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Full-Stack Magic With Docker. How to Dockerize a full-stack app that… | Coverage
Setting up the application infrastructure and getting it up and running on Docker.
Prerequisites
I’d recommend having some basic understanding of Docker, as I’m not going to go into detail explaining what it is or how it works, but there are plenty of resources to find out for yourself if you don’t already know. Also, you should have some understanding of React, Express, Mongo, although that will be more for the next part of the series.
Setup
Open up your favorite code editor. Mine is Visual Studio Code. Create a new project and give it a name of your choosing, although if you are OCD about naming things like myself you can just call it full-stack-docker . Open your terminal. I either use Hyper or the VS Code integrated one. Initialize a git repo with git init or if you prefer you can do it with a gui client like Source Tree or Kraken. Add a gitignore with the following content. I’ll leave it up to you to add more if you like, but you really shouldn’t need more than this.
node_modules
build
dist
.env
yarn-error.log*
In the project root, create one directory called client and another called server. Those are where the React and Express applications will live respectively. Open the client directory in the terminal and run npx create-react-app and you can wait for it to finish or you can open another terminal in the meantime and go into the server directory and run npm init and follow the prompts. You’ll need to add dependencies for the server once that’s done. Paste the following in your terminal and run it:
yarn add express body-parser cors dotenv helmet mongoose
We’ll need to add nodemon globally as well.
yarn global add nodemon
Let’s set up the npm scripts to spin up the server. Add this command to the scripts in the server package.json.
"dev": "nodemon --watch src src/index.js"
Create a .env file in the server root (not inside src) and include these lines:
DATABASE_URL='mongodb://database:27017/fullstack'
CLIENT_ORIGIN="http://localhost:3000"
Okay now time to actually start coding. Inside server created a new folder called src and add the entrypoint file with the name index.js . and add the content below. We’ll add the code to connect to Mongo once we get everything Dockerized. If you’re wondering what some of the dependencies do a good ol’ fashioned Google search should help you out.
const express = require('express');
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const cors = require('cors');
const helmet = require('helmet');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const dotenv = require('dotenv');
dotenv.config();
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 5000;
const app = express();
app.use(helmet());
app.use(cors({ origin: process.env.CLIENT_ORIGIN }));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
function start() {
app.listen(PORT, () => {
console.log(
`Application is up and running on port ${PORT}`
);
});
}
start();
Run yarn dev and in the terminal you should see that the application is running.
❯ yarn dev
yarn run v1.22.5
$ nodemon --watch src src/index.js
[nodemon] 2.0.4
[nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
[nodemon] watching path(s): src/**/*
[nodemon] watching extensions: js,mjs,json
[nodemon] starting `node src/index.js`
Application is up and running on port 5000
Sweet. Now for peace of mind let’s start up the React app as well. From client run yarn start and if it’s all savy than a browser window should pop up with the app running at http://localhost:3000 Try not stare at the spinning atom for too long. We’ve got work to do! Okay next let’s do some Docker magic so we can tell our friends that we’re wizards.
But not JUST Docker. We’re going to use Docker Compose to make our lives a little bit easier and a Makefile to provide some shortcuts for doing Docker things and to make shit-happen .
Go ahead and stop the client and server processes with CTRL + C or just close the terminals running them. Next, let’s add the docker-compose.yml to the project root and add these ingredients. They’re not actually called ingredients but we are making a potion so…
version: '3.4' services: client:
container_name: fullstack_client
stdin_open: true
build:
context: ./client
depends_on:
- server
volumes:
- ./client:/app/client
- /app/client/node_modules
ports:
- 3000:3000
environment:
CHOKIDAR_USEPOLLING: 'true' server:
container_name: fullstack_server
stdin_open: true
build:
context: ./server
depends_on:
- database
volumes:
- ./server:/app/server
- /app/server/node_modules
ports:
- 5000:5000
environment:
CHOKIDAR_USEPOLLING: 'true'
database:
image: mongo:latest
container_name: fullstack_database
volumes:
- mongo-data:/data/db
environment:
- MONGO_INITDB_DATABASE=local volumes:
mongo-data:
Okay now you might notice that the client and server both have a build context. That’s because we are going to set up Dockerfiles for each of them to conjure up their containers.
In client and server add a Dockerfile and .dockerignore (to keep out those pesky trolls so we can pass the context bridge without having to pay a fee).
Here’s the client Dockerfile.
FROM node:12 WORKDIR /app/client COPY package.json .
COPY yarn.lock . RUN yarn install COPY . . EXPOSE 3000 ENV NODE_ENV=development CMD [ "yarn", "start" ]
And the .dockerignore
node_modules
npm-debug
.dockerignore
Dockerfile
And for the server Dockerfile
FROM node:12 WORKDIR /app/server COPY package.json .
COPY yarn.lock . RUN yarn install COPY . . EXPOSE 5000 ENV NODE_ENV=development RUN yarn global add nodemon CMD [ "yarn", "dev" ]
…And the .dockerignore
node_modules
npm-debug
.dockerignore
Dockerfile
And one last thing before we cast our spell er brew our potion. This is either a potions class or a spells class, but I’m having too much fun interjecting wizard humor (is that a thing?).
The ‘make’ file
Do things or uh make things happen just by using make <command> . Neat. And now your training is nearly complete. Oh I’m trying so hard to hold back on the wizard jokes and fantastic dad jokes but I can’t help myself. It’s in my nature. The only thing that could make this better is a meme. Speaking of.
Add the Makefile to your project root and run make dev and wait patiently.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
How have I not made a broom or staff reference yet. My mind can’t decide what fantasy universe to reside in — Harry Potter or LOTR.
dev:
docker-compose up start:
docker-compose up -d login-client:
docker exec -it fullstack_client sh login-server:
docker exec -it fullstack_server sh login-database:
docker exec -it fullstack_database mongo
Okay so if everything went according to plan your terminal should be telling you that the server, client, and database are all up and running. HUZZAH!
I know. I made the same face when I found out, too. Well would you just look at that! We’ve managed to do some magic without it blowing up in our faces. It’s quite satisfying indeed. Onward.
Oh man I just referenced a Disney movie rather unintentionally but just so happens to also feature magic!
Building the API
Let’s go back to the server index.js and connect the application to the database. Make this change to the file.
const express = require('express');
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const cors = require('cors');
const helmet = require('helmet');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const dotenv = require('dotenv'); dotenv.config(); const PORT = process.env.PORT || 5000; const app = express(); app.use(helmet());
app.use(cors({ origin: process.env.CLIENT_ORIGIN }));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true })); function start() {
mongoose
.connect(process.env.DATABASE_URL, {
useNewUrlParser: true,
useUnifiedTopology: true,
})
.then(() => {
console.log(
`Database is connected to ${process.env.DATABASE_URL}`
);
app.listen(PORT, () => {
console.log(
`Application is up and running on port ${PORT}`
);
});
})
.catch((error) => {
console.log(error);
});
} start();
When you save the file the server should reload and in the terminal it should read:
fullstack_server | Database is connected to mongodb://database:27017/fullstack
fullstack_server | Application is up and running on port 5000
Awesome. That’s it for now. In the next part of the series I’m going to show you how I like to build Express and React applications. We’ll write some endpoints in the API and make a simple UI in React Bootstrap and have all sorts of fun with CRUD! Thanks for reading and remember… | https://javascript.plainenglish.io/the-magic-of-full-stack-apps-with-docker-64d94fcd1ce0 | ['Stuart Haas'] | 2021-01-29 03:06:20.552000+00:00 | ['React', 'Programming', 'Docker', 'Express', 'Mongodb'] |
Introduction | I really don’t know where to start, so I suppose a small introduction will do.
I’m a transgender woman. I’m 17, I turn 18 in 2 months. I like writing.
Being trans, I feel that a lot of things I experience are incredibly unique to me and other trans people. For quite some time I’ve feel sequestered into silence about these experiences because I really don’t have anybody to talk to about them. I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing, so I thought tossing out my life here would be a good way to diffuse my emotions.
My hope is that I can help educate others, whether they’re transgender or not. I’d like to share a poem I wrote recently:
“They say I murdered him,
that I cut him to death on a feminine pronoun, a deadname for a dead boy.
That his murder was a choice, an option.
It wasn’t.
They mourned his death. Mourned the loss of masculine possibilities, not realizing that those possibilities still existed — just wearing a dress.
They say I murdered him,
but you can’t kill something that doesn’t exist.” | https://medium.com/@christal-young/introduction-ef9a81dfb789 | ['Christal Young'] | 2020-12-25 16:30:25.187000+00:00 | ['Introduction', 'Poetry', 'Transgender'] |
Men, This Is Why Women Stay Silent When Sexually Harassed | Men, This Is Why Women Stay Silent When Sexually Harassed
Photo credit: iStock
By Animah Kosai
“She didn’t say a word for 3 years?” my male friend remarked on Cheryl Yeoh’s revelation that she had been sexually assaulted by Dave McClure.
He’s not alone. Many men cannot believe why women stay silent. The length of time suggests that maybe it wasn’t true. That the woman was ok at the time, but later, after things happen, she accuses someone of sexual harassment or assault. The greater the time-lapse, the more likely the man will doubt the woman.
Guys, let me give a little peek into our inner world.
Women are incredibly stoic forgiving creatures and you love us for that. This means we put ourselves after everyone else. We come last. So if someone hurts us in any way, we don’t blame the perpetrator. Our first question is, what did I do wrong to deserve this?
We talk about victim-blaming yes, but did you know a victim blames herself before anyone else does? It could be that society seems to think it’s ok to blame victims. What was she wearing, did she lead him on, did she say stop at any time?
So are you surprised when a woman thinks it’s her fault? When she blames herself, a whole lot of insecurities arise. It undermines her sense of worth. I have seen the strongest women crumble when they have been sexually harassed. They feel violated and yet to the rest of the company and to their perpetrator, they have to put up a strong front. That includes staying silent. In our male-dominated corporate world, silence in adversity is strength.
After blaming herself, a woman thinks of how reporting sexual harassment will affect the perpetrator and the rest of the company.
If I were to raise the fact that my boss sexually harassed me, it would affect his life and his reputation. It might break up his marriage. What about the kids? Plus everyone likes him, they will blame me for breaking up the team.
Thoughts of a typical woman
In Cheryl Yeoh’s case, reporting Dave McClure could mean losing funding for the Malaysian government initiative she was leading. There was too much at stake.
And this is where we play sacrificial lamb: for the sake of the company, I will keep quiet.
When the woman keeps quiet, the sexual harassment often continues. The woman maintains her silence. She tells herself, for the sake of peace among the team, I’ll put up with it. But over the weeks and months, she loses her self esteem, becomes unsure, begins to break down in the toilet after the harasser sends her yet another message, or tries touching her again. If she can’t take it anymore, she resigns quietly. The perpetrator stays. And finds another victim.
If you see a once confident woman withdraw, that’s a red flag. Reach out to her.
One day, something breaks — for women, this can be after several years. In Cheryl Yeoh’s case, it was seeing how the men rallied round Dave McClure after his “apology” (I’m sorry I’m a creep) following the New York Times expose on women tech entrepreneurs facing sexual harassment.
And this is when the unbelievers come in. The moment a woman reports sexual harassment, she is subjected to incredible stress. Do you have evidence? Many don’t. I know of cases where women were so distressed by getting phone messages or dick pics, that they would immediately delete them. A woman doesn’t think of how to build her case, she thinks of how to get that person out of her life. It’s hard to think straight.
If someone like the director of the FBI can’t think straight when pressured by the president of the United States despite all his training, do you think a woman can think straight when she is being harassed or assaulted?
This is when the limbic system kicks in: Flight, Fight, Freeze. Too often, it’s FREEZE. I’ve encountered this myself as a teen sexually molested by a man on a bus. I was petrified and didn’t know what to do. I was lucky that some passengers noticed my distress and got the conductor to throw the man off the bus. This is why it’s so important to intervene. Most women cannot do anything at the time. If you see something, you must speak up and support her.
That point at which I was assaulted I was in a state of shock. And that shock can last a while. That question, did that just happen to me? Why, how?
And the horrible feeling of violation.
Women can be very attuned to their feelings and it plays out in their minds over and over: did that just happen, what did I do wrong, I can’t get him into trouble, I can’t break up the team and she comes to the conclusion that her rights are less important than the deal, the team, his family.
If the woman does decide to report, her first question is, “will they believe me?”
I watched the start of Broadchurch season 3 last night. During a police briefing about a rape where the victim took a few days to come forward, a young officer asked, “do you think she made this up?” Olivia Coleman turned on her with great ferocity, “we always start by believing the victims!”
Sadly, in many organisations, HR tends to start from a place of disbelief. He is innocent until proven guilty. I’m knocking that out right now. If you are investigating sexual harassment within an organisation or industry, you are not required to follow the high standard of proof of a criminal trial. Your duty is to protect your employees. You start by believing her.
When a woman has been harassed over time, she is vulnerable. She looks at the world around her and sees women who dare speak up get lambasted over Twitter, over Facebook, and on TV (think Fox). She doesn’t have the strength to deal with accusations that she is a liar, that she didn’t dress modest enough, that she has drinks after work with men. She doesn’t want her life under scrutiny. I’ve seen remarks by men who say things like “she’s too ugly to rape”. Where does that come from? What do such haters get out of putting a woman down?
The world is a very unsafe place for women to speak up. It takes an incredible amount of courage. Women like Susan Fowler, Lindsay Meyer, and now Cheryl Yeoh had to think long and hard before going public. It could mean career suicide, isolation, and public ridicule. But they have seen something bigger, they need to break their silence to make the working world safe for other women. For that, I applaud you.
—
This story was previously published on The Good Men Project.
About Animah Kosai
Animah Kosai is a lawyer turned writer who advises and writes on workplace sexual harassment, bullying and whistleblowing. She is co-writing a book on sexual harassment and is based in London. Follow her on LinkedIn and Twitter. | https://medium.com/co-existence/men-this-is-why-women-stay-silent-when-sexually-harassed-a267734fbfa9 | ['Agents Of Change'] | 2020-12-08 18:33:28.006000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Equality', 'Women', 'Sexism', 'Harassment'] |
Comparing AutoML/Non-Auto-ML Multi-Classification Models | Auto-ML approach:
Let’s get the dataset:
import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv('winequality-white.csv', sep=';')
Create train / test subsets
Lets create a sub-sample (about 20% of the overall dataset) that we will use as a holdout data-set, in order to evaluate the generalization error of our models. this sub-sample will be put aside, and not used for training. Hence, we will find out how well our models will perform on new data (not seen during the training phase).
It exist many ways to create the sample, the simplest is to use train_test_split() of scikit learn
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
train_set, test_set = train_test_split(df, test_size=0.2, random_state=42)
During Feature engineering step you can construct two types of features:
Business derived features : example here if we have some knowledge in chemistry in chemistry we can extract new feature from a combination of fixed acidity, volatile acidity and citric acid to create a new explicative feature
: example here if we have some knowledge in chemistry in chemistry we can extract new feature from a combination of fixed acidity, volatile acidity and citric acid to create a new explicative feature Transformation based features : these features are derived from ML operations such as scaling, encoding, normalization, ACP components… to create new features more valuable to the models.
The second kind of feature engineering is supported by the platform: once you launch the use case on your dataset, you can select transformations that you want to apply on your dataset, and they will be automatically computed and added as stand-alone features to get more information about the feature-transformation supported by the platform consult this link
Launch auto-ml pipeline within 10 code lines:
Step 0 : Connect to your instance via the sdk
import previsionio as pio
import pandas as pd
URL = 'https://XXXX.prevision.io'
TOKEN = '''YOUR_MASTER_TOKEN'''
# initialize client workspace
pio.prevision_client.client.init_client(URL, TOKEN)
Check my previous post to know how to get your MASTER_TOKEN
Step1 : Register the train/test subsets as Prevision Data sets
To launch a new use case you need to stock them into your work-space:
pio_train = pio.Dataset.new(name=’white-wine-train’, dataframe=train_set)
pio_test = pio.Dataset.new(name=’white-wine-test’, dataframe=test_set)
Step2 : Dataset and training configuration
To launch a new use case, you need to define some configuration parameters, and then simply use the SDK’s BaseUsecase derived methods to have the platform automatically take care of starting everything for you. Example here we need tell to the platform that the target column is quality
col_config = pio.ColumnConfig(target_column=’quality’)
Now we will also specify some training parameters, such as which models are used, which transformations are applied, and how the models are optimized..
uc_config = pio.TrainingConfig(models=[pio.Model.LinReg, pio.Model.LightGBM, pio.Model.RandomForest],
simple_models=[],
features=pio.Feature.Full.drop(pio.Feature.PCA,
pio.Feature.KMeans,
pio.Feature.PolynomialFeatures),
profile=pio.Profile.Quick)
To get the exhaustive list of `previsionio.ColumnConfig` and `previsionio.TrainingConfig` parameters checkout this Churn tutorial.
Step3: Launch a multi-classification use case
Now we will use the `fit()` method of the `previsionio.MultiClassification` class: we select the log loss as a performance metric : Here a good post to understand the log_loss and binary cross-entropy metrics
# now we will launch
# launch Multiclassif auto ml use case
uc = pio.MultiClassification.fit('wine_quality_from_sdk',
dataset=pio_train,
metric=pio.metrics.MultiClassification.log_loss,
holdout_dataset=pio_test,
column_config=col_config,
training_config=uc_config,
with_blend=False)
You can visit this post to get more information about the `fit()` options
Result analysis
For a multi classification use case, Prevision supports the OvA strategy (one-versus-all). The platform would generate probability for each modality of the target column and the selected one is the argmax.
let’s find-out the best performances found by the platform:
print("{} models were trained on this usecase:
".format(len(uc)))
for model in uc.models:
print(model.name,' === ' ,'%.3f'%model.score, 'log_loss')
print("
##################################################")
print('The best model found in this use case is a', best.algorithm)
print("the best cross validation performance is {} of log_loss".format('%.3f'%best.score)) print("
##################################################")
print('The best model performance in the holdout-dataset is ', '%.3f'%uc._status['holdoutScore'])
=> The best model is a random forest and it’s cross val score is 0.93
Now we will train a random forest with scikit learn API | https://medium.com/swlh/comparing-automl-non-auto-ml-multi-classification-models-92e1cbcf4d5 | ['Zeineb Ghrib'] | 2020-10-10 08:47:18.680000+00:00 | ['Scikit Learn', 'Automl', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Previsionio'] |
JavaScript Best Practices — Spaces, Objects, and Strings | Photo by Mr.Autthaporn Pradidpong on Unsplash
Like any kind of apps, JavaScript apps also have to be written well.
Otherwise, we run into all kinds of issues later on.
In this article, we’ll look at some best practices we should follow when writing JavaScript code.
No Mixing Spaces and Tabs for Indentation
Mixing spaces and tab for cause issues for text editors.
Therefore, we shouldn't mix them.
Instead, we use 2 spaces and convert tabs to 2 spaces automatically.
No Multiple Spaces Except for Indentation
We only use 2 spaces for indentation.
In all other locations, we should use one space to avoid wasting space.
No new Without Assigning the Return Object to a Variable
If we create a new object with new , then we should assign it to a variable so we can use it.
For instance, instead of writing:
new Dog();
We write:
const dog = new Dog();
Don’t Use the Function Constructor
We shouldn’t use the Function , it takes strings for the function code and returns a function.
It’s a security hazard to run code in strings.
Also, it’s hard to debug and optimize since the code it’s in a string.
For instance, we shouldn't write:
const add = new Function('a', 'b', 'return a + b');
Instead, we write:
const add = (a, b) => a + b;
Don’t Use the Object Constructor
We shouldn’t use the Object constructor since it doesn’t give us benefit over the create them with object literals.
It just makes the code longer.
For example, instead of writing:
let foo = new Object();
We should write:
let foo = {};
No new with require
We shouldn't have new and require together.
It may create confusion between:
const foo = new require('foo');
and:
const foo = new (require('foo'));
Therefore, we should avoid these expressions.
Don’t Symbol as a Constructor
Symbol is a factory function. It’s not a constructor.
Therefore, we shouldn’t write:
const foo = new Symbol('foo');
Instead, we write:
const foo = Symbol('foo');
No Primitive Wrapper Instances
We shouldn't use functions like String or Boolean as constructors.
This is because they return values of type 'object' , which is confusing.
Also, the code is longer.
Therefore, we shouldn’t use it.
For instance, instead of writing:
const message = new String('hi');
We write:
const message = 'hi';
Literals are shorter and eliminate any confusion that can arise.
Don’t Call Global Object Properties as Functions
We shouldn’t call global object properties as functions.
They aren’t mean to be called.
For instance, we shouldn't write:
const math = Math();
No Octal Literals
We shouldn't write octal number literals.
They are almost never useful in JavaScript and since they start with a 0, we may confuse it with decimal numbers.
For instance, we shouldn't write:
const octal = 042;
Instead, we write:
const decimal = 34;
No Octal Escape Sequences
We shouldn't have octal escape sequences in our code.
They aren’t useful and it’s probably a mistake to have them.
For instance, we shouldn't write:
const foo = 'foo \251'
Instead, we write:
const foo = 'foo';
No String Concatenation When Using __dirname or __filename
We should use path.join to join paths so that we can use the path in all operating systems correctly.
For instance instead of writing:
const pathToFile = __dirname + '/foo.js'
We write:
const pathToFile = path.join(__dirname, 'foo.js')
Don’t Use __proto__
The __proto__ property isn’t mean to be accessed directly as indicated by the __ characters.
Instead, we should use the Object.getPrototypeOf method to get the prototype of an object.
So we shouldn’t write:
const foo = obj.__proto__;
But we should write:
const foo = Object.getPrototypeOf(obj);
Don’t Redeclare Variables
We shouldn't redeclare variables in our code.
We’ll get an error if we declare 2 variables with the same name in the same scope.
Instead, we should reassign a new value to the existing variable with the same name.
For example, instead of writing:
let name = 'james';
let name = 'joe';
We write:
let name = 'james';
name = 'joe';
Photo by Behzad Ghaffarian on Unsplash
Conclusion
We shouldn’t declare variables with the same name in the same scope.
Also, we should use getPrototypeOf method to get the prototype of an object.
We should also be mindful when spacing out our JavaScript code. | https://medium.com/dev-genius/javascript-best-practices-spaces-objects-and-strings-7b9bcdea342f | ['John Au-Yeung'] | 2020-06-30 18:49:17.245000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Software Development', 'Programming', 'Technology', 'Web Development'] |
To Brave the Night Without Fear | To Brave the Night Without Fear
A Haibun
Photo by Artur Aldyrkhanov via Unsplash
Lightning struck as soon as we stepped outside. The sky was angry. It spat what looked to be fire at us — screeched at the top of its lungs. We’d offended it — the order of things had been knocked unbalanced. We held hands — hers in mine — his in hers. We skipped away from danger — ran away from harm. No one would hurt us anymore. No one would ever want to.
Three lovers in sin
Fought tooth and nail for freedom
Braving the dark night | https://medium.com/prismnpen/to-brave-the-night-without-fear-1a6c39e7bf26 | ['Tre L. Loadholt'] | 2020-10-27 08:02:38.862000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'LGBTQ', 'Bisexual', 'Haibun', 'Night'] |
Christmas Time Is Soon Upon Us | Thee Quest Haiku-Justice for all people of the world
Town Hall meetings need To be held in every town On earth-Freedom
In this time of pain, all over the world, we need to face up to reality. Many issues need to be debated. Many people feel a need to make peace with subjects, that have been put to rest for far too long.
Christmas is a time of year, when all spiritual people on earth make peace with the Divine, in one way or another. Why can we not all unite with our souls and make things right for all?
Women’s rights, LGBTQ issues, and Black lives Matter are on top of the list. | https://medium.com/theequest/christmas-time-is-soon-upon-us-dee52c5951a1 | ['Pierre Trudel'] | 2020-12-02 14:03:08.327000+00:00 | ['BlackLivesMatter', 'Theequest', 'Love', 'LGBTQ', 'Womens Rights'] |
[Sociology Test 10] RPSC College Lecturer Exam 2020: | [Sociology Test 10] RPSC College Lecturer Exam 2020:
Rajasthan Public Service Commission conducts the recruitment for Technical and Non Technical Education Department for the post of Lecture. The Rajasthan Public Service Commission has released the recruitment for Assistant Professor and lecturer (Technical Education) Posts. There are 918 vacancies for these posts. This is a big opportunity for candidates who waiting for jobs in RPSC. It is essential to know details like Exam Pattern, Syllabus, Exam Date, Previous Year Papers, and Admit Card.
Important Point: Those aspirants/students joined this programme will get the answer key / solution on the same day of test in the evening (between 8 PM to 10 PM). - Click here -Join
Pick your Pen and Paper, attempt the questions exactly like RPSC ( Lecturer Exam is not computer based). If you want to know your ranking send us your OMR / Answer Sheet to : [email protected] or in the comment section. " Be honest with yourself "
Click here to download- OMR Sheet
1. Emilee Durkheim's endeavor to establish sociology as a separate academic discipline centered on his efforts to:
A. Develop an all-encompassing synthesis of major sociological perspectives.
B. Demonstrate the influence of social forces on people's behavior.
C. Show how an understanding of sociological principles could be used to solve social problems.
D. Chart the evolution of major social institutions.
2. Karl Marx was born in:
A. France
B. Russia
C. Germany
D. Italy
3. The Wages, Labour and Capital' was written by:
A. Hegel
B. Engels
C. Stalin
D. Karl Marx
4. Communist Manifesto was authored by:
A. Stalin
B. Karl Marx
C. Laski
D. George Bernard Shah
5. Which one of the following is not true about Marxian Socialism?
A. Capital is a theft
B. State will wither away
C. State promotes interests of all
D. State sides with the rich and not the poor
6. According to Karl Marx the present state will:
A. Continue for long
B. Will wither away
C. Deliver goods with the passage of time
D. Slowly benefit the workers
7. Marx believed that in the present capitalist system of society:
A. The number of workers will come down
B. Middle class will become powerful
C. Ranks of middle class will swallow
D. Middle class will form the rank of the workers
8. According to Karl Marx workers:
A. Had no mother land
B. Have a motherland to which they must stick
C. Should confine their activities to their country
D. Should give maximum cooperation to the state
9. Dialectical materialism of Marx believes that:
A. Social phenomena is applicable to political life
B. Social phenomena has nothing to do with political life
C. Social phenomena is antithesis of political life
D. Political Life and social phenomena can't go hand in hand
10. According to Marxian philosophy dialect:
A. It result of actions and reactions
B. No actions and reactions but matter
C. Means that action and reaction must be in the same direction
D. None of the above
11. According to Karl Marx societies have all along been divided between:
A. The rich and the poor
B. The educated and the elite
C. The religious and the educated people
D. The rich and the religious people
12. According to Marxian theory revolutions come in the society because:
A. The capitalists so desire
B. The religious people manipulate that
C. Continuous class struggle is going on
D. Educated masses get dissatisfied
13. According to Marx value of the commodity would be fixed in accordance with:
A. Capital vested in it
B. Machinery used for production
C. The extent of its dependence on the foreign market
D. The socially useful labour put in it
14. Karl Marx believed that social change can be brought about by:
A. Evolutionary means only
B. Revolutionary means only
C. By spread of education only
D. With the help of both evolutionary and revolutionary methods
15. Marx borrowed from Hegel:
A. Materialistic philosophy
B. The labour theory of value
C. The ideal of stateless society
D. Dialectical method
16. Which sociologist introduced the concept of the sociological imagination?
A. Richard Schaefer
B. Auguste Comte
C. Harriet Martineau
D. C. Wright Mills
17. Durkheim's research suggested that
A. Catholics had much higher suicide rates than Protestants.
B. There seemed to higher rates of suicide in times of peace than in times of war and revolution.
C. civilians were more likely to take their lives than soldiers. | https://medium.com/@riyanaryan912/sociology-test-10-rpsc-college-lecturer-exam-2020-e9d66dccbd34 | [] | 2021-04-07 01:59:10.538000+00:00 | ['Rpsc', 'Lecturer', 'Assistant Professor', 'Online Test Series', 'Sociology'] |
Turkish pop culture Twitter accounts mobilize to support Azerbaijan | Like most modern conflicts, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict included an informational dimension that played out online. For both Azerbaijanis and Armenians, Twitter was the primary domain through which both sides attempted to present their perspective to the international community.
Much of this activity was authentic, coordinated among individuals in public and private Facebook groups, which often referred to themselves as “social media armies.” But researchers studying the early activity at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) also noted that some of it bore hallmarks of platform manipulation, included copy-pasted spam messages aimed at journalists and news outlets and the repurposing of old marketing bot accounts.
Early analyses showed that activity to pro-Armenian hashtags was greater than activity to pro-Azerbaijani hashtags, coinciding with an online activism campaign in Armenia to encourage Armenians on Facebook to join Twitter, as well as wartime-imposed social media restrictions in Azerbaijan. But an analysis of activity to 12 of the most popular hashtags on each side throughout the course of the entire war showed that pro-Azerbaijani hashtags displayed sharp spikes in activity on October 5, October 11, and October 16, 2020.
After analyzing 24 prominent hashtags used in the conflict, the DFRLab chose two of them that were prominent in the third spike, from October 15–19, for further analysis: #ArmenianAggression and #ArmenianTerrorism. While much of the activity appeared to be from authentic users, there were several distinct communities of disinformation amplifiers, including a particularly active community of accounts tweeting support for Azerbaijan primarily in Turkish that previously tweeted exclusively about K-Pop.
This analysis is a reflection of the complexities of online social interaction amid armed conflict. Throughout the war, users employed simplistic narratives about social media “bot armies” allegedly commandeered by the other side, often with accusations that these online armies were government-run. The reality, however, was significantly more complicated: social media users, many of them youth, mobilized accounts previously devoted to pop culture to tweet pro-Azerbaijan wartime propaganda. The majority of these accounts appeared to be based not in Azerbaijan, but in Turkey, which has lent both rhetorical and material support to Azerbaijan in the war over Karabakh.
Hashtag analysis
On the pro-Azerbaijan side, the DFRLab selected the following English-language hashtags for analysis:
#ArmenianAggression
#DontBelieveArmenia
#KarabakhisAzerbaijan
#ArmenianTerrorism
#StopArmenianAggression
#StopArmenianTerrorism
#ArmeniaKillsCivilans
#StopArmenianOccupation
#ArmenianTerrorism
#ArmenianWarCrimes
#LongLiveAzerbaijanArmy
#WeStandWithAliyev
The traffic to these hashtags was compared to the following 12 pro-Armenian hashtags over the same period:
#StopAzerbaijaniAggression
#StopAliyev
#ArtsakhStrong
#KarabakhIsArmenia
#ArmeniaStrong
#StopTurkey
#ArtsakhisArmenia
#AzeriWarCrimes
#AzerbaijaniAggression
#TurkeyIsATerroristState
#TurkeyIsATerrorState
#StopErdogan
From September 11 to December 7, 2020, pro-Azerbaijan hashtags amassed over twice as many mentions as the pro-Armenian hashtags: 8.5 million vs 4.13 million, respectively. The pro-Azerbaijan traffic also showed prominent spikes in activity on three occasions in October that did not appear consistent with authentic traffic flows. One of the spikes coincided with the first short-lived humanitarian ceasefire agreed to on October 10; another coincided with the announcement of a second attempt at a ceasefire, made on October 16 and expected to go into effect on October 18. | https://medium.com/dfrlab/turkish-pop-culture-twitter-accounts-mobilize-to-support-azerbaijan-5b740511d792 | [] | 2021-01-06 13:46:13.298000+00:00 | ['Armenia', 'Nagorno Karabakh', 'Social Media', 'Azerbaijan', 'Turkey'] |
Dear Kids: there’s homemade spaghetti sauce in the freezer! See you soon, Love Mom | I first joined Doctors Without Borders in 2011, when my baby girl was just one year old. As a mother of three it was a difficult decision to leave my family for six weeks, but I knew my skills could go a long way in an area like southern Sudan.
It was easier for the little ones, they don’t really have a sense of time and just accept it as my job. But to my 15-year-old, six weeks was a long time, so it was a good chance for us to talk about the issues that girls not much older than her face in this context — it gave her the opportunity to be supportive on a different level.
South Sudan became the world’s youngest nation while I was there but it is also one of the least developed and health care options are few. Ninety-nine percent of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries; South Sudan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.
Everyone loves their baby as much as I love mine, I just do it in a completely different context.
Every day, women die from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth — severe bleeding, infection, pre-eclampsia — that can be prevented with treatment provided by trained medical personnel.
Doctors Without Borders OBGYN Africa Stewart holds triplets she safely delivered on her first assignment in Aweil, Sudan in 2011. The newborns were named Africa, Nicole, and Stewart!
My husband is completely onboard. He says it is worth all of it, worth missing me, worth the angst that comes from me being away. Since my first assignment in 2011, I have been twice more to South Sudan and once to Nigeria. Before I leave, I cook a cauldron of spaghetti sauce. It is one less thing for my husband to worry about, but for my kids, the way their mom cooks is special. On the weekend, it’s mommy’s food: you only have to do that four or five times and then mommy will be home.
The last time I was in South Sudan, in February 2016, I lost a 19-year-old patient and her baby.
She was the same age as my eldest daughter.
Having the discussion with her mother about the complications was hard. It was her only daughter and the baby would have been her first grandchild; the joys and excitement that come with that — even in the middle of a civil war — translate across the board. | https://medium.com/msf-passport/dear-kids-theres-spaghetti-sauce-in-the-freezer-see-you-soon-love-mom-9b75e166f935 | ['Doctors Without Borders'] | 2018-03-30 17:59:26.113000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Pregnancy', 'South Sudan', 'Womens Health', 'Cooking'] |
📢CryptoTycoon $CTT Listing on BitMart Exchange | We are excited to announce that $CTT will be listed on BITMART exchange on 17th June 2021.
Trading Pair:
CTT/USDT
🧭Timeline:
📌Deposits & Withdrawal : Opened
📌Trading: 04:00 June 17th (UTC)
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https://www.bitmart.com/about/en
BitMart Exchange is a premier global digital assets trading platform with over 2.2 million users worldwide and ranked among the top crypto exchanges on CoinMarketCap. BitMart currently offers 400+ trading pairs with one of the lowest trading fees in the market. To learn more about BitMart, visit their website, follow their Twitter, or join their Telegram for more updated news and promotions. Download BitMart App to trade anytime, anywhere.
⚠️Note:
On-Chain Transfer/Transaction of $CTT tokens will have 5% burn‼️
🔉Join us:
Website: http://cryptotycoon.finance/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CryptoTycoon_GP
TG: https://t.me/CryptoTycoonCTT
Announcement: https://t.me/CryptoTycoon_Announcement
Medium: https://medium.com/@CryptoTycoon_GP
WeiBo: https://weibo.com/u/7526265319? | https://medium.com/@cryptotycoon-gp/cryptotycoon-ctt-listing-on-bitmart-exchange-1be0d6ee3ab0 | ['Cryptotycoon'] | 2021-06-17 07:54:06.179000+00:00 | ['To The Moon', 'Bitmart', 'Bsc', 'Listing News Events', 'Listings'] |
Flutter charting libraries: an evaluation | Flutter is growing fast, getting more and more mature. But what about the charting libraries? How powerful and usable are they today? We will compare five libraries:
The code used to test is available on Github:
Note before to start: this comparison is totally subjective, it is just my opinion and feeling. The comparison is made only for a timeline chart so it is not covering all the features of the libraries presented here. Note for the authors of the libraries if they read this: I might not have understood everything right so forgive me if I say something wrong and correct me please.
Let’s start by checking the general results and then we will review the details library by library. The criteria that we use are: general api power, api comfort, customization, maintenance, documentation and beauty.
Api
The api power represents the possibilities offered by the library and the api comfort is the ease of use and understanding.
Maintenance and documentation
The maintenance represents the frequency and recentness of the commits in the repository.
Customization and beauty
The customization is the amount of options and visual changes possible for the chart. The beauty is really subjective, make your own opinion.
Now let’s check the details for each library. The test was made with some stock price data: a date and a double. All the libraries have been tested with 3 dataset sizes: 15 records, 500 records and 3000 records. Note that the speed of rendering has never been a problem: all the libraries render the chart almost instantly in release mode even with 3000 datapoints on an old device (Flutter rocks!), so the speed of rendering has not been included in the comparison.
Flutter charts
The good old chart library from Google (non official).
This library is very powerful: many charts are available: check the gallery. There are a lot of customization options but the api is really complicated and unfriendly. Furthermore the IDE popups help when you hover a function are not helpful at all (in Vscode).
Two more criteria will be used to evaluate the libraries: the ability to use directly some model data from a class without transforming it and the automatic labeling from a DateTime serie on the x axis, which is very helpful for charting time series.
Use model data directly: yes
Automatic labeling from datetimes: yes
Some very important criteria for me are the documentation and the maintenance. For Flutter Charts the documentation is good with a lot of examples with code in the gallery. Where it hurts is the maintenance: the repository has not been updated since 4 months. Here is the repository activity chart:
To sum up this library is powerful but hard to get a grip on. It can still be very useful and produces good looking animated charts. The problem is that it seems pretty abandoned today. Strengths and weaknesses of this library in a chart: | https://medium.com/@ansterj/flutter-charting-libraries-an-evaluation-b1d6de5c7b85 | ['Jim Anster'] | 2019-06-16 16:25:30.587000+00:00 | ['Flutter', 'Charts'] |
Day Five — Hansel and Gretel. We woke up in an actual bed today! And… | We woke up in an actual bed today! And we took a hot shower! Hallelujah
When you spend a few cold and dirty days sleeping in a tent you really appreciate the things we take for granted.
We decided that today would be a slow day. When we booked this AirBnB we knew we wanted a day without traveling, a day without something to do. We’ve been moving and going for 5 days now. We were ready for a break. A recharge.
Our AirBnB host Jerry and Annie have a really nice place out here in rural Rapid City, SD. They and their two pups, Hansel and Gretel, have made us feel very welcome in their home. Hansel is a delightfully friendly golden retriever who will climb right in your lap if you want him to, which I did. Gretel is a super sweet german shepherd who practically talks to you and barks whenever you stop petting her.
This goofy boi is Hansel. We became instant buds.
Jason decided to hibernate in the basement and work from bed.
Jason’s Office Bed
I found a nice spot under a shade tree on their lovely back porch. It was a nice and quiet work day, with perfect 75 degree weather and calm breeze.
I took a nice long walk down a two lane blacktop and soaked in some vitamin D and amazing scenery.
After our work day was done we headed into town for some food and supplies.
With no plan or direction in mind we just drove through downtown Rapid City until something caught our attention. Pizza had been in our minds so when we saw “The Best Pizza in Town” painted on the side of a brick building we immediately pulled into a parking spot and loaded the meter with some change. That’s a bold statement and we intended to test it out.
We walked into Ifrits Hookah Lounge as the bartender, who was the only person in the place, was leaning on the bar focused on his smartphone.
Not realizing this was a hookah bar and really looking for a pizza joint, we were a little uncertain what we had in store for us. Especially since the place was completely dead. We just had a mediocre dining experience the night before and really didn’t want another.
“Do y’all have WiFi”
“Yeah but it’s $20” Joked the bartender.
That’ll do. We decided to give it a shot.
After setting up devices and scrounging up a power source for our laptops we got some more work done. The WiFi at the AirBnB is not the best so we took advantage of the broadband and uploaded pics, videos and anything else we could.
The large supreme pizza sounded good but the waiter explained they were out of most veggies due to a refrigerator failure. Our hopes of a good pie were getting thinner but we’re not picky, we said load it up with what you got and got back to work.
I spent some time editing video and Jason picked up some more work. It felt really good to work with some of the great pics and videos we got of our time at Mt Roosevelt.
The pizza took what seemed like forever to arrive but I think that’s mainly because we were both so hungry. We had both skipped breakfast.
We pushed our laptops aside and immediately dug into the cheesy new york style pizza. We didn’t even get the obligatory pizza pic! Since this is the only pizza we’ve had in this town we can’t speak to it being the best but it certainly did not disappoint. Our spirits were lifted. We scarfed down a few pieces and got a go box for the rest.
Jason wanted to run into the local Wal-Mart on the way back. I dropped him off at the door and got in some quality people watching time while I waited.
Back at Jerry and Annie’s place we decided to watch some movies on the small screen in our basement area. A quiet and peaceful night here in the Black Hills.
Stay tuned
~CH | https://medium.com/@The_digital_hippie/day-five-hansel-and-gretel-8a8057d5ccd8 | ['The Digital Hippie'] | 2021-09-16 03:31:11.471000+00:00 | ['Dogs', 'Black Hills', 'Blog', 'Travel', 'Airbnb'] |
The Bully Pulpit: How Presidents Lead the Nation (and How Trump Blew It) | It is a sad thing for the current occupant of the White House, and for whatever legacy he may leave to posterity, that the term “bully pulpit” has nothing to do with the sort of bullying at which he excels. If only making fun of people, giving them mean nicknames, and rousing supporters to hate one’s enemies constituted a useful presidential skill — then we might have to think twice before calling Donald Trump’s presidency an abject failure.
Unfortunately, though, when Theodore Roosevelt coined the term “bully pulpit,” he was not thinking of that kind of bullying. He meant it as an adjective. “Bully for England” meant “good for England.” A “bully chap” was a fine fellow. And a “bully pulpit” was a good platform, as in neat, nifty, swell, the bee's knees, the cat’s pajamas — that sort of thing.
What Roosevelt realized was that the President of the United States spoke from a unique position — not that of a monarch, since the president was elected by the people. But not that of an ordinary citizen either. Presidents command crowds. People care what they have to say. Newspapers print it, television stations broadcast it, bloggers blog about it. In Roosevelt’s day, as in our own, anything a president says will be listened to and given special attention just by the fact that the president is saying it.
Roosevelt also recognized that the opportunity to use this bully pulpit was perhaps the greatest power that American presidents have. When they are campaigning, Presidents often talk about the laws and programs they will pass. But presidents don’t actually make laws. That is the job of Congress. The greatest influence that presidents have over legislation lies in their ability to persuade members of Congress to pass certain laws, or to persuade the public to pressure their Senators and Representative until they are willing to do so.
The President’s power to persuade is important because laws are very blunt instruments for doing anything that matters. Laws can constrain people’s behavior, but presidential persuasion can inspire and comfort people, bring them together, build communities, and change society from the inside out. When John F. Kennedy challenged America to put a person on the moon by the end of the 1960s, he was not creating a policy; he was inspiring a vision. And when Dwight Eisenhower went on TV to explain why he generalized the National Guard to enforce the Supreme Court’s Brown v Board of Education decision, he was appealing — as Abraham Lincoln did a hundred years earlier — to the better angels of our nature.
The bully pulpit is especially important in times of great crisis. Our greatest presidents have been the ones who had great crises to shine in —Washington and the Revolution, Lincoln and the Civil War, FDR and the Great Depression. James Monroe and William McKinley were perfectly serviceable executives, but they presided over relatively good times. Their mettle was never put to the test by a great national upheaval, so they never rose above the second rank. James Buchannan, Andrew Johnson, and Herbert Hoover, on the other hand, are counted among our worst presidents because they couldn’t rise to the crises that fate handed them.
Which brings us to Donald Trump, the current president of the United States. Unlike many recent presidents, Trump had the opportunity to respond to a crisis the way that great presidents must. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most serious public health crises in our nation’s history, and it has sparked one of the worst economic crises since the Great Depression. There is nothing that a president could have done about the virus coming to America, but there are a lot of things that he could have done to control its impact on the lives and livelihoods of the people.
Most of these things, though, would have involved using the bully pulpit to inspire the nation and challenge us to rise to our better selves. Imagine what might have happened if, back in February, the President had gone on TV and said something like this:
For most people, COVID-19 is not fatal. Most people who are infected with the virus experience symptoms similar to the flu, and most cases end with full recovery. The United States has some of the best public health professionals in the world, and they are doing everything they can to identify cases and contain the spread of this disease. However, the virus can be very dangerous for some people. Older adults and those with weak immune systems are disproportionally at risk. If the coronavirus is not contained, it will spread in the United States the way that it has already spread in other countries, and many of the most vulnerable people in our society will suffer the most. By taking some very small precautionary steps, howevert, we can work together to slows this outbreak down, contain its effects, and give our public health officials the time that they need to understand what we are up against and figure out how to beat it. But this will only work if we all take these steps, even if there is no evidence of an outbreak in our immediate vicinity. At times like this, we must come together as Americans and protect each other from the ravages of this new disease. If we use this outbreak as a reason to blame each other, or to dig deeper into our silos and echo chambers, the situation will get worse. This is a public health emergency that we must greet with an outpouring of public virtue. Viruses are not anybody’s fault, and they do not work for one side and against another. This is not an election issue; it is an American issue and a human issue. We can do this together. We cannot do it alone.
A speech like this, made at the outset, might have turned the virus into something that we beat together as Americans — and not as a reason to divide further into ideological categories. There was no reason for the President to turn a national emergency into a campaign attack. He did not have to label the virus a hoax, or encourage his supporters to protest against “Democrat governors” when they tried to implement public health measures. He did not have to undermine our public health apparatus and cause people to doubt guidelines intended to keep us safe.
And even now, as we experience a resurgence in cases and, now, in deaths, the President could do more than any other person in the country to save lives and contain the disease by wearing face coverings whenever he is in public and urging everyone in the nation to do the same. Masking prevents the spread of viruses best when people want to wear them — when they want to promote public health because that is the sort of thing that Americans do. The fact that we are now debating compulsory mask ordinances across the nation demonstrates that we have already lost the battle for hearts and minds, which the stage at which presidential persuasion matters the most.
Donald Trump has failed miserably to use his bully pulpit because he has continually chosen to use his pulpit to be a bully. This is why he alone, of nearly all of the leaders in the world, has seen his approval ratings plummet during the worst part of the pandemic. In a crisis, people need leaders who can comfort and inspire them, bring them together, and make the enemy — as microscopic as it may be — seem insignificant by comparison to the might of a great nation united. The Coronavirus gave Donald Trump the opportunity to be a Lincoln, and he has instead used it as an opportunity to nudge James Buchannan and Andrew Johnson out of last place in the power rankings of American presidents. | https://michaelaustin-47141.medium.com/the-bully-pulpit-how-presidents-lead-the-nation-and-how-trump-blew-it-2260561c4553 | ['Michael Austin'] | 2020-07-16 23:05:56.968000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Persuasion', 'Trump', 'Teddy Roosevelt', 'Coronavirus'] |
What are the Challenges faced by the Spotify and How did they Overcome those Challenges using Kubernetes (K8s) ?? | What are the Challenges faced by the Spotify and How did they Overcome those Challenges using Kubernetes (K8s) ?? Dileepkumar Dec 26, 2020·3 min read
What is Kubernetes ?
Kubernetes is an open-source container-orchestration system for automating computer application deployment, scaling, and management. It was originally designed by Google and is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation
Why Kubernetes so special.. 🤔
Automated Scheduling
Self-Healing Capabilities
Automated rollouts & rollback
Horizontal Scaling & Load Balancing
Offers environment consistency for development, testing, and production
Infrastructure is loosely coupled to each component can act as a separate unit
Provides a higher density of resource utilization
Offers enterprise-ready features
Application-centric management
Auto-scalable infrastructure
You can create predictable infrastructure
Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media services provider, launched in October 2008. The platform is owned by Spotify AB, a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange since 2018 through its holding company Spotify Technology S.A. based in Luxembourg
Challenges Faced by Spotify
Spotify Launched in 2008, the audio-streaming platform has grown to over 200 million monthly active users across the world. Their intention is to provide a quality services to there customers. They wanted to empower creators and enable a really immersive listening experience for all of the consumers that they have.
In early adopter of microservices and Docker, Spotify had containerized microservices running across its fleet of VMs with a homegrown container orchestration system called Helios. By late 2017, it became clear for them that having a small team working on the features was just not as efficient as adopting something that was supported by a much bigger community.
Solution for that 💡
They saw the amazing community that had grown up around Kubernetes, and wanted to be part of that.
Kubernetes was more feature-rich than Helios. Plus, they wanted to benefit from added velocity and reduced cost, and also align with the rest of the industry on best practices and tools.
At the same time, the team wanted to contribute its expertise and influence in the flourishing Kubernetes community. The migration, which would happen in parallel with Helios running, could go smoothly because “Kubernetes fit very nicely as a complement and now as a replacement to Helios”
Conclusion given by Spotify over Kubernetes
A small percentage of their fleet has been migrated to Kubernetes, and some of the things that they heard from their internal teams are that they have less of a need to focus on manual capacity provisioning and more time to focus on delivering features for Spotify.
The biggest service currently running on Kubernetes takes about 10 million requests per second as an aggregate service and benefits greatly from autoscaling.
Before they have to wait for an hour to create a new service and get an operational host to run it in production, but with Kubernetes, they can do that on the order of seconds and minutes. In addition, with Kubernetes’s bin-packing and multi-tenancy capabilities, CPU utilization has improved on average two- to threefold.
Before the companies were working on monolithic architecture. But there are some major problems in monolithic architecture. So all the problems which we are facing in monolithic architecture are solved by Microservices .Kubernetes tools also working on the Microservices architecture .And now almost all companies are using k8s for deployment , scalling and managment
Thanks for Reading…. | https://medium.com/@dileepkumar1422002/what-are-the-challenges-faced-by-the-spotify-and-how-did-they-overcome-those-challenges-using-375de79df3d7 | [] | 2020-12-26 07:34:30.532000+00:00 | ['Kubernetes', 'Spotify', 'Docker', 'Cloud', 'Containers'] |
How can we achieve our most ambitious goals | Small progress is still progress
A month ago I wrote an article on how we can shape our identities by shaping our habits. This week’s article goes hand in hand with the habits article, so make sure to take a look at it!
