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5 Potential Activities for Long-Distance Relationships | I say these encouraging things as someone who is highly empathetic and has worked closely with individuals and couples to make sense of their overarching problems, particularly as a crisis supporter and an active listener.
If you can get through this drama, then you have the capacity to keep going. If anything, wear this circumstance as a badge of honour. Your relationship hit a roadblock, and you came swinging, using your creativity to keep yourself and your partner satiated enough to keep going.
Either way, here are some suggestions on how to celebrate 2021 with your long-distance partner.
1. Cook a Meal “Together”
While it’s not the same as being together physically, you can set up your monitor or device in the kitchen, or bring parts of the kitchen to your device. If you haven’t already, install one of those remote conferencing or video chatting apps, like Zoom, Skype, Messenger, or even FaceTime.
You can lay out the basic ingredients for something that you want want to make. Perhaps you can keep the recipe or meal simple to avoid any kitchen-related mishaps. In real-time, you can critique one another and crack jokes at one another.
Photo by Dan Counsell on Unsplash — Keep it simple to avoid mishaps.
Maybe you can make a contest out of it, and see who has the better-looking meal. Maybe you can pretend that you’re on MasterChef or Hell’s Kitchen, running around while pretending that Gordon Ramsay is screaming at you to get it together.
Maybe one of you can play music associated with the show.
2. Agree to Watch Something Online
Sure, you’re in two different places, but you can set up the time to watch a movie “together”. Even far apart, sentimentality and love are still there. Maybe you can sport coordinating outfits and have similar snacks.
Plus, if you’re really hard-pressed against making such elaborate arrangements, maybe you can sit down and watch a live stream together, such as a remote concert or comedy show on websites like Youtube and Twitch.
Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash — You can still watch things together, even remotely.
Even if you settle on an old video or an agreed-upon movie classic, you can film one another's reactions during certain parts of the show, video, or movie, especially if something super funny or dramatic happened.
Maybe you can make a meme reaction out of it, and have a silly inside joke between the two of you. Maybe one of you will go viral because of it. Either way, you now have some moments, like your partner exclaiming surprise during your favourite scene from a movie.
3. Have a Spontaneous Fashion Show
It sounds silly, but with the power of technology, you can try something fun and spontaneous, like trying out the various outfits in your room. Maybe you can help one another find the perfect outfit.
This outfit could be for a hypothetical future date, or something you plan to wear for tomorrow morning. You get to have fun with what you already have, and you didn’t even have to spend major bucks for that to happen.
Plus, you can boost your confidence by doing a silly little dance, a semi-serious catwalk strut, or even tease your partner with something that they personally enjoy.
Photo by BBH Singapore on Unsplash — Maybe they’re having fun with their wardrobes.
You might get bonus points if you are able to play funny music during the whole situation. Maybe when your partner does their fake catwalk, you can play a video with some appropriate but funky music.
Make those little moments count, even if they’re fleeting, because it’s easy to take them for granted.
4. Roleplay a Mock Vacation
While we can’t travel, don’t let that stop you from pretending to have one.
Maybe one partner can pretend to be the budding tourist guide, and you can pretend to be the naive tourist. Maybe both of you can pretend to be two strangers meeting at the bar for the first time.
Think of it as a role-play or as a chance to show off your acting chops. Maybe in this adventure, one of you is a secret agent, and the other is also a secret agent, and you’re trying to outwit one another to get to the bottom of your mystery.
Photo by Free To Use Sounds on Unsplash — I honestly don’t have the context for this.
If you’re on a video conferencing app, you can change the background behind you to resemble a remote tropical paradise. You can even dress up as you please, perhaps opting to wear matching Hawaiian shirts.
Even if it’s not the same as the real thing, the ambience and mood can still be closely emulated. Maybe you can play certain songs or instruments to heighten the mood if you wanted.
5. Do Remote Acts of Kindness
Even if we’re not physically there, we can still help out our partners in other ways. If one partner is financially struggling where they are at, maybe you can send some funds to them online. If you’re struggling, they can reciprocate back.
Perhaps you can call their roommate (if they have one) and ask them to decorate your partner’s place for their birthday. Sure, this requires a fair bit of extra work due to the remote planning, but relationships are worth the effort you put into it.
Photo by Chase Chappell on Unsplash — It’s okay to make virtual plans, I promise.
Plus, even if they don’t have a roommate, maybe you can remotely order their favourite food to be delivered to their house and request a fancy little love note to be left behind.
You can pay for the order, alleviating a little bit of the sadness that your partner may feel. | https://synthiasatkuna.medium.com/5-potential-activities-for-long-distance-relationships-dfc814de878c | ['Synthia Satkuna', 'Ma Candidate'] | 2020-12-29 11:58:13.846000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Relationships', 'Long Distance', 'Mental Health', 'Dating'] |
Crypto.com Review 2021 | Lending, Staking, Trading [Must Read] | Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency platform founded in 2016 in Hong Kong. They have 10M+ active users and supports over 90 countries with a team of 900 members.
They offer a complete ecosystem with crypto lending, staking, trading, payments, visa card, DeFi wallets, DeFi swaps, native CRO tokens, and the Crypto.org open-source permissionless blockchain.
Crypto.com Review: Summary
Crypto.com offers a crypto ecosystem with a variety of products.
Earn up to 6.5% on your crypto by staking using Crypto Earn. The interest rate depends on the amount you are staking.
Crypto Credit offers instant loans with a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of up to 50%
Crypto.com Pay is a payment application that allows you to do mobile top-ups, gift cards, make payments, integrate payment gateways in your website, and earn rewards.
Crypto.com Visa Card is a prepaid visa card for cryptocurrency payments.
DeFi wallet is non-custodial wallets that provide complete control over your funds and private keys.
Crypto.com App is a one-stop place to buy, sell, grow and manage your cryptocurrencies.
DeFi swap allows you to farm and swap DeFi tokens directly from your DeFi wallet
Crypto.org Chain is an open-source, public, permissionless blockchain with high speed and low fees.
CRO is the native token of crypto.com
Crypto.com Exchange provides a variety of features such as Margin, Spot, Derivatives Trading, Syndicate, and Supercharger.
The platform is entirely secure with a multi-tier secure architecture with controls at every layer.
They also offer extensive customer support, and the website has enough information on all the products.
CRO Coin
Crypto.com offers its native CRO token. It allows cross-asset intermediary currency settlement for the native crypto.com chain. The token is available on twenty-two exchanges globally. It is at 21 st rank at CoinMarketCap.The current volume of CRO is $215.47M, and its market cap is $3.58B
Benefits of using CRO
You receive discounted fees, Priority token allocations, and higher earnings on crypto.com. Exclusive benefits of the MCO Visa Card and crypto mobile payment Better rates on Crypto Earn and Crypto Credit Decentralized financial offerings
Crypto.com Products
1. Crypto Earn
Crypto.com allows you to earn up to 6.5% on your crypto by staking. The interest is paid weekly in the coin you stake.
The following interest rates are if you are staking with a 5,000 or less CRO stake.
The following interest rates are if you are staking with a 50,000 or less CRO stake.
Crypto.com supports the following coins –
Bitcoin
Ethereum
Litecoin
XRP
Binance
ChainLink
Maker
PAX Gold
Stellar
Cosmos
Bitcoin Cash
Kyber Network
Elrond
ENJIN
Algorand
OMG
Celer
Vechain
Crypto.com supports the following stable coins –
PAXOS Standard
USD Coin
Tether
TrueUSD
TrueGBP
TrueCAD
TrueAUD
2. Crypto Credit
Crypto Credit is an instant loan feature that allows you to borrow up to 50% of your crypto collateral. You can decide your credit limit and payback schedule. The crypto assets are monetized without even selling them. There are no statement deadlines or late fees. Crypto.com does not perform any credit check.
The interest rate is 12% p.a, but if you stake 50,000 CRO or more, then the rate is 8% p.a.
3. Crypto.com Pay
Crypto.com Pay is a payment application that allows you to pay with more than fifteen DeFi tokens such as BTC, ETH, USDC, LTC, CRO, and more.
Features
Pay merchants
Mobile Topups — You have to enter a mobile number, and they will let you know if they support the mobile operator.
Gift Cards with 300+ Brands in 30+ Countries with 300,000+ shops. Some of them are Apple iTunes, Starbucks, eBay, Adidas, Airbnb Caribou Coffee, and more.
Send free crypto to friends
Shop at leading online retailers such as Ledger, BCVAULT, Travala.com, Coinzilla
Additionally, you will also receive pay rewards depending upon the category.
They also have a payment gateway that you can integrate with the website. The API documentation makes the integration easier. You can sign up for the same here. Currently, it has been integrated with WooCommerce, OpenCart, and more. The merchants can manage their transactions through the dashboard.
4. Crypto.com Metal Visa Card
The Crypto.com Card is a prepaid visa card. They can be topped up using cryptocurrency, bank transfers, and credit/debit cards.
To apply for this card, you need to stake CRO tokens for 180 days. The amount of these tokens depends on the card tier you wish to use. The cards are divided into five tiers. It is necessary to complete KYC verification. The exchange rates depend on the card tier you use.
All card rewards are paid in CRO and are deposited directly in your crypto wallet. They are reflected in your wallet as soon as the transaction gets completed. The card benefits include Netflix, Spotify, Prime, Airbnb, Expedia, and other subscriptions. You can check more about them here.
The purchase rebates are reimbursed in USD. The rebate cap is reset on the first day of each month.
5. Crypto.com App
Crypto.com App is the one-stop place to buy, sell, grow and manage your cryptocurrencies. It acts as a custodian and is easy-to-use.
The application supports more than 100 cryptocurrencies and 20 fiat currencies.
You can deposit crypto and send crypto to the app users instantly free of cost.
There is a small fixed fee for the withdrawal of funds.
The cryptocurrencies can be tracked by setting up price alerts and price movement alerts.
6. DeFi Wallet
Crypto.com offers non-custodial DeFi wallets giving you complete control over your private keys and cryptocurrencies. You can connect the DeFi wallet with the Crypto.com app to manage your funds on the go.
Features
It allows easy management of 100+ coins.
You can easily import a twelve/eighteen/twenty-four-word recovery phrase.
Earn interest on more than ten tokens with such as Compound, Yearn, and Cosmos, etc.
There is no lock-up term and stable returns.
You can check the gas prices and fees for supply liquidity and swaps in the dashboard.
The tokens are protected using multi-layer security features.
7. DeFi Swap
It allows you to farm and swap DeFi tokens directly from your DeFi wallet. Liquidity providers can enjoy swap fee sharing and bonus yield for selected pools.
Additionally, you can stake CRO to boost your yield up to 20x.
Crypto.org Chain
Crypto.org chain is an open-source, public, permissionless, secure, and fault-tolerant blockchain. The decentralized network has high speed and low fees.
The network supports payment, DeFi, and NFT’s. You can learn more about it on its white paper.
The network is getting launched on 24th March 2021. You can register early via the Token Migration Web Tool to receive native CRO when Mainnet is launched.
The developer community is available in Discord. You can also check the Crypto.org chain explorer here, which has information about transactions, block height, active validators, and much more.
Crypto.com Exchange
Crypto.com offers an easy-to-use trading terminal with a 2.7m TPS matching engine with fifty-microsecond core latency. They offer a variety of features –
Orders — Limit, Market, Advanced (Stop-Limit and Stop-Loss)
Margin trading with 3x leverage
Spot Trading
Derivatives Trading
The Syndicate — It allows you to buy newly listed coins with discounts.
Supercharger — They are staking pools that offer significant returns for certain assets.
Crypto.com Fees
The trading fees is divided into five tiers depends upon trading volume. If you stake CRO or pay your fees in CRO, you will get more discounts. Additionally, you will also receive 10% p.a on your CRO stake.
The discounts are given in the form of CRO rebates. The calculations and payouts are completed within an hour.
Additionally, VIP clients are offered exclusive incentives. You have to mail your application to [email protected], and if you meet the desired trading volume, you will be a VIP client.
Some of the perks include –
Early access to product launches VIP Account Manager and API Tech engineer OTC Block Trades Exclusive research reports 50% commission on net trading fees from your referrals
The withdrawal fee and limit depending upon the cryptocurrency you are using. You can check the entire list here.
Crypto.Com Review: Security
Crypto.com provides a multi-tier security architecture with controls at every layer. They use cold storage to store cryptocurrencies. A small percentage of the funds are store in hot wallets for day-to-day activities integrated with ledger hardware security modules and multi-signature technologies. They have partnered with Ledger to integrate their institutional-grade custody solution, hardware security modules, Ledger vault, and multi-signature technologies.
The assets are secured under a $100 M direct insurance policy by Arch Underwriting at Lloyd’s Syndicate 2012. After adding this, Crypto.com has comprehensive insurance of $360M, including direct and indirect coverages.
They store fiat currencies in custodian bank accounts. If you are a US Resident, then your USD balances are covered by FDIC insurance up to US$250,000.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is used for firewall, automatic encryption of traffic, controlled encryption in transit, business continuity, and more.
The smart contracts have been certified by external auditors Quantstamp and Certik.
The accounts are protected using use two-factor authentication, biometric identification, email, and phone verification. You can prevent unnecessary withdrawals from external addresses by whitelisting through email verification.
Crypto.com complies with the highest security and compliance standard in the industry with the Cryptocurrency Security Standard (CCSS), ISO 27001:2013, ISO/IEC 27701:2019, and PCI: DSS 3.2.1 (Level 1), which made them the first crypto company to own all of these certificates at the same time. Moreover, they have a specialized and dedicated team to perform internal reviews and ensure compliance and regulatory requirements.
The deposit checks are screened for KYC/AML/ ATF compliance. All the withdrawal requests are screened for suspicious transactions. If your transactions is above the threshold, then it will require manual approval by the operations team. Additionally, they also use a third-party AI and analytics tool to screen the transactions.
Crypto.com Review: Customer Support
You can reach out to them at [email protected]. You can also connect with them on Twitter.
They run a Youtube channel that has demo and tutorial videos. You can also be a part of their Telegram community which is available in several languages.
Crypto.com Review: Conclusion
Crypto.com is a user-friendly crypto ecosystem that offers a suite of products. Detailed information about all of its products is mentioned on its website. The system is transparent and secure. They have attractive incentives to promote the use of CRO Tokens. The trading fees are low and divided into various levels depending on the trading volume and CRO stake. It is a one-stop-shop for anything you need in the crypto space.
Crypto.com Review: Frequently Asked Questions
Is Crypto.com legitimate?
Yes, Crypto.com is a legitimate and completely secure platform offering a broad range of crypto products. The platform complies with the highest security and compliance standard in the industry. The assets have comprehensive insurance of $360M, including direct and indirect coverages.
What is Crypto.com Coin?
Crypto.com provides its native CRO token which is at 21 st rank at CoinMarketCap with a current volume of $215.47M. It offers exclusive benefits, discounted fees, and higher earnings on Crypto.com
What is the Crypto.org chain?
Crypto.org chain is an open-source, public, permissionless blockchain. The decentralized network has high speed and low fees. It is secure and fault-tolerant.
Is crypto.com safe?
They use cold wallets, two-factor authentication, whitelisting of external addresses, biometric identification, AWS for firewall and traffic encryption, and many more practices to completely secure the platform.
What is a Crypto.com wallet?
Crypto.com offers non-custodial DeFi wallets giving you complete control over your private keys and cryptocurrencies. You can connect the DeFi wallet with the Crypto.com app to manage your funds on the go.
Does Crypto.com have a visa card?
Yes, Crypto.com offers prepaid visa cards that can be topped up using cryptocurrency, bank transfers, and credit/debit cards. The cards are divided into five tiers depending upon the CRO tokens you are willing to stake.
Join Coinmonks Telegram group and learn about crypto trading and investing
Also, Read | https://medium.com/coinmonks/crypto-com-review-f143dca1f74c | ['Gaurav Agrawal'] | 2021-03-10 13:17:21.288000+00:00 | ['Saving', 'Investing', 'Passive Income', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Legible Lambdas | Photo by Math on Unsplash
We all love lambdas, don’t we? Lambdas are powerful (passing methods around, getting rid of anonymous classes…you get the picture) and with great power comes great responsibility. When we switched to using Java 8 at work, I was excited about finally getting to use lambdas! But very quickly, I found myself cramming all my code into a lambda. I was not only trying to overuse it, I was also writing code that was very unreadable.
Over the course of the past couple of years, I have gathered some “wows” and “gotchas” with using lambdas, that I have run into AND more importantly, run away from (all examples pertain mainly to Java):
Using Consumers, Functions, and Suppliers
Consumers are like methods with a void return type and one input argument. Functions are processing methods that take an element of type A and produce an element of type B (A and B could also be the same type).
Suppliers are comparable to methods that take no input arguments but always produce an output. It took me a while to get a hang of these nuances. Understanding these differences helps a bunch when you have to refactor some code using one of these interfaces.
For example, consider the following snippet of code:
someList.stream().map(listItem -> {
Step 1;
return result of Step 1;
}).map(step1Item -> {
Step 2;
return result of Step 2;
}) someOtherList.stream().map(listItem -> {
Step 1;
return result of Step 1;
}).map(step1Item -> {
Step 3;
return result of Step 3;
})
In order to be able to reuse applying Step 1 to listItems, we could extract the input to the first map method into a Function interface and with that change, the code would now look as follows:
someList.stream().map(applyStep1())
.map(step1Item -> {
Step 2;
return result of Step 2;
}) someOtherList.stream().map(applyStep1())
.map(step1Item -> {
Step 3;
return result of Step 3;
}) Function<a> applyStep1() {
return A -> {
Step 1;
return result of Step 1;
};
}
An easy way to do this: Let your IDE help you with extracting inputs to maps into Functions (select the entire block of code inside the map -> Right click and refactor -> Extract -> Method -> name the Function and TADA). This can also be done for other interfaces like Consumers and Suppliers !
Reusing reduction methods
Want to get the sum of all the items in a list? The average? Look no further, the streams API has a method for both!
integerList.stream().mapToInt(Integer::intValue).sum()
integerList.stream().mapToInt(Integer::intValue).average()
The point I am trying to make here is, there are reduction methods that may be provided out of the box and it is a good idea to always look before venturing out to write your own :)
Everything does not have to use the streams/parallel streams API
The streams API was one of the most widely celebrated features of java 8 and rightly so. It plays very well with lambdas and as someone new to this, I was subconsciously converting ALL my collections to streams irrespective of whether or not it was required.
Similarly streams vs parallel streams. The parallel is good right? Yes. Is it good ALL the time? ABSOLUTELY NOT. The internet is full of articles and performance benchmarks on these topics and I would highly recommend doing your research before streaming through EVERYTHING in your code base.
Break up the giant lambdas!
We are required to apply forty four steps to our input and we decide to use a map. But are we required to apply all the forty four steps in a single map method? Well lets see. So if we were to use only one map method, this is what our code would look like:
someList.stream().map(listItem -> {
Step 1;
Step 2;
Step 3;
Step 4;
.
.
.
Step 44;
return result of all above Steps;
});
Next consider this:
someList.stream().map(listItem -> {
Step 1;
return result of Step 1;
}).map(step1Item -> {
Step 2;
return result of Step 2;
}).map(step2Item -> {
Step 3;
return result of Step 3;
}).map(step3Item -> {
Step 4;
return result of Step 4;
});
.
.
.
I believe one of the biggest advantages of using lambdas is how elegantly you can break up processing steps into their own map method (there are other methods one could use and I am just citing map as an example here). I always like to break up big map methods into individual ones that are more readable and maintainable (this also allows for reusability).
At the same time, I would recommend against blindly having only one line of execution within every map method. We could always combine processing steps into a map as seen fit (For example, Steps 1–3 could be inside a single map).
map() with an if loop vs a filter
You can filter items in a collection using filter(). How long was it before I moved ifs inside my maps to actually be filter predicates? Long enough. What I am saying is this:
someList.stream().map(listItem -> {
if(listItem.startsWith("A") {
//Do Something
}
});
Can be instead written as this:
someList.stream()
.filter(listItem -> listItem.startsWith("A"))
.map(listItem -> {
//Do Something
});
Though this may or may not necessarily provide a performance bump, it adds to readability and ensures the use of appropriate methods.
Switching to using lambdas was a big jump for me that took a long time to get used to and it continues to surprise, frustrate, and wow me ALL at the same time! | https://medium.com/javarevisited/legible-lambdas-4259c831918e | ['Janani Subbiah'] | 2020-11-22 09:58:37.316000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Programming', 'Software Development', 'Java', 'Coding'] |
TCL 8-series 4K UHD TV review: This TV gets as close to OLED as any LCD has come | TCL 8-series 4K UHD TV review: This TV gets as close to OLED as any LCD has come Tonya Aug 25, 2020·6 min read
It took forever and a day to get a TCL 8-series TV in house, but the wait was absolutely worth it. Thanks to an uber granular mini-LED backlight array, the 65Q825 I tested delivers the best blacks I’ve seen from an LED-backlit LCD TV. By far. In fact, it’s closer to OLED than standard LCD in that regard.
As of this writing, this 65-inch TV was on sale at Best Buy for the ridiculous sum of $999 at Best Buy, where it’s sold exclusively. That’s a patently ridiculous price. the 65Q825 is a $1,500 TV if it’s a dime, and its list price is $1,999—something I was completely ready to believe after seeing it. Lest I sound the schill, it’s not a perfect TV by any means, but it does show where array backlighting is headed.
Updated later on August 3, 2020: Best Buy has raised the price of this TV back to its MSRP of $1,999—which is $200 more than Best Buy’s current price for the 75-inch model. Keep a close eye on prices for this TV.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best smart TVs, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping.Design and specsBeyond the mini-LED backlighting array, there’s not a lot special about the 65Q825. It’s a Roku TV, it uses quantum dots to refine color, and the panel is a 120Hz, 10-bit, 4K UHD (3840 x 2160 pixels). But mini-LEDs are special. I’ll discuss that in more detail in the performance section.
The 65Q825 I tested measures 56.9 x 32.9 x 3.1 inches (WxHxD), or 13.2 inches deep with the rather unusual stand that sticks out quite a bit in front of the TV. It’s a rather hefty unit at just under 70 pounds hung on the wall, and around 79 pounds with the stand. The VESA mount point is of the 300mm x 300mm variety.
The port array is par for the course: four HDMI inputs (one ARC—not eARC), coax input for an over-the-air antenna or cable/satellite, composite video/stereo audio via a 3.5mm jack, a headphone jack, and a 10/100 ethernet port. Wi-Fi is 802.11ac, but disappointingly, there’s no Bluetooth. More on that in a bit.
In terms of features, there’s no virtual “companion” (Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, etc.) as you’ll find in some other TVs, though you can control the TV via other devices that do. There is also voice control via the Roku remote if you want to order your TV around, and a Roku mobile app that lets your cell phone replace the remote and provide the missing Bluetooth. Dolby Vision and HDR10 are supported on the HDR front, and Dolby Digital and Atmos are available for surround audio users.
TCL TCL doesn’t skimp on the physical ports, though it does lack Bluetooth (because Roku wants to sell you its own audio gear).
The Q825 also features game sync, and an auto-game mode that will communicated with your gaming console.
Interface and remoteThe Roku interface is friendly and quick, it has great setup and recognition, and an extremely broad streaming ecosystem. It’s about on par with the other interfaces. Kudos for one thing, though: The USB media player seems far more robust in this latest iteration than before. Too bad it doesn’t support DLNA for playback across the network. Plex is available in the app store for that.
TCL The Roku interface is elegantly simple and effective, although it currently does not include access to HBO Max or NBC’s Peacock streaming services.
All that said, having lived with Roku for an extended period for the first time, I’m not as happy with it as I once was. My major beef is that Roku TVs, including the one I’m currently using, support only Roku-branded wireless gear. Excuse me. What about those expensive Bluetooth headphones I already own?
Not being a phone-centric person, I work around this issue by plugging an outboard Bluetooth transmitter into the TV’s the headphone jack/line-output. That means I can’t switch back to TV sound without getting up and unplugging the 3.5 mm cable. It’s not ideal, but with the Q825’s picture—it’s worth the hassle. For shame, Roku. Suggestion: When you add Bluetooth, add Apple AirPlay support as well.
TCL TCL’s Roku remote. Or should I say Roku’s TCL remote, or just Roku’s remote?
The remote on the other hand is one of my favorites—small but not too small, logical, and easy to use. I quite like it. Almost as much as Samsung’s One Remote.
PerformanceHaving heard about mini-LED’s blacks, the absolute first thing I did when I fired up this TV was to throw a starfield at it. Pinpricks of bright light on a pure black background give most LCD TVs fits, resulting in medium-gray backgrounds; obvious halos; and an abundance of mottled, cloudy artifacts.
OLEDs do starfields almost perfectly; the Q825 merely does them very, very well. It doesn’t deliver pure black, but close enough that you have to look hard to see the difference. When you jump to a lighter screen (our test moves to all black) you probably wouldn’t notice.
Given the Q825’s current stupidly low pricing, I figured something picture-related just had to be sub-standard, but the mini-LED array seemingly makes just about everything better. There was almost no moiré or shimmer, pans were smooth (after I boosted the motion compensation), and quantum dots make the colors rich and accurate.
TCL TCL’s 65Q825 delivers one of the best pictures in the business, and by far the best blacks this side of OLED.
I kept throwing my most problematic material at it and the 65Q825 kept coming up smelling like roses. Mostly. It failed on one highly detailed pan, but I’m calling that an outlier as it aced others that should’ve exhibited the same artifacts. Screen conformity was also very good, though off-angle viewing isn’t on par with some of the top-end LCD sets from Sony and Samsung.
The 65Q825 registered 1,980 lux on our newest light meter at zero distance; however, while it rendered HDR well, it didn’t quite reach Samsung standards for bright detail. That might be a choice on TCL’s part, or it might be that mini-LEDs aren’t individually as bright as the larger LEDs other company’s use.
There was one other thing I found rather odd about the 65Q825. Outside of the brightness control, which can morph those great blacks to medium gray if turned up too far, picture adjustments seemed to have very minimal effect—as if the company didn’t want you messing with a good thing.
Niggling aside, I’m tempted to call the Q825 hands-down the best LCD picture I’ve seen. A few improvements here and there, and I might give in to that temptation.
Black without worryOLEDs are prone to burn-in under heavy usage, as well as loss of brightness over time. Most users watching perhaps only one or two hours of TV a day needn’t worry. Leave an OLED TV on for 10 to 12 hours a day, on the other hand, with static elements such as logos on display, burn-in will occur and brightness will diminish.
Being inorganic, LEDs and LCDs might fail, but they don’t wear—and they aren’t susceptible to burn-in. That’s why mini-LED is starting to show up in computer displays. Better blacks and a richer picture with no worries.
A favorite LCD TVI hate to sound like a fan boy, but if the Q825 were available in smaller sizes, I’d likely buy one. Deep blacks make everything better when it comes to TVs, and that’s why OLEDs remain popular despite the continuing high cost of admission.
The 65Q825 delivers the closest thing to OLED black other than OLED itself, and it handles some extremely dark content even better than OLED does. Color me impressed, color me envious.
Caveat. A good part of my enthusiasm is due to the Q825’s current price (the 75-inch model is only $1,500 right now $1,799 as of August 3). If you only encounter this TV selling at its full $1,999 MSRP, there are other TVs you should consider, including Samsung QLEDs and OLEDs from LG and Sony.
This article was edited on 8/4/2020 to note that the TV can be controlled by external Alexa devices.
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/@Tonya97592780/tcl-8-series-4k-uhd-tv-review-this-tv-gets-as-close-to-oled-as-any-lcd-has-come-2e9eaf04e0a3 | [] | 2020-08-25 13:33:46.682000+00:00 | ['Audio', 'Consumer Electronics', 'Connected Home', 'Cutting'] |
‘Music & More’ coming to Kiddie Academy Warminster | The child care center invites local families to participate in age-appropriate dance, art and music activities on April 6
The Times
Kiddie Academy Educational Child Care invites local families to participate in age-appropriate dance, art and music activities at an indoor “Music & More” event. Activities are based on its “Music & More” curriculum, created in partnership with Kindermusik International, the world’s leading provider of music-based education for children ages birth through 7.
The curriculum aims to help children develop language skills, and learn about nature, colors and different cultures through song. Research shows that music makes children better learners, and “Music & More” lessons build on their natural love of music, stories, movement, and pretend play. Music and movement instruction improves children’s memory, cognitive development, learning skills and expressive ability.
Register online at kiddieacademy.com/events/music/.
Kiddie Academy of Feasterville, 105 Philmont Ave., Feasterville, will host this event on Saturday, April 6 at 10 a.m. For more information, contact Jane Mahle at 215–494–9415 or [email protected].
Kiddie Academy of Warminster, 260 Veteran’s Way, Warminster, will host it at the same time. For more information, contact Chris Roehl at 215–443–5988 or [email protected]. | https://medium.com/upper-southampton-times/music-more-coming-to-kiddie-academy-warminster-17134e4e04d1 | ['Samantha Bambino'] | 2019-03-28 12:01:01.197000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Children', 'Learning', 'Education', 'Dance'] |
Matt in New York City | When I think about the people who care for me most, the first person who comes to mind is my dad. He expressed his love in a transparent and authentic way that many men I have encountered shy away from, or even avoid. Dad never hesitated to say “I love you” and tell me how proud he was of me. He always greeted me with a hug and a kiss.
His clients occupied the majority of his hours, but he always made time for me. He was the first to offer to fly me home for any — or no — occasion, happy to put aside work for a long weekend with his daughter. Before moving to Los Angeles, I spent 7 formative years in New York, where he loved to visit me.
A great way to tell you about my dad was is to tell you about Matt in New York City.
There is no better city in the United States than New York to encounter humanity, in both quantity and — varying levels of — quality. Personalities are everywhere. Inconvenienced underground workers on the sprawling subway system, oblivious tourists walking in the bike lane down Broadway, crusty old men playing Chess in Washington Square Park, celebrities slipping out of black Escalades into TriBeCa penthouses… New York is full of energy, people in the raw.
Dad had an immense love for people. All of them. From clients building their third lakefront home to the homeless woman on the 6 Train preaching that Beyonce is the devil incarnate. He wanted to know your story and tell you his. And tell you about his love for the Lord.
Matt in New York was a collision of two driving forces — the city of non-stop energy and life with the man who made time for anyone. Always.
In New York, you don’t talk to strangers on the train. Matt made friends riding the 4 express. I’d be dragging him off at our stop while he was shaking hands and kissing babies.
Above the underground world of the subway, we’d walk the streets. He’d stare up at the sky, marveling at the never ending construction projects of such size and scale. While I tried to hurry us along to Yankee Stadium so not to miss the first pitch, he would take his time making conversation with the construction site managers on Essex street.
Living on the 5th story of a walk-up tenement building, my New York apartment was a slum compared to the beautiful homes he so meticulously crafted. He’d do little repairs for me when visiting. We’d walk down to the hardware store on Delancey and chat with the shop owner. The cost of lumber prices. City regulations. The owner’s story of immigrating to New York. The children who didn’t want to take over the business. There was always time for conversation.
When Matt wanted to enjoy something, he was all in. We shared a love of pastry, and when he would come to New York we’d be sure to visit my favorite bakeries. I took him to Maison Kayser in Bryant Park one winter, where we sat down to warm up with a coffee and share practically one of everything. After exiting the restaurant, he noticed the the takeaway café next door. By the time I had reached the street corner he’d slipped inside, exiting with a third almond croissant for the road.
I took him to my downtown office on the 50th floor of the Brown Brothers Building. As Matt’s daughter, I knew how to slip the stairwell lock that led to the rooftop, another 5 flights up. I can’t think of many times I saw my dad nervous, except when heights were involved. The Cut River Bridge rope swing, finding his eager 3-year old daughter on the rooftop of our Petoskey home and exploring the top of a skyscraper in New York City. These moments could bring out a tense laugh and quick, firm direction to “Back away the edge immediately, Alivia Jane.”
My dad made me feel so loved. Spending this summer summer Up North immersed in a community that knew and loved him, and therefore loved me as his daughter, has been a bittersweet experience. Seeing his impact on our community has given me an even greater appreciation for his life, and I hope that one day I will be known as someone who cared for people like he did. | https://medium.com/@aliviaduran/matt-in-new-york-city-cfb95d5f48d9 | ['Alivia Duran'] | 2021-09-14 02:59:24.406000+00:00 | ['Father And Daughter', 'Fathers', 'New York City', 'Death And Dying', 'Remembrance'] |
Redux | The last three weeks I’ve been learning Redux. Or, I’ve started my journey to learn it. There is so much to learn about Redux I don’t know if I’ll ever really learn it all!
Or, what am I saying? Of course I will!
I’ve been hearing so much about Redux, both high and low. I’ve heard it’s the most amazing concept there is, and I’ve heard that it’s unnecessary because you can get away with using React context instead. Yes, it is a boilerplate. Yes, you’ll have to write a lot of code in order just to get started, but the benefits are awesome.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far from Redux:
The separate state. Not having several states in my components, not having to pass all data from a parent-component using props but instead:
I can pass whatever data I want from my components. If I want a component to use only one action in the reducer, I can do so using dispatch.
In the same way I can pass whatever necessary data I want from the store to my components with useSelector. I don’t have to pass all data, only the part I need.
Maybe you can get away with React context doing this as well, I honestly don’t know anything about context yet. However, why not learn Redux? It’s a powerful tool and you’re likely to stumble across several teams using it. It might be a bit abstract (or, very abstract actually) but once you start to grasp it you’ll discover more and more benefits on using it. Not just getting out of sending props to every single component. | https://medium.com/@emsve92/redux-6f31ae9b3ecd | ['Emelie Svensson'] | 2020-12-06 11:29:17.713000+00:00 | ['Frontend', 'Newprogrammer', 'React', 'Redux'] |
The undeniable role of hardware for scaling | In history, many technological breakthroughs have marked mankind and its society, especially with the electronic revolution boom that we are currently living in. Cellphones, Smartphones, Internet, Connected Objects, Automation, Blockchain, Electrical cars, and many more. If one looks at all these achievements, we can only sit and admire the ingenuity of the human species to be able to solve every day problems with different technologies. The beauty of technology is often taken for granted and not understood by the masses. We all use smartphones, computers and many more but don’t understand how they work, and therefore cannot assess the complexity of such devices.
Throughout recent history, scaling was an important breakthrough in most of these electronic concepts. If you had the fortune to live through the early days of the internet using a modem, you would understand the struggle it was to download with 5–10 kb/s. Today, download speeds are reaching the hundreds of megabytes.
How was this possible, and how has been scaling solved throughout all these electronic domains?
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the importance of hardware by talking about the scaling that happen in the telecom industry, in the computer industry and in the media industry, 3 domains that are largely known and used by the population. Finally, we will talk about its application in the blockchain industry and how the only solution to solving this scaling and bottleneck is through hardware, by highlighting the solution used by HPB (High performance Blockchain).
I/- Telecom industry
The evolution of the Telecom industry has been fascinating. We will only talk about cellular devices, as we can see on this chart, we went from 1G to 4G (to possibly 5G soon).
Each of these generation of technology has marked an important improvement in the usage of the cellular network, determined by the bandwidth speed, for example we went from 2.4 Kpbs to around 100 Mbps.
How was this possible? The telecom process is incredibly complex, so I will try to simplify things as much as I can.
Let’s first explain how information is transmitted from point A to point B. Information is binary, meaning it’s 1 and 0 and each one of them is called a bit. What does this 1 and 0 correspond to? It’s simply the presence and absence of current/voltage in electrical terms. (It’s a bit more complex than that, but just keep this in your mind).
Now, this is something easy to do when you are connected through a wire or a connector. However, in Telecom, you need to transmit the information wirelessly. This is why we use transmitters and receivers where information is coded and modulated. (Relax, I will not detail this process, but it is important to understand what modulation is and how the information is transmitted in order for me to explain to you the importance of hardware). Modulation is simply transmitting information into the frequency domain often in a form of a cosinus or sinus.
For example, in 2G, we used simple modulations, such as QPSK:
In this modulation, we have 4 possible information determined by the phasing of the signal. This modulation is produced by hardware. Why couldn’t we use more points on the circle? Simply because more information with the technology back then produced more noise, therefore less accuracy in the transmission and reception of the data and in telecom you need to have the less noise possible.
As technology advanced, the modulation advanced to things like 64 QAM — 256 QAM
This is a 256 QAM, as you can see, we have massively multiplied the possibility of information sent. Therefore, we can send more bits in one message, multiplying the transmission per second.
All of this is possible thanks to hardware called a modulator which is a series of electrical components capable of producing such signals with the minimum noise possible.
Now, let us look at the architecture difference between 3G and 4G to understand that the breakthrough came from hardware:
A lot of hardware improvements. Off course software played a role like the coding of information went from CDMA to OFDMA, but mostly hardware and physical improvements brought this high throughput. But even these “software” improvements would NOT be possible, if we didn’t scale the processors. OFDMA requires massive Fourier and Inverse Fourier calculations in real time, which was impossible without an incredibly strong processing power.
2/ Computer advancement
All this talk about processing power leads me to the biggest example of where hardware played a factor. Today, you are reading my article through a computer that is the definition of scaling.
Often credit is given to software engineers for creating a software. What is a software? It’s a series of instructions with a goal to instruct the hardware components. A computer is such a complex tool to comprehend. To understand better, let’s look at how a software is done in C language.
Here is the full schematic of how a C code is compiled and ran on a computer:
A software engineer writes his code in C, then there are several steps that will not be detailed that convert this code into a language your machine understands and executes. This simplistic assembler language is a language that allows you to directly communicate with the hardware behind your computer. (Again, I will not go into details on how this is done, else this article will end up being a book of 200 pages.)
To get to my point, suppose your hardware is not fast enough, then your code will not be fast enough. That is an undeniable fact. You can write the best code in the whole world, but if your hardware is lackluster, it will be completely useless. Your computer hardware is defined by its processor, cache, memory and bus, and these are all hardware components.
Let us now look at the effect of processing.
3/ Media engineering
Have you ever tried making music? Have you tried playing a 4k game?
That’s right, the better your computer, the smoother these applications are.
Let’s look at the music industry.
You have a guitar track you recorded. You probably plugged an electric guitar to a soundcard and played through it, and recorded it. Now it’s on your computer. But, how is it possible that a continuous analogic signal is now turned into a discontinuous digital one?
Basically, depending on the sampling rate you chose, this is what concretely happened:
So what basically happened, is that on your computer, you have a sampled signal that is composed of an immense number of bits depending on the length of your signal. The better your hardware, the better your signal is sampled. This is why you buy high end soundcards, and not use your laptop’s inbuilt soundcard.
Now, the producer in you wants to start recording several tracks, let’s say drums, double track your guitars, vocals, bass. You want to start mixing and mastering these tracks, so you’re going to modify them and therefore use plugins.
You can sometimes be using over 100 plugins to modify these signals. Let’s take a look at what ONE plugin can do. For this example, let’s use high pass filtering:
Based on the frequency you chose you can eliminate unwanted noise below that frequency. How is this done? Your DAW gives you a nice graphical interface and makes it look easy, however this is all mathematics using your CPU. Remember, your signal is a succession of 1’s and 0’s interpreted as hexadecimal. This low-cut filter applies coefficient multiplication to your signal.
This is why, the more you use plugins, the more the CPU becomes overloaded, and this is why you need high end specifications capable of doing these real time calculations. Again, hardware wins because the scaling in this case is the processing power, and the processing power is improved by hardware architecture.
Bare in mind, that a retail computer was NOT designed to be efficient at multiplications and divisions. Memorize this.
4/ Scaling the blockchain
4.1/Importance of scaling
Now we get to the interesting part of this article. This is an article dedicated to blockchain, and specially to solve the scalability problem. For this technology to be commercialized, you simply need to rival the processing speed of a database.
You can’t for example, use a crypto currency for merchandise, if the payment takes 30 minutes- 1 hour to process. You’re not going to tell your client “wait till I get 6 or 30 confirmations” which will take an hour. He’s going to pay, wait, leave and never come back.
You just lost a client using bitcoin or Ethereum as a payment method. In this use case, the ideal scenario would be to have his transaction passed in a few seconds, and tops a minute.
Often, I read comments like “we don’t need that much TPS”. You can understand that this claim is absurd if blockchain would go commercial.
Now, let’s look at another use case. Decentralized applications. It is true that small DAPPS that have 50–100 users don’t require that much transactions per second, however let’s suppose that a big company would use a DAPP. Let’s take a look at Union Pay, a really huge company that processes millions of transactions a day. Suppose this company would want to start using the blockchain for various reasons, it would require a lot of TPS, else it would slow down its whole business and make the company lose an enormous amount of money.
4.2/Solutions to solve scalability
To understand these different approaches to solving scalability, a basic understanding of blockchain is necessary.
I suppose that if you are reading this article, then you know the basics of what a transaction is, else you would not be investing in cryptocurrencies. (Oh dear lord)
The whole straining process of a blockchain is nodes verifying and broadcasting a transaction, and saving the huge history of the ledger and synching it between nodes. ( I am incredibly simplifying this, you can research the details, and different models of blockchains have different consensus and work differently).
As the blockchain advances, the bigger the “database” gets. This is problematic to when the nodes want to sync, as they have to download/upload the ledger. So how do you improve TPS?
- You increase the speed of the data transmitted (internet speed, network)
- You increase the verification process (which is solving the hashing through different multiplications and divisions)
- Invent a different way to transmit information (sharding/ Plasma)
The first two are doable. The third one is theoretical and its efficiency is unproven.
The first two are hardware, the second one is software.
It does seem logical to use hardware to solve this scaling problem, something that has been used historically as an improvement point and succeeded.
Conclusion
There is only one blockchain doing this, and it’s HPB (High Performance Blockchain). This is why I’m invested in this, because it is a functioning solution to scaling. The BOE heavily improves the verification process by using a dedicated hardware capable of doing these famous multiplications and divisions at speeds 8 times faster than a conventional retail CPU.
The space is still not mature enough, but as bigger companies will get in, you will see that specialized hardware will be used more often, as it’s has been the determining factor to scaling everything as proven in this article. | https://medium.com/@pattympat/scaling-the-undeniable-role-of-hardware-d3c304af73f1 | ['Patty Mcpat'] | 2019-05-18 08:19:02.861000+00:00 | ['Scalability', 'Highperformanceblockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Hpb'] |
The Loneliness Hangover | The so-called loneliness epidemic has been well documented over the last decade. Though there is consensus that loneliness is a problem, how to define that problem, its causes, and who it affects most severely, is much more difficult to determine. Historian and economist Neil Howe cites recent studies that reveal vast swaths of American adults who always or sometimes feel lonely (46%), over half of elderly Britons whose main source of companionship is the TV or a pet, and over half a million Japanese men and women under 40 who haven’t spoken with another human being for six months or more. It is clear that loneliness is pervasive and affecting people the world over.
Others when addressing the issue seem to focus on the increase of single households. An article in the Guardian claims,
“the number of people living alone globally is skyrocketing, rising from about 153 million in 1996 to 277 million in 2011 — an increase of around 80% in 15 years.”
As it stands today 34% of households in the UK are of the single variety as are 27% of households in the U.S.
Jake Meador in his new book In Search of the Common Good, identified loneliness for the scourge that it is. He rightly notes that many are now against community as much as they are against Christianity. He mentions the UK’s Campaign to End Loneliness and highlights the recently coined term “deaths of despair,” which refer to the increasing number of suicides and deaths caused by drug overdose and alcoholism that largely affect rural areas.
Most commentators can agree that loneliness has devastating health effects, both mental and physical. One study suggested that loneliness was twice as unhealthy as obesity and another claimed that isolation can actually modify human cells and eventually lead to increased risk for heart disease, stroke, Alzheimers and more.
With an issue this pervasive and complex solutions can be hard to come by. But if we take a step back we can see that the loneliness epidemic is actually three separate and distinct (though somewhat interrelated) problems.
First, many are concerned about loneliness rates among the elderly. This is the segment of the population that organizations like The Campaign to End Loneliness and others like The Silver Line are concerned with helping.
The second problem is found in our cities. Working adults, who for the sake of career advancement, among other reasons, delay marriage and typically live alone. In Washington D.C. and New York City there are neighborhoods where as high as two thirds of households are occupied by individuals living on their own.
The third type of loneliness might be better categorized as a loss of meaning. It is experienced by those living in rural areas where “deaths of despair” rates are at their worst and might be caused by how difficult it is to find meaningful work in those places. By way of example, Meador draws attention to West Virginia, the state hardest hit by the opioid crisis and particularly susceptible to deaths of despair.
Each of these three strands of the loneliness epidemic have their own unique challenges, causes and solutions. By using the language of epidemic, those addressing the problem of loneliness call to mind helpless victims who randomly contract the disease through no fault of their own. This might be the case for some, but as we’ll see in a moment, it doesn’t seem to be the most accurate way to conceptualize the issue.
We could also think of loneliness as a type of relational poverty, but this idea too doesn’t quite fit. One writer turned the tables on loneliness and described it like a drug, one that people are addicted to. He argues that historically people were forced to be together and rely on one another for survival. Now that we can afford to be alone, we choose to be, because that is the way we prefer to live.
This idea is close but still misses the mark, if by ever so much. Instead of thinking about loneliness like an epidemic, form of poverty, or type of drug people are addicted to, another way to understand loneliness is as a hangover.
Instead of loneliness being the drug, it is the painful after effect brought on by the “drug” we are addicted to — the drug of pleasing self.
Our society prizes autonomy above all else, it is our gospel. In the words of Emile Durkheim, we subscribe to “the cult of the individual.” “Hookup culture,” sacrificing family on the altar of career advancement, delayed marriage, a birth rate of 1.72 children per woman, astronomical divorce rates; many of the decisions people make throughout their lives are for their own betterment rather decisions made in the interest of what is best for others, nation, or God.
Milton’s Satan famously said, “It is better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.” We agree with that statement to the extent we are willing to sacrifice relationships for the chance to sit upon the throne of our lives. We have sown seeds of selfishness and are now reaping a harvest of loneliness. As we prioritize just about everything above relational commitment — even Netflix binging and mindless Facebook scrolling — we should not be surprised that our culture is in the throes of a loneliness crisis — a loneliness hangover.
There is of course a way forward, a way to overcome our loneliness hangover. We have to rebel against ourselves. We have to recommit to relational commitment. That would entail forsaking “hookup culture” and all consumptive relationship mentalities. It would mean getting married young, and staying married. It would mean having more babies. It would mean making decisions based not on what is best for me, but what is best for others. There is a word for this, it is sacrifice. If we sow seeds of sacrifice we will reap a harvest, not of loneliness, but of deep joy in relationship.
Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 is a particularly good word for our current loneliness predicament, a word we would all do well to remember. “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!” SDG
John Thomas is a freelance writer. His writing has appeared at Mere Orthodoxy, Christianity Today, and Desiring God. He writes regularly at medium.com/soli-deo-gloria. | https://medium.com/soli-deo-gloria/the-loneliness-hangover-b68d4d0ed5f3 | ['John Thomas'] | 2019-07-01 19:44:45.749000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Culture', 'Spirituality', 'Politics', 'Religion'] |
What is RPA(Robotic Process Automation)? | RPA is an emerging technology involving bots that mimic human actions to complete repetitive tasks.
Robotic process automation (RPA) refers to software that can be easily programmed to do basic, repetitive tasks across applications.
RPA creates and deploys a software robot with the ability to launch and operate other software.
Designed primarily for office-type functions, RPA works like a digital assistant, doing routine tasks that would otherwise eat up employees’ time.
Do you wonder how RPA customization empowers modern business and why do we need RPA?
“In layman’s terms, RPA is the process by which a software bot uses a combination of automation, computer vision, and machine learning to automate repetitive, high-volume tasks that are rule-based and trigger-driven.” –David Landreman, CPO of Olive.
Why do you need to know about RPA?
If your business relies on any repetitive tasks, you need to know how RPA works. Your team and your clients would be grateful because the RPA bot that is explained above, can take on boring repetitive tasks and perform them with fewer errors than humans. They log into applications, move files and folders, copy and paste data, fill in forms, extract structured and semi-structured data from documents, scrape browsers, and more.
Processes relevant to RPA
Most companies have hundreds of repetitive processes that are too simple to be engaging for humans. Implementing RPA can increase your company’s efficiency and improve the customer experience while allowing employees to work on meaningful tasks.
Best option to transform your Business to RPA
Currently, Infobiz is the best option to implement RPA Automation in your business.
Infobiz provides software consultancy for all types of businesses using a disruptive market model. The framework provides significant cost efficiencies and ease of convenience to businesses requiring IT support. The model eliminates the need to spend considerable time and resources hiring IT staff and setting up expensive IT infrastructure, while simultaneously enabling clients to take advantage of the latest technical innovations.
Apart from being a comfortable option, Infobiz also provides a live demonstration of how your business can be automated. RPA Proof of Concept is a demonstration, the purpose of which is to verify that RPA Solution has the potential for automation of your business challenges. Read more about Proof of Concept here.
ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION
Applications of RPA
Industry Usage Healthcare
Patient registration
Billing
HR
New employee joining formalities
Payroll process
Hiring shortlisted candidates
Insurance
Claims Processing & Clearance
Premium Information
Manufacturing & Retail
Bills of material
Calculation of Sales
Telecom
Service Order Management
Quality Reporting
Travel & Logistic
Ticket booking
Passenger Details
Accounting
Banking and Financial Services
Cards activation
Frauds claims
Discovery
Government
Change of Address
License Renewal
Infrastructure
Issues Processing
Account setup and communication
Conclusion
As you can see, RPA can be implemented in several interesting ways. It requires some practice, but your employees can easily adapt to the changes and work productively. At Infobiz, we encourage businesses to try the system. You don’t need to implement system-wide automation from the very beginning. Start out small and automate one process at a time to see if it is the right choice for your company. | https://medium.com/@infobiz-automation/what-is-rpa-robotic-process-automation-5893da670e1a | ['Infobiz Automation'] | 2020-12-10 12:49:14.821000+00:00 | ['Roboticprocessautomation', 'Poc', 'Automation', 'Robotic Process', 'Rpa'] |
Aviation Weather Forecasting Services Market Projected to Grow at a Steady Pace During 2019–2024 | Dec 22, 2021/IndustryNewsGlobal/ The unexpected shifts in the global markets because of the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 virus have brought many major and minor tremors to industries of all sizes including the Aviation Weather Forecasting Services Market.
It was estimated prior to this unanticipated outbreak that the Aviation Weather Forecasting Services Market is projected to grow at an impressive growth rate over the next five years to reach US$ 447.6 million in 2024. An organic growth of the aircraft industry, rising aircraft fleet size, increasing focus on improving safety and operational efficiency, and advancement in avionics technology are likely to create a sustainable demand for weather forecasting services in the aviation industry in the foreseen future.
Boeing anticipated that there would be total deliveries of 44,040 commercial and regional aircraft worth US$ 6.8 trillion in the global marketplace during 2019–2038. Asia-Pacific and Europe would be the biggest demand generators with a combined share of 62.8% of the total commercial aircraft deliveries during 2019–2038. An expected healthy CAGR of 4.6% in air passenger traffic during 2019–2038 will chiefly drive the demand for commercial aircraft. This is likely to facilitate a healthy long-term demand for weather forecasting services in the coming five years.
The aviation industry is sensitive to the weather and no decision is taken without first putting the weather into consideration. Safety has come under some threat as demand for air travel has increased with an unbalanced increase in airport capacities and facilities coupled with frequent extreme weather conditions being experienced across the world. There have been as many as 79 accidents related to flights during 2012–2017, taking the life of about 2,260 passengers around the world. The weather has been one of the prominent factors for many of these accidents. Besides, increase in focus on operational efficiency and a growth in public-private partnership towards producing more accurate and reliable weather forecasts are further shaping a positive trend in the market.
Based on the Forecasting Type, the global aviation weather forecasting services market is segmented based on the forecasting type as Aerodrome Forecast, Area/Route Forecast, and Special Forecast. Aerodrome forecast is expected to remain the most dominant segment of the aviation weather forecasting services market over the next five years. Almost every airport in the world has Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) written for them. Due to a continuous increase in fleet size and increasing involvement of private players in these services, the segment is expected to grow at a healthy rate in the coming five years.
Based on the forecasting duration type, the global aviation weather forecasting services market is segmented as Short-Term, Medium-Term, and Long-Term Forecast. Short-term forecast is projected to remain the most dominant segment of the global aviation weather forecasting services market over the next five years. Short-term forecasts are the most widely used in the aviation industry, owing to their higher accuracy as compared to longer-term forecasts. Additionally, the technological innovations, an increase in the usage of electronic mode of transmission, and a more efficient weather-model further facilitate the use of short-term forecasts.
Based on the distribution method type, the aviation weather forecasting services market is segmented as Electronic and Written. The electronic forecast segment is projected to remain the dominant mode of communication in the global aviation weather forecasting services market during the forecast period, propelled by the advancement of technology, uninterrupted data transfer, and a better avionics user-interface.
Based on the aircraft type, the aviation weather forecasting services market is segmented as Civil Aviation and Military Aviation. Civil aviation is expected to remain the growth engine for the aviation weather forecasting services market over the next five years, whereas military aviation is projected to showcase a flatter growth during the same period.
Based on regions, North America is expected to remain the largest aviation weather forecasting services market during the forecast period, whereas Asia-Pacific is expected to experience the highest growth during the same period. The highest growth of Asia-Pacific is driven by a host of factors including increasing demand for commercial aircraft to support rising passenger traffic, presence of the most weather-sensitive nations, such as India and the Philippines, and rising aircraft fleet size.
Key Players:
Key players operating in the global Aviation Weather Forecasting Services market are-
Universal Weather and Aviation Inc.
Rockwell Collins
The Weather Company — IBM
Jeppesen
World Fuel-Colt.
Features of the Report
This report offers high-quality insights and is the outcome of detailed research methodology comprising extensive secondary research, rigorous primary interviews with industry stakeholders and validation and triangulation with Stratview Research’s internal database and statistical tools.
The Aviation Weather Forecasting Services analysis report discusses the following heads in great detail:
Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis
COVID-19 Impact Assessment
Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter’s five forces analysis, SWOT analysis
Market trend and forecast analysis
Market segment trend and forecast
Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc.
Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities
Emerging trends
Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players
Key success factors
Know more about Stratview Research:
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10,000 hours | I have no idea if I’ve reached 10,000 hours of writing, but my hunch is that I did a long time ago.
I’m so afraid of not being ‘good’ or not ‘selling’ my story well enough. A worry I never used to care about.. ever. Even when my journaling on paper in my bedroom became blogging in public on the family computer, I never worried about what people would think.
Now I do, and frankly I’m sick of it. I think deep down in my heart of hearts, I write unfettered with a freshly sharpened Dixon Ticonderoga pencil in a brand-new moleskin journal from Barnes and Noble. Seriously. I’m not trying to be a millenial… I am a millenial, and I created the trope of a unsure girl wandering aimlessly around Barnes and Noble, taking herself on a coffee date and trying to find the ‘one’… the one new journal, that is.
I want to stop caring what people think. I am being compelled to stop caring, because I’ve been holding my story back like a dam. It’s released at the most inopportune of times: 2 am on a ‘school’ night (I’m a teacher so I still call them that); in the doctor’s office; during a work meeting.
So, anyway, I’m here. Writing more, adding hours to the many many hours I’ve been writing, chronicling my life and feelings and… everything. This is a new page, new journal, and I’m gonna go sharpen my pencil. | https://medium.com/@wilcoxon.elizabeth/10-000-hours-3cc2a5d9b0fa | ['Elizabeth Wilcoxon'] | 2019-05-06 01:29:46.408000+00:00 | ['Memoir', 'Amateur Writing', 'Writing', 'Journaling'] |
Continuing Database Harmonization Between Corda and Corda Enterprise | First, a bit on Liquibase
Both the internals of the Corda and external enterprise CorDapps use Liquibase for database schema versioning. CorDapp custom tables are created or upgraded automatically using Liquibase. Liquibase supports writing DDL/DML statements in many formats (XML, JSON, SQL, YAML).
How does Liquibase work?
Liquibase uses a table called as DATABASECHANGELOG. This table maintains all the executed/applied DDL/DML scripts till date. Liquibase uses something called changeset to save executed scripts in DATABASECHANGELOG table. Each changeset is a collection of DDL/DML scripts. Essentially, DATABASECHANGELOG stores each executed changeset. This changelog table will be read every time a migration command is run to determine what changesets need to be executed. The node by default uses Liquibase internally which can be verified by looking at node-specific changesets in the DATABASECHANGELOG table. Liquibase will also be used by the CorDapp developer for CorDapp custom schemas. So each time a new schema is introduced, a new liquibase script should be added to the CorDapp.
Changes introduced in Corda 4.6
In Corda, Liquibase was not supported/needed till now, and custom schemas/tables were created using Hibernate JPA. The idea is to harmonize database schema creation using Liquibase across Corda and Corda Enterprise. With this approach, migration scripts will now be needed for Corda as well. Migrating from Corda to Corda Enterprise will now be easy and will increase the possibility of discovering bugs/ testing migration scripts at a very early stage. Before Corda 4.6, nodes were setting up their schemas at runtime, whereas now, schema management is a deliberate step that has to be taken before running.
1. run-migration-scripts
2. — allow-hibernate-to-manage-app-schemas
3. runSchemaMigration = true
4. transactionIsolationLevel , initialiseSchema, initialiseAppSchema — These flags have now been removed and can no longer be used.
Upgrade from lower versions to Corda 4.6
CorDapp Upgrade
As mentioned above, until now, migration scripts/Liquibase were not required in open source. Hence any custom tables present in your CorDapp were created by Hibernate. Since Liquibase was not used to create these tables, there won't be any entries in the databasechangelog table. So, we will have to add these entries to the databasechangelog retrospectively. Follow the below steps to upgrade your CorDapp.
