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Hyper-parameter optimization with Optuna | A 5 min guide to
Hyper-parameter optimization with Optuna
Finding the best hyper-parameters for your model is now a breeze.
In this post, we will take a simple functioning pytorch neural network training script and enhance it using the Optuna package(docs here). This will allow easy assimilation of smart hyper-parameter tuning and trial pruning into your ML workflow with minimal code modifications.
Personally, finding the best hyper-parameters to fit my objective has been the worst part of my ML workflow. Up until now, my choices were two: (1) sacrifice my time and sanity and use good old graduate-student-descent or (2) implement a complicated framework to search the parameter space, find the best values, document and visualize the process.
The good news: such a framework already exists, it’s called Optuna, and it’s easy and fun to use.
Our starting point is an MNIST classification script from the Pytorch tutorials. The full script is presented here for completeness, however, since none of the other parts are relevant to our point, I recommend skimming through all parts leading up to the main function.
If you want to see the code in action, below is a link to a working google colab notebook.
Now let’s get down to business.
Vanilla MNIST Classifier Framework
We begin with imports and data loaders:
Next, we implement the network:
The train and test methods:
And the main function:
Notice that up to this point, nothing interesting really happened, just a simplified pytorch MNIST classifier script. Training the above script with the current randomly chosen hyper-parameters for 5 epochs will give 93% accuracy. Can we do better? Let us see…
Enhancing the MNIST classifier framework with Optuna
The Optuna framework (installed via pip install optuna and imported as import optuna ) is based upon the study object. It contains all of the information about the required parameter space, the sampler method and the pruning:
Once the study is created, the search space is incorporated via the trial.suggest_ methods. We will embed these into the train_mnist config such that these values:
will be replaced with these:
In this manner we define the search space to our requirements, once this is done, train_mnist() should get trial as its input and be defined as train_mnist(trial) . Note that a configuration which allows train_mnist to have inputs other than trial exists, check this out, if you come across this need.
Optimization
The final step is to define an objective function, the output of which will be optimized over. In our case we choose train_mnist and its output, the test error¹.
Therefore study.optimize will be called, with train_mnist as its parameter:
All in all, main , which was comprised of a single call for train_mnist() , has turned into:
And that’s it! Once these lines are added to the code, the optimizer will sample the defined parameter space according to the sampler.
After optimization is done, results can be accessed as a dataframe via study.trials_dataframe :
With the following output:
were one can see all trials and their value. To find the best trial best parameters, study.best_trial and study.best_params can be also used.
Here, we also see how one of the results got a 98.9% test error (~6% improvement) with the same amount of training data and time, this is a major improvement for 3 lines of code.
Visualization
Other than showing you the best configuration of parameters, Optuna also helps in visualizing the dependence of the objectives on the parameters. Given the study object, all sorts of visualization tools exist in optuna.visualization . You can call plot_parallel_coordinates(study) to view the dependence between the parameters (in this case- lr and momentum) and the objective:
Another way to try to gain some intuition is by using a contour plot. This can be produced by calling plot_contour(study) :
To complete the picture, you can also produce a slice plot by calling slice_plot(study) . This can help with the understanding of where the best subspaces are located for each parameter individually.
One last visualization option is the study history, produced by plot_optimization_history(study) . This will present the following plot:
This shows how Optuna’s study takes place, first by sampling the space evenly, then by focusing in on the most promising areas. | https://towardsdatascience.com/https-medium-com-perlitz-hyper-parameter-optimization-with-optuna-1c32785e7df | ['Yotam Perlitz'] | 2020-02-02 19:30:23.692000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Neural Networks', 'Data Science', 'Pytorch', 'Optimization'] |
Your Words Matter: The Importance of Pronouns in the World and the Workplace | Personal pronouns (words that we use to refer to others in lieu of their name) are an important component of language that people use in almost every interaction they have on a day-to-day basis. In English and many other languages, these pronouns also indicate the gender of the person who is being spoken about.
These gendered pronouns are not something most people spend a significant amount of time or energy considering and they may take the ease of these everyday interactions for granted. But for many people ⏤ particularly those who are transgender or gender nonconforming ⏤ having their correct pronouns used is not a given. For these individuals, the pronouns that others use for them are anything but trivial and can be a significant source of either discomfort or affirmation. That is why everyone must consider and understand the importance of pronouns and how to use them respectfully.
So, what exactly are gender pronouns?
Some examples of gender pronouns include:
“He” and “she” are the pronouns that English speakers are most familiar with, but there are also gender-neutral pronouns (those that do not imply a specific gender) that many people use. For some nonbinary people (those who do not identify within the binary genders of man or woman), for instance, these gendered pronouns simply would not fit. “They” and “ze” are two sets of gender-neutral pronouns that people might use.
While “they” is often thought of today as a pronoun that refers to multiple people, it has been used throughout history as a singular pronoun by writers such as William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and many others. In fact, most people use singular “they” quite often without even realizing it. If you’re leaving a room and you notice a jacket was left on the back of a chair, you might yell out, “Did someone forget their coat?” That’s how easy it can be to incorporate singular “they” into your vocabulary!
Okay, but why are pronouns so important?
For many people, the pronouns they use match what is assumed by society to align with their gender assigned at birth. They most likely don’t pay a second thought to the pronouns that others use for them ⏤simply because they’ve never had to. If you’ve always had the correct pronouns used for you, it can be difficult to understand the impact that these words can have on someone when used incorrectly (or even to recognize that this problem exists at all). But never having to worry that your pronouns may be up for question or debate is certainly not a privilege everyone has.
This is the reality for many transgender and gender nonconforming people when it comes to pronouns. People often make (potentially harmful) assumptions about the pronouns others use based solely on their appearance, but the only way you can know what someone’s pronouns are with certainty (and avoid disrespecting them) is by asking. For those who experience gender dysphoria, being misgendered (having the wrong pronoun or other gendered word used for them) is much more than “just words.” It tells them that the person who said these things does not see them as the person they truly are, does not respect them, and does not support them. For the sake of inclusion, support, and basic humanity, it is important to call people by the names, pronouns, and other words that they have asked you to use. In the same way that you should always call someone by the name they’ve introduced themself with, you should also pay them that respect by using their correct pronouns.
Why are pronouns specifically important in the workplace?
While using someone’s correct pronouns is important in all situations, it is especially important within a professional context. An integral part of a successful workplace is helping employees to thrive and succeed. Employees should feel supported and encouraged to reach their greatest capabilities ⏤ both for their own personal growth and success, as well as for the growth and success of the organization that employs them. This type of work environment is not possible when people do not feel like they can be their true selves at work. When people do not feel supported, comfortable, or accepted for who they are, it makes it that much harder to do the job they were hired to do.
When it comes to transgender and gender nonconforming employees, one of the simplest ways you can show your support and respect is by honoring the pronouns they’ve asked you to use. Whether you are someone’s supervisor or their coworker, using the correct pronouns will set a standard for those around you and let people know that it is necessary to follow suit. This simple step can make a world of difference to those who would otherwise feel excluded and unwelcome in their work environment.
So how can I do my part to support transgender and gender nonconforming folks?
When you meet someone, introduce yourself with your name and pronouns and then ask for theirs. By taking the lead and sharing your own pronouns, you let others know that they are in an accepting space and you help to avoid alienating transgender and gender nonconforming folks from the rest of the group. Remember, everyone has pronouns that they are most comfortable with, not just trans people. So you should share them with others in the same way that you share your name! Include your pronouns in your email signatures and social media bios. This normalizes the idea of everyone sharing their pronouns and helps to avoid people making assumptions. Including your pronouns in your professional email signature, especially, helps to foster a work environment of respect and inclusivity. It even provides an opportunity for you to educate others about the importance of pronouns when someone asks you about it! Correct others if you hear them misgender someone. This helps to take some of the pressure off of transgender and gender nonconforming folks, who are usually the ones correcting people. It also shows your support and solidarity with them even when they aren’t physically present to hear the mistake. If you make a mistake with someone’s pronouns, simply apologize, correct yourself, and carry on with the conversation. Mistakes happen! And while you probably feel bad about the error, it will only make the person who was misgendered feel worse if you continue to draw attention to the situation (especially in front of others). It isn’t their responsibility to comfort you for making the mistake, so please do not make them feel like they need to put in that emotional labor. Don’t use the phrase “preferred pronouns.” While this is often well-intentioned, it implies that someone’s pronouns are just a preference and that there may be other, equally correct options that could be used for them. This is simply not the case. People’s pronouns are not preferred ⏤ they are required. If someone has told you their pronouns, those are the only correct pronouns that should be used for them.
This is only the beginning.
When it comes down to it, you don’t have to understand everything about gender, identities, and pronouns in order to comfort and support those around you. Trust that people know themselves best and be sure to use the words they have told you are correct. Words absolutely have an impact on people’s experiences ⏤ they matter. And by simply honoring people’s correct pronouns, you can make a world of difference in someone’s day-to-day experiences. | https://medium.com/queer-design-club/your-words-matter-the-importance-of-pronouns-in-the-world-and-the-workplace-9edb92232dc5 | ['Kieran Craft'] | 2020-12-17 16:03:00.434000+00:00 | ['Workplace', 'Inclusion', 'Transgender', 'Pronouns', 'Gender'] |
Kroger Checkout System | 1. Introduction
“Scan, Bag, Go” is a system Kroger released for consumers to check out quickly. When I was shopping in Kroger last week, I practiced it for the first time and checked out by a scanner. This system had been tested in 25 stores last year, and Kroger is continuously receiving positive feedbacks from users. Therefore, Kroger decided to spread it to the 400 stores of Kroger by the end of this year [1]. How’s my experience of “Scan, Bag, Go”? This reflection paper will answer these questions by analyzing my Kroger adventure with the concept of affordance and signifiers, three levels of emotional processing and four threads of experience.
2. “Scan, Bag, Go”
Users can use the “Scan, Bag, Go” system on their own with their smartphone or handheld scanner in Kroger. The process of using it is rather artless. Firstly, use your smartphone or scanner to scan items as you place them in your cart. Then, you can put items you scanned into your bag or bags provided by Kroger. If you are using a scanner, after you take all the items you want to buy, you can pay at the self check-out kiosk by scanning the “Scan, Bag, Go” barcode and pay. If you are scanning by smartphone, click on “Pay” on your phone [2]. Then you are free to go!
3. Experience
Last week, I went into Kroger at 9 pm, for the meeting with my teammates ran overtime. By the entrance of Kroger, there was an array of scanners. I have never used scanners, and out of my curiosity, I took out one of them and started to read the instructions. It looked simple, but I was not sure if it works. I grabbed a package of apples nearby, and pressed the “Scan” button, trying to scan the barcode at the bottom of it. “Beep.” The scanner replied me in a crisp tone. I found it relaxed and entertaining and decided to start my journey of Kroger with it. Each time I scan an item, the “beep” sound makes me feel good, and I even want to scan more products to hear the tone. After hanging around for some time, I took out my smartphone to check for the next bus running home. It turned out that the last bus of that day was arriving in one minute! After two seconds of astonishment, I dashed to the check-out kiosk, paid in 10 seconds, grabbed my bag and started to run. The moment I arrived at the bus stop, the bus was about to leave. I yelled and waved to stop it. Finally, when I sit on the bus, I felt relieved and quite happy.
4. Key Concepts
My experience in Kroger with “Scan, Bag, Go” system can be analyzed with some of the concepts we have gone through in SI 588：Fundamentals of Human Behaviors lectures.
4.1 Affordance And Signifiers
Signifier is a word introduced by Donald Norman in the second version of his book “The Design of Everyday Things.” Affordance is a word describing the relationship between an object and an interacting agent. It determines how the object can be possibly used. Signifier refers to the indicator of where users can conduct appropriate interaction with a product [3]. For example, the laptop in this picture affords to be opened, because you can see it is folded now. The signifier of it is the groove showing that users can place fingers there and open it.
Figure 5: Laptop with Signifier
4.2 Three levels of emotional processing
The three levels of emotional processing are the visceral level, behavioral level, and reflective level. Visceral responses are our automatic responses of a product or an event, and it relates to the fundamental protective mechanisms that make you intuitively stay away from danger and quickly respond to accidents [3]. You can imagine the scene people yelling out as they see spiders on their arm. The emotion processing on the behavioral level is related to users’ negative or positive emotions originated from their expectations of a product, and the feedbacks of their behaviors [3]. The reflective level of emotion processing relates to conscious cognition. It is a cognitive, deep, and slow process of thinking over the overall process, satisfaction and memory of an event after it [3].
4.3 Four threads of Experience
The four threads of experience refer to the sensual, emotional, compositional and spatio-temporal threads. The sensual thread experience is concerned with our sensory engagement with a product or a situation [4]. It is similar to the visceral response from Don Norman. The emotional thread refers to the emotion people feel when their expectations are met or not met, such as joy, sorrow, anger. They are closely related to that event [4]. The compositional thread is concerned with the relationship between the parts and the whole, and the narrative structure. It brings the meaning to an experience [4]. The spatio-temporal thread relates to the space and timeline of our experience. The space and timeline we felt in an experience or remembered in our memory may be changed by our intense emotion [4]. For example, when I was waiting for my bus in the wind and snow of Ann Arbor for 5 minutes, I thought it was half an hour.
5. Analysis
5.1 Affordance And Signifiers
In retrospective, there are reasons that I succeed at the first time of using a scanner — The scanner of Kroger is well designed and it is self-explanatory about the way of using it.
Figure 6: Kroger Scanner
Looking at the shape of the scanner, I can easily tell that this is an item that I should hold on hand. The form of it showed its affordance of holding to me. The giant green button, which is pretty eye-catching, is the button I need to start and the one I use most frequently. When I press down the “Scan” button, there will be a red light cast on the item I am scanning. That red light is useful to identify the scan area and help me to adjust the angle I hold the scanner. The green button and the red light are both signifiers showing me the place to interact with.
5.2 Three levels of emotional processing
The three levels of emotional processing from Norman can be used to dissect my whole Kroger Scanning experience. As I walked into Kroger, the colorful and dynamic poster of “Scan, Bag, Go” attracted my attention, and the wall of scanner raised my curiosity from the visceral level. As I started to use the scanner, I got addicted to the “beep” indicating the success of scanning. This is because the instant clear feedback met my expectation in the behavioral level, and that encourages my further behavior. When it comes to my thoughts on the bus, it belongs to the reflective level of emotion processing. My feeling of relief and please are the overall reflection of that experience, and these feelings are to be remembered in my memory.
5.3. The Compositional Thread of Experience
After this experience with scanners, I like them and feel we have some connections. This experience and the scanner thing could have been another ordinary and prosaic experience, but I choose to assign them the meaning. One of the reasons is that I enjoyed the interaction with the scanner. Another one is that it enabled me to catch the bus and spared me from walking back home or call Uber at late night. The scanner got its meaning because of its function in my whole story of Kroger shopping and catching the bus, and that applies to the compositional thread of experience.
6. Generalization
I noticed that many of the elderly users in Kroger were also using a scanner. That makes sense to me since the poster, slogan “Scan, Bag, Go” and the scanner itself is quite simple, clear and intuitive. Users don’t need pre-knowledge to control scanners, and the design of affordance and signifier is naturally leading their use. The positive feeling I have about this experience in three levels of emotional processing originated from my interactions with scanners as an average customer; thus I believe it can be applied to a more general user base as well.
As for the compositional thread of experience, it is very likely few people would have a strong emotional connection with scanners. The specific affliction built between me and the scanner is the story happened, which seldom happens to other customers.
7. Conclusion
The “Scan, Bag, Go” system has its value in saving users time in Kroger as well as providing fresh and enjoyable grocery shopping experiences. The intuitive design of its shape and interactive system is enabling the general public use of it, and its instant feedbacks serve as stimulations enticing scanning. Overall, it is a product that users would feel comfortable and pleasant to use!
Bibliography
[1] Flacy, Mike. “You May Soon Be Able to Skip the Grocery Checkout Line at Kroger.” Digital Trends, Digital Trends, 31 Dec. 2017, www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/skip-grocery-checkout-line-kroger/.
[2] Kroger, www.kroger.com/d/scan-bag-go-how-it-works.
[3] Norman, Donald A. The Design of Everyday Things. Basic Books, 2013.
[4] McCarthy, John, and Peter Wright. “Technology As Experience by John McCarthy.” Goodreads, Goodreads, 1 Sept. 2004, www.goodreads.com/book/show/1453857.Technology_As_Experience. | https://medium.com/@ruitingcao58/kroger-checkout-system-429adb12e2fe | ['Ruiting Cao'] | 2019-01-02 23:26:56.286000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Human Behavior'] |
Emociones programadas | 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/thinktech/emociones-programadas-88c877d4d33c | ['Thinktech Seminars'] | 2020-12-12 16:27:46.018000+00:00 | ['Facebook', 'Algoritmos', 'Emociones', 'Tecnología', 'Español'] |
UI Case Study | The First Time Designing Responsively We Never Forget | An unsolicited redesign for Emily Harris Foundation
Overview
This re-skin and rebrand challenge was developed in a 4-day design sprint as part of the User Experience Immersive course by General Assembly.
The following case study will take you through each step of my design process following some parts of the double diamond method: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver.
The Brief
To re-skin and rebrand a website of my choice from five options of charity’s websites.
Deliverables included:
Six screens: Home Page + Page of my choice across three viewport sizes: Mobile, Tablet and Desktop;
Home Page + Page of my choice across three viewport sizes: Mobile, Tablet and Desktop; Style Guide documenting my design decisions.
Mandatory: color, typography, layout.
Optional: logo, imagery, additional pages.
Discover
Why Emily Harris Foundation
From the five options I had been given, I opted for Emily Harris firstly because I do appreciate the work they are doing in supporting families and NHS staff in the neonatal care unit of King’s Mill hospital. Secondly, because their website feels really disjointed, wordy, and they put a photo of Emily, their passed newborn baby, as the hero image on the home page (!).
Pages I decided to redesign across three viewport sizes.
Understanding Responsive Design
Before we get started, what is responsive design?
“It is a design approach that came about in response to the evolving use and fast growing list of screen sizes that websites could be viewed on.” “It is a flexible design that can stretch or shrink to fit the viewport size.”
After learning about it through GA classes and activities, I also wanted to understand how this works in practice. So I visited Airbnb’s website and changed the viewport sizes, making notes on a Sketch art-board about the main differences I found between them.
Desktop, Tablet and Mobile viewport sizes on Airbnb’s website and my notes.
What are their competitors doing?
When I better understood responsiveness, it was time to move forward and research the charity market and current competitors. So I began to explore responsive charity websites.
Aiming at researching charities that help kids, I visited Unesco, Give a Smile, World Vision and Save the Children websites and made notes of the main features and similarities between their websites.
Some of the things that stood out to me: predominance of children’s pictures on their Hero; use of colors to play a role in the level of seriousness; use of features to increase engagement such as donation-meter, results and personification.
On Save the Children’s website I took time to analyze the differences in their design across viewports. Something I got inspired by and followed later on in my design was the way in which they tell their story: “who we are”, “what we do” and “how you can help”.
Define
Brand Values
A brand is a personification of a product, service or organization. It has a name, reputation and personality. Therefore it was worth it spending time defining it assertively.
From what I could observe by reading the “About us” section on their website, it would be fair to say that their values were:
Positivity; Inspiration; Compassion; Commitment; Care; Support.
Brand Personality
Personality could be summarized as “the characteristics that people describe how they feel about your brand, rather than what they think it is or does.”
Reflecting about the values above led me to identify the following 6 personality traits:
Positive but not Naive; Inspiring but not Manipulative; Compassionate but not Too Lenient; Committed but not Stubborn; Caring but not Invasive; Supportive but not Dominating.
For the third value, I had initially thought of “Compassionate but not Stupid” but then I thought that “stupid” could sound harsh and I actually wanted to say “not too lenient”. So I changed it.
Brand Position
The next step was positioning the brand by picking 5 sets of values from the list below and marking where the brand sits on the scale. Having worked on the values and personality, it became very clear to me where the brand should be positioned:
It would be more neutral in terms of formality, more elaborate, modern, colorful and homemade. A bit more feminine and very gentle and accessible.
Establishing a Tone of Voice
“Your brand’s tone of voice is the distinctive way that you communicate with your customers, both verbally and visually.” “Your tone is not only about how you speak, but also the words you use and how you use them (i.e., the cadence and rhythm, velocity, and length of your speech).” Felicia Sullivan for Medium.
To express Emily Harris’ tone of voice, I wrote the statement below aiming to communicate their values and personality without mentioning them, just writing in such a way that the tone would convey the message.
Sketched Word Association
Next up, to help me start visualizing design ideas, I chose one keyword from Emily Harris brand values to come up with a word association off the top of my head. I sketched and brainstormed words associated with “support”:
Sketched Word Association
This gave me great clarification of which elements could be part of the brand’s visual identity. It was also the starting point of creating a new logo.
Proto-Persona
Before starting the design, I created a Proto-Persona. Unlike the standard Persona, Proto-Persona is based solely on the assumptions of stakeholders.
Creating this helped me to center my design on the user that I assumed would use their website and therefore be more assertive in my design decisions.
Karla, Proto-Persona
Develop
Mood Board
Mood boards are a great design tool to visually define brand personality and app’s visual identity. It should include brand keywords and notes and should feel focussed and connected to those keywords.
First step: I gathered visual inspiration and reference based on the brand keywords and compiled these images into an art-board on Sketch.
Second step: I made notes and observations as to what was working and what was not when it came to representing the brand and the emotions it was trying to evoke.
Third and final step: I tidied up the mood board notes, laying them out in a clear fashion so it would be possible to understand where the apps’ visual identity would be heading to.
It became very clear to me that I needed to have warm colors to represent care, gentleness and compassion. But also cold tones that convey a bit of sadness and seriousness that are part of someone’s life when having a baby in the neonatal care unit.
Color Palette
These inspirational images from the mood board clearly set the path for creating the color palette. I started doing it by grouping the most frequent colors present in these images.
Next up I played with their level of brightness (HSB) and lightness (HSL) on Sketch to have as many hues as possible and be able to combine them in the designs.
This is what I came up with:
Typefaces & Hierarchy
Looking at the mood board, there was a predominance of sans serif typefaces. I also positioned the brand to be more modern than traditional. Therefore the decision was made on having a sans serif.
Looking at fontpair.co I found the suggestion to pair Raleway for headings and subtitles with Cabin for body copy.
With the help of the Type Scale from material.io I found the right hierarchy and sizes for those fonts I had just chosen.
Paper Sketch
Next I sketched 6 screens that were part of the deliverables: home page and “what we do” page across desktop, mobile and tablet. My goal was not to have it perfect for the first time, but to start having ideas that would influence my design. | https://medium.com/@anavschalkwyk/ui-case-study-the-first-time-designing-responsively-we-never-forget-a698e65132e4 | ['Ana Van Schalkwyk'] | 2020-12-08 12:07:00.989000+00:00 | ['UI', 'Visual Design', 'Case Study', 'UI Design'] |
Thanks For Your Advice, But I Need To Be White To Follow It | I am an antiracism writer. I share my experiences with racism so that people understand that it is real, that it is not the collective hallucination of black people the world over. I write from a place of pain and trauma, it hurts to relive these experiences as I recount them, but I feel I need to share them with the universe to generate empathy, compassion, and hopefully change.
Often, white people mainly, get aggressive and defensive about what I write. This manifests itself by outright insults, gaslighting, and bullying. Others look down from their pedestal of white privilege and give me advice that could only possibly work for me if I were white like them.
In this article, I’ll focus on these people, because they are the ones that hurt black people most. Why? Because they think they are white allies in the fight against racism and they are not. They give you what they feel is great advice and expect you to profusely thank them for it. What is it that they don’t understand about me, a black woman, not basking in white privilege as they do? | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/thanks-for-your-advice-but-i-need-to-be-white-to-follow-it-7ea7bf2f9577 | ['Rebecca Stevens A.'] | 2020-12-25 14:20:38.120000+00:00 | ['Corporate Culture', 'Esg', 'Leadership', 'Racism', 'White Privilege'] |
I enjoyed reading your post. | I enjoyed reading your post. Sums up 2,000 pages of financial education books I've probably went through so far.
Because I'm close to my 20s- just left them :) - I find that sometimes, you don't know precisely what you want to do in life.
And that's ok. You can still make good decisions with money, even if you don't have a plan for the rest of your 50-70 years.
Following some healthy principles is enough - like:
*saving first, spending after saving;
*living under your means - and investing the difference;
*avoid going for investments with the herd - instead, learn as much as possible and only put hard earned money into what you understand,
I'm following you! Keep writing! :) | https://medium.com/@biancazagan/i-enjoyed-reading-your-post-3e28dddeccc2 | ['Bianca Zagan'] | 2020-12-13 18:09:06.263000+00:00 | ['Financial Education', 'Personal Finance', 'Saving', 'Millennial Money', 'Investing'] |
Business as a Spiritual Force Pt.1 | Business as a Spiritual Force Pt.1
We see things differently.
We see business as a spiritual force.
If you want to become a player in the game of life, unless you’re born wealthy, you need to engage commercially with society.
Evolvers Players do things, make things, entertain us. Players invent, discover and produce. On a sub-atomic level, players make things move.
In a world competing for spiritual focus, for those who wish to create profound movements or projects, business is an essential element for contributing to the global ecosystem.
And by extension business ventures help evolve the world we live in.
It allows us to create self-sustaining economic feedback loops which allow other more exotic elements or influences to emerge. These elements can then be activated by the same feedback loop, ad infinitum.
It is in these seemingly random emergent elements that we find patterns or influences that can revolutionize reality in a good way.
It is essential to pay attention to the spiritual aspects of your business or personal projects : The real message you’re communicating and the influence your business exerts on society.
If your business doesn’t have a spiritual ajenda, someone might be using you for their agenda.
If we can structure our business development according to a progressive philosophy, we can accelerate our development towards personal wealth & fulfillment and collective health, wealth and well-being.
Ajenda Business is being developed for this purpose.
End of Business as a Spiritual Force Pt.1
More info, email : [email protected] or call +27 062 620 5472 | https://medium.com/@gra-hurrell/business-as-a-spiritual-force-pt-1-dedef5386123 | ['Christopher Graham Hurrell'] | 2020-12-27 14:49:09.763000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Spiritual', 'Force', 'Software', 'Business'] |
Will the World Learn from 2020? | This post was authored by Arcus Foundation CEO Annette Lanjouw and originally appeared on Arcus’ blog here.
This has been a truly remarkable year, and unfortunately not in the most positive sense. Globally, we have been confronted with a series of significant challenges and deep questions — some of them existential. The end of the calendar year is somewhat of an arbitrary milestone — and the seismic moment we are living, with its shocks and aftershocks, will certainly transcend the Gregorian boundary into 2021 — but it remains a point in time for reflection and resolve.
We are grateful that we at Arcus have reached this point with our operations uninterrupted, our staff healthy, and all of our grantee partners continuing with their vital work. But arguably, none of us will ever be quite the same again as we were before, so shaken are we by the crises that have affected the world. Most of the world’s people are looking forward to the New Year, eager for a new day as if waking from a bad dream. Many speak of “turning the page.” The year 2020 has put so many of us in survival mode — individuals, organizations, institutions, entire democracies. This much is understandable, given the year we are living:
COVID-19 burned through our globally interconnected society like wildfire, spreading to every continent.
After the tragic killing of George Floyd, the #BlackLivesMatter movement manifested itself far beyond the United States, where it was born, and exposed systemic racism in many societies.
We continue to witness the pain and trauma of immigration — and resistance to immigration — across the world, including in the U.S. and Europe.
The effects of climate change are intensifying, becoming more severe and dramatic. We had more hurricanes, typhoons, floods, droughts, and fires this year than ever before. And yet we still saw leaders pushing for exploitation of vulnerable habitats and destructive land-use practices, leading to the release of greenhouse gasses, loss of biodiversity, and suffering for countless sentient, feeling, and emotional beings.
We see unemployment, food insecurity, and the need for social welfare increasing in the world’s richest countries as well as the poorest.
We still see open and accepted slavery in much of Africa and the Middle East.
Active threats to democracy are spreading like a fungus around the world, resulting in a breakdown of collaboration, unity, and togetherness, and the growth of isolationism, unilateralism, and nationalism.
Core to these realities is the fact that we do not yet have a culture and society based on equity, fairness, and humanity anywhere in the world; and all of these fires burn strong even as I write.
It didn’t have to be so.
COVID-19 should not have had the impact that it had. It did so because societies, nations, and organizations didn’t work together, didn’t follow the science, and did not understand or address the linkages among its economic, societal, health, and psychological effects. That lack of collaboration and resilience of society was also reflected in the disproportionate impacts of the virus on minorities, which has highlighted yet again the fundamental, structural, institutional, and individual racism in society, as well as the class, wealth, and power divisions that harm the most vulnerable and marginalized groups.
The Black Lives Matter protests, the MeToo protests, and the response to the killing of George Floyd and so many others were reactions to problems that have existed for centuries, but which have not been acknowledged, addressed, and rectified.
None of this is new. Much of it has been predicted. It isn’t really a shock or surprise to anyone. We know that much or all of it was preventable. One major question before us is whether we can learn. And there are other questions too. What will we do about these problems now? Is the world waking up? Will we act quickly enough? Among the characteristics that humans often use to distinguish them from nonhumans is our intelligence, sophistication, and ability to plan for the future. The destruction we have wrought in recent decades is not a positive indicator.
Still, there are reasons to feel encouraged:
Amid the “perfect storm,” of this year, we saw the world stop and take stock. COVID-19 has led us to take a dramatic, if terribly expensive, pause.
There was recognition of the role of nature destruction in leading to the current pandemic.
There was an acknowledgement like never before of the horror of structural, institutional, and individual racism, and an outcry against it.
Governments are making significant commitments to halt climate change, to protect biodiversity, to change farming practices to make them less destructive. We saw people take stock of how wonderful it is to hear birdsong, and how the air in Beijing and Delhi was cleaner during the pandemic.
We saw diversity in the U.S. visible and powerful like never before.
And U.S. citizens turned out for their elections in numbers that were unprecedented.
Much of our learning this year has been sobering, but there are positive lessons too. As a foundation, this ongoing virtual chapter has enhanced our appreciation of the value of working side-by-side with colleagues. It has helped uncover our ability to cope with what we cannot control, and to reckon with what we do not know. We have explored together as a team the gaps in our knowledge about racism and deepened our exploration of the connections between social and environmental justice. We have also become less self-conscious about recognizing our fragility as humans and more comfortable in demonstrating our empathy for the same in others.
Taking these learnings from the meta to the micro — sharing them with others and stepping out of our comfort zone to engage with people who think differently — will be critical to solving some of the fundamental and intractable problems that confronted us this year and to continuing progress toward our vision of people living in harmony with one another and the natural world. The survival and well-being of all living beings depends on that progress.
Collaborating to address the large, systemic issues and the linkages among all the different problems we face is vital to finding real, practical, and sustainable solutions. And we — in partnership with our grantees, allies, and the individuals and communities they serve — will press on with determination.
It has been hard fought this year, but I believe that all together we are better positioned as comrades to face 2021 to advance our grand project. Adrienne Rich, the late lesbian, feminist poet, wrote:
What would it mean to live
in a city whose people were changing
each other’s despair into hope?
You yourself must change it.
What would it feel like to know
your country was changing?
You yourself must change it.
Though your life felt arduous
new and unmapped and strange
What would it mean to stand on the first
page of the end of despair?
If we are standing on that first page, let us indeed seek to “turn the page” and say to one another with conviction and anticipation, “Happy New Year!” | https://medium.com/@arcusfoundation/will-the-world-learn-from-2020-5efe53ae8346 | ['Arcus Foundation'] | 2020-12-23 17:20:15.282000+00:00 | ['Social Justice', 'Covid 19', 'Racial Justice', 'Philanthropy', 'Wildlife Conservation'] |
Otsaliheliga — We are Grateful. “Cherokee people say Otsaliheliga to… | “Cherokee people say Otsaliheliga to express their gratitude.
It is a reminder to celebrate our blessings and reflect on our struggles — daily throughout the year and across the seasons,” writes Traci Sorell in her beautiful children’s book.
It’s pronounced oh-jah-LEE-hay-lee-gah. We are grateful.
As I read this book to my oldest daughter the night before Thanksgiving, I couldn’t help but think how apropos it is in these times.
As diverse as the leaves are in Autumn, so are the people of this earth.
But, the pandemic has bound us together in a way we’ve never experienced before.
We can all reflect on the myriad struggles we’ve faced this year.
Some of us have suffered the loss of family members or friends. We’ve lost jobs. We’ve undergone unprecedented hardships. We lost the ability to be with the people closest to us. We can’t travel to faraway places, meet new people, and learn new mind-expanding things about ourselves.
While our struggles will remain with us for some time, we, fortunately, retain the ability to give thanks.
Yes, Otsaliheliga.
We can still celebrate our blessings.
We can savor a new life we have brought into the world. We can enjoy the (virtual) connections we still share with our colleagues. We can rely on the indelible bond we have with our families to give us hope. We can remember those we love and reach out to them to reinforce togetherness. And we can take the time to celebrate the small victories we experience each day.
Oh-jah-LEE-hay-lee-gah..
Now is the time to give thanks and sow the seeds of the future.
Because, as persistently as the seasons come, we can count on growth in the Spring.
(Click to tweet this.)
Thank you for being a loyal reader of Mental Candy and CEOPLAYBOOK.
I am blessed to have you.
Cheers,
John, Editor / Tribe Vibes from CEOPLAYBOOK | https://ceoplaybook.io/otsaliheliga-we-are-grateful-6acdf95a65ab | ['John Belizaire'] | 2020-12-01 01:04:24.474000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'CEO', 'Startup', 'Gratitude'] |
How To Boost Your Confidence After Receiving Criticism | When I asked my client Jessica how her relationship with her manager was going since we last spoke, there was a long pause.
“Jessica, what happened?” I asked.
“She ripped apart a presentation I put together. She said I needed to start over from scratch because it totally missed the mark. I couldn’t stop thinking about our conversation all weekend!”
Maybe you’ve found yourself in Jessica’s shoes, feeling angry, insecure, or demoralized after getting bad feedback. When someone criticizes your work, it can feel like a confirmation of your inner critic saying you’re not good enough.
Other times, a single offhanded comment (“you look tired”) launches you into an existential crisis about how you’re too old and have accomplished nothing with your life. But if you want to do anything important in the world, you’ll inevitably get negative feedback.
Instead of falling apart, why not learn to get better at receiving criticism?
Mastering the art of responding to criticism is linked to higher job satisfaction. It’s also the cornerstone of building trust in any relationship.
Here’s how to respond positively to negative feedback, find the good in it, and fortify your confidence as a result.
First, Thank Them. Seriously.
You may be tempted to lash out and give that person a piece of your mind.
Before you say something you’ll regret, pause. Don’t panic. Practice being aware of your emotional reaction.
Then, buy yourself time to calm down and gain distance from the comments by saying something like “Thanks, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts” or “I’ll need a moment to digest that.”
By doing so, you use your empathy skills to achieve two things: (1) you make the person feel heard and validated and (2) you gain control of your emotional response so that you can reply respectfully.
Find the Lesson
After you’ve given yourself some space to process what’s been said, you’re ready to evaluate the feedback objectively.
Keep in mind that criticism is a reflection of one person’s opinions and beliefs, including their fears. For example, your family may be critical of your career choices when in fact they’re just worried about you. Do your best to de-personalize their comments and assume positive intent.
Find a growth opportunity within the criticism by asking for specific examples about where you could improve or what you could do differently next time.
Go On the Offense
Instead of shuddering away from criticism, solicit it proactively.
This process, called desensitization, involves gradually exposing yourself to scary situations until the anxiety dissipates. The more comfortable you get having difficult conversations, the easier they become (and the more your confidence grows as a result).
Look for low-stakes opportunities to show your work to new people. Set up a regular one-on-one with your boss. Create a weekly date night so you can have important conversations with your partner. In Jessica’s case, she stopped fearing her boss’ criticism by getting her input on presentations earlier and more often.
You won’t please everyone all the time and negative feedback is a natural consequence of going for your goals. Remember, at the end of the day the opinion that matters the most is yours. | https://medium.com/big-self-society/how-to-boost-your-confidence-after-receiving-criticism-f6e3899ad740 | ['Melody Wilding'] | 2020-11-02 15:01:16.673000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Workplace', 'Self', 'Leadership', 'Work'] |
I Found My Grandpa’s Notes 20 Years After He Died — Here’s What I Learnt | I Found My Grandpa’s Notes 20 Years After He Died — Here’s What I Learnt
Sometimes your hero is just a man with many of the same worries as the rest of us
Photo of us taken in the 80s
In many respects, he was your typical grandpa.
He wore thick glasses, had little remaining hair, and wore cable sweaters at home (but always a suit with accompanying briefcase when venturing out).
I remember being brought presents when he visited us from his overseas adventures, and as he grew less mobile — spending many hours curled up in bed alongside him as he conjured up many a story about faraway lands and the most ludicrous of characters.
In addition to his professional career as a doctor, he was also an avid writer — having published several novels and poems.
This invariably meant that among his artifacts when he passed away were a lot of notes — including some memoirs. They were both handwritten and typed (on a typewriter of course).
I gathered these up at the time and put them away; promising myself that I would look at them one day.
That was in 1998.
Flash forward 22 years, and I’m doing some spring cleaning at home. Low and behold: I come across those very notes.
I dusted them off and decided it was high time I dove into them.
I’m glad I did because I got to learn about who he was as a man, not just as my grandpa.
Here are 5 things I learned:
#5: He Did Time In Jail
He was born in India over a century ago — during the heyday of colonialism.
Every generation faces its great challenge. Today it might be climate change, but then it was freedom from the British Empire.
As the Indian Independence movement grew from strength to strength; he found himself getting caught up in it.
Whilst at university (ever the fertile ground for dissent), he was the deputy-lead organizer of a protest (the lead was a Muslim boy).
Protests were unsurprisingly frowned upon by the authorities. As such — my grandfather and many of his companions were rounded up and sent to jail.
I knew something of this story so far— and thought he’d done a night or two until bail was posted.
Turns out he spent six months there. He formed strong bonds with some of the other prisoners— Hindus, Muslims and Christians. Some locked up for many more years to come.
He wrote about the emotional last night he spent there as he said farewell to his comrades.
The first thing he did upon being released was not to go home — but to visit the sweetheart of one of the other prisoners to pass on some personal messages.
#4: He was rejected from medical school
As mentioned earlier — he was a doctor.
In fact — arguably, his most defining accomplishment in life was being the first person of South Asian citizenship (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka) to qualify as a heart surgeon.
So what on earth happened?
Turns out that as he was about to sit his entrance exams — he got a severe bout of chickenpox. This left him bedridden for most of his exams — and he was not allowed to resit them.
Shattered, he returned to his home town at the end of the semester. His own father urged him to consider other fields like the veterinary sciences or the post office but my grandfather remained steadfast. All he wanted to do, he said, was medicine.
Several months passed. One day as he was sitting in the courtyard and chatting with his family, the postman arrived with the second mail delivery of the day.
Turns out that they were opening a new medical school “for natives” in a neighboring province — to which he had just been naturalized a few months before. In line with quotas for each religion and caste — he had been accepted to start in this new medical school when it started.
The rest as they say…was history.
#3: He Agonized About Euthanasia
As a doctor, there are people you think you can save, and there are people you know you can’t save.
The latter go into palliative care.
In his work across the 1940s, 50s, 60s,70s and 80s, there were many he could not save. He could see and hear their suffering and could not understand how a kind and loving God would allow such torment.
He himself agonized on whether or not a Doctor should intervene.
In his short stories, he had the characters champion opposing sides of the issue — but it is not clear to me on where he landed.
#2: He was very religious
It may seem an odd thing to say — especially about a man who went to church every Sunday. However, it always appeared to me as largely a social thing.
He never really spoke to me about God, or delved into biblical stories or moral lessons therein.
The extent of his faith was apparent from his writings — as he recounted his period of doubt, the episode he observed that convinced him, and the fact that many of his short stories related to Mary and the disciple Thomas (who was a key figure in Indian Christianity).
#1: He was just a man
He was widely regarded as a pundit. A figure of towering life experience and knowledge.
That was a caricature of him, however. In truth, he was a man like any other.
He had hopes and dreams. Triumphs and failures. Faith and doubt. | https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/i-found-my-grandfathers-notes-20-years-after-he-died-here-s-what-i-learnt-b550a65069d7 | ['Kesh Anand'] | 2020-04-29 20:15:05.717000+00:00 | ['Doctors', 'Life Lessons', 'Life', 'History', 'Family'] |
An April Morning | Alternatively, time could freeze
and I could write and look outside
Simultaneously -
Never miss a moment of this
The discipline of the rain
The stillness of the wind
I can see what is not there.
Treat all alike
This is the philosophy here -
It’s gone calmer
A garbage truck is heard
The morning is always calm
Definitive, no. Inaccurate.
I am certain
I am a fish and water is my joy.
Do you believe in these?
The mystics that unite us?
Water runs through me,
Uninhibited.
But green is my color,
Am I not a daughter of this Earth?
The wind is here
I see what now is there
The leaves sway
The drops have ceased -
Disciplined. | https://medium.com/soul-spill/an-april-morning-f32c26cefc59 | [] | 2020-04-30 06:03:48.321000+00:00 | ['Morning', 'Discipline', 'Nature', 'Rain', 'Poem'] |
Mindfully designing work and life | Mindfully designing work and life
How to apply a ritual design strategy
Photo by Hannah Wei on Unsplash
Your life is full of ritual. Your work as well, probably. We all have some immediate ideas that come to mind when we hear the word. However, if you unpack the notion of ritual, you may discover new ways of seeing and engaging the world — new ways of mindfully designing your work and life.
This happened to me when I pursued a doctorate in anthropology on ritual design while working at Air New Zealand. For my research, I applied insights from ritual scholarship to the workplace in support of a new collaboration strategy. This was important to me because, perhaps like you, I believe in humanistic organisations. By this I mean organisations conceived as communities of neighbours (sometimes global neighbours) working together for the mutual benefit of all stakeholders and our planet, and where daily work is an expression of one’s values. A collaborative culture is one key characteristic of a humanistic organisational culture.
At Air New Zealand, the golden rule (treat others as you want to be treated) was explicitly discussed as a core value among team members that supported collaboration. We designed rhythms and work rituals to embed these values and principles into our practices. This synergy between ritual design and collaborative culture felt so powerful that I decided to integrate work and study by creating a ritual design strategy that supports change leadership and cultural change. I am now leveraging these insights in my current role at Xero, and thought I might share how you can use ritual design to support your own work and personal aspirations.
A ritual design strategy intends to embed our values into our behaviours — at work, at home and in the community.
What is a ritual?
While a routine is something you do regularly, a ritual is something you do mindfully because it brings your values to life. Rituals embed intentions and values into behaviours — that is what rituals aspire to be. You can try on this definition right now by asking yourself:
In what ways do my rituals weave my best intentions and values into my life?
You will probably find quite a number of rituals in your workplace and your personal life. In my work, key rituals include team meetings, co-design sessions, one-on-ones, demos, coaching and mentoring sessions. You may also have other rituals, like retrospectives, investor briefing, sales interactions, performance reviews and more.
If you want your daily behaviours to express your values, then you can design your rituals accordingly. That is what ritual design means and does. How exactly do you do that? By clarifying your goals and values, weaving them into your narrative, and designing rituals to reinforce and enact your narrative.
1. Clarify your goals and values
Select one of your goals and identify the values you hold that underpin this goal. Ask yourself: why does this matter to me? This may touch on some extremely personal issues, but it’s so important. Which values do you feel are essential to your self-perception and which feel more aspirational?
Helpful hint: For many of us, when we first start capturing our thoughts, it can feel like someone is looking over our shoulder — maybe someone we are trying to impress. Exorcise them. Thinking and writing without self-deception is a ritual in itself. Be fearless!
2. Write your narrative
Next, weave your goal and values into a summary of who you are, what you want, what is important to you, and why. This could be just one paragraph or many pages long, whatever suits you. And, just as a reminder: no baloney, no spin, no marketing. The raw truth.
Narratives are stories we use to make sense of the world. Perhaps you have family stories and ones about yourself that you share regularly to communicate who you are. Similarly, nations, cultures and religions have core narratives. These often include origin myths that explain the birth of the community or the universe.
Why this focus on narratives? Because rituals are cultural strategies for embedding and reinforcing narratives.
Our lives are shaped by these stories we tell and retell — to ourselves and about ourselves. We might not say these out loud or even consciously acknowledge them, but they are ‘in there’ and influence how we engage our environment. Core narratives also sit at the cultural centre of organisations and teams. There may be some differences between official narratives, and those active in our minds. For example, you may not agree with all aspects of a key family myth.
Writing out your narrative accomplishes several things. It clarifies your own beliefs and motivations, and it provides a written record that’s useful for collaborating with colleagues on the strategy, and designing change-related communications and learning-related activities.
For example, here is a narrative that captures beliefs and values related to coaching:
“I believe in the power of coaching to help people thrive and I am committed to helping organisations embed coaching strategies and behaviours. I believe coaching fosters collaboration and humanism while also supporting a thriving organisation. A great coaching strategy is underpinned by values that I share and that are important to me, including empathy, contribution, reflective practice, learning, growth, continual improvement and authenticity.
I conceive coaching as a form of collaboration, grounded in dialogue and trust, where a key goal is to illuminate the intersection between the coachee’s and the organisation’s goals and aspirations, particularly regarding capability development. Coaching sessions are one part of a great coaching strategy. The others include ongoing capability building in coaching, and rituals of reflection whereby the coachee applies the insights and decisions derived through coaching to their daily activities. Coaching thereby becomes a strategy for weaving reflective practice and continual improvement into life and work.
It feels good and right to regularly reflect on what I’m doing, how it’s going, what I hope for, and what I might adjust to achieve desired outcomes — both for the organisation and for my own career and growth. I feel inspired to view work as practice. I feel supported, valued, engaged.”
Ritual and myth
This is fascinating — for a geek like me, anyway. Perhaps you are familiar with Joseph Campbell? His conversations with Bill Moyers (The Power of Myth, 1989) are inspirational lessons. If you haven’t yet seen them, you’re in for a treat. Campbell defines a ritual as the enactment of a myth, where myths are (in stark contrast to popular definitions of myth) cultural narratives containing essential truths about our beliefs and values.
A simple example illustrating this connection between ritual and mythic narrative is a birthday celebration during which the mother retells the birth story (re-enactment might be a bit much). Religious examples include the Catholic Communion which re-enacts aspects of the last supper, and the Jewish Passover Seder, a ritual meal that retells the story of Moses delivering his people from slavery.
3. Design your ritual to reinforce, retell and enact your narrative
Having unpacked your goals and values and crafted your narrative, the next step is to design (or revise) your ritual to embed and reinforce the substance of those ideas into specific activities, tools and behaviours.
To design a ritual, create an activity that retells or re-enacts the narrative you are wanting to reinforce.
Ritual design is a creative process with no algorithm. However, ritual scholarship has identified ‘family characteristics’ of ritual — common aspects that contribute to their power — and these can serve as design considerations when creating your own rituals. Your narrative is the key design element, while these characteristics can strengthen the reinforcement. Step through these and consider how they might support your intentions.