To have a radical change all we need is tiny smart choices, consistency and time. Every choice, big or small has a compounding effect in the making of our lives, and that’s exactly what I will address today — our decision making process.
What stands in between us and achieving our most wanted dreams has a lot less to do with some magical skill or talent, and far more to do on how we approach our problems and make decisions to solve them.
“You cannot make progress without making decisions”, Jim Rohn.
Because of the compounding nature of those millions of decisions, even a tiny improvement in our decision making can create massive improvement in our results.
Focus on the journey
We are so addicted to goal setting, new year goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals, that we forget the most important thing. We forget to focus on — and enjoy — the journey to get there.
Goals are the results we want to achieve. The journey — or processes — are the steps that leads us to those results. If we want better results in life, we need to focus on processes instead of goals.
“Goals are needed to set a direction, but processes are what truly makes progress”, James Clear.
To give some context, here are some interesting facts about goals:
Winners and losers have the same exact goals. If successful and unsuccessful people share the same goals, setting up goals is not what differentiates them. Achieving a goal is only a momentary change. If we fix the problems at the results level and we don’t fix it at the identity level the changes won’t be permanent. We need to embody it. Goals restrict our happiness. Goals create an either/or feeling. Either we are a success when we achieve them, or we are a failure when we don’t. Goals are against long term projects. Once we reach it, it’s hard to maintain. We didn’t focus on enjoying the journey. It was just a goal not a process, so we tend to revert back.
One tiny decision leads to another
We have no control over the course of things, but what we do control is all the tiny little decisions that we need to make correctly along the way.
We need to stop being a spectator in our decision making, and start being an active participant.
When we are lying on the couch, glancing through our Instagram feeds in our phones, or mindlessly scrolling through the channels on our remote control, in that very moment we need to make the decision to put it down.
We put it down. We put in our shoes. We walk out the door and shut it behind us. We walk 100 meters. Then 200 meters. Then 300 meters.
“If you don’t make the right decision when you are in the couch, then there is no decision that can occur in the top of the mountain”, Stephen Duneier.
Each step is a tiny decision made correctly along the way. To be able to make decisions at the 300 meters step, we needed to make a tiny decision to get up from our couch in the first place.
Target the small adjustments
We all know Djokovic, one of the greatest tennis players of all times.
From 2004 to 2016, he went from rank 100+ to 1st. By the time he was #1, his prize money had grown 50 times, and he was winning almost all of his matches. If we look at those numbers alone, the changes required to go from one end to the other seem massive and unattainable.
But the interesting thing is that in tennis, to actually win matches, you don’t need to win all the points. You just need to win more points.
If we break down a match into sets, a set into games, and games into points, we get to its smallest portion. The points themselves — and here is where the magic happens.
Djokovic did not need to win 50% more points. He just needed a small improvement. A small adjustment to his skills to win a few more points, lead to massive results in ranking, prize money and matches.
Break down your goals
Take these big concepts, these big ideas, assignments and goals, and break them down to much more manageable tasks.
If we want to achieve something big, the best way is to find something in our existing routines that we can adjust, make small improvements, and let them compound over time.
We gained some weight, and we want to change that — thank you quarantine! How we usually handle it? We either give money to a gym that we will never go. Or we swear to never eat sweets again, that we know also won’t work.
Or we can do the right thing, become an active participant in our decision making. Like outdoors? Enjoy listening music? Why not walk to work a few times a week?
It’s not about losing the 10 kg of weight. It is a about breaking down the big targets into more manageable decisions, so we reduce the chances of us screwing it up along the way.
Analyze your own routine
Think about the habits and passions that you already have in life — What small adjustments can you do to them, so they work in your favor to achieve what you desire?
If you commute to work 1 hour daily, why not use 30 min of that time to study something you want to learn? In 1 week that’s 2.5 hours. In a month it adds up to 10 hours. In a year you would have 120 hours of learning under your belt! That’s a lot.
Let me share a personal experience. I’ve always had a hard time reading paper books. I just don’t enjoy it as much, and often don’t have the patience to sit down, focus and read. But I realized two things when analyzing my routine — I like walking outdoors and I love podcasts.
So why not listen to books instead of reading them? So I did. A small adjustment into my already existing routine, led me from struggling to read 4–5 books a year to almost 30 books every year. Small adjustment, massive outcome.
Get to work!
I’ve been using this approach in my life for a while now. By applying it, I managed to study more, read more, workout more, create a blog, start a few side projects, and all it took was the ideas I shared in this article.
I still don’t have any superhuman skill. All I do is to take those big ambitious projects that we are too scared to start, break them down into their simplest form and make small improvements along the way, to improve my odds of achieving them.
The reason I am writing this today, is that I am hoping to inspire several of you who are reading this, to stop and think about some of those ambitious dreams you have for yourself — the ones you’ve been putting aside.
We are going through difficult times, and I feel COVID-19 situation made us give up on pursuing our plans. There is still time. Just because they seem unattainable, it doesn’t mean that they actually are. Break them down, focus on the process, do small adjustments, enjoy the journey.
So which goals you’ve been putting off until now? Close this article and get to work! | https://medium.com/@danielmarcovici/how-can-we-achieve-our-most-ambitious-goals-b9fdfed0f358 | ['Daniel Marcovici'] | 2020-12-02 22:32:18.098000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Skills', 'Goals', 'Personal Development', 'Habits'] |
Reflections of a Youth Worker: Physical Interaction with a Young Person | Context: A reflection from a series I did for my studies several years ago, reviewed and published to encourage reflection on both a small and large scale within youth work. No real names or organisations have been revealed. The reflections all follow David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle as a method for reflective practice.
Concrete Experience
This reflection is about an incident where I was working on a youth exchange in the Balkans. One of the participants from Wales was a 17-year-old boy with Pakistani heritage who was heavily into bodybuilding and attending the gym. The relationship we had built up over the last few days during the exchange had been based on sarcastic humour and what one may describe as ‘banter’. The young male would repeatedly call me a ‘Jonny’ which is a term used by some in the Pakistani community to describe White people in the UK, it is not a common remark, but I had heard it before. While engaged in some sarcastic dialogue the young male felt the need to prove he was a ‘man’ in doing this the young male threw me to the ground and pinned me there. Initially, I took the whole moment as a joke and went to push the young boy off me so I could stand up as I felt it was an inappropriate situation to be in with a young person. Now as article 2.12 of the Code of Occupational Ethics for the Youth Service in Wales states ‘ensure that young people themselves understand the boundaries between occupation and personal relationships’. However, the young male felt a need to keep me there and show his strength. The young male was considerably taller, larger, and stronger than me and I was unable to move him without exhibiting a force I did not wish to try and use amongst young people. After about a minute or two of verbally warning the young male he must remove himself and cease what he was doing he eventually allowed me to stand up. I warned the young male that such things cannot happen again, and he must show at least some form and respect, if not for me as a group leader, as least for my personal space. I also stated that if such situations arise again I will have to inform his parents. The young male laughed, but also looked nervous and later in the day asked me if I was going to tell his parents. I informed him I would only do so if such an incident were to happen again, they did not and the relationship between us continued humorously and sarcastically.
Photo by Lucas Brandão from Pexels
Reflective Observation
One of the first notable observations on the situation is that the young male was enormously proud of his heritage as well as religion, which is never usually an issue for me in any way. However, when the young male started calling me ‘Jonny’ it did start to antagonise me, and this may have contributed to the sarcastic manner of our dialogue. The young male was also immensely proud of his strength and body in such a manner that can be deemed overly confident by some. I did start to consider the boy extremely ‘cocky’ and personally, I have a disliking for such personalities in my private life, I believe this also may have played a part in developing such a sarcastic relationship with the young male. When the young male threw me to the ground I was firstly very surprised and expected it to be a brief situation. However, when the young male refused to let me up I grew very angry. I felt disrespected, I felt vulnerable, and I felt humiliated and extremely confused about how to handle the situation. I had not experienced such a situation before and almost had a physical outburst. However, I managed to hold my composure and either through my words or his boredom the young male ceased.
“There is an important difference between feeling in control at work, and not necessarily exercising control” — Tony Ghaye, Teaching and Learning through Reflective Practice
I was extremely unsure about how to handle this situation now, but some knowledge of general Pakistani culture helped me. Although all individuals and families are unique I knew that in a lot of Pakistani families this act of disrespect towards a person in authority would be considered an embarrassment upon the family. This is why I chose to inform the young male that repeating such acts would result in me contacting his family. Although the young male laughed, I believe this was due to the presence of other young people. He also looked very worried and later asked me if I was going to tell his parents. The warning seems to have been effective; such a situation did not arise again. However, I must note that my personal reactions to being called a ‘Jonny’ and the boy’s noticeably confident manner could have played a big part in his reactions to our sarcastic conversations.
Photo by Free Creative Stuff from Pexels
Abstract conceptualisation
Having myself be called ‘Jonny’ touched a nerve, I started to think about how people would react if I used such terms some members of the White community use for Pakistani’s. However, I reminded myself that such words used by the white community as far more offensive and come with a history of oppression that has an impact that my white privilege cannot fully understand.
“Even if we are full of good intentions in relation to anti-discriminatory practice, unless we are actively seeking to eliminate racist thoughts and actions from our day-to-day dealings, they will ‘filter through’ from the culture and structure into which we were socialised and which constantly seek to influence us” — Neil Thompson, Anti-Discriminatory Practice
I tried to leave this and forget about it, but its constant use started to antagonise me. I believe that this led me to reply to the young male’s general remarks in a sarcastic manner that could sometimes be deemed aggressive. The fact that the young male also had the personality of a type of person I generally dislike within my personal life affects my dialogue with the young male leading myself to bring prejudge towards the young male. The feelings I felt while on the ground were very hard to understand and control, my inexperience of firstly feeling such an array of emotions at once along with being in a situation of which I did not know how to amend was a frightening experience. However, I am happy that I resisted a potentially volatile outburst and managed to stay calm until the situation resolved with time. Hiding the feelings of disrespect, fear and vulnerability were hard, but a necessity. Dealing with the young male afterwards was a gamble; I chose to use some basic knowledge I had through growing up in an area with a large Pakistani community and growing up with Pakistani friends. How I handled the situation was not taken from a manual or code of conduct; it was derived on the spot from previous experience. It worked, and for the rest of the exchange, I managed to retain a good relationship (if slightly sarcastic at times) with the young male.
Active Experimentation
In future, I definitely have to practice dealing with dialogue and interactions that have a personal effect on me. While working with young people these things are going to happen and one must understand how to control such reactions and not allow them to have an impact on the working relationships with young people as well as lead to prejudice. In turn, the overwhelming feelings I felt during the physical interaction were still controlled and maintained to lead to a calm resolution of the situation. This shows my professional development is growing in such areas as reflection-in-action and patience with young people. Looking at the final dealings of the situation I have concluded that my ability to work with (as well as the quality of that work) young people depends not only on my academic and professional training but also my life experience. Drawing on all of these areas will allow me to be an effective worker with high-quality interactions, working relationships and results for young people.
“So the skills and knowledge of leaders are shaped by their career experiences as they address increasingly complex problems” — Peter Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/reflections-of-a-youth-worker-physical-interaction-with-a-young-person-e4207d6c80fd | ['Daniel John Carter'] | 2020-07-02 15:14:55.154000+00:00 | ['Youth', 'Youth Work', 'Education', 'Reflections', 'Professional Development'] |
Jupyter Superpower — Interactive Visualization Combo with Python | altair offers a lot of choice for interactive plotting. The above gif gives you a sense of how easy it could be. With just 1 line of code, you can change the behavior of the chart. Interactiveness is crucial for data exploratory, as often you want to drill down on a certain subset of the data. Functions like cross-filtering are very common in Excel or Tableau.
2. Clean Syntax and Easy to Combine charts
The syntax is a bit like ggplot , where you create a Chart object and add encoding /color/scale on it.
If you have used matplotlib, you probably try to look up the doc a lot of times. altair make great use of symbol like + & | which are very intuitive when you want to combine different charts. For example, a|b mean stacking Chart a and Chart b horizontally. a+b mean overlay Chart b on Chart a.
The ability to overlay two charts is substantial, it allows us to plot two charts on the same graph without actually joining it.
Here is an example. I have two graphs created from 2 different datasets, while they are both connected to a selection filter with the hospital name. You can find my example here. Chart A shows historical average waiting Time by hours while Chart B shows the last 30 days average waiting Time by hours.
The bottom left chart is created simply using a+b, both chars are controlled by a filter in the upper left bar chart.
3. Export is easy
Often time you just want to share a graph. You just need to do Chart.save() and share the HTML directly with your colleague. The fact that it is just JSON and HTML also means that you could easily integrate it with your web front-end.
If you want a sophisticated dashboard with a lot of data, Tableau or tools like Dash (Plotly), Bokeh is still better at this point. I haven’t found a great solution to deal with large data with altair. I found it is most useful when you try to do interactive plotting no more than 4charts, where you have some cross-filtering, dropdown or highlights.
Conclusion
These are the libraries that I tried to include in my workflow recently. Let me know what you feel and share the tools that you use. I think the interactive control of altair is the most interesting part, but it still has to catch up with other libraries in terms of functionalities and support more chart types.
I will try to experiment plotly + Dash to see if it is better. I have liked the API of altair so far but it may have less production-ready. Running altair data server may be a solution but I have not tried it yet.
Please give me a thumbs up if you think these tools are useful and don’t forget to give a star to the creators of these projects.
Reference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRxahWy-ul8 (This is a really great talk from one of the altair author Brian Granger. I think altair is not just a visualization library, you can learn a lot from it’s API design as well) | https://towardsdatascience.com/jupyter-superpower-interactive-visualization-combo-with-python-ffc0adb37b7b | ['Nokknock'] | 2019-10-05 17:48:06.597000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Jupyter Notebook', 'Visualization', 'Python', 'Data Science'] |
Technically Delicious Subcultures of the Anthropocene | There exists interdependent actors which fuel systemic infrastructures. Frequently scaffolded or even omitted from this conversation is the social, cultural, and political vehicles driving human activity on the Earth.
Except from CUNY Graduate Program The Journal American Drama & Theatre Food Futures: Speculative Performance in the Anthropocene by Shelby Brewster
“Although capitalism is inextricably bound up in the Anthropocene, Haraway and Moore’s formulation of the Capitalocene is not sufficient to address its effects. As Dipesh Chakrabarty eloquently demonstrates, any critique of the Anthropocene that solely addresses global capitalism remains lacking: “these critiques do not give us an adequate hold on human history once we accept that the crisis of climate change is here with us and may exist as part of this planet for much longer than capitalism or long after capitalism has undergone many more historic mutations.” A history of the Anthropocene must also take the long view of deep history and consider humans as a species” [1]
Given the radical social shifts arising during the COVID-19 pandemic, historic mutations within capitalism still remains to be seen. During this time, we are reminded of our basic needs as our assumed sense of security and normalcy comes under strain. Yet for many, uncertainty is not a novel experience and is posing a greater challenge during a time of crisis. We are witnessing a break down of constructs we assumed were static and enduring. Subcultures of the Anthropocene includes works which highlight the gaps and disparities which have always existed within anthropocene politics. It surveys alternative view points and critical think pieces assessing how we view ourselves in relation to our living ecologies.
Genomic Gastronomy is a collective studying environments and organisms manipulated by human food cultures. Smog Tasting samples air pollution from different cities crafting the extraction into a fluffy meringue. In its sweet frothy form, the work builds tension between that which we find acceptable and the boundaries of our dis- comfort.
A project by: Center for Genomic Gastronomy and Edible Geography & Commissioned by:
Ilari Laamanen and Leena-Maija Rossi for FCINY
According to Ilari Laamanen, New York based curator “The Center for Genomic Gastronomy and Edible Geography hope that the meringues serve as a kind of “Trojan treat,” raising awareness of the impact and ubiquity of air pol- lution. Inhaling smog over extended periods is extremely damaging to human health. In New York City, which has the 12th worst ozone levels in the nation according to the American Lung Association’s Annual “State of the Air” report, air pollution levels are highest in neighborhoods that are majority non-white and low-income — a particularly insidious form of environmental in- justice. By transforming the largely unconscious process of breathing to the conscious act of eating, the smog-tasting cart creates a viscer- al, thought-provoking interaction with the air all around us.”
The social implications of the anthropocene manifest through socio-economic disparity. Low income areas occupied by brown people are the most heavily impacted by hyper-capitalist infrastructures — rendering “smog tasting” a more bitter than sweet commentary.
This is an excerpt taken from Technically Delicious publication — launching in July | https://medium.com/@pearj567/technically-delicious-subcultures-of-the-anthropocene-a28a1f87459 | [] | 2020-06-21 03:50:42.814000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Future', 'Art', 'Speculative Design', 'Environmental Issues'] |
How to Get Your Article Distributed by the Medium Curators | Who are Medium’s Curators and What do They do?
Medium’s editorial curation team is tasked with reviewing thousands of stories every day. They have 30–50 curators with a diverse set of interests and experiences. Some come from writing and editing backgrounds, while others have specific expertise in fields that are popular on Medium.
The curators look for quality stories on Medium. When they select a story, they then add it to topics, which makes those stories eligible for personalized distribution and promotion across Medium — on the homepage, on topic pages, in the app, in the Daily Digest newsletter, and in other emails.
Below is a job listing that was posted by Medium awhile back, that may offer some insight into the curators role:
Is Having Your Story Distributed by Medium’s Curators Essential to Success on Medium?
Yes and no. If you have no following, are writing fiction or poetry, or have no experience with SEO — it is going to be very hard to receive views and gain traction on Medium.
Curators have a lot of say in selecting “the best writing.” Curators are the gate keepers of Medium’s coveted homepage, topic pages/top writers, the Daily Digest newsletter, and other emails that millions receive.
Before I explain how you can succeed without being curated, it’s worth reviewing the list of Medium’s topics. These represent all the categories that your article can be curated in. While many other tags exist, these are the topics that your article must be relevant to.
What are the Medium Categories for Possible Curator Selection?
Medium Topics
Arts & Entertainment
Art
Beauty
Books
Comics
Culture
Fiction
Film
Food
Gaming
Humor
Medium Magazine
Music
Photography
Podcasts
Poetry
Social Media
Sports
Style
True Crime
TV
Writing
Industry
Business
Design
Economy
Freelancing
Leadership
Marketing
Product Management
Productivity
Startups
Venture Capital
Work
Innovation & Tech
Accessibility
Android Dev
Artificial Intelligence
Blockchain
Cryptocurrency
Cybersecurity
Data Science
Digital Life
Gadgets
iOS Dev
Javascript
Machine Learning
Math
Neuroscience
Programming
Science
Self-Driving Cars
Software Engineering
Space
Technology
UX
Visual Design
Life
Addiction
Cannabis
Creativity
Disability
Family
Health
Lifestyle
Mental Health
Mindfulness
Money
Parenting
Pets
Psychedelics
Psychology
Relationships
Self
Sexuality
Spirituality
Travel
Society
Basic Income
Cities
Education
Election 2020
Environment
Equality
Future
Gun Control
History
Immigration
Justice
Language
LGBTQIA
Media
Philosophy
Politics
Privacy
Race
Religion
San Francisco
Transportation
Women
World
Does Being Featured in Multiple Topics Result in Exponentially More Article Views?
This is a question I have been asked a lot. While it is not a very large sample size, below is some of the data on my own articles (the ones that have been curated). Clearly curation is not a guarantee of success and being selected for multiple topics has a surprisingly small multiplier effect. | https://medium.com/blogging-guide/how-to-get-your-article-distributed-by-the-medium-curators-be938442f81e | ['Casey Botticello'] | 2020-07-10 00:06:33.040000+00:00 | ['Curation', 'Writing', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Productivity', 'Medium Partner Program'] |
How to connect a script to a GameObject in Unity? | The behavior of GameObjects is controlled by the Components that are attached to them. Although Unity’s built-in Components can be very versatile, you will soon find you need to go beyond what they can provide to implement your own gameplay features. Unity allows you to create your own Components using scripts. These allow you to trigger game events, modify Component properties over time and respond to user input in any way you like.
Unity supports the C# programming language natively. C# (pronounced C-sharp) is an industry-standard language similar to Java or C++.
In addition to this, many other .NET languages can be used with Unity if they can compile a compatible DLL — see here for further details.
Learning the art of programming and the use of these particular languages is beyond the scope of this introduction. However, there are many books, tutorials and other resources for learning how to program with Unity.
A script only defines a blueprint for a Component and so none of its code will be activated until an instance of the script is attached to a GameObject. You can attach a script by dragging the script asset to a GameObject in the hierarchy panel or to the inspector of the GameObject that is currently selected. There is also a Scripts submenu on the Component menu which will contain all the scripts available in the project, including those you have created yourself. The script instance looks much like any other Component in the Inspector
:
Once attached, the script will start working when you press Play and run the game. You can check this by adding the following code in the Start function:-
// Use this for initialization
void Start ()
{
Debug.Log(“I am alive!”);
}
Debug.Log is a simple command that just prints a message to Unity’s console output. If you press Play now, you should see the message at the bottom of the main Unity editor window and in the Console window (menu: Window > General > Console
). | https://medium.com/@apollo432/how-to-connect-a-script-to-a-gameobject-in-unity-c8ae2f1ba66a | ['Shashwata Koley'] | 2020-12-23 07:50:05.691000+00:00 | ['Unity3d', 'Games', 'Game Development', 'Programming', 'Csharp'] |
‘Who moves in the middle of the night? A meth lab?’ – Deck The Halls, A Review | From the very start of this movie, it’s not hard to tell that Steve Finch adores the Christmas season. However, little does he know that everything is about to change.
It’s obvious that disaster will strike when Kelly says, ‘how bad could it be?’ as the new neighbours (Danny DeVito and his clan) are moving in. This initial foreshadowing prepares us for the chaos that lies ahead.
My favourite thing about this film is the bond the two mothers and children form from the get go, leaving the two husbands to be mortal Christmas enemies, both battling for the best Christmas. You could probably imagine the madness and mischief already as the two men strive for each other to fail, framing each other and giving each other stolen goods.
The iconic slapstick comedy, irony and Danny DeVito alone, are what makes this film so hilarious. Definitely worth the watch! | https://medium.com/@rosewesterman/who-moves-in-the-middle-of-the-night-a-meth-lab-deck-the-halls-a-review-45673cd87093 | ['Rose Westerman'] | 2020-12-22 23:07:11.106000+00:00 | ['Movie', 'Film', 'Movie Review', 'Youngtalent', 'Film Review'] |
Quantum Computing Is Different | Quantum Computing Is Different
This post is part of the book: Hands-On Quantum Machine Learning With Python.
Quantum computing is fundamentally different from classical computing. To master quantum computing you must unlearn what you have learned.
Image by Author, Frank Zickert
It starts with the quantum superposition. Unlike a classical bit, a quantum bit (qubit) is not 0 or 1. Unless you measure it, the qubit is in a complex linear combination of 0 and 1. But when you measure it, the quantum superposition collapses and the qubit is either 0 or 1, as a classical bit.
It continues with quantum entanglement. Two qubits can share a state of superposition. Once you measure one qubit, its entangled fellow instantly jumps to a different state of superposition. Even if it is light-years away. It seems to know a measurement has taken place and it takes on a state that acknowledges the measured value.
When starting with quantum computing, we’re tempted to focus on the possibilities that arise from superposition and entanglement. But quantum computing does not simply add new features we can use. It is a fundamentally different way of computing. And it requires a different kind of programs.
Classically, we think about input, transformational boolean logic, and output. But this thinking will not let us succeed in quantum computing. Classical control structures are a dead-end.
Let’s take one of the simplest operators in classical computing, the assignment.
my_var = 1
copy_of_my_var = my_var
print (my_var, copy_of_my_var)
We can use the assignment operator to create a copy of a variable. The value of the variable doesn’t matter. We can create a copy of it.
In a classical program, we rely on this ability to copy data. A lot. In a classical circuit, this is the fan-out operation. In electrical engineering, we have wires. If there is a voltage at a certain time, we interpret it as 1. If there is no voltage, it is 0. We can connect another wire to it. We will receive the same output at both ends.
Image by author, Frank Zickert
Copying data is useful in manifold ways. We can use copies as inputs to different operators. In the half-adder, for instance, we copy the input in order to use it in two different operators.
Image by author, Frank Zickert
And, we can use the copies to evaluate the state at different parts of the program at different times. This would be particularly useful in quantum computing.
In a previous post, we learned how to change the measurement probabilities of a qubit by rotating it around the y-axis. We got to know the angle θ and it controls the probability of measuring the qubit as 0 or 1. But we struggled with the problem that θ is the angle between the vector |ψ⟩ and the basis state vector |0⟩. But if the qubit is not in the basis state |0⟩ then the same value of θ represents a different probability change. For the gradients of trigonometric functions (such as sine and arcsine) are not constant, the probability an angle represents that starts at the top of the circle (state |0⟩) is another probability that the same angle represents that starts at the horizontal axis such as the state |+⟩. In order to calculate the correct angle, we need to consider the state the qubit is currently in.
But measuring the qubit state collapses it to either 0 or 1 . Measuring effectively destroys the qubit superposition. But, if you're not allowed to measure the qubit, how could you specify the prior probability?
Wouldn’t it be good, to create a copy of the qubit before we measure it? We would measure one copy of the qubit while continuing to work with the other copy.
Image by Author, Frank Zickert
So, let’s have a look at the respective operator, the fan-out. In a classical circuit, one input wire connects to two output wires. It effectively copies a bit. In quantum computing, we use transformation gates and we use the word cloning for the analogous idea of copying a qubit.
The following figure depicts the diagram of a cloning transformation gate.
Image by author, Frank Zickert
It clones a qubit in the state |0⟩.
2. It clones a qubit in the state |1⟩.
3. It clones an arbitrary qubit |ψ⟩.
The superposition state of a single-qubit consists of two basis states (|0⟩ and |1⟩) and two corresponding probability amplitudes α and β.
The squares of the amplitudes represent the probabilities of measuring the qubit as either 0 (given by α^2) or 1 (given by β^2). The sum of all probabilities is 1:
The cloning transformation gate works with two qubits. Let’s call them |a⟩ and |b⟩. Each of the two qubits has its own probability amplitudes:
and
If we look at these two qubits concurrently, there are four different combinations of the basis states (|0⟩|0⟩, |0⟩|1⟩, |1⟩|0⟩, and |1⟩|1⟩). And each of these combinations has its own probability amplitude that is the product of the probability amplitudes of the two qubits’ corresponding probability amplitudes. The following equation depicts our qubit system (|a⟩|b⟩) that has four possible states and corresponding probability amplitudes.
This equation lets us represent and reason about a system that consists of two qubits. Let’s use them to clone the state |ψ⟩=α|0⟩+β|1⟩.
We start with applying the cloning transformation gate to the arbitrary qubit.
It results in two qubits in the same state |ψ⟩.
Let’s rewrite the two qubits. Since both qubits are equal, we can say that
We represent the qubit state as the sum of each state we could possibly measure with its respective probability amplitude. This is the result of cloning a qubit.
Next, let’s first expand our arbitrary qubit |ψ⟩.
We multiply out the inner term.
Since the application of G is a matrix multiplication, we can apply the distributive law of matrix algebra.
Finally, we apply the initial specifications of how G transforms the basis states |0⟩ and |1⟩
We get another result of cloning a qubit in an arbitrary state. However, these two results of the cloning transformation gate are not equal
Conclusion
If the cloning transformation gate G exists, then two terms that are not equal must be equal. This is a contradiction. The only logical conclusion is that G can’t exist. Therefore, it is impossible to clone a qubit of an arbitrary state.
This is known as the no-cloning theorem. It has important consequences.
In classical computing, we rely heavily on the ability to copy. Even the simplest classical operation, the addition, relies on copying bits. But in quantum computing, it is impossible.
In quantum computing, we simply can’t use the information stored in a qubit as many times as we want to. In fact, the idea of cloning a qubit in an arbitrary state would contradict the underlying concept of superposition. Measuring a qubit collapses its state of superposition. But when we could clone a qubit, we could measure its state indirectly. We could measure the clones without collapsing the original qubit.
This might look like a serious problem. It is a serious problem if we continue to think classically. We need to unlearn how to solve a certain type of problem programmatically. When we want to use the unique characteristics of quantum computing, such as superposition, entanglement, and interference, we need to learn a new way of solving problems.
This post is part of the book: Hands-On Quantum Machine Learning With Python.
Get the first three chapters for free here. | https://towardsdatascience.com/quantum-computing-is-different-2178fba922cd | ['Frank Zickert', 'Quantum Machine Learning'] | 2020-12-01 19:12:51.653000+00:00 | ['Mathematics', 'Computer Science', 'Quantum Computing', 'Python', 'Programming'] |
The Application of Natural Language Processing in OpenSearch | Catch the replay of the Apsara Conference 2020 at this link!
By ELK Geek, with special guest, Xie Pengjun (Chengchen), Senior Algorithm Expert of Alibaba Cloud AI
Introduction: When building search engines, effect optimization issues will emerge, many of which are related to Natural Language Processing (NLP). This article interprets and analyzes these issues by combining the technical points of NLP in OpenSearch.
Natural Language Processing
Research on NLP aims to achieve effective communication between humans and computers through languages. It is a science that integrates linguistics, psychology, computer science, mathematics, and statistics. It involves many topics, such as analysis, extraction, understanding, conversion, and the generation of natural languages and symbolic languages.
The Stages of AI
Computing Intelligence: It refers to the ability to outperform humans in some areas by relying on computing power and the ability to store massive data. A representative example is “Alphago” from Google. With the strong computing power of Google TPU and the combination of algorithms, like Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) and reinforcement learning, Alphago can make good decisions by processing massive information about the Go game. Thus, it can outperform humans in terms of computational ability.
It refers to the ability to outperform humans in some areas by relying on computing power and the ability to store massive data. A representative example is “Alphago” from Google. With the strong computing power of Google TPU and the combination of algorithms, like Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) and reinforcement learning, Alphago can make good decisions by processing massive information about the Go game. Thus, it can outperform humans in terms of computational ability. Intellisense: It refers to the ability to identify important elements from unstructured data. For example, it can analyze a query to identify information, such as people’s names, places, and institutions.
It refers to the ability to identify important elements from unstructured data. For example, it can analyze a query to identify information, such as people’s names, places, and institutions. Cognitive Intelligence: Based on intellisense, cognitive intelligence can understand the meaning of elements and make some inferences. For example, in Chinese, sentences like “谢霆锋是谁的儿子” and “谁是谢霆锋的儿子” both contain the same characters, but the semantics of them are different. This is what cognitive intelligence aims to solve.
Based on intellisense, cognitive intelligence can understand the meaning of elements and make some inferences. For example, in Chinese, sentences like “谢霆锋是谁的儿子” and “谁是谢霆锋的儿子” both contain the same characters, but the semantics of them are different. This is what cognitive intelligence aims to solve. Creative Intelligence: It refers to computers’ ability to create sentences that conform to common sense, semantics, and logic, based on understandings of semantics. For example, computers can automatically write novels, create music, and chat with people naturally.
The research on NLP covers all of the subjects above. NLP is necessary to realize comprehensive AI.
The Development Trend of NLP
The breakthrough in in-depth language models will lead to the progress of important natural language technologies. NLP services on public clouds will evolve to customized services from general functions. Natural language technologies will be gradually and closely integrated with industries and scenarios to create greater value.
The Capabilities of Alibaba Group’s NLP Platform
From bottom to top, the capabilities of the NLP platform are divided into NLP data, NLP basic capabilities, NLP application technologies, and high-level applications.
NLP data is the basis for many algorithms, including language dictionaries, substantive knowledge dictionaries, syntactic dictionaries, and sentiment analysis dictionaries. Basic NLP technologies include lexical analysis, syntactic analysis, text analysis, and in-depth models. On top of basic NLP technologies, there are vertical technologies of NLP, including Q&A and conversation technologies, anti-spam technology, and address resolution. The combination of these technologies supports many applications. Among them, OpenSearch is an application with intensive NLP capabilities.
Applications and Typical NLP Technologies in OpenSearch
The infrastructure of OpenSearch includes Alibaba Cloud’s basic products and exclusive search systems based on the search scenarios of Alibaba Cloud’s ecosystem, such as HA3, RTP, and Dii.
The basic management platform ensures the collection, management, and training of offline data.
The algorithm module is divided into two parts. One is related to query parsing, including multi-grained word segmentation (MWS), entity recognition, error correction, and rewriting. Another is related to correlation and sorting, including text correlation, prediction of Click Through Rate (CTR) and Conversion Rate (CVR), and Learning to Rank (LTR).
Parts with orange backgrounds are related to NLP
The goal of OpenSearch is to create all-in-one and out-of-the-box intelligent search services. Alibaba Cloud will open these algorithms to users in the form of industry templates, scenarios, and peripheral services.
The Analyzing Procedure of NLP in OpenSearch
A search starts with a keyword. For example, when a user searches “aj1北卡兰新款球鞋” in Chinese, the analyzing procedure works like this:
Cross-Domain Word Segmentation
Alibaba Cloud has provided a series of open models for cross-domain word segmentation in OpenSearch.
Word Segmentation Challenges
The effect of word segmentation is greatly reduced by additional unrecognized words or so-called “new words” in various fields. The costs to customize word segmentation models for new users of the process from data labeling to data training are expensive.
Solution
A model for forming terms can be built by combining statistical characteristics, such as mutual information, and left-skewed and right-skewed log transformations. By doing so, a domain dictionary can be quickly built based on user data. By combining word segmentation models from a source domain with dictionaries from a target domain, a tokenizer can be quickly built in a target domain based on remote supervision technology.
The figure above shows the automatic cross-domain word segmentation framework.
Users need to provide some corpus data from their business, and Alibaba Cloud can automatically build a customized word segmentation model. This method greatly improves efficiency and meets the needs of customers quickly.
This technology offers better results compared to the open-source general models of word segmentation in various domains.
Named Entity Recognition (NER)
NER can recognize important elements. For example, NER can recognize and extract people’s names, places, and times in queries.
Challenges and Difficulties
There is a lot of research and challenges for NER in NLP. NER faces difficulties, such as boundary ambiguity, semantic ambiguity, and nesting ambiguity, especially in Chinese, due to the lack of native word separators.
Solution
The architecture of the NER model in OpenSearch is shown in the upper-right corner of the following figure.
In OpenSearch, many users have accumulated a large number of dictionary object libraries. To make full use of these libraries, Alibaba Cloud builds a GraphNER framework that organically integrates knowledge based on the BERT model. As shown on the table in the lower-right corner, the best effect of NER can be achieved in Chinese.
Spelling Correction
The error correction steps of OpenSearch include mining, training, evaluation, and online prediction.
The main model of spelling correction is based on the statistical translation model and the neural network translation model. Also, the model has a complete set of methods in performance, display style, and intervention.
Semantic Matching
The emergence of in-depth language models has greatly improved many NLP tasks, especially for semantic matching.
Alibaba DAMO Academy has also proposed many innovations based on BERT and developed the exclusive StructBERT model. The main innovation of StructBERT is that in the training of in-depth language models, it adds more objective functions of words and term orders. More diverse objective functions for sentence structure prediction are also added to carry out multi-task learning. However, the universal StructBERT model cannot be provided to different customers in different domains. Alibaba Cloud needs to adapt StructBERT to different domains. Therefore, a three-stage paradigm for semantic matching has been proposed to create a semantic matching model that is used to quickly produce customized semantic models for customers.
Process details are shown in the figure below:
Services Based on NLP Algorithms
The systematic architecture of services based on algorithms includes offline computing, online engines, and product consoles.
As shown in the figure, the light blue area shows the algorithm-related features provided by NLP in OpenSearch. Users can experience and use these features directly in the console.
Original Source:
Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/the-application-of-natural-language-processing-in-opensearch-7b91a899d9bb | ['Alibaba Cloud'] | 2020-12-08 15:36:51.284000+00:00 | ['Algorithms', 'Big Data', 'Naturallanguageprocessing', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Alibabacloud'] |
LOUISE BONNET: BATHERS @ MAX HETZLER PARIS 11 SEPTEMBER 2021- 30 OCTOBER 2021 | Louise Bonnet, Treasure Hunter 1, Oil on canvas, 2021
Max Hetzler in Paris presents seven paintings by Louise Bonnet. The paintings all are dated 2021. In the press release Bonnet says, “For years, I tried to make acrylic do what oil does. Working in oil was a revelation”. The inspiration and title of the show include references to Peter Paul Rubens, the nude as subject, water, art history, emotions, shame, and embarrassment.
Louise Bonnet, Bather with a cloud, Oil on Canvas, 2021
Louise Bonnet, Pisser, Oil on canvas, 2021
I like the paintings. The color blue makes the paintings moody. In 2021, I learned about patience. Looking at the bodies in the work, I was in Paris for the first time. A pandemic is still in effect. I moved my body from New York and into another city. My body looks good to me. I am vaccinated. I am healthy. Bonnet’s bodies have small heads and strong torsos. The bodies look pink, fleshy and weird. There are no faces. I grabbed at someone else. Together in the present bodies perform so well.
Galerie Max Hetzler
57, Rue du Temple
75004 Paris | https://medium.com/@sundayf/louise-bonnet-bathers-max-hetzler-paris-11-september-2021-30-october-2021-e0671763818a | ['Sunday Fall'] | 2021-11-15 18:13:27.218000+00:00 | ['Louise Bonnet', 'Galerie Max Hetzler', 'New York', 'Paris', 'Art'] |
The funds raised during the Live Aid charity festival were actually spent on the purchase of weapons for rebels? | The Live Aid festival took place on July 13, 1985, and this is the most grandiose event in the history of music! Never before, neither before nor after, has there been such a large-scale and great show. It took place on four sites at once: in Japan, Australia, USA and England. The main ones were on the Wembley Stadium in London, which was designed for 82 thousand people, and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia built to host 99 thousand people. All records were broken on TV broadcasts as almost 2 billion viewers in 150 countries of the world watched it live. All the legends of music performed on stage: Elton John, Madonna, Sade, Queen, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, U2, B-B King, Sting, Brian Adams, Status Quo, Dire Straits, Phil Collins, in total more than 70 performers.
The idea of the event was born in the mind of Bob Geldof, the leader of the Irish punk rock band The Boomtown Rats. The man was no typical rock star. He was always attracted by Africa! Traveling along it, he was terrified by the famine that choked Ethiopia, and decided to help. Bob released a charity single and announced a big concert. “Initially, we planned to raise at least £1 million for the purchase of trucks to eliminate food supply disruptions,” as Geldof admitted.
For about a year, Bob organized the process. He personally traveled to many stars and persuaded them to participate. The 16 hour music marathon was to be broadcast by the BBC. During the broadcast, everyone could donate any amount of money. The phone number and address for the donations were shown on screen every 20 minutes.
And then hour X arrived. The concert began in London at 12:00 local time, Philadelphia picked up at 13:51. Performances at Wembley ended at 10:00 pm, and at the John F. Kennedy Stadium at 4:05.
Entry ticket looked like this
Among the first to arrive to the Wembley Stadium were Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Bob Geldof (pictured right) arranged a meeting with the rock stars before the concert.
Live Aid started with a hymn played by the royal guardsmen. Then the Status Quo came out and they started playing. As the members of the group later acknowledged, they stepped off the stage and got drunk and hung out in the crowd among the ordinary viewers.
The Roxy Music band was not that lucky. Their guitarist did not have a guitar for a couple of songs. The drummer played on torn drums. Then the microphone broke for vocalistBrian Ferry. He was given another one. He got confused and sang into both of them.
Bono from U2 noticed that the crowd had pressed a girl against the stage. He gestured to the guards with signs that she needed help, but they did not understand. Then Bono climbed over the fence, pulled the girl onto the stage and even danced a little with her. The dance with the girl from the crowd would later become a U2 concert tradition.
Queen’s performance turned out quite vivid as shown by the recent Bohemian Rhapsody movie hit. Freddie was on a roll.
During the Live Aid concert, several famous reunions took place. For the first time, after the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980, three of the remaining Led Zeppelin musicians, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones performed on the same stage.
The second high-profile reunion took place in Philadelphia. Black Sabbath was joined by Ozzy Osbourne, who had previously left the band. The team even performed Ironman.
Phil Collins was the only one to be on two stages at once. In London, he performed with Sting. Then he flew away on a Concord and performed in Philadelphia with Eric Clapton.
According to the stage workers, David Bowie was the only one who turned out to be sober and immaculately dressed among the stars.
It was a real euphoria, and the audience was part of it.
In total, the Live Aid festival managed to raise 150 million pounds. Most of the money came from crisis-ridden Ireland. And the largest single donation was transferred by the ruling family of Dubai. It was thought that through large and small charities this money would go to Ethiopia and feed all the hungry there. Was this goal achieved? Alas, this is still a debate.
The mysterious fate of donations
The first investigations and accusations thundered in the 2000s. According to the BBC channel, a substantial part of the funds raised went to support the civil war and the rebels, since it was spent on weapons for the Ethiopian warlords. The Daily Mail found out that at least 20% of the donors’ money went to the rebels. Ethiopian commander Gebremedin Araya announced a most shocking figure as up to 63 million pounds of the charity were spent on political and military support for the rebels.
Thinking about it is scary. Large charities are blind and opaque, vulnerable to fraud and abuse from officials in their own right. But if politics also intervenes in the process, then it is quite a disaster. The investigations naturally led to scandals, a fall in public confidence and a decrease in income for charities. The industry has recovered and continued to grow. But again and again, fraudsters or politicians are impeding its development. Remember the investigations into Age UK, Kids Company or Oxfam. And that’s in Britain alone.
The only solution here is to allow the donors to control the spending of their donations themselves. This is the solution we propose.
With the help of blockchain and IT technologies, the W12 team is providing a charity a platform where the flow of funds is transparent and available at any time for verification. The donations are deposited on a smart contract in tokens. The fundraisers do not receive the full amount at once, but in installments. When the first stage of the roadmap of the charity project is completed, they get the money for the implementation of the second stage. And so on. Each execution of the stage must be confirmed by donors or oracles. The transactions, including all the overhead costs, are recorded in a public distributed registry. The contracts and documents are uploaded there. This data cannot be changed retroactively. Any cost inconsistency will become apparent immediately. Moreover, it is possible to trace where any token was spent. That is, on W12, the donors can really measure the benefits of their investments. | https://medium.com/w12-io/the-live-aid-festival-took-place-on-july-13-1985-and-this-is-the-most-grandiose-event-in-the-6cca0433a8fe | ['Egor Perezhogin'] | 1985-01-01 00:00:00 | ['Queen', 'Charity', 'Live Aid', 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'W12'] |
Abuse Culture Highlight: Toxic Motherhood | Uuuuuuugggggggghhhhhhhhh how dare that woman contact me and my family! How dare she! "I hope you're well."
Fuck you.
You told me I was going to Hell when I came out to you as bi at 14. I never bothered telling you shit else or coming out to you as everything else I am.
You told me there was nothing I could do when, at age 13, I finally told you I'd been raped by the son of your horrible ass boyfriend every night for eight months when I was only 12. I was an adult before I realized I could have pressed charges, but by then, the statute of limitations was up.
You had the man I willingly had sex with at age 15 arrested and charged.
You left me in charge of caring for mentally ill family members.
If you ever heard, you certainly didn't care about all the nights I cut myself and cried myself to sleep.
You sent my best friend away, repeatedly, over petty shit all because you couldn't stand that she was a better-looking and decent version of you.
You abused us because we preferred one another to you.
You lied to the police when they came to investigate, after we called them because we were tired of going to bed hungry.
You sat there and ate in front of us, despite knowing we were starving.
You forced us to go to church with you, despite not actually giving a shit about our relationship with God.
You brought sexual abusers into our home, maybe on purpose, but they didn't abuse you so you didn't care.
You stole money from us again and again.
You stole child support money, over 2 grand a month, that damn well never went to care.
You left us alone for weeks at time, but most notably for the first 5 years my life, you couldn't account for my whereabouts. Where the fuck was I and why can't I remember? I have memories from when I was 2, so I know something traumatic had to have gone down.
You slut-shamed me, tried to force me to get married, and worst of all, when my worst nightmare came true - when my son was hurt - you said it my fault and then tried to take my kids away, as if you fucking know how to parent. You actually went to the people who hurt him and told lies about me to the court!
You do not get to return to my life and continue to hurt me. I saw through your shit from day one. I just bided my time until I could escape your clutches.
You ain't got shit to say but "hope you're okay"?
Fuck. OFF! | https://medium.com/postmodern-woman/abuse-culture-highlight-toxic-motherhood-e8e52a5a4d61 | ['Michon Neal'] | 2017-10-13 18:57:51.738000+00:00 | ['Abuse Culture', 'Parenting', 'Life Lessons', 'Minorities', 'Love'] |
FANCY A CUP OF TEA? | Dear Reader,
How are you? It’s been a long time since I wrote something. I had busy days and less inspiration to write.
Well, for today, I would like to talk about one of my obsessions. Obsession might sound very negative; let’s just say it’s one of my happy place or happy activity.
As you might have guessed from the title, it’s drinking tea.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
I used to think( and still think) I love tea on an average level. But my friends tell me that I am addicted to it.
Let’s analyse this, ok? Let me know in the comments if you think I am obsessed or not?
Do I have more than one flavour of tea? Well, I do have. But, every flavour has a purpose. Like, if I want to feel the tropical feel, I go for my mango flavoured one. If I am anxious, I go for my Melissa tea or chamomile. And if I feel extra healthy(which doesn’t happen often ), I go for my green tea. To have a feel of winter during summer, I go for my winter flavoured tea.
Photo by Alice Pasqual on Unsplash
Do I prefer tea more than any other soft/hard drinks? I do. I like iced tea over any other beverages. But in my defence, it tastes heavenly than coke or any other juice( Sorry to coke lovers).
What do I feel when I drink my tea? A lot of things, the whole process of making a cup of tea until I drink it, I consider it a form of meditation. It’s so calming and peaceful for me.
Photo by Lisa Hobbs on Unsplash
Drinking a cup of tea sip by sip, listening to music or even while watching the rain gives me an immense pleasure or feeling of being content in the present moment
Each sip gives me relief; it’s like a calming balm for my mental stress sometimes.
Do you think I am obsessed? It doesn’t sound like that, right?
But dear reader, if you feel stressed or lonely or just tired, I would advise you to drink a cup of tea.
Take your time. Make a cup of tea and sit somewhere you think you can unwind.
Take each sip by enjoying the flavour. Observe your surrounding, look out through the window, enjoy the feeling of wind, the pitter-patter sound of the rain, the playfulness of the sunlight through your curtains. Above all, the feel of warmth that envelops your hands while holding the cup of tea, like someone holding your hand for comfort.
Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash
You might be thinking, who has this much time to do it? Or it’s just a cup of tea. Why do we have to do it? We don’t have that much time to waste etc., etc.
But that’s the point, to take that tiny bit of time for yourself from your busy world, a world full of noises. By noises, I mean everything, the responsibility, the work pressure, quarrels, people around us, etc.
Taking that small amount of time for yourself to feel that peace. It might help you a lot. Finding happiness in small things for yourself is a form of healing that everyone needs right now.
Also, a cup of tea can be a great conversation starter.
I hope you have that calming cup of tea from now onwards.
With Lots of Love
Yours Truly… | https://medium.com/@dearreaderyourstruly/fancy-a-cup-of-tea-6cf4949a36ca | ['Yours Truly'] | 2021-03-22 12:39:07.286000+00:00 | ['Love Yourself', 'Téa', 'Meditation', 'Letters'] |
Are you ready to practice some Tongue twisters? | Elocution is a means of helping people to speak with more clarity and to improve their pronunciation.
https://redfoxeducation.com/tongue-twisters
Tongue twisters are a simple way to improve your articulation and enunciation (saying a word clearly). Tongue twisters are also used as a voice coaching method to help improve pronunciation.
Are you ready to practice some?
1) Sounds/words emphasised: s & sh
“She sells seashells by the seashore”
Level: Easy
2) Sounds/words emphasised: r & y
“Red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry”
Level: Easy
3) Sounds/words emphasised: b
“Black background, brown background”
Level: Easy
4) Sounds/words emphasised: i & s
“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!”
Level: Easy
5) Sounds/words emphasised: b
“Betty and Bob brought back blue balloons from the big bazaar”
Level: Medium
6) Sounds/words emphasised: b
“A big bug bit the little beetle but the little beetle bit the big bug back”
Level: Medium
7) Sounds/words emphasised: ch & w
“How much wood could a wood chuck, chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood”
Level: Medium | https://medium.com/@redfoxeducation/are-you-ready-to-practice-some-tongue-twisters-3a803944abc8 | ['Red Fox Education'] | 2020-12-23 14:58:37.795000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Learning', 'Reading', 'Edtech', 'English'] |
Day five: its over isn't it? | This blog will consist of reflections and experiences obtained in my time as an Intern at the Indiana Arts Commission (IAC for short).
Today I got lucky and there weren't that many pdfs! I saw a picture of children smiling super big. It gave me serotonin to see them so happy. I’m kind of sad I have to take a break from work I was enjoying it. Well until the break is over!! I’m going to miss Comms…
That’s all from yours truly. | https://medium.com/@vhadrick/day-five-its-over-isnt-it-94a0ae8891a0 | ['Idyllic Intern'] | 2020-12-22 22:16:27.944000+00:00 | ['Intern', 'Reflections', 'Experience', 'Work'] |
Why join to “I Humanity One”? | Why join to “I Humanity One”?
Are you feeling lonely?
You need community like-minded people who value you?
You would like belonging to positive, meaningful and purpose-driven community?
Act now!
