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Python for Cybersecurity — Lesson 3: Data analysis with Pandas | Hello everybody! Welcome back to our Python for Cybersecurity web series.
In this post, we are going to concentrate on the data science programming aspect of Python, which will be necessary to understand the role of machine learning in cyber security. Let’s first try to understand how data science and cybersecurity are related.
Source: Udemy.com
So, why do I need to know data science for security?
For a hacker, gaining access to a network might not be the biggest challenge. The challenge will be to figure out where they are once they are inside the network and to crawl through and attack the system. In this phase, which is usually known as the “recon” phase, they mostly leave traces of their location or of who they are.
This information can be extracted and this might be one of the places where data science can be leveraged. Through this, we can also correlate with multiple events that has already occurred and find similarities to figure out a pattern and relate.
Does this mean that data science is the solution for all the attacks?
It can be! But, the challenge is that we have loads of data related to the cyber security field and ‘no labels’, which is absolutely the biggest challenge for leveraging machine learning to make decisions. Few of the major applications where currently we successfully leverage this is:
Anamoly Detection
Malware Analysis
Network Traffic Analysis
With that being said, let us begin to explore data analysis with Python!
Learning Goals
Familiarity with using Pandas data structure
Analyzing a specific dataset using Pandas
Practice problem to get hands-on with the material
Learning Time: 1.5 hours
In our last post, we already saw how to use Pandas to read a text file. As already discussed, this package plays a huge role in various security applications, where machine learning is leveraged for analysis and detection of attacks. Now, let us dig a little deeper and understand the manipulations that can be performed on the data using Pandas.
Data Selection using data structures in Pandas
There are two main fundamental data structures predominantly used with the Pandas library:
Series
DataFrames
According the pydata.org, a Pandas DataFrame is a “two-dimensional size-mutable, potentially heterogeneous tabular data structure with labeled axes”. In short, these act like a collection of the series data structure which can also hold data of different types in rows and columns format sharing the same index and it’s size can also be modified. To understand this better, let us see how to use a Series data structure (can be considered as a one-dimensional array) and the type of manipulations that can be performed on it.
Series
A Series structure is similar to an array, list, or column in a table. It will assign a labeled index to each item starting from 0.
Now that we have covered the Series data structure, let us dive into the other structure — DataFrames.
DataFrames
A DataFrame structure looks similar to a spreadsheet or database table. Let us try to understand this structure with an example. We are going to pass a dictionary of lists to the DF constructor and display the content.
Reading a file
Let us download the Phishing dataset from the below mentioned website and save it as a csv file.
I removed the attribute information from the file and retained the data part. The headers are set when reading the csv into the pandas object using the ‘names’ attribute. You can find a description of the dataset in that link as well.
Manipulations on a Pandas DataFrame
There are a lot of useful functions that can be used on a DataFrame object for manipulation. Let us discuss a few of those here.
The head() and tail() method can be used to see the values at the beginning and end of the dataframe. You can also pass a number to these methods to specify the number of lines you want to see.
2. The describe() method will summarize all columns that contain numbers and give you the count, mean, minimum, maximum, etc.
3. The <dataframe>.dtypes command should give what type of information Python has stored in each column of the frame.
To explore this further, we have two other functions value_counts() and unique().
value_counts() the count of the different values that exist in the column.
unique() gives you the details of the unique values that exists in the column.
Note: NaN stands for “Not a Number” and is a special value assigned to empty column values.
4. When we are working with data and run into NaN values, these generally do not add value for analysis. So, these can be removed from the dataframe as part of the preprocessing phase.
Additionally, we can also add columns to the dataframe. Adding columns might be a scenario where when the selected features do not add value by itself but when combined with other features and formed as a new column, can be more useful. Let us not worry too much about these concepts for now!
5. To visualize the distribution, we can use matplotlib, just like we have used it previously in Lesson 2. Here, we are trying to display a histogram of the values available in the port column. One need to know is that visualization might play a huge role in trying to analyze clusters of data to show us if there is ‘over-fitting’ in a model. This concept is something we might run into during data analysis.
6. We can even read directly from a URL and put the information into a data table using Pandas. This is just a simple piece of code to read a URL.
You can also read and write from a database like Sqlite, SqlAlchemy or MySQL using Pandas.
7. We can sort the data using the columns using the sort_values() function.
8. Modifying the fields in a column present in a dataframe is very easy with Pandas. For instance, we can drop all the values that have empty fields using the dropna() function.
These are just a collection of a few things that we can do with Pandas. There is an ocean of things that we can analyze with this powerful package and a few others can be read from the resources mentioned below.
Watch out for the next lesson in the web series!
Happy Learning!
Practice
Try to do all the functions that was done above on any cybersecurity dataset of your choice!
Additional Resources | https://medium.com/cyberdefendersprogram/python-for-cybersecurity-lesson-3-data-analysis-with-pandas-501441e14fe0 | ['Johnsy Vineela'] | 2018-08-21 01:16:07.300000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Python4cybersecurity', 'Cybersecurity', 'Data Science', 'Python Programming'] |
Cryptocurrencies have a Future. But Which Coins will Succeed? | Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin has one of the more interesting futures of all currencies on the market and finds itself at a larger crossroad than ever before. In some ways, the current downward spiral to the market is a resetting of sorts. The overbought/overvalued market was largely propped up by the excesses of Bitcoin: the promise of decentralized currency that would continue to appreciate through deflationary mechanisms and make early investors (still an applicable term in 2017) far more wealthy than where they entered the market. That sounds a lot like a ponzi scheme to those on the outside, but they also neglected to see the value behind the technology and the benefits of something as novel as blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Now, the veneer has been scraped away from Bitcoin for a large portion of investors and the general public. Media outlets are lining up to deliver I told you so’s, despite never having understood the technology or market in the first place. Investors, especially those burned from losses and also those disappointed by the premature promise of riches, are also turning their back on Bitcoin–again, not having fully understood what the currency was for. Bitcoin, simply from its colossal market share and household name branding, in addition to the backing of powerful figures around the world, is likely to have a future after this bear market ends. But it is going to require significant change in market practices and community focus to achieve the original goal of Satoshi Nakamoto’s currency.
One thing has become clear: long confirmation times and exorbitant fees are antithetical to the public’s acceptance of a currency, regardless of the additional features offered by blockchain and crypto. Unless Bitcoin wishes to relegate itself to a digital store of value (like gold or real estate), utility has got to become the primary focus for the community and development. Lightning network or a similar method for reducing fees and congestion is now paramount in order for Bitcoin to be what most of the public imagines it as: a seamless digital payment for the modern age. If the bull market resumes and Bitcoin climbs again to an all time high north of 20,000 USD without solving the scalability and network congestion issue, we are looking at the same conditions for another collapse. In that situation, especially being nearly a decade since its inception, Bitcoin starts to look more like the product of a niche community–either that of its fervent, tech-influenced fan base, or the vogue currency of the wealthy and famous who see owning Bitcoin as having another limited quantity, precious asset.
It’s possible this market collapse and the reset alluded to above is the market attempting to flush out and overthrow BTC dominance. For the majority of investors in the cryptospace outside of exclusive BTC holders, there is growing dissent and frustration with the original cryptocurrency. Bitcoin prices are holding down the market, regardless of positive announcements and implementation going on in other currency realms. Ripple introduced two of the largest adoption endorsements in all of cryptocurrency earlier this year–Moneygram and Western Union–and yet the price barely reflected a blip on its spiral downward. That is an unhealthy market condition built upon BTC stilts that is destined to collapse over and over again unless Bitcoin can succeed for the long-run.
However, and it may be unfortunate for investors to hear, the entire market is ingrained through Bitcoin. From ubiquitous BTC pairings listed across exchanges, to the vast popularity Bitcoin holds over the rest of the currencies (compare BTC to LTC/XRP/ETH on google trends and you will see the disparity), the market is going to have to continue to rely upon Bitcoin as its source of income. Unless we see a total collapse, thereby allowing the industry to reset, old investors to be flushed out and new ones to enter through currencies outside of Bitcoin, it’s hard to imagine a change in market conditions that does not include Bitcoin following this bear market. Which means, rather than crypto-based tribes spreading FUD and creating zero-sum games with Bitcoin and their chosen currency, it would be to the benefit of all investors and enthusiasts in the industry to ensure that Bitcoin survives, or at least find ways to support cryptocurrency outside of disparaging non-invested coins. The industry of cryptocurrency has become highly politicized, with warring community factions attempting to tear down other currencies in the hopes of driving investment dollars to their chosen coin. But the general public doesn’t see this message as superiority or rational investing. Instead, they see a murky landscape of false promises, confusion, and uncertainty–all of the conditions that cause investment dollars to steer clear. For now, and for the foreseeable future, it’s clear that what is good for Bitcoin is good for all cryptocurrency.
Ripple (XRP)
The problem with Ripple’s pricing is twofold: the entire market is still reliant upon the condition of Bitcoin, for the reasons listed above, clouding any positive news or advancement for XRP, which has been significant to start 2018; and the coin-supply conditions of Ripple are vastly different from that of Bitcoin, creating elevated expectation in the investment-base, particularly those who entered the market after the start of the bull-run.
We have addressed the problems related to Bitcoin’s hold over the market above, so let us examine how Ripple differs in coin supply that inevitably affects the pricing structure. Ripple has a coin supply over 4700 times that of Bitcoin’s. Obviously, no one is expecting XRP to be anywhere near the price of Bitcoin on a per coin basis, but that also has a large effect on XRP and investor behavior. Bitcoin has a precious, limited supply scarcity that is reflected in the pricing. Even after losing over 60% of its value since the last all-time high, BTC holders are fearful to part with their currency because they know they hold something special that may be difficult to obtain in the event of another positive price swing.
Ripple does not hold the same allure.
For roughly 500 USD, an investor can own 1000 XRP. Now imagine all of the investors that gathered bags of XRP when the price was still under a penny. Or under ten cents. Or even at the quarter USD valuation it held for most of 2017. Like BTC, there are a number of early investors in Ripple that hold a vast majority of the circulating XRP who are still flush with profits–thereby dictating the pricing structure. An investor who entered XRP at 1 USD (which looked like a great buy in light of its 3.80 USD ATH) is sitting on a 50% loss at this time. However, the person who purchased XRP for 0.01 USD is still holding a 5000% profit. Ripple’s pricing structure suffers from the enormous disparity in wallet amounts, but also investor mindset towards the currency. XRP is not precious in the same-way low cap currencies are, and because of that does not create the same trepidation in selling.
Sure, losing money on an investment is still a painful loss, but most people are selling at 0.60 USD in the expectation that they can buy back in again before the market leaves them behind in the event of a bull-run. Due to the massive coin supply, Ripple’s price is going to hold sustained valuation in the event of widespread, XRP-usable adoption. Moneygram and Western Union are significant partnerships, but they do little for the average investor. XRP, like every other currency, lacks legitimate uses for spending and sending outside of exchange speculation. Ripple has the utility and potential to be a market leader. It now requires the partnerships that give people reasons to spend XRP, thereby driving up individual coin value while also keeping the currency circulating through market as opposed to building up in the long-term holdings of a small investment population.
Litecoin (LTC)
Charlie Lee, founder of Litecoin, predicted at the highest point of Litecoin’s price-run last December that investors should be wary of a looming price collapse. That warning annoyed large portions of the community, as it stifled the excitement over the price increase and signaled uncertainty to the general public. We argued that it was healthy for market conditions to consider the investment in terms of extreme gain and loss.
Of all the currencies undergoing this sudden crash, Litecoin has the most to gain. Growing frustration over Bitcoin usability could drive more users to Litecoin, as a cheaper, faster version of their favored cryptocurrency. It comes down to the Litecoin community, and Charlie Lee, accomplishing two things: growing partnerships that inspire LTC use for transactions and payment, and getting out from under the shadow of Bitcoin.
Every currency is trying to grow more adopters and reasons for payment. Litecoin benefits from its close relationship to BTC, but has yet to drive the message of superior performance. Again, this becomes difficult given the zero-sum-game approach of most crypto tribes, and the necessity for Bitcoin to succeed to elevate the market again. If we are spiraling towards a reset in the market and perception towards cryptocurrency, now could be even more opportune for Litecoin to step forward as an industry leader; essentially a Bitcoin 2.0. All currencies are going to be vying for this distinction, but Litecoin has the history, the market recognition and industry ties to legitimately replace BTC.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
More than any other culprit, Roger Ver and Bitcoin Cash have the most direct responsibility for the market collapse. Originally, Coinbase was looked to as a beacon for cryptocurrency and introduction to the market. It was, and still remains, one of the easiest, most seamless experiences for buying and selling cryptocurrency from a new-user’s perspective. As cryptocurrency grew into the spotlight in Q3 and Q4 2017, it was simple and painless to direct relatives, friends and coworkers interested in cryptocurrency to the downloadable app to get started buying a limited selection of Bitcoin and other currencies. Then came the Bitcoin Cash fiasco, from which the market is still reeling.
The uncertainty, malicious confusion and insider collusion between Coinbase and Bitcoin Cash not only burned a large portion of investors (as the price shot from 2500 to 3900 USD in the span of hours, then back down again) but also kicked off the tanking of Bitcoin’s price. The heavy-handed tactics of BCH promoters, labeling BCash as the true Bitcoin and BTC as a fake did nothing but stirred confusion in the general public and created a barrier to investment. For those looking to Bitcoin as a non-inflationary, appreciative asset, the introduction of a contentious hard fork put their world in a spin. These investors and outsiders looking-on were right in coming to the conclusion that if BCH could spring up out of nowhere, what was stopping an endless number of hard-forks flooding the market? Not to mention, it added to the inequality and jealousy towards early-BTC adopters who were not only riding high on 17000% profits in the span of years, but also receiving air-dropped Bitcoin Cash seemingly out of nowhere.
It will probably take most of the year to reverse the headaches BCH has created for the marketplace. Investor confidence is all but gone from Coinbase, the company is now making headlines for a building insider-trading lawsuit, and more than handful of investors were so burned by the fiasco that they will never return to the crypto markets. It’s hard to tell what sort of future Bitcoin Cash will have in the marketplace. It will likely continue to be the suckerfish that rides Bitcoin’s price gains, as new investors to the marketplace put money into BCH thinking it is a cheaper form of Bitcoin. BCH has a good message–improved utility for Bitcoin–but it lacks the nuance and implementation to achieve that competitive edge. Again, a total market reset could put BCH in a position to succeed, particularly if Bitcoin fails to overcome the issue of scale and network congestion. But the contention of Bitcoin Cash and the militant approach to its marketing is hurting the entire industry. If nothing else, the end of 2017 made it clear that hard forks, in all forms, are going to continue to be a danger to the entire marketplace, particularly when they effect the top cryptocurrencies.
LetKnow.News on Facebook and Twitter | https://medium.com/letknownews/cryptocurrencies-have-a-future-but-which-coins-will-succeed-a19a47c2885e | [] | 2018-03-20 06:24:22.156000+00:00 | ['Ripple', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Bitcoincash', 'Litecoin'] |
The myth of the hijabi woman’s agency | Let’s clear one thing out from the beginning. This blog is not about banning women from wearing the veil. Freedom of religion necessitates that people are able to practice their religion the way they are required to. They are free to make religious decisions, even if those decisions are stupid, so long as they are personal, do not interfere in other people’s lives and are not harmful to members of society.
Types of Islamic headgear
This blog is also not about the false equivalence between veiled women and the so-called “scantily” clad women. There is no equivalence. Yes, women should dress whichever way they want but while — for the most part — choosing to wear less clothes IS actually a personal decision, choosing to wear the veil is another matter.
Which is why I want to talk about agency. When veiled Muslim women are criticised for espousing ridiculous views about patriarchy, i.e. that there is none and that they are free and it is their choice to wear the veil, we are told that we are undermining their agency with our criticism. That they are independent, free women, who have the right to wear the veil. Again, let me reiterate, I am not arguing against their right to wear it. They absolutely have the right to wear it as far as governmental regulations should be concerned.
Coming to this mythical agency everyone keeps mentioning, which basically is the capacity or ability to make a decision and enacting that decision on society. I understand that as being able to exert power on your little corner of the world.
Muslim women do not wear a veil because it is an expression of freedom or a fashion choice. They wear it because they are required to do so as per religion. If they do not, it is a sin and anything bad that may happen to them is their fault, because they are fair game.
From the outset, we can see that much of their agency has been depleted. If they want to be good Muslim women, and go to heaven (although this is also disputable as, apparently, women are going to be a minority in heaven since most are going to hell Sahih Bukhari 7:62:124, Sahih Muslim 36:6596, Sahih Muslim 36:6601), they should cover themselves up appropriately. In this instance, religion undermines the agency.
Now why do I think the veil is the cornerstone of patriarchy? Because it is. Women of respectable families were required to cover themselves long before the advent of Islam, which continued this custom. Believing women are required to cover themselves, so as to not bring dishonour on their fathers, brothers, husbands. Only permitted men are allowed to look at their hair etc. Therefore, the honour of fathers, brothers, and husbands dictates how a woman may dress when she is with other men. When only certain men are allowed to look at “their women”, said women are property and must be protected as such; by being wrapped up. Which is why the defense of hijab and niqab is given with protecting your lollypop and juicebox (your property) from flies (other men) analogies.
If you dig deep into the bedrock of this, it is clear. This agency is very limited. That is how patriarchy and religion have modernised themselves: by inventing the myth of the agency of women, especially veiled women. It has told them that they are making a choice, and have the freedom to exert that choice. This has been religion — and by extension — patriarchy’s greatest trick: convincing women that they have agency.
To me, their freedom is just like that of mice in a maze, which are free to go anywhere, so long as they remain inside the maze. And that is the extent of agency veiled woman have. | https://triggerfishwriting.medium.com/the-myth-of-the-hijabi-womans-agency-bb6e4475c63f | ['Triggerfish Writing'] | 2019-01-31 17:11:47.249000+00:00 | ['Niqab', 'Muslim Women', 'Hijab', 'İslam', 'Myths'] |
Feature Encoding Made Simple With Spark 2.3.0 — Part 1 | “Every decoding is another encoding” ~ David Lodge
As mentioned in the previous blog, the next few blogs will focus on feature engineering. A lot of work in a machine learning project comes down to it. Whether we like it or not we spend 95% of our time on generating that feature vector that will bring out the best in our data.
Spark provides a lot of leeway on how we can optimize this process. I am going to briefly touch on the types of encoding I’ve found useful and then go more into detail on the problems you might face when using big data. For the purpose of this blog post I assume you have a basic awareness of spark functions and its data types. If not, for a reasonable background understanding, please refer to this documentation.
Pipelines:
I am going to start with pipelines because it makes streamlining your feature transformations easier. The main concept behind pipelines is to combine complex algorithms and transformations to create a workflow. Suppose you have to one hot encode some categorical features and run a xgboost model. You would take the following steps.
Index categorial features
Encode to one hot vectors
Assemble to a feature vector
Train model
These four steps can be run as a sequence of pipeline stages to form a workflow. The data pre processing part will be a bunch of transformers (like the one hot encoder) and estimators that will be fit to the input dataframe. A pipeline object can be created as follows:
Note: the uid here “myPipeline” is optional
Lets see how we can include stages and fit the pipeline model to the input dataframe. We can use one of the feature indexing methods called the string indexer in spark to understand both string indexer and pipelines.
String Indexer:
String Indexer encodes a column of string labels/categories to a column of indices. The ordering of the indices is done on the basis of popularity and the range is [0, numOfLabels). Lets take a toy example of a simple dataframe. | https://towardsdatascience.com/feature-encoding-with-spark-2-3-0-part-1-9ede45562740 | ['Roshini Johri'] | 2018-11-26 17:27:27.312000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Pipeline', 'Spark', 'Big Data', 'Feature Engineering'] |
F.A.S.T. L.A.N.E. To Becoming a Leader. | F.A.S.T. L.A.N.E. To Becoming a Leader.
One of the Paradoxes of life is that slow is fast and fast is slow, hence the maxim “Hasten slowly and you’ll soon arrive”. Make no mistake there are no shortcuts! But there are ways to become more efficient and straighten the trajectory (based on principles that are tried and true) as you go from point A to point B. Life is too short to learn everything on your own but we can learn from others to mitigate the learning curve 1in many areas of life.
The F.A.S.T. L.A.N.E. to Becoming a leader consists of a set of principles and modalities that will harness the leadership potential in serious-minded individuals. Below is a brief description of what each principle/modality represents.
FAST = Flow | Adapt |Secure| Transend
Flow — To flow is the principle of being fluid in action versus being rigid. Being able to flow will enable you to find the path of least resistance and get in where you fit in.
Adapt — Once you develop the ability to adapt to circumstances you are then able to detect perceived boundaries and push the limits. This principle is shown in the way water takes on any shape that contains it. The ability to flow correlates with your ability to adapt.
Secure — To secure is the ability to hold and bind what you have gained. Subsequently laying and paving your own road/lane toward Success. This is the counterpart to the flow. But don’t make it a comfort zone because It is not the end goal!
Transcend — To transcend is to go beyond the perceived range or limits e.g. goal.
LANE= Leverage | Accountability | Navigation | Experience
Leverage — Is to use something that you already have to achieve something new or better. Your skill-sets, talents, accomplishments, and determined ideas fall into this category. Leverage is what gets you in the door.
Accountability — You are accountable for utilizing your abilities to make the rubber meet the road and expected to do what you say.
Navigation — Navigation is how you maneuver using your social and emotional intelligence. You must know when to speed up, slow down, or put the breaks on in each situation. The speed necessary for each terrain and road you will travel will vary. Subsequently, the weight or baggage you bring will affect your ability to drive the necessary points home (in hearts and minds).
Experience — Wisdom is a byproduct of time and experience. Although each situation may be unique, reflecting on how you handle various situations increases your ability to gauge and respond F.A.S.T. and efficiency. As a result, your experiences will give you a broader scope on your journey moving forward. Flowing better, adapting quicker, securing more confidence, and transcending higher!
Get into the F.a.s.t L.a.n.e and be on your way! | https://medium.com/@aikuan_42955/f-a-s-t-l-a-n-e-to-becoming-a-leader-60d4049f3247 | ['Kuan Demarco'] | 2021-01-18 23:49:12.692000+00:00 | ['Leadership', 'Leadership Development', 'Leadership Coaching', 'Leadership Skills'] |
An Autocratic Solution | An Autocratic Solution
An examination of some statistics that show steps China is taking to confront the climate crisis. World Ocean Observatory May 17·4 min read
Nanshan Cultural Tourist Zone in Sanya, China. Credit: Denny Ryanto @runninghead
We are in an odd place in time, betwixt and befuddled by politics and pandemic, wherein we realize that we must change, but are stifled by the inertia of past actions that won’t give over lightly to the future. The United Nations and coalitions of governments agree in principle, but not in practice; set goals that they cannot, or will not meet; and move forward into the tide of change with best intent and eccentric advance, wishful thinking and hopeful determination that might still not be equal to the urgency and force of the challenge to change.
I have talked ad nauseum about ecosystem service perspective and accounting as an organizational focus for the future. I can point to a growing number of local or limited examples, but can I point to one place, one nation where government has faced up to the reality of climate change and all its manifestations and realities as measured by environmental degradation, the corruption of land and water, and the inevitable decline in economy and community if such action is not taken? The best I can come up with is China.
Really, you exclaim. What about the coal-fired energy plants, the massive relocation of people and villages by mega-dams and water management schemes, the unregulated, indiscriminate taking of seafood, the economic imperialism, the sabre rattling in the Taiwan Strait? All true, and not to be celebrated at all. And then there is the fact of autocracy, the ability of a leader and collaborative legislature, military, administration, and social participation to declare, design, and finance change by a phrase, a direction of capital, or an instruction to a workforce that sets to without question to get the job done. Not a democracy, not really a pure socialist state, but rather a patriarchracy, a leader who can mobilize 1.4 billion people, the largest national population on earth, and move it in one direction, or another. Surely, that is not right, not democratic, not free. How can it be?
But here are some statistics, taken from an article published by the National Academy of Science, research supported by the US National Science Foundation, and written by scientists from Michigan State University, the Chinese Academy of Science, and the Natural Capital Project, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University:
In the past decade, China has:
Conducted a national ecosystem survey and assessment;
Mapped ecosystem services, identifying critical areas for change;
Evaluated plans and proposed outcomes of specific ecosystem service provision;
Translated this effort into practical and effective policies, such as ecological functional zoning, ecological compensation, ecological restoration, and Ecosystem Product Accounting to monetize cost and social outcome;
Designed and applied financial instruments and policy mechanisms to incentivize and implement desired outcomes;
Established through this process a national political framework to facilitate transformational change as necessary social response to the environmental crisis faced at scale, without which the nation is at risk; and
Enlisted its population to participate in this collective effort, decreased land degradation, erosion and desertification, water scarcity, and pollution, increased education and training for new skills and employment, built a global manufacturing enterprise, fueled, housed and fed itself, become the largest economy in the world, exporting its technology, leveraging its wealth, and magnifying its geopolitical influence and strength worldwide.
I can hear the protests from here, that I would glorify such behavior and form of government, thus demeaning our democratic principles, and our (self-proclaimed) place as the greatest nation in the world. I am not arguing here against our form of government, but I am pointing out the results of a reaction to the real, debilitating conditions faced by us all, wherever we live and under whatever governance, and our palpable failure to respond politically, thus practically, thus unsuccessfully to questions with answers, to problems with solutions, to challenges that must be met. What should we do about it?
Do we ignore the obvious and accept the consequent decline through indifference and ignorance? Do we accelerate decline by lack of action? Do we fail as a government, as a democratic experiment, because we are immobilized by differences that ultimately don’t matter when there is no clean air to breathe, no clean water to drink, no food to eat, no health in us, no security, no peace, no future? If we cannot resolve collectively to do these things, how can we call ourselves a nation united by commonality and prospect, a community that deserves to be free?
Does this have anything to do with the ocean? It has everything to do with the ocean — until we fail there too. | https://medium.com/@thew2o/an-autocratic-solution-77de350d98b7 | ['World Ocean Observatory'] | 2021-05-17 20:18:29.988000+00:00 | ['Nature', 'Oceans', 'China', 'Ecosystem Services', 'Climate'] |
Detecting the Onset of Machine Failure using Anomaly Detection Techniques | Introduction
Numerous factors can contribute to the quality of a product, and not every one of these factors is under manufacturers control. One of the most common sources of quality problems is faulty equipment which has not been properly maintained. Hence, monitoring the condition of machines and components such as cooling fans, bearings, turbines, gears, belts and maintaining a desirable working state becomes very crucial.
When a machine or a component fails, corrective maintenance is performed to identify the cause of failure and decide on repair procedures required to maintain and re-initiate the machine to its normal working conditions. However, because the machine has already failed without any prior warnings, time is required for procuring and repairing of the failed component. Therefore, a maintenance strategy needs to be considered to minimize the downtime of service. But machines and their components degrade through time, and the time of failure is not known in advance. Hence, time-based maintenance strategies are predominantly used for maintaining the conditions of machines and equipment.
In this article, I will discuss various techniques that can be used to detect the onset of failure occurring in machines.
Anomaly Detection
There are always some students in a classroom who either outperform the other students or failed to even pass with a bare minimum when it comes to securing marks in subjects. Most of the times, the marks of the students are generally normally distributed apart from the ones just mentioned. These marks can be termed as extreme highs and extreme lows respectively. In Statistics and other related areas like Machine Learning, these values are referred to as Anomalies or Outliers.
Anomaly detection (or outlier detection) is the identification of rare items, events or observations which raise suspicions by differing significantly from the majority of the data. Typically, anomalous data can be connected to some kind of problem or rare event such as e.g. bank fraud, medical problems, structural defects, malfunctioning equipment etc. This connection makes it very interesting to be able to pick out which data points can be considered anomalies, as identifying these events are typically very interesting from a business perspective.
Anomaly Detection
This triggers a question in mind: How can we identify if the data is normal or anomalous? There are various techniques which can help us identify this.
Anomaly Detection Techniques
There exist numerous anomaly detection methods. A rough grouping of some of these methods includes statistical algorithms, clustering-based, nearest-neighbor- based, classification-based, spectral-based, space subsampling-based and deep learning methods.
Statistical-based methods
Statistical-based methods assume that the data follow a specific distribution, so the model is created from a specified probability distribution. The simplest approach for detecting anomalies in data would be flagging data points that deviate from common statistical properties of a distribution. For example, one could define an anomaly based on a certain standard deviation away from the mean. The advantage of these models is that they output a probability as a measure of outlierness.
Statistical based methods
Clustering-based methods
In clustering-based anomaly detection, the assumption is that data points that are similar belong to a similar group. This is determined by the distance to the cluster centroid. The anomaly score is then calculated by setting a threshold for the size of a cluster or the distance to the cluster centroid; if cluster has data points less than the value of threshold they are marked as anomalies, or if the data points distance to the center of the cluster exceeds the set threshold it is flagged as anomalous. K means clustering is an example of such methods.
Clustering-based method (K Means Clustering)
Nearest Neighbor based methods
The nearest-neighbor-based anomaly detection generally assumes that normal data samples appear in neighborhoods that seem to be dense, while anomalies are far from their closest neighbors. Nearest neighbor methods can be generally grouped into distance-based and density-based methods. Both approaches require a similarity or a distance measure in order to make the decision on the degree of abnormality of a data instance. Some examples include k-NN, Mahalanobis distance, and Local Outlier Factor (LOF).
Nearest Neighbor method (KNN)
Classification based methods
Classification-based anomaly detection can be divided into one-class (normal labels only) and multi-class (multiple classes) classification depending on the availability of labels. Anomaly detection based on a classifier comprises of two steps:
In the training phase, a classifier is learned using available labeled training data. Then the test instances are classified as normal or abnormal using the classifier trained in the initial step.
The One-Class Support Vector Machine (OCSVM) and neural network methods are examples of such detection methods.
Classification based method (One class SVM)
Spectral or subspace-based methods
Spectral or subspace-based methods try to extract features that best describe the variability of the training data. These methods assume that the normal data can be presented in a lower dimension subspace where normal data is distinguished from abnormal data. Principle component analysis (PCA) is considered as a subspace-based approach to anomaly detection.
Subspace based method (PCA)
Subsampling based methods
Many outlier detection methods suffer from the curse of dimensionality; as the dimensionality of a given dataset increases, distance-based approaches fail because the relative distance between any pair of points become relatively the same. To overcome this problem sub-sampling-based methods the high dimensional space is divided into smaller sub-spaces and the outlier ranking in different sub-spaces is monitored. Outliers are points that consistently rank high in the smaller sub-spaces. Isolation forest is an algorithm that divides the high dimensional space to smaller dimensions and tries to find anomalies in the lower dimensional space.
Subsampling based methods (Isolation forest)
Gaussian distribution-based methods
Gaussian distribution is also called a normal distribution. We will be using the Gaussian distribution to develop an anomaly detection algorithm, that is, we’ll assume that our data are normally distributed. This’s an assumption that cannot hold true for all data sets, yet when it does, it proves an effective method for spotting outliers.
Elliptic Envelope is a method that tries to figure out the key parameters of our data’s general distribution by assuming that our entire data is an expression of an underlying multivariate Gaussian distribution.
Gaussian based methods (Elliptic Envelope)
Implementation
I have downloaded the dataset from Numenta Anomaly Benchmark (NAB). NAB is a novel benchmark for evaluating algorithms for anomaly detection in streaming, real-time applications. Specifically, I will be working with Ambient Temperature Dataset which has real-time observations from an office setting.
The dataset contains 22695 observations taken at a 5-second interval from 2nd December 2013 to 19th February 2014. The dataset contains no null values. The temperature of the building is in Fahrenheit which was later converted to degree Celcius.
Following is the graphical representation of the temperature reading over the time period.
Temperature Distribution
Feature Engineering
I performed feature engineering on the dataset which would help build a better model.
The day was divided into daylight or night time which can be really useful to find out if the failures occur during day time or night time.
Daytime — 7 am to 10 pm
Nighttime — 10.01 pm to 6.59 am
2. The week was divided as weekday or weekend which will be useful information if failures occurred during the time when most of the employees are in the office (weekday) or otherwise.
3. Four distinct categories were made to divide the observations into “Weekday night”, “Weekday light”, “Weekend light”, “Weekend night”
As we can see, the temperature is more stable during daylight of the business day.
Models
K Means Clustering
k-means clustering aims to partition n observations into k clusters in which each observation belongs to the cluster with the nearest mean, serving as a prototype of the cluster. Here k is a hyperparameter which is selected using the elbow method.
Using the elbow method, k was found to be 15. The data was then separated into 15 different clusters as seen in the figure.
K means clustering with k=15
The next step is to get the distance between each point and its nearest centroid. The biggest distances are considered as an anomaly. Below is the visual representation of anomaly with cluster view.
Anomalies (Red color) and normal readings (Blue color)
As we can clearly see that K means clustering was able to successfully separate the anomalies (red color) from the normal ones (blue color). Anomalies can also be visualized throughout time.
Anomalies visualized throughout time (K Means)
Anomalies can also be visualized with temperature repartition.
Anomaly detection using temperature repartitioning (K Means)
One disadvantage of using K Means Clustering is that it detects the low temperature around the end of the record as an anomaly but it doesn’t detect anomalies near the higher temperature.
Isolation Forest
Following anomalies were detected using Isolation forest method.
Anomalies visualized throughout time (Isolation Forest)
Anomaly detection using temperature repartitioning (Isolation Forest)
One Class SVM
Anomalies visualized throughout time (One Class SVM)
Anomaly detection using temperature repartitioning (One Class SVM)
Elliptic Envelope
Anomalies visualized throughout time (Elliptic Envelope)
Anomaly detection using temperature repartitioning (Elliptic Envelope)
Result
One Class SVM performed the best among all the algorithms and was able to find anomalies in high as well as low-temperature ranges.
The code for the blog can be found here.
References | https://towardsdatascience.com/detecting-the-onset-of-machine-failure-using-anomaly-detection-techniques-d2f7a11eb809 | ['Animesh Goyal'] | 2019-07-22 02:41:40.858000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Anomaly Detection', 'Time Series Analysis'] |
YeeCo PoC-7 Postponed Release Due to the Spring Festival Holiday | Dear YeeCo Community User, Hello. Due to the Spring Festival holiday, the public chain development work will be fine-tuned. The version of PoC-7 that was originally planned to be launched at the end of January will be postponed to February 14. The content of the version update will remain unchanged.
The core functions of the PoC-7 version are exposed in advance: first, the online version wallet will be officially launched to improve the user experience; second, token issuance is supported on layer1; third, smart contracts are supported on layer2. More version details will be officially released on February 14.
In the recently released PoC-6 version, YeeCo has officially launched the block chain explorer yeescan, users can browse and search for any blocks, transactions, accounts or events.
Yeescan site: https://pocnet.yeescan.org/
At the same time, I wish you a happy Spring Festival in advance.
YeeCo public chain development plan
Features that YeeCo has realized
Tetris consensus Demo.
Transfer feature based on Tetis.
PoW consensus, static sharding.
Transfer feature in static sharding.
Multi-mining, cross-shard transactions.
CRFG final determinism, Dynamic sharding.
Cross chain transaction,
Block chain explorer yeescan. | https://medium.com/@yeefoundation/yeeco-poc-7-postponed-release-due-to-the-spring-festival-holiday-256ee164ed29 | ['Yee Foundation'] | 2020-01-19 06:07:54.578000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Smart Contracts', 'Yeetoken'] |
Cloud Egress visibility in Aviatrix Monitoring-Only Mode | DC to Cloud
Back in the day, when your application resources were residing in an on-prem DC, you did not really need to worry about the security for the ingress/egress to the Internet. There would be a security team with a wide range of tools and services monitoring and protecting your workloads — NetFlow, FWs, visibility tools monitoring the traffic inline and out-of-band. It was all possible because of physical and logical separation of the various layers of your DC network.
In the Cloud it is different — the Internet is just one hop away from your resources (VMs, containers), and protecting and monitoring that Internet traffic is not that simple any longer. You do not have the benefit of inserting a physical tap on the switches and routers through which your packets are flowing. How do you monitor the egress traffic then, to make sure your resources are not compromised? Or how do you provide insights into breach that has happened? How do you provide that information when an audit comes? How do you make sure your cyber security teams have enough information to actually work with?
What are your options of monitoring your cloud traffic egressing to the Internet?
Have you ever been wondering what your VMs are reaching out to as they go via the Internet Gateway, IGW, NAT GW, or simply the default Internet egress in any of the major clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, Ali) ?
The native options in these cloud providers are quite limited and the best they can offer are some form of flow logs (VPC Flow Logs, VCN Flow Logs, NSG Logs). There are a few challenges though:
- generating the information (continuity of the monitoring, sampling of the packets, granularity of selection what to monitor — entire VPC or just a VM?)
- receiving and consuming the information (read the text file with the logs, build your own analyzer or leverage a 3rd party solution — would it be mulit-cloud though?).
Aviatrix Monitoring-Only Mode for Egress
Aviatrix Multi-Cloud Networking and Security Platform offers a number of services to help your connectivity and security in the cloud. However, you can also use it only for the purpose of gaining visibility into your egress traffic.
The deployment model is simple — you install Aviatrix Controller, CoPilot and Egress GWs in each cloud network which you want to monitor, as in the diagram below: | https://medium.com/@tomnetworking/cloud-egress-visibility-in-aviatrix-monitoring-only-mode-66e33e2295c8 | ['Tomasz Klimczyk'] | 2021-04-08 07:22:35.192000+00:00 | ['Visibility', 'Security', 'Cloud', 'Monitoring', 'Aviatrix'] |
Students Should Stop Incorporating Nonprofits | Hey high-schoolers, don’t incorporate your cause-based, passion-project as a nonprofit! This is one of the most common mistakes that high school students make when they embark on an ambitious, social venture (which we call a “Spike”). There is a time and place to incorporate (more explained below) but most never should, and all projects should resist incorporating while they are still in the initial “discovery” stage — when the idea has yet to be tested and proven in the so-called “real world”.
Young entrepreneurs should avoid, at all costs, getting distracted by cumbersome legal formation processes because they are time-consuming and costly. They should wait until they know exactly what they’re doing, and they have validated that it works with some initial traction.
I’m very passionate about this relatively administrative topic because of my past experience. 18 years ago right after graduating from college, I started a nonprofit organization (NGO) called HelpArgentina, and it’s still thriving today. But I attribute much of our initial success to the fact that I waited almost a year before incorporating as a US 501-c-3 public charity. This allowed me to focus on our initial fundraising campaigns to fight infant malnutrition in Argentina and therefore channel all our energy to having real impact. Over the course of the first six months, it became clear that the organizational model that I really wanted to create was very different from my initial vision. Only when I had more validation from my initial experiences did I incorporate the initiative as a nonprofit. I am still on the Board of Directors of HelpArgentina, and I’ve been deeply involved in the nonprofit sector for almost two decades. I can’t stress enough how important it is to avoid unnecessarily incorporating a nonprofit too early.
The primary reasons why it’s so commonplace for kids (and their parents) to incorporate as nonprofits too early are:
Availability Bias: everywhere you look, there seems to be a nonprofit working for a social cause, so they assume that is “the” way to organize all cause-based initiatives.
For Legitimacy. Students often feel like they will be taken more seriously if they are a formal legal entity. Don’t let insecurity get in the way of your success. Just because you are the founder of a nonprofit doesn’t mean you’re having any real impact. People in-the-know (i.e. college admissions officers) know this, and it especially looks bad for the kids of wealthy families to be starting nonprofits that are all mission and little impact.
For Administrative Reasons: Students think they need to be a nonprofit to raise donation money or to partner with nonprofits or legal entities.
In almost all cases, none of these are good reasons. Unless you have a huge donor saying that they will only donate money if you incorporate as a nonprofit immediately, then you probably shouldn’t. There are three other, much better, organizational models that we encourage students to pursue early on:
Option 1: Staying Informal. Most initiatives do not have any need to legally incorporate early on. We wrote recently about Greta Thunberg’s #FridaysForFuture initiative (which won our “2019: Spike of the Year” recognition), and she kept her initiative informal until only recently.
Option 2: Organizational Sponsorship. In this case, students run their initiative as a pilot within an existing nonprofit that is mission-aligned and that they have a relationship with. The most common forms of this are for students to start a club in their school or as an initiative at a local community organization like their church, Rotary club, etc.
Option 3: Fiscal Sponsorship. This option is similar to the option above, but it is with a nonprofit entity that has programs explicitly designed for the purpose of hosting and supporting new mission-aligned ventures, like yours, that don’t want to bother with the incorporation process early on. Click here to learn more about it from The National Council on Nonprofits.
The Lean Startup and Customer Development frameworks for innovation are today’s gold-standard when it comes to best practices for starting new ventures, including youth social ventures. Here are some links to useful articles on the stages of Lean and Customer Development. As depicted in the diagram below, the stages include: “Discovery”, “Validation”, “Launch” and “Scale”. If you are in the “Discovery” stage, which means you are still determining your model and haven’t started testing yet, then you definitely should not start the nonprofit legal incorporation process (Option 4 below); stay informal (Option 1). As your idea matures and gets more proven, you should start thinking about forming a legal entity, but we recommend you staying informal or pursuing organizational (Option 2) and fiscal sponsorship (Option 3) until the idea is fully proven and ready to scale.
If you are a youth entrepreneur and want some advice with this type of strategic decision, we recommend you talk with a more experienced entrepreneur or, even better, someone who is an expert in starting youth ventures. Here is a short list of some experts you can talk to: | https://medium.com/the-spike-lab-english/students-should-stop-incorporating-nonprofits-68cd9dc72dd5 | ['Xueying Chen'] | 2020-12-11 13:39:44.881000+00:00 | ['Student Entrepreneurs', 'Nonprofit', 'Youth', 'Social Ventures'] |
Graph Machine Learning meets UX; an uncharted love affair | Designed using resources from Freepik.com and The Noun Project
I am a User Experience (UX) designer. Folks like me look into all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with a company, its services, its product. What drives us is designing meaningful products that are intuitive, meet user needs, and delight.
While I have these drivers, I’m certainly not playing in a space well-paved by other UX designers.
Day to day I work with a bunch of incredible humans who build machine learning algorithms for large-scale graph networks. We’re also building a visualisation tool so people can see the hidden insights from these models and make data-informed decisions in often high-risk scenarios.
For me, it’s fast, exciting, fascinating, uncharted, difficult. A steep learning curve? Absolutely. But compounding that, I’ve found very few case studies of other UX designers working with machine learning.
For others like me who may be equally as bedazzled by this rapidly emerging technology, and just as drawn to its budding relationship with UX; this article is for you!
We’ll first explore what machine learning on graphs is, then build an end-to-end story to define the users, their relationships, and their different needs. I’ll also share three key challenges I faced in the task of designing visualisation solutions for graph machine learning, but how returning to UX design 101 resulted in an accessible, purposeful outcome.
Building the scenario
I quickly discovered that once you learn about graphs, you’ll start to see them everywhere. Many real-world datasets can be naturally represented as networks or graphs, with nodes representing entities and links representing relationships or interactions between them.
My work — represented as a graph
As for managing the vast, ever-increasing amount of connected data being generated in this data-driven age, this is when machine learning comes into play. Machine learning on graphs can draw powerful insights from connected data, like predicting relationships between entities that are missing from the data or resolving unknown entities across different networks (read ‘Knowing Your Neighbours; Machine Learning on Graphs’ to delve deeper).
My job as a UX designer is to question what problems our users can solve with graph machine learning. Graphs have proven to be well suited to crime investigation, and the potential of using machine learning on graphs for investigative analytics in law enforcement is immense. The trouble is, understandable security restrictions in this domain make access to data impossible.
In the absence of data, it’s difficult to develop a tool that can analyse or visualise it. When products are developed by technology first, they risk failing to deliver on what the user actually needs. It can also be difficult for teams to establish a meaningful direction, ending up with something like this: “Let’s cater for all types of tasks, data and scenarios…!”
In mapping our product we ended up with a long list of features on a roadmap, which is a great start. But we needed something to connect these features in a meaningful way to demonstrate the value of the product and help us prioritise. We needed to build a scenario.
By scenario, I mean an end-to-end story of users with a data challenge, how they might use our machine learning on graph algorithms to solve that challenge, and how they could then use the visualisation tool to leverage further insight.
We found an open source Twitter dataset containing 100k users, and 20m tweets. A small portion of the dataset had users labelled as ‘hateful’ or ‘normal’ (not hateful). (Read ‘Characterizing and Detecting Hateful Users on Twitter’ for more detail about how these labels were created, and an explanation of labelled versus non-labelled data for supervised and unsupervised machine learning approaches).
We asked ourselves: Could machine learning on graphs be used to predict ‘hateful’ users in online social networks?
We used the profiles already labelled as hateful or normal as training data for the machine learning models before running our algorithms on the dataset. The results were promising, demonstrating that the model could indeed predict hateful Twitter users (see ‘Can graph machine learning identify hate speech in social media networks?’ for the full case study).
As well as this, I had user research from the law enforcement domain outlining two distinct user types: the data scientist, and the intelligence analyst. I also had mapping of how they work together, and the problems they encounter when working with data.
Combined, this information gave me the base ingredients to build a scenario around the features. | https://medium.com/stellargraph/graph-machine-learning-and-ux-cdbf09edbc78 | ['Nhung Nguyen'] | 2020-05-15 09:21:15.156000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Visualization', 'UX', 'Data Science', 'UX Design'] |
From Flash to HTML5: How Banner Ads Have Evolved and Stayed Relevant | Introduction
Remember when clicking a banner ad was a one-way ticket to Spamville? Long ago, the flashy excitement of epilepsy-inducing digital display ads caught the eye of many unsuspecting internet browsers enamored with the interactivity on offer. These kinds of banners still exist, but nowadays, brands big and small occupy the digital advertising space with thought-out, well-planned and well-executed ad campaigns.
So much has changed in the digital landscape in such a short period of time. Does anyone remember 1991? We won’t blame you if you don’t. That was when the World Wide Web was born and changed everyone’s lives. Wired.com (formerly known as HotWired) invented the first web banner ad in 1994, which then set in motion a digital advertising boom that according to IAB and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, was worth $124.6 billion in 2019. In comparison, advertisers spent about $70 billion dollars on television advertising in the same year. These numbers make it clear that internet advertising is by far the largest ad medium for marketers.
Whether you’re a fan of ad banners or you’re the type of person to block any ad banner getting in your way, there is no denying the advertising industry has been forever altered and revolutionized by their impact.
Mobile banner ads are the most popular form of mobile digital advertising for a reason. They generate very high impression rates and are the second highest revenue generating format globally. They also are very clear about branding and message due to the limited space and time that the ad has to deliver its purpose. The ads offer a solution to a potential problem, which causes the user to click through to find out more information. A poorly designed ad may not give you the same results you desire however, so if you’re looking for high quality and professional creatives for your next campaign or product, our design experts can help you!
From static to animated
Ad formats have developed and changed over time as internet speeds and technology has progressed. Static banners came first, followed by animated GIFS. From the start of the new millennium up until just a few years ago, flash banners dominated the online advertising space. Now HTML5 ads have pulled focus from these other formats, although the other formats still remain popular and successful for marketers as they have evolved in their own ways. Here is a quick rundown of the different ad types mentioned:
Static Ads
Usually in GIF or JPEG format, static banner ads contain no animation or interactivity. JPEG ads are known for a high colour count and can be saved in Low, Medium or High quality versions. The downside is that as a lossless image format, the image quality will gradually decrease as it is compressed or downsized to be able to be uploaded.
PNG image files typically have a better resolution and can also have transparency in layers, allowing for more depth in the composition. They do however, export larger than a JPEG image, and this can cause problems when using it for web ads. Larger file sizes take longer to load, and depending on someone’s internet speed, this could be problematic as the ad might not even be seen. The files may also be too big to be uploaded onto the web in the first place.
Here is a comparison of PNG v JPEG:
Animated GIFS
GIF banners can be static or animated, as long as they carry the .gif extension to the file. Basically, GIFs are the in-between between static and video. They are made from a number of frames that when exported, appear as an animated format. GIFs are smaller in size than a video file, but still allow for exciting animation and transitions.
GIF banners are generally accepted by most ad networks, although the file size needs to be small (max 150kb). Animations are also limited to 30 seconds or shorter, although they can be looped. They must also be exported at a low frame rate (less than 5FPS). The ads are also suitable for mobile devices and are easy to make, which makes them a popular marketing choice.
Flash
Flash was launched in 1999 by a company called Macromedia (later acquired by Adobe). The next year, it became the king of the digital ad hill, overtaking QuickTime and Java as the market leader for the digital advertising space. It’s rise can be attributed to the fact that it facilitated video streaming, and at the time, a huge jump in quality and standards to previous advertising found on the Internet. After the Adobe acquisition, Flash grew in popularity after allowing advertisers to create more interactive banners, gaming content and more.
After a long period at the top, the final days of Flash appear imminent, though the demise of this format is not very surprising. Many advertising platforms have banned flash banners and many internet browsers are no longer compatible with the format. Flash ads led to many security breaches, which after many updates and patches led to incompatibility with browsers and websites. What showed on a banner one day, simply did not render the next. Users also had to download the third party software from Adobe to even view the ads, which is a huge negative for marketers.
HTML5
HTML5 ads have been around for quite some time, but have only recently become a force to be reckoned with in the digital advertising space. While more complicated to produce, the benefits are far superior to Flash ads. File sizes are small, the format is accepted by every single internet browser, and it can be embedded with audio and video content. HTML5 ads use CSS and javascript to create animated effects, allowing for more content to be visible on the ad due to the ability to switch layers around, and basically manipulate it anyway you want. Though difficult to create compared to other ad formats, it doesn’t require expert coding experience to generate these ads. There are tools and programs available that have a slight learning curve, but are easy to adjust to if one already has a background in motion graphics, animation and general video editing.
This is an example of a hugely successfulhtml5 ad from Nike, which features a great video, concise and legible copy and a fun user experience for the consumer:
The ad had over 50.000 views and a click-through rate (CTR) of 22.3 percent, which is much higher than the average CTR for search and display ads which sets at around 2%.