Assumption: The CorDapp is using a version of Corda less than 4.6.
Custom schemas/tables have been created in the database using Hibernate. There are no databasechangelog entries corresponding to this schema. I will be using the cordapp-example to perform a CorDapp upgrade to 4.6.
Step 1. Define Liquibase Scripts
Step 2. Override Migration resource by specifying the migration script name
Step 3. Place the migration scripts in resources/migration folder in workflow
Step 4. Build workflow and contract jar.
Command: “./gradlew jar” to be run from project root. The cordapp jars can be found in build/libs directory of workflow and contract respectively.
Step 5. Replace old workflow and contract jar with new one.
Step 6. Start the node by running java -jar corda.jar sync-app-schemas.
If you do not run the sync-app-schemas and instead directly run run-migration-scripts — app-schemas command, it will complain with below error.
This is because we already have a table created by Hibernate in the database. To sync migration entry to databasechangelog use sync-app-schemas command. This will sync the table created by Hibernate and an entry will be made in the databasechangelog using the migration scripts.
Step 7. Start the node
Node Upgrade
By default, the node uses Liquibase scripts internally for its tables. Assuming all the required tables before 4.6 must be present in the database; we only need to worry about adding the new core schema tables part of 4.6.
Step 1. Stop the node. Replace corda.jar with new 4.6 corda.jar
Step 2. Run the command run-migration-scripts — core-schemas to run new schemas part of 4.6. Running this command will automatically apply the new Liquibase scripts onto the database.
Step 3. Start the node.
Upgrade from versions Corda >= 4.6 to Corda Enterprise >= 4.6
CorDapp developers upgrading from an older version of Corda or Corda Enterprise to 4.6 will only need to run one command to upgrade the node.
CorDapp Upgrade
Note: If switching from H2 to any other database, users are required to retrospectively add entries to databasechangelog table for the custom tables created by Hibernate in Open Source.
As explained above, when upgrading from Corda to Corda Enterprise, developers are required to add Liquibase scripts for their CorDapps. Now developers won’t be required to add any Liquibase script for Enterprise, as they would already have a Liquibase script for our CorDapp in Corda. In addition, syncing changelogs will not be required.
Hence from an Corda to Corda Enterprise upgrade perspective, users don’t have to do anything beyond replacing the Corda jar with a Corda Enterprise jar!
Node Upgrade
Node upgrade will require adding extra tables/schemas of Corda Enterprise by running the below command.
java -jar corda.jar run-migration-scripts -core-schemas
Note: All the above migration paths apply to Corda 4.x nodes only and not to any of 3.x Corda nodes.
Summary
With the 4.6 release, database schemas are harmonized across Corda and Corda Enterprise by removing all schema management options from node configuration files and added start-up sub-commands. This would help reduce error-prone node configs. Liquibase support has now been added to Corda, making the upgrade from Corda to Corda Enterprise that much easier for CorDapp developers.
Thank you to Christian Sailer, Valerio Campanella, and the Corda Team.
Thanks for reading — Sneha Damle, Developer Evangelist (R3) | https://medium.com/corda/continuing-database-harmonization-between-corda-and-corda-enterprise-9d2a8ac12516 | ['Sneha Damle'] | 2020-11-13 16:13:19.956000+00:00 | ['Database', 'Corda', 'Upgrade', 'Blockchain', 'Dlt'] |
7-Figure Export Business Coaching Program Review | Do you agree with me that having only one source of income is highly risky? Also, going by the consistent rise and continuous increase in human needs and living expenses, relying on one source of income alone, is what I choose to term the modern-day craze.
Honestly, if at this point in time you choose to subscribe to the mono (single) way to earn or make a living, I can only fold my hands and silently pray that in no distant time you don’t get caught in your own web.
For humans across the globe, the importance of money cannot be determined or undervalued. Over the years as man evolved and human activities changed, the relevance of money remains the same. Generally, when speaking or referring to human relationships, you often hear the saying “Love conquers all”. But I tell you this can’t be in any way compared to “Money answereth to all things” in essence love inclusive. So please be guided and choose your table wisely.
Similarly, just as our needs as humans never seem to come to an end, so also our drive towards improving our value and earning more. Any attempt to do otherwise, can only result in suffering and frustration. The question therefore is to what extent or capacity are you willing to go, to ensure you are not living a life of imbalance.
Many of you struggle between having to choose a full-time job, earning a salary at the end of each month and going into business. Truthfully, none of these is easy. As each has its different strain and challenges. As a salary earner, you are forced to split your time. You spend a better part of your day working minimum of 8–12hours, 5 or even 6 days in a week, only to be paid a measly sum at the end of the month. More painfully is the fact that this form of job/work has no guarantee both in your pay and also in sustainability. Without proper plan and discipline, you can run into debt even before you receive your pay. Then I ask, what happens if there is an emergency? Do you tell the situation to wait till the end of the month before you settle it? If one is not careful it becomes a burdensome pattern of borrowing just to stay afloat.
Furthermore, as a business owner, irrespective of the nature of the business you operate. You may feel you earn on a daily or weekly basis, so you aren’t quite moved. But after taking a break to thoughtfully check your expenses (purchase or maintenance) and income, it can be difficult. Same goes for service and product providers alike. At the end of it all, you have probably little or nothing to show for it. Again, I ask what is the difference between an employee and an entrepreneur? Worst still for an entrepreneur. Because you will bear all the loss and possible risk alone. Which can lead to your detriment or business closure. Well except you just want to follow the trend and simply bear the title ‘entrepreneur’ on your social media profile. #winks. As a good person, I can only hope that just like the prodigal son, you will find your way back to balance.
But then again, if you must do business, there are strategic business that you can go into that will afford you both the time and skill needed to remain steady in the receiving end. I’m sure you are curious and want to ask what business is that? Just relax and enjoy the read as I slowly unfold one of the best methods and secret methods of doing business that has made many people into millionaires.
I’m sure you must have heard the words importer, exporter. Very much associated with Igbo businessmen from the east in my country. There is no occasion that goes by without adding the title importer/exporter to the name of a known businessman during an introduction, either as an acknowledgement to honour or an invitation to make a speech. Truthfully speaking a lot of misconception and mysticism have also been aired about the import/export industry and as a result it is tread and attempted by very few people.
Similarly, with the continuous rise in joblessness and as people continue to search for better ways to make a steady and seize less cash flow the import/export industry is a very fertile ground to thrive and make a name for yourself. For many of you who want to go into this line of business, getting the right source to learn from is very important. Do not let the envisioned amount of money you can make drive you into baseless and futile pursuit. It is important to note that there is lots of high-level information with very little practical start-up instructions or guides.
If you are looking for the surest and easiest way to climb up the ladder of the import/export industry, I introduce to you Olatunde Wealth. A seasoned export mogul, with over 20years of experience. He’s the convener of the Nigeria Export Workshop also known as (N. E. W). A renowned export business training in Nigeria. The NEW series offers intensive training facilitated by Olatunde Wealth and a host of other professional exporters. Who over the years have made millions doing business in this sector.
Olatunde Wealth, understanding the plight of the younger generation in the country has passed through the pains of being poor and knowing the denial that comes with not having sufficient finances to pursue a dream, offers the opportunity for intending exporters to create a name for themselves in this industry. You might still be wondering why you have to be a part of this. But, trust me when I say in the race against poverty nothing should be overlooked or undermined. With his vast experience in this frilled and in collaboration with other agencies such as; Chambers of Commerce, Nigeria American Chamber of Commerce, Lagos Chamber of Commerce, Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, EMS, Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL), Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO Aviance) etc. The organizations above having understood the need to expand the network of exporters in the nation saw the need to put together this training, which has in no small ways changed the life of many and given many a platform to transform their financial status.
In all aspects, the nation’s economy is not smiling and it would be too pitiful if an opportunity such as this is missed due to mere doubt. By now you must have realized that the federal government who is supposed to be the government of the people, by the people and for the people, is no longer valid. As, all we get to see and experience is the government for themselves to enrich themselves. The prices of oil continue to go up and being capitalized as the nation’s only source of revenue, the economy is being plunged deeper into a total leaving the populace in despair.
With the daily uncertainty that pervades the Nigeria economic spaces, I can assure you that being an exporter of your own, is your best bet to be financially secure. With Olatunde Wealth NEW workshops organized over the years, the export rates of novice exporters have taken a drastic turn into huge successes. You will also agree with me that for many years the export industry has been a heavily guarded secret, and those in it, hardly let out the procedures, strategies and ways to get into being a business owner in this field. However, Wealth brings simplicity into the business and makes it easily accessible on a smaller scale for those (you) who are willing to seize the day to make your dreams come true.
In his carefully mapped out strategies, you will be introduced into the pros and cons of the export industry. Presently, the inflation on oil prices and the unstable nature of dollar, many are forced to settle for low-income opportunities or even scammed into other get-rich-quick schemes. But you don’t have to, if you make up your mind to be a part of the moving train. Hence, you can’t afford to miss this golden offer. With participants from all over Nigeria, Canada, London, South Africa, United States all conveyed at Lagos for the workshop. You can decide to start your own success story today!
Oh! Less I forget, those small voices in your head might be screaming, social distancing, corona #lol. Worry not, as we go, that all covered. I mean take a look around. We are so in the digital world. And everything was made easy via technology. #winks. Bearing all the possible constraints in mind, Olatunde Wealth has taken advantage of the digital tools and platform to provide an alternative medium for you to still benefit from this training and position yourself as an international trade specialist.
Through this medium, you get to benefit from the first-ever 7 figure export business coaching program in Nigeria. You will be handed first hand practical 12 weeks video training of 19 years of mastery of different professional and trade specialists across the export industry. As they share with you live experience of their personal challenges, hurdles and victories. Other things you get to benefit from this course include; a high-income skill you can leverage on for life. This affords you the means of a guaranteed income irrespective of the location/country you find yourself, both within and outside Nigeria. You also get priority access to the same strategies/tools they employ for export business making use of live case studies. In this manner, you get a direct feel of what means and how it feels to be on the line of the business. This model ushers you into the export world and makes it easier for you to penetrate the market. With this understanding, you are sure to make an estimate of 500K –1 million naira within one month of effectively deploying all the strategies being shown to you. Furthermore, you are allowed access to customer support, coaching, follow-ups, mentorship and monthly export contract till you succeed. In other words, you are spoon-fed until you have been certified to take the step and soar on your own.
A broader breakdown of practical lessons and items embedded in the video that will get you fully equipped and prepared to be a boss of your own are; 17 + video courses that will help improve your export business.
Week 1 introduces you to the nitty-gritty of exportation.
Week 2 unveils export procedures and payment mode.
Week 3 educates you on how to package food and label it for export.
Week 4 shows you different export business opportunities in Nigeria.
Week 5 you get to learn how to interact with buyers for your exportable products, through different export marketing channels.
Week 6 informs you of common challenges in export business.
Week 7 exposes you on how Lagos Chamber of Commerce can help you export things outside the country.
Week 8 teaches you on how to use EMS Nigeria for your exportation business.
Week 9 you are exposed to the tigernut exportation business. Practical step and guide on how to package and export tigernuts.
Week 10 gives you a better understanding of how to add value and packaging to maximize profits in export as well as how to penetrate a new export market.
Week 11 sheds more light on small scale export. The step-step guide on how to start an export business on a small scale using Garri and kolanut as practical case studies (2 practical class, 2 teleclass and 3 DVDs).
Week 12 explains how to source, package and export charcoal (2 practical classes).
I’m sure you already salivating at these goodies all lined up, calculations flying here and there #lol. This, my friend, is the tip of the iceberg. In addition to the above listed, you automatically get introduced to exploring export opportunities in Nigeria-American Chamber of Commerce. As a result, you will be further introduced into: how to do group export with shoptomydoor.
The advantage of being part of this cannot be compared to any other export coaches/courses you have out there. By default after purchase, you get access to a digital member area where you have 24/7 access to a successful export community. People who are willing to put you through, should you feel lost or trapped in the process. The tools, worksheets, summaries, PDF, checklists, support by phone/chats, consultation and follow-up are also made available to you.
Irrespective of your current profession, be you a student, career person, product merchant’s, youth corper, civil servants, investors, foreign buyers. bankers, shipping agencies, your niche doesn’t matter. My advice jump on this offer and secure a seat to change your financial status forever. | https://medium.com/@heavyknowhow/7-figure-export-business-coaching-program-review-3428b712a31e | ['Daniel Adesina'] | 2020-10-10 15:16:43.574000+00:00 | ['Export', 'Coaching', 'Business', 'Nigeria', 'Exporters'] |
You.i Engine One Performance: Manipulating the Scene Tree | The Scene Tree
All JSX Components written in a React Native application are ultimately translated to platform level nodes understood by the underlying rendering engine. The representation of these nodes can be described as a Scene Tree. It contains the relationships and contextual information needed by the engine to render the application.
This article will describe how to minimize the changes on the scene tree, which may be expensive in certain situations on low end devices, in order to provide the best user experience possible while managing memory constraints.
Creation and Destruction on a whim
A common pattern when building an application in either ReactJS or React Native is the use of Conditional Rendering to quickly change the stateful representation of a screen.
This allows for a render pass to completely change what is on screen with the change of a single state.
Set and Reset of Image via Conditional Rendering
In this example, the <Image /> is being destroyed or created on each pass depending on the state of the showImage variable. When a change like this occurs, the Scene Tree requires an update to redraw itself with the absence or inclusion of this node.
Changing Visual state without Creation or Destruction
Each component in JSX has a Shadow View that links it to a platform node that represents it at the engine rendering level. This node is what is represented in the Scene Tree. In the case of an <Image /> node, for the You.i Engine One platform, it is a CYIImageView .
If we reach into the platform with a Native Module, we can manipulate this counterpart view in the scene tree and cause a change in behaviour without requiring the creation or destruction of an element. (In this example I will also set opacity on the node to show a visual differentiation).
Replacing the conditional rendering logic with some that relies on working with references to items are created once, we can utilize the Native modules and achieve the same result with less cost.
While this is possible with iOS and Android Native Modules on Facebook React Native, the important distinction is that the Native Module to manipulate the CYIImageView is effective on every single platform supported by You.i Engine One.
Set and Reset Image (and opacity) via manipulation of Engine Scene Tree Node
This example demonstrates a small sample of what can be achieved with this approach. Effectively, all functionality of the underlying node is made available to you when you access the counterpart engine node. While this example demonstrates managing the state of an image, and resetting it to the initial state of the node, it’s possible to use this to unlock functionality beyond the capabilities of Facebook React Native.
Performance & Memory Management for Low End Devices
While the above is a simple isolated example, where this can come in handy is when you have a design that calls for a very large number of assets to be displayed in a list, each having an image attached to them.
For an application that has 25 lanes with 30 assets each, this can quickly overwhelm a low end device.
There are multiple approaches using core Facebook React Native to manage the display of these images and prevent images not on screen from attempting to download, but they typically rely on the notion that if you don’t want it to be present then conditionally make it go away.
windowSize
The most notable is windowSize on a virtualized list. This is an indicator of the streaming range of a list, how many list items (in number of screens) to keep created at any given time to enhance the user experience as they scroll through. Lowering the windowSize property can provide the benefits of (1) lower memory consumption, especially if images are involved, and (2) quicker load times as there are less nodes to create.
The issue with windowSize is that it works in absolutes — the list item is not created, and then it is, and then it isn’t. If you set your windowSize to be too small, the user may have a poor experience as the quickly scrolling through items can result in momentary blank spaces as items load in taking the user away from their immersive experience.
onViewableItemsChanged
By tracking the indices that are visible at any given moment, it is possible to set the state of individual list items informing them if they are in the viewable range or not. This is configurable with viewabilityConfig but can also be controlled manually in the onViewableItemsChanged callback if you prefer.
A wrapper class can provide this added contextual information to the renderItem method for use in the list.
With the wrapper class, the list items when rendering will be aware of it they are in the visible range as renderItem props can be destructured as ( {item, index, show}) and the item act accordingly.
To best utilize this, a Placeholder component that represents the List Item in both its visual and non-visual state is a good way to manage the items load on performance and memory. Assume each item has a payload of:
{ image: "<image_url>", background: "<background_color>" }
A Placeholder component can be constructed such that we always use the background color regardless if the item is visible, and then only show the image if it is visible using the Native Module calls we defined above. We can effectively build out the image when it’s not visible, and then manipulate the node to display or reset when appropriate.
A slight delay has been added to the image load to simulate poor network conditions where a solution like this can shine.
Image nodes being set at the scene tree level without creation or destruction of components
All list items are created, but only images are loaded when they are visible. In this extreme example, images are also reset (and unloaded from the GPU) when they go out of visible range minimizing memory used by the application while still providing a great user experience.
note: For the best experience while minimizing memory footprint, you will want to adjust the visible items so that items do load off screen, perhaps two screens worth, in order to make the transitions seamless for the user
Using the After Effects Workflow
While the above was all done using pure JSX and core Facebook React Native Components, everything works in an identical fashion when using You.i Engine React Native Components (such as ListRef , ViewRef , ImageRef ) and referencing components from the After Effects Workflow. While the Components may differ, the underlying Scene Tree node will be the same.
Class that represents interacting with AE Workflow Component
As an added benefit when using the Workflow, calling reset not only unloads the image from the GPU but also resets the state of the CYIImageView and all associated helper timelines.
After Effects Composition to represent List Item
This means if you employ an ImageSet timeline on your node, the next time the uri is set on that image the timeline will once again play. This means you can once again put the power of design and managing state into the hands of the designer. | https://johnwcassidy.medium.com/you-i-engine-one-performance-manipulating-the-scene-tree-e6721eeb50d9 | ['John Cassidy'] | 2020-03-16 17:47:58.260000+00:00 | ['Mobile App Development', 'JavaScript', 'React', 'Development', 'React Native'] |
Remote debugging a Web App over Wi-fi without USB. | Learning Objectives:
Understand the use case(s) for remote debugging without USB.
for remote debugging without USB. Install Android Studio , along with the SDK platform tools .
, along with the . Activate Developer mode on your Android Phone.
on your Android Phone. Configure your Android Developer settings to connect to your debugging Mac/PC.
to connect to your debugging Mac/PC. Run commands on the terminal to connect your devices.
to connect your devices. Setup and access your Android phone from your Mac/PC using Chrome Dev Tools.
using Chrome Dev Tools. Have a better appreciation of folks who generate all the good content that helps to make us better developers (or better people, in general). It’s not an easy process.
The Use Case(s)
Basic use case: making sure your app works correctly on your phone.
I first encountered the urge (I wouldn’t call it ‘need’, because you can still get away with not using it) to connect my phone (I use a OnePlus) to my computer, when I deployed my very first Web App. Initially, I thought there was an equivalent ‘inspect’ button (hidden away nicely), that would take me to the mobile equivalent of a browser developer view. I soon realised that was not the case. I have searched the internet extensively and all the articles I found, like this one, refers back to ‘Using Google Chrome Console On Any Mobile Device!’. Then there’s this official article from Chrome on the subject: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/remote-debugging/, which definitely dashed any remaining hopes I had of being able to debug directly from my phone. This official article, is the best place to start (once you abandon all hope, like I did). If your phone and Mac/PC have USB ports, then the instructions there should be enough to get you connected via USB— if not, then my advanced use case (which is the point of this whole article) should help you achieve the same result.
2. Advanced use case: making sure your app works correctly on your phone and connecting your phone to your desktop wirelessly, because your desktop (in my case a MacBook Pro) doesn’t have a USB port and you can’t be bothered buying an extension 😊.
Remember how I mentioned that my first use case emerged when I deployed my first Web App, well I didn’t go through with it then because of one particular reason — I didn’t need to. My first App, didn’t have any device dependencies. I simply accessed it on my desktop browser and debugged using Chrome developer tools. The situation changed with my most recent app, which includes sending push notifications from a server (in my case server-less) to my phone. In the dev environment, I was logging a unique key generated for each device, to the console. And I needed to use the key on the server side, to trigger the push to each device. Of course in prod, I’m sending the key to the backend and retrieving from the backend to send to the devices. However, in that dev scenario, the need to remotely debug my phone’s version of the app, became unavoidable.
Step 1: Install Android Studio, which includes the SDK platform tools on your desktop.
As you may have guessed, the scenario we are working with in this article, is specific to using an Android phone with a MacBook Pro. The principle should be applicable to other OS, but I’d leave that to you to figure out, or you can wait for me to come up with another article.
You don’t have to be familiar with or need to learn how to use Android Studio in order to utilise it for this solution, although such knowledge will be a bonus.
The key feature that you will need for your wireless connection, is the ADB(Android Debug Bridge). ADB is a tool (part of the SDK platform tools) that is automatically included when you download and install Android Studio. You can find out more about how ADB works here.
Step 2: Activate Developer mode on your Android phone.
The official documentation on this, is straight forward, so no need to reinvent the wheel. Here’s an excerpt of that is most relevant:
Image 2.0: Enable developer options
The most important part of the instruction, is navigating to the ‘Build Number’ on your Android phone, and tapping the option 7 times. It feels like a rite-of-passage of sort. Good thing it does include genuflecting and bowing. Anyway, once you tap the option 7 times, you will automatically become an elite member of the geek squad of developers. You can ignore the rest of the instructions about turning on ‘USB debugging’. Instead, if you have Android 11 (and later), you should see an option like the screenshoot from step 3 (Image 3.1), below.
Step 3: Configure your Android Developer settings. You must have guessed it, you should turn on the ‘Wireless ADB debugging’.
Image 3.1: Turn on Wireless ADB debugging.
Next, turn on ‘Wireless debugging’ as shown on Image 3.2 below:
Image 3.2: Turn on Wireless debugging.
When you turn on ‘Wireless debugging’, you will get a dialogue prompting you to ‘allow wireless debugging on this network?’, click ‘Allow’ per Image 3.3 below.
Image 3.3: Allow wireless debugging
Next, select ‘Pair device with pairing code’ as shown on Image 3.4 below:
Image 3.4: Get a pairing code
Next, you should note down the pairing code, the IP address and Port from Image 3.5 below:
Image 3.5: Note the Pairing code, IP address and Port
Step 4: Run commands on your Mac/PC terminal to connect your Android phone, using the pairing code from Image 3.5 above. You can also checkout Official documentation here.
Essentially, you need to access the Android sdk platform tools, you installed earlier and run two adb commands within its path.
First, cd to your parent or root directory, which may look like this: Foo-MacBook-Pro ~ %
then, run the following command: Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb pair <Your IP Address and Port>
You should end up with: Foo-MacBook-Pro ~ % Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb pair <Enter Your IP Address:Port here>
Next, the terminal will return: Enter pairing code: You should then enter the pairing code from Image 3.5 above: Enter pairing code:XXXXXX and hit enter.
then, the terminal should return: Successfully paired to Your IP Address:Port [guid=adb-xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxx]
That’s the setup complete. Now you can access the browser and start debugging.
Step 5: Access your Android phone from the Chrome Dev Tools in your Mac/PC browser. Go to: chrome://inspect/#devices You should see you device (paired Android phone) displayed, along with all the current open tabs in your phone browser. You can select to inspect any tab and watch the magic unfold.
Image 5.1: Chrome inspect device
And that’s a wrap. You should now be wirelessly connected to your device.
Image 5.2: Final output
I hope this has been useful. Cheers. | https://medium.com/@brianodike/remote-debugging-a-web-app-over-wi-fi-without-usb-fe1e3397beec | ['Brian Odike'] | 2021-06-17 17:44:04.375000+00:00 | ['Web App Development', 'Android', 'Use Wi Fi', 'Without Usb', 'Remote Debugging'] |
GeeklyHub Reviews 7 Ways to Get Ready for 2021 | GeeklyHub Reviews
You might be wondering about what will the upcoming year bring along as it comes just like we all do. Nevertheless, our restless team at GeeklyHub decided to think over some helpful ideas that will help you to get ready for 2021. Starting from learning a new language to joining a great online course, the opportunities that you have will make it a great start and will make your life feel different. Of course, we all hope that things will be much better in 2021 and that we shall be able to travel and turn to things that we just could not do in 2020. Keeping this fact in mind, we know what it takes to bring all this dreaming to a new level. | https://medium.com/@geeklyhub/geeklyhub-reviews-7-ways-to-get-ready-for-2021-c8054ca8e737 | [] | 2020-12-22 15:36:16.827000+00:00 | ['2021 Prediction', '2021', 'Planning'] |
Points about power problem in Iran | Extensive and long power outages in Iran and the 'red situation of water supply in 101 cities
While the officials of the Electricity Authority in Iran stated that the reason for the widespread, unannounced and long blackout last night was the decommissioning of two power plants, the citizens today (Sunday, July 4) continue to report frequent blackouts. Iran Water and Sewerage Company also warned about the water situation and said that 101 cities are in the red water supply situation.
Last night (Saturday, July 4), electricity was cut off in large areas of Tehran and Karaj without prior notice, and blackouts continued for several hours this morning. Power outages have been reported in some areas from 11pm to 5am.
Except for Tehran and Alborz, users of social networks from different parts of Iran, including Ahvaz, Isfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz, Zahedan, Kermanshah, Karaj, Semnan, Zabol, reported widespread power outages.
As the blackouts continued on Sunday night, some social media users posted pictures showing citizens gathering in front of the East Tehran Electricity Authority and some other parts of the country in several cities in Golestan and Kazerun provinces in Fars province.
In some of the published images from one of the said areas located in the east of Tehran, the slogans "Death to Khamenei" and "Death to the dictator" are heard.
Ramin Faraj, head of the Alborz Electricity Distribution Company, said that two power plants in the Tehran and Alborz provinces had been shut down due to high consumption. He said they were forced to increase power outages under a "national order" and confirmed that the power outage was out of schedule.
Widespread power outages in Iran; Global blackouts calendar
Power outages in Iran; Finger of blame to the cryptocurrencies
Power outages in Tehran and several other cities in Iran.
"Given that the conditions for electricity generation in Iran are not stable, he cannot promise people that blackouts will no longer occur off-schedule," said the electricity official.
Mustafa Rajabi Mashhadi, a spokesman for the electricity industry, called the cause of the power outage for more than five hours in some provinces "an accident" and told reporters: "If there is a blackout due to an accident, it is not possible to inform in advance."
| https://medium.com/@pesarkhandeover/points-about-power-problem-in-iran-1cc09b2a15fe | ['Brave Boy'] | 2021-07-06 06:56:43.886000+00:00 | ['Iran', 'Power', 'Light'] |
Sidus Link / How to use Quickshots | Sidus Link’s Quickshot Feature
Many creatives, especially those in editing, sound design, and VFX live by the mantra “Save your work!” You never know when a program crash or power outage may occur and throw your project down the drain.
But to the folks involved with lighting, I’ll also ask the same question…
Have YOU been saving your work?
Aputure Lighting Workshop Dec 2020 New Zealand // Model: Jodie Anderson // BTS photo by Andrei Talili
When lighting a scene, there’s always a degree of experimentation involved to achieve just the right look. It’s an important part of the creative process and can be helped massively by good organization and communication between crew members.
It can also be a VERY time-consuming process, especially when you’re A/B testing settings of individual lights or entire scene looks.
So, wouldn’t the work go a little faster if you could save your lighting progress and go back to a previous version?
Sidus Link Quickshots Menu IOS App version.
Today, we’re focusing on the wireless lighting control app Sidus Link. More specifically, discussing its powerful Quickshots recall feature.
In essence, a quickshot is like a Preset, but instead of saving an individual light’s settings, it stores the settings of every light (and groups of lights) in your scene.
Don’t let the simplicity of this ability fool you! While the recall of a lighting grid’s settings isn’t groundbreaking, the ability to save different lighting looks and switch between them without any additional cabling or hardware is a time-saver worth having.
Let’s jump right into an example of this in use. But remember, if this is your first time reading about Sidus Link and its compatible lighting fixtures, you can also take a deeper dive into the app in our Sidus Link 101 breakdown. | https://medium.com/aputure/sidus-link-quickshots-3d4b8d7a73f | ['Justin Rypma'] | 2021-03-01 02:49:55.199000+00:00 | ['Lighting', 'Aputure', 'Filmmaking', 'Quickshots', 'Sidus Link'] |
How to Research The Job Interview Company | Research The Job Interview Company before going to an interview. You may have heard the advice that, when you are interviewing for a job, it is important to have some questions for the hiring manager. It is true that interviewers will expect you to be curious and interested in their organization, and they will expect to demonstrate that by asking questions, but it is also true that you should come to the interview with a clear baseline of company knowledge.
Hopefully, during the interview, you’ll learn a lot about the company, like, for example, whether the organization and the corporate culture fit you well. But this is not the time to learn basic information about the company during the interview. Once you set foot in Corporate HQ, you will know all of that.
The good news is that getting to know about an employer before the job interview is better than ever before. Beforehand, take some time to read as much as you can online. Tap your real-world network then to see who you know will help give you an advantage over the other candidates in an interview. Do your research and you will impress the hiring manager a lot better. Here are ideas for organizations to learn before the interview.
1. Research the Company Website
Start by visiting the Website of the company. There, you can review the mission statement and history of the business, products, and services, and management, as well as information about the culture of the company. The details are normally available on the site’s’ About Us ‘ section. If there is a website Press section read through the links featured there.
Pay attention to the subjects constantly coming up on the site. The terms companies choose to describe themselves are just as much as any specified corporate values. Do you want to work in a place where people are driven to success or do you feel tired of that? Do you like the idea of working with people who consider their families as friends, or do you need to separate your job from your personal life? Of course, when you think about yourself, companies use hyperbole… but it is also pretty telling hyperbole.
2. Browse Company Social Media Pages
Next, check the social media accounts within the company. Visit its pages on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This will give the company a good sense of how it wants its customers to see it. Like or follow up to get updates on the product. You’ll find some information you might not otherwise have known.
You can uncover some red flags, too. For example, if the company does not have a professionally managed social media presence, or if it is sporadically and incoherently updated, it may not be fully in control of its public image.
3. Use LinkedIn
LinkedIn company profiles are a good way to find out more information at a glance about a company that you are interested in. At the company, you will be able to see your connections, new hires, promotions, posted jobs, related firms, and company statistics. If you have in-house contacts, try pushing them out. Not only can they put in a good word for you, but they can also share their business experience and give you the advice to help you ace the interview.
Look at the LinkedIn profile of your interviewer to get an insight into their job and background, too. Look for any common interconnections between you. Do you know those same people? You just went to the same school? Would you belong to the same classes, online or off? During the interview process, these common links could help you establish a report. Linkedin research the job interview company will always help us to know the actual industry of the company.
4. Get the Edge of an Interview
Consider looking up Glassdoor on the company. Their Questions and Reviews section of the interview has a goldmine of information for job seekers.
You can find out which candidates have been asked for the positions you are interviewing, and get advice on how tough the interview was. Use reviews to help you get a sense of the culture of a company. That being said, taking them with a grain of salt staff is often the most likely to leave reviews when they’re unhappy. Look for recurring themes as you read reviews. The more mentions a given topic gets the greater the likelihood of being correct.
5. Use Google and Google News
Search for the company name on both Google and Google News. That can be of invaluable value. You may find out, for example, that the company is expanding into Asia, or has recently received a round of start-up funding. Or, you may find out a recent product has been underperformed or had to be recalled. Such information can help shape your responses to questions being interviewed.
6.Leverage your network
Do you know anybody working at the company? Ask them if they could be of help.
Ask your career office if you are a college grad if they can give you a list of alumni who are working there. Then e-mail them, send them a message from LinkedIn, or call and ask for help.
7. Get to know the sector and its competitors
It makes sense to review the overall industry, as well as researching the company. For example, if you’re interviewing for a job at a mortgage company, it’s helpful to be informed about current trends in homeownership. Get to know the biggest competitors in the company, and also identify their successes and shortcomings. Insight into the industry of the company and the rivals are bound to impress interviewers.
Conclusion
Interviewees ask questions during a job interview so they can get to know applicants. But their main objective is to decide whether an applicant will be a good fit for both the job and the business.
Your company research is going to make your answers to questions compelling and show you are going to be helpful to their goals and to the bottom line.
Plus, if you’re asked why you would like to work for the company, your knowledge will help you give a specific answer. You can share details about the admirable things about the company, its mission or its culture that you should research the job interview company. | https://medium.com/@emonics-llc/how-to-research-the-job-interview-company-3f949ffc73b5 | ['Emonics Llc'] | 2020-02-07 21:01:22.705000+00:00 | ['Recruiting', 'Job Interview', 'Hiring', 'Hire', 'Jobs'] |
Electric Rice Cooker Market Overview by Rising Trends and Demand 2019–2026, Report | Electric Rice Cooker Market Overview by Rising Trends and Demand 2019–2026, Report Akash Vidhate Jul 5·3 min read
According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, The global electric rice cooker industry garnered $3.44 billion in 2019, and is estimated to reach $5.5 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 6.8% from 2019 to 2026. The report offers an extensive analysis of key growth strategies, drivers, opportunities, key segment, Porter’s Five Forces analysis, and competitive landscape.
Contribution by females in paid work force, increase in affordability of household appliances, and less time for household activity fuel the growth of the global electric rice cooker market. On the other hand, availability of counterfeit products impedes the growth to some extent. However, growth in e-commerce sales, and technological advancements are expected to create multiple opportunities in the near future.
Download Report Samp @https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/6355
The electric rice cooker market is segmented on the basis of end user, distribution channel, and region. Based on end user, the electric rice cooker market is categorized into household and commercial. Electric rice cooker has been most widely used in household applications due to the busy lifestyle of the consumers and the efficient operations of rice cooker enables the consumers to cook the rice and rice specialty products without much manual interventions. The household segment was valued at $2.6 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow with a CAGR of 6.7% from 2019 to 2026, to reach $4.3 billion by 2026. The commercial segment is estimated to be the faster growing segment during the forecast period.
Based on geography, the region across Asia-Pacific held the major share in 2019, garnering more than two-fifths of the global electric rice cooker market. The same province is also anticipated to register the fastest CAGR of 7.8% during the estimated period. This is due to increase in disposable income, and change in living standard of the people in this region. Moreover, growing demand for innovative cooking appliances is leading the market growth. Mention North America.
The Covid-19 pandemic has a vital impact on the growth of the global electric rice cooker market and altered several market scenarios. The lockdown across various countries and ban on international travel has disrupted the supply chain and revenue chain. The report includes a thorough analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic on the growth of the global electric rice cooker market.
Key Market Players Profiled In The Report:
1. AB Electrolux
2. Panasonic Corporation
3. Groupe SEB
4. Breville Group
5. TTK Prestige Ltd
6. Bajaj Electricals Limited
7. Koninklijke Philips N.V.
8. Ali Group Srl
9. Wonderchef Home Appliances Pvt. Ltd.
10. Newell Brands (Oster).
For Purchase Enquiry @https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/6355
Key Findings of the Study:
○ By end user, the commercial segment is estimated to witness the fastest growth, registering a CAGR of 7.3% during the forecast period.
○ In 2018, by distribution channel, the supermarket/hypermarket segment held the highest share, accounting for around half of the global electric rice cooker market share.
○ In 2018, China was the most prominent market in the Asia-Pacific region and is expected to grow at a significant CAGR throughout the forecast period.
Source: Allied Market Research | https://medium.com/@akash-vidhate-9452/electric-rice-cooker-market-overview-by-rising-trends-and-demand-2019-2026-report-6731836dc596 | ['Akash Vidhate'] | 2021-07-05 03:38:33.384000+00:00 | ['Electric Rice Cooker', 'Consumer Electronics', 'Electric Cooker', 'Cooker', 'Rice Cooker'] |
Modern Slavery as understood through interactive data visualizations | For my IDV analysis, I chose a database of international anti-human trafficking organizations dedicated to combatting what people today consider “modern slavery”.
The Interactive Map for Business of Anti-Human Trafficking Organizations offers the reader multiple choices in narrowing their search for anti-human trafficking resources, ranging from types of institutions involved in identifying and reducing human trafficking to specific issues different institutions specialize in. Listed below are the four categories offered and what each of these categories mean:
Type — “Search for organizations based on type of institution” Issue — “Search for organizations based on the type/s of issues they work on” Geography — “Search for organizations according to their geographical focus” Industry — “Search for organizations according to their industry of focus”
Clicking through the various categories, one can easily and quickly identify specified resources without having to search exhaustively through the Web.
When large amounts of data are aggregated in one spot without visualizations and graphics, sifting through information can be daunting at best. Databases are best suited to interactive data visualizations because of these large amounts of data and sources.
IDVs can also benefit storytellers by serving as digestible sources for their readers because it does the heavy lifting of singling out specific information for them. It is then on the storyteller and in turn, the reader, to read and internalize the information they need.
IDVs are great resources, especially for organizations involved in combatting human trafficking worldwide. Information surrounding the sex trade can be difficult to aggregate, given solutions to these pervasive issues are oftentimes debated and not universally agreed-upon. Utilizing IDVs, global anti-trafficking organizations are better able to offer their resources to people in need as well as educate those who are unaware there is a wealth of information available at their finger tips.
This database is a great example of interactive data visualizations done right. Though not as flashy or “visual” as some IDVs can be, this IDV gets the job done by making the search for information simple and intuitive. Due to the nature and widespread presence of human trafficking, this website demonstrates the news values of impact, proximity and prominence.
Millions of people worldwide are affected either directly or indirectly by human trafficking. Thus, having this resource to quickly identify available resources and organizations specifically involved in combatting human trafficking is instrumental in doing just that. | https://medium.com/@cmerwin/modern-slavery-as-understood-through-interactive-data-visualizations-31999a1d19ce | ['Chase Merwin'] | 2020-10-27 22:07:27.002000+00:00 | ['Idvs', 'Human Trafficking', 'Infographic', 'Databases', 'Aggregators'] |
QuarkWorks: Meet the Team Series — Evan Teters | Get to know Evan who joined our team in May and some of the exciting projects he has been working on.
Name:
Evan Teters
Role:
Mobile Developer (Native iOS and Android)
When did you join QuarkWorks and what led you to take on this position?
I started in late May of 2020. While interviewing, I got the feeling that QuarkWorks was a great place to quickly advance my mobile development skills on small teams with exciting projects (this feeling turned out to be correct). When interviewing, I found the team to be very friendly and very eager to learn new things, both qualities that I value extremely highly.
What excites and energizes you about the company?
You could see the above answer for some hints! At QuarkWorks, we are always trying to improve how we are writing software and use the latest technologies to do so. This keeps me learning while I work, and makes every project and feature we implement interesting and exciting.
Also exciting is our work towards developing our own product, but I’m not sure I can say much about that yet :)
What has been your favorite project to work on or are currently working on?
It is tough to decide on my favorite project. I’ve worked on 2 projects in my 4–5 months at the company, and they were both exciting in their own ways. DealTeam is a brand new app, and I really enjoyed being a part of laying the framework for great things to come and building out the core features that would define the app. Handshake is an older app, but it was really exciting to work around video streaming (for virtual career fairs) because video streaming is something that everyone at QuarkWorks is passionate about.
Advice you would give someone working at a startup?
I have found the most valuable thing that can be done while working on any tech project (no matter the size!) is to keep asking questions. Ask questions of your users, your teammates, and your peers in other companies. It is always said that you should keep learning, but the right way to figure out what you don’t know and what you should focus on is to ask! Your users will tell you what they need, and your peers will help you figure out the best solutions.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Wow that is a big question! For one, I am currently working on my Masters in computer science, focusing on computer vision in video streaming applications. That takes up a lot of my outside-of-work time! But there’s plenty more I manage to squeeze in from time to time. I like to listen to podcasts, and I always have my ear to the ground for new things to listen to and learn about. Podcasts lend themselves nicely to another hobby: taking long walks through Columbia’s sprawling trail network. To workout my creativity, I play Dungeons and Dragons with some old friends (virtually, nowadays) and if time permits I run a game or two. I also spend some time practicing and competing in tournaments for the game Super Smash Brother Ultimate, which is a great way to spend time with my brother and tap into a long-dormant competitive side of myself.
If you could be an animal, what would it be?
A sloth. Not because they reflect my personality. Rather, I hold their absolute chill on an unreasonably high pedestal. You can tell they have no worries, and I envy them that.
As ever, QuarkWorks is available to help with any software application project — web, mobile, and more! If you are interested in our services you can check out our website. We would love to answer any questions you have! Just reach out to us on our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. | https://medium.com/quark-works/quarkworks-meet-the-team-series-evan-teters-fc220099fccc | ['Hannah Pratte'] | 2020-10-29 15:55:51.369000+00:00 | ['Mobile', 'Technology', 'Apps', 'iOS', 'Startup'] |
About Stone Cold Crime Stories | No one likes crime, but we do like crime, thriller and suspense stories where the good guys throttle injustice.
Stone Cold Crime Stories is the place for eye-opening discovery, facing personal experiences that are positive, unsavory and downright deadly.
Support our crime publication here through purchasing one or more of our gripping crime-thriller novels listed below and available on Amazon.
Each one is easily read as a stand-alone or together with the others in the series.
As Lon Casler Bixby and I dig into notes and reality for our Tom Stone Detective Stories we wanted to share them with you, shaping them in ways that will shed light on society and even our own behaviors.
Stay tuned and check back often for updates and new ideas expressed. | https://medium.com/stone-cold-crime-stories/about-stone-cold-crime-stories-4fd6d05e466d | ['Don Simkovich'] | 2020-12-04 09:48:22.005000+00:00 | ['Novel Writing', 'Novel', 'Crime', 'Thriller', 'About'] |
Best hair straighteners under ₹5000 | Best hair straighteners under ₹5000
When you see the perfect hairstyle, whether it’s curly, wavy or straight, you want a professional styling tool that can help you try a little bit of everything. NuMe hair straighteners can do just that with a cascade of features that offers your hair just the right amount of TLC. Take your time when you style these tourmaline ceramic and professional titanium hair straighteners, to reveal your shiniest, healthiest looking mane yet.
Hair straighteners have been a very important part of our lives these days. Either it’s an important occasion or any normal day to anywhere. But choosing the right one has always has been a difficulty. Either the favourite product’s price push us away or the low price comes with a lower quality.
So what to do now? Here we have got you covered. We present you this wide range of hair straightener with affordable price i.e. under ₹5000. Choose your pick ;)
For your security, all the products mentioned below are all from AMAZON INDIA
Moving below you will come across 4 different categories which we divided for your ease.
1. Broad hair straighteners
2. Mini Carryover Hair Straighteners
3. Built- Different Hair Straighteners
4. Combo Packs
For this blogpost you will be seeing the Broad Hair Straighteners and other categories you will find it in this very group I will be attaching. Best one is at the last. So shop your cause ;)
Broad Hair Straighteners-
These straighteners come with a broader opening thus covering a wide area. For faster work these are the best recommended.
VEGA Hair Straightener (Gray)
With stunning build quality this masterpiece is priced M.R.P.:₹2,199.00 but you will get it at just:₹1,099.00. (click here)
PHILIPS HP8318/00 Kerashine Temperature Control (Purple)
This beauty with a perfect purple is priced at ₹3,495.00. It’s so fast to sold out that the time you click the link to check the price you might not get it. So hurry up! (click here)
VEGA Classic Hair Crimper With Quick Heat Up & Ceramic Coated Plates, (VHCR-01)
This elegant beauty is one of the classics in the market and might cost much high but with us you will be getting it at a surprising price of just ₹1,749.00. What are you waiting for? (click here)
Ikonic S3 Hair Straightener
This red hot S3 is one of the best available out there with a price tag of M.R.P.:₹4,400.00 but if you shop with us, you will get it at just:₹3,700.00 (click here)
VEGA Ultra Shine Hair Straightener (Black)
This pinkish charm is a celebrity level hair straightener and is available only at a price of ₹899.00. (click here)
VEGA Pro-Ease Hair Straightener (VHSH-26), Black
This amazing VEGA product is the most sold out of VEGA products. Generally it costs:₹2,199. But for the deal Deal of the Day it is available at:₹1,399.00 (click here)
PHILIPS BHS736/00 Kerashine Titanium Wide Plate Straightener With SilkProtect Technology, Black
This extra carefully designed Phillips product is sure gonna blow youe mind. On normal day its priced at:₹2,895.00, but for Deal of the Day its available at: ₹2,198.00 (click here)
This is another one of the BHS series from Phillips and is popularly known for the extra smooth behaviour and comes in a pinkish hue for the fashion lovers. It generally comes at a price of: ₹3,195.00 but here at a 23% discount you get it at: ₹2,447.00 (click here)
Havells HS4121 Hair Straightener (Red)
This is one of the best Havellss has to offer in the wide straightener range and below ₹5000. It also comes with a digital temperature meter for ease of access. Generally its priced:₹2,095.00 But for Deal of the Day its available at:₹1,299.00 with a 38% discount(click here)
These were the 9 best hair straighteners available in AMAZON RIGHT NOW. Go check out your best fit and happy shopping!
The next Blogpost will be about mini carryover hair straighteners which can be took anywhere. So to se that follow us on Medium :)
To get latest updates on us do follow us on instagram | https://medium.com/@loyalwolfmail/best-hair-straighteners-under-5000-89c6fc772540 | ['Loyal Wolf'] | 2021-10-28 14:39:15.255000+00:00 | ['Hair', 'Shopping'] |
The 5 Towns with Famous Namesakes | There are quite a few towns behind the names of famous… ‘stuff’. (the soon-to-be-renamed) Asbestos in Canada or Balaklava in Ukraine are two examples. Some of these quirky towns really are the centre of the universe for fans of the ‘thing’ and, in this article, we find out about five of these towns, the connections they have and what makes them so worth discovering.
Rugby, UK
It was during a game of football being played at Rugby School in 1823 that a schoolboy named William Webb Ellis, being the cheeky scamp that he was, caught a lofted ball and decided to run with it instead of letting the ball hit the deck as he should have. And so Rugby Football was born.
England v South Africa in the World Cup, 2019
This game, where fifteen players fight to force an oval ball across the line in the opponents’ half, is known for its combativeness which overspills into borderline violence, and it has the highest number of catastrophic injuries in any team sport. In its two most popular forms — Rugby Union and Rugby League — it is one of the most popular team sports in the world; 857 million people watched the World Cup in 2019.
The birthplace of rugby football as you’d expect boasts many attractions which stir the passions of sporting enthusiasts. A town of 70,000 people, Rugby offers a pilgrimage for those who want to immerse themselves in the history, culture and development of the game. First stop should be the World Rugby Hall of Fame. In this state of the art sporting temple visitors discover rugby’s greats and the moments that defined the sport.
Then there is the Webb Ellis Rugby Football Museum. Housed in the building in which a man named James Gilbert made the very first rugby football in 1842, this little museum is especially popular and they still manufacture hand made balls here which visitors can buy from its shop. You can also take a stroll along the Pathway of Fame to learn about some of the greats in the game and see William Webb Ellis immortalised in statue.
Rugby School
Rugby School is where the game was born and is one of the most famous private schools in the country. It is close to the town centre and a walk around its perimeter gives an excellent view of its imposing Victorian architecture and, more importantly, the hallowed field the first ever game of rugby football was played.
Naturally Rugby has its own rugby club — the Rugby Lions. Although its team plays in just the 6th tier of the English rugby union system, it is a venerable club which was founded in 1873 and is just one of four clubs entitled to an all white team kit.
Pilsen, Czech Republic
The world famous Pilsner Urquell
There are a gazillion types and sub-types of beer out there and none more popular than Pale Lager, otherwise called Pilsner. Described as a ‘very pale-to-golden-coloured with a well-attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness’ …whatever that all means. It does go down a treat on a hot Summer’s day, I know that much, and millions agree.
Pilsner came about in the early 19th Century as a result of a fermenting process imported into Bohemia from neighbouring Bavaria and that produced a beer with a longer shelf life. It’s popularity took off from there. It is no surprise that the people of the modern Czech Republic state, of which Pilsen is its fourth largest city, love the drink so much they only half jokingly refer to it as a soft drink, or ‘liquid bread’.
Pilsen is a fine city of 175,000 residents, and it packs quite a punch to entice visitors with. Its spacious town square is rimmed with townhouses showcasing grand Austro-Hungarian architecture and in its centre sits St Bartholomew’s Cathedral which offers a breathtaking vista from its church tower — the tallest in the country. With its history, many parks, and landmarks like the iconic Prazdroj Brewery Gate it is no surprise that Pilsen was European Capital of Culture, 2015.
Pilsner Fest
It’s real draw is as the capital for beer lovers. One of the world’s biggest pilsner brands, Pilsner Urquell, still has its brewery in the City and is a mecca for lager lovers the world over. Visitors to the brewery can enjoy guided tours where they will learn about the history of Pilsner’s famous beer and, of course, enjoy a glass or three; nowhere does it get any fresher than straight from the company’s beer cellars.
And the highlight of the city calendar is the Pilsner Fest. Whilst in the neighbouring German city of Munich they have their world renowned Octoberfest, also in October Pilsen hosts a two day festival of beer of its own which draws bigger and bigger crowds every year.
Cognac, France
Cognac, the iconic French Brandy
Cognac is a unique brandy produced by twice distilling white wines. So while it does indeed taste like brandy, it reflects the exclusive flavour sensations not found in other brandies. Unlike Cheddar cheese for example, what makes it so sought after is that it must be made according to strictly defined regulations; namely it must be made in or around the town for which it is named. As a result the Cognac commune, in the Charente department in southwestern France, is the centre of the universe for lovers of the iconic brandy.
So what of Cognac the town? It’s inhabited by 18,000 and is absolutely dripping with fine historical architecture. It has its own medieval quarter of unusual buildings, built between the 15th and 18th centuries, and situated on narrow cobbled streets and which contain sculptures of the salamander, the symbol of King François I, as well as gargoyles and richly decorated façades.
With its red banner, Hennessy’s Cognac Maison
Over 200 producers of Cognac ply their trade and five of the biggest of them have their ‘Grande Marque’ Cognac houses in the town centre. They are Hennessy, Martell, Otard, Camus and Remy Martin, and each welcomes visitors with open arms.
Surely there is no more authentic place to enjoy a glass to sip on than in Bar Luciole on the banks of the Charente River. With more than 130 varieties of Cognac, whatever you order the team can provide a personal introduction to each and every one of them.
Every year in the last weekend of July the Cognac Festival is held, and is a very popular event. Fishermen’s huts are converted for the occasion and visitors can sit around tables and savour delicious cognac cocktails, and each night revellers can let their hair down dancing and foot tapping at two concerts.
Marathon, Greece
You’ll be no doubt familiar with the origins of the popular Marathon race; in Ancient Greece in the year 490BC an Athenian army heroically defeated a Persian invasion force at the village of Marathon. Legend has it that a herald was sent to deliver news of the victory to Athens. He ran the whole way and arrived at Athens so utterly exhausted, he collapsed dead immediately after the good news passed his lips.
And so, the Marathon race came into being to commemorate this feat, measured out at 26.2 miles (42.2km) - the distance that messenger had run. It is now an Olympic event and seen as the ultimate physical challenge to attempt in a lifetime. Around 500 marathon events are held annually worldwide.
Marathon, Greece,
The town where the first ever Marathon set off from is an unassuming place but a tumulus (burial mound) still stands where the Greek casualties of that famous Battle of Marathon were laid to rest. Roughly 30,000 people call it home.
It is proud of its associations with the running event; unsurprisingly one of the biggest Marathons is the one which recreates the first one over 2,500 years before. The Athens Classic Marathon has been held annually since 1972. It sets off from Marathon town, faithfully following the original route to a grandstand finish at the Panathenaic Stadium in the capital.
The finishing line of the original Marathon, at the Panathenaic Stadium
Taking from the tradition of the Olympic Torch the race features the Marathon Flame, which is lit at the Battle of Marathon Tumulus and carried to the stadium in Marathon before the beginning of each race. 16,500 runners took part in 2019 and the current record was set in 2014 by Felix Kandie with a time of 2:10:37.
Enthusiasts absolutely must visit the Marathon Run Museum if they visit the area; with more than 4000 exhibition pieces this is the no.1 place to discover the history of the modern Marathon Race.
Cheddar, UK
West Country Farmhouse Cheddar
If you like any cheese at all it will likely be Cheddar cheese; it is the most widely eaten cheese in the world. With a mild taste, inoffensive to even the most trepid palate, it’s popular either sprinkled over a dish like your favourite pizza, stuffed into a ham and cheese sandwich or just eaten by itself.
Officially Cheddar cheese is described as ‘a relatively hard, off-white, sometimes sharp-tasting, natural cheese made from cow’s milk’ and to ‘cheddar’ is actually a technical term - referring to the process of cutting up the curds, stacking and then turning them by hand as they drain and firm up under their own weight. Since the 12th Century the cheese’s popularity has grown and now Cheddar cheese has a place on millions of people’s dinner tables.
The town of Cheddar is a modest one of 5000 residents and is nestled at the foot of a stunning gorge on southern edge of the Mendip Hills in England.
Cheddar Gorge is the town’s centrepiece; with its dramatically steep, craggy walls, and a slaloming road running through, it’s breathtaking for drivers who cannot resist the urge to take their eyes off the road. It is the caves of Cheddar Gorge that provided the ideal humidity and steady temperature for maturing the cheese in the past, and they still do. These caves, alongside the nearby Wookey Hole Caves, are now a popular family day out.
Cheddar, and its breath taking gorge
As a popular tourist destination Cheddar boasts plenty of bars and restaurants where you can sit outside and gawp at the rock walls around you. Can you still get the finest Cheddar cheese in the world there? Most definitely!
The Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company is family owned, independent, and has been making award winning cheeses since 2003. Their Cheddar Cheese is still matured in the caves. Then there is The Original Cheddar Cheese Company which opened its doors to business all the way back in 1870 and their shop and café are located at the same spot at the mouth of Cheddar Gorge. The shop is now world famous and remains family operated today. | https://medium.com/curious/5-famous-things-and-the-towns-that-named-them-b225dae12d0f | ['Alasdair Lea'] | 2020-12-19 11:36:55.896000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Culture', 'Food', 'Cities', 'Alcohol'] |
Volunteer Assistance Spurs Banana Revival in Malawi | Pests and disease threaten crops in every country around the world, and Malawi is no different. Since the mid-1990s, smallholder farmers in the southeast African country have seen banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) wreak havoc on their plantations. According to the Malawian Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, almost 70 percent — more than 30,000 hectares — of Malawi’s total banana production area has been lost due to the disease, which is transmitted unknowingly through infected banana suckers — shoots from the plants’ roots that are used for new plantings.
Hortinet Foods Limited is a farming business owned by Frankie Washoni in Lilongwe, Malawi. While Washoni’s 17-acre farm includes 10 acres of various fruits and vegetables, the outstanding feature of his farm is the 6,000 virus-free banana plants he tends on the other seven acres.
In 2018, Washoni set out to establish the first private tissue culture laboratory in Malawi, investing $55,000 to construct a lab and purchase the necessary equipment. “[Accessing] banana seed remains a big problem, and we saw an opportunity to bridge the gap and eventually slow down the banana imports into the country,” noted Washoni. “We decided to invest in tissue culture technology to mass produce good-quality and disease-free planting material.”
F2F volunteer Dr. John Griffis training Hortinet staff.
As the physical facility took shape, Washoni turned to CNFA’s Malawi Farmer-to-Farmer program to request a volunteer expert in tissue culture laboratory operations and management and acquire detailed knowledge on how to produce disease-free planting material. Dr. John Griffis, Professor of Horticultural Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University, arrived in August 2019 to assist Hortinet in setting up the new lab. During the assignment, he ensured that Hortinet had all the necessary equipment and designed a layout to facilitate efficient operations. He also trained seven up-and-coming lab technicians — four young men and three young women — in areas such as biosafety and risk mitigation.
Griffis returned to the Hortinet facility in December 2019 for a follow-up assignment to establish standard operating procedures and protocols for lab operations, and to train the team in how to initiate the trial cultures that would pave the way for larger production.
Eight months after Griffis’s second visit, Hortinet had already produced 40,000 banana plantlets, which were supplied to local banana farmers through the Malawi Government’s Agriculture Sector Wide Approach — Support Project. Other plantlets were sold to 600 contracted smallholder farmers, who will grow them and become outgrowers of mature bananas to Hortinet. The next batch of 100,000 banana plantlets will be sold to an additional 900 contracted smallholder banana farmers and to commercial banana farmers.
F2F volunteer Dr. John Griffis training Hortinet staff.
Washoni noted that “Dr. Griffis equipped us with skills and protocols we could not get from our own research.”
Based on the success resulting from the two Farmer-to-Farmer engagements, Hortinet has invested in additional equipment that will allow it to triple its production capacity — forecasted to reach one million banana plantlets a year at full capacity. Thanks to Washoni’s entrepreneurial enthusiasm and CNFA’s Farmer-to-Farmer facilitation, the future looks bright for Malawi’s banana producers. | https://medium.com/@cnfapr/volunteer-assistance-spurs-banana-revival-in-malawi-71bce147fbbf | ['Cnfa', 'Cultivating New Frontiers In Agriculture'] | 2020-12-01 18:26:02.294000+00:00 | ['Banana', 'Plant Disease Management', 'Volunteering', 'Usaid', 'Malawi'] |
Zhanatas wind farm in Kazakhstan | Everything you need to know about legal and business in Central Asia and the Middle East with a focus on renewable energy | https://medium.com/@newsfromthecentre/zhanatas-wind-farm-in-kazakhstan-c7336319a074 | ['News The Centre'] | 2020-12-21 11:43:12.628000+00:00 | ['Wind Farm', 'Renewable Energy', 'Kazakhstan'] |
The Mutual Violence of a Female Body & Her Genderqueer Mind | The Mutual Violence of a Female Body & Her Genderqueer Mind
My dysfunctional relationship with my body
Photo by Gabriel Benois on Unsplash
I don’t mind being within this female body
I just wish she would stay silent.