Join I Humanity One — website: ihumanity.one | https://medium.com/@ihumanityone/why-join-to-i-humanity-one-6dafc64b2755 | [] | 2020-12-19 10:21:48.290000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Purpose', 'Belonging', 'Socialimapct', 'Community'] |
Acceptance | Acceptance
Acceptance is such a strong word. I don’t even remember what it feels like to look at a picture of me and feel like I’m beautiful,like the picture is perfect…
Always being on the heavier side, I can’t seem to think of a time I was honestly happy in my own skin. As a child, I remember being told that don’t worry “this is just baby fat. It will go away”. I vaguely remember wondering if there was anything wrong with the way I looked. Up until then I was perfectly content with how I looked. Always having my parents and everyone around me keep reminding me of my weight. I almost hated my grandmother cause she showed me new exercises to reduce my belly.
As I started growing up, a few heart breaks had me wanna get my revenge-body and I got it. Only that I didn’t know I had it. I still saw myself “fat". Now as I look at those pictures 10 years later,what would I not give just to get that body back. I could trade anything to just tell that girl to be happy,smile a little more,bunk a few more college lectures, have a little more fun, make a few more boyfriends, shop a little more,wear those beautiful dresses…
Today as I stand at a 100 kgs, not in control of my weight due to pcos, having the most loving husband,living away from family in the UAE,I wear a bathing suit without much embarrassment. I realised that the way I felt about myself was a strong refection of what others thought about me. Now,jusy as my husband loves me no matter what,I try to love myself each day, accepting myself one step at time. | https://medium.com/@dishtiputhran/acceptance-1a114c9ca459 | ['Dishti Puthran'] | 2021-04-07 19:10:57.422000+00:00 | ['Love Yourself', 'Pcos', 'Self Acceptance', 'Being Fat', 'Self Love'] |
Why sustainable mobility means the end of one-size-fits-all | Movin’On 2019: Learning from the rest of the world
At the event, more than 5,000 participants gathered in Montreal to discuss the future of mobility. Academics, politicians and experts from various countries shared their ideas on mobility and sustainability issues. It was enlightening to hear how the rest of the world is dealing with these pressing challenges and, today, I would like to share my personal learnings from the summit with you.
Accelerating and practicing decarbonization
Decarbonization is a key factor in making mobility systems more ecologically sustainable. Lowering carbon dioxide emissions and mitigating global warming will not be easy. But the summit taught me that it is possible. Mauricio Rodas, Mayor of Quito and Co-President of United Cities and Local Governments Organization (UCLG), made a compelling case for a carbon-neutral future:
To meet the Paris Agreement climate goals — to hold global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — carbon dioxide emissions must be brought under control immediately. According to him, two thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions come from urban areas. In consequence, cities must lead the fight against global warming. While there are reasons to be concerned that some cities from the developing world are not yet ready to be active partners, other cities are moving in the right direction. Los Angeles and Shenzhen, for example, have committed to providing all-electric public transit fleets.
New mobility strategies for a cleaner tomorrow
However, to me it is very important to stress one point: It is not only the responsibility of cities and local authorities, but also the mobility industry. Ultimately, decarbonization is everyone’s business. It is time for both the public and private sector to rethink and reinvent our mobility strategies. Especially, having in mind that the amount of traffic in metropolises around the world is expected to double within the next thirty years. Failure to tackle congestion and air pollution will damage economies and put people’s health at risk.
But — and this was another important conclusion at Movin’On Summit — there is no one-size-fits-all solution to these challenges. Luckily, there is a silver lining as we have partial answers at least to some of the problems: New mobility services have started to widen the range of options. Citizens do not have to merely choose between driving their private vehicles and public transportation anymore. At least in urban areas, there are offerings for various mobility needs, blurring the lines between individual and public or group transportation — a good first step into the right direction, in my opinion.
New mobility strategies for a cleaner tomorrow
Porsche’s commitment to sustainability
At Porsche, we believe that economic success goes hand in hand with social responsibility and care for the environment. At the core of Porsche’s overall business strategy is a vision of a vibrant and sustainable future. Porsche is therefore committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, lowering its climate impact and protecting the environment. Over the past five years, Porsche has already cut vehicle-specific CO₂ emissions caused by production by more than 75 percent. Energy consumption and water consumption per produced vehicle have dropped by 30 percent and 20 percent, respectively. In fact, our goal is to integrate sustainability across all facets of our business and to be the most sustainable sports car manufacturer in the premium segment. In pursuit of this objective, we plan to electrify our vehicle fleet and have developed a comprehensive sustainability plan, which is based on four pillars: business and customers, product responsibility, environment and energy, employees and society.
Our first all-electric sports car, the Taycan, will roll off the production lines at our main plant in Zuffenhausen in autumn. This new car ushers in a new era for Porsche and embodies our commitment to a low-carbon future. Series production of the Cross Turismo, an all-electric cross-utility vehicle, was confirmed last year. By 2025, half of all Porsche models could be electrified.
In addition to investing in new technologies, our mission is to support and facilitate the development of innovative solutions. That’s why we launch idea competitions such as “Mobility for a better world” and cooperate with various startups as well as other partners.
Porsche develops high-quality, innovative and long-lasting products.
Learning from each other: Your thoughts on sustainable mobility
If we are serious about finding sustainable solutions, we all have to do some hard thinking as to the direction in which we are moving. We cannot simply wait for the future; we have to shape it. But none of us can do it on their own, so events like Movin’On are key to future mobility. Only together, we can create mobility concepts that truely tackle today’s pressing challenges.
So, I am really curious to hear your thoughts on this: Have you been impressed by the mobility concepts in another country? Which developments and technologies are leading the way to sustainable mobility? | https://medium.com/next-level-german-engineering/why-sustainable-mobility-means-the-end-of-one-size-fits-all-67804ad3b917 | ['Porsche Ag'] | 2019-07-10 16:35:52.413000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Mobility', 'Electric Car', 'Environment', 'Sustainability'] |
Effective Email Marketing Practices for Your E-Commerce Business | Over 34% of the global population uses email, and hundreds of thousands more join them each year. Based on the same report, it’s estimated that over 190 billion emails are sent daily, with over half of that relating to business.
Emails connect us, inform us, and inspire us. They are a massive part of our lives. Calling email a useful tool for marketers, in other words, is something of an understatement. With the help of a superpowered email marketing strategy in your business, effectively building relationships with customers becomes much easier — and higher profit margins are soon to follow.
Doing it the “right” way can be elusive, however. Follow these tips to build a solid foundation. (More experienced marketers and entrepreneurs should still take heed and be sure they are giving the basics their due diligence.)
1. Incorporate automation
Automation is one of the most significant elements of any marketing strategy today, and email is no exception.
People get enough promotional emails every day to ignore many of them. Personalized emails, then, make all the difference if you want to stand apart from your competitors doing. At the same time, personalization isn’t enough to get the most from your email strategy, as you’ll want to automate your emails to reach out to avoid wasting too much time on manual personalization.
By using automated personalized emails, you can segment emails into different groups depending on a specific demographic. Emails can cater to those with different behaviours, email preferences, interests, and other specifications.
In addition to segmentation, you can send automated emails to recipients based on specific behaviours using triggers. These emails could include receipts following purchases, order confirmations, or promotions based on customers’ particular interests.
2. Encourage more purchases with higher average order values
Once a customer has made a purchase, don’t stop! If you want to make more money from your e-commerce business, one of the best ways to do so is to entice customers to buy more and increase the average order value (AOV).
The AOV is used to indicate the average value of e-commerce transactions made through an online store. And one of the most effective ways to increase AOV is to offer special discounts on certain items with spend thresholds. For instance, a customer might receive a discount after spending a certain amount on your products or services.
Automated emails sent to your customers can be the key to getting those customers to return to your store and boost your AOV.
3. Develop a loyalty program email strategy
While you may be able to encourage new customers to return quickly with those appealing offers, you can further increase revenue by developing a loyalty program that prompts customers to stay loyal to your brand.
Through a loyalty program, you can implement a point system to reward customers for performing specific actions, from leaving reviews for your products and subscribing to your newsletter to spending more on specific items or over a certain amount.
The important thing is to make the steps in your loyalty program clear, to help members understand what they need to do to earn points. You should also have an email strategy in place to encourage customers to sign up in the first place.
4. Bring customers back with a retention strategy
It’s always simpler to sell to existing satisfied customers than to recruit new ones. And if you don’t have a retention strategy in place, you’re in danger of losing customers as they spend more time away from your store and eventually forget about your brand.
With a win-back email strategy, you can encourage those customers to come back with coupons or other offers, with messaging such as, “We miss you!” that appeals to their emotions.
Ultimately, the success of your email campaigns will depend on your creativity and consistency. You want to be creative in the way you communicate with your customers, and consistent in terms of how often you email them. Taking all these factors into consideration will drive sales and boosts customer loyalty in the long-term. | https://medium.com/@seyi.tinubu/effective-email-marketing-practices-for-your-e-commerce-business-4eb52d48b098 | ['Seyi Tinubu'] | 2019-12-11 16:45:05.072000+00:00 | ['Email', 'Email Marketing', 'Ecommerce', 'Best Practices', 'Marketing'] |
What a fantastic article | David B. Clear, you have very nicely explained many of my own doubts about things that happen in our sleep. Especially the monkey free fall hypothesis. This I have experienced first hand during he first few minutes of sleeping off. Ever tried sleeping with hands on the chest? Sometimes, you get such a bad nightmare if your hands are resting on the left side of chest, particularly over the part where there is heart below. Can you explain this phenomenon? Another example is of one getting nocturnal leg cramps- I get it very often. If you could explain why, probably I can prevent it.
Thank you for a well researched article. I am sure many people would have read it and benefited by reading it.
Adios. | https://medium.com/@vasu56deva/what-a-fantastic-article-e0e65c31507c | ['K P Vasudeva Rao'] | 2020-12-20 01:19:35.805000+00:00 | ['Sleep', 'Jerks', 'Sleeping'] |
Arabic maps of “the Land of Israel”. WTF? | Some of the earliest Arabic printed maps of Palestine were actually maps of “Israel.”
Let’s start with a series of maps that appeared in “An Atlas of the Bible,” (Atlas al-Kitab al-Muqaddas), published by one of Europe’s most important 19th century map publishers, W. & A.K. Johnston, based in London and Edinburgh. Have a look at the following map, titled “The Two Kingdoms of Judah and Israel”:
History is, how do I say this academically, weird!
Ancient history had not yet been hijacked by propagandists. The Biblical history of the ancient Israelites was as much a part of Christian and Muslim Arab history as it was Jewish Zionist history, or so most Palestinians thought well into the 20th century.
Remember, in the 19th century, European and American historians spent 90% of their mental energy writing ancient and Biblical history, and 10% on all other periods. History writing, in other words, was another way of saying using archaeological and historical evidence to fill in the gaps in the Biblical narratives. And this belief made its way into Arabic books and atlases until at least the 1940s.
The next map under review is titled, “The Holy Land, According to the Divisions among the Twelve Tribes of Israel”:
Although the book was publishing anonymously, I think the British missionaries who established the St. Georges School in Jerusalem in 1899 published it. Confession: I’m guessing and someone should actually look into that.
But I think that’s a reasonably good guess because the atlas was published in the UK anonymously, which suggests its authors wanted to remain nameless (think missionaries). Second, the British missionaries were obsessed with teaching Biblical history and geography, and so they would have wanted an Atlas just like this one to use in their classrooms. Third, the only extant copy I am aware of can be found in the AP collection held at the Israeli National Library. This means Zionist forces took it from the private home of a Palestinian during the 1948 — and a huge percentage of those books were taken from the wealthy Palestinians who lived in Jerusalem outside of the walls of Old City, in places like Katamon, Shaykh Jarah and elsewhere — exactly the kind of people who sent their kids to the St. Georges School.
Some of these 19th century Arabic Bible maps also labeled the region Palestine, such as the following, map titled “Palestine During the Times of Jesus”, which also depicts the Roman provinces of Judea, Idumea, Phonecia, Syria, the Upper Galilee and more.
This next map depicts the “United Kingdom of Saul, David and Solomon.” Notice the area the Philistines along the Gaza coastal strip, as well as Judea, Israel, and Aram or Syria.
This final map depicts the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt to the Land of Canaan.
Thanks for reading! You can find all my academic work here and my youtube channel here. | https://medium.com/@zacharyfoster/arabic-maps-of-the-land-of-israel-wtf-b4bed20dadfb | ['Zachary J. Foster'] | 2020-12-30 17:03:19.481000+00:00 | ['Palestine', 'Israel', 'History', 'Maps'] |
Nancy Pelosi Doesn’t Trust White Americans on Impeachment by Robert Covington Jr. | Nancy Pelosi Doesn’t Trust White Americans on Impeachment by Robert Covington Jr.
I must admit that I am sickened and saddened by the embarrassing levels of cowardice and fear that is coming from Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she continues to make it abundantly clear that she doesn’t want to begin impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.
Nancy Pelosi is not moved by the multitude of cogently written, historically based columns and data that gives her perspective, context and justification for an impeachment inquiry. Pelosi does not seem to care or realize how ridiculous, weak and incoherent she sounds every time she speaks about Trump’s lawlessness and corruption — and then follows it up with ninety- nine different reasons not to begin impeachment hearings. And it’s also clear that Pelosi’s own sense of reality on impeachment does not include how damaging her decision is to her legacy, American democracy and the utility of the constitution when faced with clear abuse of presidential power.
As if that isn’t enough, it’s mindboggling that Pelosi, a woman of dignity, historical political acumen and character is unable to see that Trump and the Republican Party would view impeachment hearings as a political nightmare. As we know, Trump fears accountability and the truth more than life itself. Months and months of hearings that exposes his high crimes and misdemeanors in a controlled, methodical way would be personal torture for a man that dreads having his true self revealed. Trump knows he’s a despicable human being and a severely damaged man that has committed wrongdoing. Despite the bluster, Republicans are hoping and praying that Pelosi continues to reward their years of spineless and gutless governance with her current stance on impeachment.
On its surface, Pelosi’s horrible political calculation appears to be driven by fear. But if you look deeper, her decision is based on an uncomfortable truth: Pelosi does not trust white Americans on impeachment. Pelosi seems to believe that white Americans would react negatively to Democrats for starting impeachment proceedings. When you think about it, it’s a stinging indictment of her poor perception of white Americans. At its core, Pelosi seems to believe that white Americans would somehow be upset with Democrats for exposing them and the world to the countless acts of corruption, cruelty and alleged criminality that may put Trump in prison once he leaves office. Let that sink in for a moment.
Wittingly or unwittingly, Pelosi is suggesting impeachment proceedings against Trump would be personalized for many white Americans and would force them to confront whiteness, white identity and racism that fueled Trump’s rise to power. Also, Pelosi seems unwilling to fight back against the inevitable claims of white victimization and harassment that Trump and his allies would claim in an effort to take attention away from the reams of evidence and facts that will shame the nation. Pelosi fears that it would have significant resonance with white voters she wants to vote Democratic in the upcoming 2020 election. By calling these molasses moving hearings, non-impeachment hearings, Pelosi is trying to manage the fragility of white Americans feelings from the State Capitol. Republicans have exploited racism for political gain and Pelosi is trying to manage racism for political gain.
Pelosi has calculated that white Americans will place whiteness above saving democracy from one of the worst human beings ever to set foot in the white house. Pelosi’s low expectations of white Americans will allow Trump and the Republican Party to continue appealing to the worst instincts of their humanity and may lead to the re-election of Donald Trump.
White Americans need fellow white Americans to speak to them with clarity, purpose and conviction as to how Trump is damaging the country in the short and long term. White Americans need fellow white Americans to help them understand how the grossness of Trump’s humanity informs the daily horror show called the Trump presidency. White Americans need fellow white Americans to speak to the higher values of their humanity, not appease their conditioned racism.
Pelosi has the forum of impeachment hearings and power to do so. Pelosi has truth, democracy and evidence on her side. But she’s scared to do the right thing. Trump will exploit her cowardice between now and election day. Questions surrounding impeachment will persist because Trump will continue to violate the constitution between now and election day. Many Democrats will be on the defensive between now and election day because of her decision.
Trump’s corruption are in plain view. Trump’s authoritarian ambitions are in plain view. Trump’s unfitness for office are in plain view. And unfortunately, so is Pelosi’s lack of leadership in a defining moment in our nation’s history.
Follow me on twitter: @robcovingtonjr | https://medium.com/@robcov68/nancy-pelosi-doesnt-trust-white-americans-on-impeachment-by-robert-covington-jr-49c96ea8b24f | ['Robert Covington'] | 2019-06-17 16:06:46.126000+00:00 | ['Donald Trump Impeachment', 'Politics', 'Impeachment', 'Nancy Pelosi'] |
Super Mario Maker: a learning design pattern | LEARNING DESIGN PATTERN
Imagine a student is in their first year of university. They haven’t narrowed down a major area of study yet, so their classes are still quite varied.
On a particularly busy day, they are asked to consider the following four problems in four different tutorial sessions.
Write a program that accepts 10 test scores from a student, removes the highest and lowest scores, and then calculates the average of the remaining scores. Discuss whether Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby is great, and why. Work out what basic cipher is being used in this message, and decipher it: NFFU NF BU UIF TUBUJPO A class has to vote in a secret ballot to select a class president, a vice president, and 4 (equally ranked) prefects. There are 10 nominated students up for election. What is the probability that two randomly selected students vote the exact same way?
Many people would agree that one of these four tutorials stands out clearly against the other three. The Gatsby question probably came up in a literature subject, whereas the other three would appear in STEM-based classes.
Building on that, we can unpack the differences a little further, to three (very related) ways the Gatsby challenge diverges from the others.
Difference #1 The Gatsby question would easily spark a lot of discussion — and probably even some fierce debate — in the tutorial. The others might prompt some quiet working out with each learner’s own pen/paper/device. Sure, they might work together if they were made to…
Difference #2 As they stand, the three STEM questions don’t naturally prompt the learners to build their understanding together. Learners in these classes might work together to try things out, to think creatively, and to teach each other while they learn. Or, they might not. In contrast, the Gatsby question starts with a word that is powerful in any tutorial: Discuss.
Difference #3 All of the questions — other than the Gatsby one — essentially have a correct answer that isn’t up for debate. | https://medium.com/learning-designers-toolkit/super-mario-maker-a-learning-design-pattern-480ec0e2de1c | ['Shaun Thompson'] | 2020-08-21 05:11:06.351000+00:00 | ['Instructional Design', 'Videogames', 'Education', 'Design Patterns', 'Learning Design'] |
The rise of (audio)books. We have come a long way — from renting... | Image Source: Photo by Elice Moore on Unsplash
We have come a long way — from borrowing books from libraries, buying and reviewing them online to reading and highlighting on electronic reading devices (Kindle) that feel like books but can carry tens of titles without the weight.
It took us some time to try, adopt and get comfortable with listening to narrated audiobooks. Some of us are still resisting this change. While books/ebooks have some nostalgia associated with them, audiobooks have made reading handsfree and added a new dimension to reading — tonality aka emotion.
When I searched “Audible” on Google, an a Google Ad popped up stating: “Listening Is The New Reading”. Below are the five prominent ways, in which I expect audiobooks, or books in general, to evolve.
1) Narrator-less Audiobooks
Image Source: BigSnarf Blog
While driverless cars steal attention and make more attractive headlines, a nearer reality is one, in which Artificial Intelligence gradually eliminates the need for human narrators of audiobooks.
Unlike a few years ago, robots don’t sound robotic anymore. They sound more human as tonality is now infused into the the voice of our digital assistants. Yes, we can still distinguish a computerized voice from a real human’s voice. But, we are not far from making that distinction unnoticeable.
The ousting of human narrators will lead to mass production of audiobooks, greater profit margins and faster time to market of audiobooks.
2) Increasing Competition
Image source: Wired
Audiobooks are not competing with books or e-books. They’re competing with podcasts, our music playlists, meditation apps, Youtube, phone calls and even in-person conversations.
Thanks to the popularity and convenience of Apple’s airpods, listening is on the rise and so is the ambition of each of the audio apps above. While Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime compete on screen time, podcasts, audiobooks, music apps and phone calls will complete on eartime.
3) Informative → Engaging
Image Source: Margaritaville Resort
One reason why some book/ebook readers haven’t yet turned into audiobook listeners is possibly because they zone out.
In order to convert these readers to listeners, we may see introduction of a lot more knobs to customize the AI generated narration — from “monotonous” to “dramatic” to maybe “rap music”.
Voice emulation has an unbelievable power. In the last couple of years, there have been a good number of videos on our social media feeds cautioning us about how voice emulation could result in the rise of deep fakes and hence can be a danger to our society. While such dangers do exist, any technology is only as good as how we put it to use. It is worth spending some time thinking about the bright side of the possibilities it opens up for the entire humanity. To see what is possible, check out this story on how DeepMind and Google recreated ALS patient and former NFL linebacker Tim Shaw’s voice using AI.
Coming back to audiobooks, we can imagine voice emulation would allow us to choose narrators from hundreds of voices — from celebrities to grandpa/ma.
4) Convergence of Media
Image Source: Agri Investor
There are book lovers who love to read. Then, there are audiobook fanatics who are glued to their airpods. But, it is not all black and white. Some people prefer reading and listening at the same time.
Currently, book, ebook and audiobook purchases for the same title are considered separate. This could be caused by any of the three reasons: 1) poor integration, 2) each trying to optimize their individual revenue, 3) assumption that people always choose one experience exclusively over the other.
In future, we can expect audiobooks to be bundled for free (or for a nominal price) with book and ebook purchases. Captions on audiobooks will be the new ebook.
Interestingly, Audible is already developing two new features addressing exactly this: 1) Immersion Reading, 2) Audible Captions.
5) Auto-translation
Image Source: Wikimedia
Market expansion is not just limited to converting readers to listeners.
There’s a massive untapped market of people across the globe who do not prefer to read English, cannot read English, or for that matter cannot read at all.
Making stories available for listening in local/regional languages and accents can open up a huge market opportunity, particularly for the self-help category.
Translating millions of books to 1000+ languages in many different accents and voices is something that only technology can scale.
Stories and knowledge can transform people, whether it be an investment banker at Wall Street or a fruit seller in Asia.
If you’re unaware of the power of language translation capabilities that Google has developed, then check out the real-time translation that’s in the store with the upcoming Google Pixel buds. The technology is not perfect, but it is promising, specially when translation is not required in real-time.
Can you imagine how real-time language translation with Google Pixel buds would change travel forever? But, that’s for another post.
If you like this, please give it some love 👏. Do you think I missed something? Did you find any holes in my arguments? Did you think these were pretty obvious? Let me know in the comments.
If you’re interested in reading more about the possibilities that lie ahead, subscribe to this publication: Predict. | https://medium.com/predict/the-future-of-audio-books-cbc5a21355dc | ['Akash Mukherjee'] | 2020-07-19 01:37:08.089000+00:00 | ['Books', 'Futurism', 'Audiobooks', 'AI', 'Voice Assistant'] |
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❏ About Movies ❏
Film, also called movie, motion picture or moving picture, is a visual art-form used to simulate experiences that communicate ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound, and more rarely, other sensory stimulations.[1] The word “cinema”, short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and to the art form that is the result of it.
The moving images of a film are created by photographing actual scenes with a motion-picture camera, by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques, by means of CGI and computer animation, or by a combination of some or all of these techniques, and other visual effects.
❏ Google Play Movies & TV ❏
Google Play Movies & TV is an online video on demand service operated by Google, part of its Google Play product line. The service offers movies and television shows for purchase or rental, depending on availability.
Google claims that most content is available in high definition, and a 4K Ultra HD video option was offered for select titles starting in December 2016.
Content can be watched on the Google Play website, through an extension for the Google Chrome web browser, or through the available for Android and iOS devices. Offline download is supported through the mobile app and on devices. A variety of options exist for watching content on a television.
❏ Platforms ❏
On computers, content can be watched on a dedicated Movies & TV section of the Google Play website, or through the Google Play Movies & TV Google Chrome web browser extension.[12][13]
On smartphones and tablets running the Android or iOS mobile operating systems, content can be watched on the Google Play Movies & TV mobile app.
Offline download and viewing is supported on Chromebooks through the Chrome extension, and on Android and iOS through the mobile app. Computers running Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS operating systems cannot download content.
In order to view content on a television, users can either connect their computer to a TV with an HDMI cable, use the Google Play Movies & TV app available for select smart TVs from LG and Samsung as well as Roku devices, stream content through the Chromecast dongle, through the YouTube app on Amazon Fire TV devices, or through Android TV.
❏ Formats and Genres ❏
A film genre is a motion-picture category based (for example) on similarities either in the narrative elements or in the emotional response to the film (namely: serious, comic, etc.).[citation needed] Most theories of film genre borrow from literary-genre criticism. Each film genre is associated[by whom?] with “conventions, iconography, settings, narratives, characters and actors”. [2] Standard genre characters vary according to the film genre; for film noir, for example, standard characters include the femme fatale[3] and the “hardboiled” detective; a Western film may portray the schoolmarm and the gunfighter. Some actors acquire a reputation linked to a single genre, such as John Wayne (the Western) or Fred Astaire (the musical).[4] A film’s genre will influence the use of filmmaking styles and techniques, such as the use of flashbacks and low-key lighting in film noir, tight framing in horror films, fonts that look like rough-hewn logs for the titles of Western films, or the “scrawled” title-font and credits of Se7en (1995), a film about a serial killer.[5] As well, genres have associated film-scoring conventions, such as lush string orchestras for romantic melodramas or electronic music for science-fiction films.Netflix is a streaming service that offers award-winning TV shows, films, anime, documentaries and more on thousands of devices connected to the Internet Marketing Online. | https://medium.com/@supreme-khang/google-docs-castle-freak-2020-full-m-o-v-i-e-online-streaming-sub-english-10d42db05d4e | ['Supreme Khang'] | 2020-12-18 15:16:59.235000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'TV Series', 'Movies', 'Life', 'TV Shows'] |
Product Backlog: Steps vs. Leaps | As I was reading a post titled “Kill Your To-Do List”, it occurred to me that managing a personal to-do list can be similar to managing a product backlog, in a way. Not in the part where you are supposed to totally kill your product backlog, but in the “one thing at a time” part. This is by no means a new idea; I just feel that it bears revisiting.
So, as with to-do lists, it seems like there’s no point in grooming and moving product backlog items back and forth, right? Still, the answer wouldn’t be an unequivocal “yes”. A lot will depend on how you define a product backlog. We might say that a backlog is an environment in which a product grows and exists but not a set of components that should be implemented for sure. Looking further, what kind of an environment would that be? A backlog might represent a repository of all the slightest shades of ideas that have a very vague chance of being implemented. A chaotic heap. This heap can hardly be called a “backlog” but rather a by-product of brainstorming, or a product owner’s/manager’s think pad. OR, a product backlog might represent a careful selection of user stories that are meant to be implemented for sure.
All of these options, as often is the case, intersect somewhere in between; and these various definitions/versions of backlog can keep living peacefully together for tracking/reporting purposes. To back my point, I will briefly describe how the backlog management process was set at a company where I worked before:
In our production workflow, we’d use several buffers: the first layer would’ve been made of the “raw” Requests and Ideas coming from the help desk, or from the product owner, or from the team. The second layer was called “a Product Backlog with User Stories”, where Requests and Ideas would’ve been groomed and converted to User Stories by Product Owner who’d decide that these were to be implemented for sure, after a meticulous prioritization. (As for prioritization, I hope to write on that in-depth some other time.) The third layer would have been represented by the Planned state for User Stories on Kanban board.
Here’s how a quick graphical representation of this product backlog upward funnel looks:
And that’s how the User Stories lifecycle would continue on a Kanban board, from the Planned state on (you might want to note the Planned and In Progress states highlighted in red, and just skip the rest):
The Backlog was not to be seen on the Kanban board. When done with the work, the developers would pull new user stories from the Planned state.
Previously, prior to switching to Kanban, we had worked in sprints/iterations, and there was no buffer between the inception and the implementation, since time-boxed releases and iterations had been planned right from the backlog. With Kanban, the buffering would’ve been done by moving stories to the Planned state and by prioritizing them.
I’d say that planning with iterations provided less flexibility than planning with Kanban. With user stories stacked in time-boxed iterations, we had to commit to implementing all of them within a given period of time. Kanban seemed to be more flexible since user stories were to be pulled one-by-one from the Planned state and implemented with no time restrictions. I can’t resist citing an analogy here: going with Kanban, in this case, reminds me of moving with the smallest possible steps to approach a ball in tennis. With the large steps, there’s no flexibility. With the small steps, you stand a far better chance to position yourself well for the perfect shot. As per this analogy, the buffered Planned state in Kanban provides the same flexibility as breaking down into the small steps in tennis would vs. taking one giant leap and committing to the whole pack of user stories in iteration.
Just… ponder this. Would you be better off by moving in small one-by-one steps — which brings us back to the blog post that provided an inspiration for this story 🙂 — or are there some compelling reasons to commit to many to-do’s in one giant leap?
Related:
Product Development: Drive or Hitchhike?
Featuritis and Vulnerable Visions
3D Backlog Management
One Product Owner Is Not Enough | https://medium.com/quandoo/product-backlog-steps-vs-leaps-b1e347bb8450 | ['Olga Kouzina'] | 2019-09-26 13:40:32.525000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Kanban', 'Startup', 'Product Management', 'Agile'] |
How I Made My First £1,000 As A Freelance Writer | Pitch Yourself Relentlessly
I looked for publications that posted written content in my niche and interests, made a list of them, and pitched. Relentlessly.
At the start when you don’t have a big name as a writer it’s highly unlikely that people will contact you directly to start writing for them, hence, you will need to reach out to them.
You will need to introduce yourself to them — whether that’s by finding the contact email on their website or by finding the editor on Linkedin, Twitter, or elsewhere on social media. However you can, you need to open the lines of communication with them.
Let them know who you are, what your main areas of writing are, and what you have to offer for them as a freelance writer. Send links to your portfolio so they can see it. It’s important that you have an idea of exactly what you can offer the publication/brand and why your portfolio is even relevant to them because they need to know why they should give you an opportunity over someone else.
They may have a brief of the types of pitches that they take. Or they have a specific type of content they produce. Your job is to tailor your pitch to what you think they are looking for in new writers for their platform.
The harsh reality is that you may not get any replies to your pitches. You may simply get a reply saying they aren’t taking pitches or new work right now. That is the name of the game. Keep going. Keep sending your pitches out.
I was lucky in that in my first month of seriously pitching myself as a writer, I pitched myself to a connection of a known publication, with who I had a rapport due to my support of her brand for some years. I made it clear what I wished to offer the blog publication and I showcased my passion for delivering quality work to them.
I was given the opportunity to deliver a trial piece of work for the publication and see where it went from there. | https://medium.com/the-brave-writer/how-i-made-my-first-1-000-as-a-freelance-writer-5e558267a35b | ['Tonte Bo Douglas'] | 2020-11-11 13:02:47.491000+00:00 | ['Freelance', 'Freelancing', 'Freelance Writer', 'Writing', 'Writer'] |
Eugene Podkletnov’s Impulse Gravity Generator | Eugene, let’s start out with a layperson’s summary of the “impulse gravity generator” that you published a paper on with Dr. Giovanni Modanese. Can you explain this experiment and its goals for us?
Tim, this experiment is a device I’m calling the “impulse gravity generator”, which utilizes a Marx generator discharge through a superconducting emitter in a high-magnetic field to create a wave in time-space with properties very close to gravitational waves. The similarities are apparent enough that we’re almost positive it actually is a form of gravity.
Dr. Eugene Podkletnov, research scientist at Tampere University of Technology
Our experimental apparatus is complicated, but the principle is simple. We have a typical high voltage discharge, typically up to 2 million volts, and sometimes as high as 5 million volts. We have a superconducting emitter, which has a two layers — the first layer is made of superconducting material, the other is a normal conductor.
We discharge the voltage through the emitter in the presence of a high-intensity magnetic field, which leads to a very interesting phenomenon. I can only describe it as a gravitational impulse that propagates at high speeds over large distances without losing energy.
These impulses can be directionally projected in any direction in space, and they exert a large force on any object in the path of propagation. We haven’t uncovered the mechanism yet to explain how this force is generated, but we understand the engineering principles used to generate & control it.
I should point out that the ‘impulse gravity generator’ is very different than the rotating superconductor experiments you conducted in the 1990's. In this new experiment, you’re using a stationary apparatus rather the spinning disc in your previous research, right?
Yes, that’s absolutely correct, but if we compare the rotating disc and the impulse gravity generator, the principle is the same because we’re creating a high density electric field in both materials.
The rotating disc experiment produces a diffuse, low-intensity effect over a long period of time, whereas the impulse gravity generator creates a tightly focused, high-intensity effect of brief for a very short period of time — usually only 60 or 70 nanoseconds.
Despite the short duration of the effect, the beam we’re generating is able to knock down objects in the beam’s path, and under certain conditions it’s even possible to make holes in brick walls and even deform metals. So it’s a very powerful tool.
Impulse Generator: Configuration for 2 experimental variants from Podkletnov’s papers.
Can you describe the force you’re generating in more detail? I’d like to better understand what you’re doing to generate the tremendous amount of force you’re describing.
The force of the impulse depends entirely on the structure of the superconducting emitter and the voltage that we apply to it. Given the materials & voltages we currently have available, we can obtain large impulses capable of punching holes in thick concrete walls, and we’ve also been able to demonstrate deforming metal plates with a thickness of a couple of inches.
The impulse deforms metal in the way that a hydraulic press might do it, but the pulse-duration is very brief, so we’ve been discussing a system utilizing several Marx generators to give a series of impulses that we believe will improve the overall effect.
We’ve experimented with using the impulse generator on a variety of materials, and it’s led us to another important find: the beam can hit a target over very large distances with a minimum of divergence and what appears to be zero loss in energy, even after passing through other objects in the beam path.
During these experiments, we have also been trying to measure the speed of propagation for these impulses. The results were extremely interesting, and in some ways hard to believe, but it’s based on experimental observations, and we’re going to continue refining our experimental measurements.
Marx generator: A example of an industrial high-voltage generator (wikipedia)
So these impulse are all generated by Marx generator discharges — is the high-intensity electrical discharge the key to generating these impulses?
It is the combination of the discharge, the magnetic field, and the use of specially prepared superconducting emitters. These impulses are very short in time, we’re talking about 1 millionth of a second and shorter.
The output force depends on overall voltage as well as the voltage rise-time. The faster the voltage rises, the larger the impulse, which is what gives us the impulse the ability to make holes in concrete over long distances.
Let me ask about the emitter: you used a Type-II YBCO superconducting emitter, if I remember correctly. Does changing its size or the shape change the beam output — maybe making it stronger or refocusing it?
Well, in terms of the size of the superconducting emitter, there are some limitations. We did many tests with various emitters, and overall we found that the diameter of the superconductor shouldn’t be smaller than 4 inches. The size is very important — we didn’t get good results with smaller superconductors.
Now to answer your question about the shape of the emitter, the superconductor can in fact have different shapes, and the projected impulse will maintain the emitter’s cross-sectional shape, so is important.
Have you observed any change in the molecular structure of the target samples you tested, or did you only see the simple mechanical compression & deformation you’ve described so far?
Discharge Chamber: A complete schematic of the experimental chamber.
We didn’t see any change of the molecular structure — just a large scale deformation of the target material from the beam’s force. It seems to act like a punch — it happens very rapidly, so it’s close to an explosive action.
I should ask whether the beam loses energy as it penetrates materials. Does it naturally decrease or diverge with distance?
That’s an interesting question — and to our great surprise the beam does not appear to lose energy when it meets materials. It can pass through brick or concrete walls, very thick metal-plates, and all types of plastics, and it doesn’t seem to lose energy at all. This is the consistent, long-term evidence from test discharges that we’ve performed over the last 4 years.
These results seem a bit strange, but we don’t believe we’re breaking any natural laws. We’re simply not working in a closed system, and therefore the second law of thermodynamics isn’t directly applicable.
In terms of action at a distance — and the dependence of distance on the beam energy — we don’t have much experimental data, but what we do have is a first measurement at a distance of 1.2 kilometers without any loss in energy.
A more recent experiment was conducted over a distance of 5 kilometers, and the beam penetrated through several houses made of concrete. We did not measure any loss of energy, but after closely evaluating the calculations that we’ve made, we should get some decrease in beam-energy at distances greater than 100 kilometers.
Now in this recent 5 kilometer experiment, did you notice any change in the focus of the beam? Did it widen or perhaps get smaller as it travels?
If the magnetic field solenoid that we wind around the chamber is well-constructed, then it will produce a very good discharge and effectively maintains the non-divergent cross-sectional pattern of the emitter it was projected from.
However, at a distance of 5 kilometers, the beam begins to lose focus– it gets a bit wider, indicating minor deviations in the shape of the impulse as it propagates.
Have you been able to do efficiency calculations for the impulses, or is it still too early for that level of analysis?
Well, Dr. Giovanni Modanese made some preliminary measurements that gave us the force in joules, but we did not try to make experimental predictions — we wanted to simply see the results of how different objects reacted to the action of this impulse.
In terms of practical experimentation, it appears that the energy that we put into the discharge is much less than the energy that the impulse seems to generate, but I’m definitely not implying that it is some kind of over-unity device. I would suggest that we’re creating a set of special space-time conditions through interactions of the electromagnetic pulse-discharge with the Cooper pairs forming a Bose-Einstein Condensate in the superconductor.
Deflection & Amplitude: Early measurements from Podkletnov’s initial research paper.
So far you’ve published several scientific papers on this experiment, and I’d like to find out more about what topics you plan on publishing about in the future, and what your schedule for publication might be?
We’ll try to publish on a variety of experiments in a more detailed manner, but at present we’re extremely interested in attempting to measure the interaction of the impulse beam with visible light, and we published some preliminary results about this in the journal of low-temperature physics. The details are all in my paper co-authored with Dr. Modanese, and we’re continuing this research to refine our measurements of the propagation speed of the impulse.
We’re very cautious about what we write, because we don’t want to frighten the scientific community, and also we want to be absolutely sure that the results are checked and rechecked many times — but it seems that based on what we have now, and we’ve already been working for a year and a half, the speed of the impulse is much higher than the speed of light.
With the parameters that we use now — using our current emitter designs and a voltage of 3 to 5 million volts, we are measuring the propagation speed of the impulse at close to 64 times the speed of light. Of course, we would like to thoroughly confirm all our measurements using as many different tools, systems and methods as possible.
At present we use two atomic clocks, and we think that our measurements are precise, but we would welcome the advice of the international community. It would help to have additional input on how to measure the speed of the impulse as accurately as we can. As soon as we get a good confirmation of these results, we will try to publish all of this information.
You’ve published a paper on these experiments titled the “Study of Light Interaction with Gravity Impulses and Measurements of the Speed of Gravity Impulses” which you coauthored with Dr. Modanese, which describes the propagation speed of the force beam. Now, in that paper, you’d done a lot of measurements on the speed and it looks like you use two different types of measurement devices, right?
Right. So our main goal was first of all, to determine the speed of the gravity impulses and to study the interaction of the gravity impulses with the laser beam. There were actually two parallel experiments, and the results were pretty amazing, because first of all, we believe we were the first team to try to determine the speed of the propagation of a gravitational impulse at a distance of more than one kilometer.
Atomic Clocks: An pair of synchronized clocks at NIST (wikipedia)
We used very precise equipment — two synchronized rubidium atomic clocks — and we were able to determine with high precision the propagation speed of the gravitational impulses. We repeated these experiments for nearly half a year, using different voltages, targets, and experimental conditions. Nonetheless, we always had precise, consistent results, giving us a figure of 64 C, which indicates that the gravitational impulse is propagating at a speed 64 times faster than the speed of light.
A propagation speed of 64 times the speed of light seems very different than the accepted speed of gravity. Do you have any thoughts on how to reconcile your experimental data with the accepted model?
Well, modern astronomy feels confident that the speed of gravity is the same as the speed of light — but at the same time that does not explain or negate our measurements.
In any case, I am approaching this from an experimental perspective, whereas Giovanni Modanese approaches this as a theoretical physicist. He’s very accurate in giving appropriate terms everything we observe, and he calls it a gravity-like impulse.
For my part, I simply refer to it as a gravitational impulse, because after years of advances in the generation & measurement of these effects we have the ability to make objects heavier or lighter. I have no better term for it than “artificial gravity”, at least not at the moment.
Does the high propagation speed of the impulse increase the margin for error in your experimental measurements?
No. The error of the measurements is very low. First of all, keep in mind that a rubidium atomic clock is a very precise device to begin with. Also, we repeated the experiments many, many times. We also used very sensitive piezo-electric sensors, and we were able to describe our measurements with great precision in our paper. Obviously there is always a margin for experimental error, but in this case it should be very small.
From reading your paper, if I understand it correctly you’ve used piezo-electric sensors to respond to changes in pressure — so they’re responding to a mechanical change in force. In the other experiment you appeared to be using an interferometer for measurements. Does that sound accurate?
Piezo-Electric Sensors: An example of a modern printed piezo-array.
Yes, that is essentially correct. In the second experiment when we used a laser beam, which of course is situated to intersect the impulse beam path. The laser beam was positioned at a small angle to the propagation line of the impulse beam, and it intersected the projection area of the gravitational impulse about 60 meters away from the emitter.
In the region where the beams intersected, we noticed that the intensity of the laser diminished up to 9% depending on the voltage of the discharge. This effect was admittedly small, but our measurements were quite precise, and we repeated this experiment several times. It’s very interesting phenomenon.
It seems that you’re precisely measuring force on the target — what about reactive force on the emitter? When the impulse is emitted, are you measuring an equal & opposite force on the superconductive emitter?
No, there wasn’t. There was no reaction force at all. It doesn’t act according to Newton’s third law — that every force has an equal an opposite reaction. It appears as though the impulse is warping space-time, so perhaps you might call this a gravitational wave. Again, it propagates through space & interacts with normal matter, but does not lose energy at high distances — it remains collimated as it propagates.
It seems that one of the milestones for this experiment would be independent replication & validation of these experiment — but the 4-inch superconducting emitter may be an obstacle to that. Do you know if those are manufactured and sold anywhere?
Building effective emitters for large impulse effects is frankly a part of my professional know-how, but if you’re only talking about emitters that allow you to generate small effects, then it’s not a problem. I believe that American Superconductor can help to easily make emitters of this kind, and also there is a nice firm called “Superconductive Components” in Columbus, Ohio — they’re more or less familiar with my technology, and I think that they are up to the task of building emitter components.
Keep in mind that diameter of the disc should still not be less than 4-inches, and I’m talking about the physical structure of the ceramic itself. The structure for high-output emitters is very difficult to build, and requires a lot of experience to build correctly, so even if I provided a detailed description, it would be difficult to construct without my help. However, emitters capable of pushing a thick book away from a table are possible to construct, and they aren’t quite so complicated.
I understand that part of the phenomena included the observation of something you called a “flat glow discharge”. Can you describe that in more detail?
Flat Glow Discharge: A visible discharge is seen during tests.
We did notice a flat, glowing discharge that came from the entire surface of the emitter, and seems to emit further radiation towards & beyond the anode in a collimated beam. We may attempt to film this with a high-speed camera, but that we don’t presently have that, so we simply rely on our eyesight.
We have also noticed that the discharge repeats the cross-sectional shape of the emitter, while special equipment would be useful, it is possible to see it with your own eyes — you don’t need a camera for that.
You’ve also described a transient anomalous effect that was happening behind the impulse generator. Have you been able to explore this at all?
There is a certain emission of radiation on the backside of the device, and this radiation has some harmonics which make it difficult to identify its exact and frequency. It’s highly transient and difficult to measure. This radiation penetrates different materials and it can damage equipment & apparatus positioned too closely. This is not a pleasant thing, but we noticed that the intensity of this field decreases rapidly with distance, so we avoid standing directly behind the device during operation, and it does not appear to be dangerous at all.
Frankly speaking it is not very easy to measure these additional effects. You know, when you’re dealing with millions of volts, it’s better to keep a bit of safe distance. We also use a Faraday cage and special rubber-metal coatings to shield the radiation, because otherwise the high magnetic field strength from the discharge will erase computer hard drives and damage nearby test-equipment.
Given the remarkable nature of these claims and the anomalous effects you’re describing, it would be very helpful to see photographic or video documentation for these effects. Is that something you plan to publish?
It is something we are looking into. Back when we we began our experiments, in Tampere in the early ‘90s, it just wasn’t common practice to make videos or photos of the equipment or the experiment. I know that it’s typical in the United States, but here in Europe it’s different.
Our most recent experiments are being conducted at the Moscow Chemical Research Center, which has a no-camera policy because the whole center is a very secure facility and some of the research laboratories are closed to the general public. We have signs on the walls of the laboratory prohibiting photography, as part of the established policy for this research center.
This may change: I’ve discussed the possibility of photo & video documentation with the administration and they think it might be possible, but at present I don’t have any photos or video to share with you.
Eugene, thank you again for your time and for sharing all of this information. Let me close by asking you what’s next — where do you see this research going?
You could call what we’re doing experimental gravity research, and it has tremendous future potential, but it’s also very complicated — in some ways perhaps even more complex than nuclear physics, and certainly not as well understood.
But when you think back to the beginning of the nuclear era, there was a period in the United States when the public, industry and military were interested, and progress was made rapidly.
We also have some of the same issues today that nuclear research did back then. It really isn’t possible to make a small nuclear explosion in the lab, and in the same way there are thresholds for generating our effects that make it difficult to design small, inexpensive experiments.
So in that context, experimental gravity research offers big opportunities but also requires a collaborative, organized approach to study it, by combining the knowledge different physicists, chemists, materials scientists & theoretical physicists.
I believe it is only by working together with other experts that we will make real breakthroughs in this field, and I’m eager to do that because it’s very, very serious research and opens the door to many new possibilities. | https://medium.com/predict/eugene-podkletnovs-impulse-gravity-generator-8749bbdc8378 | ['Tim Ventura'] | 2019-12-29 07:00:08.833000+00:00 | ['Futurism', 'Gravity', 'Science', 'Physics', 'Technology'] |
FrontEnd FrameWork Comparisons | React vs. Angular vs. Vue
About 2 weeks ago, as part of our curriculum at the Flatiron School software engineering bootcamp, we graduated from vanilla JavaScript to using a frontend framework. The frontend framework that our instructors have chosen to teach us is React — which so far has presented me, and most of a cohort, with a steep learning curve. However, learning to implement it has simultaneously organized my previously jumbled mess of CSS, HTML, and JS files into laid out components that have defined relationships. Hearing the instructors jokingly bicker about which framework they prefer sparked an interest in understanding the fundamental and subtle differences between the three most popular ones: React, Angular, and Vue. Therefore, from the perspective of a frontend framework novice, we will explore the differences and similarities in this post.
React
Developed by Facebook and released in 2013, this framework relies on the use of components — components generally receive an input and changes the behavior of the component based on that input. The UI and behavior of the component are both dictated by the same code, that is written in JSX (JavaScript XML). In order to monitor state changes, React utilizes the concept of a ‘Virtual DOM’. This acts as an ‘in-between’ monitor that will ‘track’ changes, and efficiently make these changes to the real DOM, which is quicker and more efficient as it reduces the performance cost of completely updating the real DOM in reaction to each small change. It is a great first frontend framework to learn, as the documentation is extensive, is widely used in the industry, and just requires the understanding of JavaScript to get started. However, it requires the use of third-party libraries to implement, therefore is not considered as well-rounded and complete as Angular.
Angular
Developed by Google and released in 2010, Angular is the ‘oldest’ framework of the three, and utilizes components as well, but these components are called ‘directives’. Angular separates the UI of components into HTML attributes and the behavior of components into JavaScript code — making its methods different from React in this way. Angular utilizes a ‘change detector’ to monitor changes to components, and update the DOM when changes are made. Angular is perceived to have a steeper learning curve than React and Vue because it is independently a complete framework and solution — meaning it does not rely on third party libraries and also requires the understanding of associated concepts such as TypeScript.
Vue:
Vue is the newest addition, having been released in 2014, with its popularity on the rise. It is largely driven by the open source community and is considered a ‘progressive’ framework. Similar to React, it combines the UI and behavior into a component, and is also very customizable — great for developers that prefer less rigidity and more freedom. Vue allows styling to be declared in component files, therefore eliminating the need for CSS. Vue also utilizes a reactivity system that creates a ‘watcher instance’ for each component to track properties that are ‘touched’ during the components render. The watcher is notified when these properties are changed, and it re-renders the component. It is considered easier to pickup than both Angular and React.
They are all widely used frameworks, and I am especially excited to have the opportunity to learn their nuances as I continue in my coursework, as well as when I am inevitably faced with a new framework in the industry. The best part about this industry is that the learning possibilities are endless and the technologies are constantly evolving. | https://medium.com/@lbitner7699/frontend-framework-comparisons-d86c16818dd5 | ['Lillian Bitner'] | 2020-04-04 15:05:15.298000+00:00 | ['React', 'Vue', 'Framework', 'Angular', 'Front End Development'] |
Enjoy A Quiet Moment of Contemplation with ‘The End of the Day’ (Review) | The End of the Day is a short and sweet phone experience designed to be “found” and played at sunset. It’s located on a random set of benches scattered around New York City. On each one, a simple inscription can be read; there’s a phone number and an instruction to call precisely at sunset.
I was quite taken aback and charmed by this guerilla-style approach to immersive theatre. Are the plaques on these benches government approved? Not exactly. As benches are compromised, updates and announcements are made online, to help would-be participants in finding the new locations.
For me, this experience took place on the westernmost edge of Manhattan, looking over the Hudson River onto the New Jersey shoreline, as the sun slowly ebbed and dipped below the buildings. That “skirting on the edge of the law” attitude, a key part of the history of immersive theatre experiences, is perhaps something that is lacking somewhat in today’s more “mainstream” approach to making work. Not that I would explicitly condone such behavior, but there was something quite enchanting about finding this hidden experience, hiding in plain sight.
If you find this call to action and choose to accept it, you will be treated to a beautiful 10-minute reflection and meditation based on the theme of sunsets. You’ll be encouraged to sit and breathe while looking out at the changing sky. The voice on the other end of the phone encourages the listener to contemplate several sunsets: past, present, and future. It is simple but so effective.