So, what does the future of digital advertising look like?
Recent trends indicate that digital advertising via the internet will continue to rise. Many advertisers and marketers are moving their budgets online, preferring online ads over television and other ad mediums.
Personalisation has become important to consumers and marketers as they try to create content that reflects obtained user data and interests, cleverly using budgets and time to target specific individuals. You and your colleague sitting next to you may see the same brand advertising on your browser, but be flooded with completely different ads. This is the norm and is set to continue as marketers pinpoint efficient ways to optimize consumer engagement no matter what budget. Relevancy is key to consumer targeting, and will also be key to the future of digital advertising.
While HTML5 ads are the most popular ads to create at this point in time, even more advanced formats are beginning to trend and may soon become the norm. As virtual and augmented reality technology continues to evolve, and designers learn how to master these tools, what is currently expensive cutting edge technology may soon be available to the many, prompting a different and exciting future for web ads.
Looking to increase your CTR and impressions? Boost your mobile marketing game today by working with the creative experts here at Customlytics. Head to our contact page or get in touch with us at [email protected] and let’s get to work.
💡 Knowledge sharing is at the core of what we do. Learn more about the app industry and discover useful resources by signing up for our newsletter or by bookmarking the Customlytics App Marketing blog in English or German.
📚 We love useful stuff. That’s why we co-wrote the Mobile Developer’s Guide to the Galaxy. Get your free paperback copy or download the eBook here providing you with all the mobile knowledge you need.💜 Become part of our community on LinkedIn, Twitter, Xing, Glassdoor or Medium. | https://customlytics.medium.com/from-flash-to-html5-how-banner-ads-have-evolved-and-stayed-relevant-e216d6e086e8 | ['Customlytics Gmbh'] | 2020-10-07 12:21:46.490000+00:00 | ['Banner Ads', 'Design', 'Mobile Ads', 'Mobile Advertising', 'Mobile Marketing'] |
How to survive a design career and avoid burnout | My conversations have been special and surprising and I want to share them. Maybe, just maybe, this will help other UX Designers not only to not hit rock bottom but to flourish and be the joyful people they deserve to be in their work. After all, we get into UX Design because we want to make the world a better place for our end-users. And that’s a worthy and meaningful goal.
So here goes. I’ve decided to dedicate one post to each conversation I’ve had so far, starting with these three:
Stanley*, Design Director at a commercial bank Jen*, Chief Experience Officer at a digital agency Anouk*, Senior UX Specialist at an ambitious Norwegian startup
*I’ve decided to give them aliases because I’d like the real Stanley, Jen and Anouk to stay friends with me and not get fired.
Your Crew, your Rocket, and your Trail of Destruction
I’ll begin with my conversation with Stanley. I can’t give away too much about the man, because it would then be pretty easy to identify him. Let’s just say that he’s a guy with a mind like a diamond and a sense of humour that hits home. I’m still not sure how he ended up in digital design. He is impressively qualified in a domain that’s pretty non-related.
We worked together for a while about 5 years ago, directly and indirectly, in a corporate consulting environment. Corporate restructuring happened one too many times and he left for the banking world, and I left to join a startup.
We met over Zoom. I live in Melkbosstrand and he works in Johannesburg, about 1200 km apart. Stanley was in a collaborative office space, so not at home and not at the bank.
We had the usual chat about Covid and adjusting to remote work. Stanley asked if I had read the research on how we are able to trick ourselves into becoming more focused by only doing specific tasks in specific places or while sitting in certain chairs. I hadn’t. But the conversation stayed with me and I’ve played with the concept. There’s something to it.
We also spoke about our children and the incredible cuteness of little humans learning to speak.
He asked if I was looking for work, which I wasn’t. I told him I was just talking to people because I needed to understand how some UX designers seem to survive and prosper. I’ve done project-based work in the bank where Stanley is, and I’ve seen how some people behave towards one another there. It can get pretty rude and aggressive. I remember a specific incident one day about 4 years ago. I was still a consultant and assigned to a project at the bank where he had moved to.
Stanley joined our project team in a boardroom and was drawing and explaining a process concept on a whiteboard. One of his colleagues, tall, beautiful and slim, dressed in a tailored dress suit, clicked in on high heels, rudely interrupted the session and then claimed the rest of the meeting for herself. Without skipping a beat. I mentioned the incident to him, and he smiled and thought for a moment before replying.
Here’s the advice, which I am paraphrasing from memory.
“You see, you need a crew in these difficult environments. And you need to understand that you won’t make changes happen quickly. Your crew is important…You need a vision. And you almost need to strap yourselves into this vision, like a rocket ship, and leave a trail of destruction behind you. And when things go wrong, it’s fine, because you have one another, right? And you can have a few drinks together and move on. And over time, you see change happening.”
I giggled a bit. And we spoke about the future and where we picture ourselves in the next few years and promised to chat again (which I know we will). Then we said our goodbyes. (I sent him this piece in the meantime to sanity check it!)
I thought about what he had said a lot:
You need a Crew
You are not an island. Hopefully, there’s nothing surprising here, right? Trying to make change happen on your own, no matter how skilled or talented you are, especially if your job title has the word “designer” in it, is an exercise in futility.
Perhaps you’re part of an organisation where your team and your leadership understand what UX Design is, your processes make way for it and provide time for user research and checking that your product or service is having a positive impact on the world. Then you’ll also recognise the joy of collaboration and recognition of every team member’s contribution to the end product. It’s a lovely place to be in, and a rare one.
I think that more commonly UX Designers work on their own or in a siloed department. And they work really hard and craft their contributions in solitude, believing that the best creative work is done in a kind of a safe zone, removed from the rest of the business. There’s this notion of working independently and being rewarded for crafting original ideas on your own or with other “creative” souls like yourself.
If this is you, you need to reach out. A great deal of research has been put into the concept of neuroplasticity — how our brains are continually reshaping themselves and growing new pathways. What is becoming increasingly clear is that social interactions and relationships, especially those that we experience as deeply meaningful, have a profound effect on how our brains rewire themselves. Your brain is not only closely connected to your entire body, but also to the minds around it. Considering this, our relationships have an impact on our physical well-being, building up or breaking down our resilience to stressful environments, but also impacting our immune systems and our ability to think creatively.
You need a good crew to stay mentally and physically healthy.
(I would love to take a deeper step into this and talk about theories around our minds not being able to even function in isolation, but we’ll keep that for another day. For now: your brain needs other high-performing brains and a sense of Social Safety to perform well, which includes bonding with your crew and having a sense of belonging with a wider community. Here’s a great video about it.)
As UX Designers in harsh environments, we won’t survive (very long) if we don’t connect with our team members — and that includes everyone impacted by or who has an impact on the experiences we design. Not only investors, developers, product people, copywriters, testers and visual designers, but also the teams delivering customer support, training (if you have a training department), selling the product and marketing it.
Right now, digital ethics is also a hot topic, and people like Cennydd Bowles would recommend that you get a moral ethicist or a couple of philosophers on board, or provide Product Managers with frameworks for ethical decision making.
As far-fetched as that might sound, the truth is that our world is full of complex, interdependent systems and problems. Unintended harm is being committed at scale. Coming up with creative, digital, ethical solutions and building anything worthwhile requires a team effort. But designers are still often left to themselves, and expected to make deliverables that can be handed over.
We’re still solid horizontal bars with a hard beginning and end in a Gantt chart, somewhere. Argh!
We need to learn to speak up, run ad hoc workshops, make a noise and surface our work and ideas and questions, no matter how incomplete they are, to our team members. We need to stop the handover madness. We need to build real connections with a core group of people, who we can support and who we can rely on to support us.
Optimistic, compassionate, funny people who will have a drink (or coffee, in my case) with us when things go wrong or when we feel overwhelmed.
Human beings are wired for connection.
There is no way around this. You need a team to who you feel connected.
You need a Rocket
Stanley spoke about strapping yourself and your crew to a rocket. It’s a hilarious analogy but it works. Rockets are meant to travel to the stars, which we know ain’t happening any time soon, right? And just like interstellar travel, a worthwhile vision is unattainable. It’s something we’re always working towards, but that we’ll never quite achieve.
World peace. Equality. An end to human suffering and global warming. Freedom. Respect. “Imagine all the people…”.
Being strapped together to the same rocket is important. If the people in your crew have different North Stars, things are going to diverge in a bad way.
Your product vision has to be set (I believe) by a strong, well-spoken and optimistic leader. In my experience, it’s best for leaders to be loud, very talkative and clear about what they want. And a little idealistic and mad. Thinking about your leader should conjure up the undeniable mission that your team is on. When decisions are made or projects are tackled, the team should be able to imagine the leader walking in and know whether she/he will get excited, nod serenely or have a WTF reaction.
The team has to buy into the vision and be motivated to achieve it. Some of us are designers, some of us are managers, some are builders and makers, others are communicators or administrators or creative thinkers or carers. Whatever we do, if we all do the thing we’re good at, we should be working towards the same vision. And it’s up to each team member to judge whether the piece of work she is putting effort into, is contributing mostly toward the collective goal, or mostly towards a personal goal.
You need to see a Trail of Destruction
The last part Stanley mentioned to me really emerged from a question I posed to him. At a certain point in time, the bank where he serves decided to do the innovative thing and establish a design team in a beautiful working space physically separated from the bank. This is a common approach large corporates take when they crave imaginative solutions and finally realise that it might be easier to build a creative environment outside of their usual hierarchical and cubicle-filled office spaces, rather than importing creatives into the cubicle ocean and distilling a sense of corporate bureaucracy into them, so that they either lose all sense of creativity and experimental spark, or simply leave.
The bank established such a space, which I visited a few times. It was so joyful and fun! As a consultant, one gets to choose how much time one will spend at headquarters and how much you’ll spend at the client. When we did consulting work for this particular department at the bank, I spent the maximum allowable time over there.
The department didn’t make it, though. It made a noise and produced some epic, mindful and just plain good work for a year or two, and passionately criticised a lot of the work coming from the mothership. Then it was shut down, for no discernible reason other than a global partnership that went awry. And the creative souls either left or were absorbed. I asked Stanley what on earth had happened there. I might have imagined a flicker of pain on his face, but his answer was that you have to make peace that you will leave a trail of destruction as you make change happen in a large organisation.
He left it at that and I didn’t probe any further.
I thought about it, though. I’m not a trail-of-destruction kinda person, so this part of his advice didn’t sit well with me. Surely, I thought, it’s possible to persuade people to change their ways of working without conflict? To do that magical thing where you tell people what the theory is and what the research says and then they realise for themselves that they need to adopt a different process? Surely.
Maybe.
I’m not too sure about this anymore. I think Stanley is right. Let’s say you step into a business where:
UX Design happens in a department somewhere, with other designers, or You are the only UX Designer in a sea of developers, or UX Design is equated to Visual Design and people speak about it being sprinkled on top somewhere towards the end of the process, or Nobody cares deeply about the well-being of end-users and therefore usability tests simply don’t happen.
To change such an organisation to be Human-Centered requires the destruction of something. It might be the current way of working, including how projects are prioritised and scoped. It might be the way teams are structured and what the leadership looks like. It might mean a cultural shift. It will almost certainly entail the destruction of the way that people in the business speak about design and how they speak about their customers and end-users. Organisational change will leave a few bruised and broken egos in its wake. The existing leadership and some team members would have built a particular way of working and be invested in it and proud of it. And it’s hard to let go of something you’re proud of. | https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-survive-ux-design-and-avoid-burnout-d410a9e14c1a | ['Carien Moolman'] | 2021-06-09 09:41:38.092000+00:00 | ['Burnout', 'UX', 'Design Process', 'Neuroscience', 'Ts'] |
Protect Your Stuff | I get comments on my videos all the time saying things like I got raided and they stole everything I have or I got ganged up on by P2W players and now I have nothing left. Guys! Stop it. No matter how powerful your enemy is, if you follow my guides, they will not be able to take a single thing from your base.
All right. Let’s go over the 10 ways to protect your stuff.
First, you have your vault in which you get 25 slots for items that can never even be seen by your enemy. Make sure that before the raid starts, you have all 25 of these slots filled with your best stuff. And don’t fill it with stuff that you’re going to need to defend your base in a raid because coming down and grabbing stuff out of your vault during a raid defeats the whole purpose of the vault. These 25 slots should be filled with your best stuff that you will not be using during the raid.
The second way to protect your stuff is the bank which is pretty much exactly like the vault except when you’re first starting off you only have one or two spaces and eventually that will grow to up to 30 spaces, but the concept is the same either way. Keep these slots filled with your best stuff during raid times again with the exception of things you need to defend your base.
So you already have at least 27 slots that can’t be raided, but an addition to that, any items that you put in your workbenches are also unraidable so don’t take things out of your workbenches until you need them and right before a raid, make sure to fill them even more so that both sides are keeping items safe. This adds up to a ton of items that cannot be raided. The engineering table is especially useful in this as it can hold iron, nails, copper, oil and tons of other things. Between just your two engineering tables, you can keep up to 10 slots of items safe and when you account for all of the workbenches, you can keep up to 65 slots of items safe.
So now we are up to 90+ slots of stuff that no one can take from you which I would argue is all you need to keep advancing in the game, but let’s keep going.
The fourth way to protect yourself is just to stick it in your backpack and log off the game. Even with the level one backpack, you can equip seven items and hold 15 more. As long as you don’t enter your base, those items can never be stolen from you.
So now we’re up to 115–153, But for those of you that that is still not enough, you can go and open Odin’s right before the raid, and transfer hundreds and hundreds of slots of items over into the chests of Odin’s for the duration of that 20 minute raid and then haul it all back over to your base after the raid is over.
Now some of you guys might be thinking, this guy is crazy. I don’t want to haul all of my stuff over to Odin’s every time I do a raid. That’s not a very fun way to play the game. And I would say, you’re right. I don’t actually recommend doing this because it’s not a very fun way to play the game, but I’m telling you it is an option so that you’ll stop complaining about losing your stuff. This is frostborn. It is a survival game with other real players that want your stuff and most of them don’t care whether or not you’re having a good time in the game. In fact, if they found out that you quit the game because of them, they would probably brag about it in the frostborn forums. If you don’t like that challenge, then there are a lot of single player versions of this game where you can go play with bots and pretend like you’re playing a survival game.
But if you want to rise to the challenge of frostborn, then you need to think like a survivor. So if you’re not strong enough to defend your stuff, then make sure to hide it. And if you have too much stuff to hide in your vault, bank, workbenches, and backpack, then you can take it to Odin’s for a couple raids while you were trying to figure out how to pair down your stuff which brings us to our next tip.
The sixth way to protect your resources is to use them. This may seem too simple, but a lot of people don’t use the resources they have before clicking the raid button. I have raided people and stolen stacks of planks and Stone from people with mostly level one walls and I think to myself. if you had used these planks and stone to make these into level two walls then I might not have even gotten this far into your base and I definitely wouldn’t be stealing these planks and Stone from your base because you would have used them to build those walls. So use your resources to build workbenches and upgrade your walls because not only does it help you advance in the game, but those resources you use can never be stolen from you.
This leads us do the 7th way to protect your stuff which is to build the maximum amount of chests and a base with the maximum amount of doors. I’ll get into the doors a little bit later, but the most important thing you can do is build the maximum amount of chests as soon as you can. Making level one chest are super cheap so you can easily build all 40 in the first day you’re playing if you want to. By building this many chests your enemy does not know where your stuff is. They still have to use a lock pick to open an empty chest so go right now and build the maximum amount of chests in your base. You will be amazed how much of your stuff you save by doing this.
The eighth way to protect your stuff is similar. Upgrade your chests and your walls and doors. Upgrading a chest might seem like it cost a lot of materials and you might want to wait until you have built your workbench, but the requirements to build a level two lockpick are far more expensive than the cost of upgrading your chest and again, the materials you use to upgrade your chest can never be stolen from you. and this difference is even more exaggerated when you upgrade a chests to big or massive chests.
The ninth way to protect your base is to buy an orb of protection which extends your shield by 24 hours. Using this is more of a convenience thing which I would definitely recommend if you have the money but it’s not really a long-term solution unless you are a very wealthy person. But even if you are a very wealthy person, I think it is much smarter just to follow the other tips that I’ve already shared in this video. Now if you want to break from the game, then use as many resources as you can, donate a bunch of stuff to Odin’s, participate in one last raid to get the 48-hour shield, fill your backpack and then log off the game. When your shield runs out in 48 hours, you will likely get matched and they might be able to get a few not that great items, but then after that shield runs its course and you’ve hit the 96 hour mark, your base will never get matched again allowing you to take as long of a break as you want without worrying about getting raided. I’ve done this several times now and I never lost any progress.
And then the 10th and final way to protect your base is to defend your base. Now I know some of you have had bad experiences with this and if you’re low level then I understand that sometimes you get out matched, but frostborn’s matchmaking system is pretty good and more importantly, it is important to realize that defenders have the advantage in frostborn. The ability to hide in your house to know where your enemy is but not have them know exactly where you are. And to be able to use your doors to initiate a fight when things are favorable but disengaged from that fight when they are not is an incredible advantage. So when you do finally advance in the game to have good gear, defending your base is the best place to use it. And then when you use your defender’s advantage to beat your enemy, you get to keep their stuff making you richer and richer.
So, those are the ten ways to protect your stuff in Frostborn. Now, some of you might be thinking, “Ugh, you’re telling me that if I want to have more than 115–153 slots of stuff, I have to move all my extra stuff every other day?!” And the answer is…yes. Yes, because right now you are weak and you can’t defend yourself. After you play for a little bit longer and get some decent gear, not even the best gear, just some decent gear, you will be able to use your defender’s advantage to defeat any family, no matter how pay-to-win they are. In fact, you will be able to kill them and take the stuff they paid for as your own.
Honestly, I think a lot of us have gotten so used to the single player versions of this game where everyone can hoard as much stuff as they want that we have forgotten that in multiplayer games that is a luxury of only the most powerful players. And even then, usually the underdog will eventually find a way to break in and get the raid of a lifetime. Instead of seeing it as a hassle, I would argue that it makes the game more interesting. It is precisely because you are playing with real players and not some bot that a developer programmed, that you don’t know what to expect. Every zone is a new zone in Frostborn with the chance of unexpected riches or unexpected disaster. Every raid is a new raid with new fears and new excitement. Frostborn does not grow old nearly as fast as the other games because the players make it fresh every time. And every item you have is precious because someone would gladly steal it from you if they could.
So this is the challenge of Frostborn. It is not a simple game that requires no strategy to succeed. Frostborn requires you to play smart, particularly if you are free-to-play, and if you do play smart and succeed, you will know that you earned it. It may be a challenge to survive, but when you complete it, the satisfaction will be oh so sweet. And then when you get really good, you will be able to do like many of the pro teams of this game and hoard vast amounts of resources and no one will be able to take it from you, because if they tried, you would just take them out and keep all of their stuff.
Well. That’s it guys. Hope that helps. If you think of anything that I missed, please let me know in a comment so that I can improve.
Alright guys, I’ll see you next time. | https://medium.com/@sarkerprovash/protect-your-stuff-c1cfb5fd2d7d | ['Provash Sarker'] | 2020-12-13 16:00:37.603000+00:00 | ['Game of Thrones', 'Game Design', 'Game Notes', 'Jcf', 'Games'] |
Teen who recorded video of Floyd’s death get PEN award for courage | The teenager who helped spark nationwide protests by capturing the arrest and death of George Floyd received an award for courage at a virtual gala Tuesday.
PEN America, the literary and human rights organization, honored 17-year-old Darnella Frazier along with other activists, artists and former president Barack Obama. Frazier, a Minneapolis high school senior, documented Floyd’s death as former white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes.
Her video went viral, sparking outrage in Minneapolis and around the country, and ultimately leading to Chauvin’s arrest and the dismissal of the other three officers involved. PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel praised Frazier’s “exceptional courage” in a statement.
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https://simxperience.com/dir/video-atletico-v-g-2.html
https://simxperience.com/dir/video-atletico-v-g-3.html
https://simxperience.com/dir/video-atletico-v-g-4.html
https://simxperience.com/dir/video-atletico-v-g-5.html
“With nothing more than a cell phone and sheer guts, Darnella changed the course of history in this country, sparking a bold movement demanding an end to systemic anti-Black racism and violence at the hands of police,” Nossel said. “Without Darnella’s presence of mind and readiness to risk her own safety and wellbeing, we may never have known the truth about George Floyd’s murder.”
Director Spike Lee presented the 2020 PEN/Benenson Courage Award to Frazier, who is currently focused on school and looking forward to attending college, according to a statement from PEN America.
Previous recipients of the award for courage include Anita Hill, student activists from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Cameron Kasky, Samantha Fuentes, and Zion Kelly, and Flint, Michigan contaminated water whistleblowers Lee-Anne Walters and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha.
I never would’ve imagined out of my whole 17 years of living that this’ll be me,” Frazier said after receiving the award. “It’s just a lot to take in, but I couldn’t say thank you enough for everything that’s been coming towards me.”
Frazier was taking her 9-year-old cousin to nearby Cup Foods when she saw four officers taking Floyd from his vehicle and pulled out her phone to record, Frazier’s attorney Seth Cobin told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in June. She returned to the scene the next day visibly distraught in an emotional moment captured by NowThis.
Everybody’s asking me how do I feel? I don’t know how to feel, ’cause it’s so sad, bro,” she said through sobs. “It is so traumatizing.”
Cobin acknowledged that as Frazier’s video went viral, she became the target of some social media backlash. He told the Star Tribune Frazier wasn’t looking to be a hero and is “just a 17-year-old high school student, with a boyfriend and a job at the mall, who did the right thing. She’s the Rosa Parks of her generation.” | https://medium.com/@bokchoi-58061/teen-who-recorded-video-of-floyds-death-get-pen-award-for-courage-8093365eb107 | [] | 2020-12-09 19:04:11.908000+00:00 | ['Life', 'George Floyd', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Womens Rights', 'News'] |
CAT TRAINING IN THE YEAR OF CORONAVIRUS | CAT TRAINING IN THE YEAR OF CORONAVIRUS
To comfort Mona Lisa, we place a plastic tray of sand inside the toilet bowl then invite her onboard with the promise of “treat…treat..treat.”
Just yesterday, New York Magazine published a very enlightening article. You can read the full text here: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-design.html
What’s shocking about the New York Magazine article is the assertion that Moderna had a vaccine against COVID-19 ready to roll out in January 2020, almost 2 months before any country went into lockdown.
Moderna’s design was completed by January 13 and the vaccine ready go before we’d even heard the term ‘COVID-19.’ It’s the same product that the European Union has lately placed orders for in the tens of millions of doses.
Since March 2020, we’ve been quarantined here in Seville in southern Spain. It started with a dusk to dawn curfew, then for the next three months we rarely left the house. School lessons, as well as the classes my wife teaches, went online. Our15-year-old daughter didn’t venture outside for five straight weeks, a feat of heroism that merits at least a Congressional Medal of Honor for any teenager.
The first wave as bad. During the lockdown, police detained people on the streets, demanding a printed raison d’être for any visit outside, and levying fines. There was limited inter-city travel. Borders were closed. We were practically under house arrest.
How did we eat? Well, in the first weeks there was hardly anything on market shelves anyway because folks began hoarding at the first whiff of trouble. Spaniards are a lot more practiced at this game than we expats. The so-called Spanish Flu (1918–19) was followed by a nasty civil war (1936–39) that is still within living memory, not to mention a half century of totalitarian dictatorship that followed. They already knew about shortages and stocking up. We were clueless and unprepared, on a serious learning curve.
One thing the country never lacked, however, was toilet paper. Europeans favour the bidet, and every home has at least one. Toilet paper was practically the only item left to sell in shops, so naturally we scooped up enough for the next five years; and only the best, ‘non-skid’ variety at that.
One evening, some weeks ago, our daughter started coughing, followed by nasal congestion, stomach-ache and nausea, sending the family into a tailspin. I didn’t sleep the entire night and first thing next morning we rushed her in a taxi to the nearest Emergency Room. The ER overflowed with patients coughing, sneezing and vomiting, and not exactly reassuring. By then, the national daily death toll had peaked at around 900 per day then plateaued at that level, so the government in its infinite wisdom decided to relax restrictions and allow people out, advising everyone to wear a mask. Here’s the result:
After relaxing restrictions, the Covid-19 death rate has soared in a second wave of infections.
At the Emergency Room they did a COVID-19 test that, thankfully, proved negative. What it taught us, however, is that children can be the weakest link in a family’s defences, and that wearing a mask and hand washing aren’t enough. Teenagers are constantly passing their smartphones around, pushing and shoving and bumping heads, sharing snack foods and drinks, not to mention what teen couples everywhere are inclined do. This time, she’d caught another strain of influenza, but it could just as easily have been COVID-19. Since schools reopened in September, our weakest link has become even weaker.
Compounding matters is the fact that both my wife and I are over 50, the cut-off age where hospitals will not — indeed, by law cannot — provide us with ventilators should we fall victim and need one. That’s because National Coronavirus Programme directors decided to reserve the country’s limited supply of lifesaving equipment for younger people and let seniors take their chances for survival. Imagine a lifeguard at the beach or your local swimming pool shouting through his bullhorn to a drowning senior: “Sorry, Gramps. Life preservers are for younger folks. Enjoy your last swim…”
There are no monoclonal antibodies or other miracle drugs for us either. In less than a half year, COVID-19 has cleaned out the country’s nursing homes and reduced its senior population quite effectively and sending those business into bankruptcy for lack of both clients and staff. Nonetheless, consider all the money the government is saving on pensions and social services and you get a picture of how public policy is shaped.
In my article ‘What I learned from CV-19’ ( https://francesco-rizzuto.medium.com/what-i-learned-from-cv-19-ac718fd656c7), I describe my own experience in a hospital emergency room during the pandemic. If you come down with COVID-19 and you’re over 50, then authorities advise you to stay at home and expire quietly. Failing that, you might win a bed in the corridor of an overburdened hospital, but next stop is not the ICU. It’s the refrigerated truck waiting patiently at the loading dock in the back lane with its motor idling. Worse, nobody is allowed at your side. You get to say goodbye to loved ones via Whatsapp. Then off to a mass grave. I’m not exaggerating here. It really is that grim.
In Spain, ventilators are reserved for patients under 50-y.o. Madrid’s convention centre has been converted to a hospital and its soccer stadium is now a morgue. Refrigerated trucks move corpses to a mass burial site.
In November, 325 persons died of COVID-19 here in Seville, the highest monthly death toll since the pandemic began. A friend of ours felt ill on November 24 and died next day. Still, the government refuses to reinstate full lockdown in the midst of a more virulent second wave, citing the negative economic impact of the first wave restrictions as an excuse to keep hotels, restaurants, bars, and schools open. Somehow, China, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and other places have managed to become COVID-19 free and their people are now enjoying a normal life, but those countries didn’t follow the poor example of Italy, Spain, UK and the USA.
My wife is the only breadwinner in our family, unless we include the fifty-one cents I earned last week on Medium. The private school where she teaches announced that they’re cutting teachers’ salaries to compensate for a decrease in enrollment and lost revenue caused by the pandemic. That’s exactly what many employers are doing now, using the pandemic as an excuse to grow their bottom line at the expense of employees, while raking in millions in government subsidies. We should be thankful for having a job in these difficult times, they insist, as a very un-Merry Christmas Season approaches. The first thing one notices is that nobody is wishing anyone “Feliz Navidad.”.
So, we keep telling ourselves that things can always be worse.
During the siege of Seville in July 1936, early in the Spanish Civil War, Fascist mercenaries recruited in Morocco marched down our street randomly tossing hand grenades into the windows of homes which may account for the destruction and rebuilding of our own house in 1940.
There is also evidence that our house sits on the site of earlier dwellings dating back some 3,000 years to the Tartessians and Phoenicians. No need to go back that far. In 536 AD, bubonic plague wiped out half the population of Europe, likely including the inhabitants of whatever dwelling was on this very site.
And there are diseases even more deadly than COVID-19. Half the earth’s population for all of recorded history perished of malaria. In the year 2000 alone, there were 839,000 deaths from malaria worldwide, dropping to 228 million cases and 405,000 deaths by 2018. That’s still a really big number.
That brings us back to the New York Magazine article.
The Moderna vaccine was proven effective and safe even before most people even knew there was a pandemic happening. Pfizer- BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca designed their vaccines almost as fast. That’s because drug companies had already been developing basic platforms predicated on the SARS model, and all they needed to do was tweak them a little bit to get a vaccine for COVID-19. The basic clinical trials were already completed.
The government assures us that by Q4 of 2021 we’ll all be vaccinated, and life can return to normal. Next December, right? That’s twelve months from now.
Their plan is to first vaccinate the royal family and other alphas, although old King Juan Carlos de Borbon has already absconded to Saudi Arabia to dodge corruption charges, leaving palace aids to argue whether his legal wife or Corinna Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, his elephant hunting pal and alleged mistress, should be first in line for the shot. Then they’ll vaccinate politicians, front-line healthcare and essential services workers, and nursing home residents, most of whom are already beneath the sod. Then young people because they are the country’s future. Then the rest of us; the ones who don’t merit ventilators.
We’re not placing any bets on the vaccine. We each wear 2 masks (no, not front and back), wash and shower several times daily, and stay away from people. We monitor the daily, weekly, and monthly fatality rates like comparing football scores. Because the football stadium is closed.
We look for new and unconventional ways to cope; still, there are limits. Being a teacher, my wife taught our lovely calico cat to use the toilet. There’s no need to clean her kitty litter box after Mona Lisa does her business. It’s a lot less work and more sanitary too, but that happened some 8 years ago. By now, even the cat has become neurotic. She senses that something is amiss and has lately begun pooping on the floor instead. To comfort her, we place a plastic tray of sand inside the toilet bowl then invite her onboard with the promise of “treat…treat..treat.” Regressing. Like the rest of us.
Lying in bed last night and staring up at the ceiling, my wife lamented that our sex life is about as inspiring as luring Mona Lisa back to her kitty box, an unanticipated and largely unwelcome analogy, if you ask me. But then, you didn’t ask. | https://medium.com/politically-speaking/cat-training-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-2c9b58ced189 | ['Francesco Rizzuto Author'] | 2020-12-27 17:01:44.064000+00:00 | ['Perspective', 'Cats', 'Spain', 'Society', 'Covid 19'] |
unbearable | Depression is not about wanting to die.
Depression is about wishing you never existed.
Repeat after me: Depression is not your life
Depression poisons your logic. And while its perspective is initially unfamiliar it speaks to you so fluently that it soon makes sense. It tells you how much you hurt others around you. How you make them worry, how you inconvenience them, how you make them feel unsettled, and how you hold them back. They are the truest words you’ve ever heard and you agree that you’re nothing but a burden. And here’s the thing — the reality is that the last thing you want to do is kill yourself and put anyone through anymore pain, but you can barely handle the hurt much longer. And it feels like you don’t have many options.
Your existence has always been so exhausting.
Depression is marked not by the back-and-forth counter arguments between killing yourself and trying to live, but by the deafening desire to cease existing. A feat that is completely and frustratingly unattainable. Living hurts, chasing after death hurts others, and the only thing you want is impossible to reach because no matter what someone is harmed. You can’t flick a switch and un-exist. Go back in time and erase yourself from everybody’s life. If you could, lord knows you would.
Depression is a holding cell.
Depression is the liminal space in which you are stuck between life and death.
Depression is the triangulation between irresponsible death, hopeless life, and the unfettered but unfeasible dream to have never been born.
I am so stuck and so lost. | https://medium.com/invisible-illness/untitled-3f6c358bf028 | ['Dr. Rachel Kallemwhitman'] | 2017-11-20 17:28:55.988000+00:00 | ['Depression', 'Life', 'Mental Illness', 'Health', 'Mental Health'] |
Why a VPN is the First Thing You Need When Dealing With Crypto | Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin promote a free internet. An internet where people can interact without borders and value is generated on a global scale.
Does this sound similar to the motto of the Web? Maybe because this has always been the original intent of the internet. Before the rules got overwritten by governments and tech giants, the internet used to be border-less.
After all, the internet we are used to is limited to a handful of websites, which is actually more than enough for our needs. Things would be different if we’ve lost access to news outlets or services like Google.
The deep web is estimated to be 400 to 500 times larger than the surface internet.
However, the story is different when it comes to 96% of the remaining World Wide Web content. The bigger part of the internet is associated with censorship and cryptocurrencies make no exception.
No one can deny the fact that there has been a significant increase in the number of cyber crime cases, and that is why installing a VPN on electronic devices has become imperative.
As with other forms of internet censorship, geo-blocking can be circumvented. When IP address-based geo-blocking is employed, Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and anonymizing services can be used to evade and escape geo-blocks.
How Geo-blocking works
Every device with access to the Internet has a unique IP address (short for Internet Protocol address). Based on the IP address, the Internet service provider knows the real identity, the websites visited (meaning literally every site), as well as your geographical location.
For example:
Say, you are traveling in Europe with a laptop in your backpack. If you are in Germany, you will be blocked out of U.S.-only region-restricted sites because your hotel has a German IP address. Travel across Spain, and you will likewise only be able to access Internet content available locally.
While the intent behind geo-blocking is to trim relevant content based on the country, geo-restrictions seem to be at odds with blockchain services and their philosophy. This was the case with Binance limiting access to Binance.org, or BitMEX banning traders from the United States.
Binance DEX claims to be decentralized. However, country restrictions reflect a different reality.
In spite of the so-called “ban advertisement,” in reality, many of the users can still unlock geo-restricted content by using a VPN. The key that makes VPN indispensable when dealing with crypto is privacy. Imagine that you can browse under a different IP each time, effectively concealing your identity and traffic.
How a VPN bypasses Geo-blocking
Redirecting your Internet connection through a secure remote server using a VPN tunnel hides your IP address. You can also appear to be browsing from a completely different location of your choice, with the added benefits of secure and encrypted communications.
Moreover, your Internet traffic can appear to be originating from a location of your choosing. You can instantly unblock any site from that location. The Virtual Private Network spoofs your IP, and your Internet service provider cannot detect the final destination of your traffic, nor interfere with it in any way, effectively resulting in an un-interrupted and private browsing experience.
How to choose the best VPN?
If you don’t have prior experience of choosing a VPN before, you should consult a friend or a professional who can help you in this regard, or at least has some experience to further guide you. A google search will reveal many options and opinions — some providers being good enough, others not satisfactory vetted, while others boasting breached servers.
We have decided to implement a Virtual Private Network in our browser extension in the future, further enhancing the protection of our users, so stay tuned for that! | https://medium.com/online-io-blockchain-technologies/why-a-vpn-is-the-first-thing-you-need-when-dealing-with-crypto-d18c457aa02 | ['Tyler B.'] | 2020-02-28 17:37:17.517000+00:00 | ['VPN', 'Online', 'Privacy', 'Internet'] |
Trump Administration’s Proposal to Limit Access to SNAP Would Harm Hungry People Across America | By: Nolan Downey
Everyone deserves enough food to lead a healthy life.
Fortunately, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps keeps food on the table for more than 15 million families in need across America. SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is our nation’s most effective anti-hunger program and is an essential tool in the fight against poverty.
But the Trump Administration is proposing a new rule that would arbitrarily impose new work requirements and threaten benefits for millions of SNAP recipients.
Under current law, SNAP benefits for able-bodied adults without dependents (who are referred to as ABAWDs in policy) are limited to only three months of SNAP in three years unless the recipient works an average of 20 hours per week. However, states can waive those requirements in areas where unemployment is high or jobs are scarce. The Trump Administration’s proposed rule would make waivers unavailable in most areas across the country.
Starving people is not an effective job creation program.
This proposal is arbitrary and not based on any evidence that starving people will help make them more self-sufficient. If this rule is adopted, hundreds of thousands of people will lose the benefits that allow them to access food — a basic necessity for every human being.
Many SNAP recipients struggle with low wages in an unstable labor market.
It’s a misconception that people who receive public supports do not want to work. Research shows that those SNAP recipients who can work are working, but most cannot consistently reach a 20-hour-per-week minimum. SNAP participants often work in unstable jobs. Low-wage workers, particularly men, with volatile employment and hours are at greater risk for dropping in and out of the labor market. While these breaks are short and infrequent, they would make these individuals more vulnerable under a strict time limit on benefits.
Take, for example, the work experience of one gentleman we met at a food pantry in DuPage County, Illinois, a few months ago. He is a substitute teacher whose work hours vary greatly from week to week. If he does not work at least 20 hours each week, he is eligible for only three months of SNAP benefits every 36 months. Because of the seasonal nature of substitute teaching, he faces an even more dire risk of losing his benefits during the summer months. Under the proposed rule, thousands of people like him in Illinois and across the country will be faced with food insecurity.
Kids, too, would go hungry.
Even though the Trump Administration’s proposed rule is supposed to affect only adults, it would undoubtedly also leave children defenseless to hunger. Nationwide, about 4.5 million custodial parents who are low-income or experiencing poverty rely on child support payments from noncustodial parents to feed their children, and about 1.5 million noncustodial parents use SNAP. Because noncustodial parents would be subject to strict time limits under the proposed rule, they might need to use income or savings they had earmarked for child support payments to access food instead. This threat to vital benefits would leave children in already food-insecure households at even greater risk of going hungry.
Children who rely on extended family members or family friends for financial support will also be hard-hit. As these adults lose SNAP benefits, they will no longer have the capacity to support extended family members in need, and they might even be forced to turn to already struggling households for food. Moreover, adults who provide informal parenting to the over 2.5 million children impacted by the opioid crisis may also face difficulties proving they have informal dependents. Youth aging out of foster care who desperately need food assistance are also likely to have trouble finding immediate and permanent employment, making them especially susceptible to losing their benefits. In Illinois alone, approximately 1,200 young adults “age out” of the foster care system each year. It’s evident that the proposed rule would not only affect adults, but also inflict harm on our most vulnerable youth.
The rule is an administrative burden and would likely be incorrectly implemented.
The proposed rule would impose an outrageous administrative burden on states to properly sort individuals and their eligibility for SNAP benefits. Work requirements policies are notoriously difficult to administer because states often have difficulty distinguishing between individuals who are able to work and those who are unable to work.
Just this week, staff from the Shriver Center spoke with a mother whose family receives SNAP benefits. Her 18-year-old son, a full-time senior in high school, received a SNAP notice saying he needed to start participating in a job training workshop. But as a full-time high school student, he is exempt from those requirements. Regardless, he was incorrectly identified by the local office as an “ABAWD.”
Moreover, many adult recipients of SNAP benefits have significant barriers to work, whether they are ill, disabled, caring for a disabled family member, experiencing homelessness, in a drug or alcohol treatment program, or a victim of domestic violence. These barriers often go unnoticed by the agency tasked with administering these recipients’ access to critical food supports, meaning that bureaucratic errors could cause even more people to erroneously be subject to work requirements under the federal government’s proposed rule.
Let’s stand together and take action to oppose this inhumane rule.
If implemented, the Trump Administration’s SNAP rule proposal would leave hundreds of thousands of Americans at grave risk of food insecurity. But we can fight back.
Contact your representatives in Congress and ask them to protect against any attempts to slash SNAP funding or impose harsh and unnecessary work requirements. You can also read and share the comment the Shriver Center submitted to the Federal Register opposing this SNAP rule proposal.
Together, we can combat these callous attacks on SNAP and make our nation a place where no one has to go hungry.
Amy Eisenstein contributed to this blog. | https://theshriverbrief.org/trump-administrations-proposal-to-limit-access-to-snap-would-harm-hungry-people-across-america-f7c4c9ac5b59 | ['Shriver Center On Poverty Law'] | 2019-04-02 21:40:35.087000+00:00 | ['Welfare', 'Hunger', 'Trump Administration', 'Poverty', 'Advocacy'] |
Cute QUEUES | I know that y’all have been waiting on this queue for too long. So let’s get right down to the code of the matter. Unlike Stacks, Queues are all about FIFO, think about FIFA, except not really. When you are in a queue you would hope that the first person in line would get served first. With this in mind let’s build this out!
We created a variable that would hold all our items together. Then we created a function that would append new items. The item being appended goes to the end of the queue. Furthermore, when we dequeue an item we need to check to see if we even have an item to begin with. Do not be the presumptuous programmer who assumes anything, check yourself and check your optionals! So once we’ve guarded our items in our queue, then we also check to see if the first element actually exists, if it does GREAT let’s return it! However, if it does not you should return nil because you don’t have anything in your queue! Finally, the peek method should be apparent you want to see who is in your queue and once again the item or person you would most care about is the first person.
Let’s look at an actual example of this:
So here we have the Lannisters. When we first peek inside we have no Lannister’s in our queue. However, after adding in three of the, you can see that we are returning the Lannister that we are also predicting to die this season. Queue’s and cersei’s death should be of no surprise to anyone. When trying to write the code for a Queue try to be empathetic with users and what I say by this is think of a time you were in line or serving someone in line…how would you go about helping them? That mentality should help you be able to write the code for a Queue and remember its core concepts! | https://medium.com/killingmeswiftly/cute-queues-805e68df5e5a | ['Sejan Miah'] | 2017-07-26 15:04:25.758000+00:00 | ['iOS', 'Data Structures', 'Queue'] |
‘Colorblind’ Tech is Killing Us: Why COVID-19 Tech Must Focus on Equity | By Mary Gray, Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, an E.J. Safra Center for Ethics Fellow and Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center
This essay is part of a collection written by members of the Berkman Klein Center’s Working Group on Digital Pandemic Response. The group, made up of experts from academia, civil society, the public sector, and industry, takes on difficult questions around the use of digital tools and data to help attenuate the COVID-19 pandemic. Each essay is the perspective of the author, not of the Berkman Klein Center.
COVID-19 has taken the lives of more than 120,000 people in the United States and debilitated millions more since arriving on our shores. While anyone can contract the virus, there is a pattern to who gets sick and dies from it here. Yet very few of the Tech Sector’s responses to the disease seem to acknowledge — let alone respond to — this fact.
In some ways, this is not surprising. Tech prides itself on achieving scale by being agnostic to context, instead tapping into some universal human need. And, for the first few weeks of national news coverage, COVID-19 seemed to have no bounds. Stories focused on cruise ship passengers, like those on the Grand Princess anchored off California’s coast, and nursing home residents, like those devastated by COVID-19 in Washington State in late February. Of course, COVID-19 can silently strike anyone, anywhere. But, as early as April, news outlets, like the Washington Post, confirmed what many working long hours in our country’s hospital emergency wards already suspected: COVID-19 was infecting and killing specific groups of Americans at alarming rates.
As states began to more systematically document the demographics of those falling ill, it quickly became clear that Black and Latinx communities were far more likely to suffer the lethal impact of the virus. This June, the Boston Globe reviewed new data released by Massachusetts detailing the sharp racial divide in that state:
Hispanic residents make up 12 percent of the population, but their rate of positive cases is nearly 30 percent. Similarly, Black residents represent about 7 percent of the population, but their rate of positive COVID-19 cases is double that, at 14.4 percent. Overall, the state data show, the rate of positive cases among Black and brown residents is more than three times that of white residents.
But, today, most technological innovations remain strangely ‘colorblind’ to the reality that racial inequalities play a significant role in where COVID-19 makes the most significant impact. Despite overwhelming data telling us that the most vulnerable, historically marginalized communities disproportionately bear the heavy costs of COVID-19, tech efforts still focus on an efficient moment of data collection and information-sharing — a ping or a text notice — designed to quietly let Person X (let’s call her Alice) know that they may have crossed paths with Person Y (let’s call him Bob) with COVID-19.
At a recent showcase of COVID-19 ‘Return to Work’ technologies, only two of more than a dozen demos include any health guidance with the alert that they’ve been exposed to COVID-19. The underlying assumption seemed to be that the most valuable role for tech was relaying individual test results or geolocation data. But to make a dent in COVID-19, tech will need to prioritize more than efficiency. It will need to think about and build for racial equity, too.
To be sure, there are good arguments for digital tracing and proximity notification applications deployed via smart devices to convey information. If just a portion of a population — say at a worksite or college campus — adopt these digital apps, we could reduce some of the work currently spent figuring if, where, or when someone crosses paths with the virus. But what is wrong-headed about this singular approach is not just the most recent string of studies suggesting that many in the United States are unwilling to download apps and share their health data. The bigger issue is that identifying who might be sick is meaningless if this key pillar of the epidemiological practice referred to as ‘contact tracing’ is not linked to tech-savvy systems for patient monitoring and care for those infected with COVID-19. It is like building a 911-emergency system to log calls for help disconnected from systems that ensure a first responder shows up to assist.
Put simply, today’s tech approaches to COVID-19 exacerbate the systemic racism and health disparities that have given the pandemic its grotesque shape in our country — because they ignore them. Tech built to quickly sort COVID-19 exposure assumes that the most efficient way to ferret out the virus is to start with specific, yet abstract, technical questions: How do we maintain both privacy and accuracy in data collection? But in the rush to solve this wicked hard tech problem of identifying who is sick in a privacy-preserving way, the Tech Sector has all but ignored building the technologies needed most: Systems to support the healthcare work of routing and managing care to those struck down by the virus.
For example, in preliminary work with colleagues at IDEO.org and Duke Health listening to and learning from Duke Health’s Pandemic Response Network, we see the need for tech that seamlessly routes patients to a team of other care workers who have the language skills and community ties to talk someone through self-quarantining and accessing local help. This is not a technically hard problem, but it will take a sophisticated human-centered technical solution to get the collaboration tools and information-sharing right. Ultimately, the most efficient tech efforts to combat the pandemic will be the ones that prioritize equity. Failing to focus on caring for communities of color and essential workers exposed to COVID-19 because of their occupations misses the most effective way to truly corner COVID-19. | https://medium.com/berkman-klein-center/colorblind-tech-is-killing-us-why-covid-19-tech-must-focus-on-equity-9cd2b67cf84c | ['Berkman Klein Center'] | 2020-06-26 00:57:27.690000+00:00 | ['Covid 19'] |
Best Crypto Lending Platform in 2020 | Top 5 Bitcoin Lending Platforms | Best Crypto Lending Platform in 2020 | Top 5 Bitcoin Lending Platforms
Get the best lending interest rates for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
We can all agree that 2020 has been a challenging year so far. Back in March earlier this year, the cryptocurrency and legacy markets went downhill due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Things have been picking up with bitcoin reaching $12,000 in August, a significant jump from the $3,600 price plunge. Economies around the world are still scrambling but slowly bouncing back with government interventions. However, the fear of the pandemic’s second wave creates volatility in the global markets.
In times like these, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin still stand out as valuable financial assets despite the tumultuous year. It is a non-inflationary digital currency that’s not governed by individuals or corporations but a protocol. As rumors about legacy markets reaching negative interest rates, it’s time for Bitcoin investors to keep preserving their assets and increase productivity by lending their assets and earn interest in the process.
Crypto lending is a type of trade where you lend out your cryptocurrency and earn interest from it. The trade is facilitated by crypto lending platforms that accept deposits of different cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ether, or Stable Coins with some interest in return. The Bitcoin lending interest rates vary but often very competitive, with some offering up to 12% on Annual Percentage Yield (APY). These platforms also often loan the assets with collateral, usually with crypto and thus called crypto-backed loans.
If you’re thinking about growing your crypto assets through crypto lending, here are five crypto lending platforms that worth considering. | https://medium.com/coinmonks/top-5-crypto-lending-platforms-in-2020-that-you-need-to-know-a1b675cec3fa | ['Sten Ivan'] | 2020-12-28 17:58:06.635000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto Lending Platform', 'Bitcoin', 'Crypto Lending', 'Bitcoin News'] |
Best Diamond Jewelry Gifts To Give This Christmas Festival | The festival of Christmas is just a few days away. We will be unwrapping gifts from the Christmas tree. It is an ideal time to capture some lovely memories with your family members, friends, and loved ones and also it’s time for the perfect family dinners. On this day, all the family members & friends gather and celebrate this festival to the fullest. Christmas is the festival of love, forgiving, and giving. Let’s celebrate this Christmas by giving special gifts to your loved ones. Christmas is the perfect time to surprise your family and friends by giving them special luxury diamond gifts. Whether it’s your mother, best friend, girlfriend, or wife, a stunning piece of diamond jewelry makes for an amazing gift.
Zioro classic and fine jewelry items are the perfect way to surprise your family members and your loved ones. Giving the diamond ring to your loved ones elevates the whole essence of Christmas. These gifts showcase your love and appreciation towards your loved one and your family members. These Christmas buys of diamonds are the best way to express your love and dedication towards your family members. Visit the official website of Zioro, and buy the vast variety of jewelry from the largest jewelry store in the USA.
When selecting jewelry for a loved one, think about their style. Do you usually see them with a diamond or gold necklace or a pair of moonlight earrings? Do they like bracelets or pendants? Choose something extraordinary to make them feel special. We are here to make it easy for you.
This Christmas year, we can help you with diamond jewelry, moonlight collection, studs, and timeless tennis designer jewelry to make a long-lasting impression for those loved ones.
Zioro Store is here for every fashion and style. Zioro Store has a special feature, you can buy from online stores for avoiding holiday crowds & busy shopping stores.
Diamond Jewelry Gifts For Women
Looking for the perfect jewelry Christmas gift for her, like an expensive gift. Diamond is the perfect choice for her, So let’s get started with amazing jewelry gifts.
1) Diamond Earrings
Give her something special to unwrap this Christmas with an exclusive set of diamond earrings. Earrings are a perfect gift to show your love and gratefulness for your partner, mother, or grandmother.
From studs to teardrop, you can pick a pair of earrings that suits her. You can select daily wear or a unique for special occasions or festivals like New Year, party & weddings. The best part about diamond earrings is that they can be suited for every outfit and any event.
2) Diamond Bracelets
Bracelets are attractive & stunning jewelry that can be worn for long years. Bracelets style range from gemstones to tennis. Gemstones are made of colorful diamonds such as rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.
You can choose a wide range of modern style bracelets for your love & traditional piece for those who prefer a classic & simple look for this Christmas.