Invariance. How might your ritual be served by various kinds of consistency? For example, consistent frequency, sequence of activities, time and space.
How might your ritual be served by various kinds of consistency? For example, consistent frequency, sequence of activities, time and space. Symbol . How might your intentions be represented in words, sounds, images, objects, props, food, clothing, the physical space and other materials you might use during the event?
. How might your intentions be represented in words, sounds, images, objects, props, food, clothing, the physical space and other materials you might use during the event? Rule governance. How might your ritual clarify and ensure expectations for the participants? Ritual is often the opposite of ‘anything goes’ because you have particular intentions.
How might your ritual clarify and ensure expectations for the participants? Ritual is often the opposite of ‘anything goes’ because you have particular intentions. Traditionalism. How might your ritual reinforce traditional narratives or perhaps modify tradition? Rituals sometimes feel legitimate because they draw upon traditions that are already understood. In organisations, traditionalism sometimes includes retelling ‘origin stories’ of the organisation, team or strategy.
How might your ritual reinforce traditional narratives or perhaps modify tradition? Rituals sometimes feel legitimate because they draw upon traditions that are already understood. In organisations, traditionalism sometimes includes retelling ‘origin stories’ of the organisation, team or strategy. Performance. How might your ritual embody and perform your goals, values and intentions in the behaviour of participants? Consider agenda, physical arrangements, designated movements, changes in position, and engaging ritual objects. All sensory capabilities are available for symbol and experience design.
How might your ritual embody and perform your goals, values and intentions in the behaviour of participants? Consider agenda, physical arrangements, designated movements, changes in position, and engaging ritual objects. All sensory capabilities are available for symbol and experience design. Formalism. Each of the above elements contribute to the formal feel of ritual. Ritual feels formal and formality feels ritualistic. How might your ritual be formalised using the above design characteristics to maximise the power of your ritual?
By conceiving an event that reinforces your narrative, and creatively leveraging the above design considerations, you are ready to prototype your ritual. From there, you iterate as desired. A good ritual feels right while embedding your values and intentions into specific behaviours. However, where colleagues and family members are participants or co-designers, you should expect that some ideas may not feel right to everyone. A ritual that feels perfect to you might feel awkward and embarrassing to others. The basic solution is to design rituals collaboratively with participants.
Collaborative ritual design
One of the most powerful things you can do with family, teams, colleagues and collaborators is to design your rituals together. Consider your existing rituals as a team: what are they, how well are they serving you, and what might you do differently? Occasionally, this may strike some participants as strange. Product design and service design professionals have been talking about rituals for years so this conversation is natural in these environments, including at Xero.
The future of ritual design includes refining the ways organisations leverage ritual design as a core leadership competency and key collaborative activity. Indeed, this was a key insight from my research.
Ritual design is a basic competency for organisational leaders.
For example, how might you design an initial coaching session that enacts the narrative, leverages ritual design characteristics, and is designed collaboratively? Remember, you’re not designing the coaching method (perhaps using GROW in this instance), but designing the ritual.
The first session can be conceived as an ‘origin event’ during which the coach and coachee share their respective coaching narratives. Sharing narratives serves several purposes, including establishing rapport, sharing what is important to each other, asking clarifying questions and setting a tone for subsequent sessions. The tone should express core values of trust and transparency.
You would then need to ensure upcoming coaching sessions embed the values and intentions you’ve just shared. First, open and close each coaching session with consistent and reinforcing reminders: short summaries of why you’re here that retell your narratives. Secondly, consider a session that is set apart — in time, place, tone, and activity — from more typical workplace contexts.
Do you prefer casual spaces versus meeting rooms, walking versus sitting, unicycle riding? Is there a park nearby? Discuss artefacts to be uniquely used during coaching. This might include a special object that represents the coachee’s values and intentions. The idea of symbols makes perfect sense to some people, while others find it odd. In short, explicitly discuss and engage in collaborative ritual design!
Creating rituals at home
At home is where your own explorations and experimentations with ritual design might yield great things, particularly with partners and families, but individually as well. Danielle (my partner) and I design rituals for ourselves that, while based on traditional rituals, are re-designed to be authentic to our personal context.
Our weekly sabbath ritual, which is far from traditional, includes acknowledging our values and intentions and questioning how well we are living these. This ritual includes a consistent sequence, and words and props reserved for this purpose including candles, bells, a quaich (ritual cup) and wine.
Our Sabbath Table. We have Sabbath either at home or at locations that are meaningful to us.
Some people might say that such a ritual is not necessary — that such basic communication should simply be woven seamlessly into daily life. Absolutely. Ritual design is one way to accomplish this goal. Some other rituals in my life include a form of journaling, composing and playing music, and touching a mezuzah as we leave and enter our home. Some of our holidays are ritualised, as I suspect they are in your family; these are opportunities to adapt traditional practices.
Mezuzah (Hebrew for doorpost). Traditionally, many Jewish homes have a Mezuzah at the entrance to their home; some families place them on the doorposts of every living area. Inside is a scroll of paper which, traditionally, includes specific portions of scripture. Danielle and I created our own ritual text for the inside — a statement of our goals and intentions for our partnership.
Musical instruments as ritual objects. A ritual object is one that embeds your goals and values, and is used as part of a ritual. I collaborated with a friend who makes guitars and the result was this rather odd creature with no top, which accommodates my overhand playing technique. Composing is a ritual, as is performing.
Rituals ensure we take the time to do what we believe is right — they make it easier to do the right thing.
There are workplace equivalents to these personal rituals of reflection. At Xero (perhaps at your workplace, too) we engage in periodic retros and health checks to assess how well teams are living their values and intentions. These are quite obvious methods for reflection and continual improvement. Formalising these processes into rituals is a form of performance assurance — a way of ensuring that reflective practice is woven into our rhythms of work.
Ritual design is not just for rituals
A ritual design strategy can be used to design anything — not just rituals. At Air New Zealand, I used ritual thinking to design activities such as co-design sessions and union-management summits, and tools such as facilitator guides and a digital playbook for building organisational capability in collaborative problem solving. Tools are designed to operationalise their intentions, just like rituals, therefore, many tools can be usefully conceived as ritual objects.
Essentially, anything you do or create can be approached through the lens of ritual design, as this approach is rooted in design anthropology, human-centred design (like design thinking) and scholarship related to the strategies employed by cultures and religions.
Yes, it is hard to talk about ritual without mentioning religion — and there is no need to avoid the subject. Before exploring design anthropology, I studied the phenomenon of religion, which is where I was first exposed to ritual as a cultural strategy. Ritual and religion are intimately connected; religions are cultural systems that operationalise community norms while rituals embed these norms into behaviours. Therefore, for some religious adherents, daily life is highly ritualised; there is a prescribed way to do almost everything.
Organisations of all kinds, including large commercial entities, are also communities that have cultures, norms, narratives, values and rituals. It is rather obvious, when seen this way, that organisations ought to take their rituals seriously — and design their rituals mindfully.
Is there evidence that rituals work? Yes, studies suggest that rituals achieve a variety of outcomes, including: providing meaning, managing anxiety, reinforcing the social order, communicating important values, enhancing group solidarity, including and excluding (not necessarily a good thing!), signaling commitment, managing work structure and prescribing and reinforcing significant events.
For a summary of studies, see: Hobson, N. M., Schroeder, J., Risen, J. L., Xygalatas, D., & Inzlicht, M. (2018). The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 22(3), 260–284.
Living the life you want to live
Rituals are a way of making sense of the world and can influence how you see and engage with the world. They are part of the strategic toolkit that evolved with our species, and can help you live the life you want to live. The mission of a ritual design strategy is to continually improve the ways in which your goals, values, aspirations and best intentions (of your team, family, organisation or community) are woven into the fabric of your routine behaviours.
In my current work at Xero, I’m focused on using rituals to weave reflective practice and continual improvement into teams and strategies. I suspect we all want our behaviours to express our values, but that is not always easy. When life gets very busy (and sometimes crazy, like 2020 in general) it is easy to slip into less mindful living — to just get through things. Sometimes that does not include behaving in alignment with what we really wish for ourselves.
Ritual design can be a strategic remedy for this — a way to increase mindful living and working. So enjoy collaboratively designing your rituals with family and colleagues. I would love to hear your ritual design narrative!
Want to know more? I recommend these reads: | https://medium.com/humans-of-xero/mindfully-designing-work-and-life-8644351cb5a8 | ['Mars Lewis'] | 2020-12-13 21:18:20.853000+00:00 | ['Ritual Design', 'Ritual', 'Design Strategy', 'Design Anthropology', 'Culture'] |
Vector data editing in MapTiler Cloud | Stores location or aerial image digitization
Vector data editor in MapTiler Cloud enables you to host, create or edit geodata in an intuitive web editor. You can overlay your raster images or use any of our maps, e.g. satellite, and digitize it. Remote TileJSON or XYZ sources are also supported.
Interactive vector overlay can be easily added to your website using a code example. This is the easiest way to show locations of your stores, draw over your drone aerial photos, digitize an old map or to create a small thematic layer.
Data can be created or edited using an online web editor, which is part of MapTiler Cloud and you can try it even without signing in. The same data can be automatically synchronized with the upcoming MapTiler Mobile app, which can be used for field data collection.
Digitize your drone photos
Data for direct publishing on the Internet
All data are hosted on reliable global infrastructure in GeoJSON format, which is an open standard defined for web publishing.
You can import own data in various supported formats including GeoJSON, GeoPackage, GPX, KML, Shapefile or zipped Shapefile. Exporting data for use in other software or on the web is possible using the GeoJSON data format.
If you want to display a larger amount of features (more than 5000 or files larger than 5MB), process them first using MapTiler Desktop into vector tiles, upload to MapTiler Cloud and style them there.
Create an interactive map of your shops or another thematic layer
Start building with a free account
Start editing your data on MapTiler Cloud with a free account. | https://medium.com/maptiler/vector-data-editing-in-maptiler-cloud-916649246a29 | [] | 2019-06-06 20:41:08.794000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Drones', 'Maps', 'Maptiler', 'Vector Tiles'] |
Setting Goals | Things That Can Help You Achieve Them | What are the things that can enable you to set satisfying, achievable goals? Here are some points that can help you.
Lucidity of Your Goals
Be very clear in your mind about the purpose of your goal. Why are you trying to achieve it? What will be the consequences? When you can see ahead and realize how the goals can help you, you become more focused on them. Also, chalk out a plan to achieve the goal. This plan should be crystal clear. It should be a step by step process. You should know what exactly you will do after you have achieved one particular step towards goal fulfillment. When you work with clear objectives such as these, you find that achieving the goal becomes much easier.
The Challenge Factor
We all love challenges. Not all of us will want challenges that break our backs, but we do want small challenges that we can fulfill. Hence, when you are setting goals, you should see to it that your goals challenge you. That helps you retain your interest in your goal fulfillment, and once you have achieved a goal which challenged you in some way or the other, you will find yourself much more exhilarated. You will want to do more; you will plan more. This helps you grow as a person.
Know Your Limits
It is also very important that you set goals within your limitations. This does not mean that your goals should just be what you have already done. As said before, set goals that are challenging, but you should have a very practical view of yourself too. You should know what you can do and what you cannot. If you set a very lofty goal, it will only sap your energies and you will not be able to accomplish you. This can disillusion you forever from setting further goals.
Stay Committed
You cannot achieve anything without the right amount of dedication towards it, and your goals are no exception. You have to spend some time and effort, you have to plan and you have to stay committed towards your goals. You cannot just set something for yourself to achieve and then forget about it completely. You have to keep moving in that direction. When you have set a goal, you have to realize that this is just one rung in the ladder of success. You have to climb that, and then you have to move towards the next rung. This is a continuous process that you have to keep at for the rest of your life.
https://viabilitybalance.com/ | https://medium.com/@renmirk8/setting-goals-things-that-can-help-you-achieve-them-1d949d63cb79 | ['Reno Pahnke'] | 2020-12-25 17:04:40.582000+00:00 | ['Goals Objectives', 'Goals', 'Goal Setting', 'Goals In Life'] |
Think Differently to Flourish and Grow Your Career | Think Differently to Flourish and Grow Your Career
Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash
Thinking differently will help your career. How you think about things is as powerful as how hard you work, how successful you are as a mentor or even the skills you gain.
Very successful people think differently from everyone else. The good news is that thinking habits can be learned. Here are wise words of wisdom from 5 successful business people that you can put into action to get ahead.
Jeff Bezos
Founder of Amazon
“If you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall, and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.”
Key takeaways:
Define the problem and explore the causes of the pain. Find as many solutions as you can. Draft a plan of action to crack the code.
Mark Zuckerberg
Co-founder of Facebook, Inc.
“People think innovation is just having a good idea, but a lot of it is just moving quickly and trying a lot of things.”
Key takeaways:
Try things out, even if the outcome is not apparent. Escape the limitations of traditional thinking. Test, test, and test.
Steve Jobs
Co-founder of Apple
“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it too long. Just figure out what’s next.”
Key takeaways:
Focus on your next goal. Judge success by your momentum. Stay on top of your goals and know where you are.
Warren Buffet
Founder of Buffet Partnership, Ltd
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
Key takeaways:
A poor reputation makes you less trustworthy with people you want to work alongside. When facing a challenging situation, take a couple of deep breaths and then react. After you compose yourself, determine how to best respond.
Elon Musk
Founder of SpaceX and The Boring Company
“It’s important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree: make sure you understand the fundamental principles — the trunk and big branches — before you get to the leaves, the details.”
Key takeaways: | https://2madness.com/think-differently-to-flourish-and-grow-your-career-dbea348d4f58 | ['Matthew Royse'] | 2020-12-26 18:46:39.857000+00:00 | ['Motivation', 'Self Improvement', 'Inspiration', 'Thinking', 'Mindset'] |
Learning to Love Myself as Someone With a Craniofacial Disability | Today, I can look into the mirror with confidence and without the fixation of vanity. I see a woman who has overcome internal and external adhesion scarring caused by childhood physical abuse, #bullying, psychological trauma and sexual molestation by my government-employed registered sex offender stepfather. I’ve survived over 16 multifaceted surgeries involving the repair of various facial deformities I was born with, and for the longest time, I believed I had a face even my own mother couldn’t love.
For 31 years I damaged my body taking over 14 prescription drugs, primarily because the doctors said I needed them. I self-sabotaged often, and I did more than my share of self-hate talk. I made a few attempts to end it all, but all the while I kept seeing the same clouded purpose I couldn’t make clear. I was living in a state of denial as a chemically-induced robot, raging alcoholic and chronic cigarette smoker despite having severely restricted airways.
I lacked any concept of what health entailed, and I hated myself, but deep down inside I still knew I deserved better. I grew up very angry, guarded, and I formed any identity I could find. I did my best to over-nurture all of my relationships using laborious favors, money and other material items that I thought would secure our future. I became addicted to the idea of obtaining the physical appearance of the beautiful women I spotted in various beauty magazines through means of unnecessary surgeries, some of which led to botched circumstances, including my current need for a second major jaw surgery.
Despite being labeled as a high school and college dropout, I chose to persevere by pushing myself to pursue multiple college degrees in various fields such as law, criminal justice, forensic psychology, and general psychology. The act of learning something new has always stimulated my mind. I am now pursuing a second Masters in Public Health. I’ve held over 60 jobs, most of which were in discriminating circumstances that I ran from. However, I’ve never been terminated, and one of the best jobs I’ve held was at one of the leading, largest law firms in Nevada.
Today, I do not allow my #disability to define me. I am proud of who I am and how far I’ve come. I appreciate every good and bad experience. Not only have I gained profound knowledge and wisdom, but I have come to realize I am worthy.
I didn’t endure all these hardships for nothing. Many of us hold onto our emotions like a tight ship. We are hurt, damaged and impervious to pain. Now is the time to allow vulnerability to open your heart so you can find the real you. Like a rock rose, you can thrive through neglect.
While it took many years of falling down and getting back up, I came to the realization that all I ever needed was to take the time to love, nurture and discover myself underneath the appearance of my “face.” I needed to be vulnerable and honest with myself before I could be of any value to anyone else.
Once you identify and release what’s really holding you back, you can then begin the repair process through means of extensive mirror work and self-realization. It doesn’t matter what traumas you’ve been through, you are valuable and you deserve the very best that life has to offer you. Your story has the immense power to heal another human being. Share it and wear it proudly.
I’ve been happily married to my husband Thane for over 12 years, and together we found a wealth of #health through an #organic #plantbased #vegan, gluten-free lifestyle. My once 30+ medically documented physical and mental illnesses have since dissipated, and my husband even reversed pre-diabetes and obesity. This led to the formation of our successful wellness business Assuaged.
Today I’m grateful for all the blessings, and I welcome challenges. I believe there is always a purposeful silver lining to all life experiences. Find what moves you, head towards that direction and never look back.
I am strong enough to love myself and to face life’s trials and tribulations. Every day I courageously persevere in a state of gratitude.
For more information on our collaborative efforts in raising further #craniofacial awareness, please join us on Facebook at Craniofacial Support and Resources.
Article originally published via RockRose and The Mighty | https://medium.com/@CranioVegan/learning-to-love-myself-as-someone-with-a-craniofacial-disability-864fc8acd50a | ['Cynthia Murphy'] | 2019-01-27 22:53:51.283000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Metoo', 'Mental Health', 'Bullying', 'Disability'] |
Infinite | As a kid, I could remember always asking myself,
“Where does space end?”
I imagined a white wall at the end of this…
“And what is on the other side of that?” my thoughts wondered.
These are the words I remember asking myself as a child.
Have you ever wondered?
I’d like to think I am not the only one.
Every child should wonder.
I still think of these questions.
I wonder if you still think of these questions as the years pass or did you get lost in your everyday life?
~NLR | https://medium.com/@everywherebutnow/infinite-1465e6214250 | [] | 2020-12-15 04:34:07.980000+00:00 | ['Space', 'Childhood', 'Consciousness', 'Elon Musk', 'Thoughts'] |
Recurrent Miscarriages and Fertility Treatment | Recurrent Miscarriages and Fertility Treatment
Recurrent Miscarriage can be defined as repeated occurrence of miscarriage or loss of pregnancy. This is a situation which is more annoying and takes toll mentally. Medical experts suggest that miscarriage one after another is not a good sign. Either the women facing tough time should opt for medical assistance, or there could be some bad habits after conception. It could be not so good lifestyle changes, poor hygiene, selection of foods and mental health. 8 out of 10 women according to experts after conception may undergo normal lifestyle with a few precautions towards childbirth. They are advised proper medication and medical visits. On the other hand, the remaining 2 are prone to a few problems. Out of these 2, a lady might face recurrent miscarriage one after the other. The reason might be many. Fertility experts advise many preventative measures. Age is an important factor for pregnancy. With increase in age, the risk of miscarriage increases. Hormonal secretions and Thyroid do constitute to miscarriages. Disturbance in Hormone secretions might trigger too.
Usually, miscarriages occurring too often might well be termed due to a few causes. Scientists, medical specialists and fertility and IVF Treatment Center in Chennai experts term it as follows
Immunologic grounds
Anatomic problems
Genetic reason
Endocrine dysfunction
Personal Hygiene and factors related to food habits
The above 5 factors might also add alongside the existing issues. By the way, the miscarriage could be due natural also. A fertility treatment center in Chennai experts and Gynecologists support you in this regard. They understand your biological cycle and offer exclusive advice based on what you have to adhere with. The pain caused is disheartening.
Speaking about preventing Miscarriages, Doctors suggest the following things for better health and also in some cases preventing it.
Eating quality foods
Having home cooked food is best way to be healthy.
Foods rich in Calcium and Minerals help your immunity.
Regular Exercise
Exercising regularly keeps you healthy and makes you less prone to attacks from diseases.
Keeping Stress at Bay
Managing stress helps you beat frustration away. It motivates you and enables tackle tough situations.
Take challenging situation lightly when pregnant.
Emotional draining is not encouraged.
Think of your strengths when handling stress.
Periodic Health Check up enhances your health and simultaneously lets you know about the growth of the foetus, making sure there is no sort of deficiency.
It is a proven record that recurring miscarriages can be treated. Miscarriages can be prevented too. While Genetic theories play spoilsport, you may well strategize to thrill yourselves on getting pregnant. Having a good rapport with your doctor and periodical conversation with your doctor decreases the chances of miscarriage. Checking for sexually transmitted diseases may well work out your way. Because they might well disturb the fertilized egg and ultimately cause pain. Being fit and healthy is one way to fight out all odds. The more you become fit physically, the more chances that you stay mentally prepared. When you are in top form then the risk is always very minimal. Psychological factors do play crucial role in conception and child birth.
Mint Hospitals have been serving mankind for many years now. In almost every field of diagnostics and specialization, we’ve been making our mark with improved and sophisticated infrastructure and laboratories. Our esteemed team ensures that patients do get the best treatment with utmost care and value towards life. We value every life on earth and educate patients about the treatment they are offered. Visit Mint Hospitals in Adyar, Chennai for best treatment in the city across various medical conditions.
Note: | https://medium.com/@mintho/recurrent-miscarriages-and-fertility-treatment-7be346094117 | [] | 2019-11-27 09:36:45.158000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Medical', 'Miscarriage', 'Hospital', 'Ivf'] |
Going Remote? Here’s How Improving Your Team’s Virtual Presence Drives Business | Creating a Professional Online Presence for Today’s Work-from-Home Culture
When conducting business remotely, we operate frequently on video and rely on all things digital to communicate. In these virtual situations, we make impressions daily that ultimately impact business. Your virtual presence reflects the professionalism of your company.
Consider what happens at your company when:
The director of business development takes most virtual meetings while displaying a messy kitchen in the background.
Your management team’s LinkedIn presence is outdated and doesn’t align with your firm’s brand messaging.
A senior partner wears t-shirts when meeting with key clients over video.
Your client services manager routinely needs a follow up email to respond to meeting requests.
Situations like these (and others) may not seem critical, but they can have a detrimental effect on relationships, opportunities and revenue. When employees fail to make optimal virtual impressions, the overall strength and success of their team-and your company-suffer too.
This is avoidable. While you may have provided initial guidance to your staff on how to set up their home offices and work remotely, it’s not enough. People develop habits for better or worse. Supporting employees with proactive, ongoing guidance to improve their virtual presence ensures that their habits don’t negatively impact business.
What Does Your Online Presence Consist Of?
So, what exactly is virtual presence? It’s how people appear and interact online. Some components include how you:
Communicate by email, phone and collaboration tools
Appear and engage on video
Participate in meetings
Conduct presentations
Connect with clients and prospects
Manage teams
Come across on LinkedIn (and other social media)
Network with individuals and groups
Throughout your company, there are likely several areas requiring improved virtual presence. When deciding which teams or individuals to help first, consider who engages most with clients, prospects, referral sources, investors and other critical stakeholders. Then tailor their training to functional areas and position levels, while also aligning with corporate values and culture. Doing this positions your employees for better success and enables them-collectively and individually-to be stronger brand ambassadors.
Reinforce that how you come across when working remotely is a priority by strengthening your own virtual presence. Lead by example, ensure positive support by leadership and communicate the benefits. Your team will want to follow suit so they can benefit from it as well.
The Benefits of a Strong Virtual Presence
By helping your team navigate virtual business optimally:
The director of business development will have a more professional-looking video background and make better connections with contacts who are no longer distracted by the messy kitchen.
Your management team’s updated LinkedIn profiles will present them and your firm optimally to drive credibility, visibility and influence.
The senior partner, in improved attire for virtual meetings, will impress upon key clients that he’s attentive and values their relationship. They’ll be more likely to recommend him to others or expand engagements.
The client services manager will now respond in a timely manner to meeting invitations (or delegate when she cannot) and move forward onboarding, engagements and issues resolution, instead of causing unnecessary delays.
When working remotely, how your team appears and interacts on screen carries greater influence in shaping business success than most think. Helping employees at every level improve virtual impressions will increase credibility, drive better relationships and generate more opportunities. It also strengthens your corporate brand.
Adopt firmwide strategies to navigate new digital norms and support your employees with training for long-term success. It will have a positive impact on your business.
[ Editor’s Note: To learn more about this and related topics, you may want to attend the following webinars: SEO/Social Media & Other PR 101 and Digital Marketing Tips for the New (or Old!) Business Owner.]
©All Rights Reserved. December, 2020. DailyDAC TM, LLC d/b/a/ Financial Poise TM
Originally published at https://www.financialpoise.com on December 9, 2020. | https://medium.com/@financialpoise/going-remote-heres-how-improving-your-team-s-virtual-presence-drives-business-da33ccb4d049 | ['Financial Poise'] | 2021-01-13 23:04:42.910000+00:00 | ['Remote Team Management', 'Remote Working', 'Remote Work Culture', 'Remote Work Tips', 'Remote Work'] |
What Top Tech Trends Are Going To Explode In 3–5 Years? | Thank you to the 6 industry experts (and moderator Nina Muhleisen!) for sharing your hot predictions for tech in the next 3–5 years.
A Top Tech Trends Debate 2021 event report
Avion has always been a forward-thinking agency, passionate about emerging trends. For two years, I acted on the board of The Churchill Club — a collective dedicated to discussions about technology with strong ties to Silicon Valley.
I stepped down from my board position in 2019 to move to the US but have kept an interest in its events. The Churchill Club hosted its annual flagship event last night, The Top Tech Trends Debate. The premise? A panel of experts fight it out to decide what will be the next big thing in tech in 3–5 years, and the audience votes on a winner. Curious? Let me give you an overview of what was said, along with a few personal insights.
2021 tech trend: Higher education transformation
By panellist 1: Jodie Imam, co-founder and COO of Tractor Ventures
Jodie believes that in the next 3–5 years, future students will have more opportunities to engage in hybrid models of learning that are recognised by industry. They will offer an immersive mix of digital content and in-person teaching, and improve access to education in poorer nations.
Jodie backs this trend with a statement by Michael Batko, CEO of Startmate, who says:
“Education is still a one size fits all model that trains future generations to be a cog in the wheel of the old economy.”
Research shows the best learning is mostly ‘by doing’, followed by coursework and mentoring. People are already pursuing their own professional development with fast-growing platforms like Masterclass, featuring Gordon Ramsay and James Cameron as teachers.
My thoughts: Disagree
I love Jodie’s argument as a top tech trend, however I disagree that it will be the next big thing. I feel shaking up the Australian education system has been brewing for many years-in fact, this theme was the winning argument at the Top Tech Trends Debate in 2017 ( see the PWC wrap-up) — yet traditional institutions are still lagging to catch up. Further, while people are hungry to co-create curriculum and design their own future, it’s going to take a lot more than 3–5 years for some industries (for example, medical) to recognise certifications outside the university system.
2021 tech trend: Voice interfaces
By panellist 2: Gavin Appel, founder, Ignition Lane
Gavin believes the way we are interacting with voice technology is changing, and that voice interfaces are the next frontier. The market for voice assistants will double to 8.4 billion by 2024 and he says they will disrupt every industry like the smartphone has done before. Beyond the home, we will see voice used in medical practices to speed up reporting.
We’ll also see it closing cross-border business deals, where leaders will speak different languages but understand each other in real time, thanks to Google closed captions or Skype automatic translation.
Gavin’s reasoning that voice interfaces will explode in the next 3–5 years? It’s already a natural mode of communication. Using voice is instinctive, it’s not a new experience. Voice is a natural behaviour-it’s already second nature and therefore can be adopted quickly and easily.
My thoughts: Disagree
I do not believe that voice will explode in 3–5 years. It’s already here. While its application and use has accelerated dramatically, there are still technical challenges around natural language programming to overcome before it becomes a fluid part of our everyday lives. Yes, voice is already incredibly competent at booking an appointment, but it still lacks the intelligence to see through sarcasm and contextual awareness to understand user intent. You can learn more in my 2019 LinkedIn article: 5 things copywriters needs to know about Ai and conversation design.
2021 tech trend: SME technology
By panellist 3: Kate Pounder, CEO of Technology Council of Australia
Kate believes the next big thing in tech will be ‘SME tech’-defined as tech solutions that address pain points for small to medium businesses. Well known examples of SME tech companies from Australia and New Zealand include Canva, Xero, and MYOB.
The reason Kate thinks this will explode in 3–5 years is COVID has forced this market group to become more digitally literate. And SME tech is now more accessible thanks to cloud-based products; before we only had ‘sexy tech’ that wasn’t made for this sector.
Kate says 98% of people in Australia work for SMEs. Her own research shows if SMEs started using more than one app, this would inject $7-billion dollars in the economy.
It would also have a positive social impact by helping automate the mundane, allowing SME workers to have better work-life balance.
My thoughts: Agree
As a SME owner, I am constantly relying on cloud-based tools to run my business-and the number that are available to me continue to grow by the day. Anecdotally, I’ve seen COVID result in many talented professionals rethinking their careers, and whether by redundancy or personal choice, they are leaving corporate companies in droves and starting their own businesses too. This widens the market even more and I think there is a lot of potential for SME tech to become more useful and more integrated, driving socioeconomic change.
2021 tech trend: Going off-grid
By panellist 4: Reeta Dhar, Former National Head of Emerging Industries Team at Westpac
Reeta believes that citizens will be flocking off-grid to achieve total energy independence. Why? Because we are tired of living in the same economic system that hinders positive change and has let us down time and time again.
Reeta cites the COVID toilet paper saga as an example of how highly centralised systems perform under stress.
Due to growing mistrust in government combined with the crisis of climate change, Reeta says in 3–5 years we will have had enough and want to take more control-starting with the freedom to store and discharge electricity through means like solar panels and electric vehicles. Such technology has developed rapidly and is now more accessible, ready to scale.
My thoughts: Agree
Solar panels and electric vehicles are not exactly new, but I believe Reeta makes a very good point about such technology becoming more readily available. Furthermore, younger generations have a feeling of urgency of not only wanting, but needing to do something about it because of the government’s continual incompetence. Plus, the relatively new concept of storing and sharing energy within communities is better understood. Some panellists argued otherwise-that going off-grid isn’t achievable for lower socioeconomic groups-but I still agree with Reeta that in the next 3–5 years, people will start taking energy into their own hands where they can.
2021 tech trend: Proteomics
By panellist 5: Dr Andrew Webb, Head of Proteomics Research Laboratory (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) and CSO/cofounder at Mass Dynamics
Andrew believes that the science of proteomics will transform our knowledge of disease and shape the future of personalised medicine.
But what exactly is proteomics? It’s the study of the 23 million proteins in every cell, which has the potential to take personalised healthcare to a whole new level.
In 2004, we unlocked the entire human genome, and this has become a gateway towards learning so much more.
We’re starting to understand biological differences in a whole new light and proteomics will change the game of how we diagnose and treat disease. Andrew says $1.4 billion has already been invested in proteomics in the US, excluding academic initiatives, and this means we’ll start seeing a lot more impact from its research in the public domain.
My thoughts: Disagree
While there’s no dispute that proteomics research is progressing at lightning speed, I believe the adoption and acceptance of personalised medicine is much farther away than 3–5 years. Hesitation with COVID vaccines has proven that labs can move fast, but people’s mindset cannot. In addition, personalised medicine requires centralised records. In Australia, My Health Records was launched in 2009 with more controversy than uptake despite its positive intent.
2021 tech trend: Augmented intelligence and democracy
By panellist 6: Barbara Sharp, CEO of Plaetos Group
Barbara believes that augmented intelligence is set to disrupt democracy for the better. How? By empowering policy makers to make more informed decisions, faster. Rather than working solo, people and AI will come together in a human-centred partnership, where we have the power to reduce reporting time from 7 hours to 7 minutes-something that Barbara’s company Plaetos is already doing.
According to Gartner research, ‘support augmentation’ will surpass all other AI initiatives by 2030.
As such, organisations like the G7 and OECD will be able to make decisions based on richer sets of information that include both scientific data and social data (like sentiment), leading to better outcomes.
My thoughts: Disagree
I’m not across the research to agree or disagree with Barbara here, but my instinct tells me that no matter how smart AI will get, policy makers will always want to be in charge. As Reeta explained in her argument, there are too many egos in government that often leave policy makers stuck in a ‘juvenile sandpit’. Look at the way they’ve struggled to juggle health and science advice during COVID. Is it really the amount or speed of information that’s the problem? I would love to think AI will disrupt democracy for the better, but I’m unsure-particularly in a timeframe of 3–5 years.
The winner is… proteomics!
The Top Tech Trends Debate is an audience-driven event. After votes were cast, the winner was announced: Dr Andrew Webb on proteomics and personalised medicine. I had actually disagreed with this trend, but never argue with a scientist, I suppose! Thank you for organising the event, Churchill Club. I look forward to reflecting on all six topics in 3–5 years’ time. | https://medium.com/@avion-agency/what-top-tech-trends-are-going-to-explode-in-3-5-years-7e392efafaf5 | ['Natalie Khoo'] | 2021-08-27 03:12:58.747000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Technology', 'Science', 'Business', 'Trends'] |
Crawling Into Time | Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
my dog paces
panting frantically
she’s a golden retriever
and she has to pee
ann sits on the bed
reading a red book
hardcover
the cats lay on
opposite ends
of the floor
glaring at each other
the wind rustles the trees
outside the open window
where i can
hear the cars
every so often
in the dim lights
i look over
and see
on the nightstand
next to my side
of the bed a drawing of
ann’s lower back
hips
ass
and thighs
in tight lace
underwear
a birthday present
for me
from two years back
the dog stops pacing
climbing into bed
successfully acquiring ann’s
attention
meanwhile i sit here
tapping on this laptop
crawling into time
where i can feel
pieces of peace
waves sliding through
my body
at a snails pace
it is
quite nice
but enough of this
now
it’s late
i’m going to slip
into the bed
maybe read a book
maybe start writing a grocery list
maybe see what ann’s wearing
underneath the covers
maybe close my eyes
and think up a better
ending
to this one | https://medium.com/scribe/crawling-into-time-2fe181ec894c | ['Austin Briggman'] | 2020-02-28 07:54:01.689000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Moments', 'Endings', 'Observation', 'Poetry'] |
Getting Started With Flask — Python Framework | Creating Your First Flask App — Let’s Get started
Requirements :
1) Python — Download Latest Version from here
2) Flask — Documentation here
Installing Flask
$ pip install Flask
or $ pip install -U Flask
3)IDE’s — Any IDE’s of Your Choice (pycharm preferable for its feature set)
Now that we are set with the our prerequisites, Let’s Get into knowing more about Flask
Flask is a lightweight WSGI web application framework. It is quick and easy to get started with(This blog makes it even easier😛 ).Flask has the ability to scale up to complex applications and It primarily depends on Jinja template Engine And Werkzeug WSGI toolkit.
It is also one of the most popular Python web application frameworks.
Flask offers suggestions, but doesn’t enforce any dependencies or project layout. It is up to the developer to choose the tools and libraries they want to use. There are many extensions provided by the community that make adding new functionality easy.
Here’s a survey conducted by JetBrains , 48% of python developer’s use Flask compared to Django’s 44%.
PS : It’s an individual preference to choose the suitable framework for their Application , Don’t get into it any frameworks by seeing their numbers or their popularity . Posted this survey for a reference .
Python Developer Survey 2019
Hello World — In Flask
The Reason why flask is simple and easy to get started with is because you can create an app with the below 5 lines, It’s that simple.
app.py
Do not name the file as Flask.py , it throws an error
Run the file
To run the file : Python “filename”.py
Example: Filename is saved as hello.py
In Console run the following command : python hello.py
The following lines shows that your app is ready and running on default http://127.0.0.1:5000/
Enter the URL(http://127.0.0.1:5000/) in any browser of your choice :
Hello World Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000/
Now that you created your first Flask app and its running , Let’s break down what does the 5 lines of code do:
1)from flask import Flask
Importing Flask (F : capital ) from the flask package which creates an object
2)app=Flask(__name__)
An instance of the Flask Object stored in variable app
3)@app.route(“/”)
4)def First_Flask_App():
5)return “hello world”
The primary function of our app is called First_flask_app() , which is wrapped by Flask's most important decorator: .route() and the function returns “hello world”.
Decorator is a function for us to wrap other functions , Flask comes with a route decorator which allows us to serve up functions based on which page of the app the user is loading. By setting @app.route("/") , we are specifying that the function First_flask_app() should trigger whenever somebody uses our app.
That’s it , Start implementing .
I tried to make it simple and yet understandable ! | https://medium.com/@1303karthick/getting-started-with-flask-python-framework-80ed32a40c60 | [] | 2021-06-21 10:32:26.182000+00:00 | ['Web Development', 'Flask Framework', 'Getting Started', 'Beginner', 'Python'] |
You Want to Design an App for That, But Should You? | Below we will dive into each of these buckets further to identify how they can help you determine what kind of app (if any) you need.
Who are my users?
While this may seem obvious, it is the most common step I see missed in the software design process. To truly understand who your users are, I recommend you break this task down into two main buckets: segmentation and engagement
If you are an impact organization, your customers may be very diverse with unique needs and in fact, you may target those especially diverse or niche needs specifically. As you consider the questions above, I recommend you start with why customers engage with your organization specifically and that will lead you to what attributes your customers share. If you are an impact organization, your customers may be very diverse with unique needs and in fact, you are ready to move on to understanding what tech solutions your organization can provide.
What are my organization’s strengths and capacity?
While customers may be asking you daily why you don’t have an app, understanding what your organization can actually manage and support is just as important as understanding what your customers want.
Some key considerations here are:
Is an app consistent with your brand and the experience you want to generate for customers?
Does your organization have the technical know-how to support an app?
Does your organization have the capacity to provide customer support for the app? Who will your customers call when they need help?
Can your organization afford an app?
Let’s look at these considerations in detail:
Is an app consistent with your brand and the experience you want to generate for customers?
Brand image is a critical asset for any organization and can quickly be eroded by a negative experience. While apps can make engagement easy and convenient, they can also feel impersonal and reduce the opportunities you have to provide excellent customer service. Think about if you are making a major investment and purchasing a complex piece of equipment. While an app may let customers browse at their convenience, it would be very difficult to replace a helpful, knowledgeable, and available sales representative. Any new technology you decide to release to consumers must be consistent with the experience you want to create for customers.
2. Does your organization have the technical know-how to support an app?
One common thread I have heard when implementing technical solutions, is an assumption that they can hire contractors or get volunteers to technically support the app. Unfortunately, apps require frequent management and updates, and inconsistent people working on coding or updates can lead to increased issues and a Jenga tower of code. I have specifically seen this with impact organizations who engage volunteers on a project basis to manage the app, but when the volunteer leaves, so does the knowledge. Even if you will not want to add functionality to your app, there will still need to be updates as phone operating systems, security standards, and other connected technologies evolve. Your organization will need to be able to clearly articulate the structure, code locations, logins, etc. as you onboard anyone new to the app, and a contractor who leaves may not provide you the necessary documentation. Even if you do not have a highly technical coding level expert, you will, at a minimum, need someone who can onboard each new person working on the app, which requires time and technical capacity.
3. Does your organization have the capacity to provide customer support for the app? Who will your customers call when they need help?
The other common fallacy I have heard surrounding app launches is the mentality that once it is launched, the workload on the organization will decrease and will not require ongoing attention. Aside from the continued technical support discussed above, you will also need resources for customers who are struggling with the app. Even a well-designed app that is intuitive for users will still generate login issues, download or update questions, and, depending on the functionality of the app, even more issues such as refunds for transactions that did not process correctly, questions about security or hacked accounts, and more. Your organization will need to have a plan in place for how to support these users, clear communication to users on how to reach you, as well as sufficient manpower to address them.
Image source: Unsplash
4. Can your organization afford an app?
The final false belief I hear commonly is that they went online and found a site where they can develop an app for around $200. If you do a quick google search on “cost to develop an app” you will see figures ranging from $1,000 to $100,000 or even $1,000,000. This is very dependent on the type of app you want, who you want to build it, and what quality you expect. Here is the honest truth… building a good app takes time. Not just time to write the code, but also time to understand the requirements, develop an approach, create the architecture, perform testing, fix any issues, document the design, and more. These are all just the basic element of launching any app. This does not include if you want users to login (or even more expensive, login through a shared service like Facebook), connections to payment systems, an excellent and clean user experience, or geolocation. Someone will need to document and design every page a user could land on within your app. In addition to the basic cost of just building the app, there are also extra costs like adding the app to the app store, integrations, and data storage. In order to add an app to the app store, someone in the organization (or perhaps the contractor creating the app) will need access to the app store, with a yearly license at $100 for just the Apple App store. Integrations are the other piece which can exponentially drive costs up. While you may not think you need any integrations, think about any system from which you need to pull data (checking order status, getting a user’s history of logins or purchases, locations of stores), as well as any system to which you need to add data (someone places an order, provides feedback, accepts a request). All of these will require some method to communicate this data to or from the app and will cost extra. Finally, any information you want users to be able to access in the app will need to be stored somewhere. Think about a simple app that retrieves your order status. That app will need to know who the user is, connect that to some system that has information about what they ordered, and where it is in the process. All that data has to live somewhere that the app can access, such as Google, Amazon Webservices, or Salesforce.
While this may all seem like a “Debbie Downer” perspective, being able to manage and support an app once it is launched is even more critical than getting it initially set up. I have seen many projects fail because they didn’t think about the maintenance and could not support the app long-term. Considering these factors early will set your organization and your app up for success.
What is my organization’s true need?
Alright, so you’ve worked through the above. Your customer segments would love an app and can use one. Your organization can support an app through their brand, technical and support capacities, and financially. Now what?
My final question is .. do you truly need a custom app to meet this need? There are absolutely some strong benefits to building a custom app, such as that it can meet your users needs exactly without extra functions and the app can be branded beautifully to meet your customer expectations. However, there are other options to consider before building a custom app.
The first is purchasing an existing app and adapting it to your use. In an outside IT context, think of this as buying a pre-built house and remodeling or going with a builder model and customizing everything down to the color floors. With a pre-built you know the structure is solid, the general design is good, and most importantly, you are relying on the expertise that comes from building thousands of homes. In the app context, think about if you were a restaurant and wanted to create your own app so customers could order delivery. While there are some perks to this, it would likely make more sense to partner with an organization which already has an app, such as GrubHub or Doordash. Sure, you lose some flexibility and profit, but if something breaks, you aren’t on the hook either. In general, purchasing an existing app takes much of the burden off of the organization in terms of enhancements, maintaining the security standards, and designing an app from scratch. | https://medium.com/ross-impact-studio/you-want-to-design-an-app-for-that-but-should-you-26756414cba7 | ['Glenn Bugala'] | 2020-12-21 22:05:06.118000+00:00 | ['Isteaching', 'Technology', 'Design Thinking', 'App Development', 'Isinsights'] |
Introducing Automation for Jira’s brand new third party extension API (Server/Data Centre)! | When we first created Automation for Jira, we didn’t just want to create another little app in the Atlassian Marketplace. One of our main goals was to create the automation platform that powers Jira.
Soon after launching Automation for Jira, we added support for third-party extensions (using part of the same old API that was provided by the old Jira Automation Labs plugin) such as ScriptRunner and Midori.
Using this API, other Marketplace vendors have built all sorts of extensions for Automation for Jira — for a complete list, check out our docs!
While this worked okay, it was restrictive. So today we’re announcing the brand new and much improved third party API for Automation for Jira!
What’s new?
The old API suffered from quite a lot of flaws. It only supported pluggable actions (no triggers or conditions) and it required vendors to implement a lot of old deprecated methods.
The only way to clean this up was to start from scratch with a brand new API. Some of our design goals for this API were:
Support all component types including; triggers, conditions and actions!
More control over rule execution and being able to pass additional inputs to subsequent components
Smart value rendering support
Client-side rendering using any framework (or version) you prefer! (this also means more reliability so your extension UI won't break any longer when we update React!)
What does this mean to me?
All this sounds great, but so what?! This is best explained with a picture of what’s now possible using the new API: | https://blog.codebarrel.io/third-party-extensions-automation-for-jira-e40bfdb93596 | ['Andreas Knecht'] | 2020-03-16 03:49:25.870000+00:00 | ['Marketplaces', 'Jira', 'Automation'] |
The Most Terrifying Toilets In The World | Public bathrooms are predictable. Wherever you are, you know what you’re going to get when you step inside of one. Sure, small details (and cleanliness) will vary, but they all follow a similar template. However, a restaurant chain called Seiryumon bucked this curve by having utterly terrifying bathrooms.
Yes. “Terrifying”. The last word you want to hear when someone describes a lavatory.
Seiryumon was a chain of novelty Taiwanese restaurants that had several locations around Japan. Here, novelty didn’t just mean simple décore elements. Each restaurant took theming to a whole new level of detail. They also stood out by having totally unique themes, quite unlike any other restaurant on the planet.
The chain had five main locations, and each of these had a different theme. For instance, the Ikebukuro location was themed as a Chinese castle. Those who went to the one in Shinjuku were treated to an underground Opium den, complete with a strange animatronic door-guard. The location in the VenusFort mall was made to look like an old opera theatre. The Ikspiari venue was made to look like a mysterious house, and finally, the Minatomirai location was decorated to look like an old sewer.
Promotional Photo Of The Door Guard
Each of these restaurants had unique design details that, while weird, were utterly impressive. For instance, the Shinjuku location was split into two floors. One floor was themed around heaven and the other around a hellish reflection of Earth, with each side building on the old-fashioned Opium den aesthetic with its own unique touches.
On top of this, each restaurant would have shows of some form. These shows would feature music, lights, and the mechanical figures scattered throughout the room coming to life. Some of these figures were actually seated at the tables, meaning you could eat next to them as they sang. Often the serving staff would be involved in these shows. Some shows even required audience participation from the diners. This was both an impressive sight and, according to some reviews, a major annoyance if you had come for a quiet family dinner (though I’m unsure why you would do that).
One Of Seiryumon’s Mechanical Figures
According to designer Yuji Hirata, the Minatomirai location featured an hourly show where 5 tonnes of water was released from the sewer pipes and sent trickling across channels that covered the restaurant’s floor, creating a stunning kinetic effect. This was accompanied by the whole restaurant shaking to simulate a train passing by overhead.
Promotional Shot Of The Minatomirai Location
But, it is the toilets where Seiryumon plumbed the depths of strangeness. See, these rooms didn’t contain your average Armitage Shanks. In fact, each one featured odd and interactive toilets that, aside from their weird shapes, also moved and made sounds when you attempted to use them.
Those who visited Seiryumon WEST were treated to male urinals that featured large men straddling them. And, when you flushed these toilets, the men flapped their mouths like possessed ventriloquist dummies. And, behind a door ominously labeled “Fun Hunters Only” was a toilet, with a large, mustachioed man standing atop it, cymbals clasped in his hands. When you did your business, this man would loom over you and bang his little cymbals in what can only be called a strange display.
The Man With Cymbals From Seiryumon WEST
The Shinjuku venue contained the best (or at least, most confusing) toilets of all. For instance, a man with a Snidely Whiplash-like mustache is poking out of the wall in the men’s room. This man has many arms, and in the lowest two, he is holding a urinal shaped like a pair of huge lips. His other hands hold other items, including a camera and a bar of gold.
