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FIL Mining Power Airdrop | DMEX community is recruiting product experience testers.
On average, each participant can obtain 100G of effective Fil mining power.
In addition, we have other platform tokens and numerous platform benefits for our participants as special thanks.
DMEX is the world first decentralized cloud mining power financial service platform. Upon the completion of the product experience test and the airdrop promotion, we will select 100 platform pioneers from the test participants to share 0.5% of the total platform tokens.
We look forward to your participation! | https://medium.com/@dmex/fil-mining-power-airdrop-485df2f9608c | [] | 2020-12-14 09:44:33.089000+00:00 | ['Nft', 'Filecoin', 'Airdrop', 'Defi', 'Mining'] |
Statistical Significance Explained | The second building block of statistical significance is the normal distribution, also called the Gaussian or bell curve. The normal distribution is used to represent how data from a process is distributed and is defined by the mean, given the Greek letter μ (mu), and the standard deviation, given the letter σ (sigma). The mean shows the location of the center of the data and the standard deviation is the spread in the data.
Normal Distribution with mean μ and standard deviation σ
The application of the normal distribution comes from assessing data points in terms of the standard deviation. We can determine how anomalous a data point is based on how many standard deviations it is from the mean. The normal distribution has the following helpful properties:
68% of data is within ± 1 standard deviations from the mean
95% of data is within ± 2 standard deviations from the mean
99.7% of data is within ± 3 standard deviations from the mean
If we have a normal distribution for a statistic, we can characterize any point in terms of standard deviations from the mean. For example, average female height in the US is 65 inches (5' 5") with a standard deviation of 4 inches. If we meet a new acquaintance who is 73 inches tall, we can say she is two standard deviations above the mean and is in the tallest 2.5% of females. (2.5% of females will be shorter than μ — 2σ (57 in) and 2.5% will be taller than μ+2σ).
In statistics, instead of saying our data is two standard deviations from the mean, we assess it in terms of a z-score, which just represents the number of standard deviations a point is from the mean. Conversion to a z-score is done by subtracting the mean of the distribution from the data point and dividing by the standard deviation. In the height example, you can check that our friend would have a z-score of 2. If we do this to all the data points the new distribution is called the standard normal with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1 as shown below.
Transformation from normal (right) to standard normal distribution (left). (Source)
Every time we do a hypothesis test, we need to assume a distribution for the test statistic, which in our case is the average (mean) hours of sleep for our students. For a z-test, the normal curve is used as an approximation for the distribution of the test statistic. Generally, according to the central limit theorem, as we take more averages from a data distribution, the averages will tend towards a normal distribution. However, this will always be an estimate because real-world data never perfectly follows a normal distribution. Assuming a normal distribution lets us determine how meaningful the result we observe in a study is. The higher or lower the z-score, the more unlikely the result is to happen by chance and the more likely the result is meaningful. To quantify just how meaningful the results are, we use one more concept. | https://towardsdatascience.com/statistical-significance-hypothesis-testing-the-normal-curve-and-p-values-93274fa32687 | ['Will Koehrsen'] | 2018-02-05 19:41:21.230000+00:00 | ['Hypothesis Testing', 'Towards Data Science', 'Data Science', 'P Value', 'Statistics'] |
Dr. Joanna Bauer of ‘Leaders Who Learn’ Podcast: Highlight High Impact Leaders to Attract Binge Listeners | Can you tell us a bit of your “personal backstory? What is your background and what eventually brought you to this particular career path?
I was always a bit of rebel, seeking challenge, and seeing where that took me as I worked my way through differing industries and a large variety of jobs. I was Winnie the Pooh, an automotive repair dispatcher, an optician, a substitute teacher and a travel writer. Eventually, I started working in marketing where I facilitated focus groups. I loved it, since I’m fascinated by the psychology of what makes people tick and the root of their motivation.
From this, I moved into other marketing roles before facilitating professional training on communication, culture, teamwork, critical thinking and other leadership topics, and that morphed into teaching and administration work at an academic level. What brought me to Claremont Lincoln University (CLU) was the desire to support the mission of social change. CLU is vested in educating the current and next generation of change-makers and provide them with the relevant and needed skills to lead change societally — in what we term the multiplier effect.
Life-long learning is not just a theme at CLU, it is what drives us individually and as a university. That curiosity and motivation is also what led me to join as co-host of the Leaders Who Learn podcast.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
We are all operating in an interesting, “un-real” world with COVID-19, and we’ve had to get used to the “new normal” (a term I truly dislike, by the way). Even so, it has been fascinating to hear about this new state of the world from the different perspectives of our podcast guests. Some guests speak about the pandemic as a huge catalyst for change in their lives, while others seem to completely ignore it. It’s a really mixed bag and has surprised me.
Can you share a story about the biggest or funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or takeaways you learned from that?
I am terrible at remembering names. I’m working on it, but one time early on I was entirely embarrassed when I blanked on the name of the guest. I could feel my face going red with a brief moment of panic as I tried to search my mind for it. Fortunately, I was able to flip through my calendar and find the name quickly. Now, I make sure that the guest’s name is front and center on my notes. Another tip is to not assume you know how to pronounce the name of an individual or company, even if it seems obvious. Ask for all pronunciations before the podcast recording is started or in a pre-interview and write the phonetic spelling on the top of your outline.
How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?
I’ve been podcasting for about a year and, during that time, have interviewed a number of incredible guests from diverse areas of industry. Going through the process over and over, and with such a great behind-the-scenes team, has allowed me to perfect my skills quickly. On the Leaders Who Learn podcast, we have interviewed scores of guests — from the CEO of a Fortune 500 company valued at $12 billion, to an agency health director for a massive county in Southern California, to a former NFL athlete who went bankrupt and reemerged as a successful author and motivational coach. We release approximately three episodes per month, and are excited to have a full schedule of fascinating guests booked into 2021.
What are the main takeaways, lessons or messages that you want your listeners to walk away with after listening to your show?
Now, more than ever, our country needs ethical, strategic and innovative leaders, but to balance those elements, there is also the need for kindness, listening, dialogue and collaboration. Even though they are all very accomplished leaders, the guests on our podcast are not ego-driven. Rather, they understand the importance of engaging and valuing diverse voices and ideas, and they seek to learn from others. They are not simply trying to be on a pedestal talking AT others, but rather engaging in collaborative efforts. If our listeners gain insights and feel connections that inspire then to further their leadership ambitions with these values as a backdrop, then we have achieved our main goal.
In your opinion what makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or your content?
Well, of course it is how engaging and charming we are. I kid. Our purpose is to shine a light on leaders who are making a difference in a variety of industries and contexts. We want to intentionally focus on leaders who are seeking new and needed ways to lead in our increasingly complex society. In addition, just as in our university programs and curricula, we provide real and useful information that our listeners can apply in daily life. We are interested in a diversity of voices and how our guests are tackling important questions about social change, ethics, social justice, sustainability, and other themes from their unique and varied perspectives.
The leaders who we highlight are impacting audiences and contexts in real, personal and important ways, and tapping into those experiences and techniques provides immediate ideas for our listeners to emulate in their own leadership. Building that connection of hearing from, relating to and being inspired by others will engage listeners.
Doing something on a consistent basis is not easy. Podcasting every workday, or even every week can be monotonous. What would you recommend to others about how to maintain discipline and consistency? What would you recommend to others about how to avoid burnout?
Don’t force it, and don’t just book a guest for the sake of their popularity. Make sure that the topics interest you and mean something to you. If you are not interested in your own themes and guests, then burnout will happen fast. Ask colleagues, friends and listeners what themes and topics they want to hear about. Also, maintain and revisit a list of themes and topics that you’ve covered on the podcast to ensure you’re delivering variety. It takes time to build an audience, so think of podcasting as a marathon, not a sprint.
What resources do you get your inspiration for materials from?
I have the luxury of being able to collaborate with my co-host Lynn Priddy and my producer Joe Sallustio, but for those who may be solo hosts, the best inspiration is talking with others and gaining feedback. What are the burning questions people are asking? What are they reading about? What areas of interest are not getting mentioned in other forms? What is the missing information gap in current conversation?
Since our theme is Leaders Who Learn, there is no lack of content and expertise from which to derive themes, so we focus on variety. We find guests from areas of our own interests, people who stand out as disrupting the status quo, and those who are seeking to be true leaders who model ethical and empathetic leadership. Colleagues, faculty, students, guests and listeners all have curiosities and insights that inspire our content — the key is to ask, and ask frequently.
Is there someone in the podcasting world who you think is a great model for how to run a really fantastic podcast?
Jessica Miller-Merrell, the host of the Workology podcast with over 200 episodes under her belt, does a tremendous job at bringing in listeners and keeping them engaged.
What are the ingredients that make that podcast so successful? If you could break that down into a blueprint, what would that blueprint look like?
Jessica’s podcast stands out because she brings on disruptive leaders and challenges the status quo. In addition, she’s aired several episodes on the most critical workplace topics today, such as DE&I, COVID-19 and working remotely. The podcast is also themed, with episodes grouped together, and includes interviews with experts from different sides of the issue. It’s engaging for listeners to hear diverse voices and perspectives, and leaves them walking away with further food for thought.
Can you share with our readers the five things you need to know to create an extremely successful podcast?
Have a clear purpose. Understand the theme, purpose, or mission of your podcast and support that purpose with the choices you make about guests and themes. Before even thinking about launching your podcast, write down your purpose so you and anyone else involved in the production is clear on it. Think about the intended audience (and your own interests) and theme accordingly. Listen to your own podcasts. Many people say they do not like the sound of their own voices, but if you don’t listen and self-reflect on wins and what could be better, you are missing a huge opportunity to improve — and to ultimately enjoy your own voice! Have useful, applicable content that correlates with the purpose and the audience. For our podcast, we focus on delivering information on specific actions that listeners can apply in their daily lives. Listen to the guest! You are the host, but the guest provides the content and uniqueness to be highlighted and celebrated. You should do some research on the guests, but create a conversational environment that, hopefully, flows to questions and answers that were unexpected. Some scripted questions are a great frame for the conversation, but leave plenty of room for the unexpected side conversations that typically end up being the best and most memorable parts of the interview. There is never a bad guest. Yes, there are some guests who are harder to warm up, may be more guarded or nervous, or that are going to need extra editing (and even a lot of extra editing). However, if there are a few key takeaways or ideas imparted, that is the win.
Dr. Joanna Bauer, Co-host of Leaders Who Learn Podcast, shares the best ways to:
1) Book Great Guests. Book the guests you are interested in talking with and are excited to ask questions. If you are not intrigued by the guest’s narrative, that is going to show. When starting out, the key is to not be afraid to reach out to someone you want as a guest. There will be some who decline or don’t answer at all, but you will likely find the vast majority will be honored and excited. Who doesn’t like to discuss their own story? 2) Increase Listeners. Ask guests to promote it through their networks leading up to the episode, and to share a link when it runs. It can even be helpful to provide them with some promotional verbiage for their Twitter and other social posts. Combine social media with the podcast by asking questions or providing a bit of trivia on one platform and then picking it up on the other. Another useful tip is to time the release of the episode when a relevant event is occurring, especially an event that the guest wants to highlight. 3) Produce in a Professional Way. Production quality is a consideration, but as long as the audio is consistent and the guest can be heard without disruption, the production is not as important as the content. Although terrible production quality will be irritating and remedied as swiftly as possible, if the content is not productive — meaning it doesn’t provide useful and relevant information — than it is much more likely that your audience will stop listening and not return. The basics, though, are to ask guests to be in a quiet location and optimally use a microphone. Also, if you’re doing a live podcast, have them dial in 10 minutes early to ensure there are no technical issues before starting. 4) Encourage Engagement. Be engaging with the guest. Ask open-ended questions and then follow up. Truly LISTEN and respond to the conversation. Be prepared with questions, but don’t draft so many or such detailed questions that the conversation is not organic. Don’t be afraid to follow the thread to a new area that you had not planned for — this is often the gold! 5) Monetize. We look for a different outcome than monetization, which could be anything from building brand awareness to reaching potential customers to marketing a certain message. Our chief goal, for now, is to offer useful advice and bring interesting viewpoints on leadership to our listeners. However, we also hope the show will serve as a channel to help us build relationships and drive interested students and potential faculty to our university’s website.
For someone looking to start their own podcast, which equipment would you recommend that they start with?
The good news with podcasting is that there are many ways to start. Until you are sure that podcasting is for you, don’t invest in too many gadgets. For those who are just beginning, I recommend using the Anchor app that can be downloaded from iTunes. Anchor makes it very easy to start a podcast and includes the ability to edit, add music, record and distribute the RSS feed needed to show up on podcast distribution channels. You will need a microphone and headphones, and make sure to schedule a lot of time to produce the episodes, including the front-end piece of booking and prepping the guests.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
For our podcast and our institution, we want to empower and support the leader in everyone by focusing on diversity and equity of voice — what we refer to as Equity in Action. What really matters is the connection with others and, with the increasing remoteness that COVID-19 has created, this is even more poignant. That connection means truly and actively listening while engaging in collaboration.
There is so much noise out there with people wanting to talk more than listen, but that goes against the grain of how connections are made. My hope is that people recognize the need for connection, understanding, empathy and kindness, and that means listening, admitting that they don’t know everything and being a leader who learns.
How can our readers follow you online?
Podcast Website: Leaders Who Learn Podcast
LinkedIn: Joanna Bauer
University Website: www.claremontlincoln.edu | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/dr-joanna-bauer-of-leaders-who-learn-podcast-highlight-high-impact-leaders-to-attract-binge-56b85a6d4d87 | ['Tracy Hazzard'] | 2020-12-22 13:42:04.248000+00:00 | ['Podcasting Tips', 'Podcasting', 'Podcast', 'Influencers', 'Business'] |
Beaver Hunch | Beaver Hunch is a Miami-based startup that brings crowd-funding to the real estate business in a clever way! It is made for Latinxs to invest in the US.
100% transparent & 100% remote.
My Role
In this case, I worked as part of an Argentinian Design Agency: Indicius. They have high standards for visual quality, and they also created the branding for BH. My role as a Design Lead was to collaborate closely with the Product Owner, Dev Team, and Indicius’s Founder, to define the entire product. They had a ball-park idea of what the platform was supposed to do, but that what’s it. By conducting workshops, different rounds of research, an exhaustive IA phase, and even writing User Stories, I created the website and the platform.
Beaver Hunch is the first crowd-funding website from Argentina that allows people from all over Latin America to invest in real estate in the US. It is familiar for Latin American citizens that have banking accounts in the US to protect their earnings from their politically unstable countries.
The business model and the brand strategy were clear, but there was still work to do in the product definition. How is it supposed to work, which information is relevant to generate trust in remote investments, reduce the learning curve, and make it understandable for the target audience: first-time-investors.
They had the need to create the company website + the web app to manage investments and monitor its progress. | https://medium.com/@majocorino/beaver-hunch-7e9ddf6c3a04 | ['Majo Corino'] | 2020-07-03 03:51:45.235000+00:00 | ['UX Design', 'UI Design', 'Crowdfunding', 'Website Design'] |
Being resilient in times of crisis with singlehood | The life we hustle offers contentment that lasts in immediate moment. The gratitude we embrace will dissipate gradually as the time is slipping away unnoticed. At the beginning of the quarantine period, I was able to reclaim the time of crisis as a valuable solitude without ignorantly perceived the misfortunes that happened to others. It was the first time I embodied the power of equanimity state where I could carry the misery and the bliss at the same moment with a whole grace. I felt content and accepted regardless there were plenty of inadequacies adhered to the time clock that I could not comply yet. But too little did I know that pleasure and suffering cannot last too long in harmony. The balanced state is always challenged throughout time.
The state of completeness I experienced in the first place shares similar nature with the honeymoon phase. As it passes over, the sense of incompleteness begins to swirl around and permeates the whole night like it used to. The sturdy mental barrier I developed for the last 6 months that I assumed as highly impenetrable is slowly deteriorating. As it gradually crumbles, I feel increasingly enclosed in my own solitude.
Often times, I hollow out in the hole of unconsciousness whilst I seem helpless to draw myself back to the present moment. This mindless state can bring the lost memory back reminded me to acknowledge the acute pain, the cause of rejection I accepted from someone who was no longer projected in my hopelessly romantic dream for the past year. The occupation of this painful feeling in my body is so vivid to sense as if I’ve been rejected for the second time yesterday.
Physical reaction likewise will manifest because of this mental turmoil. There were times when my body worked in the utmost mechanical way like its autopilot button was pushed to switch the whole mechanism on for the survival emergency mode. The autopilot system seemed to impede the ability of the body to sense. Within time, it might develop dysfunction in the brain to process emotional impulses because the whole sensation that I could objectively discern was mere numbness. As the energy depleted through the day, I was immersed in the surge of immense exhaustion. Later I figured out, this experience is close to the elaborate symptoms of pandemic fatigue.
In the honeymoon phase, I could relish my time alone without disturbed by feeling lack of something. Indulging the day with my own interests and productive routines successfully maintained my sense of control and altered the isolation as the moment of consolation. The idea of living without codependence seemed possible at that time. As I ensured myself that I was not dependent on the social relation, whereas on its merit it’s always essential to the formation of individual existence. To feel connected to the world means developing a strong sense of self-worth.
Everyone actually shares similar estrangement to one and another as the universe has been in the trial of social distancing. We’re not allowed to engage in direct physical contact or meeting in person, but social media has long provided an altered form of intimacy for human relations. In the isolation case, the platform would compose interconnectedness between the users so we can feel less alone. However, what occurs to us now the way the algorithm has been controlled and manipulated makes the idea that social media can integrate connection seems overpromising.
Since Mark Zuckerberg “haphazardly” invented Facebook (according to The Social Network), social media has never weighed on the quality of human relationship. What it always serves is displaying limitless information as fast as possible and restraining the engagement time as long as it’s plausible to derive valuable incentives. I don’t have any intention to blame the platform as the actual problem is genuinely at the hand of the green and unregulated market that highly favors the neoliberal-economy system.
The ecosystem of technology market has egged on social media not to help us get closer to each other instead it has trapped us behind the screen with its illusion of intimacy. That compensates a coherent dispute to the inquiry of why we mostly feel excluded and distant from the world represented in the timeline instead of the other way around. Perhaps also a relevant reason for the raging discomfort of why I’ve never felt connected virtually during this crisis time. Regardless of my personality is embedded in the low extraversion spectrum, being in another person’s presence is the kind of intimacy that’s always transfixed me to feel okay, likewise to solidify my own existence.
This pandemic alienation also has ability to reveal the unspoken fear of dying alone. Before the disclosure, this fear was repressed internally long in the labyrinth of subconsciousness, but it’s the type of fear that would likely explode if I perpetually keep diminishing and discounting it with excuse of gratitude. It’s easy to understand if this concern is coming from a person who spends a multitude of years in singlehood like me because from the outside people can simply categorize it as a pathetic rumination.
At some point it may ring frankly right what I experience is loneliness, regarding the current situation somewhat converts my worries into a hostile captivation. It’s enough to make me jump to the conclusion that I’ve been suffering from chronic loneliness as the unmet desire and unexpressed frustration seem never find their own way to fully disperse since my early struggle as an inertly self-conscious child. All the things associated with remoteness, separation, and solitariness do set a proper home for a lonely and single person like me.
It’s hard to track down the main triggers of its emergence as everyone relatively gets lonely in the time of limited social interaction, but what appears to be obvious that the fear of dying alone indeed inextricably entwined with my value of living the life fully. As most of clinical psychology studies depict that deep connection is one of the fundamental aspects that’s required to have a long, prosperous, and happy life. To some extends, it’s not always in the case for coupledom, the rich and qualified connection also can be counted in the form of familial relationship, friendship, and community relation. As I ponder throughout the years of my single life compounded by failures to engage in intimate companionship, this notion always gets my chest heavy. It inevitably cast me down to the hidden and detrimental thought in which I begin to see myself as a monster who is unfit to romantic love. How do we survive if we’re not intimately connected with anyone?
But, I never identify this act of rumination as the way I look down the singlehood I inhabit. The state of spouseless is an optional matter, something you consciously decide to be. Besides, the destiny of love is actually a mystery that’s impossible to be solved neither by me nor anyone. If you think a person who has ventured in single life for so many years is so obsessed with coupling out, why doesn’t she or he date everyone intensively until they’re drenched in the cascade of love, suffocated by the relationship, and become loveless? In spite, that scientific findings can astutely debunk the myth of a single person’s life that’s well-known projected to be pitiful, insufficient, and miserable. In order to get yourself a happy life, you don’t have to compromise in the coupledom or institution like marriage as long as you have mutual friendship, supportive neighbors, or loyal family members who will accompany you until the end of your life.
However, I’m a little bit cautious with the idea of celebrating my single life because the majority of people deem this confession as something strange and uncooperative to the normal convention. In the modern world, for a woman who’s reaching her late 20’s, reclaiming her singlehood may not as taboo as what the queer community tries to fight for and it is indeed an endearing attitude that needs to express more prevalent in the age of Me Too movement. Whereas it is too often predestined to pull and flee people away from you, or could be specifically viewed as a turnoff trait by your potential partner. At the time you convey yourself as a proud single if people manage not to seem bewildered by that, however they will slightly protrude discomfort and feel sorry for you along with prejudice that belittles you as a despicable cynic. However you proclaim how this choice benefits you in the most rational way, they just can’t help to pity you.
In the end, people will receive it unpleasantly alongside the society have drawn mild exclusion that actually supplies enough validation to the initial insecurity I mentioned previously. Apparently to be a single person is a kind of failure because there’s always a crucial piece missing to make you as a complete human being.
There’s a quick way to make amends with vulnerability in the aloneness by unfavorably comparing the abundance of freedom in your single life with your friend’s married life, especially with some who have kids, or the loss of enthusiasm inside your friends’ long-term relationship. But, I always question the fairness of this comparison as I find it’s never fair for people to ask “why am I still single?” if they don’t also ask in the same sentiment why other people get married as well. On the other hand, I don’t want to manipulate someone else’s plights and experiences in order to console my loneliness. Whether the person is in a relationship or not, in the journey to cultivate a genuine connection with another human being we have distinct and personal quandaries that can’t be overlooked as precisely identical.
Also, it would be a lie if I don’t yearn for profound companionship while the stressors in this pandemic time are piling up over time, reaching the fever pitch. If there’s another bad news closing the abysmal year of 2020, I would likely get a stroke attack. But what has been prominent to concede with times of crisis is the way we respond to it, what’s kind of relationship we want to engage so we can generate resilience as the core of our survival instinct.
The fear of dying alone can be experienced whether you’re a depressed single person or a happily married person. Even someone who’s lucky enough to have a long-term reciprocal and reliable relationship with the compatible partner still has the probability to counter death in companionless, subsequently shattered by loneliness bullet. Like before, the concept of equanimity can serve as an antidote for me to sit with inadequacies. Not all the form of loneliness in singlehood need a fixed cure, it may only looking for space so it can be gently embraced as I candidly express in this writing. Soon some frictions will confront this composed state weakening, and I will set myself to prevent it collapses by continuously let my heart open for love and believe in miraculous hope. | https://medium.com/@fidhiakemala/being-resilient-in-times-of-crisis-with-singlehood-54fec2a7bccb | ['Fidhia Kemala'] | 2020-11-23 15:48:21.361000+00:00 | ['Pandemic Diaries', 'Quarantinelife', 'Single Life'] |
Mastering The Waves of Change | by Anne-Maria Yritys, Featured Contributor
The Pessimist complains about the wind; the Optimist expects it to change; the Realist adjusts the sails” — William Arthur Ward
…The Surfer rides the waves of change. Sometimes falling, but always climbing back upon the
surfing board, without giving up:
The Weather Channel´s Big Waves Surfing video is a rather extreme example, and the purpose of sharing it is by no means a suggestion for anyone to try anything similar out personally, only to serve as a demonstration for the kind of attitude embracing change may require.
Regardless of your formal status, in your mind you can become a brave surfer who learns to master small and big waves, riding your surfing board through the waves of personal and business life.
The benefits of “mental surfing”:
Activity — keeps you going and hinders you from stagnation
“A rolling stone gathers no moss”
Anticipation — forecasting everything (with a 100 % accuracy) is impossible, but anticipation is equal to being prepared
Why do great writers use anticipation instead of surprise? Surprise is merely an instrument of the unusual, whereas anticipation of a consequence enlarges our understanding of what is happening”. — Roger Rosenblatt
Consciousness — regular “mind-surfing” enhances your awakening-process and helps you reach untapped potential within yourself
You are an explorer, and you represent our species, and the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea, because our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness”. — Terence McKenna
Creativity — like surfing, creativity is hard work
“Creativity is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration”.
Development — activity together with consciousness lead to development, which is relevant for mastering change successfully
“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership”. (Harvey S. Firestone)
Education — the more you educate yourself, the better you are prepared for mastering change
“The true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers” (William Deresiewicz)
Fantasy — Day dreaming and regular stargazing are said to increase health
If you can dream it, you can do it” — Walt Disney
Innovation — All of the above are essential to your personal innovation process (and, for innovation in general)
Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable”. — William Pollard
Learning — Change is always about learning
Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward”. — Henry Ford
Mental mapping/training — A surfer, or any other (sports) person has to train his/her mind, and have the capability of building maps that can be useful when implemented into action in the physical world
If the brain is a lock, the mind map is the key” — Bob Pike
NLP — Neuro-linguistic programming as a multi-dimensional process develops behavioral competence and flexibility in addition to being a “tool” for self-discovery
“What we think we become — your voice can change the world”
Open-mindedness — Only with an open mind can we reach higher levels of consciousness and extend our learning experiences
The measure of intelligence is the ability to change” — Albert Einstein
Playfulness — children are naturally playful, but playfulness is important throughout life in order to embrace, and live change
Life is playfulness — we need to play so that we can rediscover the magical around us” — Flora Colao
Rest — Our bodies and minds need enough rest in order to stay creative
“Rest. Sleep. Let your mind have the dream s/he desires and let your body have the peace s/he deserves”.
Silence — Recommended reading (if you haven´t read it already): Silence — The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom” — Francis Bacon
Turbulence — Life, and the world, can sometimes feel turbulent. When we all learn how to stay calm in our minds, the world will not be the same again.
Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let’s love turbulence and use it for change”. — Ramsey Clark
Vision — There are many ways of strengthening personal vision. Vision can be enhanced through various means, such as balancing one´s chakras, and activation of the pineal gland (third eye chakra), through regular meditation and/or yoga.
Don’t underestimate the power of your vision to change the world. Whether that world is your office, your community, an industry or a global movement, you need to have a core belief that what you contribute can fundamentally change the paradigm or way of thinking about problems”. — Leroy Hood | https://medium.com/bizcatalyst-360/mastering-the-waves-of-change-e91908a9f9fc | [] | 2016-08-18 11:23:42.609000+00:00 | ['Ancestor', 'Altruism', 'Anne Maria Yritys', 'Beauty', 'Australia'] |
It’s Not My Fault You’re Angry | The just-world hypothesis states that if something bad happens to you, you must have deserved it. Conversely, that if you’re bad, you will one day get your comeuppance.
This leads to victim-blaming: “You were robbed? Well, what were you doing out late at night?”
“What did you do to upset him?”
In reality, the world isn’t fair. I find that people tend to transfer their anger from its source to an easy target. You see this when a boss yells at a worker, and the worker takes it without a word of complaint, then goes home fuming and yells at his or her spouse and children.
It’s interesting that people can usually control their anger when faced with an authority figure. How many people will yell at a boss, a doctor, or a police officer? Very few, because the consequences are swift. But they will certainly yell at a customer service worker, a secretary, or a teacher — people who are usually powerless to stop the verbal abuse.
This differs from an argument, in which two parties (often with similar levels of power) are locked in disagreement. Arguments happen, and the two people generally know why they’re at odds. If I caused someone’s problem, I can certainly fix it and apologize.
When I am on the receiving end of someone who walks in and flies off the handle, and then I get blamed for it, it’s not so easy.
What I almost find worse is when someone says or does something really horrible, on purpose, then tries to backtrack. They stomp their feet so hard that things fall off shelves. They raise their fists. Then when they start to see a consequence — someone getting angry back, or they get shown the door — they say a quick, “I’m sorry.”
As if that means you will forget everything. As if what they did never happened. They’re not really sorry; they’re sorry they might lose out on something. Threats and tantrums have lasting effects, and two words don’t erase that.
I read this example somewhere: Knock a vase on the ground, smashing it. Now say, “I’m sorry.” Did that fix the vase? Of course not. The damage has been done. | https://elliedaforge.medium.com/its-not-my-fault-you-re-angry-dfc3238ed193 | ['Ellie Daforge'] | 2018-11-18 15:07:51.266000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Self', 'Wellness', 'Psychology', 'Work'] |
You Got To Remember Wednesday | You Got To Remember Wednesday
I woke up with a start. Owen was yelling at me. I really couldn’t even comprehend what he was saying. I looked at the clock. It had a three in it. Without my glasses, I couldn’t see exactly what time it was but certainly not time to wake up and definitely not time for him to be screaming at me. I was still way too asleep to be thinking about what he was yelling about. I sat up and he calmed down. He wanted his tablet. I told him no and my being awake got that potty train rolling. This made Owen even madder. It didn’t matter. I had to go. Sometimes I forget that I’m in charge and have to run the ship even if I think I’m going to run it aground. I told him that we don’t yell at each other and that we were going back to bed after he went potty. Oh boy, that was fun. More screaming. I had put my glasses on and realized it wasn’t even three o’clock. His screams rock me during the day but at night it’s like ice on my spine. You don’t know why or how long the screams are going to last. And it’s the middle of the non-sleeping night momma can’t think through every scenario. Somehow I convinced him to get back in bed. He was asleep in seconds. Me, every single noise was a noise. All I can do is pray. He seems to only sleep through the night right now if I sleep in his bed. At least one of us gets sleep. It’s like sleeping with an octopus that wants to explore all the ends of the earth while reciting French, thinking about being at a football recital that doesn’t know if it should be playing a game or dancing the waltz. So I’m tired. He woke up refreshed and ready to party. I opened a drawer in the kitchen. He yells, “you done”, comes rushing into the kitchen, and slams the drawer closed. He can’t handle any of the drawers being open at all now. I go back and forth with him explaining that drawers can be opened and then they are closed. I let him open them, close them, we work on the timing of how long the drawers can be open, I’ve named the drawers and I’ve even begged him to get over it. That last one didn’t even register for him. It’s the process. Not long ago the door lock bothered him so he has moved forward. Tomorrow will be a brand new day. His smile, hugs, and random “I wuv ewe” throughout the day is what keeps me going. Give yourself credit for moving forward. Today is a stepping stone for tomorrow. Smiles to all and donut daze! | https://medium.com/@lynnbrowder/you-got-to-remember-wednesday-7f771deb2376 | ['Lynn Browder'] | 2020-12-17 01:02:56.367000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Parenting', 'Autism', 'Life Lessons', 'Inspiration'] |
Just Six Days After Launch, BantuPay Records Over 50,000 Users Across 147 Countries | Bantu’s flagship product, BantuPay, built on the Bantu Blockchain Infrastructure and launched on December 16, 2020, records over 50,000 users. This impressive figure comes just 7 days after launch. Stats show that users come from across 147 countries, with at least a thousand users from each continent.
BantuPay is built on the four pillars of empowerment, security, speed and low cost. We seek to empower humanity with a means for value transfer through the help of a non-custodial wallet. BantuPay is noncustodial because we do not keep your secret key, you alone are in control of your digital assets. Like we also say, ‘You are in control of your own destiny’. This is why it is vital to maintain the confidentiality of your secret key. The BantuPay mobile app, built on the Bantu Blockchain comes with a very highly secure and encryption architecture that protects its users and especially their data. As demoed during our launch event, BantuPay transactions take less than 5 seconds to confirm! In terms of transaction fees, it costs less than $0.001 to process a transaction.
“Finally, Blockchain technology and its products can be used by everyone. This was the vision behind BantuPay, the Bantu Blockchain Foundation’s maiden mobile app.
“One thing we had not anticipated seven days into our launch, was how much everyone needed this mobile app.
“We will keep working with everyone to build apps, tools and services for real-life impact.
“One fun fact for us was that the Bantu Team never projected or anticipated to have over 50,000 BantuPay mobile app downloads after only 7 days of the launch event.
“It was truly humbling and further sets a new bar for everyone to join us in building this Ecosystem as we keep Empowering Humanity. ‘We are, because You are’”.
— -Victor Akoma-Philips, COO Bantu Blockchain Foundation
Our 50,000+ users exchanging assets from one wallet to another through usernames rather than the usual often daunting wallet addresses. Other transactions carried out on the BantuPay app in this period involved the swapping of the currently available assets: XBN and BNR.
XBN is BantuPay’s native network token while BNR is created specifically for rewarding the community showing their support through their contributions with tests, troubleshooting and promotions.
Yet to get the BantuPay wallet? It’s available in Android and iOS versions. Visit https://bantupay.org/ to get started.
To partake in the rewards and contests, please join our community or follow us on any of our social media channels.
BantuTalk: https://bantutalk.org/
Telegram: https://t.me/bantublockchain
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bantublockchain?s=09
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/bantublockchain
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/bantublockchain
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/bantublockchain
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/bantublockchain/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bantublockchain/ | https://medium.com/@bantublockchain/just-six-days-after-launch-bantupay-records-over-50-000-users-across-147-countries-f63d67e4c7 | ['Bantu Blockchain Foundation'] | 2020-12-23 14:40:57.224000+00:00 | ['Bantu', 'Crypto', 'Blockchain', 'Africa'] |
美國指數型ETF規模、交易量排名&報酬率(2018年) | ETF Database: The Original & Comprehensive Guide to ETFs
The leading source for the latest developments on ETFs and more | https://medium.com/rabbitfin/%E7%BE%8E%E5%9C%8B%E7%86%B1%E9%96%80%E7%9A%84%E5%89%8D%E5%8D%81%E5%A4%A7%E6%8C%87%E6%95%B8%E5%9E%8Betf%E6%8E%92%E5%90%8D-d8b524c0354d | [] | 2018-07-16 06:36:43.747000+00:00 | ['Medium', 'Spy', 'Etfdb', 'Etf', 'Vanguard'] |
Digital Events in 2021 and Beyond: Plan for Success | The global pandemic has disrupted and challenged the tried and true methods of the physical events industry for the near and foreseeable future. The need for social distancing coupled with advances in digital engagement have resulted in experimentation with virtual events and realization of its associated benefits: wide distribution, increased attendance, pre and post engagement, hyper-personalization and meaningful metrics. Post pandemic, these benefits and the high return on investment of virtual events will lead to hybrid virtual / physical events that leverage the benefits of both. In all cases, the need for a strong virtual events platform and approach will be critical. We wanted to share with you five tips that will make your virtual event a success.
At Intergalactic we’ve been handling the digital aspect of physical events since 2004, and with over 880 successful projects to date; this is a space we understand and know how to thrive in.
Having successfully created EventXr, a proven enterprise grade virtual events platform, we’re sharing our top five tips and things we’ve learned. For the next five weeks we’ll also be publishing a sequence of articles covering each of the five tips in more detail. Here’s how to make your virtual event a hit:
1. Scalability
For a successful virtual event, you need to prepare for all possible outcomes including a runaway success. The platform must be able to cope with large numbers — the more successful you are at attracting an audience, the greater and more public the risk of failure. This is where some high profile virtual events have struggled, under the weight of their own success. Our approach is to ensure the stability of the platform, in particular during peak moments. We know the right way to do this from events we’ve done over the years, such as our events with Cisco (21,500+ attendees) and our music festival sites supporting 70,000+ attendees. We’ve learnt from the study of others to anticipate issues rather than learn from painful experiences. As a rule of thumb, for open registration virtual events we plan for up to 10x the physical audience numbers.
Virtual events have the potential to attract global audiences in significant numbers, which makes testing critical. When considering additional scalability possibilities, think about whether the platform is global and whether it uses leading edge content distribution networks to ensure distributed load and lag-free loading for international users. Registrations, managing personal data, presenting, and heavy bandwidth content will all put a strain on the solution architecture, in particular if you are using multiple systems and vendors. Avoid issues by asking the right questions around connectivity and load well in advance, so you can arrive at the right solution with plenty of time.
2. Content-led approach
Attending a virtual event is fundamentally different from the physical experience. The UX solution needs to respond to, and direct a user through, ideal journey scenarios to optimise their experience and takeaways from the event. The content needs to do six things to keep users engaged, interested and keen to explore more:
Be memorable and easy to share
Be easily accessible on and off the platform
Encourage conversation that can make the content travel even further
Include Live Hosting and Commentary — similarly to events like the Olympics where they have On-Air hosts, this is a great way to keep people interested throughout
Provide content recommendations based on the user’s profile and interests, helping to remove the guesswork for them
Delight users — distraction, when used properly, refreshes the brain and helps form memory
Provide tools to help visitors discover and consume content as conveniently as possible, allowing them to construct their own schedule. Things that are really helpful are to send reminders of sessions that are about to start, provide recommendations of other relevant content to keep people engaged, and allow friends/colleagues to attend and explore your event as a group.
We understand the importance of working to your strengths which is why it’s key that you’re able to concentrate on the content creation, leaving the platform creation to your partner (us). As a flexible and partner friendly company, we can either design and build the entire online digital experience or work with our client’s events partners and design agencies, to build what you, our client, is looking for. We have a deep, solid knowledge of how to structure and present content to optimise delegate interest and understanding.
3. Engagement and rewards
Digital events need to keep people engaged and be rewarding for those attending. With digital fatigue being more prevalent than ever, to combat this and ensure your event stands out, we suggest trying to prevent over-scheduling. Think about ‘content snacking,’ so your content can be quickly and easily consumed for optimum engagement. Instead of adding too much, find a good balance of both Live and On-Demand that allows delegates to drop in and out and pick up from where they left off with seamless transitions.
One of the key reasons people go to conferences or live events is to network for new business or new contacts — elevate your digital event with the creation of a delegate meeting place. At EventXR we can create a Networking Zone to enable this, helping to facilitate networking with 1:1 chat capabilities and moderated session chats that create a flexible, accessible event space.
For rewards, it’s necessary to both surprise and delight your guests, so consider incentivising people to get involved with the content by ensuring the event is worthwhile in as many ways as possible. Make it competitive so people will get involved, even if it’s just to achieve a personal best. A core feature of EventXR is our reward scheme, where there is the opportunity to accumulate tokens for engaging with content — this can be kudos, trophies, badges or actual real-life swag. Not only does this help your event become more valuable to the user, it also motivates them all the way through their journey to explore new offerings and content.
4. Leverage the power of digital
When it comes to leveraging the power of digital, think back to physical events such as trade shows or exhibitions. These environments were essentially anonymous as booth workers had little to go on to understand the wants, needs, context and role of the attendee. Compare this to a registered user on a website where the role, interests and previous browsing information is available for consideration and to help tailor the user experience.. With this in mind, it’s key to optimise content and not to miss this opportunity. Having these metrics in place will help to complement the live event whilst it’s happening, and will be beneficial for future events.
Make sure that the virtual event platform you use has the ability to understand visitor behaviour and optimise the content experience for them with hyper-personalization. We have the ability to do things such as tailor content specifically in a way that was never possible in the physical event space. One size doesn’t have to fit all — you can even optimize your content based on the user role and/or demographic for those situations where selling to an engineer may not look the same as selling to the C-suite. Crucially, digital allows you to:
· Engage earlier before the event so users can get excited and get a glimpse of what to expect
· Engage more deeply during the event to ensure users are finding and benefiting from the content throughout
· Engage for longer after the event with hyper-personalised content — users can take content away so the doors of a digital event never really have to close
We firmly believe that the post-COVID world is in hybrid events (a combination of physical and virtual events working in unison). For those digital attendees, make the most of the web and make sure those on the other side of the screen are getting to experience your brand. With EventXR, we have the tools in place to ensure that the digital strand integrates smoothly with the live event.
5. Plan for the future
Moving forward, we know people will be much more reluctant to travel significant distances. A recent study by Ipsos MORI found that, “many are still uncomfortable about some aspect of life returning to normal.” Currently in the US, a survey by McKinsey and Company found that over 60% of Americans are worried about engaging in out-of-home shared services like public transport, flights and ride sharing, and over 70% are not engaging in a “normal” levels of out-of-home activity. In the UK, the majority of Britons would be uncomfortable attending large public gatherings (65%) and using public transport (59%).
With that in mind, hybrid events will need a well-planned strategy to deliver measurable ROI over individual, isolated executions. Digital events aren’t just a proxy for physical events due to limitations and attendee discomfort. The tools and technology are now at the level where we can create meaningful engagement and deliver that experience to all corners of the world, developing and growing as we go. Hybrid events will continue to be the future, due to their ability to reach larger audiences. Great platforms will facilitate the forming of connections and interactions between those at events physically and those attending digitally.
A digital platform can support you through each step of a physical event. Keeping these five things in mind when planning a virtual event will mean that you’re set for success as you ensure your event is scalable, content-led, rewarding and digital-focused, while also being ahead of the curve as you prepare for future events. | https://medium.com/@intergalacticagency/digital-events-in-2021-and-beyond-plan-for-success-a3f4691532d5 | ['Intergalactic Agency'] | 2021-04-02 00:00:00 | ['Creative', 'Immersive Experience', 'Virtual Events', 'Digital', 'Thiisintergalactic'] |
Enable TensorFlow-gpu with NVIDIA graphics on Windows 10 | A few days back, I had to make a decision of keep aside the dual core I5 laptop I’d been using for the past 7 years and purchase a new laptop. After a check with friends, doing my own research, I landed on ‘Lenovo Legion 5i.’
With interest in the area of deep learning, I started to work on TensorFlow and Keras. As you know, model training on the CPU takes time, and GPU makes it better reducing time at least by 1/6th of CPU. To run TensorFlow on GPU, we need to install NVIDIA graphic drivers (If they are not pre-installed), CUDA Toolkit, cuDNN libraries. The problem is the versions that get released often, and few are not compatible. I, like a few of you, ended up in a loop of DLL errors.
DLL errors due to incorrect installation / compatibility issues
Legion 5i runs on the this configuration — CPU: I7 10th Gen | GPU: NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX1650Ti | OS: Windows 10 Home, 64-bit. To work with Keras, the TensorFlow needs to be updated to 2.2 or higher. TensorFlow-GPU v2.2 is not yet released with Anaconda for Windows OS.
TensorFlow | Keras | Anaconda Tensorflow-gpu version
Going through other blogs, Stack overflow questions, articles, CUDA, cuDNN documentation and search through google, following steps helped in solving my requirement. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/tensorflow-2-3-0-with-gpu-support-on-windows-10-f975a552ea7c | ['Koushik Kumar'] | 2021-01-22 03:38:11.604000+00:00 | ['Gpu Deep Learning', 'Cpu', 'TensorFlow', 'Keras', 'Windows 10'] |
How to Get Somebody to Open Up to You Without Any Effort | Can’t you just tell when something is wrong with your friend? They give you the occasional “I’m good,” but you know something is up. It’s hard to get your friends to open up to you. As their friend, you don’t want to see them down in the dumps because if they’re not happy then you’re not happy.
You can’t expect your friends to open up to you every time something is going left in their life, either it can be too much to get into, or it’s too tough to explain. You know this feeling, there’s been times where you’ve been hurt before and didn’t know how to open up about it.
Even with my time in therapy, I had many appointments where the conversation was all small talk and nothing was solved. Even though I was there to see a therapist and talk to him about what was going on in my life, I couldn’t bring myself to it.
This is important to understand when it comes to your friends, no matter who you are to them, opening up may not be something that they want to do at the moment. There’s something that you’ll always not know about your friends, this isn’t a bad thing but it’s something that everyone in a relationship goes through.
You know something is wrong with your friends when the long and funny conversations start to become shorter and shorter with every phone call. It’s not a good feeling, you start wondering if you did something wrong or if they are really upset. You even begin to wonder how much longer your friendship will last with that person, it’s ok to have these thoughts because this is why you want to help.
As much as you want them to be ok, you also want them to still be your friend at the end of the day. Also, you don’t want their negativity to get to an extreme.
Match Their Mood
Matching somebody’s mood is the closest you will be to being in their shoes, this method allows you to get a similar perspective on how that person is viewing their life. This can be done by first looking at how someone is standing or sitting down, really take a look at their posture. If they’re feeling down then you might see them talking with their head down and constantly rubbing their forehead with their index finger and thumb.
When looking at this, try to casually act in the same way, you don’t have to copy their exact positioning but something similar so that you know how they may be feeling physically.
Next, you’re going to want to listen to the few words they say, it may be a couple of sentences or one-worded answers. Do the same when talking back to them except don’t use any condescending words directed towards them. Instead, say things like “I feel you” or “yeah that’s true.” What you’re doing in this instance is getting on their level of energy so that they can build a level of trust with you.
If you can’t do this in person then listen to the sound of their voice on the phone and try to match that tone. People have a harder time opening up to somebody who is not on the same energy level as them. One example of this that we’ve probably all experienced is when we’re going through a tough time in our lives and one of our friends starts to talk about themselves and their problems.
Of course, we should always be open to listening to our friends but what about how we feel. Talking to your friend about some of your problems can already be hard enough, if they somehow make the conversation about themselves then you are going to be even more upset than you were before talking to them.
Don’t ever try to force a conversation onto your friends when you know something is wrong, this can make things worse and you’ll be viewed almost as an enemy in the situation. | https://bell-brandon0.medium.com/how-to-get-somebody-to-open-up-to-you-without-any-effort-7830dc5562cd | ['Brandon Bell'] | 2020-12-05 05:16:23.090000+00:00 | ['Friends', 'Relationships', 'Friendship', 'Vulnerability', 'Helping Others'] |
Our FAQs | Writers
What happens when I submit my article to TDS?
Thank you so much for taking the time to submit your article to our team! We will review it as soon as we can.
If we believe that your article is excellent and ready to go, this is how you will be able to add your post to our publication. If “Towards Data Science” shows up after you click on “Add to publication” in the dropdown menu at the top of the page, that means we have added you as an author and are waiting for you to submit your article. Once you have submitted your article, it will be reviewed by an editor before a final decision is made.
If we think that your article is interesting but needs to be improved, someone from our team will provide you with feedback directly on your submitted Medium article.
Please note that we only respond to articles that were properly submitted using either our form or via an email that exactly follows the instructions listed here. We don’t respond to pitches or questions already answered in our FAQs or on our Contribute page. We also ignore articles that don’t comply with our rules.
If you haven’t heard from us within the next five working days, please carefully check the article you submitted to our team. See if you can now submit it directly to TDS and look for any private notes from us that you may have missed. You should also make sure to check your spam folder.
If you just can’t reach us, the best thing for you to do is submit your article to another publication. Although we’d love to, we can’t provide customized feedback to everyone because we simply receive too many submissions. You can learn more about our decision here and submit another post in a month. | https://medium.com/p/462571b65b35#2a0e | ['Tds Editors'] | 2020-11-19 01:16:58.476000+00:00 | ['Writers’ Guide', 'Tds Team', 'Writers Guide'] |
Top Democrats Distance Themselves from Calls to “Defund the Police” | To Defund or Not to Defund?
“Is ‘Defund the Police’ a massive political mistake?” asks CNN Editor-at-large Chris Cillizza today.
Judging by the quickness and vehemence with which prominent Democrats have distanced themselves from the new rallying cry of the progressive left, the answer is most certainly “yes”.
“This movement today, some people tried to hijack it. Don’t let yourselves be drawn into the debate about defunding police forces.” — House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) “We could rebalance some of our funding to address some of those issues more directly. But this isn’t about that and that should not be to story that leaves here.” — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “Vice President Biden does not believe that police should be defunded. He hears and shares the deep grief and frustration of those calling out for change, and is driven to ensure that justice is done and that we put a stop to this terrible pain.” “Biden supports the urgent need for reform — including funding for public schools, summer programs and mental health and substance abuse treatment separate from funding for policing — so that officers can focus on the job of policing.” — Statement from former Vice President Joe Biden
These prominent leaders of the Democratic Party are savvy campaigners. They understand that Democrats embracing calls to “defund the police” are likely to find themselves in hot water on election day in a few months.
Those embracing the new “defund” mantra are also likely to find themselves on the receiving end of backlash from their own party as the resultant rush to law and order sets more serious efforts to reform our broken law enforcement and criminal justice systems back indefinitely.
Democrats embracing emotion-driven calls to “defund the police” are risking offense to another key Democratic voting bloc; American immigrants.
People around the world move to the U.S. for law and order. U.S. immigrants from places like Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia, and many others have fled places where law and order has been dissolved or devolved into mob justice and gang rule.
These America immigrants understand something white liberal Democrats do not: Defunding the police would lead to a power vacuum. With police gone, or toothless, criminals, warlords, narco-terrorists, and other murderous groups are free to terrorize the innocent and steal from the prosperous.
The killing of George Floyd is a terrible tragedy and the officers involved deserve the full penalties proscribed by the very constitutionally protected justice they denied to Mr. Floyd.
Yet calls to “defund the police” have seemed particularly odd in places where the George Floyd protests resulted in widespread violence and destruction.
Insurance companies have estimated the damage from the protests in Minneapolis alone at more than $500 million, including 1,000 commercial properties damaged and 52 businesses totally destroyed. Some of these businesses will not be coming back.
“We are sorting through the rubble, trying to figure out how to get this operational again. We are cautiously optimistic we can do that. But we are certainly not able to do that in Minneapolis.” — Kris Wyrobek, former Owner of 7-Sigma, a business destroyed during the protests.
Yet in spite of the violence which resulted from some of the protests, and the $500 million in damages, a majority of the Minneapolis City Council has voted to start the process of “ending the Minneapolis Police Department.”
“We recognize that we don’t have all the answers about what a police-free future looks like, but our community does. We’re committed to engaging with every willing community member in the City of Minneapolis over the next year to identify what safety looks like for you.” “Decades of police reform efforts have proved that the Minneapolis Police Department cannot be reformed and will never be accountable for its actions. We are here today to begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department and creating a new, transformative model for cultivating safety in Minneapolis.” — Minneapolis City Council statement.
The Los Angeles City Council, the mayor of San Francisco and the mayor of New York City have all made similar overtures to strip funding from their local police departments to reallocate it elsewhere.
Considering this, BLM activists are going to declare Biden, Pelosi and every other Democrat running from “defund the police” performative.
The Mayor of D.C. is a perfect example of how elected Democrats have lost control over the narrative to progressive activists: She was willing to have “Black Lives Matter” painted in huge letters on the D.C. street leading to the White House as a political statement.
But Black Lives Matter activists in D.C. were quick to condemn this act as performative. As they point out, she was not willing to defund the police; she wasn’t, in fact, even willing to cut their budget.
Career Democrats may think they have the progressive activist, liberal Twitter mob, Antifa, and BLM hydra by the tail; they are wrong.
Wielding the power of the progressive left is going to cost moderate Democrats much more than lip service this time. Performative actions, political face-saving, bipartisan compromise is not going to be acceptable.
Only freshman Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seems to truly grasp this inevitable clash, and what it might cost the Democratic Party in November.
“Our job as policymakers is to take the public’s mandate and find + create pockets to advance as much progress as possible. Progress takes a team of different roles. You don’t criticize a pitcher for not being a catcher. We can respond in ways that don’t undercut important work.” “And by the way, the fact that people are scrambling to repackage this whole conversation to make it palatable for largely affluent, white suburban “swing” voters again points to how much more electoral & structural power these communities have relative to others. Just for awareness!” — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Twitter. 6/9/2020.
(contributing writer, Brooke Bell) | https://munrkazmir.medium.com/top-democrats-distance-themselves-from-calls-to-defund-the-police-99694e748909 | ['Dr. Munr Kazmir'] | 2020-06-09 22:02:20.503000+00:00 | ['Election 2020', 'Trump', 'Politics', 'Democrats'] |
AUC Football Rivalry Preview | AUC Football Rivalry Preview
Morehouse and Clark Atlanta face off in last game of the season.
Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University will face off Nov. 9 at B.T. Harvey Stadium in the last game of the season. The (3–6) Maroon Tigers will be looking for another win against the (0–9) Clark Atlanta Panthers.
The two schools first met in 2010 with the Tigers beating the Panthers 17–7. Since then, Morehouse has beaten them four more times. But, the Panthers have the most recent victory with a 30–13 win over Morehouse in 2018. The (2–7) Panthers went into that game and shocked a (7–2) Tigers team.
The Panthers are averaging 17.8 points per game and the Tigers are averaging 22.2 points per game this season. The Tigers look to have the edge in this matchup this Saturday.
Clark Atlanta will be looking to pull off another upset while also getting their first win of the season against their AUC [Atlanta Univeristy Center] rival. On the other side, Morehouse hopes to finish out their season with a win as they lost their last three out of four games.
Kickoff time is 2 p.m. | https://medium.com/morehouse-advanced-news-writing-fall-2019/auc-football-rivalry-preview-8b01ee35a596 | ['Shakim Muhafiz'] | 2019-11-08 21:13:47.025000+00:00 | ['Sports'] |
Why ML should be written as pipelines from the get-go | MLOps
Why ML should be written as pipelines from the get-go
Photo by EJ Strat on Unsplash
Today, Machine Learning powers the top 1% of the most valuable organizations in the world (FB, ALPH, AMZ, N etc). However, 99% of enterprises struggle to productionalize ML, even with the possession of hyper-specific datasets and exceptional data science departments.
Going one layer further into how ML propagates through an organization reveals the problem in more depth. The graphic below shows an admittedly simplified representation of a typical setup for machine learning:
Figure 1: Why it’s hard to reproduce ML models
There are three stages to the above process:
Experimenting & PoCs:
Technologies : Jupyter notebooks, Python scripts, experiment tracking tools, data exploration tools
: Jupyter notebooks, Python scripts, experiment tracking tools, data exploration tools Persona : Data scientists
: Data scientists Description: Quick and scientific experiments define this phase. The team wants to increase their understanding of the data and machine learning objective as rapidly as possible.
Conversion:
Technologies : ETL pipelining tools such as Airflow
: ETL pipelining tools such as Airflow Persona : Data Engineers
: Data Engineers Description: Converting finalized experiments into automated, repeatable processes is the aim of this code. Sometimes this starts before the next phase, some times after, but the essence is the same — take the code from the data scientists and try to put them in sort form of an automated framework.
Productionalization & Maintenance:
Technologies : Flask/FastAPI, Kubernetes, Docker, Cortex, Seldon
: Flask/FastAPI, Kubernetes, Docker, Cortex, Seldon Persona : ML Engineers / Ops
: ML Engineers / Ops Description: This is the phase that starts at the deployment of the model, and spans monitoring, retraining, and maintenance. The core focus of this phase is to keep the model healthy and serving at any scale, all the while accounting for drift.
Each of these stages requires different skills, tooling, and organization. Therefore, it is only natural that there are many potholes that an organization can run into along the way. Inevitably things that are important downstream are not accounted for in the earlier stages. E.g. If training happens in isolation from the deployment strategy, that is never going to translate well in production scenarios — leading to inconsistencies, silent failures, and eventually failed model deployments.
The Solution
Looking at the above multi-phase process in Figure 1, it seems like a no-brainer to simply reduce the steps involved and therefore eliminate the friction that exists between them. However, given the different requirements + skillsets for each step, this is easier said than done. Data scientists are not trained or equipped to be diligent to care about production concepts such as reproducibility — they are trained to iterate and experiment. They don’t really care about code quality and it is probably not in the best interest of the company at an early point to be super diligent in enforcing these standards, given the trade-off between speed and overhead.
Therefore, what is required is an implementation of a framework that is flexible but enforces production standards from the get-go. A very natural way of implementing this is via some form of pipeline framework that exposes an automated, standardized way to run ML experiments in a controlled environment. ML is inherently a process that can be broken down into individual, concrete steps (e.g. preprocessing, training, evaluating, etc), so a pipeline is a good solution here. Critically, by standardizing the development of these pipelines at the early stages, organizations can lose the cycle of destruction/recreation of ML models through multiple toolings and steps, and hasten the speed of research to deployment.