So I sat, and listened, and watched. The time seemed to fly by; birds also flew by, above me, to rest. An airplane high above left a vapor trail that seemed to stretch across the entire sky. The colors shifted and melted into the evening. The End of the Day is an oasis of much-needed quietness in the middle of a crazy season, in the city that never sleeps.
In a year when in-person experiences are so few and far between, it was refreshing to have one I could take part in with my significant other, happening in realtime and happening outside. Not only that, but with the added time constraint of having to arrive precisely at sunset (or relatively close to), it was nice to have a show to look forward to, get dressed up for, and actually go to!
The ease of accessibility is a huge plus to this piece, with the only requirement being a telephone (headphones are also recommended)
Looking around, I wished that more people around me knew about this simple yet profound experience. After all, the experience was free and it was right here if only someone would choose to stop and read the plaques on a bench. Others around me were enjoying the last moments of a warm evening, but if only they knew that a beautiful audio experience was waiting for them, right in front of their eyes.
As immersive theatre continues to grow and enters more and more into the “mainstream” consciousness, there is something quite humble and special about an experience like The End of the Day. The unusual, the kooky, the not-Broadway, is still out here and very much present, even in 2020. Creators are continuing to create and are putting their work out there if only the people will engage with it. The End of the Day proves that you don’t need a huge budget, or an elaborate set, or a massive cast to create a stunning piece of immersive theatre. With the right amount of ingenuity and some cheeky avoidance of the law, you can help to engage people not only with nature but with themselves.
To think that the sunset has been there, just waiting for me to experience every single day. It is thanks to The End of the Day that I gave myself permission to sit and enjoy this most wonderful of nature’s gifts. To actively engage with the kind of spectacle that has fascinated mankind for thousands of years. All I needed was for someone to let me in on the secret. I am so glad that this show has done that for me.
So, perhaps you too should go and find the bench with a plaque that looks ever so slightly out of place.
Just make sure you’re there at sunset. | https://noproscenium.com/enjoy-a-quiet-moment-of-contemplation-with-the-end-of-the-day-review-c249cad5eb95 | ['Edward Mylechreest'] | 2020-12-23 19:38:41.831000+00:00 | ['Review', 'Podplay', 'New York City'] |
Useful And Free Apps For Bloggers That You Must Try | Photo by Ilya Pavlov on Unsplash
When years ago I started my first blog, I had no idea that different apps for bloggers can make your job so. much. easier. I didn’t have a clue what were they and where to get them from.
And so it turned out that my first blog was text only. But then, the fantastic times came when I started to discover the magical world of online resources. I landed on my first royalty-free picture database (and boy, those pictures were HORRIBLE). I discovered how to make basic banners and edit pictures with Gimp.
It was a struggle. Struggle you don’t have to go through because nowadays we’re drowning in the ocean of apps for bloggers. Most of them are smart, easy to use and free.
But okay, before you get disappointed. By “free” I mean there’s a free plan along the premium one. Yes, it will have some limitations. That’s how most of these tools for bloggers work. If you cough up some money, you’ll get over those limitations and get access to some extra features.
Today I’ll break it all down for you. Let’s jump straight in.
Canva — social media posts, banners and all graphics
Some of you still don’t know this tool exists. But it does and it’s super easy to use. If you’ve got no foggy idea about how to start with banners or social media post, Canva is a great place to start.
It’s based on drag-and-drop and intuitive user interface. The amount of templates they use is astounding, I’ll give them that. All you have to do is to pick and tweak.
Pluses
easy to use and master
lots of templates and icons
you can share your work with others
upload an edit your own files
no Canva watermark on your pictures
Minuses
no resizing available until you upgrade your account to the premium version
Lumen5 — posts turned into videos
When talking about videos, a lot of bloggers think about getting in front of the camera. That’s not necessary. You can make your blog content more attractive without showing your face. Plenty of tools for bloggers that make it possible. Lumen5 is one of them.
So far, the easiest tool that turns your blog posts into videos. All it takes is to link your blog post or upload a video script. Then, choose loop videos or graphics that will flow in the background.
Pluses
likely the easiest and fastest way to turn your posts into videos
a large library of pictures and royalty free videos
huge choice of royalty free music
Minuses
The free plan limits the ability to edit the templates
It’s not very flexible when it comes to tweaking your content
The quality of videos in the free plan can sometimes leave a lot to be desired
A Lumen5 credit screen shows at the end of every video. It disappears when you upgrade to a premium version. But I’m not putting it as a minus — they’ve got to eat, right?
Adobe Spark — pictures, videos and much more
While I like and recommend Canva and Lumen5 alike, I have to say, Adobe Spark nearly stole me as their customer.
This platform is like a mixture of two tools mentioned above.
It allows you to create graphics, banners and videos from one platform. It’s got loads of templates, royalty free music, voice recording, branding, resizing and many other functions that come to you for free. Their premium plan is really cheap too if you want to unlock all the possible options and tweaks.
Pluses
lots of functions that you don’t get for free anywhere else
create videos, graphics and voiced clips in one platform
free royalty music and graphics
Minuses
You’ll need your own royalty free videos
It’s a little more complicated to use than Canva or Lumen5
There some predefined design elements (like the transitions between video slides) that you can’t change
Adobe logo shows up on every clip of every video and on every graphic you make. But again, doubt if I should count it as a minus.
Later — social media scheduling
Later is one of the tools for bloggers that helps you managed your social media. Its primary target is Instagram — and they focus heavily on that one platform. However, they also let you schedule to Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest — and that’s all most bloggers need.
The platform is easy to use and within its free plan, you schedule up to 30 messages monthly per platform. It’s got an inbuilt image editor so in many cases, you won’t even need an external graphics tool.
Pluses
covers the basics channels most bloggers use
inbuilt picture editor
easy to use with a clean and visual interface
allows searching and reposting old posts
the paid plan is really cheap in comparison to other Social Media management tools
Minuses
only works for Instagram business profiles
the free plan doesn’t allow tagging users, scheduling multiple photos or videos
analytics are only available in the upgraded plan
scheduling videos also only in the pro version
Ubbersuggest for SEO
A lot of bloggers skip on SEO research because they’ve got no idea how to go around it. Ubbersuggest is a free and easy to use tool that will help you find the best keywords.
It’s not the most advanced tool out there, I’m aware of that. However, for people who are only starting out and need some basic suggestions, it will do the job just fine.
Pluses
Clean UI, easy to use, very logical — even for a beginner
Keyword ideas, content ideas and SERP analysis
Minuses:
Can’t think of any!
Feedly — Staying in Touch With Your Favourite Blogs
There are people who start the day with a cup of coffee and a favourite newspaper. I start it with a cup of coffee and Feedly.
Back in the day, I bookmarked every single interesting site or blog I’ve found. I wanted to get back to them later, but you know very well what happens to 90% of bookmarks. I was the classic case of “save and forget”.
Feedly turned out to be the PERFECT solution. It’s free and it lets you store all your favourite blogs in one place. So long the site has a working RSS feed, Feedly will alert you each time there’s something new published.
Pluses
Lists new posts from all the sites you put in your collections
Allows sharing and emailing your favourite articles
Organises your blogs in categories and boards
A browser add-on allows you to quickly add newly found sites into Feedly
Minuses
Yet to find some!
Final Thoughts
Well, there you go — all these cool apps for bloggers that you can check out. Probably not the longest list you will find on the web, but here’s the thing. You don’t need a lot to create awesome blog content. I’m a devoted minimalist and I believe that less is more. And remember — there are loads of alternatives to those tools on the web. All it takes is a little research. | https://medium.com/@agnieszkakasperek/useful-and-free-apps-for-bloggers-that-you-must-try-65430e5ba83b | ['Agnieszka Kasperek'] | 2019-05-04 14:33:44.356000+00:00 | ['Blogging Tips', 'Writing Tips', 'Blog', 'Writing', 'Blogging'] |
Visualization exercise on the success rate of Kickstarter projects using Tableau and Python | Goal
Kickstarter is a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. It was founded in 2008 and has since raised over $775 million US for more than 48,000 projects. Project creators choose a deadline and a minimum funding goal. If the goal is not met by the deadline, no funds are collected. Creators categorize their projects into one of 13 main categories and 36 subcategories. They are: Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film and Video, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology and Theater. The goal of this publication is to give the reader insights on a couple possible factors that could contribute to a project’s success or failure. Tableau Prep, Tableau and Python were used to process and visualize the data.
Data Source
The dataset was obtained from here in Tableau hyper format that includes all of the data from the most recent crawl by Web Robots and contains projects from May 2009 until the Nov 2019.
Cleaning
The cleaning was performed in two stages. Given the fact that the input format was proprietary (Tableau hyper) in the first stage the source file was opened with and pre-cleaned by Tableau Prep 2019.4 as follows:
Several columns were removed, (currency_symbol, photo, currency, currency_trailing_code, disable_communication, permission, source_url, slug, friends), which were either redundant or outright not required for the purpose of my investigation. Calculated fields were added to facilitate the further analysis of the data. To begin with new timestamp columns were created based on existing columns however in Unix time format, (creation_at, lauched_at, deadline), for example:
DATEADD(‘second’, [created_at], #1970–01–01#) Then the category and sub-category name were extracted from the category column using:
REGEXP_EXTRACT([category], ‘slug”:”(.*?)[“/]’)
and
REGEXP_EXTRACT([category], ‘slug”:”.*?/(.*?)”,”position’) Finally the data was written out to a CSV (Kickstart_Preped.csv) file for further processing in Python. Moving on to Python.
First duplicated rows were dropped but before that the dataFrame was sorted on backers_count so that from the duplicates only the rows with highest backers_count were kept and while the others got deleted.
Removing duplicate rows
Then columns not required for the analysis were dropped and at the same time the resulting data were assigned to a new dataFrame.
Dropping unnecessary columns
In the next step a new column top3_subcategory was created which contains the sub_category label of the project if the sub_category is one of the top 3 most frequent subcategories within its main category. To achieve this the projects were grouped by category and sub_category to get the percentage of frequencies of each sub_category.
Grouping categories by number of occurrence
Then the new column was added by applying a lambda function to each row which assigned the sub_category to top3_subcategory if the sub_category was one of the top3 most frequent within that category. This column is used in Q1 to label the bar chart with the top3 subcategory names.
Adding top3_subcategory column
As the last step of wrangling one more new column was created which captures the average pledge amount by a backer for the project. This gives us the insight of how much backers on average give to each project from which a new mean/median statistics can be calculated.
Adding mean_backer_pledge column
Lastly the dataFrame was written out to a CSV file for the visualization exercise in Tableau.
Writing dataFrame to CSV file
Data Analysis
During the analysis I wanted to focus on various aspects of a project that may contribute to it becoming successful or the opposite. For this reason I filtered out all other projects that were not in “successful” or ”failed” state. Also I wanted to gain insights which were geographically neutral as project creators do not or cannot change location, country for the purpose of launching a project. Therefore for all visualization in Tableau a filter was applied which only allowed projects in “successful” or ”failed” state to pass through.
Q1. Are there easy or hard categories to be successful in? | https://medium.com/@sszokoly/visualization-exercise-on-the-success-rate-of-kickstarter-projects-using-tableau-and-python-235f686f42f6 | ['Szabolcs Szokoly'] | 2020-02-14 00:43:34.599000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Tableau', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization', 'Kickstarter'] |
A Deal With The Devil | A Deal With The Devil
In this short-short story, the devil truly is in the details.
Image by Markéta Boušková from Pixabay
Tom Winters sat on his living room couch, watching his five-year-old son Robby play with some toys on the floor in front of him. Tom had always loved to watch over his son. He did this from the time Robby was a baby sleeping in his crib. But these days, his habit had become even more poignant and melancholy.
Robby had leukemia, and the radiation treatments had caused all of his hair to fall out. But even with a bald head, Robby was as cute as a button and somehow managed to keep a smile on his face most of the time.
This particular day, Robby looked up from his toys and asked his dad a question: “Daddy, am I going to die?”
Tom Winters swallowed hard and paused for several seconds before answering: “No, Robby, you’re not going to die. You’re getting the best medical treatment in the world, so I know you’ll get all better soon.”
Robby gave his daddy a skeptical look, and said: “OK, daddy. That’s nice to know.”
Tom’s heart was breaking because he knew he had just told his little boy a lie. The doctors had already informed him that Robby’s condition was too far gone now, and the cancer was incurable. Although Tom and his wife Jessica initially refused to accept that diagnosis, they both eventually came to terms with the horrible reality facing them: their precious little boy was going to die within a matter of weeks. And there was nothing at all they could do about it.
They tried to keep a brave face around Robby, but he was a very clever boy and caught them dropping their guard down on occasion when the sadness appeared on their faces. He had never known anyone who had died, so he wasn’t sure what to think about the possibility of dying.
As Tom dwelled more on the situation, he thought there must be something he could do to save the life of his little boy. He turned over various possibilities in his mind and finally settled on an option that was farfetched at best and impossible at worst: he would find a way to make a pact with the devil to trade his own life for Robby’s. Now the question was how to go about doing this.
He had long casually studied the occult as something he thought was just a harmless hobby, a mere curiosity. But in his readings, he had occasionally come across mentions of the devil, including tales of people who sold their souls in exchange for things they thought were of value.
Of course, such a deal with the devil was never something to be done lightly, because turning over your soul to an evil entity was irreversible, and there was no turning back once you’d done it. Nonetheless, he settled on what he was going to do, which he never discussed with Jessica, of course.
Tom knew of a local store that specialized in the occult, including artifacts endowed with special powers. He told the shopkeeper that he was looking for an artifact that would summon the devil. The shopkeeper said he had such an object but strongly discouraged Tom from using it for any purpose whatsoever. It simply was much too dangerous. However, he failed to dissuade Tom.
Tom Winters paid the shopkeeper a considerable amount of money to use the artifact and then went into a private room in the back of the shop. Soon the shopkeeper brought the artifact to him and again tried to talk him out of using it. He said that the store would assume no responsibility whatsoever for anything bad that happened to him. Tom waved him off, took possession of the artifact, and bid goodbye to the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper had given Tom instructions on how to use the artifact. To summon the devil, you rubbed the object ten times quickly between the palms of both hands. What could be easier than that?
After completing the ritual, Tom sat back and waited for about a minute for something to happen. He was starting to think it wasn’t going to work. But then, there it was. An apparition of the devil appeared directly in front of him. Naturally, Tom was startled by this but shortly composed himself enough to say to the devil: “My little boy is dying of cancer, and I want you to save his life by taking mine — my soul.”
The devil looked him over and said: “I can easily do that, but are you certain you want to do this? Once I take your soul, I will have it forever.” Tom swallowed hard and said: “Yes, I’m sure. My boy must live because he’s so young and has his whole life ahead of him. I’ve led a good life, so I’m not afraid to give it up now. My wife will take care of Robby.”
So Tom made a deal with the devil. But of course, there were details to be considered. Tom would be allowed to return home and spend one last day with his wife and son. After that, he would head off to work as usual, but on the way, he would be involved in a one-car accident and die, all caused by the devil, who then would take control of Tom’s soul. It all seemed so straightforward.
And it was. Tom went back home and hugged and kissed Jessica and Robby so many times that they were starting to wonder what in the world had come over him. But he was happy and contented because he knew that after that day passed, Robby would no longer have leukemia. It was a beautiful thought.
The day passed, and the next morning arrived. Tom grabbed his briefcase and gave a heartfelt goodbye to Robby and Jessica as if everything in the world was as it should be. He knew that soon it would be.
That afternoon, a policeman came and knocked on the front door. When Jessica answered, he informed her as gently as possible that Tom had died in a car accident. Upon hearing this terrible news, she fell to the floor and wept uncontrollably. How could this be so?
Robby kept asking where his daddy was, but his mother was still trying to figure out a way to tell him that daddy had gone to Heaven to be with the angels and would not be coming back home to live with them. But that would have to wait a bit longer. Right now, she needed to get Robby over to the hospital for a scheduled visit to receive his next chemotherapy treatment.
While at the hospital, the doctors treating Robby ran some routine diagnostic tests and were astounded at the results. They called in Jessica and told her the news: Robby was completely free of cancer. They said they couldn’t explain it, that it was nothing short of a miracle. Jessica fell to the floor again and wept, but this time with joy.
She thanked the doctors and thanked God for saving her son. But the one she should have been thanking was her husband Tom — and the devil himself, of course.
The End
__________________
Thanks for reading.
These are my most popular pieces: | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/a-deal-with-the-devil-db8bec0873b3 | ['Terry Mansfield'] | 2020-10-23 02:32:14.446000+00:00 | ['Short Fiction', 'Cancer', 'Short Story', 'Short Read', 'Devil'] |
Why is randomness important, especially in the world of cryptocurrencies? (Part 1) | Authentication
The authentication process is simple. After providing valid e-mail address and password, the application returns user details together with his session token. The token is used to authorize further requests.
Here is the login response, which includes the session token:
When you look at the userId and token parameters in the above JSON server response you will probably notice the problem. They look very similar.
The randomness
The random (or pseudo-random to be exact) sequences typically exhibit statistical randomness while being generated by a deterministic algorithm. It plays crucial role in applications authentication and you can confirm it in most of security cheat sheets, especially for session management. These checklist emphasize that session identifier must be unpredictable and random enough to prevent guessing where an attacker is able to obtain the identifier of a valid session.
OWASP Session Cheat Cheet specifies the following:
The session ID value must provide at least 64 bits of entropy (if a good PRNG is used, this value is estimated to be half the length of the session ID).
It is not a good idea to implement custom PRNG as there are available verified implementations. However there are two types of them: statistical and cryptographic. Statistical PRNGs has useful statistical attributes, but the output easy to guess and is unsuitable for secure parameters such as session identifier. Here is an example of PRNG in Java that returns random int, but it is easy to reproduce as the seed is taken from UNIX timestamp.
Statistical PRNG
The other group, cryptographic PRNGs, return values which are more difficult to predict. For a value to be cryptographically secure, the attacker must not distinguish it from the truly random number. Java provides the SecureRandom class as an example of cryptographic PRNG.
Cryptographic PRNG
In general, if a PRNG algorithm is not advertised as being cryptographically secure, then it is probably a statistical PRNG and should not be used in security-sensitive contexts.
Discovery
At first, I wanted to find out what is the similarity between the token values. I used Burp Suite Sequencer module to generate 100 consecutive tokens. Here is the list:
...
5a8b3cae2283a17e7619fea3
5a8b3cae2283a17e7619fea4
5a8b3cae2283a17e7619fea5
5a8b3cae2283a17e7619fea6
5a8b3caf2283a17e7619fea7
5a8b3caf2283a17e7619fea8
5a8b3caf2283a17e7619fea9
5a8b3caf2283a17e7619feaa
5a8b3caf2283a17e7619feab
5a8b3cb02283a17e7619feac
5a8b3cb02283a17e7619fead
...
The format of the token value is easily noticeable — it is a sequence of 12 bytes encoded in hex. There are only two changes: in the fourth byte and in the last byte. The last byte increases by one on each call while the second byte increases by one a little less often.
After a few tests I have found out that the fourth byte is increased every second. It means that the first fourth bytes are the time! Indeed, when I decoded 0x5a8b3caf to decimal, which is 1519074479, it turned out to be the date in UNIX timestamp — 02/19/2018 9:07PM (UTC).
Token format explained
To sum up, the token format is the following:
Encode current UNIX timestamp in hex. Increase by one the nonce value. Encode the nonce in hex (0x2283a17e7619fea7 value in the last token above). Concatenate and return encoded time and nonce.
Here is the code in Python:
Later I have found out that the same algorithm was used to generate the identifiers of users’ accounts and wallets. I̶t̶ ̶m̶e̶a̶n̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶g̶o̶r̶i̶t̶h̶m̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶p̶p̶l̶i̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶-̶w̶i̶d̶e̶ ̶P̶R̶N̶G̶.̶ Now I know that they use the ObjectId value from MongoDB as the identifiers.
Exploitation
The easy to guess format of token value allows to take over valid sessions of other users. The exploitation plan is the following:
Generate new token value. Wait some time (e.g. 30s). Generate new token value. Check if the difference between the tokens from point 3 and 1 is greater that 1. If no, go back to point 1. For all nonce values between token from point 3 and 1: For each UNIX timestamp between two checks: Generate token identifier using time from point 6 and nonce from point 5. Access authorized resource (e.g. /api/rate). If the application returns successful response, the valid token has been found.
By taking over the session, the attacker can perform any action on behalf of the victim. The most critical functionality is restoration of the X12 wallet seed which would allow to transfer the cryptocurrency to the attacker’s wallet.
The wallet seed is a secret phrase (usually a dozen or so words) used as the input for the private key generation algorithm. When you have the seed, you can generate the private key and transfer cryptocurrency from the wallet.
Fortunately, the seed restoration functionality was password-protected and it did not allow to easily empty victims’ wallets. However, attacker can perform a brute-force attack to find user’s password.
I have sent the following request 100 times with different password and the application did not block the account.
Host: app.skywallet.com:9018
Authorization: sky-wallet <5a85<redacted>5b>
Content-Length: 48
Origin:
Connection: close
{"id":"5a60<redacted>a2","password":"<password-guess>"} POST /api/wallet/mnemonic HTTP/1.1Host: app.skywallet.com:9018Authorization: sky-wallet <5a85 5b>Content-Length: 48Origin: https://app.skywallet.com Connection: close{"id":"5a60 a2","password":" "}
Consequences
The vulnerability (̶w̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶P̶R̶N̶G̶ ̶f̶u̶n̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶)̶ (using ObjectId value as session identifier) allows anonymous attacker to take over victim’s account, but applies only to victims that log in when the attack is being executed. The attacker can view victim’s wallets details and perform actions on his behalf, including (in a critical case) the complete victim’s wallet and cryptocurrency takeover. To do so, he must first passively monitor victim’s wallet balances and wait for the cryptocurrency to appear (which is easy with victim’s authorization token).
The next step is the wallet seed restoration process, which is password-protected. However, as the functionality does not prevent brute-force attack, it is possible (depending on the password complexity) to recover victim’s password and recover his wallet seed. Now all he has to do is generate a private key and transfer the currency to his wallet.
Another potential consequence is the Denial of Service attack on users. Whenever the attacker finds new valid token, he can invalidate the session related to this token. This would not allow users to perform any action in the web application.
Remediation
The remediation of the vulnerability is to use cryptographically secure Pseudo Random Number Generator. The simplest solution is to use UUID generator, but in version 4 which is random! A universally unique identifier (UUID) is a 128-bit number used to identify information in computer systems. This would prevent guessing the identifiers of users, their wallets and, what is most important, their authorization token. | https://medium.com/securing/why-is-randomness-important-especially-in-the-world-of-cryptocurrencies-part-1-ebd3343c7b55 | ['Damian Rusinek'] | 2019-04-02 17:11:34.011000+00:00 | ['Blockchain Startup', 'Randomness', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain Development'] |
Mask etiquette — COVID 19 Wearing a Mask and its etiquette. | Mental health week article 2
Mask Etiquette
We all have seen people trying to adjust to a new style of living and that includes wearing a mask. On occasions when I have gone out to do necessary grocery shopping, I have seen people fiddling with their masks, removing and wearing it again. One day I was speaking to my friends on a group call and we were trying to think what the right way is of wearing a mask and came up with a term Mask etiquette.
I am sharing this on mental health week as when I was talking to my friends, we discussed it for a good 10 minutes and I realised it is impacting us significantly and we were struggling to find right guidelines.
We all are now starting to go back to work slowly, below is what I have been following based on research on medical sites including NHS and WHO.
Wear your mask once before leaving the house. Do not touch it after that.
Make sure that mask covers the nose and goes below your chin. Tie securely to minimise any gaps between the face and the mask;
Remove your mask only once you get back home do not touch it while you were out and about or only if needed replace masks with a new clean, dry mask as soon as they become damp/humid.
Remove the mask by using an appropriate technique (i.e. do not touch the front but remove the lace from behind); After removal or whenever you inadvertently touch a used mask, clean hands by using an alcohol-based hand rub or soap
Do not re-use single-use masks;
Wash your mask/ sanitise it — I wash it separately and I also soak it in Dettol for 5 minutes before washing it.
Only wear a mask for up to 8 hours
This is what I have been following and have shared with my friends too.
#COVID19 #Masks #mentalheathweek
Reference articles : | https://medium.com/@sbmove/mask-etiquette-covid-19-wearing-a-mask-and-its-etiquette-7e51531e4105 | [] | 2020-05-20 07:09:05.619000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Masks', 'Health', 'Wellness', 'Covid 19'] |
Step Back, Check Yourself. | Step Back, Check Yourself.
Do you ever hate your children, Stella?
Clockwise: Lisa, Stella, Benard, Brian & Bradley
A hasty apology followed that question from a friend of mine. I think she was taken back by the sensitivity of her question. She is a new mother in town trying to figure the complexities and, sometimes frustrations, of motherhood. “Sometimes I daydream about tossing my baby out of the window.” This statement may sound violent in the ears of one who is yet to enter motherhood. But I guarantee you, it is only a thought. No sane mother would hurt her own. That short-lived thought is an outburst of frustration which, I guess, parents fail to differentiate from hate. After 11 years of parenting, I can safely say it is perfectly normal to have negative feelings that are nothing close to hate.
A few days ago, I had a discussion with my friends that is relevant in this context but in relation to expectations. Some were on the opposing side saying they have no expectations in life, and the rest of us said that is impossible. As a parent, there are certain things you expect like a well-behaved child, cleanliness to tantrums. The only problem is that kids do not get this memo and do the opposite.
Getting to terms with our kids behaving contrary to what we expect comes with experience. You have to learn to accept your kids for the person they are and not the one you wish them to become. You have to parent the child you have and not for which you are yearning. We need to manage our expectations and train the child. Our kids are not responsible for our expectations and the outcome of those expectations. One would say; Check yourself! For every input, there is an output. How you feel with anything is a result of your own expectations.
Young Filipino Boy
My boys have a flair for pushing my buttons. And I will fall for it nine out of ten. “Bradley, who taught you how to do that? I will beat you until you turn purple if you try that again.” I yelled at the top of my voice when he tried to do a backflip standing on the edge of the sofa. Without I hint of panic or remorse, here is what this little man asked me. “Mommy, did you have to raise your voice?”. So I should pretend I am watching a stuntman in a circus. But he got me. I stood there frozen like a deer in front of an oncoming car’s headlights. “What should I do with this tiny tot?”. I pondered as a stared into the innocence in his eyes. I lowered my voice, broken by the softness of his and said to him, “Brad, mommy does not want you to hurt yourself, that body is mine until you are old enough to look after it. So, make sure you don’t try that again.”
We can scream, yell and even feel like tossing them out of the balcony. But we can’t. We will provide and protect them, even if we have to jump out of the window.
These little people are God’s gift to us and are here to stay. We don’t hate them. We have to adapt our parenting skills to train them into the men and women we hope them to be.
So the next time they push your button like mine did, to make you scream, shove or spank, please don’t. Do this instead.
Step back, check yourself. | https://medium.com/@stellah84/step-back-check-yourself-e73f6abcaaee | ['Stella Sakia'] | 2020-01-14 11:19:44.256000+00:00 | ['Expectations Management', 'Mothers', 'Parenting', 'Sons'] |
Genaro Network (GNX) Monthly Technical Report — August | Summary: The public chain shadow account test runs smoothly, and the X-pool mining pool reward model has entered the internal test phase.
Overview:
This hot month not only the weather temperature degree has risen, but the activity of Genaro engineers here has also been significantly increased as well. Genaro’s technical team has tested the updated shadow account and mining bonus account of the public chain to confirm that the load is stable and running smoothly. Different modes of the alliance chain have also been built, tested and applied. The X-pool mining pool development work has been even more intensive: not only does the mine pool reward model enter internal testing, the team also started it’s integration with the test chain.
Please see the latest developments of this month.
Public chain part:
The design and development of the trading interface is 50% completed.
The test of the shadow account and the mining bonus account after the update of the public chain confirmed that the load is stable, and the operation is smooth.
Ensured that the shadow account has the same mining rights as the mining account, the synchronization block is stable, and the node assets are secure.
Checked account balance, public key, synchronized transaction data, transaction time, assets, transferor/recipient, handling fee and other information.
Universal service transfer of SDK chain code, load balancing is completed under high concurrency.
libgenaro version 2.0 design is completed by 70%
Alliance chain part
Construction and testing of Fabric etcd mode and kafka mode.
Comparison of the data consensus mechanism of the Fabric etcd mode and the kafka mode, and the performance comparison of the application scenario.
Quotum cost minimization and the setup and user test of the two-node binding run mode has been completed.
Fabric browser testing and application, as well as block query function, data pipeline function, data contract function.
Bridge V2.0 section
User upload of encrypted files, files with no encryption, and resume transmission function.
Upload file cases:
1. Upload is not encrypted. This option is used to upload non-sensitive data, or data that the user has already encrypted, so as to avoid unnecessary waste of resources and also enable fast upload.
2. Encryption, using symmetric encryption, the system automatically generates a key, encrypted by the user’s asymmetric key and saved to the server. Asymmetric encryption does not affect its file size.
Authorized upload:
Whether the authorization via the bridge allows accepting data into the network. Proactive authorization is used in consideration with user trustworthiness issues and limited resources to protect the network.
Authorization/pre-allocation
A. If the size of the uploaded file is less than or equal to the remaining space of the user (bucket), the bridge temporarily locks the space of the corresponding size and makes final confirmation after the upload is completed.
B. Otherwise, the pre-allocation fails, prompting the user has run out of space or compress the file and try again.
2. Hash check
If the user does not choose to encrypt, the hash is calculated first (after compression), and the file is checked according to the hash to see if the file already exists in the network. If it exists, the function is directly uploaded, that is, the quick upload.
Uploading
Client file uploading
1.Request a farmer list
The bridge returns the farmer list based on file size, fixed sharding strategy, and other conditions. The farmer in the list can be repeated to indicate the recipient of each fragment.
2. Request upload to the farmer
The farmer requests confirmation from the bridge.
3. Start uploading
Complete the breakpoint
4. After the upload is completed, the farmer returns the hash of the fragment. After the client confirms, it notifies the bridge.
Upload success
When all the shards have been uploaded successfully, the system automatically assumes that the file has been uploaded.
5 Download the file
As with the upload, the download also satisfies the function of resuming the breakpoint.
Scope of application includes
1. The user downloads the file from the farmer.
2. Farmer backup data from other farmers (ie mirror)
X-pool mine section
1 Modified the mining pool shutter of adding the margin, causing the transaction to be blocked.
2 Fixed the bug when after mining is finished, the mining pool ends the synchronization block according to the default trading block, so as to avoid the multiple mining caused by the synchronization information not being timely.
3 Mining pool reward model design, internal testing.
4 The mining pool is connected to the test chain, and the test transaction data is synchronized to ensure smooth transactions.
5 The mining pool margin extract test and optimizes the margin withdrawal process.
6 X-pool mining pool operation manual is completed.
In 2019, Genaro’s exploration and innovation in technology never stopped. The public chain, the alliance chain, the storage, the mining pool, and the broad product line awaiting excellent technical developers to start from the trial and join the community to exchange ideas with the Genaro team. More development progress will follow via official channels of Genaro Network.
We are committed to delivering advanced products and technologies in order to establish a blockchain ecosystem that meets market needs, please contact us if you are interested in cooperation or developing alliance chain: [email protected]. As for the developers interested in building DApps on the Genaro Network mainnet, please kindly stay tuned to the upcoming updates on Genaro official website and Github.
Breaking News: The first edition of the GSIOP protocol is officially released
On February 20, 2019, Singapore time, Genaro Network, the world’s first smart data ecosystem with a Dual-Strata Architecture, integrating a public blockchain with decentralized storage officially released the first version of the GSIOP protocol. This is not only the product of nearly a year hard work of the Genaro entire team of engineers, but it also marks Genaro’s new milestone in the practical application of cross-chain technology.
Breaking News: G.A.O. (Genaro Alpha One) is officially launched
Genaro Network, the future of Smart Data Ecosystem for DApps, invites you to witness the new era of smart data, empowered by the revolutionary serverless interactive system!
Recommended reading: Genaro public network mainnet officially launched | Community Guide
Download Technical Yellow Paper
Genaro’s latest versions, Genaro Eden and Genaro Eden Sharer, will allow you to store your files in a more secure way and share your unused storage to earn GNX.
Get your Genaro Eden/Sharer for Linux, Windows and MAC OS right now from the official website:
Git source repository is on GitHub>>
Important:
Warm reminder to our community members, please download Genaro Eden ONLY from our official website/GitHub and DO NOT trust any referral links and reposts from anyone, otherwise, we won’t be able to guarantee privacy and security of your data and protect you from scammers.
Genaro Eden — The first decentralized application on the Genaro Network, providing everyone with a trustworthy Internet and a sharing community:
Related Publications:
Genaro’s Core Product Concept
Genaro Eden: Five Core Features
How Does Genaro’s Technology Stand Out?
Genaro Eden Application Scenarios and User Experience
The Genaro Ecosystem
Matthew Roszak Comments on Release of Genaro Eden
About Genaro Network
The Genaro Network is the first smart data ecosystem with a Dual-Strata Architecture, integrating a public blockchain with decentralized storage. Genaro pioneered the combination of SPoR (Sentinel Proof of Retrievability) with PoS (Proof of Stake) to form a new consensus mechanism, ensuring stronger performance, better security and a more sustainable blockchain infrastructure. Genaro provides developers with a one-stop platform to deploy smart contracts and store the data needed by DAPPs simultaneously. Genaro Network’s mission is to ensure the secure migration of the core Internet infrastructure to the blockchain.
Official Telegram Community: https://t.me/GenaroNetworkOfficial
Telegram Community (Russian): https://t.me/GenaroNetworkOfficial_Rus | https://medium.com/genaro-network/2019-08-genaro-network-gnx-monthly-technical-report-august-ba64e1f2c6 | ['Genaro Network', 'Gnx'] | 2019-08-08 23:53:40.449000+00:00 | ['Dapps', 'Storage', 'Blockchain', 'Technology', 'Innovation'] |
[Lifehacking] Time. And How to use it well during your limited lifetime. | Lucius Seneca was a famous Roman statesman and philosopher, known for his serious studies and thinking about time.
“If we are to live well, we have to be constant students of the greatest subject of all: life itself”
In his essays, Seneca offers us an urgent reminder of the non-renewability of our most precious resource: our lifetime.
So let’s have a look at few times of time management provided by our old friend Seneca.
1. Treat time as a commodity:
Seneca says, “People are frugal in garding their personal property, but as soon as it comes to squandering time, they are most wasteful of the one thing which is right to be stingy.”
Seneca caution that we fail to treat time as a valuable resource, even tho this is arguably our most precious and least renewable one.
Imagine walking down the stream and watching a really rich guy throwing his money away.
You definitely think that person was insane. And yet we see others and ourselves throwing something far more valuable every day: our time. The amount we get is uncertain but surely limited.
It is clearly more insane to waste time than money because we can’t make anymore time when it runs out.
To realize the value of 1 year, ask a student who failed a grade
To realize the value of 1 month, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby
To realize the value of 1 week, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of 1 hour, ask the person who just missed the train.
To realize the value of 1 second, ask the person who nearly avoided an accident.
To realize the value of 1 millisecond, ask the person who got silver at the olympics.
While the amount of time we get on this earth is uncertained, the one thing that is certain is that this time is limited.
Money and property can increase and decrease depending on our luck and efforts, but our time is fixed.
Death crisps ups on time wasters, people who assume time is cheap because when spent properly, time become an ampilfier. When spent without consideration, it becomes a consistent source of regrets.
2. Don't invest your time preparing for life.
According to Seneca, “He who bestows all of his time on his own needs, who plans out every day as if it was his last, neither longs for nor fears the morrow.”
We are all guilty of spending too much of our time preparing for life.
Seneca pushes us to live right now. To not delay our happiness. To not thing that happiness lie in the future. He criticize those who think they can work diligently until around age 60 when they finally retire and can be happy.
Our future is uncertain and is not in your control. The life in the future you are working towards may never come. We are so busy about the future that we often let the present slip away allowing time to rush on unobserved and unceased.
And then when we are old and on our death beds, we finally realize how short and valuable how our life is, left with regrets ion not making the most of it when we could.
Seneca compares time to a rushing stream that not always flow.
If you are in the middle of the desert and you come across a stream of water, but you are not sure when it might stop, wouldn’t you drink as much of it as you possibly could?
Just like water, we should use as much of our time as possible in making the most of our present.
Your 30,40,50s are all worth planning but don’t allow them to take away the precious present.
You can only live one moment at the time, and you can only live it once, so choose to live in the moment.
3. Live life for your own self.
“So you must not think a man have live long because he have long hair and winkles. He has not lived long, he just existed long.”
We all have certain things that we want in our lives, being a dream house, a dream job, a dream relationship or a dream vacation. But many of us are not getting even close to these dream because we get stuck with a job we can’t stand to pay the bills or getting stuck with people we dont love because we are scared to be alone.
You are just being toasted and turned around y things coming at you. And in today world of information you are getting tons of stuff coming at you.
We then fool ourselves by telling us we dont have enough time to try new pursue. We are “so busy”.
But being busy is always YOUR choice. Being busy with things you dont like is the greatest distraction from living.
We routinely go through our lives day after days, showing up for obligations that are being absent from ourselves.
The best way you can invest your time is by investing in creating a life you love living.
If you dont know what you love or what you want then ask yourself these questions:
If I had more time, what are the things I could do?
If I can change something about my life or about me, what would it be?
You might realize you want to change your job or your city or pursue a new hobby.
You can start by waking up early and use that extra time to do things that you love.
Time is precious and its taking away for all of us. The longer you want to start making changes, the longer you will spend your life working to make someone else dream reality.
4-Practice Pre-medidato malorum.
We learn from Seneca, “while wasting our time procrastinating and hesitating, life goes on.”
Procrastination occurs when a conflict between short term gratification of impulses like — to do nothing and waste time — and long term commitments like making a sales report.
In psychology, this is called “time inconsistency”.
Even tho doing meaningful work over the course of years is more important for most of us than lounging around, the human bean have a very dated bias towards what is here and now.
However Seneca give us a way to fight this with a very effective and simple method: the stoics call it premeditato malorum.
The idea about this is to ask yourself before doing something about what can go wrong.
It is a form of negative visualization where once you have identify the distractions or problems you could face, you can actually design around them with preparation.
By acknowledging distractions before hands and then in response setting suitable time for it, you can bypass the impact of short term impulses ahead of time.
Part 2 coming soon…Waiting for it you can listen to this — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlMWSAcQce4 | https://medium.com/@djoann/lifehacking-time-and-how-to-use-it-well-during-your-limited-lifetime-3c346635a66c | ['Djoann Fal'] | 2019-11-14 16:40:03.332000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Time', 'Lifehacks'] |
Torn in Two | Torn in Two
The cultural struggle of being a transracial adoptee
I remember walking around the Halifax Shopping Centre with my mom and younger sister when I was eight. While they browsed the clothes at Aéropostale, I stared at the other shoppers, especially the Asian ones. I knew the odds were two out of seven billion, but as a kid I couldn’t help but wonder if they could be my biological parents. Sometimes, I still wonder. After all, my origin story is a mystery.
I was found somewhere in Chongqing, China. I don’t know where I was found or who discovered me. For all I know, my elementary school classmates could have guessed right by asking if I was found in a dumpster or the supermarket.
My birthday is also a mystery. My sister, Hana, was adopted in the Hunan province. Her biological parents allegedly left a note marking her birthday on June 28. No one left me anything. But whoever found me wrote down my birthday as April 1.
The only thing I do know was that I lived with a foster family in Chongqing for 10 months. When my adoptive parents picked me up, my dad said my foster grandmother and my adoptive mother played tug of war with me, neither one wanting to let go. My foster grandfather gave me a toy and a letter, which I learned about last summer but still haven’t had the courage to look at.
Most likely, I was abandoned due to China’s one child policy. It was implemented in 1978 to reduce poverty and develop the economy which, according to an Al Jazeera article, was due to the countryside’s rapid population growth. The policy ended in 2016 when the government allowed couples to have two children due to the aging population and a decline in the workforce.
China began its international adoption program in 1991 and, according to an NBC article, around 110,000 children have been adopted globally. In Canada, Chinese adoptees account for 53 per cent of all adoptions between 1999 and 2009 and there were 8,000 Chinese adoptees in the country in 2010, according to Statistics Canada.
The mystery of my past didn’t bother me when I was a kid. I wondered, but I never sought to connect with my Chinese roots or find my biological parents. But as I grew older, the hole in my heart grew and I knew I couldn’t ignore that part of me anymore.
I began my journey in 2017 — shortly after I moved from my home in Little River, Nova Scotia to attend St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick — by trying foods outside the usual Chinese-Canadian cuisine of greasy chicken balls and fried rice. I took the opportunity to eat at authentic restaurants like J’s Asian Kitchen in downtown Fredericton and Tokyo Ramen on Forest Hill Road.
But my real attempt to connect with my cultural roots was in March when the pandemic was at its peak. I spent most of my time on YouTube, where ads of the DNA kit, 23andMe, appeared on my feed.
I considered taking a DNA test before because of my lack of medical history, but never did.
The same DNA marker can be found in different countries since human genetics aren’t linked to one country, according to a 2019 Vox video. The video also said DNA tests don’t tell people where their ancestors lived, but instead gives a probability of where they’re likely to have relatives today. Plus, I don’t like the idea of giving a company access to my private DNA.
But my curiosity grew as more ads appeared on my YouTube feed. Eventually, I couldn’t ignore my interest.
I was part of a Facebook group called Subtle Asian Women, a place where Asian women from across the globe could connect. The group helped me with dating and hair advice, I figured they could help with the DNA kits too.
I asked if anyone had used a DNA kit and had success finding their biological family. I never gave much thought into that part of my life before. I used to think it was better if they were dead because it would give me a sense of closure, but I couldn’t help but wonder.
A few days after my initial post, a member of the group invited me to join a new group, Subtle Asian Adoptee Traits.
Some of its members had done DNA kits before and found close relatives, like parents or siblings. But most only found fifth cousins. They were all open and friendly, all willing to chat with me privately if I wanted. But they warned I should be prepared for the results, whether I found something or not.
I spent the rest of my day reading through countless posts on the Facebook page. Most of the stories were like mine. Raised in a predominantly white community, most members of the group felt disconnected from their Asian roots. The once-a-year celebrations and occasional interactions with other Asians never felt like enough. Non-adoptive Asians felt like we were too white to be Asian, and the white community thought we were too Asian to be a part of their nationality. We had two cultural identities, yet none of them felt complete.
For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel alone.
Most of the time, I kept to myself. I preferred to sit back and read what others wrote. But when my journalism professor asked for story pitches for a more narrative-filled piece, I knew what I wanted to write about — transracial adoptees and their cultural identity.
Childhood celebrations
One of the most common childhood experiences amongst the adoptees I spoke to was their parent’s involvement in connecting them to their Asian roots.
Kylie Bartz, 23, is an Indian adoptee from Avon, Minnesota. Her parents made sure to keep her Indian culture alive by involving her in community events, such as the ones put on by the Indian Student Association at St. Cloud University.
Kylie Bartz said her outfit was the first time she wore something to represent herself. (Submitted by Kylie Bartz)
“Every year they would put on like five different events. My parents would often take me to those events and try to allow me to explore that side,” she said.
When she was 14, Bartz said her mother drove her two hours to a shop where an Indian woman made traditional clothing by hand. Bartz and her mother spent hours in the shop talking with the designer until they found what suited her. They ended up purchasing a red dress with faded royal blue at the bottom. Gold beads were hand-sewn in a diamond design and she wore a matching scarf pinned to her shoulder. After the dress shop, Bartz said her mother took her to four or five different stores to find matching shoes.
Kiona Zandvliet, a Chinese adoptee from the Netherlands, said her parents used to take her to an annual weekend getaway at the beginning of October. She would meet with six to nine other families from the Netherlands, though one family was from Sweden, who adopted at the same time as Zandvliet’s family. There, she would reunite with her sisters from the orphanage.
Zandvliet said the families took turns organizing the event and the location changed each year, though they always rented a big house so everyone could stay. The first day is spent catching up with everyone over snacks and drinks, while the second day is focused more on activities.
Kiona Zandvliet and her family spend the weekend with other children adopted from the same Chinese orphanage as her every October. (Submitted by Kiona Zandvliet)
Some of the activities were China-related, like the dragon boat activity. Zandvliet said there were two boats and one person on each boat had to sit on a drum and play while the others rowed. Another activity was dumpling making. But for the most part, Zandvliet said the activities weren’t China-related. They would go to an amusement park or explore a near-by city, visiting a rock-climbing wall or doing a scavenger hunt.
“I don’t really recall talking about adoption. It’s more ‘what are you doing at school?’ But I think the parents are talking more about adoption and the time when they were in China to get us,” she said.
My parents also planned weekend getaways with families who went to China at the same time as they did. They would drive my sister and I six hours to Port Hawkesbury, Cape Breton to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
The four of us would stay at the Bodreaus, family friends, in their three-bedroom home. Darlene and Garnet Bodreau went to China twice with my parents to adopt their two children, Monique and Keelan. My sister and I would room with Monique while my parents took Keelan’s bedroom. He would sleep either on the couch in the living room downstairs, or on an air mattress in his parent’s bedroom.
The Lunar New Year celebrations were held at the civic centre. The smell of egg rolls, fried rice and greasy chicken balls filled the hallways. Until I was 15 or 16, my parents used to dress Hana and I in traditional Chinese shirts. The parents would also have the kids walk around the centre carrying a pink paper dragon over our heads to symbolize the dragon dance. At the end of the evening, they would give all the kids red envelopes full of chocolate coins from the dollar store.
Hana, Connie, Mark and Jasmine Gidney preparing for the Lunar New Year celebration in Port Hawkesbury, Cape Breton. (Submitted by Jasmine Gidney)
Wearing “traditional” Chinese clothes felt like wearing a Halloween costume. I wasn’t sure if they were traditional and, while I’m Chinese by blood, I didn’t feel like I had the right to the culture. The celebrations were bittersweet. I was glad my parents took the time to acknowledge my Chinese heritage, but at the same time, it was only once a year and was celebrated through a Canadian lens. For example, the dragon we used wasn’t a dragon, it was a Chinese lion. Still, I was grateful my parents tried.
Surrounded by racism
Bartz’s parents wanted to make sure that when they brought their daughter home from India, she would be in a welcoming environment.
“They had told people in their life that if they couldn’t accept a child for whatever reason, because they’re not white, because they’re from another country, they didn’t want them around me,” said Bartz.
But her parents couldn’t protect her from everyone.
When Bartz started learning about the slave trade in the fifth grade, classmates told her to “go back to your country” because she was a “fugitive slave” and didn’t understand she was Indian, not Black. White people made up 99.2 per cent of the population in Avon, Minnesota in 2018, according to Data USA. Bartz said because of the lack of diversity in her area, most people only saw race in terms of Black and white.
Kylie Bartz said her parents are always open to conversations about race and tried to protect her before they adopted her. (Submitted by Kylie Bartz)
In the same year, students told Bartz her eyebrows were too bushy, so she shaved them off. But the worst moment was when Bartz found a note in her locker that read die or “go home,” causing her to write a suicide letter.
“[My mom] cried for days because a) her 5th grader was suicidal, but also b) she knew she wouldn’t understand and didn’t know what to do,” said Bartz.
Her mother stepped in and brought her to the school’s social worker so Bartz could talk about her experiences. Still, it took 19 years for Bartz to embrace her Indian identity.
Before, she used to tell people that she was German and Swedish like her parents, but now she tells them that she’s Indian. She said the racism she faced is a part of her and helped her become a better advocate.
I understand the difficulties of living in an almost all-white area.
I grew up in a small lobster fishing village called Little River, located a half-hour outside Digby, Nova Scotia. In an area of around 2,500 or 3,000 residents, there are only a handful of racial minorities. Digby Regional High School had about 500 kids from Grades 7 to 12. There were only four non-international Chinese students, including me and my sister, and one non-international Japanese student in the school.
Given the whiteness of the town, I stuck out like a sore thumb, especially in the eyes of middle-aged white men.
I worked at the Admiral Digby Museum during the summer when I was 17. I used to spend my lunch hour walking downtown by the waterfront, enjoying the sun and salty ocean breeze. Sometimes, I would take a break and walk on one of the back streets to look at the colourful Victorian-styled houses. It was on one of these walks when a man approached me.
He was in his 60s with a balding head and a big beer belly. His truck was parked on the other side of the road, with a lawnmower sitting on the back of the attached trailer. The moment he saw me, he strode across the street and asked, “You from China?”
I took a step back, trying to keep my cool. He was too close, and I didn’t like his question. The gas station was within sight, but I wasn’t sure if I could run fast enough before he could grab and drag me back to his pickup truck. I told him that I was “technically” from China.
“I heard it snows a lot in China,” he said. I shrugged. I told him I was adopted and that I didn’t know. He babbled on for a few minutes and, whenever I could, I reminded him I was a local. If I didn’t, I was afraid he’d take me. Eventually, he walked back towards his pickup truck and sped away.
My parents always said everyone was equal, no matter their skin colour. That proved not to be true. But the racism we faced only made us stronger and, for some, motivated us to connect with our Asian culture.
A better future
Kate Sherga, 32, is a South Korean adoptee from Plano, Texas. She said her husband, Nick, is more supportive in discussions about race since he’s willing to ask questions when he doesn’t understand something.
The two met on an online dating site, OKCupid, in 2012. She friend-zoned him after their first date at a Dallas restaurant. But after hanging out with him during the summer, they started dating. They married in 2016 and had their first son, Felix, soon after.
