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My Brothers Have Been Waiting for This Upcoming Civil War | My Brothers Have Been Waiting for This Upcoming Civil War
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
I hope my Southern brothers and ancient father are not Proud Boys, but they sure love that Alt Right stuff. They’ve been collecting and polishing guns for a few decades now, standing by for the coming civil war. They love Westerns too. They thrive on fear.
Brother007 started sending Dad right wing anti-Muslim, anti-Black emails during the last presidency. What does it matter they are both “well” educated by modern standards with stellar career histories? Many science degrees between them, and both are former naval officers. They had to find someone to blame all the ills of society upon. In the limited vocabulary of their great leader, “Sad.”
They recruited two of my three other brothers to join their philosophy over the years. One, crippled from lifelong bone and joint problems, purchased an uzi last decade. He had me help him carry the heavy thing into his new digs. He’s the one that could have become an artist, and thus by definition, perhaps a free thinker. But no, he chose to be part of the posse and obtain a military weapon he can’t even lift.
My baby brother also joined their ranks. Drinking the Kool-aid was the admission price for staying in the tribe and becoming a possible recipient of the silver and gold coins the family has converted some of their estate into, waiting for the new civil war, up on a rural mountain top, stocking up on canned goods and beef jerky. Pirates in Appalachia. Great. Just what the world needs.
Mother joined in the festivities too, sending out an obscene email forwarded to her about what should be done with the private parts of one vulnerable group of minorities. It was from one of her many hick neighbors. I asked her if she understood what she had sent out, hoping she did not. I did not bother to open any more emails from her after that. And that was years ago already.
Hooray for you pirate brothers! You must be thrilled your day has finally come! Your Chief has issued the battle cry! Just what you’ve been waiting for over a decade. When you’re shooting ’em up as this bloody Autumn rolls on, double check who you’re pointing those phallic things of y’alls at, pirates.
I am Savannah St. John and this is what has happened.
“If your people will but stop and think, they must see that in the end you will surely fail.”
William Tecumseh Sherman, December 1860 | https://medium.com/ship-diary/my-pirate-brothers-have-been-waiting-for-this-upcoming-civil-war-a-long-while-now-23f2a411d844 | ['Savannah Stjohn'] | 2020-10-03 18:25:20.537000+00:00 | ['Civil War', 'Life', 'Dysfunctional Family', 'Politics', 'Guns'] |
What is Time? | What is Time?
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Note I am referring to “Time” and not “time”. For our discussions, this is the difference.
“time” — refers to a point in “Time” or a duration of “Time” that we as humans have defined as a set of mutually agreed upon conventions (Mostly, there are cultures where a “day” is the smallest unit of time and where others are obsessed with the passage of milliseconds), so we will not show up late for our date. This has caused both dramatic fights in the Restaurant, and, in extreme cases, nuclear bombs being dropped on civilian population centers (true story, look it up)
“Time” — Time is the force behind “Change”. Without Time nothing changes, moves, progresses. It is not really a force so much as it is a lattice, or framework that defines and enables “Existence”. Without Time, nothing exists.
Let us delve. Can a rock exist if you cannot perceive its existence? Let us keep this simple and look at how humans perceive the world. We use our senses. Humans can “see” the rock, “feel” the rock, “smell” the rock, taste the rock (to each their own) and even “hear” the rock if it is interacting with other rocks or a window. Can any of this happen without the passage of Time? It takes Time for the light reflecting off the rock to reach your eyes. It takes Time for signals to travel from your little toe you just stubbed on the rock to reach your brain (ouch). You get the idea. Perception is based on a change that can be sensed. Change cannot occur without the passage of Time.
Our experience and observation of Time is so infinitesimally small compared to the vastness of Time even if you are an advocate for the Big Bang Theory that has a finite starting point for “Time” (boom, now everyone start your clocks). This small subset of sample data makes it extremely difficult to reasonably discern the true nature of Time. But what we can say is that without Time we have “nothing”.
“Time” does not have a beginning and end, but “time” does. I am running with the Big Bang (the big bota-boom) Theory. We perceived time starting at the moment (nanoseconds after actually, I mentioned “those” people earlier) things literally exploded into existence. They exist because we can perceive their existence through the passage of time. So, the Big Bang is the beginning of a “timeline”. If a timeline has a start, by simple corollary, it must have an end. When does it end? Obviously, it ends-nanoseconds (likely closer to femtoseconds, more commonly referred to as a quadrillionth of a second) before the next timeline starts.
Infinity
It is generally accepted that the Universe is big, really BIG, so big that some consider it infinite. But can anything truly be infinite? Take numbers, they go on infinitely, you can always add 1, right? But numbers are no more than a Human construct to organize the physical world. I have a bag of potatoes. A bag is a unit of measure. Now I have multiple bags of potatoes how do I communicate that to another human? Or how do I define the quantity of potatoes in the bag in a mutually understandable way? The bag contains 12 meals worth of potatoes, another unit of measure.
Humans have generally agreed that the most common unit of measure is the base 10 numeric system (10 digits, base 10… You do the math). We then use mathematics to manipulate those numbers to bring meaning to the physical world. So, if we have a number so large it represents the number of components of matter in the universe (in short, everything) could we just add 1 to it, or 2? What would that number represent? It would be meaningless since we created numbers to help us define the physical world and the physical world has a finite number of elements, at any point in time (Back to time again) how could a number exist if it cannot be perceived? (set aside negative numbers and ‘i’ for now since those are constructs to allow us to balance equations…) Perception defines existence therefore if it cannot be perceived if it does not exist. Logic dictates numbers cannot be infinitely large or small. Mathematicians realized this early on, so they created the numeric equivalent, the infinity symbol.
So, now that we have shown that nothing can truly be infinite let us discuss how something can be perceived to be infinite in nature. Let us look at a circle track, it does not have a physical beginning or end and if the circle is large enough it would appear as though you are traveling in a straight line going on indefinitely. But is it? You can only exist within a timeline and a timeline has a start and end. This means you cannot go on indefinitely since you would stop progressing and cease to exist when the timeline you are in ends.
Timelines
This is not your classical timeline story about going back in time, altering the past and creating another variant of the present future. That is just silly. We are talking about finite timelines with a beginning and an end. The beginning is the Big Bang, the end is the Big Bang, or next Big Bang for ease of discussion.
So, we have concluded that the universe is not infinite is size, but we can be tricked into seeing infinite size using a circle. Let us really kick this up a notch and consider a sphere. Just like a circle you can travel around a sphere with the perception that it never ends. Now let us consider that the universe is a sphere, and everything exists on the surface of that sphere
Everything traveling around this immense sphere would be acted on by the other universal forces, gravity, momentum, etc. ultimately causing things to run into each other. There are many instances of that happening currently, two galaxies colliding and merging. Take for example the object known as NGC 6052. It is a double object, two galaxies merging that was first catalogued by William Herschel in 1784. We have also concluded that when everything in the universe occupies the same space at the same point in time, we get the big bota-boom, the start of a new timeline.
Through implication we see that a timeline must end before the next one begins. In essence, time must stop, and it does. “time” stops when everything is in the same place at the same moment, a singularity. This is when time stops, everything ceases to exist, there is no longer matter only energy and that energy does not like to sit still so it explodes outward, restarting the clock and coalescing back into matter. This is the moment one timeline ends and another begins.
“Time” didn’t stop, cease to exist, then start again, “time” did, or more specifically one timeline ended, and another began. “Time” manages these timelines. The timelines exist within the framework of Time. To simplify what is happening, timelines are persisted within the framework of Time, protected by Time. This persistence happens in real-time ( 😊 ) and when a timeline ends Time closes that specific data-set and opens a new one for the new current timeline. “Time” is therefore a superset of data consisting of datasets for every timeline that ever existed. The data-set of a timeline contains, at a minimum, every sensation, thought, utterance, smell, sound, and emotion experienced by every living thing that ever existed anywhere in the universe during that timeline.
This is also the definition of the Akashic Record. | https://medium.com/predict/what-is-time-86344e7c7811 | ['Dj Des Jardins'] | 2020-12-14 01:45:21.120000+00:00 | ['Universe', 'Timeline', 'Time', 'Akashic Records', 'Big Bang'] |
Seven Lessons From My CEOs | We can’t always hire the best business consultants, or maybe we don’t want to.
If you catch me by surprise and ask me to at least summarize the main seven learnings that I have achieved discover working together with General Managers and business owners throughout Latin America, would be the following 7:
1. Hire slow, fire fast
2. You will renew your bottom 10% per semester
3. You will master the styles of personalities
4. The biggest motivation is the fear of failure
5. Always have your “stop doing” list at hand
6. If you are not going to hold an instruction, better not do it
The 7th I’ll tell you in a few minutes because it is undoubtedly the most important.
Let’s see each of them in greater detail:
1. Learning # 1 — Hire slow, fire fast
Review your latest hires. Review the time and dedication they have to your company. Do you think they could have done better? What is the risk of having more information for decision making?
When it comes to hiring: more is more. We can all lie and be someone who likes the other for an hour; that’s not complex. We can also know that we must respond to the psycho-labor tests so famous among recruitment consultants.
New global trends speak of allocating one full day to hiring key positions. Yes, as you have read. An entire day. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to “bluff” anyone for a whole day. No matter how expert he is in the art of acting, and no matter how many tests he has studied, no one can do it. And if he does, hire him immediately.
And concerning layoffs, the main cause of regret that I have learned advising dozens of CEOs when they refer to the issue of firing their staff is always the same: “I should have fired them months before.”
Yes, decision-making geniuses always answer the same thing. They regret not having done it sooner. And it is true. What is the impact on money, in hours, and on your own emotions of having “detractors” within your team?
Therefore, hire slow and fire fast.
2. Learning # 2 — You will renew your bottom 10% per semester
It’s hard to read, I know. And it’s harder to hear me tell the CEOs I advise. But this is no less true. You have to recycle the team. Always. Regardless of the results.
I know that my approach is too cold. But no less logical for that. Let’s see this learning with a simple example.
Let’s take two glasses of water ( Questions clarification: each glass is the same measure of 200ml)
Glass A contains pure, very pure mineral water. From the most expensive mineral water bottle on the market.
Now let’s take glass B with rotten water, with the worst bacteria that any stagnant water can contain. Water that has not circulated from the glass in 1 whole year.
What water would you drink? Simple question, right? I’m sure it would be the water in cup A. I hope so.
Now let’s do a little change of scenery. Let’s imagine that we leave cup A for one year on the table, without recycling it. We let it sit for 365 days (or the equivalent of 8760 hours). It is understood, right? Glass A will rest for one whole year.
We take glass B (the glass with rotten water) and put it during that same year under a tap (tap, take it) with drinking water. We left it under for one whole year with the tap open (yes, I know, now the environmentalists will punish me in the same way that my daughter did when I told her the example. It’s just an example)
After 1 year, what water would you drink?
I indeed have the water from glass B. The glass that once contained rotten water now contains renewed, recycled, and freshwater. And the glass that once held freshwater now contains stagnant, cloudy, and decomposed water.
Sounds less evil with the example of water, right? Now the question is: will you apply it to your team?
3. Learning # 3 — You will master the styles of personalities
Our parents, grandparents, uncles, teachers everyone lied to us since we were little. They always told us that we are all the same. The truth is that it is not. Not even remotely close to it.
We are all different. And to be able to identify what the person in front of you is like at this precise moment, you can use several tools.
As the Advisor and Coach of CEOs, the one that best suits me is the international DISC, a tool that profiles professionals in 4 personality types. Although I will develop this concept in-depth in my next article, let’s see what it is all about.
DISC mentions four types of personalities according to their energy and interest. Take these two variables, and by relating them, you get the four styles. Simple.
Based on their energy, they are segmented into an extrovert (high energy) and introvert (low energy)
According to their interest, the rational (focus on results) and social (focus on people).
And then it crosses them.
Outgoing & focus on results: Dominant: wants to win.
Outgoing & focus on people: Influential: want to please.
Introvert & focus on people: Sociable: want to avoid conflict.
Introvert & focus on results: Conscientious — want to be right.
We all have a bit of each of the styles. But there is always one with more weight than the others. For example, I am IDSC. As you can see, the energy variable is more powerful than the interest variable.
What do you look like? I leave you a link to the free test.
4. Learning # 4 — The biggest motivation is the fear of failure
If I ask you about your greatest motivation and tell me your children, you are in serious trouble. Be careful, I’m a father too, and I adore my daughter Mora. And children are one of the most relevant sources of motivation for a human being.
Motivation means having a motive — an engine to do something. If your engine is your children, it’s okay, but it can never be your only reason to live.
But if she is my greatest motivation, what would happen to me if she ceases to exist in this world? If I am consistent, I should do like Romeo and leave this world in its wake.
If you are like that, then I respect and admire that your motivation is your children. I honestly couldn’t do it.
Was the point understood?
I have learned that the most powerful CEOs are motivated by the fear of failure. Be careful; they are not all. They are continually wearing their black hat and analyzing the worst-case scenario.
They never stop being optimistic about the vision of their companies. But when it comes to making decisions to pursue their vision, those who have shown the most effective are those who fear failure as the main motivator.
5. Learning # 5 — Always have your “stop doing” list at hand
Simple: Check-in your weekly planner. Do me a favor: You will surely see your list of hundreds of new things to do.
Monitor such a thing. Implement such another. And the list goes on. I do not know a professional who does not carry his notebook of things to start doing.
And it is good that new activities and initiatives emerge. In this way, the company is mobilized towards the vision. Sell more, run more: new initiatives, new processes.
But a question comes to mind: What will you stop doing to start doing these new activities?
Your day has the same 24 hours as everyone else. And you can’t add more RAM to your brain. You keep adding more and more “tasks.” Are you waiting that your brain burns out?
When will you start recording your “stop doing” activities?
6. Learning # 6 — If you are not going to hold an instruction, better not do it
I always like to start with everyday examples and then extrapolate it to the business world.
Imagine giving an order to a 15-year-old teenager. Any order. Let’s see … for example: “don’t come home after 11 at night.” Nothing weird, right? Does it sound familiar to you?
Now, let’s imagine that the adult who gave you the order does not enforce it. What is the impact on the level of “authority” of that adult from the teenager’s perspective? Probably very low.
How do you think that adolescent will “take” the adult’s future instructions? I answer this question. Simple, with a downward trending authority level.
The same happens to your team. Great leaders enforce their instructions. If they say you don’t arrive after 11 at night, I assure you that Troy burns if someone from your team arrives after that time. And it’s okay for that to happen.
Only give instructions that you are willing to sustain over time.
When COVID-19 just started, back in March 2020, I asked a great CEO (and tremendous leader) what would be the measures he was going to take to manage the crisis and what his criteria would be. His response was remarkable: “Pablito, all those who can sustain for at least 12 months.”
7. Learning # 7 — The most important is the following:
Do not improvise, train yourself, do not give advantages, never.
Leading is complex, everyone wants to be a leader, and that’s okay. But not everyone knows how to do it. If you don’t train before the game, you train during the game.
The good thing is that if you are reading this article, you are a leader and want to evolve towards a better version of yourself because great leaders know that there is always a next level. And that there is still more to learn.
As I told you, I have been advising General Managers and business owners for more than ten years. I am the leader of Renaissance Executive Forums in Santiago de Chile, an international organization of business leaders, CEOs, General Managers, business owners, and senior executives. We meet every month to discuss the strategic issues of each of your companies. These first seven learnings have emerged from our peer group meetings.
Learn. Grow. Share.
Written by Pablo Riccheri, Partner at REF | https://medium.com/@executive-forums/seven-lessons-from-my-ceos-20d50762bb9d | ['Executive Forums'] | 2020-11-27 19:25:49.944000+00:00 | ['Professional Growth', 'Leadership', 'CEO'] |
Make your Pandas apply functions faster using Parallel Processing | Parallelization is awesome.
We data scientists have got laptops with quad-core, octa-core, turbo-boost. We work with servers with even more cores and computing power.
But do we really utilize the raw power we have at hand?
Instead, we wait for time taking processes to finish. Sometimes for hours, when urgent deliverables are at hand.
Can we do better? Can we get better?
In this series of posts named ‘Python Shorts,’ I will explain some simple constructs provided by Python, some essential tips and some use cases I come up with regularly in my Data Science work.
This post is about using the computing power we have at hand and applying it to the data structure we use most.
Problem Statement
We have got a huge pandas data frame, and we want to apply a complex function to it which takes a lot of time.
For this post, I will use data from the Quora Insincere Question Classification on Kaggle, and we need to create some numerical features like length, the number of punctuations, etc. on it.
The competition was a Kernel-based competition and the code needed to run in 2 hours. So every minute was essential, and there was too much time going in preprocessing.
Can we use parallelization to get extra performance out of our code?
Yes, we can.
Parallelization using just a single function
Can we make all our cores run?
Let me first start with defining the function I want to use to create our features. add_features is the toy function we wish to apply to our data.
We can use parallelized apply using the below function.
def parallelize_dataframe(df, func, n_cores=4):
df_split = np.array_split(df, n_cores)
pool = Pool(n_cores)
df = pd.concat(pool.map(func, df_split))
pool.close()
pool.join()
return df
What does it do? It breaks the dataframe into n_cores parts, and spawns n_cores processes which apply the function to all the pieces.
Once it applies the function to all the split dataframes, it just concatenates the split dataframe and returns the full dataframe to us.
How can we use it?
It is pretty simple to use.
train = parallelize_dataframe(train_df, add_features)
Does this work?
To check the performance of this parallelize function, I ran %%timeit magic on this function in my Jupyter notebook in a Kaggle Kernel.
vs. just using the function as it is:
As you can see I gained some performance just by using the parallelize function. And it was using a kaggle kernel which has only got 2 CPUs.
In the actual competition, there was a lot of computation involved, and the add_features function I was using was much more involved. And this parallelize function helped me immensely to reduce processing time and get a Silver medal.
Here is the kernel with the full code.
Conclusion
Parallelization is not a silver bullet; it is buckshot. It won’t solve all your problems, and you would still have to work on optimizing your functions, but it is a great tool to have in your arsenal.
Time never comes back, and sometimes we have a shortage of it. At these times we should be able to use parallelization easily. | https://towardsdatascience.com/make-your-own-super-pandas-using-multiproc-1c04f41944a1 | ['Rahul Agarwal'] | 2020-09-11 12:02:03.584000+00:00 | ['Python Shorts', 'Data Science', 'Towards Data Science', 'Programming', 'Python'] |
Nine Ways To Create a Regenerative, Local Economy | Nine Ways To Create a Regenerative, Local Economy
By Roar Bjonnes
Photo: Courtesy Systems Change Alliance
The slogan “Think Globally, Act Locally” has been around for some years now. Only a few decades ago, vibrant local economies were indeed more prevalent: people grew food in their own backyards, local agriculture was thriving, and farmers markets were abundant.
The explosive growth of the global economy has damaged the majority of these local traditions and structures. Humanity is becoming increasingly aware of this fact, but as the knowledge curve about these and other economic and environmental problems has increased, so has the destruction curve caused by the corporate capitalist system.
The worldview of the centralized global economy has been based on the idea of limitless material growth: that nature is a free resource and profit is the primary goal of economic activity. This shallow ideology has led us to the brink of ecological and economic collapse via species extinction, global warming, the energy crisis, and growing economic inequality, to name a few.
The Nordic model is touted by many economists and progressive politicians as a better alternative. But, if we look closer at this relatively equitable welfare economy — with the “happiest countries in the world” according to some rankings — we will discover that it generates one of the world’s highest carbon footprints, and it is heavily dependent on feed imports from Brazil and other countries to feed its domestic pigs and chickens, so it is also not a long-term solution.
In the past four decades, various forms of Green Capitalism have been presented as a solution. This model, however, is just a softer version of business as usual, and is primarily used by the elite to greenwash their image. Sustainable capitalism is an oxymoron and has therefore been ineffective in solving any of the core problems in the global economy.
Since we have inherited a highly dysfunctional global economic system, a full economic-systems change is the only solution. We need to address the failures of capitalism and its ineffective forms head-on by creating decentralized and cooperative local economies and emphasizing local production with local resources to meet local needs, and to build local wealth. Below are nine steps we can take toward building such an economy.
Change the concept of ownership
Change ownership from private to collective. We need to replace policies based on private enterprise and accumulation of profit with policies protecting our commons — land, water, energy, as well as the internet. These natural, intellectual, and scientific resources belong to all of humanity, not only to the corporate elite. Global decentralized economic planning
In some places of the world, local production and farmers markets are making a return, but it needs to be more widespread. We can achieve that by integrating global, national and local planning. We need policies for the entire global ecosystem of localized economies rooted in local culture. If using westernized sustainable solutions, planning must be sensitive to the local population’s need, scale and culture. Limits on wealth accumulation
A core problem with capitalism is that there is no limit to what one individual can own. Today a handful of billionaires own as much wealth as half the global population while several billion people can barely feed themselves. A global cap on wealth accumulation is needed, as well as a maximum and minimum income, to balance the global inequality crisis. Economic structural change towards a post-capitalist economy
We need to change the whole structure of economics to live within the constraints of the environment. To best accomplish that, a three-tier economy can evolve:
1. Small-scale private enterprises — such as family farms, bakeries, restaurants, arts, and crafts businesses, etc.
2. Corporations turned into worker-owned cooperatives.
3. Key industries — such as large-scale energy and water plants, infrastructure, public education — to be run by national, regional and local governments and boards on a no-profit, no-loss basis, in order to prevent concentration of wealth, speculation and exploitation of natural resources. Local economic design changes
We need local, national and global policies to be aligned in order to:
– Avoid leakage caused by product imports and extraction of wealth by non-local businesses.
– Increase the speed of circulation of money between local producers, suppliers, institutions and the public.
– Provide more local jobs through increased local production and services.
– Achieve better local economic stability as localities become more self-reliant.
– Move from an economics of greed towards an economics of need, since local economies are much more effective at serving the local needs for housing, education, health care, food and energy. Cultural benefits of local economies
Economies and cultures are intertwined. Appreciating this is key to creating true “economies of happiness”. The current consumer economy has made us believe that happiness is derived from increased wealth and consumption, but once our basic needs are taken care of, personal wellbeing and cultural activities — such as spending time with family and friends, creating and appreciating art, music, literature — are better measures of progress. These are endeavors creating true, sustainable happiness and wellbeing. Environmental benefits of a local economy
Local economies produce less pollution, less transportation of products, less commuter time, etc. Due to their small scale, local economies also allow communities to live within their means and the local carrying capacity of the environment. People in local communities take better care of the local environment compared to those wishing to utilize it or capitalize on it from the outside. Economics for local self-sufficiency
Production within a local economy is most resilient when it is geared toward local self-sufficiency of food, water and energy. Only when those local needs are met should local resources be exported. Concerning exports, the focus should be on producing and exporting finished products — for example, chocolate rather than cocoa beans — as that will increase fair trade and local wealth. Policies must extend beyond the local area
We need nested and integrated systems change at the regional, national and global levels. The criteria to understand what constitutes a local or bio-regional area should also be outlined: language, culture, geology, resources, topography, economic similarity, and other criteria, can be taken into account. All the policy changes associated with a more localized economy have the welfare of local people in mind. Agricultural, industrial and cooperative policies should be coordinated from the local to the global level. Operating a cooperative economy today is quite challenging due to competition from the corporate economy, and only strong planning and coordination — such as in the cooperative economies of Mondragon, Spain, and Emilia Romagna, Italy — will allow a vibrant cooperative, local economy to emerge and thrive.
Underlying all the points above is the notion that in moving toward local economies, we can integrate the economy with the ecology. All local economic undertakings should be planned as part of a dynamic interrelationship with the local environment.
With this worldview, we can move towards creating truly regenerative local economies through an integrated network of local, national, and global systems change.
Join our online conference, Systems Change through Local Economies, to learn more about the key role that localization plays in creating a just and sustainable future.
Speakers include: Roar Bjonnes, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Daniel Christian Wahl, Tom Llewellyn, Alina Siegfried and many more. | https://medium.com/@rbjonnes108/nine-ways-to-create-a-regenerative-local-economy-6d047ba61312 | ['Roar Ramesh Bjonnes'] | 2021-09-06 17:16:34.931000+00:00 | ['Global Warming', 'Regeneration', 'Ecology', 'Local Economy', 'Sustainable Development'] |
A Trip on India’s 3 Innovative Toy Trains Can Take Your Breath Away | A Trip on India’s 3 Innovative Toy Trains Can Take Your Breath Away David Geithner Jun 21·3 min read
The Mountain Railways of India UNESCO World Heritage site comprises three railways built by the British between 1881 and 1908 to access their hill settlements. The trains that run on them are part of the country’s collection of “toy trains,” so-called because of their diminutive size.
All three lines are exemplary examples of hill railways that used innovative engineering solutions to overcome treacherous but spectacular terrain. All are still operational and retain a degree of their original features. They serve as living examples of the engineering boldness of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
1. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR)
Also known as the Joy Ride, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) was constructed by the British between 1879 and 1881. Connecting Darjeeling and New Jalpaiguri, it was the first hill railway in India, and one of the first in the world.
Image by Sheep”R”Us | Flickr
The railway line is about 55 miles long and reaches its highest elevation of 7,407 feet above sea level in Ghum. The train climbs by looping around a spiral, moving backward and forward to overcome the terrain. One of the DHR’s most scenic loops is Batasia Loop, between Ghum and Darjeeling. It provides a panoramic view of Darjeeling atop the hill, with Mount Kanchenjunga in the background.
Modern diesel locomotives handle most of the scheduled services, but tourist ventures are still undertaken in vintage steam locomotives. Passengers enjoy spectacular views of the mighty Kanchenjunga while passing through green hills dotted with tea gardens. Darjeeling, or the Queen of the Hills, is noted for its scenic beauty and looks very much like it did when the railway was first constructed.
UNESCO declared DHR as its second railway World Heritage Site in 1999 due to its brilliant design and cultural and social importance.
2. The Kalka-Shimla Toy Train
The hill city of Shimla in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh was once the summer residence of the British Raj government. Its cool climate provided relief from the unbearable summer heat of Delhi and Kolkata, and reminded the British of home. But its remote, mountainous location meant it was only accessible by horse and carriage until 1903, when the state-of-art Kalka-Shimla railway line opened.
The 60-mile line has 103 tunnels and almost a thousand bridges. (Bridge number 541, the highest, is one of India’s most impressive railway bridges, closely resembling the Scottish Glenfinnan Viaduct featured in the Harry Potter movies.) The journey takes an unhurried five hours and goes from Kalka at an altitude of 2,159 feet to Shimla at 6,808 feet above sea level. It passes through breathtaking hilly terrain with deep forests and scattered villages, and the occasional viaduct. Upon arriving in Shimla, visitors are exposed to colonial architecture combined with Indian modernity.
UNESCO added the Kalka-Shimla toy train as an extension to the World Heritage Site of Mountain Railways of India in 1999, lauding it as an “exceptional technical achievement in the development of the Himalayan mountains.”
3. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway runs from Mettupalayam to Ooty via Coonoor in Tamil Nadu. Opened in 1899 and completed in 1908, it is the only cog railway in Asia. A middle rail is fitted with a rack that engages a pinion on the locomotive, providing traction for the train to climb steep hills. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
The line runs from 1,069 feet to 7,228 feet above sea level, and is one of India’s most thrilling toy trains. The five-hour journey takes passengers through rocky terrain, gorgeous gorges, lush tea estates, and misty dense forests, waterfalls, bridges, and tunnels. The best views are found between Mettupalayam and Coonoor. If pressed for time, travel this stretch and enjoy the tea plantations at Coonoor.
A trip on one of India’s historic toy trains is enough to cause even today’s kids to put down their electronic devices and stare through the windows in awe. But you don’t have to be a child to enjoy the ride. While away the hours by enjoying the majestic mountain scenery as you sip your masala tea. The hilltop destinations provide a glimpse into times gone by while showcasing modern India. | https://medium.com/@dgeithner/a-trip-on-indias-3-innovative-toy-trains-can-take-your-breath-away-e5bdce91c620 | ['David Geithner'] | 2021-06-21 17:48:21.743000+00:00 | ['Vacation', 'Railway', 'Travel', 'India', 'Trains'] |
Thoughts of a mild child: -#1- ALL ABOUT TUESDAYS… | Thoughts of a mild child: -#1- ALL ABOUT TUESDAYS…
I have a math test tomorrow and I am obviously not excited, actually I have all of my least favorite classes tomorrow(technically today by now). I think it’s such an unfortunate coincidence that I can have all the best classes in one day and have to go through chaos the next day because they are all the worst classes. One lucky thing about the “chaos” days is that they are shorter days with only three classes while other days I have four classes and the fact that “chaos” days are always on Tuesdays and Fridays, so that I have Wednesdays and weekends to look forward to. To be honest Tuesdays have always been my least favorite days even without this schedule and I do not find myself to be a superstitious person but Tuesdays just do not seem to like me. A few things that added up to my statement, that I do not get along well with Tuesdays, is that in freshman year when we had marching band practices we would have multiple instructors. In the marching band we have maybe six-ish instructors and we would switch and work with different instructors each week (of course for the band we only use maybe three of the instructors because the other instructors specialize in guard and percussion). On Tuesday practices however we had this particular instructor that is, let’s just say not my favorite because he is scarier and stricter (but then again everyone is seen like that as a freshman). But this particular instructor would ALWAYS call on me. A more specific memory was when we were doing a new blocking exercise and all the people that this instructor put in the block so far were all former members who were experienced and he needed one more person in this block. Guess who he picks, and yes there were plenty more sophomores, juniors, and seniors. But yes as you guessed he picked me. It was simply the most terrifying experience in my life and I was blessed that I did not fall on my face while doing that marching exercise. To add onto my hatred of Tuesdays is that in these practices not only would I get called on the most for who knows what reason (maybe because the instructor liked the color blue on my shirt? I still do not know why to this day) but he would always pick on the clarinet section and yell at us the most. I think I can speak for my whole section that we did not enjoy it but at least we had some critiques, after all all of his marching bands that he instructed were always successful. Also this specific instructor had some very strange rules, he was very particular with where our eyes were when we were sitting down listening to his lectures. I remember having to wear a bunch of sunscreen facing the sun and him constantly nagging at all of us to stare up at him, as you can imagine that is difficult with the heat and sun in our eyes, personally I felt like the more I tried to stare up at him the more my eyes were about to shut close and black out. That was all for those Tuesday practices not my favorite memories from freshman year/ marching band but it definitely helped me grow and learn which I am grateful for. I just find it funny that Tuesday is still my least favorite day to this day, a year later on online school. If we were in physical school at this very moment I would have quite the “perfectly balanced” schedule. I would have a favorite class then my not so favorite class and switch on and off until the end of the day. But in online school I have to deal with hours of math, spanish, and whap all in one day, which is only three classes but it feels like decades when they are not your favorite subjects. So yes that is why I hate tuesdays but the only thing that helps me tolerate tuesday is because wednesday comes next.
Another topic, but I am very curious if I would survive sophomore year if we were in physical school because as far as I can tell I can barely hold onto seven classes with some spare time for normal life. While in contrast last year I was able to do my six classes, achieve all As and have time for life as well as multiple different clubs and extracurriculars. Sometimes I just wonder if I lost some sort of magical powers or my guardian angel just decided to walk away for a year long vacation to Venice Italy or something. It seems as if my luck potion ran out after June and from July till now there has just been a long river of failed attempts. I may not have failing grades but compared to last year, 2020 grades are the downgrade. I will admit I was lazy in September but I eventually started to pick up the pace in October. At first it looked like things were going well, but oh no no no I can work for months with all 100s in every assignment and I mess up one assignment and then my grade went to a B and I do not know why I even signed up for an ap class, one of the worst decisions ever because I have learned nothing important except for the fact that I can write gibberish very very fast. It feels like the climb of a steep hill of assignments and you are climbing which is good, but it feels like every good assignment bumps you up by 0.01cm while when you get one bad assignment you roll back down the hill by a mile and it takes a million years to get back where you started. Furthermore I wonder why humans create all this torture for ourselves and why create a system of misery that drains the youth out of the young and other times I just turn and look to my dog and wish I could be him for just a few days to walk away from this chaotic complicated human life. But then I remember that being educated is important and the only reason I can enjoy the things I enjoy is because someone else had to put in the dirty work of learning and studying to create it. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy books if the author did not decide to go through the process of studying literature and english, I wouldn’t even be able to read a book if some teacher didn’t decide to go to college to get their degree to be able to teach me, and the list goes on but a lot of the time when I am not looking at the big picture, school is just a daily cycle of misery for me and all of my friends. My mom tells me to stop finding the “why” to everything because she thinks that habit will eventually drive me crazy and maybe she is right and I should just look at things simply instead of in depth and scrutinizing every event. But when I do look at the big picture everything feels pointless, I mean think about it we are all living on a floating rock, nearly the size of a speck of dust compared to the universe but yet us- the speck of dust, contains so much misery and for what reason. This brings us back to over analyzing everything and how we should be grateful for the systems we have developed today that make everyday life convenient. After writing this I think I have come to my conclusion to not think about anything anymore and “just do it” after all if I keep questioning why I have to use the formula sin (3π/2 — A) = — cos A & cos (3π/2 — A) = — sin A on problem number 53 I would have just wasted more valuable time. | https://medium.com/@cadencechrysanthemumjane/thoughts-of-a-mild-child-1-all-about-tuesdays-148b65d2ded6 | ['Cadence Chrysanthemum Jane'] | 2020-12-18 10:26:18.286000+00:00 | ['School Life', 'High School', 'Teens And Social Media', 'Tuesday', 'Childhood'] |
How to Be Successful in Your Data Internship | How to Be Successful in Your Data Internship
Top data professionals offer advice for interns on how to maximize their opportunities
Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash
With internship season well underway, we reached out to some Alteryx ACEs, top analytics experts and participants in the Alteryx Community, to see what advice they’d offer to interns in data analytics and data science.
How can you make the most of an internship experience? What are key things to learn from the people and resources available during this unique opportunity? These data pros provide their perspective on how to be successful in an internship and beyond.
Jason Mack (@dataMack), Head of Analytics at Cigna
As an intern, your primary focus should be on building a network of connections that can help you land your next full-time role, or help at some point in the future. A great way to have people remember you is to solve some problem for them, even if it may seem simple or small. For example, an Alteryx workflow that helps them consolidate their weekly spreadsheets: if it saves them from the most boring and dreaded 20 minutes of their week, you have improved their life, and they will remember you.
Nicole Johnson (@NicoleJohnson), Senior Consultant at T-Mobile
You should constantly be asking yourself, “What if?” No matter the task or assignment, or even if you’re just being asked to take notes and observe, you can always find opportunities to stretch your skillset beyond the basic responsibilities of your internship. For example:
What if you were the one being asked the question, instead of just observing or being told what to do and how to do it? How would you approach it, if left to your own devices?
What if the data wasn’t this clean the next time?
What if conditions change? How will your solution evolve and adapt to uncertainty and changing parameters?
What if your fresh viewpoint and curiosity is exactly what is needed to avoid a potential issue or come up with a creative solution?
When presented with an internship opportunity, think of it as being given the keys to the castle — it might get you across the moat, but you still need to open some doors and explore some hallways before you’ll get to the real gems!
AJ Guisande (@aguisande), Services Director at Decision Science
Be curious, always!
Learn something new, every day!
Push yourself, every time!
Complete/finish things, even when they’re not perfect.
Use deliberate practice for your skills.
Joe Serpis (@JosephSerpis), Senior Consultant at Keyrus
I’m really passionate about internships as my own career was kicked off by two internships, which I was fortunate to participate in. The best advice I would give is make the most of the time. Participate and ask to be involved in anything that will give you more experience in data analytics or data science during the length of your internship. As a data professional who was an intern and who has since supported internships, showing you’re eager to learn is essential as it means you will likely be given more opportunities during your internship. Use the connections you gain during your internship as they can help introduce or recommend you for a permanent position or role in analytics. Lastly, use your internships to help decide if a career in data analytics or data science is something you would enjoy doing as a career.
Mike Barone (@mbarone), Data Scientist at Paychex
Do something you’re not asked to. When you’re collaborating with or listening to other team members or people you report to, listen for something that you can offer in the way of using data that they haven’t thought of or tried yet. But don’t mention it to them. Come in 15 minutes early; stay 15 minutes late. Take something that you think you can achieve with relatively little overhead that hasn’t been asked for yet. Maybe a cool visualization. Maybe a predictive model. Maybe an automated way to perform a process. If you can show them you have not only the know-how, but initiative and motivation to innovate and solve on your own, it can go a long way towards the “Wow, we gotta have this person on board” factor!
Andy Uttley (@andyuttley), Consulting Manager at Javelin Group
My advice would be to try shape your experiences to be “shallow and broad” as opposed to “narrow and deep”. By this, I mean I’d encourage someone to try to experience as much as possible, which comes at the expense of going too “deep” into any topic initially. Data science is a huge field; there’s no better time than now to work out which area you’d like to specialise in, and an internship is the perfect way to experience a variety of aspects before choosing the areas you’d like to specialise in the most. Also focus as much on relationships as you do on technical skills. These relationships will be critical to your continued learning and progress; you’ll quickly learn that part of the day-to-day is giving and asking people for help!
Chris Lewis (@cplewis90), Senior Data Analyst/Alteryx Team Lead at Whole Foods Market
Enjoy every day of your internship because it will fly by! One thing I wish I got the chance to do would be for interns to learn about different types of analytics that businesses could do and what those types of roles entail. If you are interning as a business analyst, learn about marketing analytics, real estate analytics, financial analytics, and any other area that sounds interesting! While you are networking with other analytics teams, learn about use cases of analytics that have impacted the business and how the analytics were applied to the business. Network with business partners of the analytics teams to understand how the business operates and the business model it operates on. One last thing that I would consider a bonus in an internship is building your brand and understanding how different people in analytics built their brands. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-be-successful-in-your-data-internship-6ed718003df3 | ['Susan Currie Sivek'] | 2020-10-02 18:15:24.796000+00:00 | ['Internships', 'Analytics', 'Data', 'Data Analytics', 'Data Science'] |
The Writer’s Craft: Your Guide to Regional Expressions — and Spicing Up Everyday Conversations | Photo by Brian Chan on Unsplash
As a writer, I’ve always had a warm place in my heart for colorful words, uttered in the local lingo, wherever I happen to be. They’re not always PC — but they’re memorable. For example, although I believe in body positivity, I also appreciate the highly descriptive phrase, “she was big enough to be warm in the winter and shady in the summer.” I can almost imagine it in a Mark Twain novel.
Such expressions are a boon for every writer, helping to spice up dialogue and create a sense of place. But, why stop there? Peppering our daily conversations with colorful phrases that describe the human experience allows us to slow down and savor the richness of regional language and culture.
Why settle for, “he’s a few bricks shy of a load,” when you could easily substitute “the porch light is on, but nobody’s home” — or come right to the point: “if that boy ever had a good idea, it would die of loneliness.”
Cultivate a folksy persona by sprinkling your conversations with phrases like “well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit,” and “if you can’t run with the big dogs, stay under the porch.” Or, convey a warm sense of empathy with, “well, don’t that just knock your hat in the creek?” That’s the kind of pure disappointment we’ve all experienced at one time or another.
Without naming any names, you could accurately describe a braggart as someone who “blew in on his own wind,” or, tag him with my personal favorite: “I’d like to buy him for what he’s worth and sell him for what he thinks he’ll bring.”
Southerners, in particular, know how to strike a blow with a few choice words. “She’s so ugly she could make a freight train take a dirt road,” or, “he’s so cheap he wouldn’t give a nickel to see Jesus ridin’ a bicycle.” I don’t know which is worse, but neither expression is particularly forgettable.
Maybe your mother-in-law “speaks ten words a second, with gusts to fifty,” or your brother “learned to whisper in a sawmill.” I recently played on this expression in a short story, describing a woman with a “voice that could be heard clearly in a sawmill facing a tight deadline.” It worked.
Self-awareness is equally important. You might rethink your clothing choices if you hear folks whispering: “Pull that skirt down — we can see all the way to the promised land.” And it’s hard to think of a more subtle insult than to extend the following polite invitation, “anytime you happen to pass by my house, I’d sure appreciate it.”
But colorful regional expressions aren’t always derogatory. I might warm up to a man who exclaimed, “that woman looks so good I could sop her up with a biscuit,” or, the slightly racier version, “I’d rather watch her walk than eat fried chicken.”
Culinary-themes aside, I think I could fall hard for a man who truly got me — the kind of man who might say, admiringly, “she’s sure got some snap in her garters.” And, I do. But any comparison to fried chicken is a pretty good place to start. | https://medium.com/swlh/the-writers-craft-your-guide-to-regional-expressions-and-spicing-up-everyday-conversations-4a62cbc93530 | ['Wendy Cohan'] | 2020-03-19 06:05:05.703000+00:00 | ['Colorful Language', 'Colloquialisms', 'Writing Craft', 'Regional Expression', 'Writing'] |
Fears And Doubts About Ways To FILL Your Sketchbook in 2021. | FILL Your Sketchbook
There’s this little thing that we all want to fill up and we buy more and more of them. We don’t do anything with them and it’s kind of an addiction. You see a cute sketchbook, you got to have it, but it’s kind of hard to fill them sometimes. So summers coming. I wanted to tell you guys a couple of ways to fill your sketchbook in the summer. I’ve got a lot of ways but first I’m gonna give you a disclaimer at the beginning. like there’s this kind of stigma where We as artists feel this odd pressure when it comes to sketchbooks. Now, this kind of comes with like a black and a white area. Your sketchbook should never be something that you finish projects. People say you need to push yourself and create good stuff in your sketchbook. I’m not going to tell you to do either one of those things because that your sketchbook is your place.
Sketchbook Process
So, right now I’m using this little field artist sketchbook. Gonna measure it real quick. Yeah, it’s 5 by 5, good. I’ll leave the link below because I love this thing. What’s cool about this sketchbook? Let me tell you why. I’m gonna open it to an empty spot, So, there are no spoiler alerts. The paper in this is so thick, you can take it out into nature, do what you want, you can paint on it, which is great. You can use comics in it, which is great. It’s watercolor paper, but I find everything works in it because the paper is sturdy. Yeah, it works for all my needs. but you know, if you don’t paint a lot, this sketchbook might not be useful to you. You might want one that’s for Copic markers and the stuff doesn’t bleed through, what’s it called? A Crescent renders sketchbook. I’ll link that below too because those are good for markers. My friend Chloe Rose actually sent me this sketchbook, which is for acrylics. So there’s pretty much one for everybody out there. This one is cool, by the way. Yourself to different surroundings if you’re struggling with inspiration.