I don’t want to be reminded that she’s here.
She can sit at the table
but don’t let her speak.
My body and I have a dysfunctional relationship.
I need her in my life. She takes me places. She helps me get what I want. She blends me in.
I’m nothing without her.
But I don’t like how she behaves. How she tries to control me.
She tries to make me to do things I don’t want to do.
I have never wanted to hold a baby. They do not stir me. I am not maternal & I don’t know why but I feel I must apologise for that.
(I am sorry.)
I don’t want my insides to come out and get up and start walking around and talking and living a life of their own.
All I see is me lurching bovine-like across a sterile room, braying and lowing with pain, udders juddering beneath me. Too much biology. Too much animal to bear.
I won’t do it.
Sometimes I control her.
I don’t like all these hormones going party-crazy, getting tanked up, losing their minds in here. Wrecking the joint and doing things they’ll wake up to regret. They’re nothing to do with me. They are her friends, not mine. I have not agreed to them being in my house. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/the-mutual-violence-of-a-female-body-her-genderqueer-mind-db414f65748b | [] | 2019-11-20 21:41:46.007000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Gender', 'Body', 'LGBTQ', 'Women'] |
Five Cyclical Stages of Sexual Assault | TW: Sexual Assault. Based upon my own personal wheelings and dealings with the topic. (Thesis, research, emotions.) This doesn’t represent everyone's story but it is mine, and when I share it, I feel like living so I’m sharing. I hope it can resonate.
Denial (1–2 Months)
Nothing happened. No one did anything to you. What person? What assault? What room? Nothing happened. I am the same person I was yesterday and the day before that. I am actually a better person. There was just a blip and now we’re moving on. Who wants cake? I can bake a lot of things. I can cook a lot of things. I can continue with my career and bake. Maybe I can take up 20 other things too. Maybe I could be a teacher! Maybe a Therapist! I can help people who have problems! Maybe a football player! Maybe a football playing artist teacher therapist! I can talk to everyone at once. I can be on the phone. I can take phone calls. I can answer all the texts. I can show up to all the meetings. I am funny! I have jokes! I can sing! I can perform! I am here! I am a reliable human being! Nothing ever happened to me to make me crack and break apart! Nothing out of the ordinary! My drinking is functional. Just a drink after every meal. Just a drink after lunch. My smoking is functional! Just smoking to go to sleep. Just smoking to wake up. Just occasionally smoking before work. I am so functional. Weed actually makes me function better. I smoke so I don’t have to think about that thing that happened. You know the thing that happened? The thing that you should be over because it’s been five years, and three therapists later. The thing that you haven’t really breached in therapy. The thing that makes you talk about childhood rather than the truth. The thing you dance around. The assault. That was your fault.
2. Rage at Self (1–2 Months)
The assault that was your fault. You can’t deny it. You can’t hide it. You can’t try to put it off on anyone else. You could have prevented it. If you didn’t respond to that text message. If you weren’t so stupid. If you weren’t so young. If you weren’t so naive. Let’s replay every moment that happened up to the day that it happened. Wow you should have ran. You should have spoke up. You know how to say no didn’t you? Did you say no? What did you say. Let’s rewind. Maybe you said yes? Maybe you said something in another language. You’re mouth barely moved. You should have said something. You should have broken something. You claim to be so tough. Why didn’t you move. It’s all your fault. You can scream and rant and rave and pretend it was their fault but it was yours. You can write a thesis about how women survive but you are falling apart. You can talk about it without actually going and being honest about it. You can claim to have healed while your soul is hemorrhaging because you know it’s your fault. Wrong place at the wrong time. Why were you wearing shorts. You chose to wear shorts. Why did you wear your hair like that. Why did you talk to him. Why did you go into that room. Why. What is wrong with you. You are such a liar. Everyone knows you’re a liar. Everyone knows it.
3. Fear & Anxiety (2–3 Months)
Everyone knows it. Everyone knows it. Everyone gives you a piteous look because they know that it was your fault. Keep trying to deny it. Keep showing up to events. Keep trying to do things. The harder you work the more it was your fault. The more you talk about it the more they worry. The more you show up the more they think it was your fault. The more they know it was your fault. The more you write about it the less they care. That tv show you watched last night. That rape scene you tried to be brave through. Your partner heard you crying about it. Everyone knows you’re crying about something that happened five years ago. Whats wrong with you? Keep it together. Keep it together. Everyone knows it. You claimed to be so tough. They know you are weak. They are all laughing about how it’s your fault. They all know it’s your fault. They all feel like its your fault. Some of them feel bad for you because you brought this upon yourself. You can’t even dream. You can’t even sleep. You are always running even when you don’t need to. Prove it. Over compensate. You’re fine. You’re fine. You’re fine. Overdo it. Talk too loud. Laugh too loud. Make a scene. Be dramatic. Distract from the fact that you’re shaking. If you don’t tell a joke right now everyone will see your hands shaking. Just go into the bathroom. Just try to get up in the morning. Try to eat food. Try to breathe. It’s impossible. Just lie down. Call out of work. Hide away. Then they won’t see you. Then only you’ll know that you are trash. Just go to sleep.
4. Disassociation (???)
Good morning. Or is it evening? Or is it the afternoon? It’s nice to be alone. It’s nice to be away from everyone. It’s nice not to have expectations. Even though you’re a failure and you’ve called out of work. Even though you called out of class. Oh well. It’s nice just to float. It’s nice just to sink under your blanket. What day is it? How long have you been here? Have you always been here? When did you wake up? When did your hair grow? Your toenails are so long. What happened yesterday? Last week? Last month? How many calls have you missed? Where have you been? You thought you would just lay down to take a nap and it’s been two weeks now? Or two days? Or two years! You feel so lucid. What were you even laying here about? Why are you still laying here! Who cares about why you’re laying here, YOU need to get up! You’ve let so much time pass! You have wasted so much time!
5. Rapid “Puttingselftogether” (New Years, Birthdays, Holidays, Moments)
I’ve got to get up! Gotta send so many apology emails. So many apology texts. I’ve bailed on my family, friends and everyone again. Okay. I can message about it. I can write about it. I can show up. I can be strong. I’ve always been strong. Everyone says I’m strong so I am right? I wrote a whole thesis about being a survivor facilitator. I can do it then. I can keep showing up. I’m not depressed anymore. I’ve healed myself. I need to remember that I’m not there anymore. I need to meditate. I need to do some yoga. I need a schedule. I need to do my hair. I need to be present. I need to be a voice. There are people who need me. I need to show up and be there. I need to. I need to stop having such a bad attitude. I need to pull myself up by my bootstraps and try again. I can do it. I need to prove to others that I can do it. I am better. I am better. I am fine. I am fine. I am fine. It’s not my fault. (I don’t believe that at all. I’ll try again with that sentence later.) Where’s Beyonce I need to put on some music. I am back. It is I not you. I am not the voice in my head. I am fine. I am fine. I am fine.
Yes you’re fine. Nothing is wrong with you. You can do this.
And then the whole cycle repeats.
Hopefully not for eternity. I think it will stop when I forgive myself or something like that. I’ve tried everything and I still won’t let go. One day hopefully I will be sick and tired of feeling this way and I’ll be better, but I guess for now we’re still here. | https://morganjade.medium.com/four-cyclical-stages-of-sexual-assault-9685cf37d8e5 | [] | 2020-09-13 22:20:56.959000+00:00 | ['Sexual Assault', 'Emotions', 'Sex', 'Sexuality', 'Life'] |
Interview with Maui Marine Scientist Darla White | by Amy Fonarow
Marine scientist Darla White at our Upcountry Maui interview site: Makawao’s local coffee shop Sip Me
This interview was conducted on March 9th, 2017.
While acting as the Special Projects Coordinator of Maui’s Division of Aquatic Resources, marine scientist Darla White met to chat at Sip Me — a local coffee shop in Upcountry Maui — to talk about her efforts to promote coral reef health, what it’s like to be part of the island’s scientific community, and what thrills her about fish.
Darla is now the Disaster Services Analyst for Pacific Disaster Center and co-coordinator for Eyes of the Reef on Maui, but the enthusiasm and information she shared with me in 2017 as is just as relevant — if not more so — today.
Fonarow: Hi, Darla! Thanks for meeting with me. I see that you’re big into, well, all kinds of stuff! What do you like about fish?
White: Everything. The more I learn, the more fascinated I become.
When I was getting my scientific diver certification out at Catalina Island, we were sitting in the kelp forest doing our little exercises, and this school of fishes comes through and just kind of hung with us like a bait ball, and it was the most mesmerizing and enchanting thing. It’s . . . I can’t even explain it. You just have to be in it.
Catalina Island by Elias Shankaji
I love predatory fish, so I almost went into research on marlin, but ended up just snowballing in the ciguatera work I was doing throughout my college career.
I chose ciguatera as the subject of my senior thesis, and I’m also interested in nearshore fisheries, so it was kind of a way of contributing towards that. I got to work with fishermen, and learn a whole lot about it. It went really well, and I kept getting funded. (Both laughing)
[Ciguatera] is the number one seafood poisoning in the world, so it affects a lot of people, especially those in the tropics who depend on fish as their primary source of protein. A lot of the research really goes towards the development of an indicator test kit for people to use to determine whether the fish they catch is going to make them sick. The thing is, the toxin itself is found in such minute amounts that it’s very difficult to get enough to work with. And it’s toxic at a very, very small level. It takes 0.1 parts per billion to make somebody sick.
Fonarow: Wow!
White: Yeah, that’s Pacific ciguatoxin. It takes more than that for the Caribbean ciguatoxin. I did my undergraduate thesis, my research experience for undergraduates, and my master’s thesis all on ciguatera.
Fonarow: And what did you learn?
White: Well, I learned that not much has changed over the past 50 years. (laughing) I found hot spots at Midway, and the ROI roundups provided fish for testing which Fish for Science mapped and showed a really big hot spot at Olowalu: about 60 percent of those fish were hot. It kind of averages about 20 percent across the islands, so 60’s big. It all boils down to the ecology of the dinoflagellate — the single-celled algae that produces the toxin. You can’t see it, so it makes it very difficult to study. We’d go out and collect it, filter it, and grow it.
Fonarow: And then what?
White: Then you try and raise them in the lab, and get them to produce the toxin. It’s one of the bigger frustrations. Most of the time they would not produce a toxin in culture, so that means it’s some environmental driver, but like Dr. Hokama, who’s one of the leading ciguatera researchers in Hawaii — he’s retired now — he spent many, many years trying to figure out what those drivers were, to no real avail. Endless questions, endless . . .
As part of my thesis, because I was characterizing the toxin throughout the archipelago, I got to go on research cruises to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands!
Fonarow: I was going to ask about that. I was wondering, “Can I start with that?” I’ve always wanted to go!
White: If you ever get a chance to go, do it. It’s beyond words, how magical that place is.
As a biologist, I have a very varied background, because it’s all interesting! I really got interested in coral disease with Dr. Greta Aeby on my first research cruise in 2004. I went on a bunch of those cruises, and that’s indirectly how I ended up being the Eyes of the Reef coordinator for Maui.
In 2008, the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meeting was in Kona, and one of my best friends in the whole world was staff for the Task Force out in Florida, and so I just went over to meet her and hang out on the Big Island, and I didn’t realize that “Oh, anybody can go!” [to the Task Force meeting]. It was amazing, and then my boss and the Kona folks could not make it to a climate change and coral reef workshop, so they asked if I wanted to go, and I’m like, “Oh, yeah! (laughing) Of course I do!!!”
That’s when I met Dr. Mark Eiken, the director of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch. They produce satellite predictive tools for coral bleaching based on sea surface temperatures. They’re not only great people, but they build amazing tools that help managers understand what’s coming their way, you know? That’s when I learned a lot about climate change and coral reefs, and just kind of made it my mission to tell everybody about that.
Fonarow: And when did you start the Eyes of the Reef?
White: Eyes of the Reef was officially born after a long process in 2009. It was part of a directive by the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force in 2002 to each of the U.S. jurisdictions with a “list of known problems” to create local action strategies to address these problems. So, the Eyes of the Reef is the community — or first responder — component to Hawaii’s Rapid Response Contingency Plan. It encompasses climate change and marine disease as well as an invasive species local action strategy. Greta Aeby was the coordinator for that local action strategy, or LAS.
Fonarow: You said there was a list of problems they came in with . . .
White: There were of number of problems that were identified — I actually have a list, and it’s online, too. Everything from overfishing, land-based sources of pollution, climate change, marine disease, overuse, people not . . . there’s another way to say it, but, people not being informed.
Fonarow: It’s impossible for everyone to know everything all the time. Nobody would be an expert, and I’d have no reason to talk to you.
White: Like they say, you never stop learning, right?
The LAS’s all came with funding for coordinators, and that was a really productive process. Since then, there have been a lot of congressional budget cuts, and so things have changed a bit. Instead of spreading the money too thinly, and getting things done here and there but no real moving forward, the state decided to prioritize sites, and put together what little money there was to create successes in priority locations. On Maui, that’s Kahekili, which is north Ka’anapali. We called it Kahekili because of the beach park, and it confuses locals. Locally, it’s called “Airport Beach.”
Underwater footage and photos of Kahekili’s coral reef from February 29th, 2016.
The Division of Aquatic Resources that I work for has three things they are legislatively authorized to do: create MPAs, restrict gear, and set bag and size limits. This was the first time that fisheries management has ever been used to save a reef.
Fonarow: Wow! In America?
White: In America, some say in the world, but we don’t really know.
Fonarow: Nice job! While snorkeling there, I’ve thought that the reef looks amazing and huge — much more expansive than others at beaches accessible to tourists. (I notice Darla wincing at my bubbly take on the area.) Okay, I know I’m a layperson, so you’re the expert, but um . . .
White: There’s less fish than there should be. And that was one of the supporting data points behind making this an herbivore fisheries management area, because compared to Marine Life Conservation Districts — which are our only proxy for what is an intact system — the parrotfish population at Kahekili was 10 to 15 percent of what you’d find at MLCDs, so we know it’s overfished, because the habitat is great. One of the reasons we focused there was because the habitat can support fish life; it’s still in pretty decent shape even though it’s taken a really hard hit.
Fonarow: Can you explain reef resilience and recruitment pulses, plus the successes and challenges taking place in your incredible project at Airport Beach?
White: We got really lucky with Kahekili. Right at the beginning of the designation of the fisheries management area, there were two large recruitment pulses of the larval young-of-the-year [the baby fish] — that were ready to come out of the water column and settle on the reef. We got to watch them grow up in the KHFMA because they weren’t being harvested, and the ones that were there, we got to see them get bigger, too, and now we’re seeing larger size classes, because they’re not being harvested.
Size matters when it comes to fish, right? They eat more algae, (excited laughter) and that’s the whole point.
Fonarow: And they lay more eggs, right?
White: Yes! Exactly! The larger ones are the reproductive stock, because as a fish grows, it’s putting a lot of energy into that growth, and when it becomes larger, it grows much slower, and a lot of that energy that was going into growth now goes into reproduction.
Fonarow: Oh! (applauding)
White: Yeah, it’s an exponential increase in reproductive capacity, which is fantastic, and not only are there more eggs, but the babies swim faster, they survive longer — they’re fatter, basically, because they have more food stores. They can escape predation better; they’re just more fit.
Fonarow: More likely to survive.
White: Yes, it’s a “fish-eat-fish” world. It’s an everything-eat-fish world. (Both laughing) Parrotfish, especially — they getto a decent size so they can actually escape predation. The little ones are fish food, but the bigger ones are really hard to catch!
Resilience is basically talking about coral reef health. The healthier a system is, the more likely it’s going to be able to fend off stressors — both locally and globally. It’s the local stressors that we’re killing them with, but they need to be healthy for the global stressors that we have less control over.
Recruitment are young-of-the-year that are coming from a “seed source” location. Most of the critters on the reef spawn, right? They throw their gametes (eggs and sperm) into the water column, and the magic happens. That’s what we call a “source,” and where they recruit out of the water column and onto the reef is called a “sink.” We know Kahekili’s a sink, which is great, so it’s coming from a source. Darla pauses expectantly, practically buzzing with excitement.
Fonarow: Where’s the source?
White: Good question! (laughing) The US Geological Survey (USGS) has done so much work to look at this question around Maui Nui. For five years in a row, they deployed drogues at the same time as the coral spawned. Drogues are commonly used in oceanographic studies, and are comprised of a float with underwater sails that move with the currents. Surface currents and the currents below the water can act quite differently. From the model studies done by USGS, it looks like Olowalu is a large contributing source to all of West Maui and Molokai. This is the reason you may have heard Olowalu called the “Mother Reef.”
Fonarow: If you think about it, as a tiny, tiny fish, that’s a long way!
White: Yeah. Currents help them out, but the larval forms have a lot of vertical movement, and then take advantage of the smaller currents called Ekman spirals, and thus have a lot more control over where they want to go, which is pretty cool.
Fonarow: How do they decide where to go?
White: Chemical cues. Sound. We’re still learning a lot of these things, but we do know that corals respond to chemical cues, and science has learned in recent years that sound matters, especially to fish.
You can hear a reef! It’s quite loud.
Fonarow: I heard that reefs are like forests in that they’re louder, you know, at dawn and dusk. Is that true?
White: That’s a very good question. I don’t know. But, Dr. Marc Lammers and his PhD student Max Kaplan can answer that question; they have the EARS project here. They record audio sounds on coral reefs on Maui and around the world.
Fonarow: Okay, this probably won’t be in the final interview, but just for my own understanding, the Division of Aquatic Resources and the Department of Land and Natural Resources . . . Is DAR a division of DLNR?
White: Yes, DLNR’s the department, and has ten divisions, of which DAR is one. We’re the management agency for the life in the water from the high tide to three miles out. DAR created the herbivore management area at Kahekili Beach Park. I was hired in the first place as a coordinator for that effort, and part of that position was putting together an amazing group of volunteers to collect data on herbivore grazing pressure — by species, by size, by what they’re eating. We had a five year amazing effort; we’ve got some real rock star data collectors out there in the community. That data has actually been used by a number of researchers — both locally, and for comparison to other regions as well.
As Special Projects Coordinator I also coordinate with our partners — other agencies’ researchers who are doing work in the area. They’re great people doing great science, and I’m personally having a great time being a part of the collaborative effort. We have this group called the Maui Coral Reef Recovery Team, and we’re actually meeting tomorrow!(“Tomorrow” in this case was March 10th, 2017.)
Fonarow: Oh, you are? Excellent! What are the objectives of that group? And what’s your role on the team?
White: So, we’re multi-stakeholder. We have lots of expertise from scientists, fishermen, water quality, County, EPA. There’s a lot of technical expertise, whether in science or culture or fishing–
Fonarow: Cool! Like the advisory council for Papahānaumokuākea, and like the Maui Nui Marine Resource Council?
White: MNMRC actually facilitates the MCRT. The Chairperson is Dr. Bob Richmond, and if you Google him, he’s a pretty amazing guy — he’s the Director of the Kewalo Marine Lab over on Oahu. He used to be at the University of Guam. He’s done a lot of work with corals and sedimentation. He’s done a lot of work with the community. We have everybody from like, Dr. Eric Conklin, who’s the Marine Director for the Nature Conservancy, Manuel Meija — he does a lot of community co-management work, and Dr. Eric Brown — the marine ecologist. He’s been on Maui for forever, and he’s actually on Molokai as the marine ecologist for the national park at Kalaupapa. Oh my gosh: Wendy Wiltse from the EPA, Russell Sparks, Dr. Alan Friedlander — he’s the chief scientist for the Pristine Seas initiative with National Geographic as well as the Ocean Tipping Points project, and I mean — the list just goes on like that. (laughing) Dana Reed, she’s our clean water person. And we have recently John Gorman, from the Maui Ocean Center.
The team acts sort of like a mini U.S. Coral Reef Task Force for Maui and Hawaii, and right now we’re doing a lot of supportive measures for the Governor’s 30 by 30 initiative, that he announced at the International Union for Conservation of Nature meeting.
DLNR Chairperson Suzanne Case also supports the initiative. The plan is to put 30 percent of our marine resources into network “better managed areas” by 2030 — for the longevity of our marine ecosystems as we move into warmer and more acidic oceans. It’s quite the process, because you need to understand what the ecology needs, and you need to understand what the people need. You need to understand where you can have successes — realistic successes, and find those sweet spots.
Fonarow: And so that’s what everybody talks about? To decide where the sweet spots are?
White: Well, it’s a bigger process, but, there’s a lot of synergy behind ensuring the longevity of our marine resources into the future, through the eyes of reef resilience. It’s like, “Where are these resilient spots? How do we create this network of connectivity, where we have sources and sinks feeding each other?” And, when you allow fish to grow big and old in protected areas, they are the reproductive stock that goes outside of those areas, and seeds everywhere else. And so you can actually design it so that you’re getting the maximum dispersal.
You can seed places, and if we have a major bleaching event, you know, all of your eggs aren’t in one basket (both laughing) — quite literally!
And the Community Marine Managed Areas are a huge component of this, right? Having communities take ownership of their marine resources is critical to the survival of these resources as we move forward. It’s been just a beautiful process.
It brings communities together, and they learn a lot about the resource and then figure out what’s important to them, and they really take ownership of it, and it’s a really beautiful thing to watch, because then, everybody, like, gets it. Everyone gets that the management agencies are not trying to take away; we’re trying to create more. Fishermen, managers, Hawaiians: we all want the same thing — more fish for the future in better, healthier ecosystems, and DAR is doing that through the lens of resilience; creating healthy places that will stand the best chance with some of the global threats. Does that make sense?
Fonarow: Yes! Absolutely.
White: Good! Actually, you can get your own, self-paced certificate from reefresilience.org.
Fonarow: Kahekili was chosen as one of the few places to keep looking at. Why is it a unique place, in the world?
White: The reef at Kahekili Beach Park had seen almost a 50 percent decline in coral cover in ten to fifteen years’ time, so that’s a really short amount of time for an awful lot of coral loss, and a lot of other factors played into that. As I mentioned before, it had the structure to support fish life. That’s a really big deal, because you need that three-dimensional city. We knew that there were algal problems, we knew that there was a reduction in herbivores, and we knew that the invasive algae that were there were not just edibles for fish, but they were preferred edibles. The fish really like that stuff!
There was also a stack of literature that says if you have enough herbivores, you can really help balance it, even in a nutrient-rich environment. Also, it’s in an area that’s a high resort area. Even as accessible as it is, it’s unique, as far as the human community there. A lot of things lined up.Russell Sparks, my boss, he’s from Maui, and he did the culturally appropriate thing: he went to the fishing families from the area, and talked to them, told them what we knew, what we wanted to do, and got their support, because they understood what we were trying to do — target the herbivores to do what we call their “ecological services” — you know, eat algae, we need more of them to do it! We know we have a nutrient input in the site: the water from the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility injection wells pumps right out there on the reef — a number of studies [one at link] have demonstrated this.
Green dye showing path of sewage into Kahekili’s coral reef
Meghan Dailer, University of Hawaii researcher
The injection well water adds to the nitrogen, and fresh water, which is localized acidification — and there’s a variety of cascading effects from that, as well, but (as an aside) some of that new science is coming out very shortly.
So, Russell went to the families, and we had a lot of support by-and-large because we weren’t shutting it all off. The fully protected, no take, marine protected areas are not as palatable as they should be. I just say that because the benefits outweigh the costs, and this particular area has buffer zones on each side; so any fish that recruit to the area are going to have a really high site fidelity and probably not wander off.
We’re not closing the refrigerator; we’re just trying to keep it running and healthy and stocked. And if you have more herbivores, you’ll attract more carnivores. And fishing is not only allowed, but is encouraged. That’s the whole point — to make it good for everybody, as shoreline protection, for snorkeling, diving, fishing, etc.
But with the new rules, explaining what herbivores are and which fish they are was challenging, so the Ka’anapali Makai Watch was created, and Liz Foote coordinating that effort was a huge deal — she’s amazing. Under the Hawaii Coral Program, which focused the money on priority sites, Puakō was designated one on the Big Island, and Kahekili on Maui. We showed a lot of success, so in 2011, the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force designated West Maui a priority watershed for the Pacific, so we have Tova Callendar as our West Maui Watershed Coordinator, working on land-based mitigation efforts to hopefully stop a lot of the things that are impacting the reef.
Fonarow: The point source pollution, sedimentation . . .
White: You’ll hear fishermen say all the time, “What about the land-based sources of pollution?” And it’s like, “There’s that, too! Yes, absolutely!” This is meant to help address that. There’s a watershed plan in Hawaii.
Hawaii’s still kind of behind the curve on watershed plans. Having this plan means that it is now eligible for funding to help mitigate those problems. For West Maui, you get in there, do it, work out some of the bugs and hopefully, it can be used as a model throughout the state.
Fonarow: Is it being used as a model now?
White: Well, there’s a lot of challenges — especially on the land-based side of things. You’re dealing with major landowners who sometimes say they want to be a part of it, but are not always there when their participation is needed. And there’s very real issues, like, with the County. If you install these stormwater baskets, then they actually have to have trucks and people who drive them and run the program. There’s always maintenance, and so you actually have to build that into the future funding. And that’s always challenging. Even building a rain garden to help naturally filter out pollutants before they hit the ocean is no small task, but the community totally wants to be involved.
Liz is actually coordinating the West Maui Kumuwai Campaign, where the community can get involved to do plantings and stuff like that. They’ve got that little white board where you write down your pledge, and you take a picture of yourself. “I promise to . . . always wash my car in the yard, or to not reproduce, or to buy ocean-friendly products, etc.”
Fonarow: You’ve mentioned the challenges that exist, and I would like to know how you personally . . . keep going. How do you keep your enthusiasm up? Stay stoked?
White: Because I love these ecosystems, I’m passionate about them, and I know — we have the knowledge, we have the tools. We. Can. Do this. I mean, it’s going to be a different world, and I’m not here to paint anything rosy.
The stressors are big, and they will come more often, and it’s going to be a big challenge, which is why it’s SO urgent and important to really change our mindset, and take action — change our behaviors.
That’s the tough one; some people go very extreme and like, “Oh! Don’t drive a car!” and it’s like, no. Just reduce your energy usage. You can reduce your energy usage from 10 to 50 percent actually incredibly easily. And not only that, it’s going to save you money. And not only that, it’s going to save our environment. And all these collective actions of people changing their behaviors in small ways — just by fractions, can really buy our corals time.
They’re amazing, hardy, adaptable creatures. We’ve been treading on them so hard for so long, and they’re having some trouble hanging in there, but — if you remove the stressors, then they are incredible at rebounding.
Fonarow: Wonderful!
White: But we would need to buy them time, and all of those things that buy them time save us money, so I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be doing that. By-and-large the number one thing we need to do is reduce our CO2 emissions — the most important thing that needs to be done to save coral reefs. A lot of that has to do with our energy usage. Cutting back on that and supporting renewables saves us money.
Single-use plastics? Stop it! Just stop it! They photodegrade, they end up in the food chain. It’s not healthy for any of the wildlife. Don’t do straws. Don’t do lids. Carry your own stuff around with you; it’s okay.
There’s a lot of very small ways that collectively, we can make a big difference. At the end of the day, we need our legislators to make the big changes, and our current administration is dismantling all of it, so we have to resist that, too.
Fonarow: How are you resisting it?
White: It’s just such a farce. I’m like, “Seriously? You’re undoing a, a century of work.”
Fonarow: I know. I called Representative Gabbard and left her a message: “Can you please vote against the bill to . . . completely dismantle the EPA?”
White: The environment is so important, and so many people are just not connected to nature. People live in cities, and they just don’t come in contact with it, but your food does not come from Safeway, it comes from nature.
We need clean water, clean air. We need ecosystems intact for them to thrive . . . especially the ocean. A lot of people don’t understand that 50 to 70 percent of the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. And we need a healthy system to keep that going.
Fonarow: Really? 50 to 70 percent? How does that work?
White: By planktonic photosynthesis. The tiny single-celled plants in our oceans — diatoms and dinoflagellates — give off oxygen through photosynthesis that uses the energy of the sun and takes in carbon dioxide. Just like a tree, but vastamounts. It’s the carbon cycle at work!
Fonarow: So, as humans, where do we really fit in on this planet that we share?
White: Oh, we’re such an invasive species. We’re going to have to really change our ways, and become a part of the ecosystem. Instead of “intensive agriculture,” we need “extensive agriculture.” What will we do to feed back into the system?
Where we take, we need to replenish; we can’t borrow without giving back. And the more people we have, the more we need, and you know, that’s an issue, too. It’s a big one. We’re the problem, but we’re also the solution.
Fonarow: And where do you fit in?
White: I’m just trying to do my small part in science. There are so many questions to ask, and the science is actually bringing us closer to answers that drive solutions.
I also like to communicate the science to decision makers and the public, and hopefully try and work on a little bit of that education component. Most people don’t have their head on a reef most of the time, right? So one of my favorite things is taking people in the water. We call it the “Snorkel Tour,” (laughing), where we take people to actually visually see what it is to fix an ecosystem, and then try to comprehend how much effort is going into it.
The best way to fix an ecosystem is not to break it in the first place. A lot of folks get really excited about coral transplantation and stuff like that, and those are all good efforts, and there’s a lot of reasons to follow that line of research, and DAR actually has a really good program doing that on Oahu, but it’s not realistic to expect you’re going to get anything larger than a football field without many, many millions of dollars.
So . . . take care of what we have. Because we actually have a lot. And there’s a lot worth saving. I’m hoping that my small contributions will add to the larger team effort.
Fonarow: I appreciate everything that you’re doing to educate, to find more information, and just also . . . the hope that you infuse into it all.
White: Thanks! The problems are large, but unless you start working on them, they’re not going to solve themselves. | https://medium.com/@SEVENSEAS_media/interview-with-maui-marine-scientist-darla-white-174801dcae35 | ['Sevenseas Media'] | 2020-12-28 07:01:27.704000+00:00 | ['Marine Scientist', 'Ocean Talk', 'Perspective', 'Interview'] |
Feeling the Truth: 10 Years After My Daughter Was Bullied | Feeling the Truth: 10 Years After My Daughter Was Bullied
Would you believe that even now I’m afraid to admit it? I’m afraid that my child will be harmed, that there will be retaliation. I’m afraid to write the words that my daughter was bullied. I’m afraid she’ll read it, I’m afraid one of the parents or children from that old school community will see it and find a way to harm my daughter. I’m afraid that if I say the truth, that shame will swallow my daughter, that it will make her somehow at fault.
I can say with all sincerity that it all came rushing back this morning. It’s still there. The fear still resides inside of me. The pain.
The pandemic is swallowing me. I can’t deal with the empty hours. Even with work, managing my home, and writing till the days are interminable. So often I plummet into time sucks: Tik Tok, Best Fiends, Facebook. Rabbit holes falling deeper into social media, the gravity of curiosity. I am in and out of time. The past, lost contacts.
This morning I was descending into one such rabbit hole.
On schedule with my -every five year or so- google search for estranged or forgotten family members. I looked up the Clarks’ (a psudonym). The Clarks’ are a large family of cousins (8), Evangelical, self- righteous, and in sharp contrast with everything I am/ believe. I won’t lie. I have years of anger and disdain for the Clarks. Yet, I search for them. See the lives they created for themselves. Most of the Clarks are not on Facebook but I find them in different places. Five or more years ago now, I located the only Clark I really ever liked: Niky. Niky’s spirit was still the same when I found her. But, she was still in the same home town, living in my grandmother’s house no less. Today I searched her brothers. Six in total. Two girls. One passed away, almost twenty years now. I’ve read that obituary many times and that’s how I found out the home towns of the surviving siblings. That’s how I found Mark. That’s how I found Mark, his wife, and his two kids on facebook.
Mark. How many years since I’ve laid eyes on Mark. I’m not kidding. Likely 35. There is no longing or fondness. There is no feeling for Mark one way or another. I always think it’s funny.Those family members who did not leave much of an impression. Who shared your life experience so briefly, with so little in common that nothing emotional is summoned what so ever when you see them. Well maybe that’s not entirely true. Maybe if I tried there would be a recollection stirred, connected by that invisible tether of genetics — or something.
I somehow found Mark’s wife on Facebook. I could see Mark immediately in the family photos. He’d be 57 years old by now. The age shows as it does with me. But what remains is his same posture, stance, the bowed legs. His smile, a sort of crooked smile. The cover picture is of Mark, his wife, and his two daughters. Their page is not full of ultra evangelical memes. The kind that make my blood boil. They look normal. Yet, I can see something immediately. It’s in the oldest daughter’s eyes. There is a blankness and surrender. I judge immediately. I know a bit about the Clark’s family history (from Niky). I know there was sexual abuse. I look at Mark’s daughter, then at Mark. I look at Mark’s wife and then their youngest daughter. I remember Niky telling me how she’d feared for her younger sister. “Dad looks at her the way he looked at me before he started coming. into my room at 4:00 in the morning.”
There it is, I think to myself. Mark’s empty and tired eyes match his daughters. It tugs at my heart because I too went through that trauma but I survived and managed the baggage over the years. Some years better than others.
I scroll the wife Lila’s newsfeed. It’s what you’d expect: the two girls over the years. Halloween, pumpkin carving, family get togethers with young children. It is what you expect: that phase of parenthood. My daughter is 19 now and I lament, sometimes, how fast it went. How much I miss the privilege of being a mom and how many times I didn’t meet the mark. I think often now, how I wish I could go back and be more. More patient, more present, more actualized. I also think back on how I could have been less. Less protective, less worried, less anxious.
I scroll and see their life. Just as mundane as mine. That is until I see the tombstone. It’s a ruby marble. It’s got carnations in a vase beside it. “Missing my daughter so much today.” It sends a burning and sense of searing sympathy through me. I look at the date and it’s 2002 to 2019. My own child was born in 2002.
At first I don’t really do the math right and I think it’s 2009. 2002–2009. I think there was cancer. My heart breaks over what I imagine days and weeks and months (years?) of chemo. But read the dates again. No. It was 2019. It was two years ago. It was when her daughter was 17. So. I know. Somehow I know it’s not cancer. Some how I know it is suicide.
I think back on Mark and the look in his eye. I think back on the girl’s empty expression. The smile-not even a smile-just a pose.
I read on.
I find a facebook group in memory of the daughter. I see a fundraiser. I see the proceeds go to an adolescent mental health treatment center.
I know the child committed suicide.
I scroll and see a despondent post by the mother, my forgotten cousin’s wife. We are old. We have lived.We have raised children. We are maybe not opposites.
She writes how much she misses her daughter. She writes that her daughter brought so much light and joy into her life. Every day she thinks of her daughter. She says she wants to share a recipe, or a memory, or an idea. She wants to turn and find her there. Her little girl.
The mother then goes on to write about how her daughter had been bullied, starting in elementary school. She described how the bullying followed her precious girl into middle and then high school. She wrote that her daughter grew to hate herself and that self loathing was too existential to bear. She writes that her daughter’s struggle with depression was relentless and the only peace is that the suffering is over. She describes dreams family members have reported to her since her daughter’s death. In the dream her first born is in a white dress, she’s ethereal. She’s smiling. And it’s a real smile. It’s peace. She says her child has found joy.
I believe she has.
Last year my own daughter attempted suicide. She was seventeen at the time too. She had been plagued by depression too. It runs in our family. So that is ours. That belongs to us. But, that’s not all of it.
After reading about my cousin’s daughter, it dawned on me that if my daughter had taken a different handful of pills, or made some other reckless choice she would be dead too.
In another post, the mother pleads with parents to take their kids out of school-even start homeschooling — that she wishes she had. We all know it’s not as easy as it sounds. We all know how much the mother (and likely my cousin and their other daughter) were tormented along side their child. We all know the trauma of bullying and the pain / damage done to the child breaks the heart of every other family member. We all know it is not easy or even possible in many cases to remove the child from the school. And now, with social media it’s even harder to extricate a victim from the abuse. And adolescence-by it’s very definition- creates an untenable situation. Teenagers are biologically wired to “belong.” Individuation/ separation from their parents and home is their imperative. We want to remove our child from abuse, protect them, but at the same time they feel isolated and further rejected when we do.
I can tell from her posts, the mother really did what she could. More so. Yes, we want to protect our children. Yes, we want to go back and “do over.” Do more or do less. Edit and re-write so our children will have had a perfect childhood with the right mix of happiness, healthy stress, resilience, and self efficacy.
But this mother is not to blame.
This father is not to blame.
This child is not to blame.
Why is it so hard to face the truth? Why are we so ashamed of the idea that our children might possibly be weak? I’m not talking about the victim here. I’m talking about the bully. I’m talking about the institutions that deny and sometimes promote bullying and the will of the parents of bullies.
It’s been 10 years since my daughter was bullied. It was a bad time in our family life. I was depressed. I’d had several miscarrages and resulting postpartum depression. My daughter was 7. I was trying so hard to supress the overwhelming pain I was in. I had been estranged from my abusive mother for over 20 years and she was back in my life. She was dying of cancer and being in contact with her dredged up unbearable PTSD. It was triggering mental illness in me. It was a storm. A perfect storm. So, while my daughter was at school I would be consumed with heartache and pain. I pulled myself together and tried to be a good mother. Keep things in while I was with her. There were other problems too. A neighbor had started harassing me and then turned another mom against me. The other mom began stalking me, parking outside of my house, trying to run her car into me. The cyclone picked up energy and I picked up energy. I was practically manic. And of course it played out in my parenting. When my daughter -a creative, sensitive, funny girl by nature- when she became anxious I attributed it to how dark my internal reality was. Of course she would pick up on it.
Then, one day -one morning- I went to wake her up for school. She was 7 years old at the time. I went into her room, her curly red hair so soft and beautiful against the pale yellow sheets. So cute. When I woke her, she opened her eyes and silent tears fell.
I sat on the side of the bed and touched her little arm. “What is it baby?”
“I don’t know what they’ll do to me today.”
Then she started crying. And crying.
Later that day my husband and I sat in our basement, in the family room, and I remember clearly my daughter was sitting on the couch, me beside her, and her dad across from us in a chair.
It poured out of her.
It was only four or five months and in that time, my child had been the victim of viscous bullying.
I wrote everything down.
It was bad.
Immediately I began to advocate for my daugher. We had been friends with the family — indeed my daughter had been best friends with the girl. More often than not our entire family’s social life was entwined with the mother of the bully, the brother, the bully, and the father. More often than not, our larger social circle of families with young children included both of our families. I had put all our eggs in one basket. The basket of the school community. And, now it was about to react to our attempt to fix an obvious and dangerous problem.
I honestly didn’t know how powerfully malignant school bullying is. I imagine that most parent’s don’t. It’s so entrenched in the school culture and group psychology that as a parent you are David and the victimization is the Goliath.
Time. is not on your side. There’s a meter ticking away. The harm that comes to a young child accumulates quickly. Yet, as someone who’s child is being bullied, you often have to navigate blame and gaslighting. We are only human as parents and for some time we will not know about the bullying. Then, when we do find out we engage predictable strategies. Strategies that should work because we are reasonable adults and supposedly all want to support children’s healthy social emotional development. We outwardly want to make our children empathetic good citizens. Yet inwardly some parents are so invested in their children being on top (I suspect this is because of their fear of shame and harm of being weak) that they shield their child from taking responsibility. Their are inadequate in their parenting because they don’t know how to scaffold self esteem and budding integrity. They are afraid their child will be hurt or seen as bad if they use natural opportunities to hone self awareness and concession. They shield their children from seeing they can be at fault, that other points of view are valid. These parents are the bullies.
It might surprise you to discover that you very likely will be alone, on an island when you try to advocate for your child. It might surprise you that a community that you felt you belonged in (or not) can all rationalize and justify the victimization of one child. How do they do it?
Blame the child: claim the child has emotional problems or social incompetency.
Blame the parent: say the parent is over protective and not letting their child handle their own problems.
Make the situation worse: shun the child by creating opportunities for the child to fail or flounder. Making a spectacle of what a fantastic failure the victim is at social competency while they engineer the very context for abuse.
Circle the wagons: turn the community against you and your child. Often the parents will subtly or not so subtly exclude you and use relational aggression to make you feel shamed.
After that morning when my daughter was numb, tears falling down her face. I woke up to reality. It wasn’t my PTSD and depression causing my daughter’s trauma (of course it’s a part of the picture) but my daughter was being bullied. Even at 7 years old.
I immediately went to our friend, the bully’s mother. I talked to her about what was going on. I tried to frame it innocuously, without judgement. “How can we help the girls separate in a healthy way?” Indeed our daughters had spent almost every day together for two years. This was selfish engineering on the mom and my part. We wanted to be best friends and we wanted our daughters to be parallel little best friends.
We were at Starbucks, sitting across from each other. The mother’s blue eyes turned steely. “I try to tell Lizzy that Katie has social problems and to be nice to her.”
“Katie has social problems?” I was taken aback. And, a fear did descend on me at that moment. The fear of this woman’s power. If not for my daughter she would never have power over me. She knew it. I knew it.
“Are you kidding?”
“You know how anxious Katie is. And I get it. Lizzy is the popular girl and Katie wants to be just like her. Lizzy doesn’t want to have to take care of Katie any more. She needs some space.”
I honestly didn’t get it at first. I didn’t understand what investment this mother had in her daughter’s appearance of social competence and dominance. I would come to see that Lizzy’s mother was jealous of the friendships that other classmates had. If Lizzy wasn’t popular enough, according to her mother then her mother would go to any means necessary to fulfill this expectation. Lizzy’s mother volunteered in the classroom or school upwards of 20 hours per week, engineering class seating so Lizzy would be with cliques of girls. Lizzy’s mom made friends with the young teacher. Lizzy’s mom engaged in relational aggression with the group of moms. Before the end of 5th grade six girls would be bullied by Lizzy’s family, require psychological counseling, and leave the school. Only one parent complained to the principal. Me.
At the time, I didn’t know or realize that within this family’s own home life was a larger secret. A secret of domestic violence. I did know that the Lizzy’s older brother was brutal with the child. He’d walk up to her, unexpected, and punch her hard in the stomach. I also walked in on Lizzy’s dad hurling a threatening guttural demand “watch what the hell you’re doing!” to the mother. And there was the time Lizzy’s mother called me, worried. “Katie may have mentioned that there was a little issue over a backpack at our place today. It was one of those time that you hit one child for something and then have to go find the other so it’s fair — it looked worse than it was.”
I wanted to make things better for my daughter.
This was only the beginning. | https://medium.com/end-bullying-now/feeling-the-truth-10-years-after-my-daughter-was-bullied-69e47e0b24ad | ['Donna Barrow-Green'] | 2021-02-23 23:54:29.016000+00:00 | ['Schools', 'PTSD', 'Bullying Prevention', 'Parenting', 'Bullying'] |
Evolution of Computer Viruses | A computer virus is a type of malicious software that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. When this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be “infected” with a computer virus. Computer viruses have been plaguing individuals, organizations and government agencies for the past 40 years. Evolving over time, these viruses have kept pace with the newest advances in technology.
The very first computer virus came into existence in the early ’80s, termed as the Creeper virus. An entire program(termed as the reaper program) was designed by information security professionals to prevent it from copying itself into systems and halting the ability to process. Later on, in the early ’90s, a high school student programmed the first personal computer virus, The Elk Cloner. It spread through a floppy disk, attached to a computer game for the Apple DOS system. The Elk Cloner is considered the first major computer virus outbreak in history, primarily because the public was not educated or familiar with the concept of viruses.
In 1986, the first virus to specifically attack PCs via the DOS system was recorded. The virus, known as The Brain or the Pakistani Flu, was created by two brothers from Pakistan, Basit Farooq Alvi and Amjad Farooq Alvi; in later years, the brothers would claim they designed the program as a security mechanism to protect other software from piracy. The Brain virus was essentially harmless; it was floppy disk-based and worked by increasing its code volume each time the host program was run. The result was floppy disks would fill up and be rendered unusable, though to the user it would appear like little or nothing was stored on the disk. No permanent damage was done.
Prior to 1988, most computer viruses were just annoyances and relatively harmless. However, in 1988, the first truly dangerous computer virus, called the Festering Hate virus, was released infecting Apple operating systems. Instead of just stalling computer function, this virus infected every file on the hard drive, floppy disks, and memory drives and eventually destroyed all files. In 1989, a new kind of virus, called the Ghostball, became the first threat to capture certain user information. Then in 1991, the first devastating virus was discovered. The Michelangelo computer virus was a hidden virus that only attacked computers on March 6th, Michelangelo’s birthday. On March 6th it would wipe the user’s hard drive.
In 2000, a Filipino computer science student created the ILOVEYOU worm that infected millions of Microsoft operating systems within a few hours of its release. In 2003, the SQL Slammer worm spread so quickly that is caused the internet to crash within 15 minutes of its release. The Fizzer virus was the first virus that attempted to make money. It infected a computer to use it as a host to send spam, primarily through e-mail. It also spread through KaZaA shares and would download updates from Geocities websites while simultaneously listening for commands on IRC and AIM.
One of the fastest growing viruses for its time was the Code Red virus which utilized buffer overflow to spread. This virus cost billions of dollars in damage, and only affected a certain type of Microsoft web server application. In 2007, a Trojan virus named Zeus attacked windows programs and became one of the first viruses to capture banking information by tracking keystrokes. In the month of November 2008, the Conficker virus was discovered, it is known to have infected over 15 million server systems worldwide, including servers in the French navy, UK ministry of defence, Norwegian police and other large government organizations. In 2012, a virus named Flame became one of the first pieces of malware to be involved in cyber espionage. Flame is a malware that attacks computers using Microsoft Windows. A report released by Budapest University’s crySyS lab termed it as the most complex malware ever found. Flame is capable of recording Skype conversations, audio, keyboard activity, network traffic, and screenshots.
Removing a virus and undoing the damage it causes to your computer can be more stressful than preventing attack by using a strong anti-virus program that can detect malware as well as Trojans, worms and viruses and also eliminate them before replication. Effective anti-viruses are available which help to detect and remove viruses that may attack your computer. | https://medium.com/@eraiitk/evolution-of-computer-viruses-73a61d3ea5e2 | [] | 2019-08-28 14:28:02.846000+00:00 | ['Virus', 'Computer Virus', 'Antivirus', 'Security'] |
MTI poised to fulfil Electric Vehicle skills demand | The MIRA Technology Institute (MTI) has reaffirmed its readiness to deliver the skills urgently needed by the automotive industry to help address the anticipated future spike in sales of electric vehicles. The MTI was responding to an open letter from the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) calling for urgent support to address ‘the lack of EV-trained technicians.’
In the letter, the IMI’s CEO, Steve Nash and President Professor Jim Saker said that the skills challenge was one of the most significant issues affecting the UK’s ability to meet its net zero targets and deliver the government’s Green Plan. They said that currently only five per cent of the technicians working in garages and dealerships are trained to work on electric vehicles.
Lisa Bingley, Operations Director at the MTI said, “We welcome the IMI’s appeal for greater investment in this type of training. Our provision has been designed precisely to address this demand and we are already delivering training and supporting apprenticeships that will help the UK to achieve its goals.
“We offer Level 1 to Level 3 CPD courses in electric and hybrid vehicle system repair and replacement that are accredited by the IMI itself. This training has been specifically designed for the maintenance and repair technicians that the IMI has identified as in greatest need.
“The courses run every month and businesses can arrange closed sessions dedicated to their own employees. We can also provide advice on how to access support for apprenticeships including how to get the most out of the Apprenticeship Levy.”
“We work very closely with our industry partner, HORIBA MIRA, enabling us to remain in tune with the skills needs of the automotive industry. As a result, we are able to adapt our offer with agility to address the latest developments particularly in the field of electric vehicles.
“In addition, we have recently introduced two new Level 4 apprenticeship standards for engineering manufacturing and propulsion technicians that are combined with a higher education qualification. Our collaboration with Coventry University means that individuals can take advantage of our skills escalator and progress from Level 2 to PhD level with a single provider.”
The MTI is the result of a unique collaboration led by North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, and its partners, HORIBA MIRA, Coventry University, the University of Leicester, and Loughborough University. Built with £9.5m investment from the UK Government’s Local Growth Fund (LGF) via the Leicester and Leicester Enterprise Partnership Limited (LLEP), the MTI is a specialist facility designed specifically to train the next generation of engineers in the latest automotive technology.
Marion Plant, OBE FCGI, Chair of the MTI Operations Board, and Principal and Chief Executive North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College said, “Working with our partners and the LLEP, we anticipated this surge in skills demand several years ago and are delighted now to be delivering exactly what the industry needs through the MTI at this exciting time of renewed growth for the automotive sector.”
Kevin Harris, Chair of the LLEP Board of Directors said, “Investing in skills is a major priority for the LLEP, which is why we supported MTI with such a significant sum of our LGF allocation. This latest development is particularly pleasing, as not only will the MTI be addressing an urgent skills need, but doing so in an area — low carbon technology — that is becoming increasingly crucial to our economy here in Leicester and Leicestershire.” | https://medium.com/@miratechnologyinstitute/mti-poised-to-fulfil-electric-vehicle-skills-demand-e51e9bc31889 | ['Mira Technology Institute'] | 2020-12-15 14:00:09.282000+00:00 | ['Ev', 'Electric Vehicles', 'Automotive', 'Electric Car', 'Engineering'] |
How to monitor a Rails API — [Part I] | Photo by Luis gomes on Pexels
Rails is a popular web application framework. Chances are, on your software development journey you may have heard about Rails and may have built a traditional server-rendered web application.
As of version 5, Rails core now supports API only applications, previously we had to rely on an external gem rails-api which has since been merged to core rails.
In this two part blog post, we’ll build a todo list API and figure out how to monitor the application using StatsD . I am not going to dive deep into this topic by including authentication or pagination, The aim in this post is to just build a working API. Sound good? Okay here we go!
API endpoints
API Endpoints
Setup
Make sure Rails is installed with the latest version along with the latest version of Ruby.
$ rails -v
# => Rails 6.0.0 $ ruby -v
# => ruby 2.6.3p62
Generate a new project todos-api by running:
rails new todo-api --api --tests
--api argument tells Rails that we want an API application.
--tests argument tells Rails to exclude the default Minitest framework because we will use RSpec to test our API
Dependencies
rspec-rails — Testing framework.
factory_bot_rails — A fixtures replacement with a more straightforward syntax. You’ll see.
shoulda_matchers — Provides RSpec with additional matchers.
database_cleaner — You guessed it! It literally cleans our test database to ensure a clean state in each test suite.
faker — A library for generating fake data. We’ll use this to generate test data.
Let’s set them up. In your Gemfile :
Add rspec-rails to both the :development and :test groups.
# Gemfile
group :development, :test do
gem 'rspec-rails', '~> 3.5'
end
Add factory_bot_rails , shoulda_matchers , faker and database_cleaner to the :test group.
# Gemfile
group :test do
gem 'factory_bot_rails', '~> 4.0'
gem 'shoulda-matchers', '~> 3.1'
gem 'faker'
gem 'database_cleaner'
end
Do a $ bundle install
Initialize the spec directory (where our tests will reside).
$ rails generate rspec:install
This adds the following files which are used for configuration:
.rspec
spec/spec_helper.rb
spec/rails_helper.rb
Create a factories directory (factory bot uses this as the default directory). This is where we'll define the model factories.
$ mkdir spec/factories
Configuration
In spec/rails_helper.rb
# require database cleaner at the top level
require 'database_cleaner'
# configure shoulda matchers to use rspec as the test framework and full matcher libraries for rails
Shoulda::Matchers.configure do |config|
config.integrate do |with|
with.test_framework :rspec
with.library :rails
end
end
RSpec.configure do |config|
# add `FactoryBot` methods
config.include FactoryBot::Syntax::Methods
config.before(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
end
config.around(:each) do |example|
DatabaseCleaner.cleaning do
example.run
end
end
end
Here we are just configuring Factory Bot and Shoulda Matchers methods to work with our specs.
Models
Let’s start by generating the Todo model
$ rails g model Todo title:string created_by:string
And now the Item model
$ rails g model Item name:string done:boolean todo:references
By adding todo:references we are telling the generator to set up an association with the Todo model. This will do the following:
Add a foreign key column todo_id to the items table
to the table Setup a belongs_to association in the Item model.
Finally, Let’s run the migrations
$ rails db:migrate
We believe in TDD
Let’s write the model specs first
spec/models/todo_spec.rb
require 'rails_helper' RSpec.describe Todo, type: :model do it { should have_many(:items).dependant(:destroy) } it { should validate_presence_of(:title) } it { should validate_presence_of(:created_by) } end
2. spec/models/item_spec.rb
require 'rails_helper' RSpec.describe Item, type: :model do it { should belong_to(:todo) } it { should validate_presence_of(:name) } end
The shoulda-matchers gem provides RSpec with the nifty association and validation matchers above.
If we execute the specs we will obviously run into failures, but that’s the protocol we have to follow.
RED-GREEN-REFACTOR
Let’s go ahead and fix the failures
# app/models/todo.rb class Todo < ApplicationRecord
has_many :items, dependent: :destroy validates_presence_of :title, :created_by
end --- # app/models/item.rb
class Item < ApplicationRecord
belongs_to :todo validates_presence_of :name
end
Now if we run our tests
$ bundle exec rspec
And we pass the test 😄
Controllers
So far we have set up our models and and successfully passed the tests for it as as well. Now let’s set up our controllers.
$ rails g controller Todos
$ rails g controller Items
As usual we will be writing tests first, but we won’t be writing controller specs instead we will write request specs instead.
Request specs can hit the applications’ HTTP endpoints as opposed to controller specs which call methods directly. Since we are building an API application, this is exactly the kind of behaviour we want from our tests.
Add a requests folder to the spec directory with the corresponding spec files.
$ mkdir spec/requests && touch spec/requests/{todos_spec.rb,items_spec.rb}
Before we define the request specs, Let’s add the model factories which will provide the test data.
Add the factory files:
$ touch spec/factories/{todos.rb,items.rb}
Define the factories
# spec/factories/todos.rb
FactoryBot.define do
factory :todo do
title { Faker::Lorem.word }
created_by { Faker::Number.number(digits: 20) }
end
end end
end
We are ensuring that faker generates dynamic data every time the factory is invoked by wrapping it in a block. This way, we always have a unique data.
# spec/factories/items.rb
FactoryBot.define do
factory :item do
name { Faker::Movies::StarWars.character }
done { false }
todo_id { nil }
end
end
Todo API
Now we will be writing request specs for CRUD functionality
open up spec/requests/todos_spec.rb
require 'rails_helper'
RSpec.describe 'Todos API', type: :request do
# initialize test data
let!(:todos) { create_list(:todo, 20) }
let(:todo_id) { todos.first.id }
# Test suite for GET /todos
# Test suite for GET /todos/:id
# Test suite for POST /todos
# Test suite for PUT /todos/:id
# Test suite for DELETE /todos/:id end
Above we are describing the type of test, in our case it is request spec
Test suite for GET /todos and GET /todos/:id
describe 'GET /todos' do
# make HTTP get request before each example
before { get '/todos' }
it 'returns todos' do
# Note `json` is a custom helper to parse JSON responses
expect(json).not_to be_empty
expect(json.size).to eq(20)
end
it 'returns status code 200' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
end
end describe 'GET /todos/:id' do
before { get "/todos/#{todo_id}" }
context 'when the record exists' do
it 'returns the todo' do
expect(json).not_to be_empty
expect(json['id']).to eq(todo_id)
end
it 'returns status code 200' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
end
end context 'when the record does not exist' do
let(:todo_id) { 100 }
it 'returns status code 404' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(404)
end
it 'returns a not found message' do
expect(response.body).to match(/Couldn't find Todo/)
end
end
end
When making a GET request to /todos endpoint, as per our initialized data it should display 10 records and should return the status code 200.
When making a GET request to /todos/:id endpoint, if the record exists at the initialized id i.e id = 1, the response body should not be empty and return status code of 200.
Test suite for POST /todos
describe 'POST /todos' do
# valid payload
let(:valid_attributes) { { title: 'Learn Node', created_by: '1' }}
context 'when the request is valid' do
before { post '/todos', params: valid_attributes }
it 'creates a todo' do
expect(json['title']).to eq('Learn Node')
end
it 'returns status code 201' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(201)
end
end
context 'when the request is invalid' do
before { post '/todos', params: { title: 'Apple' } }
it 'returns status code 422' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(422)
end
it 'returns a validation failure message' do
expect(response.body)
.to match(/Validation failed: Created by can't be blank/)
end
end
end
We have initialised a data object with title and created_by. We then make a POST request and pass the data object as params. The consecutive it block test the endpoint by checking if the todo was created and if not then check for appropriate http status codes i.e 201 for created, 422 for unprocessable entity.
Test suite for PUT /todos/:id
describe 'PUT /todos/:id' do
let(:valid_attributes) { { title: 'Shopping' } }
context 'when the record exists' do
before { put "/todos/#{todo_id}", params: valid_attributes }
it 'updates the record' do
expect(response.body).to be_empty
end
it 'returns status code 204' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(204)
end
end
end
We are testing if we can update an existing record by making a PUT request.
a data object with title as ‘Shopping’ is passed as params while making the request.
Test suite for DELETE /todos/:id
describe 'DELETE /todos/:id' do
before { delete "/todos/#{todo_id}" }
it 'returns status code 204' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(204)
end
end
Testing if a delete request is able to delete a particular record.
