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The Left Gets Ready to Pressure the Biden Administration | The Left Gets Ready to Pressure the Biden Administration
Left-wing activists joined forces with Biden to defeat Trump, but their silence is already ending
Members of the Sunrise Movement gather for a rally outside of the DNC headquarters in New York City. Photo: Erik McGregor/Getty Images
For most of 2020, the left played nice. Many progressive leaders joined Joe Biden’s coalition because they believed defeating Donald Trump was paramount and the only way to advance their agenda. But now that Trump is almost out of the way, they’ve made it clear that they are expecting a return on their investment.
That starts with publicly pressuring Biden during the transition period.
In conversations with GEN, seven progressive organizers showed a mix of optimism and cynicism about what they could expect from Biden. Some are anticipating a hard fight with him on issues ranging from immigration and racial justice to foreign policy. Others believe he can be more gently nudged to the left, particularly after their movements gained policy ground on the Biden campaign’s “unity task forces.” Activists are now busy identifying windows of opportunity: On Monday, Biden mentioned the House Democrats’ pandemic relief bill, which calls for immediate forgiveness of $10,000 in student loan debt. High-profile progressives quickly used the momentum to call for Biden to cancel all of it. Meanwhile, the climate justice group Sunrise Movement and the left-wing Justice Democrats PAC, perhaps best known for helping to elect Democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the House, released a list of preferred Cabinet appointments. Justice Democrats also criticized some Biden White House staff appointments for their ties to Big Pharma and the fossil fuel industry.
Ahead, organizers tell GEN how they are preparing for the new administration.
Maurice Mitchell, a leader of the Movement for Black Lives and national director of the Working Families Party
Since we delivered this victory electorally, it’s very appropriate for us to expect that Biden-Harris takes Black voters — not just our votes, but our voice — pretty seriously. Imagine if Black voters hadn’t been turning out at the numbers that we turned out in Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Atlanta. This election would have swung in a different direction. Those voters turned out for a very particular reason. It wasn’t simply for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It was to advance an agenda: investments in our folks and creating policies that close up the racial wealth gap, that end police violence, that ensures Black folks can have dignified work. We want to see policies starting in the first 30 days that put working people first and that are not race-neutral, that are specific to our conditions. Because if you live in Native country, if you are a Latinx person in the Southwest, if you are a Black person living in Atlanta, Milwaukee, or Philly, you have a unique set of conditions. Race-neutral policies act against that. We need an administration that is sensitive about tackling racism, closing the racial health gap, and calling for racial justice. We’re going to be looking at appointments and executive orders and, like the Working Families Party, working to flip the Senate. But even if the Democrats lost, that’s no excuse to do everything they can, anything in their power.
John Paul Mejia, spokesperson for Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate justice group
The Biden-Harris ticket was elected by this historic mandate for action on climate, Covid-19, systemic racism, the economy, and so on. To fulfill those promises to “build back better,” they’re going to need a team who represents the ambition of their vision, not people who got us into this mess. Now we have something to work with, but we’re ready to do a whole lot more and put the pressure on a Biden administration. To be quite honest with you, [if he doesn’t make climate a priority], I think it’s going to bite him in the ass — for lack of better words. Young people, Black people, Indigenous people, people of color delivered this victory in key states like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin. The ambition on climate was a huge driving factor to why those turnout rates were what they were. If Biden fails to meet the heat of the moment, he’s going to end up becoming an unpopular figure and will likely not amount to much governing power at all. We want Biden to be a visionary or an executive of our views. We don’t want him to be Mitch McConnell’s vice president.
Tania Unzueta, political director at Mijente, a Latinx political advocacy group
We’ve actually been able to move Biden on things that weren’t happening under Obama. For example, there has been a pretty firm commitment from the Biden campaign to do a moratorium on deportations in the first 100 days of his presidency. To me, that says it’s not going to be the same as [under Obama.] That says there’s more community power. When Trump came, what happened was that [detentions, deportations, and immigration policy] became that much more extreme, but people knew what ICE was because of what organizers did under Obama.
We know what it’s like to fight under a Democrat, right? And we know what it’s like to not have any possibility for organizing under Trump. I hear a lot of people being either on the side of “Biden is going to be our savior and now everything is going to be fine” or on the side of “We’re ready to attack Biden for all the things he’s not going to do.” It has to be a middle ground in being able to say, “We’ll take the opportunities where we see them, and we’ll push back whenever we need to push back.”
Oluchi Omeoga, co-founder of Black Visions Collective, a Minnesota-based Black liberation group
I’m very happy that we do not have to fight blatant fascism at this time, but I don’t necessarily have faith in Democrats actually implementing policy that’s going to help Black folks, specifically Black folks who are on the margins, who are working class, who are immigrants, who are queer and trans. As we’ve seen before, right? What we should be advocating for is to reallocate our resources from things that are killing us to things that would regenerate us. How are we actually investing in reversing climate change? How are we investing in housing for folks who don’t have housing? We know the issues, but instead of finding new solutions, we’re just putting more money into the solutions we know aren’t working. One thing we have been doing a lot [as an organization] is community political education. We have to actually implement policies that are not reforms for reform’s sake but are on the pathway toward a new future of safety, a new future of equity.
Emily Mayer, political director at IfNotNow, a Jewish organization critical of Israel
After decades of a failed U.S. foreign policy approach to Israel/Palestine — from Democrats and Republicans — President-elect Biden has an opportunity to chart a new course that will ensure a future of freedom and safety for all Israelis and Palestinians. That must include taking action to hold the Israeli government accountable for violating the human rights of the Palestinians. IfNotNow will stand proudly with other progressive, youth-led organizations to ensure that the Biden administration does everything within their power to end the Israeli military occupation and put human rights at the center of its policy approach, at home and abroad.
Daye Pope, organizing director at Trans United Fund, a transgender rights advocacy group
The Biden administration has a real opportunity to accomplish broadly popular policies, like expanding health care coverage, increasing the minimum wage, and taking action on climate change, that will go a long way to help marginalized people like trans communities. But trans leaders will continue organizing toward decriminalizing sex work, abolishing ICE, and more meaningful structural reforms that center the most marginalized, such as trans people of color, and we expect that to be an uphill battle in a moderate Biden presidency.
Natalie Sweet, communications director at Zero Hour, a youth-led climate justice organization
Zero Hour wants Biden to take stronger stances on climate change, in both the selection of his cabinet and his policy. We’re supporting Sunrise Movement’s cabinet appointment push, featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and many others. We also want Biden to ban fracking nationwide, using the principles of climate justice outlined in the Green New Deal to facilitate a just transition for workers and communities to clean energy. This past spring and summer, we developed a “Getting to the Roots of the Green New Deal” campaign and adapted this educational series to specific swing states, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. Along with lobbying against fracking, we’re going to be continuing these presentations with a specific emphasis on pushing Biden farther to the left. Though Biden’s election is a step in the right direction for the environmental movement, we still have a long way to go in the fight for climate justice, and we’re definitely not stopping now.
These interviews have been edited for clarity. | https://gen.medium.com/the-left-gets-ready-to-pressure-the-biden-administration-821db332a799 | ['Andrea González-Ramírez'] | 2020-11-19 14:44:49.376000+00:00 | ['Left', 'Progressive', 'Democrats', 'Biden', 'Politics'] |
It’s an Airplane, Not a Shul | It’s an Airplane, Not a Shul
A Tale of Flying While Female
Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash
So a man boards his El Al flight from New York to Tel Aviv, but when he sees that Elana Sztokman is in the seat adjacent to his, he refuses to sit next to her.
Did she have a hacking cough? Ebola?
No. The problem, simply, was that she was a she.
The man, an ultra-religious Orthodox Jew, was so certain that God didn’t want him to sit beside a woman that he demanded a seat change. Other Orthodox men onboard took up his cause, and the ensuing brouhaha delayed take-off until, finally, another seat could be found for him.
Sztokman just happens to be the author of The War On Women In Israel: A Story of Religious Radicalism and the Women Fighting For Freedom in which she calls for an end to “the religious extremism that is hurting women” in that country.
Proving? God has a sense of humor. Or, at the very least, a deep sense of irony.
The outraged essay that Sztokman wrote about the incident quickly went viral.
Will this help Sztokman sell books?
I certainly hope so.
Seating flaps like this aren’t unusual for El Al. It happens often enough that instituting gender-segregated seating on their planes has been discussed. (And dismissed as being unworkable.)
Of course, playing musical chairs with airplane seats is nothing new.
I’ve quietly asked the flight attendant for a seat change when seated too close to a bathroom, or in front of a child who kept kicking my seatback. Flight attendants, I’ve found, will try to accommodate you if you’ve got a reasonable request.
But was this man’s request reasonable?
Sztokman didn’t think so. “What offends me,” she wrote, “is the premise that sitting next to me is a problem…and the way women [in such a situations] are made to feel like second-class citizens.”
My Facebook pals agreed, based on their comments when I shared her essay:
He should have been shown the door and told he can fly when he grows up.
He needs a private jet to control his flying environment but I guess it’s easier to try to control women.
Let him sit in the bathroom where he can be alone with his deep thoughts.
Make him walk.
It’s an airplane, not a shul!
So where does it end? A special section or religious men and another special section for religious women?
How about another section for secular humanist Jews like me, where we can nosh non-kosher snacks and read the New York Times in peace?
What about a section for anybody traveling with a howling baby?
Or a really bad cold?
A section for introverts only, to ensure that we won’t have to make small talk with our seat mates?
And why not a section for white-knuckled flyers, with special “This Plane Is Perfectly Safe And Will Not Crash” affirmations printed on the seat-back cards?
All joking aside, supporting a male passenger’s refusal to sit next to a woman is a serious attack on women’s hard-won right to equality in public accommodations and should not be tolerated.
El Al, I hope, will eventually get this all sorted out.
In the meantime, I’ve got an idea. Feminist airlines! The very first airline to fly in accordance with feminist values. Every passenger will be considered equal and worthy, and all will be expected to treat each other with consideration and kindness. (And, of course, Gloria Steinem always flies for free.)
Fly the feminist skies with me, Elana! I’ll see you at the airport.
( Writing Coach and Medium Sherpa Roz Warren writes for everyone from the Funny Times to the New York Times, and is the author of Our Bodies, Our Shelves: Library Humor. You can buy her a cup of coffee here.) | https://medium.com/indelible-ink/its-an-airplane-not-a-shul-b9e05b0cfe53 | ['Roz Warren'] | 2020-08-22 01:33:15.614000+00:00 | ['Tolerance', 'Travel', 'Feminism', 'Airplanes', 'Religion'] |
It All Comes Back to Childhood. There are two widely accepted tropes in… | It All Comes Back to Childhood
There are two widely accepted tropes in childhood upbringing. One, “I had the most loving parents who supported me through everything”. Two, “My parents were naysayers and disapproved of every decision I made”. In reality, all of our parents fall somewhere in between.
Illustration of villagers celebrating Winter Solstice to mark the start of winter.
From an outsider’s point of view, I had the ideal nuclear family. I would simply call it, a functional one. Working, responsible parents; studious, polite child. It wasn’t broken, nor reconstructed. Behind closed doors we all love to hate. I can be as critical as I want, but I’m the first one up in arms when an outsider dares to comment.
As a child, my parents instilled a lot of confidence and blind faith in me. They were ahead of the curve when it came to grooming my teachers. My mom would pass on her department store vouchers to my homeroom teacher. I didn’t know why I was selected to watch over the class on the first day of kindergarten, when the teacher briefly stepped out, but I felt special and liked for simply being me. I also had discreet enough teachers where I didn’t find out about my mother’s doings until I was much older and had already formed a self-identity.
As an adolescent, I was bestowed endless freedom. I was naturally inclined to learning, diligent in keeping up with school. As long as I gave things my best try, up until that point, it always proved to be more than enough. They stopped asking for my report cards in middle school.
To counteract the praise I received, my parents began picking imaginary battles for me. There was always some child in their social circle that exceeded in some aspect over me. I had enemies to retaliate against, and comparisons to feel less than. Endless psychology studies have shown this never works. They never came around in their thinking. The residual effects means today I like to remind myself to disengage in measuring based on competition.
As the focus on school shifted from education to job search, the criticism shifted to my personality and character. An analogy commonly used in Chinese culture for child raising, is sanding down the edges and pruning wayward branches of a stealthy tree. Outwardly, I was confident, verging on haughty, but inside my insecurities and doubts seeded themselves like never before.
I struggled because I didn’t share my struggles. I assumed I was lonesome in my unworthiness, because the pond had gotten bigger and I couldn’t keep up. It didn’t feel satisfying to move up the rungs of the social ladder. I was more terrified of losing my footing and falling off. Failure was never discussed in my household. I didn’t achieve every goal, no one does, but I never accepted it as failure. Instead, I forced myself to escape from the guttural feeling of defeat. With every new life challenge, I felt there was less to gain and more to lose.
Professional life taught me monotony. The communications with my family lessened to a few hours a week and I began filtering what I shared. I painted a version of myself for them that incited the least conflict. Subconsciously, they knew, but both parties chose to believe the imagery if it meant we can escape confrontations a little longer.
My parents’ relationship with one another is not something I try to apprehend. Personally, it looks self-destructive. It has evolved many times over the past thirty years, due to changing geographies and circumstances. If I can be certain of one thing, it is that their partnership today would look very different had they not immigrated to Canada. My viewpoint on this matter is subjective, and could be a contorted version of their true experience.
It has, however, affected me greatly in how I view familial ties, romantic ties, and friendships; basically all relationships. It has been for many years, a pointless discussion to me. They are reluctant to accept their mistakes, and my proactiveness in avoiding those same mistakes often made them feel slighted. But c’est ma vie, and regardless of the number of times my parents concur with that statement, their actions prove otherwise. | https://medium.com/@deaw/lessons-from-my-parents-dfeabc3e421 | ['Dea Wang'] | 2021-01-21 18:04:42.691000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Parenting', 'Family', 'Psychology', 'Immigration'] |
55 Free Blogger Templates for Bloggers | Free Blogger Templates Download: Blogger is possibly one of the oldest blogging content management platform owned by Google. Due the ownership of Google, many big brands also stick with Blogger. Others enjoy the easy to navigate blogging dashboard for getting content out quickly and painlessly. For making great blog, you’ll need a best responsive blogger templates. In this list, we share 55 best free Blogger templates to create a stunning blog and responsive websites on Blogger.
Blogging has been one of the most well known and noteworthy topics in the recent decade. Almost all small and big business owners use blogging to getting more traffic to their products. Blogs helps business owner to discuss more about their products and those people who’re looking for more info about your products, they read your blog. The main and simple rewards of BLOGGING like an increase in search engine visibility and branding possibilities to things like brand value, authority and conversion rate increase — blogging has something to provide for everyone.
Finding great templates can sometimes be a little bit of a pain in the butt, but don’t worry, Templurs provide you a collections of free Blogger templates and themes you may try to use at your end. We’re finding your right template for your blogs by putting together a list of the best free Blogger templates that have been responsive, modernized and SEO optimized with the most up-to-date features, widgets, and code standards.
55 Free Blogger Templates to Download 2020
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Final Thoughts: Free Blogger Templates
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How to build an innovation engine…from within | How to build an innovation engine…from within
Empower your team to be intrapreneurs, give them room to experiment, and celebrate failures
Amina Islam
In the race for relevance to future customers whose needs and desires still remain obscure, a company’s capacity to innovate is far more important than its capacity to execute. This is because technology disruptions have brought on unprecedented waves of change, making it critical for companies to ride them or risk drowning.
When resources are abundant, it’s easy to invest in building Research and Development (R&D) departments or innovation labs. You can even create clever architectural changes the way Steve Jobs did when he designed Pixar’s offices in 1986, and placed the bathrooms in an atrium at the center of the workspace. Even though some people found it annoying, as The Independent’s Archie Bland writes, “Pixar’s employees started to bump into each other. They shot the breeze. Sometimes, the chatter would yield something useful, and one of the participants would head back to her desk with a new idea.”
However, if you don’t have those luxuries, what can you do as the leader of an organization with limited resources and manpower to build a culture of innovation?
Start with your current workforce; encourage them to become intrapreneurs, give them room to experiment, and celebrate failures.
Encourage intrapreneurship
It is common for organizations nowadays to outsource innovation services, and hire consultants in hopes that they’ll provide silver-bullet solutions such as design thinking training. While these one-off initiatives do add some value, a more holistic approach to driving innovative thinking is to encourage intrapreneurship, by giving your staff the right authority, support, and opportunities.
An intrapreneur is someone you can think of as an ‘in-house entrepreneur.’ Whether they operate within the boundaries of an organization as intrapreneurs or on their own as entrepreneurs, they are always noticing and acting on opportunities, utilizing their resourcefulness to overcome obstacles, and thinking of ways to improve goods, services or business models. Entrepreneurship can be thought of as a mindset rather than a job title.
Disseminating this mindset means empowering employees to implement their ideas by giving them enough leeway and resources. The implementation part — or the ‘hustle’ — is perhaps what separates intrapreneurs from employees with good ideas. It is also the most important part to ensure that innovation efforts are adding real value.
Fast Company defines the difference between Creativity and Innovation as being, “Creativity is the process of generating something new. It is a prerequisite for innovation. Innovation, however, is the practical application of creativity. A good idea is a great thing, but if the idea is not implemented, for whatever reason, we simply have creativity”.
One idea that can be implemented is to allow employees to use a percentage of their work time to pursue their own initiatives. 3M calls this the 15 percent program. When they launched this program in 1948, they did not know that they will be launching an innovation dynamo. Today, 3M is a multinational powerhouse, boasting 22,800 patents, and has been awarded the US government’s highest award for innovation, the National Medal of Technology. Although not all patents come from the 15 % program, it is one of the ways in which they have nurtured an innovative culture.
It is very easy to get stuck in the weeds of running daily operations, and such programs present people with the space to break out of tunnel vision, and think beyond their cubicles, and daily tasks, to see how things can be improved.
Build an Easy Process for Presenting Innovations
Amazon prides itself on being customer-obsessed. Their ethos is to start with the customer and work backwards, which is why at the heart of their innovation engine is their ‘Work Backwards’ process that starts with the following:
A one-page press release that announces the new idea, its name, target audience, and value, highlighting the type of customer problems it is going to solve. A six-page FAQ list that lays out details about the solution, and the anticipated issues customers might encounter or be curious about. Customer experience in the form of mockups or rough prototypes to show how customers will access and work with the new solution.
This process helps employees gain clarity about their proposed idea. It also reinforces the intrapreneurial mindset as they are expected to advocate for their ideas, selling them internally by presenting them with the same level of energy and enthusiasm as though it were launch day.
Give autonomy, with accountability
To allow creativity and innovation to flourish, as a leader you must ensure that every employee has the needed level of autonomy over how they complete their tasks, and solve any problems that arise. According to social science writer Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us’, autonomy is one of the major drivers of workplace motivation. Daniel asserts that the secret to high performance and job satisfaction is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, learn and create new things. Rethinking traditional ideas of control and micro-management such as regular office hours, dress codes, numerical targets — organizations can increase staff engagement, build trust, and create a culture of innovation. Giving staff autonomy means giving them the space to try, fail, learn, succeed and repeat.
However, it is important to note that giving autonomy does not mean removing accountability as the right expectations need to be set. You would not want chaos to reign supreme, which is why it is important to ensure that everybody is clearly aligned with the organization’s strategic priorities.
Allow Experiments to Fail
Most attempts to innovate fail. Punishing failure in the workplace does not reduce the rate of failure, rather it ends up killing innovation itself. As a leader, it is important for you to build a safe work environment where employees can talk openly about failures, and focus on learnings that come out of these.
In fact, why not take a step further and celebrate failures? P & G, for example, has “heroic failure awards,” and Google employees are publicly applauded by their co-workers and supervisors for embracing failure, and rewarded with time off to think about their next project.
Failing often does not mean it should come at the expense of critical thinking and delivering good quality work. Its main realm is to be iterative, tweaking as we learn from mistakes, and redoing if necessary in order to move the company forward.
Remember that your most valuable resources are the people within your organization — their motivation, imagination, and faith in a better future. So harness their energy to drive your innovation engine.
About the author: Amina Islam is the Innovative Learning Lead for Xcelerator , where she works with the product team to develop new programs. She received her Ph.D. from Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in 2017. Amina is always excited about new ideas and explores them in writing on her Linkedin profile and ahscribbles.com. | https://medium.com/xcelerator-alg/how-to-build-an-innovation-engine-from-within-2ee1bf301926 | [] | 2020-02-05 07:49:23.341000+00:00 | ['Xcelerator', 'Leadership', 'Innovation', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Leadership Development'] |
Design systems, growing your design team, providing better design feedback, and more UX this week | A year ago…
Sometime in the fall of last year I began to draw my calendar.
My weeks were packed with a series of interlocking jobs and I couldn’t keep them straight. Tiny calendars on my computer weren’t cutting it. I needed something tangible — I needed a calendar-as-artifact.
The drawn calendar is not for minutiae, but for overview, for the ability to both understand the rhythm of coming weeks at a glance, and for the pleasure of ticking off time.
Read full story → | https://uxdesign.cc/design-systems-growing-your-design-team-providing-better-design-feedback-and-more-ux-this-week-e65f5cf1b765 | ['Fabricio Teixeira'] | 2017-07-23 19:15:14.106000+00:00 | ['Product Design', 'Hot This Week', 'UX', 'User Experience', 'Design'] |
Asian People Stop Holding White People’s Hands in Racial Justice Work | Let’s set the stage: my internship group is having our 4th “family meeting” And the white lady leading the seminar, Genny, has just mixed up the two Asian women, but gone on as if nothing happened. I ask a question in the chat (“Oh, does Carmen also teach 2nd grade like Christina does?”), hoping Genny will realize her mistake. She doesn’t. There’s only 7 of us.
This is not the first time. Go back to my Teach for America meetings, where someone confused me for another Asian man — the wrong name tripping off her tongue so confidently. Or when I interviewed for Teach for America and was the only person of color in the room of 12 white people.
It’s also getting my name misspelled all the time in professional emails even though my name is right there. It’s getting asked if I understood that the person said “First name, not last name.” No I heard you and I understand English just fine.
It’s having people at HR mess up your files with the person whose LAST name is Nguyen, when it is my FIRST name.
Over time, you start really becoming sensitive to these kinds of things.
1. [Microaggressions and Racist Abuse]
Some of you might already know this as microaggressions. In my head, I see it as the “1000 cut death” (Lingchi).
This slowness is maybe the reason Asian People do not always automatically come to the aid of our fellow BIPOC. “It’s just a little cut, and it’s not THAT big of a deal.” But then the cut gets deeper, and we start to build up a tolerance, and we expect other BIPOC to do the same.
Microaggressions set the stage for larger aggressions. Solidarity in experiencing microaggressions can influence solidarity in taking on larger racial aggressions. We should have been the first to know that this would happen to our fellow BIPOC. The Chinese were America’s first policy test subjects for aggressive and egregious immigration bans.We see that legacy now with 45’s recent attempt at a Muslim Ban.
Here are some excerpts from some text convos I’ve had with some Asian-American friends. If you’re in mobile versionr read: Top Left -> Top Right -> Bottom Left -> Bottom Right.
My friend said, “The thing about liberation is that it will always, always require a complete dismantling of the system at the hands of the oppressed…scholars have said it time and time again (Fanon, Malcolm X, Freire, Bell Hooks, the list goes on)…”
2. [What keeps us from this solidarity?]
Solidarity is not always being easy to find. Lately, I have found myself getting into arguments with friends — even my friends of color. They have called me “combative,” “aggressive,” “cold,” or “attacking” as I have pushed for recognition and change for myself and my BIPOC fellows.
At first, I started feeling very self conscious. Was I some monster who didn’t consider everyone’s feelings? Was my rage not justified? But I came to see that, actually, White people can carry each other’s white tears and guilt themselves.
Now, when Asian friends ask me, “Why aren’t you trying to convince white people (Like I feel I have to do)?” I have an answer, it’s because we are conditioned to hold White People’s feelings, but that is not our job. We should not be performing emotional labor and upholding White people’s learning and flings with racial justice. AND, yet, WE GIVE IT FOR FREE!
Looking back, I wonder if my friends’ frustration came not from me, but from the subtle realization that maybe, just maybe, they’ve been wasting their energy on convincing white people when they don’t have to. Perhaps, as another friend said, my angry friends were wondering, “Why are you revealing to me how much I’ve let white peoples’ feelings dictate how I behave?”
Navigating white feelings keeps us all from standing in solidarity of our own experiences.
I don’t need to pull teeth anymore convincing white people ,and neither do you. I will continue to interrupt racism when I see it. If White people want to be on our side, it’s not because we made them feel good about it. They have to be here because they WANT to be here — because it’s right
Navigating white feelings is not our job. Don’t let the same white people who will point to you as their “model minority”use you as a tool to further marginalize other communities of color.
3. [re: How white supremacy keeps us from not only cross-racial solidarity but also solidarity within AANHPI groups]
“Whatever power struggle your nation had with other Asian nations — most of it the fallout of Western imperialism and the Cold War — is steamrolled flat by Americans who don’t know the difference.”
— Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
We have to stick together. Our liberation is tied to our fellow BIPOC. Tie to next section with pointing our how colonialism and white supremacy have invaded Asian cultural identities and something about unlearning. Pandering to white feelings is not the only way whiteness has invaded and destabilized AANHPI communities — colorism and white hierarchies have followed
Colorism is still another issue we deal with. We see it manifest itself in associations between lighter skin and wealth, and in the boom of bleaching lotions in the Philippines and South Korea. We see it in the lack of dark-skinned characters in Japanese shows. We see it in the model minority myth and the huge discrepancy in graduation rates and average household income among South Asians and East Asians to Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders.
White supremacy and its legacy of colonial, imperial power relations keeps us from unifying even within our own communities, both at home and abroad. Members of the hill tribes in Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand are being colonized and have no sovereignty. The Vietnamese have colonized the Cham people. Japan has left a still not wholly acknowledged legacy of imperialist violence in Korea. We, as AANHPI folks, cannot keep on pushing the Settler Colonial mentality and culture of White Supremacy. By perpetuating White Supremacy culture, this keeps AANHPI from their own liberation.
From outside the US to the same dynamics within the US breaking apart AANHPI community through vastly different experiences. On the surface, this graph shows AANHPI communities having “relative success” compared to other racial groups. White people have pointed to this as evidence for the Model Minority Myth.
However, once you break down and disaggregate the red bar for AANHPI from the graph above, not all of the experiences for ethnic groups under the umbrella of AANHPI are the same. The charts below show lots of progress and healing that is much needed in our communities. We need to bring each other up and make seats at the table. The intergenerational trauma that resulted from being colonized has put many Southeast Asian groups at a disadvantage.
PI activist, Tavae Samuelu, fights for disaggregation of AANHPI data. What Tavae sees happening most often is, “[Asian American] groups that say ‘A(ANH)PI’ but don’t have any representation of, relationship with, or even modicum of understanding of the NHPI community.” Tavae added on that “Asian Americans are some of the closest allies in data disaggregation efforts.” I am reflecting on my own actions and learning how I can promote inclusivity and solidarity under this umbrella term of AANHPI.
When I call Asian Americans together, I ask us to really think about how our parents and grandparents have been affected. I ask us to reflect on how fighting for issues of racial justice and equity is fighting against the violent U.S. Imperialism that brought us here. I ask us to acknowledge how we are also using the “master’s tools,” and to question if that means we can truly bring down the “master’s house.”
4. [Action Steps]
We have to do right by those that continue to be persecuted even in our own homelands. Politics right now gives us an unprecedented opportunity to achieve the intra and inter group solidarity.
When I hear “Asians for Black Lives,” I wonder how that centers our priorities. We should be saying Black Lives Matter because it’s the right thing, not because we have to think together and beyond our community to see that injustice is everywhere and affects everyone. Solidarity among the AANHPI community is crucial to sustaining our people and our cultures.
When I hear people call me “combative,” I can’t help but wonder if I’m interpreted as combative in the same way that Ali Wong is interpreted as “vulgar” — because we don’t fall into the stereotypical model of what an Asian person is “supposed” to be.
But I also heard about Claira Janover, a recent AANHPI Harvard graduate, who was fired from Deloitte for promoting Black Lives Matter. And I see that there are members of our wide AANHPI community who are calling out injustice when they see it. I am so proud to be working alongside them, and I hope you join us.
White fragility exists to keep the status quo. It exists to mask the fact that they are the ones with power, and it’s been working!
The idea of Asian cultural hegemony, the stereotype of the model minority, and the fragility of white guilt are all PRODUCTS OF WHITE SUPREMACY MEANT TO KEEP US down. We, as AANHPI folks, should not and cannot keep perpetuating the practices of our colonizers.
Instead, we have to lean into the fact of knowing that even we, the “model minority,” COULD lose our position, economically, just as easily as our fellow BIPOC. Stand up for racial justice wherever you see it and know that you NEED to take those risks or else we end up maintaining the status quo. When you see something, say something. There’s power in numbers!
We have, unfortunately, been used to taking up space and pushing out our fellow BIPOC — and even our fellow AANHPI — out of multiple industries. As we grow in awareness of both our privilege and our oppression, we have to be able to acknowledge that there are voices not being represented in the room and not being heard. Sometimes those voices are our own, sometimes those voices are those of our fellow BIPOC.
Our silence has to break, or we will continue to fragment. We must change, reach out, and acknowledge the harm of white supremacy that affects us all. I call on my fellow Asian Americans to look to what our most marginalized communities need.
I would like to thank all of my editors and contributors and the 2nd set of eyes: Alan Yeh, Sierra Barton, Aleenah Ansari, Chris Tina Chen, Maricres Valdez Castro, Jayne Piboonvaranggoon, Meili Powell, Cathy Pham, Dion Leung, Jonathan Nguyen, Wilson Lai, Andre Phan, Maryalice Peng, Tavae Samuelu | https://medium.com/@nguyennkh/asian-people-stop-holding-white-peoples-hands-in-racial-justice-work-4cc0fd2540ec | ['Nguyen K Huynh'] | 2020-07-29 06:35:10.525000+00:00 | ['Model Minority Myth', 'Asian American', 'Racial Justice', 'Aanhpi', 'Solidarity'] |
A De-‘Licious’ Story | The Metamorphosis
But when the rubber hit the road, they realised there was a lot of work that needed to be done. The supply chain was critical because the product is highly perishable. Aggregation meant the same “broken” experience where they could not be sure of quality or storage standards.
“We had to build a farm-to-fork framework that would work within a 24-hour delivery framework,” Vivek says.
“The experience goes back to the way the animals are reared by the farmers. Including how they are treated and fed,” Abhay adds.
Abhay says when anyone talks about food processing there is a lot of science associated with it, but that didn’t seem to be the case with livestock farmers. Especially, ones in the red meat industry. He explains the red meat sector is highly unorganised, and farmers hardly make any money in the process. Licious, therefore, needed to bring in elements of technology to the supply chain processing.
The approach is what got investors hooked, says Ben Mathias, Managing Partner at Vertex Ventures, which invested in Licious in September 2018.
“They had all numbers at their finger tips and had great clarity of thought in their business strategy and approach. We also spent time with the next-level team and were impressed by their passion and professionalism,” Ben adds.
Licious today has forged partnerships with 180 vendors, has 27 delivery centres, and an employee strength of 600. It has built contractual arrangements with large institutional meat vendors who are trained in managing livestock and meat handling techniques, according to international standards. It is also has the food safety certification — FSSC 22000 certified.
Licious also has over 300,000 customers, clocks at least 6,000 orders per day, and does 90 percent repeat business every month. | https://medium.com/@shanraconteur/a-de-licious-story-1b1b50157030 | ['Shantanu Paul'] | 2020-12-26 03:11:17.705000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Business Storytelling', 'Business Story', 'Strategy', 'Business Strategy'] |
LGBT Recipes | Photo by Toni Reed on Unsplash
LGBT Recipes
Who says oppression can’t be tasty?
Now we need
One cup of fear
I sometimes can’t stand being queer
Back-room mingling
Secret deals
I hate society
This anger sears
Across my arms
Flayed skin
Back to cooking
Where to begin
A sprinkle of doubt
Over the pie
Added flavor
Dress up the lie
We’re doing great
Really swell
Warped self image
Can’t even tell
Battered bodies
Abusive love
Toss in some strawberries
Just because
Another step
Salt to taste
Forgotten convos
About race
Checking the box
Of all I am
Please the census
Uncle Sam
My goodness friends
This food slams
But don’t forget
To add the jam
Butter blocks
Liquid please
Microwave melted
So much ease
Now place it in
My cute bowl
Add more sugar
Do as your told
Fall in line
Fit the mold
Now cinnamon
Focus on men
Without them
We couldn't win
Our sacred rights
To live and love
Everyone else
Just eat and shrug
Preheat the oven
Turn up the heat
This dessert soon
Will be complete
Over the rainbow
Over the sky
Perhaps under
If you try
To see past corporate
Vodka floats
Understand what so many know
Sugar can’t heal
Decades of pain
We should look up
Before the rain. | https://jeauxzephwrites.medium.com/lgbt-recipes-25081603d7fc | ['Joseph Coco'] | 2019-04-25 00:30:21.652000+00:00 | ['LGBTQ', 'Poetry', 'Humor', 'Poem'] |
10 side hustles to start today! | Everything is looking pretty messed up with the pandemic shutting down markets and incomes drying up, it is easy to panic or feel helpless in these situations or take control of the situation and think how you can carve out another stream of income, who knows the stream might become your mainstream!
Markets are slowly opening up, however many convenience-craving consumers will be looking for ways to do things safer staying at home yet better, faster and cheaper. Often, that means turning to a specialty-services entrepreneur who knows how to get the job done right. Here are some inspirations for side hustles while we all wait for things to return to normal. Caveat — Stay Safe, whatever you do.
Photo by Nick Morrison
#Tutoring
With schools opting for study from home a lot of parents will be looking for personalized tutoring services, Help students be on track and reach the top with a little nurturing, guidance and support. And you can do this from the comfort of your home and get paid for it as well. Glad you did the three R’s right.
Start by asking your friends and family with kids, later ask them to write some references to build your side gig.
Photo by Jonathan Borba
#Children’s Fitness
Parents were already worried about the lack of physical activity for their kids, with the current situation channeling a kid’s unlimited supply energy is a challenge. Tap into this by offering a children’s fitness program, simple routines involving aerobics, dance or gymnastics with personalized guidance can help a lot of kids from tomorrow’s obesity and disease. Cute videos from the kids themselves can help fuel your digital marketing. It’s a win win from the safety of your home. Start by posting your workout videos on social media, you might want to ask your students to post their videos to amplify your efforts.
Photo by Tierra Mallorca
#Home-Sitting & Inspection Service
With the current lock-down a lot of home owners are away from their homes and worried if their plants and pets will be tended to, offer customers video & photographic evidence of their properties. You can offer an array of services from property inspection, cleaning, car maintenance, from pet-sitting, pool maintenance to lawn tending to coordinating with contractors if a repair is required. You can start by calling owners of homes from real estate listings — both online and in you local newspapers.
Photo by S O C I A L . C U T
#Social Content Creator
If you are proficient in design and pride on your powerpoint skills, with a little training on social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, creating content becomes easy. Zone in on business by helping businesses establish a social presence; existing clients will need help keeping their websites up-to-date, as well. You can always take help from freelancer websites for specialized help plus there are forums when you do get stuck. You can start by creating mockup on your own social media channels and later pitching to brands who are already online, look for marketing managers on LinkedIn.
Photo by Nick Pampoukidis
#Mortgage/Debt-Reduction Service
With lay-offs and small businesses coming to a standstill, a lot of folks have their financial plans derailed, soon they will start missing their minimum EMI’s to the banks, by explaining alternative payment structures and re-negotiating with banks
Clients can find relief in paying lesser interests and smaller payments. If you have been a banking professional, debt-reduction-service professional is a lucrative side hustle while things settle. You can start by posting content on social media and asking friends and family for leads.
Photo by rupixen.com
#Sales-Lead Generating
A lot of companies have had to let go their sales staff and trim their teams, yet they are open to freelancers who can streamline salespeople’s efforts by identifying prospects and generating sales leads. All you need is understanding of the client’s products or services and an insight into their existing clientele. With little work, market research, and a phone, you can set yourself on the path to compiling a list of potential customers for your clients.
You can start by pitching to companies advertising on social media and sales heads on LinkedIn
Photo by Scott Graham
#Debt-Collection Service
A modern day ‘Bounty Hunter’ You get paid when your client gets paid by the people who owe them, business may be willing to pay unto 25% to recover their bad debts, all it needs is some good old persistence in tracking down & getting delinquent debtors to cough up the money.
You might want to look at the legalities in your region and start pitching to local business owners with large transactions.
Photo by Hannah Wright
#Language Translation & Tutoring
With an ever-changing foreign trade boundaries, there is often a need to provide assistance in both verbal & written communications for businesses. If you know multiple languages, companies are willing to hire your services for a fee. Start by researching companies who are operating internationally especially in your native home country.
Photo by freestocks
#Personal Shopping assistance
A lot of wealthy individuals want to shop yet not risk themselves, people are willing to pay to shop, yes you heard that right! If you are savvy and have good taste, you can offer these as an expertise, all you need is a good mobile phone and be the eves and ears for your customers helping them get their money’s worth and did I mention shops offer perks like free testers, gifts and loyalty points which are additional perks.
Photo by Tyler Nix
#Reunion Organizing
Once the pandemic is over, families and friends and alumnus all over will be planning a reunion, Reunite them and it pays so well: Whether it is a High School class or a big happy family, reunion organizers will be a lucrative and joyful occupation.
Schedule the accommodations, coordinate the catering and entertainment, send out the invitations, then sit back and let it all “come together.”
The most important take is to stay positive and execute your plans, it always better to have tried and learnt from your tries. A second or third stream of income is always welcome.
#StaySafe | https://medium.com/@navinashokan/10-side-hustles-to-start-today-30c7782bf142 | ['Navin Ashokan'] | 2020-05-02 12:57:11.278000+00:00 | ['Money Mindset', 'Income', 'Success', 'Positive Thinking', 'Side Hustle'] |
5 Reasons Bitcoin Is Great And One Reason Bitcoin Sucks | You say; Let’s make our economic system great again!
I say, without a Satoshi of doubt; Bitcoin
The internet of money would be only one part of that transformation, but a big chunk towards a more egalitarian economic system. The way we transact value and store value are 2 key fundamentals of any economic system. And Bitcoin covers both in unprecedented digital ways.
When Bitcoin won’t become part of a future decentralized digital paying system, at least it has shown us the way.
Bitcoin is the libertarian wet dream of ‘ financial’ transactions without third parties like banks calling the shots, and knowing more about your finances than you do yourself.
Bitcoin is the runway to creating your own bank.
Excuse me?
Your own banking cartel when you like since there is no end to public wallet addresses, each of them representing a chain in a worldwide digital connection of transactions.
Remember how long you need to stand in line, respond to uncomfartable too private questions and strip financially nude to a bank employer you don’t even know when you simply want to open a bank account?
Those times will soon be over.
The blood of the lifeline of new money is the Bitcoin blockchain with its protocol as its pumping heart, validating 4.6 transactions per second. Not fast, some do better, but secure and steady already for 11 years
There have been periods I dream, sleep and pray Bitcoin.
Since it charges this unbound feeling of potential. A technology being able to fuel changes on economic system level. A open source flagship of crypto that will disrupt the living daylight our some of our most corrupt financial institutions, or call them banks when you like, in the not too distant future.
All good and well. What is the downside you ask yourself looking at the subtitle of this story? Can there be any?
Yes, there can.
But lets first celebrate Bitcoins cherries on the cake, its piece de resistance in modern fintech. The thing that makes JP Morgan executives lie wide awake at night before they secretly start watching Andreas M. Antonopoulos videos on YouTube about the revolution of money. And deleting their browser history before going to work the next day. | https://medium.com/spirit-of-crypto/5-reasons-bitcoin-is-great-and-one-reason-bitcoin-sucks-6d811e8b3727 | ['Lucien Lecarme'] | 2020-01-15 19:56:56.929000+00:00 | ['Economics', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Change'] |
From 💼 Top-down Sales to 📈Bottom-up 🔬Product Led Growth | The cookie-cutter
As we started our startup (Datree) in Israel aka the startup nation, the most successful go-to-market models were done by Security companies such as CheckPoint, Imperva, CyberArk, and more. The cookie-cutter path for a technological startup was mainly built for the Security space and was very much top-down like so: 1️⃣ Get design partners 2️⃣ Convert them to paying customers 3️⃣ CEO relocates to the US 4️⃣ Hire Sales and Marketing team in the US. 5️⃣ Build a Top-down, sales-driven organization.
As we started Datree, we didn’t really think much about the GTM model and mainly used the cookie-cutter way, we were just eager to help engineering teams. So we started with a handful of design partners, they gave us access to their source control, and we started mapping the manifest files and identifying misconfigurations (mainly) in infrastructure as this was a pain we felt in our previous job.
After seeing downtime due to human errors, we thought how can we help engineers make the right decisions while working with systems like Kubernetes, a sort of guard-rails without reading endless emails and internal wikis and remembering to make the right configuration decisions? We felt it has to be done in an automatic way, inline during the development process. | https://medium.com/@shimont/switching-top-down-sales-to-bottom-up-product-led-growth-30be52f7dba7 | ['Shimon Tolts'] | 2021-04-22 12:23:13.454000+00:00 | ['Developer Tools', 'DevOps', 'Founders', 'B2B', 'Product'] |
The U.S. Is Not Declining and 2020 Is Not the Worst Year Ever | Protestors in Downtown Los Angeles | Photo by Mike Von on Unsplash
The U.S. Is Not Declining and 2020 Is Not the Worst Year Ever
The history of declinism and science of nostalgic preferences
It has become a fashionable sentiment that the United States is en route for its demise as a global power. In his very recent geopolitical book, Prisoners of Geography, journalist Tim Marshall challenges that viewpoint.
“The planet’s most successful country,” Marshall writes, “is about to become self-sufficient in energy, it remains the pre-eminent economic power and it spends more on research and development for its military than the overall military budget of all the other NATO countries combined.”
Marshall adds that even in the new age of “cheapening of political dialogue” and “populist leaders” (e.g. the arrival of Donald Trump in office), the U.S. is ultimately behaving how it’s always behaved. It’s prioritizing maintaining its place as number 1 on the global stage via diplomacy with Western Europe and treaties with countries (like Taiwan) to halt the progress of the running-up competitors such as China and Russia.
But the speculation is more or less this: The U.S. is preparing to self-detonate, implode on itself, collapse from within.
With nearly 4 years of Trump’s nasty, polarizing rhetoric, videos of police militancy/brutality like scenes from dystopian horror films (or perhaps Xinjiang), and the resurgence of hate groups said to be working for the president himself—is it possible that the U.S. is turning to an authoritarian model to more urgently pursue its agenda on the international level?
Certainly.
Yet, what if all this doomsday-provoking peril is merely more growing pains of a country (even if unconsciously) trying to outrun its discriminatory and tyrannical imperfections of the past?
Present Misfortunes, Past Misfortunes
Historically speaking, the U.S. has been through a myriad of rounds of autocratic abuse. Manzanar and other camps were built on U.S. soil and housed thousands of Japanese Americans. Hundreds of Americans were subject to aggressive investigations (and some were imprisoned) during the McCarthy Era and Red Scare. Revolutionary voices were silenced and repressed during the Vietnam-counter culture/desegregation era. All of these much-discussed historical injustices included much of what we’re seeing today: police surveillance/brutality, plenty of racism, and lots of ideological resistance to progressivism.
Are today’s events mere extensions of these abuses? Or have we learned and are we continuing to learn?
We can certainly say, as Ginsberg wrote in his 1956 poem “America,” that America's libraries are “full of tears.” New tears are wetting our cheeks in the face of yet more social injustices. Perhaps humans are diabolical fools incapable of reading and learning from history. Perhaps those in power would rather not learn from history. They’d rather jostle us around and trouble us over issues that should already be resolved. Instead, they continue to increase the class gap and store us smug in our polarized, political-party boxes—or so many are saying. Add the global pandemic to the mix and it’s no wonder we’re being engulfed in memes promoting 2020 as the most annoying, downright worst year of them all.