This is something, my husband. We go to coffee shops or you know, I work on art during car rides, plane rides, at airports, new places. It sparks inspiration for me to change up my surroundings. Go somewhere else instead of my house and it always — I don’t know. It makes me want to draw. So it’ll inspire you a little bit too. Coffee shops are definitely my favorite place because I can feel like I’m dating my husband. It’s a win-win situation. Why not? The next thing takes yourself into places that you know will inspire you. For me, my weak spot is nature. Here we are approaching this little piece of beauty and this is what we’re doing here. We’re gonna set up some art area and my husband’s gonna sit with me and I’m gonna draw. Here we are. Opening the sketchbook, and I’m doodling what I see. It doesn’t have to be anything special but you know, what it gets the creative juices flowing. That’s what we want. That is exactly what we want and it’s always a good time.
Flowers Filling
We have fun and he’ll have a book or studying whatever. I usually draw what I see or paint leaves. That kind of thing. It works out. I definitely think nature inspires me the most because. My subject matter usually incorporates nature in a lot of my larger pieces. you’ll see some sort of flowers or leaves or something incorporated into the drawing. A lot of the time nowadays my main subject has become nature. So, like surrounding myself in that helps with creating artwork. Even if it’s a doodle, I like it. The fourth thing you can do, if you’ve made smaller artwork. You don’t know where to put it, You can hide it inside your sketchbook. For me. This is satisfying, having stuff falling out of my sketchbook all the time. I don’t know why. I love it. So, I like adding small pieces. Sometimes I even press flowers in my sketchbook like this orchid here. You could do that if you want since it’s summer. For more update about drawing art and filling sketching then visit Cool drawing ideas
Flowers are everywhere. It’s always pretty Right now, I’m going to press these pretty leaves in it to show you what you can do for the next thing. Whoo-hoo! All right. I let those sit in my sketchbook for a nice day. They got flat and now I’m using Mod Podge to secure them to the page. Sometimes leaves fall out and that can get annoying. because they crinkle I didn’t want them to fall apart. They’re gonna stay here forever and they usually keep their color when I do this. It’s pretty opening them up later and looking at the pages. I also took this little paper Monstera — is how you say it? Leaves and I put those on the other side, that way it’s like a whole Mod Podge spiel going on. I liked the way that turned out. This is the stuff that inspires me, So I may as well have it on hand in my sketchbook, right?
But you don’t have time to create your idea or you don’t feel like it right there and then, you have this stream of ideas? Well, I like to keep lists in my sketchbook. See this isn’t even like real art projects. This is like: I’m gonna put my ideas in here for later and it helps me. when I need inspiration and I need to get creative juices flowing and your sketchbook. it’s okay and I find it helps me so much when I look through my sketchbook, and I’m like, I forgot about that. I can do that right now. So yeah. Even if you don’t feel like making art, you can make a list if you want. Up to you because it’s your sketchbook guys. Swatch colors see I’m trying to show you different things. You can do that aren’t actually full-on projects. Because these are the things that always spark my inspiration. Cool drawing ideas pictures in my sketchbook later. Because I’m giving myself lists of ideas and now I’m swatching different colors.
So sometimes I’ll look at different colored things. that I pick out, as this color scheme here that I’m painting, you know, I’m gonna clarify. I’m like that would be fun to make something with that. I don’t know what I’m gonna make but I’ll challenge myself. I’ll set up these different color schemes, and then I’ll try to roll with it later and it ends up being very fun. I do it all the time in Photoshop. I’ll grab swatches from furniture pictures, interior design rooms. I’m like, ooh, I love this color scheme. so yeah, I’ll save it in my sketchbook. It’s inspirational. I love doing this. I definitely encourage you to try it, if you don’t do this. You can make your page pretty too. It’s all colorful. Hmm. The next thing you can do is take those ideas that you wrote down and roll with it do a draft. You want to make it into a larger project later. Haha. Ya can! This one wasn’t actually on my list of ideas, but looking at my list of ideas. I kind of came up with this. so I’ve been working on these animals in clothing series and if you watch my other youtube videos, you’ll see that.
I put a couple of animals on that list and then I thought about it. I could do a little bunny or a cat in a teacup and that’d be cute. So, that’s what I’m doing right here. You’ll notice that I’m not developing it or anything. I’m kind of splashing some color here and there and then adding some fun details. You can do a full piece if you want or you can do a little draft like this. So, you have your idea down and develop it into something bigger later or leave it. I mean, as I said, it’s your sketchbook, you get to do what you want. I’m trying to give you inspiration for the summer on how to fill your sketchbook. I hope you can kind of breakthrough that, you have to do what other people are saying. You should do it in your sketchbook because your art is your expression. It’s like an extension of yourself within this beautiful art diary that you make your own. I hope you feel like there’s less pressure for you and that you can do some of these things. Even too if you want If you have other ideas, do them, share them below. So other people can have more inspiration and we can encourage each other as an art community. It’s fun to express myself in sketchbooks and like for a good year. I lost that because I felt so much pressure to make my art a certain way in this and now that. It’s so liberating. So freeing and I know, I did a video, 10 ways I filled my sketchbook over the winter. And yeah, I still am kind of inspired, Inspired! Yeah, that’s the word, from it. So this is the second video. Alrighty guys, before we go, I have one more thing to suggest to you. Because if you do that you’ll always have something on the go and that way.
Source: Cool drawing ideas, Drawing for kids, Cartoon drawing | https://medium.com/@premiumappapk426/fears-and-doubts-about-ways-to-fill-your-sketchbook-in-2021-e2071fbf351f | ['Cool Drawing Ideas'] | 2020-11-24 07:20:54.012000+00:00 | ['Drawing For Kids', 'Drawing', 'Ideas Drawing', 'Drawing Tutorial', 'Art'] |
^~Avril Lavigne I’m With You Guitar Tab~^ | INTRO:
G Am C (2x)
G D C (2x)
Em
Im standing on the bridge
C
Im waiting in the dark
Em G
I thought that you’d be here ….. by now
Em
there is nothing but the rain
C
no footsteps on the ground
Em G
I’m listening but there’s … no sound
D C
isn’t anyone trying to find me
D C
won’t somebody come take me home
CHORUS:
G Am C
it’s that damn cold night
G Am C
trying to figure out this life
G D
won’t you take me by the hand
C
take me somewhere new
Em C
I don’t know who you are
D
but I
Em C
I’m with you…
Em C
I’m with you…
Em
I’m looking for a place
C
I’m searching for a face
Em G
is anybody here … I know
Em
’cause nothing is going right
C
and everything’s a mess
Em G
and no one likes to be.. alone
D C
isn’t anyone trying to find me
D C
won’t somebody come take me home
CHORUS:
G Am C
it’s that damn cold night
G Am C
trying to figure out this life
G D
won’t you take me by the hand
C
take me somewhere new
Em C
I don’t know who you are
D
but I
Em C
I’m with you…
Em C
I’m with you…
D C
Why is everything so confusing
D C
maybe I’m just out of my mind
D
yeah yeah yeah… yeah yeah
C
yeah yeah… yeah yeah
D C
yeah…………..hey
CHORUS:
G Am C
it’s that damn cold night
G Am C
trying to figure out this life
G D
won’t you take me by the hand
C
take me somewhere new
Em C
I don’t know who you are
D
but I
G Am C
I’m with you…
G Am C
I’m with you…
G D
take me by the hand
C
take me somewhere new
Em C
I don’t know who you are
D
but I
G Am C
I’m with you…
G Am C
I’m with you…
G D
take me by the hand
C
take me somewhere new
Em C
I don’t know who you are
D
but I
Em C
I’m with you…
Em C
I’m with you…
G
I’m with you… | https://medium.com/@kamilaomay06/avril-lavigne-im-with-you-guitar-tab-c3e9a65dd311 | [] | 2020-10-08 09:23:28.667000+00:00 | ['SEO', 'Live', 'Music', 'Love', 'News'] |
Illusions Of A Non-Artist | Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash
One day, as a boy
I opened
a big red book.
I think it was red.
I don’t remember.
But I am certain
It was big.
I skimmed and
stopped at a page
that had dates
Late February-
Late March.
My birthday.
Its symbol
was two Fishies
chasing each other’s
tails.
“Pisces.”
It read:
Imaginative.
Lazy.
Addictive.
Illusions.
Artistic.
It had more.
But these
were the words
I plucked from the
description —
Words that
Frightened me.
I then told myself
I would not be an artist.
That I am not
artistic anyway.
That night, I listened
to Stevie.
Bubbled with emotion.
Wrote a poem.
Buried it at the bottom
of the trash — -
to evade predators — -
My brothers.
Then went back to
not being an artist.
And now to think
of it. It is possible
the book wasn’t
Big. | https://psiloveyou.xyz/illusions-of-a-non-artist-4d79363d866a | ['Aaron Hundley'] | 2020-12-13 13:02:51.568000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Artist', 'Coming Of Age', 'Reflections', 'Poetry Sunday'] |
The Importance of Forging Real Relationships at Work | The Science: Strong Relationships Linked to Happier & Longer Lives.
In July 1988, a provocative Science paper by House and colleagues proposed a causal association between social relationships and mortality, based on the review of five large prospective studies. Now, more than two decades after House et al’s seminal review, a generation of research validates their conclusion: our social relationships, in and of themselves, can have an impact on our mortality.
“Social relationships, or the relative lack thereof, constitute a major risk factor for health — rivaling the effect of well established health risk factors such as cigarette smoking, blood pressure, blood lipids, obesity and physical activity.” — House, Landis and Umberson; Science 1988.
Similar findings were also reported in the Grant Study, one of the world’s longest studies of adult life, conducted by Harvard researchers. This extensive longitudinal study was launched in 1938 with the objective of tracking the health (both mental and physical aspects) of 268 Harvard sophomores over the course of their lives, in order to gain insight into what factors could be contributing to a healthy and happy life. The study was subsequently expanded to include the men’s wives and children (women were not in the original study as Harvard was all male at the time). It was also broadened so as to include general findings related to participants’ lives; such as success or failure in career or marriage. Though not a finding anticipated by the researchers; the results pointed to a strong association of relationships and how happy subjects were in their relationships with their overall health.
“When the study began, nobody cared about empathy or attachment. But the key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships.” -Dr. George Valliant, Grant Study Director- 1972–2004.
Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash
When reviewing the wealth of data; including numerous medical records, in-person interviews and questionnaires, researchers observed a strong correlation between the quality of men’s lives and their relationships with family, friends and the community.
Close relationships were found to be protective, helped delay mental and physical deterioration and were better predictors of long, happy lives than social class, IQ and even genetics.
For example, there was evidence that at age 50, people’s level of satisfaction with their relationships could better predict their physical health than their cholesterol level. Those study participants who maintained warm relationships lived longer and happier, while those leading more isolated lives died earlier.
“Loneliness kills. It’s as powerful as smoking or alcoholism.” -Dr. Robert Waldinger, (4th and current Grant Study Director).
Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash
In line with the Grant findings, and even closer to home, a Canadian study conducted by Dr. John Helliwell and PhD Candidate Hugh Shiplett, both of the University of British Columbia along with Dr. Christopher Barrington-Leigh of McGill University reported that after examining the extent of life satisfaction in over 1200 Canadian neighbourhoods, the most important factor driving overall happiness was a sense of community belonging. The researchers observed that rural areas tended to be happier compared to their urban counterparts, despite having relatively lower incomes. Similarly, the top 20 percent of happy neighborhoods didn’t vary significantly from the bottom 20 percent of neighborhoods in terms of household incomes or unemployment rates, however there was a difference in terms of how strong an attachment people felt to their community.
Interestingly, at the level of daily social interactions, there is evidence that that engaging regularly in deeper, high-quality conversations is linked with greater happiness. One recent study by Milek et al. examined the random daily social interactions of a diverse population of close to 500 participants by having them wear recording devices in their ears. Based on self-reporting, those participants who spent more time interacting and having more meaningful, substantive conversations were more satisfied with their lives. Furthermore, this was found to be irrespective of personality types, holding true for extroverts and introverts alike. | https://medium.com/gc-entrepreneur/the-importance-of-forging-real-relationships-at-work-d797dc08ceb2 | ['Dr. Liz Girolami'] | 2019-02-17 15:10:55.904000+00:00 | ['Workplace', 'Relationships', 'Happiness', 'Gce Wellbeing', 'Workplace Culture'] |
Android and the Importance of App Store Optimization | Android and the Importance of App Store Optimization
Optimization is a key to success in the Google Play Store
Photo by Mithun V on Unsplash
One of my closest university seniors started an app-based venture and critically failed within a year. He was bankrupt and felt compelled to shut down the company. It was a total disaster.
Born curious, I wanted to know what went wrong. I studied their business strategy and found out what they’d missed.
It was app store optimization (ASO).
They invested $100k in their venture but never thought of their ASO. They spent their maximum marketing budget in better UI/UX design, beautiful websites, SEO, and Facebook ads. They didn’t look at their app, which should’ve been given #1 priority. | https://medium.com/better-programming/what-ive-learned-from-a-failed-startup-705218255f53 | ['Intisar Mahee'] | 2020-09-07 20:18:08.397000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Mobile App Development', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Learning', 'Startup'] |
Rhyme decent words | Dear readers
We have packaged a simple tool to provide word rhyming using pure web browser-based technology.
Enter some text to see what comes out!
Yours sincerely, POSOWOCO
Anyone know that rhymes are used by poets and occasionally by prose writers?
Or how well they produce sounds appealing to the reader’s senses and unify and establish a poem’s stanzaic form?.
Is Rhyme, also spelled Rime, the correspondence of two or more words with similar-sounding final syllables placed so as to echo one another?.
Would you always use rhymes when you are writing poems and need some ideas for endings?.
Where in poems or short story quotes, can they take place digitally (on computer, online)?
Or it can they just be done with paper?.
Does rhyming can give rhythm to a poem or is it the other way around?.
Can the tool on this correspondence help you in generating ideas?.
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in the final stressed syllables of two or more words.
Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is used for effect in the final positions of lines of poems and songs.
A rhyme may also variously refer to other types of similar sounds near the ends of two or more words.
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in the same language. | https://medium.com/@posowoco/rhyme-decent-words-7fdc191a43f4 | [] | 2020-12-07 14:09:07.459000+00:00 | ['Tool'] |
How to Fetch a Remote Branch using Git | We, as developers, also work with Git. Developers need to understand how to work with Git and the different possibilities of working with repositories and code in Git (such as managing the size of your reports, etc.). Along those lines, testing out a remote branch is one thing you’ll be doing at least regularly, so we put together a short guide to cover the ins and outs of dealing with small branches in Git.
Git: How to Fetch a Remote Branch
When working in the team, You will need to fetch the branch from a remote repository using Git. Simply need to do:
git fetch <remote-repository>
This fetch command will fetch all remote branches and also store all references/objects. Once all branches are loaded successfully, you can check out to the branch you are interested in, giving you a local working copy. Now you can inspect and play with code.
Run this command
git checkout -b <local-branch> <remote-repository>/<remote-branch>
or
git branch <local-branch> <remote-repository>/<remote-branch>
If you have a single remote repository, then you can omit all arguments. just need to run git fetch , which will retrieve all branches and updates, and after that, run git checkout <branch> which will create a local copy of the branch because all branches are already loaded in your system.
Note: git pull = git fetch + git merge
When you run a pull command, it will fetch changes from remote branches and merge them into your local changes, but if you want to get the latest changes and don’t want to merge them into the local branch, you need to run git fetch command.
Fetch command will retrieve all changes from the remote branch which do not exist in the local branch. FETCH_HEAD ref track can be used for fetched changes from remote branches.
This is a good option --track in this command through which you can track the local branch with the remote one. It helps pull and push the changes. Run this command
git checkout --track <remote-repository>/<remote-branch>
The above command will create a local branch with the same name as the remote branch. But if you want to create a different local branch, then include the -b option to create a new local branch.
git checkout --track -b <local-branch> <remote-repo>/<remote-branch>
To verify what tracking branches you have set up, you can use the -vv option with git branch . This will list out your local branches with more information on what each branch is tracking and if your local branch is behind, ahead.
git branch -vv
Conclusion
For software developers, Git is a way to track their code for different modifications. It stores all the various models in a unique database. Git enables several developers to work concurrently on the same principle. A programmer will also need to access the independent job, or “branch,” of a coworker. This is made possible by the git remote branch operation.
If you want to learn more about GIT here is a quick guide on, how to use git cherry-pick. If you like the tutorial, then leave a comment below, and let’s talk. | https://medium.com/@loginradius/how-to-fetch-a-remote-branch-using-git-5c0f6d28264d | [] | 2020-12-16 11:30:17.631000+00:00 | ['Developer', 'Cybersecurity', 'Git', 'Programming', 'Coding'] |
How new age media companies are disrupting sports broadcasting | When Lad bible group live streamed Table Tennis England’s championship no one imagined that they will help Table Tennis England 0.03p cost per viewer acquisition cost with a reach of 2.2 million viewers for a 4-hour event.
This not only demonstrates the command of mushrooming new age (Social) media houses over the target audiences but it also is a sign of newer business models and how sports rights holders can reach its target audience directly, moreover this is the begging of a new wave of disruption in the sports broadcasting sector.
Following is an infographic demonstrating the 12th most followed website in the UK helped a sports rights holder improve cost per viewer acquisition using their platform. | https://medium.com/sportsnexus/how-new-age-media-companies-are-disrupting-sports-broadcasting-3f69789ab442 | ['Nilesh Deshmukh'] | 2017-08-25 11:21:26.171000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'Broadcasting', 'Digital Marketing'] |
VACATION FRIENDLY PLACES TO GO WITH YOUR KID | With COVID, we all have been locked inside our houses for ages.
But as the world is slowly starting to come out of lockdown and everyone around
us is getting vaccinated, here’s to hoping that by next year our lives can finally
resume back to normalcy.
When that happens, we have prepared a list of places you can visit with your kids
that are family-friendly so that you can make some new, beautiful memories with
them.
1- Kashmir
Srinagar is not only the jewel of Kashmir but one of the most popular
destinations among Indians.
With the amazing weather and beautiful scenery, this is the best place for you to
take a family trip.
You can go for a boat ride at Dal lake at sunrise with your children, visit
Hazratbal Shrine, eat the famous Kashmiri pulav or try out mutton rogan josh at
Mughal Darbar.
2- Darjeeling
Darjeeling is famous for the wilderness, train rides and the peaceful treks you can
take.
You can spend your time with your family by taking a stroll through the famous
rock garden or take a cable car ride.
You can visit the Darjeeling zoo and point out different animals and birds out to
your kids.
If your children are old enough and are adventurous then they can even try out
ropeway.
3- Nainital
This is one of the most popular destination among Indians.
Your trip can be memorable by the boat ride you can take in the shimmering lake
in Nainital.
Apart from the boat rides, you and your family can visit the famous cave garden,
Nainital zoo, Jama Masjid mosque and trek to Naini peak.
Don’t forget to try out the famous Bhatt ki churkani or the Aloo ke gutke.
4- Udaipur
This place is rife with rich culture, history, lakes and heritage hotels that you can
stay in.
You can try out a helicopter joyride over Udaipur which is kind of a once-in-alifetime
opportunity.
The helicopter ride around the city for a specific amount of time can be a surreal
memory to share with your family.
Don’t forget to visit the Udaipur museum where you can sit and enjoy the light
and sound show there.
There is also a vintage car museum in Udaipur and if your kid is a car enthusiast
then they will absolutely enjoy.
5- Gir National Park
If your child loves watching the discovery channel then this place is a good idea
to take your family for vacation.
Gir National Park is home to Asiatic lion apart from Africa. There is a discovery
channel of India office situated near this park to watch and record the lions
roaming around freely.
You can book a safari ride as early as possible so that you can watch lions, black
buck, jackals and leopards in their natural habitats.
6- Ooty
Ooty is also known as the Blue Mountains of South India and is a famous
destination for tourists from all over the world.
Ooty boasts of scenic beauty, botanical garden, pykara lake, boat house and rose
garden.
If you are feeling adventurous then you and your families can camp at Avalanche
lake which is provides a unique experience.
The famous food to definitely try out here is chocolate and momos.
7- Alleppey
Kerala is God’s own country and Alleppey is its favourite paradise.
You can cruise the backwater and stay at a houseboat while enjoying the scenery
around you.
The best time to visit Alleppey, Kerala is between november to february.
8- Shillong
Meghalaya is a beautiful place for you to spend your vacation and Shillong being
the capital city is the best place for you to visit.
The picturesque nature around you, manicured gardens, waterfalls and lush
greenery will surely make it an unforgettable experience for you and your
family.
Do try out their famous momos, chowmein and tungrymbai at Cafe Shillong or
Dylan’s cafe.
We hope this article has given you inspiration to look forward to next year when
COVID is finally over and you can start planning out a family-friendly vacation to
take.
If you want to buy backpacks for your kids that they can take on these vacations
then do visit lilamigonest.
All of these places listed above are budget-friendly with amazing accommodation
options for you to choose from and we hope you have a memorable time with
your family.
References:
https://traveltriangle.com/blog/best-family-holiday-destinations-in-india/amp/ | https://medium.com/@ecomm-56661/vacation-friendly-places-to-go-with-your-kid-432dde3d28c3 | ['Kishor Kori'] | 2021-07-06 12:34:58.265000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'Learning Activities', 'Vacation', 'Parenting Tips', 'Motivational'] |
The 10 Most Incredible Individual NBA Seasons Ever— The #Hoop10 Project | My Official #Hoop10 Top Ten Individual Seasons Ever
10. Julius Erving 75–76
We’re going off the board to start out, with the best ABA season ever, a precursor to what LeBron would someday become. A small forward, Dr. J led the ABA in both offensive and defensive win shares and was the #1 ABA player all-time in VORP and BPM, nearly double the runner-up on both.
Erving was 1st in the league in points, 2nd in steals, 3rd in boards, 5th in assists, and top 10 in blocks with 29/11/5/2.5/2. He led the New York Nets to the ABA Finals where his 38/14/5 carried the day and rank among the top 5 PER of all basketball playoffs.
9. Kevin Garnett 03–04
This is my personal favorite basketball season ever. KG was absurdly good at pretty much everything. He put up 24/14/5 and led the team in points, rebounds, blocks, and steals — and was significantly better on defense. KG changed the game for high schoolers and he changed it for big men forever.
For all the talk of the Kobe vs Duncan era, I’m not sure either ever reached the talent peak of KG in Minnesota — but it always seemed like he needed to play a bit more selfishly (how I’ve always felt about KD too). Still he led the Wolves to the only postseason series wins in franchise history… and their last playoffs to date.
All this awesome #Hoop10 artwork was made by Daniel Rowell, you gotta follow that guy
8. Hakeem Olajuwon 93–94
Olajuwon was a monster defensively, but this is the only season in my #Hoop10 that doesn’t totally belong in terms of statistical efficiency. Hakeem’s 27/12/3.5 has been matched or beaten 24 times, and Olajuwon no doubt benefited from dominating the not-so-Jordanesque Patrick Ewing in the Finals.
Still Olajuwon holds a distinction no one else in history can equal — he’s the only player ever to win MVP, Finals MVP, and Defensive POY all in the same year. No star player has ever won a championship with less around him.
7. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 71–72
So this is the part where I admit I never got to see Dr. J, Kareem, or Wilt and don’t have a good sense of where to rank them within their eras. I also assume basketball only got more athletic, more modern, and more competitive in the last 25ish years — and again, it’s what I’ve seen. Que sera sera.
Kareem dominated a 17-team league that lacked today’s size and athleticism, but boy did he dominate it. This is the best win share season of all time with Kareem putting up 35/16.5/5.5 with 4+ blocks a game. Kareem’s season before and after were also among the top seven ever in win shares. I’m not positive where he belongs in the top ten, but he’s definitely in it.
6. Tim Duncan 02–03
Considering Duncan’s per-36 chart is basically identical year after year, it’s nearly impossible to pick a best individual season. And really, Duncan’s greatness lies in his non-individualism… except in the 2003 playoffs.
TD had the single most dominant playoffs of all time culminating with 24/17/5/5 in the Finals and an absurd 21/20/10/8 against Kenyon Martin to close out the season with one of the all-time exclamation marks. He had the most win shares of anyone in a single playoff and the #1 playoff VORP (ahead of four LeBron years) and did it all with 20-year-old Tony Parker and 37-year-old David Robinson.
5. Steph Curry 15–16
Curry was the unanimous MVP and was likely a shot away from being Finals MVP and the leader of the Greatest Team Of All Time, and he did that last part while injured and you can’t convince me otherwise.
Ok, no, he did not have a great playoffs. But he did have the single greatest most efficient offensive basketball season of all time especially for a little dude. That would be 30/5.5/7 with an insane 50/45/91 slash line, with almost all of those contested may I remind you.
Steph had a top 8 PER and WS/48 season ever and had the #1 OBPM all time, as far ahead of MJ at #2 as MJ is ahead of Kobe at 40. And his numbers would’ve only been better if he hadn’t had to sit out half of the 4th quarters after leading his team to 73–9, another thing you may have forgotten. This was an all-time individual season and one none of us will ever forget.
4. Shaquille O’Neal 99–00
If I hadn’t limited things to one season per individual, there would’ve been about 5-7 Shaq seasons up for discussion — but this was unquestionably his greatest.
Motivated Shaq was as unstoppable as any basketball player ever. Teams invented entire Hack-a-Shaq strategies and carried an extra pair of big guys just to have 12 more fouls to give.
Shaq could score every time he felt like it unless you had a guy draped over each arm, and even then still half the time anyway. He won MVP, All Star Game MVP, and of course Finals MVP with an ungodly 38/17 stat line. Shaq could’ve been the greatest player in NBA history, if only he had wanted it.
3. Wilt Chamberlain 61–62
Yes the league averaged 119ppg and Oscar (not on my list) averaged his triple double that year, so the stats come with a grain of salt. But the stats are absolutely absurd even within context.
The man averaged 50 points and 26 boards a game for an entire season. If 50ppg was the product of an era, why did the runner-up have under 32ppg that year? Wilt scored 4029 points — only MJ has ever even hit 3000 in a season, and he needed 61 in game #81 to do it. Over the last 60 years, the NBA leading scorer has put up 27–33ppg 75% of the time, across every era. 50ppg is incredible no matter how much context you need to add. Wilt scored 1534 more points than runner-up that year — he beat the runner-up by Kawhi’s point total this year.
Wilt also had 250 rebounds more than anyone else and averaged more minutes a game (48.5) than actual minutes in a game. Wilt scored 50+ points an incredible 45 times that season; MJ did it 31x his entire career. Wilt’s low was 26. So again, context or not, Wilt is on the list.
So should he be #1? I don’t know. The harder question was honestly if this was even his best season. In 67–68 he had 24/24/9 and led the league in points and rebounds and assists. He had 31 triple-doubles that year including 9 in a row and the NBA’s only double triple-double (22/25/21). The year before that he had 24/24/8 while shooting 68% somehow. Wilt was absurd.
2. Michael Jordan 87–88
Emphasis on best individual season, as MJ was much more an individual early in his career than the champion he ultimately became.
MJ was best on both ends of the court in 87–88, the only player in history to win Defensive POY along with the scoring title. He also won both the MVP and All Star Game MVP as well as the dunk contest, featuring the iconic free throw line jam. Jordan won everything an individual could win.
MJ put up an awesome 35/5.5/6/3/1.5 line that season, the most win shares by a non-center, #2 BPM and VORP all time (behind his following year). Jordan had a 60% true shooting that year, especially impressive considering he made only seven threes.
And yes, the Bulls lost to the Pistons in the playoffs but it wasn’t MJ’s fault — he matched his season line including the only player in history to record back-to-back 50-point playoff games. Only Wilt, Iverson, and West even have two or more 50-point playoff games in their career. And by the way, I’d listen to an argument for about seven other MJ seasons. GOAT.
1. LeBron James 08–09
Never in all my years of watching basketball have I seen one player dominate in more ways at once with less around him.
Surrounded by Mo Williams and Delonte West, LeBron single-handedly carried the Cavs to 66 wins and led the team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. He had the #4 PER, #3 VORP, and #1 BPM of all-time.
LeBron’s 28/7.5/7 is awesome already, but let’s appreciate it in context. LBJ did it in a league that averaged 100ppg and on a defensive slow-paced team. Adjusted for pace and era to Oscar’s triple-double year, LeBron would’ve had 44/12/11 and crushed Big O. LBJ also led the league’s stingiest defense and probably should’ve won Defensive POY with an incredible 22 chase-down blocks that year alone.
Ah, but how can the #1 individual season ever go to a guy that choked in the conference finals? Oh right, cuz 35/9/7 in the playoffs is super choking, kinda like the incredible game-winning three he hit over Orlando. This was actually the #1 playoff PER season and #1 playoff BPM ever by a wide margin, an incredible 0.4 win shares per 48 minutes, also #1 all time.
It was the best individual NBA playoff performance ever capping off the best individual NBA season ever, even if it didn’t get him a ring. And that’s the beauty of basketball, really. | https://medium.com/sportsraid/the-10-most-remarkable-individual-nba-seasons-of-all-time-the-hoop10-project-12d10d3ad3ad | ['Brandon Anderson'] | 2019-09-24 19:17:04.113000+00:00 | ['Basketball', 'Best Of', 'Sports', 'History', 'NBA'] |
Customizing Kibana Web Application | Update III:
Added upport to kibana and kibana-oss from 7.0.x to 7.6.x.
Update II:
github repo to build a customized kibana docker image now supporting 7.0.x kibana versions:
https://github.com/Gradiant/dockerized-kibana
You can inspect the Dockerfile to get more details about the new changes.
Update:
github repo to build a customized kibana docker image now supporting 6.0.x to 6.5.x kibana versions:
https://github.com/Gradiant/dockerized-kibana
The ELK Stack ( Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) is part of our Data Analysis toolset. We make an extensive use of Kibana to explore, discover and visualize data. Kibana has also become a good option to share our findings and analytical results with others. However, we would like to give it a customized look&feel, so people identify the exposed dashboard with our brand.
We have made some minor changes to Kibana code to fulfill the following requirements:
Custom logo and colors in the sidebar.
Custom title for kibana html pages.
Custom throbber.
Custom favicons.
Custom Kibana docker image.
We have successfully modified Kibana 5 (5.5.2) and Kibana 6 (6.1.3) following the instructions shown below. The code can be found in this github repo.
Custom logo an colors in the sidebar
Kibana references its stylesheets in the jade file kibana/src/ui/views/ui_app.jade. Jade is a clean, whitespace sensitive syntax for writing html. ui_app.jade template is the base of kibana’s html pages and stores the link to the main kibana css (commons.style.css) in the var files:
var files = [
bundleFile(‘commons.style.css’),
bundleFile(‘#{app.id}.style.css’),
bundleFile(‘commons.bundle.js’),
bundleFile(‘#{app.id}.bundle.js’)
];
We introduce here our own css, just after the commons.style.css:
var files = [
bundleFile(‘commons.style.css’),
bundleFile(‘gradiant_style.style.css’),
bundleFile(‘#{app.id}.style.css’),
bundleFile(‘commons.bundle.js’),
bundleFile(‘#{app.id}.bundle.js’)
];
Now we need to include our stylesheet in the kibana/optimize/bundles/ path. We can just copy the file in the path, however, whenever kibana needs to optimize and cache its bundles (this happens every time a new plugin is installed, a file on kibana/src path is modified, or certain configurations are changed such as server.basePath), the file will be lost, since it does not come from a kibana source file or from a plugin. To solve this, we have implemented our own kibana plugin. Theplugin contains the following files:
We have defined the plugin as a kibana app, but with the hidden field so that it does not appear as an item in the navigation sidebar. The index.js of the public folder simply imports the main.less file where our custom style lives.
As Kibana does, we have defined the style sheet through a Less file. Less (sometimes stylized as LESS) is a dynamic style sheet language that can be compiled into Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and run on the client side or on the server side. For our custom style we have decided to overwrite the following kibana style properties:
// background color of sidebar
.global-nav {
background-color: #eb2026;
}
// background color of sidebar selected/hover items
.global-nav-link.active,.global-nav-link:hover
{
background-color:#000000
}
// background color and logo of sidebar
.global-nav .logo-small.kibana,.global-nav .logo.kibana
{
background-color:#ffffff;
background-size: 150px 50px;
background-image: url(“data:image/svg+xml;base64,encodedSVGlogo)
}
To add a custom logo you must replace encodedSVGlogo with your logo in svg format and encoded in base64. In Linux OS, you can obtain the base64 encoded string of a file with a simple command:
$ base64 logo.svg
Otherwise, the svg format is a vector format, so the logo can be opened in any text editor to copy its content to one of the multiple websites offering base64 online encoding and decoding.
Custom title for kibana html pages
The title of the Kibana website can be found in the file kibana/src/ui/views/chrome.jade. Just modify the line title Kibana with title YourTitleHere .
Custom throbber
The throbber is the animation that appears on the Kibana page while it does not load all its components. The throbber logo is embedded in .kibanaWelcomeLogo block in file kibana/src/ui/views/ui_app.jade and/or /usr/share/kibana/src/ui/views/chrome.jade.
The message provided by the throbber (Loading Kibana)is the file kibana /src/core_plugins/kibana/ translations/en.json.
Custom Kibana 5.x throbber
Custom Kibana 6.x throbber
Custom favicons
Finally, Kibana’s web favicons can be found on kibana/src/ui/public/assets/favicons path . We have also replaced them by the corresponding ones of gradiant.
Gradiant’s favicons
Custom Kibana docker image
A custom docker image has also been created that includes all the changes described above. To generate the image we need the kibana plugin (gradiant-style.zip), the custom favicons and a Dockerfile. | https://medium.com/gradiant-talks/customizing-kibana-web-application-f74c1b48ec73 | ['Carlos Giraldo Rodriguez'] | 2020-04-28 11:37:14.868000+00:00 | ['Kibana', 'Data Visualization', 'Branding', 'Customization'] |
Return of the King: Roman Gonzalez Battles Kal Yafai on February 29 | Return of the King: Roman Gonzalez Battles Kal Yafai on February 29 Hector Franco Follow Jan 30 · 4 min read
Respect is often earned and not given. However, in the sport of boxing, those who deserve respect do not always receive it.
Unlike most sports, a loss in boxing can be more detrimental to one’s career than in almost any other sport.
A few weeks ago, mixed martial arts ( MMA) superstar Conor McGregor made his return to the sport headlining a major pay-per-view and faced an opponent in Donald Cerrone with a 36–13 record.
MMA and boxing are different sports, and the way losses are viewed is one of the most significant differences.
The moment referee Thomas Taylor counted to 10 in September 2017 to award Srisaket Sor Rungvisai with a knockout victory over the man considered to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (48–2, 40 KOs) had been written off by most of the boxing world.
There were always detractors to Gonzalez wearing the crown as the best fighter in the world. A distinction that was put upon him when Floyd Mayweather Jr. retired for the second time from boxing following his bout with Andre Berto in September 2015.
Even with the variety of available options to now watch boxing, fighters below Featherweight have always had trouble getting respect.
Weight classes like Super Flyweight (115 lbs.), Bantamweight (118 lbs.) and Strawweight (105 lbs.) are often largely ignored by most boxing media.
Naseem Hamed in the 1990s brought attention to the Featherweight division with his vaunted punching power.
In the 2000s, fighters like Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Manny Pacquiao kept the attention in the lower weight classes headlining various major pay-per-view events.
Gonzalez was able to bring attention to the Flyweight and Super Flyweight divisions in the 2010s.
Fighters below Featherweight face the same struggles inside the ring that all fighters do, but they also have to combat the media that largely minimize their accomplishments.
It wasn’t surprising when the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) didn’t nominate Gonzalez for the Joe Louis Fighter of the Decade award.
Currently, publications like BoxRec, Ring Magazine, Yahoo Sports and ESPN have him nowhere near the top 10 of their pound-for-pound lists.
While he is still ranked in the top 10 of the Super Flyweight division, any notion of him returning to the pound-for-pound throne has been swept under the rug.
From 2010–2019, Gonzalez fought a total of 26 times, ending the decade with a 24–2 record with 20 knockouts.
The Nicaraguan was able to score victories over the likes of current WBC Super Flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada, Brian Viloria, Akira Yaegashi, Carlos Cuadras, McWilliams Arroyo, and Edgar Sosa.
In the 2010s, Gonzalez became the first fighter in boxing history to become a four-division champion at Strawweight, Junior Flyweight, Flyweight, and Super Flyweight.
Throughout all four divisions, Gonzalez faced the top fighters each weight class had to offer.
When he defeated Cuadras in September 2016 for the WBC Super Flyweight title, Gonzalez became the first Nicaraguan four-division champion.
This accomplishment was something his mentor, Alexis Arguello, was unable to do in his illustrious career.
Since losing to Rungvisai, Gonzalez has stepped back in the squared circle twice.
He returned on the undercard of the second encounter between Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin in September 2018 against Moises Fuentes, scoring a fifth-round stoppage.
Gonzalez was scheduled to make a return to the ring later in the year; however, a right knee injury that would require surgery kept him out of the ring.
The Nicaraguan wouldn’t return to the ring until December 2019 when he faced the Philippines’ Diomel Diocos in Japan. Gonzalez would make quick work of Diocos, scoring a second-round stoppage.
Before the bouts with Rungvisai, Gonzalez suffered a tremendous setback in his career as his head trainer who had been with him for the majority of his career, Arnulfo Obando, tragically died from a stroke.
Gonzalez has gone through several trainers since losing Obando, even having his father, Luis Gonzalez assist in his training. For now, it seems he has settled on Marcos Caballero.
After almost three years out of the world title picture, Gonzalez will challenge current WBA Super Flyweight champion Khalid Yafai (26–0, 15 KOs) on February 29 in Frisco, Texas.
Yafai, who hails from Birmingham, England, will be attempting to make his sixth successful title defense. The United Kingdom native had an extensive amateur career; however, professionally, his resume lacks substance.
As of now, Yafai’s most significant victories are against Luis Concepcion, Sho Ishida, and David Carmona. Gonzalez will be a step-up in competition, and the first big-name Yafai will have faced.
Fighters in the lower weight classes below Featherweight traditionally don’t have a long shelf life in boxing.
Gonzalez, at 32 years of age, is no longer in his prime, and at Super Flyweight, he hasn’t shown the same vaunted power he showed at Flyweight or Junior Flyweight.
With Yafai being the first real test for Gonzalez since facing Rungvisai, fans and pundits will wonder if they will see the Chocolatito of old. A pressure fighter with proper range and distance who could cut off the ring while being defensively responsible.
While a victory over Yafai for Gonzalez won’t win him back the pound-for-pound crown, it will hopefully garner him some respect from those who treat fighters like they are disposable. | https://medium.com/arena-culture/return-of-the-king-roman-gonzalez-battles-kal-yafai-on-february-29-bc60a8aa63a0 | ['Hector Franco'] | 2020-02-24 20:09:23.326000+00:00 | ['Khalid Yafai', 'Yafaigonzalez', 'Dazn', 'Boxing', 'Roman Gonzalez'] |
AWS Dev and Deploy Series: API Gateway Integration with Application Load Balancer | Photo by Gabriele Stravinskaite on Unsplash
This is a part of the series to demonstrate deployment of a (Production Ready) Springboot Application with PostgreSQL Database on AWS Fargate using CI/CD tools of AWS.
This is the third in the series. Please read part1 and part2 if you would like to follow the overall application.
So far till Part2, I have developed a basic Springboot Application and deployed it in a CI/CD way. This Application reads and writes to a RDS instance. With this implementation, the API is accessed using the Public DNS name of the ELB which routes the traffic to ECS instances. The ELB has no security definition on it and all requests are passed on to the container instances.
Why API Gateway?
API Gateway is a managed solution from AWS which can be used to create, publish and secure APIs at scale with low cost.
Some features:
Authentication for API access can be enabled at API Gateway level which serves as the front door for the applications, using an API Key and/or using a Lambda function. API requests can be limited per a fixed time frame to protect applications from brute force attack. Easy integration with swagger which makes API documentation easier. Lower Latency when integrated with Amazon CloudFront. API requests can be filtered out at the API Gateway if they do not have certain requirements. These requests will not reach the Application, thus failing fast.
Implementation
The code is found on my GitHub. The relevant branch for this is 3-elb-api-gateway.
Just as in part2 the custom domain is used for the API endpoint creation. This is much more user friendly than the random endpoint created by API gateway.
The Application Deployment and access flow looks as follows,
Application work flow with ELB and API Gateway
The file api-config.yaml is used to create the underlying resources for a API deployment such as Domain Name, SSL Certificate, API Key and a Usage Plan. Domain Name and SSL Certificate are optional if you do not own a domain name. You can still use API Gateway but with a randomly created endpoint.
API-config is a generic stack and the same can be used to deploy multiple APIs under the same domain name. The Usage Plan is specified with specific quota and Throttle limits to protect the API from Brute Force Attack. The values which I chose here are purely arbitrary and these values in a real scenario will be chosen upon API usage and necessity.
ApiUsagePlan:
Type: AWS::ApiGateway::UsagePlan
Properties:
Quota:
Limit: !Ref QuotaLimit
Period: !Ref QuotaPeriod
Throttle:
BurstLimit: !Ref ThrottleBurstLimit
RateLimit: !Ref ThrottleRateLimit
UsagePlanName: !Ref UsagePlanName
Although the same can be achieved without using swagger, I chose Swagger to separate API creation and definition. Using a swagger file also has a specific advantage of not having to create API documentation separately. This is out of scope for this post but a “good to know” point.
Swagger definitions are used to define the API Request and Response. This, in conjunction with the “Request Validator” is particularly useful in case of POST requests where there is a possibility of “Bad Request” coming in. Such requests are filtered out without reaching the Application Layer. The relevant section is as follows.