3) Diamond Rings
Diamond rings are not only for engagement & weddings. You can also choose for special occasions like Christmas & New Year. Celebrate a special moment like an anniversary or other relationship milestone.
Select a cocktail or initial name diamond rings to festive spirit to her jewelry collection.
Choose a birthstone or favorite color to create your diamond rings more special on this Christmas gift.
4) Diamond Necklace & Diamond Pendants
Diamond Necklace is a special sign of love. And diamond pendant is special because it is worn close to the heart.
You can choose 14K or 18K gold in different colors such as white, rose, and yellow. Other styles with more diamonds like a cluster necklace, 3/5/7 stone necklace, teardrop pendant, and timeless tennis eternity necklace.
5) Affordable Gemstone Gifts
Gemstone Gifts is an affordable, unique & colorful diamond. Gemstones are natural stones and have a unique color & beauty and this is why they look appealing.
The best thing about gemstone gifts? There are hundreds of stones and a variety of colors such as opal, ruby, emerald, or sapphire. With this, you can create rings, bracelets, necklaces & earrings jewelry that is special for your partner.
Gemstones are attractive and usually cost less than diamonds. Consider her birthstone, or their favorite color when designing a truly personalized piece of gemstone jewelry.
Where to buy your Christmas Jewelry Gift
The most important suggestion we can give you when buying jewelry for Christmas gifts is to choose a highly reputable jewelry store. Rather than ending up with jewelry that is of inferior & a bad quality. You will have a high-quality gift and can last for generations.
The Zioro Store offers beautiful diamond gifts options at excellent prices. Our years of experience in the industry have given us consistent achievements on which customers can trust. | https://medium.com/@ziorostore/best-diamond-jewelry-gifts-to-give-this-christmas-festival-b29ce309c6a3 | ['Zioro Store'] | 2021-12-15 10:55:20.718000+00:00 | ['Diamond Jewellery', 'Jewelry', 'Christmas Gift Ideas', 'Diamond Engagement Rings', 'Christmas Gifts'] |
Many of You Will Witness the Joyous Return of My Son — Blessed Virgin Mary | My children, come to me now. Send your hearts to me as little children. Run to me. I throw my arms about you. I give you all kisses of great joy.
The Rosary today was most beautiful, my children, especially your consecration. Your voices together in unity raise the spirits of heaven. Continue in this way. Do you see your hearts, my children, around me? They are the innocent little children you once were. I love you all so dearly.
You are my little army of joy and love. You are beginning to shine. You will shine so that the whole world will see. Rest peacefully in my arms, my children. The love you share with one another you must take with you always.
The enemy is always near. He incites rebellion and jealousy. He incites division and confusion. When you are together in my arms, his weakness is evident. As I comfort you, smile and rejoice. His time is ending. His time is coming to a close. You all know, and you’ve seen the suffering he has caused. You’ve seen the suffering that the rebellion of man has caused.
What is this rebellion, my children? Can you feel this rebellion? It is a lack of love for the Father, a love for the Creator, a love that is manifest by obeying His Word and His Law. How many say they love the Father or they love my Son, but do not heed Their words?
For these children, we all must pray, because they truly are children. They are in the dark . . . they are in the dark, my children. You all remember, as children, the fear of the dark, the desire for light. This is in all of you; this is in all of your hearts. Woe to those who don’t seek the light, who purposely avoid the light, whose souls cling to despair and to shadow.
There are many lost children, like these, who will not know the joy of being in my arms. For all these lost children, pray, because many will be saved. Those who truly search, those who truly look with their hearts for my Son, in the end, will be found . . .will be saved. My Son is truly the Good Shepherd. | https://medium.com/ave-maria/many-of-you-will-witness-the-joyous-return-of-my-son-blessed-virgin-mary-cc1ae9651cd4 | ['Vic Alcuaz'] | 2020-12-14 02:58:35.311000+00:00 | ['Prophecy', 'Bible', 'Gospel', 'Blessed Virgin Mary', 'Catholic'] |
The Burden of School Choice | The Burden of School Choice
Photo by Daniel Cheung on Unsplash
I went to the elementary school in my neighborhood. So did my sister, my brother, and all of our neighbors. We went to the same middle school. When we were done with middle school, we all went to the same high school.
I recently bought a new smartwatch. I researched what models had the features I needed. I decided I didn’t want one with a screen so I settled on a hybrid watch. I watched for sales, did my research, found the right time and, finally, I bought my watch.
I have three children. All are boys. Each one of my boys are eager learners. They are strong-willed like their mom and rule-breakers like their dad. One is sensitive. Another has a problem with his temper. My youngest thinks he is the funniest boy alive (and he is!).
All of my boys are set up to go to the elementary school near our neighborhood. Same school as their brothers and all of their neighbors. At one point, our neighborhood school was not the right place for my son.
What happens when a school doesn’t fit our child? Where do we turn? What do we do?
I am a public school advocate. I lead a charter school. I do not believe that this is a conflict. I believe that in our system we should not tell our families that they only have one choice. Is it right that parents have more options for watches than they do for elementary schools? Our families know their children. As educators, we focus and provide specific supports for all of our students. There are times, however, when the traditional public school program does not match the individual needs of a student.
At the end-of-the-year conference in Kindergarten, my oldest son’s teacher whispered to me (as if there were microphones listening in the room). She told me that my son needed a different placement for first grade. She said that with his sensitive spirit, he needed more time in a smaller environment.
I was stuck. My son was supposed to go to the school in our neighborhood, same as his brothers and his neighbors. I taught in a public school. I fight for public schools. What kind of public school advocate would I be if I pull out my own child? I love all teachers and I believe in the work that they do.
After extensive debate with myself and discussions with my family and friends, I listened and I did what was recommended. She was absolutely right! That next year, my son was enrolled in a small program. He was in a classroom with a 14:1 student to teacher ratio and received extensive one-on-one support. This program made the world of difference. My son started to gain confidence, he started to read, and he began to learn.
I eventually integrated my son back into the public school. There came a time where there were more supports available and, frankly, the cost of a private school wasn’t sustainable. We love his public school and his teachers and the families. He gets great support and he is, right now, enrolled in the best school program for him.
I believe that our children’s schools are just that — ours. We are the ones that fight for what is right for our students. This fight and these decisions are anything but easy. School Choice does not require one school to be better than the other. It means there are a variety of high-quality options for our families. I have visited hundreds of classrooms over my years in education. I have yet to see a school that doesn’t have passionate teachers doing fantastic things for kids. As parents we are, however, the ones that know what is best for our student. It is up to the educators to keep working to provide the best education we can for the students in our care.
It is time that the “free market” vision of school choice is adjusted. After all, our schools are not watches. All schools should collaborate and work together towards the good of all children, understanding and working to find the best placement for each child. Our educational system needs to stretch beyond the borders of districts and schools so that we are able to provide services and supports to each individual child and family.
When it does come time to make those choices for your child, it is okay to find alternate options. Ask questions and research. Be brave to do what feels right. It may not have two-day shipping like a watch would, but you will be able to find an option for your child that fits them and their needs. | https://medium.com/@jamierdewitt/the-burden-of-school-choice-868b1261afc0 | ['Jamie Dewitt'] | 2019-03-08 15:59:36.353000+00:00 | ['Charter Schools', 'Education Reform', 'Education', 'School Choice', 'Parents'] |
How Do Our Moral Minds Work? | In the previous post, I wrote about Haidt’s views on the question “where does morality come from.” Hopefully that started to get you to think about how your moral system was developed. Like me, maybe the next question you thought about is, how do our righteous minds work exactly?
Intuitions First
Let’s say someone asks you, “A man robs your family’s convenience store to feed his hungry family. Do you think that is wrong and he should be punished?” You might take some time to think of an answer and then present some reasoning to justify your answer. How about this question: “A man buys a chicken from the supermarket, goes home and then has intercourse with it.” Do you think that’s wrong? You might also take some time to think of an answer, but perhaps the justification for that answer was harder to fabricate. This post hoc justification is one of Haidt’s main ideas. He says that moral reasoning is based on intuition first and strategic reasoning second.
The mind is divided into parts, like a rider (reasoning) on an elephant (intuition). The rider’s function is to serve the elephant. You can see the rider serving the elephant when people are morally dumbfounded. They have strong gut feelings about what is right and wrong, and they struggle to construct post hoc justifications for those feelings. Even when the rider comes back empty handed, the elephant doesn’t change its judgement.
Haidt tries to use intuitionism to get the readers to become familiar with the idea that our morality is initially based on intuition and then justified by reasoning. I liked how the author structured his argument. Rather than stating his theory from the beginning of the book, he used personal anecdotes and stories from the ancient past to tune the readers’ intuitions. Subsequently, he uses six pieces of scientific research to address the readers’ riders. One of them is “Babies feel but don’t reason”
Psychologists used to assume that infant minds were blank slates. But when developmental psychologists invested ways to look into infant minds, they found a great deal of writing already on that slate.
I think Haidt effectively got his point across by directly applying the technique that he suggested:
Therefore, if you want to change someone’s mind about a moral or political issue, talk to the elephant first. If you ask people to believe something that violates their intuitions, they will devote their efforts to finding an escape hatch — a reason to doubt your argument or conclusion. They will almost always succeed.
Strategic Reasoning Second
The story of the Ring of Gyges tells us that no human would be just if there were no consequences for committing injustices. Thus, to many people, looking “right” is often times more important than actually being right.
What, then, is the function of moral reasoning? Does it seem to have been shaped, tuned and crafted (by natural selection) to help us find the truth, so that we can know the right way to behave and condemn those who behave wrongly? Or does moral reasoning seem to have been shaped, tuned and crafted to help us pursue socially strategic goals, such as guarding our reputations and convincing other people to support us, or our team, in disputes?
I agree with the author’s view that when making post hoc reasoning, the justifications we provide are focused on persuading others rather than trying to find the objective truth. Haidt thinks that “our moral reasoning is much more like a politician searching for votes than a scientist searching for truth. But we are also trying to persuade ourselves. We want to believe the things we are about to say to others.” Ironically, I tried to internalize these ideas before writing about them.
6 Foundations of Morality
Haidt states that the righteous mind is like a tongue with six taste receptors. Each taste receptor triggers different responses in different people and everyone uses more than one receptor.
He proposes 6 moral foundations:
The Care/harm foundation evolved in response to the adaptive challenge of caring for vulnerable children. It makes us sensitive to signs of suffering and need; it makes us despise cruelty and want to care for those who are suffering The Fairness/cheating foundation evolved in response to the adaptive challenge of reaping the rewards of cooperation without getting exploited. It makes us sensitive to indications that another person is likely to be a good (or bad) partner for collaboration and reciprocal altruism. It makes us want to punish cheaters and reward good citizens in proportion to their deeds. The Loyalty/betrayal foundation evolved in response to the adaptive challenge of forming and maintaining coalitions. The original trigger for the loyalty foundation is anything that tells you who is a team player and who is a traitor. But because we love tribalism so much, we seek out ways to form groups and teams that can compete just for the fun of competing. The love of loyal teammates is matched by a corresponding hatred of traitors, who are usually considered to be far worse than enemies. The Authority/subversion foundation evolved in response to the adaptive challenge of forging relationships that will benefit us within social hierarchies. It makes us sensitive to signs of rank or status, and to signs that other people are (or are not) behaving properly, given their position. The Sanctity/degradation foundation makes it easy for us to regard some things as “untouchable” both in a bad way (because something is so dirty or polluted we want to stay away) and in a good way (because something is so sacred that we want to protect it from desecration). And if you think, as I do, that one of the greatest unsolved mysteries is how people ever came together to form large cooperative societies, then you might take a special interest in the psychology of sacredness. Why do people so readily treat objects (flags, crosses), people (saints, heroes) and principles (liberty, fraternity, equality) as though they were of infinite value? Whatever its origins, the psychology of sacredness helps bind individuals into moral communities. The Liberty/oppression foundation makes people notice and resent any sign of attempted domination. It triggers an urge to band together to resist or overthrow bullies and tyrants.
Based on the surveys that Haidt conducted on Americans, he discovered that the ideologies and policies from Democrats and Republicans appeal to different moral foundations. Liberals have a three-foundation morality based on care-harm, liberty-oppression and fairness-cheating, with a greater emphasis on care-harm. Conservative morality on the other hand, rests on all six foundations, with a relatively equal distribution of importance. Haidt thinks that these moral foundations can help to explain the results in past presidential elections.
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
The Democratic party has had so much difficulty connecting with voters since 1980. Republicans understand the social intuitionist model better than do Democrats. Republicans speak more directly to the elephant. They also have a better grasp of Moral Foundation Theory; they trigger every single taste receptor.
With the 2020 election coming up, it will be interesting to see how the candidates apply these concepts in their campaigns.
In summary, our righteous minds work by intuitions first and strategic reasoning second. Our moral matrix consists of 6 foundations (perhaps there could be more) that generalize how we feel in certain scenarios. I would like to end by stating the definition of what is morality. The dictionary definition of morality is: “Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour.” Haidt has a functionalist definition which I like. | https://medium.com/@tlulu/what-is-morality-a7bcff0ab142 | ['Tony Lu'] | 2021-01-11 06:15:53.110000+00:00 | ['Morality', 'Democratic Party', 'Liberalism', 'Conservatives', 'Republican Party'] |
ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age — A Review | “Do not repeat tactics just because they have gained you one victory. Let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.” — General Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”
Frank, Andre Gunder. ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
A global economy and the concept of Globalization are not European inventions. Simply consider this one idea, Cristobo Colombo was not sailing westward trying to get to the East because he already had everything that he felt he needed. He was trying to find a quicker way to the East because he, and others like him, were looking for things that they felt they needed but did not have. If the Europeans were the ones that invented the world economy, they would not have been going elsewhere for items that they considered essential to their survival. People from other parts of the world would have been coming to them. It is, thus, important to know why Europeans, like Colombo, were so eager to reach Eastern markets. When Rome was the master of the Mediterranean, trade with the East was conducted both by land, and by sea, via the Red Sea and the eastern shores of Egypt. When the western half of the Roman Empire collapsed, the Eastern Roman Empire, known to history as the Byzantines, was able to maintain control of this trade. However, in the early part of the seventh century, the religion of Islam unified the Arab tribes in the Middle East. In just over one hundred years, the Arab Empire had seized control of the Eastern trade routes. The collapse of the Western Roman Empire, combined with the rise of the Arab Empire, cut most of Europe off from the Eastern trade routes because the prices for trade goods from the East went through the roof. This was the result of trade tariffs imposed by the various sultanates within the Arab Empire.
By the end of the eleventh century, Europe, racked by internal war, disease, and economic depression, sought a way to end this problem, thus, European leaders, with the Roman Catholic Church at the lead, began the Crusades. These were not holy wars. They were trade wars, and four just about two centuries, the Crusader kingdoms were able to control the trade with the East. This control ended, however, when the Saracen Turks retook the last of these lands at the end of the thirteenth century. They immediately reimposed the taxes on European trade that had existed prior to the Crusader conquests. By the end of the fifteenth century, the Ottoman Turks had control of the Eastern trade routes, who because they had stronger control over their empire, rose the cost of goods coming from the East even more. Which brings Colombo’s mission back up. His mission was to find a way to circumvent the traditional Eastern trades routes, all together. The point of all this remains the same. People from the East were not fighting for access to the West. The Europeans were fighting for access to the East, the real historical source of the Global Economy.
In his book, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age, Andre Gunder Frank, an economist who was born in Germany, addressed this issue head on. He clearly argued that not only did the global economy first develop in the East, with China at its center, but that it was also dominated by China not up to 1492, as many scholars, to include himself, had argued earlier in the twentieth century. Rather, it was dominated by China well past that, up to the end of the eighteenth century. Furthermore, because of this, as Frank suggested, it is possible that the capitalist system of economics is also not native to Europe. In this case, the West is instead operating according to the standards of a system that predates them and that operates according to standards that they never truly understood from the outset. This would explain the glaring flaws in the capitalism that was developed in Europe. Frank also argued that this makes Europe’s control of the global economy illusory, at best. He also very clearly argued that as the Chinese recover from what is really only a cyclical downturn in the global economy, they will and are slowly regaining the role as the central power in the global economy. Their former control, which many Western historians have seemed to forget, included the whole of the modern world. Their fleets traded with the west coast of the Americas, the whole of the Pacific, all of South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Europe was connected through traders in the Middle East. China was, in fact, the first real global economic superpower.
What does this mean for the Western nations as their dominant role in the world economy declines? Will they be able to continue putting pressure on other nations to get the resources that their individual economies require, or will China, combined with other nations like India, and Japan that will find it easier to identify with an Asian world power, reverse the process and begin placing pressure on the nations of the West? Could Russia be in the process of developing a closer connection with Asia, as they see economic trends moving eastward? After all, they are members of the Asian Union. China is already nudging its way into markets that have traditionally, at least over the past two centuries, been dominated by Western interests, i.e. Africa, the Pacific, and Southeast Asia. Will this trend continue and possibly lead to economic dominance of the West by China and its allies?
In ReOrient, Frank painted a picture of a global economy in which the Chinese have thousands of years of experience in a system of their own making, rather than one of Western origin that the Chinese would just be entering. He offered an image of a China that rather than being akin to the Egyptians, as described by Lord Balfour, is fully aware of what is gong on. They understand the up and down trends that tend to affect the global economy and thus, as the global economy shifts, they have an advantage over the West who, it can be suggested, has only recently come onto the global stage. Having been on that stage for possibly five-thousand years, rather than just five-hundred years, like the West, the Chinese realize that as the cycle continues, their next turn is just weighting for them right around the corner. This knowledge gives them what they need to be able to easily recover from what is really only a recent downturn in the world economic cycle.
Something that should also be considered is the fact that for the past or two hundred years so, while China was experiencing its cyclical downturn, the Western powers did not exactly conduct affairs in a cordial manner. They very rarely made equitable trade agreements with the Chinese or any of the other Asian peoples, for that matter. They, more often than not, took what they wanted and then forced those peoples to operate according to a program that was beneficial only to the West and ignored the needs and rights of the peoples that were being taken advantage of. Furthermore, this theft was almost always accompanied by the use of force if even the slightest form of resistance was encountered; consider the Boxer Rebellion, the Opium Wars, and the many conflicts that took place in India. This cycle of violence and extortion extended to Africa and the Americas, as well. This has bred a very deep seeded resentment in around the world that could very possibly lead to a complete role reversal. This reversal would put the West on the negative end of some inequitable trade agreements. Further, they would not be able to control the downfall, as they see their power and influence wane in favor of a much more mature China. This, of course, would be at the hands of a China that has a much better understanding of how the system that they created really works. Imagine. then. China converging with nations like Japan and India, who have reason to harbor similar grudges against the West. The Asian Union, which includes Russia, may be the center of power in the future, and with a deep grudge to settle, the Chinese would not establish a system that was interested in attending to the conveniences of the West.
It would seem that with such a prospect looming over their heads, governments in the West would look more towards placing themselves in a position to be a team player on the world stage, rather than persisting with the notion that it is their place to rule all. Frank has suggested that in the world system that presently exists, there really does not need to be an overall ruler. He, rather, suggested that an egalitarian global structure is what is more in order, one in which the West is but one cog in the global machine. He argued that in fact, such a system is in the best interests of not just the West, but really, the whole world. Frank predicted that if the West persists with the idea that they should be the dominant power, the result will, very likely, be costly and destructive wars that could lead to an outcome that would endanger, not just the interests of the West, but also those of China and its allies. As such, the Chinese and their allies would most likely find it much more beneficial to avoid such conflicts. They have been around long enough to know that such conflicts, in the long run, are bad for business, as they tend to limit buyer’s resources and to constrict seller’s markets.
Frank also addressed the possibility of an economic and military alliance being formed against the West. The Chinese, as they regain their former position, could very possibly form an alliance with the Middle East, an area that has been harassed by the West for centuries. This would give the Chinese a great advantage, as their vast population, and their greater access to resources, the most obvious being oil, would put them far ahead of the West. With such an alliance forged, where will the rest of the world go? Frank argued that it would be much more in their interest for the Western powers to adopt a more egalitarian policy towards their role in the global economy. He argued that attempting to maintain a global hegemony that it can be argued, when considering their late arrival on the world stage, they do not really fully understand, would be suicidal. If the West fails to get on board with the program, they could find themselves surrounded by people that they have taken advantage of in the past. Such people would not be all that interested in playing nice with their former imperial masters, and further, these people would now be accompanied by an old friend who would be prepared to back them up. This is not a situation that the West, one can be sure, would find very comforting.
As far as the implications that this book may have towards general historical theory, what affect will ReOrient, and other books like it, have on the type of historical literature that is published in the United States in the future? The hope is that this book will prove to be part of a paradigm shift towards a more global history, one that is more inclusive rather than exclusive. It would be interesting to see it stand as a sort of vanguard toward the death of local exceptionalisms or centrisms, like those of Europe or the United States. As the day to day connection between human beings around the world continues to strengthen, and old political, racial, and other antiquated social boundaries continue to fade, such writing will not only hopefully be popular, but it will also, hopefully, be required to be considered acceptable mature scholarship. This is not to say that the text is perfect. It does have its flaws, but one hopes that it can serve as the beginning of a new, Human History. | https://medium.com/refuse-to-cooperate/reorient-global-economy-in-the-asian-age-a-review-8f7a4d745b66 | ['Kent Allen Halliburton'] | 2017-06-16 22:55:55.259000+00:00 | ['China', 'Economics', 'Globalization', 'History', 'War'] |
Display Build Status and Test Coverage Badges for a Laravel Project | Setup repo with Travis CI and Coveralls
If you haven’t already, the first thing you need to do is to move over to Travis and login using your GitHub account. Once logged in hit the “Add New Repository” button to activate your repo. Repeat this procedure at Coveralls.io.
Configure PHPUnit and Coveralls
Luckily for us, Laravel comes shipped with PHPUnit. This tutorial assumes you have some tests written already. If not, it’s as simple as checking out the Laravel docs for writing test.
We’re also going to install Coveralls, which we’ll use to host the coverage report by simply require it:
composer require php-coveralls/php-coveralls
Or by adding the following line to the require block of your composer.json file.
"php-coveralls/php-coveralls": "^1.1"
This would add it to our composer.json file as a dependency.
Create a .travis.yml and .coveralls.yml
We would now proceed to create a Travis configuration file(.travis.yml) at the root of our Laravel project to get Travis CI set up. Also we would be creating a .coveralls.yml which would be used to set up the path to our clover.xml
Here’s what my .travis.yml looks like: I’m setting the language, the version of php, and telling it which additional script to run.
Here’s what my .coveralls.yml looks like: I’m assuming your phpunit.xml saves its clover.xml at the build/logs path.
coverage_clover: build/logs/clover.xml
json_path: build/logs/coveralls-upload.json
service_name: travis-ci
For the benefit of doubt, this is how my phpunit.xml and .env.example files looks like: | https://medium.com/@nwachukwuchibuike/display-build-status-and-test-coverage-badges-for-a-laravel-project-c93467b591ac | ['Nwachukwu Chibuike'] | 2020-12-08 22:08:12.095000+00:00 | ['Github', 'Travis Ci', 'Laravel', 'Testing', 'Coveralls'] |
Planar and Spherical Projections of a Point Cloud (Using Open3D) | April 29, 2020
A point cloud is a collection of points in 3-dimensional coordinate space represented by x, y, and z axes. These points may just form a geometric shape or more complex structures such as a 3-dimensional representation of the real world. Various libraries, even with open-sources, such as the Point Cloud Library (PCL) and Intel’s Open3D, provide native datatype for a point cloud. These libraries not only allow simple geometric transformations of the cloud but also provide sophisticated functionalities such as the reconstruction of a 3D scene from various images.
However, this article discusses a simple geometric approach to achieve the reverse of 3D reconstruction, i.e generate an image from a point cloud. We will also see how to project the point cloud onto other non-planar geometries such as a sphere. Hence, our objective is the following
Project a point cloud from a certain perspective to a given plane, then store the projection as an image; and
Project the point cloud onto the surface of a given sphere.
The sample implementation included in this article was run in python3.6. The following additional libraries for python must be available
Open3D (tested with v0.9)
NumPy
Projection onto a Plane
We will try to achieve the perspective projection of a point cloud (i.e. from a fixed optical center) onto a plane given by the general equation:
The above demonstration shows the perspective transform of a set of points onto the plane P from the optical center of the camera, with arbitrary co-ordinates (x₀, y₀, z₀). We can see that the projection (x, y, z)of a point (x₁, y₁, z₁) on the plane P is nothing but the point of intersection between the said plane and a line L passing through the optical center and the given point in the cloud.
The line L in 3-dimensional space can be represented as follows
where a, b and c are the direction cosines of the line L, and t is known as the direction ratio.
With the given optical center and the set of points in the cloud, we can compute the direction cosines for the lines passing through each of the points.
We can substitute the equations of the line in the equation of the plane P since we are solving for the point of intersection between the two.
Solving for t, we can deduce the above equation as follows
Finally, we can obtain the projection by substituting the value of t into the equations of the line L.
The above computation should be performed for each point in the Point Cloud to obtain the complete projection on the given plane.
Python Implementation
The following function takes an Open3D PointCloud, equation of a plane (A, B, C, and D) and the optical center and returns a planar Open3D PointCloud Geometry.
Output
The resulting planar Point Cloud can be seen as follows
Projection onto a Sphere
A Point Cloud maybe projected onto geometrical surfaces other than a plane, such as a sphere. The spherical projection in particular maybe used to approximate a 360 image of the Point Cloud since those are spherical or cylindrical photographs of a scene.
The figure above shows the spherical projection of a point onto the surface of a sphere with radius r₁ and with its center at the point(x₀, y₀ , z₀). Such a sphere can be represented by the following equation
Similar to the projection on a plane, the spherical projection of a point is the point of intersection between the given sphere S and the line passing through the center of the sphere and the point.
Again, the line L in 3-dimensional space can be represented as follows
where a, b and c are the direction cosines of the line, and t is the direction ratio. With the given center of the sphere and the set of points in the cloud, we can compute the direction cosines for the lines passing through each of the points and the center.
Here,
is the distance between the center of the sphere and the point in the Point Cloud.
Now, we can substitute the equations of the line into the equations of the sphere to solve for t.
Solving this equation for t, we obtain the following relation.
Finally, substituting this value of t and the direction cosines into the equations of the line, we can obtain the projected points.
or,
Python Implementation
The following python method takes an Open3D PointCloud geometry, and the radius and center of the sphere to project on.
Output
The resulting spherical projection of the cloud is as follows
References
The point of intersection between a line and a plane. http://www.ambrsoft.com/TrigoCalc/Plan3D/PlaneLineIntersection_.htm
Aashutosh is an engineer currently researching and engineering at Ekbana. | https://blog.ekbana.com/planar-and-spherical-projections-of-a-point-cloud-d796db76563e | ['Aashutosh Pyakurel'] | 2020-04-29 12:30:55.079000+00:00 | ['Geometry', 'Numpy', 'Python', 'Python3', 'Open3d'] |
What I Want To Accomplish In Life | Although I am just a teenager, I feel as though I have a fairly good idea of what I want to accomplish in life. I want to move to New York, go to school for neuropsychology, and possibly even own my own handmade jewelry shop. I know that teenagers tend to create a reality of things they want to accomplish but then never follow through with their plans, but I’m different. I’ve been told since I can remember that I have persistence like no other which leads me to accomplishing whatever I set my mind to. For example, in 6th grade I decided I wanted to play football in highschool (as a girl this is not very common) and 3 years later I followed through with my plans and I am now on the team. For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to visit New York but more recently seeing more and more videos and pictures, I decided I want more than just to visit. Part of me wants to stay close to family but another part of me feels like the whole point of growing up is finding out who you are and I’m not sure I can do that where I currently am. I have only recently gotten interested in neuropsychology but I have always loved the process of the mind. Incase you don’t know what neuropsychology is, it is based around the different processes the brain and nervous system do and how they influence someone’s cognitive and physical behaviors. Over the summer I took a college psychology course which only made me more interested in the topic. I want my own jewelry shop because recently jewelry has become overpriced just as I am getting more interested in it. I have learned new ways to make rings like making them out of spoons or with beads and wire. Or using the tab of a soda can to make a heart necklace. I just think it would be fun to make jewelry that I enjoy and other people do as well. Also, a backup plan I have is something to do with writing. I don’t know exactly what but I really like writing no matter the form. Most teenagers dread writing essays, but I like them and tend to finish them in about 45 minutes; still getting an A on my work. I can always find something to write so maybe I’ll write a book, I’m not sure. Only time will tell how my life will pan out. Hopefully this story will be updated after I accomplish everything on my list. I know I have the ability to achieve everything, it’s just a matter of time until I do. | https://medium.com/@edempsey099/what-i-want-to-accomplish-in-life-93da4c7074cc | [] | 2020-12-27 10:33:56.536000+00:00 | ['New York', 'Jewlery', 'Writing', 'Life Goals', 'Psychology'] |
The uncertainty of uncertainty — Diet, Pregnancy & Breastfeeding | The uncertainty of uncertainty — Diet, Pregnancy & Breastfeeding
I recently became a father for the first time, along with my wife, who became a mother for the first time.
I hold very strong opinions about diet, and specifically sugar and vegetable/seed oils in the diet. In fact, a dietician responded to one of my previous articles on sugar, labeling it overly alarmist, and reflecting back on it, I tend to agree that the narrative may very well be overly alarmist.
That said, here is the story of how Jana (my wife) and I, managed, debated, and sometimes shouted about, her diet throughout her pregnancy and throughout the challenges of breastfeeding and milk volume.
The diet strategy through pregnancy
When we discovered that Jana was pregnant, we both knew that the single modifiable risk factor for our child’s future health, would be Jana’s health throughout her pregnancy, and her diet would be a major determinant of both her and the child’s (future) metabolic health.
It is for that reason that our approach was a diet consisting of whole foods, low in carbohydrates and as far as possible, free from refined seed/vegetable oils, limited sugar, and limited flour and other refined carbohydrates.
The nuances of food aversion and hormonal changes notwithstanding, we settled on a diet that consisted primarily of beef steak, bacon, peas, eggs, and full-fat dairy, and probably, most importantly, carb-clever (vanilla) ice cream from Woolworths.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all whole foods and strict adherence all of the time. There were a few desserts, a few potatoes, a few slices of bread, and high fructose fruit indulgences scattered in between, but by far the majority of our routine, was a low carbohydrate, whole foods diet.
The exercise philosophy
About halfway through the pregnancy, Jana shared the following thoughts with me.
Childbirth is a major physical challenge, hugely demanding of your endurance and fitness, and that you cannot prepare for it, by lying on the couch, much the same as you cannot prepare for running a marathon, by watching television.
Her philosophy was that she had to be as fit as possible at the time of the birth, in order to give our child and herself, the best possible chance of a healthy, normal delivery and a healthy infant.
We went to the gym 3–4 days a week, and we were religious about it. Jana’s workout consisted mainly of strength training, squats, lunges, deadlift, leg press (for as long as the belly allowed) and walking.
By the time we were at 7 months, Jana was in great shape, in great health and feeling very positive.
The birth
Our daughter was born on 13 January, via emergency c-section. Having had to endure a c-section was extraordinarily disappointing for both Jana and me, and the nuances around how and why that happened is an extremely long story, and to be honest, still a fairly painful one.
In short, we had an emergency c-section, for a baby that was experiencing zero fetal distress, to a mother who had experienced zero complications or risks during the pregnancy.
The c-section, as opposed to a natural birth, our first choice by some margin, is a product of the risks that clinicians in the South African medical sector have to deal with, in an environment where 80/100 mothers and infants are metabolically, at suboptimal health.
Infant health
At birth, I performed the traditional cutting of the cord and looked on as the pediatrician inspected and assessed my infant daughter.
You do not have to be a doctor or medical professional to recognise healthy human tissue when you see it.
The baby’s cord was so neat and clean, it looked like it was wrapped in a very high-quality rubber conduit, the kind you would expect to see in an Apple factory.
The baby was a healthy weight, lean and muscular in appearance, and strong.
When I saw the baby, and Jana later held the baby and breastfed for the first time, it was conclusive, that Jana’s healthy diet had resulted in a healthy baby.
There lingers no doubt about that, with either of us.
The challenges of breastfeeding
Returning home with the child, Jana reverted to her pre-birth diet, wich at this point was quite limited in carbohydrates, mostly beef, bacon, eggs, and full-fat dairy.
Breastfeeding is neither easy nor simple. It can be quite painful. More unnervingly for us, we had some serious doubts over the breastmilk volume because it felt as though the child always wanted to feed, but Jana’s breasts were always empty.
I put some time into thinking and reading about the physiology of lactation, and it occurred to me, that the breast tissue should be extremely insulin sensitive, and given that it is in a highly anabolic state, should respond well, in terms of milk production, if we added some good quality carbohydrates to her diet, and also, utilised some strategic sugar spikes to drive small insulin peaks and therefore, milk production.
Oats for breakfast and sweets after dinner had an immediate impact on milk volume. Every time we reverted back to a lower carbohydrate version of the diet, breastmilk volume appeared to decrease.
And still, we were concerned that there wasn’t enough milk. Even after we consulted a breastfeeding specialist and near-perfected Jana’s breastfeeding technique and latch, we still had concerns.
Considering commercial infant formula as a top-up
We considered the formula, a number of times. We researched all of the available infant formulas, and I genuinely mean, all of them. When I say research, I mean, 100+ hours of scientific journal articles and professional opinions. I an obsessive scientist, after all.
Every single available infant formula uses vegetable/seed oils as a fat source and highly hydrolysed (skim) milk poweder as a protein source, and lactose and sugar as the carbohydrate source.
It is not easy to explain my absolute phobia of vegetable/seeds oils. I shall write a comprehensive, more technical communication about seed oils in infant formula at another time.
The kind of fats your child consumes determines the quality of the tissue of every single one of their organs. Their digestive system, the brain, the immunity, muscle, eyes…
Why?
Because every part of her body is made up of cells. Hundreds of billions of them.
Every cell has a membrane around it, and every cellular substructure, called organelles, has a membrane around it.
Every membrane consists of a highly specific combination of proteins, and fats, in a near 50:50 ratio.
That means that fats are one of two KEY building blocks in every cell, every organelle, of every fiber of her very being.
One should not, and cannot, take lightly, the impact of building-block-quality, for all of her fast-expanding cell population.
What it amounts to is that infant formula, without any exceptions that I could find, is essentially children’s doughnuts. Doughnuts, because I consider it the single most poisonous processed modern food ever concocted. Vegetable/seed oil fried flour, with sugar on top.
If you don’t think that a person should live on Krispy Kreme exclusively, then you ought to not entertain the idea that any child on earth should consume infant formula throughout the period of their lives, where their growth and cellular expansion, is at its maximum.
The membranes of the cells in our body, for the most part, do not consist of a majority n-6-PUFAs, the kind you find in vegetable oils. It is incomprehensible to think that we should make it the biggest source of fats in the diets of any person, let alone infants.
No person should consume polyunsaturated fatty acids, at any appreciable volume. Ever. At least not in my opinion.
More on that topic in a different article, at a different time.
What to do?
At this point, we remained concerned about milk volume, but not milk quality, as Jana’s diet is still really good. This anxiety is both driven by, and compounded by the fact that Jana (pediatrician in private practice), is anxious to return to work, at least on a flexible basis, and the ability to express milk for the infant when the nanny looks after her, is critical, and milk volume is an important determinant.
I read in an article, that breastfeeding and milk volume, can often be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Researchers have found that ineffective feeding practices may actually cause an insufficiency of breast milk. A mother’s lack of confidence in the efficacy of the lactation process can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy whereby milk flow and transfer to the baby is undermined. The mother may then interpret this as representing insufficient milk, making her highly likely to resort to formula, with the result that her milk volume actually diminishes. [123]
That statement resonated with me for a day or two.
I addition, we also realised that Jana’s breastmilk volume appears to respond, significantly, to the presence and absence of potatoes in her diet, more so than total calories, but we cannot be certain of this just yet.
Sanity checks for preserving sanity
We had to remind ourselves of a few facts.
The baby was picking up weight, and growing in length. These are good signs of sufficient milk & nutrient supply. The baby has a number of wet and poo diapers per day, signs of regular hydration and nutrition. Babies cry randomly, for reasons known, unknown and unknowable. Once you have taken care of all the high probability items, feeding, diaper change, winding, temperature adjustment, swaddling, soothing, there is little else to do. It is unlikely that you have done anything to make them cry, and it is improbable that there is anything you can do to make them stop. Assuming you have taken care of the above, the baby will fall asleep before she dies, or before you die. The battle is with your own mind, not with the baby. (I use noise-canceling earphones and a fine selection of metal, and I find it makes me patient and compassionate when comforting the baby.) Babies are random. Sometimes they sleep longer, sometimes shorter. Sometimes they have growth spurts where they feed every 2 hours, other times they sleep so long, you go check if they are still breathing. When she is screaming and pulling out my chest hair, I have to actively remind myself that she is not being deliberate, because my mind jumps to the conclusion that she is being evil. It is the strangest internal battle. Every significant relationship takes time to evolve. As the baby grows and becomes more and more interactive, so will our relationship. For me there is little poetry or romanticism in ‘holding my child for the first time’. I find the magic and the poetry in the internal conversations, the discipline required to get up when you are (still) tired, to commit to my support role of diet design and cooking, and my responsibility of bathing our daughter, every day between 17:00 and 18:00.
Our latest diet approach
Currently, we have the following routine. I get up early to cook breakfast and lunch for Jana. (Typically, I do a 21:3 fasting window, nowadays for convenience of not having to make breakfast/lunch for me, more than anything else)
Breakfast: 100g Oats for breakfast + sweetener + full-cream milk. [14g Protein, 63g Carbs, 10g Fat, 391KCal] Lunch: 4-egg cheese-omelet, ±25g Cheddar, ±75g Gouda, 15g butter (for cooking) [53g Protein, 8g Carbs, 64g Fat, 808KCal] Dinner: Lean(ish) Protein (200–300g steak/pork) & Potato (one large ±150g). [63g Protein, 24g Carbs, 30g Fat, 619KCal]
This gives us 1800KCal per day for Jana’s diet, which was the recommended target I found in an article on breastfeeding and milk volume.
Breastfeeding, as though our daughter’s life depends on it, because it does
We have shifted our attitude from, “what do we do if there isn’t enough milk?”, to “we are breastfeeding, what do we need to do to make it work!”.
Breastfeeding with confidence and intent.
Focussing on every latch as though the breastfeeding specialist is looking over our shoulder.
Confidence and intent.
There are many things we don’t know, and I am sure we will learn still. Milk volume takes time and requires patience. That doesn’t mean that you should be passive about it.
Our daughter is growing like a weed, Jana has built up 4x80–100ml frozen breast milk portions, and we aren’t at 6 weeks postpartum yet.
Jana’s diet seems to be doing the trick for milk volume.
Confidence and intent. | https://medium.com/@finmn/the-uncertainty-of-uncertainty-diet-pregnancy-breastfeeding-566a7b81cdf6 | ['Philip Marais'] | 2020-02-21 12:12:10.880000+00:00 | ['Diet', 'Children', 'Health', 'Breastfeeding', 'Parenting'] |
Mankind’s War Against Humanity | The Paradox of Unity
“Come, let us go down and diffuse their language, so that one will no longer understand the language of the other.”
The unity that should have uplifted humankind became twisted into a vehicle for corruption of the human spirit. The solution was not to confound or confuse their language, as the popular translation suggests. Rather, it was to mix together a multiplicity of words and thoughts so that understanding would become more elusive and, consequently, require more effort to achieve.
No longer would human beings be able to take for granted the commonality of their thoughts and conceptualizations. Now they would have to grapple with the complexities of competing values and priorities, reaching consensus through rational discussion and constructive disagreement. Ethics and justice could not be assumed by virtue of popular opinion and conventional wisdom, but would have to be carved out through sincere investigation into and contemplation of the moral bedrock on which stands the human condition.
Whereas universal values should have been accepted as self-evident by the community of human beings, the distortion of those values necessitated a more tortuous path in the journey toward moral truth. Now, the self-consciousness of the individual would play an indispensable role, one that could only be successfully fulfilled by engaging the minds of other individuals and laboring to find the common ground of authentic wisdom.
Where intellectual homogeneity had become a source of weakness, now diversity of thought would become a source of strength. But if human beings take the low road, withdrawing into ideological cliques and tribes that perpetuate solidarity of ideas at the expense of intellectual integrity, then we repeat the errors of the past and perpetuate confusion and discord.
Intellectual tribalism not only pits human beings against themselves; it also promotes ideological extremism as each side endeavors to distance itself from the other. The resulting partisan myopia naturally indulges the toxic fallacy that civil discourse is a symptom of moral compromise.
Nothing could be less true.
Rather, constructive disagreement is the only rational approach toward restoring the unity of common commitment to universal values that is the enduring legacy of the human race.
Adapted from the commentary of the 19th century Torah genius Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch. | https://medium.com/the-apeiron-blog/mankinds-war-against-humanity-94b199c645fd | ['Yonason Goldson'] | 2020-10-23 09:43:37.267000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Life Lessons', 'Philosophy', 'Theology', 'Religion'] |
More Truly Seen | More truly seen:
and more truly seen — I am an ecology of ongoing measure, without sure borders, and laid out to the benefit of others. I am a host for infinite microbes that share me as a trait, an intricate trade of respiratory function with every tree, and more so I bring attention to the world, capacity, an awareness of my place within it all. I am less a participant as am life in pure participation with itself.
more truly seen,
I am.
this is no transcendence of any great importance, no vital shift conscious evolution — it’s simply a return to the selflessness of true living, belonging to life as an aware function. Every bit at home within and as the world. There is no place else that I belong.
it’s the simplicity of being.
what I am is life; and through this I am truly endless — from this point of my existence I am traced to primordial origins, particles found present to the very moment of expansion. I am the present moment of the big bang, ongoing still. Atoms that swirl for every aspect of my being will one day lend themselves to other forms. As an ecosystem, I am infinite.
and through it all I am also less important than once believed — none of this is my doing, no conscious choice to make myself belong. It just happened and continues so, unfolding in the same easy manner as every other aspect found. I am part of this happening, an event of personality and self importance, unique in my expression. As if a flower that found itself aware. For me this is all the more miraculous, the briefness of my bloom against the backdrop of eternity.
what a gift
just to be alive,
aware,
if only for an instant.
~
Peace,
Eric | https://medium.com/@ericmccarty1965/more-truly-seen-c3c0ecb0ea61 | ['Eric Mccarty'] | 2021-08-10 13:28:26.555000+00:00 | ['Headless Now', 'Poetry', 'Ecology', 'More Truly Seen', 'Nonduality'] |
What Covid-19 has taught us | The covid-19 pandemic had devastating effects globally. What started as a novel virus, became a pandemic worldwide. Covid has just changed our way of living. People who used to go to work every day are forced to work from home. Students whose daily agenda was to go to school, are now attending school virtually. Companies have been hit hard, which brought the economy down. Isolation, no social contact, and lockdown affected the mental health of young children and brought in anxiety. And the worst of all, nations battling against each other instead of fighting covid together.
But there are not only downsides to this pandemic. It has created many opportunities as well. As everyone is at home, people started learning new skills, languages, etc. Even children were involved in learning new skills such as coding which might not have been possible.
On one hand, the food and tourism industries had to occur huge losses, but on the other hand, industries like healthcare, computer hardware, and consumer products skyrocketed. People were not so conscious of sanitization and personal hygiene. But now, it is all a must.
Instead of complaining about what Covid has done to our lives, let’s take a moment and think about the positive effects. | https://medium.com/@iwillbangyou9/what-covid-19-has-taught-us-4b890a58a704 | [] | 2021-05-09 18:24:00.788000+00:00 | ['Covid', 'After Effects'] |
A Kiss for Luck | Photo by Shaik Shaad on Unsplash
so there i am
sitting
at the house
waiting for some action
as was in between
jobs
at the moment
when my fiance
sends me a picture
of a chicken
behind the school’s
chicken coup
fence
so i threw on
a flannel
and drove on
over
i had never
run down
a chicken before
and the opportunity
was thrilling
so blasting
heavy metal
through the speakers
of the impala
seemed appropriate
for the occasion
upon arrival
i received
the location of the chicken
instructions on how to open the back gate
and a kiss
for luck
the poor girl
was staring
at the coup
wishing she could
be back home
with her sisters
eating muck
and meandering about
safe
from the monsters
of the outside world
however
every time i came near
she bolted
into the thicket
of trees
and vines
and broken logs
as she lured
me into the woods
i became entangled
in vines and
howled with rage
didn’t she realize
i was trying
to save her?
chickens are stupid
and i
was being outsmarted
by one
the chickens here
eat a mixture
of mashed up
corn and beans and seeds
some other ingredients
unknown to me
which smells
quite the opposite
of delightful
after i climbed
out of the madness
i grabbed a bucket
of feed
and lured her back
out
in the open
sprinkling the food
on the ground
as i whispered
to her
“c’mon baby girl”
she was hesitant
never looking
away from me
as she dipped
her head to eat
slowly
walking closer
i flinched
to readjust my
positioning
and she stiffened
taking a step
back
“c’mon now”
after a brief
reassessment
she came forward
the muck to good
to resist
finally
both of my hands
shot out
and were upon her
wings
as i held her
to my chest
“you’re safe now
my love”
i said
looking up
to the sky
“everything
is good”
and then
she shit all over me | https://medium.com/scribe/a-kiss-for-luck-8ff3437ffe4b | ['Austin Briggman'] | 2020-09-28 21:56:58.848000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Scribe', 'Adventure', 'Autobiography', 'Short Story'] |
A Deep Dive into Self-Driving Cars | History of Self-Driving Cars
With the rapid development of technology and urbanization, there is growing demand for traveling in a more convenient, labor-efficient and safe way. One of which is through self-driving cars.
Scientists and tech corporations in a multitude of industries have been exploring the automation of vehicles for a long time. There’s data showing that experiments have been conducted on self-driving cars since at least the 1920s and people never stopped to optimize and explore this field since then. As of 2019, twenty-nine U.S. states have passed laws permitting autonomous cars. In Europe, cities in Belgium, France, Italy, and the UK are planning to operate transport systems for driverless cars, and Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain have allowed testing robotic cars in traffic.
Self-Driving cars in Industry
There’s data showing that 40+ corporations are working on autonomous vehicles. Beyond trendy names like Tesla and Alphabet chasing self-driving cars, a host of auto brands and other tech heavyweights are also investing in autonomous R&D. Many major automotive manufacturers, including General Motors, Ford, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Audi, Nissan, Toyota, BMW, and Volvo, are in the process of testing driverless car systems.
Private companies working in auto-tech are attracting record levels of deals and funding, with autonomous driving startups leading the charge. Along with early-stage startups, VCs, and other investors, large corporations are also angling to get a slice of the self-driving pie.
The operating systems of level 4 (see below for an explanation on the levels) are currently being tested by Google, Uber, Apple, and Samsung. These systems have already been tested in trucks by Volvo, Otto (Uber owned) and Daimler (Mercedes Benz).
The Five Stages of Self-driving Cars
Society of Automobile Engineers’ International standard J3016 defines six levels of automation for automakers, suppliers, and policymakers to use to classify a system’s sophistication. The pivotal change occurs between Levels 2 and 3, when responsibility for monitoring the driving environment shifts from the driver to the system.
Level 0: As usual, a human driver is required to do all tasks related to operating the vehicle safely at all times.
Examples: A 1967 Porsche 911, a 2018 Kia Rio.
Level 1: An automated system on the vehicle can sometimes assist the human driver.
Example: Adaptive cruise control.
Level 2: An automated system on the vehicle can actually conduct some parts of the driving tasks while the human driver monitors the environment and performs the rest of the required driving tasks.
Examples: Audi Traffic Jam Assist, Cadillac Super Cruise, Mercedes-Benz Driver Assistance Systems, Tesla Autopilot, Volvo Pilot Assist.
Level 3: An automated system can do both actually conduct some parts of a driving task and monitor the driving environment in some instances, but the human driver must be ready to take back control when the system requests.
Example: Audi Traffic Jam Pilot.
Level 4: The car is capable of performing all safety-critical driving functions while monitoring conditions in defined use cases. Self-driving is fully possible in most road conditions and environments without the need for human intervention. A functional driver cockpit is still in place (steering wheel, brake/acceleration pedal, etc.). An automated system can both conduct the task of driving and monitoring the environment, without the need for a human driver to take back control. However, the operation of the system is limited to certain environments and conditions.
Example: Google’s now-defunct Firefly pod-car prototype, which had neither pedals nor a steering wheel and was restricted to a top speed of 25 mph.
Level 5: The vehicle in this stage can be called an actual “driverless-car” and is completely driverless, full-time automated driving in all conditions without a human driver. These vehicles will not feature driving equipment and will no longer look like the vehicles of the past. An automated system that can perform all driving tasks, under all conditions that a human driver could perform.
Example: None yet, but Waymo — formerly Google’s driverless-car project — is now using a fleet of 600 Chrysler Pacifica hybrids to develop its Level 5 tech for production.
Image from: Internet of Business
Challenges to Self-Driving Cars
It is obvious that we still have a long way to go before reaching the final stage, as there are difficulties still very much up in the air. Ford CEO Jim Hackett expressed a conservative stance, admitting that the company had initially “overestimated the arrival of autonomous vehicles.” It still plans to launch its first self-driving fleet in 2021, but with significantly dialed-back capabilities.
As for the intelligence, practicability, maneuverability and safety of autonomous driving, there are still many difficulties in science and technology. At the same time, it is hard to achieve a fully autonomous driving infrastructure and develop legal provisions applicable to the traffic environment with driverless cars.
Image from: RAC
Road Perception: Cognition while driving is complicated. It is challenging to build a self-driving system that can perceive the road better than the best human driver. A self-driving car’s perception system needs to ensure a lower car fatality rate, even though the current car fatality rate is already low (about one death per 1 million hours of driving).