I bet, however, if the world had access to meme-generating technology during the 1918 Spanish Flu which killed nearly 1% of the world, we’d look back on them feeling somewhat overdramatic, at least over calling 2020 “the worst.”
Pandemics and epidemics aside, if you’re reading this, you’re likely living in a somewhat stable environment (unlike much of the world). 2020 may be the worst year ever for refugees fleeing war-torn nations, for people starving in Venezuela, and the over-700 million people worldwide without access to clean water—but it’s not so bad for us who are missing our nights out at the bar and for us who are canceling vacation reservations.
This isn’t meant to downplay the mental health crisis now exacerbated by the pandemic. It’s very real and what is “better” and “worse” is subjective; the inner worlds of individual humans can be universes away from each other.
But, overall, catastrophizing the present (which we’re arguably doing) is not a new phenomenon.
Declinism and Our Nostalgic Preference for the Past
Tending toward declinism, or the belief that society is retreating into its ultimate conclusion, is nothing new. The Middle Ages, for example, later coined the “Dark Ages” by ecclesiastical historian Caesar Baronius, marked a time of “intellectual darkness” between the fall of Rome and the Renassaince. During this time, war, pillage, and disease were extremely rampant and the “dark” in “Dark Ages” seemed to go beyond denoting a decline in access to knowledge. In turn, many people during medieval times (and even later during the Renaissance) thought the world was ending. There were various, widespread apocalyptic predictions. According to Jason Boyett’s book Pocket Guide to the Apocolypse, early French bishop Hilary of Poitiers predicted the world would end in A.D. 365.
Boyett’s book goes on to describe the once-extensive belief that the end-of-times felt near during the Black Death, the deadliest pandemic recorded in human history.
Present times always seem like end-times because humans appear to have evolved with a memory bias, creating nostalgia for the past and suspicion of the present. There’s even a scientific basis to this, a basis that researchers at Carnegie Melon University describe as “nostalgic preferences.” They write: “People believe everything from the general state of their country to the quality of their television programming has declined from its past zenith.” Following this logic explains why we catastrophize amid the throes of adversity even when such catastrophe was equally or even more prevalent in the past. It explains why we often remain skeptical of notions of “the end,” whether that be the end of civilization, the end of the world, or the end of enjoyment in 2020. | https://medium.com/discourse/the-u-s-is-not-declining-and-2020-is-not-the-worst-year-ever-ad8544c765b0 | ['Jacob Lopez'] | 2020-09-07 18:46:05.430000+00:00 | ['2020', 'History', 'Philosophy', 'Politics', 'Science'] |
Persevere till you paint the stars | When he walked out that fateful day of July 27, 1890 ready to end his life, how could Vincent van Gogh have possibly imagined the impact that he would leave on the world for centuries to come?
He had been called everything from a madman to a failure. His lovers spurned him and his friends forsook him. Even God abandoned him, as he failed his theology exams and was dismissed by the church authorities for “undermining the dignity of the priesthood”. His only acceptance came from deep within himself in the form of his art.
And what art it was! Still lifes. Portraits. Landscapes. Oh, the richness of color! Carmine. Cobalt blue. Emerald green. Blue and orange in contrast. Yellow. Mauve. Each painting a blend — of creativity and madness, passion and obsession, fantasy and reality. He painted while grieving, he painted while rejoicing, he painted while intoxicated, he painted while restrained, he painted when ailing, he painted when strong.
In an artistic life spanning a mere 10 years, van Gogh completed 860 oil paintings and over 1,300 watercolors and sketches. In his entire life spanning 37 years, he sold only one. The world would open their minds and their eyes to the magnificence of his art only years later.
Will you have the perseverance to continue if your heart says it’s right?
Also read “Persevere till you finish last”: https://en-dwarak.medium.com/persevere-till-you-finish-last-a3e85731a52d | https://medium.com/@en-dwarak/persevere-till-you-paint-the-stars-93ba95fb2cd3 | ['Dwarak Narasimhan'] | 2020-12-24 12:39:21.023000+00:00 | ['Nonfiction', 'Culture', 'Art', 'Courage', 'History'] |
The Top 5 ‘New’ Cycling Cafes in the UK | The well documented rise of cycling has lead to many positives; the expansion of the UK cycling network, an active online community, and a national team we can finally be proud of. Another very welcome institution on the rise is the ‘cycling cafe’.
For many years cycling cafes were the dwelling of hirsute East Londoners, trading couriering war stories and swapping rare Japanese fixie parts. However, as the sport of cycling has become more mainstream, thanks largely to Tour de France victories and the media coverage that affords, a new crop of cycling cafes have emerged. This new breed are doing their bit to grow the sport by turning on new cyclists with advice, camaraderie and excellent coffee!
The Velo House, Tunbridge Wells — http://www.thevelohouse.com/
Opening in 2014, The Velo House quickly became the focal point of the burgeoning North Kent cycle scene. Ollie and the team are cyclists first and foremost, and they have kept that in mind with their refuel, reduce and reward mantra. They serve Coffee Officina, Tea Pigs and a wide variety of beers and wine, alongside a delicious, healthy menu. Upstairs the shop sells an eclectic mix of cool gear, and the workshop team in the back can fix, shine and tune your bike whilst you wait. Weekly club rides and regular events are also on offer to feed your cycling habit.
2. Rapha Cafe, Manchester — http://pages.rapha.cc/clubs/manchester
The name Rapha is now synonymous with high end, high quality cycling kit, so it’s no wonder that their first cafe offering in 2012, in central London, was a huge success. So much so that the brand have opened another ‘cycle club’ in Manchester, and it’s doing just as well. Many have written off the cafes as a ‘gallery’ to show off Rapha products, but it’s hard to argue with the style and atmosphere they’ve created. Alongside events, exhibitions and film screenings, there are also organised weekend club rides out to Cheshire and the Peak District. If you’re lucky, you might even bump into a Team Sky rider or two!
3. Dandy Horse, Norwich — http://www.dandy-horse.co.uk/
Norwich may be (in)famous for Alan Partridge and Delia Smith, but it has an exciting and emerging cycling culture to rival anywhere, and an excellent cycling cafe in Dandy Horse. They sell excellent coffee which changes daily, alongside fresh cakes and sandwiches. The workshop is staffed with over 10 years of mechanical and wheel building experience, so your beloved steed will be in good hands. What Dandy Horse pride themselves on, however, is their custom builds and restorations. Take in your frame (or pick one of theirs) and have them build your dream bike. Grab a coffee and drool over the beautiful selection; you won’t be disappointed.
4. Pedalling Squares, Newcastle Upon Tyne -http://www.pedallingsquarescafe.com/
Pedalling Squares is so much more than a cycling cafe! An event space, a retro jersey emporium and a ‘Supper Club’; there’s always something going on at The Old Brassworks. They brew locally sourced ground coffee and ‘feed stations’ offer ‘cycling legend’ themed panini’s (we had Greg Lemond). The Workshop is run by Vieri Velo, the nicest bike blokes in the North East! They’ll fix your bike, fit parts you’ve brought in for free, and even buy you a coffee (if you’re extra polite).
5. Maison Du Velo, Reigate — http://www.maisonduvelo.cc/
Maison Du Velo is the perfect pre or post ride stop if you’re out in either the Surrey Hills or the North Downs. This ultra-modern cafe and shop has a gallery feel to it, with the bikes and kit very much ‘on display’. They are passionate about the choice brands they stock (and the coffee they serve), and have complete confidence in their performance ability. The workshop team offer a range of services and comprehensive Bike Fit options to make sure that your setup is on point. Shop rides are weekly and vary by ability, so everyone can get involved. | https://medium.com/@davidbavin1/the-top-5-new-cycling-cafes-in-the-uk-ff300c2547f | ['David Bavin'] | 2015-10-13 20:55:15.678000+00:00 | ['Cycling', 'Coffee', 'Travel'] |
The three pillars of scrum. Transparency | Most practitioners associate the tenets of the agile manifesto as the guiding principles in executing their scrum agendas. In this article, With the premise of Scrum optimized on empirical process control, I wanted to spend some time looking into the three pillars of Scrum theory: transparency, inspection and adaption and provide some annotation on what they really mean, and why these pillars should be the foundations of your practice.
Transparency
Scrum is a framework, and frameworks work when you create a mutual set of transparent standards that are understood and accepted. From cadence in communications to understanding user acceptance criteria and definition of done advocated for during planning, transparency is key to expectations within the Scrum team and associated stakeholders.
Inspection
As opposed to the waterfall sequential process of gathering requirements, building, testing, and publishing, Scrum prides itself on a circular iterative process. You build in iterations, inspect, adjust, and build again. Throughout the sprint, it is encouraged that scrum members validate the work they are doing with the product owner, facilitating incremental inspection towards ensuring trajectory to definition of done. Inspection allows for accounting for the unexpected conditions that may either prevent definition of done, or reduce the level of its overall success, however it is also important that the inspection mechanism isn’t overused at the expense of productivity and velocity, ultimately disrupting work. This of course sounds very familiar to engineers who employ test-driven programming, asserting a test suite of use cases accounting for known variances that map with the definition of done.
Adaptation
The fundamental superpower of Scrum is in its ability to encourage pivoting, shifting gears and direction based on feedback. Following on from inspection, adaptation allows you to learn and change what isn’t working, rather than commit to the project based on steadfast requirements gathered at a singular point in time. But not just the idea is open to change, but the process itself. As a framework, Scrum allows you to augment and adjust to your needs, and this pillar gives you the mandate to adjust communications, cadence, sprint length, inspection checkpoints accordingly. | https://medium.com/@doronkatz/most-practitioners-associate-the-tenets-of-the-agile-manifesto-as-the-guiding-principles-in-175958caabc5 | ['Doron Katz'] | 2020-12-26 06:44:31.868000+00:00 | ['Agile', 'Agile Methodology', 'Project Management'] |
Midnight Blue | The power has blown out.
Rain is pelting the roof, the windows, the driveway.
The new $12,000 generator sits sadly against the garage, not yet hooked up. The two propane gas tanks distance themselves from the generator. “Not yet, big boy,” they say.
The rain turns to sleet, angry and hard. A branch falls off the maple tree landing in a soggy spot in the yard.
The house is so quiet.
No furnace, no heat.
The pump that runs the septic system is out.
No humming from the refrigerator.
TV’s computers, iPads out of juice.
The utility outage app says no crews have been assigned.
Across the pond and up the hill I see streetlights. Why do the people on the hill keep their power? Storm after storm we black out.
The rain lets up and I take the dog for a walk up the street.
Every other house on the water growls and is lit by a generator. The smaller houses are mostly dark.
A young, newlywed couple has candles lit on their fireplace mantle. The big family across the street has a battery-powered lantern on the dining room table. It’s like a fluorescent in-house lighthouse.
Branches are all over everyone’s lawns, not caring if you’re rich or poor, powered or out, candled or battery ready.
A gust blows up and there’s an eerie, high-pitched howl, like how an oncoming tornado might sound. Except I’ve never heard a tornado except in horror films. Nor-Easters are our windy villains.
I note who has a generator running and who might be willing to make me a cup of coffee in the morning, COVID be damned.
Back at our dark house I take off my school-guard fluorescent vest. Undo the dog’s leash. Put the poop bag in the trash. Pull down the heavy garage door.
The flashlight lights the way into the kitchen, across the living room, into the bathroom.
When I place the flashlight on the bathroom counter, I see billions of dust mites and tiny bits of toothpaste. How have I missed those in cleaning?
I go back into the kitchen and lay the flashlight on those counters. It’s a microbe mess. In the dark I get out the white vinegar and start wiping things down. Then I bring out the bleach.
The neighbor’s generator sputters, like it’s exhausted, but catches its breath and goes on.
I undress by the windows in the dark and look out at the pond. Clouds are moving fast, blowing away the storm and letting the stars through.
Now I see how midnight blue got its name.
I want to keep watching the sky.
I want to check the outage app to see if the repair crew has been assigned.
But this house with no lights and no heat is getting cold.
I climb into bed to wait.
For light.
For heat.
For morning coffee.
For the neighborhood equalizer that is electricity. | https://medium.com/@loiskelly/midnight-blue-16365762656e | ['Lois Kelly'] | 2020-12-14 19:11:12.379000+00:00 | ['Neighborhoods', 'Power', 'Storms', 'Night', 'Electricity'] |
China to block more than 120 offshore cryptocurrency exchanges | China is poised to block more than 120 foreign cryptocurrency exchanges as part of the government’s broader crackdown on activities related to digital money, according to state media.
Authorities will block access in China to 124 websites operated by offshore cryptocurrency exchanges that provide trading services to citizens on the mainland, the Shanghai Securities News, a newspaper affiliated with the country’s financial and markets regulators, reported on Thursday.
It said authorities will also continue to monitor and shut down domestic websites related to cryptocurrency trades and initial coin offerings (ICOs), and ban payment services from accepting cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. The newspaper cited people close to the Leading Group of Internet Financial Risks Remediation, which was set up by China’s cabinet in 2016 and headed by Pan Gongsheng, a deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank.
Multiple calls made by the South China Morning Post to the central bank went unanswered.
The report marks the latest effort by Beijing to intensity the clampdown on cryptocurrency activities because of concerns about financial instability.
Censors recently shut down at least eight blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused online media outlets, some of which raised several million dollars in venture capital. These entities found their official public accounts on WeChat blocked on Tuesday evening, owing to violations against new regulations from China’s top internet watchdog.
Separately, Beijing’s central Chaoyang district issued a notice on August 17 banning hotels, office buildings and shopping malls in the area from hosting events promoting cryptocurrencies. The document was leaked online this week and confirmed by the Post with the local authority.
Last September, Chinese regulators banned ICOs, describing them as an unauthorized illegal fundraising activity. During the same month, Chinese regulators also ordered Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges to cease trading.
ICOs are a form of crowdsourced fundraising by which companies exchange their newly created cryptocurrencies — called tokens — for payments in an existing currency, usually an established cryptocurrency such as ethereum or bitcoin. ICO investors profit when their tokens gain in value at a faster rate than the currency they used to pay for them.
The government crackdown prompted Chinese cryptocurrency exchange operators and ICO projects to move their operations in friendlier jurisdictions, such as Singapore.
In February, state media first reported that China will soon block all websites related to cryptocurrency trading and ICOs — including overseas platforms. Popular cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bitfinex, Bitnance, Huobi and OKEx, have since been blocked on the mainland.
Since the crackdown began last September, a total of 88 cryptocurrency exchanges and 85 ICO projects have been shut down in China, and the yuan-bitcoin trading pair has dropped from 90 percent to less than 5 percent of the world’s total bitcoin trades, according to Shanghai Securities News.
Pan, the central bank deputy governor, said in Beijing last December that China made the right decision to clamp down on cryptocurrency exchanges.
“If things were still the way they were at the beginning of the year, over 80 percent of the world’s bitcoin trading and ICO financing would take place in China — what would things look like today?” he said. “It’s really quite scary.”
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as China to block offshore crypto access | https://medium.com/bexpro/china-to-block-more-than-120-offshore-cryptocurrency-exchanges-7822995cbf6 | ['Harsha Reddy'] | 2018-08-30 17:47:37.374000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Crypto', 'China', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin'] |
We Rise From Our Ashes | 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/being-known/we-rise-from-our-ashes-f072cea3d656 | ['Galit Birk'] | 2020-12-14 12:02:39.687000+00:00 | ['Empowerment', 'Being Known', 'Self', 'Poetry', 'Self-awareness'] |
How to Create Interactive Climate Model Maps in Python | “El Niño is likely this winter,” the forecaster says. “El Niño typically brings above-normal winter cloudiness and rainfall across the southern U.S. and milder conditions to Canada…”
You may have heard something like this spoken on your TV, radio, or written on the Internet recently. Have you ever wondered how a meteorologist or climatologist comes to such conclusions?
In this post, we’ll show you how to create interactive climate maps using the Copernicus Data Store, where you can visualize, examine, and explore the same data that your local forecaster sees.
Keep reading to learn how to make an interactive version of this March 2019 precipitation anomaly map.
Copernicus is a game-changing project that “makes information about the past, present, and future climate freely available, and functions as a one-stop shop for users to explore climate data.” Access to data is open, free and unrestricted.
We have entered a golden age of freely available weather and climate data on the web — spanning time horizons from the next few hours or days and even into the coming weeks or months. NOAA’s NCEP NOMADS is a treasure trove of such information, and now the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts’ Copernicus Climate Data Store has burst onto the scene.
Before we start mapping, let’s get set up with Copernicus. We’ll use their API to get the climate data for our visualizations.
Getting started is easy:
Make an account here. Navigate to the ‘data store’ portion of the site. In this post, we’ll look at ‘seasonal forecast’ data sets (access here).
For further weather and climate map inspiration, check out our post ‘How to Create 2D and 3D Interactive Weather Maps in Python and R’.
1. Download your first data set
In the climate forecasting space, anomalies (difference from average) are often the most frequently examined data. While looking at raw outputs can be useful in some circumstances, the end goal is to understand how much warmer, cooler, drier, or wetter than normal an area may be. For the purposes of this post, we’ll be looking at forecast anomalies.
In order to work with this climate data in Plotly, you’ll need to download the data in NetCDF format. To do this, you will have to install the Climate Data Store Application Program Interface (CDS API). For Python users, this step should be pretty straightforward:
Install the CDS API key and store it in your home directory.
2. Install the CDS API client using `pip install cdsapi`.
Now let’s download some data 👌
We’ll start off with a sea surface temperature data set from the ECMWF model, often considered the gold standard when it comes to weather and climate prediction. Follow this link to the data and navigate to the “Download Data” tab in the page.
Under the “Download Data” tab, you’ll find a form where you can specify the data you’d like to download through the API. Selections in this form will create an API request for the desired data. To view this request, fill out the form and click the red “Show API request” button at the bottom-left beneath the form.
Fill out your form like this:
Then, click the “Show API request” to reveal your request. (“Hide API request” tucks it away again.)
Next, copy this API request and paste it into a Jupyter notebook. Remember when we mentioned that it needs to be in NetCDF format? This is where we’ll change the requested file format from GRIB to NetCDF:
Click HERE for an example Jupyter Notebook to download and process the climate data.
2. Your first plot: Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly
Now you should have your data set in your home directory. Next, we leverage the power of Python with Plotly to view and inspect climate data in a new, interactive format that enables you to zoom to low levels for greater detail.
Gone are the days of worrying about whether data for your country will show. In this case we’ll produce a world map with data that covers the Earth 👌 🗺️
The first plot shows sea surface temperature anomalies: essentially, how much warmer or cooler than average the sea surface temperature is at a given location (or grid box).
Sea surface temperature anomalies are particularly important in the tropical oceans, as anomalies help to modify the Walker Circulation, which plays a major role in precipitation and temperature patterns across the global tropics (and to a lesser extent the middle latitudes).
Early in 2019, there is an El Niño signature in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The warmest sea surface temperatures (and anomalies) are located across the west-central equatorial Pacific, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north of Fiji. This has been an area of consistent atmospheric lift, increased cloud cover, and precipitation.
You can download the Jupyter Notebook here and use it to make all the plots below.
3. Air Temperature Anomaly
This plot looks at the forecast air temperature anomaly, in Celsius, for the month of March 2019. These model data also come from the ECMWF, although the Copernicus data store hosts four additional models from institutions across Europe: UK Met Office (UKMO), Météo France, Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), and Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC).
Red colors show warmer-than-average temperatures while blue indicates below-average temperatures.
4. Precipitation Anomaly
This plot examines precipitation rate anomaly in mm/second for the month of March 2019.
Precipitation is often considered one of the most challenging parameters to forecast. Generally speaking, precipitation outlooks have lower confidence than temperature outlooks.
This is because rain and snow can be irregular in coverage and intensity — there may be sharp differences in amounts over short distances, depending on the lay of the land (e.g. more in the mountain ranges, less in the valleys). Compared to temperature, it is generally much less uniform and therefore a more frequent forecast challenge.
In the chart below, negative values (blues) indicate below-normal monthly precipitation while positive values (yellows, oranges) indicate above-normal monthly precipitation.
So, with this wealth of climate data at your fingertips, get graphing with Plotly and start exploring your world in a new way! | https://medium.com/plotly/how-to-create-interactive-climate-model-maps-in-python-28eed13ccb00 | [] | 2019-02-11 19:31:00.738000+00:00 | ['Mapping', 'Weather', 'Plotly', 'Climate Change', 'Data Visualization'] |
Machine Learning in Rust, Linear Regression | Any practicing data scientist is familiar with such libraries as Scikit-learn, NumPy and SciPy. But how about similar libraries in Rust, are there any good crates that can successfully be used to create machine learning applications using this blazingly fast and memory-efficient programming language? In my first blog post, dedicated to machine learning in Rust I will show how you can implement a linear regressor from scratch. I will also demonstrate some useful tools you can use to implement many other statistical learning algorithms in pure Rust.
At the end, machine learning is not hard if you have the right set of tools handy, and learning from data in Rust has its own unique benefits that are not available in other programming languages!
Part I. Machine Learning Refresher
You don’t need any prior experience in machine learning to follow my code but we need to spend some time to go over some important ideas behind statistical modeling. If you are familiar with these concepts feel free to skip this section.
First, let’s answer the question what is statistical learning? Let’s say we observe a quantitative response Y and some attributes, x₁,x₂,…,xm that correspond this response.
For example, let’s say you have a house that has some price and this house has 4 rooms, 2 bathrooms. Attributes of the house, like number of rooms and bathrooms are called predictors, while house price is called a target or a response. We think there might be some relationship between predictors and house price. This relationship can be written as a function, that we call a model.
Since this function does not represent this relationship exactly there is always some irreducible error, ϵ that we hope can be ignored in most cases.
Usually you don’t have just one sample but many. For example, instead of one house you might get a dataset with multiple houses, each with its own set of predictors and a price. When we stack our predictors vertically, one on top of another we get a matrix X with predictors, along with a column vector Y. This matrix and a column vector becomes our dataset.
A matrix with predictors X and a column vector Y
In this example we have a dataset with house attributes and prices, collected by the U.S Census Service in the area of Boston, MA. This dataset has 13 numerical and categorical attributes. We want to predict a house price from these attributes.
First 5 rows of the Boston Housing Dataset
We use statistical models to solve problems and there are multiple ways to categorize these problems. For example, when your target Y is quantitative (in other words numerical), you can build a regression model that predicts this value from X. When Y is categorical, your only option is a classifier that can predict a class Y from X.
Model testing is an integral part of statistical modeling process because all models are not ideal and you should understand how far your predictions are from true values to set proper expectations and manage risks correctly. One common technique to estimate irreducible error is to split your data into training and test datasets. You use training dataset to fit your model and you use test dataset to estimate error by comparing predicted values to true values.
Train/test split split of data.
So how do you choose a model that captures relationship between X and Y? What are the parameters of this model? How do we estimate these parameters?
These are the key questions that you ask yourself when you develop a statistical model. When you solve a machine learning problem first thing you try to understand is what category this problem falls into: can you do supervised learning? Is it a classifier or regressor that your client needs? What kind of existing algorithm fits my data better?
The answer to all these question will depend on your problem and your data, but what you will need are libraries with wide variety of algorithms that you can use to model relationship between Y and X. Languages like Python and R provide a vast ecosystem of tools that can be used by engineers to design and implement statistical models. Most of these tools use methods developed in 4 branches of mathematics that you can see on the figure below. The good news is that in Rust you’ll find mature libraries that provide methods in at least 2 of these critical branches: optimization and linear algebra.
Four branch of mathematics that are of great importance for statistical learning.
In this and next blog posts I will focus on one specific approach to supervised learning, linear models, that assumes there is approximately a linear relationship between X and Y. I will use this simple modeling technique to demonstrate Rust crates that you can use to implement other machine learning algorithms as well. Besides, linear models are popular in machine learning and have many useful properties like great interpretability, fast implementation and great generalization power.
In linear model, when we have just one predictor x1, we model relationship between X and Y as a line that intercepts axis Y at some point beta 0 and has a slope beta 1.
Simple linear model with just one predictor.
When we have 2 predictors, our line becomes a plane that is defined by 2 parameters, β1 and β2 and intercepts axes Y at point β0. When you fit a linear model to your data your goal is to find values for model parameters, β.
Part II. Linear Regression in Rust
Let’s see how we would fit a linear model in Python. To demonstrate regression I will use The Boston Housing Dataset and I want to predict a house price from house attributes.
import numpy as np
from sklearn.datasets import load_boston
boston = load_boston()
Our first step would be to separate predictors, X from target Y and to split our dataset into test and training sets.
import pandas as pd
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
bos = pd.DataFrame(boston.data)
bos.columns = boston.feature_names
bos['PRICE'] = boston.target
X = bos.drop('PRICE', axis=1).values
y = bos.PRICE.values
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, test_size = 0.2)
X_train.shape, X_test.shape, y_train.shape, y_test.shape
Now we are ready to fit linear regressor to the training portion of X and Y. Linear regressor is defined in Scikit Learn package. This package provides big selection of traditional machine learning algorithms and is a go-to library for machine learning that is widely used in the industry. With Scikit Learn we can fit linear regressor to our data in one line.
from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression
lr = LinearRegression().fit(X_train, y_train)
To evaluate performance of our regressor we will use mean absolute error that calculates mean absolute difference between predicted and true values.
Mean Absolute Error
We calculate mean absolute error using test dataset and get 3.4
from sklearn.metrics import mean_absolute_error
print(mean_absolute_error(y_test, lr.predict(X_test))) 3.447122276148069
We can also print parameters of our model.
print("coef: {}, intercept: {}".format(lr.coef_, lr.intercept_)) coef: [-1.09345106e-01 5.14771860e-02 -1.35771811e-02 3.11370157e+00
-1.53107579e+01 3.54796861e+00 -4.78707187e-03 -1.49453646e+00
3.17255788e-01 -1.20148597e-02 -9.28169726e-01 1.03065117e-02
-5.58857305e-01], intercept: 37.03977851074369
The code I’ve demonstrated uses several Python packages, but the most notable package by far is NumPy. NumPy is a backbone of most libraries for machine learning and scientific computing in Python because NumPy provides a toolset for manipulating n dimensional arrays as well as linear algebra routines. Scikit Learn relies heavily on NumPy to compute parameters of the model when you call fit and predict methods.
We would need a similar library if I want to train and run our statistical models in Rust. Luckily, there are at least 2 great crates in Rust that we can use to manipulate n dimensional arrays: nalgebra and ndarray. While these libraries provide slightly different functionality we could use both interchangeably for our purpose. One important difference between these two libraries is that nalgebra supports only 2D and 1D arrays while ndarray support arrays of arbitrary size. The other difference is that you do not need BLAS and LAPACK backend to solve linear equations and decompose matrices when you use nalgebra.
We start by importing nalgebra structs and traits where data manipulation functions are defined.
use nalgebra::{DMatrix, DVector, Scalar};
We read the file with Boston Housing dataset. Unfortunately, nalgebra does not provide a function to read data from CSV file but it is not hard to implement one yourself.
use std::io::prelude::*;
use std::io::BufReader;
use std::fs::File;
use std::str::FromStr;
fn parse_csv<N, R>(input: R) -> Result<DMatrix<N>, Box<dyn std::error::Error>>
where N: FromStr + Scalar,
N::Err: std::error::Error,
R: BufRead
{
// initialize an empty vector to fill with numbers
let mut data = Vec::new();
// initialize the number of rows to zero; we'll increment this
// every time we encounter a newline in the input
let mut rows = 0;
// for each line in the input,
for line in input.lines() {
// increment the number of rows
rows += 1;
// iterate over the items in the row, separated by commas
for datum in line?.split_terminator(",") {
// trim the whitespace from the item, parse it, and push it to
// the data array
data.push(N::from_str(datum.trim())?);
}
}
// The number of items divided by the number of rows equals the
// number of columns.
let cols = data.len() / rows;
// Construct a `DMatrix` from the data in the vector.
Ok(DMatrix::from_row_slice(rows, cols, &data[..]))
}
let file = File::open("../data/creditcard.csv").unwrap();
let bos: DMatrix<f64> = parse_csv(BufReader::new(file)).unwrap();
println!("{}", bos.rows(0, 5));
This is how our data looks like once it is represented as a 2 dimensional matrix. The leftmost column is a house price while the rest of the columns are the attributes of a house.
First 5 rows of the Boston Housing Dataset.
We separate predictors from price using matrix manipulation methods defined in nalgebra.
let x = bos.columns(0, 13).into_owned();
let y = bos.column(13).into_owned();
To split data into training/test sets we need to use a function defined in another Rust crate, Smartcore.
use smartcore::model_selection::train_test_split;
let (x_train, x_test, y_train, y_test) = train_test_split(&x, &y.transpose(), 0.2);
So how can we fit linear regression in Rust? From linear algebra we know that one way to solve system of linear equations
is by taking an inverse of A
If you compare the formula that represents linear regression to this expression you will see that all we need to do to find parameters of linear regression is to take an inverse of X
One problem with solving this equation directly is that for a tall and skinny matrices, where you have more rows than columns, there will likely be no exact solutions. So one of the tricks that we can use to find an approximate solution is to convert X into a square matrix by multiplying our equation by X transpose from both sides. Now the solution can be found by taking an inverse of X transpose X
Let’s see whether we’ll arrive to the same parameter values if we apply this formula in Rust. Let’s define A and b
let a = x_train.clone().insert_column(13, 1.0).into_owned();
let b = y_train.clone().transpose();
When we apply the formula from the previous slide to our data we get similar coefficients and intercept!
let x = (a.transpose() * &a).try_inverse().unwrap() * &a.transpose() * &b;
let coeff = x.rows(0, 13);
let intercept = x[(13, 0)];
println!("coeff: {}, intercept: {}", coeff, intercept);
Coefficients of the linear regression.
Notice that coefficients and intercept are very close to the values we’ve got in Python. The reason why numbers are not the same is because our train/test split in Rust is different from train/test split in Python due to randomization.
One problem with this approach for estimating model parameters is the matrix inverse that is both computationally expensive and numerically unstable. An alternative approach is to use a matrix decomposition to avoid this operation. The matrix decomposition breaks a matrix down into its constituent elements. There are many decomposition methods out these but for this example I will use QR decomposition that can break our matrix A into matrices Q and R.
Stepping over all of the derivation, the coefficients can be found using the Q and R matrices using this formula.
This approach still involves a matrix inversion, but in this case only on the simpler matrix R.
In Rust both ndarray and nalgebra provide multiple matrix decomposition methods as well. This is how we would decompose matrix and solve the equation in Rust using nalgebra.
let qr = a.qr();
let (q, r) = (qr.q().transpose(), qr.r());
let x = r.try_inverse().unwrap() * &q * &b;
let coeff = x.rows(0, 13);
let intercept = x[(13, 0)];
println!("coeff: {}, intercept: {}", coeff, intercept);
Coefficients of the linear regression.
We’ve got the same values for coefficients and intercept again! Now that we have parameters of linear regressor how do we estimate house prices? We just multiply our parameter estimates, β hat by X!
let y_hat = (x_test * &coeff).add_scalar(intercept);
println!("mae: {}", mean_absolute_error(&y_test, &y_hat.transpose())); mae: 3.1081864959381837
Mean absolute error is very close to the error we’ve calculated in Python. Again, the reason why haven’t got the same number is because our train/test split in Rust is not the same as in Python.
Conclusion
The fact that we were able to fit a linear regressor to Boston Housing dataset in Rust is remarkable. What makes our result even better is that our algorithm achieved the same performance as the Scikit Learn’s implementation and that we had to write very little code to estimate parameters of our model. Most of the work is done by one of the linear algebra crates that is provided by Rust ecosystem. The good news is that many other core machine learning algorithms rely on linear algebra routines for parameter estimation. You will use the same set of tools if you want to implement algorithms like PCA, SVD and Ridge Regression in Rust.
In my next post dedicated to machine learning in Rust I will show you some additional tools that are crutial if you want to fit statistical models to your data. Stay tuned!
Sources | https://medium.com/swlh/machine-learning-in-rust-linear-regression-edef3fb65f93 | ['Vlad Orlov'] | 2021-01-14 18:06:52.219000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Linear Regression', 'Rust', 'Machine Learning', 'Statistics'] |
Swipe/Pull to refresh RecyclerView | In this tutorial, we’re going to see how to implement swipe to refresh layout inside the recyclerView that is when you swipe from top to bottom your recyclerView would be refreshed. And if you’re not going through my previous tutorial on recyclerView, you can click here, or if you’re familiar with it then just follow these steps to implement swipe layout for our recyclerView.
Earlier we’re created our RecyclerView XML and Java file, item row with the RecyclerView Adapter. Please go through these otherwise, we will not understand this tutorial.
But now for Swipe Layout, we need to do some changes to our main XML file. Not in the item row XML file. Item row XML is the same as before.
Here we’ll compare our XML file after and before applying the swiping layout.
Before applying the Swipe Layout
activity_main.xml
<?xml version=”1.0" encoding=”utf-8"?> <androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android=”http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:app=”http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" xmlns:tools=”http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:layout_width=”match_parent” android:layout_height=”match_parent” tools:context=”.MainActivity”> <androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView android:id=”@+id/recyclerView” android:layout_width=”match_parent” android:layout_height=”match_parent” app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf=”parent” app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf=”parent” app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf=”parent” app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf=”parent” /> </androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
After applying the Swipe Layout
activity_main.xml
<?xml version=”1.0" encoding=”utf-8"?> <androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android=”http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:app=”http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto" xmlns:tools=”http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:layout_width=”match_parent” android:layout_height=”match_parent” tools:context=”.MainActivity”> <androidx.swiperefreshlayout.widget.SwipeRefreshLayout android:id=”@+id/swipeRefresh” android:layout_width=”match_parent” android:layout_height=”match_parent” app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf=”parent” app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf=”parent” app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf=”parent” app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf=”parent”> <androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView android:id=”@+id/recyclerView” android:layout_width=”match_parent” android:layout_height=”match_parent” app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf=”parent” app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf=”parent” app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf=”parent” app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf=”parent” /> </androidx.swiperefreshlayout.widget.SwipeRefreshLayout> </androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
Here we add a swipe refresh layout and put our recyclerView inside it. So that when we swipe top to bottom our recyclerView would be changed.
and put our recyclerView inside it. So that when we swipe top to bottom our recyclerView would be changed. Now we need to create our Swipe refresh layout inside the main activity java file at the top.
SwipeRefreshLayout swipeRefreshLayout;
And inside onCreate() method we can find our swipe refresh layout.
swipeRefreshLayout = findViewById(R.id.swipeRefresh);
now, we’ll attach onSwipeRefreshListener() to the swipe refresh layout. After that add some items on our moviesList and off the swipe refresh.
swipeRefreshLayout.setOnRefreshListener(new SwipeRefreshLayout.OnRefreshListener() { @Override public void onRefresh() { moviesList.add(“Black Window (2020)”); moviesList.add(“The Eternals (2020)”); moviesList.add(“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)”); moviesList.add(“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2021)”); moviesList.add(“Thor: Love and Thunder (2021)”); recyclerAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged(); swipeRefreshLayout.setRefreshing(false); } });
recyclerAdapter.notifyDataChanged() will notify the recyclerView that list is changed.
MainActivity.java
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity; import androidx.recyclerview.widget.DividerItemDecoration; import androidx.recyclerview.widget.LinearLayoutManager; import androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView; import androidx.swiperefreshlayout.widget.SwipeRefreshLayout; import android.os.Bundle; import android.widget.Toast; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.List; public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements RecyclerViewClickInterface{ RecyclerView recyclerView; RecyclerAdapter recyclerAdapter; List<String> moviesList; SwipeRefreshLayout swipeRefreshLayout; @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.activity_main); moviesList = new ArrayList<>(); recyclerView = findViewById(R.id.recyclerView); recyclerAdapter = new RecyclerAdapter(moviesList, this); recyclerView.setLayoutManager(new LinearLayoutManager(this)); recyclerView.setAdapter(recyclerAdapter); DividerItemDecoration dividerItemDecoration = new DividerItemDecoration(this, DividerItemDecoration.VERTICAL); recyclerView.addItemDecoration(dividerItemDecoration); moviesList.add(“Captain America”); moviesList.add(“The Fantastic Four”); moviesList.add(“Howard the Duck”); moviesList.add(“Blade”); moviesList.add(“X-Men”); moviesList.add(“Spider-Man”); moviesList.add(“Daredevil”); moviesList.add(“Hulk”); moviesList.add(“The Punisher”); moviesList.add(“Ghost Rider”); moviesList.add(“Iron Man”); moviesList.add(“Thor”); moviesList.add(“The Avengers”); moviesList.add(“Guardians of the Galaxy”); moviesList.add(“Ant-Man”); moviesList.add(“Deadpool”); moviesList.add(“Doctor Strange”); moviesList.add(“Logan”); moviesList.add(“Black Panther”); moviesList.add(“Venom”); moviesList.add(“Dark Phoenix”); moviesList.add(“The New Mutants”); //swipe to refresh code swipeRefreshLayout = findViewById(R.id.swipeRefresh); swipeRefreshLayout.setOnRefreshListener(new SwipeRefreshLayout.OnRefreshListener() { @Override public void onRefresh() { moviesList.add(“Black Window (2020)”); moviesList.add(“The Eternals (2020)”); moviesList.add(“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)”); moviesList.add(“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2021)”); moviesList.add(“Thor: Love and Thunder (2021)”); recyclerAdapter.notifyDataSetChanged(); swipeRefreshLayout.setRefreshing(false); } }); } @Override public void onItemClick(int position) { Toast.makeText(this, moviesList.get(position), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); } @Override public void onLongItemClick(int position) { Toast.makeText(this, moviesList.get(position) + “ Removed”, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); moviesList.remove(position); recyclerAdapter.notifyItemRemoved(position); } }
Output | https://medium.com/@androidapps-development-blogs/swipe-pull-to-refresh-recyclerview-96b4a7bca726 | ['Golap Gunjan Barman'] | 2020-12-11 07:17:51.364000+00:00 | ['Android App Development', 'Android', 'AndroidDev', 'Recyclerview', 'Android Recyclerview'] |
What Characters Do You Give To Others? | What do you have inside of you-violence or peace, death or life, capacity to build or capacity to destroy, hate or love?
Photo by Albert Dera on Unsplash
It was John Wooden, who said,
‘’The test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.’’
This, in essence, means the character is everything. We mean what he is really, without any external pretence. What a man is, moulds his destiny. That is, what we deem to be our destiny is moulded by our character. So what is your character, and what impression or messages are you giving to others? Are you honest and reliable in your dealing with others?
How Do You Treat Others?
How we treat others, especially the less privileged members of society has a lot to say about us. If we are good, we will treat others with respect irrespective of who they are. Some of us believe we should only respect those who are older, or in a position of authority over us.
‘’The best index to a person’s character is how he treats people who can’t do him any good and how he treats people who can’t fight back.’’ Abigail Van Buren
We do this ignoring those less privileged or our subordinates, forgetting that our fate can be tied up with anyone, the high and the mighty or the lowliest of the low. God can use anyone in life to positively bless us. We should remind ourselves of the golden rule that says:
‘’Treat others as you would like to be treated.’’
It interprets to practice empathy, kindness and a willingness to help others. Eliminate prejudice, criticism, and unnecessary control over others. Rise above retaliation. Treating others this way gives a person tremendous satisfaction which ultimately leads to deep inner happiness. This is a spiritual secret.
If we strive harder in the practice of the above, it is easier to pray with a clear conscience and humility believing that our path will be illumined.
8 Characters That Show Our Positive Values
There are some characters that stand out, and when we have them, it gives us the advantage of being transparent and honest.
1. Integrity
The synonyms for integrity is honesty, uprightness and honour. It is having a strong moral value and living in dignity and straight-forwardness. It should permeate all aspect of our lives, and it is a choice of consistently choosing the purity of truth over falsehood, always and every time.
Legend had it that the great wall of China was built by Emperor Qin Shi Huang (c 259–210 BC), mainly to keep the barbarians Mongolians out of China. During the first 9 years, the Chinese were invaded three times by these Mongolians. They didn’t have to climb any wall, they came in through the gates. How? By bribing the guards. You see they built the walls, but they forgot to build characters.
‘’In vain we built the city if we do not first build the man.’’ Edward Markham
A person with integrity will speak out against injustice, take a stand with others and let all know about what exactly is going on.
2. Self-Respect
Is an important aspect of a person’s character. It defines who you are as well as your values. A person with self-respect has his boundaries in dealing with other people and protects those boundaries vigorously by not allowing others to step on his toes. If they do, he points it out immediately.
He maintains this boundary by respecting others as well, giving them their honours and dues. So in respectively, he receives the same from others. We have to differentiate self-respect with ego and pride. They are quite different and opposite.
‘’Respect yourself and others will respect you.’’ Confucius
3. Kindness
Is related to empathy. This is putting yourself in a position of others, creating direction and reciprocal friendship that sustains over time. It is uplifting others to achieve their potentials. People relate to anyone with kindness because of their willingness to help.
‘’Whatever there is a human need, there’s an opportunity for kindness and to make a difference.’’ Kevin Heath.
Kind people make others feel included, as they forge a connection they need for growth and stability.
4. Courage
A person who exhibits courage must have overcome any inner conflict, rejection and humiliation of any kind. These attributes make people look up to him. A courageous person is focussed in achieving personally and also interested in carrying others along.
‘’Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision’’ Winston Churchill.
5. Flexibility
A person who is flexible is willing to change course for the benefit of all concerned. He is not rigid but rather willing to explore other options open to him. Such a character is admirable especially when plans are not working, he is able to compromise and seek workable solutions.
‘’Flexibility is the key to stability.’’ John Woods
A person with such an important character will promote growth, They are not, therefore, controlling or dogmatic who blindly wants everything to go his way.
6. Perseverance
Perseverance in a way is linked to forging ahead with courage, despite the challenges ahead. It is a virtue of committed individuals. People who are committed to goals usually are the ones who persevere, because they want to finish what they started.
‘’Great works are performed, not by strength but by perseverance’’ Samuel Johnson
They are not put off by failure, always willing to gain new insights by exploring all possible avenues. They are focused on results, and not daunted by setbacks or delays.
7. Humility
Humility is being able to relate to everyone irrespective of their social standing. Merriam-Webster defines it as ‘’freedom from pride and arrogance.’’
‘’True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.’’ Socrates
The father of knowledge, Socrates said despite all learning, we still do not know anything, so we must all be humble. Humility is true freedom.
8. Self-Discipline
This virtue encompasses all virtue. Whatever one does should be in moderation. Excess of anything is bad. A disciplined individual comports himself well under any circumstances. He knows what his limits are, and he abides with them.
‘’Self-discipline is what separates the winners and the losers.’’ Thomas Peterfly
He stays ahead of knowledge to enable him to interacts with and impacts on others. He carries himself well, to receive and give respect to others.
Take Away
What are we saying in essence here is that we should endeavour to inhibit good characters in our daily life and activities, especially in dealing with others.
Build relationships, and don’t forget that God will always use man.
How we deal with others, shows how we are ourselves in that it is a reflection of who we are, which in turn can pave the way for either blessings or a curse. Everything in the world is intertwined and interrelated, whether we believe in this or not. A good character is not optional.
There is no amount of spiritual penance that can substitute for character. Sometimes you need character, not prayer. Thomas Macaulay, a British writer and politician, (1800–1859), once said,
‘’The measure of a man’s character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.’’
What he meant, in essence, is that what will make or unmake a man in life is his character. It is his character that will open or close a door for him. It all depends on what he wants to give out, hate or love.
The greatest fraud in life is a religion without character. A man without a good character is living a reckless life.
And no man is an Island. We should always do our best, and the immutable and unchangeable laws operative in creation will always compensate us.