... x-amazon-apigateway-request-validators:
RequestValidator:
validateRequestBody: true # Checks JSON schema for POST requests
validateRequestParameters: true
x-amazon-apigateway-request-validator: RequestValidator .... definitions:
Employee:
type: “object”
description: “A Single employee entry”
properties:
employeeId:
type: integer
firstName:
type: string
lastName:
type: string
age:
type: integer
gender:
type: string
enum:
- MALE
- FEMALE
- OTHER
- “0”
- “1”
- “2”
required:
- firstName
- lastName
- age
Any incoming requests without the required fields or with an invalid type will be halted at API Gateway and a failure is notified to the API consumer.
The following is the relevant part for the Load Balancer and API Gateway Integration.
EmployeeApiStage:
Type: AWS::ApiGateway::Stage
Properties:
DeploymentId: !Ref EmployeeApiDeployment
RestApiId: !Ref EmployeeApi
StageName: !Ref Stage
Variables:
employeeELB: !GetAtt LoadBalancer.DNSName
DNS Name of the Load Balancer is used as a Stage Variable for the API deployed. This stage variable is used in the swagger file as shown below.
Summary
The Application is now CI/CD with every commit happening on GitHub to automatically build and deploy till Dev and wait for Approval for Prod and then automated again. There is also the usage of RDS instances which is a persistent and highly available DataBase solution. Although there is room for advanced protection such as Incognito Pools and Lambda Authorizers, this implementation offers enough firsthand protection for the API behind.
Until I come up with another idea: Clap on, Comment, Share and Follow!
Happy Coding!
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Follow us on Twitter 🐦 and Facebook 👥 and Instagram 📷 and join our Facebook and Linkedin Groups 💬 | https://faun.pub/aws-dev-and-deploy-series-api-gateway-integration-with-application-load-balancer-414a66b9bf7b | ['Sriharsha Polimetla'] | 2020-11-22 21:17:43.453000+00:00 | ['Rest Api', 'Load Balancing', 'DevOps', 'Api Gateway', 'AWS'] |
8 Ways to Spot Cracks in Your Relationship (Before They Become Canyons) | “Marriage is very difficult. Marriage is like a five-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle, all sky.” — Cathy Ladman, comedian.
A woman said she was sick of her partner.
His habits annoyed her, they had little fun, less sex and constantly niggled at each other over trivial things. She had begun to wonder if she could do better. “Actually, I don’t care about that — I’d be just as happy on my own.”
But would she? Breaking up a relationship — especially when there are kids involved — is a high stakes game. It can change everything: family dynamics, financial situations, living conditions, friendships.
While there are very clear cases for leaving — such as an abusive relationship, having your trust broken irredeemably or going through a trauma that neither partner can recover from — many relationships are worth more investment.
So when you feel the burn of dissatisfaction, hit pause and know you are normal. Almost no-one floats through an entire relationship on a golden cloud. Even couples celebrating their diamond wedding anniversaries will list “tolerance” (or gin) as the secret to their togetherness.
All relationships go through times when (hopefully) it’s great, times when it’s okay; and times when it’s all a bit crap. So before you toss your relationship on the scrap heap — especially one with a long history to it — consider if a little more effort might make a difference.
8 Ways to Spot Cracks in Your Relationship (Before They Become Canyons)
If you’ve squared away the most common problems — time, money, chores, sex and blended/extended family — run these eight tests to see if your relationship needs some TLC. And if it does, try the tips to help.
#1. The I’ve-Got-News Test
Something great — or just interesting — happens during the day/on the news. Your partner used to be the first person you’d rush to tell. But you no longer do that. Has someone else replaced your partner, even just in your thoughts? Tip: Be honest about who you most enjoy talking to; who you go to with your best news/gossip. Is that something you need to change? Quickly?
#2. The Free-Time Test
You finally get a free weekend and your partner is free too. You know you need some time together BUT you’re not sure you’d rather spend the weekend with him/her. You’d rather be with someone else (heed an extra warning if it’s a specific someone else) or see your friends or even be alone. If this is you, be careful — especially if you’re aware your relationship needs attention. Tip: Create a window of time just for your relationship (even a coffee date is a start) and then do your best to be fully present during it…or be prepared for the distance to creep in.
#3. The We-Don’t-Talk-Anymore Test
You go out for the evening and you find yourself with little to say to each other beyond work, family and domestics. You take a short term focus, no longer making enthusiastic plans for yourselves — or your future. Communication problems are a thorn in any relationship — and one of the most common reasons it starts to unravel. So start talking — and listening. Tip: ask your partner a decent question beyond what you would normally cover. See what comes back to you. And follow-up on it!
#4. The What-Was-That-Again Test
You tell your partner a story or some news or you update them on your day/life. Then you have to repeat yourself because they didn’t hear you — their mind is somewhere else. Or perhaps you’re the one who looks at them blankly? Everyone gets distracted from time to time but if it’s a repeat pattern, it gets boring — and it’s dangerous for your relationship. We all want to feel heard and understood by our partners — and none us want to feel boring. Tip: Don’t multi-task when your partner’s talking. Look at them. Respond to their statements (to show you’ve heard). If you really struggle with distraction, learn some mindfulness tricks for keeping your head in the present moment.
# 5. The My-Phone-is-More-Interesting Test
One (or both) of you is always on your phone or device. You tell yourself it’s entertaining, it’s useful, it’s a time-filler, it’s a distraction from the daily grind. Honestly, it gives you more than your partner does…..hmmm, there’s a warning bell clanging. Tip: Set (agreed) boundaries around your use of devices. Even a couple of e-free hours in the evening is a good start. Reward yourselves for sticking to it.
#6. The Niggle Test
You find yourself picking fights over things you later realise are trivial. Be careful: conflict is okay if the reason is fair and you are able to address it in a healthy way. If your niggling leads you to bring up big old wounds or historical problems you’re heading for trouble. It’s not fair, either. Tip: keep your criticisms current and specific — try to avoid attacking your partner’s personality at all costs. Behaviour can be changed but personality traits are a lot harder to change.
#7. The Not-in-Front-of-the-Kids Test
You try not to fight in front of the kids but you struggle to contain it. This makes you feel worse because you know it’s not good for them. But you know stony silences aren’t either. You’re right. Research tells us that kids take a psychological hit with both unresolved conflict and silence. Tip: You’re just people so conflict will arise from time to time. It can be healthy to raise and sort things out too. But remember you’re modelling your ability to resolve conflict to your kids so, if your emotional management and conflict resolution skills aren’t sound, make it a priority to learn some.
#8. The Lonely-in-a-Crowd Test
You feel alone even when you’re together. You don’t feel your partner’s got your back; you’re not sure you’re up for protecting theirs. You don’t laugh and have fun together. You can’t feel the connection anymore. Tip: We’re treading serious turf now so sit down and talk honestly to you partner. It’s possible he/she feels it too? Make a joint plan to address it. Avoiding problems can take you into an even darker place. | https://karennimmo.medium.com/8-ways-to-spot-cracks-in-your-relationship-before-they-become-canyons-fba4f1ea5fd9 | ['Karen Nimmo'] | 2020-01-26 22:02:08.526000+00:00 | ['Mental Health', 'Self Improvement', 'Love', 'Relationships', 'Psychology'] |
Time for plan B? | Blockchain Technology
What Is A Block-chain and why does it matter?
A blockchain is a digital ever growing list of data records. Such is a list comprised of many blocks of data, organized in a chronological order. The blocks are linked and secured by cryptographic proofs.
Blockchain providence of excellence proof of prior existence
As a distributed ledger technology(DLT), the blockchain is intentionally designed to be highly resistant to modification and frauds(such as double-spending)
A famous writer and cryptographer has been quoted to say that the result of it, is a distributed system with no single point of failure. For example peeps transacting directly with each other with the help of p2p network to check for double-spending.
Assuming…
A seller goes into the chain and deletes something from the records. How do you handle the situation?
As much as beauty is dangerous, intelligence is lethal .
Blockchain intelligence will compare the seller’s records to all other records. When the alteration is noticed, then it will require rebuilding of all blocks above the changed one. The combination of these blocks provides immunity to unofficial changes.
So…what kind of data does blockchain accommodate?
Think of everything and anything that has value. From financial transactions, identity management, Internet of things(IoT), smart contracts, supply chain auditing, land title registration and last but not least among the few mentioned is governance!
Similar to how the Internet revolutionized the way people process information and connect with one another, smart contracts for example, promise to fundamentally change the way societies make and keep agreements among individuals and groups. They are deterministic. Once added to the blockchain, they execute as coded. Because the contract is self-executing, neither party can alter the clauses or decide to renege on their end.
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots~Marcus Garvey
History of Blockchain
The first prototype of a blockchain dates back to the early 1990s when computer scientist, Stuart Haber and physicist, W. Scott Stornetta applied cryptographic techniques in a chain of blocks to secure digital documents from data tampering. The work of Haber and Stornetta certainly inspired the work of Dave Bayer, Hal Finney and many other computer scientists and cryptography enthusiasts.
Eventually this led to the creation of bitcoin, the first decentralized global electronic cash system(or simply the first cryptocurrency). The Bitcoin whitepaper, an open source project was first published in 2008 under the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Although the blockchain technology is older than Bitcoin, it is a core underlying component of most cryptocurrency networks, acting as a decentralized distributed and public digital ledger that is responsible for keeping a permanent record(chain of blocks) of all previously confirmed transactions
This being my episode zero of blockchain series in the new decade, i’m looking forward to doing another episode, one, with you! | https://medium.com/devcnairobi/time-for-plan-b-d19c07cf29d5 | [] | 2020-08-20 15:08:53.968000+00:00 | ['Open Source', 'Technology', 'Cryptography', 'Finance', 'Blockchain'] |
Lifting a Ban on Safety | Terry H. Schwadron
March 18, 2020
When the Keystone XL Pipeline project popped up, the prime justification for building a 1,300-mile pipeline to move Canadian oil to Gulf ports was safety for transporting oil long distances.
Indeed, it was only because the Obama administration challenged the notion, accepting the popular insistence and protests that such a pipeline would inevitably start leaking crude oil into the soil across a number of states and tribal areas that the project got delayed — until the Trump administration took over.
The project was summarily approved and the Trump assault on the nation’s environmental regulations was on.
Indeed, various pipelines have leaked. Still, on the whole, word among environmentalists was that the pipelines, flawed as they are, prove much safer than the idea of transporting fuels through populated areas by trains.
So, it should surprise no one that the Trump administration is now moving to allow railroads nationwide to ship liquefied natural gas as part of a push to increase energy exports. That practice has remained banned because of uncertain hazards.
This time, the change involves the Transportation Department which has proposed a rule allowing liquefied natural gas, or LNG, shipments and imposing no additional safety regulations. It could go into effect in early May — eight months before results are expected from a Federal Railroad Administration study of tank car safety.
There has been criticism from local elected officials, attorneys general from 15 states and the District of Columbia, firefighter organizations, unions that represent railroad employees, environmentalists and the National Transportation Safety Board.
*
The Washington Post recently outlined the proposals, the politics and the chances for accidents, noting that trains of tank cars would run through populated areas in South Florida and through Philadelphia, where it should share tracks with passenger trains. The Associated Press has published a list of the most dramatic oil tank-car accidents.
The Transportation Department also proposed the rule without consulting Native American tribes, violating the treaties between the Puyallups and the federal government, as well as executive orders governing relations with Native Americans signed by presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Already, small amounts of LNG have been transported by rail on a trial basis in Alaska and Florida.
If the new rule is adopted, trains of 100 or more tank cars, each with a capacity of 30,000 gallons, could start carrying LNG, primarily from shale fields to saltwater ports, where it would be loaded onto ships for export. Those routes cross hundreds of different jurisdictions across the country, some that rely on volunteer firefighters as first responders, as well as major population centers.
The rule apparently did not get much notice. The time for public comment has closed.
Those pushing for a rule change have included energy companies and railroads who want to take advantage of a glut in natural gas to export it, earning better prices than the domestic market will support. Donald Trump ordered the change last year, with a shortened review period.
*
Curiously, one of the bigger objections came from the government itself, in the form of the National Transportation Safety Board. It wrote, “The risks of catastrophic LNG releases in accidents is too great not to have operational controls in place before large blocks of tank cars and unit trains proliferate.”
But that’s just about public safety, not about promoting fossil fuel companies, a more central agenda for this White House. For the sake of realizing energy products from the United States and efficiency, Trump wrote that the country has to “reduce regulatory uncertainties.”
In support of the rule change, the Association of American Railroads said trains have fewer accidents than trucks and still can reach areas that pipelines cannot.
Local officials, including Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, and firefighters noted that there have been numerous accidents and explosions over the years and called for more study.
While noting that liquid natural gas is less flammable than crude oil, The Post noted several accidents. In 2013, in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, 47 people were killed when a runaway train exploded. Six months later, an oil train rammed into the derailed cars of a grain-carrying train in Casselton, N.D., unleashing exploding fireballs and forcing the evacuation of more than 1,400. The crews of the two trains were on different radio frequencies. On Feb. 6, a Canadian Pacific train carrying crude oil derailed and burst into flames outside Guernsey, Saskatchewan. A CSX train carrying ethanol ignited after it derailed in eastern Kentucky on Feb. 13.
Escaping vapor clouds can ignite and burn at extreme temperatures; the standard response is to let such fires to burn out because they are not extinguishable. LNG also can leak if extremely cold temperatures are not maintained inside the cars. The proposal includes designs for tank cars that are 50 years old.
The Post noted that one company given special permission to run a small trial program set specifics like speed limits and safety requirements that are not included in the expanded proposals. The NTSB also argued for a regulation requiring the placement of five cars without hazardous materials between the locomotive and LNG cars, for the safety of the train crews — though there apparently are only 67 tank cars that could carry LNG under the rule in the entire country. Results of a Federal Railroad Administration safety test of those cars is not expected until a year from now.
In Washington State, a project to supply natural gas to ships traveling from Puget Sound to Alaska, has drawn protest from the urban Puyallup Tribe in Tacoma because it runs up against their reservation. The tribe argues that there has not been negotiation about LNG or toxic byproducts — required consultation.
It is bad enough that this White House runs roughshod over rules. It could at least acknowledge that public safety is involved.
##
.
www.terryschwadron.wordpress.com | https://medium.com/@terryschwadron/lifting-a-ban-on-safety-db61e5cfa060 | ['Terry Schwadron'] | 2020-03-18 11:04:47.754000+00:00 | ['Transport', 'Gas', 'Trump Administration', 'Trains', 'Safety'] |
Dragon Warriors | I grew up on Fogo Island. It has eleven communities. They were settled by the Irish and English hundreds of years ago along strict Catholic and Protestant lines.
I was born and raised in Tilting, an Irish Catholic community of about 300 people. Tilting, like every other community on the island, was exclusively white and rigidly conservative. In Tilting, the priest traditionally had tremendous authority. When my mother was young, if she was outside after dark and the priest saw her, he could order her to go home with the same authority as a parent. That authority had waned by my childhood, but it was still considerable.
I was raised in a two-parent household, the youngest of two boys. My brother Jeff was three years older than I. Dad was an alcoholic until I was 6 or 7, then he smoked weed into my adulthood. He was angry, bipolar, and I was terrified of him (most of the time).
Mom was heavily involved with the church. When my mental health problems surfaced when I was a child, Mom’s response was to place a Smucker’s bottle full of holy water in my room and take me to the priest (for the record, I would have preferred a doctor).
Based on what I learned from various mental health professionals throughout my life, a child faced with emotional or physical abuse can turn out in a couple of ways. For some, it means becoming ultra-responsible and independent early on in life, to give no reason for a parent to abuse them (in other words, it’s harder to hurt someone who doesn’t need you). For others it can lead to lifelong behavioural and mental health issues. Jeff became the former, I became the latter. Dad didn’t say anything bad to or about Jeff because Jeff was independent. He engaged in traditional activities like hunting and fishing that Dad grew up with and understood. For me, in this traditional environment, playing video games, reading books, and watching science fiction were all activities which resulted in bullying. From my peers and my father (even though Dad loved Star Trek and was a voracious reader). | https://medium.com/@petergpenton/dragon-warriors-a2b0c0f698f7 | ['Peter G. Penton'] | 2021-03-18 03:11:41.644000+00:00 | ['Grief And Loss', 'Sibling Relationship', 'Abuse', 'Mental Health', 'Newfoundland'] |
Deploy Your Angular Application to GitHub Pages | Deploy Your Angular Application to GitHub Pages
Push that app live!
With GitHub Pages, you can create a free website for your repository. It’s super easy and I will show you step-by-step how to deploy your Angular application to GitHub Pages.
First of all, you must create a new repository in GitHub.
Now, go to the folder that you want to contain the project and execute:
git clone repository-url
Replace repository-url with the actual repository URL.
Now open the generated project folder with Visual Studio Code. Delete the Readme.MD file and commit it to check that the connection with GitHub works.
If everything works, open the terminal in Visual Studio Code (Ctrl + `) and execute:
ng new appName --directory ./
Replace appName with the application name.
Commit and push the generated files.
Next, in the package.json we must create a new npm script command.
"githubpage": "ng build --outputPath=docs"
Save the package.json and execute:
npm run githubpage
This command will generate a docs folder. Commit and push the changes.
In the repository settings of the project in GitHub, in the GitHub Pages section, choose as the source: master branch/docs folder.
When you choose this option, GitHub will refresh the page and will display the URL of the GitHub Page inside a light-blue alert. E.g.:
“Your site is ready to be published at https://georgeroubie.github.io/deploy-angular-application-to-githubpages/.”
Copy only the URL and update the npm script command like this:
"githubpage": "ng build --outputPath=docs --base-href=url-of-page"
Replace the url-of-page with the copied URL.
Execute:
npm run githubpage
Commit and push the changes to see your GitHub Page work.
Normally, it needs two to three minutes before you see the changes. | https://medium.com/better-programming/deploy-your-angular-application-to-github-pages-959dc04d9f10 | ['George Roubie'] | 2020-01-15 00:57:36.534000+00:00 | ['Angular', 'JavaScript', 'Github', 'Front End Development', 'Programming'] |
Crossing the Chasm — Part 3. She needed a savior — but the devil… | FICTION: SEQUEL TO PRIDE AND AUDACITY
Crossing the Chasm — Part 3
Photo by Ameer Basheer on Unsplash
Califar gaped at the woman clinging to his leg. Given three lifetimes, he could never have envisioned such behavior. The depth of her distress gutted him.
He tried to pry her arms from around his leg without doing further harm to her injured wrists. She clung tighter. He talked to her, calling her name. She whimpered and shook with violent tremors. If he didn’t break through the hysteria, she might retreat so far he would never reach her again.
He dropped to one knee. Filling both his hands with a mass of auburn curls, he forced her head away from his leg and lifted her mouth. He didn’t know who was shaking more when he claimed her lips.
Heat rushed to his head as a hidden well sprang open to spill out torrents of denied need. He slid his mouth from her lips and circled her face with hard, short kisses, all the while, murmuring an oath.
“By Allah, no one will ever hurt you again.”
He didn’t know how long he’d been satisfying his own need when his crazed mind registered the fact that she had released her grip on his leg.
In a heartbeat, he lifted her off the floor and into his arms. Her fingers dug into his shoulders. He felt the warm caress of her breath as she buried her face in the hollow of his neck. He walked to the cot. Not ready to release her, he sat on the edge and positioned her as comfortably as he could across his lap. Snatching his robe from the floor, he covered her. Gently, he rocked.
The dawn’s purple hues tinted the morning light when the woman in his arms finally slept. She lay limp as a wilted oleander blossom at sunset. Her cheek rested against his chest and the fingers of her right hand lay softly across his heart.
The damp trail of her tears made rivulets of moisture down his skin. Strangely, what she seemed to crave most was the safety of his arms.
Deciding it would be best to lay her down and give his aching back some relief; he stood and began to lower her to the cot. She stiffened, her hands clutching his shoulders. Even in sleep, she didn’t want to be alone.
There was only one way to give her what she needed. He lay down on his back and positioned her on top of him. A little more maneuvering and he finally got her legs stretched along the length of his. Since there were no protests, he took that to mean she had no objection to using him for a mattress, in her semi-unconscious state, anyway.
His body certainly didn’t agree. He smirked. That wasn’t true. The blood pulsing in his head and other parts of his body was proof of that.
Her womanly softness pressed snuggly into him. Days of heat and sweat could not mask the faint hint of jasmine in her hair. He froze as she wiggled her bottom and finally settled in a position more to her liking.
He covered them both with his robe and willed his body to relax. He stroked the hair from her face and wrapped both arms around her. As long as he lived, he would never forget the sound of his name as she had sobbed it over and over in the night. Not his name actually, but her shortened form of it.
“Cali…Cali…”
He willed his thoughts in the direction of their first meeting. Having accompanied Prince Rashid to New York for his marriage to Jacob Ballard’s daughter, he and Rashid had been in Mr. Ballard's reception area when Jessica entered the room like a desert storm. The sight of her had fragmented his thoughts and turned his blood to liquid heat under his skin. Clad in miniscule top and skirt, her bare shoulders covered in bouncing red curls, she was easily the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.
They had met several more times over the course of the past year. As Princess Davar’s friend, he could not have avoided her company, or the resentment she still held for him.
When Princess Davar had resisted her arranged marriage and refused to acknowledge her husband, Prince Rashid literally picked up his wife and carried her away. Jessica tried to stop the abduction. The task of stopping Jessica had fallen to him.
She’d fought him like a tiger. He’d mastered her with a kiss he’d neither intended nor had the power to stop. The memory of those heated moments haunted him even now. She had not known how to deal with the forces ignited by that kiss, and ever since, she had despised him for it.
Jessica moved again. This time scooting her body upward until her head rested on the pillow next to his. The breasts crushed to his chest imprinted her seal on him with each breath she took. Her legs parted as she let each one rest on the cot beside his hips.
It was a good thing this woman slept because he was sure that defeat burned in his eyes. | https://medium.com/the-she/crossing-the-chasm-part-3-380ca608f5eb | ['Lynda Coker'] | 2021-01-01 14:47:18.536000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Jessica', 'Books', 'Romance', 'Novel'] |
4 ways SuiteCRM can Grant Marketing Campaign Success — RT Dynamic | Businesses tend to push out marketing campaigns with a large focus on the best reach possible. This may sound pretty nice at first, but a lot of this will end up being a wasted effort. You really have to segment and get to know your market, before you push out a campaign on them. It’s better to get the right people on board, instead of bombarding the general populace with your message. This is why you must gather data on the target audience that you are going for. If you want successful marketing campaigns, you will need a powerful CRM like SuiteCRM to help you.
Since your SuiteCRM is already collecting and managing all of your data, you will need to leverage all the information. The information will let you know what type of content should be created and to who it should be pushed. This includes all the emails, social media, and other channels that are required to engage the right consumers.
How SuiteCRM enhances Marketing Campaigns
1. Know what Attracts your Audience
CRM makes it easier to understand exactly what it is that makes your audience tick. This is because at every touchpoint data is collected, and over time they form trends. You can then use these trends to gauge the overall change in the behavior of customers and know what they need.
SuiteCRM can equip your business with the tools to segment customers, even when these things change over time. It will continuously adjust customer patterns like their preferences and other buying behaviors. The best part is that all of this will be automatic and in real-time.
This makes marketing teams much more proactive when it comes to changes in the environment. They can then craft marketing campaigns according to those changes and change up their strategy.
2. Message Content and Timing
Having the right message crafted is an achievement on its own, but sending it to the wrong audience will render it useless. Just because you have a large and robust database does not mean that the best idea is to cater to all of them at once. With SuiteCRM containing your segmented audiences, your marketing team can now further cater their messages to them. Help yourself keep the content relevant and actually get actionable outcomes instead of being ignored.
By having the right messages being sent out to your segments, there will be a stronger chance of high engagements. No more marking the messages as read and ignoring them as they will be relevant to their needs.
3. Better Preference Management
Various workflows and automation will go through and clean your data for you. By trusting in SuiteCRM you will bring your own rate of human error down by a significant margin. Data for unsubscribed people is also handled automatically, so there is no fear of accidental emails to their inbox. The interface of SuiteCRM is intuitive and simple to use to ensure your team is performing at maximum productivity.
By going through with automation of workflows, your marketing teams will not have to constantly make changes to customer preferences. Throughout, data protection compliance is always ensured. No more keeping track of the tedium of administrative tasks and more free time to make engaging marketing campaigns.
4. Defining a Marketing Campaign Process
By going through the process a multitude of times, the process will start to become clearer. Overtime, SuiteCRM will also be learning from your data and customer behavioral patterns. Hence, it will be updated by the time you use it for new segmentations for newer marketing campaigns. Every time you have a successful campaign, the associated data for that success lets the system know valuable insights.
Future campaigns will always start with a sturdy foundation based on the insights from the last one. Based on the performances of the previous ones, the factors that resulted in more engagement can be tracked and replicated. With such a large amount of data and track records, the team can feel compelled to craft newer and improved campaigns.
Perfect Marketing Campaigns with SuiteCRM
So there you have it, SuiteCRM will have you creating successful campaigns with ease. A basic rule of marketing, but generally forgotten is that in order to market to customers you should know them first. You can merge this with SuiteCRM integrations suited to different marketing channels to complement campaign creation.
Marketing as a profession is becoming difficult due to all the choices available for customers these days. You have to compete with rivals and stand out amongst the crowd. Using a CRM like SuiteCRM will allow you to stay ahead of the competition.
RT Dynamic, an Official SuiteCRM Expert firm, is proficient in the provision of services including SuiteCRM Migration, Integration, and Support. Get in touch by filling out the Contact form. We will be glad to assist you! | https://medium.com/@rt-dynamic/4-ways-suitecrm-can-grant-marketing-campaign-success-rt-dynamic-525cd1ed4146 | ['Rt Dynamic'] | 2020-12-24 13:14:06.633000+00:00 | ['CRM', 'Suitecrm', 'Marketing', 'Email Marketing'] |
Depending on which figures you choose to go with, between 4% and 16% of the World’s population… | Depending on which figures you choose to go with, between 4% and 16% of the World’s population have a ‘Cluster B’ personality disorder … half of them Narcissistic and/or (they’re frequently comorbid) or Antisocial (sociopathic/psychopathic).
Whilst I admit that it’s a bit of an occupational hazard for me … and I‘m, therefore, likely to be prone to an inverse form of the narrator’s condition in Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men In A Boat … I’m convinced I see a lot more evidence of it than 16% — more like 25%- 75% (if you ask me, you’re pretty much all c*untryfolk).
But there’s possibly more of them in the US than many other parts of the World too | https://medium.com/@whereangelsfeartotread/depending-on-which-figures-you-choose-to-go-with-between-4-and-16-of-the-worlds-population-7c52f898cfa4 | ['Where Angels Fear'] | 2020-12-21 22:05:07.439000+00:00 | ['Cinema', 'Film', 'Movie Review', 'Movies', 'Film Reviews'] |
O que o mundo precisa agora: Uma intervenção para a promoção de comportamentos pró-sociais | Referências
Baumsteiger, R. (2019). What the world needs now: an intervention for promoting prosocial behavior. Basic and applied social psychology, 41(4), 215–229.
(*1) Aknin, L. B., Dunn, E. W., & Norton, M. I. (2012). Happiness runs in a circular motion: Evidence for a positive feedback loop between prosocial spending and happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(2), 347–355.
(*2) Poulin, M. J., & Holman, E. A. (2013). Helping hands, healthy body? Oxytocin receptor gene and prosocial behavior interact to buffer the association between stress and physical health. Hormones and Behavior, 63(3), 510–517. | https://medium.com/@coletivohumanario/o-que-o-mundo-precisa-agora-7ca15748ec53 | ['Coletivo Humanário'] | 2020-12-26 16:11:00.049000+00:00 | ['Coletivo Humanário', 'Empathy', 'Human Behavior', 'Prosocial Behavior', 'Prosocial'] |
Can we be miserable together? | For the volcanic age of twenty-three, my friends and I sure do speak a lot about sorrow. Sipping on his third can of red-bull, S, referencing to our happy-go-lucky college days, spoke with a sense of retirement, “It seems as though we cannot be any happier than we have been, as though we have laughed the most unwary laugh of our life and unknowingly witnessed the sky turn a holy crimson blue, never to happen again.” I found myself internally debating, but eventually agreeing and surrendering to the sense of hopelessness the six of us felt on that windy night at Big Pitcher on Kodihalli Street.
We had opened Pandora’s box of adult emotions.
Growing up, I was always of the thought that you could either be happy or sad. And I had read, watched, and learned that the moment you were sad, you had to immediately work your way to reversing the emotion to happiness.
Calling one of my closest friends,X, I confided, “I don’t feel happy at work”. To which, she immediately responded, “You should be grateful that you have a job”.
My best friend,Y,who recently experienced a heart-wrenching loss of love, spoke about pouring messages asking him to move on because there was so much to be happy and grateful for.
Result? Guilt. Shame.
Result? Instagram stories with “happiness” filters that masked dark circles and hid burned corners of Banana bread. LinkedIn posts with missed breakfasts, overworked, unsatisfied hours disguised as achievements, honors, and enlightenment. What do you and I see? The tip of the iceberg.
And yet, we all continue to pretend, cheer, and uphold a measly mimicry of a perfectly happy life with no space, mention, or existence of sorrow, loss, jealousy, envy, worthlessness, or failure.
We condemn those that speak of it, and we condemn ourselves that feel it.
Can I not be scared and grateful? Can you not be worried and at peace? Can life just not be a beautiful, messy amalgamation of happy and sad, black and white, good and bad?
Maybe then, we can finally allow ourselves to accept, acknowledge our emotions, and heal at our own pace. And just maybe, find ourselves a little less lonely. | https://medium.com/@thedickinsonjournal/can-we-be-miserable-together-3345355cfc88 | ['The Dickinson Journal'] | 2020-12-25 08:11:50.969000+00:00 | ['Acceptance', 'Emotions', 'Social Media'] |
15 Minutes or Less: Set Up Over the Air (OTA) Updates for Your NodeMCU and ESP32 Modules | In three quick steps (and less than 15 minutes), you can set up OTA updates for your NodeMCU and ESP32-based IoT projects.
In 30 Minutes or Less: Build a Wireless Sensor Network with NodeMCU, we showed you how to easily create a wireless sensor network that can send information to a Universal Sensor Hub built with a Raspberry Pi.
But what happens when you need to update the software on these modules? Climbing into building rafters or traveling to remote (or outdoor) destinations to update software can be time consuming, costly and well, just a real pain. In this article, we will show you how to enable Over the Air (OTA) updates to your NodeMCU, ESP8266, or ESP32 project in three quick steps.
Step One — Download and Install the WebOTA .zip File
At the core of this functionality is the WebOTA library. Download the .zip library:
Now Install the .zip library to your Arduino IDE:
Step Two — Download the updated Arduino Sketch to the NodeMCU
The code listing is at the bottom of this article. Make sure you switch to “raw” before copying, or just download the .zip; copying and pasting can add unwanted characters to the sketch which drives the Arduino IDE crazy. There are really just a few lines of code to add the OTA capability:
#include <WebOTA.h> // Initialize WebOTA webota.init();
Serial.flush();
delay(500); // Replace all delay() calls with webota.delay()
// Allows webota to listen for update requests during delay()
// For example: webota.delay(1000); // Finally, at the end of your sketch loop: webota.handle();
Step Three — Test out the OTA capability
Once the sketch is running, export it as a binary file (you will find it in the sub-directory for the project, under Arduino):
If you are testing with the target NodeMCU still connected to the PC via USB, open a Serial Monitor to see the OTA “in action”. To test out the OTA capability, use the following curl command to send the binary file (for this example our filename is “Attic-NodeMCU-OTA.ino.nodemcu.bin” and the target NodeMCU IP address is: 192.168.1.6):
curl -F “[email protected]” 192.168.1.6:8080/webota
Here’s a short video of an OTA in action:
Source code:
With Machinechat’s JEDI One software you can quickly enable cost-effective on-prem professional data monitoring, visualization and storage for your IoT ESP32 and NodeMCU projects. Now you can make sure that your project stays up-to-date without having to leave the comfort of your desk.
Additional resources:
Machinechat.io | https://medium.com/@machinechat/15-minutes-or-less-set-up-over-the-air-ota-updates-for-your-nodemcu-and-esp32-modules-48eb19ef57b7 | ['Machinechat Jedi'] | 2020-12-18 20:09:32.933000+00:00 | ['Raspberry Pi', 'Technology', 'IoT', 'Programming', 'Nodemcu'] |
Use Kali Linux tools in Ubuntu and other Debian based OS in a convenient way. | Use Kali Linux tools in Ubuntu and other Debian based OS in a convenient way. Vinayak Dubey Feb 9·4 min read
Any OS is a hacking OS if you’re notorious enough
Greetings fellow “ethical” hackers. This tutorial will guide you on how to add Kali packages to your Ubuntu/Debian based system in a manner that won’t burn your system to the ground :)
There are a couple of ways to go about it. Building from source is always the sure shot way. But doing that might make you wanna question your existence sometimes.
The other way is to modify the apt repositories either by using apt commands or by manually editing the sources.d file. But its not as simple as it sounds.
Cut to the chase: for a quick fix, jump right to the solution here
SOME CONTEXT
Kali Linux: A Linux distribution developed especially for purposes like ethical hacking and cyber security
Apt: Apt is the official package manager of Ubuntu, Kali and other Debian based Linux distros.
Apt repositories: Apt repositories are where all the Debian packages are stored
BUT WHY?
If you’re a rebel then you probably use parrot, but Kali Linux is a pretty awesome distro and gets the job done most of the times. But there are a couple downsides to it.
If you’re using a virtual machine then the performance and the hardware support are limited. Kali is unstable and is therefore not advised to be installed directly to your system.
Therefore, I felt the need to use Kali tools on my Ubuntu installation.
Not only is it much more user friendly, but apart from hacking, I can also use it for day to day uses as well. It is also more stable and hence can safely be used as a normal installation which reduces the need for virtualization. | https://medium.com/@viny1ic/use-kali-linux-tools-in-ubuntu-and-other-debian-based-os-in-a-convenient-way-ec238634b2d8 | ['Vinayak Dubey'] | 2021-02-09 03:42:00.368000+00:00 | ['Linux', 'Ubuntu', 'Ethical Hacking', 'Computer Science', 'Cybersecurity'] |
Smart-contracts: Ethereum vs. Obyte | Smart-contracts have become synonymous with Solidity scripts on Ethereum and they can be used to create many things: multi-signature wallets, fungible and non-fungible tokens, payments with the escrow and so on. In most cases, you don’t need to decentralize all user interactions, so smart-contracts should do as less as possible. Some people have found out about that the hard way when their smart-contracts cannot be executed anymore because of block gas limit and unbounded loops.
There are endless ways how the same functionality can be written differently in Solidity, which means that these smart-contracts are usually not readable for regular users (even after the source code has been verified) and each implementation of the same functionality can have different bugs because a developer might have forgotten to restrict access to something that should have been limited by default (Parity hack). It’s good to see standardization of basic functionalities (ERC20, ERC721, SafeMath) on Solidity code, but it’s usually too late if your broken code is already up there and you didn’t think about how to replace the broken parts of you smart-contract. Also, ERC20 only defines required functions for the token, but every developer can still write their own implementation — so not all ERC20 tokens are the same. The possibility to implement functions to replace some parts of your smart-contract could also mean that the same ERC20 standard token can tomorrow have different spending rules or even paused by the developer.
Smart-contracts on Obyte are readable for developers and users.
Features built-into Obyte platform
Fortunately, this is not the only way to have smart-contracts. Obyte is an open cryptocurrency platform built using DAG (directed acyclic graph) and it has human readable smart-contracts, which have a set of conditions that need to be true to transfer funds out of them. Obyte platform also has multi-signature wallets, user-created tokens, payments with the escrow and many other usual smart-contract use cases already built-into the platform. It is still possible for a developer to miss some conditions in smart-contracts that can leave bugs in those deployed smart-contracts, but it’s more difficult to make other mistakes because the smart-contract language is declarative on Obyte.
Cost predictability
On Ethereum, in most cases, the developer would have to pay only for deploying the smart-contract, users pay will pay for all other interactions. In reality, the business is also another counterpart for the users and needs to execute some functions too. Since every operation in Ethereum smart-contract costs gas, if a developer added a function that needs to go through the growing list of user addresses, the cost of executing that function will also go up as the list gets longer. Ethereum throughput is limited with block size the same way like Bitcoin, so when there are more users, the fees go up too.
On Obyte, every payment and every data posted by oracles costs as much as it takes space in public database, which means that the fees are predictable for the developers and businesses can estimate how many Obyte Bytes (native coin) they need to acquire for the next year or more. This is possible because DAG architecture doesn’t have block size limit and no block time limit.
Last, but not least, Solidity is a Javascript-like language, but it’s not Javascript, which means it has a steeper learning curve than other existing languages. This means more costs for developing and more bugs. Obyte is written on well-known NodeJS and Obyte smart-contracts are just nested conditions in JSON code. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/smart-contracts-ethereum-vs-obyte-72f95ab6bde7 | ['Stankevicius Mgm'] | 2019-06-18 15:48:57.590000+00:00 | ['Solidity', 'Smart Contracts', 'Obyte', 'Multisig', 'Ethereum'] |
How to write articles that people want to read | How to write articles that people want to read
Here are a bunch of recommendations that the In Plain English team consider to be best practices when writing articles that your readers will find engaging and easy-to-read
Take a moment to give your article a good title and subtitle . Try to make them concise, yet compelling. If in doubt, ask yourself: “Would I find this title interesting enough that I would want to continue to read the article?”
. Try to make them concise, yet compelling. If in doubt, ask yourself: “Would I find this title interesting enough that I would want to continue to read the article?” Don’t create weird formats for your headings and subheadings. Just keep them simple and make sure that the formatting for each heading/subheading in your article is consistent with one another. If you are planning on numbering your headings, here are some examples for you to refer to:
1. This is a good heading
2. This is another good heading
1 : > This is a bad heading
2 #: This is another bad heading | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/how-to-write-articles-that-people-want-to-read-6e661edb6d06 | ['Sunil Sandhu'] | 2020-07-17 22:06:35.637000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Programming', 'Articles', 'Guides And Tutorials', 'Tutorial'] |
Founders Are Our Customers: How We Serve Prime Movers | Founders Are Our Customers: How We Serve Prime Movers
Although most investors tout a founder-friendly approach, few follow through on this lofty ambition. This post explains how we at Prime Movers Lab partner with Prime Movers, the creators of breakthrough scientific inventions, to commercialize their technologies and transform billions of lives. Most importantly, we view and treat the founders of our current and potential portfolio companies as customers. This perspective guides every interaction we have, from introduction to diligence to negotiation to building together. Our process focuses on four components: founder, business, technology, and deal. For each step, we work tirelessly to identify learning opportunities and useful connections that can help accelerate a startup’s growth.
Our Approach
Our founder-friendly approach starts at our introductory meeting, when we ask Prime Movers “how can we serve you?” and “what is the biggest challenge you need support on?”. In our experience as entrepreneurs, most first VC conversations turn into a pitch and information transfer from founder to investor. We think this is a wasted opportunity because we at Prime Movers Lab are entrepreneurs and can offer valuable advice and introductions for founders. We ensure that in our first conversation, we find ways to add massive value that justifies the precious time founders spend speaking with us.
Immediately after this initial conversation, we jump into action to support founders with further feedback, customer introductions, fundraising advice, or whatever else a founder has asked for. We do this for Prime Movers even if we have decided not to pursue further evaluation of an investment, because we are primarily here to help build world-changing companies, and investing is just one component of that mission. We value contributing to founders even if it is not the right time for a financial partnership.
We tell people stories about working with Prime Movers Lab because the experience is 5 sigma out there and utterly different from anyone else we have spoken to. Their service to and coaching of entrepreneurs is the ideal that every investor pretends to offer. We can’t believe how lucky we are. — Gabe Hare, Founder of Reification
We have also designed our diligence process to maximize value creation for Prime Movers such that even if we don’t choose to invest, the startup is in a stronger position for having worked through our evaluation.
Founders
For the founder-focused portion of our evaluation, we provide actionable coaching and feedback to support personal development in the most critical areas to startup success. We are lucky to have one of the world’s greatest coaches and business strategists support Prime Movers in this area. Our Partner, Tony Robbins is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, philanthropist, and the world’s #1 life and business strategist. Tony coaches breakthrough Prime Movers using the tools that have made him the #1 personal and professional development leader of all time. Through his partnership with Prime Movers Lab, Tony gives founders access to his live events, coaching programs, audio content and other premium resources to help business leaders accelerate on the path to success.
Our Partner Michael J Savage is an Executive Coach with Prime Movers Lab. He brings two decades and over 100,000 hours of coaching experience across a wide range of businesses, from startups coming out of YCombinator or 500Startups, to C-Level executive coaching inside some of the most recognizable companies today. For over 15 years Michael traveled the world supporting individuals and teams as a Trainer with Robbins Research — founded by Life and Business Strategist Tony Robbins. He was a Business Coach and Trainer during his time at Robbins Research, and traveled the globe supporting and Facilitating Business Results Workshops on a broad range of topics, as well as Tony’s Life & Wealth Mastery Events. He is an ICF and BCC certified Executive Coach.
Outside of coaching, Michael has successfully built businesses in financial services as well as retail. He has supported founders and startups, coaching individuals and teams, as well as training and certifying coaches working in startup ecosystems like Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project in Las Vegas. As a business coach and advisor Michael holds board seats in a number of small and medium sized organizations, and holds a seat on the Board of the Hero Initiative, a not for profit charity supporting the creative minds behind the world’s greatest comic book and pop culture icons. He resides in central Florida with his partner and daughter.
Business
For the business-focused portions of our evaluation, we strive to help founders identify new strategies, tactics, and experiments to maximize value creation for their customers. We approach these conversations as brainstorming opportunities to help think through marketing, sales, and customer support processes and we share our learnings from serving some of the world’s largest organizations across energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and computing. Our commitment is to unlock so much value in the go-to-market planning during these discussions, that founders say they would have sought the conversation independent of investment.
It feels like Prime Movers Lab has my back. The connections and introductions have been extremely helpful and have provided feedback and support and lead to further great introductions. Also, the help on branding has been huge. Getting a logo and website up fast has been really useful. — Francisco LePort, CEO of Gordian.Bio
For those companies where we do invest, the support in business strategy and high-value introductions is further amplified. Our Founder and General Partner, Dakin Sloss, who built OpenGov and Tachyus and invested in Boom, meets weekly to partner with Prime Movers and assist them in adapting to customer needs as the business unfolds.