Cognition while driving is complicated. It is challenging to build a self-driving system that can perceive the road better than the best human driver. A self-driving car’s perception system needs to ensure a lower car fatality rate, even though the current car fatality rate is already low (about one death per 1 million hours of driving). Navigation: A perfect navigation system is essential for the higher stages of autonomous vehicles. It is difficult to build a navigation system that is updated in real time, intelligent and flexible, covering all geographical areas as well as all the traffic information.
Image from: IEEE Computer Society
Performance: Developing a perfect internal system is challenging. The high-quality power management is needed to control power, overall consumption, and thermal dissipation. There is always a trade-off between safety and efficiency. For example, for the automatic driving system to make decisions while driving, it is safe for the system to decide to drive very slowly. However, for the customers, a very slow and inefficient car is useless and tedious.
Developing a perfect internal system is challenging. The high-quality power management is needed to control power, overall consumption, and thermal dissipation. There is always a trade-off between safety and efficiency. For example, for the automatic driving system to make decisions while driving, it is safe for the system to decide to drive very slowly. However, for the customers, a very slow and inefficient car is useless and tedious. Handling the Unexpected : The driving regulations in the real traffic environment are very complicated. It is difficult for the automatic driving system to understand the complicated traffic regulations as a reasonable person does, and make the most appropriate choice in some special emergencies, including the choice between humanity and rationality. For example, what happens when there is a conflict between following the traffic rules or reducing casualties when other vehicles or pedestrians do not follow the traffic rules?
: The driving regulations in the real traffic environment are very complicated. It is difficult for the automatic driving system to understand the complicated traffic regulations as a reasonable person does, and make the most appropriate choice in some special emergencies, including the choice between humanity and rationality. For example, what happens when there is a conflict between following the traffic rules or reducing casualties when other vehicles or pedestrians do not follow the traffic rules? Liability : There is still a great deal of controversy over the possible liability for car accidents. Who is responsible for the accident — the car manufacturers, the retail company or the owner? Is it the operating system or hardware that’s at fault? Should we apply strict liability to the manufacturer to ensure they are prudent enough while building the car? If so, if the companies are willing to shoulder that liability? These are just some of the questions we face while building self-driving cars.
: There is still a great deal of controversy over the possible liability for car accidents. Who is responsible for the accident — the car manufacturers, the retail company or the owner? Is it the operating system or hardware that’s at fault? Should we apply strict liability to the manufacturer to ensure they are prudent enough while building the car? If so, if the companies are willing to shoulder that liability? These are just some of the questions we face while building self-driving cars. Consumer Trust: The public lacks trust in the automated system for safety reasons, and most people tend to trust their driving skills, instead of completely trusting and relying on artificial intelligence.
Image from: Seagate Blog
There remain a multitude of challenges facing the development of fully autonomous driverless cars. Yet one thing is for certain: the driverless car industry will continue to expand with an optimistic future. Many companies around the world are striving to align their business models accordingly with this innovation of self-driving cars, which includes hiring highly sought-after yet low-supply talent in this area. | https://medium.com/ds3ucsd/a-deep-dive-into-self-driving-cars-f1d9e947889 | ['Wenqi Gao'] | 2019-11-18 21:37:10.517000+00:00 | ['Autonomous Cars', 'Self Driving Cars', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Data Science', 'Autonomous Vehicles'] |
Cypress e2e Testing in the Jenkins Pipeline | The article Getting Started with Cypress e2e Testing in Angular describes how to setup Cypress for an Angular project. In this post we go a step further and cover how to use Cypress for automated e2e testing in your CI/CD workflow.
Jenkins is used as automation server and I assume that you already have an instance up and running. Furthermore your application should be pushed to a VCS repository, e.g. GitHub.
Setting up Jenkins
First, we create the needed configuration in Jenkins, by creating a new pipeline:
The source code of our application should be coming from GitHub. So, we need to setup a connection. On the machine, where we are running Jenkins, we create a public/private key pair:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
We add the public key to GitHub under deploy keys. And set the following for our pipeline in Jenkins:
If there is no red error message below the “Repository URL” field, you have successfully connected the GitHub repository to Jenkins.
As we have an Angular project we need to execute npm scripts for building and testing our application. So, we need NodeJs. Let’s install it under “Manage Jenkins” → ”Manage Plugins” → “Available”:
Next, we navigate to “Manage Jenkins” → “Global Tool Configuration” and make sure that a node version is installed and configured:
The name “node” here is important. It will be used later on. At this point Jenkins is set up for our needs and we can continue with the Angular project.
Configuring the Angular Project
The prerequisite for this part is that you have an Angular project ready that already uses Cypress (check for example this post) or other tutorials.
We don’t want to have our pipeline configuration stored in the Jenkins itself. What we want is the pipeline defined as code. Hence, we create a “Jenkinsfile” in our project’s root directory:
We tell the pipeline to use Node.js with the version “node” previously defined. Additionally, you have to make sure that you have Google Chrome installed and referenced in the Jenkinsfile. The exact definition of the ‘Deploy’ stage is left out here for simplicity. This is a task for you.
We use a Chrome Browser for unit testing. Hence, we adjust our karma.conf.js to use the headless Chrome:
customLaunchers: {
ChromeHeadless: {
base: 'Chrome',
flags: [
'--headless',
'--disable-gpu',
'--no-sandbox',
'--remote-debugging-port=9222',
]
}
},
browsers: ['ChromeHeadless'],
That means we have our unit tests running. Let’s continue with the Cypress tests. If you have problems running Cypress in Jenkins, this excellent article will help: https://medium.com/aubergine-solutions/install-cypress-io-front-end-testing-tool-dependencies-on-amazon-linux-ami-ec2-instance-f676da4abbdd.
For the Cypress part we install the following node package that allows us to execute commands in parallel:
npm install concurrently --save-dev
And extend our package.json scripts section by:
"cypress:ci": "concurrently \"cypress run\" --kill-others \"ng serve\" --success first",
The “cypress:ci” task will be executed by the “e2e Tests” step in the Jenkins pipeline. Now we can press the “Build Now” button in the Jenkins and get the following result:
When inspecting the console output of the build, we can verify that the Cypress tests really ran:
But what if a test fails? Currently we would need to check the console output in Jenkins to figure out what went wrong. What we need is a test reporter for Mocha. To have the relevant settings we put the following into the cypress.json file in our project’s root directory:
For this to work we need to have the JUnit Plugin installed in the Jenkins. That should already be the case by default. We then insert a “post” block after the “stages” in our Jenkinsfile:
stages {
...
} post {
always {
junit 'results/cypress-report.xml'
}
}
Thus, an action is added to the end of the pipeline, which is generating the test report and allows us to see the failing tests:
That’s it for now. The complete sources are available on GitHub. As a next step, you could look into Parallelisation of cypress tests to decrease your overall build time. And of course it would be cool to also see the screenshots and videos of the failed tests directly in Jenkins. | https://ronnieschaniel.medium.com/cypress-e2e-testing-in-the-jenkins-pipeline-cc0a0df29fb6 | ['Ronnie Schaniel'] | 2018-12-27 13:20:37.220000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Angular', 'Testing', 'Jenkins', 'Cypress'] |
Collection of thoughts | On main stream media & clickbaiting
The main stream media is under such assault by up and coming forms of media that it has their financial models deteriorate and as their journalistic standards take a hit, as they are losing their fact checkers and their time to be more careful with their stories — They concentrate more on exaggerating the extremes to attract more attention which is also called click-baiting. The technological pressure that is being put on the main stream media is driving extreme political views as means of gathering attention of a shrinking market. Evidently I think this new concept of “social media” media is quite detrimental to us as a society.
As an example we I have observed doing the 44 day war was, bunch of Russian and European-based media outlets were trying to create controversy in their headlines to make sure that there is a debate going on in the comment feeds — commonly known as engagement. Which was an ultimate utilization of the opportunity which has presented itself due to the immense hyperactivity of the two nations on various platforms across the web.
Me personally I have stopped watching the news years ago and I don’t even own a device that transmits regular TV channels to my Screen at home. The only thing I own is an Apple TV which I use to watch Netflix or NBA TV. I sometimes find myself browsing through feeds of news headlines on social media and that’s pretty much it. What I value more is analytics of the news. I use every chance I get when I stumble upon to an article or blogpost which focuses on events that have economic, environmental or geo-political impact on Azerbaijan or onto the global scale of things. This approach keeps me resilient and more well informed about the greater picture, rather than being attached to micro events which happen on daily basis.
The average person opens up Instagram/facebook a 150 (or an average of roughly 55 minutes per each app)times a day. How healthy is that? Or in what way does it affect us? Companies are paying and putting fortunes to understand why we do what we do and how we do it. Our behavior is being studied constantly. So if you are picking up the phone first thing in the morning it wont lead you anywhere good, mentally. You may wonder why is that a problem? I will try to explain using two sources I stumbled upon recently. To better understand how we can simply function better. Best way to do that is to study our mind & body. Thanks to few publishing that I have gone through neuroscience became one of areas I occasionally like to focus my reading on.
We’ve all experienced that magical feeling of being hit with ‘a brainwave’. That moment of newfound clarity, a shift in perspective, or a novel idea. And typically, it seems to appear out of nowhere. In between sips of coffee, while out for a walk, or simply during shower. While brainwaves can be a figure of speech to describe our thoughts, scientists and clinicians can use literal brainwaves, measured on the head, to help understand the functioning of the human brain. As it turns out, the key to having more of these ‘aha’ moments lies in understanding the science behind brainwaves. Neuroscientists have been studying brainwaves — the popular name for the field of electroencephalography — for nearly a century. We need to understand that there are 5 primary brainwave states.
Gamma brainwaves — are the fastest measurable EEG brainwaves and have been equated to ‘heightened perception’, or a ‘peak mental state’ when there is simultaneous processing of information from different parts of the brain. Gamma brainwaves have been observed to be much stronger and more regularly observed in very long-term meditators including Buddhist Monks. Associated state: Heightened perception, learning, problem-solving tasks
Beta Brainwaves — are easiest to detect when we’re busy thinking actively. State: Alert, normal alert consciousness, active thinking
Alpha brainwaves — are some of the most easily observed and were the first to be discovered. They become detectable when the eyes are closed and the mind is relaxed.
They can also often be found during activities such as: Yoga, just before falling asleep, being creative and artistic. State: Physically and mentally relaxed
Theta Brainwaves — According to Professor Jim Lagopoulos of Sydney University, “previous studies have shown that theta waves indicate deep relaxation and occur more frequently in highly experienced meditation practitioners. The source is probably frontal parts of the brain, which are associated with monitoring of other mental processes.” Most frequently, theta brainwaves are strongly detectable when we’re dreaming in our sleep (think, the movie Inception), but they can also be seen during : daydreaming or deep meditation. State: Creativity, insight, dreams, reduced consciousness
Delta Brainwaves — These are the slowest of all brainwaves and are strongest when we are enjoying restorative sleep in a dreamless state. This is also the state where healing and rejuvenation are stimulated, which is why it’s so crucial to get enough sleep each night. State: Sleep, dreaming
Now that we have covered the brainwaves & their definitions(Yes I literally found out about them a week ago). Now lets go further.
Alpha is a state of learning, accelerated learning whilst relaxed awareness. You ever noticed that if somebody’s watching TV or their phone and you are trying to have a conversation with them? They are literally entranced. They don’t usually hear or listen because the what they are seeing on screen is putting them into a state of trance. But that's Alpha state, that is where information is — just going inside your mind. We train people how to learn languages faster and learn facts better by putting them into an alpha state.
I really think understanding of brainwaves should be acknowledged by education systems. School is a great place to learn & precisely “what to learn”. But how many classes were there on “how to learn” or how to think critically, how to solve problems, how to focus, concentrate & make decisions. So if we go back to getting up in the morning & grabbing our phone is the first thing we do. We train our brain for distraction. We cant focus enough on things that matter during the day and so forth. I am not even going to talk about(pre-sleep phone scrolling) screen’s blue ray emission, melatonin production & insomnia. Go do your own research:)
So next time you wake up before reaching out to your phone, do some stretching, plan your day, set some goals, do yoga or whatever. More & more I hear comments like “I am doing social media cleansing” “I am deleting all my apps” “social media detox”. This is all is the result of our inability to wire our brain towards mindfulness. Even me — finding interest in this topic is a necessity, the reason it triggered my curiosity is not because I wanted to seem smarter, no! The reason neuroscience is interesting to me is because I want to solve a lot of my own shit:)
Painful conclusion is that there is a whole generation who is growing up with so much tech & information around. However a lot of people that I know came to certain “ahaaa” moments in life after a certain age not because of their surroundings & what they are being taught. But because of what they lack in life and out of necessity like me.
**PS this ain’t an article, blogpost or a scientific research — my knowledge on this topic is still evolving & I wish to learn more. Thinking out loud & sharing with you. Stay safe!
On Terrorism
Despite widespread public misconception, terrorism has no universal meaning. It’s an entirely subjective label applied in a political context. In fact, the US federal government can’t even agree on the definition of terrorism given the US Congress, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and FBI each operate under the guise of competing and contradictory definitions.
Thus terrorism is defined by policy makers, and not the criminal justice system. In other words, politicians, not judges and courts, determine who is a terrorist, and what is terrorism, and policy makers get their cues and cover from the manner in which terrorism is portrayed in public discourse (media).
So, when a white perpetrator carries out an act of terrorism, public discourse is confined to “thoughts and prayers,” while a demands for policy proposals follow in the wake of an attack carried out by a Muslim.
This distinction has resulted in counterterrorism policies that include invading and occupying Muslim countries, torturing Muslim suspects, Muslim travel bans, profiling and surveilling Muslim communities, and counter-violent-extremism programs that not so subtly depict Islam as a gateway to terrorism.
On the other hand, it’s almost impossible to think of a single piece of legislation or policy that has come into being in response to a white perpetrated terrorist attack, which says something given attacks by white supremacists/nationalists outnumber attacks by Muslims on a scale of 3 to 1, and given 63% of all mass shootings are carried out by whites.
The evidence is clear: when whites carry out acts of terror, we seek to distance ourselves or excuse the attacker, but when a Muslim is the perpetrator, we seek vengeance.
*Note 1 — I have to mention that the trigger of this post IS NOT what happened in Vienna recently. I feel saddened every-time I see people losing their lives & lives of dear ones due to terroristic attacks. My heart aches every-time I find out that innocent people die. My country has been at war with a Terrorist regime since September 27th. Dozens of Azerbaijani civilians were killed by bombings of civilian settlements in numerous Azerbaijani cities.
May the all rest in peace!
*Note 2 — The triggers of me sharing my point of view were originated from — Emmanuel Macron’s recent #islamaphobic statements, Angela Merkel’s statements & Nikol Pashinyan’s continuous attempts to tie the on-going war to religion & Islam. Moreover, for years Media has been portraying Islam as a religion of terror & violence, however Islam is actually religion of PEACE. I have the utmost respect to those who do not practice religion and to those who have faith, regardless of their beliefs & religion. Freedom to practice one’s own religion, doesnt mean belittling other religions.
We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Hoping for glimpses of light in the times of darkness.
On education & remote work
The paradox of education is precisely this — that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. Learning and development can be a powerful way to engage your workforce during the COVID-19 crisis. It signals to your people that you are investing in them and supporting them during this challenging period, while at the same time moving your business forward through development.
When moving to a virtual environment, it is vital that you work by design rather than by default and that you focus on building accountability among learners. This will enable you to create learning experiences virtually that are more engaging and more effective than ever. Working from home has taught a lot of us many significant things & made us appreciate certain things in life more than ever before.
Each of us has a different outtake on self isolation & remote work. Mine is — it has taught me when, how, where I work/be productive best. There is time for family, communication, meetings, followups, analytics & exercise — all I have to do is to be super-organized.
On Nikola Tesla & frequencies
They say mathematics was not invented it was discovered…
Throughout his career, Nikola Tesla has performed a lot of controversial and mysterious experiments. Nikola Tesla was a very strange and mysterious personality. He did many things that the world did not understand. One of the weird details about Nikola Tesla is the fact that he was walking around a building 3 times before actually entering it. He was living in a hotel and his room number was 3 or any other number divisible by 3. The great scholar was obsessed with number 3. However, it seems that Nikola Tesla had an obsession with the combination of numbers 3–6–9. “The key to unraveling the secrets of the universe lies in the study of the numbers 3, 6 and 9. They are extremely important, they contain the true splendor of the world! “- claimed Nikola.
The inventor understood that not a single scientist invented anything, he only discovered what was created by higher forces. Not people came up with mathematics, the rule of the golden ratio, geometric formulas, they only described the universal laws of nature. The Universe speaks to us in the language of numbers. At any point 2 + 1 = 3, and 2 + 2 = 4. All patterns apply to any point in our galaxy and millions of others. Surprisingly, all life on earth obeys mathematical laws. Life originates in a cell that divides into 2, those into 4, then go 8, 16, 32 and beyond. It is nothing but a binary system of calculus or God’s plan, as the enlightened ones call it.
Vortex mathematics (the law of knowledge and thinking) deduces the pattern 1, 2, 4, 8, 7, 5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 7, 5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 7, 5, 1, 2, 4 … Have you noticed that there are no 3, 6, 9? Modern scientists suggest that these are vectors of the fourth dimension, the existence of which Tesla tried to prove all his life (the theory of the ether, studying the motion of electromagnetic pulses in an invisible field). Here lies the key to the secret energy of high dimension, the access to which the scientist found. Tesla said then that these numbers 3–6–9 are very important and that on our planet there are some energy points related to these numbers.
Beyond the Patterns — Lets take an example: 1 × 2 = 2; 2 × 2 = 4; 4 × 2 = 8; 8 × 2 = 16, which means 1 + 7 = 8; 8 × 2 = 16; 16 × 2 = 32. It turns out that 3 + 2 = 5. The model 1, 2, 4, 8, 7, 5, 1, 2 looms … Here again, there is no mention of 3, 6 and 9. They go beyond simple templates!
Even the ancient Egyptians knew that 9 is a symbol of enlightenment. Going to the pyramid complex in Giza, we find that there are exactly 3 large structures, they clearly display the position of the stars in the Orion belt, then we see 3 small pyramids.
“And to be able to find out the secrets of the universe, you should think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration”
On becoming a better version of yourself
Ask yourself if 3 years from now if they were going to do a study on me and come back with a report on the kind of person I was, the way I treated other people, how people talked about me and my reputation and my position in the hearts and minds of others, what words would i want them to use, of all the words they could use what would be the one word that would help you more than anything else in your field? Its really a work of brilliance to pick a word that would be your leading attribute, what word should people use to describe your brand, the next step is asking yourself what could i be doing from now on so that people think of me like this all the time? Remember brand is a promise you make — is saying that if you interact with me, get involved with me and so on this is the kind of person that you will get and experience. Says Brian Tracy.
Personal brand or a reputation is built for so many years and consistency is the key part of it. Otherwise positive reputation can be fatally damaged in a matter of seconds. However in my experience in many occasions I have observed that the person who is trying to recreate a perception or a expectation of a promise(brand) does not cast a genuine reflection of ones self. What I mean by that, in fact it lacks authenticity.
Cynthia Thompson the author of a book Ive recently read and would not rate it that high to be honest, surprisingly blew my mind with a simple sentence. “Listen to your natural instincts and desires. Don’t adapt or mold yourself to be the “next” anyone. Unlike brands that are desperately trying to become more like people and copying trends to do so, you are already a person; your brand should focus on being authentic instead of a manufactured version of what you think everyone else wants you to be”. Consequently without trying to discredit the statements above I would like to lead you on to the following principles.
Your habits, daily routines, self development and actions all have to be aligned with your identity and your goals. Although the perception of you out in the public matters and definitely adds value, it is not the core issue.
Imagine two circles, (taken from 7 habits book)
Circle of concern and inside of the first circle is the circle of control.
Circle of concern (the outer circle) includes; the weather, the economy, the news, what other people think of you, political views of others.
Circle of control (the inner circle) includes; your habits, skills, education, daily routine, businesses you start etc
Reactive people focus on circle of concern, a lot of energy is wasted to reacting to issues that they cant control.
Proactive people invest their time, focus and energy on issues that are within their control. Which enlarges the inner circle leaving the outer one minimized.
You should move along your professional and personal life path with integrity and authenticity. If you think & act proactively it will eventually bring out the appealing authentic identity of yours and if that persona’s actions are aligned with his goals, then you will eventually end up on the right track.
On new year resolutions
Before you get all onto new year-new me bandwagon express “choo-choo”, I have decided to make new-me approach public. Because it will directly impact my purpose of reaching my objective. I used this Sunday evening to re-evaluate a few things and made a few changes. Usually sundays are the days when i usually make my best & worst decisions, so fingers crossed with this one.
So I took a glass of water, put paco de lucia playlist on the background and put up a neat spreadsheet with a label “Rashad in 5 years”. Sadly I will not be sharing the content of the spreadsheet but I will further explain the importance of the approach.
SO the bad news is? It is more likely that new year’s resolution might not pan out the way you planned. Because 60 percent of people abandon their resolutions within first six months, however 25% percent of people abandon them within a short 7 days.
AND the good news? You can always make a resolution to improve yourself or go after an achievement no matter what time of the year it is.
If resolutions don’t work, and you want to take your to-do lists to the next level, get serious about goal-setting. Psychology professor Dr. Gail Matthews, led a study on goal-setting with nearly 270 participants. The results? You are 42 % more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. So that's what I exactly did today, I would rather be in 42 percentile TBH.
Writing your goals down not only forces you to get clear on what, exactly, it is that you want to accomplish, but doing so plays a part in motivating you to complete the tasks necessary for your success. The process of putting your goals on paper or a spreadsheet will force you to strategize, to ask questions about your current progress, and to brainstorm your plan of attack. Plus you get to visualize the ecosystem/life you want to build around yourself. Furthermore making your goals or approach public imposes more commitment onto your goal coz of the potential “ictimai qinag” (judgement)
This practice of writing down goals is not unheard of in the business community. In fact, some of the biggest entrepreneurial successes are very specific in the way in which they write their goals down. Grant Cardone has a special trick: he writes his goals down twice a day — once in the morning, and then once again at night. He explains,
“I want to wake up to it. I want to go to sleep to it and I want to dream with it…I want to write my goals down before I go to sleep at night because they are important to me, they are valuable to me and I get to wake up to them again tomorrow.” If, like Cardone, you want to start “stretching yourself beyond good and mediocre and average and the way everybody else thinks,” then project into your future. Just make sure you grab a pen first.
On short ones & quotes that I love | https://medium.com/atl-group/collection-of-thoughts-f3605d2c62cb | ['Rashad Mirzayev'] | 2021-02-26 13:41:45.795000+00:00 | ['Self Development', 'Thoughts And Feelings'] |
How do I choose the right diamond set? — Diamond set purchase guide | You must have heard this sentence from Marilyn Monroe, a popular Hollywood actress in praise of diamonds, who says:
Diamonds are the best girlfriends!
Marilyn did not say too much! If you are a girl, you must have been looking for a diamond set, an attractive engagement ring or other jewelry of your mother, like me as a child and teenager, to use them at the first opportunity that she is not aware of, and spend a few minutes in the dream world. Drown.
It must have been a few diamond or jewelry service models from our childhood that took our hearts more than the rest and made us feel more beautiful with it.
But loving jewelry is one thing, and coming to us and describing our personality is another!
In the words of Erin Wasson:
Each piece of jewelry tells a story without saying a word.
Everything looks more beautiful when that story is your story and reflects your character!
Now how can we choose a diamond set that is both beautiful and comes to us? Which diamond set best describes us? You will find the answers to these questions in this article, but I think it will be interesting for you to know beforehand what a jewelry service is and where its story begins.
How to choose a good diamond set?
Well, we get to the point!
In the words of Diane Von Furstenberg:
Jewelry is like a special spice, it complements what it is!
What does Diane mean now? It means that with a good choice you can complete your style and give it a special effect so that everyone enjoys seeing you.
So in order to find our own spice and look more beautiful, it is better to consider the following in our selection.
- What is your personal style?
This seems to be the main factor in choosing the right diamond set for you.
Go back a few steps and before you go to jewelry, let’s check your style. Do you know what your personal style is? If you are thinking and you can not answer this question very quickly, you can go to your jewelry box. What models do you see most? Full of diamonds and colored stones or with single diamonds? Classic or modern designs? Delicate and minimalist diamond set catches your attention more or a service with a crowded design?
It is true that we use one model for a wedding, one model for a business meeting and another model for casual style, but our jewelry box shows us our favorite overall style, which is largely shaped by our personality.
Congratulations on answering this question, what is your personal style? You swallowed the big frog. Usually, because most of us do not have a clear understanding of our interests and desires, it is a little difficult to skip this stage, but of course, by asking ourselves the right and purposeful questions, we can easily reach a conclusion. Knowing this makes it much easier to continue.
I will explain this to you with an example. I am a happy person and I like happy colors. I always go for colorful things when shopping, be it clothes and shoes, household items or jewelry! That’s why some diamond sets in my jewelry box are full of colored stones! For this reason, in choosing the next diamond set, I will definitely go for color schemes.
An emerald diamond set or a sapphire diamond set is a good option for me. Knowing what I want and what my style is has two benefits for me. The first is that I can easily show my personality to those around me without saying a word, and the second is that I have limited my choices a bit to choose my favorite diamond set better and faster.
Finally, we end this section with Ralph Lauren’s famous quote about personal style, which says:
Personal style is about feeling yourself, a sense of what you believe in and wearing what you love.
- What is the right diamond set for your clothes?
If you are looking for a bridal diamond set, you should pay special attention to the dress model, the amount of work on the dress, its color tonnage, and so on.
The suitability of clothing and jewelry, as in the previous case, is better determined by trial and error. Again, a number of general rules have been stated in this regard, which of course depends heavily on fashion. For example, it had always occurred to us not to wear large necklaces with a collared dress; If you want to wear a necklace with a closed collar dress, it is better to wear a small short necklace or a delicate jewelry necklace with a very long chain. But for a year or two now, fashion has gone in a direction where you can wear a collar or even a T-shirt! Use several jewelry necklaces in different sizes and in a crowded way!
Until a few years ago, we heard that if your clothes are decorated a lot, for example, do not use a necklace or choose a very delicate necklace. But now you can wear a large, crowded diamond set with a knit dress. Here, almost everything depends on your taste. Now almost all jewelry designs can be worn with any clothing design!
In short, do your best to choose the best option, because the price of the diamond set is high and no one wants to see its service after buying only the four corners of its jewelry box. In this way, try to get help from professionals. If you are careful in choosing a gallery and choose a jewelry with a background and profession, you can be sure that the seller can give you good tips.
Emerald jewelry (zomorodi.com) is one of the oldest and most famous jewelry in the Iranian jewelry industry. This gallery, with more than 150 years of professional activity in this field, It has a bag of experience that can be a great help in choosing the right diamond set for you. The sellers of this gallery are experts in this field who answer your questions patiently to make sure that you leave the store satisfied.
With the help of Emerald Gallery, choose a diamond set for yourself that you will enjoy seeing, that will make you more radiant and beautiful, and that it will describe your inner beauties.
If you would like to see a variety of examples in this gallery, follow them on social media. In this gallery, in addition to classic designs, you will also find new and fashionable diamond set.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zomorodijewelry
Aparat: https://www.aparat.com/zomorodi_jewelry
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zomorodijewelry?utm_medium=copy_link
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/zomorodijewelry
If you come to this article, it is clear that you are very interested in diamond set. I made it easy for you and I have put the link of the page for the emerald jewelry diamond set here:
https://zomorodi.com/fa/tags/9/brilliant | https://medium.com/@zomorodijewelry5/how-do-i-choose-the-right-diamond-set-diamond-set-purchase-guide-95a0969bb68d | [] | 2021-12-11 11:45:17.993000+00:00 | ['Diamond', 'Bridal Jewellery', 'Jewelry', 'Diamond Set'] |
Glad you invested in Real Estate Trust! A great story | Doctorate in Finance, Professor, Author, Interested in education, nature, environment, culture, yoga! Top writer in poetry. [email protected] | https://medium.com/@preetisingh15/glad-you-invested-in-real-estate-trust-a-great-story-c3a91776f237 | ['Dr. Preeti Singh'] | 2020-12-27 17:25:29.077000+00:00 | ['Real Estate'] |
Album Review: “McCartney III”, move over Fiona… | Move over Fiona, at 78, Paul McCartney has crafted the Best Album of 2020 in “McCartney III”
photo by Mary McCartney
The older I become I am constantly amazed by life’s surprises, it’s miracles large and small. 2020 has been a year that has tested each of us. What metal we are made of, titanium or tin foil or something in between. It has been a year that we have been grabbed by the shirt collar and shaken, reminded more strongly of what we should intrinsically know, that friends and family are everything. But I digress. During a year of unbelievable stupidity and hate, the surprises loom large. Georgia, goddamn Georgia turned a glorious shade of blue. A Covid vaccine developed in less than one year, amazing. And at 78, while in quarantine, Paul McCartney has crafted the Best (rock / pop) Album of 2020.
I am amazed as much as you are, believe me. It is not that I am not a fan of Paul’s work, I am, but (for me) his post Beatles album artistry, while prolific has not dazzled me with the exception of the escapist 1973 “Band On The Run”, the psyche folk / art pop opera, 1975 “Venus & Mars”, and the truly wonderful busker transcendent 1971 “Ram” and, of course, it must be stated that nearly every solo work since “Ram” has for the most part held either one or two or three hit songs or great songs within their respective collection.
For me, McCartney overall has felt maybe too predictable not only in terms of “his” songwriting but his sound and vocal aesthetic but his 18th solo work, “McCartney III” crafted while in quarantine and done so, at least partially, in a DIY fashion as Paul went through the musical clutter he had created over the years, like dusting off a trove of Polaroids and finding treasures, he has produced an extremely fruitful collection of songs swimming deeper both emotionally and musically than ever before. Interestingly, his voice almost knocking on the octogenarian door, has more sonic wrinkles and limits that make it only more vastly interesting and more emotionally engaging. There is less sparkle in the winking eye and I like that.
“McCartney III” doesn’t feel as much like a rock album, although he does just that on “Slidin’” and “Find My Way”. These songs are shaped, in some ways, like some of his past works and still shows his ability to craft solid vox populi songs but in more interesting ways, they feel like the shiny wrapping on a more dark gift. “Pretty Boys” with it’s busker picking and plaintiff words feels like an old man plunging into the vagaries of youth especially a famous young man who may of been handled by those who see rewards to be gleamed from this golden boy. “Woman and Wives” feels like dark gothic folk even though Paul can’t help but smooth in some grand pop melodies but this black diversionary song reminds me that if a songwriter gets old enough he will eventually go down a Nick Cave-esque rabbit hole. It is inevitable and so exquisitely moving. Paul keeps the production spartan running over the uneven piano strata. “Woman and Wives” is the most singular surprise on the album. “Lavatory Lil” rides on a not so surprising blues boogie rock vibe that Paul has been obviously in love with since the early days and, while it does sound so classic and maybe unsurprising, the guitar work and Paul’s vocal energy is totally engaging and comely as ever.
The vocal lushness on “Deep Deep Feeling” riding high on lonely piano chords and a staggered minimalistic drum pattern is so dreamy. Not dreamy as in pretty but as a mild fever induced torment like something conjured up as a staged askew Nightmare ballet dance dream sequence ala Fred Astaire. It may be the closest thing to minimalist neosoul that Paul has ever come to. Smartly he lets a lot of the instrumentation carry this moody story with falsetto vocal stabs highlighting the overall drunken sad feeling. Paul let’s the emptiness burn in a 10cc low synth simmer and while the vocal insertions in one section feel pasted in, this technique only serves to feel like a myriad of one’s life’s moments hazing in just in and out of time waiting for the surprising half time drum beat and ramp down to start, turning the dream darkly sour. When you think the trip is over, it is not. An acoustic take as a coda feels like a mantric smile, an utter daring surprise.
The “Kiss Of Venus” is a divine deep drink of a floating folk lullaby that feels as if it could of been on ‘Let It Be’. It is not only the downright beautiful bohemian hippie sense I am feeling but the upfront vox and guitar that gives it more of a folk punk busker aesthetic than classic folk. The sort of Brit pop “Seize The Day” does, if I am honest, almost feel like a Beatle-esqe psyche postured song as done by a mediocre but highly popular pop punk outfit like Green Day (for example) but at least Paul doing it makes absolute sense. The DIY synth pop and simply drawn “Deep Down” with funk affections done sideways feels kind of like a funk experiment done earnestly by someone who absolutely cannot dance. Strangely enough that is what makes it alluring and crazily kitsch funk forward in a Tom Tom club sort of way. A contact high that makes you giddy and dance like Kristin Wiig. A metropolitan Nash car that is so cool just because it is a metropolitan Nash.
The final track is called “Winter Bird / When Winter Comes” starts with a Lindsey Buckingham like guitar riff that comprises most of the first track “Long Tailed Winter Bird” but only for a short time. I am thankful for that as I found the opening track to be one that is built on a hook that feels common and (even worse) overstays it’s welcome. Enough said (it is the only song on the album that feels to me unnecessary) in the company of the other works. That guitar hook does (at least) serve to cement the first song to the last and thankfully, “Winter Bird / When Winter Comes”, as it’s own thing apart from that connection is a beautiful farewell. Paul’s voice is centered in his sweet spot and is goddamn beautiful. While his deeper registers on some of the aforementioned darker sounding tracks add a different seasoned dimension, here he sounds as he did in 1970.
For the most part the Beatle and post Beatle McCartney that we all know (at least publically) has been the effervescent Paul. You know, the one brilliantly impersonated by Dana Carvey, the one that is “noodling around… ya know” and as I recently watched clips from the much anticipated Peter Jackson Beatles documentary “Get Back”, Paul has always been charismatic and stunningly handsome. He seems to exist as artist and icon effortlessly.
On “McCartney III” some of that sheen has been worn off. The songs have beautiful faults and crevices made deeper by the loss of life in his world and repaired, somewhat filled in, by the blessings of new lives and loves. Paul strikes me as an optimist who cannot completely tear open his guts and show them but here, he has artistically exhibited a wider emotional palette asking darker questions lyrically and musically. It is an album the reveals origins and open ends. It is, by no means, a perfect album and all great albums are, after all, not perfect. What it is, is a piece of work that is not “overly so”. Not overly audacious, not overly sentimental, not overly divergent, it is just simply honest and inspires artistically with songs that are individually hard to pin down (exactly) and overall as an album that is hard to describe (genre agnostic). It will (like all substantial art) season over time, mattering more a decade from now even though it matters such a great deal now.
Baby, I’m amazed.
-Robb Donker Curtius
NOTICE: If you enjoyed this article, please consider donating to AP as we are in need of support to keep our coverage of Indie Artists like this one alive: click here > https://gf.me/u/yp5ich | https://medium.com/@americanrobb/album-review-mccartney-iii-move-over-fiona-df850e9008a0 | ['American Pancake'] | 2020-12-24 00:16:01.938000+00:00 | ['Paul Mccartney', 'Album Review', 'Honesty', 'Analysis', 'Best Album Of 2020'] |
The Importance of Small Wins | The year is not ended yet, but I would like to share a piece of year-end reflection.
I took an inspiration from SpaceX on the importance of small wins. Here is why.
Many of us probably know SpaceX for the founder, Elon Musk. We also probably heard that recently SpaceX had been successfully providing a private-commercial passenger shuttle service between Earth and the International Space Station for NASA. And soon they are going to deliver cargo as well. Probably less known to us is that SpaceX also plans to provide Ridesharing service to Low Earth Orbit and even between cities. They claim that their Starship will be able to shorten travel time between London and New York to just 29 minutes, compared with almost 8 hours using a commercial airline.
So, is it ok to say that they are the “Uber” of the space? Well, not really.
SpaceX’s mission, as stated on their website, is “Making Humanity Multiplanetary”. This is the “big-win”. Such a simple and profound mission statement. Especially if we realize that humanity doesn’t make much progress in terms of distance traveled since the 70’s.
So, why they are now doing shuttle service?
The reason is because they need to do this “shuttle service use-case” to fund their company. At one time, Elon almost gave up either Tesla or SpaceX to keep the other survive. This “small-win” use-case gives breathing space for SpaceX. At the same time, this use-case also provides a playground to develop technology for the “big-win”, such as the game-changing rocket reusability technology.
Reflect to MSIGHT, we also have mission statements. As I mentioned in the Fintech Talks webinar last week, one of our mission is to help provides equal chances to access financial services for our customers.
MSIGHT’s Mission Statement on Financial Inclusion
But we were a very small unit back then, with a relatively unknown business. When I was joining this team, we had a difficult time getting 250K USD in annual revenue. At that time, I think only a handful of people in the entire organization know what a telco credit score is, let alone how to build it and bring it to the market.
So, we had to look for opportunities -the small wins-, how to gradually build business traction towards the end goal. At the same time nurture stakeholders’ confidence to invest in our use cases. And simultaneously build our capabilities, test our hypotheses and assets that can be useful for the “big-win”.
We have team members working on the small-wins, the opportunistic use-cases, that provide the lifeline of this unit. Some other team members working on the long-term project. All are important, one part cannot sustain without the other.
We are not a 250K USD startup anymore, we also have quite a lot of products compared with 6 years ago. We built a strong foundation this year, together with our friends in the IT department. Certainly, we gain traction, but we are not there yet. Keep patience, persistence, and perseverance. Conquer the small wins, take a detour if necessary, but don’t lose sight of the bigger mission. | https://medium.com/life-at-telkomsel/the-importance-of-small-wins-4d2c12b61535 | ['Aulia Amin'] | 2021-01-25 03:49:25.809000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Telkomsel', 'Team'] |
Beyond Cage: Nam June Paik | The object of this essay is the analysis of the artistic connection between American composer and thinker John Cage and the Korean artist Nam June Paik. My aim is to highlight the influence that Cage had on Paik’s work and to demonstrate that Paik reacted to Cagean thought and furthered its conclusions it in an attempt to step out of its shadow and adventure into new realms of media experimentation and philosophical inquiry. I started thinking about their relationship as a result of the research I conducted as an intern for the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh, in preparation for the 2013 Edinburgh International Festival exhibition Transmitted Live: Nam June Paik Resounds.
The Meeting of Two Minds
Nam June Paik, John Cage and David Tudor after the Concert «Kompositionen» at Atelier Mary Bauermeister, Cologne, 6 October 1960, Photo: Klaus Barisch, Courtesy Galerie Schüppenhauer
Biographically, the two men shared a lifelong friendship that spans from their first meeting in 1958 to the death of John Cage in 1992. Although 20 years older than Paik, Cage’s respect for the younger artist and intellectual was manifest in their correspondence. A number of collaborations and homages linked the two artistically, including Paik’s first public appearance in Hommage à John Cage (1959), the score Gala Music for John Cage’s 50th Birthday (1962), the videotape A tribute to John Cage (1973) featuring Cage himself, the sound piece Empty Telephones (1987), and the 1990 video sculpture Cage from Family of Robots and Cage in Cage (1993), following his death.
A shared cultural context is the common ground for the development of their ideas. Cage was Zen Buddhist in spiritual outlook and was attracted to Oriental philosophy in an attempt to escape the philosophical hermeticism of Western thought. Paik was born in Korea in 1932 and arrived in Germany after studying history of art, music and aesthetics in Tokyo. In Europe, he came into contact with a vibrant art scene. The Westerner with Eastern sensibilities and the Easterner fascinated by the cultural history of the West met in Germany. The seeds of Fluxus, the Neo-Avant-Garde movement of the 1960s, had been planted by John Cage during a series of lectures he gave at the New School of Social Research in New York City (1957-1958) in which he introduced the notions of indeterminacy and chance operation in art praxis – the former extracted from Zen teachings, the latter drawn from Marcel Duchamp’s example. These classes were attended by La Monte Young and George Brecht, two important figures of the movement. Prior to this lecture series, a string of “happenings” staged by Yoko Ono had prefigured Fluxus, in parallel to a number of concerts involving Nam June Paik and Cage himself through 1960-61 in the studio of Mary Bauermeister in Cologne. Since its inception, Paik was situated at the very heart of the international movement by virtue of his close relationships with founders Cage and George Manciunas, as well as his unique intellectual preoccupations. Fluxus developed an aesthetic that was very similar in scope with the Dada movement of decades earlier. It sought to destabilize traditional modes of art production, presentation, interaction and institutionalization. It was distinctly anti-commercial, employing comic irony in its critique of the establishment. Throughout his career, Paik made crossovers from high to popular art and back. However, his work always had a powerful philosophical core, inspired by Fluxus, that held his executions together. Living in the Rhineland, an experimental region for the arts at the time, Paik was at the main hub of a vast network of individuals that exchanged artistic ideas with great ease. The historical backdrop — the Cold War, its ideological implications in politics and the stability that followed the “economic miracle” (Wirtschaftswunder) of the 1950s — is also relevant, as it provided Fluxus artists with a platform for activistic engagement in their socio-political context.
Transferring Paradigms Between Music and the Visual Arts. Paik Beyond Cage
As a reference point in the structural analysis of the respective oeuvres of Cage and Paik, Marcel Duchamp is particularly important because the concepts he employed influenced both artists. Duchamp’s artistic approach varied between spontaneity and elaboration. His readymades were unintentional; as he himself declared, the “creation” of them is reduced to choosing one object over another. The Large Glass, in contrast, necessitated careful planning and meticulous work. But the two needed not be mutually exclusive: he devised a complicated chance method in selecting notes for his (only) musical piece, Erratum Musical (1913).
In the 1950s, working with chance factors was a characteristic of New Music, a movement represented by composers such as John Cage, Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, among others. Cage’s seminal 1952 piece 4'33" featured a silence that lasted four minutes and thirty three seconds. Cage sought to foreground the unexpected elements in the environment over the expectancy of sound in the piece according to his dicta of indeterminacy. The work of Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg was crucial in Cage’s conceptual arrival at his landmark score, as Schoenberg had managed to equalize the value of pitches in musical strips using his influential twelve-tone technique. Post-Schoenberg music was atonal, in which serialism dominated and emphasis on certain pitches was removed. Cage took this idea further and posited that all sounds, not just tones, were equal class citizens in a musical score. In doing so, he extended the concept of music to include the ostensibly aberrational or unwanted category of “noise,” and ultimately to swallow silence itself. Silence in Cagean thought is not, however, the complete absence of sound but rather an empty space that can be filled by life’s limitless noises. 4'33"’s contents depend on the environment of the receiver. Cage himself realised in 1951 after a visit to Harvard University’ anechoic laboratory that there was no such thing as absolute silence – that even internal sounds such as his heart beating could disrupt apparent silence. Cage thus fulfilled the requirements of both Duchampian chance procedure and Zen indeterminacy, famously declaring that he does not discriminate between intention and non-intention.
Like Duchamp before him, Cage was also meticulous in execution. Cage’s Williams Mix is a prime example of his processual scruple: his first audiotape composition, its four-minute runtime reveals thousands of pieces of audiotape assembled to play in parallel on multiple soundtracks.
Poster for
Exposition of Music — Electronic Television Courtesy Zentralarchiv des internationalen Kunsthandels, Cologne
This dualism of chance/meticulous assemblage exists in Paik’s work with television sets as well. Paik spent months learning the intricacies of electrical engineering in secret to prepare his landmark exhibition of 1963, Exposition of Music — Electronic Television, which featured twelve variously modified TV sets. In the Afterlude to the Exposition of Experimental Television, Paik states that “Indeterminism and variability is the very underdeveloped parameter in the optical art, although this has been the central problem in music in the last ten years.” He pays homage to both Duchamp and Cage and at the same time declares the intention of going beyond them. With the Electronic Television segment of his 1963 exhibition he aimed to study the indeterminism of television sets. When an unexpected accident occurred (one of the TV sets broke, thus displaying a mere horizontal line on the screen), Paik integrated it into his exhibition, naming it Zen for TV. The exhibition was a participatory event that involved all the senses of the viewer and could be regarded as the forerunner of both video art and interactive art. What Duchamp had managed to achieve with his concept of an open artwork governed by chance and variability, Cage and New Music had duly responded with the notion of an open work in music, in turn prompting a response from Paik in a video-based form of visual art. Thus, the chain of conceptual influence runs from Duchamp and the historical avant-garde to Cage and then to Nam June Paik.
Zen for TV (1963-1975), Courtesy of Estate of Nam June Paik, Seoul. Photo: MUMOK, Vienna
But for Paik, a mere translation of the indeterminism prefigured by Duchamp and co-opted by Cage from music to optical art was insufficient. Paik understood that he needed to push the idea of inserting chance elements into the artwork beyond the sonic realm. His first departure from Cage in this sense was his different treatment of “prepared pianos.” Cage prepared his pianos for a practical reason: while composing for performances, he observed that the space is only big enough to accommodate a single piano and had to compress in one instrument the sounds native to the keyboard alongside the thuds, crashes, and jingles of percussive apparatus. To variate, he inserted various objects to the strings in the piano that would make different sounds in the action of playing. Thus, his pianos could return to normal functional ones. In their modified state, they evoked the idea of randomness, surprising the audience.
Paik’s pianos could not return to their initial state. Once modified or destroyed they remained permanently so. Nam June first used a piano in his Hommage à John Cage of 1959, where he tore off ten of the piano’s strings and played it first as a stringed instrument and then as a percussive one before finally destroying it. In his solo show Exposition of Music — Electronic Television, 1963, Paik prepared six pianos in various stages of destruction and modification. He attached a blow drier to one of them, Klavier Integral, that could be triggered by a key press, a bra and barbed wire making it threatening and tabooing for the audience. In doing so, Paik offered a different sensory experience, beyond that of sound, that assumed a tactile and visual nature as well. Phenomenologically, his piece assumed a synesthetic character. Paik’s grand plan was that of extending the boundary of music into a sort of “integral art” that would encompass both the visual and the performative/theatrical as well as the sculptural, and, through the use of the interior of the villa which housed the exhibition, even the architectural, generating meaning through layout. Summarising his intentions, even before his manifesto of 1963, Paik declared in 1959: ‘Schoenberg wrote ‘atonal’. John Cage has written ‘a-composition’. Me, I write ‘a-music’.’
In his quest for an integral art, video art as outputted by TV sets proved to be the perfect multisensory experience. A flow of electrons that could be manipulated infinitely, the moving image was the texture of this integral art. But at the time, the television, just like the radio, was broadcasting preset sensory data. Paik’s conversion of the TV from a reproductive machine displaying pre-determined pieces to an open, productive one can also be linked to Cage and the influence chain that I have mentioned. With Imaginary Landscape No. 4, Cage had for the first time introduced the idea of discarding predetermined scores. The “site specific” and “live” attributes of the performance were a consequence of using the material that the radio stations beamed and not prepared pieces by Cage himself (incorporating randomness). As early as the 1920s, the idea of using traditional reproductive instruments for productive purposes (converting them) was traversing Western European creative circles. Cage’s piece corresponds to this concept but only as regards reception. Cage’s prepared piano alters the sound, Paik’s prepared pianos for the 1963 Exposition of Music event triggered events in the environment when keys are operated: a transistor radio would play, a key would shut down the lights in the room, and so on. Like the pianos, and like Cage’s radios, the TVs were not instrumental in reproducing a pre-established piece but were production tools in their own rights. And like Cage’s radios, the material they used relied on broadcasts from local stations. The whole set-up was an “open artwork,” and the audience was the main performer. To put it simply, Paik stripped away the original function of the TV (which is to reproduce) in order to convert it, exciting the visitors (and their instinctual need to play and touch) into making never-before-seen images, as productive machines.
Assimilating McLuhan: On Media as Extension of Perception. Correctives to Attention Deficits Induced by Media Culture
Cage’s Imaginary Landscape No. 4 consisted in twenty-four performers working with twelve radios and a conductor operating them, modifying the station, the pitch and the volume. The piece was site specific and “live,” playing with indeterminacy, as we have seen, as the performers only operated with sounds that depended on the station. It also introduced silence as a compositional element one year before 4'33". The follow-up piece, 0'00" was a third that used this element. Germane to this piece was the observation that in a media information soaked world, attention is a scarce resource. The pieces were minutes long exercises in heightened sensibility of perception. Cage specifically thought of media as ‘expansion to man’, expansion of perception. Radio as extension to man is an idea that can be traced around the same time to Marshal McLuhan, the Canadian media communications philosopher. McLuhan was highly influential to both Cage and Paik. In his 1964 book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, McLuhan creates a theoretical framework for understanding contemporary media culture. His premise is that all technology is in essence an extension of human abilities and senses. The printed book, the radio, TV and even clothing are all extending what humans can do. Because of this, technology destabilizes the natural balance of our senses and in turn affects the sensibility of society. In a subliminal way, the invention of new media was, according to McLuhan, the main factor for cultural shifts in the West. The effects of media change, in essence, the structure of the world in which we live in. His famous idea ‘the medium is the message’ is a consequence of this: because we don’t make a conscious decision to participate in the dialogue that a medium opens, we permit the medium to impose its own assumptions upon us and thus transform it into the actual message as it shapes our world in the process. Any medium that heightens one sense to the detriment of the other four leads to individuation: phonetic language and then the movable type, invented in the 15th century, delved us into a world characterized by the primacy of vision above all other senses and in which individuals could detach themselves from a body of society that was less and less tribal. The advent of the electronic age, however, starting with the telegraph restored a certain balance to the senses and reconnected us into a global neural network, exteriorizing the human nervous system and bombarding it with an abundance of information.
But because media creates its own environment, just as ‘electric light is pure information’, ‘a medium without a message’ whose content is anything it shines on (the perfect McLuhanian metaphor), some are beneficial to certain messages while others are not. More exactly, media themselves can be hot or cool, depending on the participation of the audience.
‘A hot medium is one that extends one single sense in ‘high definition’. High definition is the state of being well filled with data. (…) Hot media are therefore low in participation and cool media are high in participation and completion by the audience. Naturally, therefore, a hot medium like radio has very different effects on the user from a cool medium like the telephone.’