When you attempt to, uh, use this fine gentleman, he starts to sing as the lips begin to swing. Thankfully, the lips are decently big so missing would be difficult, but it still makes you pity the cleaner. Also, in a slightly disturbing touch, the camera will flash as the song ends, suggesting that this man has less than savory intentions.
But the worst is reserved for those who want to use the stalls. In one of them, there is a giant face that takes up the whole wall. This face, apparently nicknamed Tenchi, has sunken eyes and puckered lips, so the idea of having to do your business while looking at it is eerie enough as is. But it gets worse. Once you sit on the toilet, loud yodeling starts to play, and the face moves towards you. It doesn’t stop moving until it hits your knees, making this toilet into something pulled from your darkest nightmares.
Tenchi, mid-way through its movement
However, the chain did have its fans, with many people having fond memories of strange dining adventures. In fact, most people who visited these restaurants actually fondly remember the food. Many online reviewers say that the food is some of the best they’ve had at the price point.
If you’re curious and want a glimpse at the general interior, the Ikebukuro location was immortalized in Kamen Rider Kuuga, where it acts as the meeting place for the villains. This gives you a fun sample of the location’s weird architecture, though none of the villains venture into the bathroom.
Kamen Rider Kuuga’s villains visit Seiryumon.
It is hard to not be impressed by Seiryumon as a concept. The company’s attention to detail really is superb. The firm’s approach to themed dining is much more off-kilter and creative than many later attempts at the format. While the name is still in use, the venues have become much more standard and now feature ordinary bathrooms. Maybe one day we’ll see another restaurant chain try and be as creative as Seiryumon, but let’s hope they let us use the restroom in peace. | https://medium.com/@starshinescribbles/the-most-terrifying-toilets-in-the-world-8aab9df5480c | [] | 2021-02-04 14:05:37.016000+00:00 | ['Tourist Attraction', 'Themed Restaurants', 'Toilets', 'Restaurant', 'Weird'] |
I’m A Misanthrope And That Is Why I Wear A Mask | Photo by Anastasiia Chepinska on Unsplash
As I walk down the street my eyes lock with Gary from sales. “Goddamnit,” I mutter quietly to myself. He’s the kind of guy who calls everyone “bud” or “bro” but isn’t actually close to anyone. I steel myself, preparing to be trapped in a conversation for at least 15 minutes. I’ll only be able to escape by agreeing to go for drinks at some indeterminate point in the future, just as I have half a dozen times before without follow-through. But he just walks by.
Dumbfounded, I stop dead in my tracks, remembering that I’m wearing a mask. I wore it to protect myself and others from coronavirus, but, unexpectedly, it’s protecting me from human interaction. This is amazing.
Not 15 minutes later I pass by a casual acquaintance. A friend of a friend. To be honest, I don’t recall how I know her. But we live in the same neighborhood and every time we run into each other she exclaims my name enthusiastically, like we’re old friends. I’m not sure what her name is and it’s way too late to ask now. I prepare myself for another uncomfortable interaction. But then I remember: I’m wearing my mask. My invisibility cloak, as it were. We walk by each other; two ships passing in the night. I breathe a sigh of relief.
Back at my apartment building, the elevator stops five floors before mine. “Ugh,” I sigh, thinking I’ll have to share the elevator with someone and possibly endure neighborly small talk. But I feel emboldened by my mask and shout, “Sorry! CORONA!” and press the button to close the door. My neighbor can’t argue with that. For the first time in my life, I feel completely invisible — and it’s great.
Feeling free and in control, I log on to Facebook for the first time in ages. “Happy birthday!” I write on the wall of a friend whose birthday party invites I’ve declined three years in a row. “Sorry we can’t get together this year! Maybe next year.” Then I log on to Amazon and buy a set of towels as a gift for my college friend who’s insisting on getting married in a pandemic. “Sorry, I couldn’t travel during the pandemic. I was really looking forward to seeing Winnipeg!”
My wife walks into the den, a frustrated look on her face. “Did you let the cats eat tuna in the bed again?” she asks. I did. I should apologize and promise to do better, but I don’t! I grab my mask and pull it over my face, rendering myself anonymous. “That could have been anyone!” I shout as I make a beeline past her and out the door of the apartment.
I feel incredible. I think about everywhere I can go, all the things I can do. I can reclaim the cafe I stopped patronizing when my boss became a regular. Or I could go to the Thai restaurant that I’ve been too embarrassed to return to since I accidentally ordered a Vietnamese iced coffee 16 months ago. I could go to the convenience store I’ve yet to return to since I clogged their toilet. This is what it’s like to have a new identity. A new life.
I strut down the street. There’s a bounce in my step. “I’m invisible and I feel great!” I shout, not feeling remotely embarrassed, because no one knows who I am.
“Matt? It is you! I’d recognize that voice anywhere!” It’s the friend of a friend whose name I can’t recall.
“Shit.” I turn and run away. | https://medium.com/slackjaw/im-a-misanthrope-and-that-is-why-i-wear-a-mask-b0256c58e8e6 | ['Matthew Seely'] | 2020-10-02 16:27:00.512000+00:00 | ['Funny', 'Satire', 'Masks', 'Humor', 'Coronavirus'] |
The Land: Alliances (Chaos Seeds #3) | The THIRD vivacious installment of Aleron Kong’s, Chaos Seeds series.
Everything is not well in The Land! Eaters, Bugbears, Evil Counts, Vicious Thieves and Carnies! (You know, circus folk… small hands.)
Yup! Richter and Sion have their work cut out for them!
Come back and see how they kick’s some butt and takes some names!
Come back, to THE LAND!!!!!
https://amzn.to/3o10RR3 | https://medium.com/litrpg/the-land-alliances-chaos-seeds-3-48109869c035 | ['Alex Itsios'] | 2020-12-24 21:33:11.118000+00:00 | ['VR', 'Litrpg', 'Aleron Kong', 'Chaos Seeds', 'Gamelit'] |
Why Are Mothers Always Held To A Higher Standard, “Marriage Story” explains… | As the popularity of divorce movies expands, “Marriage Story” offers a succinct synopsis of what is expected of and from mothers.
“Marriage Story” deals out the life of a stage director and his actor wife. The film showcases the struggles both people within the relationship face. While also taking into account both of their stories. Noah Baumbach, wrote and directed “Marriage Story”. Which may be leading in the understanding of the film’s presentation. Although, Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (played by Adam Driver) are given time and room-there is definitely a closer following of Charlie’s experience, process, and prospective. It is Nicole’s account that includes a heavier support system including her family, friends, and lawyer.
Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” offers the narrative that women as mothers are held to higher standards. This is highlighted through the storyline that details an extensive coast-to-coast divorce. As Nicole’s perspective is heavily supported by other characters, it is her narrative that deals with the planning and execution of key attributes to commencing and finalizing the divorce. Nicole, arranges multiple meetings with lawyers on the west coast before deciding on hiring Nora (Laura Dern). As the divorce plays out across coasts, it is Nora who places in a call to Charlie where he questions, “I’ll get a lawyer. Can I get a lawyer here?” Nora responds, “I don’t know where “here” is.” This moment in the film is crucial to setting up Nora’s point of view, and how she furthers the ideas presented in the film about womanhood.
One scene lead by Academy Winner Laura Dern, hones in on the standards at which mothers as women are held. As well as identifying ramifications alongside the difference between set standards for mothers and fathers. Nora prefaces a monumental monologue by saying; “Don’t ever say that. People don’t accept a mother who drinks too much wine and yells at her child and calls him an asshole. I get it. I do it too.” Next, Nora’s monologue addresses all of these aspects. Read it here:
NORA
We can accept an imperfect Dad.
Let’s face it, the idea of a good
father was only invented like 30
years ago. Before that fathers
were expected to be silent and
absent and unreliable and selfish
and we can all say that we want
them to be different but on some
basic level we ACCEPT them, we
LOVE them for their fallibilities.
But people absolutely DON’T accept
those same failings in mothers.
(building up steam)
We don't accept it structurally
and we don't accept it spiritually
because the basis of our Judeo-
Christian Whatever is Mary Mother
of Jesus and she’s PERFECT. She’s
a virgin who gives birth,
unwaveringly supports her child,
and holds his dead body when he’s
gone. But the Dad isn’t there.
He didn’t even do the fucking
because God’s in heaven. God is
the father and God didn't show up
so you have to be perfect and
Charlie can be a fuck up and it
doesn't matter. You’ll always be
held to a different, higher
standard and it’s FUCKED up, but
that’s the way it is.
Excerpt from Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” screenplay | https://medium.com/@sophvic/why-are-mothers-always-held-to-a-higher-standard-marriage-story-explains-97d3d0c78d65 | ['Sophia Victoria'] | 2021-03-12 01:07:58.630000+00:00 | ['Motherhood', 'Women', 'Mothers', 'Marriage', 'Marriage Story 2019'] |
Spin Up Redis with AWS EC2 | Ever need to setup Redis yourself? Want to save cost by hosting Redis yourself instead of using ElastiCache? This post demonstrates how to setup Redis as daemon on AWS EC2 instance!
Before we get started, you should have basic knowledge on vim and launching EC2 instance via AWS console.
Launch EC2 Instance
Setup EC2 Instance
Pick Amazon Linux 2 AMI Pick desired instance type Configure instance with proper VPC, subnet, etc Finish up the rest of the steps to launch the instance Make sure you have SSH port 22 open to your ip in security group
Setup Redis
Connect to the instance that just created
ssh -i path_to_keypair ec2-user@ip_address
Install dependencies
sudo yum -y update
sudo yum -y install make gcc gcc-c++ kernel-devel tcl
Install Redis
wget http://download.redis.io/redis-stable.tar.gz
tar xvzf redis-stable.tar.gz
cd redis-stable
make
Test the build is working properly
make test
Install the binary to proper location
sudo make install
Run Redis as daemon
Create directory to store Redis config
sudo mkdir /etc/redis
sudo mkdir /var/redis
Copy the init script
sudo cp utils/redis_init_script /etc/init.d/redis_6379
Edit the init script:
Make sure to modify REDISPORT accordingly to the port you are using. Both the pid file path and the configuration file name depend on the port number.
sudo vi /etc/init.d/redis_6379
Copy the template configuration file
sudo cp redis.conf /etc/redis/6379.conf
Create a directory for data and working directory
sudo mkdir /var/redis/6379
Edit the configuration file, making sure to perform the following changes:
sudo vi /etc/redis/6379.conf
Set daemonize to yes (by default it is set to no).
to yes (by default it is set to no). Set the pidfile to /var/run/redis_6379.pid (modify the port if needed).
to (modify the port if needed). Change the port accordingly. In our example it is not needed as the default port is already 6379.
accordingly. In our example it is not needed as the default port is already 6379. Change the bind to 0.0.0.0.
to 0.0.0.0. Set your preferred loglevel .
. Set the logfile to /var/log/redis_6379.log
to Set the dir to /var/redis/6379 (very important step!)
Finally, add the new Redis init script to all the default runlevels for CentOS using the following command:
sudo chkconfig --add redis_6379
You are done! Now you can try running your instance with:
sudo /etc/init.d/redis_6379 start
Make sure that everything is working as expected:
Try pinging your instance with redis-cli.
Do a test save with redis-cli save and check that the dump file is correctly stored into /var/redis/6379/ (you should find a file called dump.rdb).
and check that the dump file is correctly stored into /var/redis/6379/ (you should find a file called dump.rdb). Check that your Redis instance is correctly logging in the log file.
If it’s a new machine where you can try it without problems make sure that after a reboot everything is still working.
Note: In the above instructions we skipped many Redis configuration parameters that you would like to change, for instance in order to use AOF persistence instead of RDB persistence, or to setup replication, and so forth. Make sure to read the example redis.conf file (that is heavily commented) and the other documentation you can find in this web site for more information.
Reference | https://medium.com/@calvin.hsieh/spin-up-redis-with-aws-ec2-e71911c55d61 | ['Calvin Hsieh'] | 2020-02-20 22:39:27.001000+00:00 | ['Development', 'AWS', 'DevOps', 'Redis', 'Elasticache'] |
GEOPOLITICAL NEWS: Putin — Biden Summit, Both parties laud positive talks — Analysis | By GEO´ Newsteam — Gibraltar
www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com
AP — The much anticipated summit between US President Joe Biden and Russian Federation premier Vladimir Putin took place yesterday in Geneva, Switzerland.
The meeting has been described as cordial by both parties and while many important issues were broached little was agreed, having said that early reports suggest the meeting provided for a much needed ice-breaker between the two super-powers whose relationship in recent months had deteriorated
Both the White House and Kremlin had set low expectations going into the summit. They issued a joint statement after the conclusion that said their meeting showed the “practical work our two countries can do to advance our mutual interests and also benefit the world.”
But over and over, Biden defaulted to “we’ll find out” when assessing whether their discussions about nuclear power, cybersecurity and other thorny issues will pay off.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin exchanged cordial words and plotted modest steps on arms control and diplomacy but emerged from their much-anticipated Swiss summit Wednesday largely where they started — with deep differences on human rights, cyberattacks, election interference and more. But their three hours of talks on the shores of Lake Geneva left both men standing firmly in the same positions they had started in.
In the after summit the US President said he made clear to Mr Putin that if Russia crossed certain red lines — including going after major American infrastructure — his administration would respond and “the consequences of that would be devastating.”
The two leaders reached an important, but hardly relationship-changing agreement to return their chief diplomats to Moscow and Washington after they were called home as the relationship deteriorated in recent months. And Biden and Putin agreed to start working on a plan to solidify their countries’ last remaining treaty limiting nuclear weapons.
To read our full analysis — direct to you inbox or smart device Click Here | https://medium.com/@geopoliticalmatters/geopolitical-news-putin-biden-summit-both-parties-laud-positive-talks-analysis-fb93fd57b567 | [] | 2021-06-17 09:28:29.922000+00:00 | ['Opinion', 'World News', 'Putin Biden', 'Report', 'Latest News'] |
What DE&I means to Pathrise | The Pathrise team has been growing quickly. We’ve doubled the size of our team over the course of the past year and have learned a lot about what diversity, equity and inclusion mean to us as a company. We want DE&I to be at the forefront of how we grow and scale not only now but also in the future, so I’m writing this blog post to share some of our learnings and also think out loud about the commitments we are making to ourselves and our fellows.
When we started Pathrise in 2017, we wanted to build a business that was not only well loved and impactful, but also one that specifically aimed to solve the systemic challenges faced by many diverse groups in tech recruitment. The manifesto we wrote when founding the company outlines this (10 principles in total). One principle in particular has been a guiding principle for Pathrise and continues to shape how we build our company today:
“Everyone should have a chance, no matter which school they attended, what area they’re from or how much money they have.”
The diversity of backgrounds among our fellows as well as the diversity of the team that supports them is at the heart of Pathrise.
Want to read this story later? Save it in Journal.
What we mean by diversity, equity and inclusion
DE&I is a nuanced topic, one that can take on very different meanings, so it’s helpful to define what it means to us. A core tenant of Pathrise’s mission is to improve equity of career opportunity for a diverse group of job seekers. We’ve built a system to provide access to the knowledge, network and mentorship necessary to succeed in your career for those who need it the most.
Diverse groups of job seekers are our core users.
Diversity is meaningful to us because the fellows that benefit the most from Pathrise naturally come from a diverse set of backgrounds. Because we have built a program to provide career guidance and insider knowledge about the job search to those who need it the most, we must make sure to build a program that is designed for many different types of job seekers, such as underrepresented minorities in tech, international students and workforce returners.
Equity of career guidance is a core tenant of our mission.
Equity is what we provide. Job seekers can face many disadvantages in their job search due to a range of factors from bias to lacking a support system. You don’t learn insider information on company interview processes, cold emailing, or how to negotiate from a standard classroom curriculum. Usually these are things you pick up from the people around you, and not everyone is lucky or privileged enough to have that support network and peer group to pick it up from. Pathrise is a real solution that provides a sustainable and scalable way to provide this type of career guidance and mentorship to level out the playing field.
Inclusive design is a big part of our core methodology.
Inclusion is the essence of our core methodology. When you build a program like Pathrise, enroll such a diverse group of job seekers and work with them on a process as hard and stressful as the job search, it’s not an easy problem. Rather than rely on a cookie cutter curriculum, we focus on personalization, figuring out what works for each fellow and accounting for their diverse backgrounds. Instead of assuming what works for one fellow will just automatically work for the other, we use 1-on-1’s, personal support and create community in order to deliver more inclusive, and therefore more effective, career guidance.
Some context
I wanted to share a little more about the history of our DEI initiative. It was in the spring of 2020 when we decided to formalize what that should look like at Pathrise. From my perspective, I had initially felt that Pathrise upheld these values and they were embedded in not only our mission driven work-culture but also in how I lead our team. It wasn’t until we did a deep dive into our own diversity data that I realized just how much opportunity there was to enhance our diversity at Pathrise.
There were many things for us to work on. Here are just a few examples:
We had room to improve representation of Latinx and black employees at Pathrise. There were some other interesting features of lack of representation as well. For example, our career mentor team was almost entirely women, and we wanted to increase our male representation within that department.
Representation of gender and ethnicity among fellows at Pathrise could have been improved as well. While we were ahead of big tech, that’s an unfortunately low bar.
Even when only considering fellows that did choose to participate in Pathrise, we could improve retention. For example, fellows who were women withdrew from Pathrise at higher rates than men.
Transparency is important
At Pathrise one of our cultural values is “Be a founder.” A big part of enabling our team to be founders in their own ways is to give them founder-level access to information. As a result, we have always strived to be transparent with the employees at Pathrise, whether that be with our exact financials or product roadmap. I want everyone to feel as though they are an owner of Pathrise and that their work should and does matter. We took this same approach to diversity and prepared some data points for the team to view and we kept them up to date on our progress and things they could do to help make Pathrise a more inclusive workplace. This also held us accountable to improvement.
What did we do to foster more diversity?
Firstly, even just the action of making DE&I a priority led us to more intentionality and improvement.
We took time to question our own assumptions and speak with external experts.
Secondly, we wanted to increase representation at the top of the funnel.
Both in our hiring processes and in our customer acquisition channels, this meant forming partnerships with organizations that served the communities we’d like to engage with, creating scholarships or special events for each demographic of fellow or potential team members, and changing our sourcing queries.
Thirdly, we used consistent rubrics to eliminate unconscious bias in evaluation.
To us, creating a fair and equitable hiring process and admissions process that would help eliminate (as much as possible) our unconscious biases meant much more clearly defining and outlining concrete rubrics for determining qualifications, rather than relying on intuition.
Lastly, we revamped our group of interviewers.
Interviewers that took part in our hiring committee or admissions process were selected not only considering seniority and direct role relevance, but also diversity of perspective and background.
What were the results?
Over the course of the last few months with the help from everyone on the team, we were able to make some significant improvements. It was a really good time to explore and define what we meant by diversity and by instilling those pillars throughout the hiring process and within our team we were able to make some great achievements. We were able to increase representation for underrepresented minorities in the team by 20%. We improved gender representation in the career team by 100%. For our fellows, we were able to launch a scholarship system for underrepresented minorities in tech, women in tech and LGBTQ+ in tech, and have already granted a few scholarships. There is still a lot to improve on in the future.
Other notable results
Our team became fully remote, allowing us to hire individuals not only residing in the Bay Area but anywhere in the US. We believe this is an important factor for diversity because not all candidates have access to jobs in tech and therefore by opening up our hiring to more diverse locations we now have individuals from over 15 states represented at Pathrise!
Some members of the Pathrise team enjoying remote work.
Where we want to go
For the future of Pathrise, there is much to attain when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion not only for us as an internal team but also what that means for our fellows who are job searching during these interesting and uncertain times. But we know once we start to reflect diversity “on the inside” diversity on the “outside” will follow.
Some topics and agenda items we have for next year are based around sourcing, hiring, retention and promotion. As we continue to grow we want to focus not only on increasing diversity but nurturing it and facilitating it through active dialogue and open communication.
With that being said, I am very proud of our team’s achievements this year and I can not wait to sit here at the end of the next and tell you all the amazing things our team has accomplished not only for Pathrise but for all our amazing fellows whose lives our team impact on a daily basis. | https://blog.usejournal.com/what-de-i-means-to-pathrise-cf8bfdfdfb8d | ['Kevin Wu'] | 2020-11-30 17:34:25.678000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Startup', 'Diversity In Tech', 'Startup Lessons'] |
Stezy.io blockchain extends new features with Bring your own Cloud | Stezy.io blockchain extends new features with Bring your own Cloud Stezy Feb 16·1 min read
To bring in more seamless experience and after hearing the customer needs Stezy.io extend the blockchain hosting with “Bring your own cloud”. Stezy started the bring your own cloud journey with AWS and now extends to Azure and Google Cloud. This will help with more flexible managed blockchain services hosting offering in the market.
Bring your own cloud to Stezy
Over the course of our constant innovation and new feature release with customer surveys and understanding the requirements of the enterprises especially in Healthcare, BFSI and Government having the data localised and in control of the company is a new normal.
Potential benefits:
Adhere to compliance, data protection, and to address localisation issues
Organizations already have the cloud accounts and optimised their savings and extending the benefit will add value in terms of saving cost
More control and flexibility
Deployment location of their choice
Sync of applications with blockchain nodes to get the lowest latency possible.
Co-location of application and blockchain nodes
Health check of the complete blockchain infrastructure in real time.
All the regions and Instant types across AWS, Azure & GCP are supported in the 4.2 version.
To explore your blockchain journey with Stezy.io Book your appointment | https://medium.com/@stezy/stezy-io-blockchain-extends-new-features-with-bring-your-own-cloud-f59a26dcbe7c | [] | 2021-02-16 01:34:51.334000+00:00 | ['Ethereum Blockchain', 'Hyperledger', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain'] |
The In-between | Somewhere, someone is struggling to stay afloat.
If life is an ocean, somedays I am carried by the waves to peaceful shores.
Other days, I am ravaged and beat — left abandoned in waters too rough to manage. In this endless sea of struggle, I cry out only to be met with silence and the voices in my head. As darkness falls and my will to keep my head above the waves begins to fade, I am reminded there is growth here.
Here in the void, where self-doubt and fear reside, are lessons to be learned.
Photo by Ross Sokolovski on Unsplash
In every conflict, exists the opportunity for growth.
Whether brought on by an event outside of my locus of control or conscious examination, I’ve found myself in the in-between at various stages in my life. Understanding its importance in relation to growth is beneficial in achieving a breakthrough relative to these barriers.
My Past — How The Inner Voice is Shaped
I can run from almost anything, except myself.
“You want me to kill myself?” she’d scream. “Is that what you want — for me to walk out this door and drive myself off a bridge?” Twelve-year-old me flinched as my mom’s anger surged and increased with every object she hurled in my direction. “See what you did? You did this! I hope you are happy now,” she snarled as she grabbed the keys and stormed out the door.
As tears streamed down my face, I watched her screech away not knowing if that would be the time she followed through and didn’t return. Though, I knew I hadn’t done anything to deserve the guilt my mom put on me in that moment, I internalized it nevertheless. Eventually, her threats became so regular that I learned to just imagine myself invisible.
In those moments, I dreamed of running — running so far that no one could ever find me, only I realized that no matter how far I ran, I couldn’t run from her voice inside of my head.
It’s been almost thirty years later and she still haunts me.
My past, as different as it may be, carries over experiences that have molded and shaped me through the years. The remnants of these experiences become my inner voice. While some individuals are equipped with inner voices that relay encouragement and efficacy, others, like myself, find themselves reliving past nightmares deeply rooted in shame and guilt.
In order to understand this further, it’s important to examine how and why this affects me when faced with situations that challenge me to step outside my comfort zone or leave me exposed in some form, whether it be vulnerability, fear of rejection, or lack of validation.
Understanding the How & Why
My childhood was one deeply rooted in abuse.
Just kill yourself, I’d think to myself. It’s the only way to make it all stop.
From the way the metal yardstick curved perfectly to the shape of my body to the way she beat me with a hairbrush and kicked me down the hallway because I couldn’t find my sister’s shoes — I longed to escape.
From not being able to breathe through my nose because my lips were so swollen as a result of being repetitively smacked in the face to remembering the taste of my own blood against my salty lips — Oh how I wished I could make it all stop.
But more than anything, I remembered wishing to endure a thousand more beatings if it meant that I didn’t have to hear her damaging words echoing throughout my head. I could withstand the physical abuse — the emotional, not so much.
Just kill yourself, I’d think to myself. It’s the only way to make it all stop.
As I’ve grown older and distanced myself from that part of my life, my ability to deal with difficult situations effectively has increased. I am able to look back and realize that much of what I endured was a result of my mother’s addiction and mental illnesses and not because of my own defectiveness. However, one constant remains; my inner voice.
While I understand why my inner voice is the way it is, I am still caught off guard by the battle within when I find myself in a situation that forces me outside of my comfort zone or leaves me vulnerable in anyway. Whatever fear that has been triggered activates my inner voice and my mind is flooded with thoughts.
Photo by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash
In that moment, what I wouldn’t give for the ability to climb out of my mind — to find some reprieve from the incessant barrage of thoughts.
Any rational or logical part of me that exists becomes inaccessible. My sole focus becomes fixated on trying to make my inner voice stop. In my mind, I have been swept out to sea, and my thoughts are plunging waves with one purpose — to break me.
Even as I write this now, I see the parallel that exists between my inner voice and my childhood.
My mom’s sole purpose was to beat me down until I broke.
The Truth
This moment — between existence and breakthrough is the in-between. This is where the battle of the mind is fought. Understanding its significance in relation to growth is pivotal with regards to the propulsion of one’s self from a state of stagnation towards dynamic development.
Photo by Riccardo Retez on Unsplash
Growth is achieved when fears are faced.
I’ve learned to let that sink in. When I allow myself to face the hard stuff, I grow. Not only that, I come out stronger.
For me, though, cognition of the inner hell created in the in-between is enough to cause avoidance. Thus, I found myself applying unhealthy coping mechanisms in an effort of circumventing the in-between.
I used to think I could override my thoughts with achievements. Be the best, I’d think to myself. Yet, no matter what award I won, accolade I received, or position I obtained, I could never escape the darkness within. My mom’s voice, which was now my own, was always there reminding me of everything I hadn’t achieved. Nothing was ever good enough. I was never good enough. After all my accomplishments, emptiness always remained.
I wanted to escape her, but no matter what I did, I could always hear her in the back of my mind. You did this.
Here is the truth: No matter how much I try to avoid, repress, mask, or self-medicate, the voices inside my head are still there reminding me of all my failures, short-comings, and missed opportunities. They are unrelenting in their pursuit of stealing my dreams and robbing me of any hope that might exist.
The truth is: there is no escaping.
I can busy myself with meaningless conversations and overstimulate my mind with deadlines and details. I can numb the uncertainty and unknown, paralyze the pressure and pain, but I can never silence the voices when they begin to whisper. No amount of alcohol, drugs, or any other coping mechanism can silence the voices. They are a part of me.
There is power in knowing this truth.
Photo by Kunj Parekh on Unsplash
I have learned to see the whispers for what they really are — an amalgamation of past fears, assumptions, and experiences. They hold no real power over me in the physical sense. While they feel like the most powerful force in the world, they are nothing more than transmitted signals in my head. While I cannot escape them, I can recognize them for what they truly are and understand why they affect me.
It is in this moment — the moment of consciously pushing past my fears, where I grow and the breakthrough begins.
Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash
On the other side of the in-between is breakthrough. When I allow myself to no longer be held by the waves of fear, I am able to break free and emerge changed.
I am Not Alone
In some cases, the internal battle of the mind can prove to be too much. In the past, situational factors, mental illness, or medical conditions have played a role in my ability to cope. I know that I have reached my breaking point when I am unable to breathe truth into the situation. An example of this would be not being able to recognize that my inner voice has no real power over me.
When I find myself in this predicament, I remind myself that I am not alone. While the battle of the mind may feel like solitary confinement, I know that many have stood in my shoes and understand the torment, isolation, and terror.
In the darkness, I look for the stars.
While others can’t face the battle inside my head for me, they can be there to reassure me and guide me when the path becomes too dark to see. They can help navigate when my internal compass has become misaligned. Like the stars in the sky, they have a broader view of what lies before me.
I let their light shine clarity into the darkness.
In this in-between, I’ve learned to never be too ashamed to ask for help. It’s okay to not be okay. In these moments, I’ve learned to trust those who have been where I am and know the struggle all too well. I recognize they know and understand the debilitation and shame, but they also know what lies around the bend.
There is beauty on the other side.
Photo by Josh Boot on Unsplash
In the in-between, I hold tight to these truths and push past it all to the freedom that awaits me.
Putting it all together
When I am struggling in the mental ocean of self-doubt, being hit by waves of insecurity and fear, breakthrough is the lifeboat located several feet from me. Yet, I am unable to see it because my eyes are focused on the waves in front of me.
First, I must acknowledge the waves for what they are: just waves — nothing more, nothing less. They are not anchoring me in place. However, if I don’t resist them, then I will be moved by their momentum and pushed backwards. The same holds true for my inner voice. It has no physical hold on me except for the mental restraint I allow it to have.
At any time, I can make the choice to push against the waves or break through them to reach the other side. This act of propelling myself forward is what helps me reach the other side of the wave or surface when I’m starting to go under. Now when this happens, I try to imagine that wave when the mental onslaught begins. I focus on what it is and what it isn’t and then make the conscious decision to push past it.
Once I’ve reached the other side of the wave, I see the lifeboat that awaits me — the S.S. Breakthrough.
The freedom I feel knowing I’ve conquered that dark moment is unlike anything I have ever felt before. I breathe it in. I bask in its brilliance. And I’m proud. I’m now ready to navigate new waters of opportunity that await me on the other side of the in-between. | https://byrslf.co/the-in-between-58d73a48f4c5 | ['Jd Greyson'] | 2020-02-21 12:35:17.734000+00:00 | ['Beyourself', 'Mental Health', 'Conflict', 'Personal Growth', 'Inner Voice'] |
Why Sidewalk News is bringing local news amongst the people | One of my core journalistic beliefs is that, for a community to thrive, all of its members must have access to high quality local news. And that often isn’t the case — as a 2018 report by Fiona Morgan and James Hamilton determined, “Poor people get poor information, because income inequality generates information inequality.”
But I believe there’s a way to use public infrastructure that already exists almost everywhere in the country to bring the news amongst the people — outdoor advertising. There are 3.3 million out-of-home (OOH) advertising spaces in the United States, and the format already supports more than just ads — the FBI says that the use of digital billboards has played a part in arresting 50 of the country’s most wanted criminals in the last decade.
What Sidewalk News will do is help local news outlets use OOH advertising spaces like bus shelters and street furniture to engage with their community directly by putting their news onto these platforms.
Doing so serves three purposes. One is providing news to all members of a community without concern for their technological prowess or ability to pay. As media becomes more digitally-focused, lower-income and less-educated Americans are less likely to have access to high quality news than their wealthier, more-educated peers. Using OOH spaces levels the playing field by making all people equally able to consume this news.
Another purpose is to give community members a personal connection to a news story that may otherwise seem esoteric. Because each “news ad” will be tailored to its specific display point, the news can be “ultra hyper localized” to that particular spot. For instance, someone sitting in a bus shelter will learn from Sidewalk News about how a city-wide issue will affect the street she’s standing on, or the bus line she’s about to take. This will drive civic engagement as people become more aware about the issues surrounding them.
The third purpose is to advertise the media outlet by showing off what they do best — local news. By posting local news on outdoor displays, a reader on the street will see how the media outlet is covering news that is relevant to them. This also builds credibility and brand awareness of the outlet in the community, particularly with potential readers who may not be as familiar with their work.
With news outlets overstretched and under resourced, I don’t imagine that it would be realistic for my partner news outlets to fund this project. I had originally viewed this project as one that could only be funded through donations from journalism organizations or benevolent individuals interested in fostering community engagement. Increasingly, I think the model has the potential for multiple revenue streams.
One avenue for revenue will still be philanthropy from groups interested in local news, civic engagement, and public spaces. I believe these investments will be necessary to get projects started and build the infrastructure required to make them sustainable. But ultimately, there will be an option for sponsorship. Local companies and community organizations will be able to sponsor these “news ads” to show their commitment to supporting local news.
Out-of-home advertising exists almost everywhere; it’s already a part of our lives. I believe we have an opportunity to make it part of the way we consume the news. | https://medium.com/journalism-innovation/why-sidewalk-news-is-bringing-local-news-amongst-the-people-29bd0277c6a9 | ['Elise Czajkowski'] | 2019-04-04 16:08:59.940000+00:00 | ['Journalism', 'Sidewalk', 'Advertising'] |
How To Pass Your Lead Climbing Test | How To Pass Your Lead Climbing Test
What to remember, understand and know… #CheatSheet
As you progress in climbing and venture outside to lead climb you’ll naturally get better and better and want to do it more often. Then the winter will come and while skiing and snowboarding is great you still have to get your fix of climbing in from time to time. As such you’ll go bouldering inside and maybe get on the ropes, but sooner than later you’ll want to practice lead climbing again even though all your favorite routes outside are covered in snow and ice.
Lucky for all of us climbing gyms are a thing and we can go basically anytime and have fun, but you always have to pass the lead climb/belay test at each new gym you go to, if only there were a national certification you could take and just be good to go anywhere.
Yet that is not the case.
Each new franchise of a gym you have to pass a new lead climb test. And for no reason other than your brain likes to torture you from time to time, you get a little bit anxious, even though you know what you are doing and how to climb well and how to mitigate risk. As such here are a few things to remember as somewhat of a study guide when you are getting tested.
Lead Climbing
These are the standard things you have to remember as you are lead climbing. Intuitively you do these things correctly when you are out climbing for fun, but when you are being tested and watched closely, it’s nice to have a reminder of what they are and how to avoid them.
#1 Back Clipping
Back-clipping is when you’re leading a climb and you incorrectly clip the rope into the bottom carabiner. Instead of your end of the rope coming out of the carabiner AWAY from the rock, your end of the rope comes out of the carabiner going TOWARD the rock.
Why is back-clipping bad? Can you tell by looking at the image above? Well, it’s bad because if you’ve back-clipped a piece and you fall, the rope could unclip itself out from the carabiner. Like this:
In the first diagram above, the lead climber has back-clipped. In the second, the climber has taken a fall. In the third, the force of the lead end of the rope changing directions forces open the gate of the carabiner. In the fourth, the rope has become completely unclipped from the carabiner.
#2 Z-Clipping
Z-clipping is when you clip the rope to your next bolt from below your last piece of pro. This is most common on routes with bolts closely spaced and when the climber grabs blindly below his/her waist for the rope to make the next clip. Instead of gaining a higher point of protection, the climber bypasses the highest clip, creating a false sense of security and giving his/herself extra slack. A fall would send you flying and potentially down to the deck. Luckily, you will know immediately if you are Z-clipped: there will be an immense increase in rope drag as soon as you start climbing, which hopefully doesn’t pull you off the route. To fix the problem, downclimb to the incorrectly clipped quickdraw and unclip it. Re-clip the quickdraw using the rope hanging from the top quickdraw closest to your belayer. Your belayer is now able to take in the slack, and you can continue your climb. Once again, it is important that your belay partner is aware of this hazard and can help you notice it before it is too late.
Also, this one is a bit more concise:
Z-clipping means to clip a quickdraw by grabbing the rope from below your previous clip/protection point, thus not appropriately securing yourself into the upper piece of protection. To avoid this mistake, place your clipping hand on your rope near your tie-in knot, then slide it outward and clip.
Easiest way to fix it, is to just unclip your bottom piece of protection, yes you’ll have one less draw affixed to the wall, but you won’t have an issue with the Z clip. It’s almost never a problem outside, mostly a problem inside when the routes are bolted close together.
#3 Toe Tuck / Leg Behind the Rope
This one is pretty simple, but they alwasy ask about it, slash you should totally be aware of this while you climb.
This happens when you place your toe, foot, or leg behind the rope while you are climbing. Especially when you have already bolted above the current location of your foot. If your foot is on hold between the rope and the wall and it’s bolted above your current location and you took a fall, it’s highly likely that your foot would get caught causing you to slam into the wall or rock face.
So in order to fix that, just step over and around the rope, not behind it, and be aware of your foot to rope relation.
#4 Basic Clipping Technique
I think this is pretty self explanatory, but you should have a good idea of what this is and how to do it depending on how the pitch changes. This is a pretty good video going over the basics:
Lead Belay
This is all the stuff that keeps your buddy safe while he/she is lead climbing. I think there are almost more things to consider and remember while doing this than even lead climbing, you the belayer are sorta the only one keeping the climber from dying, especially if they take a fall
#1 Stand Close to the Wall
Literally yesterday I watched a guy take a 35+ foot fall. There were a lot of issues going on with what they were doing but one of the big ones was the fact that the lead belayer was standing a good 10 feet away from the wall. That’s 10 extra feet of rope that are out as slack that the climber will experience when they fall.
So general rule of thumb is to be 5 feet or less away from the wall. Depending on the pitch you may stand with your back against the wall to watch the climber, or position yourself sideways.
It’s only weird for maybe 4 seconds, then it is good, plus when/if your climber falls, you are not getting rocketed into the wall and upwards, you are just going up a little bit, thus more easily able to mitigate the falling distance.
Ideally, you should be a few feet away from the wall, to the left or right of the first clip. If your climber is to the left of the first clip, stand to the right to avoid being hit by feet or rocks, and to have a better vantage point. If to the right, then stand to the left. You also want to be close to the wall so that as your climber falls, you don’t get pulled hard into the rock and get a faceful of granite. Stand so that the rope makes an angle of 45º or less with the wall when taut. Finally, you should be standing in an athletic, “ready” position, so that if your climber falls, you can either sprint backward to take slack very quickly (for a huge, cratering whipper) or jump upwards to soften the fall. Also, you can walk forward or backward to give or take slack while still locked off. Don’t sit down, lie down, or stand facing in the wrong direction. You could hurt your climber.
#2 Don’t Shortchange your Climber
If you’ve lead before you know what this means. You are precariously perched on a hold with one hand reaching down for rope to clip to protection and then you have to pull and yank on the rope from your belayer.
It’s the worst, you are already in the most dangerous spot as you are the furthest point away from protection, not to mention you are the most likely to fall while clipping when you don’t always have the most points of contact with the wall. So Don’t make it harder on your climber by making them yank on rope from you.
#3 Don’t Give TOO much Slack
Pay close attention to the amount of rope slack. Too little slack impedes progress and can pull a climber off the wall. Too much slack can set the climber up for a long and painful fall. Watch the amount of rope droop coming out of the belay device: If the rope is wire-straight out of the device, you have too little slack. If the rope droops below the device, you have too much slack. Just as you do for a top-rope belay, watch and listen closely to your climber’s progress and commands. When the climber pauses, you pause. When a climber yells “Clipping,” quickly pull rope up to provide slack. Do it faster by stepping forward as you work, but be careful not to lose your footing.
One thing to remember that is helpful, is to take a step forward when they need more slack, and once they’ve clipped you take a step back to adjust the slack.
#4 Spot for the first bolt
They aren’t on belay till they’ve clipped to the first bolt. So make sure you are spotting them as they are getting started.
#5 Don’t forget the safety check
I don’t care how many climbs you’ve done, always check the climbers figure 8 knot and always check that the belayer has the belay device through the right loops and has the carabiner locked with the rope fed through correctly. Just always check before you start climbing.
#6 Watch Your Climber Closely
I always get more nervous on a climb if I see my belayer isn’t paying attention fully. Plus you can’t always know when you are going to fall, so keep an eye on your climber so you can take slack and lessen a fall if it’s coming.
#7 Don’t let go of the slack hand
This is probably one of the most important. You are the only thing stopping a fall if the climber falls. So don’t ever let go of that slack hand. As you feed slack up to the climber or take slack while, make sure you always back up your slack hand so it never leaves the rope. | https://medium.com/knotclimbing/how-to-pass-your-lead-climbing-test-40945a82122a | ['Chase Cottle'] | 2017-04-01 06:51:30.999000+00:00 | ['Rock Climbing', 'Climbing'] |
Access the world of fine art with Maecenas | Accessing the world of fine art is a dream for many — little wonder when considering some of the sales that have been made this year alone.
Many paintings are now being sold at auction for hundreds of millions. One of the latest is Modigliani’s Nu Couché (Sur le Côté Gauche), a 1917 oil painting that was sold at Sotheby’s New York auction house mid-May for an incredible $157.2 million USD.
Over at Christie’s and Phillip’s in Hong Kong at the end of May, works from Chinese-French Modern master Zao Wou-Ki dominated the auction scene. At an evening at Christie’s alone, Zao’s work 14.12.59 made HK$176.7m ($22.6m USD), representing the third highest price for the artist at auction.
For millions who want to join the world of fine art investment, taking part in these auctions is an unrealistic ambition. However, this could potentially no longer be the case — all thanks to blockchain technology.
Blockchain makes it possible to participate in fine art ownership
Fine art ownership isn’t only a world for those who can splash the cash. Many also explore the possibilities of an art investment to preserve their wealth and grow it in an alternative market that is less volatile than many others.
There are schools of thought within the industry, though, that the nine-figure sales sum is becoming ever more common. While this may be music to the ears of some investors, and auction houses who make large commissions on items sold, it also serves to underline how closed the art investment market is to so many worldwide.
Very few individuals can compete with investors and art funds with hundreds of millions — even billions — at their disposal to invest in the world’s most famous pieces.
Maecenas ultimate goal is to disrupt that market.
Enter the incredible world of art with Maecenas
Disruption can mean a lot of things. From our perspective, we’re building Maecenas to diversify the market and open up a huge new array of options for individuals to have access to art, presenting them with ways to enter this world outside the traditional avenues.
For centuries the art market has stayed relatively unchanged and unchallenged. The Maecenas platform has been built to decentralise and disrupt this, using blockchain technology to offer an alternative to the auction houses and allow investors across the planet to buy shares in some of the world’s most well-known and famous works of art.
Maecenas is designed to create an art market without intermediaries, to make information more accessible to potential investors, to open new avenues of capital generation for galleries and collectors, to reduce overall costs, increase liquidity and — essentially — open the global art market up to everybody.
Find out more about how the Maecenas platform is set to decentralise and democratise the art world with blockchain technology by reading our briefing documents. | https://medium.com/maecenas/access-the-world-of-fine-art-with-maecenas-f99313ba2148 | [] | 2018-08-01 02:51:23.710000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Investment', 'Technology', 'Art'] |
Integrate CodePush with React Native for OTA Updates | When to Update
Over-the-Air (OTA)
Let’s say you’ve got all of your app logic in a src directory and your latest round of updates has only made changes inside of that directory. That means you most likely can ship that update out over the air!
If you’re only modifying your JavaScript or image assets, it means that information can be bundled up and shipped out over the air because all of the underlying APIs are the same as they were before, your interaction with them is the only thing that has changed.
A word of caution. Use this extreme flexibility with caution — you really shouldn’t be making significant changes to your app like this. You don’t want to be changing the functionality of your app by changing how things work or by adding features. Doing so can get you in trouble with Apple/Google.
I like to think about it in terms of SEMVER. If it’s a patch version (bug fix, minor improvement) it can go out OTA. If it’s a major or minor version change, I’m going to send it via the regular app store approval process.
App Store
I already touched on one instance where you would want to go through the app store and that’s whenever you make a decently significant change in your app; even though it’s a pain to wait it’s best to play it safe and go through the normal process.
The other time you’ll want to go through the app store is when you make any changes to the native app (that being the ios and android directories in your project). You may be thinking you never touch those, so you never have to go through the app store…
But that’s not true. Just about any time you upgrade React Native you’re modifying the native project; or whenever you add a third party package. That’s a change to your native project and will require you to go through the app store to ensure everything works correctly.
When in doubt, go through the app store. | https://medium.com/@quattro.rx7/integrate-codepush-with-react-native-for-ota-updates-a54a54d25778 | ['Bulat Gusmanov'] | 2020-12-22 13:05:19.583000+00:00 | ['React', 'React Native'] |
How Social Media Converts More Ticket Buyers | The right approach to advertising online
There are a handful of key tactics that advertisers overlook when building their online ad campaigns. Working with a limited budget, Matt could not afford to make any mistakes. Wasting time or money by advertising to the wrong individuals would drastically hurt a performance’s revenue.
Matt decide to use ToneDen to help advertise Electric Factory’s upcoming performance. He quickly created multiple ad campaigns: one for the show’s announcement and one for the on-sale period.
Throughout his campaigns, budget optimization steered the budget to the best-performing audiences to make his advertising dollars as effective as possible. | https://medium.com/toneden/how-social-media-converts-more-ticket-buyers-648f60acb39a | ['Jake Rush'] | 2017-12-22 15:31:02.602000+00:00 | ['Case Study', 'Social Media Marketing', 'Toneden', 'Advertising', 'Music Marketing'] |
Small Blips: A Portrait of Love | By Debi Smith
I carefully retrieved the large manila envelope that had been crammed into my mailbox by my postal carrier, wryly noting the words clearly written multiple times in slightly shaky penmanship on the outside: Photos, Do Not Bend.
After opening and discarding the crumpled envelope, and sanitizing my hands per the suggestions at the time during this Covid Age, I quickly perused the numerous yellowing newspaper clippings, official documents dating back over 60 years, 17 pages of handwritten notes, and the four dozen original photographs, thankfully all of which, especially the photos, were still intact.
The photos consist of a few black and whites of their early years and engagement, assorted pictures of family and friends through the years, photos of trips around the country and to Europe, and photos of their 60th anniversary party in 2017 at the memory care facility.
One photograph in particular, gets to me. It is Sally, smiling, looking directly into the camera. She’s there. Her handwriting, as it does so many of the others Pete sent, graces the back of the photograph: “Sally Hegg, June 2004, dinner & golf w/Heggs, Spears, and Wambolts.”
Pete’s writing appears underneath Sally’s; I presume it’s there for my benefit: “One of my favorites of Sally.”
A couple of weeks earlier I had asked Pete if he would mind if I wrote about him and Sally, and would he be willing, following our chat on the phone, to jot down some memories. His reply had been a quick, “Sure, it’ll give me something to do besides read trashy novels.”
Looking through the notes and memorabilia Pete sent, I felt both honored and horrified. I was now not only entrusted with protecting some of Pete’s most treasured documents and photos; he was also trusting me, I presumed, to do his and Sally’s story a modicum of justice. What have I gotten myself into, I wondered. This isn’t the kind of writing I usually do, after all. Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Perhaps, but I had already committed!
Hoquiam and Aberdeen are sister towns in Washington State, located on the bay of Grays Harbor. The harbor was named after — not the annual average number of gray days as one might assume — but Captain Robert Gray, who, sailing under papers signed by President George Washington, entered the harbor while on a fur expedition in 1792. Gray certainly was not the first man in the area, but he was the first white man known to make note of the harbor.
Grays Harbor is one of the deepest natural ports on the West Coast and once lead the world in log exports in the early part of the 20th century. The harbor is more recently famous for the spotted owl controversy of the 90s, and for being the birthplace of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain.
Aberdeen and Hoquiam are two towns joined together yet demarcated by Myrtle Street and governed by two separate city governments, two towns that enjoy the oldest high school football rivalry in the state (locals like to say “west of the Mississippi” but I could not verify this), two towns colloquially referred to as “the harbor.” This is the place in which Pete and Sally met, the place in which their lives continued weaving the tapestries that had been in process before them, and which will continue long after.