In a nutshell, We start by populating the database with a list of 10 todo records. We also have a custom helper method json which parses the JSON response to a Ruby Hash which is easier to work with in our tests. We will define it in spec/support/request_spec_helper
Finally,
$ bundle exec rspec
Our tests are gonna fail. That’s because we haven’t defined the routes yet.
Lets define them in config/routes.rb
# config/routes.rb
Rails.application.routes.draw do
resources :todos do
resources :items
end
end
In our route definition, we’re creating todo resource with a nested items resource. This enforces the one to many associations at the routing level.
Now, let’s define the controller methods to finally get a green light in our tests
# app/controllers/todos_controller.rb
class TodosController < ApplicationController
before_action :set_todo, only: [:show, :update, :destroy]
# GET /todos
def index
@todos = Todo.all
json_response(@todos)
end
# POST /todos
def create
@todo = Todo.create!(todo_params)
json_response(@todo, :created)
end
# GET /todos/:id
def show
json_response(@todo)
end
# PUT /todos/:id
def update
@todo.update(todo_params)
head :no_content
end
# DELETE /todos/:id
def destroy
@todo.destroy
head :no_content
end
private
def todo_params
# whitelist params
params.permit(:title, :created_by)
end
def set_todo
@todo = Todo.find(params[:id])
end
end
If you notice we have a new helper json_response which responds with JSON and HTTP status code. We will define this method in concerns folder.
# app/controllers/concerns/response.rb
module Response
def json_response(object, status = :ok)
render json: object, status: status
end
end
Note: ActiveRecord will throw an exception ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound in cases where the record does not exist when we try to find a todo by id.
Handling record not found errors
# app/controllers/concerns/exception_handler.rb
module ExceptionHandler
# provides the more graceful `included` method
extend ActiveSupport::Concern
included do
rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound do |e|
json_response({ message: e.message }, :not_found)
end
rescue_from ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid do |e|
json_response({ message: e.message }, :unprocessable_entity)
end
end
end
Note: In the create method in TodosController, we are using create! which will raise an exception ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid. Hence we rescue from this exception as well.
Our controller classes aren’t aware of such helpers yet. Let’s fix it by including these modules in the application controller.
# app/controllers/application_controller.rb
class ApplicationController < ActionController::API
include Response
include ExceptionHandler
end
If we go and run $ bundle exec rspec
And we pass! 👏🏻
TodoItems API
# spec/requests/items_spec.rb
require 'rails_helper'
RSpec.describe 'Items API' do
# Initialize the test data
let!(:todo) { create(:todo) }
let!(:items) { create_list(:item, 20, todo_id: todo.id) }
let(:todo_id) { todo.id }
let(:id) { items.first.id }
# Test suite for GET /todos/:todo_id/items
describe 'GET /todos/:todo_id/items' do
before { get "/todos/#{todo_id}/items" }
context 'when todo exists' do
it 'returns status code 200' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
end
it 'returns all todo items' do
expect(json.size).to eq(20)
end
end
context 'when todo does not exist' do
let(:todo_id) { 0 }
it 'returns status code 404' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(404)
end
it 'returns a not found message' do
expect(response.body).to match(/Couldn't find Todo/)
end
end
end
# Test suite for GET /todos/:todo_id/items/:id
describe 'GET /todos/:todo_id/items/:id' do
before { get "/todos/#{todo_id}/items/#{id}" }
context 'when todo item exists' do
it 'returns status code 200' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(200)
end
it 'returns the item' do
expect(json['id']).to eq(id)
end
end
context 'when todo item does not exist' do
let(:id) { 0 }
it 'returns status code 404' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(404)
end
it 'returns a not found message' do
expect(response.body).to match(/Couldn't find Item/)
end
end
end
# Test suite for PUT /todos/:todo_id/items
describe 'POST /todos/:todo_id/items' do
let(:valid_attributes) { { name: 'Visit Narnia', done: false } }
context 'when request attributes are valid' do
before { post "/todos/#{todo_id}/items", params: valid_attributes }
it 'returns status code 201' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(201)
end
end
context 'when an invalid request' do
before { post "/todos/#{todo_id}/items", params: {} }
it 'returns status code 422' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(422)
end
it 'returns a failure message' do
expect(response.body).to match(/Validation failed: Name can't be blank/)
end
end
end
# Test suite for PUT /todos/:todo_id/items/:id
describe 'PUT /todos/:todo_id/items/:id' do
let(:valid_attributes) { { name: 'Mozart' } }
before { put "/todos/#{todo_id}/items/#{id}", params: valid_attributes }
context 'when item exists' do
it 'returns status code 204' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(204)
end
it 'updates the item' do
updated_item = Item.find(id)
expect(updated_item.name).to match(/Mozart/)
end
end
context 'when the item does not exist' do
let(:id) { 0 }
it 'returns status code 404' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(404)
end
it 'returns a not found message' do
expect(response.body).to match(/Couldn't find Item/)
end
end
end
# Test suite for DELETE /todos/:id
describe 'DELETE /todos/:id' do
before { delete "/todos/#{todo_id}/items/#{id}" }
it 'returns status code 204' do
expect(response).to have_http_status(204)
end
end
end
The tests at this point would fail, lets define the todo items controller.
# app/controllers/items_controller.rb
class ItemsController < ApplicationController
before_action :set_todo
before_action :set_todo_item, only: [:show, :update, :destroy]
# GET /todos/:todo_id/items
def index
json_response(@todo.items)
end
# GET /todos/:todo_id/items/:id
def show
json_response(@item)
end
# POST /todos/:todo_id/items
def create
@todo.items.create!(item_params)
json_response(@todo, :created)
end
# PUT /todos/:todo_id/items/:id
def update
@item.update(item_params)
head :no_content
end
# DELETE /todos/:todo_id/items/:id
def destroy
@item.destroy
head :no_content
end
private
def item_params
params.permit(:name, :done)
end
def set_todo
@todo = Todo.find(params[:todo_id])
end
def set_todo_item
@item = @todo.items.find_by!(id: params[:id]) if @todo
end
end
Moment of truth…
And here we go, we have with us a working todo API.
That’s it for part one. At this point we have covered
Generate an API application with Rails 6 Setup RSpec with Factory Bot, Database Cleaner, Shoulda Matchers and Faker. Build models and controllers with TDD
In the next part, we shall see how we can setup up some monitoring for our API application from scratch. Hope to see you there. Cheers! 🍺
Like this article? Follow me on twitter.
Link to the Github repo.
References
Here are some useful links which I came across when I started with building APIs :-
https://medium.com/pixelpoint/oh-man-look-at-your-api-22f330ab80d5
https://scotch.io/tutorials/build-a-restful-json-api-with-rails-5-part-one
https://medium.com/@kiddy.xyz/tutorial-restful-api-dengan-ruby-on-rails-4-mysql-part-2-create-update-delete-c0db70d17a84
https://medium.com/@lukepierotti/setting-up-rspec-and-factory-bot-3bb2153fb909 | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-monitor-a-rails-api-part-i-7ecdc672937b | ['Ashish Rao'] | 2019-09-28 19:37:20.484000+00:00 | ['Statsd', 'Telegraf', 'Ruby on Rails', 'Grafana', 'Influxdb'] |
Vision 2030 | Vision 2030
“Where there is no vision, the people perish”
What is Silicon Savanna’s vision? What are we trying to become? What does success look like when it finally arrives?
Nairobi’s startup ecosystem cannot be divorced from the broader national context in which it exists. Indeed, it is a microcosm of that larger narrative. If we are to understand Silicon Savanna we must step back and consider the country.
What is Kenya’s vision? Where are we going? What do we stand for? What would success even look like for us?
Without concrete and specific answers to these questions it is impossible to expect anything from citizens beyond a survivalist, short-termist, eat-what-I-kill mindset. Fertile breeding ground for corruption, cronyism, and generalized mediocrity. Classic cause and effect!
Without a unifying vision there is no reason for a people to sacrifice short-term personal wins, no matter the broader societal cost, for long term communal gain. Why do so? The game invariably degenerates to a zero sum, extraction-at-any-cost pursuit, relegating the ideals of a social contract to nothing more than abstract, unrealistic aspirations for bleeding hearts to pine over like John the Baptist, lone voices in the wilderness.
The more we continue to extract from our shared pool (and by this I mean our shared destiny as people in a nation, not government coffers) without putting back in, the more we deplete our resources including that most invaluable element, human will, which is vital for a functional society .
Trust suffers, dynamism turns negative, a vicious cycle takes hold, the inevitable end of which is societal breakdown. Gated communities mushroom, negative news cycle dominates, quality of service wanes as business people resort to doing just enough to extract the next marginal shilling from the system.
Quality of life erodes, life expectancy drops, mental health problems abound, the drum beat of suicides quickens, cancer becomes common, relationships become increasingly transactional, animalistic. Signs of the human spirit giving way.
So whose job is it to articulate a nation’s vision? What of an ecosystem’s? The natural instinct is to look to political leaders and self appointed gatekeeper weirdos. By now we should have realised that shit ain’t gonna happen bruv!
It’s on us, no one else is coming.
A vision by definition is an inclusive aspiration. It is not just about you and your family. It is something that transcends you. Something you are willing to personally sacrifice for it’s attainment. You know it when you hear it. It tugs at your soul. But bills.
Nelson Mandela. Martin Luther King. Patrice Lumumba. Heroes!
The fact of the matter is none of us is leaving this planet alive. Death is imminent, and you know as well as I do that our brief lives will be quickly washed away in the sands of time. 100 years from now no one will know we existed, let alone give two shits about our sorry little problems. We are but a puff of smoke in an undulating universe. Essentially, nothing.
There are 3 ways to respond to this disconcerting reality. 1) Religion: the less said about that the better :( 2) Me-ism: a me first at all costs attitude, paying zero attention to the destruction left in our wake as we ride the currents of status quo. 3) Lynchpin: like the Salmon, turn upstream, embrace the challenge of contributing to LIFE itself, spread your wings like an eagle to provide cover for others seeking support so they too can soar, like those genius Ibis’s find a squad of like minded leaders and join ranks to fly in formation.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
My personal vision for Silicon Savanna is that in 10–15 years we can be able to stand back, gaze at the Nairobi skyline and pick out neon signage of great African companies that impactafrica.network played a key part in catalyzing in the early days. We are working with some right now!
Success = increased quality jobs, more respect for entrepreneurs/risk takers (not job titles), commitment to value creation (not rent seeking), meritocracy over hierarchy, individuals committed to high performance, high integrity, and high collaboration. A restored faith in a system of good rewards for good work. Trust, kindness, community.
When people have disposable income and a belief in their ability to create more, they tend to loosen their grip, become more tolerant, creative, and just more awesome. They yearn for a better world.
I just described Silicon Valley, at least pre 2010. This is the spirit that laid the foundation for that place’s phenomenal success, and, we can’t argue with success so kindly park your criticism hapo kando *insert massive eye roll*.
What’s your vision 2030? #myvision2030
“If a man has not found something he is willing to die for, he is not fit to live.” Martin Luther King | https://medium.com/impact-africa-network/vision-2030-dbea22f9924b | ['Mark Karake'] | 2019-03-18 09:34:47.492000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Transformation', 'Nairobi', 'Innovation', 'Startup'] |
How I spend my lockdown days during the Covid-19 pandemic? | How I spend my lockdown days during the Covid-19 pandemic?
This article is about how I spent my time at home this covid-19 pandemic, ie through certification courses, blogs, writing, cooking, movies etc.
Dated- April.
Many of you asked me a suggestion on what all to do, what I do and also review on the blogs they started as well. So I am doing this as a part of my Journal blogs, quite out of my conventional monthly journal series. Unlike many of you, I am confused about how to channelise my time not because I don’t have anything to do, but because I am overloaded with work and things to do.
Check out by Blogspot
My last Journal
It was on 10th March, the Kerala Govt declared Holiday for all schools and colleges due to Covid 19 epidemic. That evening I was busy editing the Covid 19 article of Sagar Suresh Kumar to be published on MUNner’s daily. I helped him with getting some facts from News article and he gave his research biology, medicine and virology. The Covid 19 cases were about 70,000 that day, which is much less than what New York State has today. The very next day WHO in a Press Conference declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Just a week later the cases doubled to 140,000 and as I write this article, the cases cross 1 Million in total.
Just after the holiday was declared I was in chill mode, I spent the first few days like there was no college ever after. I watched a lot of Youtube videos. I also restarted playing Computer which I didn't do for a very long time. For a week I and my brother were alone at home. Only after the lockdown was declared by Kerala, and Janatha Curfew my mom and dad stayed at home.
Here are a few things which I did and some I continue to do.
Teaching 10th-grade stuff.
I am not a tutor. I love teaching! I am just teaching my brother who just got his 9th std results and got 10th std books. My mom didn't want to keep him idle, so she asked me to look after his studies especially Social Science because he is doing Byju’s program for science and maths. Also, Social was my favourite. I began teaching history, considered to be the toughest and boring. I taught him European Nationalism and how countries were formed in Europe. Soon after that, I started teaching Indian Nationalism and later on Political Science- Power Sharing and Federalism.
Soon after, the lockdown was extended till mid-April my mom asked me to teach him maths and science as well. So I began with Chemistry- Periodic Classification of elements and started Organic. I really love Organic Chemistry. Physics I taught Light-Reflection, Refractions, Lenses and Mirrors. Without wasting time I also covered Linear Equations in two variables and Real Numbers.
Playing games
It sounds weird but something I put down just because I didn't have enough time. I restarted playing Euro Truck Simulator 2 where we drive trucks across the Europe-I love that game as I love travelling and I love roads.
I also restarted playing Paladins.
College work- Assignments and Online work
Networking miss just in the first week itself gave two assignments. Soon after that each teacher like competition, are keeping on sending assignments. Algorithms, we are asked to do one short assignment every day. Also have SEPM, Web, Mobile Computing and Networking assignment as well.
Cooking
I really miss restaurant food now, it has been more than a month since I am eating only homemade food. My parents didn’t allow to eat outside food starting from 10th March. I curse myself for ignoring a lot of restaurants in the locality when there was no covid.
For years, I have consistently been able to manage myself alone at home. At least making dosas if there is batter at home, sandwiches, egg etc. Since quarantine started my urge to explore more food increased and also my urge to cook and eat as well. So within a short time, I tried out many dishes- Chily Potato, Chapati, Potato curry, Egg roast, Paneer, Egg noodles, Chocolate cake, Gobi Paneer, Momos, Biriyani, Pasta, Gobi-65, cake, panipuri etc.
Delicacies tried out
I am still determined to continue improving cooking and eating throughout the lockdown and post lockdown also.
Youtube
Since starting I used to watch a lot of travel videos and things like that but since pandemic, all bloggers are like corona! corona! so I partly avoided many channels.
Apart from my old set I started watching infographics show and vox for covid updates. Also, Shekhar Gupta Sir, a renowned journalist is doing a very good job by doing Cut the Clutter series on youtube on his own digital news channel ThePrint. They have very good news articles and I have subscribed to them on Telegram.
My favourite Digital News, The Lallantop publishes Netanagri story every Saturday where it’s Editor in Chief Saurabh Dwivedi sir and Senior Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai Sir talk on the various important news happening in the country. They have answered two of my questions on the platform and I am very happy about that. The Lallantop was declared as the best Digital news channel Hindi and Rajdeep Sir won the Lifetime achievement award for journalism from INBA. Rajdeep Sir has worked for TOI, then for NDTV, and later started his own TV news network CNN IBN, which later was taken over by Reliance. He now is in Editorial team of India Today TV. The Lallantop has 15 M subscribers on Youtube and is really a very good channel.
Online Courses
The far most important and the most exciting way I spend my time.
I have already completed 3 courses on Udemy for free. One with Certificate was on Birth of International Relations in Europe (1815–1914). This course tells you how the concept of International Relations and Balance of Power in Europe came into existence. This was similar to the subject I taught my brother- Nationalism in Europe. The second course was on Political Science and the third one was on Data Science.
On Coursera, MEC students have an offer, you can give your names to your staff-in-charge and access free courses. I enrolled in Data Science with Python and one Corona one and the other Diplomacy and UN.
The last place where you get free courses is Amnesty International Academy. I took a few short courses there too. You also get a certificate on selected courses.
Also, Internshala was giving away free courses for students from Kerala, so I took the course for Digital Marketing which is a course on Blogs, SEO and Google Analytics. An emerging engineering requirement at the same time, no coding is required.
Why Certificate courses?
There are a lot of things which we learn from University Syllabus and there is a lot of things which may not know but maybe required. You also need skills to stay in the job market especially Corona Season, and with a recession on the doorstep. In order to prevent that from happening, you need skill and knowledge. Take a course eg- Data Science, you will never get to learn in college, but there is a lot of scope in it. The only way you get that knowledge is from courses. Also, these certificates can shine your CV, especially if they are from Coursera, Udemy and Internshala. Also, these are very important for your application to both domestic and foreign universities, if you’re changing your field say Humanities or Finance. You have good courses here. With Amnesty Intl course you can get easy access to any International Organisations. Try to enter these courses anywhere in the resume or CV.
Why I do a lot of courses?- I like to learn new things. I explore my interest, I get knowledge and earn skills. Thus I am able to share that knowledge. Also, academic subjects don’t interest me. I also may change my field of study.
Movies and Series
I am not a movie maniac. I rarely watch films. But with constant pressure from my brother, my parents took 30 days free trial for Amazon Prime. We watch one film every day. I also watched a few documentaries on Iran Nuclear Plants and also on Operation Foxley.
I almost finished watching Pokemon and completed X&Y, my favourite cartoon.
Miscellaneous
Out of all these things, I also was able to participate in online contests like NOESIS by Mixed Signals and CONOSCENZA by IEEE. I took part in an IEEE PELS webinar on thermonuclear physics.
At home, we also video called grandparents who are their native place, and also my cousin in Melbourne.
Books
Completed Marxists Political economy, I rate the book 3/5. Also completed the book on Economics of War, Peace and Terrorism- an American perspective.
MUNSOC
It was by luck that IntraMUN got to wind up just in time two days before educational institutions closed sine die. So I thank the entire team for putting in a lot of effort for the event. I thank Allen Joseph for all the sincere efforts.
So, talking about MUNSOC and its activities, we had a small collaboration with IEDC where we released a few articles on Social Distancing and Panic buying. MUNner’s daily is releasing two articles every week and that is one of the most active blogs in MEC. Also, we started a quiz series on our Telegram Channel which was indeed a grand success.
My article on MUNer’s daily!
Online MUNs
A new and interesting concept. I attended VMUN, PINK MUN, TKM MUN, MEC E-MUN, Unnati-E-MUN and planning to attend a few more.
Blogging and Writing
This the last section and I am including this as the last topic. I wrote a lot of blogs and kept it for future publish. I have many articles enough for two months at least. I published your feedback article, taking consideration of your feedback and also answering a few FAQs. The other two publish included- Two opinion articles- One on Munner’s daily on Capital Punishments while the other was on my own blog publication on Why BJP will continue to stride on its success.
I also took part in the YouthikiAwaaz 12th anniversary celebration on their platform as well as on Instagram live. Also, I covered IEDC MEC’s activity against COVID on Online Manorama and The New Indian Express.
Self-Quarantine days are one of the rare time I had ever got. It may not be the best moment ever, but it is enough to make an impact in my life that I will never forget. I don’t see classes starting anytime soon and this status quo will be maintained for now. I am happy enough to stay at home, pursue my passion without any disturbance also I don’t regret missing college too. Certainly, these moments will stay in my heart and thus I decided to document this. It has been a long time since 4 of my family are together for such a long time- 3 weeks over.
I started my own Blogspot! Do follow me there too.
My advice will make maximum use of this time to keep yourself entertained and to do something which you wanted to do always or something which you will never be able to do. Most of us will directly set foot to the job soon after college and you won’t time for anything, even for your family. Also, use this time to sharpen your skills and bring up a passion or build your career which you wanted to pursue because career is not formed by your degree but by your skills. That is why people are losing jobs, they will find it hard to restart their career because they were dependant on something which they thought was permanent, say like Travel industry which people once thought to be evergreen field. Now, only people with skills and passion will survive and everyone who entered jobs with nepotism and luck will be thrown out. Many companies have already fired employees. You need to prove that degree is just a piece of paper and ability is something more important for a job.
Do what you guys love and this time is solely for that. Don’t take extra tension. Utilise this time for learning. And do comment on how you guys are spending time in the comments.
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If you are liking my blogs and in search of useful content keep following me. Do follow my new publication. Also, I have started a Telegram Channel which will contain the record of all my articles. Feel free to subscribe to the channel and refer them.
You can drop in your feedback either in the comments sections or reach out to me on Social Media- FB Messenger| Instagram|Telegram|Quora|YKA. For my old posts do scroll down my profile page. Thank you! for continuing to support me. | https://medium.com/journal-of-knowledge/how-i-spend-my-lockdown-days-47b0890487ee | ['Jairam R Prabhu'] | 2020-12-08 06:31:44.332000+00:00 | ['Covid 19 Crisis', 'Journal', 'College', 'Covid 19', 'Lockdown'] |
5 Ways To Deliver A Shitload Of Candy On Pandemic Halloween | 5 Ways To Deliver A Shitload Of Candy On Pandemic Halloween
Socially distant sugar hits.
All illustrations by the author.
There’s a lot to worry about this Halloween: the coronavirus pandemic, kids’ happiness, and the pressure to keep up with the Joneses for the best-decorated house on the block. But don’t fear, we know kids need their candy, and nothing can stop Halloween from happening. Since the CDC has advised against traditional trick-or-treating, the Support Unrestricted Candy Consumption Association (SUCCA) has come up with some creative ideas for socially distant candy delivery.
1. Grand Sugar Slam
Transform your home into a baseball park with authentic light-polluting flood lamps, so trick-or-treaters within a 1-mile radius will know your house is open for business. Bases will be loaded with kids waiting for a sugar hit. Little Tommy couldn’t catch your 90 mph Atomic Fireball? Well, he deserved to have his teeth knocked out. Note: SUCCA also recommends softer, full-sized bars of Baby Ruth.
2. OctoSlide
Create an ocean-themed OctoSlide costume from repurposed house gutters filled with a sanitizer, to safely slide candy to trick-or-treaters. SUCCA recommends flooding the slides with 190-proof Everclear spirits to ensure faster delivery of germ-free Swedish Fish to eager hands and mouths.
3. Candypult
Build a giant wooden catapult for a Medieval Halloween. Release a sugar-infused payload to all trick-or-treaters who venture to your castle. Don’t worry if kids skip your house; this powerful Candypult will reach people across the street too. Note that SUCCA condones the use of Jawbreakers to disperse large groups of maskless kids or annoying neighbors.
4. Robots
Execute a military candy strike from the comfort of your home. All you need is a credit card for a “shock and awe” Halloween. Amazon provided SUCCA drones will drop sour Warheads on any human and/or living animal in the neighborhood. At ground level, wheeled robots dish out buckets of explosive Pop Rocks.
5. Self-Care Treats
Finally, there’s always the option to turn your house lights off, hide, and gorge on bags of candy until the emptiness in your heart is filled. You can never have too much chocolate stockpiled for emotional support during these scary pandemic times. Happy Halloween from SUCCA! | https://medium.com/slackjaw/5-ways-to-deliver-a-shitload-of-candy-on-pandemic-halloween-44dfad7efca2 | ['Lynn I. Hsu'] | 2020-10-30 12:06:01.534000+00:00 | ['Satire', 'Parenting', 'Humor', 'Comics', 'Halloween'] |
A 7 Minute Read About My 2018 & Hopes for 2019 | I started this on the last day of 2018 but was unable to finish and then life. Lots happened as our planet took another lap around the sun. 2018 was been full and for one of the first times in my life I am ready to leave the year and nearly all the contents behind. It may be the toughest year I have ever lived and am hoping and expecting 2019 to be better. Not simply easier, although a little easier would be nice, better. Even so, there are new friendships, fulfilling experiences, memories created, and belly laughs that occurred. It is these positives that I am committed to remembering rather than the negatives. In the next few paragraphs I will share some of what 2018 held for me and what 2019 will hold. I’ve bolded out paragraph headings, so you can skip ahead. I’m writing this for you to see what I’ve been up to, but it is also for posterity. It’s for me to visit again next year and the year after to remember this year as I remembered it at the time and for others to do so as well (including you Brookie).
Before I start with 2018, this is the second year I’ve written a Year in Review on Medium. Before starting this year’s review I read through last year’s “2017 Sucked But Yet…” — it’s a 4 minute read and is equal parts gut-punch and happiness. The three biggest impacts of 2017 are the biggest impacts on 2018, my daughter Brooke (she goes by Brookie now because she’s a big kid), my dog-hter Blixen and my wife Mary (I’ll write about Blixen and Brooke because they do not have the platform to share). It reminds me the opposite of happiness is not sadness, just like the opposite of joy is not pain, rather the opposite of each emotion is the absence of emotion. So, with that in mind 2018 was full many different types of emotion — here’s my recap.
In General:
I am a year older, slightly wiser and have had new experiences. I travelled to Florida, North Carolina, San Francisco, and Dallas. I got to see my brother three times, my dad and stepmom twice, my sister and mom once — and now everyone in my immediate family has met my daughter. More locally, I visited Bend, the Oregon and Washington coasts, Sunriver, and Hood River. Two cousins visited us in Portland, as did some of my wife’s best friend, my best friend and his now-wife. I travelled with new friends and ones I’ve known for more than 20 years having great experiences with both. In Portland I witnessed the excitement public transportation can bring to a two-year-old and gained a new appreciation for public parks and the zoo. I was in the wedding party as a life-long friend got married, faced new work challenges overcoming many, dealt with financial and family stresses that I couldn’t have imagined a year ago, and through it all did my best (although I was not perfect) to remain true to who I am.
Me & Sports:
Sports play an important role in my life. I write about them on this platform regularly and still shoot hoops at the basketball court across the street, run regularly and am a fan of: NC State Athletics, a few professional teams in the US and Manchester City in England. Man City won the Premier League in 2018 in record-breaking fashion, are doing extremely well this year and are exciting to watch. I support the Portland Timbers in MLS, but Man City have allowed me to appreciate soccer in ways I couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. It is somewhat of a childlike experience in that I am constantly learning.
For me, I went to a Portland Pickles game, a few Timbers’ matches, bounced at a trampoline park, conquered the warp wall, set a running goal that I’m revisiting (more below), and made it three years in a row for March Madness. Year four is already scheduled for March 22, 2019.
Even though I have nearly entirely shifted from playing to watching, sports serve as an escape from the stress and significant parts of life. Even though it is an escape, I cannot help myself analyzing the games and thinking about what would make aspects even more efficient, fairer, enjoyable, and generally better. I’ve written about some of these previously on the Medium platform and am committing to 12 posts this year. If you’re interested, they are 3–5 minute reads, check out the topics and share your thoughts. Things like Baseball in Portland (part 1 and 2), NFL in Europe, rule changes to soccer, and more. Also, I take topic suggestions and at least two this year will be reader suggestions.
Blixen:
Last year I wrote, “Life is hard for her and if I’m being realistic, my recap next year will almost certainly include her passing.” Unfortunately, this prediction became reality on February 11th. It’s comforting to know she is no longer in pain and I also recognize she lived a long, happy life and she had nothing more to give. I wrote this tribute piece a few days after her death and put together a photo album of many of the moments of her life. It is heartening to know how many people were touched by her and even yesterday (12/30) two people told me how she impacted them. I miss her every day and while I will get another dog a few years from now, no living creature will replace what Blixen means to me.
Brooke:
My favorite part of 2018 was my daughter Brooke. The bond we share grew dramatically and the defining legacy of 2018 for me will be her becoming her own person. She now comes up to me and says, “daddy, (lets) watch soccer” and it melts my heart. I view my responsibility to her as twofold; (1) keep her safe and (2) help her become the best version of her true self. The first isn’t easy but it’s straightforward, the second part is more difficult and the two often come in conflict. It’s giving her the space she needs to try new things, its allowing her to fail and deal with difficulty, it’s not coming to the rescue when she starts crying if she’s safe, and it’s encouraging her in both subtle and obvious ways. It’s asking her a question every day that I adapted from something Jack Harbaugh used to say to his two sons, Jim and John Harbaugh. Each morning either at breakfast or when I bike her the two miles to her school I ask, “Brooke, are we going to attack today with an enthusiasm unknown to humankind”. Sometimes she looks at me and giggles with a “no” just to get a reaction from me, but even when she does that first I always get a short and excited “YEA!” back.
In 2018 we were able to spend quality time with each of Brooke’s seven cousins, two of whom lived with us for a couple months. She loves to dance (particularly to “Baby Shark” or “Peanut Butter Jelly Time”, loves swimming but hates going in the splash pad across the street, loves the waterslide but not going down it on her own, loves bouncing on a trampoline, and as her teachers say, “she is freakishly strong” — she has the size and strength of a five-year-old. And, I see myself in both her appearance and her actions. She can be painfully shy around strangers like I was as a child, is constant motion, and sleeps almost every night with a blanket completely over her face — something my wife gives me a hard time about doing. The only time she really slows down is at bedtime. It involves a book or two, some milk, me singing her the ABC’s while I brush her teeth, then her singing them back to me, and ends with an 8-verse version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. When we get to the penultimate verse “electron capture core…” she says “collapse”. My favorite trait she has is when she sets her mind to something she is determined to do it. It’s the combination of my wife’s stubborn determination that has often served our family well, and my single-minded focus on something I when I am passionate about it.
2018 helped solidify something in me that I have always known. My core purpose in life is to be a father. It has always been something I aspired to be, and I knew life would be incomplete without it. I recognize this section may seem bland, domestic, and similar to what every dad experiences. It is, and I love that it is.
2019 Goals:
The new year is more than a time to reflect on the past, it’s an opportunity to let much of it go and strive for a better future. With that in mind, I have a few intentions (you can call them resolutions if you’d like, I like intention because it acknowledges from the outset that I will be imperfect in the pursuit) for 2019.
Listen More, Talk Less and when I speak do so honestly and with compassion
I have a running intention. It’s one I had in 2018 but was unsuccessful. I won’t share it on here yet, but I plan to document my progress weekly and begin sharing in mid-February with posts every other week. If you are interested, you can follow along.
Finally, I was listening to This American Life this morning (12/31) and something really stuck with me. One of the people being interviewed said, “you can do your job without being that eternally kind… but you were that kind”. I will purposefully bring this approach to my work and my human interactions.
Happy 2019 and look forward to our paths crossing. | https://medium.com/@jaredcwiener/a-7-minute-read-about-my-2018-hopes-for-2019-b7510f61f505 | ['Jared Wiener'] | 2019-01-23 04:03:27.832000+00:00 | ['Death', 'Year In Review'] |
The Left Isn’t Failing, It’s Being Sabotaged: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix | The Left Isn’t Failing, It’s Being Sabotaged: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix Caitlin Johnstone Jun 20·6 min read
Listen to a reading of this article:
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In later years we’re going to learn about some of the covert operations which US intelligence agencies and their proxies were using to smash the rise of socialism in America today and a lot of people are going to feel silly for all their remarks blaming the state of the left on leftists. I see so much talk about the left’s fragmentation and political ineffectiveness like it’s the result of some kind of character flaw in leftists themselves, when it is clearly the result of generations of high-intensity mass-scale psyops which with 100 percent certainty continue to this day.
The left is not failing, it is being actively sabotaged. It is being sabotaged with psychological operations in our own society by the same power structure which sabotages the left in foreign nations around the world. COINTELPRO-like tactics most certainly continue today, especially online.
It seems like leftists are way too hard on each other about the difficulties they have in getting the revolution off the ground, and they shouldn’t, because it’s really not their fault. The whole movement’s been hammered with mass-scale psyops for generations, and continues to be.
It does no good to get paranoid about this and try to figure out who is and isn’t an infiltrator; the temptation to do that is itself part of the psyop, because it causes division and enmity. Playing “spot the infiltrator” is typically a very unwise and arbitrary game; I’ve had plenty of people accuse me of being part of an op, and over the years I’ve been warned that literally every prominent leftist voice is controlled opposition at some point. I personally ignore the question altogether and just elevate people when they’re saying something useful and don’t elevate people when they’re not. Getting paranoid only serves power.
My own approach to our dilemma is to just do my own thing, damaging the machine where I can and amplifying worthy movements when I see them, while being tolerant of a wide diversity of opinion among socialist anti-imperialists. But that doesn’t work for everyone, and that’s fine too.
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Intelligence sources tell me there’s a strong probability of interference in the next election by billionaires who control all the media.
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Learning about the real villains in our world is like an endless series of Scooby Doo episodes where the gang is being chased by communists, Muslims, Russians, domestic terrorists etc, then they get the mask off and it always turns out it’s just oligarchic imperialism every time.
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Try to foment right wing violence in America and Democrats will demand your imprisonment. Try to foment right wing violence in Russia and Democrats will demand your freedom.
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Democrats believe Russia controls everything, Republicans believe China controls everything, both believe the most powerful government on earth is just a passive victim of circumstance.
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China poses a major threat to the globe-dominating agendas of a few sociopaths in DC, Arlington and Langley and poses no threat whatsoever to you. Hope that helps.
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If South Africa existed in an oil-rich region of extreme geostrategic importance in close proximity to major US-targeted nations, and its guaranteed alignment with the US depended on maintaining apartheid, South Africa would still be an apartheid state. And it would still have nukes.
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The Capitol riot narrative has been chock full of plot holes, blatant falsehoods and virulent spin since day one, and now it’s being used to roll out “domestic terror” policies designed to target anyone who opposes the US status quo. The American left should be very concerned about this.
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Keir Starmer is like if nothing and apathy had a baby and sent it to a boarding school for corporate logos.
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The UFO story has less public interest than you’d expect because there’s no partisan angle to it, so a lot of people don’t know how to relate to it. Viral stories are generally the ones which validate people’s egos in some way, and this one doesn’t do that for most people. The only people whose egos it validates are those who’ve invested a lot of identity in UFOs being real.
It’s the same reason nobody cares about Yemen. Yemen is easily the most horrific thing happening in our world, and our governments have actively been participating in that horror, but because it doesn’t fit into the partisan lens we’ve been trained to see the world through, no one cares.
In a society that’s as enslaved to the ego as ours is, a story’s only going to get a ton of white hot interest if it flatters or inflames the ego in some way. If it confirms our biases or proves us right about the party we hate, it sells like crack. Otherwise it just fizzles.
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Cuba has managed to create a thriving socialist nation in the western hemisphere and all it took was a government which can withstand a military invasion, mountains of economic warfare, and hundreds of assassination attempts.
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Q: What’s the greatest threat to humanity?
The poor: Rich people.
Workers: Rich people.
Minorities: Rich people.
The chronically ill: Rich people.
Prisoners: Rich people.
Rich people: Brown people having too many babies.
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The “Great Reset” is capitalism. Period. It’s capitalism doing the only thing it can ever and will ever do: become more and more corrupt, create more and more inequality, funnel more and more wealth to the ruling class, and get more and more oppressive and exploitative. If you don’t see this, you don’t see any of it.
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“It’s not capitalism that’s the problem, it’s corporatism!”
It’s not my pyromania that’s the problem, it’s all these darn house fires!
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“Nobody understands economics but me, a man who believes infinite growth on a finite world is possible as long as we trust greedy union-busting tech oligarchs to rescue us from the consequences of ecocidal capitalism.”
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Capitalists are so defensive of Elon Musk because they know their entire worldview is invalidated if you can’t solve the riddle of infinite growth on a finite world by shipping humans into space and making saving the environment profitable. Spoiler alert: you can’t.
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Transhumanism assumes we’ve already done the human thing and we’ve taken it as far as it can go so now it’s time to become cyborgs, when hardly anyone is able to sit in their own skin and simply be, much less explore the deeper levels of their being. Maybe try actually exploring this human situation before trying to “transcend” it.
Transhumanists are all “Right, did the human thing, now it’s time for the next thing.” It’s like dude, no you didn’t. Humanity has barely even been born. You haven’t taken the time to explore what’s in this room and already you’re storming on to the next one. Try being here for a minute before you try to leave.
I mean just the fact that spiritual enlightenment is a known, well-documented phenomenon should give us pause here. What’s going on with that? What lies down that rabbit hole? You’re just going to walk right past it and start knitting your neurons to machinery and stuff?
Everyone’s trying to escape. Escape this experience. Escape this planet. Escape this species. And maybe that’s exactly the problem. Maybe peace and harmony is simply learning to be here now. Maybe this adventure isn’t meant to lead us away from our home, but into it.
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Really we’re all just going to have to wake up. To become more conscious of our own inner processes as well as the outer dynamics which cause suffering. It’s not a popular message and nobody wants to hear it, but the most honest answer to our dilemma is that we’re at evolve-or-die time as a species and we’ll either make it or we won’t.
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The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 | https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-left-isnt-failing-it-s-being-sabotaged-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix-a56ca08857e6 | ['Caitlin Johnstone'] | 2021-06-20 12:10:46.088000+00:00 | ['Socialism', 'Politics', 'Leftism', 'Capitalism', 'Revolution'] |
Severed Human Head on Sausalito Shores: Addie Gilmour, murdered by Dr. Eugene F. West | Severed Woman’s Head Found Tied to a Tree in Bay
18
On September 14th, 1893 around 3 pm a woman’s severed head found by Italian Fisherman (6) ‘neatly encased’ in wire netting. Found 1 mile East of Lime Point, just north of San Francisco (Marin County) at the Government Tidewater Building (5). A Saucalito Ferry Boat Officer said Dan Bosque (5), a San Francisco Medical Student, likely put the head in the water to remove the flesh from it, as a cheaper way to deflesh a skull used for medical practices. (5). Dan Bosque did admit to take a head to his home to be cleaned, but did not hear of the head found near Sausalito until reading it in the papers (18).
19
The Saucilito Marshal stated head was likely in the water from 10 days to two weeks, and supported the medical student theory, which Medical College deans later denied publicly (5, 6). The Woman’s head had remnants of dark hair and they theorized it belonged to a woman about 20 years with no recognizable facial characteristics due to being crushed (6, 60). The head was cut from the body just below the ears, and evidently had not been in the water more than ten days with the skill fractured and the marks not those that a student would make but rather a skilled surgeon (5, 6). The eyes were gone, ears and skin had been removed but the brain was still present. The skull had a small strip of mastoid from it hung a single one inch brown hair that was lighter in color to that of Miss Gilmour. The head was 19.5 inches in circumference and bore the mark of a skilled surgical hand (4, 17).
Addie’s Dentist, Dr. Stewart.
Addie’s Dental Record (14)
Theories of the day ranged from grave robbers to medical students . Debate raged as to if this head found was Addie Gilmour; and eventually she was indentified by close friends and relatives due to a surgical scar on her face that had gone to the bone (1, 4, 16, 17). She was also identified by her dentist, who testified at trial that the teeth contained evidence of his handwork and matched the records he had on file (14). Regardless numerous sightings of Addie occured in the coming months, with witnesses later recanting stating the encounters must have been her ghost (2).
The location where the head was anchored in Sausalito (5)
More Remains Found
Map showing locations of Addie Gilmour’s remains including places that no long exist or have been renamed. © Electric Consulting LLC, All Rights Reserved, 2020.
Coal Oil Can parts in which parts of Addie were found (20)
On September 17, 1893 around 5 pm, the upper breast portion and below waist remnants of a woman’s body were found by a boy named Stephenson (17) at the Long Wharf in Oakland, California. Estimated to have been in the water for two weeks and had been removed by someone with surgical skill (4, 35) and tied together with a piece of hay rope (18). A yard of bloody ‘Oil Cloth’ was found near Sausalito that was 3 feet in length and 2.5 feet in width, with similar rope to the wire mesh surrounding the skull. On September 20th, 1893, more remains wash up at the Oakland Mole: part of the lungs, trachea and part of back/ribs, which showed saw marks from a skilled surgeon, done with great care (2).
20
On September 27th, 1893, young Lloyd Hughes and Eddie Menzies spotted a 5 gallon coal tin bobbing in the water while swimming in the Oakland creek. The can contained the remaining parts of Addie Gilmour and was found on a sand spit near a cave at the foot of Center Street, 100 yards from the Peralta Street Wharf (63). The contents of the can were two thighs, two legs, a foot and two arms with the hands attached. Emma Gilmour, Addie’s Twin, positively identifed the hat pins, buttons and aligator skin purse found in the can as belonging to her sister (20). Noteabley the buttons in question were identified as Addie’s since Emma had an identical jacket as her twin. Similar buttons were found in the home of Dr. Eugene F. West (20, 63, 64). Additional remains were eventually found; and some of the the remains were buried at an unmarked grave at Oakland’s Mountain View Cemetery as confirmed by mountain view staff (14) and her home town of Colusa (60, 62, 66) with a very large funeral procession. Newspapers commented on many a Colusa resident swearing to tar and feather John C. McGrury for saying he never made a marriage contract with Addie. McGrury also said that she did not behave like a lady; with the faux pas of further tarnishing her name after death (74).
Coroner’s Inquest (18)
Addie is Missing; Her Family Begins Their Search
John Gilmour, Addie’s adoring father (17)
Addie was described as feeling ill the days prior to going missing and she had been pale and sickly (17, 52). Addie visited Toplitz & Company a couple more times and addressed letters to the store from where she was boarding (The Elmer House). Addie’s business partner, Laura Allen, was prearranged to meet Addie in San Francisco on September 2nd, but actually arrived on the 12th after not hearing from Addie (4, 18). Laura came to San Francisco to search for Addie, and upon hearing she had left her room at the Elmer House a few days before, she sent a message by telegraph to Addie’s brother and he had contacted the family because of her concern that something was not right. Her parents, John & Elizabeth, had just returned from a long trip to visit their old home in Ontario, New York, and to visit The World’s Fair in Chicago until they were called to San Francisco by telegraph while visiting their son in Oakland, Oregon (4, 17).
Wesley Kemp Dejarnatt, Addie’s Brother-in-law (17)
Addie’s brother-in-law, Wesley Kemp Dejarnatt, her father John, her sister Emma, Uncle Samuel Gilmour, brother Luke, Addie’s work companions, and Laura Allen all came to search for Addie. John, Dejarnatt, Emma and others visited, Dr. Eugene F. West, whom Addie had written that she was seeing for an operation (4). There, West admitted that Addie had died due to complications for an operation and that he had given her body to medical students, thinking she did not have a soul in the world (she gave him a fake name). John Gilmour took this to the police, who already knew West from a similar incident in July in which a girl died after an operation. The police went to arrest him for Addie’s murder, but he had dissapeared, only to be found a few days later following a manhunt. Dr. Eugene F. West was charged with murder and housed in city prison (2). Dr West was noted as oddly charismatic and charming despite circumstances (10). Ultimately, when Dr. West disposed of Addie so callously, he thought she had not a person in this world (53); but the love of her friends and family is what ended up bringing her justice.
34
May Howard (46)
Soon an investigation into all of Dr. West’s known associates narrowed down two witnesses; Annie Staley, who nursed Addie while she was in the care of Dr. West (2) and May Howard, who was present at his office during initial questioning (34, 43). Howard said that she saw Addie on the Oakland ferry threatening suicide, but later recanted the statement saying that Dr. West had asked her to tell the police that story (2). Five days after he was arrested and just one day after Annie Staley was arrested, with the help of his lawyers, Dr. West married Staley to keep her from testifying against him (1, 38).
3 | https://medium.com/internet-archaeology/the-ghastly-case-of-the-severed-human-head-on-sausalito-shores-141dc408cfdf | [] | 2020-12-16 19:32:18.357000+00:00 | ['True Crime', 'Crime', 'Mystery', 'History', 'Time'] |
True Crime Addiction Newsletter | Hello, True Crime Addicts!
The following are some of the recently published stories on TCA. We hope they help fill your True Crime Addiction needs!
Thanks for following fellow Addicts!
Athens, Greece | via Britannica
Macabre Chrysafidis Family Murders — A Greek Tragedy — This story should give you chills about just how inhumane some people can be.
A well respected Greek family in the affluent Ekali region of Athens was brutally butchered in their home, while someone on the inside told everyone else that all was well.
But, all was not well for Michael 48, his wife Elizabeth 43, their sons, George 18, and Michael Jr 16. | https://medium.com/true-crime-addiction/true-crime-addiction-newsletter-6aa576adbbf5 | ['Lisa Marie Fuqua'] | 2020-11-07 14:02:31.356000+00:00 | ['Murder', 'Culture', 'History', 'Justice', 'True Crime'] |
Need to know how someone really works under pressure? Play a game of Overcooked. | This four-minute game is great to help managers understand how people respond to high-stress environments, or simply to gain self-awareness.
Over the weekend I played Overcooked with two different groups of friends. There was a lot of muttering, screaming of impolite words, and good guidance.
Warning: the game is extremely addictive. I found myself playing round after challenging round to the point of mental exhaustion.
I played the game with two different groups of friends but still managed to find similarities in how I reacted and how other players reacted.
I remarked to a friend that Overcooked makes an excellent game to understand how people respond to high-stress environments, especially for managers and was inspired to write this post.
Let’s destress. Or will we?
What is Overcooked?
Overcooked is a cooperative (and chaotic) game played on video game consoles (example pictured above). Players prepare, cook, and serve as many dishes as they can in possibly the worst kitchen on earth! Things get shifted around, there’s only one sink to wash a few plates, and fires happen when you’re not looking. But the orders never stop coming in.
The menu keeps changing and the kitchen maps get more complex as you progress — so instead of just getting ingredients, chopping them up, and serving them, you might find yourself having to navigate sudden chasms, shifting stairs, or pesky pedestrians.
Overcooked is a four-minute simulation of a work situation where there is intense or prolonged stress.
This is the perfect game to understand how a team reacts to changing workflows and pressuring situations. It’s very different from say, a racing game like Mario Kart, which has less to do with the real world.
The maps keep changing. Good luck, have fun.
Types of players
I’ve noticed that there are several types of players. I didn’t want to group them into “bad” or “good” since these archetypes have their own strengths and weaknesses.
The actions can be analogous to work situations where there is high pressure to perform in an uncertain environment. Some traits could be functional, but ineffective.
For this fun take on Overcooked and how it relates to performance, I assume all players can perform basic tasks using game consoles. The game itself is very easy to pick up and a lot more emphasis is on coordination rather than precision.
1/ The “tell me what to do!”s
These players are actively passive.
They tend to scream at others to tell them what to do when it gets busy. The funny thing is, they’re really assertive about wanting to be told what to do!
Once they’re delegated that task though, they’ll stick through it. When a stressful situation arises, such as a fire, they tend to be the ones raising the alarm first.
Coaches or managers need to respond to these players immediately by directing them to an urgent task, or a consistent workflow, such as chopping ingredients.
2/ The dishwashers
These players are truly passive.
They start washing the dishes and cleaning up when they have no idea what to do. They like to stay busy, but don’t like to admit loudly that they are not sure where to start.
And they’re under-utilised because there are only so many dishes to wash. Someone NEEDS to tell them what to do!
For dishwashers (I’m guilty), take more initiative in asking for help, or realign yourself to the game’s objectives and take stock of what’s happening.
Coaches need to keep a lookout for people who start to engage in routine work — are they disengaged? Are they falling out of touch with the workflow and objectives? Consider what such players can do when it’s “off-peak” for them, such as putting the ingredients together to form the dish and serve food.
3/ The lone wolves
These players are passively active.
They keep trying to do everything, but in the process, they get in the way. It would have been much more productive if they had just delegated the work.
Still, they’re getting work done — just not in the most effective manner, nor the most adaptable since they have to readjust to different teammates or workflows when the map changes.
For these players, they need to understand that ironically, bearing too much burden makes poor teamwork. These players make great assistant coaches because they know what to do so well. They just need to work on delegating and better communication.
4/ That one friend who refuses to play but still coaches
These players are mentally engaged, but passive. They do make great consultants!
This friend refuses to play but still coaches pretty damn well. Because she gets the bird’s eye view, she is able to prioritise far better than those who are actually playing.
She is also able to direct players to follow through better, for instance, placing the right ingredients on the table rather than throwing them on the floor.
So what do effective players do?
I found that the best players tend to help coordinate by:
1/ Looking at the menu actively
This helps the team understand the key requirements. Wrong orders result in point deductions, so there’s an added incentive of getting things right the first time.
2/ Calling out the exact requirements
This helps the team understand exactly what resources are needed. In turn, team members should clarify their exact role by responding to the requirements exactly and seek not to duplicate them.
For instance, the leader would say, “We need one meat.” The team member should respond exactly, “I am now getting the meat.” And another team member might say, “Give me the meat and I will chop it.”
3/ Providing feedback
Effective players help to inform others whether they’re doing too much (and therefore creating waste or chaos), or too little (therefore delegating them urgent tasks). This is why performance reviews are so important as well!
4/ When **** hits the fan
Effective players identify and direct the right person — the one with most role-flexibility or skill— to fight fire.
Assistant leaders
Remember the lone wolf? This player is likely to be the most nimble and could make a great assistant coach.
But if she is unable to lead, she could potentially focus on putting the order together and serving it since that requires the strongest grasp of console-control and game objectives.
Gaining self-awareness through gaming
My conclusion about Overcooked is that it acts as a mirror to us in high-pressure situations, showing us how we truly react.
For instance, I found out my tendency to be the “dishwasher”. I keep to myself and fail to communicate as often when confused or overwhelmed. I can combat this by asking for help or trying to actively understand the big picture and workflows of other teammates to know how I fit in.
But the best part about Overcooked? It shows us that friendships can be forged despite all that screaming at each other — and we still want to play more of it. Together. | https://medium.com/@pearll/need-to-know-how-someone-really-works-under-pressure-play-a-game-of-overcooked-eaaa7101d92c | ['Pearl Lee'] | 2019-02-25 15:14:39.327000+00:00 | ['Overcooked', 'Gaming', 'Human Behavior', 'Performance', 'Pressure'] |
Golden Nugget from a Former Bad Girl: New Year Resolutions are Flukes | Photo from Laura Marques in Unsplash
I used to steal, fight, and sell drugs. I even went to jail for conspiracy to commit bank robbery. Back then, I was so angry with myself and others that I wanted to be a hit woman. I wanted to kill people for a living. I even tried to enlist in the Army so I could kill legally. Can you imagine how stupid that was?
Then I changed.
For the last twenty years, I’ve been working a productive career, enjoying my family, and making positive changes in my life. My peaceful life with my husband and sons includes writing, working, drinking chai latte, playing with my grandchildren, and watching Netflix. Life is awesome.
People who know my story often ask me how did I change from an angry delinquent to a professional woman who promotes love, kindness, and peace. Some people search for an insightful piece of wisdom or inspiration in my story. A spiritual revelation or something that can be sold in a cute little bottle for others to change their life too.
Well, sorry to disappoint, there isn’t any.
Truth is I changed when I started believing that I had no choice but to change. When I realized that if I didn’t change, I would end up in prison, dead, or worse lose my son. Three outcomes that scared the living shit out of me. I was backed into a corner with only those three options. That was the catapult of my transformation.
There isn’t any magic trick that will make people accomplish their goals. It is simply the desire to change regardless of what gets in the way that truly empowers us to change. That’s it.
When the fear of doing what we’re doing now becomes bigger than the fear of the new behavior, that’s when we change. I know this may be different for some people. I know everyone’s circumstances are different, and so are our excuses.
I’ve seen it, first in me, and then in others. People will only change their behaviors when they are sick of it. I was sick of fighting, sick of living in raunchy motels. I was sick of running from the police and sick of not making enough money. So I changed. I’ve worked as a career counselor for 18 years. I worked in a homeless shelter for six years. Every job I’ve taken in the last twenty years has been in one way or another helping people make positive changes in their lives. When it comes to leaving an abusive relationship, not using drugs, or anything else, people have the potential to change only when the new behavior outweighs the negative behavior. I don’t mean to be pessimistic or harsh about this but that’s it.
As we start 2019 and are inundated with tips to maintain our resolutions and advice to become better people, employees, entrepreneurs, or writers, a good question to ask is, Am I really done with this [insert whatever behavior you want to change here]? The word shit fits in the brackets too.
I’m a bit over the top, so I always ask myself, “If someone was to put a gun on my head, would I fight for this? Would I even think about this [insert whatever behavior you think is important here, if you can put yourself in that mental space]?” I sure wouldn’t be thinking about looking thin and pretty at that point, or getting that nice house, or that extra paycheck. Nope, I probably would be thinking about my husband and my kids. And yes, that book I didn’t finish. I would. I know because a gun has been drawn at me twice. And each time, my thoughts included my son, how I would never know what a peaceful life would feel like, and how I never got to tell anyone what happened to me.
So what really mattered to me is what I decided to focus on.
The second piece of this goal setting puzzle is once we realize what we want above all, the nagger comes in to stop us. Regardless how much we try to shut it down, there it is. That nagger has been called fear, shadow, or whatever we want to call it. I call it reminders or naggers. Reminders that I am human, alive, and that life is exciting, yet dangerous.
It’s true we must strengthen our risk muscles. I am not suggesting you rob a bank though. If you really want something, just go for it, but you must be willing to take the long road. No matter how long it takes. If you want something bad enough, you’ll die for it, and you won’t stop until you get it. That positive stubbornness has proven priceless. Of course, it also was what landed me in jail.
Now I just choose to direct that power within me to bring positive changes to what matters the most. I’ve accomplished everything I’ve set my mind to though. There’s nothing special about me. I have naggers and have never ignored them. I just moved past them. I move forward in spite of what the naggers tell me. Of course, I’ve failed. I know that it seems like I wanted to be rich–which I’m not– when I robbed that bank and obviously I got arrested for it. What I really wanted was a home. I wanted enough money to rent a house so I could sleep on my own bed. A place where I could sleep without gunshots flying through my window, drug addicts knocking my door to buy drugs, or bed bugs messing with me. To do that, I thought robbing a bank was the fastest way. Turns out I had to work for eight years to buy my own home. Turns out the fastest way is not always the best, huh?
Again anyone can do this. It’s really up to you. | https://medium.com/@nilsarivera/golden-nugget-from-a-former-bad-girl-new-year-resolutions-are-flukes-39b6eb5560ad | ['Nilsa Rivera Castro'] | 2019-01-10 18:49:04.515000+00:00 | ['Life Goals', 'Life Lessons', 'New Years Resolutions', 'Goals', 'Writers Life'] |
Hello From Twitter Jail | Dear reader, I am writing this post on a roll of metaphorical toilet paper here in Twitter jail, where I have been held without a metaphorical trial for the past eight days. Hear my tale!
On August 27, I sat down to do some phone banking through The Democratic Party of Wisconsin, because I am trying to save the world!, and I fired off this tweet to my 150,000 followers:
Four days later, I tried to log into Twitter for a nice morning hit off the like pipe but, for the first time in my 11 years as an unpaid content provider/addict, I could not log in! I was told that that tweet, that dumb one right up there, had been found to be in violation of Twitter’s rule against “spreading false or misleading information about voting”. Wha?! Because of this, I could not log into my Twitter account until I deleted the tweet, at which point it would be replaced by a notice saying “this tweet is unavailable because it violated our rules”. As soon as I did that, I was told, I could go right back to reading upsetting headlines and making jokes that ten thousand people have already beaten me to.
But I was also given the option of appealing Twitter’s judgement. As you can see, the tweet in question doesn’t contain any information about voting, true or false. Nothing in that tweet could mislead anyone anywhere. It’s just a bored homebound comedian trying to brag about his world saving civic engagement and maybe inspire some other folks to get involved too (But I was mostly bragging, let’s be clear — and if there were a rule against that, Twitter would be such a quiet and lonely place I hate to even imagine it). I felt I had no choice but to file an appeal.
I had no idea what process had led to my tweet being flagged. Did another Twitter user report it? Who? Why? What were they thinking? Was it a human being at twitter dot com who decided that my tweet violated a rule or was it an algorithm? Does Jack Dorsey toss off ten of these rulings a day, the way President Obama used to read ten letters a day from regular citizens, something which the current President probably couldn’t do even if he wanted to and Lord oh Lord does he not want to? I had no idea.
And I certainly don’t know how the appeals process works, if there even is one. Maybe I’m the first idiot who didn’t just delete his dumb tweet and hurry back to piling on Chuck Woolery (or whatever people are doing on Twitter these days). Maybe Twitter is scrambling to come up with an appeals process right now because Andy Daly demanded it. I have no idea. All I know is that eight days ago, Twitter promised to respond to my appeal “as soon as possible”. It simply isn’t possible to respond any sooner than they will, eventually (I hope), respond.
Suddenly being without my Twitter account was a strange feeling. Of course, I wanted badly to explain to my followers why I wasn’t there anymore but I have somehow neglected to get all their email addresses. In desperation, I have taken to Instagram and tried to turn it into Twitter.
My Instagram followers have been very kind but how long can I expect them to tolerate these text only posts? I suppose I could alternate — text post, photo of a 7th grade Andy Daly wearing a fedora to school, text post, picture of my dog eating the remote control, so on. But that doesn’t seem quite satisfactory as a permanent arrangement.
There are, of course, mental health benefits to taking a twitter break, these particular ravings notwithstanding, but having this break forced on me arbitrarily has been disquieting. If they had flagged either of these tweets (from the same thread as the flagged tweet)…
… I would have been amused by Twitter’s inability to identify a joke but also impressed by their vigilance. I would have happily deleted those tweets. But I can find nothing to be either amused or impressed by in the current sloppy situation. And it also, by the way, bugs me that this tweet is still hanging out on Twitter:
That contains information about voting that is both false and misleading. This guy’s poor parents, who I’m sure never asked to be dragged into their son’s social media baloney, actually received a notice explaining that their son would be getting a ballot in the mail. They didn’t get a ballot. But furthermore, I’m thinking there’s a reason the state of California isn’t set up to remove everyone from the voter rolls as soon as they move. The possibility that someone who’s registered to vote in two different states would commit what is often a felony of voting in both places and go through all the effort to do so is not a significant enough threat to the integrity of our elections that it warrants committing resources to paying attention to where exactly Jarrett lives right now! Also, I have no specific information on this, but I suspect Jarrett might be exaggerating how long it’s been since he lived with his parents. I mean, who wouldn’t round up to the nearest decade? Let’s say it’s more like eight years and he still has his CD collection in their attic. But who knows? The point is that his tweet is still up there and he’s still merrily undermining mail-in voting and I have been banned from reading any of it until I falsely confess to doing the thing this guy did. It’s weird.
