultivate.
Tomorrow, I can’t wait to share what I’m actually cultivating in my psychic garden and how I’m harvesting and using these beliefs I don’t want (psychic weeds) to increase the fertility of my psychic soil and bring in more of what I DO want.
**If you are a socially and environmentally conscious leader who wants to get healthier while cultivating your unique revolutionary capacity, click HERE** | https://medium.com/free-yah-mind/why-earl-didnt-have-to-die-and-other-hard-truths-about-perpetuating-oppression-disempowerment-ddd76ef5c367 | ['Hilary Booker'] | 2018-05-02 14:55:50.585000+00:00 | ['Social Justice', 'Music', 'Feminism', 'Personal Development', 'Wellness'] |
What Should You Do On This Valentine’s Day 2019 ? | As we all know, Valentine’s Day is an event in which we try to figure out ways and solutions for enjoyment and celebration with our buddies and with those to whom we love so much. Valentine’s Day doesn’t bound to the relationship only, it is also a day for those who wedded to their Valentines. So it make sense that why this day is so much famous among lovers and romeos.
As the main issue which we face every Valentine’s Event. We are unable to decide how to celebrate this Valentine’s Day? This is the challenging decisions because it is not only about you. If you love something or any place but your college are not interested in, then there will be no fun in that celebration. Thats is why it is more challenging for most of people. We have may be some solutions for you.
1: Decision we make on Valentine’s Day, is depending on both of the willing. If you agree on what your partner wants. then your problem is solved. If you are not good at making decisions then try to be a little soft for your partner and tell him/her, lets do thing whatever “You wants”. So lets suppose if anything unpleasant happened at party or whatever the decision was taken. “Blame your Partner” ;).
2: If you are good at mind reading then this will also be not a problem for you. then you must be aware of your partner mood and happiness. You can read your partner mood or face and tell them lets go this place or lets do this thing. Your relations will last till long time.
3: Before taking any decision lets have a look on your budget. If it allows you to fly aeroplane then visit some hilly areas or beaches. Oh God, I love it. You will thank me later. And believe me that will be the best Valentine Celebration of your life.
4: lets see the other aspect of picture. Lets suppose your budget not allows you to go out of town. Don’t worry. Happiness doesn't bound to money. You can still enjoy it. Just Time and Time, Time is everything. if you give proper time to your valentine’s, your relationship will go more further. SO, I was talking about if you dont have money how you can enjoy and celebrate with your buddies. Just invite them to your home for dinner, Try to arrange some cooking by your self. Surf internet for the recipe which you are confident will nit destroy it. Prepare for by your self for your Valentine’s and see the magic.
For More Free Valentines Images please free to Visit this ValentinesDayPoemsofLove.com. | https://medium.com/@saboor.afridi911/what-should-you-do-on-this-valentines-day-2019-ebb9436bd4b8 | [] | 2018-11-23 13:52:31.107000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Valentines', 'Romantic', 'Celebration', 'Valentines Day'] |
How to Keep your Cryptocurrency Tech Stack Secure. #bitcoin #ethereum | How to Keep your Cryptocurrency Tech Stack Secure. #bitcoin #ethereum
If you’ve been reading the news about cryptocurrencies lately you may have a fear of missing out (FOMO), before you take the leap and get some crypto, check out some of the things I have learned in the past four years.
Today it is really easy to get cryptocurrency, so you may not take the time to understand how to secure your crypto assets. The following guide will help you keep and store Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, and many other tokens securely, not to mention hopefully set you on a path of securing your digital life.
NOTE: I am not a security expert, nor is this a definitive guide. Being security minded is better than not. Once you make it a habit and a routine, you can rest easier knowing that your digital assets are safer. Lastly if you find anything wrong in my guide or have other tools or tactics you use, please share them in the comments.
Rules to live by in the cryptocurrency world:
Double check all account addresses before transferring any crypto currency. I cannot stress this enough.
Own your own keys.
Never keep too many tokens in an exchange.
Use cold storage for your bigger amounts.
Create random passwords for every site and system you use.
Use some form of double authentication. Something is better than nothing.
If you don’t know a term or how something works, make sure to take the time and go deeper with the information, the more you understand, the safer you’ll be.
Passwords
Use randomize passwords that are at LEAST 8 digits long, for every system you log into. If one of your accounts get compromised, hackers cannot gain access to others. You need to use an encrypted password database system. Making sure to utilize a long sentence with numbers and symbols as your master password for the db. You may also want to use a combination of double authentication and/or physical key, so you don’t kick yourself in the behind when that hacker runs off with your tokens and the news reports that those tokens hit an all time high of $10,000!
“KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish)”
I like the open source system provided by KeePass. Open source software is vetted by the community making it less likely to have security holes. They also have some great open source plugins that extend the functionality of the software. Keep in mind, some the plugins may reduce your security, but you can always have multiple secure KeePass DBs with different levels of security.
Storage
You MUST keep that KeePass database in a safe place. Here are a couple options.
Thumb Drive:
You can use pretty much any thumb drive, but there are some hardened ones out there that have a physical pin system and can even erase all the data on the drive after too many failed attempts. http://www.kingston.com/us/usb/encrypted_security
Cloud Storage
Considering that your more frequently used passwords need to be accessible on your desktop, phone and other work areas you are going to want to keep that KeePass database in the cloud somewhere. Below are some options
“ownCloud is an open source, self-hosted file sync and share app platform. Access & sync your files, contacts, calendars & bookmarks across your devices.”
Great source cloud storage solution. This is a bit more advanced to setup, but it means you are not at the mercy of private companies.
Google Drive or other cloud storage systems.
While some may not think Google Drive is the safest place to keep your data, you can visit the Google account security settings and make sure you have all the advanced security options turned on. Did I mention double authentication? Yes. Use it. You can also use a hardware key with Google.
Hot Wallet
“A hot wallet refers to a Bitcoin wallet that is online and connected in some way to the Internet. It is a term that refers to bitcoins that are not being kept in cold storage.” https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hot_wallet
The only multi-chain wallet that works on practically every platform. Chrome, Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, etc. They use the HD wallet protocol as well:
“The Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) key creation and transfer protocol (BIP32), which allows creating child keys from parent keys in a hierarchy. Wallets using the HD protocol are called HD wallets.”https://bitcoin.org/en/glossary/hd-protocol
Open-Source, client-side tool for easily & securely interacting with the Ethereum network. Great tool, great team behind this.
Cold Storage
A cold storage wallet can be as simple as a paper wallet. You can make a Bitcoin one here https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com or an Ethereum one here: https://www.myetherwallet.com
Ledger Nano S: https://www.ledgerwallet.com/products/ledger-nano-s
“Ledger Nano S is a Bitcoin, Ethereum and Altcoins hardware wallet, based on robust safety features for storing cryptographic assets and securing digital payments. It connects to any computer (USB) and embeds a secure OLED display to double-check and confirm each transaction with a single tap on its side buttons.”
One of the most versatile hardware wallets on the market. Easy to use, ultra secure with a great interface. The device also supports FIDO® which is the Universal Second Factor authentication standard on Google, Dropbox, GitHub or Dashlane.
2-Factor Authentication
If you don’t have some sort of 2-factor authentication, you are basically opening the doors to get hacked. If any system you encounter allows for 2-factor authentication. Make sure to set it up, even if its the SMS style verification codes. Make note, if someone clones your phone or uses social engineering with your phone company to take control of your device that SMS 2-factor will be compromised. Its very easy to do. Make sure you call your mobile phone company and set a verbal password or pin on your account. Phone companies are not as stringent as you’d expect.
“Google Authenticator generates 2-Step Verification codes on your phone. 2-Step Verification provides stronger security for your Google Account by requiring a second step of verification when you sign in. In addition to your password, you’ll also need a code generated by the Google Authenticator app on your phone.”
Someone recently got hacked on coinbase.com while using Authy, they however were not using all the security features. Authy provides some extra functionaly that Google Authenticator does not. Here is a thread on reddit discussing the hack and ways the user could have prevented it while using authy: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6f0hhb/coinbase_recommendation_migrate_from_authy_to/
Side note: Many systems allow you to use your mobile phone number as a back up and for double authentication via txt message. Try not to use your actual mobile phone number. Use another SMS enabled number. An easy way to do this, is creating a separate google account and setup a google voice number on that account. That way even if a hacker gets access to your phone, they cannot get your two factor verification via SMS.
This is a physical key that you can plug into your computer or use with NFC on your phone. This combined with KeePass can make an ultra difficult static password or one-time password system. http://keepass.info/help/kb/yubikey.html
Exchanges
You don’t want to get Goxed so pick your exchanges wisely and never leave to much in any exchange. Remember you do not control the keys.
“The Safest, Fastest Asset Exchange on Earth Trade any leading blockchain asset for any other. Protection by Design. No Account Needed.”
You will need to get some crypto currencies somewhere else, but once you do and want to collect other, this is the place to do it. Another cool thing is that Shapeshift is integrated into the Jaxx wallet, so you can trade tokens very easily, right inside your Jaxx wallet.
A great team and a great system. You can exchange a number of different tokens, and they handle fiat currencies like USD and EUR. They have double authentication and can send notices to your email in PGP encryption. (if you want to get into PGP encryption, then you can consider yourself a real geek, like the rest of us)
The most funded and regulated of the US based exchanges. You can easily buy and sell tokens. They also have an integration with Shift card which allows you to use Bitcoin through a debit card.
Some parting words.
You will mess something up in this whole process. Start with small amounts, practice moving those coins around and create a security routine. Remember you are your own bank, there are no bailouts, there is no security guard at the entrance, you are the one with the keys to the vault.
This blog has been verified by Rise: R804cca8b4eb39d94257551450386f841 | https://medium.com/block5capital/if-youve-been-reading-the-news-about-cryptocurrencies-lately-you-may-have-a-fear-of-missing-out-dfac51c82acf | ['Gianni D Alerta'] | 2017-11-03 13:35:39.303000+00:00 | ['Security', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain'] |
Workshop on Media & Art | Shaheed Bhagat Singh College (University of Delhi) in association with SBSC Alumni Association held a Workshop on “CAREERS IN MEDIA AND ART” on Friday, the 9th October 2015 in the College premises. A total number of 110 students participated and 11 teachers attended this workshop. Mr. Pankaj Rakesh, media professional & visiting faculty at the Amity School of Communication and Ms. Poonam Baid, Project Coordinator, Delhi Art Gallery were the invited speakers for this workshop.
Ms. Poonam Baid makes a point
The workshop started with Ms. Pooonam giving a detailed talk on how the students can take up a career in ART and the various aspects associated with it. They only require an interest in the field and need not be a Professional Artist. But a quality to appreciate art can give them ample opportunities to make it a career, engaging themselves to organizing events, exhibitions managing art galleries and auctioning of art displays.
This was followed by Mr. Pankaj Rakesh, speaking on Career in Media. Along with lots of visual examples that included videos of short clips he explained how to take up still photography, cinematography, making of short message films, documentaries and animation. He gave a total insight to the glamour world, its advantages, difficulties, challenges and opportunities in this fast ever-growing field. | https://medium.com/basicolans/workshop-on-media-art-df5e3bcbb356 | [] | 2020-05-22 04:41:00.490000+00:00 | ['Art', 'Workshop', 'Archive'] |
Is not technology that’s tearing us apart | The increased use of social media is being portrayed as responsible for bringing the worst humanity has to offer. Is not rare to find whole campaigns against the use of such tools because they lead to “negative behaviour” that’s responsible for pushing people further apart as days passes by.
Well, social media are not guilty, they only enhance society’s values that were stimulated previously, but not faster enough for it to backfire in our faces. How can we accuse communication tools of being responsible for turning people lonely, vain, lazy, or hypocritical, if we receive strong cultural pressure to become a “successful member of society” using exactly those same values?
“You are special”; “Nothing’s ever so bad that it can’t get worse”; “It’s not difficult if you try hard enough”; “There’s nothing impossible if you have enough willpower”. Those are lies we heard since childhood, but through life, those fantasies reveal themselves as being demonstrably false.
We are taught that only strong people are successful in life, weakness is evil, achieving happiness is the most important goal, happiness is only possible through money and power, and they can be acquired getting a good job, by doing so, society will respect you, you’ll be happy and suffering will go away.
Land of fantasy promised in our childhood.
Art by Unknown street artist in Montréal
Social media opened a whole new way to expose who we want others to think we are, it’s a smoke screen for a sad, pathetic life that we are too powerless to change or cope with. Those values praised and stimulated by culture are applied to a real time battlefield for happiness and welfare, leading people to ignore their most inner feelings of regret, sadness and loneliness, to create the image of a successful-respectable-admirable-role-model citizen.
It’s not social media’s fault that we exult values that lead people to seek an unreachable standard of life that forbid them to feel in all its fullness, creating machines that seek nothing but achieve business goals, isn't it time for people to start changing this mindset? | https://medium.com/quarto-escuro/is-not-technology-thats-tearing-us-apart-986e5180be76 | ['Murilo Costa'] | 2015-03-17 16:05:56.818000+00:00 | ['Narcissism', 'Stupidity', 'Hypocrisy'] |
Control What You Can, Let Go Of What You Can’t | My daughter in Israel December 2019
One day, a professor entered his classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the exam to begin.
The professor handed out the exams with the text facing down, as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked the students to turn over the papers.
To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions-just a black dot in the center of the paper. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s faces, told them the following: “I want you to write about what you see there.” The students, confused, got started on the inexplicable task.
At the end of the class, the professor took all the exams, and started reading each one of them out loud in front of all the students.
All of them, with no exception, defined the black dot, trying to explain its position in the center of the sheet. Did you know no one wrote about the white part of the paper? Everyone focused on the black dot — and the same thing happens in our lives.
Why is it that we most always focus only on the black dots of life — what’s out of our control?
I was someone who always tried to have a plan so I could be ready for anything life through at me. I tried to focus all my energy on what I could control and let go of everything else, the small things. It wasn’t until a crisis happened within our family, you know the kind where one day your life is “normal” and the next day it isn’t... My entire life plan went from having what I thought was control to actually having no control at all.
Do you become consumed by the things that are going wrong? Maybe it’s the lack of money, or the complicated relationship with a family member, maybe it is a sickness, or maybe it’s our current times and all the uncertainty around you? When you really think about it, the dark spots are usually very small (even though they feel like mountains) when compared to everything we do have that is going right in our lives, but for whatever reason those dark spots are the things that we allow to pollute and poison our minds. Life can’t always be controlled but the way we respond to life can be.
“When we focus on what we can control, we don’t worry as much about what we can’t.”
I know I have experienced such a lack of control this past year, unlike ever before. So many restrictions, so much uncertainty, missing my family, and wanting to hug again my friends… I miss my tribe!
I know life is filled with many unknowns. But what I do know and can control is this… Working my business smarter and not harder, tackling tasks I have been putting off way too long, long walks with my dog, biking with my husband, loving on my kids, binge watching some really great shows, reading interesting books, trying new recipes, and just simply being grateful for LIFE.
4 Ways to Help You Take Back Control
• Find creative ways to connect with people — Social media can help. Think about joining a group chat or online hangout with friends and family. • Keep a structured day — Work/Life Balance is key. Take breaks by scheduling in “play” time. • Limit the news — One of the many reasons we no longer have cable. Just because it is reported doesn’t make it so. • Fresh air — Go to your porch or balcony with a cup of coffee and enjoy the sunrise/sunset or the chirping of birds. Go for that walk. Getting closer to nature is calming and this can distract you from focusing on negativity.
Let us all stop focusing on the black dots. Today I will choose to see the white paper and appreciate each one of my blessings. Does this mean I am completely worry free? No, but I keep reminding myself to focus my energy on my response and how I can make a difference, rather than spending precious time worrying about all the areas in which I can’t. | https://medium.com/@marla-motivationalmondays/control-what-you-can-let-go-of-what-you-cant-fcc1b4009246 | ['Marla Nemanic'] | 2021-03-22 13:48:34.723000+00:00 | ['Focus', 'Letting Go', 'Mindset', 'Motivation', 'Healthy Lifestyle'] |
New Medicines #32 | Get these analyses to your inbox — https://axialobservations.substack.com/ This is a newsletter for rough-around-the-edges ideas. More well thought out work can be found at — https://axial.substack.com/
Axial partners with great founders and inventors. We invest in early-stage life sciences companies often when they are no more than an idea. We are fanatical about helping the rare inventor who is compelled to build their own enduring business. If you or someone you know has a great idea or company in life sciences, Axial would be excited to get to know you and possibly invest in your vision and company . We are excited to be in business with you — email us at [email protected]
New medicines #32 — December 12, 2020 — December 18, 2020
A weekly overview of the development of new medicines.
- Anavex Life Sciences announced top-line data from its phase 2 trial of ANAVEX2–73 in adult female patients with Rett syndrome met the primary endpoint of safety and secondary efficacy endpoints.
- Arvinas released early data from its phase 1 trial in patients with prostate cancer:
Prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels dropped by more than 50% in 2/5 (40%) patients with certain androgen receptor (AR) mutations (T878 or H875)
Two of 15 patients (13%) with wild-type AR also had PSA reductions >50%, representing activity in a broader patient population
- MacroGenics announced that the FDA approved Margenza in combination with chemotherapy, for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who have received two or more prior anti-HER2 regimens.
- Mesoblast announced that its phase 3 DREAM-HF Phase 3 trial of rexlemestrocel-L in patients with advanced chronic heart failure did not meet the primary endpoint of a reduction in recurrent non-fatal decompensated heart failure events.
- Palatin Technologies announced its phase 2 trial of PL9643 for the treatment of dry eye disease (DED) met the primary endpoints in the moderate to severe patient population but not in the overall population including mild patients.
- Sio Gene Therapies released six-month follow-up data from the low-dose cohort from its phase 1/2 dose escalation trial of AXO-AAV-GM1 for the treatment of GM1 gangliosidosis:
Observations of an increase in enzyme activity of on average 38% of normal reference levels
Dosing with the high dose has also commenced in two patients, with no complications to date
- vTv Therapeutics announced that its phase 2 Elevage study of azeliragon in people with mild Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes did not meet its primary endpoint.
- Zealand Pharma announced top-line data from its first phase 3 trial of dasiglucagon as a treatment for Congenital Hyperinsulinism (CHI) did not meet the primary endpoint of a significant reduction in the rate of hypoglycemia compared to standard of care.
Source: BPC (reformatted), SY, Bioworld | https://medium.com/@axialxyz/new-medicines-32-ad96ffadaf65 | [] | 2020-12-18 00:18:04.548000+00:00 | ['Venture Capital', 'Biotechnology', 'Investing', 'Healthcare', 'Medicine'] |
The Ashes of Nash | The Ashes of Nash
During the late 1970s, in a secret woodland location somewhere in Snowdonia, David Nash set a new paradigm for landscape art.
Secluded in an area of private woodland is ‘Cae’n y Coed’, where a circle of 22 Ash trees stand. They have been growing under the gentle guidance of artist David Nash for more than 40 years. Over the decades he has gradually manipulated their growth so they have bent in towards each other in a vortex that has now met to form a living dome.
Photograph of ‘Ash Dome’ by David Nash *
The dome creates a space that is only a little bit different from its surroundings, yet the sculptural intervention draws our attention to the natural processes and the passage of time. This is a sculpture that exists in the time scale of nature. It changes through the seasons and over the years. As each tree grows, they also document their times in each ring that marks annual periods of growth. They are, quite literally, ringing the changes.
The growth of the trees is fuelled by traces of nutrients lifted from the soil, powered by solar energy through photosynthesis and uses atmospheric carbon as its principal building material. Recorded in its very substance is information about weather and the changing climate, pollution levels, prevailing wind, the duration of each and every season that has passed since they were seeds. All trees do this.
This is art rooted in the land, in the purist sense. It cannot be exhibited in galleries or sold by a dealer. It must remain where it is made as a permanent and ever-changing site-specific installation. Nash has tended the Ash Dome year in and year out, recording its subtly developing intervention in the environment with drawings and photography.
He chose to plant 22 trees because he wanted to avoid any number with explicit symbolism. The project was initiated in 1977, a year with historic connotations. For one thing, it was the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, but the celebrations to mark the event were incongruous with the political and economic turmoil of the times.
Despite an ‘official’ ceasefire in 1972, IRA-inspired terrorism remained constantly in the news. There was escalating friction between government and trades unions leading to prolonged strike action. The UK was entering what is now known as ‘The Winter of Discontent’, though there was also a sense of impending change in the air and Nash intended his action of planting for the future to be a symbol of hope.
Ash Dome has weathered much socio-political flux. Quietly, inexorably growing while the world went through major change. They were there when the USSR signed up to SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) and for a while, the Cold War looked to be fading. Their buds swelled through springs. Reverend Jim Jones killed himself and murdered 900 of his congregation in Jonestown. Margaret Thatcher become Britain’s first woman Prime Minister. Their leaves fell during autumns. Stephen Hawking theorised about the existence of cosmic bodies he called ‘black holes’. There were devastating wars and earthquakes.
Photograph of ‘Ash Dome’ in winter by David Nash *
The trees stood naked in harsh winters. Computers and the internet were welcomed into our homes. Humans took up continuous off-world residency in space. The branches were leaf-laden all through spectacular summers. A sheep named Dollie met her clone. The twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed. We took the first photograph of a black hole. The world got warmer and warmer. Partly due to climate change, Ash Dome is currently under threat from the spread of a fungus causing Ash-dieback, a disease which it is estimated will kill 80% of Ash trees across the UK.
Ash Dome is recognised internationally as a key work for David Nash, even though it’s located in private woodland, somewhere in Snowdonia, and few have actually stood under its cathedral-like canopy. I feel lucky to count myself among the few who have.
Drawings and photograph of ‘Sod Swap’ (1983) by David Nash *
It’s situated close to some other living works by David Nash: a copse of wonky trees known as Planted Larches (1981+), a woven barrier of living hazel and a circle of sod, one of his Sod Swap works where circles of soil and their living biomass are swapped with a circles from other locations. This circle was swapped in 1983 with an area of sod from Kensington Gardens in London.
Generally, Nash works almost exclusively with wood. Usually, he carves the boughs of great trees that have fallen or that he manages to reclaim after they may have been felled to clear ground. He works with the forms already in the trees and has described his method as collaboration. When asked how long it takes to produce a piece of his artwork, he answers, “a hundred years or so,” including the time it has taken for the tree to grow.
His approach is one of truth to materials and he uses the properties of wood in the creation of his form. For example, he will carve deep parallel cuts into a column of wood and then kiln-dry the piece, causing the straight slices to curl and form waves. He uses fire to char the surface of some of his works, a process that both colours them and also preserves them.
So, in his sculptures with living trees, this truth to material is taken a step further and deals much more with the processes involved. These processes include his artistic guidance and intervention, as well as the biological processes of photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration and direct response to changes in environment and climate.
In 1978, the year after he began Ash Dome, David Nash set another radical work in motion, literally. He had started carving a very large Oak where it had fallen in the highlands of Snowdonia, above the village of Maentwrog, whihc is just over the ridge from ‘Cae’n y Coed'. The location was not easily accessible and he had to consider ways of transporting the sculptures that he produced. This problem of practicality was the inspiration for a truly original piece of landscape art… | https://medium.com/signifier/the-ashes-of-nash-5f91dfe6b6f1 | ['Remy Dean'] | 2020-10-18 08:40:24.455000+00:00 | ['Art History', 'Landscape', 'Art', 'History', 'Sculpture'] |
EXPLORER AN AFRICA: HUMANITY’S LAST BASTION STORY | EXPLORER
AN AFRICA: HUMANITY’S LAST BASTION STORY
HE DODGED TO the right, evading a mad claw swipe from the reptilian looking ape. The fell beast had the physique and poise of Earth’s gorillas, albeit twisted with the visage of a lizard. Its claws could tear a human to pieces in seconds, its eyes glinted with primeval intelligence, bestial fury were roars from its fanged maw, and the conspicuous want to glut itself on Ojukwu’s blood and meat was clear as hate on the face of a bigot. The creature’s strength was twenty times greater than a human’s, but that reduced to ten times greater since the explorer was clad in a powersuit.
Ojukwu backed up a few paces coming up from his evasive roll, the Ikenga exoskeleton boosting his physical prowess as the explorer loosed shots in the gorillizard’s thick-scaled bulky form. The beast wailed its pain, cyan-coloured blood streaking from bullet wounds on its dark-green thorax. Giving into instinct and rage, the gorillizard spun on its axis, swinging a thick rigid barbed tail at Ojukwu. The speed of the tail-attack blitzed the former Newgerian army captain, making a mockery of his power armoured enhancement.
The blow sent the ex-soldier spinning three-point-five meters up into the air, the powersuit’s systems screamed alarms in Ojukwu’s ears, warning of the damage and instance of death as he slammed against the hardened trunk of an orange alien tree ten meters away.
His rough travel against the alien jungle floor leaving grooves in the dirt and plant-mush in its path.
The gorillizard bellowed mirth at dealing a good blow on its obstinate prey, closing in for the kill, loping towards Ojukwu sprawled mechanized bulk with a furious burst of speed and nigh abyssal hunger on its red-eyed, wide-nostrils, cruelly fanged face.
The ex-soldier was far from finished, battling the encroaching unconsciousness, trying to concentrate amidst the warnings voiced by the powersuit’s AI as it reported on the exoskeleton’s status, his health and survivability options on the HUD within his helm.
THROUGH THE HELM’S pale visor, Ojukwu saw the beast cover meters with inhuman bounds, lunging at him with a snarl, and a spread-out dangerously clawed six-digit hand to maim the explorer laying seemingly defeated against the tree.
Ojukwu, years of training in the Newgerian army, and experience from the ongoing Human-Annunaki war came to the fore. Ojukwu kicked up, rolling out of the way, the powersuit’s servos whined loudly as they augmented his movement and its ectoreceptors sensed the environment, picking up the rigidity of the tree that halted the ex-soldier’s flight, the wetness of the loamy purple soil and moist deep blue leaves of the trees beneath him, and the ash-coloured bushes that filled the lush alien jungle.
The armoured suit fed Ojukwu information on his surroundings, mimicking the human sense organs.
Powersuit ectoreceptors relayed the thunderclap sound of the gorillizard pounding into the tree in a bludgeoning arc, a killing blow intended for the ex-army captain. The gorillizard’s attack carved a large chunk of the tree’s trunk, revealing green-purple innards.
Ojukwu had leapt away to safety, the tree taking the brunt of the attack visited on where he had been leaning against a few moments ago.
LIKE ANY SOLDIER, Ojukwu’s weapon barely left his gun hand. Hefting up the M66 assault rifle, aiming in a show of martial discipline, exoskeleton providing buffs for an already well-toned physical abilities, the ex-soldier opened up with his rifle. Ojukwu let loose a stream of energy-encased bullets, the gun bucking and barking with angry actinic flashes as the energy-wreathe rounds stunned the beast.
The bullets left angry-red tracers, ionizing the air in their path, riddling the beast with steaming holes. Shrieks of pain became a twisted melody in the jungle’s confines as the gorillizard cried out its agony, dancing to bullet impacts, bleeding cyan blood from ruptured skin and damaged vital organs.
Ojukwu’s trigger finger remained in that tight squeeze familiar to every gunslinger, he didn’t stop till the beast lay still from its death throes.
Ojukwu willed the power suit’s sensors to scan for any shred of animation in the corpse, before redirecting them to scan the environment for any other threats that may linger at the dark corners of the alien jungle. Of course, a typical jungle would always teem with life. Even an alien one on a planet as dangerous as Alamortem, every biome on the face of the strange world was populated with biotic and abiotic conditions inimical to human life.
The Newgerian glimpsed and felt the wan blue sunlight that slipped through the apertures dotting the jungle’s tree canopies.
The very jungle Ojukwu prowled like a forlorn cub definitely teemed with life, like those he had adventured in during childhood years with friends and family back in Newgeria.
From the critters crawling the vegetation laden jungle grounds to the soaring birds past the forest canopies, the feelings of nostalgia and displacement were two immiscible feelings in Ojukwu’s gut as he switched through the spectra on the helmet’s HUD sensors relayed.
SATISFIED WITH THE powersuit’s AI reporting of no threats, the battle with the gorillizard probably scaring other fauna away, Ojukwu decided to head for the gorillizard’s nest-enclave. He had stumbled upon it as he traversed Alamortem’s hostile jungle, the beast had taken him to be manna. Intent on feasting on human flesh even as Ojukwu tried to escape its slavering razor toothed jaws.
The confrontation between him and the beast proved inevitable, the gorillizard was not the first alien monster the Newgerian had to slay since crashing upon the unfriendly surface of Alamortem.
The ectoreceptors picked up the rancid smell of the already decaying corpse, the buzz of swarming alien insects’ intent on feasting on the carrion, the probability of scavengers coming up the way of the cadaver and the need for rest and repairs.
The ex-army captain changed location without further delay.
Nestled within the nest-enclave of the dead gorillizard, a myriad coloured flora-canopied burrow dug ten-point-eight-seven meters into the ground, looking like a cave but one clearly of semi-sentient artifice; Ojukwu observed the proper rites and rituals that ensured his continued existence on the death-world of Alamortem.
The AI of the pitted, scratched and dirty red-white Ikenga exoskeleton made diagnostic scans of his powersuit, checking for wounds on Ojukwu’s person and power-armour.
POWERSUITS ARE MARVELS of science and technology, constructs of the third millennium; one of the biggest inventions of the 2060s. Powered by portable plasma generators reminiscent of ancient trunk-like backpacks; armoured in durable metallic alloyed plates from head to toe like chivalrous knights; resilient fibrous meshes and bundles at joints so as not to impair movement, and an AI to serve as a nexus where man and machine became one; the exoskeletons made the average human a literal insectoid demigod. They also sported several attachments, utilities which depended on situation.
There are more efficient power exoskeletons way better than the Ikenga, but the Ikenga powersuit was one of the few suits available to Ojukwu… and the others.
It was salvaged from the spaceship’s wreck.
Ojukwu’s red-white powersuit was scarred here and there, dents were evident as concussive impacts stove in the metal alloy plates. Though there seemed to be nothing serious on the outside. The AI checked on the circuitry and software which served as the CNS of the machine.
The explorer’s exoskeleton had barely any attachments, except the additional nutrient pack—a black featureless lunchbox for the lack of a better word—locked to the small of his back. Wires and tubes connected the bodies of men to their suits, marrying them as one. For Ojukwu, asides the regular connections, the nutrient pack kept him nourished. Food on Alamortem was not meant for human physiology and so he had to venture out with it.
It contained nutrients in liquid form, fed directly to his bloodstream.
Ojukwu’s rifle lay beside him, the ex-army man cuddled in a dark corner of the nest-enclave. The gun’s holster should have been where the nutrient pack lay but the Newgerian had no problem with the allowances made. In a few hours, the ex-soldier would have to head out into the wilderness of Alamortem again.
Ojukwu’s body rested, but his mind did not.
He was arrested by visions of the war back on Earth, the dilemma currently faced on an alien world, and utterly devastated at the thought that humanity might never be able to escape the leashes of their tyrannical overlords.
The damned Annunaki.
IT’S THE 2060s and humanity faces absolute servitude, if not extinction, in the face of an old master that once ruled them as gods. The Annunaki are a galactic empire that had a hand in humanity’s nascence. Out of nowhere, the Annunaki returned to claim back their servants. It wasn’t easy for the more advanced nations to acquiesce to a supposed higher power; and so the Human-Annunaki wars began.
Almost all the continents have been devastated, three out of seven utterly in ruins. Populations cut down to one-fifth of their original number, enslaved and shackled to serve forever more the Space gods. Most parts of said continents are epitomes of ash, dust and human decay… except the tropical regions of the world, which serve as refuges and rebel outposts. The largest being the enigmatic regions of Australia and Africa. For some reason the many realms of Africa are spared the ill attentions of the Annunaki, becoming a staging point of a grand rebellion and the last hope of humanity’s claim on Earth.
