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Book Review: A Time for Mercy by John Grisham | FICTION BOOK REVIEW
Book Review: A Time for Mercy by John Grisham
A Time for Mercy is book number three about the Clanton, MS attorney, Jake Brigance, who John Grisham introduced to us in A Time to Kill in 1989.
McConaughey Reading A Time for Mercy Source
It was an immensely popular book that seven years later becomes a box office smash starring Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, and Ashley Judd.
A Time to Kill starts right off with the rape and attempted murder of a ten-year-old black girl and quickly moves to the vengeful, vigilante-style killing of the two white men charged with the crimes by the girl’s father, Carl Lee.
In 2013, Grisham took us back to Clanton in Ford County, MS, with Sycamore Row. The first thing he did in that book was suicide Jake’s client.
You can read my review of Sycamore Row here:
What a way to reintroduce us to Jake and Carla Brigance, Lucien, Harry Rex, Judge Atlee and Noose, Carl Lee, Sheriff Ozzie Walls, and so many more that we hadn’t realized we missed.
In several other books through the years, he let us walk the streets of Clanton. He says, “I’ve written so much about Ford County that I can’t remember all of it.”
I believe that. I know I’ve read most of those, if not all, and I continue to want more.
I read The Last Juror, The Chamber, The Summons, The Reckoning (although The Reckoning is more of a historical fiction), and a collection of seven short stories about Ford County.
In his epilogue, Mr. Grisham tells us why some legal technicalities might not be authentic, “As a young attorney so many years ago, I was bound to follow them to the letter of the law. Now, as a writer of fiction, I feel no such bondage. Here, as before, I have changed laws, twisted them, even fabricated them, all in an effort to drive the narrative.”
I think we can all agree; he does drive the narrative.
One thing I really enjoyed about this book was being able to picture Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ashley Judd in the story after seeing them in A Time to Kill.
An Introduction
As in the first two, the author wastes no time getting to the meat of the story. Drew Gamble, a meek 16-year-old boy, believes the drunken deputy who repeatedly beats on him, his sister, and his mother has finally killed his mother after breaking her jaw and leaving her lying in her own blood.
The deputy passes out on his bed, leaving his service revolver on the stand beside the bed. Thinking the deputy might wake up and kill him and his sister, he uses the lawman’s own gun to shoot him in the head, calls 9–1–1, and sits with his mother and sister waiting for the police.
The Protagonist
The protagonist is Jake Brigance, the attorney who freed Carl Lee. The townsfolk in Clanton want a speedy trial, and most want the death penalty for Drew Gamble. However, Jake, the duly appointed public defender, who wants nothing to do with the trial, is “forced” to take it.
Well, he’s technically not forced, he could turn it down, but when a well-respected Judge up for re-election appoints him, saying, “The situation can get dicey and needs a steady hand. I trust you, Jake, and that’s why I’m asking you to step in.” Jake does step in, and he quickly discovers there is more to the case than meets the public eye.
The Plot
Jake Brigance, is the court-appointed public defender of Drew Gamble. Jake must do what he does best, defend an indefensible client, and keep him from meeting the death penalty.
However, many of the townspeople just want the death penalty. Especially, the deputy's family who will use violence to get what they want. They remember all too well how Jake got Carl Lee off with an insanity plea.
Jake puts his financial freedom, legal career, and family’s safety on the line to defend a kid being tried for first-degree murder as an adult. Jake is the one person between this kid and a lethal injection.
The Characters
Of course, Jake and Carla Brigance, the Gamble family, Drew, his mother, and sister, Kiera, are the central figures.
Other people you need to know about are Jake’s intern, Portia, Harry Rex, Lucien, Judge Noose and Atlee, the DA, and his team of prosecutors.
The deputy’s vengeful family is not happy with Jake trying to defend the kid and question every move he makes. When Jake orders a mental evaluation because the kid isn’t eating, the family thinks he will try to get him off on an insanity defense as he did with Carl Lee.
There are also Sheriff Ozzie Walls, his deputies who aren’t exactly happy with Jake defending their fellow law enforcement officer.
John Grisham has the extraordinary ability to develop characters. You will feel as if you know all these people.
The Summary & Recommendation
If you’re waiting for a fast-paced courtroom drama and murder trial, this is not it. This is a time for mercy! Grisham takes us through all the background information, research, and technicalities that we would find boring if told to us by anybody but him.
“Bursting with all the courthouse scheming, small-town intrigue, and stunning plot twists that have become the hallmarks of the master of the legal thriller, A Time for Mercy is John Grisham’s most powerful courtroom drama yet. “ — Amazon
Although I do not agree with the above statement, “John Grisham’s most powerful courtroom drama yet.” That distinction still belongs to The Firm. I do think this is a masterpiece in its own right.
You might be disappointed that there is no last-minute crucial witness that comes running in to save the kid from the death penalty. But you will enjoy a well-written courtroom drama that only Grisham could make interesting and suspenseful.
A Time for Mercy is a must-read for all Grisham and Brigance fans, including Matthew McConaughey.
McConaughey reads from A Time for Mercy Source
This YouTube video, posted to YouTube, belongs to John Grisham, so if you enjoy it, follow the author or subscribe.
Twenty-one thousand, eight hundred and four verified buyers who reviewed A Time for Mercy, 91 percent gave it four or five stars, and an overall rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars.
The NY Times calls it “riveting” and “suspenseful.”
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my disclosure statement for additional information.
About the Author Photo by Jean Springs from Pexels
Stephen Dalton is a retired US Army First Sergeant with a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and a Certified US English Chicago Manual of Style Editor. Top Writer in Fiction, Short Story, VR, Design, & Creativity. Editor of Pop Off, Top Dalton’s Blog, 100WordStory, B.O.S.S., and SportsShorts100WordsOnly
You can see his portfolio here. Email [email protected]
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Reddit | Ko-fi | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/book-review-a-time-for-mercy-by-john-grisham-246a5b6d3dc8 | ['Stephen Dalton'] | 2020-12-21 05:09:51.102000+00:00 | ['Book Review', 'Fiction', 'Books', 'John Grisham', 'Book Recommendations'] |
Tipping Etiquette: Pandemic Edition | Arguments about how and what to tip are as old as tipping itself. Whether you think 15% or 20% is the sweet spot or whether you calculate tip based on the total or subtotal, there is only one real rule during the pandemic, tip what you can and tip generously.
People who are under financial hardship still need delivery services and it would unreasonable to expect a 20% tip across the board in that situation. Nobody should make you feel guilty for tipping what you can, if that means a 5% tip then at least you tried and you should feel good about that.
Many people generally only tip waiters and not delivery people. Whether there is dine-in service or not, now is the time to tip people if you can afford it. Most “essential workers” are actually low-wage hourly workers that probably don’t even have health benefits but they have to work dangerous jobs just to keep from drowning under bills and debt.
Make no mistake, delivery workers and restaurant workers are risking their lives each time they step out of their homes to provide a necessary service. People can only stay at home because of these workers.
Restaurant Workers
I’ve spoken to many people who opt out of delivery and choose take-out orders to save on delivery charges. As long as you’re staying cautious when you pick up your food that’s a great way to save on some money. The problem is when people then do not tip restaurant workers. Just because they are not serving you tableside does not mean they don’t deserve to be tipped.
The majority of restaurants pool tips earned during a shift then distribute the money across all the hourly workers including the kitchen. In many cases, when someone orders delivery through a third-party app like Grubhub, Uber Eats, or Postmates they end up tipping the delivery worker, not the restaurant workers. Due to the majority of orders now being delivered, wages are likely significantly lower for hourly workers.
If you can afford to, tip what you would normally tip a waiter even for take-out. An extra dollar or even a few cents more than usual might not mean that much to you but it means a lot to the workers.
Grocery Delivery Worker/Gig Worker
Grocery delivery has exploded during the pandemic. Most platforms that rely on a gig economy found success by making tipping truly optional with little to no expectation of tips. That means many people still do not tip grocery delivery workers. Food shortages of popular items also contribute to rising complaints from users.
It is easy to stick to the merit tipping based mentality. You didn’t get perfect service so they don’t deserve a high tip or any tip at all. Depending on the size of the order they’re fulfilling they may be getting paid just a few dollars to burden the risk of shopping for you. It may cost you more but nobody should have to perform dangerous, strenuous, and thankless work for just a few dollars an hour. Please consider tipping these gig workers even if your orders aren’t perfect.
Also, under no circumstances should you be baiting-and-switching tip amounts to get faster service from grocery workers. This disturbing trend starts by posting a very high tip amount so grocery workers will quickly take the job and then once the delivery is completed the user changes the tip amount to a paltry sum or none at all. This undermines the trust users have with the platform and is a dishonest act.
Delivery Drivers/Package Couriers
Tipping delivery drivers and package carriers isn’t as widespread as tipping restaurant workers but you absolutely can.
USPS workers cannot accept gifts with a value greater than $20.
FedEx workers have a tip value limit of $75.
UPS has no value limit but prefers if you give gifts rather than cash to their workers.
Cash is normally well appreciated but there are some concerns that COVID-19 might be spread through bills. There is little evidence to support this so it’s probably safe but if you want to err on the side of caution a gift card that can be easily disinfected and is just as good. Experts recommend leaving tips in an envelope that is clearly marked so the delivery people know it’s for them.
Another option is if you know your neighborhood has a regular package delivery worker you can leave a hefty tip during the holidays as well.
Healthcare Workers
Healthcare workers are the face of frontline heroes during the pandemic. Generally speaking, healthcare workers like nurses and doctors are not permitted to accept cash tips. However, if you have a burning desire to thank these essential workers providing gifts for the entire staff like lunch or snacks is permitted as long as they can be verified to be uncontaminated.
Every single worker that takes care of the sick or enables you to stay at home and stay safe deserve our gratitude. If you can afford to, please tip generously as most essential workers are severely underpaid and shouldering all the risk of getting seriously ill.
Remember, you can show your gratitude through more than just money. A sincere thank you can also help bring a little positivity to a worker’s day as well. | https://medium.com/@alexander.song/tipping-etiquette-pandemic-edition-b36e9e52c33c | ['Alexander Song'] | 2020-05-16 01:40:44.993000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Delivery', 'Coronavirus', 'Restaurant', 'Covid 19'] |
Delighted by a Magician’s Mistake | Delighted by a Magician’s Mistake
2020 Yule frogs’ visit brings laughter and cheer
© December 22, 2020, Aikya Param. Original in colored pencil, pen and marker.
Hooray! It’s time for Yule Frogs
(Created by a magician’s mistake
In the magic word for yule logs).
Our favorite amphibians make us laugh
As they smooch beneath the mistletoe
And crack Santa’s cookies all in half,
Stuffing one half in their hats to go.
They visit the Browns and go for a walk
With Mr. Brown again this year
All the way to his bank job, people gawk.
They hide in Billy’s lunchbox and scare
The school cafeteria’s new cashier.
Children at school can’t help but talk
When Yule frogs jump and teachers balk.
But Billy puts them in his lunchbox fast
When he sees the principal walking past.
Grandma wonders how they got in
With everything closed as storms appear.
They caused so much fun and joy again,
She hopes they come again next year. | https://medium.com/middle-pause/delighted-by-a-magicians-mistake-985db7597a74 | ['Aikya Param'] | 2020-12-23 01:53:57.897000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Humor', 'Creativity', 'Life', 'Inspiration'] |
Structural Complexity and Intertidal Organisms: A Quick Thought | Recent advances in science and comparative methods have allowed deeper evaluation and investigation of different measures in structural complexity, notably among intertidal organisms and systems. Previous studies have identified positive correlation between density and resource availability (Mackay and Underwood 1977). In these experiments data was used and collated among various group across the location of interest focused on ascertaining the relations between the small- and large-scale rugosity and multiscale measures amongst Cellana and Nerita, both prominent molluscs, by utilising random quadrats, estimations of surface complexity and computational data analysis. The study was able to find positive correlation between rugosity and increase in density. The amount of each species in the study increases as rugosity increases. Furthermore, small-scale rugosity has been found to be more accurate in this study. Finally, there is possible connection between rugosity as a predictor of size, and different species appear to respond to increases I rugosity differently. Unfortunately, there are so many confounding factors (such as one species possibly just outcompeting another) to definitively draw this conclusion but this would be an interesting area of study in future.
References | https://medium.com/@aaartiel/structural-complexity-and-intertidal-organisms-a-quick-thought-e1abb3da0d91 | ['Hadie Artiel'] | 2020-12-18 22:47:52.326000+00:00 | ['Marine', 'Biology', 'Intertidal Organisms', 'Structure'] |
DARWIN ON DARWIN | “One day on tearing off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles and seized one in each hand; then I saw a third and new kind which I could not bear to lose, so that, I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas, it ejected some intensely acid fluid, which burned my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as well as the third one”.
This is Darwin commenting on his unquenchable thirst for deepening the laws of nature.
THE ONSET OF DOUBT
“I had gradually come by this time, to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow as a sign, etc, etc; and from attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian… the clearest evidence would be requisite to make any sane man believe in the miracles by which Christianity is supported — that the more we know of the fixed laws of nature, the more incredible do miracles become — that the men at that time were ignorant and credulous to a degree almost incomprehensible to us — — that the Gospels cannot be proved to have been written simultaneously with the events — that they differ in many important details, far too important as it seemed to me to be admitted as the usual inaccuracies of eye witnesses… I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation… Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted even for a single second that my conclusion was correct” (Charles Darwin Autobiography 1887, page 85).
John Van Wyhe, historian of science at the National University of Singapore, writes this about Darwin’s masterwork — on the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection:
“One would never know it from the modest way he spoke of it in his letters, but the book would change the world forever. Its important for our understanding of life on Earth is difficult to exaggerate. Between the covers of a single book, Darwin managed to demonstrate the most fundamental pattern of past and present life on earth and at the stroke all of the hundreds of families, genera, and countless thousands of species were connected in one single and beautifully simple system. All of life is related, genealogically, on a great branching tree, the tree of life. He called it the theory of descent from a common stock, with modification through natural selection”.
ENDLESS FORMS MOST BEAUTIFUL
Here’s how Darwin ends his masterwork:
“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having originally been breathed into a few forms, or into one; and that whilst the planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from a simple beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.”
“In the century, and more, since Darwin’s death,” writes historian of science, Dr. John Van Wyhe, “an amount of knowledge about the workings of living things and the history of the Earth has been uncovered, which is without parallel in human history. Yet all of this work has confirmed and corroborated Darwin’s essential points to a degree he could never have imagined. Further discoveries in the fossil record, the discovery of genetics and DNA and a host of other findings have made Darwin’s theory of evolution as solid today as the theory of gravity. Darwin’s theory makes sense of the whole natural world.
“For example, DNA demonstrates with the greatest possible detail and precision the fact of genealogical relationship of all living species. Plate tectonics has made sense of much of the once mysterious distribution of plants and animals, such as the marsupials living only in American and Australia.
“Countless transitional forms have been found in the fossil record which fill in some of the blanks between ancient ancestral groups and modern groups such as Ichthyostega, an intermediate between fish and amphibians found first in Greenland in 1931. Such early tetrapods are the ancestors of all land-living vertebrates, in particular one with five finger-like bones in its fins (which is why we all have five fingers and toes). The recently discovered Ambulocetus the “walking whale” connects modern whales with mammalian crocodile-like animals. There are literally thousands of further examples of transitional forms connecting fish to amphibians, amphibians to early reptiles, reptiles to early mammals, reptiles to birds and non-human apes to humans. In one sense all species and fossils are transitional. Each is a single point on a long and continuous line of generations, halted only by complete extinction.”
The American botanist Asa Gray (as quoted by John Van Wyhe) praised Darwin in 1874 for providing “the explanation of all these and other extraordinary structures, as well as of the arrangement of blossoms in general, and even the very meaning and need of sexual propagation…”
“… The aphorism ‘Nature abhors close fertilisation’ and the demonstration of the principle belong to our age, and to Mr. Darwin. To have originated this, and also the principle of Natural Selection — the truthfulness and importance of which are evident the moment it is apprehended — — and to have applied these principles to the system of nature in such a manner as to make, within a dozen years, a deeper impression upon natural history than has been made since Linnaeus, are ample title for one man’s fame.”
A REVOLUTION IN HUMAN THOUGHT
And here (again as quoted by John Van Wyhe) is co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace’s tribute to the legacy of Charles Darwin:
“The philosopher who has wrought a greater revolution in human thought within a quarter of a century than any man of our time — — or perhaps of any time — he has given us new conception of the world of life, and a theory which is itself a powerful instrument of research; has shown us how to combine into one consistent whole, the facts accumulated all by the separate classes of workers and has thereby revolutionized the whole study of nature.”
THE VIEW FROM BEHIND THE COUCH
Because his world-shaking discovery — that all life on earth is related genealogically, on a great branching tree, the tree of life: the theory of descent with modification through natural selection — was “blindingly simple” — Darwin’s intelligence (even by someone such as Richard Dawkins) tends to be underestimated.
One way to understand this is that Darwin’s discovery is erroneously considered as not just the final piece of the discovery, but the only piece. Disregarded are the thousands and thousands of steps leading up to the great unifying discovery. Disregarded are the thousands of discarded hypotheses, errant thought experiments, blind alleys he first had to traverse. Disregarded is the fact Darwin was not endeavoring to solve a single phenomena — — he was proposing a principle of nature meant to apply with no exceptions to every living thing in nature. And that meant he had to investigate tens of thousands of specimens. Any one of which was capable of falsifying his great principle. None did. He wasn’t always right, but his record of far-reaching predictions may be unmatched in the history of science. His famous prediction at the end of the Origin of Species — that every living thing is a descendent of basically one ancestor primordial cell has been spectacularly validated almost one hundred years later with the discovery of DNA.
So who is this book — (Darwin by John Van Wyhe) — or any outstanding book by or about Darwin for?
It’s for anyone who has ever pondered, The Big Picture who has ever wondered how the natural world could arise without a designer?
Gerald Alper
Is the author of
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Patient
Psychodynamic Studies of the Creative Personality
His latest book is
God and Therapy
What We Believe When No One is Watching | https://medium.com/@ja-alper20/darwin-on-darwin-870c20634f8b | ['Jerry Alper'] | 2020-02-24 15:20:20.753000+00:00 | ['Atheism', 'Natural Selection', 'Evolution', 'Sean Carroll', 'Darwin'] |
MS Excel — Use #PowerQuery to add a Dynamic Date Dimension table (Query) to your data sources | Once I have extracted data (a list of failed banking institutions), it needs to be transformed in order to simplify analysis.
In this case, a table of date dimensions would prove very useful. I have a closing date for every record.
A date dimension table that would associate Year, Quarter, Month, Week of Year and Day of Week greatly simplifies slicing and analyzing the data for different views. 💯💪
I highlight one of the methods I use to create the date dimension table in video below. | https://medium.com/lets-excel/ms-excel-use-powerquery-to-add-a-dynamic-date-dimension-table-query-to-your-data-sources-1bedc446996c | ['Don Tomoff'] | 2019-11-28 18:23:46.256000+00:00 | ['Analytics', 'Power Query', 'Data', 'Excel'] |
Growing up with drug addict parent’s and how it change my view on the world forever. | 13 years ago on march 28 i was born into a family. Not a “ Normal” family a society has made out to be. No i was born into a family of drug addict’s. My mother Kristen lowry was and still is a drug addict but a couple years ago i had lost contact with her. My father who was an addict but now has 1 year clean has taken up the job to be a single parent to me, my brother , and my sister.
Growing up I didn’t know that my parent’s where doing drugs. My birth- mother was never really there. My grandma was basically me and my siblings mother figure while my mother locked her self into our garage and snorted crack or did heroin.
Looking back my childhood was shit. when i was five my mother on Christmas morning made our breakfast and left with my older sister and never came back. I didn’t really remember how i felt but i member looking at my dad and jut seeing how sad he was.
The next following year my dad had lost me and my younger siblings to child Protective Services. we where there for a year. It was horrible. One day i was living with my with my dad and the next i was with a complete stranger with my younger siblings.
But I’m so grateful i had live the live the life that i was given. Because now i can understand other people with parents who do drugs.I can connect with people on a whole new level.
Thanks for reading more stuff coming soon. | https://medium.com/@bjeans213/growing-up-with-drug-addict-parents-and-how-it-change-my-view-on-the-world-forever-587821e08780 | ['Bobbie Leiman'] | 2020-12-18 08:46:42.496000+00:00 | ['Drugs', 'Childhood', 'Teens', 'Childhood Trauma'] |
8 Best Ways to Critically Analyze Legal Updates | Analyzing is critical as it involves making a judgment about the quality of a content or to see whether it is supposed to be supported by many or not. Critical legal theory is the theory to examine how critical thought disclaims what is to be accepted as natural and universal order.
INTRODUCTION
Legal analysis or in other words scrutinizing the legal content into breakdowns to reach to a conclusion. Which is actually done by the way of reasoning in support of the conclusion or answer to some legal problem or update. A complete and thorough legal analysis must include the applicable rule or law, as well as the applicability of the law to the facts. Traditional legal analysis can be challenging for the beginners. The analysis which is done traditionally is majorly practiced by the experts or scholars. If we take students as example, they may be able to lucid the correct conclusion or answer the legal problem but they would often struggle to provide reasoning in support of their conclusion.
WHAT IS THE BASIC TOOL OF ANALYSIS?
“Analysis does not transform consciousness.”
Every researcher or scholar analyses some content by using a tool. The tool is decided by the analyzer in a way depending upon the matter as well as the thoughts of the analyzer about the matter.
There is the reasoning in law and in life which is actually the traditional tool. It involves hypothetical situations supporting the argument. Analogical legal comparative reasoning is most useful when there has not been any precedent in the appropriate jurisdiction for the same matter. Analogizing the facts and different situations to the legal content.
THEORIES OF LEGAL ANALYSIS
Here are some theories which have been evolved over time to analyze the legal content or update. Whichever approach you use, it depends upon the circumstances and the type of the matter. The major theories are:
1. Legal process theory: if you understand the process of law, it is going to be the main approach for the legal analysis. As it involves the interpretation and of process or procedure, it will become easier to list down or determine the relevant cases or laws regarding the subject matter.
2. Law and society: the approach is based on the basic concept that Society and law cannot be separated from each other. Law and society are both transforming and dynamic which is the basis of analyzing any legal update. If the update is relevant to the needs of society or not is the primary question to decide.
3. Economic theory: Law encompasses the basis of an economy this framework is based upon the fact that legal rules are created to foresee the replications on economy.
WHY DO WE NEED LEGAL ANALYSIS- criticality of legal update analysis?
Legal analysis results in several possible conclusions about a legal update. The conclusions help in viewing the particular subject for various point of views to have an understanding focused on different aspects of some matter.
It is also necessary for the introduction of flexibility into the law and to know if it goes along with the changes if the society. It is surveyed by ALM that, 90 percent of respondents have used Legal Analytics during the past three years to add value to their firms.
WAYS TO ANALYSE THE LEGAL UPDATE
The process of legal analysis also involves skills and techniques to reach to a conclusion at last. Elements of law play a very important role in deciding the things to base our analysis upon. Some of the amicable ways are
Applying the law to the facts of the case.
When there is any latest update in the legal landscape, it is important while analyzing that whether the update is based upon the law it is related to. In simple language, applying the law to the facts and issues of the matter. Determining the laws which may be legally significant. It also involves determining the legal facts. Legislations and statues govern the majority of legal updates, so it is important to identify the law and its section of=r provision that is attracted to the latest legal update. Reading the statutes is the basic thing to start with.
2. Applying the relevant legal principles or legal theories: it involves the following steps:
· Formulation
· Evaluation
· Selection
There is a relationship between facts and law. It is used in supporting the legal arguments. Legal theories, supporting legal arguments and disagreeing arguments, and the evaluation are expressed formally to reach the conclusion.
A legal theory is how you hypothesize the relationship between law and facts that entitle the analysis a conclusion.
3. Determining, comparing, contrasting, and synthesizing the cases
Case law includes a body of legal precedents i.e., court’s judgments that gradually develops with time. The case law basically develops in agreement with the principle of stare decisis. There is always a certain relationship between case law and legislation so far. The case law tends to highlight and uncover the principles beneath a case law associated with it.
4. Gathering Interviews and information
This method basically includes interviews, group communications, presentations, etc. which have been there related to the topic matter. Any update will affect the society so, it is important to note the various discussion happened in bringing that update or happened due to the update. You might come across at least an update on a daily basis, so, such information related to the update will bring a pace to finally connect with the update.
5. Notes or comments of jurists or scholars
This is basically focused on the analytical and sociological school or view of jurisprudence. The jurists emphasize their attention on the social purposes and interest served by a particular law. Same is the case with the legal update. The analysts are concerns with the law as it is existing in the society. Is the legal update pertinent to the ongoing needs of the society? The exponents of these schools study the law as it is strictly applied by the superiors.
6. Gather estimates or statistical information
Statistics makes it easier to reach to wise decision in the aspect of certainty or uncertainty. It involves Aggregation of facts affected by the factors involved and representation in numbers to determine the accuracy and relevancy.
7. Determining the Purposes and policies behind the update
There is always some policy and intention behind bringing an update in law. There are various rules to determine the intention of the constructors of the legal update such as the mischief rule, the Baron Parke’s rule, etc.
Beyond carious documents, any update is brought to you by the support of the purpose behind it. It is important for interpreting the update in the least conflicting sense and reach to a conclusion.
8. Formal Discovery
Formal discovery involves the discovering of facts that are usually not available to the public. It is clearly regulated by the law. It may include interrogations, taking views of different people, etc. it is basically gathering of the facts which are not yet known or people ae not aware of.
Legal analysis is a process of multiple steps and ways. It actually depends upon your circumstances that how the analysis is done for an update. Whatever be the approach, it will definitely help you to reach a conclusion and present your arguments about a legal update or law. | https://medium.com/@aashima844/8-best-ways-to-criticality-of-analyze-legal-updates-a7bd0b3758d9 | ['Aashima Singh'] | 2021-12-21 05:54:26.942000+00:00 | ['Law Firm Marketing', 'Legal Videos', 'Legal Analysis', 'Legal Updates', 'Video Marketing'] |
How does teenagers in North Korea live their life | eader Kim Jung Un. That’s required endless cups of coffee and lots of research. Yes, Gary,
the interns are still mad about you hogging the white chocolate creamer. [Narrator clears throat.]
During our many hours of perusing news stories about the DPRK,
we began to notice something interesting. Though an article would be about something else,
it would happen to mention a detail which provided insight to daily life in North Korea.
We found these snapshots of ordinary moments fascinating.
We wanted to dig a little deeper and try to figure out how teenage life is in North Korea.
Just like everywhere else, issues of class and wealth play a role
in the lives of teens in North Korea — although the gulf between the haves and have nots
is much wider than in several other countries. Aside from having lots of moolah, citizens
are part of the elite when they have notable political, government, and military connections.
A large part of being a teenager is figuring out your sense of style,
how you like to dress and your identity. It’s not easy to do that when you live in a
repressive country.You may have seen posters for allowedNorth Korea hairstyles on the internet.
While it’s not true that North Korea forces citizens to have a particular hairstyle,
the government does encourage people to have state approved hairstyles.
Many teens are exposed to makeup, fashion and a variety of hairstyles thru foreign movies and
music. South Korean skin care routines are popular too. Little makeup and skincare is sold in shops
most devotees purchase their goods at the Jangmadang or local North Korean markets
that sell everything from food to household products to clothing. These marketplaces also
sell illegal products smuggled into the country such as USB drives containing western movies,
music and South Korean soap operas, as well as makeup and foreign clothes.
While there are not any official appearance rules that we were able to find,
North Korea places a strong emphasis on a tidy, clean and appropriate appearance.
Assuming they have the money to purchase expensive smuggled goods,
in private North Korean teens experiment with a variety of non permanent looks.
However, publicly women wear minimal makeup such as lightly tinted lipstick — never red,
because as one defector explains, wearing red lipstick is unimaginable in North Korea because
the color red represents capitalism. It is unacceptable for males to wear any makeup.
Fashion is definitely a subtle form of resistance. Due to the widespread
influence of foreign media and young citizens willing to push the boundaries,
in recent years North Korea’s unspoken rules regarding appearance have loosened slightly.
Citizens now wear brightly colored clothing, some even dare to wear jeans and ladies fairly short
skirts. However, the prevailing attitude depends on where one is in the country.
Fashion acceptable in Pyongyang may not be acceptable in a small village.
Wearing too much makeup, skimpy clothing or too tight clothes may cause citizens to run afoul of
the Gyuchaldae or fashion police. The Gyuchaldae patrol pedestrian areas making sure that
everyone’s appearance is ‘suitable’. If caught with an ‘inappropriate’ appearance the fashion
police issue punishments. Common punishments involve public humiliation — offenders are made
to stand in the middle of a town’s square and endure harsh criticism from officers.
Also, short stints of hard labor and fines are also given as punishment.
What’s school like for a North Korean teen? In the DPRK education is entirely controlled by the
government. Kindergarten, primary and secondary schooling are free and all citizens are required
to attend — North Korea is surprisingly progressive when it comes to the education of women.
After kindergarten, primary school, known as the “People’s Schools,”
is attended from the ages of 6 to 9. Then from 10 to 16, pupils attend a secondary school
which may concentrate on a specialty such as music, art, economics or foreign languages.
Children of the elite may go to a secondary school which focuses on
training them for leadership positions or to be officers in the Korean People’s Army.
North Korea claims that their school system is top notch. According to UNESCO,
North Korea’s literacy rate for people 15 and older who can read and write
is 98–100 percent. But then again, this statistic is self-reported.
Throughout the school years, all information taught to students is carefully censored.
Many subjects are taught in a way that promotes allegiance to Kim Jong un and
the Kim family. Other commonly taught propaganda is military nationalism
and Juche or the North Korean concept of self-sufficiency.
While school for city dwellers and the elite may be well funded by North Korean standards, reports
have leaked out of underfunded rural schools with not enough resources and poorly trained teachers.
In recent years, students have been forced to cover school costs such as workbooks
or helping to heat their school in the winter. Impoverished families have a hard time coming
up with money to pay school fees and teens sometimes drop out. While more middle class
families are able to hire tutors for their children as an alternative to school — which
can actually be cheaper than school fees, poor kids are left in the lurch. The dropouts take
menial jobs to survive. The government seems to turn a blind eye to dropouts, especially
since their work often provides supplemental money and food to keep poor households going.
After finishing secondary school at age 17, citizens must serve in the military.
Men are conscripted into the military for 10 years and women for 6 years,
until age 23. Conscripts can be drafted into elite special forces depending on their social class,
or if they have outstanding athletic abilities.
There are exemptions to joining the military though. Teenagers with good grades from elite
families may be invited to sit for entry exams at one of North Korea’s universities.
If they are accepted, they may delay, shorten or even bypass military service.
Certain skilled workers and technicians may also bypass or shorten military service.
Many North Korean teens don’t have a lot of free time. When they aren’t at school or studying,
many teens work, helping their families to make ends meet. The types of jobs available
to teens are mainly informal work such as selling charcoal door to door,
selling smuggled goods in the marketplace or tutoring and childcare for younger children.
During their free time, if teens are lucky enough to live in an area that has a cinema
and they can afford it, you might find them at the movies. However North Korea cinemas
only have 1 or 2 screens and often have the same few movies showing for months.
Some of the larger cities have a bowling alley, arcade or mini golf, but it’s quite expensive
and the average middle class teen may visit such places infrequently. The same for roller rinks
and ice skating arenas, but they’re expensive too and since so few of them exist, they stay crowded.
Teens who are donju or part of the 1% may receive an allowance. That may not sound like a big deal,
but in a country where in 2018 the official salary is roughly $10
USD a month, it is. Having an allowance makes for a great social life. Donju teens most likely live
in the capital of Pyongyang. They hang out at 24 hour coffee shops and drink lattes,
which at $4 USD a drink, is incredibly out of the reach of most North Korean citizens.
They also frequently visit water theme parks, ski,
hang out in pool bars and have gym memberships. They may eat out both at fast food restaurants
and fine dining where they eat expensive cuts of steak, an unimaginable luxury for most citizens.
Like everywhere else, teens hang out with their friends — in the park or at home.
They may play video games on older consoles that they’ve bought on the black market.
Newer game systems that require online access aren’t suitable as home internet
access in North Korea is virtually non existent. Friends also get together and watch foreign,
often western movies on DVD or flash drives also purchased from smugglers.
It’s extremely common for North Koreans to pass around flash drives containing videos,
music and news. In fact, as a way to educate North Korea about the world, various activist
and religious organizations smuggle USB sticks with subversive media into the country.
North Korean teens do have to be careful who they trust and share media with. In the spring of 2018,
a group of teens in the Ryanggang Province were arrested and stood public trial. Their crime?
Dancing and distributing K-pop music. Six teens ages 16 and 17 were convicted. Four of them were
found guilty of “anti-national” conspiracy and received a year of labor. The sentence for the
other two teens is unknown, however all were sent to an offenders’ institution after the trial.
Ironically, about 2 weeks later several K-pop bands visited Pyongyang to perform for Kim Jon
Un and North Korean government officials. Ultimately, this case is a sad, yet perfect
illustration of how North Korea is run. Kim Jon Un and government officials at the top
can do whatever they like, but they will punish ordinary citizens if they try to do the same.
The repressive nature of North Korean society causes anger, depression and disillusionment
among its people. Many citizens turn to drugs and alcohol to mitigate the pain.
In 2016, an institute interviewed defectors about life in North Korea.
Many of the defectors said that around 30% of North Koreans, including teens,
are addicted to drugs. While it’s hard to gage how accurate this claim is, in the winter of
2019 North Korea began making a concerted effort to crack down on teenage drug abuse,
especially use of opium, which is readily available. There have been a few incidents
where a roving band of high teens caused a disturbance or brawled in the street with police.
North Korea’s drug issues are a problem of their own making. For many years the production of
opium was a state-run industry where North Korea sold drugs on the international black market as
a way to get around sanctions. Middle school students were mobilized to harvest poppies
and produce opium powder on poppy farms. It was only evitable that citizens would begin to try
the product. In 2013 North Korea implemented a death penalty for illicit drug manufacture.
In recent years they have also created harsh laws targeting drug runners who sell to minors.
Dating in North Korea is somewhat taboo. Society, especially older people frown upon it. Young women
are expected to remain chaste, marry young and then have lots of children for the sake of the
great nation. There is no sex education taught in school. Porn is illegal and if caught with it,
a citizen will be sent to a reeducation camp. College campuses have strict rules
against dating. Arranged marriages are still common in North Korea, but increasingly due
to the influence of foreign movies, it’s becoming more common to marry for love.
Teens get around society’s disapproval by having group dates and assignations. When couples go
out alone, there’s no public display of affection. Even just holding hands is not acceptable. However
some parents turn a blind eye to their teens dating as long as they don’t shame the family.
Correspondence passed between sweethearts to set up dates can be tricky, especially
if the parents do not approve. The majority of North Koreans don’t have telephones.
Although, increasingly cell phones, especially smartphones are popular.
It’s estimated that about 25% or 6 million people in North Korea have a cell phone.
Locally made smartphones are popular with teens of the Donju,
but as they are rumored to cost upwards of $400 USD, rarely do ordinary citizens own them.
They can’t be used to call overseas or connect to the internet. Instead they connect to the
country’s internal, state-run intranet on 3G. Despite the intranet, for apps, North Korean
smartphone users have to visit a physical store where they can download apps approved by the
North Korean government. Aso it’s rumored that the government accesses them to spy on people.
Recently business has begun to boom for smugglers of Chinese-made phones.
Using smuggled phones, North Koreans can not only call locally but stay in
contact with relatives who have defected to South Korea. Apps such as WeChat are
used to bypass having calls monitored by the Ministry of State Security (MSS).
More and more as the youth of the DKRP become aware of the outside world, they’re changing North
Korean society. There’s only so long that Kim Jong UN is going to be able to rule with an iron fist. | https://medium.com/@kingvarunrai/how-does-teenagers-in-north-korea-live-their-life-23489544628a | ['Varun Rai'] | 2021-03-01 09:56:30.782000+00:00 | ['Communism', 'Teenagers', 'Reality', 'News', 'North Korea'] |
10 Amazing Benefits of Being a Tow-Knight Entrepreneurial Journalism Fellow (Part I) | Where I Was Before Tow-Knight
For context, here is where I was with my venture. When I applied to Tow-Knight in 2016 ZNews Africa was less than two years old. We are a media+ tech company that began with an Android Mobile app that was built in-house. It is best described as “Flipboard for Pan African news.” We later launched an email newsletter and website publishing original content.
We experienced some great early traction. At the time we had about 30,000 users (now approaching 100,000) on our mobile app and our newsletter was growing steadily. We developed great media sponsorships with premier Pan-African-focused conferences at Harvard and Wharton, and were selected as members of Facebook’s Fb Start and Google’s Launchpad and recruited for Microsoft’s BizSpark accelerator programs for tech startups. We built an advisory board of experienced professionals and had been pitching and talking to a range of investors.
Even with this progress we weren’t getting very far. We had not monetized any of our products and were bootstrapping. We also did not raise money.
We felt we had so many components to the myths and narratives told about the kind of folks who raise capital and succeed with startups. Our team met in college. We graduated from an Ivy League school. Our founder is a techie. We had an MVP with traction. The team was professionally experienced in our roles and we have worked for and with some of the best companies in the world.
Despite all of this we didn’t raise money. We were also getting some “interesting” feedback when we spoke with VC’s and others in the “Silicon West” startup space (more about that in a future post).
I learned about the program when I attended a Tow-Knight panel event in the Spring of 2016. I was invited by one of the speakers who was an alum of the program. I mingled with the attendees and former fellows and discussed my startup. Several of them suggested I consider applying. I honestly couldn’t see what I would gain from it that we hadn’t already been told in countless feedback meetings, emails and advisory board meetings.
I decided to ask. I approached Jeremy Caplan director of education for Tow-Knight. I don’t remember what he said but he listened to me. He tried to understand our product and mission and offered useful advice. I liked him immediately and thought that if I could just get that kind of consistent and thoughtful feedback the program would be worth it.
The experience turned out to be so much more. It was four months of fast-paced and intense learning, experimentation, challenges and growth. My goal was to grow ZNews. The result was a major growth in my skillset, experience and knowledge. I learned what we were doing right, wrong and poorly. I learned about things we weren’t doing at all.
I came out of Tow-Knight with the knowledge and confidence to launch anything into the world and to innovate within any organization. Note that most fellows in my cohort did not enter with a venture, but an idea. You don’t have to know exactly what you want to build or solve to apply. Part of the beauty of the group was the mixed stages and observing how many pivots, adjustments and changes you all make as you learn and try new things.
This is my TK17 cohort. I’m hiding somewhere in the back, hehe. (Video by Jeremy Caplan)
Here are some of the benefits, in no particular order:
1. Specific insights and guidance for emerging media companies and ideas
Much of the information that exists about startups are focused on non-media companies looking to raise millions in venture capital. Many of the suggestions and solutions may not work for you if your goals are to connect, inform and serve a niche community of people.
Your vision may not be to build a venture that serves billions of people. You might just want to start something that delivers value for a few thousand or hundreds of thousands of people in a specific place, or for a specific interest. You may also want to innovate within an organization or transform the process of a legacy publication.
These aims don’t require you to become a sexy target for venture capital. It requires you to build something of value that is sustainable. Throughout the program, all of the knowledge and information will be tailored for a media enterprise. And your vision for what a media venture can be will expand.
2. The road to success starts with solving a problem for a community because “Mass is Dead”
The easiest way to know whether you’re working on a vanity project versus something people will use is to determine whether your idea solves a problem. This is now common thinking in most entrepreneurial circles. However, for media ventures the key is really focusing on a community that shares an affinity or pain point and serving them.
Part of the program is a New Business Models course taught by Jeff Jarvis, director of the Tow-Knight Center. Over the duration of the course he will explain to you why mass media is dead.
The days where millions of people are limited to a handful of national channels and publications are long gone in North America and Europe. Building for the audience of everybody is a pathway to failure. Along with this is the outdated thinking regarding media startups focused on scaling big and fast and trying to win with ad dollars based only on clicks and views.
Today the goal is to cultivate and serve a community and win their trust. You will generate revenue by monetizing access to your community, charging a fee per use tied to solving the problem and / or a subscription or membership model of some kind.
In the program you will identify your community and work on a product or service to address their problem and then monetize it.
For ZNews our communities comprised of people of the Pan African diaspora looking for news and stories that were about more than war, poverty, disease and despair. The major pain we are addressing is making it easier to find and enjoy these other stories. You can become a member and support us here.
Your community to serve could be unified by other factors. In my cohort, fellows worked on projects to serve politically active techies, VR journalists and content developers, Black travelers, aviation industry professionals, food makers, LGBT people in China, lovers of street music performers, and more.
3. How to better understand your audience through design thinking and consumer research methods
Early in the program we had a design thinking session led by the experience studio Median. The goal was to design a wallet for someone else. We were paired up and then instructed to interview our partners, listen to their needs and wants and try to figure out their pain.
We then used an array of colorful construction paper, Post It’s, markers, tape and more to build a prototype of our wallet solution and introduce it to our partners for feedback. We took the feedback and made adjustments to the prototype. We did this again and again until we came up with a basic concept they liked. | https://medium.com/journalism-innovation/10-amazing-benefits-of-being-a-tow-knight-entrepreneurial-journalism-fellow-part-i-5a7fec27d338 | ['Michael Rain'] | 2018-08-25 06:42:28.856000+00:00 | ['Digital Media Strategy', 'Accelerator', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Business Model Innovation', 'Journalism'] |
The Benefits of Breastfeeding for Baby and for Mom | Breastfed children have:
More grounded insusceptible frameworks Less looseness of the bowels, blockage, gastroenteritis, gastroesophageal reflux, and preterm necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) Less colds and respiratory ailments like pneumonia, respiratory syncytial infection (RSV) and challenging hack Less ear diseases, particularly those that harm hearing Less instance of bacterial meningitis Better vision and less retinopathy of rashness Lower paces of newborn child mortality Lower paces of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Less ailment in general and less hospitalization Guardians have up to multiple times less truancy from work
Bosom milk gives plentiful and effectively consumed healthful segments, cancer prevention agents, proteins, insusceptible properties, and live antibodies from mother. Mother’s more adult invulnerable framework makes antibodies to the germs to which she and her child have been uncovered. These antibodies enter her milk to help shield her child from disease. Immunoglobulin A coats the covering of the infant’s youthful digestive organs helping germs and allergens from spilling through. Bosom milk likewise contains substances that normally alleviate newborn children.
Breastfed infants may become better kids with:
Less cases of sensitivities, dermatitis, and asthma Less youth malignancies, including leukemia and lymphomas Lower hazard of type I and II diabetes Less occasions of Crohn’s infection and colitis Lower paces of respiratory disease Less discourse and orthodontic issues Less pits Less probability of getting corpulent later in adolescence Improved cerebrum development More noteworthy resistance to contamination Youngsters and grown-ups will discover benefits forever: Less inclined to create rheumatoid joint pain and lupus More averse to create coronary illness in adulthood Lower hazard of different sclerosis Lower paces of pre-and postmenopausal bosom malignant growths Breastfeeding is better for mother actually: Advances quicker weight reduction after birth, consuming around 500 additional calories daily to fabricate and keep a milk supply. Animates the uterus to agreement and recover to typical size. Less post pregnancy dying Less urinary lot contaminations Less possibility of pallor Less danger of post pregnancy anxiety and more sure temperament
Better for mother inwardly:
Breastfeeding produces the normally calming chemicals oxytocin and prolactin that advance pressure decrease and good sentiments in the nursing mother.
Expanded certainty and confidence
Expanded smoothness. Breastfed infants cry less generally, and have less occurrences of youth disease. Breastfeeding can uphold the health of body, psyche, and soul for the entire family.
Breastfeeding makes travel simpler. Bosom milk is in every case perfect and the correct temperature.
Physical/enthusiastic holding among mother and youngster is expanded. Breastfeeding elevates more skin-to-skin contact, really holding and stroking. Many feel that friendly holding during the primary long periods of life help diminish social and conduct issues in the two youngsters and grown-ups.
Breastfeeding moms figure out how to peruse their newborn child’s prompts and children figure out how to confide in guardians. This aides shape the baby’s initial conduct. | https://medium.com/@babycare8181/the-benefits-of-breastfeeding-for-baby-and-for-mom-aeced29ff72f | [] | 2021-04-08 17:46:47.183000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Breastfeeding', 'Baby Care', 'Baby Breastfeeding', 'Baby Boomers'] |
Let Elon Musk-Jack Ma Debate About the Future of AI. But Its Business Impact Is Already Here Today | Last August, Elon Musk and Jack Ma came together to debate the current state and the future of artificial intelligence.