If an organization can incentivize their data scientists to buy into such a framework, then they have won half the battle of productionalization. However, the devil is really in the details — how do you give data scientists the flexibility they need for experimentation in a framework that is robust enough to be taken all the way to production?
An exercise in finding the right abstractions
Having motivated writing in pipelines from the get-go, it is only fair that I give more concrete examples of frameworks on how to achieve this. However, in my opinion, currently, the tooling landscape is too split into frameworks that are ML tools for ML people, or Ops tools for Ops people, not really satisfying all the boxes I mentioned in the last section. What is missing is an Ops (read pipelines) tool for ML people, with higher-order abstractions at the right level for a data scientist.
In order to understand why this is important, we can cast an eye towards how web development has matured from raw PHP/JQuery-based scripts (the Jupyter notebooks of web development) with the LAMP stack to the powerful React/Angular/Vue-based modern web development stacks of today. Looking at these modern frameworks, their success has been dictated by providing higher-order abstractions that are easier to consume and digest for a larger audience. They did not change the fundamentals of how the underlying web technology worked. They simply re-purposed it in a way that is understandable and accessible to a larger audience. Specifically, by providing components as first-class citizens, these frameworks have ushered in a new mechanism of breaking down, utilizing, and resharing the HTML and Javascript that powers the modern web. However, ML(Ops) does not have an equivalent movement to figure out the right order of abstraction to have a similar effect.
To showcase a more concrete example of my more abstract thoughts above, I’ll use ZenML, an open-source MLOps framework to create iterative, reproducible pipelines.
Disclaimer: I am one of the core maintainers of ZenML.
ZenML is an exercise in finding the right layer of abstraction for ML. Here, we treat pipelines as first-class citizens. This means that data scientists are exposed to pipelines directly in the framework, but not in the same manner as the data pipelines from the ETL space (Prefect, Airflow et al.). Pipelines are treated as experiments — meaning they can be compared and analyzed directly. Only when it is time to flip over to productionalization, can they be converted to classical data pipelines.
Figure 2: ZenML abstract pipelines with familiar language to increase ownership of model deployments.
Within pipelines are steps, that are abstracted in familiar ML language towards the data scientist. E.g. There is a TokenizerStep , TrainerStep , EvaluatorStep and so on. Paradigms that are way more understandable than plugging scripts into some form of orchestrator wrapper.
Each pipeline run tracks the metadata, parameters and can be compared to other runs. The data for each pipeline is automatically versioned and tracked as it flows through. Each run is linked to git commits and compiled into an easy-to-read YAML file, which can be optionally compiled to other DSL’s such as on Airflow or Kubeflow Pipelines. This is necessary to satisfy other stakeholders such as the data engineers and ML engineers in the value chain.
Additionally, the interfaces exposed for individual steps are mostly set up in a way to be easy to extend in an idempotent, and therefore a distributed, manner. The data scientist can therefore scale-out with different processing backends (like Dataflow/Spark) when they are dealing with larger datasets.
All in all, ZenML is trying to get to the following scenario:
Figure 3: ZenML unifies the ML process.
Of course, ZenML is not the only mechanism to achieve the above — Many companies build their own home-grown abstraction frameworks to solve their specific needs. Often-times these are built on top of some of the other tools I have mentioned above. Regardless of how to get there, the goal should be clear: Get the data scientists as close to production as possible with as little friction as possible, incentivizing them to increase their ownership of the models after deployment.
This is a win-win-win for every persona involved, and ultimately a big win for any organization that aims to make it to the top 1% using ML as a core driver for their business growth.
Plug
If you like the thoughts here, we’d love to hear your feedback on ZenML. It is open-source and we are looking for early adopters and contributors! And if you find it is the right order of abstraction for you/your data scientists, then let us know as well via our Slack — looking forward to hearing from you! | https://towardsdatascience.com/why-ml-should-be-written-as-pipelines-from-the-get-go-b2d95003f998 | ['Hamza Tahir'] | 2021-03-31 20:42:50.952000+00:00 | ['Workflow', 'DevOps', 'Machine Learning', 'Pipeline', 'Mlops'] |
All you need to know about the Jupiter and Saturn Winter Solstice Great Conjunction | Today, Google Doodle is celebrating The Great Winter Solstice Conjunction which many of you might not know about this great astronomical phenomenon. Today in this article we will explain you about winter solstice but this year, there are some specialties, Google is celebrating Winter 2020. The Great Conjunction in Northern Hemisphere as Earth’s Northern Hemisphere hunkers down for winter and it’s the longest night of the year. It seems Jupiter and Saturn have decided to put on a quite unusual show for the world to see.
So, what is The Great Winter Solstice and what exactly is creating this celestial phenomenon?
The two largest planets in our solar system will nearly overlap to form a double planet and even that hasn’t been easily visible since the…….
Read more
Visit www.codexell.tech for more like this. | https://medium.com/@codexelltech/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-jupiter-and-saturn-winter-solstice-great-conjunction-5882d6419fb3 | ['Codexell Tech'] | 2020-12-21 11:17:05.624000+00:00 | ['Astronomy', 'Space', 'World', 'NASA', 'Astrology'] |
How I Designed + Built A Poker Site | The “JackNine” NLH Table
Check Out The Code Here
Inspiration
It’s roughly 10pm in April of 2020. A novel coronavirus had recently incentivized staying indoors. I was on discord with roughly a dozen of my close friends, wrapping up a fairly heated game of CS:GO.
“Let’s play poker!”, someone offered.
I googled for some poker sites that would allow us to play a non-cash game of NLH, with controlled buy-ins, lightly-customizable rules (i.e straddles), and for free. I found astonishingly little. This was stunning — I expected a sea of terrible web-apps offering poker implementations.
I thought about writing a discord bot to host a poker game. The bot might send private messages with your cards, and update a publicly viewable comment containing the state of the board. Players could take actions by commenting in a thread, after which the bot would process the action and progress the game. While this would work, it didn’t seem fun to build. And I was very bored.
After a frantic 30 minutes, I decided to build a poker site. I wanted to see what modern web apps looked like — and this was a good testbed to experiment with that. I scribbled out a napkin-diagram of an architecture for the game, and set out coding.
If you just want to see code, check out the Github.
“napkin” diagrams + straw-man architecture
The architecture behind many major web applications can be roughly approximated with what I call a “straw-man architecture”. I’ll produce a list of constraints and features, and after some meditation write down a sample solution. It doesn’t need to be perfect — it can have glaring issues with scalability, performance, or extensibility. Writing out this architecture will cause you to ask: “why can I recognize that this is glaringly wrong?”.
I call these napkin diagrams, since they should roughly fit on a small piece of paper, and you’re very likely to throw them out after creating them.
features = getFeaturesAndRequirements(); strawman = brainstormArchitecture(features); while (confusedBy(strawman)) { strawman = brainstormArchitecture(features); }
Worrying about scalability, extensibility, or any other maturity level of your codebase might keep you from adding serious value with your software early on. These are all good problems to have.
A Poker Straw-man
>> diagram 1- a very simple poker architecture
The architecture is designed to be as simple as possible. Each server host is a node.js deployed webserver. Clients establish a Websocket connection with the server, which they then issue commands to when playing the game. The server can routinely broadcast information including game state, server state (“going down for maintenance”), and other goodies over this channel.
Data is stored in redis (a fast in-memory cache) for convenience- the active game state for card games is pretty small, and we can host 1000’s of concurrent games per host with this. We then sync game-state to a mongodb cloud instance running remotely, which can be used to seed new host machines with a game. Redis, Mongo, and Heroku all offer “free” tiers of service for developers, so you shouldn’t need to pay until your service scales to users.
A note on Architecture
I chose Typescript + React for my client, so that I could share code with my Node server. In the websocket setup I talk about earlier- the client and server are constantly exchanging messages. The schema of those messages matters a lot, and sharing types (and code) directly between the two implementations helps to facilitate fast development. I’ll be writing another article on this setup soon.
Roughly, the code breakdown looks like this;
/* source tree */
build/*
src/client/*
src/common/*
src/server/*
What about the game?
Implementing a turn-based game is pretty simple. I like to follow this formula:
Model the public game state. (each user’s hand, stack size, status, whose turn it is, etc.) Implement availableActions(gameState) i.e “given the current state, describe the set of legal transitions to the next game state” Implement applyAction(gameState, action) => gameState which applies some action to the gameState and generates a new one. If availableActions(gameState) is the empty set, the game is over.
Now, unit test till exhaustion. Ideally, don’t even implement the core game logic yourself- pull in a third party NLH library. For something like hand-ranking (“straight” vs. “flush”), this is vastly preferred. Look at code coverage tools to make sure you’re 100% covered before moving on from this step.
The Usual WebApp Stuff
Now that you have a fully tested implementation of NLH available, you’ll need to start interacting with clients. Establishing some baseline schema for user tracking (login with Google | Facebook | Discord, display name, balance, authToken). Spin up a web UI in React to wrap this together, and connect your client to the server via WebSockets. Heroku supports WebSockets, but you’ll need to check with your cloud provider to make sure that the server can accept (and maintain) these connections. Heroku, for instance, demands that you send some Keep Alive packet to prevent termination of the connection.
You can test a lot of this locally, if you’re crafty. I only moved onto my cloud provider when I was ready to meaningfully test multiplayer gameplay.
A Note On Local Testing
For every piece of the napkin diagram we drew, we made the deployment and testing of the app just a bit more complicated. To locally test my poker app, I needed to spin up mongodb and redis . I frequently ran into issues with mongo not closing correctly, which slowed down my overall developer speed.
Here are some tips that made local testing better:
You’ll want to establish a pipeline to seed data into your databases, so that you don’t need to make an account every time.
If you bring more developers onboard, you’ll need to think about Mac+Windows. When I tried to share my project with others, many of the scripts I had written were unix only. Think about Windows contributors too! (in particular- mongodb doesn’t play nicely with WSL)
Linting is important. Lint early, lint often. Restarting your app can be expensive, but linting isn’t. I set up tslint to keep my project in good shape. Make Linting a part of your testing infrastructure!
The Long Road / Maintenance
After finding some bored friends who also wanted to work on this project, I setup a few more things that I think are valuable to consider.
Integration tests that spin up your app, access an endpoint and verify state in the database. Check out jest for this. Branch Standards for your Github. Offer a master branch for general development, and a release branch to deploy your web app from. Run your tests consistently on master (via Jenkins CI), and only merge master into release if tests are passing. Plugins are available for Github that will automatically file tasks for TODO comments in your code. This is a great way to help bring on new contributors by pointing them toward these areas that need love.
Building The Site
While my build process is fully described within the Makefile of the repository I’ve linked to, I can offer a few thoughts on how things are setup.
I build the server and client in parallel, using Make’s -j flag for threading. Each project has its own TypeScript config, and produces a series of .js files in the output. The client’s React setup is responsible for bundling all of the needed Typescript into a series of assets to be hosted by the server.
Once all of this is compiled, I arrange everything in an output resources folder, which the server is started from. Note that resources is checked in to the repository for simplicity, requiring only a git clone and make setup && make local to run the server. Since tests are run against the contents of resources , we can be confident that starting the server will achieve the same behavior.
Sharing Code (TS Node + React)
In order to get my client and server to share Typescript definitions, I used a bit of a hack. My shared folder is symbolically linked between the client and server. Were I to continue working on this project this would definitely not be OK, but at the time this unblocked me. TypeScript’s config should allow for the paths to be ‘searched’ implicitly.
Putting It All Together
After a late night, I finally deployed the app to Heroku. That night we ran a few hands, saw chips exchanged, and had a good time. After signing off, jacknine (the poker site) sat in my private Github library for over a year — until now! The UI could use some work, and there are bugs, but it mostly works.
Enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions. | https://medium.com/@jbrower95/how-i-designed-built-a-poker-site-b15a103dbabb | ['Jay Brower'] | 2021-11-30 23:57:09.605000+00:00 | ['Poker', 'Backend', 'Software', 'Architecture'] |
Building your first Flask REST API with MongoDB and JWT | Flask
Flask is a lightweight and an easy-to-use web framework that provides a way to quickly build a backend for your application.
First, install Flask framework using pip with the following command:
pip install flask
Build a Basic Application
In order to build a basic flask application create a new file called “app.py” and use the following code:
our basic app.py
In the first lines of the code we imported the Flask class and then we create an instance of it. Next, we use the @app.route decorator, the parameter we send set what URL should trigger the following function. The “if” statements will be true when our model is being run directly (and not being imported by something else).
Finally, the run() function will run the application, set the debug parameter to true will reload the application on code changes which will help us during the development process.
Run the application by running the “app.py” file, then you should see:
Let’s open the http://localhost:5000/ URL in browser to make sure everything work, you should see:
MongoDB
MongoDB is one of the most popular NoSQL databases. In SQL databases the data stored in table format. In MongoDB the data stores in JSON format. JSON forms a tree data structure and the individual records are known as ‘documents’.
We choose to work with MongoDB because the data represent in the same way that application do. It is also more flexible and easy to scale.
Do the following steps to create your MongoDB database:
1. Go to https://cloud.mongodb.com and create an account.
2. Click on “Create a cluster” button.
3. The default settings should be fine. Scroll down and type in a name for your cluster.
4. Click on “Connect” and then click “Add Your Current IP Address” to be able to connect MongoDB from your computer.
5. Set a username and password and click on “Create Database User”.
6. Click on “Choose a connection method” and then “connect your application”.
7. Choose python and copy your connection string, save it for later.
8. Now let’s go to “Collection” and click on “Add My Own Data”.
9. Choose database and collection name and click on “ Create”.
We are now going to use PyMongo library which allows interaction with the MongoDB database through Python.
So, let’s install it:
pip install pymongo
Now, let’s import pymongo and configurate our mongoDB database
We use the MongoClient class to make a connection, we then choose our relevant database and collection (as we defined at MongoDB Cloud).
BASIC OF REST:
Rest is a very common Architectural Style for an application program interface.
Rest offers a stateless protocol and standard operation which provides many advantages such as fast performance, reliability, scalability, separation between client and server and more.
In Rest the server data represented as resources, the customer can access the resources by using web URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) and HTTP.
Here are some basic things you should know:
HTTP Methods
POST — use to create a new resources.
GET — use to read (or retrieve) a representation of a resource.
PUT — use to update a resource.
DELETE — use to delete a resource.
Endpoints
GET Example.com/api/v1/users — will retrieve a list of users
POST Example.com/api/v1/users — will create a new user
DELETE Example.com/api/v1/users/1 — will delete user with id 1
Status code
RESTful APIs use the Status-Line part of an HTTP response message to inform clients of their request’s overarching result.
1xx: Informational
2xx: Success — The client’s request was successfully.
3xx: Redirection — The client must take some additional action in order to complete their request.
4xx: Client Error — Error at client request.
5xx: Server Error — Error at the server side.
Register
After we talked about RESTful we can now make our first function that will handle the registration logic and let us add new users to our database.
There are some serval basic things we want to do when we add new users. We need to make sure that the username not already registered. If the username is new we can create the new user, if not we will return an error code.
As we learn about RESTful, while register a new user we create a new resource, so this request should be a POST method. The HTTP Status code we use are: Code 201 mean “created” and Code 409 describe that was a conflict and the request could not be completed.
We also want to hash the password of the user before we save it in our database. This way, if someone will get access to our database data he won’t be able to know the user’s real password, but we still be able to confirm that the password the user send is the same as the one we have in the database.
Login And JWT
To be able to secure the transmitting to the API and identifying the user without any private credentials we will use JWT (Json Web Token)
How do JWT work?
JWT is basically a string that is encrypted on the server-side and holds information about the user, when the user successfully login with their credentials we can return a JWT. The user will attach the JWT to his next requests. Then, we decrypt the JWT on the server-side and we can identify the user.
Why JWT?
JWT has a lot of benefits, unlike Server-side sessions, You don’t need to store the session identifier in a database and check them in each request. It’s meant JWT let us identify users with less database request. Read more about JWT benefits here:
[add link]
Install flask_jwt_extended in order to use JWT:
pip install flask_jwt_extended
Now let’s write some code:
We define a secret key that will use to sign the token, Your secret key should never be given to anyone else. You need to keep this key a secret. We also need to define for how long the given token will be valid, for that we use the JWT_ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRES and set it for 1 day.
At first we check if the user exists and if the password are correct. Then, we use create_access_token() to create a JWT with the current username (There are ways to store more data inside the JWT).
On successful request you should get this:
Getting the profile
After we logged in and got the JWT (access token), we need to use it so we could know what user make a request, it will help us to know what data we should return and if the user have the access to that data.
The @jwt_required decorator means that this function will work only if the user will attach the JWT to the request. get_jwt_identity() function takes the JWT check if it’s valid and return the identity data we saved before. It allows us to get the username data from the database. If you try to go to profile route with out JWT, you will get a 401 status code which means unauthorized.
Full Code
This is the full code combined for our Flask web-api app using flask, MongoDB and JWT.
I hope this article was helpful, there are of course a lot of things could be improve in this code like data validation, more error checking and so on, I just want to show you the basic.
There are lots of other topics worth reading and getting to know more, you will find lots of documentation online (and here in Medium). | https://shayff.medium.com/building-your-first-flask-rest-api-with-mongodb-and-jwt-e03f2d317f04 | ['Shay Pepper'] | 2020-12-08 15:39:09.153000+00:00 | ['Jwt', 'Mongodb', 'Rest Api', 'Flask', 'Api Development'] |
Leadership Skill — Two Ways Perspective in Leadership — How to be a middle manager in your company | Leadership Skill — Two Ways Perspective in Leadership — How to be a middle manager in your company Marcello Judhandoyo Sep 7·3 min read
Hi reader, let me introduce myself. My name is Marcello, working as a full-time entrepreneur. Right now, I lead 2 companies named Livera & Chameleon who consist of total employee more than 15 people. It’s still a small company but I believe that the company will be bigger than now and realize my vision. I am very excited to talk about leadership, business, & management. That’s why I create my Medium to discuss more that topic.
I will start with the “Leadership” topic. In this article, I will start with “two ways perspective in leadership skill”. Sometimes as a human, we take sides with something that we hear from another person that closes with us. We judge something because everyone blames it, are you the one who does that too in your life?
In my humble opinion, as a leader, we need to see 2 perspectives of every case that we face. Let’s discuss the simplest thing that we face every day in work-life.
As an employee, we always think about how hard our task is. Maybe we always say that our boss is not as hard as us. The employee thinks that their boss is not doing anything and enjoy the “result” of the employee’s job.
In the meantime, as a c-level or management, we always think about how hard our task is. Always demand the employee to improve the performance and create a bigger impact for the company. The boss thinks that their employee enjoys their life and not doing anything right in the daily work life (maybe not all leader/boss like this).
This is simple but very impactful for a leader and as a middle manager in a company who connects the employee & the c-level. They need to know each other responsible and going to the same vision (that’s why we need the vision & mission the first time we create a company).
Okay, let’s break down the case. The problem of this case is they don’t know each other responsibilities. As a leader, we need to keep between them and not take sides with someone (not to c-level / management & not to employee).
From the employee side, they need to know the management pain. Needs to look for investment for business growth, employee well-being, responsible to improve the self skill & employee skill, think about a career path in the company that they create, cash flow, and a lot of problem in management’s head. The truth is the employee doesn’t need to think about that, the employee needs to work and think about the result for a better result. The employee doesn’t need to think about everything that the management thinks.
From the management side, they need to know the employee pain. Needs to run their life, pay the bill, work-life balance, and other things that the employee needs.
From this perspective, we can see that no one is wrong and no one is right. The only thing is about having two perspectives and empathy for each other. The management needs to think about their employee and create a good work ecosystem with a work-life balance. In the meantime, the employee needs to know the struggle of the management to keep improve and innovate to make the company run. With this balance, the “wheel” of the cart named “Company” will always move and create a better future for everyone inside the company. | https://medium.com/@mjudhandoyo/leadership-skill-two-ways-perspective-in-leadership-how-to-be-a-middle-manager-in-your-company-dc3fd89caaf0 | ['Marcello Judhandoyo'] | 2021-09-07 16:17:22.766000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Startup Lessons', 'Leadership Skills', 'Leadership', 'Startup Life'] |
10 Myths The Left Should Abandon: How to Bring Facts into the Conversation | In today’s heated political discussion, it’s easy to get lost in the rhetoric and the fake news. And to be fair, fake news exists on both the Left and the Right.
Personally, I think it’s good for people to have differences of opinions on politics. After all, if the Founding Fathers did not have differing views from those of King George III we might not be enjoying the ability to freely have these political discussions today, or freedom to discuss much of anything else for that matter.
Unfortunately, far far too often people come to their political beliefs based on things they’ve heard in the wind, or based on how they feel from what they heard someone say on TV. Ideas are filtered through based on what feeds into people’s biases or feelings, not based on what can be factually established.
But if we want to seek truth, it’s important to check our biases and preconceived notions as much as possible. We might come to different conclusions based on those facts, however searching and digging for the facts can and should be our starting point.
It is not necessary to simply take Fox News or CNN for Gospel Truth. If we want to fact check something supposedly said by a politician, we can watch the full context of their speech online. If we want to hear what experts say on a particular topic, we can watch interviews from scientists, historians, and economists for ourselves, while being sure to hear the views of experts with a broad range of opinions on these topics.
Unfortunately, while political rhetoric often involves misinformation and falsehoods on all sides of American politics (clickbait, rumors, etc.) patent absurdity and falsehoods are a staple of the mainstream Left. I am talking about the Feminist “Wage Gap”, which no economist in the world accepts, the accusation that all Conservatives are “White Supremacists” including Ben Shapiro and Ben Carson, and the treatment of Bill Nye as if he were a real-life scientist.
There is a saying that you are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
Here are a few of those staple errors.
1.) The So-Called Wage Gap
While it is true that women make less money than men, it is not true that overall women make 77 cents on the dollar for the exact same work as a man. That second part is what makes the statement untrue.
It would be more accurate to say that there is an “earnings gap” but this is due to life choices, not due to discrimination, as even female economists will tell you.
The biggest reason men make more money than women is because when men and women get married, men tend to be the primary breadwinners. The husband will work long hours at the office, while the woman will stay home with the kids, often getting a part-time job, or a job with a lot of time flexibility — ergo making less money per hour, and usually working fewer hours.
But when we look at women who have never been married and their male counterparts, and control for occupation etc., the earnings gap nearly vanishes, with women sometimes earning more than their male peers.
As the economist Thomas Sowell explained decades ago in an interview, the difference is not between men and women, it’s between married women and everybody else.
Another important, and obvious factor, is that men tend to go into higher paying occupations. During college, women are more likely than men to study sociology, while men are more likely than women to study engineering.
Doctors make more money than nurses — is this really any surprise?
Furthermore, male doctors tend to go into higher paying specialties compared to their female counterparts, such as heart surgery. Also male doctors tend to work more overtime.
The irony of all this is that women who never have been married tend to make about the same as their male counterparts — sometimes more.
In fact, all economists seem to agree that the earnings gap between men and women is not due to sexism in any statistically detectable amount in Twenty First Century America. Almost all of it seems to be due to differences in choice of career.
Now, one could argue that the individual who studied Art History and works at Starbucks should make the same amount as someone who performs open-heart surgery working three day long shifts to save lives. And if that is your position, then you are entitled to it. But is it really such an injustice that the individual, man or woman, who contributes more to society, such as a doctor, should reap more benefits from their hard-earned labor, than the person who took it easy and studied Art History?
This touches on the fundamental confusion of the Left between money and wealth. Economics is ultimately about creating and exchanging wealth. If I grow a million apples, then I can exchange the wealth I’ve created for more wealth than the guy who grew a hundred apples.
Granted, on this topic of differences in earnings a lot of issues could (and should) be discussed. Women who choose to have children ultimately can’t afford to work 60 hours a week as a doctor in most cases (and God bless them if they can and find that this is right for their families). That’s why it is usually the role of the husband to serve her by allowing her to stay at home with small children, while he goes off and earns a paycheck. But the key here is that in marriage what he earns is hers. In marriage there is no difference in ownership. The house, the TV, the dog, the kids, and the paycheck all belong to the man and the woman equally.
Also, I am not saying that sexism does not exist, as it clearly does. Women are often treated horribly in the world and not respected. But that is all the more reason for honorable, rational, and respectable women to keep a level head and not get sucked into propaganda.
As I said before, there may be other issues at play in the world, such as the possibility that there is a hiring bias if a resume says “Jack” or “Jill” at the top. However, that is a separate issue from the claim that women make 77 cents on the dollar for the exact same work as a man.
The bottom line is that no economist in the World believes in the Feminist Wage Gap. It’s a myth pushed by politicians and those with an axe to grind. And it’s wrong for these politicians to knowingly lie to female voters to try to manipulate their emotions. That doesn’t mean that sexism does not exist, but it does mean that this particular claim is untrue. Those of the Left who use it should disavow this argument.
Economists like Dr. Thomas Sowell and Dr. Claudia Goldin, a Harvard economist who has studied earnings differences between men and women, have done a lot of work on this topic.
Thomas Sowell — Gender Bias and Income Disparity: A Myth?
2.) Do Unequal Outcomes Prove Racism/Sexism?
A lot is made of the fact that black Americans make less money than their white counterparts. It is generally assumed that this is due to racism.
However Chinese Americans, Indian Americans, and even Nigerian Americans make more money than their white counterparts. If one assumes that all inequity is due to some underlying societal prejudice, then why is it that Nigerian Americans make more money than white Americans whose families have lived in this country for generations?
Economists suggest a number of reasons why certain demographics will be more successful than others, including how much one culture values education over another.
There is a lot of talk these days about “White Privilege” and the fact that white Americans on average make more money than black Americans. This is often seen as proof of “sexism.” But when we look at the broader picture, such as the fact that other minorities, including people from China, India and Nigeria, make more money than white Americans, claims of “white privilege” start to lose their empirical credibility.
Poverty in the black community is a huge problem in the United States, and we need better solutions, which brings us to the problem of failing (Democrat-run) inner city schools.
Thomas Sowell is Back Again to Discuss His Book Wealth, Poverty, and Politics
3.) Inner City Schools Fail Due To A Lack Of Funding
False. The reality is that some inner city schools get more money than their suburban counterparts, and yet still are absolute failures. This is due to a number of societal factors, including problems with teacher’s unions demanding that incompetent teachers not be fired.
Yet in those same inner cities, charter schools that receive less funding than the public schools per student are often wildly successful, even going so far as to match the success of the most affluent suburban schools, despite the obvious differences in funding.
And to make things even more interesting, the kids in the charter schools are chosen by lottery, not by “skimming the cream.”
Charter schools and school choice vouchers have been proven to help inner city kids, particularly inner city black kids to rise out of poverty. Yet politicians in the Democratic Party, such as Barack Obama have gone out of their way to get rid of school choice and school voucher programs while sending their own kids to private school!
To get rid of school choice and school voucher programs is to condemn most black kids to a life of failure, a true example of modern day Jim Crow.
This is not an issue that should be politicized, and yet it is!
Dr. Thomas Sowell explains in more detail:
4.) Does Planned Parenthood Sell Dead Baby Parts?
Not long ago, there were some videos circulating about Planned Parenthood admitting to selling fetal organs for profit, a practice which is illegal.
Now perhaps you are someone who does not think that killing babies before they are born is immoral, but your feelings and your morality are irrelevant to the facts in this situation.
In the videos Planned Parenthood officials were very clear about the fact that they were selling human body parts for profit. It was no secret.
Yet Leftist politicians dismissed the videos as having been edited out of context, even though at least one of these politicians, Nancy Pelosi, admitted that she hadn’t even bothered to watch the videos.
The excuses from the Left on this one were beyond absurd, and were downright brainless. The organization responsible for these videos released the raw footage as well as the shorter, edited versions. If you want to watch the raw footage, you are free to do so.
Notice Planned Parenthood did not deny that these videos were from actual PP employees, they simply dismissed the videos as being invalid.
There is a saying in Spanish that describes how the Left has collectively behaved with regards to these facts: “You covered up the Sun with your finger.”
Now, perhaps you are someone who votes Democrat, and perhaps you don’t want to be lumped in with Nancy Pelosi, and that’s fair. As someone who is a Conservative, I don’t like being lumped in with everyone else, because I am an individual. But if that is you, then you have a responsibility to stand for truth, and this is an issue where the facts are cut and dry. Honest Democrats, including pro-choice Democrats, need to practice intellectual honesty and hold their elected officials to a higher standard.
5.) The CNN Russia “Nothing Burger”
For months after the election CNN and the Leftist Media in general kept talking about Russia and accusing Russia of hacking the DNC, affecting the outcomes of the election.
What we know for a fact is that SOMEONE hacked the DNC, releasing documents exposing corruption from within. But rather than addressing that corruption, the Left decided to accuse Russia of hacking the DNC and thereby doing wrong for exposing the corruption with the Democrat party.
-_-
Yet in a series of undercover interviews with CNN officials, the officials from CNN ADMITTED that they made up the entire Russia conspiracy, and that there was no evidence to back it up, saying that it was a “nothing burger”.
In other words, CNN admitted that they knowingly and intentionally lied to the American people.
6.) Everyone Who Disagrees With The Left Is A NAZI
The folks on the Left constantly day in and day out accuse those who disagree with them of being NAZIs, White Supremacists, racists, sexists, homophobic, Islamophobic, etc. etc. etc.
Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos, two Right-Wing Jewish men are regularly called NAZIs and White Supremacists.
It’s gone so far that Chelsea Handler has accused Ben Carson of being a White Supremacist.
It is true that there are bad apples in every group of people. But this accusatory type of behavior is mainstream on the Left. Calling everyone who disagrees with you a NAZI shows that you don’t have what it takes to engage in an adult conversation. This is the sort of thing I might expect from a third-grader, not grown adults with degrees in journalism.
If you are someone on the Left, I recommend calling it a day with the name calling. If you are someone on the Right, I recommend that you chill with the “Libtard” comments. Immature name calling is the domain of children, not grown adults.
Now, one thing that I will say here is that baseless name calling is far more common on the Left than the Right. I’ve never heard Fox News call someone a “Libtard” and Steven Crowder actively discourages it.
That said people on the Left routinely accuse people who are on the Right of being Klan members or NAZI sympathizers. All of this, even though it was the Democrats who started the Ku Klux Klan, and even though the NAZIs themselves said they had more in common with American Progressives than with American Conservatives. That does not make the American Left NAZIs, but the fact does remain that when we break down a comparison of Left with NAZIs, from a policy perspective, there are a lot of similarities.
7.) “Science VS Religion”
This is one that is not as much a Leftist error in-particular, as it is a falsehood that has seeped deep into the mind of Western thought.
We are told growing up that the history of science and religion in general (and Christianity in particular) has been one of warfare. Hence the reason this conception of history is known as the “Warfare Hypothesis.”
Whether this view was ever popular with mainstream historians or not, it certainly isn’t held with any regard today.
In fact, historians of science will tell you that modern science arose because of Christian philosophy, not in spite of it! It was Christians in the Middle Ages who laid the foundation of what we now consider to be modern science.
It was the Christian belief that God was rational, logical, and unchanging that lead to the belief that the universe must operate based on laws that were rational, logical and unchanging. In fact, the Church was the biggest funder of science during the Middle Ages. The church thought it was amazing that we could rationally study God’s Creation, rather than be blinded by the magical superstition of the Pagans.
Unfortunately, the average person (and even most scientists) have been told that Christians used to believe that the Earth was flat, and that this was the official position of the Catholic Church until Christopher Columbus came along. The problem is that the entire Flat-Earth story was a work of 19th Century fiction written by a lawyer who was angry at the Church for not accepting Darwinism.
The Flat-Earth story never happened. Christians knew that the Earth was round.
In fact, nearly all of what the average person has been told about the history of science and Christianity is either complete fiction or a gross misrepresentation of historical events.
Galileo, for example, got into a debate with the other Natural Philosophers of his day, and when the Pope (a friend of Galileo’s) got involved, Galileo responded by writing a satirical character based on the Pope called “Simplicio.”
At the time, the vast majority of scientists believed that the Sun went around the Earth, and when the Catholic Church wanted to take a stance on the matter, they deferred to the scientific consensus of the day, rather than the other way around.
The idea that the Earth was at the center of the universe came from scientific consensus, not the Bible. And it was this popular scientific consensus of academia that ultimately became the official position of the Catholic Church.
Far from being a case of “Science VS Religion”, this was a case of two groups of scientists having a debate. A lot of rhetoric was thrown around. Pride was wounded, and feelings got hurt. Galileo was ultimately put under house arrest for disagreeing with the scientific consensus and making fun of the Pope. (He was never burned or executed, despite weird ideas that some of your friends might have.)
Even though Galileo ultimately turned out to be correct scientifically, and even though he was unjustly prosecuted for criticizing the Pope and challenging conventional scientific ideas, this was not a case of theologians frothing at the mouth, threatened by scientific progress.
This was an issue in which science became very politicized, as science unfortunately is today.
But when we are told that this was an issue of Biblical Fundamentalism standing in the way of science, we are being told an outright falsehood. Theologians of the time period, such as Martin Luther, recognized that when the Bible talked about the Sun rising or setting, it was very possibly just using the “language of appearance” using the Earth as the reference point. Rabid Atheists can complain all day that the Bible uses the Earth as a convenient reference point, and claim that this is scientifically inaccurate, but if they were to ever open up an Astronomy textbook, they would see that even 21st Century Astronomers STILL use the Earth as their reference point.
In other words, even PhD Astronomers use phrases like “sunrise” and “sunset” and use the language of appearance, with the Earth as their reference point, just like the Bible.
That doesn’t make them wrong. This kind of language makes things easier to describe.
In all likelihood, most of what you think you know about the history of “science and religion” is simply false, including the claim that the Inquisition went around persecuting people for scientific ideas or that Christians held back the development of Modern Science.
Ironically, during the Middle Ages scientists had more academic freedom than today. In the 21st Century, there have already been countless cases of scientists being fired from their jobs for raising criticisms about Darwinism. Most of these scientists are not Creationists. Many are not even Christians!
The painful irony is that today if you raise scientific questions that call the religion of Materialism into account, you are deemed a heretic and often fired from your job. Atheists bark at their cartoon understanding of history that they heard somewhere from other Atheists in their echo chambers, but then have no problem when actual scientists are being persecuted for scientific objections to Darwinism and the Holy Book of Materialism.
What can we learn from the history of science and religion?
The biggest lesson is to get history from historians. We should read for ourselves the writings of those who lived long ago. Far too often, people hear nonsense on TV and assume that the TV is conveying what the experts actually think.
Another important lesson is the need for academic freedom and free speech. Scientists who are “wrong” should not be persecuted for their “wrong” opinions. People who have ideas that might offend someone still have the same rights to speak as everyone else.
Yet in our day those scientists who hold to politically incorrect ideas about Evolution or Global Warming are routinely targeted by “Progressive” academia and attacked by fake Leftist “scientists” such as Bill Nye.
8.) Is Bill Nye a Scientist?
No he isn’t. Bill Nye has a mechanical engineering degree, so he would have taken his fair share of physics courses. However, he has not done the work typically required to be considered a “scientist.”
Time and time again, I see Bill Nye brought on national TV to speak as an expert on scientific issues. And amazingly Bill Nye views himself as being qualified to come on such shows! But Bill Nye has no scientific credentials whatsoever besides being a comedian in a lab coat. He has never contributed any research to the scientific community.
Much is made of the fact that Bill Nye has six “honorary doctorates.” The problem, as anyone who knows anything about what an honorary doctorate is can tell you, is that an honorary doctorate is meaningless. They are typically handed out to speakers simply for showing up to graduation ceremonies, and they don’t hold any weight in the real world.
In the case of Bill Nye, he was given these awards because of his work on his educational TV programs and because he agreed to speak at these universities for graduation ceremonies.
That’s it! Bill Nye has not done any scientific research to earn a PhD or done so much as the coursework for an Associate’s Degree in the field.
Unfortunately, Bill Nye is brought on CNN as if he were an actual scientist, often to mock and criticize actual scientists, accusing them of not knowing what they are talking about. (Yes, this actually happened. A climate expert with an actual PhD was ridiculed by Bill Nye on CNN and told that he was ignorant.)
It amazes me that journalists are so intellectually incompetent as to bring Bill Nye on as a scientific expert, when he has no scientific credentials outside of being a comedian with a lab coat, and it amazes me even more that Bill Nye has the arrogance to criticize actual atmospheric physicists and actual medical doctors for not buying into Bill Nye’s political delusions.
By “criticism” here, I don’t mean merely debating, I mean Bill Nye’s habit of name-calling people who disagree with his uneducated ideas (such as physicist Dr. William Happer). Don’t get me wrong, Bill Nye is entitled to his opinion. But his opinion is not an expert opinion, and it doesn’t hold the same weight as experts in the fields in question, i.e. real scientists with actual degrees.
I also have a longer article on Bill Nye. Click here to read a more detailed analysis of Bill Nye, and his “degrees.”
As a footnote, Bill Nye has done work for NASA. However this was work done as an engineer, not as a scientist. I explain that in detail in my other article.
9.) Capitalism Persecutes the Poor
This is something that a lot of people throw around, especially Leftists who go to school for a $200,000 Bachelor’s degree in Gender Studies and suddenly discover that they can’t find a job.
The reality is that starvation-level poverty has fallen by 80% around the World since 1970.
“But … but Bernie says that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer!”
This is patently false. In the United States over the course of the past several decades, the rich have gotten richer, but the poor have also gotten richer.
When we look at individual families, say the Jones’s, we find that on average poor families are growing economically.
But the problem is that some people misread the data, noting that people on the bottom rung of the ladder in the U.S. (the lowest income bracket) may be slightly poorer than those on the bottom rung in 1970. The problem is that those on the bottom rung today are often those who just came here “fresh off the boat” from countries that are in poverty.
In other words, the poor people from 1970 are not the same people as the poor people from today. The poor families from 1970 have climbed the ladder and are already in a higher economic category. Those who push this mistaken narrative are looking at averages within brackets, but they are ignoring the fact that people are moving from one bracket to another.
If you were to look at all the people in the lowest bracket from 1970 and look at them again today, they will be on average richer than they were back then. As economist Thomas Sowell says, “One of these wild cards is that most Americans do not stay in the same income brackets throughout their lives. Millions of people move from one bracket to another in just a few years.”
What that means statistically is that comparing the top income bracket with the bottom income bracket over a period of years tells you nothing about what is happening to the actual flesh-and-blood human beings who are moving between brackets during those years.
The IRS data (which are for people 25 years old and older and which follow the same individuals over time) shows those in the bottom 20 percent of income-tax filers almost doubling their income in a decade. That is why they are no longer in the same bracket.
This explains why the share of income going to the bottom 20 percent bracket can be going down, as the Census Bureau data show, while the income going to the people who began the decade in that bracket is going up by large amounts.
A helpful reference on this issue: https://www.creators.com/read/thomas-sowell/11/07/income-confusion
As an illustration, picture a Chinese family who came here in 1970 and opened a restaurant. They worked hard and smart. In 2017 their kids are now working as engineers making more money than white families that have been here since the Boston Tea Party — and more power to those Chinese families!
But consider a Chinese family that came here in 2010. They own a restaurant, but they are just starting out. Their kids are sitting at the restaurant doing their homework so that they can be the engineers. The second family might be more poor in 2017 than the family that came here in 1970, giving the illusion that the poor are getting poorer, because the “bottom bracket” or “bottom rung” has less money. But the reality is that both families are on the rise economically!
“But .. but … the poor are getting poorer.”
No they are not! That phrase is misleading. (Most likely, deliberately so.) The phrase seems to paint a picture of generational poverty that cannot be escaped and that is getting worse. But “the poor” are not a fixed group of people.
I don’t deny that according to the data, the average person on the bottom rung has somewhat less money (when controlled for inflation) than those who were on the bottom run in 1970. But why do Leftists obscure the simple explanation for this trend? Namely, that in each decade since World War II, the immigration rate to the United States has been increasing, bringing new people who are starting — but not staying — at the bottom bracket.
When economists look at the data for families who have been in the U.S. for at least a few generations, they find that those families, including poor families, are, on average, rising economically. Moreover, the Chinese family that just got here and may be poor at the moment, but their grandkids will be making more money and creating more wealth than the Jones’s. And America will have more wealth because of it.
The fallacy can be summed up as: We don’t understand statistics. We look at brackets instead of people. We don’t take into account the fact that those in the lowest income bracket are not the same families 40 years later.
Thomas Sowell suggests, “Considering the millions of dollars being paid to each of the anchors who broadcast network news, surely these networks can afford to hire a few statisticians to check the statistics being thrown around, before these numbers are broadcast across the land as facts on which we are supposed to base policies and elect presidents.”
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. Many black families in the United States, for example, are caught in a perpetual cycle of poverty, thanks to Democrat policies such as the opposition to school choice (aka the modern Jim Crow policy).
10.) Is Black Lives Matter a peaceful organization out to protest injustice and help the black community?
If BLM is a peaceful organization that only wants to help the black community, then why do their followers loot black neighborhoods and burn black communities to the ground? And why are their allegedly “peaceful” leaders not condemning this violent behavior from the rooftops?
Why do Leftists support them, when even President Obama and Eric Holder (both black) had to admit that “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!” did not fit with the evidence?
How does rioting, looting, and inciting the murder of police officers actually help the black community? How does demonizing police officers who are proven innocent help anyone’s cause?
Are such lawbreakers just people using the slogan “Black Lives Matter”? Is it true that they have nothing to do with the founders or the organization? That’s a question worth asking.
Alicia Garza, the primary cofounder of Black Lives Matter — I say this again: THE MAIN COFOUNDER OF BLACK LIVES MATTER — said in an interview with Al Jazeera that she supports violence and looting. She also openly cites Assata Shakur, the cop killer on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists, as being one of her greatest inspirations. (See the video at the end of this section.)
Now don’t get me wrong, I get why people might disagree on different issues, but to not see this as a problem is willful ignorance in the highest degree.
We hear a lot about “white supremacists” these days, and yes, actual white supremacy needs to be condemned and refuted with logical argument. But how can the Left watch this group burn down black communities and turn a blind eye, while constantly being on the lookout for the “microagressions” of “White Supremacy”?
Liberals … if someone came along and started burning your home or business to the ground, while chanting nice things, would you regard them as your friend or as your enemy?
What BLM is doing is the work of the Klan. They do incredible evil to black communities, but then get away with it because they chant a nice-sounding slogan.
On top of all this, the death toll is rising in black communities, thanks to police being forced to withdraw because of the lies and propaganda of Black Lives Matter.
Interestingly, BLM says that they do not deal with black-on-black crime. They say it is not one of their issues. Yet they do deal with Global Warming and transgender issues, and they do oppose the nuclear family.
Black Lives Matter is directly to blame for the rising rates of black homicide in the inner city, so it’s no surprise that they choose to ignore the issue of black-on-black crime.
I honestly can’t believe the world we live in where an organization can go around setting fire to black communities, and bringing death and destruction due to gang violence when police are forced to withdraw, and then people take them seriously when they say that they are friends of the black community.
It’s as if Nero were alive today, setting Christians on fire, and using them as human torches, and then being welcomed into our churches because he said “Christian Lives Matter”.
Conclusions
Yes, there are those on the Right who say stupid things (such as President Trump), but the difference is that the factual errors I list here are a staple of the Left.
I personally believe that people SHOULD have differences of opinion on politics, and that we should talk about them. But when those on the Left continually call people NAZIs (including black people and Jewish people) simply for disagreeing with them on economics, or when people on the Left continually push narratives that have been proven false — such as the “Wage Gap,” then it tells me that the Left is intellectually bankrupt and it makes me not want to listen to anything else they have to say.
Everyone has different opinions and different beliefs, and that’s fine, but if the Left’s worldview is so fragile that it requires holding onto beliefs that have been proven to be false, then perhaps it’s time for those on the Left to reexamine their worldview in light of the facts.
For my readers who might consider themselves Leftist, or Liberal, or Democrat, or even Socialist or Communist, I don’t want you to leave this article feeling beaten over the head.
Even more than fact-checking, I want to point out the need for open dialogue and tolerance even for those with ideas with which you or I might disagree. If Galileo had turned out to be wrong, and the Geocentrists right, it would not have made his sentence of house-arrest any more just. The world would not have ended because one person had an idea that made people look at things in a different way.
Often I see those on the Left talk about “tolerance” and being open-minded. But then they will call someone a NAZI for being pro-life. A tolerance for people who look or dress differently as long as they think exactly like you isn’t any different from the Inquisition that we rightly condemn today.
Perhaps it’s time to be open to other worldviews and other views in general. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider free-market economics, and even to reconsider Christianity.
Thank you for reading!
I can also be found at:
GreenSlugg.com -My primary website where I blog and seek to promote Christian intellectual thought, seeking to teach Christians how to witness to others.
My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/GreenSlugg
My Amazon author page, where I publish sci-fi and speculative fiction: https://www.amazon.com/G.S.-Muse/e/B074DPZ8PZ/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
The Twitterz: https://twitter.com/GSMuse1
Patreon, where you can donate to my work: https://www.patreon.com/GreenSlugg
And FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007936336782 | https://medium.com/christian-intellectual/10-myths-the-left-should-abandon-how-to-bring-facts-into-the-conversation-7318a9b9371c | ['G.S. Muse'] | 2018-11-24 03:29:27.473000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Conservatives', 'Liberals', 'Science', 'Wage Gap'] |
Two reasons to look again at a citizens’ income — Owain Williams | The idea of paying each citizen a regular citizens income or universal basic income has been gathering momentum for several years now, though its roots reach back through centuries of social radicals and reformers. Now, two forces — the COVID-19 crisis and the growth of automation — mean that we should seriously consider what it would take to make it work in Wales.
First, the COVID-19 crisis has brought home the disconnect between the market’s definition of someone’s value (expressed through their wage), and the social value of their contribution. Many of the people on who we depend most are, as Keir Starmer puts it, “overlooked and underpaid”. This goes beyond the heroes of our NHS. There are, for example, over 370,000 unpaid carers in Wales, which is more than 10% of our population. These people are disproportionately likely to be women, and three in five of us are likely to become carers at some point in our lives. As life expectancy grows, we will only need more, higher quality care. But left to the market, carers will be undervalued and undersupplied.
Second, we now need to prepare for a future in which there may well be less work for humans to do, because of the remarkable advances in technological change that are taking place. More than 40% of the tasks done by workers today are already automatable using existing technology — and this number is even higher in many industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, forestry and transportation, that are the backbone of employment in many parts of Wales. This isn’t just a distant problem for our children and grandchildren to deal with. Research suggests that up to 30% of workers’ jobs could be threatened within the next 12 years in the USA, and we should be prepared for a similar scenario in Wales.
The COVID-19 crisis and the challenge of automation both challenge us to look again at what we’re collectively willing to pay for and what we value. The market can be a powerful force for human progress and wellbeing. But it has serious limitations, most obviously that it doesn’t measure so many of the things that make life worth living: the beauty of our beaches and mountains, the strength of our families, the health of our children.
Even today, some of our fellow citizens still don’t have enough money to guarantee the basics of a dignified life: food, a home, clothes to wear and the technological means to interact with the world. There is already a good case for a minimum under which we will not allow any Welsh citizen to fall. But these two forces are likely to make that need even more urgent.
A citizens’ income would let us do this by paying a regular income to each citizen, regardless of whether or not they are employed. People would be free to supplement this with additional income, and many would choose to do so.
As with any great social reform, winning the argument won’t be easy. Many of the voters I’ve spoken to on the doorstep during the last few elections seem pretty suspicious of unconditional handouts. So we should think hard about whether society asks for anything in return. One solution is what the economist Daniel Susskind has suggested: a “conditional basic income”, where citizens are expected to make some kind of community contribution in return for their income. Contribution could be defined broadly — not proving that you’re searching for a job, but other things that we value and that the free market undersupplies: caring for a relative, raising children, cultivating the environment, or chronicling local history.
To be clear — a citizens’ income is not a substitute for a thriving private sector. We need that too, after all, a citizens’ income has to be funded by the citizens, collectively. Doing even more to help our citizens to succeed with the skills needed in today and tomorrow’s workplace is as important as ever.
There are some serious objections to a citizens’ income, which we shouldn’t dismiss too easily. But they won’t be resolved around the seminar table. We in Wales should grasp the opportunity to experiment, while guaranteeing that no one who participates will be worse off. At the same time, we should start asking how we could fund a citizens’ income at scale.
Piloting a citizens’ income was one of the truly radical ideas in the 2019 Labour General Election manifesto. The 2021 Senedd manifesto should now commit to working with the UK government to bring a pilot to Wales. We can’t say with certainty that it will work, but we will learn nothing by not trying. After all, the radical ideas of one generation so often become the common sense of the next.
Owain Williams | https://medium.com/@hiraethblogcymru/two-reasons-to-look-again-at-a-citizens-income-owain-williams-b31ff29d2dca | [] | 2020-04-23 09:13:39.778000+00:00 | ['Welsh Politics', 'Wales', 'UK Politics', 'Basic Income', 'Universal Basic Income'] |
The Calculus of Dropping a Class. I dropped a class for the first time in… | Photo by Olav Ahrens Røtne on Unsplash
I dropped a class for the first time in college. It felt like a personal failure, because of the stigma behind failing classes. I know that it isn’t failing, but it felt that way. I just had to take a step back and look at the class from a different perspective. Instead, I looked at it from a HOPE scholarship
standpoint. If I were to stay in the class and really fail, I would end up lowering my GPA.
I looked at it from a learning standpoint.
I realized that struggling with this class was harming all of my other classes. I was spending so many hours on this single class that it was draining my studying and having me worn out by the time I started working on other topics.
I looked at the decision from a fiscal perspective.
Dropping this class basically cost me a class worth of Hope money. I will have to pay for one more class than I receive credit. This cost is offset by the 5 dual enrollment classes I took before KSU. Even so, I don’t get to escape this class. I will need to take it during another semester, possibly over the summer. Also, since this is a 4-class series, I will be a semester out of sync with the normal track. While both of the intro classes are offered every semester, the 2nd year classes will be harder to find.
I knew that this was going to be a tough class for me going in. I was right. I have had a tutor to try to compensate. It wasn’t good enough. But I now have the material and only 4 classes. I am going to keep going to my tutor for the rest of the semester. She now knows exactly what to teach me. I am hoping to be ready so that when the next semester comes that I can pick the class up and ace it.
And lastly, I looked from a mental perspective and saw that it was just taking up my time and adding stress to an already stressful first year.
So, looking back I think I made a good choice. | https://medium.com/year-one-ksu/the-calculus-of-dropping-a-french-class-edc42222bff9 | ['Maxwell Blafer'] | 2019-11-13 20:08:09.289000+00:00 | ['French', 'Stress', 'Education', 'Language'] |
Beijing Witnessed the First Edition of the Global High-Throughput Public Blockchain Technology Summit on August 18th | Beijing Witnessed the First Edition of the Global High-Throughput Public Blockchain Technology Summit on August 18th InterValue Follow Aug 22, 2018 · 6 min read
Hosted by the InterValue’s Foundation, the summit was successfully held in Beijing on August 18th.
Yuan Yong, Director of the Blockchain Committee of China Automation Society; Li Daxue, founder of Magnetic Cloud Technology; Barton Chao, founder of InterValue; Wang Binsheng, Distinguished Professor of Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Zhang Hongxin, Director of Institute of Digital Assets and Blockchain of Zhejiang University; Jiang Xinwen, Professor at the School of Computer Science of National Defense Science and Technology University; Li Wei, the founder of BodyOne; Wu Pengsong, co-founder of 2FChain; Li bin, founder of Rootscap Capital; Li Gaoqiang, co-founder of Ben Core Capital; Peng Fei, product director of HashStor. They shared valuable insights with the audience.
Professor Yuan Yong addressed three main points on the topic of blockchain and artificial intelligence at the summit forum.
• What results can be produced by using artificial intelligence combined with blockchain? The rise of distributed artificial intelligence
• How artificial intelligence is structured on the blockchain: parallel architecture
• How artificial intelligence and blockchain change the existing world: non-disruptive, natural evolution
The most important characteristic of blockchain technology is its “decentralized autonomy”. Its P2P network, distributed consensus mechanism and contribution-based economic incentives are natural aspects, which make it a distributed autonomous social system. Each node in the blockchain system will act as an autonomous agent in the distributed system.
Blockchain provides a reliable, usable, and efficient data foundation for artificial intelligence. Building a house on the sand doesn’t require a strong foundation, but when it comes to building a high-rise building, better do it on a reinforced concrete foundation. The same goes for blockchain as a foundation for artificial intelligence systems.
Wang Binsheng, Professor at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, received a warm enthusiasm from the audience.
He pointed out that the economic essence of blockchain popularization lies in the transfer of assets. Traditional economic behaviors, including currency issuance, will be digitalized. The traditional organizations with central authorities and intermediaries will gradually disappear. Tokens will be the value distribution tools in the era of collaboration through the combination of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. Besides, fiat currencies will gradually disappear from the circulation in the future.
The popularization of blockchain technology solves the problem of centralization and wealth concentration that has existed since the beginning of the human industrial era. In the era of the multi-token economy, the value of life will be redefined. So will be the concept of wealth, as part of a natural process.
Barton Chao, the founder of InterValue, officially announced during the summit the results of InterValue’s TestNet 2.0.
· Pure performance test: 10 shards≥2,400,000 TPS
· Actual transaction performance test: 10 shards ≥ 200,000 TPS
· Different geographical distribution test: 10shards ≥ 420,000 TPS
· Performance test after signature verification: 10 shards≥ 100,000 TPS
· With signature verification and erroneous data performance test: erroneous data has no impact on transactions, and system fault tolerance meets the expected results.
Barton Chao also gave his interpretation of the current development trend of the blockchain industry:
1) The bubble will gradually pop-off.
2) Projects with tangible achievements and hard work will succeed.
3) Progress is quick, which may accelerate the end of the current crisis.
4) Real blockchain applications are expected to occur within one year.
5) Company and Community will gradually become indistinguishable.
BodyOne’s CEO Li Wei announced at the summit that “We should see more from the application point of view. His company launched the first fitness mining machine. How to combine this with other blockchain use cases? What is the incentive for fitness practitioners to participate in the Token economy?” He gave an in-depth interview and offered 2 fitness bike mining machines to win through a lottery.
HashStor, the most cost-effective professional IPFS mining machine in the market.
Peng Fei , Product Director of Hashtor, introduced HashStor in details with the theme of “Permanent Storage forever”. He brought five units of the “H1 Family Economic Version” mining machines, which were donated to five lucky guests on the spot. At the same time, HashStor’s pre-sales event officially kicked off. These five guests will become the first users to experience this item.
HashStor will also serve as a premium blockchain solution provider, leveraging blockchain technology to drive its own growth and provide quality service to its customers.
InterValue has signed strategic agreements with 15 partners including ICC, BodyOne, HashStor, DGames, Magnetic Cloud Technology, Origin Capital, Pentax Capital, Xidian, Beijing Institute of Technology, 2Fchain, Coin, New Start, CSDN, Coin, and Coin World. The strong alliances aim to jointly build a new ecosystem in the blockchain industry!
Barton Chao, founder and CEO of InterValue, gave an award to partners who signed a strategic partnership agreement.
Ran Lizhi, the founder of Rootscap Capital, an investment fund, made a detailed analysis of the market in the past year and pointed out that there is also a positive side.
• Token- and blockchain-proponents, who have been despising each other, will eventually reach consensus
• The market may be flooded with worthless tokens , but blockchain applications really start to appear
• Pure technology concept -a case of the economic restructuring of production relations
•Currency change, chain change, ticket change, and empowerment of the real economy.
Three major phenomena are not impacted by bear market:
1) Changes in the financial environment
2) Development and breakthrough of public blockchains
3) Generalized impact on the economy.
Bruce Li, the co-founder of Benrui Capital, made a detailed analysis of the status quo and prospects of blockchain technology. He talked about the nature of the blockchain as a tool for large-scale collaboration in a fully open environment and P2P network conditions.