Think about this. Always give out the best in you, always, all the time, every time. | https://medium.com/an-idea/what-characters-do-you-give-to-others-fbbd851b2910 | ['Lanu Pitan'] | 2020-09-27 10:33:27.349000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Life Lessons', 'Character', 'Lifestyle', 'Spiritual Secrets'] |
View from a cell; mind locked in a spiral the first night, never stopping. | View from a cell; mind locked in a spiral the first night, never stopping.
Standing in this concrete
The ice is moving in
Cold through the floor, a warning
Eyes around me searching
No answers, no friends,
We’re waiting, begging for an egg
Desperate closing walls
Might call our name,
We sit in proud shame.
There’s a toilet attached to the sink
No one looks but we all see
Time to be humble, lost
No coming back from this disease
It’s in us now,
Underneath.
Take my things
Because I’m worthless,
But you can’t have inside of me,
Take my smile
Because I’m dirt,
But you can’t have my belief.
Steel and concrete to keep me out
But I look until I see the end,
New beginnings sprouting and blooming
Many never comprehend,
All these years down
Bars and chains,
Alone with eyes all around,
The concrete is my friend. | https://medium.com/everything-shortform/view-from-a-cell-mind-locked-in-a-spiral-the-first-night-never-stopping-bd83627d29bd | ['Greg Prince'] | 2020-12-12 10:25:21.696000+00:00 | ['Creative Writing', 'This Happened To Me', 'Prison', 'Mindset', 'Poetry'] |
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Overview:
A developer has to be terribly careful whereas writing these contracts, otherwise, the user/creator of those contracts might end up losing several Gas. And someday, it’s about to exceed the block gas limit additionally and in such cases, those contracts will not even get deployed on the network. to look at ‘block gas limit’ construct, please look here. in brief it defines the utmost quantity of gas all transactions among the entire block combined square measure allowed to consume. The developer should understand these operations and therefore the means abundant they consume gas.
Bottom line is to put in writing down optimized contract code. And to undertake to that, the developer ought to be at home with ‘opcodes’. Let’s look at variety of those directions and perceive their behaviour. | https://medium.com/@digital91707/smart-contract-development-company-in-varanasi-237bd303d62c | [] | 2021-06-17 11:32:27.771000+00:00 | ['Smart Contracts', 'Smart Contract Tron', 'Smartcontractdevelopment'] |
A Look Into The Upcoming MLB Season | Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the upcoming MLB season looks nothing like seasons past. Though opening day is often set in March or early April, this year’s MLB season won’t kick off before April 9th, if it kicks off at all. Spring break practice games that traditionally take place prior to opening day were scrapped, as a safety precaution.
There are many unanswered questions about the upcoming season. With a projected start date of two weeks later than normal, it has been speculated that the MLB season will be extended to early October, but this has not been confirmed. The late end to the regular season could push the postseason to have an end date of sometime in November. This is cause for concern as many cities across the U.S. are experiencing cool if not cold weather by that time of the year.
Further speculation includes the idea that many stadiums may choose to open late, meaning June or even August. This would push back the 2020 MLB season so far that it wouldn’t end until sometime in 2021.
This would not be the first time that the MLB season has been delayed. Due to the timing of World War 1, in 1918, the MLB season concluded on September 1st. The one World Series in history that was completed within the month of September was when the Chicago Cubs were defeated by The Boston Red Sox. It was the last World Series game one by The Boston Red Sox between then and 2004. In the case of the Chicago Cubs, their next World Series win was in 2016.
The only other MLB season to start two weeks after the originally planned date was in 1972 when players were on strike. This season was shorter than normal, as the first two weeks of games did not get rescheduled. MLB players wouldn’t go on strike again until 1981. At that time, there were no games held between June 11th and August 10th.
With so many unanswered questions about this year’s MLB season, people are wondering if any team will be able to play the entire schedule they were expected to. There are questions as to whether or not this year’s season will even take place.
Originally posted on CharlesHitechew.net. | https://medium.com/@charleshitechew/a-look-into-the-upcoming-mlb-season-10889dc805a5 | ['Charles Hitechew'] | 2020-04-23 16:17:53.214000+00:00 | ['Mlb Season', 'Sports', 'MLB', 'Charles Hitechew'] |
Humans : My Perspective. This is just a mere perspective on… | This is just a mere perspective on human beings.
I feel that if God ever existed he would probably agree that humans are bound to the seven deadly sins(they are: Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath, Pride, Lust, Greed and Envy)and that all the fairy tales of ways to be a good person might just be another small dream. I perceive humans as perfectly balanced body and soul of yin and yang with animal like instincts after all we do belong to the mammal order of the living world.
Humans are driven by fear, selfishness and materials existing in this capitalist world. Be it love, relationships or anything else. We need need a meaning and reason to form something with each other, it is like a social pact. Many of us may not be ready for that chat. Believing that being kind makes you selfless is also a concept that I don’t seem to understand, trying to be kind makes us think we are doing something good and lovely and pure. In the end it is just a moral virtue that is associated to being a good person. | https://medium.com/@anniewilliams566/humans-my-perspective-ced1c79b41e5 | [] | 2020-12-27 19:13:59.964000+00:00 | ['Humans', 'Perspective', 'First Post', 'Mypersonalexperience'] |
A Guide to 90/10 Rule Legislation | Right now, the 90/10 rule is not applied equally. The premise of 90/10 is built on the idea that if a school delivers a quality education, then someone other than the taxpayer will pay to go there. If that’s the case, then the 90/10 standard should be applied to every public college and university and they should count all their state and local funding into the formula. Public colleges and universities receive billions in taxpayer subsidies from federal, state and local government and yet this is not included in calculations despite the massive distorting effect it has.
Fundamentally, the 90/10 rule itself is a flawed metric that shouldn’t be applied to any school regardless of its sector. Financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz described 90/10 as “ineffective at measuring educational quality”. But isn’t that what we care about? Providing quality education to students. It also measures “ability to pay more than willingness to pay.” In short, you only count if you’re in the 1%. This disproportionately limits the enrollment of low-income and other underserved populations most in need of career education. We shouldn’t restrict access to education for those who need it most.
Creating a fair and equal standard for all colleges and universities to ensure they provide a quality education for students should be the goal for legislators. The 90/10 rule, as currently applied, doesn’t pass that test. | https://medium.com/@CareerEducation/a-guide-to-90-10-rule-legislation-60cf4aca3a48 | ['Career Education'] | 2020-02-12 17:33:26.814000+00:00 | ['Higher Education', 'Education', 'Senate', 'Legislation', 'Congress'] |
Loom Protocol — The Next Generation | Loom Network’s mainnet, Basechain, went live in December 2018, and since then, we’ve upgraded the protocol numerous times in order to fix bugs and add many new features. One of our primary goals has always been to ensure that our mainnet upgrades resulted in zero downtime for dapp developers and users. Barring a few brief chain halts in the early days, we’ve done a pretty good job of reaching that liveness goal.
Unfortunately, such live upgrades are not without a cost. Some core dependencies of the Loom protocol couldn’t be upgraded without incurring a significant amount of downtime, because backwards compatibility was not as high of a priority for the authors of those dependencies as it was for us. This lack of backward compatibility in our dependencies forced our blockchain development team to spend a significant amount of time carefully backporting important bug fixes and features. However, backporting has its limits, as the code eventually diverges too far for that approach to remain practical.
The Loom protocol code has also accumulated a lot of cruft since the mainnet went live. We’ve shipped a few features that turned out to be less useful than we envisioned, and we fixed many bugs in some non-ideal ways to ensure that the fixes could be deployed without any downtime.
So we need to address all that technical debt, upgrade core dependencies, and redesign some of the core systems — now that we have a much better understanding of how the initial designs performed in production. It’s time for us to build the next major version of the Loom protocol that will power Basechain and other blockchains we build for our enterprise clients. Let’s take a look at a non-exhaustive list of changes that will be going into the new version:
Upgrade the consensus engine to the latest 0.33.X Tendermint release to take advantage of all the performance improvements and bug fixes.
Upgrade go-ethereum to v1.9.14 to benefit from optimizations made to EVM opcodes and storage.
Address a number of design issues in the EVM integration affecting receipts, Tx hashes, gas estimation, and contract debugging.
Improve reliability of the contract events system.
Integrate a WASM runtime to support performant and upgradable smart contracts to replace native Go smart contracts. Native Go smart contracts underpin many important capabilities of the current Loom protocol including DPoS, ETH and LOOM transfers, and token transfers between chains. These smart contracts are powerful and performant when compared to EVM contracts, but are also more difficult to implement correctly because they can do a lot more than an EVM contract — including causing consensus failures that can result in chain halts.
We’ll be sharing more technical details about these changes in the following months. | https://medium.com/loom-network/loom-protocol-the-next-generation-1f0188106458 | [] | 2020-06-04 12:31:33.051000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Software Development', 'Blockchain', 'Enterprise Technology', 'Ethereum'] |
Elon Musk: ‘Several Thousand More’ Starlink Public Beta Invites to Go Out Soon | In another tweet, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also estimated the public beta for the company’s satellite internet service will expand to the southern US in early 2021.
By Michael Kan
There’s good news for users waiting to try out SpaceX’s satellite internet service. The company plans on inviting more people to the public beta test.
“Several thousand more Starlink beta participation invitations going out this week,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted today. In a follow-up tweet, Musk also estimated the public beta will expand to the southern US, such as Florida, likely by January when the company has more satellites up in orbit to power the broadband network.
Currently, the public beta is targeting the northern US, where SpaceX has better satellite coverage. This past weekend, the first crop of early test users gained access to the service, and have confirmed Starlink can indeed supply broadband speeds at over 100Mbps with the latency hitting around 30 milliseconds.
But the real selling point is how the system can deliver fast broadband to remote areas that have little or no access to steady internet. As SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites into orbit, the company expects it’ll be able to deliver 1Gbps download speeds to almost anywhere on Earth.
To receive an invite for the public beta, interested users can go to Starlink.com and sign up for the email newsletter, which can notify you about upcoming availability. However, the beta isn’t free. The company is charging test users $99 a month for the service, and another $499 for the satellite dish and router.
According to test users, the Starlink public beta is covering certain parts of the following US states: Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. SpaceX is also aiming to bring the public beta to southern Canada too. | https://medium.com/pcmag-access/elon-musk-several-thousand-more-starlink-public-beta-invites-to-go-out-soon-29608aec1083 | [] | 2020-11-04 17:03:18.180000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Internet', 'Starlink', 'Elon Musk', 'Satellite Technology'] |
So Tired | Photo by M. on Unsplash
I’m so tired
That my mind aches
But every time I try to close my eyes
My heart aches
Can your heart ache if you’ve never really loved
While love feels futile
Lust is fickle
but this isn’t either
I am but a shell of who I once was
Stripped of vigour
Here I lie
So tired
That my empty brain aches with the hollow echo of contempt
For none other than myself
And the disappointment shatters what should be a deep slumber
So goodnight
To another day of being nothing
No one
Someone brushed off
Again | https://medium.com/@vriendt/so-tired-ef7a37ffdd69 | ['Tessa Vriend'] | 2020-12-23 04:09:25.477000+00:00 | ['Love', 'Poetry', 'Free Verse', 'Longing'] |
“A Wretch Like Me…” John Newton and Amazing Grace | “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…” So begins one of the most beloved hymns of all times, a staple in the hymnals of many denominations, New Britain or “45 on the top” in Sacred Harp. The author of the words was John Newton, the self-proclaimed wretch who once was lost but then was found, saved by amazing grace.
Newton was born in London July 24, 1725, the son of a commander of a merchant ship which sailed the Mediterranean. When John was eleven, he went to sea with his father and made six voyages with him before the elder Newton retired. In 1744 John was impressed into service on a man-of-war, the H. M. S. Harwich. Finding conditions on board intolerable, he deserted but was soon recaptured and publicly flogged and demoted from midshipman to common seaman.
Finally at his own request he was exchanged into service on a slave ship, which took him to the coast of Sierra Leone. He then became the servant of a slave trader and was brutally abused. Early in 1748 he was rescued by a sea captain who had known John’s father. John Newton ultimately became captain of his own ship, one which plied the slave trade.
Although he had had some early religious instruction from his mother, who had died when he was a child, he had long since given up any religious convictions. However, on a homeward voyage, while he was attempting to steer the ship through a violent storm, he experienced what he was to refer to later as his “great deliverance.” He recorded in his journal that when all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, he exclaimed, “Lord, have mercy upon us.” Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him.
For the rest of his life he observed the anniversary of May 10, 1748 as the day of his conversion, a day of humiliation in which he subjected his will to a higher power. “Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ’tis grace has bro’t me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” He continued in the slave trade for a time after his conversion; however, he saw to it that the slaves under his care were treated humanely. He would go on later in his life to regret that he did not immediately get out of this “wicked practice.”
In 1750 he married Mary Catlett, with whom he had been in love for many years. By 1755, after a serious illness, he had given up seafaring forever. During his days as a sailor he had begun to educate himself, teaching himself Latin, among other subjects. From 1755 to 1760 Newton was surveyor of tides at Liverpool, where he came to know George Whitefield, deacon in the Church of England, evangelistic preacher, and leader of the Calvinistic Methodist Church. Newton became Whitefield’s enthusiastic disciple. During this period Newton also met and came to admire John Wesley, founder of Methodism. Newton’s self-education continued, and he learned Greek and Hebrew.
He decided to become a minister and applied to the Archbishop of York for ordination. The Archbishop refused his request, but Newton persisted in his goal, and he was subsequently ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln and accepted the curacy of Olney, Buckinghamshire. Newton’s church became so crowded during services that it had to be enlarged. He preached not only in Olney but in other parts of the country. In 1767 the poet William Cowper settled at Olney, and he and Newton became friends.
Cowper helped Newton with his religious services and on his tours to other places. They held not only a regular weekly church service but also began a series of weekly prayer meetings, for which their goal was to write a new hymn for each one. They collaborated on several editions of Olney Hymns, which achieved lasting popularity. The first edition, published in 1779, contained 68 pieces by Cowper and 280 by Newton.
Among Newton’s contributions which are still loved and sung today are “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds” and “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken,”as well as “Amazing Grace.” Composed probably between 1760 and 1770 in Olney, “Amazing Grace” was possibly one of the hymns written for a weekly service. Through the years other writers have composed additional verses to the hymn which came to be known as “Amazing Grace” (it was not thus entitled in Olney Hymns), and possibly verses from other Newton hymns have been added. However, these are the six stanzas that appeared, with minor spelling variations, in both the first edition in 1779 and the 1808 edition, the one nearest the date of Newton’s death. It appeared under the heading Faith’s Review and Expectation, along with a reference to First Chronicles, chapter 17, verses 16 and 17.
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see. ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d! Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home. The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures. Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace. The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.
The origin of the melody is unknown. Most hymnals attribute it to an early American folk melody. The Bill Moyers special on “Amazing Grace”speculated that it may have originated as the tune of a song the slaves sang.
Newton was not only a prolific hymn writer but also kept extensive journals and wrote many letters. Historians accredit his journals and letters for much of what is known today about the eighteenth century slave trade. In Cardiphonia, or the Utterance of the Heart, a series of devotional letters, he aligned himself with the Evangelical revival, reflecting the sentiments of his friend John Wesley and Methodism.
In 1780 Newton left Olney to become rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, St. Mary Woolchurch, in London. There he drew large congregations and influenced many, among them William Wilberforce, who would one day become a leader in the campaign for the abolition of slavery. Newton continued to preach until the last year of life, although he was blind by that time. He died in London December 21, 1807. Slave Trader turned minister and abolitionist in the Church of England. As we think on John Newton, let us praise God that though he bids us to come as we are, his amazing grace never leaves us as we are. “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” | https://medium.com/@pastorbhart/a-wretch-like-me-john-newton-and-amazing-grace-449d5bca64df | ['Blake Stephen Hart'] | 2020-12-05 01:45:34.260000+00:00 | ['Grace', 'Church', 'Christianity', 'History'] |
The Dam From China That Slowed The Rotation Of The Earth | The Three Gorges Dam built across the Yangtze River in Hubei province was first proposed in 1919 by the provisional first president of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen as a measure to control the flooding of the Yangtze River. It was also to be symbolic of China’s might. Other than the fact that it took decades to build the dam, what is more striking is that the dam slowed the rotation of the earth.
But damn! How is this dam slowing the rotation of the Earth?
The dam holds water at a level that is 175 meters above sea level. The weight of the water it holds is more than 39 trillion kilograms. Because of its huge mass, it has the capacity to affect the rotation of the earth through moment of inertia.
What is moment of inertia?
“A quantity expressing a body’s tendency to resist angular acceleration, which is the sum of the products of the mass of each particle in the body with the square of its distance from the axis of rotation.”
-Wikipedia
But to put it simply, the longer the distance of a body from its axis, higher will be its moment of inertia or slower will be its speed of rotation.
To give you an example of moment of inertia that we see in everyday life -
A diver brings his body into a tucked position before diving in order to reduce his moment of inertia.
News Source: The Guardian
So yes, the huge mass of the water above sea level in the Three Gorges Dam does increase the moment of inertia of our Earth but the change in its rotation is as little as 0.06 microseconds. That is to say we have days that are only 0.06 microseconds longer now.
But is that the only reason why the dam is so controversial?
That is not the only reason why the dam continues to be in controversy.
The dam did have some positive effects where it controlled flooding and helped generate massive amounts of power. But 1.2 million people were forced to relocate for the construction of the dam. Erosion of the reservoir affect the thousands of insect and fish species living in its water. In addition to that, the cost of building the dam is estimated to be a whopping $25 billion with some counts saying that it could go as high as $37 billion.
News Source: BBC
To Conclude…
As far as the rotation of the earth is concerned, NASA scientists have said that the Earth’s rotation fluctuates occasionally due to events like natural disasters and also due to the moon. Thus the change caused by the dam is fairly insignificant in the larger scheme of things. But we cannot ignore the fact that the Three Gorges Dam is the only man-made object till date that has the capacity to singularly affect the Earth’s rotation. | https://medium.com/@spreehadutta/the-dam-from-china-that-slowed-the-rotation-of-the-earth-eed6b37cea43 | ['Spreeha Dutta'] | 2020-09-15 14:02:58.174000+00:00 | ['Infrastructure', 'History', 'Facts', 'Curiosity', 'China'] |
About Me — Subha Shrinivasan. An accidental writer, a fountain of… | An accidental writer, a fountain of energy, indefinite optimism and imagination.
About me
I am a dreamer. I live a lot in the mental plane as much as I do in the practical plane. I spend hours and hours imagining, talking to myself and to people that I have imagined in my mind. I imagine situations and keep talking in my head. Sometimes I talk it out so loud that people actually think i am insane.
But thats fine. I love language, communication and conversations. I am an extreme extrovert and i draw my energy from people, crowd and all things fun. Introverts despise me, really.
I am a die hard optimist that most of the sometimes, someone has to really hit me with a log on the back of my head to get some real perspective in. Without some of my friends doing that, I would not be successful today.
But the optimism has helped me to be extremely energetic. I can work 24x7 without getting tired — no complaints. I am a mom, entrepreneur, a technology executive and also a writer. I have a decent following in instagram account which I maintain religiously. I find time to do all of that and I think Steve jobs would despise me for not focussing on “One thing”. But I still love you Steve.
What got me writing on Medium
I discovered my passion for writing, very recently, after I relocated to the USA with my family. I have a 15 year old daughter and a 8.5 year old son. We relocated late — almost in our 40s which is kind of a bold step to take. We do not have many friends here. And while we were just about settling down, Covid struck. And for an extrovert like me, not going to office, not meeting people, not dressing up and showing up, was a big frustration.
And hence, I started writing. I am an accidental writer and not a writer by design. I just started spending all my weekends, writing one blog per weekend. Thats not a great count, I know. But I started anyway.
I read a lot on entrepreneurship, startups, new businesses, business models, success, wealth and marketing. I have this funny ritual that everyday morning i wake up early to read — at least 30 minutes to one hour on these topics and another 30 minutes for learning digital tools & products online. I read because I am an entrepreneur myself.
I run a chain of restaurants in India besides also running a gaming cafe.
And mostly i write on these topics — business, marketing, leadership attributes, success etc. And most of these come from two sources — the books I read and the experience i have gained getting my hands dirty in these topics. And I enjoy the transfer of learning from me to whoever choses to read it. A big fan of Seth Godin.
My day Job
I work in a silicon valley technology startup as head of customer success — which means that i am in the direct line of fire, most of the time. This is where my optimism and a love for people has helped me love what I do. I deal customers with a strong sense of empathy and urgency and it helps me offer great customer experience straight from the heart.
I reduce all of my life principles to a few basics. All those basics relate to human psychology and how things work at the most elemental level.
My passion and my entrepreneurial journey
I am very passionate about board games and spreading the culture of playing among families and friends. I strongly believe that board games help us to learn about life, strategy, wealth, general knowledge, culture and character. Most important of all, they teach us to fail. To fail again and again is the origin of creativity and genius. I love failing in life.
I am on a passionate mission to bring in a lifestyle change among children, teens and family to embrace playing as a way of life. You can check out my instagram account @gobbledobblecafe.
Reach out to me for anything — [email protected], follow me on linkedin shubha-vijay.
Looking forward to staying connected. Thanks. | https://medium.com/about-me-stories/about-me-subha-shrinivasan-d30e7e163805 | ['Subha Shrinivasan'] | 2020-12-14 18:02:37.153000+00:00 | ['About Me', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Success', 'Wealth', 'Writing'] |
8 Instagram Marketing Tips for 2021 to follow | Instagram marketing tips when followed will yield a solid return. Instagram is one of the second popular social media platforms that are highly preferable for marketing and advertising. This social media platform’s features and tools help generate higher leads and traffic, giving the companies a brand name and image.
The world is changing, and social media platforms became a powerful marketing tool for many of the world’s companies. Instagram got more than 90 billion people on board, which helps get specific attention from the target audiences and helps present your brand name on a global platform.
When it comes down to business, using this online platform changes with the company’s needs and product. One cannot just go o posting simple sinful contents on their account and expect others to like and admire them. One needs to get basic things and procedures done right to get the needed traffic flow.
Having a simple yet powerful strategy is the one that will help any company in the making or established gain more outdoor traffic. They’re some of the reasons that make everyone to go for this marketing tool:
It helps in building up better brand recognition.
A personal connection gets build up with your audiences through online conversation and communication, binding the trust factor.
It helps gain more effective insights into the customers and buyers, learning about their needs and desires.
Engagement through social media platforms like Instagram is cost-effective w | https://medium.com/@codetez/8-instagram-marketing-tips-for-2021-to-follow-96bd379d5d93 | ['Codetez Technologies'] | 2020-12-25 06:21:26.823000+00:00 | ['Instagram', 'Digitalmarketing'] |
The Gory History of the Guillotine for Rats and Mice | How is the Small Animal Guillotine Used
The typical rodent guillotine looks very similar to the actual guillotine that was used on humans during the French Revolution. Only the size and scale is different as it is meant for small animals.
The rodent guillotine is designed with hardened stainless steel and sharpened blade, a base for the animal to lay on, and a long handle that the human uses for the swift and downward thrust of the blade which can cut through bone tissue.
Some of the guillotines come in different sizes depending on whether you are decapitating a small mouse or a larger rodent.
In the United States, there are rules and regulations enforced by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) for the humane and proper decapitation of small animals without much pain and suffering.
The decapitation can be performed with or without anesthesia of the animal. If the decapitation is done without anesthesia of the animal in some cases, then there are additional guidelines enforced by the AVMA. The decapitation without anesthesia is allowed under certain experimental conditions that are additionally approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC).
The AVMA guidelines include a step by step decapitation procedure and a procedure for the maintenance of the guillotine.
The main points of the procedure are that the decapitation should take place in a separate room away from where the other rodents are caged. The sharpness of the blade should be checked first and the animal should be kept calm as much as possible before the decapitation. Also, it doesn’t go without saying that lab personnel should be well-trained on the guillotine before actually using it on the rodents. | https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-gory-history-of-the-guillotine-for-rats-and-mice-29d7315349e5 | ['Anita Durairaj'] | 2020-12-26 22:08:21.262000+00:00 | ['Animals', 'Biology', 'History Of Science', 'History', 'Science'] |
How to be a Good Listener, Especially When You Don’t Think You Should Have to be | The other day, this story came across my Facebook feed.
From that link:
Gender non-conforming model Rain Dove gave a masterclass in how to handle transphobic hostility after an upset mother contacted them on social media and accused Dove of making her child “sick.” Instead of responding back sharply, Dove walked the mother gently through her feelings, validating her emotions along the way, and led her to a place where she was willing to show the support her child needed.
In a nutshell, Rain Dove is a model. They are non-gender conforming. A mother sent her an angry, ugly message online. Her daughter asked for a breast binder for Christmas — and the mother accused Rain of making her child ‘sick.’
It would have made sense for Rain to respond with anger and outrage. Instead — they asked questions. They let the mother know that what they saw was a frightened woman who is a good mother. She must be, for her daughter to feel comfortable enough to ask for a binder. She shared resources and information.
By the end, the mother has gained understanding and is less afraid.
The whole exchange is a masterclass in patience and listening — especially when it’s hard. Especially when you have every reason not to be patient or listen. Especially when no one would blame you for responding with your own fear and anger.
Rain advocated for this woman’s child. She found a way to help a mother wrap her head around a situation she didn’t understand. As a result, maybe this is one less LGBTQ kid who will become a sad statistic.
This morning, another story came across my Facebook feed.
This one. A video of Elizabeth Smart’s father, Ed Smart, speaking about his experience coming out as gay earlier this year.
Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her bedroom when she was fourteen. She was rescued and returned to her family nine-months later, after being repeatedly raped. Her kidnapping and, especially her return, were national news.
Speaking publicly for the first time after coming out as gay, Ed Smart, the father of Elizabeth Smart, says opening up about his sexuality “has been more difficult” than living through his daughter’s kidnapping and abuse “because it not only affected Elizabeth but it affected my entire family, too.”
And the response on Facebook was — predictable.
People were angry. They accused Ed Smart of overstaying his 15-minutes of fame and could not understand the urge to compare his daughter’s trauma to the fairly mundane, very personal experience of coming out.
Something about reading these two stories (the one about Ed Smart and the one about Rain Dove), one right after the other, gave me pause. What kind of questions would Rain ask Ed, I wondered? How would they get to the heart of what Ed Smart had to say?
To understand what’s happening here, you have to step back and try to understand what it means to be the head of a Mormon family.
Ed Smart was raised to believe that being gay was a sin that would separate him from God and from his family for eternity. His daughter’s kidnapping likely drove him closer to his faith, because Mormonism was such a large part of the story and because her return felt so much like a miracle to the whole world.
I am certain that Ed Smart, his wife, and their children believed that they were destined to spend eternity together. (And, if Smart’s parents were sealed, then he would have believed that he was sealed to them as well and would spend eternity with them, too.)
Mormon marriage isn’t ‘until death do us part.’ It’s eternal. Ed Smart was raised Mormon. He raised his family in Salt Lake City. He had a Mormon marriage. Being gay is considered a sin by the Mormon church and, until very recently, was cause to be excommunicated.
Coming out ended the Smart’s marriage. Ed Smart left the Mormon faith in August 2019. He and his wife are divorcing. It is almost certain that they had a ‘celestial marriage’ — meaning that they were sealed together in a Mormon temple, so that their marriage would continue after their deaths. Children born into a celestial marriage are sealed to their parents, so that they can all be together in the afterlife.
That isn’t a metaphor for observant Mormons. It’s what they believe to be the truth.
From Wikipedia:
A man may be sealed to more than one woman. If his wife dies, he may enter another celestial marriage, and be sealed to both his living wife and deceased wife or wives. Many Mormons believe that all these marriages will be valid in the eternities and the husband will live together in the celestial kingdom as a family with all to whom he was sealed. In 1998, the LDS Church changed the policy and now also allows women to be sealed to more than one man. A woman, however, may not be sealed to more than one man at a time while she is alive. She may only be sealed to subsequent partners after she has died.
All of which means that coming out meant, to the Smarts, that Ed Smart was causing a significant amount of havoc with his family’s afterlife. Painful havoc. And probably not a small amount of havoc right here in this life, too.
Ed Smart comparing his coming out with his daughter’s kidnapping was, at the very least, unfortunate. And it sounded even worse to ears that didn’t share his faith (even if it is a faith he doesn’t find solace in anymore.)
But it’s at least possible that he was referring to something that isn’t immediately obvious on hearing a clip of his speech. And that he spoke with the assumption that everyone shares his experiences and knows what he means when he talks about how his coming out affected his family.
Maybe practicing listening skills and compassion, instead of responding with a knee-jerk reaction, isn’t a bad thing. That’s what I’ve learned from Rain Dove this week. And I’m incredibly grateful. | https://shauntagrimes.medium.com/how-to-be-a-good-listener-especially-when-you-dont-think-you-should-have-to-be-f78683317f07 | ['Shaunta Grimes'] | 2019-12-10 19:56:03.273000+00:00 | ['Mormon', 'Relationships', 'Family', 'Mental Health', 'LGBTQ'] |
Exploring the Trump Twitter Archive with SpaCy | For this project, we’ll be using pandas for data manipulation, spaCy for natural language processing, and joblib to speed things up.
Let’s get started by firing up a Jupyter notebook!
Housekeeping
Let’s import pandas and also set the display options so Jupyter won’t truncate our columns and rows. Let’s also set a random seed for reproducibility.
# for manipulating data
import pandas as pd # setting the random seed for reproducibility
import random
random.seed(493) # to print out all the outputs
from IPython.core.interactiveshell import InteractiveShell
InteractiveShell.ast_node_interactivity = "all" # set display options
pd.set_option('display.max_columns', None)
pd.set_option('display.max_rows', None)
pd.set_option('display.max_colwidth', -1)
Getting the Data
Let’s read the data into a dataframe. If you want to follow along, you can download the cleaned dataset here along with the file for stop words¹. This dataset contains Trump’s tweets from the moment he took office on January 20, 2017 to May 30, 2020.
df = pd.read_csv('trump_20200530_clean.csv', parse_dates=True, index_col='datetime')
Let’s take a quick look at the data.
df.head()
df.info()
Using spaCy
Now let’s import spaCy and begin natural language processing.
# for natural language processing: named entity recognition
import spacy
import en_core_web_sm
We’re only going to use spaCy’s ner functionality or named-entity recognition so we’ll disable the rest of the functionalities. This will save us a lot of loading time later.
nlp = spacy.load('en_core_web_sm', disable=['tagger', 'parser', 'textcat'])
Now let’s load the contents stopwords file into the variable stopswords . Note that we converted the list into a set to also save some processing time later.
with open('twitter-stopwords — TA — Less.txt') as f:
contents = f.read().split(',')
stopwords = set(contents)
Next, we’ll import joblib and define a few functions to help with parallel processing.
In the code above², the function preprocess_parallel executes the other function process_chunks in parallel to help with speed. The function process_chunks iterates through a series of texts — in our case, the column 'tweet' of our the df dataframe — and inspects the entity if it belongs to either NORP, PERSON, FAC, ORG, GPE, LOC, PRODUCT, or EVENT. If it is, the entity is then appended to 'preproc_pipe' and subsequently returned to its caller. Prashanth Rao has a very good article on making spaCy super fast.
Let’s call the main driver for the functions now.
df['entities'] = preprocess_parallel(df['tweet'], chunksize=1000)
Doing a quick df.head() will reveal the new column 'entities' that we added earlier to hold the entities found in the 'tweet' column.
Prettifying the Results
In the code below, we’re making a list of lists called 'entities' and then flattening it for easier processing. We’re also converting it into a set called 'entities_set' .
entities = [entity for entity in df.entities if entity != []]
entities = [item for sublist in entities for item in sublist] entities_set = set(entities)
Next, let’s count the frequency of the entities and append it to the list of tuples entities_counts . Then let’s convert the results into a dataframe df_counts .
df_counts = pd.Series(entities).value_counts()[:20].to_frame().reset_index()
df_counts.columns=['entity', 'count']
df_counts
For this step, we’re going to reinitialize an empty list entity_counts and manually construct a list of tuples with a combined set of entities and the sum of their frequencies or count.
Let’s take a quick look before continuing.
Finally, let’s convert the list of tuples into a dataframe.
df_ner = pd.DataFrame(entity_counts, columns=["entity", "count"]).sort_values('count', ascending=False).reset_index(drop=True)
And that’s it!
We’ve successfully created a ranking of the named entities that President Trump most frequently talked about in his tweets since taking office. | https://towardsdatascience.com/exploring-the-trump-twitter-archive-with-spacy-fe557810717c | ['Ednalyn C. De Dios'] | 2020-06-18 20:24:02.792000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'NLP', 'Towards Data Science', 'Spacy', 'Exploring Trump'] |
How Expensive Is Your Dream?. The dream is free but the hustle is… | The dream is free but the hustle is sold separately. George “GK” Koufalis.
Since I was 16, I started to learn things fast, curiosity was blowing my mind. But before 16 I always used to look forward to easy ways or shortcuts, which ended up useless in terms of everything. I used to try to cheat on exams, I used to find any kind of shortcuts in games, cheat codes, and stuff like this. And I thought that life also likes this, I will get rich immediately, but didn’t think about how etc.
So let’s just analyze, there are aimless people around us, they dig deep into your mind and start to make you also an aimless piece of shit, sorry tho, right now I am talking about teenagers. Hey, guys if you don’t have any aim in life, how you live? How do you want to achieve those small “want” things? Ask your parents? Santa will give you for free?
Life fucks everyone, sorry tho, you are no exception!
Do you have dreams?
Every one of us dream about perfect life before we fall asleep, some people have pets, some people have children in their imaginary life. Agree with you guys yeah it feels great before falling asleep and the next day is waiting for you and you will forget about it once you wake up. How does it work? Huh, because you don’t want it to be GOAL, you afraid to not accomplish it, you afraid of mistakes, you are perfectionists when it comes to you “before sleep dream life” it has to be as you want, as perfect as possible.
Have you ever thought about converting them into real life? I call it not just a dream but a GOAL. Converted already and working on it, yeah talking is easy but hustling is not easy. You see our mind is looking for shortcuts, how the get that we think but our brain gives up. Actually can configure our brain, we can do pretty much anything to achieve those goals, but here is the problem that we usually face, TIME. It’s almost like time complexity, we have certain tasks but we don’t want to accomplish them, work hard towards it because there is an easy way, just dream before falling asleep, as you see “SHORTCUTS”.
You are afraid of…
You are afraid of anything that you dream of. The things that you remember, does not come in overnight, nothing comes just overnight. For example let’s imagine you have a big house, a beautiful wife, children. Of course, if you are a realistic dreamer, not just fantastic shit. Let’s say you want to live your best life, what is needed for that?
Kill that fucking FEAR that stays as an obstacle in your way!
Work hardassoff…
Yes, if you want it, just get it, but the payback is HUSTLE. If you have goals that you want to achieve, try to set deadlines, split them into daily tasks try everything that comes to your mind, and learn new ways. Maybe it will help you at least start to change your life into the “THE REAL BEST LIFE THAT I WANT TO LIVE”.
Is it hard so hard?
hmm let me think, depends on how lazy you are, it is not hard, because nowadays you can learn pretty much any skill that you want, if you are good at it, you will be paid well after some time. As you see everything sticks to the TIME, not money, minor times it sticks to the MONEY. If you learn a skill if you sharpen it, and if you start to improve and sharpen your skills daily, someone will need your help and that help will be paid well because you invested your time!
You can buy money but you cannot buy Time.
Money is temporary, time that you invest into bullshit will return you bullshit, if you invest in a good way, you will get what you want. It is not always money, you will have a lot of opportunities, just be kind, better person than yesterday, healthy and let’s help each other. Let’s make World the best place to live, before changing the world, we have to admit our mistakes and try to fix them. Just live…
I don’t want to teach someone how to live…
Writing a blog is just as a hobby for me, I love writing at night, I have some certain goals that connects me with writing a blog, but it does not mean that I am doing useless thing and not earning money. I am earning joy, that is why people sometimes advise to find a good hobby. Lucky me I have two hobbies and I love them, they are not my main job and I don’t see those hobbies as a FUTURE. It just gives me a joy, through this way I am buying a joy by investing time.
Just analyze…
Be careful, look with whom you are surrounding yourself, check your environment, analyze everything whether CONS and PROS. What are you getting by investing your time? That’s also important that, if you surround yourself with wrong people, growing will be really hard for you and soon or late you give up. Negative will bring negative, positive will bring positive. I am realist, I look to everything without purple glasses, that is why almost everything is clear and I can analyze stuff.
I really love to talk with PRO people or people who improve themselves DAILY, because it really matter for me as a self-improve person. In terms of everything, writing blogs, programming or photography. Love the fact that you will always learn something while you talk with those people, joy, invested time…
Connections are everywhere, almost anything could connect you with a person, music, hobby, movies, profession and etc. Because we are human beings, love same interests, if you girlfriend understands the code that you wrote and she says that “pretty shit code”, you will be happiest person on the planet Earth. Because you like it, again the same interests.
Conclusion…
Just try to live in a different way, if you nothing works for you, just go back to your previous live, at least you have tried… | https://medium.com/@safarslife/how-expensive-if-your-dream-b3eb874f1c5c | ['Safar Safarov'] | 2020-12-27 07:24:58.351000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Motivation', 'Life Lessons', 'Experience', 'Hustler'] |
What If Mars Never Lost Its Water? | What If Mars Never Lost Its Water? ExtremeTech Follow Mar 18 · 4 min read
by Joel Hruska
Mars used to be wet. That’s the overwhelming conclusion of the last two decades of Martian geological research based on data recorded by multiple probes and landers. It took us a lot longer to confirm the planet’s past state than its present one — we’ve had strong evidence suggesting arid conditions on Mars dating back to 1894, with additional confirming evidence gathered over the next 30 years. The current model for Mars’ transformation from a wet planet to a dry one relies on sublimation and the long-term damage our sun did to the Martian atmosphere after the planet’s global magnetic field shut down. But what if that’s not true?
That’s the argument presented in a new paper, which argues that the waters of Mars may not have technically gone anywhere.
The evidence we’ve gathered from rovers like Perseverance, Curiosity, Opportunity, and Spirit, together with planetary observations from orbiting satellites, collectively suggests that Mars enjoyed a relatively warm, wet era from 4.1B to 3.7B years ago. Some of the evidence for the so-called Late Heavy Bombardment comes from the large number of craters on Mars and the Moon that appear to have been created during this period. Craters formed during this era have eroded edges similar to what we would expect from flowing water. Craters created later, during the Hesperian period (~3.7–3 billion years ago), are much less eroded.
Several factors allowed Mars to hold an atmosphere during this period. The immense series of volcanos known as the Tharsis Bulge were actively under construction. The Tharsis Bulge is a volcanic province approximately the size of North America. The total amount of CO2 released during the Tharsis eruptions is thought to be sufficient to form a 1.5-bar atmosphere on Mars, with a global ocean up to 120m provided solely by this source. Tharsis is large enough that its formation may have caused Mars to tilt over to one side and changed the location of the poles in the process. Massive impacts could have delivered additional water of their own, and early Mars might have held enough surface water to cover the surface of the planet to a depth of 1,500 meters. These uncertainties are why the Global Equivalent Layer (GEL) estimates are so variable.
One reason scientists think Mars’ water evaporated is that the Martian atmosphere and water samples taken by Curiosity both show a surplus of deuterium relative to hydrogen compared with what we’d find on Earth. This suggests that lighter ordinary hydrogen was preferentially lost to space, while the heavier deuterium isotope remained.
The problem with the sublimation/atmospheric loss model is that current rates of loss are not high enough to account for the scope of Mars’ transformation over the past few billion years. The solar wind is known to have played a long-term role, but how do we account for the rest? One theory is that mass loss rates were much higher in the past. These researchers are suggesting that much of Mars’ water stayed right where it was and became bound up in surface minerals instead.
As time passed, water flowed downwards and froze at the surface, while other water sublimated away into space. Image from ScienceMag
We’re not talking about the idea of a layer of liquid preserved beneath the surface. The research report discusses “crustal hydration through irreversible chemical weathering, in which water and/or hydroxyl are incorporated into minerals.” The water is not available for other purposes on Mars; it’s locked directly within the crystalline structure of the minerals themselves.
Herein lies a critical difference between Mars and Earth. Mars has what’s known as a stagnant lid tectonic system, meaning that there are no plate tectonics and there is no system of recycling rock — or, critically, water. On Earth, plate tectonics carries water deep into the mantle while mid-oceanic volcanic vents return it to the oceans. This is called the deep water cycle.
So long as Mars’ volcanoes kept erupting, it maintained a deep water cycle of its own. Once that process began to slow, water began a one-way sequestration trip into the planet’s crust. Impacts and fading eruptions would have maintained a colder climate with at least intermittent liquid water for a long period of time — Mars dried out over several hundred million years — but the end of volcanism may have allowed between a third and almost all of Mars’ water to flow into the ground and form hydrous minerals. This means, by extension, that Mars’ water reserves are much higher than previously thought, though locked in a form we wouldn’t find all that useful.
We may not know if the report is accurate until if and when humans are able to conduct widescale geological surveys of subsurface rock, but it’s an alternate model for how Mars lost its atmosphere that explains current conditions well. It would also further imply that features of Earth such as plate tectonics may be vital to the long-term preservation of a biosphere capable of supporting intelligent life.
Now Read: | https://medium.com/extremetech-access/what-if-mars-never-lost-its-water-7e7f54d0885d | [] | 2021-03-18 12:12:27.042000+00:00 | ['Perseverance', 'Science', 'NASA', 'Space', 'Mars'] |
A Guide to Creating Your Main Character’s Ordinary World | I’m working on (building my book’s) ordinary world, and I’m struggling with the opening image. I’m not sure if this is just the physical landscape or do the characters come into play in this part? Where I (can) find an example?
Have you ever seen a picture of a story arc? There’s a little bit of a straightaway, then a hill, then another straight away. You can think of those parts as the ordinary world, rising action, falling action, and a new normal.
Photo by Xavi Cabrera on Unsplash
It always makes me think of a roller coaster. I road one last summer at Waldameer park in Erie, PA.
I got into the car and for a few minutes, it was just — a straight away, like I said. Just a nice little ride to the bottom of a hill.
Ordinary world. Nothing scary. Nothing extraordinary at all. No speed. No thrill. Just five or ten miles per hour toward the bottom of a hill.
Then it was all rising action. A slow ascent up, up, up the hill. When I got nearly to the tippy top, there was this gorgeous view of Lake Erie. It took my breath away. It made me gasp for air just in the moment that things went crazy.
The falling action was intense. All of a sudden the ride took off. Fast. I couldn’t get another breath, my heart was banging against my throat, and brain rattled in my skull.
And then, just as fast as it started, it was over. Another straightaway while I tried to remember how to breathe like a normal person. And then the car stopped and I stumbled out.
Just like a rollercoaster, a story has to start with a straightaway.
The reader needs to orient themselves. They need to meet the main character and know their world, so that they can understand when things go haywire. That’s what the opening of your book does.
Figuring out exactly where that straightaway starts is not always easy. It has to both give the reader some idea of what’s going on and let the reader know what the character’s ordinary world is like.
Here’s the opening from Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451.
It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his solid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black. He strode in a swarm of fireflies. He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning. Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame.
The reader meets Montag here. And they know, in the space of a paragraph and two sentences, that in this character’s world — there is fire. The fire is his work. It’s books that are burning. And Montag really enjoys it.
This is our straightaway. Montag’s ordinary world is not the same as yours or mine, or anyone’s. There isn’t such a thing as a fireman whose job it is to burn books. But in the world of this story there is, and now we know it.
I’m particularly struck by how Montag loves being a fireman the way a boy might have thought he’d love pretending to be one in 1954 when he played with his toy firetruck, when this story was written.
Here’s another example.
This one is from The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum.
Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor and a roof, which made one room; and this room contained a rusty looking cookstove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner, and Dorothy a little bed in another corner. There was no garret at all, and no cellar — except a small hole dug in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by a trap door in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole.
This story was written in 1900. This one is interesting for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s all telling. The narrator is describing the house and Dorothy’s life there. The reader isn’t in the house, the way the reader is at the fire in Bradbury’s opening.
That’s typical of books written 120-plus years ago. Less common now. Modern readers want far more immediacy in their reading.
But we get a very, very clear ordinary world here. Kansas. A farm house. Aunt Em an Uncle Henry. A single room with a married couple’s bed in one corner and their young niece’s bed in the other.
And there’s some foreshadowing. That cyclone cellar, “in case one of those great whirlwinds arose.”
The Opening Image
Even with all it’s telling, the opening paragraph of The Wizard of Oz paints a very vivid picture of that farmhouse. It’s easy to imagine Dorothy there, in that single room. The reader can see that trap door in the center of the floor.
There’s also something almost creepy about the imagery of Dorothy in her little bed, in the corner. It’s easy to see why she wants out of there. And the difference between here and the eventually special world of the story — Oz — is stark.
The opening image of Fahrenheit 451 takes is right into the fire with Montag. We start with the image not only of the burning books, but of the joy the fireman takes in his work. It’s nearly manic. He shouldn’t love it that much.
Where will your story start?
It can help to think a little bit ahead to the inciting incident. What is the first really interesting thing that happens to your main character?
In Farenhiet 451, Montag meets Clarisse who makes him shift his thinking by asking whether he’s happy.
In The Wizard of Oz, that cyclone shows up and lifts Dorothy’s whole little Kansas farmhouse right up into the air and off to Oz.
Once you know what your inciting incident is, think about all the things that have to happen to get you there. What does the reader need to know, for the inciting incident to have the impact that you need it to?
Would Clarisse asking that particular question mean as much, if we didn’t start by seeing Montag nearly manic with love for his work?
Would Dorothy’s tornado lifting that house matter as much if we hadn’t seen exactly what it looked like, so we could picture Dorothy stepping out of it and into Oz?
The opening image isn’t always a physical setting, although it can be. It’s the camera lens focusing in on the story. It can start anywhere. You get to choose where. Which moment, before the special world of the story kicks in, is the one that will pull your reader in and hold on to them? | https://medium.com/the-1000-day-mfa/a-guide-to-creating-your-main-characters-ordinary-world-204dea4a46f7 | ['Shaunta Grimes'] | 2020-06-28 01:55:19.875000+00:00 | ['Reading', 'Books', 'Creativity', 'Writing', 'Fiction'] |
Ode to the Vulnerable Aisles of a Department Store | There are two types of shoppers
The first type are one dimensional
It feels like they are on a mission
To quickly go in
Get what they need
And get out
Without being noticed
Plain and simple as that
The second type are well rounded
They are the ones who are submerged in the experience of shopping
They take it all in
They critique the decorations
Or the mannequin in the store
They start to analyze other customers
And judging their choices
However
Which ever one you may or may not identify with
They all have something in common
All experience similar feelings in certain aisles
Can you guess which aisles?
I’ll give you a hint
What aisles make you feel
Akward
Embarrassed
Ashamed
Uncomfortable
There is no right answer
Every person has their own vulnerable aisle
Whether it be the pads, tampons, or condoms section
The underwear, bra, and lingerie section
The rash or wort removal section
The deodorant and shaver section
The list goes on
Acknowledging those feelings
Is the first step of overcoming them | https://medium.com/@hosnaqasmei/ode-to-the-vulnerable-aisles-of-a-department-store-a977b25420a3 | ['Hosna Qasmei'] | 2020-12-29 15:14:19.436000+00:00 | ['Poem', 'Poetry', 'Shopping', 'Vulnerability'] |
Grieving to Heal | Image by monicore from Pixabay
Grieving at the altar
Altars are magical spaces and places. They allow us to focus our attention, channel our energies, and give honor, respect and celebration depending on the purpose of that altar. From personal altars that allow you to connect to yourself, to ancestor altars that help you connect with and communicate with your dead, to prosperity altars that help us channel an abundant mindset and energy, altars are the portals we need for prayer and ritual.
It was at my personal and ancestral altars that I really began to heal through grief.
I grieved the loss of my father 12 years prior, who died suddenly while I was far away at an academic conference. I stayed at the conference and slowly made my way home, not wanting to face the reality of his passing. I’d never really forgiven myself for not leaving the night it happened.
I grieved my body, having endured 20 years of chronic pain from playing a sport through my senior year of college that tore my back and mind apart. I grieved my body’s cycles of ballooning and shrinking from the chronic stress of academic expectations and exploitations.
I grieved my marriage, sitting with the fact that I had moved my family across the country and overseas to chase jobs and positions that sparkled, only to quickly fade. It took away so much of my time and mental space, removing me from the home and people who cared about me.
I grieved my pregnancy and giving birth, and how my body went through 8 months of sickness followed by 12 months of recovery -- all because my pain and cries were ignored due my stature and Blackness by both my doctors and bosses.
I had learned to deal with pain so much that I did not know who I was without it. As I released this grief, light began to replace it. Possibilities opened up that I had never imagined, and I began to hear my own inner voice again — just like I did when I was Young Nicole, the aspiring writer, who wrote plays and short stories in the middle of the night for fun.
I began to pick up my pen again — not for a journal article, to prep a new class, or write another not-going-to-be read annual report that was due. I began to pick up my pen and play with words again, twisting them in different ways to see what could happen. Enjoying what the combinations of letters could do to/for my emotions, the conjure that emerged with each pen stroke to the page — each letter typed on the document.
This healing journey has also brought out the kid in me, helping to heal her, too.
All of this emerged at my altar.
For me, I found that I needed healing of who I was in order to accept who I am becoming: someone more bold and sure of herself. Someone who does not need to attach her worth to what institutions expect her to produce. These are the same institutions that have made it clear that we’re all expendable and replaceable, no matter how much we pour ourselves into their service.
I’ve come to know myself better, embracing aspects I had previously shunned in order to avoid standing out. It was in the woods and at this altar that I allowed the box to open wide and roar loud! | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/grieving-to-heal-8cc694dbd414 | ['Dr. Truesdell', 'Dr. Tea'] | 2020-09-03 11:20:27.683000+00:00 | ['Spiritual Growth', 'Grief', 'Higher Education', 'Academic Recovery', 'Healing'] |
Gibraltar of the Pacific | Shortly after the beheading of King Henry VIII’s wife, Queen Katherine Howard, in England, King Charles V, Holy Roman Emporer/King of Spain, ordered the Spanish explorers to continue their voyages.
Iberian Explorer, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, set sail from the Mexican port of Navidad to continue his voyages and explore the west coast of North America. Cabrillo was commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain, to explore the Pacific coast specifically in hopes of discovering rich cities and the aquatic passage. He was also instructed to meet with Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Francisco was believed to be traveling up from Mexico, across the western plains and the Rocky Mountains and on to the Pacific.
On June 27, 1542, Cabrillo set out from Navidad with three ships: his flagship San Salvador, and two smaller ships. For more than four months, Cabrillo and his party sailed up the California coast visiting the southern shores and channel islands. The sailors encountered many delays due to rough waters and fog. In November of 1542, they entered Estero Bay, located between Morro Bay and Cayucos. High winds and unsettled seas kept the ships far away from the beautiful shores. Cabrillo was enchanted by the large rock protruding from the ocean. “Morro” is translated as either “domed rock” or “turban”. Charting the area, finding the Morro Rock, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo was the first European to discover Morro Bay.
Morro Rock Beach
By the 1570s, King Philip II was reigning over Spain. Pedro Unamuno was a Spanish explorer who was a very savvy sailor and soldier. He voyaged from Spain to the southeast Asian seas. While in the Philippines, he crewed up with local men to work on his galleon. On July 12th, 1587 he began a trans-pacific voyage from Macau, China to America. Unamuno reached the beaches of Morro Bay on October 18th, 1587. He brought the first Filipinos to California. Pedro Unamuno also brought Mediterranean plants to the area and planted them in the name of King Philip II.
Today the ‘Gibraltar of the Pacific’ attracts visitors from all over the globe. Morro Rock is actually an ancient volcanic mound that sits at the end of Morro Rock Beach and the last in a chain of long-extinct volcanoes. The beautiful beaches of Morro Bay are teeming with healthy sea life, exotic birds, and aquatic plant life. Locals and visitors can enjoy surfing, fishing, kayaking, sailing, and horseback riding on the beach. On most evenings as the sun sets you can hear the seals come into the bay. The harbor is quiet, the town is quaint and the residents are friendly. | https://medium.com/california-dreaming/gibraltar-of-the-pacific-dfcf8b3f95f9 | ['Gena Vazquez'] | 2020-05-27 03:53:38.274000+00:00 | ['California', 'Spanish', 'Travel', 'Oceans', 'History'] |
Occupant | 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/afwp/occupant-1351999e0c2c | ['Daniel A. Teo'] | 2020-12-15 15:32:43.690000+00:00 | ['One Line', 'Questions', 'Poem', 'Life', 'Self'] |
Challenge 1:. Ironhack/Challenge 1: Design Thinking | Ideate
In this section I will focus on different solutions, ideas and any creative key concepts that can help me in my prototype.
Finding solutions and brainstorming
Create a top-up card/pass that you can scan in metros, buses, etc, and even in Ubers or taxis. The card can be topped up with the money needed for the entire journey or with a credit card on file.
2. Create a digital/online itinerary where you buy all tickets at once. This would function similar to an online travel agency. All of the required tickets would be organized and arranged for ease of use. The tickets can be shown or scanned upon boarding.
3. Create an unlimited daily pass/card that can be shown or scanned. It can be used at any time throughout the day.
4. Create a subscription based weekly/monthly pass that can be used anytime and up to a limit depending on the selected subscription tier.
5. Create an integration with ride-sharing services to get the best price for journeys that have multiple passengers when the total cost of public transportation is competitive to that of private.
Prototype
With these ideas we decided to make two different prototypes derived from the same ideas but with some differences. In this low-fidelity prototype we wanted to keep the content and visuals to a minimum and present only the key elements.
The first prototype represents the virtual ticket with all of the routes on it for quick and practical access with just one scan. The virtual ticket contains all of the necessary indications such as the details and directions of each route. The second prototype represents the weekly and monthly pass that allows users to freely use the various transportation options up to a limit described by their subscription tier.
These passes are very useful for power users who use the app frequently. However, they are also useful also for travelers who need unlimited passes when traveling for a limited time.
The following steps explain the interaction between the user and the app.
1. On the first screen we will put the starting point, point “A” to point “B”, and then “GO” to continue.
2. On the second screen, the different options for routes and modes of transport appear; we will select the one that suits us and continue.
3. On the third screen we have the route already selected, the cost and time of the route. If we scroll down we will see the details to follow if the ticket is not bought. If we want to buy, we will see the option “PAY” or “PASSES ‘’ which are WEEKLY/MONTHLY PASSES”, in this we will continue with “PAY”.
4. By paying directly with integrated payment systems such as Apple Pay or Android Pay, we will have our virtual ticket with the “QR code” ready to scan. The ticket can also be downloaded or printed. This ticket contains all of the tickets for the route.
5. In this case we are going to click on “OPEN TICKET” which shows the details of each route, the schedule and also the directions of how to go from one place to another during transportation transfers.
3.2. If we go back to screen number three, we also have the option “PASSES” for “WEEKLY/MONTHLY PASS”. So we are going to select “PASSES” and in the next screen we will see the two options.
4.2. In this example we are going to select the “WEEKLY PASS” and next.
5.2. In the next screen we can see the payment options. After paying it we’ll have the ticket ready.
6. And in the last screen we can see all the details, like the name, date, etc. The same exact procedure for the “MONTHLY PASS” in screen 4.2.
Essential things I have learned
One of the most important things I learned was the importance of analyzing the problem. It is vital to understand the difficulty that exists to generate realistic solutions that focus on the real issue. Another thing I learned was that interviewing and talking to people is a mind opening experience and not only helped me to understand the problem better, but also presented me with many potential solutions than I would have imagined on my own. Finally, I learned that it is very important to create the first prototype with a paper and pencil. It was really useful to help me imagine every possible step. I think it is fundamental to understand how to capture the solution and to not be distracted by other details in the prototype. It is very easy to think about all of the details of the process and all of the “problems” within each “problem”. I think that focusing on the priority and the process and taking it step by step is essential. | https://medium.com/@francesca9/ironhack-challenge-1-design-thinking-b2dd740c587 | ['Francesca Foiadelli'] | 2020-12-30 17:38:31.119000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Design Process', 'Ironhack Prework', 'Ironhack', 'User Personas'] |
Spiritual Awakening | In divine timing a human being will experience profound inner-transformations that have socially been termed as spiritual awakenings. Most people understand a spiritual awakening as a point of intense revelation that can be recognized as transformational on the experiential level. Traditional examples of these being near death experiences, kundalini awakenings, and psycho-active experiences. And those can be transformational experiences indeed if and when they arise, however it is important to understand that the process of spiritual awakening is of the [holy] spirit, not the [personal] self, and the process unfolds in many ways that go unrecognized. So awakening is actually beyond the awareness of the personal self and inspires from one’s Higher Self.
As the awakening — to truth of Self — begins to intensify the presence [of God] begins to permeate one’s experience like a soft grace. Although gentle, it feels infinitely powerful, unwavering, and ubiquitous. The presence of — God, Source, the Universe, Truth — becomes so profound in comparison to what was experienced as existence before — and it is like a love that is so strong, so enriching, so whole — that it continues to transform a person in ways that are beyond their awareness.
Most of the transformation goes unseen regardless of external conditions. It comes on as an inner state of truth which prevails in one’s momentary awareness, and aligns one with a more expansive evolutionary pattern. New dimensions of awareness gradually present themselves that offer a more expansive comprehension of Life’s greater totality. Thus, a greater peace comes over one’s state of being as much of what one perceived to be a problem before has been transcended by a higher level of awareness.
It should be said that in periods of intense awakening there can be acclimatization periods where one is overwhelmed and disoriented by the dimensions of awareness now available to them on an experiential level, and it takes time to be functional and develop discernment within those contexts of reality. It is common for one to make radical changes in lifestyle and that is because much of what motivated the person before is no longer reinforced in perception. The way one saw the world is no longer the way one see’s the world and so there is a reorientation of priorities.
One can continue or discontinue to do whatever feels right for them. You see, the transformation is really reflected by one’s inner being which emanates from the heart chakra and manifests as the intention of one’s existence. Naturally, certain things will no longer serve one’s path of growth and fall away, while new things will enter. It is all about what one IS — on an intentional level — which is carried into whatever one does. So awakening is really the continuous revelation — as expanding awareness — of one’s highest intention.
Thanks for reading and more to come,
Thanksman | https://medium.com/@christianmazzilli/spiritual-awakening-dbad12c5d385 | ['Christian Mazzilli'] | 2021-06-19 16:09:21.530000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Spiritual Awakening', 'Consciousness', 'Enlightenment', 'Self-awareness'] |
How to Make An Excellent Earning as a Freelancer. | Permission Granted By Owner Muhammad Ali Siddiqui
How to Make An Excellent Earning as a Freelancer.
If you are a beginning or struggling freelancer, here’s what you need to know. Don’t Lose Hope!
Most of the people don’t research before they work as a freelancer, whether it is part-time or full-time. Similarly, I didn’t research about it, I just wanted to make a couple of bucks with the knowledge I possessed. By the time I joined freelancing platforms, I was completing my CAIE A level. So I possessed a knowledge of high school student, we can say. I didn’t have a specialization in any field.
Why I joined freelancing platforms?
The real reason was, as I mentioned above, to make a few dollars so I can spend them wherever I want to. Like snacks or some sexy watches, etc.
Apart from earning, the other reason was everyone told me you can work at your ease. There were many relatives who would suggest to be a freelancer, and there were a few friends who were already working as a freelancer. Hearing stories about successful teenagers was quite inspiring, and that is also why I developed interests in freelancing.
My Personal Experience On Two Famous Freelancing Platforms:
I signed up on many freelancing platforms such as Fiverr, Freelancer, Upwork, simply hired. Upwork rejected my application, whereas on other platforms, even though they accepted me, but I wasn’t able to get any projects. For a beginner, I didn’t know any tips or tricks to get hired as soon as possible. I would blame lack of research and knowledge for that. What I wanted was to just earn as quickly as possible.
I was most active on two most popular freelancing platforms, i.e. Freelancer and Fiverr. The experience on both was average. I can’t use the word good because of a couple of reasons, and similarly I can’t use the word bad because these platforms connect users with clients.
On Freelancer, the user has to drop his/her bid on the specific project they want to be hired for. This bidding system is not favorable for beginners as they have limited bids and their bids are positioned pretty down as compared to those with higher levels and those who have bought bids. The summary is there is tough competition when the client is looking forward to hire.
Let’s say there are three freelancers; one is a newbie, the other is one with good rating and reviews, and the remaining one is average and has bought the premium package of platform. If you are the client hiring a person for your project, whom will you choose? The newbie is already out of the equation, now the competition is between the last two. Most probably you will choose the one with excellent reviews, so there is minimum risk of your project being ruined.
On Fiverr, the user has to publish their gig regarding the services they offer to the clients. Many beginners don’t know about gig ranking and its importance. Gig ranking matters the most and keywords. When any buyer searches regarding any gig on Fiverr search box, the keywords with its respective ranking allow your gig to show up at the front of the page. But again, there are many people who work on their gigs a lot. Your gig attracts buyers, but it depends on them whether they will buy your service.
When we consider an example for this platform. It is as similar to that I mentioned earlier but the difference is there is a tough competition between different gigs and senior freelancers have different levels as well on Fiverr.
How much was my first earning?
A client from USA hired me through my gig on Fiverr. My hiring was unexpected, it was 2 years since I made the Fiverr account, so I didn’t initially believe that he hired me. I communicated with him regarding his order and thanks to God; I could complete his project within a week. He loved my service, gave me five stars and an excellent review. My gig was of $90 and I received $72 after tax deduction.
For a dependent teen, it was a crazy earning. Plus, you all know that only 7% on medium make above $100 earning so it is pretty hard to earn even $72 on just a single project, not even monthly. So yes, my crazy earning was $72. | https://medium.com/swlh/my-first-unexpected-freelance-hiring-and-crazy-earning-b0833ab0fbc0 | ['Syed Zaidi'] | 2020-12-07 09:38:40.540000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Self Development', 'Freelancing', 'Marketing', 'SEO'] |
Magic Rescue — Recuperação de Dados | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/100security/magic-rescue-recupera%C3%A7%C3%A3o-de-dados-ee398366d205 | ['Marcos Henrique'] | 2020-12-24 15:07:05.755000+00:00 | ['Dados', 'Recovery', '100security', 'Magic Rescue'] |
7 Big Reasons to take an Online Leadership Program | Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
The world has been picked up and placed in a very strange and unknown environment, literally overnight. The Covid-19 virus has changed how the world will work and for organizations, the ambiguity of the situation is difficult to handle.
There will be more disruptive changes over the next two years and organizations are changing the way they learn, lead, and work, to quickly adapt to these accelerated changes.
Organizations are going through rapid changes in every facet including training and development, a critical activity for organizations to stay competitive and succeed. With severe travel restrictions in place in most places, face-to-face training programs have either been put on hold or canceled.
Though leaders are dealing with fallouts due to pay-cuts, furloughs, and job eliminations, a well-developed and effective leadership program shall help them to navigate through this crisis and re-position the business towards recovery and growth.
Even before the covid crisis, online learning was a well-established and widely used tool for training and development, and it became the only method of training delivery as countries across the world went into quarantine.
Big organizations quickly adapted to the crisis and most of them pivoted quickly to an online leadership development program. Other organizations, especially smaller ones were skeptical of the advantages of online leadership training as they had no previous experience and were unfamiliar with how it works.
The reality is that organizations cannot risk putting leadership programs on hold as employees need to feel engaged and occupied, especially in uncertain times like these.
Let’s look at seven reasons why organizations should engage in an online leadership development program.
1. Employee Engagement & Retention
Employee lay-offs, furloughs, and job eliminations are hard realities that every organization is facing due to the pandemic. That being said, it is better to hold on to good talent that shall help the organization to navigate through the crisis and set-up the business for growth in the future. An online leadership development program makes employees feel valued within the organization and good talent is always looking to learn and grow.
2. Ease of Access
Online training programs offer access anytime and from anywhere. It also allows employees to set their schedules while not disrupting life within their homes or places of domicile. With smartphones and other smart devices organizations’ can monitor employee engagement and keep them motivated during this crisis.
3. Right Selection of Courses
As there is no need to travel, organizations can choose the right leadership development program that matches the specific needs of employees. A far cry from the face-to-face training programs that limit organizations to programs available locally.
A Reasearch by CCL: Advantages of Online Learning for Leadership Development
4. Lower Cost
Online leadership development training eliminates the need for brick and mortar offices that consume vital financial resources. It also helps with everyday costs such as parking, food, travel costs, etc. This directly leads to huge savings and a positive impact on the bottom-line.
5. Creating Future Leaders
It makes financial sense for organizations to retain their current employees for as long as possible. It makes even more sense to train them to be leaders now, so they can be effective assets for the organization in the future. Providing online leadership development training to employees will ensure that future leaders are prepared to take on the new role with confidence. More on this Reddit thread.
6. Competitive Advantage
Organizations that invest in online leadership development programs today are setting themselves up for success in the future. It will also give the organization a competitive advantage compared to those companies that chose not to invest in their employees and will be ill-prepared to handle the future.
7. Effectively Manage Change
Online leadership training gives the power to organizations to help employees navigate these challenging times by increasing the employees’ ability to respond rapidly in this unpredictable business environment. It gives employees the tools and skills required to develop ideas and be able to quickly put them in place as effective strategies.
Related topic: Transformational Leadership 2.0
In conclusion, it would be safe to say that the above points have listed the advantages, and the need for organizations to invest in an online leadership training program. Equipping teams with the right kind of skills let your organization plan better for a successful future. Online Leadership Development Programs empower both the organization and the employees.
Thanks. I hope you found it interesting and helpful.
Also check my article on Covid-coping Strategies. | https://medium.com/@growthsqapes/7-big-reasons-to-take-an-online-leadership-program-b1afe40b17c3 | ['Growth Sqapes'] | 2020-12-24 10:52:17.261000+00:00 | ['Leadership Development', 'Leadership', 'Leadership Program', 'Leadership Coaching', 'Leadership Skills'] |
I’m Reduced to a Thing That Wants | I’m Reduced to a Thing That Wants
A short poem
Photo by NASA on Unsplash
Sometimes, I think about the stars
and how lonely they must be
To be placed so far away
from their former lovers
Doomed to watch over them
from such a great distance
Then, I think about us
and how lucky and unlucky we are
A blessed curse
To have finally found each other
only to be pulled apart by distance,
once again
I know we are not nearly
as doomed as the stars
and their former lovers
And our distance
does not compare to theirs
But that will not stop me
from missing you and missing you,
greatly | https://medium.com/blueinsight/im-reduced-to-a-thing-that-wants-770b7fb31914 | ['Jocelyn Villarreal'] | 2020-12-31 16:00:35.657000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Long Distance', 'Poem', 'Love', 'Blue Insights'] |
About me | When I am searching for new ideas for my articles I always look through a lot of different advice from the Internet on specific or not certain subjects to get enough inspiration for writing my own text. I read a whole lot of posts from the website https://buzzaroundus.com/ , I enjoy the fact that the website is not confined to some frame and you can find articles on many different topics, and there are also lifehacks and Lifestyle articles. I learned a lot of useful information for my entire life about raising kids and connections with my husband. I simply love to see posts on psychology because this topic is very near me and should I receive a second level I would definitely pick psychology.
Hi. I am 30 years old. I am out of Oakland. I work as a copywriter and rewriter. I have two lovely children and am married. My spouse works in a workplace for a broker, and that I try to spend as long as possible with my children and home chores, so frequently my job takes a back seat. I’m a really positive person in life, I like to listen to songs, go outdoors with my kids, and watch soap operas with my spouse in the evenings.
I’ve my own Instagram page in which I discuss my experiences of marriage and motherhood. I really don’t have a lot of followers right now, so that I frequently write freely on different interesting topics which don’t even constantly entail motherhood. I really like my work, even though I can not always spend a good deal of time writing. I have had it since childhood, as a small girl inspired by novels about knights I composed my own tales, which were published in the college paper a couple of times. My narrative about the knight saving his kingdom was so beloved by the other children then, that my parents seriously considered to surprise me and also publish my stories. Unfortunately it didn’t work out and that I do not remember exactly what it was about, but my passion for writing about everything has stayed with me all my life. | https://medium.com/@mmarthajcampos/about-me-d82d3ccb48dd | ['Martha J. Campos'] | 2020-12-24 21:43:54.737000+00:00 | ['Articles'] |
Crochet Affirmation №35 | You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.― Jane Goodall
We often don’t think the things we do have any impact, that we are working in some kind of void where nothing is acknowledged.
But the truth is everything we do does have an impact and (for good or for ill) it does make a difference.
I like crochet because it is eminently sharable and allows me to make a positive difference in the world, be it an object like a hat or a purse or a blanket given as a gift, or something like a yarn bomb installed in an unexpected place that helps to reset someone’s bad day or add a small measure of joy to someone’s good day. | https://medium.com/crochet-affirmations/crochet-affirmation-35-2e14b80dec1a | ['Leslie Stahlhut'] | 2020-10-30 04:02:26.436000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Crochet', 'DIY', 'Affirmations', 'Jane Goodall'] |
Instant Commerce in Australia. | Products and imagery courtesy of gimmo and gimmo.com.au
This is the first of a series of articles where I explore on-demand delivery. I’ll look at the current landscape, emerging players and discuss the best strategies & opportunities for success.
Within days, weeks and months, Australia will be inundated with what many believe will be the future of retail. From 90-minute pickup windows to 10 minute store-to-door, convenience is about to become a lot more convenient. No longer relegated to the grocery leaders, Coles and Woolies. From click & collect to pickup, on demand delivery, and last mile. Let’s unpack what is happening right now.
In the on-demand delivery space, the key players are Menulog, UBER Eats, Deliveroo, and DoorDash. They are generally restaurant and convenience aggregators. They take a digital naive business, like a local restaurant or petrol convenience store and digitise them into an app and website directory. You can then browse and shop an aggregate of restaurants (or stores) and upon your order, utilise gig-network drivers to pickup and deliver to you. Of these players, two are pushing to deliver, you guessed it — everything!
UBER and DoorDash are embarking on expanding last mile to include the rest of “local commerce”. That makes a lot of sense. Once a network of customers and drivers exist, this is the most logical next step. I’ll save “New Verticals” for my next article and keep the focus on food and convenience.
In the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Russia, China … OK, pretty much everywhere out of Australia this is already happening and has been happening over the last 12 years. The real difference between then and now has been COVID-19. This has accelerated years of e-commerce growth in Australia and brought forward the value of on-demand delivery. Bringing us closer to what the rest of the world has experienced during the last decade.
In the US, DoorDash now dominates on-demand food and convenience. UBER Eats, Grubhub and Postmates are not only getting their lunch served by DoorDash, but also eaten. A lot of this follows the evolution of Amazon Prime. Prime (US) started out as a two-day subscription at reduced cost and has evolved to Prime Now with 2-hour delivery windows in US major cities. Now Amazon Flex aims to reduce the delivery time by leveraging the gig-economy model.
There are a lot more on-demand players.
For US grocery, Instacart is the dominate advertising model. In Europe, Delivery Hero. Neither are vertical as they follow 3P v. 1P models. In NYC, you now have Jokr that promises a 15-minute delivery. Relative to Australia and the US is Gorillas. They are landing in Sydney as I write this. An emerging vertical player (1P “dark supermarket”) that is currently recruiting in Sydney. Here’s the crazy part. Gorillas just started in May 2020 right in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic. They originated in Germany and promise a 10-minute grocery delivery. Yes, 10-minutes. I like the idea of this. Not specifically 10-minute delivery, but micro-fulfilment and hyper local. 1P allows you to own the end-to-end customer journey. This is the secret sauce and the future of retail.
“Gorillas exists to create a world with immediate access to your needs. We are not business people building a delivery company — we are delivery people building a business.” — Kağan Sümer, CEO of Gorillas
I could go on. There are literally hundreds of on-demand players coming out of Turkey, China, and Russia and largely focused on food. Incumbents in Australia need to verticalise delivery fast … and by fast I mean yesterday. In the old days, we spoke about the customer relationship and who owns the customer. In the new world, nobody owns the customer. They are simply not as sticky as you think and when we look at millennials, Gen-Z and beyond, the smartphone isn’t a game changer, it’s BAU.
The good news is: There will be parallel winners of the on-demand future.
The “everything” delivered stores such as what UBER, DoorDash, Delivery Hero, and Meituan aspire to be will stand alongside niche players in grocery and convenience, like instacart and Gopuff. If you can operationalise your store network to be a micro-warehouse and move beyond the idea of remote, rural warehousing and robotic picking e.g. Ocado, you can thrive. You must offer an immediate delivery window and move beyond multi-channel thinking. There is only one channel and that is immediate, convenient and fast.
In my next article, I’ll explore opportunities in Australia, as well as how the current and emerging players will need to move from a “Shop by store (restaurant)” model to a “Shop by product” marketplace if they want to sell & deliver — everything. I’ll deep dive Australia’s best opportunities in on-demand convenience and how to win the $8.8b GOV prize.
Will Gopuff come to Australia? An always open model is the key to owning convenience. Australia offers many unique opportunities for immediacy, convenience and speed … and this is literally Day 1. | https://medium.com/@mikefowler-au/instant-commerce-in-australia-f909a88d417c | ['Mike Fowler'] | 2021-06-09 03:41:52.278000+00:00 | ['On Demand Delivery', 'Grocery Home Delivery', 'Australia', 'Uber', 'DoorDash'] |
FMCG curve goes up as COVID curve goes down | FMCG curve goes up as COVID curve goes down MaxEd Jun 17·2 min read
As the nation slowly recovers from the horrors of the second wave of the Covid 19 pandemic, the economy is slowly and steadily recovering. As test positivity rates and daily confirmed cases go down the nation is slowly flattening the curve and getting ready to go about their normal lives, one sector that is picking up the pace of recovery fast is the Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. The shares of FMCG stocks have started to trade positively. Dominated by the likes of big players like ITC, HUL, Brittania, Nestle, Dabur, and Jubilant foods. The sector had a worst few months following the outbreak of wave two of the pandemic.
Relaxation of Covid 19 restrictions has led to a 15–20% increase in sales of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) across shops throughout the country and a 20–25% increase in supermarkets and trade outlets in the past week. Some shops have reopened while others have extended their operating hours as allowed and notified by the state governments. Rural and semi-urban markets drive the growth of the FMCG sector. A full-scale reopening is still a major doubt in many parts of the nation and will solely depend upon the role of vaccines and how quickly we can vaccinate the major portion of our citizens.
FMCG stocks have gained in the stock markets further showing positivity for the sector. As the monsoon has started it has also increased hopes as the FMCG sector is one of the sectors that do well during normal monsoon seasons and the weather forecasting has indicated a normal monsoon for the third year running. And the Kharif season has already picked up the pace. The latest data from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution has shown that the paddy procurement for this seasons Kharif 2020–21 is continuing smoothly in the procuring States with purchases hitting numbers like 816.65 LMTs of paddy (includes Kharif Crop 706.96 LMT and Rabi Crop 109.69 LMT). Which further adds proof of our recovering sector. Flattening curves, lifted restrictions, mass vaccinations, adopting COVID compatible models of operation and the momentum of the recovering global economy will further speed up the FMCG sector recovery.
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(This article was originally published in Passionate in Marketing) | https://medium.com/@maxed-blog/fmcg-curve-goes-up-as-covid-curve-goes-down-c6cc9e586a3 | [] | 2021-06-17 17:39:06.291000+00:00 | ['Market', 'Covid 19', 'Fmcg', 'Sales', 'Food And Drink'] |
Happy helming at Docplanner | Round 1: Pulumi (https://www.pulumi.com/)
When we heard about it for the first time, we were very excited — in the end, it worked just like Terraform. We wanted to test it immediately. An undoubted advantage was the ability to use programming languages as we wanted. We could choose TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, or .NET core. Importantly, Pulumi lets you manage not only applications in Kubernetes but also the entire infrastructure, e.g., EKS. Look for yourself how easy and straightforward it is.
example from pulumi.com
Our infatuation ended right after the conference when we calmly analyzed the materials from the lecture and explored the documentation. It turned out that the support for the Go language, which we trusted most, is only in the preview version and will not become stable soon. Nevertheless, we started testing.
We were able to run a simple application, although it was not easy. We encountered various types of errors that we began to seek help for. The documentation turned out to have many gaps, and all issues were related to the primary language — TypeScript. We began to wonder if anyone is using this software at all. It was challenging for us to find community support and get some real use cases.
Round 2: Kustomize (https://kustomize.io/)
We chose Kustomize for testing because it was a native Kubernetes solution for configuration management implemented in kubectl. Nice, we would not have to convert our CD pipelines significantly. We launched the application very efficiently.
Unfortunately, Kustomize did not meet most of our assumptions. The tool lacked the space from where we could download our basic YAML definitions. There was also no management of the deployment lifecycle — we perform migrations before updating the application or other key functionalities. It is a simple template tool.
Round 3: Helm (https://helm.sh/)
And finally, we looked at the tool known to everyone — Helm. We were aware of the upcoming revolutionary version 3; however, when we were creating PoC, we were relying on the alpha version that was not yet usable. We were able to describe the application and launch it with the use of a simple chart utilizing both the stable version as well as the working one. We were pleased with the effects despite a rather long time required to create it. We even ventured to check the Helm for Helm, i.e., helmfile, but it was not very interesting for us.
Decision and assumptions
The result did not surprise us — Helm was the tool for us. We had to develop an implementation plan and get started. We started by establishing detailed assumptions:
ultimately we need to use version 3
no tiller server
we want to create one generic chart that would allow us to launch our applications easily
a migration job should be done before the new application release
we need to determine the place where we keep all charts
charts should build automatically
sensitive values must be encrypted and kept in the repository and CD should decrypt them during the release
in our flow, we can skip the full build of the application and run only the upgrade release.
Implementation
Helm was close to the release of stable version 3, so it was understandable that we had to use it. As I mentioned earlier, due to the lack of stability of the alpha version, we had to choose v2 for our project. We did some research and gathered that migrating from v2 to v3 shouldn’t be a problem. Immediately after the release of the final version, the official 2to3 plugin was created, and thanks to that plugin, transferring configuration or states was effortless.
The plugin even allows you to migrate states without a working tiller, which was also important to us because we used the next plugin — tillerless. We did not want to install the tiller server on the cluster for security reasons. The tool mentioned above allows you to run the tiller locally when installing, updating charts, etc., and then turn it off. Tiller is not required to run all the time. All states are kept in the form of encrypted objects in one namespace. Also helpful was creating a simple alias:
helmtiller=’helm tiller run helm — helm’
To maximize the automation of our work and allow developers to decide for themselves on the appearance and operation of the application, we decided to create a generic chart. We called it docplannerlib. By adding it to the dependency of the application chart, we are able to create all Kubernetes objects needed for the application operation (deployment, service, secret, configmap, job, cronjob, hpa, rbac). We’ve also created other charts that we can use conditionally, e.g., redis, varnish, etc.
Here’s the set of values for the sample application:
In most of our applications, we perform various tasks before releasing a version. We run the job with a helm hook that creates databases for us, configures external services, runs migrations, checks whether the application works, etc. If this process fails, the release stops with the status failed. We are sure that it will not enter production.
As storage for charts, we chose s3. We thought it would be a universal place to do it. To have protocol support, we used a plugin. Charts are tested and then built each time their version changes. Due to the fact that we keep the charts together with the project, we have created a simple, readable structure:
All secret files are also stored in repositories and encrypted with git-crypt, not available to developers.
When doing the release, we use a kind of transaction, which allows us to skip the docker image build when the changes do not strictly regard the application code. Examples can include increasing the resources assigned to a given deployment, increasing replicas, or adjusting health checks. This transaction considerably speeds up the whole process, and for this purpose, we use Buddy software. The CD tool does not have Helm support yet, but it gives us a lot of customization options. We created a docker image that contains all the dependencies needed to run an action. The simplified flow looks like this:
Does it work?
Until now, many people have spoken negatively about Helm. They complained about poor security, the need to write their own templates, a lot of logic inside them, problems with maintaining IaaC rules, etc. Some proposed using other tools, while others even using Kustomize with Helm’s artifacts. Despite these warnings, we decided and successfully implemented it. Everyone is happy with the effects of our work that took several months. We have been waiting a long time for version 3, but it is here now, and most of the problems mentioned above have been resolved. It should please skeptics. | https://medium.com/docplanner-tech/happy-helming-at-docplanner-cea6fce91c1f | ['Przemysław Robak'] | 2020-03-24 13:05:43.280000+00:00 | ['DevOps', 'Helm', 'Docker', 'Kubernetes', 'Continous Deployment'] |
Could you tell us about yourself and your job role? And one hobby/fun fact? | Take Five With Darren Nixon — pictured is a closeup shot of Darren smiling into the camera, with the Cafe Leep counter in the background
Could you tell us about yourself and your job role? And one hobby/fun fact?
I’m Darren and I have worked at Café Leep for almost four years. Before working at the cafe, I worked with people with learning disabilities for around 20 years.
My current job roles are Assistant Manager, NVQ Tutor and Social Media guy.
At Café Leep, we have four trainees with learning disabilities per day and they are trained to Level 2 NVQ Standard via our awarding body Highfield and carry out all duties that a cafe requires.
Fun fact: I love music. I was in two bands in Leeds and Indianapolis. My current obsessions are The Charlatans and Tim Burgess.
What is a typical day like for you?
There isn’t an actual typical day as we work with a range of people who have different abilities and skills.
The day however, would include helping our trainees prep food, helping them with their food safety training, supervising all food and drinks that they make to order and also on the till with money skills and finally with cleaning up.
Could you tell us how you got into your role?
I worked as a support worker for two years visiting Leep1 — the self advocacy group for people with learning disabilities once a week. I heard they were opening a cafe with adults with learning disabilities and I was immediately up for a new challenge!
What motivates you to do a good job?
I’m motivated and inspired by all our trainees who overcome a myriad of challenges to be with us.
Once they start with us they learn new skills, knowledge and above all the confidence that they can succeed!
There isn’t a week that goes by without a ‘goosebumps’ moment for me!
How do you learn at work?
I learn by being patient, believing and listening.
What are your aims for the next year? For example, if you work in accessibility do you have any plans to help make workplaces more inclusive? If you work in Learning and Development how are you going to promote workplace learning?
We are always looking to grow. We know that things don’t happen overnight. We’ve put in four years of hard work here. We’ve had 30 people from learning disability backgrounds pass with us and 10 people placed at new positions in Leeds cafes and kitchens in the past 2 years.
We plan to carry on doing this, being patient and sending out fully trained people to future employers.
We are also hoping to expand our training with more e-learning initiatives to become 100% digital in respect of our membership with OnLine Centres Network.
We also aim to carry on with our food partnership with Fareshare helping save waste food and benefit the local community with great food specials and cooking groups.
We also have had some successful work experience placements with high school students. Two of our most recent placements have been so great showing that the skill set and passion starts early! | https://medium.com/@WeAreHowDoI/could-you-tell-us-about-yourself-and-your-job-role-and-one-hobby-fun-fact-591302e42f2f | ['How Do I'] | 2019-05-06 16:19:38.714000+00:00 | ['Learning And Development', 'Disability', 'Accessibility', 'Learning', 'Education'] |
Read This Before Starting with Your Cryptocurrency Portfolio | Read This Before Starting with Your Cryptocurrency Portfolio
#8 — How to choose the cryptocurrencies to invest on, and how to build a strategy
Investing in cryptocurrencies is quite complicated, as complicated has monopoly, it’s not a game though , you have real money this time 😅—Source: https://www.facebook.com/cryptohubcentral/
Do know what cryptocurrencies to buy? I didn’t know either. Actually, I still don’t know what are the cryptocurrencies that will make me a millionaire. What I can tell you is how to build a portfolio, what are the questions to ask yourself, and a few rules that can help you to create a strategy.
This article is part of my Learning challenge where I learn about one topic each month. As you can imagine, this month, I was learning about trading & cryptocurrencies. I based this studies on a book and a few article and ended up investing 1000€ on cryptocurrencies. Click here, if you want to know more about my methodology.
How to build our portfolio
Diversify
The first rule to build a portfolio is to diversify it and the reason is simple, if you only buy one cryptocurrency and it crashes you lose all your money. By diversifying you reduce this risk. But in cryptocurrencies, at least today there is something you cannot fight against: when the bitcoin crashes, almost everything crashes (at least their price in USD). Because most of the altcoins are mostly traded with BTC. So their price is translated in BTC and then from BTC to USD.
Know what you buy
The second rule is simple
Invest in what you know — Peter Lynch
Actually, I would change it to Invest in what you know, understand and believe in. For example, if you don’t believe in the decentralization of currencies, don’t invest in cryptocurrency 😏.
Invest money you are ready to loose
The third rule is actually the main rule, I already said it and I will say it again, invest money that you don’t need right now, and also money you are ready to loose. Also, and this is specific in cryptocurrency since it’s something relatively new, and quite volatile, always keep in mind that you can lose all the money you invested in it.
Diversify your portfolio. The taxonomy
Before diversifying your portfolio of cryptocurrency you should diversify your investments depending on how much risk you want to take, you can put some money in your bank savings account, then a bit in stocks and finally in cryptocurrencies.
Let’s talk about how to diversify in the cryptocurrencies market. There are different ways to diversify. Try not to buy only the same type of coin. To do this, you need to know what are the type of coins which exist and the different taxonomies to classify coins.
Type of cryptocurrencies (Currency, Platform — includes smart contracts, Utility, Security, Asset-backed)
Proof type (Proof of Stake, Proof of Work, …)
Hashing algorithms (Scrypt, SHA-256, …)
Mining profitability
Anonymity
Market capitalization (hight, middle, low)
ICO
Forked from
Number of transaction per second
Volatility
Price correlation to another currency
There are a lot of categories, you don’t need to buy all of them but avoid buying only one type of currency.
You can get some of this information there:
Coingecko — https://www.coingecko.com
CryptoCompare — https://www.cryptocompare.com
On the official website of the coin
Or just google it
Understand your coins
You can find the questions you can ask yourself before buying a cryptocurrency.
Does this coin/project have a purpose? If so what? Can they solve a real problem? How good is their team? How long have they been around? How strong is their code base? Do they have a roadmap? Are they transparent?
Questions coming from this article, that I recommend you to read!
Here are a few coins which I tried to group together using some of the previous taxonomy.
Currencies/Digital Cash | https://medium.com/learning-lab/read-this-before-starting-with-your-cryptocurrency-portfolio-4bcb029eec0f | ['Sandoche Adittane'] | 2019-08-15 13:45:32.881000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Investing', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Include XML Comments in Swagger under ASP.NET Core 2.2 | The minimum configuration of Swagger is nice to get started but let’s add some more customization.
Before you start reading this article, we recommend to take a look to this article about building up swagger in asp.net core 2.2 Web API.
XML Documentation
First, enable the creation of XML documentation. In the Solution Explorer, right-click the Web API project and click Properties. Click the Build tab and navigate to Output. Make sure that the XML documentation file option is checked. You can leave the default file path.
Next, we need to make some changes to our Startup.cs file to tell swagger to use those comments.
Writing XML Comments
Back in our ValuesController, let’s write some XML comments for methods. Here’s what the sample project has:
Here’s the tags in use:
summary : A high-level summary of what the method/class/field is or does.
: A high-level summary of what the method/class/field is or does. remarks : Additional detail about the method/class/field.
: Additional detail about the method/class/field. param : A parameter to the method, and what it represents.