The 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference took place in Shanghai, China, where it hosted the debate between Musk, the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, and Ma, the former executive chairman of Alibaba Group.
Interestingly enough, Musk spent a good portion of the debate talking about aliens and outer space.
Where on Earth (or beyond) did this come from?
What Aliens Have to Do with Artificial Intelligence
Musk has a theory that AI will quickly surpass the intelligence level of mankind. Aliens are a metaphor he uses to describe how dumb people are compared to the coming advanced AI.
Ma, by contrast, does not think that AI will outpace human intelligence.
If you ask me, the more interesting topic of discussion is the very current realities of AI’s business implications.
AI’s Business Impact: 5 Areas of Business that AI Has Transformed
Business use cases for artificial intelligence have been developing at breakneck pace in the last decade.
AI and machine learning are essential tools for many business leaders and entrepreneurs. Let’s take a look at 5 areas of business that have been radically changed forever thanks to AI.
Recruitment
Artificial intelligence is great for automating boring or repetitive tasks and processes, but it’s capable of so much more.
AI can improve the recruitment process by automating basic processes like sorting, screening, and scheduling.
It can be used to assess resumes and cover letters for certain keywords or job titles.
It can make the entire application and interview process more efficient for both the interviewer and interviewee, by automating scheduling or even automating the application process itself.
Customer Service
Staffing huge customer service teams during multiple shifts costs a lot of money.
The reality is, it’s difficult, and often not sustainable, to have live customer service staff at all times people require it.
That’s where artificial intelligence comes in handy.
Artificial intelligence can help a business improve its customer service ratings and customer satisfaction levels by providing fast and efficient help to customers in need.
Chatbots for instant, cost effective customer service is a smart way to handle routing of customer support inquiries.
In addition, artificial intelligence can be used to understand customer satisfaction using automated feedback methods or by using natural language processing to monitor the customer’s tone and feelings in interactions.
Lead Generation
Generating leads and gaining customers is the basis of business.
And it can truly be one of the most difficult parts of business.
Artificial intelligence, however, makes lead generation easier; this is a massive area of impact.
First of all, AI works around the clock.
There are no hours, no limits, and potentially no costs to the use of AI as a lead generation tool.
Take Facebook Messenger chatbots, for example.
These can be completely free to make and implement on your Facebook business page.
Whenever anyone interacts with your business’s Facebook Messenger chatbot, they are added to your Facebook Messenger contact list.
If the chatbot requests a user’s email, they are added to your email list.
The best part about using artificial intelligence for lead generation is the ability for it to alert a human when a hot lead is interacting with it; whatever form of AI it might be.
This helps increase conversions and boost revenue.
Ecommerce Sales
Artificial intelligence impacts ecommerce in a number of ways.
Artificial intelligence can be used to recommend products to customers, lead customers through a sales funnel, make sales, and process payments.
In fact, 47% of people say that they would buy items from a chatbot AI.
Artificial intelligence is helping businesses save money by reducing the need for massive sales teams and increasing sales with its 24/7 functionality.
Security
Elon Musk is hesitant to give artificial intelligence the level of trust that we have been, so it might seem odd that businesses might rely on AI for heightened security measures.
Artificial intelligence can automate processes that filter out malware, spam, and other dangerous things from our emails before we even get a chance to click on them.
Beyond simple hacker prevention, AI is used for security and crime prevention and privacy protection.
Artificial Intelligence Today
Overall, the debate took the form of a conversation about whether or not artificial intelligence is good for business, humanity and our future.
Elon Musk wants to solve problems — problems of the largest possible scale, through innovation and success involving complex future technology.
Jack Ma wants to better the current state of the Earth by developing and investing in AI tech.
Without a doubt, artificial intelligence has made an impact on the world, and it will continue to do so.
In the future, perhaps it can be implemented to improve life on Earth, or even bring us to life on other planets.
For now, however, AI is enhancing and automating business today.
These current business implications of AI should not go ignored, as they are just as important as its potential to change the very culture of our world.
Artificial intelligence is making a difference in business today, and it will continue to advance the way we work.
Be a Unicorn in a Sea of Donkeys
Get my very best Unicorn marketing & entrepreneurship growth hacks:
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About the Author
Larry Kim is the CEO of MobileMonkey — provider of the World’s Best Facebook Messenger Marketing Platform. He’s also the founder of WordStream.
You can connect with him on Facebook Messenger, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram.
Do you want a Free Facebook Chatbot builder for your Facebook page? Check out MobileMonkey!
Originally Published on Inc.com | https://medium.com/marketing-and-entrepreneurship/let-elon-musk-jack-ma-debate-about-the-future-of-ai-but-its-business-impact-is-already-here-today-b13810393aa8 | ['Larry Kim'] | 2019-12-28 10:11:02.125000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Marketing', 'Chatbots', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Business'] |
git log grep — Search a git repository for a particular commit message — Big Fat Software, Inc. | In Unix, if you want to find a piece of text, you generally grep it. You check the logs or ps -ef or lsof -i or you do an ls -l and then use grep on it. In a similar fashion - How do you find a piece of text in your entire commit history?
To search commit-message one-liners
git log --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit --grep="TICKET-1234"
Try these too:
git log --grep="TICKET-1234"
git log --name-status --grep=""
git log --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit --grep=""
git log --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit --name-status --grep=""
git log --pretty=format:%s --grep=""
Simple Unix grep:
git log | grep -b3 "TICKET-1234"
git log --pretty=oneline | awk '{print $1}'
Creating an alias
If you haven’t read about creating aliases, then read the following articles:
Add this in your ~/.gitconfig :
[alias] find = log --pretty=\"format:%Cgreen%H %Cblue%s\" --name-status --grep
Usage:
git find "string"
Add this in your ~/.gitconfig :
[alias] lg = log --color --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit
Usage:
git lg --grep=""
The snippet above does the same thing as the following:
git config --global alias.lg "log --color --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit"
To search and grep across all branches and and all commit messages for the given piece of text :
git log --all --grep='TICKET-1234'
git log --pretty=\"format:%Cgreen%H %Cblue%s\" --name-status --grep
To search the actual content of commits through a repository’s history:
Caution: It can take a while to execute
git grep 'TICKET-1234' $(git rev-list --all)
To show all instances of the given text, the containing file name, and the commit SHA-1.
git grep 'TICKET-1234' $(git rev-list --all)
If your commit is not connected to history at all, you can search the reflog itself with the (short for --walk-reflogs :
git log -g --grep='TICKET-1234'
If you seem to have lost your history, check the reflog as your safety net. Look for Build 0051 in one of the commits listed by
git reflog
You may have simply set your HEAD to a part of history in which the 'Build 0051' commit is not visible, or you may have actually blown it away. The git-ready reflog article may be of help.
To recover your commit from the reflog: do a git checkout of the commit you found (and optionally make a new branch or tag of it for reference) | https://medium.com/@bigfatsoftwareinc/git-log-grep-search-a-git-repository-for-a-particular-commit-message-179537d3cef2 | ['Big Fat Software'] | 2020-12-31 20:08:07.062000+00:00 | ['Git', 'Release Management'] |
Op-Ed: Carrying Depression’s Weight in Your Backpack | Written By Caitlin Kelly
It’s alarming to hear anyone kill themselves, but imagine seeing on the news that a 14-year old boy hung himself in his childhood home. That was the reality of Jason Reid when he lost his son to depression. An estimated 10–20% of adolescents globally experience mental health conditions, yet these remain underdiagnosed and undertreated. Approximately 17 million children in the United States have or have had a mental illness that was untreated. What is society doing to negatively affect a teenager's mental health, and why aren’t we treating it?
Around 16.5% of youth aged 6–17 have a mental health disorder in 2016. For most of their youth, adolescents are attending school. Therefore, are schools and education somehow affecting a child’s mental health? Mental health can be affected by the stress surrounding education or the super high expectations in SAT scores and GPA ratings. According to the APA’s Stress in America Survey more than one-third of teens reported feeling tired (36 percent) and nearly one-quarter of teens (23 percent) reported skipping a meal due to stress. Stress at a young age can lead to more serious effects as in mental health, this has led to redundancy, inappropriate competition, and inadequate results. Along with stress causing mental health declines, there is also an increase in bullying. Scientists found strong evidence that being bullied as a child puts kids at high risk for depression as a young adult, according to the study, in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Being bullied at school can put many teenagers at risk of negative self-image and lead them to depression. Some other children may develop aggressive tendencies. Children may face problems at home that can cause them to be pushed over the edge into mental health issues.
So if mental health declines can be caused by stress and bullying in schools and other possible outside factors, what can happen when mental health is negatively affected, and what is being done to treat it? When mental health is affected in students it can affect their ability to learn and even if some resources are available, many don’t use them. Approximately 26 percent of adults and 20 percent of children experience diagnosable mental health conditions each year (NIMH, 2019). However, few individuals utilize the needed services when it comes to seeking treatment from professionals such as a psychologist or therapist. Individuals are scared around the sigma of having a mental health disorder along with understanding mental health disorders that affect everyone differently. Many students need individual attention to these unmet needs in order to be able to have undisrupted learning.
Examples of common mental health disorders seen in teenagers are anxiety disorders, depression, ADHD, eating disorders and others. “Addressing psychosocial and mental health concerns in schools is typically not assigned a high priority, except when a high-visibility event occurs, such as shooting on campus, a student suicide, or an increase in bullying (NASSP).” Especially in schools, there is rarely enough funding for each school to enforce a mental health counselor and treat the students, since they’re not sure they will be utilized even if they did. Many resource-starved districts have cut — or never had on staff — critical positions, namely school psychologists, undermining their schools’ ability and capacity to properly address these challenges. According to a 2017 Oregon Healthy Teens Survey, 18% of high school juniors and 17% of 8th graders reported that they had “seriously considered” suicide in the previous 12 months. The percentages were even higher for LGBTQ youth.
Even with schools enforcing some mental health aid and efforts toward teaching and advancing education around mental health, why is there still a stigma surrounding it? Mental health is the main issue in education because “for unfortunate historical and cultural reasons, mental illness has persistently been stigmatized in our society. This stigma is manifested by bias, distrust, stereotyping, fear, embarrassment, anger, and/or avoidance. Acknowledging that students may be experiencing a mental health issue and allowing them to be excused to tend to their mental health encourages conversations with parents. It also allows for excused absences for appointments to get the help they may need. These absences may help the big crisis of disrupted learning in classrooms. Many parents of teenagers aren’t ready to face the reality of if their child is facing a mental illness because of the stigma surrounding it. This causes mental illness to be viewed as shameful in one’s eyes.
Recently, schools have been very concerned about encouraging mental health treatment, but how are they handling this? There is a bill called NAMI. NAMI supports the Mental Health in Schools Act. This bill provides federal funding to train school staff on mental health-related issues, to establish comprehensive school-based mental health services and to create links between schools and the community mental health system. Additionally, many middle schools and high schools have been holding assemblies in varied subjects from anti-bullying, how to deal with stress and sometimes mental health itself. Some educators are also getting additional training on how to emotionally support students and study the signs of if a student needs additional help. In the future, many mental health advocates hope to see that taking a sick day for mental health is appropriate.
In conclusion, the mental health crisis has many different layers and problems intertwined into it, making it difficult to fix. If we start at the youth and determine the initial childhood problems then we may be able to slowly change the stigmas surrounding mental health and providing aid to individuals who need it. Signs of troubled kids may be easier to spot for educators before it is too late and mental health issues turn into something bigger. Now take time to think to yourself. How are you able to change and frame the mental health issues so that there isn’t a negative stigma? How can schools accurately address mental health in youth? What can be done in order to help mental health in adolescents?
Caitlin Kelly is an award-winning filmmaker for a film she created in 2016 titled “Depression.” She has always advocated for mental health support, whether in education or just generally. She spreads her activism through her films and documentaries. She is a current San Francisco State University student studying cinema. She was born in Amsterdam and raised in Los Angeles.
Works Cited | https://medium.com/@ckelly5/op-ed-carrying-depressions-weight-in-your-backpack-4ca439a73c96 | ['Caitlin Kelly'] | 2020-12-14 08:50:04.775000+00:00 | ['Schools', 'Depression', 'Mental Health Awareness', 'Mental Health'] |
The best cheap food in Bangkok old town and where to find it | Bangkok Old City is packed with street food stalls
When you first set foot in Bangkok everything can be a bit overwhelming. It is after all a huge city that never really goes to sleep. If you’re a bit like me, the first thing on your list will be finding out where to eat. Lucky for you, I have done tons of research (read: I ate enough food to feed a small village. For a month.). I found the best cheap food in Bangkok Old City so you can go right ahead and make your stomach happy.
Lucky for you, I have done tons of research (read: I ate enough food to feed a small village. For a month.).
Why should I go for the food in Bangkok Old City?
Soi Samsen 4: the cosiest alley in Bangkok’s backpacker area
First and for all: excellent street food in Bangkok is not hard to find. It is literally EVERYWHERE. It’s the surroundings though that made me prefer eating in the Old City.
The Old city stretches all the way to the Royal Palace, but I’m gonna focus on the area around Khao San Road. Everything is within walking distance and I personally like this part of the city best. It’s a different world when you compare it to areas like Si Lom ore Siam. There are no sky scrapers here, you can still witness the authentic Thai lifestyle. And the best part: the food is amazing and super cheap!
Top 5 best cheap food in Bangkok Old City
Alright, let’s get down to business. Below you can find my 5 favorite places to eat. However, this is by no means a ranking. Every single one of them is great and I couldn’t pick just one winner as they are so different.
1. Most delicious pad thai in town
Find this cart in Soi Rambuttri, best pad thai ever!
Where can you find it?
Soi Rambuttri in front of Ibis hotel
The cart is stationed in Soi Rambuttri, usually in front of the Ibis hotel or near Mc Donald’s.
Why should you go there?
You cannot go to Thailand and not eat pad thai. I believe there are laws against leaving the country without ingesting at least one portion, so let this count as a warning. You can eat pad thai at almost every Thai restaurant in Bangkok, and they are all a little bit different. In my humble opinion, the best pad thai is enjoyed on a cardboard plate while sitting on the curb, watching people go by. | https://medium.com/@valerieroosen/the-best-cheap-food-in-bangkok-old-town-and-where-to-find-it-a511c5cf2cae | ['Valerie Roosen'] | 2019-09-02 10:09:52.651000+00:00 | ['Food In Bangkok', 'Bangkok', 'Cheap Food', 'Thailand', 'Thai Food'] |
How are Chatbots Reshaping the Real Estate Sector? | How are Chatbots Reshaping the Real Estate Sector?
In the current era, chatbots have genuinely evolved and reached almost every corner of the world and functioned immensely without any doubt. From Facebook Messenger to skype to mobile phones- you can find and talk and gather solutions instantly. Few of them consult us with the best health remedy, some assists in planning our vacations, and more. And talking about the real estate chatbot, they have revolutionized how they converse, sell, or rent out properties quite easily and quickly. They turned long, tedious, and static forms into an exclusive interactive experience for the users.
The industry- “real estate” is where communication plays a crucial role and decides the real deal and business growth. Moreover, not all people connect to estate agencies. However, many brokers waste their time answering the repetitive basic questions from people who would never return to sign a contract. But with the help of Chatbots for Real Estate, the agents make this task automated and focus on other relevant areas.
Thus, this is the place where Technology comes in handy. By integrating Chatbots for Real Estate, agencies can qualify leads, send regular follow-ups, improve engagement, and increase sales.
This blog will tell you about a real estate chatbot and how it will help you correctly and suit your business strategy in a highly competitive marketplace.
But first, that let’s find out what benefits it brings to the Real Estate industry.
Benefits of Chatbots for Real Estate
The selling process in the real estate industry appears not as simple as it seems. Brokers and agents find it difficult to handle all queries from potential clients and cannot catch the opportunities.
Thus, bot real estate might bring the following benefits:
Immediate responses
An AI chatbot can instantly respond to the clients’ queries via the Facebook messenger web site or any other social media platform. IBM suggests Chatbots for Real Estate saves up to 30% in customer support costs. Also, the process States do not have to wait for answers from any human staff about their interest in a particular property.
Personalized offers
Every individual or customer is different and looking for different types of apartments or property types. Hence, real estate chatbot offers declines with a series of options to develop more relevant recommendations and collect information to serve them with personalized solutions that perfectly fit in the bag of their needs. Chatbots for Real Estate answers up to 80% of routine questions.
Automated scheduling
After qualifying the lead as a potential purchaser, Chatbots for Real Estate can quickly schedule a home or property tour. And also, introduce the real estate agent to the clients for more detailed information and further communication. Hence this is the point where the agents take over the reins.
Automated follow-up process
The best part of bot real estate is that you can prepare them for the role you want them to execute more effectively than human resources. Chatbots for Real Estate is conveniently utilized to follow up on your leaves via any medium they choose. Follow up email for messages can be automatically sent to the client without any manual intervention. So, make your bot smart enough to rule the market.
Chatbots for Real Estate and the opportunities in the future!
The ultimate key to success is to continue indulging with your target audience, especially outside the operating hours. With a real estate chatbot, you can address issues that do not need human guidance.
With chatbots integrated across many industries or sectors such as E-Commerce, retail, hospitality, or Healthcare, customer engagement has made a positive impression. Chatbots for Real Estate are ready for the actual assistance and support the sector with an impressive user interface. The bots help save funds, time, and additional resources. This suggests quite clearly that Chatbots are the future of the industry.
Since most people, whether their buyers and sellers, initiate their research online, it is advisable to integrate chatbots in the system to create their sales funnel.
Moreover, a smart real estate chatbot helps you tap into the target audience and gather relevant leads.
Global usage and Opportunities
Globally, real estate is considered the driver for development. Surprisingly, New York had a fun one- a real estate chatbot helped sell 3 apartments in 10 days at €1.6 per pre-qualified lead. While in UAE (United Arab Emirates), be it a residential or commercial place, the market is resorting to modern technologies such as Robotic tools, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, thrusting a seamless experience in real estate transactions for all the stakeholders involved.
Hence, Prop tech is the new buzzword in Real estate real today.
How to develop a real estate chatbot
To deploy a Chatbot to your real estate business, you need to consider a few steps for the ideal bot.
Step 1. Define business needs
The first and the most critical step is to find out the issues you want to solve and what features you should infuse in your real estate chatbot.
Generate more qualified leads Automate lead generation and validation process Raise and improve customer services Or all at once
Continue…… | https://medium.com/@imbotpenguin/how-are-chatbots-reshaping-the-real-estate-sector-78ea90ecebba | [] | 2020-12-09 05:57:44.212000+00:00 | ['Chatbot Development', 'Chatbot Design', 'Chatbots', 'Bots', 'Chatbot For Businesses'] |
There is only one creator! | There is only one creator!
You know it and you have felt it. Those things that you say you want could be yours by now. Still, they are no where to be seen. You have been trying to work through your blocks, invested in yourself into high end coaching and still nothing. Where is your money? Where is your things? Where is your clients? There is only one creator!
There is only one creator and that is YOU. All those thing you say you want, could be ours, if you give them to yourself. In your mind they don’t feel safe, or you could say that you might be blocked. So you do whatever seems ok and right, invest more. You punish yourself more, beat yourself up and ask “why am I not there yet?”.
I think that there must be a lesson for you to learn. All those things that you say might be blocking you, is actually keeping you safe. You don’t really want it that bad, or else you could have given it to yourself. “Camilla I want it that bad, I need it, I must have it!”. Yes, I see you try to force it like a little stubborn child crying for candy, more candy. I get it?
You have to just let it go. Be fine with not having it because when you want it that bad it will not come. Actually this manifest game is going on all the single time, in this moment you are manifesting. Your thought become things and you are calling in more lack the more you think about what you don’t have.
Stop with this negative circle of thoughts and start to set a side time to focus on what you want. See it in your minds eye. Feel it. Smell it. Touch it. Be that person who has it. That is how you can speed up your manifesting skills. There is only one creator! You!
Go and create more goodness in your life today. Set a side time for stillness. In stillness you can manifest anything you want. Most people will not do it, they will rather hustle their ass off and think that they need to do MORE. There is always action to take, but sometime that action is to tune within. As a badass leader online you are willing to trust in yourself and the power you have inside you.
There is only one creator!
Camilla
PS: Have you seen? This is the place to be where you step into becoming that badass leader online people listen to, buy from and want to follow. University of Unlimited Potential is open!!! Get in today and start shift massively in your life and biz.
PPS: I have a brand new thing for you. It’s FREE. Get it here. | https://medium.com/@stylistaz/there-is-only-one-creator-e95158394c6b | ['Camilla Kristiansen'] | 2019-06-17 06:30:12.962000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Imagine', 'Success', 'Manifestation', 'Neville Goddard'] |
Dark Passenger | Dark Passenger
It’s been two decades since the murders, but the story will forever travel with the name Giaccone in the small city of Lebanon, New Hampshire, nestled in the valley of the Connecticut River.
My father, Brian Giaccone, remembers the night it began, when he picked up the phone and called his father, Nick Giaccone, who was the Chief of Police.
“Brian called his father’s house to chat one night and his Dad’s girlfriend at the time picked up the phone instead,” my mother, Heather Giaccone, recalls. “He asked to speak with his father, and she informed him that he had left the house to go to a scene of a double murder. Brian laughed it off and told her to stop joking around and asked again where his father went.
“His father’s girlfriend lowered her voice and said, ‘No it's true, there’s been a double murder of two Dartmouth professors in Etna. It sounds pretty bad.’ ”
My father’s reaction was what you would expect from someone who had lived in the same quiet area his whole life. He couldn’t imagine that the place where nothing ever seemed to happen would become the focus of a nation-wide manhunt.
Stepping up to the front door of Susanne and Half Zantop’s residence on a brisk January afternoon in 2001, the two teen-agers were ready to kill. James Parker, 16, and Robert Tulloch, 17, had a plan. First, they would gain access to the house using a ploy that they were two students trying to conduct an environmental survey for school. Once inside the house, they would jump their hosts and steal whatever money and credit cards they could find.
The couple were found stabbed to death a few hours later when a dinner guest arrived.
The Zontops, Susanne, 55, and Half, 62, were regarded as some of the kindest people you could ever meet. They had dedicated to their lives to education and had more than 50 years of teaching between them. There was no one that they wouldn’t reach out a hand to help. James Parker and Robert Tulloch took advantage of that kindness.
Speeding away through the woods with $340 in their pockets, the teens thought they were going to get away without a trace left behind. Parking the car off the side of the road in the woods the two cleaned their hands and knives of the Zantops’ blood. Robert Tulloch also quickly cleaned the slash he had given himself while attacking Susanne Zantop. Then they realized they had left the knife sheaths at the scene of the crime. They rushed back to the Zantop house that night, but found it was already swarmed by police and investigators. It was time to run. What followed was a whirlwind six-week investigation that shook the small New England region.
My father, who is now 53, grew up in New Hampshire in the shadow of his father, Nicholas Giaccone, who was well known as the chief of police. Coming of age with a spotlight on your family name was most times an annoyance.
“In High School I didn’t always like the media attention when a lot of the busts my dad was doing at the time were at college parties and underage drinking. I guess the best way to put it is when you’re a public figure, everything is open to the media, so I never really had a choice.”
The morning after the Zantop’s were murdered, the shadow surrounding Chief Nicholas Giaccone grew larger. All of New Hampshire and Vermont were filled with news cameras and crews looking for any lead they could get. Daily commutes to work were extended by at least thirty-minutes if you expected to make it through the police redirections and roadblocks in a timely matter. The atmosphere was one of fear and anger. Newspapers lined the street with headlines “Double Murder of Respected Dartmouth Professors” or “Hunt for Savage Killers Underway in New Hampshire.” Fear soaked into everyone. An attack even on just one person in the small town felt like an attack on all.
“Waking up the next morning the media had already been flooded with hundreds of stories about the Zantops’ death,” my father recalls. “You couldn’t look at any newspaper or website without seeing something about the murders. ”
The fear and apprehension grew with every passing hour that the suspects had not been caught.
While the small town continued to ascend into confusion and fear, the teens decided to leave town as quietly as possible. The pair settled on the idea of hitching a bus to Colorado then continuing west from there. Packing a small backpack each, Parker and Robert told their friends of the plan to go to Colorado to go rock climbing. They made it as far as St. Louis, Missouri, before they were forced to take a U-turn back to New Hampshire when the cut on Robert Tulloch’s leg began to get infected.
Back in New Hampshire, for almost a month and half they remained at home under the radar of the hundreds of police in the area. One of the first tipping points in the case for police came with the discovery that they were able to trace the sale of the two SOG knives back to a purchase made under James Parker’s name.
The knives were unique enough that my grandfather was able to trace the sale back to a small retailer that had only sold two of that specific model in the past few years. Armed with a name and a weapon, the police approached Parker for questioning. Parker was very cooperative with the police and agreed to come into the department to be fingerprinted. When questioned as to why he purchased two SOG knives Parker and Tulloch both claimed it was because the two of them had been wanting to build a treehouse in the woods. It was then that police noticed the wound on Tulloch’s leg that had repeatedly been infected. Robert Tulloch said he received the cut while walking in the woods from a maple sap bucket.
The teens seemed to have solid and unwavering alibis. But the maple bucket story seemed rather implausible to police. The timeframe that the two would have been in the woods also put them far outside any season to collect maple by tapping trees.
On February 16, 2001, when the fingerprints on the sheath of the knife returned fingerprints that positively matched those of Tulloch, the police were finally able to issue an official warrant. When police arrived at Tulloch’s house they were met by only his confused parents answering the door, still convinced of their son’s innocence. Searching the perimeter of the house, Robert was nowhere to be found. His mothers’ 1987 Audi had also disappeared, and so had James Parker from his house down the road.
The police released a statement and official press release to warn the community. Police had hoped that releasing the two fugitive’s names and faces would bring some peace to the community’s restless fear. However, if anything the fear was worsened by the eerie photos of the teens. The crime in question was a double-murder committed in broad daylight at random. The last people that the community ever expected to have committed such an atrocious crime were two white-collar teenagers from a middle-class suburb and well-to-do families.
Now that the two boys were confirmed to have left the New Hampshire state-line, the police had to act quickly to disperse all the information they had on the two boys. Over the weekend the police made an appeal to a judge to be granted permission to try James Parker as an adult. Because he was sixteen at the time of the crime, the police required this permission to be able to release his name and photo to the public. A press conference was held at the town hall in Hanover with over 100 members of the press waiting for any update they could get.
“I remember turning on ABC news and seeing my father standing on the stage alongside the Attorney General and a few other high-ranking officers giving an address on the two teens,” my father recalls. “My father never really said much during the press conferences. Rather, he just sat back almost like he was always in a deep train of thought.”
The teenager’s faces were plastered on the front page of almost every paper across the country the following day. Described as tall, lanky, and considered armed and dangerous, the whole nation was told to be on the lookout for any sign of Parker and Tulloch. On February 18, the media reported that the car belonging to Tulloch’s mother was found abandoned at a truck stop in Massachusetts.
From one jurisdiction to another, police jumped across district lines collecting information and evidence from witnesses and the abandoned car.
“It seemed as though the news station crews were reporting from a different state every day,” my father recalls. “All I had to go off were the tidbits of information I would hear from my father and the news was too confusing to follow anyhow.”
More than anything my father felt overwhelmed and cornered by all the questions people in town would bombard him with. Everyone had flocked to him over the past few days attempting to pry whatever information they could out of him.
“It became very annoying rather quickly to have people assuming I was hiding details about the case from them. Even the small details that I had heard from my father I had to keep secret in the event that it compromised the investigation.”
A few days after the discovery of the abandoned car, police received a credible tip from a truck driver in Indiana who had seen two teens matching the descriptions. This led the police to a truck stop in Indiana where they were apprehended.
“One of the first phone calls I received from my father after they caught the suspects was him telling me how the FBI was sending out a private jet for him and his officers to fly to Indiana,” my father said.
The next day the news crews were broadcasting live at the airport as the giant federal jet and New Hampshire authorities took off to retrieve the boys. It was both exciting and nerve-wracking to know the two boys were coming back home.
Nicholas Giaccone descends behind James Parker as Parker is escorted back into New Hampshire
From start to finish, it took police about two months to finally capture the killers. The front page of the local paper published a photograph of Nicholas Giaccone parading off the FBI’s private jet as press waited down below to welcome them. You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing the teen’s names alongside Chief Nicholas Giaccone bringing them back to be prosecuted.
Robert Tulloch was sentenced to life in prison maxed out to the year 2101 with no possibility of parole or a reduced sentence. James Parker was convicted on a lesser charge of second-degree murder with a possibility of parole in May of 2024 and a maximum life sentence to the year 2100.
Following the sentencing, Nicholas Giaccone continued his career as the police chief for his town up until he became a quadriplegic due to a hospital error following a heart attack in 2015. Brian Giaccone and his wife Heather Giaccone helped care for him in a long-term care facility until an infection took his life in December of 2017.
The Giaccone family continues to live a quiet life in New Hampshire. Nevertheless, even all these years later, the murder of these two innocent professors is a dark passenger that forever follows this small town, and this small family. | https://medium.com/see-it-now/dark-passenger-da546ad1d161 | ['Jessica Giaccone'] | 2020-12-19 11:10:26.350000+00:00 | ['Dartmouth College', 'Small Town America', 'Crime', 'Murder', 'Police'] |
At the heart of a job | What is at the heart of a job? Most people would immediately think, money. But what’s more valuable than money? Time. At the heart of a job, I think anyone that wants a good career does it because they want a better future. A future where their kids can grow up and enjoy a world better than their parents. I did some research into the biggest and largest shipping container companies in the world and I found one thing in common with all of them. They are all over the world (2021). It takes a team, a community, a family to succeed. It’s a nice touch that some companies offer scholarships to their employee’s children. It doesn’t even directly benefit the business itself if their employee’s kids get jobs elsewhere, but that’s because the goal isn’t just about a job. It’s about our future and that’s what I think Tuff shipping containers can do better in 2021. Finding ways to provide opportunities or support to the communities around them is a win for employees, employers, and everyone on either side of the business exchange around the world. That’s what is at the heart of a job, a future. Being a necessary business operation around the globe, I don’t think it’s far fetched to think companies like Tuff shipping containers can help change the world. They already are, but why stop there? The future is now.
This is written in response to the scholarship opportunity provided by Tuff shipping containers — www.tuffshippingcontainers.com
References:
(2021). Top 10 International container shipping companies. Moverdb.com https://moverdb.com/shipping-companies/ | https://medium.com/@stadrizzle/at-the-heart-of-a-job-7d92137802f6 | ['David Henry'] | 2021-06-17 08:23:07.393000+00:00 | ['Shipping', 'Buy Shipping Containers', 'Scholarship'] |
Tongue Tied | Tongue Tied
Photo by GREG KANTRA on Unsplash
If only I could turn back the expired hands of time,
and eat my tattered words,
From lips not meant to hurt you,
and destroy us, like a sonic boom,
with thoughts blocked and souls scarred.
Now I relent, just trying to survive,
as I dream on, set the alarm,
for the rest of eternity.
Tongue tied,
entangled in a snare,
I feel like broken glass,
soiled by pigeons crapping on the grass,
messing with my perfect hair,
reality taking a filthy bite of illusion,
hungover and just trying to inhale the truth,
exhale vodka and vermouth,
swallowing smoke and delusion and bitter pills to mute the pain,
as voices swell inside my brain,
hemorrhaging words that bleed the canvas of the night
and stain the stars, until the palette’s ink runs dry.
If only I could tattoo my lips another life,
and love like silk,
to stop the rant of the expired hands of time.
© Connie Song 2020. All Rights Reserved. | https://psiloveyou.xyz/tongue-tied-cabeed792849 | ['Connie Song'] | 2020-12-13 21:11:23.056000+00:00 | ['Time', 'Relationships', 'Tattoo', 'Poetry Sunday', 'Self'] |
LeetCode problem #25–Reverse nodes in k-group (JavaScript) | In this LeetCode challenge, we’re asked to reverse the elements of a LinkedList, in a very similar way to in the previous challenge. What’s different this time however, is that the number of nodes in each batch to be reversed is determined at run-time, instead of being a standard 2.
To give an example, given a LinkedList with values of [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] , we previously reversed all pairs to get [2, 1, 4, 3, 6, 5] . Now however, we might be passed reverse-group-size value (k) of 3, which would cause the LinkedList to become [3, 2, 1, 6, 5, 4] , or 4, which would create [4, 3, 2, 1, 5, 6] (because there aren’t enough nodes to reverse the 2nd set of 4 nodes).
To help understand the below solutions, we will split this problem into two parts.
The first part is to identify blocks of ListNodes that need reversing. If we have 5 nodes in our LinkedList, and have been given a k value of 2, then we know we can reverse the nodes [1, 2] (to get [2, 1] ), and [3, 4] (to get [4, 3] ), but 5 will be left as is, giving us a final output of [2, 1, 4, 3, 5] . Likewise, if we’re given a k of 4, then we must reverse [1, 2, 3, 4] (to get [4, 3, 2, 1] ) but do not have enough nodes for a second batch of reversal, so we’re left with [4, 3, 2, 1, 5] .
The second part is the actual reversal. In order to reverse a LinkedList, we’ll need to point each ListNode to its predecessor, and then point the final node to the node that follows. Back To Back SWE did a great video on this that I’d recommend watching, as its a difficult concept to explain here.
Solution #1: Recursive
LeetCode user schpolsky posted this very elegant recursive solution to the problem. In it, we reverse the first k elements of the passed in LinkedList, and call the function again on the rest of the LinkedList. If the rest of the LinkedList is k or more elements long, another reversal is carried out on that segment, and the process continues. If not, the last part of the LinkedList is returning in its original order, and the overall LinkedList is then returned.
Solution #2: Iterative
LeetCode user ofLucas posted this great iterative solution (ironically enough, n the comments to the other recursive solution!). It first establishes the total length of the LinkedList, and then loops through the initial LinkedList, keeping track of the starting point of the current batch of k nodes, and then reverses them if it reaches k nodes in size. This process repeats until the loop runs out of elements, by which point we have reversed every batch of k nodes in the LinkedList. | https://medium.com/@duncan-mcardle/leetcode-problem-25-reverse-nodes-in-k-group-javascript-4e0268d3065b | ['Duncan Mcardle'] | 2020-11-06 20:02:06.184000+00:00 | ['Leetcode Hard', 'Leetcode Solution', 'Javascript Development', 'Leetcode', 'JavaScript'] |
A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain and God’s Sovereignty | We have all asked the question, “If there is a God, why is there suffering?” But how often have we asked, “If there is no God, why are there people who still believe in Him despite all of their sufferings and pain?”
After reading the book, A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain and God’s Sovereignty by Joni Eareckson Tada, I have learned of one such person who continues to believe in God despite her tremendous pain.
Because of a diving accident, Joni has lived as a quadriplegic for decades that has kept her mostly in her wheelchair, and recently, she has suffered tremendous pangs of pain from a fracture at the back of her spine. Despite all of these however, she continues to have faith. In fact, her faith becomes even more deeper as she clings to God more tightly in her dependency upon His Grace.
Below are just some of the excerpts in the book:
“Whatever you want, Lord…whether I jump out of my wheelchair pain free and tell people that my healing is genuine evidence of God’s awesome power… or whether I continue smiling in my chair, not in spite of my pain but because of it, knowing I’ve got lessons to learn, a character to be honed, other wounded people to identify with, a hurting world to reach with the gospel, and a suffering Savior with whom I can enjoy greater intimacy. And every bit of it genuine evidence of God’s love and grace.” “To this point, as I pen this chapter, He has chosen not to heal me, but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace.”
How could we ignore such words? How could we not notice the kind of faith that lives within a heart that suffers from so much pain?
It is so difficult to believe when one is suffering , but I guess it is more difficult not to believe a person who keeps on believing despite her pain. That is the reason I wanted to share this book with you, so may be blessed by it and by Joni’s story, as it has blessed me.
It is true that we are God’s beloved children, and that by all means, we expect our Father to love us and provide us with everything we need. But even in the seeming absence of riches, and even in the presence of pain, we cannot conclude that God isn’t there anymore, and that He doesn’t love us anymore.
We are after all, still mere pilgrims in this world. This is not yet the end. In fact, this is still a battlefield where we continue to fight for everything we hold dear.
These are Joni’s own words:
“At different times in my life I’ve enjoyed the old pictures of Jesus cradling cute lambs or walking around with blow-dried hair, clad in a white robe looking like it just arrived from the dry cleaner. But these days, these warfare days, those old images just don’t cut it for me. I need a battlefield Jesus at my side down here in the dangerous, often messy trenches of daily life. I need Jesus the rescuer, ready to wade through the pain, death, and hell itself to find me, grasp my hand, and bring me safely through.” | https://medium.com/the-catholic-refuge/a-place-of-healing-wrestling-with-the-mysteries-of-suffering-pain-and-gods-sovereignty-2b830fc6e475 | ['Jocelyn Soriano'] | 2020-11-28 23:38:03.501000+00:00 | ['Book Review', 'Books', 'Christianity', 'Health', 'Healing'] |
UBA MOBILE BANKING APP REDESIGN (A UX CASE STUDY) | RESEARCH
Next is RESEARCH, I needed to know what other users think about the current UBA mobile app, their pain points, what they want to see improve and things they want to see removed completely.
I went with the interview approach for both Quantitative and Qualitative data because it has proven to be one of the most effective way to communicate user needs and feelings and to get specific data directly from the users.
Also because it was a mini project so I just talked to family and friends who use the app.
To make this effective and so I can get specific data for analysis, I prepared five questions to ask the Interviewees.
How often do you use the mobile banking app? What do you mostly use the app for? What is/are your major challenge(s) when using this app? What are the things/features you want to see removed? What do you want to see added/improve on the app?
Below is the final result I got from each question asked and some exact words in quotes of some of the major PAIN POINTS faced by the interviewees.
Out of the TEN users I interviewed, Seven said they use the app daily, Two said they use it at least four times a week and only one user said she rarely opens the app and she prefers the USSD Banking instead. In her words..
“That app? It hangs a lot on my phone and it’s very stressful to use. the only reason why I still have it on my phone is because I use it to confirm if a transaction is successful because sometimes SMS alert delivers late.”
For the next question, nine out of the ten users use the app for fund transfer, six users use it to purchase airtime and mobile data directly from their account, two users use it for bill payment, two users use it to check account balance and transaction history only and only one user uses it solely to confirm transactions.
I asked if they have ever used the lifestyle section of the app and they all said NO.
“The app is very functional. I mean, it does exactly what a mobile banking app should do but the thing is they are too many unnecessary features on this app like who wants to change the background picture of a login page? that I’m so sure nobody has done before.”
Talking about major challenges when using the app, they all complained about the amount of steps they have to take before getting to the home page as a returning user. Six out of them complained about how stressful navigating the app is and also how unprofessional (Ugly) the general UI is as three didn’t care about design but speed and fast response time.
“I feel like using the app to check simple things like account balance is a waste of time because the steps I have to take to sign in alone is a bit long and tiring.”
For features they want to see removed, only two out of the ten interviewees said they should completely remove the Lifestyle section as they thought it is useless and unnecessary while the rest said they wouldn't remove anything but improve on the design and organization of already existing features.
“I really won’t remove anything, I just feel there is a way they can be better arranged for Instance instead of having to choose between Lifestyle or Banking from the onset why don’t we just do it in the app itself. Maybe in the menu or even in the quick actions.”
For the last question, Seven out of the Ten users wanted to add a cards section in the menu where they can check for their card details and also block stolen or misplaced cards. And they all asked for a general revamp of the app.
“Guy let’s be honest, that app is not fine at all LOL, I know its functional and fulfills it’s purpose but at least be pleasing to the eyes na.”
Solution
After getting the useful information needed for the redesign, it was time to work on a solution to fix the major problems faced by users.
Solutions include:
Faster Login process. Reorganizing the entire home and menu screen for easy navigation while providing better design quality. Redesigning the Transaction history and Funds transfer process screens.
USERFLOW
I designed a Task flow taking users from the splash screen to a successful fund transfer. | https://medium.com/@richardokunoghae/uba-mobile-banking-app-redesign-a-ux-case-study-61f17b1b9c4e | ['Richard Okunoghae'] | 2020-12-22 20:49:55.285000+00:00 | ['UX Research', 'Case Study', 'App Redesign', 'UI Design', 'Mobile Banking'] |
When to hire an agency for your software development? | When to hire an agency for your software development?
Hiring developers in-house or outsourcing? Know your domain, before diving deep into the development.
Hiring designers and developers in-house has some undisputed benefits: you build your company’s culture, the communication is easier, and you have their knowledge and expertise at hand to resolve issues, all in real-time.
But there’s also an option B: hiring an external agency.
Slack, Alibaba, Skype, GitHub, and now even Google: they all outsource some of their design and development. But how to tell it’s the right fit for your case?
1. You need top talent for your project. But do you need it all the time?
One thing is clear: you need people to deliver the best design and development work for your product. But, especially at the beginning, do you need them all the time?
Juggling responsibilities of your already hired team may sound exciting and stimulate their growth (at first), but even the best ones out there will have some trouble switching roles constantly, and be sure it can affect their morale.
Early-stage startups and newly launched projects will have times when they need to put their full focus on development. But a quick fast-forward to the future, they suddenly need to move their resources to something else (marketing, sales) for the best cost optimization.
For your in-house team, it may mean wasted potential, a growing debt or even lay-offs. But when you outsource, it’s just a reduction of your team size to fit your current needs.
Agencies do not develop products and then disappear in a classy Celebrity Comet NEOWISE way. They’re also able to do the maintenance work of your app or platform. This usually involves dealing with day-to-day minor tweaks and emergency bug fixes, so you don’t need to worry about being left in the dark with no clue what to do next.
2. You need an experienced team. And fast.
Hiring an experienced team is no easy task. It may take months rather than weeks. In the Nordics, an effective IT recruitment of a Senior Developer may take up to 9 months. Andfor fast-moving companies and startups time costs not only money but their time-to-market.
Established agencies hire top talent. To stay on top of things in a quickly moving environment, they have to prove their expertise to the world. The fast pace of working allows them to approach your project efficiently: they roll up their sleeves and get to work. | https://medium.com/elpassion/when-to-hire-an-agency-for-your-software-development-867fd895c8ea | ['Wojciech Polak'] | 2020-09-07 14:41:46.934000+00:00 | ['Business Strategy', 'Business', 'Business Development', 'Startup'] |
Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality & Fashion (Try before you buy!) | Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are slowly but surely creating a mass market for designers, everyday consumers and fashionistas to experience fashion in a whole new way. With an increasing demand for remote “try-before-you-buy” options in the age of COVID-19, customers can try on jewelry, footwear, eyeglasses, and other apparel in AR/VR before making a purchase. Whole fashion shows can be enjoyed in the comfort of one’s home. The world of fashion is being transformed by amazing AR/VR innovations and as noted by Kathryn Carter, a general manager at Snapchat: “fashion is a natural partner for AR.”
Virtual Catwalk
Already in 2019, the British online fashion giant, ASOS, started experimenting with AR catwalks, as a feature in their mobile app.
© ASOS
In July 2020, a whole VR fashion show titled “The Fabric of Reality” was created by RYOT in partnership with Kaleidoscope, MOR and the Fashion Innovation Agency (FIA) at London College of Fashion. This year-long exhibition is now hosted within HTC Vive’s MOR virtual environment. Also, Gucci, the luxury fashion brand, just recently launched digital versions of its latest collections for virtual avatars, betting on VR environments becoming more crowded in the years to come.
Trending AR VR Articles:
Try Before You Buy
Wannaby, is an AR Commerce Company creating try-on apps for retails shoppers, such as Wanna Kicks for try-on footwear in AR. Gucci also has an app that allows you to virtually try on shoes before you buy them and has recently released the “Gucci Sneaker Garage,” a new experimental section of its app that enables users to virtually design their own Gucci shoes.
© Gucci
Warby Parker, a NY-based retailer of prescription glasses and sunglasses, also offers a mobile application which has an AR feature that allows you to virtually try on every single model of eyeglasses and sunglasses in their store, using your front-facing camera. We already covered their amazing AR shopping experience in our blog back in July. Other companies, such as Diamond Hedge and India-based CaratLane , are also enabling users to try out diamond rings and other jewelry before committing to an expensive purchase. AR-Watches even lets you try watches and timepieces on your wrist using special downloadable AR markers | https://arvrjourney.com/augmented-reality-virtual-reality-fashion-try-before-you-buy-a6035f378e4a | [] | 2020-12-11 17:41:50.349000+00:00 | ['VR', 'AR', 'Virtual Reality', 'Fashion', 'Augmented Reality'] |
One Missed Call | I could not receive her call as I was busy in the Stocks meeting at my office. I had responded with a “Will be there soon” message in reply to her text “Come quickly.”