Our General Partner, Brandon Simmons, is a seasoned operator and attorney who understands what it takes to scale a company from a few people to hundreds of employees. He served as Chief Operating Officer of Tachyus, where he led global business development, customer success, and operations. Brandon is also a sought-after coach and advisor to startups and nonprofits, including as a mentor at Berkeley SkyDeck.
The technology that our founders develop generates immense value but it’s just as critical that our companies are able to capture some of that value. Our Partner, Anton Brevde, is a fantastic resource in this area, leveraging his seven years of experience as the CEO of Asseta where his day to day focus was on global business development to Fortune 500 companies. He supports Prime Movers in developing their tactics and strategies around sales and business development.
Additionally, our Creative Director and Partner, JJ Moi, who has served startups, governments, and Fortune 50 brands, is available to our startups to help with branding, marketing, and product design. His work helps our startups rapidly establish the look, feel, and polish of a mature growth-stage company to impress future hires, clients, and investors at a minimal cost.
As companies scale, finding the right talent to fill key roles becomes a critical function. Our Talent Partner, Ashley Nowicki, leads talent initiatives for the firm, manages recruiter and expert relationships across different verticals of interest, and advises portfolio companies in hiring and team building. Ashley continues to develop our community and can advise portfolio companies in their hiring and talent development. She can help to create tools and build more intimate ecosystems to support them as they grow.
Prime Movers Lab has been deeply supportive and we feel the partnership. I am very grateful for help on the small stuff and big picture strategy. It has even helped me to create my style and approach. I like our consistent conversations and that we are well synchronized on our milestones and plans. I feel I am not alone. I am finding it very helpful. — Mikhail Kokorich, CEO of Momentus
We also assist Prime Movers by partnering with a public relations firm to announce milestones like fundraising and product launches. We can help our founders develop a press strategy to maximize their impact on the world.
Technology
On the technology side, we perform deeper diligence than most funds and thus typically serve Prime Movers in refining their productization roadmap, IP strategy, and risk mitigation plans. Our Principal Systems Engineer and Partner, Dan Slomski, has designed everything from particle accelerators to stem cell sorters.
Dan and a network of dozens of world-leading scientific subject-matter experts with decades of research and development experience dive in with founders to help them evaluate the biggest remaining scientific and engineering risks and low-cost approaches to address them. Additionally, they serve Prime Movers in considering the balance of patent protection and trade secrets to effectively minimize competitive threats. So far, hundreds of founders have received sufficient value from our thorough technical diligence process to justify the time spent with us even when we haven’t invested. After investing, Dan, and the subject matter experts continue to be available for further brainstorming, design reviews, and technical mentorship.
Dan is joined by Carly Anderson, Principal Chemical Engineer and Partner. Carly has designed gas separation processes for heavy industries and led fundamental research on creating electrical plasma devices. She has experience in startups, technology development, and technical consulting, and offers these skills to portfolio companies by helping them overcome key process design, scalability, and implementation challenges. She has a perfect blend of practical, real-world experience and deep theoretical understanding that she can apply to the inevitable hurdles that deeptech companies face.
In biotech and life sciences we have an equally accomplished Partner in Amy Kruse. Amy is a Principal Biologist and has a background in neuroscience. She has helped an applied neuroscience company develop a robust intellectual property portfolio as well as overseeing innovation and R&D at a global defense company. She managed a DARPA budget of $300M and developed the agency’s first performance-oriented neuroscience program. She leverages this experience with companies in the defense, biotech, or life sciences sectors and can help them navigate arcane government budget and procurement processes or bring complex technology into real-world environments.
Caleb Bell brings our life sciences team experience in biochemistry, molecular biology, and biophysical chemistry. He is a passionate entrepreneur, well-published scientist, and enthusiastic investor. He has started multiple businesses in diverse sectors including the entertainment, food, and biotech industries. His unique combination of startup, venture capital, and technical experience makes him an invaluable asset to our founders supporting commercial and clinical realization of living medicines (cell, gene, and microbiome therapies), bio-inspired innovations being brought to market in synergy with nature, and the intersection of computers and hardware with biology.
Jyothi Devakumar adds depth to our longevity and regenerative medicine practice as a Partner and Principal Biologist. Jyothi continues an admirable career serving in a range of positions from one-woman army to the C suite and across the world, in India, China, Singapore, Malaysia, and the USA. She is a valuable resource for companies developing new regenerative techniques or pushing the frontier of stem cell therapies and looks forward to partnering with companies to bring technology from the lab to the field.
Alessandro Levi rounds out our technical team as Partner and Electrical Engineer. He founded and was CEO of Semplus Corp and has experience across the full breadth of startup CEO tasks, including business development, fundraising, partnerships, developing IP, and operations. He is passionate about mentorship and helping young entrepreneurs. In addition to his skill on the business side, he also offers technical expertise in fields such as robotics, transportation, IoT, telecommunications, semiconductors, and computing. After investing, Alessandro continues to be a valuable resource to founders he works with by helping them develop go to market strategies, design robotic solutions, or reach their next fundraising milestone.
Deal
For the deal, we are transparent, just, and flexible. We offer the most founder-friendly term sheet in the market, giving founders maximum control while respecting the basic protective provisions required for a venture investment. We give founders two board seats and ask for one as the lead investor, and we expect to transfer that seat to the Series A lead to maintain founder-control. We also help founders to set up special share classes that give them additional voting rights. Although we are highly active contributors to the Prime Movers we back, we recognize that it is their vision and companies. We are only there to be an extremely supportive partner, never to prevent them from leading where they believe it is best to go.
I can honestly report that their team has offered value to both myself and our company in a manner that I’ve never before experienced. In addition to offering us access to their minds and Rolodex, Prime Movers proactively interacts with our company as if we are their customer, and as if their only job is to do whatever is needed to ensure that we are wildly successful. — David Bach, CEO of PlatypusNeuro
Additionally, we guide founders to establish FF preferred shares with the ability to more easily gain liquidity along the way as their company scales. We want Prime Movers to be incentivized for the long term and to be able to realize the benefits of their success during that journey. Lastly, we reverse archaic provisions such as companies reimbursing VCs for legal fees, and instead we reimburse startups for their legal fees. Legal counsel for the startups we have invested in have unanimously found us to be setting a new standard for founder-friendly negotiation. We go out of our way to help founders understand how to set up the best deal for themselves and the company long-term, even if it might mean a short-term concession from us.
We also support our founders in helping them plan and executive around their future funding needs. Our General Partner, Suzanne Fletcher, is an invaluable resource in this area having previously spent five years running the Stanford StartX fund. As Fund Manager at StartX, Suzanne oversaw $175M of direct investment in 300 start-ups across 500+ rounds, from seed through Series D, in industries ranging across Enterprise, Consumer, Hardware, and Medical.
After diligence, as mentioned above, we provide two weekly coaching sessions to our founders focused on leadership and business strategy. Beyond that, we are available to our founders for daily text, Slack, and email and serve as their trusted partner. We regularly ask for feedback on what we else we could offer to contribute at an even higher level and add even more value. Already based on that frequent feedback, we have established semi-annual retreats to bring Prime Movers together together to learn from each other and take the time to work on their leadership development. Our Prime Movers also meet bi-weekly in a mastermind to support each other and benefit from peer-to-peer feedback. We also share a proven playbook of sales, marketing, operations, recruiting, and product development strategies and processes with our Prime Movers to accelerate their identification of best practices to adopt.
To summarize, at every step in our relationship (introduction, diligence, building together) with Prime Movers, we take a customer-centric founder-friendly approach and ask ourselves “how can we create more value for founders than anyone else”? If you are interested in experiencing what it is like to be a customer, not an investment, contact [email protected] to explore how we can serve you. | https://medium.com/prime-movers-lab/founders-are-our-customers-how-we-serve-prime-movers-172bf527607e | ['Dakin Sloss'] | 2021-02-17 20:28:00.071000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Founders', 'Seed Investment', 'Venture Capital', 'Coaching'] |
The 8th Continent: Award Winning Design Concept to Clean the Oceans | There is a pressing need to clean up the world’s oceans. Both the health of our oceans and climate change are linked as oceans play a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide. Plastic pollution, 8 million tonsof plastic every year, threaten all marine life. Ocean species are facing a bigger danger of extinction than species on land. It is clear that the oceans are at the epicentre of the planet’s environmental crisis.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme contributor spoke with Lenka Petrakova to explore how mankind might address the oceans’ mounting crisis.
Lenka Petrakova
Lenka Petrakova, Award-Winning Designer and Architect
Architect Lenka Petrakova is designer of the 8th Continent, a design concept of a floating station to rid the ocean of plastic waste. The ocean based floating station is completely self-sustainable and works to remove plastic while also functioning as an ocean research facility.
The pioneering concept received the 2020 Grand Prix Award for Architecture and Innovation of the Sea from La fondation Jacques Rougerie, an initiative established to courage innovation in architecture in coastal, sea and space areas.
Fascinated by oceans, Lenka’s exploration of life underwater led her to contemplating how to help the marine environment to help save the world from environmental catastrophe. Interested in architecture for its duality as both an expression of art and functionality, the 8th Continent is a shining example of how architecture can provide functional spaces for the greater good.
Below, read the full interview transcript.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:00:22] Welcome everybody to ideaXme, the global platform that moves the human story forward. I’m Tali Ramsey, an ideaXme guest contributor and writer specialising in contemporary art, internet culture and society. Today, I’m joined by Lenka Petrakova, an award-winning architect and designer who currently works at Zaha Hadid Architects as a senior architect. She’s the mind behind the 8th Continent, a floating station concept designed to clean up our oceans. Lenka, in your own words, who are you?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:01:01] I am an architect and a designer and an enthusiast for our environment. I am interested in architecture’s ability to support a more sustainable future by implementing environmental strategies and technology. I am the creator of the project the 8th Continent — an ocean cleaning and research facility that could help us not only restore the marine balance in the future but also develop a greater awareness about the oceans.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:01:24] The health of the oceans and climate change are intrinsically connected because the ocean absorbs a significant portion of the carbon dioxide emissions caused by human activities.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:01:42] As well as this, when plastic does break down, it only breaks down into microplastics, which enter our food chain via animals many of which humans then go on to eat. Can you talk a bit about the research process relating to climate change and ocean health which forms the basis of the 8th Continent?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:02:05] I started developing this project as my thesis at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. To create the brief for the project, I researched available information, and I had the chance to discuss with experts on ecological design at the university. I was not only looking at ocean pollution problems, but I was researching ocean life and how ocean plants and animals behave and adjust to the dynamic environment. Sadly, I haven’t had the chance to see the great Pacific Garbage Patch and research the location on my own due to the timescale.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:02:38] The temperature of the oceans is increasing year after year, which impacts the health of the oceans, everything in it and of course climate change.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:02:53] How do you see architecture evolving to help mitigate these crises?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:03:02] I have a few projects connected to the ocean and climate crisis; however, I’ve never researched a process that links the possibility of mitigating sea temperature by architecture. It is an exciting idea, but currently, among architects, you can see more work that addresses rising sea levels due to the ice and poles melting and the sea water expansion. So, we have to solve this by architectural proposals to facilitate our waterfront as the floods would otherwise destroy many cities worldwide.
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:03:37] For the very long-term view, if we have to move the cities deeper into the Continent, we face the problem of really high temperatures as the surface is heating up increasingly. So, there might be a point when we will build much more on the sea to have a better climate and still be close to the nutrients.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:04:05] Can you talk a little bit about the plastics industry and your opinion on how to mitigate the plastic crisis?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:04:16] There are many different options. First of all, there are many types of research into bioplastics, which are easier to produce and recycle. There are now new bacteria that nature created to help to degrade plastic. I believe one of the essential parts is to change our consumption habits. We all talk about how the technology and products used to be of higher quality and stayed with us for many years. Currently, most products are made of cheap materials, and we need to buy the same items much more often. Therefore, we use much more resources to develop these products and then to recycle them. It’s not sustainable. Part of the problem can be solved by focusing on our consumer habits.
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:05:03] However, the position has to be changed at a higher level with substantial restrictions on the material requirements and technology requirements. This has to be global, otherwise we will never change it. Of course, it’s a large issue that would impact many producers and their livelihoods. I believe it might be more of a significant issue than we think, because it’s not only about plastic, but also about the way we live and how the economy is set up. It’s time to have these enormous systematic changes to save our planet.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:05:42] You recently received the prestigious 2020 Grand Prix Award for Architecture and Innovation of the Sea. How did the 8th Continent meet the award’s criteria? Why do you think that the 8th Continent won? Furthermore, what inspired the concept?
8th Continent: Credit Lenka Petrakova
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:06:01] From the concept point of view, I’ve always found oceans fascinating, they have enormous energy on the territories dominated by nature, at least I thought. After careful observation and study, I realised how destroyed they are, how many species are extinct, how much pollution there is and the parts that may never have seen a human being, feel the effect of our activities. After looking into the marine environment only for inspiration, I started to look at how I could help.
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:06:36] This year there were 1694 participants in the competition, among three categories. I believe many more projects were concentrating on the plastic pollution issue, but the strength of this project is in its focus on the combination of the physical cleaning of the ocean with the research and education centre. It creates an interdisciplinary platform in the sea, as well as a self-sustainable piece of architecture.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:07:15] You said that there were also projects that worked on the plastic crisis in the oceans. So, has something similar being proposed before, not just in that competition, but in general? Have you seen anything that comes close to what you proposed?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:07:37] There are other projects that consider the ocean cleaning, and some are already in the testing stages on the ocean. However, none of them are involving the community and none of them are self-sustainable stations implementing partial recycling on the water as mine is.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:08:34] The 8th Continent is designed to be both a method of cleaning up the ocean’s plastic and a research centre. How will it function?
8th Continent: Credit Lenka Petrakova
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:08:48] The station consists of five different parts. The first one is the barrier that serves to collect waste and harvest tidal energy. The second one is a collector where waste is sorted, degraded to a certain extent and stored and the third one is a research and education centre to study and showcase the increasingly troubling condition of the aquatic environment. The fourth part is the greenhouses where plants are grown and water is desalinated, and the fifth one is the living quarters with support facilities and public spaces.
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:09:24] Each of the main parts is developed based on the required environmental characteristics and the program they carry. The barrier floats on the water surface and moves waste towards to collector. The collection technology at the centre of the building is designed to optimise waste handling. The water is filtered and then the waste is sorted and, to a certain extent, recycled. The research and education centre are linked to the collector and greenhouses to follow the water processes and study them.
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:10:00] The greenhouses are shaped to optimise condensed water collection and reassemble large sails to allow wind to navigate the station. Solar panels cover the greenhouses and ensure there’s enough power for the water reservoirs heating which allows water to desalinate over the process of evaporation and condensation. After the wastewater extraction, the filtered clean water is pumped to these tanks and either the desalinated or the salt water is used for halophilic plants hydroponic cultivation. The living quarters, public spaces and support facilities pass through the building centre and connect all the parts geometrically matching the ship’s keel to stabilise the station on the water.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:10:58] The researchers will be living on board and collecting information on the oceans, and I suppose that’s a big part of what sets your project apart from similar projects. What type of specialists do you imagine working there across disciplines?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:11:22] First, of course, there’s going to be technicians taking care of the station and researching how technology should be developed to address the issues on the water. Their analyses should be used to further adjustments of the system.
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:11:22] Then, I’m thinking about marine biologists, who would have the opportunity to look at the development of life under the water and if there is any improvement. Also, chemists can look at how the plastic is broken up and what are the changes to plastic due to the salty water because currently I’m thinking of only a limited amount of recycling on the station due to the extensive process connected with it. I see the project as a platform where everyone who is interested in the marine environment or has another way of helping can come and use this platform for their research.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:12:51] Your project addresses the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is a floating island of plastic waste located in the central Pacific Ocean, called the 8th Continent which extends over an area of 1.6 million square kilometres. Have you proposed that the station is moving, or will it be static? Secondly, it operates utilising tidal energy, but how is it designed to deal with adverse weather conditions that is variations in tides and wind?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:13:28] The station is developed to be located on the open sea. It should be anchored to the seabed, but this connection should allow a station to move with the current for better garbage gathering. It’s essential to consider the sea’s depth for the clearance of the station, which is 60 metres under the water level, but at the same time, the height of the seabed should allow the station to be anchored.
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:14:02] The position also depends on the water currents and it should be located at the part where the ocean currents naturally gather the garbage. Adverse weather conditions have been considered as far as there would be another water structure design, compartmentalisation is proposed. The station’s primary geometrical language is a buoy, and the barrier can fold inside the station, which will decrease its size to only 200 meters in width, which is considerably smaller than many commercial boats.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:14:37] What materials would be used to build it? You have solar panels on the greenhouses, is there anything else you’ve proposed in particular?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:14:49] The material definition was not part of the competition brief. I don’t have very detailed specifications. My idea was that the outer shell would be constructed as a commercial boat, so from similar materials that are already proven to be resistant and durable in these conditions. The interior would be partially built before people move onto the station; the technology would be integrated. The parts that are not essential could be made on site from the station’s recycled plastic. So, the cleaning station is partially built from the pollution that it collects.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:15:28] Going back to the competition and your competitors. Did anyone stand out in a way that you could see yourself working with them in collaboration to restore the marine’s environment?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:15:45] The foundation encourages its laureates to join the junior ambassador program and cooperate for longer periods of time. I can imagine cooperation on projects to raise awareness of the current environmental issues and promotion of architecture that can solve them. Of course, the awarded projects are interesting, and I believe there would be a potential to develop a common project, as we all have to common hope for a better planet and we wish to help it become a reality.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:16:25] Can you say whether it will actually be built and if not, what is required to actualise the project?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:16:33] I based the design on existing technology and materials, so it’s anchored in the real world, but it would need a detailed development and experts to work on the technology and study the construction details. As any architectural work, it needs an investor and time to be specified.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:17:49] Can you estimate the cost that it would take to build?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:17:53] It’s too early in the process to make estimations.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:17:58] If you could connect with anyone to move the project forward, who would it be and why?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:18:06] I believe Elon Musk would be a great patron of the project, with his energy and excitement pushing the technology forward and researching new territories. His focus for things that interest him is well known, and I believe it could help move this project the right way. On the other hand, I think this project could be of interest to him. However, it is not connected to space, but the self-sustainable concept could be developed for the 8th Continent and later applied to other frontiers.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:18:19] You work at Zaha Hadid Architects as a designer and architect. What has been your most exciting project to date while in the role?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:18:32] In May, it will be four years. Every project is exciting in its own way and each project is very specific and unique in its context such as local culture, programmatic requirements and engineering to enable the architecture and surrounding fabric to combine and formal strategy and spatial experience. Sadly, I cannot share any projects that I work on, but I hope that very soon I can get back to you and invite you for an opening.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:19:10] Zaha Hadid herself was a pioneering figure in architecture of the late 20th and early 21st centuries and she was known for her deconstructivism style. Has her work inspired you?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:19:29] Yes, I was following her work for a very long time. I wanted to be a painter when I was younger, and her drawings and paintings captured my attention at the time. She was, for me, an inspiration, in the sense of her work as well as her personality, I had the opportunity to meet her at university in Vienna.
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:19:50] Her criticism of any project was always eye opening. She was a visionary but at the same time, she was enormously interested in the technology and in the practical side of architecture and how people use the space, and their experience should be an integral part of the design. Sadly, I was not her student, so I never got a direct critique from her but listening to her discussions with my student colleagues inspired and shaped my work. I love that at the office we are all huge fans of the work and we all enjoy travelling to destinations of projects by Zaha Hadid Architects. We are inspired by the creation of the colleagues that worked at the office before and it’s an enormous honour to have the opportunity to contribute to developing the legacy of this brand.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:20:41] What inspired you to become an architect? You said that you wanted to be a painter originally, which is interesting. Could you talk of your interest in art? Moreover, the extent to which that played a role in inspiring your career in architecture?
Lena Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:21:04] I’ve attended art courses since my childhood, and I was always interested in paintings. I was interested in how people perceive image and space.
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:21:19] Later, I found this other interest in technology and architecture. Architecture, for me, was the clear choice as a combination of aesthetic, function and technology. When I was trying to study for painting courses, one professor told me that if I want to be a painter, I don’t need to breathe or speak or talk or do anything else than paint. After years working, I can say that I’m happy I found this obsession in design and architecture.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:22:10] You’ve worked on projects that help the environment, such as the ARKantica that proposes using drones to collect existing biomaterial in unexplored Antarctica and then, of course, there’s the 8th Continent, as we’ve discussed. Moving on from environmental issues, how do you see space being utilised to aid social and cultural progress?
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:22:41] The beauty of architecture is in its possibilities. Every architectural work combines aesthetics, technology, fabrication techniques and materiality. It has a large social and economic impact. The architects are, for me, conductors that integrate and synchronise all of the different aspects to create one final piece. Architecture, from its beginning, had the ability to support progress and change perceptions. With the increase of technology, we can change the way we design and support the integration of technology to help the environment.
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:23:42] We have an opportunity to integrate new materials and bring our buildings closer to the behaviours of nature. It all depends on our power to integrate these visions on how the world will look tomorrow. Jules Verne said, “anything one man can imagine, another man can make real” and I hope we can visualise better, more sustainable constructions that will support our communities and nature.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme guest contributor: [00:24:12] Thank you for speaking to me about the 8th Continent and your motivations and inspiration for creating it.
Lenka Petrakova, designer and architect: [00:24:21] Thank you very much.
Credit: Tali Ramsey, ideaXme contributor and journalist.
Tali Ramsey, ideaXme
If you enjoyed this interview, please check out Living Architecture.
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ideaXme is a global podcast, creator series and mentor programme. Our mission: Move the human story forward!™ ideaXme Ltd. | https://medium.com/@ideaxme/the-8th-continent-award-winning-design-concept-to-clean-the-oceans-ab786b4d569f | ['Ideaxme', 'Move The Human Story Forward'] | 2021-03-22 12:40:42.369000+00:00 | ['Ocean Conservation', 'Oceans', 'Climate Change', 'Architecture', '8th Continent'] |
The FCC’s plan to revoke net neutrality is at odds with U.S. and European values. | On Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its plans to revoke net neutrality — a series of policies that require Internet service providers (ISP) to treat all Internet traffic equally. Without those policies, an ISP like Comcast, Verizon, or AT&T will be able to charge consumers more for access to certain websites and charge websites for preferred access to consumers; make some sites faster or slower, potentially privileging, for example, their own streaming services over Netflix and YouTube; and block access to some sites altogether. It will also eliminate FCC authority over data privacy. In essence, it will give telecommunications companies the power to control how Americans use the Internet, undermining Washington’s claim that its technology policies are geared toward protecting entrepreneurship, defending freedom of speech, and prioritizing consumer choice.
While the decision will not significantly impact European policies or consumers directly, it will exacerbate the gap between Washington, DC and Brussels on law, values, and interests when it comes to the role technology plays in our society.
In November 2014, then-President Obama gave a speech urging the FCC to introduce strong rules on net neutrality, echoing rules issued by the European Parliament earlier that year. The speech came at a difficult time for transatlantic cooperation.
The year before, Edward Snowden leaked documents detailing the extent of NSA surveillance, including of European citizens, and famously of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal phone. In April 2014, Safe Harbor — the agreement that allowed for the transfer of data from Europe to the United States — was overturned by the European Court of Justice on the basis that it violated the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. European sentiment was also turning against U.S. technology companies. That same month, Matthias Dopfner, an influential German publisher, said that Google’s business model “in less reputable circles would be called a protection racket.”
Obama’s net neutrality speech provided a useful antidote, suggesting that perhaps the gap between Brussels and Washington, DC on technology was not as wide as it might seem. A few days after Obama’s speech, Andrus Ansip, then and still the EU’s vice president and commissioner for the Digital Single Market said, with some degree of amazement, “The president of the United States is using our wording — the wording of the European Parliament in the United States of America.” It was a coincidence, but a positive one for the transatlantic relationship.
President Trump inherited a more stable but still fragile relationship with Europe on technology policy. Brussels still had (and has) its issues with major U.S. technology companies around tax and monopoly law, but — for the most part — the policy relationship has been acceptable and the policies themselves are interoperable. The EU–U.S. Privacy Shield, which replaced Safe Harbor, had been agreed and was in operation, avoiding the shutdown of data transfers from Europe to the United States. President Trump’s threats to revoke Obama-era executive orders — which included crucial data privacy provisions — were avoided, thanks in large part to the role played by Congress and Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner in particular. The first annual review of the Privacy Shield went better than could reasonably have been expected at the beginning of the year.
But this detente is likely only temporary. The EU–U.S. relationship on technology policy is now informed as much by atmospherics and transatlantic trust as it is by the substance of our bilateral agreements or the architecture of the Internet itself. When the European Commission announced the introduction of Privacy Shield, it opened its statement not by lauding the strength of the Privacy Shield itself, but by paying tribute to the transatlantic relationship: “We have common values, pursue shared political and economic objectives, and cooperate closely in the fight against common threats to our security.” Then-Commissioner Viviane Redding described the Privacy Shield as, “a gift which the EU makes to the United States.”
The gap between the United States and Europe on technology remains, with senior European Commission officials recently describing Europe’s approach to technology as “society first, innovation second” and the U.S. approach as “commerce first.” The revocation of net neutrality rules may further reinforce that view. It may also strengthen the critique that Washington’s policies are less about protecting innovation and freedom of speech and more about crony capitalism at home and mercantilism overseas.
America and Europe should be cooperating to create a technological future that supports our shared values and interests in democracy, global cooperation, and open markets. At present, they are in competition — a fact most evident in American nervousness about the inclusion of digital economy issues in the EU–Japan free trade agreement. As major powers compete to set the norms, rules and standards that will govern the future of the digital economy, America’s revocation of net neutrality will further embolden Brussels in its belief that it is alone in its values-first approach to technology.
Originally posted here as an @gmfus Transatlantic Take. | https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/the-fccs-plan-to-revoke-net-neutrality-is-at-odds-with-american-values-70ecf130715d | ['Amy Studdart'] | 2017-11-23 23:24:57.434000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Democracy', 'Net Neutrality', 'Europe'] |
4 things you can perform to improve self-management | In the ongoing rat race for domination in today’s fast-paced world, it can be extremely hard to manage ourselves on all such different occasions, somewhere we are happy to be there, some not so much, but on all those occasions, we are needed to keep our emotions in check and try to erupt a burst of emotions which we may later regret. To avoid such situations, we can adopt 5 habits that can help us in managing our emotional burst.
Know your trigger points
It can be extremely helpful in knowing what things and people trigger your strong responsive emotional reactions. Try to note the things, behaviors, or people which turn your ticks On, so that you don't regret your actions later on.
Understand our emotions great or sad
Emotions are dispersed and wide. It can sometimes be tough to distinguish what you are going through, but understanding and identifying your emotions will help you understand more about yourself. It will help which things make you happy, sad, frustrated, and depressed.
categorizing our emotional reasons with logical reasoning
Work on separating your emotional reason to do a task versus having a logical reason to do it. It can help count what main reasons and priorities regarding the task at hand, is it derived by emotional reason which may be temporary or there is a very logical reason for you to do that task and vice versa.
Improve breathing
breathing helps in providing oxygen to the brain, if the brain does not receive proper oxygen, a person may have tension, frustration, and depressed state. It is recommended to use meditation breathing techniques to enhance breathing which provides clarity and calmness which provides a way to a healthy and good life.
To summarize, work on understanding your emotional trigger points, try to analyze whatever you feel, take pros and cons from logical and emotional reasoning, and finally improve your breathing.
Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/4-things-you-can-perform-to-improve-self-management-14353ffa4c75 | ['Shameer Ahmed'] | 2020-12-03 18:51:42.970000+00:00 | ['Self Help', 'Emotional Intelligence', 'Improvement', 'Self Improvement', 'Wellness'] |
What Recent AP Style Changes Mean for Criminal Justice Reform | By Rabiah Alicia Burks
The Associated Press Stylebook editors have done a tremendous job of recognizing the unintended consequences of adopting law enforcement language, such as the term “officer-involved,” in crime reporting. In a tweet posted late last month, the AP Stylebook announced an update that advises reporters to avoid using the term “officer-involved” because it is vague, and instead reporters should ask law enforcement for details such as “How was the officer involved? Who did the shooting? If the information is not available, spell that out.”
This change may seem small, but marks a significant change in crime reporting. The AP Stylebook is universally recognized as the rulebook that provides consistency in language and grammar used in news coverage. The stylebook’s editors also do the hard work of analyzing controversial language or new terminology in an effort to provide journalists with the least biased way of communicating an issue. While some newsrooms and news organizations create their own internal guides, the AP Stylebook remains king in the media industry, meaning this change will be in effect in news organizations large and small across the country.
For far too long, newsrooms have allowed law enforcement to control the narrative around crime. Obviously, journalists cannot write a crime story without leaning on police: Police are courageously the first to respond, resolve, report, and investigate incidents and emergencies. They are often the only people who can provide up-to-the-minute information about a case.
In addition, a person accused of a crime and their lawyers are normally unavailable to reporters in an effort to not compromise their case. However, in the absence of opposing voices or sources, police are allowed to shape public opinion through media, because crime reporters are often limited in their ability to report the story from both sides. The stories must still be written, as it is a journalist’s job is to provide the public with as much information as possible — and the AP changes mark a significant step to improving crime reporting.
It’s important to note that police also have their own language, and “officer-involved” is a unified standard term used by most law enforcement departments. It’s intentionally vague, as it is a blanket phrase intended to describe myriad situations — including when police need to explain an incident where an officer is involved but the details are unknown.
So, what happens when an officer is involved in a shooting? Well, the term helps police shape the narrative around the incident. Law enforcement and police public affairs officers know they are a reporter’s main source of information, and that whatever they say or write in a report can and will be used in a court of law. It is advantageous to them to use this language as it allows them to both control public perception of an incident and to ensure that officers have some cover when incidents arise.
Furthermore, it is easy for editors and journalists to adopt the language used by police, or any government agency, when that’s the dominant language used by your “objective” sources. It is even easier when the AP Stylebook does not provide guidance around the use of police language. That is why the introduction of this entry in the AP Stylebook is a critical step in the right direction toward less biased coverage of policing and crime.
Over time, I hope that the AP Stylebook editors will tackle more terminology in crime reporting, including the use of the word “inmate” to describe people in prison. It’s important to humanize people in reporting, as it helps create a fair and balanced justice system.
Rabiah Alicia Burks is FAMM’s Vice President of Communications. | https://medium.com/famm/what-recent-ap-style-changes-mean-for-criminal-justice-reform-861283d67346 | ['Famm Foundation'] | 2020-09-10 19:28:25.110000+00:00 | ['Famm', 'Police', 'Criminal Justice Reform', 'Ap Stylebook', 'Officer Involved'] |
Top Ten Sounds From 2016 | About the author
Alvin joined the Little Fiction | Big Truths team earlier this year and we feel like he instantly made us a little bit cooler. Also earlier this year, we got to go drinking with Alvin in LA’s Little Tokyo district, which also made us feel a little bit cooler. In conclusion, that Alvin’s alright. | https://medium.com/little-fiction-big-truths/top-ten-sounds-from-2016-30f1ac990cf4 | ['Little Fiction'] | 2016-12-23 17:55:44.748000+00:00 | ['Year In Review', 'Nonfiction', 'Life'] |
Build The Skills You Need In The New Economy | Finding our mission is incredibly difficult if we have debt and can’t work at the job we want. In order to always be growing, many individuals will undoubtedly want to level up their skills. This is a great thing, but in order to do this safely, we must avoid the pitfalls of thinking that college will solve all our problems. College is a great choice for those seeking to get a credential that they can only obtain through college. But for both the college bound, as well as those who want to bypass bureaucracy, this article could help save you tens of thousands of dollars in debt and years pursuing a degree that may not pay off.
It’s a bit crazy that the average college student in America takes 5.6 years to complete a four-year bachelor’s degree. On average, these students are left with around $30,000 of debt, and the ones who find jobs typically work outside their majors, in jobs they didn’t need their degrees for in the first place. Collectively, there is $1.3 trillion of student debt! College costs (when adjusted for inflation) have risen 400% since the 1980s. Many college degrees do not lead to opportunities or job offers and carry with them a debt that can’t be expunged via bankruptcy. To make matters worse, we often don’t realize how long we’ve been pre-sold the idea of college throughout our K-12 education. In order to avoid these pitfalls, and overcome past conditioning, we must choose carefully when we’re pursuing training that will help us level up our skills.
This isn’t to say that college degrees can’t be extremely valuable; of course they can. But before we purchase a college degree or course load, we are allowed to double-check and objectively prove to ourselves the value of what we’re buying.
Trust, But Verify
A few months before my last deployment in the military, I was thinking about going to graduate school. I wanted some sort of credential that could guarantee me a great salary and future opportunity. Looking back on where I was then feels a bit pathetic now. I was looking for confirmation from a university about the type of value I could provide to employers. I was looking for a “quick fix” of getting a graduate degree, prestige, and a salary boost instead of doing the hard upfront work of making sure the degree I was going to purchase was valuable. At first, I thought I’d go to law school and get a JD. But I found a number of attorneys who had graduated in debt and were clerking at $40,000 a year. Others were at big law firms, but they definitely did not seem mission-driven.
Then, I thought, since I already had a bachelor’s degree in economics… I’d get a PhD in economics! That would be it! That credential would set me up for success! As I began to study and take the prerequisites needed for a PhD in economics, such as Calculus III, I started to ask myself better questions. Who had their PhD in economics that I wanted to emulate? Who found meaning in this choice? I decided I should start meeting people who had earned their PhD in economics and ask for myself. I had my sights set on a specific economics department at a specific college, so I dug around to find dissertations and resumes of those who had recently earned their PhDs. I cold emailed all of them. A few responded, and we struck up some interesting conversations. I expected to hear that they were making great money, they had learned a lot, or that they were generally content with the investment they’d made in their PhD. None of this was true.
To say they were not satisfied was an understatement. Each person I reached out to seemed confused, unsure of the value of their degree. To be blunt, some of them seemed to be harboring deep, passive aggressive anger towards spending five years on a pursuit that didn’t lead to where they were told it would. Many were working at the same jobs they had before the PhD program. In a few cases, they were still looking for jobs.
This was an icy wake up call about higher education. Looking to learn and take an interest in improving ourselves is great, but we should determine the actual potential value of the college degree we’re buying before we purchase it.
I talked to one of my former professors from undergraduate school for a final piece of advice before I decided whether or not to go to graduate school. He listened intently to my story of reaching out to recent graduates from the program. He responded with a few crystal clear points:
Be thankful you didn’t waste five years of your life doing that
Think about how much you could learn on your own, or accomplish in the business world, in five years
You can find used editions of every book they read in class on Amazon, and read them on your own
His points hit home, and I got the wake up call I wish I had received before I devoted four years of time and money towards a bachelor’s degree. Making the choice to go to college or earn a credential doesn’t have to be difficult. It only takes a small amount of extra work for us to “trust, but verify” the value of what we’re buying. If we want to produce a certain outcome, earn a certain salary, or unlock certain opportunities, there has never been a more important time to reach out and discover if the path we’re thinking about is viable. | https://medium.com/the-mission/build-the-skills-you-need-in-the-new-economy-b6a1a20ed78e | ['Chad Grills'] | 2018-08-06 14:37:17.035000+00:00 | ['Higher Education', 'Careers', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Economy', 'College'] |
[日本語]Ginco Bizdev Update,Nov 2018 | in Eudaimonia and Co | https://medium.com/gincowallet/ginco-bizdev-update-nov2018-30be8dfcdb6e | ['The Ginco Team'] | 2018-12-01 07:50:58.170000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Japanese', 'Wallet', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Startup'] |
Buying a Tesla in Bitcoins cancels 1/3 of the CO2 savings for its whole lifetime | Buying a Tesla in Bitcoins cancels 1/3 of the CO2 savings for its whole lifetime Franck Leroy Feb 16·3 min read
Footprint of one bitcoin = 80 tons of CO2
This is how insanely bad Bitcoin is for the environment : If you buy a Tesla car (around 40 000 $) in Bitcoins, the impact of the mining of those bitcoins is around 80 tons of CO2. This is 4 times more than the saving of CO2 you can expect from this car (compared to a gasoline one) on its entire lifetime (around -20 tons).
Of course, the Bitcoins you use here will eventually be used for other transactions. But still, it gives a good point of comparison : Suppose you want to buy this car with gold. It would take 3 to 5 less energy to mine this gold than to mine the same value in Bitcoins.
What about the transaction only ?
What is the footprint of the transaction on existing bitcoins only ? Since the principle of “proof of work” is to secure the transferred funds, it is fair to split the mining cost per value transferred, rather than by number of transaction. This paper suggest that a stable ratio of 1% of transferred funds is burnt in energy.
1% of 40,000$ = 400$. At 5cts / kWh (average cost of the electricity for mining), this is 8000 kWh. This is about the consumption of an average french family for two years. We showed that bitcoin mining is uses mainly fossil fuel, with an average carbon footprint of 830 g CO2 / kWh : worse than the USA mix.
8,000 * 0.830 = 6.6 tons of CO2
The footprint of the transaction erases 1/3 of the carbon saving of a Tesla car. Why would anyone do that ?
Tesla investing in Bitcoin = 800 000 more gasoline cars in the world
Also, by investing it Bitcoins and making it’s value increase by 10%, Elon Musk / Tesla rose the electric consumption of the system. The increase of carbon impact corresponds to 800 000 gasoline cars added in the world … as long as this increase stands.
This shows that Tesla / Elon Musk couldn’t care less about ecology. It’s all about business.
We need stronger states capable of imposing strong environmental and social rules to limit the megalomaniac ravings of these companies and their leaders. Bitcoin is going exactly in the opposite direction, accelerating the liberal dream of a stateless society and total commodification of the world.
Sources
In 2020, the carbon impact for mining bitcoins is 36 millions of tons of CO2, for 18 billions $ of revenues for miners. Hence, 40 000 $ value of bitcoins represents 80 tons of CO2. | https://medium.com/crypto-lucid/buying-a-tesla-in-bitcoins-cancels-4-times-the-co2-savings-for-its-whole-lifetime-c28b042e3b9a | ['Franck Leroy'] | 2021-03-24 10:36:42.905000+00:00 | ['Energy', 'Ecology', 'Bitcoin', 'Tesla', 'Musk'] |
Deploy Ceph cache tier & erasure code | Deploy Ceph cache tier & erasure code 黃馨平 Follow Jul 10 · 7 min read
本篇文章主要紀錄的是如何應用 cache tier 與 erasure code 在 Cephfs 當中。
本篇文章將會分 4 個部分撰寫：
1. 建立 cache pool，撰寫 crush map rule 將 SSD 與 HDD 分開。
2. 將 cephfs pool 建立 ，並使用 erasure code 與 HDD rule.
3. 將 cache tier 與 cephfs pool 合併。
4. 刪除 cache tier 與 cephfs 。
Step 1.
撰寫 crush map 將 SSD 與 HDD 分開
Check SDD 與 HDD 的 OSD.ID 編號
ceph osd tree | grep hdd
ceph osd tree | grep ssd
先將 crush map decode
ceph osd getcrushmap -o crushmapdump
crushtool -d crushmapdump -o crushmapdump-decompiled
vim crushmapdump-decompiled 開始撰寫 rule。
第一步區分 SSD block 跟 HDD block
第二步撰寫 tier 所需要的 rule。
Crush map 都寫完以後 encode 然後 set 到 system 中.
crushtool -c crushmapdump-decompiled -o crushmapdump-compiled
ceph osd setcrushmap -i crushmapdump-compiled
第三步建立 cache-pool
# create cache-pool
ceph osd pool create cache-pool 32 32 # 將 cache-pool set 成剛剛定義的 crush_rule ssd-pool rule
ceph osd pool set cache-pool crush_rule ssd-pool
Step 2.
將 cephfs pool 建立 ，並使用 erasure code 與 HDD rule.
# 建立 cold storage 的 pool，若不需要 erasure 可以刪除，但在 crush map 也需要更改。
ceph osd pool create cephfs_data 1024 1024 erasure # 將 cephfs_data set 成剛剛定義的 crush_rule sata-pool rule
ceph osd pool set cephfs_data crush_rule sata-pool
Step 3.
將 cache tier 與 cephfs pool 合併。
# 將兩個 pool 合併，cephfs_data 為 cold storage，cache-pool 為 hot storage。
ceph osd tier add cephfs_data cache-pool # 設定 cache-pool 的模式為 writeback 模式(其實還有readonly 但不推)。
ceph osd tier cache-mode cache-pool writeback # 設定 overlay，讓所有資料都會透過 cache-tier 的方法使用。
ceph osd tier set-overlay cephfs_data cache-pool
因為本篇應用的方法是使用 cephfs 所以接著建立 cephfs。
# cephfs 還是需要 metadata 的 pool(雖然用不到)
ceph osd pool create cephfs_metadata 1024 1024 # 建立 cephfs 取名為 cephfs
ceph fs new cephfs --force cephfs_metadata cephfs_data
完成 !!
有興趣的可以玩一下，當中也有很多 cache-tier 調優的方法。
ceph osd pool set cache-pool hit_set_type bloom
ceph osd pool set cache-pool hit_set_count 1
ceph osd pool set cache-pool hit_set_period 3000
ceph osd pool set cache-pool target_max_bytes 161061273600
ceph osd pool set cache-pool target_max_objects 1000000
ceph osd pool set cache-pool cache_min_flush_age 600
ceph osd pool set cache-pool cache_min_evict_age 1800
ceph osd pool set cache-pool cache_target_dirty_ratio .6
ceph osd pool set cache-pool cache_target_dirty_high_ratio .7
ceph osd pool set cache-pool cache_target_full_ratio .8
另外小 tips 可以透過指令觀察 cache tier 的變化。
watch -n1 ceph df
Step 4.