Talking with Pete over the phone, I learned that he and Sally had met as sophomores at the first high school dance of the year at Hoquiam High School. It was 1951, at the same location my kids and their cousins would float paper planes from the bleachers down to the gym floor at a community paper plane “fly-in” event forty plus years later.
After their first dance, Pete walked Sally home to her house just a block away. They dated on and off a bit that year, until becoming serious their junior year. Sally continued her club involvement and would become a class officer and Queen of the Mother’s Day Tea Court, while Pete played football and baseball and would become class vice president.
Pete is the eldest of three children born to Harold (Guy) and Eva in Aberdeen. His father, like his grandfather before him, had a successful construction business on the harbor, and his mother did all of the bookkeeping for the company. His paternal grandparents were Norwegian immigrants; his maternal grandfather was of Irish/Scottish/English descent. He is less sure about his maternal grandmother. “All I know,” he said, reflecting, “was that she was possibly part Native American, and that she was born in Nebraska and moved with her parents from Kansas to Aberdeen in the 20s.”
Pete continued, “Grandpa Gordon delivered milk house-to-house for most of his working life. He died the same week that Sally’s dad died. Grandma Gordon died shortly after. She had bouts of depression, just like my mom did. She loved to play games with me when I was a child.”
Sally is the second youngest of George and Ellen’s ten children raised in the family’s small home with one bathroom on Karr Avenue in Hoquiam. Today, Sally’s youngest sister Janice, the only other surviving sibling, lives at the other end of Karr Avenue (across the street from Pete’s sister), where she and her husband Chuck raised their own family.
Janice, speaking by phone on a recent Sunday evening, shared a few reflections on her childhood home. “We didn’t have money, but we ate well, even during the Depression. My brother Charlie would show up with crab from his boat. The crab would walk across the floor, and Charlie would throw them live into the pot on the stove,” she told me, laughing. Janice continued reminiscing, “At that time, the stove was fed by wood. About once a week my mom would heat water and Sally and I would take baths in the kitchen in a tub. We didn’t know any different; it was always a happy home!”
Janice ticked off all of the dates of her siblings’ births: “Marion in 1919, Pat in ’20, George in ’21, Charles in ’22, Peggy in ’23, Walt in ’24, Phyllis in ’26, Joan in ’29, Sally in ’36, and me in 1937. I think my mom liked having babies! Sally and I were the youngest, and most of the others had grown and moved out once we were teenagers, so we were especially close. We used to do the dishes together, singing and dancing.”
I asked Janice how she felt when Sally got married and moved out. “Oh, I didn’t mind. I finally had my own room for the first time in my life!”
Following high school, Pete enrolled in school at Western Washington College of Education in Bellingham, where he majored in history and minored in math. At the same time, Sally stayed on the harbor and took secretarial classes at Grays Harbor College.
Pete recalled, “There was no telephone available where I was living in Bellingham. Even if there had been, long-distance calling was cost-prohibitive. So we wrote each other letters on just about a daily basis.” He paused for a brief moment, and then answered my question before I asked it, “I don’t know what happened to those letters, maybe they are around somewhere.”
Pete proposed to Sally in the spring of 1957. “She had been living for a time in Everett with her sister Joan and her husband. Through our letters, I think we just assumed we would marry, though I don’t recall an actual proposal,” he laughed, “I just gave her an engagement ring, which Janice helped me to pick out, when I retrieved Sally from the bus in Olympia.”
Slightly more colorful commentary regarding their engagement can be found in the yellowed newspaper clipping Pete sent, chatty reporting that was common during the day, especially in small communities:
During the evening, games were played in which the engagement ring was concealed . . . Miss Norris revealed her presence at the party at this time.
The report detailed the guest list, what the bride-to-be wore, and went on effusively about the decorations, including:
The party table was centered with an arrangement of pink and white summer blooms flanked on either side by pink candles. The cake was inscribed with the names of the affianced couple: Sally and Pete.
Pete and Sally were married later that summer. “We thought everything was perfect,” Pete recalled. “The morning after our wedding at the Methodist Church, we left for Bellingham in a ’50 Chevrolet, or maybe it was a ’49. No money to speak of, just one lamp in the back,” he added with a chortle as we talked on the phone and I tried to keep up taking notes. “We had just enough for me to go back to school for my senior year and finish earning my teaching degree. On the way back to Bellingham, we spent one night in a seedy motel in Shelton and then honeymooned for two nights on Hood Canal, courtesy of Auntie Pat and Uncle Arvo.” (Pat was another of Sally’s sisters, her husband Arvo had been a flamethrower who survived the battle of Iwo Jima, earning a purple heart and nightmares for the rest of his life.)
Pete signed his first teaching contract at his high school alma mater in the spring of the next year. He had majored in history, “but the coaches were getting those jobs,” he laughed wryly, so most of his teaching would center on math. In the file he sent me was the contract he had signed on April 23, 1958, for an annual salary of $4180. He was quick to point out later when we talked that this came out to $270 a month after taxes. “Sheryl was born halfway through that first year. We survived! Mark came the next year, and Ken a couple of years after that. Later times, when I came to know you, we were getting to be pretty stable,” he added, matter-of-factly.
I first met Pete and Sally in the mid-80s at a backyard picnic at their son Mark’s house in Olympia, which he shared with his cousins Jodi and Julie. Mark and I had met through a friend and were seeing each other a little bit, nothing serious, though I thought it a good sign that he included me in the picnic with his parents. Life, though — as it seems want to do — had other plans, and I soon lost track of Mark. Until a couple of years later, when a new man I was dating, Bruce, started talking about his cousin Mark, and his sisters Jodi and Julie.
Two years later, Sally would hold a joint bridal shower for Janice’s daughter Julie, and for Janice’s soon-to-be new daughter-in-law: me. A year after that, Sally would host a joint baby shower for her niece Konnie and me, where Konnie and I both laughed aloud after secretly sharing the names we had chosen for our babies: same names, just spelled differently.
Continuing with details of their early years, Pete talked about leaving Sally at home with two kids under age three while he spent eight weeks at the University of Idaho, “getting more education under my belt.” He then became a counselor at the high school in 1968. In 1971 he was named the vice principal. Sally, the kids a little older and in school now, worked part-time in the high school library.
Mark, chatting via email, recalled a memorable event during this time. “I will never forget one family vacation we took when I was ten years old. My father had just bought a brand new Chevy station wagon and we drove to Disneyland. We took Gramma Norris! Of course we checked in with aunts, uncles, and cousins all along the way, and we stayed at the Jolly Roger Inn and swam in the outdoor pool. Great memories! Except for one scary moment when Dad was pulled over for going 85 in a 70 mph zone!”
During the next three summers, Pete commuted to Bellingham each week to earn his master’s degree in Education Administration and his principal certification, returning home to Sally and the kids for the weekends. In 1974, he applied for and was awarded a principal position that had opened in Eatonville after the 40-year-old principal there died mowing his lawn before baccalaureate. Reflecting on the tragedy, and the impact it had on both families, Pete noted, “His wife was from Aberdeen, and she and her family made us very comfortable in the transition. She moved back to Aberdeen a couple of years after and became an influential part of the Grays Harbor College staff.”
It’s interesting how a tragedy — or even just one seemingly arbitrary moment, or well-planned decision — can reorient entire trajectories. Decisions or events that, if changed by only a blip, can completely alter (or even negate) one’s existence. And then there’s the impact of these small blips on many other individuals, families, and communities.
I asked Pete how Sally had felt about leaving her hometown. He had known that to become principal, he’d most likely have to leave the harbor at some point. “Sally knew this,” he said. And when he told her it was time to move, she had said, “Okay, where to?”
The kids weren’t so amiable to leaving Hoquiam at first. “We uprooted them from their hometown, and while it was easier on Ken, who was younger, Sheryl and Mark were suddenly in a new school, and their dad was the principal!”
Sheryl and Mark adjusted quickly though, and the entire family integrated fully into the small community nestled in the foothills of Mt. Rainier. The kids excelled in school and sports, before graduating and moving on to college. Sally kept things moving on the home-front, and also worked for Eatonville’s small newspaper, The Dispatch, and part-time as a teacher’s assistant. “All the money Sally made went right toward the kids’ college,” Pete shared proudly.
After eight memorable years in Eatonville, with many lifelong family friendships made, Pete and Sally were elated to move back to Hoquiam, where Pete had signed a new contract at his former high school, this time to be the principal.
As previously noted, Pete is matter-of-fact in style. He is also strongly opinionated. Neither traits signify he isn’t thoughtful, caring, or unable to listen to others. He and I have had our spirited debates over the years, which always helped expand my knowledge and opinions. I’ve always appreciated that he was generous at listening, reflecting, and admitting where his opinion might have altered as well. Knowing this, it was not surprising to read the first two paragraphs of the Daily World newspaper feature detailing his return to Hoquiam in 1982, and his philosophy:
Pete Hegg, who takes over as principal of Hoquiam High School next fall, believes people need a pat on the back once in a while.“My general philosophy is that people — teachers, kids and everybody — want to do a good job,” he said. “They need to be reinforced for the good things they do.”
Pete was a beloved principal at the high school until he retired in 1993, the same day my father-in-law Chuck retired from the city’s sanitation department. The two were feted with a joint retirement party that summer — more like a family reunion — with friends, family, and a flock of little ones coming from near and far for food, memories, poetry, and laughter. Thereafter, fortunate to have been able to retire early, the two couples — Pete and Sally and Chuck and Janice — enjoyed several trips to spring training in Arizona together, with Chuck complaining about Pete’s driving the entire way (and long after the trips had ended).
Pete and Sally also traveled around the country to see friends and family, sometimes joined by good friends Sylvan and Peggy, or Ed and Jan. They also visited their son Ken, who moved to France in the early 90s. “He went to do golf course maintenance for a year and never came home,” Pete laughed. “We were happy to be able to go there and visit him and his wife, Phen.”
Throughout their many years in both Hoquiam and Eatonville, Pete and Sally remained deeply involved in their community. Pete has been an active member of the Lions club since 1974, where he is a past president, twice-named Lion of the Year, and a recipient of the Melvin Jones Award for humanitarian services (the highest honor in international Lionism). He was also the financial secretary for Hoquiam Methodist Church for over 20 years, where he and Sally were also both active in leadership roles. Sally enjoyed any opportunity to do things for others: volunteering at the senior center and the food bank, making cheese balls to gift during the holidays, knitting booties for all the new babies in the extended family and laughing uncontrollably when they ended up being way too big, and throwing parties whenever possible. They both adored their two grandsons Jeffrey and Casey, and visited them frequently.
Sheryl recalls fondly, “When the kids were little, Mom and Dad would often drive two hours to Port Orchard to attend Jeffrey and Casey’s school or sports events. They would have the boys overnight on weekends and sometimes for several days. They took the boys on hikes, fishing . . . they loved playing.” Sheryl continued more somberly when talking about her mom, “My mom was my best friend. I talked to her almost every day. Over time it was hard to talk to her on the phone though. She got to a point where she really didn’t have much to say.”
Sally began having slight memory problems in 2005. “Nothing too serious,” Pete explained, “just small lapses.” As time went on, however, and the disease progressed, Sally’s brain function continued deteriorating. She became more agitated and angry, sometimes trying to escape their home, or often yelling hurtful obscenities at Pete — traits common with dementia even if uncommon to the individual before the onset of the disease.
Pete finally conceded that he needed help and hired someone from an agency to come in for a few hours each day, “So I could leave the house, go to the gym, make sure Sally stayed home,” he said. “I needed to be out of the house at least a little. Sally wasn’t cooking or cleaning at this point, and she had lost control of her bladder, and then the other end. I knew it was time.”
Sheryl said an especially challenging moment arose in 2014. “Dad was having chest pains. I was told that caregivers often sacrifice their own health in caring for their loved one. The thought that he could die and leave Mom alone and confused was a real possibility.”
Pete, who had survived colon cancer 13 years previously, went to the doctor and two days later underwent triple bypass heart surgery. Sheryl and Mark both took a leave from work to care for their parents. Following his recovery, Pete resumed being Sally’s primary caretaker, along with receiving help from the agency. Within the year, however, the difficult decision was made to move Sally to an assisted living facility.
“They told me to stay away for two weeks so that it would be easier for Sally to adjust,” Pete told me over the phone.
“That must have been difficult,” I lamely offered.
“I was pretty exhausted at that point. Longtime friends brought food — Janice, Larry and Joann, Sylvan and Peggy, Ed and Jan — we had dinners, six or eight of us in my small house,” Pete paused before continuing. “Alzheimer’s has slowly taken nearly everything away from her, but Sally is a battler. And I have been fortunate to have been able to visit and feed her breakfast and lunch nearly every day of these past few years.”
My daughter worked for a short time in a local memory care facility a couple of years ago and when I shared Uncle Pete’s experience with her she was shocked. “Mom! It is so rare for someone in memory care to receive visits every day from their loved ones, much less twice a day, for years!”
Auntie Sally was the one who had hosted all of the big family functions: wedding showers, baby showers, Father’s Day picnics, Fourth of July barbecues, etc. If there was an occasion, Sally threw a party. My family has many fond memories of meals and moments shared at Pete and Sally’s over the years. She contributed so much to her family — both immediate and extended — and to her community.
“It’s ironic that mom would end up with a memory loss disease,” Mark shared with me via email. “It always seemed like she was the most organized when it came to life events. She knew everyone’s birthday, where they lived, all of their contact info. Mom loved knowing what was happening and made a point to be there, and she always made everyone around her feel like they were the most important person on earth.”
To this day, despite the advanced Alzheimer’s, Sally still lights up when she sees her young great-granddaughters, Sally Blossom and Eleanor.
Sally’s care at the long-term care facility in Hoquiam comes at a cost of $8000 per month, a figure Pete continues to pay, without complaint, until he depletes their financial assets to the point where they qualify for Medicaid. Pete is appreciative of the care she is receiving, “It is well-managed, with caring staff. Many have become my friends over time. I believe she is much loved and well cared for.”
Once Covid-19 hit, Pete was no longer able to visit Sally in person. “They shut me out the last part of February,” he said. “The administrator of the place Sally is in was way ahead of the curve, taking action even before Governor Inslee. He met with me and explained how illness spreads like wildfire in long-term care facilities. I understood, of course. Sally has a room right on the courtyard, though, and I am allowed to look at her through the window. At first they would open it a little, but that ended soon.”
Pete continued, “I still go twice a day. Once at eight, to see if she is eating breakfast and I wave through the window, and at noon during lunch. I see her, sometimes she smiles.”
Aside from his twice-daily visits to peek into Sally’s window, or trips to the grocery store, Pete spends most of his time following the state’s stay-at-home orders. Up until Covid-19, he had remained active in his community and church and was still cooking and sharing dinner nearly every night with Janice.
Cancer took Chuck in 2011, and Janice wasn’t cooking for herself much anymore. Pete said he saw this, and knew Janice wasn’t going to survive on cold cereal and toaster waffles for very long, so he insisted she come to dinner nightly. “It was good for both of us, and she was such good company for Sally.” After Sally was moved to a facility, the dinners continued with the two in-law besties until Covid-19. (For readers who may be concerned about Janice, her daughter Jodi, practicing safe distancing, leaves dinner regularly for her mother.)
TNN — short for The Norris Network of family news — has it that Pete still enjoys a shot or two of whiskey in the evenings, and that before Covid-19 changed everything, he had considered making a whiskey run south to California with a friend. Bruce and I laughed when we heard this, and of course we would have loved it if he had stopped on his way back from the liquor store in Hilt, California, which is just a few miles across the border from us here in Ashland. Maybe I’d have put out some of that Humboldt Fog cheese and crackers that he and Sally enjoyed the last time they stopped. Pausing and reflecting further, wondering how I’d feel if I were in his shoes, I doubt it was the whiskey deal he was interested in as much as having a reason to get out on the open road again.
In this interview process, I sometimes felt like I was prying, or not asking the right questions to get past the facts to the feelings. Maybe I’m not very good at interviewing, I thought, or too sensitive when it’s family? I emailed Pete again, asking directly instead of hoping he would just offer it, and apologizing for the difficult question.
“How does it feel to have been unable to see Sally in person for so many months?”
“Sally and I spent every day since 1957 under the same roof,” Pete quickly replied to my email, “except for when I was away getting more education, and she was home alone with very young children.”
Pete’s short reply left me still feeling stumped. I had been hoping for something more poignant, words from Pete that I could add at the end here in some moving summation.
And then suddenly I realized that Pete didn’t need to say how he felt, his feelings were evident through his actions, and had been for all of his almost 63 years of marriage to Sally.
Pete had made a commitment to Sally when they married. Sure, there had been arguments and hurts; there had been challenging times, as there are in every marriage. And it hadn’t been easy caring for Sally once her health deteriorated, nor when she gradually forgot who her loved ones were. And it certainly hasn’t been easy that her care is draining Pete of all the assets he and Sally had both worked so hard for. But when they married, Pete had made a commitment to love and cherish Sally, in sickness and in health, till death they do part. And he meant it. If I wanted to know his feelings, I felt he was telling me, all I had to do was look at his actions.
In the forward and afterword to his notes to me, Pete wrote: “This is a disjointed messy outline, small blips on a wonderful marriage and a great life.”
While the individual blips may seem small — like the blips in those connect-the-dots worksheets I so loved completing as a young girl — when connected, they help reveal a bigger picture. Pete and Sally exemplify what true love and commitment in a marriage look like. I thank Uncle Pete for sharing his blips, and for allowing me to attempt my own disjointed, messy outline of his and Auntie Sally’s beautiful marriage, a story which also demonstrates, I think, the synchronous and beautiful way lives interconnect.
Afterword
Sally was tested for Covid-19 in late March after experiencing Covid-like symptoms. Thankfully, the test was negative, and the facility has remained Covid-19 free to date.
The disease has impacted every age demographic, and has had devastating impacts on minority populations. However, our seniors have taken the brunt of the dying, with many of them dying alone, their loved ones unable to enter the facilities to be by their side. According to recent reporting by the New York Times, 54,000 people to date — over 43% of all Covid-19 deaths in the country — have been recorded at long-term care facilities.
Unfortunately, we will likely experience future pandemics. As a recent piece in the New England Journal of Medicine points out, better options would help address the current crisis the residents in our long-term care facilities are facing and could help negate the severity of future pandemics.
Until we know more about the path of this pandemic, which is currently spiking in many states, we can do our part to help protect all of the vulnerable by following the guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and our state and local governments. Guidelines, supported by science, that include: washing our hands frequently, maintaining physical distancing, and wearing a mask when in public (especially indoors). We never know when one of these actions — practiced out of respect for others in our connected communities and world — will be the little blip that saves the life of another. | https://medium.com/@deborakelleysmith/small-blips-a-portrait-of-love-2f8634a0307f | ['Debi Smith'] | 2020-07-01 23:36:59.630000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Masks', 'Alzheimers', 'Coronavirus', 'Covid 19'] |
Albert Boufarah Explains How SAMR is Safely Securing Old Electronics | Albert Boufarah
Data security is often overlooked, but this can produce perilous consequences. Today, illegally accessing the data held on discarded computers can have serious medical, financial, legal, and security repercussions for your company. Businesses and organizations that want to upgrade their equipment must be very careful about how they discard the old machines to prevent bad actors from accessing their sensitive data.
Albert Boufarah of SAMR Inc. is a leader in the field of electronics recycling. His company provides complete data destruction to its clients. Boufarah explains how his company is working with major businesses and organizations like law firms, hospitals, and banks to secure their old equipment with safety and confidentiality well into the future. At SAMR, the focus is on e-waste management “Done the Right Way.”
A Secure Pick-Up Process
When your company decides that it no longer wants to keep its old computers, the first step in safely recycling them is to call SAMR Inc. and arrange for pickup. SAMR has several convenient options for pickup of old items.
If your company is discarding a large number of machines gradually, a drop box may be the right choice. A drop box allows you to place old machines securely in a locked container and have SAMR pick it up when it is full.
Many companies choose to have their electronic equipment picked up by SAMR Inc. in one load. SAMR has a dedicated fleet of secure trucks that can travel to your destination and pick up your items. Every step of the process is secure, and SAMR facility is equipped with state-of-the-art security equipment so that your data will be safe while it is being prepared for destruction. Companies that are close enough to one of SAMR’s facilities can also choose to deliver their old electronics themselves.
Types of Companies that Need Data Destruction
Every company has sensitive and proprietary data on their computer hard drives. Two areas of particular concern are law firms and medical offices. Legal documents need to be kept safe and confidential at all times, or the firm’s clients may experience data breaches or other serious consequences. Medical offices are trusted with the most personal data possible, and in order to protect patient privacy, this data must be completely destroyed while the machines are recycled.
Even small companies have a need to securely destroy their data when they discard old equipment. Customer lists and trade secrets could get out, hampering their ability to compete.
Methods of Data Destruction
SAMR Inc. uses highly advanced data wiping technology which is approved by the United States Department of Defense. Some data wiping methods, even when they seem thorough, leave usable data on hard drives. The Department of Defense requires that all data be completely erased with no potential for retrieval. SAMR uses this military-grade data destruction to make all companies safe from data breaches.
SAMR’s software alerts the company if the data on a hard drive cannot be wiped through basic methods. If a hard drive fails to be wiped completely, SAMR destroys the hard drive. Physical destruction of hard drives and computer components is available on request at a customer’s location or at SAMR’s facility.
SAMR has a state-of-the-art electronics shredder that can take care of even the most stubborn hard drives at the push of a button. When materials are broken down using this shredder, the client can rest assured that their data will never be misused.
The Importance of E-Waste Recycling
While 20 to 50 metric tons of e-waste are discarded worldwide each year, only 12.5 percent of this waste is properly recycled. E-waste contains many precious metals that can be reused, among these being copper, silver, gold, and palladium. Other computer components like screens can also be reused.
E-waste is polluting if it is not recycled properly. When e-waste is placed in a landfill, it can release toxic chemicals that contaminate trees and plants. When these materials are burned in an incinerator, they can cause serious air pollution problems. Plastics, glass, and metals that go into the construction of electronic equipment can produce damaging byproducts that can harm the air, groundwater, and the ocean.
SAMR Inc. responsibly recycles its byproducts, making sure that its discards are safe and that recycling old materials will not lead to environmental damage. The importance of taking care of data security and the environment at the same time cannot be overlooked.
Protecting Data and the Environment
Albert Boufarah understands the importance of properly recycling electronics and destroying all proprietary data. His company makes sure that all of their clients’ machines are completely wiped, using electronic and physical procedures.
Legal, medical, educational, and business clients can all feel safe knowing that their old data is inaccessible. All companies that carry sensitive data should consider treating it with care and ensuring that it is destroyed when old equipment is upgraded.
Improperly recycling electronics is irresponsible, both in terms of data security and environmental safety. SAMR Inc. can help companies feel good about their data destruction and provide for a secure future. | https://medium.com/@SAMR-Inc./albert-boufarah-explains-how-samr-is-safely-securing-old-electronics-41838dda951c | ['Samr Inc.'] | 2021-09-07 13:15:19.859000+00:00 | ['Electronic Waste', 'Recycle', 'Entrepreneur', 'New Jersey', 'E Waste Management'] |
5 Happy New Year 2021 Party Ideas | Happy New Year 2021 Party Ideas
It’s that point of the 12 months while we get dressed up and get all dolled as much as birthday celebration difficult in order that we are able to bid good-bye to the 12 months and welcome the brand new 12 months with a brand new beginning.
However, matters are specific now and everybody is vigilant approximately the coronavirus pandemic however we cannot be extra excited to welcome the New Year 2021 due to the fact as all of us realize 2020 become one hell of 12 months however we need to birthday celebration and live secure on the equal time. The most effective manner to do that is via way of means of throwing a residence birthday celebration and restricting the visitors so you can experience yourself at your great via way of means of reducing the danger of coronavirus.
Here we’ve got made a listing of five matters that you could do to make your birthday celebration rocking and taking place via way of means of staying secure on the residence:
1. Dress Up
First matters first! Do now no longer neglect about to get geared up due to the fact it is that point of the 12 months and who does now no longer like to get dolled up despite the fact that you’re going to live at domestic, your buddies are nonetheless going to sign up for you. So cross order that gets dressed that you’ve got been trying for goodbye or simply take out that birthday celebration gets dressed out of your cloth cabinet and keep in mind to put on the mask, despite the fact that few human beings are going to acquire at your residence, your protection is for your palms so why now no longer.
2. Plan a digital birthday celebration
The great manner to live secure is to host a digital birthday celebration and invite as many as buddies you need at the video name and get the party on. You can talk, dance, and vibe via way of means of seeing every different on-display screen and it’s going to include no human touch so that you are secure from the outer international and there may be some other plus factor that now in case you get too inebriated you could be at domestic and also you do not want to rise up in remorse the opposite morning. So, cheers! for that.
3. Movie night time
Invite your two-3 near buddies for a film night time and rise up all night time even as looking at films is a notable manner to welcome in 2021, so make certain that your Netflix is operating nice and you’re done.
4. Make a cocktail
A new 12 months’ eve cannot simply do without a cocktail so it is the time to get on well and make a cocktail. Add anything liquids you need to feature in it, you could even upload cherry garnish on the pinnacle of it to feature the cultured and you’re geared up to take the charge.
5. Toast! Toast! Toast!
Take out that champagne bottle and lift a pitcher only for your self due to the fact you made it all of the manners here, you deserve it, you’re able to it so this complete toast is only for you. To upload the appeal and feels have it withinside the announcement glass. | https://medium.com/@garrywilliamson/5-happy-new-year-2021-party-ideas-bd9c4eef78ee | ['Garry Williamson'] | 2020-12-27 09:54:11.203000+00:00 | ['Happy New Year', 'New Year Party', 'New Year Resolution', 'New Year', 'Party Planning'] |
BABY sleep miracle program | link Below:::::
This is worth taking a look at, because it’s not the same old stuff you typically find in books about how to get your toddler to sleep. This was full of “A-ha” moments for us.
As an adult, sleep seems like the most natural and simple thing in the world. You’re tired, you sleep. And if you’re the parent of a toddler, you may be able to fall asleep standing up in a rainstorm!
But did you know that a baby actually has to LEARN how to sleep? As weird as it sounds, sleep is actually a learned skill.
And it can be challenging (and frustrating) to sleep train a child.
What Is Baby Sleep Miracle? Will It Help My Child Sleep?
Baby Sleep Miracle aims to debunk a lot of misconceptions, and plain myths, about this essential step of learning to sleep that’s a part of your child’s normal development. It lays out clinically proven truths for parents to read in a really simple, easy-to-understand format.
The author, Mary-Ann Schuler, is both a trained psychologist and a mother of two children. So, she has the medical background to know the data, but also the real-world personal experience to teach that information in terms any parent can easily grasp and apply.
In the opening chapters of the main book, Mary-Ann explains how important sleep is to a baby’s development, as well as the dangers of sleep deprivation for you and your child.
Then, she goes on to deal with proven sleep training methods from birth through age 5. Every approach she recommends is tailored to the child’s corresponding developmental phase.
Baby Sleep Miracle — Pros
It’s Easy to Implement. It has so many helpful tips. This guide covers everything you need to know to successfully help your baby get to sleep.
It has so many helpful tips. This guide covers everything you need to know to successfully help your baby get to sleep. It’s Excellent Value for Money: When you’re exhausted, you’d be willing to pay anything! But compared with some other baby sleep training programs — costing around $100 or more — the Baby Sleep Miracle is very affordably priced. (By the way, you can actually watch an introductory video for FREE in which Mary-Ann gives you 4 tips to get started.)
When you’re exhausted, you’d be willing to pay anything! But compared with some other baby sleep training programs — costing around $100 or more — the Baby Sleep Miracle is very affordably priced. (By the way, you can actually watch an introductory video for FREE in which Mary-Ann gives you 4 tips to get started.) It Comes with a Money-back Guarantee If You Don’t Like It. You can get a full refund if you’re not completely satisfied.
Baby Sleep Miracle — Cons
It Does Require You to Invest Some Time: Like anything, if you don’t commit to following the advice you’re given, it won’t do you any good.
Like anything, if you don’t commit to following the advice you’re given, it won’t do you any good. It’s Only Available Online in Digital Format: You won’t find the Baby Sleep Miracle at your local bookstore (or even on Amazon). So, if you’re the kind of person who likes the look and feel of a paper book, then your only option is to print it out. (But on the other hand, being a digital product is convenient, because it means you can actually download it instantly right now … even in the middle of the night!)
You won’t find the Baby Sleep Miracle at your local bookstore (or even on Amazon). So, if you’re the kind of person who likes the look and feel of a paper book, then your only option is to print it out. (But on the other hand, being a digital product is convenient, because it means you can actually download it instantly right now … even in the middle of the night!) It’s Only Available in English.
Our Conclusion
I think you can probably tell that we’re impressed with this resource. We give it 4 and ½ stars!
link here to \know about course ::::: http://prakashgupta.bbysleep.hop.clickbank.net?pagevar=vidtext&lang=en | https://medium.com/@guptaprakash0404/baby-sleep-miracle-program-b83443d2f6ff | ['Affialte Prakash'] | 2021-06-14 16:44:51.537000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Sleep', 'Mothers', 'Pregnancy', 'Baby Sleep'] |
How Do We Deal With Accidents Involving Autonomous Vehicles? | It is no secret that autonomous vehicles are the future of our transportation. Companies like Tesla have already begun advancement towards a world of full automation. However, with this daunting new technology comes the heavily debated question, who do we blame when the robot causes an accident?
Photo by Tesla
To answer this question, we need to first understand the system of automation. According to SAE J3016, there are “six levels of driving automation, from SAE Level Zero (no automation) to SAE Level 5 (full vehicle autonomy).” As of now, companies are selling vehicles in levels 1 and 2; where the human driver is still present and in control of the vehicle. Marketing of vehicles in levels 3 and 4 should be expected in a few years. However, vehicles in level 5, meaning a completely automated system that conducts the driving and monitors the driving environment, is still a ways away.
Photo by Nicole Schaub, Arizona Republic
In 2018, Uber made headlines when one of its autonomous vehicles was involved in a fatal accident. It was around 10:00 in the night on March 18th when Elaine Herzberg was struck and killed by an automated Uber in Tempe, Arizona. The debate that followed changed the world of autonomous vehicles. While it is easy to simply draw to the conclusion that the robot should have seen Herzberg, we must take the other factors into account. For one, it was 10:00 PM, meaning it was fairly dark out. In addition, Elaine Herzberg was carrying a bike, likely confusing the automation. Multiple reports also suggest that Herzberg did not cross at a proper crosswalk but rather seemed to, “melt out of the shadows.” With all of this considered, who is to blame for the accident?
Research has shown that at our current stage of self-driving technology, the driver is still generally responsible for any accidents that occur while they are behind the wheel. In the case of Elaine Herzberg, the driver was ultimately listed as the primary cause of the accident because she was watching “The Voice” on her phone instead of paying attention to the road. The Uber was a test vehicle meant to be monitored by the operator, hence, much of the blame landed on her.
The 2018 accident brought up many tough questions on the rules and regulations for testing autonomous vehicles. When automation fails us, we are understandably caught by surprise. After all, these are the machines we built in hope of safer roads, and we are confounded when they go out and do the exact opposite.
Sources:
Jurdak Research Group Leader, Raja, and Salil S. Kanhere Associate professor. “Who’s to Blame When Driverless Cars Have an Accident?” The Conversation, 11 Aug. 2019, theconversation.com/whos-to-blame-when-driverless-cars-have-an-accident-93132.
Shuttleworth, Jennifer. “SAE J3016 Automated-Driving Graphic.” SAE International ®, 15 May 2020, www.sae.org/news/2019/01/sae-updates-j3016-automated-driving-graphic.
Apr 06, 2018, Law and Public Policy Podcasts Wharton Business Daily North America. “Autonomous Car Crashes: Who — or What — Is to Blame?” Knowledge@Wharton, 2018, knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/automated-car-accidents/.
Randazzo, Ryan. “Driver Mostly to Blame for Fatal Self-Driving Uber Crash, Federal Safety Board Finds.” The Arizona Republic, The Republic | Azcentral.com, 20 Nov. 2019, www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/tech/2019/11/19/driver-fatal-arizona-uber-crash-mostly-blame-ntsb-report-finds/4232936002/. | https://medium.com/the-black-box/how-do-we-deal-with-accidents-involving-autonomous-vehicles-1bd9436b22e9 | ['Jodie Cai'] | 2020-11-25 18:49:17.901000+00:00 | ['Self Driving Cars', 'Practical Ethics', 'Ai Ethics', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Autonomous Cars'] |
The Single Most Profitable Bitcoin Indicator | Photo by Pepi Stojanovski on Unsplash
Have you ever wondered what the single most profitable Bitcoin indicator is? In this article I’ll show you the results from backtested strategies for 6 major indicators, and reveal the most profitable one.
If you don’t know what the most popular indicators are, then read this article first, because you’ll get more out of this article if you know how each indicator works.
This experiment is about showing how useful a single indicator is as a trading signal. I backtested strategies that buy and sell BTCUSD based on signals from these 6 indicators, for a period of over 3 years:
MACD
RSI
Parabolic SAR
Bollinger Bands
Stochastic
Ichimoku Cloud
I’m going to show you how each strategy performed, compare them to each other, and also to a buy & hold strategy.
Before doing the experiment I wrote down my hypothesis:
Single indicators are not good trading signals, they won’t produce double-digit profit but they will produce double-digit drawdowns.
With that said, let’s get started!
How Did I Do The Experiment?
I’m a big fan of TradingView, so naturally I used their Strategy Tester. This allows you to backtest any strategy on any chart. Luckily they already have many strategies in their Indicators & Strategies library, so I was able to use the pre-made strategy for all the indicators, except the Ichimoku Cloud.
TradingView’s long list of built-in strategies
TradingView has a simple scripting language called Pine that is used to code strategies, so it wasn’t too difficult to edit the existing Ichimoku Cloud indicator source code to include a strategy.
The strategy consists of entering a long position when the Chikou Span crosses the price in a bottom-up manner, and entering a short position when the Chikou Span crosse the price from top-down. It took all of about 10 minutes for me to write up the simple strategy.
As I mentioned, all of the other strategies already existed in TradingView’s library, so it was just a case of adding them to my chart.
For simplicities sake, I chose to use the default parameters for all strategies.
Indicators and parameters employed for the test
I applied each of these individually to the BTCUSD daily chart. Here’s a sneak peek:
RSI Strategy applied to BTCUSD 1D chart
As you can see, TradingView plots the trade entry points on the chart. Red being a short entry, and blue being a long entry. And they provide you with a great summary table of results! It doesn’t get any easier than this.
What’s Back-Testing?
Before we dive into the results, I want to give you a bit of info about what backtesting is and why it’s useful, because it’s a great tool to have in your trading toolkit.
With backtesting, you can test trading systems against what has already happened. You can quickly see how a strategy would have performed under certain market conditions.
We’ve all heard the phrase “past performance is not an indicator of future results”, which is true, but only at the surface level. If you analyze the different market conditions and understand why your strategy performed a certain way, then you can adjust and refine it, so that it performs better in the future.
Many strategies may work well in the run-up to $20K that we experienced in late 2017, but this could be a fluke just because the market was rising. But in the downturn that we’re experiencing now, they may not do so well.
Backtesting allows you to see what happens to your trading performance in both of these different conditions, and will arm you with information to improve your strategy. And that can only be a good thing!
Be aware that good backtesting results does not mean that your strategy is foolproof, particularly in a market as young as BTCUSD. Or any cryptocurrencies for that matter! It’s very unlikely that the period you choose contains all possible market conditions. This is apparent in BTCUSD because there hasn’t been a major bear market.
You might say that we’re in one now, but only relative to what we’ve seen Bitcoin do in the last years. Relative to that, yeah it’s a bear market. But it’s got nothing on the recent bear market in oil.
The multi-year oil bear market (NYMEX Light Crude Oil price shown)
The price of a barrel of oil dropped from $106.9 in July 2014 to a low of $26.05 in February 2016. That’s a 19-month bear market that still hasn’t broken through the July 2014 price. A few months of Bitcoin consolidation is nothing.
There will be days, weeks, even months, when your system experiences big drawdowns. It’s all well and good backtesting your strategy and seeing that it lost 50% over a few weeks back in 2016, but what happens when that’s going on in real time? How would you react to that? Can you stomach watching your account being drained day after day for weeks on end? Knowing that you can stop the bleeding by turning off the system?
There’s a big difference between running a test and seeing the results, to actually going through the highs and lows of the market in real time. Backtesting doesn’t give you that experience, only real trading does.
The point is, backtesting doesn’t guarantee that your strategy is going to perform the same way in the future, because markets change. So you can’t just blindly trust backtesting. You need to be always monitoring what’s going on, always watching for changes in performance, and understand why those changes happened.
It’s very easy for anyone to open a trading account and make a few trades, it’s very difficult to consistently make a profit over a long period.
The Results
Here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for, the results! Just to remind you, my hypothesis is that none of the indicators will have positive double-digit returns and they’ll all have double-digit drawdown. Drum roll please…
Backtesting results
We’ve really got a mixed bag here. Half of them have obviously done badly. RSI, Bollinger Bands, and Stochastic, all have negative returns and drawdown greater than 10%.
I’m actually quite surprised that the other 3 indicators (MACD, Parabolic SAR, and Ichimoku Cloud) made positive returns. MACD even got a return over 20%! The drawdown for these 3 are pretty good, all less than 10%.
MACD is the obvious winner here.
And that’s it. MACD wins the title of THE MOST profitable Bitcoin indicator. See ya next time!
…
Hold on a sec! That’s not the end of the story.
The best return from any of these indicators was 22.51%. Remember that’s over a span of more than 3 years. It’s not great if you think about what’s happened to the market in those 3 years! Bitcoin has gone from $300.00 to $19,891.99 (as per Coinbase) and back down to $5,873.00. Those changes are more than 22.51%!
Take a look at the strategies compared to buy & hold. The buy & hold starts from the point the strategy makes it’s first trade. This varies, so the relative buy & hold return varies quite a lot too. But there’s an obvious difference between buy & hold and the indicators.
Indicators vs. buy-and-hold, there’s an obvious winner…
The indicator strategies pale in comparison to buy & hold. They’re just not good enough!
Even an S&P 500 tracker would have beaten these indicators. On Dec 1, 2014, the S&P closed at $2,053.44. On Mar 27, it closed at $2,612.62. That’s a gain of 27.23% in the same period as my Bitcoin study.
That’s right, holding an S&P index tracker would’ve beaten all of the strategies above!
You can do better than this.
What’s the point?
So I’ve shown you that single indicators suck. MACD is THE most profitable indicator for BTCUSD, but it ain’t got nothin’ on the buy & hold returns.
The point I want to make here is that no single strategy is perfect by itself. There’s no magic bullet. All indicators have their limitations they’re bound by strict rules, making them inflexible.
A strategy that works in a ranging market might not work in a trending market, and a strategy that works in a volatile market might not work in a calmer market. You need to be flexible in your approach. Learn to identify different market conditions, and what works best for each.
The best approach over the long-term is to change your approach as markets dictate. A sure-fire way to lose money is to stick to be rigid and inflexible when it comes to changing your style and strategy, because the market doesn’t care. It’s gonna move in whatever way it wants, and you’re gonna get washed along with it, whether you like it or not.
As always, you need to build risk management into your strategy. No matter how confident you might be in a strategy, you cannot predict every possible move, and good risk management means you don’t have to!
You have to react to what the market is telling you, a bear market won’t turn just because you prefer to long side, and a market won’t stop trending just because you want to trade the Bollinger Bounce. Be in tune with what’s happening, develop different strategies for different conditions.
You can’t rely on a single indicator or strategy to get you through. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/the-single-most-profitable-bitcoin-indicator-4cc8b9f7709 | ['Harry Nicholls'] | 2019-01-12 12:41:25.824000+00:00 | ['Advice', 'Finance', 'Trading', 'Data Science', 'Bitcoin'] |
Creating accessible progress indicator in React | When creating our registration application our UX designer came up with the following design (screenshot taken from our storybook):
It was relatively easy to implement using React, so we wrote it and forgot about it.
Several weeks later, we submitted the alpha version of the app to our accessibility testing consultant (as we do with all our apps). The results were that among other minor accessibility problems, the most serious was that the progress indicator (we call it thermometer) is completely inaccessible to screen readers. Not invisible, even worse — annoying, because when read using a screen reader it produced seemingly irrelevant words.
The accessibility problems can be split into these points:
There was no indication this component represents a progress display
The circles were not numbered and labelled in any way
The lines connecting the circles did not provide information about how much of the way they were filled
There was no explanation what A***** D*** means (this was explained in the rest of the app, so a seeing users could easily read it, visually impaired users however could not)
We will discuss how we fixed all these problems in the rest of this article.
Declaring the semantic meaning
First, let’s focus on how to declare that our component is a multi step progress indicator. We followed our consultant’s recommendation: The whole component is an ordered list where the list items consist of the circle and optionally the connecting line. Bellow there is the source code of the main component:
Thermometer component
As we can see, it renders an ordered list with a descriptive aria-label attribute that tells the user what it represents.
The list takes two props: items that specify name, icon and other properties of the individual steps, and position – two numbers that indicate which step is currently active and what is the percentual progress to the next one.
Rendering the circles
Next, let’s see how the Segments (i.e. list items) are rendered. Bellow is the code for the Segment component:
Segment component
The Segment component renders one circle and if it is no the last one, it renders the connecting line as well. The important thing here is that the li element is marked as aria-current when appropriate. This ensures that screen reader reads the current step like
Account, current step
ensuring the user knows what the current step is.
Other than that, the component is relativelly straight-forward, it computes some derived props for the Point and Line components (see bellow) based on the current position on the thermoeter.
The Point component represents the circle on the thermometer. It has a name, an icon and status, that indicates whether it is the current step, step already completed or one that is still to be visited. The whole code is listed bellow:
Point component
Point renders a div with some styling that ensures it is a circle of the right color and size depending on the status. Active step is larger than inactive for example.
Inside of the div , there are two span s – one for screen readers only and one for displays (hidden from screen readers using the aria-hidden attribute). The reason for this duplicity is that we needed to provide additional description for the screen reader users. In our case it was a note that the name of the person being registered is redacted and therefore is spelled A***** D*** instead of Arthur Dent.
You may wonder why we did not simplify this to something like
Simplification attempt
While this would work relatively well, the screen reader would read the two parts separately. In other words the user would have to press a button to hear props.description as well. The way we wrote it, both strings get read at once.
Rendering the connecting lines
The last part we haven’t shown are the lines connecting the circles. This is the responsibility of the Line component:
Line component
The visual part of its markup is simple: just a div contaning two overlapping div s that emulate the partially filled progress bar. It's the ARIA part that's interesting!
As we can see, the main div has several ARIA attributes, so let's explain those one by one.
The role attribute declares what the component represents semantically – in this case a progressbar. There are quite a few roles available in the WAI-ARIA standard.
We used aria-label here to give name to the progress bar. In this case the title of the related step is used. This ensures the user knows which step the progress bar corresponds to.
Finally, the aria-valuenow specifies the curernt progress value while aria-valuemin and aria-valuemax specify the lowest and highest possible values. These are used by the screen readers to compute the percentual progress of the progress bar. This means that somthing like
aria-value* attributes example
would be read as
50 percent
Conclusion
On a simple real life example we’ve shown how to make React components accessible to visually impaired users and hopefully inspired you to revise your own components with this perspective in mind. After all, accessible components are better components. | https://medium.com/vzp-engineering/creating-accessible-progress-indicator-in-react-1ae7eca76633 | ['Dan Homola'] | 2018-07-25 20:26:12.955000+00:00 | ['Accessibility', 'React'] |
Home Warm with Fire | A Chain of Haiku Dedicated to Winter
Photo by Ian Keefe on Unsplash
Cold winter is dark,
A frozen desolation,
With rare signs of life.
…
Winter winds blast cold,
Unforgiving and harsh now,
But Home’s warm with fire.
…
Winter’s cold mystery,
How life lives in a wasteland?
The wolf breathes hot fire.
…
My home has a fire,
Keeps me warm here in winter,
But the wood is wet.
…
My fire needs wood,
I search out in the open,
The wolf was hungry.
…
Bleak winter poem,
But life’s just like that I guess,
Eat or get eaten. | https://medium.com/this-shall-be-our-story/home-warm-with-fire-50685dee7dc | ['Joseph Brown'] | 2019-10-17 01:17:49.095000+00:00 | ['Haiku', 'Winter', 'Poetry', 'Isolation', 'Life'] |
Mouth For War: John Bolton | Many know John Bolton as a war hawk based on recent events. Others know his long history of involvement in beating the drums of war. Some don’t know much about him at all. So who is the mustached man running the U.S. war machine?
John Bolton has made headlines quite often over the last year after he began serving as National Security Advisor to Donald Trump. His rhetoric, for many of us, conjures up images of using the United States military over the last three decades for trivial interventions all over the world. We also know him as the man who fiercely backed (and still does) the Iraq War. Even more so, he is known as a nationalist who meddles in other country’s internal affairs on behalf of U.S. corporate interests.
Bolton has been advocating for military action and regime change in Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Venezuela, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen for over a decade. In March 2015, in a hyperbole-laden op-ed published by the New York Times titled “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran,” Bolton called for preemptively bombing Iran by basing his argument on an overly simplistic view of a complex situation. He did the same in February 2018. In a similarly worded op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal, Bolton provided vague rhetoric for the bombing of North Korea. Never taking into account — or caring about — the destabilization and the negative impacts such unilateral actions have on entire regions across the globe.
Bolton has also made arguments to preemptively intervene militarily in Latin America due to China’s growing influence in the region (via substantial infrastructure projects, foreign aid, and vast investments in natural resources). By referring to China’s activities as “incursions” with “no coherent response” and calling for greater U.S. involvement, Bolton is laying the groundwork for taking control of the region — by force if necessary — with rhetoric that can be built upon later in the same way that led to so many previous disastrous incursions.
For Bolton, it’s about control over resources, economies, and power. In describing the Trump administration’s policy in Latin America he has twice invoked the Monroe Doctrine in just the last two months. For those that don’t know, The Monroe Doctrine originally warned European nations that the United States would not tolerate further colonization or puppet monarchs, but seems to have expanded to include other nations under Bolton. That’s bad news for Latin American families both in the United States and abroad.
“In this administration, we’re not afraid to use the word Monroe Doctrine…It’s been the objective of American presidents going back to Ronald Reagan to have a completely democratic hemisphere.” — National Security Advisor John Bolton, March 3, 2019 “The destinies of our nations will not be dictated by foreign powers; they will be shaped by the people who call this hemisphere home. Today, we proudly proclaim for all to hear: the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well.” — National Security Advisor John Bolton, April 17, 2019
John Bolton’s extensive involvement in the foreign policy decisions of the United States over the last 30 years has resulted in the starvation of millions of children, the suffering of tens-of-millions of refugees, and the loss of autonomy for many sovereign nations. His warmonger playbook is always the same; never one to deviate. His methodology is to sanction, starve, and sow discord among civilians of nations he believes should be working solely on behalf of U.S. corporate interests. Then, he picks a side and provokes countries into war to get what he and his backers want.