I parked my car in the basement and took those steps along a road I knew so well. A sudden gust of wind sent icy tendrils winding through my hair. As I walked up the familiar stairs leading into the lobby I noticed that the receptionist was new, and she did not recognize me, but the guard at the gate was the same as an year ago. He saluted me, and asked the new girl to let me pass.
The carpet, the plush sofa sets, the lights, and even the smells of the place had remained unchanged — as if time had not touched them as it had touched me. There was a young couple on the sofa, holding hands and watching the television. They paid me no heed. But in my mind they were looking at me with accusing glances, calling me the name the media had carefully refrained from using — “Murderer!”
I gathered my bearings, got into the elevator and pressed the button that said “15”. The fifteenth floor of Paruplaza Apartments — the place where I had built my life the way I had always dreamed, and the very place where it unraveled in front of my eyes!
As the doors of the elevator opened, I was filled with a sense of dread. My instinct — every fibre in my body screamed at me to turn away and run — run until my legs could carry me no farther. But all I had been doing in the past year was running — it was time to face my fears, to let go of something I had tried to hold on for so long.
“Come soon”, her second message had said. I didn’t reply, but hurried past all the locked doors, so I could be with her again. And presently, I stood in front of apartment 1519. The nameplate on the door read “Mrs. and Mr. Nandan Shyam”. Looking at the innocuous plate of metal, no one could guess the world of terror it housed within.
I opened the door and stepped inside. The furniture was shrouded with white clothes — I had no idea who had done that, nor did I care. Now that I was in, I rummaged through the mess of papers on the dining table and found the one I was looking for — it was newspaper clip from exactly a year ago. The headline announced “Famous socialite Raveena Shyam commits suicide” and it carried her picture — the picture of my wife. The article mentioned that Raveena was suffering from severe depression, and committed suicide one night when her husband was out due to some business reasons.
I looked at the piece of paper and wept. These were tears of remorse — of guilt. Guilt that had I received her call on that fateful night a year ago, I might have been holding her in my arms right now instead of that newspaper clip which showed her smiling face. I sobbed in silence for a long time, and finally took out her phone from my coat pocket. No one had used it for an year, and the last dialed number on it was mine — just minutes before she had thrown herself out of the window.
Without thinking, I pressed the call button. My own phone lit up and started ringing. Her caller picture was the same the newspaper had printed, and it had a faint glow due to the incoming call — but it could not compare with the healthy glow Raveena had on her face when she was happy. It almost killed me to remember how seldom I had given her the reason to smile. My phone rang for one full minute before the call disconnected.
“One Missed Call” — proclaimed the screen.
One missed opportunity, I read. | https://medium.com/literally-literary/one-missed-call-5a0d24d000fa | ['Anangsha Alammyan'] | 2018-03-02 18:05:40.472000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Fiction', 'Literally Literary', 'Relationships', 'Creativity'] |
Jackson @JsonView and it’s meaningful use with Spring Boot REST | Most of the time we come across requirements in an application where we want to provide different views of the same model data to different clients/users.
To solve this, we may end up creating multiple models/DTOs to represent different views of the same state to different clients. For models with a limited number of fields this approach may work, but for large models, it will become difficult to manage and will result in duplication of code.
Jackson’s @JsonView comes to the rescue
We can use Jackson’s @JsonView to solve the above problem. Similar to database views, where we can build multiple virtual tables(views) with different combinations of columns in the underlying table, we can define multiple views of the same Model/DTOs with different combinations of fields.
How to use? 🤔
Define view as a class or interface. Use @JsonView annotation in Model/DTOs to map fields to one or more views.
Jackson reads these @JsonView annotations on fields during serialization/ de-serialization of objects and serialize/deserialize only fields in view and will skip all other fields. | https://medium.com/@iamitpatil1993/jackson-jsonview-and-its-meaningful-use-with-spring-boot-rest-5fb2ad58dcfe | ['Amit Patil'] | 2020-01-25 10:16:53.336000+00:00 | ['Rest Api', 'Spring', 'Spring Boot', 'Java', 'Json'] |
Spark versus cuDF and dask | When working with a large amount of data, we often spend time analyzing and preparing the data. The purpose of this article is to compare the performance of two technologies very present in the big data universe. I will use Spark and cuDF to understand which commands are faster on both technologies.
Apache Spark is general purpose cluster computing system. It delivers speed by providing in-memory-computation capability. Whereas a CPU uses a few cores focused on sequential serial processing, a GPU has thousands of smaller cores made for multi-tasking.
Environment
For this test, I'll use a Hadoop Cloudera environment with six datanodes and Spark version 2.3 and we recently purchased new servers with Tesla V-100 gpu cards.
Spark Environment
Nvidia Environment
To get started, I prepared a dataset with just over 150 million rows and a few columns. The purpose here was to have a sizable database to generate some numbers.
CSV and Parquet files
I stored this database in two different formats, parquet and csv, in order to evaluate the early reading stages when we received data from the various systems. It is well known that parquet format brings us many advantages, but we do not always receive data already in this format, and it is very common to receive raw data in delimited text files.
Reading Data
As a first test, I read the files in both environments and in both formats, see the result.
Spark Read csv and counting records
cuDF read csv and counting records
Spark read parquet and counting records
cuDF read parquet and counting records
The time to read files does not differ much from the technologies tested, as we have to take into account that this requires disk I/O operations. Because parquet files are very compact, reading time is much better than reading csv files. The new GPU servers also came with ssd disks, which speeds up this kind of reading.
But the count operation was much faster on the GPU compared to Spark. A few milliseconds instead of seconds. Relatively here we begin to have visibility of the processing power of the GPU.
Group by mean()
The group by command is often used in early analysis. The idea here was to perform some commands, summarize data and evaluate performance times.
Spark group by CSV example
Spark group by parquet example
However, when I tried to do the same in the cudf environment, I had some problems.
cuDF group by csv example
cuDF group by csv kernel restarting
The same error happens for the parquet dataframe, and for that reason, I won’t even show the same error here.
All was not lost, I could try using dask because in this environment I have two GPUs with 32gb of memory each one.
Local CUDA Cluster
dask cudf group by csv example
dask cudf group by parquet example
Summary of execution times
execution times for command mean
Group by Max()
After checking that it is possible to perform group by operations with the same dataset that was used in spark, but this time using dask, I ran a few more commands.
Spark group by max operations
Dask cuDF group by max csv
Dask cuDF group by max parquet
Summary of execution times
execution time for max command
Conclusion
Obviously processing data in GPU is much faster than CPU, but we have to consider volumes and needs. Data scientists and engineers are now known to spend a lot of time preparing data before even processing it into Machine Learning models. In my tests, times have improved a lot, but I also had problems with the volume of data.
When writing this article and when I came across problems using cuDF, I found Dask, and noticed that scalability issues can be solved with this framework. GPU servers are much more expensive than Hadoop servers if you look at it individually, but I think it is possible to achieve significant time and cost savings by properly using GPU servers. I realize that every week cuDF has developed and in a short time we will have simple ways to process large volumes of data.
References
[1] https://rapids.ai/start.html
[2] https://docs.rapids.ai/start
[3] https://rapidsai.github.io/projects/cudf/en/0.10.0/10min.html
[4] https://rapidsai.github.io/projects/cudf/en/0.10.0/dask-cudf.html
[5] https://docs.dask.org/en/latest/dataframe.html
[6] https://spark.apache.org/docs/2.3.0/
[7] https://data-flair.training/blogs/apache-spark-ecosystem-components/
[8] https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-graphics-card-definition,5742.html | https://medium.com/datalab-log/spark-versus-cudf-and-dask-4be71a45c055 | ['Amilton Pimenta'] | 2019-12-19 17:20:59.543000+00:00 | ['Software Engineering', 'Cuda', 'Spark', 'Gpu', 'Hadoop'] |
Two (2) Flowers I Love and What They Mean | Two (2) Flowers I Love and What They Mean
Echinacea
Echinacea (scientifically known as Echinacea purpurea) or what most people call Coneflower was not on my favorite flowers list, at one time. Garden lovers enjoy the coneflower because it attracts the 3 Bs ~ birds, bees and butterflies. Since I did not have a gardener’s perspective, to me, they were so ordinary and common. But then I learned about the medicinal value of this flower.
Echinacea symbolizes strength and health.
But there are so many flowers that are symbolic of that. However, this flower has a legend. The Native Americans believed that when an elk was wounded, the animal would search for this flower as medicine. The Native Americans (specifically the tribes who inhabited the Great Plains and Midwest) called this flower Elk Root and used it as a painkiller and treatment for a variety of ailments such as snake bites, toothaches, and even the common cold. Many today who believe in holistic medicine and herbal remedies use these flowers. They can be made into a tea for boosting the immune system. It’s a perennial herb and in the daisy family. NOW I now realize this purple coneflower should not be discounted.
Edelweiss
Edelweiss flowers (scientific name: Leontopodium alpinum). Anybody who has watched the movie “The Sound of Music” would have to love this flower because of the song Edelweiss. In fact, the person who wrote the song lyrics for “My Favorite Things”, another song from the movie, should have included a line referencing this flower. Ah well! The movie is golden cinematic history now and those beloved songs can not be rewritten because they are already etched in the minds of too many people.
Edelweiss is a mountain flower.
Like the echinacea or coneflower, edelweiss is also in the daisy family. The flower is often associated with the Swiss Alps, but scientists say they are native to the Himalayas and Siberia and somehow they moved from Asia to the Alpine mountain region during the Ice Age. Believe it or not! The fact is that both the locals and visiting travelers link these flowers to Switzerland. The word “edelweiss” is actually German and translates into English as “noble white”.
Edelweiss has several different names which describe its unusual beauty:
* étoile du glacier or “star of the glacier” ;
* étoile d’argent or “silver star”;
* Klein Löwenfuss or “small lion’s foot’”;
* Wollblume or “wool flower”;
* immortelle des Alpes or “everlasting flower of the Alps”; and
* “Queen of flowers”.
Which name do you like best? I like “silver star”.
Edelweiss symbolizes deep love and devotion.
There are myths and legends surrounding the flower and supposedly whenever a man presents an edelweiss or an edelweiss bouquet to a woman he is professing his undying love for her.
Edelweiss is used in sunscreen and anti-aging cosmetics. Evidently something in this flower is very resistant to the sun’s UV rays. It was or is also used to cure dysentery and diarrhea and some say it is a natural remedy for breast cancer. However, mainly edelweiss is touted for its skincare benefits.
Have you learned something about these 2 flowers that you did not know?
If You Liked This, You Might Also Like: | https://medium.com/express-yourself/two-2-flowers-i-love-and-what-they-mean-659ae5897324 | ['Fox Marks Atx'] | 2020-11-25 19:22:55.129000+00:00 | ['Home And Garden Products', 'Memories', 'Flowers', 'Gardening', 'Best Flowers For Garden'] |
Hi, I’m Jared. | (Click the beard for a free ebook)
I’m an award-winning author, PBS documentarian, and cell-free futurist who’s been published in Esquire, The Guardian, Smithsonian, USA Today, HuffPost, TIME Magazine, and many others. I run one of the happiest publications on Medium, and perhaps the most troubling. My goal is to be the most legitimately helpful writer on the Internet. Thanks for reading and subscribing. (Newsletter subscribers get a free ebook and ALL my paywalled articles for free.)
My Top 10 Most-Viewed Medium Stories (updated regularly)
And here’s my least-popular post of all time: Here Are 10 Powerful Ways to Fight Anxiety When It Hits Hardest
My Top 10 Personal Favorites (updated regularly)
Download my free guide → Level Up: 50 Proven Rules and Tools for a Healthier, Wealthier, Wiser Life | https://medium.com/@jaredabrock/hi-im-jared-24a4129c6170 | ['Jared A. Brock'] | 2021-02-03 16:04:47.595000+00:00 | ['Writer', 'About Me', 'Free Ebook', 'Authors', 'Top Stories'] |
ScyllaDB Developer Hackathon: New IMR infrastructure | by Botond Denes
IMR stands for In Memory Representation and in the scope of this blog post we mean the in-memory representation of cells. You might be asking, why is this even something worth talking about? Why not just use the native data model provided by the programming language in use? The answer lies in the programming language in use: C++ is a strongly typed compiled language and as such it needs to know all properties of a type at compile time. Cells on the other hand have various fields depending on the state they are in and even depending on the schema — the CQL type of the value they store. To give the simplest example, while a live cell has a timestamp and a value, a dead cell only has a timestamp and a deletion time. To represent this in C++, one would need something like this:
struct simple_cell {
timestamp_type ts;
std::optional<deletion_time_type> deletion_time;
std::optional<value_type> value;
};
This representation is wasteful, as some of the fields are only used in certain fields. While the amount of waste might be small, there might be millions of cells in memory and this adds up. Using a union or std::variant also doesn’t help, as those allocate space large enough for the largest of their member types.
Now that we established why an IMR is needed, let’s look at why we needed a new IMR infrastructure. Back in the times of old, Scylla had a quite simple IMR format. A cell was a buffer. In the start of this buffer was a bitset, with some flags, from which the state of the cell could be determined. Each state had a specific field layout, storing only fields it needed. Once the state was known, fields could be accessed simply by adding up offsets. This was simple and it worked, but it had one major weakness: it required the buffer to be linearized. (You can read more about key linearization here, and the kinds of behavioral issues it can cause here.)
In Scylla we break up large allocations into fragments of uniform size. This is mainly to reduce memory fragmentation and make the database more resilient. To solve this it would have been enough to just adapt this simple code to work with fragmented buffers. But we had more ambitious plans. If we were going to touch this, we wanted to change it into something that aligns better into our long-term goals: more widespread-usage (migrate more components like collections to also have an IMR format) and JIT compiling.
We wanted something that is not open-coded but generated by the compiler as much as possible, so we ended up with a template-metaprogramming heavy solution. This had the advantage of eliminating much of the boiler-plate of the open-coded solution, as well as allowing nice declarative code on the interface level. But, as it turned out in time, it had some significant disadvantages too: beyond the nice interface was code that proved to be so complicated that very few people could understand it and people started to avoid touching it. Thus it completely backfired in the more widespread adoption regard. Also, it had a horrible debugging experience.
Figure 1: the name of a single function in IMR doesn’t fit into a single screen
For these reasons we decided that we want to go back to the old simpler days of an open-coded IMR format and the Hackathon seemed like the perfect opportunity for this experiment.
Implementation
First we tried refactoring the current IMR format to make it less template-heavy and hence easier to work with, but this proved futile. In the end we ended up effectively dropping the current format and reverting to the old open-coded one. This was not an easy task, as in the years since it was introduced, many improvements have accumulated on top of it. It kinda felt like trying to yank an entire level out of a Jenga tower without it crumbling entirely.
Figure 2: reverting a change from years ago
We also didn’t want to regress in regard to buffer fragmentation, so we had come up with a way to make this work with fragmented buffers, without losing the simplicity of it.
We ended up using a widely used abstraction in C++: iterators. We wrote an iterator for our fragmented buffer type that hides the fragmentation and creates the illusion of contiguity (without promising it). This iterator works well with C++ standard functions like std::copy_n() that we use heavily to extract values from buffers. The drawback is that this iterator is a fat iterator. As the compiler cannot prove that the underlying storage is contiguous it can’t optimize such copies away into simple memcpy() equivalents (or, when the size is known in advance, into single mov instructions). To solve this problem we came up with a function which would double compile our iterator using code:
auto with_iterator_pair(auto&& func) {
if (is_fragmented()) {
return func(slow_begin(), slow_end());
}
else {
return func(single_fragment_begin(), single_fragment_end());
}
}
This allows those buffers that are small enough to fit into a single fragment (most cells are small enough to fit) to use good old pointers as iterators that are lightning fast, and only fall back to the slower fat iterator for the larger buffers (that are rare).
Next Steps
Obviously a three day hackathon was not enough to get this into a mergeable state. But it was enough for a POC that proves that it can be done. Now only the hardest part remains: polishing and testing. Once done this opens the door for migrating more components to this IMR format. One example is collections. These currently use a serialization format that requires full deserialization for each access and a further serialization pass for each modification. Another example is counters, which also has its own serialization format and requires deserialization for reads.
If you want to learn more about what is going on behind the scenes at ScyllaDB, you’re invited to attend Scylla Summit 2021, this coming January 12th — 14th. It will have two days of technical talks. You can hear directly from many of our engineers, who will present what they’ve been working on this past year, as well as sessions from your industry peers. Plus there’s a free day of training for both app developers as well as DBAs/DevOps.
SIGN UP FOR SCYLLA SUMMIT 2021! | https://medium.com/@scylladb/scylladb-developer-hackathon-new-imr-infrastructure-fc9c0c9056ac | [] | 2020-12-22 19:01:18.854000+00:00 | ['Scylladb', 'Database Design', 'Database', 'C Programming', 'NoSQL'] |
The 3rd ICTESS UNISRI 2020 | Hello everyone! I’m a student of International Relations at Slamet Riyadi University. The University location in Sumpah Pemuda street number 18, Surakarta Central Java, Indonesia. On this page I’m going to review about an event that gave me a lot of information.
On December 10, 2020 Slamet Riyadi University held an International conference theme “Global Security and Global Coorperation in a Changing World” by using Zoom Application. The speakers on this event came from many other countries. ICTEES is stands of International Conference on Technology, Education, and Social Science. It is the 3rd ICTEES that be held by Slamet Riyadi University. This event had a many of topics, such as Global Food Security, Global Security and Sustainable Agriculture, Global Economic Cooperation, Global Security in the Digital Age, and Education in the Global Age.
The speakers at the event are Y. Kristiarto S. Legowo as Ambassador of Republic of Indonesia to commonwealth of Australia, Prof. Ts. Dr. Burhanuddin from Teknikal Malaysia Melaka University, Dr. Shielilo Amihan from University of Perpetual Help Phillippines, Prof. Takuya Sugahara from Ehime University Japan, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chin Min Lin from National Taichung Institute of Technology Taiwan and also lecturer from Slamet Riyadi University, Dr. Sri Handayani Marwan.
Covid-19 is a virus that identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Pandemic coronavirus caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus spreads through the air when people are near each other to long enough, primarily via small droplets or aerosols. When a person infected, they breathe too difficult, coughs, sneezes. There are several a vaccine candidates in clinical trials development. We should preventive measures like hand washing, social distancing, wearing a face mask in public ect.
Pandemic Covid-19 changing the world. It changed our daily life, decreasing economy global, affecting on politics and security countries, including how diplomacy works. Y. Kristiarto S. Legowo said, it can cause traditional security challenges such as suicide, terrorism, violence, crime, destruction ect. And also becoming great power competition happened. This condition made diplomacy life very distractions because social distancing, people are limited distance each other, and we just can held event or conferences by online.
Covid-19 have an impact in business and the global economy. The business community is bad and decreasing global economy especially Malaysia. Prof. Ts. Dr. Burhanuddin said, Maybank Group estimated that the Malaysian economy may shrink by 3.3%, and Malaysian Employers Federation estimated that the number of unemployed people may reach up to 2 million in 2020 with a staggering unemployment rate 13%. But there are strategies to in facing the slow down, economy during pandemic covid-19. There are the company strategy in facing Covid-19 :
1. Review staff current locations and their travelling records
The first priority is to establish exactly where staff are and how many workers are in affected or vulnerable territories. Do any need to be repatriated? Or have they asked to work from home? Upcoming travel plans will need to be reviewed, rescheduled, or canceled.
2. Revisit our crisis and continuity plans timely
Every well-run business has a crisis or continuity plan, and many will have a specific pandemic plan. But nothing tests theory quite like reality. One Asia based organization’s pandemic plan, for example, designated a European city as the evacuation site for employees and their families but flifghts from China to the city were suspended soon after the outbreak.
3. Identify potential points of failures
Who are the teams and individuals on whom critical processes or services depend? Are there workers with the right skills who could step into critical roles if needed? Steps can be taken to reduce the level of human interaction, such as staggered shifts or remote working.
Prof. Takuya Sugahara from Ehime University, Japan had a topic about healthy, he told health function of spices. He explained cumin seeds, such as what cumin’s contains and benefits. The use of spices and herbs has been incredibly important throughout history. Many spices were celebrated for their medicinal properties, well before culinary use. Cumin is spices from seeds of the Cuminum cyminum plant. Many dishes use cumin, especially foods from its native regions of the Mediterranean and Southwest Asia. Modern science has now shown that many of them do indeed carry health benefits. Furthermore, he also told about global cooperation between Indonesia and Japan in health spices.
And then, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chin Min Lin from National Taichung Institute of Technology, Taiwan told about scholarship, student exchange and internship program. All people have a dream, such as going to study abroad or getting a scholarship, and also followed the internship program. The ministry of education (hereinafter referred to as the MOE) encourages domestic public and private colleges and universities to select and send outstanding students to go overseas for training or internships in enterprises and institutions to fully expand the participation of young domestic students in international exchanges and cooperation activities. We can get an internship program or study abroad through international cooperation program channels. The institution will select and send students to foreign countries for study or work. The amount of subsidy per person is decided by the recommended school, which include an international round-trip economy class ticket and foreign tuition and living expenses.The maximum subsidizing period is limited to one academic year. However, those who are going to the internship should at least work at the institutions for at least 30 consecutive days. With going to study abroad or internship, students will have a better understanding of the lifestyle and background of each country’s culture, which will help deepen the relationship and cooperation with each country in the future.
Dr. Shielilo Amihan from University of Perpetual Help Phillippines explain about the impact of pandemic coronavirus in society :
1. Education : students, parents, and faculty
2. Crime : rate still increased (approx. 5%) despite quarantine measures (in Ph)
3. Mental health : spike of mental health cases reported (NCMH )
4. Technology and communication : ethical concerns and miscommunication
5. Social media : FOMO, negative vibes and social life.
And there are relevance and responsiveness of education in global age :
1. multicultural education
2. SEA-TCF
3. Quality of services during Pandemic
4. SEL TEACHING
Coronavirus affected educational systems worldwide, so that all of schools, universities are being closed. We know that education is important because it’s the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. Education is about giving the skills that learners need to success their life. The ability to critically and creatively, to collaborate with others, and to communicate clearly sets students up for success in their careers. Education is becoming the key to global survival in the 21st century. The frameworks of 21st century learning describes the skills, knowledge, and expertise students must master to succes in work and life.
A desire to learn continuously through lifetime is mark of a 21st century learners. The international Commission on Education for twenty-first century to UNESCO identified that learning throughlife as a key to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Dr. Sri Handayani Marwan told about 4 pillars of learning , there are :
1. Learning to know : a broad general knowledge with the opportunity to work in depth on a small number of subjects.
2. Learning to do : to acquire not only occupational skills but also the competence to deal with many situations and to work in teams.
3. Learning to be : to develope one’s personality and to be able to act with growing autonomy, judgment and personal responsibility.
4. Learning to live together : by developing an understanding of other people and an appreciation of interdepence.
And also 4Cs 21st Century skill, there are :
1. Critical thinking : finding solution to problem
2. Creativity : thinking outside the box
3. Collaboration : working with others
4. Communication : talking to others effectively
That’s all for my review, so sorry if it had mistakes or the grammar not yet right. But I always learn and learn. Thank you for reads this to finish. Love u❤ | https://medium.com/@sherlynovitasari54/the-3rd-ictess-unisri-2020-a378deb26cae | [] | 2020-12-13 04:25:11.134000+00:00 | ['International Relations', 'International Conference'] |
One Red Tulip Survived | No matter the situation, there’s always hope
Photo by fotografierende on Unsplash
Ex Number Two’s house was trashed. Literally. In 2002, there had been a house fire. The story goes that when the guy was away on one of his business trips, his daughter threw a load of clothes in the dryer and went out to help her mother deliver their morning newspapers. No, this paper route didn’t belong to the daughter. It was the wife’s part-time job, and she roped her kids into helping her. You see, they were destitute, poor things. According to the yarns she spun for the neighbors her husband refused to work, and she did the best she could to hold her family together. Though the neighbors watched Ex Number Two leave the house every morning and return in the evening, and listened to long-winded tales of his escapades around the water-cooler, they didn’t think he actually had a job. His wife had convinced everyone that she was running the house with the income from a paper route.
What really boggles my mind is that no one ever seriously questioned the woman’s story. I suppose it was the condition of the house, and the fact that Ex Number Two (indeed, the entire family) proudly presented themselves to the world as homeless bums. One day a friend said, “I just don’t understand. My nephew has the same type of job Ex does, and he makes good money.” When I told her that Ex Number Two made over $80,000 a year, she was blown away. And she didn’t believe me. “But his wife told me…” she said, aghast. I guess that’s what they call cognitive dissonance.
Anyway, when wife and daughter got back from delivering papers on that ill-fated morning, the house was filled with smoke. Nobody had ever thought to clean the lint trap in the dryer, and it had ignited. Wife stood in the center of the lawn staring stupidly at the smoke billowing out the front door, daughter ran across the street to call 911, and Ex returned the next day to find that all his books (enough to fill a typical kids’ section in the library) had been destroyed with smoke and water damage. “We need to throw them out,” the fire marshal told him. Ex screamed, “No!” and spent a week carefully cataloging and boxing up each and every book, and stacking them neatly into one side of his two-car garage.
The man refused to throw anything away. When I arrived on the scene ten years later, I found a mountain of garbage bags piled against the wall of a storage room. I was surprised to find them stuffed with squashed aluminum cans and flattened cereal boxes. I lifted a box, cocoa puffs I think it was, and shook my head in disbelief. Why, I wondered, would he hold onto this? Ex Number Two grabbed it out of my hands and told me of the day, about five years before, he had gotten a hankering for cocoa puffs; how he had searched for the cereal among all the others on the store shelf; how many people were in line ahead of him at the cash register, and the items in their carts; how much he had paid for his cereal, including tax; the bowl he had selected to eat it from, and the reasons for his choice; the snap, crackle, pop sound as he poured on the milk; the way it felt sliding down his throat. His face glowed as he relived the experience, but my stomach started churning as it does when something is wrong. I had no clue what to make of this. Somehow, Ex Number Two’s emotions seemed connected to that piece of cardboard. The hurt in his eyes was unmistakable. How dare I even consider throwing it away!
Buried as I was in thirty years of accumulated treasure, I lacked the patience, and the PhD in abnormal psychology, to care. The next day, a few minutes after he had left for work, I unceremoniously chucked the cereal boxes out for the garbage collectors. That’s about the time Ex Number Two quit trusting me, for reasons that made perfect sense to him. Every garbage day after that, instead of heading straight to work when he left the house, he circled around to the back and hid just out of sight. Then, after I had done what one normally does with garbage, he opened each bag and rummaged among the potato peels and egg shells to retrieve his memories. He told the next door neighbor that he had made a mistake marrying someone who was so heartless and cruel.
He might have been right. One thing became clear as I tried to shovel out of Ex Number Two’s priceless collections. We didn’t agree on the definition of the word “valuable.” He thought cereal boxes should be saved and treasured like old family photos. I thought they were good kindling for those bonfires they set at the city dump. He was perfectly at ease sitting among boxes, papers, and broken toys stacked to the ceiling. I found it impossible to stay clean among the rubble, and didn’t like living like a sewer rat. Everyday life became a case study in Darwinian survival. I found it stressful, to say the least. | https://medium.com/@ajwood59/one-red-tulip-survived-95834c96de63 | ['Aj Wood'] | 2021-01-14 00:07:38.401000+00:00 | ['Symbolism', 'Personal Growth', 'Hope', 'Hoarding', 'Change'] |
The Best B2B Sales Prospecting Methods, Strategies, and Tools to Close More Deals | The B2B sales prospecting process, while a shared source of anxiety for sales professionals, is the most crucial facet of selling for almost all businesses. Sales professionals often find themselves racing against the clock to meet quotas. In fact, 42% of sales professionals regard prospecting as the toughest stage of the entire sales process. Since sales are what makes or breaks a business, the exercise of reaching out to leads, nurturing them, and converting them into customers is more important than any stage that comes before or after it.
Keep your sales pipeline full by prospecting continuously. Always have more people to see than you have time to see them. – Brian Tracy, CEO, Brian Tracy International
The process of prospecting unearths prospective customers, boosts a business’s sales pipeline, and provides a useful backdrop to forthcoming sales conversations. Yes, prospecting isn’t as exciting as closing a sale. In fact, most salespeople spend only a third of their regular workday talking to prospects. They spend 21% of the day composing mails, 17% feeding data, another 17% exploring and prospecting leads, 12% conducting internal meetings, and the remaining 12% planning calls. That’s why it is often left for the time when all the important things have been taken care of.
But if you don’t have a sales pipeline charged with highly convertible leads, you won’t be able to make any new sales.
That’s why it’s important to understand that prospecting is what kick starts the sales process and decides, to a large extent, if the deal is going to close or not. Sadly, not enough time is made for prospecting by sales reps as much as you would think was necessary. In fact, research by Gong found salespeople making more calls in the last month of a quarter than the first two, with the success rate of these zero-hour calls generally lower than other months.
This only goes to show how important it is to devote time to prospecting every day. The math is straightforward: the greater the number of prospects you amass, the higher the chances to close a deal you have, as every prospect amounts to an opportunity.
And while it’s the marketing department that’s been conventionally tasked with generating leads, it doesn’t mean that sales reps shouldn’t conduct their own research in regards to prospecting efforts. As such, salespeople still are very much a part of the tradition of self-prospecting and generating leads.
However, before we get cracking on the best ways to prospect, let’s take a look at B2B prospecting in general, what it is, and how the prospecting game has evolved in recent times.
What Is B2B Sales Prospecting?
Prospecting is the exercise of instigating and rearing new business by researching and looking for prospective customers for the products, solutions, or services that you provide. The goal of sales prospecting is to guide these leads or prospects along the sales funnel until the time when they convert into revenue-generating customers for you.
While the concept is simple, effective prospecting is difficult to execute. In fact, almost half of the sale time is wasted on unproductive prospecting. This happens because most sales reps are unaware that the buyer does their own bit of prospecting before making any contact with a sales representative.
In fact, according to CSO Insights, 45% of prospects admitted to having evaluated their needs beforehand to look for services on their own before making contact with the sales team. Additionally, almost all of the B2B buyers reported having researched online, while a little over half the buyers said that they turned to social media to look for fair and relevant solutions before making purchase decisions.
This paints a grim picture as it shows salespeople are losing their hold over the process of making sales. However, things are not as bad as they seem because the people you seek are actually seeking you. In fact, research shows that 91% of prospects would like to contact a sales representative in the early phases of their journey, including 34% of newer customers who are keener on engaging with salespeople early on.
Just think about it — how much more would you have been able to sell if you didn’t waste time on unproductive prospecting?
That’s why it’s necessary to identify customers fit for your business early while prospecting. This means looking for and curating those leads and prospects who actually need your product or solution to solve their issues. Take a look at the video below on steps to define the ideal customer profile for your B2B business.
After you have identified your ideal buyer, you, as a salesperson, can use everything in your arsenal to usher the sale and guide it through the right stages early in the customer journey.
How do you do that?
Well, you first need to be always present for the buyer when they need you. It is during the research and consideration stage that a large number of B2B buyers were found wanting to contact a sales representative. If you present yourself to prospective buyers here, it’s half the battle won because you were there when they needed you the most.
Conversely, you could also initiate contact as it was found that half of the buyers chose those vendors that contacted them first. Additionally, it was found that all sales representatives had to do was reach out to buyers first, with 85% of them saying “yes” to a meeting.
However, you need to always remember that leads will not just be driven to you like moths to a flame. You absolutely have to initiate action and be consistent about it for something to happen. In fact, the research found that 81.6% of the best-performing salespersons spend at least 4 hours or more each day on sales-related ventures.
Now that you are aware of the importance of commitment to prospecting, let’s take a look at the different methods of B2B sales prospecting.
Read More | https://medium.com/@clodura19/the-best-b2b-sales-prospecting-methods-strategies-and-tools-to-close-more-deals-ca1f17408dc0 | [] | 2020-04-10 09:25:36.382000+00:00 | ['B2b Sales', 'Deals', 'B2b Prospects'] |
8 Spiritual Principles for Connecting with the Divine Inside | You Are Light
This has become so commonplace in spiritual teachings that it might seem banal to begin here. But it is so easy to forget what it means and, more importantly, what it does not mean.
The essence of this principle is that you are a spiritual being having a human experience. This means, first and foremost, that you are connected directly to God. Your connection is non-negotiable because you are an aspect of the divine made form. It is your birthright to cultivate that connection. You do not need the permission of a mediator to connect with God, but teachers who can guide you to cultivate your connection can be profoundly helpful.
By being an aspect of God, it means that you are literally energy — cosmic energy. Everything is energy, vibrating according to our nature. We are part of, and inseparable from, a field of energy that can only be partially captured by our physical senses.
In that way, most of our senses are inadequate to understanding the full array of who we are. We typically limit ourselves to the rational mind and the material world — what our five senses and our logical minds, aided and augmented by technology built from those same minds and same senses, can perceive. We assume that what our eyes tell us is reality rather than a version of reality. What we experience is part of a totality that we cannot fully comprehend.
It also does not mean that we are only light. It does not mean that our bodies are illusions, or that we only experience positivity all the time. Our materiality and our pain are critical to understand what it means to be light. As spiritual beings in human form, we are here to move beyond our sense of separation as material beings, while at the same time embracing our materiality. In other words, we awaken to our true nature while still living as beings of flesh and blood. | https://medium.com/know-thyself-heal-thyself/8-spiritual-principles-for-connecting-with-the-divine-inside-b7efc5fe6094 | ['Patrick Paul Garlinger'] | 2020-12-30 20:42:17.578000+00:00 | ['Personal Development', 'Spirituality', 'Relationships', 'Philosophy', 'Self'] |
My Robot Vacuum is Surprisingly Wise | One of my best middle-of-the-night purchases was a robot vacuum.
I had been contemplating purchasing one for a while, so it wasn’t exactly spur-of-the-moment, but looking at the dog hair on the carpet late one night convinced me that it was worth a try.
If you haven’t seen them, the robot vacuum is a handy little self-propelled machine the size of large pizza that cleans your floors.
It’s no muss, not fuss — all you have to do is program it and periodically empty the tray. The robot vacuum is fully programmable — it starts, stops and recharges automatically. If it gets stuck or the tray is full it will give you helpful warning beeps but otherwise it just does its thing.
Because I have an innate need to anthropomorphize things, I named the robot vacuum Reggie. Reggie the Robot. I know, I’m super creative.
At first, she acted like I was crazy, but I have even got my roommate calling it Reggie now. “Where’s Reggie?” she will ask if she doesn’t see him wandering around cleaning. The other night she came out of the bathroom and I heard her say, “Oh hi Reggie.”
Reggie may be a machine, but he exemplifies some important life lessons for all of us. | https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/my-robot-vacuum-is-surprisingly-wise-757f91fa3cc | ['Rose Bak'] | 2020-10-25 20:35:11.176000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Mental Health', 'Home', 'Inspiration', 'Life'] |
3 Unexpected Lessons From My First 5-Figure Online Course Launch | 3 Unexpected Lessons From My First 5-Figure Online Course Launch
It’s the end of 2019, my boyfriend and I are sitting in a charming 5-star resort in Egypt. Besides reading great books and soaking up the sun, we’re mainly trying to figure out how to turn our dream of running an online business into reality.
He just quit his job, I’ve been unsuccessfully self-employed for several months, and secretly hoping for a miracle that would guide us through the next months.
In the past years, we worked on several side hustles.
We created numerous online courses on platforms like Udemy and Skillshare, self-published a book, hosted dozens of workshops on personal growth, and built an online academy to help students improve their social skills.
Yet, eventually, none of those projects turned out to be as fun and profitable as we thought. And when I say profitable, I’m talking about paying the bills, not about making millions.
However, the miracle I secretly hoped for turned into reality and less than 12 months after our desperate conversations in Egypt, we celebrated our first 5-figure online course launch.
Admittedly, part of that miracle was Covid-19 which forced us to stay at home and work like crazy for months because we couldn’t do anything else due to lockdowns.
The second part of the miracle, however, was based on lots of trial and error, endless hours of hustle, and relying on strategies that are proven to work.
But even though we relied on the strategies of experts, our first five-figure launch taught me three lessons I didn’t find in any bestselling book or online course.
Your Energy Matters A LOT
This is probably the most important lesson I learned, yet, none of the books or courses I studied mentioned it.
How you show up to your launch period matters so much.
Even though 99% of the work should be done before a launch, the sales period can be incredibly exhausting and exciting.
At least that’s the reality when you’re doing most of the work yourself and don’t have employees who do the launch for you.
There are two reasons why I believe your energy matters at least as much as your strategy during the launch of an online course:
1.) A launch requires you to be reactive
At the beginning of my journey as a digital entrepreneur, I replied to every comment and email I received.
This helped me understand my audience and scale my business. However, it’s no longer possible because I receive an overwhelming amount of messages every single day.
But launch days are different from average days.
When I’m presenting a special offer for a limited time, I make sure to read and reply to all meaningful messages. (If you send a message that goes along the lines of “Hi, can I have the course for free?” I won’t reply.)
During this period, I reply to all requests because I want potential clients to be sure the product is a fit for them.
I wouldn’t ever make a significant investment in an online course without feeling excited about it. That’s why I’m willing to provide additional information to anyone worrying about whether my program is a fit for them.
Apart from typical support emails, you might also need to do troubleshooting.
No matter how well your launch is prepared, shit can always happen. You might find mistakes in your sales copy, the check-out page might not work, your emails might not get delivered or whatsoever.
These reactive tasks can cost you lots of energy.
2.) You attract what you feel
If you feel great and energized, you’ll attract clients who feel the same way. If you, however, lack excitement, you’ll likely stand in your own way.
This might sound a bit woo-woo, but if I could only focus on one point for my next launch, I’d choose this one.
Especially if you’re doing live launches (e.g., through a live webinar), people feel your energy.
If you seem to be exhausted, anxious, or don’t look excited about your product, why should they be keen to buy it? Don’t underestimate the power of human energy.
Even if your audience is sitting thousands of miles away and watching your presentation on a screen, they’ll feel your enthusiasm. And believe it or not, your energy will influence how much you sell.
Now you might ask yourself: Okay, cool, but how do I manage my energy during a launch?! Here’s the answer:
Make sure you don’t have any other commitments during your entire launch period.
No phone calls, no birthday parties, no appointments.
Mark your calendar with a big fat red pen and don’t let any commitment slide into your launch week, no matter how minor they might seem.
Don’t try to get anything else done during this period. No deadlines, no new projects, nothing.
A proper online course launch takes lots of preparation time and you don’t want to mess it up during the few launch days.
You might have an excellent product, but if you fail to properly launch it, you won’t make money.
Take care of yourself.
Yes, launch periods can be intense, but that’s no reason to ignore your routines.
On the contrary, you should take even more time for your routines to nourish your body and mind so you can show up as your best possible version.
Again: Your audience will feel your energy. The better you feel, the easier it’ll be to amaze them.
So make sure to eat nourishing foods, move your body, get some fresh air, and take care of your mental and physical health. You really don’t want to get sick or burn out during your launch, so take care of yourself. | https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/3-unexpected-lessons-from-my-first-5-figure-online-course-launch-969de93d27a7 | ['Sinem Günel'] | 2021-09-02 07:41:47.123000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Online Business', 'Female Founders', 'Startup', 'Business'] |
‘Nairn’s London’, by Ian Nairn (1966) | ‘Nairn’s London’, by Ian Nairn (1966)
The best guide book to London is not really a guide book to London. In fact, Ian Nairn’s “personal list of the best things in London” may also be the best book on the city ever written.
(Ed. This piece was originally published at cityofsound.com on 7 October 2010. A half-written entry on Ian Nairn’s book ‘Nairn’s London’ had been lying dormant for almost a year at that point. But a conversation on Twitter between me, Kieran Long (of the Evening Standard), Justin McGuirk (of The Guardian), Charles Holland (of FAT), and Owen Hatherley (of Owen Hatherley and more besides) prompted me to finish the sentences and hit ‘publish’. At the time, a copy of ‘Nairn’s London’ was relatively hard to find – now you should be able to find the reissue.)
The Economist’s Christmas special (2009) had an fascinating article about being an outsider, an emigrant, a foreigner, and the role and practice of writing in terms of understanding the nature of a place. The article described the effect on perception that ‘being a foreigner’ may have:
“Foreignness is intrinsically stimulating. Like a good game of bridge, the condition of being foreign engages the mind constantly without ever tiring it. John Lechte, an Australian professor of social theory, characterises foreignness as “an escape from the boredom and banality of the everyday”. The mundane becomes “super-real”, and experienced “with an intensity evocative of the events of a true biography”.” [‘The Others’, The Economist, December 17th 2009]
Unrelated to this, Owen Hatherley and I had a very brief email correspondence a while ago about whether one could capture the essence of a city — or perhaps an essence of the city — in a brief visit, as with his research-fuelled excursions for Building Design (which are turning into a kind of retrofitted Pevsner for the 21stC) or my own scribbles garnered from a mere 24 hours in Geneva or Seoul, or 48 hours in Seattle or Turin or Milan, or a few days in Boston/Cambridge, or several intermittent weekends in Barcelona, and so on.
Can you detect and describe an essence of place from a brief visit? I’ll leave it to you to decide, though I think that—with practice, and research—you can indeed quickly conjure an essence of a city, which may even be a decent facsimile of how many people perceive the place.
Ian Nairn’s book Nairn’s London is quite the opposite. It is a rich book derived from a life spent amidst the city, a city which he clearly worshipped even as it was changing around him. It’s the ultimate inside job. And although written from the point-of-view of the insider, I’d argue it manages to transform the “banality of the everyday” into a “super-real, evocative, true biography” of a city, too.
It’s also a great blueprint of exactly the kind of architecture and urbanism writing we need more of.
He was not an architect—which is key I think—but understood architecture deeply, it seems to me (though I’m also not an architect). The depth and breadth of his research is clear, and if worn on the sleeve, it’s artfully done. He is able to write about both medieval London and modernism with fairness, elan, insight, and a wicked sense of humour. He teases the reader—particularly the relatively closeted reader of 1966, when this book was first published—with saucy metaphors delivered at the altar. He is even-handed in his demolition of poor work in all styles. It’s accessible without ever being lightweight. He writes about urban spaces as well as buildings, about infrastructure and urban strategy, about the city as seen from flowing traffic as well from within a moment of repose standing alone in a quiet, misty, South London common.
One of the more progressive aspects is his indifference to boundaries, disciplines and objectivity. From his preface:
“This guide is simply my personal list of the best things in London … What I am after is character, or personality, or essence … (T)he book has no barriers. I just don’t believe in the difference between high- and low-brow, between aristocracy and working class, between fine art and fine engineering. All are tilting-horses erected by paper men because they can’t or daren’t recognise the golden thread of true quality. This book is a record of what has moved me, between Uxbridge and Dagenham. My hope is that it moves you, too.”
As an ex-Londoner living in Sydney in 2009, invariably reading it from the back of a light rail tram cutting through a carefully-landscaped harbourside ‘idyll’ punctuated with overweight joggers and gargantuan fig trees laden with screeching cockatoos, it’s an extraordinary experience to be transported back 10000 miles and 40-odd years. Back to a heady brew of smoky chimneys leaving a layer of grime on heavy brick and Portland stone, noisy saloon bars with lairy blokes eyeing birds of a different kind, picking out deals on unreliable mot-ahs in the Evenin Stannad classifieds, and the white-heated whirl of New Town-building and L.C.C.-led flat building (with Archigram lurking within the belly of that L.C.C. architect’s department), all just before the likes of Rogers, Foster, Lasdun, Alsop, Arup, Macormac et al emerge in the wake of Stirling, Cedric and the Smithsons. | https://medium.com/iamacamera/nairns-london-by-ian-nairn-1966-7a90e534dc5 | ['Dan Hill'] | 2020-03-07 11:42:28.487000+00:00 | ['Cities', 'History', 'Books', 'London', 'Architecture'] |
[Release Notes] uPrism.io Meetings V1.3.2👏 | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/uprismio/release-notes-uprism-io-meetings-v1-3-2-3e029e43382c | [] | 2020-03-19 13:15:20.014000+00:00 | ['화상회의', 'Release N Updates', 'Uprism', '유프리즘아이오', 'WebRTC'] |
Part 6 — Blood: One Down | It was understood Tyler was quick, but no one knew just how lithe he was. In four silent steps, he was behind the Russian giant—the guy threatening Steph from the other side of the tree.
The distance crippled Mark. He couldn’t get over to Steph in time and definitely not without making a commotion.
All he could do was watch.
And hope.
Tyler hopped on the Russian’s back, covered the giant’s mouth, and slit his throat with nary a gurgle from the guy.