It was in one of the skirmishes that Ojukwu fought that found him captured by the Annunaki forces. Ojukwu remembered fighting clad in a heavily weaponized Ogun powersuit in a wasteland once known as London. A metallic hulk bristling with guns, servos whining with the power of a mechanical demigod, it’s terrifying visage cyclopean to all who gazed upon it. The battle in London was ghastly, men blown to bits of charred crimson meat, cooked in powersuits which turned to slag under enemy fire, evading the emerald beams of alien cyborgs, robots and vat-born soldiers; exchanging fire in dogged street gunfights and mass suicidal charges. The battle was lost, the enemy overwhelming the humans in number and firepower.
Ojukwu was captured alongside many others, put on a behemoth Annunaki spaceship on its way to an unknown destination in the galaxy.
OJUKWU DIDN’T KNOW whether to call it fortune or misfortune, but his mind replayed the destruction wrought on the massive spaceship like a movie. A group of aliens not of the pale Annunaki had attacked. Both sides were utterly destroyed, the unguided spaceship crashing to the jungle-world of Alamortem.
Leaving the human captives’ fates in their own hands.
Ojukwu shook his helmed head as the thoughts kept pouring over the fatigue-melted steel gates and walls of the Newgerian’s militaristic mind, the burdensome role as a scout for the captive humans trapped on a planet lightyears from Earth heavy on his shoulders. He couldn’t countenance dying in a strange land, let alone a strange world.
Ojukwu reasoned he might never see Earth again; living family nor rest alongside ancestors.
The war with the space gods had shattered the human condition. Humanity forced to fight as one, Africa elevated past its status as a footstool and resource reservoir for advanced nations.
It was a time to be alive.
The ex-soldier’s body rested, but his mind did not share in the recuperation.
Ojukwu reached for the meter-and-a half sleek black piscean rifle, checking it for damages. Satisfied, he held it loose in his gauntleted hands, finger ever close to the trigger. His armour hummed with captured plasma-power, the explorer could feel the subtle micro-vibrations. The HUD, the powersuit’s AI, the ectoreceptors and other sensors working in concert to keep him aware of twenty meters of jungle surrounding the temporary hideout.
THE AI REPORTED that his body needed at least two hours of rest. The explorer had been ceaselessly on the move for the past three weeks, the timepiece on the helm’s display showing 10:30PM. The ex-army captain willed the day’s date to his helm’s display, it read 2/2/2067. He and the others had barely adjusted to Alamortem’s crazy intervals of long days and nights. Their timepieces still read in Earth’s standard units. Ojukwu remembered leaving Earth on the 26th of November circa 2064; spending three years sailing the star filled void of space in the company of detained human rebels, slave-human mutants, vat-born alien freaks and cyborgs under the tyrannical gaze of alien overlords.
Ojukwu let out an exasperated sigh. Truly, he really did need more rest. The explorer stayed put for a while longer as the AI advised.
The ex-soldiers body rested; his mind never did. | https://medium.com/@luckypat95/he-dodged-to-the-right-evading-a-mad-claw-swipe-from-the-reptilian-looking-ape-6d4fc701fd02 | ['Lucky Patrick'] | 2021-05-20 01:58:13.749000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Africa', 'Space Exploration', 'African Literature', 'Philosophy'] |
The Heart of Who I Am | I was recently challenged by Shaunta Grimes (the original Ninja Writer) to respond to this quote by Twila Tharp. This quote is a beautiful summation of what we carry with ourselves, wether we like it or not, in all our creative endeavors. I have read this before but had never been challenged to deconstruct what that means for me. What are my ambitions and passions? How does my body affect how I either embrace the world or feel rejected by it? My needs, my memories? My prejudices?! Those are some scary places I had not considered, at least openly on the page. So here I’ll plunge right in.
My body- My body is aging and is not so forgiving in the area of thinning hair, varicose veins, weight distribution, or even the geographic location of my boobs. What happened?! I am not happy with my body right now, but to be honest, I’ve never been happy with my body. I’ve always been self-conscious. Even as a really small child I remember this distinct feeling of wanting to hide my body. I have only one bonafide memory as an 8 year old of being inappropriately touched by a friend’s father but that cautious sick feeling has followed me my whole life and continues to a small degree into my 24 year marriage. It affects how I interact with others and often how I hide from others. It alters who I am. I am always two separate people inside one.
Ambitions- My ambitions have always been very small or cautious ones. I am terrified of being disappointed or even disappointing others. So I hold all my ambitions close to my chest. To reveal them also opens them up to examination. Though, because of more recent events in my life that ended my 12 year hiatus as a stay at home mom, I went back to school and not only earned a Special Education teaching credential but also my Masters Degree. Because of these new accomplishments, I have opened up to an old desire to write again and not just for myself. I want to be seen and finally heard. I have grown up and my children are growing up, so now I want to want more. I want my life to have a bigger byline than just wife and mother of three. I want my byline to sound like an amazing adventure.
Ideas- My ideas are what I would refer to as my world view, my voice. I have a unique voice as a mother, a survivor, a spiritual being, a passionate fan of stories wether they be the classics, comic books, art, poetry, memoirs, etc… And I want to add my voice to the fray.
Passions- I am passionate about fiction and epic fantasies, often the darker the better. I am also passionate about improving myself and understanding why we as humans are the way we are. Why do we do what we do? Often the dark and macabre side of things. I am passionate about education and helping young humans navigate the hurt of this world often through finding their own voices.
Needs- My needs are simple, love and acceptance. Also lots of coffee and reading material and the time to enjoy the two in sacred silence. I grew up feeling neglected and unable to voice my wants and desires. My chosen family has given me space to have a voice, to feel secure and to also have space. All of which is the love I need.
Memories- My memories are often insufficient and unreliable sources. They are colored by emotions and read more like abridged classics for children. But they are all I have to go on. I am forgetful and I worry that what memories I have will someday be taken from me. My dearest sweet little grandma is in the throes of Alzheimer’s and deteriorating before me. I often believe this will be me. Maybe that is why I am determined to write every detail down and why I find so much pleasure reading my own accounts of my own life, because without them, I remember so little.
Goals- Goals are difficult for me because they are more concrete and need actions attached to them. I’m a thinker and a brooder not necessarily an action person though I am trying. I have evidence in my life that I can do it, I just don’t like to. So I make lists. Lots of lists. Goals for today that may or may not happen. The dishes, sending a birthday card to my nephew that really needs to go out and such. I make weekly goals that may need to be carried over to the next week a few times. Taking my dear dog or one of the two cats to the vet for vaccination shots may carry over and over for a month. I have seasonal goals like this summer, painting the house or finally take conversational Spanish at the local college. These goals are actually easiest. The hardest ones are the long term goals. Where do you want to be in 5, 10 years and so on. Those are the most challenging. My writing has been filling my long term goal headspace for awhile. I am 46 and will be 47 this September. Fifty has become my magic number getting closer and closer. I am determined to finish a work of fiction ready to send out for publication by 50. I am determined to make my 40’s the decade I make that a reality and my 50’s where I begin to see the fruit of that.
Prejudices- Damn you prejudices! I have them for people who are seemingly different though I know better in my mind. My humane logical mind knows but my ugly reptilian mind wants everyone in my life to be the same religion, the same educational background, the same political affiliation, the same economics and the same level of love for all things geeky. I have terrible prejudices when it comes to education levels and economics. I attend one of the wealthiest mega churches in Southern California and I have to bite my tongue every time I’m there not to make really snarky comments about the ridiculously over privileged. But I am well aware that this is all about perspective. I teach in one of the poorest districts in my area and my own children go to school there as well and compared to all of those kids, my kids are the over privileged white kids. I know. It’s not fair that we have so much and so many have so little. But it is easy to think in generalities about people. Then you actually have a relationship with any of these people, poor or wealthy, educated or uneducated, and you realize we are all people with a story that deserves acknowledgement and respect.
Distractions- I am distracted by busyness. Straight up. It could be my phone, my kids, my school work, housework, but I would rather be distracted than do what is hard and needs my undivided attention, my writing. It is so damn hard. What is best always seems to get a backseat to the rest of my life in order to get done all that is good. Because it is all important and good. But not the best. My writing deserves my best first.
Fears- I fear being outed as a really flawed human being. I fear criticism and being vulnerable. Which writing is the antithesis of. You are a better writer when you are most vulnerable. So here is a beginning.
-Danielle Vinson Marting is a writer who lives in Southern California. She teaches teenagers all day and comes home to them at night. Proud mother of three and married to her biggest fan.
#shauntagrimes #ninjawriter #firstarticleonmedium #daniellevinsonmarting | https://medium.com/@danielle.marting/the-heart-of-who-i-am-fe948dfdcc5a | ['Danielle Vinson Marting'] | 2019-04-02 17:15:24.700000+00:00 | ['First Post', 'Twyla Tharp Quote', 'Dear Shaunta', 'Life Lessons'] |
Why Spherium Leverages Binance Smart Chain for Token Swap | Spherium Labs
Why Spherium Leverages Binance Smart Chain for Token Swap
Key Highlights
Spherium is building its token swap protocol on both Ethereum as well as Binance Smart Chain.
BSC is cost-efficient, provides quick settlements, and supports smart contracts, EVMs.
A critical factor in the success of any technology is its affordability.
Blockchain technology has immense potential but it’s struggling to control transaction costs, and we’re talking about Ethereum, the most popular blockchain network at the moment.
Our research reveals that a simple ERC20 transfer on Ethereum networks costs between $10.65 and $13.62. Similarly, you have to spend between $32.77 and $41.89 for a Uniswap swap.
Source: Etherscan
As a platform that intends to boost DeFi adoption, we’re aware of the burgeoning cost of Ethereum transactions. And that’s why we’re building Spherium token swap across two platforms, Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain.
The Space Oracle has given a thumbs-up to BSC.
Binance Smart Chain (BSC) has witnessed monumental growth over the past couple of months, and it’s for all the valid reasons.
We analysed multiple blockchain networks, factoring in their scalability, cost of transactions, and confirmation time. BSC ticked all the boxes.
Low transactions fees and quick settlements.
First and foremost, transactions on BSC cost only a fraction of their Ethereum counterparts. And we dug up this Tweet from C.Zhao, CEO of Binance, summing up the difference.
Source: Twitter.
BSC uses Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA) consensus mechanism, under which 21 validators stake their BNB to secure and maintain the network. These stakers receive gas fees as reward for upkeep the network.
Additionally, BSC and Binance Chain are interoperable, which allows BSC to leverage the quick settlements and high transaction throughput offered by the latter for its dApps.
Supports smart contracts & EVM compatibility
BSC supports smart contracts and is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, making it suitable for Spherium’s current requirements.
Bottom line: We’re building on Ethereum & BSC both.
Spherium believes in the power of choice, and that’s why we’re building our token swap on both Ethereum as well as BSC. Our MVP is live on the testnet, undergoing iterations, security checks. Spherium team is working hard to integrate layer 2 solutions, so our Ethereum token swap protocol will be up for upgrades in the coming months.
If you want to know more about our project, join our Telegram community today. https://t.me/SpheriumCommunity | https://medium.com/spherium-finance/why-spherium-leverages-binance-smart-chain-for-token-swap-52ea111dac67 | ['Spherium Labs'] | 2021-04-09 08:47:53.729000+00:00 | ['Binance', 'Ethereum', 'Spherium', 'Bsc', 'Blockchain'] |
18 Questions W/ Drippy Say | Recently I caught up with buzzing Florida rapper, Drippy Say, who’s releasing an upcoming banger called “Skrt”. If you’re hip to the current culture and sound of Florida rappers, you will definitely appreciate Drippy’s signature style which is different from anything else coming from the Sunshine State. I asked Drippy Say 18 unique questions about his journey, interests and who inspired him to get to know more about the promising Florida rapper.
LL: WHAT FIRST GOT YOU INTO MUSIC?
DS: WHEN I SAW ROD WAVE IN CONCERT AND HE TOLD ME AND A FRIEND TO JUMP THE GATE, THAT INSPIRED ME TO START MY MUSIC CAREER.
LL: WHO INSPIRED YOU TO MAKE MUSIC?
DS: TLC , BUSTA RHYMES, ROD WAVE, DA BABY, NBA YOUNG BOY, THE LATE GREAT 2PAC AND NIPSEY HUSSLE
LL: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE MUSIC THAT YOU TYPICALLY CREATE?
DS: ITS A URBAN , HIP HOP AND POP TYPE MUSIC
LL: WHAT IS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE ?
DS: I FIRST LISTEN TO THE BEAT AND THEN I CREATE MY LYRICS
LL: WHO WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO COLLABORATE WITH ?
DS: CARDI B , MIGOS, DA BABY, LIL BABY AND NBA YOUNG BOY AND MARSHMELLOW AND THE LATE GREAT NIPSEY HUSSLE AND 2PAC
LL: IF YOU COULD OPEN A SHOW FOR ANYBODY WHO WOULD IT BE ?
DS: DA BABY, ROD WAVE AND CARDI B
LL: WHAT IS ONE MESSAGE YOU WOULD GIVE TO YOUR FANS?
DS: NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS
LL: WHAT IS THE MOST USELESS TALENT YOU HAVE?
DS: RUNNING TRACK
LL: DO YOU SING IN THE SHOWER?
DS: MY MUSIC
LL: WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING RIGHT NOW IF IT WASNT FOR YOUR MUSIC CAREER?
DS: WORKING A 9–5 CUSTODIAL JOB
LL: WHERE HAVE YOU PERFORMED?
DS: APOLLO TAMPA, WHISKEY NORTH, SILVER ULTRA LOUNGE
LL: WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE AND LEAST FAVORITE VENUES?
DS: I LIKE LIMELIGHT IN TAMPA, I DONT REALLY HAVE A LEAST FAVORITE, I LIKE TO PERFORM ANYWHERE
LL: DO YOU HAVE ANY UPCOMING SHOWS?
DS: YES IN ATLANTA , SILVER ULTRA LOUNGE
LL: WHAT FAMOUS MUSICIANS DO YOU ADMIRE?
DS: MICHAEL JACKSON
LL: WHAT IS THE MOST TROUBLE YOU’VE EVER GOTTEN INTO?
DS: GOT INTO A FIGHT WITH THREE GUYS AND WE ALL GOT ARRESTED
LL: WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN?
DS: ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE BIGGER PICTURE IN LIFE
LL: IF YOU COULD CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT THE INDUSTRY , WHAT WOULD IT BE?
DS: FOR ALL RAPPERS TO COME TOGETHER END THE BEEF AND KILLING EACH OTHER, BE BETTER ROLE MODELS
LL: WHATS NEXT FOR YOU?
DS: KEEP MAKING MUSIC AND ONE DAY FIND MY WIFE AND BUILD MY FAMILY
“Skrt (Own It)” by Drippy Say set to release soon. Stay tuned!
Florida Rapper, Drippy Say at Hoodrich Films Headquarters in Atlanta, GA.
Follow Drippy Say:
Instagram: @__drippysay | https://medium.com/@leshalove/18-questions-w-drippy-say-347e454a2aec | ['Lesha Love'] | 2020-12-18 19:10:32.294000+00:00 | ['Drippy Say', 'Florida Rapper', 'Tampa', 'Rise Up Music Group', 'Hip Hop'] |
5 Legit Income Streams of Self-Made Millionaires for the 21st Century | Financial Independence
5 Legit Income Streams of Self-Made Millionaires for the 21st Century
All pictures in the article are Canva Pro Images
A few days ago, I made an article out of a phone call with a friend. He gave me a ring after he read one of my financial literacy texts on Medium. Obviously, he had put some work into following my social media activities, which makes him very likable.
But, the thing was, he wasn’t pleased with my recommendation to talk people into saving money. Peter, the name of my friend, pointed out that inflation eats it all up.
My friend loves spending money, and it comes easy to him as a kid with rich parents. After they passed away, he inherited all and everything. Their wealth is so big that he does not need to work ever again. I would call him a Bruce Wayne without the Batman narrative, just the partying and a bit less money.
His point was, inflation eats it all up; saving makes people poor. As he hung up on me, I finished what I had to say in a second article.
And guess what?
Peter read it and gave me another call, and of course, he played the “I was always rich, I know it better” dude, but it didn’t matter to me after knowing him for 3 decades. In our case, opposites attracted when we were kids.
“Saving and buying ETFs for 37 years is nuts and insane, my friend”, he said.
“People waste all their life saving and investing for nothing. When they hit their 60, they maybe have a million. But, a million in 40 years is what today is a few hundred thousand dollars”, he played the smarty pants on me.
We discussed how to make more money in simple, easy steps and identified 5 legit income streams for future millionaires.
Here they are:
Education aka salary increase
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” — Nelson Mandela
Yes, you read correctly. My friend Peter and I agreed on that point. Although this income stream is none, my friend has developed in his life.
We were two sides of a coin. He was born into a wealthy family and could live from his family's wealth since he was born. I had to get my act together, and every time I wanted to achieve a goal had to get on the fundraising route.
While we both attended the same university, his daily routine was getting up late, spending a few hours at the Campus, and attending parties all night long. Mine was getting up early, working my a… off, and studying in the night hours.
But still, Peter has made some observations in talks with the managers of his family office that they tend to pay higher salaries to people who take care of accumulating educations. I have experienced that first hand.
Many people like Gary Vaynerchuk and Elon Musk lately tend to downgrade a College or University degree's value. I got it first hand in the 90s.
Before graduating, I made good money working 8 hours per day. One day difference and I almost double my income. Well, I had to flip jobs and move to another city. But my income doubled metaphorically speaking in about one day.
And still, every time I came back from a corporate education, the negotiations for a salary increase went very smoothly.
How to apply it in your life:
In the next feedback meeting with your boss, ask one question: If I would like to have a salary increase by x %, what kind of activities do I need to do that support your goals in such a way that you are happy to increase my salary.
When we are working in a regular job, we need to serve the corporate goals. Whether we like it or not.
Those who understand that being of service is key to success will be successful.
Millionaire Potential:
On the lower end. It’s pure statistics. Selling your time leads to a certain level of income, but we have to bear in mind that less than 10% of American and European households make more than 200,000 USD or EUR.
But still, it is worth looking into growing this income stream even when it has a natural boundary, which with a diligent and frugal lifestyle can also amass 1 million dollars within 30–40 years.
Studies show that 80% of millionaires hit the million-dollar mark after age 50, and I assume most of them did it by just having a regular job and safe money.
Canva Pro Image
Side hustle aka the second job
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas Edison
The second thing Peter and I could agree on:
If one job has a natural cap of growing the income stream, why not go for a second job, also known these days as a side hustle. It is also something my billionaire friend never had to worry about.
A decade ago, I was heavily involved in building a martial arts organization from scratch. All the legal and commercial work came from my end. Some of the partners were tending to believe they can cash out people. Going for a few thousand euros per seminar and a few hundred as a monthly training fee.
Theoretically, in an Excel sheet, everybody can enter anything, and all calculations work out fine.
My recommendation was to build a larger group. Happy people always attract more people. Thus, the monthly fee was half the price of a regular Gym back then. Extremely cheap.
With ease, we got a few hundred students. Some trainers wanted to talk us in to cash them out and make real money. I could convince them that it is impossible with training fees to make millions.
Many of the students won’t pay it. In my opinion, it is better to charge a small amount to many people than a high amount to a few. A small amount can easily be sold to a few thousand people. At the same time, a 400 or 500 Euros monthly fee is a more difficult sell.
With this approach, the trainers' team didn’t have to pay for their training, and the dojo took over most of their expenses for their hobby. Without being a trainer, martial arts costs about 200–300 Euros or dollars per month.
Training fee, equipment fee, and seminar fees easily sum up to 2,000–3,000 Euros per year, and for those who really feel the spark and a calling in their martial art — 20,000–30,000 Euros is nothing.
Very often, I heard the narrative — “Why should I do that? It only saves so little money. The side hustle isn’t worth the effort”.
It is astounding as those comments come from people with an income of fewer than 2,000 Euros. Saving 10% of the income … is, in my eyes, a significant amount.
When I do the millionaire math again, saving a solid 300 Euros per month over 40 years is 1,65 million.
And how? By just turning your hobby into something that makes you a few bucks a month. The
How can you apply it in your life:
Find something that you love.
Make it your hobby and learn the skills necessary.
Start teaching and charging small amounts.
To teach absolute beginners, you don’t need to be extremely far advanced.
It is much better to be closer to the beginner level as real experts are often bored out with absolute beginners.
The excess money you make — and even it is a 100 or 200 per month I would invest in an S&P 500 ETF
Millionaire Potential:
Average. Adding a few bucks to the main job's savings will help bring down the time to amass 1 million dollars.
Assuming that both side hustle and main job creates a scenario of saving 500 Euros per month — the time to a million with an S&P 500 ETF is less than 30 years.
Great, isn’t it?
S&P 500 ETF capital gains
For most people, the best thing is to do is owning the S&P 500 index fund — Warren Buffett
I have spoken so often about putting the excess money into an S&P 500 ETF. My ego would love to say, and it was me who had this idea first.
But it wasn’t me, especially as I am European. I came across the S&P 500 Index later in life. I read a lot about the European markets in a pre-internet world and not so much the US-based markets.
Commercial schools were focused on promoting the local European financial inventions.
With the internet, I got access to all the great information worldwide. And soon, I discovered the recommendation to buy S&P 500 ETFs.
The internet says the first one was issued in 1993, which basically replicated the S&P 500 ETF. Since the 90s, many more ETFs based on this index exist, ask Dr. Google, and he/she will show you a great selection.
Critics say that when everybody invests in the S&P 500, it becomes crowded and cannot go up indefinitely.
When I look at the historical data, the S&P 500 averages about 8–10 % return per year. Looking at the S&P 500 ETFs' cost, they are fairly cheap with a 0.03% fee per year.
In this year's annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway himself, Warren Buffett recommends that an S&P 500 ETF is the best investment solution for most people.
How to apply it:
Build an emergency fund
Once the fund has more than 3–6 months of monthly expenses
go for an S&P 500 ETF
It is what I did when I was in my 20s. Well, I invested in other funds than the S&P 500 as I am European. Today, I definitely would go for the S&P 500.
Millionaire potential:
High, when combined with the first two, it shortens the time to the first million significantly. Depending on your discipline and savings, it can probably become less than 30 years.
Just assuming someone saves USD 2,000 every month, a million is reached in less than 18 years with an S&P 500.
Canva Pro Image
Direct investments in listed companies
I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” — Warren Buffett
I hear your thoughts — but 18 years…. It is such a long time, and I want to live.
In 2020 I am 46 years old, and 18 years is over quickly, so don’t worry. But I do get your point of wanting to live in luxury.
The reality of rich people is that they don’t spend their money buying stupid things; they love buying assets that make them money.
The best example is Warren Buffett, who lives in the same house since the 50s of the previous century.
For those who want to amass more than 1 million in less than 18 years, such a frugal lifestyle is mandatory on the one hand.
On the other hand, it is necessary to learn how to invest and make money by investing in the stock market or real estate.
I have zero experience in real estate as I spend most of my spare time deciphering the secrets of the stock market.
Especially in the last 5 years, I played around with many many investment theories and models.
My bottom line is:
for those who love spending 10–20 hours per week reading stock market news, it is possible to create a 20–30% return fairly easily. But only if you consider an annual time investment of about 1,000 hours as easy.
This is always the point when I would become doubtful as everybody can write that it is easy to create such annual returns.
Let’s look at the Pros — one of the funds I admire is Ark Invest. All of their funds have created a solid 20–50% return over a minimum of 5 years. Fairly impressive.
My case studies are at Wikifolio. The one that works pretty well is an easy approach of measuring a few trend indicators and investing every 6 months in the best performing 7 companies. But beware, the volatility is killing, and an investor needs fairly stable emotions.
How to apply it:
If you want to have a performance north of 10% per year on your investments …
… you need to sit down and study daily either the stock market…
… or the real estate market…
in my opinion, it is either or as both markets are complex …
… and need time and dedication…
… and then everybody can make a significant return.
Millionaire Potential:
Very high — look at Warren Buffett. The only thing he did was investing in listed companies.
Social Media like Medium and YouTube
“Build it, and they will come” only works in the movies. Social Media is a “build it, nurture it, engage them, and they may come and stay.” — — Seth Godin, sethgodin.com
The last one is for the sake of completeness. No, it is not just adding more words to the article, which already is long enough.
The first 4 strategies are fairly old school, strategies from the old millennium. I was in my 20s when the internet as we know it was born, and I watched it growing up.
For more than 20 years, the internet was a great place as additional marketing and sales channel. Amazon was strong on the eCommerce site, while other brands used it to build great stories — like Red Bull.
And that was it since 1993. Google started changing the game as they added tremendous value for creators with google ads.
In my opinion, it was the first business model designed for creators. You put your content online, and Google selects brands that fit. Every click that converts into something the brand desired as key metrics, google rooted payment to the creator.
Youtube was added to the Google Family, and the Ads program spun out. Since then, creators on YouTube can make significant amounts of money by just posting content. Although YouTube has put a cap on the creators who qualify for the program with a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of consumed content, it makes a neat offer to every creator.
Medium is a platform in which avid writers can make money by following their passion. It just needs consistency in writing and posting -a fixed business model delivers the rest. And it works well.
How to apply it:
Just work on learning a skill…
…get a job and gain experience…
… find a hobby …
… and make it a side hustle with a few hundred dollars each month…
… invest in an S&P 500 ETF…
… learn to invest in companies directly…
… and then create videos and articles…
… and I am pretty sure within 10–30 years everybody can hit the million-dollar mark
Millionaire potential:
Medium, as it needs some prerequisite as described above. | https://medium.com/illumination/5-legit-income-streams-of-self-made-millionaires-for-the-21st-century-27e8f2f93a0d | ['Christian Soschner'] | 2020-12-20 18:36:22.639000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Money', 'Wealth', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Mindset'] |
Big Data Analyst Training in Mohali | Big Data Analyst Training in Mohali
Introduction Hadoop Fundamentals
The Motivation for Hadoop
Hadoop Overview
Data Storage: HDFS
Distributed Data Processing: YARN, MapReduce, and Spark
Data Processing and Analysis: Pig, Hive, and Impala
Database Integration: Sqoop
Other Hadoop Data Tools
Exercise Scenarios
Introduction to Pig
What is Pig?
Pig’s Features
Pig Use Cases
Interacting with Pig
Basic Data Analysis with Pig
Pig Latin Syntax
Loading Data
Simple Data Types
Field Definitions
Data Output
Viewing the Schema
Filtering and Sorting Data
Commonly Used Functions
Processing Complex Data with Pig
Storage Formats
Complex/Nested Data Types
Grouping
Built-In Functions for Complex Data
Iterating Grouped Data
Multi-Dataset Operations with Pig
Techniques for Combining Datasets
Joining Datasets in Pig
Set Operations
Splitting Datasets
Pig Troubleshooting and Optimization
Troubleshooting Pig
Logging
Using Hadoop’s Web UI
Data Sampling and Debugging
Performance Overview
Understanding the Execution Plan
Tips for Improving the Performance of Pig Jobs
Introduction to Hive and Impala
What is Hive?
What is Impala?
Why Use Hive and Impala?
Schema and Data Storage
Comparing Hive and Impala to Traditional Databases
Use Cases
Querying with Hive and Impala
Databases and Tables
Basic Hive and Impala Query Language Syntax
Data Types
Using Hue to Execute Queries
Using Beeline (Hive’s Shell)
Using the Impala Shell
Hive and Impala Data Management
Data Storage
Creating Databases and Tables
Loading Data
Altering Databases and Tables
Simplifying Queries with Views
Storing Query Results
Data Storage and Performance
Partitioning Tables
Loading Data into Partitioned Tables
When to Use Partitioning
Choosing a File Format
Using Avro and Parquet File Formats Course details:
Relational Data Analysis with Hive and Impala
Joining Datasets
Common Built-In Functions
Aggregation and Windowing
Complex Data with Hive and Impala
Complex Data with Hive
Complex Data with Impala
Analyzing Text with Hive and Impala
Using Regular Expressions with Hive and Impala
Processing Text Data with SerDes in Hive
Sentiment Analysis and n-grams
Hive Optimization
Understanding Query Performance
Bucketing
Indexing Data
Hive on Spark Impala Optimization
How Impala Executes Queries
Improving Impala Performance
Extending Hive and Impala
Custom SerDes and File Formats in Hive
Data Transformation with Custom Scripts in Hive
User-Defined Functions
Parameterized Queries
Choosing the Best Tool for the Job
Comparing Pig, Hive, Impala, and Relational Databases
Which to Choose?
Being one of the top Big Data Training Company in Mohali and a Certified Microsoft Authorized Education Partner, Cisco Partners, Intel Technology Provider, Google Certified Professionals & IBM Certified. Itronix Solutions deals with 100% Job Placements for Eligible Students after successful completion of the course. | https://medium.com/@namanitronix/big-data-analyst-training-in-mohali-769e57422978 | ['Naman Srivastava'] | 2020-04-23 10:30:26.721000+00:00 | ['Big Data Analytics', 'Big Data', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Python'] |
3 Songs that bring out my daddy issues | Whether your a female or male, you are never exempt from having daddy issues.
World sucks. You have a problem with trusting too easily. Having a long list of breakups and makeups and allowing mediocre companionships, ring a bell?
I have a playlist for you.
Daddy Issues by The Neighbourhood
I am honestly in love with this group. Their voices give me somewhat of a “ If the Weeknd was in a band” vibe, which would be pretty crazy. The chorus a long just cries out to that “childhood trauma” part of you.
Go ahead and cry, little girl / Nobody does it like you do /I know how much it matters to you / I know that you got daddy issues /And if you were my little girl /I’d do whatever I could do /I’d run away and hide with you /I love that you got daddy issues /And I do too
The guy with the neck tattoo is the definition of daddy material, Zaddy material I mean.
So this next song is very much for the 90’s Disney channel fans, remember Lindsay Lohan “Parent Trap” and “Freaky Friday”
In the early 2000s, 2005 to be specific, she came out with a jewel.
Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)
I catch myself crying to this song a lot. It’s just one of those songs that hit heavy without really needing to try. There’s a specific verse that I play over and over whenever I’m thinking back at my past.
Daughter to father, daughter to father /Tell me the truth, did you ever love me’ /Cause these are, these are /The confessions of a broken heart, of a broken heart /I love you /I love you /I love you /I, I love you
You can probably remember the second to last, heart-wrenching “I love you”.
Wow, I should have ended with that one. Tough song to follow. Well when all else fails, bring in The Weeknd without the -e. I remember reading an article explaining The Weeknd perfectly.
haunted strip club vibes
Call out my name by the Weeknd
This song can be taken in so many different contexts. Most would think this song is just about .. well you know.. but I don’t see it like that. The Weeknd poured his heart into this song.
I put you on top, I put you on top
I claimed you so proud and openly
And when times were rough, when times were rough
I made sure I held you close to me
Words like these just speak to your abandonment issues, huh?
IG: HelloXCarla | https://medium.com/@carlacookm/3-songs-that-bring-out-my-daddy-issues-9fd28d1fa261 | ['Carla Cook'] | 2020-12-09 23:12:55.978000+00:00 | ['Personal Development', 'Music', 'Daddy Issues', 'Playlist', 'Trust'] |
Even Sex with A Nymphomaniac Isn’t Enough For A Narcissist | Even Sex with A Nymphomaniac Isn’t Enough For A Narcissist
Photo by Erik Lucatero on Unsplash
Up until recently, I thought I had figured out why men cheat.
Having been involved with 2 married men and listened to their stories as well as speaking to many of my friends and their experience, one of the main drivers seemed to be the lack of sex they were getting in a long-term relationship.
My husband was no different, as soon as I started withholding sex, he went elsewhere. Of course, there are other factors, like the feeling of being desired and “in love”.
When I first started seeing my ex, it appeared to be exactly what happened. We became friends, we flirted, we fell in love, and then he discovered just how sexual I was.
I have always had a high sex drive and I am open-minded and love to try different things. It seemed like we were perfect for each other. We’d spend entire days in bed, starting with morning-sex, cuddling and kissing until he was ready again and we could try again.
There were days that we hardly worked, just occasionally flicking the laptop keyboard to keep it from going into a screensaver, or had sex while on a conference call. Some days we forgot to have lunch. Our little “naughty box” under his bed kept filling up with sexy outfits and new sex toys by the week — something his wife had never been interested in.
When we couldn’t see each other, we’d send sexy pictures and messages, reminisce over the crazy sexual connection that apparently both of us had never felt before.