We’ve seen this all before.
Bolton considers himself a Republican. His views, however, have been described as nationalist and neoconservative. While he rejects the latter and instead refers to himself as pro-American. Not surprisingly, he has never rejected the white-nationalist label.
Much of Bolton’s ideas have been implemented through his involvement in policy institutes and think-tanks promoting ideas akin to those behind Manifest Destiny. For those that don’t know, Manifest Destiny is the 19th-century doctrine/belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.
Bolton continues to push an agenda that similarly justified the colonization of Latin America and he salivates at the thought of war. It should come as no surprise that Elliot Abrams — currently serving as Special Representative for Venezuela — is similarly involved with the same lobbying firms and policy institutes as Bolton. They are two of the hardest-hitters behind the American war machine.
They are the tag-team of terror.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Bolton was the protege of North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, a segregationist who opposed Martin Luther King Day so badly that he distributed a 300-page packet in Congress falsely declaring the civil-rights leader as a political radical who adopted “action-oriented Marxism” and detailing Dr. King’s supposed treachery in which he appeared to have welcomed collaboration with communists. Helms was also an advocate of interventionism in Latin America, invoking the Monroe Doctrine on many occasions.
During the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, Bolton served in many governmental roles within the State Department, the Justice Department, and the United States Agency for International Development.
His position in the Justice Department as an assistant attorney general under Reagan required him to advance the administrations positions including opposition to financial reparations to Japanese-Americans held in World War II-era internment camps; the insistence on Reagan’s executive privilege during William Rehnquist’s chief justice confirmation hearings, when Congress asked for Rehnquist’s memos as a Nixon Justice Department official; shepherding the judicial nomination process for Antonin Scalia; and framing a bill conflating immigration as a drug war issue, thus further criminalizing migrants crossing the border.
It’s also worth noting that he was involved in the Iran-Contra affair.
From 1989 to 1993, John Bolton was assistant secretary for International Organization Affairs at the Department of State where he was successful in rescinding the United Nations resolution from the 1970s that equated Zionism with racism. He also played a key role in the efforts by the United States to obtain United Nations resolutions endorsing the unilateral use of force to fight Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
In January 1998, Bolton signed the Project for New American Century letter to President Bill Clinton urging regime change in Iraq stating, “American policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.”
In 2002, Bolton accused Cuba of manufacturing biological weapons and transferring the technology to rogue states demanding Cuba “fully comply with all of its obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention.” It would later be revealed, during his Senate confirmation hearing for ambassador, that he was pressing intelligence analysts to say Cuba had biological weapons capacity and was exporting it to other nations, but intelligence officials refused to allow Bolton to make the harsh criticism of Cuba he sought to deliver.
From 2013 to 2018, Bolton was the chairman of the Gatestone Institute, a nonprofit organization that has been criticized for disseminating false anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim information — a practice that continues today. Bolton and Abrams published many of the inaccuracies on Iran and immigration while at Gatestone.
Bolton was also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institue (AEI) where he shared his views alongside white nationalists who support the use of racial biases in law-enforcement, arguing that without them, white people would be targeted by authorities just for the sake of showing evenhandedness.
“Just because a higher percentage of black families are investigated does not mean that child protective services is systemically racist. Family structure is strongly associated with the risk of child abuse, and kids who live in homes with a mother and her boyfriend are about 9 times more likely to be the subject of maltreatment than kids who live with their married biological parents.” — Naomi Schaefer Riley; Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institue
Bolton has also been critical of Russian and Chinese policies but he stops short of taking or suggesting any critical action against them. Certainly not militarily. His criticisms of other nations only surface when their policies get in the way of U.S. interests. Never speaking out about China’s treatment of Muslims or Russia’s invasion of Crimea while pounding the drums of war when it involves Latin America, Africa, or the Middle East.
A seemingly odd couple, John Bolton is more in line with Donald Trump when you look at his track record of trying to undermine international cooperatives such as NATO and the United Nations. In that sense, he suits Trump’s nationalist-isolationist agenda just fine. Beyond that, Bolton goes against the administration’s promised non-interventionist policies. Something that does not bode well for the world at large. Particularly in Latin America and the Middle East.
While the national conversation has shifted to Iran, don’t get complacent. Iran is just part of the plan. They’ll be coming back around to Latin America in due time. And if you’re like me, with family in both Cuba and Venezuela, your families are still at great risk. The mustached war machine has already placed our people on a hit-list and John Bolton will get his wars one way or another.
Making Trump a wartime president all but assures his reelection. Even if it doesn’t, all you have to do is convince him it does and he’ll be willing to go to war at the drop of a hat.
Bolton knows this. | https://extremearturo.medium.com/mouth-for-war-john-bolton-33d6175767c0 | ['Arturo Dominguez'] | 2019-05-17 16:43:36.889000+00:00 | ['Venezuela', 'Politics', 'Cuba', 'War', 'Human Rights'] |
Mercedes Benz Greener Manufacturing | Contents:
Business Problem Problem Statement Source of data About the dataset Machine learning problem formulation Existing solutions First Cut Approach Understanding the dataset Perform Label Encoding of categorical features Select 5 best features using Recursive Feature Elimination Univariate Analysis of all features Bivariate analysis of categorical features and Important features Featurization of the dataset Selecting Important features from the dataset Training a baseline model Training complex models Stacking Ensemble Model Model Comparisons Kaggle Scores Future Works References
1. Business Problem:
Since the first automobile, the Benz Patent Motor Car in 1886, Mercedes-Benz has stood for important automotive innovations. These include, for example, the passenger safety cell with crumple zone, the airbag, and intelligent assistance systems. Mercedes-Benz applies for nearly 2000 patents per year, making the brand the European leader among premium carmakers. Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz cars are leaders in the premium car industry. With a huge selection of features and options, customers can choose the customized Mercedes-Benz of their dreams.
To ensure the safety and reliability of each and every unique car configuration before they hit the road, Daimler’s engineers have developed a robust testing system. But, optimizing the speed of their testing system for so many possible feature combinations is complex and time-consuming without a powerful algorithmic approach. As one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of premium cars, safety and efficiency are paramount on Daimler’s production lines.
In this competition, Daimler is challenging Kagglers to tackle the curse of dimensionality and reduce the time that cars spend on the test bench. Competitors will work with a dataset representing different permutations of Mercedes-Benz car features to predict the time it takes to pass testing. Winning algorithms will contribute to speedier testing, resulting in lower carbon dioxide emissions without reducing Daimler’s standards.
2. Problem Statement:
In this problem, we have to predict the time spent by each Mercedes-Benz cars on the test bench. This will help Mercedes-Benz improve the time taken for testing and therefore reducing the carbon dioxide emissions without reducing their standards.
3. Source of Data:
The dataset is provided by Daimler for the Kaggle competition, and this can be downloaded from here,
4. About the Dataset:
This dataset contains an anonymized set of variables, each representing a custom feature in a Mercedes car. For example, a variable could be 4WD, added air suspension, or a head-up display.
The ground truth is labeled ‘y’ and represents the time (in seconds) that the car took to pass testing for each variable.
There are 378 features in the training dataset (including the y variable) and 4209 rows and the test dataset contains 4209 rows and 377 columns.
5. Machine Learning Problem Formulation:
In this problem we have to predict the time taken in seconds by each car to pass testing and testing is based on 377 different features and the predicted variable y is the time taken in seconds which is continuous so this problem can be considered as a regression problem.
Performance Metric:
The performance metric used for this problem is R2 score (Coefficient of Determination). It is the proportion of the variance in the dependent variable that is predictable from the independent variable.
6. Existing Solutions:
This problem is a Kaggle problem hence there are multiple different solutions in the notebooks section of this problem in Kaggle.
7. First Cut Approach:
Understanding the dataset. Perform Label Encoding of categorical features. Select 5 best features using Recursive Feature Elimination. Univariate Analysis of all features. Bivariate analysis of categorical features and Important features. Featurization of the dataset. Selecting Important features from the dataset. Training a baseline model. Training complex models. Stacking Ensemble Model.
8. Understanding the dataset:
Loading the CSV file using pandas and storing the dataset as a pandas dataframe and printing the head of the dataset to visualize the data.
Checking for missing values in the dataset we find that there are no missing data points in our dataset. Then we find the counts of the datatypes of the features present in the dataset.
From the above snippet of code, we can see that there are 369 features which are of int64 data type and by further processing, we find that all of these columns are binary features, there are 8 features with object datatype which means that there are 8 categorical features and 1 feature which is float64 data type, which is the target variable feature.
After this printing, the count and the feature names of the binary features based on the values they contain.
From the above result, we can see that there are 356 features which contain both 0’s and 1’s as their values and 12 features which contain only 0’s as their value, these features will not add anything to our model so we will remove these features in the further steps.
9. Performing Label Encoding of categorical features:
Label encoding is the process of converting the categorical features into integer values so that they can be easily interpreted by our models.
We are using scikit-learn LabelEncoder to encode our categorical features and storing these features into pickle files for future use.
10. Selecting the Top 5 features using Recursive Feature Elimination:
Recursive feature elimination is the process of recursively selecting smaller and smaller sets of features. First, the estimator is trained on a set of features and the top features from training that estimator using coef_ or feature_importances_ attribute and the least important features are pruned from the set of features. This process is repeated until only the desired amount of features are present in the feature set. Here XGBRegressor is used as the estimator.
As we can see from the results the top 5 features selected by Recursive feature elimination are all binary features.
11.1 Univariate Analysis of Categorical features:
Plotting a count plot of all the categorical features to understand the distribution of all the categories in the features.
Count plot of X0
This plot represents the count of each of the categories in the categorical variable X0. From the plot we can see that all the categories are not equally distributed in X0 variable, categories z and al occur the maximum number of times around 350 times when compared to other categories and categories like g, ab, ac and ao occur the least number of times less than 10 number of times in the entire train data
Count plot of X1
This plot represents the count of each of the categories in the categorical variable X1. As we can see from the plot the categories are not equally distributed over the train data. We can see that category aa occurs the most number of times more than 800 times in the train dataset and categories like g, q, ab, and d occur the least number of times.
Count plot of X2
This plot represents the count of each of the categories in the categorical variable X2. As we can see from the plot the categories are not equally distributed in the train dataset. We can see that category of ‘as’ occurs the most number of times almost 1600 times throughout the dataset and more than 60% of the other categories occur very negligible amount of times as the bar are very small we can assume that these variables occur less than 5 times in the entire dataset.
Count plot of X3
This plot represents the count of each of the categories in the categorical variable X3. As we can see from the plot the categories are not equally distributed throughout the dataset. The category ‘c’ occurs almost 2000 times in the entire dataset and categories like ‘b’ occur around 70 times and category ‘e’ occur around 180 times in the dataset.
Count plot of X4
This plot represents the count of each of the categories in the categorical variable X4. As we can see from the plot one category ‘d’ occurs more than 4000 times in the dataset and other categories ‘b’,’c’ and ‘a’ occur only very very few times.
Count plot of X5
This plot represents the count of each of the categories in the categorical variable X5. As we can see from the plot most of the categories have almost equal counts in the dataset, around 200 times in the dataset. There are certain categories like ‘u’, ‘y’,’x’, ‘h’, ‘g’ which occur very few times around 5 times in the entire dataset.
Count plot of X6
This plot represents the count of each of the categories in the categorical variable X6. From the plot we can see that categories like ‘g’ and ‘j’ occur around 1000 times in the dataset and categories like ‘l’, ‘d’ and ‘i’ occur around 500–600 times in the dataset and categories like ‘c’, ‘k’, ‘e’, ‘f’ and ‘b’ occur very few times in the dataset around 10–50 times.
Count plot of X8
This plot represents the count of each of the categories in the categorical variable X8. From the plot, we can see that each of the variables is almost equally distributed and none of the categories occur very few times in the dataset. We can see that category ‘j’ occurs the most number of times more than 250 times and whereas other variables are also present in and the least count of each category is 100.
11.2 Univariate Analysis of Binary features:
Plotting the count of binary features to understand the number of 0’s and 1’s in the binary features in the dataset.
From the plot, there are certain variables that have an equal distribution of 0’s and 1’s. There are certain variables that contain only 0’s value which is represented by the entire bar in ‘red’ color. There are certain categories which have only very few 0 or 1 value which is presented by either ‘red’ or ‘blue’ color bar.
11.3 Univariate Analysis of target variable:
Plotting a distribution plot of the target variable and from the plot, we can see that there are very few values that are above 150 and most of the values lie in a range below 120. The y variable is very skewed we will overcome this problem in the feature engineering section.
12.1 Bivariate Analysis of Categorical Features:
Plotting a boxplot of all the X0 categorical feature with target variable we can see how each category is distributed with y values.
The categorical value ‘az’ is having the least values for y around 75 with a certain exception represented by the dots. The categorical variable ‘bc’ also has y value around 75 but the spread is much less than ‘az’. The categorical values ‘ac’, ‘g’ and ‘ab’ have a constant value for y around 85, 110, and 115, ‘aa’ categorical variable is having the highest range around 140 to 160.
Similarly, we can plot for all the categorical features and understand the relationship between categories and the target variable.
12.2 Bivariate Analysis of Important Features:
Plotting a violin plot comparing 2 important features together at a time and plotting the target variable as bins so that with the color of the violin plots we can find the range of target variable y. | https://medium.com/@priteshlunkad1999/mercedes-benz-greener-manufacturing-b18855a35991 | [] | 2020-12-17 17:12:56.731000+00:00 | ['Kaggle', 'Mercedes Benz'] |
MDN Breakout with Phaser 3 — Part 5 | The MDN “2D breakout game with Phaser” tutorial shows you a basic way to make a game with Phaser 2. I recently did the tutorial so I could guide others through it.
However, the tutorial doesn’t show you how to use the most recent version of Phaser, or how to use good design concepts that will help you make your own game using JavaScript best practices.
So I set about adapting the MDN tutorial according to the format set out in the Ourcade “Modern JavaScript” phaser tutorial. The tutorial uses the phaser3-parcel-template, which helps with starting up a complex phaser project.
Here is a link to the finished code, and another link to the assets used in the project.
The last step of the tutorial covered creating the score, winning the game conditions, and adding extra lives.
In this article, we’ll go through creating extra difficulty when all bricks are cleared and step 14 of the MDN tutorial: “14. Animations and tweens.”
Clearing the Level and Adding Difficulty
We’ll begin creating the functionality to allow the player to repeatedly clear the bricks by creating state variables. First, we’ll add a variable to physicsConstants.js that determines how much the speed increases each time the bricks are cleared.
We’ll also add a physics variable that determines the ball’s maximum speed to keep a constraint on how crazy it can get.
Next, we’ll add a value to gameState.js to determine how much the score increases each time the bricks are cleared.
And we’ll add an attribute in the Scene object in the constructor method to track how many times the game has been cleared. Note that we put a value in a separate constants file if it will not change during gameplay, and we put it in the Scene’s constructor method, thus attaching it to the scene object, if it will change.
Doing so allows the variables that are affected by gameplay to be directly accessible in the scene, while allowing constants that are involved in tuning the game to be concentrated in a logical location. This becomes increasingly important as the scale of your game increases. A single constant could be used in a dozen scenes. So by having the ability to look in one logical location when the value needs to be tuned, you make your game more easy to maintain.
Next, we’ll create a label, ClearedLabel, to track clears and display them. We’ll create ClearedLabel.js in the ‘src/ui’ directory. The code follows.
We’ll use the same process we used to create our previous labels:
import the label make a property of the Scene object in its constructor method in which to store the label make a createLabel method in the Scene call the createLabel method in the Scene’s create method and assign the return value to the property created in 2.
With the label in place and the state variables created, we just have to modify how the ball’s speed is set, modify the scoring, and increment the clears when all the bricks have been destroyed.
The ball’s speed is modified based on the state variables in setBallVelocity.
The scoring is modified based on the cleared state variables in the ballHitBrick method.
The clears are incremented in the resetLevel method.
In resetLevel, we pause the physics before repopulating the bricks to keep from triggering a brick hit before the ball and paddle position are reset.
After incrementing the number of times the bricks have been cleared and setting that value in ClearedLabel, we call setBallVelocity to make the ball go faster with the new cleared value.
Then we call a repopulateBricks after a delay. The enableBody method turns the physics and visibility back on for each block.
On line 58, the clearAlpha method resets the brick gameobject’s alpha value. This isn’t needed now, but will come into play when we implement tweens. Otherwise the brick would stay invisible after it was repopulated.
Ball Animation
Before we begin animating the ball, you’ll want to grab the ball animation sprite sheet from the assets repository.
Next, we replace the reference to the static ball image with a reference to the sprite sheet, define the animations in createBall, and have the animation play in the ballHitPaddle method.
Note that we map the array of wobble frames into an array of objects that have key and frame properties, which is then assigned to the frames property passed into anims.create() on line 14.
Tweens
Tween creation is another step that is pretty different for Phaser 3 than what you see in the MDN breakout tutorial.
The process is relatively simple, though the signature of the tween creation method is a bit complex. The one catch is we have to turn physics off but leave visibility on the brick before executing the tween. Otherwise the ball could collide with the brick again while it’s vanishing, creating unintended effects.
We’ll start by adding a delay variable that determines how long the bricks take to vanish to gameConstants.js.
Next comes the tween code:
So now we have increased difficulty and the ability to clear the bricks multiple times. We also have a ball animation and a brick fadeout effect.
Be sure to delete or comment out the line of code that was used before to disable the brick’s body, or that will just make the bricks disappear and you won’t see the tween work. I know this because I did it when I was presenting this tutorial!
Up Next
In the next article in this tutorial series, we’ll wrap up by covering the creation of a start button and game state to control it. | https://medium.com/@michaelbragg-20879/mdn-breakout-with-phaser-3-part-5-17ab9a53bf0 | ['Michael Bragg'] | 2021-01-11 13:37:43.994000+00:00 | ['Phaser 3', 'JavaScript', 'Game Development'] |
Data visualization: How is the situation on forest fires in the US and Brazil | Data visualization: How is the situation on forest fires in the US and Brazil
Data visualization on forest fires in the US and Brazil
Photo by Matt Howard on Unsplash
Introduction
The year 2020 has come with great challenges to the whole world. This new decade began with the covid-19 pandemic affecting the health and economic systems of many countries and exposed the faults of the organization of many countries counter pandemic. Besides that, in Brazil, the Amazon rainforest is on fire, the forest who absorb quantities of CO² now instead releases it into the atmosphere. The fire in the forest is not just a Brazilian problem, in these lasts months the world saw the fires in the state of California that took down lots of houses and became a big problem to the people who live both near or far from the forest mainly because of the smoke released by the fire. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/data-visualization-how-is-the-situation-on-forest-fires-in-the-us-and-brazil-67c4a97e91d1 | ['Fagner Morais Dias'] | 2020-10-23 14:08:38.401000+00:00 | ['Database', 'Forest Fires', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization', 'Pandas'] |
Marks do matter. | Yes, marks do matter. In most of the cases. At most of the places. For most of the people.
Of course, there are outliers who make it big despite not having a big score on their report card. But the numbers are far few and between. And there is a reason why they are outliers. Because, fortunately or unfortunately, as a norm, marks do matter.
Education system is the very foundation of any society. However flawed, it is that system which determines that linearity, progression and development of a student. At least in the formal education space.
I can only speak for myself, but, I can speak for myself with full authority. And whatever little I have achieved till now — professionally AND academically — it is all because of the marks. Be it at the school level, graduation, or post-graduation. Or competitive entrance exams, for that matter. Nobody told me marks don’t matter. Or they do. As a matter of fact, it was never a question. At the end of the day, it is the theory of evolution. And to survive and secure a spot for yourself in the race, you have no choice but to stay ahead of the pack.
My 10th standard board marks may not matter today, at five years of work experience post a PG degree, but that doesn’t mean that we forget the importance of those marks in the scheme of things. Admit it or not, but 10th standard marks determine the subjects you end up choosing for the higher secondary school. And in my case, they ended up changing the course of my life. I wanted to study science, but could not because of the inadequate score. I had to take up commerce as a consolation prize (that’s another story that I ended up loving it!), which I absolutely hated at that point. Moving forward, 12th standard marks determine the choice of college AND choice of subjects. And so on and so forth.
I’m all for not putting pressure on our kids and letting them thrive. But this whole brouhaha that marks don’t matter is taking it too far. We have to be realistic. How many dropouts have you seen succeeding in the regular course of life? And the ones who do, do not ‘because’ they dropped out/ scored less marks. But they succeed despite dropping out/ scoring less marks. Unfortunately, there are only limited spots for success, and the chances are, someone much better, brighter, and determined is already fighting for that spot, reducing the odds for your success.
So let’s not be delusional. Let’s not make our kids live in delusion. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and the kids should see it for what it is. And if they are okay with the repercussions of scoring less marks and being left behind in the race, let THEM make that choice. As for the most of the world, marks do matter. Like it or not. | https://medium.com/a-drop-of-ink/marks-do-matter-8425da288774 | ['Neha Garg'] | 2017-02-09 09:45:54.517000+00:00 | ['India', 'Education', 'Outliers', 'Opinion'] |
Why is Naive Bayes’ theorem so Naive? | Intuition
So consider the previous example of a box with 3 red and 2 black balls. The marginal probability of picking up a red ball on the first go will be 2/5. Let this be P(A). Now, from the remaining 3 red and 1 black ball, the probability of drawing another black ball will be 1/4 which is P(B|A). Now this is the conditional probability of drawing a black ball given a black ball has already been drawn out during the first go, which was event A.
Now if we multiply both these probabilities, we will get 1/10 which is the joint probability P(A,B).
Multiplication Rule
Plugging in the values in the above equation for P(A,B) and P(B), we will get P(B|A) = 1/4. So 1/4 is the conditional probability of event B when A has already occurred (dependent events).
Similarly, we can also define P(A|B) as:
Multiplication Rule
Now we very well know that P(A,B) = P(B,A). Therefore, equating both the equations we get:
Bayes’ theorem
Here, P(B) is the prior probability, P(A|B) is the likelihood, P(A) is the marginal probability and P(B|A) is the posterior probability.
Naive Bayes’ theorem
Intuition
Bayes’ theorem which we just discussed above is so ridiculously simple and can be used in classification tasks, be it binary or multi class classification.
Consider we have a classification Machine Learning problem at hand. Suppose we have 5 features X1, X2, X3, X4 and X5 and the target variable is Y. Now we need to fit our data into this Bayes’ theorem such that it is able to predict the probability of class Y, given a certain set of 5 data points (See the application of Bayes’ rule here).
Assuming all the features are independent
We get the above equation. This can be presented as:
Here the Pi symbol is just doing the summation of the products of the likelihood probability. Now if you look it closely, the denominator or the marginal probability will be constant for all the instances. Hence we can define the proportionality for the above equation as:
Now this will give us the probabilities for both the classes. One will be higher (which we will consider as the predicted class) and other one will be lower. Hence we will take the argmax() of it to obtain that value.
Example
Now consider following simple dataset where we have 2 tables — Outlook and Temperature. Here Outlook has 3 possibilities viz., Sunny, Overcast and Rainy and the result in Yes/No as to whether the man will play tennis or not.
Outlook
Similarly the second table consists of data regarding temperature and its effect on the outcome Yes/No.
Temperature
And the total probabilities of Yes and No will look like this:
Now the problem at hand is that we need to find whether the man will play or not if the weather is Sunny and the temperature is Hot. Or in terms of probability we need to find P(Yes|Today) where Today is (Sunny,Hot). Here weather and temperature are nothing but the 2 features of our dataset. So the equation becomes:
Solving the above for both P(Yes|Today) and P(No|Today) by plugging the values from the tables above:
P(Sunny) and P(Hot) won’t be considered at is constant
So looking at the probabilities it is evident that P(No|Today) is higher, so the prediction for this instance will be ‘No’. But, these are not the class probabilities and you might have noticed that they don’t add up to 1. So we need to normalize the above conditional probabilities to get the class probabilities:
And to get the class probability for No, we can simply subtract this probability from 1. Hence probability of No will be 1–0.27 = 0.73.
Therefore the algorithm will predict the class as ‘No’. | https://medium.com/swlh/what-really-is-naive-bayes-64f2aabe04e5 | ['Chayan Kathuria'] | 2020-05-27 16:49:39.224000+00:00 | ['Probability', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Bayesian Statistics', 'Bayes Theorem'] |
SERVER MAINTENANCE NOTICE | One semifinal is set. It’s Pie vs Cobbler. :)
The second semifinal will be set at this time tomorrow. And there’s no pies to vote for today!
Reminder…there will be server maintenance tonight between 9 pm est and 10 pm est (Saturday 2am-3am UTC). I don’t think it will take longer than an hour. So please plan your voting accordingly.
In fact just go pick a winner now…
All the best,
Jason | https://medium.com/daily-emails/server-maintenance-notice-c7d088c0e534 | [] | 2018-11-30 15:07:48.196000+00:00 | ['Steem', 'Crowdini', 'Games', 'Steemit', 'Questions'] |
How Operations Creates Profit | Streamlining leads to higher profits. Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
Cory Walker started out at Humana Insurance as a temporary worker who was promoted to customer service. He was recently promoted again, this time to Accountant 2 (which he informed me is actually a higher position than Accountant 1). His responsibilities in this role fall under the operations umbrella, so I asked him about specifics to see what I could learn.
1. In what way does your role bring value to the company?
We oversee three regions of the U.S.: Central, Northeast, and Puerto Rico. We are responsible for the claims and provider settlements that come in. We make sure the regions are still profitable and implement proper rules and projections as needed.
In terms of making processes more efficient, I do both the idea funneling and the implementation. I have complete control over my support files so if I can streamline a process, that’s good. I can’t make company and departmental decisions. Those are mostly predetermined based on contracts and we don’t make the contracts. I’m assuming the sales teams handle those contracts since they are prenegotiated.
2. What is the most important way you bring value to the role?
I would say overall I’m more efficient on the tech side. I’m good at streamlining support and creating efficient processes, more so than the accounting logic. I know the basics of accounting but not enough to say that’s my most valuable skill.
3. In what ways does your role overlap with customer support?
We don’t work directly with a member or customer like support does. Our support would be for our regions and the people who oversee those regions. We’re in contact monthly with the people in Puerto Rico and we make sure they’re happy. Those are our customers that we provide support to. We are more behind the scenes than support because they’re constantly making calls to customers.
4. What is a hard skill you should know before going into this role?
The only thing that’s constant is that everything’s always changing. Being able to adapt to constant change is a must. Learning the ins and outs of insurance and how it intertwines with working with the government is also helpful.
A tech skill that would be useful is typing out Sequel scripts. I had to learn. It was new to Humana — we use an access database and we transitioned to Sequel. It was hard, but it’s a lot easier once you learn it all. That’s one of the bigger ways to move up is by becoming more efficient with coding and developing processes.
Another would be Excel. I learned Excel on the fly.
5. Do you ever have an idea for streamlining that you aren’t able to implement?
It depends. We get support from the service fund — what we do corrects the mistakes they make. If they could streamline their process it would lessen our work a little bit.
The company gives out awards every year for people who find ways to improve and bring significant value. I just transitioned in October to this new role. I was on the premium side, and now I know the claims, which go hand in hand. I was on more of a product level before.
6. Did knowing the product help your transition into this new role?
They actually found me and asked if I wanted the job before they posted it. I was under a manager who left a year ago. When I got back from paternity leave, she reached out to me and asked if I wanted this position on her new team. So now I have the same manager I had before. It was more of a networking thing, but I definitely had the chance to show her my work habits in my previous role. | https://medium.com/@brandy.drz/how-operations-creates-profit-4a2d751d8b31 | ['Brandy Drzymkowski'] | 2019-11-26 20:16:40.279000+00:00 | ['Accounting', 'Career Advice', 'Operations', 'Careers', 'Career Change'] |
Home Lab Chronicles | I love the command line, but it gets unwieldy for viewing and administering a group of servers. I really want a dashboard where I can quickly see the high level status of every machine. Cockpit does this well.
Installing it is really easy. Just run sudo apt install cockpit -y on every machine.
You can fire it up by opening a browser window to any of the hosts. For example, http://kube1:9090 . You’ll have to tell your browser to accept the self-signed TLS certificate. This is most likely okay. Maybe later, we can upgrade with a Let’s Encrypt certificate. We might even put it behind a proxy.
Your installs will not let you see any single server, but we want to watch every server. I’d rather not perpetually type in passwords, so let’s do some groundwork first. We will create an ssh key pair for each machine. You’ll do this on one machine. Yes, this is a single point of failure. In a later step, we’ll back up your user directory on this machine.
For each machine, generate a key with ssh-keygen -t ecdsa -b 521 -f .ssh/target_name -N "" . Make sure target_name is the hostname for the machine you want it for. Getting into the weeds of the command you’re generating an elliptic curve key of 521 bits length. This is absolutely secure, provided you keep the keys private, until quantum computing advances. But quantum-proof encryption algorithms are already in development and will be widespread before quantum computing is available.
Now, it’s time to copy the appropriate key to each machine. That’s easy. Just type ssh-copy-id .ssh/target_name username@target_name . Make sure target_name is the host you want and username is your username. It will ask you for your password to do this.
SSH doesn’t know which key to use when you ssh from your “master”machine to the other machines. We can change that by creating a file called ~/.ssh/config . Here’s what mine looks like:
Now you’re ready to add the other hosts into cockpit. Just go into the dashboard and click the + button in the bottom right. Then type in the hostname to add. Here’s what it looks like after I did one new host:
Here it is after four hosts:
Cockpit is pretty self-explanatory while being nice on the eyes. When you’re using the dashboard, it does use some memory and CPU for each connection to another host. Consequently, for a large cluster, it likely makes sense to run it on a specific node that is not used for critical workloads. | https://medium.com/@galenkdavis/home-lab-chronicles-eb132d8338ac | ['Galen Kim Davis'] | 2021-01-22 19:47:30.351000+00:00 | ['Homelab', 'Cockpit', 'Ubuntu'] |
Data Visualization: the good, the bad and the ugly (0) | Data Visualization: the good, the bad and the ugly (0)
During my internships and various projects, I’ve gradually learnt that working with data, and especially doing data visualisation, can be tricky: knowing how to properly show your data so that the others understand it and get your point is necessary but it’s complicated!
Some people think graphs aren’t that important and what really matters is the facts and figures you’re talking about. I do believe the growing trend of adding data visualisations courses to engineering formations is a proof of the opposite…
The importance of data visualisation
Nowadays, we are flooded with data: it’s everywhere, all the time and often filtered by so many intermediaries it’s difficult to go back to the original content. Every time you search for something, there are so many links, websites and other sources to sort through!
We are constantly flooded with information of all sorts!
That’s why it’s worth actually observing the data you play with and dive in it deep enough to be sure you get its message. Of course, while extracting the core idea of a dataset is a daunting task, it’s essential if you wish to use it in the right way. And the way you represent it is, I think, a good indicator of whether or not you understood it correctly.
(Because, yes, what is NOT hard is misrepresenting and, therefore, misinterpreting data…!)
After reading this really nice article on 16 data visualisations examples, I took a peek at the e-book featured at the end and discovered a very nice, well-knitted dossier on data visualisation that taught me a lot. What is great about this short report (only 50 pages, with graphics and plots) is that it goes back to the fundamentals and lists the different types of data, the different relationships you can establish between your elements and the different common representations. So you really put together the basic items and re-learn the glossary.
Moreover, it has a lot of examples: too me, it’s the best way to truly get how visual representation can bring out the soul of your data or crush it completely.
A little puzzle game for you :)
Therefore, I’ve decided I would try and give my take on the topic through a basic puzzle game for the reader: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Data Visualisation (or GBUDV for short, but that’s weird to say).
For this little series, I designed some fictitious datasets and represented them in several ways to show how fitting or misleading the visualisations can be. Foreach dataset, I made:
the Good visualisation , which shows the information contained in the data as accurately as possible
, which shows the information contained in the data as accurately as possible the Bad visualisation , which kind of gives you the data but is not easily interpretable (you actually have to think about it to get it!)
, which kind of gives you the data but is not easily interpretable (you actually have to think about it to get it!) the Ugly visualisation, which intentionally plays around with the implicit rules of data visualisation and with our biases to deceive the reader
And since a picture is worth a thousand words: | https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/data-visualisation-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-0-5270c015aa99 | ['Mina Pêcheux'] | 2021-07-13 05:53:55.052000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Data', 'Dataviz', 'Tips And Tricks', 'Puzzle'] |
Handcash Developers Launch ‘Cashport’, a Developer Kit for Bitcoin Cash | The creators of the Handcash pockets have launched a free software program developer package (SDK) for programmers who wish to leverage the Bitcoin Cash community into purposes and web sites. The SDK referred to as ‘Cashport’ is an open supply BCH-based micropayments system for Android working methods and net typescript that may be built-in into a number of services.
Cashport: A New Software Developer Kit for Bitcoin Cash
Handcash builders have launched a new device for programmers that enables them to make the most of bitcoin money (BCH) micropayments. The SDK Cashport is a system that makes use of the Bitcoin Cash community as a cost rail and connects to the corporate’s Handcash pockets. Cashport affords one-click onboarding with Handcash pockets customers and there are not any charges for the service itself, solely the usual BCH community payment. Additionally, the service works in a non-custodial style, which suggests the appliance or net service by no means holds customers’ funds. When the staff was requested on Reddit if the Cashport SDK was one thing like Cash ID and the Money Button mixed for web sites, the Handcash staff’s product designer, Alex Agut, clarified, “that’s one way to look at it.”
“But [Cashport] is also for mobile apps and games — The goal is to create an ecosystem where your money is always available through thousands of apps and games,” Agut detailed on Reddit. “Just one account — No more deposits or withdrawals, copy and paste or QR codes — Just flows,” the Handcash consultant added.
Agut particulars that the entire services are tethered to the proprietor’s Handcash pockets and the SDK can also be used for creating video games and cell purposes. He additional states that the device works silently within the background, so the developer can focus on the API and consumer interactions. Examples can be micropayments on social media, in-game cash, and a pay-per-minute kind of mannequin.
“We wanted a very easy way for developers and businesses to implement micropayments with zero bitcoin knowledge,” Agut defined.
Cashport affords one-click onboarding with the Handcash pockets’s deal with system.
Alex Agut: ‘APIs on Any Kind of Interaction or Event You Wish’
Right now the SDK is offered for Android and net typescript methods, and each are open supply on Github below the open normal MIT License. The Cashport web site states that an iOS model of the codebase will also be launched within the close to future. With the onboarding characteristic, customers with the Handcash pockets will be capable of entry issues with simply ‘one-click,’ an motion that pushes the Handcash ‘handle’ identification system and the pockets’s information to the developer’s utility.
The Handcash builders imagine the Cashport system is a nice element to monetize consumer interactions with bitcoin money. The platform’s creators say that programmers can now deal with constructing high quality content material. According to the staff, builders can go to the Cashport web site, acquire some API keys and implement the SDK. After that, “money has never been simpler,” the Handcash builders state.
What do you consider the Cashport SDK? Let us know what you consider this topic within the comments part below.
Source link | https://medium.com/bitcoinnewstoday/handcash-developers-launch-cashport-a-developer-kit-for-bitcoin-cash-9c27dcb493b4 | ['Joey G'] | 2018-10-28 18:51:56.239000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin Cash', 'API', 'Developers', 'Micropayments', 'Bitcoin'] |
How people wade through one of the top trending technology (artificial intelligence) | Nowadays people will be showing more interest in learning new technologies. There are a number of top trending technologies in that Artificial intelligence is one of the top trending technologies. Who is wade through Artificial intelligence it is good for their career?
Artificial intelligence is one of the most important technologies in this world. Today the field of artificial intelligence is more alive than ever and some believe that we are on the threshold of finding that could shift human society permanent for better or worse.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial intelligence is an important technology and it is one of the branches of computer science that can be the creation of intelligent machines that can work like humans. It has become an essential part of the technology industry. It can be performed on specific tasks by processing large amounts of data.
What are artificial intelligence platforms?
It has the use of machines to perform the tasks that are performed by human beings. This platform of AI is performed like human minds such as learning, solving problems, reasoning, social intelligence. In this AI is classifies either as narrow AI/ weak AI which is generally meant for particular tasks, the strong AI is also known as artificial general intelligence it can find the solutions for different tasks.
There are different kinds of AI platforms.
Machine learning. Automation. Natural language processing and natural language understanding. Cloud infrastructure.
1.Machine learning: It is one of the roots of artificial intelligence. When machines take care of your problems? first, we require good and reliable data to work machines well. All you need is going to build what you want. It uses the above processes to learn complicated decision systems.
2.Automation: Automation is everywhere in technology. In your artificial intelligence also automation is a must-have feature. It is basically creating software or hardware that is capable of doing tasks automatically without human interruption. Artificial intelligence is all about trying to make machines or software imitator, and ultimately, supersede human behavior and intelligence. With the right way, you can automate processes such as invoicing, marketing, job documents with ease.
3.Natural language processing and natural language understanding: Natural language processing (NPL) is an interaction between human (natural) and computer language and it is referring to communicate with an intelligence system.
The field of natural language understanding (NPU) is an important and challenging subset of Natural language processing (NPL). By using an algorithm, this is to reduce human speech structured.
4. Cloud infrastructure: Cloud infrastructure has a feature provides the scalability to grow and access resources to deploy even the complex artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions.
Artificial intelligence is trending technology with the potential not only improve the existing cloud platform authorities but also boost up a new generation of cloud computing technology.
Current forms of Artificial intelligence:
Voice assistants: If we call any technology that makes our lives easier by one name is almost impossible. It is a digital assistant that uses voice recognition, speech, and natural language processing to provide a service through a special application. They differ essentially based on how we interact with the technology, the app, or a combination of both.
Translation: The translation is not just about translating languages. This is also about translating objects, pictures, and sounds into data that can be used in various algorithms.
Predictive systems: Artificial intelligence is looking at statistical data and forms valuable conclusions for investors, doctors, meteorologists, and nearly every other field where statistics and event prediction prove valuable.
Top artificial intelligence platforms:
Below are the best top AI platforms using the software.
Microsoft Azure machine learning.
Google cloud prediction API.
Tensor flow.
Infosys Nia.
Wipro HOLMES.
API.AI.
Premonition.
Rainbird.
Vital.AI.
MindMeld.
Is AI dangerous?
Artificial intelligence’s are long series of programmed replies and collections of data right now, and they don’t have the capability to makes really independent decisions. If AI sees humanity as useless for its purposes, it could easily eliminate us from the equation by using our existing properties of biological weapons, or by making existing viral agents into weapons to make our city to come to a pause.
Artificial intelligence will probably get a small smarter and kill a lot more people in the process before we figure out how to make it actually clever. Clever AI in the future, the super-intelligent sentient sort, is probably going to see us as either tool to manipulate, like toys to play with, or as pets to protect.
Humans have empathy made in because we evolved to be social animals. Artificial intelligence made from the ground needn’t come with empathy. If we don’t make sure to build empathy into such artificial intelligence at the onset, it could be dangerous for us. | https://medium.com/quick-code/how-people-wade-through-one-of-the-top-trending-technology-artificial-intelligence-6f59f9bb55a1 | [] | 2019-05-22 12:21:00.874000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Software Development', 'Technology', 'AI'] |
What Does It Mean To Be Alive? | Can you truly say that you are alive?
By definition, we are all alive. Every human that walks on this beautiful place we call home, that breaths in the air around us are alive.
Of course, being alive does not mean that one is alive. We all breath the same air, but not all of us cherish it in the same way. Not all of us wake to breathe in the crisp air in the early morning.
Here, we must make a distinction between being alive and living. Being alive means that you are living and breathing. Although it does not always mean that, people in comas are still alive, even though they are not in possession of their functions.
Living is something else entirely. To live is to make the most of your time on Earth. To push yourself to escape your comfort zone and challenge yourself to the things that scare you the most.
It was T. S. Eliot who said: “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
Pushing ourselves to the outer limits of our boundaries is when we find out who we truly are. To go through life without testing oneself is to waste your time on this Earth.
Human history is one of endeavour and struggle. We did not get to where we are today as a species by sitting around and watching the world pass us by. Our ancestors took life by the scruff of the neck and bent it to their will.
That is the reason we are here today. To waste this gift on idleness and comfort is a travesty. | https://tom-stevenson.medium.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-alive-a2b413ec8d9a | ['Tom Stevenson'] | 2019-06-02 17:22:23.442000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Life', 'Inspiration', 'Personal Development'] |
CustThe Keto Diet & You: Good Fit? Why not Custom keto diet?? | The ketogenic diet has been described as the biggest diet sensation — ever — in the nutrition industry. So it’s worth looking into for that reason alone.
A ketogenic diet is very high in fat (about 75%), moderate in protein (about 20%), and very low in carbohydrates (about 5%). It’s intended to put the body into a state of ketosis. In ketosis, the body breaks down fat to create ketones for energy, rather than burning glucose.
How to lose weight before the wedding!!
Benefits of Keto?
Ketosis benefits we typically hear about our weight loss, increased HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and improvement in type 2 diabetes, as well as decreased epileptic seizure activity and inhibition of cancerous tumor growth.
Small studies have shown promise for women with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), an insulin-related condition. This may be due to its possible (not conclusive) ability to reset insulin sensitivity.
Everything Old Is New Again?
The current Keto diet is not the first time we’ve targeted carbs as a dietary villain. Medical trials with low-carb eating and/or fasting go back to the 1850s and even earlier.
In 1967, Stillman introduced The Doctor’s Quick Weight Loss Diet, featuring essentially nothing but low-fat protein and water.
Next came the Atkins diet in 1972, high in fat and protein, low in carbs. It helped with weight loss and also with diabetes, hypertension, and other metabolic conditions. It’s still popular today.
In 1996, Eades and Eades introduced Protein Power, a very low-carb diet that seemed to help patients with obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol, and/or diabetes.
So reducing carbs, as the Keto diet does, has a history of helping people lose weight and/or improve metabolic factors. Anecdotal evidence supports that.
Does Keto Have Any Other Benefits?
Probable benefits may be seen with neurodegenerative conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s, likely because these brain disorders are related to metabolic disorders. In fact, Alzheimer’s is now called Type 3 diabetes.
Care for these conditions is best done under medical supervision.
Ketones also appear to improve traumatic brain injury, based on research done on rats.
In the Interest of Full Disclosure…
Initial weight loss with the Keto diet is rapid. The body has used its stored glycogen (carb stored in muscle) and dumped the water that’s stored with it. After that, weight loss may continue, but at a slower rate.
Metabolism shows an initial increase that seems to disappear within 4 weeks.
Keto doesn’t appear to offer long-term advantages in either fat loss or lean mass gains.
In some people, Keto seems to increase LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.
What About Negative Effects?
The usually mentioned “cons” of a ketogenic diet are nutrient deficiencies due to missing food groups and an unpleasant transitional state called “Keto flu,” which may last for days. It comprises hunger, dehydration, headaches, nausea, fatigue, irritability, constipation, brain fog, sluggishness, poor focus, and lack of motivation. Because these symptoms are so similar to those of people quitting caffeine, Keto has been posited as a “detox” plan.
Other negatives include problems with gut health on such a low-fiber diet and difficulties with adherence.
Regarding workouts, the Keto diet probably offers no advantage for most people. In fact, the glycogen depletion induces may lead to hitting the wall (bonking). An athletic performance involving speed and power may be lower without glucose and carbohydrates as fuel.
The International Olympic Committee has urged athletes to avoid low-carb diets. They may lead to poor training adaptations and decreases in both power output and endurance. A colleague of mine induced cardiac arrhythmias in rats exercising on a low-carb diet.
Due to the low-carb nature of the Keto plan, my concern is how women may fare with respect to serotonin synthesis and function. Carbs play a significant role in transporting tryptophan (the serotonin precursor) to the brain, so serotonin levels might drop without those carbs. How does that affect women in terms of mood, appetite, impulsivity, and more?
How is a custom Keto diet!!
Custom Keto Diet Grocery List is a unique personalized keto diet plan made by Rachel Robert. These days, it looks like most are talking about the ketogenic (in short, keto) diet — the very low-carbohydrate, moderate protein, a high-fat eating plan that transforms your body into a fat-burning machine.
What’s the Bottom Line?
Keto seems to be viable for short-term weight-loss and the other health issues described above. Whether the approach is suitable long-term is still in debate. Its benefits are still in debate, as well. Critics cite possible kidney damage and the lack of long-term studies and scientific evidence.
Overall, Keto seems to be neither a long-term cure nor the ideal solution for those who just want to “be healthier.” Not least, the diet is difficult for many people to follow consistently.
A preferable long-term food plan might be a more balanced one that’s low in sugar and “junky” carbs and emphasizes healthful, high-fiber foods, including vegetables. | https://medium.com/@iamfat/custthe-keto-diet-you-good-fit-why-not-custom-keto-diet-78b1f5dcf144 | ['Serena Windy', 'Mssc'] | 2020-07-26 18:23:41.101000+00:00 | ['Lose Weight', 'How To Lose Weight Easily', 'Ketogenic Diet', 'Foodies', 'How To Lose Weight Fast'] |
From 0 to AI for Marketing Hero: 3 Easy Use-cases | You’ve heard that AI is transforming marketing, but you may not know how to separate hype from real value.
I’ll cover the 3 easiest, fastest, and most profitable AI use-cases to get started with.
The main business metric in each of these is Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI).
1. Re-targeting
How many customers have expressed interest in what you offer? And how many of those ended up making a purchase? Chances are, you experience a massive drop-off between interested leads and people who end up buying.
Your goal in marketing is a 2-step process:
Get people interested.
Close them.
To minimize the drop-off of leads (between steps 1 and 2) and convert more interest, you need to re-target customers who have already expressed interest in your business, balancing brand repetition with novelty. Realize that…
… while also understanding that
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
If users aren’t interested in your content (engaged), then don’t repeat it. But if they are, find new approaches and angles, and repeat the same style across channels. This is how marketers find their niche.
Regarding specific parameters, you can target based on features such as past behavior, customer journey phase, real-time intent, geolocation, age, gender, purchase status, and more.
Users can be segmented on the above, using what’s known as a clustering algorithm, and then re-targeted differently based on the cluster (or group) they fall in.
The parameters you can use depend on the data you have, or are reasonably able to acquire. From there, follow best practices in feature engineering to derive the most valuable parameters for your retargeting model.
2. Recommendation Engine
“Already, 35 percent of what consumers purchase on Amazon and 75 percent of what they watch on Netflix come from product recommendations based on such algorithms ( McKinsey).”
These engines leverage customer data to offer personalized recommendations and ultimately increase revenue. Depending on your business model, this can mean many different things. On Facebook, it means spending more time on the platform. On Amazon, it means buying more products. On Netflix, it means watching more shows. Ultimately, it comes down to harnessing user attention and putting it on your product or service.
As above, the best parameters are decided after you’ve done exploratory analysis of your data.
Some parameters may include user app behavior, user site behavior, past purchases, and so on. For instance, you could create a user profile, and compare profiles that made one purchase with similar profiles that made additional purchases.
3. Social Analytics
If you’re doing your marketing right, you’re engaging users and clients among many channels with massive volume and a variety of content.