Kate Sherga said her husband, Nick, is supportive and open about discussions surrounding race. (Submitted by Kate Sherga)
Sherga didn’t want to ignore her son’s Korean heritage, but she said trying to incorporate Korean culture in her son’s life is weird since she’s still learning about it too. She bought a hanbok, a traditional two-piece Korean dress, for Felix’s first birthday. Koreans usually give their children the hanbok to celebrate their first 100 days, but Sherga said the 100 days had passed by the time she learned about the tradition.
Sherga also bought Korean children’s books to read and tried to introduce her son to Korean food. But as a fussy eater, she hasn’t had much luck with the latter.
“We do want him to have exposure to what I was missing from my upbringing,” she said.
Lyla Mills, 25, is a Chinese adoptee from Alpharetta, Georgia who started a program called Adopted, Chosen, Loved. She began the program in March with the goal to pair older Chinese adoptees with younger Chinese adoptees.
The group is whatever people want to make it, Mills said. Partners can have Netflix watch parties, play games through Zoom, help with homework, cook or whatever works best for them. Mills said she never wanted to tell people what to do.
“I thought [Adopted, Chosen, Loved] was important because I would’ve liked to have somebody when I was younger,” said Mills. “I would’ve liked to have a ‘big sister’ to look up to and to ask advice from and to talk to.”
Filling the empty
Adoption is traumatizing. One decision, one choice changed the course of my life. I love my adoptive parents, but I can’t help but wonder if I’d still have the same emptiness in my chest if I were raised in China. Even if I learn more about my birth culture, can I fill the empty?
I don’t know how far I’ll go on my journey. Maybe I’ll travel to China once the pandemic is over and experience the culture first-hand, or reach out to my foster family and see if they can remember me.
All I know is that I’ve opened Pandora’s Box and there’s no turning back. | https://medium.com/see-it-now/torn-in-two-the-cultural-struggle-of-being-a-transracial-adoptee-1602ee14aa71 | ['Jamine Gidney'] | 2020-12-25 19:21:23.540000+00:00 | ['Adoptee', 'Race', 'Identity', 'Transracial Adoption', 'Asian'] |
Americans Have Been Conditioned To Die For Our Country For Centuries— COVID-19 Is No Exception | It is December 21st, and over 318,000 people in the United States have died of COVID. This tragic and alarming number is a clear reflection of the US government’s inability to properly act and react to a global pandemic. It also exposes a deeper issue embedded in the fabric of America. Which is that dying for your country and the “freedom” it represents is acceptable. We are ten months into the pandemic and COVID is at an all-time high. Still, most states are filled with bars packed shoulder to shoulder, busy hair salons, morgue refrigerator trucks parked outside hospitals, and people who refuse to wear masks.
Howcome over 318,000 deaths haven’t been able to puncture our bureaucracy, and what does it mean for our democracy?
A democracy is defined as “government by the people”. What happens to a democracy when it’s people have been indoctrinated to believe that dying for our country is a right of passage or an honor?
We are a country that is constantly at war, and no that isn’t hyperbole, we have only been at peace for 21 years since the birth of America. The United States has been at war for 222 out of 239 years that it’s been a country.
Sacrificing our citizens to preserve our ideologies and comforts is the American way.
Now we are are at war again. Not with the pandemic. Not with the world. We are at war with ourselves — a democracy that doesn’t serve its people but instead believes they are expendable.
Historically in the US, the most disposable people are disenfranchised. It’s the Black, Brown, Indigenous, poor and disabled people that live and die within the realm of a society — a democracy — that does not serve, protect, or value them.
It’s tragic, but not surprising, that the US government has done little to protect their citizens from the pandemic. According to the CDC, compared to their white counterparts, Native Americans are 4 times more likely to be hospitalized from COVID and 2.6 times more likely to die of COVID. While Black and Hispanic Americans have a COVID death rate 2.8 times higher than white people.
We’ve allowed people to die by the thousands in a global pandemic and instead chosen to value schools, restaurants, and shops to stay open — which is very on-brand for America. We are conditioned to sacrifice life for the commodities and comforts that make America feel American. The easiest citizens for the US to sacrifice has traditionally been Black and Brown bodies, a truth that has continued throughout the pandemic. Now a new category has unfolded in the pandemic: older bodies and bodies with preexisting conditions.
We’ve created groups of people who we’ve tucked away and “othered” to ensure we don’t disturb the foundation of America when these groups die in mass ammounts.
“COVID is only killing people with preexisting conditions and the elderly” — I hear way too often in my TikTok comment section when I address the statistic and facts of the virus.
Now that America has lubed us up with the ideology and normalization of dying for our country, we’ve taken it one step further. We label groups of people as being less worthy of life. As if those who get sick easier are okay to sacrifice.
Instead of pulling at the thread and expecting our government to protect us in a global pandemic, we resort back to the fabric of America that we know. The comfortable quilt that allows us to be okay with other groups dying by the thousands.
Of course, the fatigue of it all is real. When the reality of daily life is draped in thousands of daily deaths, it does make sense that people would be desensitized to the hopelessness and gravity of the situation.
Still, it’s imperative to scrutinize the structure of the country that has allowed this to happen.
Like most blemishes on the flawless face of America that we project to the world and to ourselves, there is a deeper root cause that allows our government to operate carelessly and with little priority to the preservation of life.
We are allowing people to die to protect the beliefs and values of America.
We value freedom, for example. We value it so much that we often go to war in honor or defending of freedom. When a crisis came to the shores of America, our values did not budge. Instead of creating national life-saving protocols to protect our citizens, America prioritized “freedom”. It prioritized the Americans who didn’t want to stay home, wear masks, or social distance.
We protected the idea of freedom, but not the embodiment of freedom. While some “freedoms” were protected the freedom to live in conditions where the virus was controlled was sacrificed. My freedoms to ensure myself, my family, and my loved ones can go to the store or the doctors without catching a deadly virus were sacrificed. The lives of over 318,000 people were sacrificed. Not for freedom that protects Americans, but the delusion notion of freedom that allows people to disregard science and grab a drink with a group of friends in the deadliest month of the pandemic.
We have been conditioned and convinced that dying for our country and our ideologies is normal. We’ve failed to utilize our democracy and instead became complacent with the fact that 318,000 people — and counting — have died from a situation that could have been avoided. | https://medium.com/@alyssasatara/americans-have-been-conditioned-to-die-for-our-country-for-centuries-covid-19-is-no-exception-4d8363cd6fd0 | ['Alyssa Satara'] | 2020-12-21 18:43:58.040000+00:00 | ['Social Justice', 'Covid 19', 'America', 'Racial Justice', 'Politics'] |
Who is really in charge? | by Mark Maxey
Trump’s administration had promoted, lied, and blazed social media on his great accomplishments during his first 4 years. In just 1 week of #Covid19 and everything was washed away for Trump. Thomas Franck of CNBC states, “With the coronavirus spreading economic mayhem across the globe, the Dow’s steep drop on Wednesday briefly pushed the 30-stock index below the level where it closed on Jan. 19, 2017, the day before Trump took office. The sell-off is part of a historic market meltdown that has wiped out years of gains in a matter of weeks.” Trump’s continual narcissistic lies are affecting not only the publics’ fear but have his agencies refuting his lies. All of which are affecting this national emergency.
Top US health expert Dr Fauci buries head in hands after Trump refers to State Department as ‘Deep state department’
CNN reports, “Dr. Anthony Fauci, in an interview on CBS’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation,” was asked about his difference in medical opinion with Trump — that a combination of two drugs, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin, could help with treating coronavirus — and whether he was concerned such drugs could become over-prescribed, potentially leading to a shortage for those who need them.” The Independent UK reports, “The video provides a contrast with what appeared to be Dr. Fauci’s quiet agitation with the president’s rant against his “deep State Department” and the spread of disinformation about the application of an anti-malarial medicine to combat the virus, which Mr. Trump also repeated on Twitter.”
The Associated Press has been faithful to chronologically fact check Trump’s lies. Even during the national emergency Trump nastily politicizes a global pandemic. Real Clear Politics said, “Without referring to a specific poll, Trump replied that “we have great approval numbers. People like the job I’m doing,” adding later, “I’m beating Sleepy Joe Biden by a lot in Florida and a lot of other states.” During a global pandemic, he makes the issue about himself and not the health of his citizens.
The New York Times nails Trump’s lies chronologically showing that ever press conference Trump has lied to the American public. The LA Times states Trump is more concerned with his image than national security. As well the Washington Press has a video which also rips Trump’s lies to shreds.
He is more concerned with his image than the citizens. Over the weekend March 20–22 social media were flooded with polls for Trump regarding his image. Never before in my lifetime has a President, in a national emergency use his briefings to talk on his polls. Right now America needs a leader that is assuring the safety of her citizens. Instead, it’s politized and narcissistic. This behavior that is played out daily through media can make American citizens worry about their safety. Many have asked, who is in charge of this.
History has shown us that amid during in American financial and business crash in the 30s President gave fireside chats on the radio. In rural pockets across America families turned in to hear of hope, solutions, and assurances that together, America will get through this.
Yet with Trumps briefings, the press now is calling to boycott them. Trump instills fear and keeps nationalism and fascism present in his speeches. He refers to the biological virus, Covid-19, as the “Chinese” virus. For any president to use speeches to belittle and promote racism is just unconscionable. But Trump does this every day. He instills fear.
Over the weekend, also media outlets broke that Department of Justice, Attorney General, Barr, asked congress to suspend the constitution. Media outlets immediately raised red flags, like Rolling Stone magazine. Tonight as I write this article, the Senate has yet to approve the stimulus package. Trump said every American will get a $1,200 check soon. When in actuality, the Senate bill states $600 checks to individuals making less than $23,000 a year, or $47,000 as for a family. So the poor are receiving half of what other Americans are getting? According to an 2012 article by NPR 23% of Americans would be in the less than $23,000 category. They say one in every four persons
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/no-doj
The US Census Bureau estimates that in 2019 USA population was at 328,239,526. 23% would roughly be 82,059,882 who would receive only $600 under the Senate’s plan as it stands now. Why are those poorer folks the victims of the Senate math games? Because it saves the US government $449,235,928,900. Quite simply Trump’s Administration can’t bail out the poorest of citizens. How democratic is that?
While I wish no person to brunt the shoulders of coordinating the game plan for the health and financial needs of her citizens. What I don’t understand is the mass confusion and delays that States and individuals have because of Trump’s failures. America needs to wake up and see that this #Covid19 will change the face of America. Do you feel safer with Trump? Or is there a more humane and compassionate way to survive?
revolution! | https://medium.com/okemah-free-press/who-is-really-in-charge-b10e28d47b78 | [] | 2020-03-23 05:56:24.170000+00:00 | ['Healthcare', 'Covid 19', 'Trump Administration', 'Failure', 'Health'] |
Poor Management Uncovered In Employee Covid Work-From-Home Survey | Poor Management Uncovered In Employee Covid Work-From-Home Survey
About 400 employees at all levels were surveyed
Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash
About 400 employees at a large, privately held corporation responded to a survey. It was regarding their feelings about the pandemic, working from home (all office support staff has been on work from home since March 2020), and what it would take for them to return to the office.
For the sake of confidentiality, I can’t reveal this company or any details. I consulted for them and can only share the findings in general terms. Many of these findings are consistent with surveys at other large corporations.
Year over year financials are better
It’s important to note that the company’s sales, profits, and earnings were either the same year over year or increased each month. The corporation was not negatively impacted by having its employees work from home or by the pandemic. If anything, the company benefitted from reduced equipment and leased overhead in some areas.
Where employees agree
Almost all of the employees felt more productive and enjoyed working from home and would like to continue doing so after the pandemic — even one or two days a week. Some wanted to work remotely permanently.
Another area of agreement was with commuting. Everyone loves the financial, time, and environmental benefits that eliminating the commute to the office provides.
Lastly, employees with families and young children appreciate the improved work-life balance that working from home affords them.
Where employees disagree
There is disagreement within the ranks. While everyone feels favorable toward working from home in some form post-pandemic, the extent to which people work from home differs depending upon their role in the organization.
The sales managers (99% are men; it’s a male-dominated industry) wonder how they can monitor the support staff who are getting their jobs done. Otherwise, the company’s numbers and billings would not be at the levels they are. The managers are used to being in control of the support staff, yet it’s not the support staff that needs the focus.
Meanwhile, the sales agents who report directly to the sales managers complain that they want the offices open because “it would improve their morale to be around the support staff.” They also believe the office needs to reopen to train new staff.
Regardless of the pandemic, sales agents are free to come and go as they please because of their roles. They are why many of the support staff feel it is unsafe to be in the office. These agents are circulating everywhere and without consideration for the risk of contact.
Lastly, the sales managers are concerned with onboarding new employees — whether they are support staff or agents without a physical office.
It’s a middle management control issue
Unfortunately, the corporate culture is extremely outdated. The majority of the support staff are female. The majority of the sales agents are males, again — the corporate culture — and the industry in general. Naturally, the company promoted senior agents to branch managers and above. They are all male and heavily steeped in the old-fashioned culture.
Because they can’t get a handle on their agents — and helping them perform better and solving onboarding training issues — they are looking at the support staff as scapegoats. The support staff is already doing their jobs. Some don’t realize they are doing it unconsciously. It is so ingrained in the office culture.
However, this sort of “misdirected control” is what insecure managers do. It may or may not have anything to do with male versus female. It just happens to be made exponential because, in this case, it is also sexist. We saw questions in the survey from the agents like:
How can we see what the support staff is doing?
Well, how about the results. Are you getting paid? Are your clients getting their shi*t? The support staff is the machine that runs the place.
And then these same salespeople were griping about morale:
I feel my numbers would be better if everyone were back in the office supporting one another.
Or this guy who has someone lay his clothes out for him every morning. Is he the only one who hasn’t heard about webinars?
Who is going to make sure that my work gets done if we get someone new? Who will teach my new assistant how I like things done?
In conclusion
I hope and pray that the senior management of this corporation sees these middle managers’ behavior for what it is and forces them to do their jobs and manage and develop their sales teams.
No longer having a brick and mortar office cannot be an excuse not to develop and onboard people. There’s too much technology to make the claim that everyone needs to be in the office to be trained.
It is not incumbent on the least paid support staff to be the morale of a company. I hope someone sees their corporation reflected in this story and stops the madness. There are a thousand other companies just like the one I’m discussing here. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/poor-management-uncovered-in-employee-covid-work-from-home-survey-b33831998a5f | ['Jennifer Friebely'] | 2020-12-03 15:16:45.528000+00:00 | ['Work Life Balance', 'Work From Home', 'Management', 'Personal Development', 'Careers'] |
Life, Love, Death, and Porn: Creating During Covid | What is the basic premise of “For Years to Come”?
It’s a subversive romantic dramedy about a young gay man who falls in love with his dead mother’s hospice nurse, while struggling to reconcile with his elderly father… who’s secretly a porn director.
Portrait of James Patrick Nelson. Photo by Taylor Noel.
What has been the genesis of the project ?
I first wrote it as a play, way back in 2014. Then a couple years later, I rewrote it as a screenplay. Then finally, in early 2020, before the pandemic, I rewrote it as a series, and the whole thing just cracked open. It was funnier and sexier and there was a lot more time to get to know the characters, and for their conflicts to be more internal.
How did you come up with the idea?
When my mother was dying, I found out my father was a porn director! Ten years ago, I went home to L.A. when my mom got sick, and of course, we had a lot of honest conversations, and I asked my parents a lot of the questions I’d always wanted to ask. And then, one day, my dad and I were driving to Costco, and he just casually mentioned that before I was born, he was one of the highest-paid writer-directors in Hollywood, for porn!
Do we get to see that scene in the show?
Potentially. My character — Johnny — doesn’t find out about his father’s pornography until about halfway through the first season. The audience finds out at the end of the first episode.
What about the hospice nurse — is he based on a real person?
That character — Edward — is fictional, but he’s been influenced by a number of guys I’ve dated over the years, and observations of the folks from the hospice, who took care of my mom.
Was that tough, when your Mom died?
Portrait Art of James Patrick Nelson. Photo by Jesus Lopez.
Of course. But it was also a lot more complicated than I had expected. My mom used to get really stressed out a lot, but when she got sick, she was more peaceful than I’d ever seen her. She knew there was no time to waste complaining. She finally learned to be thankful for all the beautiful little things.
So, after she died, I’d always talk about how lucky we are to be alive. And I meant it, but the more I said it, it became a kind of defense mechanism, to keep me from feeling any pain. I think I was young enough to think that pain was a waste of my time. Of course, now I know that when you try to avoid pain, you just make it worse, and it gets harder to experience any real happiness.
So, that’s the biggest lesson my character will learn over the course of the first season of the show.
And how does the father’s porn relate to this??
Well, it’s interesting, at first, I just loved the absurdity of the contrast — “my mother’s dead, and my father’s a porn director.”
I think, when one of your parents dies, your narrative about them changes. Like, if you idolized them, they’re suddenly vulnerable. Or if you were mad at them, suddenly you have to forgive. And then, when your perspective shifts, the next questions are “Well, then, who am I? If they weren’t who I thought they were, then how am I different than I thought I was? Who am I, now that they’re not around anymore?” And you get to know yourself in a whole different way. And if you’re lucky, you’ve got another parent who’s still alive, and you’ve got time to get to know them for who they really are.
Trailer for James Patrick Nelson’s recent LGBT short film “Waking Up”.
So, Johnny and his father — Wally — spend the first season trying to get to know each other again, to reconnect and get past their hang-ups, and rediscover each other as two adults…And, again, if you discover that your father, who you thought was a modest house-husband, was actually a prolific porn director — I think that’s a pretty epic and hilarious discovery.
Portrait of James Patrick Nelson. Photo by Taylor Noel.
Tell me more about Johnny and Edward’s relationship?
There’s a spark between them almost right away. They meet at Johnny’s mother’s memorial service, of all places. And there’s an immediate intimacy between them, given Edward’s history with the family. And when the two of them stumble into a sexual relationship, Johnny is elated to be with someone who makes him feel so alive, because he’s reckoning with the inevitability of dying, and wants to live life to the fullest while he can. Edward has a calm, healthy perspective on life and death, which Johnny finds comforting. But Edward’s habit of taking care of other people, at the expense of taking care of himself, may get the two of them in trouble down the line.
What kind of work have you done previously?
I’ve spent a lot of my career in the theatre, acting in a lot of Off-Broadway and regional theater productions. And in recent years, I’ve started doing more independent films, and developing original work.
James Patrick Nelson and Terrence McNally at the Opening Night of “Immortal Longings” at the Zach Theatre.
Last summer, I acted in the world premiere of Immortal Longings, the final play by the great Terrence McNally (who tragically passed away earlier this year). Terrence created so many incredible plays about LGBT people, so it was a really momentous experience to be performing his latest play during Pride Month on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall!
Poster for James Patrick Nelson’s quarantine short film “Without Touch,” which won an audience favorite award on the queer streaming service Dekkoo.
And during the run, I realized that — although I’d been out and proud since high school, and a working professional actor for over a decade — this was the first time in my life I’d ever been hired to play a gay character.
So ever since, I’ve focused almost exclusively on projects with LGBT leading characters — creating short films, writing feature screenplays, and chiefly developing this new limited series “For Years to Come”.
Who are some of your collaborators?
Micah Stuart
Micah Stuart is a remarkable young director based in L.A. — I first connected with him because of a short film he made called “Johnny,” a really courageous, vulnerable story about a young queer sex-worker. That film screened at several of the top LGBTQ film festivals, including Outfest and Inside Out Toronto. Micah also just directed a daring short film called “Vial” and a new episode of the popular web-series “Doomsday”.
Trailer for the short film “Johnny,” directed by Micah Stuart
Micah is a wonderfully generous, humble, compassionate, talented guy, and his previous work displays a wonderful spectrum of different genres and styles. I’m excited to work with him.
What are some of your creative influences for the project?
I’ve always been heavily influenced by “Six Feet Under,” that was a really important show for me growing up. It has genuine, high-stakes drama, with lots of irreverent humor throughout, and occasional bits of magical-realism. For similar reasons, “Transparent” is a big influence. I also really loved Mae Martin’s “Feel Good” and I just got hooked on Josh Thomas’ “Please Like Me”. These are both great references for shows with queer protagonists navigating romantic relationships and complicated family dynamics. And then another big inspiration is “Work in Progress,” created by Abby McEnany, who I got to meet last year when her pilot screened at NewFest. That pilot was made independently, with a modest budget, but it was so authentic and unique, it got into top festivals, and then got picked up by Showtime.
Do you think we need more LGBTQ+ characters on TV?
Absolutely. We’ve clearly made a ton of progress in the last several years. But I want to see more shows like the ones I just mentioned — shows with queer characters at the center of the story, instead of the margins.
Portrait of James Patrick Nelson. Photo by Taylor Noel.
And I think it’s really important that we portray queer characters facing universal experiences. While there is certainly an urgency to discuss homophobia and discrimination, I think if we only tell stories in which queerness is the primary source of conflict, it actually makes it easier for a hetero-typical audience to think of us as “other”. Whereas, if we acknowledge that in addition to homophobia, queer people go through all the same messy challenges as anybody else, I think that’s a positive step towards compassion.
I also want to see more queer romances. On the rare occasion I see a queer love story on screen, the characters are usually in high school or college, played by straight actors, and almost always insanely beautiful. When I was a child, watching TV, the impossible standards of beauty were no less toxic for me than the pervasive heteronormativity. Both of those influences combined to create the harmful message that someone like me is unworthy of love — a notion I now thoroughly reject.
“For Years to Come” is about an unconventional-looking gay man in his mid-30’s, falling in love. My hope is that the characters will be complex, multi-dimensional human beings, and that their story will appeal to a broad audience, with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Where can we watch “For Years to Come”?
My team and I go into production next summer. Folks can subscribe for updates at www.For-Years-To-Come.com and we’ll keep you posted on casting, production, trailers, festival screenings, etc. | https://medium.com/prismnpen/life-love-death-and-porn-creating-during-covid-106e85328686 | ['James Finn'] | 2020-12-09 19:31:02.947000+00:00 | ['Creative Non Fiction', 'Equality', 'Art', 'LGBTQ', 'Entertainment'] |
Being Careful What I Wish For | Sign up for Yapjaw
By Slackjaw
Yapjaw is Medium's #1 newsletter for all things humor, and we're sorry to say you'll only receive it a few times a month. Take a look | https://medium.com/slackjaw/being-careful-what-i-wish-for-a3c85dd1f174 | ['David Milgrim'] | 2020-12-12 13:27:31.495000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Satire', 'Wishes', 'Decisions', 'Comics'] |
Revolutionising Journalism Education in International News Reporting Via Zoom | We faced a crisis in cracking teaching online. Two-hour straight lectures were not going to work, particularly staring straight down the tube.
But first a flashback. Two main problems need solving to capture this extraordinary event in the photo above. How do I convey what this experience is like and how do I preserve it? I’m near the Syrian border teaching a group of young Syrian journalists Cinema Journalism.
It’s a style of news making that makes use of cultural, social and literary forms in storytelling pulled from different cultures, which more often fictional cinema makers deploy.
I interview the storytellers after my training session and then organise them into a photo-shoot. Below is the completed product which drapes across video.
When I begin this story, I have attendants attempt a mental image of the scene by describing a cinematic narrative.
Imagine this I say: | https://medium.com/@viewmagazine/revolutionising-journalism-education-in-international-news-reporting-via-zoom-60c9c4a556c8 | ['Dr. David Dunkley Gyimah'] | 2021-01-03 17:11:43.758000+00:00 | ['Teaching', 'Journalism', 'Academia', 'Storytelling', 'Zoom Meetings'] |
“Never give up. It sounds cliché but you need resilience to push through all the obstacles that are going to come your way constantly” with Roxana Pintilie” — Fem Founder™ | “Never give up. It sounds cliché but you need resilience to push through all the obstacles that are going to come your way constantly” with Roxana Pintilie” — Fem Founder™ Kristin Marquet Follow Dec 18, 2020 · 5 min read
Co-Founder and business guru Roxana Pintilie has been the driving force behind the business that fuels the Warren Tricomi Brand. Roxana joined the Warren Tricomi team in opening the first salon in Midtown Manhattan in 1990. In 2008, they launched the luxurious Plaza Hotel flagship location and today the team leads a thriving business of 5 salons in the U.S. and 9 international salons, each designed uniquely to fit its geographic location with a modern twist.
Can you tell our readers about your background?
I was born and raised in Romania. That’s where I eventually went on to study economics and philosophy in college and I opened my first business which was an art gallery. I then moved to NYC at the age of 21 to study Law and English. I opened my first spa/salon in 1983 and I met my two partners in 1988 — that’s when Warren Tricomi was born and the rest is history!
What inspired you to start your own business?
Ever since I can remember, I have always worked for myself. I don’t know any other way. I see business opportunities in everything. It is just the way my mind is wired!
Where is your business based?
NYC, Greenwich CT, East Hampton Japan, and India.
How did you start your business?
I sold my art gallery in Europe and all my assets. I hired an architect, a real state broker, an accountant, and an attorney. I ran the numbers, hired and trained staff, then opened the doors.
What were the first steps you took?
I found the right space/location and ran the numbers!
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
Word of mouth — when people love their experience at your business, they talk about it! Our priority is always the client experience and we make sure we go above and beyond their expectations every time.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
I am now facing the biggest challenge of my career and the industry. The post-COVID world is uncertain, to say the least. We have had to pivot in many unexpected ways to earn income during the lockdown and keep our business afloat. It is a continuous challenge to adapt to these fast-paced times, adhere to new guidelines, and grow our business again in such a different environment.
How do you stay focused?
I make a to-do list every day for various areas of the business. I get very clear and specific about what I really want to achieve and what exactly needs to be done to get there. Action is better than perfection!
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
We build spectacular spaces and offer the best products/services and standard of experience available in our category. We are trendsetters and always take the lead. We pride ourselves in being creative, passionate, innovative, and hardworking.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
We’ve always believed the client experience speaks for itself which is why word of mouth has been especially effective for us over the years. Another effective avenue has been our digital marketing — everything from our website to our emails to our presence on social networks is continuously strategized to meet our bottom line.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Never give up. It sounds cliché but you need resilience to push through all the obstacles that are going to come your way constantly. I don’t look at obstacles or roadblocks as “problems” — I look at them as opportunities to learn. All problems are the sources of information that will lead to solutions. That excites me and it should excite every aspiring and new entrepreneur if they plan to succeed. Another piece of advice that goes along with practicing and mastering resilience is always keeping an open mind. Never stop learning. You cannot stay stuck in one place. You must keep learning to keep going. Learn everything from anything. Your brain is like a sponge, push it to the limit — you’d be surprised where it takes you.
What’s your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?
I am a numbers person my favorite app is Tableau because it helps me to analyze data coming from my business. My favorite book is “I Love Capitalism An American Story” by Ken Langone. Coming from a communist country, I am grateful to be in a free and capitalist country like America. I relate to the book entirely and like Ken, in his own words, “I am the American dream.
What’s your favorite business tool or resource? Why?
My phone! Google search and a host of apps and software solutions come in handy but without my phone, I’m toast. I do everything on my phone.
Who is your business role model? Why?
My mother is my greatest role model because she had exceptional determination and ambition in her own career, but also took time to help those less fortunate.
How do you balance work and life?
Not everything is equally important. I know what my values are — and which ones take precedence. I stay focus on the things I can do. I get real sleep. I spend time with family and loved ones when I need to disconnect.
What’s your favorite way to decompress?
Reading up on technology and finances, watching documentaries and foreign movies, taking long strolls on the beach, and spending time with my family and friends.
What do you have planned for the next six months?
Rebuilding and growing my business as well as developing new streams of technology-driven revenue.
How can our readers connect with you?
They can contact me at [email protected], as well as following us on social media! We’re on Instagram and Twitter @warrentricomi, as well as Facebook and Linkedin. | https://medium.com/fem-founder/never-give-up-b1e1e4e3a467 | ['Kristin Marquet'] | 2020-12-18 12:02:59.822000+00:00 | ['Female Entrepreneurs', 'Founder Stories', 'Founders', 'Female Founders'] |
Using OpenStreetMap tiles for Machine Learning | Using OpenStreetMap tiles for Machine Learning
Extract features automatically using convolutional networks
Performance of the network when predicting the population of a given tile
OpenStreetMap is an incredible data source. The collective effort of 1000s of volunteers has created a rich set of information that covers almost every location on the planet.
There are a large number of problems where information from the map could be helpful:
city planning, characterizing the features of a neighborhood
researching land usage, public transit infrastructure
identifying suitable locations for marketing campaigns
identifying crime and traffic hotspots
However for each individual problem, there is a significant amount of thought that needs to go into deciding how to transform the data used to make the map, into features which are useful for the task at hand. For each task, one needs understand the features available, and write code to extract those features from the OpenStreetMap database.
An alternative to this manual feature engineering approach would be to use convolutional networks on the rendered map tiles.
How could convolutional networks be used?
If there is a strong enough relationship between the map tile images and the response variable, a convolutional network may be able to learn the visual components of the map tiles that are helpful for each problem. The designers of the OpenStreetMap have done a great job of making sure the map rendering exposes as much information as our visual system can comprehend. And convolutional networks have proven very capable of mimicking the performance of the visual system — so it’s feasible a convolutional network could learn which features to extract from the images — something that would be time consuming to program for each specific problem domain.
Testing the hypothesis
To test whether convolutional networks can learn useful features from map tiles, I’ve chosen simple test problem: Estimate the population for a given map tile. The USA census provides data on population numbers at the census tract level, and we can use the populations of the tracts to approximate the populations of map tiles.
The steps involved:
Download population data at the census tract level from the Census Bureau. For a given zoom level, identify the OpenStreetMap tiles which intersect with 1 or more census tracts. Download the tiles from a local instance of OpenMapTiles from MapTiler. Sum the population of the tracts inside each tile, and add the fractional populations for tracts that intersect with the tile
Visualizing the census tracts which overlap with the 3 example tiles
This gives us:
Input X : an RGB bitmap representation of the OpenStreetMap tile
: an RGB bitmap representation of the OpenStreetMap tile Target Y: an estimated population of the tile
To re-iterate, the only information used by the network to predict the population are the RGB values of the OpenStreetMap tiles.
For this experiment I generated a dataset for California tiles and tracts, but the same process can be done for every US state.
Model training and performance
By using a simplified Densenet architecture, and minimizing the mean-squared error on the log scale, the network achieves the following cross-validation performance after a few epochs:
The squared error of 0.45 is an improvement on the 0.85 which you would get if you just guess the mean population each time. This equates to a mean-absolute error of 0.51 on the log-scale for each tile. So the prediction tends to be of the right order of magnitude, but off by a factor of 3X (we haven’t done anything to optimize performance, so this isn’t a bad start).
Summary
In the example of estimating population there is enough information in OpenStreetMap tiles to significantly outperform a naive estimator of population.
For problems with a strong enough signal, OpenStreetMap tiles can be used as a data source without the need for manual feature engineering
Credits: | https://towardsdatascience.com/using-openstreetmap-tiles-for-machine-learning-4a3e41bb3ea6 | ['Robert Kyle'] | 2019-01-31 15:04:19.746000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'GIS', 'Data Science', 'Maps'] |
Dementia is…. Dementia is… | Dementia is…
Evil
Cruel
Unfair
Wicked
Ruthless
Merciless
Unrelenting
Wrecking ball
These are the words that would rush out of my mouth if I were ever somehow locked in a dark room, strapped to a chair and forced to play dementia word association. You could pick any bleak adjective or metaphorically fitting noun you’d like and it’d work just fine.
There have been bits of beauty and happiness on this journey with Mom too. Moments like this or this, and hopefully many more to come. After all, I see helping Mom find joy and laughter and purpose as the primary part of my job as her caregiver.
But I’m not writing about those tonight.
Dementia is a nightmare
Stomping out the little sparks of happiness is the sheer and vast darkness of the nightmare itself.
It’s most acute for Mom. She’s the one living with the devastating impacts of dementia minute to minute and day to day. The final third of her life has been robbed, and with each passing month more and more of her independence is taken. How this feels for her is unimaginable to me.
She’s the main character in the plot and somewhere deep down in a part of her that I no longer have access to, she knows it’s only going to get worse before it ends. I know it too.
This singular thought keeps me up at night with such a painful flavor of hopelessness that my skin crawls with a ‘nails on the chalkboard’ type sensation as I type the words.
A low din of dread
My relationship with dementia is different than Mom’s. While she’s living it, I’m stuck watching it and trying to guide her through. It’s a war of attrition. Less an acute nightmare to me and more like a constant low din of dread that never goes away. Never broken and always in the background making its presence felt.
At the beginning, it was shock and fear and “how the f*&% am i going to do this”? I’ll never forget the culmination, that day in the doctor’s office when we finally got an official diagnosis. The resulting panic got my adrenaline pumping and sent me into education mode. There was little time to be sad and that worked for a while. Complete with a healthy dose of naivety and a tank full of false confidence, I was good. Until I wasn’t.
The ever-present low din of dementia’s dread accompanied my first experience with caregiver burnout. Wow was that ugly. I climbed out of the burnout hole thanks to family, friends and the amazing people at The Alzheimer’s Family Support Center of Cape Cod but the din never left.
It’s been with me ever since. An unnecessary and unpleasant reminder that there are more shoes to drop and I best not get comfortable. Because when they do drop, they tend to hit like emotional wrecking balls obliterating anything in its path.
And no matter how hard I try, I never seem to be prepared. Five years in, I’ve come to accept that I’ll never be fully prepared for any shoe dropping but it’s how I pick up the pieces that really matters.
Even still, dementia has an un-ending inventory of ways to surprise us in the cruelest of fashions. We work so hard to cover all of the emotional bases, only to be blindsided by the wretched D.
When you least expect it (even though you expect it)
Back in December, I noticed that Mom wasn’t answering the phone in her memory care apartment as she normally did. Like so many observations in our family journey with dementia, this was a slow developing one.
Ever since we got rid of her cell phone and switched to a landline for her, she always picked up nearly straight away. While cozy, her apartment isn’t a big space and she never has far to go to pick it up.
We went for experiencing a 100% hit rate, meaning every time we called (in the morning and evening) she’d answer, to maybe a 50% hit rate. That was ok I thought, thinking it was a function of the relaxed Covid related measures in her community and the fact that she was out and about being social. I was still connecting with her at least once a day so things were good.
Soon after though, Mom wasn’t picking up at all. One day. Two days. At the three day mark, I figured it was something with the phone.
Mom must have inadvertently muted the volume The phone must have come unplugged The phone was 20 bucks, maybe it died
I’m 3 hours away and with Covid rules (and because we’re high risk with Steve in the house), trouble-shooting with Mom’s community over the phone was the best option. So over the next couple of weeks, that’s what we did.
Then it hit me
As I hung up after leaving yet another message about Mom’s phone with Amy at the front desk of her community, it hit me.
There was nothing wrong with her phone. It was Mom.
No. That’s not true. It was Mom’s dementia and it was dropping another shoe.
She could no longer answer the phone. Physically she could. Cognitively, she couldn’t initiate the action. Dementia’s low din of dread was deafening now and I was thrust fully into the nightmare.
I pulled my car over and sobbed. I was prepared for the lack of recognition, loss of memory, confusion and seemingly everything else. When things like that happened, they were sad. Heartbreaking really. But not like this, because I was at least somewhat prepared for those.
By prepared, I mean they had at least crossed my mind as possibilities or likelihoods in the future. In contrast, answering the phone had not. It’s such a small thing. Looking back now, it’s no smaller than remembering a grandchild’s name or recognizing your son. Either way, I didn’t see it coming.
I felt utterly exposed because until Covid is over and we can move her closer to us, the phone was supposed to be our lifeline. It needed to be our lifeline. More than a phone, it was connective tissue between Mom and me. And now it was severed.
Just another reminder
We still haven’t solved this problem but for now, Mom’s community is doing its best to keep us connected. I’m thankful for that and now can see this sad milestone in our journey for what it is.
A reminder that dementia is a shape-shifting vessel of biological cruelty.
These days for me, dementia is an unanswered phone.
I’ll add it to the list. | https://medium.com/@matt-perrin/dementia-is-an-unanswered-phone-7573c727ea1 | ['Matt Perrin'] | 2021-02-04 18:44:06.301000+00:00 | ['Sad', 'Caregivers', 'Caregiving', 'Alzheimers', 'Dementia'] |
Migrants Aren’t Biological Weapons | By Kelsey Maddox, UNA-NCA Advocacy Fellow
As one of the hardest hit areas, Latin America is still suffering from an increasing spread of infections and deaths as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Venezuela in particular continues to struggle to contain and mitigate the profound impacts of the virus due to the humanitarian crisis debilitating the country. Over the last decade, around five million Venezuelans have fled to neighboring countries because of President Nicolás Maduro’s regime causing an economic collapse that led the country into a nation-wide famine, leaving citizens with no reliable access to healthcare and experiencing regular shortages of water and electricity. The coronavirus pandemic has forced many migrants to return to Venezuela, unable to support themselves in the neighboring countries where they resided and forced to face additional hardship. The coronavirus pandemic has revealed shockingly weak infrastructures within Venezuela that are not equipped to protect their citizens. Unfortunately, vulnerable populations — including migrants and refugees — are hit the hardest when facing the challenges that stem from the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19.
Before delving into the current state of Venezuela, it is important to understand why the country was experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises in history prior to the pandemic. Since 2015, more than four million Venezuelans have left the country. This has placed Venezuela second, behind Syria, as a country of origin for people displaced across international borders. Corruption within the government has caused a rapid decline in oil production — an essential export — and a rate of inflation that has made daily life a struggle for the majority of the population. Services within food production and health care have been hit the hardest and basic necessities are hard to find. Between 2014 and 2016, food production in the country decreased by more than 60% while food prices have increased alongside rates of undernourishment among the population. With the population on the verge of famine, healthcare facilities were hardly in operation and lacked basic resources to serve patients. In 2018, the Venezuelan Pharmaceutical Federation announced that 85% of essential medicine was scarce — putting thousands of people at risk for not getting medicine for common health conditions. These conditions have been the key reasons why Venezuelans have fled the country but the stressful conditions of the coronavirus pandemic has forced a massive influx of returnees.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Venezuela’s neighbors Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador — where the majority of the Venezuelan immigrants reside — are suffering from weaker economic infrastructures and are unable to provide jobs, housing, and other necessities to immigrants. Facing immense hardships, immigrants are making the hard decision of returning back to Venezuela, which was unable to provide for them in the first place. Upon their return, migrants remain unemployed and worried about where to find their next meal without any coverage by national social protection programs to provide a safety net.
The influx of migrants returning back to Venezuela followed the initial global shutdown. In March, in an attempt to follow safety guidelines, the Venezuelan government implemented protocols aimed to restrict movement within its borders and force returning asylum seekers to mandatory quarantine and testing prior to entering the country. They have also implemented a return capacity at 1,200 people each week, forcing returnees to wait in makeshift quarantine shelters. However, there are only 400 shelters nationwide and many are operating past their capacity. Those stuck in these shelters experience insufficient testing, safety protocols, and unsanitary conditions. In some cases, to avoid waiting at these shelters, some Venezuelans have slipped through unofficial border crossings or paid bribes to enter the country.
In addition to making returning an unsafe and tedious process, President Nicolas Maduro’s government condemned the returning migrants crossing through undesignated border crossings for “contaminating their communities” and “killing their families,” while also referring to those returning from neighboring countries as “biological weapons” and “camouflaged coup-plotters” being sent intentionally to infect the Venezuelan population. In cities like Maracaibo, police authorities patrolled the streets in search of Venezuelans who have re-entered the country without official approval. Police forces, armed pro-government gangs, and other security forces have used unlawful intimidation and persecution to enforce quarantine measures and punish critics of the government’s handling of the pandemic. Reports have varied from arbitrarily detaining people for not wearing masks or gathering in the streets to beating and torturing citizens for not following safety protocols. These instances of stigmatization, intimidation, and excessive use of force do nothing but make an already difficult situation even worse for vulnerable populations.
The situation isn’t much different for healthcare: once the pandemic hit, the already strained healthcare facilities in Venezuela proved unable to handle the rising COVID-19 cases in the country. Rather than strengthening these systems, the fault of the virus’ spread has been directed at the migrants returning home. Migrants have an increased chance of being exposed to COVID-19 due to most living in poverty, experiencing hunger, facing increased exposure to poor sanitation, and being unable to social distance while traveling across borders. As the most vulnerable during this pandemic, migrants also cannot rely on the healthcare facilities in Venezuela. According to Medicos Unidos de Venezuela, 67% of hospitals do not have personal protective equipment and 92% are reusing face coverings. In rural areas, hospitals face even worse conditions. The increase in prices of essential goods have led to regular shortages of clean water, electricity, and medicines at hospitals. Nurses lack adequate protective equipment to do their jobs, putting them at a higher risk of contracting the virus. Because of this, many have fled the country for their own safety. With unsafe conditions in hospitals and the number of nurses in the country decreasing, migrants remain at risk for contracting the virus.
Migrants have slipped from the purview of pandemic relief. Many are suddenly being forced to uproot their lives, travel once again across borders, and resettle during a period of severe instability and uncertainty. It also does not help that the Maduro regime has made it difficult for humanitarian aid to assist in pandemic recovery — a lot of which could have been directed towards aiding migrants. Civil society organizations are desperate for a way around these roadblocks. It has become critical to increase humanitarian aid from the international community to support hospitals and other recovery efforts that will slow the spread of the virus. An increase in funding that focuses on medical support, food supply, and emergency assistance towards refugees will fill in the gaps in Venezuela’s management of the crisis. Civil society, including foreign governments, NGOs, and financial institutions, all share the responsibility of contributing towards economic and humanitarian relief. Organizations like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) support national aid centers and organizations focused on directly supplying migrants with medical care, protective equipment, food, and other essential goods. The 2020 UN Global Humanitarian Overview estimates that $750 million would be needed for an Humanitarian Response Plan for Venezuela yet this plan has yet to be properly funded. | https://medium.com/una-nca-snapshots/migrants-arent-biological-weapons-4730230295cc | ['Advocacy'] | 2020-12-09 14:02:20.470000+00:00 | ['Migration', 'Sustainable Development'] |
Case Study: Designing an app to connect muralists to business owners | Mockup Screens with the help of Free Clay Mockups
Disclaimer: This was an unsolicited educational design project, I’m in no way affiliated with SFAC or StreetSmARTs.
Context
StreetSmARTs is a program that connects artists to building owners who need to cover or deter illegal graffiti. As of today, the program is a largely pen and paper process and very limited.
Source: SFAC, 2020
My team was tasked with exploring how we could expand a current program for the non-profit San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC). Our team focused on creating a platform that was inclusive of all business owners and artists to help to cultivate what SFAC’s mission is when they launched StreetSmARTs: “…to create vibrant murals on their buildings, enhancing the character of their property and surrounding neighborhood…” (Source: SFAC, 2020)
Timeline, My Role, and Tools Used
Role : Project management, UI Design, user flow, wireframing, and prototyping
: Project management, UI Design, user flow, wireframing, and prototyping Team : Scotty Holcomb and Paula Garcia
: Scotty Holcomb and Paula Garcia Tools : Figma, Zoom, Miro, draw.io, Trello, Google Drive
: Figma, Zoom, Miro, draw.io, Trello, Google Drive Timeline: 2 Week Sprint
Design Process
We followed a very standard design process — Discover, Define, Design, Deliver.
Source: CareerFoundry, 2019
Empathize & Define
Talking to artists & business owners
We reached out to current artists and business owners to understand how they would go about finding work or commissioning work, what their inspiration is, and whether or not a digital product like StreetSmARTs would be successful.
I’ll share four quotes directly from our interviews that I feel do a great job of setting up the problem we set out to solve.
“A big area I struggle in is being able to identify where those opportunities are.” Artist “Having artists all in one place that have the skill set to do a mural is appealing” Business owner “The main motivation for me is just a broader ability to communicate to a larger audience.” Artist “It’s a challenge figuring out where to begin.” Business owner
Additionally, we were curious if folks would prefer a mobile app or a desktop site. We weren’t surprised to hear that they would think both would be ideal, however, more leaned towards a mobile app. And to be honest, this took me by surprise. This was the first time in my UX career where my own bias and assumptions were turned on their head. This was a humbling learning experience for me. It also presented a huge challenge of designing a mobile-first solution and then scale and test on desktop as well.
Competitive and Comparative Analysis
Optimizing a product for two primary users (artists and business owners) is not an original idea. We looked at the current landscape, what they require to accomplish user goals, and pulled from that to make StreetSmARTs something easy to pick up and successful. Looking at Fiverr and Upwork as competitors in the freelance market, as well as Airbnb and Rover as products in an adjacent market (Airbnb with their host-guest relationship, and Rover with their pet sitter-owner relationship), we highlighted some of the key features and asked: “Does StreetSmARTs want this?”
One key takeaway here is that we need to have two-sided outreach. Meaning, we need to allow businesses to reach out to artists and allow artists to reach out to businesses. Both can start the conversation. This is a key finding we pulled from our user interviews.
Personas
As mentioned earlier, we needed to have a complete empathetic understanding of two personas: an artist and a business owner. Both personas have two totally different goals.
Meet Jack the Artist, how might we help Jack spend less time trying to promote himself so that he could spend more time focusing on creating?
Alternatively, meet Jill the Business Owner, how might we help Jill begin her search for an artist when she doesn’t know where to start?
Solution
So in the end, we’ll know if we are successful if we can deliver a product (on both web and mobile) where artists and businesses can discover freely, communicate effectively, and accomplish their goal of either painting or getting a mural on their building.
Ideation and Prototyping
Ideation
As a remote team, we learned that sketching and sharing sketches was a little slow and not as exciting as a big whiteboard and copious coffee. However, with the time that we had, we were able to get some sketches down that allowed us to brainstorm and turn those sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes. | https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/ux-case-study-streetsmarts-program-for-sf-arts-commission-8593e6a154c0 | ['Henry Busch'] | 2021-01-08 06:50:51.832000+00:00 | ['UX Design', 'Case Study', 'UI Design', 'Junior Ux Designer', 'UI'] |
EXCLUSIVE: “Time of reckoning for English cricket” — EasternEye | Chair of English cricket racism inquiry urges fans to have their say
The chair of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) has warned of “a time of reckoning for cricket”.
In March, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) appointed Cindy Butts to investigate racism, gender and social class bias.
The deadline to provide views is Tuesday (21), and she is urging anyone involved in the sport to give evidence to the inquiry.
“We’ve had commitment from the ECB that they will seriously consider our recommendations,” Butts told Eastern Eye.
“Let’s be frank, we’ve seen Azeem Rafiq come forward and bravely talked about his experiences.
“We’ve seen how much interest and concern that there is out there, and I think that this is a time of reckoning for cricket.
“They [ECB] recognise that they need to address the issues that are going on, and the commission is a really positive way of being able to do that.”
Azeem Rafiq (Photo: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
In November (16), Rafique told the sport select committee about the racism he faced while playing for Yorkshire.
Butts recognised that people may be reluctant to come forward to speak about their experiences.
“We’ve considered that really carefully, so people can respond to the survey confidentially and anonymously,” she said.
“They can give their views and present their experiences.
“We will absolutely make sure that when we report next year summer that we will ensure that anyone who has said they want to be treated confidentially and anonymously, won’t be able to be identified within the report.”
Cindy Butts Interview >> https://youtu.be/DAHs6dQdjj4
The independent chair agreed that the most important thing was that cricket fans and those involved in the game have their say.
“We’ll spend some time analysing the information that’s come forward and determine what that tells us about cricket,” said Butts.
“That will form part of our body of evidence.
“It’s not the only evidence. We’re also taking oral evidence from individuals and organisations.
“We want them to give us their views, their experiences, their ideas about things that we can practically do to make sustainable change, that cricket is truly a game for everybody.
“There will be oral evidence, hearings, and early next year we’ll be launching a written survey as well.”
You can contribute to the commission’s findings here.
“We’re encouraging people to be as honest and as open as they feel able to, and they can do it and do that in a safe environment where we can take all of that evidence,” the ICEC chair said.
“It will help to contribute to our understanding, but also finding solutions to the problems that exist.” | https://medium.com/@Eastern_Eye/exclusive-time-of-reckoning-for-english-cricket-easterneye-8ea0412cfc8b | [] | 2021-12-18 12:29:57.175000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'Asia', 'UK', 'Cricket', 'Racism'] |
Deep Work, Doctors don’t get distracted during a surgery. | My second book review is about productivity, how to weigh and assess your contributions, get the most out of your time and create irreplicable value.
The book elaborates on a very interesting topic which is the ability to reach a rare state of focus through a delegate gateway illustrated in “Deep work”. So basically deep work is performing the task at hand without being mentally or physically distracted, in addition to being able to reproduce this state and eliminate every persistent distraction in your ambient environment.
There are plenty of factors that prevent your mind from being fully focused, such as:
Waiting for a person to come while doing a task.
Waiting on a message.
Waiting on a call.
Having the intent to work, but being distracted by unforeseen circumstances like unexpectedly meeting a group of friends.
All these little factors can seem subtle and harmless, but because you get used to them they look normal. This can be illustrated by the following example.
I love the medical field so much that I always try to project some of their rituals onto my daily life. Let’s take a typical day in a doctor’s journey: Usually, each patient is a task to be done, and to do it the doctor needs to be fully immersed in the process. To achieve this state, any distraction that impedes the cycle needs to be forcibly omitted because any subtle disturbance can lead to undesirable results. This state is exactly a state of being in deep work!
In addition to what was mentioned above, the book also exposes a really important variant: Shallow work. It is the state of being capable of doing a task backed by your subconscious while tolerating distraction, for example, wedding, watering plants, etc. You know perfectly your shallow tasks.
Furthermore, the book breaks down other important ideas related to talents where the author mentions that it’s not a commodity you can buy in bulk, and combine to reach a needed level. 30 heart specialist nurses can’t replace an experienced heart doctor.