Every day that we were in the office together we’d stare at each other, undressing each other with looks, only he’d know what outfits I was wearing underneath and it drove us both wild.
We’d escape to the shower room to kiss passionately and tease each other as much as we could, then spend the lunch-break having sex in his apartment. Sometimes we had sex at work, or the gym.
He was very dominant and I loved it. My goal was to tease and please him in any way I could until he was so sore that he had to take a break. We’d try new positions and locations, everything he’d always dreamed of or wanted to do. I knew we couldn’t go on like this forever but at the time I felt the happiest I had ever been. I had found my perfect sexual match.
When I started to notice that his sex-drive changed — I was gutted,
I wasn’t ready to settle for “normal couple sex schedules” yet. What seemed to have been a mutual desire at the start, quickly turned into “my addiction”. Suddenly I found myself to be the one initiating everything and the comments from him increased:
“You are crazy.” “Your sex-drive isn’t normal” .“Of course! You are always ready”. “You are going to break me”. “I am not even surprised anymore you can just come any time”. “All you ever want is sex”. “Here we go again, I should have known.”
A couple of months into the relationship, I brought it up. I said I worried how quickly we “faded” and that his initial desire to spend every minute of the day with me as well as the sexual attraction had dropped. He got upset. I had crazy expectations, we could have never gone on as we did at the start, it was normal for relationships to progress this way. He loved me like he never loved anyone in his life before and that just meant that he wanted to spend more time with me doing non-sexual things.
I agreed, he was right, I had to get some work done during the day and I enjoyed doing other things with him too. Yes, I missed not having sex as much (though it was still a lot) and I missed the crazy desire he had felt at the start, but I adapted.
There wasn’t a moment where I wasn’t ready for him, but I tried to focus more on the other aspects of our relationship. I still continued to buy sexy lingerie, new toys, and sending him sexy messages but I learned to be more patient.
And then, every time we did have sex, it still felt magical and exciting. Over 1 1/2 years there wasn’t a time where it felt “normal”. “It’s amazing how much sex we are still having even when we are together each day”, he’d say after a year.
There were moments in our relationship when everything felt wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it, because I didn’t know anything about Narcissism and emotional abuse at the time, but I remember times where I caught myself thinking: “But the sex is so great, that alone must be worth it?”
One time we had a massive fight. He got so upset, saying I didn’t really love him and just wanted sex. And I got upset too, that it even crossed his mind. I loved him.
When he left he still said that his love for me had never faded, he had never felt for anyone like me before but he just had to do the “right thing”. And chances are I might have believed him, I might have forever thought that I had crazy expectations when it came to sex, that I was selfish for even wanting it and he was the sensitive, compassionate guy who just wanted my love more than he wanted sex.
But I am more of a detective than he gave me credit for. And over the past months, I have uncovered so much about him and became friends with one of his mistresses. The period where I noticed his declining sex-drive was when he started seeing her.
I remember the day at the office when it really kicked off with her. We had had morning sex, most likely lunch-time as well, then I went to his flat, dressed up, and waited for him.
He was having drinks with some of his colleagues, 2 meters away. We were texting most of the night, he asked me if it was OK for him to stay for a while since he rarely went to work outings. I waited a couple of hours until he came over, commented on my outfit and we had another incredible night.
I had no idea at the time that he wasn’t with his colleagues but with her, touching her under the table all evening until he eventually asked her to come to the shower room with him. “Our shower room”.
They didn’t have sex that night, but he didn’t stop messaging her about how crazy he was about her and how he regretted not going all the way, having to leave to “meet some friends”. She had no idea about me at the time either. “The sex was awful, most of the time he as impotent”, she’d say to me when we finally link our stories, but nevertheless he kept coming back to her, sending her intense messages, staring at her at work, commenting on her outfits, telling her he had never been as crazy about someone. It was her who eventually stopped contact, 7 months later.
There are so many things that I understand about him now, I have come to so many painful realizations. But this, I find the hardest to wrap my head around. If you are already with someone who offers you everything you have ever wanted and dreamed of sexually, why would you even go out looking for others?
It wasn’t just her, there were more, even at the very start of us. Why would you gaslight a “Nymphomanic” (what he called me) and pretend you don’t want the relationship to have too much emphasis on sex when on the other hand your only emphasis in life seems to be sex?
I will probably never get an answer to these questions, and I will never understand it. But maybe that’s a good thing, as it means I am healthy, human, and normal.
Maybe I am a nymphomaniac, maybe I just have an unusual high sex-drive but if I find someone, I am committed. If I am in love, I cannot even imagine looking at other people, everyone else seems unattractive to me.
And if I find someone who matches with me in bed, I have absolutely no desire to sleep with anyone else. And maybe that is the only answer I will ever get: He wasn’t normal, or sane, or human.
There is no logical explanation for his behavior, no emotions or love, just the constant need for supply, from as many sources as possible.
More from Kara Summers: | https://medium.com/heart-affairs/even-sex-with-a-nymphomaniac-isnt-enough-for-a-narcissist-af8da31d935a | ['Kara Summers'] | 2020-12-17 03:45:05.743000+00:00 | ['Infidelity', 'Relationships', 'Nymphomaniac', 'Narcissism', 'Sexuality'] |
A Sparrow Falls | A Sparrow Falls
Photo by Artem Labunsky on Unsplash
The man who climbed up the stairs to your room last night,
Was not the same who descended this morning.
With your kisses sweet, the skeptic will now,
Drink poison but will never stop defending your love for him
You played the tune that had lit up every cell in his body.
Which was like a suitcase on an airport carousel, without a destination tag.
And now he floats above the clouds, for he has seen.
The folly of being the eyes of a vulture, for dead meat.
The folly of never knowing the thirst of true Love and drinking wine,
Made from the rotten apples of lust and greed.
For him, the gyrating wheel of fate has stopped spinning now.
As he is tethered to the joys of earthy love of a woman. | https://medium.com/illumination/a-sparrow-falls-109053c78ccf | ['Akhtar Mehmood'] | 2020-12-27 06:09:35.770000+00:00 | ['Erotica', 'Poems On Medium', 'Love', 'Illumination', 'Poetry'] |
The Right Questions to Ask at a Website Kickoff Meeting | To begin any new website project, you need a comprehensive view of the project scope and issues, users, and business goals and all the specific considerations for the client. I’ve led many projects — both freelance and in house — and used these questions to kick off a project and write a project brief or statement of work. I ask these questions to make sure that the client and I feel confident that we have the most crucial information needed to start the work and can identify gaps.
Current Site/Project Scope
If a new site, describe the project and scope.
If a site redesign, what are the problems with the current website? Gather screenshots of main pages and list relevant URLs if they exist to illustrate project scope on a redesign
Who is the User Experience for?
Name of persona or audience segment
What does success look like for them (in their words), and what are the KPIs to measure that success?
What is the performance of the current site, specifically on those KPIs?
What information and functionality do they need to achieve success?
What actions do you want them to take after visiting the website?
UX and Design Requirements
What is the performance of existing web pages/web site?
What are the specific business goals that the new UX must support?
What are similar sites/apps that have an excellent UX for the same goals?
What are the future UX considerations?
Content Requirements
What content is already created?
What content needs to be created for the personas to fit their needs?
What search term(s) would users wanting to get to this page/site would use?
What content/assets have performed well in the past?
What content/assets do competitors use (if new product)?
Where does current content exist? Any previously used pages?
Competitor/Best In Class Examples
What competitor sites do you admire, and why?
What other sites have an appealing UX, and why?
Marketing Considerations
What are the current marketing campaigns that drive to this website?
What does the creative look like?
What is the current marketing strategy that this web project is a part of?
Technical Considerations
What are the technical requirements for the project? I.e., where will it be built?
Any 3rd party systems?
Any functionality/functional requirements already in a plan or thought of?
What are functionality, integration, and platform considerations there for the UX?
A/B and Usability Testing Considerations
A/B testing → Does this capability exist? What has been tested and learned in the past?
Usability Testing → Has any been done? What has been tested and learned in the past?
Reporting Considerations
When are reports needed on-going?
What reports are needed for the benchmark, launch, and performance reporting?
Team
Business Stakeholders
Strategic Lead
UX Team
Project Managers
Design Lead
Content Lead
Functional Lead
Take all this information, capture it in a brief, and share it with your clients and stakeholders. They will feel comforted that you heard them. Then, use this information at each review to make sure the deliverables are meeting the client needs. For more information on reviews, check out my article on how to conduct effective and efficient reviews.
If you like this story, make sure to visit my profile and follow me. You’ll get more articles on user value, showing the business impact of UX, and career advice. | https://medium.com/@kristinzibell/the-right-questions-to-ask-at-a-website-kickoff-meeting-1955dde1a7f6 | ['Kristin Zibell'] | 2021-04-27 14:33:12.655000+00:00 | ['Website Design', 'UX Design', 'Freelancers', 'Freelance', 'Project Management'] |
Contemplations! | I heard that God gives you what you need and not what you want.
It did not make sense then!
And what I’ve realised is that God doesn’t come down by himself in front of us with a board saying “Hi. I’m God. Can I help you?” and with a marching beat playing in the background!
As Paolo Coelho says in ‘The Alchemist’, “Once you desire something strongly enough, the whole universe conspires to help you achieve it!” Only recently have I started understanding it!
You know what, even nature talks to us! In fact, it hollers at the top of its voice whenever you have need of it!
Last week, I was wondering about how long do we keep trying to finish something which is not getting done. Like everyone, I have a few things in life, which I’ve never been able to actually finish, though I’ve been trying for a long long time.
As every day, I was sitting on the beach and was gazing at the waves, when it suddenly struck me that the Sea was shouting-out-loud “Look at me — I don’t give up! Each second, I try again, again and yet again, creating new waves continuously- and I will continue to do so till the end of time!”
Recently, we were at Burra Caves in Araku Valley and there was this stream of water — a thin trickle actually — that has been flowing incessantly for millions of years, eating the stone up and forming all those unimaginable shapes on stalactites and stalagmites! It never gave up!!!
And then, for the first time, I saw a picture at home which said, “In the confrontation between the rock and the stream, the stream always wins in the end — not through strength, but through sheer consistency!”
What was surprising is that the picture has been around for a long long time, but I never noticed it!!!
This happens ever so often — The solution is staring at you in the face, but you never get to notice it till the time comes. What we mean by “till time comes” is till we actually want the solution badly enough!!!
Be it a financial problem, a personal problem or a philosophical problem.
The next time something bothers me, I’m gonna sit on the beach again!!! | https://medium.com/cacofonix/contemplations-7d8f55fca939 | [] | 2017-09-19 10:30:45.291000+00:00 | ['Think', 'People', 'Personal'] |
The Jungle, The Dirt Road & The Freeway: Different Stages of a Company | I have spent a lot of time thinking about this topic.
Why do superstars do so well in one company but flame out in another. I’ve watched this and even experienced this personally in my 21 year career in tech. Having been an early employee (17 or 18) in a startup that scaled to 150 people in a year and then the reverse during the dotcom bubble bursting in 2000. Joining Yahoo! when it was less than 3000 people worldwide, then growing to over 15,000 employees. Also joining 500 Startups when it was sub 30 people and watching it grow to over 150 people in two years. I’ve also seen this in the multitude of portfolio companies which have scaled.
I think much of this can be explained by phase of where a company is at. I used the analogy of Jungle, Dirt Road and the Freeway. I think a better analogy would be Commandos, Infantry & Policemen.
In the earliest phase, you need commandos who will break all the rules to take the beach. These folks are self starters, highly entrepreneurial and do not follow any processes, nor do they need much guidance.
Then you need infantrymen to come in and establish the beach head. And for all intents and purposes expand and scale. These folks are the ones to start putting in processes and some level of structure to grow. They set up the initial playbooks for scaling.
Then finally you have the policemen. These are the folks who come in to fine-tune the playbooks and make sure people follow them to a tee. You could even call them Bureaucrats.
Having experienced all these stages of a company, I’ve personally found that I tend to do well in the late commando stage. I have also thrived in the infantry phase. But have little interest & inclination and little effectiveness in the policeman phase.
In an interview with Charlie Songhurst he distils it down to even more distinct phases.
Pre-Seed to Seed: Team coming together and being effective Seed to Series A: Getting to Product Market Fit Series A: scaling where you need formal management. You need to carefully manage Output of Productivity as you grow. More people is not always more productivity. Series B onwards is Institution Building. Repeating a process at scale. For publicly traded businesses that are usually 9–10 years in. You need a policeman with tight micromanagement & who can thrive in an environment of crazy amount of politics. In a bad company, executives spend 50% of time playing politics. In very good ones, executives only spend 25% of time playing politics.
When you apply this lens to your own career or other peoples career it starts to make so much more sense. I also think that this is a useful lens for hiring. It helps you identify exactly what you are looking for and whether this person is a cultural fit stage wise.
One of the biggest mistakes i’ve seen startups who have recently raised a series A or Series B or C round, is they hire an executive directly from Google, Oracle or Salesforce without considering whether they fit the phase/stage of their company. Google, Oracle & Salesforce are very established companies and while these executives might be highly effective at a big company, they may not be able to adjust to the still grungy infantry phase. You want someone who has gone through this phase before.
Thankfully this is something that is becoming much better understood in high growth companies in Silicon Valley.
Listen to this Newsletter: https://listencat.com/the-hard-fork-by-marvin-liao-podcast/ | https://medium.com/@marvinliao/the-jungle-the-dirt-road-the-freeway-different-stages-of-a-company-8ca610fbce9f | ['Marvin Liao'] | 2020-11-21 12:56:47.227000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Founders', 'Startup Lessons', 'Venture Capital', 'Silicon Valley'] |
Recuperar dados usando foremost | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/100security/recuperar-dados-usando-foremost-17d3e8157af8 | ['Marcos Henrique'] | 2020-12-24 15:06:39.414000+00:00 | ['Foremost', 'Recovery', 'Linux', '100security'] |
Air Quality Tests Done at End of Incineration Plant Flues | Parliamentary Question, 3 March 2020
Ms Anthea Ong asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources given that Singapore incinerates over 90% of its plastic waste (a) how is air quality coming out of the flue monitored; (b) whether there is a testing for a broad range of toxins and, if so, which toxins are tested for; and © whether the results of the air quality tests done at the end of the incineration plant flues be published in order to give comfort and shed light on the safety and health impact of this process.
Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: The National Environment Agency (NEA) requires all operators of Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plants to engage an accredited laboratory to conduct emissions tests and submit results of those tests to NEA at least once a year. This is to ensure that the emissions from WTE plants comply with emission standards specified under the Environmental Protection and Management (Air Impurities) Regulations. These standards cover key pollutants associated with the incineration of plastics waste, such as carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, as well as dioxins and furans. Under the Environmental Protection and Management Act (EPMA), operators who fail to meet the specified standards can be fined up to $20,000 on the first conviction and up to $50,000 on the second or subsequent conviction. To complement emissions testing, NEA inspects WTE plants twice a year to verify that pollution control equipment are properly maintained and operating effectively.
Singapore’s emission standards are published as part of the Environmental Protection and Management (Air Impurities) Regulations under the EPMA. They are comparable with those in other jurisdictions. Our regulations do not require operators of individual facilities, including WTE plants, to publish their emissions test results. Nonetheless, operators of WTE plants may do so voluntarily. For the NEA-operated plants, data on the most common pollutants of concern, namely particulate matter, sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, are published annually on NEA’s website.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Anthea Ong is a Nominated Member of Parliament. (A Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) is a Member of the Parliament of Singapore who is appointed by the President. They are not affiliated to any political party and do not represent any constituency. There are currently nine NMPs in Parliament.)
The multi-sector perspective that comes from her ground immersion of 12 years in different capacities helps her translate single-sector issues and ideas across boundaries without alienating any particular community/group. As an entrepreneur and with many years in business leadership, it is innate in her to discuss social issues with the intent of finding solutions, or at least of exploring possibilities. She champions mental health, diversity and inclusion — and climate change in Parliament.
She is also an impact entrepreneur/investor and a passionate mental health advocate, especially in workplace wellbeing. She started WorkWell Leaders Workgroup in May 2018 to bring together top leaders (CXOs, Heads of HR/CSR/D&I) of top employers in Singapore (both public and private) to share, discuss and co-create inclusive practices to promote workplace wellbeing. Anthea is also the founder of Hush TeaBar, Singapore’s 1st silent teabar and a social movement that aims to bring silence, self care and social inclusion into every workplace, every community — with a cup of tea. The Hush Experience is completely led by lovingly-trained Deaf facilitators, supported by a team of Persons with Mental Health Issues (PMHIs).
Follow Anthea Ong on her public page at www.facebook.com/antheaonglaytheng | https://medium.com/@antheaindiraong/air-quality-tests-done-at-end-of-incineration-plant-flues-f88bfd580651 | ['Anthea Indira Ong'] | 2020-03-03 14:57:17.940000+00:00 | ['Waste Treatment', 'Plastic', 'Pollution'] |
Shot! The 1975 in Brighton | There’s a song on the 1975’s latest album called Love It If We Made It. Whilst it may have been written about a relationship, its title could also describe how the band must have felt when I first saw them. That was back in May 2013.
They were playing Brighton’s Paganini Ballroom as part of that year’s Great Escape festival. I was there that day and I remember coming away feeling disappointed with their live performance, which fell a long way short of my expectations based on how good those nascent tracks like Chocolate sounded on record.
Fortunately, by the time I saw them again two years later in 2015, they had redeemed themselves and put on a really impressive show at the Brighton Centre, a show that stood out for its use of video graphics as much as the improvement in their stage presence.
For any artist in the music industry nothing says “we made it” more than headlining a massive festival. This year, the 1975 will headline Reading and Leeds. 2019 already feels like it’s going to be a huge year for the band, a year that kicked off with multiple BRIT award nominations and a headline tour of the UK in support of their third record, the internet-inspired, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships that included two shows at the 02 Arena, Britain’s biggest indoor music venue.
Arguably, the best song on the album is Love It If We Made It. Lyrically smart, it references everything from selfie culture to Kanye West and Donald Trump. It also contains the line “Modernity has failed us.” In fact, one could contend that modernity is the very reason for the 1975s success and, in so many ways, it’s the very thing that epitomises them. They are a perfect example of a thoroughly modern band.
It comes through in their songs – the subjects they sing about and how they sound – and it resonates across every aspect of their live show. Like almost all big artists these days they’re backed by a huge video screen. Having one is just the start, it’s what you do with it that counts. And how the 1975 use theirs is what makes them such a modern live band. For that, they owe much to their award-winning lighting designer Tobias Rylander.
Visually, they’d stepped things up. Matty Healy had described it as being “full of light” and it certainly was. There were influences from Kasabian’s 48:13 tour of 2015 with the use of large text and solid colours. But perhaps most interesting is how LED video screens now have become light sources and are eclipsing conventional theatre lighting in dictating the mood and feel of each song.
For much of this show, Healy and his three band mates are enveloped in a haze of smog-like smoke and silhouetted against the ever changing glitzy screen graphics. Behind them are two extra musicians and a pair of dancers, the Jaiy Twins.
Three huge rectangular frames, one behind and one at either side, help create the impression of scale, while subconsciously alluding to the ubiquitous shape of modernity: the smartphone. The frames themselves are pulsating LEDs. And, to further emphasise the importance of the rectangle in contemporary life, the two video screens to either side of the set are in portrait mode, rather than landscape.
Being it was over three years since they last played Brighton, a palpable feeling of expectancy could be felt among the young, sold out crowd as they waited for what seemed ages for the 1975 to take the stage.
Even though he’s not your typical frontman, Matty Healy clearly has a special bond with his fans. Onstage, he’s a little awkward — often using his hoodie as something to hide his face, a face that increasingly reminds me of silent movie star Harold Lloyd, whilst at other times, there’s something of a James Dean look about him. What there’s no doubt about is he’s the focal point of the band.
The others, with the exception of guitarist/keyboard player, Adam Hann, are in truth fairly anonymous, preferring to just play their instruments and stay out of the limelight. Hann himself impressed with some excellent guitar licks, demonstrating that he’s the one most responsible for the band’s sound.
That being said, for me the real star of the show was the screen graphics. Appropriately for such a modern band, they elevated the performance into something a lot more interesting. As good as it was, now having read about other gigs on the tour, I’ve a suspicion Brighton, being the smallest venue, didn’t actually get to see the full show.
Whatever we got, it was a step up for the 1975, a performance that cements them as one of most important British bands out there. Now with three albums worth of material to choose from, the 24-song set has more light and shade and is peppered with more standout tunes for the audience to sing along to, something they did en mass from beginning to end.
Notable among the best were It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You) a song about Healy’s successful battle with heroin addiction and the gorgeous Change Of Heart which contains the personification of modern lyrics: ”And then you took a picture of your salad and put it on the Internet.”
Describing their music, someone recently put it like this: “The 1975 make slinky funk-pop for the smartphone generation.” I couldn’t say it any better. Although their name may be out of date, they make modern music, music that speaks to the youth of today.
Setlist: Give Yourself A Try | TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME | She’s American | UGH! | Sincerity Is Scary | It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You) | Loving Someone | The Ballad Of Me And My Brain | A Change Of Heart | Narcissist | How To Draw/Petrichor | An Encounter | Robbers | falling for you | Me | I Like America (And America Likes Me) | Somebody Else | Girls | I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes) || Love It If We Made It | Be My Mistake | Chocolate | The Sound | Sex | https://medium.com/@gmarlowe/shot-the-1975-in-brighton-a0ce39a1d04e | ['Gary Marlowe'] | 2019-01-22 09:58:45.877000+00:00 | ['1975', 'Review', 'Brighton', 'Lighting', 'Music'] |
103 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice | Note 1: This article was last updated on September 21, 2020.
Note 2: Our work to fix what we broke and left broken. The work isn’t done until Black folks tell us it’s done. | https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234 | ['Corinne Shutack'] | 2020-12-26 16:21:37.336000+00:00 | ['United States', 'Racial Equality', 'Racial Justice', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Peace'] |
Crypto Tales: Success story of Sanchit Jain | I became aware of the cryptocurrency in 2017, but I never paid much attention to it. People everywhere said that it was a fraud, that it was some kind of trap, and so on and so forth. So I thought I’d stay away from it and I did — for sometime. But around the time of Diwali I came to know that BTC was cheap, so I thought I’d give it a try. I thought that even if I lost it wouldn’t be much.
I asked my dad to lend me some loan to purchase BTC, but he denied. I wasn’t surprised, of course. I saved some money on my own and on 9th December I invested 2K in BTC and soon it soon went up to 15K. During those days I wasn’t aware of any ALT coins or any other kind of crypto. Learning about them didn’t take longer and I invested in XRP. It went up to thrice the amount I’d invested and didn’t sell it. That’s the mistake I made. I got greedy and expected it to go up further. My investment of 35K turned to just about 8K.
I was heartbroken but not without realizing that holding crypto was a dumb move. I also realized that even if NTC pumped up to, say S20K, I’d still book a loss if I just hold on to them. I’d also booked some loss in Zebpay due to some mismanagement from their side. That’s when I discovered Bitbns and my profits have soared ever since.
I started investing in cheap coins like DOGE, DGB, etc. in search of some profit, but still the market was going down by the day. Then the Bitbns team introduced me to Arbitrage and taught me how it worked. I started arbitrage with very small amount, about 2K that I had got from liquidating all my BTC. Once I started arbitrage I started earning for the first time and I soon started recovering my losses.
All this was possible because of Bitbns. Bitbns is the only exchange in India that has a variety of coins and the best customer support. I have made profits I wouldn’t have dreamt of making if not for Bitbns.
Thanks, Bitbns, for helping me recover my losses. | https://medium.com/bitbns/crypto-tales-success-story-of-sanchit-jain-44b9987687 | [] | 2019-06-04 15:11:00.733000+00:00 | ['Storytelling', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain'] |
What Generational Gaps Between Side Hustlers Signal About the Future | What Generational Gaps Between Side Hustlers Signal About the Future
A perfect storm of pessimism, idealism, and realism
Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels
Why did you decide to start a side hustle as a millennial?
The professor looked in my direction, catching me completely off-guard. Born in ’94, I was the only Millennial on the panel. But I didn’t identify at first. Especially after spending a lifetime patronizing my little brother for his typical Gen Z ticks. A sign of the times.
What happened next reveals a glimpse into the future.
Generation X lived through the ’08 financial crisis
After some prodding, my fellow panelist Sam opened up about her journey. To her, starting an SEO agency after college was also about capitalizing on a gap in the market. Not many others were doing it, and she knew how. So she sold a service to open up another source of income.
Plain and simple, but also elegant.
As someone who survived the recession and watched her family live on a strict budget, she prioritized job security over freedom. Sam had no false qualms about the nighttime job replacing the daytime one. She asked clients for a 24-hour advance notice before calls, tiptoed the line around job expectations, and deployed a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
The full-time gig took precedence between the hours of 9 to 5, and she took a structured and disciplined approach. It was a way of hedging against the continuous pessimism she felt about companies and the overall economic outlook.
70% of executives surveyed believe that Gen X make the best overall workers. But isn’t there a good chance that most of those executives are Gen X?
Millennials are independent and purpose-driven
I started my first business at 19 (*if you don’t count the lemonade stand or babysitter club). It was a fitness apparel and supplement line, built at the intersection of opportunistic spark and misdirected passion.
At the time, I began to see others launching brands in the space. It looked cool, and I wanted to make more money. The barriers to entry weren’t astronomically high. So I came up with a product, drafted a plan, sourced a supplier, hired a graphic designer, and started selling.
It was going pretty well until I realized that it wasn’t for me. I wasn’t excited about selling protein powder and t-shirts. I didn’t feel good about making money from it. I couldn’t convince myself that I was solving a big problem.
So I took a step back and decided to work full-time in healthcare. Sooner than later, the itch came back. Within a year I launched a side hustle of drafting technical B2B content for cybersecurity start-ups and hired two incredible writers to help.
It felt good. Aside from the fact that the companies and teams were making an incredible impact, I was doing work that I enjoyed. On my own terms. Even more importantly, I had some level of financial freedom and purpose. After surfing friend’s couches throughout college, it felt nice to not worry about job security.
Don’t get me wrong, I still reviewed company policies, notified managers, and contributed at work. But I didn’t feel much pressure, I knew that I had plenty of bargaining power of my own. So I bounced across industries and functions, invested in my spare time, wrote for clients and had fun with it.
The concept of social responsibility and ethics would bubble up from time to time. Was I leaving a positive footprint on the world? Then I’d go back to being lazy, making money, doing cool work, and creating more time.
To summarize, I initially started a business to seize a market opportunity. Over time, motivation became more intrinsic. The focus evolved into scratching an itch and fulfilling a lifestyle.
Generation Z meant to be digitally-enabled nomads
Pretty sure John was texting when his name was suddenly called during the panel. Asked about his start, he told a story going back to the middle school days.
John had been managing social media accounts for hard cash since the age of 15. He always had ambitions of bootstrapping a start-up, tapping into the power of technology early as a way of generating scale.
By the time he was 20, John had found a way to get bored at his job, hired and fired multiple employees, but then stumbled his way into being broke. Life had turned him into a realist, and he became skeptical of the American dream after watching his immigrant family struggle.
He grew up in a world in which social media and technology always existed, exposing him to continuous globalization, disruption, and “digital transformation”.
So he decided to figure it out on his own. Restarting the agency, he quickly sold his first product. It was an online course, and it was a hit. Thousands of positive reviews and ridiculous amounts of money to come with.
So I ask: Is the future so bad in the hands of millennials and Gen X? Maybe we won’t be the hardest workers, but we might just be the most capable when it comes to leveraging technology, building efficiency, and finding purpose.
And although we all bring different mindsets to the table, we can play to each other’s strengths and styles to build better companies. Ones that drive impact by fusing the pessimism, idealism, and realism spread across the generations. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/what-the-generational-divide-between-entrepreneurs-means-for-us-70d32a6cfdc4 | ['Sid Khaitan'] | 2020-12-14 22:32:57.011000+00:00 | ['Freelancing', 'Side Hustle', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Generation Z'] |
Trump vs the People: Even a low-energy autogolpe can be dangerous | Caricature by DonkeyHotey. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
On Friday, December 11, the US Supreme Court finally pronounced on a matter that I’m going to call Trump vs the People. That’s Donald Trump’s attempt to, in his words, “overturn” the results of the November 3 general election and Joe Biden’s victory with 306 electoral college votes and an extra six million ballots.
One can but hope that Mr Trump will now cease and desist. His lack of good sense, a moral compass or democratic instincts, unfortunately, leave one with no certainty the end is nigh. It’s an autogolpe, a form of a coup in which a nation’s leader, despite having come to power through legal means, unlawfully assumes extraordinary powers not granted under normal circumstances.
Mr Trump’s efforts have been buffoonish. The Economist has called it a “low-energy autogolpe”. His legal efforts have thus far racked up one win, 54 losses, several Rudy Giuliani absurd showings and several coronavirus cases.
And yet even a low-energy autogolpe can be dangerous. For, Mr Trump’s efforts are fuelling a clear and present disbelief in the certified and re-certified results of the 2020 election.
One of The Economist’s correspondents, John Fasman, recently reported the following extraordinary exchange from Georgia. Early voting begins on Monday, December 14, in the two senate races in the state that have gone into a run-off. I’m mostly paraphrasing the exchange between Fasman and a Republican voter in Georgia.
Fasman attended an event for Republican senator David Purdue, who’s facing down 33-year-old Democrat Jon Ossoff. Fasman spoke to the owner of the house where the Purdue rally was held. It was, he said, a tightly packed, unmasked, mostly elderly crowd. The householder said the election of Republican senators was essential in order to “defeat socialism, communism I call it…in order to put little brakes on the Biden administration if he winds up being the president.”
When asked if he thought Biden was a socialist or a communist, the householder said “socialist”.
When asked why he thought the results of the presidential election were “still unclear” (in the second week of December), the householder said it was obvious Biden couldn’t have got that many votes. He offered the following proof in support of his firm belief that Trump won: a truckdriver went all around the country and saw only one or two Biden signs and thousands of Trump signs. And it’s the same around here, the faithful Georgia Republican Trump supporter affirmed. Ergo, there was no chance of a Trump defeat.
This sort of stubborn ignorance would be merely pathetic if Mr Trump were not stoking anger against state and local election officials across the US.
But it’s not pathetic, it’s dangerous. The public is being inflamed with the belief, as evinced by that Georgia householder, that a presidential election was unfair and some are resorting to violent threats against officials.
According to a list compiled by the New York Times, these threats include:
** Dozens of Trump supporters, some armed, went to the home of Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state, and began shouting obscenities.
** On Twitter, Trump supporters have posted photographs of the home of a Wisconsin official and mentioned her children.
** In Phoenix, about 100 Trump supporters, some armed, protested at the building where officials were counting votes.
** In Vermont, officials received a voice message threatening them with “execution by firing squad.”
** A Philadelphia official received anti-Semitic and violent threats after Pam Bondi, a Trump ally, publicly mentioned him.
** A Georgia poll worker went into hiding after a viral video falsely claimed he had discarded ballots.
** Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, and his wife have received death threats, including by text message, and caravans have circled their house.
** Gabriel Sterling, another Georgia official, received a message wishing him a happy birthday and saying it would be his last. | https://medium.com/@rashmee/trump-vs-the-people-even-a-low-energy-autogolpe-can-be-dangerous-e73ebf9f443 | ['Rashmee Roshan Lall'] | 2020-12-12 10:50:38.189000+00:00 | ['Biden', 'Autogolpe', 'Georgia', 'Trump', '2020 Presidential Race'] |
Jekyll & GitHub Actions | Jekyll & GitHub Actions
The standard GitHub Pages process imposes limitations on which Jekyll plugins we can use. Let’s avoid this issue using GitHub Actions instead.
GitHub Pages
For the most part and in most simple cases, the basic Jekyll deployment flow on GitHub Pages is straight-forward and you can be up-and-running in a few minutes. The basic flow of deploying on GitHub pages in simple cases is as follows:
Replace regular Jekyll gem with the github-pages gem in your Jekyll repository
Enable GitHub pages on your repository via the project’s GitHub settings menu
Push to the master branch of your GitHub repo
The Jekyll source code will be then be run on subsequent pushes to the master branch and automatically published to your site. Typically, this will then be available for viewing either at yourusername.github.io or yourusername.github.io/projectname depending on your setup.