Blockchain is a type of technology that enables everyone in the world to send transactions and get validation. Consensus can be reached in the shortest possible time. The blockchain infrastructure provides the most efficient type of transmission environment and storage space for a variety of ecosystems.
This forum provided a high-level communication platform for the blockchain industry and offered very good opportunities for investment institutions, blockchain application companies, technology communities, and media to get together and participate in the advent of the new blockchain 4.0. era.
Please visit the website for more details: http://818.inve.one | https://medium.com/intervalue/beijing-witnessed-the-first-edition-of-the-global-high-throughput-public-blockchain-technology-4646605bd80c | [] | 2018-08-30 03:04:35.483000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Blockchain', 'Inve', 'Intervalue', 'Bitcoin'] |
7 Ways to Improve Remote Team Collaboration | 7 Ways to Improve Remote Team Collaboration
At these challenging times, more and more people adopt the growing trend of working remotely. But switching to remote work comes both with its own pros and cons. On the one hand, your employees save time on lengthy commutes and have fewer interruptions from work as well as more flexibility. On the other hand, each office creates a highly collaborative environment for its workers. And if people come together and brainstorm new and innovative ideas, it helps your company deliver the best possible results.
Clearly, some businesses will embrace the new lifestyle and continue to operate remotely (at least partially) even after these uncertain events come to an end. However, to foster effective collaboration when working remotely, you need to devise a certain strategy for creating a productive work environment. In this article, we will dive into the tips and tricks of cultivating and maintaining efficient work across distributed teams.
1. Create step-by-step guides
Transition to a new working environment can be a tough and stressful experience for each team member. Help your team to adapt quickly and save your employees’ time by eliminating answering the same questions repeatedly. Create and share a detailed step-by-step guide with your entire team. It should cover all commonly asked questions like when the team should perform daily standups or monthly retrospectives, what tools your colleagues need, where they can access passwords or colleagues’ phone numbers, etc.
Use Google Docs or your built-in knowledge base to organize an easy-to-navigate and effective knowledge directory for your team. Keep it up-to-date, well-organized and review your articles regularly.
2. Determine a work schedule
Many believe that a remote employee is similar to freelancers who determine their own labor hours and work at their own pace. Like remote employees, freelancers can operate from anywhere in the world. But this is exactly where the similarities end. Unlike freelancers, a remote employee must work according to the schedule defined by the company.
Besides, when working remotely, it’s hard to break away from tasks because there are no boundaries between personal life and work. So, the pivotal thing here is to establish rigid work hours for your team so everyone can follow them. If your work timelines are disorganized, it may seem that you’re working round the clock which can eventually lead to a burnout.
3. Assign tasks effectively
Define and allocate tasks clearly, set adequate deadlines and detailed goals to let your teammates know what is expected from them. Use task management software like Flowlu to distribute tasks among employees, discuss work in context and track progress with ease. Keep in mind that there is no need to make calls on each arising issue. Most of the questions can be solved via messenger. We’re all busy, so do not expect an immediate answer. When you need an instant reply from your teammate, show that by using request a response feature instead of the @mention.
4. Select the right tools
Enumerate the tools your team might need when working remotely. There are two main areas these solutions should cover: team’s communication and actual job performance. For effective team’s communication and productive meetings, you need a software for video conferencing (Zoom, Microsoft Teams), a desktop sharing software (TeamViewer), a virtual whiteboard (Miro). Then, depending on your business needs, select tools for task management, sales or project tracking, accounting — everything to help your coworkers reach their goals.
Also, you might want to consider saving money and selecting a software that will include all the tools in one single place especially if you’re a small or medium-sized company. For instance, in Flowlu, your teammates can break down projects into stages, milestones and tasks, and clearly estimate what is expected from them every day. They can easily track time spent and issue invoices for the work performed for each client. It also provides solutions for handy collaborative work such as mind maps or built-in messenger.
5. Devise common activities
Humans are social beings, we need to communicate with each other. Utilizing tech solutions cannot replace an absence of real and emotional communication. Your workers might feel isolated and left out. Ask your HR department to come up with a list of possible team’s activities aimed at cultivating your company culture and team building. Keep it informal and entertaining. For example, arrange virtual lunches, announce photo challenges (best remote workplace), watch online concerts or movies and then discuss them in a separate channel for sharing non-work related information.
6. Show your co-workers you care
As it has already been mentioned, transition to a new working environment might impact your coworkers’ overall productivity and cause anxiety. As you go through your day, remember to ask for your employees’ ideas and feedback, discuss their achieved objectives. Explain to each teammate how their daily work helps the company achieve its goals so that they feel more valued. Keep your team in the loop about how your company’s priorities and goals are changing. You may also send out questionnaires to your coworkers at least once a week to learn about issues that occurred during their work. Continuous communication is a key to successful adaptation.
7. Demonstrate your trust
While working in a traditional office, some managers are accustomed to track working hours in the following way: if an employee is in office, then the work is being performed. When your team is working remotely, you don’t have immediate visibility into what everyone is doing. Check in regularly but do not be too persuasive. Remote work requires a high level of trust. Adapting to remote work can be a struggle; your coworkers need time to adjust to working in a new way. And people are more effective when we trust them. Look at the outcomes and use digital tools to track work progress, the most important point is to establish the core principles for remote workflow and follow them constantly. | https://medium.com/@flowlu/7-ways-to-improve-remote-team-collaboration-7ac22f653130 | [] | 2020-12-10 08:30:05.656000+00:00 | ['Remote Working', 'Remote Collaboration', 'Remote Tools', 'Remote Work', 'Remote Team'] |
Blessings for the Young | Free verse poetry
Photo: Pixabay
May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you find peace
May you find love
May you be free of wants
May you speak freely
And realize your full human potential.
May your generation
Make the planet a better place
For all species.
Weekly spiritual prompt: Blessings | https://medium.com/spiritual-tree/blessings-for-the-young-71a33eb131bf | ['Sanjit Sengupta'] | 2020-12-19 12:03:13.351000+00:00 | ['Positive Thinking', 'Spiritual Tree', 'Blessings', 'Poetry', 'Spirituality'] |
Movements & Memes: How The Struggle For Social Justice Shaped 2020 | By: ELLY BELLE
As we approach the end of 2020, on the cusp of a new presidency, we’re also able to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. Vaccines are starting to be distributed, and treatments will continue to be rolled out in the new year. So much happened this year that it was nearly impossible to keep up with — beginning with tensions between the United States and Iran after General Qasem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. airstrike. Shortly after came the pandemic, as coronavirus spread beyond China and officially took hold of Europe and then the U.S. Another thing that galvanized so many of us this year was the long overdue national conversation about racism, white supremacy, and the future of policing.
If there’s any baggage to take from 2020 it’s this: This was the year of our reckoning, when the social justice movement took center stage, and activism became a part of more and more people’s lives.
Across the country, countless people were doing the work on the ground, driving large-scale initiatives like defunding the police, abolishing the industrial prison complex, and fighting, well, the evils of capitalism. In truth, it’s the activists and organizers that set actions in motion that have come to define 2020. Mass mutual aid movements provided groceries and protective supplies; there’s a renewed attention to housing crises; immigration and deportation have been at the forefront of our collective conversations; and the repeated killing of unarmed Black people by police have inspired actual policy changes.
In looking at this year through the lens of social justice, it’s clear that long-standing problems were both laid bare for all to see and exacerbated by the pandemic. Nurses and doctors went on strike for their rights, and showed up to counter-protest anti-maskers across the country. Organizers pushed for legislation to cancel rent and mortgages, and stave off people being evicted from their homes. In April, Representative Ilhan Omar introduced H.R. 6515, the Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act, demanding more than just an eviction moratorium in order to relieve people of massive piles of debt and the threat of eviction. Throughout the year, housing organizers have continued to advocate for tenants, despite the fact that little has been by the government to protect them.
At the onset of the summer, mass Black Lives Matter protests sprung up in every state in the country in response to police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and dozens of other Black people. Demands for social justice — ranging from firing officers to defunding and abolishing the police were waged, as well as abolishing the whole prison industrial complex — were made from all corners of society. “Since George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, more people are socially aware of the effects of police brutality and capitalism on our society which has made people challenge a lot of beliefs they previously held,” Glenn Foster, Lead Organizer of The Freedom Neighborhood, an abolitionist collective in Washington, D.C. says. “It’s going to cause disruption, but the positive benefit of the disruption is the exposure to systems that truly don’t benefit the people, one of those being our police.”
Although the protests have slowed down since the summer, they mark one of the biggest movements to shape this past year — and this decade. Talks of police reform surged in Congress, and in many states, organizers pushed for their towns and cities to take money away from police departments to redistribute it to social services. In plenty of places, protesters also toppled statues of white supremacists and slave traders to say goodbye to the tradition of elevating and worshipping racists.
“Our goal this year has been justice through abolition. The Freedom Neighborhood has been focused on educating the people about what an abolitionist society could look like that serves not just some of us, but all of us. We’re not just protesting police brutality, we are trying to raise the consciousness of our society into believing that we can create the political, economic, and social liberation ourselves and we don’t need to rely on a person in an office or a piece of legislation to do that,” Foster explains.
While some took to the streets, others took to the tweets. Over the year, many memes inspired discourse and went hand in hand with the social movements unfolding. Social media played a large part in fueling movements in 2020, especially given that many have been stuck at home. A Pew Research study from June found that 54 percent of social media users between ages 18 to 29 said they used social media to find information about joining protests and rallies where they live. But the social media aestheticization and memeification of Black Lives Matter was also a key part of this year, meaning there were also several empty moments of “doing the work” on social media, that have since died down to a quiet Instagram hum.
On Twitter and Instagram, people turned Breonna Taylor into a meme demanding the arrest of the cops who killed her, and Blackout Days bombarded people’s feeds. Though both instances were supposedly meant to bring awareness to violence against Black people and justice for them, organizers and activists largely decried these tactics as being a distraction at best and harmful at worst. Instead, they urged people to give to bail funds, show up at protests, and find a political home to start doing the work.
Other trends, like a viral TikTok about racism against Black people in health care, helped to inspire more open conversations about what Black people experience in all walks of life. This kind of thing led to another key action: companies and organizations reckoning with the racism that plagues them from within. Many, including The Wing, the Sierra Club and DoSomething, faced social media uprisings from workers who spilled the worst of their experiences online and called out brands and companies for hypocrisy. Media companies like the New York Times, Bon Appétit, ManRepeller, and Refinery29 faced reckonings of their own, leading to changes in management and ongoing evaluations of how to make their companies equitable and just.
Black Lives Matter protests and demands for defunding the police lasted well through Summer into Fall, and as the protests grew, so did the police and prison abolition movements. Many initiatives and coalitions of organizers tackled many issues at once, including defunding the police and youth voter turnout for the upcoming election. The New Hampshire Youth Movement (NHYM) is one such group of organizers that focused on all of these issues during 2020. When the movement for Black lives swept people into protests, organizers rushed to provide protest defense, jail support, and other resources.
While helping with BLM protests, organizers from NHYM also ran a letter writing campaign to drive people in the community to demand that local officials defund the police. Despite the fact that budgets had already been finalized, they helped to start the conversation and set the groundwork for making sure budgets are reconfigured in 2021 — which will include electoral work, seeking to replace elected officials who don’t agree with defunding the police.
“The energy from the rallies and protests were tangibly redirected to policy change in defunding the police. In a year where police brutality was so blatant and millions across the country suffered economically, it was easier to convince the population that police forces are way over-budgeted, and the solidified it by using brutal force and military tactics to quell protests across the country,” Alissandra Rodriguez-Murray, Co-Director of Organizing for NHYM told Refinery29.
By November, abolitionist organizers’ efforts made it possible for many measures to appear on ballots that would install oversight committees and remove some funds from police, among other reforms. And when all ballots were counted, 19 new measures to hold police accountable across the country passed. That same month, young voters turned out in record number to the polls in response to key issues like the pandemic, racism, and climate crises — and the youth voter turnout movement hugely contributed to President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. CIRCLE estimates that young voters ages 18 to 29 accounted for 17% of the vote.
Although the presidential election often dominated conversations about politics this year, it’s clear that electoral work is far from being the main driver of incredible change. The organizing and calls for justice that have taken place have provided the necessary framework that will influence work for decades to come — marking lasting changes in conscience beyond the ballot box. In turn, those who helped to secure food and housing for people, to hold police accountable, and transform what social services are funded will continue to push for meaningful, material change in the new year. From all that happened in 2020 alone, it’s certain they’ll continue shaping conversations and movements in pivotal ways we haven’t yet imagined.
Originally published at http://www.refinery29.com | https://medium.com/refinery29/movements-memes-how-the-struggle-for-social-justice-shaped-2020-1d7ac658d175 | [] | 2020-12-10 20:34:38.915000+00:00 | ['Social Justice', 'Racial Justice', '2020', 'Culture', 'BlackLivesMatter'] |
5 Ways to Add More PINK Into Your Home | In recent years more and more homeowners have embraced their feminine side by adding pink tones into their home.
Pink home décor ideas can be used to create extravagant living areas that are truly stylish.
Here at Value Doors, we believe the best thing about the colour pink is its versatility. Although pink home décor can be seen as a bold interior design choice, pink hues are used more subtly in homes.
Carry on reading to find out how you can add more pink into your home.
5 Ways to Add More PINK Into Your Home
1) Paint
Perhaps the easiest, cheapest and most effective way to enhance your home with the colour pink is through paint.
Pink painted walls, whether you choose a pastel or ruby pink, will improve the dynamic of any living area. Making a room go from drab to fab, pink painted walls bring life and energy into the home.
2) Accessories
For homeowners that love the colour pink, but find it hard to get the perfect pink balance in their home, you can start by purchasing pink accessories.
From lampshades and ornaments to wall art and vases, pink home accessories are easy to find in most home stores. With pink additions, you can completely transform a room's appearance to suit your style more.
3) Furniture
Within the interior design, world blush-toned furniture pieces have increased in popularity.
A statement armchair or bedhead in a velvet material injects a seriously chic vibe into a room. With a pink furniture piece, you can create a space that doesn’t feel overwhelmingly pink.
4) Wallpaper
If you want to update your child’s bedroom, add a funky pattern into your bathroom or inject colour into your living room, a pink-toned wallpaper is a fabulous choice.
A wallpaper design that has increased in popularity is one that features bright green palm prints against a pink backdrop. Homeowners have been using this style of wallpaper within their bathrooms to create their own funky jungles.
Other homeowners are designing their own feature walls by using pink and gold geometric wallpaper.
5) Soft Furnishings
Because pink is such a versatile colour, you can use it to complement your existing personal style.
With pastel-toned curtains, soft pink throws, eclectic cushion covers and bedspreads, you can further enhance your interior design.
Whether you want to add a single colour to your monochrome home or add bolder shades into your eccentric interior design, pink is the perfect colour to use.
uPVC Front Door
Redesigning Your Entryways
We are a uPVC Door company that installs a variety of uPVC Doors. From modern uPVC Front Doors to uPVC Back Doors and Frames, when you buy uPVC Doors from Value Doors you can transform your home’s entryways.
We install uPVC Doors UK wide. Whether you’re wanting fitted uPVC Back Doors or cheap uPVC Front Doors, we can install a rear external uPVC Door and uPVC Front Door UK wide.
Our uPVC Doors for sale come in a variety of ranges. When finding a new uPVC Door, you can choose from White uPVC Front Doors, Arched Doors, uPVC Doors with Side Panels, High-Security Doors, uPVC Coloured Front Doors and glass uPVC Doors.
If you’re wanting to get uPVC Back Doors fitted, you can get French uPVC Doors, Stable uPVC Doors or a standard uPVC Back Door fitted. With external French Doors uPVC and Stable Doors uPVC made, you can enter your home in style as well as ease.
You can also get Composite Stable Doors and double-glazed French Doors from our Rockdoor collection.
Our uPVC Doors and Frames
We have over 170 different uPVC Front Doors and Frames designs.
Whether you opt for made-to-measure uPVC Doors that have a traditional appearance or uPVC External Doors that are modern, a uPVC Front Door or uPVC Back Door is a cost-effective option.
If you want to get uPVC Front Doors fitted and external uPVC Doors for your rear entrance, you can get matching uPVC Exterior Doors. Though, some uPVC Front Doors and Frames are less suitable as Back Doors.
When you get uPVC Doors fitted you choose from 7 colours. You can get a White uPVC Door, Brown uPVC Front Door and even Grey uPVC Doors from Value Doors. And, since you can view all our uPVC Doors online, you can see what your exterior uPVC Doors will look like before you buy. This is the same for our Stable Doors and uPVC French Doors.
For more information about our low threshold uPVC Doors, you can visit our website. Or, you can call 0800 955 0898 to discuss getting a new uPVC Front Door or double-glazed Back Doors with our customer care team. | https://medium.com/@valuedoors1uk/5-ways-to-add-more-pink-into-your-home-49fd25e20f46 | ['Valuedoors Uk'] | 2019-10-17 07:46:03.633000+00:00 | ['Home', 'Interior Decorating', 'Pink', 'Home Decor', 'Interior Design'] |
Keisha Reynolds Brings Digital to Discipleship | As the pandemic continues to reshape the sense of normalcy we once had, the restrictions put into place have forced people to transition to fully digital platforms.
Places of worship were among the main places heavily impacted by this digital shift. The personal connection to God, and liveliness of worship and fellowship, many associate with in-person church services. Ministries and churchgoers now look to technological tools in order to deliver and receive church sermons and services.
That transition isn’t always a smooth one, but it has inspired DigitalChurchUniversity.com, an educational platform to help guide ministries through the use of social media and various online tools to continue providing interactive church services.
PR pro Keisha Reynolds, who is also a public relations professor at Hampton, is the creator. The intent, she says, is to provide online training to help ministries gain a stronger understanding of how to utilize social media and other digital outlets to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Keisha Reynolds
“I originally wrote down the idea in 2017,” Reynolds says. “I sat on it because I didn’t think that it would be received well.”
Reynolds, who attends church herself, was apprehensive about the newness of her concept. “Sometimes when we’re doing things in the church, and it is something outside of the norm — we can get a lot of push back on it,” she said.
Still, Reynolds kept pushing towards the mark. Her determination and inspiration from God, wouldn’t allow her to stop.
“At the end of 2019, I kept feeling this pull from within saying ‘I need to launch this platform, I need to get it out there.’ So, I did two beta classes with the audience being people from the Sunday School Publishing Board Conference.”
Reynolds put a plan into place. In the church world, that’s called vision and provision.
“ I put them into an email marketing series which covered how to build online forms. I gathered the information from the two beta classes and launched another beta in January of 2020. For this beta, I invited a group of five churches to test out the program. From there, I launched the next class centered around zoom education for churches in the beginning of March.”
And then Covid-19 came, and everything stopped. Zoom became the primary way of communicating in large numbers — the ultimate in social distancing.
“I definitely believe that this was God leading me to launch this program with this particular timing.”
With COVID-19 forcing everything to be moved to digital platforms, there’s been a disproportionately low rate in both the Black community and among the elderly for church. In response to this issue, Reynolds’ program will also speak to older Black people who are not electronically efficient.
“When we are in this digital space, we cannot leave behind our older generation. We have to think about what are the mediums and methods that they receive their communications or the mediums that they are most comfortable using.”
Reynolds says she thought a lot about her grandmother in developing the training programs. Her grandmother is in her late 80s and an avid churchgoer.
“There are things such as phone live streaming, where you can call the church and the church will let them listen to the service as it’s happening. Internet TV is also an option. I can go to my grandma’s house and turn it on, or I can teach her how to do it and that’s simpler.”
Those three ways, Reynolds says, will help reach the older Black community.
Since March of this year, Barna, a leading faith and culture research group, has been researching digital church trends that have surfaced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research was conducted for their “State of the Church 2020 Project.”
Their findings report 96 percent of pastors have been streaming their worship services online during the pandemic, but only 48 percent of adults who identify as practicing Christians have streamed an online service in the last month.
With there being a disconnect between the online streaming services and viewership, Ms. Reynolds discussed her plans with encouraging more engagement with members.
“There is a culture shift in each of our ministries and there has to be a level of acceptance from every person who is a part of the ministry. With this digital divide, how do we use these platforms and make them feel comfortable in this space that is new to them?” Reynolds said.
Her church hosts tech talks where they answer tech questions anyone from the congregation may have. They also sit and troubleshoot with the members.
This helped Reynolds to see a need within the church for her training, and also provided a basis for pricing.
“There are two payment models. The first is a monthly model, and then the second, is an annual model. Membership is $50 a month in the monthly model, while the annual membership is $510 a year.”
The program includes: live office hours, quarterly graphic design templates, and immediate access to all content and there’s a members only Facebook group of church leaders with direct access to church growth marketing and design experts.
“I’ve been in business for five years, and I’ve been doing this education piece for the last three to four years in my business, so I take the approach to education very seriously,” she says.
Reynolds has an entrepreneur research center
With Digital Church University, Reynolds says, “I have churches who come to me and may or may not have the budget for the services. I could say ‘Hey, if you don’t have this, here’s an alternative to getting the same things that you need but in education format with me working with you in a coaching manner more so than done-for-you services.’”
Digital Church University’s competitors charge close to $3,000 for similar services. “For the market I’m primarily focused on, which is African-American churches — I take into consideration the size and accessibility of those churches; and I map out and discuss budget plans that will be affordable and impactful for them,” Reynolds said.
The goal, Reynolds says, is for Digital Church University to provide the solution to every question around social media and digital technology.
“Mark 16:15 says ‘We’re called to proclaim the good news to everyone’ and sharing this platform helps build knowledge of operating these tools effectively so that ministries can reach the church people and the un-churched. We are using this concept of digital discipleship to impact those lives.”
Be sure to check of Digital Church University’s website here.
You can connect with Digital Church University on both Facebook and Instagram here. | https://medium.com/the-baldwin/keisha-reynolds-brings-digital-to-discipleship-2adf86f6667f | ['Nyle Paul'] | 2020-12-11 03:49:30.285000+00:00 | ['Bulletbybaldwin', 'Race', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Church', 'Black Church'] |
Signs That You Have a Ghost In Your Home | What should you do?
Ok, let’s say all the above could not be explained away with logical reasoning. In which case, you might actually have a haunting on your hands. Now you have to take the next steps.
Get some sleep if you can
Yes, this might seem condescending, but you have to do it. We are more likely to experience things like sleep paralysis, forgetfulness, and overactive imaginations when we are tired. This means that (most) of the above signs are actually your brain playing tricks on you. Take some sleeping aids or go to a motel for a night or two. You’d be surprised how different a situation can look when you are well-rested.
Research
If your house is haunted by a human ghost, chances are that someone died in that location. Sorry! You should have visited a website that tells you that information because only some states require real estate agents to inform you outright. Whoops. Research will also show you if there is any pattern of people dying in the home. Which means you might be next.
Get a second opinion of someone you trust
Invite over a good friend (or a not good one who you feel deserves a scare) and see if they notice anything weird. Having another person who can confirm that weird things are happening will make your case stronger.
Gather evidence
Show thermometers in cold areas. Record strange sounds. Record doors opening by themselves. You will have to prove your findings later, so get as much as you can.
Call for help
Depending on the seriousness of the situation and your own personal beliefs, you have a few options. Faith-based exorcisms are available, but they are apparently quite strict in choosing who they aid. Professional mediums can help spirits move on and even cleanse home. Though if you hire professional paranormal investigators you might end up on a television show, so that’s always cool.
Hope that you are only renting
Sometimes you just can’t budge those ghosts. When that happens you have to learn to live with them. Should that be impossible, consider moving. Landlords don’t like renting to ghosts, so you have a better chance of finding a new place than they do. | https://medium.com/here-there-be-monsters/signs-that-you-have-a-ghost-in-your-home-d5d6141fef26 | ['Kyrie Gray'] | 2020-09-25 18:24:30.386000+00:00 | ['Horror', 'Spirituality', 'Life Lessons', 'Humor', 'Ghosts'] |
Service Worker Lifecycle | THE Lifecycle
Register Service Worker Script
To initiate the Service Worker lifecycle, we first need to register our service worker script (serviceWorker.js) in the JavaScript(main.js) which is linked to the landing page(index.html) of your application.
The below-given code is to check if ServiceWorker API is available in your browser. If the API is available, we can register our service-worker script.
Code that Registers your Service Worker script
Service Worker Lifecycle (Source: https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/primers/service-workers)
Install Event
This is the first event the Service Worker gets and is called once per service worker. It means, once a new or updated service worker is registered, it will be treated as a new service worker and it will get its own Install event.
In the Install step, we can cache the static assets. Static files such as media assets (images, audio files), CSS files, static HTML pages can be cached after creating cache storage. This step is essential as the requests made being offline will be intercepted by the service worker and served with the files cached during this event.
Code for Install Event
In the Install event, we pass a promise to event.waitUntil(). We can log the messages corresponding to caching and Install event completion. The cache is created with open(cacheName) and the files are added to the cache with cache.addAll(cacheAssets).
Activate Event
After the Install event, the Activate Event must be called to have the Service Worker intercept the requests from that point of time. The current page which registers the service worker script won’t be controlled by the Service Worker installed. We need to reload the page to get it under the service worker’s control.
Activate event, is the place where we can manage the cache created by the old service workers. We can delete the previous caches created by older versions of Service Worker.
NOTE: Creating new caches for every script update is generally done by developers. So we need to change the name of our cache for every service worker script update.
Code for Activate Event
We pass a promise here to event.waitUntil() which performs cache management. In the above code, if any cache with name other than current cacheName exists, it will be deleted.
After the Activate event, the Service Worker will control all the pages that fall under its scope. The Service Worker will handle “fetch” and “message” events if the site is loaded being offline. If the connection is idle, the requests would be served by the server, and Service Worker will be terminated. | https://medium.com/walmartglobaltech/service-worker-lifecycle-20333ccd570a | ['Swapnil Ramdas Chavan'] | 2020-11-30 21:09:35.072000+00:00 | ['Engineering', 'Offline Web Apps', 'Progressive Web App', 'Web Development', 'Service Workers'] |
Curious Questions: Why do maps include streets, and even entire towns, which don’t exist? — Country Life | The mysteries of mapping have intrigued Martin Fone since he was a boy — and one of the great curiosities is the existence of the ‘trap street’.
My journey — I use the word advisedly — into cartophilia began with an innocuous gift: an atlas.
As a small boy, I would spend hours gazing at the shapes of the continents, memorising the names of the countries and their relative position to one another, imagining the peoples and scenery I would encounter there. Picturing myself as an intrepid adventurer, I would construct elaborate, and probably unfeasible, journeys across the globe. The atlas was my oyster.
It never troubled me to wonder why so many countries in my atlas were coloured pink or why the view and perspective of our planet was intensely Anglo-centric. Maps are used, and always have been, as a power statement.
This long-standing cartographic tradition is evident in the earliest surviving map of the world, the Imago Mundi, from the 5th century BCE found in Sippar in Iraq. It represents the world, at least as the Babylonians saw it, with their principal city right at the hub. The accompanying cuneiform inscription shows that it was a copy of an earlier map and there is no reason to think that their perspective had changed.
Later maps produced by the Greeks and Jews, amongst others, also placed their principal settlements at the heart of their representations of the world, the heavens, and their place in it.
A globe, one of my treasured possessions, gave me a macro-view of the planet. In truth, it was a pretty rudimentary affair, consisting of two ill-fitting metallic halves, the join rendering the equatorial regions barely legible. At least, though, it convinced me that the earth was round, an impression that was difficult to discern from a two-dimensional map.
The Erdapfel, literally the earth apple, holds the distinction of being the oldest extant terrestrial globe, dating from that annus mirabilis, 1492. Created by Martin Behaim, who drew on his extensive travels and discussions, it was made in two halves from laminated linen which were then joined and reinforced with wood, before being overlaid with a map painted on parchment by Georg Glockenden. It can be seen in the Germanic Museum in Nuremberg.
Besides being an object of wonder a globe challenged the cartographer to consider the extent of their geographical knowledge, forcing them to enter the Rumsfeldian world of known unknowns and unknown unknowns. The catch-all ‘here be dragons’ was thought to have been introduced for the first time on the Hunt-Lennox Globe, which dates from around 1510.
I have always found the Ordnance Survey map a great source of comfort and joy. Giving a birds-eye perspective of the landscape, the contours of the land compressed into a series of concentric rings, it imposed a certain order on what might otherwise have seemed just a random hotchpotch of fields, hills and man-made features. That, in itself, is not surprising as the impetus for understanding and mapping our country came from military necessity, firstly so that the Sassenachs could better understand the Highland territories they had acquired in 1745 after the suppression of the Jacobite rebellion and, then, as relationships with the French deteriorated following the Revolution of 1789, to study the layout of our vulnerable southern coastline to determine where to position troops to repel the anticipated invasion.
The first Ordnance Survey map available for the public to buy was that of Kent. Published in 1801, it cost the sum of three guineas — around three weeks’ average wage. It was a county considered most prone to invasion, but quite why the authorities did not think that a French spy might buy a copy is anybody’s guess.
The name Ordnance Survey appeared for the first time, in 1810, on the map of the Isle of Wight and Hampshire and it took until 1870 to complete the first series of maps covering England, but, tellingly, not Scotland.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2aJruWAkcE
For me, part of the charm of a map is that they are a statement of the area as it was at the time that it was surveyed. I have taken to buying several editions of the same map to better observe how man has progressively encroached upon the terrain. Each version of the map has its own story to tell those of us who take the time to listen.
It is a mistake, though, to take a map as gospel. As with all human endeavours, errors creep in that, once spotted, are rectified in a subsequent edition. However, such is the time, energy, not to say expense, involved in surveying an area to the standard required to produce a commercial map that cartographers are keen to protect their investment from the depredations of those who would violate copyright. One of the ways that they do that is by introducing small, almost imperceptible, errors into their maps, designed to trap the unwary and make it easier to prove a copyright infringement. These are known as trap streets.
They may indeed be fictitious streets. A BBC documentary, Map Man from 2005, claimed that that invaluable guide to the layout of our capital before the arrival of digital assistance, the London A to Z, featured around a hundred such trap streets. Perhaps the most well-known was Moat Lane in Finchley, a street off Clandon Gardens and running parallel to the North Circular, even making its way on to Google Maps. If you flipped over to the satellite view on the app, you would see that Clandon Gardens was a cul-de-sac and the putative lane just trees and housing.
TeleAtlas Directory, upon which Google Maps was based, may have fallen into the elephant trap of Moat Lane (now since removed) but they too created their own protections against copyright infringement. On the ground your search for Kerbela Street in Shrewsbury — allegedly off Meadow Farm Road, but in reality the forecourt of the Shropshire Learners and Driving Instructor Training Centre — or Oxygen Street — a small alley in the Nether Craigour district of Edinburgh — will end in disappointment.
They are trap streets as was, albeit on a larger scale, the town of Argleton, close to the West Lancashire village of Aughton, which appeared on Google Maps for several years before quietly disappearing. No explanation was ever given.
Unsurprisingly, Ordnance Survey also sought to protect their copyright by using trap streets as a sort of pictorial fingerprint, often by changing the spacing between a group of symbols, such as trees denoting a wood, making subtle alterations to the width of roads, changing the minor digits in co-ordinates and inserting other stylistic variations which did not invalidate the overall integrity of their maps.
It was through the use of these deliberate errata that they were able to demonstrate, in 2001, that the Automobile Association (AA) had violated their copyright on some of the 500 atlases, town plans and fold-out maps they had published and sold on to other third parties. By the time the case had navigated its way through the courts, the AA had agreed to pay £20 million in damages.
There is more to a map than meets the eye. | https://medium.com/@martinfone/curious-questions-why-do-maps-include-streets-and-even-entire-towns-which-dont-exist-f114dd241c99 | ['Martin Fone'] | 2020-12-05 16:03:18.549000+00:00 | ['Geography', 'Trivia', 'History', 'Maps'] |
The Essential Keto Cookbook | The Essential Keto Cookbook with more than 100 Effortless Recipes!
Do you think that it is hard to begin the Keto venture all alone?
Would you like to appreciate yummy food without feeling hungry or unmotivated?
The Keto Diet is extraordinary for the “one size fits all” approach and permits you a simple variation to your particular necessities. This keto cookbook gives the resources to engage everybody to foster an adaptable methodology plan, offering numerous choices while managing the limits of the standard ketogenic diet. And all that without forfeiting on Taste or Quality!!
This simple to explore keto cookbook has in excess of 100 foolproof recipes, for example,
• Ginger Spice Cookies
• Keto Lasagna
• Searing Buffalo Wings
• Jalapeño “Corn” Bread
• Chocolate Biscotti
• Exquisite Italian Crackers
• Mexican Tacos
Guacamole Burgers
Obviously, all recipes are 100% keto (sans sugar, low-carb, sans gluten, without grain, paleo, sans dairy, and vegetable-free) and 100% flavorful.
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This awesome Keto cookbook will deal with your scant cooking time, increment your craving and obligation to the Keto way of life and show you the least demanding and most delicious way towards a practical WEIGHT-LOSS and a BETTER LIFE while being on the keto.
It procured a top deal on Amazon as well. Here look at some reviews:
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This book can inspire each reader, all readers. The creator presents insider facts that poor person been uncovered up to this point. Try not to miss it, since this book is very instructing, and opens new skylines, there are relatively few books like this. Perusing this book will expand your knowledge in fostering your latent capacity.
#keto #ketodiet #health #healthandwellness #cooking #food #life #weightloss #howtoloseweight | https://medium.com/@orkhannasirli/review-the-essential-keto-cookbook-4bbc09be3045 | ['Orkhan Nasirli'] | 2022-01-24 17:47:19.530000+00:00 | ['Weight Loss', 'Health', 'Food', 'Keto', 'Cooking'] |
Cross platform Mobile Apps | Hi everyone.
Today I would like to share Correlation diagram of those platform for developing mobile applications.
Cordova
Outsystems
ReatcNative
Flutter
Kotlin/Native
Correlation diagram
I summarized those applications as the following correlation diagram.
The first major category are Native UI or Non- Native UI.
Then, in Non-native UI, we can categorize Original UI and Web UI. It means Non-Native UI consists 2types.
Original UI: Rendering with original UI
Web UI: Rendering on web view
Let’s see each group!
Native UI
Platforms in this group compile source code to generate a bundle file for iOS and Android.
So they would be generated.
iOS→UITableView
Android→ListView
Therefore, the performance is same with other platforms.
Original UI
Flutter is categorized to this group.
Flutter compiles the source code and generates a bundle file for each iOS&Android.
Flutter uses Skia Graphics library as rendering engine and Google chrome also use it.
Web UI
Cordova and Outsystems are catogorized in this group.
The group’s platform is configured to generate only a WebView natively on iOS&Android and render the UI on that WebView using HTML/CSS/JavaScript.
The advantage is that they use a familiar web technology.
Comparison
Comparison
Non-Native Platform such as Cordova and fultter has more libraries which made by 3rd party because they cannot use native library
On the other hand, ReactNative has less libraries which made by 3rd party because it can use native library.
Summary
Technology used in the background
Universal technology or not
Easy to get support and information or not
Necessity to develop web app or not
Depending on the app development situation described above, which platform to choose is different.
Thank you for reading. | https://medium.com/dsf-developers/cross-platform-mobile-apps-9d96c87ab88a | [] | 2020-06-08 01:26:40.580000+00:00 | ['Outsystems', 'Mobile App Developers', 'Flutter', 'Mobile App Development', 'Kotlin'] |
Palak Tiwari wiki, age, Height, Mother, Family, Boyfriend, instagram, movie, Income, Net Worth, & More | Palak Tiwari is a 21 year old (born: 8 October 2000) actress and daughter of a famous actress “Shweta Tiwari”. Know more about Palak Tiwari wiki and more.
Palak Tiwari Wiki
Today we are going to tell in this post about Palak Tiwari wiki, age, Height, Mother, Family, Boyfriend, instagram, movie, Income, Net Worth, & More
Palak Tiwari is a 21 year old Indian Actress, Fashion Model and also the daughter of famous TV actress “ Shweta Tiwari” and father “ Raja Choudhary” (TV Actor). He also has a half-brother, his name is “ Reyansh Kohli “.
Recently she is 21 years old, she was born on 8 October 2000 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Palak did his schooling from Singapore International School located in Mumbai and did his graduation from “ Mithibai College, Mumbai “ college.
Recently Palak Tiwari acted in her music video “Bijli Bijli” for “Hardy Sandhu”. Bijli Bijli Songs are also becoming quite viral.
We will update the information as soon as we get information about Palak Tiwari. so Thanks!
Read More | https://medium.com/@celebsbioworldofficial/palak-tiwari-wiki-age-height-mother-family-boyfriend-instagram-movie-income-net-worth-e2e810160526 | ['Celebsbioworld Official'] | 2021-11-24 22:08:13.555000+00:00 | ['Celebrity', 'Wiki', 'Instagram', 'Trending', 'Bollywood'] |
SeaLab Gets Certified | SeaLab logo
SeaLab is no stranger to hitting new milestones and achievements. We’ve made it our goal to improve on something every chance we get and we’re proud to say that this has fostered an attitude and culture that’s positively impacted each member of our team as well as our clients.
We’re very happy to share that we’ve officially reached certification on an aspect of our business that we’re very proud of. We are now a Clutch Certified Women Business.
Clutch badge saying “clutch certified women owned business”
Even during the decades that followed the women’s rights movement, the business sector stubbornly remained as an all boys club. Stereotypes and cliches dogged the female workforce, leaving a stigma that took superhuman efforts to erase.
While the world still has a long way to go, we acknowledge that we have come a long way as well. This certification is a symbol of what we are as entrepreneurs, and our success is the proof of the positive impact we can and have done as a business.
Women-owned companies are decidedly in the minority of any industry. This puts their actions, methods, and results under a microscope. Every project becomes a statement on how effective businesses run by women really are, and we welcome that.
Cropped image of the infamous Rosie the Riveter poster saying “We Can Do It!”
While this is the first certification that we get from Clutch, it won’t be the last. In fact, this milestone will only become more important with each review and award that SeaLab will be getting from now on.
You can test to see if these reviews are telling the truth for yourself. If you’re looking for a dedicated design partner that listens to you and is genuinely interested in your success, then we’re the team for you. Just fill out our contact form and we can set up an appointment where we’ll discuss the nuances of your project and get started as soon as possible.
See what else we’re up to!
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Google + | Dribbble | LinkedIn | https://blog.sealab.io/sealab-gets-certified-396e282442af | ['Cal'] | 2021-01-21 22:36:51.554000+00:00 | ['Product Design', 'UX Design', 'Certification', 'Design Agency', 'Women In Business'] |
Laravel 8.* + Backpack + Article with image (file upload) | In order to proceed you should have:
- Laravel installed + Backpack admin (teaching purposes)
- Tags CRUD created
- Article CRUD created
- virtual host ready for you
- xampp setup or other web server
- composer installed
Article
- title — 255 symbols
- content — text — RichTextEditor
- tags (many available) — select with multiple options
New tutorial to add file upload to the artilce
- image (one image) — image upload
#STEP 1: Create migration to add image to an article
php artisan make:migration add_image_to_articles_table --table=articles
/**
* Run the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function up()
{
Schema::table('articles', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->string('image',255)->nullable();
});
}
/**
* Reverse the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/
public function down()
{
Schema::table('articles', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->dropColumn('image');
});
}
We are adding a new column image — which will be used to store the url of the image. Next step is to run the migration.
php artisan migrate
Expected result.
#STEP 2: Alter Article model
We need to add extra items to use:
use Illuminate\Support\Str;
use Intervention\Image\ImageManagerStatic as Image;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;
And then add two functions in FUNCTIONS section.
public static function boot()
{
parent::boot();
static::deleting(function($obj) {
Storage::delete(Str::replaceFirst('storage/','public/', $obj->image));
});
}
public function setImageAttribute($value)
{
$attribute_name = "image";
// destination path relative to the disk above
$destination_path = "public/articles";
// if the image was erased
if ($value==null) {
// delete the image from disk
Storage::delete($this->{$attribute_name});
// set null in the database column
$this->attributes[$attribute_name] = null;
}
// if a base64 was sent, store it in the db
if (Str::startsWith($value, 'data:image'))
{
// 0. Make the image
$image = Image::make($value)->encode('jpg', 90);
// 1. Generate a filename.
$filename = md5($value.time()).'.jpg';
// 2. Store the image on disk.
Storage::put($destination_path.'/'.$filename, $image->stream());
// 3. Delete the previous image, if there was one.
Storage::delete(Str::replaceFirst('storage/','public/', $this->{$attribute_name}));
// 4. Save the public path to the database
// but first, remove "public/" from the path, since we're pointing to it
// from the root folder; that way, what gets saved in the db
// is the public URL (everything that comes after the domain name)
$public_destination_path = Str::replaceFirst('public/', 'storage/', $destination_path);
$this->attributes[$attribute_name] = $public_destination_path.'/'.$filename;
}
}
First function will make sure that once we delete an entry — the file will be deleted as well.
Second function is a mutator responsible for the upload the image to the correct folder.
We have logic replacing /public folder with /storage folder due to the fact that images are exposed to end users using /storage folder.
#STEP 3: Install intervention/image
Run
composer require intervention/image
#STEP 4: Adjust Article controller
[
'label' => "Article Image",
'name' => "image",
'type' => 'image',
'crop' => true, // set to true to allow cropping, false to disable
'aspect_ratio' => 1, // omit or set to 0 to allow any aspect ratio
]
We need to adjust getFieldsData function and add the image column.
Our next change is related to setupListOperation method. We need to update it to the following
protected function setupListOperation()
{
$this->crud->set('show.setFromDb', false);
$this->crud->addColumns($this->getFieldsData(TRUE));
}
This will make sure that when we are adding images they will be shown on list as well.
#STEP 5: Make disk public and allow files to be shown
php artisan storage:link
#STEP 6: Time to test
Adding of an item
Edit of an item
List items table
Note: Files are uploaded to storage/app/public/articles
But they are available to the end users by accessing — DOMAIN/storage/articles/{IMAGE_NAME}
Video | https://medium.com/@lyubomir-filipov/laravel-8-backpack-article-with-image-file-upload-e2c04128fafa | ['Lyubomir Filipov'] | 2020-12-19 19:23:37.828000+00:00 | ['Image', 'Laravel8'] |
LARRY ALLEN | LARRY ALLEN
Has anybody ever seen an athlete like Larry Allen?
Here you have a man who once bench-pressed 700 lbs.
Who ran the 40-yard dash in 4.85 seconds and posted a vertical leap of 30 inches.
For some a jump; for him, a leap.
Larry Allen in his prime was 6’3” tall and weighed north of 325 lbs.
Pump in a few more slices, pudd’nhead, meaning tack on a few more pounds.
340? 360?…
Like defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, who spent the first 11 years of his career in a New England Patriots uniform, Allen was likely the best athlete on his team.
And Wilfork, 6’2’’ 325 lbs — going on about 380 at least — was certainly no slouch; he could jam a basketball easily and would, according to Brady, emerge victorious in various inter-team competitions routinely.
With him, it was a given.
In the meantime, Larry Allen may well be the best offensive lineman in NFL history.
This cuts a wide swath indeed.
Anthony Munoz; Jonathan Ogden; Forrest Gregg; John Hannah; Bruce Matthews; Orlando Pace; Randall McDaniel; Mike Webster; Dwight Stephenson; Dan Dierdorf; Willie Roaf; Jim Otto; Gene Upshaw; Alan Faneca; Art Shell; Walter Jones; Richmond Webb; Mick Tingelhoff; Ed White…
But it is no reach.
Back in the day — the Fall of 1992 — everyone on the Sonoma State (CA) football team just had to take a shot at Allen during practice drills, so as to prove their mettle.
A rite of passage of sorts.
Testosterone.
Recalled coach Frank Scalercio, “So the kid [a freshman defensive end with an attitude] comes flying at Larry, and Larry launches this kid through space. I mean it. The kid was flying. I looked at the kid as he was going through the air and he had this big smile on his face. I’ll never forget what he said when he landed.”
“I just got flat-backed by a future Hall of Famer,” the greenhorn gleefully proclaimed.
He was right.
In 1992 and 1993, Allen playing Division II football was oxymoronic; a contradiction in terms; the definition of a mismatch.
Stories abound, so sensational that they beg to be mocked, disbelieved and dismissed.
Human beings just don’t do these kinds of things.
But there are witnesses.
Blocking on a run against UC Davis, Allen knocked to the ground — out cold — a defensive tackle, a linebacker and a safety.
All three. All unconscious. One play.
Scalercio maintains that Allen didn’t even break stride.
How about this one?
Sonoma State was playing at Humboldt State and the night before the game, Sonoma’s players were at their Eureka hotel watching the local news.
It seems that during the sports segment, Humboldt coaches and their best player, Scotty Reagan — a 6-foot-5, 260-pound defensive end, and NFL prospect himself — predicted that they would embarrass the Seawolves and Allen in particular, the next afternoon.
Bad move.
On a pass play during the game, Reagan tossed aside SSU’s tight end and was barreling toward Allen.
“The guy had an eight-yard running head start on Larry,” remembered Scalercio.
When they met, Allen hit him in the chest.
“He lost consciousness before he hit the ground,” Scalercio, said. “His legs had gone limp while he was still in the air, and so when he hit the ground Reagan tore the ACL in his knee. He missed the rest of the season.”
WHAAAT???
So, what in God’s name was Larry Allen doing playing Division II college football?
He grew up in Compton, CA.
Tough place.
He contracted meningitis and almost died at six weeks old.
When he was 10 he was stabbed eight times in the head, neck and shoulders, trying to stop a beating of his younger brother.
His father was absent and Allen attended four high schools in four years.
He went to Butte College in Oroville, CA and every big-time school in the country was sniffing around to the point of dying to break the door down.
No go.
Allen’s grades were poor and he left with no degree.
Scalercio was undeterred.
When Allen’s mother Vera agreed to allow Larry to move on to SSU — provided that Scalercio kept his promises — it wasn’t long before Allen was tested.
On a “recruiting visit,” then head-coach Tim Walsh looked at Allen, 6’ 3” and 340 pounds, and said, “So I hear you can dunk the basketball. OK. Let’s see.”
Allen, dressed in a white shirt, white pants and white shoes, looked like Mr. Clean.
And had pulled into the parking lot only moments earlier.
He had just driven eight hours from Los Angeles.
He took two steps in those shoes and slammed a thunderous two-handed dunk that sucked all the air out of the building and the people in it.
Including Walsh, of course.
‘Nuff said.
“Everyone went quiet,” said Scalercio. “All you could hear was the ball bouncing on the floor before it stopped.”
By the time Allen was a senior at SSU, he was the conference Player of the Year — as an offensive lineman.
But there were no postseason All-Star game invitations forthcoming.
Scalercio campaigned for Allen to be named to play in the 1994 East-West Shrine Game but Shrine officials were ambivalent to say the least.
They didn’t want to take a chance on a Division II player.
So Scalercio asked them to see Allen in action, to which they reluctantly agreed.
It was Sonoma State against Hayward State.
“Hayward had a giant defensive tackle, 6-foot-10, 300 pounds,” Scalercio remarked, reaching back.
“On one play our right guard blows a knee. He screams back to Larry in the huddle, ‘Larry, he did it on purpose!!’
The Hayward guy points to Larry and says, ‘You’re next!’
I walked over to the defensive tackle and said, ‘Son, that was the wrong thing to say.’”
A couple of plays later, Allen hit the Hayward behemoth so hard, he too was taken from the field unconscious.
Larry Allen became a member of the 1994 West roster.
The 1994 NFL Draft produced players like Marshall Faulk, Bryant Young, Isaac Bruce, Kevin Mawae, Rodney Harrison and Jamal Anderson.
Allen was the best player taken that year.
By a mile.
He would be named All-Pro eight times — 7 times First-team — and go to the Pro Bowl 11 times.
In his career, he played in more Pro Bowls than any other Dallas Cowboys offensive player in franchise history.
His physical feats were the stuff of NFL legend.
The 705-pound bench press; 43 reps of 225 pounds on the bench; a squat of 905 pounds; 20 reps of 520 pounds on the incline bench; the 30-inch vertical; the 4.85 time in the 40…
In a Monday night win in New Orleans on December 19, 1994 — Allen’s rookie season — he shocked the Saints and the football world with perhaps the most unlikely and odds-defying athletic feat imaginable, in a career loaded with them.
Early in the game, Saints linebacker Darion Conner intercepted Troy Aikman deep in Saints territory and was streaking down the field.
Allen was at a standing start, well behind the play.
There was a lot of ground to cover.
He ran down Conner and caught him from behind, saving a touchdown in a mind-boggling, miraculous show of speed and endurance for a — to be charitable — 340-pound lineman.
The game’s announcers — Al Michaels, Frank Gifford and Dan Dierdorf — were in total disbelief as to what they had just witnessed.
So was everybody else.
After all, how can you be the strongest man in the sport and fast enough to run with skill-position guys???
Who can do that?
One other thing about Larry Allen.
He is a man of very few words.
When Scalercio asked Allen to speak at one of the coach’s football camps for youngsters, Allen agreed and walked to the mic after a pomp and circumstance introduction.
He said three words, “Just say no,” and walked off the dais.
And when his son, Larry Jr. — who played at Harvard and was a first-team All-Ivy selection twice for the Crimson as an offensive guard — signed with the Cowboys in 2019 as an undrafted free agent, Dad was effusive…for him.
He tweeted, “Proud of Son.”
Larry Allen has conceded that he “uses [his] mouth plenty…but only for eating food and chewing tobacco.”
You argue with him.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in December 2020.] | https://medium.com/@petejkaplan/larry-allen-42274a13488 | ['Peter J. Kaplan'] | 2020-12-26 13:28:41.698000+00:00 | ['The Trenches', 'NFL', 'Football', 'Offensive Linemen', 'Pure Athleticism'] |
Breaking _up_relationships | Getting Back Together With An Ex There are plenty of reasons for breaking up relationships. There are benefits of breaking up and drawbacks as well.
One of the things you have to take into account when you break up a relationship is to figure out whether getting back together with an ex is worth it or not. There are some things you should and shouldn’t do if you are considering breaking up. Some reasons for breaking up relationships is because there is constant arguing going on. There are always reasons people can find to argue, but the core of the matter lies in why you two are arguing in the first place.
Is there a trust issue going on? If you cannot trust your partner, then there can be no basis for the relationship. You should be able to trust that your partner will do the right thing in a tempting situation. Perhaps your partner cheated in their past relationship. But if they have never cheated in your relationship and have never given you reason to think that they did, then you should probably continue to trust them. Trust is a virtue that must be earned, and if it is broken it will take time to rebuild that trust again. Another reason for breaking up is the lack of communication. Sometimes one or both partners completely close off from each other for one reason or another. The usual excuse is the typical "I have a lot going on." Well, if there is a lot going on, then you should talk about it. There is nothing worse than having something bottled up inside you for a long time.
Those feelings will only fester and cause you to worry even more. Partners should talk it out and try to bring a resolution to the problem. Talking out a problem with someone you trust will surely do your emotional attitude some good because just the fact that you are being heard and someone is listening to you is worth some of the best advice in the world. As you probably already know, sometimes all you need is a shoulder to cry on or a person to hug. This might be one of those times, so take advantage of it. You will know who your true friends are here. One benefit of breaking up is the fact that you can get some air. Perhaps your partner was smothering you and keeping you from seeing other people due to jealousy. With the break up complete, you can now go out and enjoy yourself. Another benefit of breaking up is to work on yourself some more. If you still need some personal growth, then now is the time to do it. Once you have better confidence in yourself and better self esteem, then there will be greater opportunities for a successful relationship between you and your future partner. Take these things into account when you are considering breaking up relationships because you just might have to apply some of this advice to your situation. | https://medium.com/@wwwvaibhavshukla123/breaking-up-relationships-bccf0ca4d7f1 | ['Tech Gadget'] | 2021-06-17 14:29:06.412000+00:00 | ['Love Advice', 'Breaking Up', 'Relationship Advice', 'Dating Advice', 'Love'] |
9 Steps To Build Your Own Successful Car Rental Business In 2021 | The car rental business is so competitive but also a lucrative one. A car rental business is one that rents cars at an affordable price on an hourly, daily, and also weekly basis. The customers for the car rental business mostly are travelers and business people.
Before moving further into the steps of building your own car rental business, let’s have a look at the growth and revenue.
Market Analysis
It is important to do a complete market analysis for any business you are in which will give you a better understanding of planning the strategies for your business.
According to Statista, the revenue in the car rental business amounts to US$ 94,764 m in 2020. Also, it is expected that it will amount to almost 108,987 m US$ by 2024. Hence it is proved that the car rental business is surely one of the most successful business ideas for an entrepreneur.
Isn’t it amazing? Keeping it aside, let’s have a look at the steps to start your own car rental business and be successful.
1. Make a business plan
A business plan is important for an entrepreneur to succeed in their journey. So, before making any decision, sit back, and spend some time planning out your business venture. Like,
Startup cost and other expenses
Target market
Revenue model
What is your unique selling point?
Business name
Legal formalities, etc.
2. Research about your venture location
If you are about to start your local car rental business, then the important factor you should consider is where you are going to build your business.
Do complete research on your area. Get all the information about the car rental businesses out there in your area. And make a decision where you can locate your business.
It is super cool if you place your business near hot spots like tourist areas or airports, etc.
3. Choose the type of rental.
There are two types of car rentals available, you have to choose wisely among them. The duo is contract-based long term rentals and daily hire rentals.
In contract-based rentals, you will rent out a car on a monthly or even long term basis. Basically, in long term rentals, you deal with businesses. Whereas short term rentals are individuals who need cars for some time. It depends on your choice to choose between these two.
4. Build a fleet of cars for your business.
This is the most important step in building your car rental business. I don’t recommend that you should immediately buy 6 to 10 cars in the first step.
Start simple as you can consider having 3 to 4 cars in the initial stage. But your fleet should be well maintained with proper functionalities to get the income you expected.
5. Consider purchasing insurance for your fleet.
It is necessary to have your fleet insured. Insurance policies may protect your business in case of emergencies. Go for a policy that includes both collision and liability protection for your cars.
Check out this article on insurance for car rental businesses, to know more about the policies and their benefits.
6. Get a business license
Apply for the business license at your nearest state or federal agency. They ask you a few things about your business like the name of your business, type of business, employee count, etc. Fill out the application and submit it. It may vary depending on the region you are in. Without the license, you may not be able to start the business. So make sure you get it.
7. Fleet maintenance
Hire mechanics to maintain your fleet because if your fleet is not well maintained then you may see a drop in your business profit. So hire experienced professionals to get extra help as they may even tell you whether the car should be replaced or repaired based on its condition.
8. Build a website and mobile application for your business
Everything’s digital now, hence adapting the change may help you get a steady flow of customers to your business. Customers love to book a car through the internet before they even travel. So give your customers the freedom to book the car on your own site.
If you find it hard to build a website or software on your own, don’t worry. There‘s a lot of car rental software available in the market to choose from. But it is important to choose the best car rental script for your business.
You can buy the software and customize it if you are aware of the rules of coding. It is so simple as you can do it on your own with a little bit of help from the software development company.
9. Marketing strategy
There are two types of marketing strategies you can follow, online and offline marketing.
Online marketing — According to a report from statista.com , the number of internet users is around 4.54 billion in 2020 . This made online marketing a preferred stream to market your business. Online marketing includes Social media presence, Search engine marketing, and optimization, content marketing, email marketing, and a lot more.
According to a report from , the number of internet users is around . This made online marketing a preferred stream to market your business. Online marketing includes Social media presence, Search engine marketing, and optimization, content marketing, email marketing, and a lot more. Offline marketing — Offline marketing is also an important part of marketing. It includes print media advertising, flyers, event speaking, cold calling, sponsoring events, etc.
Often you can get the expected market outcome if you combine these two marketing strategies.
Bonus Tip
We’ve seen already in the above sections that building your own car rental app or software can help you grow better. Let’s discuss how car rental apps benefit your business in this bonus tip.
What is a car rental app or software?
Car rental software is a web-based solution that helps the car rental business owners to manage the bookings, fleet management, listings, and also be in touch with the customers at ease.