刪除 cache-tier 與 cephfs。
在做這個步驟時必須十分警慎，不然處理起來會複雜很多，自己實測按照下面的步驟可以減少很多冤枉路。
# Check cache-pool 中有沒有 dirty object
ceph df detail # 如果有 dirty object 請使用，若沒有可忽略，會花一段時間。
rados -p cache-pool cache-flush-evict-all # 將 writeback 模式先設定成 readproxy，再改成 none 模式，它無法像 readonly 一樣可以直接改成 none 模式。
# ceph osd tier cache-mod cache-pool forward(研究中)
ceph osd tier cache-mode cache-pool readproxy
ceph osd tier cache-mode cache-pool none # 將 cache-pool 從 tier 中移除
ceph osd tier remove-overlay cache-pool
刪除 cephfs ，因為個人實測無法直接在 tier 刪除 cephfs_data pool 必須先移除 cephfs 才能解除 cache-tier 的相依性。
# 關閉 mds
systemctl stop ceph-mds@ceph-007 # 關閉 cephfs
ceph fs fail cephfs # 刪除 cephfs
ceph fs rm cephfs --yes-i-really-mean-it
移除 cache tier 的 cold-storage 以及 cache tier
ceph osd tier remove-overlay cephfs_data
ceph osd tier remove cephfs_data cache-pool
結束了 !!
現在大家都回復自由之身了， cold storge pool 的內容都還保存，沒有問題。
大致上就結束了，有任何問題歡迎討論。
參考資料 : | https://medium.com/jacky-life/deploy-ceph-cache-tier-erasure-code-9132e0ee7018 | [] | 2020-08-05 08:50:04.592000+00:00 | ['Storage', 'Ceph'] |
Depression in Teens | Depression in Teens
Depression is becoming more common these days among teens.So,first of all,there is a need to know about:what depression is?
Depression is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel,the way you think and how you act.
• The prevalence of major depressive episode was higher among adult females (8.7%) compared to males (5.3%).
• The prevalence of adults with a major depressive episode was highest among individuals aged 18-25 (13.1%).
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression.shtml
Symptoms
Its symptoms can vary from person to person,but changes in your teen’s emotions and behaviour may include following examples:
• An increase in irritability
• Feeling hopeless
• Low mode most of time
• Angry outbursts
• Low self esteem
• Loss of appetite or they may comfort eat
• Low grades in school
• Stay distant from friends or either family
• Self-harm or suicidal thoughts
• More sleeping or struggling to sleep
• Increase in screen time
• Crying without any reason
• Talk less
• And many more
When to see a doctor?
You should contact your doctor or mental health professional if you have any of the above mentioned symptoms.
Causes
It is not known what exactly causes depression,but a number of problems may be involved.These are following:
1. Early childhood trauma:Traumatic events during childhood, such as physical or emotional abuse, or loss of a parent, may cause changes in the brain that make a person more susceptible to depression
2. Environmental stress: Change in environment,conflicts in family or victim of abusemennt cause depression in teenagers.
3. Low grades:In school,sudden fall in grades or pressure to do well in exams make a student depressive.
4. Lack of sleep:Nowadays,teens have no sleep routine.Lack of sleep can also lead to depression in them.
5. Adolescence: It is also a time of increasing incidence of several classes of psychiatric illnesses, including anxiety and mood disorders.
Percentage of teenagers in the United States taking antidepressants from 2015 to 2019, by gender
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1133612/antidepressant-use-teenagers-by-gender-us/
Prevention/Treatment
Make physical health a priority beacause mental health is associated with your physical health.Here are some easy and simple ways to prevent yourself from depression:
• Excercise daily
• Take nutritious or balanced meals
• Spend time with friends and family
• Engage yourself in other physical activities
• Set limits on screen time.
• Sleep enough.
Nimra Iftikhar | https://medium.com/@amaraume70/depression-in-teens-746a589e77c4 | ['Nimra Iftikhar'] | 2020-12-22 10:42:56.800000+00:00 | ['Articles', 'Depression', 'Mental Health', 'Teenagers', 'Stress'] |
Grey Tiles | Collapsed onto the tiled floor
I still remember the marbled pattern I traced with my finger tips
The crack in my phone remains from you kicking it across the tiles when I picked it up
I felt the cold tile against my bare skin for what seemed like an eternity
The numbing sensation of the tile on my back lifted me from the fog that you drowned me in that night
Part of me still rests on those marbled patterns
My tears, my blood
But worst of all
My hope | https://medium.com/@jacquelinespoetry/grey-tiles-45cf14195aa0 | ['Jacqueline Franklin'] | 2020-11-15 18:53:25.286000+00:00 | ['Poetry On Medium', 'Sexual Assault', 'Metoo', 'Poetry', 'Poem'] |
4 Tips to Build Projects That Look Great on Your Resume | Tips for Your Project
You don’t have to implement them all, but every single one of them adds a lot of value to your project and your confidence. So try to follow them all.
1. Follow a standard architecture/design pattern while building your project
You could build a to-do list app that works, and it would mean nothing to the company interviewing you. But if you tell the interviewer that you built the app following this particular design pattern — even if it only partially works — that would mean a lot!
An interviewer who is a developer will always be more interested in knowing how you built something rather than what you built it with.
They would want to know what key architectural decisions you made and why.
They would want to know how you structured your code and why.
They would want to know what technical blocks you faced and how you resolved them.
They would want to know how you would scale this application.
If you don’t know what design patterns are, now would be a great time to learn about them.
2. Build a professional UI, but don’t waste too much time on it
People have a visual bias — they literally judge a book by its cover.
Similarly, make sure the UI for whatever you build looks good and professional. When it comes to applications, people often make the assumption that if the app looks good, the code is good too. I know, it’s sad.
Here is the great part: There are tons of great-looking free project templates that you can use to build your awesome-looking application. This way, you can focus more on building the core application rather than wasting too much time on aligning things vertically.
3. Think about database and security
This is where things start to get tricky, giving you a lot of things to talk about during the interview. If your project doesn’t have any database, it just might not be sophisticated enough. So maybe pick a new one?
There are four basic CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations that you need to add to showcase your skills. Spend time planning your DB’s architecture and think about how you can optimize for the reads and writes. This is another great talking point in the interviews.
Also, have at least some sort of authorization that adds basic security to your application. You can totally use Firebase Auth to take care of basic authentication in your application without having to waste too much time on it.
When you are making decisions like depending on third-party solutions to quickly build your app and not reinvent the wheel, that’s a really valuable skill to have and show during your interview. You can talk about it and how much value that decision added to your project.
You can always do more things to make your application more secure. See what is feasible and required as per your application’s scope.
4. Solve a business problem
This is something I learned in my first year as a working professional. No matter how cool the technology you learned is, don’t just build anything to show your skills.
Identify a suitable business problem and then implement the solution using technology. When you do actually solve a business problem, the business doesn’t care about the technology you used to solve it. True story.
There will be candidates showing random applications and games, while you:
Invested some time into understanding the business — learning ability.
Identified its problems — analytical ability.
Thought about a solution— problem-solving ability.
Built something — your technical competency.
Those are the skills of a working professional and not just any developer, and that’s who the businesses are looking to hire.
Bonus tip: Follow the industry standards
There are some industry standards around the development process, and if you already know them, it will portray you as a professional. These are:
Clean code standards.
Writing unit tests for your code.
Maintaining a code repository.
Continuous Integrations and Continuous Delivery.
Being agile.
If you can also learn and showcase these skills in your side projects, they will definitely make all your projects more valuable and give you a lot more keywords to add to your resume and talk about during your interview as a true professional. | https://medium.com/better-programming/4-tips-to-build-projects-that-look-great-on-your-resume-b1f022a0968c | ['Dhananjay Trivedi'] | 2020-09-11 15:00:29.136000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Programming', 'Software Engineering', 'Software Development', 'Startup'] |
[CodeChain X Bithumb] Series A Investment and Strategic Alliance Partnership | We are thrilled to announce that we have closed our series A round with strategic investments from Bithumb, a global cryptocurrency exchange, who is now expanding its digital securities businesses across the globe. This deal has positioned CodeChain as the only project backed by two of the biggest exchange operators in Korea.
Through our new strategic partnership, CodeChain will provide the technical infrastructure so that the security tokens issued in the highly regulated financial markets can be traded in a regulatory-friendly and secure manner.
CodeChain is a purpose-driven blockchain network with built-in issuance and exchange protocols so that digital assets issued on CodeChain can be programmed and customized to comply with the regulations of the jurisdictions the businesses are operated.
Apart from our new strategic client, we have initiated projects with B-Seed partners, Makestar, STBase, Art Together and many more. So stay tuned for more exciting news! | https://medium.com/codechain/codechain-x-bithumb-series-a-investment-and-strategic-alliance-partnership-b046ea0e30ad | ['Jaewon Park'] | 2019-05-22 01:40:04.465000+00:00 | ['Codechain', 'Events', 'Sto', 'Blockchain', 'Bithumb'] |
WordPress Sidebar Plugins | Widgets are one of WordPress most adaptable features. They make it possible to add a ton of different functionality to your WordPress sidebar with some plugins, as well as other areas that accept widgets. Best of all, you can find plenty of free WordPress sidebar plugins — so you won’t even need to open your wallet to get their benefits.
Free WordPress Sidebar Plugins
Relevanssi
Out-the-box WordPress ships with a built-in search function and widget. Unfortunately, most users consider it quite poor at its job.
If you want to help your visitors find useful content more easily, consider upgrading the default search function with Relevanssi. The plugin is capable of partial-matching a visitor’s search query, plus it’s better at sorting by relevance than the default option.
With the plugin installed, you still have to use the default WordPress search widget. However, behind the scenes, the widget is now powered by Relevanssi.
Download
YouTube Channel Galler
If you also publish content on YouTube, perhaps you want to use your sidebar area to promote your channel. Enter the YouTube Channel Gallery plugin.
The plugin lets you display thumbnail stills of your videos in any widgetized area — all you need is a YouTube API Key. Then, when a visitor clicks on one of the videos, the video starts playing. You can also add multiple YouTube widgets to one page, letting you promote different videos and channels simultaneously. This is one of the best sidebar plugins.
Download
Contextual Related Posts
Related posts are the most sophisticated navigation widget — the plugin needs an algorithm to determine which posts are related, after all.
The Contextual Related Posts widget uses both a post’s title and content to discover related posts. However, you can omit posts or entire categories from the search should you wish. Related posts can be displayed with thumbnails, plus the posts are cached to increase website speed.
Download
Ninja Forms
The sidebar is an excellent space to place a contact form so that your visitors can reach out to you.
Not every contact form plugin comes with a dedicated widget, though. If you want one that does, Ninja Forms is one of the best free options — it’s super-easy to use and comes with loads of customizations and advanced fields.
Download
SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle
Let’s kick things off with an excellent all-in-one widgets plugin — SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle.
The plugin introduces all the widget functionality you could possibly ask for, with an impressive 20 dedicated widgets available. Here’s an idea of some of the widgets included in the box: The widgets are fully customizable, too, with support for infinite colors and over 1,500 icons.
Download
Testimonials Widget
The widget space on your website is perfect for building social proof. Consider adding some testimonials, which tell the world what a fantastic job you’re doing, right from the mouths of real-life customers.
The Testimonials Widget plugin lets you display text, image, or video testimonials in stylish sliders. You can also tailor which testimonials are displayed based on a post’s category.
Download
Recent Posts Widget Extended
Most visitors expect to see links to your blog posts in the sidebar — they depend on this for navigation. Now, generally speaking, there are three types of navigation widgets: recent posts, popular posts, and related posts.
For a recent posts widget, I recommend the Recent Posts Widget Extended plugin. The plugin lets you display a thumbnail and excerpt for each post — you can also target recent posts based on category. The plugin lets you order your posts based on publication date or most recent comments.
Download
WordPress Popular Posts
If you don’t fancy recent posts, what about your most popular posts? After all, these posts are popular for a reason, right? They’re probably the best written or most informative, so they provide exceptional value to all visitors.
WordPress Popular Posts is the best plugin for the job. It displays the posts’ thumbnails, plus you can target the popular posts based on category and time range. You can even have multiple popular posts widgets live at once, each with different settings.
Download
Image Widget
Want to make your website more eye-catching? Then why not use the sidebar area to display images? If you’re looking to place a single image, the Image Widget plugin is the obvious choice.
The plugin lets you display an image from your WordPress media library. You can also control image settings such as size, alignment, and title. You can point the image at a custom URL when clicked, too.
Download
Instagram Feed
Instead of your media library, perhaps you’d prefer to pull your images straight from Instagram. If so, you need the Instagram Feed plugin. It has scored a perfect 5/5 rating over 300,000 downloads — no mean feat.
The plugin lets you display thumbnails, medium-sized, and full-sized images. You can also mix-and-match multiple Instagram accounts. The images don’t have to be from your account either — you can display images from any non-private account. And, if visitors like what they see, they can choose to load additional images by clicking a Load More button.
Download
Meks Smart Author Widget
The Meks Smart Author Widget lets you display stylish author bios in your website’s widget space. The plugin has a use for both multi-author and one-man blogs.
For multi-author blogs, the plugin detects the writer of a particular post then displays the relevant bio.
If you’re the sole contributor to your blog, you can simply display your personal bio on every page — use this as an “About Me” widget. By revealing information about yourself, you become more relatable to readers.
Download
Poll, Survey, Quiz & Form by OpinionStage
Got a burning question to ask your visitors? Perhaps you want their input on future content. Maybe you want answers to topical questions in your niche. Or maybe you just want to run silly quizzes to make people smile. Either way, you need Poll, Survey, Quiz & Form by OpinionStage — you can even use it to run competitions.
The widgets look stunning, letting you upload custom images and apply your own branding. You can also monetize the widget by generating ad revenues or requiring a visitor to sign up to a mailing list.
Download
Google Maps Widget
Want to show visitors your physical location on a map? Then you need the Google Maps Widget plugin — a dedicated maps plugin for your widget space.
The plugin boasts customizable map dimensions and zoom levels, plus you can bring your maps to life by creating custom pins.
Download
Awesome Weather Widget
For some businesses, the weather can have a big impact on trade, like it’s sidebar plugins — say, holiday lettings or outdoor recreation, off the top of my head. If the weather is relevant to your business, why not provide visitors with the info they need using the Awesome Weather Widget plugin.
The weather widgets look gorgeous with customizable color schemes. Most importantly, the weather data is provided by OpenWeatherMap, so you can trust that it’s reliable.
Download
Conclusion
Free WordPress sidebar plugins are one of the easiest ways to add new features to your site, such as custom contact forms, upcoming events, and maps to your location (among many other options). Finding the right widgets can help your site look and work better by adding extra functionality. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the free WordPress widgets we’ve introduced you to in this list until you find the combination that works best for you. | https://medium.com/@visualmodo/wordpress-sidebar-plugins-8e5c5dddc90 | [] | 2019-03-09 19:53:33.215000+00:00 | ['Wordpress Plugins', 'Free', 'Website Design', 'WordPress', 'List'] |
This 3 pack of TP-Link Kasa smart switches is under $30 | This 3 pack of TP-Link Kasa smart switches is under $30 Brandon Jan 16·2 min read
Smarten up three light switches at an excellent price today. Amazon is selling a three-pack of TP-Link single pole Kasa smart light switches for $29.59, down from the current all-time low of $37. To get the sale price you have to click the 20 percent off coupon under the price on the product page.
[ Want more great deals? Check out TechConnect, our home for the best tech deals, all hand-picked by the PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive editors. ]
The great thing about Kasa TP-Link smart switches is that they connect directly to your home network instead of going through a hub. It all happens via the Kasa smartphone app, where you can also set schedules, control smart devices remotely, and so on. Kasa gear can also integrate with Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.
As these are single-pole switches you can’t use them on three- or four-way switches where you control a single light from multiple spots. These are solely for single location switches, and they require a neutral wire for installation.
Controlling three switches via your smartphone or smart speaker is a fantastic deal for less than $30. The one downside of Kasa gear is that if there’s ever a power outage then you’ll likely have to reconnect them to your network, but that should be a minor concern for most people.
[Today’s deal: TP-Link Kasa smart switches 3-pack for $29.59 with coupon on Amazon.]
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@brandon20958716/this-3-pack-of-tp-link-kasa-smart-switches-is-under-30-bd6305c2e0c4 | [] | 2021-01-16 05:11:02.674000+00:00 | ['Home Tech', 'Consumer Electronics', 'Music', 'Electronics'] |
Tis’ the Season… Best Practices for Inclusion during the Holidays! | Tis’ the Season… Best Practices for Inclusion during the Holidays!
Lots of cheer and goodwill are being spread in normal fashion, this holiday. Individuals are donating more of their money and time to those less fortunate and in need.
Yet, despite the largest of donations, there still exist insurmountable poverty and equity issues in communities all around us.
And the question remains whether these acts of kindness and gestures really have a lasting impact.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating that we stop contributing to organizations that help impoverished communities or individuals who are in need.
But what I am suggesting may require a bit of introspective thought and consideration.
Some of you may find these questions relatively easy to answer, while others may find themselves in deep thought.
Okay so here it goes…
Think about the last time you hosted a dinner party or holiday celebration of some sort.
You prepared that incredible meal, had your nicest china and glassware, the house had wonderful aromas of holiday cheer and tidings. You were ready!
Now ask yourself, “Who was present in the room at the table?”
Did most of your guest look and sound like you and if so, did you even think to invite others who didn’t?
Have you ever really given thought as to why you “unintentionally” excluded others from your party?
Now think for a moment about a few of the dinner or holiday invitations you’ve recently received and accepted over the last few weeks.
Okay, so now let’s think about the ones you’ve declined.
Focusing on the declines, who were those individuals and what did they look like?
Were they someone you simply hadn’t taken the time to get to know, even though you have been acquainted with them for several years?
Ask yourself, “Why haven’t you taken the time to get to know more about these individuals, just as you did the person you last shared a cup of coffee, tea or lunch with recently?”
Were these acquaintances from a different socioeconomic class, or a different race or culture? Maybe they had a different religion, belief system or they were simply someone with a perspective that was unlike your own?
Please know this mini exchange of informational Q&A is not at all meant to call anyone out or put another on defense. I totally get and realize that ‘we’ as human beings tend to be creatures of habit and in most cases stay within our comfort zones.
Not only is the norm or mode of operation for individuals regardless of your race, culture, religion, class etc. but it becomes a way of life for many, if we are not made aware and put to the test of doing something different.
So this holiday season, I am going to ask that you challenge ‘yourself’ to step out of that circle of comfort by learning more about that individual you’ve known for years, but ‘really’ hadn’t gotten to know; Or for you to say, “yes” to the invitation that you recently declined.
I’m convinced that it’s the sharing of experiences and the exchange of trying something new that often leads to greater growth and acceptance.
I also believe that by doing this small act, you will make more of a substantial long-term impact on our society and community than any monetary donation ever will.
So yes, still give your monetary donations and your time, but also remember to say, “YES,” to the opportunities of connecting with others on a deeper level who may not look, sound, or think exactly like you.
Be BRAVE and begin to bridge the gap in the divide.
Tis’ the Season!
Originally written and published on LinkedIn December 8, 2017 | https://medium.com/@mishonlandry/tis-the-season-best-practices-for-inclusion-during-the-holidays-ee487b3c3bbe | ['Mishon Landry'] | 2021-03-14 12:56:35.092000+00:00 | ['Holidays', 'Diversity', 'Inclusion'] |
Agile ethnography: Does such a thing exist in UX Research? | As famously reported, thick data has changed Netflix. Grant McCracken, a cultural anthropologist, was hired by the company to use ethnography as a way of understanding users. It worked; McCracken reported extensive contextual data that led to innovation. He discovered, among other things, that users liked "binge-watching" series. And, instead of feeling bad about it, they loved it! Acting on this insight, Netflix started to release whole seasons at once, instead of showcasing a chapter per week.
Now, as we all know, binge-watching is the new normal.
McCracken's work is well-praised within the community of UX professionals. But little do we discuss the amount of time and money that is spent on ethnographic studies like that of Netflix. To build ethnographic knowledge of TV-watching behavior, for how many days did McCracken lived with the users? Did he manage to write the full experience of its users in one week? Or did he spend months living with research participants, observing them and having conversations, and looking like he was "doing nothing"?
That's why it's hard to distinguish a renowned ethnographer at work from a couch potato watching Netflix with friends.
And for the same reason, a majority of UX Researchers in the industry might not be in a business setting that promotes the use of the ethnographic method. User interviews? Sure. Contextual inquiry? Of course, there's time and money for that. But ethnography as McCracken has done it might be out of reach.
Having said that, it's still feasible to do what can resemble an "agile ethnography". Here are key ways to make ethnography work in high tech, business setting, engrained in the four values of the Agile Manifesto.
Value 1: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
The Agile Manifesto suggests that instead of focusing on business and functional requirements as a rigid concept, the team can prioritize resolving problems as they arise. Normally, when we manage projects, we rely on tools and processes to solve issues. There is a "formula" to follow. But with agile, our team is encouraged to be more flexible, maintaining fluid communication and maximizing alignment when issues arise.
Applying the agile method to ethnography would mean that we can continuously dedicate a small segment of our efforts for ongoing ethnographic analysis. As much as our company allows, we can recruit research participants continuously for iterative sprints and regularly observe the actual ways with which they engage with products.
This, of course, requires that the management is aligned to spend money for this purpose and the team has the confidence to run research without a traditional waterfall-style preparation. Skipping ahead and back, and being comfortable with a non-linear way of gathering data are the key to make this process work.
Value 2: Working software over comprehensive documentation
In the context of the Agile Manifesto, this value promotes that developers don't get overwhelmed with extensive documentation on technical specifications, technical requirements and whatnot. Instead of delaying the ultimate delivery by gathering comprehensive documentation, the Agile framework recommends asking "What do I need to work now?" and taking action with what's readily available (e.g., user stories).
In a similar vein, ethnographic research in an agile setting would mean producing Minimum Viable Findings. Rather than presenting "big picture" findings when everything is over, the notion of Minimum Viable Findings proposes that we divide our study into micro areas of experiences and prioritize what questions need to be answered at each sprint.
An "agile ethnography" cannot be as exhaustive as the ones we're used to seeing in academic settings or those that are part of exceptionally well-funded projects. Still, it can inform the next round of research and provide actionable insights from a limited area of user experience.
Value 3: Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
Agile allows for constant contact between the clients and the (development) team. Instead of "selling" the product at the beginning of the project and maintaining the client at a shoulder distance until the results come out, The Agile Manifesto proposes involving customers in the process. Having an open-ended discussion with the client can help clarify doubts quickly and ensure that the client "owns" the project, while the team becomes aware of clients' changing needs.
In the context of ethnography, the agile principles could be integrated by frequently sharing observations with the client in form of potential solutions, and quickly testing findings. Normally, ethnographers stay with research subjects for months, if not years, and take their time before presenting their book.
But in today's business environment, presenting findings too late almost means not presenting findings at all.
Keeping that in mind, the ethnographic method in UX Research can be agilized by proactively testing preliminary findings and regularly involving clients.
Value 4: Responding to change over following a plan.
Creating elaborate plans at the beginning of a project gives a feeling of control. That's why the software development process too used to be like that too. But with agile methods, change is now welcomed. Priorities can be shifted, new features can be added. All these changes are considered to provide additional value.
Apply that to agile ethnography, and you see a research setting in which client (and other teams') feedback is always welcomed, and there's a quick reaction to what's working and what's not working. UX Researchers who are running an ethnographic study in an agile way can readily shift their focus from one concept to another when the need arises.
In a nutshell, not all research teams might have the luxury to spend months living with users and running ethnographic fieldwork akin to an academic study. Nevertheless, most teams can still adopt values from the Agile Manifesto and present Minimum Viable Findings, and quickly offer potential solutions based on ethnographic observations. | https://uxdesign.cc/agile-ethnography-does-such-a-thing-exist-in-ux-research-87ff0c32dc69 | ['Meltem Barcelona'] | 2020-12-01 22:59:36.217000+00:00 | ['User Research', 'Ethnography', 'User Experience', 'Agile', 'UX Research'] |
Reading Formats and Device Settings | Digital Media Convergence — Chapter 11
Now I know what you’re thinking.
“Neali, haven’t you already went off on a tangent about this before?”
Yes, yes I have (to read that, check out my other blog titled “Media: Out With the Old, In With the New”).
However, that is what this chapter focuses on, therefore, we must have the conversation again (perhaps I should’ve read ahead).
To start, I almost miss the days of analog. I may have been much younger and. not using all types of analog technology by myself, but I digress. I spent a majority of my childhood using these kinds of technology.
However, as I got older, these forms became obsolete by the time I was 10. Funnily enough, though these current forms of technology are more difficult, I find them much easier to use. It’s funny how even babies can figure out how to work an iPhone in 10 minutes flat!
I am not ready for when technology ages out again. I like knowing what I’m doing when it comes to technology. My grandma calls us to come show her how to use her email and Facebook, and as much as I love my grandma, I NEVER want to get to that stage!
But, as out textbook mentions, it is unavoidable. We are an ever-changing and ever-growing society. | https://medium.com/@nealihelms/reading-formats-and-device-settings-19c6618f4e84 | ['Neali Helms'] | 2020-12-04 04:17:05.938000+00:00 | ['Digital', 'Technology', 'Digital Media', 'Evolution', 'Analog'] |
Feirm Weekly — 24/08 to 30/08. Feirm Website | Feirm Website
Over this week, the Feirm website has been updated to make use of a more content-friendly layout with support for multiple languages out of the box. Over time, we will be providing translations for the website in multiple languages, which ultimately should increase our audience reach to the Feirm project. We hope you like the new design if you decide to go and take a visit! :)
Blog
Next up, a blog section has been added to the new website. This enables us to keep our content all in one place, and hopefully gain greater visibility to the project. However, this idea was also inspired by a recent change to the Medium Privacy Policy which has made us want to reconsider where we publish our articles in the future. Fortunately, Medium is pretty open about how they gather and use data; it is no surprise though that they are making use of third-party analytics tools. Whilst this is expected from the majority of popular websites in 2020, it seems a bit excessive to require all this in order to read an article, right?
Just by looking at the weekly update article published last week, my web browser has blocked 11 cross-site trackers and/or ads at the time of writing this. Here is a quick breakdown of what was detected.
Optimizely — a software company that provides testing tools, website personalisation and other features for websites.
Google Analytics — a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic.
Branch.io — a platform that provides referral services and personalised welcome messages. It is designed to engage the user and span across all devices, channels or platforms.
Medium’s own performance utility.
All of the above might come across as us having a dig at Medium but quite frankly, the platform has served us well and is great for content creators who are after a platform to share and express their views. We have never been interested in tracking our users through analytics software to gather information about how our services are being used.
Over time, we will migrate our existing posts that currently reside on Medium over to the new blog section of our website.
If you wish to take a quick glance of the new website whilst it is still in the process of having content added, feel free to visit https://new.feirm.com. Once we are satisfied, it will then be migrated to the official https://feirm.com domain.
Feirm Marketplace
Encrypted Messages
Throughout the past week, we have been working on improving the implementation of E2EE messages on the Marketplace.
End-to-End Encrypted messages are vital for a platform such as the Feirm Marketplace due to users potentially exchanging sensitive or compromising information between each other. In such events, Feirm as a project does not want to be held accountable for the sensitive data or any messages which go through our platforms — we try and limit the knowledge about our users who make use of the services we provide.
Additionally, E2EE is important in the event of a server breach for two reasons:
If the Marketplace server is compromised, then any data which could be intercepted is unreadable to the attacker.
If the data-centre where the Marketplace server is hosted is broken into, contents of the data stored on the disks are also unreadable.
Also, E2EE is vital because it ensures that you retain control over who can read or gain access to data. The Marketplace Moderation team can only step in if either party surrenders the private keys of the chat to us in order to decrypt the conversation.
How are messages encrypted on the Feirm Marketplace?
End-to-End Encryption takes place on the Marketplace through the use of pre-keys. These are a certain type of key that is generated when the user creates their account, and the amount of keys are topped up as needed.
Here is a summary — a pre-key is a cryptographic key-pair that is generated separately from a user account, yet can be associated to a user through its signature. When engaging in conversation between two users, a pre-key is used from both of their accounts.
Structure of a pre-key on the Marketplace server.
Lets say that we have two users called Alice and Bob — they wish to communicate with each other through the Marketplace. Each of them have a pre-key that is going to be used for message encryption.
Alice and Bob have a pre-key.
As we know from a previous diagram, a pre-key contains the encrypted version of the private key, which only the rightful owner can decrypt. There is also a public key that can be used by anyone.
As it stands though, Alice and Bob have no practical way of encrypting messages between each other. Fortunately though, by using a key-exchange protocol, they can generate a shared secret key just by knowing each others public key and subsequently encrypt messages using it. This works through the use of ECDH (Elliptic-Curve Diffie-Hellman), which is a cryptographic function that produces the same output given reversed public or private keys. This is the cryptographic function that is currently implemented on the Marketplace.
For an example, I will show each Alice and Bob’s public & private key-pair for their pre-key.
Alice
=============================
Private Key: 45fa0a3ec999835f9a39a6913297823af60ba064412653d63df8dfd9e89445aa Public Key:
04525a4462fafd7f081b93b560e4ac2f3670952d3a81136c28bcb111362180b4f90bf000c71a04bd2874f5196c7bd81d468cfbbcf10cd9e895b74d06aab599b08b Bob
=============================
Private Key: 12dfdbb27aa0eb2b14e8e6daa29b359b02e9e376bd7064ea8f6765e331e63cfd Public Key:
0458f41cfe6cbf9d9cbea548debfec39d5c4a16e6728bc8b251560cc7fbc36b92c79627fd0147444d7bf5f421755f5d3e2b15b3982a735ab86edb40840065cbb1d
When you look at each of their key-pairs, they are totally different from each other. However, when we run them through the ECDH key-exchange function, we can derive the shared secret that will be used for message encryption.
This diagram showcases the entire process it takes to derive the shared secret.
Alice and Bob share their public keys with each other. Alice and Bob NEVER exchange their private keys. They are solely kept to themselves. Alice and Bob can now use the ECDH cryptographic function to generate the same shared secret — using their own private key and the opposite parties public key.
Alice Shared Secret: 810d0d9d0b6006c1a56b3ec8eb566e97bc948fa7fce16f1d54e222362431f65a
Bob Shared Secret: 810d0d9d0b6006c1a56b3ec8eb566e97bc948fa7fce16f1d54e222362431f65a
4. As a result, both parties now have the same shared secret that can be used for message encryption!
Extra: Generating the shared secret with JavaScript.
As the Feirm Marketplace’s client-side cryptography implementation is written in JavaScript, it seems fitting to include a snippet of the shared-key derivation process using our friends Bob and Alice.
Closing Statement
That is all for last week! Thank you for reading, and please remember that you can check us out on our social medias below: | https://medium.com/feirm/feirm-weekly-24-08-to-30-08-b8fcce4a6bc1 | [] | 2020-08-31 22:10:38.194000+00:00 | ['Feirm', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Update', 'Marketplace', 'Blockchain'] |
Ta dose crypto du vendredi 23 mars — Le Japon met la pression sur Binance | Japan orders Binance crypto exchange to close or face police action, bitcoin rally falters …
According to a report by financial news outlet Nikkei, Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) has ordered the closure… | https://medium.com/la-bulle-crypto/ta-dose-crypto-du-vendredi-23-mars-le-japon-met-la-pression-sur-binance-9dac09ef90 | [] | 2018-03-23 08:01:01.137000+00:00 | ['Google', 'Blockchain', 'Binance', 'Huawei', 'Bitcoin'] |
As we all know that Black Lives Matter has become a serious issue during these recent times. | As we all know that Black Lives Matter has become a serious issue during these recent times. We should come together and actually put our hands in to make changes. The purpose for them to come to realize the force being put on colored men and women. Being on this land is all about equality and it should push people to go and realize “man this isn’t right, we must do something”. I believe if it’s not dealt with soon, it will get worse over time. George Floyd is an example where the police academy must change the way they handle people in custody.
Such as the picture shown at the bottom of the text, could many things. He’s obviously in custody and they could’ve approached in other ways. Due to some reasons where I can’t show the video but it was shown that he had mentioned he couldn’t breathe but didn’t approach to see if he was okay and also didn’t seem to be resisting. Does that show lack of training on the officer’s end? Is killing another way to keep control of one? Even I and my family are scared to walk the streets without being worried about bullets flying because of our skin colors.
George Floyd in “custody” by officers mentioning “I can’t breathe”. | https://medium.com/@rjayfromthesix/as-we-all-know-that-black-lives-matter-has-become-a-serious-issue-during-these-recent-times-5512e88f29e7 | ['Rubinstein Joseph'] | 2020-12-06 18:25:33.405000+00:00 | ['BlackLivesMatter', 'George Floyd', 'Police Brutality'] |
eoshub, the EOS Toolkit Service launched! (KR-EN) | EOSYS는 일반 사용자들이 EOS를 온전히 이해하고 이용하는 것에 많은 어려움을 겪고 있다는 사실을 잘 알고 있습니다. 이에 앞으로 유저 친화적이고 매력적인 EOS 서비스를 만들어 나갈 수 있도록 더 많이 고민하고 노력하겠습니다.
조만간 EOSYS가 투자 및 육성하는 EOS 기반의 탈중앙화 거래소인 EOSDAQ과 함께 여러분들을 대상으로 무료 EOS 계정 생성 이벤트를 진행할 예정이니 많은 관심 부탁드립니다. 감사합니다.
EOSYS understands that end users are having a lot of trouble understanding and using EOS. In the future, we will make more efforts to make user-friendly and attractive EOS service possible.
Soon, we are going to hold a free EOS account creation event with EOSDAQ which is a EOS-based decentralization exchange invested and incubated by EOSYS. Stay tuned. Thank you. | https://medium.com/eosys/eoshub-the-eos-toolkit-service-launched-kr-en-72005959c4a5 | [] | 2019-02-13 17:02:57.784000+00:00 | ['Eos', 'Eosys', 'En', 'Eoshub', 'Notice'] |
Psalms 27:8 | --Combining my love for art and Scripture-- Remember to always read Scripture Verses in its context as nothing can replace real time spent in God's Word ❤ | https://medium.com/@mvcquotes/psalms-27-8-5a4e79ba9f92 | ['Kjv Bible Quotes', 'Mvcquotes'] | 2020-12-23 05:22:17.073000+00:00 | ['Bible', 'Mvcquotes'] |
Introducing eCash: Deposit Cash with the Ease of a Barcode | Today, we’re excited to announce eCash mobile cash deposits, the newest way for customers to deposit funds into their bank account without the need of a routing subnet (account/routing number). Now anyone with an eCash barcode generated in seconds on their mobile device can seamlessly convert their cash into credit in their bank account.
According to a 2019 Federal Reserve report, 16% of adults in the U.S. were underbanked, while 6% were unbanked, a total of 63 million people. The unbanked have no access to basic financial services like a bank account, and the underbanked have limited access to basic services. These 63 million people rely on cash and alternative financial services and it’s imperative they have the ability to easily move cash and manage their finances.
We are continuing to build products that support our mission to democratize access to financial services, thus improving the lives of those 63 million un/underbanked Americans. Earlier this year we started working on an integration that would make it easier for customers to deposit cash into their bank accounts. The goal was to provide a quick and convenient way to support mobile cash deposits via barcode, allowing customers to deposit cash on-hand into their bank account.
With eCash mobile cash deposits, customers request a barcode that is generated on their mobile device. The unique barcode enables them to make a cash deposit to their bank account at the register of thousands of participating retailers, including 7-Eleven, CVS, Rite Aid and Walmart. Note: a minimum of $20 is required when depositing funds via eCash.
Why Build It?
Before eCash, customers were only able to fund their accounts virtually either through interchange, ACH, wires, or account and routing numbers or physically through remote deposit capture (RDC) of a check. Now, eCash provides the flexibility to deposit cash into a supported bank account from thousands of different retail locations.
With eCash, Neobanks and closed wallet products have another way to help those otherwise underserved by legacy financial institutions by providing a safe way to deposit cash at locations across the country without needing a card.
Under the Hood
An eCash barcode is an external gateway into a user’s account in the same way that an account and routing number is a gateway to a checking account. This gateway enables Synapse’s partner, Green Dot, to permit their retail network to accept cash from a customer. The cashier scans an eCash barcode, and the proceeds (after applicable fees) are reflected as a credit (deposit) in the customer’s bank account.
For developers, integration with eCash is a simple POST call on /nodes/<nodeid>/barcode with the payload:
{
"amount" : {
"amount" : 100,
"currency" : "USD"
},
"retailer_id" : 2481
}
Example Response:
{
"_id": "5f11f095373b92fecffaada1",
"barcode": "629964901060000288300000000000",
"barcode_base64": "iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAhQAAAEYCAIAAAC...."
}
With this response, developers can either decode the barcode_base64 value to generate an image for their application or end users can use the barcode number at the register to deposit cash into their Synapse account.
What’s Next
We’re excited about developing and implementing more ways for consumers to access their accounts. With eCash, we’ve made depositing funds more accessible and look forward to expanding the service across the country as more retailers adopt this new and innovative offering.
In the near-future we will make moving funds even easier with the addition of cardless ATM locations. These cardless ATMs will give consumers access to their funds from their smartphone. | https://medium.com/synapsefi/introducing-ecash-deposit-cash-with-the-ease-of-a-barcode-c35c51f6a967 | ['Jason To'] | 2020-10-29 00:12:00.894000+00:00 | ['Fintech', 'Banking'] |
How to Cut Essential Public Services Without Anyone Noticing: Use Wonky Acronyms | How to Cut Essential Public Services Without Anyone Noticing: Use Wonky Acronyms
How do you effectively kill a bunch of people without admitting that’s what you’re doing? You adjust the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers to a Chained Consumer Price Index! Obviously.
If your eyes glazed over just now, you’re not alone. But stick with me here because this is actually incredibly important, and not as confusing as it first sounds. Trickle-downers love to use off-putting acronyms to describe useful everyday economic realities because they’re counting on the fact that if they make it seem obscure and complex, you’ll assume you won’t understand it and just keep moving. Don’t buy it.
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) is the tool our government currently uses to calculate the poverty level adjusted for inflation, meaning it’s what the government uses to decide who’s poor enough to receive government supported essential services and who’s not. The chained Consumer Price Index (chained- CPI) is a slightly different way of calculating these things, one that assumes (you know what they say about assuming!) consumers will substitute across categories to counteract rising prices. The Trump administration has proposed doing away with the CPI-U and moving to the chained-CPI to calculate inflation and decide the poverty line.
What Does This Mean and Why Does It Matter?
Substituting across categories means that if you have $1500 to spend on a vacation and the cost of vacations goes up, you’ll spend that $1500 on something else that supports your leisure, like a flat screen TV or a bouncy castle. Aside from the obvious point that a bouncy castle is the way to go here, let’s also remember that 40% of Americans can’t afford a surprise $400 expense, let alone $1500 for leisure activities.
The problem is we’re not talking about bouncy castles here. Substitutions only apply to non-essential spending. There are expenses in life that have no substitution — like rent, or food, or childcare. For many Americans, the choice is not between renting or buying—it’s between renting and becoming homeless. When the price of rent goes up, I can’t substitute something else for that cost. The effect of this substitution assumption is that the inflation rate and cost of living increase appear lower than they actually are, because the government is calculating them based on the people buying $1500 bouncy castles, not the folks who are unable to make rent. This miscalculation results in a lower poverty line, so the government thinks there are fewer poor people than there actually are. Or to put it plainly, millions of Americans will no longer receive essential services they need to survive because they’re not considered “poor enough”.
According to a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, calculating with chained-CPI over 10 years would lower the poverty line by 2% and cause millions of low-income people, seniors, and people with disabilities to either lose their benefits completely or receive less assistance. Hundreds of thousands of seniors would either lose completely or see reduced assistance from Medicare Part D. More than 300,000 children would lose Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage, as would some pregnant women.
Under chained-CPI, many seniors would lose their premium tax credits and be forced to pay higher premiums through Medicare, while many adults would lose their Medicaid altogether. Even people who buy their medical coverage on the marketplace would see their premium tax credits shrink. These impacts would continue to grow over time, decreasing the accuracy of the poverty level, the inflation rate and the cost of living increase and forcing millions of Americans deeper into poverty and hardship — while at the same time artificially giving the appearance that the government is succeeding in fighting poverty, because they’ve changed what’s being measured and in doing so made millions of people experiencing poverty totally invisible.
In case all of this wasn’t horrifying enough, using chained-CPI has historically seen support on the left as well, from Nancy Pelosi and even President Obama. So beware of anyone, friend or foe, pushing for chained-CPI. In fact, even the current measurement system is deeply inaccurate — the CPI-U doesn’t take into account that wages and incomes are barely keeping up with inflation and not even close to keeping up with cost of living increases.
While I understand that no administration wants to be blamed for making poverty worse — which is likely what would happen to an administration that instituted an accurate poverty measure — the Trump administration is (not surprisingly) going to the other extreme. They are making themselves look good while exponentially worsening the problem by further impoverishing and silencing millions of Americans. Rather than help poor Americans climb out of poverty, the Trump administration is trying to pretend they don’t exist. | https://civicskunk.works/how-to-cut-essential-public-services-without-anyone-noticing-use-wonky-acronyms-751e5307ca99 | ['Rachel Taylor'] | 2019-07-30 18:21:27.202000+00:00 | ['Government', 'Economics', 'Trump Administration', 'Politics', 'Social Justice'] |
Mother’s Day Tea | Kelly Neil for Unsplash
My firstborn son, Sam, was in kindergarten and brought home an adorable, handmade invitation to a “Mother’s Day Tea.” It said it was an event for the moms and grandmothers of the entire kindergarten class, but each student was limited to 2 guests which in Sam’s case would mean excluding 1 grandmother.
Both of his grandmothers had been very involved in his care since I had a disabling stroke when he was 22 months old, and gave birth to his brother just before he turned 2. It was not an easy decision to exclude my mother and invite my mother in law instead. Sam had spent a great deal of time at his “Oma’s” when his dad was at work and I was in the hospital for 3 months. My mother in law was not one of my biggest fans, having married her favorite, firstborn son. She was crazy about Sam, though. My mother had been to a few events in Sam’s class and didn’t mind giving Oma a turn.
We lived in a tony suburb of New York City in one of the country’s wealthiest zip codes. I had a hard time fitting in among the Stepford type wives who were married to the captains of industry, or were highly educated professionals in their own right. They were well-groomed, physically fit, fashionable and drove fine cars which they garaged in their interior decorator appointed McMansions.