Radio is seen as hot because it broadcasts continuously and offers all information in a straightforward way. TV is cool because it is immersive. ‘Radio will serve as background- sound (…) TV will no work as background, it engages you. You have to be with it.’ It is low definition and breaks away from uni-sensory experience by employing both sound and vision. Because of this it is the perfect gateway into the neural network.
Cage was the first to take control of the stream of media information through his modified radio transmissions and sounds. As the media information became more abundant, the pieces enabled the listener, through silence, to be more attentive. Silence enables reflection on perception itself and on corporeality and attention. It heightens ones sense but by breaking the mode of broadcasting where the ear is subjugated by the transmission, it ‘cools down’ the media, in McLuhanian terms.
In Zen for Film (an eight-minute-long white screen of Fluxus noiseless content), Paik referenced Cage’s silence. He invited Cage and Cunningham to watch an hour long film. As Cage thought about the similarities between their works, he stated:
“Offhand, you might say that all three actions are the same. But they are quite different. The Rauschenberg paintings [White Paintings]… become airports for particles of dust and shadows that are in the environment. My piece 4'33" becomes in performances the sounds of the environment. Now, in the music, the sounds of the environment remain, so to speak, where they are, whereas in the case of the Rauschenberg paintings the dust and shadows, the changes in light and so forth, don’t remain where they are but come to the painting. In the case of the Nam June Paik film that has no images on it [Zen for Film]…, the focus is more intense. The nature of the environment is more on the film, different from the dust and the shadows that are the environment falling on the painting, and thus less free.’”
Paik replied three years later:
‘N.B. Dear John, The nature of the environment is much more on TV than on film and painting. In fact, TV (its random movement of electrons) IS the environment of today.’
The McLuhian concept of the medium being the message is present here, although phrased differently. In his quest of blurring the roles between producer, performer and audience, Paik seemed to have noticed that the coolness of the TV promotes audience participation much more than all other mediums. McLuhan noticed this in 1964: ‘The cool TV medium promotes depth structures in art and entertainment alike, and creates audience involvement in depth as well.’
The Age of TV is the advent of the exhibition of art as a multi-sensory, deep experience that stimulates the non-visual senses as well. Paik understood this and was pursuing it with his ‘integral art’ as early as 1963.
Random Access. The Experiencer Free in Time and Space
In a truly immersive, integral art, audience participation had to be total. The degree of freedom of the experiencer of the artistic performance must be absolute. In a text from 1963, About the Exposition of Music, he observed that in most indeterminate music, the composer gives freedom to the interpreter but not to the audience. This held true for Cage’s work as well. The listeners had the option of listening or abstaining from it and this binary choice system was the same as it was for classical music. Moreover, the flow of time was in one direction just as the playing was from beginning to end. He explains further:
“The audience cannot distinguish the undetermined time or sounds of the interpreter… The problem becomes more confused if the interpreter has a ’rehearsal’…, or if the interpreter plays it many times as his favourite ‘repertoire’… this is the prostitution of the freedom… if the interpreter rehearses even only once, the degree and the character of the indeterminacy becomes the same as in classical, if not baroque, if not Renaissance, if not medieval music. This is why I have not composed any undetermined music, or graphical music, despite my high respect for Cage and his friends.”
His plan for Symphony for 20 Rooms was an attempt to remediate this problem. The listeners could move freely from one room to another, from one auditory experience to another. When Paik said ‘I am tired of renewing the form of music – serial or aleatoric, graphic or five lines, instrumental or bellcanto, screaming or action, tape or live… I hope must renew the ontological form of music…’ he was referring to these problems.
This brings us to the ideas of random access and variability which are central to Paik’s video art. Listeners (any kind of experiencer for that matter) had to have phenomenological options for the events they were presented. His Random Access (sticking bits of audio tape on the wall and then using the needle of a player to read them in any order the listener wants) is a direct translation of that principle.
Random Access (1963/2000) Photo: Erika Barahona Ede Courtesy of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York & Nam June Paik Estate, Seoul
Paik also adopted Cage’s idea that “music is a chronology.” He referred to his art as TIME art. His 1963 exhibition put equal weight on the TV and the objects sonores and Zen objects. He made it clear that the second part of the show was going to be on electronic art (Electronic Television) rather late in the planning stages. He kept his work on TVs secret and taught himself electronics to understand the technical principles he was working with. The objective was to convert the TV into a self-referential form and also deal with the phenomenological state of the experiencer. He defined freedom in terms of time, saying that all musical experiences are essentially strips of time. The purpose of time art was thus to liberate the experiencer from unidirectional time. He realized this in different ways. One is the simultaneous perception of images from thirteen independent TVs in the Wuppertal 1963 show. The experiencer has the possibility of choosing independent flows of information and experience and thus different chronologies. Time is also in a direct relationship with space, so another way to translate this experiment is to give the experiencer freedom to pursue spatiality as he wishes. This is his project in Symphony for 20 Rooms. The idea is that different paths in space yield different chronological sequences of sound.
A transnational artist, Nam June Paik is the embodiment of the Electronic Age from a rich multicultural perspective. An artist of the wave and the electron, his experiments with various media paved the way for an entire generation of manipulators of sound and image. John Cage’s influence on his thought is almost impossible to quantify. It seems that for every intuition that Cage had regarding the nature of artistic intention and production, Nam June Paik reacted with passionate dedication. Cage’s role was to push boundaries with thirsty curiosity. Paik’s was to explore their outer regions with wild imagination. Their enduring friendship produced a fruitful intellectual dialogue, both directly through collaborations and indirectly through the enormous provocation that Cagean thought posed to Paik, challenging him to escape its cage. Their beautiful relationship stands as a testament to the collaborative power of men, ever rising the scaffolding of human spirit. | https://medium.com/history-of-art/nam-june-paik-escaping-the-cage-d5f6fdfdd750 | ['Liviu Tanasoaica'] | 2018-01-15 12:49:06.540000+00:00 | ['Video Art', 'Art History', 'Art', 'Music'] |
About Existence Of Human.. | “In human life alone, one can experience the Soul [i.e. our real Self]. There is no other life form, not even that of the celestial beings, wherefrom we can attain the experience of the Self [Self-Realization]”These are the words of Param Pujya Dadabhagwan, an enlightened being.
The purpose of our existence, therefore, is to seek our true identity; and as a result, attain liberation. Liberation means freedom from the worldly sorrows and the endless cycle of birth and deaths.
Every living being has to traverse through countless of life forms before it can acquire a human life. The benefits of human birth are enormous. It is only in human birth that:
· We can bind merit karmas which help us find and get onto the path of liberation.
· We can realize, really ‘Who am l’?’.
· We can attain liberation exclusively from a human form.
Who am I?
Due to the closeness of the body and Soul, a third entity i.e. the ego, naturally transpires on its own. We are really a Pure Soul. However, we wrongly believe our self to be our body and name. This wrong belief is called ego. Due to this wrong understanding of believing ourselves to be what we are not, our vision becomes deluded and we lose sight of the pure Soul that we really are.
We think, feel and believe that, ‘I am this body, I am so and so (the reader may insert his own name here), I am her Aunty, I am a daughter, I am a wife, I am suffering, I am jealous.’ Believing so, we take over the pain, suffering and happiness, which in reality, is happening to the body, not the Soul. Further, whatever the body does, we assume that ‘I am doing it’; whatever our mind thinks, we feel, ‘I am thinking’.
Hence, owing to our ignorance of the Self i.e. not knowing ‘Who am I?, the wrong beliefs of ownership and doership come into existence. And thinking ourself to be so and so, we harness good and bad intentions internally, which in turn bind merit and demerit karmas.
We bind karmas in this life, which will come into fruition in the next life. Based on our karmas, our rebirth happens in one of the following life forms:
· Celestial,
· Human,
· Animal, or
· Hell.
Presently, we have taken birth in human form. Therefore, now, our earnest desire ought to be only one i.e. to meet Gnani, the Liberated One, who can grace us with Self-Realization!!! Eventually, we will surely find Him one day, and shall also seek His divine grace.
However, until that happens, our immediate purpose of this life should be to try and make a difference in the lives of living beings around us, in a positive way. For this:
· We shall maintain a pure inner intent of, ‘I do not want to hurt any living being through my mind, speech or actions.’
· Further, we will spend our life with an intention to help others, in whatever way possible.
· And if we ever happen to harm or hurt others or make someone unhappy, we will immediately do pratikraman. I.e. apologize before God, with sincere repentance in our heart, and a vow to not repeat the same mistake in life.
When you have such inner intents imbibed into your being, and you do instant pratikraman if you hurt the other being, you bind enormous merit karmas, which will help you rise and make you meet Gnani, so that you reach your ultimate goal in life!!
Self-Realization is our purpose of existence, and it is verily our ultimate goal in this life
Soul is our real Self; it is our true identity. However, the veils of ignorance have all along kept us in complete darkness.
But just like a lit lamp can enlighten other lamps; similarly Gnani, the Enlightened being, can awaken our Soul and bestow upon us the light of knowledge of the Self that, ‘Indeed, I am the Pure Soul!’
Thus,
Our sole purpose of existence is to meet Gnani and attain Self-Realization; and following His teachings, progress on the path of liberation to set our Self free from all worldly sorrows and the cycle of birth and death, that follows.. | https://medium.com/dadabhagwan/about-existence-of-human-d8715f129b9c | ['Dada Bhagwan'] | 2020-12-11 05:32:08.269000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Spirituality', 'Soul', 'Self Improvement'] |
Revamping Storybook’s addon ecosystem | Revamping Storybook’s addon ecosystem
Storybook has over 200 addons that enable new features and integrations. Similar to VSCode extensions, addons are a convenient way to customize Storybook to fit your UI development workflow.
The addon ecosystem is one of the main reasons why teams adopt Storybook. But until now, finding the right addon for your use case involved plunging the depths of NPM. I’m excited to highlight Storybook’s best addons in the new addon catalog (beta).
Who uses addons and why?
Storybook’s addon API is one of its core innovations. Not only does it allow users to extend and configure Storybook in countless ways, but many of these addons are automatically cross-framework (i.e. usable in React, Vue, Angular, etc.) without modifications. This means, if you write an addon for your React project, you can reuse it in over 60,000 public Storybooks.
“Storybook is a well documented platform, letting us build an Addon that unlocks value to our users in a short period of time.” — Brendan Mahony at Contrast (YC18)
Thanks to the addon APIs versatility, the number of addons has skyrocketed. To understand what’s possible, let’s take a look at who uses addons and why.
Large organizations
Addons simplify sharing integrations with different Storybooks. Large companies use them to integrate company-specific libraries and promote UI hygiene.
Intuit centralizes UI component design and development documentation with addons. Every UI developer has a standardized template for component documentation and the theme support.
Naver, the #1 search engine in South Korea, created an addon to preview component code in multiple frameworks. That makes it easy to browse a component’s documentation for React, Vue, or Angular.
Leading agencies
Addons streamline the UI development handoff for agencies. With a constant stream of new projects, speeding up build outs results in happier clients and higher margins.
Whitespace’s HTML addon renders a component’s HTML output in an addon panel. Even though it replicates what developers already do with browser devtools, the small convenience results in big time savings in the long run.
“We often work for tech companies with inhouse backend devs. Getting direct access to HTML without having to set up the project saves time.” –Fredrik, tech lead at Whitespace
Etch takes developer productivity to the next level. Their addons integrate Storybook with Bugherd and add component status labels. | https://medium.com/storybookjs/revamping-storybooks-addon-ecosystem-bf859c50889c | ['Dominic Nguyen'] | 2020-12-15 18:49:58.003000+00:00 | ['React', 'Features', 'Storybook', 'Addons', 'Design Systems'] |
Three Bitcoin Valuation Methods: A Literature Review | “Bitcoin is dead” as pronounced 411 times by mainstream media. Why the disdain and disbelief? Perhaps it originates from bitcoin’s famously hidden message on its genesis block, “chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”, when bitcoin was born as a decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system in Jan 2009 during the global financial crisis. Gradually, “what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger”. While central banks were busy printing fiat currencies out of thin air, bitcoin started its super bullish cycle since Oct 2020 with price quintuple in less than five months. In retrospect, “it is inevitable”, as claimed by Elon Musk whose Tesla treasury buying up to 10% bitcoin with corporate cash, coinciding with mass institutional adoptions including PayPal, Square, Guggenheim, MassMutual, NY Bank of Mellon, Fidelity, JP Morgan Chase, DBS Bank, BlackRock etc. This article leads investors through the three bitcoin valuation methods utilized by “smart money”.
1. Bitcoin as a Substitute of Gold
“The bitcoin story is very easy; it is supply and demand. Bitcoin is digital gold, and it is better at being gold than gold.” Bitcoin is a scarce digital asset that cannot be devalued like fiat currency, with a fixed supply of 21 million; ownership is preserved on a public, transparent, and decentralized ledger, as maintained by global network, advanced cryptography and market incentives.
The store of value theory states that a digital asset’s value is a function of its ability to act as a store of monetary value for its investors and users. As an example of calculating the fair value of the price of bitcoin with store of value in mind, we could look at the price of gold and make the assumption that bitcoin could one day replace gold as the go-to store of value for investors.
At a current gold price of around $1,832 per troy ounce, the total value of the world’s gold bullion is around $11.6 trillion. Suppose bitcoin replaces gold as a popular store of value globally and its total network value rise to $11.6 trillion, knowing that the total supply of coins is capped at 21 million, the price of one BTC would end up being $552,380.
$11.6 trillion / 21 million BTC = $552,380 per one bitcoin
2. Bitcoin’s Price Dynamic: Stock to Flow Model
“As a thought experiment, imagine there was a base metal as scarce as gold, and one special, magical property: can be transported over a communications channel” — Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is the first digital object with a fixed supply that cannot be copied, duplicated or forged, contributing to its unique mathematical value. The Bitcoin network has been generating uninterrupted blocks since day 1 — genesis block was generated on the 3rd, Jan, 2009 and the reward for mining it was 50 bitcoins. On every 210,000 generated blocks there is an event called “halving” which cuts, in half, the reward value distributed to miners from that moment on. Since blocks are generated every 10 minutes, “halving events” take place every 35,000 hours: almost exactly every 4 years. Halving events continue to take place until the reward for miners reaches 0, as after the 33rd halving in year 2140. It will be the 21 millionths bitcoin to come into existence, after which point it will be impossible to create anymore, and after that bitcoin will become truly deflationary. An anonymous hedge-fund manager in the name of “Plan B” applied Stock-to-Flow model to bitcoin price on a log scale, with an astonishing accuracy:
The ‘Stock-to-flow’ is a number that shows how many years, at the current production rate, are required to achieve the current stock.
S2F ratio = Stock / Flow
While Stock = current reserve, Flow = current production
Bitcoin with a fixed supply on an immutable irreversible blockchain is associated with scarcity, the word linked with precious metal and monetary supply. Note for bitcoin as it halves every four years, the flow would decrease to 50% of its last value every four years, causing its S2F to double every four years, making it more scare in nature. The above figure is done with linear regression plotted on a log scale chart illuminating the mathematical relationship between past (dotted) and predicted (line) bitcoin price as a function of its S2F ratio, which increases every four year in the halving events due to the halving decrease in the production. For more in-depth analysis, readers are encouraged to pursue this article “modelling bitcoin with scarcity”written by Plan B.
3. Bitcoin as World Reserve Currency
“Upon when investors use bitcoin denomination, not US dollar denomination on the accounting balance sheet, Bitcoin become a reserve currency in the monetary system.” — Nik Bhatia, “Layered Money: from Gold and Dollars to Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies”. Quoting from this fascinating book, “Bitcoin is antifragile, because it thrives off global monetary disorder within the dollar pyramid and is resilient to the threats, slander, and legislation from dismissive bureaucratic entities. The plain truth about bitcoin is that nobody controls it. It has become the first-ever government-free, universally accessible digital currency …. The following figure elucidates a future in which BTC is the world reserve and only first-layer money:”
In this version of future vision, all future money will eventually be digital tokens held in digital wallets. People will simultaneously hold an assortment of currencies: bitcoin for neutrality with no counter-party risk, central-bank-digital currency for daily consumption and paying taxes, and stablecoins for earning interest. If bitcoin as a reserve currency embodies a future world outstanding treasury bond which is estimated as 119 trillion, per bitcoin price will eventually come to:
$119 trillion / 21 million BTC = $5,666,666 per one bitcoin
Conclusion
In conclusion, the above three mathematical modeling predicts bitcoin price statically and dynamically as follows:
1. If Bitcoin could eventually replace gold, 1 BTC would reach 550,000 USD.
2. If Bitcoin could eventually become world reserve currency, 1 BTC would be worth more than 5 million USD.
3. Dynamically speaking, stock to flow model has accurately simulated bitcoin to reach 10,000 USD in 2017 and to exceed 50,000 USD around 2021, both occurring within one year of halving event. It predicted bitcoin to reach or exceed 1 million USD around 2026.
This is only a mathematical modeling-based prediction, and by no means should be regarded as financial advice.
Reference
Robin Xie is from iSunOne (https://www.isun.one), a cryptocurrency wallet whose clients earn daily interest on BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC.
https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
https://cryptobriefing.com/bitcoin-birthday-satoshi-hidden-message-explained/
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-02-08/elon-musk-s-tesla-buying-bitcoin-is-inevitable-and-disconcerting
https://www.wsj.com/articles/paypal-wants-more-customers-to-pay-using-crypto-assets-11620341510
https://www.coindesk.com/square-bitcoin-cash-app-q1-2021-earnings
https://www.coindesk.com/guggenheim-cio-says-bitcoin-could-eventually-climb-to-600000
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-10/169-year-old-insurer-massmutual-invests-100-million-in-bitcoin
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/11/bny-mellon-to-offer-bitcoin-services-a-validation-of-crypto-from-a-key-bank-in-the-financial-system.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/24/fidelity-to-launch-bitcoin-etf-as-investment-giant-builds-its-digital-asset-business-.html
https://www.coindesk.com/jpmorgan-to-let-clients-invest-in-bitcoin-fund-for-first-time-sources
https://forkast.news/singapore-dbs-bank-crypto-exchange-digital-assets/
https://citywireselector.com/news/blackrock-opens-two-funds-to-bitcoin-investments/a1453179
https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/bitcoin-price-legendary-investor-bill-miller-resilience-better-every-day-2020-11-1029776469
https://www.bitcoinmarketjournal.com/digital-asset-valuation/
https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/quotes/economics/?order=desc
https://stats.buybitcoinworldwide.com/stock-to-flow/
https://100trillionusd.github.io/
https://medium.com/@100trillionUSD/modeling-bitcoins-value-with-scarcity-91fa0fc03e25
https://www.amazon.com/Layered-Money-Dollars-Bitcoin-Currencies/dp/1736110527
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bond_market#:~:text=As%20of%202021%2C%20the%20size,Financial%20Markets%20Association%20(SIFMA). | https://medium.com/@bin-xie/three-bitcoin-valuation-methods-a-literature-review-fa21b27fa40 | [] | 2021-05-22 14:23:13.436000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin Price', 'Bitcoin Price Prediction', 'Bitcoin Price Analysis', 'Bitcoin', 'Bitcoin Wallet'] |
One of the most commonly asked question by a diabetic patient is, “Can I have fruits?” | One of the most commonly asked question by a diabetic patient is, “Can I have fruits?” The answer to this is not a simple “yes” or “no”. Although diabetic patients can include fruits in their diet, but there are some factors that the patients need to keep in mind when choosing a fruit, the most important being the glycemic index.
WHAT IS GLYCEMIC INDEX?
Glycemic Index is a number which tells us about the effect of food on a person’s blood sugar level.The Glycemic Index has a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is pure glucose. Low GI foods do not raise blood sugar level to a considerable extent like high GI foods do. So, fruits containing low GI are highly preferable. Roughly,
-GI value below 50 is considered low.
-GI value between 50 ‐60 is considered average.
-GI value above 60 is high.
-Here are the GI scores of some of the commonly available fruits: black jamun (25), cherries (20), pear (38), apple (39), orange (40), plum (40), strawberry (41), peach (42), guava (32)
LOW GI FRUITS THAT ARE IDEAL FOR DIABETICS:
1 . Strawberries
Apart from providing a mouthwatering luster to a delicious dessert, strawberries bear a name of super food for diabetics. They are enriched with potassium (which helps in keeping blood sugar level in check), antioxidants, and vitamins. Moreover, they have low GI level. So strawberries have a lot to offer from their indulging taste to added topping of value.
Nutritional value: 100 gm strawberries has 33 Kcal calories and 8 grams of carbohydrates.
2 . Black Jamun
This fruit holds a special significance owing to its numerous qualities. Every part of jamun holds wondrous properties to fight diabetes. Its seeds can be powdered and consumed each day in morning with an empty stomach. The fruit pulp and bark are rich in vitamins, antioxidants and have low GI value.
Nutritional value: 100 grams contain 60 Kcal and 16 grams of carbohydrates.
3 . Apple
Apples are also loaded with fiber and a good source of vitamin C and have a low gylcemic index which makes them a good option for diabetics. . Don’t peel your apples, though,the skins are the most nutritious part, full of antioxidants.
Nutritional value:100 grams contain 52 Kcal and 14 grams of carbohydrates.
4 . Guava
Guava gives you yet another reason for not depriving yourself from healthy fruits. It is mostly advised to eat without its skin which reduces sugar absorption in the blood. Guavas are high in vitamin A, vitamin C and dietary fiber. This fruit has a reasonably low GI making it a part of a diabetics’ must have fruits plate.
Nutritional value: 100 grams of guava has 51 Kcal and 12 grams of carbohydrates.
5 . Peach
Peaches contain vitamins A and C, potassium, and fiber and are delicious on their own or tossed into iced tea for a fruity twist. You can also add them to your salads or desserts as a delicious topping.
Nutritional value: 100 gram of peach contains 39 Kcal and 10 grams of carbohydrates
6 . Orange
Orange is a powerhouse of vitamin C. It has a low GI and is rich in folate and potassium, which may help normalize blood pressure. You can have it as a mid-day snack or carry it in your bag for that glucose punch that you may need when you are at work or travelling.
Nutritional value: 100 gram of orange contains 47 Kcal and 12 grams of carbohydrates
THINGS TO REMEMBER
-It is best to have low or moderately low GI fruits.
-When you choose a low GI fruit, you can have a bigger portion, but when you choose a high GI fruit, you need to take a small portion. For example in high GI fruits, you can have 1/2 a banana, 1/2 cup mango, 1/3 cup chiku, 1 cup melon.
-You should consider GI, total calories and carbohydrate content when picking a portion of a fruit. For example 1 whole guava and 1/2 cup of banana will have almost same calories and carbohydrate content.
-Fruits should be eaten raw. Avoid juices or fruit drinks which have added preservatives or sugar. | https://medium.com/@cartoonbox777/one-of-the-most-commonly-asked-question-by-a-diabetic-patient-is-can-i-have-fruits-368118231104 | ['Chirag Roakde'] | 2020-12-23 11:28:49.121000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Diet', 'Diabetes', 'Healthcare', 'Fruits'] |
How to create CloudSQL Mysql instance with terraform | 1- Create tfvar file:
#cat terraform.tfvars project = "project-id" region = "europe-west4"
2- Create tf file and put mysql database related information in it, such as instance, database name and root password:
#cat main.tf variable "project" {} variable "region" {} provider "google" { project = "${var.project}" region = "${var.region}" } resource “google_sql_database_instance” “master” { name = "instance_name" database_version = "MYSQL_5_7" region = "${var.region}" settings { tier = "db-n1-standard-2" } } resource "google_sql_database" “database” { name = "database_name" instance = "${google_sql_database_instance.master.name}" charset = "utf8" collation = "utf8_general_ci" } resource "google_sql_user" "users" { name = "root" instance = "${google_sql_database_instance.master.name}" host = "%" password = "XXXXXXXXX" }
3- Create service account on gcp which has necessary privileges to create CloudSQL instance:
gcloud iam service-accounts create sa-terraform — display-name "Terraform service account"
Assign CloudSQL Admin role to the service account:
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID — member="serviceAccount:sa-terraform@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com" — role="roles/cloudsql.admin"
Create a service account key which will be used by terraform:
Export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS:
export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=./key.json
4- Initialize terraform:
terraform init
5- Get terraform plan
terraform plan
6- Apply terraform
terraform apply
If it is a brand new project or if you haven’t create CloudSQL in the project before you may get an error like below:
Error: Error, failed to create instance emlak: googleapi: Error 403: Cloud SQL Admin API has not been used in project XXXXXXXXX before or it is disabled. Enable it by visiting https://console.developers.google.com/apis/api/sqladmin.googleapis.com/overview?project=XXXXXXXXX then retry. If you enabled this API recently, wait a few minutes for the action to propagate to our systems and retry., accessNotConfigured
You can enable Cloudsql api in the GCP console OR simply cp/pasting the url in the error message into your browser and then enable the API.
Then try again terraform apply.
Do you want to perform these actions?
Terraform will perform the actions described above.
Only ‘yes’ will be accepted to approve. Enter a value: yes google_sql_database_instance.master: Creating…
google_sql_database_instance.master: Still creating… [10s elapsed]
google_sql_database_instance.master: Still creating… [20s elapsed]
google_sql_database_instance.master: Still creating… [30s elapsed]
google_sql_database_instance.master: Still creating… [40s elapsed]
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google_sql_database_instance.master: Still creating… [1m10s elapsed]
google_sql_database_instance.master: Still creating… [1m20s elapsed]
google_sql_database_instance.master: Still creating… [1m30s elapsed]
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google_sql_database_instance.master: Still creating… [1m50s elapsed]
google_sql_database_instance.master: Still creating… [2m0s elapsed]
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google_sql_database_instance.master: Still creating… [2m40s elapsed]
google_sql_database_instance.master: Still creating… [2m50s elapsed]
google_sql_database_instance.master: Creation complete after 2m55s [id=instanceid]
google_sql_database.database: Creating…
google_sql_user.users: Creating…
google_sql_user.users: Still creating… [22s elapsed]
google_sql_database.database: Still creating… [22s elapsed]
google_sql_database.database: Creation complete after 24s [id=projects/projectid/instances/instanceid/databases/dbid]
google_sql_user.users: Creation complete after 28s [id=root/%/instanceid]
That is it you created your Cloudsql Mysql intance with terraform. | https://medium.com/google-cloud/how-to-create-cloudsql-mysql-instance-with-terraform-e87a396b2b58 | ['Samet Karadag'] | 2020-12-23 12:26:38.356000+00:00 | ['Cloud Sql', 'Gcp', 'Terraform'] |
no. 15 — Cool & Pretty by Mothpuppy | I literally cannot believe how lucky I am to know Mothpuppy. Morgan, the front-person and main brain blast of the band, was one of the friends I bonded with over Green Day in the very beginning of my time at school. Though we initially started hanging out because of Green Day, our friendship evolved past just Dookie and Kerplunk. We had a fiction writing class together in which the Professor (rightly) praised everything Morgan wrote, and later we lived together. Sharing a home with their cat Buster was a dream come true.
Mothpuppy played the very first show I went to in Baltimore. They played in a cramped basement, blue LED’s providing the only lighting in an otherwise pitch-black room. I remember how animated the crowd was when Mothpuppy started playing. One of the friends I went to the show with told me that Morgan was the best songwriter they’d ever met. If you listen to tracks like “Flea”, the humanizing ballad of a flea that lived and died on Buster, you’d know that my friend’s statement was true. Morgan’s voice is deep and resonant. Singing along with their songs feels like you’re bottoming out, pulling all the air from your lungs and diaphragm. You’re left breathless and elated.
For maybe a year, I could brag that I had seen every single full band performance of Mothpuppy’s. This was true until they went on tour, or until they played during a summer I wasn’t in the area. I don’t remember which came first. Despite offering nothing but occasional sips from my water bottle from the front row, they let me tag along to their shows. I would watch them make tapes, sell merch, plan shows, and write new songs. I went to their practices, mostly because they were my friends and I was lonely, but also because I couldn’t get enough of hearing their songs. Cool & Pretty is still on constant rotation all these years later. I got my mom obsessed with their music too, to the point where she started begging them to play a full band show in Massachusetts so she could go.
A lot of people who know and love Mothpuppy think “Joan” is the gut-punch of a song. Morgan has said that they don’t understand why that’s their most popular track, but I think it’s understandable. Morgan’s voice shines in it. The whole song feels like an ode to longing, a snapshot of time that mirrors an a24 masterpiece. I’ve watched Morgan play that song in basements, festival stages, and pizza parlors. More often than not I am moved to tears by it. Sometimes I get angry when I hear it, because it feels useless to believe I could ever create something as beautiful as that song. Usually, I cry because I feel lucky to know the person who wrote it into being.
I love seeing Morgan play in any form. When they dressed up as Billie Joe Armstrong one Halloween and covered Jesus of Suburbia in full, I lost my mind. For several months I begged Morgan to send me a cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Happiness Is A Butterfly” because they posted a snippet of it on their Instagram story, and I stand by my opinion that Morgan’s version is better than the original. Mothpuppy is a true gem of a band, and I highly suggest you buy their music. | https://medium.com/@jennasylvester/no-15-cool-pretty-by-mothpuppy-ab1dd4e6d7c6 | ['Jenna Sylvester'] | 2020-12-02 02:16:20.480000+00:00 | ['Baltimore', 'Indie Music', 'Personal Essay', 'Album Review', 'Music'] |
The Joe Biden outrage over ‘You Ain’t Black’ sounds suspicious | The Joe Biden outrage over ‘You Ain’t Black’ sounds suspicious
Pay attention to who is complaining before you shun Joe Biden
Show me a man over 70 who doesn’t have diarrhea of the mouth, and I’ll show you a young man who just hired Greg Cannom (Benjamin Button’s makeup artist). After the “You Ain’t Black” interview with Charlamagne Tha God — the same person who gushed over white women for years and called them “nubian white queens,” and told Amara La Negra that colorism in the Hispanic community may all be in her imagination — it’d be impossible not to notice all the outrage over presidential candidate Joe Biden’s comment.
Photo credit: Laurentiu Robu/Pexels
But the question that is not being asked enough is this: “Was Joe Biden wrong?” I’m struggling with this one. From 2015 and onward, I have never personally met an African-American person who canvassed for, vouched for or voted for the golf enthusiast in the White House. Not one. Not a family member. Not a friend. In my personal social circle, I don’t even have any white people around me who voted for Donald Trump and they’re far more vocal about why. (Full disclosure: I did have to ditch a few suspicious co-workers — all white — who probably voted for him and won’t admit it.)
For African-American voters who are irate or just uncomfortable with the idea that the former Vice President Joe Biden is banking on the black vote, I get it. No one should feel so confident that someone who is anti-Trump must be willing to vote for the former Vice President. Whether you want to acknowledge that the 44th president endorsed him, he worked under his leadership for four years and they still maintain a brotherly relationship right now is totally on you.
But I would strongly advise voters to pay attention to the theme of who is the most vocal against Joe Biden and constantly reminding black voters of the “You Ain’t Black” interview. It wreaks of the same social media (and news) desperation of “Hillary’s emails.”
Before you start listening to what this newly outraged person has to say about Joe Biden, pay attention to these social media tips first.
What year did this user join Twitter? If it wasn’t before 2016, and you don’t see much more than a flood of tweets about politics and politicians, pay attention to the theme.
Check that user’s Twitter name with a few keywords: Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump. Joe Biden. Maxine Waters. Eric Holder. Kamala Harris. Mitch McConnell. You will more often than not find that the views of this user are deeply conservative.
Check that user’s Twitter name against hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter #racialprofiling #racism. You will more often than not find that this user is all about blue life and thinks legitimate racial profiling is all a big misunderstanding, overreaction or “playing the race card.” Or, this person has never talked about racism — unless it benefits Trump.
Check that user’s Twitter name to see what this person has to say about African-Americans before “You Ain’t Black.” There will be many cases in which it really is legitimate black folks who are very much for and of the culture. But there’s also an interesting (and higher) dismissal or no mention of black people and racism — until it’s related to voting for a Republican base.
If the Twitter image looks like an African-American stock photo or just variations of the same photo over and over again, I’m willing to bet this is someone non-black who created a new account. Now this user is passionate about racism — for today anyway.
Photo credit: Pixabay
Look up the Bernie Bros. This is a group who is hell bent on pouting after their presidential candidate was no longer on the ballot. They are also likely to not vote at all or vote for Donald Trump again. | https://medium.com/i-do-see-color/the-joe-biden-outrage-over-you-aint-black-sounds-suspicious-1717c4e9f999 | ['Shamontiel L. Vaughn'] | 2020-05-28 03:08:36.197000+00:00 | ['Charlamagne Tha God', 'Joe Biden', 'Racism', 'Race', 'Election 2020'] |
Bikeshare is coming to Metro Manila | Bikeshare is coming to Metro Manila
In the wake of COVID-19, active mobility gained significant ground in cities across the world. Slow streets, pop-up bike lanes, and bike lending programs were urgently implemented as mass transit struggled to balance public health safety and demand.
In a progressive move, consistent with this global trend, the Philippine government included 1.3-billion pesos (~27-million USD) for cycling and walking paths in the major urban areas of Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao, as well as a bikeshare project for Metro Manila, in its emergency response fund, named “Bayanihan to Recover as One Act 2”, more commonly referred to as Bayanihan 2.
Demonstration pop-up bike lane along main thoroughfare EDSA, Metro Manila. In cooperation with Bikers United Marshals, MMDA and Greenpeace, the August 2020 pilot advocated for permanent bicycle infrastructure. Photo Credit: Jilson Tiu for Greenpeace
The national government stepped up the commitment through a Joint Administrative Order titled “Guidelines on the Proper Use and Promotion of Active Transport During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic” outlining agency roles. It was signed by the Department of Transportation, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Health, and Department of Interior and Local Government. A December 2, 2020 joint task force press conference showed that the inter-agency approach is helping align efforts.
The Department of Health is championing the agenda as a crucial part of the country’s COVID-19 response. “With active transport, physical distancing is better carried out by the individual. They no longer have to line up and ride the public transportation vehicles with other passengers. The risk for COVID-19 transmission is also less in open air,” said DOH Secretary Duque during the conference.
The DOH effort includes the development of a Health Promotion Playbook for Active Transport which provides implementation plans and tools to help local governments create projects in their communities. The Playbook is a necessary catalyst for updating standards and investments that have prioritized vehicles over people for decades.
One encouraging sign is the Department of Public Works and Highways release of Departmental Order 88 “Prescribing Guidelines on the Design of Bicycle Facilities on National Roads” which not only requires integration of bicycle infrastructure in agency projects but sets minimum standards for doing so. The big caveat remains that the guidelines will be implemented when feasible, leaving room to skirt the mandate.
The national government deserves major kudos, but it is worth noting that these budget, program, and policy wins have not emerged from thin air. A deeply-rooted advocacy community has lobbied for these reforms for years.
When public transport shut down and commuters were left stranded during a series of lockdowns across the country, an impressive 120+ citizen-led organizations came together to strengthen efforts, calling themselves the Move as One Coalition. The Coalition’s constant public presence- writing to policy makers, testifying in hearings, arranging webinars, speaking to media, disseminating information on social media, working directly with government agencies and cities to develop programs- has both assisted and pressured the national government to build this active mobility agenda.
It is within this momentum that bikeshare arose as a possibility. Bike use surged during the pandemic and bike shops around Philippine cities struggled to keep up with demand for bikes, parts, and repairs. Bike lending programs launched to provide units to essential workers and bike parking ramped up in hospitals and commercial centers. Bikeshare looked like a promising prospect.
To fill public transportation gaps, Filipinos rely on bikes as an affordable, accessible mode of transport, especially in times of crisis. Bike use sales surged as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded across Philippine cities. Photo Credit: Philippine Star June 1, 2020
During DOTr’s presentation at the December 2 press conference, the national transport agency revealed details about its bikeshare program. The program, worth 15% of the total active transport budget, includes 28 stations, focused on MRT stations, medical facilities, city halls, national government facilities, and commercial establishments with a total of 702 bike units.
According to the map presented, the system focuses on the megacity’s main thoroughfare, a highway called EDSA. The DOTr notes that the “number and location of stations are tentative as the project team is currently evaluating the feasibility of installing bike share stations in the identified facilities.”
Image Credit: Department of Transportation Facebook Page
This is not the first government attempt to establish a bikeshare system in Metro Manila. Previous versions include the Asian Development Bank-supported Tutubi bike share pilots in Bonifacio Global City and Pasig City, Pasig City’s own bike share project, and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s makeshift bike lending program.
These well-intentioned projects struggled to scale reliable service to the public, leaving much room for the upcoming bikeshare system to showcase a better way forward. So how can the DOTr ensure that this time bikeshare will be a success? Check out Part 2 here. | https://medium.com/@julianebrija/bikeshare-is-coming-to-metro-manila-f431d8f60fed | ['Julia Nebrija'] | 2020-12-16 13:52:54.295000+00:00 | ['Bikeshare', 'Metro Manila', 'Bicycles', 'Urban Planning', 'Mobility'] |
Dear Rich People | Licensed from Adobe Stock/RawPixel (2020)
All we want is happiness
We don’t want your dirty cash
We just want to live our lives
Without an endless money dash
The things we value
Your money can’t buy
We’re not the same as you
We have no need to lie
We don’t ever get a charge
From putting others down
We believe that living large
Means lots of friends in our town
We may hate school
Because it wastes our time
We don’t need to follow rules
That cover up your crimes
We don’t believe in telling
Others what to do
Taking but never giving
To enrich the very few
You got rich by cheating
Lying and ripping off
You know zero about living
Or what real humans go through
Change is coming rich people
Like thunder in the distance
Like the avalanche on the mountain
Like the waves on the shore
Like the sun rising over the horizon
Change is coming rich people
And it is coming for you | https://medium.com/@asterling/dear-rich-people-5f1696ce6747 | ['Amy Sterling Casil'] | 2020-12-13 13:50:31.735000+00:00 | ['Wealth Inequality', 'Rich People', 'Poetry', 'Poetry Sunday', 'Social Justice'] |
How Never “Fitting in” Has Made Me a Natural Leader | Growing up, I never fit in and to this day I’m sure most people consider me something of an iconoclastic weirdo. My difference from most of society boils down to two things from my point of view:
My startup; Our platform is still under construction here: https://mobiusaudio.live
For starters, I’ve always had a unique personality type that many find difficult to interpret if they don’t know me well enough to understand the way I think. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had miscommunications because of the assumptions others have made about what’s apparent in my words or actions. According to the Myers-Briggs personality test, I’m an INFJ-T type personality. The rarest of all personality types. Having issues with CPTSD and the social anxiety that comes with it certainly doesn’t help my issue with relating to others “properly”.
Second, I’ve had a uniquely difficult path that has served a dual purpose: both to test my strength in ways many people could only imagine and to alienate me from the feelings of being connected with society at-large. When I was five my mother violently divorced my father for a registered sex offender, and then spent first grade being smuggled across a state line weekly to avoid the appearance of violating a divorce agreement for visitation rights after my mother moved out-of-state. At the end of that school year, I was raped in a bathroom stall by another student only to be brushed off because the story was too incredible coming from an eccentric first-grader. To top it off, three months later my mother passed away at police hands while she and her pedophile fiancee tried to murder my father in his own home to end the custody battle for my sister and I.
Most citizens of the first world can’t really relate to the experiences I detail above… especially not when you consider I had gone through all of this by the age of seven. I don’t say this to downplay the struggles of others at all. We all have our own path to walk in life and we all deal with these traumas differently. But, for you to understand who I am now its entirely necessary to understand who and what I come from because I’m certainly a special blend. If you look at it through a purely psychometric lens, I may very well have ended up being some sort of psychopathic criminal if I had made some of the wrong choices and kept some of the wrong people in my life.
Struggling to Find Myself
My father and I have never seen eye-to-eye, even from a young age. We were always very different in all the right ways and similar in all the wrong ones. We’re both extremely tenacious and determined personalities. We are the two most stubborn people I’ve ever met in my life and when we want something, we pursue it with an unrivaled single-mindedness. These qualities make he and I strong leaders in what we pursue, but they also tend to create lots of opportunities for conflict when he and I hold very different outlooks on life.
The chief of these outlooks is my career. You see, my father is the straight-laced and materially focused type. His careers have included the steel industry, aerospace/military technology design, trading floor of the NYSE and construction. To him, art and music should be relegated to hobby. He views professional musicians as “people who didn’t have the skills or opportunity to do much else in life”. As someone who is now a professional musician working with some of my biggest heroes on my debut album, I can’t help but point out the irony of that statement coming from a man who has been playing guitar for almost 50 years and still can’t read sheet music or write songs of his own. He kicked me out of the house at age 18 when his girlfriend at the time locked me out after a major argument, leaving me homeless in the harsh winters of Northern Utah. The chief point of contention? The fact that I wasn’t able to pay my own health or car insurance yet because I’d taken an internship with a talent agency to further my goals rather than something higher-paying. My mental health after graduating high school was in complete meltdown and to this day I maintain that I would not have been able to hold down a normal job in my fragile condition at the time. Two years later when I became the youngest CEO ever selected to present at the prestigious COLLISION conference and I asked for help in making it to the event his response was “I’m not continuing to fund this ego trip of yours any longer”. Never mind the fact that I was mostly self-funded at that point by working as many hours as my managers would give me, but plane tickets are an expensive commodity to someone that isn’t even old enough to drink yet.
Getting ready to present at COLLISION
To my father’s credit, my path into the entertainment industry got off to a rough start. After my first job as an intern for my agent at the time, I ended up getting my first record deal offer and I was absolutely over the moon — until it came time to “negotiate” the terms of the contract. My single-minded approach toward this opportunity was what led me to take a job with a music industry non-profit called World Peace One. This ended up being one of the worst and best decisions I’ve ever made simultaneously. I didn’t know it at the time, but the founder of WP1 has a reputation a mile long in the entertainment industry for being a very high-level con artist having ripped some very famous acts off in the past with rumors of embezzlement swirling around their “organization”. Following my new boss Lawrence out to Oregon to play some shows for him ultimately led me to move there to pursue the opportunity only to be told one day after arrival that I would need to move to Los Angeles with him. Moving to LA with him led to me getting abandoned by him in a town I didn’t know with all of my possessions still locked up in a storage unit clear up in Oregon. I was totally on my own and cut off from all my support networks. My only solution was to endure periodic homelessness and couch surfing in the strangest variety of both the richest and poorest suburbs of Southern California. One night, I’d be staying in a mansion in the Palos Verdes estates. The next, I’d be sleeping in my car a mile North of Compton. After that, I’d be crashing in a heroin house in Canoga Park even though I didn’t do any drugs other than smoking Cannabis to ease my CPTSD symptoms. I woke up in the middle of police raids on multiple occasions with the LAPD SWAT team using my car as cover, facing the fact that if a firefight broke out with the meth house across the street they would knowingly use me as a human shield. My blind loyalty to my sense of purpose led me to endure these things thinking that one of my bosses would eventually “slip up” and give me some legitimate work in the most stressful game of chess you could ever play. I can only imagine how scared my father must have been during this time, considering he doesn’t really know much of my survival skills. I understand his bias towards what I do after watching me go through with that — but I still disagree with it.
I tell you this not to rail on my dear father, nor to earn your sympathy with my sob stories but to illustrate how the complex nature of my life and our relationship truly set the stage for my outlook on and path in life. To show you that from day one, I’ve had to learn the difference between mentorship, criticism and Machiavellianism the hard way. From day one, I’ve had to learn the process of sorting out constructive vs destructive advice and who its coming from — even if that destructive advice is given with the best intentions.
Learning to Use Pain as a Motivator
As horrible as that experience sounds (and was), I learned a set of skills that most kids raised in a rich-blooded place like Park City, UT will never have because they’ve never been pushed anywhere near such discomfort. Especially not in the name of fighting for something they believe in. Better yet, I ended up making friends with some of my heroes through this path and because of that was able to establish my reputation as an “up and comer” in the music industry. Getting to meet one of your favorite artists or one of their producers is quite an experience. Earning their respect and friendship is an honor unlike any other I’ve had to date.
With Lorelei Mcbroom and Dave Fowler from Australian Pink Floyd Show — two of my most valued mentors
Here we are, with me at age twenty-three at the time of writing this. I’ve now been an elementary school band/orchestra teacher, an agency worker, a performer, producer of my own record, CEO of a cymbal company I once endorsed as an artist and the founder of a streaming-based record label called Mobius that is my flagship project. Having experience with every aspect of the music industry from equipment manufacturing, to distribution, to education, to being an artist myself has given me a unique knowledge base very few possess. I can’t think of any record label executives that have been public school music educators in the past. I’m very proud to have such a holistic insight into the industry. Everything I do is dedicated to making the world a better place for other musicians. To go through the underworld so that tomorrows musicians — some of my students — won’t have to. I believe having this unique combination of experiences puts me in a position to become the go-to music industry guru by the time I’m thirty years old. That’s my goal, anyway.
Judging the Northern Utah High School Battle of the Bands
Performing at the 2017 BMI Snowball at Sundance Film Festival
Still living in my car at the time of writing (don’t worry, I’m talking to a friend about renting a room), I’m now the only homeless person I know with a former Goldman-Sachs accounting executive working with me to launch a startup. I’m the only homeless person I know with a lot of his biggest heroes helping him carve his grand entry to the world-level music scene; and I’m the only homeless person I know that gets private meetings with members of congress to address the issues I care about. The many trials and tribulations aside, I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s my identity at this point. It suits me. As difficult as it is, I like being the person that makes people think twice when they assess harsh judgments on those who are struggling. I like being the enigmatic figure that makes people say “is he for real?”. I like being more than meets the eye.
Meeting with Rob Bishop to discuss the issues facing young entrepreneurs like me
A Work Always in Progress
The arcane and autodidactic nature of my personality is exactly what made bootcamp programs like Praxis and Bottega a more logical choice than college to continue my education. For starters, the college social scene just isn’t my cup of tea (can you blame me after being picked on all through primary schooling?). I can’t imagine myself at a large University and being happy at the same time. I just don’t value the idea of a social circle as much as many people do. I pick and choose my friends based on characteristics, not proximity. I also learn best when I’m given the opportunity to teach myself rather than being force-fed pedantic assignments, so being able to work on real projects as a means of learning is absolutely ideal. I carve my own path. I always have. Praxis is there to give me resources to continue to do that rather than force me to put my life on hold for the sake of earning a certificate that cost me five or six figures of debt.
Everything I do is built into Mobius. Rather than passively complain about the current state of music as so many coffee shop revolutionaries do, I offer solutions to guide us to a new golden age. I work to build a new model for the industry in the twenty first century having experienced the depravity of the current one first-hand. I teach students the way I wish I would have been taught so that tomorrow’s musicians may be more musically literate and creative than today’s. I work to design exciting new equipment to expand the sonic palette available to artists who value experimentation as much as I do. Will I one day become wealthy in doing so? Very likely. But that isn’t my goal. The correlation between income and quality of life ends at $200K per annum, so anything I make beyond that will probably just get re-invested into my projects. At the end of the day, I exhaust myself like this for the love of my craft. I don’t need be reminded of this, either. My reminders come when my student’s eyes light up during a lesson and I can think “I made a musician today”. My reminders come when people who have worked with my idols tell me how much potential they see in me. My reminder comes every time a struggling artist gives me his/her phone number and says “your platform sounds amazing, please let me know when it’s up and running” or a drummer tries my cymbals for the first time and falls in love like I did. That’s why I’m in this business: revive art and culture any way I can or die trying. | https://medium.com/on-breaking-the-mold/how-never-fitting-in-has-made-me-a-natural-leader-bc6bc3ecfcbe | ['Carter Pochynok'] | 2019-10-29 14:28:10.169000+00:00 | ['Music', 'Praxis', 'Homelessness', 'Biography', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
Scientific Method | Call it a tear in your throat.
I am the long, sleepless night you’ve been waiting for.
One moment here, the next gone -
don’t call 911 when anyone leaves, including me.
Call it a glance.
I am simply here for the ride;
well, the ride of every recollection you may have longed for.
Not to say I do not miss you -
I am an enigma that even I have yet to understand.
Call it a loss. Maybe you, too,
can hypothesize me into existence.
Maybe you can manifest me.
It’s true that the only way to get your answers is by actively seeking them out.
Don’t ask me who I am, though,
I don’t have a response for that.
I do, however, enjoy things associated with dirt.
You know, earth.
Water.
Biological stuff.
Because that is all we are:
mysteries, wrapped in biological stuff…
however, some (mysteries) simply must remain mysteries.
Call it, perhaps, curiosity.
I’d rather die than live a boring life and that’s why I am still alive. | https://medium.com/@cassidybishop27/scientific-method-3a9cb0c94562 | ['Cassidy Bishop'] | 2020-12-27 17:54:44.648000+00:00 | ['Poem', 'Personal', 'Experimental', 'Poetry', 'Poet'] |
The Beauty of Data Visualisation | Design matters
Back in 2012 Nadieh, a graduate student at Leiden University at the time attended Deloitte’s Business Course where she discovered that although strategy consulting may not be for her, the analytics team within the Business Intelligence department could be a great match. As such, she applied for a position and eventually received a job offer. Being a layman in the field turned out to be helpful she explains: “At the start of each case I was far from a subject-matter expert. Therefore, it was quite easy to take a step back and remind myself of how I would have explained it to a younger me.” By doing this she learned about the importance of design: “People trust things that look good. Once our slides were well-designed the client presentations usually went smoother.”
Chord diagram: Switching between mobile phone brands (Deloitte Global Mobile Consumer Survey)
Although aesthetics has always had her utmost attention, Nadieh only later found out there’s actually such a thing as a data visualizer. At a Strata conference in 2013, she was introduced to the principles of the JavaScript library D3 which turned out to be an important turning point in her career. “I fell in love with all the possibilities. For example, I saw these amazing interactive charts on the New York Times website and thought: hopefully I’ll be the one creating them someday.” However, she still needed to acquire the necessary skillset, so she started reading books about design and playing around with D3 in her spare time. Initially, she could barely put her newly acquired knowledge to use at Deloitte, though slowly but surely this changed as she became more proficient in the programming language: “Over time I became more and more efficient so that I could eventually use the tools in my everyday work for clients.”