How do car rental apps work?
The car rental app acts as an intermediate between the customer and the business owner/driver. It allows the customer to scroll through the list of cars and book the preferred car effortlessly.
Much needed features your car rental app should have.
Features are the important factor to consider when you are about to buy and customize the car rental app.
Let’s have a look at the few features of the best car rental app that you may consider buying,
Advanced search filters Managing listings Reservations management Seasonal pricing Safe payment gateway like stripe Multiple login options Multi-language and currency option Ratings and Reviews Service fee management Document verification
Here you are to the very last part of this guide to start your own car rental business. I hope you got some idea out of this. By hoping so let me recommend the best car booking script for the best of your business, RentALL Cars — A best in class car rental script to get you going. | https://medium.com/radical-start/9-steps-to-build-your-own-successful-car-rental-business-in-2020-9f5af0da6c1b | ['Mohamed Natheem S'] | 2021-05-19 11:53:38.197000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Sharing Economy', 'Startup', 'Car Rental', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
I Tried Using A.I. To Replicate My Creative Process. It Got Weird. | I Tried Using A.I. To Replicate My Creative Process. It Got Weird.
Can you turn a machine into a novelist?
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
The speculative-fiction writer Philip K. Dick used amphetamines and other stimulants to transform himself into a 24/7 writing machine. Powered by chemicals, he churned out 28 novels and more than 132 short stories (many of which used drugs as subject matter, including “A Scanner Darkly”). Nor was he alone: If pulp writers didn’t churn out as much copy as possible, they didn’t eat — and if that meant swallowing pills so you could write for two days straight, so be it.
In some ways, the writing business hasn’t changed much in the past century. For thousands of writers, the volume of copy you generate is proportional to how much you earn. Drugs are still a way to power through — I know more than one journalist or blogger who developed a nasty Adderall habit — but often it’s just a combination of caffeine and desperation.
I’m a journalist and editor who also writes pulp fiction on the side, so I’m as aware of the marketplace dynamics as anyone else in the writing business. Over the past year, I’ve been keeping an eye on the evolution of A.I. text generation, which is touted (by businesses) as a way of generating tons of content on the cheap, while derided (by writers) as a potential job killer.
One of the more prominent A.I. text generators has been GPT-2, a “large-scale unsupervised language model” created by OpenAI, a semi-nonprofit (it’s complicated) that wants A.I. and machine-learning tools used in virtuous ways. The relatively new GPT-3 is a further refinement of the underlying technology.
With a training dataset of 8 million web pages (featuring 1.5 billion parameters), GPT-2 was long-touted as capable of achieving “state-of-the-art performance on many language modeling benchmarks.” OpenAI initially refused to unleash it into the wild, fearful that it would be used to generate mountains of “fake news.”
Last year, I tried an experiment where I fed GPT-2 a selection of opening lines from some of history’s greatest literary works (including Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”). My conclusion at the time was that the algorithm was capable of sticking with the subject matter for a few lines, but quickly became discombobulated and nonsensical. In other words, although A.I. is already capable of writing short news stories according to a fixed template (such as breakdowns of quarterly financial results), it didn’t seem like writers of longform and fiction pieces really had anything to fear.
This week, I decided to see how the technology had evolved since my last run-through. Although GPT-3 is out in the ecosystem, and testable, I wanted to try something with the well-established GPT-2: A custom generator.
A standard generator might have scraped text from millions upon millions of web pages in order to power itself, but the results are often mixed: For example, you could feed a GPT-powered platform a couple sentences of Jane Austin, only to have it spit back a mix of 2020 election news, gossip about 18th century British landed gentry, and a mangled Wikipedia entry.
A custom generator, on the other hand, allows you to provide the examples that the system uses to train itself and generate text. InferKit, created by Adam Daniel King, is an evolution of the ultra-popular Talk to Transformer, a public-facing GPT-powered tool that earned a lot of press from Wired and other venues. It also allows you to upload .txt or CSV files, which it then uses as the basis for its custom generator (uploads are capped at 20 MB or 20,000 documents).
For the purposes of this experiment, I fed InferKit a .txt file containing ~500,000 words of my fiction published over the past ten years, including novels, short stories, and poetry. It took about an hour to digest that data and learn from it. I then fed it a lengthy selection from the crime-fiction novella I’m writing right now:
Miller returned to his tiny apartment on Avenue B. A monk would have found the space nicely minimalist. The mattress on the bedroom floor was the largest piece of furniture. His money, along with an assortment of guns, rested beneath the floorboards of the short hallway that separated the bedroom from the bathroom. On his way home, Miller had stopped at an all-night burger place on Avenue A and ordered the Big Jumbo Delight, two patties slathered with cheese and horseradish mayonnaise. He sat on the mattress, relishing each greasy swallow. The Ricky deal was a mess, because everything Ricky did was a mess. But how had he managed to score that enormous house? Conmen dreamed of that big score, and virtually all of them failed to land it. Yet Ricky, dumb Ricky, had somehow tricked his way into a mansion. Chewing the last bite of burger, Miller told himself that he would return to the townhouse in the morning, learn whatever there was to learn. Ten thousand dollars was nothing to wave off. And if Ricky was promising him that amount, it meant there was a lot more money in the pot. Stripping off his clothes, Miller lay back on the bed, his hands folded behind his head. Pale light from the streetlamps trickled past the barred windows, throwing a maze of shadows over his body. By focusing on his breathing and the faint pulse of his heart, he could drive away his worries about fingerprints and the clown and his patterns and Ricky, drive it all far enough away that he could drift off… Creak. Oh, you bastard. Creak. Creak. Creak. That old man knew he was home. Creak-creak-creak-creak.
(It’s a first draft; go easy on me.)
Here’s what an A.I. trained on ten years of my writing spat back as the next few paragraphs (I’ve inserted some paragraph breaks in order to give it a human-like flow):
The clock on the far wall chimed eight minutes too late, the door burst open, and the old man stumbled into the living room. There was a chair on the sofa, the curtains drawn. A pair of sunglasses rested on the coffee table, set on the floor. Rick was nowhere in sight. Miller could hear a faint howl through the walls. The old man stumbled into the coffee table, leaning against it, startled at Miller’s actions. Miller sensed the fear in the man’s eyes, real, but the man had not seen him and yet. Miller waited for his wand, which never did arrive. The old man, his shirt torn, his jeans ripped asunder, walked over to the couch. Rising to his knees, he bent down, brushing against the back of Miller’s neck with his fingertips. That’s a little rough, Miller mused. It was a long way from Grandma’s farmhouse, and Grandma knew it, and you shouldn’t do that to people, the old man thought. Taking the older man’s hand in his own, Miller took the sunglasses from the coffee table, stuffing them into his mouth. “Can I get a cup of coffee?” Miller asked. “You say I have a parole board?” The old man looked at Miller with dark eyes. “What is that?” Miller blinked. “You on parole, are you?” Miller studied the old man’s features, reading his tense face. Dark circles under the dark eyes. And the old man’s mouth. Miller stopped when he noticed blood leaking from the corner of the man’s mouth. The old man reached into his shirt and yanked out the knife with a sad little whine, all purple and bony. Miller was certain the old man had seen him, though the man had none of that violence, no stalking in his victim’s mind. The old man brought the knife up and bit into Miller’s cheek, hard. Miller, looking at the old man as he banged on the table, only saw a good man standing, blood running down his cheeks. Miller’s throat clenched painfully, hard. “What is it?” the old man said, spitting the knife out.
Obviously, none of that is what I actually intended to write next. It’s not even close, unless I wanted to write some kind of horrific mashup of David Lynch and Robert Coover’s underrated surrealist classic Ghost Town. But here’s the startling thing: It’s a pretty good imitation of my prose style, even if the action is nonsensical. If you want to be charitable, you could describe the GPT-2/InferKit results as “dreamlike,” in the same way that dreams proceed without any adherence to plot mechanics or even basic physics. But if you’re willing to put concerns about logic aside, there’s a smoothness here that suggests A.I. is progressing.
In many ways, this experiment echoes Google’s Deep Dream, which attempted to use a neural net to “learn” images. That resulted in some very trippy, dreamlike pictures. For example, this is three men in a pool:
Obviously, there are still substantial roadblocks before A.I. can comfortably take over fiction writing from human beings. A “general” A.I. (i.e., a “human-like” one; think HAL in 2001) would know that a human shouldn’t stuff sunglasses in their mouth. But these specialized, learning A.I.s that are filling our current world have no idea of existence beyond their highly specialized input; there’s no meta-awareness, no sense of structure.
And that sense of structure, of the broader world, is what is going to protect fiction writers for quite some time to come. Writers must make intuitive leaps; they (hopefully) have an instinctive sense of their work’s structure and its ultimate goal. Or as Nabokov put it, when discussing the writing of Lolita:
“These are the nerves of the novel. These are the secret points, the subliminal co-ordinates by means of which the book is plotted — although I realize very clearly that these and other scenes will be skimmed over or not noticed, or never even reached.”
These are nuances that necessarily elude the machines. You could upload all of Nabokov or Philip K. Dick to a platform running GPT-2 or GPT-3, and you might get a facsimile of their style and tone, but you wouldn’t get the structure or creativity. Humans writing press releases might have good reason to be frightened for their jobs over the next five years, but novelists may not have cause for concern for decades, if ever.
One marvels, though, at what Dick, high and feverish and smacking away at his typewriter keys, might have one with the concept of text predictors. Do androids dream of becoming great novelists? | https://nkolakowski.medium.com/i-tried-using-a-i-to-replicate-my-creative-process-it-got-weird-81efa2b0a2cf | ['Nick Kolakowski'] | 2020-08-18 11:36:58.598000+00:00 | ['Novel', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Writing', 'Technology', 'Creativity'] |
Jax.Network attractability for early investors | Jax.Network attractability for early investors
NB. This note is not financial advice and potential returns are based on assumptions that, if not realized, the value will be adjusted. This document details the possible rate of return in case of mass adoption of our coin and why its value proposition has at least the same merits as of Ethereum. Also, explaining how our network operates is out of scope here. If you are new to our community, we advise you to watch our videos or read our academic paper.
Before launching and reaching critical mass, there are multiple factors at play to ensure the success of any blockchain-based networks:
Team recognition among peers and communities
The seriousness of white paper
Future use cases
Adoption rate
Proper incentives and economics
That being said, these key elements are out of reach if technical hurdles are still on the way. This common missing link for mass adoption is the low throughput of distributed networks. Blockchain-based networks do not scale easily and do not process enough outputs per second to be used by the public at large. For instance, the Ethereum network is almost overloaded, as the graph below shows.
In this context, scalability issues need to be tackled for open blockchains to be of practical utility in the real world. Multiple projects have worked on this including on Bitcoin and Ethereum for years. As of today, as we have stated elsewhere, Proof-of-Stake solutions are not fully satisfactory since they open the door for more attacks. While lightning network might prove difficult to scale for at least two reasons: i) opening and closing a payment channel goes through the Bitcoin blockchain, and this blockchain has very limited throughput. ii) multi-hopping is rather inefficient since some nodes can be offline and the transaction needs rerouting. We argue our protocol can scale immediately after its launch. And this statement is the backbone of our value proposition. The second value proposition is that our native coin is stable by design and suitable for day-to-day payments. We will review these two claims in light of the Ethereum core value proposition.
A very brief history of Ethereum
Ethereum’s raison d’être is to implement decentralized applications. It was designed to become the “first zero infrastructure platform”. This ecosystem has witnessed an ROI of up to 9000% when the price was at its peak in early 2018. With nearly 72 million coins created during the ICO and a fundraise of USD16 million was targeted. Based on these figures, the average coin price was set at USD 0.22.
One early critique of Bitcoin from Ethereum’s white paper lies in its limited capacity to implement smart contracts, especially due to its scripting limitation. A script is “a list of instructions recorded with each transaction that describes how the next person wanting to spend the Bitcoins being transferred can gain access to them.” However, these scripts are not turing-complete and cannot sustain any type of digital transaction.
A smart contract is a set of lines of code, which follow a particular logic. This logic can be summed up, for simplicity, as IF X, THEN Y. A famous example was given by Nick Szabo who stated that a vending machine works similarly as a smart contract: IF you put 5 coins, THEN you’ll get yourself a Mars bar.
Once this concrete example is understood, we can better comprehend the purpose of Ethereum. To overcome Bitcoin issues in writing broader transactions than just Bob sent 2 to Alice, Ethereum implemented a virtual machine in order to compile any kind of rules.
This distinction has no value judgment, we just want to emphasize that Bitcoin and Ethereum have two different purposes. The latter is a decentralized platform to create apps, while the former was the first truly decentralized payment system.
Separating speculative purpose from transactional demand
Bitcoin and Ethereum native coins are speculative in essence. This is due partly to their deflationary nature. Supply scarcity increases its exchange rate as long as the demand for transactions is on the rise. Speculative behaviors on money are not new and it was already reported by Irwin Fisher in the early 1900s.
What is important to distinguish is long term and short-term growth of the network. In the short run, speculative behavior is expected from users and would help increase the adoption rate. Speculation is fine as long as it can be kept separated from a transfer of utility, which is the basic function for any stable currency. This is not the case of ETH, which is both a transactional token for running dApps and a digital asset.
ETH price and transaction rate, source: etherscan.io
The logarithmic trendlines are strongly correlated. Ethereum holds value because it has transactional purposes. And the recent DeFi boom has increased ETH value since a lot of speculation has occurred.
This is why we have separated the Beacon chain from the Shard chains with two different reward functions and economic incentives. Our speculative vehicle, the Beacon chain, has a predetermined growth rate, while the transaction coin has no predetermined money supply, albeit it can be slightly anticipated.
A stable coin by design
The need for a stable coin in the cryptocurrency market is obvious. To give one example, Tether processes daily transactions worth USD70+ billion. And hundreds of stable coin propositions have emerged over the last few years. Nonetheless, these propositions are either centralized, like Tether and have regulatory risks, or not really scalable.
Other propositions are algorithmic-based instead of using collateral. Then some other risks emerge. A coin supply that is elastic to aggregate demand is an elegant proposal. But, as far as we know, these propositions resorts to oracles. This opens new doors for attacks while entailing some centralization.
The JAX coin design is innovative and does not rely on external data sources, a peg, or some collateral to function. It is purely based on economic incentives provided by our reward function and the economics behind PoW consensus algorithm.
Interestingly, one can compare the difficulty of a network (which reflects the cost of production of a certain coin) and its price. Indeed, on Ethereum, we can observe a strong correlation between these variables. This is not to argue that there is a causal link. Nonetheless, the higher the difficulty, the higher the resources to mine ETH (or JAXNET). As the costs of production go up, so should the market price. The difficulty is correlated to the rate of adoption of the cryptocurrency.
Unlike Ethereum, we can argue that JAX coins are a “cost-based” stable coin indexed on the productivity gains in the mining market, which encompasses hardware, electricity grids, human resources, R&D in a mining rig, etc. JAX coin reward is proportional to the aggregated hash power allocated to the entire network. Ultimately, it means that the production of the coin is linked to its production costs, especially its fixed costs, and in our case to the marginal costs as well. The latter, due to the very nature of our reward function is constant. Mining one extra coin will cost you the same as the previous one.
This is an important aspect, as it does not allow miners to scale their operations beyond a certain breaking point: the cost of one extra coin should equal the expected profit. In other words, the supply of coins will not increase unless there is a transactional demand for it. Miners will make extra profits by also mining the Beacon chain and getting paid through transaction fees. The higher the throughput, the higher the revenues. Assuming our network grows in the long run to the size of Tether, a 0.1% transaction fee will entail $70+ million of daily revenues.
Use cases for Jax.Network
In a nutshell, Ethereum has implemented a network to process a broader type of transactions and its use cases span from ICOs to dApps and DeFi. But ultimately these two blockchains lack three features to be mass-adopted:
Immediate scalability
Low price volatility
Low transaction fees at any point in time
We can see that once these three key elements are solved, the potential of public blockchains can be fully appreciated.
Day-to-day payments thanks to a stable coin
Digital asset (JAXNET) that reflects the value of the entire ecosystem
Limited smart contracts run on separated shards from transactional shards
We pointed out the main differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum to demonstrate that our value proposition is at the crossroad of the two. Just like Bitcoin, we have a digital asset. Just like Ethereum, our core value proposition relies on an entirely new ecosystem. Beyond the two main cryptocurrencies, we strived to design separated transactional and speculative networks, as well as future use cases for smart contracts, where governance can be separated and specific to smart contract parallel channel, entirely disconnected from the transactional network as they can be running on dedicated shards.
What you are investing in
The Beacon chain coin (JAXNET) has technically little purpose but to keep track of shard chain creations. However, from an economic perspective, it is the native asset class. And this what you invest in. Stakeholders will be able to bet on the value of the whole network by buying and selling it. If our blockchain holds its promises, transaction throughput and adoption rate should be correlated to the market price of the Beacon chain native coin, JAXNET. Unlike financial assets though, this coin generates a convenience yield, i.e. the price difference of JAXNET between two-time intervals. Indeed, there are no interest rates or dividends attached to this coin. Only the change in value in the secondary market can be a reflection of the utility (or disutility) of the entire network.
Jax.Network ambitions to set up a new standard for both measuring value and process online transactions. This implies our cryptocurrency has to scale. In order to achieve this goal, we have created a brand-new ecosystem.
We argue that our ecosystem could follow the same value growth as the one of Ethereum. Like Ethereum 1.0, we use GPU mining and we will strive to implement a consensus algorithm that is ASIC resistant so that anyone can participate in mining, thanks to our proportional reward mechanism.
Ethereum’s value proposition is based on smart contracts, it has opened the room for token standards, DeFi, and dApps. It has involved a huge community contributing to the core development of the protocol. But ultimately it has not solved yet the technical problems that public blockchains have been struggling with for years. And we expect our team to deliver a protocol to solve these issues all at once, for the very long run.
JAXNET ERC-20 tokens are offered to early adopters. Once our network is live, these tokens can be swapped 1:1 with JAXNET coins — Beacon chain coins. Once swapped, JAXNET tokens are burnt. However, in order to limit the number of pre-mined coins, 10 million JAXNET will be released during the initial offering (with 8.1 million dedicated to investors), at USD 0.617283 per unit at a 10% discount for early investors. Assuming the value is similar to Ethereum, this could bring about a 700x ROI over the next 3 years.
Conclusion
We are assuming mass adoption as a given parameter. This optimism deserves a few words at least. First, let’s define what we call mass adoption. We can see different phases:
In crypto, a dominant solution for solving scalability
Dominance translated in the world of payments.
As recently stated by the International Monetary Fund, money will continue to trend more toward more digitization. But changing habits is the most compelling argument against cryptocurrencies, putting aside technological challenges. Indeed, fiat money has been around for many years and users might not be so keen to switch to a new environment with its own peculiar monetary rules. The status quo bias (Samuelson & Zeckhauser, 1988) explains why people tend to stick to what they know.
We believe that a fully integrated digital payment ecosystem where users can both speculate on its future value and carry out transactions is a game-changer for the crypto world, as well as for online payments in general. Bitcoin doesn’t scale, and despite its volatility, it has been an efficient store of digital value. Ethereum’s value proposition greatly departs from payments, and if it ever scales, it will not be a suitable medium of exchange. Its coin value will also be linked to smart contracts development throughout its ecosystem, not just its transactional value.
We think that Jax.Network is at the intersection of the two. Like Bitcoin, if user adoption reaches the same level, it will be a store of value. Like Ethereum, our value proposition relies on an entirely new ecosystem to achieve decentralization of payments, and other transactions.
That being said, mass adoption remains a challenge and a very long-term goal. A reliable global and decentralized payment system can be achieved by targeting unbanked users at first, and users who don’t trust their financial system. | https://medium.com/jax-network/jax-network-attractability-for-early-investors-b063aee7a8dc | [] | 2020-12-29 15:02:03.343000+00:00 | ['Jaxnetwork', 'Scalability', 'Jaxnetworktech', 'Blockchain Development', 'Blockchain Economics'] |
(9 Spots Left) ‘’Trust me on this and become our next success story’’ | (9 Spots Left) ‘’Trust me on this and become our next success story’’
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Cheers. | https://medium.com/@ogbpraise/9-spots-left-trust-me-on-this-and-become-our-next-success-story-6da636583025 | ['Felix Praise'] | 2020-12-23 22:25:44.828000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Sales', 'Tracking', 'Website', 'Web Traffic'] |
Should we teach them that Muhammad was a rapist, as well? | Should we teach them that Muhammad was a rapist, as well? | https://medium.com/@ajmonatesti/should-we-teach-them-that-muhammad-was-a-rapist-as-well-c9e179be01c4 | ['Hans Gruber'] | 2020-12-01 17:06:48.651000+00:00 | ['Racist', 'Rape'] |
Yachtside Charter adopts Aditus Pay as Crypto Payment Service Provider | Aditus, the world’s first luxury access platform for crypto-affluents, has signed a partnership with Yachtside Charter to enable the charter of luxury yachts using Aditus’s ADI tokens, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Yachtside Charter is an acclaimed European-based group with offices across cities that are frequented by crypto-affluents, such as Monaco and Phuket. In collaboration with Anthony Brisacq, co-founder and CEO of Yachtside Charter together with Yachtside Group, founded by Philippe Chadel and Moody Fayed, they aim to revolutionise the luxury yachting world by creating the only instant luxury yachting charter solution, allowing you to book a yacht online with just a few clicks.
Whether you are looking to organise a party cruise with friends and loved ones or a lavish business meeting, Yachtside Charter has the perfect solution. Make your selection based on customisable single or multiple day trips; as well as sunset jaunts. There are various options available at many amazing destinations around the world. | https://medium.com/aditusnetwork/yachtside-charter-adopts-aditus-pay-as-crypto-payment-service-provider-ca743eb87b8 | ['Aditus Pr'] | 2018-08-08 07:36:13.988000+00:00 | ['Yacht', 'Crypto Affluent', 'Bitcoin', 'Aditus', 'Luxury'] |
How to select the right keyword for the content? | When it comes to attracting the right audience with your content, it is very crucial to choose the right keyword for successful SEO. Choosing an effective keyword to connect with the audience is a work of taking time and research. You can do your work with some easy steps.
Set your goals
For every organic search effort, you have to start with goals set a goal to grow your leads, sales, engagement, and traffic that you need. To get the right audience, you have to found the right keyword for your content.
Search Intent
When it comes to keyword research, it is important to think about search Intent. Sometimes keywords category plays a role in SEO. Navigational, informational and transactional keywords are part of keyword research. Right search Intent helps you to present your content to your audience that it fulfills your audience needs and gain their attention.
Analyze the competition
To get traffic, it is important to pay attention to the competition for your target keyword. It is better to choose a low competition key phrase for your content. If your keywords are beatable, your content is found useful by the readers. You can rank in top position by audience search through than the competition.
Focus on long-tail keywords
Having the right content, you have to target long-tail keywords more than short- tail keywords to attract your leads who are ready to purchase your product or service. It is also true that long-tail keywords have low search volume but it works for your specific, targeted customers.
Set the right content format for keywords
Do you ready to post your content! Wait. It is important to identify the correct format for your target keyword. Most bloggers facing trouble to rank their blog because of their content format. Consider your content with the right keywords, images, charts, and many more to rank for your target audience.
For more blogs : https://boosturweb.com/blog/ | https://medium.com/@boosturwebmail/how-to-select-the-right-keyword-for-the-content-4ca7bb244791 | [] | 2020-12-16 10:26:03.812000+00:00 | ['Long Tail Keywords', 'Keyword Research', 'Content', 'Short Tail Keywords', 'Keywords'] |
7 MUST HAVE ITEMS FOR GUYS’ WARDROBE | 7 MUST HAVE ITEMS FOR GUYS’ WARDROBE
Finally, we have made it to 2021, and are back to normal life with a couple of safety measures. Winter is off-season now, and that we are heading towards the nice and cozy weather. you want to be within the thought of redoing your closet. ‘right?’ some leftovers from the previous year that you simply like to wear, some new arrivals that get your attention — hmmm’’, what to try and do now? allow us to mix things up for you to possess an aesthetic but trendy look that you simply need to have during this post-pandemic season, ‘’how does that sound’’? Fascinating! we will tell you the simplest wardrobe essentials that accompany everything you wear and cause you to fly a day that looks like no job to you
1. Summer Shirts
In this summer season usher in some stylish and funky shirts in your wardrobe that take in the sun and lend you a dashing look.
Chambray Sports Shirt
‘’This indigo-dyed sports shirt’’ the name itself is lighter than the air, imagine of wearing it and feeling a way of freshness is nothing but mesmerizing. Chambray sports shirt can accompany the entire shebang you wear.
2. Shorts
Chino Shorts
We are betting that chino shorts might be your favored weekend shorts. it’s a trim fit that gives it pliability. you’ll enjoy your summer trip in these shorts and have much fun in your new chino shorts
3. pants
Camouflage Cargo Pants
Watercolor camouflage cargo pants are a mix of cotton and linen fabric with a pleasant contemporary sight. It goes with all your essentials and supplies you with an ideal trendy look.
4. Shoes
The knit sneakers
A white sneaker with a knit body is incredible footwear for you. It is undoubtedly lightweight and more comfortable than anything. Duos with everything you wear. I would like to recommend that while choosing yourself a sneaker keep it on a lighter side like grey or tan.
5. Watch
Seastrong Gyre Watch (300m waterproof rating)
Are you an eco-conscious snorkeler or swimmer? If ‘’yes’’, then you’re not getting to find many wristwatches which will par with the tone of alpine seastrong gyre watch. This handsome wristwatch is sort of a masterpiece, in fact, the strap it’s coming with is fashioned with recycled plastic material which is what makes it unique
6. Hat
The Panama
Glaring sun, immense heat, sweating, & sunburn, all are gifts of hell summer. you would like a brim that works as a shield to stay your head cool and eyes off the sun. Thinking of shopping for a hat- ‘’The Panama’’, is the one that hits your mind instantly. Super sexy and classy wardrobe item that you certainly want this year.
7. Underwear
Allbirds underwear
What comes next, once you are through with buying your foremost wardrobe essentials, like pair of jeans, regular shirts, and handsome sneakers? an aesthetic yet comfortable pair of underwear. Selecting underwear on grounds of fashion is simply a fun touch. All you would like is adjustable and cozy underwear with an ideal inseam to stay your valuables in situ. Allbirds underwear is cool, moisture-wicking, and adjustable. What else a man could wish for.
Get your wardrobe ready with these funky kinds of stuff. Happy summer season
By: Zara khan | https://medium.com/@zarakhan526/7-must-have-items-for-guys-wardrobe-1dfd0ca12653 | ['Zara Khan'] | 2021-03-01 22:31:19.332000+00:00 | ['Trendy Fashion', 'Style', 'Wardrobe Essentials', 'Cool Stuff', 'Menwear'] |
A Celebration of “Speed” on its Silver Anniversary | Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in “Speed” (Copyright: 20th Century Fox)
One of my favorite things about film is the subjective nature of it. A dozen people can see the exact same film and each have wildly different assessments of its quality and interpretations of its themes. At times, it can be remarkably challenging to engage in calm, rational discussion when you feel so passionately about a piece of art and someone comes along and presents a diametrically opposed viewpoint. But, nevertheless I continuously strive to be open to such discussion and debate.
Well, most of the time, anyway. There are certain things I just flat out refuse to debate. One of these things is that Speed is the greatest action movie ever made.
Speed was released on June 10, 1994 — exactly 25 years ago today. The film was hardly projected to be a box office smash, let alone a genre classic. The film was the big screen debuts of director Jan de Bont and screenwriter Graham Yost, and was producer Mark Gordon’s sixth attempt at big screen success after his first five films failed to make a splash. The film also had no marquee names attached. Sure Keanu Reeves was a rising star who was well known in the industry, as he had already starred in the Bill and Ted films, Point Break, Dangerous Liaisons, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. And with credits like Easy Rider, Blue Velvet, and Hoosiers to his name, Dennis Hopper was a highly respected industry veteran at the time of the film’s release. But no one would have called either of them a major box office draw in 1994. As for costar Sandra Bullock, who would later go onto become a bigger star than either of them, her sole major credit prior to that point was a supporting role in the Sylvester Stallone/Wesley Snipes misfire Demolition Man.
It seemed that pretty much all Speed had going for it was an intriguing premise — a city bus has to stay above 50 miles per hour or a terrorist will detonate a bomb.
But then to the surprise of many, it received some very high profile rave reviews upon its release. Roger Ebert, the best known film critic of his time, gave the film a rare perfect 4 star rating. Senior Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman gave the film an “A.” Its opening weekend didn’t break any records, but word-of-mouth spread quickly and the film ended up grossing $121 million in the US and $350 million globally (adjusted for inflation its domestic total would be a healthy $261 million, which would make it the 60th highest grossing R-rated film of all time.)
After its theatrical run, Speed would go on to be nominated for three Academy Awards, winning two (Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing). It would also pick up six MTV Movie Awards (back when MTV was a really big deal). In the years since its release, it has been regarded as a modern classic, with Empire magazine ranking it among the 500 greatest films of all time, American Film Institute putting it on their list of 100 most thrilling films of all time, and Quentin Tarantino naming it one of the 20 best films of the ’90s and ’00s. The film is credited for launching Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock to the A-list, where they still remain 25 years later. (It also spawned Speed 2: Cruise Control, a spectacularly disastrous sequel that necessitates an entire article of its own.)
So how did a movie with no A-list talent in front of the camera or behind the scenes, a modest $30 million budget, an original story, and an absurd premise become a blockbuster and a classic? Well, because it is a great film and every so often being a great film is enough.
Without further ado, here are six reasons why Speed is not only a great film, but also my vote for the greatest action movie ever made.
Promotional Poster for “Speed” (Copyright: 20th Century Fox)
1.) It is breathtakingly action packed for its entire 115 minute running time. Rewatching the film in preparation for this article, I was astounded by how riveting the film is even when I knew every plot turn and line of dialogue by heart. I literally couldn’t do anything else while watching it. And it’s not action-packed in the frenzied, exhausting, overstimulating ways of most modern blockbusters, but rather with a series of cleverly conceived, carefully staged, well-edited action sequences that occur in rapid succession. There are a few quieter moments in which viewers can catch their breath, but they don’t last long enough to disrupt the thrilling pace.
2.) Its three-act structure is screenwriting perfection (even if the dialogue is rough at times.) The seeming absurdity and simplicity of Speed’s premise has been the source of much satire over the last quarter century, as has the one-note characterizations and token diversity of the characters on board the bus. Furthermore, criticisms have been lobbed at the film’s dialogue, which at times is remarkably hackneyed. Lines like “You’re not too bright, but you’ve got some big round hairy cajones,” “Don’t get dead,” and “Your life is empty because you try to stop the bomb from becoming” are quite groan-inducing.
But the script has many strengths that more than make up for these flaws. Primary among these is the screenplay’s perfectly balanced three-act structure. The film begins with a 23 minute prologue, in which we get a nail-biting terrorist attack on a Downtown LA high-rise passenger elevator and get all the necessary background for our protagonist (LAPD Officer Jack Traven, played by Reeves) and our antagonist (madman Howard Payne, played by Hopper.) Then we enter a 67-minute stretch in which Traven manages Payne’s follow-up attack on a Santa Monica city bus that has been rigged to explode if it goes under 50 miles per hour. The film ends with an 18-minute climax in which Traven and Payne go head to head on LA’s subway system. They are all dazzling set pieces that never outstay their welcome.
3.) It is a remarkably humane and progressive entry in the action genre. In an era in which the majority of blockbusters are superhero films, disaster porn, shoot-em-ups, or monster movies, viewers are used to seeing hundreds, thousands, and even millions of people die in one film. And very rarely in these films do they ever even broach the topic of the emotional impact of the lost lives. In contrast, only a handful of people die in Speed and each death packs a real emotional punch. Furthermore, the film focuses on everyday people risking life and limb to save the lives of other everyday people, a rarity innblockbusters. In an era when action movies are going to such extremes to rouse the passiona of cynical, desensitized filmgoers, watching Speed is a reminder that injecting humanity into the proceedings can go a long way.
The film is also notable for the surprising strength of its female protagonist, Annie (Bullock). The vast majority of blockbusters at the time (and, honestly, even today) would reduce Annie to a love interest for Jack or a damsel-in-distress — or both. But Annie plays a major role in the film not because she’s hot or because the filmmakers wanted to inject some sexual chemistry into the proceedings, but rather because of how she steps up and commandeers the bus after a tragic accident incapacitates the bus driver. Through immense skill, clever decision making, and remarkable bravery, she keeps everyone alive — and even manages a few emotional crises along the way. Sure, the film ends with her and Jack in a hot lip-lock, but it plays out in a manner that feels very different from the typical hero-gets-the-girl formula. It plays out as two heroes who have been through hell together and are grateful to be alive collapsing into each other’s arms. Perhaps it is bold to call Speed feminist, but I’m feeling bold today.
4.) It provides perfect roles for 3 bona fide movie stars. Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, and Dennis Hopper have all given better performances in their career than they do here. But rarely, if ever, have they ever felt more like movie stars. Keanu Reeves is a mix of reckless bravado and quiet compassion. He is more than adequate in his dramatic scenes and is truly striking in his highly physical ones. Dennis Hopper is unhinged madness, constantly verging on camp but being so damn entertaining and chilling that it somehow consistently works. Bullock is exceptionally effective as the charming, strong-willed “girl next door” who is full of wit and intelligence. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that the chemistry between her and Reeves is electrifying. (The film also contains great turns by character actors like Jeff Daniels, Joe Morton, and Beth Grant in supporting roles.)
Dennis Hopper and Sandra Bullock in “Speed” (Copyright: 20th Century Fox)
5.) Its production values are top notch, and hold up a quarter century later. The film is a technical marvel, emphasizing stunt work and pyrotechnics over CGI. Despite some outdated vehicles and weaponry, the action sequences still play out with gritty realism and nail-biting tension all these years later. And the film is not just a feast for the eyes, but for the ears as well. In addition to the sound effects that won it two Oscars, it features a highly underrated, pulse-pounding score by Mark Mancina, that should have scored the film a fourth Oscar nomination. Despite how far film technology has advanced since this film was made, it has a timeless quality that allows it to still play effectively.
6.) It is one of the most quintessentially Los Angeles movies ever made. Surprisingly, Hollywood has not made an overwhelming number of great films about Hollywood. Sure, there’s a handful of classics set in the film industry (Stanley Donen’s Singing in the Rain, Robert Altman’s The Player, and Damien Chazelle’s La La Land immediately come to mind). There’s also a handful of film noirs that made great use of Los Angeles (Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, and Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential are obvious standouts.) But few great action films are set there and few, if any, of the films listed above are as quintessentially Los Angeles as Speed. The main action of the film is set in Downtown LA’s high rises, on the surface streets of the urban sprawl, and on the mammoth freeways that intersect all over the city. Major scenes take place at the city’s main airport and iconic Hollywood Boulevard. In addition to heavily showcasing the landmarks of the city, the film also touches on themes that are of deep relevance to Los Angeles life, including the hell of commuting (Los Angeles is a famously car-dependent town with some of the world’s worst traffic), the violence that plagues the streets (this was filmed the year after the L.A. riots), and the tremendous cultural diversity of its populace. Watching the film after making my home in Los Angeles was a very different experience than it was watching it in rural Upstate New York. Not necessarily a better experience, but certainly a deeper one. | https://medium.com/rants-and-raves/a-celebration-of-speed-on-its-silver-anniversary-9f8ea3910fcd | ['Richard Lebeau'] | 2019-06-11 06:49:25.765000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Film', 'Culture', 'Media', 'Hollywood'] |
‘The Equality Education’: Inspiring Greatness in Kids in New York City | ‘The Equality Education’: Inspiring Greatness in Kids in New York City
A New York City small business’s mission to help kids “discover their greatness” through social-emotional learning.
Arianna Silver (left) and Soleil Laurent (right) stand within their Union Square Holiday Market vendor booth displaying their business’s empowering products on Monday, November 29, 2021. Equality Education, a business that began only last year, sits among over 160 others in the market in New York City, NY. (Photo courtesy of Equality Education).
As Soleil Laurent and Arianna Silver walked the mile from their neighborhood in Bushwick, Brooklyn to Blink Fitness — a routine that began after they met by chance in spring 2019 and became friends— they discussed the usual: personal development, growth, and vulnerability.
After enduring physical and emotional bullying from grade five through high school, Laurent and Silver connected on their journeys growing from those and other negative experiences. Laurent, a musician and student of psychology and neuroscience, and Silver, a life coach who studied sociology, strode down Bushwick’s Knickerbocker Avenue, discussing their knowledge from their educations, a myriad of self-improvement books, and their commitment to understanding emotions.
“As we got deeper into these conversations, we realized that a lot of the stuff that we were talking about at this age in our lives were things that would have been totally transformational if we had learned them as kids,” said Silver. “Basically, if you had taught me in school how to deal with my emotions the same way you taught me math, I would be a totally different person.”
The “stuff” Silver mentioned is defined as social-emotional learning, or the process through which individuals “acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to: recognize and manage their emotions, set and achieve positive goals, demonstrate caring and concern for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and handle interpersonal situations effectively,” according to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, a nonprofit leader in social-emotional research. This sort of education is proven to be successful for children, with several studies of both short-term and long-term effects demonstrating improvements in interpersonal skills and feelings of personal growth while lowering emotional distress and conduct issues.
When the COVID-19 pandemic swept over the globe and a national reckoning with systemic racism came to the forefront of public consciousness in 2020, dealing with emotions and processing emotional distress could not have been more necessary for youth in the minds of Laurent and Silver. They began having conversations on Instagram Live in July 2020, reflecting on issues of the pandemic and racial injustices like the murder of George Floyd. The positive response to their conversations paired with their personal passion for social-emotional learning led to the beginning of Equality Education, a small-business with the goal of providing a 60-module social-emotional and diversity-centered curriculum as well as empowering merchandise to children and schools.
“The world shook,” said Laurent, “and people, especially kids, need a better foundation within themselves. And that foundation can be built with the tools we create for them to access.”
Equality Education’s curriculum, which launches in mid-2022, is coming to fruition at a time when schools across New York City are implementing social-emotional learning practices. The city’s Bridge to School initiative, which received an almost two million dollar investment by the Department of Education and Fund for Public Schools, provides trauma-informed training to educators and social-emotional and mental health support for the city’s nearly 1.1 million students.
Chirlane McCray, First Lady of New York City, said in the 2021-2022 Bridge to School plan that “preparing our young people for success means helping them deal with the social, emotional, and academic challenges of their lives. It means teaching them ways to process their many emotions and showing them how to build healthy relationships and resolve conflicts in a constructive way. That is how we help them flourish into happy, healthy adults.”
Equality Education’s goal is to be a resource for schools, particularly ones in underfunded communities where research finds that funding differences are inequitable between schools with highest and lowest needs based on students living in poverty. According to the New York City Council, the schools in need of equitable funding and adequate resources — including social-emotional pratices — are in communities of color.
“We are looking to take funds from schools that can afford our almost $2,300 institutional membership to the curriculum and use that money to give the program to people and schools who might not have the funds to be able to access it themselves,” said Silver.
“We're big-hearted people that just want the best for others,” said Laurent, explaining their motivations. “Life is going to have a lot of challenges, but we want to provide resources and tools for kids to move forward and grow, especially kids who may be in tougher situations than others.”
At its core, Equality Education’s curriculum focuses on the “development of human consciousness through mental health awareness, emotional intelligence, and perception of others,” according to its official website. The program covers topics from positive self-talk, gratitude, and decision-making to valuing individuality and diversity, communication techniques, and growth from failure. It contains animated teaching episodes, writing prompts, a neuro-linguistic programming series, child-parent exercises, and more, catering to any type of learner (whether visual, auditory, or kinesthetic). While the curriculum will be available for individuals to subscribe to for about $20 a month, its primary goal is to be bought and distributed within schools, which is why it is geared towards children ages 2 to 18.
The co-founders explained that as they develop the curriculum, the concepts will be the same across the spectrum, but the material will vary depending on the age group. “With a kid who's being introduced to it as a two year old, it's a little different than something that we might teach 18 year old,” said Silver, explaining that younger age groups will have simpler activities that engage their attention like animated videos and coloring activities, while older kids will have more complex journaling activities or discussion prompts.
“Being human is human. That's really the basis of what we're teaching,” said Laurent, summarizing the curriculum.
Laurent and Silver invested a large amount of their own money to start the business, a number they cannot even begin to estimate. “When it comes to investing in Equality Education, it's almost automatic,” said Laurent. “We essentially send $500, send $1000, send this, send that. And we've been doing that for a year, all because we have faith in this for children.”
As the curriculum awaits its launch, the business sells empowering merchandise like posters, art, clothing and accessories in order to fund the production of the 60-module program. The best-selling product is the “I AM” affirmations coloring book with hand-drawn images and affirmations ranging from “I am worthy, abundant and grateful,” to “I am in control of my emotions.” The hands-on resource represents the power of their coming curriculum. By coloring the pages and repeating the affirmations, kids and people of all ages begin to practice a sense of self confidence and believe in the words they say, explained Silver.
Equality Education’s “I AM” affirmations coloring book sits front and center at the vendor booth on Monday, November 29, 2021. It can be bought for oneself or donated to a local charity the small business partnered with this season called “Sheltering Arms,” which helps foster social equity in New York City’s challenged communities. (Photo by Kasia O’Brien).
Equality Education’s curriculum takes this concept of practicing self-empowerment and social-emotional awareness and expands it into multiple modalities.
“I’m so excited,” said Laurent loudly, reflecting on their passing $20,000 in sales and their curriculum’s quickly approaching launch. “My whole body is in flames because it’s like, I wish I had this when I was a kid,” she continued, smiling from ear to ear.
Equality Education is currently undergoing a licensing process to become a Department of Education vendor with the ability to offer its curriculum to New York City schools. In the meantime, the business takes every opportunity to spread its message and products, from operating an Etsy shop and vending booths to conducting workshops.
This winter season, in a sea of over 160 vendors making up the tightly packed winding aisles of New York City’s Union Square Holiday Market, Laurent and Silver sit inside booth C34. Illuminated by suspended twinkling lights, the colorful bubble-lettered words on their products declaring that “love creates love,” and “powerful people empower other people,” jump out from the booth’s neutral walls. Holiday Market goers stop and flip through the coloring book. “No age is too young for kids to get introduced to this,” says Silver to a few customers gathered around their booth, “it’s never too young to learn unconditional love within ourselves and how to give it to others.” | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/the-equality-education-inspiring-greatness-in-kids-in-new-york-city-7a23f1f2170 | ["Kasia O'Brien"] | 2022-01-24 22:59:49.088000+00:00 | ['NYC', 'Small Business', 'Social Emotional Learning', 'Empowerment', 'Curriculum'] |
Freelance Writing Business: How to Have Early Success | The old adage “time is money” certainly applies to freelance businesses. It is crucial at every stage of business development, but especially in the beginning when you are mapping out your business strategies and implementing new software, getting your organization in place, and setting yourself up for success. With online services on the rise, now is the time to build that side hustle into dependable income. What fulfills a part time interest today could be the soil for a full time writing career (or other entrepreneurial opportunity) to grow and flourish in the future.
Early Freelancing Success Is Possible
I launched a full time writing business in July of 2020 after not having worked a “real job” in over 5 years due to some health issues. In July, I decided the time was right. The time was now. My expectations, though low, have been exceeded by the early success I am seeing for Fiddleheads & Floss Writing Services. Whatever freelance business you are dreaming of, there are a few things you can do to elicit early success for your business. I’ll cover those here along with some tips and strategies for finding early success in your freelance or solopreneur business.
In a previous article in The StartUp, Building a Freelance Business From Scratch, I discussed the components of starting your own freelance business. Things like business establishment, effective communication, organization, and using good tools for running your business. These were all things I got in “crash course” form being a new business owner.
What I didn’t share in depth was that I had previously been an entrepreneur in a different business. I was a self-employed hairdresser for 16 years and became rather successful in that field. I ran a full time business and also worked for several large corporations travelling the east coast and teaching small seminars. What made my business more profitable than others was my dedication to running it as a business. But what took me approximately 2 years in the beauty industry to see in terms of profits, I have done with a writing career in less than 3 months.
What fulfills a part time interest today could be the soil for a full time writing career (or other entrepreneurial opportunity) to grow and flourish in the future.
Here’s How I Have Found Early Freelancing Success (and you can too!)
First, let me be clear. Success is a subjective term. What you may consider success could differ greatly from what I consider success. For the purposes we are discussing here I define it as:
Early measurable profit
A pattern of increasing financial growth
Regularity of sales / work / client orders
Eventually, all these things securely in place, success will be measured more in terms of the profit vs. self-satisfaction and quality of life.
Sow the Soil
To begin any freelancing or small business, timing is everything. You have to have the wisdom, self-awareness, and a critical eye for the business you are entering to know when the timing is right to launch your business. Before launch date, you need to sow the soil; meaning, create fertile ground for your business to grow in and flourish.
Expand your reach. Grow your social media support and begin your email list. Begin developing the connections you need to support your business. This includes mentors and business professionals from whom you can learn more about your business, potential clients, and people who know things you don’t know, like IT stuff or legal jargon.
Begin developing rapport with people who will be your potential clients.
Take on some jobs even if they are at very cheap pricing — you will need references.
Develop a portfolio of your work and some references for each type of service you will offer.
Have your soil sown, seeded, and watered before you launch your business.
Clearly Defined Services & Branding
To launch any kind of business, you need direction. This is not to say you cannot try new things or branch out in new directions once established, but starting out, your potential clients need to know exactly who you are and what you have to offer them.
Do all of your brainstorming and toe-in-the-water testing on your own and let your clients feel a sense of stability with you. They need to know they can trust you to work with you. Your reputation is everything — with every client. Every job, no matter how small, is an opportunity to build or break your business and should be treated as such.
Set Realistic Goals and Monitor Your Progress
I started out with a simple goal; double my income each month. This is exactly what is happening. I adjusted my schedule for this goal. My pricing and how I spent my time — all geared toward that goal. I am projected to double what you see below by the 3rd week of December, a full week ahead of schedule. Then, I plan to double it again.
Current profit analysis and outstanding revenue, on set to more than double for December. Author screenshot.
When you set a goal for your business, it holds you accountable for all those “I’ll do it later” moments which can be so tempting when you self-manage.
To make your business take off, you must be committed to its success. Goal-setting and holding yourself accountable will force you to analyze risk vs reward, time spent vs gain, expenditures vs necessity and all other important aspects of your business in a logical, purposeful manner.
Diversified Revenue Streams
For most small businesses, you will have one main revenue stream albeit sales, services, or a combination of both. To be truly successful you need to diversify your revenue streams as much as possible, create passive income to help feed into your profits, and consider how you can monetize at all levels of your business.
Below you can see some of the different revenue streams I have coming in, all under the same umbrella of Fiddleheads & Floss Writing Services. There are jobs from Fiverr, jobs from private writing clients, income from paid content sites, and book sales.
No matter how small a revenue stream is, it all adds up.
Various revenue streams make for a more successful start. Author’s screenshot.
Self-Discipline Is Key
Need I expand on this? This is your business; treat it as such. Self-discipline and time management will be the foundation for your every day schedule. No one is there to tell you to get up in the morning and get busy or to check your emails or to touch base with clients. Only you.
I often told my boys as they were growing up, there are two types of people in the world: those who make excuses and those who make things happen. You get to decide each day which you want to be.
Your reputation is everything — with every client.
Curb Unnecessary Spending — But DO Invest in Your Business
As a brand new business owner, you can bet it was not easy for me to shell out $139.50 for Freshbooks, $19.99 for Hemmingway, $129.00 for Dragon Naturally Speaking, $50.00 for a headset, and other subscription services my business uses, but these programs keep my business running smoothly and professionally.
Author’s note: The screenshots from this article are from my Freshbooks account, which I use to monitor all aspects of my business. I highly recommend this software for creative professional business owners. The program is very user friendly and the customer service is stellar.
Imagine the difference between giving a client your PayPal account and asking them to send you a payment — and sending them a business invoice, detailing what they have ordered from you, the cost breakdown, and offering several methods for easy payment. Clients love it when you take them seriously, and when you are a legit, organized, reputable business.
Suddenly, people were much more prepared to pay me for my time. It bears repeating: reputation and client perception of your business are everything.
Regarding curbing your spending, while yes, you must invest in your business, you must do it wisely. You need functionality, not bells and whistles. It’s that simple.
Be Completely Honest with Yourself About Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Lastly, there are some things you know you suck at doing. Develop strategies to manage these weaknesses. For example, I am more productive with fewer jobs. I know this so I keep my prices higher and aim for fewer, bigger clients. Some people prefer to have many clients and roll out their orders more quickly, but larger clients will expect you to take your time with their work. They may also require company training which you may or may not get paid to complete. Consider it an investment in your skills, only with your time rather than your debit card. This training can prove invaluable for your work across the board and it will make better at what you do.
Be honest with yourself about what kind of work you are really good at and aim to develop your business around your strengths. Start with what you are good at and be willing to develop your skills in areas where you are lacking. This is no time for conceit. Honest analysis of your own working methods, your strengths, and your skill levels are important for developing your business and building a client load that works for you. Invest in courses to shore up your skills. Open Learn has loads of free courses you can take online.
The Takeaway
Hard work means nothing without direction and without end results in mind. You can find early success in your freelance business if you are clear on what you want from your business and set yourself up to receive it. I wish you great success in your business. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/freelance-writing-business-how-to-have-early-success-f97410cb262f | ['Christina M. Ward'] | 2020-12-28 05:55:31.365000+00:00 | ['Freelance', 'Business', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Self Improvement', 'Writing'] |
7 Healthy High Protein Snacks You Can Eat Every Week | 7 Healthy High Protein Snacks You Can Eat Every Week
Photo by Brenda Godinez on Unsplash
When you hear the phrase “snack food”, you probably think of the sugary, processed, packaged foods that line the aisles of grocery stores. At least, that’s what I think of.
When I was a child, some of my favorite snacks included chocolate chip granola bars, fruit gummies, toaster pastries, and snack cakes. However, they did the opposite of what snacks are supposed to do. They never kept me satisfied and I always experienced a sugar crash soon after eating them.
Fortunately, I have learned a lot about nutrition over the years, and I now understand that snacks can be made healthy, taste good, and provide you with lasting energy.
I love to sneak protein into my snacks throughout the day because I’m an active individual, and protein helps build and repair muscle. It’s also used as an energy source and will keep you satisfied longer.
The following are seven high protein snack options you can try out, all of which are completely vegan. Most of them are extremely budget friendly and quick and easy to make. Even if you don’t have much experience cooking, you will have no problem preparing these satisfying snacks. | https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/7-healthy-high-protein-snacks-you-can-eat-every-week-77728984407f | ['Alyssa Atkinson'] | 2020-12-23 16:36:05.598000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Fitness', 'Health', 'Lifestyle', 'Cooking'] |
面試攻略：開場自我介紹如何贏得印象？ | Get this newsletter By signing up, you will create a Medium account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.
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Medium sent you an email at to complete your subscription. | https://medium.com/y-pointer/interview-3-b3bdfad1fa74 | ['侯智薰 Raymond Ch Hou'] | 2019-05-22 16:24:24.204000+00:00 | ['Interview', '職場', 'Careers', '面試', 'Work'] |
7 Stages of Saturn Return | I recognize that Saturn Return can be a difficult process so the following is an outline of Saturn Return’s phases from beginning to end. Saturn typically returns to his original position every 27–29.5 years and lasts 3 years. Saturn returns two times in a lifetime (based on the age of death).
However, this is not a hard and fast rule. The best way to track his cycle is to ensure you’re actively engaged in planetary transit tracking. There are a ton of free apps out there to help you with this. Check out where your Natal Saturn is and compare that to the current Saturn transits. You can use an Astrologer to help you with this as well.
Got it? Cool. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty.
I consider Saturn to be the cop of the Zodiac. He rules boundaries. This makes Karma, time, adulthood and the material world his domain. Checks and balances baby! When he returns to his original position, he’s here to help us become aware of our boundaries and the areas we’ve attempted to cut corners.
Whatever is built on unstable ground will crumble, which is totally a good thing. However, destroying what no longer works in order to rebuild can be a difficult feat. Although his archetypal appearance is a critical part of achieving our goals, he forces us to take a hard look at reality. Thus, if we’ve operated from a place of co-dependence, immaturity, recklessness or unawareness he comes in to ensure we own up to our shit.
We do have the option to ignore Saturn’s calling, but this usually results in a life of dangerous contentment. You know, the person with Peter Pan Syndrome, the one who settles for an unhappy life or the one who continues to repeat the same patterns?
Yea. Let’s not do that.
If we choose to listen to the call of Saturn and complete the work necessary to achieve our aims, then he rewards us with a great deal of stability and a life of abundance. This doesn’t mean that life will be easy, but it will be a hell of a lot more rewarding.
The following is a list of the phases I have broken down based on my own experiences as well as the experiences of my clients. My hope is that you can reference this guide in order to help you work through the process with clarity and reflection.
Regardless of whether or not you are going through a Saturn Return, this list can be applicable to times of transformation and unease in general.
Saturn Return Process:
Phase 1: A Whisper
When Saturn begins to wake you up. During this phase, you may start to experience the soft whispers of Saturn. This could be through intuitive inklings. For instance, you may not feel as fulfilled as you normally would during regular activities or around certain people. In Phase 1 you can ignore Saturn’s call more easily because he’s just beginning to make himself known. However, it is best to start gaining awareness of his whispers.
Phase 2: A Nudge
As he moves closer to your natal position Saturn’s whisper becomes more a nudge. Those intuitive nudges become more noticeable and you may experience external events that make you feel uncomfortable. In these situations, you may find yourself triggered by certain experiences and there may be a physical repulsion towards people, places, things or activities that encompass your normal way of life. During this phase, it’s easy to brush away the nudge and totally fine. However, as the nudge becomes stronger, you will soon be unable to bat away its force.
Phase 3: The Push
The next part of Saturn’s arrival is the appearance of signs in the physical world. You may start to notice certain media images, conversations, insights or dreams that you hadn’t experienced in the past. These types of occurrences are likely to insight a feeling of curiosity and begin to push you out of your old life. You may notice the gaps in your current reality and the need for a change. During this phase, it might as if a heavy hand is colliding with your Ego. Pay attention to the external environment in order to understand what Saturn is foretelling.
Phase 4: Screams
At this point, Saturn is ready to make his presence known. He’s tired of your antics and must be heard. Depending on the specific medicine needed (which house he’s in), you might experience illness, financial hardship, family breakdowns, sexual confusion or death of someone close. This experience is likely to cause you to reexamine where you are in your life. Although this phase can annoying as hell, it’s a good time to practice your listening skills. If Saturn is screaming at you, then it’s best to be aware of his message. Otherwise, you are likely to encounter some pretty severe backlash in the form of unwanted external events. The point is, regardless of how much we try to ignore the screams of Saturn he always finds a way through. Thus, it’s best to work with him — not against him. Changes that occur may seem rather drab but are in our best interest. Regardless of how scary Saturn may seem, he’s just the daddy figure we need to help us shift into a greater sense of independence!
Phase 5: Burn it ALL Baby
There’s no doubt that Saturn is here and ready to rock your world. At this point, you’re tired and desire change. Saturn burns what no longer serves to the ground. This is when you can work as a team with this archetype and say “fuck living an inauthentic life” because you want to be happy and stable. During the fire phase, it’s important to allow the burn to come. Trying to avoid the inevitable will only slow your process of transformation — ain’t nobody got time for that! Get ready to burn away outdated coping mechanisms and patterns! During this phase, it may seem like the world around you is melting and that’s because, well, it is. This melting process is part of the transformational shift that you are totally ready to make and Saturn is here to usher in this new way of serious tough love. Although I’m not a huge fan of tough love, I do recognize its necessity at certain points in life and this is one of those times. Let the shit you no longer need burn. You can mourn it, you can cry, you can beat up your pillow…just don’t hold onto it!