If you’re interested in getting started quickly, this is a good approach to take and both the jekyllrb site and GitHub docs have good resources documenting the process.
Limitations
I was recently trying to add a tagging system to my Jekyll site (this page included!) and found that the AutoPages feature from the jekyll-paginate-v2 gem seemed like it would be perfect for the job. However, at the very top of the project’s README, it warns that it will not work with GitHub Pages.
Specifically, this is because GitHub Pages only supports a small subset of available gems, and not always the latest versions of those gems. Further, if you need the most recent version of Jekyll, you’d be out of luck with GitHub Pages.
One potential fix for this is posting the actual site content to GitHub Pages rather than the Jekyll source code. The method for this is to basically run the Jekyll build on your local machine first, then check in the _site directory. This approach would require multiple repositories for your code or at least multiple branches since your source and you site would need to be versioned separately.
Enter GitHub Actions
Although it isn’t exactly new, GitHub Actions is newer than GitHub pages. With actions, you can run automated tasks on your repositories for a variety of different scenarios. For example, you may want to run commit validation that must pass before Pull Requests can be merged. In our case, on every commit to the master branch, we want to run an action that will trigger a Jekyll build. Using this Actions-based approach, we can implement the 2-branch pattern we would manually have to do regularly.
To get this up and running, I recommend just following this guide from the jekyllrb site. I found it pretty straightforward and got it working after only a few minutes. However, there are a few changes that I would suggest after you get it working initially.
In case the linked Jekyll docs get updated, I am including a copy of their suggested github-pages.yml below as it is at the time of writing. If the docs get updated, the rest of this section may become irrelevant. Before getting started with the following changes, I'd also encourage you to replace the github-pages gem with the appropriately versioned jekyll gem as well.
jekyllrb github-pages.yml :
name: Build and deploy Jekyll site to GitHub Pages
on:
push:
branches:
- master
jobs:
github-pages:
runs-on: ubuntu-16.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- uses: helaili/[email protected]
env:
JEKYLL_PAT: ${{ secrets.JEKYLL_PAT }}
The first change that I would suggest is updating to the latest version of the jekyll-action action in case there are any performance improvements or bug fixes. The latest releases can be found here. Currently, the latest version is 2.0.4 so the yml file becomes:
name: Build and deploy Jekyll site to GitHub Pages
on:
push:
branches:
- master
jobs:
github-pages:
runs-on: ubuntu-16.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
- uses: helaili/[email protected]
env:
JEKYLL_PAT: ${{ secrets.JEKYLL_PAT }}
When I made this change on my personal articles site, the build started to immediately fail with this error:
Could not locate Gemfile
This was pretty confusing since I had actually already committed my Gemfile. If you run into this issue, the fix is to also commit the Gemfile.lock file which I had previously had gitignored.
I would also recommend using the GitHub Actions cache since it will lead to faster build times for your builds. This is important since GitHub Actions keeps track of the amount of machine time that your actions use and the amount is limited based on the tier that you are using. At the time of writing this is 2000 minutes per month in the free plan and 3000 for the pro plan. More specifics can be found on the GitHub Actions site.
Before implementing caching, each of my builds was taking around 3 minutes since it had to create the container and then ensure all of the appropriate gems were installed. With caching enabled, builds came down to 1 minute so the time savings were noticeable for me. I think that for larger sites or those with many writers the time savings might be a smaller percentage of the total build time overall but I can’t say personally. Either way, saving time is important since the amount of minutes that are free is limited.
To add caching, we just update our action to use the cache as shown below.
Updated github-pages.yml :
name: Build and deploy Jekyll site to GitHub Pages
on:
push:
branches:
- master
jobs:
github-pages:
runs-on: ubuntu-16.04
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v2
# Use GitHub Actions' cache to shorten build times and decrease load on servers
- uses: actions/cache@v1
with:
path: vendor/bundle
key: ${{ runner.os }}-gems-${{ hashFiles('**/Gemfile.lock') }}
restore-keys: |
${{ runner.os }}-gems-
- uses: helaili/[email protected]
env:
JEKYLL_PAT: ${{ secrets.JEKYLL_PAT }}
The above is actually the same for my personal site as well for the time being so I can at least guarantee that it works to some extent. Now, whenever I push to master, I can be sure that my site will build properly and push to my GitHub Pages site while also having the flexibility to use any additional Jekyll plugins that I want.
Conclusion and Further considerations
Using GitHub Actions to deploy our Jekyll site can allow us to do use more advanced features since we aren’t limited to a subset of specific plugins that we can use. Although the setup is a bit more involved that the regular GitHub Pages setup, I believe the trade-off is worth it since the setup is a one-time investment. From an actual cost perspective, GitHub Actions for building a Jekyll site should likely be free unless you are using hundreds of builds a month and have builds that last many minutes each.
Also, while we are using the helaili/jekyll-action, we aren’t using all of it’s features, so you should check out its Action Marketplace Page in case it has any other features that may be helpful to you. There are also Jekyll actions other than this specific one so there might be another one out there that fits your needs better, so take a look through the action library if this one doesn’t suit your needs exactly
I definitely recommend trying GitHub Actions for your own site, especially if you had been using GitHub pages in the first place and ever found yourself wanting to use unsupported plugins. | https://jdvp.medium.com/jekyll-github-actions-28a90a9d9bad | ['Jd Porterfield'] | 2020-11-08 00:40:44.146000+00:00 | ['Github Actions', 'Github Pages', 'Jekyll'] |
Break your bar chart habit | Data
Data visualizations invariably require some kind of data — this should be no surprise. For the purposes of visualization, however, we care more about the shape of the data than the actual values themselves. That’s how we are able to create dashboards that update when new data are supplied.
Data are certainly important in a data visualization, but the shape of the data is more grammatically relevant to the chart than the values themselves.
In order to cut a data set that is the correct shape for your visualization, you’ll first need to consider what you would like to say with your data. I won’t cover that entire thought process in this piece, but take a look at the article I wrote about data visualization “therapy” for some tips on how to get at your main message:
Geometric objects
The predominant shape or shapes you select will vary depending on the message you’re trying to convey. There are some safe rules of thumb, but bear in mind in mind that exceptions abound. That said, lines tend to be good at emphasizing change within groups and points tend to do well at demonstrating relationships between discrete entities. Box-and-whiskers or violins do a nice job of displaying distributions. Rectangles are an easy choice for comparing quantities.
The geometric object you choose to display your data will influence how your message is interpreted.
Aesthetic mappings
Once you’ve selected the shape that will hold your data, think about how those shapes will change based on the values. That could mean associating colors to categories or intensities, size to quantity, or any other number of visual traits that will encode the variation in your data.
Aesthetic mappings connect visual traits to variation in your data.
Scales
You’ve already used aesthetic mappings to establish relationships between characteristics in the data and visual attributes like size and color. Scales take that a step further by defining the specifics of these relationships. For example, you might decide to map groups in your data to colors using a categorical scale of pink, beige, and brown. In this case the legend would represent the categorical color scale. Similarly, you could map quantity to vertical distance using a scale of 0 to 10 where the y-axis is analogous to a legend for quantity.
Scales are the exhaustive range of possibilities that define the aesthetic mappings between geometric objects and visible qualities like color, size, and distance.
Position adjustment
How will each element be positioned relative to the others? Position adjustment gives you control over the shared spaces in which your geometric objects reside. Stacking or dodging bars are common examples of position adjustment. You might also use “jittering,” which is the process of adding a bit of aesthetically stochastic noise to points in a scatterplot to minimize overlap in dense areas.
Position adjustments prevent geometric elements from overlapping and can help emphasize different comparisons.
Statistical transformations
Are you showing aggregated quantities across groups? What about means, or perhaps a smoothed line? These are examples of operations performed on data called statistical transformations. In essence, if it isn’t a scatterplot or an unadulterated line chart, some statistical transformation has come into play.
Statistical transformations are operations on the raw data that result in a different display format.
Coordinates
Unlike statistical transformations that perform operations on the data themselves, the coordinate system you choose changes how the relationships between your data points are mathematically defined. For example, moving a bar chart from the Cartesian plane into polar coordinates results in a pie chart.
Most graphics are draw in the Cartesian coordinate system, but other mathematical spaces are fair game, too!
Faceting
Depending on the comparisons you are trying to make in the graph, you might want to use facets, also known as small multiples. Faceting comes in handy when you’d like to see patterns within subsets of the data relative to a common scale. Faceting side-by-side allows for comparisons with a shared y-axis, whereas displaying stacked facets allows for comparison across a shared x-axis. The latter is particularly useful if you are showing several groups’ behavior over the same time period.
Facets allow you to compare groups that share a common scale.
What about 3D?
Moving beyond two dimensions in space is a matter of mapping a third aesthetic to an axis-based scale. That’s it! If your data have a variable that works for faceting, you’ve really already created a 3D graphic. Similarly, if you are using color, size, or another continuous aesthetic you can attribute it to an axial scale.
3D spaces are 2D spaces with an additional scale — and that scale could be a continuous axis or more akin to a facet.
…and animation?
Like 3D graphics, animation is a special case of using time as an aesthetic mapping. You can think of animation as iteratively viewing facets over time. | https://medium.com/data-science-at-microsoft/break-your-bar-chart-habit-26c5d0085099 | ['Nancy Organ'] | 2020-12-01 18:02:48.577000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Data Visualization', 'Data Science'] |
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Thanks for watching guys!! Smiling a little better a big laugh.! Have a nice day :)) | https://medium.com/watch-soul-studio-movie-animation-online-donwload/watch-soul-animation-movie-2020-hd-720-3249fcd32e77 | ['Abo Telah Kembali'] | 2020-12-26 18:24:09.841000+00:00 | ['Animation'] |
How Not to Fight the Vikings: The Invasion of Maldon, 991 AD | Photo by Victor B. on Unsplash
When thousands of Vikings raided the British coast in 991 AD, they were expecting to dominate its badly organised inhabitants. However, a poorly chosen landing point stranded them on a small island while the British gathered on the opposing shore. Defeat looked certain, that is, until the local Anglo-Saxon leader made a fatal decision.
This battle remained as an important part of history due to an Old English poem. This poem’s purpose was to be a warning about the viciousness of the Viking threat and, also, a moral tale about the destructive nature of pride.
The Viking threat
At the end of the tenth century, Viking raids from Denmark were a curse on the British eastern coast. The raiders utilised the area as a hunting ground, subduing local opposition and ripping the heart out of villages and towns along the way.
Britain, which was a patchwork of Anglo-Saxon territories led by King Æthelred the Unready, could not put together any kind of organised defence. Coastal residents lived in constant fear, as their masters quarrelled about how to deal with the threat. When the Vikings came, some paid them off and some ordered their servants and armies to fight to the death. The chosen method depended on the landowner and its success depended on the mercy of the invaders.
In 991 AD, the Viking fleet set sail, led by Olaf — it’s unclear which Olaf but it could have quite possibly been Olaf Tryggvason, King of Denmark — with thousands of men — estimates vary between 2,000 and 4,000 — eager to take advantage of their Anglo-Saxon neighbours. The raiders worked their way downwardly throughout the coast, looting Ipswich, Sandwich and other coastal villages. Their final stop was Maldon, a town in what is now the English county of Essex (although, at that time, it was its own kingdom).
As they moved up the estuary, approaching the town, the local Earl, Byrhtnoth, ordered them to halt or pay a levy to go further.
Landing at Maldon
The Vikings beached their boats and jumped off, eager to teach Byrhtnoth a lesson for his lack of respect and claim the spoils a victory would certainly bring them.
The Anglo-Saxon faction was composed of a collection of villagers, farmers, and servants. Estimates of the number of people on the British side vary, but this was not an organised force. These men were not soldiers, they were farmers and labourers, untested in battle and untrained. Byrhtnoth sent a messenger to the king, telling him of the incursion and his intention to fight them off. There would be no payment for the invaders.
The Vikings planned their attack. There was no possibility of this confrontation ending in anything other than a bloodbath.
Then the tide came in.
The causeway
Unbeknown to the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings had come ashore in a small island in the estuary, Northey Island. Although this island was connected to Maldon it was only accessible via a narrow causeway when the tide was low.
The causeway was small: men could only cross three at a time or risk getting trapped in the mud. Either side of the causeway was composed of deep, impassable mud. The Vikings could not cross the mud without sinking or risking getting stuck in a position in which they would certainly drown when the next tide came in.
The defenders placed their best men on the causeway in an attempt to deter the invaders and lined the bank with archers. Any advance would mean death for the Vikings, even with their superior fighting skills, the men in the back would be picked off by the archers while the ones in the front fought for their lives. It was likely that casting enough Vikings at the defenders would eventually cause a break in their defenses, but that would cost many men their lives.
Olaf was either faced with a humbling retreat or a disastrous assault.
So he decided to shout.
The bargain
The distance to the mainland wasn’t great. The Viking invaders could shout to the British defenders and soon they entered into dialogue. Olaf threatened Byrhtnoth with destruction unless he paid a ransom. The Vikings were not there to capture or hold territory. Their only aim was to cause trouble, and it would continue to be so until they were paid.
Byrhtnoth was incensed. How dare they invade and threaten his land? He told them no — he would not facilitate any such payment. If they wanted money, they would have to take it.
Olaf pleaded his case. Could Byrhtnoth not see that it was not fair to fight like this? It wasn’t… noble.
So Byrhtnoth agreed that the Vikings be let across the causeway.
The previously mentioned poem states that it was ofermōde that caused Byrhtnoth to let the Vikings cross. This is a word that is difficult to translate, having no modern English equivalent, however, looking at the translation by J.R.R. Tolkien (yes, that Tolkien) it could be described as overmastering pride.
Byrhtnoth not only wanted to prove that his army could beat the Vikings, but he wanted to do it in such a way that it would halt any further debate about paying the Viking raiders off. It was to be a decisive victory, nothing less. He must have been rather confident in his group of farmers and servants because not only did he let Olaf cross, but he also allowed the invader army to have time to get ready for battle.
A statue of Byrhtnoth in Maldon, UK. Oxyman / CC BY-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
The defeat
The battle didn’t go well for the British. The Vikings were stronger and better equipped for a battle, and now that their terrain advantage was gone Byrhtnoth and his troops were doomed.
Different sources describe the fight in different ways, with some highlighting the overwhelming odds, some cheering the bravery of the defenders, and some describing the toll the Anglo-Saxons took on the attackers. The outcome, however, is always the same: the British fled, Byrhtnoth died at the hands of a Viking raider, and Olaf conquered Maldon.
The tax
It is rather ironic that Byrhtnoth’s death prompted the very thing that he was trying to prevent. With Vikings now entrenched on British soil, King Æthelred had little choice. He paid Olaf off with 3,300 kg of silver and the Vikings left.
To stop the Vikings from continuing raids against his country, Æthelred initiated what is thought to be one of the world’s first land taxes and, each year, he would pay the Danish king to protect his country from attack.
Maldon was a decisive battle in the ongoing hostilities between the Vikings and Anglo-Saxon Britain. The poem would later become famous and, although it may not be a perfect record what actually went on, it remains a fascinating window into the relationship between the Vikings and their victims. | https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/how-not-to-fight-the-vikings-the-invasion-of-maldon-991ad-d6d2aa1de8c0 | ['Phil Hurst'] | 2020-09-22 14:01:12.033000+00:00 | ['War', 'England', 'History', 'Nonfiction', 'Vikings'] |
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This pack of colorful, non-slip toddler plates takes up minimal space in your kitchen thanks to their ability to stack neatly on top of each other. This makes storing them in small places ideal, especially if you’re travelling in an RV or staying away from home.
Perfect for toddlers and young children
Breakfast, lunch and dinner can all be difficult if you have a fussy child. Our silicone plate collection for children each feature 3 separate compartments on every plate so food items can be kept away from each other. Ideal for snacks, hot meals and cold meals too. Place fruit in one section, crackers in another and veg sticks in another. The options are endless, and it makes meal times exciting for little ones who enjoy feeding themselves.
Why silicone is best for your child
When shopping for baby and toddler friendly food dishes silicone is really your best option. The clean, BPA free surface is less porous than other materials which prevents build-up, illuminates soap residue, and is less of a breeding ground for nasties.
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PandaEar Divided Unbreakable Silicone Baby and Toddler Plates — 3 Pack — Non-Slip — Dishwasher and Microwave Safe — FDA/LFGB Certified Silicone Blue Green Yellow | https://medium.com/@ivaper/pandaear-divided-unbreakable-silicone-baby-and-toddler-plates-3-pack-non-slip-dishwasher-and-964c30148a55 | ['Best Bacare', 'Baproduct Top World'] | 2019-10-05 12:16:14.973000+00:00 | ['Blue', 'Certified', 'Baby'] |
React tooltips with framer motion | What is framer motion?
Framer motion is a motion library for react, and it makes some pretty cool stuff possible in a relatively simple way. You can animate single elements, or orchestrate animation between elements. You can animate the presence and disappearance of elements. You can also specify how the animation takes place, either based on duration with an easing mechanism, or time-based with factors like dampening and spring.
Concepts
The basic idea of the tooltip is to have markers anywhere on the page. These are linked to tooltips. so that when a marker is clicked, the linked tooltip appears. Only one tooltip can appear at once on screen and if one is already open, clicking another one will cause the open one to close first.
The markers and tooltips are connected via react context. A provider gives access to descendant components to determine which tooltip to show/hide. The markers hook into this provider to set the currently selected tooltip. The tooltips hook into the provider to determine whether to show themselves or not.
To make sure that the tooltips always appear over any other content, the tooltip content is rendered using a portal, to target a div that exists outside of the main app div.
This is my go-to styling choice for most react apps these days. The flexibility it provides as well as seamlessly working with framer motion are two big advantages. For framer motion, it also allows styled components to be created from its own motion enabled components, and then accepts dynamic styling props.
For this solution, a number of react hooks get used, including useState to set the tooltip position on screen, useRef to get access to the tooltips underlying DOM element, and useEffect and useLayoutEffect to handle how components get rendered.
This is where the actual animation happens. Without it, the tooltips work but they don’t look as nice. With framer motion, we can create tooltips that animate when they come into and leave the DOM. This is done by the use of the ‘AnimatePresence’ component. Here’s a snippet of the tooltip code.
const Component = ( <AnimatePresence> {active && ( <Tooltip ref={ref} position={position} {...motionProps} > {children} </Tooltip> )} </AnimatePresence> ); return createPortal(Component, document.getElementById("tooltips"));
The ‘AnimatePresence’ component wraps the child component and handles the animation when it enters or exits the DOM. How the animation functions is handled by the ‘motionProps’ prop, shown below…
const variants = { active: { opacity: 1, y: 0, transition: { duration: 0.4, ease: "easeOut", }, }, inactive: { opacity: 0, y: -40, transition: { duration: 0.3, }, }, }; export const motionProps = { variants, initial: "inactive", animate: "active", exit: "inactive", };
So one way to handle enter/exit animation is by using variants and then specifying which variant to use for the various stages (initial, animate, exit). The above code is saying that for initial and exit animations the element should shift up by 40px, fade out, and that it should take 0.3 seconds. When it’s active, it should move 40px down, fade in, and it should take 0.4 seconds. It’s also got easing set on it so the tooltip slows down slightly as it reaches the destination.
I’m no UX expert but I did have a good read of an excellent article on proper use of animation in UX. A couple of points I got was that entry animation in this case should take slightly longer than exit animation, and that entry animation looks more natural when it slows down as it reaches completion.
Conclusion
There’s obviously a ton of other stuff you can do with framer motion, I’ve just scratched the surface, but it seems to me to be an intuitive and simple way to solve quite common problems. I’m going to be exploring other aspects of framer motion in subsequent posts, so check back later if you’re interested.
Check out the sample repo that shows the full code (caveat, its a work in progress 😉). Hope you enjoy it. | https://medium.com/@simon_p_kerr/react-tooltips-with-framer-motion-164b624354cb | ['Simon Kerr'] | 2020-12-15 18:20:46.860000+00:00 | ['Framer Motion', 'JavaScript', 'Frontend', 'Tooltips', 'React'] |
Build Future-Friendly Design Systems with Stencil JS | Design System
What is Design System
Design System — a collection of repeatable components and a set of standards guiding the use of those components. Companies like Airbnb, Uber, and IBM has been able to change the pace of creation and innovation for their products within their teams by design system. By changing the ways they design digital products by incorporating their own unique design systems.
Key steps and benefits to building a design system
Conduct a visual audit Create a visual design language Create a UI/pattern library Document what each component is and when to use it
So the main ingredient/ building block of the design system is web component. We are going to take a look how the magical, reusable web component compiler works.
Stencil Definition — As a noun, ‘A physical object whose shape is used as a guide to make other objects’, as a verb, ‘draw or decorate’.
Photo by Miki Fath on Unsplash
Like as, Stencil is a simple compiler tool for front-end artists(developers) to decorating the web applications by drawing their own web components and static site generated progressive web apps (PWA).Stencil combines the best concepts of the most popular front-end frameworks into a compile-time rather than run-time tool.
Although totally different from a front-end framework, Stencil.js uses many well-known concepts and technologies from front-end development — and that’s often confusing for a developer. So, Stencil.js provides:
A virtual DOM
JSX (like in React)
Reactive Data (like AngularJS $watch)
Async rendering (inspired by React Fiber)
TypeScript support
By combining all these features, Stencil.js is able to generate standard-compliant components. Moreover, Stencil.js Stencil will automatically polyfill them on-demand required to support older browsers.
Creating a reusable cross-framework component using Stencil.js
A Stencil.js project is specifically for the purpose of creating generic web components to be used elsewhere. This is easy to set up, as it is one of the default starting options when generating a new project.
Run the following command to generate a new Stencil.js project:
npm init stencil
When prompted with the following options, choose component:
? Pick a starter › - Use arrow-keys. Return to submit. ionic-pwa Everything you need to build fast, production ready PWAs
app Minimal starter for building a Stencil app or website
❯component Collection of web components that can be used anywhere
Fill out the additional prompts with information about your project, and then your project will be created. If you like, you can run the project right away to see it in the browser by making it your working directory and running:
npm start
This command will power up the server. In the folder structure, you can see the src folder. Inside that folder only, we are going to do our magic.
Let us see how can we contribute a reusable alert component to a design system with future proof. We are going to create an alert component. there are two files for alert component which we are going to play around for reusing it.
alert-component.tsx
alert-component.css
After a few minutes in the shoes of an integrator, here is what I get from some JSX and CSS. To see how the button looks like, we open the file index.html and add the code required to display the component we just created:
The result will be like this
So now to future proof your alert component for design system, we need to do some changes.
Future Proofing the component:
Steps to do the same are as follows
Using prop feature for dynamic content, you can refer this link for that https://stenciljs.com/docs/properties reuse values for the styling, by creating variables
To define a CSS variable, we simply define a value prefixed with -- :
:host {
--background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03);
}
Once defined, we can use these anywhere in our CSS files by wrapping the variable name with var() :
.card {
background-color: var(--background-color);
color: var(--color);
}
Info , Success and Danger alerts
A common use-case of design systems is to provide multiple themes. Using CSS variables makes it an extremely easy task.
We can define the variables based on the selected theme. In order to achieve that, we use :host(selector) . This pseudo-class function allows us to select the host based on the selector passed as a parameter.
:host(.primary) {
--background-color: #cce5ff;
--border-color: #b8daff;
--color: #004085;
} :host(.success) {
--background-color: #d4edda;
--border-color: #c3e6cb;
--color: #155724;
} :host(.danger) {
--color: #721c24;
--background-color: #f8d7da;
--border-color: #f5c6cb;
}
Changing themes is a matter of switching the correct theme class on one of the ancestors. For example, we can add the class primary to the element.
Publishing components as a design system
Okay, so we have a component built, now what do we do?
Stencil.js is already on it. Once you’re done making your components, you can simply run npm run build to generate a production-ready library of components ready for most web environments.
To use them, we still need to publish them somewhere. In our case, the easiest way we can publish our set of components is simply by running npm publish , which will publish the built package to the NPM registry. List it under the "name" key in your package.json.
Conclusion
Before starting working on the design system, evaluate the values you want to focus on. If you’ve decided to incorporate the system, Web Components perfectly solves challenges that stand before design systems and is a great technology to build your components upon.
Stencil.js makes it easy to manage and deliver components for different targets.
Use cases for Stencil include: | https://medium.com/@raj.rajmeena.meena/build-future-friendly-design-systems-with-stencil-js-a1d2d470fcd7 | ['Meenu Meena'] | 2020-12-14 08:25:05.453000+00:00 | ['Stenciljs', 'Alerts', 'Design Systems', 'Reusable Component', 'Web Components'] |
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TELEVISION SHOW AND HISTORY
A television show (often simply ) is any content prBookmark this siteoduced for broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, cable, or internet and typically viewed on a tv set, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are usually placed between shows. s ‘re normally scheduled well ahead of The G0G with Grandpa and appear on electronic guides or other TV listings.
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❏ STREAMING MEDIA ❏
Streaming media are multimedia media that are continuously received by an end user and presented to an end user while being provided by a provider. The verb to be streamed identifies the process of providing or receiving media in this way. [Clarification required] Streaming identifies the delivery method of the medium rather than the medium itself. The distinction between the delivery method and the distributed media is particularly true for telecommunications networks, as most delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or not streaming by nature (e.g. books, video cassettes, sound CDs). There are challenges associated with streaming content on the Internet. For example, users whose Internet coStarzection does not have sufficient bandwidth may experience stops, delays, or slow buffering of this content. And users who lack compatible hardG0Ge or softG0Ge systems may have problems streaming certain content.
Live streaming is the delivery of Internet content in real time, similar to how live television broadcasts content over the air with a television signal. Live internet streaming takes the form of source media (e.g. a video camera, sound interface, screen capture softG0Ge), an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and serve that content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the point of origin, although it is often the case.
Streaming is an option for dBBC Oneloading files. The end user receives the full file for the content before viewing or hearing it. Streaming allows an end user to use their media player to begin playing digital video or audio before the entire file has been transferred. The term “streaming media” can apply to media other than video and audio, such as: B. Live subtitles, ticker tape, and real-time text that are considered “streaming text”.
❏ COPYRIGHT CONTENT ❏
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its BBC Oneer the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time.[2][2][000][2][000] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[6][6][2] A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
Some jurisdictions require “fixing” copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders.[citation needed][6][20][22][22] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.[2000]
Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered “territorial rights”. This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not extend beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works “cross” national borders or national rights are inconsistent.[22]
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 0000 to 22 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities[000] to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration.
It is widely believed that copyrights are a must to foster cultural diversity and creativity. However, Parc argues that contrary to prevailing beliefs, imitation and copying do not restrict cultural creativity or diversity but in fact support them further. This argument has been supported by many examples such as Millet and Van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, and Monet, etc.[6]
❏ GOODS OF SERVICES ❏
Credit (from Latin credit, “(he/she/it) believes”) is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[2] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and extensible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[2] Credit is extended by a creditor, also knBBC One as a lender, to a debtor, also knBBC One as a borrower.
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Thanks for Watching guys!! Smiling a little better a big laugh.! Have a nice day :)) | https://medium.com/free-watching-animation-cricket-antoinette-movies/cricket-antoinette-2021-animation-cricket-antoinette-fu-l-movies-2021-59a59436fde3 | ['Tong Kepo Atuh'] | 2020-12-27 21:02:11.803000+00:00 | ['Animation'] |
THEN , NOW, FOREVER | THEN , NOW, FOREVER
Chatbots are a hot topic and everyone in tech industry is excited on it. Everyone talks about it and wants to use one in their business.
As we are living in a world that filled with lots of intelligent automation like Apple’s “SIRI”, “GOOGLE ASSISTANT” .. but they are few limits what a chatbot can offer us today.
chatbots looks to be “intelligent” due to their informative skills. However, chatbot are only as intelligent as the underlying database.
WHAT IS CHATBOT ?
Chatbot is a software application which helps in having one to one chat conversation or interactions automatically based on some set of conditions.
The first chatbot was developed in 1966 at MIT which they called it ELIZA .
ELIZA, the mother of all chatbot , answered some very simple decision tree questions. This first chatbot iteration has since evolved and developed, naturally.
“Bots and chat make it easier for people to buy the way they want to, when they want to–and that should be the goal of any business.” — David Cancel, CEO of Drift
BEST EXAMPLES FOR CHATBOT
A) E COMMERCE CHATBOT EXAMPLES
Tidio
2. Sephora Assistant
B) CUSTOMER SERVICE CHATBOT EXAMPLES
1.Handle Returns Query Bot
2.Order a Phone Call Chatbot
3.Domino’s Chatbot
C) CONVERSATIONAL AI CHATBOT EXAMPLES
1.Mitsuku (aka Kuki)
2.AI Responder
3.Visual Chatbot
D) FACEBOOK MESSENGER BOT EXAMPLES
1.CNN Chatbot
2.ABBI the Medical Marijuana Chatbot
WHAT DO LATEST SURVEYS SAY ABOUT CHATBOT
According to a Facebook survey , more than 50% of customers say they’re more likely to shop with a business that they can connect with via chat.
And according to the survey 59% of millennials and 60% of Gen Xers in united states have interacted with chatbots.
According to Gartner,
“By 2020, 85% of our engagement with businesses will be done without interacting with another human. Instead, we’ll be using self-service options and chatbots.”
According to Oracle survey,
“80% of businesses said they currently use or are planning to use chatbots by 2020.”
WHAT DO CUSTOMERS THINK ABOUT CHATBOT ?
1.58% of customers say emerging technologies such as chatbots and voice assistance have changed their expectations of companies.
2. 54% of customers say companies need to transform how they engage with them.
3. 77% of customers say chatbots will transform their expectations of companies in the next five years
WHAT’S NEXT FOR CHATBOT
The biggest fear consumers have with bots is that they will make a mistake and sometimes they will, just like humans. This will always be a concern, yet it will become less as more consumers engage with bots.
While many of us think that chatbots are primarily as answer machines now, it’s not far off that the domain will expand.
The chart below shows how consumers say they would use chatbots. There’s some reservation around using chatbots for tasks like paying bills and purchasing items but when money is involved, people are often more hesitant with new technology. It’s a natural part of the adoption of new technology, and if we look back to the dawn of ecommerce, the same trend unfolded.
HOW DOES A CHATBOT WORK ?
There are 3 methods used to run a chatbot.
METHOD 1
Creating a pattern-matching bot. Pattern-matching bots classify text and produce a response based on the keywords they see. A standard structure for these patterns is Artificial Intelligence markup Language (AIML ) . In pattern matching, the chatbot can only answer the questions that exist in their models. The bot cannot go beyond the patterns already implemented into its system.
METHOD 2
Use of algorithms, for every question, a unique pattern needs to be available in a database for the bot to provide the right response. With various combinations of trends, it’s possible to create a hierarchical structure. Algorithms are how developers reduce the classifiers and make the structure more manageable.
The classic algorithm for NLP and text classification is Multinational Naïve Bayes.
METHOD 3
Use of artificial neural networks. These are solutions that give the bots a way to calculate the response to a question using weighted connections and context in data. With artificial neural networks, each sentence provided to a bot is broken down into different words, and each word is used as an input for the neural network. Over time, the neural network becomes stronger and more advanced, helping the bot to create a more accurate set of responses to common queries.
There are many different types of variations in neural networks. Often, businesses that use these tools will need to train their bots over time to become more efficient and effective. Fortunately, training for a chatbot happens at a much larger and faster scale than teaching for a human. A customer support chatbot, for instance, can be fed thousands of conversation logs, and use the information from those logs to support its neural network.
when a chatbot is prepared to interact with live customers, businesses can implement in smart feedback loops. This means that during a conversation, when customers ask a question, a chatbot can deliver a couple of intelligent answers with options like “Did you mean a, b, or c”. The way the customer respond will help to reinforce the bot’s understanding and train the machine learning model.
STAGES INVOLVED IN CHATBOT APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
1.Managing incoming stream of messages with backend development
2. Creating modules to integrate with each channel
3. Integrating Natural Language Processing (NLP) with readymade APIs
4. Creating natural humanly replies with Conversational Intelligence
5. Aligning chatbot conversations with the commercial and core purpose of development
TIME REQUIRED TO MAKE A CHATBOT
Generally, to make a chatbot the time frame or time required can range from a few hours to a maximum of 2–3 weeks, depending on the complexity of the project or function that you wish to automate and the option you choose to build a bot .