Tyler grabbed Steph, looked at Mark, and motioned for him to follow.
Who was this guy? | https://medium.com/etc-magazine/part-6-blood-one-down-3fe53812aeb4 | ['Keith R. Higgons'] | 2020-11-24 11:03:32.600000+00:00 | ['Very Short Story', 'Crime Fiction', 'Series', 'Crime'] |
Social Impact Tech: Nate Bryer of Azuga On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive Impact | Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?
Thank you for the opportunity! Well, first, that’s the first time I’ve been asked to give my childhood backstory as part of a technical interview. I must say it’s a bit refreshing. As much as I’d like to think my backstory is super exciting, it’s probably similar to many others.
I was born in Oregon as child number five to two parents in the education system. My mom was a special education teacher, and my dad was a social worker. Could be why I think that the technology industry I have been specializing in for the past decade is just as much a study in human nature as it is a business solution. From Oregon, the family moved to the suburbs of Chicago. I think I did pretty much what every other kid in the suburbs did — ride my bike everywhere, chase lightning bugs in the summer, and go skating and sledding in the winter.
I did learn at an early age that I love cars — the faster and flashier the better. In thinking back, I might have been part of the last non-technology generation. No computers, no cell phones, no GPS, no real electronics of any kind. I thought the fire engine toy I received as a youngster that had flashing lights was the epitome of technical wizardry. But that changed in junior high when I was introduced to a Radioshack TRS 80. Seeing the awesome power of a keyboard and a tape player hooked up to a processor and screen and — boom — I was hooked on computers. Then in high school I got to drive my friend’s 1968 Pontiac GTO and I was hooked on cars.
In college, I did have a bit of a challenge when deciding on which major and career path to pick. I was torn between computer science or mechanical engineering. That was decided for me one night when I was working on rebuilding my 1976 Dodge Dart Slant 6 225 engine. I spent an entire evening working on removing it from the chassis and after I was done went back to my dorm room to clean up. I was at my room’s door when I looked back down the hallway where I had come from and noticed I had left a very distinct trail of very oily footprints all the way from the entrance of the floor leading directly to my room. That was pretty much the defining moment for my decision. As much as I loved working on cars, I decided computers would be a much easier thing to clean up after. [Bryer laughs.]
The first 20-plus years of my career I worked in the insurance industry. Despite insurance being considered a kind of dull business, it was actually a perfect fit for me. Insurance systems require quite a bit of technology and computer knowledge, and it is completely dependent on the automobile industry. So, in the end, I got to be involved in both of the things I love doing.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I actually have lots of interesting things that have happened to me since I began my career, but the one that really sticks out is when I was given the opportunity to make a lateral move in the company I was working for from the technology department to the marketing department. I was able to keep all my seniority and leverage all my technology background but for creating direct-to-consumer products. Interestingly enough, one of the first products I designed was one using this new thing called telematics — the technology that I’m here talking about today. While in the marketing department, I met some of the more famous actors that starred in various commercials. I got to meet Dennis Haysbert (yes, he is REALLY tall) and I got to meet Dean Winters who makes a perfect Mr. Mayhem.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Hmm. I think this honor would go to my first manager. He was fairly young, but wise beyond his years and able to get his team to produce way more products than the other managers. He had a laid-back way about him but his attention to detail was excellent. He told me the secret to how he got so much done, and it was “I can do anything with good people.” I’ve never forgotten that and always try to surround myself with a team made up of good people because I have definitely been able to attest to how much can get accomplished by a team that is dedicated toward a common goal.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
That’s easy. My daughter has been keeping track of what she calls “dad-isms.” One of my favorites that I’ve shared with her is “Never mistake activity for accomplishment.” Think of the little hamster on its cute little hamster wheel. Lots and lots of activity, zero distance travelled. In my role as a business unit leader this life lesson has translated into me not really needing a lot of meetings or pomp and circumstance around product development. My measuring bar isn’t so much how long or hard it took to get something done, but in how much got done and how well it turned out.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
The first characteristic that I think translates to success is goal-orientedness. Goals are all about having a direction and purpose. Can you imagine a soccer game without goals? It’s just a bunch of guys running around after a ball. No one — on nor off the field — enjoys that. As part of being goal-oriented, a secondary and necessary part of setting goals is making plans to achieve your goals. There are lots of nice quotes about having plans and failure if no plans are made and I can attest to how true they are. All the successful people have plans. They have plans for their career, their projects, their families, their hobbies and even how they want to get to dinner at the restaurant later. Plans matter. And not having one is a sure way of getting nowhere fast. Having a plan means knowing where you are, where you want to go and how you want to get there. For example: my desire to go to college. I knew that my parents, as much as they would have liked to, just didn’t have the resources to pay for my college so it was up to me. I set a goal to go to college and made plans to join the army which had a really decent program for paying for college for a soldier’s time in the service via the GI Bill and other programs. My goal was to go to college. My plan was to do three years in the army and see as much of Europe as possible. And drive a tank. Just had to drive a tank.
The second characteristic relates to the first and it is follow-through, or what I like to think of as “stick-to-it-ness.” Plans are good, but they are just words on a page. They aren’t action. You need to take action and make decisions that line up with your plan. When you are faced with a choice, make the best one that lines up with your plan and stick with it all the way through. We all sometimes make decisions that are counter intuitive or just plain bad, but don’t let that get you down. Successful people make their success one good decision at a time. For my plan to go to college , I joined the army and was sent to Germany for three years. As a tanker. I added to my plan while in the army to finish my associates degree so that I’d have a bit of a head start when I got out of the army. I would say that the plan I made was a good one and I executed on it successfully. I finished my time in the army, was able to see almost all of Europe and most definitely got to do plenty of tank driving and then went on to finish my undergrad degree in computer science and a Master’s in Business.
The last characteristic is my dedication to having fun. Work to live, don’t live to work. It’s just as important to have a life outside of work where you can decompress, have fun and relax. Without downtime you lose energy and sight of the things that really matter in life. During the execution of my plan to get my college degree while I was in the army, I bought myself a little German car and drove it everywhere I could during the weekends. I have so many fond memories of little German towns that had fun fests (think big tents and oompa music), great little cafes, and wonderful people to hang out with. If I hadn’t taken the time to purposely go have some fun, my time in the army would just be filled with lots of memories of being stuck in some pretty bland and boring barracks…and guard duty. Lots of guard duty. Soldiers that stayed around the barracks on the weekends with nothing to do got assigned lots of guard duty.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive social impact on our society. To begin, what problems are you aiming to solve?
We want to make the road a better place. In short, we’re aiming to solve several problems of the road: infrastructure funding woes, driver conscientiousness, and emissions pollution. The U.S. is currently in an infrastructure funding crisis. Our roads and bridges are decades-old and literally falling apart. This is dangerous, causing expensive and often fatal accidents. I like to ask people How many bridges do you think are in the U.S.? No one guesses right. The answer is staggering: over 617,000. And the next question is How old do you think the bridges are? Over 40% of them are at least 50 years old. And then the last question is How safe do you think they all are? I assure you that most are safe, but over 7% of them (over 40,000) are considered structurally deficient. So, not to scare anyone, but think about that next time you are stuck in traffic on a bridge in rush hour. I’m trying to bring to market (and people’s awareness) a new way of getting the right funds at the right time to the right stretch of road.
So here’s the final piece of what most people don’t realize. For as long as most of us can remember, the U.S. has used a gas tax to help fund road construction and maintenance. It has been the ultimate “user fee” for all drivers. But now cars don’t burn as much fuel as they used to and more people are buying electric vehicles, so now gas tax revenues are too small (and getting smaller). We don’t have enough funds to make the roads and bridges better. At the same time, it isn’t easy to transition to a modern revenue mechanism. Over the years, the fuel tax has become “invisible” and paid without a second thought. People don’t like change and politicians are afraid to raise the fuel tax enough to make an impact, leaving the fuel tax increasingly outdated and ineffective.
These issues are made worse by the rise of traffic congestion and increased CO2 emissions. Americans covet their privilege to drive their private vehicles (I know I do) and have never thought about the air pollution or wear they bring to public roadways and bridges. They’ve never been able to measure their impact.
How do you think your technology can address this?
Our technology brings transparency to highway funding, makes it easy and engaging for the end users, and, in turn, makes mileage fees viable as a modern and effective alternative to gas tax. Plus, people can finally measure their presence and impact on the roads. Our users can view their trips, driving behavior, and carbon footprint.
Simultaneously, our tech inspires people to become better, safer drivers, too. We even make it fun and throw in a little healthy competition with driving scores and badges. Users drive more conscientiously to improve their score and compete with family or friends for “best driver” bragging rights, resulting in safer behavior on the road. Keep in mind, though, these are fun premium features that are only for people who want them and opt in. For government programs, we want to focus on just helping people handle road user fees and gas tax credits without a headache.
Anyway, looking at their road charges and trip logs, our customers are paying attention now more than ever to how much time they’re spending on the road. And our carbon footprint feedback allows them to finally put numbers to their daily emissions and maybe — just maybe — they can reconsider that next unnecessary trip across town.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
This passion definitely started after I transitioned from the technology department to the marketing department at the insurance company I was working for. While researching, designing, building, and implementing a usage-based insurance program I became quite passionate about everything to do with driving. Basically, why do we drive the way we drive and what are the impacts of our driving habits and behaviors? I actually became much more aware of my driving and the impact of my driving on others and the impact their driving had on me. My insurance job led me to my current job where I applied my skills in building systems to track driving behavior to just tracking miles. That might seem like a bit of a step down, but it’s not because the purpose of tracking those miles became oh-so-much-more important from a social construct standpoint. The purpose of tracking miles is to ensure that the right charge on the right person at the right time is collected to pay for the right road segment. It really is vital for a society to have good roads to be healthy. I have another nice saying for this: nothing should stop the free flow of traffic. And nothing stops the free flow of traffic faster than bad roads or poorly designed roads. Roads don’t pay for themselves and thus need a funding mechanism. As I already discussed, the current method is drying up (pun intended) and the method that my system provides may not last forever, but it will certainly be able to last longer than the current method which is about 100 years old.
How do you think this might change the world?
I think people right now take roads for granted. They expect the roads to be there when they want them to be and they expect them to be smooth and traffic-free. I think my system will help people realize that thinking that way is antiquated and not particularly helpful. People need to think of roads as utility or service — something that is necessary for their life and the general well-being of a finely tuned society. I like to explain to people that even though I don’t personally drive the generally accepted monthly average of 1000 miles a month, I still use them about that much. I get inquisitive looks and then I explain. I order services for food and other odd and ends throughout the month, which results in delivery vans arriving to my house to drop things off at my front door. I need those nice, smooth, traffic-free roads just as much when I don’t drive as when I do in order to get the next day delivery of some dog food for my little dogs. Without roads we have nothing. All goods and services are provided to their customers via roads, and those roads need to be paid for. If the current system is broken (and it is), then a new system like mine is just what is needed and can be put in place and slowly ramped up over time while the old system is retired. But why do I think it will change the world? That might be a little broad, but I truly do believe it will change transportation forever. Fuel taxes are an invisible tax but are single use. A system that can provide a means for tracking miles and collecting funds is multi-use. The same system for RUC can be used for tolling, or congestion pricing, or transportation research or a plethora of other transportation services. It’s the ultimate example of build and re-use — all for little to no extra cost to the taxpayers. Once the system is up and running at threshold, who knows how many other aspects of transportation it can assist with.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
Naturally, people are afraid that if they opt for a GPS-enabled option for a road charge program, the government may have direct access to their driving behavior and location. Legislators are taking steps to keep driving data protected and we’re doing what we can to keep it locked away in a safe space, but this work must be continuous. If government ever expects the public to accept a mileage fee, privacy and security must be priorities. Period.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”? (Please share a story or an example, for each.)
Don’t be afraid of the unknown. Sometimes, you just have to be the first. You may find a problem that needs to be fixed and you’ll second-guess yourself, saying that it’s a simple solution and there’s probably a really good reason why no one else has created it. Being first isn’t easy, but the payoff in the end is worthwhile. When I jumped from insurance to RUC I went from a nice cushy job to a position that required multiple hats, long hours, and no guarantee of success. Being a little scared is expected in that type of situation, but it kept me sharp and at my best to ensure I made as many good decisions as possible. Seek Guidance. Wise men seek wise counsel. I heard this little saying when I was young and it has stuck with me throughout my career, and it truly has saved me many headaches and sleepless nights. Many times I’ve been in a tight situation and didn’t have a clear vision of the direction to take. In those situations I’ve sought out past mentors, leaders, and managers I’ve respected over the years. They didn’t always have the answer, but they helped me in understanding how best to approach the situation and what would be the best next steps. Many times they were able to share their mistakes and help me keep from making the same ones. Seeking guidance is definitely needed when creating technology that can have a positive social impact because it requires you to think outside the small world you and your technology solution are in. You have to think bigger than yourself and, for this, wise counsel is critical. Enhance the human experience. Again, to create change you need to meet people where they are (which is probably stuck in old patterns) and get them excited about something new. Make it a game, provide value, and learn from their feedback. Technology can’t be successful without thinking about the experience people will have when they interact with your product. It needs to be so easy they don’t even think about it. Colors, fonts, positive and negative space — all important, but second seat to usability. Your product just has to work. We’ve sent emails out to people to notify them of something new and had people respond with, “Wow, I forgot I was even using your product.” When I see a response like that, I know it is doing what it should. It’s working so well, people forget they’re even using it. Think of the Future. Technology is evolving every day. For your audience’s sake, your tech must also. Look 10, 15, or 20 years into the future and think about what changes might be ahead. Anticipate needs, plan accordingly, and build in flexibility. My technology stack is all stuff you can spell and find easily. Some might find it a bit boring. But you know what? It works, and that is what is most important. Using the latest shiny gadget to build a solid ecosystem required to support a government program is going to be a sure way to ensure failure. But (there’s always a but) build the system with modularity built in. That way, if a part of the technology stack needs to be upgraded or replaced, it can be done without impacting the entire ecosystem. I’ve followed my own advice and thoughts on this. My team has upgraded and enhanced every aspect of the RUC platform at least three times in the last six years — all without the need to shut the whole thing down. Do what you say and say what you do. Sounds simple, but not everyone plays by those rules. I don’t always like to hear bad news but when I do I want and expect people to be upfront about it and then have a plan for how they will overcome what caused the bad news. I follow my own advice and will always tell my partners upfront what I can and cannot do. This way there are no unrealistic or unmet expectations. Unmet expectations are the quickest way to resentment and not getting asked back to do more work.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Making a positive impact on society is good for the soul. Sounds a bit pithy, but it really is true. When you do something for others that helps them or provides for them (and that definitely includes good roads) you feel good. It puts a smile on your face.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
That’s a no brainer. Elon Musk. His cars are what is causing this whole hoopla. Would love to sit down with him to see if it would be okay if I had some space in his vehicle app system to embed some RUC functionality. Would make this whole thing go way smoother. And if we did it, other automotive manufacturers might be inclined to follow suit sooner rather than later. A discussion over lunch and I’m confident I could convince him that it would work and work well.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can visit us at www.azuga.com/insight or follow us on Twitter (@azugainsight). We’re always making efforts to build our online community and to provide updates on progress toward changing the way people perceive driving and road funding.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to get this topic out there. Thank you for the discussion. | https://medium.com/authority-magazine/social-impact-tech-nate-bryer-of-azuga-on-how-their-technology-will-make-an-important-positive-24976a2382bd | ['Jilea Hemmings'] | 2021-07-22 12:47:16.130000+00:00 | ['Social Impact'] |
Tie a Ribbon of Hope to Advent | 2020 — Year of extremes. Worst of the worst; the best of the worst. But it’s coming to an end. Let’s celebrate by putting a bow of hope on it.
Thank you is the biggest compliment for 2020.
Next… Pay it forward with hope!
Paying it forward: Kathy, Suryatapa, Dennett, LB.
THANK YOU FOR READING
I Wish You Miracles. | https://medium.com/chalkboard/tie-a-ribbon-of-hope-to-advent-ae798d3c0d96 | [] | 2020-12-12 00:41:31.645000+00:00 | ['One Line', 'Perspective', 'Advent', 'Hope', 'Chalkboard'] |
INTD 1010- Final Reflection Paper | At the beginning of the course I was looking forward to learning about violence because it is such a broad topic. I had no idea going into the class what areas of violence we would be discussing. I was excited to touch on sexual violence and animal violence because they were the most interesting to me. One area of violence that shocked me the most, and was something I knew little about, was presented in the lecture and discussion on gun violence. I learned so much about gun violence in Canada vs. gun violence in America and other countries. The laws and people’s opinions about them were the most interesting to me. For example, I learned a lot when we discussed how there are some cities in the world where you can carry a gun in the open, and when we discussed the news report about the young guy carrying a gun around his neighbourhood while he picked up trash. Hearing other people’s points of view on that really made me think. I also enjoyed all the other debates/ discussions we’ve had in class when it comes to violence.
When I first started this class I was pretty set on my views on violence when it came to certain areas like sexual abuse, gun violence, animal violence, BDSM, violence against women/ hate crimes, etc… I truly didn’t think my views would change but as each class went on, and after hearing others classmates discuss their point of view, I have become more accepting and open minded about their opinions on violence.
I really enjoyed everyone’s presentations on violence because they gave me a new way of looking at people and the world. Everyone’s topics were interesting and well done and I learned a lot. I found that when I was doing my project and was researching things, a lot of information shocked, and even surprised me. For example, I was surprised to learn from statistics about the amount of males that experience sexual abuse and rape, and how sexual abuse is always seen as men abusing women and not the other way around. I was also very surprised that many people see physical violence as more of a thing males do and women are more verbally violent.
I’d also like to touch on violence in the media and in sports. I find that violent videogames don’t necessarily give children the sense that violence is okay in “real life” so to speak. I do think it can mess with a child’s development if it is not discussed by the parent with the child. I think violence in sports like football, hockey and the UFC are ok since the fighting is done in a way that has legal limits and is regulated by officials and referees. If someone does do something illegal within these sports, there are and punishments to make sure the rules are followed.
Another discussion we’ve had is on BDSM and violence within the bedroom. When we had this discussion many people were all for BDSM because it was consensual, but when it was about women consenting to being hit and abused in relationships many people disagreed and said that wasn’t okay. This really shocked me because the people who said BDSM was okay, and consensual violence for men to beat their wives was not, were mostly the females in the class. I believe that it is okay for women to consent to BDSM if that is what they are into and there are guidelines and safe words being used. When it comes to men beating their wives with consent I feel that the woman may be pressured into consenting or that they have a disorder and are not in the right set of mind to make a decision like that. To me it is weird that a women would want to be hit and abused by her husband for no apparent reason, and that no one in a relationship should beat one another.
Overall I’ve really enjoyed and learned a lot in this course. My views on certain areas of violence have changed. I have become a more open-mined person and have learned to think more critically about certain situations. | https://medium.com/intd-1010/intd-1010-final-reflection-paper-3f5e1f9b9117 | ['Katie Kudlak'] | 2016-04-10 23:02:28.010000+00:00 | ['Violence', 'BDSM', 'Media'] |
The role of neuroplasticity in organizational change | I never thought I would ever use such a wise title. Just to be clear, I am not a scientist. I am an applicator and a seeker. I am especially looking for better ways to help organizations change. And in this, behavioural sciences play an increasingly important role. I am currently reading the book ‘The older the better’ by neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin. It is not a book about change management, but as from page 154 my change management brain was triggered anyway. The author talks about the Berlin and Innsbruck experiments that form a convincing story about neuroplasticity (how the brain rewires itself) in the short term.
The world upside down
The Inssbruck experiments used glasses that turned the world upside down. As in the Berlin experiment, volunteers who wore the glasses adapted to this new experience in a relatively short period of time. During the first three days, the participants made a lot of mistakes and only gradually adapted. However, when the participants woke up on the fifth day, everything seemed to stand up straight, as if nothing had happened. When they took off their glasses again, the world turned upside down again. Interestingly, the adjustment back to normal only took a few minutes.
Source: David Pescovitz on boingboing.net
The reason that the initial adjustment took so long and the return to the previous state so quickly, has to do with the difference in biology between the well-grounded paths (as the participants experienced the world so far) and the changes that were made in a few days (the world visually upside down). I found this very interesting also from a change management point of view.
Neuroplasticity and change projects
Change projects very often involve behavioural change, such as the evolution towards digital working. They aim for a new behaviour among a large group of people. But whether it concerns an organisation of 50,000 employees or one of 100, in the end the desired change is always the sum of the individual behavioural changes. And so neuroplasticity, or how the brains of individuals rewire themselves, plays a very important role in change, it seems to me.
New desired behavior, however, has to compete with old behaviors, the well-grounded paths that are strongly rooted in habits. That is why so many changes die a quiet death after a while. When the pressure or attention is gone, which often happens after an initial focus, the new habit slowly seeps away again and old habits surface again.
It is not because the motivation is there that behavior changes sustainably
Years ago I guided teams towards huddles and standup meetings. That worked well at first. There was a lot of enthusiasm, people felt that the productivity of the meetings improved. That’s good right? That should have been enough to maintain the new habit, because everyone saw the benefits. If it were that simple, twe would all easily walk 10 miles in less than an hour and eat little meat. It’s not because the motivation is there that the behavior changes sustainably. And the experiments show why this can come about (even though I may draw premature conclusions from the book here, I thought it would be interesting to at least ask whether this is also relevant to change in organizations).
The standup meetings did not last long. At first, people sat on the edge of the tables, and not much later, when attention had slackened and the coach was working on another project, everyone was sitting neatly back on the desk chair around the management table staring at a PowerPoint with too many words. The well-grounded path was found again and embraced like an old friend.
So what can you do?
My first conclusion is that the new paths should get at least as much chance as the old paths had. So a lot of attention and tenacity is needed. When old behavior is already very old (habits that have been ingrained for decades), you can’t expect to change things with a change track of one and a half years. And let that be a big problem in many organizations. Under the pressure of increasing external change, the internal focus seems to also have to change continuously.
Methods to support habits
What is needed, therefore, is attention for the desired behavioral change until long after the first signs of new habits become visible. Of course, we should not be so naive as to think that organizations will suddenly focus and think about a few new behaviours in the long term (although as an idealist I do want to continue to believe in it :)). However, we can look for ways to support young habits, so that the new path is followed as much as possible. And preferably through ways that require as little human intervention as possible over time. So we will have to design these ways on the one hand and on the other hand integrate them into the daily operation of teams.
Stop the unwanted
A first thing I think about is taking away what is no longer wanted. That will not always be possible, but if it is possible, it works very effectively. In the example of the standup meetings it would certainly have helped that the meeting room no longer had chairs and a table and was fully equipped to facilitate this kind of meetings. Or if you want people to work with Teams and no longer use Skype, make sure they can use Skype less and less easily. The bottom line is to make the old habit as difficult as possible or even impossoble.
Triggering
A second way is through triggering. By sending a small notification or reminder on a regular basis, preferably at the right time, you can build up and strengthen new habits. Just look at how notifications on Linkedin help you with the -maybe not so desired- habit of viewing your feed. But also offline, getting your sports clothes ready, visibly next to your toothbrush, can help you do your morning run more regularly. These are the so-called external triggers. Internal triggers are even more interesting. They are imprinted associations, such as: ‘after I’ve had my first cup of coffee, I’ll take a tour to talk to my team’. They take a bit longer to set up, but are super powerful.
Make it easy
A third way is to make the change as easy as possible. That is the opposite of the first tactic I described. Make the new habit as easy as possible to carry out. Do not leave people (or yourself) too much room to think. Often people work with ‘opt-in’ choices, then you have to decide for yourself whether or not you go along with something, such as organ donation. In such case, people have to think. In countries where organ donation is an ‘opt-in’ choice, the percentage of organ donors is drastically lower than in countries where this is an ‘opt-out’ choice. In the latter case, you must explicitly state that you do not want to be an organ donor. Most people do want to be donors and do the right thing for society (after all, there is a great shortage of organs), so make it as easy as possible for them. If you want your employees to work with continuous learning, make sure that they are able to consult learning materials quickly and as soon as they have some time. Or that they can only switch off the notification system via an opt-out.
Use the power of the group
If a group or team has developed a good habit and has made clear agreements about it, then an individual is allowed to fall back into an old habit for a while, he or she will be reminded of the agreements quickly enough. When a large part of the team loses attention, due to high workload for example, then the risk of decay into old habits arises. That is why we should focus on maintaining the dialogue between the team members and make sure that if something is in danger of becoming diluted, this becomes easy to discuss. A WhatsApp group (if the habit of this is established ;)) or regular consultations in which this can be discussed are examples to do this. Behavior that can be monotored through digital tools can be stimulated by reminders or small nudges when the behavior collapses a bit. The nudge can be given to the whole team, making use of the group feeling.
Make it attractive and valuable
And then we come to a fifth way, and that is to make the change itself as beautiful and pleasant as possible. The eye wants to be treated as well, so make sure that the new is more pleasant to look at than the old. Offering that learning material quickly but in an old-fashioned format is a worse option than opting for fresh material in a modern learning style. The outside is important, but the inside is more important, we all know that :). That’s why the most important thing and the basis of every change is that the new habit has added value. That it is something that people want to repeat. If the solution is not good, or if people do not believe in it at all, you can try to move heaven and earth, it will hardly work.
It’s in the mix
It is the combination of these methods that reinforces new habits and, if applied consistently, increases the chances of success. In a period of too much change at the same time, it makes sense to look for ways to integrate these habit enhancers into the daily operation of a team or organization, preferably as automated as possible. Triggers can be programmed, modernization of tools and materials can be chosen on a regular basis, opt-out choices can become policies, etc.
Designers of change
That is why I strongly believe that change management evolves more and more towards change design: designing the context that supports behavioral change, based on insights from the behavioral sciences. Change management itself then becomes more limited. Which is not bad as the focus or attention for change management often fades or stops after a while, even before the habits are really formed. So let’s look for ways to design and integrate behavioral change in all initiatives and decisions that are taken within an organization. Not easy, but important and fascinating. | https://uxdesign.cc/the-role-of-neuroplastocity-in-organizational-change-5a74a718e9b | ['Sara Coene'] | 2021-01-24 07:45:09.307000+00:00 | ['Neuroscience', 'Organizational Change', 'Change Design', 'Psychology', 'Design Thinking'] |
Something wicked this way comes: A financial crisis is brewing | Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble. For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks! (Macbeth: IV.i 10–11; 18–19; 44–47)
As a child I loved Macbeth. It was the one play by Shakespeare that had enough in it to keep me entertained as a child. The witch’s scene from which this set of quotes was taken is the part that I found particularly entrancing. Not only was it visually and verbally engaging it also set the scene for the really nasty stuff to follow. The bubbling brew of nasty things was an analogy for the environment Macbeth was operating in and the major tragedy that was the outcome; we have our own brew stewing today.
Until the arrival of COVID-19, for the last many decades, we had been able to avoid a real tragedy on a global basis. I worry, however, that today as we begin to recover from the very serious consequences of the pandemic, we are ignoring the elements of other impending tragedies. We do not need to have a tragedy. In Macbeth, the tragedy was precipitated by an evil decision by Macbeth and his wife; in this instance, we need to understand the elements to get ahead of them, to deconstruct the brew and neutralize it. In other articles and in a book written with my colleagues, Ten Years to Midnight, I have touched upon the major secular trends — disparity, climate, technology, polarization, distrust and demographic trends — that could result in worldwide tragedy. We focused on those risks because they were near certain, tsunamic trends that would impact every country in the world versus looking at shorter-term, more volatile trends such as the economy; but, there is one aspect of the economy, and the capital markets in particular, that is really worth looking at now.
Elements of the brew. As in many crises that occur in economics, a run of great years has sown the seeds of potential calamity — some of it human engineered and some of it a natural result of the multiplicative consequence of demography and technology innovation. We have had a remarkable combination of low volatility, low interest rates, continuously rising asset prices and pretty good liquidity. This extremely munificent environment has been with us since the liquidity crisis of 2007–2008. Solutions implemented as a result of that crisis — low interest rates, volatility hedges, adjustments to automatic trading algorithms, cooling off periods in the exchanges — have all helped to create this investor-friendly environment. Money can be borrowed inexpensively, and the consistent set of returns means that it can be applied to leverage investments with a pretty strong likelihood that the returns will be there. And if there is risk, it can be hedged. As long as that risk is not really far out in the tails (a black swan event) everything should be fine. And most recently, even in the event of what seemed a significant tail-like event, COVID-19, and the shutdown of much of the world’s economy, things returned pretty much to normal much faster than people expected. A blip and volatility returned to reasonably low levels, interest rates remained historically low, asset prices continued to rise, and liquidity was there. So, what’s the big deal?
To describe the concern, it is worth looking at two images. The first is margin debt, in billions of dollars, as compiled by FINRA, in the US capital markets over time. There are lots of other types of leverage going on besides margin debt: companies borrowing to buy back stock, using a debt instrument as collateral to raise more debt, or other forms of borrowing to finance investments. It is noteworthy, therefore, that, even on its own, the level of margin debt is by historical standards alarmingly high. However, the refrain goes that we are not in historical times. Interest rates around the world are likely to grow somewhat but remain low, because governments too are borrowing a lot of money. For example, the ratio of debt to GDP is well over 100% in many wealthy economies and surpassing the highest level of debt to GDP in the history of the statistic, just after the Second World War. Governments, therefore, need interest rates to remain low, something they can manage as long as circumstances are favorable to retaining low interest rates. Thus, an investor borrowing money to invest can presume that interest rates will remain low for a while and it seems the market is pretty impervious to shocks. The cauldron bubbles and no one seems to notice.
Sustained low interest rates have one particularly insidious impact, however. Because they are extremely low, returns on fixed income investments of most types are also very low, driving people to the capital markets. And because low returns are not what people desire — for example, endowments tend to depend upon consistent returns of 5+ percent — investors have to use leverage to get their desired returns. And, are they ever using leverage!
Mischievous behavior. If we return to Macbeth for a moment, it was not just the elements of the brew that mattered: it was an evil act by Macbeth that set the tragedy in motion. It is really unfair and actually wrong to describe the behavior we are about to discuss as evil, but it is certainly mischievous.
Millennials have come to think not very highly of the capital markets and the traditional players within them. Remember, they were the generation who grew up in the financial crisis, have assumed significant student debt, observed growing disparity in wealth and opportunity and live in a world in which it is virtually impossible to gain a foothold in real estate, the typical route to wealth creation in previous generations. As a result, they are moving quickly to invest through other vehicles such as Robinhood, and with some small sense that the markets are really just a form of poker. Their preferred vehicle for investment is called Robinhood. The primary trading strategy of many “Robinhood investors” is to use leverage to invest in trends based upon hearsay, news or short-lived events — Reddit-created flow. They are not investing based upon the sorts of fundamentals typical of the more traditional players. While some of their intentions can be lauded, including sticking it to those who have advantages the average investor does not, they act as a real uncertainty multiplier and in the end, someone will get really burned.
Consider an example. If a traditional player decides it is time to short a stock and announces they are worried, the market often treats that as a meaningful signal and trades the value of the stock down. Imagine, as has happened more than once recently, using Reddit as a coordinating mechanism and trading on margin through Robinhood, this new group of investors bids the stock up, causing the short seller to take a bath. Literally, the regular people operating as a gang beat the rich hedge fund. Classic Robinhood. This appears to be exactly what happened on the week of January 26. Unfortunately, the rich hedge fund and the Robinhood gang are not the only actors in the market. Two groups get hurt when the stock crashes to its real value after the horde is gone: the investor on the other side of the option who had to continually buy stock at higher and higher prices to manage their risk and the holder of the real stock when the song ends, typically some regular person. I will leave it to others to discuss the morality of this sort of activity, which is really a kind of pyramid scheme exercised through the stock market; my worry is volatility and the separation of stock price from inherent value. The more that happens, the greater the fragility when something really big occurs.
This is clearly not Robinhood’s intention, as they set up a very elegant platform with lots of good quality education for new investors, using insightful analogies to describe very complex ideas. Their clear goal is to help make investment easy and understandable for all investors. This blog post is speaking about what people have chosen to do with the platform, not its intended use.
The second set of slightly mischievous actors in this context are the authors of Modern Monetary Theory. The theory is a lot more complex and interesting than I am about to describe, but for the purposes of this blog post the explanation will do. The idea goes that governments with sovereign control over their currency do not really need to match expenditures to taxes; governments print money to pay their bills. Taxes serve the primary role of helping to manage inflation. Higher taxes, lower aggregate demand and thus lower inflation. A key tenet of Modern Monetary Theory is that government debt does not crowd out private players from the debt market if governments have sovereign control over their currency, because they can print the money essential to cover the costs of their programs — more currency, more money to lend.
Another reason for taxes is to keep people holding a country’s currency, a requirement if printing money to cover costs is to work. If you have to pay your taxes in dollars or pounds or yuan, then a large portion of your money needs to be held in dollars, pounds or yuan. Crypto-currency, or moving your money to other currencies, can only go so far. It is a pretty neat trick that shifts significant control over the state of the economy from the Fed to the legislature. The core argument, however, is that thinking that way permits a country to avoid significant negative cycles.
Consider how China was able to avoid the economic downturns so typical of the dramatic growth spurts the country experienced. They force the banks to lend money at very low rates during bad times and squeeze their lending capacity when things get too hot — this is not dissimilar to the idea of printing money when significant stimulus or equity reduction is needed and tightening taxes when inflation starts to occur as a result and is essentially putting your foot on or off of the accelerator as needed. It is not that you don’t ever use taxes to cover the costs of government programs, just that you do not have to.
So, what is the worry? In both cases there is a separation of decision-making from the constraints of the real world. Horde, momentum investing has nothing to do with the inherent value of the stock being invested in. Actually, it may be most effective when the stock is a dog. And, printing money with no debt obligation or tax to match the money separates government decision-making from the constraints of reality. In smart, professional hands, this is a useful tool in the larger bag of monetary tricks; in the hands of a populist, it’s a potentially dangerous thing. More to the point, both activities enhance the underlying risk arising from the massive level of leverage in the market.
There are two core problems with the amount of leverage in the market. There is less and less real value at the heart of the investments. If investment returns are increasingly based upon leverage and if we can just print money to cover government deficits; and since more and more of the productive firms in the world are held in private hands, there is really a very small thread of real things creating the massive implied value in the capital markets. A month or so ago, Apple traded at the full value of the FTSE 100, plus $500 billion; this represents pretty concentrated value. A stumble in a very few firms would be a very big stumble for the whole market. And, those firms have a few pretty serious clouds on the horizon. This creates significant fragility. Christopher Cole uses the analogy of a snake eating its tail to describe an incredibly shrinking market. It is not that the companies trading at such massive values are not remarkably successful. It is just that there are fewer and fewer real things underlying that value.
One way of looking at this is to consider the price-earnings ratio of a company trading in the market today. This simply represents the level of return an investor is receiving for the investment they are making. Robert Schiller argued that looking at such a ratio at a single point in time is problematic as lots of things determine earnings at any one point in time. He suggested using the inflation adjusted average earnings over a ten-year period. This graph represents the Schiller ratio for the S&P 500 plotted from 1875 until December 2020. Two peaks are notable in that area: 1929 was the moment before the market crash that set off the Great Depression and 2000 the time just before the dotcom bubble. The ratio today is currently 33.82, meaning that someone is willing to take a trailing 2.96% return on their money. Of course, the bet is that the firms making up the S&P 500 will continue to grow both in earnings and stock price. And, given that treasuries are trading near zero, 2.96% with a growth kicker might be a reasonable return. But it is worth noting that the historical Schiller PE ratio runs 13 to 15. We are trading at well more than double that level. And unfortunately, the cycle is reinforcing. With that sort of PE ratio, it is almost essential to borrow to get the desired level of return.
In normal circumstances, the sort of fragility implied by the leverage in the market would be fine. And we have created a host of tools to help navigate any perturbances before they get too large. The problem is that the pressing global trends I referenced earlier, i.e., disparity, climate, technology, polarization, distrust and demography, are on our doorstep and will make the navigation of moments of volatility more and more difficult. Climate change is destroying the value of corporate balance sheets at an accelerated rate and reducing the linkage between them and value creation. And it will make life harder and harder for a growing number of people exposed to its risks. Disparity and a declining sense of prosperity will put huge pressure on profits and thus forward-looking cash flows for many, many firms. And it is making life harder and harder for all of the people on the wrong end of the disparity spectrum. Technology is concentrating wealth and power with significant unintended side effects such as polarization, growing anxiety and depression in teenagers and job loss. And institutional distrust risks pitting citizen against citizen and erosion of the trust in the things that make capital markets and most other parts of life work.
Any one of these issues entails incredibly challenging policy issues and all four are a president’s, premier’s or prime minister’s nightmare. And yet, they are here and growing in importance every single day. It is a lot to ask to have our political and bureaucratic processes address simultaneously a fragile market and economy and a set of crises that are existential in kind and level. It is ironic that the mechanisms we need to use to address these crises will by definition increase the level of leverage in the system. Governments will need to borrow more than ever to deal with these issues and, therefore, keep rates low to avoid default. Which in turn will put pressure on investors to borrow more to meet their investment targets.
So, what does this mean? When there is less and less real value underpinning more and more trading activity or national expenditures and when there are a host of significant disruptive forces on the immediate horizon, bad things can happen. Something wicked this way comes. It can be diverted, but let’s be clear it is coming. | https://medium.com/@blairsheppard/something-wicked-this-way-comes-a-financial-crisis-is-brewing-a9a1ccf1643c | ['Blair Sheppard'] | 2021-04-20 10:50:26.973000+00:00 | ['Investment', 'Crisis', 'Stock Market', 'Financial Services'] |
The Hitchhikers Guide to Scrum with DevOps | Fig 1: Hitchhiking the Galaxy, from pixabay
To: “Heart of Gold Team”
From: “F Prefect CSM, PSM”
Re: New-ish Team Members
Dear Team,
We’ve been doing very well over the last 6 months. Ever since we updated our Social Contract to agree to visualise all our work (anything that takes longer than an hour now has a ticket of some sort) we’ve improved our Transparency and, with it, our ability to Inspect and Adapt. Well done to all.
However, I can’t help feeling that we are not taking a full systems-approach to visualising work. There is a whole load of other work happening daily that we’re accountable for but are not yet visualising. This came clear to me last week when Maurizio mentioned just how much of a saving we had managed to make by tighter coupling of our automated tests into our CI/CD build pipeline. I propose we should run an experiment to see if changing this helps us.
So with no further ado, I’d like to introduce our four new(-ish) team members:
Zaphod
Trillian
Marvin
IOTA
If these were real people I’d ask them to introduce themselves to you all but, since they are only personas of non-sentient entities, I’d better do that for them.
Zaphod (Beeblebrox)
Our build and deploy pipeline. Formerly known as: makefile; Hudson (once upon a time); Jenkins; Octopus Deploy; Gitlab Pipelines. Consistently a high-focus area for us — mostly because it was so unstable for so long that we had a daily “Build Monkey” award. It remains a priority to keep Zaphod predictable at least for his nightly builds. The more frequently we can get him working, the shorter our time to deploy and the better overall we are doing. As a result I’d like to integrate Zaphod’s work onto our boards to see just how often we’re getting him to build and how often he is doing it successfully.
Fig 2. The needlessly attention-seeking “Zaphod”, from pixabay
Trillian
Our suites of automated tests. Statistically, Trillian is by far and away our hardest worker (no disrespect meant to anyone here!). Her integration test suites work tirelessly for 10 to 12 hours every night while we are sleeping. Her long-form performance test suites run over the weekend for up to 50 hours. Again, I’d like to visualise Trillian’s daily work along with our own — the more tests she can do and the earliest stage in our process, the less tests we have to perform manually. Some of the greatest work we’ve been able to do to improve our quality — and by extension, our productivity — has been shifting our testing left and getting more done at a unit- and pre-integration (mock) level. David’s cracking idea to alter the start and end date of our sprints to mid-week to allow the extra weekend for additional testing has been a game changer for us. Trillian is like that; she relishes extra work, especially dull repetitive work the rest of us don’t like! I don’t think we are quite yet at a trillion tests per year but the “Trillian Trillion” has a nice ring to it and might be something to consider!
Fig. 3 “Trillian” hard at work, from pixabay
Marvin
Our documentation (customer facing and internal). Poor Marvin. He knows so, so much and is so under-loved. Nuala has done a brilliant job of improving the quality, consistency and completeness of our documentation over the last year. Our move from on-disk to hosted user guides has meant that both support and UX can now see where customers are struggling with the product. As a result our roadmap is full of data-driven improvements designed to make the customer journey’s easier. Our new on-boarding documentation from Peter and Alex has made getting new hires such as Steven up to speed that bit easier. I know that writing, reviewing and even reading the documentation can feel like the biggest chore but the answers to Life, the Universe and Everything are all within the perennial depressed Marvin. Probably on page 42! We will be visualising work to keep Marvin updated for internal and external use going forward.
Fig 4. Marvin sorting alphabet soup at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, from pixabay
IOTA
Our spanking brand new Continuous Assurance and Auto-Remediation toolset. Congrats again to Edwin and Amanda on the work you’ve been doing for the team on this one. Support absolutely love it and, to be fair, the number of support calls we are getting has fallen. Also when we get a support ticket to triage we no longer need to worry about the available logs not being attached. IOTA has already codified all the support knowledge base and is providing 24/7 monitoring and event driven automation to attempt to rectify issues before they even become apparent to customers. Management tells me that they are now calling this “Tier 0” support as it is fixing issues before the Support Team (Tier 1) are even aware that they exist. Management is looking at this as a competitive advantage, and they are considering using it in Sales and Marketing material. Maurizio tells me that some of the instabilities that IOTA is repeatedly auto-fixing are real issues that simply couldn’t have been discovered outside the scale of Production. I know there are lots of conversations around other work IOTA could do for us, our products and the company and we will be visualising these going forward.
Fig 5. IOTA monitoring live network systems, from pixabay
Next sprint I’d like us to experiment with adding these personas to the board and our work. I hope by doing so we’ll get a truer reflection of what work our expanded team actually does, even when most of us are not at work.
Best regards, your Scrum Master,
Ford
Do you want to write for Serious Scrum or seriously discuss Scrum? | https://medium.com/serious-scrum/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-scrum-with-devops-54e60ba907f9 | ['Rob Healy'] | 2020-12-31 11:52:23.735000+00:00 | ['DevOps', 'Serious Scrum', 'Scrum', 'Scrum Team', 'Hitchhikers Guide'] |
Limitations to Decentralisation | Limitations to Decentralisation
How far are we and how far can we go?
One of the major benefits of distributed ledger technology is that it allows several nodes to connect over a Peer-to-Peer network, whereby each node has access to the same information and is initially valued the same. This means that the network does not allow for a single node to have more privileges in the system than other nodes. Arguably, this article defines decentralization as a network which allows all nodes to equally contribute to the processes while ensuring that every node can have access to and verify all information provided by other nodes. In contrast, if a subset of nodes is provided with certain unique responsibilities, based on factors established external of the blockchain, the blockchain will be automatically less decentralised. For example, defining the selection of validator or observer nodes based on a certain status in society.
Main Point: Blockchain decentralisation should allow the equal contribution and rights of all nodes in the network.
Peer-to-peer networks have to make a trade-off between scalability, decentralisation, and security, whereby it is only possible to achieve two. This article will look at decentralisation, specifically at “decentralisation of objective” vs. “subjective decision making.” Objective decision making can determine the right answer between two or several outcomes based on pre-defined criteria. For example, in Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) based consensus, the consensus is reached if 2/3 of nodes agree on the same outcome. Either 2/3 vote for the same outcome and consensus is achieved, or it is not. This is pretty straightforward. In contrast, a settlement dApp, which requires inputs from individual nodes for dispute resolution, does not allow all participants to know and verify the provided information. Two points of an argument are provided and it is dependent on the perspective of the receiver of the information to settle with either one of the nodes. This would be an example of subjective decision making.
Main Point: This post will focus on limits to decentralisation in objective vs. subjective decision making. Subjective decision making allows for ambiguity of the outcome, whereas objective decision making does not.
Crypto-projects provide varying degrees of decentralisation through their network architecture. Depending on the consensus design, blockchain state, and governance, the degree of decentralisation varies. No matter the design of the blockchain, decentralisation is limited by technical and social obstacles, including oracle data, governance, social norms, and expectations.
Oracle Data
Blockchains depend on oracles to receive information about the external world. Oracles are data sources like websites, books, measurement devices, sports scores, etc. Most of the information we consume daily has been provided by a central entity like a newspaper, TV channel, book author, or published article. On a daily basis, we must make our own determination as to what sources we define as credible and trustworthy. To do this, we take into account the author’s background, the sources on which the information is based, or in general, our relationship with that source.