: A parameter to the method, and what it represents. returns: A description of what the method returns.
Once all of this in place, we are ready to run the project.
The source code for this tutorial is available on GitHub.
Did you catch something I did wrong, or can you make my implementation better? Let me know in the comments!
Happy Documenting! | https://medium.com/@alibenchaabene/include-xml-comments-in-swagger-under-asp-net-core-2-2-webapi-7514e44cc9b1 | ['Ali Benchaaban'] | 2019-10-12 16:18:26.499000+00:00 | ['Xml', 'Webapi', 'Microsoft', 'Aspnetcore', 'Swagger'] |
Conversations with God During COVID-19 | I have never been so terrified in my life. COVID-19 has smacked us as a nation on our collective behinds. Earlier in the year, the rumors about the disease were flying so fast on social media that I suspended my actions on Facebook. Frightening theories . . . everything from a secret government experiment, to the disease causing the lungs to atrophy . . . were flying fast and furious. I haven’t used Facebook since April, and I really don’t miss it.
Instead, I began journaling. I’ve tried to journal for years, but the advent of a global pandemic and working from home was the perfect cocktail to start a prayer journal. I’ve kept a prayer log since May.
Here is an excerpt from day one May 13, 2020 . . .
Dear Lord, thank you for waking me up to see another day in the 65th year of my birth. I am so grateful for all of the blessings you have provided. But, Lord I am so scared. I want to live because I feel I have so much more to do in this life. I also feel that I am not ready to see Your Face. Although this world is in such turmoil, I want to be here to help solve problems and help people.
Lord, my prayer is that you forgive me; forgive us. Pardon our sins; pardon my sins. Give us another chance to do and be what you created us to be. You created us to Love you and to love each other, to take care of the world you gave us, and to care for each other. I don’t know how to make these changes, Lord but you do. Change our hearts. Create in me and in all of us a heart more like your son, Jesus. I know that you are the architect of this life and our faith. Lead us into a deeper connection with You. Guide us in creating strategies to end homelessness, hunger, poverty, sickness, and all of the maladies of humans.
We give you all the praise, Father God. Thank you for this day. For health. Food. Shelter. Clothing. Companionship. Family.
Amen | https://medium.com/@srhoggard/conversations-with-god-during-covid-19-420f6fdc11f0 | ['Sharon Riddick Hoggard'] | 2020-12-21 19:06:36.033000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Prayer', 'Conversations With God'] |
Coping with Trauma During the Holidays | Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is defined as a condition that includes flashbacks and memories of a traumatic event, avoidant behaviors, anxiety, and depression. The holidays can be filled with triggers for those who suffer from PTSD. Whether you are spending more time with family* or social distancing in your own home, the holidays can provide its own set of challenges. Your triggers do not define you and there are ways to cope with them when you experience them. Below is a list of ways you can have a safe and healthy holiday season.
Join a group therapy session or sign up for one on one therapy sessions
Group therapy can be helpful to show you that you are not alone. Many people can share their different experiences and coping skills that may be able to help you through this stressful time. One on one therapy is another option that can assist you in sorting through and coping with uncomfortable feelings and memories. There can be community programs in your area which may provide these services at little to no cost.
Find some “Me Time”
If you are spending a lot of time with your family, find a moment that you can spend doing an activity that will improve your mental health. Go for a walk, meditate, work on a craft or hobby, make sure you find some time, especially if you are feeling anxious or overwhelmed. Exercise is another way to find that “me time.” Exercise has also proven to help with the symptoms of PTSD. You can go for a jog, watch a tutorial on YouTube for yoga, ride your bike, there are many ways to relieve that stress.
Reach out to others
It isn’t unusual for someone who is suffering from PTSD to cut themselves off from their support system and isolate. Isolation, however, can worsen PTSD symptoms. Reach out to trusted friends or family members who may be able to help you through any depression or anxiety.
Set boundaries with others — and yourself
When spending time around family during the holidays, it is important to address any boundaries that you may have. Setting up boundaries can help you cope with trauma and sort through feelings in your own way. If it is safe to do so, talk to a trusted family member about what your boundaries are and what they look like. For example, If you need extra “me time,” communicating with a family member that you are living or staying with, can help open up dialogue and communication so that you can get what you need without any conflict.
You can also set up boundaries with yourself as well. You can give yourself permission to not engage in a discussion that could be harmful to your well-being, set up boundaries with yourself with stress eating and drinking, and also not allow yourself to feel pressured to buy a lot of gifts. Do what you can with what you have, and the sentiment will shine through.
Overall, remember to be gentle with yourself. At the end of the year, we may need to be even kinder to ourselves as we process all that we have been through. Just remember that you are worth feeling better.
*The CDC recommends only celebrating with those in your own household.* | https://medium.com/matthews-place/coping-with-trauma-during-the-holidays-e3d3a2038643 | [] | 2020-12-07 18:10:44.626000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'PTSD', 'Holidays', 'Trauma', 'Family'] |
Introduction to IT Support | Professional support is a must-have in the modern world since the majority of businesses have gone digital. We buy movie tickets and cosmetics, clothes, and even vegetables online. To offer an excellent user experience and bear the competition, organizations appeal to support teams.
However, support is not only a service for end-users. Somebody should be able to spin the gears of the invisible to the customer part, and this is the IT support.
What is IT support
The term refers to services that entities provide to users of digital products or services. A support team deals with specific issues and interactions with customers providing necessary help or training. Another branch of support relates to internal systems monitoring and maintaining infrastructure stability. It may be called IT or tech support.
Organizations can form in-house teams or outsource this work. The main aim of any support type is to improve customer experience. Support channels include telephone calls or SMS, online chatting, e-mailing, and forums. Responsibilities cover server monitoring, help-desk support, on-site visits, systems backup, video and online chats with customers, remote repair, and more.
There are five common tech support types:
In-House Team
It’s an individual or department located inside your business and dealing with support. In-house teams are almost the default for product companies, but in this case, they combine support with service. The support staff is a part of your organization, and all infra maintenance is delegated to a third-party service.
Managed Service
You get a detailed list of possible services defining response time, recovery time, communication channels, and type of monitoring. You receive services on an ongoing basis for a fixed price. Managed service is convenient for delegating infrastructure, website, or app support.
Pre-Paid Hours
You buy support hours in advance — either per month or per year — and use them on demand. The main benefits of such support are flexibility and costs saving. Pre-paid hours are also used for IT support and allow you not to hire the system administrator to your in-house team.
Crowdsourcing
This type of support means creating discussion boards for your customers to exchange opinions, experiences, and advice. Crowdsourcing provides companies with tech support and user feedback at the same time. It’s not a direct business tool and provides for the professionals in the state to service infrastructure or products.
Self-Support
Some tech companies offer access to their documentation for users to find specific solutions themselves. Self-support allows businesses not to spend money on customer support and to rely only on their staff. However, such an approach is not applicable for all people, so it’s better to consider a mix of self-support and professional team engagement.
Who and Why Needs It
Every business that uses the Internet or software requires IT support since it brings a variety of benefits like:
Improved Customer Experience
Every client deserves qualitative service. Tech support teams interact with customers and make sure people get the service they expect or even better.
Cost-effectiveness
IT support is definitely a long-term investment, however, it guarantees you an increased ROI and a saved budget. You don’t face constant repairs or unexpected expenses if you have a team that watches your software and services quality.
Improved Security
Keeping information safe is essential when it comes to any business. And IT support narrows down the range of security problems because only support teams will have access to critical data and software.
Maximized Efficiency
Tech support teams can implement the latest technologies and cutting-edge solutions to maximize your company’s potential. And all business owners want to develop their companies fast, don’t they?
Less Stress
Let professionals deal with software issues and forget about constant headaches. Delegating responsibility will help you focus on management, strategic planning, and other significant business tasks.
DevOps Practices to Run Support
Obviously, traditional tech support is worth implementing. But bringing DevOps principles into your IT support improves service quality dramatically. According to Atlassian, providing DevOps support leads to 45% better customer satisfaction. 43% more employee productivity, and 38% cost reduction.
DevOps mindset is about departments collaboration which helps to establish continuous communication and fast feedback. It perfectly overlaps with the traditional support ideas and allows to get maximum efficiency. But we declare in advance that DevOps is not a panacea, so you should apply its practices wisely and only if you’re sure they will bring the desired result.
So how do we fulfill the traditional support capabilities combined with DevOps principles? With the help of the following best practices:
Culture
Support teams need to experience a cultural shift while adopting the DevOps approach. Bring daily standups and sprint planning to your tech support department, study the team behavior and focus on results rather than activities. Cultural changes will prioritize cross-team communication and shared success.
Automation
Automation is king in DevOps — it allows teams to move and deliver results faster. Make sure your support team is prepared to support, operate and restore services. If the tech support department knows every detail of each deployment, they can give the right answers to customers.
Measurement
Tracking metrics is crucial to understand whether teams move towards their goals. The support department should monitor the number of repeated issues, the costs per incident, service level targets, and total costs for support.
Sharing
Sharing helps minimize the gap between developers and supporters. Discuss goals, metrics, plans, sprints, tools, and processes. Encourage teams to communicate so that everybody has a clear picture of the current situation — it will bring support to the brand new level.
Tools to Use
The proper tools can help support teams with remote connections management, incident logging, report building, and feedback management. The tech stack below is essential when it comes to traditional and DevOps support mix.
Monitoring Systems
Monitoring software facilitates the process of infrastructure monitoring for support teams. They can watch devices, traffic, apps and get notifications in the event of malfunctions. Prometheus, DataDog, Nagios, OpsGenie, and NewRelic are the best monitoring solutions from our point of view.
Desktop Virtualization
It’s a technology that separates the desktop environment and its app software from the physical client device. It helps identify and solve problems without a damaged PC. VMWare Player, VirtualBox, QEMU, and Parallels Desktop are good examples of VM software.
Issue Tracking Systems
These systems represent a computer software package to manage issues. Management includes bug tracking and reporting, time accounting, and priority management. Companies having both development and support teams usually benefit from this type of software. Bugzilla, OTRS, osTicket, Jira, and Redmine are the most popular tools providing excellent security and a simple interface.
Summary
IT support allows organizations to deliver better products and services, stay competitive, and get more happy customers. And supporters embracing the DevOps approach make tech support more responsive, solid, and qualitative.
Nowadays, the majority of IT companies providing software development services have support packages. But at Corewide, we mainly focus on DevOps support and offer several subscription options for different demands. If you consider outsourcing support services or require initial consulting, we will be glad to help you. | https://medium.com/@corewide/introduction-to-it-support-eb02127dba86 | [] | 2021-08-19 13:13:56.963000+00:00 | ['Support', 'DevOps', 'It Support', 'Corewide', 'Monitoring'] |
How to create a Loom Game in Unity | Loom Network’s Basechain is a solid way to integrate Blockchain capabilities into your game, and with their LoomSDK it is easy to build Blockchain features into your next Unity project. This tutorial will show you what you need to get started and lead you step by step to your first Loom Dapp. It is part of a series and builds on our CoinCollector contract that we created and deployed in this article. If you don’t know why you would need Blockchain Technology in you game have a look at this article.
Unity Project Set-up
To get started, we need to install the latest version of Unity. This is straight forward downloading an installer and creating a Unity account. Here is a guide showing you exactly what to do.
Once you installed Unity open the Unity Hub and create a new 3D project. Download the LoomSDK and add the folders /LoomSDK and /LoomSDKBuild inside the /UnityProject folder to your Unity Assets folder. Additionally, you need to adjust some settings in Unity. Access File -> Build Settings -> Player Settings -> Other Settings -> Configuration and set the API Compatibility Level to .NET 4.x. With this you are ready to use LoomSDK features in your Unity project.
Deploying Smart Contract to Loom
Our project is setup, next we need something to talk with on the Loom Basechain. For this we need to develop a smart contract in Solidity and deploy it to the Basechain. We put this topic in its own article. Either deploy your own contract and then come back here to continue creating your game, or if you already know how to deploy contracts you can use the contract we deployed at 0xfC4ce0E01e8fdd309af77564bF5bE8b7dE79E3e9.
Creating a Game in Unity
We based our example Dapp on the great tutorials provided by Unity. They created a whole series of great video tutorials with example projects you can download. Check them out here.We used the Roll-a-ball Tutorial to start with, turning it into a Blockchain-based coin collector game. If you are already familiar with Unity you can download the final Scene from the Asset Store. When you finished try the game to see how it works.
Now that we have a simple game with a character we can control, coins we can collect and a counter that shows how many coins we collected, let’s connect it to our contract on the Loom Basechain.
Connecting to Loom Basechain
First create a new Empty GameObject in your scene and call it “LoomManager”. Select the object and Add Component -> new Script called LoomManager.cs. This is where all our Loom setup code will go.
To be able to create a connection to the Basechain we need to create an account first. This is done by generating a new private and public key pair. Inside the LoomManager.cs, so open the file and add this code to Start().
Then we can use this account to connect to the Basechain and access our CoinCollector contract we deployed earlier. Using the following GetContract() method in Start() after the key creation.
GetContract() creates a reader and writer for Basechain which are used to setup a client that can connect to Basechain. This client is unlocked with your key pair. Then we can use this client, our CoinCollector contract address and ABI (that we saved earlier when deploying the contract) to initialize a Loom.Client.EVMContract Object which will be our handle to access the remote contract.
This EVMContract Object will be used in a wrapper that we call CoinCollectorContract.cs. This wrapper provides a convenient C# interface to interact with our contract from code.
The CoinCollectorContract.cs is simply wrapping each of the CoinCollector.sol public functions in asynchronous C# Tasks that we can await.
Now let’s use the contract in our game logic. First of all we need to start a game with coinCollectorContract.StartGame() in LoomManager.Start() after initializing our Blockchain client. startGame() emits an event.
We need to access our contract in other parts of our game too. Therefore, we need to inject our LoomManager Object into each Unity Component that wants to use it. By adding a public LoomManager property to the Component and drag and drop the LoomManager Object in your Scene on to the slot in the PlayerController Component in the Player Objects.
For the game to wait for the start we must stop the input update in our PlayerController Object. This is done by checking if the game has already started.
Our player must collect coins. This crucial task has to be secured — by Blockchain of course. Therefore, we inject the LoomManger into the PlayerController Object and call CollectedCoin() when the collision with a coin on the board is triggered.
Now the game is automatically started when we enter the game and we can collect coins. But when does the game end? This information is stored in our contract, and it will even inform us with an onEndGame() event when we have collected enough coins. So we need to listen to this event in the LoomManager. After receiving this event the game will stop.
We are nearly done. The game starts and ends. Now it would be nice to know how many coins we already collected. Our UI needs to be updated. We solved this very simple with calling GetCoins() each time the UI is updated. A more sophisticated solution would be to listen to the onCoinCollected() event emitted by the contract. I leave this as an exercise for you. 😉
I put the complete LoomManager.cs, CoinCollectorContract.cs and PlayerController.cs code below for reference.
Play test, Iterate and Grow
Congratulations, you created your fully decentralized Blockchain game. Now your Dapp should be playable from everywhere you have Internet!
From here you can play test, iterate and grow this simple game. Or you start from scratch with your own ideas. Let me give you some thoughts about the architecture of your Dapp in bigger projects. You noticed, that we created a stand-alone LoomManager GameObject. This helps us decouple all the Blockchain related things from the rest of our game. You could turn this LoomManager easily into a Prefab and re-use it through out other projects or publish it even as Unity Asset Package.
When you game grows more complex you might not have just one contract but many. To hide this complex infrastructure from the rest of your game developers and make their life easier, you could implement a command-based façade. This façade stays the same while you can rework and change your whole smart contract infrastructure behind it.
To make you game more efficient instead of polling the Loom Basechain constantly utilize events in your smart contracts. Then you can implement listeners to those events in your LoomManager that trigger updates on components that need this new information.
For further discussion of an architecture for games utilizing Loom and Unity see this article I wrote a few month ago.
Who are we?
Our vision at Calystral is to unleash the potential of gamers. We are focusing on building games where the time and effort put in is rewarded with real value. Enhancing the players’ experience and empowering gamers to achieve more. In the process we strive to overcome technical limitations of Blockchain Technology and use its benefits to lift games to the next level. We would love to share these solutions with the community and other developers. Towards a better future of Gaming!
________________________________________
Join our journey:
Calystral Discord Twitter Facebook Medium Telegram | https://medium.com/@danz_marcel/how-to-create-a-loom-game-in-unity-65058306a1ef | ['Marcel Danz'] | 2019-11-01 18:59:09.139000+00:00 | ['Loom', 'Game Development', 'Blockchain Game', 'Unity', 'Solidity'] |
The Guardian Food Recipes — Topic Modeling | The Guardian Food Recipes by recipes from The Guardian
Introduction
The food section of The Guardian invites amateur chefs to explore the boundless culinary world, to engage with new ingredients and flavours, to learn cooking techniques or to get ideas for celebratory feasts.
In the first blogpost of this series, I told you about my passion for food and my curiosity about data science. I presented you with some exploratory data analysis of the last 10 years of recipes published daily by The Guardian.
The aim of this article is to engage with topic modelling. This method is useful to discover the abstract “topics” occurring in a collection of documents. It allows to rapidly understand the meaning of a long text, extracting its keywords and categorizing its content.
Do you love pie and tarts, do you fancy salads or cakes, do you prefer fish or meat? By the end of the article, you will know which Guardian chef columnists to call to cook your next dinner party!
If you are too hungry to wait for the end, you may already want to look at the recipes here.
The Guardian Food Recipes — Yotam Ottolenghi’s chilled cucumber and yoghurt soup (photo by Louise Hagger), Claire Thomson’s spiced filo pumpkin pie (photo by Jean Cazals), Meera Sodha’s mee goreng (photo by Louise Hagger), José Pizarro’s clams ‘a la plancha’ (photo by Martin Poole), Henry Harris’ roast partridge and spiced blackberries (Ola O Smit), Nigel Slater’s figs with pistachio biscuits (photo by Romas Foord)
Data and Methods
After collecting 7,361 recipe articles from The Guardian, with the oldest one dating back to the 3rd of January 2009 and the most recent being from the 16th of June 2019, I first cleaned the textual data in a Python notebook.
Some preliminary steps are necessary to perform Topic Modelling. These steps involve the formatting of the textual data: tokenization, stopwords removal as well as lemmatization. For more details about each of these steps, have a look at the article from Susan Li.
Diverse techniques can be employed to do topic modelling. In this post, I chose to use Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). To get a stronger taste of how LDA works, you can read the original research paper from David M. Blei and al. or a more digestible article from Félix Revert. Greg Rafferty blog post series on Harry Potter is also a great resource.
Fiona Beckett’s Wine Selection for Seafood (photo by The Picture Pantry), Yotam Ottolenghi’s tomato with lime and cardamom yoghurt (photo by Louise Hagger), Vicky Bennison’s cappellacci with pumpkin, Jeremy Lee’s bloody mary (photo by Martin Poole), and Anna Jones’ roast peaches with vanilla and thyme.
Recipes Topic Modeling
The following table and graphs show the outcomes of the Gensim LDA models. The pre-processing steps made were to:
Choose the LDA models. Here I used Gensim (Variational Bayes Sampling) and Mallet (Gibbs Sampling).
Determine the number of topics. After visualizing the model coherence score against the number of topics, I decided to train the model with 24 different topics. The best coherence score with Gensim being 0.48.
Assign a Topic Name to each of the 24 latent topics according to the top 10 keywords of the model outputs.
Compute the dominant topics for some of the most contributing chefs to the recipes of The Guardian.
It is worth to take the following insights with a little grain of salt! Gensim’s and Mallet’s LDA models bore most of the time ripe fruits, but also some sour one. Thus, I chose to select only recipe articles that were matched to soft and juicy fruits and disregard the other one. This means, that from my total recipes harvest, around 20% of them were left aside (attribute to the topic as “other” in the table below).
Topic Modeling, Topics Name
The outcomes of the Mallet model can be compared to recipes’ ingredients. Whereas the ingredients are the keywords and the dishes are the documents.
Some topics or if you prefer dishes are easy to identify. For example, the keywords “drink, wine, cocktail, glass, …” can quickly be associated with recipes link to drinks and cocktails, similarly “fish, mussel, salmon, fillet, …” are without doubt referencing to recipes containing fish. For others, it requires a little more interpretation! What do you think of the following pairing? Does it suit your taste, or would you recommend something else?
The table gives an overview of LDA Mallet Topic Modeling results. The Topic Weight shows the probability of a document having a particular topic, the Topic Name shows the name assigned to the Mallet topic keywords.
Main Topics of recipes’ chefs
In part I, I look at the chefs having contributed the most to The Guardian recipes over the years. While each chef likes everything from soup to nuts, they usually stand out according to their type of cuisine. Could this be noticed by looking at all their recipes? Well, by assigning each of the recipes to their dominant topic, this may give us a nice piece of cake!
Tiko Tuskadze’s apple, fennel and beetroot borscht (photo by Jonathan West), Thomasina Miers’ prawn bun cha (photo by Louise Hagger), Ken Yamada’s wild mushroom ramen (photo by Louise Hagger), Chad Parkhill’s negroni, and Mary Berry’s milk chocolate cake (photo by Ola O Smit)
Among the most contributing authors to The Guardian recipes, Nigel Slater, Thomasina Miers, Yotam Ottolenghi or Anna Jones can be mentioned. What distinguishes them from one another? Who recipes should you have a look at, if you fancy fish or meat for dinner, or if you prefer a bowl of soup with a piece of tart?
At first glance, the results seem to be a little bit tasteless! A majority of the chefs’ recipes are about vegetables, sides or soups. But takes another bite, and some spices will become noticeable.
Lover of the sea or pastures, you may be captured by the meat and fish dishes by Nigel Slater, Angela Hartnett or Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Lover of the world, you will preferably travel will Yotam Ottolenghi, Thomasina Miers or Anna Jones with their curry and Asiatic dishes.
To whet your appetite, Nigel’s autumn menu is a suite of comfortable dishes with pumpkin, beetroot, spinach pastry, beef rib boulangere and raspberry mille-feuille. Anna Jones, however, proposed some winter salads or mouthwatering welsh cakes.
The doughnuts charts show the three most famous men and the three most famous women chefs contributing to The Guardian. The doughnuts illustrate the percentage of their recipes belonging to each of the different categories.
A diner is never completed without having a little dessert! Dan Lepard, Felicity Cloake and Ruby Tandoh are probably the sweetest chefs of the Guardian. The classification of their recipes shows clearly that they are master of pastries, cakes and biscuits! So, if you fancy being part of the next Great British Bake Off, you should enjoy reading these authors!
The doughnut charts show the three most famous chefs writing recipes for baking. The doughnuts illustrate the percentage of their recipes belonging to each of the different categories.
Holiday dishes, exotic meals, or festive drinks are equally important that other meals! Rachel Roddy, Meera Sodha and Henry Dimbleby know it well! If you always wanted to visit Italy and taste the traditional pasta dishes, Rachel Roddy will learn you all about it. If you prefer travelling further East, into a colourful and spicy world, then Meera Sodha will guide you through the world of curry, dal, mee goreng and bahn mi. And if you need something to get a little bit cheerful, then Henry Dimbleby may have a recipe for it!
The doughnut charts show the classification of Rachel Roddy, Meera Sodha and Henry Dimbleby’s recipes. The doughnuts illustrate the percentage of their recipes belonging to each of the different categories.
Conclusion
This article has explored LDA Topic Modelling on 7,361 food recipes published in The Guardian from January 2013 to June 2019. It has shown that LDA Topic Modelling is a helpful tool to get insights into famous British chefs recipes. However, it has also shown some limitations: some recipes could not be classified with LDA.
This is partly because of some of the recipe articles present an entire menu, sides, mains, and desserts altogether. But it also due to the fact that cooking can be thought of as a “topic”: Chopping, slicing, cutting, peeling, heating are all techniques that are used to create mouthwatering dishes. Without knowing if they apply to an apple, a tomato or some potatoes, it remains difficult to know if you will end up with a dessert or a salad!
If you are interested in seeing my preprocessing steps, how I picked, washed, chopped, seasoned and finally arranged the numerous data, you can have a look at my GitHub repository over here! For Interactive Visualization over here!
Thanks for reading! Aude
Before cleaning the dishes!
I hope you enjoyed the post and if you’d like to leave any comments, suggestions or thoughts, I would really appreciate it! So please, feel free to reach out!
In the next blog post, I aim to engage with word clouds and visualize the top ingredients used over the years, the seasons and by each of the chefs.
I am a Data and Plant Scientist at Vertical Future, previously at WBCSD. MSc. in Urban Analytics and Smart Cities from UCL The Bartlett CASA in London and BSc. in Food Science from ETH Zurich. Passionate about cities, food, and health get in touch via Twitter or LinkedIn. | https://towardsdatascience.com/the-guardian-recipes-part-2-lda-topic-modeling-51e5b13faefa | ['Aude Vuilli'] | 2020-06-05 16:02:18.333000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Topic Modeling', 'Towards Data Science', 'NLP', 'Data Journalism'] |
It’s Time to Finally Admit: We Love Medium BECAUSE the Deck is Stacked | It’s Time to Finally Admit: We Love Medium BECAUSE the Deck is Stacked
Photo by Vitezslav Vylicil from Pexels
On first glance, Medium seems like it’s stacked against most writers.
In my first month on Medium, I published 17 articles and earned $11.84
Screenshot provided by the author
I spent a minimum of one-hour writing, editing, and formatting each article. Usually, at least double that. Sometimes much more.
Even at an average of one hour per article that’s $0.70 per hour.
Not the greatest hourly rate, but I’m super happy with this start. I’m planning to build from it, and continue writing on Medium for a long time to come.
This article explains what makes Medium such an uphill battle when you’re starting out — and the mindset you can adopt so you can see that the deck is stacked in your favor.
First, let’s look at why Medium can seem so unfair.
Here’s How the Deck is Stacked Against New Writers
Medium is unfair. Niklas Göke admitted it in his article “Why You’re Too Late on Medium.” If you’re late to the party, if you only recently arrived here and started writing, you’ve got it tough. Much tougher than the early adopters. To build an audience, you’ve got to really stand out from the crowd, and it’s super crowded. There are so many incredible writers here, it’s overwhelming at times.
What’s more, the early adopters have already built their following, and that gives them a huge headstart.
Put it this way — if Göke and I both shared similar articles that were equally engaging, (I wish I could write that well), his article would have a much greater chance of being successful. His sheer number of followers would give his article a kickstart of views and momentum, and I’d constantly be playing catchup.
The Halo Effect and the Longtail
Moreover, Göke’s 82k+ followers have a “halo effect” on his writing. His high follower count gives his writing additional credibility and oomph, especially compared to writers whose follower counts are in the hundreds or low thousands. That’s the power of social proof.
Finally, Göke’s 600+ articles allow him to take advantage of the long-tail effect. He’s got so much content on the platform that he’s catering to a wide crowd. Even his less popular articles — those in his longtail — mean that he could chill on autopilot for a month or two, and still do far better than us newcomers.
$10k Per Month — the Ultimate Goal?
I’m here to write, to publish, to find readers, to engage with my readers, and to earn from my writing. There’s no shame in wanting to be paid for my creative work.
What’s more, I’d like to earn enough to pay my bills and support my family.
Depending on which stats you read, somewhere between 5% and 8% of active writers on Medium earn at least $100 per month. These are the writers publishing at least one article each month. In other words, only one in 15 writers are earning gas money from the platform.
Is it really fair that so many writers earn such little money?
It Seems Unfair — and Maybe It Is
All this might seem unfair, or overwhelming. Maybe it is unfair. But I’m not so sure about that.
I’m here because I love the game. I’m here to push myself, to grow, embrace rejection. I’m here for the magic, the thrill.
And most of all, I’m here because while it seems like the deck is stacked against new writers, Medium has built a system that favors and encourages writing.
This is what I find so exciting about Medium:
Here’s the Deal — How Medium Stacks the Deck in Favor of Writers
Medium Pays You to Master One of Life’s Most Difficult Skills
If you write content that Medium members read and enjoy, you will gain reads, claps and followers.
That means writing on Medium is a genuine test of your writing skills. Can you write in a way that engages readers? That’s a tricky skill to master, and one that’s worth pursuing. It’s an education to learn it, so in other words, Medium pays you to learn a difficult skill.
Medium Gives You an Immediate Audience Like No Other Writing Platform
With traditional publishing, I’d have to write a full novel or a detailed book proposal. That’s hundreds if not thousands of hours of work, invested upfront. Even then, the likelihood is that my writing would be rejected. With magazines I have to pitch my ideas and get them accepted by editors — I know from experience how tough that is. To create a successful blog, I’d have to learn the basics of WordPress and SEO.
So many routes to becoming a writer have significant barriers to entry before finding readers and getting paid. On Medium, you can write and publish an article, have real people reading it, and see the income you’re earning, all within a matter of hours. There’s no other place I know of that’s like it.
Medium Lets Me Live My Dream Life — from the Comfort of My Living Room
I’ve wanted to write my whole life. It’s been my dream to write, I just never found a place where I was motivated to keep writing and sharing my ideas. That’s exactly what has happened on Medium. It’s a dream come true.
With Medium, I’ve Hacked the Notification Dopamine Rush in My Favor
Social media has hacked our brains. Notifications give us a rush of dopamine, creating an instant but short-lived high. It’s scary how social networks use this brain chemistry to keep us addicted.
That’s why I’ve turned off almost all notifications on my phone, including messages from some family members (shhh… please don’t tell!). Plus I mostly ignore Facebook, other than to check-in with my running group.
But Medium notifications keep me engaged and writing. The more interactions my writing receives, the more I want to write. Medium has let me “hack back” against notifications, to use the rushes of dopamine in my favor.
I’m not sure what the long term effects of this will be, and I’m monitoring the situation carefully. For now it’s working well for me.
Medium Gives the Possibility that I Could Earn Big from a Single Article — and that Keeps Me Coming Back
I’m excited by the possibility of an article going viral. It’s part of what keeps me writing, and keeps me coming back to Medium. Every milestone I hit feels like a new high.
I wouldn’t want a Medium-style platform where you’re paid per word. I like that writers are rewarded for their skill at engaging an audience and their commitment to writing on a regular basis.
A Star Can be Born, and We Long to Be that Star
Medium is a place where stars are born— and you could be the next star.
It’s not just luck, it’s about how well you engage your readers. And… it’s partly about luck too. There’s an aspect to Medium where you’re rolling the dice. It’s part of what makes it so exciting.
I’m here because for years I longed to write, and now I finally have a reason to. A small reason, a few hundred views, and a pocketful of small change. It’s reason enough for me. Maybe I’ll treat myself to a hot chocolate.
Medium stacks the deck in favor of writers in so many ways — that’s what I love about Medium.
I’m here because the deck is stacked — in favor of the best writers — and I want to learn how to be a great writer.
That’s what I love about Medium. It’s engineered to push me as a writer to be my best self. Long may it continue. | https://medium.com/illumination/its-time-to-finally-admit-we-love-medium-because-the-deck-is-stacked-906ae8e55dae | ['David Majister'] | 2020-12-14 02:45:55.056000+00:00 | ['Illumination', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Ｍedium', 'Creativity', 'Writing'] |
Understanding the logistic regression algorithm in R | Performing a simple Logistic regression in Rstudio for mtcars dataset
Classification image (Source- Pixabay)
Linear regression is the most basic type of regression machine learning technique. On the other hand, the logistic regression machine learning technique is one of the most simple and basic algorithms for classification problems. Some of the examples of classification are Online transaction fraud, tumor malignin, and E-mail spam classification. In logistic regression logistic sigmoid function is used to transform the output to return a probability value. So, one can say that the logistic regression algorithm is a predictive analysis algorithm based on the concept of probability. Logistic regression is used to find the outcome of an event in binary values which can represent whether true or false. The outcome can be categorized into 0 or 1 which represents failure and success respectively.
About regression analysis
Regression analysis is an important technique to model and analyzes data. In this technique, we try to minimize the distance between different data points and a straight line or curve. There are many different regression models but linear and logistic regression is the most basic type of regression algorithm. The regression model is built upon the relationship between the dependent and independent variables in the dataset. Based on the type of dependent variable, the number of the independent variables, and the shape of the regression line which can be straight or curve regression algorithm are classified into many types.
Types of logistic regression
Binary logistic regression: It is a regression involving the dependent variable as binary. (Tumour malignant problem) Ex: success or failure Multiple Logistic regression: It is a regression involving the dependent variables with multi-class. Ex: Dog, cats, or sheep
When to use Logistic regression?
In our daily life, there are many events whose result can be from any one of the categories. Some questions like Will India win over Australia in Kohli’s absence? Or Is terrorism danger to humanity more than other problems? — Can have only two possible results like yes or no. Such problems can be solved using logistic regression.
What is sigmoid Function?
The logistic regression algorithm can be called a linear regression with a more complex cost function which is known as the sigmoid function. It is also known as the logistic function. It can map any real value between 0 and 1 but never exactly at those limits.
e/(1+e^-value) (e — Natural base logarithms)
Its graph is an S-shaped curve which can be observed in the image given below –
Image for the logistic function graph
Logistic regression equation –
y = e^ (b0 + b1*x) / (1 + e^ (b0 + b1*x))
Here y is the dependent variable or one which is predicted, b0 is the intercept term and b1 is the coefficient for the single input value (x).
Avoiding overfitting and underfitting in Logistic regression :
While selecting a model for logistic regression it is very important to consider the model fit. Adding an independent variable to the logistic variables in the model will increase the variance and make the model fit. But if the variables are added in less it will result in underfitting or if more than will result in overfitting of the model. By overfitting, it means that the model will not be able to use as a generalized model for other data set beyond our training dataset and vice-versa for underfitting which cannot even be used for the training data.
Example in R programming-
Here in the example, we will simply create a logistic model for understanding the relationship between two variables of an in-built dataset in an R environment which is called mtcars.
The basic function for logistic regression in R is glm(). The syntax of the glm() function is given below-
glm(formula, data, value)
Following is the above terms in the syntax −
· formula is the symbol for the relationship between two variables
· data is the input dataset (mtcars for our example)
· family is R object to specify the details of the model
About dataset
The dataset was brought from the 1974 Motor Trend US magazine and comprises fuel consumption and 10 aspects of automobile design and performance for 32 automobiles (1973–74 models).
It is a table of 32 observations of a total of 11 variables. Some of the important variables are mpg (miles per gallon), cyl (Number of cylinders), disp (displacement), hp (Horsepower), and wt (weight).
Below is the source code for the R program that we performed on the mtcars dataset for making a logistic model.
R program for logistic regression
Explanation of code
The first line of code declares a vector named tran_data having the input from the mtcars dataset. In the second line, we have created our.data vector which has the glm() function which tries to understand the relationship between the am and the other three variables named cyl, hp, and wt. we have provided data as tran_data here and family is classified as binomial as the outcome is expected in the same manner.
Output
The console image of the studio for output
Explanation of output
As the p-value in the last column is more than 0.05 for the variables “cyl” and “hp”, we consider them to be insignificant in contributing to the value of the variable “am”. Only weight (wt) impacts the “am” value in this regression model.
The weight variable has a p-value of less than 0.05 so we can say that it is significant in contributing to the value of am and am is dependent on weight for its values.
Conclusion
Classification is a machine learning technique from supervised machine learning. In classification, the model tries to predict the category or class to which the dependent variable falls based on its relationship with dependent variables. Logistic regression is a fundamental classification algorithm. It is a linear classifier that is similar to polynomial and linear regression. It is fast and relatively uncomplicated than other classification algorithms. Although it can be best used for binary classification one can also use logistic regression for multi-class classification. | https://medium.com/@vikrant-thakur/understanding-the-logistic-regression-algorithm-in-r-2a8d0ef91bd4 | ['Vikrant Thakur'] | 2021-01-01 10:27:09.803000+00:00 | ['R Programming', 'Logistic Regression', 'Classification Algorithms', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning'] |
America’s Last Emperor: Miser | Chapter Three
Note: Chapter One can be found by clicking here.
Old San Francisco, 1850 courtesy of OpenSFHistory
Monday, November 26th, 1849
“Thank you very much, Mr. Norton.” said Mr. Naglee.
The inside of the bank was not very ornate, being a hastily thrown together space on the ground floor of the Parker House hotel in Portsmouth Square. The hotel was essentially what they called a wooden put-together, a building assembled back east and shipped around the horn to be assembled on site. Clapboard walls were the same everywhere — the only difference was that this room was split by a wall with barred windows in them. As Eastland had explained to Norton, most every bank was the same in San Francisco — almost every merchant with a safe had declared himself a bank and started issuing money in return for gold dust.
“And anyone will accept this?” asked Norton. He turned over and inspected the crudely printed bill that Naglee had given to him in return for a deposit into his vault.
“Oh certainly,” said Naglee. He was a middle aged man with muttonchops. Norton had noticed a great many men with this style of facial hair around town and made a mental note to see the barber after this.
“So I could go to the barber and give this to him?” asked Norton.
“It helps if they are a customer of mine,” said Naglee. “But everyone knows you can bring this to my bank and exchange it for gold.”
Satisfied, Norton took another look at the note and thought about it.
PAY TO THE BEARER $10 OF GOLD was across the top in large letters, and EXCHANGE AND DEPOSIT OFFICE BANK was across the bottom. A “$10” was in each corner of the bill, and at the lower right was a signature “Henry Naglee, founder”.
“So what happens when the price of gold goes up or down?” asked Norton.
“What do you mean?” Naglee asked.
“Well, if I deposit an ounce of gold and you give me a $20 bill, what happens when the price goes to $35 an ounce?” asked Norton.
Naglee sniffed. “The price of gold is stable,” he replied haughtily.
“One must try to plan for all situations,” said Norton. “I trust it well enough for the moment, though. Must be nice to print your own money though.”
Naglee winked at him. “It’s not without benefits,” he confided.
#
The barber combed Norton’s hair back and deftly trimmed it with a pair of brass scissors. He worked quickly and methodically, and as he ran his comb through his hair he stopped every so often and looked at the comb.
“Are you just in from the gold fields?” he asked.
“No, I’m off the brigantine Genesee. We came in on Friday night,” said Norton.
“Ah,” said the barber. He looked around conspiratorially, and nudged Norton.
“These rednecks, they come in from Placerville after working their claims,” he said. “They ain’t washed in months, come in for a wash and a trim.”
There was a twinkle in his eye, and he swung around to pick up a small glass bottle. He handed it to Norton, who inspected it.
The bottle was half filled with glittering golden flakes.
“And they pay you in this?” Norton asked.
“Oh no,” said the barber. “That all goes over in the till over there. This is what I comb out of their hair and beards.”
“How long did it take you to get all that? A week?”
The barber guffawed. “That’s just from today!”
The barber pushed Norton’s chin up, and decided on the exact right way to shave it and get the muttonchops Norton had requested.
“We get a lot more out of the tubs out back,” he said, as moved to the side table and started strapping the straight razor back and forth on a piece of leather. “Best location I could have picked, right next to the Parker House. They always come here right after depositing their money or exchanging it.”
Norton only responded with silent contemplation of the lathering process.
#
Norton considered the adobe building on the corner of Jackson and Montgomery with a little trepidation. He remembered his first run-in with Lick, at the Alcalde’s office. The building before him was in a perfect location, but appeared to be a tavern of some sort on the first floor. Would the inside have a dirt floor? He certainly hoped not.
Lick stood beside him, looking at the building. “I actually like this building. I have an office here myself, but I own a lot of property now. This was one of the first pieces of land that I bought. I need more space for the piano work though. I use the tavern as kind of a showroom, come see.”
Norton reminded himself not to breathe too heavily near Mr. Lick, but the smell seemed to get worse once they were in an enclosed space. He fought to not gag but it started to get eye watering. He fell back a little bit.
“Sorry about the smell, we think an animal fell in the well out back,” said Lick. “At any rate, there’s one of mine, what to you think?”
Norton’s eye’s fell on a rather beautiful upright piano. He moved to it, and played a chord or two.
“I am afraid I could not showcase your handiwork with any great talent,” said Norton.
“I can’t really get past tunin’ them,” said Lick. “I know a few people though.”
Lick paused. “Let’s go see the office, I have. You have two people, you say?”
“Yes,” said Norton. “Myself and my associate, Peter Robertson. Once I have an address, I am off to California Street to post a notice in the newspaper.”
The pair moved up a staircase to a veranda overlooking courtyard of the tavern on the second floor. Offices or rooms had doors that opened out onto the interior, and from the balcony Norton could see a group of men clustered around a well in the middle of the courtyard.
The smell was pretty bad. Norton looked away, towards the door that Lick moved towards. He preferred to smell James Lick than whatever was in that well.
The room Lick guided him into was four walls and a window looking out over Montgomery Street. The street was starting to curve sharply upward at this point, and he could see that the second floor of the building he’d walked into was the first floor of the building on this section of the street. The window was just high enough off the street where people could not easily climb in.
“Mr. Ellis built this place pretty good, and I got a good deal from him. So now I rent out the rooms. It used to be a boarding house but I prefer offices because businessmen always pay their bills on time. And the tavern keeper is shutting down now too, the crime at night around here is just too much. We will convert that space into a store or something.”
“Oh that would be splendid,” said Norton. “But immediate matters take precedent. How much for the office?”
“Straight to business, I like that,” said Lick. “Also slightly suspicious of it.”
“I assure you, I know I could not take you in a business matter, sir,” said Norton. “You’ve been here a while, and hold all the cards. So name your price, I need an office in the middle of things.”
“You are correct, sir, you do,” said Lick. “Two thousand five hundred American dollars per month.”
Norton felt himself getting light headed. He gulped.
“Also no sleeping in here,” he said.
“Oh most definitely,” he said, as a shout came up from the courtyard. “Hey boss!” came a call.
“Excuse me a minute,” Lick said, moving to the door. Norton followed him.
The scene laid out in the courtyard was as foul as the smell that permeated the air. The workers had removed the foul stench from the well in the form of the corpse of Captain Keene. The bartender looked at the corpse and looked back up at the landlord, who suddenly looked very unwell. Norton gasped in recognition of the man he’d just spent four months at sea with.
“I recognize ‘im,” said the bartender. “He’s the captain of that ship that came in Friday night, he came in here for a drink and disappeared. This must be why the whiskey tasted bad Saturday night.”
Lick looked at Norton, who was visibly upset.
“OK, I’ll give it to you for fifteen hundred,” said Lick.
“Deal,” said Norton, without taking his eyes off the corpse. “Mr. Lick, I must take my leave of you immediately. I will be back this afternoon to give payment, but in the meantime I have urgent business I must attend to. This man was in charge of my cargo, and I need to secure it. I trust you men can handle the police?”
Lick snorted. “The police? You can talk to them yourself when you get back, that’s about when they’ll be available to deal with this. I’ll handle this, you secure your cargo. I understand your position.”
“Thank you sir,” said Norton, and out the door he went.
#
The wharf was a bustle of activity during the day, much to Norton’s surprise. Not knowing where to start, he went to Commercial Street and the wharf that extended from there, it seeming to be the central wharf of the waterfront. He wandered down until he found himself in front of a tent with a sign painted that stated this was the New World Coffee Salon. Standing a bit off to the side, leaning on his wagon, was Tom Sawyer. Norton hurried up to him.
“Hello again, sir,” he said urgently. “Might you be available for hire?”
“I might,” said Sawyer.
“Could you take me to where you picked my captain and I up on Friday evening?”
“Certainly,” said Sawyer. “Anything wrong? You look a bit upset.”
“Oh, I am,” said Norton. “Tell it on the way.”
#
The captain’s tender was still tied to the dock at the waterline, which came as a surprise to Sawyer. After a little more wrangling, Sawyer was engaged to row Norton out to the Genesee, where the crew pulled them up on deck. Sawyer assured Norton that everything in San Francisco happened like this, all at once or not at all. The first mate came bounding out of the cabin, pulling on clothes as he came.
“Is Captain Keene with you?” asked the first mate.
“I’ve bad news, Billy,” said Norton. “Captain Keene is dead.”