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD A CHATBOT ?
Generally, the cost of a chatbot varies and is calculated for each case in particular. Most often software companies used to charge from $15,000 to $30,000 for a custom bot.
The price for an AI-chatbot for customer support ranges from $40,000 to $100,000 . Such bots are powered by Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning technologies, and are endowed with more powerful capabilities of learning and absorbing information. They target customers through marketing campaigns and media, handles personalized news and content distribution, and lots more. when comes to payment services, such chatbots become full fledged business solutions.
The companies located in Silicon Valley set a minimum price of $30,000 for a pretty simple bot that is able to reply to various users’ questions.
Finally one can conclude that for a chatbot development the price may vary from $5,000 up to $150,000 due to many factors.
MARKETING PLAN
A simple promotion which we can do to promote a chatbot is mentioning it in a list of our customer support channels.
2.Giving a name to the chatbot for example “MADDY”…like .. “HI THIS IS MADDY ..HOW CAN I HELP U”
3. Doing complete research on frequently asked questions by the customers with help of social media support team,marketing teams and sales team.
4. Making my bot to speak or welcome message /tone which makes customers feel as if they were speaking to real person.
5. Tracking my bot with special UTMs and discount code.
6. Facebook ads.etc.
7. Asking customers like how is the performance of chatbot ,whether they could meet their expectations and any suggestions to improve it.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CHATBOT THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
ADVANTAGES ARE AS FOLLOWS :
Deliver’s 24x7 automated customer support Cuts down operational cost Easy scalability of support Better lead generation, Qualification and Nurturing Monitors customer data and gives better insights Automates repetitive tasks
DISADVANTAGES ARE AS FOLLOWS :
Huge amount of money needs to be invested to make it. Same answers will be given for different questions(Made to handle first level questions) Heavy maintenance is required These have zero research skills Can be manipulated through social engineering attacks Lacks in emotions
RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH CHATBOTS
When coming to security of chatbots there shouldn’t be any compromise in it . As chatbots become better at imitating humans, the technology will be used by hackers in phishing schemes and other social engineering hacks. For example, a chatbot designed to imitate a customer or a vendor could strike up a conversation with an employee through a messaging app. After rapport has been established, the chatbot could convinces the employee to click on a malicious link or hand over sensitive information.
A good example for this is
Recently, men using the Tinder dating app were swindled by a bot that pretended to be a female user. After a few back-and-forth messages, the chatbot made the men to click a link to become “Tinder verified.” The link required that they input their credit card information, at which time they were unwittingly signed up for a recurring online porn subscription.
As technology of chatbot is very new, specific security protocols are still being developed, particularly regarding chatbots deployed on public platforms such as Facebook, and the rapid pace of development in chatbot means that new features and threats are continuously emerging. They can be quite destructive and end up causing cybersecurity nightmares.
TO SUM UP
There would be only few who don’t recognize the chatbots’ great capabilities in identifying and satisfying the users’ needs.
Gone are the days where customers use to call during their office hours.
But if we see today many businesses appreciates the ease of a self-serving tool which helps in informing the customers about their products and services 24/7/365. | https://medium.com/@venkatanish2498/chatbots-7ccc789f79dd | [] | 2020-12-19 03:40:20.479000+00:00 | ['Chatbot Development', 'Chatbot'] |
Failure Tolerance: Creating a Healthy Postmortem Culture | In 2016, our Engineering org was visited by then-Etsy CTO John Allspaw, who led a multi-day workshop about healthy incident management processes. He’d written several pieces about how Etsy managed incidents, particularly focusing on the use of blameless postmortems as a means of creating transparency, knowledge-sharing, stronger technical systems, and greater fault tolerance. (A postmortem or retrospective is a meeting held to review the successes and failures of a project or specific event, during and/or after the fact.) This was especially appealing to our org at the time, as we’d been experiencing a record number of outages and needed to stop the bleeding.
Allspaw had a few key points that we ran with:
“A funny thing happens when engineers make mistakes and feel safe when giving details about it: they are not only willing to be held accountable, they are also enthusiastic in helping the rest of the company avoid the same error in the future.” “By investigating mistakes in a way that focuses on the situational aspects of a failure’s mechanism and the decision-making process of individuals proximate to the failure, an organization can come out safer than it would normally be if it had simply punished the actors involved as a remediation.” “You can’t fully appreciate how complicated some of the failure scenarios we see in our field of web operations [are] until you actually want to explain it to someone who isn’t familiar with software and infrastructure fundamentals.”
Essentially, an org can create a process where the goal is to ask questions and learn from failure, rather than to point fingers.
In a typical non-blameless postmortem or retro, it’s common to confine the meeting to a small group of impacted parties in the hope of keeping sensitive conversations private and reducing embarrassment. By making these conversations both blameless and systematic, it’s no longer as necessary to keep them small and private. In creating a safe atmosphere that is expected after every major incident or project, you also create accountability and open up the learning opportunity to the entirety of your company.
Although the postmortem process eventually took hold throughout many areas of the company, it initially took shape as part of technical incident management — for example, when our website went down, or one of our APIs stopped working for customers. We needed a way to understand, communicate, and share knowledge about outages, and postmortems were the capstone of each incident. As we repeated the exercise, it became clearer that our handling and documentation of the incident were crucial inputs to a successful postmortem later on. Creating transparency in the inputs produced greater transparency in the outputs.
Here’s what that timeline looked like in practice:
Incident Occurs
At first, this was often a service disruption — an outage on our platform that required technical troubleshooting, communication out to customers, and heavy internal coordination and messaging.
The incident itself was governed by an “Outage Point of Contact,” an individual whose temporary role was to coordinate across technical, customer-facing, and communications teams until the incident was resolved. The Outage POC was also responsible for an Outage Doc, detailing notes and the latest update (in business-friendly language), which anyone in the company could access. The Outage POC was usually a more senior engineer or technical program manager who had a solid understanding of the company’s flows and teams — typically whoever was available at the time.
An internally-public communications channel was used to provide status updates. The Outage Doc would be linked in the outage channel, which itself was an open forum where anyone could ask questions throughout the incident. The channel would also be moderated by the Outage POC.
This entire process was documented on a checklist that was easily accessible to the Outage POC at the start of the incident.
Incident Ends
Following the incident, the Outage POC would schedule a postmortem. The meeting would go on a public calendar. Those directly involved in the incident would be required attendees — everyone from engineers to customer-facing teams to communications managers. But the rest of the company was also invited to attend if they wanted to learn more about what had happened, how it was handled, or what preventive measures would be taken in the future.
Postmortem Occurs
The postmortem conversation was led by someone from a group that had gone through training and was considered qualified to facilitate in a blameless style. Importantly, it was required that the facilitator be someone who had not been involved in the incident itself. This gave the facilitator the ability to ask questions that might have felt obvious to those involved but actually contained important details that were worth talking about out loud. (I.e. Including a facilitator with very little context helped to eliminate Hindsight Bias.) It also helped ensure that the facilitator had no stake in pointing fingers.
The facilitator would typically ask for a timeline of events, using the Outage Doc and the audience as inputs. Timelining helped uncover knowledge gaps and gave attendees a mutual understanding of what had happened. Facilitators were trained to ask questions aimed at process thinking: “How did you know to look there as part of your troubleshooting?” or “what was it about that alert that made it feel more urgent than the others?” were encouraged over anything that started with “why did you….” Audience members could ask questions as well.
Postmortems could last anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on the severity of the incident. They typically included between 10 and 25 attendees.
Notes were taken on the Outage Doc throughout the conversation. Action Items were identified if necessary, but they were never the goal of the postmortem; learning was the main focus. Outage Docs/Postmortem Notes were kept in a public place where anyone could read details about the incident and its resolution after the fact.
As the postmortem process calcified, we consistently received positive feedback from attendees. Those of us who managed incidents noted smoother recovery processes and better, more accurate communications with our customers. Disparate groups of teams showed better alignment over how systems were integrated and which parties should be involved.
The fact that our program management team owned the postmortem process and facilitated most of our postmortems firsthand drove some of this improved alignment. It was powerful to give ownership of these learning opportunities to the people who could adapt to the feedback on a daily basis and disseminate better processes. But we also gained alignment simply by opening up attendance to any interested parties, which often included others in cross-functional roles as well.
We kicked off this program while we were around 300 employees strong, but it grew with us as we scaled. We started receiving requests to train teams outside of Engineering on conducting blameless postmortems. By the time we were closer to 600 people, we used this system to understand and share knowledge about marketing processes, customer onboarding, sales team initiatives… Anything that benefited from unbiased exploration and knowledge sharing was game.
We built out our team of qualified facilitators until we had representatives from across the company. Your postmortem for a marketing project could be facilitated by someone you’d never met or worked with before. This anonymity contributed to blamelessness, helped foster relationships, and also systematized the process of learning about distant parts of the business. I can’t count the number of times I heard from an employee that attending a postmortem had been one of the most educational experiences they’d had at the company. Members of the C suite and executive leadership would also attend, opening themselves up to the same feedback and questioning that was expected of lower-level employees.
A major benefit of making these meetings so open and cross-functional was that it forced participants to crystallize their understanding into something simple enough for a broader audience. To Allspaw’s third quote above, we never fully understood what had happened until we distilled it down this way. But even further, we didn’t limit the number of employees who had access to this distillation. There were occasionally exceptions when the topic involved sensitive HR or compliance issues, for example. But, for the most part, we managed to create something that was systematic and wide-reaching. | https://medium.com/extra-credit-by-guild/failure-tolerance-creating-a-healthy-postmortem-culture-9043f1ee3317 | ['April Dagonese'] | 2020-07-09 23:12:54.835000+00:00 | ['Engineering', 'Culture', 'PostMortem', 'Company Culture', 'Failure'] |
Dying of Laughter | Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash
As I was chasing a mouse around my dad’s house with a bedpan, I realized I was not the typical hospice nurse and this was not going to be the typical hospice experience. We had laughed too hard for him to be dying. And yes, I got the mouse safely outside. And yes, I managed to grab the clean bedpan, I think.
When my dad decided after four months of battling after his bone marrow transplant that he wanted to stop treatment and come home, I wasn’t sure what to expect. As a writer, I’ve written about hospice before. But that had been for a website for a healthcare client, now I was on this side and I was way beyond the bullet points of “care when you need it most.”
Coronavirus had taken away months of me being able to visit my dad in the hospital. There were times I couldn’t reach him, he was too sick to pick up his phone, and thankfully a nurse held her own phone so he could hear my voice. So, there was no way, I wasn’t going to embrace my last few days with him.
My sister and I were going to stay with him, night and day and make the most of the time we lost. Right away we nicked named ourselves “JK Nursing.” I was the jokes, she was the care with a k. The learning curve was sharp. The first night it took us about an hour to change his sheets and bed pad. My sister going through glove after glove as diarrhea became our enemy. And as the night wore on, my tiredness turning to giggling then laughing my ass off at my sister, because I had decided she was in charge of poop, I was in charge of sheets and helping my dad move. And this made my dad laugh. And that’s when we decided there would be laughter.
My dad loves jazz, so we’d crank it up while we were wiping him down. Quickly we divvied up the tasks. I was in charge of medicine. And the first time I went to place his pill on his tongue it slipped and hit his shoulder. It looked like his mouth was a circus game and I clearly didn’t win a stuffed animal. So then every time it was medicine time, my dad or sister would hum a carnival tune.
Everyone talks of last meals. Well, my dad hadn’t eaten in four months. His nutrition had all been IV. So, when he had a few requests we made it happen. We had a mango water ice party at midnight. We bought him coffee ice cream — and while I was doing laundry, I came back to put the lid on and he had eaten the whole damn thing. Yes, it’s a good thing we had brought so many gloves and bed pads home from the hospital. Last night he drank a Frappuccino while laughing and watching curb your enthusiasm — his favorite comedy. And as we’re all laughing, I’m thinking is it ok to be having so much fun as my dad is dying. Are we doing something wrong or right? The world and news are so dark right now. And yet within these walls, there is light. So much light. I don’t know how many days, he has left. But I do know, there will be love and laughter until the very end. | https://medium.com/@julee-balko/dying-of-laughter-cf2f6af1b8a4 | ['Julee Balko'] | 2020-07-07 13:20:09.495000+00:00 | ['Laughter', 'Hospice', 'Death', 'Love', 'Parents'] |
An Ultimate Guide to Smart Home Accessories | Nowadays, our life is highly influenced by innovative gadgets. Our homes are getting smarter with the help of such gadgets. Smart home gadgets come with intelligent features to make your modern lifestyle convenient and efficient. There are a lot of smart gadgets available for your extra comfort. Here, in this blog, we are going to discuss some smart home gadgets that can elevate your lifestyle.
Smart Door Lock
A smart piece of innovation and engineering, a smart door lock makes your life comfortable. It can automatically unlock the door as you approach the home. With the help of its integrated sensors it can detect when the door is not locked and send you a notification as a reminder. It can also detect if someone is trying to break into your home and immediately notifies you when it happens. You can also install Fingerprint Access in it if you want.
Smart Sensor
Thoughtfully designed for balanced comfort and well-being, a smart sensor is a Thermostat room sensor with high tech capability to deliver convenience to you. It can detect when you are home or away and can automatically adjust the temperature. Based on local weather information, your occupancy habits and ongoing analysis of your heating and cooling patterns, it can set the right temperature at the right time.
Smart Plug
This plug is compatible with smart home devices. This plug helps you to control all of your home appliances with your voice command. It comes with Wi-Fi connectivity so that you can connect it with the designated app and control the applianced with your smartphone. You can also schedule the turn off and on your devices to save energy.
Smart Home Alarm
Ensuring a safe home environment has always been a major concern for many of us. Now, you can do that easily with the help of a smart home alarm. A powerful and feature packed home alarm that notifies you about different threats at home. Equipped with powerful PIR sensors this device can detect motion, noise level, humidity and temperature. It notifies you if anything odd happens. It has a powerful siren that immediately notifies you about the intruders.
Smart Cloth Folding
Folding clothes can be a stressful task but now you can do it with a smart cloth folding device. It can fold all your clothes with just a push of a button. It comes with an ergonomic clipping technology that enables easy and fast clipping of each item without any hassle. Equipped with fast folding technology it allows you to fold an unlimited amount of clothes.
Smart Touchless Faucet
A Smart faucet is also an important gadget in your smart home. It can automatically control your water flow and completely changes the way in which you use water. This smart device is engineered with touchless sensors to cut water usage significantly and provides an effective solution for wasting and leaking water. This device charges simultaneously with the flow of water and it is also equipped with a backup battery inside.
I hope you will get some useful information with the help of this blog. If you wish to buy some smart home gadgets for yourself, don’t forget to visit TrueGether, the best alternative to ebay. | https://medium.com/@visheshgarg111/an-ultimate-guide-to-smart-home-accessories-57c6863280c6 | [] | 2021-06-14 14:49:26.313000+00:00 | ['Automatic', 'Smart Home', 'Safety', 'Home Accesories', 'Comfort'] |
Today’s Quote | Web: destinyh.com
Facebook: @textdestiny
Instagram: @textdestiny
Read: Mental Rescue Series
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Free Gift: Get Free Books By Destiny S. Harris Daily
Step 1: Go to Destiny’s Author Page
Step 2: Filter Books By “Price: Low to High”
Step 3: Download any and all available free books | https://medium.com/@destinyharris/todays-quote-c06e15e3ba49 | ['Destiny S. Harris'] | 2020-12-22 14:48:09.294000+00:00 | ['Quotes About Life', 'Quotes', 'Quote Of The Day', 'Relationships', 'Time Management'] |
Triple-Quote: Conflating Stratagems for Strategy | “Many people see strategy as a high-level, long-term plan. Sun Tzu’s bing-fa was, to a large degree, a reaction against this view. His definition was much closer to the definition of strategy used in modern game theory: a chosen set of methods reacting to possible situations. These methods set are chosen with a big-picture view of mission and the competitive environment. Because of this, some might call Sun Tzu’s work a book of tactics.”
ScienceOfStrategy.org, on ‘The Difference Between Strategy and Tactics as Seen by Sun Tzu’ | https://medium.com/the-agoge/triple-quote-conflating-stratagems-for-strategy-f4429016d5a4 | ['Leonidas Musashi'] | 2020-08-15 15:50:44.852000+00:00 | ['Sun Tzu', 'China', 'Epistemology', 'Tactics', 'Strategy'] |
I Want but I Can’t | “It’s too late to play football professionally,” or “my career won’t be going anywhere if I try to be a professional footballer,” or “it’s a hard and long process to get signed by a professional team,” etc. The narrative inside your mind is full of resistance and fighting (I want but I can’t).
If you have one of those thoughts, you should think about whether you play football for the right reason? Because with that way of thinking, it means that you only want to play if you can get a reward. If not, you won’t.
And at the same time, if you keep on improving without achieving anything, you might feel stuck without a reward. Then, you will lack in serotonin levels and the function of that chemical is to boost your confident and pride.
“Quality without results is pointless. Results without quality is boring” — Johan Cruyff
This is quote is about playing football for the right reason.
2 footballers play football in a high-level football league. The first player, plays football because they have to find a job so that player is stuck in football. The second player plays football because football has meaning for that player. Which one do you think will get more achievements in his/her career? The first player will play football if there is money involved, so he/she will not play if there is no money. There second player will play football with or without the money. The more you play football, the faster you will get better and push to the highest limit of yourself. So, eventually you will get more achievements.
The point of having meaning in your life is to lead you to your highest potential. Without meaning, everything in life will feel the same, empty, flat, passionless, emotionless. If you live without meaning, you will struggle to survive and improve.
Author Zaya Mardika
Editor Charalambos Elias | https://medium.com/folition/i-want-but-i-cant-72eb15e394f1 | ['Zaya Mardika'] | 2020-12-20 12:28:18.421000+00:00 | ['Football', 'Womens Soccer', 'Girls Soccer', 'Womens Football', 'Soccer'] |
Introducing HODL.ZONE | If this is your first time hearing about HODL.ZONE, there may be a chance you are missing out on easy profits. HODL.ZONE is designed to increase your profits if you plan on holding crypto, rather than actively trading. Like many of you, we believe in Bitcoin, and expect the price to rise. But you may not know that you can actually make your Bitcoin savings grow not only in value, but in size.
You’re saying I can make more Bitcoin with my Bitcoin?
Yes! You can do this through Poloniex’s lending system. Traders sometimes like to trade with more Bitcoin then they own. As a user, you can offer up your Bitcoin to these traders in the form of a loan, which means you collect interest. Essentially you are doing what the big banks do, but can do it on a smaller scale.
You may be wondering what the risks are, and if you hold crypto on Poloniex, there is no additional risk. As in, your BTC sitting in your Poloniex wallet, could be earning interest at no additional risk. Usually, the risk with loans comes when the borrower cannot pay back the loan and defaults. This risk is eliminated by Poloniex, by requiring collateral for the loan and automatically liquidating the margin trade if the borrowers runs short on funds.
Unlike big banks, these loans last anywhere from a few minutes to days rather than months. This benefits the lender, as your bitcoin is never tied up for very long, allowing you to pull out and act on market changes. | https://medium.com/hodlzone/introducing-hodl-zone-b88363f1e740 | ['Steven Masley'] | 2017-06-11 16:23:22.695000+00:00 | ['Lending', 'Fintech', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Btc'] |
“Killings, torture, sexual and physical violence and intimidation have no place in conservation”: NGOs react to WWF’s “independent review” on human rights abuses | By Chris Lang
In March 2019, BuzzFeed News published a year-long investigation that found that WWF had funded and equipped eco-guards who have tortured, sexually assaulted, and killed people. In response, WWF launched an “independent review”. WWF finally released the review this week. It is, of course, pure coincidence that the review came out just days after WWF received US$100 million from the Bezos Earth Fund.
The 160-page “independent review” is available on WWF’s website.
BuzzFeed News’ journalists Katie J.M. Baker and Tom Warren note that,
Overall, WWF paid too little attention to credible abuse allegations, failed to construct a system for victims to make complaints, and painted an overly rosy picture of its anti-poaching war in public communications, the report found. “Unfortunately, WWF’s commitments to implement its social policies have not been adequately and consistently followed through,” the report’s authors wrote.
In a press release, Rainforest Foundation UK comments that, “This long overdue 160-page report lays bare institutional failings and problems with its organisational culture that allowed these abuses to occur and go unaddressed.”
Rainforest Foundation UK points out that in its response to the review, WWF International fails to take responsibility and does not issue a sincere apology to the many individuals who have suffered human rights abuses. In many cases, WWF continued to finance and equip park rangers even after hearing about allegations of horrific human rights abuses.
And Rainforest Foundation UK notes that,
WWF has done little to address the situation — the organisation did not investigate the situation beyond the specific cases that made media headlines, provided no support whatsoever for victims to seek redress, and has implemented barely any of the social measures they promised.WWF’s suite of nice-sounding social policies and safeguards seem to have little bearing on how its projects are implemented on the ground. The review found that its opaque funding and operational structure, complex interrelationships between WWF International, its country offices and it host governments have all obscured lines of responsibly and accountability. While the organisation has taken some steps to address its failings, it remains to be seen if these will be any different from its previous commitments.
Six NGOs put out this statement following the release of the “independent review”:
WWF has financed and provided technical support to conservation projects that have been rife with human rights violations including rape, murder and intimidation, and WWF failed to deal with these issues adequately, confirms a review (released yesterday) into WWF’s global operations.
The independent review into human rights violations in WWF programmes includes serious findings about WWF’s response to killings, torture, sexual and physical violence and intimidation against indigenous peoples and local communities connected with WWF operations in several areas of the world.
The report also points to serious failings in WWF’s organisational culture, characterised by a lack of transparency, accountability and inconsistent commitment to human rights. In the worst cases, WWF has not investigated human rights violations brought to its attention, apparently so as not to upset its relationships with government.
The flawed practices highlighted in this report that permit and facilitate human rights violations must end and WWF must take further concerted steps to ensure that they do. We urge WWF to implement the report’s recommendations in full, commission an investigation into the full extent of human rights abuses in its programmes, apologise unreservedly to survivors of abuse carried out in their name, and provide remedies to those affected where appropriate.
Some of the most serious findings were in relation to Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the report finds that, despite allegations of sexual and physical abuse by rangers being raised with senior management in 2016, a planned investigation was not implemented “apparently out of concern that doing so would meet with resistance from ICCN [the DRC state conservation agency]”. A subsequent investigation carried out in 2019 — only after significant media attention had been brought to the situation — “identified widespread allegations of extremely grave abuses by ecoguards and army personnel, including allegations of multiple murders, rapes, torture and beatings.” To this day, few of the remedial measures promised by WWF have been implemented and the organisation has provided no or inadequate support to victims in seeking redress.
On the basis of this and other findings, the panel points to the need for a substantial, practical integration of human rights expertise throughout WWF, as well as much greater transparency from the organisation. The independent panel’s report also makes a significant contribution to clarifying the obligations and responsibilities of conservation organisations in respect of human rights. Importantly, it recognises that multinational conservation organisations have the same responsibilities as businesses to respect human rights under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This is a welcome confirmation in light of the huge — and increasingly business-like — scale of intervention of conservation organisations across the globe.
The human rights abuses suffered by indigenous peoples and local communities listed in the report highlight fundamental issues that arise across the conservation sector as a whole, not isolated to WWF. The underlying cause of these abuses, as recognised in this report, is the exclusion of indigenous peoples and other communities with collective customary rights from their ancestral territories. The frequency and severity of abuses has been exacerbated by the increasing militarisation — with little or no oversight — of protected areas, especially in contexts where human rights abuses by security forces are widespread. We urge other conservation organisations as well as conservation funders to read this report closely and evaluate and amend their own practices in line with the recommendations made.
The sector must transform to ensure the human rights of indigenous peoples and other local communities affected by conservation projects are upheld, including their right to their customary lands and to protection from violence, intimidation, and abuse. This transformation is urgently needed, both to end violations and to move towards a community-led approach to conservation that acknowledges that sustainable conservation of indigenous peoples’ lands is most effective and durable when it is based on secure tenure.
The report is also timely as governments are currently negotiating a global target for radically increasing the area of the globe under some form of protected status. The currently proposed target is 30% of the land area of the globe by 2030, a near doubling from today’s proportion of 15.4%. This report highlights the very real and significant dangers that are associated with such a target if it is applied in countries where indigenous peoples and local community rights are not recognised or respected and if it does not explicitly include commitments to increase the area of land under secure title for indigenous peoples and local communities.
“This long overdue report lays bare the failings of WWF in protecting the human rights of those affected by its programmes and of an outmoded model of conservation that should be consigned to history. Yet WWF’s response shows an utter lack of contrition or accountability for these failings. We now need a paradigm shift that places local communities and Indigenous Peoples, not international organisations, at the front and centre of conservation efforts. The future of our planet depends on it.” — Joe Eisen, Executive Director at Rainforest Foundation UK
“This report rightly points to the exclusion of indigenous peoples and local communities from their customary lands and territories as the ‘original sin’ that underpins the serious human rights violations it records. We must see securing such rights, and supporting local ownership and management, as a central element in reducing human rights violations and in securing the ecosystems that they protect.” — Helen Tugendhat, Programme Coordinator at Forest Peoples Programme
“Indigenous Peoples’ rights must be at the centre of conservation actions to avoid further rights abuses by the sector. An integral part of this is the recognition of the contribution of Indigenous Peoples to conservation. 80% of the remaining biodiversity is on Indigenous Peoples’ lands and still, many major conservatists act as if they know better. This report clearly shows the opposite.” — Signe Leth, Senior Advisor at IWGIA | https://medium.com/@reddmonitor/killings-torture-sexual-and-physical-violence-and-intimidation-have-no-place-in-conservation-561e0e41dee9 | [] | 2020-11-26 17:54:41.243000+00:00 | ['WWF', 'Human Rights', 'Conservation'] |
World’s most downloaded app at the moment-WhatsApp, Facebook behind | The Global Times
World’s most downloaded app at the moment-WhatsApp, Facebook behind
World’s most downloaded app: Beijing (NNC) Leading Chinese Tiktok has become the world’s most non-gaming mobile software for the sixth time in a row. Despite the sanctions in the US and India, the popularity of the Chinese lip-syncing Tik Tak could not stop.
The report states that Tiktok was downloaded by 66m people in OCT 2020, an increase of 9.5% over October 2019.
Read More…
Road Trip
What is the dark web? How to access it and what you’ll get
How successful lands of China spacecraft organize on the moon? | https://medium.com/@theglobaltimes/worlds-most-downloaded-app-at-the-moment-whatsapp-facebook-behind-14a407b432bd | ['The Global Times'] | 2020-12-10 20:25:04.773000+00:00 | ['Instagram', 'Social Media', 'WhatsApp', 'Facebook', 'Social Change'] |
Can You Share The Best Tip on Anything? | Can You Share The Best Tip on Anything?
Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash
Many of you share useful tips in your blogs. But it isn’t easy to understand and follow so many tips at a time. I wonder if you could share only a few tips at a time? Ideally, the best would be to share a single tip at a time.
Let me give a little bit of background as to why I am a proponent of sharing only a single tip at a time.
If I were a reviewer, I would always advise you to make the number of tips to only one
It is easy for you to post stories bundled with a large number of tips. But is it possible for the readers to grasp the meaning of so many tips? In fact, the readers would get confused with so many tips.
If the readers don’t understand so many tips, how can they adopt a few in their writing life? It is just not possible.
I see that most experienced writers miss this point. I often see stories with 5, 7, 9, 20, and even 51 tips! These posts commit serious mistakes.
Many top bloggers whose stories go viral in the top-ranking publications are regularly committing this mistake.
Please don’t share more than a single tip in your blog
If you have a little time, please consider reading my short article on this subject. It would take a couple of minutes to read and find out why it is predominantly necessary to reduce the number of tips in your blog.
A top writer on Medium has supported my point of sharing only a few tips in the blog posts
Every day I see my Medium feed gets crowded with stories with a large number of tips. I am tired of seeing these banal stories from which I hardly got any real-life lesson that would help me.
Recently, I read blog posts of a different writer who is rather new on Medium, but his stories are real gems. I can’t help sharing his name. He is called Genius Turner. His written pieces have been read and commented on by many Medium members. Comments are again real golds, which are costlier than the “claps” and “likes.” That is why I take more time to comment on the stories.
Genius Turner’s comment on my story is an inspiration to start a new publication
In my recent post entitled, “Don’t Share More Than Few Tips,” Genius Turner kindly highlighted texts and wrote a comment.
I am not surprised because I had experienced such empathetic engagement in the professional network earlier.
In 2016, I received a supporting reaction, i.e., a “Like” from Jeff Weiner, now executive chairman (and then CEO) LinkedIn. I also received comments from prominent LinkedIn official influencer and contributing editor of the Inc Magazine, Jeff Haden.
Today, the 6th Dec 2020, I have decided to start a new publication entitled “Number One Tip”
The new publication — “Number One Tip,” will publish stories on the best tips on anything connected to life and the planet earth.
The format and rules are the same as suggested by Medium. The additional requirement is that the story you wish to publish in “Number One Tip” will describe only a single tip.
There is no limit set on the texts. The author can decide on the length. It is expected that the story will be short.
I invite the Medium blogging community to consider publishing your best tips on this forum.
The publication is now hosted on Medium and is open for submission.
How to be a writer on “Number One Tip”?
It is simple. Fill up this form to become a writer on “Number One Tip”. We will add you as a writer within a day or two.
I hope that many of you would be interested in “Number One Tip.”
Cheers! Debesh Choudhury | https://medium.com/number-one-tip/can-you-share-the-best-tip-on-anything-e3f726054771 | ['Debesh Choudhury'] | 2020-12-11 20:50:38.005000+00:00 | ['Publication', 'Writing Tips', 'Advice Column', 'Self Improvement Tips', 'Tips And Tools'] |
Product Management | Case Exercise | Featuring Tesla Solar Energy.
The price of solar has fallen over 70% since 2010 while solar panel efficiency has increased 30% since the 50s. Most panels come with 20-year warranties, and many of the oldest panels are still working 40 years later at 80% capacity.
Solar is effective even in cloudier climates. New York, Massachusetts and Minnesota are among the US states that receive the least amount of sunshine, yet their community solar programs have “delivered strong results for everyday people.” Majority of households choose to go solar to save on electricity and to be eco-friendly.
According to the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, if the average American household converts to solar for one year, it has the same environmental benefits as planting and growing 100 trees for 10 years.
Here is the case exercise I put together when interviewing for an Associate Product Manager role at Tesla. While I moved forward to the final round of interviews, I did not receive a job offer. However, I learned a lot about constructing compelling case exercises, the product development life cycle and solar technology. | https://medium.com/@attnbella/product-management-case-exercise-44e6c51bbf8a | ['Bella Rubin'] | 2021-01-17 20:26:38.724000+00:00 | ['Case Study', 'Product Management', 'Tesla Solar Roof'] |
Bequest to my grandchildren | Hey everyone! I am one of the many breaking the internet these days with obsessively checking New York Times for updates on the “he who must not be named” virus situation, followed by a Netflix binge watch session in the hopes that fiction will help me cope better with reality. Because, we are living in the times of social distancing. I have always complained to my friends that I don’t have enough tales to tell my grandchildren since I was always the straight A student in school, teetotaller in college, overachiever in my brief stint in corporate and finally am currently a perennially over worked and underpaid PhD student. So, you the the gist, the typical nerd with no “life” what-so-ever and hence no tales of debauchery with underlying lessons on morality. But, tales of social distancing is going to be my bequest to my grandchildren. And hence, I am going to chronicle it here as frequently, accurately and minutely as I can.