Blockchains are supposed to be trustless. As such, users should not need to know who is behind the public key address of another user to verify the provided information. Therefore, we cannot base the same logic from centralised systems of informed decision making on decentralised systems. Either the information has been created on chain and thus, can be verified easily, or an off chain entity holds the information. In the case of the latter, the information has to be provided to the blockchain in a trustless manner so that they can be used for smart contract decision making. The problem is that there is no verifiable way of providing information from a centralised source to the blockchain. How does Alice know that Bob’s information is trustworthy if Alice does not know the source of the information? A decentralised system based on centralised data is no longer decentralised.
Alice receives the data on the match, whereby she adopts the majority opinion
Currently, this problem can be ‘solved’ through observer nodes, whereby Alice will ask, not only Bob for his information, but also Charlie, Daniel, Ellie, and a few others. However, this is only possible for objective decision making. Observer nodes will not be trustworthy in subjective decision making. Let’s say a blockchain has to know who won the football game to resolve some pre-arranged bets. It would either allow all participants or a particular group of participants to provide their knowledge of the results of the game. So Bob, Charlie, Daniel, Ellie, and a few others will present their information on the last game. Alice might receive varying answers (because Daniel had a bad day and wanted to make up for it by winning the bet regardless of the fact that the result is not in his favour). However, the more answers she receives, the more she will trust either the average of these answers or the most frequent one. The assumption with this is that the more people who submit their result, the more accurate the outcome of the game will be.
In this scenario, the outcome can still be black and white, either Team X scored, or they did not. The belief of individuals on what they think should have been the right outcome does not matter. In comparison, if Bob and Alice want to resolve a dispute, the individual perception of Charlie, Daniel, Ellie and the others on the problem does matter. Bob will say he is right and Alice will claim that the argument should be resolved in her favour. However, if the details of the dispute are not already on chain, there is no way for the dispute resolvers to settle for either Bob or Alice deterministically. They do not know whether Bob or Alice provided the right information. Resulting, the outcome will always be biased. This is why this system only works for objective decision making.
Alice and Bob provide varying information to the dispute resolution committee. The outcome of the dispute is unclear
Even if the information is taken from a machine e.g. to determine the location of a package, the nodes on the blockchain do not know that the machine has not been tampered with before the recording.
Main Point: Every node should be able to verify the information on the blockchain. While a decentralised network can allow nodes, or a determined subset of nodes, to provide information to the blockchain, the information can only be accurate in the case of objective data. Subjective information provided by individual nodes cannot be verified on chain.
Governance
Governance can be defined as the principles behind decision making to manage common incentives. I am going to make the controversial claim that no blockchain is completely decentralised if it relies on off chain decision making or a hybrid approach between off chain and on chain decision making.
On chain decision making is any decision making that is based on on chain voting, whereby either any node or a subgroup of nodes who have proven that they’re trustworthy, can vote for one outcome over the other. Generally, nodes who have more to lose in the system are considered more trustworthy. For example, this can be achieved by providing a stake to the network, risking losing their ‘importance’ or investing other resources, e.g. processing power in Proof of Work (PoW) consensus. In comparison to on chain governance, off chain governance summarises any decision that is taken in one form or another off chain. This often includes the developer community and anyone else who has involved themselves in discussions. I will not go into the details, benefits, and drawbacks of either in this post. For those interested, you may want to read into Vitalik’s and Vlad’s thoughts on blockchain governance.
While I don’t take a side regarding the effectiveness of off chain or on chain decision making or a hybrid model, I believe that it limits decentralisation. In a truly decentralised environment, everyone should be able to participate in decision making, and people should be able to organise themselves to reach common goals. Governance provides the mechanisms to form groups and thus, gain power in the system. Today’s decentralised systems are built and often governed by developers. Summarising my thoughts:
Blockchain developers don’t want to directly take responsibility for governing the blockchain. They are the back-end developers of the decentralized server. They are engineers, not arbitrators, they don’t want the responsibility and they shouldn’t have it. — Vlad Zamfir
As Vlad puts it, governance should not be centralised around engineers. It scares me to see a self-determined group aiming to extrapolate the design of decentralised governance on society as a whole.
The downside of on chain democracy
Currently, dPoS is probably the closest to an on chain democracy. It allows nodes to stake on other nodes and the nodes with the most stake to make network decisions. dPoS allows nodes to receive a large amount of stake. There is no way one individual node can vote out one of the delegated nodes (Scenario 1). However, if I do not like the decisions taken by my local government, then I can start a partition and try to sort things out in my favour. On chain governance does not allow for these kinds of actions.
Scenario 1. Candidate #1 receives all the stake of ‘passive’ voters. Candidate #2 has no chance of competing with candidate #1
In contrast to dPoS, Proof of Stake allows individual nodes to provide more stake and become part of the delegated node process themselves. This is far easier than persuading a group of nodes to stake on another outcome. (Scenario 2)
Scenario 2. Each candidate has to stake on themselves. Now, candidate #2 has a similar chance to candidate #1
Ultimately, on chain voting would only be possible if every user has one vote. This is not the case since every user can create multiple addresses to have multiple votes. Resulting, on chain governance measures votes by wealth. The more stake a user provides, the more value is given to their vote. This merely enhances a plutocracy, whereby the rich rule the system. Therefore, effective on chain governance is currently not possible and should probably be avoided altogether.
Main Point: A blockchain is only completely decentralised if it implements on chain governance entirely. However, effective on chain governance is not possible because users cannot register their identity. Resulting, votes are measured by wealth, which does not enhance network equality.
Social
If on chain governance should be avoided in the first place because of various reasons, then certain limitations to decentralisation might be unavoidable and at the same time may not matter to the users in the system. This does not hold true for all situations. There are specific scenarios in which users probably do not mind who is making the decisions, while there are other scenarios in which transparent and tamper-proof decision making is crucial. Imagine your landlord can change your contract whenever (s)he feels like it. This would probably affect you on a financial and emotional level (stress). Therefore, it is important to you that any decision taken is discussed beforehand and within pre-agreed frameworks e.g. laws and contracts. In comparison, it does not matter to you who is serving your coffee, as long as you receive the coffee after you have paid for it.
Resulting, the average user might not even want to be involved in day-to-day decision making regarding the services they use. As much as dApps and blockchain platforms praise themselves according to the level of decentralisation in place, it might be enough for the end user to be included in the decision making of selective processes. For example, while the population of a country is required to vote for their president or party, they are not required to make environmental nor economical decisions. To establish selective decision making, the system or platform would have to decide what processes are worth involving their users in and which ones are not. This again is subjective rather than objective decision making and probably deserves a post of its own.
Overall, users are not used to having an influence on the decision making of applications. Similarly, users are not acquainted with taking responsibility for their data and passwords. While centralised applications have safety nets in place to ‘make things right’ after a user or the platform screwed up, blockchains expect their participants to take care of themselves for the most part. This might be favourable for some people, but certainly not for everyone. Making these changes in expected user behaviour is a huge step and is nothing which can happen from one year to the next. It will require a lot of understandable educational content and semi-centralised platforms.
Main Point: Decentralisation is not beneficial to everyone. If decentralised applications want to gain broad user adoption, they have to define themselves according to current schemes in usability and trust establishment.
Why should you care?
Blockchains have to prioritise between decentralisation, security and scalability. While optimisations can be made through the implementation of different designs, decentralisation has fundamental limitations for which we have yet to find proper solutions.
Limitations to decentralisation include blockchain oracles, on chain governance, and social expectations. Blockchain oracles can provide data to the blockchain, e.g. in the form of gateways like observer nodes, but other nodes on the blockchain are unable to verify the source of this information. This is a technical problem, which is easier to overcome than governance or social limitations. We might be able to better verify off chain data on chain by connecting devices directly to the blockchain. In contrast, governance and social limitations are connected with people’s mindset, which is arguably much harder to alter. Currently, people are not expected to participate in everyday decision making. Therefore, it seems quite unreasonable to expect active user participation. Reasoning along those lines raises additional concerns and problems. For example, who is allowed to decide what information should be verified by everyone and what level of decision making should be exclusive to a select group of knowledgeable individuals.
The limitations to decentralisation discussed in this post are a reflection of projects and decentralised systems that I have previously encountered. There is probably a wider range of issues pending discussion that may require further research. | https://anaisurl.medium.com/limitations-to-decentralisation-2504b029f378 | ['Anaïs Urlichs'] | 2018-10-13 09:58:23.238000+00:00 | ['Governance', 'Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Decentralization', 'Blockchain'] |
Scatter Plot - A Tool for Descriptive Statistics | From the above plots, we could clearly say that both plot have a Linear relationship with positive correlation, but which plot have a stronger correlation?
For that we need something in numbers to compare. Hence we use Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient.
The Pearson coefficient is a type of correlation coefficient that represents the relationship between two variables that are measured on the same interval or ratio scale. The Pearson coefficient is a measure of the strength of the association between two continuous variables. Pearson correlations are only suitable for quantitative variables.
Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient formula is
Pearson coefficients range from +1 to -1, with +1 representing a positive correlation, -1 representing a negative correlation, and 0 representing no relationship. It is independent of the unit of measurement of the variables.
The Pearson coefficient shows correlation, not causation.
The correlation coefficient between the variables is symmetric, which means that the value of the correlation coefficient between Y and X or X and Y will remain the same.
Correlations are very sensitive to outliers. A single unusual observation may have a huge impact on a correlation. Such outliers are easily detected by a quick inspection a scatterplot.
The Pearson’s coefficients for above two plot are 0.59 .Both the plot have same Correlation coefficient because left plot is nothing but Zoomed version of the Right plot.
TYPES OF CORRELATION WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE PEARSON’S CORRELATION COEFFICIENT VALUE
Positive Correlation → X variable increases Y variable also increases.(X is directly proportional to Y)
Negative Correlation → X variable increases Y variable decreases.(X is inversely proportional to Y)
No Correlation → There is no correlation between X variable and Y variable.
From the plot we can see that there exists a curve but the Pearson’s correlation Coefficient is Zero.
Pearson’s correlation coefficient only identifies a linear relationship. If any non-linear relationship exists such as a curve, circle, etc, the Pearson’s correlation coefficient value will be 0.Hence it is always better to visualize any dataset as a scatterplot to find any hidden non-linear patterns.
Correlation is only an association relationship and not a causal relationship.
Correlation is not Causation
From the above pic, we can’t say that if a person owns a cat he is likely to get struck by lightning though there exists a positive correlation. The two variables may have high correlation co-efficient value although there may not be any direct dependence between them. It doesn’t mean that X caused Y to happen or vice-versa.
INTRAPOLATION & EXTRAPOLATION | https://medium.com/swlh/scatter-plot-a-tool-for-descriptive-statistics-4b746d36f94 | ['Koushik C S'] | 2020-12-13 06:51:45.475000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Scatter Plots', 'Data Science', 'Descriptive Statistics'] |
Medela and Rebecca Minkoff Unveil Limited-Edition Breast Pump Tote as Part of Breastfeeding Is Beautiful Collaboration | Medela, the №1 mom-recommended breast pump brand*, today launched a new breast pump tote in collaboration with renowned fashion designer and breastfeeding advocate Rebecca Minkoff.
Designed with Minkoff’s personal pumping experiences in mind, the limited-edition tote is part of Medela’s and Minkoff’s efforts to demonstrate that breastfeeding is beautiful, by supporting moms and enhancing the breast pumping experience with high-quality, fashionable products.
“As a breastfeeding and pumping mom of three, I wanted to create a bag that is fashionable and functional, that could transition from a pump bag to a diaper bag and beyond,” said Rebecca Minkoff. “With a soft inner print, playful tassels and bold stripe carrying strap, the Medela x Rebecca Minkoff tote goes beyond form and function and represents the beautiful and multi-faceted nature of breast milk feeding and motherhood.”
A breast pump tote is an essential item for moms today, who often pump outside the home and need a simple and efficient way to carry their pump and accessories. Moms can now pump in style with the sleek and functional tote designed to fit any of Medela’s personal-use breast pumps, with features like:
Removable, leopard-print lined bag for holding pump parts and pieces or cleaning items
for holding pump parts and pieces or cleaning items Interior pockets for holding pump pieces or accessories and an exterior pocket for a phone or other personal items
for holding pump pieces or accessories and an for a phone or other personal items Three adjustable straps — one handheld, one shoulder and one detachable crossbody — for convenient carrying or hooking over the stroller handle
— one handheld, one shoulder and one detachable crossbody — for convenient carrying or hooking over the stroller handle Exterior wipeable nylon material for quick and simple cleaning of unexpected spills
“This collaboration is a celebration of our commitment to motherhood and the many millions of moms and babies we’ve helped over the years,” said Melissa Gonzales, executive vice president of the Americas for Medela. “Moms look to us to create purposeful, effective and differentiated products, and working with Rebecca’s experience as both a breastfeeding mom and designer made for the perfect collaboration. We have long praised her intentional focus on empowering women and motherhood through fashion, and it is an honor to continue supporting her motherhood journey.”
The new Medela x Rebecca Minkoff tote will debut at the Rebecca Minkoff New York Fashion Week show on September 15, 2020. The show will feature Rebecca’s Fall 2020 Collection. A known advocate for normalizing breastfeeding, Minkoff included nursing or pumping models in her Spring 2020 and Fall 2019 NYFW shows, also in collaboration with Medela.
The launch of the Medela x Rebecca Minkoff tote coincides with the recent launch of Medela’s NEW Pump In Style with MaxFlow™ Technology breast pump. The new Pump In Style is the reimagination of the legendary Medela Pump In Style and Pump In Style Advanced breast pumps, which have supported millions of breast milk feeding moms for almost three decades. For more information about the new Pump In Style, watch the short video highlighting its features, or view the multimedia news release.
The Medela x Rebecca Minkoff tote retails for USD $298.00 and can be purchased exclusively from Rebecca Minkoff.com. | https://medium.com/@tjbdaily/medela-and-rebecca-minkoff-unveil-limited-edition-breast-pump-tote-as-part-of-breastfeeding-is-40a4063da172 | ['Tony Bowles', 'Contributing Columnist'] | 2020-09-21 12:50:51.727000+00:00 | ['Fashion', 'Breastfeeding'] |
Four Years Of Isolation | It’s worth looking back at the Trump administration’s view on foreign policy and how it has shaped the world today. After a cursory glance at all the minefields of American foreign policy today, one might be forgiven for thinking that not a lot has changed in four years. The world is still struggling to grapple with climate change in a meaningful way. China’s rise continues to baffle the US, and North Korea has only gotten bolder in flexing its nuclear program. Additionally, the war in Yemen rages on, Iran is still branded as the boogieman of the Middle East, and US troop deployments remain dotted across the Middle East and Northern Africa. The Taliban and the Afghan government are once again attempting to cement some form of a peace agreement that could lead to a full troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
We’ve witnessed the Trump administration’s failure to extract any meaningful concessions from Iran through its campaign of “maximum pressure.” We’ve seen Trump’s inability to find a solution to critical issues involving places like Venezuela or North Korea. There have been two disastrous trade wars with China and the European Union that only succeeded in pissing countries off. Trump has fawned over dictators repeatedly and escalated bombings and airstrikes across the Middle East. He’s opted to leave international agreement after international agreement, convinced that the US is better off alone, and sold arms to theocratic regimes in the hopes of securing some form of tenuous peace with Israel and its neighbors.
In all of this, if there was one overarching theme to the current administration’s view, it is the oft-heard refrain of “America First!” This phrase attempts to highlight the inordinate investment America puts into the international order in solving conflicts abroad and the return on investment that has, in their view, amounted to little and even in some instances, to America’s diminishment. For them, it is past time to reassess America’s investment, pull back in many cases where needed, and utilize economic and military force in other areas to ensure America is getting the “fair deal” it demands.
Now, four years later, it’s hard to see how this policy of militant isolationism has had any success on the world’s stage. The same problems continue to fester, with many getting even worse. Power vacuums created in America’s absence have been filled by despots, and the average American is paying a steeper cost because of all of this. The world is less secure, and it is more important now more than ever that the Biden administration works as fast as possible to undo many of the disastrous actions taken during the Trump era.
The list is long and winding.
Rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, rejoining the Iran Nuclear Deal, canceling our planned defunding of the World Health Organization (WHO), ending our involvement in the disastrous war in Yemen, reevaluating our alliance with Saudi Arabia, reengaging forcefully with North Korea on nuclear disarmament, engaging in a logical strategy with China to push them on human rights and prevent them from exerting undue influence on American companies, a reopening of relations with Cuba, renewing the New START treaty with Russia, working with the UK on a mutually beneficial trade deal post-Brexit, encouraging a robust peace agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government, reevaluating various arms deals with countries in the Middle East, and pushing the Israeli government on its inhumane treatment of Palestinians are all on the agenda for a Biden administration.
And since he will most assuredly be consumed with handling COVID-19 here at home, President-Elect Joe Biden has nominated Antony Blinken as Secretary of State to start checking some of these items off. Blinken, who can be described broadly as a consummate interventionist, wrote an op-ed last year outlining his views on foreign policy, saying that, “A responsible foreign policy seeks to prevent crises or contain them before they spiral out of control. That requires a combination of active diplomacy and military deterrence.” The term interventionist may be surprising to some, especially in the wake of almost two decades of war in the Middle East, but Blinken’s primary point is fair here. A successful foreign policy should be one of preventative care instead of crisis management. Diplomacy, cooperation, and collaboration should be the driving force, with military deterrence as an end resort.
Whether or not, Blinken is up to the task of reorienting our foreign policy remains to be seen. There will be several important tests within the first one hundred days, that will leave little doubt of that answer. Nevertheless, as has always been the case, the problem comes in putting these beliefs into practice. Stopping crises from spiraling out of control is incredibly difficult for a variety of reasons:
Like in so many other areas of the US government, the foreign policy machine is a mammoth that often takes a herculean effort to get going in a different direction. One only needs to look at America’s history of intervening to see how fraught it can be. Too often diplomacy has been an afterthought, routinely discarded in favor of military alternatives.
Blinken argues that fixing the third reason listed here is of particular importance to his strategy. It’s a trend that began long ago when diplomats and foreign service workers slowly got muscled out of rooms and replaced by generals and admirals. Over the last four years, that pattern has only skyrocketed, with the last two Secretaries of State practically gutting the Department of State from the inside out and in some cases, even treating the job and their employees with utter contempt. Blinken echoes this, saying, “Successive administrations have underfunded and undervalued our diplomacy, none more dangerously than the present one. With a depleted senior diplomatic corps and key posts still unfilled, with cuts to foreign aid, with tariffs targeted at our closest allies, and with confidence in U.S. leadership at a nadir, we are depleting one of our greatest assets: the ability to defuse conflicts and mobilize others in collective action.”
He’s right. Frankly, this is a colossal failure on the part of the US government and a huge reason why diplomatic solutions to issues seem few and far between. If you wonder why the US seems to always jump the gun to troop deployment or bombings, this is it. Our diplomatic structures are crumbling, wasting away in a world that needs diplomacy more than ever. The Iran Nuclear Deal, Paris Climate Accords, Taliban Peace Talks, reopening of relations with Cuba all happened because of diplomacy, and it’s hard to argue that the world would be better off without any of these frameworks in place.
Foreign policy is only ever shades of grey.
Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor, Ben Rhodes, once famously referred to the US’s foreign policy establishment as The Blob. An astute assessment that summed up why the US hasn’t had anything close to a discernible overarching theory of the foreign policy case for a while now. Instead, we seem to lurch from crisis to crisis. Unforeseen consequences abound, institutions are rife with competing agendas, and the infrastructure of it all seems to grow and grow every year with no clear goal. It’s all-consuming and destructive more often than not, leaving those devoted to doing more good in the world jaded and broken.
So, where does that leave us now? Ultimately, I agree with the prevailing assessment to a point. It is not only fair but crucial to skeptically assess America’s role in the world. Much of the results of our actions abroad tend to weigh us down more than uplift. From a purely transactional view, there is some sense in the US pulling back and letting everyone else figure out how to proceed on certain things by themselves. There’s no question that certain countries need tough love and that America has been far too trigger-happy in the past, but employing caution when it comes to our entanglements abroad can’t mean an abdication of our leadership role.
America is uniquely positioned, but whether we act as a force multiplier for good or chaos will depend on if we have the political will to redefine what it means to be an international leader. The old way of thinking was one of competitiveness. We have to be better than others. We have to show strength and continuously throw our weight around. That has failed. Instead, we need to be a leader that focuses exclusively on collaboration and cooperation. Foreign policy is long overdue for innovation, and what we should be turning to instead of isolationism is diplomacy. Equip are diplomats with the tools they need, and you’d be surprised at the preventative care that can be applied around the world. You’d be surprised at the burgeoning fires that can be put out just before they spiral out of control. Making our foreign policy about diplomacy and cooperation again is the only way for Biden, Blinken, and the rest of the incoming administration to course-correct after four years of Trump. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/four-years-of-isolation-94547ce34929 | ['Robert Potter'] | 2020-12-09 02:57:25.029000+00:00 | ['State Department', 'Joe Biden', 'Foreign Policy', 'Donald Trump'] |
Our Dreams Will Create Our Future | Yes, there is pain and suffering and inequity and broad systematic failures. This large-scale human physical and mental suffering surrounds us. It’s in the air we breathe..the gaps between us. We hold this pain in us as collective loss.
And yet.
We can’t afford not to dream. Our dreams lift us up out of our current circumstances and offer us something to reach for, toward. Without dreams, we swirl in the agony of the current circumstance without a vision of where we want to end up.
Years ago, I experienced anxiety and depression like nothing I’d known before. I was unable to sleep, be with my kids, eat, or work. I was in a pit of agony and despair. It was the most painful thing I’ve experienced in my life. And yet, during those sleepless nights, I clung to a dream of better moments. A future in which I felt well, could appreciate the sunshine, good sleep…would be able to contribute my gifts to serve others. That dream helped me hang on through the agony. I didn’t know when that dream would happen…days, weeks, months…but I knew that eventually it would.
To be human is to dream. Our future depends upon our dreams.
Dreams have lifted people out of poverty, birthed our greatest inventions, catalyzed social justice.
Inventors, artists, founders, leaders, scientists, academics, engineers, architects, parents, students, children…all dream.
Without dreams right now, we are in danger of missing out on the one positive of this moment: reinvention, reset, rebirth.
We don’t have to go back to the inequities, overwork, imbalances, and misaligned priorities of the past. We can create something different, but only if we give ourselves permission to dream. If not, we’ll end up rushing back to a future that is lightyears behind what is possible to create in this moment.
Leaders can dream for three futures:
1) The Immediate Future (tomorrow, next week)
2) The Proximate Future (a transition toward the new iteration of your organization; the one you dreamed up)
3) The Beyond Future (when your organization is vital, humming, thriving in its next iteration)
As a corporate leader, you are in a unique position to dream about the future of your company….what do you want to create? How will you build on the way you have served people and customers now? What norms are you creating right now that you want to hang onto in the Beyond Future? How will your organization transform in the Immediately, Proximately, and Beyond Futures?
As non-profit leaders, you are looking at what your constituents need right now. And next week. And next year. Are you dreaming up new ways to serve, to be a thriving organization in the Proximate Future? Are you looking at ways to collaborate, build upon synergies you’ve identified in this moment, and develop new models for service delivery now and Beyond?
Education leaders, what a moment to dream about a new way to educate children that embraces where they are and what they need without the trappings of one-size-fits-all. We are in a period of rapid education innovation. What would have taken a decade in distance learning changes has shifted overnight. Parents are so appreciating teachers right now. Build on the good will. Are you dreaming of creating systems that support staff just as you support students? Are you imaging a Beyond Future in which teachers and students are eager to learn, create, grow, and thrive? What if well-being were a priority for all students and staff? Build upon the creativity, innovation, and loosening of protocol…experiment, iterate, and play in the space of possibility in the Immediate Future; bring that with you to the Beyond Future.
Public health and social services, you have our attention. What’s your ideal vision for a healthcare system that serves everyone? Create it. Allow yourself to dream of what could be different to tackle inequity. This is your moment…paint a possibility for a new Beyond Future in which everyone’s basic needs are counted.
This is our moment: To dream. To create. To act boldly and build the Immediate, Proximate, and Beyond Futures of our dreams.
Rebecca Arnold, JD, CPCC, ACC
www.rootcoachingconsulting.com
I’m about helping people reinvent themselves right now, to create a new life that is deeply aligned with their essence, what they’re good at, and what lights them up. If this resonates with you, let’s chat! [email protected] | https://medium.com/@rebecca-arnold-13458/our-dreams-will-create-our-future-86b78307b1ff | ['Rebecca Arnold'] | 2020-04-23 18:00:55.258000+00:00 | ['Innovation', 'Dreams', 'Leadership', 'Motivation', 'Vision'] |
8 Ways to Avoid negativity | Beyond The Words
8 Ways to Avoid negativity
There are indeed so many external factors that overcome our happiness. An attitude or thought that contains hatred, fear, jealousy, skeptical., pessimism, and a feeling of downbeat is usually known as negativity. It trims down our potential by assuming our worst.
Consider a scenario where you go for a job interview, and before an interview, you get thought “ what if I won’t be able to communicate well or answer all the questions “ instead of preparing yourself with confidential or positive thoughts. Or in a relationship, you are always anxious about losing your loved ones instead of making a strong relationship with them. Or when you see some friends or colleagues gossiping behind you, and when you come to know that it makes you depressed. These are all negative thoughts with no base. We can liberate all the negativity by following some tips that are as follows :
This is the best tip to avoid negativity from our minds. Our mind works according to the input we give to it.
If we start judging about the things we don’t have or want in our life instead of the things we have in our life, definitely our mind starts thinking about failings of our life and it will bring negativity. We should make an attitude of gratitude in our lives to eliminate this negativity. We should be obliged for the things we have and be patient about the things we don’t have.
Many times a lot of people hurt us by their harsh words or any cruel act. That makes our minds think negatively. And sometimes we start getting thoughts of revenge which cause nothing but more worries and nervous tension.
In that situations, forgiving is absolutely the greatest tip to avoid negativity. Not forgiving others but also yourself makes you feel lighten up. Collecting hate in your heart can put a stop to your ability to love. It also helps to move on and after that, you will be capable of receiving love from others and to give love generously.
Oftentimes, negativity comes when we don’t stop living in our past and stressed about what will happen in the future. When these things appear in our minds we should remind ourselves that what is happening now? Is everything ok right now? if not? Don’t take stress about them, just focus to make them right. You will surely enjoy making your present better if you get rid of your past and future fears.
By letting go of toxic people
A major cause of negativity is our relationships with toxic people. It could be some of our friends, family members, or any college at the workplace. We need to look around and let go of such toxic people that make us feel down and make a bad impact on our minds. And we should also hold on to the people who support us and give reasons to be happy. By doing this, you could feel inner happiness and peace of mind.
Relationships are not toxic, People are :)
I came to know that helping others is one of the greatest sources, that makes you feel happy by heart. Be kind to everyone. When someone wants to talk with you, give your time and attention to them. Listen to them carefully and give honest advice which is in their favor. Be nice to everyone no matter if they are rich or poor. In fact when you see someone needy, secretly help them financially. helps others both financially and emotionally. To be honest, when you help others, you feel an amazing relief. Also by doing this you can get rid of the negativity that is around you. And this feeling of happiness or relief
encourages you more to help others.
If we are doing something that’s not liked by us or an environment around us that is not comfortable for us, it will surely bring negativity in our heads. And sometimes our working routine also wears us. To avoid such types of negativity, we need to do those activities we like to do. When we do such activities we like to do it will give happiness to us.
we cannot remove negativity, although we can avoid it. We need to find happiness in every little thing or moment. We should spend time with our families, friends, and loved ones instead of locking ourselves in a cage of thoughts. We need to go outside and enjoy every single moment of life. If there are some issues in our life, that makes us feel down. We should share our problems with our friends or someone who cares for us.
“There is always a reason to smile.”
Positivity surely comes but when we want to find it in little things. Don’t leave your mind idle, always trying to enjoy or learning new things. By doing such little things you can avoid negative thoughts.
Usually, it happens that when someone has negative behavior with us, we also respond to them negatively which brings more negativity around us. It’s ok if people have a negative attitude towards us. Firstly, we should respond to them positively and maybe our positive behavior compels them to change their behavior. If it doesn’t happen we should distance ourselves from them.
But in return for negative behavior when we respond negatively it will do nothing but cause more distraction of mind and lots of negativity so we should not need to pay attention to their such attitudes and avoid it with positivity.
The biggest reason for negative behaviors or negativity is making assumptions and overthinking. When we start living in our bad memories of the past and start making assumptions for our future it will destroy our present. Instead of worrying about our past and the future, we should need to focus on our future. If we made some mistakes in our past, instead of regretting them we should struggle so that we do not make the same mistakes again. If we make our present better it will bring a peaceful future.
We cannot remove negativity, but we can avoid it. Negative situations are always around everyone. It’s up to us whether we let it dominate us or not. We just need to replace our negativity with positivity.
Practice these tips and you will see how slightly happiness and positivity start entering your life. And that positivity makes your life easy and beautiful.
Hope this article will help you a lot J
Article By Maryam Waheed | https://medium.com/@maryamwaheed/8-ways-to-avoid-negativity-b9770fdec171 | [] | 2021-07-31 19:10:30.019000+00:00 | ['Lifehacks', 'Happiness', 'Negativity', 'Motivation', 'Positivity'] |
by Martino Pietropoli | First thing in the morning: a glass of water and a cartoon by The Fluxus.
Follow | https://medium.com/the-fluxus/tuesday-modernism-2bfa2bb6e64d | ['Martino Pietropoli'] | 2018-09-18 00:02:33.359000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Tuesday', 'Comics', 'Cartoon'] |
Web scraping com Python | Python RegEx
Well organized and easy to understand Web building tutorials with lots of examples of how to use HTML, CSS, JavaScript… | https://medium.com/dados/web-scraping-com-python-45531a6138c9 | ['Wesley Watanabe'] | 2019-07-10 12:12:04.304000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Web Scraping', 'Python', 'Analysis', 'Data'] |
Maker’s Not So Stable Governance | *Originally posted in The Daily Bit.
Yesterday, venture capital firm a16z purchased 6% of the total Maker (MKR) stablecoin supply for $15 million. It’s the latest investment disclosed by the fund since their sizable commitment to the Dfinity Foundation in late August. And with an initial runway of $300 million, more will follow.
On that note, the focus shouldn’t be on why a16z invested in Maker — it’s arguably one of the more promising algorithmic stablecoin projects in the market — but rather how the investment was made.
Meltem Demirors kicked off the conversation, explaining why she believes the sale is a display of poor governance and project management by Maker:
(If you haven’t read the full thread, carve out some time. As us millennials say, it is fire.)
Here’s the condensed argument: Maker’s team made the deal behind closed doors. Given that Maker token holders were expected to have a say in major decisions… that’s problematic.
And the deal is notable. Crunching the numbers, $15m at 6% implies a $250m valuation — a ~20% discount compared to Maker’s current mkt cap of ~$311m.
Which reminds us… market cap is a crummy valuation metric. Watch a couple minutes of Nic Carter’s talk at Honeybadger 2018 or rifle through his slide deckto see what we’re talking about.
Relatively speaking, discounts are nothing new
Venture capital firms and token discounts go together like white on rice. Sure, many kickbacks are outright criminal (advisors have reportedly received discounts of at least 900% for some projects), though there’s no denying that VCs bring a slew of resources to the table.
Not to mention that a16z’s investment is, by all definitions, a smart business play. Passing Meltem the mic once more, a16z is, in a sense, buying distressed companies on the cheap.
With so many ICOs strapped for cash due to 1) poor treasury management and 2) the falling price of ETH, who knows? Similar purchases could become a habitual thing for VCs.
Circling back — what about the voting?
The general consensus is that Maker holders should have been informed of the purchase. However, that’s one of the challenges of capital raises.
Consider this: If token holders were sent a memo explaining that a16z was obtaining discounted tokens for provisioning operating capital… *some* investors might’ve (accurately) viewed that as a distress signal, triggering a selloff and potentially exacerbating Maker’s fundraising needs.
So, while settling the situation in private goes against the tenets of Maker’s governance system, the foundation could’ve been looking out for the financial well being of the company. The question is whether or not that decision was rightfully theirs to make. | https://medium.com/the-daily-bit/makers-not-so-stable-governance-bcd349974897 | ['Daily Bit'] | 2018-09-25 13:35:24.144000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Venture Capital', 'Cryptocurrency News', 'Fintech', 'Bitcoin News'] |
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Continuous Improvement — We never stop our boundaries from learning new things and skills. Our upskill professionals always stay connected with the industry’s best innovations to offer services by utilizing the latest trends. | https://medium.com/@keplersoft4/top-website-design-and-development-company-sydney-hire-the-professionals-c5749fbc90a0 | [] | 2021-02-22 07:13:08.987000+00:00 | ['Web Development Company', 'Web Development', 'Web Development Services', 'Website Development', 'Website Design'] |
How Texas Almost Became A New Germany | What If | It’s sometimes forgotten that between the periods of Texan unity with Mexico and later the United States, it had been independent for not merely a few weeks or months, but an entire decade. That’s quite a bit of time for an American state, albeit a fairly large one, to remain independent, and this wasn’t a relatively uneventful period either; it was a time marked by conflicts with both Mexico and the Western Comanche over claims to Texan land, a time of political dispute over the future of the republic, and a time of cultural struggle for what Texan identity would mean.
Aside from being well within the view of it’s American and Mexican neighbors, the Republic of Texas had also caught the attention of various spectators far overseas: The French, British, and Dutch offering official recognition to the young Republic, but elsewhere in Europe, an interest of a different kind was growing.
Within the German Confederation, a proposition between a handful of nobles had been put forward, a plan to colonize the sparsely populated Texan Republic and beyond by facilitating large-scale migration of Germans to settle and eventually dominate the new country.
An association known as the Society for the Protection of German immigrants in Texas, also known as The Noble Society or Adelsverein for short, would emerge, acquire large plots of land, and begin promoting migration to these domains so as to lay the foundations for a New Germany.
In 1844, within two years of it’s foundation, Commissioner General of the society, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels would journey to Texas with high ambitions for the creation of a new German homeland. His task there was to inspect the recently purchased Fisher-Miller Land Grant a territory deep within the Comanche sphere of influence, and although he failed to secure colonization of the area due to Comanche resistance, he established the separate colony of New Braunfels and laid additional foundations for continued German colonization there. Growing uncertain of the colonization effort’s feasibility, he would resign and pass the title of Commissioner General to John O. Meusebach just months after New Braunfels’ establishment. Meusebach, upon his arrival, would be greeted by one discouraging discovery after another; the would-be colony had been terribly neglected, it’s funds mismanaged, and the resources promised by suppliers were never delivered.
Meusebach, determined to make something valuable of this effort, successfully negotiated a peace treaty with the Comanche, allowing for settlement of the originally decided upon lands so long as the Comanche could freely pass through and conduct business with the Germans, however, by this point, Texas had already been annexed into the United States, making the goal of turning Texas into a New Germany far more difficult.
Meusebach, despite his achievements on behalf of the colonial venture, saw numerous attempts made on his life by both disgruntled settlers and rivals. The sense that his work was going unappreciated, as well as frustration with the incompetent's management of the Society eventually led him to resign only months after the signing of the treaty.
One last attempt was made before funds were finally exhausted, and management of the colonies was abandoned…but what if that changed? What if in an alternate timeline, Texas became a New Germany?
From the beginning, it seemed the downfall of the effort was simply a lack of cohesion and proper planning; it’s been said by some that the key issue of management stemmed from the Society’s founders not having had the proper backgrounds to colonize the region wisely, and had they taken on more merchants, surveyors, soldiers, and statesman into the Society, they might have had the economic, geographic, military, and political expertise to tackle this project more effectively.
Instead, money was repeatedly thrown at the project in hopes that it’s luck might turn, but with communication between on-site colonial directors and their overseas sponsors being so poorly carried out, and said directors becoming disillusioned due to an overall lack of cooperation, it’s no wonder the colonial project was ultimately scrapped as it had been. But had Meusebach not been targeted by his local German rivals, and continued to work as he had, or the whole venture been better planned from the start, things could have been very different.
Following Meusebach’s path, post annexation, the Society would remain largely unnoticed by the federal government, and German immigration to Texas would continue smoothly, leading to more land purchases and the creation of more towns. Further exploration of the region would uncover vast silver deposits which encourage the Society to invest even more.
Tales of the society’s success and new opportunity reach wider audiences in Europe, garnering the attention of thousands of Germans caught in the crossfires of the 1848 Revolutions, just as the Mexican-American War would come to an end back in the Americas. With the now more hostile conditions of Germanic Europe, and with Texan security seemingly having been reassured by the US’s victory against Mexico, a massive influx of German immigrants arrive in the U.S. settling in the Great Lake states and in Texas.
As the 1850s progress, the issue of slavery becomes a divisive issue in the United States, splitting the country evenly between the northern free states and the southern slave states. The Adelsverein Society (being located in central and southern Texas) unintentionally becomes a beacon of freedom for runaway slaves west of the Mississippi River, with hundreds of runaway slaves successfully finding sanctuary within the lands of the German immigrants (who saw themselves not as Americans, but as Germans).
Many Southerners grow angry and demand their slaves be returned, citing the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 as the basis of their argument. The German immigrants and the Adelsverein Society refuse, and instead grant freedom to any slave that stepped onto German land. This action sparks resentment and occasional skirmishes between American Southerners and German colonists, the latter of which would even go so far as to supply slaves with weapons and instigate slave revolts, receiving support from the liberal Germans in the North who had become a prominent component of the newly formed Republican party.
The United States would finally erupt into a civil war by 1861, with its southern states forming the Confederate States of America.
With Texas in the C.S.A., the Germans, Comanche, and freed blacks living in New Germany immediately come under fire from Texan-led Confederate forces in the region seeking to weed out any pro-Union supporters and possible spies. This creates a new major front for the Confederacy at no expense to the Union. This front would help open up the gulf region, and eventually allow the Union to gain total control of the Mississippi.
While the German colonies had long gone unrecognized by the US, but were tolerated for their helping develop the frontier, their significant action in the civil war would bring them to national attention, but Lincoln, refusing to allow any state to secede, would only see the New Germans as allies for the moment, but a threat to unity in the long-term, and so, planned to crack-down on them post-war, however, the Radical Republicans in congress, many of their own being proudly German themselves, would sympathize with the faction, and promise them control over all eastern portions of the state previously held by slave-owners, much against Lincoln’s wishes.
These unconfirmed promises would encourage the German Texans to fight even harder, and fully throw their support behind the Union upon thinking up with their armies. Following the War, a German-American Republic would be declared, and Lincoln would move to suppress it, however, not long after, he would be assassinated, and Andrew Johnson would step in as president. Johnson too would have been an opponent of secession, however lacked the support within congress which Lincoln carried, and very soon, he’d find himself struggling to maintain control of the country.
New Germany would find itself in something of a stand off with federal forces still operating under executive direction, but confidence remained strong that the Radical Republicans would soon hold total control, and so, the Germans endured, finally achieving total recognition from Radical Republican Sympathizer Ulysses S Grant once he took the presidency in 1869.
Modeling itself after the United States with some European influences, the new country drafts a constitution, creates its own Congress, and allows all male citizens to run for public offices regardless of race.
Fast forward to 1871, and Prussia unites Germany after the Franco-Prussian War. With mainland Germany finally united, Kaiser Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck dig up the details of the Society’s colonial venture, and begin to evaluate what it’s relationship to Germany should be moving forward. While Bismarck opposed the idea of having overseas colonies, preferring to instead focus German resources on domestic and European matters, Wilhelm I argues that for the sake of unifying the German people, New Germany should be annexed into Germany proper. Bismarck eventually concedes, granting that integration of New Germany would not be a traditional colonial venture, but merely an expanding of the German Empire to include yet another German state, even if it is far across the sea.
The New Germans are divided on the matter. Some fully support the idea of reuniting with the fatherland for the purpose of not only securing additional resources and securities, but also to create a unified Empire of the German people, a desire shared by many of the liberal Germans who fled to America back in 1848. In contrast, there also existed a population who recognized colonial German-American culture as it’s own thing, as well as recent settlers who moved to Texas to escape Prussian domination back in Germany, or who moved from the US, bringing with them a preference for American policy, and that’s not even mentioning the local black and Comanche populations who would now have a say in New German politics, but shared no ties to the German Empire.
This would ultimately create a divide between the liberal pro-Empire Germans, and a coalition of pro-American, Anti-Prussian Germans, blacks, and Comanche who would form something of a Nativist or American Party.
Similar to what had occurred within the German Confederation back in Europe, the Empire would invite New Germany to join a shared customs union, and propose a series of military alliances, all with the intention of gradually integrating it into the Empire; these invitations would be opposed by the rising population of Nativists, encouraging the Pro-Unity faction to begin curtailing the political rights of blacks, Comanche, and new immigrants, creating great tension within the state.
To the North, the United States would become increasingly weary of Germany’s Empire establishing a solid foothold on the continent, fostering similar tensions within it’s own borders; but whereas the New Germans would crack-down on what it would consider “American influences”, the US would pressure it’s German descendant population to fully integrate or face persecution.
The poor treatment of Germans within the US, and a now very active interest on the continent would see Germany place a greater emphasis on North America, inspiring the empire to improve it’s navy so it might stand a chance of enforcing it’s will in the region. This naval build up attracts the ire of Britain, triggering an arms-race between the two which the Germans would attempt to defuse with a series of non-aggression pacts and treaties, but still, Britain would continue to strengthen it’s navy just in case.
Though tensions would have cooled for the moment, they would once again escalate under the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who would adopt an aggressively expansionist foreign policy, and regularly antagonize Britain.
With Texas still on the fence, Wilhelm would see it as necessary to secure another foothold in North America to better look after and sway New Germany, turning to Spain’s colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico as viable options. Spain had become a shell of an empire, and in our world, the US would move upon it’s colonies come the turn of the century, but this time, things are different.
Following a local war with Spain, Germany would lay claim to not only it’s Caribbean colonies, but the Philippine Islands, Guam, and Spanish Sahara. If the US still sought to challenge imperial rule in Cuba and Puerto Rico, it would now need to contend with the very capable and growing Empire of Germany instead of the sickly Spain; if a German-American War still happened to break out over the islands, we could expect German Texas to involve itself as well, given it’s close proximity, finally solidifying it’s place at Germany’s side.
Immediately following an armistice, moves are made to further integrate New Germany into the Empire, and laws are implemented recognizing only those of ethnic German descent as proper citizens, sparking domestic unrest, and eventually a revolution. The German naval begins bombarding rebelling cities on the Texan coast, motivating the US to reengage the Germans in a continuation of the war.
Several pro-Imperial citizens flee the chaos unfolding within Texas to Cuba and Puerto Rico, and gradually the US shifts it’s approach from a naval offensive to a land-invasion, occupying much of the North, and forging alliances with the pro-American factions.
A bombardment of the American North East is carried out by Germany to divert resources away from the Caribbean theater, all the while German-American communities in the Great Lakes region launch their own uprisings in support of the Empire, and in rebellion of anti-German sentiment within the US. Realizing it could still conquer the German Caribbean, but at the cost of inciting further hostility within the country, a peace treaty is ultimately made to resolves conflicts quickly; likewise, the Germans would not have been able to continue this effort much longer with out leaving themselves significantly vulnerable in Europe.
Cuba and Puerto Rico remain German colonies, but German naval activity in the Caribbean is heavily regulated. Following annexation of North West Texas by the United States, New Germany is significantly reduced of size, and it’s demographics are significantly altered: Comancheria would be fully under US control, as would a number of the original German settlements, these areas having become hotbeds for German-American immigrants from the North; what would remain are the Coastal Prairies and Southern Plains occupied largely by recent anti-Imperial German immigrants, blacks, and German-Americans escaping persecution from the US, the majority of Imperial Loyalists having relocated to the Caribbean.
Wilhelm II is upset with the result of the war and vows revenge on America, driving him to seek alliances with other American nations, Mexico in particular.
The U.S. becomes staunchly anti-German after the war with more violence being directed towards German-Americans, driving this population to leave for the new local havens to the south. The influx of German-American and plainly German refugees boosts the populations of both New Germany and the Colonies, fostering a clearer German-American identity in the former, while reinforcing anti-American sentiment in the latter.
The United States becomes more imperialistic in nature as its anti-German views along with Germany’s growing presence in North America force it to secure additional territories in Central and South America to keep them out of German hands.
Eventually, the powder keg in Europe erupts in 1914. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria starts a war in Europe, splitting the continent between the Triple Alliance (Central Powers) and the Triple Entente (Allied Powers). The United States joins the Allies in 1914 against Germany, who is able to pull Mexico and the German-American Republic into the conflict against the US.