Phase 6: Insight
Once the unstable aspects of life are burned to ashes, it’s time to contemplate why it occurred in the first place. This is the processing phase. Therapy, meditation, yoga and complementary tools can assist with awareness. This is a crucial period because it ensures that you do not repeat old patterns. Okay, so you mayyyy still repeat old patterns (the brain takes time to rewire, after all), but this period ensures you develop the heightened awareness necessary to shift them once and for all. As they say, the first step to change is awareness and you’ve likely been hit with the mother of all awareness shifters during the entirety of this Return.
Phase 7: Heal
After you’re aware of the patterns which have kept you in a space of instability and unhappiness you’re ready to heal. Be easy with yourself and know that life will naturally start to click into place. You are rewiring your brain, your body, and your life. This doesn’t occur overnight and it’s important to give yourself the time necessary to work through the process. Due to the nature of society, you may be tempted to push through this phase. However, try your best to be gentle with yourself to make the most of this time. Learn to sit still and enjoy the process of the transition into adulthood. Acknowledge any desire you have to race through the healing phase and gain awareness of your process. Where do you feel impatient in your body? What is the root of impatience? Does it stem from your desire to “be happy already”? Pay attention to what comes up for you throughout this period and give yourself the self-love you deserve.
Phase 8: Rebuild
Now you have the opportunity to build the life you truly desire. Take a risk and try new activities, make new friends and do the opposite of what you’ve done in the past. This is a fun period of exploration. What do you enjoy and how can you bring it into your life in a solid way? This is an exciting time of discovery, exploration, and development. The world of possibilities awaits and it’s time that you grab those mofos by the balls…or vagina. Whatever you’re into, just grab it. Do you know what I mean? HA. Anyway, seriously, now is the time to follow what you truly desire and develop solutions in order to accomplish the goals. I’m talking about visualization, strategy, and action. Busting through this period with an objective, committed and consistent approach can ensure that you manifest the life you want tenfold.
Change can be scary, but Saturn is here to help you ensure you live the life you truly desire. Work with Saturn and you can transform out of what no longer works and manifest a reality that fits your dreams! You’ve got this boo boo! | https://medium.com/@kalenaradia/7-stages-of-saturn-eb679821843e | [] | 2020-12-12 15:07:42.775000+00:00 | ['Saturn', 'Astrology', 'Transformation', 'Growth'] |
True, so it is fortunate that I have not claimed that they are. | True … so it is fortunate that I have not claimed that they are. Rather, I have described a process through which male and female brains are destined to become different as they grow and develop. The process involves physical anatomy operating in conjunction with brain plasticity.
I noted that, as Stephanie Leguichard stated in her original article, the plasticity of the brain responds to experience:
Her statement is consistent with this article on the subject of brain plasticity:
I observed that experience is delivered to a brain through a body.
Or, as it was deftly stated by a previous commenter, Swcman:
“We have a consciousness that is distributed over our entire being.”
Male bodies are different from female bodies. Different bodies deliver different experiences. Different experiences produce different neurological structures within the brain. I make no claims one way or the other regarding the “immutability” of the neurological structures produced by the process I have described.
Anatomy influences experience, which influences brain structure and function through brain plasticity.
“…pseudo-Platonic BS…”
…whatever that is.
“Citation needed for your entire line of reasoning.”
My line of reasoning is my own, therefore there is no material available for citation. I have applied the science of anatomy, noted its function in mediating experience, thus influencing brain structure via plasticity. If my line of reasoning is flawed I would be pleased to hear any explanation of those flaws that you may wish to offer. | https://medium.com/@estwald/true-so-it-is-fortunate-that-i-have-not-claimed-that-they-are-ad8675d16b89 | [] | 2020-12-23 20:50:29.685000+00:00 | ['Experince', 'Experience', 'Brain', 'Consciousness', 'Brain Plasticity'] |
7 tips to teach your child | Learning to read is one of the most important things a child will do in their life. This is because we live in a society in which literacy skills are the key to success. When reading ability is not developed overnight, some parents and teachers worry that they are on the wrong path to give instruction.
But choosing the “right” books and the “best” way to teach reading depends on every child. No two people will master reading at the same time or pace, and patience and perseverance are a must, especially for children who struggle with learning difficulties or differences.
Birth begins with the reinforcement of pre-literacy skills for a child to read. However, most children will officially learn to read between the ages of 5 and 7.
One of the most common ways of reading is the sounding out method, in which children are encouraged to read aloud, reading each letter or group of letters until they hear the word by sound. Huh.
Teach Your Child to Read Tip # 1
Familiar words
Because they are fluent speakers, children have a base vocabulary to begin with. They are already familiar is a good place to start. This may include their own name and other concrete nouns that can be inspired using pictures.
Teach Your Child to Read Tip # 2
One word at a time
In the beginning, too much text can be overwhelming for a new reader. Make sure that there are not too many words on the page and start pushing them out of single words before moving on to phrases and sentences.
Teach your child how to read Tip # 3
Adequate performance and too much repetition
Reading words with the same letter and letter combination and looking at those words multiple times helps children practice early reading skills. Did you know that 50–75% of the words in most of the referenced books come from the Dolch list?
Teach your child how to read Tip # 4
Learning to read at a young age is important for a child’s development. It helps them develop a better understanding of their surroundings, allows them to gather information from printed material, and provides them with an amazing source of entertainment when reading stories and poems. Children develop at different rates, and some children will develop reading skills quicker than other children; However, it is important that as a parent, you know them well about your child’s maturity and reading level and provide appropriate books and activities to help them improve.
Teach your child how to read Tip # 5
As a parent, you are the most important teacher for your children. You will introduce your child to books and reading. Below we have some tips to help teach your child to read.
Teach your child how to read Tip # 6
Teach your child the letters and sounds of the alphabet at the same time. Studies have shown that children learn best when they are taught letter names and letter sounds at the same time. In one study, 58 preschool children were randomly assigned to receive instruction in letter names and sounds, letter sounds, or numbers (control group). The results of this study are consistent with previous research results in which it was found that children receiving letter names and voice instructions were most likely to know the sounds of letters whose names contained signs of their sounds. [1]
While reading the alphabet to your child, allow them to slowly detect the letter, while at the same time it is called the sound of the letter. For example, if you are teaching your child the letter “A”, you would say:
“The letter A / A / (ah) makes a sound.”
Then give your child a voice with your index finger tracing the letter.
Tip # 6 How to teach a child to read
When teaching your child to read, always emphasize with them that the appropriate reading should be from left to right and top to bottom. For adults, it may seem so basic that anyone should know it. However, our children are not born with the knowledge that printed text should be read from left to right and top to bottom, and that is why you will sometimes see children reading from right to left — because they are clear that They were not taught Read. left to right. When teaching your child how to teach, always emphasize this point with them.
Read Tip # 7 to your child
Teach final consonant blends first. Teaching these “like” and “and” words can motivate your child to learn the words learned directly with them. For example, “on”, you might have:
Lat
to Pat
The mat
cat
sat
Bat
fight
Chat
For “and”, you can have these rhymed words:
The sand
The band
Earth
hand
Stand
Soft
The brand
big
And similarly…
Once your child learns some consonants and short vowel sounds, you can start teaching mixing. You do not have to wait until your child has mastered the sound of all letters before teaching blends.
Click more now
Learning to read is a long process, but a | https://medium.com/@onlineshopingdailyatoz/7-tips-to-teach-your-child-a202d375a0ae | [] | 2020-12-26 11:50:22.644000+00:00 | ['Kids And Tech', 'Kids Activities', 'Children', '7tipstoteachyourchild', 'Childhood'] |
Tools // Fact 022 | 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/konosaur/tools-fact-022-9fc0d3f1709 | [] | 2020-12-18 19:41:22.896000+00:00 | ['Tools'] |
Face to Face | Face to Face
A Spiritual Poem
Canva-Photo by pixel
I step into
the healing waters
of your love
and come face
to face with
myself. I dream
of the power you
have to change my
world in an instant.
We each must
walk naked and
alone into the heart
of the pain and
learn to touch
our souls with hope.
I dip my head
under the gentle
water and feel
my suffering vanish
before my eyes. | https://medium.com/spiritual-tree/face-to-face-fec770c43513 | ['Harley King'] | 2020-06-09 10:01:02.410000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Love', 'Spiritual Tree', 'Relationships', 'Spirituality'] |
How to Style your Markdown Content in Gatsby 📝 | Gatsby offers out of the box support to write the content in markdown and create pages easily in your app and with the leverage of many Gatsby Plugins, we can do many things like format code snippets, lazy load images, generating an RSS feed, creating a Sitemap, making SEO easier and a lot more 🥳
Writing a blog post in markdown is easier, no need to worry about styling, # makes H1, ## makes H2, the normal text makes a paragraph, adding links, images and so on.
But how to style the markdown content when the pages are generated, the default browser styles don’t look good, so then how to approach 🤔
Here are few ways to style your markdown content 👇
1. Using Tailwind CSS
Tailwind CSS is great 😍 The utility CSS that tailwind provides is easier to use and you can also generate your own utilities from the config file. For a simple blog, you don’t have to use the full config that the Tailwind provides, you can spin up🌪 your own version of config.
How to style
While using Gatsby, we can style the content which are in the pages or components, but how to style the content in the markdown, because the markdown process the markdown language and Gatsby generates the HTML content. Yes, there is a way to style the markdown content ✨ Using gatsby-remark-classes we can solve this problem, you can add class attributes to markdown elements. This plugin will help to do that
Install:
npm install — save gatsby-remark-classes
How to configure:
gatsby-config.js
Advantages
No writing separate CSS for the HTML elements generated in markdown
.blog-post-container h1 { } .blog-post-container h2 { } .blog-post-container p { }
2. Using styled-components
Nowadays styled-components are one of the ways to style your app. But how to style the markdown content using styled-components 🤔
To style the markdown content, we need to define the components first 👇
And in the file where you’re programming the blog post, here I’m assuming the file to be blog-post.js. Import the elements into this file.
import { Title, Paragraph } from "./elements";
The Title & Paragraph are the component which we will be using to design the markdown content.
By using rehype-react with htmlAst method, we can write custom React components and then reference to the elements in markdown
In your blog-post.js file, replace this line:
<div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: post.html }} />
With
{renderAst(post.htmlAst)}
And also add htmlAst in the graphql query:
The above-mentioned steps will help in styling your markdown content with styled-components .
3. Using Classless CSS Frameworks
Say you don’t want to write CSS only 🤯 Using these Classless CSS frameworks you don’t have to write even a single line in CSS
I have listed some of the frameworks below
Sakura
Water.css
awsm.css
new.css
Bahunya
MVP.css
AttriCSS
Advantages
📦 Bundle size is smaller
🤔 Don’t have to remember the classes
👌🏻 For a simple blog or to beautify markdown parsed content
✨ People who love ❤️ beautiful defaults
You can also refer to this Instagram post to know about Classless CSS Frameworks | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/how-to-style-your-markdown-content-in-gatsby-af43cc20880e | ['Chetan Raj'] | 2020-10-20 15:49:41.831000+00:00 | ['CSS', 'Gatsbyjs', 'Web Development', 'React', 'JavaScript'] |
AYS Weekend Digest 4–5/9/21: Will the German state intervene to keep its promise to reunite the evacuees with their families? | AYS Weekend Digest 4–5/9/21: Will the German state intervene to keep its promise to reunite the evacuees with their families?
Moroccan activists call for mobilization against the indifference of UNHCR / Commissioner for Human Rights calls out Greece / Evictions in Bosnia and Herzegovina continue, with a little help from the UN organisations / Calais needs volunteers / & more info Are You Syrious? Follow Sep 6 · 11 min read
There was a demonstration by Afghan women demanding that other countries not recognize the Taliban. The Taliban have dispersed it by force — by Mortaza Behboudi
FEATURE
No progress has been made at making it possible for people who are on a ‘stand by’ within the US Air Force Base Ramstein in Rhineland-Palatinate, to reunite them with their close family members. As the wait for a flight to the USA or other countries (like Albania, North Macedonia, Uganda) who accepted to be the host to the people while the US arranges their visas for a transfer to the States, they are not allowed to leave the Air Base and therefore cannot really enter Germany. Some of these people who have previous ties to Germany have reportedly been promised a chance to arrange a stay in the country and not leave for the US. However, that promise seems unlikely to be fulfilled because of a lack of any apparent authority or official address they can turn to for help and guidance with the next steps. This dispersion of responsibility has resulted in allegedly no success in attempting to connect people with their family members, in spite of the fact that some were on the evacuation list of the Federal Foreign Office, and with all the efforts of lawyers and others involved.
14,900 people evacuated from Kabul are currently at the US Air Force Base Ramstein.
Since the Taliban took full control of Afghanistan on August 15, Afghan refugees in France have also been anxious to bring their families to safety. InfoMigrants reported how family reunification procedures, which had been severely delayed due to the pandemic, have become even more complicated and are now a race against time.
Many people have gathered in different groups and initiatives spending days and nights trying to find ways to get people known and unknown to them out of Afghanistan. In an attempt to share information and work co-operatively to assist as many people as possible left in danger, nearly 400 lawyers and immigration professionals have teamed up with one of the world’s biggest law firms to help people trying to flee Afghanistan. Reportedly, all the lawyers in the group are working pro bono.
MOROCCO
Activists call for mobilization against the indifference of UNHCR
The authorities of Oujda raided the places where the Sudanese asylum seekers gathered to sleep and have evicted them all, including the vacant ground located near the Oujda hotel. An inhuman and unjustified action that aggravates their situation of living in the street in the absence of any assistance from UNHCR, AMDH activists report. Even a little rest in a remote place is not tolerated. It is more urgent than ever to mobilize against this indifference of UNHCR representatives in the face of the suffering of the Sudanese.
SEARCH AND RESCUE AT SEA
Stories of the women who were aboard
A few days ago the crew of the SEA-EYE 4 rescued 29 people from a small wooden boat. Among them are eight women, two of them nine months pregnant. There are also four babies with them. Their crew members Johanna and Kai spoke to the women. One word comes up again and again: Hell.
l.facebook.com
186 people arrived to Lampedusa, 2 people died
There were 156 people in the first of the two boats, including a woman and 13 minors, News from the Med report. Reportedly, they were all taken to the hotspot in Contrada Imbriacola after the first health checks carried out directly on the Favarolo pier where there were 379 guests at the time.
Another 30 people, presumably from Egypt, Sudan and Côte d‘Ivoire, arrived in a boat intercepted in the waters off the island by patrol boats from the port authority and Guardia di Finca. Meanwhile, two bodies were found in Cala Spugne on Lampedusa and taken aboard the ferry Sansovino. They are believed to be two of the nine missing persons from the shipwreck of June 30 between Lampedusa and the island of Lampione.
At the same time, they report 123 people arriving in Reggio Calabria province, reportedly including many Afghans.
In Spain, 40 people were saved south of Gran Canaria, while Salvamento Marítimo saved 33 people from three boats off the coast of Almería.
GREECE
Forgotten human rights
Article 40 of the new Greek Deportations and Return Bill would introduce restrictions and conditions on the activities of civil society organisations in areas of competence of the Greek coast guard, and non-observance of these will be subject to heavy sanctions and fines. This raises concerns everywhere (apart among those making decisions, apparently), so the Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović addressed these concerns.
Any member of an NGO who would be involved in rescue operations conducted without coast guard permission would face prison time for up to a year and fined 1,000 euros, with the NGOs facing additional fines.
“They should refrain from harassing human rights defenders or obstructing their work, whether through legislative, judicial or administrative means,” the Commissioner said.
Also, those recommendations of the national human rights structures and organisations that managed to penetrate the official Deportations and Returns Bill also cause concern, when it comes to the right to asylum, the prevention of refoulement, remedies, safeguards in return procedures, and the prevention of automatic, large-scale detention. The Commissioner therefore called on members of the Parliament “to draw on these recommendations to ensure that the Bill, once adopted, fully reflects Greece’s obligations, including under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Refugee Convention.”
The Commissioner reiterates that civil society organisations are instrumental in protecting the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, and play a major role in reporting and documenting pushbacks or other human rights violations:
She urges Greek legislators to reject the restrictions envisaged in Article 40 of the Deportations and Returns Bill, and to recognise the human rights work of NGOs saving lives at sea in keeping with their status as human rights defenders.
Islands
Close to one third of the population currently staying in squalid camps across the Aegean are children under 12, according to the UNHCR data. The official numbers of the Greek ministry state less than 5400 people are currently on the islands.
At the peak in April 2020, around 40,000 people were staying in the island camps, sometimes in horrific conditions that prompted international outrage. Most of the remaining migrants are now living in the Mavrovouni camp, usually referred to as the new Kara Tepe camp, on Lesbos. Currently, 3,400 people are there. The camp has a capacity of 8,000 people, InfoMigrants report.
Although the number of people on the move who are staying in these camps has significantly lessened, the living conditions and general treatment they are getting have not changed or improved.
These are classes of women and girls in Moria Acadamia our partner in Camp. Most if these students come from Afghanistan and their teachers too. All of them want to learn and improve and especially now in this situation such places become even more important. — Moria Corona Awareness Team
SERBIA
First 6 months of the year — a report
Belgrade Centre for Human Rights has compiled a periodic report “Right to Asylum in the Republic of Serbia — Periodic Report for January–June 2021”.
The Report analyses the treatment of the asylum seekers and refugees in Serbia in the first six months of 2021, based on information the BCHR team obtained during their legal representation in the asylum procedure and provision of support in their integration, and during the team’s field work.
The text is available here.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Evictions continue in Velika Kladuša area
NNK field volunteers active in the area around Velika Kladuša report on the most recent evictions of the empty buildings squatted by people on the move who have no other or better solution for their current situation and are not offered real protection or any chance for a fair asylum process. Here is what they wrote:
Yesterday morning, Bosnian police evicted one of the occupied houses in Velika Kladusa, where about 230 people, mostly families, were “living” in tents. In the past days, IOM (International Organization for Migration), which is a partner of the UN and one of the actors working with governments and police to track and move moving people in motion to the “refugee” camps. arrived at abandoned buildings to make a list, as we witnessed, of how many people were there, what their country of origin was and whether they were unaccompanied families or young people. As some people told us, at night IOM also took and burned their blankets, apparently taking away the resources needed to face cold nights outside the camps. Information collected by IOM probably helped police for the eviction that took place yesterday around 6 am. According to some people displaced in the afternoon, police arrived with a unit of about 40 police officers who broke and cut the tents with knives, burned personal items — which is a regular police procedure we have witnessed along the course of action of the years — and forced people to get on four large buses, dividing them between families and youth groups. The former were moved to Lipa camp near Bihac, while youth groups were taken to Miral camp in Velika Kladusa. Some of the displaced managed to escape from police and flee the camp (literally running, as they themselves said), others were released after saying they were going to move to the camp Sarajevo, others did not face the eviction because, as they told us, they were trying to do the game — the attempt to reach a European country crossing borders, walking through forests or saving deadly rivers, due to a lack of safe and legal pathways — and were illegally returned late in the morning , returning to the abandoned building when the eviction had already occurred. In the afternoon and evening there were about 40 people out of the 230 who were there in the last few days and the feeling of uncertainty and fear of a new eviction and police violence was clear. Given that Camp Lipa 2.0 (which has been rebuilt after the December 23, 2020 fire) is expected to reopen shortly with greater capacity, further evictions are expected in the coming days and weeks.
FRANCE
Justice for Aleksandra!
Policies born of a succession of treaties and bilateral agreements between France and the United Kingdom have made this cross-border space a deadly area for exiles. They have caused more than 300 deaths in the past 20 years, and the tragic death of a newborn at the time, Aleksandra Hazhar, was one of them.
The proliferation of border control systems is forcing exiles to adopt increasingly dangerous crossing techniques and making the use of smuggling networks, which the authorities claim to be fighting against, ever more necessary. In the end, the responsibility lies not with the exiles, such as Rupak and Hazhar, Aleksandra’s parents, who are obliged to undertake these crossings, but indeed with the governments that deprive these people of any other option. We, the signatories, declare our solidarity with Rupak and Hazhar and demand that justice be done for and in memory of Aleksandra Hazhar. We demand that all light be shed on the exact responsibility of the gendarmes, but also of the administrative and political authorities in this tragedy and in the implementation of murderous policies in Calais and the region.
This document was signed by more than 20 organisations active across the country, as well as many other individuals.
Calais needs volunteers
Refugee Info Bus is urgently recruiting a long term volunteer (6 months +) to join them in Calais as their field coordinator.
“This is a crucial role within the team, helping us ensure we deliver reliable services to displaced communities,” they wrote. Find out more and apply by following this link.
GERMANY
Cut off from the outside world
Racism, noise pollution, inadequate medical care and a lack of privacy — these are just some of the issues people staying at refugee centres across Germany face on a daily basis, according to many reports and personal accounts. Pro Asyl published a study by a German politologist whose findings support these claims. As they state, numerous passages from the interviews that the author, Nikolai Huke, conducted describe the conditions in the asylum shelters which are disturbing — “as if they didn’t come from innocent people seeking protection in German asylum seeker shelters, but from felons in high-security prisons from a science fiction film”.
DENMARK
Et øjeblik for Afghanistan (A moment for Afghanistan)
Next Sunday, in Copenhagen — Event link
BELARUS
And while our politicians are once again riding in helicopters to prove to us just how concerned, appalled and determined they are, all those who are equally interested in the contradiction between concern and action at the highest level in the EU as we are:
https://twitter.com/ISEUConcerned
That’s all from our team for now. Spread the news, get involved, and don’t just be saddened, concerned and appalled on social media.
Find daily updates and special reports on our Medium page.
If you wish to contribute, either by writing a report or a story, or by joining the info gathering team, please let us know.
We strive to echo correct news from the ground through collaboration and fairness. Every effort has been made to credit organisations and individuals with regard to the supply of information, video, and photo material (in cases where the source wanted to be accredited). Please notify us regarding corrections.
If there’s anything you want to share or comment, contact us through Facebook, Twitter or write to: [email protected] | https://medium.com/are-you-syrious/ays-weekend-digest-4-5-9-21-will-the-german-state-intervene-to-keep-its-promise-to-reunite-the-788f95e3d924 | ['Are You Syrious'] | 2021-09-06 17:21:56.122000+00:00 | ['Germany', 'Digest', 'Afghanistan', 'Europe', 'Refugees'] |
Quantum Resistant Cryptography: A Stitch in Time to Save Blockchain? | Quantum Resistant Cryptography: A Stitch in Time to Save Blockchain?
Recent developments in the field of quantum computing have been welcomed cheerfully by some while it has sparked concerns in others. Google’s claim to have attained quantum supremacy, whether exaggerated or not, marks a new beginning in the world of science and technology. While surely a move up the ladder, it threatens the other — thriving and essentially useful technology — the blockchain.
Threat Exists
Google’s achievements have indeed been given excess applaud. After all, just achieving quantum supremacy is not synonymous with overpowering the blockchain. If examined technically, what Google has achieved is not precisely a dent in the universe. However, it is an acknowledged fact that quantum computing carries in itself the potential to hurt the blockchain in the future. Therefore, it is only wise that the blockchain community keeps track of the progress made by quantum computing.
Google’s claim is not the zenith of this technology, however, as it has room for giant improvements. As it grows, the blockchain must pace too, so that it is not choked by the progress acquired in the field of quantum computing. There are steps to be taken immediately by the blockchain community to counter the looming threat. And when is the right time to begin?
Now.
Playing it Safe Already
The National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) has already initiated the process of standardizing quantum-resistant cryptography. It has been universally acknowledged by now that the sole way for blockchain to survive and thrive further in the future is by developing quantum-resistant cryptography.
Organizations like QUUBE Exchange, with far-sightedness, have already begun the development of such projects to save the blockchain from getting smothered. The blockchain community should, without further ado, keep a close watch on the standardization process and use the results for updating the existing blockchain models.
Furthermore, the blockchain community should also pre-decide when to start the process of up-gradation, keeping in mind the time-frame around which quantum computers would start getting built on a bigger scale. This would demand great governance. The community, therefore, should not forestall making plans to safeguard the blockchain from the quantum threat.
Additionally, the blockchain community should keep its focus on cryptographic agility. This means that blockchains should be developed in such a way that there is room for quantum-resistant features to be integrated into it once it is operational.
Change is the Law, Growth is Optional: Choose Wisely
The maxim is not just witty, but very true, and more so now when the blockchain faces the threat of quantum computing. Technology is bound to change and advance: new things would come up, those obsolete would suffer the fate of death. In order to grow, technology must keep up with the change, or die.
Such are the options before blockchain technology which must avoid being overtaken by the onslaught of upcoming technologies. And in order to do so, it must start adapting quantum-resistant cryptography; for another wise maxim says that a stitch in time saves nine. And much more.
To see what we are building at QUUBE, visit us at https://quube.exchange.
Join QUUBE Exchange on networks:
✉️ Telegram Group https://t.me/QuantumWarriors
🗣 Steem https://steemit.com/@quube-exchange
📸 LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/quubesecurityexchange
👤 Facebook https://facebook.com/QuubeQuantum
📷 Instagram https://instagram.com/quube_exchange
🐥 Twitter https://twitter.com/quube_exchange
⭕️ Medium https://medium.com/@quube_exchange_m
⚙️ GitHub https://github.com/Quube-Exchange-2019
🅱️ Bitcointalk https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5180249 | https://medium.com/the-capital/quantum-resistant-cryptography-a-stitch-in-time-to-save-blockchain-5847817d8eef | ['Quube Exchange'] | 2019-12-15 04:06:35.392000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Quantum Computing', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Crypto'] |
Age ain’t nothing but a follower count. | More from rstevens Follow
I make cartoons and t-shirts at www.dieselsweeties.com & @rstevens. Send me coffee beans. | https://rstevens.medium.com/age-aint-nothing-but-a-follower-count-cc6ad4481926 | [] | 2019-11-22 03:50:52.636000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Phone', 'Smartphones', 'Tik Tok', 'Comics'] |
You Can Still Make 2020 a Great Year | You Can Still Make 2020 a Great Year
Me and my brother reflecting on 2020 by Sepp Rutz on Unsplash
I see all the articles about 2021, and I’m like: “Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute!”
It’s not time to wrap up 2020, nor to close it or look back.
2020 is still alive!
And with less than ten days left, it’s more than urgent to make the best out of it.
So far, most of us would say the year was so-so. Sure, you might have a point. But as Robert Pattinson said in the movie Tenet, “what’s happened, happened.”
Science is there to help us. It won’t change the experience much, but the memories will be diametrically different. And in a few months (even weeks) from now, memories will be all that counts.
Daniel Kahneman is our savior!
In his book, Thinking fast and slow, or in his Ted Talk (an excellent first approach), Kahneman tells us the difference between the experiencing and remembering self.
When looking back on our life, the remembering self is the only one that matters. Indeed, the experiencing self is only aware of what’s happening now. The experiencing self is a professional mindfulness practitioner, living fully in the present moment.
At 11:59:59 PM on December 31st, the experiencing self will say goodbye to 2020 and enter 2021. The remembering self, however, will only start processing the year 2020. What it will make of it will depend on two things.
Two things that are crucial to remember when trying to maximize the happiness of the remembering self:
its blindness to the duration
and the peak/end rule.
Duration doesn’t count
The remembering self is blind to time. The experience can last for one week or two months. If it’s the same thing, it won’t make a difference in the long term.
A typical example is staying in a fabulous place for the holidays. The first week is great, the second week is also great but the same. Your experiencing self is delighted all along, but your remembering self won’t be able to tell the difference between the two.
Four years ago, I had my leg in a cast for six weeks. It could have been four times more or twice less; it wouldn’t make a difference from today’s perspective. Of course, my experiencing self would have thought about it differently. But with time, it doesn’t have a say anymore.
Peak/end rule
What the remembering self focuses on is the peak of the experience and the end of it. Again, no matter how much time the whole thing lasts.
You might not have much control over the peak, but the end can usually be twisted in your favor. I guess that the twisting is possible as long as the peak remains reasonable. Dramatic events just can’t be turned into positive ones. In all other cases, it’s of pivotal importance to make the end as positive as possible.
I think this is true for any situation in life. Unfortunately, the best example that comes to my mind is the end of a relationship. Ending it on a bad note somehow discredits all that happened before. You might have been ten years with someone, out of which eight were fantastic; all is left is resentment.
I learned this the hard way earlier on and paid attention to staying as positive as possible when divorcing my partner five years ago. It worked. We’re still talking to each other!
But let us come back to the holiday’s example from above. Imagine the shower breaks down, and you can’t use it for two days. If it happens at the end of the first week and is corrected for the second one, the memory will be much better than if the reverse was to happen.
In the former, you’ll keep in mind the second week was better than the first one. In the latter, even though the place and everything else was fantastic, what you’ll remember is the broken shower during the last two days. You’ll end on a bitter note.
Interestingly enough, if the owner were to apologize on the last day and give you a 50% discount on your next stay because of the shower, the end would be positive again and the memory as well. I dare say the memory will be even better than in the absence of shower problems. | https://medium.com/change-your-mind/you-can-still-make-2020-a-great-year-ff99929756f6 | ['Smillew Rahcuef'] | 2020-12-22 12:59:42.566000+00:00 | ['New Year', 'Self Improvement', 'New Years Resolutions', 'Inspiration', 'Life'] |
Save Money at Pokevault with these Discount Codes | You are a fan of Pokemon. You want to own things at Pokevault. However, there are still worries about the price. Don’t worry, please satisfy your passion because I have a 10% discount code for you.
I have interested in shopping. But before buy something, I often go to the internet to check discounts. And it seems that I have obtained good results. Pokevaul is not the exception. I have a 10% discount code from this store.
If you want to buy goods right away, scroll down to see the discount code. Now I will share some information about Pokevault so you can get more information.
Pokevault Store
Pokevault.com (formerly known as Hardrock-Pokemon.com) is located in Fukuoka, Japan. Since 2000, we have specialized in very rare Japanese Pokemon promo cards, holofoils, Pokemon plush toys, pokedolls, deck boxes, card sleeves, charms, bags, straps, and much more. We have access to Japanese Pokemon items that you wouldn’t normally be able to buy. Since 2000, we have shipped out over 65,000 orders to more than 35,000 happy customers in over 60 countries. We also have an eBay store if you would like to check out our feedback (username: brianjapan). We are open Monday thru Friday and we ship orders out daily when we are open. We try to send your order out as soon as possible. Most orders sent out within 12–24 hours (excluding weekends and holidays).
All items are 100% licensed, authorized merchandise bought directly in Japan at the Pokemon Center or other licensed dealers. All items are sent directly to you from our Fukuoka, Japan store. We will NEVER knowingly sell fake, bootleg, factory rejects or any other kind of unauthorized merchandise like you find all over eBay from Hong Kong and Chinese sellers. We take a stand against bootlegging and have several videos on how to spot fake pokemon as well as over 100 youtube videos on Pokemon items.
This information you can check in at: Pokevault Store
I had bought a lot of goods in here and I can make sure that the above information is completely correct.
Best Product
Pokemon 2019 Detective Pikachu Movie Holofoil Booster Box 20 Packs
Pokemon 2019 Detective Pikachu Movie Holofoil booster box (20 packs). It was only available at the Pokemon Center and a few toy stores in Japan, in April 2019. The box contains 20 booster packs. Each pack contains 4 random holofoil cards. The full set contains a total of 24 cards plus 1 SR (Total of 25 cards in the set).
- Language: Japanese
- Edition: NA
- Contents: 20 booster packs
- Condition: Brand New. Factory Sealed
POKEMON CENTER ONLINE 2019 EEVEE MINI TAMAGOTCHI KEYCHAIN (YELLOW LOVE EEVEE VERSION)
Pokemon Center 2019 Eevee Mini Tamagotchi Keychain (Yellow Love Eevee Version). This Tamagotchi is a cute MINI size (smaller than a normal Tamagotchi). It has a chain so that you can attach it to bags, keyrings, luggage or any other item that you wish to attach it to. THERE WAS A LIMIT OF 1 PER PERSON AND SOLD OUT WITHIN JUST MINUTES. It was only sold online through the Pokemon Center website and a few other online sites. It was not sold in the Pokemon Center or toy stores. Made of plastic.
- Manufacturer: Bandai
- Language: Japanese
- Height: 1.25" (5cm)
- Length: 1.5" (4cm)
- Width: 1.4" (3.5cm)
Condition: Brand new. Never been played with. Smoke-free environment. Tag attached.
Pokevault Discount Codes with the biggest savings
I spent a lot of time searching and checking Pokevault promo codes. I realize that only 10% discount code is still active at the moment, other discount codes have expired. I have verified myself and make sure the discount code I share below works 100%. If there is another better code I will share it with you immediately, be assured of this. Ok, here it is.
This discount code save 10% Off On Your Purchase at Pokevault, which are the highest possible savings at the moment.
Before the code is used:
After used Pokevault code:
The way to get the Discount code and introduction of Pokevault store made by the video below:
I hope this post has been useful to you, the products of Pokevault are very good and practical, I have also become a loyal customer of them. You can buy products right away in here. I will regularly update the latest discount code of store to you. | https://medium.com/@phoebebuffay50/save-money-at-pokevault-with-these-discount-codes-f942436f9220 | [] | 2019-05-21 09:13:12.994000+00:00 | ['Pokemon', 'Discount', 'Plush Toys', 'Pokevault Coupon', 'Deal'] |
[Exchange] BtcTrade opens LightningBitcoin trading! | [Exchange] BtcTrade opens LightningBitcoin trading!
LBTC trading: deposits opening
BtcTrade.im exchange opens trading of Lightning Bitcoin (LBTC) on April 28th. Thank you for your patience and support!
Welcome to visit BtdTrade Exchange for LBTC trading!
Exchange website:
Www.btctrade.im or www.btctrade.tv
This is not the only good news, Lightning Bitcoin is going to send out more these days. More exchanges, investment institutions, and delegates are going to join the LightningBTC Network. No wonder, instant transactions and the realisation if IoV concept within the Lighting Bitcoin network have a powerful practical application in the future .
Red pockets!
To celebrate the opening of LightningBTC deposits on the second exchange, LBTC together with BtcTrade RED POCKETS GIVEAWAY! 200,000LBTC worth of red pockets are waiting for you to take! Bring your friend to grab the red envelope! Maybe you can grab a huge one!
Time
April 27, 2018 (today) 14:00 — May 16, 2018
Rules
1. Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 14:00 pm
2. The red packets will pop up on the homepage of the Btctrade.im website which you should immediately click on and receive the red pocket App password.
3. Each person can receive red pockets only once session.
4. Sessions can be participated multiple times and do not conflict with others activities of the platform.
5. The received red packets LBTC amount will be automatically transferred to the BTCTRADE.IM account.
Note: For final interpretation of this giveaway please proceed to the I BtcTrade website.
Event Details
About BtcTrade.
Founded in 2013, Bitcoin Exchange (BtcTrade.im) is one of the earliest bitcoin trading platforms. Currently, it is based in Hong Kong and serves a global professional digital asset trading platform.
Note: www.btctrade.im and www.btctrade.tv are the same official website. The former requires scientific Internet access.
LightningBTC trading is open on:
ZB.com
EXXVIP.com
CoinEgg.im
BtcTrade.im
YoBit.net
KKEX.com
AEX.com
BCEX.ca
DigiFinex.com
LBTC has deposits opened on:
DigiFinex.com
BtcTrade.im
We have more good news to release soon. Please pay attention to the public numbers and news released by various cooperation and trading platforms.As well as check for spelling.
Lightning Bitcoin Team is not going away neither 5000ETH nor 1000BTC. Be aware of scammers!
Stay tuned! | https://medium.com/lightning-bitcoin-blog/exchange-btctrade-opens-lightningbitcoin-trading-512bdda1ac43 | ['Lightning Bitcoin', 'Lbtc'] | 2018-04-27 08:20:43.486000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Lbtc', 'Currency', 'Blockchain'] |
Create multiple custom checkboxes, bound to the same array - Vue 3 and Composition API | In response to a comment on Build a checkbox component with Vue 3, Font Awesome, & Tailwind CSS
Single Checkbox 👈 Where the last article left off
👈 Where the last article left off Multiple Checkboxes 👈 Final code
Here’s a walkthrough of the main functional changes
Update the data in App.vue
setup() {
const names = ref([]);
return {
names,
};
},
2. The <check-box> component will now look like the snippet below, add as many as you want to App.vue . As you can see we’re also going to rename our label prop to value — this change makes sense since we’ll use the value passed for more than printing the label.
<check-box fieldId="Luther" v-model:names="names" value="Luther" />
3. Here’s what props should look like in checkbox.vue — changes are in bold. This component will receive the value (a single name), and an array of the checked names (bound to names in App.vue )
props: {
value: {
type: String,
required: true,
},
fieldId: {
type: String,
required: true,
},
names: {
type: Array,
required: true,
},
},
4. Checked is no longer a prop, we’ll determine checked with a computed property. All we have to do is check to see if value is in names
setup(props) {
const checked = computed(() => props.names.includes(props.value)); return {
checked,
};
},
5. Now we have to handle the checked functionality. With the single checkbox we just emitted checked — but since these checkboxes are bound to the names Array we need to add/remove our value from the list of names, and then emit the updated list. Let’s handle that with a method.
setup(props, context) {
const checked = computed(() => props.names.includes(props.value)); function check() {
// copy the names Array to avoid mutating props
let updatedNames = [...props.names];
// remove name if checked, else add name
if (this.checked) {
updatedNames.splice(updatedNames.indexOf(props.value), 1);
} else {
updatedNames.push(props.value);
}
// emit the updated names
context.emit("update:names", updatedNames);
} return {
check,
checked,
};
},
Don’t forget to call the method on @input
That should cover the main changes — everything is in that codesandbox
Thanks for the great question Jessie Green | https://medium.com/@kevinbigelow/create-multiple-custom-checkboxes-bound-to-the-same-array-using-vue-3-and-the-composition-api-cbcdfe6216b7 | ['Kevin Bigelow'] | 2020-12-18 16:34:57.409000+00:00 | ['Tailwind Css', 'Vuejs', 'Vue 3', 'Font Awesome'] |
Apple HomePod Mini review: Apple’s $99 smart speaker needs to be either better or cheaper | Apple HomePod Mini review: Apple’s $99 smart speaker needs to be either better or cheaper Toni Dec 20, 2020·10 min read
Apple’s new, cheaper HomePod is a tough smart speaker to nail down. On the one hand, the HomePod Mini boasts impressive audio quality for its size. On the other hand, it doesn’t sound as good as other smart speakers in its price range. The HomePod Mini also has a Thread radio that lets it act as a smart home hub, but for now, there are only a few Thread-enabled smart devices available to control. And while Apple’s new Intercom feature makes for an easy way to broadcast messages to household members, it doesn’t allow for two-way calling.
Now, if you’re a dedicated Apple user and you’ve been waiting for a more affordable Siri-powered smart speaker than the $300 HomePod, the $99 HomePod Mini is your best—and only—bet. But if you’re open to Alexa or Google Assistant, you can find cheaper entry-level options (such as the $50 Amazon Echo Dot and Google Nest Mini), as well as better-sounding speakers (like the $99 Google Nest Audio) and better smart home-oriented devices (the $99 Echo with its Zigbee smart home hub).
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best smart speakers, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.DesignSpheres are in when it comes to the latest smart speakers. The redesigned Amazon Echo and Echo Dot both revealed their spherical designs back in September, and now comes the spherical HomePod mini—well, nearly spherical, save for its flattened, touch-enabled top.
[ Further reading: The best smart speakers and digital assistants ]Besides being somewhat matchy-matchy in terms of shape, the HomePod mini and fourth-gen Echo Dot are almost exactly the same size, with the 3.3-inch HomePod mini a tad shorter but precisely the same width as the latest Dot. Indeed, when the HomePod Mini and new Echo Dot are sitting side-by-side, they look remarkably similar, save for the Mini’s flat top.
Ben Patterson/IDG Can you spot the HomePod Mini in this picture?
Available in white and space gray, the HomePod mini has a fabric covering that extends to the edge of the speaker’s touch-sensitive top panel, while a rubberized pad at the bottom keeps the Mini firmly in place.
Mentioned in this article Apple HomePod Read TechHive's review$299.00MSRP $299.00See iton Apple It’s worth noting that the HomePod Mini’s six-foot braided power cable is “captive,” meaning that it’s permanently attached. The cable terminates in a male USB-C connector, and a chunky 20-watt power adapter is included; fortunately, the adapter is designed to jut out from the outlet, meaning that nearby plugs are still accessible.
Buttons and interfacesSimilar to the bigger HomePod, the HomePod Mini’s top, backlit touchpad has “+” and “-” icons, and the multicolored backlighting glows during music playback and pulses when you’re chatting with Siri. You can tap the “+” or “-” icons to adjust the volume, tap once to play or pause music, or double-tap to skip, while touching and holding the touchpad summons Siri.
A physical control that’s conspicuously missing from the HomePod Mini is a mic mute button. Of course, you can just say, “Hey Siri, stop listening” if you want some privacy, and then press and hold the top of the Mini to summon Siri again (at which point you can ask her to turn “Hey Siri” back on). But even if you do ask Siri to stop listening, the HomePod Mini lacks a visual cue to confirm that its microphone is off. By way of comparison, both Amazon’s Echo speakers and Google’s Nest speakers have mic mute buttons and switches (respectively), and both have lights that glow (red for Echo speakers, orange for Nest) when their mics have been turned off.
Ben Patterson/IDG The HomePod Mini has illuminated touch controls on top, but no physical mic mute button.
Similar to most of Google’s Nest speakers, the HomePod Mini lacks a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting an external speaker; unlike Nest (and Echo) speakers, however, the Mini can’t send audio to a Bluetooth speaker, nor can you designate a wireless speaker as a “preferred” playback option for the Mini. Now, given the HomePod Mini’s solid audio quality (which we’ll detail a bit later), one could argue that there’s no need for a “preferred” speaker setting, but still, it’s worth mentioning.
SetupGetting the HomePod Mini set up on your home network is dead simple, and for me, it was over in less than five minutes.
Once I plugged in the speaker, I simply held my iPhone close to it (you’ll need to make sure you have both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled on your iOS device), and within seconds a “HomePod Mini” pop-up appeared on my iPhone’s display, complete with a “Set Up” button.
Mentioned in this article Amazon Echo Dot (4th Gen) Read TechHive's reviewSee it Next, you’ll iOS device will prompt you to designate the room in your home where the speaker will reside (“Master Bedroom,” “Office,” “Kitchen,” etc.), as well as whether you’d like to enable “Personal Requests,” which allow you or others in your home (Siri can recognize the voices of up to six family members) to check calendar events, send iMessages, set reminders, write notes in the Notes app, and so on. Finally, you’ll be asked to accept Apple’s terms and conditions, as well as transfer your Wi-Fi and iCloud settings.
Siri voice commands and HomeKitPowered by Siri, Apple’s nine-year-old voice assistant, the HomePod Mini can respond to a wide variety of queries (“Hey Siri, how’s the weather today?”) and commands (“Hey Siri, send a message to my wife”), and like Alexa and Google Assistant, it can be a friendly, obedient, and impressively accurate companion. On the HomePod Mini, Siri responded relatively quickly to my requests, and its four far-field microphones were able to pick up my voice from across the room, even when I spoke in a quiet voice.
Siri on the HomePod Mini can also control smart devices that are compatible with HomeKit, Apple’s smart home platform. HomeKit doesn’t enjoy the wide degree of smart device support that Alexa and Google Assistant do; more than 100,000 smart devices support Alexa, while about 50,000 devices support Google Assistant. Apple hasn’t given a recent count for Siri’s smart device support. But many popular smart device manufacturers do support HomeKit, including Signify’s Philips Hue smart lighting brand, Anker’s EufyCam smart camera line, Logitech, Belkin’s Wemo brand, August, Yale, and Lutron. Like the full-size HomePod, the HomePod Mini works as a HomeKit “home hub,” allowing you to control your HomeKit devices even when you’re out of the house.
The HomePod Mini also supports Thread, a low-power, low-latency IoT protocol that’s backed by Apple, Google, Samsung, Qualcomm, and other tech titans. An IP-based standard that’s won accolades for its stability and emphasis on security, Thread has gotten off to a slow start since the initial “Thread Group” debuted in 2014, but its arrival on the HomePod Mini (which can act as a Thread “border router” that connects Thread-enabled smart devices to the internet) could help speed the protocol’s momentum. Smart device manufacturers such as Eve and Nanoleaf have already released products that work with Thread (I’ve been using Nanoleaf’s new, Thread-enabled A19 “Essential” bulb with the HomePod Mini, and it’s been working like a charm), and others are expected in the coming months. But compared to a wireless IoT protocol such as Zigbee, which enjoys wide support among smart home devices (and the $99 Amazon Echo comes with a built-in Zigbee hub), only a handful of smart devices work with Thread so far.
CommunicationWhen it announced the HomePod Mini, Apple also unveiled Intercom, a new communications feature that lets you broadcast announcements to other HomePods, iOS devices, Apple Watches, AirPods, and even cars enabled with Apple’s CarPods system. (Curiously, Intercom doesn’t work with iMacs or MacBooks, or at least not yet.)
Ben Patterson/IDG Intercom messages from the HomePod Mini (or the bigger HomePod) arrive as interactive pop-ups on an iPhone.
Using Intercom is simple. Just say, “Hey Siri, Intercom,” and then say whatever you want to broadcast to the iOS devices and HomePods connected to the Apple Home app. What happens next depends on the Apple device in question. iPhones and iPads, for example, will get a pop-up with a “play” button that lets you play back your Intercom announcement (you hear the speaker’s actual voice, not Siri’s), while HomePods, AirPods, and CarPlay devices will beep and play the message immediately.
By default, Intercom messages are sent to all supported Apple devices connected to the Apple Home app, but you can also ask Siri to send an announcement to a specific HomePod (“Hey Siri, tell downstairs that dinner is ready”). You can also ask Siri to reply to an Intercom announcement.
While Apple’s new Intercom feature makes for an easy way to ask Siri on the HomePad Mini to blast a message to Apple users in your home, the HomePod Mini doesn’t let you make two-way calls, or at least not without the help of an iPhone. You can ask Siri on a HomePod Mini to make a Facetime audio call, but when you do, it’s your iPhone that’s making the call, with the Mini basically acting as a speakerphone. Amazon Echo speakers, on the other hand, can natively “drop in” to other Echo speakers for two-way calling, and you can even ask Alexa to place a (free) VoIP call to any phone number in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico. Nest speakers and displays, meanwhile, let you make two-way audio or video calls using the Google Duo calling app, no phone required.
Music and audioUnderstandably, the $99 HomePod Mini lacks the impressive driver array of the $300 HomePod. Instead of the HomePod’s eight drivers (including one woofer and seven beam-forming tweeters), the HomePod Mini makes do with a single full-range, neodymium magnet-powered dynamic driver, plus a pair of force-cancelling passive radiators. An acoustic waveguide helps to spread audio from the down-firing drive in all directions, while Apple’s S5 chip (the same as you’ll find in an Apple Watch) analyzes your tunes and makes real-time adjustments to the sound.
So, how does the HomePod Mini sound? While it’s obviously a downgrade compared to the bigger HomePod, the Mini version sounds surprisingly full-bodied and detailed for its size. Queuing up Carlos Kleiber’s legendary rendition of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony on Apple Music, the strings and the brass sounded clean, crisp and distinct, while the driving timpani sounded satisfyingly punchy. Jumping over to “The Ghost of Tom Joad” by Bruce Springsteen, The Boss’s vocals and reedy harmonica sounded textured and alive, while the rising synthesizer felt warm and relatively deep.
Mentioned in this article Google Nest Audio Read TechHive's review$99.99MSRP $99.99See iton Google Store Compared to the OK-but-not-amazing audio of the fourth-gen Echo Dot, the HomePod Mini sounds deeper and richer, with precise bass that avoids the muddiness that plagues the Echo Dot. Put another way, the Echo Dot merely lets you hear music, while the HomePod Mini heads into true enjoyment territory.
Of course, the Echo Dot costs half as much as a HomePod Mini (and even less when the Dot’s on sale, which it generally is), so it’s not that surprising that the cheaper Amazon speaker can’t keep up in the audio department. A more apt comparison would be with Google’s new Nest Audio, a $99 smart speaker that ups the ante with a tweeter and a mid-woofer, both in a front-firing configuration. Listening to the two speakers side-by-side, the Nest Audio’s sound clearly wins out. Not only does the Nest Audio sound even clearer and richer than the HomePod Mini, it also sounds quite a bit bigger and more powerful, and you can crank its volume considerably louder. Purely from a sound perspective, the Nest Audio remains the smart speaker to beat—at least at the $99 price point.
As with the Nest Audio, the HomePod Mini can be connected to a second Mini to create a stereo pair; because I only had one HomePod Mini available, I wasn’t able to test stereo pairing. The HomePod Mini also (of course) supports AirPlay 2, good for using the Mini in multi-room audio setups or for casting audio to the speaker from an Apple device. And thanks to Apple’s ultra-wideband U1 chip, you can “hand off” music from the HomePod Mini to your iPhone (or vice versa) when the two devices are in close proximity.
In terms of music streaming, the HomePod Mini supports Apple Music, iCloud Music Library, Apple Podcasts, streaming radio stations such as TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and Radio.com. But while Apple just announced that the HomePod Mini and the larger HomePod finally support third-party music streaming services, Pandora is the only streaming service that’s signed on so far, and there’s no ETA on such competitors as Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz, YouTube Music, or Spotify. For now, if you want to stream tracks from those services on the HomePod Mini, you’ll have to cast them from another device via AirPlay.
Bottom lineIf Apple’s new, smaller HomePod cost the same as a $50 Amazon Echo Dot or a Google Nest Mini, I’d be calling it the new champ (albeit with caveats) in the entry-level smart speaker market. But at $99, the HomePod Mini falls short to the similar-priced Google Nest Audio in terms of sound quality, and it can’t match the smart home skills of the $99 Amazon Echo. And while the HomePod Mini’s new Intercom feature and added support for third-party music services are both steps in the right direction, Amazon and Google still (and for now) have Apple’s HomePod ecosystem beat in the communication and music departments. Again, if you’re dead-set on sticking with Apple and Siri, the HomePod Mini makes for a solid choice, and what it does, it does well. But if you’re willing to dally with Alexa or Google Assistant, there are better values out there.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@Toni43606613/apple-homepod-mini-review-apples-99-smart-speaker-needs-to-be-either-better-or-cheaper-1f75c87f08c7 | [] | 2020-12-20 21:54:43.381000+00:00 | ['Services', 'Internet', 'Tvs', 'Home Tech'] |
What Is A Distributed Ledger (DLT)? | A distributed ledger is a dynamic form of media, it enables us to secure and formalise new kinds of relationships in the digital world. There are several advantages to using DLTs, one being they have an immutable database, all information is stored and cannot be erased thanks to their use of blockchain technology. Read on to find out more about the history of distributed ledger technology and how they are currently used in the digital world as we know it.
The link between DLT and blockchain
Blockchain: you’ll come across this word a lot when you are reading anything about DLTs and digital assets. To understand DLTs properly, you need to understand what a blockchain is. So first things first, let’s take a closer look at blockchain technology.
Blockchain’s a specific type of database, it stores information in blocks that are chained together, hence the name. Once one block has stored all the data, it’s then added to the chain in chronological order creating a blockchain. Different types of data can be stored in a blockchain but the most common use so far has been as a ledger for transactions.
Blockchain is a type of DLT, but not all DLTs use blockchain technology. DLT doesn’t only function for the digital asset market too. Its unique ability to add and sort data means it can serve other functions across a range of industries.
Transactions are complex and costly, and DLT built on blockchain helps to eliminate human error. DLT makes sure information cannot be lost, making all data stored on them safe and secure. On top of this, DLT helps reduce paper processes, having the potential to be friendlier for the planet.
The history of ledgers
Ledgers, at least the concept, have been around since the start of time. Before computers entered mainstream living in the 1980s and ’90s, ledgers came in forms such as clay, stone, papyrus and paper. Then they were digitised.
Early digital ledgers copied the cataloguing and accounting of the paper-based world; it could be said that digitisation has been applied more to the logistics of paper documents rather than their creation. Paper-based institutions are still important for our society: money, written signatures, bills, certificates and double-entry bookkeeping.
Breakthroughs in cryptography, such as the launch of Bitcoin in 2009: the first digital asset to be powered by blockchain technology, demonstrated that DLT was not only enabling the technology to work but also that it could scale and remain secure. This was a key development for DLTs, and thanks to them we have seen many innovative digital assets appear since — such as a Tangle used to process and store data on the IOTA network.
So what are DLTs?
Distributed ledgers exceed the capabilities of the static paper-based ledger, they have no central data store or administration functionality, therefore, making transactions more accessible and easy to keep a hold of compared to paper-based ledgers. DLTs are a database that’s consensually shared and synchronised across multiple sites, institutions or geographies.
The invention of DLTs represents a revolution in how information is gathered and communicated. This applies to both static data and dynamic data. Static data is data that is fixed and doesn’t usually change, compared to dynamic data that is periodically updated as new information is added. DLTs allow users to move beyond the simple custodianship of a database and divert energy to how we use, manipulate and extract value from databases. It’s less about maintaining a database, and more about managing a system of record. Rather than just storing information like a regular database does, DLTs are much more flexible and enabe records to be updated in real-time whilst also storing all necessary information.
Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central data store or administration functionality. There’s transparency with DLTs, every bit of data is tracked and cannot be deleted. One user cannot make a single change, it has to be passed through several nodes. Once there is this consensus, the DLT will be updated and all nodes maintain a copy of the ledger. The architecture allows for a new dexterity as a system that goes beyond being a simple database.
Advantages of DLTs
A key advantage of DLTs is that they eliminate the need for a central authority to maintain and manage the database. A centralised ledger is more prone to cyber-attacks and fraud but DLTs built on blockchain technology have no single point of failure and are much more difficult, if not impossible, to hack into.
There are several advantages to using DLTs:
Reduces operational efficiencies as it works 24/7
Harder to be cyberattacked
Provides an easy flow of information
Immutable database, all information is stored and cannot be erased.
Distributed ledgers are used in other industries besides the digital asset market. Industries such as supply chains of various commodities, diamond and precious assets, music and entertainment industries. Enterprise Ethereum and Corda are examples of open-source DLTs for businesses to build distributed ledgers and improve their transparency, security, and efficiency.
It is looking as though the future format of centuries-old ledgers is to be decentralised. No one can really tell but what can we expect if this is to happen? DLTs can sustainably improve market outcomes and are becoming more standardised, experts suggest that DLTs are an important piece of technology, and can play an important role in improving existing processes as well as inspire innovative new applications. What do you think the future holds for distributed ledger technology?
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Subreddit | https://medium.com/baanx-bxx/what-is-a-distributed-ledger-dlt-637a3212fb02 | [] | 2021-09-12 18:41:57.392000+00:00 | ['Baanx', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Distributed Ledger'] |
Effective Feedback Criteria and Strategies | Effective Feedback Criteria and Strategies
Increase the Likelihood of Achieving a Positive Outcome From the Feedback Sessions
Photo by PixelsAway on depositphotos
Clarifying Your Feedback Strategy
Clarifying your strategy now can help you feel prepared and confident as you give constructive feedback in the future. You can use the following three steps to help you clarify the constructive feedback strategy:
adopting an effective personal feedback style, meeting necessary feedback criteria, and using appropriate timing.
Adopting an effective personal feedback style
Your style is the way you conduct yourself as you provide feedback to others. Once you’ve adopted an effective style, you’re a step closer to giving constructive feedback in the workplace. The following are some of the elements of a desirable personal feedback style:
Being courteous — The assertive professional style and the constructive feedback strategy both rely heavily on courteous behavior. Your courtesy will put others at ease and foster their hearing the feedback you’re providing. Courtesy is essential to the constructive feedback strategy.
— The assertive professional style and the constructive feedback strategy both rely heavily on courteous behavior. Your courtesy will put others at ease and foster their hearing the feedback you’re providing. Courtesy is essential to the constructive feedback strategy. Being truthful — It’s essential to be truthful in the feedback you give others. In fact, feedback’s useless unless it is truthful. Your task is to provide the truth in a way that’s sensitive to others’ feelings while also getting the feedback message across to them.