I had been physically challenged since Sam was 22 months old. I wore a brace on my leg that needed to be worn in orthopedic shoes, carried a cane, limped and had a spastic left arm which kept me from carrying treats into the school like the other moms did effortlessly. I did manage to make some friends among the women at school, but never quite fit in and was more self-conscious in a school setting than I was when I wasn’t around the other fancy moms who were ubiquitous.
I was a bit nervous about attending the Mother’s Day Tea party, but I was sure I couldn’t miss it for anything. I had developed an attitude of gratitude for my life and limited abilities to participate and enjoy it. I was certain I had survived the stroke against the odds for the purpose of being a mother to my two sons. I knew I was lucky to be alive and able to enjoy days like this.
I’m sure I looked nice because it wasn’t as if I didn’t have any good clothes to wear. It was a big day for my mother in law, too, because she was not very social in her own right.
The classroom was decorated with pastel-colored spring flowers made from construction paper and paste. There were a series of low tables pushed together with paper plate place settings. The small chairs were a challenge.
Our children put on a special Mother’s Day musical performance, and served the moms tea and cookies.
At the conclusion of the show, each child was asked to read out loud a story they had written about what made their mom special and why they loved her.
Sam was toward the end of the line and I listened intently to the other children’s stories, all the while wondering what Sam was going to say. There were so many things I couldn’t do that the other Moms were loved for. They said things like:
“I love you because you bake cookies for me.”
“I love you because you take me to the park and play with me.”
“I love you because you play Legos with me.”
“I love you because you read to me.”
“I love you because you love me.”
“I love you because you make macaroni and cheese for me.”
About 20 kids said such cute things, and the suspense grew as they went down the line to Sam. There were plenty of “oohs” and “ah” responses from the audience of mothers and grandmothers.
Finally, it was Sam’s turn. He said:
“I love you because you’re beautiful.”
There were a few seconds of silence as the room digested this perfectly sweet and original sentiment. Now I felt special among the group not because I was so physically different but because I was so proud of myself for bringing such an exceptional child up to kindergarten in the face of incredibly challenging circumstances.
Not one of the other children had said this about their mother. I was completely unaware that he saw me this way. My heart exploded with love and pride. My mother in law was impressed, as well. | https://medium.com/recycled/mothers-day-tea-a3930b96584c | ['Victoria Ponte'] | 2020-05-06 16:55:28.292000+00:00 | ['Mothers Day', 'Mothers', 'Family', 'Disability', 'Parenting'] |
Tiffany Haddish Was Asked to Host the Grammy’s For Exposure, Not Pay | Tiffany Haddish Was Asked to Host the Grammy’s For Exposure, Not Pay
Tiffany Haddish is an accomplished actress, producer, stand-up comic, and author. She keeps an impressive portfolio of television and film appearances on The Carmichael Show, Keanu, Night School, Like A Boss, and most famously 2017’s award-winning Girls Trip, in which she starred beside Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Regina Hall. In 2019, ABC revived the show Kid’s Say the Darndest Things, which Haddish hosted and produced. She even got her own comedy special on Showtime, Tiffany Haddish: She Ready! From the Hood to Hollywood.
Haddish keeps it very real, and she’s funny as hell doing it. It’s no wonder why she’s in such high demand in Hollywood, nor is it surprising that she would be offered the job of hosting the 2021 Grammy’s pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony, a live stream virtual event.
What is surprising, not to mention insulting and problematic, is that Haddish was asked to host the Grammy event for free.
It was a three-hour hosting gig, in which Haddish was told she would not be paid for her time. She would not be compensated for her hair, wardrobe, and makeup costs either. Haddish turned the job down.
Haddish spoke to Variety about turning down the hosting gig, saying:
“All of that would have to come out of my pocket. I don’t know if this might mean I might not get nominated ever again, but I think it’s disrespectful.” “The exposure is amazing but I think I have enough. I appreciate you guys asking. And as much as I appreciate the honor of being nominated, that’s not OK.”
Since the news broke, the Academy has apologized to the comedian.
Harvey Mason Jr., the Recording Academy Interim President and CEO, also spoke out on Instagram, posting a public apology to the actress, saying he was unaware of the decision made by a talent booker working for the Academy not to compensate Haddish.
“I’m frustrated by that decision. It was a lapse in judgment, it was in poor taste and it was disrespectful to the creative community. I’m part of the creative community. I know what that feels like, and it’s not right.”
So, can we talk about what life would be like if other professions were paid like artists?
Screengrab from Twitter, Source
The exhausting expectation of people in the creative world to work for free is insulting, no matter who it is. But for a talented Black actress like Haddish to be asked to work for exposure, well, what does that say to the Black community? What does that say to the creative community? What does that say to women artists?
In no other field is someone expected to work “for exposure” other than the creative field. For creatives, we see this asked of us all the time.
I’ve been offered to submit my writing to several online publications that have enough money to pay for my work, and they assure me that the exposure will be great for my career.
Okay, but what about my car payment? Or my groceries? Or my dog’s vet bills? Exposure isn't going to pay my bills, so stop offering it in exchange for my hard work. | https://medium.com/swlh/comedian-tiffany-haddish-was-invited-to-host-the-grammys-but-without-compensation-ea5d77ff3c52 | ['Jessica Lovejoy'] | 2020-12-23 17:28:51.096000+00:00 | ['Equality', 'Culture', 'Work', 'Creativity', 'Celebrity'] |
It’s snowing cats and dogs! | Need something to smile about?
Well, here’s some season’s greetings from the furry companions of all of us at DTV. And heavens, after the past few months we could not be more thankful for the sanity of those morning dog walks and the (awkward) smiles as the cat once more strolls across the keyboard displaying its bum to the watching Zoom world.
We’ve all been living online this year and you don’t need us to tell you why. And so while we hope our canine and feline friends will raise a smile, we also want to send the warmest thoughts to anyone who has struggled this year, and especially to anyone who for whatever reason is not together with loved ones as the year draws towards a close.
The worst of times never fails to bring out the best in people. To support great work and spread a little warmth to those who need it, we decided to make donations this year to a number of food banks that serve communities close to our offices in London, Delhi, Seoul, Hong Kong, Austria and Sydney.
You can find out more about their wonderful work, and if you wish make your own donation, via the links below.
Feeding Hong Kong
Foodbank Australia
Wooyang Korea
Zomato Feeding India
The Trussell Trust UK
Smart City Austria
This seemingly eternal year will soon be behind us, and we look forward to working with all of our clients, colleagues, partners, and friends to make this world a little more equal, compassionate and kind in 2021.
With very best wishes from us all at DTV.
Your DTV Team | https://medium.com/@dtvgroup49/its-snowing-cats-and-dogs-80f1b5da0694 | ['Dtv Group'] | 2020-12-21 16:27:02.826000+00:00 | ['Dogs', 'Cats', 'Merry Christmas', 'Foodbanks'] |
Early-stage investing in India: Observations of a one-year old | I made an excited jump into early stage investing on Friday the 13th last December. The 22 year old me devising graph algorithms at IIT Delhi had no idea that his 25 year old version would be sitting in startup pitches 5 days a week.
Thus, in some sense, yesterday marked one full year of the most radical decision in my life so far. This article is for sharing some of the learnings I have had post that decision.
I joined early stage VC for one simple reason: I wanted to learn about startups in a breadth first manner from ambitious and resilient people on Zero to One journeys. Reflecting back, that expectation seems to have met reality quite well. My job has indeed given me front-row access to Bangalore’s most exciting meetings (after Dosa-dates at the city’s breakfast joints).
What has come as an added gift, however, is the dazzling variety of learning I have received during internal debriefs at Stellaris. As (by far) the youngest member in the investment team, I am often asked to speak first while discussing an investment opportunity internally. It forces me to (A) develop an independent point of view, and (B) attempt articulating it logically. While there are miles to go before I sleep, I have noticed the increased maturity in my business thinking vis-a-vis my 2019 version.
Following is an unranked (and non-exhaustive) list of observations I have made over the last one year as a young early-stage investing insider in India:
1.It’s all about people and timing
In a hyper-connected world having the lowest information asymmetry in the history of humankind, very few successful businesses can hope to be built on the back of a “novel” idea alone (except for a few pockets of opportunities in deep-tech). For every sector I have explored, and for every business model within it, I have always found more than one company doing something similar. The material difference between any two such companies comes from (A) having different founding teams, and (B) being at different points in the journey.
It took me a while to appreciate that the most reliable way of creating alpha in venture investing is either by identifying rockstar founders early, or by investing ahead of the curve in a growing market. It is in sharp contrast to what I had learnt as a part-time quantitative trader in college, wherein generating alpha was possible through exploiting mere statistical arbitrages.
2. Ambiguity is the norm, rather than the exception
Companies at the early (Seed/Series-A) stage have little to demonstrate in terms of traction. The deal evaluation cycles for early-stage investors are also much shorter than their growth-stage or PE counterparts. Instead of trying to model all likely scenarios of an investment, one needs to zero-in on the most important questions — typically <5 — for building conviction. It was an overwhelming change in style of thinking that I had to go through in the initial days of VC, coming from a job (at Goldman Sachs) where I had to quantitatively model price/risk attributes of every asset for dozens of macroeconomic projections.
“Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70 percent of the information you wish you had”
-Jeff Bezos
Moreover, in my personal observation, finance/accounting knowledge has almost no use while evaluating early stage deals. For instance, I don’t remember the last time I looked at a balance sheet to form a POV on the health of a pre-Series B stage startup. Early stage investing is full of subjective decision-making and seldom a financial modeling exercise.
3.Information exposure is a double-edged sword
If you follow startup Twitter (or LinkedIn, or Medium, or whichever social media platform you fancy), you’d empathize with me that there is simply too much to read and absorb about startups. VC analysts, in particular, are exposed to endless streams of newsletters, blogs, threads, reports, podcasts, webinars, etc. in their daily jobs. As a result, they can end up knowing quite a bit about quite a lot, which can be tricky. I have often found myself near the dangerous peak-area on the Dunning Kruger curve. As of now, balancing the need to be generally informed and the requirement of depth in investment areas of interest is a W.I.P. item.
Fig: the Dunning Kruger effect, courtesy: Dev.to/I Dargahwala
4.Power-law is an omnipresent force in venture investing
Even for a casual observer of the startup ecosystem, it is well-understood that a handful of companies end up constituting the majority of value for venture funds. The cost of losing all your money in even 80% of all investments you ever make is tiny in front of the opportunity cost of missing out on even one mega success. Thus, it makes sense to minimize false negatives (e.g., missing a future decacorn) rather than false positives (e.g., doing only “downside protected” deals). The flipside of this approach, however, could be that one gets too scared of passing a “hot” deal (i.e., a company that other investors are chasing) even if one doesn’t have internal conviction for it. The VC veterans I have begun to admire most have consistently outperformed others at identifying future unicorns while avoiding FOMO.
5.VC isn’t about glam or control
I joined venture capital for entirely different reasons (covered above), but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t also enamoured by the aura of venture capitalists in startup media. As an outsider, it seemed it must be such a rewarding experience for VCs to be able to drive the course for the country’s most exciting new companies. Today, my perspective is dramatically different. While investors do play a critical support role for building bold new companies, it is essentially the company’s founders who drive it in any direction. In the early days of your career, in particular, it’s generally very hard to cater to one’s company-building desires, if any. One would often be roped in for specific strategic projects in the portfolio, but making decisions for portfolio companies or managing operations for them lies outside the scope of this job.
Secondly, there is both lower scope and lesser relevance of visibility-building and credit-taking for VC professionals than what is apparent from the outside. Ask any well-known fund and they’d tell you that branding dollars are spent much better in associating with successful portfolio companies than in promoting the investment team’s background/opinion-pieces. In my opinion, a VC career is more satisfying for people who are okay with sitting out of the limelight.
6.A CSE background could be helpful in its own way
When I had made up my mind to switch to an early stage fund last year, I was an atypical candidate for most funds that I applied to/received offers from. It was surely a bit intimidating to be a newcomer CS guy in an industry dominated by ex-founders, consultants, and bankers. But the industry has been warmly welcoming so far, something I am incredibly thankful for.
One clear personal positive of coming from tech has been the ability to appreciate the tech-stacks of companies that I work with. The benefit is amplified for evaluating enterprise-tech deals, in particular.
Moreover, quite a few of the CS/Math classes I did in college have proved useful in unanticipated ways. For instance, my data science professors taught me how it is almost a crime to not correct for biases in datasets and why correlation != causation. That kind of training helps immensely in analyzing markets/consumer surveys, and prevents me from making conclusions without data-based evidence. The probability professors taught me how to deal with expected, rather than absolute, values — which comes handy in navigating some of the risks entwined with early stage investing. Building mental models that are Markovian in nature helps me keep past experiences at bay from clouding present judgments. Overall, it’s pleasant to be able to leverage my CSE background on the job much more regularly than I had expected.
7.VC is a linear journey
A central irony of venture capital is that unlike VC-funded tech startups that grow exponentially, a VC career grows only linearly. I starkly remember one of the first sessions that I attended on Venture Capital by the incredibly articulate Ritesh Banglani. He argued that it takes a minimum of 10 investments to pan out over 5–7 years to be able to judge how good a VC investor one is. In a typical $100M+ fund, direct involvement in 10 such deals would take 5+ years. Thus, from my end, any blog titled “My tryst with venture capital” is at least half a decade away :)
If the Indian startup ecosystem interests you and you are generally curious about what an entry level career in early stage VC looks like, I would love to hear which points stood out for you.
Also, goes without saying that if you are yourself a VC professional, I would be keen to hear your version of the above observations.
My inbox is always open at [email protected]! | https://medium.com/@anagh-86159/early-stage-investing-in-india-observations-of-a-one-year-old-7d5fa2aaaf3f | [] | 2020-12-15 08:04:02.591000+00:00 | ['Indian Startups', 'Career Development', 'Venture Capital', 'Career Paths', 'Early Stage Investing'] |
Lattice Meets Stable Assets | Stablecoins are simultaneously very boring and extremely exciting. On one hand, stablecoins are designed to maintain value compared to their underlying currency, i.e. dollar, yen, euro, etc. Nearly everyone has a basic understanding of currency. Creating a blockchain equivalent designed to hold a steady price is not exciting. On the other hand, the creation of a stable currency recognized by governments with all the speed and flexibility of Bitcoin is an entirely different matter. Since the initial creation of Bitcoin and blockchain over ten years ago, the crypto industry has taken the first steps to revitalize the perceptively stagnant field of global finance. Stablecoins will undoubtedly play a substantial role in this new landscape, but the journey will be neither easy nor smooth.
For some basic background, let us define what a stablecoin is. As previously mentioned, stablecoins are digital assets designed to hold their value over time. A dollar-pegged digital asset like Tether should not fluctuate wildly like its volatile crypto counterparts, rather stay at $1.00. Stablecoins can be categorized into three basic classifications.
Asset-Backed Stablecoins
Cryptocurrencies backed by an equivalent amount of dollars, currency, or tangible assets. Users and holders of these coins retain confidence with the knowledge that an equivalent amount of value is stored in a vault or on a balance sheet. Tether is the most widely known asset-backed stablecoin, although an audit in 2019 revealed that only 74% of the total value was held in reserve. However, this did nothing to affect the long-term use of Tether for crypto users. Instead, its market cap has only grown. It is available on several blockchains, including Ethereum, EOS, Tron, and Solana.
Other examples are: USDC, TUSD
Crypto backed stablecoins
Stepping towards the more speculative side, there are crypto-backed stablecoins. This may seem like an oxymoron as cryptos are volatile. MakerDAO has managed to walk this tightrope by creating DAI, a dollar-pegged stablecoin that retains its value through a series of smart contracts that dynamically use lending and borrowing to maintain DAI’s value.
With over $2 billion in MakerDAO smart contracts, the community has embraced it as a valid store of value.
Algorithmic backed stablecoins
Stablecoins that hold value based on complex mathematics, or seigniorage stablecoins, are one of the final hurdles in the space. Instead of relying on assets of any kind, these algorithmic stablecoins instead rely on increasing/decreasing the token supply in conjunction with demand. Several attempts have been made to develop a token for this (Basis and Anchor) but they have not yet caught on. Projects currently using the idea of dynamic token supply are AMPL and Tower of Babel (TOB).
Overwhelming Popularity
The resistance to volatility has made stablecoins the most widely traded asset in the world of cryptocurrency. LiveCoinWatch.com shows that Tether has the highest volume in the world. Crypto speculators regularly take profit in Tether to measure gains and losses. Its analogous nature to the dollar also makes it a preferred way to send payments both locally and abroad. Looking at the amount of volume USDT does on a daily basis, it becomes clear just how popular the idea of a stablecoin is.
Future of Stablecoins
It was only a matter of time before nations became aware of the potential of blockchain-based payment systems. Perhaps buoyed by the success of projects like Tether, world governments are now actively pushing forward with native alternatives.
Central Bank Digital Currencies, or CBDCs, are quickly becoming a reality. Since announcing its national blockchain initiative in 2019, China put its Digital Yuan on a fast track. It is also taking steps to ensure that the Digital Yuan has no foreign competitors. A recent article cited a new draft that would recognize the Digital Yuan as currency while banning any other yuan-backed crypto. Native payment systems like Alipay would still be allowed to operate. This “China Only” policy would strive to keep other cryptos out of the local financial system due to exclusive acceptance of its CBDC. If Paypal or anyone else wanted to create Yuan-backed crypto, it would likely be blocked or deemed illegal.
Speculation
The wheels of Government regulation turn slowly, and always behind the wheels of technology. But some local governments, like Wyoming, are looking to the future to encourage and accelerate the speed of adoption of stablecoins and crypto as a whole. The Cowboy State already has 13 blockchain laws on the books, including digital property rights for cryptographic assets, creating a 3-year grace period from current regulations, and a state-chartered depository institution to provide basic business services for blockchain companies. The state government also exempts crypto-to-crypto transactions from money transmittance laws.
These regulations are due largely to the efforts of Caitlin Long, a 22-year wall street veteran and staunch supporter of blockchain. In her speech at University of Wyoming’s Arts and Sciences Honors Convention in 2018, Caitlin spoke at length on the importance of blockchain in financial markets. “It’s about decentralization — networks with no gatekeepers, networks based purely on voluntary consent, networks governed by the laws of math rather than the laws of man. I believe a big power shift away from centralized institutions has begun, and it makes me optimistic.”
Cypherpunks and Bitcoin maximalists may scoff at the idea of a third party handling their private keys, but this is to miss the larger picture. Institutions and enterprise-level clients will require full custodial services if they want to hold crypto for themselves or clients. For crypto to become mainstream it has to reach the largest possible audience. Disregarding corporate involvement is short-sighted and ultimately, self-defeating for the industry.
If China, or any other country, decides to only accept its native CBDC, then tokens will need to be converted before they can be used in-country. Similarly, if the US mirrors that decision and uses only native CBDCs, it could further create currency silos or “walled gardens” mimicking the landscape today. That is, US businesses only accept dollars today, they will likely only accept the US digital dollar in the future.
In a world with multiple stablecoins and CBDC standards, a universal clearinghouse or exchange will need to be established to convert these currencies. As the Ethereum network is unable to handle this number of transactions, alternatives will need to be explored. Lattice, from Constellation Labs, has the ability and bandwidth to handle the millions of daily transactions to fit this market. With its MVP due in Q4 of this year and a mainnet set to roll out in 2021, the Lattice team is quickly moving to position itself to not only operate as a DeFi exchange but to handle the inflow of a global audience. Looking at the importance of stablecoins and the impact across global markets, one could only say that the markets are very exciting indeed.
Carlos Park
Join Lattice In Changing The Face Of DeFi
Lattice is a DeFi application built with Ethereum and Constellation’s Hypergraph Transfer Protocol (HGTP). Empowering users using advanced AMM algorithms.
Website
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Authored by Carlos Park
Carlos has been actively involved in cryptocurrencies since 2014 and since then has authored multiple articles and reviews, edited podcasts, and acted as an advisor for several projects related to blockchain technologies.
Visit Carlos on Twitter.
References
Counterfeit Digital Yuan ALREADY — https://qz.com/1922648/there-are-already-counterfeit-wallets-of-chinas-digital-yuan/
Digital Yuan to be on Alipay, no conflict — https://thedailychain.com/digital-yuan-will-be-available-on-alipay-wechat-pay/ | https://medium.com/@latticeexchange/lattice-meets-stable-assets-5770c3840da1 | ['Lattice Exchange'] | 2020-11-18 14:15:55.322000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Defi', 'Stablecoin Cryptocurrency', 'STEM', 'Crypto'] |
How I Enabled CORS for Any API on My Single-Page App | How I Enabled CORS for Any API on My Single-Page App
And how you can too
Photo by jose aljovin on Unsplash
In this article, I’ll show you how I used free services available to anyone to build a little proxy server for my app to overcome certain CORS limitations for my single-page app.
I built Chisel to help with some repetitive API-response composition and manipulation I was doing at work.
It’s a single-page app that allows you to perform requests against any API endpoint and compose results to extract only what you need. It also allows for CSV exports. Pretty straightforward.
Being it’s still in its earliest days, I decided I wanted to build it with the simplest architecture in order for me to be able to iterate quickly. I went for the JAMstack, built it in React, and deployed on Netlify.
Since it doesn’t have a back-end server it talks to, anything you do stays on your machine. Unfortunately, not all APIs allow for cross-origin requests, so in certain cases, you won’t be able to perform any request from your browser unless you enable the proxy functionality.
What happens if you don’t is your browser will attempt a CORS preflight request which will fail if the API doesn’t respond with the expected headers. | https://medium.com/better-programming/how-i-enabled-cors-for-any-api-on-my-single-page-app-c51700dc7c29 | ['Alessandro Diaferia'] | 2020-07-20 10:16:43.869000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'JavaScript', 'Nginx', 'Docker', 'Web Development'] |
靈魂急轉彎 ▷ 完整版(2020-HD) -Soul -完整版觀看 | 靈魂急轉彎的剧情简介 · · · · · ·
主角Gardner是一个生活很容易看穿的中学音乐老师，而他真正的梦想是弹钢琴 — — 不是像他现在做的一样只教孩子们弹钢琴，而是以做音乐、做爵士乐来谋生。当他终于拿到人生第一份音乐人的工作，却不小心掉进了下水道“死”了，并在一个黑洞中醒来，成为了一个孤独的灵魂。
不久，它发现自己不是独自一魂，而是到了YOU研讨会，另一个外号叫22的灵魂已经参加了研讨会数百年，它极度憎恨人类，一直未去附体。很快的，Gardner和22一起回到现实世界，在那里，Gardner将学会“有了灵魂”真正的含义。
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导演: 彼特·道格特 / 坎普·鲍尔斯
编剧: 彼特·道格特 / 麦克·琼斯 / 坎普·鲍尔斯
主演: 杰米·福克斯 / 蒂娜·菲 / 格拉汉姆·诺顿 / 瑞切尔·豪斯 / 戴维德·迪格斯 / 更多…
类型: 动画 / 音乐 / 奇幻
官方网站: https://movies.disney.com/soul
制片国家/地区: 美国
语言: 英语
上映日期: 2020–12–25(中国大陆/美国网络) / 2020–10–11(伦敦电影节)
片长: 101分钟
又名: 灵魂奇遇记(港) / 灵魂急转弯(台) / 灵魂 / 心灵
IMDb链接: tt2948372
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In 1889, on November 1 in Gotha, Germany Anna Therese Johanne Hoch, who later would be known as Hannah Hoch was born. Being the eldest of five children, the girl was brought up in a comfortable and quiet environment of the small town. Her parents, a supervisor in an insurance company and an amateur painter sent her to Girl’s High school. However, at the age of 15 Hannah had to quit studying for the long six years to take care of her newborn sister. Only in 1912 she continued her education with Harold Bengen in School of Applied Arts, mastering glass design. As the World War I broke up Hannah returned to the native town to work in the Red Cross.
The first years after war the young woman recommenced her studying, getting to know graphic arts. 1915 was highlighted by an acquaintance with an Austrian artist Raoul Hausmann, which grew into the long-lasting romantic relationship and involvement in Berlin Dada movement. For ten years till 1926 Hoch worked in Berlin’s major publisher of newspapers and magazines. Her task was to design embroidering, knitting and crocheting patterns for the booklets.
Being on vacation with her beloved in 1918, Hannah discovered ‘the principle of photomontage in cut-and-paste images that soldiers sent to their families’ (National gallery of Art). This find affected greatly on her artistic production, and she created mass-media photographs comprising the elements of photomontage and handwork patterns, thus combining traditional and modern culture. Her prior preoccupation was to represent the ‘new woman’ of the Weimar Republic with new social role and given freedoms.
Hoch was the only woman in Berlin Dada, who took part in all kinds of events and exhibitions showcasing her socially critical works of art. Till 1931 she participated in exhibitions but with the rise of National Social regime was forbidden to present her creative work. Till her last breath in 1978 Hannah Hoch lived and worked in the outskirts of Berlin-Heiligensee.
The piece of art which is going to be analyzed in this research is ‘The beautiful girl’ designed in 1919–1920. It combines the elements of technology and females. In the middle of the picture one can clearly see a woman dressed in a modern bathing suit with a light bulb on her head which probably serves as a sun umbrella. In the background a large advertisement with a woman’s hair-do on top is presented. Maud Lavin describes strange human as ‘she is part human, part machine, part commodity’ (Lavin). The woman is surrounded by the images of industrialization as tires, gears, signals and BMW logos. A woman’s profile with the cat eyes, untrusting and skeptical, in the upper right corner is eye-catching as well. This unusually large eye symbolizes DADA movement — a monocle, which is present in almost every Hoch’s work. The colour scheme does not offer rich palette of tints, including mostly black, white, orange and red pieces. The photo is surrounded by the BMW circles which add the spots of blue.
An apt description of the piece is given in the book ‘Cut with the Kitchen Knife’ and states that it is ‘a portrait of a modern woman defined by signs of femininity, technology, media and advertising’ (Lavin). In other words Hannah Hoch focused on the woman of the new age, free and keeping up with the fast-moving world. The artist promoted feministic ideas and from her point of view urbanization and modern technologies were meant to give hope to woman to gain equality of genders. With this photomontage she commented on how the woman was expected to combine the role of a wife and mother with the role of a worker in the industrialized world. The light bulb instead of a face shows that women were perceived as unthinking machines which do not question their position and can be turned on or off at any time at man’s will. But at the same time they were to remain attractive to satisfy men’s needs. The watch is viewed as the representation of how quickly women are to adapt to the changes.
In a nutshell, Hoch concentrated on two opposite visions of the modern woman: the one from the television screens — smoking, working, wearing sexy clothes, voting and the real one who remained being a housewife.
The beautiful girl’ is an example of the art within the DADA movement. An artistic and literal current began in 1916 as the reaction to World War I and spread throughout Northern America and Europe. Every single convention was challenged and bourgeois society was scandalized. The Dadaists stated that over-valuing conformity, classism and nationalism among modern cultures led to horrors of the World War I. In other words, they rejected logic and reason and turned to irrationality, chaos and nonsense. The first DADA international Fair was organized in Berlin in 1920 exposing a shocking discontentment with military and German nationalism (Dada. A five minute history).
Hannah Hoch was introduced to the world of DADA by Raoul Hausman who together with Kurt Schwitters, Piet Mondrian and Hans Richter was one of the influential artists in the movement. Hoch became the only German woman who referred to DADA. She managed to follow the general Dadaist aesthetic, but at the same time she surely and steadily incorporated a feminist philosophy. Her aim was to submit female equality within the canvass of other DADA’s conceptions.
Though Hannah Hoch officially was a member of the movement, she never became the true one, because men saw her only as ‘a charming and gifted amateur artist’ (Lavin). Hans Richter, an unofficial spokesperson shared his opinion about the only woman in their community in the following words: ‘the girl who produced sandwiches, beer and coffee on a limited budget’ forgetting that she was among the few members with stable income.
In spite of the gender oppressions, Hannah’s desire to convey her idea was never weakened. Difficulties only strengthened her and made her an outstanding artist. A note with these return words was found among her possessions: ‘None of these men were satisfied with just an ordinary woman. But neither were they included to abandon the (conventional) male/masculine morality toward the woman. Enlightened by Freud, in protest against the older generation. . . they all desired this ‘New Woman’ and her groundbreaking will to freedom. But — they more or less brutally rejected the notion that they, too, had to adopt new attitudes. . . This led to these truly Strinbergian dramas that typified the private lives of these men’ (Maloney).
Hoch’s technique was characterized by fusing male and female parts of the body or bodies of females from different epochs — a ‘traditional’ woman and ‘modern’, liberated and free of sexual stereotypes one. What’s more, combining male and female parts, the female ones were always more distinctive and vibrant, while the male ones took their place in the background. Hannah created unique works of art experimenting with paintings, collages, graphic and photography. Her women were made from bits and pieces from dolls, mannequins of brides or children as these members of the society were not considered as valuable.
Today Hannah Hoch is most associated with her famous photomontage ‘Cut with the kitchen knife DADA through the last Weimer Beer-Belly Cultural epoch of Germany’ (1919–1920). This piece of art highlights social confusion during the era of Weimar Republic, oppositionists and government radicals (Grabner). In spite of never being truly accepted by the rest of her society, this woman with a quiet voice managed to speak out loud her feministic message.
Looking at Hannah Hoch’s art for the first time I found it confusing, because couldn’t comprehend the meaning. It was quite obvious that every single piece and structure is a symbol of the era, its ideas and beliefs. However, after having learned about her life and constant endeavors to declare about female’s right, little by little I started to realize what’s what. As an object for research I chose ‘The beautiful girl’ as, to my mind, its theme and message intersects with the modern tendency: a successful, clever, beautiful and free woman has to become one in no time, cause the world is moving faster and faster. I enjoyed working with this artist as her example is inspiring and is worth following. | https://medium.com/@tukangnyontek/%E9%9D%88%E9%AD%82%E6%80%A5%E8%BD%89%E5%BD%8E-%E5%AE%8C%E6%95%B4%E7%89%88-2020-hd-soul-%E5%AE%8C%E6%95%B4%E7%89%88%E8%A7%80%E7%9C%8B-8669ebba52bd | [] | 2020-12-26 17:23:29.799000+00:00 | ['Gratis', '2020', 'Soul', 'Free Watch', 'Covid 19'] |
“Police Shoots More White People than Black People” —It’s Time to Educate the Karens | “Police shoots more white people than black people” — the quote I heard today from an acquaintance, who was reading the news have about George Floyd and protests around the country. Not only it shocked me, but it made me really angry. In my defence, I barely know this person, and he’s not my friend. I don’t have any Karens in my inner circle.
False news and lack of analytical thinking cause certain individuals to misinterpret the information they find online or in the news. The truth is, this is precisely what politicians are counting on: people not investigating the issue, and accepting everything at face value.
How Numbers Can Be Misleading
If you search “people shot by the police in the United States, by race,” you will land on this graph:
Clearly, you can see that many more Caucasian folks are being killed by police officers each year. Here’s the catch: you need to compare these numbers to the population. Looking at quantitative data Is not enough — statistical analysis is a must.
Graphs like that, on their own, are incredibly misleading. They should be published alongside other data, particularly the country’s population, calculated by race.
Oh, you know a Karen who says white people are more likely to be killed? Let’s help them out since googling is too much of a skill to have.
Data Collection and Analysis
The population of the United States equals to 328,239,523, as of 2019. There is, however, a huge difference when you look at the racial component:
Number of Caucasian population = 76.5% of 328,239,523 = 251,103,235
Number of African-American population = 13.4% of 328,239,523 = 43,984,096
If we go back to the graph above, we need to compare the number of death by the police to the country’s population, considering the race. This is what it looks like if we use the data for 2019:
Number of Caucasians shot by police = 370
Number of African-Americans shot by police = 235
Ratio of Caucasians shot compared to the population, by race = 370 / 251,103,235 = 0.00000147
Ratio off African-Americans shot, compared to the population, by race = 235 / 43,984,096 = 0.000005343
If we compare the numbers, the difference equals to: 0.000005343 / 0.00000147 = 36.3
THIRTY-SIX! African-Americans are 36 times more likely to die at the hand of the police! What were you saying, Karen?!
Freedom should not be a luxury — it’s everyone’s right. No human being deserves to walk down the street and wonder if they’re going to die today.
Don’t Accept Anything at Face Value
As we can see from the calculations above, an African-American individual is 36 times more likely to be shot by a police officer in the United States. Not twice, not five times — thirty-six! This is terrifying. Looking at the numbers, anyone would be fearful for their life!
Not only the African-American population is disproportionately in danger of being murdered by the authorities, but we know many horrific cases of people losing their lives under appalling circumstances. Breonna Taylor was killed by the police while lying in her bed; Botham Jean was shot in his apartment — and many more. History bears the names of numerous black people who became victims of police brutality.
Yet, there are still those who will look at the very first piece of information, accept it as is, and won’t question it at all. Those are the people whose ignorance and lack of education know no end.
Humanity Is a Virtue
I’m always so tempted to patronize individuals who won’t lift a finger to educate themselves. This is especially frustrating when the topic of a conversation is so incredibly important — such as death and murders in your own country.
Those are real people. They are just like you and me, like all of us. They had families who were devastated by their loss. Someone lost a father or mother, a sibling, a son or daughter, possibly a grandparent, a friend — and the community lost a valuable member of society.
There are no words to describe such inhumanity, ignorance, cruelty and indifference. People who have no regard for others, especially when talking about murder, have no place in our society. And they have absolutely no place in our lives.
Nobody should leave their home knowing that their life is 36 times less valuable compared to someone who happened to be born with a different skin colour.
Study the Data. Educate Yourself. Use Your Brain
It’s not that difficult to Google a few things. It’s not 1970 anymore when you had to go to a library, collect newspapers, and hunt for information. The Internet gave us virtually limitless access to data. Granted, some of it might be false, and there is a lot of misleading news and questionable research. Having that said, if you check more than one source, you have a good chance of finding trustworthy information.
Don’t pay attention to people who are too lazy or too ignorant to perform a simple Google search. Ignore those who won’t spend more than 2 minutes searching for information. If a person isn’t willing to learn and open their mind to what’s happening around the world, there is nothing you can do.
Data can answer many questions and teach you everything. Finding information is easy, and all you have to do is use your brain and perform simple math. By the end of the day, knowledge is everything.
Use the data. Read articles. Research and educate yourself. Quit listening to ignorance.
We Fight for Justice
I should have clarified right away: I’m not American. But looking at the racial makeup of police shooting victims in the United States is devastating. But this is precisely why people around the world support Americans in their fight for justice and equality. This is why people fight for freedom.
Freedom should not be a luxury — it’s everyone’s right. No human being deserves to walk down the street and wonder if they’re going to die today. No one should wake up and be afraid that a cop will shoot them in their own bed. Nobody should leave their home knowing that their life is 36 times less valuable compared to someone who happened to be born with a different skin colour.
Every single human has the right to feel safe in their bed, their home, their community — and the entire country. This is why people all over the world are going outside during the scariest time in recent years — the global pandemic. Protesting means putting yourself at risk of contracting coronavirus and dying.
People fight for the right to live — something no one should ever fight for. Everyone should have it by default. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/police-shoots-more-white-people-than-black-people-its-time-to-educate-the-karens-40472e32a811 | ['Joanna Henderson'] | 2020-06-06 20:57:12.384000+00:00 | ['George Floyd', 'Equality', 'Race', 'Data Science', 'Racism'] |
How June Medical Services v. Gee Could Devastate Abortion Access | If SCOTUS fails to uphold its own precedent and strike down this clearly unconstitutional restriction, the devastating effects it will have on abortion access can’t be overstated.
Donald Trump promised us he would nominate Supreme Court justices who would challenge Roe v. Wade and punish people who choose to have an abortion — and he delivered. Since Kavanaugh’s confirmation established an anti-choice majority on SCOTUS, anti-choice state legislators across the country have passed extreme bans on abortion across the country. From Ohio to Kentucky to Alabama, misogynists have come out of the woodwork in a race to see who can pass the most extreme anti-choice laws and reach SCOTUS first to challenge Roe v. Wade.
For now, those bans are hung up in lower courts and not currently in effect, but Kavanaugh and Gorsuch don’t have to accept an out-right challenge to Roe to gut its protections. Last month, SCOTUS voted to take up June Medical Services v. Gee — and it’s a golden opportunity for Trump’s anti-choice justices to cut off abortion access for millions.
The Court’s decision to hear June Medical Services v. Gee is so concerning because the Louisiana law at its center is IDENTICAL to one from Texas that SCOTUS struck down in 2016 in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. This should have been an easy one for federal judges: Supreme Court precedent on this was established just three years ago. But it’s clear that far-right judges, just like the ones that that Trump has packed our courts with, have an ulterior motive in ensuring that abortion rights cases reach our highest court — they want to undo precedent and undermine Roe.
Just like the failed Texas law struck down in 2016, Louisiana’s restriction in question is a TRAP law that weaponizes medically-unnecessary licensing requirements to achieve one goal: Shut down clinics that provide abortion care. Abortion-providing clinics, like all medical facilities, are already subject to extensive health and safety regulations, and it’s clear that nothing about these TRAP laws is actually intended to protect women’s health or improve patient outcomes for a procedure that is already extremely safe. The Supreme Court itself found in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt that the restriction in Texas provided no health benefit to Texans and instead was an undue burden on the constitutional right to abortion.
If SCOTUS fails to uphold its own precedent and strike down this clearly unconstitutional restriction, the devastating effects it will have on abortion access can’t be overstated. Before being blocked by SCOTUS, Texas’ TRAP law closed more than half of the state’s clinics, and the damage done by June Medical Services v. Gee could be even worse. Louisiana is already down to only three abortion-providing clinics, and the district court that previously ruled on June Medical Services v. Gee found that Louisiana’s entire population would be left with one abortion provider, at most, if this law were allowed to go into effect. There’s no doubt that thousands of patients, if they could even afford the extended travel to the single remaining clinic, would have to be turned away. And it would be the people who already face extensive barriers to accessing abortion care — low-income folks, people of color, LGBTQ people, and people living in rural areas — who would be hurt most.
If Louisiana receives SCOTUS’s green light to shut down clinics, it’s highly likely that other anti-choice state legislatures will spring into action to see how fast they can follow suit. A wave of copycat TRAP laws is likely to roll across red states all across the U.S., shutting down clinic after clinic in their wake.
It can feel like there’s not much that can be done now that the anti-choice majority Supreme Court controls the fate of June Medical Services v. Gee — but this fight is far from over. Even if SCOTUS’s right-wing justices deal a major blow to reproductive freedom by overturning precedent and upholding Louisiana’s TRAP law, we can fight back. We urgently need Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA). If enacted, WHPA would provide federal protection for abortion rights and access, no matter what state you live in. It would protect all of us from outright bans on abortion and sneaky TRAP laws alike. At a moment when our reproductive freedom is hanging by a thread, we need bold action from our leaders.
And for those members of Congress who refuse to uphold their duty to fight for the fundamental freedoms of their constituents, we will replace them. The 2019 elections once again demonstrated that reproductive freedom and abortion rights are a winning issue across the country. The pro-choice majority in this country can hold the House, take the White House, and flip the Senate in 2020 — and we must. Our rights and our lives are on the line, and the time to fight is now.
→ Tell your Members of Congress to pass WHPA: Take Action | https://medium.com/@naral/how-june-medical-services-v-gee-could-devastate-abortion-access-fc1885a217a0 | [] | 2019-11-14 19:56:49.462000+00:00 | ['Abortion', 'Legal', 'Supreme Court', 'Reproductive Rights', 'Reproductive Health'] |
2 ad frameworks | In my last email I looped you into a conversation I had with my brother about advertising copy. If you missed that email, you’ll want to read it.
Why? Because I am about to ask you a question (it’s a trick question):
Which benefit statement is stronger:
Benefit statement #1: “The 100% organic cotton sheets breathe. Leaving you cool at night so you wake up energized and fully alive in the morning.”
Or,
Benefit statement #2: “Wake up energized and alive with sheets that keep you cool at night. The secret is in the organic bamboo cotton. It breathes!”
(Remember it’s a trick question).
As you can see, the first one leads with the features i.e. 100% organic sheets.
The second statement leads with the core emotion i.e. wake up energized and alive.
WHICH IS MORE EFFECTIVE?
It depends on your audience!
The real question to ask is…
When do you lead with features… and when do you lead with the emotional benefit?
Because there’s a clear cut answer…
If you’re dealing with a sophisticated audience, lead with features. That’s because a knowledgeable buyer translates the feature into a benefit in her mind.
i.e. This person knows that 100% organic cotton sheets keep you cool and help you sleep.
And a buyer that sells themselves on the benefit is a much easier sale.
If, however, your buyer is NOT sophisticated… then lead with the emotion. | https://medium.com/@fubbimav/2-ad-frameworks-2e7a288fdcbe | ['Alexi Neocleous'] | 2020-12-11 23:03:38.245000+00:00 | ['Advertising', 'Content Marketing', 'Contenthacking', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Content Strategy'] |
Makes a lot of sense — language does so much to enable and empower. | Makes a lot of sense — language does so much to enable and empower. Very applicable when thinking about building internal culture and creating the kind of psychological safety needed to talk about people’s emotional reactions to being “in the fog.” Yes, you can definitely get better at dealing with and even thriving through ambiguity (as I have), but it’s important to acknowledge that this might be more stressful for some than it is for others. Another reminder to think empathetically when collaborating to tackle the monkey first!
Oh and also, I love love love the labels on that somewhat triggering journey map… I’m currently writing a book and alternating between wading through the dark swamp of despair (or the muck of suck as I guess I’ve been referring to it in my head) and realizing that the swamp doesn’t last forever. Makes it much easier to “see the light,” when you are beyond being self-conscious about looking or sounding stupid, and can broach taking about the hard stuff with friends or others you trust! Hard stuff in this case being, “Is my protagonist boring? Does this subplot aka the past 5,000 words even work?!”