Today is technically day 8, but then according to a hindi proverb, it’s morning whenever you wake up. So, let’s restart the clock and count today as day one. I was worried that I would blow up my meagre income on buying kindle books(for those interested in my nerd escapades, follow my insta-blog kindle_o_phile). A good samaritan pointed out that Scribd is offering one month free subscription and I pounced on the opportunity. The adrenaline rush helped me power through a full 300 page book in one day; Queenie by Candice Warty Williams and I am about 25% through my second book, Writers and Lovers by Lily King. So while I binge watch Netflix and bing eat pistacchio flavored ice cream, I am also trying to keep my mind intellectually engaged. In between this, I tried to do some school work, tackling my nemesis, Microeconomics, with very little vengeance. But, from tomorrow I say bring it on Mr. Kenneth Arrow.
There was also a comfort food session of Bhel Puri with my flatmates, from whom its physically impossible to social distance.
Self-reflection of the day: Will I be able to do better in Microeconomics this time since more often than not I attribute my underperformance to lack of dedicated self study time, which seems to be in abundance at the moment. | https://medium.com/@prernam/bequest-to-my-grandchildren-9aa080f77bbd | ['Prerna Mishra'] | 2020-03-23 01:45:36.575000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Journaling'] |
A Sermon from The Mercy to All the Worlds (s) | (حديث مرفوع) عَنْ أَنَسِ بْنِ مَالِكٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ : سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُولُ : ” يَا مَعْشَرَ الْمُسْلِمِينَ شَمِّرُوا فَإِنَّ الأَمْرَ جَدٌّ ، وَتَأَهَّبُوا فَإِنَّ الرَّحِيلَ قَرِيبٌ ، وَتَزَوَّدُوا فَإِنَّ السَّفَرَ بَعِيدٌ ، وَخَفِّفُوا أَثْقَالَكُمْ فَإِنَّ وَرَاءَكُمْ عَقَبَةً كَئُودًا لا يَقْطَعُهَا إِلا الْمُخَفِّفُونَ ، إِنَّ بَيْنَ يَدَيِ السَّاعَةِ أُمُورًا شُدُدًا ، وَأَهْوَالا عِظَامًا ، وَزَمَانًا صَعْبًا يَتَمَلَّكُ فِيهِ الظَّلَمَةُ ، وَيَتَصَدَّرُ فِيهِ الْفَسَقَةُ ، فَيُضْطَهَدُ فِيهِ الآمِرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيُضَامُ النَّاهُونَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ ، فَأَعِدُّوا لَذَلِكَ الإِيمَانَ بِاللَّهِ ، وَالْجَئُوا إِلَى صَالِحِ الْعَمَلِ وَأَكْرِهُوا عَلَيْهِ النُّفُوسَ ، وَاصْبِرُوا عَلَى الضَّرَّاءِ تُفْضُوا إِلَى النَّعِيمِ الدَّائِمِ ”
O community of Muslims, roll up your sleeves, for the matter is momentous. Prepare for an imminent journey. Garner provision now as the journey is long. Lighten your loads, for before you is an ascent most steep! Only those traveling lightly shall bear its climb.
O humanity, before the Hour comes, you will see wonders, vast tribulations, and difficult times. Darkness will prevail, and foulness will take the forefront. Those who enjoin right will be oppressed, and those who condemn vice will be suppressed.
Hence, strengthen your faith for that time, and cling to faith as you would clench on for dear life. Flee to righteous deeds, and force yourselves to perform them. Be patient during the difficult times, and you will eventually arrive to eternal bliss. | https://medium.com/the-blessed-hub/a-sermon-from-the-mercy-to-all-the-worlds-s-daa842ebcc42 | ['The Blessed Hub'] | 2015-06-19 15:43:31.595000+00:00 | ['Muslim', 'Religion', 'Islam'] |
FastAPI Microservice Patterns: Service discovery in container orchestration platforms | FastAPI Microservice Patterns: Service discovery in container orchestration platforms
What’s the problem?
To enable communication between services based on synchronous communication mechanisms like REST or gRPC the services need to know each others location (IP address and port). But how can a client (service which depends on an endpoint of another service) discover the location of the service it depends on?
Solutions alternatives
There are two patterns which can be made us of to solve this problem. The client-side discovery pattern or the server-side discovery pattern. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. Deciding when which pattern is the right one is not in the scope of this post.
One solution: Server-side discovery pattern
This post is about the server-side discovery pattern which can be implemented in various ways. In this post the pattern is implemented in combination with the service instance per container pattern and the service deployment platform pattern, service registry pattern → 3rd Party Registration pattern.
The different patterns solve different problems:
server-side discovery pattern : How does the client of a service discover the location of a service instance?
: How does the client of a service discover the location of a service instance? service instance per container: How are services packaged and deployed? (Packaged for and deployed as container, deployed as function in a server-less platform, packaged and deployed for VM?)
service deployment platform pattern: How are services packaged and deployed? (container orchestration platform, server-less platform or PaaS?)
service registry pattern: How do clients of a service and routers know about the available instances of a service?
3rd party registration pattern: How are service instances registered with and unregistered from the service registry?
The service instance per container pattern is implemented using Docker which builds a container image for the service. The service deployment platform pattern, the server-side discovery pattern and well as service registry pattern -> 3rd party registration pattern are implemented using Kubernetes.
The service deployment platform pattern is implemented by using Kubernetes which deploys services as part of pods. “Pods are the smallest deploy-able units of computing that you can create and manage in Kubernetes”. Pods run either a single container or a several containers that need to work together. Kubernetes uses the container image of the service to create a container instance of it which is run as part of the pod. Kubernetes also handles the routing and service registration which implements service registry pattern -> 3rd party registration pattern. All incoming requests by the client go to a router. The router queries the service registry which location the service instance has. Usually the router acts as load balancer as well to increase service availability by forwarding client requests to a service instance which is “not doing work ATM”. For a single service Kubernetes manages usually several service instances in several pods.
As Kubernetes is widely used for container based service deployment this implementation should be adaptable to the majority of on-premise deployment use cases. In case of cloud deployments (service deployment platform pattern implemented with PaaS) there are provider specific services like e.g. AWS Elastic Load Balancing or Azure Load Balancer which are used to implement server-side service discovery instead.
Pattern implementation
The post FastAPI Microservice Patterns: Local Development Environment — Skaffold, docker, kubectl and minikube in a nutshell describes how to setup the local development environment and how to get the source code of the pattern implementations. The sub directory server-side-discovery of the source code repository contains the example implementation of the pattern. The logic does not make sense but makes it obvious how the pattern solves the problem of how the client of a service discovers the location of a service instance. A service-b provides an endpoint /answer implemented in service-b/app/main.py
@app.get(“/answer”)
def ultimate_answer():
return {“answer”: 42}
which is called by the endpoint /ask of service-a :
@app.post(“/ask”)
def request_answer():
endpoint_of_service_b = “http://service-b/answer"
response_of_service_b = requests.get(endpoint_of_service_b)
json_response_of_service_b = response_of_service_b.json()
return {“answer via service-b”: json_response_of_service_b[“answer”]}
The important point here is that service-a does not have to know the IP address and the port of service-b . Kubernetes makes service-b available to service-a via http://service-b . service-a can access http://service-b/answer to access the corresponding endpoint. | https://medium.com/@florian-kromer/fastapi-microservice-patterns-service-discovery-in-container-orchestration-platforms-290c00d1ad8 | ['Florian Kromer'] | 2021-01-08 14:33:59.664000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Skaffold', 'Fastapi', 'Design Patterns', 'Microservices'] |
Ask a Photo Editor (or Three): What Do You Want from Photographers? | Dustin Drankoski (Mashable): The ones most difficult for us to look at are the ones that are too personal. The photographer has gone so far in, but the viewer has gotten lost. Be careful about editing. Be careful to make sure that you’re actually telling a story.
Sarah Leen (National Geographic): There’s got to be a certain level of wonderfulness. I want to be throbbing for it — I want to be at that pitch. If it’s not that, it’s like, “Who cares?” How do you make me care? The reader care? I call it “yumminess.” How do you get that in there? Be in a community of photographers that push you to reach that level of successful yumminess. Personal projects that are too personal are like “this big,” (makes a tiny gesture) and they need to magnify.
Question #4: What happens when a photographer comes back to you and the story just isn’t there — what do you do?
Sarah Leen (National Geographic): It depends. If it’s a long term story and we catch it early, I’ll assign the story to another photographer. I have to think about the end game: this story is showing up in the magazine, and I don’t have a photographer for it.
It’s really important to nurture the next generation of photographers, so we use them in the Traveler section, with Proofs, or with Dispatches, or on our digital stories. There are a lot of different entry points for a photographer before we will assign them stories.
Genevieve Fussell (New Yorker): Generally we assign work to someone you know will deliver. But I’m also big on giving new people a shot — Max Pinkers’ story on North Korea was his first story with us. We try new people out in the front of book pieces that is at the very beginning of the magazine. If we kill work we might go to our illustration team. There are really good photographers and then there are also really good photographers that are just not good on assignment.
Question #5: In the process of putting together stories and teams, you’re thinking all the while about channels, too. Do you feel optimistic about the power of the still image, with all of this other stuff running in the background?
Dustin Drankoski (Mashable): We do everything, and we find success with still images the most. There’s something ephemeral about a photo that video can’t touch. Still photographs won’t have any less power moving forward.
Sarah Leen (National Geographic): More and more people are taking photographs and publishing them online. There’s this huge love of the photographic still image. It’s not going away; it’s just being used in different ways. The photo book market, for example, is just awesome. It’s so awesome that I’m going to go broke! I don’t feel like the still image goes away; it just changes its place.
Question #6: How imperative is it to curate your Instagram feed? Is it a sin if my nephew’s birthday party is in the mix?
Sarah Leen (National Geographic): I have hired photographers directly because of their Instagram feed. I had been following this one photographer, Brian Finke, because he only had photographs of meat on his feed; endless images of meat. And one day I was doing a story on meat, and I thought: I wonder if that guy on Instagram could be the photographer for this? | https://medium.com/exposure-magazine/ask-a-photo-editor-or-three-what-do-you-want-from-photographers-25af09421c77 | ['Stacy J. Platt'] | 2018-04-13 16:33:49.761000+00:00 | ['Interview', 'Professional Development', 'Education', 'Instagram', 'Photography'] |
5 Tricks to Explain ‘Your Side of the Story’ to Your Boss | 5 Tricks to Explain ‘Your Side of the Story’ to Your Boss
I am sure there have been times when your boss just went on and accused you of something that you had nothing to do with. Or, instead of giving you credit for your hard work, someone else completely stole the show. It bothers you so much that you look for ways to communicate with your boss for him/her to see the truth. However, we all face the dilemma of how or when to strike that much-awaited conversation stuck like a leech in your head.
You have to speak about it soon or once the moment has passed it really won’t matter. Here are a few things you could try.
1. Use the Old School Method — Send an Email
You may wonder, will my boss even have the time to read what I have to say. But honestly, this shouldn’t matter to you. Pick an attention-worthy subject line and display it in a few crisp sentences about what you have to say about what transpired. If you want to sound confident, maybe edit the text using Grammarly or type it in Gmail. Gmail gives you automated suggestions that will help you write better emails.
“Be bold. Be fast. Get to the point right away. The best email communication is simple and clear.” — Constance Hale
2. Write it Down
When you have a lot to say, you often forget to mention the main points you wanted to say to clear your image. Write down a few moments that you wish to convey. This way, you sort out things in your head and know exactly what to begin with when you get a chance to speak.
3. Wait Back After a Meeting
Often the only time we get to see our boss is during a meeting. Wait back after the session is over and spill. Maybe start with a strong opening sentence that is hard to overlook. It gets their attention, and if you have written down your thoughts, you can convey everything you want within a few minutes.
4. Find Out When Your Boss Is Free
Get in touch with your boss’s best friend or right hand. Ask when your boss can sneak in five minutes with you. Be persistent and explain your needs clearly. If they have a heart, you’ll manage to find out the best time to speak with your boss.
5. Just Barge-in
If nothing of the above works, do hell with everything and just barge in. If it’s something that your boss needs to know and your job is on the line for the same, just barge in. You have nothing to lose anyway. Just go in and demand your much deserved time.
I hope these tricks work for you. There may be many more, but these have worked for me. If you can think of anything else, feel free to share in the comments section. Together we can help anyone out there who needs to get their side of the story explained to their boss before hell breaks loose. | https://medium.com/@sujonachatterjee/5-tricks-to-explain-your-side-of-the-story-to-your-boss-b79cc4c4bad3 | ['Sujona Chatterjee'] | 2020-12-24 15:12:57.553000+00:00 | ['Corporate Culture', 'Jobs', 'Worklife', 'Boss', 'Workplace'] |
Interacting Ethereum Smart Contracts with web3.js (part-2) | Prerequisites:
Basic understanding of smart contracts and creating contracts in Remix(Web based IDE)
Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller which is directly written into lines of code. The code and the agreements contained therein exist across a distributed, decentralized blockchain network. A smart contract enables individuals to exchange data in a trusted, conflict-free manner without relying on a third party like a bank, lawyer or notary. These smart contracts are being stored on the Ethereum Blockchain, hence are needed to be validated or mined like a regular transaction. Ethereum smart contracts are stored as special transactions which can be used to build applications. Contracts written in smart-contract-specific programming languages are compiled into ‘bytecode’,
which a feature called the ‘ethereum virtual machine’ (EVM) can read and execute.
Solidity is the language that you can use to code the actual smart contracts. The syntax is very similar to JavaScript and it’s designed with the Ethereum Virtual Machine in mind. Solidity is statically typed, supports inheritance, libraries and contains complex user-defined types.
The solidiy programs can be executed in local machines or using an online IDE called remix. For this blog post, we will be using the online editor.
You can find the remix ide at
Solidity just similar like to object-oriented programming language
The smart contracts are sort of like API’s. The objective of this blog is to show how the smart contract can interact with a web UI.
Let us create a contract in remix
pragma solidity ^0.4.25;
contract studentDetails{
uint private id;
string private name;
string private college;
function setStudentDetails(uint _id,string _name,string _college){
id = _id;
name = _name;
college = _college;
}
function getStudentDetails() constant public returns(uint,string,string){
return(id,name,college);
}
}
here id,name,college are state variables.
function setStudentDetails is used to set values for variables of id,name,college and function getStudentDetails is used for retrieval of id,name,college.
Make sure you compile with specified version which you have taken in your contract.In my contract I have taken ^0.4.25 and set the environment to JavaScript VM .But while attaching to the WEB-UI make sure you have to take Web3 Provider .
Now we are going to install ganache-cli and web.js to create a simple user-interface that allows to interact with ethereum smart contract.
Installing Ganache CLI and running
Ganache CLI, part of the Truffle suite of Ethereum development tools, is the command line version of Ganache, your personal blockchain for Ethereum development.
Ganache CLI uses ethereumjs to simulate full client behavior and make developing Ethereum applications faster, easier, and safer. It also includes all popular RPC functions and features (like events) and can be run deterministically to make development a breeze.
Looking for TestRPC?
If you came here expecting to find the TestRPC, you’re in the right place! Truffle has taken the TestRPC under its wing and made it part of the Truffle suite of tools. From now on you can expect better support along with tons of new features that help make Ethereum development safer, easier, and more enjoyable. Use ganache-cli just as you would testrpc .
Make sure you have installed latest version of node and npm(node package manager).
->node -v
->npm -v
Using npm:
npm install -g ganache-cli
There are a lot of options for running ganache-cli, which can be referred in their Github page.
This provides you with 10 different accounts and private keys, along with a local server at localhost:8545.
Installing web3.js
web3.js — Ethereum JavaScript API
web3.js is a collection of libraries which allow you to interact with a local or remote ethereum node, using a HTTP or IPC connection.
First you need to get web3.js into your project. This can be done using the following methods:
npm: npm install web3
First Create a Directory.
Type the command npm init to get package.json which consists of installed dependencies.
->npm init
Now install web3.js
->npm install web3
Switch over to the Remix IDE and Click on the Run , In the Environment Drop-Down change it from Javascript VM to Web3 Provider.
A pop-up asks Are you Sure want to connect to Ethereum node?
Make it yes.
Click on Ok.
Interacting Smart Contracts using WEB UI
We will create index.html to take Student id, name , college fields in input fields and retrieve in text field.
web3.min.js has been included in script part.
index.css
All the following code should be present inside the script tag in the index.html
{
web3 = new Web3(web3.currentProvider);
}
else
{
// set the provider you want from Web3.providers
web3 = new Web3(new Web3.providers.HttpProvider(“
} if (typeof web3 !== ‘undefined’)web3 = new Web3(web3.currentProvider);else// set the provider you want from Web3.providersweb3 = new Web3(new Web3.providers.HttpProvider(“ http://localhost:8545 ”));
If the web3 is not undefined, we will be using the current provider. This is applicable in cases when we use chrome extensions like meta-mask or if we are using ethereum browsers like Mist. If it’s undefined, we can manually specify the provider ourselves (that is our ganache-cli/testrpc).
now we have to take default web3 account .
->web3.eth.defaultAccount = web3.eth.accounts[0];
Here we are using the first one of the 10 accounts provided by the ganache-cli.
Next, we need to use the web3.eth.contract() method to initialize (or create) the contract on an address. It accepts one parameter, which is referred to as the ABI (Application Binary Interface).
ABI is the interface between two program modules, one of which is often at the level of machine code. The interface is the de facto method for encoding/decoding data into/out of the machine code. In Ethereum, it’s basically how you can encode Solidity contract calls for the EVM and, backward, how to read the data out of the transaction
ABI can be obtained from remix by clicking on Compile tab and clicking on Details. Scroll down and copy the content of Interface — ABI. This should be passed as the parameter of web3.eth.contract().
var studentdetailsContract = web3.eth.contract(PASTE ABI HERE!);
Now we have created a variable studentdetailsContract, the interface for interacting with our contract.
Next we have to specify the address for the contract to interact.Address found at Run tab .After Deploying the contract in my case studentDetails.
click on the marked icon to copy the address of the contract.
->var studentdetails = studentdetailsContract.at(‘paste the address here’);
You can check in the console as
->studentdetails.setStudentDetails(01,’krishna’,’gmrit’);
->studentdetails.getStudentDetails();
These functions can be used in our web-page by calling them using javascript and jquery.
$(“#button”).click(function() {
studentdetails.setStudentDetails($(“#id”).val(), $(“#name”).val(),$("#college").val());
});
Here we are passing the content of fields, id,name.college to the smart contract using setStudentDetails function.
studentdetails.getStudentDetails(function(error, result){
if(!error){
$(“#student-details”).html(result[0]+result[1]+result[2]);
console.log(result);
}
else
console.error(error);
});
This function call will display the id ,name and college of the student-details, in the text field of the UI by fetching the data from the smart contact using getStudentDetails function.
R.Saikrishna
Application Developer,Interests in Blockchain Development | https://medium.com/@rsk.saikrishna/interacting-ethereum-smart-contracts-with-web3-js-part-2-7c5cedb88598 | ['Saikrishna Reddem'] | 2019-03-25 11:32:39.897000+00:00 | ['Solidity', 'Web3j', 'Smart Contracts', 'Ethereum', 'Ganache Cli'] |
Blockchain DOES NOT Provide a Single Source of Truth | …Necessarily. Today I would like to express some ideas and leave you with the concept of blockchain view.
In business process management, there is a concept called a view. A view is a representation of a business process from a certain user (or stakeholder) perspective. Thus, the same business process can have several views. Does it mean that one is right and others are wrong? No. It just means that they represent different perspectives. To make this easier to understand, let us understand what is a business process:
“A business process (BP) is a collection of activities (or tasks), representing a well-defined procedure that aims to achieve a specific organizational goal”.
Business processes can be represented in different languages and notations, for example, BPMN. For example, the following figure represents the request for renting a book:
More simply, let us consider JusticeChain, a system that protects application logs from the Portuguese information systems. JusticeChain predicts an automatic log analysis via smart contracts, but logs can also be analyzed by auditors. Hence, we may have two stakeholders’ views on the same process (collect evidence for an audit):
Auditor and Smart contract (representing a blockchain consortium) concerns’ regarding the collection of evidence for a semi-automatic audit
What does this have to do with blockchain? Well, blockchains do also have several views. Some of them come and go naturally and harmlessly, others are created by malicious parties, and others are permanent.
Section “Future Trends” from [1] says:
Different views on the global state of blockchains can exist due to the blockchain’s nature or data privacy necessity. For instance, in Bitcoin [42], the first public blockchain, the consensus is probabilistic, meaning that temporary views can exist. Concurrently, on private blockchains tailored for enterprises, different views are not only common but desirable. For example, at Hyperledger Fabric, a popular enterprise-grade blockchain, the private data feature allows participants to hide part of the state they hold effectively, only sharing proof of the existence of such data [2, 25]. Enterprise needs lead to the (permanent) existence of different views in the same blockchain. A practical case for studying view integration on the blockchain is merging different blockchain views onto an integrated one [8]. This process has several real-world applications: i) blockchain migration, ii) blockchain backup, and iii) data analytics for legal audits. In particular, blockchain migration happens when it is desirable to change a decentralized application’s blockchain infrastructure to another. Setting up the new infrastructure requires an integrated view of the first blockchain. Regarding backups, while it may be desirable to save all the data containing the blockchain, perhaps a subset of that data (view) is enough. Concerning data analytics, legal frameworks are starting to regulate blockchains [19], putting the focus on audits1 [27, 7, 6]. Subsequently, it is important not only to have raw data but also to access each stakeholder’s views to conduct a virtuous audit and analysis.
The same article provides a Figure in which it is possible to visualize what are views in a private blockchain. In short, there is a lot of space to work on the construction, management, and processing of blockchain views, with implications to several industries.
Conclusion
As put by the article: “ blockchain is often applied to mediate conflicting stakeholder concerns, allowing them to create their views, but at the same time, it provides a generic, integrated view [8]. Typically, as no entity fully controls the blockchain, the process of creating a consolidated view is manual and cumbersome. Future research is needed to systematically analyze those views, as well as automatically retrieve the consolidated view”.
References
1 — Belchior, R., Guerreiro, S., Vasconcelos, A., & Correia, M. (2020). A Survey on Business Process View Integration. http://arxiv.org/abs/2011.14465
2- Belchior, R., Correia, M., & Vasconcelos, A. (2019). JusticeChain: Using Blockchain To Protect Justice Logs. CoopIS 2019: 27th International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems
3 — Belchior, R., Vasconcelos, A., & Correia, M. (2020). Towards Secure, Decentralized, and Automatic Audits with Blockchain. European Conference on Information Systems.
Articles available at: https://rafaelapb.github.io//academic
Also, Read | https://medium.com/coinmonks/blockchain-does-not-provide-a-single-source-of-truth-171d07d7dc21 | ['Rafael Belchior'] | 2020-12-28 13:51:06.182000+00:00 | ['Academia', 'Research', 'Blockchain', 'Business', 'Hyperledger'] |
I completely agree. | …t their marriages fall apart because the gulf became too big to find their ways back to each other. Arguing, or better stated — -heated discussions, can be a positive force in a marriage. | https://medium.com/@nickmarmolejo/i-completely-agree-bae8b72bbe0 | ['Rice'] | 2020-12-09 03:37:36.685000+00:00 | ['Advice', 'Relationships', 'Parenting', 'Family', 'Fatherhood'] |
A Software Product Manager in the Operating Room | A transplant surgery is phenomenal and fascinating in the same way child-like wonder and curiosity can make things. It is, even for the doctor, an exploration. The organ removal, in our case, occurs laparoscopically — with a camera inside the body — and the doctor uses a tiny tool that both cuts and cauterizes — watching on high-definition displays as he goes. The entirety of the surgery is nearly bloodless. He’s snipping and moving, searching for arteries and connections, finding his way around abdominal fat and the insides of a person that, while scanned, still can hold mystery. Sometimes an extra artery is just there, needing addressed like any other unplanned requirement.
I can’t help but ask questions because I’m floored each time I learn something new. Kidney removal leaves the donor down a kidney, but the recipient ends up with three. If the old kidneys aren’t causing harm, they’re simply left where they are. A patient can have five. Someone says they think there was a patient with seven. How do they fit, I ponder. I’m trying to remember if I was this intrigued the last time I learned a new prototyping tool, but I think the wonder I’m sensing only occurs when you’re so lost — so far removed from what you’re seeing that you couldn’t possibly be let down by it.
And yet, the transplant is… undeniably boring. It seems a slow-moving set of rules, steps and procedures. Everything is counted. The time is tracked and allotted for. The requirements for those involved branch and tree back through days and weeks — checking out and returning scrubs, what tools are set aside for this surgery in advance and even the time in the operating room itself estimated and measured. Boring, in this case, means safe. No problems. No undue risk. No adaptations that haven’t been prepared for.
It’s the precision that we think we bring when we make exceptionally bug-free products, but it’s depth and care shows sometimes how naive software creators can be.
This boring meticulousness feels like home to me. It feels like technical specifications and quality assurance testing across multiple browser sizes and operating systems. It’s the precision that we think we bring when we make exceptionally bug-free products, but it’s depth and care shows sometimes how naive software creators can be. Ask yourself if you’d tested your product enough and you might say yes — now ask again knowing that if you’re wrong someone may die. I’m not sure I’ve ever tested my products enough to make that guarantee.
I’m a little jealous of the doctor’s world where the feedback is so tangible. A kidney turns from a pale gray to a bright pink once it’s been swiftly reconnected and the blood is flowing. The doctor gives the organ a little squeeze to make sure liquid is passing through. A closing stitch and the job of the transplant is done. There are still medications and measurements for the coming weeks and months the way we’d slave over metrics and analytics long after a business launch, but through a precision-perfect process an organ transplant is product execution at master level. We should be so lucky to build our digital products with those so able and committed to a successful launch as the transplant surgeon.
A web application is crafted across months. It may live for years or it may swiftly evaporate and yet there’s never an object you can hold with your hands and say I built this…
One of the greater challenges in a life spent building software and web products is often how decoupled it can feel from the physical reward of accomplishment. A web application is crafted across months. It may live for years or it may swiftly evaporate and yet there’s never an object you can hold with your hands and say I built this — it exists because of me and it is a good thing. Across six hours on an early Thursday morning I saw a doctor build something that I suppose he too, can’t ultimately see with his own eyes when the product is complete.
But when later, the patient wakes, smiles and leaves the hospital for home — what a phenomenal reward that must be. | https://medium.com/startup-grind/a-software-product-manager-in-the-operating-room-c25e5ba4fa42 | ['Cody Musser'] | 2016-09-07 19:58:35.577000+00:00 | ['Product Management', 'Work', 'Medicine', 'Health', 'Startup'] |
Weekly: New Blog, Product Hunt, KYC Guideline & Challenger Banks | Digital-only banks are taking the banking industry by storm, signing in thousands of young customers daily. We’ve looked into their services and tell you the pros and cons of the top 10 challenger banks in 2019.
Learn more
About Crypterium
Crypterium is leading fintech startup awarded by KPMG and H2Ventures. Our goal is to ensure anyone can store, send, exchange and spend digital currencies with the same ease as traditional money.
Crypterium is led by the 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 us on Telegram and other social media to stay tuned with our news!
Website ๏ Telegram ๏ Facebook ๏ Twitter ๏ Reddit ๏ YouTube ๏ LinkedIn | https://medium.com/crypterium/weekly-new-blog-product-hunt-kyc-guideline-challenger-banks-50a1ec2588bd | [] | 2019-08-17 07:01:01.760000+00:00 | ['Product Hunt', 'Startup', 'Financial Services', 'Weekly', 'Banking'] |
Wireless Charger Receiver Converter India 2021 | Wireless charging (also known as cordless charging) is a type of wireless power transfer without any wire connection. It uses electromagnetic induction to provide electricity to portable devices. The most common application is the Qi wireless charging standard for smartphones, smartwatches and tablets. Wireless / Inductive charging is also used in vehicles, power tools, electric toothbrushes and medical devices. The portable equipment can be placed near a charging station or inductive pad without needing to be precisely aligned or make electrical contact with a dock or plug.
Inductive charging is an named because it transfers energy through inductive coupling. First, alternating current passes through an induction coil in the charging station or pad. The passing electric charge generate a magnetic field, which fluctuates in strength because the electric current’s amplitude is fluctuating. This changing magnetic field generates an alternating electric current in the portable device’s induction coil, which in turn passes through a rectifier to convert it to direct current. Finally, the direct current charges a battery or provides operating power.
Greater distances between sender and receiver coils can be achieved when the inductive charging system uses resonant inductive coupling, where a capacitor is added to each induction coil to create two LC circuits with a specific resonance frequency. The frequency of the alternating current is matched with the resonance frequency, and the frequency chosen depending on the distance desired for peak efficiency. Recent improvements to this resonant system include using a movable transmission coil
CHECKOUT ON AMAZON | https://medium.com/@bestelectrogadget/wireless-charger-receiver-converter-india-2021-328387313a98 | ['Best Electronic Gadgets'] | 2021-03-20 10:36:12.825000+00:00 | ['Converter', 'Wireless', 'Wireless Charging', 'Charger'] |
How The $15 Minimum Wage Became A Rallying Cry On Both Ends Of The Spectrum | Today, I woke up to the news that Jeff Bezos wasn’t the devil after all. Well sort of. News broke out that Amazon, the silver medal winner in the race for a trillion dollar valuation, would be raising its minimum wage to $15.00 for all full-time, part-time and seasonal working employees. This news, a shock for many, myself included, is one you would never expect a massive corporation to voluntarily declare, let alone implement.
We live in the era of high stock prices and stock buybacks, both of which have very little interest in the needs of employees. If you are not familiar with stock buybacks, let me enlighten you. A stock buyback is essentially a company’s way of saying “we have extra capital, and instead of re-investing in our company or its employees, we’re going to buyback our own stock to elevate its valuation, which really only helps the rich people who work there and those fortunate enough to own stock options.” Therefore, Amazon’s decision today is big news and should be a watershed moment for Amazon’s low wage earners whose rights have been sorely ignored for some time.
But wait…there’s more.
Just now, I’ve learned that Washington, DC lawmakers have voted to block a bill that would have raised the minimum wage to $15 for all restaurant servers and tipped employees. This comes just days after Premier Doug Ford of Ontario said that he intends to scrap the labour reform legislation the previous Liberal government implemented last year which also would have raised the minimum wage to $15.
Just like that you have one step forward and two steps back.
The politics of the $15 minimum wage has become in itself a major issue for businesses and workers. On one end, you have companies who claim they will have to curtail employment, hours and benefits if forced to pay a higher minimum wage. There are many studies showing this theory isn’t necessarily true, yet, many capitalists will have you believe otherwise. Nonetheless, if you own a restaurant that’s hanging on by the thread of a bad month, a $15 minimum wage will hurt you. So there is some logic in this statement.
On the other hand, workers say that their inability to garner higher pay, equal pay and better benefits has lead to a general sense of despair. One of the main criticisms of Amazon was how many of its employees relied on food stamps and government subsidies to make ends meet. Bernie Sanders even launched a bill aptly titled the “Stop Bezos Act” to help remedy the issue by forcing large corporations to pay a tax for every employee who collects food stamps or a government subsidy.
With a growing amount of anger and disconnect on both sides of the aisle of this issue, how does one proceed with regards to understanding which to root for?
Regardless, of your current stance, this topic might just come down to one central concept: dignity. | https://medium.com/track-and-food/how-the-15-minimum-wage-became-a-rallying-cry-on-both-ends-of-the-spectrum-1ab57e4d20f8 | ['Jamie Mah'] | 2018-10-03 03:50:39.175000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Business', 'Minimum Wage', 'Food', 'Politics'] |
Don’t say no, say how can I | Day One: Saturday
The first thing I noticed about thanks to this challenge was how much more I could do in a day than study, eat, workout, and sleep. It started with a text from my friend. “Hey, do you want to grab dinner this coming Friday?”. Immediately, I started thinking about how much studying I’ll have to do on Saturday if I decide to hangout with her on Friday. It was super clear how easy it was for me to say no because I needed to prioritize my coding bootcamp over dumplings with an awesome friend. But I said “Sure!”. I’ll be there, on time, present for every conversation and hungry as heck. The following Saturday? It wasn’t bad at all, I studied a little bit longer, but it was well worth the evening out with my friend.