Do you know exactly who the influencers are? Do you know the theme of the posts that work the best? Their length? Content? Style?
You want to leverage all data assets available to identify influencers and key players, while monitoring, engaging, and reporting across all channels.
If you don’t figure out who’s driving your social and target them directly, while maintaining the rest of your following, you’ll experience drop-off like a hole in the bucket.
Attributes such as emotion, sentiment, topics, and demographics can be classified with machine learning, such as by using a clustering recipe as mentioned above. Further, natural language processing (or NLP) can be used for emotion analysis and to detect nuances in communication regarding your offerings. | https://medium.com/bitgrit-data-science-publication/from-0-to-ai-for-marketing-hero-3-easy-use-cases-dd8efbc14cbc | ['Frederik Bussler'] | 2019-03-27 16:54:39.809000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Marketing', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Big Data'] |
Three Strategies That Make Remote Teams Successful | Three Strategies That Make Remote Teams Successful
(Avoid Pitfalls when Shifting to Remote Work)
Over the past 30 years I’ve worked for global companies that adopted flexible remote working policies, and have traveled frequently and worked remotely as part of small startups and virtual teams. As a consultant, I know what it feels like to be a permanent remote worker as well as what it is like managing and mentoring teams from afar.
What I have learned is that figuring out the how — technology platform, communication norms, meeting cadences, core work hours and time zones — and fostering social interaction and relationship building, is only half the battle. The biggest hurdle in helping remote teams to achieve efficiency and effectiveness comes from establishing and maintaining a clear, collaborative process for goal setting and progress reporting, in a way that empowers team members to embrace it.
The Next Normal
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, CNBC found that 70% of professionals work remotely at least once a week. It’s not always easy to do, and few companies supported 100% work from home for all employees. However, now that most companies have gotten somewhat settled into a remote working cadence, some companies may never go back to an office regularly.
What does this mean? Fewer commercial office space leases, more video chats, fewer opportunities for informal interactions throughout the day. Team relationships are harder to foster, onboarding is more difficult, and corporate culture is harder to maintain. The popular management strategy MBWA — management by walking around — isn’t feasible and a once familial atmosphere is thwarted by the impersonal nature of a digital screen. Managers are less able to observe employee dynamics, build personal relationships, and quickly spot problems before they become issues.
While goal setting methodologies abound, they are not always implemented in a way that supports and motivates virtual workers. The following strategies can help facilitate clear and focused communication to create employee engagement and team building. These 3 core steps are often missed, causing companies to stumble as they shift to remote working.
STRATEGY 1: Make everyone’s top work priorities visible to everyone else on the team, including yours.
Visibility creates accountability, and social accountability is a powerful lever that motivates accomplishment. Not everything has to be visible, but allowing everyone to see what everyone else’s most important goals are on can be a powerful motivator. A recent Asana survey reported that 74% of employees do not know how their work impacts the bottom line. Not only can better visibility give individuals an understanding of how their efforts contribute to the overall success of the team, but constant visibility of goals and accomplishments can also help team members appreciate what each person does.
While visibility creates understanding and accountability, transparency creates trust. Trust and understanding lead to respect and can also serve to inspire individuals to go above and beyond — to do what they can to ensure that the team (and the company) succeeds. Knowing that such extraordinary efforts will be recognized and rewarded by their peers can also drive more of the desired behaviors.
The cadence of visibility also matters. With the advent of technology, people expect frequent updates, and companies require agile pivots to succeed. No longer is the annual company meeting enough to keep everyone in the loop, and team members expect more. Having a central source of truth that is readily accessible 24/7, plus a weekly/monthly/quarterly cadence for updates is important for both team leaders and members to maintain effective communication, ensure consistent ownership of goals, and allow for shifts in priorities as needed.
Goal-setting* is often everyone’s last priority, but deprioritizing it can be even more harmful when a team is remote. Without clear goals, there can be an unintentional misalignment, lack of productivity, or worse, a lot of busywork that amounts to nothing.
Some leaders may worry that making bold commitments visible may set everyone up for failure. However, undeclared goals are rarely achieved. As long as a goal is attainable it can serve as a powerful rallying cry to motivate a team to step up and deliver.
What happens if goals change? Sometimes companies have to pivot or shift focus for a myriad of reasons. Loss of a major customer or supplier, new competitor, slowing demand, or perhaps a global pandemic. When goals are visible and future changes need to be made, it’s easier to shift the team because there is a reference point for explaining what needs to happen differently and why.
Goals can also affirm cultural values (encouraging community service, or supporting personal goals). Visibility of “culture-related” goals can also be a constant reminder of what the company stands for, which can be a powerful motivator as well.
*To help companies get better at goal setting, there are many methodologies that can help support the process: OKRs, Smart Goals, EOS “Rocks”, etc.
STRATEGY 2: Creating a culture that rewards proactive updates means less micromanagement.
No one likes to be micromanaged, but without the in-person, casual interactions that used to happen in an office environment, it is difficult to see what everyone is working on, and know when they are working. The younger generations of workers prefer frictionless (no human intervention), on-demand (when they are ready), and expect software to solve problems (there’s an app for that).
Team members do not want to be asked “did you do that yet?” and managers do not want to ask, fearing that they will come across as micro-managers. Having a process that creates social accountability for completing work can help solve both problems.
In addition to a clear understanding of goals that are visible for all to see as discussed in strategy #1, what’s required to make a frictionless process work?
Regular cadence for individuals to report the progress of each goal (with temporary consequences for not being timely). A weekly meeting for sharing highlights of progress, and recognition of individuals for what they achieve. A weekly report that documents progress and recognizes achievement, that is visible to everyone.
Goal-setting methodologies require all the above to make them work. EOS recommends creating an Accountability Chart and the Weekly Pulse Meeting. Performance or goal management software tools that track the progress of OKRs and Smart Goals, automatically reminding teams to provide updates, can also easily provide visual dashboards to support weekly meetings.
Making updates visible encourages social accountability and becomes the central source of truth that all can rely on. A clearly defined process that holds everyone accountable for work yet enables them the freedom to work on their own time is the perfect structure for empowering teams to deliver while also ensuring that the reporting happens and goals are achieved.
STRATEGY 3: Motivate teams to actively participate in the cultural shift.
Intrinsic motivators are often the most powerful. Gamification advocates understand this, and earning points, badges, and prizes are often used to reward progress against a goal. Widespread use of game mechanics in education is training our next generation workforce to respond positively to streaks, leaderboards, and social praise.
Change happens when people want change to happen. Shifting the culture to maintain more transparent communication with remote teams starts with motivating individuals.
The use of gamification tactics is natural for younger generations of workers and will become even more prevalent in the future. Here are some of the ways gamification can encourage active participation in a cultural shift towards ownership, accountability, timely updates, and accomplishments.
Earning points for achieving mini-milestones and consistently demonstrating cultural values.
Group rewards based on points that individuals earn.
Encouraging appreciation for each other’s work, acknowledging support when it is given (earns points and individual recognition)
Adding gamification can be intrinsically motivating, whether it’s trying to earn as many points as possible (point scores) or consistently earning points (streaks) and the recognition that accompanies both (badges and leaderboards). In addition, rewards that are earned can be much more meaningful than rewards that are given, since thank you “gifts” are not guaranteed and might not be clearly tied to effort.
Empowering team members to articulate their own goals around work can create buy-in and accountability. Incorporating game mechanics into everyday work can encourage consistency and extra effort as team members strive to achieve the next reward.
Conclusion:
In the past 5 months, 45% of companies have had to shift their goals. To do so effectively requires a central source of truth combined with infrastructure that allows for clear consistent communication.
Creating a culture of accountability and transparency that is intrinsically motivating to people can lead to a winning formula. While 36% of companies use spreadsheets to help manage their goals, it’s hard to turn a spreadsheet update into an engaging, motivating process that requires teams to update progress regularly. Easy to use, gamified goal management software tools, designed specifically for small business leaders without an IT or HR department, can provide a simple, fun, and affordable way to align and motivate a remote working team. While technology can’t solve all of the challenges of goal management, software tools can support the shift and get new processes to stick.
These three strategies may present cultural shifts for you and your team, but in the long run, will transform your company culture and produce a collaborative team that’s better able to operate virtually. Avoid the stumbling blocks that often accompany the shift to virtual teams and you can celebrate achievements and accomplishments together. | https://medium.com/swlh/three-strategies-that-make-remote-teams-successful-5018f345862d | ['Jennifer Apy'] | 2020-08-26 01:52:27.898000+00:00 | ['Remote Working', 'Leadership Development', 'Management And Leadership', 'Small Business', 'Motivation'] |
Educational Justice Starts with Equitable Family Engagement | Question
Convene a leadership group to initiate the process. Why are we doing this? Who do we need to work with? What questions do we have and how will we use what we learn?
Prioritize
What data or process will best help us attend to equity and answer our question?
Engage
Draw on cultural brokers and existing leaders to reach out to stakeholder groups and invite their participation.
Make Sense
Share data. Collaborate with stakeholders who participated in the survey design to make sense of it. What does the data tell us? What other questions do we have?
Strategize
Reconvene and expand leadership group. What did we learn? What are the next steps?
Act
Change policies or practices. Leverage new relationships. Discover new questions for further inquiry.
Choose Your Survey Design Leadership Group Wisely
When Erin Okuno and Mindy Huang of SESEC and Jondou Chen, UW College of Education set out to convene a representative survey design group, they intentionally recruited members who would represent and amplify the voices of Majority families in southeast Seattle elementary schools. The survey co-designers described families in the following terms:
Dominant: Being in a position of systemic power and privilege. More specifically, exerting control over educational practices, policies, and research to reinforce hierarchies between social groups. White | Full-price Lunch | Non-Immigrant | Primary English Speaker Majority: Being in a position of democratic potential and possibility. More specifically, transforming educational practices, policies, and research to support historically oppressed and overlooked social groups. Person of Color | Free or Reduced Lunch | Immigrant | Primary Non-English Speaker
The final group consisted of caregivers, representatives of southeast Seattle community-based organizations and schools, and community members who were committed to working towards educational justice in southeast Seattle schools.
“I loved seeing the group of people that Erin, Jondou, and Mindy had put together at that table. They did that community engagement work to inform which questions we should be putting on the survey and then made sure that the survey was going to reach the right groups of people,” said Divanji.
Despite all the thought and intention that went into bringing in diverse partners to design the survey, there were still blind spots. “The first time we did the survey, we forgot to include middle and high school partners,” says Okuno. “The majority of the survey results that year came in for elementary school families. Midway through the process I went ‘duh.’” They learned from this oversight, and made sure to include middle and high school partners for the second iteration of the survey.
At the first meeting, the leadership group reflected on questions including: Why are we doing this? Who do we need to work with? How will we use what we learn?
By placing an emphasis on shared values and relationship building from the very beginning of the process, the group set the tone for an equitable collaboration.
Don’t Let Partners Become Proxies
It can be tempting for school administrators to define “family engagement” as talking to the leaders and staff of community organizations. While consulting with organizational leadership is critically important, it is not the same as taking the time to engage directly with families.
“Executive Directors should be a starting point for connecting, listening, and relationships, not the end point,” says Dr. Ishimaru. “Otherwise, they turn into what a colleague of mine calls a ‘proxy’ for actually talking to the parents in their schools or districts.” Let the relationship with the community-based organization become a starting place for you to initiate more frequent and authentic conversations with families.
How to Engage Community in Equitable Collaboration
To collect the data, they distributed paper surveys in 10 languages: Amharic, Chinese, English, Oromo, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrinya, Vietnamese. Survey designers and partners worked together to connect with families in-person and answer questions as they filled out the forms. They also used an online survey form published in the Seattle Times.
The success of the survey can be credited to SESEC’s dedication to building relationships and trusting partners as experts in their understanding of their own communities. As SESEC Communications Manager Mindy Huang describes in her blog post, There’s No Magic Bullet:
“Graham Hill asked for online surveys to be available so families could be routed to the computer lab after parent-teacher fall conferences. Partners volunteered at school events to help families complete the surveys. Powerful Schools YMCA handed out paper copies of the survey and stamped envelopes for families to take home and mail back. CISC ran focus groups where they talked through the survey with their families and explained the survey to parents. SESEC recruited and provided a stipend to a multi-lingual Somali parent in the New Holly neighborhood to recruit East African parents to complete the survey. Emerson Elementary collected surveys in conjunction with the school’s data summit.”
During remote learning we can’t do as much in-person but there are still opportunities for folks to interact. Meal and resource pickup times have become the main tool for in-person communication with families.
Remember that universal approaches don’t work — ask your families of color, immigrant families, world-language speaking families, etc. what they want school to look like, and involve them in the planning process.
How to Make Equitable Family Engagement Part of Your Professional Practice
As COVID infection rates increase this winter, educators and administrators can learn from the success of other schools to incorporate equitable collaboration research practices and connect with families from a distance.
For example, at the beginning of COVID school shutdowns, an assistant principal at a local middle school in Dr. Ishimaru’s network had staff call every single student’s family and ask specific questions about their distance learning circumstances. That information was then recorded in a Google spreadsheet that all of the educators could access.
“You could look in that spreadsheet to find the individual kid and get some sense, but then also you have a systematic way to look across and you could group them,” said Dr. Ishimaru. “These are some of the things that are going on, that’s the actionable research.”
Learning from home is rife with potential: Potential to make meaningful connections and improve student learning, and potential to cause harm through cultural incompetence.
“On the one hand, there’s a way in which teachers could build in ongoing inquiry and relationships into their everyday practice as they’re teaching,” said Dr. Ishimaru. “And on the other hand, teachers have to be careful because we have done very little to really prepare them or the families. It raises all kinds of issues with power and culture and assumptions and all these kinds of things.”
For example, some educators may assume that the parent is the only appropriate person for them to consult with about a student’s progress. They may need to expand their ideas about family and talk with an older sibling, grandparent or aunt and when engaging in those conversations, to listen. No, really listen.
“All of us think we’re good listeners, right?” said Dr. Ishimaru. “But often we bring a set of assumptions and frameworks to what we’re hearing.” Dr. Ishimaru emphasizes the importance of developing the capacity to listen for connections between the granular details families are sharing and deeper structural inequities. Families are unlikely to use the jargon that well-intentioned educators and organizers are primed for, so it’s up to the listener to process the insights and knowledge families can offer about their own children and apply them to change school structures and practices.
Listening well can only take you so far. It’s also to whom you’re listening.
“Last week I ended up moderating a call for working parents from a large public organization,” says Okuno. “Without meaning to, the white women started to dominate the call. I had to facilitate hard to quiet them and make space for the POCs to have a chance to share. Teachers and principals need to be mindful about who they are hearing from and reacting to.”
Evolving Research Practices at foundry10
Inspired by this experience, foundry10 is actively working on ways that we can be community responsive by both listening deeply to students, educators, families, and acting on that information. We learned a lot from our participation in the SESEC family engagement survey design process, and we’re working on ways to incorporate some of those practices into our own work including:
Sharing data back with participants in accessible ways.
Getting information into the hands of people that can act on it.
Continuing to learn and listen from communities we’re connected with.
Working to center marginalized students and families in our programs, research, external sharing, and philanthropic work.
Prioritizing relationship-building with youth and educators and the folks who interact with them directly.
“The approaches of our different CBOs and schools may not work for yours or others elsewhere,” writes Huang in There’s No Magic Bullet. “That means you just have to find another one that does, not try to shove your constituents into a box and force it. Relationships don’t work that way. Humans do not work that way. Our communities have not survived and thrived under these conditions by trying to live that way. To be culturally competent and live true to our values of community, we strive to understand and honor the nuances that each and every individual and group brings to the table.”
We want to hear about your equitable collaboration practices. What’s worked in your community? Connect with us at [email protected]. To learn more about foundry10, follow us on social and subscribe to our monthly Newsletter.
Twitter: @foundry10Ed
Facebook: @foundry10
Instagram: @foundry10
Linkedin: foundry10 | https://medium.com/the-foundry10-voice/educational-justice-starts-with-equitable-family-engagement-ce24e702fb95 | [] | 2020-12-09 17:28:08.026000+00:00 | ['Equity', 'Research', 'Data', 'Education', 'Schools'] |
Concession Food Ideas That Keep Your Fans Coming Back For More | Hot dogs and peanuts are, and always will be, great. I don’t think you’ll find anybody who denies that. There will always be a place for a dog with some ketchup mustard and relish while taking in a ballgame. Then again, while everybody loves tradition, sometimes you’ve got to spice things up and introduce a new flavor to excite your customers.
Think of a concession food item — is it a hot dog/corn dog? 😉
When it comes to generating revenue through concessions, old, proven commodities like those previously mentioned will always work. However, once you begin pushing past the snacks that fans are used to, that’s when you might be able to attract a new crowd. Specifically, it’s important to pay attention to flavors that might represent the culture of the surrounding area.
“Local doesn’t cut it anymore — hyper and flexible local are becoming more and more popular,” said Carl Mittleman, the President of Aramark Sports & Entertainment, when speaking with Front Office Sports. “Guests are looking for menus representing the community, culture, and flavors that surround them.”
That’s something to keep in mind when building up your own concessions. While it’s important to supply the proven commodities — i.e. popcorn, soft drinks, hot dogs — it’s best to keep in mind the surrounding area and what might bring local fans into your venue. With that said, let’s take a look at a couple of new concessions food ideas; some that are more cost-conscious and some that can something a little different on gameday.
Cuban Sandwich
If you haven’t had a Cuban Sandwich then I suggest you go get one (as soon as you’re done reading, of course). Originated in Cuba (duh..) and especially popular in Florida, a Cuban typically involves some combination of pork, ham and cheese pressed in between two pieces of bread. Add in some pickles and mustard and you’ve got yourself something tasty.
Guaranteed Rate Field, the home of the Chicago White Sox, has one of the best Cubans around. From a baseball perspective, the sandwich makes sense due to the relatively high number of players that have come to the United States from Cuba.
Filling, full of flavor and not too messy. Sounds like a pretty well-rounded concession item to me.
Puppy Chow
I get that Puppy Chow isn’t necessarily considered “new” as we’ve all had our Mom make it for us at one time or another, but it’s delicious and easy to make! Puppy Chow essentially consists of chocolate, peanut butter, Chex cereal and some powdered sugar.
Sweet and crunchy…what’s not to like about it?
I may be biased, but I think it’s tasty during pretty much any time of the year, too. This snack is a viable option for a high school concession stands looking for something cheap and new to offer their fans. Make a big batch, throw it into some small, plastic sandwich bags and I’m sure you won’t have a problem selling out of it in no time.
Slider Station
Find me a person who doesn’t like sliders and I’ll have found you a liar. Mini burgers are the best for a number of reasons: they’re small so you can indulge even more and just pretend you didn’t eat a lot, and they’re pretty customizable!
So, as a venue, why not set up a slider station in a slightly-less trafficked area (so as to avoid complete chaos)? You could then offer fans sections of various meats, cheeses and condiments to prepare the sliders to their liking.
Whether you’re a buffalo chicken guy/gal or prefer the traditional burger — I won’t discriminate. Sliders are sliders, and they’re delicious and a simple hit no matter where you are.
Boozy Pops
A little something for the adult crowd.
Regardless of how much everyone likes beer, you have to realize that there are times when fans are looking for something a little different. Beer or some type of mixed drink might do the cooling-off trick for some, but how about another option? Boozy pops have become quite popular of late with venues like the Oakland Athletics/Raiders’ Oakland Coliseum beginning to sell boozy popsicles via a “Party Pop Cycle.” Yes, that is just as it sounds — a tricycle that rolls around selling alcoholic popsicles.
Not to worry, you can still sell fans boozy popsicles, sans the tricycle. They’re simple to make yourself, or you can grab some from Buzz Pops Cocktails — a popular vendor.
Anything Named After A Player
I don’t care whether we’re talking about sports at the high school, college, professional level, etc. — everyone has a favorite player. Those favorite players are a big reason why many attend games. So, why not make something available that is named after one of the team’s more popular players?
Take, for example, an item that the Seattle Mariners have begun offering in honor of their new pitcher, Yusei Kikuchi. The “Ku Ku Fries” are topped with togarashie Japanese seasoning, red tobiko (flying fish roe), chili sauce, horseradish crema and chives.
It doesn’t even have to be something quite as extravagant as that. As long as it’s something tasty and it’s named after someone who can make a big play or two then fans will be bound to gobble it up! | https://medium.com/fanfood-playbook/concession-food-ideas-that-keep-your-fans-coming-back-for-more-7feee10bf546 | ['Logan Bradley'] | 2019-08-04 16:30:34.397000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Innovation', 'Concessions', 'Front Office', 'Retention'] |
NJ Weedman Sues Governor Murphy Alleging Marijuana Referendum Was Bait and Switch Maneuver, Demands Black Market Acceptance | NJ Weedman Sues Governor Murphy Alleging Marijuana Referendum Was Bait and Switch Maneuver, Demands Black Market Acceptance Kevin Pflug Dec 7, 2020·8 min read
“To the victor, must go the spoils.” Voters in New Jersey just proved that the NJ Weedman has won the war on weed.
Longtime marijuana legalization activist Ed Forchion (known as the “NJ Weedman”) has filed a forty-four-page federal lawsuit against New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy alleging New Jersey’s voter referendum to legalize weed was a bait-and-switch tactic. In his lawsuit, Weedman alleges that voters were tricked into approving a corporate takeover of New Jersey’s longtime booming underground marijuana market. The case may hinge on whether there is a legal difference between the words “marijuana” and “cannabis.”
Weedman believes that New Jersey’s weed legalization program is a sham designed to enrich a select few of mostly white businessmen and exclude the thousands of people of color in New Jersey’s black market who, like him, have sold weed for decades in the State.
But unlike other black-market weed dealers in New Jersey, Weedman does not hide what he does from the public or law enforcement.
Weedman’s Boat, Seaweed, parked in front of his restaurant and private social club, NJ Weedman’s Joint and Liberty Bell Temple.
For more than two years, Weedman has been engaging in a unique form of civil disobedience by helping countless people obtain weed.
At NJ Weedman’s Joint and Liberty Bell Temple, which are located directly across the street from City Hall in Trenton, Weedman openly sells weed three days a week to a steady stream of members and guests of his social club.
Jury Nullification
Weedman has been able to openly sell weed (and sometimes magic mushrooms) because he has successfully used a legal technique called “Jury Nullification” to convince jurors that laws prohibiting the possession and sale of weed are nonsense and should be disregarded.
Jury nullification has been used in the past by activists accused of violating similar unjust laws and legal requirements, such as the Fugitive Slave Act and the draft for the Vietnam War.
This technique has worked for Weedman several times before in recent years, and he believes that those in power in New Jersey are afraid to arrest him because he will be able to convince at least one member of any jury that he and his customers should be allowed to buy, sell, smoke, and eat marijuana. The vote tally from New Jersey marijuana legalization referendum suggests that at least 67% of jurors in New Jersey would agree with him.
NJ Weedman’s Ride, the 420 Interceptor
Bait and Switch
In his lawsuit, Weedman asserts that New Jersey’s referendum to legalize marijuana was a bait and switch maneuver.
He persuasively argues that the wording of New Jersey’s marijuana legalization referendum was “unconstitutionally vague to the point of being deceptive” because, rather than voting to legalize marijuana, the interpretative statement of the ballot question stated that the referendum was only to amend the NJ Constitution to legalize “a controlled form of marijuana called cannabis.” Yet the title of the referendum was “Constitutional Amendment to Legalize Marijuana.” Weedman’s weed, therefore, was not made legal.
A mural outside of NJ Weedman’s Joint
In enacting the will of the people to legalize weed, New Jersey’s legislators are in the process of passing a bill that will define “cannabis” only as marijuana bought and sold from business people who have obtained licenses from the State to do so. In essence, New Jersey voters did not really vote to approve the legalization of marijuana, just the cannabis that the corporate-types guys plan to peddle and get rich off of.
As stated in Weedman’s lawsuit:
“W hile the public believed that they were voting for the legalization of marijuana, the State pulled the proverbial ‘bait-and-switch’ and actually had voters vote to legalize ‘regulated cannabis’ (a newly created term) as opposed to legalizing marijuana (as the public commonly understood). This vague and deceptive ballot question successfully bamboozled the public into creating a monopoly of Caucasian cannabis corporations which the public, due to fear of arrest, would have to patronize.”
Selective Enforcement of Federal Pot Prohibition Laws
In his lawsuit, Weedman also asserts that the State of New Jersey selectively enforces federal laws prohibiting pot. Right now, it is illegal under federal law for anyone in the United States to buy or sell weed, but some people go to jail for weed and some don’t.
A musician prepares to perform on the back patio of NJ Weedman’s Joint, with hearty pot plants growing in the background.
Weedman believes that this selective enforcement of federal pot prohibition violates his Constitutional right of equal protection under the law. Simply put, a poor person in Trenton could get locked up for selling weed, but a wealthy businessman in Montclair can become a millionaire doing the same exact thing. If the federal law was enforced equally, that would not be the case.
Specifically, Weedman alleges that:
“The Regulated Cannabis Act will permit the State of New Jersey to openly utilize selective prosecution and systemic racism to create a federally illegal Caucasian Cannabis Cartel which the State of New Jersey will illegally attempt to protect from federal prosecution.”
The lawsuit also states that:
Mr. Forchion fears continued selective prosecution and retaliation by state officials as the State of New Jersey has waged a more than two-decades old legal campaign against Mr. Forchion solely due to his persistent calls for the legalization of marijuana.
Weedman has valid grounds to believe that he will be retaliated against for his acts of civil disobedience. In 2017, after Weedman successfully convinced jurors on multiple trials to nullify the pot charges that the State had filed against him, prosecutors launched a new attack. They accused Weedman of witness tampering and were able to keep him in prison for 447 days before dropping all charges right before the case was scheduled to go to trial.
Weedman was disappointed with the prosecutors. He wanted to go to trial and tell his side of the story. He is certain that the witness tampering charge was a “phony scheme” to keep him in jail, because witness tampering is one of the few charges that are exempt from New Jersey’s then recently enacted bail reform legislation. Prosecutors also dropped pending pot prohibition violations, citing “the public acceptance of weed.” (One wonders if they would extend the same curtesy to the kid on the street who gets arrested for selling dime bags. Selective enforcement, anyone?)
Those Who Were Once Unjustly Locked Up for Selling Weed, Are Now Locked Out of the Profits
As did President Andrew Jackson, Weedman firmly believes “to the victor, must go the spoils” — meaning, he and the thousands of other weed dealers in New Jersey’s black market must be included in New Jersey’s marijuana legalization program.
We all now know what visionaries like Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and Terrence McKenna have been telling us for a long time — marijuana is is a helpful plant that many, many people like to smoke.
So now that the times have a changed, who will profit off of marijuana? According to Weedman, the marijuana money should go to the underground weed dealers in New Jersey who have been helping people for decades. It should not go to the cannabaggers, as Weedman calls them, who are seeking to become billionaires by creating “Wal-Marts of Weed.”
In his lawsuit, Weedman argues that New Jersey’s underground, black market must share in the financial windfall that will happen as the mainstream American public increasingly accepts smoking weed and eating magic mushrooms as acceptable hobbies and forms of alternative medicine.
The back garden at NJ Weedman’s Joint — a lovely spot to smoke and chat with interesting people
In a statement to the press, Weedman said:
“This new Caucasian dominated cannabis industry is a sham. Politicians are in cahoots with corporations to take over and control what is now a multi-billion dollar industry while excluding the existing marijuana market. We are witnessing systematic discrimination at its finest. Only ‘regulated cannabis,’ which is defined as the pot sold by dealers licensed by a new bureaucracy called the Cannabis Regulatory Commission will be allowed in the marketplace. But individuals possessing and selling marijuana — such as myself — will still be in violation of the law. The community that paved the road for legalization and paid the price with incarceration and felonies, are being locked out of the ‘new’ industry and will continue to be locked up.”
Now that there is widespread public support in favor of letting people smoke weed, the weed-pioneer dealers who suffered the consequences of unjust pot prohibition laws are unable to participate in New Jersey’s soon-to-be-enacted marijuana legalization program. That seems wrong.
Civil Disobedience on YouTube — Get On the Cannabus
Weedman cleverly and creatively uses social media and YouTube as vehicles for his civil disobedience.
For example, on his YouTube channel Weedman hosts a show called “Get On The Cannabus” where guests often discuss how marijuana and mushrooms have helped them cure various physical and mental ailments. While smoking joints and streaming live on social media, Weedman and his guests talk about the sad, twisted joke that is pot prohibition in America in the year 2020.
Moreover, in what is perhaps the only time a raffle has been used as a form of civil disobedience, Weedman conducts a weekly weed raffle on YouTube where he gives away an ounce of weed (First Prize) and edibles (Second and Third Prize) to three lucky winners who have purchased food from his restaurant in the past week.
Another view of the back garden at NJ Weedman’s Joint — And, yes, that is a koi pond next to the swing
Weedman admits that he expects to one day get arrested, again. He welcomes the possibility of incarceration and indictment as an opportunity to bring public scrutiny upon the manifest injustice of having marijuana corporatization transpiring at the same time as others who are less fortunate than the M.B.A. holders get put in human cages for selling the same flower.
In the meantime, Weedman’s partner, Debi Madaio has created a change.org petition requesting that Governor Murphy grant Weedman a license to sell weed.
Note: The author is a cardholding member of NJ Weedman’s Joint and Liberty Bell Temple. | https://medium.com/@kevinpflug/nj-weedman-sues-governor-murphy-alleging-marijuana-referendum-was-bait-and-switch-maneuver-5b4d59f3da57 | ['Kevin Pflug'] | 2020-12-11 02:11:24.905000+00:00 | ['Cannabis', 'Marijuana', 'Magic Mushrooms', 'New Jersey', 'Law'] |
Gold as a Currency: How Was It? | People have used gold as a currency throughout the history of humanity. The earliest known use of gold refers to Iron Age Anatolia of the late 7th century BC, to the kingdom of Lydia.
Herodotus wrote:
So far as we have any knowledge, they [the Lydians] were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coins and the first who sold goods by retail.
The Earliest Use of Gold as a Currency
The first real gold coins originated in Lydia, Western Turkey, in the 6th century BC. Ancient people found these coins in the local rivers. They were from electrum (a natural mix of gold and silver, 54% gold to 44% silver).
Since most of the early Lydian coins include no writing, it is difficult to define its exact age. So, the dating of them only relies on archaeological evidence. Most often scientists quote the evidence from excavations at the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, which is the site of the earliest known deposit of electrum coins.
Since the archeologists discovered the oldest lion head coins in the temple, they did not seem to have been used in commerce. Their earliest usage may have been ritual objects, such as badges or medals, issued by priests. It took a little more time before people started using ancient gold coins as a currency for commerce and trade.
Early electrum coins were not standard in weight, so they weighed from 17.2 grams (0.55 troy oz) to 0.2 grams (.006 troy oz).
Later coins generally showed a picture of a lion or bull on the face and a punch mark or seal on the opposite side. The lion on this coin was a symbol of royalty since Lydia was famous for its wealth and its king Croesus (561–547 BC). Consequently, people immortalized him in the saying ‘as rich as Croesus.’
The Concept of Gold Standard
The treasury secretary under President Abraham Lincoln Salmon Chase printed the first US paper currency in 1861. The Gold Standard assured that gold was the only metal for redeeming paper currency, and the government had to redeem paper money for its value in gold. At first, it set the gold value at $20.67 an ounce.
In the 1800s, willing to standardize transactions in the developing market, most countries adopted the gold standard.
The USA held most of the world’s gold. As a result, most countries pegged their currency value to the dollar instead of gold.
By 1970, the USA only kept $14.5 billion in gold against foreign dollar holdings of $45.7 billion.
Eventually, the gold standard stopped functioning on August 15, 1971. The USA President Nixon changed the dollar/gold relationship to $38 per ounce. He no longer allowed the Fed to redeem US dollars with gold. | https://medium.com/@NovemGold/gold-as-a-currency-how-was-it-fb23f7444e64 | [] | 2019-10-17 13:19:37.223000+00:00 | ['Gold', 'Finance', 'History', 'Money', 'USA'] |
#whatsinmyclothes: The Truth Behind the Label | By Hilde van Duijn, Project Manager at Circle Economy. This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.
As the #whomademyclothes campaign successfully raised intention for improved social practices in the textiles supply chains, attention is now shifting to the origin of the raw materials, sustainability and composition of the garments we buy. The answer to the Fashion Revolution #whatsinmyclothes question seems rather simple, as materials and fibre types used in products we buy are listed on the little white care label inside the garment. Seems straightforward, right?
Wilting, J. and Van Duijn, H. (2020). Clothing labels, accurate or not?. Photography by Nikki Schuurman
How do we know the labels will tell us what is in our clothes?
We rely on the legislation that obliges apparel brands and retailers to disclose the necessary information to us consumers, to be able to make informed choices when shopping. In the European Union, apparel brands and retailers are required to inform their consumers adequately on the composition of textile products at the time of purchase. The European Textile Regulation states that textile products sold in the European Union need to be labelled or marked in a durable, easily legible and visible way. There are some exceptions to this rule for more complex products (like bras) on the materials that need to be included in the composition claims. However, this Regulation should ensure European consumers know what is in the textiles products they buy most. National governments are responsible for the enforcement of this Regulation in their territories.
To make sure they provide reliable composition claims on the products they sell, apparel brands and retailers (especially larger ones) have established extensive quality control systems and test the actual composition of their products at several stages in their supply chains. In case of inaccurate composition claims, products would be relabelled entirely or stickers used to correct the composition claims on the labels. A brand selling textile products on the European market with inaccurate labels could face legal repercussions and/or financial claims. We now focus on Europe, however similar regulations apply in most countries worldwide.
Do labels actually tell us what is in our clothes?
In 2018, doubts were raised regarding the accuracy of composition claims on garment labels on the Dutch market. Why? With the introduction of the Fibersort, a technology able to categorise textiles based on their composition, misleading claims on labels became apparent to sorters of used clothing. The Fibersort machine scans individual garments using near-infrared light to detect their actual composition, which turned out to often differ from the one stated on the garment label. Dutch Parliament therefore urged the national government to investigate these allegations.
In spring 2019, extensive testing by an external lab showed the Fibersort is able to recognise textiles’ composition in a very accurate way. Circle Economy was therefore commissioned by the Ministry for Infrastructure and Waterways to execute a larger scale research using the Fibersort machine. Based on a sample of over 10,000 garments, the results of this research show that consumers are likely to be misled by inaccurate composition claims on labels in 41% of the cases Deviations between claimed and actual composition of garments were found for all material types, with the strongest deviations found in garments that consist of multiple fibre types (especially combinations between cotton and polyester).
Why can labels be inaccurate?
What do these conclusions tell us? Allegations of fraud are easily made. However, the truth — as always — is less black and white than you might expect. Fraud would imply labels claim a higher content of expensive fibre types like cotton than the garment actually has to maximise the product price. However, the results of the research were far more nuanced than that… Let’s have a closer look at the deviations between claimed and actual composition of garments made of cotton-rich cotton and polyester blends, bearing in mind that cotton is a more expensive fibre.
Wilting, J. and Van Duijn, H. (2020). Clothing labels, accurate or not?
Textile supply chains are global, long and complex. While brands have established and implemented extensive quality control mechanisms, product information on intermediate products like yarn and fabric is transferred from one supplier to another before a garment manufacturer or product trader will attach a label. Considering the speed and volumes of production, inaccuracies easily arise. The study sample shows that for 11% of cotton-polyester composition claims deliberate fraud is not likely: the claimed composition of the more expensive material is lower than the actual one. In this case a garment with a label that claims it has 50% of cotton 50% of polyester actually would have more than 50% cotton content. No industry player would deliberately under-claim a more expensive fibre.
Of course, as one can expect, the opposite is also true. For around ⅓ of the cotton-rich cotton-polyester garments analysed for this study, cotton content claimed was much higher than it actually was. These outcomes suggest that intentional exaggeration of cotton content is plausible.
Garments with inaccurate labels should not be allowed to enter the European market — as stipulated by the European Textile Regulation. And still, the full sample analysed consisted of textiles discarded by Dutch consumers, which were therefore most probably bought in the European Union. While enforcement of the Regulation is the responsibility of national governments, we found the accuracy of composition claims on garment labels not to be a high priority topic on the agendas of responsible authorities, as indicated by their representatives and illustrated by the lack of information on the topic. As the product portfolio these authorities must oversee also includes more risky topics like food safety, and as capacity for on-the-spot checks is limited, accurate textile composition claims are mostly not deemed a priority.
Wilting, J. and Van Duijn, H. (2020). Clothing labels, accurate or not?. Photography by Nikki Schuurman
Why should you care about what labels (do not) say?
Generally speaking, we as consumers show an increasing awareness for the impact of our purchasing behaviour. We buy products from brands and retailers we trust and relate to, investigate the pros and cons of material types, take care of our garments and ensure to find the best destination for products we dispose of. Lying labels will thwart even the sustainability efforts of the most dedicated sustainable fashionistas amongst us.
Dishonest composition claims will mislead you into buying products with a different impact than anticipated for. For instance, cotton is a more expensive raw material and has twice the environmental impact of polyester (according to the industry’s HIGG Index). However you as a consumer might be willing to pay a higher price for a natural fibre as you aim to live plastic-free. While you are consciously choosing to purchase the more expensive cotton shirt, you might still end-up owning a (partially) synthetic garment instead.
At time of purchase, we all want to ensure the product is fit for use. You check the label to make sure the product has the properties you are looking for, and will make a decision based on the information provided — even more so when buying online without the opportunity to feel a product. Unreliable consumer information can lead to more unused items piling up in closets and ultimately more textile waste.
Garments come at a price. They will also have a value at the moment they are disposed of. Ideally they will be suitable for reuse by a next consumer and after that sooner or later they might become feedstock for recycling. Products made of one fabric could be recycled into new ones, mainly if they consist of one fibre type — ideally wool, cotton or acrylic. A conscious consumer might consider this a driver to choose specific products. Unfortunately, as the labels research with the Fibersort showed, the only destination of these carefully selected items after they can no longer be worn might be downcycling or incineration if the labels were inaccurate.
So, what is in my clothes?
Consumers have a right to know the composition of textile products they buy to be able to make conscious choices and go for truly more sustainable products. Therefore, industry and governments should continue to play their role to ensure product information is reliable and accurate. Meanwhile, consumers should care about the materials and garments they buy, and call for reliable product information to base a smart purchasing decision on. The best way to motivate industry and governments to take action is by asking your favourite brands, for instance on social media, #whatsinmyclothes? | https://medium.com/circleeconomy/whatsinmyclothes-the-truth-behind-the-label-b9f527aa7262 | ['Circle Economy'] | 2020-05-07 16:03:41.169000+00:00 | ['Recycling', 'Transparency', 'Sustainable Fashion', 'Circulareconomy', 'Fashion Revolution'] |
Build a Deep Learning Model with Keras TensorFlow 2.0 | To develop a deep learning model, this is very important to understand what is neural network and how It works. In this article we are going to discuss about the fundamental of neural network and how its important in deep learning.
Source Code link — https://github.com/ravi7mca/MLDL_Learning/blob/master/MNIST_Dataset_Keras.ipynb
What is Neural Network?
Neural Network are deep learning models which are made up of layers. Layers is a data processing module which extract useful information from data. Usually neural network are build up with one input layer and one output layer and in between of input and output layer it may contain many hidden layer. This is a building block of any neural network.
In a neural network, the output of one layer is set as input to the next layer in the sequence and each layer are consists of individual interconnected neurons, and these neurons are the active learning unit in neural network.
In the following neural network, we have four Dense layers, which are densely connected (also called fully connected) neural layers. The first layer is an input layer and last layer is an output layer and in between of these two layer, there are two hidden layer so that total number of layers is four, they are fully connected. Following are the basic structure of neural network.
Now, We have a bit idea of neural network, now the question is how we can create a neural network practically to train a model and the answer is Keras. Keras is a deep learning API written in Python, running on top of the machine learning platform TensorFlow. Now the Keras is a part of TensorFlow 2.0.
Keras & TensorFlow 2.0
Keras is the high-level API of TensorFlow 2.0: an approchable, highly-productive interface for solving machine learning problems, with a focus on modern deep learning. It provides essential abstractions and building blocks for developing and shipping machine learning solutions with high iteration velocity.
For the Installation of TensorFlow you can go through this link — https://www.tensorflow.org/install
The problem we are going to solve here is to classify grayscale images of handwritten digits (28 × 28 pixels) into their 10 categories (0 through 9). We’ll use the MNIST dataset. The MNIST dataset comes preloaded in Keras, in the form of a set of four Numpy arrays.
Building a Deep Learning Model
1- First import the required API
from tensorflow import keras
from tensorflow.keras import datasets
2- Load dataset from Keras dataset
(Xtrain, ytrain), (Xtest, ytest) = datasets.mnist.load_data()
Xtrain and ytrain are from training set, these data will use to train a model. Xtest and ytest are from test dataset and it will use to evaluate the performance model.
3- Lets have a look on train and test dataset
The training dataset have 60,000 training images and test dataset have 10,000 test images and each image is 28 × 28 pixels.
4- The deep learning network architecture
from tensorflow.keras import models # 1- Instantiate Model
model = keras.Sequential()
# 2- Specify Shape of First Layer
model.add(layers.Dense(512, activation = ‘relu’, input_shape = (28 * 28,)))
# 3- Add the layers
model.add(layers.Dense(10, activation= ‘softmax’))
In the above code sample we are using ‘Sequential’ Keras building blocks to create a deep learning architecture. Sequential model consists of a simple stack of layers, and so we can’t use to build complex model. Its very easy to create a Sequential model in keras. These are the steps to use Sequential model in keras. 1- Instantiate Model, 2- Specify Shape of First Layer — the shape of the first layer should be equal to the dimensionality of your input data, that is the number of feature in each record of your training set. 3- Add the layers — there are several standard layer are available for e.g. CNN, DNN, RNN. During to add the layer we need to remember two thing, 1- the input_shape in first layer should be same as feature shape, 2- the last layer activation function and output size should be chosen as per your problem. In this problem we need to predict the label 0–9 so total number of output required 10 and we have used ‘softmax’ activation function, which means it will return an array of 10 probability scores (summing to 1). Each score will be the probability that the current digit image belongs to one of our 10 digit classes. Suppose you have a binary classification problem then your last layer should return 1 output and activation function should be ‘sigmoid’.
4- Compile Model — during the compilation of the model, we need to specify the optimizer and loss function. Compilation of model configure the learning parameters of the model.
A loss function — Loss function will use to measure performance of model during the training process, and thus how it will be able to steer itself in the right direction.
An optimizer — The optimizer uses the loss value to update the network’s weights.
Metrics to monitor during training and testing — Here, we’ll only care about accuracy (the fraction of the images that were correctly classified).
The compilation step
# 4- Compile Model
model.compile(optimizer=’rmsprop’, loss=’categorical_crossentropy’, metrics=[‘accuracy’])
5- Train the model- Once the architecture is designed for deep learning now the model is ready for training. We will train the model for number of epochs and feed the data in batches that is the training data. We will use the method model.fit() to train the model.
Before feeding data to model.fit() function for training, we’ll preprocess the data by reshaping it into the shape the network expects and scaling it so that all values are in the [0, 1] interval. Previously, our training images, for instance, were stored in an array of shape (60000, 28, 28) of type uint8 with values in the [0, 255] interval. We transform it into a float32 array of shape (60000, 28 * 28) with values between 0 and 1.
# Preparing the image data
Xtrain = Xtrain.reshape((60000, 28 * 28))
Xtrain = Xtrain.astype(‘float32’) / 255
Xtest = Xtest.reshape((10000, 28 * 28))
Xtest = Xtest.astype(‘float32’) / 255
We also need to perform the categorical encoding on the labels.
# Preparing the labels
ytrain = keras.utils.to_categorical(ytrain)
ytest = keras.utils.to_categorical(ytest)
Now our data is ready to feed in network to train the model.
# 5- Train the model-
model.fit(Xtrain, ytrain, epochs=5, batch_size=128)
once you run the above code you will get the approx 98% accuracy on training data.
Model accuracy on training data
6- Model evaluation with test data — We will use the method model.evaluate() to evaluate the model. For the evaluation, we will use the test data and we will evaluate the performance for model on test data.
Now let’s check that the model performs well on the test set.
# 6- Model evaluation with test data
test_loss, test_acc = model.evaluate(Xtest, ytest)
print(‘test_acc:’, test_acc)
Model accuracy on test data
As you can see the test accuracy is a bit low compare to training accuracy, this is known as overfitting. To deal with this overfitting, we can build a CNN model with Conv2D layers.
I tried to explain you the very basic concepts of deep neural network. In this example, you have build and train a neural network to classify handwritten digits in less than 20 lines of Python code. I hope you enjoyed this learning. Please leave your suggestion on comment section. | https://medium.com/artifical-mind/build-a-deep-learning-model-with-keras-tensorflow-2-0-ec416a676cb4 | ['Ravi Srivastava'] | 2020-09-28 16:51:00.033000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Data Science', 'Neural Networks', 'Machine Learning'] |
Medford’s Knights of Columbus provide dinners to local families | Medford’s Knights of Columbus provide dinners to local families
Shoppers at Acme, Murphy’s at the Lakes, Murphy’s Tabernacle and Zallie’s ShopRite of Medford donated enough food to fill 80 shopping carts.
Medford’s Knights of Columbus Council 6520 conducted their 26th annual Hunger Harvest to help the St. Mary of the Lakes conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul provide Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners to local families in need.
Shoppers at Acme, Murphy’s at the Lakes, Murphy’s Tabernacle and Zallie’s ShopRite of Medford donated enough food to fill 80 shopping carts. The Knights, who were helped by the St. Mary of the Lakes parish youth group, also received more than $1,000 in donations for St. Vincent’s. | https://medium.com/the-medford-sun/medfords-knights-of-columbus-provide-dinners-to-local-families-cb32cf8f8167 | ['Melissa Riker'] | 2018-11-08 15:31:01.076000+00:00 | ['New Jersey', 'Holidays', 'Donations', 'Food', 'Community'] |
Displaying images from a private cloud storage in Power BI report | The internet is flooded with guides showing how to use a cloud storage service to display images in a PBI report. Most of them mentioning how the URI should to be anonymously available, example. This is perfectly fine if you don’t have any sensitive data. For a company that prefers to keep their image files private, this approach falls short.
Solution:
For this solution I have chosen to go with Azure Blob Storage as my cloud storage provider. When using Power BI we are already in the Microsoft universe, so let us stay there for convenience’ sake.
Prerequisites:
Implementation(Using Azure PowerShell)
First we would have to log in to the azure account with this command:
Connect-AzAccount
Next we want to create a context of where we want the shared access signature(SAS) to be. This is done by firstly retrieving the access key of the storage account.
1. Go to Azure Portal
2. Now go to Storage Accounts
3. Click specific storage account
4. Settings > Access keys
5. Copy, paste a key
Replace <> with your account name and storage account key and run command.
$ctx = New-AzStorageContext -StorageAccountName <storage-account>
-StorageAccountKey <access-key>
To create the SAS we need first to specify the context we just created inside the parameter
-Context. Here I give read permission with ‘r’(highly recommended) as we want users ONLY to view the content.