Can’t wait to be square in the Hmm-Hey! phase and nearing that final Wow. I know it’s out there!! | https://medium.com/@jivithinks/makes-a-lot-of-sense-language-does-so-much-to-enable-and-empower-72d6723cb2b | ['Jivika Rajani'] | 2020-12-15 20:22:28.835000+00:00 | ['Language', 'Psychological Safety', 'Moonshots', 'Writer', 'Organizational Culture'] |
Drake’s “Nice For What” Is The Bittersweetest Song I’ve Ever Known | Drake’s “Nice For What” Is The Bittersweetest Song I’ve Ever Known
Aaliyah stans can’t sing Lauryn’s spirit this well, dammit.
I adore Lauryn Hill to the level that I have every bar she ever rapped or verse she ever sang committed to memory. I was so inspired by The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill that I listened to her excellent 1998 release every day for 18 months, plus owned a four-foot tall “Ex-Factor” promotional poster. But, alas, by the time that she released Unplugged, her heartbroken, hasty and half-written, yet still magical and impacting 2003 follow up, the Lauryn I knew was gone. Moreover, the heart and soul of my love for soul music had been ripped out, savaged, then placed back into my body. Thus, while it is magnificent, Drake’s current single “Nice For What” is some straight butt-trash that I don’t have any time for (but will stream another million times). I feel this way if for no other reason than he already loves Aaliyah the way I love Lauryn and thus, in my mind can’t authentically make a song that seems so heartfelt. “Nice For What” is probably the most bittersweetest thing I’ve ever known. By heart. Already. Damn.
L. Boogie has more creative talent in her right pinkie finger than 100 musicians could use in ten lifetimes. She was the nexus at which Joni Mitchell meeting Stevie Wonder combined with Rakim’s warrior heart and the passionate politics of Angela Davis occurred. Ms. Hill was ill-equipped for popular music in 1996. Back then, pop took rappers and made them charlatans, hard edges on polite radio fare, exclamation points raging where periods once ruled. Lauryn Hill’s message shined brighter than all the world’s shiny suits and bling bling combined. I sincerely feel that between heartbreak, having a family and popular culture wanting her to be a dolled-up cooing clone, instead of fighting the machine, she quit it at her peak.
Lauryn Hill plainly stared the mainstream music industry in the face and called them the liars and pimps that they are. Nobody likes an unwilling whore, and she fell off precipitously, as life on the pop margins is like a million cloudy days blocking the sunshine of mainstream love. In retaliation, she changed her times, and as a professional mother, let her rhymes raise her babies (all five of them), art influencing life.
Drizzy is a fascinating artist to be tying his art to Lauryn Hill’s creative legacy. For as much as he’s an actor-ternt-sanga, he’s also the artist whose five-foot two-inch tall mother cried into his chest in depressive angst. He’s also known for encapsulating his “devil may care” mantra toward life in song. Also, in having Aaliyah’s face tattooed on his body, he probably cares more about 90s R & B than I ever did by just putting up a poster on my wall. In fact, while wholly inspired by Lauryn Hill to get my “lover and a fighter” tattoo on my own back ten years ago, I couldn’t get myself to the point where Hill’s wood-carving cover of Miseducation seemed made for my skin. Instead, I opted for a fist with brass knuckles holding a rose.
“Nice For What” was released in the same week as Cardi B’s debut album Invasion of Privacy. Invasion of Privacy is a release that was the first New York/East Coast influenced hip-hop album by a female artist since The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill to hit in such a way that it left an immediate and indelible imprint on popular culture. It’s again beautiful, yet bittersweet that hip-hop is now mainstreamed to a point where it’s big enough to support Lauryn Hill and another hip-hop artist. Ultimately, if Jay and Bey are the new parents of the culture, Lauryn is the grandmother. She’s older, wiser, a memory of the legacy mixed with the talent for timeless impact. Lineage-wise, Drake exhuming the ex-Fugee’s spiritual essence while Cardi B is simultaneously living her “best life” is a magical, yet still, to me, potentially lousy hip-hop moment.
Maybe that’s my issue with Drake’s New Orleans bounce inspired cover hit. Co-opting the Earth Mother of mainstream hip-hop feels sacrilegious. When he says “she had a man last year…life goes on,” over a female empowering club banger that feels like Webbie’s “Independent,” it feels like it cheapens the best song ever written about the romantic inadequacies of Wyclef Jean that led to Hill’s career-tragic professional decline. “Ex-Factor” isn’t just another ballad. It is one of the most iconic, broken-hearted torch songs ever performed, and an anthem that still leaves an indelible mark on women worldwide.
In fact, Drake is such a real fan of Lauryn Hill, that he made the song exactly three minutes and 30 seconds long. Three minutes and 30 seconds you ask? Yes. Lauryn’s time-splitting duet with Bob Marley for “Turn Your Lights Down Low” includes Hill saying “loving you is a like a song I replay, every three minutes and thirty seconds of every day.” If you’re going to get Lauryn right, you have to mix multiple levels of sacred and keep God and Jah locked in the room with the Devil. The period that inspired “Turn Your Lights Down Low” is right around the time of the height of the “era of good feeling in her on-again/off-again relationship with Rohan Marley. This epoch directly proceeded the period that created the space for “Ex-Factor” to exist. Thus, it’s a nice nod. Drake doing call and response with Lauryn paralleling Lauryn and Robert Nesta Marley’s lovelorn redemption song as a coda for “Nice For What?” It’s the little things.
Maybe I’m a curmudgeon. Or, perhaps, I’m a diabolical hater. Possibly, it’s just that the inevitability of Drake is just wearing on me, and the idea that he’s allowed to be a man for all seasons and all people seems like a step too far. It’s a virtual impossibility to me that one artist could be so uniquely gifted as to wear Aaliyah’s face on his body, but sing Lauryn’s spirit so well. But, “Nice For What” is easily the bittersweetest song I’ve ever known. By heart. Already. Damn. | https://marcuskdowling.medium.com/drakes-nice-for-what-is-the-bittersweetest-song-i-ve-ever-known-46d1ad13b222 | ['Marcus K. Dowling'] | 2018-04-10 15:12:11.188000+00:00 | ['Drake', 'Feminism', 'Music', 'Rap', 'Women'] |
Javascript | Valid Parentheses | Given a string s containing just the characters '(' , ')' , '{' , '}' , '[' and ']' , determine if the input string is valid.
An input string is valid if:
Open brackets must be closed by the same type of brackets. Open brackets must be closed in the correct order.
Example 1:
Input: s = "(((]]"
Output: false
Example 2:
Input: s = "((((([)]"
Output: false
We will see two implementations, Let's, deep dive -
arr is an array where we push ( ‘(’, ‘[’, ‘{’ ),
arr[arr.length — 1] checks for the last element in the array.
when the char = “)” and if the last element in the array(stack) matches with the opposite of “(”, then pop the element.
if the stack has no char left in the array, then the string is valid.
First Implementation,
*
*
*/
var isValid = function(s) {
const arr = []; /** @param {string} s @return {number}*/var isValid = function(s) {const arr = []; for(let char of s) {
if(char === ")" && arr[arr.length - 1] === "(") {
arr.pop();
} else if(char === "]" && arr[arr.length - 1] === "[") {
arr.pop();
} else if(char === "}" && arr[arr.length - 1] === "{") {
arr.pop();
} else {
arr.push(char);
}
} return arr.length === 0
};
See the output
Second Implementation,
*
*
*/
var isValid = function(s) {
let map = {
")": "(",
"]": "[",
"}": "{"
}
let arr = [];
for(let i = 0; i < s.length; i ++){
if(s[i] === "(" || s[i] === "[" || s[i] === "{"){
arr.push(s[i]);
}
else{
if(arr[arr.length - 1] === map[s[i]]){
arr.pop();
}
else return false;
}
}
return arr.length === 0 ? true : false;
}; /** @param {string} s @return {boolean}*/var isValid = function(s) {let map = {")": "(","]": "[","}": "{"let arr = [];for(let i = 0; i < s.length; i ++){if(s[i] === "(" || s[i] === "[" || s[i] === "{"){arr.push(s[i]);else{if(arr[arr.length - 1] === map[s[i]]){arr.pop();else return false;return arr.length === 0 ? true : false;}; | https://medium.com/theleanprogrammer/javascript-valid-parentheses-interview-question-6a47debae7cd | ['Iamsonika'] | 2021-05-27 14:19:06.881000+00:00 | ['Stringsandals', 'Datastrucutre', 'JavaScript', 'Arrays'] |
Latest Youth STEM Competition 最新青少年科技竞赛信息 (12/02/2020) | 有关青少年的最新科技竞赛信息 （K-12)，每周更新
最新更新 2020年12月02日 联系我们： [email protected]
This page is dedicated to post the latest STEM competition (include activity) for youth (K-12), it will be updated once per week.
Latest update Dec 2nd, 2020 Contact Us：[email protected]
(all the pictures / logos are copyright owned by its original owner)
====================================
“编程一小时活动”最初是一小时的计算机科学入门，旨在使“代码”去神秘化，以表明任何人都可以学习基础知识，并扩大对计算机科学领域的参与。 从一小时的编码活动开始，到后来扩展到各种社区活动，它已成为全世界庆祝计算机科学的活动。这项基层运动得到了全球400多个合作伙伴和200,000名教育工作者的支持。
我们YCIC（青少年编程创新俱乐部）从2018年开始，已经举办过三次HOC（编程一小时活动）活动，吸引了超过100名学生参与。
详细介绍：
https://hourofcode.com/
在线报名：https://forms.gle/ggHAkG2Lni3g4D9w7
活动详情
时间： 12/8/2020 （Tuesday) 6 PM — 7 PM
地点 ： 线上
年龄： 6 到 13岁的学生 （国籍不限）
活动主题： explore AI WORLD（探索人工智能的世界）
活动要求：软件 Scratch （online）
====================================
MakeX Spark Online Competition
MakeX Spark设计挑战线上赛
MakeX Spark是创意硬件搭建线上赛，本赛项着重于跨学科学习，强调理论知识与现实世界的相互联系。鼓励参赛选手主动了解现实问题，亲自动手尝试用不同的方法分析和解决问题。
详细介绍：
https://spark.makex.io/spark-2/
在线报名：
TBD
比赛详情
时间： 2020年11月30日 — — 12月17日
地点 ： 线上
年龄： 6 到 13岁的学生 （国籍不限）
比赛主题： 家庭帮手
比赛要求：硬件不限，软件必须用MBLOCK
团队规模： 每个团队最多1个
====================================
Destination Imagination
目的地想象青少年大赛
目的地想象力（DI）通过全球大学水平的学生向所有幼儿园开放。 学生组成最多7名成员的团队，选择自己喜欢的挑战，并共同开发解决方案。 每个团队至少有一个团队经理（通常是父母或老师），可以帮助保持团队的正常运转，但不协助或干扰团队的解决方案。
详细介绍：
https://www.destinationimagination.org/challenge-program/2020-21-challenge-previews/
比赛详情
时间： 2020年11月1日 — — 2020年3月15日
地点 ： 线上
年龄： 6 到 18岁的学生 （国籍不限）
比赛主题： TBD
比赛要求： TBD
团队规模： 每个团队最多7人
====================================
如果你知道什么其它的青少年STEM赛事，请与我们联系，[email protected]
(all the images are copyright owned by its original owner)
（所以照片版权归其原作者） | https://medium.com/@youthinnolab/latest-youth-stem-competition-%E6%9C%80%E6%96%B0%E9%9D%92%E5%B0%91%E5%B9%B4%E7%A7%91%E6%8A%80%E7%AB%9E%E8%B5%9B%E4%BF%A1%E6%81%AF-12-02-2020-83deebbe6db2 | ['Youth Innovation Lab'] | 2020-12-03 03:25:57.015000+00:00 | ['STEM', 'Hour Of Code', 'Coding', 'Youth', 'Hoc'] |
Man Uses Investors’ Money to Fund Personal Influencer Getaway | In what seems to be reminiscent of the 2017 Fyre Festival, Benjamin Morrison, a social media promotor based out of Gold Coast, Australia was able to defraud investors out of tens of thousands of dollars in what was supposed to be a luxury retreat for influencers and paying investors; however, the only participants who were able to enjoy the vacation were Morrison and his entourage of beautiful social media influencers who were paid by others to attend the luxury getaway.
According to the investors of the trip, Morrison pitched what was supposed to be a luxurious weekend in the Whitsundays Islands, filled with complimentary alcohol, exotic yachts, jet ski tours, and prostegious Michelin Star rated dinners. The trip was supposedly an influencer meetup where everyone attending was to pay for their spot ahead of time on this luxury vacation, with packages starting at over $3,000 USD.
A photo from Morrison’s Instagram story displaying the influencer retreat.
With seltzer brands and enticing videos showing off luxury accommodations and exciting activities, the trip appeared to be one for the books. The promised Airbnb’s were fully booked, and several influencers had confirmed their attendance via Instagram posts; however, the trip was not everything it seemed to be. In fact, Morrison had already made other plans in which he would use his investors’ money for.
Many investors reported that after wiring Morrison the funds to his company, Boss Media Empire, they were never given the proposed flight plans, accommodation confirmations, or an address of where the retreat was being held. Upon further investigation, it was revealed that the influencers, all of which were women, had all of their lodging and flights paid for by Morrison. When investors caught wind of what was happening, they were blocked and ignored when they attempted to reach out to Ben and representatives of his company.
An invoice sent to one of the investors from Benjamin Morrison (Boss Media Empire).
Morrison was able to garner his investors’ attention by attending high profile parties around Queensland, Australia. Whether it was invite-only yacht parties, or exclusive penthouse gatherings, Morrison had made a name for himself among the Queensland Elite. “No one seemed to know exactly what he did for work, but he was always in attendance at social gatherings being friendly with other attendees who he would eventually line up for his next project,” one investor stated.
While the investors of this retreat are eagerly waiting for this situation to unfold, Benjamin Morrison has supposedly gone into hiding. He recently disabled his Instagram account, and he has ignored all emails and calls from those involved, as well as the media. Many of the influencers who attended the retreat stated that certain aspects of the trip seemed very suspicious, and when they asked Morrison where the other male attendees were, he would never give an actual answer.
We will contine to keep readers updated on this situation as the story unfolds. We encourage all readers to fully research events before booking them, no matter how amazing or legitamate they seem. | https://medium.com/entertainment-news/man-uses-investors-money-to-fund-personal-influencer-getaway-f5df0a0343b5 | ['David Mason'] | 2021-09-05 01:33:59.396000+00:00 | ['Influencer', 'Social Media', 'Retreats', 'Scam', 'Ben Morrison'] |
Mother Earth has a Rhythm | Mother Earth has a Rhythm
Poem
Mother Earth has a rhythm
that must not be disturbed
a distant drumming heartbeat
that often goes unheard.
We’re chewing and choking
on our piece of Heaven
and leaving scars on the land.
We’re snatching and grabbing
more than our share
and we all got the blood on our hands.
It’s an over-consumption
an awful malfunction
and we’re digging our own grave.
We cannot create
a more perfect place
than what is ours to save. | https://medium.com/driftwood-chronicle/mother-earth-has-a-rhythm-d251a826c1b7 | ['Tauna Pierce'] | 2016-11-18 14:01:55.628000+00:00 | ['Environmental Issues', 'Environment', 'Making A Difference', 'Poetry And Prose', 'Poetry'] |
Extraindo Valor de Métricas Ágeis | Passionate about agility and people development. Helping teams and organizations working better together. | https://medium.com/@marcos-xavier88/extraindo-valor-de-m%C3%A9tricas-%C3%A1geis-631801410774 | ['Marcos Xavier'] | 2020-12-16 01:34:17.360000+00:00 | ['Agile Teams', 'Mindset Ágil', 'Agile Metrics', 'Agile', 'Scrum'] |
Building up an internal editorial team | We have all seen that advertising prices are increasing year over year whatever the medium which the ads are published is. Producing and nurturing content, that can be organically discovered by people through search engines and social media platforms, is a go-to.
But I don't think that SEO is the main concern when it comes to building an editorial team that is in charge of corporate content production. The main and core skill to emphasize is mainly journalistic. The goal here is not to try a combination of keywords that can trick search engines and rank web pages better but to have an editorial content production process that is entirely driven by the need, feel, and taste of the target audience of the company or startup.
This is also far beyond writing and publishing but more about having a corporate journalistic strategy. Publishing is not hard at all and there have been more than 900 startups in the publishing market in the US (here the list). What a lot of these startups have missed is that they almost all take publishing as a tech feature leaving behind all the theories about mass media and journalism that proved to work way before the birth of the internet.
Today lot of big startups are starting to build their own editorial team, to say that there is an opportunity for building tools and services for these internal editorial teams. Spending years analyzing the journalistic field allowed Book Dojo to understand the factors into play and design and build highly productive Corporate editorial management platforms. These platforms leverage data as almost all other platforms do but they all are hard grounded on proven scientific theories.
If you have a company or startup, I highly recommend you build up your internal editorial team and take charge of your corporate journalistic strategy. If you are an entrepreneur, a developer, or an engineer remember that there is an opportunity to build platforms and services that will support these internal editorial teams that will very likely need tech journalists.
At Book Dojo, we publish data-driven books, build and operate book-driven platforms for Book communities and book lovers. If you want to be part of Book Dojo you can use this form.
Data-driven book This Keyword | https://medium.com/predict/building-up-an-internal-editorial-team-b9e4d16a9bb3 | ['Diop Makhtar'] | 2021-05-23 00:04:53.779000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Books', 'Journalism', 'Venture Capital', 'Journalisme'] |
America 1939 | The San Francisco- Oakland Bay Bridge had been built during that depression and opened in 1936. The Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937. Treasure Island was completed just in time to hold the Golden Gate International Exposition opening on February 18th, 1939.
During the opening ceremonies, President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke on the radio:
“As the boundaries of human intercourse are widened by giant strides of trade and travel, it is of vital import that the bonds of human understanding be maintained, enlarged and strengthened rapidly. Unity of the Pacific nations is America’s concern and responsibility; their onward progress deserves now a recognition that will be a stimulus as well.
Washington is remote from the Pacific. San Francisco stands at the doorway to the sea that roars upon the shores of all these nations, and so to the Golden Gate International Exposition I gladly entrust a solemn duty. May this, America’s World’s Fair on the Pacific in 1939, truly serve all nations in symbolizing their destinies, one with every other, through the ages to come. — Wikipedia
In April, there were other reasons to celebrate. Although Eleanor Roosevelt had been a hero of mine for many years, it wasn’t until I was almost seventy years old that I learned the story of Marian Anderson. It had been omitted from my history books because neither black history nor women’s studies had even been imagined, much less made part of the curriculum, when I went to school. Nevertheless, it was certainly a reason to celebrate.
The simple story is that Marian Anderson, world famous singer, was banned from singing at Constitution Hall by the D.A.R. (the Daughters of the American Revolution) because she was black. The school board also refused her the use of an all white high school in Washington, D.C. for the same reason. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s response was to resign her own membership in the D.A.R. and to arrange for Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial instead.
Videos of Anderson’s performance that Easter Sunday can now be seen by everyone on You Tube. Knowing the story and seeing her sing, still brings tears to my eyes. What is clear to me is that Marian Anderson and Eleanor Roosevelt, two women, one of them black, were there ahead of Martin Luther King and opened the way for the March on Washington twenty four years later.
John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes of Wrath was published in April.
“At the time of publication, Steinbeck’s novel “was a phenomenon on the scale of a national event. It was publicly banned and burned by citizens, it was debated on national talk radio; but above all, it was read.
“Part of its impact stemmed from its passionate depiction of the plight of the poor, and in fact, many of Steinbeck’s contemporaries attacked his social and political views. Bryan Cordyack writes, ‘Steinbeck was attacked as a propagandist and a socialist from both the left and the right of the political spectrum. The most fervent of these attacks came from the Associated Farmers of California; they were displeased with the book’s depiction of California farmers’ attitudes and conduct toward the migrants. They denounced the book as a ‘pack of lies’ and labeled it ‘communist propaganda’. Some accused Steinbeck of exaggerating camp conditions to make a political point. Steinbeck had visited the camps well before publication of the novel and argued their inhumane nature destroyed the settlers’ spirit.”~ Wikipedia | https://medium.com/@sherryblair/america-1939-859873e482d6 | ['Sherry Blair'] | 2020-12-27 21:17:17.453000+00:00 | ['America', 'Wizard Of Oz', 'Generation', 'History', 'Work'] |
Q#4: First or Third Class Mailers? | Suppose you’re trying to optimize a mailing campaign where physical mail is sent to potential customers. There are two options to send advertising mail: either first class or third class. First-class costs $0.50 per parcel with a delivery rate of 99% and third-class costs $0.35 per parcel with a delivery rate of 65%. Third-class mail also receives a volume discount, if a batch of parcels is greater than 500, for first 500 are $0.35 and anything additional costs $0.32 per parcel.
Questions:
Assume our goal is to reach as many people with a cap of $1000, which option would be the best? Assume our goal is to reach 100 people, what option is best?
Credit to [email protected] (Feel free to sign up for questions)
Try it yourself
Answer:
This is a statistics question and relies on your ability to calculate expected returns.
Let’s break down question 1 first with $1000 dollars using 1st class mail, I would expect to reach the following number of people:
1000/$0.5*.99 = 1980 people
Similarly we can calculate the number of people reached with the third class mail (a little more careful on the math):
First 500: 500*.65 = 325 people reached
1000 - 500*$0.35 = $825 left over
825/$0.32*.65 = 1675 people
Total = 325 + 1675 = 2000 people reached
Now we clearly see that if our goal is to target the most number of people with the same budget, using third class mail is the better option.
For question two, we now have to consider how much it would cost to reach a certain number of people using either first or third class mail. It is still an expected value question.
For first class mail:
100people/.99*$.50 = $50.50
For third class mail:
100people/.65*$.35 = $53.90
Here we see that first class mail is the better option if we want to reach a target number of people under the bulk discount value. | https://medium.com/foundational-data-science-interview-questions/q-4-first-or-third-class-mailers-5c8a3eba4895 | ['Abish Pius'] | 2020-09-02 16:53:34.376000+00:00 | ['Interview Questions', 'Data Science', 'Statistics', 'Beginner'] |
Streaming Vitess at Bolt | Traditionally, MySQL has been used to power most of the backend services at Bolt. We’ve designed our schemas in a way that they’re sharded into different MySQL clusters. Each MySQL cluster contains a subset of data and consists of one primary and multiple replication nodes.
Once data is persisted to the database, we use the Debezium MySQL Connector to capture data change events and send them to Kafka. This gives us an easy and reliable way to communicate changes between back-end microservices.
Vitess at Bolt
Bolt has grown considerably over the past few years, and so did the volume of data written to MySQL. Manual database sharding has become quite an expensive and long-lasting process prone to errors. So we started to evaluate more scalable databases, one of which is Vitess. Vitess is an open-source database clustering system that is based on MySQL and provides horizontal scalability for it. Originated and battle-tested at YouTube, it was later open-sourced and is used by companies like Slack, Github, JD.com to power their backend storage. It combines important MySQL features with the scalability of a NoSQL database.
One of the most important features that Vitess provides is its built-in sharding. It allows the database to grow horizontally by adding new shards in a way that is transparent to back-end application logic. To your application, Vitess appears like a giant single database, but in fact, data is partitioned into multiple physical shards behind the scenes. For any table, an arbitrary column can be chosen as the sharding key, and all inserts and updates will be seamlessly directed to a proper shard by Vitess itself.
Figure 1 below illustrates how back-end services interact with Vitess. At a high level, services connect to stateless VTGate instances through a load balancer. Each VTGate has the Vitess cluster’s topology cached in its memory and redirects queries to the correct shards and the correct VTTablet (and its underlying MySQL instance) within the shards. More on VTTablet is written below.
Figure 1. Vitess architecture. Reference: https://www.planetscale.com/vitess
Other useful features provided by Vitess are:
Failover (a.k.a. Reparenting) is easy and transparent for clients. Clients only talk to a VTGate who takes care of failover and service discovery of the new primary transparently.
It automatically rewrites “problematic” queries that could potentially cause database performance degradation.
It has a caching mechanism that prevents duplicate queries to reach the underlying MySQL database simultaneously. Only one query will reach the database and its result will be cached and returned to answer duplicate queries.
It has its connection pool and eliminates the high-memory overhead of MySQL connections. As a result, it can easily handle thousands of connections at the same time.
Connection timeout and transaction timeout can be configured.
It has minimal downtime when doing resharding operations.
Its VStream feature can be used by downstream CDC applications to read change events from Vitess.
Streaming Vitess Options
The ability to capture data changes and publish them to Apache Kafka was one of the requirements for adopting Vitess at Bolt. There were several different options we’ve considered.
Option 1: Using Debezium MySQL Connector
Applications connect to Vitess VTGate to send queries. VTGate supports the MySQL protocol and has a SQL parser. You can use any MySQL client (e.g. JDBC) to connect to VTGate, which redirects your query to the correct shard and returns the result to your client.
However, VTGate is not equal to a MySQL instance, it is rather a stateless proxy to various MySQL instances. For the MySQL connector to receive change events, the Debezium MySQL connector needs to connect to a real MySQL instance. To make it more obvious, VTGate also has some known compatibility issues, which makes connecting to VTGate different from MySQL.
Another option is to use the Debezium MySQL Connector to connect directly to the underlying MySQL instances of different shards. It has its advantages and disadvantages.
One advantage is that for an unsharded keyspace (Vitess’s terminology for a database), the MySQL Connector can continue to work correctly and we don’t need to include additional logic or specific implementation. It should just work fine.
One of the biggest disadvantages is that resharding operations would become more complex. For example, the GTID of the original MySQL instance would change when resharded, and the MySQL connector depends on the GTID to work correctly. We also believe that having the MySQL connector connected directly to each underlying MySQL instance defies the purpose of Vitess’s operational simplicity as a new connector has to be added (or removed) each time resharding is done. Not to mention that such an operation would lead to data duplication inside Kafka brokers.
Option 2: Using JDBC Source Connector
We’ve also considered using the JDBC Source Connector. It allows sourcing data from any relational databases that support the JDBC driver into Kafka. Therefore, it is compatible with Vitess VTGate. It has its advantages and disadvantages as well.
Advantages:
It is compatible with VTGate.
It handles Vitess resharding operation better. During resharding operation, reads are simply automatically redirected (by VTGate) to the target shards. It won’t generate any duplicates or lose any data.
Disadvantages:
It is poll-based, meaning that the connector polls the database for new change events on a defined interval (typically every few seconds). This means that we would have a much higher latency, compared to the Debezium MySQL Connector.
Its offsets are managed by either the table’s incremental primary key or one of the table’s timestamp columns. If we use the timestamp column for offset, we’d have to create a secondary-index of the timestamp column for each table. This adds more constraints on our backend services. If we use the incremental primary key, we would miss the change events for row-updates because the primary key is simply not updated.
The topic name created by the JDBC connector doesn’t include the table’s schema name. Using the topic.prefix connector configuration would mean that we’ll have one connector per schema. At Bolt, we have a large number of schemas, which means we would need to create a large number of JDBC Source Connectors.
connector configuration would mean that we’ll have one connector per schema. At Bolt, we have a large number of schemas, which means we would need to create a large number of JDBC Source Connectors. At Bolt, our downstream applications are already set up to use Debezium’s data formats and topic naming conventions, e.g. we’d need to change our downstream application’s decoding logic to the new data formats.
Row deletes are not captured.
Option 3: Using VStream gRPC
VTGate exposes a gRPC service called VStream. It is a server-side streaming service. Any gRPC client can subscribe to the VStream service to get a continuous stream of change events from the underlying MySQL instances. The change events that VStream emits have similar information to the MySQL binary logs of the underlying MySQL instances. A single VStream can even subscribe to multiple shards for a given keyspace, making it quite a convenient API to build CDC tools.
Behind the scene, as shown in Figure 2, VStream reads change events from multiple VTTablets — one VTTablet per shard. Therefore, it doesn’t send duplicates from multiple VTTablets for a given shard. Each VTTablet is a proxy to its MySQL instance. A typical topology would include one master VTTablet and its corresponding MySQL instance, and multiple replica VTTablets, each of which is the proxy of its own replica MySQL instance. A VTTablet gets change events from its underlying MySQL instance and sends the change events back to VTGate, which in turn sends the change events back to VStream’s gRPC client.
When subscribing to the VStream service, the client can specify a VGTID and Tablet Type (e.g. MASTER , REPLICA ). The VGTID tells the position from which VStream starts to send change events. Essentially, VGTID includes a list of (keyspace, shard, shard GTID) tuples. The Tablet Type tells which MySQL instance (primary or replica) in each shard do we read change events from.
Figure 2. VStream architecture. Reference: https://vitess.io/docs/concepts/vstream
Some advantages of using VStream gRPC are:
It is a simple way to receive change events from Vitess. It is also recommended in Vitess’s documentation to use VStream to build CDC processes downstream.
VTGate hides the complexity of connecting to various source MySQL instances.
It has low latency since change events are streamed to the client as soon as they happen.
The change events include not only inserts and updates, but also deletes.
Probably one of the biggest advantages is that the change events contain the schema of each table. So you don’t have to worry about fetching each table’s schema in advance (by, for example, parsing DDLs or querying the table’s definition).
The change events have VGTID included, which the CDC process can store and use as the offset from where to restart the CDC process next time.
Also importantly, VStream is designed to work well with Vitess operations such as Resharding and Moving Tables.
There are also some disadvantages:
Although it includes table schemas, some important information is still missing. For example, the Enum and Set column types don’t provide all the allowed values yet. This should be fixed in the next major release (Vitess 9) though.
and column types don’t provide all the allowed values yet. This should be fixed in the next major release (Vitess 9) though. Since VStream is a gRPC service, we cannot use the Debezium MySQL Connector out-of-the-box. However, it is quite straightforward to implement the gRPC client in other languages.
All things considered, we’ve decided to use VStream gRPC to capture change events from Vitess and implement our Vitess Connector based on all the best practices of Debezium.
Vitess Connector Deep Dive and Open Source
After we’ve decided to implement our Vitess Connector, we started looking into the implementation details of various Debezium source connectors (MySQL, Postgres, SQLServer), to borrow some ideas. Almost all of them are implemented using a common Connector development framework. So it was clear we should develop the Vitess connector on top of it. We are very active users of the MySql Connector and we benefit from it being open-sourced, as it allows us to contribute to it things we were missing ourselves. So we decided we want to give back to the community and open-source the Vitess source connector code-base under the Debezium umbrella. Please feel free to learn more at Debezium Connector Vitess. We welcome and value any contributions.
At a high level, as you can see below, connector instances are created in Kafka Connect workers. At the time of writing, you have two options to configure the connector to read from Vitess:
Option 1 (recommended):
As shown in Figure 3, each connector captures change events from all shards in a specific keyspace. If the keyspace is not sharded, the connector can still capture change events from the only shard in the keyspace. When it’s the first time that the connector starts, it reads from the current VGTID position of all shards in the keyspace. Because it subscribes to all shards, it continuously captures change events from all shards and sends them to Kafka. It automatically supports the Vitess Reshard operation, there is no data loss, nor duplication.
Figure 3. Each connector subscribes to all shards of a specific keyspace
Option 2:
As shown in Figure 4, each connector instance captures change events from a specific keyspace/shard pair. The connector instance gets the initial (the current) VGTID position of the keyspace/shard pair from VTCtld gRPC, which is another Vitess component. Each connector instance, independently, uses the VGTID it gets to subscribe to VStream gRPC and continuously capture change events from VStream and sends them to Kafka. To support the Vitess Reshard operation, you would need more manual operations.
Figure 4. Each connector subscribes to one shard of a specific keyspace
Internally, each connector task uses a gRPC thread to constantly receive change events from VStream and puts the events into an internal blocking queue. The connector task thread polls events out of the queue and sends them to Kafka, as can be seen in Figure 5.
Figure 5. How each connector task works internally
Replication Challenges
While we were implementing the Vitess Connector and digging deeper into Vitess, we’ve also realized a few challenges.
Vitess Reshard
The Vitess connector supports the Vitess Reshard operation when the connector is configured to subscribe to all shards of a given keyspace. VStream sends a VGTID that contains the shard GTID for all shards. Vitess Resharding is transparent to users. Once it’s completed, Vitess will send the VGTID of the new shards. Therefore, the connector will use the new VGTID after reshard. However, you need to make sure that the connector is up and running when the reshard operation takes place. Especially please check that the offset topic of the connector has the new VGTID before deleting the old shards. This is because in case the old shards are deleted, VStream will not be able to recognize the VGTID from the old shards.
If you decide to subscribe to one shard per connector, the connector does not provide out-of-the-box support for Vitess resharding. One manual workaround to support resharding is creating one new connector per target shard. For example, one new connector for the commerce/-80 shard, and another new connector for the commerce/80- shard. Bear in mind that because they’re new connectors, by default, new topics will be created, however, you could use the Debezium logical topic router to route the records to the same Kafka topics.
Offset Management
VStream includes a VGTID event in its response. We save the VGTID as the offset in the Kafka offset topic, so when the connector restarts, we can start from the saved VGTID. However, in rare cases when a transaction includes a huge amount of rows, VStream batches the change events into multiple responses, and only the last response has the VGTID. In such cases, we don’t have the VGTID for every change event we receive. We have a few options to solve this particular issue:
We can buffer all the change events in memory and wait for the last response that contains the VGTID to arrive. So all events will have the correct VGTID associated with them. A few disadvantages are that we’ll have higher latency before events are sent to Kafka. Also, memory usage could potentially increase quite a lot due to buffering. Buffering also adds complexity to the logic. We also have no control over the number of events VStream sends to us.
We can use the latest VGTID we have, which is the VGTID from the previous VStream response. If the connector fails and restarts when processing such a big transaction, it’ll restart from the VGTID of the previous VStream response, thus reprocessing some events. Therefore, it has at-least-once event delivery semantics and it expects the downstream to be idempotent. Since most transactions are not big enough, most VStream responses will have VGTID in the response, so the chance of having duplicates is low. In the end, we chose this approach for its at-least-once delivery guarantee and its design simplicity.
Schema Management
VStream’s response also includes a FIELD event. It’s a special event that contains the schemas of the tables of which the rows are affected. For example, let’s assume we have 2 tables, A and B . If we insert a few rows into table A , the FIELD event will only contain table A ’s schema. The VStream is smart enough to only include the FIELD event whenever necessary. For example, when a VStream client reconnects, or when a table’s schema is changed.
The older version of VStream includes only the column type (e.p. Integer , Varchar ), no additional information such as whether the column is the primary key, whether the column has a default value, Decimal type’s scale and precision, Enum type’s allowed values, etc.
The newer version (Vitess 8) of VStream starts to include more information on each column. This will help the connector to deserialize more accurately certain types and have a more precise schema in the change events sent to Kafka.
Future Development Work
We can use VStream’s API to start streaming from the latest VGTID position, instead of getting the initial VGTID position from VTCtld gRPC. Doing so would eliminate the dependency from VTCtld.
We don’t support automatically extracting the primary keys from the change events yet. Currently, by default, all change events sent to Kafka have null as the key, unless the message.key.columns connector configuration is specified. Vitess recently added flags of each column in the VStream FIELD event, which allows us to implement this feature soon.
as the key, unless the connector configuration is specified. Vitess recently added flags of each column in the VStream FIELD event, which allows us to implement this feature soon. Add support for initial snapshots to capture all existing data before streaming changes.
Summary
MySQL has been used to power most of our backend services at Bolt. Due to the considerable growth of the volume of data and operational complexity, Bolt started to evaluate Vitess for its scalability and its built-in features such as resharding.
To capture data changes from Vitess, as what we’ve been doing with Debezium MySQL Connector, we’ve considered a few options. In the end, we have implemented our own Vitess Connector based on the common Debezium connector framework. While implementing the Vitess connector, we’ve encountered a few challenges. For example, support for the Vitess reshard operation, offset management, and schema management. We reasoned about ways to address the challenges and what we worked out as solutions.
We’ve also received quite some interest from multiple communities in this project and we’ve decided to open-source Vitess Connector under the Debezium umbrella. Please feel free to learn more, and we welcome and value any contributions.
And if you’re interested in working with us on Streaming Platform or other engineering teams, check our Careers page. | https://medium.com/bolt-labs/streaming-vitess-at-bolt-f8ea93211c3f | ['Kewei Shang'] | 2020-11-04 10:52:05.965000+00:00 | ['Change Data Capture', 'Vitess', 'Kafka', 'Debezium', 'Connector'] |
Considering Three Pounds of Flax | And Paying Attention to the Truth in Every Cliché
Photo: Ren Powell
I have an ambivalent relationship with aphorisms. Whether a quote is merely a platitude or a significant expression of a deeply contemplated experience, all depends on the reader and their current frame of mind.
I have noticed that when I’m scrolling through Instagram or Facebook, and register “platitude after platitude” it’s time for me to take a break from everything electronic — and breathe.
Of course, there are plenty of people out there posting motivational quotes because they have something to sell, but it is too easy to dismiss the quotes that are being shared by individuals with nothing to sell, but who have been touched and want to share the thought. The problem is — without the context of that person’s experience, it’s easy for me to skim the surface: “platitude”. In my hurry, I’m inconsiderate and refuse every earnest attempt at connection. And worse is that I find myself judging those people as shallow.
One part of my daily morning meditation involves water: calming the waves until the surface is reflective… and having the courage to recognize that what I see is a reflection of myself -
here in the shallows.
Slap a famous writer’s name on the end of a quote and you have a context. But often that sense of belonging “in the club” is the only context: I recognize my education. Ego. Smugness. After all, who has time to consider all the potentially earnest missives send via a quote?
I am guessing now that this is where discernment comes in. Another part of my morning meditation. Maybe there is a point in making my world smaller so that there is more time for consideration.
Every fragment of the universe — when contemplated — is a koan.
I think I knew that still at five. Before I thought I had to appear to know everything.
(And too often it is possible to fake it until you believe it yourself.)
Maybe there is a point in returning to daily journaling and giving up the need to be anything but earnest — to be five again in that regard.
I’d quite like that. | https://medium.com/mindfully-speaking/considering-three-pounds-of-flax-15ce92a1e7fe | ['Ren Powell'] | 2020-12-28 14:44:00.122000+00:00 | ['Buddhism', 'Journaling Benefits', 'Empathy', 'Meditation', 'Discernment'] |
Tear | A touch of madness!
photo by author <Lakshmi Kanthan Muralikrishnan>
the whelp howled -
into night’s nascent drips;
insonant
lunar craters trembled,
as he climbed
the windy stairs
in blind joy!
his tongue
whipped beads of his being
into the night’s cold!
denizens of the sky
pranced around,
cackling and cooing —
calling him out,
to journey long and hard!
euphoria
consumed his soul — as
his neck laid torn
in his predator’s jaws;
and in
moon’s witness,
joy tore his heart apart —
as he scaled
the ascendant’s pass! | https://medium.com/an-idea/tear-c3f5f5990b76 | ['Lakshmikanthan Muralikrishnan'] | 2020-12-18 14:37:22.558000+00:00 | ['Emotions', 'Poetry', 'Thoughts', 'Madness', 'Mind'] |
5 Most Critical Factors That Influences 99% Success of Your Startup | #1 Timing
Some of you might argue that idea or money is the most essential for a startup’s success but according to Bill Gross’s research, timing is one of the most important attributes for any startup success as it accounted for a whopping 42% of the difference between success and failure.
“The timing is the most important key element for the success of any startup, idea, or a business” — Bill Gross
We all know, not every moment is perfect to enter the market. Choosing the perfect timing is like choosing the best moment for taking off because one really needs to figure out if the market is ready for his/her idea or whether it is too way too early.
For instance, when YouTube came into the market, there were already dozens of video-streaming platforms, but because YouTube was launched at a perfect moment — after high-speed Internet became the norm — it became a major success.
Airbnb also had its timing on its side as it was launched during the recession when people needed extra cash. And coming to Uber, it came into the market when drivers were looking to pick up some extra money to supplement their income.
These companies took off because they were launched when the time was right — when the people were ready to accept and adapt their technologies.
“The best way to really assess timing is to really look at whether consumers are really ready for what you have to offer them” says Bill Gross.
Choosing the right time to launch a product or service makes sure that the market is ready and willing to use it, and consumers can recognize what they are being offered as a solution to their problem. | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/5-most-critical-factors-that-influences-99-success-of-your-startup-237f1566b2d4 | ['Nishi Kashyap'] | 2021-05-22 12:12:23.452000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Marketing', 'Business', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Technology'] |
Decorate Your Home Using These Fancy Curtains | Curtains, in general, started as functional window coverings and converted into home decoration as time passes by. They are considered to be the must-have pieces in our home as it sets the mood of the interior space. In interior design, curtains play their role as the overall display in every room. With the use of the right type of curtain, you can regulate the desired amount of sunlight in your room. You can freely choose between sheer and blackout depending on your home’s household needs. If you don’t want sunlight to come through in your window, the blackout curtain is the right type for you.
On the other hand, opt for sheer curtains if you want some of natural light to stream your window. Everyday, designers from Luxdezine dedicate their time and effort in creating new designs of curtains and drapes that will surely fit to any interior concept. In this way, it can help your home to transform into a beautiful space with the best comfort and relaxing ambience. Starting from simple yet elegant designs to sophisticated but clean concepts, Luxdezine got it all to provide you a comfortable convenience. If your interior scheme is already set, then it is time to select which type of curtain you should incorporate into your living space. It’s true that curtains give every room a refined décor look, but picking the right finish to pull off a classy interior is one of the important things you need to highly consider. From choosing the right material to picking out the design of your chosen curtain is what you really have to take time with.
There are various types of curtains to choose from that vary in style and application, but only two can provide the best functionality and elegance in beautifying your home. These curtains differ in light control but both can work best with any windows by adding style and beauty. In order to help you out, it might interest you to choose from our two types of curtains below that will greatly spruce up your home.
Sheer Curtains
If you want to let some light to come through your window, then sheer curtains are the must-have pieces to decorate your windows. Aside from the relaxing atmosphere it creates, sheer curtain also allows you to have a misty view of the outdoors.
Since it is designed for the light and airy window treatment, sheer curtain goes well with windows made of full glass to keep the light passing through shine a little brighter inside your room. Although it offers less privacy due to its softness and thinness, sheer curtains are best known for its grace, elegance and casual appeal they employ for the room.