While the Southern border would be secured relatively quickly, the German-American Republic being fully annexed, and the Mexican invasion being repelled, Caribbean and North central American lands would fall under German and Mexican influence, however, Germany would still be defeated in the great war, and ultimately stripped of these territories, though Cuba and Puerto Rico would be granted total independence in the name of self-determination, a luxury not awarded to the German-Americans who would have come to be recognized as both politically unstable, and a threat to American security.
In the end, Germany itself would emerge not much better off than in our world, however, through all that struggle, the German settlement of Texas would have dramatically changed North America; producing two newly majority German states in the Caribbean, drastically altering the demographics of the United States by siphoning away a large number of German-Americans, and forcing the US to adopt harsher colonial policies in the name of fending off a greater local threat than ever before. | https://medium.com/@monsieurz101/how-texas-almost-became-a-new-germany-what-if-9e6cbc3f64ec | ['Monsieur Z'] | 2020-12-16 23:41:07.457000+00:00 | ['Historical Fiction', 'History', 'What If', 'Alternate History', 'Texas'] |
How to download apk: The best way to download apk | The method which I am going to share needs the following things:
PC Chrome browser
First, you need to go to the chrome store and there search for an extension called APK Downloader for Google Play Store.
source: I took this screenshot myself
After you have added it into your chrome browser you will get an icon at the top right corner of your browser window.
Now you have to go to the desktop site of PlayStore which you can reach with a search in google, once there search for the desired app
source: I took this screenshot myself
Now you need to click on the android icon on the right and it will redirect to a new page.
source: I took this screenshot myself
You can see the app version and the supported CPU Architecture, now just click on download and then copy it in a USB to install in your android tv or directly to your smartphone and browse the file with any file manager.
Voila, you have you apk ready to rock and roll.
There may be many other methods out on the Internet but believe me, it is one of the best if not the best, rather than randomly googling for apk. I have been downloading apk for past 4 years and this is the best experience I have found. | https://medium.com/quick-code/what-is-apk-and-the-best-way-to-download-it-3b952a0ba2d8 | ['Ali Haider'] | 2020-08-08 04:05:49.593000+00:00 | ['Smartphones', 'Android App Development', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Android', 'Coding'] |
Thank you for reading Chetna! | I love this! We all have the ability and the will to reinvent ourselves.
7 1 | https://medium.com/@divinasrelease/thank-you-for-reading-chetna-f8cb0f98f67a | ['Divina Grey'] | 2020-12-14 17:10:42.235000+00:00 | ['Introduction', 'About Me', 'Life Lessons', 'Self Improvement', 'Writing'] |
HR Royal Highness | A look into Employee Engagement, one of the key HR issues, through the most interesting and fascinating family in the world — The British Royal Family.
The British Royal Family have been fascinating people around the world long before, but even more after, Netfix’s The Crown.
Since I confess to being a Royal fan and cannot get away from my HR mindset, I found myself examining the Royal Family (also known as “The Firm”) from HR perspective. For example, the Royal Family as a family-run company (with a strong and tough CEO), their attitude regarding diversity, characteristics of the Royal Family’s internal and external communications, branding and re-branding, and issues of employee’s motivation and engagement.
Analyzing these issues through the most interesting and fascinating family in the world (My apologies to the Kardashians) is a royal hit.
One great example is Prince Harry and Megan Markel, the Duke and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, departure from the Royal Family.
Prince Harry, 6th in line to the throne, Queen Elizabeth the 2nd’s grandson, the second son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, met Megan Markel, an American actress, in 2016. They got engaged in 2017 and in May 2018 had a grand fairytale wedding.
All across the kingdom (and world) hopes were high that Megan’s joining the Firm will help refresh the stiff Royal brand, excitement of the “new hire” bringing in a fresh point of view, increasing the diversity of the company and spirits’ were uplifted by the duo’s love and energy. The Sussex brand value was sky high lifting the Royal brand as well. And they lived happily ever after!
Wait… No, they did not…
Not long after the wedding public and media scrutiny and criticism of the couple began. Megan’s cheeky breakings of protocol were no longer considered cute and their conduct regarding the birth of their son, Archie, brought it all to a boiling point with both the public and within the Royal family.
The Sussex’s went on a 6 weeks’ vacation to Canada during the 2019 holiday season and upon their return in January announced their departure via Instagram from the Royal family and duties. Their statement came as a surprise to the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family.
To solve this royal blender, the Firm’s “executives”, the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince William, held a “Board meeting” out of which came a 1-year agreement (to be revisited on March 2021) allowing Harry and Megan freedom to pursue financial independence. The Queen released a statement to the media saying Harry and Megan will always be part of the family and Harry and Megan were off to the Californian sunset in hopes of building a new life.
Happily ever after is still TBD…
There are so many HR issues in this one tale alone — onboarding, change management, expectations setting, diversity, employer branding, communication, off-boarding — but for now let’s look at Employee Engagement, which is a key factor in any organization’s success and has become more challenging and complex during COVID-19, while many employees are now working remotely.
Employee Engagement is the relationship between an organization and its employees. The more engaged are the employees, the more they are enthusiastic, motivated and devoted to the organization’s success. Engaged employee will have a positive attitude and will identify with the organization and its values. Low Employee Engagement can result in low motivation to achieve and deliver tasks or even damage to the company’s work and reputation. Therefore, high Employee Engagement is key to the organization’s success.
Prince Harry was brought up with a clear sense of his position and duty. The organization’s values were clearly communicated and expresses hands-on by the leadership and the Queen is best at lead by example. Yet Harry has shown his low engagement on more than a one occasion throw-out the years, especially by parting hard like there is no Royal protocol in world (for example, the party in Las Vegas where he was photographed naked…).
This goes to show that just hiring right or even excellent onboarding process and expectations setting, is not enough to create Employee Engagement, as even the love of his family and all the Royal perks and advantages, were not enough for Harry.
Creating as strong Employee Engagement is an ongoing process that must adapt to the times and to the environment changes.
The Royal protocol is stiff and contains rules created hundreds of years ago, which were all made to support the organization’s #1 goal — The Crown and his survival. But everything but these rules have changed over the past hundreds of years, so does the protocol still support the goal or is it damaging to it?
Perhaps, some flexibility or refreshment of certain rules or adaptations to the new millennium could actually strengthen The Crown?
Good communication is one of the most important bases for all good relationships. Same regarding Employee Engagement, which is the relationship between the organization and the employee. The methods and content of the communication must adapted to changes and support the organization’s goals.
This is much enhanced during COVID-19. Pre COVID-19 face-to-face communication was one of the major bases for creating this relationship. Almost at once, this form of communication was not available any more. So how do we adapt?
Copy-pasting the same communications we were used to Zoom or to email, won’t cut it. Connecting via video is simply not the same. How do we retain the organization’s culture without being in the same space? Without those coffee-brakes-conversations?
Back to Harry and the Royals, there were previous signs that there are gaps in this relationship, but it seems as if the only side was expected to adapt and toe in line — Harry. Even though the Royals probably understand they need to align their brand with the times and not doubt they love Harry and wished him to continue to be an integral part of the family, I am not sure how much of their communication and conduct were adapted to support this.
As result, the relationship fell apart. Harry, as the employee, seemed not to have a positive outlook toward the organization, its values and its goals. He seemed to be doing the minimum at his position to a point of not caring if his actions were even damaging to the organization. He clearly exhibited low Employee Engagement.
While the agreement that was constructed with the Sussex’s seem to be a step in the right direction, the Sussex’s move to LA and the remote (if any) communication, seem to drift Harry further from the Royal Family and while might not lower his engagement further, it does not seem to improve it. Perhaps it was too little, too late…
In conclusion, as Employee Engagement is key to the organization’s success and is usually one of the top KPI’s for HR, communications and adaptation should always be in mind. Organizations should pro-actively work toward high Employee Engagement, staying one-step ahead of the game.
Another key point to keep in mind is that an organization is made of individuals. We tend sometimes to look at it as a whole and construct our HR strategy according to that. However, sometime an individual, which is crucial to the organization, does not fit the mold. The setback caused by this individual having low engagement or even departing the organization might be major enough for some flexibility as his contribution to the organization is valuable. | https://medium.com/@eyalzuk/hr-royal-highness-8d39041f977a | ['Eyal Zukerman'] | 2020-12-22 10:12:12.632000+00:00 | ['Employee Engagement', 'Royals', 'Human Resources'] |
Abolition is Necessary in Menstrual Health for People of All Genders | Abolition is Necessary in Menstrual Health for People of All Genders
// What’s 1 issue surrounding menstrual health that you’d like to shine a brighter spotlight on?
For me, it’s not so much a question of “What issue is there?” but, “How do I pick only one?” Menstrual health today cannot be diluted to one flaw with its treatment and presence in modern society. A neoliberal or individualist approach might encourage me to reiterate a year’s-old line about how it isn’t just cis women who menstruate, but I believe allowing cis people to claim ignorance and focus the conversation on bare minimums is what contributes to people thinking fighting over the basics will be productive.
It is a fact that trans men, gender-variant, non-cis, and nonbinary trans people such as myself menstruate.
My issue with the state of menstrual health (or more accurately — menstrual healthcare) is holistic and cannot be summarized without looking at it from my communist analysis. It’s not just that the medical understanding of and regard for menstruation is abysmal in multiple ways, but that all of society does not understand that biological sex is a concept quantified and created by colonialist western medicine not out of medical accuracy but out of justification for subjugating any person who was not a part of the cis white patriarchy.
This is also true of the construction of race as a biological difference to justify racism. The result has created a society where even those affected by gendered marginalization and/or racism have thoroughly been taught to believe that their bodies have fundamental inherent biological differences that define who and what you are and how your body works. When that is coupled with a capitalist society where medicine is an industry — as opposed to helping people who need treatment — and the academy educates a workforce of primarily non-Black and cis doctors to uphold white supremacy and colonialism via medicine, you create a monster that kills patients.
Capitalism is also present in the environmental damage done by the production and disposal of menstrual products.
By protecting corporate interests, the logic of the free-market allows profit to take precedence over preventing environmental collapse. Corporations inform, lobby, and control huge portions of lawmaking in America. A non-profit politicians and corporations partner with — ALEC—protects corporations from environmental responsibility and works to restrict the vote to keep their legislators in power. Major corporations have also partnered with ALEC over the decades to create, boost, and preserve the Prison Industrial Complex as a way to legally utilize slave labor in the US.
By increasing criminalization and focusing on neoliberal feminist messages around girl power and pussies over abolitionist feminism, the rate of incarceration for cis women has risen 750% between 1980 and 2017.
Black cis women are incarcerated twice as frequently as white cis women, Native American cis girls are incarcerated four times as much as white cis girls, and Black cis girls three-and-a-half times as much. The more prisoners you have, the more people you have to farm Idaho potatoes, make jeans in Oregon, furniture in Georgia, Victoria’s Secret underwear, and many other products including Microsoft and Boeing electronics.
If the fact that some prisons publicly boast about the products their prisoners make on their websites wasn’t insidious enough, women’s prisons and jails are abysmal when it comes to providing menstrual products to their prisoners who menstruate.
Regardless of legislature passed, American facilities still debate whether or not menstrual products are a basic need.
Prisons also have a history of using women of color as subjects for experiments without their knowledge or consent and are still forcibly sterilizing inmates while posturing it as ‘voluntary’. When you realize that prisons and contractors don’t see themselves as rehabilitators but employers and industries allowed to abuse their workforce to boost their own profits, you begin to see that a society constructed around industries will never care about human beings. Menstrual products are a 15 billion dollar industry themselves. You can petition against the “pink-tax” all you want, but as long as industries exist they’re never going to allow people to access basic needs for free.
“Brands” and “companies” will not and should not ever be a hero to people who desire genuine menstrual care for people of all genders.
These same groups are the exact sort of people who send defective menstrual products to African countries because it makes them money. It doesn’t matter to them that these defective products burn people’s skin and cause terrible rashes, because manufacturers and providers only care about their bottom line.
People point to Always as “progressive” for removing the female gender symbol from packaging while this same company accounts for 62% of these burning pads in Kenya. (Where only 65% of people who menstruate do not have access to menstrual products at all). If recognition that menstrual products are not for cis women only nor are they “feminine care” must come at the cost of the health and safety of people in the global south, I don’t fucking want that. Corporations are a major contributor to the entire problem of why menstrual care sucks. They need to go, and prisons do too.
It was never designed to keep people safe or rehabilitate perpetrators. Prisons were designed to legalize slavery, strengthen police forces, encourage and increase decimation of Black communities, protect private property and corporations, and uphold white supremacy. They torture people to make money for anyone who knows how to cash in on the industry of imprisonment and do nothing to provide real justice for everyone.
Reformists will tell you improving menstrual health for people of all genders within prisons and without is a matter of passing the right laws, allocating more funding, or using the system to enact policies. Reforms cannot change the fact that imprisoning people is not an aspect of life which should be kept.
If we care about menstrual health for people of all genders, we have to abolish racism and patriarchy. We have to abolish transmisogyny and transphobia. None of those things can be abolished without abolishing capitalism and capitalism cannot be abolished without abolishing prisons and prisons cannot be abolished without abolishing capitalism.
When you watch or read science fiction, you will eventually come across someone giving birth and experiencing severe pain or even dying.
Did you know Black people who give birth are 243% more likely to die from childbirth-related issues? The futures writers imagine depict that in 400 years time we will be able to perform non-existent intensive neurosurgeries no problem, but childbirth?
Well, only women do that (false) and there’s just no way medicine will ever be able to improve sexual health. They often pretend menstruation and birth control don’t even exist. Not only that, but fictional and nonfictional analysis alike both refuse to acknowledge the lethal education built into the fabric of medicine, science, and the academy.
I see a doctor or nurse getting exposed as a racist or general bigot almost every day. The people meant to take care of everyone have been taught to believe that Black people feel less pain than white people do. Famous scientists and doctors often support population control (aka eugenics) as a way to save the Earth. These institutions are not without issues simply because they purport to be helping others and working to do the right thing. | https://medium.com/@periodfutures/abolition-is-necessary-in-menstrual-health-for-people-of-all-genders-4806894a713a | ['Period Futures'] | 2020-12-17 14:15:40.687000+00:00 | ['Gender Equality', 'Inclusion', 'Health', 'Menstruation', 'Menstrual Equity'] |
8 Methods of Resolving Conflict. | Resolving Conflict
Understand the 8 Methods of Resolving Conflict:
Conflict is an everyday part of life in the UK Grocery Industry. Discounters are growing. New stores are hard to come by. Employees want salary raises. Bosses want bonuses. Shoppers expect value for money. Resolving conflict is, therefore, an essential part of life in the UK Grocery Industry. Here are 8 methods of conflict resolution — Do you know all your options?
1. Resolving Conflict: Unilateral Decision
No, we’re not giving in, that’s it’. We’ve all heard the stories of a big brand and a supermarket getting to the point where one has decided to delist the product or stop the supply of the product until the other party yields.
Advantage: Shows strength and resolve.
Disadvantage: The other party may call your bluff and it is not good for long-term relationships.
2. Resolving Conflict: Persuasion
‘It’s a no-brainer, you should do it’. Persuading someone to do something that they may not want to do is undoubtedly a skill that can be learnt. To illustrate, some top tips from the experts are 1. Actively listen to their point, 2. Find common ground, and 3. Use the power of ‘because’.
Advantage: It’s free.
Disadvantage: Success is usually low unless you are a persuasive master!
3. Resolving Conflict: Haggling/Bartering
‘I’ll meet you halfway’. Most of us haggle when we go to the markets, where it is the norm. In the UK we sometimes haggle when we want to agree on something and we believe we are negotiating, but we are not, we are haggling.
Advantage: Haggling is a sound method for conflict resolution, but don’t believe that it is negotiating.
Disadvantage: It will cost you ‘meeting halfway’.
4. Resolving Conflict: Arbitration
‘Ok, let’s ask them for their opinion’. Not something we hear much of in the UK Grocery Industry unless the ‘Competitions and Markets Authority’ are involved. Occasionally you might hear, ‘Let’s get another perspective on this’, which is very valid.
Advantage: An effective method of resolving a conflict.
Disadvantage: You might lose because it is 50:50.
5. Resolving Conflict: Postponement
‘We’ll come back to this at the next meeting with a plan’. Our observations of learners on our negotiation skills training course, for instance, is that most people looking to resolve a conflict opt for agreeing that a plan will be presented at the next meeting. This is usually a postponement where the two parties come back to the original points once again, with, again little resolution.
Advantage: Sometimes a postponement allows people to ‘cool off’ and/or revisit the problem another way.
Disadvantage: Postponements that are used to get away from dealing with the problem are not useful in resolving the conflict.
6. Resolving Conflict: Problem Solve
‘I’ve got an idea, how about if we…?’. Problem-solving is where the majority of conflict resolution takes place.
Advantage: A mutually beneficial solution is a great way to solve conflict because both parties usually win.
Disadvantage: You may not find a suitable solution for both parties and it requires both parties to want to problem solve.
7. Resolving Conflict: Total Surrender
‘Ok, we’ll agree to the deal’. Total Surrender is where one party gives in to the other party by giving up, waving the white flag, and agreeing to the other party’s demands.
Advantage: The advantages of this method are limited; as a result, they are likely reduced to the chance that you might get some payback in a later deal.
Disadvantage: You lose the lot!
8. Resolving Conflict: Negotiation
‘If you…then I…’. This tool is very simple and is a must in any negotiators’ toolbox. If you do something for me, then I will do something for you. We see negotiating as trading. Yes, there’ s a lot more to it. Essentially, therefore, it is about ‘giving to get’. Trading what you have for what they have to get and aiming for a win:win outcome.
Advantage: Both parties can win.
Disadvantage: The better negotiator gets more. So for that reason, our ‘Negotiating with Buyers’ Masterclass will help!
Free download: Competency Frameworks.
Related topics
How to Improve Your Conflict Resolution Skills
How do you handle team conflict? What are the skills needed for resolving conflict? How can conflict resolution skills be improved in the workplace? Hopefully arriving at this point you feel you have a better understanding of conflict resolution. Also, you have started to answer some of these questions.
The easiest way to further develop your conflict management skills is to attend a conflict resolution training session on the core skills and behaviours. This will help you understand the theoretical models in the classroom. However, it is really important that you apply the skills. In team situations, it is important that we get people talking and building trust with each other. This could be in more formal meetings, over lunch, coffee out of the office, or a team-building event.
Which one of the above options do you use most? Please share your view by commenting below.
For further information, you can find our Ultimate Guide to Conflict Resolution Skills by clicking the link below.
Feel free to get in touch. Simply fill out the form below or email us at [email protected], and we will be happy to get back to you with further information.
Slideshare of this post — 8 Methods of Conflict resolution by Darren A. Smith
Would you like to read this post in Spanish? — Click here | https://medium.com/@makingbusinessmatter/8-methods-of-resolving-conflict-ee12f13d5dff | ['Making Business Matter', 'Mbm'] | 2020-12-17 08:52:27.394000+00:00 | ['Sticky Learning', 'Conflict', 'Mbm', 'Resolutions', 'Workplace Culture'] |
Under Pressure | Why Smart Decisions Require Story-Driven Precision
By Hannah Landers
Whether they were calling, texting, or playing snake, if someone had a cell phone in their hands during the late 1990s or early 2000s, there’s a good chance that it was a Nokia. More similar in appearance to an average landline than the iPhone, Nokia’s devices were chunky, and fairly simple; just a set of twelve buttons on the main keypad below a small, rectangular screen.
Nokia gained an early lead in the nascent global mobile phone market and showed no signs of stopping as the smartphone era dawned; the brand owned nearly half of all smartphone sales in the third quarter of 2007. So why, today, are only 1 percent of smartphone users using Nokia phones?
It’s reductive to attribute the brand’s downfall to the emergence of players like Samsung and Apple in the smartphone market. Nokia wasn’t Blackberry, an outdated dinosaur trying to hold on against exciting, innovative newcomers. Rather, the company had long operated in ways that would have seemingly made it futureproof, such as with its acquisition of Diamond Lane Communications to beef up its internet speeds in 1999 — a time when less than 5 percent of the world’s population was even using the internet in the first place.
Nokia’s brand had always been one of innovation; many of the features considered indispensable on today’s modern phones — cameras, the ability to play music — were pioneered by the Finnish telecom giant. What stymied Nokia was its failure to make decisions that aligned with its core brand narrative at a time when the marketplace was rapidly shifting, and those missteps cost them their dominance.
When an organization is faced with change — whether due to encroaching competition, rapid changes in the marketplace, or a full-blown crisis — making decisions quickly and decisively is essential to survival. Every choice has the potential to lead to success or immense failure, and taking the time to puzzle through which is the right one can ultimately leave an organization stymied.
“You’ve got to operate in the environment that you’ve got and optimize that,” says Charles Bayless, a leader who has specialized in shepherding companies through restructuring efforts, in an interview in the Insigniam Quarterly. “You can’t go back. … [Companies] are suddenly in a different environment, and they’re frozen. They don’t know what to do; it’s such a brand new environment.”
In a study from the Harvard Business Review, however, author Donald Sull finds that it isn’t paralysis that keeps these companies from moving forward in these new environments. Many companies, he says, “recognize the threat [of change] early, carefully analyze its implications for their business, and unleash a flurry of initiatives in response.” Despite this, he notes, the companies still fail — not because of their “inability to take action but an inability to take appropriate action.” It’s only those companies that are grounded in who they are and why they are valuable that have a strong foundation to adapt quickly.
The inability to take the right action in a moment that necessitated quick decision-making certainly describes Nokia: As the smartphone industry shifted rapidly after the iPhone’s introduction, the company make a decision that strayed from the core of who it was, altering the course of its then-upward trajectory in the process. Nokia got to its pinnacle by investing heavily in innovation, all in service of its mission to better connect people around the globe. It lost its spot by abandoning that story in a critical moment, ultimately ceding its powerful story to others.
The company pumped tons of money into research and development throughout its reign at the top, starting with its creation of the first car phone in the early 1980s, and kicking into overdrive as the mobile phone market quickly germinated and evolved. The Nokia 1011, released in 1992, was the first mobile phone to be mass produced, and the first with the ability to send SMS messages. Just four years later, the company released the world’s first smartphone, the Nokia Communicator, which was a touch-screen, internet-enabled device that could be used to download and use various different applications — a decade before Apple launched its revolutionary App Store.
But Nokia’s futureproof vision and its ability to create products that were far before their time failed to translate into a strategy that would lead to quick, purposeful decisions when they were needed most. As the world moved decisively toward data-consuming smartphones, Nokia made the decision to double down on what it had been doing well for years: creating durable, functional feature phones.
“The ‘phone first’ mindset ran through everything they did,” says Adam Leach, who worked closely alongside Nokia on its now-defunct mobile operating system, in an interview with TechCrunch. “And although the R&D guys came up with some great innovative things, they were slow to get those to market. So they were very good at coming up with concepts — ‘this is what the future’s going to look like; in the meantime, what’s selling in the market is these feature phones with additional internet capabilities,’ and they were kind of caught between the two.”
Rather than marketing the Communicator’s capabilities as the future that Nokia believed it to be, the company chose to be conservative at a pivotal moment — a stark contrast to the innovative mindset and ambitious mission that guided it internally. In its mission to connect people, Nokia promised to serve as the bridge not just between people, but also as the brand to “bridge the gap between people and the information they need.” In focusing solely on the way that people were communicating then, without thinking about how the connections of the future would be forged, Nokia failed to make a decision that aligned with its brand story at a time when the pace of technological innovation was accelerating — and it became harder than ever to recover from making the wrong choice.
This decision shaped Nokia’s strategy in a way that would eventually lead to its downfall: Instead of investing in a sound, robust mobile operating system that would be able to compete with Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android, Nokia funneled all its resources into beefing up hardware. Following the release of the iPhone in 2007 and the explosion of app-driven marketplaces, downloads, and data-enabled uses for smartphones, Nokia was left playing catch-up. By the second quarter of 2013, the company’s market share had fallen to just 3.1 percent.
Market shake-ups test an organization’s ability to make decisions that align with its purpose. Whether driven by environmental changes, rapid shifts in consumer preferences, or the sudden emergence of a strong competitor, quick thinking is required for survival.
Kmart stores, as the world knows them today, emerged in the 1960s as the discount counterpart to founder Sebastian Kresge’s department stores. Unlike his department stores, however, which didn’t have a specific product or audience focus, Kmart catered to bargain hunters — offering everything one could find at a regular department store at the cheapest possible price. Kmart even went as far as to set up whirling blue lights (reminiscent of police sirens) in certain aisles to signal special, limited-time discounts for those shoppers currently in stores.
“The success of Kmart is based on our ability to sell quality goods at the lowest possible prices with complete satisfaction,” boasted Harry B. Cunningham, who helped co-found Kmart with Kresge, in 1969.
Kmart built its story around delivering a department store customer experience with the rock-bottom prices of a discount chain; at the organization’s core is giving customers access to a wide array of quality products at the best possible price. For years, single-minded commitment to this mission fueled the brand’s rapid growth. By the mid-1970s, Kmart’s sales had skyrocketed to billions of dollars, and the company opened its 2,000th store in 1981.
At the same time, a similar story was beginning in Arkansas, where businessman Sam Walton was opening the very first Walmart in 1962. From the beginning, Walmart’s identity was similar to that of Kmart: “If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone,” Walton once said. “We’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life.”
Over the next two decades, Walmart experienced similar growth as Kmart did, and celebrated $1 billion in sales from 276 stores by the 1980s. Concentrated primarily in the Southern U.S. at this time, Walmart flourished alongside Kmart, which spread more holistically across the U.S. and even internationally — until the two came head-to-head in the 1990s.
Walmart had grown considerably throughout the 1980s, a time in which it opened its first superstores (Sam’s Club) and Walmart Supercenters — huge stores that basically offer the services of a small town, including nail or hair salons, portrait studios, a full grocery store with a bakery and deli, and eye care services (among other offerings). This expansion in services was a natural extension of the Walmart story: More than department store products, these services were essential to lowering the cost of living and expanding opportunity.
With Walmart encroaching on its turf, and rapidly offering a wider suite of services, Kmart had to decide how to respond. Although it had risen to success by providing a balance of low prices and customer satisfaction, Kmart was now facing a competitor with a similar animating purpose — one that Walmart embraced much more holistically. In comparison, Kmart was found wanting. Walmart was quickly moving into the business of offering a huge variety of products at the best possible price; where did that leave Kmart?
Kmart knew it had to diversify to remain competitive. Where Walmart had expanded its offerings in a way consistent with its story, Kmart sought growth by taking stakes in other companies such as Waldenbooks, The Sports Authority, and OfficeMax. While these decisions gave a boost to the firm’s P&L, their purposes — niche products, not discount-driven — were at odds with Kmart’s mission. This left the firm with a number of tangential brands that distracted from its core purpose and appealed to different customers.
In the meantime, Kmart’s own stores — the only means through which the brand lived it story for its customers — suffered. Technology became outdated, and shelves were often left empty as stores received insufficient stock. By the time Kmart leadership recognized their lapse in judgement, disposed of its other assets, and reinvested in Kmart by renovating stores and expanding inventory, it was too late.
Throughout this tumultuous time for Kmart, Walmart had remained consistent with its story, rapidly expanding relevant offerings without sacrificing the low prices and customer experience that Walmart customers had come to expect from the brand. Walmart had been better embodying Kmart’s own story for years, and customers who defected never saw a need to come back.
Initially, Kmart was seemingly poised to claim international discount brand dominance. Kmart reached $1 billion in sales in 1966 — more than a decade before Walmart hit the same milestone (even though the companies were founded a mere four months apart). When confronted by an encroaching competitor and forced to act quickly, however, Kmart abandoned its story to embark on a strategy that didn’t align with its purpose — a decision that resulted in the closure of hundreds of stores and a declaration of bankruptcy.
No matter what kind of struggle an organization is up against, looking inward before responding outward ensures leadership makes the correct decisions — especially when time is of the essence.
Startup veteran Bob Moore puts it best in an interview with First Round Review: “A good vision means you have strong first principles. The products can evolve. The team can change. The market could hit a downturn. But if you are relentless and consistent in your pursuit of a well-formed vision, you’ll be able to weather most storms. … The difference between having a crisp vision and muddling through without one will alter the trajectory of your company.”
Change often happens quickly. While many organizations recognize the importance of developing and codifying a brand story that can guide everything from hiring to product development, relying on such a clearly articulated statement of purpose when faced with monumental change helps ensure the right decisions are made when the pressure is on — positioning a brand to not simply survive, but thrive.
Hannah is an associate at Woden. Want to stay connected? Add Hannah on LinkedIn, read our extensive guide on how to craft your organization’s narrative, or send us an email at [email protected] to discuss whatever your storytelling needs may be. | https://medium.com/@wodenworks/under-pressure-8fd620e26578 | [] | 2020-04-23 16:41:02.446000+00:00 | ['Decision Making', 'Crisis', 'Leadership', 'Brand Strategy', 'Growth'] |
Please get a Grip, Humans! | Perceived helplessness shouldn’t draw our attention away from what matters most: We can all do something.
Every single one of us can, even when our life is falling apart and we have our back against the wall, which many freelancers like me do. Then again, I’m not sure writing about the extent of the mess I’m in is going to achieve anything beside stoking schadenfreude. At a time when we need to stick together, I don’t want to encourage it because it is partly how the internet turned into the cesspool it is.
Also, many of us are experiencing all kinds of adversity, from food insecurity to having no clue where next month’s rent is going to come from. Rocking myself into the corner wailing is unlikely to conjure up either but maintaining my sanity might so that’s what I’m doing.
While trying to figure out ways to weather this pandemic, everyone in my household arrived at the same conclusion: Now’s not the time to mope. We air out our concerns periodically but we don’t let them take over. Sure, the struggle is realer than ever and it has just intensified to unprecedented levels. But the economic impacts of the pandemic are out of our hands so we started focusing on what we can do instead.
Take it from a chronic depressive: When your sanity is only hanging by a thread, you need to get out of your head and fast otherwise you’ll end up trapped in there. This is a risk none of us can take; stress, fear, and despair are all highly communicative and a recipe for cabin fever.
And as a humorous side note to anyone who thinks we have it easy in the Netherlands because of our relaxed cannabis laws, it depends on whether one has one’s finger on the pulse. Along with schools, cafés, restaurants, bars, and gyms, the government closed all coffee shops aka pot shops from the evening of March 15 until April 6. And promptly reopened them so street crime wouldn’t take over.
True to the clueless stoner cliché, many folks who don’t speak Dutch and have no TV didn’t find out until well after the fact, twice.
“This aggression will not stand, man,” all the dudes who could no longer abide said with a shrug. Now that real life is stranger than The Big Lebowski, it can turn into an endless source of amusement if you let it. Who would have thought toilet paper would ever be the new celebrity status or that the Dutch sometimes behaved like hamsters?
These are the small victories we’ve come to celebrate with good humor and grace in those uncertain times.
Scoring disposable paper products. Realizing you can turn cat-spotting into a daily task and then stretch the fun by adding up the number of ears, the number of paws, and the number of tails at the end of the day. And even whiskers if you and the feline got up close and personal for any length of time.
“Cat!” is a battlecry around here. We systematically drop whatever we’re doing to go observe the creature before it vanishes from view. For extra fun, we shout silently with pointed fingers and silly faces if one of us is on the phone. Even my father and my stepmom in Paris are in on it now, and our nightly conversations all start with “Miaou, miaou !” instead of “Bonsoir !”
You may not be able to control the number of cats (or dogs, or birds) you get to spot on any given day but you can turn every sighting into a joyful occasion.
How else are we going to get through this? | https://asingularstory.medium.com/please-get-a-grip-humans-6c9342b062ee | ['A Singular Story'] | 2020-03-28 10:39:40.527000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Humor', 'Culture', 'Social Media', 'Self'] |
My COO Shinae Lee Demonstrates “Women are the Future” | In justInCase, indeed foreign hires are the minority, to which Shinae and I belong. I am grateful for having her being supportive all the time, telling me I can achieve more, achieve higher. It’s just a matter of time and effort. The most important thing is to believe in yourself.
She might raise demanding requests to test your limit. It’s because she has faith in your ability. That’s her way to show her appreciation and respect.
Connect her: linkedin.com/in/shinae-lee-02
Here’s her story…
“If anyone wants to be proactive rather than being reactive, they should apply to work for justInCase, because this company gives a voice to everyone. Also, they should work here because I am here.”
Onion Haseo, a Korean girl who knows about Japan more than Japanese
Shinae, born and raised in Korea, speaks fluent Japanese. Having learned Japanese during her high school years, I’m shocked how fast she learnt and perfected the language. Being intelligent she is, she had studied at The University of Tokyo for Economics, and has been constantly learning new languages. She is fluent in Korean, Japanese, and English while learning Mandarin-Chinese and Spanish. During our daily conversation, I was very impressive how she could understand and use a lot of slangs of different languages. When asked how she picked up languages so quickly, she said that it was because her hobby is watching her favorite movies e.g. Harry Potter and TV shows in different languages.
Her first time to join the panel discussion and share about her experience of moving from working in a big corporation to a startup company, justInCase
A true girl crush personality
Shinae is the pillar of everywhere she goes. She has strong determination to make things happen. I feel that it is one of her greatest traits. For example, she is the only person in justInCase that successfully initiated and executed a spontaneous company trip! This was started from looking at a Facebook video about uni and BAM! a plan to go to Hokkaido had blossomed into action. Not only does she show determination, but she also shows women power and proves that women are also capable of making significant achievements and being successful.
Stop, Drop, and ROLE
Shinae has joined justInCase since May 2019, only six months to now. She has to handle a lot of responsibilities, from recruitments, business development to operation and sales. She works closely with our CEO, Kazy. One could see her as CEO’s right-hand woman. Her job is rigorous. Her schedule is always packed with meetings with venture capitalists and strategic partners, networking events and interviews.
My role made me learn a lot on how to run a company and constantly interact with all the team members in the company, particularly engineers.
Everyone’s opinion matters
Shinae emphasizes that the unique aspect of justInCase is the fact that everyone is their own entity. Our flat hierarchy also creates an environment of wonderful chaos. Just the fact that I was writing this article in the midst of a burpee competition, which is already quite self-explanatory about our work culture. While it is assumed that CEO is the ultimate decision maker in most cases,due to the company being open for discussion, it usually leads to a decision that is made by the consensus.
The unique aspect of justInCase is the fact that everyone is their own entity.
To my future self
Shinae has expressed that it is her dream to either retire early or start her own company in the future. With her passion including traveling, she wants to retire to a place with a beachfront. Contrary to her retirement plans, she also thought about starting her own startup that becomes an innovator rather than following trends. With this, she had also stated that she wants justInCase to grow bigger and successfully disrupt the insurance industry.
*CLAP MY ARTICLE (UP TO 50 TIMES) TO ENCOURAGE ME TO KEEP WRITING*
Co-written by our intern, Issac Yoo | https://medium.com/@elaine.tung/my-coo-shinae-lee-demonstrates-women-are-the-future-d25526dc4ac5 | ['Elaine Tung'] | 2019-11-15 23:50:52.850000+00:00 | ['Women In Tech', 'Insurtech', 'Founder Stories', 'Women In Business', 'Startup'] |
Want to be a 360 video storyteller? Start here | Want to be a 360 video storyteller? Start here
From tutorials to lessons learned, we’ll get you headed in the right direction
The art of 360 video storytelling is evolving, captivating and still pretty hard to do well. But if you’re starting from scratch our award-winning 360 team has some ideas of where to look.
Happy shooting, and let us know what you learn in the comments or on Twitter. | https://medium.com/creative-lab/want-to-be-a-360-video-storyteller-start-here-c80ce17d85b | ['Creative Lab'] | 2018-01-05 05:30:35.699000+00:00 | ['Virtual Reality', 'VR', 'Augmented Reality', '360 Video', 'Journalism'] |
Waxing Crescent | this same spot
where the old table was
where we sat, peering up
hoping to see it
counting stars
wondering at the thick, painted sky
black as soot
black as sleep
black as a cold hearth
its embers, long dead
but this night
this cold, clear, cloudless night
yields no moon
I doubt it exists
though I saw it glimmer, a wink
between a clutch of leaves
(their story almost over)
I search the sky
as if each star is a gift owed to me
a found treasure, plucked
from the dark canopy of space
to wear at my throat | https://jacquelinedooley.medium.com/waxing-crescent-cb7bc41a6e43 | ['Jacqueline Dooley'] | 2019-06-10 09:01:02.141000+00:00 | ['Creative Writing', 'Poetry', 'Poems On Medium', 'Grief', 'Nature'] |
Wrap up 2020 on a positive note and get inspired for 2021 | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/practicum-by-yandex/wrap-up-2020-on-a-positive-note-and-get-inspired-for-2021-3e8337b227a4 | ['Practicum Yandex'] | 2020-12-24 18:43:21.072000+00:00 | ['Learning To Code', 'Codingbootcamp', 'Tech', 'Data', 'Students'] |
Cocaine ketamine | Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug made from the leaves of the coca plant native to South America. Although health care providers can use it for valid medical purposes, such as local anesthesia for some surgeries, recreational cocaine use is illegal. As a street drug, cocaine looks like a fine, white, crystal powder. Street dealers often mix it with things like cornstarch, talcum powder, or flour to increase profits. But we only supply the real quality 100% pure Cocaine and others products.> [email protected]
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This is the Season | I’ve been taking a break from Medium this month, but when I noticed Darshak Rana’s prompt of Christmas on Spiritual Secrets, I decided to poke my head back in for a sec and say hi. Thank you, Darshak Rana, for tagging me!
I hope all my writing brothers and sisters are having a joyful December! I hope all of you wonderful readers out there are, too. Merry Christmas!! | https://medium.com/spiritual-secrets/this-is-the-season-5aa60bf5a361 | ['Amy Jasek'] | 2020-12-26 07:02:15.183000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Poem', 'Festivals', 'Poetry', 'Christmas'] |
Wireless Charging: Beneficial or Fancy? | One fine day before the lockdown, I was discussing with my friend about wireless charging and its features. In the middle of the discussion, he snapped and said, “How is it wireless if it has wires connected to the wireless charging pad?”. Well it is somewhat true and I started thinking that is it groundbreaking or is it something fancy which everyone seems to use because it’s considered cool?
Well, I am writing this article exactly for this question to be answered and the discussion will be limited to wireless charging in electronic devices like Phones, Smartwatches, truly wireless buds, etc. So, let’s start answering a few questions before we jump into it!
Wireless Charging Pad
Q1: Why does wireless charging exist?
If you don’t know about wireless charging you are probably living under a rock. Wireless charging has been around since the late 19th century when electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla demonstrated magnetic resonant coupling — the ability to transmit electricity through the air by creating a magnetic field between two circuits, a transmitter, and a receiver.
The companies which provide wireless charging support were Alliance for wireless power (A4WP), Power Matters Alliance (PMA), and Wireless Power Consortium (WPC). The common form of wireless charging which we see in our gadgets is the Qi (Pronounced as “Chi”) wireless charging is developed by WPC and was standardized by Apple after they used it in iPhone X along with iPhone 8.
This technology exists to increase mobility and to provide convenience to the users of just placing their phone of a pad or table and leave it there to charge without having to find the cable and placing it in the device. This technology has a lot of pros and cons. So, let’s discuss them one by one to get clarity on its existence.
Qi Wireless Charging Logo
Q2: What are its Pros and Cons?
Pros:
Less wear and tear of the charger (including the cable) and the charging port on the phone. Using the wireless charger helps to remove the port and cable from continuous use and hence enhancing the life of the charger. This has a great environmental impact as it generates less trash for our landfills. Better waterproofing: Using wireless charging will make the charging port on devices obsolete. This, in turn, improves the waterproofing of the device as no exposed electrical area remains on the body of the device. Safer to transfer power: Well, its safer in 2 ways. As it charges the device using mutual inductance, the damage a fluctuating current can do is negligible as opposed to when the device is plugged in. Also, it is safer as it can only be used to transfer power and no information can be taken out of the phone even if you use an unknown charger which is a serious threat when you connect your phone through cables to an unknown charging port. Charging multiple devices is possible on wireless charging docks of larger size. This being a minimal pro but serves a good purpose if you have multiple wirelessly charging devices with you. Convenience: This is a debatable pro but I feel it should be on the pros list as it changes the way you charge your phone! (For people who occasionally like to use the phone while charging you can always sit and use your phone or even use the normal wired charger as it is always provided in the box)
Cons:
Slower charging: This is a major flaw of the wireless charging which people in the industry discuss. But even wired charging technology was slower when it was introduced and was eventually researched and made better. Now, OnePlus has made a breakthrough by making a 30W wireless charger and things will continue to get better. Also, this slow behavior is induced due to the lower efficiency of wireless charging which is improving to get better. Materials and Heating: This technology can’t work through metal. So, materials like glass and plastic should be used to enable it. During the charging process the back of the device which stays on the pad gets heated up slightly causing a minimal decrease in the life of the device itself. Expensive and Portability: To use wireless charging you have to first buy a device that supports wireless charging which can cost you on an average INR 45,000 (Around $600). Additionally you have to purchase a wireless charger that is not included in the box. Now this wireless charger costs about INR 3000 (Around $40). This much of an investment does not justify the pros of the technology but this will get cheaper for sure. Also, the charger is not very portable due to its bulkiness and when traveling would be a nuisance to carry along.
Reverse Wireless Charging
Q3: What will the future of wireless look like?
The form of wireless charging mentioned above is very primitive that uses coils that should be lined up closely at about a distance of 1.5 cm. Now, we can already see the technology of a single wireless charger kept in the center of the room charging devices all over space. The only issue with this is the emf waves that may be harmful to living things. But the future for charging depends a lot on battery technology and that is one thing which will change tremendously in the future.
Probable Future of Wireless Charging
Humans will always find better ways to tackle environmental issues caused due to battery disposal and reuse. For this a better battery technology will emerge and we may see different ways to charge it. Concluding I would like to say that wireless charging is better than wired charging and in the coming years it will become more efficient, affordable and would be seen as a necessity rather than a fancy tech! | https://medium.com/@rajasneve/wireless-charging-beneficial-or-fancy-f8ba47630b1b | ['Rajas Neve'] | 2020-05-25 20:57:47.183000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Future', 'Battery', 'Wireless Charging', 'Breakthrough'] |
Public Tools Library — for circularity and beyond… | We think the problems today are not as much as with our consumption patterns but more so with the methods of production. To do things in a better way, we need to empower everyday people with the necessary infrastructure to make circularity happen. A public tools library is just one of the ways to bring about this change in our lives. To bring change, we need to democratise the power of production.
Background
The concept of circular economy can be realised if we can make reusability easy and economical. To make a product reusable, it should be easy to repair, and if it needs to be, easy to resale to its future users. Thus, the three Rs for the circular economy can be re-defined as Repair, Reuse, Resale.
The three R’s for circular
To understand this better, let us take the example of cars as they are arguably the most universally circular consumer goods in our current times. The reason for our cars being circular is because they are easy to repair, reuse, and resale. This ease of repair, reuse and resale is largely made possible by the ecosystem of repair shops and resellers which provides with necessary support and convenience to make circularity happen.
The high cost of owning cars has allowed this ecosystem to be created by the market itself and such high costs of purchase are not true for every product out there. Thus, to encourage such an ecosystem for other products as well, governments need to step in and provide the necessary infrastructure which enables common people to participate in the circular economy with ease.
Currently, there are platforms both digital and physical to resale or share used products (for eg, local thrift stores, Facebook’s Marketplace, etc). The success and popularity of such resale platforms all around the world (especially in cities), demonstrates that people are willing to share, reuse and resale goods if there is an easy and convenient way of doing it. The current challenge is to somehow facilitate repairs that would automatically increase reuse and reduce waste.
Motivation
People usually have the spirit and motivation to do things by themselves commonly referred to as a do-it-yourself (DIY) attitude. With the success of companies like iFixit (link) and the popularity of DIY YouTube channels like DIY Perks (link), I like to make stuff (link), Hacktuber (link) and many more with millions of subscribers and tens of millions of views. This suggests that there is interest and enthusiasm from people to be a part of circularity.
So, what’s the problem?
Problem
The missing link in completing our three R’s in this is the ease of repairing things. If we could facilitate the ease of repair, the remain two Rs of reuse and resale will increase naturally. The ease of repairing is linked to two things:
Infrastructure needed (tools + space)
Skills required
Most of the stuff we use in our daily life is pretty basic and are not very sophisticated in their working process. Thus, the skills needed to repair such things are also pretty basic and can be learned even through online learning mediums (like YouTube). One of the main things holding people back is the high cost of owning the tools.