Day Two: Sunday
It’s a “school night” and I’m focused on preparing for project week with any finishing touches on my personal knowledge about the material I had just learned about Ruby on Rails so I could feel more confident in being a knowledgable and reliable partner. The first thing I plan to do when I wake is study. Instead, my parents ended up throwing a karaoke dinner night with their closest friends. My mom asked for help preparing the food, I said yes. My dad asked for help fixing the wifi, I said yes. They ask me to sing a few songs, I agree. At this point, I start to question my work ethic. Normally I take a lot of pride in working very hard, but at that moment I felt like I was slacking more than ever. After the guests left, I was asked to help clean up. I said yes. I stayed up three hours past my normal bedtime to get the study hours that I normally put in. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. I learned that I can push my comfort zone more than I was already pushing it. Plus, I got to show off some singing skills.
Day Three: Monday
Two cohort-mates asked me to help them out with studying for the second round code challenge sometime this week. During a normal week, I totally would’ve said yes with no hesitation. During a project week where I wasn’t going to be in class for half-a-day, it was a bit of a stretch to make happen. But I refused to say no, instead I gave them the option of studying on their own until the day before the challenge and if they felt like they needed somebody to go over the material with them — then I’m there for it. On Monday I planned a two to three hour session to get this done on Wednesday and Thursday while managing my Phase 2 Project. Luckily, I was able to finish all of my core functions by late Tuesday night and wrap up some stretch goals by Wednesday. I grinded the hours on my project early in the week and made time to help a few friends out later in the week. My new mantra became “Don’t say no, say how can I?” and make it happen. | https://medium.com/@emilyn0614/dont-say-no-say-how-can-i-46fa37ec07b2 | ['Emily Nguyen'] | 2021-04-06 18:26:53.880000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Flatiron School', 'Personal Development', 'Codingbootcamp', 'Mental'] |
The Real Risks of Moving all your Assets into Stablecoins | The Real Risks of Moving all your Assets into Stablecoins Stably Follow Mar 12 · 8 min read
For many, stablecoins have brought with them the long-promised utility function to the cryptocurrency world. A magical key that has finally unlocked digital assets, bringing in millions of new users and billions of dollars. While this has proved to be true in 2020, there are also risks involved in moving all your money into stablecoins. Like many problems in life, there simply isn’t a panacea, or an elixir to quell all worries and risks — especially when it comes to a new type of financial instrument, no matter how “stable” it is. After all, stablecoins aren’t technically anything new. While their digital properties are a breath of fresh air for the stagnated world of finance, most are nothing more than fiat-based currencies held on mobile phones or digital wallets. It is with this in mind that we wanted to highlight some risks involved in moving money into stablecoins.
The Problem with Centralization
This is probably the biggest risk currently associated with stablecoins, and something that goes completely against the general ethos of what blockchain technology is supposed to be about. As the saying goes, blockchain was designed to truly decentralize the information age so that no single party has complete control or dominance over any aspect of our technological world. It was supposed to bring with it a layer of transparency and immutability that technology like the internet simply does not provide. For the most part, this has held true. Transactions are fully transparent and immutable on public blockchains. As a result, they are not controlled, and cannot be altered by a single party. Unfortunately, for stablecoins, this does not hold true, as often there is a single entity that controls and operates the stablecoin with off-chain transactions and deals. Take USDT for example, the most widely traded stablecoin on the market. In reality, USDT is controlled by a company called Tether — which operates just as any other profit maximizing company does, in its own best interest. Tether controls both the supply and distribution rate of USDT, and does not answer to outsiders for how they want to manipulate the market supply. Being a centrally backed asset interferes with the nature of blockchain technology, albeit not technically. This lack of decentralization poses obvious risks to anyone holding USDT since a collapse of Tether for any reason also then means a collapse in USDT, possibly sending the value of your digital USD crashing to zero. The best way to combat this is probably the same way most investment managers would advise you to, through diversification of assets. By diversifying your array of stablecoins, at the very least you can protect yourself against a singular collapse of an organization in charge of the asset.
A Lack of Transparency
While on the topic of USDT and Tether, we need to talk about transparency, or rather the lack thereof. While Tether isn’t the only company who has faced auditing issues in the past, it is probably the most well-known example as it was accused of using over $800 million of its funds to cover up a major Bitfinex Loss. Further investigations revealed that Tether at one point only had about 75% of its issued funds backed by fiat USD — with the rest being collateralized by a series of assets including Bitcoin. This prompted a strong rebuke by governing agencies, asking why Tether would use a volatile currency like Bitcoin as collateral when the entire point of creating USDT was to prevent against the volatility of digital currencies like Bitcoin. Not only is this question fair, but it is also incredibly important. As we discussed above, Tether does not owe anyone transparency or decentralization, but the value of its token, 1 USDT is only pegged to 1 USD because people believe Tether really has the fiat currency locked away somewhere safe. But, if Tether actually only has 76 cents out of 1 USD stored up in a vault, then the coin isn’t actually pegged to 1 USD and its token holders will rapidly pull out all their USDT sending its liquidity down a cliff and possibly crashing its value. For the average user, this isn’t really something they themselves can prevent through diversification. Rather, the only way to combat this is through system wide protocols and audits that force any stablecoin organization to prove their collateralized assets genuinely equals the amount of supply they’ve issued to the market. Unfortunately, this is something much harder in practice than in theory.
Economic Instability and Inflation Issues
Here’s the thing about being pegged to fiat currencies… you’re at the whim of fiat currencies and therefore the central governing bodies behind them. As we’ve seen throughout history, governing bodies are not always the most economically well-informed people when making fiscal decisions, often causing massive nation-wide inflation and crashing the local currency. Simply put, there is a reason why most stablecoins are pegged to high performing and stable currencies like the USD or the EUR as opposed to the Argentinian Peso. This is because USD, and by extension the US Treasury, carries with it an aura of stability that has withstood at least the last half century. If stablecoins were issued in a much worse run economic fiat currency, no one would exchange their money for it, which means that the stablecoin would have no liquidity and therefore no value. However, this also puts your stablecoins at risk against global black swan events, or sudden economic downturns which can lead to inflation. Is the USD likely to suddenly crash drastically? No, chances are that is highly unlikely. But is it impossible? No, it definitely is possible. In an alternate reality where the US-China trade war escalates, and the pandemic continues to ravage its economy, we might have seen a very real scenario of hyper-inflation in the United States. So while this wouldn’t affect the amount of stablecoins you have in your wallet, it would affect the real purchasing power you have with them — which means ultimately, it affects your wealth. This notion is one of the principal reasons why people have moved their fiat currencies to digital versions like stablecoins, but it doesn’t fully protect them from larger, more macroeconomic problems resulting in economic instability and inflation. To be frank, there isn’t really much we can do about this — other than returning to a life of trading more useful, tangible assets like sheep or chickens. Don’t laugh, we might not be that far off from a world where eventually stablecoins are backed by livestock or vegetation instead of fiat currencies, as long as they are still in demand.
It’s Difficult to Algorithmically Maintain a Perfect Peg
A lesser well-known type of stablecoin is the algorithmically backed type, also known as seigniorage. These types of coins are not backed by any type of collateral, whether that is a basket of digital ones like DAI or traditional fiat one’s like USDT. Instead, they rely on an algorithm (or game theory) that buys up supply or produces it based on market fluctuations. How it works is as follows. Let’s say the price of our coin drops to $0.80, meaning that supply in the market is higher than demand. The algorithm would calculate just exactly how much excess supply is optimal, and buy up that amount to bring the price back up to $1 exactly. This sounds great in theory, having an AI-powered algorithm to constantly ensure stability in a blink of an eye, but there are underlying issues as well. For starters, this doesn’t work during black swan like events when there is a sudden drop in demand. Let’s say that some drastic event happens, and over 80% of users pull their money from this stablecoin. The algorithm would then be instructed to buy up enough supply to bring the price back up to $1, but what happens if there isn’t any future demand for this stablecoin any more because of the drastic event? Algorithmically backed stablecoins essentially rely on the future demand of their asset to constantly grow and shrink in supply to remain optimal, but if there isn’t a future demand, the model crashes. On top of that, these algorithms are often incredibly complex and difficult to execute in addition to being a brand spanking new technology, making them far too unreliable to gain the broad public’s trust this moment.
Challenges with Regulations, or the Lack Thereof
There are two main issues when it comes to regulation. Towards the end of 2019, when stablecoins were just emerging from their cocoons, the G7 summit strongly declared the serious risks involved in using them as international settlements. Most of these risks stemmed around money laundering, taxation, and terrorism financing. While an argument can be made that the legacy banking systems rely too heavily on traditional banks and their fees to adopt stablecoins, some truths remain in the statements. Stablecoins, like all digital currencies, possess inherent risks to the underworld. It makes it much easier to pay an arms-dealer in cryptocurrency than it is with a bank check nowadays. Stablecoins take this risk one-step further, as they are not as volatile as altcoins, so criminals are more likely to transact in stablecoins because their values are more or less set in stone as opposed to constantly fluctuating. But the bigger issue with regulations is the lack thereof. In a blink of an eye, regulators can crash an exchange as they have recently done with OKEx, and shut them down either temporarily or permanently. And since you don’t have any legal binding to the fiat collateral stored at these exchanges other than the “I agree” button you pressed during sign-up, there isn’t much you can do. This makes regulations important in not just protecting the industry from criminal cross border transactions, but also from governing bodies and law enforcement themselves. Until proper regulations are put in place to safeguard your digital assets, it is probably not wise to fully commit to stablecoins. Another risk we might see is where a stablecoin (or bitcoin) has been labeled as ‘dirty.’ Since the blockchain is public to everyone, the regulator can track this specific stablecoin’s transaction history and claim your fiat bank account aided in previous malicious transactions — essentially freezing your personal accounts too.
In Conclusion
It is difficult to argue with the astronomical rise seen by stablecoins over the last 12 months, and in no way are we suggesting that this is merely a bubble or flash in the pan. However, it is important to remain even keeled in these situations and understand that there are risks involved with anything, especially digital currencies — even if they are as stable as stablecoins. This dynamic space is only going to evolve, grow and fragment into new areas at light speed. This is exciting, and for many this is exactly what the blockchain space needs. We look forward to seeing how the risks we’ve listed above play out over the next year, and who knows — maybe we’ll write about new risks that have emerged by the next time we write this article.
To learn more about the benefits of using stablecoins and how they can improve your business operations as well as position you as a pioneer in the adoption of disruptive technology, reach out to us here. We will gladly walk your organization through the steps of building a stablecoin with our all-in-one solution. Whether it is the code, compliance, distribution, or marketing, we’ve got you covered.
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Investors: Kory Hoang, CEO — [email protected] | https://medium.com/stably-blog/the-real-risks-of-moving-all-your-assets-into-stablecoins-dee42cda25de | [] | 2021-08-26 12:54:28.025000+00:00 | ['Transparency', 'Blockchain', 'Stable Coin', 'Defi', 'Crypto'] |
How Can War be Good for GDP if it Kills People? | What’s the alternative to GDP?
A metric that could consider war as a positive has to be viewed with scepticism. But we haven’t got to the worst part yet. GDP discounts the environment we’re all dependent on for survival.
Climate change has been considered an afterthought for decades because dealing with the problem would involve reducing carbon emissions. The assumption has been this would impact on the GDP. Nevermind a crisis threatening the existence of humanity and all life on Earth. If GDP is increasing that’s all that matters. Right?
We’re hurtling towards an uncertain future, but there is hope. Other metrics are becoming ever more popular. Metrics such as the UN’s World Happiness Report ranks countries by their levels of happiness. While the OECD has created a framework for measuring wellbeing and progress.
What is still needed is a metric that encompasses three crucial factors. The health of the environment, the wellbeing of society and the development of the economy. Creating a metric that accounts for these factors could create a leverage point in inducing changes to human behaviour.
Because metrics are powerful. Dan Ariely suggests why in the Harvard Business Review:
“Human beings adjust behaviour based on the metrics they’re held against…what you measure is what you’ll get.”
If we continue to rely on GDP to measure the health of economies we’ll continue to see counter-intuitive behaviour. But, if we change the metrics we base success on, the behaviour traits induced by GDP will also change. Measuring the success of nations based on the health of the environment, the wellbeing of society and the development of the economy could have transformative results. Countries and in turn people will focus their endeavours on achieving targets based on these factors.
Any metric that considers war in a positive light shouldn’t be used to measure anything. We need a set of metrics driving human behaviour that makes the prospect of war illogical. Because war is death, war is a destroyer of cities, war tears societies apart.
Read the original article and subscribe for more articles at transformatise.com
Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/how-can-war-be-good-for-gdp-if-it-kills-people-12b4fc8a9cf9 | ['Paul Abela'] | 2020-06-29 12:31:12.659000+00:00 | ['Sustainability', 'Economy', 'Environment', 'Equality', 'Psychology'] |
The New Amazon Echo Show 10 Streams Netflix While Following You Around the Room | Specifications
In the Echo Show 10, Amazon has given a 10.1-inch Adaptive HD display, which moves with the user. It has a brushless motor system, which helps the device rotate and track the object without any noise. It also allows users to interact with Alexa via voice command. It has a 13-megapixel wide-angle camera, which will always keep you in the frame through zoom and panning. Due to the camera and display, you can also take advantage of video calls through the Echo Show 10.
The Echo Show 10 is equipped with a new AZ1 processor, which processes the speech faster and makes Alexa more responsive. It also has a physical camera shutter, which is used to turn the camera off. By turning this off, you can also turn off the motion. Apart from this, you can also turn off the movement through voice command. For this, you have to say, “Alexa, turn off motion.”
Image credit: Amazon
Trending Bot Articles:
According to Amazon, it has dual front-firing Twitter and woofer, which delivers directional sound so that the device automatically adapts to your location. The company has also announced Netflix support for the new Amazon Echo Show 10 device. This means that the new Echo Show 10 users will now be able to stream Netflix content in addition to Hulu and Prime Video. However, no announcement has been made as to when the facility will start.
Apart from this, Echo Show 10 can also be used as a security camera. When you are not at home, this device can detect other people present in the house and send smart alerts with panning at home. Through the Alexa app, you can access the live feed of the Echo Show 10 camera. It also includes Zigbee, Bluetooth LE, and Amazon’s upcoming Sidewalk Network. Moreover, Amazon has added several unique software features like group calling using Alexa, Zoom, and Amazon Chime.
The new Amazon Echo Show 10 is priced at US $ 250 (approximately Rs. 18,400), available in two color options for purchase, i.e., Charcoal and Glacier White. Amazon has not even announced the sale date for the Amazon Echo show 10. Currently, it is listed on the US website with the tag ‘coming soon.’
Don’t forget to give us your 👏 ! | https://chatbotslife.com/the-new-amazon-echo-show-10-streams-netflix-while-following-you-around-the-room-554345dcb35c | ['Tapaan Chauhan'] | 2020-12-11 15:18:00.870000+00:00 | ['Amazon Echo', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Amazon', 'Bots', 'Smart Home Automation'] |
What Will It Take To Feel Safe in San Francisco? | My husband’s family should feel safe in San Francisco. We all should.
By Joel P. Engardio
My husband’s family loves visiting San Francisco, but now they are hearing about the attacks on our residents. They can’t believe this is happening in such a wonderful city. And they wonder what can be done to keep everyone safe.
Recent statistics say violent crime is down in San Francisco, but sometimes it doesn’t feel that way. Last week, we saw the horrific video of an elderly Chinese man being robbed and then assaulted with a metal pole. While police were investigating that crime, another equally disturbing video surfaced this week that shows a man dragging a middle-aged Asian woman down the sidewalk to steal her purse in Chinatown. Only a few months ago, three Chinese seniors were beaten on video in plain view on a Chinatown street.
And earlier last year, an 89-year-old grandmother named Yik Oi Huang was robbed and beaten into a coma while walking in her neighborhood park in Visitacion Valley. She eventually died from her injuries. Then not long after, a 74-year-old woman was abducted while walking near McLaren Park. This madness has to stop.
Community-based solutions
I’m vice president of Stop Crime SF and our Court Watch program followed Yik Oi Huang’s case and provided support for the victim’s family. The case left many in Visitacion Valley neighborhood fearful. For years, community advocate Marlene Tran tried to sound the alarm about crimes against our immigrant communities. I asked Marlene to join the board of Stop Crime SF because we are committed to ensuring our immigrant, working-class neighborhoods are not forgotten.
Marlene recently helped formed a group called Communities As One along with other concerned residents and community leaders. They are recommending actions City Hall must take to keep all of our communities safe. The actions include subsidizing the installation of security cameras and offering seniors wearable safety devices for summoning help. They are also calling for more police foot patrols.
More police resources needed
Increased police resources to deter and investigate crime are key. San Francisco’s police staffing, however, is much lower than other cities. Washington DC has 55 police officers for every 10,000 residents. Chicago has 44. But San Francisco only has 26. Our police officers are stretched thin. They are forced to work twice as hard under tough conditions.
San Francisco has a police-staffing crisis. Last year, the number of officers who retired or left the force was nearly 10 percent of the sworn staff. And less than half of recruits were able to finish the rigorous police academy to become new officers.
When horrific videos surface that show any of our residents hurt, we rely on our police officers to keep us safe. Increasing police resources is an essential part of the solution.
We need to let police officers focus on preventing crime instead of serving as front-line social workers. We need more social workers to reach homeless people suffering from mental illness and get them treatment before they endanger themselves or other people. Severely mentally ill people having psychotic episodes on the street have attacked bystanders and then ended up in the criminal justice system. Jails should not be de facto mental health facilities.
We must be willing to prosecute
The next most important solution is prosecuting hardened criminals when they are caught. Chesa Boudin, our new district attorney, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was “very disturbed” by the recent videos. Let’s hope this means he will prosecute the perpetrators of these disturbing attacks.
If we’re going to prosecute violent offenders, we need to have adequate facilities that offer rehabilitation programs. Our dilapidated jail at the Hall of Justice should be replaced. And if the perpetrator qualifies for a diversion program, we need facilities to accommodate them.
We all deserve to feel safe
My husband Lionel Hsu came to the United States from Taiwan for graduate school and became a U.S. citizen in 2011. He grew up in poverty and is now a Silicon Valley software engineer. He is living the American dream. He also regularly goes to a temple in San Francisco’s Chinatown. And last month, he made a special trip to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in Chinatown to buy treats for his friends for Chinese New Year.
He should feel safe — as an immigrant, as someone with Chinese heritage and as an American — when walking anywhere in San Francisco. He should feel good about his family visiting here.
We all should.
Joel Engardio is a candidate for supervisor on San Francisco’s westside in District 7. Learn more about his views on local issues at engardio.com/issues | https://joelengardio.medium.com/what-will-it-take-to-feel-safe-in-san-francisco-bc5d1716e69d | ['Joel Engardio'] | 2020-03-03 22:11:35.304000+00:00 | ['Crime', 'Asian American', 'Police', 'San Francisco', 'Safety'] |
The Anatomy Of A Great Blog Headline (+53 Amazing Examples You Can Steal Right Now) | The Anatomy Of A Great Blog Headline (+53 Amazing Examples You Can Steal Right Now) Dani Mancini Follow Nov 11, 2019 · 11 min read
You probably only clicked on this article because of its headline.
You’re interested in writing a great blog title, and you rather like the idea of learning some clever shortcuts to headline ideas.
And now you’re here, reading this, because we know the strategic secret to write a clickable headline that’s going to convert. A secret we’re going to share with you!
As copywriters, we know there’s a reason why a reader clicks on some headlines, and quickly ignore others. And understanding what marks this difference is pivotal to the success of any blog article in 2020.
So how do you write a headline that’s going to get people clicking? And what is it that makes a blog title stand out from the crowd?
This comprehensive guide will dissect the anatomy of a stellar headline, and outline our top tips for killer copy. So, dive in and give your headlines a newfound power of persuasion.
And if you’re looking for a fast-track to instant headline inspiration, click here to check out our brand new random headline generator.
For now, though, let’s start at the top…
Just Why Are Headlines So Important, Though?
To answer this question, it’s helpful to first understand the concepts of content marketing and organic growth.
Put simply, content marketing is your opportunity to connect with, and attract the right type of traffic.
It’s about creating content — articles, eBooks, white papers etc. — that will connect to your audience. Content that will, ultimately, bring attention to your business from the demographic you’re targeting.
And this should be authentic, organic attention; growth that has occurred naturally as the result of your reader’s genuine interest in what you’ve written.
But with over 4.4 million blogs flooding our feeds each day, how do you capture the attention of a potential reader?
That’s where a clever, catchy and converting headline comes in…
As copy-genius David Oglivy so famously asserted, your headline is 80% of the attention you’re ever going to receive.
This means that headlines and blog titles go some way to being make or break for your content strategy. If it’s these that capture the largest majority of attention, then — when written effectively — they also have the ability to convert that attention into an active readership.
So you should really go for gold.
Because not only do well-written headlines help boost your SEO efforts and drive traffic to your business, they do so in a more efficient and more affordable way than any other piece of the content puzzle.
With that in mind: are you ready to get started on writing killer copy for your blog headlines?
We’ll start with how you can find inspiration for headline ideas, and we’ll finish with over fifty, focused examples that you can use right away.
How To Write Successful Blog Headlines: Reading, Research & Inspiration Tips
Whilst cracking the copy code can sometimes feel like a challenge, there are many ways to achieve quick headline success.
Reading up on copywriting techniques, for example, is definitely one way to start getting your head round the science of successful copy. Spending time on desk research will teach you top tips and expose you to expert examples, leaving you inspired and ready to perfect your own headlines in no time.
Some of our favourite copywriting books include ‘ Ogilvy On Advertising’, ‘ The Adweek Copywriting Handbook’, ‘ Everybody Writes’ and ‘ The Copy Book’.
Of course, we also spend a lot of time talking about copywriting over on our blog, too.
But we know that copywriter’s block can strike, no matter how many books and blog posts you’ve read. That’s why we’ve created a brand new tool to offer you some inspiration and a little help in hand….
Behind The Headlines: The 10 Fundamental Elements Of Gold-Standard Headline Copy (+53 examples for you to use right now!)
Whilst reading the classics and understanding the science of copy is important, there’s nothing more valuable than actually analysing existing headline trends that work today.
And to make your life that little bit easier, we’re going to break down the 10 fundamental elements that build a successful blog headline.
We’re also going to throw in 53 examples of killer headline copy, too!
Use these as templates for your own headlines by switching out the keywords with whatever is most relevant for you.
Let’s dive in!
Headline Element #1: Use Trigger Words
The most effective headlines include key, trigger words that make us click. These are words that will make any passive scroller stop what they’re doing and jump right into your article.
Think words like ‘Transform’, ‘Amazing’, ‘More’, ‘Mind-blowing’, ‘Need’.
But also some more specific vocabulary, like ‘Convert’, ‘Proven’ and ‘Free’.
These are all words that make us feel something — and that’s the key.
Whether they help create excitement or a sense of urgency, these are the words that should underpin the entire feeling of your article.
Just remember to keep it relevant to your target market.
If you’re targeting business owners, then ‘Convert’ is your go-to; and if you’re targeting bargain-hunters, ‘Free’ should do the trick.
Here are a few example headlines to get you started:
Mind Blowing Life Hacks You’ll Never Want To Live Without
Life Hacks You’ll Want To Live Without How To Transform Your Skin In Seconds
Your Skin In Seconds How To Convert Your Blog Readers Into Revenue
Your Blog Readers Into Proven Ways To Get A Better Night’s Sleep
Ways To Get A Night’s Sleep How To Get A Restaurant Meal For Free
9 Amazing Signs You’re In Love
Headline Element #2: Be Bold
Don’t be afraid to shock with some of your headlines.
Sure, you want to befriend your readers… but sometimes the best way to do that is to get straight to the point, and say it like it is.
‘Why Some Businesses Struggle’ ‘Why Your Business Is Failing (And How To Fix It)’
For example, if a potential reader stumbled across these two headlines:
Which one do you think they’re more likely to click?
Chances are, they’ll find the bold directness of option B too compelling to ignore.
So, where it’s appropriate, be bold and say something shocking!
Don’t worry about coming across as too strong.
Strong is what we need in such a crowded market. You’ve got to stand out, and cutting to the chase is a great way of doing that.
Here’s a few examples as food for thought:
The Reason Why Your Love Life is Failing
18 Ways You’re Wasting Money
Why You’re Not A Millionaire
A Millionaire The World Is In Trouble And It’s Our Fault
And It’s Our Fault 7 Signs That You Need To Change Your Mindset
Headline Element #3: Always Offer Value
When we really drill down, the only reason anyone ever clicks on a headline is because it offers them something.
Sometimes that ‘thing’ is humour; sometimes it’s advice; and sometimes it’s just a pick-me-up. But the key is that good headlines always offer something.
And it’s your job to do the same.
Think about your audience, and think about what it is that they’d like.
Business owners and marketers are going to want more revenue, whilst casual readers of a lifestyle blog might just want a reminder of why life is good.
But here’s the thing: value is very subjective.
It can be tangible, intangible, resource-based or emotion-based.
There is no right or wrong.
Just be sure that your headline offers something of value to your audience, whatever that may be.
For example:
Looking For More Clients ? Here’s The Answer!
? Here’s The Answer! 16 Ways To Improve Your Web Copy For Free
For Free The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Filters
13 Reasons To Keep On Smiling
Here’s How To Boost Your Revenue Overnight
Headline Element #4: Curiosity is Key
Headlines that get us thinking offer a really compelling hook.
And that’s why curiosity is a fundamental element to any successful blog headline.
Known as the ‘Curiosity Gap’ in marketing psychology, headlines that tease a piece of information, whilst withholding what that information actually is, are the headlines that do best.
It’s about telling your reader something that interests them, and leaving them with no choice but to click to find out more.
The key to effective curiosity headlines is about making what you tease both relevant and compelling to your target audience. If it’s a general readership you’re going for, focus on emotion-led pieces around shock, surprise and transformation. These are emotions that we all experience and understand.
And if you’re hoping to pique the interest of a specific type of reader, include language and topics relevant to them.
Check out these examples to see it in action:
You Won’t Believe What Happened When…
What Happened This Woman’s Story Will Change How You Think About … Forever
Will Change The Secret Instagram Hack You Need To Know About
You Need To Know About How This Man Made $1M Sat At Home
This Marketing Insight Will Change Your Business Forever
Headline Element #5: Go Direct
Speaking directly to your audience is a sure-fire way to get clicks rolling in.
Because, let’s face it, human-beings are pretty egotistical.
Indeed, it has long been proven that direct language (‘You’, ‘Your’) is the key to quickly captivating an audience’s attention.
If a headline speaks loudly to ‘you’, it’s a given that you’re going to at least give that headline a skim-read. But whether you proceed to click on that headline is dependent on how well it’s executed.
Throwing in a random ‘you’ isn’t going to give you instant success.
But if you tie that directness to something you know your audience is actually interested in… then you’re getting somewhere. The key is to talk directly to your customer about topics that are of value to them, and specifically them.
For example:
15 Reasons You Need To Stop Procrastinating (‘you’ = students)
(‘you’ = students) Why Croatia Will Be Your Favourite Summer Destination This Year(‘you’ = holiday hunters)
This Year(‘you’ = holiday hunters) 17 Ways To Boost Your Team Performance (‘you’ = business owners)
(‘you’ = business owners) How To Keep Your Copywriting Clients Happy (‘you’ = copywriters)
Headline Element #6: Include Numbers
You might be hesitant to start including numbers in your headlines.
Perhaps you think it’ll look a little too ‘click-baity’ or unprofessional, even?
Think again.
There’s a reason why numbered headlines are so popular — and that’s because they work!
Our brains are wired to enjoy lists, and numbered headlines perfectly tie into that.
What’s more, it’s also easier to provide value to your reader if you’re clear from the outset exactly what to expect. If a reader clicks on ’10 Ways To Write Killer Copy’, then they know exactly what they’re going to get.
It’s clear, down to the point and focused on value.
And as a result, you’re more likely to have impressed your reader having delivered on one primary goal.
Just be absolutely sure that you’ve actually included the amount of tips you promise. Sounds obvious, but it’s easy to forget!
Examples include:
The 8 Movies You Need To Watch This Christmas
You Need To Watch This Christmas 7 Ways To Write Better Blog Headlines
To Write Better Blog Headlines 14 Tips For Using Social Media To Boost Business
To Boost Business 5 Reasons You Need A Copywriter In 2020
Headline Element #7: Get Statistical
As well as loving numbers, readers also really love detail.
And that’s why including statistics in your headline is a clever way of attracting more clicks.
You see, readers like to know that what they’re reading is valuable, worthwhile content. And by including an attention-grabbing statistic in your headline, you’re going to immediately show that you know your stuff.
And by dropping in statistics that are relevant to your market, you’ll also appeal to the curiosity of your audience too, which will boost your click-through-rate like magic.
Here’s a few examples to get the ball rolling:
Why 10% Of Startups Fail In The First Year
Instagram May Have 95 Million Bots . Here’s How To Find Out If Your Followers Are Fake…
. Here’s How To Find Out If Your Followers Are Fake… 56% Less People Are Getting Married. Why?
Why? Boost Your Open Rate By 20% With This Hot Email Hack
Headline Element #8: Be Urgent
With millions of articles to read, it’s your job to give readers a good enough reason to pick yours.
And one of the best ways of doing this is by creating a sense of urgency around your headline.
If there’s an element of immediacy to the words you write, there’s a much higher chance your headline will resonate.
By including phrases such as ‘Right Now’ and ‘Need To Know’, as well as focusing on topics of ‘must-have’ value (saving money, improving time efficiency ect) — your content soon becomes a priority.
Here’s a few examples to get you thinking:
Why You Desperately Need To Change Your Approach To Business
To Change Your Approach To Business How You’re Losing Money Each And Every Day
9 Ways To Instantly Earn More Money
How To Stop Wasting Time Right Now
7 Advertising Hacks You Need To Know About
Headline Element #9: Be Emotive
Us humans are pretty emotional beings.
And that’s something you should totally use to your advantage when writing your blog headlines. After all, if a reader sees a headline that strikes a chord with them, they are much more likely to click on it.
Simple, right?
Try to write headlines that provoke an emotional response, just like these:
These 19 Memes Will Make You Cry With Laughter
This Mom’s Story Will Break Your Heart
How To Live Your Life With No Regrets
17 Reasons Why You Deserve Happiness
How To Focus On What Truly Makes You Happy
Headline Element #10: The Famous ‘How To’
And to finish off our list of hot headline hacks, here’s a top tip on ‘how to’ write the most clickable, most converting headline of them all.
Yes, the famous ‘How To’ headline is the go-to for virtually every copywriter out there.
And there’s one good reason for that: it works.
‘How To’ headlines are loved by readers for their clarity, specificity, value and detail.
You know what you’re getting, and there’s a clear, value-based reason for clicking the headline. And remember, value is always key.
Top tip: Be specific, and don’t be afraid of going niche. Because of its popularity, the ‘How To’ headline is becoming rather saturated, so do all you can to stand out.
Examples include:
How To Pass Your Driving Test In Less Than 1 Month
Pass Your Driving Test In Less Than 1 Month How To Get People To Read Your Cycling Blog
Get People To Read Your Cycling Blog How To Buy Great Christmas Gifts For Only $20
Buy Great Christmas Gifts For Only $20 How To Launch A Marketing Business During Your Maternity Leave
Introducing The Scribly.io Random Headline Generator: Never Feel Lost For Words Again
Here at the Scribly Knowledge Hub, it’s our mission to help both writers and businesses alike improve their copywriting skills.
And with this in mind, we’ve recently launched our very own Random Headline Generator that will hook you up with great headline ideas in just one click.
When you’re managing a busy marketing schedule, trying to scale your startup, or balancing a number of freelance clients, there’s not a lot of hours (or minutes!) left in the day to spend crafting headline copy… so we thought we’d do it for you!
Simply enter in your central keyword, click ‘Generate’ and pick from between 5 and 50 headline suggestions just for you.
Click here to give the headline generator a try, and get ready to feel inspired.
It’s showtime, headliners!
And that’s it from our comprehensive guide on how to write clickable, clever blog headlines that’ll convert in no time.
From looking for inspiration, to sharing over fifty, hot headline hacks: we hope you have found this guide helpful, and feel more ready than ever to take control of your content strategy.
But if you’re looking for a little extra help, don’t forget to check out our random headline generator and you can always drop us a line.