From then on she increasingly specialized in dataviz and even changed career tracks to Adyen as a full-time data visualisation designer in 2015. After a year of primarily (re)creating dashboards, she eventually decided to continue as a freelancer because of the freedom and variety of projects. | https://medium.com/the-outlier/the-beauty-of-data-visualisation-976e2f96929c | ['Roy Klaasse Bos'] | 2020-06-15 19:38:03.704000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Careers', 'Data Science'] |
I am writing this as a guide to start investing for people with zero investing knowledge. | I am writing this as a guide to start investing for people with zero investing knowledge. The idea is to distill down the investing tools to use as well as covering the different platforms that is currently available in Singapore.
Determine the goal of investing
This like many other guides on the internet is a crucial step as it determines the risk profile, the type of investments and the period of investing for the person in question. Are you investing for retirement? Are you investing to buy a house? or is this for something else?
Likewise, your age & profession, how much you save, the amount of savings you have and the amount of time you want to use to manage your finances are all important criteria for determining what best suit your needs.
I would largely break this down into 3 broad categories as shown below:
1. Low-risk investment portfolio
Typically more suited for people who are already in the older phases in life where they are not intending to grow their capital but to preserve capital.
Also for people who are putting money aside for their house, instead of putting money in the bank for low-interest rates
These include investment instruments such as money market funds (i.e. short term loans from banks to banks, etc.) and government bonds for instance, which are very safe assets
2. Moderate-risk investment portfolio
Moderate risk investments I would say is more diversified with some exposure in equity depending on your risk profile and age
I would categorize dividend / dividend growth investing into this space, together with 60/40 equity-fixed income portfolios here
Generally slightly risky – meaning you would expect a reasonable downside to your invested capital if the markets slump
More suited for mid-career people who are looking for some growth but also some decent returns on dividend payouts etc.
3. High-risk investment portfolio
High risk investment portfolios which are suited for younger audience, willing to forgo dividend in return for growth
Typically higher allocation to equities vs other asset classes like real estate and fixed income
Step 1: If you are trying to learn investing without any knowledge, the best would be to use a roboadvisor – I do not recommend wealth managers because the percentage cut of fees they take is a considerable amount if you don’t have a significant sum invested with them. Below are 3 Singapore based roboadvisors I would recommend on multiple attributes including usablility (UI/UX), investment asset classes used, fees, education platform etc.
You can go to their respective websites to read on the portfolios they provide, their fees and their historical returns so I won’t repeat useless information.
Stashaway
https://www.stashaway.sg
Referral Code: https://www.stashaway.sg/referrals/yeocd8dk
Generally the one I recommend for most beginners due to its simple UI, responsive customer service, weekly seminar that’s easy to understand and decent returns
Syfe
https://www.syfe.com/
Referral Code: SRPZ8169Y
One interesting fact is that they have a REITs portfolio (real estate investment trusts) which provides steady stream of dividend on the real estate portfolio they hold through rentals. Therefore a moderate risk investment tool
EndowUs
https://endowus.com/
Referral Code: https://endowus.com/invite?code=WP2LE
One interesting product they have allows you to invest your CPF monies which the other 2 platforms does not allow at this point in time.
This is sufficient for most people who don’t want to spend too much time monitoring their investments, to set up a recurring deposit every month like another savings account. This would require at most an hour a month to manage – and most of them has a webapp or mobile app which gives you easy access to review your portfolio performance.
Step 2: Once you learnt the basics, know what’s a portfolio, what’s a stock, what are ETFs. and want more control of your portfolio based on your needs. You should move on to step 2, where you purchase your own ETFs, bonds or stocks. These are generally higher risks as you will be managing these yourself.
There are 3 discount brokers I would recommend, and I do not recommend local bank brokerages due to the high fees – unless you are a premium customer and has good rates with the banks
Alternatively there are 3 other Brokers I would recommend starting out so you understand how to submit the trades yourself
First, if you don’t have experience with buying stocks yourself. UI/UX is very important for learning how to setup trades.
Saxo Capital
https://www.home.saxo/
UI and app is simple and reasonably easy to use
Access to international markets
Good to start with investing by yourself
Philips Capital
https://www.poems.com.sg/
Have not used this personally but UI and costs are similar to Saxo
DBS Vickers
If you are a DBS banking customer, they have the cheapest rates for local bank brokerages
UI is horrible
Or you can jump directly to a discount broker as listed below;
Interactive Brokers
https://ibkr.com/referral/cheehiong787
This is the broker I use personally for my main portfolio
It has the best FX spreads and lowest fees for quality execution at min US$1/trade
Access to most international markets and investment tools
TD Ameritrade
https://www.tdameritrade.com.sg/
Zero commission trading – there are downsides of this to be covered in another article
Only access to US markets
Tiger Brokers | https://medium.com/@cheehiongyeo/i-am-writing-this-as-a-guide-to-start-investing-for-people-with-zero-investing-knowledge-c15e683210bc | ['Cheehiong Yeo'] | 2020-12-18 10:54:02.701000+00:00 | ['Singapore', 'Stocks', 'Portfolio', 'Investing', 'Invest'] |
AMAL TOTAKY | AMAL TOTAKY
1.Self talk
“BE MINDFUL OF YOUR SELF TALKS. IT’S CONVERSATION WITH UNIVERSE .”
This is very important to talk to your self.We always ready to talk to other people all the day but we have not time to talk to ourselves. Self talk help you in many different ways.The most important thing is to know yourself. We know other person very well but the person for which we must know is ourself.Self talk help us to improve our thoughts. We can motivate our self by doing self talks.
2.Get out from your comfort zone:
Every thing in this world happen when someone put some extra efforts in it.To achieve something in life wants some extra hard work .For this we put ourselves in some pain.We have to leave our comfort then we are able to achieve our goals.
3.Creat new habit:
Every successful person have very strong good habits. Habit makes things easy for doing so if we want to achieve our goal we must make habits that helps to grow in our vision. So we have to make new habits to go on that path. Although its not easy to make new thing so its take time and effort to develop new habits.
3.Fake It till you make it:
The things we imagine will help to make our ways. The things we imagine most of the time will happen with us most of the time. So for achieving your goals start imagine yourself on that place that you want .When you that , it will help you to move on this path.When you start faking ìt one day surely you get this place.
4.Ask people help:
We all human beings and no one from us is perfect so most of the time we don’t know all the things.So we must be open minded about getting help from others.For our future path if we don’t know anything, we must ask other people to helps and we should be thankful to them for their help.So we must have some people that know us very well so we ask them for help without any hesitation. | https://medium.com/@fatima.mehmood163/amal-totaky-2466bfd82052 | ['Fatima Mehmood'] | 2020-12-26 02:47:13.600000+00:00 | ['Amal Academy', 'Amal Fellowship'] |
Bigger Than Us #123: A More Diverse Green Space | Bigger Than Us #123: A More Diverse Green Space
Kerry Bowie is the Managing Partner of Msaada Partners and the Majira Project. Msaada is Swahili for “service”, and the strategy firm empowers social impact through consulting, coaching, and connecting. Majira is Swahili for “summer’’, so in a nod to the growing season the nonprofit accelerator program and innovator support organization helps small businesses and startups grow with a mission of community development through entrepreneurship.
Kerry also launched the Browning the Green Space Initiative which is a group of cross-sector leaders striving to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in clean energy and beyond. Kerry works at the nexus of social, economic, and environmental justice and has more than 20 years of experience in private, public, and nonprofit management. In addition to holding leadership positions at his church, Kerry is a Food Solutions New England Trailblazer, mentors and teaches start-up firms as part of the MIT Venture Mentoring Service and the New England Regional Innovation Node, and serves on the Black Innovation Alliance Leadership Team, Boston Ujima Project Investment Committee, MIT Graduate Alumni Council, MIT Sloan Affinity Groups Alumni Advisory Council, SI Ventures Advisory Board, and the Board of Museum Advisors of the Museum of Science. Kerry holds bachelors and masters degrees in environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Michigan, respectively, as well as an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Kerry lives in Somerville, MA with his wife, Sherri-Ann, and two young daughters, Alexis and Sophia.
Bigger Than Us Episode 123
This transcription has been edited for readability.
Host Raj Daniels 02:18
If you were out share something interesting about yourself, what would it be?
Kerry Bowie 02:34
I think I’ve always played at a number of different you know, spaces. So in the public sector, the private sector, the nongovernmental sector. And that goes back to even when I first started college, I started on a Navy ROTC scholarship at MIT. Maybe this is an interesting piece of that. Not exactly where I ended up, but this was around the time of Top Gun. So I thought I was going to be a fighter pilot or reo. So back in the Maverick and Goose days.
Host Raj Daniels
Can you give the audience an overview of Msaada Partners and your role at the organization?
Kerry Bowie 07:26
Msaada Partners is the strategy consulting firm that I started coming out of state government. Masada is Swahili for service. And so the thought was that we empower social impact through consulting, coaching, and connecting, and really just trying to make sure that the target is on organizations led by founders of color, organizations that are targeting underserved are under-resourced communities.
I was doing a lot of work with MIT’s mentor mentoring service. I was helping a lot of startups and companies to do work on sort of a volunteer basis. They just didn’t look like me. They were mostly young, white guys, and Asian students. And so did not see a lot of African Americans or Latinx. And then also not a lot of women, per se. I was trying to see how we can help there. And so that’s how we started. Unfortunately, startups and small businesses don’t typically have the money to pay for consulting fees. And so we had to pivot a little bit. So we got other people to pay us to work with the company. So had a contract with the city of Boston, actually just now about applied to re-up on that. I started doing work formally with MIT, where I am a core instructor with the National Science Foundation. So I am an instructor for the innovation core or, or I-Corps program. And we started to work with some nonprofits who had a little more funds to work on strategic plans or to think about earned income or revenue.
The only problem with that Raj is, you know, doing the I-Corps work, still didn’t see a lot of Black or Brown people in that program. Even some of the work with the city of Boston wasn’t necessarily working with Black or Brown founders or owners. Did do a lot of that with some of the nonprofits, but it wasn’t in the for-profit space where I was targeting. And so that really led to starting a pro bono program with one of my classmates from MIT Sloan, who was at the time a partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group. And out of that came the Madeira project.
So, similarly, in Swahili, Madeira is Swahili for summer. And so in a nod to the growing season, what we do is we tried to help those small businesses, and I was talking about in the for-profit space to grow.
So similar to a seed or seedling, it needs sunlight, water, nutrients, you know, a pot to grow in or place to take root. Startups and small businesses need the same thing. But in the form of, you know, consulting, coaching, connections, capital, access to capital. So that’s what we do. And we formally turn that into a nonprofit earlier this year, actually, on Juneteenth. I purposely did it on Juneteenth, in terms of the significance of that day.
…oftentimes, unfortunately, you see when people talk diversity, they’ll point to the gender lens…it can’t just be that. We’ve got to do more if we’re really talking about diversity in this country.
Host Raj Daniels 11:22
Well, congratulations on that. Let’s double click here on one of your initiatives regarding or called Browning the Green Space. Can you share with the audience what that is and what you’re trying to accomplish?
Kerry Bowie 11:41
A couple of things we learned with the Madeira project over the last four years that we’ve been working on it, we’ve learned that these small businesses, the startups, need technical assistance. They need a sense of community or space, but also just connections.
But what we really found out is at access to capital, and the numbers are sort of staggering, as you look at, you know, the amount of funding that goes to Black and Brown entrepreneurs. The number is something like 3–4% of funding goes to women, and like 1% goes to African Americans. So if you happen to be an African American woman, and I think it’s something like point 0003, or I don’t even know what it is.
But it’s so small, that it’s in a sense, laughable, or maybe scrabble. In doing this work, I started to talk to a lot of angel investors and VCs across the country, especially VC funds being led by Black or Brown people.
I remember being at that conference in DC, I think there were at least 1,000 people in the room. And I could count the Black and Brown people on two hands. And I didn’t need all my fingers.
And so one of those guys, our friend, John Louis, who’s actually from Somerville, interestingly enough, and is now in California. He had a carve-out for a company and not a lot, but maybe like 100 K. And he reached out to me and said, Hey, are you interested in investing in this Black founder out of Greentown Labs in Somerville, you know where I am? And I said, Hey, I’m starting all these things. I don’t have the dry powder right now. But I’m happy to reach out to some people in my network. And that’s what I did. And I reached out to them and specifically said, Hey, would you be interested? And actually, I’ll just call his name. Joshua Aviv. Joshua is one of the founders of Spark Charge. And so they do battery packs for cars. And what I was able to do is I reached out to a whole bunch of people and got them a little bit of money, maybe about 25 K to go in this round. That was my specific request.
But my general request is, Hey, I love to talk about Browning the Green Space. I think I had gotten away from that. Because there’s a, at least in Massachusetts, where I am, there’s a one-year cooling-off period where you’re not supposed to, if you leave work in those areas, and I was an Associate Commissioner of operations, I touched a lot of stuff. You know, I was doing brownfields clean up contaminated properties. I was doing environmental justice where I was doing food policy were and I probably took it too far. But that is a little bit of that tax of being a Black man in America, I think I was dotting my i’s and crossing my t’s. I wanted to be ultra-safe or ultra-conservative. In that, I probably could have been a little more relaxed. But I didn’t want to do that.
And the problem was that one year turned into like three and a half, almost four years. And I didn’t do work. And in sort of the green space where I’m trained, I did environmental engineering yet, MIT undergrad and got a Master’s at the University of Michigan and actually got into the Ph. D. program in Georgia Tech and worked in semiconductor manufacturing, doing facilities and environmental and safety. I hadn’t really been doing that. And I think all of this sort of coming back full circle, I realized I was in a few meetings on this topic and going wow, I feel like I still know more than most of the people in this meeting. And I haven’t done this work in like four or five years. And so that, that was sort of an aha moment that said, Hey, I really know this stuff. I should be doing work in the green space.
I think the other piece, the reason I left the government was a little bit about this, you know when I was doing work and environmental injustice, talking about climate change, and greenhouse gases, going around the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to what we call gateway cities. And for your listeners who aren’t in Massachusetts, a gateway city is a city where there’s, you know, not Boston, you know, Boston’s the big, the big nut. But those other big cities that, maybe there’s been disinvestment, they probably have high immigrant populations, manufacturing has moved away, there are gonna be, you know, lower-income communities. There’s probably high English isolation in these communities. And so in going around and talking in those communities about climate change, and greenhouse gases, a lot of those folks will look at me, like, Hey, we’re not climate change deniers we get it is important.
But for us, it’s not as important as jobs is not as important as, you know, affordable housing is not as important as education and affordable transportation and access to healthy food and the police harassing us, and I got it, you know, as a black man, I got it. But as an environmental engineer and a public servant, I was like, hey, these things are not mutually exclusive.
It’s unfortunate that the Black, Brown, low, moderate-income communities, are getting more than their fair share of what I call the “environmental bads”—the brownfields, asthma, the pollution. But we’re missing out on the environmental goods. So missing out on the cleantech, the energy efficiency, the renewable energy, jobs. This has to change. Because this is, this is big.
So one of my friends, David Danielson, who helped to start the MIT energy club, he’s now a breakthrough energy venture out in California. But at a time he was at ARPA E. And I think he was maybe an assistant secretary at the Department of Energy. I remember going down and this will be it. Governor Schwarzenegger was Governor Schwarzenegger at the time I went to a conference. And I remember being at that conference in DC, I think there were at least 1000 people in the room. And I could count the Black and Brown people on two hands. And I didn’t need all my fingers. There probably seven people there. And I was going, Hey, these people are not and I’m not knocking tree huggers. And environmentalist and I, I love them. But this is not who was in a room. These were people who are, you know, business people making money. They saw the business opportunity in this in this space. And I was going man, we are about to be left out.
That was really what precipitated me leaving to say I want to brown the green space. The problem was like I said, I was being cautious, you know, trying to adhere to that one-year cooling-off period and I got somewhat distant from it. But this piece of doing the Madeira project, and meeting these VCs, and understand this capital piece, it brought me back to what is now Browning the Green Space.
And so, as I said, I got money for Josh and Spark Charge. And interestingly enough, maybe a month or so ago, Josh and his partner, actually were on Shark Tank. They received some investment from Mark Cuban and Lori Grenier. But I knew Josh before that, and so like I said, we got the money. But I think more exciting. And more important than that, is I woke up some folks in the Boston area, who said, Hey, we would love to have this conversation with you about Browning the Green Space. And so people at the Northeast Clean Energy Council people at New England women and energy and environment, people at the Prime Coalition and Prime Impact Fund, people at the American Association of Blacks in Energy, and others.
I probably got myself in trouble just naming a few. But there are a number of organizations, but we started having conversations. And those conversations, I think I sent that message I refer to back like the beginning of August and 2019. And I think I had a few conversations with some folks over that summer. And by that fall, we said hey, let’s open this up, let’s invite some more people. We did that. And this is pre-COVID. So we got to do those meetings in person. We did a meeting in October, came back and did another meeting in February, I think we were scheduled to meet, and then that’s when COVID in. And so everything from there went virtual. So we did everything online. But we had a few more meetings. And like I said we formally incorporated Browning the Green Space as a nonprofit in Massachusetts, at the end of September.
Host Raj Daniels 22:03
So let’s speak directly about Browning the Green Space. Earlier this year, quite a few cities in Texas, Dallas, and Houston being the big ones released climate action plans, you know, if you had the ear of let’s say government officials, establishment, etc. What are some of the steps they could take to start brown in the green space? You know, you mentioned funding, obviously, the first one, but what are some other steps they could take?
Kerry Bowie 22:28
That’s great. Let me explain what we’re doing. And maybe that will help. Because I think governments can be involved in not all of the pieces because I am. I grew up in Alabama and spent time in Texas, but I was schooled in Massachusetts and Michigan. So I’m about as purple as they come. I’m sort of right in, in the middle. And so I believe in sort of right-size government, I think government can’t fix everything. I think that the private sector has to play. And I think they need to play by the rules that they play by, which is, you know, I think there definitely is a profit motive. But I do believe in a triple bottom line. And I think that’s one of my biggest learnings being in, in the public sector is, man, it’s so much harder to me than the private sector. The private sector is very easy to identify who your customer is, you can actually fire customers, you can be really focused.
You cannot do that in government. In government, everybody is a stakeholder and everybody you need to take care of to a certain extent.
And so in a sense, it does not become a what is it a maximization, you know, in the private sector, you maximize profits in the public sector is an optimization or minimax deal where it’s interesting, where you sort of know you’ve done your job when nobody’s completely happy. And so it’s a weird sort of space to be in oftentimes, it’s pretty thankless because nobody is being truly ever completely fulfilled, except in a few cases. So, with that being said, the five pillars that we’re working on in Browning the Green Space are first around careers is really how are we sort of mapping out a pathway to employment for Black and Brown folk and low moderate-income for women. Our target is on race, not gender. One because you know, they’re, they’re women who are part of their Black women are Latinos. And so I think we get that, because oftentimes, unfortunately, you see when people talk diversity, they’ll point to the gender lens. And it’s about white women. It can’t just be that we’ve got to do more if we’re really talking about diversity in this country.
So I think our first is around careers. And so how do we have a pathway? And so I guess there’s an education side to that, that’s elementary and Secondary Education. That’s about trade schools is about community colleges. So I think you’re right, from a government perspective, what our government’s doing, to make sure that the education that they’re providing is setting people up for the jobs that are in high demand and that are needed? Everybody doesn’t have to go to an Ivy League, most people don’t need to go. That’s not the training that people need. But how do we make sure people understand the training is necessary for this green economy? So that’s, that’s one is focusing on careers.
Second is focusing on companies, which is sort of the backside of that is sort of a two-sided marketplace. So where those people who are looking for gainful employment go they go to companies? How are those companies finding them? And so we’re working with those companies to make sure that they don’t have unconscious bias, or I don’t have it there, they are going to have it, but they can get beyond it, that they can put some structure and systematic things in place to make sure that they’re not blinded by it, those biases, that they’re intentional about where they’re, they’re looking, you know, are they looking at the collegiate level, or you’re looking at historically Black colleges and universities? Are they looking at Hispanic serving institutions? Are they looking at the National Society of Black Engineers, or the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, or the indigenous population? And so really being able to do things like that and think about it. And also just having some of those tough conversations with in corporations, because a lot of stuff is still old boy network. People come in because it’s who you know, not what you know. And how do we change that? And not just for sort of white-collar jobs, also blue-collar jobs? You know, in the union shops in the union halls? Are you bringing in Black people? Are you bringing in brown people? Are you bringing in women? I think there are some places for government and regulation in there. But a lot of them also on the market side. And I think our pieces looking at this is, you know, white-collar and blue-collar jobs. They both are green-collar jobs. And so that’s really our focus is on those green-collar jobs.
So Raj, you know, started with careers, then there are companies, and then going back to what you said, you know, there was this whole funding piece, and we split that into two groups. And so one is, capital is what we’re calling it. And that capital is probably more venture capital. And so going back to like a Josh, at Spark Charge, or, you know, there are other companies, I can name a bunch of them, but, you know, how do we get them? The technical assistance, consulting, the accelerators and incubators because even, you know, you’re in, you’re in Dallas, but Greentown Labs is here in Somerville, they just opened up in Houston. They’re working on this, but, you know, not a lot of Black and Brown people there. And so I think they’re actively and being more intentional about how they do that. But how can we make that?
That’s everywhere that we’re really thinking about that. So that’s on the capital side. So how can we support entrepreneurs? And then I think, similarly, capital, where we call it something different is, if you think about working capital and growth capital, more for small businesses or medium enterprises, how do we support them as well? Really more of the small businesses, and we’re calling that contracts. And so how can we focus on small businesses and make sure they’re getting the contracts? And this goes back to that government piece around procurement. And, you know, how are we making sure that the city of Houston or the city of Boston or other municipalities across the country, how are they making sure that, you know, vendors of color, especially in this green space, whether it’s around, you know, solar or wind or energy efficiency, or you know, LEED buildings or around water or some type of, you know, you know, food, something in green climate, tech or climate change space? How is that happening?
I’m here in Massachusetts. It’s easy for me to pick on Massachusetts in Boston because I’m most privy to that information. But the city of Boston, you know, if you look back at their procurement, in you, you targeted Black-owned companies, I mean, that number was like, you know, less than 1% or less than 2% as the last reporting, and it was going, Man, this is, you know, almost, you know, it’s kind of crazy. Like, that doesn’t make any sense. Because that makes a difference, if one of those vendors can get a $500,000, you know, contract, or a million-dollar contract, that’s a game-changer, because they can bring in some of that front office or back-office support that allows them also to go in and target other contracts. And there’s some interesting things and Massachusetts, you know, our massport organization is starting to do things where, you know, not just having people come in, as, you know, Black and Brown folk and subs, but, you know, having them come in and take equity stakes in some of these projects, and they’ve sort of built that into their the requisition, you know, their RFP process, and you and you can see how that starts to change how that starts to, you know, have people coming together and making joint ventures, and allows us to stand up some of these companies to do the work that they’ve been doing, they just haven’t been able to do at scale. Those are our four, so careers, companies, capital contracts.
And then the last one is really the first one, if I think about it, is around communities. Because ultimately, that’s what we’re trying to get to is, yeah, if you look at it, you know, those folks in the gateway cities, talked about those Black and Brown and low moderate-income folks. Those are the folks who need the technologies and solutions of the green economy more than anybody because they don’t actually don’t have disposable cash flow, a lot of them are living, check the check. And so, you know, having your home buttoned up, having solar, having access to hybrid electric vehicles, that actually makes a difference. Having clean air is very different.
If you go back to the tree huggers, there’s a piece where, hey, it is about the environment, we got to have trees to breathe, and we got to have the, you know, that the animals and all these things, but to me, this is all about people actually heard. You know, then-Senator Harris now, VP elect, Harris, as she was fundraising here, and one of the law firms. Actually, what Senator Moe Cohen, she was talking about this, California, and saying this stuff is real. We have forest fires, we’ve got flooding. We’ve got, you know, little children who have asthma. That’s what this is about to me. And so how do we change that.
And so if I bring that back to the northeast, where we are, I think this is also like another aha moment for me. I sit on the I’m a part of the MIT Sloan has a sustainability initiative where they bring in alarms, and they do a Renewable Energy Finance Roundtable. And people are talking about project finance and a bunch of different things in the space. And there are a handful of us who are thinking more at the community scale, and we do these challenge workshops. And so I did a challenge workshop probably four years ago. And in that challenge workshop, I talked about getting energy efficiency to low moderate income. One of the data points that really jumped out to me, and I can’t remember the exact figures but the gist of it was that the Latinx population in Providence, Rhode Island has the largest fraction of their wallet dollars go to energy.
I think, most important is, what is it that drives you? And what are you excited about?
Host Raj Daniels 35:15
That’s something that my wife and I were speaking about recently, is that what percent of our income goes toward, paying energy bills versus other people? So, continue with that.
Kerry Bowie 35:28
I can’t remember if it was like, what’s it like 9%, or I think it was, they may have been double-digit where everybody else across the counter was single digit. And it makes sense. They don’t have a large wallet in the first place. So they’re probably not salaried employees, they’re probably check-to-check hourly employees. So one, you got a smaller wallet size.
Two, we’re in the northeast, where we have some of the higher energy costs in the country. Three we’re in the northeast, where we got some of the oldest housing stock in the country. Three or four, I can’t remember which number I’m on now which bullet, they’re probably not homeowners, so your tenants, so you got those tenant owner issues. So the landlord, he or she doesn’t care, or does not have the incentive to fix it. Because they’re not paying the bill. So the bill goes to the tenant. And, and so, in a sense, you don’t have a bunch of money, Oh, I know, the last piece, it gets pretty cold. And, and so think about it is like really cold, you’re paying the bills, you don’t have a lot of money. You know, you’re in a sense throwing money out the door, or out the window, and we go, that’s happening, like all across the country.
And so in Dallas, it might not be about heating, it’s about cooling. And so you’re going to have a similar issue there, where if you’re throwing money out the house to have your air conditioning outside, because your, your, your places and isn’t buttoned up. What tends to happen, and this is going back to my conversation was the folk in the gateway cities, as a lot of Black and Brown and low moderate-income, people don’t see this as relating to them, they, they see that this green economy has a lot of it being for the rich, white, green, and vain. So just to recap, on Browning the Green Space, we’re focused on, careers, we’re focused on, on companies on Capitol, on contracts, and, and home communities.
Host Raj Daniels 38:42
I appreciate that in-depth explanation. You’ve taken on some really big initiatives. Magic wand, 10 years from now, what has Msaada Partners achieved?
Kerry Bowie 38:54
In terms of Msaada partners, I think this comes back to everything, maybes is sort of a good, you know, way to sort of frame it. I’m working at the intersection of sort of three areas. So I’m looking through the diversity, equity, and inclusion lens, I’m looking through an energy and environment lens, and I’m looking through entrepreneurship and innovation lens. And so I am happiest when I’m working at that intersection of all three of those things. So if I can be working with a Black and Brown founder, you know, in a for-profit, you know, startup that’s doing work in the green space and I’m excited.
Because I’m getting to use sort of all of me, I and from a magic one perspective, and I think this gets back to like, why we’re really doing this work is, you know, how to say before sort of COVID. I think we got this on our website before COVID. And a lot of the racial and justices and things that we’ve seen a late, you know, here in 2020, I would say, arguably, the two biggest problems facing the country are climate change and the wealth gap. And that’s where we’re trying to work. So how can we tackle climate change both on the adaptation and mitigation side? And how can we tackle the wealth gap? How can we create jobs and create wealth? And I think there’s a way to do that by getting Black and Brown people more involved in the in the green space, because I don’t want us to miss this wave, and at least not here in Boston, not here in Massachusetts, in New England, and the Northeast, this is where we’re starting. But I think that there are, you know, similar opportunities all across the country to be doing this type of work.
Host Raj Daniels 41:12
I look forward to seeing your vision align for you. Last question, if you could share some advice or words of wisdom with the audience, and it could be personal or professional, what would it be?
Kerry Bowie 41:25
I think when I when I talk to young people, or like career changers are different folks, you know, if I say this is free advice. So you know, might be worth what you, you pay for it, but I think, you know, making sure that you are following your passion is so important. I think oftentimes when I’m talking to young folk, they’re first looking for who will hire me? And then they’re sort of looking at their toolbox of like, what am I good at? But I think, most important is, what is it that drives you? And what are you excited about? And if you start with that, you really think outside of yourself, and how you can be of service to others and be of service to the country or be of service to some something bigger than you? How can you do that work? That I think those other things fall in line. | https://medium.com/bigger-than-us/bigger-than-us-123-a-more-diverse-green-space-875fd89cd7e7 | ['Nexus Pmg'] | 2020-12-15 15:54:00.288000+00:00 | ['Diversity', 'Consulting', 'Business Strategy', 'Renewable Energy', 'Diversity In Tech'] |
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Ltc address: LLM56GRxcU5KyQJrE8DszCPYdpsJ9AodLY | https://medium.com/@lengkengamis/defi-banking-professional-staff-invest-cccecfc2fd0a | ['Lengkeng Amis'] | 2021-07-25 14:40:33.069000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Platform', 'Decentralized Finance'] |
“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” — Marilyn Monroe | Photo by Godisable Jacob from Pexels
Living by anyone else’s standards but your own is a key to self-destruction. Society is always trying to tell people how to dress, talk, act, or look a certain way — and it’s long overdue for people to say that enough is enough! You have to realize that you’re living life for you, and not living to please anyone else’s expectations. Give yourself grace, give yourself freedom, but more importantly realize that happiness occurs when you truly live life your way.
Don’t forget to check out more stories at #BOLD! | https://medium.com/be-bold/imperfection-is-beauty-madness-is-genius-and-its-better-to-be-absolutely-ridiculous-than-cc2b1dc7eb8e | ['Sasha Monroe'] | 2020-12-21 13:02:40.894000+00:00 | ['Quotes', 'Imperfection', 'Beauty'] |
ngrok — Expose Your LOCAL WEB Server to PUBLIC Internet (complete guide with Video) 📹 | We, all the developers, sometimes in our life felt like — Okay, I have an app running in my localhost and I want to show this app to someone. If I could instantly do that without dealing with deploying to PROD or any Cloud services.
YES, we can do that! Yay! 🙌
ngrok will help us to do that.
To see the COMPLETE GUIDE on how we can do that, please watch the video shared below 👇
SUBSCRIBE to YouTube Channel — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy5EgfydCQlVv_AM-FZyYcg?sub_confirmation=1
LIKE FB Page — https://www.facebook.com/the.destro.dev.show/
Follow on Twitter — https://twitter.com/destro_mas
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Made with ❤️ in Berlin!
Cheers!
👋 | https://medium.com/@destro-mas/ngrok-expose-your-local-web-server-to-public-internet-complete-guide-with-video-81a5bfbb4da9 | ['Shahjada Talukdar'] | 2020-12-26 12:46:14.859000+00:00 | ['Deployment', 'Ngrok', 'DevOps', 'Exposelocalserver', 'Localhost'] |
Startup valuation — how to find a proper balance | It takes two to tango
It all starts with some initial interaction — be it an email intro from a common friend or a forwarded pitchdeck. Next comes a call, a meeting, and discussions — about business, future, but also life and personal choices. You seem to be getting along very well, and both sides like the other’s value proposition. This startups is perfect for this VC, and this VC is perfect for this startup. Then you start talking about round parameters and things are starting to look less rosy…
Sounds familiar?
It goes without saying, that a personal chemistry is a must in a startup-VC relationship. But, at the end of the day, it is a business arrangement for both sides. There is a number of important elements to pay attention to (and we will talk about them in some of our future newsletter editions), but in our “Greed is shortsighted” newsletter [read it here] we focus on valuations.
Company valuation is one of three elements of what I call a “triangle”. The other two are round size and also company development stage. All three elements are in sync, and there must be a coherence between them. Otherwise we are off-balance.
Let’s put aside the “objective” company value, and focus for a moment on the above interrelated elements.
If the round size is too large as compared to the valuation — founders will be giving up too much equity
If the valuation is too high as compared to the development stage — there will be a challenge growing value before the next round of financing
If the round is too small as compared to the development stage — it may be not enough to achieve meaningful results
… and so on and so forth.
Company valuation cannot be seen as an absolute number “per se” — it should be put into context of the above “triangle”, considering that the startup will need to raise follow-on rounds, preferably at increasing valuation.
Of course VC’s have various tools at their disposal in regard to the valuation of the company, should the future progress not be as high as expected — like antidilution clauses or ratchet provisions. But personally I prefer a plain-vanilla approach, where everyone is in full agreement and well aligned from the beginning.
THE BILL COMES DUE
Quoting after our newsletter:
“Over-inflated valuations, especially early on, can lead to a whole host of unwelcome consequences, which will in the long term negatively affect your relations with existing investors, while also scaring off new partners, which in effect can limit the chances of you securing financing for further project development.”
This is very much true and I believe it does not get enough attention. Let’s use an example:
Company X is still pre-revenue, finishing its amazing AI product for enterprises. The founders are raising a round, and they believe their technology is a game-changer (as confirmed by some high-caliber pilots). The financial forecast looks very impressive and the founders request a steep valuation Y. Looking at the comparable transactions and the “market consensus” the valuation Y is justifiable if revenues are growing rapidly and at the level, let’s assume, of $100k MRR. But no worries — the financial plan shows $150k MRR before the next financing round! So we are on the safe side, right?
So let’s fast-forward. We invested in this company X, and the company ended up delivering a fifth of planned revenues. Not because they are not good, but because it takes more time to close deals. The money is running out and the company needs to fundraise with $30k MRR. The insiders are pushing for an increase in valuation as compared to their round, but the MRR is actually pointing into a much lower valuation. We have a discrepancy.
Of course it is not impossible to raise money, and there can be a good story to justify an even higher valuation. But will the insiders participate? If not — it is a very red flag for new investors. And if the market demands a much lower valuation, the insiders will be very unhappy, taking a so called “impairment” in their books and vis-à-vis their investors.
This is, of course, a very simplistic example, but the point still holds. If at any point the valuation is too high, the bill will come due eventually and someone will have to pay it. The more distant the valuation from the market consensus, the higher the bill will be.
THINKING LONGTERM
If you are a marathon runner, you will know, that it does not really matter how fast you start, but what is your pace throughout the run. It is the same with company funding — one should optimize for the long run and not try to get “quick wins” and “cut corners”. It applies to founders, who usually are quite allergic to giving up on equity, but it also applies to VC’s, who sometimes want to show progress in their portfolios from one round to another (or simply they are out of money for the follow on rounds and they are incentivized to push the valuations up).
In any case, the valuation (and the two other elements of the triangle) must be an outcome of a reasonable consensus taking into consideration what’s best for ALL involved: the founders, the VC’s and the company. | https://medium.com/@fedorowicz/it-takes-two-to-tango-59e948460738 | ['Wojciech Fedorowicz'] | 2020-12-21 14:11:21.374000+00:00 | ['VC', 'Startup Lessons', 'Fundraising', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup'] |
Simple Ways to Stick to a Healthy Diet | 4: Be choosy about nighttime snacks.
Mindless eating occurs most frequently after dinner, when you finally sit down and relax. Snacking in front of the TV is one of the easiest ways to throw your diet off course. Either close down the kitchen after a certain hour, or allow yourself a low-calorie snack, like a 100-calorie pack of cookies or a half-cup scoop of low-fat ice cream.
5: Enjoy your favorite foods.
Instead of cutting out your favorite foods altogether, be a slim shopper. Buy one fresh bakery cookie instead of a box, or a small portion of candy from the bulk bins instead of a whole bag. You can still enjoy your favorite foods — the key is moderation.
6: Eat several mini-meals during the day.
If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you’ll lose weight. But when you’re hungry all the time, eating fewer calories can be a challenge. “Studies show people who eat 4–5 meals or snacks per day are better able to control their appetite and weight,” says obesity researcher Rebecca Reeves, DrPH, RD. She recommends dividing your daily calories into smaller meals or snacks and enjoying most of them earlier in the day — dinner should be the last time you eat.
7: Eat protein at every meal.
Protein is the ultimate fill-me-up food — it’s more satisfying than carbs or fats and keeps you feeling full for longer. It also helps preserve muscle mass and encourages fat burning. So be sure to incorporate healthy proteins like seafood, lean meat, egg whites, yogurt, cheese, soy, nuts, or beans into your meals and snacks. | https://medium.com/@fybsy/simple-ways-to-stick-to-a-healthy-diet-a2317d2cb45c | [] | 2020-12-22 10:38:03.344000+00:00 | ['Probiotics', 'Diet', 'Health', 'Women In Tech', 'Amazon'] |
The classification of blockchain-based application: A literature review. | Image Source: Bing Search Blockchain Images
Abstract
Blockchain systems are public electronic ledgers built around a peer-to-peer network that is publicly shared among different actors to create an unchangeable transaction record. Blockchain technology’s primary use is for distributed ledger for cryptocurrencies, notably bitcoin. Over the years, Blockchain has expanded its application area, such as smart contracts, financial services, video games, energy trading, supply chain, health care, etc. The concept of blockchain technology has been discussed extensively in different literature works, yet information regarding Blockchain-based application classification remains scarce.
This study provides a systematic review of previous studies on Blockchain technology and applications. I discussed an overview of Blockchain and the classification of blockchain-enabled applications across diverse sectors such as financial applications, education, integrity verification, governance, and data management. This research can be useful to blockchain-technology researchers and can help further studies and future development.
Keywords: Blockchain technology; Blockchain; Blockchain application; Blockchain classification
1 Introduction
Many years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown person/group behind Bitcoin, described how blockchain technology, a distributed peer-to-peer linked-structure, could solve the arrangement of keeping transactions from having a double-spending problem (Nakamoto, 2008). Bitcoin arranges transactions and groups them in a constrained-size structure named blocks sharing the same time-stamp. The network (miners) nodes use blocks to link each other in chronological order, with every block having the hash of the previous block to create a blockchain (Crosby et al., 2016).
Blockchain technology brought about disruptions to the traditional way of doing business. The applications and transactions, which required centralized architectures and trusted third parties to verify them, can now function in a decentralized manner and with the same accuracy level. Blockchain architecture and design characteristics provide properties like transparency, robustness, audit, and security (Christidis and Devetsikiotis, 2016).
A blockchain is a distributed database organized as a list of ordered blocks, where the committed blocks are immutable. For instance, in the ideal banking sector, banks can cooperate under the same Blockchain and push their customers’ transactions. This way, beyond transparency, Blockchain enables transactions’ auditing. Organizations invest in this technology as they see the potential of making their architectures decentralized and minimizing their transaction costs as they become inherently safer, transparent, and in some cases, faster. For this reason, Blockchain technology is becoming increasingly important (Zhao et al., 2016). Almost 1000 (33%) of C-suite executives reveal that they are considering or have already been actively busy with blockchain technology. According to Christidis and Devetsikiotis, 2016 researchers and developers are already mindful of the new technology’s capabilities and investigate various applications over different divisions based on the intended readers. While there are several analyses regarding blockchain technology (Tama et al., 2017; Brand. o et al., 2018), they argue that state-of-the-art blockchain-enabled applications have received limited attention. Even in Zheng et al. (2016), blockchains’ applications have not fully covered their full extent or applicability. Some reviews focused on Blockchain’s particular role, including developing decentralized and data-driven applications for the IOT (Christidis and Devetsikiotis, 2016) and working with big data in a decentralized fashion. Other reviews concentrated on the security problems of the Blockchain and on its potential to enable trust and decentralization in in-service platforms (Seebacher et al., 2017) and Peer to peer systems (Hawlitschek et al., 2018).
However, even though there are several works of literature on Blockchain’s different aspects, there is still not enough research to show the classification of blockchain-enabled applications. Hence, by studying existing literature, I highlight the question: What are the types of Blockchain-based applications? In answering this question, I contribute towards understanding the Blockchain, its features, and taxonomy. The rest of the paper’s structure is in sections: Section 2 presents an overview of Blockchain. In section 3, I outline the method followed in conducting the systematic literature review. The findings was presented in Section 4, while in Section 5, I present the discussion on the articles reviewed. After that, I give my conclusion. | https://medium.com/the-classification-of-blockchain-based-application/the-classification-of-blockchain-based-application-a-literature-review-1ab47d00f7df | ['Regina Nkemchor Adejo'] | 2021-09-12 14:33:34.655000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Blockchain Application'] |
Homeless sufferers with COVID-19 typically return to life on the streets after hospital care, however there’s a greater approach | Homeless sufferers with COVID-19 typically return to life on the streets after hospital care, however there’s a greater approach DAILY HEALTH NEWS ·Nov 25, 2020
Union Sq. in Manhattan, the place a lot of New York Metropolis’s homeless dwell. Noam Galai by way of Getty Photographs In 2019, about 567,715 homeless folks have been dwelling in the US. Whereas this quantity had been steadily reducing since 2007, up to now two years it has began to extend. For New York […] | https://medium.com/@mydailyhealthnews247/homeless-sufferers-with-covid-19-typically-return-to-life-on-the-streets-after-hospital-care-9873ab4559b9 | ['Daily Health News'] | 2020-11-25 14:05:23.096000+00:00 | ['Care', 'Hospital', 'Covid-19', 'Homeless', 'Life'] |
Talking Honestly About Genitals | Cisgender folks, we need to talk about language again. I’ll be talking about genitals, so some may consider this essay not safe for work (NSFW).
The other day, I was writing a comparison between home-made face masks (low effectiveness against COVID-19) and penile condoms (high effectiveness against pregnancy and STD transfer).
What struck me is that I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard them called “penile condoms” before. They’re usually called just plain “condoms”, or “male condoms” to distinguish them from the vaginal variety. (Linguistic research: A Google search without quotes gives 18,700,000 results, but with quotes a mere 30,900, including medical sites.)
This reminded me of the brouhaha a few months ago about makers of menstrual products seeking to remove overtly feminine aspects from their packaging. We as a culture continue to call them “feminine hygiene products”.
So here’s the reality: There are women and non-binary people who have penises (and men who don’t). There are men and non-binary people who menstruate (and women who don’t).
There was a time, not so long ago, that I was willing to make a distinction: Male/female as terms for anatomy, man/woman/non-binary as terms for identity. And I get that doctors need to know what body parts you have for certain situations.
Medical professionals, though, would be pretty much willing to go along with whatever linguistic game we wish to play. Among colleagues, they’re generally good with using appropriate medical terms. Yes, they may need to know whether or not you have a functioning uterus, or whatever. There are ways (better ways, even) to ask that than by asking gender.
So I’m not willing to make that distinction anymore. | https://medium.com/bein-enby/talking-honestly-about-genitals-fb9f3cd97cd4 | ['Clio Hartzer'] | 2020-04-08 16:35:06.732000+00:00 | ['Transgender', 'Language', 'Transphobia', 'Euphemisms', 'Menstruation'] |
Downloading images in Swift using PromiseKit and Alamofire | Problem
Networking code can get really messy if we have to download some content from a remote location.
Downloading set of 40 photos and representing it to a collection view
First we have to know the path (URL) from where we want to download the content (in our case that would be a photo). Second, probably that location or path will be written in some REST API endpoint request and after we process that JSON data response we have to start downloading the image and at last we have to update our UI.
All of this have to be done on a background thread because we do not want to block the main thread, and of course we want our app to stay responsive.
Best solution for this types of problems is using asynchronous programming and if we want our code to look very clean and tidy PromiseKit is the best choice. If you are new to asynchronous programming please check my previous post about How to use PromiseKit for Swift.
Next we’ll install PromiseKit and Alamofire library for networking requests using CocoaPods dependency manager. For installing the libraries with other dependency managers please visit the official documentation of PromiseKit https://github.com/mxcl/PromiseKit and Alamofire https://github.com/Alamofire/Alamofire.
Installing PromiseKit and Alamofire with CocoaPods
If you haven’t installed CocoaPods yet this is the time to do it. Go to the terminal app and write:
$ sudo gem install cocoapods
For details about using the CocoaPods dependency manager please visit official site https://cocoapods.org/.
Create new Xcode project (Single View Application) and in the directory of the project create new podfile using the command pod init .
Open the podfile and add the PromiseKit and Alamofire dependency libraries:
target 'YourProjectTarget' do
use dynamic frameworks
use_frameworks! pod 'PromiseKit'
pod 'Alamofire' end
Save the podfile and at this point you can install the libraries using the pod install command in the terminal:
$ pod install
From now you have to open the newly created workspace file .xcworkspace instead of .xcodeproj. That’s it, now we are ready using PromiseKit and Alamofire in our project.
Real world example
In this tutorial we’ll download set of photos from a remote location. The url’s of the photos we assume that will be written in some REST API endpoint and for the purpose of this example we’ll use placeholder API https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/photos that has url’s for 5000 photos. Downloading the photos can take some time so we’ll show a preloading animation with activityIndicator component and hide it when downloading has finished. We will not persist the photos, they will be stored in a temporary array [UIImage] . For displaying the photos i’m using UICollectionView but you are free to use any visual component for displaying.
Steps to take:
Show preloading animation Fetch and serialize json response Download photos Hide preloading animation and update the UI
The response form the API request is in the following JSON format:
[
{
"albumId": 1,
"id": 1,
"title": "accusamus beatae ad facilis cum similique qui sunt",
"url": "https://via.placeholder.com/600/92c952",
"thumbnailUrl": "https://via.placeholder.com/150/92c952"
},
{
"albumId": 1,
"id": 2,
"title": "reprehenderit est deserunt velit ipsam",
"url": "https://via.placeholder.com/600/771796",
"thumbnailUrl": "https://via.placeholder.com/150/771796"
},
...
]
With Alamofire and with a little help of the Codable protocol in Swift we’ll convert the json response in array of Photo objects. First let’s define the Model object (struct Photo ):
struct Photo: Codable {
let albumId: Int
let id: Int
let title: String
let url: String
let thumbnailUrl: String
}
If we write this code in one function, that will look like this:
How can we avoid the nesting of the code? How can we separate the concerns in different code blocks? | https://medium.com/@dimitarstefanovski/downloading-images-in-swift-using-promisekit-and-alamofire-65a42593814d | ['Dimitar Stefanovski'] | 2019-02-07 13:48:12.869000+00:00 | ['iOS', 'Promisekit', 'Swift', 'Asynchronous', 'Swift Programming'] |
The gas war part 2: The Australian gas industry and their anti-electrification campaign | In part 1 of this series, I explored the smattering of local, city-level battles being fought between those seeking to electrify their homes and the fossil gas industry in America. As the gas industry truly loses the fight to become a ‘transition fuel’, they’re retreating to homes and buildings as a place to make their stand, and in many instances in the US, they’re winning.
In Australia, ‘existential threats’ are already emerging. Recently, Canberra lifted the legislation that made it mandatory to connect new gas to homes. It’s not quite a gas ban, but it’s significant, and signals the start of a bigger shift.
Prior to this, the Australian gas industry has made a pre-emptive strike at the “existential” threat of electrification. It is the heart of the next big fight on climate: a fight that will be more personal, more heated and more diffuse than the policy-and-technology issues of power generation.
Anxiety about electrification is real, and it manifested in Australia in the form of a report released by a conglomerate of Australia’s gas industry entitled ‘Gas Vision 2050’.
It claims to find that “net-zero emissions can be reached with hydrogen at half the cost of electrification”. The acting CEO of Energy Networks Australia, Tamatha Smith, said that “policy settings aimed at reducing emissions should recognise that continuing to use gas infrastructure is the lowest cost option to reach net-zero emissions from the energy sector by 2050”. The report was published by:
Energy Networks Australia (ENA),
Australian Gas Infrastructure Trust (AGIT),
Australian Pipelines and Gas Association (APGA),
Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA),
Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association of Australia (GAMAA),
Gas Energy Australia
In the 2010s, the fossil fuel industry’s core line of argument against renewable energy was that it was too costly. They intentionally ignored the question of the impact of emissions, and focused aggressively and solely on dollar figures. This report, engaging in precisely the same approach, is an unambiguous warning shot to any city, region, government or community considering enforcing or incentivising electrification.
It is careful in what it omits, and specific in what it includes. It is an important laying down of the gauntlet for the fossil fuel industry’s vision of climate action: slowed down, defused, disconnected and disempowered.
This decade’s modelling wars
The gas industry’s 2050 vision specifically targets “net zero” by 2050, in all of its modelled scenarios. Frontier Economics were engaged to model three different scenarios to hit a 2050 net zero target: electrification, ‘renewable fuels’ (hydrogen made from renewables), and ‘zero carbon fuels’ (hydrogen made from fossil fuels, paired with carbon capture).
As you might expect, the scenario finds that fossil-fuelled hydrogen is cheapest, and that electrification is most expensive. That is music to the ears of people who either own gas pipelines, sell gas, or both:
“The finding that both the blue and green hydrogen scenarios are lower cost than electrification suggests that there is value in continuing to make use of Australia’s gas infrastructure and Australia’s natural gas resources to deliver gaseous fuels to end-use customers”
I read the modelling, and it’s confusing. There is no detail on the mix of technologies used to supply power in their ‘electrification’ model; nor any clear explanation of how grid integration options are chosen. “Many debatable assumptions are made about details of industrial heat demand, efficiencies of gas and electricity use, demand profiles and trends, and other issues. No sensitivity studies are provided, so we don’t know the size of the ‘error bands’”, wrote energy expert Alan Pears, in a review. As Pears points out, the “costs” presented here are relative to a secret, unmentioned ‘baseline’ figure that is never at any point declared. “So the estimated additional $27.3 billion cost of the electrification scenario relative to the baseline scenario, and $14.3 billion relative to the zero carbon fuels scenario, may be very modest in the overall energy investment picture”, he wrote.