To be clear, I don’t assume malfeasance or any agenda here. I don’t flatter myself to think that anyone at Twitter has targeted me for silencing. I suspect this is just good old fashioned incompetence combined with the maddening opacity of private sector bureaucracies. Given the state of our democracy I have no beef with Twitter wishing to err on the side of caution in these matters but, y’know, it’d be more reassuring if they seemed to know what they were doing.
At some point, my desire to self-promote on Twitter may overwhelm my sense of justice and I may delete my dumb tweet, but for now I stand, stupidly, firm! | https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/hello-from-twitter-jail-af51bc1ce567 | ['Andy Daly'] | 2020-09-08 15:09:59.390000+00:00 | ['Elections', 'Twitter', 'Social Media', 'Voting'] |
Reading: The Tools to Write, Part Two | Reading: The Tools to Write, Part Two
Photo by Simson Petrol on Unsplash
What One Notebook Rules them All?
Writers read. Writers write. Our worlds overflow with books and notebooks. I’ve kept diaries and journals on and off for most of my life since I was nine years old. Some day, I may get back to them. Or, some day, my sons might hate me and toss them all in recycling. Or both.
None of my notebooks are Commonplace notebooks, which some of you may know about. If the idea is new to you, take a look at What is a Commonplace Book and Why You Need One, by Aly Juma, or, The Lost Art of Commonplacing by Bobby Powers (who recommends using a 3x5 card system), or Shaunta Grimes’s Commonplace Book Project.
The abbreviated idea of the Commonplace notebook is that you create a personal encyclopedia of quotations, ideas, thoughts on subjects that interest you. Those compilations become, for some, an incubator for ideas for new or ongoing projects.
That’s not what I’m trying to do, though, I’m leaning in the direction of a commonplace notebook.
The Notebook that Rules
FAVES — my fave notebook du jour. © Pam Parker 2019
This FAVES notebook is the notebook I’m using to learn from the books I’m reading. Reading: The Tools to Write, Part One, covered intentions and purpose in reading and our responsibilities after completing other authors’ works. The FAVES notebook helps me make better use of my reading — moving from being intellectually engaged and entertained, to a different place, more useful for a writer. (If you haven’t read Reading like a Writer, by Francine Prose, I’d recommend it.)
The categories I’ve used, on those charming tabs all over the place, have been growing, and, may well be refined on FAVES notebook #2, when I get there. It mirrors the Commonplace notebook idea in the sense of categorization and quotations, but, has an important difference. My reading notebook gives me a place to record excellence in writing, craft excellence. Craft categories I’ve been using, with an example or two each, follow.
Cool Verbs
“In the bedroom, Jude was accordioning the closet door…” from A LITTLE LIFE, by Hanya Yanagihara
“Drew origamis himself…” from A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Egan
Sentences
“Leaves slap my shoulders, and they scratch me dry, leaving thin white lines scrawled on my arms.” from SING, UNBURIED, SING by Jesmyn Ward
“He’d been cultivating numbness all day, hanging onto it like a rope.” THE GREAT BELIEVERS, by Rebecca Makkai
Foreshadowing
“Already, on the ferry, in advance, the image owed something to this moment.” from THE LOVER, by Marguerite Duras
Character Revealing
“Charlie was the hub of a lot of wheels.” from THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai
“It helped that his accent contained a top hat and a monocle.” (ibid)
Descriptions
“Epically tall, brutally blond…” from LESS, by Andrew Sean Greer
“…the face of Hill House seemed awake, with a watchfulness from the blank windows and a touch of glee in the eyebrow of a cornice.” from THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, by Shirley Jackson.
Leads
“From where I sit, the story of Arthur Less is not so bad.” from LESS, by Andrew Sean Greer
“I like to think I know what death is.” from SING, UNBURIED, SING, by Jesmyn Ward
Other tabs mark categories relating to topics I explore often in my writing (both fiction and non-fiction) or might like to. Those tabs are: depression, worry, travel, nature writing, family, writing, help/control, spirituality, memory, grief, hope.
How is this notebook helpful?
Fair question, especially when a double spread, in my handwriting, can end up looking like this:
The most recent spread from “Character Revealing” section — by far the longest in my notebook so far.
Alan Heathcock, a great writer and writing instructor, shared this idea at our residency at Sierra Nevada College last summer. He uses a reading notebook to record those things he finds in his reading that intrigue him. It’s unlikely our categories are the same. He uses the reading notebook as a part of his writing warm-up, which is how I use it. Before I begin writing, I turn to the book I was reading the day before and mark down in the notebook any underlined parts I want to record. After doing that, as I’ve given some thought to how other writers find excellence in their stories, I am anchored, inspired, and ready to turn to my own words.
Some day, if I run into a dry spell, or just want a writing prompt, I could open my reading notebook, find a description and riff off it. I could pull out an interesting verb and try to find five more. The possibilities are truly endless.
But for this writer, at this point, it serves me well as a touchpoint, an anchor, or better — a launch pad. An ongoing record of not only what I’m reading, but what I’m discovering about the craft of writing as I read.
Don’t forget Stephen King’s words:
“If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the tools to write.”
— Stephen King (On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft)
And, ask yourself, are you getting everything you can from your reading to help improve your writing? If you want reading to truly become part of your tools to write, maybe give a reading notebook a try. | https://writingcooperative.com/reading-the-tools-to-write-part-two-2fed300ce490 | ['Pam Parker'] | 2019-05-06 19:16:00.950000+00:00 | ['Writing Tips', 'Writing', 'Learning', 'Progress', 'Reading'] |
HOW TO USE SMALL SPACES IN YOUR HOME | A small home teaches you a lot of things, you can learn how to use space efficiently and also enhance your creativity. Small homes can be cozy if you try to make use of every square inch smartly and arrange your things properly so that you can have sufficient space in your home. Just because you don’t have a huge space, it doesn’t mean you can’t flaunt your style. Decorating small homes, just like decorating a big one, simply requires the creativity of design and a good eye for what works and what doesn’t.
Here are a few ideas to use your small space efficiently, so you can dwell there without any hassle.
Add drawers beneath the cot, this will help you utilize the large space under the bed, and also help you get some extra space to store your thing. When you have less ground space, think vertically and use the walls to create extra storage units like DIY corner shelves to decorate your home or above the door shelves for the extra storage space. A mounted wall desk takes less space than a regular desk. You can even mount shelves above it and use that space for storing your books, stationeries, etc. Don’t waste space on placing your TV on a table instead, wall mount your TV add a little more ground space in your small place. Organize your toiletries and personal care in a small storage shelf above the sink in the washroom. As your toiletries are small, it will not take much space and can be arranged neatly. Use foldable/multipurpose furniture, which helps you store more things and add extra space in your small place. Incorporate good lighting because it can make or break any room whether it’s big or small. Make sure to install good lighting in smaller, cramped spaces like a bathroom, passage, etc. Use mirrors to add both extra light and the feeling of extra space into rooms by reflecting natural and non-natural lighting and giving an illusion of extra ground space to your home. When you don’t have enough space to set up your garden, you can utilize an empty wall and create a vertical garden for your plants and your space will instantly feel more present as the greenery gives us peace of mind. Add a kitchen peninsula or island bench; it gives you more benchtop space and an extra surface for informal family meals. Then you can use your dining room more efficiently. Declutter broken/unwanted goods and substitute them with multipurpose items to reduce the number of goods and have more space at home. Use skirted furniture because it’s not only decorative but also can hide stuff. A skirted sofa can make some hidden storage space beneath it. Generally, sofas with exposed legs make space feel lighter and airier and make small rooms feel bigger, but if you need extra hidden storage go for skirted furniture. Hang hooks behind your doors, so you can hang anything you want like towels, handbags, jewelry, cleaning utensils, etc. And don’t just use the doors between rooms-the insides of cabinet doors can also provide more space. Make use of empty space, like add customized DIY shelves that can fit the awkward space. This covers up unoccupied areas by adding extra storage space. You can divide up your small space by using sheer curtains or open shelving to create separate areas without cramping up your living area to add an extra flair to your home. This allows the light to shine through, which makes your area feel airy and open.
Summary
Home is all about the people we live with, not the size. Use your small spaces effectively with creative ideas and add extra storage and decor as you wish.
Keep these points in mind if you are moving to a small place or have recently decided to live a minimalist lifestyle. If you have decided to move into a smaller place or shifting from a home to an apartment for the first time, you will have to downsize to a great extent to ensure all your items fit comfortably and give you enough room to move around freely.
The best option to remain stress-free during your relocation is to hire a reliable moving company to ensure damage-free and smooth shifting. So you have to prepare a list of packers and movers Pune and select the best one for you from the list. Make sure you verify the moving company details before booking their services and you’ll be good to go! | https://medium.com/@assureshift/how-to-use-small-spaces-in-your-home-63d073b6d3a | [] | 2021-01-21 12:08:39.847000+00:00 | ['Interior Design', 'Home Decor', 'Tips', 'Home Improvement'] |
NEW YORK | If I ever get to New York. I will slowly disembark from whichever Boeing I will have boarded and into the different security checkpoints remembering that I am on foreign soil. In a country that refers to me as a person of color, add the hijab to create more chaos. I will window shop getting in and out of the different duty-free shops purchasing this or that depending on my budget.
I will hail an uber. Taking selfies or I might as well go all the way out and do an Instagram live. All this will be in order to flex to my friends I am in NYC bitches!!!! Slowly through the NYC streets, I will cruise. Taking it all in, via my gadget and eyes too. As Alicia Keys mentioned this is a concrete jungle where dreams are made of there's nothing you can’t do. My cab will then stop in front of a fleet of apartments, preferably in NewJersey for financial reasons. Yours truly will alight, breathe in the Jersey air and head straight to apartment no 4B. This will be my abode for the next few days.
For the next few days, I’d commute from Jersey to the big apple. Walking on Time Square, bumping into people in typical NYC style. I’d take the subway to Queens, Harlem, Manhattan in a quest to experience this foreign land. All this will be documented, I have to show my folks back home, that's the deal here. I probably not wine or dine in any posh places, please I’m not Kevin McCallister. I will stick to Mac Donalds and food trucks, indulging in the best vegan tacos. Oh, I will have to experience Starbucks, with their signature coffee and logo, hopefully, they are not overrated.
I’d Step off the crowded sidewalks of 59th Street into Central Park and into the 693 acres of man-made gardens. I will waltz through the park passing fountains, monuments, sculptures, bridges, and arches. Plus 21 playgrounds, a winter ice-skating rink, a zoo. Oh, happy day. My next stop would have to be The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I’m actually screaming right now. This will be a dream come true. The MET GALA is held here annually so believe me when I say that even if its a one day trip to NYC, I will go to the Met. The Met Cloisters especially. I’d like to understand why it's dedicated exclusively to the art and architecture of the Middle Ages. Since it overlooks the Hudson River, I’d kill two birds at the same time. What do you think?
Central Park.
The Statue of Liberty will be next. Knowing that I will have to take a ferry ride to Liberty Island is a price I’m willing to pay for this experience. I will also get the chance to visit Elise Island. I’m expecting to be fatigued with pleasure, by the time I get back to Jersey. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This is where I plan to spend most of my day, whichever day that will be. From greenhouses housing bonsais to rare orchids, and desert plants, with outdoor spaces ranging from a lush Shakespeare garden to a Japanese-style lily pond traversed by a romantic bridge. This will be a sight err garden to behold. The Queens night market, because why not? With its Instagram friendly food, I hope to indulge in a United Nations of culinary spending a dollar or less. You too should come and check it out.
The Statue of Liberty.
If money is not an issue, I will end my NYC trip with New York City’s preeminent symphony orchestra. The performance primarily takes place at the world-renowned David Geffen Hall, within the Upper West Side Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. I may not understand the history of the symphony or concerto being played but I know that I will appreciate the profundity of the experience. Oh! Wait I did not visit the Empire State building, that is NYC for you, too many places not enough time.
Till next time NYC. | https://medium.com/@mukanda/new-york-1ab152648491 | ['Mukanda Maombola'] | 2020-03-03 00:09:00.425000+00:00 | ['Statue Of Liberty', 'NYC', 'The Met'] |
The Gray Tsunami | The corporate talent drain is real. It’s also self-inflicted.
According to the Census Bureau, 10,000 people in the US are turning 65 every day. Every living boomer currently qualifies for an AARP membership (which is a whole different issue). By 2034, for the first time in history, there will be more people over 65 than under 18.
Why do those stats matter? For a number of reasons. I’m not talking about Social Security.
Chances are you think of 65 as retirement age.
Let’s talk about retirement. Our culture thinks — expects even — that 65 is retirement age. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits forced retirement based on age, with a couple of notable exceptions. One of those is safety-related, e.g., you can’t be a firefighter into your 70s. The other exception is “high policy-making positions.”
That second one makes no sense. Wouldn’t you want someone with years of experience setting policy? Isn’t that why our political leaders are mostly in their 70s and even 80s? OK — maybe that’s a bad example.
But I digress. Chances are you think of 65 as retirement age. What about those who don’t want to retire? It’s certainly true that many can’t afford to retire or are afraid of outliving what they have saved. The death of pension plans has created a whole new cohort of minimum wage-earning seniors. But plenty of people who can afford to kick back want more than a daily dose of golf, gardening, and grandkids. They want to be challenged and to contribute and to build something.
Gerontologist Paul Irving, writing for the Harvard Business Review, ponders the implications in “When No One Retires.” Irving is chairman of the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging and has thought about the challenges of an aging workforce more than most people.
“Companies,” Irving writes, “need to embrace the aging of their working population by moving past ageist stereotypes and creating powerful, intergenerational teams.”
We think of seniors as people who need to be looked after and cared for.
Good luck with that. But he’s right. Workers — executives — in their 50s and beyond have a greater challenge finding a new job than younger people. It takes at least twice as long and more than a few give up after months or years of fruitless searches.
Baby boomers are branded with lots of misconceptions: they lack energy, they lack technical know-how, they lack drive. Can that be true? Of course — it can be true of an employee of any age. But it’s not always true. Not even mostly true.
We think of seniors as people who need to be looked after and cared for. But that’s not the typical senior. People in their 50s are dealing with ageism and are overlooked for younger, less experienced, but cheaper alternatives. In the current crisis, older workers are taking the brunt of job losses and leaving the workforce.
In my work as a career coach my typical client is mid-50s or older. Most have some money saved, but not enough to live on for 30 years — at least not in the way they would like. Most importantly, they have transferable skills and decades of experience that are both valuable and viable.
What they don’t have is youth. They are no longer sought out by business; they are chaff, tossed aside in search of the young and restless, settling into an existence far beneath their value. Economists agree that a shrinking workforce is a barrier to economic growth. Yet here we are.
Many — maybe most — of us have experienced some level of prejudice. Some much more than others. In a contest, ageism might not make the top ten. But we are all getting older, which means that each of us — if we are lucky — will have the opportunity to experience ageism firsthand.
The next time you want to take a pass on that older candidate, look a few years into the future at what could be your future. That doesn’t mean throw your needs to the side. By all means, look at your actual requirements and then take a hard look at your candidates: who really has the experience, the track record, the ability to deliver?
The next time you want to take a pass on that older candidate, look a few years into the future at what could be your future.
For now, I have a broad client base who are motivated, engaged, and have the means to create something of their own. They are tired of being overlooked and undervalued by corporate America. I understand and accept that no one is going to offer me a job again. I’m okay with that. Now that they’ve found an outlet for their talents, so are my clients. | https://medium.com/@jweidauer/the-gray-tsunami-2a5508376d57 | ['Jeff Weidauer'] | 2020-12-04 16:42:03.262000+00:00 | ['Seniors', 'Ageism', 'Retirement'] |
Christianity and Me | Christianity and Me
Religion doesn’t seem to want me.
Photo from Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Unsplash
When I was growing up, my father was (and still is) an atheist. My mother was raised in a Baptist church but she didn’t seem to believe much. Religion was not a big part of my childhood. At least it wasn’t at first.
Then my mother discovered she wouldn’t have to parent on Sunday mornings if she sent my sisters and me to Sunday school. The church sent a van to pick up those kids who wouldn’t be able to get to church otherwise. My introduction to God was amazing.
It seemed hard to believe such a benevolent God existed. According to the teachings of my Sunday School teacher, God loved everyone no matter what. Even the sinners could be forgiven if they just prayed. Slowly, I settled into religion and enjoyed it a lot.
Then something started happening. As I started listening to more sermons, the less love I felt. The pastor would talk of God hating homosexuals, but somehow he was fine with those committing adultery and murder. Go figure. The more I heard, the less I believed. | https://medium.com/harsh-light-news/christianity-and-me-265a933f4ef0 | ['Edward Anderson'] | 2020-02-12 23:15:16.681000+00:00 | ['It Happened To Me', 'LGBTQ', 'Discrimination', 'Religion', 'Christianity'] |
Making Time for Healing in the Face of Injustice & Inequality | The lilting sound of the alarm wakes me from uneasy sleep. 6:30 AM.
Despite it being a Sunday — typically a day of rest, I am disoriented and tired from an awfully long week of homeschooling and teleworking. I dismiss the alarm and roll over, three times. 6:45 AM.
I tell myself, “do your devotion first, get up out of the bed, lots to do”; but procrastinating again, I scroll through the barrage of bad news and division in the US and globally, and feel heavy from bids for social connection from family and friends via the apps on my phone. My fingers move along in auto pilot; my mind not really processing any of it. I just feel tired and in no mood to connect with anybody. Also, I still have to get dressed ahead of the kids waking up, figure out breakfast, and work through some school deadlines today. Fortunately, thanks to our cleaning company’s hard work the previous day, the house is clean. One less thing to count on my weed-like do list. 7:20 AM.
I am dressed but shoot, the kids are up! What am I doing for breakfast?! 7:40 AM.
The noise is incessant. Who did what to whom now? Somehow two-minute activities like brushing teeth take forever and require my time and energy to monitor but activities that require my help somehow end up being done independently (with more mess than seems possible). 8:15 AM.
Yogurt, granola bars, milk, and strawberries save the day. Set them up for backyard play. I wonder how long they will last. 8:47 AM.
Another alarm goes off jolting me to the need to prep to be on at the Forefront’s Zoom Healing Circle call. 8:50 AM.
Finally, time seems to simultaneously stop and speed up at an undesirable rate. 9:00 AM.
I wondered whether non-members would show up and how it would go. We had planned the Healing Circle for just over a couple of weeks, an organic flow from our bi-weekly meetings thinking through our work plan and the current events that had us slogging through a pandemic and conversations on racial injustices around the world. A complex mix of questions, frustrations, listlessness, passion, fighting spirit, and hope. Once I logged in, I felt some of my excitement creep back in. At the end of our time reviewing at the Forefront’s mission, learning about structural racism’s and gender bias manifestations in the US, Kenya, and the UK, sharing our own experiences and reflections through poetry and various art forms, I came away with two lessons.
In the face of injustice, Black women are a force with which to reckon. In moments of individual pain and difficulty and in suffering specific to our different geographic locations, it can be easy to feel alone or detached. Here, I saw and heard women from all walks of life and based in at least 5 different countries pulling together to verbalize their trauma — current, historical, individual, and group-based. I felt less alone amid echoes of my personal and professional struggles. Where we could have settled in victimhood, however, we moved from acknowledging hurts and grief to affirming our worth with sincere introspection and even some humor. We passed around ideas and other support groups for working towards and achieving justice at individual and collective levels. For this reason, I pitied those who would cross paths with any of us or try to mute us in the coming days, weeks, and months. They would face an invisible collective rather than individuals.
Black women need to defend our own self-care by any means necessary. Even as I celebrate our push towards collective action, I am gripped by our traditional reluctance to care for ourselves as we bear social movements forward. Several people expressed how hard it often was to stop — we are needed and don’t always have the luxury to step away and we also don’t want to appear selfish. Instead, we wear our resilience like armors to defend the people, places, and values we love even when they may be the very things conspiring to harm us. As we shared our varying stages of confidence and positivity in our healing journeys, I got tips for caring for myself and vowed to practice at least two (disconnect from the news for a day, do one kind thing for yourself every day) more consistently. Learning to rest well and often — even in the most impossible circumstances within these systems of oppression and abuse — could be the difference between falling apart before our work is complete and succeeding in making radical change out there.
As the call wrapped up, I re-imagined how prioritizing my own well-being could look and caught up with one of the founders of at the Forefront. 11:06 AM. | https://medium.com/@apenemnana/making-time-for-healing-in-the-face-of-injustice-inequality-6f44f4bff5e5 | ['Nana Apenem Dagadu'] | 2020-12-03 02:36:19.451000+00:00 | ['Inequality', 'Self Care', 'Healing', 'Black Women'] |
Set Up Your Express App(Modernized Version) | Express is constantly the highlight of almost every Node developer. While being the most popular Node framework, Express helps set up and configure routes to send and receive requests between the front-end and the database of an app.
Express is a great framework for single-page apps, websites, hybrids, and so on. It provides lightweight yet powerful tools for HTTP servers. In my opinion, and a lot of others, this is a good starting point if you want to learn a Node framework for server-side development.
Objectives:
After going through this post, you should be able to:
Set up a basic express app using express-generator and npx
Set up nodemon for automatic refresh
Set up routes in your express app
Display express responses in the browser using pug view
Prerequisites:
You should have Node installed on your local machine to successfully follow along with this guide. Click here to go to the download page.
Ensure you have a suitable text editor such as visual studio code for when we would make changes to the code. Download it here.
Steps:
First thing’s first, let’s keep things organized.
Create a folder to contain our application. Open up your terminal(command prompt on windows) and navigate to the newly created folder. In the terminal, to setup our express app, type the following and hit enter:
npx express-generator mynewapp -- view=pug
We’re explicitly setting the template engine because by default npx will install ‘jade’ template which is deprecated.
4. Once the process has completed, successively run the following commands in the terminal, hitting enter after each:
cd mynewapp/ npm install npm install nodemon -g
We navigated into our new directory, installed the dependencies and finally installed a tool that will allow our server to automatically detect changes we make while running.
5. If you completed the above step without any errors, then your app is all setup. It’s time to make some edits to it, you can go ahead to start your app by running either of these commands in the terminal: | https://medium.com/@haelmj/set-up-your-express-app-modernized-version-11152418b2f8 | ['Michael Ndon'] | 2020-12-26 19:43:52.704000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'Expressjs', 'Web Development', 'Backend', 'JavaScript'] |
Writing a Tiny Stack VM in Rust | Well we can print stuff now, but the upper limit for program complexity is still quite low. In the next section, we’ll take this from a simple expression evaluator to aturing complete interpreter in just two steps.
First, we need jumps and conditional jumps. A jump takes us from one point in the code to another, and a conditional jump jumps only if a condition is met, otherwise it just moves on.
To add this, we need to be able to access the instruction list at any point, instead of just in sequence. In Rust, just add the current instruction pointer as a mutable variable, and change the for each loop to a while let loop:
fn interpret<'a>(program: Program<'a>) {
use Inst::*;
// instantiate stack as an empty Vector
let mut stack = Stack(Vec::new());
let mut pointer = 0;
while let Some(instruction) = program.get(pointer) {
pointer += 1;
match instruction {
...
}
}
}
Next, we add the Jump , JE , and JNE instructions. Jump unconditionally jumps, JE jumps if the top of the stack is equal to zero, and JNE jumps if the top of the stack is not equal to zero. Right now, we'll just specify an index in the instruction list to jump to.
The new Inst enum looks like:
type Pointer = usize;
enum Inst {
Push(Pointer),
...
Jump(Pointer),
JE(Pointer),
JNE(Pointer),
}
And to interpret the new instructions, we add:
fn interpret<'a>(program: Program<'a>) {
use Inst::*;
// instantiate stack as an empty Vector
let mut stack = Stack(Vec::new());
let mut pointer = 0;
while let Some(instruction) = program.get(pointer) {
pointer += 1;
match instruction {
...
Jump(p) => pointer = *p;
JE(p) => {
if stack.peek() == 0 {
pointer = *p;
}
}
JNE(p) => {
if stack.peek() != 0 {
pointer = *p;
}
}
}
}
}
This opens a world of possibilities. We can do loops pretty easily with JNE:
interpret(vec![
Push(10),
Print,
Push(1),
Sub,
JNE(0),
].as_slice());
This prints all the numbers from 10 to 0:
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
The next step is to make it possible to access or change arbitrary stack values. After this the VM will be Turing complete.
Here are the new instructions:
enum Inst {
...
Get(Pointer),
Set(Pointer),
}
Get(p) just indexes the stack at n and copies it to the top of the stack. Set(p) takes the value at the top of the stack and copies it to the stack at index p.
while let Some(instruction) = program.get(pointer) {
pointer += 1;
match instruction {
...
Get(p) => stack.push(*stack.0.get(*p).unwrap()),
Set(p) => {
let v = stack.pop();
*stack.0.get_mut(*p).unwrap() = v;
}
}
}
At this point, since we can Get values from the stack, we want to make our JNE and JE instructions pop the comparison value:
while let Some(instruction) = program.get(pointer) {
pointer += 1;
match instruction {
...
JE(p) => {
if stack.peek() == 0 {
stack.pop();
pointer = *p;
}
}
JNE(p) => {
if stack.peek() != 0 {
stack.pop();
pointer = *p;
}
}
}
}
Using these new instructions, we can write some slightly more complex programs. Here’s a program to sum the first 100 integers:
interpret(vec![
// setup
Push(0), // the accumulator
Push(0), // the index
// loop
// First, add the index to the accumulator
// stack: [accumulator, index]
Get(0),
Get(1),
// stack: [accumulator, index, accumulator, index]
Add,
// stack: [accumulator, index, accumulator + index]
Set(0),
Pop,
// stack: [accumulator + index, index]
// next, increment the index
Push(1), // the increment
// stack: [accumulator, index, 1]
Add,
// stack: [accumulator, index + 1]
// finally, compare the index with 100 and jump back to the start
// if they're not equal.
Get(1),
// stack: [accumulator, index, index]
Push(100),
Sub,
// stack: [accumulator, index, index - 100]
JNE(2),
// if index - 100 == 0, print the accumulator
Get(0),
// stack: [accumulator, index, 0, accumulator]
Print
].as_slice())
Just like that, the VM is Turing complete! It’s super awkward to use though. We can jump to different portions of the code, but since we jump by line number we have to update each jump whenever we change the code. Later, we’ll fix this by writing a super simple compiler that resolves text labels to line numbers.
// find_label takes a line split by spaces and the label it represents,
// or None if it does not represent a label.
fn find_label<'a>(i: Pointer, s: &'a [&'a str]) -> Option<Label> {
if let ["label", l] = s {
Some((l, i))
} else {
None
}
}
let input = ...; // a String
let line_splits = input
.split('
')
.map(|s| s.split_whitespace().collect::<Vec<_>>())
.filter(|s| !matches!(s.as_slice(), [] | ["--", ..]))
.collect::<Vec<_>>();
let labels: HashMap<&str, usize> = line_splits
.iter()
.enumerate()
.filter_map(|(i, s)| find_label(i, s.as_slice()))
.collect();
The following code is super Rusty so I won’t explain it in detail, but essentially it splits each line on space, iterates through them, and constructs a HashMap of label names to line numbers.
Now we need to use this info to actually compile the instructions. This is also pretty Rusty but it’s very concise.
fn parse_instruction(s: &[&str], labels: &Labels) -> Instruction {
use Instruction::*;
match s {
["Push", x] => Push(x.parse::<isize>().unwrap()),
["Pop"] => Pop,
["Add"] => Add,
["Sub"] => Sub,
["Mul"] => Mul,
["Div"] => Div,
["Jump", l] => Jump(*labels.get(l).unwrap()),
["JE", l] => JE(*labels.get(l).unwrap()),
["JNE", l] => JNE(*labels.get(l).unwrap()),
["Get", p] => Get(p.parse::<Pointer>().unwrap()),
["Set", p] => Set(p.parse::<Pointer>().unwrap()),
["Print"] => Print,
["label", ..] => Noop,
l => panic!("Invalid instruction: {:?}", l),
}
}
You might notice that lines starting with label get compiled to a Noop. This is just to make the line numbers easy to keep track of; you could do without it if you sort out all the off by one errors.
we map this function over the list of lines to actually “compile” the text to instructions:
let instructions: Vec<Instruction> = line_splits
.iter()
.map(|s| parse_instruction(s.as_slice(), &labels, &procedures))
.collect();
Now we can easily interpret the compiled instructions with interpret(instructions.as_slice()) . Using this, we can easily rewrite the sum example from before: | https://levelup.gitconnected.com/writing-a-tiny-stack-vm-in-rust-e043cb6dcd40 | ['Mikail Khan'] | 2021-07-19 01:28:06.629000+00:00 | ['Interpreters', 'Programming', 'Rust', 'Programming Languages', 'Compilers'] |
Coffe time | Today I went to visit my grandparents. They have 190 years combined 😱
A nice afternoon.
That’s it for today, hope you enjoyed! See you tomorrow!
Every day I post at least one photo from my life. Here’s why. | https://medium.com/one-shot-a-day/coffe-time-2451b0e5daff | ['Pietro De Grandi'] | 2017-02-26 16:34:06.618000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Photography', 'Blogger', 'Daily Blog'] |
BitPay Enters Agreement with Bitmain to Develop Open Source Blockchain Security Software | BitPay Enters Agreement with Bitmain to Develop Open Source Blockchain Security Software BitPay Follow May 2, 2017 · 3 min read
ATLANTA — MAY 2, 2017 — Today bitcoin payments leader BitPay announced that it has entered into a multi-million dollar development agreement with Bitmain Technologies, the foremost provider of the “mining” hardware used to secure blockchains. Over the course of its multi-year agreement with new customer Bitmain, BitPay will create advanced open source software for the miners, mining pools and full node operators which maintain and secure blockchain transactions.
BitPay will draw on its more than six years of experience in building payment technology and secure open source platforms for payments on the Bitcoin blockchain. BitPay has a long tradition of servicing the most significant companies in blockchain mining hardware and is now pleased to count Bitmain among its customers. BitPay also processes hundreds of millions of dollars in payments yearly for businesses worldwide, including industry leaders like Microsoft, Valve, and PaySafe.
“At BitPay, we recognize that there is an untapped market of mining companies that require more advanced platforms for their businesses than are available today,” said BitPay CEO Stephen Pair. “We value having Bitmain as a customer, and we believe that miners and mining technology providers like Bitmain play a vital role in the security and ongoing success of the Bitcoin blockchain.”
Bitmain is one of the most successful providers of the hardware used to secure blockchain transactions. In recent years, the company has played a major role in hardware innovation to support the exponential growth of Bitcoin — the world’s first and most successful blockchain.
“BitPay has established itself as a leader in open source development for the Bitcoin blockchain,” said Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu. “We believe that together we can make real improvements in how we secure blockchain transactions and grow the impact of blockchain technology in digital payments.” | https://medium.com/bitpay-on-bitcoin/bitpay-enters-agreement-with-bitmain-to-develop-open-source-blockchain-security-software-9de2b48b452c | [] | 2017-05-02 16:13:14.886000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Bitpay', 'Blockchain', 'Bitmain'] |
Create Blog Post Models With Django 3.1 — Django Tutorial 2020 | Create the models
Okay, we are ready to create our model:
from django.db import models
from autoslug import AutoSlugField
from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model User = get_user_model() class Author(models.Model):
user = models.OneToOneField(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
profile_image = models.ImageField(upload_to="") def __str__(self):
return self.user.username class Category(models.Model):
title = models.CharField(max_length=20) def __str__(self):
return self.title
class Meta:
verbose_name = "Category"
verbose_name_plural = "Categories"
class Post(models.Model):
title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
slug = AutoSlugField(populate_from='title')
overview = models.TextField()
date = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
content = models.TextField()
author = models.ForeignKey(Author, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
categories = models.ManyToManyField(Category)
published = models.BooleanField() def __str__(self):
return self.title
What we did here?
We start with defining our model object, we give it a simple name, Post.
models.Model here to tell Django to save our model in the database.
Then we define the properties of our class, for sure we need a title for our blog post, it will be a CharField with a limit of 200 characters.
For the slug, instead of adding it manually like the title or creating a method to save it, we can use the Django auto slug field module, it allows us to create a slug field in just one line of code.
So we need to install it using pip.
> pip install django-autoslug
Then add this line to the top of the file.
from autoslug import AutoSlugField ... slug = AutoSlugField(populate_from='title')
And we use it this way, and the populate from to create a slug based on that title.
Also, we can add an overview for the post, it will give the readers a taste or teaser of a full blog post and it will be a text field, which means there’s no character limit.
And we need date field to show readers and visitors when we created that post. With the option of auto_now_add set to True, which means the data will be added automatically the moment you create the post.
For the content, we will use the text field too as well as the overview field.
We need to add an author for our post too. Here, we created a relationship on a model that has not yet been defined. The foreign-key field is used to link to other model classes, which is Author in our case.
In the Author’s class, the user, which will be onetoonefield to get only one user.
For that, we will import the get_user_model from the django.contrib; This is how we will reference the user model, using django.contrib.
We will also add an image field to this model, so each other can have its profile picture.
We added the upload to option, in case you want to save images you upload in other location instead of our default media folder.
And to handle images in Django we need to install Pillow, using this command line:
> pip install pillow
And we use the str method here to convert objects into a strings, which means, in the admin page, instead of a list of objects, we will see a list of usernames, which is more readable I guess.
It’s optional, but I want to add categories to my Post, It will take a ManyToManyField, which means we can choose more than one category for our post.
And for that, I’ll create a model class for the Category, it will hold a title with a max of 20 characters.
Again the str method to display the title instead of the category object.
I think we can add a boolean field too, to choose whether our post will be a draft or we can publish it.
Edit admin.py file
now, to add, edit and delete the posts, authors, or categories we’ve just created in the models file, we will add them to the admin.py file.
from django.contrib import admin
from blog.models import Category, Author, Post admin.site.register(Author)
admin.site.register(Category)
admin.site.register(Post)
Conclusion:
So, everything is ready now, The last thing we will do is adding our models to our database. We will let Django save the changes of our models.
using:
> python manage.py makemigrations
Then we have a migration file to apply to our database, type
> python manage.py migrate
After that we create a superuser account to login to our admin page.
> python manage.py createsuperuser
Run the server.
> python manage.py runserver
Let’s login.
As you see here, this is the admin dashboard, here we can add, edit, or delete our posts.
Watch tutorial on Youtube: https://youtu.be/6GnVAWVWJso | https://medium.com/@selmiabderrahim/create-blog-post-models-with-django-3-1-django-tutorial-2020-d29e0782376e | ['Selmi Abderrahim'] | 2020-12-08 20:28:04.402000+00:00 | ['Python Programming', 'Django Framework', 'Django', 'Python3', 'Web Development'] |
Princess | amid the pompous pain of pinpricks
the princesses made sleepless by peas
who know nothing of a steely gaze
the corroded heart punched down
by even the most simple dreams
who desire the depth of an ocean
as if it comes easy, as if
the waters remain subordinate
this armor of faith
has a heavy weight and a hefty price
we are not the same
dragon ladies
skin split by the forest
on the outskirts of their stories
better a shrew than what they want
better a beast than what they own
only a ravaged spirit
knows this art of survival. | https://medium.com/meri-shayari/princess-10f8f741d8ef | ['Rebeca Ansar'] | 2020-12-17 19:20:36.872000+00:00 | ['Storytelling', 'Poetry', 'Poet', 'Poem', 'Creativity'] |
Another Birth Story | Another Birth Story
Photo by Tyler Delgado on Unsplash
Kid #2 has always been quieter than Kid #1. Three years and 10 days are between their births. Hubby and I had been married for eleven years when Kid #1 was born. To say that we may have led him to believe that the world revolved around him is an understatement. Our world did revolve around him.
Because he was born five weeks early due to slowly decreasing amniotic fluid, Kid #1 had spent some time in the neonatal intensive care unit. The same thing happened with Kid #2, but at four weeks early and without the NICU stay. Needless to say, I was even more nervous than the first time because I knew how things could go wrong.
They put me in the hospital because we had crossed the line of it being safer for the baby to be outside the womb than inside the womb with such little fluid remaining. This time Hubby and I were ready and we knew that if a doctor suggested “getting a good night’s rest” that we should know that was a joke and the doctor would be the only one resting. Around Noon, they started the Pitocin in the IV. Once again, I was lucky. Only six hours later and Kid #2 was born.
The nurses carried them over to the maternity bassinet to do all the normal newborn checks. I sat across the room on my hospital bed listening intently for the crying. There was none. There were no sounds that I could hear coming from the baby. Hubby stood next to me and I started to panic a bit,
“Why aren’t they crying? What’s wrong? Why is there no crying? What’s the matter? Is everything okay?”
Hubby was straining to see around the nurses so that he could answer me. The nurses heard my questions. They assured me that the baby was just fine. Only quiet. Really, really quiet.
Kid #2 is not always quiet. They can get really loud. In fact, tonight as I sit here and write this I can hear him yelling downstairs and laughing so loud sometimes that our neighbors can probably hear it. It is the night before Kid #2’s 16th birthday and there are friends hanging out to celebrate.
When I asked if I was expected to do anything for this momentous birthday, I was told,
“Maybe get a cake? Let us order pizza.”
I have put on some amazing birthday parties in the last nineteen years. Just last year, I created an entire Harry Potter Escape Room in our living room for Kid #2 and the two friends we allowed to come over during Pandemic Birthday #1. The number of friends allowed this year (Pandemic Birthday #2) is slightly increased, but only because they are the group he goes to school with and they have all been vaccinated and are tested regularly. And, all I HAD to do was buy a chocalate cake with chocalate icing (this child is mine, afterall) and order some pizza to be delivered. Like everything else that has to do with being a mother, this makes me happy and sad all at the same time.
Kid #2 had to stay in the hospital a little longer than normal because of high levels of bilirubin. Whereas I had to leave Kid #1 at the hospital when I was discharged after two days, this time I got to stay put. We had a nice suite with a sitting area for guests and Kid #2 got to sleep next to me as much as I wanted. Sometimes I let the nurse take them to the nursery so I could sleep! They didn’t discharge me until they discharged the baby. As it should be.
Kid #2 drives me around now. In a couple of weeks, I will escort them to take the driving test and they hope they will leave with a Driver’s License in hand. If you have known us for the last sixteen years, reading this post may be weird because of the pronouns I’m using. Kid #2 prefers “he” or “they” and I’m doing my best to honor that. Telling the birth story without using the other pronoun is not easy.
Quietly, they have made themselves known to us. I don’t think there are many people who truly know this kid on a deep level who understand what a brave thing that has been. Some days I am better about remembering it than others.
There was no need to yell and scream at birth to make himself known to us. He was just fine. He has been quietly being himself ever since. Except for the moments when he is loud. Sometimes he is really, really loud. And, they are still just fine. | https://medium.com/@thmcclung/sixteen-candles-8959e680ad9f | ['T. H. Mcclung', 'She Her S'] | 2021-09-06 02:51:32.972000+00:00 | ['Birth', 'Parenting', 'Transgender', 'Daily Blog', 'Year 49'] |
A Rallying Call For Resilience In Business Owners To Beat Lockdown Blues | Times of crisis should bring out the best in us.
“Lockdowns are an aberration on the graph of our lives. They’ll pass, so stay grounded. Let the storm subside, assemble the pieces, and re-build.” This sums up my stance in debates on how businesses should respond to lockdowns.
I know better now. And the reason is a pizza bar in South Australia.
All it takes is one innocuous lie to push a state of 1.7m population into a lockdown. Welcome to the life you never imagined.
It’s obvious that governments don’t know any better than shouting PAUSE and expecting businesses to screech to a halt at the call.
Sudden Lockdowns Are A Reality You Can’t Shy Away From
Isn’t it obvious?
This won’t be the last pandemic. And it’s far from over. UK’s Matt Hancock warned the world of a new strain of coronavirus on 15 Dec 2020, a day before I polished this post prior to posting.
The next public health emergency could look a lot different. It could be a local terror attack, or a climate mess akin to Californian wildfires.
Lockdowns are now coded as a legitimate government response to mayhem.
If you’re a business owner, trade your stiff-collared shirts for an armor-suit and a nerve of steel to go with it.
A Preamble To The Testament of Lockdown Resilience
All lockdowns aren’t the same.
Interestingly, 2020’s lockdowns provided an unexpected fillip to certain businesses. Essential retail, packed food, and ITeS service businesses enjoyed between 35–50% increase in weekly revenue in Late-April, over the numbers for the same week in 2019.
But then, if your sales double over a week, and your business can’t cope, it’s a nightmare all the same, albeit of a different kind.
Chances are you’d find a lockdown more a foe than friend, because it will mean:
● Low footfall in retail stores
● Lower consumption
● Dismantling of critical supply chains
● Drying up of cash flows
Leave the covering in fear and anxiety for others. And, gear up for resilience.
Resilient Business Routines — The ONLY Enduring Response
Your business isn’t your logo or your office or your business cards. Your business exists in its routines. Successful businesses excel not because they can do something new every day. They excel because they repeat their excellence routinely.
Hate to let it out, but your business is as resilient to uncertainty as your weakest routine.
Follow me as I tell you the questions that will reveal your business’ weak routines.
What’s your plan B?
Rather, how quickly can you switch from plan A (your most optimal business model) to plan B (an alternate business model that still puts food on the table)?
For the Australian startup The Cocktail Shop, operational resilience was the difference between bust and boom. For entrepreneur Mel How, digital marketing and SEO experience, and readiness to switch focus from B2C to B2B was a savior. She responded to the lockdown by targeting Aussie businesses, who promptly booked in their bulk orders for her cocktails-at-home service.
Mel tasted success, businesses found a funky way to keep their remote employees happy and connected over events of camaraderie, and the employees sipped delicious cocktails at home while being virtually together with colleagues.
I’ll follow this with another question for you.
Is your business on the right technology trajectory?
Chances are:
You’re paying someone for work that a piece of code could do for you — better and cheaper.
You’re missing opportunities to capture, crunch, and study data that can take the guesswork out of your business decision-making.
What you believe can’t be done online, has been and is being done online by your competitors.
You’re overpaying for outdated, clunky software that’s preventing your business from soaring, like the pioneers of your industry.
You’re scared of growing 10X, because you know you can’t handle the growth, and that’s because you’re not yet friends with the right technologies.
And you might not even know you’re stuck with these handicaps. After 100+ consultations with dozens of Australian SMB owners, managers, and directors I’ve consulted this year, I’ve concluded that the most glaring vulnerability for businesses is inadequate technological support.
And, it’s near impossible to bump into a story of business resilience amidst lockdown, without a declaration from the business owners that timely investments in the right technology saved them.
Crumpets by Merna is another Aussie success story that emerged from early stages of coronavirus lockdowns. Owner Merna Taouk was quick to overhaul her business website’s backend to digitize the customer delivery information systems.
The single most important lesson from 2020, particularly for mid-sized businesses has nothing to do with family and wellness and uncertainties. It’s this — technology is your only friend. Digital marketing is your only chance. E-commerce is the only way you’ll still be in business 5 years from now. Digital analytics is the only way you can make sense of what you can’t see but is everywhere, all the time — data.
Next, let’s address the nasty questions that found thousands of business owners sweating this year.
How resilient are your business finances?
Relations between business owners and accountants have been under unprecedented strain this year.
Shocking beyond expression that SMBs don’t know their numbers. Worse still, they don’t have the routines in place that reveal the true state of their financial health.
Even if your business is eligible for financial support or grant from the local or federal government, you’d need true, current, and verifiable numbers to present a case.
The basics — cash flow, profitability, assets, and liabilities, are not enough. Know your costs, 3-month and 6-month projections, collectibles, and key KPIs. That’s the vocabulary for any high-stakes conversations about your business’ financial future.
Tighten your credits and collections processes. Build favorable payment clauses in your contracts with vendors with whom you enjoy better-negotiating power.
Commercial workspace rent could be your Achilles’ heel, so set expectations with your landlord. The Queensland Government was among the many state bodies in Australia who sensed that landlord-tenant disputes would rain upon Australian courts if they weren’t proactive.
Try your luck, test your landlord’s negotiation skills, do it to make your life easy, it’s much better than shutting shop because ‘the rent’s a back-breaker’. Full or partial abatement of rent, deferral followed by repayment in installments after the expiry of lease term, and full lease renegotiations have helped businesses stay afloat.
What other revenue models can you fall back on?
Your business’ financial resilience also depends on the ease with which you can devise alternate revenue models, payment terms, and offers. Understand how your customers’ relationship with money will change. Can a subscription model work? How about offering a discounted sale at a future time, for a payment now? You can’t leap over a pothole with one foot frozen in the past, can you? Be creative with your finances.
Are there more questions?
You bet, yes.
Can you bring together strong-headed, able-bodied, quick-witted employees together into a crisis response team for your business?
Can you get your staff working over staggered work-shifts?
How quickly can you bring your operations to a safe halt?
If allowed to continue limited operations, which extensions of your business machine can you temporarily remove?
Do you have a 1-month/3-month/6-month plan to react to a call for a lockdown, or something similar?
Tough questions, I know. Easier asked than answered, I know. Overplanning, perhaps.
All I needed to be excited for scribbling notes to answer these questions was a fear of being among the business owners who didn’t return to their offices at the end of a lockdown.
I hope you find yourself grappling with these questions soon, because half-true answers are better than utter cluelessness. | https://medium.com/@hiteshdhawan/a-rallying-call-for-resilience-in-business-owners-to-beat-lockdown-blues-ea1e1a8b85d0 | ['Hitesh Dhawan'] | 2020-12-21 06:03:51.221000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Lockdown', 'Neuronimbus', 'Digital Transformation', 'Business Fundamentals'] |
Setting up Express Routes | Initial Setup
Heading over to VSCode’s terminal I install Express 4.14.1. I also install the node.js CORS package, which enables cross-origin resource sharing between resources. By default, browsers won’t allow servers from the same origin to talk, the situation we find ourselves in when working locally in development mode with say, an Express server running serving the APIs and a React site all running at localhost. This behavior is for security, but won’t be an issue running things locally. Installing the CORS package allows us to by pass this restriction.
I also install nodemon which will restart the Express server every time a change is made in the code — a real time saver when developing!
Next I install the BCrypt and JSONWebToken packages. Bcrypt will be used to hash and later verify passwords before storing them in the MongoDB User collection. JSONWebToken will create and later verify an encrypted token that can be sent back to the client and stored in the browser’s local storage. The token allows a user’s authorization to persist after closing down and reopening the browser, a new session. As an aside, there’s a passionate discussion about the best way to store JWTs, or even to use them at all, but that’s out of the scope of this article.
Here’s the initial setup of an instance of Express Server (app). The code also imports in our configured instance of Mongoose which allows us to access and communicate with our MongoDB database.
// index.js const express = require('express');
const cors = require('cors');
require('./db/mongoose'); const app = express();
const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
app.use(express.json());
app.use(cors()); app.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Server running on port ${port}`);
});
Here’s the project folder structure I use:
Express Router
I set up four different routers to keep the routers a manageable size. Each router is imported into index.js and added to the instance of the Express server:
// index.js const userRouter = require('./routers/user');
const listRouter = require('./routers/list');
const masterItemRouter = require('./routers/masterItems');
const categoriesRouter = require('./routers/categories'); ... app.use(userRouter);
app.use(listRouter);
app.use(masterItemRouter);
app.use(categoriesRouter);
Here is a URL plan I came up that I found very helpful when writing the routers. It includes the endpoint’s Method/URL, the parameters expected, as well as the intended success and error returns. I found this especially helpful when designing requests in the React frontend.
Express Router plan
The actual routers are fairly simple to put together. Here’s the User router:
// src/routers/user.js const express = require('express');
const User = require('../models/user');
const auth = require('../middleware/authentication'); const router = new express.Router(); /// routes module.exports = router;
We import express so we can create an instance of Router for the new router. We also need to import the User model to use when creating new Users. Auth is Express middleware (authentication.js) that checks if a token is present and verified. If so, the current user is returned. This allows us to easily setup authorized routes that are only accessible if a user is logged in.
Finally the router is exported.
Below I define a route that creates a new user. We add the HTTP method used by the specific route (POST in this case) and the router takes two arguments — the path and a callback (handler function). The callback has two or three arguments — req (request) and res(response), and optionally next which can be used to call multiple callbacks. The callback below checks if the password and confirmation match. If they do, the new user is created. GenerateAuthToken is Mongoose is a Mongoose schema method that generates the jwt, saves it in the User’s document and returns the jwt to the router to add to the response back to the client. | https://medium.com/@rixong/setting-up-express-routes-d6b48c732a8a | ['Rick Glascock'] | 2020-11-21 17:08:40.610000+00:00 | ['Expressjs', 'Node', 'Mongoose'] |
Blinded by Blockchain | Blockchain dis-intermediates any and all[self-interested] parties from transactions, but still allows those transactions to take place…
Blockchain does not remove additional parties… Blockchain replaces them.
Blockchain is the shifting of TRUST from Middleman → to → Middleware
For more clarity, we have to revert “Blockchain” back to what it is, at it’s most raw.
A Database Structure.
This database structure is called a ledger.
This Ledger acts as a universal “source of truth”
This “Source of Truth” is used to verify and validate any [appropriate] statement.
Events are now to be appended onto this Ledger for future reference.
This creates the architecture for DEFI (decentralized finance). An architecture that automates the entire middleman process.
We wont be exploring the technical wonders of how blockchain works here, but a brief explanation is: Immutable — Append only — Chained — Competitive Decentralization
(in the case of the bitcoin Bitcoin)
At society’s current standard, all digital financial activities that happen are checked and verified against the Ledger that is owned and maintained by profit-seeking institutions, such as Banks.(no I am not against institutions, I believe that capitalism and open finance can co-exist).
So right now, if you or somebody you know go to do ANY digital financial transaction the systems that get updated would be everybody’s in between the transaction namely:
Banks → Credit Card Companies → IRS → Payment Provider → payment processors → Merchant — — and finally your own…
Blockchain structure is capable of handling the “work” that all those intermediaries do, do it for magnitudes cheaper, and secure it against grieving / malicious individual actors.
No matter how you want to phrase it or what Utopian ideology it would be nice to live in: Theory and Practicality are two divergent polar creatures.
It is impractical (and at the very least unnecessary) to remove all parties from transactions. When engaging in large scale economic activities it is highly recommended and ostensible to have a neutral third party guaranteeing compliance with any agreement terms.
Imagine blockchain as an always neutral (and uninterested in the outcome) third-party to all trading activity. (a third party which is a collaboration of self-serving third parties with a common goal) Which also happens to wield/be a source of truth which is used for verification & validation.
Blockchain promises to store data in a very specific way. In a distributed/decentralized ecosystem in which fictitious transactions cannot be executed (99.999% of them). It promises to be as resilient to hacking and breaking as it is widely adopted. It promises nothing when quantum computing floods the markets. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/blinded-by-blockchain-6460afa7565 | ['Andrey Didovskiy'] | 2019-05-31 08:39:22.353000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Economics'] |
The New Gold Standard for Career Switching | Once upon a time, I was a bright-eyed freshman in college studying Business. Initially dead set on a career in investment banking, I slowly recognized that this was not the right path for me. I, like many reading this, recently came to terms with the daunting sentiment: “I need to switch career paths.”
As many early-to-mid career professionals in the same position often find, the next steps can be incredibly unclear. We must ask ourselves:
Which new career path is right for me?
What new skillset do I need?
How do I even acquire these skills?
The first question is very personal, and outside of the scope of this article. The next two, however, are what we will focus on answering. Today, I’m going to present a brand new approach to effectively identify and gather the skills you need to enter a new career path. To do so, this article will cover:
The Problems With Career Switching Today The Data-Driven Approach I’m Developing Address It How You Can Use It
Let’s get started.
The Problems With Career Switching Today
We live in a golden age of data science. With many industries experiencing rapid data-driven innovation, one remains suspiciously stagnant — the job market.
Career switching is no stranger to the average person.
Those of us without network connections in our target industries have limited options. Naturally, we turn to the internet, but the vast amount of information out there is a double-edged sword. If you search for guides on how to enter a new industry, you’ll quickly get overwhelmed; the internet offers less help than you’d think.
Why? Most of the information found online comes in the form of conflicting guides, each based on one person’s limited perspective. Anecdotal advice isn’t reliable, and even useful advice depreciates in value over time as industries evolve. A second option is going back to school (or a bootcamp), which can be time and cost prohibitive for most people. The last problem with both of these solutions is they assume one-size-fits-all. People don’t start from the same starting point — and that influences their optimal learning path.
In summary, today’s online resources are too subjective and de-personalized to be effective.
Because of these issues, many people get discouraged before starting, delay, or give up after sinking time and money trying.
So, how do we decrease this paralyzing uncertainty and increase our chances of success?
What I Built
As a data scientist & software developer, I get many questions on how to break into the industry. People ask me what they should learn, how to learn it, and what the fastest/cheapest path is. I didn’t know the answers, so I built something that does.
Let’s take a second to think about what a proper solution would look like. We’ll need a solution that is:
Data-driven: Hard numbers and industry aggregations, not anecdotes.
Hard numbers and industry aggregations, not anecdotes. Personalized: You start from a unique place and your path forward should reflect that.
You start from a unique place and your path forward should reflect that. Efficient: Getting you the best bang for your buck when building skills, no more wasted time and money.
Getting you the best bang for your buck when building skills, no more wasted time and money. Up-to-date: Industries evolve, so our solution must adapt to change.
Today, there is no solution that addresses all of these issues, but there’s hope.
From a lost business school student, I was able to successfully transition to a full time Software Engineer at Amazon. Now, not only have I experienced the issues with career switching, but I have the skills to help others make that transition. Let’s walk through what this solution looks like:
Step 1: Thinking like a data scientist, we know the best way to understand an industry is to look at the data. With enough data, trends will become apparent. Which skills are popular? Which are gaining popularity? How proficient do you need to be? With the right data, we could answer all of these questions.
Step 2: Now that we have an idea of the industry, let’s understand our job-seekers. Depending on their prior experience, their skillsets will vary widely. Some people might have half the skills required, others may have close to none. To capture this, we need to directly ask a job-seeker about their current skillset. The goal here is to collect information objectively to accurately gauge which relevant skills our job-seeker already possesses.
Step 3: Third, we figure out the skill gap. At this point, we know a person’s current skills and what’s required from their goal industry. Processing skills data into vectors and calculating these gaps would yield precise, meaningful numbers.
Step 4: Finally, we must close the skill gaps. The most reliable and widely available way to learn new skills is online courses. If we have access to courses from multiple big-name providers, we can provide an un-biased assortment of options for our job-seekers to get evaluated against. With a customized content-based recommender system, we can calculate an effective, personalized, actionable set of course recommendations for each candidate. | https://towardsdatascience.com/the-new-gold-standard-for-career-switching-5aa6615a0870 | ['Shayaan Jagtap'] | 2020-12-13 23:08:58.609000+00:00 | ['Job Search', 'Job Hunting', 'Career Advancement', 'Careers', 'Data Science'] |
Build a Social Media Website with Django - Part 5 | Build a Social Media Website with Django — Part 5 (Feed App Templates)
In the fifth part, we will focus on building the templates for the Feed app we defined in the last tutorial.
So, in the fourth part, we defined all the backend part of the Feed App, like we defined all the URLs, views, models, forms and registered our models with the admin panel.
So, now in the fifth part, we will focus on all the templates for displaying the logic we wrote in the Feed app. As you already know, Feed app deals with the posts, the likes, the comments and searching for posts part.
So, in this part, there would be lots of HTML since we are dealing with the part of the templates. It will take in the data passed by the views.py file of Feed app and will help display the data to the user and take user input via forms.
So, we put all our templates in the following location: templates/feed inside of the feed folder. It is the Django’s naming convention to put data there as Django looks for templates in that location.
We will deal with templates one by one. There are six of them. We won’t go into detail much as its mostly HTML and CSS classes and we would talk only about the logic part which we use in templates to define who has access to what and what part does what job. So, let’s begin:
create_post.html
Let’s start with the create_post part. This part deals with the creation of new posts. This template will let users easily create new posts by adding the relevant details such as image (compulsory), details about the image and the tags (optional).
The function of this template is to display the required form which would accept user input. There is a submit button to save and submit the post and to add it to the database.
Also, there is a search bar displayed inside the navigation bar which allows you to search for specific posts by relevant tags.
The template extends the layout template which all other templates of Feed and Users templates were using. We will see layout.html file soon.
home.html
It also extends the layout.html file. It is the home page for our app. Any user who logs in will be redirected to this page. This page is accessible without login too.
It also has the same search bar for searching posts. The main purpose of this homepage is to display the posts in a relevant manner.
It also checks whether a post has been liked by the user or not and displays like or unlike button as applicable.
It also has pagination done to display only 10 posts per page. It has links to next and previous pages also.
It also has the AJAX script for handling likes in real-time without refreshing the page. It changes the like button to unlike button as soon as the user likes it or vice versa. It changes the button colour to represent the same.
layout.html
This is the layout file. It imports all the required CSS and JS files which we use on the website. We use Bootstrap4 and some custom CSS files.