“Here I thought the news couldn’t get any worse,” said Billy. “I’ve been struggling to keep this ship together.”
Billy looked around, and as he did, what remained of the crew gathered around the men on the deck.
“Five men deserted the first night. Just jumped off the deck and swam to shore,” said Billy. The men were muttering to each other in whispers.
“Three more Saturday night. Five more last night,” said Billy. “Not only that, we’ve been hulled bad. That rock scraped a good bit of wood and cracked a bone on her. We’ve sent men down with tar but we really need to careen her and fix the damage.”
“Careen her?” asked Norton.
“Beach her on the tide,” said Billy.
Norton looked at Sawyer and then back at Billy. “How long do we have?”
“If we didn’t work constantly on it, she’d be half sunk a week the way we have it now.”
“So you can give me a week?” asked Norton.
Billy looked at the remaining crew, who were all looking at him. Norton realized he had to act quickly.
“Men, your crewmates did the stupid thing. They deserted in our hour of need. But I am here to tell you — help us solve this, and I will outfit each and every one of you. I have shovels, pickaxes, buckets, and pans. Did you know a shovel is going for $36 on shore?”
“Help me, men. Help me secure this cargo, and you will surely come out of it better equipped to take advantage of the situation than those that deserted ahead of you!”
#
Monday, December 3rd, 1849
Norton watched from the beach as the remaining crew waited for high tide to peak. The original crew had been thirty six men, including the first mate. Now there were just over fifteen men left. The Genesee had about thirty or so large barrels lashed to her hull just under the waterline, which made her ride higher in the water despite being loaded down with Norton’s chandlery. A line was attached to to the ship that led to the shore, where half of the crew and a large number of hired men were holding the bitter end. Norton knew they would not be able to get the ship completely ashore, but all he needed was close enough to the Howard Street survey that he could put a ramp up.
As he observed the work at hand, he saw Eastland walking up the sandy bed of Howard. He turned to face his new friend and fraternal brother.
“Good day, Mr. Eastland!” said Norton.
“I see you’ve got your plots picked out,” said Eastland.
“The alcalde bought them himself at auction and sold them to me,” said Norton. “No one dared bid against him, it seems.”
“So you already own them! Good show!” said Eastland.
“Well, the bank rightfully owns them,” said Norton. “I’ve got three lots here. Naglee holds the mortgages.”
“Water lots!” said Eastland. “and once you’ve got the Genesee beached, you’ll have a warehouse.”
“Poor Captain Keene,” said Norton. “But the boat will never sail again and as long as my cargo is in the hold I am responsible for salvage.”
“I’m not exactly sure that’s how it goes, but if nobody is complaining then you are doing good,” said Eastland.
“That’s the value of a leader,” said Norton. “These men respond to my regal bearing, that’s all.”
Eastland considered this, and nodded. As he did so, Billy appeared at the head of the line of men holding the tow line.
“Alright men! High tide! When I give the word, haul on those lines! Are we ready?”
A great shout came up from the men.
“All right! Heave! Heave! Heave!”
As Billy called out encouragement, the line tightened and the ship started to glide towards the shore. The men on the line started to pull as fast and hard as they could, and as they did the boat picked up speed. As they did so, some of the crew on board had climbed into the rigging and let loose one one of the square sails. The wind caught it and the boat picked up a lot of speed. The line to the shore went slack, and the boat barrelled into the shallows and buried its bow into the sand just short of the flags that demarcated Howard Street as a great cheer went up. The square sail fluttered down, lines cut as the lazy sailors decided there was no more need to be shipshape about what they were doing.
“Now we prop it up and start selling,” said Norton.
“Congratulations,” said Eastland. “Now we’re neighbors of a sort.”
“I could never have done it without the help of my brothers,” said Norton, beaming. As he said this, Billy walked up.
“She’s on shore, sir,” said Billy.
“And your duty is discharged, sir,” said Norton. “I’ve arranged for Mr. Sawyer to deal with security. What are your plans for the future?”
“I’m gonna do what the rest of the boys are gonna do,” said Billy. “I’m gonna go up into the hills and dig until the ocean calls me back.”
#
Norton knelt at the small table in his room at the Jones, contemplating the coin with the visage of the Bourbon king on it. He clasped his hands in prayer and smiled, knowing his father was in heaven looking down on his royal and regal son.
“Father, thank you for watching over me and guiding me in this new land. I’ve already been lucky enough to find the Masonic helpers you have sent to me, and with your help I have also put down stakes in this new land and claimed a piece of it. I find myself at the beginning of a great business venture truly befitting one of my noble birth.”
“This country is young and foolish. The form of government is supposedly democracy, but it is rife with corruption and shortcuts by the well to do that I have been able to take advantage of due to my breeding and mandate from God. It is obvious that the Americans yearn for an emperor rather than a president — it is obvious in the way they speak about “Manifest Destiny” and “empire”. Someday, maybe they will see the light and reinstate our family as rightful leaders of the countries of the world. Until then, I shall bide my time and build a fortune to live the way we once did before you sent me away to South Africa for my own safety.”
“Amen!”
###
Click here for Chapter 4. Please note that the first three chapters are free — the rest are behind Medium’s paywall. You can subscribe by going to this page.
If you would like to read ahead on my rough drafts, the latest drafts are always on my Patreon Page at https://www.patreon.com/tjcrowley/. You can read it before anyone else for $1. | https://medium.com/@darrenmckeeman/americas-last-emperor-miser-ed6f9e67d01e | ['Darren Mckeeman'] | 2020-12-22 18:02:28.061000+00:00 | ['Emperor Norton', 'San Francisco', 'Fiction', 'Historical Fiction', 'San Francisco History'] |
ONO White Paper: Chapter 3 Technical Framework | Chapter Three
Technical Framework
The technical framework of ONO can be divided into the following six parts:
3.1 Status Authentication System
As one of the basic services of the ONO ecosystem, the ONO identity certification system provides many basic services including account registration, content confirmation, identity certification and limit management and so on. After the user registers in the system, the identity certification will be made. The user going through identity certification will have more authorities, such as participating in the referendum and ecosystem building and so on.
3.2 Content Storage System
The content produced by ONO users in the ONO system are the core products of users and also the core assets of ONO’s attention economy. Therefore, ONO must guarantee that the content of users is stored in a safe manner.
The content data established by ONO users will use the private key of the users to enable encryption. Also, the encrypted data will be stored in the decentralized DHT distributive storage network, for example, IPFS. The Hash of the data will be stored in the blockchain. The users with the proper authority can quote it by smart contracts, thus addressing the data. In the meanwhile, the storage provider will not be able to obtain the corresponding private key of encryption, thus will be unable to extract the user’s data.
IPFS is a decentralized and distributed storage system, aiming to connect all computer data into the same filing system. IPFS adopts content addressing techniques, with which, the users don’t have to worry about the position of the server nor consider the name and route of file storage. Each file is stored in an IPFS node and will get only the encrypted Hash function based on the content.
The Hash function directly points to the content of the file. Even if only one bit is altered, the Hash function will be totally different. When IPFS is requested by the Hash of a file, it will employ the distributed Hash table to find the node where the file is stored, and then extract the file and verify the data of the file. The IPFS network is an unfixed, fine-grained and distributed network. It can better adapt to the requirements of any content delivery network.
Currently, IPFS is under development. In order to guarantee the experience of users, in the early stage, ONO employs highly efficient central development server architecture. The contents of the users will be encrypted and stored in the central database. On the premise of fully protecting the safety of users’ data, the high performance of reading and writing operations is guaranteed; furthermore, the interaction experience of social network products are guaranteed in the largest degree.
3.3 Consensus Mechanism and Incentive Mechanism
The ecosystem that ONO is establishing has a large quantity of data concurrency.
It is presumed that the daily users in the platform will be about five million, and then, it might be estimated that the blockchain needs to run more than 600 transactions per second.
The formula: If the number of active users are 1,000,000:
1,000,000 users* 10 times of operations per user each day (post, comment and forward) = 10,000,000 transfer/day
= 10,000,000/24/3600/second=116 times/second If the number of active users are 5,000,000:
=580 times/second
The existing POW (Proof Of Work) and POS (Proof Of Stake) consensus mechanism is obviously unable to meet these high transactional needs. To meet both the user experience and the decentralized system, the current leading DPOS+BFT is a better solution.)
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) is a consensus mechanism based on the consignor’s proof of interests. It is mainly used to realize the consistency of distributive accounts. Under the DPOS mechanism, by node voting, N witnesses who can sign the block are generated. Due to the implementation of a decentralized voting mechanism, DPOS is quite democratic, in which can guarantee that the behaviors of the witnesses are honest and unbiased. In the meanwhile, each block can prove that the previous block was correctly confirmed by the witnesses.
The pseudo code of DPOS mechanism is realized as follows, for round i
dlist_i = get N delegates sort by votes dlist_i = shuffle(dlist_i)
loop slot = global_time_offset / block_interval pos = slot % N
if delegates[pos] exists in this node generateBlock(keypair of delegates[pos]) else skip
Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is a kind of measuring model of distributive system of error tolerance degree. If a distributive system can tolerate the occurrence of any fault (these faults might include hardware error, network congestion and delay, hacker attack and node betrayal), we can say that the system has reached Byzantine-Fault-Tolerant level. Although as early as in the 1980s, Lamport has proven the feasibility of Byzantine-Fault-Tolerance in the paper, there is no practical and highly-efficient algorithm to realize it. Until the year of 1999, Castro and Liskov published Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance. 2.1Firstly transfer BFT theory into a solution can be achieved in practice.
ONO hopes to adopt a consensus mechanism of DPOS+BFT to strengthen the security of DPOS and make it to tolerate byzantine faults. It is a kind of powerful and decentralized solution and can effectively solve the technology problems that the ONO platform faces.
The appearance of EOS enables the implementation of the ONO vision.
EOS is a blockchain operation system designed for commercial distributed applications. Theprocessing capacity of DPOS+BFT-based underlying
architecture logic can reach millions of transactions per second and meanwhile it can achieve the performance extension of distributed applications, perfectly applicable to the ONO DApp.
The ONO platform will come online on April 15, 2018 and be deployed on the Ethereum public blockchain in the initial stage. In order to meet the needs of community operations and the early-phase keynote construction, ONO will implement an invitation system to restrict the access to 300,000 potential users; On the other hand, the Ethereum chain performance is able to support 300,000 active users. After EOS formally launches its own chain, ONO will immediately migrate to EOS.
2.1 M. Castro, B. Liskov et al., “Practical byzantine fault tolerance” http://pmg.csall.mit.edu/papers/osdi99.pdf
Incentive Mechanism
Compared to some blockchain businesses, POW is not only the consensus mechanism, but is also the incentive mechanism used to encourage active miners to keep doing work.
Given that ONO is the social network app, within the network system, the users who create value and who have high output are the ones who are more critical to the ONO ecosystem. At the same time, the cost to run the DPOS+BFT system is extremely low. It’s different from traditional blockchain cryptocurrencies in that it has no need to reward the miners.
ONO uses the contribution degree to prove the POC (Power of Contribution) mechanism. POC will be used to define and quantify the user’s contributions and issue the matching ONOT. The user’s active behaviors include but are not limited to: being a co-partner of building the social network, joining the developer teams, being a content producer and software user, etc.
More details in “Chapter Four Economic System”.
3.4 End-to-End Encrypted Instant Messaging
To ensure user privacy, ONO encrypts each message end-to-end. The key of the message sender is protocol-signed to access the conversation content, whether it is a one-way chat or a group chat. The message will be sent in a P2P network. If the reciever node’s address is known and online, then the message will be sent directly. Otherwise, the message will be temporarily stored and forwarded in a P2P network node. Because the message is encrypted end-to- end, any other node is unable to check the forwarded message content. In addition, once the message is read by the recipient, it shall be permanently deleted in all temporary storage nodes.
3.5 App Open Platform
The continuous development of the ONO ecosystem depends on the content generated by users. The evolution of social engagement and development of rich applications in a social network are the necessary components which drive growth. The ONO open platform provides a large number of basic components. By using the basic components offered by the platform, the developers can create customized community applications to satisfy the demand of different users and reap rewards for doing so. The basic components of ONO consist of UI components and functional components. UI components can be subdivided into view container components, navigation components, sheet components, map components, multimedia components and canvas and so on. The common functional components include payment components, database components and network components and so on. The advertisers will gain access to certain distribution channels by placing bids. The ONO advertising system provides multiple payment methods including CPA (Cost Per Action) and CPC (Cost Per Click).
According to the pacing 2.2 algorithm, the ONO advertising system optimizes the distribution rate of advertising budgets. The pacing algorithm will learn to compete with other advertisements which all point to the same target audience and which will try to offer optimal pricing.
The rules of this algorithm are as follows:
Final bid (per impression) = optimal bid (per impression) * CTR where optimal bid <= max_bid
CTR refers to click-through rate. The above formula is also applicable to reflecting the VTR used to show watching times and CVR used to show transferred amount.
3.6 Advertising Algorithm
The advertisers will gain access to certain distribution channels by placing bids. The ONO advertising system provides multiple payment methods including CPA (Cost Per Action) and CPC (Cost Per Click).
According to the pacing 2.2 algorithm, the ONO advertising system optimizes the distribution rate of advertising budgets. The pacing algorithm will learn to compete with other advertisements which all point to the same target audience and which will try to offer optimal pricing.
The rules of this algorithm are as follows:
Final bid (per impression) = optimal bid (per impression) * CTR where optimal bid <= max_bid
CTR refers to click-through rate. The above formula is also applicable to reflecting the VTR used to show watching times and CVR used to show transferred amount.
2.2 Facebook pacing algorithm https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/pacing
Read the ONO White Paper:
ONO White Paper CH. 1
ONO White Paper CH. 2: ONO DApp
ONO White Paper CH. 3: Technical
ONO White Paper CH. 4: Economic System
ONO White Paper CH. 5: Advertising System
ONO White Paper CH. 6: Abuse Management
ONO White Paper CH. 7: ONO DAC
ONO White Paper CH. 8: Common Program
ONO White Paper CH. 9: Roadmap
ONO White Paper CH. 10: Challenges & Strategies
ONO White Paper CH. 11: ONO Core Team
ONO White Paper CH. 12: Investors
ONO White Paper CH. 13: Nome Foundation
ONO White Paper CH. 14: Disclaimer
ONO Official Links
Official website: https://www.ono.chat
Telegram Chinese: https://t.me/ONOCN
Telegram English: https://t.me/ONOUS
Sina Weibo: https://weibo.com/ONOofficial
WeChat official account: onogogo
Twitter：https://twitter.com/onosocial
Medium: https://medium.com/@ONOsocial
Steemit: https://steemit.com/@onosocial
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ONOofficial | https://medium.com/ono-social-network/ono-white-paper-part-3-technical-framework-c73cdc82b6fc | [] | 2018-07-10 06:04:39.935000+00:00 | ['Social Network', 'Social Media', 'Blockchain', 'FAQ', 'White Papers'] |
2 Step Guide To Achieve $1,000,000 In Your Voluntary Retirement Account — Swiss Edition | In Switzerland, there is a three pillar pension system. However, only one-third of the working population has pillar3a. Because the third pillar is voluntary. People with pillar 3a will have a great advantage when they retire. In this article, you will learn how to have a one million swiss franc in your pillar 3a pension fund when you retire.
Photo by Max Harlynking on Unsplash
Pillar3a and Misconceptions
Even though pillar3a provides a lot of benefits, such as tax-deductible, can be used for funding a company, purchasing homes, and of course for your retirement. There are ONLY less than one-third of the working population has a pillar3a account! Why?
Most people don’t know what is pillar3a hence they have misconceptions about it. They think it is like pillar1 or pillar 2 contribution, that their money is managed by some other organizations which they have no control of. They think they don’t receive everything they contributed, the money is used to pay for those who are retired now. Most people think once they put money in the pillar3a account, they can not get the money out when they need it. They have to wait till they retire. Most people think the pillar3a contribution is CHF6826 per year, and it is too much for them to commit.
Are some of the statements the same as what you think pillar3a is? Probably.
But they are not true.
Money contributed to the pillar3a account is tax-deductible. Depending on where you live in Switzerland and your income level, you can save even CHF800 to CHF1000 or more on income tax. You can use your pillar3a money for buying property. In Switzerland, the downpayment is 20% of the house value, and you can use your pillar2 and pillar3a to pay part of the downpayment. You can use the money if you set up your own business or move abroad permanently. You can also withdraw your savings if you are unable to work and you draw full invalidity benefit. Even when you withdraw the money when you retire, the tax is much lower than what you would have paid for income tax. You can contribute a maximum of CHF6826 as of 2020. But you don't have to. You can contribute CHF1000, 2000, or any amount which is less than CHF6826. You can do a monthly deposit or lump sum.
There is a lot more information about pillar3a in my other article <How to Create Wealth with Your Pillar 3a>. I highly recommend you to read that one.
If you understand what pillar3a can do for you, here is how you can grow it to $1,000,000 till you retire.
Grow Your Money In Two Folds
Let’s make a simple example to help you understand the process.
Peter started working in Switzerland at age of 25 with a yearly net income of CHF86,000. Assuming he makes the same yearly salary till he is 65.
He is single, with no kids.
He contributes the maximum amount to pillar3a and uses the money to invest in ETFs which gives him an average return of 7% per year, which is a quite reasonable return.
Peter retires at age of 65. | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/2-step-guide-to-achieve-1-000-000-in-your-voluntary-retirement-account-swiss-edition-a00c58ba1dff | [] | 2020-12-27 04:54:50.991000+00:00 | ['Money Mindset', 'Investment', 'Personal Finance', 'Money Management', 'Retirement Planning'] |
Digital Bank Current Closes $131M Series C at $761M Valuation | We’re excited to announce that our portfolio company Current has closed a $131 million Series C led by Tiger Global Management at a post-money valuation of $761 million! To-date, the company has raised over $180 million in total funding.
Congratulations Stuart Sopp and the entire Current family for this monumental achievement!
Here is a link to the Wall Street Journal article, the TechCrunch article, and the company’s Press Release. | https://medium.com/arab-angel-fund/digital-bank-current-closes-131m-series-c-at-761m-valuation-fe06054250a6 | ['Omar Darwazah'] | 2020-11-24 18:25:08.293000+00:00 | ['Fintech', 'VC', 'Neobanks', 'Funding'] |
Pilot Story: IoT for a Water Quality Data Revolution | See the story of the pilot and our insights on Internet of Things tech here.
“I think we’re really onto something. Accurate data collected using IoT enabled data logging devices has great potential to create a range of products that could change how the humanitarian sector does water trucking, ultimately benefiting more refugees.” Ben Britton, Field Ready
At the Frontier Technologies Hub, we work with UKAid to explore how emerging technologies can help to solve the variety of challenges found in developing country contexts.
In this case study, we present the story and reflect on a completed pilot project from Jordan, which looked to see if IoT devices could be used on water trucks in refugee/IDP camps to improve efficiency and reduce leakage.
You can find the publication here. | https://medium.com/frontier-technologies-hub/pilot-story-iot-for-a-water-quality-data-revolution-3b11559b1736 | ['Olivia Jenkins'] | 2020-12-03 13:32:58.584000+00:00 | ['Humanitarian', 'Frontier Tech', 'Internet of Things', 'Water And Sanitation', 'Data Revolution'] |
Calculating neVichislimoe | Technology and science always evolve as a reaction to growing human needs and interests. Though the world of binary has a firm grasp on current needs and purposes, nothing lasts forever. Such factors like limitations in computing power, computer security, scarce low-level logical flexibility, etc. infuse the demand on modifying currently available architectures or even designing one anew.
Quantum computing
This specific area of R&D is the main subject area of may computer scientists and leading IT companies. The story of love started with quantum computers in 1980 with Paul Benioff. Benioff showed that a computer could operate under the laws of quantum mechanics by describing a Schrödinger equation description of a Turing machine. After more than 25 years of continuous research, quantum computing got ist current identity and political weight. If you wish to know why conventional
The scientific field of quantum computing is wide. It seeks to solve different complex problems in such areas as cryptography, computing algorithms, telecommunications, cybersecurity and more. More than 70 companies are researching and developing products in this sphere. For instance, IBM, Google, NLC, etc.
Quantum computing is going to be described below in terms of different architectural designs, required hardware, and software components
Difference between existing quantum computing architectures
What has to be said is that the core of the QC operation process is quantum chemical reactions. It’s possible to discover that a couple of different front-running technologies exist behind QC. Some of those are superconducting transmon qubits and trapped-ion qubits, with other candidate technologies also of considerable interest. The different methods of forming qubits are sufficiently different even to such extent that fundamental gate operations performed on them differ widely. Other than that inter-qubit interaction methods differ enormously what leds to widely disparate communication approaches and connectivity topologies.
If you are interested in more extended information on comparison of quantum architectures , refer to:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.11349.pdf
Hardware
Like conventional computers, those based on quantum mechanics ought to have hardware components. In order or conceptualize the necessary hardware components for an analog or gate-based QC, abstract notions are to be injected: quantum data plane, control and measurement plane, control processor plane, host processor.
The quantum data plane is the main engine or QC. Its destiny is to underpin the operations with q-bits, including holding them in place, measure the qubits’ state and perform gate operations on the physical qubits for a gate-based system or control the Hamiltonian for an analog computer. There are some operational rules of QC, which differentiates it from classical silicon computers. Only two or more q-bit can interact with each other using correct networking wires, otherwise, q-bits fidelity metrics plummet. Thus the most important metrics at this layer are q-bit fidelity and connectivity.
The control plane and data plane can’t be based on the same quantum architecture, unlike in conventional computers. Usually, a control plane transmits control signals via electric wire, light or microwave radiation — it depends on the underlying qubit technology. Systems using trapped-ion qubits usually use microwave and optical signals transmitted through waveguides, whereas superconducting qubit systems rely on microwave and low-frequency signals which reach their destination using cryostats. The aspect that challenges scientists to the greatest extent is the fact that controls have to be sent directly to q-bits themselves, what becomes an issue when the number of q-bit grows. Signal crosswalk and quality of generated signal itself also directly impacts qubit operations. Mechanism for error correction and calibration is required.
( In some way quantum data plane is similar to a Field programmable gate array, which can be configured in run time to perform a specific task)
The process of running a program on QC is a bit different from that on a classical computer. On top of a control plane , lies control processor plane, which is split in two parts: classical processor for running q-programs and scalable custom hardware block which works as a call-bridge between higher layers and control/measurement plane. The control processor plane identifies and triggers the proper Hamiltonian or sequence of quantum gate operations and measurements. Thereby triggering a program execution. Basically it is a compiler. A user on its side always interacts with host processor, which is a conventional computer, having required software and libraries to work with a control processor plane.
Software and quantum programming
Same as in classical computers, over newcomer QC must have a way to be programmed. It’s crucial for enabling its design and use. Combination of compilers and languages, that we are going to call toolchains,are designed and used with the goal of saving qubit and time of program execution. The development of programming language for QCs is a nontrivial task. High-level quantum programming language should strike a balance between abstraction and detail.
Similar to conventional computers QCs have their own assembly language called QASM. Currently, some convergence is being seen on the OpenQASM quantum assembly-level language, which combines elements of assembly languages and C with the original QASM constructs. In the final phases of compilation, a program represented in a QIR like OpenQASM is translated into appropriate control instructions, producing code for the control processor. The control processor drives signals to the control and measurement plane.
From a standpoint of conventional programer software libraries is a convenient method of making programming process faster and more pleasant. That’s why basic algorithms is to be realized out of the box. Addition, multiplication, some more complex algorithms like modular arithmetic, implementation of block ciphers, and hash functions etc. This shields algorithm-level programmers from the burden of fully familiarizing themselves with hardware details while optimizing for circuit width or depth.
Generic tool flow for quantum programming. A quantum program is implemented in a domain-specific language (DSL) and then translated into hardware instructions after undergoing a series of compiler transformations and optimizations. A quantum intermediate representation (QIR) of the program can serve as a logical-level analog to conventional assembly code. For programs running on error-corrected qubits, the compiler would link in low-level QEC libraries into the code, transforming the logical qubit operations, to the physical operations on a number of qubits. The qubits of this “expanded” quantum program are then mapped onto a specific hardware implementation accounting for the specific gate operations and connectivity available.
The next step to reach the goal of executing the program is a gate synthesis. Arbitrary single-qubit rotations cannot be expressed exactly using a Clifford + T gate set; thus, these rotations must be decomposed a series of gate operations. Decomposition enables a general circuit expressed in arbitrary unitaries. The most used universal gate set is Clifford + T gate set; however, other gates are also possible (Clifford and Toffoli, V basis gate set, etc.).
Usefull tools:
https://github.com/qosf/awesome-quantum-software
Era of quantum security?
Quantum cybersecurity is the field that studies all aspects affecting the security and privacy of communications and computations caused by the development of quantum technologies.
The security of encryption is quantified in terms of “bits of security.” This provides an easy way to compare algorithms with different properties. It takes about 2,128 computational steps for an attacker to crack a 128-bit AES key, a 256-bit elliptic curve key, or a 3,072-bit RSA key. We say that each of these approaches to encryption provides 128 bits of security.
But the number of steps that it takes to crack a key depends on the computer you use. The fact that a 3,072-bit RSA key provides 128 bits of security assumes that an attacker is using a classical computer, not a quantum one.
The nature of quantum computers — computers that use qubits instead of just traditional bits — makes it possible to implement algorithms that cannot be implemented on classical computers, and these dramatically affect the security of some encryption algorithms. In particular, there is an algorithm that runs on a quantum computer that reduces the security of a 3,072-bit RSA key down to only about 26 bits. It is essentially impossible with the non-quantum technology that will be available in the foreseeable future to crack a key that provides 128 bits of security, but you can easily crack one that provides only 26 bits of security with the computing power of a cellphone.
No need to be worried. Post-quantum cryptography is to safe us from newly generated traffic and data to be decrypted(only if you install SSL cert generated with post-q crypto algorithm). However, when large fault-tolerant q-computers will be constructed, mostly used crypto-systems will brake suddenly, what mostly will stay undercover for some time. Who knows why NSA collects all current ongoing TLS encrypted traffic featured with traffic perfect forward secrecy , flowing through US Internet backbone nodes…
Prospects of QC market development
While much progress has been made in the development of small-scale quantum computers, the quantum computer system that can scale to the size needed to break current cryptography has not been demonstrated, nor can it be achieved by straightforward scaling of any of the current implementations.
Quantum computers with 50–100 qubits may be able to perform tasks which surpass the capabilities of today’s classical digital computers, but noise in quantum gates will limit the size of quantum circuits that can be executed reliably. However, there are a couple of low-noise solutions for building quantum gates based on superconducting metals and diamonds. Scientists believe that these can enable manufacturers to build portable QCs, however, it is still a state of art technology.
As a result, it is not clear whether the current leading quantum technologies will be used to create this class of analog high-performance machines. Maybe some others can? | https://medium.com/@dzen.fedor13/calculating-nevichislimoe-8bddc595e259 | ['Ted Dzen'] | 2019-12-14 16:16:27.944000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Computer Science', 'Quantum Computing', 'Hacking', 'Technology'] |
Here’s Your Transformative Guide on your Data Visualization Journey | Here’s Your Transformative Guide on your Data Visualization Journey
Visual communication is a must-have skill for everyone who works with or uses data. This is because even with the best (high quality) data, it remains worthless if no one can understand it. The study of using a visual or artistic approach to represent data is what is considered as data visualization.
Our fourth virtual event focused on introducing participants to data visualization and we explored what it really means, how it is done, and tips on communicating effectively when doing data visualization and all this is explored in this blog.
So, what does data visualization really mean?
In simple terms, the representation of data or information in a chart, graph, or any other visual format is data visualization. Data visualization is widely used by organizations of all sizes because it makes it easier and quicker to identify patterns and trends in your data sets and our brains process visualized information much more effectively. All this makes data visualization the most ideal way to communicate data findings. As a popular saying states “A picture is worth a thousand words”, a #DataViz is that picture that represents your large data set.
Who uses data visualization?
Data visualization is for everybody and we are all either consumers or producers. Regardless of the work you do, if you have a smartphone and use the internet chances are you have interacted with a data visualization as a consumer. This could have been through the calendar app, the weather app, or even in areas such as “internet and storage” usage on your device.
How is it done?
Although data visualization is superior compared to the traditional reporting methods, it must be done well in order for one to communicate their findings effectively. So both good and bad data visualizations do exist. A good data visualization is one that possesses traits such as usefulness; one can use it to make a relevant decision, desirability; it’s not only easy to use but also pleasurable to use and usability; one who uses it can accomplish their goals quickly and easily. And all these can be attained when one follows a process.
Before creating your data visualizations, you should have an understanding of your data as this helps you determine which visuals to use. Zoom in and out of the data and pick out interesting insights to portray and concentrate on only communicating the key insights. In most cases, putting it all in can be dangerous to the consumer and might create confusion.
When creating your data visualization, have your audience at the back of your mind and first understand who they really are, what visuals resonate best with them, what colors amplify your data story and what illustrations draw the audience in. A common mistake data visualization designers do is choosing the most attractive visuals. Visuals should not only be attractive but should match both the data you have and the audience. There are a vast of visuals to choose from and these include;
Line charts — a chart that displays information in the form of data points connected by line segments. These are often used to reveal trends, progress, or changes that occur over time, and work best with continuous data.
Bar charts/column charts — a chart or graph that presents data with the help of rectangular bars that are proportional to the values they represent and work best with categorical data on one of the axes.
Histograms — histograms are similar to bar charts. The main difference between the two is that histograms are used for only numeric data and the bars in a histogram are mostly pushed together.
Area charts — a chart similar to a line graph but with emphasis on the area under the line. This is usually done by filling the area between the line and the x-axis with color or shading.
Scatter plots — commonly used in statistical analysis, scatter plots help explore the association between two numeric features/variables.
Pie charts — a circular chart divided into proportions each representing a proportion of a different category.
Other visuals include bubble charts, heat maps, word clouds, dual-axis charts, violin plots, box plots, funnel charts, etc
Although numerous chart types or visuals exist, it is always advisable to start from the simplest and most commonly used charts i.e. bar charts, line charts, and pie charts before progressing to more complex options. Remember, a chart is only useful when it packages information in a way that makes it quickly understandable at a glance. So breaking up a complicated chart into smaller chunks can be an effective way to visualize your data. For example, a chart can communicate an increase or a decrease or show how one category compares to another.
After understanding your data and choosing the visuals that communicate your data to your audience best, one now needs to choose a data visualization tool to use.
All data analysis and data processing software provide means for data visualization but one can always opt for tools specifically designed for data visualization purposes. Such tools include Canva, Infogram, Flourish, Raw Graphics, etc. When choosing a data visualization tool to use; one can consider the ease of use, ease of integration, data protection policies especially with web-based platforms, use costs, etc.
Once you have chosen the tools to design your data visualizations, always remember to keep it simple, display only the important information, avoid overloading your data, ensure your charts require little to no explanation, and stay away from 3D. Color is also a very important aspect of your visualization because when done well, it can bring out the key aspects of what you are trying to communicate but when done poorly can provide a distraction.
Understanding your audience can be tricky at times. One can tackle this by creating a persona of who your target consumer is. Who do you want this chart to speak to? You should name the person, give them an age, a character. How does Susan receive info? On her phone, or laptop? Does she have good connectivity? Should I then make my chart an image or a video? Should I make an infographic or a dashboard?
More tips for effectively communicating with data visualizations;
DataViz in practice
Data visualization has been around for a very long time. In 1854, a popular doctor called John Snow created a map depicting cholera cases, that changed the world. He used small bar charts to mark the number of cholera deaths and cases at each household in a London neighborhood and these visualizations revealed a root cause problem that inspired a solution.
Another is W.E.B. Du Bois whose colorful charts, graphs, and maps presented at the 1900 Paris Exposition offered a view into the lives of black Americans, conveying a literal and figurative representation of “the color line.”
In 2018, Dima Yarovinsky presented his “I Agree” project which visually showcases printed terms and conditions for major social apps such as WhatsApp, Google, Tinder, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram highlighting what we are always getting into when we click on “I agree” on web services.
There is no doubt that data visualization is an essential part of working with data. However, if not done right, data visualization ceases to be useful. The key to creating truly powerful data visualizations is to start right from the beginning by understanding context (your audience and what they care about), following simple design techniques, reducing the clutter (unnecessary and distracting visual elements), and avoiding design pitfalls (such as using pie charts with more than seven wedges).
Additionally, always remember that even though a picture is worth a thousand words, when it comes to data visualization one should always add some context to the visuals in the form of text to communicate much more effectively. That is how one creates a truly powerful data visualization.
Written by Arthur Kakande, Communications Lead at Pollicy. Designs by Wilson Lukwago, Design Lead at Pollicy. | https://medium.com/pollicy/heres-your-transformative-guide-on-your-data-visualization-journey-58d80c3a1b02 | [] | 2020-07-06 12:09:53.396000+00:00 | ['Workshop', 'Uganda', 'Civictech', 'Dataviz', 'Africa'] |
Projecting confidence — How to create a stage persona | When do you think about a stage persona or alter ego? You probably think about artists — especially musicians. It is pretty common for them to change their real names and create a persona for the public.
You can find plenty of outstanding stage personas, like Bob Dylan, Elton John, Lady Gaga, or some more discreet ones, like Keanu Reeves. So, what does it have to do with public speaking?
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A STAGE PERSONA
Persona means mask in Latin, and the concept has existed since the first men started telling stories.
Using a persona means that it’s not you; it’s someone else. This partly-fictional alter-ego is this way a tool which allows an artist to create a distance between themselves and their performances. It frees them from their own prejudices, allowing them to do what they could never otherwise. It also helps them to protect and separate their private self from the one on stage.
Now, that you can better understand how a stage persona works, what can it do for your public speaking?
Creating this alter ego can help you, even if you’re shy, to have a strong and confident stage persona. It helps you come across as more extroverted and reliable for your audience.
The main rule to create your own alter ego? It has to be consistent from performance to performance.
PRACTICAL GUIDE STEPS TO CREATE A STAGE PERSONA
You don’t need to change your name or anything so radical. Also, it doesn’t happen overnight. Creating a stage persona is a process of experimentation. Here are five tips that can help you develop yours.
1. IT MUST HAVE SOMETHING OF YOURSELF
It is contra-productive to create an entirely new personality. To ease the process, you must recognize yourself in it. It must have a part of your off-stage personality. Bring something that helps you to connect with your persona and doesn’t make you feel fake.
You can think of it as a better version of yourself. Something that you think is good and works well on stage. The part of your true self can be the way you move across stage, maybe the power of your voice, and emphasize it. Anything that you already have and makes you feel confident should be incorporated into your stage persona.
Personalities are complex, and you have many traits. Pick one that is already perfect, in the sense that you will come across as you want to your audience, and project it on stage.
2. FIND A VOICE THAT SETS YOU FREE
Most stage personas are born of the fact that the person is shy. You need to break free from your shyness, and the persona you’re creating should help with that process.
It just makes you feel free, confident, and secure. To facilitate the initial stage, you can think of it as a character. How should your character be, to be able to do what you need, but can’t, do by yourself?
A stage persona frees you to get experimental and helps your creativity flows.
3. OBSERVE OTHERS PERFORMANCES
You may never have thought of it, but other people have their own stage personas, even if it isn’t that obvious. They may not have changed their name or used weird clothes, but that person on stage is usually not who they are in private. If you think about it and observe, you may notice this in colleagues or others you interact with.
Observe them with all your attention. What do you like? What do you think works? Then, pick up the traits you admire and get inspired.
4. EXPERIMENT IN A SAFE SPACE
You’ll not win the first time. Creating the ideal persona takes time, effort, and… practice. So find a place where you can practice as much as you need. (Remember that our Virtual audience will never get bored and will listen to you for hours and hours.)
Record your performance and watch yourself. Did you like it? No? Try again. Experiment, practice, rehearse.
The more stage time you have (even in a virtual environment), the more you know your strengths and weaknesses. Use all the practice to know what is good and what needs improvement.
5. PASSION
Passion is vital for this to work, and it has two sides — both extremely important.
First, find a persona about who you are passionate. Remember that you’ll BE that person for long hours. You must like and admire them.
Second, your persona’s most important trait: it must be passionate about your topics. You can’t reach an audience if you’re bored yourself, right? So, you need to be enthusiastic! Enjoy what you’re doing.
THE IDEAL PERSONA
Creating a stage persona can be of great help for you, especially if you are shy. Yet, it requires a lot of determination and time to build. It helps you create your stage presence, which is vital to capture your audience’s full attention.
It may feel artificial for you at first, but the more you experiment and practice, the more natural it will feel.
Then you’re free to amaze your audience! | https://medium.com/@virtualorator/projecting-confidence-how-to-create-a-stage-persona-879837ea8f0 | ['Virtual Orator'] | 2021-11-24 10:22:40.729000+00:00 | ['How To', 'Confidence Builder', 'Public Speaking', 'Stage Fright'] |
How Do I Love Water? Lemme Write a Post About It | How Do I Love Water? Lemme Write a Post About It
I don’t just want to be in water, I want to BE it
Photo by Wassim Chouak on Unsplash
Water is my favourite element.
The other three have a lot to offer for sure: there’s the excitement, intensity and passion of fire, the solidity, reliability and malleability of earth, air’s association with breath, spirit and the answers that are blowing in the wind.
But there’s something about water. There’s the incredible variety of forms it can take, from ice all the way to mist with the crashing waves, still pools and running rivers in between. There’s all the different sounds that go with all these forms and movements — hissing, splashing, trickling and babbling. Then there’s the incredible interactivity water has. You can sit in a pool or jacuzzi and instantly feel calm, or run headlong into a tall wave and feel it crash around you, or dive deep into the sea, or swim along the surface, or thrash and splash about, or run your arm along the skin of the water to make a spray, or plunge yourself just below the surface and feel the bubbles tickling your face. Water is there to be enjoyed.
Photo by Zane Lee on Unsplash
That’s given the substance a gentle reputation, but it always amazes me to think that the violent storms that threaten boats at sea and the water you use to drink and bathe in are the same substance.
I’m even more amazed by the way playing in the waves makes me feel like a kid. There’s a sense of weightlessness, endless movement, total freedom, total spontaneity, joy, liberation from the ploddingness and heaviness of earth. I act on every impulse without consequences, play with my surroundings rather than getting something from them or imposing my will on them. There’s no duty in the sea and no goal to reach. You’re just there.
It always feels sort of strange to leave the sea and return to the solidity of the shore, like leaving the essential nature of things behind and returning to the world of appearances. I don’t know enough about biology or psychology to speculate on whether we carry a collective memory of our underwater ancestors around with us, but it definitely wouldn’t surprise me if being in the sea reminded us of our time in the womb — a time when everything was provided for us, we didn’t have to plan or strive, and we could move our limbs with pure directionless freedom.
Or maybe the feeling of being in the water is just similar to the feeling of being on holiday. You’re in a space so different from your normal environment that you can leave behind all the little guilts, duties and practicalities that make up everyday life and experience that Garden of Eden state of appreciating the world immediately and directly. The sensation of being submerged in a vast expanse and swimming through it without resistance, being caressed on all sides, is a powerful metaphor for the ego-free experience of the world.
Photo by Lucie Hošová on Unsplash
So it’s no wonder water is probably the most important element in Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity. In the Gospels the fact that water is used to wash away physical dirt and grime is extended out into the idea of baptism, which washes away spiritual sin (doing for the individual what the Flood is supposed to have done for the planet at large). If baptism emphasises water’s purifying function, then the book of John’s concept of “living water” draws on the element’s refreshing and life-sustaining properties.
In Siddhartha, Herman Hesse’s fable about the search for enlightenment, the title character learns everything he needs to know about life from watching and listening to a river. The first thing he notices is that the river is simultaneously always moving and always in the same place — a paradox suggesting that stability, permanence and the forward passage of time are illusions.
As Siddhartha goes about earning his living and raising his son next to the river, we’re told that every time he takes something too seriously or tries too hard to impose his will on a situation the river starts laughing at him. Finally, after years of listening to the river Siddhartha discerns an infinity of voices in its babbling, symbolising the oneness of everyone that has ever existed or will exist. This unity encompasses not just every person but every version of every person as they change and grow throughout their lives. Past, present, future, me, you, them, all one.
Photo by Austris Augusts on Unsplash
Taoism, the “philosophy of flow”, also recommends we take our cues from water. Tao Te Ching chapter 8: ‘True goodness is like water. Water’s good for everything. It doesn’t compete. It goes right to the low loathsome places, and so finds the way’. You can read an endless amount of advice into those four sentences: be flexible; adapt to every situation; be useful to everyone; don’t compare yourself with anyone else or pit yourself against them; find creative ways around every obstacle; be humble; don’t worry about losing status or respect as long as you’re on the right path. Later in chapter 35, the Way is compared to drinking water, simultaneously boring and essential: ‘if you taste the Way it’s flat, insipid…And yet you can’t get enough of it’.
In other chapters water is valued for both its clarity (‘Can you keep the deep water still and clear, so it reflects without blurring?’) and its lack of it (‘Most people are so keen. I don’t have the answers. Oh, I’m desolate, at sea, adrift, without harbour’). Rivers symbolise inexhaustible renewal (‘Being the world’s riverbed of eternal unfailing power is to go back again to be newborn’), “leading from below” (‘Lakes and rivers are lords of the hundred valleys. Why? Because they’ll go lower’) and the effortless “doing without doing” that lies at the core of the book (‘What’s softest in the world rushes and runs over what’s hardest in the world’).
Clearly, the author or authors of the book were as enamoured of the diversity of water as I am — the usefulness of drinking water, the depth of lakes, the overwhelmingness of the sea and the unceasing movement of rivers all represent wildly different aspects of the Way. Notice how the eternally recurring youth of the river of Tao ties in with Siddhartha’s observations about impermanence and the illusion of time? | https://medium.com/the-small-dark-light/how-do-i-love-water-lemme-write-a-post-about-it-8995fb77672c | ['Wabi Sabi'] | 2020-11-24 19:59:54.184000+00:00 | ['Buddhism', 'Christianity', 'Taoism', 'Water', 'Tao Te Ching'] |
A guide to Smart Contracts | We all have heard the term Smart Contract. When Satoshi invented Blockchain, it was meant to perform transactions only. Ethereum smart contracts made it the prime choice to build Dapps over it. Smart contract enhanced Ethereum’s functionality and makes it different from the traditional blockchain (Bitcoin). This functionality was replicated by other newer Blockchains.
What are Smart Contracts?
Smart contracts can be defined as self-executing applications that run on a blockchain. It is an agreement between two or more parties in the form of a computer code that runs on a decentralized network in a blockchain. It consists of a set of defined rules which are agreed upon by the involved parties. The contract automatically gets activated whenever certain conditions are met.
This idea will remove the involvement of any trusted third-party companies (such as banks) and will be controlled by computers on a trusted network.
Ethereum is one of the most popular blockchain platforms for creating smart contracts. It supports a feature called Turing-completeness that enables the developers to build customized smart contracts. Solidity, Ethereum’s original coding language is used to develop smart contracts. Ethereum blockchain’s ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens are smart contract standards.
Who created it?
Nick Szabo, a computer scientist, and cryptographer, first described the idea of Smart contracts in the ’90s. He worked on the concept of defining contract laws in businesses between parties by maintaining an electronic commerce protocol on the Internet.
He further designed Bit Gold, a mechanism for a decentralized digital currency in 1998. Though the idea was never implemented it created a base that led to the popularity of Bitcoin after 10 years.
Properties:
· Self-verifiable
· Self-executable
· Tamper Proof
Benefits of using Smart Contract
· The removal of third-party or middleman leads to direct and transparent communication between involving parties
· Helps in maintaining trust as the agreement rules were predefined and agreed by the parties involved
· Helps in reducing error and frauds
· Time and cost-efficient
· No single point of failure or data loss as data is distributed across the network
Different objects of Smart contracts
There are three essential and main objects of Smart Contracts
· Signatories- The parties who use the smart contract.