Social media usage is also addressed, it should be monitored and controlled. I must say that this book helped me reduce the usage of social media.
To sum up, your life will be a combination of shallow and deep work, hence you must protect your deep workflow and build a shield to protect it, as it’s a scarce resource that will help you thrive and accomplish great results throughout your professional career. You must also measure the priorities of shallow work and act on them accordingly.
PS: A very helpful trick I use to concentrate and eliminate any outer distraction is listening to a monotonous rain sound, it sounds silly but it helps me a lot to build a shield against surroundings.
If you’ve come this far and loved the article, leave a couple of claps for encouragement. | https://medium.com/@bachiri.abderrahman/deep-work-doctors-dont-get-distracted-during-a-surgery-bdf7a5e24011 | ['Bachiri Taoufiq Abderrahman'] | 2019-03-09 17:32:49.866000+00:00 | ['Productivity', 'Distraction', 'Energy', 'Efficiency', 'Deep Work'] |
2080 | 2080
Advances in science led to the chip. A miracle of communication, sensory enhancement, and information technology. The chip underwent twenty years of testing in adult human volunteers under constant assault from a barrage of 1000 hackers. After this, the chip’s protective protocols were declared to be impenetrable. People grew wild for it. This changed the world as nothing had since the controlled use of fire.
Every chipped person had the same opportunity of experience. In that way it was the most egalitarian thing in the history of humanity.
Chip mania was on. Then, parents had chips implanted into their children, and the world tilted on its axis. When implanted into babies who could not yet walk, the chip and brain integrated seamlessly and grew in power together.
An adult’s chip could be removed safely, whereas a chipped-from-birth human — sometimes called “Lifers” — would die in agony if unchipped. The Lifers developed the ability to understand the thoughts, motivation, and feelings of others as easily as their own. Not exactly mind reading, but not far off if both parties desired it. “I feel your pain,” became a meaningful statement.
No more miscommunication between people or nations.
A world of peace, love, and understanding was born. Older children and adult brains were incapable of full integration with others. What they got was incredible enough. The chip guaranteed instantaneous access to all digital information, right in your head, with a flawless search function. If you thought you wanted to know something, you knew it.
But that’s merely a one-way street.
The chip was a two-way street. Information from chipped people around the world continually uploaded, to become available to all. This was the fun stuff. This was how the chipped got to feel exactly what a great gymnast, say, felt mentally and physically during an Olympic quality performance.
More than feel it, they learned it in an instant. The chip orchestrated the transmission of information to the nervous system, muscles, respiratory, and circulatory systems and enabled anyone to do the same incredible feat.
The information teaching your brain, nerves, spine, legs, blood vessels, and lungs to run faster and jump higher, rock climb or play the piano became available for download. The hard work of learning a skill could be bypassed. The chipped could all moonwalk. Billions of people became physical and mental marvels equivalent to Batman and Batwoman. The runners in the Olympic 100-meter final ran so fast they were a blur to anyone without modified vision. Even with non-Lifer’s inferior use of the chip, in time the overwhelming majority chose to be implanted.
The religions hopped on in no time. A way to have the same voice of God in every believer’s ear? Beautiful. The general attitude was “Why not?”
The adult chip allowed instantaneous information and communication, easy-as-pie learning of new skills and spectacular sensory development. The Conversation had begun and with it the golden age of humanity. Advances in science, culture, physical development, and political freedom throughout the world were phenomenal and widespread.
Great while it lasted.
Now, I live in a depopulated world of abundance.
Not from what I grew up expecting, a world devastated by a nuclear war.
Not from my other bugaboo, overwhelming environmental devastation. Recently, it’s been the opposite. With only a fraction of humanity left to gum up the works, nature is in better shape than at any time since the industrial revolution started to cook.
No mini ice age or Waterworld scenario, from global cooling or warming. True, three billion people worldwide abandoned shore life as warming seas rose over the decades.
Fortunately, the shit didn’t hit the fan until humanity was chipped. The conversation was mature, and people were humane. Humanity adapted, chilled the glaciers, raised the land, repelled the sea, gave up the impossibly low places. Everyone moved in and up a little, skirts lifted above the puddles. Gators and Burmese pythons ruled Florida. Pre-conversation, chaos would have raged. In a world where empathy reigned, peaceful cooperation came easily.
We thrived, not just survived.
We avoided the Mad Max scarce gas scenario. Gas has been obsolete for decades. Wireless power towers based on the work of Nikola Tesla keep the carbots juiced. Carbots are great companions on long trips, total entertainment superstars.
There was no Blob to ooze its way over the world, Morlocks to feed on Eloi, zombies to shuffle outlandishly fast and slobber diseased saliva onto terrified humans.
No Terminators or intelligent apes to kick our butts.
No invisible flying brains with attached spinal columns strangling victims one by one, like in the scariest movie I ever saw.
No rebirth of the dinosaurs to eat us or falling asteroid to wipe us out as was their fate.
No singularity, supernova, solar superflare, or Yellowstone supervolcano.
Not even evil beings from outer space.
It’s disappointing and a little lame that after millennia of people fearing exotic doomsday scenarios, one of our own did us in. Herbert Schembekler was human to his brilliant, psychopathic core. He used humanity’s greatest creation, the chip, as the ultimate weapon against us.
Teenaged Schembekler grew convinced that humans would destroy the environment and cause animal life to become extinct. He turned into a rabid anti-populationist. The man didn’t care one way or the other about the fate of humanity. He loved penguins, owls, crows, polar bears, killer whales, Komodo dragons, and armadillos. Nothing else.
Schembekler’s brilliance outweighed the joint efforts of one thousand programmers and hackers who had worked for twenty years to create what all believed to be an impenetrable system. The damn brainiac did the unthinkable — he figured out a way to hack into the computer-to-chip system and override the safety measures.
Schembekler placed simple, irresistible commands into the system: put your robots to sleep, travel to the sea, walk in, and continue walking. There was no command to stop.
Worldwide, at the same moment, every ambulatory person with a chip turned off their personal robots. Forty billion robots dropped to the ground–and the chipped began to walk toward the water. Airplanes dove into the seas of the world as their pilots obeyed the mind-crushing command. Babies too young to walk and people confined to wheelchairs were unaffected. The imprisoned battered themselves against their bars in their compulsion to obey. Or drowned themselves by placing their head in the toilet, believing they could reach the sea with a flush.
Four billion drowned the first day. Eight billion more soon returned to our primordial home. After one month, half a billion survived, adults without implants, babies, and the wheelchair bound. There were few survivors between the ages of one and eighty. Exceptions included unchipped scientists, Amish types, hermits, and other crackpots who were skeptical of the device, and their unchipped children. I’m in the ‘other crackpot’ category, but way older than eighty. That’s the beautiful mess of a world I live in now. | https://medium.com/@leonwolfauthor/2080-ee02211678b8 | ['Leon Wolf'] | 2020-12-05 03:03:28.530000+00:00 | ['Scary', 'Climate Change', 'Climate', 'Post Apocalyptic', 'Brain'] |
The Absolute Basics of Reinforcement Learning | Reinforcement Learning
Reinforcement learning. What is it and what does it do? In this article, you’ll get a basic rundown of what reinforcement learning is.
First, let’s start with a basic definition:
Reinforcement learning is an area of machine learning.
It involves software agents learning to navigate an uncertain environment to maximize reward. It learns from interactive experiences and uses feedback from its actions. Basically, the bot gets points for its actions. It can gain or lose points. The way agents learn through RL is identical to the way we, as humans learn.
Think of it like a video game where you get punished or rewarded for your actions. In most video games you get rewarded by gaining more points or moving on to the next level and you get punished by losing a life or dying.
Inside the RL algorithm
We want to get the agent to learn for itself.
There are three basic elements of the reinforcement learning algorithm:
First, we’ve got the environment in which the agent is in. The environment provides input back to the agent as to if what it did was right or wrong. In other words, the environment tells the agent if the action it took resulted in a reward or punishment.
Next, we’ve got the agent. The agent is the one choosing the actions it takes.
And finally, we’ve got the reward. The reward is what the agent is aiming for. The agent’s incentive.
How the RL Algorithm learns
Now if we go back to our video game example, the environment would be the game screen that you see, the agent would be you as you’re the one making the decisions and playing the game, and the reward would be more points or moving on to the next level.
So how does it compare to other machine learning techniques :
There are 3 basic machine learning techniques; supervised learning, unsupervised learning and of course, reinforcement learning.
The main difference between each of these techniques is the goal.
The goal of unsupervised learning is to find similarities and differences between data points, while the goal of supervised learning is to sort the data based on the labels given. And of course, as we know, the goal of reinforcement learning is to get maximum reward.
RL vs. other ML techniques
Where is RL the most useful?
Reinforcement learning techniques are particularly useful since they don’t require lots of pre-existing knowledge or data to provide useful solutions or where there are many unknowns.
Where is it being used today?
Currently, RL is being used in areas like robotics, air traffic control, data processing, to create training systems and more! The applications on RL are endless and can be used almost everywhere. Google’s Deep Mind team has used RL to get an agent to learn and recognize digits and play the game, Atari all on its own!
This is a video of Google’s Deepmind algorithm playing Atari. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1eYniJ0Rnk
Challenges of RL
Any new technology comes with its fair share of challenges and it’s no different for RL. One of the biggest problems with RL is trying to use it on a big scale. It requires a lot of training time and a huge number of iterations to learn tasks. The way RL learns is by using trial-and-error. To do this in the real-world becomes nearly impossible. Let’s take the example of an agent trying to navigate through an environment to avoid people. The agent would then try different actions and then proceed with the one that would best fit in that environment. This becomes hard to do in the real-world where the environment is changing constantly and frequently. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/the-absolute-basics-of-reinforcement-learning-97402c444be1 | ['Mansi Katarey'] | 2020-12-01 17:49:51.986000+00:00 | ['Basics', 'Introduction', 'Reinforcement Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
And just like that, you were gone. | One day it became too much. One day she was in danger and I could no longer allow us to be prisoners in your world.
My head was spinning. I wasn’t sure what to do. My chest was tight. I was swimming in a sea of confusion. All I could think was no more, no more, no more.
So mustered up all the courage I had to call you back. I asked you to stay away. It broke my heart. You pretended to not know why.
On that warm September day, I stood in the middle of my driveway, lost.
Why had you done it? How could it be true? Was I making the right choice?
I had lived so long in your world. I had done as I was told. I was on the two W plan as you would call it. I did what I was told, when I was told. But not today. Never again after today.
I cried. I cried so hard and so long. You broke us. Broken promises. Broken dreams. Broken family.
Never again would we be a normal family. Never again could we pretend things were perfect. No family outings. No family pictures. There was no more family.
You pretended to care. When that lie was not believable, you became angry. Your threats flew around like tar and feathers sticking to us.
Then one day it stopped. It was quiet. So calm and peaceful. A life without has not been as horrible as you had promised.
I wasn’t as weak as you said. I wasn’t as dumb as you said. I wasn’t as unloveable as you said.
The memory of you is fading. One day it will be gone. | https://medium.com/@empoweredinsights/and-just-like-that-you-were-gone-b7ca46d59dae | ['Samantha Holmes'] | 2020-12-01 17:26:34.632000+00:00 | ['Healing', 'Recovery', 'Codependency', 'Courage', 'Hope'] |
How to Download Music from YouTube to Phone and Computer | As the most popular online video service provider today, YouTube provides video uploading, playback, viewing, commenting, sharing, subscription, and other services to millions of users worldwide every day. Its website content is all-encompassing, such as music videos, news videos, game videos, movies, funny videos, review videos, tutorial videos, Vlogs, beauty fashion videos, language learning videos and so on. It must be said that the YouTube platform brings a lot of fun and convenience to people’s lives.
However, due to copyright issues, people can’t download any video directly from YouTube. This is very inconvenient for those who want to download music from YouTube to their computers or mobile phones.
Want to give up because of this? Please don’t but read this article first, and here you will find that you can use some YouTube to MP3 converters to extract music from YouTube videos. These tools are easy to use. Next, I’ll show you how to use different tools to download YouTube music to your iPhone, Android, and computer.
Part 1. How to Download Music from YouTube to Computer
To download YouTube music to your computer, you first need to download a YouTube video downloader with YouTube to MP3 capabilities. Here we recommend 4K video downloader, which is very powerful, not only supports downloading videos from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. but also allows users to convert videos to MP3, MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, and other formats. More importantly, it enables users to download videos with original audio and subtitles, which means we can download music from YouTube with quality guaranteed. Next, let’s take a look at how it works:
1. Download and Install 4K Video Downloader
The free video downloader can be downloaded from its official website, and fully compatible with Windows and Mac operating systems. Please download and install 4K Video downloader on your computer, then run it, a pop-up window will appear, tap Free Trial or close it.
2. Copy and Paste a YouTube Music Video URL
Here, you will see the main interface with many features, such as downloading, converting, editing, and more. You may be tempted to use this program, but before that, please open the YouTube website, then copy one or more links to the music videos you want to download, and click the “+ Paste URL” button. Now, wait for the YouTube music downloader to parse these links.
3. Select Quality and Download Music from YouTube
After the parsing is successful, a pop-up box will appear where you can customize to download only the video, download the original audio or convert to MP3. Given our topic today, please choose to convert YouTube to MP3, but it should be noted that this feature is only available for members. To use this feature, you first need to upgrade to the Pro version to unlock the limitation. After that, click “Download” to start the process. Once completed, you can listen to your favorite music directly on your computer.
Part 2. How to Download Music from YouTube to iPhone
If you’d like to download YouTube music to iPhone or iPad, you can use Online Video Converter. Just as its name suggests, this is a professional video converter that can be used to convert videos into various formats, which include MP3, AAC, M4A, WMA, FLV, MPG, etc. It works with a lot of sites, such as YouTube, Vimeo, Tumblr, LiveLeak, MySpace, etc. Next, I will show you how to download music from YouTube via this free online YouTube to MP3 converter:
Open YouTube and copy the link to the music video you want to download. Visit onlinevideoconverter.com and paste the URL in the box. Click the Filter button to select the output audio/video format. At this point, you should choose MP3 and click on More Settings to select the audio quality.
Then tap the Start button, and the program will begin to prepare for the conversion. After completed, you can scan the QR code below to download YouTube music directly to your iPhone!
Part 3. How to Download Music from YouTube to Android
As one of the best YouTube video download apps for Android, VidMate can not only help you download videos from YouTube to Android, but also download music. Any music files from YouTube, Dailymotion, SoundCloud, Vine, Vimeo, etc. can be downloaded for free via VidMate. You can choose MP3, M4A, WEBM, and other formats according to your preferences. Next, let’s have a look at its specific steps:
Download and install the VidMate app on your Android phone. Open the application and find the music video that you’d like to download. Play the video and click the Download icon. Select the music quality, and start to download music from YouTube to Android. After completed, your favorite music will be saved to your phone directly.
The Bottom Line
The above are three different ways to download music from YouTube. After reading this article, you will find that downloading YouTube music is simple as long as you find a great YouTube to MP3 converter. If you find a better YouTube music downloader, please leave a comment below; if you like this article or feel it helps you, please share it with your family and friends.
Related Articles
Last updated on by Jihosoft | https://medium.com/free-video-downloader/how-to-download-music-from-youtube-to-phone-and-computer-b0006cd083d0 | ['Merry Kitty'] | 2019-08-23 01:40:25.199000+00:00 | ['Songs', 'Music', 'Download', 'Audio', 'YouTube'] |
Criminality and ADHD | Criminality and ADHD
Image by Gerhard G. from Pixabay
Mr. Trump recently triggered an uproar, similar to the one he caused four years ago, by refusing to agree in advance to abide by the voter’s decision in the presidential election. While his defenders have claimed that in this instance and many others (e. g. separation of powers, attempted bribery, emolument) he is simply ignorant of the Constitution, others have inferred criminal intent. After all, his actions led to impeachment. Before he became president, individuals filed several hundred lawsuits against him for contract disputes, defamation claims and sexual harassment. His pattern of behavior calls attention to the known connections between criminality and ADHD.
Dozens of studies find that we fill our prisons with a disproportionate number of individuals with ADHD. The calculated rates vary depending on the location, population studied, and methods used to assess for ADHD, but a meta-analysis from 2015 concluded that a quarter of our inmates have ADHD. While the majority of individuals with ADHD are decent, law abiding citizens, and I know many to be scrupulously honest, we imprison those with ADHD at rates several times greater than their presence in the general population.
Discussions about ADHD and criminality usually address how impulsivity leads to breaking rules because of disregard for the consequences of one’s actions. In addition, ADHD causes higher rates of substance abuse, poverty, and low educational attainment, all of which are associated with higher rates of imprisonment. Furthermore, ADHD in children, particularly in those who also display conduct disorders, increases the likelihood of developing antisocial personality disorder. Both biological and environmental factors contribute to the formation of antisocial personality traits. Mary Trump’s book exhaustively delineates how Donald Trump’s father taught him exploitative and amoral strategies for confronting the world. Forces of nature and nurture both contribute to creating criminality.
However, rates of imprisonment depend not only on rates of criminality, but also on how likely one is to be caught in their crime, the duration of one’s prison sentence, and whether one actually stays in jail for the duration of that sentence. I believe that for each of these factors, ADHD makes it more likely that an individual will be incarcerated at any point int time.
People are more likely to detect crimes committed by those with ADHD, because inattention to details, disregarding context, and poor planning all played a role in the illegal acts. Those with ADHD are more likely to blurt out self incriminating comments, either among friends, or when questioned by authorities, so they are more likely to be arrested. Numerous sources reported that Mr. Trump’s lawyers vehemently opposed his providing sworn testimony to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation because of fears that the president would perjure himself. or make statements that might lead to further investigations. Having ADHD makes it more likely that others will detect your crimes.
Because ADHD impairs both social interactions and the weighing of long term consequences of actions, those with ADHD are likely to be less skilled negotiators regarding sentencing. They are more likely to alienate judges or juries with inadvertent comments. Because ADHD correlates with fewer financial resources, those with ADHD, on average, will be more limited in affording legal representation. All these factors contribute to longer jail sentences for those with ADHD.
Once in jail, problems with attention to details, missing social cues, impulsivity, and decreased emotional regulation, cause those with ADHD to be more likely to violate rules, irritate fellow inmates, or alienate guards and staff. Certain aspects of the regimentation and structure imposed by prison may help some people with ADHD to lead more regulated lives. However, overall, ADHD interferes with the ability of an inmate to get out early for “good” behavior.
Framed this way, it may seem like I am indicting those with ADHD as a criminal element in our society. But knowing many good, productive, funny, generous, hard-working individuals with ADHD, both in my professional and social lives, encourages me to consider the problem in a different light. The Black Lives Matter has helped us to be more aware of institutionalized racism, particularly regarding a criminal justice system that institutionalizes so many young Black men. Similarly, we need to examine what is wrong with our society that if fails to find a better place than our prisons for so many with ADHD.
For several decades, the American prison system has “treated” more individuals with mental health disorders than any other segment of our mental health system. Yet the jails and prisons do not systematically evaluate the people arriving there. They usually administer mental health treatment only after crises occur. And to the particular detriment of those with ADHD, many mental health experts still consider it a “minor condition” despite its pervasive impact on information processing and expression, so it is accorded less attention and resources than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, or depression. Furthermore, even when ADHD is recognized behind bars, it is seldom treated because of bans on abusable stimulant medications in prisons, and the widespread ignorance of other effective treatments.
As activists have been pointing out for years, and many of us are now realizing, real criminal justice reform can only be accomplished with real social reform. While living together does require adopting some norms and standards for behavior, we need to be more mindful in crafting our laws. When we enforce our laws we need to balance societal needs with individual differences.
Our schools and rules need to find ways to educate those children less prone to sitting still, less inclined to stay focused on one topic for a long time, less likely to stay silent when their heads are full of ideas. Long before the police apprehend someone, we need to find ways to productively channel the energy, the insights, the goodness, of those with ADHD into activities that fulfill them and enrich our world.
We need to find better ways for those who deviate from the norm to contribute to society rather than locking them away for their differences. Rather than seeing those with ADHD as depraved, we need to look at how criminalization of ADHD has deprived our world of valuable human input.
A.B.O.U.T. Behavior #46 : ADHD and Criminality
ADHD Blog On Understanding Trump’s Behavior (A.B.O.U.T. Behavior) addresses recent utterances and actions of Mr. Trump that highlight his ADHD, and is not directed at his politics or policies. Not all people with ADHD behave like Mr. Trump, nor is ADHD Mr. Trump’s only mental health issue. bit.ly/TrumpADHDBook more fully explores Mr. Trump’s ADHD, the ethical basis for this diagnosis, ways to reduce ADHD-related stigma, and how to thrive in a world becoming evermore ADHD-like. | https://medium.com/@dockruse/criminality-and-adhd-96b1a07b03fd | ['John Kruse'] | 2020-08-03 18:08:26.833000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Adhd', 'Trump', 'Criminal Justice Reform'] |
~!@LIVE@~ Minnesota Vikings vs New Orleans Saints Live Stream: Vikings vs Saints Live Stream NFL WEEK 16 2020 | ~!@LIVE@~ Minnesota Vikings vs New Orleans Saints Live Stream: Vikings vs Saints Live Stream NFL WEEK 16 2020
Live Now::https://tinyurl.com/y2v8qpwc
Live Now:: https://tinyurl.com/y2v8qpwc
Minnesota (6–8) fell at home to Chicago this past Sunday, losing 33–27. The Vikings not only trail the Bears in the NFC North standings, but they also are two games behind the Cardinals, who currently holds the final wild-card spot. This is a must-win game if Minnesota wants to have even a glimmer of hope of sneaking into the playoffs.
New Orleans (10–4) also has lost two in a row following Kansas City’s 32–29 victory in the Superdome this past Sunday. Drew Brees returned after missing four games with a punctured lung and 11 cracked ribs, but he showed plenty of rust early and despite a late rally, the Chiefs were able to hold on. The Saints trail Green Bay for the coveted top seed and first-round bye while their lead in the NFC South over Tampa Bay has been trimmed to just one game. But the good news is that New Orleans has already punched its postseason ticket and can secure the division title with a win over Minnesota.
This will be the fourth time these teams have played each other in the last four seasons. Two of these matchups have taken place in the playoffs, including the most recent one from last season when the Vikings upset the Saints 26–20 in the Wild Card Round.
Due to injuries and COVID-19 protocols, the starting wide receivers have varied greatly for New Orleans. None have started every game. The Saints have been forced to elevate receivers from the practice squad but have yet to produce much success with any of them.
Tre’Quan Smith is the only wideout who has appeared in every game (made 10 starts) so far. This season, he has caught 34 passes for 448 yards and four touchdowns. He left last week’s game against Kansas City with an ankle injury and his status is very much up in the air.
Emmanuel Sanders, the big offseason acquisition at the position, has appeared in 12 games this season. He’s made just three starts but still ranks second on the team in receptions (48) and receiving yards (580), to go along with four touchdowns.
Michael Thomas, the reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year, has played in just seven games up to this point. He’s current on injured reserve as the team hopes he can fully recover from his ankle injury for the playoffs. Even with the injuries, Thomas is third on the team in receptions (40), underscoring the depth problem for New Orleans.
Brees has tight end Jared Cook (team-high six touchdown catches) and, of course, running back Alvin Kamara (leads in catches and yards) to throw to, but someone else on the roster needs to step up to force defenses to change up its coverage schemes. Minnesota can certainly be thrown on (252.4 ypg, 27 TDs, 12 INTs); Brees just needs to have time to find an open receiver.
2. Can any of the Saints’ defensive backs contain Justin Jefferson?
On the other side, Minnesota has found its newest weapon in the passing game. Jefferson, the team’s first-round pick, is making a strong case for the Associated Press NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. The former LSU Tiger is putting together a historic debut with 73 catches for 1,182 yards and seven touchdowns. He’s eighth in the NFL in yards and is averaging 16.2 yards per reception. He’s had six 100-yard receiving games, which is two more than New Orleans as a team.
Not much changed this week past the re-shuffling of the NFC West. With the Rams bewildering loss to the New York Jets, the Seahawks move into the №2 seed with their Week 15 victory over Washington. While both Seattle and the Saints sit at 10–4, New Orleans still holds the edge with their 8–2 conference record; thankfully, Kansas City doesn’t factor into the Saints conference record.
The Rams edge out Tampa Bay for the top Wild Card slot with their head-to-head win in Week 11. Arizona managed to surmount three turnovers to beat the Philadelphia Eagles and retain the №7 seed, Tampa Bay kept their division seed hopes alive with a win against the hapless Atlanta Falcons, and Green Bay increased their lead on the №1 seed and corresponding bye week by defeating the Carolina Panthers.
A few teams remain in the hunt: Chicago Bears (7–7), Minnesota Vikings (6–8), and yes, still every NFC East team. The Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, Falcons, and Panthers were all eliminated in Week 16.
If the playoffs started this week, Green Bay retains the №1 seed and first-round bye. The Saints (2) would host the Cardinals (7), Seattle (3) would host the Buccaneers (6), and Washington (4) would host Los Angeles (5). | https://medium.com/@poindex/live-minnesota-vikings-vs-new-orleans-saints-live-stream-vikings-vs-saints-live-stream-nfl-9532b122352b | [] | 2020-12-24 16:27:29.872000+00:00 | ['NFL'] |
COVID-19 Requires More Democracy, Not Less | In a pandemic it is natural to wish for decisive leadership from big government authorities guided by the best science and medical expertise. It is tempting to set aside democratic niceties — questioning authority, raising alternative perspectives, vigorous debate, disagreement, and experimentation — in favor of trusting leaders and experts. Echoing this widespread notion, the political scientist Francis Fukuyama wrote recently in the Atlantic that “what matters” to success in dealing with COVID-19 is “whether citizens trust their leaders, and whether those leaders preside over a competent and effective state.”
But the idea that we must sacrifice our democratic impulses in favor of strong central authority is dangerously misguided. Maintaining a robust participatory democracy is the best way for Americans to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and to rebuild our society in its wake. In a vibrant democracy, citizens oriented toward the common good do their part to make society work well. In this pandemic, that means that each of us needs to do our part to stop the disease and to help figure out the best ways for our communities to move forward.
Visit the Boston Review to read more | https://medium.com/covid-19-public-sector-resources/covid-19-requires-more-democracy-not-less-ab00c83200bf | ['Harvard Ash Center'] | 2020-04-23 19:11:37.058000+00:00 | ['Democracy', 'Covid 19', 'Government'] |
Who issues the Certificate for AADHAR | This was a very interesting observation which I just did and personally I was very surprised and not impressed. This all started when I downloaded my Aadhar card and opened it to check the details and in one of the small corners in Adobe reader used to view Aadhar card I found that the validity of the signer is unknown.
Now the process of validating the Digital Signature is given below for any Aadhar card is given in the below instructions which you can get https://eaadhaar.uidai.gov.in/ site.
Following this I opened “Validate Signature” I got the below message.
Now when I click Signature Properties I found this:
Now in Signer Name I expect “NIC sub CA for NIC” which would mean that the Certificate Authority is “National Information Center” which is India’s premier center for all major Information technology initiatives for Central & State Governments in India, having them as CA(Certificate Authority) makes sense as our Aadhar Data should be maintained in a Data Center by a Nodal Central Government Agency and also them being CA(Certificate Authority) also gives a credibility of that Trust as citizens we put in Central Government in preserving our PI (Personal Information).
But here is what I see the certificate is Issued by (n)Code Solutions CA, which is a subsidiary of “Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals”
Site for (n)Code Solutions CA:
More about Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited:
My Issues:
We are using a non standard Certificate Authority to sign Digital Certificate for the most Identity Document for Indians and that is not a Nodal Agency of Govt. Of India What a Fertilizer & Chemical limited to do with issuing Digital Certificates for Aadhar seems so fishy and puts the whole security and validity of the whole AAdhar process at risk Call me biased why is that each time somehow the most important aspects of Digital transformation for the country is linked to Gujarat. Were there no competent companies in India like TCS, Infosys or even Government Agencies who where competent to issue Digital Certificates.
Conclusion:
My concerns may be misplaced or may be even wrong but I would rather like if someone comes out and gives a better picture and transparent account as to how Government maintains our Personal Information and what is doing to curb the leak of millions of Aadhar information & the host of additional information (Bank Transactions, Income tax Information) which are seeded with Aadhar, but we have heard in recent past have been hacked or leaked, putting the personal information and security of citizens of India at risk. | https://medium.com/crypt-bytes-tech/who-issues-the-certificate-for-aadhar-cf4347f3355b | [] | 2017-05-27 04:48:36.623000+00:00 | ['India', 'Aadhar', 'Security', 'Personal Information', 'Safety'] |
You May Fade | You May Fade
A poem.
Photo by Matteo Catanese on Unsplash
on this rainy day
how do I explain
the angst that comes
from wanting nothing more
than to speak your name
and feel you turn
this way
or hear your voice
call out the same
down an empty dark hallway
wishing I could hear you
just one more time
I swear no more than that,
yet we know that’s a lie
for another of this
and just one more kiss
is enough for right now
but it runs out quick
as if
a tiny water droplet
trickled down my back
landing softly on the floor
into a bottomless pool
leaving puddles of
“what-ifs” and “just one more”
for when you hold me tight
where I can barely breathe
the only thing
that escapes from me
is a voice
I barely recognize as my own
one that says — don’t let me go
as if my heart speaks for the rest of me
but, I’ve come to realize
like the condensation
from your breath
on the window where you sat
you may fade
when you’re no longer warm
you may walk away
but you’ll never let me go
for I am yours, and you are mine
the rest is just white noise
© Jessica Lovejoy 2020. All Rights Reserved. | https://medium.com/scribe/you-may-fade-b79a5031b677 | ['Jessica Lovejoy'] | 2020-03-01 19:21:07.822000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Love', 'Love Poems', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Poetry'] |
Part II: Parchment, Paper, Palm: Joint CMA & CWRU Program Explores the CMA’s Global Medieval Manuscripts | Students in the Joint Program in Art History at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Case Western Reserve University. Image courtesy Elina Gertsman.
The Joint Program in Art History at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Case Western Reserve University brings together students, professors, curators, and museum educators to work closely with one of the country’s finest encyclopedic collections of art. The proximity of the museum and the university allows classes to be held in the museum, and support from the Mellon Foundation provides funds for curatorial teaching stipends and course development, as well as student fellowships and other resources. Last semester, Sonya Rhie Mace, George P. Bickford Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art and interim curator of Islamic art, teamed with Elina Gertsman, Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan Professor in Catholic Studies II and Professor of Art History, to lead a graduate seminar on premodern manuscripts from Europe and Asia, with a special focus on works in the museum’s collection.
Students in the Joint Program in Art History at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Case Western Reserve University. Image courtesy Elina Gertsman.
“Parchment, Paper, Palm: Global Medieval Manuscripts” introduced students to arts of the book from a wide range of religious traditions: Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jain, and Jewish. Every class involved close looking and analysis of original manuscripts and facsimiles from the CMA’s Ingalls Library, so that students could experience the materiality of the works meant for intimate — and often devotional — viewing. The Joint Program provides art history students with the invaluable experience of studying original works of art, and curators benefit from new perspectives on the collection that inform the interpretation of objects for the museum’s wide-ranging audiences.
In this blog, the second in a two-part series, The Thinker features essays by the students in Gertsman’s and Mace’s course, in which they share insights drawn from their research. This group includes essays that focus on the material and social aspects of illuminated books — recipes and meanings of specific pigments, ritual use of codices as tangible objects, self-referential depictions of books within books, and finally, the destruction of manuscripts — seen similarly through a cross-cultural lens. Read the first group here. | https://medium.com/cma-thinker/part-ii-parchment-paper-palm-joint-cma-cwru-program-explores-the-cmas-global-medieval-68139670440f | ['Cleveland Museum Of Art'] | 2019-11-15 14:26:31.791000+00:00 | ['University', 'Museums', 'History', 'Manuscripts', 'Culture'] |
Are You Afraid of Being Lonely? | My heart, well, it was breaking and trying to put on a brave face was a farce that I couldn’t keep up for very long, especially around the holidays. So, I decided to pick myself up and force my mind to shift in order to allow me to have joy and happiness regardless of what the ‘closest’ person to me was doing.
So, at the risk of sounding pathetic, I decided I had to tell you those parts of my story in order to get to the meat of this article because the meat is where it’s at. I’m going to tell you exactly what I did on a daily basis in order to ensure my own inner happiness and peace. They’ve worked for me and I hope that at least a few of them work for you as well.
Getting the Heck Outta the Funk
Morning Booster
The morning booster comes in three sections: First, you’ve got to wake up a little earlier than everyone else so that you have a bit of time to yourself. I used that time to reflect and meditate before moving to step two, which is simply turning on some good music (I ALWAYS use Beautiful Day by India Arie) and I wiggle around the house as it plays and the shower heats up… Which brings me to step three — a warm shower. Don’t you always feel better after a nice rinsing off?
Music Break/Dance
These breaks can happen intermittently throughout your day. Whenever you’re beginning to feel a bit down and lethargic, turn on a hyper tune (not some sad R&B stuff) and begin to boogie down. I don’t care how silly you think you will look, it will make you laugh and instantly feel better. If you’re too shy… Start with the finger dance.
Comedic Expression
Simple… Laugh at yourself, watch a comedy, go to the mirror and make the craziest of faces and I bet you’ll get to feeling a bit joyous.
Exercise
I cannot stress the need to exercise enough. It really helps to get your blood flowing and also sends out endorphins that interact with the receptors in your brain and can give your body that happy feeling. Also… You’ll get in shape!
Journaling
This seems like a given, but since the release of all of these technological devices, the art of active journaling has been lost. Nobody seems to want to take a pen and pad and tediously write out their feelings when typing is much quicker. I, however, would suggest that you do your journaling the old school way because the ease and relaxation of the pen strokes are calming, and the extra time it takes you to get everything down will allow you to free your mind from the peril that it may have been in.
Bonus: Just don’t give a crap
Honestly, you can do these in any order, just make sure that you try to do them daily. Remember to take care of yourself and that this too shall pass. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/are-you-afraid-of-being-lonely-e0d4e3b9416b | ['Rose Marie'] | 2019-12-13 19:07:59.366000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Depression', 'Love', 'Life Lessons', 'Relationships'] |
Anatomy of Channels in Go - Concurrency in Go | If you are wondering, why the above program runs well and deadlock error was not thrown. This is because, as channel capacity is 3 and only 2 values are available in the buffer, Go did not try to schedule another goroutine by blocking main goroutine execution. You can simply read these value in the main goroutine if you want because even if the buffer is not full, that doesn’t prevent you to read values from the channel.
Here is another cool example
I have a brain teaser for you.
⚠️ As many of you pointed out, the last value of active goroutines should be 1 . The moral of the story is far important than just that. The for loop inside squares goroutine runs 4 iterations. On the fourth iteration, it blocks since the buffer is empty at that point. Hence Go scheduler schedules main goroutine and we feed another value to the buffer (statement with // blocks here comment).
Since send operation on a buffered channel is non-blocking (when not full), next fmt.Println statement executes. Go scheduler also schedule goroutines on fmt.Println statement due to blocking I/O operation, however, this operation is not always blocking. This is where the squares goroutine wake up again, runs the last iteration, prints the value in the channel using fmt.Println (again, this could be blocking), and dies.
So techically, the output should have printed active goroutines 2 for all the fmt.Println statements (if this statement wan’t blocking),which you can see from the play.golang.com example. But due to the complex nature scheduling mechanism of goroutines, fight between fmt.Println statements and garbage collection time, we can get mixed results.
To see the ideal result, add time.Sleep(time.Second) call before each fmt.Println statements in the main goroutine. This gives other gorotines to complete their tasks, die peacefully and get picked up by the garbage collector. See example here.
Using buffered channels and for range , we can read from closed channels. Since for closed channels, data lives in the buffer, we can still extract that data.
Buffered channels are like Pythagoras Cup, watch this interesting video on Pythagoras Cup.
Working with multiple goroutines
Let’s write 2 goroutines, one for calculating the square of integers and other for the cube of integers.
Let’s talk about the execution of the above program step by step.
We created 2 functions square and cube which we will run as goroutines. Both receive the channel of type int as an argument in argument c and we read data from it in variable num . Then we write data to the channel c in the next line.
and which we will run as goroutines. Both receive the channel of type as an argument in argument and we read data from it in variable . Then we write data to the channel in the next line. In the main goroutine, we create 2 channels squareChan and cubeChan of type int using make function.
and of type using function. Then we run square and cube goroutine.
and goroutine. Since control is still inside the main goroutine, testNumb variable gets the value of 3 .
variable gets the value of . Then we push data to squareChan and cubeChan . The main goroutine will be blocked until these channels read it from. Once they read it, the main goroutine will continue execution.
and . The main goroutine will be blocked until these channels read it from. Once they read it, the main goroutine will continue execution. When in the main goroutine, we try to read data from given channels, control will be blocked until these channels write some data from their goroutines. Here, we have used shorthand syntax := to receive data from multiple channels.
to receive data from multiple channels. Once these goroutines write some data to the channel, the main goroutine will be blocked.
When the channel write operation is done, the main goroutine starts executing. Then we calculate the sum and print it on the console.
Hence the above program will yield the following result
[main] main() started
[main] sent testNum to squareChan
[square] reading
[main] resuming
[main] sent testNum to cubeChan
[cube] reading
[main] resuming
[main] reading from channels
[main] sum of square and cube of 3 is 36
[main] main() stopped
☛ Unidirectional channels
So far, we have seen channels which can transmit data from both sides or in simple words, channels on which we can do read and write operations. But we can also create channels which are unidirectional in nature. For example, receive-only channels which allow only read operation on them and send-only channels which allow only to write operation on them.
The unidirectional channel is also created using make function but with additional arrow syntax.
roc := make(<-chan int)
soc := make(chan<- int)
In the above program, roc is receive-only channel as arrow direction in make function points away from chan keyword. While soc is send-only channel where arrow direction in make function points towards chan keyword. They also have a different type.
But what is the use of unidirectional channel? Using unidirectional channels increases the type-safety of a program. Hence the program is less prone to error.
But let’s say that you have a goroutine where you need to only read data from a channel but main goroutine needs to read and write data from/to the same channel. How that will work?
Luckily, Go provide easier syntax to convert bi-directional channel to unidirectional channel.
We modified greet goroutine example to convert bi-directional channel c to receive-only channel roc in greet function. Now we can only read from that channel. Any write operation on it will result in a fatal error "invalid operation: roc <- "some text" (send to receive-only type <-chan string)" .
☛ Anonymous goroutine
In goroutines chapter, we learned about anonymous goroutines. We can also implement channels with them. Let’s modify the previous simple example to implement channel in an anonymous goroutine.
This was our earlier example
Below one is the modified example where we made greet goroutine an anonymous goroutine.
☛ channel as the data type of channel
Yes, channels are first-class values and can be used anywhere like other values: as struct elements, function arguments, returning values and even like a type for another channel. Here, we are interested in using a channel as the data type of another channel.
☛ Select
select is just like switch without any input argument but it only used for channel operations. The select statement is used to perform an operation on only one channel out of many, conditionally selected by case block.
Let’s first see an example, then discuss how it works.
From the above program, we can see that select statement is just like switch but instead of boolean operations, we add channel operations like read or write or mixed of read and write . The select statement is blocking except when it has a default case (we will see that later). Once, one of the case conditions fulfill, it will unblock. So when a case condition fulfills?
If all case statements (channel operations) are blocking then select statement will wait until one of the case statement (its channel operation) unblocks and that case will be executed. If some or all of the channel operations are non-blocking, then one of the non-blocking cases will be chosen randomly and executed immediately.
To explain the above program, we started 2 goroutines with independent channels. Then we introduced select statement with 2 cases. One case reads a value from chan1 and other from chan2 . Since these channels are unbuffered, read operation will be blocking (so the write operations). So both the cases of select are blocking. Hence select will wait until one of the case becomes unblocking.
When control is at select statement, the main goroutine will block and it will schedule all goroutines present in the select statement (one at a time), which are service1 and service2 . service1 waits for 3 second and then unblocks by writing to the chan1 . Similarly, service2 waits for 5 second and then unblocks by writing to the chan2 . Since service1 unblocks earlier than service2 , case 1 will be unblocked first and hence that case will be executed and other cases (here case 2) will be ignored. Once done with case execution, main function execution will proceed further.
Above program simulates real world web service where a load balancer gets millions of requests and it has to return a response from one of the services available. Using goroutines, channels and select, we can ask multiple services for a response, and one which responds quickly can be used.
To simulate when all the cases are blocking and response is available nearly at the same time, we can simply remove Sleep call.
The above program yields the following result (you may get different result)
main() started 0s
service2() started 481µs
Response from service 2 Hello from service 2 981.1µs
main() stopped 981.1µs
but sometimes, it can also be
main() started 0s
service1() started 484.8µs
Response from service 1 Hello from service 1 984µs
main() stopped 984µs
This happens because chan1 and chan2 operations happen at nearly the same time, but still, there is some time difference in execution and scheduling.
To simulate when all the cases are non-blocking and response is available at the same time, we can use a buffered channel.
The above program yields the following result.
main() started 0s
Response from chan2 Value 1 0s
main() stopped 1.0012ms
In some cases, it can also be
main() started 0s
Response from chan1 Value 1 0s
main() stopped 1.0012ms
In the above program, both channels have 2 values in their buffer. Since we are sending on 2 values in a channel of buffer capacity 2, these channel operations won’t block and control will go to select statement. Since reading from the buffered channel is non-blocking operation until the entire buffer is empty and we are reading only one value in case condition, all case operations are non-blocking. Hence, Go runtime will select any case statement at random.
default case
Like switch statement, select statement also has default case. A default case is non-blocking. But that’s not all, default case makes select statement always non-blocking. That means, send and receive operation on any channel (buffered or unbuffered) is always non-blocking.
If a value is available on any channel then select will execute that case. If not then it will immediately execute the default case.
In the above program, since channels are unbuffered and value is not immediately available on both channel operations, default case will be executed. If the above select statement wouldn’t have default case, select would have been blocking and the response would have been different.
Since with default , select is non-blocking, the scheduler does not get a call from main goroutine to schedule available goroutines. But we can do that manually by calling time.Sleep . This way, all goroutines will execute and die, returning control to main goroutine which will wake up after some time. When main goroutine wakes up, channels will have values immediately available.
Hence, the above program yields the following result.
main() started 0s
service1() started 0s
service2() started 0s
Response from service 1 Hello from service 1 3.0001805s
main() stopped 3.0001805s
In some case, it could also be
main() started 0s
service1() started 0s
service2() started 0s
Response from service 2 Hello from service 2 3.0000957s
main() stopped 3.0000957s
Deadlock
default case is useful when no channels are available to send or receive data. To avoid deadlock, we can use default case. This is possible because all channel operations due to default case are non-blocking, Go does not schedule any other goroutines to send data to channels if data is not immediately available.
Similar to receive, in send operation, if other goroutines are sleeping (not ready to receive value), default case is executed.
☛ nil channel
As we know, the default value of a channel is nil . Hence we can not perform send or receive operations on a nil channel. But in a case, when a nil channel is used in select statement, it will throw one of the below or both errors.
From the above result, we can see that select (no cases) means that select statement is virtually empty because cases with nil channel are ignored. But as empty select{} statement blocks the main goroutine and service goroutine is scheduled in its place, channel operation on nil channels throws chan send (nil chan) error. To avoid this, we use default case.
Above program not-only ignores the case block but executes the default statement immediately. Hence scheduler does not get time to schedule service goroutine. But this is really bad design. You should always check a channel for nil value.
☛ Adding timeout
Above program is not very useful since only default case is getting executed. But sometimes, what we want is that any available services should respond in a desirable time, if it doesn’t, then default case should get executed. This can be done using a case with a channel operation that unblocks after defined time. This channel operation is provided by time package’s After function. Let’s see an example.
Above program, yields the following result after 2 seconds.
main() started 0s
No response received 2.0010958s
main() stopped 2.0010958s
In the above program, <-time.After(2 * time.Second) unblocks after 2 seconds returning time at which it was unblocked, but here, we are not interested in its return value. Since it also acts like a goroutine, we have 3 goroutines out of which this one unblocks first. Hence, the case corresponding to that goroutine operation gets executed.
This is useful because you don’t want to wait too long for a response from available services, where the user has to wait a long time before getting anything from the service. If we add 10 * time.Second in the above example, the response from service1 will be printed, I guess that’s obvious now.
☛ Empty select
Like for{} empty loop, an empty select{} syntax is also valid but there is a gotcha. As we know, select statement is blocked until one of the cases unblocks, and since there are no case statements available to unblock it, the main goroutine will block forever resulting in a deadlock.
In the above program, as we know select will block the main goroutine, the scheduler will schedule another available goroutine which is service . But after that, it will die and the schedule has to schedule another available goroutine, but since main routine is blocked and no other goroutines are available, resulting in a deadlock.
main() started
Hello from service!
fatal error: all goroutines are asleep - deadlock! goroutine 1 [select (no cases)]:
main.main()
program.Go:16 +0xba
exit status 2
☛ WaitGroup
Let’s imagine a condition where you need to know if all goroutines finished their job. This is somewhat opposite to select where you needed only one condition to be true , but here you need all conditions to be true in order to unblock the main goroutine. Here the condition is successful channel operation.
WaitGroup is a struct with a counter value which tracks how many goroutines were spawned and how many have completed their job. This counter when reaches zero, means all goroutines have done their job.
Let’s dive into an example and see the terminology.
In the above program, we created empty struct (with zero-value fields) wg of type sync.WaitGroup . WaitGroup struct has unexported fields like noCopy , state1 and sema whose internal implementation we don’t need to know. This struct has three methods viz. Add , Wait and Done .
Add method expects one int argument which is delta for the WaitGroup counter . The counter is nothing but an integer with default value 0. It holds how many goroutines are running. When WaitGroup is created, its counter value is 0 and we can increment it by passing delta as parameter using Add method. Remember, counter does not increment understand when a goroutine was launched, hence we need to manually increment it.
Wait method is used to block the current goroutine from where it was called. Once counter reaches 0, that goroutine will unblock. Hence, we need something to decrement the counter.
Done method decrements the counter. It does not accept any argument, hence it only decrements the counter by 1.
In the above program, after creating wg , we ran for loop for 3 times. In each turn, we launched 1 goroutine and incremented the counter by 1. That means, now we have 3 goroutines waiting to be executed and WaitGroup counter is 3. Notice that, we passed a pointer to wg in goroutine. This is because in goroutine, once we are done with whatever the goroutine was supposed to do, we need to call Done method to decrement the counter. If wg was passed as a value, wg in main would not get decremented. This is pretty obvious.
After for loop has done executing, we still did not pass control to other goroutines. This is done by calling Wait method on wg like wg.Wait() . This will block the main goroutine until the counter reaches 0. Once the counter reaches 0 because from 3 goroutines, we called Done method on wg 3 times, main goroutine will unblock and starts executing further code.
Hence above program yields below result
main() started
Service called on instance 2
Service called on instance 3
Service called on instance 1
main() stopped
Above result might be different for you guys, as the order of execution of goroutines may vary.
Add method accept type of int , that means delta can also be negative. To know more about this, visit official documentation here.
☛ Worker pool
As from the name, a worker pool is a collection of goroutines working concurrently to perform a job. In WaitGroup , we saw a collection of goroutines working concurrently but they did not have a specific job. Once you throw channels in them, they have some job to do and becomes a worker pool.
So the concept behind worker pool is maintaining a pool of worker goroutines which receives some task and returns the result. Once they all done with their job, we collect the result. All of these goroutines use the same channel for individual purpose.
Let’s see a simple example with two channels viz. tasks and results .
Don’t worry, I am going to explain what’s happening here.
sqrWorker is a worker function which takes tasks channel, results channel and id . The job of this goroutine is to send squares of the number received from tasks channel to results channel.
is a worker function which takes channel, channel and . The job of this goroutine is to send squares of the number received from channel to channel. In the main function, we created tasks and result channel with buffer capacity 10 . Hence any send operation will be non-blocking until the buffer is full. Hence setting large buffer value is not a bad idea.
and channel with buffer capacity . Hence any send operation will be non-blocking until the buffer is full. Hence setting large buffer value is not a bad idea. Then we spawn multiple instances of sqrWorker as goroutines with above two channels and id parameter to get information on which worker is executing a task.
as goroutines with above two channels and id parameter to get information on which worker is executing a task. Then we passed 5 tasks to the tasks channel which was non-blocking.
channel which was non-blocking. Since we are done with tasks channel, we closed it. This is not necessary but it will save a lot of time in the future if some bugs get in.
Then using for loop, with 5 iterations, we are pulling data from results channel. Since read operation on an empty buffer is blocking, a goroutine will be scheduled from the worker pool. Until that goroutine returns some result, the main goroutine will be blocked.
channel. Since read operation on an empty buffer is blocking, a goroutine will be scheduled from the worker pool. Until that goroutine returns some result, the main goroutine will be blocked. Since we are simulating blocking operation in worker goroutine, that will call the scheduler to schedule another available goroutine until it becomes available. When worker goroutine becomes available, it writes to the results channel. As writing to buffered channel is non-blocking until the buffer is full, writing to results channel here is non-blocking. Also while current worker goroutine was unavailable, multiple other worker goroutines were executed consuming values in tasks buffer. After all worker goroutines consumed tasks, for range loop finishes when tasks channel buffer is empty. It won’t throw deadlock error as tasks channel was closed.
channel. As writing to buffered channel is non-blocking until the buffer is full, writing to channel here is non-blocking. Also while current worker goroutine was unavailable, multiple other worker goroutines were executed consuming values in buffer. After all worker goroutines consumed tasks, loop finishes when channel buffer is empty. It won’t throw deadlock error as channel was closed. Sometimes, all worker goroutines can be sleeping, so main goroutine will wake up and works until results channel buffer is again empty.
goroutine will wake up and works until channel buffer is again empty. After all worker goroutines died, main goroutine will regain control and print remaining results from results channel and continue its execution.