For instance, in the current system, if I need to cut a piece of wood into two, I will have to buy a saw which I know will be used only a couple of times and then will occupy space in my already overstuffed apartment and will need regular maintenance while adding not much value to my city life. So, when I buy a tool, the cost of ownership consists of three costs: cost of buying, cost of storage and then the cost of maintenance. Such a high cost of owning tools discourages repairs and reuse of stuff. So, what’s the solution?
Innovation should not be reserved for the few but should be done by the masses.
Our Solution
To solve this problem and encourage circularity, we propose the idea of a local community ‘Public Tools Library’.
Public Tools Library
The main idea is simple, to create a space where people can come together and share tools. Now, around this idea, more features can be added to further encourage the use of the space and the tools like having workspaces, workshops, supervisors, junkyards and so on.
Some of these possible features are expanded as follows:
Take home tools: Tools can be issued to be taken home which will allow people to do things themselves. (Eg: regular maintenance, paint jobs, garden works, etc.)
Workspaces: Spaces within the library for people to work and/or collaborate on project ideas.
Upcycle: Junkyards can be provided adjacent to the tool’s library for people to source materials for their respective projects and enable upcycling.
Skills training: Workshops should be held to allow enthusiasts to learn from professionals. This will help people have the necessary supervision to gain confidence in doing things themselves.
Supervisors: Someone who can provide general guidance, training, and supervision to people for using basic tools. (Just like a librarian but for tools!)
Themes: Just like any books library arranges books based on genres, a tools library can be arranged and categorised based on how its tools are used. For example, woodworks, metal works, fabric works, electrical works, robotics and so on are only to name a few.
Kids section: A dedicated section for children of our community to try on different tools to build things from a young age.
Sharing will reduce the cost of owning the tools and thereby will encourage people to repair reuse and if need be, resale. By providing the necessary infrastructure in local communities and neighbourhoods, the governments can reduce the barrier of entry for people to participate in the circular economy and make circularity happen. Socially, this initiative will enable people to come together and collaborate, share tools, skills and ideas which will strengthen communities and stimulate local economies. This will also empower the individuals and the society at large to explore new product ideas and new economic models.
A few of such direct benefits of a Tool’s library are as follows:
Sharing is caring: Historically, libraries have reduced the barrier for everyday people to gain knowledge by reducing the cost of reading books by sharing them. The tools library can do the same. Tools can live at a shared accessible hub for people to use whenever needed and thus freeing us from the burden of ownership.
Workshops & Retraining: As automation is displacing a lot of people from regular work, such an initiative can provide the infrastructure needed for people to learn a new skill and find a new means of living. Workshops could be organised to bring both professionals and enthusiasts together to share their skills and ideas. This will help nurture and enrich the repair ecosystem.
Bring community together: Libraries are places where people come together and build connections. People from all walks of life from immigrants to senior citizens, students, job seekers, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts find a place to interact and socialise. It is a place for the community to come together to teach, learn and share ideas.
Spur innovation around circularity: It can be a perfect breeding ground for people to test new product designs and better business models that are currently available. If done right, this initiative can help create a vibrant ecosystem of makers and creators within our communities sharing ideas and enabling each other to innovate.
Strengthen local economy: As people find new business models around circularity and start providing services locally, the local economy would strengthen and create new local entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the extra money people save as a result of repairing, reusing and reselling goods will surely strengthen local households financially and might also increase their spending locally.
Waste reduction: As repairs and reuses become popular, it will help reduce the waste generated by the city. Furthermore, adding junkyards as a feature to source material can even help upcycle the city’s waste.
Conclusion
We are currently overwhelmed by the problems facing our cities such as waste, pollution, social unrest, and growing inequality. Much of these problems can be attributed to the current trends of endless consumerism and centralisation in the means of production.
Public Tool’s Library will enable people to explore circular design principles which will break the current model of consumerism and encourage the philosophy of make, break, repair and modify at local levels of our society. This will reduce our waste generation, enable circularity, decentralise the means of production and strengthening our local economies. Tool’s Library can turn today’s consumer into tomorrow’s creator. | https://medium.com/@Rishabh.Mittal/public-tools-library-for-circularity-and-beyond-2608420bad86 | ['Rishabh Mittal'] | 2021-08-25 08:32:15.025000+00:00 | ['Local Government', 'Sustainability', 'Cities', 'Circulareconomy', 'Community Engagement'] |
The Wonderful World of Completely Random Facts — Issue 4 | The Big Island
Greenland is the largest island in the world. Australia by definition could be considered an island since it is land surrounded by water and would be the largest, but of course it is classified as a continent since it is tectonically independent from other continents.
Greenland in its own right is huge, and not very green. Greenland covers 836,300 square miles, while the next largest island, New Guinea, only covers 303,381 square miles. Most of the island is covered by an ice sheet of 677,855 square miles. It is thought that three large islands sit under all that ice. The population is tiny. Only 56,025 people live in Greenland as of 2018, making it the least densely populated country in the world. Greenland’s population is roughly the size of Pittsburg City, California. Ever heard of it? Neither had we. | https://medium.com/fact-world/the-wonderful-world-of-completely-random-facts-issue-4-b0410a02db20 | ['Daniel Ganninger'] | 2020-12-28 19:42:37.976000+00:00 | ['People', 'World', 'Facts', 'History', 'Interesting'] |
The 7S Framework: Mutually Exclusive, Intrinsically Linked, and Continuously Realigned | The “Mutually Exclusive” phrasing on top is a hat-tip to McKinsey’s MECE Principle — “a grouping principle for separating a set of items into subsets that are mutually exclusive (ME) and collectively exhaustive (CE).” I do not know whether Peters et al used the principle in creating the 7Ss, but it’s possible. Barbara Minto, who coined the term, was in charge of training at McKinsey in the 1970s. In other words, a contemporary of both Peters and Waterman. And while she didn’t actually put MECE into book form until 1987’s The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking (featured in w502019), it’s not unreasonable to suspect the idea could somehow have made its way to Peters… but I digress.
The point is this: while the 7Ss aren’t MECE per se (it’s ME but not necessarily CE), it could be made so. One could drill down into each of the 7S to unearth their component parts. Staff could subdivide by occupational categories, for example; thus providing a bit more detail to work with. Just be careful not to take it too far. Simplicity is a virtue. And if we expand on the 7S too much, we risk eroding the “shared understanding” mentioned above. So keep it simple. And keep in lean. Peters would approve.
That’s all for this week.
Until next time.
/Andreas | https://medium.com/workmatters/the-7s-framework-mutually-exclusive-intrinsically-linked-and-continuously-realigned-557cdfab57b | ['Andreas Holmer'] | 2020-12-15 11:40:44.482000+00:00 | ['Mckinsey', 'Mece', 'Organization', 'Tom Peters'] |
Understanding Global Flows | About the author: Adrian Scheibler ’22 is an FSI Global Policy Intern with the European Council of Foreign Relations. He is currently an International Relations major at Stanford University.
The work for the European Council on Foreign Relations has been progressing well and I am excited about where the project is headed. I have become increasingly comfortable with searching the relevant databases of international organizations to access information for the project and with creating engaging visualizations. One of the most rewarding parts of the internship is the incredible amount of freedom that I am given with the research; although there is a general outline of the goals, I am able to use my own judgement to determine the areas that need to be researched and the type of output that is created. This makes the project even more exciting, adds a personal touch to the work, and has allowed me to learn more from the project than originally intended.
One of the most difficult aspects of the internship has been adjusting to working from home. Learning how to remain productive and maintain balance with all of the potential distractions around becomes very important and requires changing habits and routines when it comes to work. The most challenging part of the adjustment for me was creating boundaries between work and personal life in order to keep the two separate and to find ways to escape the house for some fresh air during my daily breaks — this included going for walks with my two dogs in Colorado and going out to purchase the ingredients for my lunch meal here in Brussels.
The work goes on and I am excited for what lies ahead. | https://medium.com/freeman-spogli-institute-for-international-studies/understanding-global-flows-f79fe21a40fd | ['Fsi Student Programs'] | 2020-09-22 14:34:41.470000+00:00 | ['Internships', 'Fsi Students', 'Stanford'] |
TVP 2020 Year In Review | TVP Managing Partners — Brian Hirsch (L) and Chip Meakem (R)
A standard year in review letter seems almost impossible as we close out 2020…where do we begin. We won’t even try beyond recognizing a few key thoughts. Our deepest condolences go out to the friends and family of all those lost or critically impacted by the pandemic. While we still face tremendous uncertainty entering 2021, we also see a distinct light at the end of this dark tunnel. In a testament to technology and innovation, Americans across the country are now being vaccinated with a known plan to vaccinate the entire population in 2021. We are incredibly optimistic that public health in December 2021 will look nothing like December 2020.
This year pressure-tested our portfolio founders, CEOs, and management teams in ways that no one could have predicted. We have been inspired by the hard work and dedication of our teams. While trivial in the grand scheme of public health and social issues facing us all, we thought we could use this impossible 2020 Year In Review to acknowledge their perseverance while managing personal health and safety.
We wish everyone a safe and healthy holiday season. Can’t wait for 2021. | https://medium.com/tribeca-venture-partners/tvp-2020-year-in-review-7623565e73ed | ['Tribeca Venture Partners'] | 2020-12-23 18:00:03.030000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Year In Review', 'Founders', 'Startup', 'Venture Capital'] |
Six Steps To Adapt To The Future Of Work | When I was writing my book, The Future of Work, I created a framework for adapting to coming changes that I call “The Six-Step Process for Adapting to the Future of Work.” (It was inspired in part by John Kotter’s well known “8-Step Process for Leading Change.”) I will be exploring my six-step process on a webinar in a few weeks, but here are the steps and what they entail (They’re best thought of as a never-ending loop):
Challenge Assumptions
The simplest, easiest and most common way that some kind of a new initiative around the future of starts off is by looking at one aspect of how work has always been done and asking “why?” Why is it that we have to review employees once a year? Why is it that employees have to sit in cubicles? Why is it that various departments work in silos? Why do employees have to work 9–5? Why…? We haven’t changed most of our work practices for decades so this question really starts the conversation around why change needs to happen. At Cisco their flexible work program started with this very concept and exploration of “hey, wait a minute, our sales guys are always on the road and don’t always have to come into an office, why can’t we do this across the company?”
Create A Team To Help Lead The Effort
Sometimes initiatives around the future or work are led by HR, IT, a specifically designated task force, or other mix of employees. But the point is that someone needs to be driving these efforts across the organization. More recently I’m seeing HR teams actually lead this change within progressive organizations which is part of the evolution that this function is going through. Whether it’s HR or not, this group will be tasked with things such as experimenting with ideas, educating and training employees, and researching trends shaping the future of work. Companies like Xerox work with ethnographers to truly understand how and why people work.
Define Your “Future Of Work”
The next step in the process is defining what the future of work is going to look like for the organization. A great starting point here is defining a few things: what does it mean to work at your organization? What does it meant to be an employee at your organization? What does it mean to be a manager at your organization? What does your organization value and stand for? Mars Drinks does a great job of this by trying to create a “coffee shop” culture across the entire organization. They revamped their physical space, revisited their values, explored new leadership structures, and everything in between.
Communicate Your “Future Of Work”
Once the organization goes through the “define” step it’s crucial to actually communicate this to employees. The Daily Telegraph has recently been written about quite a bit recently after they installed workplace monitors on the desks of employees to monitor whether or not they actually use them. This effort was quickly killed off after employees revolted against this idea. This was a poor job on behalf of the Daily Telegraph to communicate what the purpose of this was, why they were doing it, and if employees are on board. Unilever is a great example of a company that does this well with their agile working initiative that is proudly displayed on the company career page and is actively promoted and marketed inside of the company.
Experiment And Empower Employees To Take Action
As I’ve written about many times, the only constant that exists is change. So how do you adapt to that type of environment? You have to experiment. Our organizations are structured to be very luck like factories; linear process-centric institutions that don’t care about innovation, engagement, empowerment or the like. Instead we have to think of our organizations like laboratories where employees are empowered to experiment with ideas, get access to resources, and can potentially turn their ideas into products or services. Adobe does a great job of this with their KickStart innovation program where any employee can take a course on innovation and then get a $1,000 pre-paid credit card to build a concept prototype. I’ve written much more about that here.
Implement Broad Based Changed
After running experiments or tests around a particular concept the next step is to implement it across the organization (assuming the results of the experiment were positive). Adapting to the future of work only makes sense when it is looked at across the whole organization. Accenture is a great example of this with their recent initiative to abandon annual performance reviews. What started off as something for a pilot group within the company is now being scaled across hundreds of thousands of employees in under a year which is phenomenal for a company of that size.
If you will notice in the image above this process then repeats by going back to step 1 and then step 3–6. At the most forward thinking and progressive organizations this process is continuous and the questioning around how work gets done occurs regularly. Organizations that follow this process will definitely be ahead of the game when it comes to adapting and preparing for the future of work. If your organization doesn’t think about and prepare for the future of work, then your organization will have no future.
Jacob Morgan is a keynote speaker, author, and futurist. To have Jacob speak at your event, see his videos, podcasts and articles, or to subscribe to his newsletter visit TheFutureOrganization. | https://medium.com/jacob-morgan/six-steps-to-adapt-to-the-future-of-work-11d5c277a194 | ['Jacob Morgan'] | 2016-01-28 20:38:35.690000+00:00 | ['Jacob Morgan', 'Adaptation', 'Future Of Work'] |
A Journey to Celebration: Music, Art and Black Joy | As my artistic path has developed, I’ve been thinking deeply about the inner workings of systems that our collective societies uphold, and who are most favored as dreamcatchers. When it comes to race, Black bodies are often rewarded only up to the point that they do not disturb, offend, or even slightly interrupt the status quo. The price for entry is almost always some form of silence, and our systems are so effective that they can engender our silence subconsciously, even when we are not aware. I have come to believe that it is only through actively resisting silence that our fullest expressions can be awakened. For me, this has led to writing and releasing my own music for the first time in my life — music that is deeply rooted in a celebration of self and my people.
It has, however, taken me some time to get here. I first started dabbling with my creative voice through my love for opera, where I found access to distant cultures and languages through song. I began by curating performances that functioned much like a classical voice recital, while switching up my musical selections. I also played with a band instead of piano and organized setlists that included folk songs from regions in the Middle East, the Balkans, Brazil, and Venezuela; replacing traditional classical programming that is centered around the compositions of 17th and 18th century European men. My goal with these performances was to share in a discovery that artists and creatives have long known — that human beings are constantly exploring and making sense of the same things: our humanity.
Yet, somewhere along the way, I realized that silence had still found me. I began wondering if, in only looking out to the many beautiful musics of the world, I risked sacrificing the depth of my own journey. So, I decided to turn my artistic practice of exploring human truths on myself, investigating my own people through music, a path which has coincided with a major cultural awakening for my country.
Of all the critical social revelations that we have learned in 2020, it is imperative that we all continue to insist that Black bodies have the right to assert themselves — to declare our troubles and our joys in public. We have the right to exist, to lead with our whole selves, and, for that alone, to be met with nothing less than goodwill. In this spirit, I have created this song and accompanying video.
‘Soul’ and its visual are a celebration — a tribute to being Black and being musical, and to a Black woman’s love both for herself and for Black men. It was created to celebrate our bodies, minds, and glorious presences, and to honor our sisterhood and the wisdom of our hearts, while uplifting the lives we have lost in the long battle to reclaiming our joy.
The video also pays homage to a city that I have called home for close to a decade. New York City remains as vibrant as ever, breathing life into this Black woman’s blues.
I hope you enjoy. | https://medium.com/@aliciawaller/a-journey-to-celebration-music-art-and-black-joy-156def66acd3 | ['Alicia Waller'] | 2020-12-17 00:11:43.628000+00:00 | ['Art', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Music', 'Art Activism', 'Social Change'] |
From One Failed Leader to Another — Boris’ Christmas Story | Learning from the best
As Boris now infamously said; “’Tis the season to be jolly, but it’s also the season to be jolly careful.” Perhaps he should have heeded his own advice.
I lasted less than a year as a trainee primary school teacher. In fact, slightly less than six months. But in that time I had in the classroom, trying and failing to exercise control over a group of four- and five-year olds, I picked up a few tips on projecting authority which have stood me in good stead for parenthood and have arguably helped keep my kid on the straight and narrow. After all, it’s much easier to stick to the rulebook with one child, than 30.
Boris, regrettably, has never worked as a teacher. But he could learn a thing or two from them. It’s no mean feat to keep a classroom of kids in your thrall, especially as they begin to age up (and certainly not a feat I was ever able to master). You don’t need to be loud or large. Some of the most assertive teachers are quite small and quiet. What you do need to do, though, is stick to a few key principles. In his latest gaffe, Boris has singularly failed to adhere to the most important one:
Set clear expectations for behaviour at the start.
Don’t change them.
The clear rules must be two things:
enforceable — setting unenforceable rules undermines your authority
— setting unenforceable rules undermines your authority logical — to avoid the need for later changes — flip-flopping undermines your credibility
I’ve seen what happens when you’re trying to maintain authority over a large group without following these rules properly. Spoiler alert — it’s not pretty. Imagine if you will, a classroom full of lovable imps, getting progressively rowdier until a point is reached at which the actual teacher has to wade in to your rescue. Setting clear expectations is very important for a pretty obvious reason — if you want to enforce rules, people need to understand what they are. But changing the rules midway through is a recipe for disaster — when people can’t keep up with the rules of the game, they start questioning the legitimacy of their leader (even 4 year olds — yes, really!).
The ‘set expectations at the start of a new activity’ rule is one of the first things you learn as a trainee teacher, and something I had drilled into me particularly hard (especially as I began to flounder). For the purposes of this hot take, I will classify ‘Christmas’ as a new activity — it’s certainly a new one in the context of COVID-19. We’re a nation that takes this quasi-Christian holiday to heart, even if we don’t all take its dogma very seriously.
Set clear expectations at the start…
Well, Boris set the rules of engagement for Christmas back in early November, by telling us that; “I have no doubt people will be able to have as normal a Christmas as possible and we will be able to get things open before Christmas.”
This was his first mistake. It was reported by several major news organisations, including The Sun, as a ‘promise’ that Christmas would be on as normal. His message was clear; people may have questioned the logic, but they respected his authority to make the pronouncement. But crucially, at this stage in the lead up to Christmas, there was no clear evidence on which to base his statement (in fact, the opposite was true). It was an expectation not grounded in facts, but in hope.
Now the rules were set; people began to make plans. The nation had its guidance in place for Christmas, and much as the politicians argued the point, our leader had already set the expectations. Christmas was on.
Don’t change them…
What has begun to happen this week, with high-ranking Conservatives trying to change the guidance at the last minute is a clear example of why expectations must be based on logic, not hope.
As Home Secretary Priti Patel made clear on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, the early guidance was premature:
“We would urge everyone to be conscientious and to make the appropriate plans and the appropriate changes to their plans as well, hence the point about having a smaller and shorter Christmas…We’re urging people not to travel. Why would you travel? If you’re in a low-tier area, why would you travel into a high-tier area?”
Unfortunately, the horse has bolted. Once clear expectations have been set, changing them will mean that your audience begins to question your authority. You see it in classrooms all the time, particularly in ‘troubled’ and ‘failing’ schools. You might even have experienced it yourself as a child. And now Boris is about to see it on a much larger and more dangerous scale. He could certainly learn a thing or two from teachers.
Chris D’Agorne is a failed teacher and moderately-successful parent (though it’s probably too early to tell), living in Somerset. His debut novel is not out yet, but it will be one day (see below). In the meantime, he’s written a thought-provoking profile of a more successful author that might be of interest: Virag Wheeler-Mezei.
If you’d like to know when my first novel gets published… | https://medium.com/@chris-dagorne/from-one-failed-leader-to-another-a3aefe380e5a | ["Chris D'Agorne"] | 2020-12-17 22:58:14.904000+00:00 | ['Teaching', 'Coronavirus Update', 'Coronavirus', 'UK Politics', 'Policy'] |
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The process of taking the first step | I’ve had my share of situations where I stepped out of my comfort zone and into the area where I have little-to-non prior knowledge. From alpinism to this little endeavour. And although the areas vary substantially, the anatomy of a process is similar for all of them.
Shift in perception
It all starts with our subjective perception. It determines how we interpret the world, it’s our own personal subjective truth, and it’s in my opinion a key enabler for motivation and setting things in motion. It’s more important for our actions than the universal truth of the world, as we experience the world not as it is, but as we perceive it.
When we are in a balanced state, we perceive the situation as comfortable. Not necessarily optimal — this would be an ideal case — but the things that bother us are small enough that we choose to tolerate them to preserve the state where we don’t have to act. The threshold for when the things become to big to ignore depend on each individual, but I think in general, it’s quite high as it seems as a species we’re prepared to go to great lengths to maintain the known state of balance, and avoid investing energy into change, and maybe more importantly, avoid the unknown. When in this state, we are not in a state of mind to set any great things in motion, or to step out of our comfort zone.
But then, sometimes, our perception changes, and we come to the realization that the situation at hand no longer suits us. This may be due to change in the universal truth of the world (an example of that would be a global pandemic), the change of our personal situation (for example we transition from student to full-time employee), or in third case, they both stay the same, but we discover new facts that adjust our personal perspective (for example we discover that someone we trusted was not acting in our best interest — it may have been going on for a while, but the point when we discover it is the point when we start perceiving that person differently). I think this third situation, where there are no objective changes to external world, can sometimes be interesting, as we start analysing why our perception was as it was before, and we can start seeing past events in a new perspective. And I think we sometimes over-compensate in that and it can cause us to question things that we once took for granted. We also tend to regard our new perception as the one that is correct, which may not be the case. So I think perception is a very dangerous thing to play with.
Working with virtual reality flight simulators, I encountered an interesting case that supports this and has actually spurred the whole analysis of perception vs truth. We strive for immersion — the simulators have a physical cockpit, so that the pilot’s seating position and movements are identical to one in the real aircraft, and a detailed 3D model of the cockpit that is shown on the VR googles. All so the pilots feel as close to the real thing as possible. I’ve spent a fair amount of hours in the sim, often doing stuff that one would not want to try with the real aircraft. I was usually interested only in segments of flight when we were tweaking the physics and I combined aggressive use of controls with keyboard shortcuts to get to the part of interest as soon as possible. So I came to the point when my muscle memory learned that I can treat simulator controls as a toy, and that it’s all a game that can be re-set. And I became to wonder if this would carry over to the real aircraft. (With simulators, you want to avoid negative transfer, and I think this is a prime example.) I had the chance to test it during my few flying lessons, and though I knew perfectly well, that I’m not in a sim, I caught myself thinking about the thin line between sim and reality a few times, and I’d bet that I could potentially find myself in a situation, where I would be overloaded with information and I would instinctively react as in a sim. And while this case is extreme, I think one should still be careful when playing with perception, as we can’t always predict the implications it has.
So, let’s say our perception of our situation changes and the change is large enough that we want to do something about it and step out of our comfort zone, into the unknown.
Gathering information
The first thing I do is try to gather information about what the unknown is. I try to prepare myself and research the area. I use the internet, books, take classes, and talk to people that are experts in the field or have already gone through what I’m setting up to do. I think this phase serves two purposes — the first and obvious one is to learn enough to be able to prepare a plan for what to do, and the other, equally important one, to acquaint yourself with the field on a personal level, to be in touch with it and to slowly internalize the idea that you’ll actually do something in this field — to shift your perception of yourself.
I think that’s a very important step of the process and it enables you to believe that you’ll succeed, which is a prerequisite for actual success. For me, it helps to talk to people — both to people that have already succeeded in the field, as it shows me that it can be done, and with people that know me, and bounce my ideas off of them. If I get the response that they think it’ll work and I can do it, it’s a confidence boost, and if they don’t see me doing it, I ask them about what they think the obstacles will be and then research it and see if it’ll indeed be a challenge for me. So either way, I’m better prepared.
And when we’re talking about people, it always helps to know you have a safety net, which I’m very fortunate to have. It also helps to have accomplices or someone to take the journey with you. This way you can share the burden and responsibility, as well as have someone to carry the idea when one or the other has doubts. Which will inevitably happen, and as long as the periods are short, it’s okay. One endeavour that I definitely wouldn’t be able to pull off myself was enrolling into an alpinism school. It was my idea initially, but when we applied with my fiancée, I didn’t really believe we’d actually go through with the whole thing — I thought we’d only do selected topics. But he had this confidence from the start that first, we’ll be able to do it, and second, we’ll enjoy it. And he was right.
One more thing to mention is a backup plan — I think one must at least consider what happens if things don’t go as planned, as this is usually how life goes, but I don’t think one should spend too many resources here. After all, we’re aiming for success, so that’s where our focus should be, so I usually just breeze through the possibilities here and make sure that there’s no catastrophe waiting for me.
So, it seems that this phase is a broad one. And as important as it is, it has the potential to turn into a graveyard for our project if we spend too much time here. Because yes, we need to prepare, but we also need to be aware that as long as we’re in this phase, we’re not yet actually doing anything, our project is not yet moving forward. We’re just preparing. But we are investing time, so it feels like we are doing something. And therefore this can quickly become an excuse to stay in this comfortable risk-free phase and do the talking, but not take actions. I just need to take this one more class (about a topic that I’ve already taken classes about). I want to do some more research (about this thing that I’ll probably need to know 10 steps from now) before I can actually do it.
Sounds familiar? I think a lot of project die here. With people becoming experts on the theoretical part, but never actually doing anything in practice.
So, how to find the right balance between being prepared and immersing yourself in a never ending limbo of over-preparing?
For me, the first thing is to be really critical about the material Ichoose to consume. After the initial broad scan of the area, I focus only on topics that are really important for what I’m trying to do, and I’ll need them in the near future. I also try to select the best thing I can get my hands on and be effective with how I spend my time. One sign of over-preparing is when the information starts to repeat, or when I’m dealing with a topic I find interesting, but is not in correlation with what I’m doing, or it may be of use to me some years from now.
But I think if we’re brutally honest with ourselves, we know where that line is. The question is just whether we have the courage and willingness to admit it.
Because if we do, then it’s time for the next phase.
The execution
Now this is the part where we actually jump into the unknown and start doing actions that will take us closer to our goal. It’s the scary part that becomes less scary once you’re in it and it starts gaining momentum and once the positive feedback loops start working.
And this part really depends on the project and an area, but the general guidelines that you’ll hear everywhere are that you need to stick with it no matter the initial stumbles. That it’s okay to fall if you then get up. You must be willing to respond to feedback and modify the plan. It’s okay to realize you need to learn some more theory (as long as it’s not an excuse to run back into the safety of the previous phase) or ask for help (as long as you’re not expecting that others will do your project for you).
I think you also need to allocate enough time for it — give it a high enough priority on your to do list and be willing to sometimes sacrifice other things. And have tools to measure the progress. I usually have three sets of goals — one are day to day tasks that I can cross from the to do list and will get me to bigger milestones, that take a bit more time to achieve and that are the obvious mid-term goals for the project. And then I have the third set, the goals that I don’t yet quite know how to achieve and that scare me a bit, but that inspire me and provide a source for motivation, when the day-to-day tasks drain it.
But other than that, I think there’s no secret recipe. (Or if someone knows it, I’d love to hear it and be proven wrong!) You just have to take it one step at the time, keep kicking, and chip away one more piece each day. And find a balance in life that allows it not to feel a struggle, but a sustainable way of life.
To taking the first step!
Nika | https://medium.com/@nika-m/the-process-of-taking-the-first-step-ab3aa45a6f71 | ['Nika M'] | 2021-09-02 13:29:06.783000+00:00 | ['Taking Action', 'Perception Versus Reality', 'Process', 'How To'] |
Your Christmas Lights | TODAY’S HOROSCOPE — DECEMBER 24th 2020
Start wearing your favourite Christmas jumper because four personal planets are so well knitted together. The Sun, Mercury, Mars and Moon are stitched into the pattern of conjunctions and trines. Your inner circuit connects identity, communication, courage and emotions in secure and free flowing ways.
Uranus joins in the festivities by practically charging up these energies instead of doing so, irrationally. Mars in Aries is the only part of this union that it doesn’t touch. This is a good thing because the tendency to be agitated and rebel against restraints, is minimised.
The Part of Fortune and the North Node are in Gemini in the fourth house. They are in the perfect position to see you through the celebrations. This house centres on family and all things related to home. Bring your gifts of communication and curiosity because you’ll derive great joy by learning from others. In return, they will feel valued, seen and heard.
Use this guidance as a lantern to see you through this holiday season. It will come in handy because Venus in Sagittarius forms a square to Neptune in Pisces. Both of these signs are ruled by Jupiter, so they bring up the themes of faith and truth. But they run counter to illusions and deception that the squared planets, tend to manifest.
So if you’re faced with challenging situations, seek out wisdom, trust and have faith to speak the truth. It will be better to take this course of action, instead of disappearing behind, drink, drugs or silence. | https://medium.com/@bybreensamuels/your-christmas-lights-7469af689624 | ['Bybreen Samuels'] | 2020-12-24 09:23:21.577000+00:00 | ['Free Will', 'Spirituality', 'Christmas', 'Astrology', 'Horoscopes'] |
AYS Daily Digest: 5/9/19: Political rhetoric killing solidarity | FEATURED
“…A bit in ruins”
A statement by the new Danish Social Democratic Integration minister Mattias Tesfaye from an interview with the national public service has sparked a public debate.
In connection to the issue formerly described in our previous News Digest editions on voluntary return from Denmark to Syria, in the interview the minister claimed to understand well that some of the Syrian refugees would have a wish to return to their home country with the following words:
“If they believe that the peace has returned and that they do not risk persecution, then I can understand that they would like to return home and rebuild the land that in some places is a bit in ruins.”
The statement and the wording “some places a bit in ruins” has been attacked by among others the Danish-Syrian doctor Haifaa Awad, who, illustrated by a series of photos from Ghouta in Syria before and after the war writes:
All of our homeland, memories and lives are very much in ruins.
He expounds further:
“As a Danish-Syrian doctor who has worked in Syria and whose former working places are now insanely VERY in ruins, along with colleagues that have been killed, I am quite upset by the minister’s choice of words!
I am upset that the biggest humanitarian disaster of recent times is being referred to by our minister as Syria ‘(…) is in some places a bit in ruins.’
This is the disaster that taught me how to tie the ribbon on body bags as a doctor, and how to tell parents that their children have died of chlorine gas or cardiac arrest, the disaster that on a DAILY basis still inflicts genocide on civilians and where we see international humanitarian law being violated by the Russians and Assad regime in their CONSCIOUS bombings of hospitals, health facilities, and doctors. It is the disaster that has killed countless journalists, activists and human rights defenders. It’s the carnage that doesn’t stop!
…I would like to ask the Minister to familiarize himself with Syria’s horrific situation and use his words wisely. “A bit in ruins,” does not describe the death of almost 1 million people, the complete collapse of a country or the countless war crimes, that we do not react to in Denmark and as a world community.”
Also reacting is the well-known Danish author and pundit Carsten Jensen, who on his Facebook page states:
“In an interview with Denmark’s Radio (TV DR), he calls Syria a country that is ‘in a bit of ruins.’”
…But he did not say that here are only a few ruins in Syria. Because then the lie would become too obvious, as we have all seen the images of Aleppo and Raqqua that appear completely bombarded from the air.
Jensen alleges that Tesfayes aims with the choice of the word “a bit” for a psychological effect, just as when you say to children that a vaccination sting in the arm will only hurt “a little bit.” He trivializes the devastation in Syria, and he does so with a language like we were children. The meaning is not, as it was for (the former right-wing Integration minister) Inger Støjberg to enrage us when it comes to those damned refugees.
We just have to fail to empathize with them so that we can respond to their suffering with a shrug.
This kind of rhetoric has unfortunately become a common place in every day communication, both public and private, in all of our towns, cities, and communities across the continent. We all must react, whether it comes from a person in a place of power or someone we know, whether it concerns people on the move or those helping them, or someone is simply undermining our common human tragedy and responsibility, as is the case with the Danish politician.
In solidarity! | https://medium.com/are-you-syrious/ays-daily-digest-5-9-19-political-rhetoric-killing-solidarity-596d4b58c119 | ['Caroline Brogden'] | 2019-09-06 12:21:58.500000+00:00 | ['Digest', 'Turkey', 'Europe', 'Greece', 'Refugees'] |
Open Your Front Door | TODAY’S HOROSCOPE — DECEMBER 27th 2020
The Moon in Gemini leans back to catch a sideways glimpse of the Sun in Capricorn. Follow the curiosity brought about by your emotions. Whatever questions they raise about authority, doublecheck the credentials of those who espouse rhetoric. Take on board what others are saying about them. The diversity in opinion helps you to tap the pulse of public opinion. Now, having done so, where do you fit within it?
The Moon’s allegiance to Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius will raise your standards and levels of critique. The duality of air signs means you can filter thoughts and concepts more objectively. Jupiter will guide you to expand your imagination, to begin seeing patterns of collective ideas. Then, use Saturn to show you how to categorise them.
Altogether, they lead you to consider the best ways in which you can be altruistic. Open your front door, walk into life and what do you see? Now with your unique attributes choose how you’re going to become a problem solver. Chiron in Aries links the agency of healing to the Moon’s ability to spread the message.
Use your words to help others move into action. By the time of the Full Moon in Cancer, in 3 days, you’ll experience deeper levels of satisfaction. This will clarify what needs to be released from your life as you close out 2020. | https://medium.com/@bybreensamuels/open-your-front-door-630d604d70ee | ['Bybreen Samuels'] | 2020-12-27 11:21:26.504000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Spirituality', 'Zodiac', 'Astrology', 'Horoscopes'] |
10 tips to create SEO friendly content for your Website or Blog | The foremost thought one should keep in their mind while writing for SEO (search engine optimization) is that the web page is for the people and not for search engines. It’s all about what words, titles and heading are used to get people’s attention, so that the readers can easily find it when they search for something like for example on Google. I mean, who has time to put an effort to look up for things. It can be challenging, but thou shall not fear my friend as these few tips can help you achieve the goal.
1. Write Relevant Content
Don’t fool around!! It will eventually be found, it’s always better to stick to your topic and the relevance. People are not fooling you see and if you are caught, it will only bring down your rank or worse, you can be banned, well we don’t want that. Also try to link your content to work which have been done previously.
2. Content should be organic and unique
That does not mean that you say something new, all it means that it should be fresh and not a copy paste from another source. Open your horizon, be friendly and funny, whatever suits you. Use words that do not require an Oxford dictionary because it’s no English class. Choose the words that will appeal to the readers, the longer they stay the better for your site.
3. Must Include Images and Alt tag
Seriously, who likes a dull and boring page, catchy images play an important/essential role in making SEO friendly, haven’t you heard that people are more visual, but don’t just put up a random picture, the image should have some relevance to the content. Using different fonts can have a remarkable effect as well (beautify the text) but DO NOT overdo it, no one wants a web page which looks like a school project. Bonus point try to select an optimal size for all your images. Too large images make the page becoming slow to load, thereby damaging your SEO.
Alt text is called alternative text, also known as “alt attributes”, “alt descriptions,” and are used within an HTML code to describe the appearance & function of an image on a page. Search engine does not read images without alt tags,So for search engine crawling its better to include “alt tags”.
4. Don’t forget to link!
Make sure to include external links to 3rd party source and internal links which points to other related important articles in your blog or website, by doing this we can pass some better link juice from one link to another.
External links makes your piece of content more relevant,appear authoritative, and therefore results in better seo results, and your reader will find you more trustworthy too.The above image from Moz.com shows that linking to your own website is less valuable than linking to completely external sites, as it shows authority to what you’re saying, and search engines look to promote the most reliable content.
TO READ FULL ARTICLE Visit Original Page :
https://www.seo-guruji.com/how-to-create-seo-friendly-content-for-website/ | https://medium.com/seo-guruji/10-tips-to-create-seo-friendly-content-for-your-website-or-blog-32d9622ac123 | ['Narender Rawat'] | 2018-03-09 13:46:46.496000+00:00 | ['Content Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'SEO', 'Content'] |
It is easier to be a robber these days | Photo by Julio Rionaldo on Unsplash.
with mask on your face
gloves safely tucked
in the pocked
ready to put on your hands
no one suspects
you may do something bad;
masks provide safety
these days
it is easier to hide
behind the mask
where unconverted desires
lay unaddressed.
one may wound without
any sense of remorse
or pride,
though the mask
doesn’t cover the eyes;
the soul still
naked,
exposed,
if it meets
someone’s gaze
it is easier to be a robber these days
for dreams
have already been scarce,
hope rising like a dawn
is washed in a low tide
and if the robber steals
what you carry inside
it is because the mask
fooled you that you
were safe
© Iva Beranek | https://medium.com/poetry-palace/it-is-easier-to-be-a-robber-these-days-1e8de662efbe | ['Iva Beranek'] | 2020-09-23 14:58:45.453000+00:00 | ['Masks', 'Poetry', 'Identity', 'Dreams', 'Poem'] |
Tips for Dealing with Semester Burnout | By Taylor Clark, Press & Written Media Team
Many of us have been feeling some form of burnout since March, and with Thanksgiving quickly approaching and finals looming in the distance, burnout is more likely. It may seem like there is this invisible wall blocking you from being productive — trust me, you’re not alone. So take a deep breath and continue reading for some tips that will help you overcome your burnout.
Wash your sheets. Now, this one might seem a little lame and or boring. And it kind of is, but having clean sheets is like hitting the reset button. It adds to your list of things you were able to accomplish in one day. Do some kind of self-care. This one could relate to a variety of things. Personally, I find it comforting to light candles and listen to Taylor Swift. There are a plethora of options out there to indulge yourself in. This includes baking, napping (my fav), face masks, reading — the list goes on. Drink water. I understand everyone says this one a lot, but it’s an important one! It really does wonders for helping you think better and clearing your skin. There are tons of apps available to remind you to drink water and lots of cute water bottles out there to motivate you. Have a fun day. Think of this as a chance to recharge. Go for a walk and get some vitamin D. With our eyes glued to screens more than ever, it is important to go outside and breathe. Chances are you will feel much better and more refreshed. Online streaming services came in clutch this year. Since we are staying home more often, Netflix, Youtube, etc. has really saved us. This tip is more so a chance for you to watch something with your friends or family. I usually watch shows by myself on my laptop, which can get a little lonely. So grab your cup of water and watch a movie with your parents or your siblings. Or, better yet, introduce David Dobrik’s vlogs to your family and see how they react (my mom has the biggest crush on David now). Having a sense of togetherness is really important during this time. Plan out your schedule. Now that we are closing in on the end of this semester, assignments are piling up and it can be overwhelming. Try to realistically plan out what you can get down in the following weeks. Don’t overexert yourself. It’s okay to take an excused absence here and there to mentally refresh. Find some new music or a podcast. Music will carry you to the finish line. Whatever your musical tastes may be, try to find some new ones to inspire you and your productivity. Podcasts are also a great form of escapism. Listening to other people’s problems and stories is a great way to escape your own thoughts, and you may return with a new perspective.
Wave Learning Festival is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing free, live seminars, tutoring, college application help, career mentorship, and more. If you would like to learn more about Wave Learning Festival, check out our website or contact us at [email protected]. | https://medium.com/@wavelearningfestival/tips-for-dealing-with-semester-burnout-50452ae4ad0 | ['Wave Learning Festival'] | 2020-12-01 02:13:16.116000+00:00 | ['Students', 'Burnout', 'College', 'Organization', 'Education'] |
Don’t Man Up! | “Don’t be a sissy, toughen up” is a phrase familiar to many boys and men. If you have a male body, you’re supposed to man up and demonstrate invulnerability. Needless to say that we as males are human and can’t be strong all the time. What if dudes and bros allowed themselves to act in feminine or gender non-conforming ways?
Photo by Hans Reihling
We commonly assign fixed gender identities to others and ourselves based on biological sex or the outward appearance and sex organs. If we want it or not, we expect somebody with a beard and broad shoulders to act masculine, which in American popular culture means to be tough and in control. But evidently, nobody can be like that all the time.
As a researcher and relationship counselor, I have encountered many men who want to let go of the behaviors associated with mainstream masculinity. They wish to become ‘new’ men for the sake of their own well-being and happiness in relationships. For males struggling to define what it means to be a ‘new’ man in this time and age, there is a way forward.
When we as men make assumptions about how we should act depending on having a male body, the outcomes can be devastating. Emotional stoicism may help us at work or in sports, but not when it comes to intimate relationships or the ability to reach out to get help when needed.
‘Manning up’ may result in an uphill struggle that leads to out of control sexual behaviors, aggressive acting out, substance misuse, and overwork. I have documented the link between these problems and men’s gender ideals in long-term qualitative research. It also became clear to me that biological sex does not set your behavior in stone.
Human behavior is shaped by cultural representations, categories, and codes, language, and conventions that differ depending on when and where you grew up. What we as men do, often unconsciously, follows cultural scripts that define some behaviors as masculine and others as feminine.
When social scientists study human behavior, they commonly start with a particular identity group or category in mind. I followed the same approach when I decided to study men and masculinities for my doctoral research. My focus on different types of masculinity was important, but it also made me disregard the situations in which men act in ways that are seen as feminine in mainstream popular culture or their local communities.
Moreover, the focus on masculinity made me blind to behaviors that could be defined as androgynous, a mixture of feminine and masculine. Of course, some social actions performed by men may not clearly fall into any particular gender category and could be defined as neutral. Think of your life — what activities are not clearly defined as masculine, feminine, or something in between? There is no problem with leaning into one or the other direction, but you may cut yourself short if you comply with rigid norms all the time, no matter whether they are self-inflicted or forced upon you by other people.
At some point, on my journey, I had an insight: Straight men embody femininity, too. In fact, we commonly perform different gender identities but are fighting our inner gender diversity. The result is a debilitating emotional strain. This simple realization helped me take off the cultural blinders of conventional gender ideologies.
For a man to reach his full potential as a person and human being it is vital to go beyond endeavors to ‘man up’ in a conventional way. And this may be most challenging for guys who have been told from early on that it is not okay to show vulnerability.
There may be no way around exploring male femininities. Innumerable studies have shown that ‘manning up’ puts men’s health and lives at risk, no matter if it’s about road rage, homicide, or suicide. Moreover, manning up can make the lives of women and children miserable, and this is not only the case when it comes to intimate partner violence or plain child abuse.
We need to ask ourselves when it is appropriate to let go of cultural norms of what it means to be a man altogether, such as being strong, in control, and action-oriented all the time. This is a radical proposition because the main approach to changing ‘toxic masculinity’ has focused on the reformation of masculinity and not on the cultivation of men’s internal gender diversity.
Perhaps gender activists and health professionals back off from asking men to allow themselves to act in a feminine way because of the disgrace associated with male femininity in popular culture. Innumerable boys and men have been disciplined and punished for being ‘too soft’ or been fearful of being denigrated for showing their tender inner reality.
While female action heroes tend to get credit for embodying masculine traits, I can’t think of male action heroes who embody femininity. Men don’t get credit for acting more feminine. On the contrary, the characteristics tied to femininity are often seen as inferior to masculinity. Listening is less valued than debating, yielding is less valued than controlling, and being attached is less valued than being independent. But for a man to embrace and accept himself in all his humanity, he may have to embrace personal qualities and behaviors that are culturally deemed feminine.
First, becoming more comfortable and at ease with behaviors and parts of yourself that are not seen as masculine can reduce shame, guilt, and feelings of inadequacy. What if you could freely be neutral, androgynous, or feminine when it is appropriate or adaptive for a particular situation? For example, if you need help when feeling overwhelmed. It doesn’t mean you have to become different than you already are; just value all your human capacities. For some men, there may also be tremendous joy in activities that have traditionally been seen as a women’s domain, such as childcare.
There is no need for men to become all feminine or women to become all masculine, although for some people this may be the way forward. Don’t embrace other gender identities, unless it makes your life easier and more joyful. So instead of trying harder to ‘man up,’ the relationship issues and mental health problems are more likely to be addressed when you can allow your full potential to come forward, masculine, feminine, neutral, or gender non-conforming.
We all have much more in stock than these narrowly defined gender roles. Try to label everything you think, feel, and do for a day in terms of gender or non-conforming to gender and notice that there is no way to be rigidly masculine or feminine all the time. This may be the first step to becoming kinder and more accepting of you as a unique person. | https://medium.com/@hansreihling/dont-man-up-appreciate-your-gender-diversity-4dc60b5783f8 | ['Hans Reihling'] | 2020-11-17 00:30:20.939000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Masculinity', 'Gender Identity', 'Men', 'Mental Health'] |
Unlocking Efficient Light-Energy Conversion with Stable Coordination Nanosheets | Converting light to electricity effectively has been one of the persistent goals of scientists in the field of optoelectronics. While improving the conversion efficiency is a challenge, several other requirements also need to be met. For instance, the material must conduct electricity well, have a short response time to changes in input (light intensity), and, most importantly, be stable under long-term exposure.