— It’s essential to be truthful in the feedback you give others. In fact, feedback’s useless unless it is truthful. Your task is to provide the truth in a way that’s sensitive to others’ feelings while also getting the feedback message across to them. Being positive — Being positive is a useful component of this strategy. Your positive attitude can help others receive and act on the feedback you give them. Remember that your task is to be positive even when the feedback contains criticism.
You will feel more self-assured using the constructive feedback strategy after you’ve adopted an effective personal feedback style and grown accustomed to its use.
Meeting necessary feedback criteria
The necessary criteria for developing a constructive feedback strategy include:
Being specific — Recipients of vague, general statements just aren’t helped by such remarks. So be specific; reference known events, specific times, objective observations, and predictable outcomes.
— Recipients of vague, general statements just aren’t helped by such remarks. So be specific; reference known events, specific times, objective observations, and predictable outcomes. Being objective — This means dealing with observable facts and avoiding the distortion caused when personal feelings or prejudices are present. At times, this ideal can be difficult to achieve, but it’s a good goal to try to reach on a consistent basis.
— This means dealing with observable facts and avoiding the distortion caused when personal feelings or prejudices are present. At times, this ideal can be difficult to achieve, but it’s a good goal to try to reach on a consistent basis. Be descriptive — Always strive to be descriptive. This requires providing a context for presenting facts and observations. This approach allows you to put some life into a conversation that, otherwise, could be a sterile presentation.
Meeting these feedback criteria can help you remain focused on providing feedback that is useful and constructive.
Using appropriate timing
This means knowing the right time to give constructive feedback to someone in the workplace. Appropriate timing for providing constructive feedback can be as basic as determining the most convenient time of day or day of the week. Timing can also be important because of the way it affects project schedules or plans.
You can be successful at clarifying a constructive feedback strategy if you follow the three steps above.
Giving Positive Feedback
Most business professionals have provided feedback to someone. Of course, if you’re a supervisor, you’ve probably given feedback on numerous occasions. And, like other assertive business professionals, you’d like all feedback sessions to be productive and well-received.
The good news is that there are useful steps you can take to increase the likelihood of achieving a positive outcome from the feedback sessions you conduct with others in the workplace. These steps are
1. reviewing goals,
2. describing performance, and
3. reinforcing positive behaviour.
Reviewing goals
This can encompass someone’s personal goals in the workplace as well as goals resulting from a job assignment. A goals review provides a focus and enables you to set the stage for describing a person’s performance in pursuit of that goal.
If you are giving feedback to a subordinate, check at the start to ensure that both he and you clearly understand the goal that you’re discussing in your feedback. You want to reach mutual agreement because the goals are the basis for providing feedback on his actual performance in the workplace.
Beginning a feedback session with a review of goals lets you start in a positive way because goals are concrete and are accepted as a basis for performance assessments and feedback in the workplace.
Describing performance
You should describe the person’s actual performance in a way that’s objective and descriptive. For example, you might say, “I’ve observed that you’re good about meeting milestones and final deadlines.
That certainly helps others in the process to meet their deadlines too.” This approach enables you to maintain a positive tone throughout the performance review.
Reinforcing positive behavior
Your feedback should be designed to help others recognize what they’re doing well and how their actions or behaviors help the organization. Feedback then should encourage them to continue their positive behavior. This means the following:
Identifying action or behavior — When you tell others they’re doing well, be sure to identify those specific actions and behaviors that you think contribute to their success. When they recognize what’s beneficial, they’re much more likely to continue to exhibit those actions and behaviors in the workplace.
— When you tell others they’re doing well, be sure to identify those specific actions and behaviors that you think contribute to their success. When they recognize what’s beneficial, they’re much more likely to continue to exhibit those actions and behaviors in the workplace. Identifying impact on the organization — The positive feedback you provide others can be enhanced by stating specifically how their actions or behaviors help the organization achieve its goals. This is an excellent way to put their positive actions and behaviors in an actual context in the workplace.
You can use a positive feedback strategy to good effect in the workplace. You can foster others’ professional growth when you help them review their goals and performance and when your support reinforces their positive behavior. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/effective-feedback-criteria-and-strategies-394f99b76ef2 | ['Sorin Dumitrascu'] | 2020-12-09 15:02:36.062000+00:00 | ['Strategy', 'Management', 'Business', 'Leadership', 'Feedback'] |
New from Hallmark: Santa & Fiddler Share The Roof | Image Copyright: IMDb and Wikimedia Commons
Matchmaker, matchmaker, make us a match! This latest holiday love story from Hallmark is sure to knock your interfaith socks off.
Paul, a robust young goy, is meeting his girlfriend Rachel’s family during a trip to New York to celebrate Hannukkah. He wants terribly to impress her parents because as that eighth crazy night comes to a close, he’d like to ask for their daughter’s hand in marriage — and he wants to earn their permission first. However, Rachel’s parents have made it pretty clear that they’d like their daughter to wed an NJB, and they think — despite his clear blue eyes, wavy blond hair, and lactose tolerance — that Paul is, in fact, a member of the tribe.
But don’t worry — our hero has a secret weapon. He played Tevya in eighth grade, and thus understands everything he needs to know about Judaism.
Yes, there are some close shaves — he can’t yeeble daible deeble daible doy his way out of everything. But he’ll swallow his pride and his babka for the sake of the woman he loves.
Audiences will be enraptured by key moments such as Paul’s raucous rendition of “Sabbath Prayer — Off Broadway Revival Version” when asked to bless the candles, his insistence on referring to the West Village as “your family’s village,” and his surprise employment of a whole team of bottle dancers to perform in Rachel’s living room to spruce up night seven.
I know what you’re thinking — will everyone be happy in the end? This story may be Jewish, but it still is Hallmark. Even though Rachel’s parents saw through Paul’s schtick, well, almost immediately, they appreciate his chutzpah and commitment to the bit. In the final scene, the marriage of Paul and Rachel is approved, and the bottle dancers return for one last hurrah. Everyone collectively wonders if bottle dancers are actually a Jewish thing or if Fiddler on the Roof created them, and after a passive-aggressive family debate on the subject, they live happily ever after. L’chayim! | https://medium.com/2-ho-ho-hos/new-from-hallmark-santa-fiddler-share-the-roof-8ab8791fc955 | ['Sarah Groustra'] | 2020-12-31 17:02:39.254000+00:00 | ['Fiddler On The Roof', 'Satire', 'Hallmark', 'Humor', 'Holidays'] |
Going North — Part I. Root Canal in Paradise | Root Canal in Paradise
I ended up staying three weeks in Puerto Vallarta. I was having an issue with a tooth falling apart for the last two years or so. I would get temporary crowns to manage it with the most affordable solution, but the temporary crowns kept breaking on me. I decided to invest in a root canal to save the tooth. It is one of the reasons why I ended up staying that long in Vallarta. I was lucky to find an excellent dentist named Israel working at a dental office named Big Sonrisa. He knew a few words of Turkish since he had visited my home country not long ago. Although I don’t know much about dentistry, I think being able to recognize mastery. It was the last upper tooth on my right side that needed the treatment. It is probably the most challenging spot to operate a root canal. Isreal did a fantastic job without me feeling any pain during the entire process.
Not Much Luck Booking Shows in 2020
Although the relaxation and taking care of dental problems was a success, I wasn’t as successful at booking any shows in Puerto Vallarta. Most of the clubs having live performances were hiring cover bands. It also looked like the club owners I was trying to contact were all from the US or Canada. It just made it a bit challenging to choose with what strategy to approach them. I did not know if I should write to them in English or Spanish. I mostly contacted the owners by digital means. I went in person to only one club named Kelly’s Pour Favor. I gave a business card to the person working there, but she did not seem to care too much. The most love I got from the staff was from a bass player playing in one of the cover bands. He gave me some tips on approaching the owner lady and told me that he would land me his PA and mic stand in I happened to get a show there.
The circumstances did not favor me booking shows, but I am the most to blame for being unsuccessful. I did not push it hard enough. Although I felt great in Vallarta socializing with people and enjoying what nature had to offer. Artistically I did not feel in a comfortable environment for the type of music I play. For those familiar with the San Diego scene, trying to get a show in Puerto Vallarta felt a lot like trying to book a show for a math/post-rock band in Pacific Beach.
There was some live rock action in Puerto Vallarta, a great blessing with the current situation, but all the bands I’ve heard were doing covers in English. How sad is that? I have nothing against cover bands, but if that’s the only way to play live, it kind of kills creativity and represents an obstacle for a local scene to flourish with original music. It always breaks my heart when rock n’ roll is just seen as entertainment. If a well-versed musician has a hard time writing original material, I can understand the whole cover band thing as a solution. That said, for me being a musician is to create original music.
Mazatlan, Sinaloa
On December 8th, 2020, I left Puerto Vallarta for Tepic and took a bus to Mazatlan. I arrived early evening. I just went out to walk around the block. I was staying in a neighborhood called Casa Blanca. Since I had been fasting, I decided to go to bed without eating and recharge my batteries faster that way. The apartment I was renting was huge. I had an entire floor all to myself. The furniture was old school but looked kind of cool on Instagram with the New York filter.
The next morning after waking up, I took my guitar and started to play and record some new ideas. I was feeling energized. Mid-afternoon, I decided to go out. I walked for about 20 minutes from the apartment to hit the Malecon. It was a beautiful sunny day. When I saw the scenery, I was thrilled to be in Mazatlan. I broke my fast with some green juice I bought on the street and later on I had some ceviche. Oh my goodness! I am someone who’s been to Peru twice before, but the ceviche in Mazatlan was above anything I had experienced before. The raw shrimp tasted like candy.
Since I needed to walk 20 minutes to hit the Malecon, and the Malecon itself was forming a pretty long strip along the coastline, I ended up walking a lot every day. In general, people in Mazatlan seemed to be very direct, but not in a bad way. With the combination of all elements. The ocean, good food, and people’s outgoingness, something extremely positive and unexpected happened to my creativity with music. Different ideas keep effortlessly pouring onto my strings.
I feel lucky as a musician that I always have new ideas coming my way, but something extraordinary happened in Mazatlan, and a part of my creativity got unchained. I felt amazing in this town. Yes, there was beautiful scenery and the beach, but there weren’t many international tourists, and the people had this rural positive energy to them. So it did not feel like being in a posh little cute resort town. I was finally in Sinaloa. I could not believe it. So many people advised me not to travel there. And while I was having the most fantastic time in Sinaloa, the negativity would only come from outside of Sinaloa via digital means. Some people seeing that I was there, would tell me to be careful. My reality in Sinaloa was a positive one in all aspects.
Comiendo Sano
Since I wasn’t planning on eating ceviche every day, I started to look for a place that served plant-based food. I came across a restaurant called Comiendo Sano ran by an Italian Mexican couple named Luigi and Isabel. I started to go there regularly. The food was excellent, slow food made to order with lots of love and attention to detail. I began to have great conversations with Luigi, Isabel, and the other customers. At Comiendo Sano, I would see the same customers over and over again. It felt more like a healthy vegetarian food-club than a typical restaurant.
Arpeggios of the Day
While I was still in Uruguay on April 5th, 2020, I started an Instagram story series called The Arpeggio of the Day. The idea was to publish new arpeggios of 15 seconds every day. Some of the arpeggios I posted in the first batch of 10 helped me write the song “Kesilme Topraktan.” I took a little break from publishing the arpeggios, and in November, when I was in Puerto Vallarta, I increased the production rate. But it is genuinely in Mazatlan that the production went through the roof. During the three weeks I stayed in Mazatlan, I produced 47 arpeggios. A total of 47 new song ideas. Some musicians don’t even have that many songs during their entire career. It’s a real blessing. What frustrates me is that I don’t have the time to convert all my ideas into songs. I’d need to hire assistants or share my arpeggios publicly so other musicians can get inspired. I have no problem with others borrowing my ideas or using them as a starting point to eventually create something of their own. The only thing I ask is to be credited if someone uses an arpeggio of mine and officially releases a song.
Unexpected Added Value
My initial goal with The Arpeggio of The Day series was to give an insight into Black Sea Storm’s creative process and hopefully create more interest in the project. As I’ve been publishing those stories, my number of followers increased significantly on Instagram. I thought that the arpeggios would promote my recorded material. To a small degree, they did, but there were a significant number of guitar players asking me for tabs and asking me if I would release an educational video of those arpeggios. I was surprised by the demand. First of all, deep inside, I still don’t consider myself to be a guitar player. For me, I am doing the same thing I was doing on the bass, which is to put song backbones together. And secondly, I would have never thought that people would like to learn how to play my parts. As I am writing this, I am approaching the 110th published Arpeggio of the Day. I am thinking of creating a course module to help people learn those arpeggios. I believe such a side project would be beneficial in many aspects. I need to find the time and develop new skills to make it happen.
Christmas and New Year
I’ve been living in temporary rentals for the past four years. This time of the year has usually been quite of a challenge to manage for me. I have a routine and a specific budget for housing, and I take advantage of rental platforms. Around this time of the year, all of a sudden, the market gets flooded by tourists, and the prices can go up pretty drastically, and finding a place that meets my needs at an affordable price can get a bit tricky. I was able to book a place in Mazatlan until the 29th of December, which was a success since, at the very least, I had Christmas covered, but I wasn’t able to find anything for the 31st to the first days of 2021. On Christmas night, Luigi and Isabel were working at Comiendo Sano only on take out orders. They made an exception for me and let me eat at the restaurant although it was closed to the public. They had prepared this fantastic vegetarian lasagna. I am usually not a big fan of this Italian dish, but on this occasion, Luigi and Isabel just nailed it to perfection. It was delicious and fit my taste! The dish was not heavy at all and gave me a new perspective on lasagna. Food is a lot like music; it’s not what you cook or prepare, but how you put it together and present it that makes the difference.
My strategy to find a destination for the 31st of December consisted of finding a less touristy city. I decided to go to Hermosillo. Why Hermosillo? Well, I wanted to explore the north of the country, and I am a big fan of Tristeza, the San Diego based post-rock instrumental band. Luis plays the bass for Tristeza, and his last name happens to be Hermosillo. This is how we make top-level executive decisions at Black Sea Storm Inc. I booked a place for the 30th. I first thought that I could save up some money not booking a room for the 29th and sleep during the bus ride. I then realized that the ride wasn’t long enough, and the person renting me the space in Hermosillo couldn’t let me check-in early. So I decided to spend a night in Culiacan, Sinaloa.
About Black Sea Storm
Black Sea Storm started as a recording side project in 2002. During that period, I was still actively playing bass in rock bands in San Diego, California. In 2011 Black Sea Storm became my sole musical outlet. In 2017 I moved to Latin America from Europe, and in 2018 I decided to live my life as a nomad and integrate touring as a significant component to my lifestyle.
With this blog, I am trying to capture some of the adventures of being an independent full-time traveling rocker. I am hoping that my writing will bring people to listen to my music. There is so much music available online that it becomes challenging at times to take the time and discover a new artist.
Through my stories, perhaps some people will have an opportunity to connect with my music. I have no pretensions of becoming a writer. I see writing as one of the rock n roll weapons in an independent DIY artist’s arsenal.
Black Sea Storm on Spotify
Black Sea Storm on Apple Music
Black Sea Storm on YouTube (blackseastorm11)
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Black Sea Storm on Twitter | https://medium.com/@aliozkan-67667/going-north-part-i-2d7ae689c1b8 | ['Black Sea Storm'] | 2021-01-22 03:27:20.489000+00:00 | ['Mazatlan', 'Musicians', 'Travel', 'Mexico', 'Rock'] |
The Waves are Waiting for Me | THE WAVE: PROMPT
The Waves are Waiting for Me
Which is good because I don’t know how to surf but now I learned how to make a kicker — even the smallest things are creating energy shifts Marcus Follow Dec 26, 2020 · 1 min read
Photo by Pedro Lastra on Unsplash
Life is pure unadulterated joy these past several days. To what do I attribute it? I am rolling in a positive feedback loop!! What was the catalyst?🤷♂️
I’ve been pondering on that question for the last several minutes and the answer surprises me but the energy shifts I’m experiencing at these very moments confirm it. I believe in Tarot; I believe in Astrology; I do not buy into this 5D Earth opportunity-for-charlatans-to-make-buck-crud; I can affirm without a shadow of a doubt that there is no such thing as twin-flames (God told me); why all that lead-in? The dramatic effect of course. I had been laying the groundwork for weeks but the answer is…universe are you shitting me — am I really going to type that the catalyst was the fucking solstice and the Saturn-Jupiter convergence in this Aquarian’s house?
And so it was that I came to believe that there is an Age of Aquarius.
Less is more. Just remember to go with the flow. | https://medium.com/queen-s-children/the-waves-are-waiting-for-me-b0eae35b7495 | [] | 2020-12-26 21:24:04.798000+00:00 | ['The Wave', 'Sacred Feminine', 'Prompt', 'Stories', 'Spirituality'] |
Why a Man’s Masculinity is Essential to a Woman | Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash
There are certain traits that we heterosexual women look for in a man. Things like kindness, intelligence, a great sense of humor and a well-oiled perspective. I like to call it seasoning — it’s those underlying sexy qualities in man that really sets a woman’s heart ablaze. That being said, what one woman might consider a deal-breaker about a man’s personality may simultaneously be the reason another falls in love with him — beauty really is in the heart of the beholder.
“Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.” ― David Hume
Nice, huh?
Tell you what else is pretty damn nice — men. Yup, I love men.
Give me a man with natural charm, an open mind and a great sense of humor, and I’m totally down for his company. I am a woman who can truly appreciate the different and often unique perspective a man will offer on any given situation, too.
The way men are wired, how they think and behave, is frequently delightful and at times — really amusing. I admire the male physique and how he contrasts and feels against my body, and honestly, there is no better feeling in the world to a woman than snuggling into the arms of the man she loves.
Ah, nirvana for lovers.
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https://mane-ki-man.medium.com/another-wave-the-same-mistakes-b5a1c97e8aa0?postPublishedType=initial
https://bossvai.medium.com/the-great-reset-this-is-not-a-test-this-is-not-a-conspiracy-ee3df23ef91c
For a woman like me, her man’s arms are the sweet, safe place away from the world, like her own sacred slice of masculine security.
Simple, and yet, there it is — a man’s masculinity is the one quality essential to us and I’ll tell you why — only a man can bring that pure, masculine dynamic into a situation and above all else, a woman like me is most attracted to man who makes her feel like a woman.
It doesn’t matter how independent, ambitious or strong we are either.
She could be a ball-breaking CEO who has clawed her way to the top in a male-dominated corporate world, or she could be a creative soul who regularly experiences the resistance offered by her male counterparts in her industry. Regardless, when it comes to her personal relationships, what a woman most really appreciates about a man is how his natural masculinity makes her feel when she’s around him.
The Modern Man nails it perfectly in their article, Definition of a Real Man:
“A real man is a man with genuine self-confidence and true masculinity. He’s a man who knows his own mind and knows what he’s about in life, and he’s not afraid to stand up for what he believes in. When a man has these qualities, he has a natural self-assuredness that makes him stand out head and shoulders above other men, and women feel an instinctive sexual attraction towards him because he has what it takes to protect her and provide for her, allowing her to relax into being a woman in the relationship.”
No matter how fast the world transforms with shifting gender roles, some things never change. Like the energy between men and women. Not to mention that a man who possesses a nice dollop of strong masculine energy and knows how to embody that part of himself, is downright sexy.
And, seasoned.
That’s because the saucy, masculine man is someone who is emotionally stronger than your average dude, ready to face the fire when necessary, and much more masculine in the way he thinks, behaves and takes action in life.
Though right now, women the world over are struggling to find him.
How come? I hear you ask.
Well, before the term Metrosexual became the latest buzzword on cyber-balls alley, there was once a time when men used to be the real deal. These now rare creatures had more style than the hair care section of a fashion magazine, and followed a certain code of honor that involved treating each other and all women with respect. Unfortunately, those days are now a thing of the past.
For the most part.
Of course, there are still men around who have their affairs in order — who have backbone, strength of character and authentic presence; and who embrace their God-given, musky masculinity like the men they are.
They’re just, well … uncommon.
David French from National Review has his own ideas about why men’s masculinity is on the decrease:
“In the age of zero-tolerance school-disciplinary policies — where any kind of physical confrontation is treated like a human-rights violation — boys have less opportunity to develop toughness. Today’s young males don’t have common touchstones for what it’s like to grow up to be a man.”
Interesting, don’t you think?
In a recent discussion with my husband about it, I wasn’t surprised when he whole-heartedly agreed that many of his counterparts have increasingly lost touch with their masculinity.
Granted, this is a man who is clearly in sync with his own fragrant male energy.
Yes, he uses way too much of my Argan oil to smooth his long, wild tresses, and has his own collection of skin care products; but he also owns every bit of who he is, has the heart of a lion and still believes in the ever-dying art of chivalry — never have I witnessed him disrespect a woman in any manner or form, nor have I seen him run for cover when life throws him an unexpected loop.
In fact, one of my husband’s most admirable traits is that he is a fighter and not a flighter, which is a hallmark quality of masculinity. His deep sense of protectiveness over me and our children makes me feel safe and secure in the knowledge that he has my back, and that’s important to a woman.
Another contributing factor of the decrease in masculinity may lie in this entire era frequently dubbed as the “information age”. As far as I can see, cyber-balls are everywhere, yet scarce when it comes to the real stuff like acknowledging feelings, relationships, showing respect, embracing change and finding courage at a crucial moment.
Right? It’s no secret that the internet has made a serious impact on the way we interact with each other, and social media has snatched away the need for real interaction.
The truth is that a whole new breed of men has emerged from cyber space reality, or rather, un-reality — and many have lost sight of the true essence of their masculinity.
Interpersonal confrontations … people using the internet as a shield, hiding behind IP addresses in order to fool with the minds of women who may genuinely care about them.
Ghosting, catfishing and breadcrumbing — have we become subhuman?
Meh.
The situation appears dire, but try not to be too disheartened, dear reader. I did mention that there are still men out there who are in touch with their masculinity and who also remember how to treat a woman like a lady.
Great news.
These are the kind of men who realize that if they can make a woman feel her femininity, then they will have unlocked the key to the one quality she truly needs in a man.
Even better news.
So, what does this spirited, masculine-empowered man look like?
While there is no such thing as the “perfect man” (or woman, for that matter), there are a few common traits that a man who embodies his masculinity will demonstrate.
A man who is in touch with his masculinity…
Knows Exactly What He Wants
Let’s be honest — a man who can make a decision is extremely attractive. Not just about the big things, but the small things, too.
He knows where he is taking his woman for dinner, or which cozy cabin in the woods he plans on spending a week together away from the world.
This guy makes it his business to know her know her business, too, because he understands that her desires impact his own in a vital way and that love is a two-way street. Her wants, needs and passions are an important part of his life.
No matter what the circumstances, real men are just as concerned for the feelings, needs and minds of women as they are for their own.
A masculine man possesses that zesty spark in his eye when speaks of his ambitions, dreams and plans for the future. He’s got drive and purpose that matches the love of his woman, and he’s not afraid to take a leap of faith.
Follows His Path and Ignores Adversity
None of us can escape those “two-cent” people in our lives who always have something to say about we are a doing, who we are and who we want to become.
Moreover, life has a way of presenting adverse situations and seemingly immovable obstacles along the path toward going for what lights us up on the inside.
That is, our heart’s desire.
One of the most masculine traits a man can embrace is the ability to ignore those irrelevant opinions and work on his own craft.
A real man will follow his dreams no matter how much reality suggests they are impossible to achieve. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not always perfect at this. He might sway off the right track at times when hitting that all-too consuming “dip”, and that’s normal. But he will pick himself up to eventually keep reaching and striving toward his true calling because he knows that being true to himself is the only way to achieve real fulfilment in life — perseverance will ultimately pay off.
A man who is touch with his masculinity will set his sights firmly on his goal, keep the bigger picture fresh in his mind’s eye and believe that anything is possible; because it really is.
Exhibits Powerful Body Language
Smoking hot is the man who exhibits strong body language.
He exudes self-confidence and comprehends the correlation between his body language and how others see him. His masculine energy demands respect, though he is realistic enough to understand that there will always be obstacles — internal demons to conquer and otherwise.
He also knows that with the right mindset and a whole lot of heart, there is nothing that he can’t rise above and overcome, therefore, he stands strong in his presence even when he’s not entirely feeling it.
This beautiful man knows that others treat him the way he shows them how he wants to be treated. As a result of the masculine energy that surrounds him, he has no problem finding a way towards what he wants.
A man who is touch with his masculine energy has an inviting body language which attracts others toward him and provides them with feelings of comfort and security.
Knows to Make His Woman Feel Like a Woman
He will always treat a woman like a lady. No matter what.
As mentioned earlier, the honest truth is that every woman wants to feel safe and secure next to her man. A real man does that for her and more, and he’s not threatened by a woman who can hold her own beside him.
For instance, my husband knows that I am more than capable of standing my ground against his fiery, dominate male nature. He will often say that “I am one lippy woman”.
Interestingly enough, he finds my strong sense-of-self incredibly sexy.
And the fact that he does find my assertive nature as arousing as my more unassuming and gentler attributes fascinates me to no end. No one else has ever shown the mental and emotional stamina to be able to handle who I really am as a woman and my place in this world; choosing instead to oppress my individuality by means of super-controlling and brute behavior.
The point is that a man who is solid in his own male energy knows that allowing a woman to freely express herself in his presence is a gift to them both as it creates deeper meaning and balance between the sexes.
It’s like honoring the powerful flow of the yin and yang elements, which touches on the purest layers of love.
Naturally, when a man is conscious of uncovering balanced love with his feminine he doesn’t just focus on her outwardly appearance, possessions or status: he is fully aware that as beautiful as she is now, physical beauty fades with time.
Therefore, he will intentionally focus his love and attention on her true beauty, which is found within her sensibilities, soul-essence and personality.
He will protect his woman physically and emotionally; and is ready to throw a good punch if necessary, to defend her from physical aggressors.
A man who is touch with his masculine energy is someone who will engage his woman in meaningful discussions about life and plans for their shared future. He displays an awareness, intelligence and sensitivity that makes his actions not only timely, but also genuinely charming. | https://medium.com/@the-man/why-a-mans-masculinity-is-essential-to-a-woman-ab4d70be7d61 | ['Logston Peggie'] | 2020-12-12 17:00:22.392000+00:00 | ['Masculinity', 'Relationships', 'Self', 'Women', 'Love'] |
Project Finance Definition & Meaning | PROJECT FINANCE DEFINITION
Project finance has traditionally been defined as the financing of long-term infrastructure, industrial projects and public services based upon a non-recourse or limited recourse financial structure, in which project debt and equity used to finance the project are paid back from the cash flow generated by the project. Project financing is essentially a loan structure that relies primarily on the project’s cash flow for repayment, with the project’s assets, rights and interests held as secondary security or collateral. Project finance is especially attractive to the private sector because companies can fund major projects off balance sheet. Project Finance deals with financial aspects related to a particular project that involves analyzing the feasibility of a project and its funding requirements on the basis of the cash flows that the project is expected to generate, if undertaken, over the years.
Large projects, especially related to infrastructure, oil, and gas, or public utility, are highly capital intensive and require funding. Project finance acts as a means to fund these projects. It involves considering a project on a standalone basis. The project themselves are treated as financial entities (Special Purpose Vehicles or SPVs).
It is so because the financing of these projects usually remains off-balance-sheet of the company that is undertaking the project. It is done in order to reduce the risks involved and their possible impact on the company’s existing balance sheets.
Thus, all the liabilities of the project are paid off only from the cash flows generated by the project. Assets owned by the parent company can’t be used to pay off these debts.
Project Finance can be characterized in a variety of ways and there is no universally adopted definition but as a financing technique, a broad definition is:
“the raising of finance on a Limited Recourse basis, for the purposes of developing a large capital- intensive infrastructure project, where the borrower is a special purpose vehicle and repayment of the financing by the borrower will be dependent on the internally generated cashflows of the project”
This definition in itself raises a number of interesting questions, including:
What is meant by ‘Limited Recourse’ financing — recourse to whom or what? Why is Project Finance typically used to finance large capital intensive infrastructure projects? Why is the borrower a special purpose vehicle (SPV) under a project financing? What happens if the internally generated cashflows of the project are not sufficient to repay the financiers of the project?
The terms ‘Project Finance’ and ‘Limited Recourse Finance’ are typically used interchangeably and should be viewed as one in the same. Indeed, it is debatable the extent to which a financing where the Lenders have significant collateral with (or other form of contractual remedy against) the project shareholders of the borrower can be truly regarded as a project financing. The ‘limited’ recourse that financiers have to a project’s shareholders in a true project financing is a major motivation for corporates adopting this approach to infrastructure investment. Project financing is largely an exercise in the equitable allocation of a project’s risks between the various stakeholders of the project. Indeed, the genesis of the financing technique can be traced back to this principle. Roman and Greek merchants used project financing techniques in order to share the risks inherent to maritime trading. A loan would be advanced to a shipping merchant on the agreement that such loan would be repaid only through the sale of cargo brought back by the voyage (i.e. the financing would be repaid by the ‘internally generated cashflows of the project’, to use modern project financing terminology).
Project finance is hence the process of financing a specific economic unit that the sponsors create, in which creditors share much of the venture’s business risk and funding is obtained strictly for the project itself. Project finance creates value by reducing the costs of funding, maintaining the sponsors financial flexibility, increasing the leverage ratios, avoiding contamination risk, reducing corporate taxes, improving risk management, and reducing the costs associated with market imperfections. However, project finance transactions are complex undertakings, they have higher costs of borrowing when compared to conventional financing and the negotiation of the financing and operating agreements is time-consuming.
Project Finance as the process of financing ‘a particular economic unit in which a lender is satisfied to look initially to the cash flows and earnings of that economic unit as the source of funds from which a loan will be repaid and to the assets of the economic unit as collateral for the loan’. Thus, the funding does not depend on the reliability and creditworthiness of the sponsors and does not even depend on the value of assets that sponsors make available to financiers.
Definitions of Project Finance emphasize the idea that lenders have no claim to any other assets than the project itself. Therefore, lenders must be completely certain that the project is fully capable of meeting its debt and equity liabilities through its economic merit alone. The success of a Project Financing transaction is highly associated with structuring the financing of a project through as little recourse as possible to the sponsor, while at the same time providing sufficient credit support through guarantees or undertakings of a sponsor or third party so that lenders will be satisfied with the credit risk2. Finally, the allocation of specific project risks to those parties best able to manage them is one of the key comparative advantages of Project Finance.
There are five distinctive features of a Project Financing transaction. First, the debtor is a project company (special purpose vehicle — SPV) that is financially and legally independent from the sponsors, i.e., project companies are standalone entities. Second, financiers have only limited or no recourse to the sponsors — the extent, amount and quality of their involvement is limited. Third, project risks are allocated to those parties that are best able to manage them. Fourth, the cash flow generated by the project must be sufficient to cover operating cash flows and service the debt in terms of interest and debt repayment. Finally, collateral is given by sponsors to financiers as security for cash inflows and assets tied up in managing the project.
Commonly referred as “off-balance-sheet” financing, Project Finance is often used to segregate the credit risk of the project from that of its sponsors so that lenders, investors, and other parties will appraise the project strictly on its own merits. It involves the creation of an entirely new vehicle company, with a limited life, for each new investment project. Project companies are legally independent entities with very concentrated equity ownership and have higher leverage levels.
The core of Project Finance is the analysis of project risks, namely construction risk, operating risk, market risk, regulatory risk, insurance risk, and currency risk. There are risks related to the pre-completion phase such as activity planning risk, technological risk, and construction risk or completion risk. Then there are risks related to the post-completion phase such as supply risk, operating risk, and demand risk. And then there are risks related to both phases such as interest rate risk, exchange risk, inflation risk, environmental risk, regulatory risk, political risk, country risk, legal risk, and credit risk or counterparty risk. These risks are allocated contractually to the parties best able to manage them. The process of risk management is usually based on the following interrelated steps:
risk identification; risk analysis; risk transfer and allocation; residual risk management;
This process is crucial in Project Financing transactions and they must be identified and allocated to create an efficient incentivizing tool for the parties involved..
PROJECT FINANCE BENEFITS
Financing projects through the project finance route offers various benefits such as the opportunity for risk sharing, extending the debt capacity, the release of free cash flows, and maintaining a competitive advantage in a competitive market. Project finance is a useful tool for companies that wish to avoid the issuance of a corporate repayment guarantee, thus preferring to finance the project in an off-balance sheet manner. The project finance route permits the sponsor to extend their debt capacity by enabling the sponsor to finance the project on someone’s credit, which could be the purchaser of the project’s outputs. Sponsors can raise funding for the project based simply on the contractual commitments.
Project finance also permits the sponsors to share the project risks with other stakeholders. The basic structure of project finance demands that the sponsors spread the risks through a network of security arrangements, contractual agreements, and other supplemental credit support to other financially capable parties willing to assume the risks. This helps in reducing the risk exposure of the project company.
The project finance route empowers the providers of funds to decide how to manage the free cash flow that is left over after paying the operational and maintenance expenses and other statutory payments. In traditional corporate forms of organization, corporate management decides on how to use the free cash flow — whether to invest in new projects or to pay dividends to the shareholders. Similarly, as the capital is returned to the funding agencies, particularly investors, they can decide for themselves how to reinvest it. As the project company has a finite life and its business is confined to the project only, there are no conflicts of interest between investors and the management of the company, as often happens in the case of traditional corporate forms of organization.
Financing projects through the project finance route may enable the sponsors to maintain the confidentiality of valuable information about the project and maintain a competitive advantage. This is a benefit of raising equity finance for the project (however, this advantage is quite limited when seeking capital market financing (project bonds). Where equity funds are to be raised (or sold at a later time so as to recycle capital) through market routes (for example, Initial Public Offerings [IPOs]), the project-related information needs to be shared with the capital market, which may include competitors of the project company/sponsors. In the project finance route, the sponsors can share the information with a small group of investors and negotiate the price without revealing proprietary information to the general public. And, since the investors will have a financial stake in the project, it is also in their interest to maintain confidentiality.
In spite of these advantages, project finance is quite complex and costly to assemble. The cost of capital arranged through this route is high in comparison with capital arranged through conventional routes. The complexity of project finance deals is due to the need to structure a set of contracts that must be negotiated by all of the parties to the project. This also leads to higher transaction costs on account of the legal expenses involved in designing the project structure, dealing with project-related tax and legal issues, and the preparation of necessary project ownership, loan documentation, and other contracts.
PROJECT FINANCE DYNAMICS
From a broad perspective and general analysis, the financial viability (or commercial feasibility) of the project is assessed by determining whether the net present value (NPV) is positive. NPV will be positive if the expected present value of the free cash flow is greater than the expected present value of the construction costs. However, in addition to or in lieu of the NPV, lenders will use debt ratios such as the Debt Service Cover Ratio (DSCR) and Life Loan Cover Ratio (LLCR) as the main ratios to measure bankability.
The DSCR measures the protection of each year’s debt service by comparing the free cash flow (more precisely, the cash flow available for debt service — CFADS) to the debt service requirement. The DSCR requires that the cash flow available for debt service is at least a specified ratio (for example, 1.2 times) of the scheduled debt service for the relevant year. The LLCR compares the overall amount of free cash flow projected for the life of the loan, duly discounted with the amount of debt under analysis. The LLCR also reflects the capacity of the SPV to meet the debt obligations over the life of the loan (considering potential re-structuring).
On the basis of the projected cash flows of the SPV, including the debt profile under analysis, lenders and their due diligence advisors will observe the value of such ratios, and accommodate the debt amount so as to meet them, considering the maximum term at which they are ready to lend. Subsequently, they will run sensitivities analysis (including break-even analysis) on the project cash flows to test the resistance of the project to adverse conditions or adverse movements of the free cash flow figures from the base case.
In determining financial viability, and related to the reliability of cash flows and the guarantees offered by the contract (especially termination provisions), the lenders will analyze the risk structure of the contract. This will include determining how achievable the performance standards in “government-pays” projects, or the contractual guarantees in “user-pays” projects, actually are. Lenders will exercise tight control of all cash flows, limiting the ability of the private partner(s) to dispose of them — through “covenants” (for example, no distributions may be made if the actual DSCR of the previous year has not meet a certain threshold). The bank accounts through which cash flows pass will be pledged and held with a bank within the syndicate; this is in addition to other provisions to be adapted in the loan agreement.
PROJECT FINANCE RISKS
Costs of Project: During the financial and technical analysis of a project, a certain cost of raw materials would have been assumed. If the costs exceed the assumptions, it will get difficult to repay the capital.
Timeliness: Missing the deadlines associated with the project can result in penalties.
Performance: Even if the project gets completed on time, it is necessary that it meets the expectations so that it can generate expected cash flows.
Political Risks: Government related projects always have huge political risks involved as a change in political policies can impact funding, feasibility, requirements of the project.
Currency Exchange: If the lenders are not local, the capital will involve exchange rate risks as interest payable can go up.
PROJECT FINANCE KEY FEATURES
Risk Sharing: The company shares the risks associated with the project failure with the other participating entities by keeping the project off the balance sheet.
Involvement of Multiple Parties: As the projects are large and capital extensive, multiple parties often provide capital in the form of debt or equity.
Better Management: As the whole project is a different entity in itself, often, a dedicated team is assigned to look after the completion of the project, which results in better efficiency and output.
PROJECT FINANCE SPONSORS
Sponsors associated with a special purpose vehicle can be of following types:
Industrial: These are mainly those whose business gets impacted in some way (positive impact) with the project been executed.
Public: These include the sponsors that have the public interest in mind. These can be associated with government or other cooperative societies.
Contractual: These sponsors are mainly involved in the development, operations, and maintenance of the project.
Financial: These include the sponsors that participate in project financing, looking for high returns.
PROJECT FINANCE STRUCTURE
The structuring of project financing is a framework in which ownership structure, project structure, risk structure, and financial structure decisions are made and tied together in the project’s legal structure which, in turn, forms a foundation for funding the project on a limited recourse basis. A simplified project financing structure includes multiple key elements:
The ownership structure is how the special purpose company/vehicle (SPC/SPV) is organized; that is, as a corporation, unincorporated joint venture, limited liability partnership, etc. Project structure on the other hand refers to the agreements defining responsibilities and transfer of rights and/or ownership of the SPC/SPV such as build, operate, and transfer of ownership (BOT), build, own, operate, and transfer (BOOT), build, lease, and transfer (BLT), etc. Risk structure is the prioritization and mitigation of risks after the identification, assessment, and allocation process is completed. The project’s legal structure is the web of contracts and agreements negotiated to make financing possible. Financial structure refers to the mix of financing used to fund a project, which includes equity, short‐ and long‐term loans, bonds, trade credits, etc. and the cash flows to equity providers and the lenders.
A special purpose vehicle (SPV) project company with no previous business or record is necessary for project financing. The company’s sole activity is carrying out the project by subcontracting most aspects through construction contract and operations contract. Because there is no revenue stream during the construction phase of new-build projects, debt service is possible during the operations phase only. For this reason, parties take significant risks during the construction phase. Sole revenue stream is most likely under an off-take or power purchase agreement. Because there is limited or no recourse to the project’s sponsors, company shareholders are typically liable up to the extent of their shareholdings. The project remains off-balance-sheet for the sponsors and for the government.)
A special purpose company/vehicle (SPC/SPV) project company with no previous business or record is necessary for project financing. The company’s sole activity is carrying out the project by subcontracting most aspects through construction contract and operations contract. Because there is no revenue stream during the construction phase of new-build projects, debt service is possible during the operations phase only. For this reason, parties take significant risks during the construction phase. Sole revenue stream is most likely under an off-take or power purchase agreement. Because there is limited or no recourse to the project’s sponsors, company shareholders are typically liable up to the extent of their shareholdings. The project remains off-balance-sheet for the sponsors and for the government.
There are multiple parties involved in a typical project and there are multiple configurations of the “capital stack” used to finance the development, construction and operations during the project’s life. In contrast, corporate finance is carried out by the corporation as a whole rather than by an entity created specifically to hold ownership of the new facility. Lenders in a corporate financing agreement evaluate the cash flow and assets of the entire corporation to service the debt and provide risk mitigation.
An alternative to corporate financing is the formation of a project company to develop, construct and operate a plant or facility. In a project financing, investments in the plant are considered assets of the project company, and funding is provided in the form of equity, debt or a combination of the two. The project’s assets and cash flow secure the debt, and creditors do not have recourse to the sponsors’ other available resources.
This type of borrowing is called non-recourse. Since the repayment of the loan is primarily dependent on the success of the project, lenders pay special attention to project risks and risk mitigation.
Loan Origination is the process of assembling a project package that describes how funding is organized in the form of equity and how much in debt. Equity is put into the project company by shareholders who then receive dividends and capital gains based on net profits of the project company.
Project debt refers to the funds loaned by lenders such as commercial banks, insurance and pension funds and multilateral institutions. These loans are secured by the project’s assets and the lenders receive payments for principal and interest whether the company is profitable or not. Debt lenders examine projected cash flow carefully to insure there is sufficient financial capacity for debt service and repayment.
To raise project funding, sponsors issue or sell securities which represent a claim on the future cash flow of the project and a contingent claim on the assets of the project.
The type of security determines the order in claim of the debts over the cash flow and the assets of the project. Senior debt ranks highest and are normally in the form of loans from commercial banks, investment banks, development agencies, pension funds and export credit agencies.
Next in order comes subordinated debt which is a second claim on the assets of the project. Subordinated debt is assumed by lenders willing to take greater risks, and they can in turn, receive greater returns on their investment.
Equity involves the highest risk and can be contributed by project sponsors, investment funds or multilateral institutions. Public equity is an option and can come from governments or a host of lending agencies such as the World Bank, regional banks, export credit or trade agencies.
Financial flows in any project can be categorized as public and/or private. Public flows include technical assistance, loan guarantees and borrowing from multilateral agencies under government sponsorship.
Private flows include debt and equity:
Debt includes bonds and bank borrowing Equity includes foreign direct investment or portfolio equity
The core of Project Finance is the analysis of project risks, namely construction risk, operating risk, market risk, regulatory risk, insurance risk, and currency risk. There are risks related to the pre-completion phase such as activity planning risk, technological risk, and construction risk or completion risk. Then there are risks related to the post-completion phase such as supply risk, operating risk, and demand risk. And then there are risks related to both phases such as interest rate risk, exchange risk, inflation risk, environmental risk, regulatory risk, political risk, country risk, legal risk, and credit risk or counterparty risk. These risks are allocated contractually to the parties best able to manage them. The process of risk management is usually based on the following interrelated steps:
risk identification; risk analysis; risk transfer and allocation; residual risk management;
Essential to structuring a project finance package are the crucial elements of successful identification, analysis, mitigation and allocation of project risks. These risks are related to events that could endanger the project during development, construction and operation.
During the development stage the main risk is rejection by the host government or by the financiers — for reasons including commercial weakness, failure to obtain licenses, permissions and clearance. Sponsors can hedge their risks by obtaining technical assistance grants for project preparation and planning.
During the construction stage the main risk is failure to complete the project with acceptable performance levels and within an acceptable time frame and budget. Sponsors can hedge construction risks by purchasing various forms of insurance and obtaining guarantees from contractors with regard to costs, completion schedule and operational performance.
After construction, the main risk is ongoing operations and performance and include technical failures, availability of funds, market demand, prices, foreign exchange rates or environmental issues. The sponsors can hedge these risks through contractual and guarantee agreements that transfer some of the risk to other parties.
Financial due diligence requires that, during loan preparation and processing, sufficient analysis is undertaken to enable an informed assessment to be made with respect to project financial viability and long-term sustainability, and that the borrowers’ financial and project management systems are, or will be, sufficiently robust to ensure that funds are used for the purpose intended and that controls will be in place to support monitoring and supervision of the project.
There are Guidelines that provide the framework for financial due diligence, namely completion of a financial management assessment (FMA) of the executing agency (EA) and/or implementing agency (IA), financial evaluation of the project, and assessment of implementation arrangements (from a financial perspective, including disbursement and auditing arrangements).
The methodology note provides specific guidance in four primary aspects of financial due diligence:
financial management assessment, project cost estimates and financing plan, financial analysis, and financial evaluation.
It also provides guidance on assessing disbursement auditing arrangements. This financial due diligence methodology note offers a suggested approach for operationalizing the standard project preparation and loan processing requirements of the Guidelines. the Guidelines, together with the methodology note, should be seen as a reference guide to assist staff in conducting an appropriate degree of financial due diligence during project preparation and processing, and should guide staff in determining the appropriate level of financial management safeguards required for a given project and/or EA and/or IA.
Effective financial management within the EA and/or IA is a critical success factor for project sustainability, both in the effective use of funds and in the safeguard of assets once created. Irrespective of how well a particular project or program is designed and implemented, if the EA and/or IA does not have the capacity to effectively manage its financial resources, the benefits of the project are unlikely to be sustainable.
The objective of the financial management assessment (FMA) is to ensure that the EA and/or IA has, or will have, sufficiently strong and robust financial management systems and procedures in place to ensure sustainability of project investments and benefits over time.
The FMA is a review of the entity’s systems for financial and management accounting, reporting, auditing, and internal controls. It also involves an assessment of the entity’s disbursement and cash flow management arrangements, and governance and anticorruption measures. The FMA is not an audit; it is a review designed to determine whether or not the entity’s financial management arrangements are sufficient for the purposes of project implementation.
The first step is to determine whether an FMA has recently been completed by any other credible financial institution (Bank, NBFC, VC or PE agencies) , the objective being to avoid duplicating diagnostic work that already exists. If an FMA exists, this should be reviewed and, in particular, any work done to overcome previously identified weaknesses should be checked. The original FMA can then be updated accordingly.
If an FMA has never been completed, or if there have been significant on-ground changes which render an existing FMA obsolete, then the following approach to the FMA is recommended:
Review the Economic Sector diagnostic studies specific to the country where the project is located, including the country financial accountability assessment, country procurement assessment report, country governance assessment, and diagnostic study on accounting and auditing.
Early in project preparation, have the borrower/project promoter complete a Financial Management Assessment Questionnaire (FMAQ).
Review responses to the FMAQ, determine what (if any) additional information is required in order to be able to conclude whether or not the financial management arrangements (a) are capable of recording all transactions and balances, (b) support the preparation of regular and reliable financial statements, © safeguard the entity’s assets, and (d) are subject to audit.
Review past audit reports and audit management letters to assess what concerns have previously been raised on systems and internal controls.
Form a conclusion with respect to whether or not the financial management arrangements and financial and project accounting systems can be relied upon for the purposes of the project.
If issues and/or weaknesses are identified, determine the most appropriate mitigation measures (e.g., restructuring finance sections, increasing finance staff, filling vacant posts, developing new systems, developing financial reporting, training, etc.).
Determine whether, given the findings, it is necessary to include a project component to strengthen financial management in the EA and/or IA and/or establish or strengthen a project implementation or project management office via either technical assistance or consultant support within the project. | https://medium.com/@subcontractsindia/project-finance-definition-meaning-a4158c1c3593 | ['Subcontracts India'] | 2020-12-18 10:39:36.467000+00:00 | ['Finance', 'Economics', 'Business', 'Infrastructure', 'Project Management'] |
7 Shortcuts to Build Early Visibility for Your Brand | Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash
Visibility is everything when you’re trying to build a company from the ground up. Visibility earns you traffic. Visibility gets you exposure. Visibility helps you build a reputation. And without it, even the best company, offering the best value, can go unnoticed by the masses.
The central problem with visibility isn’t awareness of its importance, however; it’s finding a way to achieve visibility without investing significant time or effort. Most marketing and advertising strategies either take months to fully kick in, or cost tens of thousands of dollars that your small business probably doesn’t have to throw around.
Fortunately, there are some shortcuts you can use to build early visibility for your brand, without demanding much in the way of time or money:
1. An endorsement. First, you could try to get an endorsement from a trusted authority or highly visible source. For example, if you make a specific product, you could get it in the hands of a celebrity or a niche product reviewer, and hope they make reference to it on one of their social media profiles. Assuming they have a respectable audience, any mention could instantly put you in front of thousands of new people, and earn some second-hand trust for your brand along the way. You don’t have to go as far as Nike getting LeBron James or Heineken Light getting Neil Patrick Harris, but anyone with authority and some relevance to your brand will be valuable.
2. Viral content. This one’s a bit of a long shot. Viral content is an art and a science that requires luck and timing to pull off successfully — but if it lands, it could propel you into the public eye. Viral content is content that’s shared early and often; it passes hands quickly, and can sometimes accumulate millions of views because every new share puts it in front of an audience of new people. The trouble is producing content that’s practical, exciting, novel, and timed appropriately all at the same time. If you’re looking for inspiration, take a gander at Dollar Shave Club’s ads, touting their blades as “f***ing great.” The main video was surprising, funny, and offered good information about the brand — and it ended up with nearly 25 million views.
3. Influencer co-ops. Similar to receiving an endorsement, you could get a jumpstart in visibility by working one-on-one with a known influencer in your industry. Influencers are authoritative sources with significant followings, and they’re likely to share any content they’ve had a hand in producing. If you produce a piece of content together, like a piece of original research or a collective interview, your name could get introduced to an audience of thousands of new people. A couple years back, two powerhouses in the content marketing game — Moz and BuzzSumo — teamed up to write an awesome piece about the nature of links and shares with this approach.
4. Local SEO. If you’ve read any of my work, you know I’m a major proponent of search engine optimization (SEO). It’s an ideal long-term strategy for attracting traffic and building your reputation, but its biggest downside makes it hard for new businesses to adopt; it takes many months to build the momentum necessary to see its full value. However, if you instead narrow your focus to local SEO by targeting localized keywords (and earning a spot in the local 3-pack), you’ll be able to build rankings faster — and simultaneously set yourself up for a stronger national strategy when you grow larger.
5. Social media contests. Social media marketing has almost no barrier to entry, since anybody can create an account and start posting for free. However, if you want to build a substantial audience, you’ll need to post and engage with an audience consistently for months to years. You don’t have that kind of time, but you can generate an audience relatively quickly by introducing a contest. Offer a valuable reward, such as an entry into a giveaway or a smartwatch for the top contestant, and encourage your followers to post content with a specific hashtag to mark their entries. Contests tend to spread like wildfire if you offer the right prize at the right time; for example, Qwertee gave away 1,000 T-shirts every week as part of an ongoing giveaway/contest, which is a steep cost — but they ended up with more than 100,000 Facebook likes.
6. PPC ads. I don’t generally recommend pay-per-click (PPC) ads as a long-term strategy, since they have a flat curve of return on investment (ROI). However, if used to generate significant volumes of new traffic to a site in its earliest stages, PPC ads can be cost-effective. You’ll only pay for the traffic you receive, and if you target your audience correctly, and optimize your landing pages and conversion rates, every new visitor will yield some value for your brand.
7. Controversy. Finally, you can try to stir up controversy. Controversial subjects tend to attract lots of commenters, and lots of comments and reactions tend to rank pieces of content higher in SERPs and individual users’ newsfeeds. Obviously, you’ll need to be careful here; getting political can be risky, and getting antagonistic can destroy your brand. Instead, make a case for an unpopular, but tolerable opinion, and don’t be afraid to fight for it. Adobo toed this line carefully when it released a study analyzing the most PC and most politically outspoken/controversial areas of the United States; it stirred up a heated debate, and ended up getting 67,000 social shares.
These shortcuts aren’t going to propel your business to success by themselves. Some of them are only practical during the early stages of your development, and others are meant to serve as segues into bigger, better strategies.
Still, if you’re struggling to get more visibility for your brand early on and you don’t have the budget to support a full-scale advertising campaign, these are solid tactics to fall back on. | https://jaysondemers.medium.com/7-shortcuts-to-build-early-visibility-for-your-brand-e3aa79dc316 | ['Jayson Demers'] | 2020-10-19 21:19:48.747000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Content Marketing', 'SEO', 'Content Strategy', 'Online Marketing'] |
Relationships: Sand, Shells, and Gems | Eyes glistened, footsteps hastened at sight of the beach,
Cupped hands breaking the surface within reach.
Little resistance met through the smooth soft sand,
Scooping up as much with your two bare hands.
Loose grains and small bits fall through the gaps.
Not important nor mattering much, perhaps?
What remains, gorgeous stones and precious seashells in palm.
Greedy, you plan to keep all within that clump.
All these stones and gems so dazzling from the sea.
Not noticing, you let go some while in a state of glee.
A jolt of pain from what seemed like a cut —
Jabbed into your flesh, a sea glass shard.
Hurt yet wanting to keep the beautiful ornament of the shores.
It pains with each passing second, to hold, you’ll only be left upset and with multiple sores.
Letting go of what seemed precious reluctantly along the way,
The load is lighter, the pain is less — you’re gonna be all okay.
You return to make your count,
Expecting disappointment having lost a great amount.
With little in hand compared to the very start,
You’re satisfied with these few precious gems — a happy heart.
Multiple trips made to different shores,
Collecting new treasures, also picking up pieces once lost.
My hefty collection expanded over many Springs and many Falls,
Memories of each, fret not — for I will always, always recall.
My prized bunch through the years,
You stuck through tough times and helped me overcome my greatest fears.
To my closest and dearest of friends,
This is how I know that you are my gems. | https://medium.com/coffee-with-a-side-of-thoughts/relationships-sand-shells-and-gems-babb19c8a55b | ['Darren Lee Yong'] | 2019-09-01 15:08:29.536000+00:00 | ['Sketch', 'Relationships', 'Friendship', 'Poetry'] |
3 Harmful Chemicals Found in Baby Products | It’s pretty crazy that our parents probably ate lead paint, right? I mean there was actual lead paint on their toys.
While we may think long ago were the days when toxic chemicals lurked in children’s toys and products, we’d be wrong.
In fact, baby products, in particular, have lots of sneaky chemicals that can have harmful effects on the health of our very little ones.
Here are a few of the dangerous chemicals that can be found in common baby items today.
1. Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde is a chemical used to embalm bodies, but it can also found in some baby products.
Uhm. What?
You may not have seen Formaldehyde written directly on an ingredients label, however, there are formaldehyde releasers in things like baby soap and baby shampoo that discharge small amounts of formaldehyde. Keep in mind that even small amounts of formaldehyde are dangerous because they are carcinogenic.
Meaning, it is probable that it could cause cancer.
Be on the lookout for these formaldehyde preservatives on your labels:
Formaldehyde, quaternium-15, dimethyl-dimethyl (DMDM) hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate, 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol (bromopol)
2. Talc
Everyone at some point has had baby powder on their shelf. I’ve even used it as an alternative to dry shampoo, but it looks like I will be finding an alternative to my alternative. Researchers have found that the talc in baby powder has several, potentially harmful effects on its users.
For example, if babies breathe in the powder, it can cause damage to their lungs. If baby powder is used excessively, it could cause symptoms of asthma or pneumonia. There have even been cases where children have died from overexposure to talcum powder.
The most famous of these powders come from Johnson & Johnson who have recently awarded 4.7 billion dollars to 22 women who have claimed that the J&J baby powder caused them to develop ovarian cancer because of trace amounts of asbestos that were allegedly found in the powder.
Yeeessshhh…
There are even more trials like these to come in 2019.
3. Fragrance
It turns out that the word “fragrance”, when listed in an ingredient label, is pretty vague. This is because companies aren’t obligated to disclose what is actually in the fragrance. In some cases, these fragrances are used to cover up the heavy smell of chemicals used in certain products.
Fragrance is used in diapers, baby lotions, laundry detergent, shampoos, and more. You see it everywhere and the concerning thing is that the FDA has acknowledged that fragrances are responsible for 30% of all allergic reactions.
Yes, your baby can smell like an ocean breeze, however, consider that fragrance can cause eczema, eye problems, neurological issues, asthma, and respiratory damage.
There’s a lot of potential for big moments of YIKES with that list.