Above example is a mouthful but brilliantly explain how multiple goroutines can feed on the same channel and get the job done elegantly. goroutines are powerful when worker’s job is blocking. If you remove, time.Sleep() call, then only one goroutine will perform the job as no other goroutines are scheduled until for range loop is done and goroutine dies.
You can get different result like in previous example depending on how fast your system is because if all worker gorutines are blocked even for micro-second, main goroutine will wake up as explained.
Now, let’s use WaitGroup concept of synchronizing goroutines. Using the previous example with WaitGroup , we can achieve the same results but more elegantly.
Above result looks neat because read operations on results channel in the main goroutine is non-blocking as result channel is already populated by result while the main goroutine was blocked by wg.Wait() call. Using waitGroup , we can prevent lots of (unnecessary) context switching (scheduling), 7 here compared to 9 in the previous example. But there is a sacrifice, as you have to wait until all jobs are done.
☛ Mutex
Mutex is one of the easiest concepts in Go. But before I explain it, let’s first understand what a race condition is. goroutines have their independent stack and hence they don’t share any data between them. But there might be conditions where some data in heap is shared between multiple goroutines. In that case, multiple goroutines are trying to manipulate data at the same memory location resulting in unexpected results. I will show you one simple example.
In the above program, we are spawning 1000 goroutines which increments the value of a global variable i which initially is at 0 . Since we are implementing WaitGroup , we want all 1000 goroutines to increment the value of i one by one resulting final value of i to be 1000 . When the main goroutine starts executing again after wg.Wait() call, we are printing i . Let’s see the final result.
value of i after 1000 operations is 937
What? Why we got less than 1000? Looks like some goroutines did not work. But actually, our program had a race condition. Let’s see what might have happened.
i = i + 1 calculation has 3 steps
(1) get value of i
(2) increment value of i by 1
(3) update value of i with new value
Let’s imagine a scenario where different goroutines were scheduled in between these steps. For example, let’s consider 2 goroutines out of the pool of 1000 goroutines viz. G1 and G2.
G1 starts first when i is 0 , run first 2 steps and i is now 1 . But before G1 updates value of i in step 3, new goroutine G2 is scheduled and it runs all steps. But in case of G2, value of i is still 0 hence after it executes step 3, i will be 1. Now G1 is again scheduled to finish step 3 and updates value of i which is 1 from step 2. In a perfect world where goroutines are scheduled after completing all 3 steps, successful operations of 2 goroutines would have produced the value of i to be 2 but that’s not the case here. Hence, we can pretty much speculate why our program did not yield value of i to be 1000 .
So far we learned that goroutines are cooperatively scheduled. Until unless a goroutine blocks with one of the conditions mentioned in concurrency lesson, another goroutine won’t take its place. And since i = i + 1 is not blocking, why Go scheduler schedules another goroutine?
You should definitely check out this answer on stackoverflow. At any condition, you shouldn’t rely on Go’s scheduling algorithm and implement your own logic to synchronize different goroutines.
One way to make sure that only one goroutine complete all 3 above steps at a time is by implementing the mutex. Mutex (mutual exclusion) is a concept in programming where only one routine (thread) can perform multiple operations at a time. This is done by one routine acquiring the lock on value, do whatever manipulation on the value it has to do and then releasing the lock. When the value is locked, no other routine can read or write to it.
In Go, the mutex data structure (a map) is provided by sync package. In Go, before performing any operation on a value which might cause race condition, we acquire a lock using mutex.Lock() method followed by code of operation. Once we are done with the operation, in above program i = i + 1 , we unlock it using mutext.Unlock() method. When any other goroutine is trying to read or write value of i when the lock is present, that goroutine will block until the operation is unlocked from the first goroutine. Hence only 1 goroutine can get to read or write value of i , avoiding race conditions. Remember, any variables present in operation(s) between the lock and unlock will not be available for other goroutines until the whole operation(s) is unlocked.
Let’s modify the previous example with a mutex.
In the above program, we have created one mutex m and passed a pointer to it to all spawned goroutines. Before we begin operation on i , we acquired the lock on mutex m using m.Lock() syntax and after operation, we unlocked it using m.Unlock() syntax. Above program yields below result
value of i after 1000 operations is 1000
From the above result, we can see that mutex helped us resolve racing conditions. But the first rule is to avoid shared resources between goroutines. | https://medium.com/rungo/anatomy-of-channels-in-go-concurrency-in-go-1ec336086adb | ['Uday Hiwarale'] | 2020-09-01 06:57:44.451000+00:00 | ['Go Programming Language', 'Go Programming', 'Golang Tutorial', 'Golang', 'Concurrency'] |
How to use Spotipy’s API to pull data from Spotify | For my final project at General Assembly, I’ve chosen to do my project (which I call, “predicting the hits”) on music using Billboard Hot-100 data. The idea of my project is that given lyrics and audio features of a track, can we accurately predict if a new song will make it to the Billboard Hot-100 top 10 list?
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve already collected 20 years worth of billboard data which will be so much fun to sift through in finding trends. However, this section of my blog is on how we go about getting the audio features which is where Spotipy’s API comes in. This API allows you to access data from Spotify whether it is a track, artist, playlist or even a podcast episode. So let’s get into how you use it!
#Step 1: Get Client Secret and Client ID information.
In order to get this information, you need to create a developer account on Spotify’s developer site. The instructions are pretty clear on how to get the so just follow sign up and it’ll be straight forward from there. You need both the client and secret information to use Spotipy. After you’ve obtained these keys you can then do the following:
Import Spotipy and the authentication code like below and set the client and secret to a variable.
For privacy purposes, I’ve kept my client and secret info a SECRET and so should you. From here, you can access anything you want. Feel free to search through Spotify’s Console to see which endpoints (parameters) you can query .
#Step 2: Write code to pull Hot 100 data from Spotify.
Spotipy has pretty succinct documentation that can help you find out how to navigate Spotify data. For my project, I found out that there’s a Billboard-Hot 100 list on Spotify! So here’s how I was able to pull that info: So let’s say you’re only looking to access Billboard Hot 100 data like me, there’s no instance of being able to review what the previous weeks data is. This presented a bit of a challenge for this project.
Note: Spotify has a limit of 100 results for a specific playlist.
In the code above, I figured I would’ve been able to use a while loop to access past week’s chart data so I created a start and stop date variable. Even though the date column data type is listed as a string, you can’t iterate through it because it isn’t something that Spotify’s API permits. So my next idea, although tedious, will be to include this data manually to my actual Spotify account. Feel free to use the code above and modify it to your liking.
#Step 3: Pull Audio Features.
So as I described above, I’ll only be able to pull 100 audio features max for this current week’s Billboard data. I’ll still go back to create a playlist on my own Spotify that can include more than 100 songs. Continuing from the previous code above, I’ve saved the audio features to a variable and since it is a list, it can be iterated through.
So, this is a brief synopsis of how to collect playlist data from Spotipy. Again, my supposedly “easy” way of collecting more than 100 track ids and features back fired so I may have to go the manual route on this one. I may write another post to show you how I was able to overcome this hurdle. Stay tuned.
Until next time, thanks for reading! | https://medium.com/@ianibogwu/how-to-use-spotipys-api-to-pull-data-from-spotify-1aa1043cccc8 | [] | 2020-10-09 02:10:56.066000+00:00 | ['Spotify', 'Data Science', 'Data Journalism', 'Python', 'Data Analysis'] |
YOUR DAILY DYSTOPIA | 2018.09.15 | CNN reported multiple acts of bravery during the destruction caused by Tropical Storm Florence throughout the United States. These included rescues from the Crisis Civilian Response Team in North Carolina, a 47-year old Marine who rescued people in his off-road military vehicle, and a crowd-funding campaign to help rescue a group of dogs.
Upon hearing the news, Donald Трамп told reporters, “Hey I rescued people, too, I rescued the MOST people. No one rescued more people than me, or has bigger hands, I picked up all the water from the flood myself. I bravely stopped the flood. You’re welcome.”
— — — —
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that former Secretary of State John Kerry was “actively undermining” U.S. policy on Iran by meeting several times recently with the Iranian foreign minister. Pompeo called Kerry’s meetings with Iran “unseemly and unprecedented” and “beyond inappropriate.”
In related news, a person in Buffalo, NY, exploded into a puddle of goo after their brain refused to process the hypocrisy of calling John Kerry “unseemly” and “inappropriate” after Donald Трамп paid off former porn-stars to keep his affairs with them quiet.
— — — —
USA Today reported that while wages are flat for most people, in some cities, wages are rising fast, creating boomtowns where people are flooding in. Among the boomtowns listed are San Francisco, Spokane, and Des Moines!
Upon hearing the news, Donald Трамп told his staff, “Hey, there’s more boomtowns, what about that city in Massachusetts, a bunch of wells exploded, that’s a boomtown, too. Fake News is underreporting boomtowns. Most boomtowns. No collusion!”
— — — —
Have you done your part today? If not, take a moment to decide what to do, how you can help, and pitch in! Maybe pitching in for you means telling me I’m dumb, go for it! Whatever it is, make your time count!
With Florence’s death and destruction came acts of bravery and selflessness
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/15/us/hurricane-florence-rescues/index.html
Trump, Pompeo bash ex-Secretary of State John Kerry on Iran talks
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trump-pompeo-bash-ex-secretary-state-kerry-iran-talks-n909866
Americans are flocking to U.S. ‘boom towns’ where wages are rising fast
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2018/09/15/salary-rising-boom-town-cities/1278638002/
— — — —
Catch up back issues of YOUR DAILY DYSTOPIA on … | https://medium.com/your-daily-dystopia/your-daily-dystopia-2018-09-15-74a30d1b399 | ['Fred Chong Rutherford'] | 2018-09-15 00:00:00 | ['State Department', 'Daily', 'Impeachment', 'Incompetence'] |
Stay The Course | Image courtesy of the Toronto Star
This is a chart from the fine folks at the Toronto Star, using information from Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard. This information represents the growth in a variety of countries around the world.
That green line that represents China finally starts to make the bend around the middle of February, when they finally ease the growth of COVID-19. This is approximately a month after the city of Wuhan was first quarantined and isolated from the rest of China.
It is also approximately a month before the easing of the physical distancing and quarantine restrictions in Wuhan.
It takes roughly two months of serious self-isolation, physical distancing, and quarantine measures to get this pandemic under control.
We aren’t out of the woods yet, folks.
Most of us in North America are only a couple of weeks into serious self-isolation and quarantine measures, and the numbers are incredibly different in US and Canada.
Look at the bright orange line that represents US cases of COVID-19. It shows no sign of relenting in its ever-increasing numbers. It is a very ugly line that should be sparking fear in every American, especially those that don’t have access to adequate and affordable healthcare.
Now, look at the red line that represents Canada. While the US cases have increased on a sharper curve than any other country (including China), Canadian cases have increased on a much slower rate.
Here in Canada, we have taken physical distancing seriously, and enacted it early. The results are showing in our numbers and our much slower rate of increase. This isn’t to say that there aren’t Americans who are doing everything they can, just that it appears to have been more successful in Canada to this date.
The bigger story from this chart? We’ve got a long way to go. Until we start to see consistent change in the rate of daily increase, we can’t even begin to think about resuming daily life. The World Health organization said in its March 30 briefing that the data being reported now represents the situation two weeks ago. We won’t know about today until two weeks from now.
So, it doesn’t matter how restless you are, nor how much you miss your loved ones. We have to stay the course and stay isolated until we are told otherwise.
We have done hard things before.
We will do hard things again.
This is just one more hard thing, and we can do it.
But we have to do it together. | https://matthewwoodall.medium.com/stay-the-course-2cb015a24582 | ['Matthew Woodall'] | 2020-03-31 13:23:43.632000+00:00 | ['Challenge', 'Health', 'Data', 'Life', 'Covid 19'] |
The pandemic CRUSHED my startup, but… | The pandemic crushed my startup back in March, but somehow, that was one of the best things that could’ve happened to me.
Most people don’t know, but I spent most of 2019 building the MVP for my now defunct startup called Bagdrop, a short-term luggage storage and delivery service.
How did it work? Imagine checking out of your Airbnb at 11 AM, but your flight doesn’t leave until 7 PM. What are you going to do with all your luggage?
In the same manner you call an Uber, you can request a Bagdrop by putting in your pickup time and location, drop-off time and location, number of luggage items, and a Bagdrop driver comes to meet you at your pickup time and location to take your luggage to storage, freeing you up to roam the city luggage-free. When it’s time for drop-off, another driver meets you at your drop-off time and location to return your items back to you.
My plan was to launch right before SXSW 2020. Imagine, you land in Austin, TX for SXSW and instead of having to first rush to your Airbnb or hotel to drop-off your luggage, a Bagdrop driver meets you in the airport lobby to take your luggage to storage so you can go catch a show or meet up with friends. Later that day, another driver meets you at your hotel or Airbnb to return your items back to you.
I thought I had it all figured out. 2020 was my year lol
I finished building the MVP (minimum viable product, the most basic version of the app) early February and swiftly switched to business development mode, on the phone and emails trying to set up partnerships with Airbnb hosts and hotels in Austin, as well as partnerships with other luggage storage companies to be their delivery partner.
The initial reception was great! I had hosts signed up on the platform, hotels that were interested, and almost 50 drivers ready to go!
My startup was geared for a breakout launch at SXSW!
Like Mike Tyson said, “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”.
That pandemic punched me so hard I thought I got JUMPED!
NOT ONLY did SXSW get cancelled early March, but a couple weeks later Austin, TX went on lockdown and the travel industry came to a halt 🤦🏿♂️. My business, which revolved around the travel industry, had to pack its bags and… nvm 🙃
I was crushed. Seeing my brainchild get popped like that was heartbreaking. A year’s worth of hard work went out the window in a matter of days. No way I could fund the business through the pandemic, especially considering the new safety measures that would’ve had to be put in place to protect my drivers and users, and the potential liability issues. I had to shut down.
But, this story ends well though.
After my startup failed, I refocused on my initial business where I teach people how to code, ROOTs Technology, and launched a YouTube channel (ToluVsTj) to support it. That channel just crossed 2K subscribers, is a few months away from being monetized, and ROOTs Technology has taken off as a result.
Moral of the story: when life gives you pepper, make pepper soup. | https://austinstartups.com/the-pandemic-crushed-my-startup-but-870bf4a47e14 | ['Tj Oyeniyi'] | 2020-12-20 08:14:10.048000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Startup Story', 'Startup Life', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup Lessons'] |
Why is Bitcoin up 70% in just one week? | Why is Bitcoin up 70% in just one week?
Buying is still easy but the risk has increased …
Why growth, why now?
Financial institutions have decided that the new global digital gold is more convenient to store than the old fashioned and very heavy gold. Yes that might not be the case but it’s gone from $10,000 to over $17,000 this week alone, amid signs that retail investors are entering. Bitcoin is due to enter the mainstream next week, when clearing houses begin offering futures trading. But, several US banks are reluctant to take part, according to the Wall Street Journal.
What about the future of Bitcoin?
In my previous post I wrote about a growth driven by insane expectations. True or not — there is still a hell of a ride right now until something unexpected affects the fast growing ecosystem. There has for sure been a strong buy trend the last month at the same time coin owners keeps the coins for an even brighter future. It is still hard to predict the future of Bitcoin, where a variety of events either can build or destroy the trust, trust that took years to build.
Is Bitcoin to volatile for me, I’m not interested in day-trading?
Insights from forums shows an increased frustration that Bitcoins ups and downs are more rare and harder to catch — You have to be fast to get a nice buy during a dip. Volatility will decrease, it is just a matter of time and volumes. We can expect a more distributed and mature investor network in combination with smaller variations in volumes from one day to another. If you think not, please feel free and share your thoughts with me.
Is there an inflation in the cryptocurrency market — and how does that affect the price of Bitcoin?
One positive thing with Bitcoin, compared with for example U.S. dollar is the transparency and that anyone can find out how many Bitcoins and accounts that are out there and how many there is left to mine. Minus some Bitcoins that have have been stuck due to user mistakes and fraud. If you are curious or want to contribute with your “fuck up” stories Ohmycoins is the place for you. Promise not to laugh.
Some will argue that there is actually an inflation in cryptocurrencies— and yes that might be true — depending how you view it. But that does not make Bitcoin diluted. Decide yourself…
I have for example traded Bitcoins to Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) issued by startups — financing their projects or as an equity in the company. When they issue the coins, coins will have a value and can be traded on several exchanges. So from that perspective there is an inflation in investment opportunities for cryptocurrencies. But on the other hand, I could have sold my Bitcoins and invested the money in real estate. So what do you make of that?
The biggest difference spreading thinner to new coins is that almost no-one knows about the new coin and it will take tremendous time to market, build trust and become a Bitcoin brand. You can buy newcomers cheap, but the risk is extremely high that they will stay in the shadow. Bitcoin on the other hand is what Rollerblades was for Inlines during a decade and that is something that is obvious with the coming support from clearing houses. Coins that over time have escaped the shadow of Bitcoin are Litecoin, Dash, Ethereum and IOTA among a few more. They have also seen an amazing growth from very low valuations and volumes. Now they are also getting supported in user friendly mobile applications and adoption increases fast. If you want to compare -visit Coinmarketcap. A great site listing coins, prices and cryptocurrency market capitalizations.
What will be my biggest challenge when investing in Bitcoin?
This week NiceHash a marketplace / exchange was compromised. More than $60 million worth of bitcoin potentially stolen. The Guardian is reporting about it.
While the value skyrocket there are more and more attempts to steal your coins. To reduce the risk of getting your coins stolen at exchanges it is recommended to move your new coins to your personal Wallet or Wallets. There are Web Wallets that have invested a lot in security and will focus even more after every incident. If you decide to store your coins in a Web Wallet like Blockchain — please consider this:
- change your password often
- use a password manager
- enable two factor authentication — select a Web Wallet that supports it
- enable e-mail verification for login and transactions.
Then you have done what you can do on your side to make it harder to compromise. And one more thing …
- Always keep all your programs on computer and mobile updated
If you really don’t trust Cloud and Web-Wallets then transfer your coins to your own hardware Wallet. This guide from Bitcoin.it will help you decide which solution to use.
What about ICOs — What do I need to know before starting investing?
I will follow up this post with a post about ICOs. I personally think ICOs is the coolest thing that have happened together with blockchain since Internet went public. If you are curious about what ICOs can offer you, then start by visiting Tokenlot one great marketplace for new exiting offerings.
And if you are a startup — anywhere in the world — start reading about it— it might be a great tool to use to get things going in combination with bootstrapping, crowdfunding, angels and grants.
If you enjoyed the post, please click the clap icon below and let me know!
With regards Froste
Previous post:
And if you missed it … | https://medium.com/swlh/bitcoin-up-70-in-just-one-week-9b2ca3332a61 | ['Magnus Froste'] | 2017-12-09 05:12:11.186000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Startup', 'Bitcoin', 'ICO'] |
The Definitive List of All Rookie Champions on MTV’s The Challenge | Last week, in the ultimate episode of Challenge 36: Total Madness, we saw Jenny MF West become a Champion, beating everyone in the final, including:
six-time winner Johnny Bananas (now 7x)
professional football player Kaycee Clark
reigning champ Rogan O’Connor and
6' 5" D1 collegiate athlete Fessy Shafaat
That’s impressive, full stop, but even more jaw-dropping when you realize it was only her second season of The Challenge. And therefore, by Gauntlet 2 and 3 rules, she was a rookie.
This is quite the feat. Experience matters on The Challenge, and some of our favourite competitors took a long damn time to win. Cara, Sarah, Brad, and Paula needed 8 seasons to finally become a champion; CT nine; and Aneesa is still ring-less after 13 attempts (and 2 spin-off appearances).
(Others: Leroy is 0 for 11; Nany 0 for 9; Jenna 0 for 9 if you count Champs vs Stars 1; Diem + Shane 0 for 8 including CvS2; Beth, Cory,+ Jemmye 0 for 7; Adam King, Danny J, Theresa, Big Easy, Theresa, + Tyrie 0 for 6. Tony would be in this last group but he won Champs vs Stars 2 so I’ll give him a pass)
To come on the show and find such quick success, especially in the modern era where it is much harder to win, is impressive. So let’s recognize
All the people who won a Challenge season as a rookie
Nota bene: in the early seasons, there were a lot of winners and many of them were rookies, so it’s not as impressive in my eyes. On Bloodlines and the Fresh Meats, by the format, a debut was guaranteed to win. Still difficult, but.
Jenny West — Total Madness | https://medium.com/@novarogue/the-definitive-list-of-all-rookie-champions-on-mtvs-the-challenge-87541c9117d6 | [] | 2020-07-24 18:52:13.765000+00:00 | ['Reality TV', 'Television', 'The Challenge', 'MTV', 'TV'] |
Goodbye, Internet Explorer 11 | Hi there! My name is Lisa Xu, and I’m a software developer for the Atom platform team at Kaplan Test Prep. I am passionate about building a great user experience using the latest technologies (such as flexbox, grid, and css-variable). I am usually in charge of making UI components and styling them so they look good. Today, we’re going to talk about ending support for Internet Explorer and restoring sanity to UI developers everywhere.
Browser Support
As I have been working on building the platform with the team using the latest web technologies, we started running into compatibility issues.
CSS Variables: Our Product Owner didn’t upgrade her Safari version and while testing, and discovered that css-variable is entirely broken on Safari 9. Turns out that doesn’t work in IE either. To fix this, we started using polyfills .
Grid: Grid , like css-variables , also doesn’t work in Safari 9. It has partial support in IE but is missing grid-template-areas , a feature I used several times in the platform.
Flexbox: One of the pages was styled using flexbox , and all the child content were bunched together and the container was actually much smaller than the content size. Turns out, that’s a bug with IE, and Microsoft marked this bug as “will not fix.” I tried some of the user-documented workarounds around the internet, but they didn’t work for my particular case. If I had to get that page to a working state in IE with anything remotely resembling our design, I’d need to fall back to display: inline-block .
Or floats. Gross.
This wasn’t going to be one of those elegant three-line solutions I’ve done for the other parts of the app either. I’d have to just write a fully different set of styles for IE, and that’s not particularly exciting.
Source: WeKnowMemes
I’m done with IE
I was considering the least painful solution when one of my colleagues showed me something: he went on Github on IE and noticed that Github had a message up top that let the user know IE isn’t supported. Github is owned by Microsoft! Why are we supporting IE when a Microsoft product doesn’t?
I asked my Product Owner about what percentage of traffic actually comes in from IE, and it turned out to be roughly 2.5%. Pretty low. We got the go-ahead to stop support for IE.
No more IE!
This is great because we can finally push forward and use the fun and new CSS technologies like flexbox and css-variables and grid and mask — flexbox isn’t even that recent — and though sometimes we may still need to write a fallback or two for older Safari, it’s nowhere the same level of effort required for IE. Discontinuing support for IE allows us to put valuable dev effort into moving forward on the platform and being able to use the latest technologies. Even Microsoft is moving to Chromium for Edge, after all these years.
Once we got the go-ahead, it was time to think up some approaches. Doing an Angular component is out — Angular needs all those polyfills in polyfills.ts to be uncommented for Angular to actually run on IE, and if our goal is to discontinue IE support, that seems counterintuitive. Why run something that gives overhead to support a browser when we’re actually not supporting this browser? So we had to think of another solution.
ES6 doesn’t work in IE, but IE9-IE11 does work with ES5, so that’s a good place to start, and if you’re using IE8 or below I don’t know what to say… I wanted the blocker to be easily usable with any framework (or lack of), so I figured writing a vanillaJS script in ES5 would be the most usable option.
While still exploring the component/service library option I turned on the polyfills in polyfills.ts just to see the app running in IE, and I did end up reading all the comments. I learned that polyfills.ts executes before the main application code, and because the polyfills it contains can support IE9–11, I figured it would be a good place to import my IE Blocker. I tested it out with a quick alert call, and it worked.
I wanted to avoid any extra imports beyond this one script, so I built the DOM directly in the javascript and injected it into <body> , and styled it by injecting a style tag into <head> . I don’t recommend doing this in large-scale projects that require maintenance one bit, but given that this is a lightweight single-screen message, I thought it warranted that treatment.
Next, I needed to prevent Angular from executing its actual main application code. While the application I tested the blocker on entirely doesn’t work in IE, other parts of our platform do partially work, and I wanted to guarantee to stop any extra API calls. Unfortunately, in my research, I did not find a way — and I don’t think there really is one — to stop the execution of another Javascript file from a Javascript file, so I ended up removing <app-root> and anything else from <body> to prevent Angular from doing anything. This may throw an error in console (for the IEs that do have a console) but it’ll stop API calls and half-baked DOM rendering, which is what’s really important.
After I finished the blocker, I used the same polyfills method to inject this page across the platform. Here is the npm package [@atom-platform/es5-ie-blocker]. I hope other developers will find this useful as well to move off of IE and be free to use the latest CSS technologies, free from all the IE-related bugs.
Bye IE.
Demo on how to use it in Angular apps: [Stackblitz]
Suggestions on how to make it work better with other frameworks are welcome! | https://medium.com/atom-platform/goodbye-internet-explorer-11-85e97c53c794 | ['Lisa Xu'] | 2019-02-09 03:06:13.460000+00:00 | ['Internet Explorer', 'JavaScript', 'Angular', 'Browser Support', 'Web Development'] |
Oprah promised it will get better | Oprah promised it will get better
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
I may never “land a job” again. About four years ago, I was fired from a job I had for a decade. The “powers that be” would call it “position elimination” or “unfortunate circumstances of the recession.” As I have said before, you can call it what you want, when it happens to you it feels the same regardless of the surrounding circumstances and it is personal.
Because I was the “Sugar Momma,” as Hubby called me, I immediately began applying for other positions. I sent out many cover letters, résumés, and references. I filled in so many of those online applications that my eyes crossed. Indeed.com became my best friend and they sent me email after email after email telling me what a perfect fit this one job or that other job would be for me.
There were a handful of those that never made it out of the inbox of the hiring agent. But, I look great on paper, so I had a lot of interviews too. For two years, I interviewed with committees or chairs or directors. And, I would do well in the interview. I study before going in. I learn the website and mission of the institution. I am charming and funny. I laugh at their jokes.
Most of the time, I only learned that I wasn’t chosen for the position when I would read the announcement about the person who was chosen. I was appalled at the lack of communication between the folks doing the hiring and the folks applying for the position. One place did send a letter — an actual letter through snail mail! That was old fashioned, but at least it was something. For another application, I had multiple email messages back and forth with the person hiring the position. It seemed like we had built rapport with each other. Then, I was ghosted like I was a 15 year old in a high school romance novel. I never heard from him again. Nothing. Radio silence. Not even an old fashioned letter delivered by the postal service.
I landed some part-time gigs. One that is on-going and wonderful. It is the congregation I serve and without them over these four years, I’m not sure I would ever make my bed or take a shower. I’m so grateful for this opportunity to serve — even in the very part-time way it is. I stage manage sometimes. That comes and goes and with the Pandemic, it went for a long time. I haven’t had a full-time position since my career abruptly ended. I don’t want to be a cry-baby about it. But, I am trying to be radically vulnerable. We are three months into these daily blog posts and I’m still trying to figure out the difference between those two things. I guess if you think of it as whining, then you will stop reading.
After two years of steady “We are going in a different direction” emails or no emails at all, I stopped looking. Hubby ended up working full-time along with other part-time gigs and we have been able to manage. Kid #2 was in middle school and being bullied, so we started home-schooling. Then, of course, the Pandemic. It was helpful that I could be home to be the OCD monitor of all things school. I taught a couple of courses on worship via Zoom. I started a new faith community. I kept busy.
I got into a routine, of sorts. I don’t really do routines very well, but I settled in again. Over the last few months, I have found myself thinking aloud, “Wow, I have a great life.” I stepped away from the edge of the abyss that is depression and began to be grateful for the time I had to spend on things I feel called to do, including spending time with the kids.
Then, I heard about a position opening up that sounded perfect for me. I worked on my cover letter and résumé. And, of course, there was an online application in addition to that. I got an interview. I killed the interview. (I think I did, anyway.) I did not get chosen for the position. They went a different direction.
Before the interview, I wasn’t sure what I thought about any of it. I had been satisfied. But, this was going to make the financial situation at our house a lot less stressful, so it would be good. I would be great at the job. I honestly have no doubt about that. I feel weird saying that without apologizing, but it is the truth. I don’t know if I would enjoy the environment. I don’t know if I would miss how settled my life had become. I do know I would have been good at it.
After the interview, I still didn’t know what I thought. Honestly, I hoped they would hire a BIPOC. They need to. All you have to do is look at a website to know this. But, if they weren’t going to choose someone with darker skin tones than me, then I wanted to be the chosen one. Who doesn’t want to be chosen?
So, when I found out that I had not been chosen — again — all the same old feelings and questions began to circle my head. I made a list that day of questions I was asking myself. They weren’t deliberate. I just tried to notice what came into my mind. When something floated through, I wrote it down.
1. I must look good on paper. What happens in the interview that makes them not want me?
2. Oprah said the decade of the 50’s is the best. What is going to happen between now and May to make my 50’s better than this decade has been?
3. Is it because I’m almost 50?
4. Did they know the whole time who they were going to hire? This seems to happen all the time and I’m pretty sick of it.
5. Do I seem crazy to other people?
6. Is it because I’m fat?
Now, that last one is going to make some of you very uncomfortable. Sorry. That question went through my mind more times than any other. I don’t think people do it consciously. I don’t think the committee had a conversation about me after the interview saying,
“Well, she WOULD be perfect, if it just weren’t for that one thing.”
And, I wish it weren’t true, but I know it is true. I know it is true because I do it and I AM FAT. So, I know others are doing it all the time. Subconsciously, we decide what kind of person a person must be if they are fat. Words like “unhealthy,” “lazy,” and “slow” come to mind without us even registering that it is happening. Of course, words like “jolly,” “snuggly,” and “make the rockin’ world go round” come to mind too. The stereotypes aren’t all bad. If this was a reason, I don’t think the people making the decision even know that it was a reason. I can’t help but wonder.
One day, I said that whole Oprah thing to BFF — “Oprah says that my 50’s will be the best yet!” To which she replied, “Well, it couldn’t get any worse!”
Ouch!
As far as looking good on paper, I am one of those people who is over-qualified for just about everything I could get an interview for. Continuing my education, getting a doctorate seemed like the perfect idea at the time. And, had I been able to maintain my position at the seminary, it would have been. I educated myself for that particular position and while it does sound nice to list my degrees, there are few positions looking for such things from me. So, of course, they have questions about why in the world a person with such education and experience would apply for a job that only requires a Bachelor’s degree. I would wonder too. “Either this person is hard to work with or crazy or both!”
When I was in my twenties and early thirties, I got called all the time to do conferences or preach for special events. When the position opened at the seminary, someone called me to tell me to apply. I didn’t have to go look for it. So, one of the things that happens in not being chosen is the comparison to what once was. And, with that, inevitably I ask, “Am I just past my prime now? Will I never be able to land a job again?”
All these questions don’t even begin to touch on the theological. And, let me tell you, when a position seems to appear from thin air written for me and I’m still not chosen, there are a lot of theological questions! “What are you doing, God?!” But, I know I’m not the only one who thought this way about the position either. I’m sure many of the people who interviewed have some kind of faith that was guiding them in their decisions. There is no reason I should get chosen over someone else. It doesn’t stop the questions from coming to my mind.
I’m using the word “chosen” a lot because that is how it feels to me. I wasn’t chosen. And, I want to be chosen. Even if I were going to turn down the offer, it would be nice to be asked. I’m sure there are people in the world who can go through this process without it feeling so personal. And, maybe that is one of the things I should be working on, one of the things other people can see in me that makes them nervous. Maybe it shouldn’t feel so personal all the time.
I really am okay. I needed about five hours to grieve not being chosen. I will continue to ponder the “making it personal” thing, but right now I don’t think that is so bad. I do make things personal. I like being personal. I want to know you personally. I want you to be personal with me. Living in the world through radical vulnerability means things feel very personal. That may not be a way to “land a job,” but I happen to believe it is pretty good way to live a life. | https://medium.com/@thmcclung/landing-a-job-4f1bf10d1c0d | ['T. H. Mcclung', 'She Her S'] | 2021-09-04 00:50:42.005000+00:00 | ['Careers', 'Daily Blog', 'Chosen', 'Year 49', 'Oprah'] |
Personalizing asynchronous communication with Vmaker | Photo by Ashutosh Sonwani from Pexels
How do we communicate today
If I walk on the street, and randomly ask people — “What’s your favourite way of communicating with others?”
I’m gonna get a lot of different answers.
The tricky part is that most people will have difficulty in figuring out which one is the favourite. The reason behind this is that no one totally relies on only one stream of communication.
We go back and forth, and choose the one that fits our needs and is in line with our expectations.
But, if you broadly want to categorize the different ways of communication, then you can put them in two categories — synchronous and asynchronous communication
What is synchronous communication?
Synchronous communication happens in real-time. All the users have to be in sync, active in other words, to talk and exchange information.
Phone calls and video meetings are the perfect examples of synchronous communication.
This form of communication will help you to get things done quickly. If you have an agenda in hand which needs answers, suggestions and opinions from others instantly, this is the right choice for you.
However, this instantness is like a double-edged sword. While everything can be done real-time, it also gets taxing if it’s done continuously. Besides, working with a remote team can also be challenging as you have to factor in the time zone limitations.
Let’s take Zoom meetings as an example. It perfectly explains the demerits of the synchronous communication.
In a Zoom call, you need to stay attentive to understand what other people are talking about and who the speaker is. Usually, there are multiple users joining, so a lack of concentration can turn costly.
If you search for the term “Zoom fatigue,” you’ll come across articles discussing the deteriorating effects of continuous online meetings on the people working from home.
Here’s a study done by National Geographic, on how ‘Zoom fatigue’ is taxing the brain.
The constant pressure of staying attentive and participating in discussions is sometimes too much to handle. In addition, there is also a heavy cloud of consciousness looming on the shoulders of the participants. A small error or slight lack of judgement can bring a scathing attack on the confidence of the user.
Synchronous communication is not bad, and cannot be overruled completely. It existed and it will exist. However, the very strength of synchronous communication becomes its biggest challenge and if not managed correctly; it can hinder the very underlying concept of communication — exchanging information.
What is asynchronous communication?
Now, it’s pretty easy to figure out what asynchronous communication is.
In this form of communication, the users do not necessarily have to be available in real time. They can communicate as per their time and convenience.
Emails and text messages are the best examples of asynchronous communication.
Let’s get the negatives out first.
If you have a strict timeline to get things done or if you want to bring everyone on board simultaneously, then asynchronous communication may not be the right choice for you.
You can’t send an email to your team and expect them to reply immediately. No, that’s not gonna happen even if you mark it as URGENT.
Asynchronous communication gives the users the liberty to think and contemplate ideas, and engage in a conversation at their own pace.
This is the biggest strength of this form of communication.
There is so much scope for the users to stay calm and plan their action. There is no fear of someone watching over their shoulders, plotting their every action.
This is a perfect choice for customer support, designers, and writing teams. With asynchronous communication they can share their work amongst peers to get feedback, without pressuring them to reply instantly.
In this stream of work, it’s always advisable to take time and think clearly.
Personalizing asynchronous communication
There’s another thing about asynchronous communication that pegs it a notch lower than synchronous communication.
And that thing is personalization. Asynchronous communication lacks the personal feel. The synergy of working together.
Think about it, in an email, other than mentioning the name and a few personal details of the recipient, you can’t add many flavors of personalization in it.
Compare this with a video call. The user on the other end can see you and because it’s done in real-time, there is so much for you to talk about.
So, if you want to have a more personal form of asynchronous communication where do you go?
Can you think of a tool? No? Let me help you.
Have you heard about screen recording tools? These are simple tools which help you to record your screen and your face simultaneously.
Screen recording is not new. It has been in the scene for some time, but in the past five years it has gained popularity. If you go on Google Search Trends, you will see how the search volume has changed over the years.
Introducing Vmaker
To make more people choose a personal yet asynchronous communication tool we launched Vmaker. A free and simple app that allows unlimited screen and video recording.
Vmaker has been designed to help people communicate and collaborate better. It marries the concept of Gmail and Zoom to give an escape route to those users who are fighting the Zoom fatigue.
At Vmaker, we follow the motto of “Video chat, without a chat”
While making Vmaker, we put a special emphasis on the feature list. We want to make Vmaker a better tool for communication and that fits everyone be it a team in an enterprise, a YouTuber, or a teacher who takes online classes.
Here’s a quick overview of what Vmaker can do -
Unlimited screen and video recordings for free
All your recordings get saved on cloud which means you can access them anytime, anywhere
Record in high quality up to 4K
You can use a microphone and system audio for narration
Set a schedule to start recordings automatically
Use the in-built video editor to remove the unwanted parts
Use screen annotations to highlight specific areas
Blur or customize the background for better effect
Create auto expiry videos
There’s one special ingredient that we always save for the last. This is something that we’re really proud of.
Introducing — Schedule your screen recording with Max
“Woof! Hi, I’m Max, virtual assistant at Vmaker”
Max is our virtual assistant who will assist you in scheduling your screen recording session. This means that Max will automatically start recording your screen according to your pre-decided time.
So, you don’t have to stress about remembering the date and time of your next recording session. Also, this feature is a great back up when you have an emergency like you have to run an errand at the last minute, your baby starts crying and needs to be looked after or you stub your toe against the kitchen table.
Final words
Vmaker is an advanced tool which takes the best of both the world — synchronous and asynchronous communication. It is impossible to abandon other forms and move to screen recording completely, but it is a great avenue to embrace new technology.
With Vmaker, we want to revolutionize the way people communicate today. We want to make screen recording a tool for communication and let the world experience the power of it. For the same reason we have set our motto as — Video chat, without a chat.
Get the same fun of video chatting with your family and friends, share your screen and do a lot more without the pressure of staying online.
Do we sound interesting? Then let me welcome you to take a tour of our website.
Also, let me remind you — It’s FREE, UNLIMITED for lifetime. | https://medium.com/@tanoychowdhury/personalizing-asynchronous-communication-with-vmaker-7870c837cfe1 | ['Tanoy Chowdhury'] | 2020-12-22 10:08:58.844000+00:00 | ['Communication', 'Mental Health', 'Digital Life', 'Remote Working', 'Technology'] |
The Importance Of Being Human In A Technology-Driven World | There’s no denying that our world is becoming increasingly technology-driven. What’s the best thing you can do to prepare? Focus on being human.
Why Is It Important To Be Human?
Every company can exist without technology, but no company can exist without people. No matter how advanced technology becomes, it will never totally replace humans.
Before we had automation, we created jobs that could neatly fit into buckets and easily be done in a series of steps. But because we didn’t have technology, we put humans in those jobs. Now we have technology that can step in and take over those jobs, leaving humans to actually be human. As technology becomes more prevalent and powerful, the biggest value we can bring is to be human.
I put together a video which talks about this in more detail. Please check it out below and if you want more content like this you can subscribe to my Youtube channel.
How Can We Be Human?
Being human at work means practicing the innately human skills that technology can’t do — things like empathy, creativity, collaboration, self-awareness, innovation, coaching, mentoring, and much more. As humans, we are naturally skilled in these areas, but we’ve been conditioned to not practice these things within our companies. To truly be human at work, we have to practice what makes us human and build real, human connections with our colleagues and customers.
What’s The Benefit Of Being Human?
Technology will only grow in the future, and being human and embracing our uniquely human characteristics will be the most valuable skills organizations will need. People who are good at being human will be in high demand, even above people with advanced technical skills. If we want to create human organizations, we need humans. When you practice human skills regularly, your value will increase and you’ll be presented with new opportunities.
Leadership is changing. What are the skills and mindsets you need to master in order to lead in the new world of work? According to over 140 of the world’s top CEOs there are 4 mindsets and 5 skills that leaders need to master. Learn what they are and hear directly from these leaders by downloading the PDF below.
Technology is a powerful tool for future organizations. But so are humans. The most important thing you can do to future-proof your career is to be human in a technology-driven world. Embrace and develop those uniquely human skills that technology can’t replicate. When you build empathy, creativity, communication, and more, you set yourself up to lead in the future of work. | https://medium.com/jacob-morgan/the-importance-of-being-human-in-a-technology-driven-world-98268ee10f91 | ['Jacob Morgan'] | 2020-12-25 08:02:30.007000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Future Of Work', 'Technology', 'Humanity', 'Job Security'] |
Apophasis | Apophasis is a figure of speech, used not only in speaking but also in writing, which refers to bringing up an issue while claiming not to mention it.
Here are a few examples:
I don’t want to badmouth my parents or say how terribly abusive they were.
I promised I wouldn’t tell the world that the corrupt prosecutor tried to force her to lie on the stand.
Also, an example from the show Friends comes to mind, when Mr. Geller talks about Rachel’s parents’ disappointment when she doesn’t get married to Barry: (I’m not sure these are the exact words, so I won’t use quotation marks.)
I won’t say how much they spent on that wedding, but forty thousand dollars is a lot of money.
And here’s another one from the show House: (I’m not sure these are the exact words, so I won’t use quotation marks.)
I don’t want to say anything bad about another doctor, especially one who’s a useless drunk.
Apophasis is also present in some books I’ve read. One author that comes to mind is Marco Ocram. His works are filled with apophasis, which makes them some of the most amusing books I’ve had the pleasure to read.
Do you ever use apophasis when you speak or write? | https://medium.com/@authornikaparadis/apophasis-20d8720ecb1a | ['Nika Paradis'] | 2020-12-29 08:42:09.552000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Speaking', 'Words', 'Literature', 'Learning'] |
Raspberry White Chocolate Braid… and a New Website | Featuring homemade jam from the Farmer’s Market, rum-laced, flaky German pastry, messy dough-making, and a side note on Saturdays:
__________________________________________________________________Hello everyone! I know you’re probably looking for more information on a certain pastry.
Check out the full post, recipe, and tons of other yummy things on my new website: Raspberry White Chocolate Braid on Baking in Black and White. __________________________________________________________________
For those of you that do not know, I am not yet 18. I know, I know- you’re thinking, “What the heck does this have to do with the Raspberry White Chocolate Braid? Get to the pastries!” Well, bear with me a second. But to tide you over, here is another pastry pic:
Being not yet 18 means that the weekends of the last two years of my life were consumed by studying, school events, dances, more studying, and unrealistic self-imposed high standards. This pastry may be sugar-coated but I’m done sugar coating high school. It was a stressful time for me. Now to the key part: was. ’Cause I am graduating!
Being “done” means a lot of things.
1. an all-consuming sense of relaxation and relief
2. time to do things you want to do on weekdays
3. time to do things you want to do on weeknights
4. time to do things you want to do on weekends
I’m going to focus on #4. This weekend I went to the Dallas Farmer’s Market with my best friend and bought the delicious, homemade (not by me) jam I used in this recipe.
Recipe from the Boston Cooking School Cookbook (1939) and Betty’s Blue Ribbon Fare Jam
As we were walking around the open-air section (trendily named “The Shed”) gaping at all the beautiful baked goods and handmade soaps, she said, as if it was the most surprising thing in the world: “Everyone is so smiley and happy!” Saturdays don’t have to be for studying (or socializing followed by stress and guilt). Saturdays are for strolling through a market and sneezing a little bit because it’s Spring time, and also wishing it could be Spring forever.
I walked away from the market with 1/2 lb of pecans, some handmade granola, and an adorable jar of Raspberry White Chocolate Jam from Betty’s Blue Ribbon Fare. On the drive home I started to brainstorm what I could make that would highlight this beautiful jam. I landed on this: a flaky sweet German pastry folded around the jam, baked to golden brown, and sprinkled with sugar. Simple, beautiful, and more delicious with every bite.
Since Betty did all the hard work of making the jam for me, I put some love into the dough. We’re going homemade and mixed by hand! It all starts with a less-than-fancy looking pile of flour, an egg, and a clean work surface.
In the back right of the photo you’ll see something that looks like grated mozzarella. That’s butter. Yep! Grating chilled butter and then freezing it is a great way to make it easier to incorporate into a dough. Those tiny butter pieces will make it flaky and puffy! (When the butter heats in the oven, it releases steam that causes the pastry to puff.) Add an egg and your butter to sifted dry ingredients and get to work incorporating everything!
You want to get the dough to a stage where it looks like this: nice and crumbly with no dry mounds of flour. To incorporate the butter, you can simply use your hands, a thin spatula, or a pastry blender if you have one. Add chilled rum (Yes, rum! Why use water when we can use rum?) to the crumbly dough gradually until everything comes together.
The final dough is smooth and a beautiful pale yellow. Form it into a rectangular block, wrap it in plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge to chill.
The filling is simple: a delicious jam of your choosing, a little powdered sugar and vanilla for extra sweetness and flavor, and some flour to thicken. You’ll also want to make an egg wash to brush over your braid so it bakes to a beautiful golden brown.
After a few minutes, your chilled pastry is ready to meet the rolling pin. Trim rough edges, spoon jam down the middle, and cut the sides in a diagonal fringe. All you have to do is criss-cross the fringes and you’ve reached official fancy pastry-maker status.
Buttery, flaky, rich pastry with the added depth of a hint of rum topped off with sweet and slightly tart raspberry jam… simple perfection. The pastry is the perfect balance of crispy and soft. It’s a good base for anything! Go crazy with the fillings: apple butter, Nutella, Cookie Butter, fresh berries, orange marmalade… they would all be delicious!
Now get to baking! You’ll have no chance to get confused; I wrote down all the tiny details.
Find the recipe HERE.
Check out the rest of Baking in Black and White to fulfill all your dessert dreams. You can search my recipes by tags, which range from “cake” to “chocolate” to “jam” to “dough”.
Because there’s nothing better than the pastry dough for a buttery pie crust.
Or a Raspberry White Chocolate Pastry Braid. Whatever floats your boat.
You can follow Baking in Black and White on my website, or on Pinterest, Facebook, or Tumblr for more baking tips and antique-cookbook inspired recipes. | https://medium.com/baking-in-black-and-white/raspberry-white-chocolate-braid-and-a-new-website-7ad958c13dec | ['Kas Tebbetts'] | 2016-05-08 23:50:57.412000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Recipe', 'Farmers Market'] |
So Be It, Jedi: “Rise of Skywalker” Is Pure Poetry | It was never going to end in a way that pleased everyone, but it ended the way the Skywalker Saga needed to.
It should be obvious, but there will be SPOILERS for Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker herein. So conduct yourself accordingly.
After seeing Star Wars: The Last Jedi — which was very, very good, let’s be clear and not let the Twitter narrative dictate the legacy — I praised it for its attempt to push Star Wars off the Skywalker carousel and how its message of leaving behind the old ways set up Episode IX to go anywhere. This was all immediately after the release of the movie, when Episode IX had no title, no director, and we had nothing but the movie’s own inevitability to go by. It was also well ahead of the arrival of Disney+.
I stand by everything I said about Last Jedi, but I have since realized something else. Rian Johnson was pointing us towards Star Wars’ future, but that future would not be realized in film, or at least not in this story. The threads teased in Last Jedi would actually be picked up by things like The Mandalorian, which would carve a new story in this sandbox, one that exists under the pall of what has come before, but is also free to move beyond it.
What I was wrong about was the potential for Rise of Skywalker to go anywhere, and not follow the same patterns as the other films. Because that’s what this story is. George Lucas himself always said that these movies were poems that rhymed, and that patterns and circles and echoes are part and parcel of the Skywalker Saga. And for years, the Skywalker Saga was the only Star Wars we knew. That’s not the case now. There will be more daring, more adventurous, and more out-of-the-box Star Wars to come, and ending the Skywalker Saga with echoes and patterns and rhymes is exactly how it was meant to be.
Yes, there was initial disappointment in discovering that Rey was a Palpatine — So wait, Palpatine had kids? Please let The Courtship of Sheev Palpatine be the next Disney+ show — but it had to be this way. Look at the fan reactions.
Last Jedi: “Rey is a nobody.”
Twitter: “What? How is she so powerful then? What is this Mary Sue bullshit? YOU ARE RUINING STAR WARS!”
Rise of Skywalker: “OK, fine. Rey’s a Palpatine.”
Twitter: “What? I thought you said she was a nobody in that movie we all irrationally hate! Now you give us blatant fanfic because it was we’re been braying for for years? YOU ARE RUINING STAR WARS!”
It was a no win situation. Where could they go? Making her a nobody didn’t go over, so what choice did they have? Think about it — would it have been better is she’d been a clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi? A lost Solo twin? A Rule 63 Qui-Gon Jinn? I think the choice they made, although puzzling in some ways, was the right one. Johnson cleverly left a door open, but not for the Skywalker Saga. The Skywalker Saga had to remain stubbornly repetitive and incestuous, because that’s what this story is. It was never going to take a bold left into entirely new territory, not now. Not when it was so clearly being wrapped up so that the world teased by Last Jedi could actually be explored.
Rise of Skywalker couldn’t cover every detail or storyline. Sometimes you’re an important element in one movie only to end up spiraling unceremoniously into a Sarlacc five minutes into the next one. This movie had to wrap up a 42 year, 9-movie story and it couldn’t pause to make sure that characters introduced literally at the eleventh hour got equal screen time. Sometimes you’re Lando, sometimes you’re Wedge. That’s life. You have a finite amount of time to tell this story. Not everyone is going to take center stage.
Again, Rise of Skywalker was about the Boléro. About playing the echoes and refrains. It’s OK to enjoy seeing Rey actually don — for real — the kind of helmet she wore absent-mindedly while daydreaming on Jakku.
It’s OK to enjoy that Lando is first introduced in disguise, a predilection he picked up in Return of the Jedi.
It’s OK to get misty when Chewbacca finally gets his medal.