The lifetime for the SAS token can be set by -ExpiryTime parameter which has to be of type DateTime. I created one with n-number of days into the future. The name has to be specified to generate the token based on the container we want the user to access.(see docs for more information about the parameters). Run this command and replace the <> with your container name and expiration date number.
New-AzStorageContainerSASToken -Name <container-name> -Permission r -ExpiryTime (Get-Date).adddays(<number>) -Context $ctx
This should return a SAS Token that can be used as an extension of the storage resource URI.
Storage resource URI with a SAS Token extension
WARNING: Only share the Power BI report with people who should have read permission to the container. The token can easily be retrieved through the report itself. | https://medium.com/tech-simplified/displaying-images-from-a-private-cloud-storage-in-power-bi-report-93d3bf041458 | ['Jesper Enemark'] | 2020-12-20 20:51:00.511000+00:00 | ['Business Intelligence', 'Image Processing', 'Technology', 'Power Bi', 'Azure'] |
How to Answer 12 of the Most Common Interview Questions | A job interview is undoubtedly the most nerve-wracking component of the job hiring process, but it doesn’t have to be! When you are prepared with common job interview questions and answers, you can approach the interview with confidence and poise. We’ve listed the questions and answers with explanations. Laying it out this way can help you decipher why each is being asked and what your answer will convey about you as a candidate. Learn how to answer these 12 interview questions like a pro and take on your next job interview without any hesitation.
Interview Question 1: Will you tell me a little about yourself?
While this is probably the most commonly asked interview question, so many people either fail to prepare for it or have no idea how to approach it. What most people end up doing is giving a summary of their resume and/or personal history, which is exactly what you should NOT do.
Interview Answer:
Instead, this is your opportunity to give a pitch demonstrating exactly why you’re right for the job. Before the interview, think of about two or three examples of your accomplishments and/or experiences which you would like your interviewer to know about. Then, wrap up the answer by discussing how your prior experience has prepared you to take on the specific role for which you are interviewing.
Interview Question 2: How did you hear about this position?
This seems like a pretty straightforward question, right? Wrong. You may have heard about the job through an online job board or a friend, but this answer needs to showcase more than just where or how you heard about the job.
Interview Answer:
Depending on the way you heard about the position, it’s important to utilize your connection and interest in the company. You want to show that, rather than just applying to random jobs without any interest in that specific company, you specifically wanted a position at that company. Utilize connections. If you heard through a friend that worked at that company, feel free to use their name. Do your due diligence and learn about the company before the interview so that you can reference the company specifically and indicate that you were searching for positions that included [reference whatever caught your eye about the posting]. Referencing specifics will show that you’re actually invested in the positions you’re applying for, rather than just submitting your resume to every job posting out there.
Interview Question 3: Why should I hire you?
This is an intimidating question to be asked. However, it’s a great question because it puts you in the perfect position to define your skillset.
Interview Answer:
The perfect answer to this question will convey several items. The first is that you possess the skill set to do the work, preferably with examples to back it up. The second is that you can, and will, deliver results (again, with examples from previous experience to back up this claim). The third is that you know you will fit in with the company’s culture and team. Ensure your reference what the company culture is to show you have awareness. For help on this, check out their mission, values and social media presence. Finally, show that you feel you’d make the best fit out of all the candidates. Demonstrate that you’re not only qualified but that you are passionate about working for the company and its mission.
Interview Question 4: Why do you want this position?
If you only want the job because you need a job, the interviewer will see right through that. Companies feel the right candidate for the job will demonstrate enthusiasm and dedication for the position, so the best answers will express both of those qualities.
Interview Answer:
Start by talking about why the particular position is a great fit for you. For example, “I love working with animals and I know working at an animal rescue organization would be a great fit for me because I get satisfaction from helping animals, working with them on a daily basis and making a difference in a cause I’m passionate about.” Then, discuss why you feel the company is a great fit for you. Why do you love the company and its culture? You could say: “I’m passionate about helping animals and their well-being. I admire what your organization does and would love to be a part of a team that does such wonderful work that makes a difference in the lives of so many animals.”
Interview Question 5: Can you tell me about your experience at your last job?
Translation: How does your previous job experience relate to the job I’m looking to fill? In answering this question, you want to show the interviewer that, once given the position, you’ll be able to achieve success based on your past experience.
Interview Answer:
When answering, focus on the tasks required for your last job that are applicable to the position you’re interviewing for now. Share how your skills apply to both positions (past and present) and how you’ll be able to hit the ground running if given the position you’re interviewing for.
Interview Question 6: How would your boss and coworkers describe you?
The point of this question is to determine how well you work with coworkers in a team environment. This is yet another opportunity to discuss strengths you haven’t mentioned yet — your people skills!
Interview Answer:
Talk about traits that involve working with others, pitching in to help with projects, your strong work ethic and anything else you think your coworkers or boss might mention. Make sure, however, that these aren’t traits you’ve already stated. You don’t want to keep repeating yourself over and over again!
Interview Question 7: What’s your biggest professional accomplishment to date?
Remember the skills required section in the job posting? That’s what you should be recalling when this question is asked. The goal in this question is to show that you not only have those skills but have already accomplished some of them.
Interview Answer:
When answering, think of concrete examples of accomplishments. Numbers and data are your friends here. For example, “My biggest professional accomplishments to date have been the new and innovative methods I came up with that resulted in traffic boosts to our company site. As our company’s social media coordinator, I utilized fresh posts, user engagement and content, which increased our site’s page views by 40% year over year in 2019.” Did you know that now you can find part-time jobs on Fastweb to boost your resume? Find your perfect opportunity today!
Interview Question 8: Why are you leaving your current job?
Hiring managers are naturally going to be curious about why you’re leaving a current role. While there are many good reasons to leave a job, some should be stated in an interview and most should not.
Interview Answer:
You should never say that you’re leaving because your current position is a bad opportunity. Rather, say that the position you’re interviewing for is just too tempting to refuse. Let’s be clear: you don’t want to come off as insincere. However, you do want to convey that you really are excited about the opportunity and desire the job. Don’t focus on how you dislike your current job or your current boss. Instead, simply focus on the positive attributes you like about the position you’re seeking. There are times where you will need to be honest about something negative, like if your department was eliminated from your company. Be candid and then refocus on the positive attributes of the new company.
Interview Question 9: In your opinion, what are your greatest strengths, professionally speaking?
Most people often feel uncomfortable in answering this question. However, the job interview is all about YOU. So speak up and with confidence on your positive traits.
Interview Answer:
Be accurate and focus on sharing your true strengths, not what you think the interviewer wants to hear. Try as best you can to choose relevant strengths that are applicable to the position you’re interviewing for. Also, be as specific and professional as possible. Instead of saying you’re a “people person,” try saying you have experience in “team relationship building.”
Interview Question 10: In your opinion, what are your greatest weaknesses, professionally speaking?
This is likely one of the most dreaded questions out there. The point of this question — other than to weed out any candidates lacking a major skill — is to see if you are both honest and self-aware. Many people answer this question by answering with a positive spin such as, “I work too hard.” Most interviewers will see through this immediately.
Interview Answer:
It’s best to be honest and straightforward by choosing something that you may struggle with but are working to improve. For example, “I’ve never been especially strong at building webpages, but I signed up to take a night course this summer to help improve my skills.” Also, naming a skill that may not be integral to the role you’re applying for will most likely not impact your chances of getting the job.
Interview Question 11: How do you handle pressure or stressful situations at work?
Undoubtedly, regardless of where you end up working, there will be times where stress or pressure is unavoidable. This question aims to determine how you will handle those times.
Interview Answer:
Your answer should demonstrate that you can — and will — be able to meet any given stressful situation by tackling it head-on with positivity and productivity. You want to show that nothing will be able to stop you from accomplishing the task. It’s also smart to discuss what you do for stress-reduction. You could say: “If I’m feeling overwhelmed, I create a to-do list and it helps me feel like I have things under control.” Alternatively, “When I’m stressed, I stop, take a moment and count to ten, taking deep breaths. It’s simple, but it always calms me down.” Follow up by sharing an example of a work situation where you found yourself stressed or under pressure where you utilized one of your example techniques, handled it successfully and came out on top.
Interview Question 12: What are your salary requirements?
This is a question in which you should never enter blindly. You should do pre-interview research on sites like Glassdoor and Payscale to find out what others in similar positions are being paid. Once you do this, you will have a salary range in your back pocket so you’re prepared to name a salary that’s acceptable for the position coupled with your skills, experience and education.
Interview Answer:
Based on your research and the salary range you’ve researched, it’s recommended that you name the high end of the salary range you came up with. However, make sure the interviewer knows you are flexible with your number. This communicates that you feel your skills are valuable but you absolutely want the position and are open to negotiations.
Learn more interview best practices in our guide | https://medium.com/@emailmarketinghelp/how-to-answer-12-of-the-most-common-interview-questions-e393b1c08b9c | [] | 2020-12-17 23:44:24.337000+00:00 | ['Employment', 'Interview', 'Job Interview', 'Job Search'] |
5 Ways We Misunderstand the Mechanics of COVID-19 Infection | COVID has set records for infection all over the country. It took only ten days for the nation’s total number of cases to go from 9 million to ten million.
Every time we break a record, news outlets compare the new total with the previous one. They highlight the challenge that awaits President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
No one explains how Europe and the United States can be surprised by COVID rates of infection.
No one explains how big numbers grow so fast. There may be a better way to think about this data.
1.) The virus moves in predictable ways
In Abundance: Why the Future is Faster Than You Think, by Steven Kotler and Peter Diamandis, they write that computing, medicine, energy, and other sectors of technology expand at an exponential rate.
They propose a set of conditions to describe this expansion — the 6 Ds of Disruptive Technology.
Their model of exponential technology and how it spreads is useful when applied to COVID. It focuses attention where it’s most needed — earlier in the narrative.
They explain the visibility of the wave and how that changes over time. Finally, they name the period of time when the totals are all we notice.
The East and countries such as New Zealand and Australia have a zero-tolerance approach to COVID. The West is willing to live with a higher degree of infection.
While geography and culture play a role in this difference, the United States is unlikely to adopt a more stringent approach to the virus.
Flattening the curve is the American method of dealing with the virus. It presumes that it is possible to stop before reaching the point of zero new infections. It assumes this halt can occur in a sustainable manner.
Every country that tried to do so returned to high rates of infection and is now in lockdown. The US also has high infection rates but no plan to lockdown. Flattening the curve leads to increased totals over time.
To check that hypothesis, let’s observe how COVID spread in the state of Wisconsin from February to now.
2.) Data looks deceptive when infections are low
Wisconsin started with one case. Note each time the cases double or grow by an exponent greater than 2.
Feb. 5 — 1 case. A trip to Beijing caused the exposure.
Mar. 9 — 2 cases. Three is more than double one
Mar. 11— 6 cases in total.
March 13 — 19 cases. It took two days for the infections to triple.
March 17— 47 cases. It four days to more than double.
It took two days shy of a month and a half for Wisconsin go from one case to 47. Though this is a meteoric rise in terms of rate, it gets little attention because the numbers seem small.
3.) Data looks disruptive when infections are high
The numbers doubled, tripled, or grew by an even more significant factor every two to five days. As the tally increased to the thousands, the cycle between exponential multiples took longer.
It was two days to go from 2 to 6 cases, but five days to go from 585 on March 25 to 1,221 on March 30. The first colossal benchmark would happen in six months.
September 20 — 100,000 cases. There was no huge alarm or call to action as the number ramped up by more than a hundred percent over and over again.
On this day, though, the governor called a press conference to point out that, while this is a high watermark, it took seven and a half months to get there. The message was not to panic.
October 26 — 201,049 cases.
The tone of this press conference was dire. The data was no different from observations made months before — cases increase by large steps every few days. This number was magnitudes higher though.
No one seemed to grasp that the next 100,000 would arrive even sooner than the last.
Nov. 7–263,130 cases.
At their current rate of 6,100 to 7,100 cases per day, Wisconsin will reach the 300,000 benchmark in six days. It will have taken eighteen days, or exactly half the time it took the prior 100,000.
4.) Exponential Vectors Work a Certain Way
Kotler and Diamandis state that the first of the 6 Ds is digitization. That’s when an idea can be expressed in ones and zeros and becomes as easy to share as the Internet.
When COVID presents in a new area it also becomes exponential.
Deceptive is the most critical characteristic of an exponential vector-like COVID — it’s the one we overlook time and again. When an idea is digitized, its first growth spurt is deceptive. The first phases are nearly invisible.
When Russell Kirsch scanned a photo of his son in 1957 to make the first digital picture, Kodak had no reason to worry. Steven Sasser of Eastman Kodak would create the first portable digital camera in 1975.
When Steve Jobs went to Xerox Parc with Dave Wozniak, there was still no reason for Kodak to panic.
Yet the writing was on the wall, as it was for CDs, VCRs, video cameras, and so many more separate goods and services that are now cheap or free in our phones.
That’s what the deceptive phase is like. You cannot see the iPhone that will spell your doom.
In the COVID example, that corresponds to when infection totals are low. It’s easy to conclude the low numbers are good news. They miss the way in which these numbers rise, by doubling, tripling, and more.
Disruptive, in the technology sector, is when an existing market is disrupted by a new market created by exponential technology. Amazon’s effect on bookstores is an example.
With COVID, you might tolerate infection totals of 200, 20,000, and even 200,000, but every country has a number X such that X is too many infected citizens even for them.
Sweden eventually locked down, and so it seems, did almost every other country in Europe as case totals massively ramped up.
5.) Takeaways | https://medium.com/swlh/5-ways-we-misunderstand-the-mechanics-of-covid-19-infection-6ae1f3ea114e | ['Michael B. Wharton'] | 2020-11-11 12:29:42.224000+00:00 | ['Science', 'Data Science', 'Health', 'Coronavirus'] |
Tera Update — JINN Core Development | 24-Jan-2020
Hello dear community!
First of all we would like to say the warm words to all the families and friends from China wishing them all the best and Happy New Year 🎂! Please take care and stay safe and healthy!
A few words from Tera JINN Core Developer Yury Ivanov aka @vtools
I’m working hard now to implement JINN Core into the Tera blockchain mechanics. This work is now done in majority of technical details and the core algorithm solutions are now developed to the level when they’re fully functioning at local node level!
Of Note: you can play with JINN Core simulator online now, please go to the link and make your network fully working, lightweight consensus and quick transactions!)
Tera team is now working on the new JINN Core protocol, but only on the developer’s nodes (no public testnet deployed yet).
For the public testnet deployment I need to improve the deep-chain loading mechanics. If in details, now the blocks are downloaded from the network to the memory (RAM) and then after processing written to the local hard drive (local node database), but in case of large blockchain (which is the case for Live Tera), e.g. when node is catching up from block 0, this is not appropriate in terms of node performance. I’m now working on elegant solution for this issue.
When the blockchain catch-up task is resolved, we’re almost ready to deploy the public testnet, as there will be some minor things to amend: update the master codebase, upload the testnet update, deployment.
Enjoy your well-deserved break and stay tuned for our further updates and exciting news, we’re going to bring some light to the prominent technology inside the JINN. | https://medium.com/@terafoundation/tera-update-jinn-core-development-68f8d2b41408 | ['Tera Foundation'] | 2020-01-24 11:28:43.860000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Dapps', 'Tera', 'Smart Contracts', 'Blockchain'] |
Who is Victoria Fraser? | INTRODUCTION
About Me — Victoria Fraser
Just another writer with a cute snake.
Image by Samee Anderson
Why hello there!
Look at you stumbling across my medium profile. Thanks for popping by! My name is Victoria, I’m a freelance writer from Canada. Yes, of course, I have a website, but if you don’t want to click that, then you can read my introduction here.
I’ve been writing since I could hold a pen in my hands. Poetry has always been one of my favourite genres, but I also love illustrating comics and children’s writing. During my teenage years, I dabbled in slam poetry and performed at festivals across in Canada on various slam teams. Here’s one of many times I’ve performed if you’re curious, but please remember I was 16 and those are very old videos now!
After graduating from high school, I went to university and got a double major in Creative Writing and Psychology. Truthfully, I didn’t think I could ever be a writer. All my life I was told writing was too competitive. Don’t pursue it. It was just a hobby that I could never land a career in. Despite that, I sent my poems out and have been published in a handful of small literary magazines which validated my dreams. Still, I enjoyed it solely as an art form.
Then, like many people, I found myself unemployed during Covid. That was due to personal reasons and not the virus, but still. I had no idea what to do next. Luckily, my roommate was an assistant to a copywriter and told me to sign up for Upwork. A few months ago, I began writing online and now here I am. While I am still doing odd jobs to supplement my income, I’m actually making money as a writer online.
No. I’m not making that much… but maybe someday! (Image by Author)
Sure, not everything I write is glamorous, but I’m getting paid to do it and that is what matters. No matter what, I love writing. In fact, I love bringing a voice and life to dull topics! That has made me a perfect fit as a freelance writer. In everything I do, I try to inject humour and levity, so while writing about marketing or outdoor products might seem boring to some, I find it fascinating and I love the challenge.
Now, I have done copywriting and content writing for clients across the globe. Upwork has been great to me and I’m starting to build a steady clientele. My Upwork profile took some time to build, but now I have people reaching out to me for writing! I’ve worked on all kinds of digital media, such as websites, blogs, social media and Kickstarters.
Back to Medium and what I’m doing here? Well, I use it as a personal blog and for portfolio samples. I love the writing community and the interface. If you want to know what I write, well stick around! My favourite topics include Satire, Humour, Freelancing, Podcasting, Psychology, Music and Gaming, just to name a few!
Oh, and I forgot to mention, I have a darling pet snake named Lexicon.
Image by Author
That’s me! Hopefully, you’ll enjoy my writing and get a few laughs or some helpful advice. I’ll be sure to check out your profile if you follow me! Mostly because I’m nosey… and maybe you’re a fun writer too.
Thanks for reading! | https://medium.com/about-me-stories/who-is-victoria-fraser-dea3ccbcf0f1 | ['Victoria A. Fraser'] | 2020-12-21 21:26:06.928000+00:00 | ['Snakes', 'Freelancing', 'Introduction', 'Writer', 'About Me'] |
𝐃𝐨 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐒𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭? | 𝐃𝐨 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐒𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭?
How many times have you felt self pity just because you are not doing exactly what others around you are doing, you felt like a loser because your decisions and priorities do not fit-in.
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How did you felt when Erima, Dooshima and Bola your three besties reached you with the timely news, "we've all had our change of wardrobe because it's December",
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" Unfortunately", they won't be a change of wardrobe for you this Christmas because you invested all your money😟; are you not 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙧?
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Clueless you listened as your friends had a recap of the fun from last weekend’s party which you could not attend because you were too busy trying to pitch your brand; are you not a 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙧?
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You obviously do not fit-in, your decisions and priorities are "unconventional", you mostly say a solid " no, thank you" when others say "yes";
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Does any of these make you a loser or even inferior?🤔
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𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧; 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐧.
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Are you worried about your pace? The elephant takes way longer than a dog to put to birth. Your personality, decisions and priorities are yours to own with pride and style😇 and that without apology.
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Maybe you've already started losing your originality to the undignified contention for approval, your sincere priorities are gradually fading away in the fight to feel among🤐;
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every " progress" you make in this direction takes farther away from power, beauty, relevance, dignity and fulfilment.
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𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒚, 𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏.
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𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥; 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐭-𝐢𝐧.
© 𝐎𝐰𝐮𝐥𝐨 𝐉𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐡 | https://medium.com/@owulojonah76/-34a7529d10a2 | ['Owulo Jonah'] | 2020-12-22 08:48:05.991000+00:00 | ['Courage', 'Originality', 'Power', 'Mind Edifice', 'Owulo Jonah'] |
Origin Demo Dapp Is Now Live on Testnet | Today the Origin development team is happy to announce the launch of the Origin Protocol Demo DApp on the Ethereum Rinkeby test network!
In our DApp, you can create sample listings in different sharing economy verticals such as vacation rentals, tickets, transportation, and simple “for sale” offerings. Below we’ll show you how to use it right in your browser.
While it may look similar to traditional web sites that you have used, the Demo DApp is radically different in its underlying architecture. In fact, just a few years ago it would have been technologically impossible.
Origin does not own a database where the listings are stored. Instead, all data is stored across computers around the world running open source software. Also, you don’t need to register with Origin to participate, only a freely available Ethereum wallet.
Behind the scenes, each listing is stored in a contract on the Rinkeby test network, which is cryptographically linked to extended data on IPFS. Users interact with Ethereum’s blockchain by using the MetaMask browser extension.
That was a lot of buzzwords and acronyms. Let’s cover them one by one:
DApp is short for “decentralized application,” and refers to this new generation of applications that use blockchain technology instead of a traditional centralized server backend.
Rinkeby is the name of Ethereum’s test network, named after a small town in Sweden. The test network runs the same software as the main Ethereum network, but has its own separate blockchain. You can get free Ether on it for testing, but — too bad! — this Ether has no value and cannot be exchanged for real Ether or fiat currency.
IPFS is a project from Protocol Labs that provides decentralized file storage allowing larger content to be stored efficiently across a peer-to-peer network of servers. The letters stand for “Interplanetary File System.” The Origin Demo DApp uses IPFS to store listing details such as photos and textual descriptions.
MetaMask is a free Chrome extension that is an Ethereum wallet, but also acts as bridge between the Web and Ethereum. For example, when you make a purchase in our Demo DApp, code on the web page launches MetaMask with details of where to send Ether.
Our Development Philosophy
While the technical details are impressive, equally new and exciting is how this DApp was created. In a traditional tech startup, we would have developed this code in secret and perhaps filed a few patents by now.
Instead, our DApp was created as an open source project by a collaboration of full time employees and volunteers. All our code is freely viewable on GitHub, and we hope more people will download it and contribute. (Including you!)
Tour
If you can’t wait to try the DApp yourself, skip ahead for instructions.
The home screen shows all available listings. The listings are first fetched from the Ethereum blockchain, and then the photos are loaded from IPFS.
Clicking on a listing takes you to a detailed view.
Clicking the “Buy” button will launch MetaMask where you complete the transaction.
The transaction is added to the next block, which will be mined within 15 seconds.
The apartment is now yours, time to pack for Paris! | https://medium.com/originprotocol/origin-demo-dapp-is-now-live-on-testnet-835ae201c58 | ['Stan James'] | 2020-01-14 18:57:26.428000+00:00 | ['Open Source', 'Sharing Economy', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum', 'Product'] |
Do we use a large table or multiple small tables in MySQL? | Recently we had an interesting discussion regarding the redesigning of our database. When we design a database, it is quite important to use the suitable tables, correct datatypes and proper indexing. However, finding the best design is almost impossible due to the complexity of data that have to be dealt with day-today projects. My biggest question was whether should we use one large table or multiple small tables to store network data inside our database. In order to find the answer to my question, I did execution time comparison by making one large table and one small table and then joining them with gene information table. I used identical number of columns and indexing for both large and small tables. Following picture shows the basic design of the MyISAM tables for both network and gene information.
Database design diagram for gene_info and network_single/network_many tables
The small table (network_single)contains 1655022 records belongs to one experiment and the large table (network_many) contains 5763305 records belongs to four experiments. Then I used following command to extract the number of records for 468 random gene IDs.
SET @GENES=”Potra2c131s34676,…”
select count(gene_info.gene_i) from network_many left JOIN gene_info on gene_info.gene_i= network_many.gene_i1 where FIND_IN_SET(gene_info.gene_id,@GENES) and network_many.dataset=”aspwood” union select count(gene_info.gene_i) from network_many left JOIN gene_info on gene_info.gene_i= network_many.gene_i2 where FIND_IN_SET(gene_info.gene_id,@GENES) and network_many.dataset=”aspwood”;
I got a small execution time when I use small table and here is the results.
To fetch data from large table took 154 seconds
To fetch data from small table took 3 seconds
In conclusion using multiple small tables makes the system much faster. | https://medium.com/@irusri/do-we-use-single-large-table-or-multiple-small-tables-in-mysql-8a7087348637 | ['Chanaka Mannapperuma'] | 2020-12-18 07:27:50.151000+00:00 | ['MySQL', 'Query Performance', 'Database Administration'] |
Plug-in for Jira is live! | Vizydrop plug-in is available in Atlassian Marketplace.
We have integrated Vizydrop into the Atlassian ecosystem and happy to announce the availability of our plugin. Go and get visual answers from your Jira data.
Predefined templates popular among users will help you to get visual insights about your team progress.
Charts, pivot tables, facets.
Utilize all issue fields, projects, custom fields, changelog, status transitions, and work log.
Easy to use drag-n-drop editor with a user-friendly and comprehensive guide.
The report calculations powered by autocompleting help you to modify visualizations like a pro.
All your reports can be organized into dashboards.
Filter data with your saved JIRA filters, JQL or control data using built-in filters.
Data browser with data reveal allows you to drill down into concrete issues with just a few clicks.
Share and export reports. Export, print or share by link with colleagues, friends, your mom, and the whole world.
Use popular apps data sources and add custom sources. Create charts from files, links, Trello, Google Sheets, GitHub and etc.
Thank you for giving us a try. https://reports.vizydrop.com | https://medium.com/vizydrop/plug-in-for-jira-is-live-58e718f6bd8d | ['Oleg Seriaga'] | 2019-10-09 12:14:37.611000+00:00 | ['Dashboard', 'Jira Plugins', 'Atlassian', 'Project Management', 'Jira Reports'] |
GraphQL on SwiftUI: Interfaces, Unions, and Fragments | GraphQL on SwiftUI: Interfaces, Unions, and Fragments
Learn how to query more sophisticated and complex schema in SwiftUI apps.
I’ve written a book on web development. It is an end to end complete book on modern development practices. Here’s a coupon code to save 20% on Amazon 20FULLS.
In most programming languages you have the idea of a contract. A development tool that allows you to create a set of rules, but with no code implementation. In Swift it’s called Protocols but in most other programming languages it’s known as an Interface.
Regardless of what it’s called GraphQL has a similar capability and it’s also called Interfaces. And Interfaces, along with the ability to inherit from them, allows us greater flexibility around how we design and create our GraphQL schema. We can therefore create a more expressive schema with logical hierarchies that make sense for our application domain. However they also create additional complexity in our resolvers and queries.
In this story we’ll explore what Interfaces are, how we can implement them and how Unions and Fragments can also help us in working with Interfaces.
How to Use Interfaces
I’ll introduce a small GraphQL on Node app that we can use as a sample for Interfaces. First let’s take a look at our schema.
Starting from the top we have a single parent Interface called IVehicle. IVehicle has three fields that are shared across all the other Interfaces and Types in the schema. And as you can see Interfaces can be implemented by other Interfaces, as well as Types. So then finally we see three real Types: Car, Truck, and Boat that inherit from the various Interfaces and have a combination of overlapping and distinct fields.
So far not too complicated, but now how do we use these Types in our queries and mutations? If we look towards the bottom of our schema we can see a line starting with union SearchResult. A Union is a type that can be one of several possible types. In this example the SearchResult Union can be either a Car, Truck or Boat. However it cannot be more than one type at the same time.
Now if we look at the Query we can see one query called getAllvehicles that returns an array of SearchResults. This means that our returned result set can be a combination of our three types: Car, Truck, and Boat.
So then let’s take a look at our resolvers definition.
So when you first see a resolvers implementation for Interfaces and Unions things look a little weird. Why do I need definitions for my Interfaces and Unions? Well in the case of Interfaces it’s because interfaces have no implementation. So there’s no actual data there. Therefore, if for example we look at the IVehicle resolver, we see that it uses some member existence checking logic to determine which hard type should be returned. Again, because an Interface has no actual implementation, only a type does.
Next take a look at the SearchResult Union. Why do we need that? Well as stated a Union can be potentially any one of multiple different types. However it cannot be more than one type at a time. Therefore we need to use logic to tell the GraphQL server which real type to return for a given set of circumstances.
Just one more thing to clarify. The logic in these resolver definitions is entirely up to us. There is no rule about what the logic has to be. However since it should make sense and take into account fields for each type we want, the logic that I am showing would make sense in a lot of scenarios.
So let’s try doing a query on this schema using GraphQL Playgrounds. Here’s a possible query for our getAllVehicles query function.
GetAllVehicles query result
A bit different from your standard query on types. Let’s unpack this. At the top we do the standard thing and indicate we want to run a query. Then we provide the name of the query we intend to run, getAllVehicles. Next we have what are called inline Fragments. A Fragment is sort of like a mini-query. It is a snippet of code that indicates a subset of fields to query. So for this example if we look at the first Fragment for Cars, we see the code for Car is inside of an existing query and that makes it an inline Fragment (I’ll show what a non-inline Fragment is in a bit). We can also see the code starts with “…”. This indicates the start of a Fragment. And the keyword on is a prefix that indicates the Fragment’s type, which of course is Car.
So for this example we’ve indicated that we have this query, getAllVehicles, that may return these three different types. And for each type we only want to see the fields that we’ve indicated. If you look at the result set you will see that the result set’s types and fields match those indicated by the query.
Querying From SwiftUI
In this section we’ll try querying our schema using a SwiftUI app. We’ll use Apollo’s Client for iOS to connect to the GraphQL server. I’ll assume you know how to configure the client, as explaining that would be another story in itself. If you’re not familiar you can try my story on configuring the client here, as it’s non-trivial.
So in order to connect to our GraphQL server we need to have our schema.json file, which is a json representation of the server’s GraphQL schema and the specific query we want to run. To start our query will look like this.
So this is basically the same query we had in our GraphQL Playground except it has a query alias name, GetAllVehicles. We need this name in SwiftUI, as the Apollo Client code generator uses it to create a base class (again if you don’t know what this means you should try going through my previous story before continuing). If you compile your project you should get an API.swift file that you can add to your project.
Now we need a few more files before we can get and display our data. First let’s create a file called Entities that will have our view models representing our data. Which looks like this.
These types will just act as containers for our query data. Next we want a file to create a singleton ApolloClient for our entire app to use.
Now we can create our main ContentView.swift file to present our data.
Let’s take a look at this ContentView. If we start near the bottom we can see an ObservableObject called ObservableVehicle being defined. It contains three arrays: cars, trucks, and boats. Each of which are typed appropriately. Then we have a loadData function, which is what queries our GraphQL server using the ApolloClient we had created previously. The key thing to note here is when getting back a mixed collection of types we need to “cast” the record to the appropriate type using the as<name> property. For example for Cars, that would be asCar. And as you can see if the case is successful we place that object into its appropriate array.
Next if we go back to the top of the file we see that we create an instance of our ObservableVehicle object and then use it to display a simple UI of Text Views for each type’s fields. If you run this you will get this.
Simple UI but clearly we’re able to distinguish the three different types and get only the relevant matching fields back.
Now here’s the thing, if we go back to the query in our SwiftUI app, we can see that the id and name fields keep repeating for each type. Since our types are currently quite simple it does not matter, but if we had a typical large data model it could be 20 or 30 fields that we need to repeat. Let’s try something in the GraphQL Playground. Running this query gives us back the same result set.
Using a fragment
As you can see we’ve removed the id and name fields from each type and added a single Fragment that has those types. So again if we had a lot of fields we could define them only once and reuse them with the same Fragment multiple times.
Unfortunately this query does not work in SwiftUI. It may be that it’s coming later to the Apollo Client or it’s just a bug, but Fragments currently are not working. So then what can we do? Let’s update the query in Playgrounds and try it again.
Using an interface
If we run this query instead we will get back the same data and we won’t have to repeat the fields. This works because every Car, Truck, and Boat type is also an IVehicle Interface and therefore has the fields id and name. So just update your query in SwiftUI, leaving the other code alone, and it will work.
Summary
Sweet. We saw how to do more complex queries within SwiftUI using Interfaces and Unions. And we saw the limitations of Fragments as well (at least for now).
If you have questions ask them on my site DzHaven.com. I will answer them there.
If you like video here’s a youtube version of this story.
And the original Apollo Client for iOS how to configure video.
Happy coding. | https://medium.com/swlh/graphql-on-swiftui-interfaces-unions-fragments-13eb140e1152 | ['David Choi'] | 2020-12-25 13:40:17.726000+00:00 | ['Swiftui', 'Apollo Client', 'Swift', 'GraphQL'] |
Could Blockchain Technologies Level out Income Inequalities? | The concept of Blockchain has been around since the 90s. Only recently with Proof of Stake has it started to become more mainstream. Most people really just know about Bitcoin or just the trading platforms but what about the technology and movements behind it?
Blockchain has the ability to revolutionize the way we look at the way we use the internet and technology. Right now we currently have a centralized model that allows for control and monopoly of concepts. We have a flawed patent system that protects the big guy and the little guy has minimal resources to fight off any type of patent infringements. Sometimes I wonder if the idea of patents itself is what is killing innovation but that thought is for another blog entirely.
So what is it about Blockchain that makes me think it has the potential to change income inequalities?
Decentralization. The idea of decentralization in itself can be used more broadly in areas we don’t currently use it and could actually help us as a society. Like when it comes to power and resources, utilities. If they were more localized or with things like solar panels and back up generators and batteries or people living off the grid. We would have mass power outages that could effect hundreds of thousands of people at a time when they need to shut things down.
This still doesn’t explain how Blockchain and decentralization can help solve income inequality. So again how?
Well to start we would have to look at some of the technologies and algorithms being built for blockchain. Take Filecoin for example. Filecoin allows for users to build DAPPS that store users data with multiple points of redundancy keeping users from centrally locating their data. It also allows them to pick and choose whose application works best for them in regards to storage. There is also coins that help lend out crypto assets and users can gain interest based on the usage. The concept of being able to buy altcoins at a lower rate and use staking to gain higher percentage of saving increases than you would with a traditional bank. All these ideas and concepts are important but why?
With decentralization we are able to release the control of the Big Tech monopoly. Right now the majority of us use the same search engines, the same companies to host our emails, the same companies for our server virtualizations. This makes it easier for hackers to hack a centralized location and gain access to hundreds of thousands of users data. Realistically it doesn’t really matter how well they maintain their systems with that many users on file its hard to manage. Even with AI there is still the possibility of an u[date being missed or not going through and leaving a plethora of user data vulnerable.
This is where Blockchain comes in. With decentralization we can rebuild the way we traditionally run the internet. We could have more localized models for how we gain access to data, how we store data, how we do market researches and how we reach out to others on social networks. Each DAPP can have to ability to reach others on cross chains and it would be more difficult for hackers to gain access to all users information at once. It also allows for small businesses to start building local DAPPS based on location giving the little guy the ability to host users. Security measures could be built along the blockchain to keep the DAPPS more secure on an infrastructure level.
Marketplaces could be built on blockchain that allows good to come from more local and national before it goes international. All these options are possible. Decentralizing and breaking up big tech would allow for Blockchain technologies to grow. We have allowed for too long these big tech companies to gobble up start ups at our own peril.
If they didn’t acquire all these start ups and control the majority of the patents how many companies do you think still would of been around to employ people during the pandemic? The reality of this is how many companies that were acquired were just broken up and only a small portion of their technology taken to be used while the patent itself became useless?
Decentralization and Blockchain can have greater reaches. Even when it comes to government and voting. Maybe over time we will see where the chips fall but big tech controlling the masses data isn’t helping society but hindering the possibilities of what could be. The internet has a lot of room to be improved upon. These improvements creates more opportunities for jobs and for the consumption of online technologies to spread out giving a chance for small tech companies to thrive in an online consumer market. IoT for example could be the entry points for the internet instead of using 5G we could connect through mini nodes that will eventually be all over with the rise of smart technologies. Multiple companies could host email services or virtual desktop services and whatever other type of services could be used in the cloud.
I guess over time we will have to see where this takes us. Hopefully with the currently movements and excitement behind the technology we will see more people build upon what’s being created to push us forward to a more fair and equal internet. Giving rise to new developments and giving us a second run at tech start ups who have a chance to take on the big guys. | https://medium.com/@couchmeka/could-blockchain-technologies-level-out-income-inequalities-b57acc282328 | [] | 2020-12-18 18:27:54.210000+00:00 | ['Economy', 'Dapps', 'Blockchain Development', 'Blockchain'] |
The ACLU Struck Out On Defending Liberty. Who Will Step Up? | The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has a storied history of standing up for fundamental rights enshrined in the United States Constitution. In some cases, that has meant taking principled stands, despite negative popular opinion of their case or client. Times have changed, however, and the ACLU has shifted their priorities. In the last few years, the ACLU is better known for seeking cheap headlines over principled legal work. That’s a bad sign for our constitutional rights, which are already on shaky ground. To protect our founding principles, Americans need other nonprofit law firms concerned with constitutional rights to grow, and for new organizations to be formed.
There are a few key areas where the ACLU has fallen short: free speech, privacy, self defense, and, more broadly, individual rights. It’s hard to tell exactly what caused the shift, but there is a unifying problem: Instead of defending their founding principles, ACLU leadership has chosen a narrow set of issues and has refused to take principled stands if the issue isn’t “woke.” The organization has even gone out of its way to weigh in on issues not connected to its litigation.
That being said, the ACLU can still be an important part of the fight to protect liberty, even if they have decided to limit their definition of liberty to what is politically convenient. I’m hopeful that the organization will be a powerhouse in mitigating racism, police violence, and voter suppression. They are not, however, the nonpartisan entity fighting for the rights of all people they once were. Even the once unifying message of free speech is viewed by the ACLU as having a “harmful impact on the equality and justice work to which we are also committed.”
Here’s some good news, however, Americans needing free legal help have some other options: Institute for Justice, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Speech First, Pacific Legal, and Liberty Justice Center, among others, offer free legal help to those whose rights have been violated. Each has a different focus, but it’s comforting that there is at least some bulwark in place to protect the people.
This group of law firms protects those who have been hurt by public-sector union officials, students whose free speech rights have been violated, fight against barriers to economic prosperity, and also look at new and novel issues as the need arises.
These nonprofit law firms that exist now need your financial support and your public support to grow. The ACLU raised more than $141 million in 2018, but failed to deliver on the promises of their founders. The organizations I listed above are better situated to protect liberty, but combined to raise around just $50 million in 2018. America also needs new organizations who will fight for our liberties as well. Nonprofit public interest law firms are still relatively rare. This is far from a saturated market, especially for those whose Second, Fourth, and Tenth Amendment rights have been violated.
Having worked in communications and development at a nonprofit public interest law firm for the past three years — I can personally attest to how rewarding this line of work can be. Too often, awareness of lawsuits in the public eye are just names on legal documents. In reality, the clients these law firms take on are our friends, neighbors, and family who shouldn’t have to pay thousands of dollars to get legal protection. Nonprofit legal work means that clients don’t pay a penny to stand up for their rights.
The Constitution of the United States is in dire need of protection. The ACLU struck out on standing for principles, we need new organizations to stand in the gap to protect our rights in the court of law.
Read more at www.connerdrigotas.com | https://medium.com/@cddrigotas/the-aclu-struck-out-on-defending-liberty-who-will-step-up-6304f4a09c94 | ['Conner Drigotas'] | 2020-12-10 13:52:09.463000+00:00 | ['United States', 'ACLU', 'Libertarian', 'Liberty', 'Civil Rights'] |
How to lose 40 pounds in 2 months? (Complete guide) | How to lose 40 pounds in 2 months? (Complete guide)
FOTO: UNSPLASH
It is never too late to make a positive change and get the body you always wanted. Dieting and exercising can seem very difficult. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve your weight loss goal!
Sounds familiar doesn’t it? It is never too late to make a positive change and get the body you have always wanted. Dieting and exercising can seem very difficult. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve your weight loss goal!
I have created a fat burning plan that will help you lose up to 40 pounds from your body in 2 months. It will be without starvation, with strange supplements or eliminating complete food groups.
I will teach you how to lose 40 pounds in 2 months safely by changing your lifestyle and your attitude towards your body and your food.
Diet to lose 40 pounds in 2 months
Your diet is considered as your bank account. Good food choices are known as good investments. “
When there is a discussion about weight loss, DIET is the most crucial factor. You need to eat enough to keep up, that means- NO BINGING OR OVER-EATING.
The basic principles of the diet are simple: the less healthy you eat, the more you will lose.
Many people confuse “less eating” with “starving.” Both very completely.
Starving denotes “not eating at all.” It means not providing your body with the optimal and required nutrition.
Whereas “eating less” here is “eating enough to support your body.”
So, here are some dietary changes you need to make to lose 40 pounds in 2 months.
It has been shown that to lose 40 pounds, you need to eat 1,200–1,400 calories in one day.
For the 1200 calorie diet plan check here .
Alternatively, you can follow the 7-day weight loss diet plan once a month during the period.
This implies that each meal must be designed to have 350 to 450 calories. Half-snack meals should be no more than 100 calories.
This diet can be followed by teens and adults.
The following is the structure of the diet that you must follow.
1. Add green tea to your routine
According to a recent study, green tea drinkers burn approximately 70 extra calories in 24 hours. It equals 7.3 pounds per year!
Read more: How much water should you drink a day to lose weight?
According to research, it is because of the antioxidants present in green tea. These antioxidants improve metabolism. These are called “ Catechins “.
The best way to have green tea
Making green tea is not a complicated task. This is the best way to prepare green tea.
Take a teapot and pour a little water. Keep it warm for a few minutes.
Put in a teaspoon of green tea.
Add a tablespoon of honey followed by two tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.
Stir well. Boil it and then strain.
And your green tea is ready. Make a rule to consume it in the morning, on an empty stomach. You can also have a cup of green tea before going to the gym or your exercise routine.
2. Water is your best friend
You must have heard, what diet you follow, water is essential!
Research in Germany stated that consuming a good amount of water every day increases the rate of calorie burning.
Drinking water helps your body cool off. This helps you burn even more calories as your body will have to work to maintain body temperature. Water also keeps your stomach full. Eliminate toxins from your body too.
One must have at least 8 glasses of water every day. If you do, you will notice an increase in the rate at which you are losing weight.
3. Reduce sugar
Once you develop a sweet tooth, you can’t get rid of it. You start consuming more and more day by day.
Sugar and sugar products scale weight gain. Therefore, you have to say goodbye, this tempting but unhealthy ingredient.
If you crave sugar or something sweet, try substitutes. For example, you can put a tablespoon of HONEY in lemonade or oatmeal, instead of sugar. Some other healthy sugar substitutes include:
Maple syrup
Agave nectar
Coba
Raisins
Brown rice syrup etc.
However, I suggest you consume sugar-free dishes for a period of 2 months. This will help you lose more weight in comparatively less time.
4. “Don’t skip meals”
Skipping meals will not make you lose weight faster. Every meal of the day is important. So, here is how you should manage all of your meals-
to. A healthy breakfast
Breakfast should be your priority meal. Many people think that avoiding breakfast would help them lose weight quickly.
The strategy always backfires, leading to extreme hunger, excess food, and ultimately weight gain. In order for your weight loss effort to be successful, you must give importance to breakfast!
second. Average meal (between breakfast and lunch)
1–2 hours after breakfast and before lunch, you may feel a little rushed in your stomach. This is the time when you cannot take proper meals.
Therefore, you must satisfy your stomach by eating some healthy, low-portion snacks.
do. lunch
Lunch is of primary cultural importance in most parts of the world. Half the food would not fill your stomach. Therefore, it is important to have a well-divided lunch. Lunch keeps your metabolism active.
re. Night
Snack time in the evening! This is the time around 4–5 in the afternoon. Like the midday meal, you can have low portions and healthy snacks right now.
Drink a cup of green tea along with digestive crackers or low-fat snacks. You can also grab an apple.
Read more: Top 11 Foods for Weight Loss!
me. Dinner
Your dinner should be smaller compared to the other meals of the day. It is because the activity gradient decreases at the end of the day, unless you work at night.
But skipping dinner is not compatible.
It is true that dinner should be lighter than other meals, but skipping is never a healthy option. This leads to a large gap between your last meal and your first meal the next day.
This can lead to heartburn, increased appetite, lack of sleep, and more.
All you need to make sure is that your portion size is correct and that you eat your dinner 3 hours before bed.
Meal plan to lose 40 pounds
1. Meal 1 — Breakfast
A two-egg omelette loaded with tons of vegetables: red bell peppers, kale, and spinach, or a mix of asparagus, thinly sliced fennel, and mushrooms.
If eggs aren’t an option, mix half of a frozen banana with 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries.
2 slices of whole wheat bread with peanut butter. Also have low-fat milk and a banana.
2. Meal 2 — Brunch
An apple or any other fruit. Drink green tea or a few glasses of water
A small orange with 6 almonds, yogurt without sugar
3. Meal 3 — Lunch
A green salad with chicken or grilled fish. Dress in olive oil and lemon juice as a healthy lunch.
Stir in the chicken breast with water chestnuts, shiitake mushrooms, broccoli, and snow peas. Season with soy sauce and serve more than 1/2 cup of brown rice.
Homemade vegetable or lentil soup along with half of a turkey sandwich. Accompany it with 100% whole wheat bread. It is another option for lunch with fiber, protein and vegetables.
4. Meal 4: Evening Appetizer
Take an apple with green tea.
Have green tea with digestive biscuits
Unsweetened yogurt, 2 cups green salad (fat-free)
Also read: 20 quick and easy homemade desserts recipes
5. Lunch 5 — Dinner
Have 1/2 to 1 cup of black beans seasoned with 1 cup of quinoa, a few slices of avocado, and salsa.
Grab a roast chicken and serve 4 ounces skinless. Along with it, grab a small whole wheat roll and a spinach salad. Top it with an ounce of feta cheese, cherry tomatoes, and balsamic dressing with olive oil.
Grill the flank steak seasoned with dried thyme and oregano. Take it with 1 cup of 100% whole wheat pasta mixed with fresh basil and chopped tomato.
4 ounces grilled salmon with 1/4 cup brown rice.
Foods to eat and avoid
While on this diet, you should really focus on the amount of carbohydrates you eat.
Google a quantity of carbohydrates in each ingredient before taking it. You should limit your carbohydrate intake to 10–20 grams per day. It will be difficult during the first days. But in the end you will feel better.
Few carbohydrate foods here
Lean meat, chicken
Milk
Fish of all types
Egg whites
Most vegetables INCLUDE- Broccoli, cauliflower, spinach
Most fruits
(No matter what you eat, watch your portion size. Don’t eat too much, the weather is healthy or unhealthy)
Foods to avoid
Fast food
Fried food
Sugar
Processed foods
Some additional tips
1. Training
Any amount of physical activity will speed up your weight loss process. Cardiovascular exercises increase your heart rate. This is what helps you burn more calories and also speeds up your metabolism.
Read more: Some tips to lower your mind to lose weight
It is not important that you join a gym, you can also do many things on your own.
2. Go on a regular night walk
It has been noted that the metabolism of many people slows down at the end of the day. Therefore, make the night walk a routine.
Thirty minutes of walking every day will increase your metabolic rate, leading to faster weight loss.
Read: 10 delicious drinks to lose weight while you sleep
3. More routine exercises
Here are some exercises you should do every morning along with the prescribed diet to reach your goal of losing 40 pounds.
Jog in place (4–5 minutes)
Jumps (200)
Squats (50–75, takes a space of 2 minutes after every 25)
Planks (same as above)
ABS
Bicycle crunches
Plank walks
Lizards
Clamp crunches
You can also join aerobics, Zumba, kickboxing and power yoga! They are also really effective.