Sheer curtains are usually made with soft and elegant-looking fabrics to create a silhouette ambiance. Lace, voile, eyelet, and linen are the common fabrics used for sheer curtains in order to make them see-through so they can filter light during the day. They are also often crafted with embroidery with various prints and patterns to make the curtains more appealing.
To dress up your window with sheer curtains, hang it with thick curtains to add some aesthetic accent while matching it with different hues that suit the interior design of your room.
Blackout Curtains
Blackout curtains are for those who prefer blocking the sunlight from entering their home. These curtains are not only used for its decorative purposes but it offers functional features. It provides warmth and increases your room’s privacy as they allow least amount of light to stream through inside your room. They are commonly hung in bedrooms, dens, theaters or other areas that need to keep out natural light from coming in.
These curtains are commonly made of thick fabric materials that are heavy in weight such as cotton and polyester, and usually designed with built-in linings. Accentuating blackout curtains with sheer curtains gives additional style to interior space for a more refined and graceful look.
Now that you’re familiar with the two types of curtains, have you chosen the best one you think can work well with your room? Browse the full collection of our curtains and select your piece. Here in Luxdezine, we are happy to serve you our fine quality products crafted with every bit of style and elegance to beautify your interior space. Shop now! | https://medium.com/@nikkocanzana.luxdezine/decorate-your-home-using-these-fancy-curtains-dacc2960a6c7 | ['Luxdezine Philippines'] | 2019-11-14 03:28:14.592000+00:00 | ['Interior Design', 'Blackout Curtains', 'Manila', 'Curtains', 'Sheer Curtains'] |
Active Shooter: When you can’t run, can’t hide, and can’t fight | The guidance from police departments across the country is to Run, Hide, and Fight during an attack by an active shooter. If you can run away, that is the best option — get as far away from the danger as possible. If you can’t run, you can try to hide from the shooter — lock and barricade yourself inside an office, closet, bathroom, storage room, or anywhere away from the shooter. If all else fails, fight the shooter in any way possible. This simple guidance generally makes sense except for situations when all three options are nearly impossible.
Areas with limited means of ingress and egress — combined with open layouts — remove the option to run or hide. Wide open areas allow the shooter to maintain distance and fire across the space preventing victims from closing the distance to fight back. These types of open areas with limited egress are common locations for public gatherings and have been the site of numerous attacks. These places include:
Outdoor Concert Venues and Arenas: To make sure that everyone entering a concert venue or arena pays for the show, there are limited points of entry to collect tickets. The stage, court, or playing field is in the center of the venue and the densest crowd is at the farthest point from the exits. The Las Vegas shooting is the most recent example of a concert shooting but there have also been explosive attacks (e.g., Manchester Arena suicide bombing during Ariana Grande concert) and stampedes. At an outdoor concert venue, there is no place to run away and nowhere to hide. If the shooter is firing down at the crowd from a high-rise hotel, there is no way to fight either. Even without the panic of an attack, crowds exiting these venues are bottlenecked due to the large number of people leaving at the same time which prevents rapid evacuation.
NFL fans leaving a stadium under normal circumstances
Nightclubs: Similar to concert venues, nightclubs are designed to funnel the crowds to central dance floors and alcohol service areas. Nightclubs usually have single points of entry because that patrons need to pay cover charges or wait in line to enter. There is normally less security and fewer staff members at a club compared to a live concert or sports arena but this varies greatly based on the size, economy, local laws/ordinances, and history of violence. The Pulse nightclub shooting is the most significant example of this type of attack in the United States. Fatal fires have also occurred at these locations including the Station Fire that killed 98 people in 2003 Rhode Island. Inside the nightclub, there are too many people and too few exits to run. There are few or no places to hide. If the shooter is firing across the venue, there is likely no way to fight.
Movie Theaters: Theaters normally have doors on the sides and aisles leading up stairs to access stadium style seating. To exit the theater, everyone needs to walk down the stairs toward the screen. A shooter standing near the screen cuts off the exits and the open room full of seats does not offer anywhere to hide. In the case of the Aurora, CO shooting during Batman, if the shooter is standing in the front of the screen and shooting at the crowd, there is no way to reach the shooter to fight.
Churches: The design of almost all churches is the same. Large doors at the front lead down a long aisle to the alter. Rows of chairs or benches line both sides of the aisle. Patrons are seated with their backs to do door, facing the religious leader speaking from the alter. Prior to the murder of 26 people in Texas this past weekend, 26 other people have been killed at four different mass shootings churches since 2007. If the shooter enters through the main doors, the primary exit is cutoff and the open area does not provide a place to hide. When the shooter enters from behind the victims, the shooter has the element of surprise and the ability of victims to fight back is limited by the tactical advantage of the shooter.
Shopping Malls: Large concourses with multiple levels and open layouts connect the stores inside shopping malls. The limited numbers of entrances and exits are normally located at the edges of the building so that patrons need to walk past as many retailers as possible to reach them. In many cases, patrons need to pass through large department stores to reach the exits. The central corridors, food courts, and areas of congregation inside shopping malls are a long distance to run and do not offer places to hide. The shooter can maintain distance from the victims and prevent the ability to fight.
Underground Subway Stations: Street level entrances and exits lead down stairs, escalators, and elevators to fare gates. Patrons congregate on open platforms to wait for trains. Long distances to the exits, some escalators can be 200 ft or longer, prevent patrons from evacuating quickly. Open spaces in the stations do not offer cover.
Open Offices: This modern office design removes private spaces and individual offices to create a workplace where people can easily interact and collaborate. Spaces for breakouts and private meetings often have all glass doors and windows to maintain the visual aesthetic of openness. By removing private spaces, the offices also remove locations to hide from an active shooter. The open space limits the ability to run or fight if the shooter has clear sight-lines across the entire office space.
What to do when you can’t run, hide, or fight?
If you can’t get away or stop the shooter, you — or the other people around you — are probably going to get shot. The good news is most active shooters attacks end in less than 2 minutes. The bad news is EMS care normally takes 8–12 minutes to arrive. I have written previously about the basic trauma kit that can save lives in these situations.
Severely injured people need rapid treatment to stop bleeding. Quickly assess the scene around you to determine who is deceased, critically injured, and walking wounded. START offers as simple system to conduct triage. If you don’t have any EMS equipment, improvise with what you have. Tampons can be used to stop bleeding from gunshot wounds. Belts can be used as tourniquets. Excess clothing can cover and control severe bleeding.
The first arriving police officers and other responders will not know where the shooter is and the status of the victims. The first priority for police officers will be to find the shooter while EMS providers will usually stage away from the scene. In many cases, the shooter immediately kills himself after shooting the first group of victims. If you have witnessed the shooter killing himself (yes himself, the shooters are almost always male), try to share this information with responders.
If the shooter is down, try to drag severely injured victims out of the building. Their best chance of getting emergency medical care is away from the immediate vicinity of the shooting. Anytime you encounter police officers, be sure to keep your hands up and follow any directions — there will be a lot of chaos and confusion until the status of the shooter is determined.
Harsh Reality
Active shooter attacks will continue to occur and many of the places that we frequent on a daily basis do not provide the options to run, hide, or fight. It is critical to understand your vulnerability in these situations and the limitations of first responders to immediately stop an attack or provide emergency medical care.
If an attack occurs, your only option may be to take action and try to save lives when the shooting stops. | https://medium.com/homeland-security/active-shooter-when-you-cant-run-can-t-hide-and-can-t-fight-938d5d106340 | ['David Riedman'] | 2017-11-14 05:06:16.955000+00:00 | ['Mass Shootings', 'Violence', 'Security', 'Terrorism', 'Guns'] |
For the Love of Tracy Forrester | Early mornings of first semester two lonely people waited for entry in front of the Drafting 1 door, me and Tracy Forrester. Both of us had no friends to meet before school started, both of us got dropped off early, at least one of us was miserable.
I thought she was a boy when I first met her, a sickly white skin, with a short heavy perm that was painful to look at, and as for her body, the rare time I saw it through the the opening of a thick wool trench coat she did not take off, it was emaciated.
The stresses of starting 7th grade showed, her lips were covered by cold sores gone to scab. We didn’t talk the first day, except that I may have asked her if this was the drafting class. When she spoke I realized she was a girl. Writing this, I still remember her voice, smooth, and feminine, but at the time, I felt repulsed, this ugly boy sounding so.. my embarrassment turned to loathing. Everything about her was off, unattractive, except she was smart.
I think after a couple weeks of waiting with her there, she may have thought I wanted to be a friend, or maybe she just wanted a friend, I say this because she probably began our morning conversations. At some point early on I asked her about her pins, I said, “what are the pins for?” I may have said it with derision in my voice, or she may have taken it that way, she went on to describe them as Mod pins and Adam Ant as an icon, wholly different from me, which he was.
Things went downhill, as I became jealous of this Adam Ant person, though I wasn’t sure why, and thus began us meeting there every morning for the entire first semester, and verbally put each other down. I do remember being the meaner of the two, more willing to hurt the other, whatever the cost. I also remember when she wasn’t there in the mornings I felt very lonely.
In the summer between 9th and 10th grade I volunteered for a weekend activity for the handicapped at the local community college, which in itself made for an exciting time, but there was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. The 13 year old version of Tracy Forrester was to be my partner for the day, now with straight hair, dressed like a beach girl, no longer a stick figure, but in full bloom. If anything, I celebrate that here, I recognize her for what she was, stunning.
I couldn’t believe it. Astounded I fell deeply into that 13 year old kind of love, my heart hurt, my body ached, and she tolerated me. I brought up many things that might have hurt her that day, and she tolerated me. How much different she looked from when she wore the trench coat I said, where are your pins I asked, and I was blind to see the pain those memories caused, memories of my past belittling.
Maybe all the more painful because she had not changed, but conformed. Giving up the identity that got her nothing except that it was hers and hers alone in order to be liked. She played the role well, I was convinced at the time she was a much better version of herself, but thinking of her, and my many mistakes, my mind drifts to those cold mornings with the Adam Ant worshipping wraith.
I knew nothing of kindness. How could I be kind? I hadn’t seen much of it, some by Linda Frick, and more by Linda Pyatt, a small amount by Mrs. Gore, Mary Scott had shown some, my Aunt Leslie had shown me kindness, but any kindness I had received had been drowned out by the constant fear of abuse as a child, and as for my childhood crushes, aside from heartfelt times here or there at cotillion or the roller rink, it had mostly been competition, or mean exchanges, and when there were valentines there were perceived betrayals, how betrayed can an elementary student really be by another elementary student? Not enough kindness, though, is my point, to be able to freely know it and share it. I wish I had known how to be kind back then, Tracy probably needed some unadulterated encouragement.
One year later we ended up together in a small new high school, her hair now full ’80s medium short wave. She’d bleached her red hair blond, and wore red lipstick, I was dying whenever I saw her. There were other beauties at our school, and I would ache over them as well, eventually feeling love for one named Kerri, but Tracy was this other story of the heart, a story began at odds on cold mornings in 8th grade, and carried over to a sophomore year, the many changes in between had still not found me my place.
I doubt she had any idea how much I liked her, there were two parties that year at Brian Ramirez’ house. He was a ninth grader, but not inclined to behave like it. I think back to how small our high school was, everyone with their role, and yet my role still uncertain. The first party changed that, as I had my first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth drink of my teenage life there, and a villain emerged.
A 15 year old, 125 pound, bleach blond villain. No one told me exactly what I had done at that first party, I only remember patches of asking 19 year old punk girls to fuck me, whatever else I did led to me being attacked by footballers 3 times the following Monday of school. Growing up in Trabuco Canyon had prepared me, they attacked, but weren’t ready for a smaller guy who didn’t back down from a fight. That was an exciting day.
At the second party I was more established, I realize I behaved a lot like my step father did when he drank, grandiose, everything bigger than life, what we were doing at Brian Ramirez’ for the second time now something like destiny. Tracy Forrester’s arrival there stirred in me that feeling of now was the time, we would finally… something.
There was a finality, I found her after giving head to Ed Dreher, coming from the bathroom together, she looked me in the eye, smiling, and wiped mouth. There was no more lipstick.
I woke up from the black out in the backyard, Tracy sitting on my lap, I don’t know how she got there, I don’t know what I had done in between the bathroom scene, and the backyard. She was on my lap, I was in heaven, she was saying something to me in my ear, her arms around me. Then I remembered her and Ed coming out of the bathroom, and I pushed her off of me saying, “Fucking bitch!”
And that was about it, the cops broke up the party, I almost got arrested, but got saved by my co-dependent friend of 14. More gossip spread about me. I was a high school villain. She and I spoke no more than ten words after. In passing.
The people I find important, the people who haunt me out of a sense of loss, many of them are girls I knew from high school, the last time I spent day upon day for years with the same small batch of innocents. Some of those girls are passed away now, Kelly Olen died 20 years ago, the girl next door, an overdose. The rest are nearing 50, different people altogether, but somewhere inside, the same. I wish I had had the ability to love more freely back then, and with more confidence and kindness.
Ethan Thatcher (left), Me (right age 15) ready to meet the world the night of Brian Ramirez’ imfamous party. | https://medium.com/@clintallisone/tracy-forrester-8f555618c33d | ['Clint Allisone'] | 2021-01-03 20:52:31.762000+00:00 | ['High School', 'Memoir', '80s', 'Party', 'Lovestory'] |
Hospitals In Thirteen Famous Areas Of Nagar North Of Pakistan | Introduction
We know that hospitalty is is the requirement of every perosn. hospitals are the requirement of every areas . but unfortunatly in our country we face many problems due to the lack of requriements . we are from gilgit baltistan which is present in the north of pakistan . and their is much poorty present in our village and our side areas . when we talk about the cities of gilgit baltistan their we found many resource for the peoples . but in the side ares of our gilgit their are not much facilitiies for the peoples .
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today we are talking about the health centers present in disttrict nagar.
In most important place of nagar their are many hospital with high facility . but as compare to these in side areas of nagar I think there are just dispensary in which the people depends.
Chalt
It is the popular valley of nagar most peoples from different areas comes for work and to make money.thier are many big and small hospital present in district nagar . but he most popular one is govt hospital for patient in chalt 10 bade hospital.most peoples from the chalt carry their patient to this hospital for treatement . and also from the side areas peoples carray their patient to this hospital for treatement.
And their are also many dispensary present in chalt .
Their is not a big hospital in chaprot . but their is One gov dispensary avilable for patients .those patients who are serious they carries to chalt and near hospital. most peoples chaprot carry their patient to this hospital and also peoples from the near carry their patient to chaprot hospital. and when the codition of patient is very week the doctor of chaprot sent the patient to city for treatement .
Skindar abad
Their is big govt hospital in skindar abad which is build few years ago . it is 30 bade hospital . so their is no tension about the patient for lack of place . and their are very talented govt doctor present in this hospital .
Jafffarabad
Their is one govt Dispensary present in jaffar abad . at came to said that govt also plained to built a hospital . so that people from near area jaffar abad also come here form remedy .
Nilt
Their is one govt Dispensary in nilt so many people goes to near hospital for remedy .
Gulmit
Their is also one govt dispensary in gulmit . if the condition of patient is not much serious this doctor in this dispensary give tablet .but in some time a serious patients bring the doctor oder the to carry the patient to near hospital . because what the doctor do they are not much facilities their.
Their is one govt hospital in pissan . it is Ten bade hospital . their are also dispensaries in pissan.
Piyachar
Their is One govt dispensary in piyachar so most people carry their patients to near hospital to checking.
Phaker
Like piyachar their is also one govt dispensary in phakar . and these people also carry their patients to near hospital . | https://medium.com/@muhdalishah/hospitals-in-thirteen-famous-areas-of-nagar-north-of-pakistan-eb556835eb02 | ['Muhd Ali Shah'] | 2021-02-20 13:38:00.859000+00:00 | ['Ambulance', 'Hospitality', 'Hospital', 'Pakistan', 'Patiënt'] |
NOLLYWOOD LOSES A LOVED VETERAN ACTOR: BRUNO IWUOHA | On the 10th of April 2021, Nigeria lost a Veteran Nollywood actor, Bruno Iwuoha. He died at the age of 68 after a long battle with diabetes.
Monalisa Chinda Coker, the Director of Communications, Actors Guild of Nigeria signed a public statement that reads, “It is on a sad note that we announce the passing away of our elder colleague and active member of AGN Abuja, Bruno Obinna Iwuoha. He died in the early hours of this morning (10/04/2021) after a prolonged battle with diabetes.” “Bruno Iwuoha hails from Ehime Mbano Local Government Area in Umunumo Umuanunu kindred, Imo state. He was aged 68 years, survived by his wife and six children.”
Also, Ejezie Emeka Rollas, the National President, Actors Guild of Nigeria, gave a speech on behalf of the entire members of the Guild, he sympathizes with the immediate family members, friends, and fans. He prayed that God would comfort them at this moment of grief.
Apart from Nollywood, many fans and friends have expressed their love and sympathy for the family. For every Nigerian, he played a major role in our world through his movies. He lives on in our hearts. And for that and more, he will be missed. | https://medium.com/@andrea-ajayi2001/nollywood-loses-a-loved-veteran-actor-bruno-iwuoha-8cc4587940fa | ['Andrea Ajayi'] | 2021-04-13 10:10:57.442000+00:00 | ['Veterans', 'Actors', 'Nollywood', 'Diabetes', 'Death'] |
Why Your Body Sometimes Jerks As You Fall Asleep A closer look at hypnic jerks | Images by the author (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Ahh… sleep. How nice. You turn off the lights. You close your weary eyes. You sigh. You relax. Your breathing slows down. Your mind begins to wander off, fading into the nightly oblivion.
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Then…
You stumble, trip, fall. Your body jolts. Your leg kicks. Your heart pounds. Huh? What happened? Did you mistakenly fall asleep on a trapdoor?
Nope. You simply experienced a hypnic jerk.
What’s a hypnic jerk?
A hypnic jerk, or sleep start, is a phenomenon that occurs when your body transitions from wakefulness to sleep. It involves a sudden involuntary muscle twitch and is frequently accompanied by a falling or tripping sensation. It’s that strange muscle spasm that happens when you’re lying in bed, trying to sleep, and are suddenly jolted awake because you feel like you stumbled over something.
Hypnic jerks are common and benign.
But what causes them? Well, no one really knows. It’s still a mystery. However, researchers have come up with several hypotheses that may explain them, with the following two being the most popular.
Hypothesis 1: Your body twitches as daytime motor control is overridden by sleep paralysis
How is it that a bedfellow of yours doesn’t wake up pummeled and bruised if you have a dream about a boxing match? Is it because they’re having a complementary dream where they’re blocking all your jabs, hooks, and other punches?
Nope. The person sharing the bed with you doesn’t get pummeled because when you’re asleep, your body is paralyzed. This is due to something called REM sleep atonia, which prevents you from acting out your dreams.
REM atonia works by inhibiting your motor neurons. It does so by raising the bar on the amount of electricity the brain must send down a motor neuron to trigger a movement. So, for instance, the little bit of electricity that your brain sends to your finger to make it move when you’re awake is no longer enough when you’re under REM atonia.
When you’re asleep, your body is paralyzed. This is due to something called REM sleep atonia, which prevents you from acting out your dreams.
Now, the thing is that there is no single on/off switch in your body that inhibits all your motor neurons at once. Instead, the subsystems of your brain that handle sleep need to wrestle control from the subsystems that handle wakefulness. And sometimes, during this wrestling match, some motor neurons are fired randomly, causing your body to twitch.
Hypothesis 2: Your brain thinks you’re a monkey falling off a tree
Image modified by the author. Illustration source: Alessandro D’Antonio/Unsplash
Imagine you’re a monkey and the last rays of sunlight have just disappeared behind the green forest canopy. It’s getting dark, and you say to yourself: time for sleep. Your brain begins to ooze some melatonin into your bloodstream and you yawn. Drowsy, you settle down on a comfortable tree branch.
Your eyelids become heavy and your breathing slows. The outside world begins to fade. Sounds become distant.
At this point, the subconscious part of your brain takes over. “Perfect,” it says, “time to boot up the dream images.” Your brain initiates the dream procedure, and just when you’re about to nod off completely, it notices that all your muscles have suddenly and unexpectedly relaxed. “Holy Banana!” your brain screams panic-stricken, “Mayday! Mayday! We’re in freefall! Dammit! Wake up! Wake up! Shit, crap! Brace for impaaaact!”
As you’re probably aware, we humans descend from primates who lived and slept on trees. This means that we’ve inherited some monkey brain routines that no longer serve any purpose. Among them, according to the monkey-fall hypothesis, is a reflex that jolts you awake when you’re falling from a tree.
You see, when a monkey is unexpectedly soaring through the air, its muscles no longer have to prop it up and so they go limp. Confusingly, however, your muscles also go limp when you’re sleeping.
So, when you drift off into sleep and your muscles relax a little too fast, your groggy brain sometimes misinterprets this for falling off a tree. As a result, your brain freaks out and triggers a reflex that startles you awake in an attempt to prepare for an imminent crash onto the forest floor. Little does your brain know, in its sleepy state — and that you no longer live in trees.
What’s clear either way
Hypnic jerks are involuntary muscle contractions that occur during the transition from wakefulness to sleep. They’re most likely to occur if you’ve been gulping down too much coffee, have been stressed or sleep-deprived, or did some vigorous exercise before going to bed. About 70% of people have experienced them. Even so, they are not well understood.
Either way, hypnic jerks are benign and nothing to worry about. The worst that can happen is probably an occasional kick against the shin of whoever is sharing the bed with you. | https://medium.com/@topnflfan2020/why-your-body-sometimes-jerks-as-you-fall-asleep-a-closer-look-at-hypnic-jerks-27be2fe4a3b0 | [] | 2020-12-27 10:58:14.688000+00:00 | ['Sleep', 'Biology', 'Health', 'Neuroscience', 'Science'] |
What is Content Writing? | What is Content Writing?
Content Writing comes with different things. Now days many companies use content writing in marketing, creating different articles, blogs for promoting their business. Content writing is a way to express your thoughts about anything. Here I will give my consumers unique content especially related to technical stuff. There are many companies who wants to engage their products on digital platforms. There are many internet services which are also part of content writing. Many tech companies who provide online services apart from content writing, provides many other services like website development, SEO, Security Services, ecommerce and other marketing services.
I will provide some unique content with detailed information. I will write technical articles related to any tutorials, online service articles which can help in increasing business or grabbing more consumers.
How Content Writing can grab more traffic to any website?
SEO is very basic requirement for any website to increase more traffic. SEO uses very common methodology for grabbing traffic. SEO uses most relevant keywords in their website. Same way content writing uses most searched keywords on the internet. If any person will try to search down any query, that particular website will come in search results. With content writing, it is important to express your thoughts with images, infographics and video-related content which helps to gather more audience.
There are many things can be added in article to express your thoughts. Gif or small videos to tell about the product are also used. Connect with me and give me a chance to showcase my skills. | https://medium.com/@add-rbansal/what-is-content-writing-4fcbf3774df3 | ['Raghav Bansal'] | 2020-12-10 18:31:27.509000+00:00 | ['Content Developers', 'Content Development', 'Content Development Pros', 'Content Creation', 'Content Writing'] |
Ad Networks analytics using Hadoop and Splout SQL | In this post we share the talk (and the slides) Datasalt gave about analytics for ad networks at the past Big Data Spain.
In the talk, we sketch the architecture of the whole system. Specifically, we talk about how Splout SQL was designed and why it is useful for the case of Ad Networks. Other techniques that were needed for the problem, like sampling and in-memory storage, are stated as well.
The post will finish with a brief explanation of the topics covered by the talk. Enjoy it!
Abstract
Ad Networks act as the middleman between advertisers and publishers on the Internet. The advertiser is the agent that wants to allocate a particular ad in different medias. The publisher is the agent who owns the medias. These medias are usually web pages or mobile applications.
Each time an ad is shown in a web page or in a mobile application an impression event is generated. These impressions and other events are the source of analytic panels that are used by the agents (advertiser and publisher) to analyze the performance of its campaigns or its web pages.
Presenting these panels to the agents is a technical challenge because Ad Networks have to deal with billions of events every day, and present interactive panels to thousands of agents. The scale of the problem requires the usage of distributed tools. Obviously, Hadoop may come to the rescue with its storage and computing capacity. It can be used to precompute several statistics that are later presented in the panels.
But that is not enough for the agents. In order to perform exploratory analysis, they need an interactive panel that allows to filter down by a particular web page, country and device in a particular time-frame, or any other ad-hoc filter you can think of.
Therefore, something more than Hadoop is needed in order to store the data, process it and be able to perform arbitrary drill-downs on it. At Datasalt, we have addressed this problem for some clients and we have found a solution that is presented in the talk.
The solution includes two modules: the off-line and the on-line.
Off-line
The off-line module is in charge of storing the received events and preforming the most costly operations: cleaning the dataset, performing some aggregations in order to reduce the size of the data and creating some file structures that later will be used to serve the on-line analytics. All these tasks are handled properly by Hadoop. The most innovative part on this process is the last step where some file-structures are created for being exported to the on-line part in order to serve the analytics panels.
On-line
The on-line module is in charge of serving the analytic queries received from the agents’ panel webapp. The queries are basic statistics (count, count distinct, stddev, sum, etc) run over a subset of the input dataset represented by an ad-hoc filter. The challenge here is that the system has to serve statistics for filters “on the fly”. That makes it impossible to precalculate everything on the off-line side. Therefore, part of the calculations must be done on-demand. That would not be a problem if the scale of the data wouldn’t be that big — however, in our case, some kind of scalable serving engine is needed for this task.
Splout SQL
Datasalt has developed the open-source distributed database Splout SQL (http://sploutsql.com/) that allows to create SQL materialized views over Hadoop data. It scales by the use of partitioning.
Splout SQL is the perfect tool for serving on-line statistics at scale for Ad Networks as the data can be partitioned by agent. In this way, it is possible to isolate queries corresponding to an individual agent to a particular partition.
A full SQL Lambda Architecture
With Splout SQL as batch serving engine, it is very easy to colocate a SQL real-time layer to form a full-SQL Lambda Architecture. This real-time layer only needs to contain a few hours or days of data, and can benefit from existing well-proven technologies such as MySQL. Because materialized views are grouped by a time-based key (day / hour), we only need to take care that the batch layer always calculates full periods (so no half-days, no half-hours). In this way, data from the batch layer always overrides the one in the real-time layer, which can be cleaned periodically. | https://medium.com/iv%C3%A1n-de-prado-alonso/ad-networks-analytics-using-hadoop-and-splout-sql-97147aba56b | ['Iván De Prado'] | 2018-04-10 11:32:18.846000+00:00 | ['Datasalt'] |
More Real | I have come to the tentative conclusion, as I sit here this evening in my quiet illusion, that the more real I am to myself, the more ambitious I am, the greater my need to fulfil, and the faster I need to move to fulfil it.
It’s full on, full speed.
My reality seems wafer thin, and if I slow down or stop, I’ll fall straight in, to what I don’t know. Oblivion perhaps? A deep dark grave buried alive and no way out. Or endlessly falling through a Mandelbrot set.
So I keep moving.
Goal after goal, after goal, after goal, an endless pursuit of what I don’t know. Because whatever I got, what I thought it was, it was not.
The more real I seem to be the harder life gets, the more other people matter and their actions hurt. The more I need shields to deflect.
So I come up with interesting ways to cope.
The less real I am, in contrast, the less I’m scared, the less I’m anxious and worried, the less I’m inclined to break down.
I don’t mind silence, being alone, and ignored. In fact, I invite those things in, never bored.
I’m more and more below the surface, or is it that I’m way above? I can’t tell. Regardless, it’s slower here, I see more, less absurd.
It’s quieter, less frantic.
More real. | https://medium.com/the-reflectionist/more-real-1156c3863e39 | ['Larry G. Maguire'] | 2020-11-09 09:38:03.410000+00:00 | ['Success', 'Psychology', 'Ambition', 'Self', 'Reality'] |
Amal Totkey | All things are difficult before they are made easy.
Having a growth mindset is a blessing, but having a fixed mindset, I believe, is a curse. When you have a growth mindset, you are always open to new ideas. You have the flexibility to change your perspective. You can view the world with another person’s eyes. But when you have a fixed mindset, you do not enjoy the same pleasures of life. You are rigid and you lack the ability to easily grasp new ideas.
Amal totkey provided 5 tips for developing a growth mindset, which I’ll be talking about in more detail.
1- Self-talk:
Self-talk is really important and what you talk to yourself is also very important because that has a great impact on your life. When you consider yourself a weak and fragile person, you end up being weak and easy to hurt. However, when you think about yourself as a strong person who is capable of doing almost anything, then you become a person who is a reflection of your positive thoughts. Therefore, when you talk to yourself, make sure it’s the good and positive things only.
2- Get out of your comfort zone:
If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
Great things do not happen in the comfort zones. You have to get out there, and go through a difficult road to find contentment in your life.
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.
3- Create new habits:
If you don’t have a growth mindset, don’t worry. It is not something that is undoable. You can always create new habits that will change your lifestyle. If you have a fixed mindset, and you want to have a growth mindset, just start working small and try to develop those habits that will change your perspective. These include reading books, listening to podcasts, listening to other people only for the sake of listening, not for answering them back or proving them wrong, etc.
Dreams don’t work unless you do.
4- Ask people for help:
If you are trying out new things, or you are trying to develop new habits, just ask your peers to help you. Don’t be shy. Just ask them whether they have felt any change in you or not. Ask them if you are improving or not. Do not hesitate. For a growth mindset, it is important to remain open to new ideas.
5- Fake it till you make it:
If you are trying really hard but haven’t gotten instant results, then I’ll suggest you to be patient. You cannot change your mindset at the speed of lightning. You cannot wake up one day with a growth mindset. Things take time. Give them their proper time. Don’t worry if your mindset hasn’t changed a bit. Just start acting like you have a growth mindset. Act like those people who have a growth mindset. Learn new things. Accept challenges. Listen to other people’s ideas, etc. Eventually you will see that you will end up having a growth mindset. As Shakespeare said:
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.
So fake it till you make it. | https://medium.com/@areej-172/amal-totkey-7ff1637d7abb | [] | 2020-12-25 22:29:02.157000+00:00 | ['Growth Mindset', 'Amal Academy'] |
3 Ways to Implement the Singleton Pattern in TypeScript With Node.js | The Problem — Logging Example
Here’s an example problem: I have a Node.js app for payment processing that uses a Logger class. We want to keep a single logger instance in this example and ensure the Logger state is shared across the Payment app. To keep things simple, let’s say that we need to ensure that the logger needs to keep track of the total number of logged messages within the app. Ensuring that the counter is tracked globally within the app means that we will need a singleton class to achieve this.
A high-level diagram of the sample app by the author.
Let’s go through each of the classes that we will be using.
Logger class: Logger.ts
A basic logger class that allows its clients to log a message with a timestamp. It also allows the client to retrieve the total number of logged messages.
Payment class: Payment.ts
The Payment processing class processes the payment. It logs the payment instantiation and payment processing:
The entry point of the app: index.ts
The entry point creates an instance of the Logger class and processes the payment. It also processes the payment through the Payment class:
If we run the code above, we will get the following output:
# Run the app
tsc && node dist/creational/singleton/problem/index.js
Output screenshot by the author.
Notice that the log count stays at 1 despite showing 3 logged messages. The count remains at 1 because a new instance of Logger is created in index.ts and Payment.ts separately. The log count here only represents what’s logged in index.ts . However, we also want to include the number of logged messages in the Payment class.
Here are different ways to solve this problem by using a singleton design pattern. | https://medium.com/better-programming/3-ways-to-implement-the-singleton-pattern-in-typescript-with-node-js-75129f391c9b | ['Ardy Dedase'] | 2020-11-02 16:29:10.810000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Startup', 'Software Development', 'JavaScript', 'Programming'] |
How We Set Ourselves Up To Fail Or Succeed In Love | When we give up evolution in the direction of betterment for ourselves or our relationship, that is the moment when we admit defeat. When we think that it may be too hard to improve ourselves or feel good about ourselves, we accept the other option, which is stagnancy or no improvement.
At one point some years back, I wanted to reach an ideal weight, but I had issues with getting enough time to go to the gym. I was stressed out from my job at that time, which had a lot of responsibility attached to it.
I felt that I had to change the way that I was going about reaching my ideal weight. I was overwhelmed at a lot of the things that I would have to do in combination with each other to get there. I had to track calories, go to the gym and eat certain foods.
I didn’t want to just lose weight. I wanted more energy and to feel better about myself. I knew that it would be worthwhile in the end to get to that point of enjoyment with myself, but I had to accept the process of transformation.
I tracked myself with a closer eye. I took pictures of how I looked throughout my weight loss journey. I belonged to a Facebook group that was supportive of my journey and connected with them as needed. I kept a journal. I drank lots of water. I committed to going to the gym. I added much more fruits and vegetables to my diet.
I was very much invested in the process of losing weight, but my boyfriend wanted to spend more time with me. Between the time I spent at work and the time at the gym, the balance in my life was off.
I ended up losing the weight that I wanted. I developed a better attitude about myself and those around me. I had an openness to living my life in a new way and that is what allowed me to create success in that area of my life.
When we commit to a process, whether it be a fitness and weight loss journey or a dating journey, we allow for the ups and downs to happen as we head towards our ultimate goal. We allow for “mistakes.” We allow for triumph. We allow ourselves to explore the unknown. In this way, I found success and I know that you can, too. | https://medium.com/@saraknick/how-we-set-ourselves-up-to-fail-or-succeed-in-love-a07c269657d6 | ['Sara Knick'] | 2020-12-16 12:21:58.074000+00:00 | ['Failure', 'Success Story', 'Relationships Love Dating', 'Success', 'Love'] |
Regulatory mistakes ICOs make (and what they should do instead) | This article explores common regulatory mistakes that appear to occur with many ICOs and crypto businesses. To learn more about ICOs, cryptocurrency, and ICO regulation, check out our database: CryptoRDB, or our other articles here.
This article focuses on smaller and early-stage ICOs. The approach of large, very well funded ICO projects differs from smaller projects, primarily because larger projects can usually engage law firms, and specialised crypto advisory teams (like Lupercal Capital) to provide bespoke, ongoing advice.
If you’re looking to engage a specialist ICO advisor, we’d love to hear from you — feel free to contact us at [email protected] or go to lupercalcapital.com to learn more.
Common ICO Mistakes
For ICO/TGE projects with lower external expenditure budgets — and projects not yet ready to engage crypto advisory firms — we see a number of key trends around how regulations are approached:
ICOs throw businesses into the regulatory deep end — usually only multinationals with huge legal teams have to deal with international regulation, but ICOs potentially face a multitude of jurisdictions (this problem is described in more detail here) .
It is a lot more complicated than people realise — addressing regulations in one jurisdiction can be irrelevant for another jurisdiction.
It is rarely feasible for crypto entities to effectively ‘do it themselves’ without some assistance — easily-available information often just scratches the surface of what entities should know. This is particularly true as the application of existing laws to the crypto industry is largely untested and unclear in many jurisdictions, and there are limited means of working out what governments will do in the longer-term.
There’s hardly ever a ‘turn key’ solution for all regulatory issues.
Funding to pay legal fees/compliance costs can be limited (especially for newer entities), and entities can be reluctant to pay significant fees to third party advisors.
Regulatory frameworks are often seen as an expense (not an opportunity for commercial outcomes, risk management, or improving a project’s image etc.)
There are hundreds of things to consider, and crypto entities often don’t know what is a priority (what is the risk/why/when will it arise?)
Regulatory hurdles are an after-thought — many ICO projects think of regulation after other key ICO issues things have been addressed. Often, the more work that has been done prior understanding regulatory issues, the harder it is to address them.
What should ICOs do?
One difficulty is knowing where to begin. Online materials can be very helpful, but usually: a) address a topic in an extremely general way, or b) address a very specific issues (which may or may not be relevant to your project).
Whilst they’re a great resource, there are clear limits to how helpful articles can be.
In an ideal world, engaging specialist advisors as early as possible is the best approach, but this isn’t always feasible.
More importantly, when honing an ICO idea, it can be helpful to have an idea of regulatory hurdles that could get in the way. For example, would the main target audience for my great idea be excluded because the ICO would probably be an issue of securities?
The Answer
Knowledge and Prioritisation.
Benefits of Early Regulatory Knowledge
Regulatory Issues Supplement ICO Brainstorming
It is a huge help to have a working check-list of regulatory challenges that a project could face. What jurisdictions would have to be excluded for regulatory reasons? How extensive and onerous are regulatory challenges? How long will they take to address (it could be 4 weeks; it could be 12 months).
Regulatory Knowledge can make Advisors More Effective & Cheaper
For some projects, major issues arise that may require detailed legal advice from specialised lawyers. For other projects, the issues may be less complex, and the right approach may be to address regulatory/compliance requirements in-house. A better knowledge of regulatory frameworks can help you identify which issues require advice, and which don’t.
Having detailed knowledge or a check-list of key regulatory issues also ensures that advisors are engaged on the right issues. This maximises their usefulness, and often makes advisors much cheaper as their efforts are more concentrated.
Regulatory Knowledge highlights Opportunities
Cryptocurrency, blockchain, and FinTech more broadly are seen as hugely promising by many governments. Some Governments use their regulatory frameworks to offer significant opportunities, concessions, and other ways of assisting projects — knowing about these opportunities early on can help increase your company’s chance of success.
Some governments are also very supportive of ICOs, whilst others are not. Knowledge of this can help you decide where it could be best to base your project.
This is particularly important as knowing about this once an ICO has started can be too late.
Next Steps: Regulatory Management for Early-Stage or Smaller ICOs
Utilising cryptocurrency regulatory databases allows you to identify a suite of possible regulatory considerations, have an more detailed idea of important regulatory issues, and create a ‘check-list’ of considerations early on in your project. Staying on-top of regulatory issues early on can set your ICO up for success.
Inspired by the World Bank’s ‘Easy of Doing Business’ rankings, Lupercal is among the first to pioneer a comprehensive database on cryptocurrency regulation. Our Crypto RDB provides you with the tools you need to cost-effectively identify regulatory considerations, and prioritise where action is required.
Learn More
Check out the world’s leading cryptocurrency regulatory database: CryptoRDB to help get on-top of ICO regulatory issues
Lupercal Capital regularly provides strategic consulting and project management for ICOs, crypto businesses, and existing companies looking to implement blockchain technology into their business. Feel free to contact us at [email protected] or go to lupercalcapital.com to learn more. | https://medium.com/hackernoon/regulatory-mistakes-icos-make-and-what-they-should-do-instead-daafd000f62 | ['Lupercal Advisory'] | 2018-01-13 18:27:00.028000+00:00 | ['Regulation', 'Blockchain', 'ICO', 'Bitcoin', 'Altcoins'] |
Getting Rich Might Be Easier Than You Think | I’m going to be rich. Don’t laugh, this is a slam dunk. I don’t even need to publish a best seller or start a company. What’s more, I’ll let you in on a secret. You, too, can avail yourself of this potential windfall.
The beginning of my ride to riches occurred in the summer of 2013, on what started out as an ordinary day. It ended as an ordinary day too, but my assessment of the day as ordinary, even boring, goes to show that the least significant activities, the stuff we are tempted to write off as forgettable, are the things that catapult us to unexpected rewards.
I remember the day well. Or maybe not so well, but I can reconstruct it. I was in the kitchen, feeling those first pangs of hunger that surface when you’ve already had lunch and it’s not time for dinner and you can’t focus or do anything much until you’ve had something to eat.
I could have reached for an apple or a banana, but my craving was for something salty, artificially flavored and devoid of all nutritional value. I reached for the giant variety snack pack I bought at Costco a few weeks earlier only to realize with dismay that all the potato chips and Fritos were gone.
The only thing left was Cheez-Its.
If you haven’t figured out where this is going by now, you haven’t read today’s Wall Street Journal. The story is on page 18. Three women are suing Kellogg’s, the manufacturer of Cheez-Its, because they feel misled and they want justice.
One of the plaintiffs, Linda Castle, purchased Cheez-Its approximately three times in 2013 from a grocer in Torrance, California. Her lawsuit and her pursuit of justice stem from the assumption that her Cheez-Its contained more whole grain than the label would lead one to believe.
So What?!!! You might be thinking. Who cares if Linda Castle bought Cheez-Its and believed she was consuming a health food? There’s a sucker born every minute, according to P.T. Barnum. But here’s the caveat. The Cheez-Its were labeled Whole Grain. And although the box explains that they contain 5 to 8 grams of whole grain for each 29-gram serving, the plaintiff felt deceived.
Mrs. Castle and the other plaintiffs are seeking damages, other monetary relief, and declaratory relief, (whatever that means.)
Although a federal judge dismissed the case, ruling that the “Whole Grains” wording was factually correct, and the label would “neither mislead nor deceive a reasonable consumer,” the U.S. Court of Appeals has reversed the dismissal.
Here’s where I come in, and maybe you if you’ve eaten Cheez-Its any time in the past eight years. The plaintiffs want a class action suit consisting of anyone in the U.S. or its territories who has bought Cheez-Its since 2010.
According to the Wall Street Journal there are thousands, possibly millions of people who bought Cheez-Its, “all of whom munched away happily without formal complaint.”
The more I think about it, the better I remember that fateful day when I reached for the Cheez-Its. I can still hear the bag’s cellophane rustle, smell the cheesy odor, savor the crunchy junk food taste.
My husband probably qualifies for the class action suit, too. The other day he fished a bag of Cheez-Its with a 2011 expiration date from the back of the pantry. “I forgot how good these things are,” he said, digging in, his fingers dusted with the telltale orange stain that is the bane of all Cheez-It eaters, especially those who sit on white couches.
Maybe white couch owners should sue, too.
Forget all the listicles you’ve read about how to get rich. You don’t need to wake at 5 AM, drink a spinach/yogurt/green tea smoothie, run eight miles, and meditate chanting Aham Prema, all before 8 o’clock, after which you begin your work day with an single-mindedness and positivity that would put Zig Ziglar to shame.
All you have to do is dig deep and dredge up the memory of that single defining moment when you ate Cheez-Its. I have done it, and you can too. Let this lawsuit proceed. | https://medium.com/pickle-fork/getting-rich-might-be-easier-than-you-think-1eda3987afc1 | ['Bebe Nicholson'] | 2018-12-20 21:21:31.368000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Satire', 'Lawsuit', 'Humour', 'Food'] |
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