The Good News
Here’s the thing, though. We’re lucky enough to live in a time where there are lots of green, clean, and transparent companies like Weleda, Seventh Generation, The Honest Company, Dr. Bronner’s, and many more who take the time and effort to make safe products for the little ones in our lives.
There are also apps like “Think Dirty” that keep companies accountable for what they’re putting in products. Just by scanning the barcode of an item, the app tells you if there are any potentially harmful chemicals in the product.
It’s a lifesaver, literally.
Awareness is the first step toward a healthier life for the little ones in our lives.
Because let’s be real — chemicals like those mentioned above have no place in baby products and we all deserve better from companies claiming to care about their consumers. | https://medium.com/@samanthaeubankswrites/lurking-in-the-labels-c512aae488d8 | ['Samantha Eubanks'] | 2019-11-27 01:31:31.253000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Organic', 'Health', 'Parenting'] |
Difference between customer success vs customer experience? | Customer Success vs Customer Experience: The Difference Between the Journey and the Destination: Customer experience concentrates on touchpoints, while customer success focuses on the end game
Customer success is fast becoming one of the most vital functions for software as a service (SaaS) companies providing subscription solutions that deliver personalized services to customers for minimal investment. With this model, customer value is attained over time through recurring revenue, subscriptions renewals and upsells rather than capturing it at a single sale point. This has fueled the need for a more proactive approach to managing customer relationships that goes beyond positive customer interactions or exceptional customer service and support.
Customer success is a longer-term strategy that focuses on cultivating deeper relationships with customers by helping them achieve their desired goals for using a platform or application. It spans the entire customer journey, from product development and adoption to customer retention and growth. Aligning your goals with those of your customers not only helps them gain greater value from your platform, but it also encourages mutually beneficial growth: Your customer enjoys sustained value, while your organization benefits from their prolonged cycle of renewal.
Customer success began as a tactic for preventing churn in SaaS firms, but it has now evolved into a growing discipline embraced by firms throughout the digital economy. Nonetheless, the concept still gets confused with another prevalent and similar-sounding industry term: customer experience.
This term is an outgrowth of the increased emphasis on consumers and the shift toward making their experiences as easy, pleasant and seamless as possible. Most companies in today’s highly competitive digital economy realize that winning the hearts, minds and wallets of customers hinges on delivering experiences that meet or exceed expectations at all stages of the customer journey. Not only does this solidify consumer loyalty to a brand, but companies with above-average customer experiences regularly outperform their competitors financially.
Customer experience (CX) roles tend to be more common in the business to consumer (B2C) market, while Customer Success (CS) roles are more popular in the business to business (B2B) sphere. That goes back to the nature of their purchases. Individual consumers typically make a purchase to fill a need or want, but they also crave an enjoyable experience with the product or service they buy. On the other hand, having an enjoyable experience with a B2B vendor is a plus, but it isn’t enough to justify purchasing a product. Businesses expect to see measurable value from the purchases they make, along with a return on their investment.
Two Customer-Centric Approaches
But the distinctions between the two terms go beyond their niches in the industry. What’s the best way to differentiate customer success vs customer experience? It’s the difference between the journey and the destination.
Imagine that you are flying to another city for a vacation. How do you feel about the journey? What experiences do you have booking your flight, arriving at the airport, checking your luggage, getting through security and boarding the plane? Now think about what happens when you arrive at your destination. What is your mood as you settle into your hotel, meet the locals, and explore the food and culture? The feelings you have when you travel versus when you arrive at your destination is a good metaphor for the difference between customer success and customer experience.
Customer experience refers to the feelings, emotions and perceptions customers have when using your platform, while customer success focuses on the value they get from using your product. Back to our travel metaphor, customer experience is comparable to how easy and enjoyable your flight is, while customer success is more about what happens when you arrive at your destination.
Customer experience is based on all the interactions and engagements customers have with your platform across various digital and physical touchpoints before, during and after a purchase. It starts with their experience as they discover your platform and purchase a subscription and evolves based on their experiences logging in, using the platform, customizing it to their needs and troubleshooting issues. But customer experience is more than just the sum of these experiences; it’s a culmination of the impressions customers develop about your platform at every touchpoint along the way.
Customer success is about ensuring that customers achieve their desired outcomes through their interactions with your platform. This encompasses everything from aligning your product to consumer demands to onboarding, training and ensuring customers are maximizing the features that will give them the highest return on investment. It’s a measure of all the actions you take to help customers accomplish their goals for investing in your platform in the first place.
To put it simply: CX teams look at the overall impression customers have across all interactions and strive to create more positive experiences, while CS teams analyze the end results of those interactions and find ways to improve experiences for customers and ensure their continued success with using the platform.
Customer experience is interactive, with the goal of making it easy and enjoyable for customers to use your product and interact with your team members and orchestrating their overall perception of your organization. Customer success is proactive, with the goal of helping customers use your product better so they can gain greater value from it and increasing the lifetime value of your customer base.
Customer experience concentrates on the here and now, while customer success is focused on making things better in the future, but you need both. Maybe you have a customer whose users only occasionally log into your platform. No matter how positive their experience is when they interact with your product, usage will drop if you aren’t meeting their business goals. To ensure the customer continues to use your product, it’s up to you to establish relevant goals and metrics to increase their ROI.
How CS and CX Works Together
Despite the differences in customer success vs customer experience, the two are inextricably connected. The customer is at the heart of both disciplines-and each share the objective of helping organizations understand customers better so they can manage their journey more effectively and earn their loyalty. In both instances, customer loyalty can and should be tracked and measured through metrics such as net promoter scores, customer satisfaction scores and churn scores. Though their responsibilities, aims and benefits overlap, CX and CS functions are often siloed, with CX initiatives launched by marketing or service managers to bring more customers on board and CS efforts headed up by inside sales specialists or account managers to retain existing customers.
But encouraging more of a symbiotic relationship between both is important not only for acquiring customers and keeping them happy, but also for building a customer-centric culture that enables your enterprise to grow revenue and establish a loyal customer base that allows you to compete with industry disruptors. The businesses that thrive in the modern digital marketplace are those that never stop learning from their customers or trying to improve the product experience.
When CX and CS efforts are coordinated, they can deliver stronger results. Take customer onboarding, for instance. CX initiatives that make onboarding intuitive and logical, including messaging that recognizes personalized goals and milestones (e.g., “Congratulations, you’ve passed this module and are just three steps away from becoming an expert.”), could be part of a larger CS effort to familiarize users with certain features in the platform so they can integrate them into their daily workflow faster. The sooner they begin using the product in its entirety, the sooner they will see the value of it.
Understanding what the customer is trying to achieve helps you pinpoint what you can do to push them toward that goal. This enables you to launch a more streamlined effort that uses consistent messaging, targeted interactions and relevant experiences to drive improved customer retention, brand advocacy and cross-selling.
Customer success software can be helpful for capturing the insights needed to better understand the overall customer experience and how to make it more successful. It enables enterprises to distill customer data-from demographics to details on feature usage and license utilization-into metrics that can guide proactive engagements with customers. An automated customer success platform can help organizations track usage through different phases of the customer journey and trigger alerts and actions to help CX and CS teams work together to deliver more personalized, cohesive experiences for customers that provide greater value. | https://medium.com/@smartkarrot/difference-between-customer-success-vs-customer-experience-34473809646c | ['Smartkarrot Inc.'] | 2020-05-28 18:02:05.956000+00:00 | ['Customer Centricity', 'Customer Experience Tool', 'Customer Centric Approach', 'Customer Success', 'Customer Experience'] |
5 Immense Benefits of Digital Transformation for your organization | Many business promoters came into 2020 with digital transformation still on their to-do lists. Sure, they were working on digital transformation…but, at their own pace.
Then, the pandemic hit. Digital innovation transformation quickly went from a “nice to have” to a necessity. Maximum businesses were bound to adapt to a remote work environment. Others quickly rushed to set up e-Commerce websites so they could continue selling products.
The problem is many businesses are just “plugging the leaks” so to speak. They are addressing the digital issues needed to survive, but aren’t completing a total digital transformation. They’re left with a patchwork of analog and digital tools/processes that don’t quite work together.
Now, I get it. This has been a strange and difficult year. Many businesses have no choice but to go into survival mode and only implement the digital tools they need to survive.
My message to you: Once things gets more stable, don’t stop. Keep the digital transformation moving.
Why is this so important?
Not only will it better prepare you for other unforeseen challenges, a total digital transformation delivers all types of advantages. In this article, we’ll explore some of the biggest benefits of digital transformation.
1. Improved efficiency
Let me ask you a question: What slows your business down? What roadblocks exist in your current processes that harm efficiency?
For some, it’s manual data entry. Their systems don’t communicate with each other, so they must manually enter data into different areas.
For others, it’s a process bottleneck. One process goes through a single department, and creates a bottleneck. For instance, reporting still goes through the IT department in many businesses, creating delays.
I could go on, as there are any number of areas that could slow a business down. The good news: Digital transformation eliminates many of these bottlenecks. When you replace legacy processes with automated workflows, and truly examine your current processes, you reduce friction in your business.
2. Improved decision making
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a data explosion. As a business, you have access to more data than ever before, and data volumes are only increasing.
However, very few businesses actually capitalize on this data. Many lack the tools and processes needed to turn it into meaningful management information.
This is where a digitally-driven company has the upper hand. Using modern BI tools, they can take this flow of data and gain insights immediately. This lets them react far faster (and more accurately) than businesses who lack these capabilities.
3. Improved agility
COVID-19 gave the business world a surprise agility test. Many were left scrambling. They didn’t have the tools/processes in place to adapt quickly.
For other businesses, the move to remote work was relatively seamless. They already had the digital tools and processes needed to work from anywhere. Or, they had the no-code/low-code tools to create the necessary web applications on the fly. Here’s one such example of a company who adapted quickly thanks to digital transformation.
In my opinion, agility is one of the most important benefit of digital transformation. The ability to adapt to changes on the fly or deliver needed solutions in a matter of days is a huge competitive advantage.
4. Improved customer satisfaction
With the rise of mobile and technology advancements, we’ve seen customer expectations change. The modern customer expects simplicity.
What happens if you can’t provide the simplicity they expect? What happens if you make them jump through hoops? Or what happens when you provide an outdated experience? They’ll likely move on.
Improving the customer experience is one of the big goals of digital transformation. The great part: When done correctly, you’ll see improvements in two different areas.
Digital transformation improves the customer experience
Offering digital tools to your customers will make their lives easier. It makes your business more attractive to potential customers. But, most importantly, it keeps you relevant. Businesses that offer a clunky, outdated experience will have trouble competing with those that stay up to date with modern technology.
Digital transformation provides more customer insight
Do you notice how some companies these days seem to know what you want before you ask them? Or, their products are created in such a way that it seems like they’re reading your mind? It’s not magic, it’s analytics. These companies are taking advantage of digital technologies to better understand their prospects and customers. They’re gathering insights from customer interactions and using that data to constantly improve.
5. Improved profitability
Finally, what happens when you work more efficiently, make better decisions, increase agility, and improve your customer’s perception of your business? How will that impact your bottom line?
The fact is, digital transformation will transform your entire business. As explained below, when done correctly, it will significantly improve your overall profitability.
Summary
While the list could certainly be longer, these are just 5 benefits of digital transformation. Would you add anything to this list? If you would like to add anything to this list, I’d love to hear it. Feel free to share in the comments. | https://medium.com/@digiinnovate.seo/5-immense-benefits-of-digital-transformation-for-your-organization-57a9c3d26f8c | [] | 2020-12-23 06:21:04.227000+00:00 | ['Digital Transformation', 'Erp Software Solutions', 'Portfolio Management', 'Business Strategy', 'Digital Innovation'] |
Be The Hero Of Yourself: I am Batman! | Tenenenenenenenen — Batman! What is your name? Batman. How about your real name? Batman.
Stars are not enough to count the frequency of how much this question being asked to me. I am Batman — and I am not joking at all! As crazy as it may sound, but, my brother’s name is Robin. We are Batman and Robin, in the Family. Not an alias, no second name; plain, Batman. I imagine you are smiling.
I always have this photo of me for name verification.
April of 1998 is when Batman of the Philippines was born. Grew up in the Business Capital of The Philippines — Makati City. Growing up with this peculiar name made my journey challenging, yet advantageous and let me tell you why.
In grade school, I am always the first person to introduce myself in front of the class, I introduce myself with a loud voice and enthusiasm. Once I’m introducing myself, classmates and teachers (even school principal), as expected, following up the question “Why is your name, Batman?”. As a silly young kid, I always say “‘coz my brother’s name is Robin!”. They are laughing all throughout. Again, they are laughing all throughout.
I grew up thinking that laughing at my name is just normal — until when I was in 5th grade when I had to skip a year as I cannot handle the bullies as a kid. My name was been a medium to bully me. Classmates are calling me names and challenging me to fly if I am real Batman, but I fight — I told them that Batman is not flying at all! Silly Batman. There was a time going home from school, when I stumbled on a rock and I got bruised. My classmate told me that I am now Bruised Wayne! Insanely funny though.
“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.” (Quotes from Batman Begins)
I turned the bullying experience as my stepping stone to strengthen myself against bullies. Since I am popular with my name, I took advantage of it. I saw silver linings on my name. I ran, won and elected as the President of the classroom when I was in High School! I even excelled academically and got a full-scholarship in college.
As part of taking advantage of my name, I also have been elected as the President of College Organizations and been the President of the College Student Council in my University, where I promoted equality, development programs, innovative activities and technical upskilling workshops. The bullied Batman, who skipped a year in grade school, graduated Cum Laude in one of the prestigious universities in the Philippines. And now, I got over my name but the lessons remain.
Graduation Ceremony where everyone laugh on my name, again.
To those who are still experiencing bullying, be the hero of yourself. Don’t let anyone hinder you for being you. These 3 Rs might help you to address the issue: Recognize, Respond and Report. Seek help as needed.
May this be a reminder to be sensitive on laughing on someone’s name. Not everyone is as strong as me to overcome this kind of bullying. The name is your identity, but may not be your character. My name is great and powerful but, dear parents and future parents, give your child a genuine name!
Words have meaning, names have power.
As always, be the hero of yourself. Padayon. | https://medium.com/@bcodulio/be-a-hero-of-yourself-i-am-batman-8a3c6fefe58 | ['Batman Odulio'] | 2021-08-07 11:41:56.593000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Life Lessons', 'Heroes', 'Growth Mindset', 'Bullying'] |
Do Not Use Decision Tree Like This | Do Not Use Decision Tree Like This
Demonstrate the Limitation of Information Gain in ID3 and the Benefits of using C4.5
As one of the most popular classic machine learning algorithm, the Decision Tree is much more intuitive than the others for its explainability. In one of my previous article, I have introduced the basic idea and mechanism of a Decision Tree model. It demonstrated this machine learning model using an algorithm called ID3, which is one of the most classic ones for training a Decision Tree classification model.
If you are not that familiar with Decision Tree, it is highly recommended to check out the above article before reading into this one.
To intuitively understand Decision Trees, it is indeed good to start with ID3. However, it is probably not a good idea to use it in practice. In this article, I’ll introduce a commonly used algorithm to build Decision Tree models — C4.5.
Drawbacks of Classic ID3 Algorithm
Photo by aitoff on Pixabay
Before we can demonstrate the major drawbacks of the ID3 algorithm, let’s have a look at what are the major building blocks of it. Basically, the important is the Entropy and Information Gain.
Recap of Entropy
Here is the formula of Entropy:
The set “X” is everything in the set of the node, and “xᵢ” refers to the specific decision of each sample. Therefore, “P(xᵢ)” is the probability of the set to be made with a certain decision.
Let’s use the same training dataset as an example. Suppose that we have an internal node in our decision tree with “weather = rainy”. It is can be seen that the final decisions are both “No”. Then, we can easily calculate the entropy of this node as follows:
Basically, the probability of being “No” is 2/2 = 1, whereas the probability of being “Yes” is 0/2 = 0.
Recap of Information Gain
On top of the concept of Entropy, we can calculate the Information Gain, which is the basic criterion to decide whether a feature should be used as a node to be split.
For example, we have three features: “Weather”, “Temperature” and “Wind Level”. When we start to build our Decision Tree using ID3, how can we decide which one of them should be used as the root node?
ID3 makes use Information Gain as the criterion. The rule is that, select the feature with the maximum Information Gain among all of them. Here is the formula of calculating Information Gain:
where
“T” is the parent node and “a” is the set of attributes of “T”
The notation “|T|” means the size of the set
Using the same example, when we calculating the Information Gain for “Weather = Rainy”, we also need to take its child nodes’ Entropy into account. Specific derivation and calculating progress can be found in the article that was shared in the introduction.
Major Drawbacks of Using Information Gain
The major drawbacks of using Information Gain as the criterion for determining which feature to be used as the root/next node is that it tends to use the feature that has more unique values.
But why? Let me demonstrate it using an extreme scenario. Let’s say, we have got the training set with one more feature: “Date”.
You might say that the feature “Date” should not be considered in this case because it intuitively will not be helpful to decide whether we should go out for running or not. Yes, you’re right. However, practically, we may have much more complicated dataset to be classified, and we may not be able to understand all the features. So, we may not always be able to determine whether a feature does make sense or not. In here, I will just use “Date” as an example.
Now, let’s calculate the Information Gain for “Date”. We can start to calculate the entropy for one of the dates, such as “2020–01–01”.
Since there is only 1 row for each date, the final decision must be either “Yes” or “No”. So, the entropy must be 0! In terms of the information theory, it is equivalent to say:
The date tells us nothing, because the result is just one, which is certain. So, there is no “uncertainty” at all.
Similarly, for all the other dates, their entropies are 0, too.
Now, let’s calculate the entropy for the date itself.
WoW, that is a pretty large number compared to the other features. So, we can calculate the Information Gain of “Date” now. | https://towardsdatascience.com/do-not-use-decision-tree-like-this-369769d6104d | ['Christopher Tao'] | 2020-09-06 18:29:22.539000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology', 'Decision Tree'] |
An Introduction to Functional Programming Style in JavaScript | Here’s a list of my best web development tutorials.
Complete CSS flex tutorial on Hashnode.
Ultimate CSS grid tutorial on Hashnode.
Higher-order functions .map, .filter & .reduce on Hashnode.
You can follow me on Twitter to get tutorials, JavaScript tips, etc.
Follow me on Twitter for JavaScript tips and book announcements.
In recent years there has been a tectonic shift happening between traditional programming and Functional Programming style in JavaScript. It’s not about one being better than the other but simply a personal preference.
You’ll get the most out of this article if you’re coming to the world of FP for the first time ever. It’s just a demonstration of basic principles.
What is Functional Programming all about in general?
Clean Code — Your program is easy to read and therefore maintain. Syntactic Efficiency — The problem your code is trying to solve is expressed with less code but without sacrificing its function. More Abstract — Instead of thinking about the logic of a for-loop, your program will look more abstract, almost symbolic, like a math equation. Automatic Reduction of Common Errors — simply developing a FP mindset will automatically prevent you from bumping into some of the most commonly overlooked programming errors and traps. Do More In Less Lines Of Code — Your code will look significantly shorter than its traditional style equivalent.
This actually sounds good!
Yes — FP will require of you a change in how you think about code. But it is often used in real world production environments working on a team of software engineers where efficiency and code maintenance matter.
Imagine being hired and the lead developer is a huge fan of FP? Instead of having to force-learn the FP style you can get a bit of a head start if you take the time to understand the basics.
Things To Expect From Functional Programming In Practice
Let’s take a look at this simple for-loop:
let LIST = [1, 2, 3]; // Part 1: for-loop as an iterator / increment-er
for (let i= 0; i< LIST.length; i++) { // Part 2: the statement to execute on each iteration
LIST[i] = LIST[i] + 1;
} console.log(LIST); // [2, 3, 4]
We have taken a list, passed it through a two-fold process of iterating over a set of items in the array, and incremented each value by one. Thus taking the original value [1,2,3] and turning it into [2,3,4].
Fair enough. This isn’t Google search algorithm.
But it works as an example of a traditional iterator using the famous for-loop.
Pure Functions
You can’t talk about Functional Programming without mentioning anything about pure functions. But what is a pure function?
The purpose of a pure function is to reduce side effects.
A side-effect in a computer program can occur when you write functions that return unpredictable results or affect data outside of function scope in unpredictable ways — risking the chance of mangling program state.
Once your program state is mangled, it might wreak chaos on the integrity of your program reducing its overall quality. One error leads to another and you become unaware why bugs are even happening anymore. No one wants that.
But…a pure function is not a language feature. It is designed by the programmer in such way as to return predictable results given a specific set of arguments. For example 1 + 2 will always return 3.
On the other hand Math.random() cannot be a pure function. By design it returns a random number each time.
Function Purity is often determined by its return value.
So if your function returns an unpredictable value — even though you’re passing the same (unchanging) set of arguments to it — it can be said that you have created an impure function.
// Pure - returns same value using same arguments
function sum(a, b) { return a + b; } // Impure - returns random values regardless what is passed to it
function sum(a, b) { return Math.random() * (a + b); }
Can you stick to writing pure functions? If so you are one step closer to becoming better at functional programming style.
Function purity might not make a lot of sense at first. Especially without a concrete example. But a computer program is not a blatant list of statements. Things you do inside functions may affect overall program state.
Keep in mind though: you can never create an entirely pure program. But if you stick as close as possible to purity it will help you down the road to avoid many common errors that would have happened if you weren’t paying attention to these types of rules. It’s a habit and a discipline.
It will start making a lot more sense when you see it combined with other Functional Programming style principles.
Let’s Rewrite Our For-Loop To Functional Style
Let’s utilize the array’s map method to rewrite our for-loop.
let LIST = [1, 2, 3]; LIST.map( function(item) { return item + 1; } );
But wait. In EcmaScript 6, which adds features that specifically support Functional Programming paradigm, you can use an arrow function. An arrow function further reduces the amount of code written:
LIST.map( (item) => { return item + 1; } );
This can be further turned into the following form by removing return:
LIST.map( (item) => item + 1 );
It still works just the same. But looks shorter. More functional. Here functional doesn’t mean that we are using JavaScript functions. But that our code is starting to look more like a mathematical equation. Go figure.
Arrow functions still return the value inside {} as long as it is expressed in a single statement. You can even take it further by removing ():
LIST.map( item => item + 1 );
Remember the for-loop from before? The same exact thing. One statement.
But I should probably say it is almost exactly the same thing.
Arrow functions conceal the value to their scope. This is also a flavor of functional programming. But it means one thing. The original values in the array will not be added to! We still end up with [1,2,3].
And this is to be expected from map method:
let LIST = [1,2,3]; LIST.map( item => { item + 1 }); console.log(LIST); // still: [1,2,3] nothing incremented!
Let’s move out the function from the map method and store it separately:
let LIST = [1,2,3]; let add = item => item + 1; LIST.map( add ); console.log(LIST); // still: [1,2,3] nothing incremented!
This looks a bit cleaner. But still our list is not incremented.
This is the paradigm shift. We need to figure out — why not?
The reason that the list is not incremented is because map does not mutate the list in place. It returns a copy of the list with the callback applied to each of its elements. To capture the incrementation all we need to do is assign LIST.map( add ) to a variable as in the following example:
let copy = LIST.map(add);
Now the copy stores incremented values. But… it’s no longer the same array we started with. Which is also a good thing.
Remember how we talked about side effects earlier? The arrow function contains the code within itself without leaking out into global scope or messing with the actual values in the original array. But in Functional Programming this is a good thing. It should be expected.
This is purity at work! And yes it does limit us. But it makes code less sloppy. And we still get a copy of the original array.
There’s More To FP Than Meets The Eye
Functional Programming is not simply converting for-loops into smaller and shorter expressions. There is a lot more to it. For example like in the above code the map & arrow function conceal the item to its own scope.
Array has a bunch of methods on it that oblige the FP style.
One of them is called reduce. If we can combine map and reduce, we can finally produce the effect of working with array’s items in a way where they can be modified without having to be seen by global scope. This conceals the logic of our program to an isolated island (a good coding practice).
let LIST = [1,2,3];
let add = item => { return item + 1 };
let sum = (A, I) => { return A + I };
let val = LIST.map(add).reduce(sum, 0); console.log( val ); // 9
We can also remove return and {} without breaking the code:
let LIST = [1,2,3];
let add = item => item + 1;
let sum = (A, I) => A + I;
let val = LIST.map(add).reduce(sum, 0); console.log( val ); // 9
Again, this looks a lot more like a math equation (function). Hence, Functional Programming. Not to be mixed up with JavaScript functions! Which appear to have gradually vanished as we kept on applying FP style.
Reducers are functions that “reduce” your result by following a particular rule. As a programmer you choose what it should be. Here, this rule is expressed in the sum function as A + I. That is, Accumulator + Item. Essentially, this is what our for-loop was doing earlier.
An accumulator is inherent to a reduce operation. It’s exactly what it sounds like. The accumulator keeps track of the compound effect of the operation.
The second parameter of reduce is set to 0. This sets the accumulator to 0.
This way we are starting with 0 in the counter. Once this code is complete this accumulator will become the return value. (Stored in variable val.)
As the code runs, we keep adding the value using this new sum function.
The result is 9.
Because we first added 1 to [1,2,3] and produced [2,3,4].
Then we ran reducer on it to add up all values in [2,3,4] together and return.
And so finally 2+3+4 = 9.
So you can see here how it’s just a slightly different mentality than a for-loop.
Code looks less ugly this way. And it works almost like a math formula.
The Video Tutorial
Check out my video tutorial about Functional Programming Style in JavaScript:
Note: much like this article — this is just an intro created for someone diving into the subject of FP for the first time and not an entire course or a comprehensive study of Function Programming.
Many of my tutorials are written for first time beginners. Like this one. I wrote this tutorial as an introduction to Functional Programming style. Not as an explanation of the entire FP paradigm — which is so much more.
Not everyone will like FP. But if you do, it is probably a good idea and look beyond map and reduce methods. Good luck out there!
Still available — Grab a copy of CSS Visual Dictionary here in PDF format. | https://jstutorial.medium.com/an-introduction-to-functional-programming-style-in-javascript-71fcc050f064 | ['Javascript Teacher'] | 2020-10-24 02:15:32.148000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Web Development', 'Functional Programming', 'Software Development', 'Tech'] |
B1G1X: Business For Good | The global B1G1 community is made up of wonderful people who all share the same purpose: Business for Good. B1G1 events are not your typical industry expo’s and the B1G1x, Northern Hemisphere Conference was no exception. #TeamClarity were left reeling after B1G1x last week, empowered and determined to create a better business, a better life and a better world for our #Clariteers and all those connected.
Aynsley (CEO) and Steve (COO) have both been key contributors and ambassadors of the B1G1 global giving initiative through their previous businesses and individually for many years. Despite this, learning about the causes and people that the community supports is always a powerful eye-opener. Nicki Mih of Free To Shine Cambodia, started off day one with a number of humbling stories and reality checks for the B1G1x delegates. It is so important for us all to see the positive impact that the B1G1 community in particular is having on the girls in Cambodia.
Day one was full of fantastic speakers, including our very own Aynsley who shared his thoughts on how to ‘Bring Your Team With You’ in business. Centred around making sure the directors are leading from the front, Aynsley’s talk neatly incorporated many themes from previous talks in the day about conscious leadership. In particular, by ensuring your team is onboard with your companies culture and core values, we get one step closer to achieving the Global Goals objective to irreversibly eradicate poverty by using business as a force for good.
The key message from the first day of B1G1X was that any business can change the world by making small, continuous, habitual impacts. And as we are living through the fast-changing digital age, there are no excuses not to embed and automate giving back into business processes or systems. As Paul McGivillary pointed out in his talk; love, joy, compassion and life cannot be automated. But, we must use technology to enable and enhance our generosity, rather than worry that it is going to replace us.
At Clarity, we are proud of our partnership with B1G1 and therefore were very excited to learn how the giving initiative is growing and taking off in other countries across the world. On day two founders Paul and Masami shared valuable insights of their plans to grow the Business for Good movement in 2019. They also shared brilliant stories from their Impact World Tour which appears to be going from strength to strength. We love being able to support them and the wider Buy 1 Give 1 community in whatever way possible. If you would like to find out how you too can make your organisation a ‘Business for Good’, please check them out on https://www.b1g1.com/businessforgood/ | https://medium.com/@theCLRTYproject/b1g1x-business-for-good-eb73384ac34a | [] | 2019-02-20 14:22:11.202000+00:00 | ['Global Goals', 'Business', 'Giving', 'United Nations', 'Impact'] |
15 movies to stream as we celebrate the end of 2020 | 15 movies to stream as we celebrate the end of 2020 Denise Jan 27·11 min read
A global pandemic. Violence in the streets. Chaos in the White House. A turbulent election. Russian hackers. Murder hornets, for Pete’s sake! 2020 really upped the ante on just how much one year could dish out, and how much all of us could possibly take. Its final days would normally be set aside for celebrations, but given that we are suspposed to stay home for the good of everyone, it’s time for more streaming movies.
Rather than presenting the usual batch of New Year’s-themed movies with streamers and champagne, we thought we’d offer something different: 11 movies about disasters and the end of the world! Send 2020 out with a sneer! Then, we suggest two actual New Year’s movies that seem to fit with the times, followed by two more movies with moments of genuine hope, to welcome in a better 2021.
Armageddon★★★☆☆ Buena Vista Pictures A team of drillers (L-R, Will Patton, Bruce Willis, Michael Clarke Duncan, Ben Affleck, and Owen Wilson) head into space to blow up a huge asteroid in Armageddon.
Rent on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Vudu ($3.99)Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer’s blockbuster Armageddon (1998) makes the potential end of the world into a roller-coaster ride filled with flash, noise, color, Charlton Heston narrating, and Aerosmith shrieking “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” Bruce Willis and a team of drillers take a rocket ship up to an approaching asteroid, intending to make an 800-foot hole, drop a nuclear bomb into it, and get the heck outta Dodge before it blows up, and thereby saving the earth. Even though it’s an end-of-days movie with billions of lives at stake, it’s all swagger and gusto, with a huge pack of lovable actors playing lovable misfits and outcasts, and a razor’s-edge ticking-clock countdown to the final sweaty-palm moments. Will the world be saved? Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Steve Buscemi, Will Patton, William Fichtner, Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Peter Stormare are just part of the massive cast.
[ Further reading: Cord-cutting myths busted ]The Birds★★★★★ Universal Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) faces off with rogue birds in Bodega Bay in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Stream on Peacock Premium or rent ($3.99)One of Alfred Hitchcock’s best and purest films, The Birds (1963) is nearly an experimental work, stripped down to its basics, and without even a music score; the legendary composer Bernard Herrmann used all his skills to create a cacophony of screeching bird noises instead. In Bodega Bay, Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, and Veronica Cartwright find themselves attacked by birds, all different kinds, for absolutely no reason. There’s no catalyst, and no explanation. Sometimes cataclysmic things just happen and humans are in the way. Hitchcock postpones the first attack for a surprisingly long time, and yet manages to build crisp tension anyway. Crime novelist Evan Hunter (a.k.a. Ed McBain) adapted the short story by Daphne Du Maurier. Look for the director’s cameo at the beginning of the movie near the pet shop in San Francisco’s Union Square.
Escape from New York★★★★★ Shout! Factory Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) must rescue the President from a warzone before it’s too late in Escape from New York.
Stream on Amazon PrimeSet in 1997, John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981) certainly resembles 2020 more than it did that long-gone year. Sneering, eyepatch-wearing anti-hero Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is forced to drop into a dangerous, crime-ridden, apocalyptic New York City to rescue an ineffectual POTUS (Donald Pleasence) before time runs out. He meets all kinds of colorful characters including Ernest Borgnine as a helpful cabbie, Isaac Hayes as the “Duke,” Harry Dean Stanton as “Brain,” and Adrienne Barbeau as tough-as-nails Maggie. Carpenter makes a relatively low-budget movie look amazingly large-scale (James Cameron started his career as a matte artist on this film). Carpenter provided the tense synthesizer score. Lee Van Cleef co-stars.
Mad Max: Fury Road★★★★★ Warner Bros. Nux (Nicholas Hoult) and Furiosa (Charlize Theron) take the front seat during a furious chase in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Rent on Vudu, Google Play, iTunes store ($3.99)Here’s a sequel so damn good that critics voted it the best movie of the year, and it won six Academy Awards (even if the Academy messed up by not giving Best Director to helmer George Miller). Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) is the fourth movie in the series, and it came a full thirty years after the third. Tom Hardy took over the role of post-apocalyptic tough guy Max Rockatansky from Mel Gibson, but the real star here is Charlize Theron’s Furiosa. The entire plot is built around two long, astoundingly inventive chase scenes, as Max and Furiosa escape from the main bad guy with his harem of young wives, head to “The Green Place,” and then back again. But Miller manages to go deep with themes of motherhood and the connection between violence and madness. Villain Immortan Joe, who rules over a grim kingdom by controlling both water and fuel, would feel right at home in 2020.
Melancholia★★★★☆ Magnolia Pictures Justine (Kirsten Dunst) deals with extreme depression as a rogue planet threatens to collide with Earth in Lars von Trier’s Melancholia.
Stream on Hulu, Vudu, Tubi, Kanopy, or PopcornFlixKirsten Dunst gives one of her finest performances in Lars von Trier’s Melancholia (2011), in a powerfully moving examination of the title condition. Melancholia is also the name of a rogue planet that is, apparently, on a collision course with Earth. Dunst plays Justine, who begins the film getting married to the kind Michael (Alexander Skarsgård), but soon grows despondent and depressed for no tangible reason. In the film’s second half, she lives with her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) as the ominous sphere in the sky grows larger and the days grow numbered. The science fiction here isn’t terribly interesting, but it’s impossible not to be moved by the small gestures that occur underneath the big events. Sometimes it takes an international disaster to bring out the most human things in all of us.
Miracle Mile★★★★☆ MGM Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards) tries to find his true love before a nuclear strike lands in Miracle Mile.
Rent on Amazon Prime, iTunes store ($3.99)This strange, little-known cult favorite from the 1980s is one of the best movies about a looming nuclear annihilation, partly because it’s also a romance. In Miracle Mile (1988), jazz musician Harry (Anthony Edwards) meets and makes an instant connection with Julie (Mare Winningham) at the La Brea Tar Pits. They agree to meet again, but Harry oversleeps and loses touch with her. Then, he answers a ringing phone and receives a warning of an impending nuclear attack. Harry and all the local denizens at his favorite diner decide to evacuate, but first Harry goes on an all-night, ticking-clock search for Julie. It’s a weird adventure, leading up to a truly unbelievable ending. Denise Crosby (Star Trek: The Next Generation) co-stars as a well-dressed woman who happens to be in the right place at the right time. Writer/director Steve De Jarnatt made this and only one other film, Cherry 2000 (1987), also a cult favorite.
Poseidon★★★☆☆ Warner Bros. Several passengers (L to R, Mike Vogel, Kurt Russell, Emmy Rossum, Josh Lucas, Jimmy Bennett, Jacinda Barrett, and Richard Dreyfuss) face the aftermath of a rogue wave in Poseidon.
Stream on NetflixThis remake of The Poseidon Adventure (1972)—and also based on a novel by Paul Gallico—is a great disaster film. Poseidon (2006) is set on a huge, luxury ocean liner and kicks off with a glamorous New Year’s Eve party and midnight countdown before the ship is hit with a “rogue wave.” (It sounds ridiculous but apparently, it’s a real thing.) A handful of passengers (Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Jacinda Barrett, Richard Dreyfuss, Emmy Rossum, et al) must make their way to the bottom (now the top) of the overturned ship. It’s full of cliches—white people survive the longest, women need to be rescued, etc.—but director Wolfgang Petersen (who also made the great submarine thriller Das Boot) creates tight, gripping sequences of suspense, and wraps up the whole thing in a compact 98 minutes. (Note: this movie expires December 31 from Netflix, but will still be available for digital rentals, from $2.99.)
The Rover★★★★☆ A24 In a dystopian future, Eric holds a gun on the injured would-be car thief Rey (Robert Pattinson) in The Rover.
Stream on Hoopla, KanopyEmerging from an Australian filmmaking collective called Blue Tongue Films, David Michod’s The Rover (2014) is one of the group’s finest efforts. It’s a spare, mesmerizing, post-apocalyptic movie that often brings to mind Mad Max, but has its own burning, personal reasons for existing. Guy Pearce, with a weird, sickly haircut, plays Eric. The movie begins with a shocker; Eric sits in what looks like a dingy cafe, and a silent car crash occurs just outside the window, outside his peripheral vision. The hapless motorists steal Eric’s car, and he spends the rest of the movie relentlessly chasing them to get it back. He even enlists the aid of a man they left behind, the gut-shot Rey (an almost unrecognizable Robert Pattinson). Michod (Animal Kingdom) includes plenty of strange details during this mysterious, often exciting quest, hinting at some kind of global economic meltdown and showing the miserable, detestable practices that have sprung up in this burnt-out, 2020-like land.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World★★★★☆ Focus Features Penny (Keira Knightley), Dodge (Steve Carell) and Dodge’s dog Sorry (Aleister) hit the road to find out what’s most meaningful in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.
Stream on PeacockIt’s a few weeks before the world ends, and neighbors Dodge (Steve Carell) and Penny (Keira Knightley) find themselves on the road together, Dodge seeking a lost love, and Penny hoping for a private plane that can fly her back to her parents in England. Of course, they fall in love, but in this bittersweet directorial debut by screenwriter Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Hustlers), the mood is decidedly fatalistic. The world is absolutely ending, there’s no cheating it, and every small choice matters. What the characters choose to do with their time says volumes, even for a man who does little more than tend to his lawn. Yet, while Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012) may make viewers misty, it’s also sometimes quite dryly funny, with Adam Brody, Rob Corddry, Melanie Lynskey, Amy Schumer, Patton Oswalt, Gillian Jacobs and others in smaller roles.
Snowpiercer★★★★★ RADiUS/TWC Curtis (Chris Evans) and Yona (Ko Asung) help plan an uprising on a post-apocalyptic train in Snowpiercer.
Stream on NetflixBrilliantly made—both technically and thematically—by multiple-Oscar-winning South Korean director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), Snowpiercer (2014) takes place in the year 2031, after an attempt to stop global warming has left the world a frozen wasteland. Survivors circle the earth in a constantly moving, self-sustaining train that takes a year to speed around the globe. The story tackles the unfair class system on the train, with poorly treated workers in the rear cars and the rich and elite in the front cars. Talk of a revolution begins stirring, and Curtis (Chris Evans) may be the one to lead it. They’ll need plenty of help to break though the locked doors into each new car, and each car is laden with its own pitfalls. No one has ever made it to the engine before, but perhaps this could be the time? Tilda Swinton is a delightfully wicked Minister Mason and Ed Harris is excellent as the creator of the train. Song Kang-ho, John Hurt, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner, and Alison Pill also star. Appropriately, a spinoff TV series began in 2020 during the pandemic.
12 Monkeys★★★★★ Universal James Cole (Bruce Willis) time-travels to try and stop the spread of a deadly virus in 12 Monkeys.
Stream on HBO MaxInspired by Chris Marker’s short film La Jetée (1962), Terry Gilliam’s bonkers 12 Monkeys (1995) tells the story of a time-traveler, James Cole (Bruce Willis), who departs from the year 2035, headed to the year 1996 to attempt to stop a deadly virus from being released. (Too bad he didn’t make a stop in 2020.) But time travel apparently isn’t perfect, and he’s accidentally sent to 1990, which sets off a strange, sometimes baffling, but always incredible series of events, involving fanatical mental patient Jeffrey Goines (an Oscar-nominated Brad Pitt) and Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe). Gilliam cleverly applies his signature visual style to the film, with stark, startling angles, weird (Oscar-nominated) costumes and wild set decoration and backdrops, giving everything a little more visual depth and, at the same time, more of a dreamlike/nightmarish quality. David Morse, Frank Gorshin, and Christopher Plummer co-star. A TV series (2015-18) followed.
New Year’s Eve★☆☆☆☆ Warner Bros. Stan Harris (Robert De Niro) is dying of cancer while nurse Aimee (Halle Berry) spends December 31 with him in New Year’s Eve.
Stream on Amazon Prime, HBO MaxSpeaking of total disasters, this sprawling, all-star romantic comedy takes place on, of course, New Year’s Eve in New York City. (The dropping ball is part of the story.) Directed by the late Garry Marshall, New Year’s Eve (2011) is a big, dumb mess, forced and phony, and pandering to the lowest of everything. Watch as Sofia Vergara talks about her cleavage and brings spicy enchiladas to Jon Bon Jovi! Watch Robert De Niro try to evoke tears as a dying cancer patient! Watch Zac Efron kiss Michelle Pfieffer for some reason! See also Halle Berry, Cary Elwes, Alyssa Milano, Common, Jessica Biel, Seth Meyers, Sarah Paulson, Til Schweiger, Carla Gugino, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, James Belushi, Sarah Jessica Parker, Abigail Breslin, Josh Duhamel, Penny Marshall, Cherry Jones, Hilary Swank, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Hector Elizondo, Matthew Broderick, and John Lithgow and try to guess how much they were paid versus the number of days they worked! Even so, in this horrible year, a movie like this might provide some kind of primal comfort in its confident assertion that true love really exists.
Phantom Thread★★★★☆ Focus Features Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) creates an outfit for his mistress Alma (Vicky Krieps) in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread.
Stream on HBO MaxPaul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread (2017) has a gorgeous New Year’s Eve party sequence that makes it essential viewing on December 31, but it’s also dark and vicious enough that it fits right in with 2020. This is Anderson’s smallest-scale movie since Punch-Drunk Love (2002), and his finesse with small moments and just a few characters is, in many ways, more effective than when he uses his films to say something grand and important. In the 1950s, fashion titan Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his stern sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) run a tight ship, dressing all the most important people. One day, Woodcock is charmed by clumsy cafe server, Alma (Vicky Krieps), and brings her home to become his muse. But when he begins to tire of her, she takes matters into her own hands, turning their relationship into something bizarre and possessive, but mutually appreciative. It’s an exquisite movie, beautifully designed and performed, but also sly and mischievous.
Modern Times★★★★★ Criterion Charles Chaplin and Paulette Goddard walk off into a new tomorrow in Modern Times.
Stream on HBO Max, Criterion Channel, Hoopla, KanopyNow that we’re all done saying farewell to this truly trying year, we will attempt to muster up hope that change will come and the future will offer something better. And so we turn things around and leave off with a pair of films that contain indelible images of hope. In Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece Modern Times (1936), the Little Tramp and a beautiful orphaned girl (Paulette Goddard) try to get by in a harsh, unhelpful world, working various jobs and largely (hilariously) failing, before the movie’s final shot. The pair walk toward the sunset, arm-in-arm, in silhouette, toward some kind of future, but their poise and their gait suggest that they haven’t given up yet.
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope★★★★★ Disney Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) gazes at Tatooine’s twin suns and wonders if he’ll ever do anything great in Star Wars.
Stream on Disney+In the original Star Wars (1977), now amended with its full title Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, a naïve Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) wanders to the top of a small dune on his boring home planet of Tatooine, and gazes at the two setting suns. His face registers everything: that there’s something better out there, somewhere. By the time we get to the silly, happy awards-ceremony epilogue, it’s clear that he has found it.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@denise34237447/15-movies-to-stream-as-we-celebrate-the-end-of-2020-e5e92aa9621f | [] | 2021-01-27 19:53:16.905000+00:00 | ['Cutting', 'Tvs', 'Chromecast', 'Streaming'] |
Get Over It Eagles Fans | In 2017, after modest expectations, every weird thing that could possibly go right did, and the Eagle pulled off the impossible by winning the Super Bowl. It was heaven.
But, alas, in 2019, after over the top expectations, everything that could go wrong did. First, injury racked the defense and the offense lost its deep thread, D Jack, for the season. Then the offense lost much of its receiving corps and a key running back and parts of its O line, just as the D was getting back to heath and effectiveness.
But then things reversed to the point where at long last it looked like both sides of the ball were reasonably healthy, and so the Eagles headed south to play what appeared to be a patsy, the Miami Dolphins. Really!
But this is the NFL, guys. In a bad year things can just keep getting worse no matter what, and they did.
The Eagles offense played pretty darn good and scored 31 points, which should have been enough to win with a defense that seemed back up to par — and actually the team did play quite well when you watch the highlights.
The killer was that the Dolphins QB, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and his big receivers turned red hot. These giant receivers, which towered over the Eagles DBs, were flying high to catch perfectly placed balls.
So, yes, 2019 was a reverse of 2017. If the rest of this season were like 2017, few would have thought getting beat by 2 and 9 team was anything more than a meaningless fluke — as it, indeed, was this time. But when coupled with an injury plagued season of many loses, after sky-high expectations, fans are going out of their mind with anger and disappointment. But get over it, Eagles fans. The team is nowhere as bad as fate has made it out to be this season. It’s just the breaks of the NFL. Some years you win the Super Bowl and others the booby prize. | https://medium.com/@cactusjim/get-over-it-eagles-fans-b0a0f859d05a | ['James M. Ridgway'] | 2019-12-02 15:35:04.137000+00:00 | ['Philadelphia Eagles', 'Sports', 'Sad', 'NFL', 'Joy'] |
Deploying Spring Boot Applications | Spring Boot applications can be deployed into production systems with various methods. In this article, we will go through step by step deployment of Spring Boot applications via the following 5 methods:
Deploying in Java Archive (JAR) as a standalone application,
Deploying as Web Application Archive (WAR) into a servlet container,
Deploying in Docker Container,
Deploying behind NGINX web server — direct setup,
Deploying behind NGINX web server — containerized setup.
Deploying in Java Archive (JAR) as a standalone application
Spring Boot applications can easily be packaged into JAR files and deployed as standalone applications. This is done by the spring-boot-maven-plugin. The plugin is automatically added to pom.xml once the Spring project is created via Spring Initializr as a Maven project.
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
In order to package the application in a single (fat) jar file, run the maven command mvn package under project directory. This will package the application inside an executable jar file with all its dependencies (including the embedded servlet container — if its a web application). To run the jar file, use the following standard JVM command java -jar <jar-file-name>.jar .
Deploying as Web Application Archive (WAR) into a servlet container
Spring Boot applications can be packaged into WAR files to be deployed into existing servlet containers (such as Tomcat, Jetty etc.). This can be done as follows:
Specify WAR packaging in pom.xml file via <packaging>war</packaging> . This will package the application into a WAR file (instead of JAR). On the second step, set the scope of Tomcat (servlet container) dependency to provided (so that it is not deployed into WAR file):
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
Initialise the Servlet context required by Tomcat by extending SpringBootServletInitializer and overriding configure method as follows:
@SpringBootApplication
public class DemoApp extends SpringBootServletInitializer { @Override
protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder builder) {
return builder.sources(DemoApp.class);
} public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(DemoApp.class, args);
}
}
In order to package the application in a war file, run the standard maven command mvn clean package under project directory. This will generate the WAR package which can be deployed into a servlet container. To run the application inside an existing Tomcat container, copy the generated WAR file to tomcat/webapps/ directory.
Deploying in Docker Container
Before deploying the application into a Docker container, we will first package the application in a (fat) JAR file. This process is previously explained, therefore I will assume we have a jar file.
On the first step, we need to build a container image. For this, we start with creating a Dockerfile in the project root directory as follows:
# latest oracle openjdk is the basis
FROM openjdk:oracle # copy jar file into container image under app directory
COPY target/demoApp.jar app/demoApp.jar # expose server port accept connections
EXPOSE 8080 # start application
CMD ["java", "-jar", "app/demoApp.jar"]
Note that, in the above snippet, we assumed that the application JAR file ‘demoApp.jar’ is located under the target directory of our project. We also assumed that the embedded servlet port is 8080 (which is the default case for Tomcat).
We can now build the Docker image with the following command (from where the Dockerfile is located):
docker image build -t demo-app:latest .
where -t is the name and tag of the image to be built. Once the image is built, we can create and run the container via:
docker container run -p 8080:8080 -d --name app-container demo-app
where -p publishes (maps) host port to container port (in this case both are 8080). The option -d (detach) runs the container in background, and --name specifies the name of the container.
Deploying behind NGINX web server — direct setup
Configuring servlet containers (such as Tomcat or Jetty) for real production (i.e. running on port 80, without root user and with SSL) may not be straight forward (but doable). Therefore, it is recommended to use a web server (such as Nginx) in front of your Spring Boot applications. This can be done in two ways; direct setup or containerized setup. In this section, we will demonstrate the direct setup.
In direct setup, we run the Nginx web server and the Spring Boot applications directly on localhost (on different ports of course). And we let Ngnix proxy REST requests to Spring Boot applications. For this:
Install Nginx web server on Linux via sudo apt-get install nginx , Open the file /etc/ngnix/sites-available/default with a text editor, Say, we have two Spring Boot applications to be proxied. Then replace the ‘location’ block in the file with following blocks for two Spring Boot applications. Note that, all Nginx-Java configs can be found here.
location /app1 {
proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
} location /app2 {
proxy_pass http://localhost:9000;
}
based on which the requests coming to http://localhost/app1/ will be directed to /http://localhost:8080/ , and requests coming to http://localhost/app2/ will be directed to /http://localhost:9000/ .
Load balancing
If you are running multiple instances of a Spring Boot application, you can enable Nginx to apply load-balancing. For example, if we have 3 instances of app1 running on ports 8080, 8081 and 8082. We can load-balance among these servers as follows:
Open the file /etc/ngnix/sites-available/default and add the following block at the top of the file (before server block):
# configure load-balancing
upstream backend {
server localhost:8080;
server localhost:8081;
server localhost:8082;
}
Modify the proxy_pass parameter of app1 as follows:
location /app1 {
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
based on which the requests coming to http://localhost/app1/ will be directed to one of /http://localhost:8080/ , /http://localhost:8081/ or /http://localhost:8082/ .
Deploying behind NGINX web server — containerized setup
In containerized setup, we deploy the Nginx web server and all the Spring Boot applications on separate Docker containers. And we let Nginx (running in its own container) proxy REST requests to Spring Boot application containers.
We start by packaging all Spring Boot applications in (fat) jar files (which is previously explained). At this point, pay attention to setting individual server ports and root context paths to each Spring Boot application by adding following lines to application.properties (or application.yml) files:
server.port=8082
server.servlet.context-path=/search-service
Then we deploy the generated jar packages in separate Docker containers (which is also previously explained).
As an example, we deploy four Spring Boot applications; single instance of ‘analysis-service’ application and three instances of ‘search-service’ application. The three instances of search-service application will be load-balanced by Nginx. Our basic architecture looks like follows:
We create a Nginx configuration file nginx.conf based on the default configurations. We add load-balancing and proxy information for each service as follows:
http {
upstream backend {
server search-service-1:8080;
server search-service-2:8081;
server search-service-3:8082;
} server { listen 80 default_server;
listen [::]:80 default_server; root /var/www/html; server_name _; location /search-service {
proxy_pass http://backend/search-service;
} location /analysis-service {
proxy_pass http://analysis-service:8083/analysis-service;
}
}
}
events { worker_connections 1024; }
based on which the requests coming to http://localhost/search-service/ will be directed to one of /http://search-service-1:8080/search-service/ , /http://search-service-2:8081/search-service/ and /http://search-service-3:8082/search-service/ , and requests coming to http://localhost/analysis-service/ will be directed to /http://analysis-service:8083/analysis-service/ .
After the configuration file (nginx.conf) is created, we will deploy the Nginx web server in a Docker container. For this, we create a Dockerfile as follows:
# latest nginx
FROM nginx # copy custom configuration file
COPY nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf # expose server port
EXPOSE 80 # start server
CMD ["nginx", "-g", "daemon off;"]
And we build a Docker image for Nginx web server as follows:
docker image build -t custom-nginx:latest .
Once all Docker images are built, all system can be deployed by running docker-compose up command on the following docker-compose.yml file: | https://medium.com/swlh/deploying-spring-boot-applications-15e14db25ff0 | ['Murat Artim'] | 2019-05-30 14:05:14.342000+00:00 | ['Spring Boot', 'Java', 'Docker', 'Deployment', 'Spring'] |
The invisible enemy | GUINEA 21–27 FEBRUARY 2015
At the end of February, the critical Ebola situation subsided with only one proven case of Ebola treatment from Lola.
WFP continues to provide general food distribution to victims of the Ebola epidemic and vulnerable people in communities such as N‘Zérékoré, Kankan and Forecariah where WFP is supporting contact cases, patients in Ebola Treatment Units (ETU) and Ebola survivors.
WFP General food distribution in the villages in the area around N’Zerekore
Good hygienic practices and access to food are the first basic weapons to fight the deadly virus
Workers at the distribution point prepare the rations before the people come in to collect them
WFP supports communities once they are Ebola free, by providing them with two to four months of food assistance to help
In N’Zerekore women at home with their monthly food ration that includes 50kg rice, pulses, oil, Super Cereal and salt
United Nations Humanitarian Air Service secures transport for the entire humanitarian community tackling the Ebola virus
MOTHERS ENDURE AS EBOLA SURVIVORS
Aisha and Ahmadou are both mothers and Ebola survivors. Aisha’s story is a heartbreaking one. Still wearing her blue bereavement colours she retells how she has lost three of her children, her husband and her daughter to the epidemic. Left a widow raising her three surviving children and grandson alone, Aisha now receives WFP food assistance to help her care for her family.
Ahmadou’s story begins with the kind act of caring for her pregnant daughter. It was during this act that she came in contact with the infectious Ebola virus. She was taken to the treatment center in Kerouani in December with 29 other patients and became one of nine survivors. Ahmadou is very grateful for the food assistance that she receives and shares with her husband and four children. Her children all go to school apart from her 28 year-old daughter who works and helps as much as she can from a nearby village. “Baraka” (thank you) she said.
Aisha
Aisha’s grandson enjoys a packet of Supplementary Plumpy provided by WFP
Ahmadou
A patient free Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) in Kankan
Schools in Guinea are all being equipped with sanitary measures that will help avoid the risk of infection.
WFP Programme Officer Ahmadou Doubayacamara, washes his hands with the children entering school to show good practice
HUMANITARIAN FOOD DISTRIBUTION SIERRA LEONE, MARCH 2015
General Food Distribution (GFD) in Lagor Community, Lower Banta Chiefdom.
WFP and its implementing partner, Community Integrated Development Organization (CIDO), are providing food assistance for the next several weeks in several hot-spot communities in this chiefdom where the majority of new Ebola cases came from.
WFP and Caritas staff preparing to distribute food to three villages in Moyamba
Heading home with the newly received food ration
Sharing a meal
A Norwegian funded basecamp and Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) in Moyamba (below). The basecamp has been built by the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB) to “help the helpers”, providing hygiene, food and accommodation for the humanitarian workers in the ETC or those undertaking work in response to the Ebola pandemic.
Health workers starting the day in the mist at the Ebola Treatment centre (ETC) in Moyamba
Ricky Kufa, Head of Sub Office working in the evening at the Norwegian base camp in Moyamba
General Food Distribution in Pamlap Village, Makari Gbanti Chiefdom, Bombali District
WFP along with its implementing partner, Caritas, give life-saving food assistance in several high-priority communities in this chiefdom where the majority of new Ebola cases are being reported. On the day of the visit, 20 metric tons of assorted food commodities (rice, beans, SuperCereal, salt, oil) were distributed to approximately 400 households with distributions ongoing to reach all targeted households in the community. Those who receive food assistance must wash their hands and have their temperature taken before proceeding to register at the food distribution point.
standing in line to receive their one month food ration
The physically disabled are the first persons to receive the food rations
WFP is providing 30 days worth of crucial food aid to all quarantined families, as requested by the District Ebola Response Centre (DERC). These commodities will help meet the fundamental nutritional demands and reduce the need to move outside their quarantine to find food.
Other partners are providing non-food items to support the quarantine period. One of the main challenges WFP faces in responding to the needs of quarantined households is lack of information or correct information from the surveillance teams that do the line listing/registration. In many cases, the head of the household or landlord and family are registered while other tenants in the compound are sometimes missed. When WFP delivers the food (done in 24 hours), additional beneficiaries are identified and the registration must be re-done by the surveillance teams. In other cases, the information flow from the DERC is slow, resulting in several days between the date of quarantine and the date of food delivery. WFP is working with partners to improve the communications structure.