For more content just like this, head over to our Knowledge Hub for top tips from professional copywriters on how words can grow your business. | https://medium.com/scribly-io/the-anatomy-of-a-great-blog-headline-53-amazing-examples-you-can-steal-right-now-9746ef2e7096 | ['Dani Mancini'] | 2019-11-11 15:41:22.942000+00:00 | ['B2b Marketing', 'Content Marketing', 'Copywriting', 'Headlines'] |
Oh, QUARANtree, Oh, QUARANtree . . . | It’s okay if your tree is a little off kilter this year. We are, too.
Photo courtesy of iStock Photo
“I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all really. Maybe it just needs a little love.” Charlie Brown Christmas
I’ve had some badass Christmas trees. In fact, one year my husband and I somehow dragged home a colossal 9 1/2 foot Frasier Fir, which was definitely a back-breaker but the best tree ever. The next year everything changed. When my guy died a few months before Christmas, it was hard to find merry anywhere. So I did the only thing I could do — I adapted. I made things manageable. I kept the most priceless traditions, launched some new and pitched the rest. First up — downsize all my supersize expectations — including the tree. A few things, however, were non-negotiable, and none more important than my eclectic collection of well-loved ornaments.
“Nothing ever seems too bad, too hard or too sad when you’ve got a Christmas tree in the living room.” Nora Roberts
Seriously, how could I part with Pinocchio from my Florence honeymoon, or the sequined, glitzy chatzkas lovingly made by my once grade school nuggets? And that lumpy stuffed star from the blizzardy winter my BFF and I were heavily pregnant? Mended often, it still has a place near the shabby toy soldier from my childhood tree. Pictures of every kid and grand are absolute musts. That San Francisco trolley from the first travel review work trip I took solo after my husband left the building? Yes and yes. After all, trees may be small or artificial; emotions not so much.
This year, the Christmas tree is a wee bit more Charlie Brown. It happens. But, as life-changing events go, it doesn’t make the cut. In a crazy year like 2020, Christmas tree size is the least of your problems. COVID-19 is centerpiece of everything we do and think. Washing hands, staying socially distant and wearing a mask is the only way we can unwrap a healthier new year.
“Christmas is a box of tree ornaments that have become part of the family.” Charles Schultz
So, yes, this year Santa arrives with a mask. Surprise. It isn’t like we saw his mouth under that beard much anyway. But, even if all these changes challenge your vision of traditional Christmas, it doesn’t have to be a Bah Humbug season either. So, maybe this one is the suckiest, plaid bellbottoms of holiday seasons. You know, the one where ‘Grandma got ran over by a reindeer’ is a never-ending earworm. You can still give it your best shot. Put on that tacky, blinking holiday sweater for a ZOOM family soiree. Bundle up with a friend for a socially distanced walk. Binge watch Christmas Story, because, well, life IS fraa-jeel-aay! Or, truck out a few of your own laugh-until-you-cry holiday home movies. Even if we’re not in the same room, this Christmas will go down in family lore just the same.
Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.” Larry Wilde
Through the years, my kids grew into their own homes, their own babies and Christmas celebrations. Hot chocolate for 5 shrunk to two and now a single chai latte. Red and green everything morphed into a refined coastal look of blue, white and silver. But the tree, oh the tree, is forever an ode to homey, sentimental creativity. We all need that one thing to remind us of who we are. And the tree is one of mine.
This year, who and how we are is affected by everyone around us — and we to them. It will take all, not just some, to make a difference, to change the trajectory of this pandemic. Our world, our families, and our health demand it. As in many dark times of war and poverty, fear, grief or division, the true spirit of the holiday remains. Draw back the Wizard of Oz’ Christmas curtain to find the real deal, the part that isn’t just a glittery, Hallmark holiday-wrapped movie. You’ll find true strength, and kindness — even if it’s socially distanced. Life is never perfect, but it is mostly good, even blessed, not with fairy dust but crayon marks, dog hairs and milk (or wine) spills. It’s the timeless moral fables that sucker us back to Christmas each season, in traditions that are just memories in motion.
“Christmas isn’t just a day. It’s a frame of mind.” Kris Kringle, Miracle on 34th St.
In a season that thrives on togetherness, group hugs and lots of connection, we need to stay 6 feet apart. It sucks. Take that from a serial hugger. We’re all fatigued, tired of our aloneness and, I’m sure I channel the Grinch who said, “I could use a little social interaction.” Just not this year.
May we all be blessed with inspiration, kindness, compassion and love. No matter where you are, or how your holidays have been revised, I wish you the best the season can offer along with both safety and good health in a heck of a lot better new year.
So, don’t be a cotton headed ninny muggins. The best way to spread Christmas 2020 cheer is to wear a mask — from-ear-to-ear. | https://medium.com/@marismall/oh-quarantree-oh-quarantree-d934d1b669f8 | ['Mari Small'] | 2020-12-17 18:58:34.801000+00:00 | ['Lifestyle', 'Life', 'Christmas', 'Loss', 'Covid 19'] |
Make A Difference… | I wanted to make a difference…
So I decided to to start my own business
And earn more money
With more money, I could support my dreams and live a great life
But…
I had no skills
I had no idea how to earn money
From childhood until my late teens my parents provided me with everything I wanted
So…
I read a few books
Started following some people online…
I got a loan
I got into debt…
$10K to be exact
Changed my online career
While managing my medical studies at the same time…
The first thing I tried failed
The second thing failed as well
And it went on and on
Two years into this…
I stumbled onto copywriting
Everything I had tried so far was a fad
With copywriting I felt as if it could stand the test of time
It made sense because copywriting had been around since the age of mankind
Modern advertising had been around since 1900’s
So I figured it would stay for a couple of decades more
The feel of words, spinning a golden thread in between sentences
Seducing the reader, it felt like the perfect blend of fiction and nonfiction
However,
I learned that you have to be patient
You have to sacrifice…
When you find that one thing, then do whatever you can to take it, learn it, master it and immerse yourself in it.
For me, this meant letting go of all my social commitments, studies and what not…
Life happened in between and here we are…
I’m still not a master
I’m slowly getting there
And, maybe one day I might get there but who knows? | https://medium.com/@idaniyalabbas/make-a-difference-e8ffc7d05aaa | ['Daniyal Abbas'] | 2020-12-21 21:55:27.695000+00:00 | ['Email Marketing', 'Motivation', 'Business', 'Personal Development', 'Copywriting'] |
Connection between Mental Health & Physical Health | We live in a world where problems related to physical health and body are given extraordinary importance and attention while the most important organ which is literally responsible for the wellness of our body, our brain is neglected. A bruise, an upset stomach, a fractured bone makes you run to the hospital as soon as possible but a disturbed mood, unknown agony and frustration, damaged mind does not bother you much. Why? Mainly because there is a general lack of understanding regarding the colligation between mental and physical health.
The most common physiological illnesses like Diabetes, Hypertension have psychological root causes but there has been no focus on behavioral interventions to treat these diseases. Nothing can be treated permanently if the root cause is not touched.
Mental and Physical health is strongly linked to each other. Any disturbances in neurotransmitters leading to psychological disturbances can also lead to physical illnesses or symptoms. Almost 80% percent of the patients are reffered to a psychiatric setting with an underlying psychological problem.
The most important part is to educate yourselves and others the impact of an unhealthy mind on our physical health and daily life activities. Sometimes, symptoms of mental disturbances are manifested as low energy, fatigue, lethargy, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances. One can not be treated for such symptoms until there is no complete psychological wellness.
A healthy mind leads to a healthy body and a healthy life overall. It is important and necessary for us to educate and be educated on such undermined topics. Poor mental health can make it extremely difficult to cope with physiological illnesses therefore it is essential to look after our mental and physical health both. | https://medium.com/@mominahambreen/connection-between-mental-health-physical-health-8a625c7157fe | ['Mominah Ambreen'] | 2020-12-24 13:31:33.713000+00:00 | ['Physical Health', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Mental Health Treatment', 'Mental Health', 'Psychology'] |
You are Focusing On The Wrong Thing | When I started writing, I was constantly looking at the stats. I wanted to know how each post was doing — how many reads? How much views? How much has it earned? It became a stressful and constantly disappointing obsession. This anxiety bled all over my mental state. While I was regularly checking the stats, I realised I was consistently having writer's block. Words and ideas have always been something that came naturally for me. I've always lived in my head, which means I've always created alternate realities and practised the act of persuasion with refined words and thoughts in my head. Coupled with the fact that I've journaled nearly all my life. So to word thoughts and emotions was something I live and breathe each day. How then, am I getting this friction in the flow of my mind?
That was when it occurred to me. You see when I write, I relied on Medium to meet certain expectations. And that was that it goes viral and curated. And because I was focused on the statistical results, my work didn't seem to connect, because they were coming from my head, not my heart. I was not putting enough emotional investments into my work. My work wasn't written with the readers in mind, it was written with the medium editors in mind. I was missing the goal — the most important thing why I was doing it in the first place.
These wore me out for quite a while until I had to retrace my steps. I got exhausted trying to write the next big medium article. I mean such perfection is hard to keep up with. Let's face the truth, you are not writing for Medium. You are writing for people through Medium. Your goal should be to touch the heart of a poor boy from Wisconsin, trying to understand how to deal with peer pressure. Or a young lady from Malawi who wants to understand her role in society. Or the woman who doesn't know how she can get out of an abusive relationship. We write because there is chaos in the world, and we want to fix them.
“When you treat a disease, you either win or lose. But when you treat a person, you win no matter the outcome.” —Robin Williams
We should put a face at the end of our writing, not a number. The primary purpose of your talent is to make a difference. The monetary aspect comes secondary, and trust me, it surely will.
When I started focusing on the impact my writings would make rather than the stats, everything changed for me. It took me to a deeper level within myself. If I’m going to write for an 18 years old who is going through depression and anxiety, it would require me to dig deep within myself to connect with her on a deep emotional level. This is the kind of leverage you don't get when your sole focus is to make money. | https://medium.com/illumination/you-are-focusing-on-the-wrong-thing-59bc7e72b1ba | ['George Blue Kelly'] | 2020-12-26 23:20:11.689000+00:00 | ['Writing Tips', 'Writing'] |
How social media companies have captivated the attention of an entire generation. | 4 hours pass.
You pick up your phone, scroll to where Instagram used to live on your home screen, and then quickly remember that you deleted it. This happens several more times throughout the course of the day. You start to feel moderate angst. You wonder if people have been commenting on your most recent post about taking a break. Nobody has texted you yet; what’s going on? You decide to quickly re-download Instagram to check your messages.
You’re back on all social media platforms within the week.
Welcome to the life of a teenager. According to the Addiction Center, psychologists estimate that nearly 5–10% of Americans today are addicted to social media. That’s somewhere in between 16.5–33 million people (for reference, the population of Texas is 29 million). So why are so many adolescents addicted to this new era of technology? Is there something fundamentally wrong with our generation? How have these social media platforms been able to completely command over our attention like this?
“So why are so many adolescents addicted to this new era of technology?”
It all starts with the business model.
Social media apps are free to use and so they make their money by selling advertisements. This means that if I have something to promote, I can pay Facebook to advertise it for me. Since they have over 2.6 billion active users, not only will they guarantee me that people will see it, but they also allow me to indicate the exact type of person to whom I’d like to show it (college kids, elderly aged, etc.). This is called targeted advertising, which allows millions of companies to optimize their marketing spend. You wouldn’t waste time trying to sell a pacifier to a college student in real life right?
In 2019, Facebook’s global ad revenue was ~$70 billion, which made up ~98.5% of their total revenue. Put simply, these companies have a vested interest in keeping your eyes on their platforms. But how do they actually do this?
Painstakingly intense product design.
Every social media company invests millions of dollars into hiring teams (engineers, designers, marketing, etc.) that specifically focus on making their platforms highly engaging. These products aren’t addictive by chance; they’re designed that way. Nir Eyal, a famous author and investor, calls these “Habit-Forming Products” and takes a deep dive into the methods these companies use to capture so much of our attention through his Hook Canvas.
Trigger
To hook users into their platforms, social media companies use two types of triggers: External and Internal.
External Triggers are the direct methods that they use to get you onto the platform. For example, continuous notifications telling us that we’re missing messages, and constant emails telling us what we missed.
Internal Triggers are the subconscious associations that prompt you to open the platforms. These are far more important and are where these companies aim to influence you. Internal triggers are most effective when there’s a recurring negative emotion, such as boredom, and opening the app serves as a temporary relief. This is what leads to addiction.
Action
After social media companies succeed in getting you to open the app, their next target is to make sure that you’re immediately captivated. They accomplish this through a process called variable rewards. B.F. Skinner, a Harvard psychologist, explored this topic in his famous experiment with mice in 1948. In this experiment, one group of mice would press a lever and randomly receive a small treat, a large treat, or nothing. The other group would receive the same treat every time. Overall he found that the group of mice receiving variable rewards pressed the lever voraciously while the other group pressed it at very low rates. Humans, similar to the mice, respond compulsively to variable rewards. The endless scroll through your Twitter feed all seems worth it if you can find just one tweet that’ll make you fall on the floor laughing.
Reward and Investment
Now that they have your undivided attention, they need to plant the seeds to make sure that you’ll come back every day. They want to be asked out again after the first date. They accomplish this through offering fleeting rewards and asking you for an investment. The rewards that social media platforms use are fairly similar across the board: likes, favorites, retweets, reposts, etc. From an outside perspective, these appear to be exciting and useful metrics that tell you how much your friends and other users are engaging with your content. In reality, these are designed to be ephemeral rewards that trigger the same neural circuitry as drugs such as cocaine, placing you in a constant feedback loop always wanting more. Finally, to make sure that you never dump them, they get you to invest time and energy into the platform. After months of building followers and curating your page, you’ll feel that you’ve devoted too much time to quit.
“These products aren’t addictive by chance; they’re designed that way.”
What’s really happening under the hood and what are the ramifications of these design strategies?
Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. are designed to make users addicted to the platform. The more time that you spend on it, the more money these companies make from advertisements. These platforms’ reward mechanisms (likes, favorites, retweets) activate neurons in the hypothalamus causing an influx of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, to be released into your synapses. This is the exact same chemical reaction that your body undergoes while gambling or through the use of drugs. The brain receives a “reward” in the form of a temporary feeling of pleasure, and subconsciously associates the gambling, drug, or social media activity with positive reinforcement. Just as drug activity is most dangerous when used to alleviate pain, social media use is most pernicious when used to assuage negative emotions such as boredom, loneliness, or fear of missing out.
Social media addiction leads to common symptoms that we see in severe drug addicts: a preoccupation of the mind when not using it, mood modification during use, tolerance to reward mechanisms, conflicts with others because of frequent use, and apparent withdrawal symptoms when attempting to quit (often leading to a relapse). Most importantly, this can lead to prolonged affects on the human brain. Dar Meshi, a renowned neuroscience researcher at Michigan State, found in a 2019 study that excessive social media users face similar deficiencies in making value-based decisions to people struggling with substance abuse. On top of that, several studies have shown an undeniable correlation between frequent social media use, negative mental health, and low self esteem.
In the end, what does this all mean?
Should we stop using social media all together? I don’t think so. Social media can have immense benefits when used correctly: growing entire businesses, marketing, connecting with the world, staying up-to-date on news, etc. However, at a time in our society where depression, poor mental health, and suicide are rampant, I do believe that it’d be injudicious for us to not have awareness over the negative aspects of these habit-forming products. It’s imperative that we advocate for ways that our technology will be used for good. | https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/how-social-media-companies-have-captivated-the-attention-of-an-entire-generation-8a4589a7db5 | ['Angel Onuoha'] | 2020-06-22 02:39:01.639000+00:00 | ['Facebook', 'Instagram', 'Social Media', 'Addiction', 'Design'] |
Graphs and Real-Life Application | 3. The World Wide Web
The web is a huge collection of documents pointing to each other via hyperlinks. In other words, the web is another massive graph data set.
You can model the web as a graph by treating each web page as a graph vertex and each hyperlink as a graph edge.
Many business models of large companies (such as Google) revolve around analyzing the massive web graph.
Think about it: what does the Google search really do? Given your information need, Google needs to present you with the most relevant piece of content from this huge web graph. If they do a good job (they do), they satisfy your information need. Being satisfied with the service causes you to reuse it again and again.
The problem is that it’s still difficult for machines to differentiate between good and bad content. 99% of the content on the web you would consider as trash. How does Google bot know which content has high quality?
This idea is the basis of Google’s famous PageRank algorithm. It is an iterative graph algorithm that determines the rank of a web page (higher is better) based on the summed ranks of web pages linking to them. To know their rank we look into the summed ranks of web pages linking to them. As you can see, this is an iterative procedure that refines the ranks of all the web pages one step at a time. After converging, the PageRank algorithm gives a pretty accurate measure of how trustworthy and renowned a web page is.
Ok, let’s go back to the question: what are application scenarios use cases of graphs in computer science? The business models of the largest companies in the world, with billions of dollars yearly profits, center around efficient processing and information retrieval from large graphs. | https://medium.com/@rajshah001/graphs-and-real-life-application-28759b77b833 | ['Raj Shah'] | 2020-12-29 10:20:19.520000+00:00 | ['Facebook', 'Data Structures', 'Google Maps', 'Internet', 'Graph'] |
My Concern About You | Serious Concerns About You I am really concerned about you in regards how many of you just do not understand economics and the financial system. More less even on personal finances. So many people are in debt and just have no clue why that happened. So really what does money mean to you. What is your relationship with money? Links of Interest My Website: www.excitingWC.com Social: Twitter: @ExcitingWorld32 Uptrennd: https://www.uptrennd.com/user/jr YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/WorldT Hive: worldtraveller32 Flote: excitingworld32 LBRY: exciting-world-cryptos Email: [email protected] Big Thanks To All My Followers, Subscribers, And Everyone Everywhere If You Like To Help My Platform. Donations Are Kindly Accepted Below These Help Provide You Alway With Quality Information on Crypto. Thanks So Much Cointr.e: https://cointr.ee/excitingworld32 Bitcoin: 1mwKGPCzjiTWrMsTZBojQjcSJGgUiv2F4 Ethereum: 0xE58bc9Cf1F43C27d5EB9942138C97c55eE5d7b2B Litecoin: Ld3BLhdXmQJoWzjm72TX86RyvRvoUnLjcj DASH: Xkajy3TtF1d85Hrkc5qnQKxzoTESUhvYBi Earn Zen — Referral Link https://getzen.cash/auth/register?ref... Patreon: Donate to My Patreon: Exciting World Cryptos Amazing words. #stress #helpingyou #choices #cryptocurrency news #uptrennd #blockchain use cases#Homeofcrypto #1up #tokens #icos #cryptocurrency converter #cryptocurrency millionaire #scams #safety #technology #techevents #toronto #canada#downtrend #academy #satoshi #login #ideas #reversal #telegram #social #media #tough Thanks for watching; If You Have Any Questions Feel Free To Use the Links and Contacts Presented | https://medium.com/@newcodelogic/my-concern-about-you-b3289e6fdc71 | ['Exciting World Cryptos'] | 2020-09-02 20:12:47.579000+00:00 | ['Solutions', 'Economy', 'Foodies', 'Monetary Policy', 'Thoughts And Feelings'] |
pixologic zbrush Crack 2021.5 | Pixologic ZBrush 4R8 2021.5 Crack programmings that carefully chiseling the articles. It consolidates 3D/2.5D demonstrating, finishing, and painting. There is a pixel that saves the lighting, shading, material, direction, and profundity data for the focuses of creating up all articles on the screen. ZBrush is more likened to customary chiseling. Pixologic ZBrush Crack 2021 break is the product that creates 3D computerized sculpting.it Full Version is an unquestionable requirement have programmed by film studios, game engineers, toy creators, artists, car fashioners, and other visual craftsmen.
It offers the universe’s most exceptional instruments for working with limitless computerized chiseling and painting. With numerous extraordinary highlights that have been created in light of the ease of use, it makes a client experience that feels unfathomably normal while at the same time motivating the craftsman inside. It gives all you require to rapidly draw out a 2D or 3D idea.
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How to install Crack & Activate Pixologic ZBrush? | https://medium.com/@tayyebaziz078/pixologic-zbrush-crack-2021-5-4423f0678fbf | ['Tayyeb Aziz'] | 2021-05-04 00:00:00 | ['Hollywood', 'Pixologic Zbrush Keygen', 'Pixologic Zbrush', 'Pixologic Zbrush Crack', 'Love'] |
Maecenas — making fine art investment accessible | Words by Marcelo García Casil
At Maecenas, we are proud that our decentralized gallery will help democratise access to fine art investment. Monets, Van Goghs and Goyas make for an attractive asset class with long-term appreciation, and we are passionate about unlocking that value for more than just the super-rich.
We do this by dividing up famous paintings into many small parts and auctioning those fractions on our blockchain platform. Yes, you can own a piece of a Picasso — and trade it on the Maecenas marketplace.
A gallery, museum or collector can offer to sell up to 49 percent of a masterpiece on our platform to raise funds. Like this, we are injecting liquidity into a $65 billion annual industry that is currently dominated by monopolistic auction houses and opaque transactions.
I am sometimes asked why we limit the auctions to less than half of the artwork. The reason is so that the original owner cannot simply dump artworks into the platform and go away — precisely because they have 51% exposure and, therefore, would suffer losses themselves if prices fall. This creates an alignment of interests which incentivises the original owner to continue creating value for the artwork — by, for example, promoting, displaying or lending it to exhibitions.
Others may make 100 percent of art shares available to trade, fomenting active markets in specific areas. But this actually means that nobody is incentivised to increase the real value of the artwork. In fact, it tends to stimulate traders to speculate with the price because everyone wants the price to go up to boost profits. This creates incredibly inflated prices that can only plunge when true valuations are made.
On the other hand, Maecenas’ objective is worldwide and we wanted to create a business model that was sustainable over time and not just to create hype, make millions and then let the whole thing blow up after ten years. It’s a different approach.
And I am heartened that so many in the art and blockchain communities are supporting our business model. We are more than two-thirds of the way to completing our public token crowdsale target. I am blown away that in a matter of days we have already raised enough funds to implement our roadmap where we plan to build out our platform and open centers around the world. And as more money continues to flow in, we will be able to increase our capacity to stimulate financing so that more owners auction artworks.
Maecenas embraces decentralisation and transparency. On the global Maecenas marketplace, the value of the painting shares and the value of the actual artwork are completely correlated.
We are not about just trying to fuel speculation. The objective of Maecenas is to democratise the art world and let everyone enjoy famous works that have traditionally been out of reach. We have about $100 million worth of artworks in our pipeline. By setting up secure art vaults that double-up as galleries we are effectively setting these masterpieces free and letting everyone appreciate them and enjoy them.
If you want to help make fine art accessible to everyone, contribute to Maecenas now to bring the best fine art masterpieces to the blockchain community, and tell your art enthusiast friends about Maecenas. | https://medium.com/maecenas/maecenas-unlocking-long-term-value-for-fine-art-1ca6d3d7ba2a | [] | 2017-09-15 04:47:00.076000+00:00 | ['Investment', 'Ethereum', 'Art', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin'] |
Even in this crazy holiday season, it’s cool to see Medium writers give thanks. | Even in this crazy holiday season, it’s cool to see Medium writers give thanks. For American Thanksgiving, the incredible Jonathan Greene, editor of Assemblage, took the time to share a teeny part of his gigantic heart with the writers and creators who inspire him on this platform. If you’re looking for a great read that will warm your soul, take a few minutes to read through this love letter to the power of words. | https://medium.com/@greg-frankson/even-in-this-crazy-holiday-season-its-cool-to-see-medium-writers-give-thanks-e36543a484e9 | ['Greg Frankson'] | 2020-12-05 21:27:24.041000+00:00 | ['Gratitude', 'Thanksgiving', 'Society', 'Culture', 'Self'] |
This is what serial killers can teach us about parenthood. | Photo by Joshua Lewis on Unsplash
Raising a kid can be a scary thing. No matter how many courses or advice you have on the issue, nothing in the world prepares you for the amount of responsibility that represents taking care of a newborn child. Not only providing them with food and shelter is enough, but also we must understand and meet their psychological needs during their formation.
In fact, it has been proven that during the first five years of childhood, children develop the foundation of the personality that will companion them for the rest of their life. Ignoring these aspects, especially if the child has underlying psychopathic traits, is the first step towards disaster. A childhood filled with abuse and neglect is usually pointed as the trigger and reinforcement of the negative aspect of psychopathy that yields in the vast amounts of serial killers in America.
Of course, this doesn’t mean all children are ticking murder bombs that explode if we try to correct them for something they did wrong. But, if we aren’t aware of our acts and their effects on our siblings, our inability to balance love and discipline will definitely cause harm to them. It is one thing to raise a warm-hearted child knowledgeable of its duties, and another different one creating an abusive spoiled brat. And everything starts with us.
Children are behavior copycats.
Many serial killers, like Richard Ramirez, Ted Bundy, and Phillip Jablonski grow having a violent misogynist and substance abuser masculine figure. Because children are sponges trying to learn everything, they became modeled by those negative figures after years of exposure, repeating later the same abusive pattern. And sometimes going even further. Once an abuser tastes the sweetness of power over someone else, they will fall to the impulse of unleashing all the bitterness they once swallowed.
Abuse doesn’t necessarily have to occur on them directly to learn it. Having an ineffective work/ family balance and drowning our real problems with alcohol and drugs will only keep building frustration. Once our boiling point is reached, we vomit it against the first unaware who make us explode. As the child gets continuously exposed to that kind of behavior, he/she will understand that this type of reaction is acceptable, being replicated once they become adults.
Psychopathy is not a curse.
It has been estimated that 3–4 percent of children are born with an antisocial personality disorder popularly known as psychopathy. Despite the notorious connotation, this doesn’t mean they are a lost cause and need to be immediately locked down. In the book, The Good Psychopath’s Guide to Success authors Andy McNab and Kevin Dutton explains that psychopathic traits like charisma, coolness under pressure, fearlessness, focus, impulsivity, and reduced empathy aren’t inherently bad by themselves unless they became dysfunctional and applied in the wrong contexts.
An example of both sides of the coin is Gary Hednik, a serial killer that kidnapped and captivated several women for his deluded fantasies, who was also a successful stock wizard. The fearfulness and lack of empathy that their victims suffered give Hednik the mental resilience to turn a $2,500 investment into $500,000 in the span of a few years. If he wouldn’t commit those crimes he could be one of the big names in the current war between hedge funds and GameStop Reddit supporters.
Always keep both eyes on them.
Responsible parents know where and what their children are doing. But with a hard economy nocking our doors, we spend too many hours focused on the wrong matter, while taking for granted the wellbeing of our children, without further question.
The case of Milwaukee Cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer is an atypical one because he did grow in a loving and caring family. However, his parents were oblivious to Jeffrey‘s fascination with dead bodies. When he asked his father, a medical doctor, how to melt a body (a freaking red flag). Instead of asking the why and going further on his son’s request, he just gives him the recipe. You don’t need to be an FBI criminal profiler to understand that something wrong is happening but is easy to excuse and deny its existence, which leads us to the next point.
Is not what we say, but what we kept that can kill us or others.
Why a joyful child suddenly becomes shy or aggressive towards someone else? That is the kind of question only a psychological evaluation can give us light over any possible trauma or a condition our child is suffering and unable to understand.
Having a psychological assessment doesn’t mean they have something wrong, but instead, we are looking to prevent it. Knowing that our child is being molested, having a psychopathic and narcissistic personality disorder, schizophrenic traits or a depressive episode can help us understand their condition.
By teaching awareness of their situation and how their actions impact others, we’re giving them the tools to improve their situation and become a happier and competent person.
As caring parents, we must understand that this is a process filled with many trials and errors. Small mistakes won’t misshape the life of our child. But neglecting the effects of our actions will indeed harm them. If we want to make them a better person, we should start becoming better role models and associating with more positive figures to create a nurturing environment. After all, it takes one monster to raise another. | https://medium.com/@josneym-vargas/this-is-what-serial-killers-can-teach-us-about-parenthood-6a6bc160f71a | ['Josneym Vargas'] | 2021-02-02 19:56:45.563000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Parenthood', 'Serial Killers', 'Parenting'] |
15 Best International Work From Home Jobs (50+ Countries) | We love to work from home for top multinational companies. But this seems impossible one decade ago.
Work from home jobs are gaining huge popularity around the world. We have numerous platforms and websites where we can find work from home jobs.
Before jumping to the list of 15 works from home websites, It is very important to consider two huge things.
Firstly work from home jobs are not for every country, unfortunately. You can get these jobs in countries with high internet penetration rates such as the UK, US, Canada, India, Australia & 50+ countries.
Secondly, a few of these work from home jobs require expertise.
International Work from Home Jobs
You can find international work from home jobs as a full-time, part-time, freelance. Mainly these kinds of jobs are for people whose skill is in demand in a particular geographical location.
Here you need to keep one thing in mind: you are going to compete with people who are job-seekers in the international market. If you have expertise or experience, it helps you to stand.
Top 15 Websites for International Jobs
When you start your research to find work from home jobs, there are possibility scammers and bogus are also there. That’s why we have made a list of 20 best websites which are with proven record and these are reputed in their field.
1. Upwork
Upwork is everywhere. They provide freelancing jobs. If you are searching for international work from home job, Sign up and create your profile.
As this website is international it offers thousands of international work from jobs. Here you can get paid by the hour or for the project. It all depends upon the nature of work.
You can bid on a job or quote your prize. Upwork handles all the payments to ensure nobody flees with your money or your work.
2. Chaordix
Chaordix is for people who are experts in marketing, product re-launches, and brand positioning and other work which are part of business innovation.
It is the best platform in terms of business innovation that brings the best brains together. It has given almost 300,000 business ideas and innovative solutions to customers around the world.
Here, 1.15 million business and work from home employees work at one website. Which is a great thing? You can find international work from home jobs at Chaordix.
3. RedesignMe
RedesignMe is for developers, sales, designers, and marketing specialists. You can do work from home job with RedesignMe or CMNTY website.
If you work at CMNTY, you are working with the global community that helps popular brands to redesign their services and products, identity, etc.
In other words, you will have to provide ideas for designing products, promotions and wrappings, and brand identity.
4. Amazon
Amazon does not need any introduction because everyone knows about Amazon. They are offering now work from home jobs who can work for them to provide simply specialized services.
Jobs like checking for correct images, cleansing data, content, etc. For more details join Amazon Mechanical Turk (Amazon mTurk).
You can sign up at Amazon Virtual Locations for specialized jobs. Amazon keeps hiring staff for work from home jobs for international locations.
5. Dell
Dell has over 8,000 job opportunities worldwide for work from home job seekers. This is one of the topmost brands in computer manufacture. Dell has a portal, here you can find international work from home jobs.
If you are professional in your given field then Dell is an ideal platform for you. Dell pays extremely well to its employees.
6. Facebook
Do you use social media like Facebook? Do you ever think like you can do work from jobs here on Facebook? Never? But Facebook has international work from home jobs.
Click here to find out great jobs. The World has become the single largest single social media platform. Facebook creates a variety of events after monitoring posts to data analysis. They conduct these functions for different languages.
Hence, they always prefer excellence, skill and experienced staff.
7. Freelancer
You can find great international jobs on the Freelancer website. This website operates worldwide so you can apply from any country. You just need to register yourself and submit a small resume. Once you register you start receiving an offer for freelance projects.
This website is a hub of small and large businesses. Here, millions of freelancers are getting jobs. Just bid for your freelance job or project.
All the payments are held in escrow by Freelancer to ensure you get paid for work done.
8. PeoplePerHour
PeoplePerHour connects tiny, medium and large businesses from around the world. The PeoplePerHour website helped over 750,000 businesses from all over the world and connected with more than 1.5 million freelancers in different fields.
You can look for international work from home jobs, part-time, freelancers jobs here. Visit PeoplePerHour’s website to find what kind of jobs are trending.
Read More: https://moneyespresso.com/international-work-from-home-jobs/ | https://medium.com/@kaurhardeep/15-best-international-work-from-home-jobs-50-countries-4ac2b9e7c35c | ['Hardeep Kaur'] | 2020-10-10 22:54:06.734000+00:00 | ['Earn Money Online', 'Gigs', 'Make Money Online', 'Work From Home', 'Jobideas'] |
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