Next, we have a Navbar which displays the relevant links for logged in users and users who are not logged in. It is done to show only the links which are required.
E.g.: We will show logout link to someone who is already logged in and will show login and register link for unauthenticated users.
We also have a small footer which just displays the name and copyright info.
You would notice that we have a {%block content%} {%endblock content%} which holds all the content info we have on other pages.
Similarly, we have a search block also which is for searching post or people part.
post_detail.html
This template deals with the displaying of the post in detail. It shows the complete post details along with like and comment count. It also has a section to post comments (comment form is displayed) and below it is the section where all comments are displayed.
Also, there are links to update and delete posts. It only displays these links when the person is the same as the owner of the post. Otherwise, it won’t show these buttons to any other person.
It also has the same AJAX script to handle like and unlike without refreshing.
search_posts.html
This part displays the posts which match the search terms. It displays all relevant posts (search results).
This is similar to the homepage as we need to display posts but unlike homepage which displays all posts, here we display selective posts only which matches the search term.
All other components are the same as the homepage like AJAX script to handle likes and display style.
user_posts.html
This page displays posts by a particular user. It is almost same as the homepage with pagination, same AJAX script to handle likes and the same display style for posts.
The only difference is it displays only posts by a particular user.
So, that’s all for the Feed App Templates. It was a lot of HTML content. Hope you are not bored.
Hope you enjoyed the tutorial. It was the last part in the five-part series of the Django Social Media tutorial.
I hope you all liked the complete series. I hope you all will be able to make your own social media project with Django and can add more aspects to it like tagging, showing posts only by friend circle, an enhanced recommendation system and much more.
The Github Repo for the complete series is here. Feel free to comment or make any pull requests to this repository which would help enhance it in any way.
A similar Django focused series (Building a Job Search Portal) which will teach you some amazing new concepts is:
The first four parts can be found here:-
A great article on React is:- | https://towardsdatascience.com/build-a-social-media-website-with-django-part-5-feed-app-templates-66ddad5420ca | ['Kumar Shubham'] | 2020-12-31 13:02:14.308000+00:00 | ['HTML', 'Django', 'Bycetutorial', 'Web', 'Website'] |
Trust is not the foundation, it’s scaffolding | When we talk about a relationship, we often talk about the foundation and how important it is. I agree, without a good foundation, your relationship is going to fall over pretty soon. If we talk about the foundation of a relationship, we can make an analogy that it’s like building. So if a relationship is a building we must also talk about the walls, the scaffolding, and maintenance. Why do we always talk about the importance of a good foundation but not the other parts of building a relationship?
The thing I love about any construction is that no matter how advanced our technology gets, it’s still a manual job, just like a relationship, we still need to consciously build brick by brick, building the scaffolding around the building as we move up. The scaffolding is what holds you up while you experience life, while you are away from each other for work, when you have a falling out, it’s how you go to the next level and build higher. Without trust, your relationship can be a beautiful foundation and a nice wall, but it’s not a building or a home. So memories and experiences are the bricks, and trust is the scaffolding, let me explain what I mean. When we first meet someone our trust in them is at ground level, we can lay some bricks but we don’t share the deep stuff (deepest fears, kinks, core values). If that person breaks our trust, it’s not a big deal because we are still at laying down the first few bricks, if we fall it’s not a big deal to get back up. But once you start to know each other, and start building a relationship the bricks become too high for you to be on ground level and you must use scaffolding, or trust, to build more memories. Now if someone betrays your trust, and your scaffolding goes crashing down you are left with a half-built house, an injury (normally to the heart), and sometimes a lawsuit. The best example of this is when someone cheats in a relationship. Trust is down to zero but the memories are still there if you want to continue building the relationship you have to rebuild the scaffolding before you can continue to build the house.
But a relationship is more than just building memories, it’s building a life together and that requires maintenance. If you’ve ever restored a house you know that people often don’t do proper maintenance if any. To put it simply, when the signs of something breaking first appear we normally ignore them until it’s too late. In terms of a relationship, we normally don’t communicate things when they bother us, and this leads to pent up frustration meaning we don’t do any maintenance. Do yourself a favor and look at the wall above your door. Its probably got a crack on it, and you probably told yourself that you would fix that soon but you haven’t. This is exactly what happens in a relationship, there is a problem that either you, your partner or both of you see but don’t address. Over time this pent up stress will grow and cause a major issue that could cause the house, the relationship, to collapse.
Everyones least favorite part of living is maintenance. Nobody likes replacing lightbulbs, windows, or spending hundreds of dollars to replace an air conditioning unit. So when we build this relationship we are also living in what we built of the house. We need to do maintenance or the building could cave on us, even if we have a good foundation and our scaffolding is solid. This is a part of any relationship that we don’t normally talk about because we don’t often look back to see what our partners gave up to make us happy, how we compromised for the sake of one person in the relationship. Maintenance is addressing the issues, identifying when the kitchen door is squeaky, when one of you has always done laundry and needs a break. In a relationship, you need to see what parts you have left untouched for a while to make sure no pent up stress is slowly causing damage to the entire building. If the relationship is not maintained, it’ll start to crumble and fall until it’s a dilapidated memory.
Throughout life, you are going to build a city, multiple houses with significant others, family, and friends. You’ll build skyscrapers with organizations (churches, schools, companies, etc.). You’ll undoubtedly leave some buildings half completed, abandon some, and constantly build and maintain a few others. At the end of the day, it’s the buildings you put time into, the ones that you maintain, and rebuild the scaffolding that will be the most beautiful. Just look at the Sagrada Familia, over a hundred years and they haven’t given up on it. Now it’s viewed as the most beautiful building on earth. | https://jackprommel.medium.com/trust-is-not-the-foundation-its-scaffolding-329e66324950 | ['Jack Prömmel'] | 2019-09-23 13:55:07.678000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Long Distance', 'Relationships Love Dating', 'Love', 'Trust'] |
Side Note: the roots — and enduring romance of resilience | Resilience is back — if it ever went away. Our current pandemic predicament is only intensifying our embrace of this concept. Crises — and the pandemic certainly isn't the only one we're dealing with — remind us of the desirability of being resilient. More fundamentally, it's about trading off the ability to do things well — being efficient — versus being able to do things at all: efficacy.
Which is preferable? The answer — of course — depends on what it is you're trying to do and what situation you're in. Efficiency requires assumptions to hold — but when faced with crises and sudden shifts, you are suddenly no longer able to "take a punch".
The thing is, there is nothing new about this dilemma. Reading James C Scott's Against the Grain — a provocative essay challenging longstanding narratives about the origins of the state in agricultural societies — I was struck by how this efficiency-efficacy trade-off is very old indeed.
Scott evocatively contrasts the difference between nomadic hunter-gatherers and settled farmers. The former, even today, possess a wealth of knowledge of the natural world, and learn to conduct a whole range of activities to gather food: "hunting and collecting, fishing, picking, making traps and weirs" depending on what is available when and where. Each requires different skills and tools. They are walking repositories of orally transmitted knowledge about botany, weather and other natural phenomena. The hunter-gatherer is a poster-child for efficacy — and resilience. They can do a lot — and hence survive.
Farmers — on the other hand — have to focus on a very narrow set of tasks geared to the cultivation of one or two crops. As settled individuals, they are part of more complex divisions of labour, exchanging with nearby settlements and cities. As such, they are more productive and efficient— in an Adam Smith sort of way. But they are also more vulnerable to crop failures, or worse. As settled individuals, Scott observes, they have had to through "something of a deskilling", and undergo a "contraction" in the ability to read and understand — and survive in — the natural world.
In reading Scott's account I cannot help but think that resilience has always had something of a romantic shine attached to it; indeed, it has only grown as we have become ever more specialized in our societies and economies, in the pursuit of a higher quality of life but also more efficiency. Indeed, it is arguably a theme that recurs in thought and literature; Rousseau's Noble Savage is but one example among many.
This romance of resilience comes through in a variety of ways; whilst we enjoy our efficiency-enhanced lifestyles, we still take pains to take on some skills that might be useful "just in case". For instance, the continued cultivation of "hunter-gatherer" style skills. Scouting or orienteering for children can be seen as a form of this. Then of course there are first aid courses, which "ordinarily" we would not really need.
At a wholly different scale, we have adults who engage in “zero-waste" or "prepper" lifestyles: consciously trying to fight back against a kind the kind of dependence and learned helplesness that being a consumer in modern society encourages. Of course, you will never be able to build a toaster from scratch… but then that's the whole point — not to be able to rebuild all the functions we need in our life but to reproduce the essentials to survive.
Perhaps more subtly, the fact that we, as societies, still place a high social premium on knowing how to cook and make some things ourselves — even though from an efficiency/optimisation point of view it would be quite rational to outsource all this entirely.
Or how can we explain the enduring fascination of books, films, series, and podcasts that go through some kind of civilizational collapse? Often these involve some kind of resourceful heroine or hero who knows lots of things that might have been seen as "uselesss" in a peaceful modern society.
Perhaps we enjoy these stories because they secretly speak to our anxieties about the inherent fragility of our complex economies and societies.
And maybe they are not entirely unhelpful, reminding us of the possibility that black swans can and do occur — and that sometimes it pays to be prepared, and that efficiency is not the only yardstick for knowledge and skills. | https://medium.com/@rdiazplaja/side-note-the-roots-and-enduring-romance-of-resilience-1cc1c552e594 | ['Ruben Diaz-Plaja'] | 2020-05-17 20:36:38.714000+00:00 | ['Resilience', 'Efficiency', 'Efficacy', 'Social Evolution', 'Crises'] |
Someday My Hands Will No Longer Be Beautiful To You | Photo by Kristina Nor from Pexels
Someday My Hands Will No Longer Be Beautiful To You
A Poem
I’ve been told my hands possess a kind of magic(k)
that presses and soothes pain as a butterfly might sip nectar
or somebody might suck the poison from a snake bite.
My fingers are long and thin,
and the woman at home offered compared our hands —
She made me feel guilty for having beautiful fingers
as if it were my fault and a disgrace
that I could thread gold thread from molding straw.
I’ve been told my hands are beautiful,
because they are delicate, gentle, and precise when they touch you.
They produce a warmth, a light you’ve never known before
and nobody really holds my hand
or ever really did consistently
but my hands can hold your heart in their palms,
and they do.
I’ve been told my hands don’t look arthritic (yet)
when others don’t feel their fire or don’t witness the flares.
My knuckles get hot now, though
and I have bumps and nodules and knots where I didn’t before.
My wrists are very weak, and my fingers are beginning to gnarl
when the pain gets bad;
but my hands have long-created tapestries of angel wings
of spider silk and precious gems.
I’ve held hands that, like mine, went unheld for too long,
I’ve healed backaches, headaches, heartaches with these hands
and I’ve tied my own tourniquets,
stitched closed my own wounds and set my own bones
and so my hands will still be beautiful
long after they’re no longer beautiful to you. | https://medium.com/blueinsight/someday-my-hands-will-no-longer-be-beautiful-to-you-3e8d6d9485d8 | [] | 2020-12-16 06:02:52.884000+00:00 | ['Chronic Illness', 'Grief', 'Blue Insights', 'Rheumatoid Arthritis'] |
Propaganda, Advocacy & How to Tell the Difference | Advocacy journalism has its good parts. It aims for truth telling, admits to have bias where applicable. It aims to inform citizens to promote positive change for the community. David Carr writes:
“Activists can and often do reveal the truth, but the primary objective remains winning the argument. That includes the argument about whether a reporter has to be politically and ideologically neutral to practice journalism.”
Some advocacy sites claim to incorporate truth telling and journalistic integrity in their reports. I would argue that if truth telling and informative intent are clearly stated, they can be considered to be a credible organization. Unfortunately, in a time when anyone can post — or pose — as a truth telling do-gooder, it is hard to be able to distinguish between persuasion and propaganda in our media.
Propaganda is:
“Any conscious and open attempt to influence the beliefs of an individual or group guided by a predetermined end and characterized by the systematic use of irrational and often unethical techniques of persuasion.”
Thomas Bivins, who was also my journalistic ethics professor a few years ago, attributed this definition to Ted Smith, editor of Propaganda: a Pluralistic Perspective.
Knowing what a credible source looks like is really important as a news consumer. It is critical to be able to identify those who are using ethical standards to tell you true things, in order to promote positive change, versus groups whom tell you things using unethical, hyperbolic strategies for their own agenda.
With no reign on who can post what, its hard to know if what you’re reading and watching is coming from an accurate source. Since any kind of media can go viral, inaccurate information could influence billions.
One organization made recent news by posting a video that had the weight to strip government funding of Planned Parenthood. The video was aiming to frame PP for illegally selling fetus tissues. The Center for Medical Progress, the group behind these claims, saw that they “oppose any interventions, procedures, and experiments that exploit the unequal legal status of any class of human beings.”
The NYT points out CMP’s agenda against PP, saying they made a “dishonest attempt to make legal, voluntary and potentially lifesaving tissue donations appear nefarious and illegal.”
Parts of the video were clearly cut out — things that put the conversation in context — PP admits to selling the tissues for a small amount, just enough to cover transportation fees, and lab processing.
While the video has rallied many anti-abortion activists, the CMP has been met with a lot of pushback from the video — resulting in a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court to prevent them from releasing anymore videos.
The CMP has been met with a lot of push back from the video — resulting in a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court to prevent them from releasing anymore videos.
Factcheck.org, a non-partisan organization with the mission to lower the confusion on political facts. “Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding,” they claim.
They cite the video in it’s entirety. The full, unedited version. In their review of the video, they found that Deborah Nucatola — the Planned Parenthood executive who appeared in the video — stated many times that PP’s clinics want to foot the bill for their own costs, to not make profit, when donating fetal tissue for scientific medical research.
The video, and the organization who released it, clearly have holes, yet so many are charged by their message. The roots of the CMP are kept alive by the funds of Operation Rescue, a Christian anti-abortion organization. A handful of Republican presidential candidates have even cited it on their social media campaigns. Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul, and Rick Perry have all posted about it as if it were a tenable piece of evidence.
So what would a credible advocacy group look like? If there appears to be any kind of agenda within an organization, how can we trust what we’re being told? If presidential candidates are using propaganda to promote their campaigns, how can the rest of us make informed decisions about what to believe or how to vote?
RH Reality Check, a daily online publication, is a lot like the CMP. They both aim to cover health, and promote justice within the medical sphere. There are huge differences in how RH gathers their stories and conducts investigations compared with CMP, however. Where CMP’s blog has one author — its own founder, David Daleiden — RH has a plethora of really, really well researched articles by numerous reporters. They also include a page-long mission statement on their site that sets the tone for the organization’s standards.
In their mission statement, RH includes their overall vision, a description of their identity (completed with bios of their employed directors, editors, analysts and reporters). They also include a journalistic ethics code taken from the Center for Independent Media’s News Journalist Fellow Program’s web site.
Checking mission statements and reviewing ethical standards in the media we consume should be second nature to the average news consumer. In CMP’s case, there are no ethical standards that are clearly written, and judging by their illegitimate tactics to bring down PP, their reputation will hopefully be known for what it truly is.
But it isn’t all on them. Citizen’s have responsibilities in news too. Now more than ever, people must be their own fact checkers. In the flood of gossip, propaganda, accusations, and facts that make up the social media landscape, it is our job to know how to filter it. We are the gatekeepers. Gone are the days of big journalism cooperations who decide what the public will know.
The American Press Institute quotes Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel’s book The Elements of Journalism in speaking about the responsibilities of citizens who consume news:
Writing a blog entry, commenting on a social media site, sending a tweet, or “liking” a picture or post, likely involves a shorthand version of the journalistic process. One comes across information, decides whether or not it’s believable, assesses its strength and weaknesses, determines if it has value to others, decides what to ignore and what to pass on, chooses the best way to share it, and then hits the “send” button.
The act of persuasion in journalism is rife with with ethical hurdles. When we are in the act of persuading our audience, the urge to manipulate might be hard to pass up. But it isn’t impossible. And as citizens, there will always be opposing sides. But, if we can remember to be constant fact checkers, and choose to spread only what we find to be the verified truth, we can make progress faster. | https://medium.com/uo-mmj/propaganda-advocacy-how-to-tell-the-difference-e71b64ecba4 | ['Stephanie Essin'] | 2016-05-16 22:20:00.316000+00:00 | ['Abortion', 'Journalism', 'Planned Parenthood'] |
Is Power Sector Reform Essential to China’s Plans for a Greener Future? | China has expended great efforts on renewable power and now leads the world in wind, solar, and hydro power capacities. Renewables, however, must operate largely within the “fair dispatch” system where incumbent coal plants retain their centrally planned share of generation hours despite higher marginal costs. Also, state-owned coal generators are important sources of employment and revenue for local governments, pushing provincial authorities to protect their market share and resist renewable power from other provinces. These factors, along with others, result in very high wastage of clean and cheap electricity; wind power, for example, was curtailed by 21 percent in the first half of 2016. Even hydropower is curtailed due to its geographic concentration in the southwest, far from load centers.
These obvious inefficiencies are one of the targets of the Decree №9 reforms. The reform proposals include the establishment of spot markets and power trading centers, and allowing retail competition. A spot market for electricity is a market for narrow time intervals (e.g., an hour) where generators offer bids specifying price and quantity and the trading center manager finds the lowest price that would cover enough bids to satisfy demand for that time interval. The demand comes from enterprises and households who face prices that are mostly regulated. Such a spot market requires an advanced trading system and sophisticated market participants, and has thus taken a long time to develop in an industry with central planning origins like China’s.
In a typical spot market, demand would be close to capacity during peak hours and the highest marginal-cost generator would be able to sell its power. In the U.S., the highest marginal cost generators would normally be gas turbines, which can shut down and start up quickly. In China, there are currently very few gas-fired generators and the highest marginal cost plant would likely be the most inefficient coal plant. During off-peak hours, a market system would reduce output of such plants. Wind and solar have essentially zero marginal costs and would be used when feasible, peak or off-peak. Such a system is very different from the current setup where the majority of generation hours are allocated according to a centralized plan. If such a market system succeeds, with coal plants generating less and renewables selling more, the contribution to reduction of air pollution and carbon could be substantial.
On top of this, if the CO2 permit system (ETS) is effectively implemented, it would require that the cost of burning coal includes the CO2 price, raising the spot price bids from coal generators. This would further advantage low-carbon sources.
These two “ifs” are big uncertainties given the complexity of the systems, resistance of politically powerful incumbent coal generators and other economic challenges facing the government in 2018.
Finally, relaxation of investment controls in the mid-2010s sparked a huge over-building of coal-fired power plants. This overcapacity has led to a sharp fall in utilization rates of coal generators, leaving them idle more than half the time in 2017. Estimates of “stranded” coal power assets exceeded $500 billion in 2015. Yet recent satellite evidence indicates even more coal plants are being added, despite suspension of their construction permits, exacerbating the problems posed by overcapacity.
There is a strong possibility that dealing with stranded assets and grappling with power sector reforms that challenge entrenched interests will preoccupy those in charge of energy policy, and distract from efforts to implement the CO2 ETS and reduce emissions from the electricity sector. But for a major transition to clean power in China to gain real traction — and for the carbon pricing of the ETS to function as intended — the first priority must be getting power sector reform right.
Chris P. Nielsen
Chris P. Nielsen is the executive director of the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy and Environment. Working with faculty at collaborating Chinese universities and across the schools of Harvard, he has managed and developed the interdisciplinary China Project from its inception. See the main Harvard-China Project website for a summary of this work, starting with research and editing of the book that launched the Project, Energizing China: Reconciling Environmental Protection and Economic Growth (1998, HUCE and Harvard U. Press, with McElroy and Peter Lydon). Nielsen has a B.A. in Geology from Colorado College, where he was a Boettcher Scholar, and an S.M. in technology and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earlier lived in Taipei, Taiwan, working for the Colorado state trade and investment office.
Mun S. Ho
Mun S. Ho, who received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, has been serving as Senior Economist at the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy and Environment since the inception of the Project in 1993, and is currently a Visiting Scholar at Resources for the Future, Washington DC. Dr. Ho centers his research on economic growth, productivity, taxation, and environmental economics, with a specific focus on China. | https://medium.com/harvard-china-project/is-power-sector-reform-essential-to-chinas-plans-for-a-greener-future-54a5c56e142a | ['Harvard-China Project On Energy', 'Econ'] | 2019-01-13 17:23:02.319000+00:00 | ['Economy', '可再生能源与并网', 'Climate Change', '经济与政策', 'Renewable Energy'] |
The ABC’s of Sustainability… easy as 1, 2, 3 | By Julia DiPrete
(according to the Jackson 5, anyway)
(Am I still allowed to like the Jackson 5? I’m so conflicted… Sigh.)
Patton Valley Vineyard
I’ll admit, sitting down to write a post about sustainability was daunting. For one thing, I knew very little about sustainability before writing this, so I had to learn. Then, once I started researching, I became slightly overwhelmed as to how I could distill all of it into a blog post of reasonable length. On top of all that, I had to figure out a way to present the distilled version of a serious and somewhat technical topic in a way that was attention-grabbing, entertaining, relatable — you know, all the things that make you actually want to read something. I hope you’ll read on, and as you do so, please keep in mind that I gave it my all.
Here’s the thing: Sustainability is INCREDIBLY important… and it’s way more achievable than you might think.
First things first: What is “sustainability” at its core?
When I said I knew very little about sustainability before writing this blog, what I actually meant was I knew basically nothing about sustainability. I generally understood it to be an environmentally friendly practice, but I didn’t differentiate it from any of the other environmental buzzwords out there. And when too many buzzwords are buzzing around your head, it’s often easier to just swat them away and move on with your life.
Never fear, the United Nations is here to save us with an incredibly simple and (IMO) beautiful definition:
Sustainability is “[meeting] the needs of the present without compromising the well-being of future generations.”
Fundamentally, sustainability is about compromise. It’s a recognition that there is more than one party at the table: the present, and the future. Most of us, by our very nature, live in the moment, and the present has a very loud voice. Sustainability dictates that the future must also be heard, quiet and inconvenient as it can be. Sustainability represents the voices of those who can’t actually speak now, but who will live the consequences of our choices now. And Sip Wines wants to represent those voices, which is why we’re so proud to highlight our sustainable winery partners.
Bring in the mythbusters, it’s time to get real
Left Coast Estate
Admittedly, all the various “good” practices out there can blur together and be pretty confusing. And that’s unfortunate, because I think it deters a lot of people from trying to understand sustainability. DO NOT BE DETERRED — I SHALL LIFT THE FOG OF CONFUSION AND DESTROY THE MYTHS. LOTS OF CAPITAL LETTERS TO FOLLOW FOR CLARITY.
SUSTAINABILITY IS ABOUT MORE THAN JUST THE ENVIRONMENT. In fact, there’s also a very strong social equity component to sustainability. Just as one example, the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance includes as part of its certification assessment: “Sustainable winegrowing helps growers and vintners be stewards of both natural and human resources, preserving open space and providing scenic landscapes and contributing to their communities economically and culturally. Sustainability also helps provide a favorable environment for employees and neighbors.” So when I focus on environmental impact, remember that this is only one piece of sustainability. THERE IS NO ONE REGULATING BODY THAT CERTIFIES SUSTAINABILITY. It’s sort of vaguely like herbal supplements and the FDA in that sense, except that there ARE very legit bodies certifying sustainability (unlike a lot of those supplements I see on the shelves at a store whose name rhymes with mole dudes). (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against supplements. Turmeric is excellent.) In fact, a number of nonprofits have created rigorous standards for sustainability certification, so you might see different wineries with different certifications. It might seem confusing, but in reality, these certifications are all pursuing similar goals. DO NOT CONFUSE SUSTAINABLE WITH ORGANIC. It’s easy to do, given that there is overlap. (And in fact, there are multiple layers of “organic” just to make things really interesting — “organic wine” is not the same as “organically farmed wine.”) “Organic” refers to the treatment of the elements that goes into a wine — the grapes are the most obvious, in that they should be grown without pesticides, but can also include other elements, like the yeast for fermenting. Sustainability, on the other hand, is about the impact that growing and production have on the environment (as well as the social and economic components that we won’t get into today). BIODYNAMIC IS SIMILAR, BUT NOT THE SAME. Again, lots of overlap with sustainability, but a different concept. Let’s just not get into that now, to avoid confusion. SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES DO NOT INFLUENCE THE QUALITY OF A WINE. Sustainable practices have nothing to do with the elements of a wine itself. Sustainably grown and farmed grapes are no different than the grapes used to make other wines; the difference might arise in the use of solar energy to power equipment instead of traditional power sources, as just one example. (Also, I’ve had some of the sustainable wines from Sip Wines, and they were DELISH. )
Maybe this is a good segue into…
What does sustainability actually look like in (wine) practice?
Medlock Ames
To make things even more exciting, there are both sustainable vineyards (where the grapes are grown) and sustainable wineries (where the wine is made and sold). Sip Wines partners with a number of wineries that use sustainable practices (and may also use sustainably farmed grapes), and we’ll be featuring several of them in this week’s “winelights” series. The great thing about the Sip Wines website, btw, is that you can explore each winery and learn about their individual practices — and also buy their wines!
Here are just a few broad examples of what sustainability can look like in practice. At a sustainable vineyard:
Instead of using pesticides to repel insects that could damage vines, planting flowers that attract insects that prey on the problematic bugs, and/or providing optimal environments for birds that eat said bugs.
Using natural compost as fertilizer, including composting discarded grape skins and other natural waste from the winemaking process.
Installing solar panels to power the various equipment used in harvesting.
Finding ways to preserve and recycle water, through drip irrigation systems, using wetlands as a natural water filtration system, and more.
And at a sustainable winery:
Prevent waste in production and sales through the use of recycling and composting.
Making purchasing decisions in environmentally preferable ways.
Reducing the winery’s carbon footprint, such as by maximizing efficient energy use or offsetting carbon emissions in shipping.
In both contexts, sustainability can also reflect a commitment to social equity and community stewardship, in everything from hiring decisions, employment practices, community engagement, and more.
And now, some good Sip Wines feelz
I’m pleased to report that sustainability is catching on, although there is still much room for improvement. At Sip Wines, however, almost half of our winery partners have achieved sustainability certification, and that number is going up. That’s definitely a disproportionately high percentage, as compared to the actual number of sustainable wineries out there, even across certifications. In California, for example:
……… out of well over 5,000 wineries in the state.
Let’s look at another certification, LIVE, focusing on the Pacific Northwest. Out of 38 wineries that have achieved certification, 28 are in Oregon — and Sip Wines currently features two of them.
Let me point out just one more thing: those numbers are just about certifications. As you explore the Sip Wines wineries, you’ll find that even those not currently featuring formal certification are still on that track — and this is where that overlap I mentioned between sustainable, organic, and biodynamic really comes into play. Many of our winery partners partner with certified sustainable vineyards, or implement organic and/or biodynamic practices that embody the same principles as sustainability. Even without a formal certification, they’re still doing good stuff.
So yeah, they’re all rock stars.
I am compelled, as always, to end with what is probably an irritating level of optimism, at least for all my fellow Millennial cynics. There are three big reasons why I believe we should all be supporting sustainable wineries. First, contrary to how it might often feel, every little bit does matter (I mean good lord, look at the election). Your purchase of one bottle of wine from a sustainable winery means dollars to fund their efforts. Second, it’s not just about money — by supporting them, you’re letting them know that you SEE their efforts, and value them. Third, when you open your bottle of sustainable wine and take a sip, you’ll know that your wine had minimal impact on the environment (and also that sip will taste very, very good). In a way, choosing sustainable wine is your way of casting a vote for the future… and Sip Wines wants to make it as easy as possible for you to cast that vote, by giving you a platform to find sustainable wineries making some REALLY good wine. Vote for the future, drink some wine! | https://medium.com/sipwines/the-abcs-of-sustainability-easy-as-1-2-3-1a89e46c0f8a | ['Sip Wines'] | 2021-03-02 23:39:49.948000+00:00 | ['Wine Tasting', 'Sustainability', 'Wine'] |
“That’s Not A Stick, That’s A (B)Log” | To kick off 2019, our first event of the year was held by Orangebox, exploring Gerard Taylor’s latest publication “That’s not a stick, that’s a log!”. For those who haven’t read the book, it focuses on 20 observations and insights into emerging cultural trends within the workplace.
The title serves as a metaphor, exploring the difference between the stick and the log, and how that fits in with the modern day workplace. The author describes that his English Pointer is overrun with excitement on their walks. He thinks he can jump straight in, avoid the sticks, fetch a log, but the reality is, the dog can’t always keep that up. Regardless of how you wish to interpret the phrase, I learnt from the seminar, that it’s symbolic to how we often function in the workplace. We get a bright design or tech idea, jump straight in, but how often do we think of the long term outcome? Or, if we do, how do we predict that in the first place? In a fast-paced, technology-obsessed environment we think everything can be easy, but more than likely, we’re going to drop that log at some point…
The “That’s not a stick, that’s a log!” event was held at Workpattern, in our newly designed space, and was presented by Orangebox’s Nathan Hurley, who did a great job hosting the seminar! Notably, one of the first things Nathan quoted from the book was “It used to be that in business that the big ate the small. Now the fast eat the slow.” which I felt was not only true but also symbolic of that metaphor. Why isn’t Blockbuster, Netflix? How did Monzo become “bank of the future”? Could HMV have avoided administration? We all know changes are coming, but sometimes businesses aren’t quick enough to react and before we know it, the change has happened and another business with bright ideas has taken over. It’s finding a balance and the confidence to differentiate between the stick and the log, realising the importance of our tools, and the best way to use them.
Throughout, the book focuses on Millennial’s in the workplace, and being a Millennial myself in a new career, both the book and seminar were intriguing and relatable in many areas. Born in the mid 90’s I have been a part of this rapid growth of technology. I haven’t had to adapt because I was already living in a world where it was growing around me, and like a sponge, just absorbed it. The discussion of Millennials is fairly frequent; we use the web differently, spend our money differently, live life from a screen, obsessed with the Instagram lives of other people and I hate to admit it but it is true — we do operate differently. All of these factors filter into the workplace. If there’s one thing Nathan covered, it’s the obvious difference between the cluster of generations working under one roof. The question is, how can workplaces adapt to suit these differences?
For me, this is where workplace design comes in, it’s important to all generations. As a new designer, I’m learning the importance of a homely, multi-functional and adaptable workplace and for us at Workpattern, this is part of what we do. It took years for office interiors to adapt to these changes, because, if you weren’t at a desk — you weren’t working, and we now know that simply isn’t true. This is is just a prime example of those innovative businesses acting quickly, they now understand the need for competitive design solutions. Nathan highlighted an excellent point, referencing his own flat in London; his cost of living is extortionate, his flat isn’t up to scratch and simply doesn’t compete with what Orangebox can provide for him — so when we check in with the office, homeliness is key.
One of my favourite sections is “Algorithms ate my job” a graph that illustrates a variety of job roles and their risk of being taken over by the supercomputers we call robots. Although you may or may not agree with them all, the graph is visually interesting, quite scary and shows a reality that is likely to creep up on us quicker than we think.
“Slowly, slowly, all at once” is another highly powerful quote that runs through the book. With rapid changes happening in the world around us, we should help ourselves anticipate change as the key thing is, we just don’t see the future very clearly.
On a whole, there was a lot covered from the book, most of which put a lot of the observations into perspective. For me, this post is about those observations I felt I could relate to, and Nathans presentation really narrated the book after reading it, delving into to those areas just a little bit further.
With an excellent turn out and a chance to try out the new space, we would like to thank Orangebox in helping make our first event of 2019 a huge success! | https://medium.com/@workpattern/thats-not-a-stick-that-s-a-log-blog-bea0074bd7d3 | [] | 2019-02-07 15:45:06.763000+00:00 | ['Design', 'Office Design', 'Workplace', 'Business', 'Interior Design'] |
ktrain: A Lightweight Wrapper for Keras to Help Train Neural Networks | ktrain is a library to help build, train, debug, and deploy neural networks in the deep learning software framework, Keras. (As of v0.7 , ktrain uses tf.keras in TensorFlow instead of standalone Keras.) Inspired by the fastai library, with only a few lines of code, ktrain allows you to easily:
estimate an optimal learning rate for your model given your data using a learning rate finder
employ learning rate schedules such as the triangular learning rate policy, 1cycle policy, and SGDR to more effectively train your model
employ fast and easy-to-use pre-canned models for both text classification (e.g., NBSVM, fastText, GRU with pretrained word embeddings) and image classification (e.g., ResNet, Wide Residual Networks, Inception)
load and preprocess text and image data from a variety of formats
inspect data points that were misclassified to help improve your model
leverage a simple prediction API for saving and deploying both models and data-preprocessing steps to make predictions on new raw data
ktrain is open-source and available on GitHub here. It requires Python 3 and can be installed with pip as follows: pip3 install ktrain
We will demonstrate a few use cases for ktrain by example.
Wrapping Your Model and Data in a Learner Object
ktrain is designed to work seamlessly with Keras. Here, we load data and define a model just as you would normally do in Keras. The following code was copied directly from the Keras fastText text classification example. It loads the IMDb movie review dataset and defines a simple text classification model to infer the sentiment of a move review.
# load and prepare data as you normally would in Keras
from tensorflow.keras.preprocessing import sequence
from tensorflow.keras.datasets import imdb
NUM_WORDS = 20000
MAXLEN = 400
def load_data():
(x_train, y_train), (x_test, y_test) = imdb.load_data(num_words=NUM_WORDS)
x_train = sequence.pad_sequences(x_train, maxlen=MAXLEN)
x_test = sequence.pad_sequences(x_test, maxlen=MAXLEN)
return (x_train, y_train), (x_test, y_test)
(x_train, y_train), (x_test, y_test) = load_data() # build a fastText-like model as you normally would in Keras
from tensorflow.keras.models import Sequential
from tensorflow.keras.layers import Dense, Embedding, GlobalAveragePooling1D
def get_model():
model = Sequential()
model.add(Embedding(NUM_WORDS, 50, input_length=MAXLEN))
model.add(GlobalAveragePooling1D())
model.add(Dense(1, activation='sigmoid'))
model.compile(loss='binary_crossentropy', optimizer='adam', metrics=['accuracy'])
return model
model = get_model()
To use ktrain, we simply wrap our model and data in a ktrain.Learner object using the get_learner function:
import ktrain
learner = ktrain.get_learner(model,
train_data=(x_train, y_train),
val_data = (x_test, y_test))
The default batch size is 32, but this can be changed by supplying a batch_size argument to get_learner . The Learner object facilitates training your neural network in various ways. For instance, invoking the fit method of the Learner object allows you to train interactively at different learning rates:
# train for three epochs at 0.005
learner.fit(5e-3, 3) # train for additional three epochs at 0.0005
learner.fit(5e-4, 3)
The underlying Keras model wrapped by the Learner object is always directly accessible as follows: learner.model
Next, we show that the Learner object can also be used to find a good initial learning rate and easily employ a variety of different learning rate schedules that vary the learning rate automatically during training.
Tuning the Learning Rate
The learning rate is one of the most important hyperparameters to set in a neural network. The default learning rates for various optimizers like Adam and SGD may not always be appropriate for a given problem. Training in a neural network involves minimizing a loss function. If the learning rate is too low, training will be slow or can stall. If the learning rate is too high, loss will not be minimized. Both cases adversely affect a model’s performance. To find an optimal learning rate for your model, one can simulate the training by starting with a low learning rate and gradually increasing it. Leslie Smith showed that, when plotting the learning rate versus the loss, the maximal learning rate associated with a still falling loss is a good choice for training. He referred to this as an LR Range Test (also known as an LR Finder). Following a similar syntax to that of the fastai library, this can be done in ktrain as follows:
learner.lr_find()
learner.lr_plot()
The code above will display the following plot for the model and data loaded above:
We must select the maximal learning rate where the loss is still falling prior to divergence.
Based on the plot, a learning rate of 0.005 appears to be a reasonable choice, as the loss begins to diverge at higher learning rates.
Learning Rate Schedules
A number of studies have shown that varying the learning rate during training in various ways can improve performance of your neural model in terms of both loss minimization and better validation accuracy. For instance, the benefits of a 1cycle learning rate schedule with cyclical momentum were demonstrated in this experiment by Sylvain Gugger in addition to the original 1cycle paper. ktrain allows you to easily employ several different learning rate policies. Here, we show some examples:
Different ways to train a model in ktrain:
# employs a static learning rate of 0.005 for 3 epochs
learner.fit(0.005, 3) # employs an SGDR schedule with a cycle length of one epoch.
# learning rate is varied between 0.005 and near-zero value.
learner.fit(0.005, 3, cycle_len=1) # employs an SGDR schedule with a cycle length
# that increases by a factor of 2 each cycle
learner.fit(0.005, 3, cycle_len=1, cycle_mult=2) # employs the 1cycle learning rate policy
learner.fit_onecycle(0.005, 3) # employs a triangular learning rate policy with automatic stopping
learner.autofit(0.005) # employs a triangular learning rate policy with both maximum
# and base learning rates reduced when validation loss stalls
learner.autofit(0.005, 20, reduce_on_plateau=3)
We cover each of these methods in more detail below and begin with the SGDR learning rate policy.
The SGDR Learning Rate Policy
Stochastic Gradient Descent with Restarts (or SGDR) cycles the learning rate between an initial learning rate identified with the aforementioned learning rate finder and a near-zero learning rate. The learning rate is decayed using cosine annealing. The fit method allows you to easily employ the use of an SGDR learning rate policy in a similar syntax to that of the fastai library. When the cycle_len argument is supplied, cosine annealing is used to decay the learning rate for the duration of the cycle. Here, we show two cycles each with a length of one epoch:
SGDR: learner.fit(0.005, 2, cycle_len=1)
The cycle_mult argument increases the length of the cycle by a specified factor. Here, the length of the cycle doubles with each cycle (cycle_mult=2):
SGDR: learner.fit(0.005, 3, cycle_len=1, cycle_mult=2)
The 1cycle and Triangular Learning Rate Policies
In addition to fit , there is also the autofit method (which employs a triangular learning rate policy) and the fit_onecycle method (which employs a 1cycle policy). Both were proposed by Leslie Smith of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). The fit_onecycle method increases the learning rate from a base rate to a maximum rate for the first half of training and decays the learning rate to a near-zero value for the second half of training. The maximum learning rate is set using the aforementioned learning rate finder.
1cycle policy: learner.fit_onecycle(0.005, 3)
In addition, if using either the Adam, Nadam, or Adamax optimizer with fit_onecycle , the momentum is cycled between 0.95 and 0.85 such that the momentum is high with low learning rates and the momentum is low with high learning rates. Varying the momentum in this way was proposed in this paper and was shown to speed up convergence.
cyclical momentum in the 1cycle policy
The autofit method simply executes a 1cycle policy each epoch (which can be considered a variation of the triangular policy):
Triangular Policy: learner.autofit(0.005, 2)
Executing one cycle per epoch like this is better suited for use with demonstrably effective built-in Keras training callbacks. Such Keras callbacks can easily be enabled through method arguments to autofit such as early_stopping (EarlyStopping callback), reduce_on_plateau (ReduceLROnPlataeu), and checkpoint_folder (ModelCheckpoint). For instance, when reduce_on_plateau is enabled, the peak and base learning rates are both reduced (or annealed) periodically if there is no improvement in validation loss, which can help improve performance:
Triangular Policy with ReduceLROnPlateau: learner.autofit(0.005, 8, reduce_on_plateau=2)
If the number of epochs is not supplied to autofit , an EarlyStopping callback is automatically enabled and training will continue until the validation loss no longer improves. There are also additional arguments to autofit to fine-tune the training process even further. Type help(learner.autofit) in a Jupyter notebook for more details. Finally, although not shown here, the autofit method (like the 1cycle policy) cycles the momentum between 0.95 and 0.85.
In the previous sections, we manually defined a model and loaded data outside of ktrain. ktrain exposes a number of convenience functions to easily load data from a variety of sources and effortlessly employ the use of some very strong baseline models. We will show an example for both image classification and text classification — each of which requires only a few lines of code.
Image Classification: Classifying Dogs and Cats
A standard dataset used in introductions to image classification and deep learning is the Dogs vs. Cats dataset. We will use this dataset as an example of image classification in ktrain. In the following code block, the images_from_folder function is used to load the training and validation images as Keras Directory Iterator objects with data augmentation for training images. The image_classifier function is then used to build a ResNet50 model pretrained on ImageNet. We select 7e-5 as the learning rate after visual inspection of the plot generated by lr_plot . Since we have not specified the number of epochs when invoking autofit in this example, training will automatically stop when the validation loss fails to improve. By default, EarlyStopping patience is 5 and ReduceLROnPlateau patience is only 2. These can be changed using the early_stopping and reduce_on_plateau arguments to autofit . This code block typically achieves an accuracy of between 99.35% and 99.55% , as shown in this notebook.
# import ktrain modules
import ktrain
from ktrain import vision as vis # get default data augmentation with
# horizontal_flipping as only modification
data_aug = vis.get_data_aug(horizontal_flip=True) # load the data as Keras DirectoryIterator generators
(trn, val, preproc) = vis.images_from_folder(
datadir='data/dogscats',
data_aug=data_aug,
train_test_names=['train', 'valid'],
target_size=(224,224), color_mode='rgb') # build a pre-trained ResNet50 model and freeze first 15 layers
model = vis.image_classifier('pretrained_resnet50',
trn, val, freeze_layers=15) # wrap model and data in a Learner object
learner = ktrain.get_learner(model=model,
train_data=trn, val_data=val,
workers=8, use_multiprocessing=False,
batch_size=64)
learner.lr_find() # simulate training to find good learning rate
learner.lr_plot() # visually identify best learning rate # train with triangular learning rate policy
# ReduceLROnPlateau and EarlyStopping automatically enabled.
# ModelCheckpoint callback explicitly enabled.
learner.autofit(7e-5, checkpoint_folder='/tmp')
By invoking learner.view_top_losses(preproc, n=3) after training, we can view the top n examples in the validation set that are the most severely misclassified. This can shed light on how to improve your model or data-processing pipeline and whether to prune the dataset of “garbage” data. For instance, in the Dogs vs. Cats dataset, the following image is one of the most misclassified examples in the validation set:
A misclassified example in the validation set
As can be seen, the image is labeled as “cat” despite featuring both a dog and a cat with the dog being featured more prominently. This can be problematic, given that this dataset treats classes as mutually exclusive. Datasets in which the classes are not mutually-exclusive are called multi-label classification problems and are discussed later in this article.
Predictions on New Data
With a trained model in hand, we can wrap our model and the preproc object returned by images_from_folder in a Predictor object to easily classify new raw images:
The Predictor object automatically preprocesses raw data before making predictions.
The preproc object automatically preprocesses and appropriately transforms raw data in order to accurately make predictions. The Predictor object can be saved to disk and re-loaded later as part of a deployed application:
For detailed explanations and results, please see our tutorial notebook on image classification.
Text Classification: Identifying Toxic Online Comments
The Toxic Comment Classification Challenge on Kaggle involves classifying Wikipedia comments into one or more categories of so-called toxic comments. Categories of toxic online behavior include toxic, severe_toxic, obscene, threat, insult, and identity_hate. Unlike the previous examples, this is a multi-label classification problem in that the classes are not mutually-exclusive. For instance, a single comment can belong to multiple categories of toxic online behavior. ktrain automatically detects multi-label classification problems from the data and configures built-in models appropriately.
The dataset can be downloaded from the competition site in the form of a CSV file (i.e., download the file train.csv). We will load the data using the texts_from_csv method, which assumes the label_columns fields are already one-hot-encoded in the spreadsheet (as is the case with the train.csv file from Kaggle). Then, we will use the text_classifier method to load a fastText-like model. Finally, we use the autofit method to train our model. In this second example, we explicitly specify the number of epochs as 8. A triangular learning rate policy is used, so 8 triangular-shaped cycles are executed.
import ktrain
from ktrain import text as txt DATA_PATH = 'data/toxic-comments/train.csv'
NUM_WORDS = 50000
MAXLEN = 150
label_columns = ["toxic", "severe_toxic", "obscene",
"threat", "insult", "identity_hate"] (x_train, y_train), (x_test, y_test), preproc =
txt.texts_from_csv(DATA_PATH,
'comment_text',
label_columns=label_columns,
val_filepath=None,
max_features=NUM_WORDS,
maxlen=MAXLEN,
ngram_range=1) # define model a fastText-like architecture using ktrain
model = txt.text_classifier('fasttext', (x_train, y_train),
preproc=preproc) # wrap model and data in Learner object
learner = ktrain.get_learner(model, train_data=(x_train, y_train),
val_data=(x_test, y_test)) # find a good learning rate
learner.lr_find()
learner.lr_plot() # train using triangular learning rate policy
learner.autofit(0.0007, 8)
The code block above achieves a ROC-AUC of roughly 0.98 with only 6 minutes of training on a Titan V GPU. As shown in this example notebook on our GitHub project, even better results can be obtained using a Bidirectional GRU with pretrained word vectors (called ‘bigru’ in ktrain).
As in the previous example, we can instantiate a Predictor object to easily make predictions on new raw data:
More Information
For more information and details on ktrain, please see the tutorial notebooks on GitHub:
2019–08–16: Using ktrain on Google Colab? See this demo of BERT in action. | https://towardsdatascience.com/ktrain-a-lightweight-wrapper-for-keras-to-help-train-neural-networks-82851ba889c | ['Arun Maiya'] | 2020-08-10 21:39:57.665000+00:00 | ['Fastai', 'Machine Learning', 'Neural Networks', 'Deep Learning', 'Data Science'] |
Jews, Women, or Both? | The Hebrew Bible & Rabbinic Tradition
To properly grasp the historical nature of the Jewish people, it is necessary to explore the ancient structures through which Judaism operated for thousands of years. The Hebrew Bible, also known as the Tanakh, is the collection of scrolls considered canon amongst the Jewish religious tradition. The Tanakh is an acronym for the three sections of the larger text: the Torah (teaching), the Nevi’im (prophets), and Ketuvim (writings). This collection is roughly 1400 years old (Bronner 20).
It is within the Torah, the holiest part of the Hebrew Bible, that ancient narratives and the bulk of Jewish legal writings can be found. These still guide the life of Jews in a modern context. In the Nevi’im, stories of military conquest, political order, and prophecy can be found. In the final installment, the Ketuvim (writings) mostly contain poetry and wisdom writing and include the two sole scrolls named after women: Ruth and Esther.
The Tanakh has always been important to the Jewish people, but before the destruction of their primary holy site, the Temple of Solomon, Jewish life looked very different. Jerusalem was the center of Jewish life, where the priests lived and performed sacrifices. After the final destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD, a seismic shift occurred in which Judaism became a religion in diaspora, using its sacred texts as the primary axis of religiosity.
This period, known as the early Rabbinic period, canonized the Hebrew Bible and began the codification of other important religious documents. In this new era of Judaism, priests no longer served as the religious order since there was no longer a temple to preside over. Instead, the role of rabbi (teacher) was engineered to lead groups of Jews as they spread to the ends of the earth.
The early rabbis believed that all Jews, throughout the entire Jewish history, were present at Mount Sinai when Moses received the Torah, a notion that the feminist theologian Judith Plaskow equips in her famous book, Standing Again at Sinai (1994). This Torah supposedly came in two forms: the written Torah, which is divinely documented in the Tanakh, and the Oral Torah, which further clarifies the written Torah.
This oral tradition had been passed down verbatim throughout all of Jewish history, from Moses up to the rabbis themselves. When this tradition was finally documented, it became known as the Mishnah. The Mishnah set a precedent for the most extensive Jewish text of the Rabbinic period known as the Talmud, which contains the written accounts of commentaries on the Mishnah. According to Bronner, this literature has existed canonically for about 700 years (2).
As it relates to women, the Talmud expands upon the narratives contained in the Torah familiar to all Jews, providing further legal clarifications of the proper actions of women (these codified legal discussions are known as halakhah), and folkloristic narrative which expands on the given texts, known as aggadah (Bronner xvi).
Midrash, which provides exegesis on the Torah, is heavily aggadic, meaning it is primarily built on folklore rather than merely legal precedent. Throughout this paper, examples of midrash will be provided to display the texture brought to Biblical women in the Rabbinic period, both in a positive light and negative one.
The Gender Economy of Jewish Religious Life
The Hebrew Bible indisputably depicts men’s lives and their activities more than their female counterparts (Bronner 1). The 613 mitzvot (laws) contained in the Torah are built on a gender economy. They were designed, mostly for men. This means that men were (and are) required to perform all mitzvot, but women were (and are) excused from many. For example, women are excluded from participating in time-oriented mitzvot such as communal prayer and are not considered part of the minyan (Bronner 4). They were also not allowed to engage with the Torah, which restricted them from theological knowledge and religious dialogue (Rabbi Elierzer went so far as to suggest that the Torah “be burnt rather than given to a woman”) (Bronner 5).
Like nearly all ancient civilizations, women existed in a profoundly patriarchal system, tasked with keeping with the home and rearing children. Their participation in traditional religious life was reasonably limited, though expressed differently depending on the period.
Bronner distinguishes, “In the Rabbinic world.. [women] were enablers, family-oriented and away from the centers of power and communal leadership. This is in contrast to the Bible where despite their being ineffective in the legal realm, more women display active leadership in the narrative sources” (2). In the Tanakh, at least, there exists a tradition of women who rose to consequential public roles: Deborah becomes a Judge of Israel, Esther saves her people from genocide, and Serah bat Asher stands in solidarity with other powerful “Exodus Women”.
In the rabbinic period, this gendered approach of Jewish legalism gained more definition (Kashani-Sabet & Wenger 115). The Rabbis sorted laws into four categories: laws that applied to men, laws that applied to women, laws that applied to men and women, and laws that applied to neither men or women (Kashani-Sabet & Wenger 106).
Moving from law to a more general social context, women were seen within four main archetypes: daughters, wives, mothers, or sisters (Bronner 2). They existed primarily in their relationships with men. This rigid system further ingrained the importance of gender in Jewish society, making any gender deviance fairly difficult. This gendered way of approaching Jewish life, and therefore religious life, produced ideal archetypes of men and women.
There exists a surprising number of courageous Jewish women in the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic tradition, too many to include in a snapshot of exceptional women in ancient and contemporary examples. Though the following section will primarily fixate on the characters of Eve, Serah bat Asher, Deborah, and Esther, honorable mentions include the Woman of Song of Songs and Joseph’s femininity.
Feminine Archetypes in Jewish Religious Texts
Eve as the Female Prototype
There are few Biblical characters as controversial as Eve. In the Torah, Eve was the first woman created by God, created alongside Adam, the first man. She was tasked with providing companionship and facilitating the multiplication of the human race (Genesis 1:28). While she acts as an archetype for women in general, her story has often been used as a framework for dos and don’ts for women (Bronner 22). She possessed a dangerous, creative energy that, to many, is interpreted as spelling out the destruction of humanity altogether.
In the written Torah, two creation stories are given for Eve. In the first, she is created alongside Adam at the same time.
“So God created Mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:27, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation
In the second, she is pulled from Adam’s side when he is in a deep sleep.
“So the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man; and, while he slept, He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in that spot. And the Lord God fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman; and He brought her to the man.” Genesis 2:21–22, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation
The difference is significant. If one is to believe that Eve was created alongside Adam, as in the first creation myth, then it would be reasonable to assume them to be equal. But if one is to believe that she was taken from his rib, then a particular flavor of subservience is salient, as is ascertained later in the creation narrative (Genesis 3:16).
This seeming contradiction between the accounts gave rabbis much to consider, which resulted in several creative theological solutions. In one Rabbinic explanation, the Hebrew word ‘rib’ is instead translated as ‘side’ (Bronner 28). In this version, Adam was not created as a male but a hermaphrodite containing male and female qualities (Bronner 27).
Since the Hebrew word ‘adam’ translates to ‘human’ in English, many theologians have gravitated to this version of the narrative, including modern feminists. From the androgynous Adam came two ‘sides’, which became man and woman. To suggest that God made man and woman at the same time, as in the first version of creation, would also suggest that the male sex was created at the point of separation, not as a precursor.
Given the problem of Eve’s existence being a sexual one in nature, many of the rabbinic narratives surrounding the fall of man are sexual. To paraphrase the text: Adam and Eve are instructed to eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden aside from one, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. A serpent deceives Eve, convincing her to eat from the forbidden fruit and then handing it to Adam, who eats as well. At this moment, they realize they are naked and try to hide from God, who is stomping through the Garden looking for them. He eventually finds them and expels them from the Garden after providing ‘punishments’ to both Adam and Eve:
“And to the woman He said, “I will make most severe your pangs in childbearing; In pain shall you bear children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you did as your wife said and ate of the tree which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed be the ground because of you; by toil you eat of it all the days of your life: thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you. But your food shall be the grasses of the field; by the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground — for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:16–19, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation
It is first important to recognize the ambiguity surrounding the sin’s nature (Bronner 24). Ancient sources grapple with this. Some rabbinical sources consider Eve’s decision to eat from the fruit to be entirely driven by lust, thereby bringing lust and death to creation (Bronner 26). In a more aggadic version, Satan (attributed to the serpent) found himself lusting after Eve, had sex with her (“injecting lust into her”), which thereby causes all the events of the Fall of Man to ensure (Bronner 26).
While this may be seen as a redemption of Eve to some extent, her presence is considered enough to entice Satan, thereby still deserving the blame onto her. This story is transformed into a construction of modesty, whereby Eve is prescribed rules to prevent men’s enticement, like Satan, including covering her hair and keeping out of the way of men (Bronner 32).
One midrash states, “in the same way Eve disgraced herself and caused her daughters to cover their heads” (Bronner 32). The female body is associated with death, destruction, and danger — something that must be covered and hidden. Modesty becomes the primary occupation of many rabbinic midrashim (Bronner 31). To many, this is the true essence of women — their prototype, and therefore the archetype for all women.
Before continuing, it is worth arguing that modesty within the rabbinic tradition is not consistent throughout the Hebrew Bible examinations. Rabbinic interpretation is often a product of one’s time, needs, and crises. In a world of utter disorder, it would make sense that rabbis would want to add more rigidity to men and women’s roles.
But one must look no further than the Song of Songs, to encounter an unapologetically sexual woman within the Jewish canon and plenty of rabbinic support behind it. Rabbi Akiva famously defended the canonization of this sexually loaded scroll saying,
“For all of eternity in its entirety is not as worthy as the day on which Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the Writings are holy, but Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies.”
Back within the creation narrative, the Medieval midrash of Lilith complicates the story of Eve. In medieval Kabbalist sources, some rabbis engineered a new aggadic figure — the true first woman, Lilith.
Lilith was the original wife of Adam, created from the dust of the earth (Bronner 33). She was brash, insistent on equality, and argumentative. In one particular argument about who should have the ‘active’ sexual position, she becomes so frustrated that she flies away and leaves Adam (Bronner 34). She is the embodiment of the rabbinic tradition’s fears, deviant women becoming an archetype of female rebellion. Unsurprisingly, in the 20th century, Lilith’s meaning transforms again and becomes seen as a positive rebellious role model for women trying to correct the injustices of modern patriarchy — modern nation-saving.
Against the backdrop of Lilith, Eve is seen as marginally better. There is some degree to which her actions appear inevitable, attributed to her female nature. One rabbinic interpretation of God’s ‘punishments’ to Adam and Eve redefines them as prophecy rather than rejection. In this version, God merely describes how the relationship between man, woman, and the earth will evolve (Bronner 24). ‘He shall rule over you’ not because God ordains it to be so, but because that is simply how things will unfold. In His anger, God tells the couple the hard truth, regardless of whether or not He sees it as just.
Contemporary feminists take this interpretation a step further, arguing that God was detailing the injustices men would commit against women, rejecting the idea that this is the way things must be but merely the broken way things are at the moment.
To many contemporary women, then, Eve is a symbol of where all women start, constrained, surveilled, made to imagine their bodies as some evil vessel. Eve is curious, hungry for knowledge of right and wrong. What she discovers is horrifying. In the face of crisis, men will blame and subjugate women to stay in power and have their own needs met. Eve becomes the original victim of men, the woman contemporary feminists are working break free. These Jewish feminists ask, “Can the same fruit that banished us from the garden, bring us back?” | https://medium.com/interfaith-now/jews-women-or-both-850301447097 | ['Allison J. Van Tilborgh'] | 2020-12-22 22:04:01.844000+00:00 | ['Books', 'History', 'Religion', 'Spirituality', 'Feminism'] |
Anne Marie Wells’ Top 10 Books of 2020 | Anne Marie Wells’ Top 10 Books of 2020
I didn’t expect to read very much this year. In the past I have read over 100 books a year, topping my record at 193 in 2017. In 2020, I completed a measly 36 books; several of which were for my online college classes.
Choosing a “Top 10” books for the year tends to be an arduous task, but given the low number to choose from, this year it wasn’t difficult. Usually to be considered for my “Top 10,” I have to feel as if the book has changed my life in someway. These are the books that unequivocally, hands down changed me just by reading them.
Here we go:
10. Georgia Rules — Nanci Turner Steveson
Georgia Rules by Nanci Turner Steveson
Full Disclosure: My friend and mentor, Nanci Turner Steveson, wrote this middle grade novel, so I might be biased. That being said, I found it to be a really touching story.
I legit cried in my car on my way home listening to it. Very smart and showcasing a refreshingly diverse set of characters. | https://medium.com/@annemariewrites/anne-marie-wells-top-10-books-of-2020-67009b8cc17c | [] | 2020-12-28 01:16:08.899000+00:00 | ['Best Books Of 2020', 'Books And Authors', 'Book Review', 'Top 10 Books', 'Book Recommendations'] |
Why do first impressions matter in hiring? | Why do first impressions matter in hiring?