· Agreement subject
· Terms and Condition-. Details like rules, obligations, and associated punishments, etc are mentioned as terms and conditions as appropriate.
How Smart Contract works
Ethereum has 2 types of accounts
· External accounts (user account) — Controlled by public-private key pairs
· Contract accounts — Controlled by the code stored together with the account
These accounts contain four fields:
· The nonce, which ensures that each transaction can only be processed once
· The current ether balance of the account
· The contract code of the account
· The storage of the account
Model steps
1. External account executes a function:
a. The user initiates the process by signing the transaction using his private key corresponding to the account.
b. Local validation of the transaction happens. It is broadcasted to the network.
c. The transaction is added to the transaction pool. The miner/s maintains such pools.
2. Generate EVM bytecode through compiling
3. EVM
a. EVM is a powerful, virtual sandbox embedded within each full Ethereum node
b. The job of the EVM is to update the Ethereum state by computing valid state transitions as a result of smart contact code execution
c. The EVM should not run into any exceptions during the execution
4. Get contract address from that transaction’s receipt
5. Trigger contract address to invoke methods of that deployed smart contract
6. Upon receiving a newly created block, the local node executes all the transactions in the block.
The accuracy and quality of a smart contract depends on the following things
· Open and decentralized database
· The environment needs to support the use of public-key cryptography
· Quality programming is crucial.
· Data should be reliable.
· Robust rules should be used while automating the process.
Features
Smart contracts automatically support the features of underlying blockchain technology.
· Autonomy — Complete control of the involving parties. No need of middleman as in the case of traditional contractual system
· Speed — Automated computer code runs as soon as the input criteria fulfill, thereby eliminating the delays caused by manual paperwork activity
· Safety — Network encryption guarantees safety against data theft or hacking
· Savings — No doubt that the removal of middleman saves a lot of overall cost and time
· Accuracy — Since these smart contracts are automated software codes so they ensure accurate output as long as the data fed into the system as input is accurate
· Trust — Helps in building trust as the documents are encrypted in a shared ledger
· Backup — Since in Blockchain network, each node has a complete backup of data which ensures protection over data loss
Potential Use cases
Smart contracts can be used to exchange money, property, shares, or anything without any intervention of middleman. They are now gaining popularity and adaption in various sectors. Some of the main sectors are as follows:-
· Insurance Companies
· Health Systems
· Government’s administrative work.
· Business Management
I will cover each of the potential use cases in detail in my future articles separately.
Conclusion
Smart Contract is the greatest innovation built on Blockchain technology. We can say it as a cherry over the pie. It has given a new dimension to technology and is one of the biggest reasons behind the popularity of Ethereum.
We can say without any second thought that very soon we will be entering into the era where there will be no intervention of any third party. In this way, it can help us in saving a lot of money, time, and effort. Also we don’t need to be dependent or trust anyone while taking any crucial transactions. This will surely help in reducing fraud, unnecessary delays, and the overall cost of transactions. Smart Contracts will make many transactional jobs redundant. We can be hopeful that further development in technology will open sources for many other new jobs.
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Read More: Mastering Basic Attention Token (BAT) | https://medium.com/@ruma-das/a-guide-to-smart-contracts-ad783eb015aa | ['Ruma Das'] | 2020-05-27 12:11:36.457000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Smart Contracts', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Evm', 'Ethereum'] |
Announcing the USDS Stablecoin on Tezos from Stably | Announcing the USDS Stablecoin on Tezos from Stably Stably Follow Dec 28 · 3 min read
Today, we are proud to announce our collaboration with the Tezos ecosystem, which will begin with bringing our USD-backed stablecoin, USDS, to Tezos.
Since our launch on the Ethereum mainnet in 2018, Stably has been setting new standards for transparency and usability in the stablecoin industry, and we’re excited to bring those same standards to the Tezos ecosystem with one of the first stablecoins in the world to be issued on Tezos.
What is Tezos USDS?
USDS is a stablecoin created by Stably, built upon the FA2 token standard, and issued by Prime Trust, a Nevada-chartered trust company that is also the regulated administrator for USDS. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that typically maintain a peg to national currencies on blockchains like Tezos — i.e. digital cash. Regulated, fiat-backed stablecoins like USDS are fully backed by physical reserves of fiat money and can be redeemed at a 1:1 ratio.
USDS avoids the price volatility of traditional cryptocurrencies, while still retaining many of their useful characteristics such as low-cost, high-speed transactions and cross-border payments without the high fees of credit card processors or money transfer companies.
USDS will also use TZIP-15 and TZIP-17 standards which allow for lightweight token permissioning and gas relaying, i.e. ability for users to pay transaction fees in USDS.
How to Mint and Redeem Tezos USDS
Any user will be able to mint or redeem USDS on Tezos; simply open a support ticket at https://support.stably.io/ and a member of our operations team will contact you to provide further instructions. USDS will also be available on decentralized exchanges like Dexter and QuipuSwap.
In the coming months, we will integrate this functionality into our web platform Stably Prime, where the process to mint, redeem, or swap USD to Tezos USDS will be available and automated.
Why Tezos?
Our experience with high and rising gas costs on Ethereum led us to begin looking into new ecosystems in which to launch USDS and our Stably Prime platform. Tezos stood out in its ability to routinely coordinate protocol upgrades and implement functionality improvements. With the recent Delphi protocol upgrade slashing gas costs by as much as 75%, Tezos has become even more attractive as we seek to make tokenization and DeFi usable for mainstream and institutional users.
“We’re thrilled to participate in the burgeoning Tezos DeFi ecosystem — with low gas costs, institutional-grade security, and a new, regular schedule of protocol upgrades in place, we’re confident that Tezos is an ideal blockchain to grow our USDS stablecoin” said Kory Hoang, CEO and Co-Founder of Stably.
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Investors: Kory Hoang, CEO — [email protected] | https://medium.com/stably-blog/announcing-the-usds-stablecoin-on-tezos-from-stably-fce591cee484 | [] | 2020-12-28 17:58:05.833000+00:00 | ['Usds', 'Stablecoin', 'Announcements', 'Tezos', 'Stably'] |
Dynamic Alerts for AWS IAM Configuration Changes | This blog is an improved version of this AWS blog post by Will Kruse, In his blog post, he walks us through how to set up CloudWatch alarms on IAM configuration changes. Here’s a quick overview of the setup that was suggested on how AWS usage ends up triggering a CloudWatch alarm. The users of your AWS account make calls to IAM (and other AWS services), and a record of these calls is included in your CloudTrail logs (these records are called “events”). CloudTrail publishes these log events to your CloudWatch logs. CloudWatch allows you to run a filter on these events and generate a CloudWatch metric on any matches. It’s up to you to define when these metrics trigger an alarm, but when enough events occur in a specified time period, you will receive an alert either via an SNS topic or email.
The following images illustrates the process:
The Problem:
The email alert received contains info related to the Cloudwatch metric that reached its threshold and raised an alarm but nothing about the actual log event or AWS activity which caused the alarm. You will have to go through your logs to find out what happened.
The following image shows the info contained in the email received:
Alarm Details: - Name: IAMAuthnAuthzActivityAlarm - State Change: INSUFFICIENT_DATA -> ALARM - Reason for State Change: Threshold Crossed: 1 datapoint (1.0) was greater than or equal to the threshold (1.0). - Timestamp: Monday 26 January, 2015 21:50:52 UTC - AWS Account: 123456789012 Threshold: - The alarm is in the ALARM state when the metric is GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold 1.0 for 300 seconds.
Solution:
We could improve the same setup with minute changes to receive email alerts with more insightful information like the action performed, user identity details, request parameters, IP address, mode of access, etc.
The only change we’re gonna do is instead of using a metric and Cloudwatch alarm we stream the Cloudwatch logs to a Lambda function using a subscription filter. This will allow us to pass the actual log event to the function in the event object. We could parse this information into the structure needed and then pass it to the same SNS topic or send an email alert using SES.
Step-1: Stream Cloudwatch log events to Lambda function
Let us say your Cloudtrail is logging events to /Cloudtrail/logs log group in Cloudwatch, you can stream them to a lambda like this:
Note: You can have a subscription filter pattern to make sure only IAM specific logs events are streamed to the Lambda function and ignore others.
Step-2: Add Subscription Filter Pattern and start streaming
Important: The blank spaces in filter patterns are for clarity. Also, note the use of outer curly brackets and inner parentheses.
Monitor changes to IAM:
If you are interested only in changes to your IAM account, use the following filter pattern:
{ ( ($.eventSource = "iam.amazonaws.com") && (($.eventName = "Add*") || ($.eventName = "Attach*") || ($.eventName = "Change*") || ($.eventName = "Create*") || ($.eventName = "Deactivate*") || ($.eventName = "Delete*") || ($.eventName = "Detach*") || ($.eventName = "Enable*") || ($.eventName = "Put*") || ($.eventName = "Remove*") || ($.eventName = "Set*") || ($.eventName = "Update*") || ($.eventName = "Upload*")) ) }
This filter pattern will only match events from the IAM service that begin with “Add,” “Change,” “Create,” “Deactivate,” “Delete,” “Enable,” “Put,” “Remove,” “Update,” or “Upload.” For more information about why we’re interested in APIs matching these patterns, see the IAM API Reference.
Monitor changes to authentication and authorization configuration:
If you’re interested in changes to your AWS authentication (security credentials) and authorization (policy) configuration, use the following filter pattern:
{ ( ($.eventSource = "iam.amazonaws.com") && (($.eventName = "Put*Policy") || ($.eventName = "Attach*") || ($.eventName = "Detach*") || ($.eventName = "Create*") || ($.eventName = "Update*") || ($.eventName = "Upload*") || ($.eventName = "Delete*") || ($.eventName = "Remove*") || ($.eventName = "Set*")) ) }
This filter pattern matches calls to IAM that modify policy or create, update, upload, and delete IAM elements.
After you finished with filter patterns proceed to the next step, review everything then start streaming to the lambda function.
Step-3: Lambda function code
Add this python code snippet to your lambda function and parse the log event to any structure needed. Maybe even use it to compose a readable message for convenience.
lambda_function.py
import boto3
import json
import gzip
import base64 SNS_CLIENT = boto3.client('sns')
SNS_TOPIC_ARN = 'arn:aws:sns:us-west-2:123456789012:YOURSNSTOPICNAME' def lambda_handler(event, context): data_str = gzip.decompress(base64.b64decode(event['awslogs']['data']))
data = json.loads(data)
logs = data['logEvents']
records = []
for log in logs:
# add parsing logic if needed
record = json.loads(log['message'])
records.append(record)
payload = json.dumps(records)
print(payload)
# Push payload to SNS
SNS_CLIENT.publish(
TopicArn = SNS_TOPIC_ARN,
Subject = 'IAM Changes Alert',
Message = payload
)
Conclusion
This way we can add a new layer of security to our AWS accounts, even if you don’t have a solid response time to unexpected events at least you know where to start troubleshooting.
I hope it was helpful, thank you!
This story is authored by Koushik. He is a software engineer specializing in AWS Cloud Services. | https://medium.com/zenofai/dynamic-alerts-for-aws-iam-configuration-changes-3fbb39e6bcd0 | ['Engineering Zenofai'] | 2020-05-29 05:34:51.769000+00:00 | ['AWS', 'Python', 'Cloud Computing', 'AWS Lambda'] |
Never underestimate the power of your own story. | Never underestimate the power of your own story.
This is why your story matters.
It’s no surprise that I believe in stories. I believe they matter. Your story matters.
I truly believe we can use our stories for good — to have a positive impact on the world, help others, and make our own unique, meaningful contribution.
And since you’re here, I’m willing to bet you agree with me on that.
But why do stories matter so much? Well, here are a few reasons. This isn’t a comprehensive list, it’s just a few things that I’ve learned to be true.
1. Stories are human.
We all tell them. And we all want — and need — to hear them. Stories are a way for us to make sense of the world. They’re a way for us to carry our history and our humanness. A way for us to connect. And a way for us to grow and see things with fresh eyes.
2. Everyone has a story to tell. And everyone wants to be seen and heard.
Stories are a way for us to show people who we really are. It’s at the heart of being human. By sharing your story, you could be giving someone else a way to recognize themselves, or an invitation to share their own. Also, listening is a very good thing.
3. If you don’t tell your story, someone else might.
If you don’t tell your story, it’s possible that we will simply never get to hear it. The world will really never know you, the history will slide away, you’ll never fully make the change you want to make. But perhaps even worse, if you don’t tell us, someone else might try to speak on your behalf, and miss the full story. If you don’t tell us who you are, someone else might, and get it wrong. If you don’t tell us what you stand for, someone else might, and miss the point. If you don’t put into words what happened, someone else might tell it very differently. There is power in speaking for yourself.
4. Stories are powerful. We need to use them for good.
If you have change you want to make, if you want to have a positive impact on the world around you, you’re going to need to tell some darn good stories. That’s how change happens in the world: through better, more honest storytelling. That’s something the world can always use more of.
5. Stories are editable.
How you write your story is up to you. Just because it broke your heart doesn’t mean it’s a tragedy. You can make your story what you want it to be.
6. You can use your stories to help others.
What do you want to do with your story? Make a positive impact: Make a contribution to the world that is uniquely yours? Inspire? Educate? Lead, and maybe even leave a legacy? These are things your stories can help you do. (And it’s why I dedicate myself to helping people tell their stories.)
So there you have it. Never forget how much your story matters. | https://medium.com/storytelling-with-heart/never-underestimate-the-power-of-your-own-story-e6e5344fdb3d | ['Camille Deputter'] | 2019-05-22 15:33:16.049000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Journaling', 'Storytelling'] |
Appreciate The Time You Have | We all feel stressed at this time of year, why do we do that? Is there some rule that says we HAVE to decorate or spend all our money on a bunch of stuff people may or may not want anyway? I refuse to let it get to me this year, in fact, I have not even started decorating, and the only thing I’ve purchased is what needed to be shipped up north before it was too late.
I think (especially this year) we should all just take a breath and be happy we are still here to appreciate what we have, maybe spend some time with family, and not worry so much about what the media drills into all of us. | https://medium.com/chalkboard/appreciate-the-time-you-have-83d0e75f6f18 | ['Kim Smyth'] | 2020-12-16 23:09:33.939000+00:00 | ['One Line', 'Holidays', 'Poetry', 'Stress', 'Time'] |
Get Your Kids to Do Anything By Using a Timer | Get Your Kids to Do Anything By Using a Timer
The simplest, most overlooked parenting hack around
Photo by Veri Ivanova on Unsplash
“Just do the work.”
“Ugggggghhhh!”
“There are seriously only five problems on that page. Just do them already!”
“I don’t waaaant tooooo!”
“In the time we’ve spent arguing about this stupid assignment you could have been DONE ALREADY!”
If this conversation sounds familiar to you, you’re not alone. I’m pretty sure that nearly every parent in America has experienced something like this over the past month. Kids will literally spend twice as much time whining about and procrastinating on an assignment as it would take them to actually do it.
And it is maddening.
But there’s a little trick that every parent needs to know about, and it’s wonderfully simple:
Use a timer.
Set a timer for five, ten, or fifteen minutes– whatever seems reasonable for the task at hand– and tell your child they only have to work for that long. When the timer is up, they’re off the hook.
Why it works
The reason that we as adults procrastinate things like cleaning the house, folding the pile of laundry, or doing our taxes, is the same reason our kids procrastinate math homework: because it feels too big. It’s overwhelming. It feels like it will take hours. Days, even. And who wants to spend hours or days doing The Awful Thing? Starting it is like slapping yourself with a prison sentence.
But if you know you don’t have to do it all– if you can get away with only doing The Awful Thing for five or ten minutes, then suddenly The Awful Thing doesn’t seem so awful anymore. After all, you can do pretty much anything for five minutes, right?
The funny thing is, most of The Awful Things we (and our kids) think will take hours and days often only take a few minutes. The biggest hurdle to their completion is their beginning. It’s like rappelling off a cliff: It’s that first step that’s a doozy. After that it’s just continuing what you’ve started.
A timer as a challenge
Setting a timer can also propel your child into action by issuing a challenge: Bet you can’t do all five math problems in ten minutes.
There’s something intrinsically motivating about a deadline. It hones your focus and gives you a clear, concrete goal. Start off your timer with the words, “On your mark, get set, GO!” and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your kid jumps into the task at hand.
Try it yourself: Set a timer for 5 minutes and see how much cleaning or writing or [fill in the blank] you can get done in that amount of time. You will probably be pleasantly surprised at how the challenge of a timer can turn drudgery into fun, and give you a great sense of victory and accomplishment when you’re through. | https://medium.com/swlh/get-your-kids-to-do-anything-by-using-a-timer-bb9ee758ddad | ['Kasey Q. Tross'] | 2020-05-01 16:52:12.179000+00:00 | ['Homeschooling', 'Parenting Advice', 'Productivity', 'Parenting', 'Children'] |
First Snow in a New Town | First Snow in a New Town
First Snow Bloomington IN
As I sat and stared out at the 7 inches of snow for the first time in my life, I thought wow what did I get myself into! Touching down in Hoosier town I went to visit a friend and ended up staying 6 months. Now remember I’m from the big city, so I was in for a huge change of pace. Talk about festive and very inviting to the students of the college town it felt like I was in a movie. I stayed in a mission shelter where I enjoyed my stay, if there’s one thing I can say; it is they really take care of there people out there. The mission was very involved in helping the homeless find jobs. As they interviewed me they said, “We don’t want to see you become apart of the homeless population here”. I immediately told him I already had an interview within just a few days I’d been there. He looked at me in disbelief especially when I told him where it was. It turned out not very many people were hired at the very restaurant I end up getting a job at.
He asked how was it possible for a 23-year-old skateboarder for LA to make that happen so fast. I exclaimed it was a thing I could always do when I set my mind to it, the universe tends to provide. On my first day on the job, the Sous Chef was having a birthday party at a bar across the street and invited me. Although I had been past 21 years of age I had never gone to a bar in my home town. Bars weren’t really my scene but I can honestly say I had never felt such an inviting crowd. A thing I’d learn, small towns were known for. Humble, festive people became friends of mine in just a few days. After a week and half of being there and working, I found a huge 1 bedroom for only $500 a month. $0 money down and no deposit, virtually unheard of back home. I was completely shocked once again on this random adventure, how fast life may unfold in the best of ways.
I only knew one person in the entire town and within less than a month I knew a bunch of people, had a job, and a beautiful big apartment! Even the people I’d meet couldn’t believe I wasn’t a rich kid from the city. Let this story serve as a great reminder of the fact that the universe is always waiting to move things into a position for you. Sometimes precise action with a strategy and less overthinking, you open yourself up to what dreams may come! Move toward what you believe and be ready to receive. I believe in You! | https://medium.com/@kurt-tzushem/first-snow-in-a-new-town-daa447675014 | ['Kurt Anderson'] | 2021-01-07 03:01:13.938000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Travel', 'Awareness', 'Snow', 'Perspective'] |
EVERYTHING YOU NEED? | To get to where you’re going?
To live your dreams and desires?
If you think about it…
aren’t you born with everything need? | https://medium.com/@prof-mitch/to-get-to-where-youre-going-f9be6a760c5c | ['Mitch Goldfarb'] | 2020-12-13 11:15:49.734000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Truth', 'Success', 'Inspiration', 'Mindfulness'] |
(039) Nietzsche’s “Beyond Good and Evil”, One Paragraph at a Time | I’ve struggled in all my attempts to read and comprehend Nietzsche’s “Beyond Good and Evil”. These blog posts are my attempt to better understand this material. I encourage any corrections or criticisms in the comments.
Chapter Two: The Free Spirit
39. Nobody will very readily regard a doctrine as true merely because it makes people happy or virtuous — excepting, perhaps, the amiable “Idealists,” who are enthusiastic about the good, true, and beautiful, and let all kinds of motley, coarse, and good-natured desirabilities swim about promiscuously in their pond.
No one will believe a doctrine to be true merely because it causes one to have happy or virtuous feelings. However, the “idealists” who, while being concerned with goodness, truth, and beauty, are prone to various kinds of wishful thinking.
Happiness and virtue are no arguments. It is willingly forgotten, however, even on the part of thoughtful minds, that to make unhappy and to make bad are just as little counter-arguments.
Feelings of happiness and virtue simply cannot be construed as statements of truth.
Furthermore, it is often forgotten by even the most thoughtful minds that to think we must go through the process of constructing counter-arguments that inevitably make us feel bad or unhappy
A thing could be TRUE, although it were in the highest degree injurious and dangerous; indeed, the fundamental constitution of existence might be such that one succumbed by a full knowledge of it — so that the strength of a mind might be measured by the amount of “truth” it could endure — or to speak more plainly, by the extent to which it REQUIRED truth attenuated, veiled, sweetened, damped, and falsified.
Some known things can be both true and extremely harmful and dangerous to the knower. Such things could be part of the essential nature of existence and to understand them completely might lead to one’s destruction.
A strong thinker would be gauged precisely by how much “truth” he could tolerate. Or more precisely, the strength of such a thinker would be gauged by how much he requires the truth to be diluted, disguised, sweetened, muted, and falsified.
But there is no doubt that for the discovery of certain PORTIONS of truth the wicked and unfortunate are more favourably situated and have a greater likelihood of success; not to speak of the wicked who are happy — a species about whom moralists are silent.
There is a certain type of person, which Nietzsche describes as “the wicked”, who are more favorably situated to handle the kind of negative truths that would otherwise be harmful to virtuous beings. It is also possible for wicked people to be happy, but the moralists are silent about these people.
Perhaps severity and craft are more favourable conditions for the development of strong, independent spirits and philosophers than the gentle, refined, yielding good-nature, and habit of taking things easily, which are prized, and rightly prized in a learned man.
A certain kind of harshness and cunning help may create stronger, independent thinkers and philosophers. This, juxtaposed with the scholarly way of taking things lightly in a gentle and refined manner, illustrates a key difference between different types of philosophers.
Presupposing always, to begin with, that the term “philosopher” be not confined to the philosopher who writes books, or even introduces HIS philosophy into books!
Nietzsche makes it a point to clarify that he doesn’t refer simply to philosophers by profession, but to all who concern themselves with the subject.
— Stendhal furnishes a last feature of the portrait of the free-spirited philosopher, which for the sake of German taste I will not omit to underline — for it is OPPOSED to German taste. “Pour etre bon philosophe,” says this last great psychologist, “il faut etre sec, clair, sans illusion. Un banquier, qui a fait fortune, a une partie du caractere requis pour faire des decouvertes en philosophie, c’est-a-dire pour voir clair dans ce qui est.”
Nietzsche cites who he refers to as the “last great psychologist” the french novelist Stendhal:
‘To be a good philosopher you have to be dry, clear, and without illusion. A banker who has made a fortune has part of a character required to make discoveries in philosophy, that is to say, to see clearly in what is.’
PREV (p.038) | NEXT (p.040) | https://medium.com/@kirbyyardley/039-nietzsches-beyond-good-and-evil-one-paragraph-at-a-time-6a30039b5907 | [] | 2020-12-27 18:23:45.813000+00:00 | ['Truth', 'Happiness', 'Philosophy', 'Virtue', 'Nietzsche'] |
What Kind of Chinese-themed Hollywood Movies Can have Good Box-office in China? | You may have heard that Disney’s latest film, Mulan, is not doing well in China.
Although the poor performance at the box office may be due to the impact of the epidemic, what is even worse is the poor reviews of it. This film, starring famous Chinese actors such as Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Gong Li and Jet Li, got a rating of only 4.9/10 on Douban(China’s imdb).
This seems to be a response to Hollywood’s cultural appropriation for a long time, and Chinese consumers can no longer stand Hollywood’s misuse of Chinese elements. But what I want to tell you that this description is not true.
In fact, Disney’s animated version of Mulan, released in 1998, got a high score of 7.9/10 on Douban. Compared with the Mulan 2020, the animated Mulan is farther from the real Chinese culture, but it gets a higher score. Why?
This article focuses on the macro issues of Hollywood’s use of Chinese elements. The specific evaluation of Mulan 2020 can be found in this article: Why do Chinese people dislike “Mulan” so much?
Due to cultural appropriation? Not really
On Weibo and Douban, you can see a lot of criticisms related to Mulan 2020. But you seldom see the word “cultural appropriation” in these comments, because such concept does not exist in Chinese public opinion.
Angry moviegoers in China mostly denounced the film as “twist” and some regarded it as “arrogant”.
When they say these two words, they are not really accusing the film of misusing Chinese culture, but that these mistakes are so ridiculous.
This means that if Mulan told a complete story about women’s independence, it would get much better reviews than it does now. Disney, who insists on adding the culture of filial piety to this film, may not know that China’s culture of filial piety is anti-feminist to some extent.
On the other hand, if you simply write a story about filial piety, its evaluation will also be better than the current Mulan.
As a neighbor of China, Japan has launched many cultural goods that misappropriate traditional Chinese culture, including the world-famous series of games Dynasty Warriors and Romance Of Three Kingdom.
But no one in contemporary China, except those who are older or bureaucratic in government work, are angry about these games, movies or cartoons.
Because in essence, these works have no use of real Chinese culture, it basically just borrows the names of some Chinese historical figures and visual elements, and most of the stories can only be said to be completely re-created based on the original Chinese classics. They don`t pretend that they are creating a real Chinese story.
Consumers will separate this from the real culture, and when a Chinese consumer uses Zhao Yun in Dynasty Warriors, it does not think that Koei misunderstands Zhao Yun in history or deliberately vilifies him. They will only think that Zhao Yun in Dynasty Warriors is just a game character with a name, its appearance is very cool and its skills are very powerful, that’s all.
Ying Zheng is a man born in 259 BC without any reliable portraits. He is definitely not what he looks like in the mobile game FGO. But the Chinese will not be angry about it.
Another example is the Japanese mobile game Fate/Grand Order, an overhead story created by the famous Japanese writer Naisu Mushroom, in which the character is based on China’s most famous emperor, Shi Huang Di (Ying Zheng).
In the game, the character is a person who achieves immortality through modern machinery. In this chapter of the game, the screenwriter transforms a large number of ancient Chinese stories and legends related to Ying Zheng into a series of science fiction events and props in the near future.
And the great emperor in Chinese history is set as a villain in the game.
But guess what? The character was well received by Chinese players and sparked widespread discussion on Weibo, bringing the game to a higher popularity in China.
The biggest difference between Mulan 2020 and Mulan 1998 is that it attempts to show the true Chinese culture. It integrates the concept of filial piety from traditional Chinese thought into the creation, thinking that in this way we can get a “real Chinese story”.
Considering that the cultural symbol of “filial piety” has half the negative meaning in the view of contemporary Chinese youth (it means being restricted by native families), even for Chinese writers and directors, it is a very difficult to represent this concept well.
So it’s not surprising that Mulan gets a lot of bad reviews.
What kind of Chinese elements are popular?
In the past, Chinese film critics often commented on Hollywood Chinese-themed films or films with Chinese elements as follows:
XXXX is not a Chinese film at all, it is just a Hollywood film with Chinese skin, it shows the Western lifestyle and the values of personal heroism(or spiritual core, ideology).
The above paragraph appears in the official reviews of almost all China-related films shot in Hollywood. But interestingly, all the films that received such reviews performed better than Mulan 2020 in the Chinese market.
In recent years, Hollywood seems to think that Chinese consumers must like “stories with a Chinese way of thinking”. This is true to some extent, as evidenced by the Chinese sci-fi film The Wandering Earth in 2019. Its story is almost made up of Chinese spiritual cores such as collectivism, anti-individual heroism, “power of the masses”, “family” and “self-sacrifice”.
The Wandering Earth is currently the third highest-grossing film in Chinese box office history, but Wolf Warriors 2, which topped the list, is the opposite.
There is only an one-year difference between Wolf Warriors 2 and The Wandering Earth, both directed and starred by Wu Jing. The film is known overseas for its “nationalism” and even gave birth to a derivative word “Wolf Warriors Diplomacy”.
But the paragraph at the beginning of this section appears in many reviews of the film.
Because if you remove the specific country name from it, the story of Wolf Warriors 2 goes like this:
A retired soldier was accidentally involved in a civil war in a third country while looking for his missing wife. In the process, he met some companions and was involved in a bigger conspiracy. In order to survive, he and his newly acquainted companions solved the huge plot (about 60 minutes of war and violence here) and finally found a clue to his wife.
Wow, feels so Hollywood.
But this does not affect the Chinese audience’s love for the film, so we can draw a conclusion: it is not only Chinese stories that attract Chinese audiences, they also love Hollywood-style old-fashioned stories.
You know, Avengers 4 is still the fourth highest box-office film in the Chinese film history.
What’s more, when Chinese go into the cinema to watch a Hollywood movie, they expect to see a Hollywood story. If they want to see Chinese stories, they can choose to see Chinese movies. Now, the Chinese film industry is booming, and they actually have no shortage of movie watching made by real Chinese.
After understanding this, you can guess which Chinese-themed Hollywood film has received the best reviews in China in the past 20 years.
The answer is “Kung Fu Panda”.
In the view of cultural scholars, this series is simply a “cultural appropriation carnival”. It basically does not contain any correct Chinese elements, and Chinese people should be extremely angry about it.
The ratings of three Kung Fu Panda movies on Douban.
But Chinese audiences like to watch it, and the three animated films of Kung Fu Panda scored 8.1, 8.0 and 7.7 points on Douban, respectively. This is almost the best result a Chinese-themed Hollywood film can get.
In fact, Kung Fu Panda 3 does not score as well as the first two works in the series because its “Western-style spiritual core has been watered down”.
In a highly typical criticism on Kung Fu Panda 3, Chinese moviegoers wrote:
Western philosophy has three ultimate propositions: who I am, where I come from, and where I go. It is not difficult to see how the Kung Fu Panda series tries to answer these propositions. I used to remember that the producer of the film said that the series would have five films, and after the end of the third film, we can see that it has given the first two answers of these three questions. But Kung Fu Panda 3 deliberately reduces the plot for the audience to think about those Eastern philosophical questions with Master Oogway… Funny enough, and then there’s no more — Aaron
In this criticism, this is followed by a 800-word discussion of why Kung Fu Panda 3 should not reduce its discussion of Western philosophy.
Chinese audiences like the Kung Fu Panda series for the same reasons as audiences in other countries around the world: it has lovely characters, funny lines, gorgeous effects and positive stories that promote “courage” and “independence”.
It just so happens that it uses the animal “Panda” with Chinese characteristics as its protagonist and “cartoon ancient Chinese architecture”, which makes it “a little more attractive to Chinese audiences” than other Disney animated films. But only a little more.
Similarly, the story and artistic image of the “ Mists of Pandaria” of the World of Warcraft have indeed won praise from Chinese players. But if the theme of this expansion set contains Indian elements, Chinese players will continue to play.
A few years ago, China put forward a new concept called “cultural self-confidence”.
This concept means that China should build cultural strength consistent with its status as the second largest economic entity in the world. To some extent, this is not an ideological term, but to promote the development of China’s cultural and entertainment industry. As a result, many local film and television and game companies in China have developed.
However, compared with the Chinese film industry, which is trying to build cultural confidence, Hollywood is losing its cultural confidence — it does not even believe that the Chinese still like Hollywood-style stories anymore.
Now we can repeat the truth:
When Chinese consumers go to the cinema to see a Hollywood movie, they expect a Hollywood story. If Hollywood adds Chinese elements (actors, visual images, simple legends) to a movie, this will get a little extra score.
But if Hollywood tries to shoot a story that shows real Chinese culture, just don`t use anything comes from their own mind. The only way to get high praise is to invite a real Chinese director, give him all of the film, and don’t question anything. | https://medium.com/pandayoo/what-kind-of-chinese-themed-hollywood-movies-can-have-good-box-office-in-china-6e5c4ade3ce5 | [] | 2020-09-23 02:18:52.845000+00:00 | ['Hollywood', 'Business', 'China', 'Movies'] |
Does Academic Writing Yields an A Grade? | Academic writing has always been a focus for students and teachers globally. Many international institutions stresses upon the academic writing skills of their pupils. Students too are stressed about their skills in essay writing. Almost all academic institutions have a designed curriculum that include academic writing assignments. Students are then assessed through them and given grades. A great debate is carried out quite often that whether these academic writing skills actually help in yielding A grades or this is just an insignificant skill. Here is the list of some ultimate factors that are enhanced through academic writing and contributes into yielding an A grade.
Enhancing technical skills
Academic writing requires skill and use of technique. In order to collect the material for writing a paper students visit the web. Intense researching and screening of the web as well as books and journals builds the command within students over crucial techniques and skills, these technical skills helps them further in attaining good grades using better understanding and command over writing tactics.
Research skills
When doing essay it is somewhat difficult to find authentic information regarding the chosen topic. Students should try to focus on the legit sites if they want to score A’s. For this many guidelines are provided on…yes you guessed correctly… On the Web! Professors now use tools to check the authenticity of the student’s work through online platforms such as Turnitin.com. Academic writing assignments teaches students research skills. Although not everything is true on the internet but to differentiate between facts and theory is the real challenge.
Analytical thinking process
Students who have firm grasp of academic writing find it easy to score A grade as compared to a beginner at academic writing. There is a wide gap in between the thought process of these two types of students. Students who focus more on academic writing skills have a systematic way of thinking. They jot down their ideas and thoughts in a systematic manner. Whereas, students who do not focus on academic writing skills have problem disorganizing their thoughts. Their thought process is scattered and they have problem in writing academic assignments.
Writing in an academic manner teaches you how to convey your thoughts in a professional way. When students are given essay writing assignments they should first construct a draft. This draft will provide a rough idea how to form your essay.
Improved linguistics
Assignment writing help not only enhances the vocabulary but also adds proficiency to your writing skills. Through essay writing students get a chance to portray what they have learned throughout the school term. It is an extremely useful skill for those who want to start their career as a professional academic writer.
Pass or fail?
In order to obtain good grades, students have to polish their essay writing skills. This can be achieved through in depth research of the topic. There are certain online tools that helps students to improve their academic assignments for example Grammarly.com, Spellchecker etc.
Students who are good at academic writing are often awarded grade A which adds up their total grade point average (GPA). Many universities invest a great amount of time and resources in teaching the students skill of essay writing. The academic curriculum is broken down in such a way that the vast English course is divided into two or more courses.
Time management
These academic writing assignments are time sensitive meaning professors allot a certain time limit for the assignment to be done. If the students fails in submitting the assignment he/she is not graded or in some serious cases failed. Students who manage time and complete their assignments on time have a greater chance to score an A. it also depends if you follow the guideline of the given essay.
Essay writing helps in improving analytical skills. It also helps in sharpening the memory. As the famous saying goes “the more you listen, the more you speak and the more you read, the more you write”. Essay writing also effects the way people perceive things and ideas. This is helpful for them in the future, having an objective outlook towards life.
In a Nutshell
If you come to think of it academic writing is not that difficult. Students who are frequently given academic assignments are more likely to get better at writing and to opt for a career in writing. So for getting better in essay writing and securing more grade A’s, students should focus on improving their writing skills.
Everyone needs a little time and practice. And if you’re having problems with writing, we are here to help and guide you all the way. Academic writing services are provide at Academic Hub with great perfection and effective management of time. | https://medium.com/academic-writing-help/does-academic-writing-yields-an-a-grade-2f7ef476489d | ['Ellis Young'] | 2019-10-30 16:49:02.329000+00:00 | ['Assignment Help', 'Essay Help Uk', 'Academic Writing', 'Education'] |
There is no bad or good architecture. There is only context. | How much time you have to deliver ?
If you are already on the market and pressed by the concurrents chances are you don’t have much time. In this case answers are pretty simple reuse what you have and try to optimize.
Rewrite common code in libraries so it will help you speed up the process. Automate repetitive tasks so you can avoid loosing time. And do not lose time on searching something different at least you don’t have a problem with what you have today.
Moving from Spring Boot 1.5 to 2.0 for example it can be huge task but you really need it? If your app is doing well and the response time is on your accepted range, trust me you don’t need it now.
Security is only reason you should feel the pain of update major versions.
But if you are at the start of new project and have some time to test different frameworks than enjoy the research.
How many people will work on it?
If you are working solo and you don’t plan to grow for now until your app will be able to support the cost of other people, chances are you don’t need distributed systems or automation.
Just write it and deliver it. Maybe it will not work your idea and you shouldn’t wait an year to test it.
But if you are working with hundreds of teams and people chances are processes, automation, and distribution of the system which allow isolation of team work is your way to heaven. | https://medium.com/@manuelrinaldi86/there-is-no-bad-or-good-architecture-there-is-only-context-23e9101c0171 | [] | 2020-12-11 20:02:24.527000+00:00 | ['Architectural Design', 'Software Architecture', 'Software', 'Software Engineering', 'Software Development'] |
Speak Loudly and Carry a Little Stick! | The “Big stick” diplomacy and Trump’s approach toward Iran
In an address on “National Duties,” President Theodore Roosevelt defined his foreign policy in line with the West African proverb, “speak softly and carry a big stick — you will go far.” Such reference has established what came to be known as the “Big stick” diplomacy, comprising soft discourse and hard-power maneuvers. For Roosevelt, the soft discourse aims at bringing adversaries to the negotiation table. In international relations, states adjust their tone to a point where they secure a winning set of interests. On the other hand, hard power, defined in the Roosevelt era in terms of the Navy, is used to press adversaries toward compromise. Interestingly, the very success of diplomacy becomes contingent on the possibility of conflict. Roosevelt has found the “big stick” diplomacy effective in resolving the blockade of Venezuela in 1903 and the war between Japan and Russia in 1904.
More than a century later, President Donald Trump seems to have embraced a similar approach. During his campaign, his promises based for a unilateral and semi-isolationist policy, aiming at ending the US involvement in conflicts. However, he also used to opt out of the isolationist frame, waving the stick at the US adversaries. For Trump, the stick, or hard power, has been defined in terms of economic sanctions, used to alter adversaries’ behavior. The logic is that inflicting economic pain presses states to adjust their behavior to a preferred pattern. As for discourse, Trump’s version has not been associated with by a soft tone. Instead, Trump has resorted to extreme and threatening discourse, aiming, in his words, at “maximizing pressure” on adversaries. Hence, the Trump version of Roosevelt’s approach becomes a combination of threatening discourse and economic sanctions.
However, the combination seems to invalidate the tactical logic of the “Big stick” diplomacy. Within domestic contexts, Trump’s discourse works as an effective mechanism to mobilize support and funnel discontent toward the establishment. Nevertheless, it is destined to have the opposite effect at the international level. Usually, states use such discourse to mobilize domestic capital against what is perceived as an assault on national sovereignty. Besides this, Roosevelt’s hard power was defined in terms of the threat of force rather than the use of such force. By contrast, Trump’s sanctions are an example of use of force, leaving little room for diplomacy and cooperation. Besides this, sanctions may also become counterproductive, especially when accompanied with ineffective enforcement.
Among the cases where such approach has been applied is the case of Iran, regarding its political behavior and nuclear ambitions. Trump seems to have aimed at bringing Iran to the table or, at least, pressing the Iranian economy to the point where it becomes unable to finance political and military projects. However, the record suggests that Trump’s approach has not been able to achieve such goals. Combining threatening discourse and sanctions have rendered the first hollow and the second ineffective. In fact, it has developed an apparent discrepancy between the threat of force and the effects of the used force. In other words, the louder the talk is, the smaller the stick has become. Eventually, Trump’s approach has become closer to the “small” rather than the “big” stick diplomacy!
President Trump, tweeting a threat of force against Iran (July, 2018)
Speak loudly ..
Trump’s discourse toward Iran has been defined by hostility and threats. Even before he ran for office, Iran was at the center of his criticism of the Obama administration. In 2015, Trump referred to the Iran deal as the “worst, horrible, and laughable.” During his campaign, attacking Iran deal became the running theme of his political discourse. Almost in every rally, Trump referred to Iran’s deal as “disastrous.” The use of threats has defined Trump’s discourse in office. On different occasions, Trump threatened to use military force against Iran, warning of what he called “severe consequences” and “mean obliteration.” As recent as September 2020, Trump threatened Iran with an attack that is “1,000 times greater in magnitude.” Rarely, Trump’s discourse about Iran has been associated with deescalation and calls for diplomacy. The only two instances were touting a possible meeting with the Iranian president in 2019 and expressing openness to extend aid during the Coronavirus pandemic.
For many, Trump’s discourse seems to have been setting the stage for action. Many observers have rushed to drafting scenarios of a possible war between the US and Iran. However, time has shown that such discourse is merely an instrument of pressure, designed to force the Iranians to negotiate and compromise. While such strategy may not be ineffective in itself, the context within which it has been applied proves counterproductive. At one level, there has been a growing discrepancy between the threat of force and the used force. In other words, Trump has not been able to match his discourse with proportional action toward Iran. Such condition has affected the credibility of his threats. At another level, Trump’s discourse has rejuvenated a reservoir of anti-western sentiments in Iran. Hence, it gives way to the Iranian regime to build domestic capital against the US.
In a way, Trump’s discourse has pushed the Iranians away from the negotiation table. In 2018, the supreme leader Khamenei said that “there will be no war, nor will we negotiate with the us.” Following, President Rohani refused to negotiate as long as sanctions are imposed. While such responses may not necessarily spring from a position of power, they spring from an understanding of Trump’s strategy. The discrepancy between his threats and his actions has revealed his threats as hollow. Hence, Iran’s hardliners seized an assurance to hold their positions. They were also aided by a shift in public opinion inside and outside Iran. According to Iran Poll, 86% of Iranians express an unfavorable view of the US. Such percentage marks a thirteen-point increase in the percentage of Iranians with such views in 2016. Besides this, views about Iran’s regional influence have changed along with Trump’s approach. According to a poll by PEW Research Center, the majority of Lebanese and Jordanians and more than half of Israelis believe that Iran has become stronger, compared to ten years ago.
President Trump, signing an executive order for new sanctions against Iran (June, 2020)
Carry a little stick ..
Trump’s discourse has been accompanied with the use of hard power, defined in terms of economic sanctions. Such use is not new to the America foreign policy. Since 1979, the US has imposed various economic, trade, and military sanctions against Iran. It was only in 2015 when most sanctions were lifted in exchange of Iran’s commitment to the nuclear deal. However, what is new about Trump’s sanctions is the fact they are the only choice. Trump’s use of military force would have upset his base and broken a promise of withdrawal and isolation. Hence, sanctions have become a way to deter Iran and keep the base onboard. Besides this, Trump’s sanctions are defined by unilateral imposition, an approach that diminishes effectiveness and enables evasion. Besides this, it has also casted the US as an outlier, challenging the P5+1 consensus in regard of the approach toward Iran.
Essentially, sanctions are problematic due to the missing link between economic pain and change in political behavior. Political scientists contend that such pain does not usually translate into change in behavior. In some cases, it may harden the positions of the sanctioned regime as it externalizes blame for economic hardship. Apparently, the US sanctions have exhausted the Iranian economy. In 2019, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expected Iran’s economy to shrink by 9.5%, down from a previous estimate of a 6% contraction. Besides this, exports of Iranian oil dropped to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the same year. However, the economic pain does not seem to have altered Iran’s behavior. Instead, Iran seems to have become more aggressive amid the US sanctions. Examples include Iran’s alleged involvement in the attack on Saudi Aramco in 2019 and the Soleimani Operation against the US bases in Iraq in 2020. Furthermore, Iran still exercises influence in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen.
Along with this, sanctions do not seem to have restrained Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Following the reimposition of sanctions, Iran resumed uranium enrichment and reopened closed facilities. According to a report issued by the Congressional Research Service in 2019, Iran has exceeded the permitted level of uranium enrichment and processing of heavy water. Iran has also, according to Reuters, reopened a nine-year-old nuclear power plant to expand its program. In July 2020, Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium had reached 2,442.9 kg (5,385.6 lb), twelve times of the amount allowed under the deal. According to the IAEA inspectors, such level would be enough to reach the weapons grade and produce three atomic bombs. In other words, Iran has become closer to nuclear weapons than it was in 2016.