Set aside 30 minutes to an hour every day to exercise. A 30-minute exercise session along with walking would help you burn up to 700 (approximately) calories.
Choose any of the exercises mentioned above and do at least 3 rounds of all! Enjoying these will not only help you lose weight, but it will also give you a perfectly carved body.
Physical activities not only include these heavy exercises. A slight change in habits can do wonders! How-
Take stairs instead of escalators and elevators
Try walking at close distances, rather than using vehicles.
Do not sit in one place for a long time. Try to do your work on your own, keep moving.
If you have a long phone call to attend, keep walking as you speak.
Taking the dog out, gardening and cleaning increase the amount of calories you can burn.
Some other things to keep in mind while on the show
1. Prefer home cooked meals
No matter what you plan to eat outside, it can ruin your diet. Homemade food is healthier and has a controlled part (because you are cooking it)
Bring a healthy lunch from home to college or work. Avoid eating in cafes, dining rooms.
2. Sleep on time
Lack of sleep / lack of sleep can also cause you to gain weight. Decrease your ability to think and function.
It slows down your metabolism and increases your appetite. Therefore, be sure to get at least 7–8 hours of sleep each night.
Read More: The military trick to fall asleep in 2 minutes
3. Fill your pantry with healthy foods
Check your pantry and empty all the noodles, pastas, chocolates, and other snacks. Once you get rid of all these “unhealthy” snacks, you will be left with the option of eating healthy or not eating at all. Well, what are you going to look for?
Fill your pantry with the healthiest vegetables and fruits. When you see everything healthy around you, you will feel healthy and EAT Healthy.
Final note
This diet may be a little difficult for you, but the goal is not impossible to achieve. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you are not afraid to fail.
You have to do your best. Give yourself a day to cheat (once a week). Avoid getting frustrated and stay calm and patient while you’re on the plan. It may take some time, but it will be worth it.
P.S. Take a look at the 5 veggies that boost female metabolism and burn off lower belly fat. | https://medium.com/@dailyhealthinfo/how-to-lose-40-pounds-in-2-months-complete-guide-9a6f8b54df69 | ['Daily Health Info'] | 2021-04-29 12:52:45.870000+00:00 | ['DIET'] |
Flutter. A scrollable list of items | How to make you list of items scrollable, like this:
… let’s find out, shall we.
Let’s imagine that we have two articles (or some other content boxes) on our main page.
final List<Widget> articles = [
Article(),
Article(),
]; @override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
body: Container(
child: Center(
child: Column(
children: articles,
),
),
),
That's ok, it looks great, but then we are adding three more articles and all become messy and we will get an error A RenderFlex overflowed by 222 pixels on the bottom. .
final List<Widget> articles = [
Article(),
Article(),
Article(),
Article(),
Article(),
];
That is because Column widget is not scrollable.
So how can we change that?
Just change Column widget to ListView widget — and that’s all. Your container becomes scrollable.
@override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
return Scaffold(
body: Container(
child: Center(
child: ListView(
children: articles,
),
),
),
...
The result is … acceptable. But it could be better. Let’s modify our code so that our articles become more “classy” 😉 | https://medium.com/litslink-mobile-development/flutter-scrollable-list-of-items-f2bc072ff840 | ['Artem Diashkin'] | 2020-11-18 09:46:39.525000+00:00 | ['Lists', 'Scroll', 'Overflow', 'Flutter', 'Scrollview'] |
02/05/2018: Biggest Stories in the Cryptosphere | by BlockEx
1. Self-regulatory Trade Association CryptoUK Asks MPs To Implement Regulations
CryptoUK, the first self-regulatory trade association for the UK crypto industry, is calling for MPs to apply Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations and guidelines to cryptocurrencies by putting them under the body’s jurisdiction. The proposal was created in response to the Treasury Committee’s announcement it would launch an inquiry into cryptocurrencies. Along with BlockEx, other members of CryptoUK include Coinbase and eToro. Among the proposals, there is a Crypto-License which would be granted to AML- and KYC-compliant crypto exchanges. It was also added that, ideally, the focus should be on the intermediaries, rather than cryptocurrencies themselves, as peer-to-peer policies already exist. The group believes that regulation is fundamental for the industry to flourish.
2. Crypto And Blockchain Will Lead To Cashless Society, Says S Korea Central Bank
The Bank of Korea (BOK), South Korea’s central bank, has been attempting to create a ‘cashless society’ for some time now. It has now announced that crypto and blockchain are being considered as possible tools to achieve the goal. The cashfree society pilot was officially announced yesterday, along with the involvement of blockchain and cryptocurrency for aspects such as payments. An organisation investigating digital currencies and the impact they can have on the financial system has also been established. The ambition is to save on currency producing costs ($47 million was spent in 2016) and improve customers’ experience. The move would also help fight the black market, which is mostly based on cash transactions.
3. Biggest Names In Automotive Industry Launch Blockchain Research Coalition
A blockchain research coalition has been launched by some of the biggest names in the automotive industry. BMW, GM, Ford and Renault have partnered to form the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI). Among the 30 members involved in the project are Bosch, Berkeley (Blockchain), Hyperledger, Fetch.ai, IBM and IOTA. The aim of the project, which was launched today, is to cut costs, as well as improving safety and increasing accessibility for transportation. The aspects they hope to improve with blockchain technology are ‘payments, data tracking, and supply management, to consumer finance and pricing, and more futuristic areas like autonomous vehicles and ride-sharing systems’. Although this is not the first time automakers have joined this type of group, this is the first coalition focused on the industry.
4. Korean Peace Treaty Recorded On Ethereum Blockchain
South Korean developer Ryu
Gi-hyeok has recorded the details of the peace treaty between North Korea and South Korea on Ethereum blockchain. By doing so he made history. At the 2018 Inter-Korean Summit, leaders Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un signed the Panmunjom Declaration, which was then recorded through two transactions, in English and Korean.
This news roundup was brought to you by BlockEx. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/02-05-2018-biggest-stories-in-the-cryptosphere-698775eefd63 | [] | 2018-05-02 16:27:43.848000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum Blockchain', 'Regulation', 'Blockchain'] |
City of the Dead — Doxa 2019. Infatuated with death and rituals like… | I must admit, I am a bit more obsessed with death than probably most people, so this film was right up my alley. After all, we all die, right? It is not like some do and some don’t, we all do. So why not talk about it more? This is exactly what director Miguel Eek has us witnessing.
Miguel does a fantastic job of illuminating the subtleties of what happens with the body after death, the processes and options available, and a peek into some of the family members as they make these decisions. What I loved equally, if not even more, was the candid conversations that he caught on film between the workers. These are the people who clean up, tend the gardens, and work to maintain the beauty in this “city”.
City it is, by the way. In North America, we think of a cemetery as a large, sprawling lawn scattered with tombstones and markers. In Palma de Mallorca, this cemetery is a multi-level structure with endless amounts of hallways and staircases that house caskets, cremated remains, and lots of adornment. Basically, an elaborate apartment building! Not only is it beautiful, but very practical in terms of land usage, for sure.
Go see it for yourself! Not for the faint of heart, but worth it. | https://medium.com/mind-your-madness/city-of-the-dead-doxa-2019-6e135bf88cff | ['Jennifer Hammersmark'] | 2019-05-05 21:44:04.623000+00:00 | ['Movie Review', 'Documentary', 'Death', 'Review', 'Cemetery'] |
A Mental Health Facility in Utah County Doesn’t Allow Transgender Folks to Use the Corresponding Bathroom | I have no idea who I am. So I have done experiment perhaps three times of going into empty women’s bathrooms when wearing traditionally women’s clothing publicly. I went into the empty women’s bathroom at the Wasatch Mental Health Recovery Outreach Center in Utah County while wearing traditionally women’s clothing.
That wasn’t OK, I was later told by phone.
In that same call in the middle of this month, I was also told (in case there was any doubt) that usage of the women’s bathroom by those with male bodies, regardless of gender identification, is not permitted at the facility. (This social worker also thought that I was transgender.)
The Wasatch Mental Health Outreach Recovery Center in Provo, Utah, where folks who identify as transgender cannot use the corresponding bathroom. (Wasatch Mental Health)
“LCSW” is behind the names of nearly all the ROC staff, according to Wasatch Mental Health.
“LCSW” means licensed clinical social worker.
Meaning, these staff got extensive training in social work.
Social work is a field where social progressivism is the norm.
Social progressivism includes an acceptance of those perceived as transgender, including bathroom usage. Especially bathroom usage, given the debate recently in the United States public form.
But in Utah County, do even LCSWs feel differently?
Utah County, comprised nearly entirely of Latter-day Saints (ex-Mormons), was relatively recently measured to be the most conservative county in the United States.
The gender views of ROC social workers is aside from the fact that on back-to-back days at the center, the room designed for those who are suicidal was unavailable.
What may be especially sick about this is that nobody who is staying at the ROC or using the facility in some way wants to do so. They would love nothing more than to never need to use it, for their lives to be great and to be healthy.
Then, folks are being told that they cannot the bathroom they perceive to align with their identity, or use the mental health room where they are supposed to use.
— -
Even if you no longer affiliate with the Latter-day Saint (ex-Mormon) church but enjoy sociality with family and friends as before, you can still find social settings organized by the Utah Valley PostMormons. There, you can find your people. And of course, if you don’t enjoy those relationships like before, the many UVPM events that happen each week can be even life-saving.
Led by wonderful people, UVPM is also for folks who just are struggling with it or are “never Mormons” seeking a break from the predominant culture. Find their events on Facebook and Meetup.
— -
For more articles like this, please support The Seer Stone at the Hero’s Journey Content Patreon page. | https://medium.com/the-seer-stone/a-mental-health-facility-in-utah-county-doesnt-allow-people-who-identify-as-transgender-to-use-2a8db8b115c9 | ['Rhett Wilkinson'] | 2019-06-05 00:38:01.043000+00:00 | ['Utah', 'Gender', 'Culture', 'Transgender', 'LGBTQ'] |
Why Hillary gets my 61 seconds of fame | By Liz Middleton
I teach American history and other social studies classes at a public high school in North Central Florida, and this is my 21st year. Recently, I was in a spot for LocalVoices.org endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.
This was not a decision made without consideration. I live and teach in Donald Trump country. On my 20-minute drive to school, I pass many Trump signs and Confederate battle flags. I have colleagues who are convinced — with absolutely no credible evidence — that Hillary Clinton is a crook, or worse, and students whose parents feel the same.
Still, when given a chance, I exercised my First Amendment rights in a way that could stir things up in this part of the country. A four-hour visit was edited into 61 seconds, and this is the result:
When I began teaching in my early 40s, my guiding peer teacher said never smile until Christmas and never show political beliefs to students. Then I read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. Zinn’s controversial book looks at history from the perspective of the little people, not the Founding Fathers, the captains of industry or the corporate elite. Zinn said that, as a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, he found it necessary to say and do exactly what he thought. How, he asked, could students trust a teacher who was not open and honest about his or her own convictions?
I am that kind of teacher, and that is why I agreed to make this video. I was happy to be given the opportunity to speak out publicly about Trump’s crass insensitivity and hateful language about women, about weight, about judging anyone female more by how she looks than by what she knows and can contribute. I want my students, male and female, to know that the only reason to worry about body image is when working for optimum health, that nobody has the right to judge them or anyone else by some arbitrary and rigid standard of beauty. I want them to grow and develop surrounded by adults who are caring and support them for who they are.
I want my students, male and female, to know that the only reason to worry about body image is when working for optimum health, that nobody has the right to judge them or anyone else by some arbitrary and rigid standard of beauty.
My principal told me the spot was viewed on ESPN in the cafeteria during lunchtime. None of my students seem to be angry that I am supporting Hillary Clinton, although there have been some negatives. Comments on Facebook said that I clearly supported abortion rights (guilty as charged — I want the government out of healthcare decisions — but that point certainly wasn’t in the video). Others said that I am an idiot for believing Clinton’s lies. A mother whose son I taught in 1999 found me on Facebook and sent a lengthy message saying that I failed her son.
Truly, reading some of those posts was upsetting. But then came the vindication. Former students and current students have jumped to my defense. One of my students now refers to me as Hillary, and I respond by calling him Donald. Others have thanked me for standing up for my convictions. I received a gift from one of last year’s students, a blue plastic “Make America Great Again” Trump bracelet. I was honored and wore it to balance my Hillary pin — underneath my Hillary pin, I might add.
I feel so strongly about the absolute value of education, I truly have no choice but to support the candidate who more closely shares my view of the world. Hillary Clinton gets that public education is the best hope of equalizing opportunity for all, both domestically and abroad. Education is what will allow girls and women, half the people on the planet, to make the necessary gains to compensate for too many years of patriarchy and limited opportunity. Education is what will make the next hundred years much better than the “Make America Great Again” years that Donald Trump extols.
A few students seem convinced that I was paid big bucks to participate in political discourse. No, I tell them, I wasn’t paid for speaking into the Localvoices.org microphone. I did what I did because I think what I think. I hope that seeing me take the leap into a controversial position will empower students, past and present, to do the same.
In a democracy, I tell my students, if we ever get to a point where all of us agree, we might as well march in lockstep.
Before I was a teacher, I worked for the Florida House of Representatives in Tallahassee. My master’s degree in criminology was good preparation for the Committee on Corrections, Probation and Parole. For 10 years I researched issues, drafted legislation and made reports to legislators.
And then it was over, and I moved to the country from the capital city. I became a teacher and discovered there is nothing much that can beat building relationships to empower students, that teaching is where I am most myself. So I teach. I encourage. I harass. I explain that education gives choices, gives control, gives the ability to “break the cycle of bull***t” for students who have grown up in dysfunctional families.
Since I first began teaching in my early 40s, I have been outspoken on multiple controversial issues while always pointing out that my students are not only free to disagree, but are encouraged to disagree and think for themselves. In a democracy, I tell them, if we ever get to a point where all of us agree, we might as well march in lockstep. Show me, I tell them, where I am wrong. Help me understand your perspective.
A son’s lifelong friend asked if I was going to be fired for speaking out. No, I am not.
I thanked God that the swimsuit shot didn’t show my thighs. It may seem at odds with my video message about body image, but what woman doesn’t know that getting to a healthy perspective in this area is a lifelong fight — even under the best of conditions, even without a candidate who seems determined to undermine all the healthy work that teachers and caring parents and adults try to do in this domain?
Had I been given 62 seconds, I might have thrown that in. | https://aftvoices.org/why-hillary-gets-my-61-seconds-of-fame-aac30c3c8390 | [] | 2016-10-31 00:03:06.999000+00:00 | ['Hillary Clinton', 'Politics', 'Election 2016', 'Education'] |
2020 – It is not over yet. | I am 27th.
I have been married for a year and got pregnant.
I experienced an internal bleeding in weeks 35 at 2 a.m.
I gave birth to a dashing baby boy on my own birthday.
I did Caesar surgery, no other safe option for us.
I lost my dad for less than 25 days later.
I met my dad before he died, I hug him for the last time.
I remember everything happened that night, the tense horror still creeping.
I kissed his feet to apologize for every pain he had gone through.
I shouted and screamed during the burial service.
I felt blank, hurt, angry, troubled, torn, whatever it might be.
I was forced to say goodbye.
I haven’t been able to introduce my son to my dad nor my mom.
I haven’t got any chance to visit my dad’s cemetery ever since.
I cried every single middle of the night.
I almost experienced a baby blues syndrome due to my state of mind.
I failed my breastfeeding moment also because of my psychological condition.
I am so in fear that I will fail my son too, day by day.
I fall in love everyday with him, now I know what parenthood is.
I have been working from home for 8 months even before corona.
I never get separated from my boy 24/7, we get so attached one to another.
I haven’t gone anywhere except routine hospital visit for my son’s vaccines.
I never step a foot out of my house to protect my son.
I applied for an Ivy League scholarship, but I failed at the very last stage.
I missed university, I would like to take another degree.
I remember what my dad wish was to see me graduate my phD, maybe a reason.
I started reading research paper and aim to write my owns.
I collaborated with my college friends as a paper writing group.
I write renewable energy paper with them, one paper at a time.
I feel like reading those papers is a therapy for me.
I will stay up late just to write and summarize, minimizing time to grief.
I already submit one paper with them, finger crossed for the upcoming.
I plan to apply for another scholarship, hopefully.
I spend my time doing everything just to ease the pain in the back of my mind.
I just realize it’s September already. Dad’s bday on the 16th, His 62th.
I ordered a roses bouquet, I should have done that years before.
I miss our daily fight terribly, dear Papa. It still feels like a daydream.
I still can picture how you said “I will teach your kids like I taught their mom”.
I know the chance is gone forever, but I desperately longing for that.
I think about life day and night.
I do not know what tomorrow will bring us to.
2020 has been a painful, surprising, and a high speed roller coaster, indeed.
I have not overcome 2020 yet.
2020, it is not over yet. | https://medium.com/@tunaandsalmon/2020-it-is-not-over-yet-9c8ea0ccf72f | [] | 2020-09-16 07:28:15.343000+00:00 | ['Grief And Loss', 'Grief'] |
How to Beat Writer’s Block | I don’t think there is anything more frustrating. You sit down, cup of coffee to your left, your notepad and pen to your right. Microsoft Word is open on your screen and that little black line just sits there, blinking at you, tormenting you to write something. Blink. Blink. Blink. Still waiting for words that just aren’t presenting themselves. The silence around you becomes evermore present and somehow your brain is completely blank. There is a clear lack of signal from the station of inspiration. I would wish a lot of things on my enemies, but writer’s block is not one of them.
Everyone gets writer’s block. It is so prominent that it has it’s own term and everyone knows what it means. And it’s not just writers who get it either: musicians, dancers, mathematicians, artists; we all suffer at some time or another with the inability to produce something from nothing. That is totally fine — it happens. What is not okay in any way, shape or form is to give up.
If you feel that what you’re creating is pure garbage or you can’t think of anything new to produce, you may be tempted to just throw it away or stop working on it and turn to more constructive tasks. Bad idea. It is the biggest waist of potential that there ever was or will be. Though what you write may be terrible, it is still you who wrote it. In the history of the world, no one has ever sat where you sit, and strung those words together. By throwing it away, you never complete the task and you waist that unique moment. Even if that doesn’t inspire you to keep going, just think of your accomplishment once you’ve finished. Once it’s done, it’s done. No one can take that away from you. Besides, sifting through the garbage is what the editing process is for. No diamond sparkles as soon as it is lifted from the ground.
Ingredients for Creativity
A recent study shows that when a person is being creative, the medial prefrontal cortex (which is linked to learning association, context, events, and emotional responses) is activated, and the part of the brain which is used for executive tasks becomes largely inactive. This is similar to our brain activity when we are asleep. This shows that we are at our most creative when we are relaxed, and not going about functional tasks, like problem-solving, planning, and other executive functions.
But there is more that is needed to be creative. Neuroscientist Alice Flaherty says that dopamine (the chemical associated with happiness) is also necessary. The more dopamine released in the brain, the more creative a person can be. Dopamine is often released when we do things that are relaxing and that we enjoy doing, such as exercising or taking a shower.
Dopamine cannot work alone to bring about creativity, however. You need to be distracted. Studies have shown that distraction from the task at hand allows the problem-solving abilities of the subconscious mind to come to the fray. The subconscious is always solving problems, but it is harder for it to create solutions to the problem while the conscious mind is focused on that problem. When we let the mind wonder, while we’re exercising, or we’re taking a shower for example, we allow the subconscious to solve the problem (which, in this case, is writer’s block) and provide us with creative ideas.
What is Advice without Anecdotal Evidence?
Personally, when I suffer from writer’s block, I like to stare out the window and think. I look at the trees and think about the direction that the wind is blowing the branches. I look at the man in the red shirt walking down the road and I wonder where he has been and where he is going. Then I’ll check my Facebook and, eventually, when I feel guilty enough for not fulfilling my personal quota of increasing the word count, an idea will usually come to me.Other times, I go running. Some of my best ideas have come to me while my legs are aching and my breathing hard.
Go Forth, Young Writer
You have to figure out what works for you. Above is the science but what lies before you is the application. Go for a run, do a pushup or ten, try yoga.
It is very hard to be creative. It’s messy and awkward, and riddled with self-doubt and loathing. It is also beautiful. So whatever you do, do not give up. Being creative is important. You have a duty to the furtherance of mankind to be creative. We all do. | https://medium.com/@chad.echakowitz/how-to-beat-writers-block-e88f764f8566 | ['Chad Echakowitz'] | 2020-06-03 14:04:17.545000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Distraction', 'Writing Tips', 'Writing', 'Writers Block'] |
Dear High School English Teacher | Sign up for The Story Box
By Scribe
The Story Box is a lovingly written newsletter featuring delightful stories and all updates from the publication. Every Sunday, just for you. Take a look | https://medium.com/scribe/dear-high-school-english-teacher-259fd4c97755 | ['Julia Beaudett'] | 2019-02-08 11:42:18.730000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Creative Writing', 'Poetry', 'Humor', 'Writing'] |
Building a scalable and available home feed | Dan Feng | Pinterest engineer, Discovery
We pride ourselves on being a company focused first and foremost on the user experience. In order to deliver a great experience, including showing related content in the home feed, we’re building a service that’s fast and highly available. From a Pinner’s point of view, availability means how often they’ll get errors. For service owners, availability means how many minutes the service can be down without violating SLA (service level agreement). We use number of nines to measure the availability of our site and each service.
The Pinterest home feed is a personalized collection of Pins for each person. One third of Pinterest’s traffic lands on home feed, which makes it one of our most critical pages. When building our new home feed, achieving four nines or higher was one of the metrics used for measuring the success of the project. The full discussion for the new home feed architecture can be found at ‘Building a smarter home feed’. Here, I’ll focus on the design decisions from behind the scenes.
Isolating challenges
The home feed system can be simplified to support three use cases: writing Pinners’ feed to a storage, serving feed from the storage and removing feed when it’s required. Writing feed can have a huge QPS (query per second). Fortunately it’s not user-facing and certain delay (e.g. seconds or even minutes) is tolerable. Serving has relatively small QPS when comparing the writing operation, but it’s user-facing and has a tight performance requirement.
A simple design can include writing all feed to a storage and serving and deleting from it. At our current scale, we keep hundreds of terabyte data and support millions of operations per second. We’ve had success with HBase in our past iterations of the home feed system. After evaluating all the options, we chose HBase as our backend storage. The problem with the design is it’s very challenging to tune the same storage to meet the requirements for both a high volume of writing and a high performance of reading and updating. For example, when a person creates a new Pin, we’ll fan out the Pin to all his or her followers. Followers are sharded across all HBase regions. When we fan out the same Pin to hundreds of Pinners, the write operation will hit multiple regions, lock the WAL (write ahead log) on each region server, update it and unlock it after use. Locking the WAL for each write/update/delete operation isn’t efficient and quickly becomes a bottleneck. A better approach is to batch operations and push the changes to HBase once in a while, which increases the throughput of the HBase cluster dramatically. But the latency of each operation can be as high as the flush interval. For user-facing operations, our latency requirement is at millisecond level and the approach will fail us miserably.
To satisfy the different requirements, we designed a system with two HBase clusters and save data to different HBase clusters at different stages (see the component diagram below).
Zen is a service that provides a graph data model on top of HBase and abstracts the details of HBase operations from data producer and consumer.
SmartFeed worker is pushing feed from all sources (we also reference sources as pools) to HBase through Zen, and called by PinLater, an asynchronous job execution system that can tolerate certain delays and failures.
HBase for materialized content saves the Pins that have potentially been shown in the home feed before, and its content is accessed through Zen.
SmartFeed content generator is in charge of selecting new Pins from the pools, scoring and ordering them.
SmartFeed service is indirectly retrieving feed (content) from both of the HBase clusters, and only talks to the pools cluster through SmartFeed content generator.
When a Pinner hits their home feed:
SmartFeed service calls content generator to get new Pins
Content generator decides how many Pins should be returned and how they should be ordered in the returned result
Simultaneously SmartFeed service retrieves saved Pins from HBase for materialized content
SmartFeed service will wait for the results from the above two steps, mix and return them. (If the calls to content generator fails or timeouts, the result from step 2 will still be returned.)
Offline, SmartFeed service will save the new result to HBase for materialized content and delete them from HBase for pools
With this design, we separate user-facing components from non user-facing components. Since different HBase clusters have different volumes of data and usage patterns, we can scale and configure them individually to meet their needs. In reality, we have far less Pins in materialized content cluster than the cluster for pools. We can make it more reliable and faster without too much cost.
Speculative execution
With the design above, the availability is as good as the HBase for materialized content since we’re serving content only when it’s available. From time to time, HBase cluster can have JVM (Java virtual machine) garbage collection, node failure, region movement, etc. With a single HBase cluster, the availability can occasionally drop below four nines.
To improve the availability over four nines, we implement something called speculative execution. We always keep a hot standby HBase cluster in a different EC2 availability zone to avoid losing Pinners’ data. Any changes made to the primary HBase cluster will be synced to the standby cluster within a few hundred milliseconds. In the event of a partial failure of the primary cluster we’ll serve the data from a standby cluster. This technique helps make the whole system four nines of read availability (not write) and provides a much better Pinner experience than failing the requests. The way that the speculative execution works is:
Make a call to the primary cluster to retrieve data
If the call fails or doesn’t return within certain time, make another call to the standby cluster
Return the data from the cluster which returns first
With this approach, SmartFeed service will be able to return data if either of the clusters is available and the overall availability is close to the combined availability of the two clusters. The tricky part is to pick a proper waiting time. Since syncing data from the primary cluster to the standby cluster has some delay, the data returned from the standby cluster can be stale. If the waiting time is too small, Pinners will have a higher chance of getting stale data. If the waiting time is too long, Pinners have to wait unnecessarily long even if we can return results from the standby cluster much earlier. For us, we find if a call doesn’t return within time x, it’ll eventually time out in most cases. The time x is also larger than the 99.9 percentile of the call’s latency. We decided to use this as the cutoff time, which means results may be returned from the standby cluster for one out of 1,000 calls.
Another interesting finding is that the latency of the standby cluster is higher than the primary cluster because so few calls fall back to the standby cluster, and it’s in a ‘cold’ state for most of the time. To warm up the pipeline and get it ready for use, we randomly forward x percent of calls to the standby cluster and drop the result.
One time the primary HBase was down for almost one hour because of some hardware issue. Thanks to speculative execution, all home feed requests automatically failover to the standby cluster. The performance and success rate of home feed was not impacted at all during the whole HBase incident.
Outcomes
Since the launch of SmartFeed project, we’ve been handling hundreds of millions of calls per day and haven’t had a major incident with the availability dropping below 95 percent for more than five minutes. Overall, our availability is better than four nines.
If you’re interested in tackling challenges and making improvements like this, join our team!
Dan Feng is a software engineer at Pinterest.
Acknowledgements: This technology was built in collaboration with Chris Pinchak, Xun Liu, Raghavendra Prabhu, Jeremy Carroll, Dmitry Chechik, Varun Sharma and Tian-Ying Chang. This team, as well as people from across the company, helped make this project a reality with their technical insights and invaluable feedback.
For Pinterest engineering news and updates, follow our engineering Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. Interested in joining the team? Check out our Careers site. | https://medium.com/pinterest-engineering/building-a-scalable-and-available-home-feed-6a343766bb6 | ['Pinterest Engineering'] | 2017-02-17 21:59:32.137000+00:00 | ['Engineering', 'Pinterest', 'Hbase', 'Data', 'Qps'] |
Things to keep in mind if you are traveling in this pandemic — Travel Tweek | Things to keep in mind if you are traveling in this pandemic — Travel Tweek Travel Tweek Jun 19, 2020·2 min read
With many countries beginning to ease their lockdown measures for the first time since the global Coronavirus shutdown, people are making their travel plans. Obviously, they are scared too and rightfully so. You don’t want to go out and bring in with you this deadly virus. It’s only natural to wonder, how can one travel during this pandemic? Here are some tips and observations for you to travel or take a vacation amid the Coronavirus.
If you check the tourist websites, almost all of them will encourage you to carry masks because some businesses might not let you in if you are not wearing a mask. Also, it’s very much recommended to carry a hand sanitizer wherever you go because you cannot get soap and water everywhere. It is imperative to keep your hands germ-free now more than ever.
Avoid taking your hands to the face and touching your nose, mouth and eyes, especially after touching a possible contaminated surface such as elevator buttons, aircraft tables etc.
Most restaurants are doing limited seating capacity where they people to be at least 6 feet apart and you might have a little bit longer waiting time. So, if you have the option to do the call ahead seating, that would be great.
Snacks are often purchased from convenient stores and truck shops. If you take your own snacks, not only do you have them exactly when you want them, you are really limiting your exposure. Same thing goes for drinks.
Needless to say, choose an area that is not densely populated. Avoid crowds as much as possible and maintain social distancing at all times during your travel.
Aisle seats have more direct access to the infected passengers. Take a window seat, at least you don’t have to worry about one side.
The one big plus about traveling right now is the rates at the hotels. Businesses in all sectors have taken a huge hit due to COVID-19 and the hospitality industry is no exception. Hotels are craving for customers to come. With the hotel rates at an all-time low, you could really use this to your advantage.
Bottom line
Follow the above tips if traveling right now is really important to you. But if your wanderlust can wait some more, then that would be swell. Stay safe. | https://medium.com/@digitalpriya19/things-to-keep-in-mind-if-you-are-traveling-in-this-pandemic-travel-tweek-aa9c19c777d7 | ['Travel Tweek'] | 2020-12-03 11:19:10.832000+00:00 | ['Safe Travel', 'Safety Tips', 'Travelling Tips', 'Travel Tips', 'Vacation Tips'] |
Getting Started with Penetration Testing and dealing with everyday Mood and Motivation | Getting Started with Penetration Testing and dealing with everyday Mood and Motivation
I would assume you already know what Penetration Testing is but unsure how and where to get started from?
So, you‘ve decided to dive into the dark side of our Digital World? Presuming its for Ethical reasons only ;-)
Photo by Kevin Horvat on Unsplash
When you learn something new alone, you MUST become your own coach first before you become a student!
Because you should motivate yourself. Because you need to be consistent. Because you must set a goal and stay focused to achieve it.
Now, let me give you a quick peek into the world of Penetration Testing.
When you are starting new, firstly:
Decide whether you want to do pentesting to: (1.) Learn or (2.) To Earn.
Learn or To Earn. If you are looking to learn only then the I would highly recommend to exploit vulnerable machines on: Vulnhubs and/or HackTheBox .
and/or . If you are looking to Earn then Bug Crowd and HackerOne is the place for you. Note : This will be the most challenging as you will be competing against several pentesters to find bugs and earn bounty. But, its doable.
and is the place for you. : This will be the most challenging as you will be competing against several pentesters to find bugs and earn bounty. But, its doable. BugCrowd and HackerOne focuses highly on web application pentesting whereas Vulnhubs, HackTheBox is more inclined towards Infrastructure types of testing. HackTheBox is now becoming more generic towards different types of pentesting. | https://infosecwriteups.com/getting-started-with-penetration-testing-and-dealing-with-everyday-mood-and-motivation-d1cc96d8b531 | ['K O M A L'] | 2020-11-16 18:18:17.480000+00:00 | ['Infosec', 'Ctf', 'Pentesting', 'Motivation', 'Bug Bounty'] |
How increasing advertising spend is leading to improved results on Facebook during COVID-19 | Photo by Tim Bennett on Unsplash
As we look at the current situation the world is facing today, it’s no surprise that COVID-19 has impacted many industries. A majority of the industries have been hindered in their performance and delivery, but with social media advertising, many opportunities have been introduced and companies can increase not only their brand awareness but ad performance and delivery.
Our Advertising Specialists at Optimize Social Media looked into the widespread performance of ads and how these unprecedented circumstances have affected them.
Let’s start with the statistics.
As we know, there are more users online at this time. Since the pandemic outbreak, AppAnnie reports that the average weekly time spent in apps worldwide has increased by 20%. With a market increase of 20%, this presents opportunities to increase the number of users who see your ad within your target market and maximize your brand awareness. The more people who see an ad means the more engagement and recall your content and brand receive.
Though there’s an increase in online usage, there seems to be a decrease in digital spending. Digital ad spend is down 33% as many businesses have either adjusted their budgets in response to COVID-19 or completely stopped their campaigns for the first half of 2020. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, there are far fewer advertisers in the online market since the pandemic hit. This means that there is much more space for advertisements and costs to advertise have decreased.
Facebook in specific has reported that 89% of their advertisers have taken action regarding their budget as a response and 45% have either adjusted the media type they are using or shifted their budget among multiple media types.
For the first time in company history, the global cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM) has dropped below $2. Not only does this mean an advertising budget ought to spend better now, but you can also reach a much bigger audience with a lower cost per result.
For example, if an ad had a budget of $150 last quarter and received 30,000 impressions, that would mean it spent $5 per 1,000 impressions. In theory, because of current algorithm trends, an increase in space for ads, and lower average CPRs, that same ad would have the potential for 60,000 impressions with the same $150 budget, spending half the CPR amount as before, resulting in potential ad delivery and performance.
With fewer advertisers in the market, more advertising placements, and an increase in online usage, the statistics show that business owners can excel by committing to advertising during this time and build brand exposure while spending the same amount as before or sometimes, even less. It’s now more important than ever to pay attention to key metrics and focus on your KPIs, tailoring your content to what your market needs. Because of how much society has shifted within the last few months, it’s important to look at performance by day, week, month and quarter to compare performance on ads in the past to now.
5 key metrics to focus on that are indicators of good ad performance:
CPR (cost per result) : how much spent per optimized result (impressions, reach, landing page views, EARL, etc.)
: how much spent per optimized result (impressions, reach, landing page views, EARL, etc.) CPC (cost per link click) : how much spent per click on the link in an ad
how much spent per click on the link in an ad Ad Relevance : how relevant an ad is compared to similar competing ads, based on user engagement after 500 impressions
: how relevant an ad is compared to similar competing ads, based on user engagement after 500 impressions Reach : how many people an ad has reached within its target market
: how many people an ad has reached within its target market Impressions: the number of times an ad was seen by a target market
Facebook Ads Manager allows users to customize metric columns, making it easy to view the most important ones right away.
So how do I react as a business owner to the advertising possibilities that have opened up?
It’s important to understand that given current circumstances, some strategy and campaign adjustments will be necessary. Just last week, Facebook offered four strategies to adapt your ad measurement during these times: simplify your strategy, reevaluate, use multiple images to run split-testing and consider the impact.
During a time like this, a target market wants to be seen, heard, and understood. Therefore, it’s crucially important to understand the loyal audience you have and the audience you’re continuously trying to reach. Simplifying and re-testing your campaign strategy and messages you’re delivering can make it easier for performance and allow your business to reach and connect with more users. This can lead to more website traffic, more page traffic, more calls to your store, etc.
Another step to take during this time is to focus on your engagement. Capitalizing on engagement can not only boost morale on your page, posts and advertisements, but it can help businesses understand who their audience is because we can almost guarantee that mindsets and needs differ from before. Engaging is another way to organically enhance the effectiveness of your content.
While understanding and engaging with your audience, it’s also valuable to focus on your message. While staying true to your business, services, and past messages, it’s important to be aware of the matter at hand and address it appropriately, per your market and industry. Maintaining the same tone in all of your messages is key.
With advertisement mediums in the midst of changing, staying up-to-date on strategies and more is pivotal. Learn more about COVID-19 content strategy and how to thrive as a business during the pandemic on our OSM Blog now.
Optimize Social Media provides social media & reputation solutions that evolve with our clients. As social media experts we manage Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yelp, YouTube and Instagram accounts for our clients daily. We help the modern business owner implement a specialized social media strategy so they can make more money in real life. Enjoy our blog. | https://medium.com/social-media-for-business-owners/how-increasing-advertising-spend-is-leading-to-improved-results-on-facebook-during-covid-19-ba08247b1544 | [] | 2020-04-23 15:00:02.744000+00:00 | ['Facebook Marketing', 'Advertising', 'Facebook Ads', 'Facebook', 'Advertisement'] |
I almost failed out of a coding bootcamp — this is how I bounced back. | Failing. It’s 100% inevitable, and it’s absolutely okay.
Forget about what you know and how you feel about failing. When it comes to learning how to code, it’s what you want to do. Failures slowly build you up to success.
Think of it this way: you’re a total n00b and coding has pwned you hard. It’s cool because you can respawn and try again, except you don’t lose your god tier loot or 50 pounds of salted meat with each coding death. You gain something. You just scored yourself a +1 intelligence buff and better insight on what you need to do to get this thing to work.
It hasn’t been easy for me to accept this. My current gig has a very different opinion of failing. I’m a registered nurse working in a neurology ICU and failing is a big, bad deal. Failing to do something properly could result in hurting or killing someone, losing your license, going to court, and possibly facing jail time.
We’re all taught that failing should never happen, and if it does, it’s a permanent stain on your work or academic record. It’ll follow you and probably bite you in the ass come time to apply to college or another job.
I had to learn how to go against everything I’ve been trained about failing. A complete 180, it had to be regarded as the best way to learn how things work together.
Really sucking and feeling stagnant in my progress at a bootcamp became motivation to finally change the way I look at programming. How I was accustomed to studying was not working. I took copious notes and consistently reviewed them — the way I was conditioned to learn for over 15 years of traditional education. While notes were great for me to understand the fundamental components of new concepts, it gave me a false sense of competence. I could look at a black lego and say “this is a black lego”, but I couldn’t build you a model of the Death Star with it.
This left me feeling incredibly defeated. How could I go from my “guaranteed to get me that A” studying techniques to hardly comprehending how to build basic apps?
I began to believe this was not for me. I convinced myself I had made a terrible and expensive mistake signing up for this. I’m admittedly a dreamer with loose connections to reality — I’ll romanticize the crap out of everything in my life…but how’d I let myself think I’d actually be successful at programming?
These thoughts continued to sink deep and I shut down.
I didn’t ask for help, I had little motivation, and I was digging myself a coding grave. I was (unfortunately) seasoned to understanding and processing information easily. I knew how to get good grades and play the game of studying for standard multiple choice exams. For one of the first times in my life, I struggled hard to pick something up. I was never taught HOW to struggle, how to deal with it, or how to work around it. It was just “here is the information. Study, retain, regurgitate”.
One insanely difficult week, a sleepless night, and a reality check later — I knew it was time I seriously took the advice of my peers and instructors.
I had to finally change the way I learned — an incredibly difficult thing to do in your late twenties. At any age, really. I abandoned my notes and insecurities and just coded. I utilized google and “console logged” everything to death. I used what I already knew, which was surprisingly a lot more than I was giving myself credit for.
I dove into the “build and burn” process — I’d build up an application, celebrate my victory, destroy it, and do it all over again. I wasn’t convinced of this technique at first, but it quickly became clear that this was a wonderful way to understand how components of your code work, discover new issues, and how to troubleshoot them. This is not the same as writing a sentence or a word over and over again to commit it to memory — concepts become clearer with building the same thing repeatedly, slowly abandoning crutches like notes and Google until you have a more defined idea of what to use and when.
Stepping back a little bit, I recognized my problem: feeling inadequate and unmotivated because my code doesn’t work. I can’t find the issue. Screw this.
Solution: TEST EVERYTHING AS YOU CODE.
Nothing is too small to confirm. Something doesn’t work? It becomes a learning opportunity and a single, focused issue to tackle. By basking in the light of those little “test passing” wins and giving yourself grace, you are self-sustaining your morale and motivation. It’s absolutely okay to rest on your laurels for a moment for sanity’s sake. Test it, celebrate, and move on. In the end, you have working code and you maintained your mental health throughout the process.
I can’t take complete credit for these revelations and I’m deeply thankful to have someone who graciously pushes me to be the best version of myself. This leads to one more epiphany I experienced — don’t do this alone.
I am independent to an absurd fault and asking for help has always been difficult, but I have remarkable people in my life who can sense when I need it. Have someone who legitimately cares about your success. Confide in an instructor, your significant other, your dog, whoever.
This process has molded me in more ways than I expected.
Code will chew you up, spit you out, and you have to somewhat enjoy that process. The trick is knowing what actions you need to take.
The steps don’t have to be huge or impractical, it’s in your power to make them small and doable. Every large piece of intimidating code can be broken down into something much more emotionally forgiving.
We are resilient beings. Use drawbacks to propel yourself forward. | https://sarahsakordaniels.medium.com/i-almost-failed-out-of-a-coding-bootcamp-this-is-how-i-bounced-back-d623988ad770 | ['Sarah Daniels'] | 2020-02-28 21:17:04.474000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Software Development', 'Learning', 'Programming', 'Life'] |
Clean Up Your Frontend Tests: Part 3 | In the first part of the series, we described the reasons why we focus on writing integration tests for our code. One case where this approach wouldn’t be helpful is while writing a code that will be reused in multiple places within an application.
Building the application out of small, reusable blocks is certainly tempting. You may even think there is no good reason not to do so. You can definitely take this route too far, though.
In this article, we will describe what difficulties we faced while writing and testing such code. We will also show how we deal with issues like this.
Example code
Say, we have a couple of wizards. Each of them should display a description of the current step along with the current step number.
Rendering the stepper could be done as a separate component. This way we can stay DRY, keep the look and feel consistent. A super simple stepper component could look like this:
The code of the wizard that uses it could then look like this:
Tests
Following the integration test approach, one could write tests as below:
The main issue with this code is that the exact behavior of the stepper component would be checked by multiple test files. Let’s say that at some point, we decide to display the total number of steps in addition:
We would have to go through all the tests and rewrite the expectations. This type of change can quickly add up and make changing such components very hard.
Our approach to this problem takes inspiration from the tools built into Angular, namely HttpClientTestingModule or RouterTestingModule . The person writing the StepperComponent would also create a testing module.
Note that the StepperTestingModule needs only to expose the same "public" API as the module it replaces. It means that only the exported components need to be mocked. If it makes sense to break down the component further, the child components should not be exposed to the clients. Any services, directives, or pipes that are intended only for internal use in the module should also be left out.
The mocked components should have the same selectors, @Input s and @Output s. This way, they can be later used as drop-in replacements in tests.
Just the shared components would then be covered with integration tests.
When to write reusable testing modules
Breaking the tests down brings in similar risks as described in the first part of this series. They are somewhat mitigated by the fact that you don’t need to write separate tests for each of your components. Instead, you consciously decide how to break down your application into manageable chunks.
Writing testing modules also makes us think more about what we expose from our modules. They become a natural boundary, preventing us from building a module dependency hell for ourselves, where every part of the app depends on some other part of the app, and changing anything becomes a nightmare.
There is no one-fit-all answer on when you should break out such modules. You will need to develop an intuition taking into account the number of changes and UI consistency in your particular project.
If you want to learn more here is the link to the next part of the series where you will learn how to manage tests complexity using Page Objects. | https://medium.com/vattenfall-tech/clean-up-your-frontend-tests-part-3-37f656f0e8f7 | ['Paweł Nowakowski'] | 2021-01-20 07:32:48.910000+00:00 | ['Tips And Tricks', 'Testing', 'Angular', 'Frontend', 'Good Practices'] |
Generalized Virtual Reality (GVR) | Generalized Virtual Reality (GVR)
Present Virtual Reality (VR) systems like Facebook’s Oculus, are limited and inaccurate; limited because they simulate only some of our senses, mostly sight and sound; inaccurate because these simulations are, at best, approximations. When we look through a VR headset, we know that we are looking through a VR headset. Because images are blotchy and sounds are artificial.
But what if we had “Generalized” VR?
By “Generalized” VR (GVR), I mean a VR system that was unlimited and accurate. Unlimited because it would simulate all our senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, pressure etc. Accurate because it would affect a reality that was so real, that a human wouldn’t be able to recognize that it was virtual.
Is GVR possible? And if so, what types of experiences could it credibly simulate? For example, could it simulate the experience a human (say me) walking about some space (say my house)?
If I were walking about my house, I would experience several things. I would see a changing landscape. As I pass a window, I would see the window passing. I would also experience different sounds. As I walk towards the window, the traffic outside would sound louder. If it was a sunny day, I might even feel the heat of the sun through the window. As I walk towards the kitchen, I would smell the aromas of lunch. And so on.
While we are probably years away from systems that can simulate all these experiences, it is still possible to imagine how we might get there.
But is this all that I experience?
There is one thing that I experience while walking around my house, which might be more difficult to simulate. It is the sense of “doing”.
An accurate simulation of the sense would give me a realistic experience of being. For example, I’m “being” next to the window. But would a VR system give me the experience of “doing”? For instance, “doing” the act of walking towards the window?
Is it possible to “simulate” the “feeling of doing”?
Believers in “free will” might say “no”. But Neuroscience is tending in the direction of a cautious “yes”.
Evidence indicates that when I raise my foot, to walk towards the window, the feeling that “I must will my foot to rise” does not precede, but proceeds my foot rising. In other words, my foot rises first, and I post-rationalize the action that I “I willed my foot to rise”, or “I raised my foot”.
Hence, while I don’t know exactly how, it might be possible to induce a sense of “free will” through some electro-chemical hacking of the brain.
All this leads to the much bigger “Matrix” question: Are we already in some GVR system? And if so or if not, how can we know for sure? | https://medium.com/on-technology/generalized-virtual-reality-gvr-f43e980d4792 | ['Nuwan I. Senaratna'] | 2020-12-17 06:03:19.121000+00:00 | ['Oculus', 'VR', 'Virtual Reality', 'Reality', 'Facebook'] |
What People Think About Ethereum 2.0 Market Price Effect | Cryptocurrencies
What People Think About Ethereum 2.0 Market Price Effect
The upcoming Ethereum release Ethereum 2.0 — Serenity and its effects on market price.
Photo by Clifford Photography on Unsplash
Etherium 2.0 consists of a set of upgrades that provides better scalability, security and sustainability on the Ethereum blockchain.
With the Serenity release, the Etherium blockchain consensus mechanism will change from Proof of Work(PoW) to Proof of Stake(PoS).
The Pow to PoS transition enables the Ethereum blockchain to scale 100s of thousands of transactions per second.
The question is what will be the effect of the transition on the Ethereum price?
Since the effect is so unpredictable, I have felt the need to hear from different people from different backgrounds. Let’s explore what are the price expectations:
Screenshot by Author From The Trading-Education
$750 by the end of 2020
$52 by the end of 2020
$500 To $800 by the end of 2020
Screenshot by Author From Primexbt
# Lorenzo Stroe
$750 by the end of 2020
$2480 by the end of 2020
Screenshot By Author From CoinSwitch
Summary
As we can see from the predictions, average expectations for Ethereum price is in between $500 and $750 by the end of 2020.
If we keep the Today’s Ethereum Price($585) in mind, it is possible to see that $750 range is attainable. But, with the given crypto market growth, It is also possible to see the Ethereum price to go much higher in December 2020.
As the last word, I would like to predict the Ethereum price with the help of market prices movement similarity of November 2017 and November 2020.
I think it is possible to see $1200 price range as we have seen by the end of 2017. | https://medium.com/crypto-explorer/what-people-think-about-ethereum-2-0-the-market-price-effect-87a4b35f191e | ['Mustafa Katipoglu'] | 2020-11-30 16:50:04.829000+00:00 | ['Ethereum Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum 2', 'Crypto'] |
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