As candidates walk-in for an interview, make an impression that lasts forever. Read on to find out why first impressions are important… Aviahire Follow Dec 18, 2020 · 5 min read
Someone has rightly said that “The first impression is the last impression”. And you only have one chance to make the first impression, it stays with the other individual for a lifetime. A survey of over 2000 managers found that 33% of them know whether or not they would hire someone in the first 90 seconds of meeting them. Making a good first impression before your recruiter in the interview is something all of us want, but only a few of us know how to do it. Interviews can be nerve-wracking and cause a lot of tension amongst candidates. First impressions matter so much because they happen fast and stay for long with the individual. Your recruiters can form judgments about you in seconds, and once formed it is very difficult to change it. Simply put, your relationships and interactions will be a lot easier if you’re able to immediately start off strong. A strong first impression gives you more latitude to be human.
Why are first impressions important?
In other words, when you meet someone for the first time, you need to be on your game from the very beginning. This includes being aware of everything from the words you choose to the body language you convey. Things like attitude and appearance are often overlooked in a job interview, but these things can make or break a candidate. Even if the job seeker is overly qualified for the job on paper, details like running late, being on a cell phone, or forgetting basic manners can ruin their chances. The saying “You only have one chance to make a first impression” holds true in many situations, from job interviews to sales calls. How can you make sure that you start off on the right foot in any of these scenarios? What should you actually say? And what’s the best way to follow up?
Here are a few ways candidates can make good impressions in their interviews:
Display confidence with body language
A good attitude and confidence are key to landing a job. Even though a job hunter might feel confident on the inside, their body language could tell a completely different story. An interview starts the second a job seeker gets to the interview site. Good posture and a calm demeanor are essential whether they’re in the office or the parking lot. Interviewees shouldn’t hunch their shoulders or look down while they’re sitting in a chair waiting. When they do finally meet with the hiring manager, a smile, eye contact, and a firm handshake display confidence without being arrogant. Smiling is particularly important, as 40 percent of interviewers think that a lack of a smile is a good enough reason not to consider a candidate.
Dress for success
Appearance is crucial. Make sure the interviewee has an outfit they feel great in and one that matches the dress code of the company. Being over or under-dressed can make one uncomfortable, and hurt a job seeker’s confidence. Always tell job seekers to keep things simple if they’re not sure what to wear. Don’t over-accessorize or wear anything that might be distracting. They also need to pay attention to details. They might not care that their clothes are wrinkled or their socks don’t match, but these details could be red flags to potential employers.
Treat everyone with respect
Treating people with respect seems like common sense, but some job seekers don’t realize how many employees they encounter when they go through the interview process. It’s important to impress the hiring manager, but job seekers are also likely interacting with many other people at the company as well. Whether they’re a CEO or a receptionist, every person is a chance to make a great first impression and they deserve to be treated respectfully. A negative interaction with anyone at a company could ruin a job seekers’ chances at employment. While interviewing over the phone, make sure that you communicate well and keep your tone suited for the interview.
Keep electronic devices away
Whether interviewing in person or on a video call, always make sure that your cell phones are away from you and put to silence. It should not be a distraction, either for you or the interviewer if your phone keeps buzzing or you need to check it every now and then. You should never be caught talking, texting, or even looking at your phone during a job interview. Job searchers should also know the consequences of what might happen if their phone goes off in an interview. Clear all your schedules for that brief period of time and keep in mind not to irritate your interviewer.
Be yourself
When you’re meeting someone for the first time, don’t try to be someone you’re not. If you don’t know the answer to something they ask, don’t fake it. The ability to lean into your weaknesses shows that you are self-aware. However, be sure not to overemphasize your shortcomings. It might seem shockingly simple, but avoiding the “report card problem” or highlighting weaknesses and how you might fix them could cause you to only showcase the negatives, or at least make them the biggest part of your overall impression.
Choose your words wisely
Words matter even more than you think. Positive and persuasive words and phrases will often open doors and make people feel comfortable in your presence, which can ultimately make them more willing to work with you. This point is especially valuable if you’re making a first impression in a job interview. You want potential employers to find you positive, flexible, and capable, so use language that reflects optimism and agency instead of negativity.
Make eye contact
Make this a point to always make an eye-contact while in an interview. Focus on the person or people you are speaking with. It’s hard to get to know someone when you’re looking down at a screen in a video, so make an effort to make some eye contact with everyone in the room. However, keep in mind that eye contact can also backfire. If people aren’t already persuaded or inclined to be on your side, they may focus more on your mouth or any presentation materials you’re showcasing instead of your eyes, making attempts at eye contact a challenge.
Don’t forget to follow up
Last but not least, to ensure your first impression sticks, it’s wise to write a personalized note of sincere appreciation. These small gestures will help prove that you’re on the ball and that you’re making them a priority, rather than just another task to check off your to-do list.
Don’t let negative impressions come in the way of your ability to get to know someone or grabbing a job for that matter. Make sure to convey the right message. | https://medium.com/aviahire/why-do-first-impressions-matter-in-hiring-9246def4515c | [] | 2020-12-18 08:34:09.936000+00:00 | ['HR', 'Hiring', 'Onboarding', 'Applicant Tracking System', 'First Impressions'] |
We select an Asian creator whose work we want to introduce to the Japanese audience every month! The Prospective for November is Honglin ( Holly ). | Comment of selector, Yuzhan Ann Gao :
“Are you an illustrator? What kind of characters do you draw? “ Many people ask these kinds of questions when they hear about illustaration. In such a situation, I would like to introduce you to Holly. She is a creator who makes us feel the infinite possibilities of illustration.
July 2015 Filed under group exhibition HK
I first saw Honglin ( Holly )’s work around 2016. It was in a small bookstore annexed to the Taipei movie theater “Spot Taipei” in Zhongshan District. The walls were covered with motifs of coconut trees of various sizes. The coconut trees were printed on bags and the wall, and there were pizza boxes stacked high on the wall with T-shirts with coconut tree prints inside. Despite the seemingly simple lines, Honglin ( Holly )’s work gave me a sense of tremendous freedom.
2016 POP-UP Exhibit at “Spot Taipei”
After studying art exhibition at the prestigious University of Birmingham in England, returned to Taiwan and has shown us many possibilities of expression as a creator as well as an illustrator. He has shown us many possibilities of expression not only as an illustrator but also as a creator. She has shown us pictures drawn on paper as three-dimensional objects, collaborated with photographers by drawing illustrations on their photographs, and sometimes even added poems to her illustaration.
As a fan of her work, I can’t help but look forward to seeing her booth every year, especially at the recent Taipei Art Book Fair. In addition to the cultural side of her work, she has been expanding her activities recently to include visual production for events, book covers, and newspaper illustrations.
By following her work, I feel that the potential of Taiwan’s “illustration” will continue to grow in the future.
2018 TAIPEI ART BOOK FAIR
2019 Little Woman Book Cover
Honglin ( Holly )
Born in Taiwan and currently residing in Taipei. He has been working as a freelance illustrator since 2013, mainly working on illustrations for books, magazines, and musician goods. In March of 2016, she participated in the exhibition of Kawashima Kotori’s photo exhibition “MYOJO” at the CMP Museum of Arts in Taichung as a collaborative artist. Her paperback books “Palm Dream”, “是笨蛋吧” and “Luxury Theory” are now on sale.
👉 Honglin’s Website
👉 Instagram | https://medium.com/@ubies/we-select-an-asian-creator-whose-work-we-want-to-introduce-to-the-japanese-audience-every-month-fa90353c2cc4 | ['Ubies ユビエス'] | 2021-12-21 23:40:19.321000+00:00 | ['Asia', 'Yuzhananngao', '紅林', 'Prospective', 'Ubies'] |
1,000 Sexually Liberated People Have This in Common | What does it mean to feel at peace with sex?
Once a month I host an Erotic Writing Workshop for women and feminine people; and I hear this inquiry asked often.
We live in a society where shame is more normal than sexual liberation. As such, many people accept that guilt, shame, or pain will always be connected to their sex life. Actually, feeling liberated and healed in your sexuality is possible.
In a recent interview with sex scholar Dr. Emily Nagoski (you may have heard of her best-selling book Come As You Are or watched one of her three TED talks) she discusses a study where 1,000 people identified as sexually liberated.
After examining the research, Dr. Nagoski found one similarly among all the participants.
Each person had to relearn everything they thought they knew about gender, sex, and sexuality.
Relearn everything? That’s not overwhelming at all.
While you may or may not agree with the conclusion of this study, the results resonated with me. I’m queer woman who grew up in a Jewish and Catholic household. I was young when I learned that what I had been taught about love or sex was unreliable. The very fact that I existed proved that.
It was a long time ago when I decided to feel healthy and empowered as a sexual being. The route I decided to take mirrors Dr. Nagoski’s, I studied human sexuality at Berkeley and became a sexuality scholar myself.
Sexual healing and empowerment take time and work. There isn’t an overnight fix. However, there are three simple steps anyone can use right now to begin their journey towards sexual liberation. | https://medium.com/the-sex-journal/1-000-sexually-liberated-people-have-this-in-common-7ed761d5e54f | [] | 2020-10-15 06:37:17.711000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Science', 'Empowerment', 'Sex', 'Sexuality'] |
Poole Brothers ride character, heart, talent to football dreams at Liberty University | It’s Aug. 31 last season. First-year Liberty University football coach Hugh Freeze leads the Flames down the home tunnel of Williams Stadium where they pause at the entrance …
Former George Washington football standouts and current Liberty University players Carlos Poole (left) and Carl Poole Jr. (right) pose for their Liberty headshots. Photo: Liberty University Athletics. Illustration: Davin Wilson.
Editors note: This is the first of a two-part series. Please check back tomorrow for Pt. 2.
It’s Aug. 31 last season. First-year Liberty University football coach Hugh Freeze leads the Flames down the home tunnel of Williams Stadium where they pause at the entrance.
Electronic music trickles out the house speakers, Liberty’s hype reel plays across the video screen, smoke billows out the sides and pyrotechnics fire as the Flames take the field for their home, season-opening contest against №22 Syracuse.
For Liberty’s 38 seniors, the entrance is business as usual. However, for Freeze and the Flames’ 19 freshmen, it’s their first game day entrance into Williams Stadium.
Former George Washington two-sport standouts and twin brothers Carlos and Carl Poole Jr. are among those making their first entrances.
The Poole Brothers’ collegiate careers have commenced.
“Last year running out of the tunnel, it was lit,” Carlos said. “You’ve got the fans cheering for you, you’ve got the propane burning and fire coming out, everybody’s cheering, you’re in that tunnel and all you hear is a pile of noise. It’s a great experience.”
Out of 1,066,013 high school football players across the country, only 7.3 percent will play at the collegiate level. Narrowing the odds more, only 2.9 will compete on the Division-I stage. Really trimming the odds, few will get to compete at the D-I level with their twin brother by their side.
“You’ve got the crowd yelling at their top of their lungs, they’re loud coming out of that tunnel and it’s like, ‘oh my goodness,’” Carl said. “Then, having Carlos right beside me, coming out, it was amazing. Everything that’s happening and I’ve got my brother right beside me.”
If that’s not fitting enough, their parents, Carl Sr. and Sermica, are in attendance as well, watching their sons’ dreams of playing collegiate ball come to fruition.
It was a moment the two may have enjoyed more than their own sons, given the amount of time they put into making sure Carlos and Carl weren’t only well-rounded football players, but young men as well. | https://medium.com/channel-434-sports/poole-brothers-ride-character-heart-talent-to-football-dreams-at-liberty-university-d570145df84f | ['Davin Wilson'] | 2020-12-24 00:18:55.652000+00:00 | ['Features', 'Liberty Flames', 'Prep', 'NCAA', 'Football'] |
Challenge Double Agents Episode 3 Recap: 10 Biggest Takeaways | Simultaneously a visually cool and dangerous daily challenge. Players wrestled on top of a moving semi-truck without a safety harness and would try to get their opponents’ feet off the truck and onto the sides (and into a net) as fast as you can. The fastest combined team time wins. Leroy and Kaycee won, Lolo/Nam and Wes/Natalie were runner-ups. Visually this was an incredible daily challenge where players got to prove themselves. They could have made this safer by placing more padding on the top of the trucks, I guess. The two injuries indicate why headbangers are usually only for eliminations since only two people compete in something raw physical at once versus twenty-eight.
I am going to breakdown every matchup:
Kyle vs. Devin: An impressive tie for Devin, a disappointing tie for Kyle.
Kam vs. Nicole Z: Nicole gets injured early. Thus, Kam doesn’t get to see what she can do.
Wes vs. Josh: Josh has half a foot, and between 30–50 lbs on Wes, yet, Wes is able to pull a fast one on Josh by bringing them both down at the same time and keep his feet on the platform. He pulled a Jordan on Josh.
Natalie vs. Nany: Even though Natalie is way stronger than Nany, Nany has a decade of experience and has done headbangers in the past. Another round where both players go down together, Natalie picks up the win.
(All I could picture whenever players fell together)
Darrell vs. Lio: Even though Pro Wrestling might be scripted, Lio proves his grappling ability by tying against Darrell despite a 50 lb deficit.
Amber v Gabby: In classic MTV fashion, Amber mentions she played Rugby for 5 years just to have 5'0 Gabby take her out.
Nam vs. Jay: Nam overpowers Jay and wins. Decent fight put up by Jay.
Lolo vs. Theresa: Similar to Nany and Natalie, Lolo is shocked by the fight Theresa puts up. Being a veteran matters when it comes to headbangers. Nonetheless, Lolo still wins.
Cory vs. Mechie: Mechie pulls a fast one on Cory for the win. Every time Mechie is on screen, I like his energy, but they haven’t let us invest in him.
Tori vs. Liv: Tori gets the win, and Liv gets hurt on her way down. Hilariously, Liv says she expected Tori to be stronger.
Leroy vs. Nelson: They threw themselves off together quickly with Leroy getting the win.
Kaycee vs. Amber: Amber threw some good hits at Kaycee! Kaycee won quickly as this game was built for her; however, Amber showed a ton of fight.
CT vs. Fessy: A flat out draw.
Big T vs. Aneesa: Aneesa safely and kindly knocks Big T off for the win.
7 Two Injuries | https://medium.com/@theallanaguirre/challenge-double-agents-episode-3-recap-10-biggest-takeaways-c40aa96b3899 | ['Allan Aguirre'] | 2020-12-24 17:35:29.096000+00:00 | ['MTV', 'Sports', 'Reality', 'The Challenge', 'Television'] |
They called themselves “Stupid #Stalwarts;” these fanatics believed stupid was smart. | They called themselves “Stupid #Stalwarts;” these fanatics believed stupid was smart. When their leader spoke, they cried, “we love you, stupid!” The Stupid Stalwarts marched down the widest, longest street in the city, triumphantly cheering, “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” | https://medium.com/@elizabeth.moura/they-called-themselves-stupid-stalwarts-these-fanatics-believed-stupid-was-smart-996351f41622 | ['Elizabeth Moura'] | 2020-12-07 20:27:29.746000+00:00 | ['Microfiction', 'Very Short Story', 'Storytelling', '2020'] |
What is Programming? How to get Started? | Today we are going to discuss about what is programming, what are different programming languages and how to get started.
So few months back a first year student from computer science stream called me and asked me about what language of programming he should learn because he was really confused about where to begin as there are so many options to choose from moreover he was bothered about how will he learn all these languages.
Then I laughed and remembered that I faced a similar problem when I was getting started to learn more about programming and development in general. I knew exactly how he felt. So I decided to first clear his perspective on programming.
I asked him a question that what is programming and he went silent for few seconds and then he narrated a definition that we find in books, he didn’t even resonated with what he said. At this point I was really sure that he had approached this whole things with a wrong mindset.
My question to you is….
What is programming?
What are programming languages?
Well programming is nothing but a set of operations in the form of instructions that we want our computer to perform and programming languages are different languages for communicating with a computer about what those instructions are.
Seriously programming languages are nothing different that normal languages, let me give you an example for better understanding. Think about a real world operation performed by us, let’s take a simple example like drinking water. So if we want to drink water we will ask the other person to pass us some water, now keep that in mind passing the water is our underlying operation, we will accomplish this operation by instructing the other person to pass us some water and to instruct we will communicate in a language that other person understands. If the other person understands English we will communicate in English, if he understands Japanese we will communicate in Japanese, if he understands Chinese we will communicate in Chinese but keep that in mind the underlying operation of passing the water remains the same irrespective of the language we choose to communicate.
Similar is the case with a computers if we want to accomplish an operation for example printing hello world on our screens, printing hello world is our underlying operation and we instruct the computer to do so in a language that it understands. Now we know that every language is capable of printing hello world on our screen.
What Programming Language should you learn?
But now the question arises if a language capable of doing operations we desire why do so many languages exist in the first place, well the answer lies in the specifications of a particular language. All programming languages are not equal. Every language has its own pros and cons for example some languages are good for dealing with data structures while other are fast at compiling and so on it all depends on the context. The context in which you are using them.
For example if I want some client side operations to happen in web browser java script will be the language to go for or if I want to develop native apps for windows then C# will be the language to go for. Each language exist because it solves a particular problem elegantly and meets the required needs for a situation, it is for this reason that so many languages exist.
Now the next logical question that comes to your mind will be, So where should we begin? What language should we learn first? Now this is a high quality question, to tackle this we need a process in place. What process you might ask?
End goal of a programming language is to perform sets of operations, blankly learning a language without having those sets of operations in mind leads to vagueness. For you to find your first programming language you need to define what those sets of operations are for you?
What do you want to accomplish or rather what operations do you want your computer to perform. For example, for me it was that I wanted to make a Tic-Tac-Toe game for android, just this one thought made few things clear in my mind. First that I want to develop a game, which was my set of operations that I want my android to perform, second it gave me clarity on what should I learn in order to accomplish this goal, that was it. This made it clear for me that Java was the language to learn in order to code an application for android. Thus I found my first language to learn. This process is really simple by doing this you will know what you want to accomplish, that is your set of operations and what is the way to go, that is what language you have to learn.
Another interesting things regarding different languages is that the first language is the toughest to learn you may ask why because it is for the first time that you will be dealing with loops and logical structures. Once you build your competence in one language to communicate your operations you will have better understanding of how things fit in place and work, rest is just syntax. Once you have learned one language it is a transferable skill set that is it will be much easier for you to learn a different language the only barrier to entry will be the syntax of the new language. Let me be more precise once you know how to code in one language it will be much easier for you to learn another language because you have already learned what are variables, what are loops and other logical structures and you know how to use them the only thing that will be standing in your way will be the syntax of the new language. Lets assume you say bye in English and sayonara in Japanese when you are departing but you know when to say it, you know where to use it that is the key component once these fundamentals are clear to you it is easy for you to switch between different languages or to master a few of them.
Where to Start from?
For anyone who is new to programming and want to start everything from scratch to build a rock solid foundation for programming I would recommend one course to go about this process the right way. It doesn’t matter if you know how to code in one language or you don’t even know how to code at all, this course would be really beneficial in providing you with clarity and basic foundation to begin with.
To make sense of the of all the jargon of the programming world and what a program really is at a fundamental level and different ideas that are implemented during programming I would highly recommend What is Programming by Simon Allardice at pluralsight.com and from there you will have a foundation in place to learn any language of your choice.
What to do After Learning a Programming Language?
After learning a language of your choice you should implement it on a small project to get yourself comfortable with the language and the syntax to better understand the workflow.
How to get Advanced?
Every programming language has a community of developers helping each other to find better and efficient solutions to problems and over the years have developed best practices for certain operations in each respective language, such elegant solutions are called design patterns. For you to code more efficiently and effectively you should get yourself familiar with design patterns for your language of choice.
Learning Flow Chart
Let’s keep in touch.
Website Instagram YouTube Twitter LinkedIn | https://exuberantguy.medium.com/what-is-programming-how-to-get-started-1533d7bf67e3 | ['Exuberant Guy'] | 2020-10-16 19:07:31.014000+00:00 | ['Coding', 'Learning To Code', 'Learning And Development', 'Development', 'Programming'] |
photos of King Henry VIII’s wives created by Becca Saladin © Royalty Now | On the day Anne Boleyn was beheaded, Henry announced his engagement to Jane Seymour. They married a few days later.
photos of King Henry VIII’s wives created by Becca Saladin © Royalty Now
The daughter of two teachers, Becca Saladin has always loved history. Her love of history, paired with her talent as a graphic artist is breathing new interest into centuries-old stories.
It all started with Anne Boleyn
The first book her father read her was a fictionalized version of the Anne Boleyn story. Boleyn, King Henry VIII’s second wife, was a feisty and intelligent woman who quickly became Saladin’s favorite historical figure.
One day, she wondered what Boleyn would look like today. So, she opened Photoshop to see if she could bring her into the future. Pasting together eyes, nose, and mouth, she manipulated them to match Boleyn’s portrait, digitally painting eyelashes and skin color.
When she was done, Boleyn felt like a real person to her. Looking at the photo makes Boleyn’s story feel more horrific and somehow more profound. She could relate to her.
“It’s hard for us to relate to historical figures”, she says, “when all we have to go by is flat portraits wearing outdated period era garments. We don’t connect with them. But they were real people, with real feelings.”
“History isn’t just a series of stories, it was real people with real feelings. I think the work brings people a step closer to that.” — Becca Saladin
public domain photos of King Henry VIII’s wives from Wikipedia, composite created by author
Once Boleyn was completed, she started photoshopping the portraits of King Henry VIII and the other wives and launched an Instagram account for her Royalty Now project. It’s taken off and has over 270 thousand followers.
The accidental king…
photos of King Henry VIII created by Becca Saladin © Royalty Now
A second-born son, Henry was the spare, not the heir. While his elder brother Arthur was being groomed for the throne, Henry studied religion and the arts and wrote music and poetry.
His brother Arthur, heir to the throne, had been betrothed since childhood to Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella.
Six months after Arthur and Catherine were married, he died of a sudden illness and Henry VIII became heir to the throne. Henry VIII was only 17 years old when he ascended to the throne. He immediately married his brother’s 23-year-old widow.
1. Catherine of Aragon: perfect in every way but one
photo of Catherine of Aragon by Becca Saladin © Royalty Now
Promised to Arthur since childhood, Catherine was raised to be queen. Many historians believe she’s the only woman Henry truly loved. Tiny, delicate, and ladylike, he believed she was perfect in every way — except one.
In their years of marriage, Catherine bore him six children. Three boys, three girls. One after another, each infant died. All but one. The only child that survived infancy was a daughter, who would become Mary I.
As one son died, then a second and third, Henry became obsessed with a male heir. It was her one failing, he said. The inability to give him a son. When his mistress bore him a son that could never be king, that was the final straw.
“Henry viewed her as a model wife in every respect but one… her failure to give him a son” — Tracy Borman, Tudor historian
Henry petitioned the pope for a divorce, but his request was refused. So he broke ties with the Roman Catholic Church, formed the Church of England, and got his divorce.
Catherine was demoted to princess, disallowed to see her daughter, and banished to a distant residence. Henry was free to marry again.
2. Anne Boleyn: “Lord have mercy on me”
photo of Anne Boleyn by Becca Saladin © Royalty Now
With Catherine out of the way, Henry married Anne Boleyn. As feisty and intelligent as she was tiny and feminine, Henry was smitten. Their first child, Elizabeth, was born barely nine months after the wedding.
She was expecting their second child when Henry was injured in a jousting tournament. When news of the accident reached Anne, she collapsed and miscarried, delivering a tiny stillborn son.
Miles away, Catherine of Aragon died the day Boleyn miscarried.
Henry lost interest in Anne after the stillbirth and developed an attraction for her lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. Anne was enraged. Not just as his infidelity and indiscretion, but his choice.
Boleyn’s and Seymour’s mothers were cousins and the girls had been raised together for a time. The two women came to blows over Henry and Anne plotted with her sister-in-law to remove Jane from the court.
Desperate to end the marriage, Henry accused Anne of treason and adultery with multiple men including her brother, a charge historians believe was fabricated. She was forced to listen to her brother’s execution the day before her own. The king did not even attend her beheading.
“Oh Lord, have mercy on me. To God I commend my soul!”
— the final words of Anne Boleyn
3. Jane Seymour: a story short and tragic
photo of Jane Seymour by Becca Saladin © Royalty Now
On the day Anne Boleyn was beheaded, Henry announced his engagement to Jane Seymour. They married a few days later.
Seymour’s story is short and tragic. A few months after the wedding, she delivered the male heir King Henry so desperately wanted. Less than two weeks after delivering Edward VI, she died from postpartum complications.
As the only woman to produce the male heir he was so desperate for, she was buried (next to Henry) at Windsor Castle.
4. Anne of Cleves: thanks, but no thanks
photo of Anne of Cleves by Becca Saladin © Royalty Now
Two years after Jane Seymour’s death, the king’s chief minister suggested that a European alliance would be beneficial and suggested that Henry marry one of the sisters of Germany’s Duke of Cleves.
The king dispatched an artist to paint portraits of the women. Upon receiving the portraits, he selected Anne and the marriage was arranged.
When Anne arrived, Henry protested that the portrait did not accurately represent her and tried to halt the wedding. Alas, it was too late. They were married six days later. It was his shortest marriage.
Less than six months later, Henry offered Anne a generous financial settlement in return for agreeing to annul the marriage given that it remained unconsummated. She accepted and lived out her life in peace and financial comfort as the “King’s Sister.”
5. Catherine Howard: A double tragedy
photo of Catherine Howard by Becca Saladin © Royalty Now
She was 15, perhaps 16, and a lady-in-waiting to the undesired Anne of Cleves. He was 49. He proposed. She accepted. Delighted with his young bride, Henry showered her with gifts and called her his “rose without a thorn.”
Catherine Howard gave Henry the youth and vitality he thought he’d lost. After a long honeymoon, they settled into marriage and she became step-mother to Henry’s three children, one of them slightly older than her.
Less than a year later, the rumors of infidelity started. Catherine was sneaking out to meet someone. After an investigation by the archbishop, two of Catherine’s childhood teachers claimed they’d had consensual sexual relationships with the girl, one starting when she was only 12.
Today, we would not call a sexual relationship with a 12 year old consensual. Historian Josephine Wilkinson said, “Catherine was sexually exploited by two men of the household.”
One of the “relationships” continued after her marriage, under fear of exposure. Catherine was afraid he would reveal knowledge of private markings if she didn’t comply. Today, we might call that blackmail.
Henry was furious that she was not a virgin at marriage. She was denied a trial and executed for adultery and treason. She was not yet 18.
Catherine Parr: a full and creepy circle
photo of Catherine Parr by Becca Saladin © Royalty Now
Henry’s last wife was a childhood friend of his first child, and named after his first wife, bringing Henry’s relationships to a full and creepy circle.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Worldjuniorslives/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvwestbrom/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvswestbromst/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Brightonvwesthamlvest/
https://www.reddit.com/r/WestHamvbrightonlive/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Worldjuniorslives/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvwestbrom/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvswestbromst/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Brightonvwesthamlvest/
https://www.reddit.com/r/WestHamvbrightonlive/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Worldjuniorslives/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvwestbrom/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Liverpoolvswestbromst/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Brightonvwesthamlvest/
https://www.reddit.com/r/WestHamvbrightonlive/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Worldjuniorslives/hot/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Worldjuniorslives/new/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Worldjuniorslives/top/
Parr’s mother had been a lady-in-waiting to Catherine of Aragon and named her baby in honor of her queen. Henry’s daughter, Mary Tudor, was only four years younger than Parr and the two were childhood friends.
At age 30, she was thrice married and widowed and in love with Thomas Seymour, brother of Jane Seymour when the King took interest in her. One does not reject the king carelessly. She accepted his proposal. He was 52.
Henry’s last wife was a spirited and educated woman who won some firsts in women’s literary history. Her book, Prayers or Meditations, is the first book to be authored by an English woman under her own name and the first book to be published by a woman in the English language.
During their short marriage, she persuaded Henry to restore his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, to the order of succession to the throne.
Death of a king
Henry VIII died of natural causes, age 55, with Catherine Parr at his side. After his death, she quietly married her true love, Thomas Seymour. Less than a year later she was dead from childbirth complications.
photos of King Henry VIII and wives created by Becca Saladin © Royalty Now
Anne of Cleves, the one woman King Henry VIII had no desire for, was the sole queen left standing. She would become the only queen to be buried with the full pomp and ceremony of a royal funeral at Westminster Abbey, by royal order of his daughter Mary who had ascended to the throne. | https://medium.com/@b0561211348a5/photos-of-king-henry-viiis-wives-created-by-becca-saladin-royalty-now-1bd87c997f2b | [] | 2020-12-27 13:09:50.017000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Covid 19', 'Sports', 'Live Streaming'] |
MongoDB Java Driver for Polymorphism | When using MongoDB with a strong OOP language like Java, it’s a no brainer to want to hack the MongoDB Java Driver to serialize data to different sub-classes of model classes given different shapes of data, because MongoDB doesn’t have a strict schema restriction for a collection, which makes it a perfect match to store data models with polymorphism or inheritance into the same collection. This post will explore into how can we adapt polymorphism to MongoDB Java Driver.
Example
The post will use invoice line items as an example to demonstrate how to achieve polymorphism in MongoDB.
For line item, it always comes with a SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) representing the type of products. When we store line items into a collection, line items with different SKUs might have different shapes. For different SKUs, we might want to store different extra information about the product. For example, if it’s a T-shirt, we’d like to include the size info for the specific item, and we also want to include the expiration date if the item is food. To represent them in Java code, we can either use inheritance or composition. We can achieve both with MongoDB Java Driver, but before we jumping into those 2 directions, I’ll first introduce some common setups for both directions.
Setup
We first need to have a MongoCollection object to access the collection.
Main.java
public class Main {
public static void main() {
MongoCollection<LineItem> collection =
MongoClients.create("mongodb://localhost:27017")
.getDatabase("testdb")
.getCollection("lineItems", LineItem.class)
.withCodecRegistry(getCodecRegistry());
}
}
Note that we need to provide a CodecRegistry object, the getCodecRegistry will look like the following:
Main.java
protected static CodecRegistry getCodecRegistry() {
return fromRegistries(MongoClientSettings.getDefaultCodecRegistry(),
fromProviders(PojoCodecProvider.builder()
.conventions(DEFAULT_CONVENTIONS)
.register(getClassesToRegister())
.automatic(true).build()));
}
The code snippet does the following things:
Set the conventions to use DEFAULT_CONVENTIONS . The DEFAULT_CONVENTIONS has 3 different conventions — we will need 2 of them here: CLASS_AND_PROPERTY_CONVENTION and ANNOTATION_CONVENTION . More documentation for each convention can be found on their respective documentation page: CLASS_AND_PROPERTY_CONVENTION and ANNOTATION_CONVENTION Register other classes that could be used while encoding a LineItem object. It has different implication for inheritance and composition style, so getClassesToRegister will be elaborated for both of them respectively later.
Polymorphism from Inheritance
For inheritance style, the concrete class will contain detailed info for different types respectively. I’ll make the assumption that all different line items will have their special info, thus the following code:
LineItem.java
@BsonDiscriminator(key = "sku")
abstract public class BaseLineItem<T> {
@BsonId
protected ObjectId _id;
@BsonProperty("sku")
protected String sku;
@BsonProperty("quantity")
protected double quantity;
@BsonProperty
protected String unit;
@BsonProperty("info")
protected T info;
public BaseLineItem() {
}
public double getQuantity() {
return quantity;
}
public ObjectId getId() {
return _id;
}
public String getSku() {
return sku;
}
public String getUnit() {
return unit;
}
public T getInfo() {
return info;
}
public void setInfo(T info) {
this.info = info;
}
public void setId(ObjectId _id) {
this._id = _id;
}
public void setQuantity(double quantity) {
this.quantity = quantity;
}
public void setSku(String sku) {
this.sku = sku;
}
public void setUnit(String unit) {
this.unit = unit;
}
}
A few things to note here:
As the base class for line item, @BsonDiscriminator(key = “sku”) needs to be set to let MongoDB Java Driver to know that the sku field will be used to differentiate which sub-class to use. All the fields needs to be saved in the database should be annotated with BsonProperty , and the id field needs to be annotated with BsonId . We also need to define the setters and getters for those fields. An empty constructor needs to be provided; Note that we can’t use BaseLineItem directly for encoding even it’s not abstract . The reason is that the driver can’t use a class with generic for codec. more detail, see the official doc. This actually makes sense, because for a class with generic, it’s easy to insert it into database, but it will have trouble loading the data from the database because the driver doesn’t know which class to use. To address this, we can make sub-class of BaseLineItem without generic, which the driver will happily accept.
MilkLineItem.java
@BsonDiscriminator(key = "sku", value = "MILK")
public class MilkLineItem extends BaseLineItem<MilkInfo> {
public MilkLineItem() {}
public MilkLineItem(ObjectId _id,
String sku,
double quantity,
String unit,
MilkInfo info) {
super(_id, sku, quantity, unit, info);
}
}
Things to note:
@BsonDiscriminator(key = “sku”, value = “MILK”) is provided here, letting the driver know that only when the sku equals MILK this sub-class will be used. An empty constructor is also needed here.
MilkInfo.java
public class MilkInfo {
@BsonProperty
Date expirationDate;
public MilkInfo() {}
public MilkInfo(Date date) {this.expirationDate = date;}
public Date getExpirationDate() {
return expirationDate;
}
public void setExpirationDate(Date expirationDate) {
this.expirationDate = expirationDate;
}
}
We mentioned earlier that we will need to register other classes needs to be used by the driver. Here, we need to register MilkLineItem because the driver needs to know what classes to use when the discriminator key — sku, has its value equals MILK .
we will add the following:
Main.java
protected static Class<?>[] getSubClasses() {
return new Class<?>[]{MilkLineItem.class};
}
We can test the code by adding the following lines to the main method:
Main.java
collection.insertOne(new MilkLineItem(new ObjectId(), "MILK", 11, "HOUR", new MilkInfo(new Date()))); BaseLineItem first = document.find().first();
System.out.println("line item quantity: " + first.getQuantity());
In mongoDB, we will see the following document:
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5fcdc455aef85552c266f37d"),
"sku" : "MILK",
"info" : {
"expirationDate" : ISODate("2020-12-07T05:57:41.610Z")
},
"quantity" : 11,
"unit" : "LITER"
}
Polymorphism from Composition
With composition style, we also assume that all the line items will have their specialized info. And since we use composition, we will use LineItem class directly to represent all the variations.
@BsonDiscriminator
public class LineItem {
@BsonId
protected ObjectId _id;
@BsonProperty("sku")
protected String sku;
@BsonProperty("quantity")
protected double quantity;
@BsonProperty
protected String unit;
@BsonProperty(value = "info", useDiscriminator = true)
protected Info info;
public LineItem() {
}
public LineItem(ObjectId _id, String sku,
double quantity, String unit, Info info) {
this._id = _id;
this.sku = sku;
this.quantity = quantity;
this.unit = unit;
this.info = info;
}
public double getQuantity() {
return quantity;
}
public ObjectId getId() {
return _id;
}
public String getSku() {
return sku;
}
public String getUnit() {
return unit;
}
public Info getInfo() {
return info;
}
public void setInfo(Info info) {
this.info = info;
}
public void setId(ObjectId _id) {
this._id = _id;
}
public void setQuantity(double quantity) {
this.quantity = quantity;
}
public void setSku(String sku) {
this.sku = sku;
}
public void setUnit(String unit) {
this.unit = unit;
}
}
Note:
We still have to note 2 and 3 listed for BaseLineItem in previous section Instead of @BsonDiscriminator(key=”sku”) , we simply put @BsonDiscriminator , which means that we will store a special field _t in the database, and the value will the full class name with it’s package path.
Info.java
@BsonDiscriminator
public interface Info {
}
MilkInfo.java
@BsonDiscriminator
public class MilkInfo implements Info {
@BsonProperty
Date expirationDate;
public MilkInfo() {}
public MilkInfo(Date date) {this.expirationDate = date;}
public Date getExpirationDate() {
return expirationDate;
}
public void setExpirationDate(Date expirationDate) {
this.expirationDate = expirationDate;
}
}
With composition style, as Info sub-classes are the ones holding BsonDiscriminator , the concrete Info classes needs to be registered, so we need to add the following to the main class:
Main.java
protected static Class<?>[] getSubClasses() {
return new Class<?>[]{MilkInfo.class, TShirtInfo.class};
}
Again we can add the following code to the main method to test it works:
Main.java
document.insertOne(new LineItem(new ObjectId(), "MILK", 11, "LITER", new MilkInfo(new Date())));
LineItem first = document.find().first();
System.out.println("line item quantity: " + first.getQuantity());
In the database, the document looks a bit different from that when using inheritance:
> db.lineItems.find().pretty()
{
"_id" : ObjectId("5fcdc76699b6323dcfc1882d"),
"_t" : "src.model.billing.LineItem",
"info" : {
"_t" : "src.model.metrics.MilkInfo",
"expirationDate" : ISODate("2020-12-07T06:10:46.108Z")
},
"quantity" : 11,
"sku" : "MILK",
"unit" : "LITER"
}
Conclusion
That’s all you have to know when using MongoDB with Java to support Polymorphism. I’ll update later with a repo with sample code. | https://medium.com/@zx77/mongodb-java-driver-for-polymorphism-8d8a9e28ec24 | [] | 2020-12-07 16:16:50.085000+00:00 | ['Java', 'Inheritance', 'Polymorphism', 'Mongodb Tutorial', 'Mongodb'] |
Room for one | I name inanimate objects.
Not little stuff like plates or pillows or hangers, but the big things that matter. I just never thought naming them could change everything.
Years ago, I named my Roomba Rosie as an homage to the Jetsons and we’ve become BFFs during the pandemic. We chat over coffee. I help her deal with some deep-seated bathmat issues. We even joke with each other when she zips under my bed.
Well, until she got stuck there. But that’s another story.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am an introvert. I’ve lived alone since my 2015 divorce, I don’t have kids, I’ve been working from home for years and my long-distance boyfriend can’t jump on a plane until he gets the vaccine.
Indoor life suited me. For a while.
My decorating style has always been quirky, but divorce gave me carte blanche to (over)fill a new space with beloved items that held deep personal meaning. Except for two refugees inherited from that former life: matching dark brown faux leather couches.
I’d never even named them. That should have been the tip off.
What brown couldn’t do for me
While these couches were pre-COVID practical for multi-human seating, they just didn’t make sense anymore. Honestly, maybe they never did. After spending more time inside than ever, those two dark decor holes made my home feel like it belonged to someone else. Rosie quickly concurred.
But the idea of new furniture was overwhelming. There were measurements to take, budgets and timing to plan for, color, style and layout to overthink and above all, massive change. Which. I. Hate. Buried in swatches, paralyzed by choices, I couldn’t pull the trigger, and I’m sure you know why.
Because it wasn’t about the furniture at all.
Here’s a question: Why does it feel selfish to ask for what you need? Or to do something just for yourself? If you can answer that, you’re way smarter than I.
But that’s how I met the overstuffed purple velvet couch of my dreams. And the first thing I wanted to do was name her.
It felt like a good sign.
On the same day that the brown couches went away, her purpleness arrived. When Facebook friends suggested naming her after our beloved RBG, something clicked. Ruth unapologetically took up as much space as she wanted in my apartment and was warm, bold and unique.
I loved her right away.
Suddenly the floodgates opened. I began to embrace this new openness for me, rather than fill it for others. Practical lamps were replaced by ones with unmistakable personality and color sprouted up everywhere. Ruth soon met Reginald (the flea market bear that used to live at work), Otto (a blush fuzzy foot stool), and Peggy (the brand new persimmon armchair I would never have considered before).
Nothing matched but everything had a name. That’s how I knew it was perfect. Even Rosie took a victory lap.
At some point, I may need to make room for visitors, but now they’ll adjust to my new universe rather than the other way around. And that’s more than ok. Moving beyond pinning hopes to a Pinterest board can be scary, but what’s real will always manifest. Well, if you let it. In the end (or, at the beginning?) I’m grateful to Ruth for showing me how an ugly outside world could create beautiful space inside a real person.
Neutral & nameless is long gone. It’s all me now. | https://medium.com/@naieve/room-for-one-d9f500600d1e | ['Eve Simon'] | 2020-12-26 18:55:37.326000+00:00 | ['Humanity', 'Home', 'Design', 'Decor', 'Pandemic'] |
Christianity and Politics | Yes.
Well, a few things here. One, Christianity (or religion in general) and politics mix all the time. It can’t be helped. Should it mix? Yes. It should be purposeful, but also careful.
Two, the separation of church and state (that is used hypocritically) is not in the constitution. I repeat, it is not in the constitution. This concept is mentioned in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in regards to a state controlled or sanctioned church or religion. This is one of the things the founders had left behind in England, and they wanted to ensure it did not follow them to the new country. State sanctioned religion always, always leads to tyranny.
So, the founders did not want to keep the church out of the government, they wanted to keep the government out of the church. As it turns out, the government has no problem controlling aspects of the church’s life, but cries foul whenever the church may begin to speak out against issues in the government. That is the hypocrisy I mentioned earlier.
Three, it should be for the Christian that Christ is so much a part of their lives that they cannot possible separate Him from any part of their lives. Certainly one cannot leave Christ outside of the voting booth. Certainly Christ would compel Christians to speak out against injustice and take action in many aspects of our society that would be deemed political.
Now, the specific applications of one’s faith to politics could be debated. I try not to judge someone’s faith by how they apply it in the political realm. I know brothers and sisters in Christ that vote differently than I do, but I also know they love Jesus as much (if not more) than I and they believe that they are doing as Christ would do. I can disagree without breaking fellowship or claiming their faith is not valid. Doing that does not do anyone any good. Grace is needed by us all, and should certainly be shown to others who proclaim faith in Christ.
So, let’s please stop pretending that there is a separation, or that there should be. You are who you are. If you are a Christian, or person of faith, that should show in every area of your life. Be a Christian in the voting booth. Be a Christian on social media. Be a Christian at your town council meetings. Be a Christian in your own church and home. Be a Christian at the store. At all time, at all places, in all circumstances. All of Christ for all of life. It is what He called us to do. Be a light in the world, even the political one.
Love one another. | https://medium.com/common-sense-now/christianity-and-politics-f7f32b3c09be | ['Allen Johnsey'] | 2020-12-14 13:34:10.906000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'State', 'Christianity', 'Faith', 'Church'] |
5 Of My Favourite Photographs From The Lake District (with exif) | I really love the Lake District. I live about 20 minutes from the Lakes, I have a dog, I love photography — so I’m there almost every day. Sometimes I leave my camera gear at home and just rely on my iPhone, because (and if you have a Golden Retriever you’ll know) keeping an eye on a exploratory dog and trying to take professional quality images is just not a great combination. It requires skill and patience and focus (pun intended, did ya like it? 😂).
So without further ado, let me share with you 5 of my favourite photographs that I took in the Lake District throughout 2020. | https://medium.com/@benravetta/5-of-my-favourite-photographs-from-the-lake-district-3a834c09f942 | ['Ben Ravetta'] | 2020-12-20 19:05:43.740000+00:00 | ['Portfolio', 'Hiking', 'Adventure', 'Photography', 'Outdoors'] |
DISC Personality Test | DISC Personality Test
Introduction to Personality
Your personality is the combination of your personality traits that lead to the way you think and act. There are many personality traits, and different personality tests measure different traits.
Personality tests are basically surveys that ask you many questions. Then they give you a result telling you which personality type you are. Different tests have different personality groups. The three most useful personality tests I’ve used are DISC, Four Tendencies, and Myers-Briggs. This article will focus on DISC.
Why is it important to understand people’s personalities?
Imagine you are listening to two computer programs argue. Excel complains that PowerPoint isn’t analytical enough. PowerPoint complains that excel isn’t visual enough. What would you think? That’s ridiculous. Excel is MADE to be an analytical program. PowerPoint is MADE to be a visual program. There’s no reason for them to argue and make those demands from each other. The same can be said with personality.
There are two main reasons why knowing people’s personality is useful:
You know their objective strengths and weaknesses You know how to create synergy with them
Reason 1: Knowing People’s Strengths and Weaknesses
First, personality tells you your objective strengths and weaknesses. Most people don’t know their strengths and weaknesses. They might have some guesses, but they don’t KNOW with 100% certainty. Or maybe they know 1 or 2 strengths and weaknesses, but we have a lot more than just 1 or 2 strengths and weaknesses. Doing the three personality tests from this course will tell you, in detail, all your strengths and all your weaknesses.
Successful people focus on their strengths. They put 80%, 90%, or even 95% of their time and energy doing things that match their strengths. For their weaknesses, they patch them up to the point where it’s not a problem. For example, if your personality tells you that logic and analysis is your strength, and sensing people’s feelings is your weakness, then you know you shouldn’t be a therapist. That being said, it’s important to improve on your weakness to the point that it isn’t causing big problems for you in life.
Reason 2: Creating Synergy
Second, personality helps you understand other people who are different from you. That understanding helps create harmony and synergies. Synergy is when two people can create more than adding up what they create alone. In other words, 1+1 = 3.
The mistake people make is that they assume people should be like them. They get annoyed at people for not being as _(logical, caring, open, etc.)__ as them. If they understood that people have different personalities, then they wouldn’t make those demands on others.
For example, let’s say John likes to make plans and Mary likes to be spontaneous. If they didn’t learn about personality, then John gets angry at Marky for never making plans. Mary gets angry at John for being so inflexible and unopen. This conflict is a personality conflict.
Personality conflicts arise because the two people don’t appreciate each other’s different strengths and weaknesses, and that ‘s because they don’t even KNOW that different people have different strengths and weaknesses. If they understood and appreciated each other’s personalities, then they wouldn’t get annoyed at each other. John would do the plans, and Mary would deal with unforeseen changes to the plans as they are carrying out the plan. They use their different strengths to cover up each other’s different weaknesses. That’s synergy.
Now that we’ve mentioned the usefulness of personality, let’s talk about a simple personality test: DISC.
DISC Personality Test
DISC stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness. You can take a formal test , or you can simply answer these two questions:
Are you more outgoing or reserved? Are you more task-focused or people-focused?
Based on your answer to those two questions, you will belong to 1 of 4 personality groups.
Each group has different strengths and weaknesses.
The group directly opposite of you is the group you’re most likely to have conflicts with because their strengths are your weaknesses. For example, D-Types are likely to have conflicts with S-Types, and C-Types are likely to have conflicts with I-Types. But if you are aware of this, then you can change your attitude to focus on your strengths and appreciate other people’s different strengths.
D-Types
D-Type means Dominance-Type. These people are outgoing and people-focused. They are demanding, decisive, and doers. Their main strength is that they get things done quickly. Their weaknesses are that they can be stubborn when giving opinions and they can miss details when getting things done quickly. Notice that in the picture, D is farthest from S, so the biggest weakness for D-types is group harmony, which is the strength of S-types.
I-Types
I-Type means Influence-Type. These people are outgoing and task-focused. They are inspiring, influential, and ideators. Their main strengths are talking and giving ideas. Their weaknesses are that they might be slow to walk their talk (take action on their ideas). Also, I is farthest from C, so the biggest weakness for I-types is attention-to-detail, which is the strength of C-types.
S-Types
S-Type means Steady-Type. These people are reserved and people-focused. They are supportive and sensitive to people’s feelings. Their main strength is maintaining harmony with people. S is farthest away from D, so the main weakness for S-types is that they are slow to get things done, and it’s hard for them to make tough choices.
C-Types
C-Type means Conscientious-Type. These people are reserved and task-focused. They are conscientious (detail-oriented), careful, and competent. Their main strength is attention-to-detail. C is farthest from I, so the weaknesses for C-types are coming up with lots of ideas and socializing.
How I’ve used DISC in my Life
With my leader
One time, my school’s headmaster asked me to make a course, and he gave me some high-level requirements but no specific details or actions. I figured out that my organization’s leader is an I-Type. He has big ideas and he’s very convincing when he talks, but he doesn’t go through the details about how it can actually get done. I’m a C-type that leans towards D-type, so I tend to focus on details and actions.
If I didn’t know about DISC, I probably would’ve tried to talk about details with him because it’s natural for us to communicate in the way that we are strong at. Fortunately, I knew about DISC, so I didn’t bother discussing the details with him. I also knew that my strength lies in figuring out the details, so I simply told him, “That sounds great. I’ll figure it out.”
Examples of using DISC from my students
I once put a group of three students together, and they were all A-level students. But they missed the rough copy submission deadline, and on their group report, they didn’t follow the assignment instructions. I was shocked. Then I checked their DISC (yes, I have the DISC profile of each student), and all three were I-types.
I told them, if you guys had told each other what your DISC type was at the beginning, you could’ve identified that you’re all I-types, which means you all have the same weakness: attention-to-detail. Just by knowing that, you could’ve taken extra care to overcome those weaknesses by writing down the deadlines and making a checklist for all the things you need to submit.
Another time, a student got very upset that her partner did his work in a very non-caring way. Based on what I know about these two students, I think the girl is a C-type and the boy is a D-type (who also happens to do things last-minute). C-types often get upset at others for their lack of attention-to-detail. The other team members didn’t get upset because they weren’t C-types. By simply knowing about DISC, we can adjust our expectations for others (and ourselves) to be aligned with people’s strengths and weaknesses.
Conclusion
In this lesson, we looked at the importance of and usefulness of personality. We also looked at a very simple personality test: DISC. From this test, we can see that different personalities naturally have different strengths and weaknesses.
We can use DISC to improve our communication with others, have more harmony in teams (by appreciating everyone’s different strengths), and choose work that matches our strengths.
In the next two classes, we will look at more detailed personality tests, which also offer even more usefulness than DISC. | https://medium.com/@alexchen373/disc-personality-test-67f5a014da42 | ['Alex Chen'] | 2021-01-05 00:47:54.259000+00:00 | ['Self Mastery', 'Teamwork', 'Disc', 'Personality Types', 'Communication Skills'] |
A Natural Birth from the Crying Dad at the Foot of the Bed | Stepping back a bit, we were on track for a November 20th due date and coincidentally the 20th is Jacoby’s birthday. For the most part, Jacoby’s pregnancy was smooth. We became pregnant the first month of trying, Jacoby avoided morning sickness and overall dealt with the strain of having a baby smoosh her organs like an accordion with grace. Jacoby lucked out and avoided morning sickness. She has an extreme fear of throwing up and has gotten sick once or twice in the 10 years we have been together. I attribute most of this to her ability to focus and control her body.
Throughout most of the pregnancy, Avett was tracking big. At our 20 week appointment, which is where they do all the measurements and “does he got all his parts” check. At that point, he was measuring in the 90th percentile. Fast forward to the 38th-week check-in at the Mercy Birthing Center I wasn’t able to attend, so Jacoby went with her friend Ali (our neighbor/amazing photographer friend). After the appointment, she called me at work and I ventured off to the office tech lab, leaned back in our broken office chair to learn that homeboy was already around 8-9 pounds. Putting us on track for a 10-pound baby where a typical baby is 7.5 pounds on average fully baked. The midwives were a little concerned and said they didn’t want us to go over 41 weeks fearing the complications that could arise from a ginormous baby. We had another ultrasound a week later at the 39th-week appointment to confirm his size, which was roughly 8lbs 14oz. We decided we would wait him out to hopefully avoid an induction.
He didn’t arrive the 39th week and we arrived at our 40th-week appointment on the 20th. Prior to the due date/Jacoby’s birthday, we had the idea of hosting an eviction party with a few friends if he hadn’t arrived yet. The idea was to eat pineapples, dates and spicy food in the hopes that they would kickstart labor. There is a restaurant in our neighborhood called Edible & Essentials that is one of our favorite places to eat in St. Louis. Matt the owner is always kind to us and makes delicious food. One day back in the summer we were having breakfast at Edible & Essentials and Matt mentioned whilst taking a couple of plates away that the Bahn mi tacos have a stellar track record of sending ladies into labor. On the day of Jacoby’s birthday/eviction party, I called up Edible & Essentials a few hours before the party and they graciously made a batch up of the tacos even though they had a private party for the evening. I can’t say enough good things about this place! As I walked out Matt just asked that I let him know how it goes…spoiler alert, they worked.
Jacoby ate one taco before the party and proceeded to have a wonderful birthday party with our friends. Everyone went home after the party around 8:30 pm and we went to bed around 11 pm. I vaguely wake up around 2 am from Jacoby getting out of bed, which was not an uncommon occurrence at this point in her pregnancy. She was usually up 2–4 times per night. However I heard her walk down our creaky stairs, which was odd, but I thought she may be grabbing water so I nodded back off to sleep.
I awoke to Jacoby whispering “hey are you awake” which I sleepily replied “huh”. She then replied with a deadpan “my water broke”. I then snapped upright like a rake being stepped on eager to grab our to-go bags and dash for the car. However, she reassured me we had time and told me to go back to sleep…yeah, right. I attempted to relax only to have my mind race for another hour. Silly thing is that you hear that dogs have a sixth sense for these types of things and will stay next to the laboring mom to protect her…not our pups. Shortly after Jacoby went back downstairs after telling her water broke the dogs creep back up the stairs to go back to sleep. Lazy bums. After an hour or so of staring at my ceiling fan thinking about how “it was finally happening”, Jacoby called me to come downstairs to say it really was happening.
Jacoby mentioned she called the midwife to keep her up to speed. She calmly managed early labor in our living room, bouncing on her birthing ball, and binging Lizzie Mcguire and Broad City. In a frenzy, I started gathering all our to-go bags and knocking out chores so we came home to a nice clean house. Our good friend, Ali who I mentioned before came over to start documenting the occasion. Ali and Jacoby are best friends who bonded over the past few years as neighbors over photography, natural birth and our love of dogs.
Ali started tracking Jacoby’s contractions while I nervously took out the trash and cleaned the litter box. At the time, I felt the weight of the moment and all I could do was anxiously clean. Somehow a comb appeared in my hand while grabbing the bags and I attempted to hand it off to Jacoby around 5 times before she finally took the darn thing from me. Jacoby had to tell me to sit down because I was stressing her and the dogs out. Since it was 3 in the morning we were having a little trouble getting a hold of our doula, Stacy. She finally picked up after the 5th call and I gave her an update on where we were at, which was around 4 minutes between contractions. Within another 15–20 minutes Jacoby’s contractions were 2-minutes apart. That is when I made the call to Elizabeth, the midwife on call, and she gave us the green light to head on in.
By this point, a storm rolled over Saint Louis and there was a true gully washer outside. Pro-tip for anyone expecting, get a cheap table cloth from the dollar store for the ride to the hospital there could be a mess. In my stressed frenzy, I had put the table cloth in the back seat behind the driver's side. That apparently was the wrong place since I’m 6'5 and often recline the seat all the way back to drive in comfort. We dashed to the car in the pouring rain, Jacoby attempted to jump in the back seat, but that was not happening due to the lack of legroom. She then ripped the table cloth out of the car while being soaked and rushed around the other side of the car to put the table cloth in the front seat all while dealing with a contraction. Once Jacoby got situated in the front seat, I haphazardly began casting all our unnecessary shit across the backseat including the baby’s car seat to get Jacoby a trash can on the off chance she got sick on the ride in. We finally got buckled up and began our 25-minute trek to the birthing center.
We turned the radio off while the rain pelted the windshield. Jacoby breathed through contraction after contraction with the little comb in her hand while I focused on not killing us in this rainstorm. I hate driving in heavy rain. We arrived safely at the hospital at around 5 am. We parked our soaked car in the 2 hours expecting mother parking spot, grabbed our hospital bags and waddled towards the sliding doors. As we stepped through the sliding doors and Jacoby stopped to breathe through a contraction. By this time Jacoby couldn’t speak during contractions and started leaning on me for support. The walk from the parking lot to the birthing center is about a city block. As we made our way Jacoby had 2 more contractions in the middle of the barren hotel lobby. The only other person around happened to be the floor buffer guy nonchalantly cruising his fancy floor polishing go-cart.
Once Jacoby, Ali and I arrived at the birthing center, Courtney, the overnight nurse checked us into our birthing suite. Our doula Stacy showed up a few minutes later and I breathed a sigh of relief having shepherded Jacoby to the hospital without giving birth in the middle of a Trader Joe’s parking lot. Stacy is a petite blonde with intricate tattoos up her arms who is equal parts warm mom and poised badass, which is why we wanted her to be our doula. We also felt she could tell Jacoby to woman the fuck up when birth gets tough.
To this point, Jacoby had been laboring since 2 am and things were progressing fast. The nurse checked Jacoby on her progress which was very good. We elected not to know the exact number since it can be a bit demoralizing to hear a low number. We later found out we were at a 6 after 3 hours. Jacoby is a badass.
We started to get settled in our birthing suite which consists of a big queen bed, a big birthing tub, Himalayan salt rock, essential oil diffuser, soothing water feature, and a walk-in rain shower. The setup is meant to empower women to give birth the way they want versus being relegated to a hospital bed. I grabbed a paper cup of water, assisted Ali in taping up the birth affirmations I printed 2 months ago, and changed into my green swimming trunks and prepared for the unknown.
Jacoby kept breathing through contractions and focusing in on herself. Stacy suggested Jacoby sit on a fitness ball in the shower while I sprayed hot water on her back during contractions, making sure not to get her hair wet. Stacy brought in little camping lantern into the bathroom to keep lower the mood. I sat on the shower bench in my green and blue swimming trunks periodically spraying hot water on Jacoby’s back as she endured contractions. I was freezing and so in the downtime between contractions, I would spray myself with hot water to warm up.