Lately, scientists have been fascinated with “coordination nanosheets” (CONASHs), that are organic-inorganic hybrid nanomaterials in which organic molecules are bonded to metal atoms in a 2D network. The interest in CONASHs stems mainly from their ability to absorb light at multiple wavelength ranges and convert them into electrons with greater efficiency than other types of nanosheets. This feat was observed in a CONASH comprising a zinc atom bonded with a porphyrin-dipyrrin molecule. Unfortunately, the CONASH quickly became corroded due to the low stability of organic molecules in liquid electrolytes (a medium commonly used for current conduction).
“The durability issue needs to be solved to realize the practical applications of CONASH-based photoelectric conversion systems,” says Prof. Hiroshi Nishihara from Tokyo University of Science (TUS), Japan, who conducts research on CONASH and has been trying to solve the CONASH stability problem.
Now, in a recent study published in Advanced Science as a result of a collaborative research between National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan and TUS, Prof. Nishihara and his colleagues, Dr. Hiroaki Maeda and Dr. Naoya Fukui from TUS, Dr. Ying-Chiao Wang and Dr. Kazuhito Tsukagoshi from NIMS, Mr. Chun-Hao Chiang and Prof. Chun-Wei Chen from National Taiwan University, Taiwan, and Dr. Chi-Ming Chang and Prof. Wen-Bin Jian from National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan, have designed a CONASH comprising an iron (Fe) ion bonded to a benzene hexathiol (BHT) molecule that has demonstrated the highest stability under air exposure reported so far. The new FeBHT CONASH-based photodetector can retain over 94% of its photocurrent after 60 days of exposure! Moreover, the device requires no external power source.
Formation of FeBHT complex-based CONASH at the liquid-liquid interface and its long-term stability as a photodetector | Image courtesy: Hiroshi Nishihara from Tokyo University of Science
What made such a feat possible? Put simply, the scientists made some smart choices. Firstly, they went for an all-solid architecture by replacing the liquid electrolyte with a solid-state layer of Spiro-OMeTAD, a material known to be an efficient transporter of “holes” (vacancies left behind by electrons). Secondly, they synthesized the FeBHT network from a reaction between iron ammonium sulfate and BHT, which accomplished two things: one, the reaction was slow enough to keep the sulfur group protected from being oxidized, and two, it helped the resultant FeBHT network become resilient to oxidation, as the scientists confirmed using density functional theory calculations.
In addition, the FeBHT CONASH favored high electrical conductivity, showed an enhanced photoresponse with a conversion efficiency of 6% (the highest efficiency previously reported was 2%), and a response time < 40 milliseconds for UV light illumination.
With these results, the scientists are thrilled about the prospects of CONASH in commercialized optoelectronic applications. “The high performance of the CONASH-based photodetectors coupled with the fact that they are self-powered can pave the way for their practical applications such as in light-receiving sensors that can be used for mobile applications and recording the light exposure history of objects,” says Prof. Nishihara excitedly. | https://medium.com/@tokyouniversityofscience/unlocking-efficient-light-energy-conversion-with-stable-coordination-nanosheets-e92656cf1dda | ['Tokyo University Of Science'] | 2021-07-15 16:17:22.466000+00:00 | ['Light', 'Energy', 'Environment', 'Science', 'Nanotechnology'] |
Share Buybacks: The Scapegoat of Ineffective Policy | Share Buybacks: The Scapegoat of Ineffective Policy
What are share buybacks, how are they different than dividends, and why they are not the culprit of growing inequality
Disclaimer: I am in no way an expert on this topic. The purpose of this article is to share my perspective and create a dialogue on the topic of share buybacks. If you find flaws or fallacies in my article, I’d love to hear your perspective!
The Basics of Share Buybacks
What are Share Buybacks?
Share buybacks are exactly what is implied by the name: companies buy back their stock. This method of capital allocation is a way for companies to return value to investors, and will usually occur when a company feels as though there is no alternative investment that they can make that would make the company better off. By reducing the number of outstanding shares, each share represents a larger portion of the company and thus is worth more (this is because subsequently if earnings stay the same, EPS will be higher for instance).
Share buybacks and dividends fall into a similar category of capital allocation: they are companies' way of returning value to shareholders. When making allocation decisions, R&D projects, internal growth projects, and acquisitions, among other things, will be looked at to see if there is a way to generate growth for the company. If there is nothing available to improve the long term value of the company, they often will return earnings to shareholders directly.
Where buybacks and dividends differentiate is in how they deliver value. Share buybacks provide capital gains to investors by raising the value of the shares, whereas dividends provide cash directly to investors. They both do the same thing, just in different ways, and with different consequences.
What are the flaws of Buybacks?
As with anything in finance, there are many flaws when it comes to buybacks, and I will list a few of them, before looking at them more closely later in the article.
They provide wealth to already rich individuals, not passing down earnings to employees.
Critics call it “financial engineering” that does nothing to improve American businesses
Artificial rises in stock prices can mask underlying problems in companies
Executives are compensated through stock-based pay, meaning they stand directly to gain from the buybacks
What’s the difference between Dividends and Share Buybacks?
Taxation disparities: The first thing that favors buybacks is tax rates. Dividends are taxed as income, while capital gains have their own tax rates. Interestingly enough, capital gains taxes are considerably lower than income taxes, and capital gains are only paid when a gain is realized, meaning the tax is deferred until the asset is sold (note: I am referring to the class capital gains taxes that apply after holding an asset for more than a year). This is a point Warren Buffet has made in the past.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has in the past suggested raising or changing capital gains taxes to even out the taxation disparity between dividends and buybacks, though he had little success.
The Importance of Share Valuation: In a situation where management has decided to allocate capital to shareholders, considering the stock price is incredibly important. If management believes the shares are undervalued, buying back shares at the lower price can be a great way to yield returns for investors — this is a key philosophy of Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger. On the other hand, if share prices are over or fairly valued, dividends might be the better route to take, because they provide income directly to investors.
Let’s Look Closer at the Downsides of Buybacks.
Redistributing wealth to investors, instead of the workers:
This is a classic argument that is interestingly applied to share buybacks and not dividends, even though they both are doing this exact thing. In a New York Time’s article co-authored by Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) there is a quote:
“Recently, Walmart announced plans to spend $20 billion on a share repurchase program while laying off thousands of workers and closing dozens of Sam’s Club stores. Using a fraction of that amount, the company could have raised hourly wages of every single Walmart employee to $15”
While this point makes moral sense, it doesn’t make economic sense. It does not consider who the company is representing: its shareholders. If a decision is not profitable for the company, they should not be making that decision. Instead, Walmart decided to return some of its success to shareholders, which it likely saw as the most effective way to allocate excess capital. In a capitalist society, this is how things work… it is no longer capitalism if, within reason, corporations stop acting in the name of shareholders.
Another point that is pertinent in this specific discussion is that Walmart paid out 12 billion dollars in dividends to shareholders last year. As was alluded to above, the two things do exactly the same thing when it comes to workers vs. wealthy investors. So why aren’t dividends given the same scrutiny as buybacks? One notion is that politically it is much easier to attack something that drives up a price, instead of something putting money in people's hands, especially for retired people. My point here is that in the context of this argument, dividends and buybacks do the same thing. If you don’t like one, you, by nature, logically wouldn’t like the other. If companies can use neither to distribute wealth to investors, why would anyone want to invest? To have a system like that would undermine the entire capitalist structure.
Buybacks do nothing to spur business growth nor the economy:
This statement, in my opinion, is more or less correct. Buybacks do not reinvest to create innovation and do not result in wage increases nor creating jobs. In fact, they are often the product either of CEOs in well-established businesses seeing little opportunity for growth projects or businesses feeling skeptical about the economy. Either way, it seems irrational that any government or political actor could better determine what is best for a business then, well, the financial managers of the business.
Another interesting commentary on this point is the idea that because businesses receive government support they shouldn’t be using that to pay investors. This absolutely makes sense — there is no reason that taxpayer dollars should be funneled directly to investors. But this leads back to smart policy. For instance, take President Trump’s tax cuts. What was meant to be a way of driving the economy forward has largely been used to offer buybacks like those at Walmart, among many others. Why businesses that already had nowhere to reinvest capital needed to be given more money from the government eludes me. Instead of blaming the corporations for doing the smart thing for shareholders, government actor’s decision making should be questioned (universally, regardless of party).
To expand on my previous point, I think it is key that the government gets involved only when necessary, and puts stringent requirements on the funding it gives out. Every source will offer different numbers on the cost of the 2008 bailouts. MIT estimates it cost taxpayers roughly 498 billion dollars (most of which involved purchasing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). As time has gone on, however, trillions of dollars have gone to shareholders and executives, with taxpayers footing the bill — but you cannot place blame on corporations for this. Using that money, they have created tens of millions of jobs and have prospered to the point that they have no productive use for the capital they’ve created. In other words, they did their job, but there were no rules in place to ensure the government eventually got the entirety of its fair share and more: this is where the problem occurs (whether or not the government should get involved at all is another debate for another day). My main thought here is that if you give someone 100 bucks and say use this to survive and prosper, you cannot turn around in 5 years if that 100 has become 10,000 and try and control what they do with what is now their money. | https://medium.com/junior-economist/share-buybacks-the-scapegoat-of-ineffective-policy-e11e0fff530b | ['Simon Hungate'] | 2020-05-27 15:43:45.736000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Finance', 'Equality', 'Economics', 'Economy'] |
Martin Dolan Battles Tough Conditions to Capture Jurassic Coast | Dorset’s Jurassic Coast offers a spectacular opportunity to step back in time and see what the landscape might have looked like millions of years ago. This prehistoric location is a draw for photographers from around the world — and Martin Dolan, who lives in nearby Verwood, is fortunate to have easy access to the inspiring views.
Martin has been exploring the English coast for the past three years, shooting landscapes up and down the ancient coastline. During one of his visits, he noticed that as the tide receded from the shore, it exposed a beautiful stretch of Dolomite bedrock — a scene he eagerly sought to capture on camera.
“It’s a location that requires a bit of effort to access and, as a result, is off the beaten track,” he says. “At this time of year, the sun still sets over the land and it was important for me to capture the color and light being reflected off the wet bedrock. This would accentuate the textures of the rock and the shape of the ledges.”
But it wasn’t just the out-of-the-way spot that made getting the right shot challenging for Martin — the weather conditions along the rocky coast made the photoshoot especially difficult.
“There was a fierce wind, and although the tide was falling, it was high enough for the crashing waves to cause an enormous amount of sea spray,” he says. “Repeated attempts at shooting this composition were had, and each time, I had to retreat back 10 meters or so to wipe the camera and filters down with a cloth.” | https://medium.com/phlearn/martin-dolan-battles-tough-conditions-to-capture-jurassic-coast-19f1def4f4bb | ['Jessi Gowan'] | 2018-12-11 11:31:02.121000+00:00 | ['Behind The Scenes', 'Cameras', 'Landscape', 'Photography', 'England'] |
Wisdom and a Divided Christ | I used to work for a large church back in Texas. They were working on a construction project in the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately, I do not remember the details, but I do remember a key take away. They had planned for a dump truck to dump a large amount of rock at the site. The rock was dumped prematurely causing the laborers to have to manually carry it the rest of the way. The church member leading the project was frustrated to put it mildly. The failure of the driver of the dump truck put the project way behind schedule. When she was venting to some of the local leaders, one of them said, “this was no mistake, now the workers have more work and receive enough pay to get by and support their families.” His concern was not with the efficiency, but to see that all of his workers are taken care of. What our culture would look at and see as foolishness, their culture saw as wisdom and compassion.
Sometimes what we take as wisdom, is actually the opposite. This is what Paul was addressing to the Corinthians. Often, God’s wisdom does not make sense to us.
God does not care about profit or efficiency in our human projects.
God’s plan and desires are beyond our understanding, transcend it, often seems to the average onlooker as foolish.
Now to add some context to this letter from Paul. He was writing to the church in Corinth. Corinth is a city in Greece that was the wealthiest and culturally most important place in the country. Think of it as the New York City of Greece 2000 years ago. It was a philosophy hub. Much of the Greek thought came from here. Greece at the time was also part of the Roman empire, and Corinth was a strategic Roman hub. Think of it, in the greater Roman context as Seattle, San Francisco, Miami, New Orleans, or Boston.
Now in Corinth, the church was divided into tribal parties, much like our country. The Christians there were following different church leaders and were in the “Paul camp,” the “Peter camp,” or the “Apollos camp.” Does this sound familiar?
Is Christ divided or are we following different “tribes” rather than Christ?
This letter could have essentially been written to modern American Christians. We’re divided into tribal factions, putting our faith into our tribal wisdom, whether that means our political parties, reading bibles with American flags on them, seeing Christ through our American lens, seeing Christ through our democrat or republican lens, seeing Christ through Methodist, evangelical, Catholic, or LDS lens?
Are we doing that, OR, are we seeing Christ?
Paul speaks of these Christians following Greek philosophy and wisdom over Christ. so let’s look at this as if it were in our own culture:
Work long and hard now to enjoy later We are a nation of laws You have to look out for number one America First Money buys happiness I need to feel important
We believe if we work long and hard now, we can one day kick back and enjoy later. However, a few weeks ago, we learned about the parable of the rich fool that put too much value in his wealth and died upon retirement. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. Our time should be spent building up heavenly treasures rather than accumulating wealth for our vanity. Wisdom is seeing how to live beyond ourselves
We say we are a nation of laws, but a couple weeks ago we learned that Jesus broke the law, by healing on the sabbath. Yes, he broke the law! He was more concerned with the spirit behind it. The Sabbath exists for us to recharge and the remain connected to God. It is there to prevent burnout. It is there to help us remain thankful. It is not there to make an idol of how to observe it, as is the case with any law. Righteous laws exist to make life better for people. Unjust laws need to be destroyed. Wisdom is understanding why we have laws and not getting caught up in the letter of them, especially when we use them as an excuse to hide our prejudice.
We must look out for number one, but Jesus died for us and said the greatest love is dying for others. Last week we learned that following Jesus can mean letting go of things or people closest to us, even letting go of ourselves.
We should put our country first, but Jesus opened salvation to those beyond Israel. We should follow suit. There is no longer Gentile or Jew, but we are to be one in Christ.
We often believe that money buys happiness, even when we do not say it. It is all over our consumer-driven culture. However, Jesus said blessed are the poor. He also said that the love of money is the root of all evil. An important distinction here is that he did not say money is the root of all evil. Money is a tool and nothing more. It’s the love of, obsession with money, and the belief that money will make you secure that causes issues.
We believe social status matters. We want to feel important and needed. We must remember Jesus taught that the last shall be first, first shall be last.
In this text, Paul was not only addressing Greco-Roman wisdom, but also the division within the church where Christians were getting caught up in the cult of different leaders. Let’s look at the “wisdom” of divisive Christian leaders here in our context: [Kenneth Copeland said he needs a private jet because demons are on commercial planes. Jim Bakker believes that if Democrats win in 2020, Christians will suddenly die. Franklin Graham was very critical of Bill Clinton’s adulterous relationship, and as a Christian leader, one should be. However, he has been quite silent regarding Trump’s admitted adultery and admitted sexual assalt. In fact, Graham stated we do not need our President to be “theologian in chief.” Well, this was until Mayor Pete has gained in popularity. Now he says Mayor Pete needs to repent for being Gay. Jerry Fallwell Jr.proclaimed that if more people had concealed carried, they could “end those Muslims.” Joel Osteen says to pray for wealth and God will give it to you. Lastly, Creflo Dollar has insisted, “Give me money because God wants me to have a private jet.”]
There are plenty Christian leaders that are more sane but still missing the point, stating that we need to be countercultural (which in and of itself is true), be teaching things like: don’t drink, don’t dance, don’t be gay. Things that in and of themselves are not sin, but could be. While Jesus does promote leaving sin behind and following him, much of his teachings sounded more like: don’t hoard, don’t cheat, free the captives, heal the brokenness.
Is Christ divided or or we following people rather than Christ? Are we following our cultural, American wisdom rather than Christ?
Does the American flag belong in the sanctuary of a church? I’m not suggesting we should be thankful for where we live, not all suggesting that. I am asking though, since God is the God of all and Christ is not divided, does this flag being in here suggest that we are following an American understanding of Christ. Is it suggesting that we are not seeking God’s full wisdom, but rather a cultural understanding of such? I’m personally not a fan of any flags in here because they are a symbol of might, and yes, God is indeed mighty, but God’s wisdom has shown a different way, a way of laying down our swords and our lives.
Jesus teaches us a different way, a way that looks to the spirit behind the law rather than upholding the letter of the law. The law says Don’t kill, but Jesus says don’t even have unrighteous anger toward someone or you are guilty of murder. The law says don’t commit adultery, but Jesus says don’t even look lustfully at another, or we are guilty of adultery. Our American law says we are to swear on the bible, but Jesus said do not take oaths. Let our yes mean yes and our no mean no. Do not swear. Jesus teaches a counter-wisdom that says love your enemies. That says blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. That says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. That says blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Imagine if that was in our courtrooms!?
“No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One (Son of Man).” Since Jesus, fully God, has come from heaven, then Jesus is our revelation of who God is and what God’s character is like. Since Jesus is fully human, he is the example of what a human life should look like and the arch-type of true human wisdom.
It stated in today’s text that the Jews were looking for signs. It is important that we do not read this as Christians are right and Jews are wrong. Many of the first Christians were, in fact, Jews. As was Jesus. Too much of history has been plagued by Christians persecuting Jews due to this poor theological understanding. Here is the context behind what the ancient Jews were looking for: They were expecting the Messiah to be a military champion, to come and conquer their enemies. No more Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, or Rome. The Messiah would conquer all the bad nations and bring about peace. This is part of the sign they were looking for.
I’ve seen a posting that if Jesus was packing heat, that he would not have died on the cross. This is possibly true. But Jesus is God, Jesus was God’s plan, and if God wanted Jesus to use might to escape, he could have, but he chose to resist nonviolently, he chose to give his life up for all. He chose to essentially mock our militarism by laying down his life. He showed us the flaw in our wisdom. There will never be a war to end all wars. Violence will always bring more violence. Our wisdom is that might can overpower evil, but it never can or will in the long run. The ultimate mockery to our human wisdom is that when imperial might, Rome, put Jesus to death at the hands and desire of the so-called pious religious people, that God honored the sacrifice by raising Jesus from the dead, showing how foolish our might and the supposed wisdom behind it was, that even the ultimate force, Rome, was no match for a simple man that laid his life down rather than bringing the angel-armies to conquer the Roman forces, as the religious people of this time were expecting. That is the gospel. The gospel turns our wisdom upside-down. God’s wisdom sounds foolish to our cultural wisdom and it often is in opposition to the pious as well. | https://misfitminister.com/wisdom-and-a-divided-christ-9fe84357796f | ['Jon U'] | 2019-12-10 22:55:43.890000+00:00 | ['Republicans', 'Wisdom', 'Jesus', 'Patriotism', 'Christianity'] |
Myth: Fat is Unhealthy | My friend Pattie Thomas wrote a fantastic book called Taking Up Space where she looks at 10 myths about being fat. I thought it might be fun to revisit them, from the other side of weight loss surgery.
Starting with this myth: Fat is Unhealthy.
It seems to me that the “fat is unhealthy” meme goes beyond myth.
It’s become part of the dominant Western culture’s social identity. Fat is unhealthy is a statement that is so wildly and widely accepted that suggesting that it isn’t set-in-stone fact is a counter-cultural act.
But what if we’re looking at it all wrong?
I have never had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, or any of the lifestyle illnesses commonly associated with being fat. Not now that I’ve lost some weight. Not when I weighed nearly 400 pounds.
This is not because I’m some kind of good fatty. It is not about morals at all.
It’s about genetics.
There is no one on either side of my family who has ever had diabetes, heart disease, or high blood pressure. I have a remarkably low genetic predisposition for any of those health issues.
But all of my grandparents and my mother died of cancer. My dad is a cancer survivor. Also, arthritis runs high in my family. So does sleep apnea. In my family, people have those problems regardless of their weight.
I have arthritis — in my hips. And I was diagnosed with sleep apnea three years ago.
When I finally had weight loss surgery I was in so much pain, I was worried about my mobility. And, I was wearing what looked like Darth Vader’s mask attached to a vacuum hose on my face every night so that I could sleep and breathe at the same time.
The treatment for both arthritis of weight bearing joints and sleep apnea is weight loss. The chances are good, however, that I would have had both problems even if I was never fat.
Because I’m at a higher risk than average for breast cancer (my mother and my dad’s mother both died from it), losing weight gave me a better chance of early detection. Mammograms are easier on people who have less body fat.
So, it’s easy to see how weight gets conflated with health.
It’s scary being fat.
Socially, it’s a nightmare. There’s no hiding it. No pretending. And you know, every minute of every day, that every one you meet is judging you.
And yeah, if you’re very, very fat things start to break down. Not indiscriminately, but along the fault lines that were already there.
But when you’re fat, everyone is pretty damned sure you’re going to drop dead soon of a stroke or diabetes or a heart attack. Everyone who sees you knows that you’re going to die. And everyone has a solution for you — often the solutions are contradictory.
Eat less fat. Eat only fat. Eat less carbs. Eat plant based. Exercise a lot. Exercise a little. Forget exercise and just go keto.
Everyone knows how to save your life — and since you’re fat, obviously you need that.
Obviously fat people are not healthy. If you don’t have some kind of lifestyle disease yet, well that’s like jumping off a bridge and deciding you’re fine because you’re not dead yet half way down.
But, what if we’re looking at it backward?
Are some fat people unhealthy? Clearly. How ridiculous if they weren’t. Fat isn’t the fountain of youth or some sort of magic elixir.
Some fat people do have health problems.
Here’s a news flash: some slender people do as well.
Some of all types of people do.
But, when you try to talk to many people about the idea that body size is not a reliable health indicator, you often hear something like, “well, what about your heart/a stroke/diabetes? Do you want to die?”
Here’s the thing: everyone dies.
Fat people, thin people and in-betweenie people. All people. All animals. All plants. All living things. It’s the trade off for living.
There are bristle cone pine trees where I lived most of my life. These suckers live forever–except they don’t really. Eventually, even they die.
It happens to all of us. It is the great equalizer.
The thing is that being fat happens hand-in-hand with those lifestyle diseases. But it’s not necessarily the cause.
Obesity and no exercise = very, very scary.
Adding exercise to your day alleviates many of the health risks even you are obese and even if you don’t lose weight. This doctor calls exercise medicine and talks about it in terms of dosage.
Some people don’t exercise and/or they eat beyond past the point of being full. These things, not moving enough and eating too much, often result in health issues for people of all sizes.
Which is why there are thin people who have strokes or diabetes or heart disease.
Those things also often cause people to weigh somewhat above their natural set point.
Sometimes people eat too much and don’t exercise, but have a combination of genetics that allows these behaviors to not cause weight gain. These people are still at risk for so-called obesity-related health problems.
Some people lose and gain and lose and gain themselves right into health problems, when they would have been healthier if they left good enough alone.
There are real, serious dangers in equating fat with health.
Almost any fat person has a story of going to see a doctor for a health problem, and leaving with a photocopy of a low-carb/low-fat/low-protein diet of some kind, or a brochure for a weight loss clinic, or a referral to Weight Watchers.
This is wrong on so many levels, not the least of which is that it discourages doctors from listening to their patients with an open mind and it discourages fat people from being patients when they need to be.
Equating fat with health also puts some fat people in the position of believing that they have no hope of health. If they won’t ever be thin and that means they can never feel good, what’s the point of learning to eat intuitively or getting any exercise?
Another problem is that while some of us are so busy turning fat into a moral failing, it is sometimes a symptom of a serious health problem that goes undiagnosed because the fat person is too scared to go to yet another doctor or the doctor can’t see the forest for the fat.
The flip side of equating fat with lack of health is equating thinness with health. This results in some people believing that they don’t have to move or eat intuitively for their health, because they are not fat, when really these things are healthful for every single body.
Sometimes fat people are unhealthy. Sometimes skinny people are, too.
It is unfortunate that if you happen to be both fat and sick, you have a good chance of being blamed for your health problem in a way a thin person almost never will.
It is also unfortunate that if you are a slender person, this may cause your doctor to mistake your body type for health that isn’t there. | https://medium.com/60-months-to-ironman/myth-fat-is-unhealthy-b16d13e75e96 | ['Shaunta Grimes'] | 2019-03-04 16:25:37.777000+00:00 | ['Fitness', 'Lifestyle', '2019 Challenge', 'Health', 'Weight Loss'] |
Surviving The Equifax Security Breach | How to Protect Yourself After 143 Million Accounts Were Hacked
What Happened:
On September 7th, Equifax — one of the three large credit monitoring agencies — reported that it had suffered a massive data breach by hackers. Worse, they reported that the hack had occurred five weeks previously, on July 29th. That data breach exposed credit information, social security numbers and other information on more than 143 million Americans and some foreigners. Why did Equifax wait five weeks before telling anyone about this massive hack? Your guess is as good a mine. A data breach that severe, followed by a five-week delay in letting consumers know that it had occurred isn’t OK with me, and it shouldn’t be for you.
To put this kind of hack in scope, I’d compare it to Hurricane Irma: it’s catastrophic, massive in scope and something from which it will take some of us many years to recover. I say “some of us”, because hopefully, by reading this primer, you’ll be one step ahead of the crowd. The Equifax breach exposed hundreds of millions of social security numbers. We cannot allow hackers with malicious intent to have access to our Social Security Numbers without increased security measures.
Experts, myself included, recommend implementing two tools to help protect and — in some cases — lock down your financial information:
Sign up for free credit monitoring at websites like Credit Karma Freeze your credit reports at all four major credit agencies.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these tools.
Credit Monitoring
Credit monitoring is a system that allows you — as the name implies — monitor your credit accounts. This kind of information should provide you an alert if something unusual occurs to your credit. Think of it as an early-warning system.
There are several companies that offer credit reporting services to consumers. The most well-known is offered by The U.S. Government. By law, all American consumers are entitled to an annual free credit report. However, I find the AnnualCreditReport.com website to be a MassivePainInTheAss.org. Instead, I’d recommend Credit Karma: It’s 100% free and far easier to use than the alternatives. Credit Karma also provides full-time access to credit scores, compared to just once a year from the competition. Once you’ve signed-up, you get access to your current credit scores and any activity your credit accounts, including loans, credit cards, and any suspicious activity. Here’s an example of how Credit Karma’s web page alerts you to activity on your accounts. Note the bottom of the image: there, Credit Karma is alerting you that new information has been added to a recent credit report:
Credit Karma letting you know to check your TransUnion report
As I mentioned before, we should think of credit monitoring as an early-warning system. And although early-warning systems are useful, it’s far better to prevent serious problems from happening in the first place.
While credit monitoring allows us see suspicious activity on our credit accounts, it can’t prevent malicious hackers from running our credit reports and then using info from those reports to steal our identities.
To help prevent intrusions like that, we’ll need a far more powerful tool: credit freezing.
Credit Freezing
Securing our credit information is also known as implementing a “security freeze”. Taking such action doesn’t impact us from using our own credit cards or financial accounts: it simply prevents anyone else (in most cases) from accessing our credit information without our express permission. For example, when we apply for car loans, mortgages or rentals, our potential lenders and landlords usually run credit checks. However, once we’ve provided our Social Security Number and legal name, anyone with that information and the right level of access can access our credit information, if our accounts are not “frozen”.
Freezing our credit accounts, however, helps prevent identity theft. If our credit files are frozen, even someone who has our name and Social Security number probably can’t obtain credit in our name. While hackers and those with unique access might still be able to cause us harm, freezing our credit help prevent many kinds of identity theft.
How To Enable a Credit Freeze
Every credit agency allows consumers to enable a credit freeze by phone, snail mail and, now: by online forms, for near instant activation. Regardless of which option you choose, be prepared to provide proof of who you are, where you live and a method to pay for any setup fees.
Setting up a freeze costs $0 to $10 per agency; temporarily lifts on those freezes can also incur fees. Costs and legislation vary by state and agency. Below is a list of the four major credit agencies with the costs I personally spent to enable a credit freeze; your costs may differ slightly depending on your state. Click each company name on the list to begin the credit freeze process:
Equifax — $0 cost to author
Innovis — $0 cost to author
Experian — $10 cost to author
TransUnion — $10 cost to author
When applying for a credit freeze online make certain to look for and save any personal identification numbers (or PINs) as you’ll need those later. Hot Top: store your PINs in a secure password manager like LastPass, something I’ve cover in depth in part four of my security series. Also look for a confirmation that your accounts are officially frozen. Here are two examples of what these moments look like on Equifax and TransUnion: | https://thetechtutor.medium.com/the-equifax-security-breach-5aa1e3505e13 | ['David Koff'] | 2017-09-12 22:45:36.116000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Security', 'News', 'Technews', 'Tech'] |
Beam Me Up — Methods to meet the Bypass blocks success criterion. | This post is about meeting WCAG Success Criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks. This criterion is required to complete accessibility conformance level A in order to improve the user experience for assistive technology users such as keyboard and screen reader users in navigating web pages and applications.
To better explain our solutions later on, let’s look at the problem first. The essential user experience of navigating web pages for users, which depends on the keyboard, is sequential on its basis. Web pages and applications often have blocks of content that repeats on more than one page. Take, for example, navigation bars, lists of social media links, and advertising frames, these can amount up to too many elements that the user has to pass one by one on every page.
The bypass blocks success criterion in its most puristic form is meant to solve this very problem. Let’s look at the exact wording of the success criterion:
“A mechanism is available to bypass blocks of content that are repeated on multiple Web pages.”
As you can see, the success criterion refers to a repeated blocks of content, but in my opinion the true essence of this success criterion is manifested in the description of its intent, which starts with these words:
“The intent of this Success Criterion is to allow people who navigate sequentially through content more direct access to the primary content of the Web page.”
Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.1: Bypass Blocks
A sighted user has the ability to ignore the repeated content by focusing the part of the page that interests him. Mouse users have the ability to interact with elements with a single mouse click rather than encountering every other element that comes before the item they are looking for.
The bypass blocks success criterion gives keyboard users and screen reader users a satisfactory alternative for these capabilities.
In this post we will cover a few methods to use in order to meet the bypass blocks citerrion.
We will start by discussing skip-links, their role, and issues to look out for when using them. Lastly, we will see how to enable blocks’ bypassing by using semantic elements.
Skip-links
My relationship with web accessibility started a few years ago when I worked for a company that provided rich content widgets to large publishers. I was assigned to overview the products’ accessibility status and develop a plan for meeting the accessibility requirements of new regulations that just got in force.
At that time, my understanding of web accessibility amounted to the requirement of an alt text to <img /> tags, so therefore I’ve started to research the subject. One of the first terms or ideas I ran into was the skip-links. The concept of providing an internal link that allows keyboard and screen reader users to skip right to the page content, made sense to me, and it helped me to see new aspects of page accessibility and the difficulties some users experience.
Nevertheless, this is not another skip-links mechanism blog post. There are plenty of these already. This brings me to the second part of the story. A couple of years later, as part of my job for another company, I had to randomly test all sorts of websites and apps to find common accessibility issues. While doing these audits, I noticed that, although many of the websites had a skip-links mechanism, it was, in most cases, broken or only partially working. Looking further into it, I saw that the same issues with similar causes repeated themselves over and over again. So in this section, I would like to point out these common potential issues and suggest ways to avoid them as much as possible.
What Are Skip-links?
For a start, and just so we can ensure that we sync, and for the benefit of those who are less familiar with the concept, let’s start by defining what skip-links are.
Skip-links is an internal link mechanism in web documents that allows users who depend on the keyboard to bypass UI parts that repeat on all the web pages. When clicking the skip-link(s), the linked element scrolls into view, and the user is spared the need to press the Tab key repeatedly until the focus is set on the element they are looking for, and it is scrolled into the viewport.
See how skip-links work. Go to the page on the link above, press the Tab key and see the skip-link appearing (there are more than one). Now press the Enter key and see the main content scrolling to the top of the viewport.
The dark side of skip-links
Skip-links is a pretty simple mechanism, and yet there are a few common pitfalls that can easily make it unusable to some or even all users.
In this section I will share what I’ve learned about the common problems of skip-links and how you can try to avoid them whilst still making skip-links relevant to all users who need them.
Broken links
I want to start this section with a disclaimer. The causes of this issue that I will present here are mere assumptions. I have never talked to any of the teams or people who developed the sites and apps I tested to confirm these assumptions. I have based these assumptions on repetitive patterns in the HTML structure of the pages I tested and my own experience. That being said, let’s dive into it.
One of the most common issues that I’ve found was that skip-links are often simply broken; the anchor’s “ href ” attribute pointed to an “ id ”that did not exist on the page. I had also noticed that, in instances where there was more than one skip-link, they usually weren’t all broken, and there were cases where a skip-link worked on one page but not on the other.
Based on this, and assuming that the links tested did work, at least when they were first created, these links must have been broken in one of the following cases:
While updating or maintaining the page, a developer who was unaware of the skip-links, or inadvertently removed or changed the anchored “ id ” attribute. When creating a new page, the skip-links were not taken into account, and the id s that should have been linked to them were not added to the page.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a silver bullet to offer to prevent the skip-links from breaking altogether. However, I have found another pattern that might be helpful in reducing the chances for it to happen. I have found that links that were anchored to layout elements such as <aside /> , <footer /> , and <main /> seemed to be more stable. I assume that, since they are usually defining the page’s layout, they are less likely to change. It may not seem like an incredibly innovative insight to you. Some will say, “Obviously, when updating pages, things can break, and it is the developer’s responsibility to do regression testing.” Nevertheless, I chose to present it because it raises two other issues for discussion.
The first one is emphasizing the importance of awareness through all development teams of the system’s accessibility features so that they can, at least, take them into account. The other is the importance of semantic layout as a good practice in general, and the basis for implementing additional methods to bypass blocks that we will discuss in the following sections.
Skip-links and screen reader users
The next skip-links issue that I would like to discuss, and which I saw repeating itself across many websites, is related to screen reader users. We already said that skip-links are linked to an element on the page by its ID, and clicking the skip-link should scroll this element to the top of the viewport. Simply linking to an anchor on the page will work correctly for keyboard users that are not dependent on screen readers, but that alone will not do the trick for screen readers.
First, you have to know that screen readers distinguish between the system focus and their cursor (screen readers use various other names for this). On Apple’s VoiceOver it’s called the “VO cursor”, and NVDA calls it the “Navigator object”, for example. This distinction is made since the system focus can be set only on focusable elements. The screen reader cursor’s role is to set on and read non-focusable elements such as <p /> and <div /> , allowing them to read their content to the user.
When we use an anchor link, the system focus moves along with it, so next time the user presses the Tab key, the focus will set on the next focusable element from the point the page has scrolled to. However, the screen reader cursor will only move to be set on the anchored element if it is focusable. When the anchored element is not focusable, the skip-link is still considered to be the “active element”, so the next element that the screen reader reads is the next one after the skip-link element on the DOM tree.
The solution to this problem is straightforward — simply make the anchored element focusable. However, there are a couple of points to keep in mind, so this change will not affect other users’ user experience.
First, use tabindex=”-1" to make the element focusable; this will exclude it from the “tab sequence”, so it will not affect keyboard users’ experience and still make the element focusable by linking to it.
The second point is about the rare times where the focus ring should not be visible. I have not seen a reference to it elsewhere, and it may be that I will provoke the wrath of some, but in my opinion, this is a case where hiding the focus indicator provides a better user experience. Let’s think about it for a moment, why did we have to make the anchored elements focusable? It was a “hack” to force the screen reader cursor to move to the anchored element. Keyboard users got an indication when the page scrolled to its new position. We should also remember that keyboard users expect only interactable elements to be focusable, so setting a focus indicator to non-focusable elements may result in a less pleasant user experience.
To summarize this part of the post, we have seen two common issues with skip-links. The first is the difficulty with maintaining the link over time and making sure it remains intact — even after rounds of updating and maintaining the site/app. We have seen that using a semantic layout can help us limit this from happening.
The second was to point out a few extra adjustments we must make for the skip-link to be usable for screen reader users.
In the next section, we will discuss a couple of complementary methods to skip-links to provide the ability to bypass blocks that rely on semantic elements we briefly touched on earlier.
Skip-links are not enough
While it is important and should be used whenever possible, the skip-links method is limited. If we were to provide a long and tedious list of links to every point in the UI, we were missing the whole point of the skip-links (not to mention the maintenance hell, which I referred to in the previous section).
This section is solely about screen reader users. A good set of skip-links, and ensuring that the user can scroll the page using the keyboard, should do the trick for keyboard users.
How can we then provide an option for the user to skip to points of interest on the page?
Semantic structure
Earlier we have discussed how using semantic landmark elements on the page layout benefits skip-links’ stability. Now, we will see the other significant role semantics have on bypassing blocks.
In a nutshell, landmark elements are HTML elements like <main> , <header> and <footer> where their semantics represent areas in the UI layout, or elements such as <section> and <nav> that represents areas in the internal partition in elements.
Screen readers aggregate elements on the page to lists by their type. This feature allows the user to look for landmark elements, for example. If there is a <main> element on the page, it will also appear on the list. The user can choose it on the list and skip right to it, and the same goes for any other element. You will usually find a landmarks list, form controls, headings, and more among these lists. Each screen reader may have a slightly different set of lists, but those that I mentioned can be found on all of them.
The VoiceOver rotor’s landmarks list
There are two benefits to using semantic elements. First, it allows skipping directly to the element, and second, the semantics of the element implies its role in the UI layout.
Using landmark elements for the page layout is significantly helpful in bypassing recurring blocks of content, and helping screen reader users get a clear mental image of the user interface.
In order for the effectiveness of landmark elements in the description of the page layout and content to be maximized, it is worth remembering an important rule of thumb, namely that, uֹnique elements that describe the page’s general layout, such as <main> , <header> and <aside> do not require a unique accessible name. On the contrary, landmark elements that may have more than one instance on the page, such as <section> and <nav> , should be labeled so that the user can perceive the purpose of each specific instance. There are a few ways to label these elements. The most straightforward one is by adding an “ aria-label ” attribute with the element name as its value.
Skip-links and proper semantic layout are great foundations and, in most cases, will be everything you need to meet the “bypass blocks” success criterion. However, I want to mention one more method that can help see more options for troubleshooting “bypass blocks” issues. This will also improve page accessibility in general.
You can learn more about screen readers’ elements lists, how to operate them and what else we can learn from them by checking out our previous posts:
Screen Readers 101 For Front End Developers (Mac)
Screen Readers 101 For Front End Developers (Windows)
Headings hierarchy
While landmark elements should represent the page layout, the headings hierarchy reflects its content structure. A good headings hierarchy acts for screen reader users as the page’s table of content.
Screen reader users can use the headings list in the same way we saw with the landmarks list. To some extent, the headings list and the landmark list complement each other in the navigation options they allow, and in the perspective of the interface they provide to the user.
Summary
The bypass block’s success criterion is mainly to address navigation issues, but we have also seen how easy-to-use navigation often depends on the clarity of the content and the layout of the interface. Fixing bypass blocks issues can often be easy wins for the developer and will significantly differ for many users.
I hope that I have been able to move the essence of the bypass blocks success criterion and that the methods I have presented here will help you solve issues in this regard in the future.
Thank you for reading. | https://medium.com/evinced-inc/beam-me-up-methods-to-meet-the-bypass-blocks-success-criterion-83b84acdc599 | ['Illai Zeevi'] | 2020-09-24 10:50:42.566000+00:00 | ['A11y', 'Accessibility', 'WCAG', 'HTML'] |
What is Laravel Sail and how to get started? | Check out this post on the devdojo.com website!
It is a post on What is Laravel Sail and how to get started? 🔥!
To make things even better you can use this referral link to get a free $100 credit that you could use to deploy your virtual machines and test the guide yourself on a few DigitalOcean servers:
Digital Ocean $100 Free Credit
Link to the post:
https://devdojo.com/bobbyiliev/what-is-laravel-sail-and-how-to-get-started
I strongly encourage everyone to go ahead and check out the devdojo.com website, there’s a lot of valuable content there. | https://medium.com/@harv-r33s/what-is-laravel-sail-and-how-to-get-started-3eb94b953fa6 | ['Harvie Rees'] | 2020-12-13 17:08:48.175000+00:00 | ['Developer', 'Laravel Eloquent', 'Code', 'Laravel'] |
How To Forgive the Year 2020, That MotherF*cker | To better understand the inherent shitiness of being you during the year 2020, the following is a technique that uses a forgiveness meditation script inspired by Danny Bonaduce and Bette Davis, a technique that relies on the cleansing flames of rage combined with pre-Method acting melodrama.
Meditation can be very intense. Remember to use your breath.
Now, you might feel disingenuous as you start the forgiveness meditation, but if we started in a place of genuine emotion, you would need an ark to carry your nameless terror, along with two of every ice cream flavor.
Let us begin:
1. Settle yourself. Find that perfect moment sometime after you wake up, but before you fall back into a waking sleep that is now known as “life.”
2. Visualize someone or something that’s harmed you, like the year 2020, which came in like Shirley Temple on the Good Ship Lollipop and then threw you overboard like a puppy in a weighted sack.
3. Label the feelings that arise in reaction to thinking about 2020. Call them gently by name — nay! Go forth and meet them as suggested in the meditative incantation by Clark W. Griswold in “Christmas Vacation” when he says, “I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy Shit! Where’s the Tylenol?”
Damn you, 2020!
4. Bring awareness to the physical sensations inside you. Do you feel like ralphing? Upchucking? Nauseous? Yes. The exact opposite of a warm lavender neck-wrap and a foot massage.
5. Keeping 2020 in mind, say, “As best I can, you suck balls and I’m amazing. I wish myself joy and love.” Wait. That’s not it. “As best I can, I’ll look back on this time with a pure hatred for you and awe in my own strength.” Here we go: “Burn in Hell, 2020.”
6. Finally, experience the light-headedness caused by meditating in your mask, but also the lightness inside you. Feel the burden of resentment solidify into a beautiful, shiny stone, on to which you can carve the words “Up Yours” and place next to the Buddha on your dresser.
By putting 2020 behind you, or at least in a figure-four leg lock, you are moving towards Gratitude and Letting Go, also called Compartmentalization. Don’t worry, you can always return to the massive vortex of negative energy that consumed almost a year of your life — and feel free to drag loved ones with you.
Now, at last, you can move towards Light and Love! Also known as the year 2021, in the year of our Netflix, Prime, and HBO Max. | https://medium.com/the-haven/how-to-forgive-the-year-2020-that-motherf-cker-523e66d744d8 | ['Tarja Parssinen'] | 2020-12-17 17:42:39.341000+00:00 | ['Funny', 'Meditation', 'Forgiveness', 'Covid 19', 'Humor'] |
It was a good article. | It was a good article. I feel, little more readable and less number of words would have got multiple claps. Just a friendly advice :)! | https://medium.com/@tyagimanav04/it-was-a-good-article-8d1026e26c6a | ['Maanv Tyagi'] | 2020-12-15 04:10:02.249000+00:00 | ['iPhone', 'Joshua', 'iPad', 'MacBook', 'Apple'] |
Storiqa Merchandise Feedback. T-shirt Design Voting Results | Your own wallpapers for the smartphone. Your own stickers on the laptop. You do like to choose designs, don’t you? We don’t pursue you — we just love searching and choosing unique items just as you do! That’s why we’ve made a Storiqa Merch Poll. We want to create something together!
Earlier we have announced a poll where you could choose a t-shirt design, which we are about to improve and print in our final merch versions (which will be ready for pre-order soon)!
There were eight samples of STQ design:
STQ token holders and supporters could rate the designs from 1 to 5.
So here are the results:
There are participants from 48 countries: 20% of the total number are the citizens of Indonesia; USA, Brazil, and Nigeria have a 7% of the total number each. You have chosen the most interesting designs:
#2, #3 and #8 designs have the highest rating
Congratulations! Look at the T-shirts again.
What’s next
Storiqa designer will improve those merch versions and upgrade them. We are gathering your comments and feedback in Social Media (FB, Twitter) and in the chat room. We will show final versions of T-shirts in a week, and they will be ready for pre-order on beta.storiqa.com very soon!
We will announce exact dates and prices in STQ closer to the release date.
The most important part
Please, participate in our votings and polls! We are getting better with each your vote. Don’t forget — we are improving eCommerce with STQ token together! | https://medium.com/storiqa/storiqa-merchandise-feedback-t-shirt-design-voting-results-7760d1423152 | [] | 2018-08-09 12:29:38.578000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Token', 'Design', 'Storiqa', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
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