The most significant thing about this report is that it doesn’t talk about the emissions footprint of the various plans. As I wrote previously in LobbyWatch, there are many pathways to net zero by 2050. Fast, incremental and slow all result in very different quantities of emissions released between now and 2050. To illustrate:
Here’s the absolute key message that you cannot ever, ever forget: getting to net zero slower and later releases three times the cumulative amount of emissions by 2050 as getting to net zero faster, and sooner.
It is the cumulative amount drives climate harm, not the amount in a single year, thirty years in the future. Those tri-coloured columns above reveal exactly why Australia’s gas lobby leaves emissions out of their modelling.
The report’s gas-fuelled scenarios lean heavily on technologies that won’t be operational at scale for decades (particularly carbon capture for gas), so it’s safe to assume that this is why emissions were left out of the report and price was the only information provided for the scenarios.
There are a range of oddities in this report. In another instance, they insist that “Gas clearly plays a diverse and important role in Australia’s energy mix”, and illustrate it with the following graphic:
Wow, gas has climbed to the top! Pretty great, hey? Actually, there are some chart crimes going on here: coal has been given its own axis on the left, and renewables and gas are on the right. There is absolutely no reason to do this other than to make gas look like it’s leading the pack, and the 2020 update has been left out. This is what it actually looks like:
Yep, that’s right: in the financial year 2018–19, renewable energy came only a few mere gigajoules short of overtaking gas power generation in the grid. That’s all but certain to happen in the next report, and by a decent margin too. To visualise it a different way: gas’s growing days are done. Since 2008, every renewable technology has grown by a larger percentage (compared to the previous year) than gas has:
Renewables have grown consistently for the past four years, increasing by between 3,000 to 8,000 new gigawatt hours each year. Gas decreased for three of those four years.
Though this refers to the ‘old’ argument of whether gas belongs as a ‘bridge fuel’ in the power sector (it doesn’t), it becomes directly relevant when you discover the other key argument for preserving gas infrastructure instead of electrification, as used frequently by Australia’s gas industry in a range of reports, websites and social media posts: The claim is that heating or cooking in your home using gas is cleaner than using grid electricity.
“In your home, using natural gas appliances for your heating, hot water and cooking are even more efficient, with emissions 83% lower than brown coal”
It is sort of correct. Australia’s grids remain incredibly emissions intensive, because the fossil fuel lobby was partially successful in slowing down the growth of renewables, in the 2010s. But if you glance at the Australian grid operator’s various scenarios, a high-decarbonisation future actually results in grid emissions lower than those from household fossil gas within thirteen years:
In fact, a few months prior, a billboard for Australian Gas Networks was removed after the ad industry’s regulatory body, ‘Ad Standards’, pinged them for misleading claims about the emissions footprint of household gas. “The Panel considered that this claim is misleading as there are other energy sources which would be considered cleaner and greener than gas”, the standards body said.
It is extremely likely that renewable growth will exceed even the best-case scenario. Recent announcements in NSW and Victoria make this very likely. But ignoring that, the lifespan of gas infrastructure of all kinds — including pipelines, household gas stoves and heating and gas mining projects — all exceed the point at which it will be far cleaner to run your home on the grid, rather than gas supply. So the lobbying by gas networks to lock in new gas infrastructure actively sets Australia on a course to blow past climate goals:
The carbon decarbonisation promise is distant
It has become very clear that the gas industry understands that attacking electrification alone is insufficient: it needs to present an alternative pathway. In their new vision, that alternative is ‘renewable gas’ — a vague term used interchangeably for a wide range of gas fuels with differing emissions and differing risks.
The plan here is that these alternative “decarbonised” gas fuels will be pumped through existing gas pipelines, purportedly reducing emissions while avoiding the major losses the gas industry would face is electric alternatives were used.
Each of these alternatives can, to differing degrees, be blended with fossil fuels. The temptation is incredible: this creates a very murky grey area in which an only partially decarbonised fuel can be presented as ‘progress’, while the overall rate of emissions reductions is pushed into the ‘too slow, too late’ category I explained above.
Of the options they present, hydrogen and “renewable methane” are the least-bad. Hydrogen can be produced using sources like wind and solar, and then used in industrial processes, transport and other sectors that are tricky to electrify (“indirect electrification”). This is close to full decarbonisation. But the existing gas pipelines can’t handle more than 10 % hydrogen without costly upgrades, and the report admits as much, and downplays it accordingly.
Things become even more complicated for “biogas” or “biomethane”, in which waste methane from processes like dairy farms is captured and used, instead of being released into the atmosphere. The details are buried in the fine print, but ENA’s modelling actually excludes this: “Including these other gases in the scenarios would increase the complexity of the modelling task as the cost and availability of those fuels would differ significantly by region”. The cost of interconnection and energy storage also varies wildly by region, but they decided to include those costs in their ‘electrification’ scenarios. So why did they leave these gases out?
Including biogas in their scenarios would have very significantly increased the costs of their ‘gas network’ scenarios. We know this because America’s gas industry is presenting precisely the same alternative as a decarbonisation pathway:
“In the next five years, California is on track to have 120–140 dairy farm methane digesters capturing and harnessing fugitive, climate-warming methane — with the help of significant state grant funding. “Dairy biogas is way too expensive” to use in homes or businesses, said Boccadoro — five to 10 times more expensive than fossil gas.”
California’s government modelling agency looked at this precise question, and found that ‘decarbonised gas’ is wildly expensive, compared to using heat pumps (ASHP):
This modelling found precisely the opposite results of Australia’s gas industry modelling, in that electrification creates significant savings
The other problem? Cows just don’t fart out enough methane to meet the needs of the existing network of fossil fuel pipelines and high-emissions homes. California again serves as a perfect example of this:
If they had includes watse biogas in their scenarios, they would have had to admit the dual problems of high costs and low supply. Of course, America’s gas industry has a solution:
“In an interview, however, Switalski called Boccadoro’s conclusions “just one individual’s opinion”. Switalski suggested that renewable gas could be subsidized like solar energy”
Turns out Australia’s industry is thinking the same thing.
A push for subsidies (after years of opposing subsidies for renewables)
Subsidies for fossil gas have been on the cards for quite some time, but it’s clear in this document that a big, expensive new subsidy scheme will be a major priority. It directly contradicts the core message — that a fossil-heavy system is the most inexpensive way forward — but it’s suggested, regardless, in a report for the group on how to move ‘gas blending’ forward:
“A certificate scheme for renewable gas blending mimics the existing Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme, hence the existing suite of governance and institutional arrangements should be able to be utilised (or require minimal change to be used)”
This is progressing as desired. The gas industry lobby group APPEA submitted to the Finkel Review in 2017 that the Clean Energy Finance Corporation ought to be changed to allowed the government body to fund fossil fuels. “Such investments may act as a catalyst to expedite gas industry investments and address access to capital and financing challenges facing the industry”, they wrote. They got their wish. In 2020, the Australian government has moved to change the CEFC’s mandate so it can fund fossil fuel projects. The gas industry likely has no real chance without significant subsidies and government intervention.
Reading that brought up plenty of memories. It really wasn’t all that long ago that Australia’s gas industry was passionately and aggressively opposed to the Renewable Energy Target:
The Australian peak oil and gas lobby claimed the RET “inhibits the natural gas industry’s capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” (true; renewables do it better), and that “ the RET substantially increases the cost of abatement” (renewables are now the main driver of downward pressure on prices). In every breathless press release, APPEA pleaded with the government to scrap the entire thing: “The APPEA submission finds the RET is an economically inefficient policy operation that should be discontinued”.
Of course, in addition to bringing bills down, the RET has become the sole engine of emissions reductions in the country. Since 2011, the RET has abated a total of 233 megatonnes of CO2-e. In a few years, the annual emissions saved by the RET will be equivalent to taking all of Australia’s cars off the road.
LRET = ‘large scale renewable energy target’ (big wind and solar) and SRES= “small scale renewable energy scheme” (mostly small-scale solar), the two sub-components of the RET.
If the gas lobby had been successful in their efforts in 2013 and 2014, cumulative emissions would be around 186 MTCO2-e higher. It is a very simple and telling illustration of the priorities here. Attempts to muddle branding and terminology (like ‘renewable gas’), alongside a very telling revisionism about the industry’s attitudes towards renewable energy, reveals the goal. | https://medium.com/lobbywatch/the-gas-war-part-2-the-australian-gas-industry-and-their-anti-electrification-campaign-5b8702d8d6a1 | ['Ketan Joshi'] | 2020-11-15 09:48:29.281000+00:00 | ['Global Warming', 'Climate', 'Gas', 'Lobbying', 'Fossil Gas'] |
Learn All About Using Sktime For Time Series Forecasting (Part 1) | Performing Reductions with Time-Series
Time-series tasks are closely related, each with distinct learning settings can be solved via Reductions. Using Reduction, any algorithm for a particular task gets converted into a learning algorithm for the new task and if any changes are made to the original algorithm, changes are immediately transferred to the new task.
Reductions usually involve segmenting task to be performed into simpler sub-tasks and all the segments solutions are composed to give the solution of the original task, hence Reductions are good ways to reduce confusion between tasks and help us better understand the relationships between tasks and it can be used to solve more complicated tasks.
An example of reduction can be solving classical forecasting tasks through time-series regression via a sliding windows approach and iterating over the forecasting horizon.
Task-Specific Estimators and Transformers
As we all know in scikit-learn we use the fit method to learn training data for a model and predict to make any predictions based on the model and test-data, similarly, estimators in sktime are task-specific means they extend scikit-learns regressor and classifiers to their own time-series as well. They have their own estimators also such as forecasters and supervised forecasters with the same fit and predict method.
Similar to estimators we have transformers in sktime which also consists of a fit method to fit and learn the training data and a transform method that transforms the input data. There are different types of data transformations available for different types of tasks such as:
Tabular: Similar to transformers in scikit-learn. Series-to-Primitives: Transforms time series for each instance into a primitive number. Series-to-Series: Transforms time series for each instance into a series i.e the output of the transformation is itself a series instead of a primitive number. Detrending: transforms an input time series into a detrended time series in the same range/domain as the input series.
Time-Series Forecasting with Sktime
Let past observations for a single time-series be represented as:
y = [y(t1), y(t2), ....., y(tn)]
The task here is to learn a forecaster F which can make accurate temporal predictions in future out of all the observations at a given time in point hj of the forecasting horizon, where predictions are represented by:
Y = F(hj) or Y = [Y(h1), Y(h2), ....., Y(hj)]
Key points to remember
We can apply any scikit-learns regressor to solve our forecasting problem that means it is compatible with scikit-learn python library.
to solve our forecasting problem that means it is with scikit-learn python library. Easy to tune hyperparameters like the length of sliding window.
like the length of sliding window. To tune and to properly evaluate our model it can adapt scikit-learn estimators interface to that of forecasters.
The package is available via PyPI using:
pip install sktime
Importing all the required packages and the dataset used for this article is the Box-Jenkins airline data set, which shows the number of international airline passengers per month from the year 1949–1960. | https://ai.plainenglish.io/time-series-forecasting-with-sktime-in-python-3dfaf55e1a9c | ['Mrinal Walia'] | 2021-03-08 21:18:26.175000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Data Science', 'Sktime', 'Scikit Learn', 'Time Series Forecasting'] |
How Smaller Tech Companies are Advancing Toward AI in Automobiles | We live in an era of exciting technological innovation, from facial recognition programming to quantum supremacy. In the last 50 years, our world has experienced the introduction of many new technologies that have revolutionized the way we live. Big tech companies like Tesla, SpaceX, NVIDIA, and SenseTime are at the forefront of this technological revolution. Throughout the last half-century, one of the largest and most debated new technologies is artificial intelligence, and more recently, artificial intelligence in automobiles.
Photo from nuTonomy
Big tech companies, such as Tesla, are often brought up when this topic of AI in automobiles is raised. However, many small start-ups are advancing in artificial intelligence automobiles as well, a few being nuTonomy, Autox, Optimus Ride, and Waymo. Many of these companies have already begun testing on roads. Take nuTonomy, for example. NuTonomy’s product is nuCore, aiming to provide fleets of autonomous cars that will result in safer roads, less traffic, and less pollution. The impact is already widespread: they have partnered with Group PSA, owner of European car brand Peugeot SA, to bring self-driving SUVs to Singapore. They even collaborated with Lyft to test their vehicles on the roads of Boston here in the United States.
Not all companies aim to satisfy a large audience on a worldwide scale. For example, Optimus Ride, an AI company branched off of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has a target audience of campus students and their surrounding community. In May of 2020, they teamed up with, The Yards, to launch a food delivery service by delivering “One Week” meal boxes containing 3 meals per day. Using their autonomous cars, they were able to aid families that were struggling with food insecurity amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Optimus Ride takes a different approach to automation. It only drives on areas it has mapped or ‘geofenced’. Currently, Optimus Ride runs fleets of self-driving vehicles in the Seaport area of Boston, in a mixed-use development in South Weymouth and recently in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the first self-driving vehicle program in the state.
Other start-ups like Carvi and Nauto aren’t looking to test and launch automated vehicles; instead, they are looking to manufacture and implement software programming that will improve the safety of our roads. Using ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System), these technologies can alter bad driving habits, send real-time alerts to warn drivers of possible dangers, and offer feedback in response to your driving. Their goal is to subtly coach their users into becoming better drivers in order to improve the safety of our roads.
There is no doubt that artificial intelligence will impact our future. In fact, it is already upon us. With these innovations, we can build safer communities — for us, for our friends, our families, our neighbors, our world.
Sources:
Schroer, Alyssa. “Artificial Intelligence in Cars Powers an AI Revolution in the Auto Industry.” Built In, 19 Dec. 2019, builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/artificial-intelligence-automotive-industry.
“The Yards to Deliver 5,000 Free Meals Prepared by Bluejacket with Optimus Ride Autonomous Vehicles to DC Families In Need.” Optimus Ride, 28 May 2020, www.optimusride.com/press/the-yards-washington-dc.
Winn, Zach. “Optimus Ride’s Autonomous System Makes Self-Driving Vehicles a Reality.” MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT News, 9 Aug. 2019, news.mit.edu/2019/optimus-ride-self-driving-0809. | https://medium.com/the-black-box/how-smaller-tech-companies-are-advancing-towards-ai-in-automobiles-1e9cae170f20 | ['Jodie Cai'] | 2020-11-08 00:06:16.687000+00:00 | ['Autonomous Cars', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Self Driving Cars', 'Tech'] |
Deliver (feature and) regular test builds through the Google Play Store | Photo by Dmitrii Vaccinium on Unsplash
Today we are going to explore how to deliver both feature and regular test builds through the Google Play Store.
It is true there are many tools available for this purpose: Firebase App distribution, Visual Studio App Center, etc. but here we want to focus on the Google Play Store.
The main advantages are:
You are probably already distributing your app through that store, therefore you don’t need to introduce an extra tool
Automatic updates for testers (like it happens with usual production builds)
Is easily integrable with most CIs, especially in combination with the Gradle Play Publisher plugin
Is free
The main downsides are:
Google Play Console UI/UX could be difficult to grasp (especially at the beginning)
Setting up testers for different feature builds might be confusing (more on that later)
There is no real way to easily choose which feature build you want to download (unless you leave the current track and (re)join the desired)
Let’s first take a look at how to set up testers and tester groups.
Setup testers and tester groups 🤓
Starting from the side menu, let’s go to the internal app sharing option under the Setup option.
Clicking there we will have a screen like the following one, let’s select the Email lists tab
As you can see from the description, those are the accounts who will be able to access our test builds. I usually create groups for every role (Android devs, QA testers, company testers, etc). I even create groups for specific features I want to test, which will come handy when (and if) you are going to deliver feature builds as well.
Delivering test builds 🌀
Let’s move to the side menu again and let's go to the internal testing option.
Let’s select the Testers tab: we will be presented with the group of users (testers) we created previously in the internal app sharing menu. Let’s enable the ones for which we want to start delivering internal builds.
They can also join through a link provided through an option at the bottom of the page
And we are done! ✅
Now you can start submitting builds for internal testing selecting the Releases tab, and the groups we enabled for those will start getting those builds automatically as if they were regular Play Store app updates 🚀
One particular advantage of the internal testing builds is that they don’t care about version codes/names, meaning you can put whatever you want there, even lower values than the current ones submitted! Also, the review process is quite very fast (available within a few hours in the worst case).
Feature test builds 🎯
Now let’s imagine we are a team of a few Android developers, and the team is working on 2 different features at the same time and they would like to deliver separated builds to the testers without impacting/modifying the regular release train. Let’s see how we can achieve that with the Closed testing on the Play Store Console.
Let’s move once again to the side menu and choose the Closed testing option.
Closed testing is like the open one, but available only to a selected group of users. That means that, even if you share the join link with someone, only users enabled in the testers group for that specific track will be able to see versions of the app distributed through that track.
After clicking on the Closed testing option we will see something like this:
Let’s click on Create track and give a name to that track (we usually use something that reflects the feature we want to test). I will call mine SSO.
After creating it, we will see the track in the tracks’ list. Let’s click on Manage track and select the Testers tab:
Here we can enable the groups for which we want to make those builds available.
Here, as a sample for this article, I have Android devs, but as I said previously, I usually create a specific group for the feature. That means I would have a SSO group with all the testers inside.
The last step is to ask testers to join the test through one of the available links
And we are done! ✅
We can now go to the releases tab, upload our apk/bundle and our selected testers will be able to get those builds and their future updates 🚀
One thing to keep in mind is that, unlike for internal testing, builds submitted to a track need to have version codes that are higher than the current ones published. About the review process: is not entirely clear to me if they go through a regular review process or not, but it is usually quite fast.
Notes 💭
Remember when I said
There is no real way to easily choose which feature build you want to download (unless you leave the current track and (re)join the desired)
and
Setting up testers for different feature builds might be confusing (more on that later)
Well, here we go 😄
If you put the same user in the internal testing and in a track (or in multiple ones) the lastest available release is going to be the one the tester will get on their device, not giving them an option to choose which one to use. Separate accounts are a way to fix this.
Another issue to keep in mind is that if you, like me, have multiple Gmail accounts on your device, and those Gmail accounts are each one assigned to a different track (or a track and internal testing), again the latest build is the only one we are going to get on our devices, even if you switch accounts in the Play store. the only way to work around this at the moment is to be logged in only with one account in the Play Store. | https://medium.com/@alessandromautone/deliver-feature-and-regular-test-builds-through-the-google-play-store-5cc5d40fb3b5 | ['Alessandro Mautone'] | 2020-12-24 18:11:09.456000+00:00 | ['Android App Development', 'Android', 'Play Store', 'AndroidDev', 'Release Management'] |
Stay Away From People Who | Stay Away From People Who
Stay away from people who
Want to love you for what they want you to be
Want to love you only when you can change for them
Want to be with you because it’s beneficial for them
Want to be with you only when it’s beneficial for them
Stay away
Stay away from people who
Make you anxious and weary
Make you angry and sad
Make you frightened and fearful
Make you disgusted and bad
Stay away
Stay away from people who
Take your time and attention for granted
Take your concern and care for granted
Take your love and affection for granted
Take your words and touch for granted
Stay away
Stay away from people who
Manipulate and puppet you
Twist and turn you
Scold and curse you
Kick and punt you
Stay away
Stay away from people who
Want to take and take and never want to give
Want to take what they want and won’t give you want you want
Want to chat and chat and never want to build
Want to talk and talk and never want to do
Stay away | https://medium.com/wordsmith-library/stay-away-from-people-who-43a598eb9240 | ['Gal Mux'] | 2020-12-23 11:03:11.377000+00:00 | ['Poem', 'Creative Writing', 'Personal Boundaries', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Poems On Medium'] |
Common Mistakes When Choosing Autoresponders | Practical Business
Common Mistakes When Choosing Autoresponders
In the last article, I addressed all the various technologies and tools you needed to make your autoresponder process work. Today we will talk about what to consider when you specifically selecting your autoresponder software. Trust me, this is important. I may or may not have mentioned that I have used several.
Your email autoresponder is one of the most critical pieces of technology you will invest in if you are trying to build a list of subscribers, with the one exception probably being your website. You can earn a reasonably high ROI via email marketing and so I would be neglectful in my information sharing if I underestimated the importance of this one system for your business. Some entrepreneurs earn between $38 — $42 dollars on every dollar they invest in email marketing. So, let’s help you avoid the common mistakes that will leave money on the table.
Mistake #1 — Not Knowing Your Email Marketing Goals
This seems pretty rudimentary, I know. However, how many investments have you made in your business with the goal of making money? That is a fine goal, but it is not specific enough to select the right tools. Wanting to build your list isn’t specific enough either.
Why do you want to build your list? Why do you want these individuals on the list? Do you want to build a long-term relationship? Do you want to sell low-content / low-relationship offers? Do you want to build awareness or inform? Most likely, if you are reading this, you want to build a long-term relationship with the individuals on your list to help them choose to buy your products and services. If so, that is much different than just sending out daily affiliate offers or quotes. Be sure you know what you want from the list and create content accordingly.
Mistake #2 — Focusing Too Much on Price
I get it. When you are first starting out or maybe when you are starting to create a side gig, you don’t have a ton of disposable income to invest. Yet, if you focus only on the freemium or low-priced products and you don’t look at the features you need to meet your goal (see mistake #1), you will miss out on getting the right technology for the job.
There will be some very expensive tools, like the Actionestics add-on for ClickFunnels, that may be well above your ability to pay right now, but there is going to be something more reasonable that works for you near-term and mid-term goals. Remember, what is your goal. Then, what is the functionality you need to meet that goal? Then you can narrow it down further to what you can afford.
Mistake #3 — Not Caring About the Company Reputation
Look, I like the underdog just as much as the other guys. Yet, the services you choose need to have a good reputation. I am not saying they have to be the captain of the football team type popular, I am saying they need to do what they say they will do when they say they will do it.
For example, I started out with the “popular” web hosting company, even though my knowledgeable friends and colleges said they had terrible customer support. I figured it would be unlikely that I would need much of that support until I did. It cost me a lot of time and a lot of money. The point is it doesn’t take much to ruin the trust you have worked too hard to build with your audience. If you choose a company that has a reputation similar to the one you want to have, either way, it will rub off on you someday. Protect your rep!
Mistake #4 — Not Reading the Terms of Service (Fine Print)
Ugh. Can I say how much I hate this one? Each service has its own terms of service (TOS) or service level agreement (SLA). These are rules that you must pay attention to and the ones that they pay attention to. You don’t own this service or have much influence over them other than what they are legally obligated to do.
If you mess up, they can easily cut you off and don’t even have to give you much of an explanation. For example, there was a requirement to not sell supplement products with one provider I used. Turns out they considered essential oils (includes digital download information) as a nutritional supplement and they shut off my entire site and my service, but happily continued to charge me.
Therefore, pick the right choice that allows you to do what you need to do with the software. See Mistake #1. You need to be clear what your goal is with the product and that you are allowed to use it in service to that goal. For example, if you want to do a lot of affiliate marketing, don’t pick one that makes that hard. So yes, read the fine print … with a cup of coffee … or two cups of coffee.
Mistake #5 — Not Concerning Yourself with Deliverability
I will assume that the only reason that you don’t concern yourself with it is that you didn’t know to consider it. I mean why would you take the time to craft long nurture sequences or lead sequences only to have the emails not get delivered. Seems silly right?
Some services have better records of their deliverability than others. Active Campaign has one I really like and find helpful. Read the fine print to find out. (Yes, more reading of legal crud, but it matters.). Test out the service when you use their free version to find out if they are accurate in their deliverability claims. Ask others who use the software is they have had any issues in the past. Find out if that email service provider is often used by your audience or your industry. Clearly, I like and use Active Campaign. Maybe you have a college that loved Mailchimp. Just do a little homework so you are not left with a lot of effort wasted.
Mistake #6– Not Testing the User Interface
Should I admit my arrogance here? Yes, yes, I should. I guess I figured since I spent 20+ years in technology — often as a software developer — that all these things should be easy, and I would be fine. Ummmm…. Maybe not so much. No matter has fantastic the service is, if you can’t figure it out, it’s not amazeballs — umkay? Choose a service you can figure out or that is easy to teach a virtual assistant.
I will admit, these things are more complicated than I gave them credit for. I thought I know how to email, right. Well, there are sequences and tags and conditions and lions and tigers and bears — oh my. So, really. Use the trial person. Follow their tutorials. Do the work. Otherwise, you will have three or four of these things all half-working … or maybe I am projecting a bit?
Mistake #7– Ignoring the Availability of Important Analytics
Your autoresponder platform will have analytics. Some systems offer more than others. Ensure the choice you pick has the information available that you need or a way to integrate with another software to get those analytics. Be careful here though. If you read the last article on all the various technologies and tools you needed to make your autoresponder process work you will know that you can quickly end up with three to ten systems just to run things. If you don’t have to add another integration software — don’t. If you do, consider something like Zapier that is used often and there are others that can support it if you can’t figure things out.
Mistake #8– Not Understanding and Knowing the Terminology
There is a lot of new stuff to learn when you start using autoresponders and email marketing. If you understand the terms you will feel much less lost. Again, I was a 20+ year technologist … and well … you know what happens when you assume, right? HubSpot has an excellent glossary of important email marketing terms to get to know so you don’t end up looking like the right side of assume — you feel me?
When you choose your autoresponder and system that you want to use to build your email list so that you can get your first 1000 subscribers, you are finally ready to get started, so don’t dottle!
Remember that you need to create a business email to use your autoresponder as well as an address that will be included automatically on each email. It’s the law. You can get a virtual business address and phone number via sites like Rovva.com or Regus.com, and others. If you use self-hosted WordPress, you can create as many unique email addresses as you need via your website host. Mine is www.jackieschwabe.com and my email is [email protected]. You can also get a google voice phone number if you don’t want folks calling your cell phone directly … but those are topics for a different article.
Did you miss the first few articles in this series? Now worries … I pasted the links of a few below for you. | https://medium.com/practical-business/common-mistakes-when-choosing-autoresponders-ae9765bb5500 | ['Jackie Schwabe', 'Mba'] | 2020-12-09 21:35:04.863000+00:00 | ['Startup Lessons', 'Email Marketing', 'Small Business Marketing', 'Entrepreneur', 'Email Marketing Tips'] |
How To Overcome Stage and Public Speaking Anxiety | Public Speaking Anxiety
Public Speaking is something that all performers deal with to some extent. However, not everyone is the same. Some people are terrified while others can take on any role with ease. If you are looking for ways to become less nervous about performing in front of audiences, this book can help.
I outline all of the things I know about public speaking and stage fright so that you can overcome it for good! From overcoming sleeplessness to handling different kinds of stress, I explain all of the things I do to secure myself before an important show.
Public speaking is a common fear among people of all walks of life. As per research done by international schools in India, it’s has been estimated that 75–95% of the population have some sort of dread of public speaking or stage fright. Stage nerves can significantly handicap people from performing to their full potential. In addition to the effects on your confidence and self-esteem, it can have a negative impact on your career and earning potential.
Many people are afflicted with stage fright or public speaking anxiety, which causes the same symptoms, which make them extremely uneasy in front of a crowd. Their fear is irrational, but if you suffer from it to this extreme, it becomes very real to you.
Stage fright is an anxiety disorder that makes it difficult to appear comfortable in a public situation. While there’s no sure way to overcome stage fright, there are a few helpful techniques you can use to minimize your discomfort and make taking the stage a little easier.
How to overcome Stage Fright
You’ve perfected your speech and you’re well-practiced at it. You’re ready to wow and amaze the audience, but what happens next? Your heart starts to pound and your palms start sweating. You want to run away or collapse. You forget everything you learn in public speaking class. That’s where we come in.
To overcome stage fright, learn how to deal with the physical manifestations of anxiety so you can feel calm and confident on stage. We all get nervous before public speaking, but many of us experience anxiety so severe that it is debilitating. If you suffer from this type of extreme anxiety, your day or presentation can be ruined despite your best efforts to prepare.
Overcoming a fear of public speaking begins with getting to know your anxiety. You’ll learn how anxiety can be your friend at times, and where it becomes debilitating.
When you think about it, public speaking is nothing more than practicing what you have been saying one person at a time. It’s no different from working up the nerve to ask someone on a date or for a raise.
The biggest factor in overcoming this fear is acceptance. Acceptance is the biggest victory that can help you achieve anything in life.
Conclusion
You may be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or the founder of an exciting new start-up, but when you’re in front of an audience, whether it’s fifty people or five hundred, your knees get shaky, your palms sweat, and your heart pounds uncontrollably. That’s understandable; it’s the fight or flight response kicking in.
Stage fright can occur to anyone and it is not something to feel ashamed about. | https://medium.com/@digital360india/how-to-overcome-stage-and-public-speaking-anxiety-12ea65c3226b | [] | 2021-11-30 05:59:06.645000+00:00 | ['Students', 'Public Speaking', 'Anxiety', 'Fear'] |
Facebook and Silicon Valley’s Silent Spring: The Question of Technology | Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash
Mark Zuckerberg’s inability to move beyond the scripted apologies during his congressional testimony in Washington about the Cambridge Analytica scandal confirmed what many already sensed: Zuckerberg and Facebook are out of touch with the most basic concerns and feelings of citizens across America and the world — and, as a consequence, Facebook is sinking and on a path to irrelevance. The root cause of that process was sitting right in front of the senators: a founder CEO who is so stuck in his own bubble that he can’t sense how the collective attention around him has changed. To be fair, the bubble surrounds all the Big Tech and Big Data behemoths, not just Facebook. As we have learned recently, these companies navigate and manipulate people’s attention and micro-habits every day. Says Tristan Harris, the former design ethicist for Google:
“[Imagine] walking into a control room with a hundred people hunched over a desk with little dials, and that that control room will shape the thoughts and feelings of a billion people. This might sound like science fiction, but this actually exists right now today. I know because I used to be in one of those control rooms. [This matters] because what we don’t talk about is that a handful of people … through their choices will steer what a billion people are thinking today.”
The problem, explains Harris, is that app designers are trained in exploiting small vulnerabilities of the human mind that then glues them to the screen and reinforces addictive behavioral patterns, particularly among teenage users. But we’ve probably heard that before. What has shifted? What has shifted over the past several months is the perception of the collective. While people in other parts of the world have had mixed feelings about the massive asymmetry of power between the few inside the control room and the billions of us outside of it, for a long time, there have always been two countries where that kind of awareness tended to be least developed: China and the U.S. With the scandalous revelations around Cambridge Analytica, one of them finally seems to have had its wake-up moment too.
An Assault on Attention, Empathy, and Our Humanity
What’s new is that more people are seeing connections that before were visible to only a few. My MIT colleague Sherry Turkle has likened this situation to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, a book that sparked the global environmental movement more than half a century ago. While Silent Spring made people aware of the adverse effects of chemical agricultural technology on nature, the current moment is about becoming aware of the adverse effects of digital social technologies on the human mind.
Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash
And just as Limits to Growth (another book that sparked the global environmental movement when it was published in 1972) pointed us to the contradiction between finite resources and infinite growth, today we learn about another inherent contradiction that will shape the public discourse for the years to come. It’s the contradiction between the finite resource of human attention and the infinite hunger for growth and global dominance that Big Tech companies pursue. Attention, argues Tristan Harris, is the ultimate battleground of all Big Tech companies in order to sell it to the best-paying advertisers. We and our attention are their product, not their customer. That’s the first assault. The second assault, argues Turkle, is on our empathy. Over the past two decades and with the rise of social media, the markers for empathy among U.S. college students have dropped 40%. The third assault is on our humanity. Go to any major city. What do you see? Droves of people moving around and interacting with each other heads down, staring at their devices. The free online documentary “Stare into the Lights My Pretties” does a good job of holding a mirror up to this highly disturbing phenomenon. The problems associated with being glued to our screens are well known. Eighth-graders in the United States that use social media for ten hours a week or more are 56% more likely to show symptoms of depression and anxiety disorder than others. Today in America, one in three teenage girls (and one in four teenage boys) show symptoms of anxiety disorder. What are we doing to ourselves and to our children?
Three collective conditions: Post-truth, post-democratic, post-human
Seeing these adverse effects on the individual is one part of the current awakening. But the other part is no less important. It concerns the effects on collective society. They can be summarized by three patterns and conditions that we see worldwide today: post-truth, post-democratic, post-human.
Post-truth. The number that best summarizes this condition is 3,001: that’s the number of lies and misleading statements by President Trump in his first 446 days in office. In spite of all these lies, his approval rating in the United States remains unchanged. Americans, according to former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, are facing an “epidemic of dishonesty” that is more dangerous than terrorism or communism. The post-truth condition is greatly amplified by social media. According to a recent MIT study, false information is 70% more likely to be shared on Twitter than true information. Social media are intentionally designed to keep us inside our own filter bubbles. Algorithms feed us information that confirms our views and shields us from information that could challenge them — even if what confirms our views or triggers our anger is based on false information or lies. Post-truth also means that how people feel about things (the first-person perspective) matters at least as much as the objective dimension of these facts does (the third-person perspective). Finally, post-truth tends to lead to a state of confusion. For most people this condition boils down to this: You can’t know. Nobody does.
Post-democratic. The number that summarizes this condition is 87. Facebook and Cambridge Analytica exposed private data of 87 million users, which then were used to manipulate the Brexit vote and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The rise of filter bubbles, micro-targeting, Russian bots, false news, and dark posts to amplify hate and fear, combined with the falling apart of communities and the rise of autocrats, are all symptoms of the same collective condition. It’s a crisis of old democratic institutions that have been eroded by the use of technology and highjacked by special interest groups representing Big Money, Big Tech, Big Pharma, and the fossil fuel industry. For most people the post-democratic condition boils down to this: You can’t really participate (in the decisions that affect you) and connect (to people outside of your bubble).
Post-human. The number that exemplifies this condition is 47: that’s the percentage of all jobs in the United States that, according to a recent study, will be replaced by machines by 2050. If that’s true, what does it mean? How do we distribute work if work is scarce? How do we distribute income if it is no longer tied to work (by providing a universal basic income?)? How do we change the tax system when natural resources are scarce and work is abundant (by imposing a carbon tax?)? What kind of future do we want to create? Are we going to be the housecats of our artificial intelligence (AI) overlords? Or is there a more intentional choice that we can make around technology? Do we choose a path that entails developing more addictive technologies that diminish our creative capacities, or do we choose a path toward developing technologies that enhance our creative capacities? Which path do we choose? For most people the current post-human condition boils down to this: You can’t choose. You can’t transform.
Photo by Owen Beard on Unsplash
These are the three collective conditions of our time. Donald Trump is the face and living embodiment of the first condition. His attention span is minimal, and his connection to reality is fleeting, at best. Mark Zuckerberg is the face and living embodiment of the second condition. His empathy is minimal, and his connection to others is fleeting, at best. Who is the face and living embodiment of the third condition? We all are, all of us who check our phones 150 times or more a day for app updates and messages (current average). The issue here is the Tyranny of Technology (ToT). It’s the most disturbing pattern that is emerging around us, between us, and within us. ToT turns our minds and micro-behaviors into extensions of AI-generated algorithms, which are outside of our awareness and control.
What do these three phenomena — Trump, Zuckerberg, and ToT — share? They share a way of operating that makes us locked inside of our own bubble. You can’t get out. That condition is obvious in the case of Trump and Zuckerberg. And sadly, it’s also increasingly true for the rest of us, to the degree that we’re victims of the Tyranny of Technology. The aforementioned documentary and the Netflix series “Dark Mirror” provide excellent examples of bringing the ToT megatrend to our attention.
Summing up from a first-person view: For most — particularly younger — people these societal conditions look and feel like this: You can’t know. You can’t connect. You can’t transform.
The Question of Technology
The most important thing we can do now is to change the conversation by starting to ask the right questions. Those include: What future do we want to create? Who are we as human beings? What path of technology development should we choose? A path that sets us on a race to the bottom by designing addictive and creativity-diminishing technologies, or one that puts us on a race to higher levels of human and social development by designing creativity-enhancing technologies?
Who needs to be at the table for those conversations? One thing we know for sure is this: conversations that are left to the few people inside corporate control rooms or to the handful people who own those companies will ignore two critical components: diversity and awareness. Facebook’s and Mark Zuckerberg’s poor responses are the evidence. What’s lacking most in all these conversations is an awareness that the path that we are currently on as a global community — a path toward destruction of the planet, society, and self — is not a necessity but a choice.
Moving beyond the current post-truth, post-democratic, and post-human condition will require us to do more than just criticizing it. The anti-Trump media have failed so far. Billions of words against Trump have only made him stronger. The same may be true for Facebook and our various filter bubbles. We need something different. We need to go beyond restoring society’s key institutions; we need to update our institutional infrastructures in at least three key domains.
We need to address the condition of:
post-truth by creating generative learning infrastructures that link first-, second-, and third-person views in ways that blend head, heart, and hand.
that link first-, second-, and third-person views in ways that blend head, heart, and hand. post-democracy by creating new democratic infrastructures that engage citizens in more direct, distributed, and dialogic modes of participation.
that engage citizens in more direct, distributed, and dialogic modes of participation. post-human by creating collaborative economic infrastructures that shifts the mindset from ego-system to eco-system awareness and allows everyone to contribute to co-generating well-being for all.
The good news is that the future is already here. Each of these infrastructure innovations has already been prototyped on a small scale in various places. But what is missing is an amplification mechanism that links these innovative initiatives to each other, so that they can be coordinated and replicated. Without these infrastructure innovations — and without a profound shift of our intention in how we design, develop, and use technology — the current trajectory toward planetary, societal, and human self-destruction will not be changed.
Which leads us to the two root questions of our time: What is technology? And what is the human being? In his writings about technology, the German philosopher Martin Heidegger reminds us that the word technology comes from the Greek word techne, meaning art. For the Greeks, art and technology was one and the same. Today, that connection is less and less felt — particularly on the user-side of apps that are used by billions and controlled by only a handful inside the control room. Which is precisely why post-truth, post-democracy, and post-human are not three problems. They are three different expressions of the same root issue: the quality of intention that underlies the making of technology. Is technology designed with the intention to empower and enhance human creativity, agency, and flourishing — or is it designed with the intention to maximize the wealth of and world domination by a very small group of mostly unaware, white, middle-aged men?
What You Can Do Now
What can you do to regain agency on these topics? Here are eight micro-actions that can help you regain some of the control that has been lost to Big Tech:
Ban your smartphone from the bedroom and buy an alarm clock. Get out of the filter bubble by doing what people inside Google already do: drop the Google search engine and use DuckDuckGo, an engine that protects your privacy and does not sell your data. Minimize your notifications and retake control of your social media feed (check out MIT Media Lab’s Gobo) Start your day with a moment of mindfulness. Take intentional reflection breaks — for example, a short daily walk that exposes you to the amazing beauty of nature that is all around us. Form a small circle of friends for practicing deep listening and generative dialogue conversations. Make a list of places of most potential — places that would help you figure out the next steps on your life’s and work’s journey — and then immerse yourself in at least one of those places every few months. Join the Transforming Capitalism platform to link up with inspiring innovators who share their stories, experiences, methods, and tools on addressing the issues outlined above. Join the conversation.
Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan, a Thousand Talents Program Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and cofounder of the Presencing Institute. | https://medium.com/presencing-institute-blog/facebook-and-silicon-valleys-silent-spring-the-question-of-technology-88efc9f4a4a4 | ['Otto Scharmer'] | 2018-11-04 21:53:32.206000+00:00 | ['Silicon Valley', 'Technology', 'Social Media', 'Articles By Otto'] |
She Posted an Ad on Craigslist and Ended Up Dead | She Posted an Ad on Craigslist and Ended Up Dead
The Craigslist Killer made one crucial mistake
Julissa Brisman. Source.
On April 14, 2009, Julissa Brisman, a model, arranged to meet a man at the Marriott Copley Hotel in New York City. Once the two were inside her room, the man attacked Julissa and restrained her with plastic ties. When she fought back, he bashed her head in and shot her several times in the chest, killing her.
Julissa’s lifeless body was found in a pool of blood in her hotel room on the 20th floor by hotel staff who phoned the authorities. The police arrived and found a purse containing Julissa’s identification and cell phone. She had a missed call from a woman named Beth.
Beth informed the authorities she arranged meetings between Julissa and her clients; she had a 10 pm appointment that very night with a man who called himself ‘Andy M.’ Beth gave the police the man's phone number and email address.
Investigators remembered a similar incident that occurred only four days prior. On April 10, 2009, Trisha Leffler, an escort, was held at gunpoint and robbed at the Westin Copley Place hotel in Boston. The unknown man wasn’t done; on the 16th, he met with an exotic dancer at the Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, Rhode Island, where he attacked and robbed her.
All three women had something in common; they had all placed ads on Craigslist offering massages and lap dances in exchange for money, and all three had arranged to meet the man who would later be referred to as the ‘Craigslist Killer.’
When investigators realized all three women had been bound with plastic ties, gagged and robbed in hotels after placing ads on Craigslist, they knew the attacks were connected to the same man.
Philip Markoff in surveillance footage. Source.
Investigators retained surveillance footage of a tall, clean-cut man with blonde hair at all three hotels around the same time as the attacks. He was wearing a brown leather jacket, brown leather shoes and a New York Yankees hat.
The woman who was robbed at the Holiday Inn Express refused to cooperate with the investigation, however, Trisha confirmed the man in the footage was the same man who had robbed her four days before killing Julissa.
The images were released to the public and within days, authorities received over 150 tips. However, it wasn’t the tips that led them to the perpetrator, it was the perpetrator himself.
Investigators discovered that the man who replied to the Craigslist ads had used two different prepaid disposable phones. However, the Craigslist Killer had made one crucial mistake, he used his own computer. The IP address of the man who had responded to the ads was registered to Philip Markoff.
Investigators located Philip’s Facebook profile page. It taught them two things; Philip was indeed the same man in the surveillance footage, and, he was a medical student engaged to a woman named Megan McAllister.
Philip Markoff came from a broken home; his father Richard Markoff, a dentist, was rarely in the picture. Philip was raised by his mother Susan Hayes and her second husband Gary Carroll, a banker. Philip excelled in high school; he was on the honour roll and a member of many extra-curricular activities such as the golf and bowling teams.
Philip Markoff & Megan McAllister. Source.
Philip met Megan in 2005 while volunteering at Albany Medical Center. He graduated from SUNY Albany in 2007 and began attending Boston University School of Medicine to fulfill his dreams of becoming a doctor.
On paper, Philip seemed to be the ‘perfect’ man; he was easy on the eyes, intelligent, and a prospective doctor who volunteered his time to help others. In reality, he was an unemployed man with a gambling addiction, living a double life as the Craigslist Killer.
Philip’s M.O. was to scour Craiglist ads by women who offered massages and lap dances for money. He would respond to the ads and arrange to meet at local hotels. But, it wasn’t a massage or a lap dance Philip wanted from the women. He wanted their money to pay off his gambling debts.
After waiting for Philip and Megan to leave their Quincy, Massachusetts home for an errand, investigators entered the apartment with a warrant and found an insurmountable amount of evidence linking Philip to the crimes.
A New York driver’s license belonging to a man named ‘Andrew Miller’ was discovered (Philip’s alias was Andy M) along with 60 plastic ties (the same used to bound all three women) and sixteen pairs of panties believed to have belonged to the victims hidden beneath the couples’ bed.
The hollowed out book containing the murder weapon found in Philip’s home. Source.
The most damning evidence was the discovery of the 9mm semi-automatic handgun used to murder Julissa, found in a hollowed-out book. The bullets were taped to the back of the dryer.
Although Megan had no idea what her husband-to-be had been up to in his spare time, she found it odd when on April 20 he suddenly packed their bags and yanked her into their vehicle, insisting they go on an impromptu trip to Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.
It was too late. Investigators had been watching Philip for days. He was arrested during a traffic stop and charged with armed robbery, kidnapping and the murder of Julissa Brisman.
Philip Markoff. Source.
At first, Megan defended her fiancé, claiming he was, “a beautiful person, inside and out” and “could not hurt a fly.” She said it was not possible for Philip to have been the perpetrator, “I mean, we’re in the apartment 24/7. He doesn’t have a life because he’s in medical school” she told detectives.
With the overwhelming amount of evidence against Philip, Megan could not deny the truth. A week later, she walked into Nashua Street Jail in Boston and told him their impending marriage was off. She said it would be a long time before they would see each other again — if ever.
On August 15, 2010, Philip committed suicide. He swallowed a wad of toilet paper, covered his head with a plastic bag and cut several arteries with a homemade razor he had fashioned from a pen. Written on the walls of his jail cell was ‘Megan’ in his blood.
It would have been the ex-couples first wedding anniversary. | https://medium.com/memoirsfromhistory/she-posted-an-ad-on-craigslist-and-ended-up-dead-7a366c21304a | ['Fatim Hemraj'] | 2020-12-27 19:01:47.760000+00:00 | ['True Crime', 'Crime', 'History', 'True Story', 'Murder'] |
What hurricanes teach us about the consumers and the economy… | What hurricanes teach us about the consumers and the economy…
Deflation is the monster in the central banker’s closet
What if I told you Amazon.com was in the business of predicting hurricanes?
Seeing as they are getting into just about every business, it might not be a surprise. But that’s not the point here.
What matters is the technology which produces this hurricane forecast map. It is exactly the same technology which enables Amazon to pull off same-day delivery. Let me explain.
Knowledge Management and Storm Path Prediction
The field of “Knowledge Management” (KM) breaks things down into three basic groups. There is “data” — which in meteorology would be a reading like temperature, atmospheric pressure, dew point, etc. The data originates from an instrument at a point in time. If we are looking at consumer purchases, a product would be a point of data (let’s use hot chocolate and marshmallows — more on that in a moment).
When you take various points of data and bring them into context with each other you have what KM calls “information” — or data in context with other data. For hurricane forecasting, various meteorological data points are brought into a three dimensional information set called a “cube.” The first two dimensions would be like a spreadsheet. You might have latitude/longitude/altitude positions as rows and the various readings as columns. The spreadsheet itself would represent these readings and their locations at a single point in time. Time, then, becomes the third dimension of the cube. You basically have time slice spreadsheets stacked front-to-back as if in a filing cabinet.
The third element of KM is Knowledge. In order to elicit knowledge from the cube you employ a sophisticated statistical algorithm. There can be any number of such algorithms — when you hear the weather reporter refer to “the models,” they are referring to various algorithms which analyze the information in the cube.
These algorithms are fine tuned over time. We can go back to previous storm seasons and the information cube from a storm at its beginning (say, when it becomes a named storm), and we can take that “time slice” from the cube and run it through our model today to see what our model will “predict.” Of course, since we are taking information from the past, we already “know” how the storm will proceed. We can compare that with our model’s calculation and use the results to fine tune the model’s math.
As a result, when a storm like Dorian forms, we have numerous finely tuned models. We take today’s time slice from the information cube we are building in real time and run it through the models. The models then create future time slices for our information cube. Those future time slices (think of the spreadsheet of rows and columns) is then the underlying data which produces the map we see on the news.
Meteorology and Consumer Purchasing
Now let’s go from one weather extreme to another. It’s snowing outside and very cold, so you settle down to a book and a cup of hot chocolate and marshmallows.
Let’s say I own a hot chocolate company and I get from Big Data a comprehensive data set of consumer purchases of products like mine. I create an information cube, each slice showing me the store locations (rows) and the volume of sales of various products (columns — let’s just limit this to the hot chocolate and the marshmallows.)
I can now create a time-based “heat map” — this is a lot like the storm path map in that I can hit “play” and see sales volume (think storm intensity) increase and dissipate. On this heat map, the colors will reflect the volume of sales — dark red will show me when and where hot chocolate and marshmallows are flying off the shelves.
Now imagine we get meteorological data sets from the same period in the past. We bring the weather information into context with the consumer purchase information and create an entirely new set of information. When we press play on our heat map we see red and green ebb and flow to represent sales volume as it goes up and down. We also see weather data for the same times and places.
Now what I am looking for is a statistically significant correlation between weather data (as it gets colder and stormier in the winter) and sales volume of hot chocolate and marshmallows.
This was originally a heat map showing where fitness centers were located. Imagine the red shows us where our hot chocolate and marshmallows are flying off the shelves.
Weather models are remarkably accurate — and getting better
There is some consternation today about hurricane Dorian originally being forecast to hit the Florida coast, only now to be forecast to take a sharp turn north right before making landfall. Everyone is up in arms over the alarm because it was disruptive.
But when we look at this strictly as an exercise in Knowledge Management the models were remarkably accurate, especially if we just look at the predictions made a day or so into the future. (This is why the maps show us a cone surrounding the path — the cone gets wider the further out the map goes in time, reflecting the decreased certainty about the prediction.)
If we step back from the “breaking news” of a dangerous storm, we note that the run-of-the-mill weather forecasts we listen to on the news are really no different. The models are spitting out time slice spreadsheets a few days into the future and the guy or gal on TV is telling us what that data means for our commute or that picnic we had planned for Labor Day.
But back to my hot chocolate and marshmallow sales…
If I find a statistically significant correlation between weather data and sales volume, I can see where and under what weather conditions my product is selling best. I can then go to the weather models in the winter and I will “know” about a week in advance where the weather is going to be cold and stormy. I will also “know” this is likely to mean my sales volume will spike. What I cannot have, as a business owner, is for a potential customer to come to the shelf looking for my products, and not find them because I did not supply it to the store in the volume necessary to meet the demand.
This is basically how Amazon pulls off same-day delivery — but only in certain markets. These markets have enough of the right kinds of data Amazon’s models require to produce highly reliable predictions. Amazon’s “map” shows them when and where various kinds of products will be in demand in a few days. This allows them to move those products into regional warehouses so, when they are ordered, the products are in a close-enough proximity to the customer that Amazon can deliver on the same day.
And now a word from our sponsors…or not
You might have found my subtitle odd: “Deflation is the monster in the central banker’s closet.”
Janet Yellen as former Fed Chair?