Next Jacoby moved to “the throne” also known as the toilet. Apparently the toilet is one of the top spots for birthing babies. Jacoby faced backward on the toilet leaning on the handicap bar with a pillow over the top working through contractions. Jacoby worked through contracts with Stacy and I repeating ever so often to “relax”, “breathe”, “take a cleansing breathe”, and “you’re kicking ass”.
Shortly after Jacoby started laboring on the throne she started making the infamous primal noises of a woman in labor. These are noises that women make to cope with the pain of labor that are primal, guttural, and at times completely bizarre. However, when you watch anyone you love go through contractions you want the pain to stop yet admire the tenacity to ride out her uterus contracting like a wet towel being wrung out to dry. I will admit I had a few tears roll watching her endure the pain. I could hide them since Jacoby kept her eyes closed for most contractions. In my hidden nervousness, I must have told Jacoby to relax a few too many times whereupon she fired back a sharp “Macklin, shut the fuck up”. I knew this would happen at some point! She apologized after and told me she loved me.
Just a quick note on the smell…it’s hard to describe so the best I came up with was an earthy musk. Of course, there are a lot of bodily fluids happening being released so hints of fecal matter, urine, and blood mixed with lavender essential oils…pleasant. Well, that’s enough about that.
Jacoby experienced several strong contractions while the nurses warmed the big birthing tub to the right temperature. Upon completion, we made our way over to the tub that could easily fit two people. The crew dimmed the lights and I fired up the hypnobirthing playlist on Jacoby’s phone to add to the relaxed vibe in the room. By this point, the contractions were picking up steam. You could tell because of the volume of Jacoby’s groans continued to grow with each passing wave. Stacy rotated cool wash clothes on Jacoby’s neck whilst coaching her through each contraction as I sat getting the shit squeezed out of my hand. At one point Jacoby constricted my left hand so hard I had to remove my ring for fear of losing the whole finger from lack of blood circulation.
Jacoby labored in the tub for a half-hour or so before Stacy suggested moved to the bed for Jacoby to change positions and get a bit of rest. As I understand birth from our baby classes at the birthing center, birth is the body evicting the baby by constricting the uterus. The baby ideally needs to be in the proper position of head-down with the baby’s face towards the mother’s spine. Each contraction pushed the baby down the birth canal, which works to expand over time. By the mom changing birthing positions, she can help expand the birth canal to inch the baby through the canal. Since we went with a natural birth you this allowed Jacoby to do various positions to coax the little guy out versus having an epidural that numbs from the waist down and forces you to stay in position on the hospital bed. This is definitely an oversimplification, but I hope gives you a little context.
Jacoby dried off and waddled to the bed where she was on her hands and knees for the next few contractions. I held Jacoby’s hands and washed her agonize through contractions. At one point she was screaming bloody murder into a pillow. After the few on her knees, they rolled her on her side for a few contractions, which gave Jacoby a little bit of time to relax without supporting her entire body. We had her flip on the other side before Jacoby wanted to get back on the toilet where she felt more comfortable.
We made our way back to the throne which brings us to one of my favorite moments from our birth story. The moment happened when we had all the lights off in the bathroom and only the light from the open sliding door illuminated the bathroom. Stacy and the nurses supporting us were off prepping a few things so Jacoby and I worked through a few rough contractions. I stepped back for a moment in the downtime between when a contraction hit and Jacoby grabbed onto the handicap bar on her right and the wall-mounted sink to her left. She began one of her primal moans and I began to hear a weird creaking noise. I looked around to realize the caulk of the wall-mounted sink was beginning to crack. Jacoby in her superwoman badasses began ripping the fucking sink off the wall to the point I had to give counter pressure to the sink in order to keep her from whipping it through the wall. A woman in labor is strong as hell.
By this point, Jacoby was feeling the urge to push. Stacy and the nurses returned to place a hot compress on Jacoby’s nether regions. My guess is this helps sooth the expanding tissue in preparation for the birth. We wrapped up a few more contractions and headed back to the bed to cycle through the all fours and sideline positions.
Jacoby wasn’t progressing as quickly as we hoped. The nurses suggested that we move her back to the tub in hopes that things would progress. Jacoby had no interest in walking but made her way over to the tub. She settled in on her knees and within two or three contractions she felt him move down and excitedly said she felt the head. This is when the nurses began prepping for the home stretch by notifying Elizabeth the midwife on call as well as the NICU team.
While the nurses laid out a set of fresh surgical pads across the bed we helped Jacoby out of the tub, dried her off and got her on all fours with a sheet over her backside. Labor really started to pick up at this point. Jacoby braved through a few contractions on all fours then quickly was rolled on her back. Our doula Stacy was up at her head coaching her through what is coined “the ring of fire”. The ring of fire is the roughest part of the birth since the head begins to crown. This is often the portrayal of the screaming woman you see in the movies.
While Jacoby moaned through her contractions I was standing at the foot of the bed observing the nursing team prepare for his full arrival. The NICU team rolled the warmer into the room right up next to the in-room sink awaiting showtime. Elizabeth the midwife on call is a pint-sized 5'2ish with thin-framed glasses, curly brown hair, and sureness to every action she takes. While Jacoby was splayed on her back Elizabeth and the two nurses plus a nurse in training were readying to get the little guy out. I planned on catching him when he came out so I waited anxiously at the foot of the bed waiting for the coach to put me in the game. I liked the idea of being the first person to touch my baby outside of the womb. While Stacy helped Jacoby get the head out, Stacy let the team know I wanted to catch him and the nurses gave way to let me get right in. At this moment, you could see the head coming out, which was covered in hair. I started to cry and I shouted across the room to Jacoby “he has so much hair!”. Within the next push his head was popping out and the nurses slid the umbilical cord over his head. His smurf like head had a purplish/blue hue. His head also seemed engorged as if he had been through a fight.
Since his head was out for what seemed like hours (maybe 1 minute), they needed to get him out and fast. At this moment I realized I wasn’t going to catch my baby, which I quickly got over observing the scene unfold from the foot of the bed. Avett’s shoulders were big so the team was concerned about shoulder dystocia and on top of that, he had passed the meconium right out of the gate, which could lead to additional complications for Jacoby and him. Elizabeth and crew sprung into superhero mode, jumping onto the bed with Jacoby’s leg on their shoulders shouting at Jacoby to “give it all she’s got!” whilst guiding his little body out. Avett came out in the next 30 seconds, in the happiest moment of my life. I stood there watching my world shift on its axis in euphoria.
Avett staring into my eyes
Once he was fully out they cut the cord with a Dexter like blood spray across the room…more on this shortly. The NICU team began working on him immediately to pink him up and make sure he came to. During that brief minute, I made sure Jacoby was ok and before the NICU team called me over to talk to the little guy. I made my way over to the warmer to see this long pudgy newborn with his eyes wide open. Avett perked up immediately and stared directly into my eyes as I started talking to him through my tears of joy telling him how much I love him and how beautiful he was. I remember shouting over to Jacoby that “he was beautiful and has so much hair!”.
Jacoby worked on birthing the placenta and the nurse team pointed out that Avett had a knot in his umbilical cord. I talked to him for the next few minutes until they weighed him at 9lbs 12oz. Right after that, the nurses confirmed Jacoby did not tear. This came as a surprise to the nurses who basically gave Jacoby a metaphorical standing ovation for the miracle that just occurred. The other oddity was that Avett must have somersaulted and put a knot in his umbilical cord. Once the NICU team wrapped up they passed Avett off to me to hand to Jacoby to finally meet him.
This moment of sheer bliss on Jacoby’s face filled my heart with joy. Seeing her fall head of heels in love with him was worth every strenuous moment of the birth.
Jacoby and I laid in bed bonding skin to skin for the next hour. The team helped clean up the room whereupon the birthing team replaced the blood-spattered crime scene rocking chair which was a first for the birthing center. The other bloody moment was when the nurse showed us the placenta. The placenta is an organ and on one side it looks like a veiny tree, also known as the tree of life.
Birth is a magical experience. I hope that my story helps give you a different perspective on what birth looks like and how beautiful bringing life into the world can be.
Jacoby gave birth a healthy 9lbs 12oz and 23-inch baby naturally in 7 hours without any complications. What a badass. | https://medium.com/@macklinandrick/a-natural-birth-from-the-crying-dad-at-the-foot-of-the-bed-1fb2616ac198 | ['Macklin Andrick'] | 2019-12-12 14:51:50.686000+00:00 | ['Birth', 'New Dad', 'Natural Birth', 'Dads'] |
How to send sound (wav/mp3) with React Native to Node server. | I was working on a quick side project where I needed to send audio from my android 📞 to my server 💻. Surprisingly, stack overflow did not have the answer straight away so here is a short article on how I solved this.
I am going to assume that you already have a server running and a react-native app running. I am also going to assume you have a way of talking between them. I used socket.io for my case but you might be using axios or a simple request.
Client
First lets get all our imports sorted: | https://medium.com/@matusgallik008/how-to-send-sound-wav-mp3-with-react-native-to-node-server-248ae8e52643 | ['Matt Gallik'] | 2020-12-13 18:12:53.326000+00:00 | ['Nodejs', 'Android App Development', 'Software Development', 'Expressjs', 'React Native'] |
Iron Core Monks | Iron Core Monks
Part 2
Jakz Monastery
Two blissful days later I was feasting on the lush vegetation of the low rolling hillsides at the base of the mountain. My stomach hadn’t been so full in years. My grandmother used to say happier than a troop in a succulent patch.
I was laying on my back digesting when I saw movement on the next ridge. Two out of place colors caught my eye. I moved quickly through the brush on all fours and watched them through the leaves.
Two lizards. Females. One as blue as the sky with crayon red eyes, golden high command armbands, and a necklace to match. The other wore nothing but pure black and white scales. Their bodies were such extreme colors they didn’t even look real. They walked side by side with speed and purpose.
Then I saw the hyenas, five of them. I faced them once before and they tore an entire squadron to pieces in minutes. The robotic hunting animals were made of an insanely strong golden alloy that sparkled as they glided through the tall grass.
I looked around for anything to use as a weapon. They could slice through wood and hitting them with a rock wouldn’t help. I’d seen them shake off phaser rifle shots at point-blank range. I was screwed. The mechanical nightmares surely had scanners and would be on top of me in seconds.
I stood up, took off my jacket, puffed up my chest, and roared as loud as I could. They stopped their stealth approach and charged overland at a sprint. I pounded my chest and acted as animalistic as I could. Maybe I could wrestle one, but five?
They surrounded me with vicious snarling gold jaws. I was trying to figure out which one would come at me first when they all simply sat down like dogs. I was dumbfounded, my heart raced, and my adrenaline pumped overtime.
The two Varans calmly walked up to me. The black and white one spoke for both. She was holding my gun.
“Gorilla, is this your weapon?”
It was a custom job on a military rifle, augmented for larger handed species. Other humanoids could easily use it, but it fit me like a glove. I’d missed her and thought I’d never see her again.
“Sure looks like one I used to own.”
“We purchased it off a miner. It hadn’t reached the local market yet, so we’ve cut off any trail to you from it. Are there any other artifacts out there we should worry about?”
“Nah.”
“Bet you were issued a helmet to match that jacket?” She pointed my turbo blaster at my coat on the ground.
I picked it up, put it back on, walked over to one of the hyenas, and pet its solid gold head. “Good doggie. I lost that a long time ago, probably the only thing they ever found of me.”
She lifted my blaster and leaned it on her scaly shoulder. A thin serpentine tongue shot out of her mouth and tasted the air.
“We agree. You did a good job of covering your tracks, even if there is a trail of death in your wake. There’s no direct sign of you.”
I shrugged. “Most of them had it coming.”
“I’m Taegu and this is Macrai.” The blue one hardly nodded. “The war is coming here. We’re evacuating the Jakz in residence on the other side of the mountain. The monks at the main monastery are staying against our recommendation. We can take you to Grandor, you could return to the moons.”
The Varans had been on the opposite side of the battlefield from me before. They were dangerous. Cold-blooded reptiles with their own agenda. They were above planetary altercations. Their ancient civilization could manipulate whole sectors of space without even firing a shot. They held influence. Power. Many of them were thought to be spies. I figured they knew exactly who I was.
“I just got here. The monks offered me asylum. Unless you are forcibly removing them?”
They weren’t.
Torri Gate Map
I walked with the ladies and their robotic pets to the other side of the mountain. Built high into the sloping cliffs was a second monastery. A staircase wound up the mountain covered by countless bright orange torii gates. They zigzagged through the forest, clear to the peak then back down again. There was a lovely map of the ruthless stair laden round trip hike posted at the first arch.
Apparently, it was a Zen hiking trail and it worked. Halfway up to the residence, I had no other thought in my mind but that climb.
“We gotta stop.” Embarrassing for me to admit being a mountain gorilla but it was a hell of an ascent.
“Would you like to ride instead?” The blue one finally spoke, maybe she was sick of stairs too.
“Is that an option?”
With a nod of her slender head, three hyenas darted out of the woods and stood at our sides. The ladies mounted them like horses. I hesitantly climbed aboard the one that came to me. It had no trouble lifting my weight even though I was about its same size.
“Do hold on, gorilla,” said Taegu.
I wrapped my arms around the robot’s thick neck and it bolted up the stairs five at a time. Our body types weren’t that different with big upper torsos and shorter back legs, but it was a machine and I was flesh and blood. I liked to think its sensors cared if I was in pain or not, but I still slammed up and down smashing my skull into its metal shoulders with every jumping step.
I looked to my left and the two Varans were casually enjoying the ride like a couple of equestrian debutants out for a jaunt on daddy’s lawn. Small pegs extruded out the side of the beasts they were riding, giving them a solid footing. They were pulling away from me. My head bashed the metal shoulders again.
“Extend stirrups.” Nothing.
“Riding pegs?” Nothing.
“What’s the Varan word for saddle?!” I yelled.
The black and white one turned around and hissed. Two pegs popped out and a loop ring formed near my mount’s golden collar. I put my feet on the pegs, grabbed the loop, and the hyena really took off.
We ran up the orange arch covered stairs so fast I felt like I was in a tunnel. There was a pause in the arches and we broke for the wood. I smiled like a fool. Branches smacking me in the face. It was great!
I let out a roar. I’d forgotten what it was like to have such a pleasure. We slid to a stop in front of the wooden gates of the mountain chateau. I got off my hyena, head locked it in one arm, and give it a pat on the snout.
“Good girl, Goldie, good girl.” She purred back at me with an electronic growl and bumped me off with a shove from her powerful head.
“I think she likes me.” I grinned at the two Varans.
“I told it to keep an eye on you. Next time say RIDE and SHE will understand your command.”
I gave Goldie a shove as hard as I could, only budging her off her footing. She nudged me forward toward the entrance with a brutal head-butt. I liked animals that played ruff, even robotic ones.
I followed the women inside. | https://medium.com/the-junction/iron-core-monks-d7824aa33b13 | ['Build Spaceships'] | 2020-08-01 20:08:33.461000+00:00 | ['Science Fiction', 'Space', 'SciFi', 'Fiction', 'Short Story'] |
Some Benefits to Gamble At Online Casinos | In the mid 90’s, path before online gambling casinos were pervasive, I appreciated an incredible round of Roulette at one of my #1 land gambling casinos three or four times each week. Nowadays, I don’t need to leave the solaces of my own home to get in on the genuine activity.
With the start of online casino during the mid-90’s, and in a matter of seconds there after, their prominence has slung them into the most mainstream type of online diversion everywhere on the world. At present, online casino gambling offices are appearing each week it appears.
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The Ever Present Smoking Issues
With more individuals worried about playing in smoky conditions, playing at home is a conspicuous benefit. Additionally, those of you that do appreciate smoking will actually want to do as such with no flack from others. Nowadays, many land gambling casinos don’t permit smoking in their poker rooms by the same token. Measurably, numerous customary casino card sharks are weighty smokers, if this is an issue for you, being at home will guarantee a decent climate for you.
Group Control
We as a whole realize gambling is the new top choice past time. Land gambling casinos get genuine occupied. In some cases it is extremely hard to track down a table game or gaming machine in your play-range — not so at home. Numerous players are scared by swarms. New and surprisingly prepared players down like individuals gazing at there game-play. Online casino give the protection and certainty you will need. It is consistently ideal to sit at home and play at your own group free speed.
Games Selection
As we referenced effectively, online casino give pretty much any game you might actually need to bet on. They offer significantly more than your ordinary casino ashore, as well. Consider pretty much any kind of subject for a gaming machine, you will think that its on the web. Online gambling casinos are continually hoping to offer more casino game constantly. You won’t get exhausted. | https://medium.com/@asia88agens/some-benefits-to-gamble-at-online-casinos-1705c27f36c3 | [] | 2021-06-08 16:08:12.756000+00:00 | ['Gambling', 'Betting'] |
Time Series Forecasting with SARIMA, Holt-Winters’, and Prophet | For my latest project in Flatiron’s Data Science bootcamp, I was tasked with running a time series prediction. I chose to go with data on interstate traffic volume on I-94 westbound from St.Paul to Minneapolis, found on the UCI machine learning repository (here). This particular stretch of road is known for backups and closures, drastically effecting commute times. There were over 40,000 observations of hourly volume for a six year period between 2012 and 2018, with some major gaps leading up to 2016.
In order to standardize this data, I chose to work with 2016–2018, and fill in any gaps which I did with an average of the hour before and after, then create a daily summation of these observations. This resulted in an average of 80,000 total vehicles being recorded on a daily basis. After cleaning, I was left with 802 days. This was split into 738 days for my training data, and 82 for my test. Exploring the data, this gave me a weekly seasonality to run my model.
In order to create my best-fit model, I needed to decide the best metric to judge the efficiency of my predictions. I chose to go with mean squared error (MSE) to show how inaccurate my predictions would be. This metric was captured with each model, with final results at the end.
The bulk of this project was completed with SARIMA which was the time series algorithm learned during the course, with an exploration into Holt-Winters’ and Prophet at the end. A link to my GitHub project if you’d like to dive deeper into my methodology: | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/time-series-forecasting-with-sarima-holt-winters-and-prophet-d6539fbdebe6 | ['Daniel Corley'] | 2020-02-20 09:39:32.392000+00:00 | ['Time Series Forecasting', 'Bootcamp', 'Transportation', 'Data Science', 'Bootcamp Experience'] |
There are 3 levels of empathy, at which level are you? | There are 3 levels of empathy, at which level are you? JoJo Aug 27·9 min read
There are 3 levels of empathy, at which level are you?
01 Empathy is the cause of most problems
Have you encountered any of the following things?
For example, I feel that a colleague has no sense of collaboration, and things that require him to cooperate are always delayed. For another example, I feel that the leadership is unfair, and I already work the most overtime in the department, but I continue to assign work to myself. Also, if you feel that the person you are leading is not alive, if you don’t stare at it, you won’t take the initiative to do it even if things are piled up. Furthermore, I felt that a certain customer was particularly provocative, and the plan was changed 7 or 8 times back and forth, and the project progress was delayed.
……
Such things are simply too much to mention.
In fact, most of these things are caused by lack of empathy: there are reasons for your lack of empathy, and there are reasons for others’ lack of thinking.
Why is empathy the cause of most problems?
Because people are social animals, and human society is constructed by the relationship between people. Inadequate thinking in empathy means insufficient understanding between people, and naturally it is easy to cause various problems.. Now that you know it, don’t you just have to think more about it? You might think so.
This is simple to say, but it is not so easy to do. A person’s level of empathy needs to go through at least three levels:
◆The first layer: knowing
◆The second layer: can
◆The third layer: willing or not
02 knowing
Few people think that they don’t know how to empathize. The fact is also true.
“Theory of Mind” points out that human beings are innately able to understand the mental state of themselves and the people around them by reasoning, and make responses and actions that meet social expectations based on reasoning.
An experiment conducted by Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and an assistant showed that we already knew that everyone wanted different things as early as 18 months. Alison and assistant Betty showed the baby two bowls of food. One bowl was filled with delicious fish biscuits, and the other bowl was filled with raw broccoli. All babies who participated in the test preferred cookies. Betty tasted the food in the two bowls. While tasting the broccoli, she said with a happy expression: “It’s delicious!” and she made a disgusted expression on the small fish biscuits and said: “It’s so horrible!” Then she put the two bowls of food in front of the baby at the same time. , Reached out to the baby and said: “Can you give me some food?” Experiments show that 14-month-old babies still naively think that everyone likes cookies, and they will pass the cookies to Betty. But the smarter 18-month-old babies will give the broccoli to Betty, even though they themselves hate broccoli. You see, when we were a one and a half-year-old baby, we were able to think in a different position.
But in fact, on many occasions we will forget to empathize. I have a friend who claims to be particularly good at empathy. But he called me several times during dinner, and each time he talked for more than an hour. Summer is okay. In winter, when we finish talking, the food will be cold, and the family has to help me reheat it. Why does he, who thinks he is good at empathy, still do such a thing of “not empathizing”? Because my family had dinner later than normal, when he called me, he had finished eating for a while, and didn’t even realize that I was actually eating.
Therefore, it is not that we don’t know the importance of empathy, but often we don’t realize that we are not actually thinking about empathy. Of course, it is definitely impossible to think empathy on all occasions, and it is not necessary. However, if we can remind ourselves to pay more attention to empathy, it will be very helpful to improve the level of communication and interpersonal relationships.
There are two effective methods:
① Make reminder signs in eye-catching places
For example, write “Don’t forget to think in another position” on the partition of the seat, on the desktop of the computer or in the calendar reminder of the mobile phone to remind yourself often.
② Do empathy every day
For example, ask yourself to do empathy at least 3 times a day, and repeat the scenes of these empathy in words every night.
Daily self-examination is also very helpful in awakening one’s sense of empathy in specific situations.
03 Can
Being able to automatically awaken the awareness of empathy in certain situations, you will have the first level of empathy (to do this, you will be ahead of at least 80% of the people). But being aware of empathy does not mean you can do well in empathy. The definition of empathy is a way of thinking about dealing with interpersonal relationships in which you put yourself into consideration for others, that is, think about what people think, and understand first.
Therefore, it is affected by at least two factors:
◆Can you think what people think?
◆Can you empathize?
1. Can you think of what people think?
When dealing with interpersonal relationships, the reason why you need to think in different places is because many times the other person’s behavior has various reasons or purposes, which may not be the same as what you think at the first time. For example, a colleague who has been procrastinating on cooperation may not have no sense of collaboration, but because the leader has assigned him a higher priority task, he has no time to deal with your affairs. For another example, the leader who keeps assigning jobs to you is not doing things unfairly, but because he has too many things on his own, and he doesn’t even know that you already have a lot of work on hand. Therefore, with the awareness of empathy, we must at least master two methods of empathy:
①5why analysis
Will use 5why, ask a few more “whys” to analyze the real reason or real purpose behind the other party’s behavior, so that you can avoid misunderstandings that you take for granted.
② Will ask questions and observe
Many times, when you use 5why to analyze, you will lack enough information, and you need to ask questions and observe the other party to get it. Through well-designed questions, through the other’s answers, and observing the other’s expressions and actions when answering the questions, we can analyze the true purpose behind the other’s behavior.
2. Can you empathize?
After analyzing the reasons behind the other’s behavior, it doesn’t mean you can feel the same. For example, if a friend of yours wants to resign from the company, you use 5why to find out the reason behind him is because he often has to work overtime and does not have time to spend time with his family. For this reason, the acceptance of different people is completely different. People who value family more than work understand it well. They will say that they can’t be with their family. What’s the use of more money? People who value their careers more will find it difficult to understand. They will say how can they do good if they don’t exceed the time investment of ordinary people? Each of us is more or less different from others, and there are many factors that cause these differences.
①Different biological differences
For example, some are boys and some are girls.
②Different growth experience
For example, some people continue to study until they graduate with a Ph.D., while others drop out of elementary school.
③Different status
For example, some are social elites and some are the bottom people.
④Differences in values
For example, some people believe in atheism, and some believe in God.
⑤Differences in knowledge structure
For example, some are experts in physics and some are writers.
All these differences make it difficult for us to truly empathize with others. For example, as a man, no matter how much you feel the same, you can’t experience the pain when a woman gives birth. In the same way, a person who pursues material enjoyment can hardly appreciate the great spiritual happiness pursued by ascetics no matter how much he feels the same. Therefore, to become a true master of empathy, one must have a wealth of experience and a relatively in-depth understanding of different types of people.
If you can think of others and empathize, you will reach the second level of empathy.
04 Willing or not
The application of empathy ultimately has four directions:
①Understand
For example, when someone drives by himself, he thinks that pedestrians are vying for the first time; when he walks, he thinks that the driver is not courteous. Empathy can make us understand each other better, increase our tolerance, and feel more comfortable.
② Make corrections
For example, if you feel that the person you are leading is not alive, if you don’t stare at it, even if things are piled up, he won’t take the initiative to do it. Through 5why analysis, I learned that the company culture is like this, and subordinates dare not make their own decisions to do things that the leader has not arranged. Therefore, you have to think in another position, sort out your work in advance, and assign clear tasks to your subordinates.
③Be guided
For example, I feel that a certain customer is particularly provocative, and a plan has been changed 7 or 8 times back and forth, and I need to continue to change it. Through 5why analysis, she learned that she would be scolded by her leader for fear of lax control. After knowing this reason, she can think about her difficulties in another way, and ask her to acquiesce in directly asking her to lead the communication plan, so that she does not have to bear the responsibility of gatekeeping.
④ Make it perfect
For example, after working hard for 5 years, you finally waited for a promotion opportunity, but a colleague who competed with you was very difficult at home and needed this opportunity even more. If you now know the real needs of this colleague and can empathize with his situation, would you allow or deny this opportunity for promotion? Most of the time, the essence of empathy is for oneself. Considering problems from the perspective of others, putting yourself in the understanding of others, the ultimate goal is to better communicate with others, or to influence others. Therefore, the application of the first three types of empathy is not a big challenge, because there is no conflict with one’s own interests, and it is even beneficial to oneself. But the fourth application “make it complete” is different, it will conflict with your interests. Once a conflict of interest occurs, you will have to face the question of whether you are willing to give in.
If you can achieve the benefit of others, you will reach the third level of empathy, that is, the “sage” level.
05 Summary
Empathy is easier said than done, but not so easy. But fortunately, as long as you can reach the level of the first level, which can automatically awaken the awareness of empathy under certain circumstances, your communication level and interpersonal relationship can be greatly improved. And to achieve the first level, you only need to persist in the replay and remind yourself for a period of time. After reaching the first level, you can take the time to challenge the second level “can” and the third level “willing or not” level. | https://medium.com/@jojo2/there-are-3-levels-of-empathy-at-which-level-are-you-5235e0e670a4 | [] | 2021-08-27 02:20:07.727000+00:00 | ['Career Advice', 'Self', 'Self Improvement', 'Careers', 'Network'] |
Equalizing Headphones the Easy Way | Some graphs are raw frequency responses measured by the microphone and some are compensated with a target frequency response. Compensated ones are actually not frequency responses strictly speaking but deviations (errors) from the natural frequency response. Compensated measurements vary wildly with the used compensation and not all measurement system and compensation curves are created equal.
The first of the three graphs above is not compensated so a compensation is required when creating equalization settings. Measurement system used for this measurement happens to be compatible with the latest research by Harman international so it’s possible to use any of the Harman in-ear targets for compensation. When dealing with uncompensated graphs you essentially have to know which compensation curve to use or just try out for example latest Harman target and hope for the best.
The middle one has been compensated with diffuse field response and therefore can be used with zero compensation. Many people consider diffuse field too bright, to have too much treble, so using that might not produce ideal results. The last graph looks to be compensated but compensation curve is not disclosed. This is often the case although you can try to investigate if you can find a mention about the compensation curve. In any case we have to deal with what we have and ideal results cannot be expected every time when using random frequency response graphs.
The right most graph doesn’t say that it’s compensated and knowing might be difficult in these cases. Headphones should have a peak at 3 kHz of about 10 to 15 dB so if that peak is there in the graph then it’s most likely is not compensated. Some headphones deviate a lot from the ideal target and in these cases equalizing with and without compensation and listening which is better might be the only way to know.
Numbers From the Graph
AutoEQ requires input data to be numeric CSV file so the numerical values need to be read from the graph image. WebPlotDigitizer comes to aid here. With WebPlotDigitizer you can load the image, set graph axis alignments and set parameters for finding the curve pixels. Here’s how.
First go to https://apps.automeris.io/wpd/ and load you image with “Load Image” button.
Choose “2D (X-Y) Plot” as the plot type and click “Align Axes”.
Align axes by clicking the image with cursor. First on the X-axis at 20 Hz and then on the X-axis at 20 kHz. Do the same for Y-axis and select lowest and highest points in Y-axis which have a number next to them. Both points on X-axis must be on the same vertical level and both points on Y-axis must be on the same horizontal level. Zoom window on the top right corner shows you more accurate view. When you have all four points set click “Complete”.
Set values for X and Y-axis. Zoom window on the top will show the vicinity of the clicked point when selecting respective input field. You should see the number label if you clicked all the points on axes near labels. When all values are in the input fields select “Log Scale” for X-axis. Click “OK” to finish.
After axes have been aligned and scaled you need to set parameters for reading the graph pixels from the image. Set foreground color to the curve color by clicking the colored square next to “Foreground Color” and use “Color Picker” to pick a color from the curve. Make sure to click right in the middle of the line for best results. Set “Distance” to a low value like 5 and set smaller “Averaging Window” values if your image resolution is low. Click “Run” to find curve points.
If there are curve points missing try increasing color distance or picking a new color. If there are evenly spaced points but they are too few or too many try adjusting averaging window size. If the image has same colored pixels outside of the curve you can use “Box” or “Pen” tools to mark the curve area and the WebPlotDigitizer will know to ignore other pixels.
Click “View Data” on the left hand side to open data view dialog. Here set “Sort By:” to “X” and “Order” to “Ascending”. Set “Digits” to 2 “Fixed” and remove the space after comma in the “Column Separator”. The column separator input field should have “,” instead of “, “. Click “Format” to format the data. Finally add header row “frequency,raw” as the first line in the data text area. In this stage it’s a good idea to check that there are no lines with duplicate frequency values. AutoEQ will inform about these but things will go more smoothly if you just remove them now.
Copy-paste the text data into a text editor like Notepad and save the file with headphone model name with “.csv” file extension. In this example the file is going to be “Custom Art FIBAE 3.csv”. If you are using Notepad set encoding to UTF-8 and file type to “All files” when saving. If you have, or are willing to install, some better text editor like Notepad++ you should use that because in some cases Notepad might do nasty things to character encoding.
Using AutoEQ
Once you have the CSV file created it’s time to fire up AutoEQ. Start by visiting https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq and clicking the green “Clone or download” button on top right. Use git clone if you’re familiar with Git and “Download ZIP” if you’re not. Exctract the zip to convenient location, open up a terminal (command prompt) and navigate to the extracted location. Follow installing instructions and try out some example commands to get going.
You got AutoEq installed and working so the next thing is to create equalization settings from the CSV file you created with WebPlotDigitizer. Move the file into “AutoEq/my_data/Custom Art FIBAE 3/Custom Art FIBAE 3.csv” (or what ever your headphone model is) and run:
python autoeq.py --input_dir="my_data/Custom Art FIBAE 3" --output_dir="my_results/Custom Art FIBAE 3" --compensation="compensation/harman_in-ear_2019v2_wo_bass.csv" --equalize --parametric_eq --max_filters=5+5 --ten_band_eq --convolution_eq --bass_boost=6 --standardize_input
Your results can be found in “AutoEq/my_results” folder. Parametric eq filters and such can be found in the README.md file. Fire up your equalizer of choice, configure settings and enjoy audio nirvana.
Here are the example result graphs.
The measurement used in this example is made with a measurement system that is compatible with Harman in-ear targets so that is what is used as the compensation curve with --compensation parameter. Note that the selected compensation file “harman_in-ear_2019v2_wo_bass.csv” doesn’t have a bass boost because we added the bass boost with AutoEq. Preferred bass boost levels differ greatly from person to person so it’s better to adjust it to your liking.
When dealing with graphs that are already compensated you need to supply flat curve as the compensation file. This can be done with
--compensation="compensation/zero.csv" .
Results have 10 parametric equalizer filters optimized of which first 5 can be used independently. You can adjust this with --max_filters parameter if needed. --ten_band_eq parameter activates optimization for standard 10 band graphic equalizer. --bass_boost=6 sets bass boost shelf to +6dB. Finally --standardize_input causes the input file to be updated to AutoEQ standard format.
There are several other parameters which you can use to fine tune the result and you can read more about those in the command line arguments documentation.
Thanks for reading!
If you have problems with this guide or have ideas how to do things better comment in Issue 22.
References
https://asa.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1121/1.4984044 | https://medium.com/@jaakkopasanen/make-your-headphones-sound-supreme-1cbd567832a9 | ['Jaakko Pasanen'] | 2020-05-09 11:54:19.749000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Signal Processing', 'Headphones', 'Audiophile', 'Audio'] |
Does Everything Have to be Political? | I know these fish are dying. Can I eat my lunch?
I remember back in college. Going with my roommates to the dining hall. Getting our food, sitting down, talking about the most meaningless shit in the world. At the time it was important, but looking back; skipping lab? Overanalyzing sexts?
Half a decade later I find myself incapable of having a conversation with someone without it veering into the political realm. Does it have to be this way? Is it this way every four years, in preparation and in the comedown of presidential elections? Perhaps someone older than me can enlighten me. Why is so much of our happiness dictated upon who is President?
The media seems like an easy scapegoat. Blaming these COVID-19 lockdowns seems like an easy scapegoat. Why does it feel like everyone is so fatalistic? Does politics have to slither its way into everything, including Laker games, Sounders games? Eating a poke bowl?
It’s not just “politics” per se. Using the aforementioned poke bowl as an example, five years ago I may have had a conversation with a friend about a guy she’s been dating, and if his penis is too thick for her to handle. Now, the goes to “there are so little bluefin tuna left in the ocean” and “how do people work for $10 at a poke bar?” These are important topics, yes, but…
Do we need to feel guilty about everything? | https://medium.com/@jamielejo/does-everything-have-to-be-political-70e64a339f39 | ['Jamie Lejo'] | 2021-01-22 04:01:30.315000+00:00 | ['Society', 'Diary', 'Politics'] |
Heavy | I know how
To fake a smile.
Been a long time since I didn’t,
Unless something funny happened, but
That’s different.
I know how
To fight my tears,
To go numb like no one’s home,
My emotion so far gone
That I don’t know how to feel something
Even if I wanted to.
I know how to carry my burdens alone
In circles until my feet sink,
So that when I take my tender hands away,
The burdens are trapped in the dirt so I can just
Dig them up later when
The depression arrives with a friendly,
“Guess who’s back!”
And buries me instead of them.
But I don’t know how to do this.
How to cope with involuntarily smiles.
And when the smiles disappear, then comes the question,
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me…I know you.”
What do I do with that?
A knife of truth slices open my lips.
I’m allowed to feel, to cry?
This is that thing, isn’t it?
That thing that breaks windows and dams and walls
That hold back heavy secrets.
The thing that tears out false stitches of unhealed skin
So it can heal for real again.
Love. Yeah, I remember now.
Ugh, I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean to do this.
No more being buried by these burdens.
I guess we have to share and hold them.
My hands are bleeding.
Yours are, too. | https://medium.com/@varitymobley/heavy-1ec048069a64 | ['Varity Mobley'] | 2020-12-21 21:14:46.058000+00:00 | ['Pain', 'Love', 'Depression', 'Love Hurts', 'Carrying Burdens'] |
Five things the manufactuers don’t tell you about EVs | I’ve been looking into Electric cars (or Electric Vehicles — EVs — as they are generally known). I’ve been trying to work out if one would work for me, what the costs are and what they’re like to drive.
I’m not interested in the top end — cars like Teslas. I’m interested in rather more run-of-the-mill options — Minis, Kias, Hyundais, VWs, etc. Teslas are great, but they’re too expensive to have an impact on the mass market. I’m interested in how we’re all going to move to EVs, not just those with large disposable incomes. That’s how we make an impact on climate change.
But I’ve found the topic very confusing.
So, I did some research. I read the road tests. I watched the YouTube videos. I listened to the podcasts.
In the process, I stumbled across five things that I think are important, but which aren’t at all well explained in any official literature offered by the manufacturers.
Here’s what I found…
1. ↔️ WLTP is not the same as real world range
Manufacturers use the industry standard definition of an EV’s range, in the form of WLTP (Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure). A common standard makes it easy to compare the range of different models. Or does it?
It turns out that EV range can vary from WLTP quite a bit. Also, EVs are less efficient on the motorway and they are less efficient in cold weather — so the conditions you’re driving in can have a significant impact on the range you get.
One of my test scenarios is driving from Southern England to Scotland at Christmas (we have relatives there). The combination of motorway speeds and cold weather mean that I probably shouldn’t rely on WLTP figures when planning such a trip.
In terms of what “real world” range is, it seems that EV Database is the best source. It publishes numbers for both City and Highway in Cold and Mild weather.
To give an example, the Hyundai Kona Electric has a WLTP of 301 miles. However, EV database suggests that real world usage would range from 175 miles highway driving in the cold, to 370 miles of city driving in mild weather — a range that WLTP doesn’t do justice to.
This knowledge suggests that my Christmas Scotland trip would require two stops to charge for the 450 miles in a Kona, rather than the one that I might assume if I looked at the WLTP numbers. As it happens, I’m perfectly OK with two stops, as I’d normally stop at least that many times — and probably more — in my current diesel. Still, it’s helpful to have a realistic understanding of how an EV would work on such journeys — and what real world range is like.
2. ⚡️ MPH is how fast you can charge, not how fast you can drive
If range is important, another factor that goes with it, is the time it takes to charge from 10 to 80% — ie how long I might be supping a coffee in a motorway service station whilst on my trip to Scotland.
It turns out that not all cars are created equal in how quickly they can be charged.
The time taken to charge an EV is a factor of the kW of the charge point, the size of the battery being charged and the rate at which the EV can accept the charge. Some chargers charge faster and some EVs are able to accept charge at faster rates — to get the fastest charge you need to connect a fast charger to car that’s capable of accepting that fast charge.
As context, a home charger will charge an EV at a rate of 3 or 7kW (depending on which installation you have) — which is to say, slowly. Slowly is OK if you’re plugged in overnight and the car charges whilst you sleep.
However, when you’re away from home you’ll likely want something faster. There are now over 35,000 public EV charging points in the UK — checkout ZapMap to see where they all are. Some of these are slow and some are even free. But an increasing number are fast chargers — which generally means 50kW and above. With a 50kW charger, many cars will charge to 80% capacity in under an hour — often well under an hour.
Fast chargers operate at a rate of over 50kW, increasingly at 100kW and occasionally up to 350kW. In other words, much, much faster. As context, Tesla’s much publicised superchargers (which only work with Teslas) provide 150kW in their V2 guise and 250kW in their V3 guise.
Every car I’ve looked at can fast-charge at 50kW. Not all cars can accept a higher charge rate than that — so if your EV tops out at 50kW, that’s how fast you’ll charge, regardless of the charger used.
I really like the way that EV Database has simplified this by creating the mph number to measure charge rate — the number of miles a particular EV is capable of gaining per hour of charging.
To give you an idea of what this means, the upcoming Kia EV6 Long Range accepts charge at 640mph, whereas a base Nissan Leaf manages just 140mph. You’ll be drinking more coffee waiting for the Nissan to charge, but you’ll have a smaller bank balance with the Kia.
3. 💡 Wh/mile is the new MPG
I’ve learnt that some cars are more efficient in their use of energy than others. In other words, for the same amount of charge put into the battery, some cars will go further than others. MPG measures how far an ICE car can go on a gallon of petrol and Wh/mile measures how much power it takes an EV to drive one mile. Confusingly they’re the opposite way around, but they measure the same basic thing.
Again, EV Database provides the numbers that manufactures do not. This shows a Hyundai Kona Electric varies between 170–365 Wh/mile, whereas a Jaguar I-Pace is rated at 260–525 Wh/mile. One is more efficient (and therefore cheaper), the other more fun.
If running costs are a factor in your choice, it might be worth comparing Wh/mile of your shortlisted vehicles to see if there’s a significant difference.
4. 🏎 0–60 times don’t tell the true story
I’ve always used 0–60 mph times as a rough guide of car performance. They are convenient and every manufacturer publishes their numbers. However, it’s clear from driving a few EVs that these figures hide the reality of EV performance.
An EV can have a pretty average 0–60, but actually feel very fast when driven. That’s because EVs typically have much faster 0–30 speeds than their ICE equivalents, which is where acceleration is most noticeable — EVs are a much better option for the traffic light Grand Prix.
All the cheap-ish EVs I’ve tried felt really fast — much more than either my existing petrol or diesel cars. I’m not talking Teslas here, I’m talking entry EVs like Hyundais, VWs, Minis and Kias. If you’re worrying about performance, you should take a test drive — EVs are faster and more fun than their ICE equivalents. It’s a pity that few manufacturers report their 0–30 times, meaning that EVs rarely show their true speed on the spec sheet. The only way I’ve found to discern if an EV is fast enough for my needs is to drive it.
5. 💰 EV running costs are lower
EVs are more expensive to buy, but they are also cheaper to run. If you’re doing the maths, running costs are worth looking into. I reckon I’d save something in the order of £100/month on average — enough to change the business case.
Running costs are lower for a variety of reasons.
Firstly, charging an EV is generally cheaper than filling a tank of petrol. Most people will charge most of the time at home and the average domestic UK electricity cost is £0.14/kWh — cheap.
Where you charge when away from home does make a difference though — with costs at just one supplier (BP Pulse) ranging from £0.12/kWh to £0.42/kWh depending on the nature of the charger and how you choose to pay. Ionity’s super fast chargers cost £0.69/kWh — probably more than the cost of fuelling an ICE car.
But just in the way that most of us don’t often buy petrol at expensive motorway service stations, most of us won’t be charging our EVs at those same expensive chargers very often. Most of my mileage goes nowhere near a motorway.
Maintenance costs of EVs are also lower. There’s no fan belts to wear, no oil or coolant to change, no spark plugs to replace. All the complex moving parts of an internal combustion engine and gearbox that need to be lubricated and maintained are replaced with an electric motor that’s sealed and guaranteed by the manufacturer. And with regenerative braking, there’s less wear on the brake pads and disks.
In fact, servicing demands are so much reduced that it’s more accurate to say that most EVs only need an annual inspection, rather than a full service. That means the bills are lower.
EVs also attract £0 road tax — another saving.
And if you drive in London’s congestion charging zone, you can forget any charges — EVs are exempt.
🔁 Summary
I hope this has been useful. How we measure and compare EVs is different to how we did the same for ICE cars. New metrics and new considerations weigh into the decisions we make.
Ultimately, my investigations brought me one additional realisation. You can tie yourself in knots with all these numbers. I drove one EV that was a top pick on paper, but was not impressed with it in the flesh. In contrast, ones that were so-so on paper really captured my imagination when I drove them. Nothing compares to driving the EV you’re interested in and seeing what you think. But having a good understanding of how your choices compare and of the metrics that are important to EV ownership is a good starting point. I hope this “newbies” guide to EV statistics has helped! | https://medium.com/@duncsand/things-they-dont-tell-you-about-evs-afcda36f24fe | ['Duncan Anderson'] | 2021-05-07 11:11:57.891000+00:00 | ['Electric Car', 'Electric Vehicles'] |
Building a Rain Garden Across Property Lines | Photo by Zane Lee on Unsplash.
Introduction: The Distortion of Identity
The grocery stores I frequent have an “ethnic” aisle. They you can find Mexican, Chinese, sometimes even Italian food. I find that interesting — people so ensconced in their hegemonic whiteness think the rest of the store is non-ethnic. But New England pot roast and BLTs and sweet corn are just as (white) ethnic as anything else.
I’ve seen the rain garden, and it is beautiful.
It’s hard for a majority individual (of any identity: sex, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, age, national origin, and so on), in any hegemony, to be conscious of themself and their privilege. The majority individual doesn’t seem to have any boundaries as every myth and ritual and tradition and narrative in the culture supports and enables them. (Think of how in Christian-heritage America, a Christian employee will automatically get Christmas off, while a Sri Lankan-American) employee will have to take vacation to celebrate Diwali.) And many people — minority or majority — like to think their identities are preordained immutable biologies rather than the dynamic constructed conversations they are.
These kinds of thoughts make boundaries seem real, rigid, and impenetrable.
But this is all hogwash.
The impoverishment of borders was overturned.
Even a cell membrane (wall) allows communication and interaction
Wikipedia.
When scientists first began to investigate the cell wall of humans, they thought the border was a solid line designed to hold all the contents of the cell in. Then they learned the cell wall was two layers — but still solid and holding all the contents in. Finally, scientists came to their fluid mosaic model. There were many components in the cell wall — proteins, lipids, and so on. There were channels in the wall that allowed very prescribed elements to pass in and out of the cell. The cell wall was no longer a simple, solid, and rigid entity that was impenatrable. It was dynamic and allowed communication.
Even so, humans love their borders and their categories. It makes it easy, doesn’t it, though not accurate, to stick people in boxes and push them behind lines, and tell ourselves we know everything about them and have them all figured out. But I’d like to share a few examples with you of how an affection with borders impoverish rather than enrich us.
Let borders be sites of communication and interaction
Photo by Clay LeConey on Unsplash.
I was in a small-town library (in Wellman.) After my research there, I wanted to go to another small town, Kinross, seven miles away and, I thought, a straight shot down the highway. I asked a young library staff member to confirm sense of directions. He could tell me nothing.
I was incredulous. How could someone in a small town not know about another small town only seven miles away and straight down the highway? Then I realized there was a border that was blocking knowledge and awareness.
It was a county line, a social construction to be sure and an important border in our mentalities and daily practice.
Kinross (far left) in Keokuk County; Wellman (far right) in Washington County
Wellman was in Washington County. Kinross was in Keokuk County. People in Wellman would go to the town of Washington for county seat business. People in Kinross would go to the town of Sigourney for county seat business. Young people in Kinross would go to school at a school district in Keokuk County (English Valleys School District.) Young people in Wellman would go to Mid-Prairie School District in Wellman. Though people in Kinross and Wellman might live only miles apart, they would not interact on a daily basis. That county line on the map coerced their attentions and interactions to be separate.
This explains, in significant part, why this young man in Iowa County did not know hardly anything about a town only seven miles away in another county.
The impoverishment of borders.
Another small town not far from Kinross and also in Keokuk County is South English. There is a decaying, small opera house built in the late 19th Century in South English. These opera houses were prevalent centers of activities and demonstrations of hipness in Iowa prairie times.
This took some courage and some imagination because people are so willing to be slaves to their property lines.
4.5 miles to the north of South English is North English. (These towns are along the English River.) North English is in another county, Iowa, with a county seat of Marengo.
I was visiting a small historical museum in North English. Talking to a couple that was also there, I told them about the opera house in South English. They had not ever seen it. They didn’t even know about it.
Opera House; South English, Iowa.
There was a highway bypass that went on the outskirts of South English. To discover the opera house, you have to get off the highway and drive into town. The couple were kicking themselves for not getting off the beaten path.
But they also didn’t know about the opera house because, even though it was only a few miles away, it was on the other side of the county line border. The couple’s attention was framed by the county lines. They lived in Iowa County and took their county business and shopping and dining to the county seat, Marengo. South English, in Keokuk County, would never be much on their radar.
And so they missed out on the neat little opera house.
The impoverishment of borders.
In the southeast part of Iowa City, Iowa there was a small section of land with a natural depression that always captured and held more rain water. It was the perfect spot for a rain garden. Unfortunately, the land section spanned one of the “meanest” borders of all — the residential property line.
A couple of humans crossed a line, and enrichment and beauty ensued.
Photo by DJ Paine on Unsplash.
A rain garden could go there, but only with neighborly collaboration. If one neighbor nurtured a rain garden on half the land, that attempt would be defeated or diluted by the other neighbor doing nothing or doing something else with her section of land. The neighbors got together and collaborated on the full section of land crafted into a rain garden.
This took some courage and some imagination because people are so willing to be slaves to their property lines.
I’ve seen the rain garden, and it is beautiful.
The impoverishment of borders was overturned.
A couple of humans crossed a line, and enrichment and beauty ensued. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/building-a-rain-garden-across-property-lines-9f3c91ad9ae2 | ['Patrick Muller'] | 2020-08-10 18:27:39.008000+00:00 | ['Neighbors', 'Innovation', 'Beauty', 'Borders', 'Communication'] |
Why Renewable Energy Needs AI | Renewable energy uptake is growing rapidly, making up almost half of the UK’s energy mix in Q1 2020, with the UK also going two months without coal-fired power this year. Over the past decade renewable energy has increased by 13.7% annually making up 11% of total energy consumption in 2019.
Within the overall mix, wind power grew by 19% last year whilst solar energy grew by 22% - both grew faster than the more established hydropower.
Costs are down, appeal is up
The growth in renewable energy is partially due to rapidly decreasing costs, with the cost of solar power dropping 82% since 2010 and the cost of onshore wind down 39% in that time. Wider usage has also led to cost reductions as the technologies achieve economies of scale.
Costs for renewables are now below coal and gas and are expected to continue to fall. This has made them attractive not only from a purely economic standpoint but equally from the standpoint of investors who are less and less interested in funding new power plants unlikely to be economically viable.
Climate change: driving renewables
The increased uptake of renewables is also partially driven by the growing awareness of the impact of climate change, prompted by events like California’s record fire season with more than 4 million acres burned. The need to mitigate the growth in carbon levels makes renewable energy more attractive and government legislation to prevent further damage to the climate is likely to further drive uptake.
Average global temperature change (1880–2020)
This means that renewables are also increasingly important for the economy. Consider, for example, that the solar industry in the US now employs around 242k people and generates tens of billions of economic value and the wind industry supports 120k jobs.
As the sector continues to make up a larger portion of the economy, a market will emerge seeking solutions to address the industry’s pain points, such as intermittency and the challenge of matching supply and demand. Many of these solutions will rely on machine learning.
The opportunities
Some of the areas I’m interested in are:
Predictive maintenance Energy generation forecasting Site identification
1. Predictive maintenance
Wind turbines move constantly. It’s pretty much the point. Things that move break down and the maintenance requirements of wind turbines are significant. Operations and maintenance is estimated at 20–25% of the total costs over the lifetime of a turbine.
Wind turbines also generate a lot of data, raising the potential to use the data to improve efficiency and drive down maintenance costs. There is a growing market for digital twin software, which builds a digital copy of a physical asset and uses it to predict performance and required maintenance with wind installations likely to be a key market going forward.
I expect increasingly sophisticated machine learning models that understand the future maintenance requirements of an asset and automatically schedule work at the optimum time.
2. Energy generation forecasting
Unlike the power generated from coal or gas, wind and solar power isn’t constant or controllable. This intermittency will be an increasing problem as their share of the total power mix increases.
In 2019, Google used AI to predict wind output 36 hours in advance, allowing the wind farm to commit to providing energy in advance and increasing the price achieved by 20% versus providing energy without committing in advance.
I anticipate AI will enable energy producers to make more accurate predictions of energy generation based on factors such as local weather, asset performance and position, allowing more efficient matching of supply and demand and increasing the value of the power generated.
3. Site selection
The final use case I expect to emerge is in identifying the best sites for renewable energy assets. Both wind turbines and solar panels rely on local conditions for power generation, meaning that a complex array of factors such as weather, land prices, grid connectivity and installation cost need to be considered when deciding where to build.
As the rate of installation increases, I expect energy companies will use to specialised software to decide which sites to build on, optimising for a range of factors to find the best locations. Being able to combine multiple data sources and tailor decisions to specific use cases is likely to be a key competency for players in the space.
Working in this space? Get in touch
The growth of renewable energy offers up exciting opportunities to companies to improve the world whilst also building attractive businesses.
If you’re building something in the renewables space, I’d love to hear from you. | https://medium.com/nanotrends/why-renewable-energy-needs-ai-70ce57038805 | ['Luke Smith'] | 2020-12-07 09:16:38.721000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'VC', 'Investment', 'AI'] |
Scratched Lenses and Skewed Lines | Photo by Olena Sergienko on Unsplash.
For the past few days, I have been being visited by a couple of intrusive thoughts. They were not as bad as they normally would be, but these thoughts were still horrible on an objective scale.
Today I came across a tweet of someone whose behavior I am not so much a fan of. To say that I hate her, though, would be an overestimation of what only is a grand dislike for her.
I genuinely think she deserves to be happy. I mean if that’s what’s going to make her shut up on social media, then I really hope she learns what happiness is.
And you know, she’s kind of been heading in that direction lately! One of her tweets implies something of financial abundance, consequently after actively nurturing her dating life. Right now, I’m happy for her and I genuinely hope she keeps this man this time around. She hit two birds with one stone, after all.
Earlier, though, right after having read the tweet, the first thing that came into my mind was something along the lines of “Why does she get everything she wants when she clearly doesn’t deserve it?”
It’s scary, having realized that this whisper came from my own head. It’s far worse when I realized that this was actually how I looked at other people just a little over a year ago, especially people that I don’t take a strong liking to.
Two years ago it would have never occurred to me to analyze my behavior, as I used to think that there was nothing wrong with thinking that about some people. I genuinely thought that me having lived a life of not getting anything I wanted, not even once in my entire life, entitled me to look at other people this way.
(I’d like to take this chance to say that that’s no longer true. I now have a lot of things that I only used to want, and because I worked my ass off for these things. Tangible and non-tangible things.)
Whenever anyone, who had a little more money than I did, decided to talk about how hard it was to get through the week, I’d roll my eyes so hard that I could see my brain. Sure, it must be so hard to be alone in a condo unit, that ensured you wouldn’t have to take four hours out of your day to travel to and from school, and that you wouldn’t be distracted as you study.
Whenever anyone, who was objectively more beautiful than me, talked about how hard it was to start dating, I’d scoff so hard I could be compared to a suddenly-running jeep. Sure, it must be so hard to get men who actually already want you in the first place to… I don’t know, want you.
All these thoughts were products of me not seeing the world for what it actually was and is. So much more goes on behind the complexities of a human being, and so other people’s essences and full potentials were not supposed to be evaluated solely based on the trauma I have accumulated throughout my life.
It’s not anyone’s fault that they’re richer than me, or that they’re prettier than me. But it’s not my fault that I’ve been dealt bad cards, neither.
I don’t want this to end on a note that resembles that of “Your trauma is not your fault, but healing is your responsibility” because that’s not the point of all this. In fact, I think that that particular statement lies slightly on the spectrum of gaslighting.
I’m resorting to writing all of this because another thing I realized, after setting my own thought(s) straight, was that I only ever thought it was okay to think of people in that light, simply because I have never actually known anyone on a deeper level.
Let yourself know people, and let yourself be known. There is absolutely no need to act like the one girl that everyone likes. Take it from me — that fake behavior can be sniffed from a mile away, and it definitely didn’t make people like me.
Trust that I know what I’m saying because I’ve done it for two years straight. I almost went on to three, honestly; I’m just glad I nipped it in the bud.
In fact, the funny thing here, which I never expected to work in my favor, was that the more I acted how I really felt like acting, the better the quality of my friendships became.
In learning to actively choose my friends and learning to maintain these friendships, I have learned that the worlds our friends live in are far more vast and complex than our perceptions tell us that they are. It is literally never as simple as we think it is.
In learning this, I realized that the same can be said for other people that I’m not closer with. The same can be said for acquaintances, and even more so for these groups of people. If my friends have worlds that create polarities with mine, then what the hell would I know of the lives of people I barely talk to?
Life is so much greater than our prejudices, so there is no reason to be limited by these. Acknowledging these differences, and encountering personal growth along the way, seems to be a good reminder of the fact that none of us live the same lives.
Sure, you might have the perfect Instagram feed. I also may just be looking at your feed through scratched lenses and skewed screen lines. However, none of these things discount the actual beauty of your life, and your lived experiences, which none of us will ever get a firsthand feel of.
That’s the best part about it. You don’t ever have to give two flying fucks about whatever I, or anyone else, will think of you.
So go on, post that picture you think you look hot in. In fact, I’m about to convince myself that it’s okay for me to do the same. It always has been. | https://medium.com/@yliamacazo/scratched-lenses-and-skewed-lines-124147cd6517 | ['Ylia Macazo'] | 2021-09-08 14:29:17.538000+00:00 | ['Gen Z', 'Brainfart', 'Perception', 'Social Media', 'Gen Z Tingz'] |
How Dreams Keep Us Writing | How Dreams Keep Us Writing
Success is only ever one more piece away
Photo by Lacie Slezak on Unsplash
Social media has empowered greed and gullibility.
If you want instant success as a writer, here’s a quick way to make bank: Make a headline out of the name of the social media platform of your choice, add the word money or better still a dollar figure, and readers will flock.
Luring the candid and the desperate to the page with elusive promises of lucre has become a self-referential niche of its own. It’s also the quickest way so-called influencers have found to get paid and increase their bottom line.
Day after day, they churn out the same repackaged message of empowerment; if they can do it so can we because they’re no one special. Better still, they had nothing going for them before they started writing online. They were failures.
Their willingness to portray themselves as a success by using self-deprecation should give us pause for thought. How can we respect someone who doesn’t respect themselves? And, most importantly, (how) can we trust them?
The answer is a resounding yes! We too constantly belittle ourselves because we’re afraid of dreaming too big, wanting too much, being too greedy.
They’re us, we’re them, wow. We’re all failures personally and together. | https://asingularstory.medium.com/how-dreams-keep-us-writing-1ae54e19c29e | ['A Singular Story'] | 2019-09-26 16:36:10.092000+00:00 | ['Success', 'Freelancing', 'Writing', 'Life Lessons', 'Social Media'] |
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