Early morning food loading for the distribution to quarantined households
The boundaries of quarantined households are marked with red and white tape
Registering the people who live in a quarantined household
INFECTIOUS DISEASE CARE FACILITY — LIBERIA, MARCH 2015
Monrovia
With its expertise in logistics, WFP has been given the job of coordinating logistics for the entire humanitarian community involved in the Ebola response through the Logistics Cluster. For example, the WFP logistics team in Monrovia built four Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs) as well as other units in other areas of the country.
In Monrovia the grounds of the Samuel K. Doe Stadium were designated to host the ETUs as well as the logistics cluster warehouse where items pertaining to all the humanitarian players involved are stored, dispatched and managed by WFP. With the confirmed cases steadily decreasing it was decided that WFP, with support from the German Red Cross (DRK) and the German Army, would transform one ETU into a Severe Infection Temporary Treatment Unit (SITTU) to fill a gap in infectious disease care.
The SITTU is designed to accept patients with symptoms consistent with Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) but not yet confirmed — an important gap to cover, given that much of the Liberian health system ceased providing non-Ebola related health services during the acute stages of the outbreak.
A second ETU has been transformed into a major training center for new health workers that will be deployed around the entire country. The SITTU accepts both walk-ins and referrals from other health facilities. Once at the SITTU, patients who test positive for Ebola will be transferred to an ETU; patients who test negative will be treated for other infectious diseases. Those with no symptoms will be transferred to a health facility. The SITTU is intended to improve the level of clinical care for infectious non Ebola affected patients as well as reducing risk for non-Ebola affected patients who may otherwise seek care at an ETU.
Special effort has been put into making the SITTU as welcoming as possible
A child under treatment collects his lunch from a slide that avoids unnecessary contact between patients
Bomi County
Tombekai is a 124 person village in Bomi, Liberia with three Ebola cases resulting in death and one female survivor, Miatta.
During the early part of the outbreak, many of the villagers fled for fear of being quarantined. Eventually, all of the villagers returned to Tombekai where farming is slowly being revived and stability is strengthening.
Thanks to WFP’s food intervention Bomi’s children, including children from Tombekai, are also resuming those schools declared safe and compliant. WFP’s school meals provide the essential nutrients children require, encourages attendance and improves their cognivitive abilities — they can focus on learning, rather than on when and where their next meal will come from. | https://medium.com/world-food-programme-insight/the-invisible-enemy-71827457ad0b | ['World Food Programme'] | 2017-11-06 08:49:23.352000+00:00 | ['Sierra Leone', 'Ebola', 'Guinea', 'Liberia'] |
Decoupling digital with micro-frontends and micro-services | TL;DR: This is an opinionated technology solution using NextJs Zones and federated GraphQL. For the techies, there’s a fair amount of upfront business context. Bear with me, it’s an important part of the story. Especially so, if you’re trying to convince your business leaders to invest in a modern architecture like micro-frontends and federated GraphQL.
The large organisation problem
Large organisations, be they modern tech giants or established enterprises, face tough challenges when it comes to ownership of digital assets. As organisations grow and shrink, technology trends shift from monoliths to microservices, shared platforms to value streams, the brunt of the pain is felt by the teams maintaining those assets. We are all too aware of the discomfort of endless restructures in order to align to the latest tech or agile trends: change fatigue.
Where have we come from
We once aligned ourselves by department, or discipline. This led to multi hand-offs, long lead times for change, and helped internal political systems [which add no value] to thrive. These problems were exacerbated by the scale of enterprise organisations.
Teams were not aligned around the goal of improving ‘Product A’ because their goals were aligned to discipline. The ‘Frontend’ (or web team) were focused on building websites rather then working with marketers to improve the sales a product.
The modern organisation
The latest trend, is to have teams align around value streams. End-to-end, or front-to-back multidisciplinary full-stack teams. Empowered to own the full lifecycle of an entire vertical slice of an organisation. The reason to align this way is simple: you can effect change without any dependencies on discipline aligned teams (e.g. marketing), because you have that discipline in your team (e.g. your own marketer). No hand-offs, no dependencies, no email tennis — just the efficient flow of work with everyone working towards a common goal.
The nirvana, or so you might think. There is a problem with this approach: it creates duplicity and over time, divergence. Following vertically aligned principals to reduce dependencies can lead to different design standards, multiple domains and each vertical having their own version of common services. There are now vertical product silos instead of layered discipline silos. Whilst the people aspects can be solved through cultural initiatives like guilds, deploying brand consistent, decoupled applications as part of a coherent digital estate is still a challenge.
Decoupling technology
The Backend
Microservices
Microservices were meant to solve some of these problems. The idea is simple: establish your business domains and have teams aligned to those domains build small services. The problem is, that’s just the back end — and have we really solved the problem? Now we have many services with unclear dependencies and our front ends have to make multiple requests to multiple services. You can streamline this with an API gateway but that doesn’t solve interface chattiness issues or tightly coupled UI components to microservices.
GraphQL
GraphQL provides a schematically defined separation between UI and microservices. There’s a misconception with GraphQL that it is monolithic. Whilst it is possible to create a GraphQL monolith, just as you can with a SOA style REST API, there are ways to avoid such undesirable architectures. Apollo’s Federation is good for this. I would highly recommend reading the official Apollo docs here: https://www.apollographql.com/docs/federation/.
A great example of GraphQL federation in production is at Netflix. They have written a great blog on the subject here: https://netflixtechblog.com/how-netflix-scales-its-api-with-graphql-federation-part-1-ae3557c187e2
The Frontend
You can solve the brand/design standards issue with a design system (e.g. Googles Material UI) or at a minimum, a style guide. But how do you solve the problem of the tightly-coupled front end?
One app = monolith, multiple apps = inconsistency + confusing IA, and is not optimised for SEO. What you really need is small UIs or components that are independently deployable. Here’s some examples of how that can be achieved:
Single App container
This approach has been around for some time and was historically implemented with iFrames. SharePoint 2013 did this with ‘App Parts’. Spotify has done it with Electron. It works well for rich interactive single page applications. The Webcomponents standard now provides an iFrame-less mechanism to do this, albeit with varying levels of maturity in some browsers. There are two flavours of this approach.
Framework-less
Cam Jackson from Thoughtworks has written a really detailed article on this approach here: https://martinfowler.com/articles/micro-frontends.html. He advocates the use of vanilla JavaScript to load bundle.js files from various other apps.
With framework
Guy Nesher recently announced https://www.infoq.com/news/2020/12/micro-frontends-single-spa/ the single-spa framework, which is a lightweight framework to glue together multiple SPAs into a single application.
The cons of this approach are complexity in deployment and testing. If you opt for a statically built app you have to have a central deployment mechanism. And if you want isomorphic Jamstack you will need to roll your own.
Separate Apps
This approach is as simple as it sounds: you have completely separate apps, or — complete isolation and maximum decoupling. It works really well if you have lots of individual apps aligned to journeys, like applying for a bank account. The downside is that inconsistency will creap in without strong design standards, or preferebly, a design system. You also have to solve the IA issue with an approach that is SEO friendly and centres around a core domain to enable cross site tracking. There are two main ways to do this:
Layer 7 routing
If you want total control and isolated testing you could use a traffic manager to split your traffic based on URL. This means separate apps, that could be on different tech stacks, in different regions and even different cloud providers. This approach puts a dependency on infra engineering, which could be a bottle neck if you have an IA that is immature or emerging.
Zone Apps
There is another way to decouple: Zone apps. This is a NextJs framework based approach and which will work with React only. It allows you to stitch together the routing of multiple NextJs apps running in different locations. The only coupling sits with configuration within the main home app. This is necessary so it knows where to find the other zone apps. Beyond that, the applications are fully decoupled.
There are some downsides with the separate app approach. We have only solved the IA/SEO issue. The UI could easily become inconsistent. To solve that we can use a design system which includes components for standard furniture like header/nav/footer. We could even content control the config by consuming a shared configuration file hosted and versioned on a CDN or a headless CMS.
An example
Our example business (FakeFurniture.com) has the following requirements:
The architecture must support a
Home team looking after core brand
Account team looking after customer data
A Product team looking after products, inventory and reviews
The architecture must support adding Product teams over time
The account team needs access to reviews written by a customer
There will be other UIs built by 3rd parties using our APIs
Performance and experience must be best of breed
All applications must be on brand and share components/content where feasible
These would be fairly common requirements for an organisation with multiple teams and applications. From an architectural perspective, our estate looks a this:
As you can see, the API gateway could easily become the bottleneck for change. The account and product teams could have their own gateways, but that just fragments the estate and reduces the ease of re-use. Likewise, clients have to conform to API specifications and could break as the specifications change.
If we were to take an approach that used a GraphQL schema as the mechanism to decouple frontends from backends via a federation gateway, we could solve a lot of the integration coupling problems. This has the added benefit of simpler integration for 3rd parties UIs.
On the frontend, NextJs Zones are a good candidate to join up our IA. Using Next and Apollo our application now looks like this:
For the purpose of this example we are ignoring data stores
In code
You can find a working example in the repo here: https://github.com/richgo/micro-frontend-basic
The repository has been divided to support both logical applications with separate client and server applications that are independently deployable like so:
And yes, that is 8 node apps! (3x NextJs, 5x Apollo GQL).
If you follow the instructions on the readme to get the application running and navigate to http://localhost:4000/ you will find the GraphQL playground. From here you can run queries like:
What you can see from here is that the reviews are loaded for the current user (which in this case is always Ada Lovelace, because we have no concept of logging in or setting the current user).
If you search for a product by upc “1” you should see the ‘Table’ product returned, with the same review from Ada Lovelace:
The code behind shows our mock json data which we are using instead of a real data store.
The same behaviour should be reflected through our (not very polished) UI. You can see this by navigating to http://localhost:3000/account
And again in the products section by navigating to http://localhost:3000/products/1
How does it all work
This example is essentially a combination of the nextjs with zones and apollo federation examples available here:
The federated GraphQL server configuration lives here:
You can navigate to any of those servers and they will run just their piece of the graph schema.
Of note, is that changes to the individual servers will not reflect in the gateway on port 4000 until you restart it.
The NextJs Zones config lives in the home-app/client/next.config.js
It is really as simple as that. NextJs handles all the routing for you from then on.
Conclusion
As you can see, there needs to be considerable DevOps investment to get all the servers up and running. You could handle this orchestration neatly with Google Skaffold (that’s for another day!). Sharing components e.g. the header, is something to plan. You either need a design system or some shared library to import components from. A version controlled GraphQL schema registry is also adivsed for a federated graph endpoint.
If you are using React and considering GraphQL for a large application estate that needs a lot of decoupling then this is a solid approach. This is geniunely the first architecture I have seen that can solve consistency and shared services elegantly for a large organisation whilst deliverying blisteringly fast Jamstack experiences. And all with off-the-shelf opensource frameworks. | https://medium.com/nationwide-technology/decoupling-digital-with-micro-frontends-and-micro-services-5aff7e6a2dc6 | ['Rich James'] | 2021-01-04 16:39:00.173000+00:00 | ['Nextjs', 'GraphQL', 'Micro Frontends'] |
The Dreams. | How do you get out of your head when your own head consumes you? I don’t often sleep at night, but somehow I did and I should have gotten myself up, but sleep paralysis grounded me, I forced to watch my dreams in play that were instantly just as painful as being awake. When my body couldn’t take the dream anymore I started to shake. I couldn’t breathe. I thought that I was going to wake up in tears but instead, I woke up with my heart just as broken, Just as nauseous, just as hurt. I never wake up early naturally I need alarm assistance, That was when I could trully feel this pain in my heart that was a growing pressure, adding to the breaks in which I thought we’re trying to heal. The crazy thing about it all is that when I fell asleep, I was falling into sleep with a clear head. Which rarely happens. I should’ve known something wasn’t right, but we don’t often think about that most of us go to sleep because we’re tired, there often isn’t an overwhelming process. For example, sometimes after I get out of work I have a planned routine, but based on how i’m feeling it can shift. For example every day when I get out of work I come home take a shower to wash off my day, but here’s the shift in my routine; instead of relaxing after my shower I will workout for three to four hours (with 5 minutes breaks in between) then take another shower then watch binge a show or in recent days work on my business. Have you ever had overwhelming thoughts that make distraction your main priority just to get you through the day and next? | https://medium.com/@sparrish1212/the-dreams-56a2519914a3 | [] | 2020-12-27 15:42:47.205000+00:00 | ['Overthinking', 'Mental Health', 'Heartbreak', 'Dreams', 'Stress'] |
Platform for success: The Telegraph’s big data transformation | At The Telegraph, the Data Team is a cross-functional group of engineers that manages the core big data platform. It has the responsibility to orchestrate hundreds of batch and real-time data pipelines in order to ensure that the process of data ingestion and transformation is performed on time and is compliant with the highest data quality standards.
This allows analysts to provide reports and insights and the business to make decisions based on reliable figures. Also, The Telegraph’s big data platform is used to support the Data Science Team in delivering predictive models, and the Data Team has an important role to automate the training process and deploy the models in production.
When I joined The Telegraph in 2015, the journey to become a data-driven company was in its infancy. The business was eager to have more data and easier access to information but the infrastructure in place was not yet ready to support decisions in the proper way. Most of the data processing that the data team was doing at that time was done through a single Hadoop cluster used to run few data pipelines on daily bases. But even managing that single cluster was an arduous task due to the lack of direct control on the infrastructure and all the dependencies involved in every minimum change needed.
A major problem at the time was also the waste of computational resources; some pipelines were very demanding but only for a short period of time and our infrastructure was not scaling as it should, which always meant that some nodes were left idle. It became clear that some changes were necessary in order to support the growing digital business with a secure, resilient and auditable data platform able to scale, drive decisions in multiple areas and allow the kind of flexibility that is always paramount in Agile environments. After evaluating all the challenges that the current infrastructure was carrying with it we decided to move away from Hadoop and AWS and as a data team gain more control over our platform.
At the end of 2015, after a few discussions and demos, we were really impressed by all the possibilities that Google Cloud Platform was providing. Bigquery, the data warehouse solution proposed by Google, immediately caught our attention. No infrastructure was needed, there was an affordable pricing model, low response times and high scalability — it seemed exactly what we were looking for! So at the beginning of 2016, we unanimously decided to adopt GCP and the team started to build what is now known as the TMG Datalake.
The first challenge we had was to redesign in a future-proof way our orchestration mechanism and data pipelines, to avoid any waste of resources and allow scalability. Instead of using a cluster of workers we decided to take a different approach and focus on creating single workers on demand and from them push all the computational effort to cloud services when possible. We picked Azkaban as a scheduler and orchestrator and we adopted a very simple paradigm: each time a data pipeline runs, a new worker is created to perform the ETL task. Instead of being restricted to the computational power of a single worker and processing the data in the virtual machine, all the work (when possible) is pushed to BigQuery and the data transformation and aggregation is performed there. After all the SQL queries are executed with success, the result is persisted in our data warehouse and the worker is terminated.
GCP’s Learning curve was less steep than expected and after a couple of months, our first data pipelines to ingest hitlog data from our website and mobile application were ready to be tested. The running time of both processes turned out to be much shorter compared to the results obtained with Hadoop and the data was easily accessible to anyone with a Google account and the right level of permissions. This first iteration proved that the new stack was more performant and easier to manage than the old one and gave us a solid case to continue building the platform.
Before going in further development we decided to take a step back and invest our energies in designing what would become the new Telegraph Datalake. The main goal was to democratize data access across the entire company and provide both insights layer and the possibility to perform discovery analysis on raw data. Also, it was really important to establish a basic data governance before progress further. We decided to avoid any monolithic approach and build our Datalake in multiple iterations reflecting the Agile philosophy that the company was starting to follow during that period.
After a few discussions we opted for the following structure:
Raw data layer: Contains all the data that are ingested both in batch and real-time without any type of transformation. All the data sources ingestion processes are designed to be independent when possible in order to allow modularity.
Contains all the data that are ingested both in batch and real-time without any type of transformation. All the data sources ingestion processes are designed to be independent when possible in order to allow modularity. Shared facts and dimensions layer: Contains facts and dimensions that can be used across multiple projects with the purpose to provide a guidance on the usage of some specific metrics and dimensions.
Contains facts and dimensions that can be used across multiple projects with the purpose to provide a guidance on the usage of some specific metrics and dimensions. Serving/Reporting layer: Contains aggregated data and is built on the top of the previous two. Every project is designed in a separate silo and might use a different way to serve the data to the end user. Two projects don’t interact with each other and they are only sharing the two-layer below. They can be developed independently and in parallel even from different product teams.
Following this approach, our data platform was growing at a fast pace and for more than one year the team focused on ingesting all the available data sources, define data lineage for the main projects and orchestrate multiple pipelines to serve reports on time. We also started to build dashboards and microservices in order to serve a different type of consumers.
After a few months of work TMG Datalake was already storing terabytes of data, but it was not driving any action directly. The need to use data to improve how we interact with our users was clear since the beginning, but it was only when the platform reached the right level of maturity that we started to see possibilities to drive user experience on Telegraph website and mobile application from data. For this purpose, we developed specific data pipelines with the goal to improve user segmentation and use data in our CRM to provide a better experience to our users. This is still an ongoing process and what we can do with Adobe Audience Manager and Adobe Target is having a more significant impact with every day that passes.
Since the beginning of our journey we designed the Datalake to support real-time data processing, but we started to explore how to work with streams for more than a year afterwards. The platform was not mature enough yet and we were looking for use-cases able to bring real value to the business.
Then, in 2017, we started to think which area might benefit more from ingesting and processing real-time data and we moved our focus on the Telegraph newsroom. We began to run a few experiments using Google Cloud Dataflow, with the idea to consume website hitlogs in real-time. It was our first attempt to deploy in production real-time data pipeline and support with that a product that was supposed to be in front of everyone in the company.
A few months later in the newsroom our first real-time dashboard was live. The dashboard (below) displays, with a minimum delay, which type of content leads to new registrations and subscriptions in order to assess which articles and editorial channels are performing better than others.
All the numbers displayed here are for illustrative purposes only.
At the end of 2017, the data platform was still growing and reached more than 200 data pipelines to orchestrate and run, some of them in real-time, others on a daily or weekly basis. Even the stack of technologies (below), which in the beginning was restricted to a few tools, was growing to cover all the use-cases and satisfy different areas of the business.
It was time to introduce some changes, refine our work and reconsider some decisions that we took at the beginning of our journey. We had always worked trying to follow certain standards, but no one was forcing us on the right path if not for common sense and QAs. For this reason, we adopted Giter8 as a templating tool. This allowed us to automatically generate the skeletons of our pipelines and microservices in order to standardize as much as possible every product.
We also started to observe with interest other areas and held discussions with different engineers at the company, to find new ways to improve our day-to-day job. Continuous delivery and continuous integration was already a hot topic at that time and we started to think how to apply what normally is used for microservices to data pipelines in order to deploy in production with the minimum effort an high-quality product.
In 2018, our Jenkins CD pipeline was ready to be tested and we were able to minimize dependencies from scripts, local machines and deploy artifacts in production with a controlled and standardized process.
A few months later we also decided to reconsider the usage of virtual machines. We were already using GKE (Kubernetes) to deploy microservices and it seemed natural to move in the direction to dockerize our data pipelines and orchestrate them as Kubernetes batch jobs.
For this reason we spent most of the summer to refine and improve our templates and prepare our infrastructure to manage docker images. In September 2018 we finally closed the loop deploying in production the first data pipeline on Kubernetes.
It is now almost the end of 2018 and we recently finished defining the direction that we want to take for the next year and where to focus our efforts in order to improve our platform.
The plan for 2019 is to focus on:
Improving our Python ETL library in order to increase development speed, code reusability, and stability of our pipelines. Once ready the library will become open source and shared with the entire community. All the tools that we use to interact with cloud resources in GCP and AWS will be available for everyone. In this way, we hope to receive feedbacks, contributions and make the same journey, that we started a few years ago, easier for who is approaching the cloud now.
Decommission Azkaban in favor of Google Cloud Composer (Airflow) in order to remove a single point of failure from our solution and migrate to a better-supported technology.
Release templates for Apache Beam pipelines and standardize the deployment process.
Improve monitoring logging and alerting with a closer integration with Slack, Stackdriver, and Jira to automatically raise trackable tickets.
Start to provide ETL tools and infrastructure to other teams at the Telegraph in order to help them automate their day to day job in a secure and resilient environment.
During these years we built our data platform like a puzzle, every day adding a new piece and sometimes removing one that was not fitting properly. This puzzle is not finished yet and it will never be. There is always space to improve what has been done in past, new ideas to follow, new technologies to explore. But in the end, what it really matters is to see people excited when a new product is live or they can start to play with a new piece of information and make better decisions based on it. This is the best reward for all our efforts.
Stefano Solimito is a Principal Data Engineer at The Telegraph
Connect on Linkedin | https://medium.com/the-telegraph-engineering/platform-for-success-the-telegraphs-big-data-transformation-e09aa7608832 | ['Stefano Solimito'] | 2018-11-22 21:54:54.485000+00:00 | ['Etl', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Data Lake', 'Data Engineering', 'Big Data'] |
I found a blue dot in an old wallet of mine. Member those? | I may be a librarian and an intellectual, but for years I even subscribed to The National Enquirer . I blamed Avi and Winifred, my doves. “It’s pages are exactly the right size to line the birdcage!”… | https://medium.com/@hogantorah/i-found-a-blue-dot-in-an-old-wallet-of-mine-member-those-e12ce32548fe | ['Hogan Torah'] | 2020-11-25 18:27:29.215000+00:00 | ['Taliban', 'Tableau', 'Tablet Repair', 'Talibanapalooza', 'Tabloide'] |
When Roadmaps Become Roadblocks | For any product manager, one of the most important responsibilities is to build strategic roadmaps. Roadmaps play a crucial role in the success of any project. They are high-level visual explanations of the steps the team will take to deliver a result. They include the milestones, as well as when each task starts and ends. Once these are made, everyone in the crew (from engineering to the design team, the boss to management) can understand when to expect things to be completed. While roadmaps are supposed to be developed as accurately as possible, there is a good chance they may undergo changes (minor, usually). This is completely fine — or Agile, as someone in the software field would say.
Roadmaps are pretty much a must for any successful project. However, there is something else that can take place: roadmaps becoming roadblocks. This probably sounds bizarre, considering how roadmaps are supposed to be built in a way that eliminates roadblocks. Let me share some signs that indicate how your roadmap might be acting as more of a roadblock than something useful.
Signs of roadmaps becoming roadblocks
Too much time for making roadmaps
While roadmaps should clearly cover the what, why and how much time, the overall time to create them should not be much. If you spend so much time on the planning phase, then you and your team will have less time in the next phases, such as execution, testing and so forth. So when you are building roadmaps, ask yourself how much time you are taking to make the roadmap. If making the roadmap is becoming a project, it’s advisable to stop and redo things.
Never-ending changes
Before you make the roadmap, it’s very important you and your team are fully aware of the scope of the project. Only when you know this can you divide the tasks into phases. Sometimes, when you are unclear about the scope, and you go ahead and make a roadmap, what happens next is constant changes. Just as you are about to finish the roadmap, a new task will be added, or something will be removed. Due to this, you end up never getting past the planning phase.
Not considering possible future roadblocks
A good roadmap is one that is well aware of roadblocks that may take place in areas such as design, UI development, QA and elsewhere. However, if you make a roadmap in which possible obstacles are not kept in mind, soon you will find the roadmap is a cause of many problems, such as delayed deliveries.
How to prevent roadmaps from becoming roadblocks
Be clear about the scope
Before you start making a roadmap, make sure you and your team know the overall goals that need to be achieved through the project. In case there are any doubts, get clarification from your client, then proceed to make the roadmap.
Consider all the subtasks for each task
While the roadmap is a high-level summary of what will happen and when, in order to provide the estimated dates for each task, you will need to know the subtasks for each. For instance, when coming up with how much time UI development takes for desktop design, consider the sub-tasks, such as installations, integrations and others.
Crosscheck the estimates given by the team
In no way am I trying to say the estimates given by your development, design and QA teams will not be right. However, in order to ensure the estimates are reasonable, go ahead and cross-check. Perhaps a task is assigned more time than it generally takes. By reviewing the dates, you can see if you need to discuss anything important with the team prior to execution. Also, if at any point the client or your boss feels an estimate seems unreasonable, you have to be ready with an explanation.
Review the overall roadmap with the team again
Generally, when building the roadmap, you will be asking the development, design, QA and other teams to provide you with the milestones and dates separately. However, once you have made the roadmap, it’s a good idea to bring together the whole team that will be working on it. Review with everyone, so everyone knows which step will follow another.
Use simple tool(s) to build a roadmap
Sometimes you are doing everything right to build your roadmap. You and your team know the scope, you have cross-checked the estimates, and everyone has reviewed it. However, one thing that can still cause your roadmapping to be ineffective is using complicated tools. There is a wide range of options for how you can build it. Choose one that is simple. Believe it or not, an Excel sheet is good enough to share with your management. It’s not about how pretty your roadmap looks; it’s about how accurate your roadmap is.
Certain ways of roadmapping can slow down productivity, but you can prevent this from happening. In the end, roadmaps are supposed to be a constant guide for the entire team to deliver quality. Projects can even be done with just verbal planning. However, when made correctly, roadmaps can do wonders for all in the long run.
Have you experienced this kind of situation, where your roadmaps felt rather unuseful? How do you build roadmaps strategically? Comment in the section below, as I would love to know! | https://medium.com/agileinsider/when-roadmaps-become-roadblocks-7046aeaa659f | ['Ishita Mehta'] | 2020-10-02 21:05:30.233000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Product Management', 'Projects', 'Roadmapping', 'Roadblocks'] |
Arendt vs Trump (and Schmitt) | Feisal G. Mohamed writes at The Stone in The New York Times that the U.S. Presidential election can be understood as a contest between the ideas of Carl Schmitt and Hannah Arendt.
“Listening to Donald J. Trump’s acceptance speech, I felt as though the election was turning into a battle between two very different, though equally formidable, 20th-century political philosophers, Carl Schmitt and Hannah Arendt. “The specific political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced,” Schmitt wrote in his 1927 work, “The Concept of the Political,” “is that between friend and enemy.” It is a statement meant to be descriptive, rather than prescriptive: The friend-enemy distinction is central to politics in the same way that a good-evil distinction is central to ethics and a beautiful-ugly distinction is central to aesthetics. All other considerations are peripheral to this core concern.”
Schmitt’s “friend and enemy” distinction is the basis of his understanding of politics as a contest between conflicting groups or tribes. Schmitt sees it as realist counsel to understand that politics is about groups fighting other groups. To win and succeed, any political unity must be willing to sacrifice and fight for itself and against other groups. A political order for Schmitt is not a matter of laws that treat all people equally. When we mistake legality for politics, Schmitt argues, we weaken the friend/enemy distinction and the bonds of unity amongst friends in opposition to enemies that is the core of politics. Politics is the expression of the truth of a people in opposition to its enemies; and the Schmittian political dictator is the one gifted with the ability to speak for the people in a way that unifies and brings that people to exist. Trump’s “I am your voice” is a true example of a Schmittian political dictator.
Mohamed shows that Trump’s politics reflects Schmitt’s argument that politics is about the empowerment of a people based on mutual friendship in opposition to its enemies. Trump’s call to “Make America Great Again” and his insistence on “America First” are built around questions of borders and friendship. We will care for Americans, Trump insists, but that means we must define who is American. Mohamed writes:
“At several points, he emphasized that his republic will be a polity of caring. But he also strained mightily to identify the groups posing an obstacle to this goal: undocumented workers and Islamic terrorists. Responsibility for a supposed rising tide of crime was placed squarely at the doorstep of Mexican migrants and Islamic State sympathizers. The presence of these groups in our midst is, in this view, preventing true political community from emerging.”
To read Trump through Schmitt is to understand that Trump offers a vision of America open to anyone, of any race, religion, or creed, so long as that person identifies as American. The criteria for deserving American care and friendship is not racial, it is political in the Schmittian sense, it is to identify one politically as a friend and to join in the hatred of America’s collective enemies. This was especially apparent in Trump’s embrace of gay Americans who are targeted by Muslim extremists; when homosexuals recognize that their friends are Americans and their enemies are Muslims, they are for Trump welcomed into the American political world. That is why, as Mohamed writes, there were quixotic moments attempting to include Blacks, Gays, and other minorities in Trump’s convention.
“Despite the open hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement apparent at the convention throughout the week, African-Americans received mention from Trump as victims of globalization suffering from joblessness and urban decay. This move collapsed the racial division between poor whites and poor blacks that Republicans so often exploit, replacing it with a focus on the plight of all workers who are Americans. Even more surprising were the huge cheers in response to Trump’s vow to defend the L.G.B.T.Q. community from Islamic extremists — a turn of events that seemed to surprise the speaker himself, who paused to compliment the crowd on its decision momentarily to set aside one of the party’s pet bigotries. This alchemical change was of course effected in the crucible of Orlando, Fla. Here we see how blood sacrifice at the hands of an enemy can alter the terms of political friendship, allowing a previously marginalized group a path to the center of political life. It is a core insight of one of Schmitt’s finest current readers, Paul W. Kahn, in his books “Sacred Violence” and “Political Theology,” that American politics often works in this way, as when African-American sacrifice during World War II was mobilized to broaden anti-segregationist consensus.”
Mohamed makes an excellent case that Trump is a Schmittian politician. His tribalism works seeks, by “heaping hatred on foreign elements within America’s borders,” to “thicken the meaning of the nation as a category.” Perfectly named, Trump trumpets a national unity that is expressed and emerges through his voice.
“Or, put differently, he seeks to restore the racial and familial implications always at play in its Latin root, nationem, from nascor, to be born. In this way it is entirely fitting Trump was introduced by his daughter Ivanka, and that the week featured his children much more prominently than it did the usual party functionaries. We are being invited to join them under the beneficent wing of his paternal care.”
Trump imagines politics as based in a national coherence, the emergence of a national friendship built in opposition to enemies. If we don’t repeatedly identify who we are and thus who we are not, if we treat everyone simply according to rules and laws, we lose the defining force of politics; if anything legal goes, public morality is weakened. What is more, we forget what we are fighting to defend and we may well lose our political existence to others who are willing to fight for themselves — in Trump’s worldview, that is the Chinese and the Islamic extremists. They engage in Schmittian politics of the friend and enemy distinction. And they are winning. America is losing because it is not fighting as America. Trump promises to return us to the fight as Americans.
If we are to oppose Trump’s politics of tribal conflict, Mohamed argues, we need another vision of politics, one that he finds in Hannah Arendt:
“Not all of us will accept the invitation [to join Trump’s nationalist politics]. And in this respect we will share the skepticism of Hannah Arendt, whose core insight in her indispensable book “The Origins of Totalitarianism” is that the path to totalitarianism is cleared when the nation-state hyphen is severed, when the nation becomes an exclusive group that must defend itself through actions residing outside of the law and beyond the protections afforded by state institutions and procedures. Once the logic of a threatened national genus is accepted, emergency action grossly expanding the brutal exercise of state power is not far behind.”
Arendt understands politics to be about plurality, not oneness. This is because politics means the acting and speaking of people who disagree, their coming together, amidst and despite their disagreements, to unite around what they share in common. Politics is for Arendt the unification of a multitude, but such a unification that does not forget that politics requires a multitude, and thus plurality. Arendt’s great statement of the central place of plurality to politics takes place in her Introduction to The Human Condition:
“Action, the only activity that goes on directly between men without the intermediary of things or matter, corresponds to the human condition of plurality, to the fact that men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world. While all aspects of the human condition are somehow related to politics, this plurality is specifically the condition — not only the conditio sine qua non, but the conditio per quam — of all political life. Thus the language of the Romans, perhaps the most political people we have known, used the words “to live” and “to be among men” {inter homines esse) or “to die” and “to cease to be among men” (inter homines esse desinere) as synonyms. But in its most elementary form, the human condition of action is implicit even in Genesis (“Male and female created He them”), if we understand that this story of man’s creation is distinguished in principle from the one according to which God originally created Man (adam), “him” and not “them,” so that the multitude of human beings becomes the result of multiplication. Action would be an unnecessary luxury, a capricious interference with general laws of behavior, if men were endlessly reproducible repetitions of the same model, whose nature or essence was the same for all and as predictable as the nature or essence of any other thing. Plurality is the condition of human action because we are all the same, that is, human, in such a way that nobody is ever the same as anyone else who ever lived, lives, or will live.”
Against those who would reduce politics to the friend/enemy distinction, against those who aim to eliminate particular peoples from the world, and against those who would keep out others in the name of a unitary politics, Arendt argues that politics needs plurality and difference.
The great threat to politics is homogeneity and one source of homogeneity in politics is nationalism. That is why Arendt is so critical of European nation-states where national unity overcomes the foundational plurality of legal and constitutional orders. Whenever a state is a nation-state with a preferred national group (the Germans in Germany, the French in France, and the Turks in Turkey) there is the real danger that members of those groups will grant themselves legal privileges and advantages over minorities. At that point, minorities can either accept second-class status, emigrate, or assimilate to the national majority.
After she emigrated to American in 1940, Arendt came to see the United States as an alternative to the European nation-states. She loved American pluralism, which she took to mean that in America different groups could continue to exist and co-exist without having to assimilate fully and abandon their distinctiveness and uniqueness. In America Jews, Germans, Slavs, and Mexicans, as well as Christians, Muslims, and spirit worshippers could remain who they were and also commit themselves to being American. To be American, Arendt believed, was not a national identity inconsistent with other national and religious identities. To be American was to commit oneself to living amongst a plurality of peoples and persons. It was, she argued, the first state that aspired to be — and to some important extent was — free from being a nation-state.
Arendt saw at least two great threats to the American respect for a politics of plurality. One was the rise of bureaucracy — the rule of nobody — which is not the same as no rule. The danger of bureaucracy is that rule is depersonalized and rationalized. In a bureaucracy, there is no one to argue against since each individual bureaucrat is not responsible for the policy. In the rule of nobody, political opposition is like pushing against a rubber band. Governed by rationality without a face, one bureaucratic opinion reigns and disagreements are seen as disorderly. Bureaucracy is, Arendt sees, the antithesis of a plural politics.
The second great threat to plurality and politics in America was and is the rise of the national security state. In the demand that America be a world power and the consequent need for America to see the world through the friend/enemy lens, Arendt feared the forced conformity and homogeneity that would be deadly to an American version of political plurality.
If Schmitt’s concept of politics helps explain the real and undeniable appeal of Donald Trump, Arendt’s understanding of politics and plurality explains why Trump’s tribalist politics is so dangerous. The desire for a “voice of the people” who will fight to make America great again is real, and it speaks to urgent political needs for membership and also for a political ideal we can believe in. But such a dictatorial politics of national friendship chafes at the constitutional and legal constraints that, for Arendt, are the structural foundations of pluralism. The laws that protect civil rights; the laws that prevent discrimination; the laws that defend privacy; and the laws that protect private property are all, for Arendt, necessary bulwarks that protect the pluralism that is the prerequisite for real political argument, persuasion, and compromise.
Such a pluralist politics is messy, often inefficient, and at times irritatingly indecisive. We live in such a time. And the impulse to dispense with politics in the name of getting things done is strong. That impulse, to elect a miracle worker who will solve our insolvable problems, is understandable. And insofar as Trump offers an inclusive ideal of America open to all Americans who identify the right way as Americans, it even has a patina of equality. But the overarching claim is to replace laws and restraints with a politics of salvation by a strong man. Trumps politics threatens a totalitarian anti-politics, one that replaces plurality with national unity. What Arendt helps us see is that such a politics is not only dangerous, it is distinctly anti-American. | https://medium.com/amor-mundi/arendt-vs-trump-and-schmitt-2b78ea3d48f8 | ['The Hannah Arendt Center'] | 2016-07-26 19:00:52.341000+00:00 | ['Europe', 'Politics', 'Donald Trump', 'Nationalism', 'America'] |
FusionFabric.cloud: October Newsletter | October has been an exciting month and we have a lot to share with you: from our brand new data-focused offering and new apps in our store to an update on our global hackathon which we invite you to join so we can redefine finance for good together.
Fusion Data Cloud: data ecosystem + actionable insights + connected experiences
We have just launched Fusion Data Cloud which enables fintechs to collaborate with and promote new, innovative solutions to thousands of Finastra customers, speeds time to market and provides major scale when compared to going solo.
Two new applications are now available in our store
Floatbot : Finbot for RetailFinbot — Floatbot is a SaaS-based conversational AI platform that helps banks and Fintechs to automate customer support, increase customer experience and digital sales. Its DIY “No Code” platform makes it possible to build hybrid bots using advance workflow-builder and conversational AI tools.
AIO — Verified Financial Identity — AIO is driving trust between businesses, enabling customers to establish and own their verified financial identity, and to share it securely with financial institutions.
Finastra APIs
We invite you to check our latest API-related updates.
REGISTER to Hack To The Future: already 3,400+ participants from 70+ countries
Be a part of what we hope will be the most impactful fintech hackathon ever, with #HackToTheFuture 2020! Build your app with Finastra APIs to accelerate transformation, because we’re #hackingforgood!
We are delighted to generate so much enthusiasm and drive such a tremendous level of participation just under two weeks following our official launch.
Did you know that 40+ partners and sponsors joined us to offer collectively over $90,000 in prizes?
You have until December 20th to submit your apps and help us to redefine finance for good! Come and register here.
If you have questions or need help, contact our dedicated team on the Community Q&A page.
Many thanks!
FusionFabric.cloud Team | https://medium.com/finastra-fintechs-devs/fusionfabric-cloud-october-newsletter-ea94b06c42fe | ['Liuqing Yang'] | 2020-12-09 19:34:42.682000+00:00 | ['Developer', 'Hackathons', 'API'] |
The best smart garage door controllers deliver convenience and peace of mind | The best smart garage door controllers deliver convenience and peace of mind Beverly Dec 23, 2020·5 min read
The garage door opener, in some ways, marks the smart home’s genesis. Radio-controlled remotes for electric garage door openers date back to 1931, predating the TV remote by nearly 20 years. So, it’s funny that modern smart home technology, which ties wireless with internet-based technology, has been relatively slow to reach the garage door. Relatively few companies compete in this market today, and many of their products feel designed more for guys who like to tinker in their workshops than folks looking to develop a soup-to-nuts smart home.
The good news is that these devices are definitely improving in both simplicity and capability, and while the garage door might remain a bit of an outlier in your smart home for the foreseeable future, adding a smart garage door controller to your setup offers some real advantages. Not only will you be able to open and shut the door from anywhere—letting in guests, relatives, or delivery people—you’ll also know whether the door is open or closed in real time.
Updated December 9, 2020 to add our Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Controller review. This inexpensive gadget isn’t the easiest smart home device to install, but its low cost and good performance make it worth considering if our top pick in this category—the Chamberlain myQ—doesn’t work out for you.
If you’re one of those people who frequently forget to close the door—or if you fret over whether you remembered to shut it as you headed out on a two-week road trip—you’ll definitely want to make the investment.
Here’s our top pick in this market, followed by a list of features you should consider when shopping for a smart garage door controller, and links to our reviews of other products in this category.
[ Further reading: The best video doorbells ]Best smart garage door controller Chamberlain myQ Smart Garage Door Hub (MYQ-G0301) Read TechHive's reviewSee itThis top-notch smart garage door controller can handle two doors at once—although that second sensor costs three times as much as the entire single-door kit.
This is a real no-brainer: The Chamberlain myQ is the easiest smart garage door controller to set up, the most functional controller on the market, and, it’s the least expensive on the market—by a wide margin. The all-wireless system means you don’t have to tinker with running new wiring to your garage door opener, and a single Hub can control two doors (if you buy a second sensor—which costs about as much as the hub-and-sensor kit). The app is simple to configure and use, and the system supports a small but growing number of smart home ecosystems, including HomeKit. The myQ isn’t compatible with every opener, but if it works with yours—check online before you buy—it’s definitively the one to get.
Runner-up Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener (model MSG100) See itMeross’ installation process might stymie novices, but its low price tag—and good performance—merit strong consideration.
Meross smart home products have left us with mixed emotions. They’re all inexpensive, but value is defined by more than a price tag. The Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener is on the better end of that scale. If Chamberlain’s product doesn’t fit your needs, this one is worth your consideration. (Note: This device is not HomeKit compatible, but Meross offers a separate model that is. It wasn’t available at press time, however, for us to evaluate.)
How to pick the right smart garage door controllerWhile garage door openers come in a vast range of brands, styles, and capabilities, the good news is that you’ll likely be able to find a smart controller that works with your system without much trouble.
As I mentioned above, the Chamberlain myQ is my top pick for a variety of reasons, but because it exclusively relies on wireless technology, it isn’t compatible with every system on the market. To start, visit myQ’s compatibility tool and check whether your existing opener is supported. If it is, and you don’t care that it’s not compatible with Alexa or Samsung SmartThings, your work is done: Get the myQ. If it isn’t, you can either get an all-new opener as Chamberlain suggests (although that won’t resolve the Alexa and SmartThings issues), or delve into the world of wired smart garage door controllers.
Christopher Null / IDG The Nexx NXG-200 must be attached to your garage door opener via wires, and space can be tight depending on your ceiling height.
Actually, upgrading your old, incompatible door opener is not a terrible idea, and new models are more secure and less expensive than you might think. Considering that a wired garage door controller can run you about $100, it’s worth thinking hard about whether you want to pour more money into an outdated system that might be close to failure, or just upgrade it from the start. (Many new openers have smart technology built in, obviating the need for an add-on controller.)
But if you do have an opener that’s incompatible with our top pick, and you want to keep it around, you’ll need a wired controller like the Nexx Garage NXG-200 or the Garadget. Wired controllers. These must be connected to the opener via a pair of wires, so you’ll need to be comfortable with some minor electrical work in order to install them. Like myQ, Nexx offers an online compatibility tool, but here you’re likely to find that Nexx is either compatible straight out of the box, or compatible only with an additional adapter. In other words, wired controllers are generally compatible with everything, or, at least, I haven’t found any openers yet that aren’t compatible with them.
Christopher Null / IDG The Garadget fires a laser once a second at the door to determine whether it is open or closed.As with the product from NEXX, the Garadget must be hardwired to your opener.
The catch involves the adapter. Generally speaking, if you have an older garage door opener, Nexx and Garadget will work with it straight out of the box. If you have a newer opener, you’ll need their adapter as well. This is because newer openers often have a more complex encryption system built in, and a standard push-button remote—which is what wired smart controllers emulate—won’t work with them. The solution is to place a button that is compatible with this encryption in between the controller and the opener: The controller tells the button to activate, which in turn tells the opener to open or close. It’s a little wonky, but in my testing, these setups work just as well as the wireless alternative.
The problem is that it’s just a lot more expensive to do it this way. Purchasing a Nexx and an adapter will run you $105 at press time, and a Garadget plus adapter costs $98. Compare that to the less than $40 you’ll spend on the myQ and there’s really no choice.
Again, if myQ isn’t compatible, either Nexx or Garadget will make for an acceptable alternative, provided you’re willing to spend a little extra to get the job done. We’ll review new products in this space as they come to market and will update our top pick as warranted.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@beverly65356677/the-best-smart-garage-door-controllers-deliver-convenience-and-peace-of-mind-1ce0268c33ed | [] | 2020-12-23 22:02:47.903000+00:00 | ['Home Tech', 'Consumer Electronics', 'Chargers', 'Connected Home'] |
Smart home guide for beginners: Make your home more convenient to live in without spending lots of time or money | If you fall asleep now, you will dream. If you study now, you will live your dream | https://medium.com/@jaidev05460599/smart-home-guide-for-beginners-make-your-home-more-convenien-8b84eae9eb1e | [] | 2020-12-25 08:05:07.145000+00:00 | ['Surveillance', 'Entertainment', 'Lighting'] |
J B Fashion Plain Imported Fabric Women Top with 3/4th Sleeves for Fancy top,Stylish top, Casual… | J B Fashion Plain Imported Fabric Women Top with 3/4th Sleeves for Fancy top,Stylish top, Casual Wear Top for Women/Girls Top
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Care Instructions: Dry Clean Only
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Product description
Fabric : Polyster fitting type : regular fit, DISCLAIMER: The images shown are for representational purposes only. Please note that the colour of the product may slightly vary in comparison to the picture shown on the website due to various reasons which may include different lighting and devices during photo-shoot and also the colour settings and resolution of your own monitor screen. It is also important to note that we thrive to bring you the best, but, there may be a little difference in terms of fabric and colour. Wash Care: The Dry clean is recommended.
👉.......TO GET CLICK HERE.......👈 | https://medium.com/@yashwagh1315/j-b-fashion-plain-imported-fabric-women-top-with-3-4th-sleeves-for-fancy-top-stylish-top-casual-db4f36a8a6e6 | [] | 2021-02-02 11:27:52.026000+00:00 | ['Amazon', 'Fashionblogger', 'Discount', 'Deal', 'Fashion'] |
3 Lockdown-Friendly Adventures near Montreal | 3 Lockdown-Friendly Adventures near Montreal
The bars and museums may be closed, but there are still plenty of things to do in and around Montreal while respecting physical distancing and travel restrictions.
St. Laurent River Park
If you’re taking the metro, get off at de l’eglise and walk down to Lasalle Blvd. Past the Hospital / McDonalds is the best park in the city. There is plenty of open space for physical distancing, an open-air dog park, a bike path, views of the famous Lasalle rapids, and a dirt-path nature walking trail further down at the water.
For summer months, at one end there is a public beach and at the other end there is kayak and SUP rentals. There are even lots of spots to hide away and read a book on the banks or try your hand at hobby fishing.
Street Art Scavenger Hunt
Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Montreal
The museums and galleries may be a no go but that doesn't mean you can’t take in the amazing talent and colours of the city. Every borough of Montreal is home to at least a few incredible pieces of street art. A fun way to make this into a day activity is to walk around your neighbourhood and take pictures of every piece of art you see.
Frida by Elisa Rank in Ville-Emard
La Danse des Esprits Libre by Carlito Dalceggio (2015) — https://artpublicmontreal.ca/en/oeuvre/la-danse-des-esprits-libres/
Les Toits du Monde
Les Toits du Monde, Nominingue QC
Ready for a drive? A drive out of the city is always a great way to break a suffocating routine. Les Toits du Monde is located in Nominingue, Quebec and features some genius year round tree-house / tiny house accommodations. Just don’t forget to bring your mask in case you need to stop for gas along the way.
Located in a currently Orange-Zone region, This pet-friendly glamping experience is 100% non contact and physical distancing friendly. There’s also a beautiful walking trail (Sentier Rocher Capitaine) on the property with a perfect view. Be aware, some of the tiny houses are equipped with an indoor dry toilet while others have an outhouse. Hygiene and cleaning is kept up well by the owners!
Sentier Rocher Capitaine, Nominingue QC
Let me know in the comments if you’ve visited any of these spots and what your favorite thing to around Montreal has been while physical distancing and respecting Covid restrictions in the province.
Should I keep this series going with more lockdown friendly activities?
~ Lo | https://medium.com/@lorinoel/3-lockdown-friendly-adventures-near-montreal-96f3f0565ea5 | ['Lori Noel'] | 2020-12-09 14:55:14.892000+00:00 | ['Things To Do', 'Street Art', 'Montreal', 'Tips And Tricks', 'Top 5'] |
One Hundred Nineteen Times | Photo by Elijah O'Donell on Unsplash
One Hundred Nineteen Times
The Deadly Consequences of Hyperbole, or Tell Me Again How I’m Overreacting
A few weeks ago I stumbled across a short story in my feed on Medium. In the story, a man orders a drink at a bar and spots an attractive woman across the way. They make eye contact; the man asks if he can buy her a drink and join her, and she agrees. She proceeds to seduce the man and things get hot and heavy.
The story itself ended on a rather problematic note. The story’s climax was based on the “catfish” trope. The man discovers that the woman has male genitalia. She was there simply to trick him into believing she was a woman. She leaves him there, shocked and flustered, and tells him she is going home to her wife.
The woman in the story didn’t self-identify. You don’t know if she was a transgender woman or a man in a dress who gets off on tricking men into believing he is a woman. The character was purposefully flat and undeveloped.
I found the story itself well-written, but as a transgender woman, I thought it was in poor taste. To each their own. What was too problematic for me to ignore were the comments in response to the story. The story, and the subsequent comments have been removed from Medium, so I will paraphrase from memory.
“You can bet if that ever happened to me, there would be a shooting,” read the first comment. “Ha ha, I bet! If that happened to anyone I know, there would definitely be a shooting!” came the next comment.
When I read these terrible words, my heart sunk, and I became a bit nauseous. As an openly transgender woman, this is one of my fears, and certainly my wife’s greatest fear; that someone will attack me simply for being transgender. Sure, my situation is different than the one in the story. I’m not seducing men in bars, and I’m not encouraging them on to third base.
However, in the few short months since I’ve been out, I have had inebriated men hit on me. I did not initiate or welcome the attention. It is plausible that a man could be attracted to me, despite my best efforts to fly under their radar. Is it really that much of a stretch to imagine that someone, upon learning that the woman they find attractive is transgender, could then become violent?
When I respectfully challenged these folks on their commentary, letting them know that such discourse was harmful to transgender people, I received more than a small amount of push-back and gas-lighting.
“Gwen, You’ve made your point. No need to continue hurting or embarrassing me!” “Nothing about this was harmful to anyone. Quit whining and acting like a victim. Haven’t you ever heard of hyperbole?”
I have, in point of fact, heard of hyperbole. That their comments were hyperbolic was not lost on me, not in the slightest. I initiated my response by acknowledging that these folks were just joking among themselves, and likely did not mean any harm. Even lacking the intent to do so, hyperbole can be harmful to people who live in the margins; it is simply wrong to perpetuate the idea that violence against transgender people is acceptable.
To the author’s credit, she promptly apologized and eventually removed her story. It certainly wasn’t my intent to hurt or embarrass anyone, but I felt passionately that what I was witnessing, regardless of intent, was wrong.
This morning, I awoke to a headline that reminded me exactly why that message is so vitally important.
Dee Whigham was stabbed and slashed 119 times in the face and throat by a man who “lost it” when she revealed to him that she was transgender.
One hundred nineteen times.
Then he took a shower and went home, leaving her for dead in the hotel.
Somewhere along the line, this man was socialized to believe that killing a transgender person is justified. That he was the victim, after stabbing Ms. Whigham one hundred nineteen times, simply because she was not born a cisgender woman. That such a disclosure was grounds for him completely losing his mind and becoming an enraged killer.
One hundred nineteen times.
I lost it. I lost it.
That’s what he says in the courtroom video. He tried to use the “gay panic” defense. This is a legal strategy which blames the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity for the defendant’s violent reaction, including murder.
Not a bad strategy, considering that legal defense is still allowed in all but a few states. California became the first state to outlaw the gay panic defense, Illinois followed their lead at the start of this year. Similar restrictions have been advocated or formally proposed in a few other states including Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Georgia, Washington, New Jersey and New York.
The common discourse in our country regarding people who live in the margins is directly responsible for this woman’s death. This “hyperbole” regarding women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and all the intersections therein is harmful, and it is passed down through the generations.
One hundred nineteen times.
The common discourse in our country regarding people who live in the margins is directly responsible for 12-year-old Maddie and her family having to flee their Achilles, OK home in fear of transphobic violence.
One hundred nineteen times.
A commenter in a closed Facebook parents group said Maddie, who was not “out” as transgender, should be castrated “with a good sharp knife.” Another commenter suggested having their own children attack Maddie to teach her a lesson. Her family is now moving to Houston, fleeing for her safety.
One hundred nineteen times.
Nothing about this was harmful to anyone. Quit whining and acting like a victim. Haven’t you ever heard of hyperbole?
I may not (yet) be a victim, but there’s no shortage of victims of transphobic violence out there. Many of them no longer have a life, nor a voice.
Fear of such violence keeps many people trapped in the closet where they can be isolated, alone and riddled with fear and mental anguish.
Here’s my call to action.
If you witness people, whether it is in the grocery store or on social media, advocating violence against the LGBTQ community, even casually or merely in jest, I implore you to speak out. It is no laughing matter.
Lives are at stake.
Now it’s time for Jaimz Mallett to sing us out. | https://medium.com/gwendolyn-saoirse-the-blog/one-hundred-nineteen-times-16263df2a971 | ['Gwen Saoirse'] | 2018-09-04 20:42:08.658000+00:00 | ['LGBTQ', 'Equality', 'News', 'Transgender', 'Violence'] |
Powers and the exponential function | Powers and the exponential function
This is the third article of the series. We will introduce exponentials and logarithms with other bases from what we have learned so far. Readers should be familiar with the natural logarithm and exponential functions, they were introduced in the previous articles.
Before introducing exponentials and logarithms with other bases, let’s complement some of our previous results to make them more powerful.
Consider a power function f: (0,+∞) → ℝ f(x) = x^a, where a ∈ ℝ. Until now, we assume (implicitly) that we know the derivative of this function when a is a rational number, which could be easily proved by the definition of differentiation. In fact, we have to use the following result to prove the property 5 of the ln function.
Since we already know the meaning of the power for all real exponent, it is time to generalise the above result. Remember f(x) = x^a = exp(aln(x)), by chain rule, we get
We are happy to see the rule for a power’s derivative still holds even if the exponent of the power is irrational. Besides, the proof also shows that as for the rational case, if a is irrational, we still have x^(a - 1) = x^a/x for any positive x.
The following two results generalize the fifth properties of ln and exp functions, their proofs are exactly the same as before, except that we need the above derivative result to handle irrational r.
As ln is called the natural logarithm function, the exp function we studied in the previous article is often referred as the natural exponential function. Exponential functions with other bases are defined based on it:
Notice that an exponential function with base b is different from a power function with exponent b. A power function has its independent variable x at its base while an exponential function has its independent variable x at its exponent. In addition, we eliminate 1 in the definition for nothing special but the fact that 1 to the power of anything still equals 1, which gives a boring function. 1^x = exp(xln(1)) = exp(0) = 1.
According to our definition, b^x = exp(xln(b)) = exp(t), which could be regarded as a stretch or compression of exp function. As we noted previously , exp is a bijective function, then so is b^x, which guarantees that we could define its inverse function.
We have drawn the graphs of several exponential and logarithm functions with different bases in Figure 1.
Figure 01. Exponential and logarithm funtions with different bases
Based on the above definition, the inverse function of e^x is the logarithm function of base e. But we also know e^x = exp(x) for any real x, and the inverse of exp is ln, so ln is the logarithm function of base e by definition. Many results could be further deduced for exponential and logarithm functions, you might have learned most of them in high school, and we won’t dive into them further to prevent us from unnecessary digression. The only result we will introduce about them is the following change of bases property.
By now, we have introduced many definitions, the most important ones of which is summarized in Figure 2. We started from the definition of ln function using fundamental theorem of calculus, and exp is defined to be the inverse of ln. exp is then used to define powers of any real exponents. Finally, the inverse of exponential functions of general bases are defined to be logarithm functions of general bases.
Figure 02. Logic of key definitions
The definitions we have learned are quite useful. For example, let’s consider a famous limit result.
The base of the power approaches to 1 as x approaches to +∞, it is trying to “drag” the value of the power to 1. While the exponent of the power approaches to +∞ as x approaches to +∞, and it is trying to “drag” the value of the power to infinity. What will be the combined result of these two forces? With the help of our definition and L’Hôpital’s rule, the result turns out to be e!
Until now we have mostly finished what we want to say about logarithm functions. We will focus more on the exponential function in the future. In the next article, our main task is to study the Taylor series of exp function, which could help us to prove e is irrational and find an approximation of it with any precision! | https://medium.com/@adam-bi-321/powers-and-the-exponential-function-8b5416b1420e | ['Adam Bi'] | 2020-12-21 21:49:23.299000+00:00 | ['Calculus', 'Power', 'Mathematics', 'Exponential Function', 'Logarithm'] |
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