Trump’s unilateral approach seems to have also undermined any possible effect of the economic pain on Iran’s behavior. Generally, unilateral sanctions are marked by a higher probability of evasion. As states find alternative trade patterners, sanctions lose their grip on the targeted system. In Iran’s case, China and Russia have seized the opportunity to defy the US. Following the US sanctions, Russia announced that sanctions are not expected to influence economic interaction with Iran. China went further to extend aid to Iran through a 400-billion-dollar deal of economic and military cooperation. Along with this, the Trump administration has also undermined sanctions through the use of exemptions. In 2018, the US exempted Japan, China, India, and five other countries from the reimposed sanctions. Such condition continued until last year when the US declared that exemptions will not be renewed!
Iran has also managed to defy the US sanctions on its own. Using third party traders or what is known as dummy companies, Iran has continued to trade and export oil and other products. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Iran has used five UAE companies to facilitate selling oil and petrochemical products. The report adds that the UAE ports have also become a trading hub for Iran’s products. Besides this, Iran has also used, according to the same report, six companies in Hong-Kong to broker and obscure sales of its oil and other products. Recent data, published on TankerTrackers, seem to confirm the report, showing that exports of Iranian oil have reached 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), a sharp increase from the 100 thousand (bpd) level in 2019. Along with this, Iran has used informal payment systems to continue trading with partners. While the US continues to trace and sanction such means, most remain beyond the reach of the US institutions.
The Iranian case shows that the president’s approach has not only been unable to achieve its goals. Instead, it has produced the opposite effects, hardening Iran’s position and furthering its political and nuclear ambitions. The combination of the threatening discourse and sanctions has dulled the pressure and failed to translate into proportional deterrence. As the sanctions lose their grip on the Iranian economy and threats become uncredible, the legacy of Trump’s foreign policy toward Iran becomes defined in line with, “speak loudly and carry a little stick!”
This article is available in Arabic HERE | https://medium.com/@asiri-wv/speak-loudly-and-carry-a-little-stick-e95134d6b445 | ['Asiri'] | 2020-11-29 05:11:23.569000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Iran', 'Foreign Policy', 'Trump'] |
Interview: 3LetterzNuk Talks about Bringing the Heat on ‘I’m Back’ | 3LetterzNuk
Atlanta-based rapper 3LetterzNuk dropped a new mixtape, I’m Back, not long ago via ZENtertainment/Sony Music.
3LetterzNuk first made an impact in 2015, when he signed with FloRida’s IMG imprint. Now with ZENtertainment/Sony Music, he’s definitely back and ready to go, which explains the mixtape’s title — I’m Back.
3LetterzNuk’s track record witnesses his talent: over 9 million streams with Aaron Carter on “Fool’s Gold” and almost 2 million streams on “I Wonder,” featuring Marco Foster. 3’s dope fusion of pop, hip-hop, and cool textures of R&B generates tasty banging sonic concoctions.
Pop Off sat down with 3LetterzNuk to delve into his influences, what he’s listening to right now, and how he keeps his sound unique.
What three things can’t you live without?
My family, music, and running water.
What’s your favorite song to belt out in the car or the shower?
The song “Move Your Feet” by Junior Senior.
How did you get started in music? What’s the backstory there?
When I was in high school, my friends invited me to the studio. I found that I was impatient with their creative process, so I got up and went in the booth and started freestyling. They were impressed with my rhythm, cadence, and my voice. When I saw their reactions, it was the first time I felt gifted with entertaining. I’ve always wanted to be in entertainment but mostly as an actor. But when I got the reaction, and it was different than when I acted, danced, or played basketball, I was hooked.
What musicians influenced you the most?
Jay-Z, Drake, and Chris Brown are three of my most prominent influences.
3LetterzNuk
Which artists are you listening to right now?
DaBaby, Lil Baby, Young Thug, Rich Homie Quan, KCamp, and Tory Lanez are some of my top listens of the moment.
What was the inspiration for your new I’m Back mixtape?
Honestly, the youth inspired the sound. I tapped in with a lot of what the younger people were listening to and consuming which influenced the mixtape.
How do you keep your sound fresh and avoid coming across as derivative?
I am constantly working on my own music and it evolves into something unique based on my creativity at that time.
What can you share about your songwriting process?
It’s completely organic. Sometimes I have to be riding in the car. Sometimes I have to be in an open space in the studio. Sometimes I have to be alone with my headphones and just sit down and study the beat over and over.
How have you been handling the coronavirus situation?
I just dropped new music for the first time in two years. I’m pretty excited about it and I’ve been working super hard on that. The quarantine has been a blessing in disguise, as it made me concentrate on the music. I wrote the 9 new singles on the mixtape, while in quarantine.
Why do you make music?
Because it’s on the inside of me and there’s nothing I love more than spending my time creating.
Follow 3LetterzNuk Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | Website | https://medium.com/pop-off/interview-3letterznuk-talks-about-bringing-the-heat-on-im-back-182e1b0355cb | ['Randall Radic'] | 2020-12-21 14:19:17.832000+00:00 | ['Hip Hop', '3letterznuk', 'Im Back', 'Interview', 'Music'] |
Words on Photography from Thailand | Bangkok, Thailand
A huge swath of colorfully-dressed commuters filled my vision, providing a kaleidoscopic terrain I was eager to study. Sunlight filtered through the slatted ceiling to anoint all it touched in euphoric shimmers of gold, and with the shade providing a dramatic counter to the riveting highlights, a beautiful texture was born. There was no need for ambitious angles or intricate camera settings. The space did the work for me. All I needed to do was point and shoot.
Spaces like the rail station — so rich in people, texture, and light — are rarities, but if you’re patient, you can find that kind of imagery anywhere. Walking around Bangkok, I always keep my eye out for interesting pockets of light. When I find one I like, I sit tight and wait for the right subject to cross through it.
I found one of these pockets a few days ago in the form of a bright orange wall. The color reflected off the building across the street and radiated a warm molten light. I knew that a setting sun would only amplify the spectacle, so I waited until sunset and watched the rays bounce off the wall and turn the warm glow into a dazzling tapestry of color and depth. Soon I saw two people walking toward each other from opposite ends of the block. I split the frame in half with a street pole and captured the moment they walked midway into frame.
One of my favorite photographers, Alex Webb, wrote: “One percent of everything you take is going to be special.” Those words motivate me to stay vigilant and shoot as much as possible. To achieve that one percent, I need to photograph for hours on end — like I did at the bright orange wall. That took 100 shots to get right.
https://www.nicksparksweddings.com | https://medium.com/@nicksparks/words-on-photography-from-thailand-1f75ac8f76bf | ['Nick Sparks'] | 2019-07-22 00:37:03.243000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Photojournalism', 'Bangkok', 'Thailand', 'Photography'] |
Your Mental Indebtedness Is What Keeps You In Debt | Your First Creditors By Birth
You were born, and just like that, you already owe something to someone.
Your first “creditor” is none other than your parents — and, if you are growing up in a toxic family, they will make sure you are aware of it.
They will go out of their way to remind you of the sacrifice they made for you — the life they gave you, the food they put on your table, the clothes they got you, the tuition they paid for you. They will keep telling you how much they have done for you, so now you’d be expected to reciprocate that.
You’d be expected to repay your debt.
Maybe not in the monetary form, at first — you are still young, after all, and aren’t making your own money. Besides, it’s not like you could put a price tag on human life.
And your parents know that.
Make no mistake: they know the buttons they need to push to make you comply. They know perfectly well that you are dependent on them financially, so they can use that lever to ensure you remain in this inferior, indebted mental state.
Chronically indebted people — the same as chronically guilty people — are much easier to control.
Not all parents are like that, of course. But, unfortunately, way too many of them are. Some are less toxic than others, but many parents out there view their children as an extension of themselves and force them on a path to conformity the way they themselves once were. They believe that because you are their child, they have a say in what you do with your life.
And just like that, you’ve been first introduced to the mental and emotional state of indebtedness.
So how can you repay your parents if you don’t have any money?
By being a good kid. By making them proud. By doing what they say, pursuing the type of life they see for you. Because they know better, right? You have to keep them happy — get good grades, play a musical instrument, go to college, pursue a career they find acceptable, land a prestigious job that they can brag about to their friends.
And if you try to resist, they will remind you that you have an obligation to your family. After all, they have done so much for you, haven’t they? This is the least you can do in return.
Your parents instill in you the belief that you need to be successful so that they could save face in front of the neighbors. And as you grow older, this belief becomes internalized and turns into a conviction of your own. You now believe you have to possess conventional attributes of success in the form of wealth, social status, and social prestige to be well-regarded in society.
You end up going to college. It doesn’t matter that college isn’t really about learning anymore and is not necessarily required to obtain the skills and knowledge you need for a fulfilling professional occupation. You go anyway because you’ve been told it’s the only way to succeed and end up either taking on a bunch of student loan debt or have your parents fund the bill.
If you come from a family where your parents engage in guilt trips, gaslighting, and manipulations to control your life, the latter option entails just as much indebtedness as the former one, albeit not necessarily in monetary terms.
You will graduate and enter the rat race. And then… Well, you know the drill.
Keep working, get promotions, get planned vacations once or twice a year. Car loan, later on, a mortgage. You have to keep up with the Joneses.
You will spend a lifetime (literally) working a job you don’t like for a wage to sustain yourself, only so you could continue going to work. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/your-mental-indebtedness-is-what-keeps-you-in-debt-6d8357e9cfdd | ['Anastasia Summersault'] | 2020-10-20 23:03:09.365000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Debt', 'Society', 'Life', 'Self'] |
The 5 basic but most error-prone cases for String in Python | Photo by Paul Esch-Laurent on Unsplash
A string is a sequence of characters. It is a basic data type in Python, but do you really know how to use it? Let’s discuss the most 5 error-prone cases as below.
1. Single quotes, double-quote, or triple quotes
For example, if you want to output the string: Tom said: “How are you? I’m fine too.”, let’s check different methods:
Method1: using single quotes
The code and the result will be:
Method2: using double quotes
The code and the result will be:
Method3: using triple quotes
Method4: using escape method together single quotes
Method5: using print function together triple quotes
Method6: using print together triple quotes for multiple lines
Do you find the conclusion? So to show the sentence which includes quotes correctly, the following tips can be used:
If the string has only single quotes, then double quotes can be used
If it has only double quotes, single quotes can be used
If the string has both single and double quotes or the string has multiple lines, better use triple quotation
Using the print function can avoid escape characters compared with direct output string
2. len(string) or len(string)-1: index or slice
If there is a string = ‘8euro/piece’, you want to
get the last character of the string
get the last five characters of the string
Let’s try different methods to see what the results are:
string2 = '8euro/piece'
Output1:
Output2:
Output3:
Output4:
From the results, we know output 2 is for question 1, and output 4 is for question 2. This is because:
Request 1: using an index. Although len() gives the total number of characters of a string, since it starts with 0, the index for the last character is len()-1.
Request2: using the method of slicing. Slicing syntax is S[firstIndex: tailIndex] to get the characters from firstIndex to tailIndex -1
3. int, float, or int(float)
There are two strings:
string3 = '8.8euro/piece'
How to get the integer part from the number of string3(‘8.8’)?
How to round out the number of string3(‘8.8’)?
Let’s have a try:
Test1:
Test2:
Test3:
The tip is:
int(): only transfer to integer type from:
float
the integer part from a string
If you want to get the integer part of the string 8.8, first transfer it into float type, then use int().
4. bool(): True or False
Let’s summarize the cases as below:
print("''is",bool(''))
print("space' ' is",bool(' '))
print('None is',bool(None))
print('True is', bool(True))
print('Number 0 is', bool(0))
print('string 0 is',bool('0'))
The output is:
using bool() together len():
This method can be used as a logical condition with if.
So the basic rule is:
For bool(): if the passed value is None, empty or 0 (number, not string 0), it returns False, otherwise True.
5. .join() methode
When using BeautilfulSoup to extract data from a website, normally the data will be saved as a list, then using for loop to read every element. Take an example as :
list1=['The Shawshank Redemption','(1994)','9.6']
To save it to a CSV file, it needs to be saved as a string. join() method works here.
The String is immutable, so you cannot directly delete or insert specific characters between strings. To do that, the string needs to be converted into a list, then use .insert(), combing with .join() method, the example as below:
Today, we try the codes for the most error-prone cases for String in Python. Do you get a more clear idea of the string operations? Have fun! | https://towardsdatascience.com/the-most-5-error-prone-cases-for-strings-in-python-278741668057 | ['Xue Wang'] | 2020-10-27 11:07:31.531000+00:00 | ['String', 'Python'] |
Getting Started As a Data Scientist | Course Work and Mentorship
Data science is kind of like web development in the sense that there might be one or two courses at your college on the subject. But, there isn’t really a fully thought out set of courses that prepare you for the industry.
So how do young aspiring data scientist get started? Here are a couple of solid ways to get into the data science field.
Get an internship as a data scientist (this will make it very easy later on)
Move laterally in a company into a data science role
Complete a data science boot camp
Develop your own application incorporating data science (this is probably the hardest)
Depending on your background, the path you take to break into the data science field varies. For example, if you have a background in finance and you work as a financial analyst it will probably be difficult to move laterally in a company to a data science position.
Thus, if you believe you are interested in data science and don’t have a tech background, then a boot camp might be your best option. These can be pricey, but we have seen people with English backgrounds land jobs at great tech companies as data scientists after completing a boot camp.
Of course, we do find getting an internship early on in your career to be one of the best ways to set yourself up for future data scientist roles. This is because interviewers are often a little easier on you since you are new to the field and afterward you’ll have real-world experience.
Once you have your first role, another invaluable asset is a great mentor. A great mentor does not have to be someone that is dedicated to being your mentor. Instead, it can be anyone at your company who is amazing at what they do. Honestly, everyone could be your mentor. Perhaps one employee is really good at communicating, another at programming, and still another at UI. Don’t limit yourself to the mentor your company may provide. Learn from everyone on the team.
In the end, there are many different paths to getting that first data scientist role. So don’t give up because the first path you try fails! If you can’t get an internship, try to move laterally within a company, if you can’t do that, maybe consider a boot camp. All the while, make sure you are building up your portfolio! | https://medium.com/better-programming/getting-started-as-a-data-scientist-270bd212c6a5 | [] | 2019-08-14 16:40:11.206000+00:00 | ['Analytics', 'Technology', 'Learning', 'Data Science', 'Data'] |
How a Medicine Man in Bali Can Heal You with a Stick | The medicine man arrives with slow, quiet steps, smiling, and settles into a chair at the front of the platform. A friend of mine is waved up first.
The old man sets her offering to the side, instructing her to sit in front of him on the floor with her legs out straight, her back against his shins, her head cradled between his knees. He brushes the hair off her neck tenderly, rests his hands on her scalp.
Then, crablike, his fingers start roaming over her skull, cresting her forehead, pressing the pressure points on her temple, sinuses, jaw. He runs his fingers lightly along her earlobes, stopping to place one in each of her ears. Jiggling his fingers as she grimaces, he says, “Does this hurt?”
“Yes, yes,” she replies through clenched teeth.
“You are anxious,” he says.
“Yes.”
He has her open her jaw, breathe, presses his fingers down her arms as if looking for buttons.
Later, over smoothie bowls, my friend says that reviews online mention that the healer tells that to a lot of people — diagnosing anxiety.
“Americans — ” I guess. “It’s a national disease.”
The medicine man asks my friend to lie down on the bamboo mat next to his chair, and he crouches his thin, deeply wrinkled body beside her feet, pulling out a long but delicately carved stick. He starts prodding her, methodically, between her toes.
“Stomach, liver, pancreas, mind, lungs, heart,” he lists as he jabs at different areas on her feet, her body occasionally going rigid with pain. He stops to look up at her face, pushes a little harder as she writhes.
“This is your pancreas,” he says. “You must eat less sugar.” He recommends omega-3 to balance her hormones. Tells her to drink less. When he presses beside her little toe, and she remains at ease, he says, “Lungs, good.” Press. “Heart, good.”
He stands then, suddenly tall and powerful at her feet, and moves his arms in wide circles toward her body, as if transferring his energy to her, saying soft Balinese words that none of us can hear, and wouldn’t have understood if we could. Healing her.
Everyone is silent without being told.
He kneels again as my friend props herself up on her elbows, smiling contagiously, the memory of pain now far away. He pokes between her toes again, and she laughs, her body completely relaxed.
Up next is the older woman in our group — in her sixties with cropped curling gray hair and bright eyes, her petite body wrapped in a stylish, loose sundress — and as she shuffles up confidently, I wonder what the hell I’m doing here, giving an old man with a wand $20 to poke me back to health.
I arrived in Ubud, Bali, the month before, an almost accidental side trip after a grad school diploma that left stress and weariness thick on me like mud. After a rent increase in Seattle, I put all my things in storage and bought a plane ticket to Fiji to visit a friend who was working there for the summer.
A week before my flight, standing on the rooftop of a Seattle apartment building at sunset watching my ex-boyfriend’s band play a show, a friend said, “You should check out Bali while you’re over there, in Fiji. It’s not too far.”
I brushed aside her comment but found myself googling Bali the next day, centering in on Ubud, the inland artist town full of digital nomads who work on their laptops between yoga classes and massages and scooter trips to the beach. A town whose name comes from the Balinese word “ubad,” or “medicine.”
I bought a one-way flight.
“You’re not active,” the healer is saying to the older woman as he crouches over her on the bamboo mat, his stick running up and down her thighs, outlining the triangle between them. She is crying softly, now. “You need to open your heart again,” he says, his stick on her groin.
Later, over breakfast, she tells us that she is certain the healer meant sex. Her prescription: a lover. “The body doesn’t work right,” she says, “without regular sex releasing all its toxins.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” another woman says, smirking, the one who has been here the longest. “Bali always gives you what you ask for.”
I volunteer to go next. “Why are you here?” the medicine man asks after I deposit the offering among the growing pile and say good morning in Indonesian: “Selamat pagi.”
“Balance,” I say. “Joy,” I suggest. I shrug, unsure.
“Sit,” he says. He brushes my hair to the side, and I close my eyes, waiting for the pain.
His fingers skim over my face, my jaw, my scalp. “What do you need healed?” he asks me after a moment where his fingers stall, as if giving up, on the back of my shoulders.
I think to say, stress,bad sleep, bad habits, listlessness. But all those familiar ailments — so omnipresent in grad school they had become part of how I self-identified — hadn’t been evident since I got here, didn’t exist in Ubud, where I was open, social, curious, calm. Where I’d been going to yoga, art classes, eating well, riding a scooter through jungle roads, editing novels, writing poolside, wandering the streets slowly, and saying yes to new friends and adventures.
Ubud itself, it seemed, had already given me my medication.
“What do you need healed?” the medicine man repeats.
After a moment, I say, “I don’t know, anymore.”
“My fingers aren’t picking anything up,” he says. “Work, good. Money, good. Relationships, good. Stress, good. Health, good. Mind, good.” He indicates for me to lie down.
He pokes between my toes halfheartedly. “Your body is healthy,” he says. “Your mind is healthy.”
He smiles at me mischievously then, his crumpled leather face lighting up the way an old man’s expression can take on that of a boy’s, and he says, “Love. You find love, and it will all be even better.” | https://medium.com/wanderah/medicine-man-in-the-medicine-town-ubud-bali-38e9252dc092 | ['Michelle Hope'] | 2019-02-19 09:41:03.059000+00:00 | ['Digital Nomads', 'Travel', 'Bali', 'Wellness', 'Health'] |
A Honeymoon at the Beach | A Honeymoon at the Beach
It’s all about compromise
Photo by Pam Ivey on Unsplash
First, it was the venue. If they wanted to get married in the Peabody Library of Music, they had to do it the Saturday before Christmas. Irv heaved a sigh at the ceremony. He’d gotten to step on the glass but there were poinsettias everywhere. More merry Christmas than mazel tov.
The next morning, Sarah sighed as she packed the red bikini she’d spent a year starving herself to fit into.
“What?” Irv asked her. “You’re getting your beach honeymoon.”
“Yeah, Ocean City in December,” she replied. “Not what I was expecting.”
“Babe, it’s all about compromise,” Irv reminded her. | https://medium.com/centina-pentina/a-honeymoon-at-the-beach-9e7ffea56e0f | ['Susan Sagarin'] | 2020-12-22 05:50:32.017000+00:00 | ['Weddings', 'Writing Prompt Response', 'Fiction', 'Centina', 'Compromise'] |
The Myth of “Getting Over” a Loss | The idea here is to find a way to live with grief, not just get over it. The “get over it” language is just terrible. When people ask me if I still get upset about my sister, I say yes. I do. I’m smiling because I had this very delayed grief response. When my sister passed, I really rammed myself back into life. I immediately began caregiving for my parents, ostensibly because I felt that their pain was bigger than mine. I thought that was the right response– a strong response. Bit by bit, the pain faded over the years. I felt as though I had processed her death the further I moved from her in time.
It’s been 20 years now. Several years after her death, I began to finally feel the suffering. It took me a long time to feel the pain in a real way.
And it took me even longer to consider what I should do with the pain. It was only recently that I could actually think of her and actually imagine her presence. When I would try to remember her before, all I would see is black. A black monolith, a black space– an empty space. It was hard for me to even summon her image, because the second I did, I felt guilt and regret.
Now I’m at the point where I can actually picture her. I can picture her smiling at me. I can picture her crying. I can picture all sorts of things.
I can picture her with me.
I’m 20 years in, so I’m a very late bloomer. But my point here is that grieving is active for a long time, as long as you’re around.
In some ways, it’s never too late. | https://medium.com/@bj-miller-md/the-myth-of-getting-over-a-loss-89be8d2c3cc1 | ['Bj Miller'] | 2021-07-07 21:17:43.136000+00:00 | ['Grieving', 'Grief And Loss'] |
Biomass Utilization: New Approach for The Promising Indonesia Renewable Energy | Two noteworthy issues coming out of the news recently are the negative impacts of global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels. We all know, too, that the two issues mentioned both have a correlation. Global warming occurs due to carbon dioxide formed from fossil fuel combustion being accumulated in the atmosphere. As far as mankind consumes coal, natural gas, and petroleum, this accumulating amount of carbon dioxide affecting the atmosphere would always increase.
It is also known that fossil fuel, coal, natural gas, and petroleum are clearly limited. The reserve to production ratio depicts it will run out in about 160 years, 65 years, and 41 years respectively. The depletion of fossil fuel is being issued as the dependence of mankind on those particular resources. As it happens, we are now about to pass the gateway that leads to a new age of fossil fuel-independent humankind and starting to render the utilization of renewable energy widespread. In the years to come, the world should be ready to transform their current energy into renewable energy as the key to suppressing the carbon dioxide emission and maintaining global energy security. Renewable energy comes in various forms which include wind, photovoltaics, geothermal, hydropower, tidal, and wave energy. One of the most used sources of renewable energy is biomass.
In general, biomass means an organic compound that is produced by the activity of the living creatures which can be utilized in the form of energy and material. In tropical countries, biomass reserves exist in enormous amounts — for instance, wood, grass, marine algae, microalgae, agriculture waste, forestry waste, and municipal waste are all biomass reserves.
Biomass differs from other renewable energy. It is renewable and carbon-neutral as well. Additionally, biomass clearly an unlimited source of energy because it comes from living things — as far as the availability is maintained. From the biomass combustion, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere remains unchanged, because the amount of carbon dioxide emitted is equal to the amount being absorbed. Moreover, biomass is more storable and transportable in the form of chemical fuels, namely ethanol, methanol, dimethyl ether, and others, compared to other resources. Based on these factors, biomass has a high probability of replacing fossil fuels (or at the very least become a big part of it) and displace the drawback of fossil fuels.
To meet its utilization purpose, biomass should go through the conversion phase. At least, there are three types of available technologies to converting biomass from primary into secondary energy. The conversion process conducted by physical, biological, and chemical.
The physical conversion includes milling, grinding, and steam explosion to decompose the biomass structure for increasing its surface to accelerate the reaction and it also covers densification, drying, and distillation for making biomass more suitable for transportation and storage. Biological conversion mainly composed of fermentation processes such as ethanol fermentation, methane fermentation, acetone-butanol fermentation, hydrogen fermentation, and enzymatic treatment which yeast plays an important role along the whole process. The chemical conversion consists of hydrolysis, partial oxidation, combustion, carbonization, pyrolysis, the hydrothermal reaction for decomposing biomass and also synthesize, polymerization, hydrogenation for constructing new molecules or reforming biomass. Figure 1 shows the illustration of biomass entire conversion process.
Figure 1. Biomass conversion
Providing energy from biomass resource mainly in electricity form. Biomass can be converted into electricity through several methods. The most common method is direct combustion. This method following the principle of the Rankine cycle. Indirect combustion, biomass burned in the combustion chamber or furnace to generate hot gas, and then the heat produced is used to generate steam in the boiler. Next, the steam will be expanded through a steam turbine to obtain mechanical energy, afterwards, it will convert into electricity in the generator.
Figure 2. Diagram of biomass power plant
There are some aspects that need to be considered regarding the utilization of biomass as the future source of energy, i.e. food security and sustainability of agriculture and forestry. Biomass is only permitted for use when it is not classified as a main food source, which, if adhered, to, therefore will not disturb food security. Consequently, there are only certain biomass resources will be included as potential bioenergy.
One of those certain biomass sources that are significant development is biomass from oil palms. Oil palms can typically be raised in places with abundant rainfall and heat such as tropical countries in Southeast Asia. Statistically, Indonesia is the world’s largest producer and exporter of crude palm oil. Thus, palm oil has become one of Indonesia’s most promising sources of biomass. It refers to the fact that Indonesia dominated 60% of the world’s palm oil production when it supplied 36 million tons of palm oil while the world total production was around 58 million tons back then in 2016.
Palm oil is extensively consumed for cooking oil, lubrication, cosmetics, medicine, etc. Hence, it generates a huge quantity of palm oil as well. Furthermore, the biomass generated during the production process also has the potential for an energy source. Surprisingly, in every kilogram of palm oil produced, it generates about four kilograms of waste in the form of empty fruit bunches. In general, palm oil residue comes in various forms such as trunks, fronds, palm shells, and as said before empty fruit bunches. These sources of waste can be converted into more useful products such as transportation fuel, briquettes (blocks of compressed charcoal or coal dust), and gaseous hydrocarbons using solid plant processing.
The theoretical energy that can be obtained from palm oil in Indonesia is estimated to be near 67 million GJ/year. The value seems to keep increasing since the plantation area of the oil palm trees is expected to expand to around 2 million hectares in 2020. Therefore, the utilization of the entire resources from oil palms should be applied to maximize energy production in Indonesia.
Figure 3. Palm oil Plantation in Indonesia
Implementing biomass as the source of energy in Indonesia is not an easy task, but it is worth trying. To achieve, the national energy target of mixed energy in 2025, 23% renewable energy among the others, there are several things to do. For example, the government should provide supportive regulations and proper authorization in order to keep biomass utilization on track. It is also necessary to encourage people who have an interest in this field by arranging some incentive, reward, or other conveniences so more manpower will be able to support the implementation.
Finally, the development of good infrastructure and technology must be enhanced to improve the efficiency of biomass utilization. By taking planned and calculated steps, it is an optimistic projection to make biomass the applicable resource of renewable energy to combat the rocketing energy demand and environmental issues that Indonesia will face in the near future. | https://medium.com/@ghiffarialfarisy/biomass-utilization-new-approach-for-the-promising-indonesia-renewable-energy-df3e19fc4d74 | ['Ghiffari Alfarisy'] | 2020-12-07 04:05:45.818000+00:00 | ['Energy', 'Palm Oil', 'Indonesia', 'Renewable Energy', 'Future'] |
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2021 Lessons Learned Presentations | How Do You Get Out of the Building When You Can’t Get Out of the Building?
This class is built on conducting in-person of interviews with customers/ beneficiaries and stakeholders, but due to the pandemic, teams now had to do all their customer discovery via a computer screen. This would seem to be a fatal stake through the heart of the class. How would customer interviews work via video? After teaching remotely for the last year, we’ve learned that customer discovery is actually more efficient using video conferencing. It increased the number of interviews the students were able to do each week.
Many of the people the students needed to talk to were sheltering at home, which meant they weren’t surrounded by gatekeepers. While the students missed gaining the context of standing on a navy ship or visiting a drone control station or watching someone try their app or hardware, the teaching team’s assessment was that remote interviews were more than an adequate substitute. When Covid restrictions are over, we plan to add remote customer discovery to the students’ toolkit. (See here for an extended discussion of remote customer discovery.)
We Changed The Class Format
While teaching remotely we made two major changes to the class. Previously, each of the teams presented a weekly ten-minute summary consisting of “here’s what we thought, here’s what we did, here’s what we found, here’s what we’re going to do next week.” While we kept that cadence, it was too exhausting for all the other teams to stare at their screen watching every other team present. So we split the weekly student presentations into thirds — three teams presented to the entire class then three teams each went into two Zoom breakout rooms. During the quarter we rotated the teams and instructors through the main room and breakout sessions.
The second change was the addition of alumni guest speakers — students who had taken the class in the past. They offered insights about what they got right and wrong and what they wished they had known.
Lessons Learned Presentation Format
For the final Lessons Learned presentation many of the eight teams presented a 2-minute video to provide context about their problem. This was followed by an 8-minute slide presentation describing their customer discovery journey over the 10 weeks. While all the teams used the Mission Model Canvas, (videos here), Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, each of their journeys was unique.
By the end the class all the teams realized that the problem as given by the sponsor had morphed into something bigger, deeper and much more interesting.
All the presentations are worth a watch.
Team Fleetwise — Vehicle Fleet Management
If you can’t see the Fleetwise 2-minute video, click here
If you can’t see the Fleetwise slides, click here
Mission-Driven Entrepreneurship
This class is part of a bigger idea — Mission-Driven Entrepreneurship. Instead of students or faculty coming in with their own ideas, we ask them to work on societal problems, whether they’re problems for the State Department or the Department of Defense or non-profits/NGOs or the Oceans and Climate or for anything the students are passionate about. The trick is we use the same Lean LaunchPad / I-Corps curriculum — and the same class structure — experiential, hands-on– driven this time by a mission-model not a business model. (The National Science Foundation, National Security Agency and the Common Mission Project have helped promote the expansion of the methodology worldwide.)
Mission-driven entrepreneurship is the answer to students who say, “I want to give back. I want to make my community, country or world a better place, while being challenged to solve some of the toughest problems.”
Project Agrippa — Logistics and Sustainment in IndoPacific
If you can’t see the Project Agrippa 2-minute video, click here
If you can’t see the Project Agrippa slides, click here
It Started With An Idea
Hacking for Defense has its origins in the Lean LaunchPad class I first taught at Stanford in 2011. I observed that teaching case studies and/or how to write a business plan as a capstone entrepreneurship class didn’t match the hands-on chaos of a startup. Furthermore, there was no entrepreneurship class that combined experiential learning with the Lean methodology. Our goal was to teach both theory and practice.
The same year we started the class, it was adopted by the National Science Foundation to train Principal Investigators who wanted to get a federal grant for commercializing their science (an SBIR grant.) The NSF observed, “The class is the scientific method for entrepreneurship. Scientists understand hypothesis testing” and relabeled the class as the NSF I-Corps (Innovation Corps). The class is now taught in 9 regional locations supporting 98 universities and has trained over 1500 science teams. It was adopted by the National Institutes of Health as I-Corps at NIH in 2014 and at the National Security Agency in 2015.
Team Silknet — Detecting Ground Base Threats
If you can’t see the Silknet 2-minute video, click here
If you can’t see the Silknet slides, click here
Origins Of Hacking For Defense
In 2016, brainstorming with Pete Newell of BMNT and Joe Felter at Stanford, we observed that students in our research universities had little connection to the problems their government was trying to solve or the larger issues civil society was grappling with. As we thought about how we could get students engaged, we realized the same Lean LaunchPad/I-Corps class would provide a framework to do so. That year we launched both Hacking for Defense and Hacking for Diplomacy (with Professor Jeremy Weinstein and the State Department) at Stanford.
Team Flexible Fingerprints — Improve Cybersecurity
If you can’t see the Flexible Fingerprints 2-minute video, click here
If you can’t see the Flexible Fingerprints slides, click here
Goals for the Hacking for Defense Class
Our primary goal was to teach students Lean Innovation while they engaged in national public service. Today if college students want to give back to their country, they think of Teach for America, the Peace Corps, or AmeriCorps or perhaps the US Digital Service or the GSA’s 18F. Few consider opportunities to make the world safer with the Department of Defense, Intelligence community or other government agencies.
In the class we saw that students could learn about the nation’s threats and security challenges while working with innovators inside the DoD and Intelligence Community. At the same time the experience would introduce to the sponsors, who are innovators inside the Department of Defense (DOD) and Intelligence Community (IC), a methodology that could help them understand and better respond to rapidly evolving threats. We wanted to show that if we could get teams to rapidly discover the real problems in the field using Lean methods, and only then articulate the requirements to solve them, defense acquisition programs could operate at speed and urgency and deliver timely and needed solutions.
Finally, we wanted to familiarize students with the military as a profession and help the better understand its expertise, and its proper role in society. We hoped it would also show our sponsors in the Department of Defense and Intelligence community that civilian students can make a meaningful contribution to problem understanding and rapid prototyping of solutions to real-world problems.
Team Neurosmart — Optimizing Performance of Special Operators
If you can’t see the Neurosmart 2-minute video, click here
If you can’t see the Neurosmart slides, click here
Mission-Driven in 50 Universities and Continuing to Expand in Scope and Reach
What started as a class is now a movement.
From its beginning with our Stanford class, Hacking for Defense is now offered in over 50 universities in the U.S., as well as in the UK and Australia. Steve Weinstein started Hacking for Impact (Non-Profits) and Hacking for Local (Oakland) at U.C. Berkeley, and Hacking for Oceans at both Scripps and UC Santa Cruz. Hacking for Homeland Security launched last year at the Colorado School of Mines and Carnegie Mellon University. A version for NASA is coming up next.
And to help businesses recover from the pandemic, the teaching team taught a series of Hacking For Recovery classes last summer.
Our Hacking for Defense team continues to look for opportunities to adapt and apply the course methodology for broader impact and public good. Project Agrippa, for example, piloted a new “Hacking for Strategy” initiative inspired by their experience in Stanford’s “Technology, Innovation and Modern War” class that Raj Shah, Joe Felter and I taught last fall. This all-star team of 4 undergraduates and a JD/MBA developed new ways to provide logistical support to maritime forces in the Indo-Pacific region. Their recommendations drew on insights gleaned from over 242! interviews (a national H4D class record.) After in-person briefings to Marine Corps and Navy commanders and staff across major commands from California to Hawaii, they received interest in establishing a future collaboration, validating our hypothesis that Hacking for Strategy would be a welcome addition to our course offerings. Its premise is that keeping America safe not only requires us maintaining a technological edge but also using these cutting edge technologies to develop new operational concepts and strategies. Stay tuned.
Team AngelComms — Rescuing Downed Pilots
If you can’t see the AngelComms 2-minute video, click here
If you can’t see the AngelComms slides, click here
Team Salus — Patching Operational Systems to Keep them Secure
If you can’t see the Salus 2-minute video, click here
If you can’t see the Salus slides, click here
Team Mongoose — Tracking Hackers Disposable Infrastructure
If you can’t see the Mongoose 2-minute video, click here
If you can’t see the Mongoose slides, click here
Team Engage — Preparing Aviators to Make Critical High Stakes Decisions
If you can’t see the Engage slides, click here
What’s Next For These Teams?
When they graduate, the Stanford students on these teams have the pick of jobs in startups, companies, and consulting firms. Most are applying to H4X Labs, an accelerator focused on building dual-use companies that sell to both the government and commercial firms. Many will continue to work with their problem sponsor. Several will join the new Stanford Gordian Knot Center which is focused on the intersection of policy, operational concepts, and technology.
In our post class survey 86% of the students said that the class had impact on their immediate next steps in their career. Over 75% said it changed their opinion of working with the Department of Defense and other USG organizations.
It Takes A Village
While I authored this blog post, this class is a team project. The secret sauce of the success of Hacking for Defense at Stanford is the extraordinary group of dedicated volunteers supporting our students in so many critical ways.
The teaching team consisted of myself and:
Pete Newell, retired Army Colonel and ex Director of the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force, now CEO of BMNT.
Joe Felter, retired Army Colonel; and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania; and William J. Perry Fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.
Steve Weinstein, 30-year veteran of Silicon Valley technology companies and Hollywood media companies. Steve was CEO of MovieLabs, the joint R&D lab of all the major motion picture studios. He runs H4X Labs.
Tom Bedecarré, the founder and CEO of AKQA, the leading digital advertising agency.
Jeff Decker, a Stanford researcher focusing on dual-use research. Jeff served in the U.S. Army as a special operations light infantry squad leader in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our teaching assistants this year were Nick Mirda, Sally Eagen, Joel Johnson, past graduates of Hacking for Defense, and Valeria Rincon. A special thanks to the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) and Rich Carlin and the Office of Naval Research for supporting the program at Stanford and across the country, as well as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. And our course advisor, Tom Byers, Professor of Engineering and Faculty Director, STVP.
Thanks to Mike Brown, Director of the Defense Innovation Unit for giving an extraordinary closing keynote.
We were lucky to get a team of mentors (VCs and entrepreneurs) as well as an extraordinary force of military liaisons from the Hoover Institution’s National Security Affairs Fellows program, Stanford senior military fellowship program and other accomplished military affiliated volunteers. This diverse group of experienced experts selflessly volunteer their time to help coach the teams. Thanks to Todd Basche, Rafi Holtzman, Kevin Ray, Craig Seidel, Katie Tobin, Jennifer Quarrie, Jason Chen, Matt Fante, Richard Tippitt, Rich Lawson, Commander Jack Sounders, Mike Hoeschele, Donnie Hasseltine, Steve Skipper, LTC Jim Wiese, Col. Denny Davis, Commander Jeff Vanak, Marco Romani, Rachel Costello, LtCol Kenny Del Mazo, Don Peppers, Mark Wilson and LTC Ed Cuevas
And of course a big shout-out to our problem sponsors across the DoD and IC: MSgt Ashley McCarthy, Jason Stack, Col Sean Heidgerken, LTC Richard Barnes, George Huber, Neal Ziring, Shane Williams, Anthony Ries, Russell Hoffing, Javier Garcia, Matt Correa, Shawn Walsh, and Claudia Quigley.
Steve Blank writes about defense innovation at www.steveblank.com. | https://medium.com/@sgblank/hacking-for-defense-stanford-2021-lessons-learned-presentations-a5b8e8d26b8b | ['Steve Blank'] | 2021-06-10 12:34:01.733000+00:00 | ['Innovation', 'Hacking For Defense', 'Teaching', 'National Security', 'Lean Startup'] |
7 Simple Hacks to Save at Least 13 Months Money in 1 Year | 3. No Bank Card, So No Money …ohh, I Have Emergency Fund
Emergencies, like the pandemic, don’t knock the door before coming.
It’s crucial to have an emergency fund because your health and family is crucial. When you have the emergency fund, you’ll be mentally stronger for any surprise life throws your way.
Every month, save some percentage of the money you receive. Could be 20%. Could be 90%. Anything. But something.
Keep doing this every month. That’s your emergency fund. “Everyone says: ‘get an emergency fund, save in an emergency fund.’ But what the hell is an emergency fund?”
I get you. Nobody truly defines what an emergency fund is.
It’s a fund for six months of your living expenses. Let’s say you need $500 to live off every month. Your emergency fund is $500×6=$3,000.
Do this from next month: Never accept cash or check from your employee/anyone. What should be the reason? You know that one easy excuse during this pandemic. Should I repeat? Here you go: cash/check can transfer the virus.
Create a savings account in a different bank than your checking account. Checking account is the account you use for your daily, go-to transactions and withdrawal. In the savings account, there’s a limit you can withdraw the money without paying a fee. Also, a savings account gives you higher interest but a checking account gives you almost zero interest.
Once the savings account is set up, request for a debit card (you don’t usually get the card as this account isn’t for transactions…you have to request it). Once you get it, break the card. This is to make you feel like you don’t have the card means you don’t have the money (or direct access to the money) so that you don’t waste it.
Ask your employer to direct deposit the money in your checking and savings account by splitting the percentage of the money you set.
Then, forget you even have a savings account. It’s safe in the bank. The interest adds up. Your emergency fund is getting ready.
Takeaway: At the shopping mall: “I don’t have a debit card so I don’t have any money.” | https://medium.com/@shajedulkarim/7-simple-hacks-to-save-at-least-13-months-money-in-1-year-9144ce3f6b1a | ['Shajedul Karim'] | 2020-12-25 02:08:45.373000+00:00 | ['Money Management', 'Money', 'Personal Finance', 'Self', 'Investment'] |
BTP’s blockchain management platform Sextant for DAML selected by climate risk insurtech The Demex Group | BTP’s blockchain management platform Sextant for DAML selected by climate risk insurtech The Demex Group
BTP product underpins Demex platform that shields customers from the financial surprises of volatile weather empowering them to grow their business Duncan Johnston-Watt Follow Nov 19, 2020 · 4 min read
Washington DC — November 19, 2020 — The Demex Group, a leading technology company that has pioneered a new paradigm to customize and deliver climate-resilience through financial risk solutions on a global scale, has selected Sextant for DAML, the blockchain management platform provided by Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP), to deploy and manage the blockchain and smart contract infrastructure that underpins their Demex platform.
The Demex Solutions Center is a robust end-to-end ecosystem that shields customers from the financial surprises of volatile weather, empowering them to grow their businesses. Under the covers, it leverages blockchain and DAML smart contracts to enable the delivery of customized transaction platforms for risk providers and end users to creatively analyze client exposures and develop bespoke financial risk solutions.
“We chose DAML as our smart contract language as it enables us to develop multi-party business processes rapidly. As a result we can develop bespoke financial risk solutions for our clients more efficiently and competitively,” said Ed Byrns, President & CEO of The Demex Group. “We selected Sextant for DAML to allow us to fully realize its benefits by providing us with a stable platform to build upon, accelerating our development and reducing our time to market.”
Sextant for DAML is a software product that radically simplifies the deployment and management of both blockchain networks and smart contracts. Sextant for DAML abstracts the underlying operational complexity, providing an enterprise grade platform that frees up companies to take full advantage of the power of DAML and focus on addressing the needs of their business.
“We are delighted that our product Sextant for DAML was chosen by this leading insurtech company to enable them to mitigate the increasing challenge of climate risk for their customers,” said Duncan Johnston-Watt, CEO & Co-founder of BTP. “This is an excellent case study of the business value of blockchain and smart contracts — by enabling competing risk providers to collaborate and deliver customized solutions to a broader market. The Demex Group is lowering the barrier to entry for businesses to develop climate resiliency.”
DAML applications provide a robust framework to better manage transactional workflows, resulting in improved operational efficiency and risk mitigation capabilities. DAML also preserves privacy, trust and speed across any distributed ledger or database. This is particularly relevant to the capital markets and insurance sectors.
“Demex is at the forefront of innovation in risk management,” said Yuval Rooz, Co-founder & CEO at Digital Asset. “Climate risk is increasingly becoming a major challenge for many organizations. The team at Demex has responded with a solution that precisely calibrates weather-related risks, enabling companies of all sizes to better manage their bottom line. We are excited to see Demex expand its portfolio using Sextant for DAML.”
Sextant for DAML, developed in partnership with Digital Asset, radically simplifies the deployment and management of DAML smart contracts on Hyperledger Sawtooth and Hyperledger Besu as well as Amazon QLDB and Amazon Aurora. It is rapidly emerging as the platform of choice for companies delivering DAML applications in production. | https://medium.com/blockchaintp/btp-blockchain-management-platform-sextant-daml-selected-by-climate-risk-insurtech-the-demex-d423fc41cd32 | ['Duncan Johnston-Watt'] | 2020-11-19 12:47:49.331000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Insurtech', 'Smart Contracts', 'Climate Change', 'Risk Management'] |
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