You’re meant to get all mushy when Rey uses a piece of trash to slide down the sand dune into the Lars homestead.
You are meant to tear up as the movie walks into the twin sunset with the ghosts of Luke and Leia smiling down on us.
These are movies, after all. Movies about magical space wizards having laser battles. They are meant to be fun. No one told you to make “Star Wars Fan” (or “Star Wars Hater” for that matter) your sole personality trait, where you live and die on every creative decision.
At the end of the day, Rise of Skywalker could only end this way. With echoes and callbacks and mirror imagery. In other words…
Exactly as we have foreseen. | https://eric-alt.medium.com/so-be-it-jedi-rise-of-skywalker-is-pure-poetry-882958b9c161 | ['Eric Alt'] | 2019-12-23 16:56:45.430000+00:00 | ['Rise Of Skywalker', 'Star Wars', 'Jj Abrams', 'Last Jedi', 'Rian Johnson'] |
Preparing for virtual school with my sons with ADHD and dyslexia | Here is what I learned in the spring & what I will do differently in September
Photo courtesy of Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels
Emergency online school was a disaster for my two older sons last spring. Matias, age 9, and Tomas, age 7, both have ADHD and some (undiagnosed) anxiety. Matias has an IEP for reading help, as well as for organizational supports related to his ADHD.
Fearless, active, vivo children, my boys are also, conversely, of the orchid category. They thrive on routine and even small, favorable changes (like starting the soccer season) disrupt them deeply for days or even weeks. Now, in a pandemic-induced quarantine, contact with friends and all extracurriculars abruptly halted (choir, chess, robotics and soccer), and a mother moderately sick with COVID 19?
Things were a whole lot worse.
They were understandably volatile, cranky. They had no tolerance for any additional change. They were both revved up and scattered.
Photo courtesy of Anna Shvets from Pexels
Their whole world just been upturned and I was obsessing on math story problems about kids they didn’t know and apples they didn’t care about.
As a family, we made the hard (but privileged) decision for me to take emergency family leave through the new CARE act so that I could offer my boys my full attention with virtual homeschooling, once I was healthy again. I downloaded assignments, created a color-coded calendar, bought some pencils, glue and lined paper and was raring to go. In a period of such uncertainty, I was ready to offer my boys and myself a constant with school.
My sons’ responses were clear from the get-go, but I took three more weeks to understand.
They rebelled at online math assignments, frustrated with the repetition and lack of context. Zearn, the math platform, had become a bad word. They pushed back at projects that felt disconnected from what they were doing at home: planting tomatoes, jumping on the trampoline, and playing Legos. And without their classmates and teacher to offer context and social motivation, school fell flat.
Trying to move my sons through their school work each day was a vigorous swim upstream — not to mention a logistical nightmare of hopping from one son and his Zoom conference, to another son and his math activity, while a third boy lost interest and wandered off.
What are my priorities for my three creative, biracial, bilingual sons as human beings and learners? Decoding story problems doesn’t even hit the top 20.
Our mutual frustrations came to a head one afternoon as I tried to work with my oldest son, Matias, on his math. He kept twirling on the swing and closing his eyes, and then trying halfheartedly to read the computer screen that I held from the nearby steps of the treehouse, as he swung back. Movement often helps him self-regulate, so the swing was not a problem in of itself. He just couldn’t maintain focus. Reading the multi-sentence story problems off the screen shut him down, so I rewrote them and we tried to read them together, underlining the key words. And then we drew out the apples and children involved in the story. At that point, my youngest son, Gabriel, bounded in to sing loudly and scrawl chalk all over us and the nearby treehouse.
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” -Albert Einstein is generally credited
Matias finally stood up and tore his paper in half, shouting, “I can’t do this!” And then he stormed off.
I sat clutching my laptop on knees, reeling.
In my eagerness to show him that he could, indeed, do this, I had communicated exactly the opposite. What ran through my mind as I sat there on the steps of the treehouse, was how many times adults had said to me, as a child with learning disability, “I am not sure how else to teach you this,” and my internalization of: I can’t do this, there is something lacking in me.
My stomach heaved as those words rang clearly through my head. I would never speak them to my son, and yet he had still received the message that the fault was somehow with him.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay from Pexels
In my eagerness to find structure, and to keep gaining ground with reading and writing, I had ran roughshod over my sons’ clear message: online schooling was not working for them. Their whole world just been upturned and I was obsessing on math story problems about kids they didn’t know and apples they didn’t care about.
Over the next couple of days, I took stock.
In talking with both my husband and our sons’ counselor, I realized the sense of urgency driving my focus on my sons’ online schooling. With both older boys “behind” in reading and writing skills, I felt an added responsibility to help them “catch up” with their peers so that September would not be such a hard reentry.
But deeper than all of that, I realized I was letting an old idea of scarcity run me. A panic that there was not enough time for my children to learn. This panic was of course rooted in my own childhood experience of moving through a school system that was not fully able to meet my needs as a child with learning differences.
What are my priorities for my three creative, biracial, bilingual sons as human beings and learners?
Decoding story problems doesn’t even hit the top 20.
Photo courtesy of Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels
I want them to trust the flow of their own curiosity as they explore the world around them, because this will sustain them far more than doing a task because an adult asked them to do so. I want them to own their learning process without apology and to ask confidently for that they need: whether that be the option to dictate an essay, or a checklist to help keep them organized. I want them to value their own strengths, and their fearless, innovative, biracial and bilingual selves.
I want them to be kind humans who will steward this planet, and respect every animal, plant and human they encounter.
With that in mind, we sat down and talked as a family (well, walked and talked because movement always helps us communicate better) about what to do.
We decided to unplug from online learning and completely follow the boys’ interests for most of the day. Each afternoon, we would write or read, but the boys would have total control over what. They could write a letter, recipe, or translate song lyrics from Spanish to English. They could read weird Shel Silverstein poems, graphic novels, comics, or listen to chapter books. With the boys’ input, we did decide to keep the “extra” reading support classes by Zoom as the boys were working hard and enjoying the contact with their peers and teachers in this context. They were also making gains.
Deciding to completely trust my children as active agents capable of learning on their own terms, in the context of a pandemic with so many other uncertain elements, terrified me a bit.
But after day one, I knew we had made the right choice.
Photo courtesy of August de Richelieu from Pexels
In those final three weeks before summer, my sons explored break dancing (thank you dancers on YouTube for sharing your craft), origami, and delved deeper into strategy games: Othello, chess and Go. They created multi-course, Japanese-Chilean fusion meals flavored with umeboshi, or fermented, salted plum paste, celery and lemon.
They created, directed and performed an elaborate puppet show. They also made flan for their dad’s birthday, seeking advice from family members in Chile by WhatsApp over how to best caramelize the sugar (under my watchful eye).
My oldest son had been so inspired by the craft of the new graphic novels we were reading — Hilo, Amulet, Witch Boy and Zita the Space Girl to name a few — that he spent hours creating character sketches and storylines in his own notebook.
And all boys spent the mornings with our new chicks: learning their personalities, how their chirps would change when stressed, calm, or calling for their sisters, and what bugs they preferred to eat. I watched my oldest son once follow our four chicks for hours (in full chick mode), imitating their chirps, offering them bugs, and just observing them intently.
Taking stock in September
After a week delay due to devastating wildfires in our area, virtual school is starting again this Monday. Time to take stock yet again.
After an endless, atypical Summer, we are all hungry for some routine, predictable peer contact, and fresh ideas.
School will be more streamlined and synchronous (Zoom conferences with teacher and small/large groups of peers). Both sons already know and feel rapport with their new teachers.
My husband and I will take turns supporting the boys with virtual schooling between our works schedules (my husband will work weekends to make this possible). This will offer my husband and boys a chance to spend more time together, and to work on reading, writing and speaking in Spanish in the afternoons.
For visual aids, we have created together — after much trial and error — a visual, magnetic calendar with drawings on wooden, magnetic pieces that the boys can move around to build their daily and monthly schedule. This is our most interactive, accessible schedule yet (and it's in Spanish too, which is best for my husband, and another literacy opportunity for our boys).
Photo courtesy of Guduru Ajay bhargav from Pexels
But more important than any of these factors is that I have learned to truly trust my boys’ learning process. The onus is not on them to strain and fit the normative learning style. The onus is not on them to be a tidy constant in a messy, variable, pandemic-fraught world.
If anything, current events (political strife, fires exacerbated by climate change, a pandemic) have underscored to me the importance of nurturing my sons’ innovative, fearless approach to learning and life.
Our planet will need all of their creative forces.
Here is my vow to my sons for the coming months (or year) of virtual learning:
I will listen to your questions and ideas.
I will respect your learning process and I will find you role models who excel in the world as different learners.
I will inspire you to work hard and think deeply — for the sake of learning itself.
I will stand beside you and stand up for you whenever you need.
We will make it through this year together: let's see where we end up.
Here is more of my work you may enjoy. Thank you for your comments, feedback and thoughts, which I always appreciate. | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/preparing-for-virtual-school-with-my-sons-with-adhd-and-dyslexia-96ea2ce0f030 | ['Rosa Walker'] | 2020-09-24 19:09:20.440000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Family', 'Parenting', 'Education Reform', 'Disability Rights'] |
I Am Not Black | My mentor and me © Mathew Guido 2019
Until I moved to the United States of America at the age of eighteen — for college — I had no idea that I was white.
I know how utterly ridiculous that sounds.
But it’s true. Growing up, I never once thought of myself as white, any more than I thought of my high school as diverse (it was), or that my social circle was, too. I didn’t realize that we looked like one of those Benetton ads — or even that the ads were making a statement. I didn’t realize that my black and Japanese family members were anything other than family. I didn’t realize that my very best friend was black. To me, he was just Nick. And until my eyes were opened following my move south of the border, and I began to discuss these discoveries with my mother — whose home framed my foundational understanding of other people, as a child — I never knew that my own grandmother had once asked her in confidence, “Doesn’t Anthony have any white friends?”
I learned about it in college. And I was dumbfounded.
Forget the fact that I did have white friends, and still do. The point I’m trying to make is that my friends and I were color-blind. And while I’m at it, we were also religion-blind, and orientation-blind. I had no idea that some of my friends were Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian, any more than I knew that two of my close friends were gay, and that one of those was also black. I’d never have known, either, but for the fact that twenty years after we left high school — an experience that scarred him, deeply — we reconnected on Facebook, and he wrote me a long and intimate letter explaining his childhood trials, and to thank me for being his only friend.
It’s one of the most precious things anyone has ever written to me.
I had absolutely no idea about any of this. It never once entered my mind. I learned most of it upon leaving my childhood home and community, once I’d begun to set new roots in a nation that I quickly learned defines itself, by and large, by people’s differences; and that furthermore, these differences were seen as weapons on both sides.
It was, to say the least, disturbing. And honestly, thirty-three years later, it’s only gotten more so.
The seeds for my relationship to cultural, economic or ethnic difference were planted by my mother and mentor, Andrea. To her, ever and always, people were people, and you treated them on the basis their own individual merit. To her, every human was valuable, and our job was to recognize their virtuous qualities for what they were, without foisting our own egos or beliefs onto them. She was — and remains still — the most steadfast defender of goodness, and acceptance. The superficial things by which most of us define ourselves and others — ethnicity, religion, intellect, status, wealth and trappings — were to her, distractions from what truly mattered — someone’s character. Character, to my mother, was blind to every one of these things. It came from deeper within, and connected all of us, if only we were able to tap into it adequately. The universal truth of humanity — that we are all, at our emotional and spiritual cores, indistinguishable from one another, beneath the accretion of experience, outward capacity and cultural inheritance — was the greatest lesson I ever received. And for the 51 years that I’ve known her, she has never wavered in this. It has informed every action.
To provide just one small example, I recall the years that she ran the lunch program at my elementary school, as a parent. I saw her daily. Her job was to make sure we kids didn’t run amok. Except that she didn’t care a whit about that. Rather, she methodically collected all the uneaten food — good food that my fellow students invariably tried tossing out — and every day, she’d deliver it to certain waste bins near our home, where she’d observed a homeless person rifling through the trash daily, looking for scraps. For years, she fed this person, and on occasion would also add bags of used clothing in what she thought was their size, without ever once letting them know that she was behind it, or was committed to improving their lives in the quietest way she could. She is, by a giant margin, the most virtuous person I ever met. She has always given everything of herself in exchange for nothing, for no reason other than it was the right thing to do.
This was the value system with which I grew up.
I learned about the Americans’ cardinal prejudice against African Americans, and that they were thought of, at varying turns, as property, sub-human, and dangerous. I learned that Japanese Americans were rounded up after World War II and put into concentration camps, in the very country that helped to liberate Europe from a similar injustice — the targeted persecution of the ‘other’. I learned that stereotypes existed for every single group, including my own, and that these were liberally used in conversation, as though they were truths — as though one could generalize about any two people, let alone a whole race. Pejorative monikers — ethnic slurs — were lavished on everybody, for their race or culture, from n*gger to k*ke to w*p to d*go to ch*nk to w*tback to kr*ut to r*dskin to c**lie to d*nk to fr*g to hym*e to j*p to p*lack and even to sand n*gger — a double pejorative about North Africans — and a good two dozen other disgusting names.
It was there, within that context, that I learned, in high-definition, that I was considered white; and that my ability — the sheer luxury — not to think about race was a privilege. But while I knew I was Jewish, that we were persecuted throughout the centuries, and that a third of my people were systematically murdered just forty years earlier, I didn’t know that I was white. I think that’s partly because of others’ perpetual confusion over whether I am part of a religion or a race. Well, I don’t practice any religion; and my DNA — I now know, thanks to Ancestry.com — is genetically (ethnically) distinct from that of non-Jews. Another discovery! Maybe this is why I never knew which box to tick on application forms that queried my ‘race’. For years, I kept looking for ‘Jewish’. I saw ‘Middle Eastern’ and thought maybe that was me; or the word ‘Arab’ and thought, “Well, we’re ‘cousins’, so maybe I should fill out that one, since there isn’t a box for me.” I was confused, because I’d never been made to look at myself in the light of difference, apart from having ancestors who were driven out, or socially or ethnically cleansed.
And so here I was, a first timer in the United States at eighteen, learning that my open-mindedness and ‘everything-blindness’ meant I was privileged. And measured by my newly discovered whiteness, I was; because unless I elected to offer up my religious background to anyone who asked, I was seen as white, and therefore considered a member of a group that is largely — almost entirely — free of entrenched prejudice.
And so given that I was now living in an environment of visible prejudice for the first time, I kept my mouth shut about my religious parentage. You know, as post-World War Jews do.
I also learned that other people don’t have it so good. I learned that many human beings who belonged to a group that is marginalized by the American public have had a pretty sh*tty life — made to endure consistent harassment or exclusion, or been beaten or killed, at the hands of the in-group, because of their color, their traditional clothing, their accent, or the sex of the target of their affections.
I learned that people were lazy, insofar as instead of looking — really looking — at the people they met, white and otherwise, and in lieu of engaging people in mutual conversational discovery, they they glanced at one another, and sometimes not even that, and then pre-judged everything about them by utterly superficial preconceptions.
So Instead of hating xenophobia, they practiced it.
Instead of attacking bigots, they became them.
Instead of fighting intolerance, they championed it.
Instead of indulging curiosity, they shut their minds.
Instead of presuming others’ innocence, they baselessly declared guilt.
And instead of seeking similarity, they focused on difference, and used it as a weapon.
I had reached adulthood, to be pummeled by a waterfall of ugliness.
So, no, I am not black. And because I’m not black, I cannot understand what it is to be black. Never mind the people in my life whose stories I’ve heard, and whose company I’ve kept.
Empathy is not experience.
.
It never will be. The best I can do — the best we can do — is to be curious, and to exercise that curiosity by spending time with others whose story is different from ours. Even if we do this intuitively, as I mostly have, we need to do more than just hang out with a diverse group of people; because while my relationships are still broadly diverse, by and large, it is not enough to simply be blind to others’ difference. Rather — and this is the nut of it — until we exercise willful curiosity about what makes them different; until we solicit and internalize the personal stories they tell us — stories of persecution or hardship, and at the same time, cultural inheritance or pride — we cannot possibly become champions for their causes and join their fight for acceptance, on their terms.
That’s because to not be part of the problem is very, very different from being part of the solution. And to be part of the solution, one has to have a certain quality of empathy — the kind of empathy that only comes from intellectual and emotional intimacy.
It’s very easy to tell ourselves ‘this is not our problem’. One of the most brilliant and well-known confessions ever written was penned by a German pastor named Martin Niemöller, following the end of World War II. He wrote it as a cautionary tale about our responsibility to one another, as human beings who share a community and a higher order of purpose. It is called First They Came… Here is the version we usually see:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
With that said, it’s worth sharing the unabridged confession — one few of us have seen, in full — because it is illuminating and insightful, especially in the context of today’s intolerance, and inaction:
“… the people who were put in the camps then were Communists. Who cared about them? We knew it, it was printed in the newspapers. Who raised their voice, maybe the Confessing Church? We thought: Communists, those opponents of religion, those enemies of Christians — “should I be my brother’s keeper?”
Then they got rid of the sick, the so-called incurables. I remember a conversation I had with a person who claimed to be a Christian. He said: Perhaps it’s right, these incurably sick people just cost the state money, they are just a burden to themselves and to others. Isn’t it best for all concerned if they are taken out of the middle [of society]? Only then did the church as such take note.
Then we started talking, until our voices were again silenced in public. Can we say, we aren’t guilty/responsible?
The persecution of the Jews, the way we treated the occupied countries, or the things in Greece, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia or in Holland, that were written in the newspapers. … I believe, we Confessing-Church-Christians have every reason to say: mea culpa, mea culpa! We can talk ourselves out of it with the excuse that it would have cost me my head if I had spoken out.
We preferred to keep silent. We are certainly not without guilt/fault, and I ask myself again and again, what would have happened, if in the year 1933 or 1934 — there must have been a possibility — 14,000 Protestant pastors and all Protestant communities in Germany had defended the truth until their deaths? If we had said back then, it is not right when Hermann Göring simply puts 100,000 Communists in the concentration camps, in order to let them die. I can imagine that perhaps 30,000 to 40,000 Protestant Christians would have had their heads cut off, but I can also imagine that we would have rescued 30–40,000 million [sic] people, because that is what it is costing us now.”
Niemöller’s words are prescient not only because he understood that silence (inaction) could lead xenophobic people to send innocent groups of people to their slaughter, but also because he understood that a bad seed planted early could lead to disaster later, while conversely, timely virtuous acts could (have) avert(ed) a future catastrophe. As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
We know better now. We have had recent enough holocausts — the Rohinga, the Bosniacs, the Tutsi, the Kurds… — to know what happens when we keep silent — when we turn a blind eye. And yet: few of us, sadly, will make short-term sacrifice for long-term gain, in any sphere, interpersonal, environmental or economic; and even fewer of us will make personal sacrifices, or take personal risks, for something from which we perceive ourselves to be personally exempt, even if doing so is right, is virtuous, and will make a better community for all of us.
But that doesn’t make it any less important. It doesn’t excuse us from acting with virtue, kindness, understanding, humility and empathy.
Children know this intuitively. They are naturally drawn to one another’s emotional qualities, in lieu of their trappings. It is we who teach them otherwise—to corrupt the purity of their interactions, and color-indifference.
Beyond color© Anthony Fieldman 2016
Doing so admittedly takes practice — lots of it, especially if we aren’t used to actively soliciting a deeper understanding of ‘the other’. It takes a high dose of curiosity, willfully exercised in an act of deep discovery of people who are unlike us. It also takes the investment of our sustained focus, so that we can internalize their lessons. And it takes the recognition that this type of investment is a foundational human virtue — one that pays incredible dividends in the form of insights, to which active listening, internalized, leads.
Said another way, we don’t need to be color-blind; we need to be color-sensitive.
.
So no, I’m not black. I frankly don’t know what I am. Sometimes my feeling about the answer changes. Certainly, over the years, it has evolved. There are so many dimensions to someone’s character. We are kaleidoscopes of values, features and descriptors. And while some do not change, others can become unrecognizable from what they were, just a few years earlier. But what I know is this: I know what I am not. And I know that for every vilified person whose traits I don’t share, I am privileged by not having to walk in their shoes. But I know more than that — something equally important. I know that for everything I am not, I am also disadvantaged, because there are insights I may never have into things that would expand my understanding of the rich nature of difference. There is beauty in diversity, whether it’s ethnic, religious, cultural or sexual. Diversity — of thought, of action, of cultural inheritance, and yes — of physiognomy, too — is among the greatest qualities of our species.
Diversity is to be celebrated, not hidden, misunderstood, or tyrannized.
.
We cannot celebrate what we don’t know or understand, intimately. And without an adequate investment in building that intimacy with ‘the other’ — or the benefit of the insights that emerge from it — our world remains very black and white.
It loses all of its glorious color. | https://medium.com/chance-encounters/i-am-not-black-d83ee95d49cf | ['Anthony Fieldman'] | 2020-07-27 21:12:30.288000+00:00 | ['Prejudice', 'White Privilege', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Racism', 'Chance Encounters'] |
The Pete Principle | The Pete Principle
There has to be an underdog to the story, whether he wins or not, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg checks a lot of those boxes.
photo by Marc Nozell, via Wikimedia Commons
Later on this Palm/Masters/Game of Thrones Sunday, the hot new “likable” candidate Pete Buttigieg will participate in the current, and frankly rather annoying, trend of doing a “formal” campaign launch after weeks of campaigning. It’s smart strategy, similar to a cold opening where you can fine tune a bit then get the spotlight again for “opening night.” Heck, Senator Gillibrand has done it twice already, not that many people noticed. But Mayor Pete has decidedly different circumstances, coming off two weeks of mostly positive media coverage, a respectable fundraising haul for the quarter, and the unofficial media status as “next big thing.” Coinciding with his launch, New York Magazine has a in-depth profile:
Sick of old people? He looks like Alex P. Keaton. Scared of young people? He looks like Alex P. Keaton. Religious? He’s a Christian. Atheist? He’s not weird about it. Wary of Washington? He’s from flyover country. Horrified by flyover country? He has degrees from Harvard and Oxford. Make the President Read Again? He learned Norwegian to read Erlend Loe. Traditional? He’s married. Woke? He’s gay. Way behind the rest of the country on that? He’s not too gay. Worried about socialism? He’s a technocratic capitalist. Worried about technocratic capitalists? He’s got a whole theory about how our system of “democratic capitalism” has to be a whole lot more “democratic.” If you squint hard enough to not see color, some people say, you can almost see Obama the inspiring professor. Oh, and he’s the son of an immigrant, a Navy vet, speaks seven foreign languages (in addition to Norwegian, Arabic, Spanish, Maltese, Dari, French, and Italian), owns two rescue dogs, and plays the goddamn piano. He’s actually terrifying. What mother wouldn’t love this guy?
Ok, then.
Olivia Nuzzi is a great writer, and might be coming at it a tad high and fast, but this is still tame compared to the Baal-like roll out of one Beto O’Rourke, the previous bright shiny new object in some parts of the media. His Vanity Fair launch piece involved Annie Leibovtiz working her magic to convey Joe Hagan’s prose about Beto who “seems, in this moment, like a cliff diver trying to psych himself into the jump. And after playing coy all afternoon about whether he’ll run, he finally can’t deny the pull of his own gifts.”
Whereas Beto comes off as trying really hard to be intellectually significant and deeply meaningful, Pete Buttigieg comes off as someone who has spent time really working at being smart and thoughtful. He has all the youth of a Beto without the annoying bored-rich-dude-seeking-purpose-and-destiny vibe the skateboarding, counter-climbing, punk rock former congressman gives off. Buttigieg has some talking points on his resume that make him stand out: veteran, polyglot, Harvard, Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, pianist, and all the right consulting and campaigning gigs for various places in Democratic circles. He is also politically ambitious. He came up short seeking the Indiana Treasurer’s office, then won election and re-election as mayor of South Bend by healthy margins.
The increased coverage also brought plenty of ugly. Certain corners of the commentariat have taken to writing about and debating if the openly gay and married to his husband Buttigieg is “gay enough,” or only came out later in life for political reasons, or various other items of nasty speculation whether he’s down for the LGBTQ struggle to a sufficient degree. There are no links to those as you can find them on your own and most aren’t worth your time. That’s also a product of the “silly season” of the campaign, but should still be denounced. As should folks questioning if the Episcopalian Buttigieg is a “true Christian” or not.
The other narrative that has risen is the “feud” between Buttigieg and VP Pence, though it’s been rather one sided to this point as the vice president’s public comments have declined to say anything negative about Buttigieg personally, both men having known each other from Indiana politics. We will see how long that lasts, and there is always the looming inevitability of Pence’s current boss getting involved and escalating the rhetoric on a number of issues if Mayor Pete the upstart becomes serious challenger for the nomination Pete.
Most folks don’t care one way or the other, and those that do aren’t going to change their mind on a policy position after making that the deciding factor. It is a candidate’s persona and positions that will make the difference, and the narrative of the first always outweighs the latter. Towards the end of the NYMag piece, there is a telling quote from David Axlerod, who helped steer a relatively unknown junior senator from Illinois into the White House not too long ago.
“Elizabeth Warren is sort of running laps around people right now in terms of producing policy,” Axelrod told me. “He will have to build out some of his policy ideas. But the main thing is, how do you go from an organization that won a race in a venue that is smaller than a congressional district and scale that up to a national campaign? That’s challenging. In that regard, the early success is a mixed blessing.” He added, “Now you’re in the game and you’re drinking from a fire hose, and you have to scale up very, very quickly.”
What Axlerod is getting at here is right: Narrative only goes so far as you can sustain and project it. Warren has been releasing policy proposals nearly weekly, but her campaign is seen as stagnant at best and floundering at worse. Fair or not, her narrative has been set that she missed her time in 2016, the PR debate over her heritage and DNA testing did her no favors, and her fundraising and messaging are not breaking through. Changing that narrative will be difficult if not impossible in a crowded field, and the public and media have little patience for rehabbing candidates at the moment.
Which brings us back to the current bright shiny object in the political sky, Pete Buttigieg. The last few weeks have seen him amplified and signal boosted enough by a political media that is otherwise mostly bored with the current state of play in the primary and need a story to chew on for a few weeks. Other than folks waiting to see if Joe Biden dances to the 7th veil and gets in or is just teasing, not much is going to change in this race between now and the first debates. Talking heads need something to kick around, and Pete Buttigieg is the perfect combination of different, engaging, and intelligent to fill plenty of airtime, eating up space in Twitter and Facebook posts, and keep the horse race narrative going. There has to be an underdog to the story, whether he wins or not, and Mayor Pete checks a lot of those boxes. What he does with it is wholly up to him. Novelty wears off quickly, and if he doesn’t have a message beyond that to distinguish him from a crowded field that has a sameness of political thought problem brewing, he might find himself the underdog that was interesting while not much else was going in the campaign, but couldn’t challenge for the title in the end. | https://medium.com/discourse/the-pete-principle-86dd88aa277f | ['Andrew Donaldson'] | 2019-04-17 00:42:20.745000+00:00 | ['US Politics', 'Politics', '2020 Presidential Race', '2020', 'Pete Buttigieg'] |
What makes COVID-19 so scary for some and not others? | Different reactions to the risk of COVID-19 as represented by people toasting at a bar and someone staying home and wearing a mask. [Compilation by Nancy R. Gough, BioSerendipity, LLC]
What makes COVID-19 so scary for some and not others?
Fear of the unknown and comfort with risk
For some, the virus is just a part of the risk of life and nothing to be terribly concerned about; for others, the virus is terrifying and any risk of exposure is too much.
Several aspects of the pandemic foster fear, especially in people who are risk averse and uncomfortable with the unknown:
A fraction of infected people will become desperately ill or even die, but we have no way of knowing who those people are in advance.
No universally effective treatment is available for those who will become severely ill with COVID-19, so we don’t know if treatment will work.
Every death is reported as if no deaths from this virus are acceptable or expected, setting the perception of risk as very high.
For me, the fear comes not so much for myself, but for my family members in the high-risk groups. From talking with friends and family, this is not uncommon. I have heard many people say, “I’m not worried about me, but I am worried about my ____.” Fill in the blank with grandmother, brother with cancer, immune-compromised friend who had a transplant, friend with a heart condition…
Young healthy people are generally less in touch with their own mortality and are more likely to feel invincible. No doubt this is partly why the cases are increasing among this group. Unless they are extremely cautious by nature, they are high risk themselves, or they live with a person that is high risk for becoming severely ill with COVID-19, many young adults feel that the risk of getting sick with COVID-19 is not high enough to avoid going out or socializing without social distancing. As the parent of two people in their early 20s, I fear for them. Each of them certainly does more in-person socializing than I do. Each of them eats out, either carry out or in restaurants, more than I do.
This fear for my children is not unique of course. Many of the parents of children in K-12 grade and of young adults attending college are afraid for their children. Indeed, the reactions I have seen from teachers and parents about whether or not it is safe for children to go back to in-person school shows how divided the reaction to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is in the US.
When I am feeling especially stressed, I remind myself of these words from Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH (Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota):
This virus doesn’t magically jump between two people — it’s time and dose.
So, as long as we keep our distance, wear our masks, and limit contacts with those outside our “germ circle” (as I have taken to calling the people I live with and the few I see socially in person), we should be reasonably safe.
Germ circles with number of people in each household. Overlapping circles indicates that at least one person has been inside the home of a person in the overlapping circle. Orange circles represent households with at-risk individuals. Yellow circles represent households with people who work outside of the home. Circle size represent relative risk of COVID-19 positivity based on the exposure to other people outside of the household. [Credit: Nancy R. Gough, BioSerendipity, LLC]
I think of it this way. My risk depends on 3 factors:
How likely is the person outside my germ circle to be infectious with the virus that causes COVID-19?
How exposed will I be?
How well will my immune system fight the virus?
The only one of those I can control and know for sure is the second one. So, I control how close I get, how long I am close, and whether I wear a mask or insist the other person also wears a mask.
The same three elements define my risk of passing the virus to someone else:
How likely is that I am asymptomatic or presymptomatic for COVID-19?
How much will I expose the other person if I am infectious?
How well can the other person fight the virus? (Or how at-risk is the other person?)
When deciding who to see and whether to risk an indoor encounter with or without a mask, those are the three factors that I consider.
When considering invitations to social events, I consider whether I could provide contact tracing information for each person at the event if I should later test positive for COVID-19. Can others provide my information if one of them should test positive? How many other germ circles will intersect with mine?
Is the event outside or inside? Will I be able to sit near with people inside my germ circle or will other attendees be seated with us? Can I wear my mask comfortably during the event? Will I be tempted not to wear my mask when I should be wearing it? How likely are the other attendees to be practicing social distancing and wearing masks?
Also of interest | https://ngough-bioserendipity.medium.com/what-makes-covid-19-so-scary-for-some-and-not-others-4bdbe9a18b21 | ['Nancy R. Gough'] | 2020-08-13 15:45:08.735000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Lifestyle', 'Personality', 'Society', 'Covid 19'] |
The step-by-step story of making a tile grid map of Russia | My colleague sent me a link to a local datavis contest. Participants were supposed to figure out how to split russia into square tiles to make boxed visualizations. Like this one made for America:
All tiles are the same size. It’s easy to compare them, but it is more difficult to make a such map for Russia, because all subjects come in different sizes:
To get a closure, compare Ingushetia to Saha
It seams impossible to depict russia in tiles. So I try to use hexagonal grid. To specify, I put there some fake data, then I found a way to shorten subject names.
That’s what we’ve got by far:
The next evidential step is to change the hexagonal grid to a square one. Now it’s possible to get rid of the frame and to enlarge graphs:
Columns can be shifted into getting perfectly shaped squares layout. That actually makes it easier to compare the data with the other cells:
The problem is that this layout doesn’t look like Russia. In order to change that, I tried to distance the subjects of the Eastern part:
To make the map more crowded, I removed the horizontal gaps between the subjects:
The origin of the horizontal gaps is hard to be figured out. So I tried to give a couple of subjects more space:
Not enough, so I kept going:
Now the shape is ok. It’s bad to bring so much attention to some of the regions, so I tried zooming into the european part like Data Laboratory did in some of it’s projects:
That makes sense:
I like that rows of eastern and western parts don’t match, because that emphasises the idea of european part is zoomed.
Just for fun, I’m trying to make a subject flag version:
Sahalin (on the very right) got a great flag
It’s shape doesn’t resemble Russia, but it’s interesting to explore. It would be nice to add region names, but I’m too lazy.
To evaluate the accuracy of the tiled map I paint it’s column into different colors, then do the same for the original map:
It’s sick. The left bottom part is all mixed up. All the subjects should be rearranged.
I arrange and arrange and arrange. No way. As soon I fix one mistake, I bump into a couple of new ones.
A-a-a-a-a-a! Russia is crooked!
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I should have start with defining a criteria of a good tile map. It’s better late than never:
If on the real map subjects is on the boundary, it would better stay on the boundary of a tiled map
The more real subjects connections are preserved, the better.
Especially for the most dense Central Federal District (on the left)
All federal districts should preserve connectivity, not to break apart.
The shape of the tiled map should resemble the shape of Russia. At least approximately.
One more approach. Looks straighter now:
I perform the same procedure with horizontal stripes:
It looks less crooked. Let’s check if the federals districts did not break apart:
The Northern one (blue) did. Well, I let it be.
A better way of testing the tile map comes to my mind. If we connect subjects on the real map, according to their neighbourhood on a tile map, we’ll get a grid. The less it is distorted, the better the tile map is.
The Ural regions are definitely too high. Another problem is that eastern part shape doesn’t resemble Russia.
The west have become a bit better. But the east is stretched apart. I like it nevertheless, because AL (middle, bottom) dropped down and formed a nicely recognisable corner of the map.
A couple adjustments and… tada! The tile grid map is ready: | https://medium.com/kompany/the-step-by-step-story-of-making-a-tile-grid-map-of-russia-92190d14e41e | ['Ivan Dianov'] | 2019-07-23 18:39:25.217000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Dataviz', 'Data Processing', 'Data Analysis', 'Maps'] |
Building a Slack /slash command with AWS Lambda & Python | This guide walks you through the simple process of building a cool custom Slack app (slash command). From writing the code in Python on AWS Lambda to making it API exposed, and finally enabling in your Slack Channel. It is all very easy if you follow the guide.
1. Build your AWS Lambda Function
Making a lambda function is extremely easy. To integrate with Slack, make an AWS Lambda function that reads the command args and returns JSON. The KEY is:
Input comes in Base64 Encoded AND URL encoded
AND URL encoded Output needs to be in JSON with a very specific format
Code (in this case, a simple isPrime() function):
That’s more code than you really need, but here are the key takeaways:
Extract the base64 nvpair encodings to a map. Get the command + params from the map. Callback to the commands map (dict of subcommands -> functions). Wrap the response in a Slack defined JSON.
Note that testing within AWS requires you to put the inputs in Slack format — base64 + nvpair urlencoded. Your test input should look like the image below for an input string like “command=%2Ffoo&text=bar+3”. (Pro tip use: https://www.base64encode.net/)
Test output below (triggers expected error):
2. Make your AWS Lambda a Service
Enabling the AWS Lambda as a web callable service is next. Note the endpoint URL after creating it (something like https://xxx.execute-api.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/default/MySlackFunc). Note this OPEN security means someone hit your Lambda service 10b times and has run up your bill so be careful (this is why I haven’t published my real URL)!
3. Register your app on Slack
Go to https://api.slack.com and start building a new API. Choose a name and Slack workspace (assuming you are logged into Slack in the browser).
Then choose “Slash commands” and fill out the content fields using the HTTP URL from the Lambda API.
The final step within the Slack API site is to install it or make it public in the store (again, it may cost you AWS funds if it’s a smash hit):
4. Test and enjoy!
Test drive it in your Slack Channel:
You can add more subcommands to the Lambda code quite easily! Have fun.
Happy slacking! | https://codeburst.io/building-a-slack-slash-bot-with-aws-lambda-python-d0d4a400de37 | ['Doug Foo'] | 2020-11-16 18:29:58.717000+00:00 | ['Python', 'AWS Lambda', 'Slackbot', 'Slack', 'Slash'] |
The $21 Trillion Pension Fund Market is Pouring Money into the Blockchain — #icobusted analysis | We’re starting a new column with this article — #icobusted. The author of the column is Alexander Savinkin, our investment expert and co-founder of Howtotoken. It’s here where we’ll scan the market for the newest and most remarkable upcoming ICOs and analyze them in-depth, and our focus will be on the viability of the business concepts behind these projects. This won’t concern pre-ICO/ICO price gaps, no gasps and groans about the team, and no code checking. Here, we will try to break everything down to see if there are any market prospects for the product if, and only if, that product can be delivered.
We would appreciate any feedback you may have about our new format, so please feel free to express your opinions in the comments section — which parts were you the most interested in and how we could improve the topics to make them more interesting to you. To stay up to date about what we’re doing, follow us on:
Or just subscribe to our email newsletters (to receive updates and exclusive materials that are only distributed through email):
One of the most interesting upcoming ICOs that is about to pop up is called Akropolis. In a few words, Akropolis aims to be the first pension fund marketplace. It is one of the few projects that is going to leverage the blockchain within the traditional sectors of economy. And that particular sector happens to be pretty darn big.
Product
The core idea is to build a platform that unites separate pension funds into one marketplace where individuals can compare and choose the most appropriate pension fund and plan (from the wide variety that’s out there), and fund managers will be able to use the platform for customer acquisition. Data trustworthiness and data ownership will be supported via smart contracts.
I won’t say that it’s impossible to make such a service without the blockchain; but the blockchain can provide the advantages of truthfulness as a public control mechanism, mostly because of the distributed ledger for the history of interactions and a fund’s performance/reputation. Also, DAO can be utilized to reduce fractions between pension funds and fund managers, for example. It’s also a great way to experiment and see how the things work out in practiсe while having a centralized backup.
Akropolis has decided to begin with a semi-decentralized solution, because the blockchain is not a necessary element in this case, especially in the beginning. But as we have all seen, the retirement fund market is very unstructured and difficult to properly analyze. In this way, the blockchain architecture of data storage might be one of the ways of bringing order into this chaotic market.
Also, this might bolster smart-contract usage on the neutral territory of Akropolis’ platform, which by itself might turn this into a more customer-oriented market. And sure, blockchain implementation into Akropolis’ platform is also a good reason to have an ICO.
These days, the typical way of choosing a pension fund is to consult with your bank manager, insurance agent, or financial consultant. And most of these intermediaries will just send you off to their partners. Meaning your choices will be severely limited and biased, since these “partners” usually pay out a finders fee.
Yes, there are a lot of surveys and calculators on how to manage your pension savings. There are a range of projects out there that try to help you make a choice. There are also some fund-rating sites in the UK and the US. Still, with the lack of uniformity that this market is facing, customers come along with a lack of data and extended expenses.
But there is no such marketplace yet where you can compare all the choices by different characteristics, buy them directly on the site, or even make your own personal order for a pension program and set an auction for the funds you’re interested in.
So if anyone can provide an unbiased and easy-to-understand tool to select the most suitable and reliable pension fund, then it’s a big opportunity to hit the jackpot.
Market
Akropolis’ potential market is really, really big.
In 2017, US pension assets reached $25,400 billion with a 12.7% annual growth rate, and it is about half of the total global volume of pension assets.
By the way, all that happened at a time when the average level of unfunded government pension liabilities analyzed in 20 OECD countries was ~190% of the GDP, dwarfing the reported amount of all government debt, which totals only at 109% of the GDP (due to CityGroup report cited in Akropolis’ white paper)!
The central idea for the market is this: the ageing population in developed countries is a steady process that coincides with worsening state finances. Everyone has to earn his or her pension mostly for themselves.
Akropolis can pretend to fund marketing budgets for customer acquisition. To assess the size of potential stake let’s take mutual funds for instance, which are the main client hunters in the market. Active mutual funds in the U.S. have managed a total of $11.6 trillion in 2016. This industry’s revenue is in the order of $100 billion, with over one third of this amount representing expenditures in marketing, which largely consists of sales loads and broker commissions (known as 12b-1 fees).
So if Akropolis becomes a customer’s point of entry to pension funds, then it could have a potential market in the volume of at least $30 billion per year.
Analogues
As a matter of fact, there is not much innovation in the traditional pension fund industry. And any project promising a real step forward for both the customers and service providers can expect a good market response.
We can take the Blooom project as an example, which provides an investment advisory application designed for the management of employees’ 401k accounts (for $10 per month with an estimated average of $5,000 in annual savings). Blooom collects basic user data like name, email, age, and timeframe to retirement and provides free allocation and fee analysis. For a monthly fee, clients can sign up to have their accounts managed by Blooom.
In less than three years, Blooom had reached $2 billion in assets under management by January 2018. Round A (October 2015) was at $4 million and then Blooom landed $9 million for Round B (January 2017). Blooom revenue is not available, but by multiplying the 16,000 clients declared on the site by the $120 annual fee we get a figure that it’s about $2 million. Assuming that 90 million Americans, on their own, are bungling their most valuable retirement asset — the 401K — only 1% of the market is needed to boost Blooom revenue beyond $100 million. It looks like quite a unicorn, guys!
Summary
Akropolis doesn’t seem to have a high risk of development failure, and they could very well deliver on all of their promises. The $25 million hardcap also looks reasonable for such an endeavour. But the problem here is that, according to Akropolis’ draft of materials, $12.5 million in technology and talent expenses seems like a lot, and the $2.5 million for marketing also raises questions. Is it really enough money for a nationwide B2C (business-to-customer) marketing campaign, let alone for global marketing? It may come to pass that extra funding will be required before the project starts to earn enough by itself.
And it is my own personal belief that having a security token is a must. Whatever is embedded in a utility token, nothing else will secure investor`s future profits with 100% guarantee. This is not a cryptocurrency to cash in on during a stock-price uprise.
And final pro et contra:
(+) Huge and rising national market, and global as well
(+) Lack of direct and strong competitors in the marketplace
(+) Product is not so hard to deliver
(-) Unthought-out budget (at least in the draft version)
(-) Token is not a security one, although dividend payouts suggest otherwise
All in all, Akropolis deserves a more detailed consideration from investors.
You can read now only a draft of the WP. And folks, please, make your WP beta-version more human-readable!
___________________________________________________________________
Useful materials
All materials are for informational purposes only. None of the material should be interpreted as investment advice. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/the-21-trillion-pension-fund-market-is-pouring-money-into-the-blockchain-icobusted-analysis-96bd8bdc1a9e | ['Kirill Shilov'] | 2018-08-29 18:18:39.168000+00:00 | ['Investing', 'Icobusted', 'ICO', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin'] |
Creating permanent uncensorable messages on the Bitcoin blockchain | One of the most commonly praised features of Bitcoin is the fact that its underlying technology stores immutable information about transactions. When money is sent or received on the Bitcoin blockchain, relevant details are publicly viewable and impervious to change. Less attention, however, is given to the fact that blockchains can also store permanent and uncensorable messages.
Since Bitcoin is not controlled by a single ruling entity and is not vulnerable to a single point of failure, messages stored on its blockchain cannot be censored or deleted. The network is decentralized and maintained by users all over the world who run Bitcoin nodes. As long as there are still nodes out there, everything recorded on the chain will continue to exist in its original form.
Storing hidden clues about Bitcoin’s origin
The first message ever recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain was hidden in its genesis block. When the network went live on January 3rd, 2009, Bitcoin’s anonymous creator stored a cryptic message in the form of hexadecimal characters. When converted, it reads “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”
This message is a reference to an article published in The Times on January 3rd, 2009. Since then, physical copies of that day’s paper have sold for exorbitant amounts of money due to its connection to Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency movement as a whole. In addition to serving as a demonstration of how blockchains can store uncensorable communication, the message is also a permanent symbol of Bitcoin’s origins.
While the identity of Bitcoin’s creator(s) — referred to only as “Satoshi Nakamoto” — remains a mystery, the message stored within Bitcoin’s genesis block is a firm indicator of what motivated the digital asset’s creation: the global financial crisis, which shook the public’s faith in major financial institutions.
According to Bitcoin proponents, the crisis also emphasized a need for decentralized methods of trade and spending that are free from the pressures of intermediaries. Thanks to the uncensorable and permanent nature of messages stored on a decentralized blockchain, there will forever be a reminder of the mentality that spawned the Bitcoin movement.
How messages get recorded on the chain
Bitcoin functions through the use of ‘miners’ who lend their device’s resources in order to verify transactions and maintain the network’s integrity. More often than not, it is these miners who store messages on the blockchain in coinbase data — often during notable events. For instance, when Bitcoin’s mining reward halved in 2020, miners immortalized the message “With $2.3T Injection, Fed’s Plan Far Exceeds 2008 Rescue.” This, of course, pays homage to the text stored within the genesis block. It once again serves to emphasize the ethos of the Bitcoin movement as an escape from financial intermediaries.
Notably, coders Dan Kaminsky and Travis Goodspeed encoded a permanent tribute to the late cryptographer Len Sassaman on the Bitcoin blockchain back in 2011. The tribute is one of the most complex messages stored on the chain thus far. Once decoded, it reveals ASCII art of Sassaman alongside a heartfelt tribute.
Yet, it isn’t just miners and coders that are leaving messages on the Bitcoin blockchain. Inputting common phrases on Blockchair brings up a wealth of messages stored within transactions that will now permanently exist on the chain. Searching “Hello” brings up results from miners who have recorded messages in the coinbase and in transactions ostensibly left by everyday users. As Nic Carter called attention to back in 2018, there are even a handful of marriage proposals stored on the Bitcoin blockchain. Today, searching “marry” results in dozens of hits, all of which have been immortalized.
How can I write a message on the Bitcoin network?
Users have several options when it comes to storing messages on the Bitcoin blockchain. One method is to use the OP_RETURN feature when sending a transaction. As HackerNoon observes, this essentially makes the bitcoin you’re sending unspendable but allows you to write up to 160 hexadecimal characters. Alternatively, there are methods which involve encoding messages into various output fields such as the PubKeyHash. Some services simplify the process by utilizing these tricks behind the scenes, in order to offer a more user-friendly experience.
In order to demonstrate how permanent messages can be stored on the chain, we published a little haiku for everyone to enjoy. Using a block explorer, you can hover over the OP_RETURN field to read the message.
When a bitcoin dies,
Should it be interred in bits,
Or SHA-encrypted?
Storing this message forever cost just under two dollars worth of bitcoin. Keep in mind, however, that the bitcoin spent on this transaction will never be accessible by anyone ever again. Should the price of bitcoin spike substantially, the 2,676 satoshis spent on this haiku could one day be worth an uncomfortably large amount of money.
While leaving a single message on the chain is fairly affordable at the current point in time, these methods are prohibitively expensive when it comes to high volumes of communication. This might partially explain why the practice is yet to become widespread.
Other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, make it considerably easier to store messages. Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum allows for arbitrary storage which makes the process much simpler. Many smart contracts exist which allow users to easily write permanent messages on the Ethereum chain.
The need for censorship resistant messages
Being able to store uncensorable messages has uses that extend far beyond having a permanent indicator of a movement’s history and immortalizing proposals. Notably, WikiLeaks — an organization dedicated to leaking government-sensitive documents — used the Bitcoin blockchain to dispel rumors of their founder’s death. The message “WeRe Fine 8chaN PoSt FAke [sic]” was recorded from a wallet address known to be associated with the organization. This was in direct response to users on message boards who had impersonated WikiLeaks staff and claimed to be in danger.
On a broader scale, censorship-resistant messaging may have important ramifications for freedom of speech and democracy. In many nations around the world, the ability to freely communicate is a luxury that not many are afforded.
Press freedoms as a whole are not unanimously present across the globe. In some parts of the world, dissenting opinions against the government are silenced or even manipulated. As of press time, Reporters Without Borders states that 274 journalists and 116 citizen journalists are imprisoned. With press offices constantly raided and fewer avenues for people to criticize authority in some nations, there is a clear need for ways to communicate that cannot be censored or shut down by the government.
Further, the permanent nature of messages recorded on blockchains could have reaching implications for our future. The adage “history is written by the victors” often rings true. Having permanent firsthand accounts of events could help prevent the truth from being buried in nations that have fallen out of touch with maintaining the rights of their citizens.
Technical and ethical hurdles prevent widespread use
When it comes to Bitcoin’s blockchain in particular, the largest hurdles prohibiting everyday users from recording messages on the chain are the difficulty and cost. Further, there is a case to be argued that messages could theoretically congest the network — though this practice would have to become extremely widespread in order to have any real impact on transaction costs or speeds.
The broader issue lies in the fact that resistance from censorship can, at times, be a double-edged sword. Hate speech can permanently be viewable on the blockchain and illegal and unethical activity can be hidden in blocks.
In 2019, the BBC reported that illegal images of sexual abuse against children were encoded into a Bitcoin fork known as Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV). This action was not tied to the asset itself but rather the fact that virtually anyone can encode messages with very little oversight.
An analysis of content on the Bitcoin blockchain conducted in 2018 did not directly find child abuse within the Bitcoin blockchain at the time. However, it did find apparent links to such content:
“Our analysis reveals more than 1,600 files on the blockchain, over 99% of which are texts or images,” the authors wrote. “Among these files there is clearly objectionable content such as links to child pornography, which is distributed to all Bitcoin participants.”
While a few bad actors do not condemn the network as a whole, the inability to remove problematic and dangerous content is certainly an ethical issue worth considering.
Ultimately, the ability to use blockchains as a way of storing permanent and censorship-resistant messages could prove significantly beneficial in the world today. The challenge lies in addressing the pressing ethical and technical issues that prevent this feature from being utilized to its full potential. | https://blog.trezor.io/creating-permanent-uncensorable-messages-on-the-bitcoin-blockchain-fdbcb229732d | [] | 2021-04-07 14:02:54.172000+00:00 | ['Articles', 'Messaging', 'Bitcoin', 'Censorship', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
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