If you are my hot chocolate and marshmallow customer, and you have reason to believe I will lower my price tomorrow, why would you buy today? This “deflationary” mindset, if we extrapolate it across the economy, means supply chains start to back up with an excess of supply. If my hot chocolate and marshmallow supply chain starts backing up, in the minds of central bankers I will have to lower my price. This will only confirm my customer’s suspicions and they will decide to wait a little longer, hoping to get a better price tomorrow. Writ large, at least as the conventional wisdom goes, a depression-causing spiral begins. Expectations of lower prices mean transactions are delayed. That delay prompts producers to lower their prices to move product. That confirms the expectations of lower price, so that expectation persists and transactions are further delayed — causing prices to drop… Wash, rinse, repeat.
Central bankers think this is a monetary problem. If my consumer has more money, they will be able to pay today’s price and my supply chain starts moving again. When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. So the central banker says we need to add money to the economy.
But what if deflation is not, nor has ever been, a monetary problem? What if deflation is a supply-chain management problem? What if the deficit is not in the money supply, but in the “knowledge” of where certain products are likely to have enough demand to support today’s price. What if the real tool needed here is Knowledge Management?
The central banker is worried about why people are not buying. As a businessman, I don’t care why people are not buying — I want to know where they are buying at today’s price and why they are buying at today’s price so I can supply the market at those places and times.
It seems the central banking crowd has remained unaware that there is this thing in today’s economy that was not around during our grandparents’ time. This thing is the computer, and the fatal flaw of central banking (and academic economics) is they haven’t the foggiest idea of how real people in the real economy of today actually use computers to manage their supply chains. There are two kinds of people in the economy — those who do real things, and those who talk and write about those who do real things… Central banks and academic economists are clearly the latter.
I actually learned to code on one of these!
If they would simply stop intervening in what they clearly do not understand, the utility of today’s Knowledge Management technology would be allowed to come to the forefront of the economy. Instead, by injecting more and more money, businesses are basically excused from having to compete against each other to see who can best use today’s technology to manage their supply chains.
Left alone, those who can, will. Those who can’t will go out of business (and probably end up teaching economics). | https://medium.com/swlh/what-hurricanes-teach-us-about-the-consumers-and-the-economy-541c469803d9 | ['John Horst', 'Cissp', 'Issap'] | 2019-09-04 06:11:01.186000+00:00 | ['Weather', 'Hurricane', 'Dorian', 'Central Banking', 'Federal Reserve'] |
Wear One Hat (Give The Rest To Tech) | I wanted to close out this Work & Workmanship section with something a bit more pragmatic– less “self-reflective journal entry” and more “practical thoughts on getting ideas launched and work accomplished.”
As mentioned previously, I work with a ton of solopreneurs–people who set up and run businesses on their own. Perhaps they eventually scale to include new employees, or maybe theirs is a model that allows for an ongoing “one-man-show.” Either way, most of these creative/business types are full of so many ideas that the limitless possibilities before them usually aren’t as freeing as they are paralyzing.
Here, I find myself in a bit of a conundrum. I honestly believe that anything is possible, and I love it when I have the opportunity to instill that belief in others. On the same token, though, I have to acknowledge that the “American Dream” narrative has left a huge number of people disillusioned by the letdown that life can be when reality seems intent on pummeling dreams into submission.
“Anything is possible” isn’t the same as saying that all of our wildest dreams will come true, but I do think that–in our attempts to go for gold–there is more help afforded all of us than any of us realize, especially at this point in history.
Enter technology.
I can’t help but laugh-that whole buildup just makes me think of LaFawnduh’s Song in the movie Napoleon Dynamite:
We met in a chat room Now our love can fully bloom Sure, the World Wide Web is great But you, you make me ‘salivate’ Yes, I love technology But not as much as you, you see But I still love technology Always and forever
The moral of the story is this: if technology can help Kip find true love, maybe it can help us out in our business endeavors, too. (I consider this one of my stronger analogies to date.)
In today’s world, a person’s barrier to entry–for doing anything–is tech. Unless you own a cash-only storefront and have zero interest in advertising (which, in that case, might I suggest you close up shop now?), you need tech.
Too many people consider tech a problem in the way of their dreams as opposed to an opportunity to make them possible.
Too many people are held back by technology when it should be a tool used to propel them forward.
I don’t consider myself a tech-savvy person, but I’ve had to figure enough of it out throughout my career to know that none of what I’ve accomplished in business or ministry would have been possible without it. Our ideas only extend so far as people can engage with them, and tech provides the visibility necessary for that engagement.
Most people don’t know how to free up storage on or locate their phone, declutter their cloud, or back up their contacts. How, then, are we to set up a functional business whereby technology is capable of accomplishing the heavy lifting that would otherwise stop us dead in our tracks before we even have the chance to begin?
Last year, I launched betterandbetter.co — a “One-stop-shop for every resource to build, scale, and grow any online product or internet-based idea you have.” The premise — as inspired by marketing guru Seth Godin’s challenge — is this: your idea “doesn’t count ‘till it ships.”
Better&Better isn’t an agency so much as it is a team of experts versed in all of the tech necessary to get people’s ideas off of the ground. To get them shipped. To make them count. We have designers, illustrators, photographers, videographers, editors, copywriters, web programmers, app developers, site builders, engineers, project directors, ad buyers, account managers, marketing professionals, content creators…you name it.
This isn’t a pitch (although, obviously, we’d welcome your inquiries) as much as it is an example of all the things necessary to successfully launch an idea into the world. It takes quite a bit more to assemble than most people realize when they consider “making a Squarespace landing page” as though that alone will be enough to garner visibility.
So, yes, the above list of fifteen different areas of expertise necessary for launch is daunting. Overwhelming. And it’s not even comprehensive. The point, though — whether one uses our services or goes searching through UpWork or Fiverr or whatever — is that help exists, and that’s enough to gift oneself with a bit of fresh air when otherwise suffocating beneath the ever-increasing to-do list.
I’ve talked quite a bit about masterminds lately. I hope I’m not beating a dead horse, but much of my learning has come through my involvement in them — like a postgraduate course, or some form of ongoing education. One of these groups is almost entirely dedicated to scaling your business through tech, and I walked away from our last meeting astounded by the number of people in the room with little to no idea about what tech to use, let alone how to use it. And I’ll be honest, it’s not a cheap room to sit in, especially if you’re not going to learn how to wield the tools you’re paying for (or, at the very least, build connections and hire the work out to a third party).
People come with ideas and never launch them. They don’t understand how. They’re overwhelmed by or ignorant of the tech needed to bring their goals into fruition. They’re a one-man or one-woman show with little-to-no budget for outsourcing work, and they’re too overwhelmed by the learning curve to get it done themselves. They think that boosting Facebook posts is the same thing as running Facebook ads. They don’t understand automation, or the way that tech might allow them to work smarter (or, even, entirely on their behalf). Little by little, they overload their job description until they’ve forgotten what their vision was in the first place, or why they ever thought that pursuing their dreams once held such a sense of enticement.
To help, then, I simply wanted to write a bit about a few of the tools that I/we use regularly. If this section ends up being nothing more than a list of suggestions that you overlook, so be it–but that’s a lot of what the folks who have yet to ship their ideas are doing, as well…
Reading about is a far cry from implementing, and I know that sometimes putting one’s education into action feels (or legitimately is) risky. The unknown is always scary. It sounds too…what? Daunting? Expensive? New and fandangled? I get that, but I also know from experience that you won’t get far without it.
Perhaps it’s reductionistic to suggest that any of us can ever get down to wearing just one hat, but I do know that ample opportunity exists to offload many of them in exchange for the tech at our disposal. That said, whether what I suggest below suits your needs, or simply sparks the inspiration to seek out whatever might, here are some of my favorite tech tools–a combination of my own creations and those of the folks we’ve used–including the what and why of each.
Basecamp. Basecamp combines all the tools teams need to get work done in a single, streamlined package. With everything in one place, your team will know what to do, where things stand, and where to find things they need.
I use Basecamp for everything that I do. I know that Slack seems to get all of the popularity as the new “collaboration hub,” and that’s totally fine. Use Slack if it suits you, but Basecamps suits me, and the platform there keeps all of our tasks–personal, business, and ministry-related, in order.
Visit Basecamp.
Kajabi. Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that makes it easy to create online courses, launch marketing campaigns, build landing pages, and design the perfect website.
I’ve used Kajabi for everything we’ve launched throughout the past five years–particularly when it comes to video resources, which we’ve developed for ourselves and others. Stronger Marriages, XXXchurch, My Pilgrimage, Recover.org, and more all use Kajabi as the host for our E-course products.
Visit Kajabi.
Wishlist. WishList Member is the premier solution for delivering digital content on a WordPress site.
Wishlist–like Kajabi–is another option for membership-based hosting/solutions. As WordPress continues to be the primary go-to for website-building, this is an excellent solution if you want to integrate a new membership idea into what you might already have on their platform (as opposed to sending them to a separate URL).
Visit Wishlist.
Sit On My Gift. Do you wonder if you have a special gift, talent, or superpower that no one else has? Not sure what that is? Let us help you.
This is an idea that my friend Matt and I developed. Most people who venture out on their own end up playing the roles of CEO, manager, content creator, bookkeeper, blog- writer, marketing director, and a thousand other titles. One day, Matt called and asked, “Craig, what is the one thing you do better than anyone else?” I answered him, then paid the question forward to some of the people who know me best, and they confirmed my conclusion. I then asked them to do the same. We used that experiment as a basis to develop a free tool whereby friends and family can help provide you with extreme clarity and confidence about what it is that you should be spending your time on, and what you should leave behind. I’ve used and encouraged the process ever since, and you can read all about it, in detail, in Chapter 14: Don’t Sit On Your Gift (My One Thing).
Visit Sit On My Gift.
Dropbox. Dropbox is a modern workspace designed to reduce busy work so you can focus on the things that matter.
Dropbox has been a lifesaver for my team and me when it comes to cloud-based storage. I’ve even linked my computer screenshots to autosave to my account so that I never lose a thought. Think of it as an online hard drive where you can both store and share what is valuable to you, as well as create documents and collaborate with others whose eyes you need on a project.
Visit Dropbox.
Facebook Agencies. We have strong relationships with three different Facebook Paid Ad Agencies, and if you want to know who might be an excellent fit for you, please email me.
Facebook–like it or not–dominates the market, and remains the best bang for your buck when it comes to paid advertising that actually converts. As previously mentioned, though, “boosting” a comment isn’t the same thing as running Facebook Ads. The real deal is a more intricate process, but nothing we’ve done would have been possible without diving into it with the help of our expert friends who know the game.
Email Me.
Better&Better. Better&Better is your one-stop-shop for every resource to build, scale, and grow any online product or internet-based idea you have.
We are a team of experts, professionally versed in every possible skill that you and your organization requires to support your online efforts, and get your ideas off the ground. Put simply: If you’re online, we can help you.
Visit Better&Better.
Creating Fun. Fast is fun when it comes to product launches, getting your dreams shipped, and creating a conversation.
If you want to bring your product to market or if you have an internet-idea, we can get it out to the world. If you are paralyzed by the possibilities, we can identify which option to pursue. If you are two days or two years out we can help, but we work best launching projects to the world in 30 days or less.
Visit Creating Fun.
As you might imagine, there are thousands more to choose from, and the tech you need will vary according to the projects you’re undertaking, and the ideas you’re attempting to bring to life.
Maybe you need to email marketing. MailChimp is a great platform for it, especially if you’re just getting started.
Or perhaps you need a more comprehensive and customizable way to send your audiences along various sales paths according to their interactions with the content you’re sending them. Infusionsoft is literally the number one software for it.
I’ve written a good amount about membership sites, and perhaps you’re interested in how to build that kind of business out. Stu McLaren’s Tribe workshop is a great place to start learning.
There are countless suggestions that I could give you, and they’re all at your fingertips. This is the stuff that fires me up, so if you need any help in the process, feel free to drop me a line, as well.
At the end of the day, my main goal in concluding the Work & Workmanship section of Craig Brain this way is to encourage you that the resources you need exist. Throughout the past three months, I’ve shared so much about my processes, changes, failures, successes, and all of the ups and downs that coincide with a life lived the way my family and I have chosen to. None of it would have been possible without utilizing the tools at my/our disposal.
It won’t all come together perfectly. You can expect to fail, but that means you can expect to learn from your failures. There will be plenty of trial by error, but don’t get so overwhelmed by what you don’t know or can’t handle that it keeps you taking that first step.
In the end, I suppose my final encouragement is, simply, this: start.
Watch the Video
Listen to the Podcast | https://medium.com/craigbrain/wear-one-hat-give-the-rest-to-tech-c60244eecdbf | ['Craig Gross'] | 2019-09-03 13:01:01.912000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Work', 'Craig Brain', 'Workmanship', 'Craig Gross'] |
Stop worrying about your competitors. Do this instead. | Photo by Braden Collum on Unsplash
Competitors? You are bound to have them because everyone does. Competition is one of the constant attributes of life. Most entrepreneurs today face the danger of falling into the comparison trap. As an entrepreneur, at a point, your competitors’ success might intimidate you.
A simple Google search will show you lots of companies doing exactly the things you do, maybe even better than you.
Given the ease of accessing information these days, it takes only a few seconds to get online and make comparisons of your business, life or even dream to that of other people and that could be harmful to your entrepreneurial success.
While coming across information about your seemingly better competitors may be unavoidable, no thanks to Twitter streams, Facebook feeds and internet news lines, there’s a way you could go ahead in your business despite all the comparison, competition and noise that surround you.
Keep reading to get some insights on why you shouldn’t worry about your competitors and you what you should focus on, instead. These tips will help you to escape the trap of comparison and overcome those annoying doubts that you are not sufficient or good enough.
First, don’t compare your start to another’s middle. It makes no sense for you to compare yourself to others who are established already in an analogous business if you are working on a novel entrepreneurial enterprise or just launching your business.
Trees planted at different times would definitely be of different sizes. It’s only logical. So don’t worry about already-established competitors being ahead of you. They started sometimes ago like you. You should focus on growing gradually over time at your own pace to a similarly big stature.
Another reason you should not bother about your competitor is because there is plenty of good, enough to go around. A good percentage of folks believes that there are no sufficient good business or ideas to go around. It’s an approach that is not correct.
This type of scarcity mentality is far from the truth. It’s not true that there can be only few successful similar businesses because if that were to be the case, we’d only have one successful author, musician, soda, car-producing company or telecommunication company in the country.
Concentrate fully on your own attainment of success. Have an abundance mentality. Know that there’s enough to go round.
Also, you need not worry about your competitors wins, celebrate your own wins instead. Focus on achieving your own peak moments. Celebrate your positive steps and your little triumphs. If you are busy winning and celebrating your victories, you have no time to worry about your competitors.
You should not worry about your competitors when you can actually learn from them. Study your competitors to know and apply the methods that have worked and still work for them. Then focus on deploying these functional strategies for the growth of your own business.
Focus on learning from the failures of your competitors so that you don’t make the same mistakes. You can avoid a lot of pitfalls and mistakes by simply learning from your competitors.
In addition, focus on creating an exceptional experience for your customers. This is very important. Why? When you create a unique experience for your customers, you can be certain that they will continue to patronise you and you don’t have to worry about losing them to your competitors.
Creating a unique customer experience will include optimising your business to cater for the needs of your customer satisfactorily. This will require that you put in a place a system whereby your customers/clients feel connected to you, whereby they become staunch members of your community and enthusiastic self-appointed ambassadors of your brand.
It is all about building a very strong and cordial relationship with your clients/customers.
However, since you are bound to think about your competitors once in a while, learn not to worry about them but let the thoughts you have of them fire you to grow your own business.
Let the fact that you have competitors spur you to do more and achieve more.
Kindly submit your comments in the comment section below. Let us know what you think or if you have any questions. | https://medium.com/@PlenipotentCo/stop-worrying-about-your-competitors-do-this-instead-9f90c0395f21 | ['The Plenipotent Company'] | 2019-04-04 12:45:14.644000+00:00 | ['Competitive Intelligence', 'Competitive Advantage', 'Business Strategy', 'Startup', 'Competition'] |
How to Implement a Binary Search Tree | A binary search tree, or BST, is a type of data structure typically used to organize data. It is structured in a very different way compared to stacks, queues and lists. Generally, a BST will have the following properties.
1. The tree has a root node that is used as the starting point for any operation
2. Each node in the tree has one or two nodes attached to it. One is to the right of the node, and the other is to the left.
3. Everything to the right of a node is larger in value compared to it. Everything to the left of a node is smaller in value compared to it.
The main valuable property of BSTs is that they store data in a way that is easy to search. When data is stored in a BST, we can use the property of left and right nodes to determine where a node we are searching for is likely to be. In general, it takes less time to search a BST compared to searching through a list of values one by one.
To start implementing a tree, we first need to create a new type of node that has a left and right property. This node object isn’t too different from the node objects used for lists. The only difference is that the new node object has two links instead of one. It still has a value, and still implements the same getters and setters to manipulate its values.
A TreeNode implementation
Once we have a Treenode implemented, we can use it to create a BST object. The two main operations we want to implement for our BST object is an operation to insert values, and an operation to remove values. Once we have these two operations, we can easily extend the structures to add more later.
Our BST object will have just a single property, which is the root of the tree itself. The root will be able to be iterated at any time to determine any other values within the tree. The insert method is implemented using recursion, which will be the case for almost every tree method. To get a better idea of what we need to do for our insert method, let’s look at an example.
Suppose we wanted to insert the values [5,2,7,6,4,3] into our BST, in the order given. When we start, the BST will be empty, meaning that we just need to update the root with the value 5.
We start with a single root node
The next value after this is 2. To insert this, we need to check the root to see if we are less than or greater than its value. Since 2 is less than 5, it will go the left of 5. There are no other values in the tree, so we just update the roots left pointer and we are done. On the other hand, 7 is greater than 5, so it goes to the right of 5. Since there are no other values to the right, we update the root right pointer to 5 and we are done.
Inserts go to the left and right of the root
The insert starts to get more complicated once the left and right of the root are filled in. The next element we want to insert is 6. This is greater than the root, so we go to the right of it and reach 7. From here, we need to do another comparison to see that 6 is less than 7. We then update the left of 7 to be 6. You can see from this that we need to keep comparing until we reach an empty spot. Once we reach an empty spot, we insert there, and we are done. If we continue with this pattern, we get the tree below.
The final tree after all inserts
From this example, we can see that our stopping condition is that the node we are currently at is null. We make recursive calls on cases where the value we are inserting is less than or greater than the current one. If we encounter a situation where we are equal to the value we are inserting, we don’t insert the value since it already exists. With BSTs, we typically use a convention that duplicate values are not allowed. Using this logic, we can construct a recursive function that will insert a value into our BST.
Our insert method implementation
This code follows the general format of what we discussed in the example. If the current node we are at is not null, we move down the left or right of the tree, updating on each recursive call. Once we reach a null value, or a value that is equal to what we wish to insert, we move up the recursive stack, updating as we go, ending with a fully updated tree with the new node inserted.
Now that we have an insert, the idea of removing from the tree follows similarly in logic. We need to first locate the value we wish to remove inside of the tree. We do this by starting at the root and moving left or right depending on if the current value is smaller or larger than the value we want. Once we find the value, we remove it from the tree, updating all the previous nodes through recursion. Doing so will give us an updated tree with the targeted node removed.
The actual process of removing the node once we find it is a little trickier. We need to locate an adequate replacement from the children of the node we are removing. Let’s look at the code to see how this is done.
The remove method
The first part of this code is like our insert method. We move to the left and right in the tree searching for the value we want to remove. The new logic comes in when we find the value we wish to remove. In the case where the node has only one value linked to it, the remove is easy. We simply replace with the value that exists, either the left or right.
If there is both a left and right, then we need to find the smallest node that exists to the right of the node we want to remove. Once we do this, we recursively call the function to update the right-hand side to link based on the smallest value that succeeds the one being removed. We find the smallest value by iterating the left-hand side of the node we are removing, since everything to the left is smaller than what came before it.
The min value method
Doing this gives us the full functionality required to remove nodes from a tree. The insert and remove methods provide the fundamental ideas required to traverse a tree, and update values when required. Using these concepts, you will be able to implement any tree related recursion, since most of the methods will follow a similar idea of iterating the tree to find or update values. | https://scottc130.medium.com/how-to-implement-a-binary-search-tree-4173abfef19b | ['Scott Cosentino'] | 2019-11-05 02:27:39.969000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Java'] |
Chandralekha — 50 Tamil movies to watch before you die — 2 | (The original article was published in 2009 but I am replenishing the articles with new content and making it native to Medium to popularise it)
The second movie in the series defined the word magnum opus in Tamil Cinema. Baahubali should be called the Chandralekha of the 21st century. The vision of one man SS Vasan translated into celluloid changed the way world looked at Indian cinema.
Chandralekha (1948)
Whom do you think is the most flamboyant movie maker in Tamil Cinema? Some would say producers like AM Rathnam, Aascar Ravichandran, Kalaipuli Dhanu or the director Shankar. I can think of only one person, a man by the name S.S.Vasan.
S.S.Vasan was an entrepreneur and also one of the most extravagant film producers. Chandralekha was his magnum opus made at over Rs.30 Lakhs in the year 1948. The inflation adjusted value would be almost $29 Million in the current year (unimaginable). The movie was bilingual in both Hindi and Tamil. It was a pan-world release with 609 prints all over and was released with English Subtitles. The beauty was that the release was done solely by Gemini Pictures (production house of SS.Vasan) without any foreign collaboration. The cast includes MK Radha, TR Rajakumari, Ranjan, NS Krishnan and Madhuram. The music was made by Saluri Rajeshwara Rao, lyrics by Kotha Mangalam Subbu and Papanasam Sivan. Kamal Ghosh was the cinematographer, and AK Sekar did the art direction. The movie was directed by SS Vasan [4].
The story is simple. It’s the power struggle between two brothers for the country and a lady.His tyrant brother Ranjan ousts MK Radha. MK falls in love with poor village dance girl ( TR Rajakumari) while building an army to get the nation back. Ranjan falls in love with the girl too and kidnaps her for marriage. She asks for a drum dance before the wedding to help her lover MK Radha. The MK Radha’s army hides in the big drums and makes a surprise attack at the end of the dance ( Inspiration from Helen of Troy?) MK fights one on one with Ranjan to kill him and save the country and the girl.
Why is Chandralekha so special?
1. The extravagant and lavish production values make the movie unimaginable in those days. Even now, it’s absolutely impossible to bring that grandeur on screen. The Art Direction and the camera work made the movie special. The film was in production for almost five years.
2. Nobody can beat the drum dance. The music, the dance movements, the editing according to the beats of the song, the way the drums were designed and placed, the combination of long and close up shots — it was a spectacle. People thronged the theatres just to watch the dance.
3. The final fight sequence is considered to be the most prolonged sword fight in the history of cinema. The camera moves along with the two actors during the battle. Watch the climax sequence to understand how the camera work is done and it’s a lesson by itself.
4. Although there were good performances from the lead characters, especially Ranjan’s Villainy and TR Rajakunari’s graceful acting, its the making that stands out in the movie. The story is not complicated and pretty much follows the typical Prince and the betrayer format of historical fiction. It’s the screenplay and the contextual grandeur that made the movie special.
Why Chandralekha is on the list?
This movie announced the arrival of Tamil Cinema to the world. This was the first high budget movie in India and the first Indian movie to be released overseas. It showed that the Tamil movie makers would not make only emotional potboilers but they know how to make the big-budget extravaganza too. AV Meiyappa Chettiar (AVM) admitted that he started making big budgeted movies and targeted Hindi market after SS Vasan showed how it should be done.
The marketing prowess of SS Vasan showed how movies should be distributed. He made wider release by blocking a large number of theatres and made profit within short period of time. This is being adopted in every movie industry across the world.
Trivia
SS Vasan was also the person behind the success of Anandha Vikatan, the weekly in Tamil. He has this Midas touch as he buys ailing companies to make it a success. He also purchased the burnt Motion Picture Producers Combine to make the Gemini Studios. He is hailed as the Cecil B.DeMille of Indian Cinema. SS Vasan was born in Thirutharaipoondi in Thanjavur district and his birth name was Seenuvasan. Although he lost his father at the tender age of 4, his mother Vaalambal raised him and educated him. Vaalambal was well versed in Tamil and Sanskrit. She is the one who instigated the idea of stories in Vasan’s head. Vasan studied up to Intermediate in Pachaiyappa’s College, Chennai and started working after that due to poverty [6]. Vasan started his career as an advertisement salesman for Kudiyarasu, a magazine run by Periyar. In order to make more, he started a mail order business using the goods bought in China Bazaar, Chennai. He was interested in writing too and was willing to explore bold topics. He translated an English book “Thirty three Secrets to a Successful Marriage” and published it as “இல்லற வாழ்க்கையின் ரகசியங்கள்" [7] and called himself a fictionist and ethnologist [6]. Vasan was advertising in Anandha Vikatan that was run by Pudur Vaidhyanadha Iyer. The magazine wasn’t published for few weeks and he found that the magazine was running at a loss. So, he paid Rs.25 for each letter in the Tamil word of Anandha Vikatan and bought the magazine for Rs.200 [6]. SS Vasan’s tryst with cinema started with ‘Thiyaga Bhoomi’. Although his magazine series Sathi Leelavathi (MGR started his career with this movie) was made into a movie, he wasn’t interested in films or film making. Thiyaga Bhoomi is a novel written by Kalki Krishnamurthy (who was the editor of Anandha Vikatan). K Subramaniam (father of Padma Subramaniam), a prolific director (who introduced MK Thiagaraja Bagavathar) wanted to make Thiyaga Bhoomi into a movie. So they decided to publish the story as a serialised version on Anandha Vikatan while the shoot was going on. It became a huge hit (Anandha Vikatan later tried the same idea with Vikram and Swarnamukhi) and SS Vasan distributed the movie as ‘Gemini Films Circuit’ in 1939. Thiyaga Bhoomi was banned by the British Government due to the nationalistic fervour of the movie but SS Vasan and K Subramaniam showed the movie overnight for free [6]. Motion Pictures Producers Combines was started by K Subramaniam and on a fateful day of Dec 21, 1940, the studio was burnt down. Due to the ban of Thiyaga Bhoomi and the loss from the burnt studio, K Subramaniam had to auction the studios and asked SS Vasan to buy it. It’s interesting to note the money he had placed inside the auction cover — Rs.80,427.19 (he had exact valuation)[6]. There was a myth that Gemini Studios was named after a horse as SS Vasan was fond of horse racing. He did participate in betting and bought a horse known for losing races. The horse went on to win many races but the studio was named after his wife Pattamal’s sun sign[4]. SS Vasan wanted a circus sequence in the movie, and the executives of Gemini studios identified a circus troupe after an extensive search. The circus was later renamed as Gemini Circus[4]. The film was supposed to be directed by Acharya (director of Mangamma Sabatham). But, due to creative differences, SS Vasan chose to direct the movie himself[4]. It seems the budget exceeded the original estimation and SS Vasan was paying excessive interests on his loans. Srinivasa Iyengar, then owner of The Hindu Publications gave an interest-free loan to SS Vasan on one condition that SS Vasan should help someone in need like him. SS Vasan helped KS Gopalakrishnan when he was struggling to complete Pesum Deivam[4]. Even the money from Srinivasa Iyengar didn’t help SS Vasan to finish the movie, and he had to pledge his mother’s jewels to complete the film[4]. Darachand, a Hindi movie distributor loved the movie and wanted to buy the rights to the movie. But, SS Vasan had other ideas. He reshot the dialogue sequences, spent lakhs of rupees on marketing budget (huge banners, full-page advertisements in newspapers etc.,), and the movie was a huge hit. He had a re-cut version and released the film in International markets. Ranjan, who acted in the movie became so popular, and he landed with acting assignments in Hindi movies[4]. TR Rajakumari hailed from Thanjavur (her grand-nephew was my brother’s friend, and we used to have conversations about her). TR Rajakumari is considered to be the first Tamil lady Superstar, and she was the first dream girl of Indian cinema. Her hits include Kacha Devayani (1941), Haridas (1944) and Chandralekha. She started her own production house RR Pictures along with her brother, TR Ramanna. They produced movies like Vazhapirandhavan (1953), Gulebagavali (1955), Periya Idathu Penn (1963), Parakkum Paavai (1966) and many more. It was said that she drew more salary than the lead actors sometimes. Gemini Studios was situated in the heart of the city at the junction of Nungambakkam and Mount Road. The Park, a 5 Star hotel and the Anna Flyover is built over that place now. The flyover is still popularly called Gemini Bridge ( although it was named Anna Flyover). Gemini Studios fell from grace after SS Vasan’s demise in 1968 (he died of stomach cancer). Balu (son of SS Vasan, also the director of Motor Sundaram Pillai) couldn’t manage the changes in movie making business. Movie directors were leaving the sets and going out to outside locations to make movies. Gemini Studios made 78 films in total. Employees suggested names for the films and the winning title gets a prize from SS Vasan. The last movie to be shot in Gemini studios was Raja Paarvai. Kamal wanted to shoot the final scene before the studio razed to rumbles. Ironically, it was the first scene in Raaja Parvai[4]. Another example of SS Vasan’s flamboyance was when he brought Zippy the Chimpanzee from the USA to act in Insaniyat (1955). Zippy’s monthly income was around $55,000. Because Zippy was short, all the shots involving the chimp, were shot under the eye level in order to compensate the height [8].
Zippy
16. Director Saran bought the rights for the Gemini Pictures and he is producing movies in that name with the same famous Gemini Logo. Gemini Ganesan got his name from the studios as he was working as an assistant in the studios.
I could not imagine what SS Vasan would have done if he had lived in the current era. Just imagine it for yourself
References | https://medium.com/sylvianism/chandralekha-50-tamil-movies-to-watch-before-you-die-2-d87ecbf76e9d | ['Sylvian Patrick'] | 2019-07-30 13:51:46.034000+00:00 | ['Tamil Movie Review', 'Movies', '50 Best Tamil Movies', 'Kollywood', 'Tamil Movies'] |
2017: Day 2 | The month begins with stormy weather
Heavy darkish shifting clouds
Reside inhabit and occupy my mind
Troubled dizzy shaky and scared
Submerged deep with thoughts of death
And though I am drama this is not usual
Thoughts of death for me are not usual
More death than usual
More death than life
Death that feels imminent in spite of life
A reality we all face
Have faced will face again and again
It’s nothing new and it’s all I think about lately
Maybe I want to be prepared
As if I can soften the bite of it
As if I am manifesting an inner tube for it
A life saver to keep me from drowning
When the deluge comes
— Ramy El-Etreby | https://medium.com/poetry-a-day-for-ramadan/2017-day-2-d77fe26559f5 | ['Taz Ahmed'] | 2017-06-03 22:06:06.938000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Poem', 'Writing', 'Ramadan', 'Muslim'] |
Euclidean Distance Matrix | Step by step explanation on how EDM is represented in linear algebra and how to code it as a function in Python in just one line.
Pitagora : Euclide = Triangle : Geometry (drawing by : Andrea Grianti)
Hi everybody, in this post I want to explain my experience in figuring out how, a rather intuitive concept like that of the Euclidean Distance Matrix (EDM), could become a challenge if you decide to improve your (in my case Python) programming skills crossing the chasm from classical “for…loops” type of code toward the beauty of a single line of code using linear algebra concepts.
Why ? Because if you can solve a problem in a more efficient way with one line of code but you don’t understand how to do it because you do not have linear algebra skills, well it’s time to learn and try.
The result is amazing and elegant but best of all opens up your mind in thinking with vectors and matrices which is important if you want to move later to other data science topics.
Hi everybody my name is Andrea Grianti, I spent my professionial life in IT and Data Warehousing but I became later more and more passionate with data science and analytics topics.
What is Euclidean Distance Matrix (EDM)
There are so many articles and wikis on EDM that I don’t want to repeat things you can find around. The basic concept is that it represents a table in which the rows are “source” entities and columns are “target” entities upon which you want to calculate a distance (in euclidean way). I know, it’s a bit generic, but ‘entities’ can be a lot of things for example planets described by their properties (radius, mass, etc.) or basket players described by their properties (age, height, weight etc….).
An easy “distance table” to imagine is that in a map with cities in both rows and columns with miles in the crossing cells representing a distance concept. In that case an EDM is often seen as a squared table (matrix) where the diagonal is zero (i.e. distance between same city is zero) and the rest of the table is symmetrical (distance from a to b is the same as distance from b to a).
Even the ‘distance’ concept is also not trivial as there are many different ways to define a ‘distance’. Here I consider distance the euclidean one which is usually represented by something like this:
formula to calculate distance in two dimensions from point A to point B. elements of the formula are the projections of the vectora A and B over the two dimensions axis.
But even this simple formula could easily become a lot more complex if you think data tables with thousands of rows on one side and hundreds of “features” (n-dimensional space). It’s here that becomes evident the gap between thinking “code” and thinking “algebra”.
Rows and Columns mean for most of us something like this in code:
But this is exactly what we want to avoid and we want to find a smarter way to operate with tables minimizing the code to write.
The starting point
If you will follow my story here till the end you will be able to understand the formulas that you can find on algebra books or papers about EDM and most importantly the reason why the formulas are written that way, so you understand the logic behind those and use that for coding your EDM function in one line!
To keep it simple suppose you have a matrix A (4,2) and matrix B (3,2). A is made of 4 rows (think about players) with 2 features, B is 3 rows and same 2 features.
Matrix A(4,2), each row can be observations of two distinct features
Matrix B(3,2). A and B share the same dimensional space. In this case 2. So the dimensions of A and B are the same.
We want to calculate the euclidean distance matrix between the 4 rows of Matrix A from the 3 rows of Matrix B and obtain a 4x3 matrix D where each cell represents the distance between a vector in matrix A and a vector in matrix B. I call for example a1 the vector with elements (a11,a12); b1 is the vector (b11,b12)etc. etc.:
From now on we work on squared values and we leave the ‘square root’ as a last passage of our procedure
It’s important to note that nothing change if you instead have a unique matrix (let’s say A) and you want to calculate the distances between each point of that matrix. It’s the same problem with A=B.
In our case we can define each cell element of the D matrix as:
each cell is nothing difficult as it’s the classical squared distance between points in a n-dimensional space
if we analyze in our analysis just the first element (d11) we find out the following :
In equation (1) we have just developed the polynomial and we discover interesting things I colored in red, blue and black to better highlight. In red: that sum is just what the mathematicians call the norm-2 (here is squared) of the vector 1 (let’s call it a1) of our matrix A. If you don’t know what the norm-2 is just look at equations number 2 and 3. It’s written in the books most of the times in that way and it’s simply the sum of the squares of the elements of a vector. In this case our first vector a1. Don’t forget that the norm formula operates also a square root function on the sum of squares. But in order to proceed we leave it out for the moment and the reason is : we can better see the diagonal property of the dot product between two matrices.
3. In blue: we are still analyzing equation1 and this is similar to the red part but for the vector 1 (call it b1) of our matrix B.
4. In black: see equation 4. We recognize here the classical dot product of two vectors (you remember the elementary [rows] by [columns] operation) so we can write in that way because it’s the dot product between row vector a1 and column (it was a row but we transposed it) vector b1. T is to mean that you must transpose the vector b1 in order to make it possible multiply it with the vector a1.
If we rewrite our Full Euclidean Distance Matrix with all the cells “exploded” and written as we did for the first element we have the following:
Take a moment to see the patterns and try to focus on how to generalize them.
You see the patterns in the matrix ? First of all we can check that D is actually the sum of three parts as follow:
the red columns repeat themselves vertically =>therefore we can isolate that apart as (for now) a vertical vector made of all the norms of each horizontal row of the A matrix. the blue rows are conceptually similar to the red columns even if in this case you will notice that they repeat themselves horizontally top-down the black is also intersting because it’s the dot product of our full original matrices A and B (transposed) multiplied by the scalar -2. Matrix A was (4 by 2) and B was (3 by 2) so B transposed is (2 by 3) and -2 times A dot product B is (4 by 3).
So we can say that matrix D is the sum of three parts but we have to tell more about how to calculate the norm-2 of the first two components: the red and blue parts. We have said that the red part is the sum of the squares of the row vectors of the matrix A, while the blue part is the sum of the squares of the row vectors of matrix B (before transposing).
In matrix operations terms you expect to obtain 2 columns. One column of values for A and one for B. You can check that the result we are looking for comes from the main diagonal values of dot product of matrix A by matrix A transposed.
Highlights of the elements of the diagonal . The same applies to the B matrix.
so we can say that:
if you think in python you can obtain the same result by squaring and summing A. This is the typical case when you could decide to take a shortcut and leave the tracks of algebra for something easier.
One more thing: in order to make it possible summing the three elements we must be sure they can be summed. This means that we have a little work to do on the red and blue parts to make them compatibles with the result of the dot product which is 4 by 3.
To make the two norms columns like rectangular matrices so that they can be summed all together we know that the produt of a column (in this case 4 by 1) and a row of an identity matrix (here 1 by 3) “replicates” the original column creating a matrix of 3 identical columns .
the concept of broadcasting in matrix literature is achieved through the multiplication of a vector with a right sized identity vector and the result is a “repeat†of the column m times. The same concept applies the other way round to a row vector multiplied by a column identity vector. This is another situation where following algebra with coding becomes inefficient. So think with an end in mind and follow your intuition. In Python for example read about the concept of ‘broadcasting’ and you can forget to code identity matrices.
The similar thing happens with the column vector of B which is 3 rows by 1 column. In this case we first transpose the column and multiply it for a identity vector of 4 rows by 1.
This looks complex but it’s not because when we think in Python we can leverage the broadcasting feature and so we can avoid this approach alltogether, but if you want to understand algebra here we are.
Well in the end of the end we have all the parts which are compatible for being summed and found out the solution can be generalized like this which is often reported in many web sites :
The general formula for EDM. Square root operation can be done as a very last passage.
How to translate that in Python:
The first 2 parts of the D² equation for the general formula are matrices where the norms have been “repeated” in order to make it possible summing them with -2AB^T. You can calc those matices in several ways. The point is that if you code it exactly following the algebra formulas => with identity matrix and such, the code is not efficient because you have probably to transpose, reshape, calculate the diagonals with functions like np.diag, np.reshape(…) etc.,. If you want to do it as an excercise, it works.
Instead the following code leverages Python features to do the same and can be squeezed in a single line of code (!). It accepts as input 2 matrices and returns a matrix with the distances. No for…loops or similar things.
if you like you can actually put all the code in the return statement. depending on the needs I decided to round the results with 2 decimals, but you can take that out if you don’t like it.
That’s all. I hope you liked it and your comments are very welcome. | https://medium.com/swlh/euclidean-distance-matrix-4c3e1378d87f | ['Andrea Grianti'] | 2020-05-11 22:54:22.702000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Data Science', 'Euclidean Distance', 'Vector', 'Matrix'] |
Indelible Voices On The Political Front | Indelible Voices On The Political Front
And the stories keep on coming.
Photo by Sonder Quest on Unsplash
Good Friday morning. We woke up to the news that Donald and Melania Trump have both tested COVID positive, and I’m busy trying to reserve my thoughts until all of this makes sense. “Trying” is the operative word.
I’ve been over on Twitter spouting off, but hoping my anger is at least fair. I’ve already warned those on my Facebook family page that I don’t want anyone coming on there wishing for the Trumps’ death. I also don’t want us to be distracted from the things that are important to us as voters. Having COVID doesn’t negate any of the reasons that keep us working so hard to end this regime in November. | https://medium.com/indelible-ink/indelible-voices-on-the-political-front-7a3665d04ded | ['Ramona Grigg'] | 2020-10-02 17:07:00.263000+00:00 | ['Opinion', 'Politics', 'Presidential Debates', 'Newsletter', 'Elections'] |
Put Down That Productivity App. It’s Making You More Distracted. | Put Down That Productivity App. It’s Making You More Distracted.
Photo: d3sign/Getty Images
My next few days look like this:
Finish last interview. Write draft. Read 25,000 emails, respond to half. Get started on next two stories. Spend several hours pitching. Write weekly book list, get started on best books of the year list, finish three books I’m currently reading so I can get to the next two I’m already behind on, get through 50 pages of editing on book, go grocery shopping, clean house, set up the Christmas tree, get started on challah, cook for the week…
That’s a pretty normal work-life to-do list, at least for me. And yet, given the circumstances — a pandemic, a lonely holiday season, the threat of so much worse (unemployment, illness), and merciless uncertainty hanging over my, and everyone’s, heads for most of the past year — it can feel insurmountable. Surely I won’t be able to do all that. Surely I need some help getting all that organized and under control. The kind of help that a productivity app, or two, or 10, can deliver.
If you’re an anxious person — or have found yourself becoming more that way as 2020 did its thing — I urge you to put the phone down. Keep away from the surplus of productivity apps out there and, if necessary, use old-fashioned analog technology to keep yourself focused. I used to work in tech PR with an eye to productivity apps, and not a single one I’ve ever used has done much to help make my mountain of tasks feel more achievable. And you might be surprised at just what you can accomplish with a cute little notepad and pen and paper compared to a to-do list on your phone.
The weakness of productivity apps moves beyond the futility of the apps themselves, though in many cases that’s an issue. It’s because of a problem known as task switching, frequently and inaccurately called “multitasking.” Every time you pick up your phone, switch over to another browser window, or look at the episode of Seinfeld you have playing while you work, you’re not “multitasking” — you’re switching from one task to another. And it’s not easy to get your brain back on track.
“People think they can multitask. And they can’t, we can’t, it’s just not a thing,” says Adrian Ward, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas, Austin who studies how technology affects our attention and decision-making.
What we think of as multitasking is actually task switching, he says, and when we do it, there’s always what he calls a switching cost. “If you’re switching to a task that involves a technology that is designed to capture your attention, it’s going to be pretty hard to switch back. So you’ve got natural switching costs, and then this additional sort of pull, which stands to reason would make it even more difficult to switch.”
If you’ve switched from your task (let’s say you’re compiling a presentation for your boss at the end of the week) to your phone (because you want to see what else you have on your plate, which you’ve recorded on your to-do list app), it’s going to take extra effort for your brain to refocus on the original presentation you’re trying to finish.
That’s the better case scenario, too. If your phone does the job it’s been designed to do — suck you in until you can’t climb out — you’re now doing a new “task” altogether. And that task is checking your texts, scrolling your social media notifications and news alerts, losing time, and possibly making yourself feel worse after it’s all over.
Consider the popular to-do list app, Todoist. The app lets a user create tasks, schedule due dates, leave comments on the tasks, reorganize tasks, mark tasks as done or not done, and assign tasks to different priorities. The app can send you notifications, text messages, emails, and other alerts about your work.
“We are not wired to engage in multitasking. And when we get an interruption, it takes some time to go back to the same mindset.”
That’s a lot of interruptions. That’s a lot of time spent managing your tasks rather than completing them. And every time you interact with Todoist or any other to-do list app (I’m not saying Todoist is worse than the others ), you’re task switching. Research shows it takes, on average, 23 minutes to get your focus back after an interruption, assuming you’re even able to do so right away.
Twenty minutes plus down the drain, all because you wanted to check your to-do list on your phone.
“It’s always a slippery slope every time you pick up your phone,” says Ward.
Study after study has found that multitasking — in particular what’s known as “media multitasking,” or switching from screen to screen, is bad for your cognitive processes and ability to stay on task. One recent review found that those who self-identify as “heavy media multitaskers” had worse working memories and struggled more to pay attention to their tasks. Another study, from 2015, found that easy access to different sorts of technological tools — a computer program, a smartphone app — made task switching more tempting, while research from 2014 found that students who switched between different windows on their laptops experienced greater stress than those who stayed focused on a single window.
“We are not wired to engage in multitasking,” says Cristiano Guarana, an assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. “And when we get an interruption, it takes some time to go back to the same mindset.”
Task switching involves frequent interruptions and an entire body of work has been dedicated to showing how interruptions are detrimental to your ability to stay focused. In an important 2008 study, people who were interrupted while working compensated by working faster once they got back on task — but they also reported feeling stressed and frustrated, that their workload had increased, and that they had to put in more effort to get the same amount of work done.
Here’s what happens with me with the generic timer app on my phone, the sole remaining productivity app I regularly use on my smartphone. I set myself an hour to work, in which I can’t check email, or Twitter, or the UPS package delivery tracker, until the hour is up. All goes well for about 20 minutes, but then I decide I want to check my phone to see how much time I have left. But when I click my phone on, it’s not only the timer on my smartphone screen; it’s also several text messages that are begging to be addressed.
Many people have the ability to ignore those texts. I do not. And now that I’m texting my friend back about work drama, I then sidle on over to Instagram, because what the hell, I’m here already. And… you see where this is going.
This isn’t to say you have to abandon technological interventions altogether. Ward tells me that, at the beginning of the pandemic, there was an academic gossip message board he couldn’t resist checking throughout the day. So, he blocked the site, and didn’t think about it for months until he chatted with me for this story (sorry!). And if you’re the kind of person whose job keeps them on-the-go, rather than chained to a desk like us sorry content creators, it could be beneficial to have your tasks all lined up in an app on your phone. Guarana says that while using an app to set goals for yourself may be helpful, it can also lead to stress-induced cognitive overload or can compel you to focus on quantity over quality — so any apps that you do decide to adopt should be considered mindfully.
There are other options. Margaret E. Morris, a clinical psychologist and author of the book Left to Our Own Devices: Outsmarting Smart Technology to Reclaim Our Relationships, Health, and Focus, says she has students who set up video calls during work to keep on task. The students will set up a FaceTime or Zoom call on their phone with a friend, but not talk for the duration of the work period. “It makes the phone unavailable for multitasking,” says Morris. “It also has this kind of low fidelity co-presence, where you can feel almost like you’re with another person.”
I have a friend who does this while writing; they set a Zoom call, and after a specified amount of time has passed, she and her friend will discuss what they got done during the work period. Because this is a (friendly) form of surveillance, you’ll be less likely to get distracted by pings on your phone, less tempted to browse social media. After all, at the end, you’ll have to tell your friend what you accomplished — or what you didn’t.
Productivity apps aren’t themselves the devil. But they’re housed in an enticing fun house of alerts and messages and news.
Apps that actually block your access to external computer windows, such as Freedom, can be helpful if you tend to get distracted by hopping around different browsers or can’t stop yourself from checking your phone constantly while working.
If you don’t want to (or can’t) abandon productivity apps that require regular handling, such as to-do list apps, calendar apps, workplace chat apps, and collaboration apps, you can make them less harmful by batching — in other words, only attending to them at specified intervals. For example, if you need a to-do list app to keep a handle on what you have on your plate, check it at the beginning and end of the day rather than throughout.
But for those of us whose work does keep us in one place for the majority of the day, there are good reasons to go the analog route whenever possible. People who write notes by hand have been shown to remember their notes better than those who typed them, so if you tend to be forgetful, writing “finish memo for boss by 3 p.m.” on a notepad may help you keep that on your radar better than if you’d typed it into a little screen with your thumbs. Plus, it’s an excuse to buy a cute notepad/wall calendar/etc. And while there may be a small switching cost because you’re turning your attention from your computer to a notepad, unless you become distracted by writing a heartfelt poem about your frustration with your work day or whatever, it will be easier to refocus than if you’d gotten sucked into the whirlpool of your phone.
Productivity apps aren’t themselves the devil. But they’re housed in an enticing fun house of alerts and messages and news and whatever else you like or feel compelled to do when you’re scrolling your phone or hopping from browser window to browser window. Focusing on work is hard, especially if you’re prone to stress, anxiety, or have ADHD; encouraging further interaction with your phone, even if it’s in the name of getting your work done, is likely going to hurt more than it helps.
The first thing I’m doing this weekend — after decorating the Christmas tree, naturally — is getting myself a physical timer for my desk. That way, I won’t have to check my phone to see how much more time I have left before I can take a break from work. | https://debugger.medium.com/put-down-that-productivity-app-its-making-you-more-distracted-aa33a5cdef3 | ['Angela Lashbrook'] | 2020-12-10 18:42:53.392000+00:00 | ['Smartphones', 'Digital Life', 'Work', 'Technology', 'Productivity'] |
What is a Front-End developer? | I understood that premise listening to the Chris Coyier conference, “How to Think Like a Front-End Developer”, which took place in the US WordCamp in Nashville, in 2018. As I, myself am on the transition from Full-Stack developer ( another question arises at this moment: what is a Full-Stack developer? ) to Front-End developer, I’m digging more often into CSS-Tricks website and was happy to find that presentation.
One of the quotes I liked the most, despite the fact that it is a very extensive definition, was the following:
“[A] Front-End developer is [one] who deals with things that you can see on the web, or on the browser”. Mina Markham.
But, does dealing with the browser also means dealing with the data coming from an API and showing in a Web or the Client Side? Or is it just constructing the layout with HTML and CSS, and letting the JavaScripts Engineers do the connection? There are so many engineers that think that way as Steven Davis commented on the following post “What Makes a Good Front-End Developer?”
“I think we need to move away from the term myself. We should split into UX Engineers and JavaScript Engineers. They are different mindsets. Most people are not amazing at both JavaScript and CSS. Let UX Engineers work closely with UX/Design to create great designs, interactions, prototypes, etc and let JavaScript Engineers handle all the data parts. So sick of being great at CSS but being forced into JavaScript. I’m not a programmer!”
That is the main constraint to find a definitive solution for the term “Front-End developer”. Since the programming skills are now accessible for everyone and not so complicated to learn ( there are many IT boot camps and Websites which teach the magic of coding ), a developer can perform more than one task concerning not just the front-end, which covers ( and I’m understanding that now ) a lot of capabilities. For example, I know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but I am completely useless when talking about SVG, or designing itself. I code the designs, but I don’t create them. Does that mean that I’m not a Front-End developer?
What are the core skills for a Front-End developer?
According to Chris Coyier ( and I totally agree ), a Front-End developer should be able to manage the following set of skills:
HTML: Structured content, Semantics, Accessibility.
CSS: Design, Layout, Typography, Interaction, Accessibility.
JavaScript: Functionality, Interactivity, Accessibility.
Basic knowledge for a Front End Developer
In the meantime, as a plus, a “Front-End developer” should understand Design, Writing, Research, DevOps ( why ? ), Security, Performance, Law, Photography, Video Editing, On-Call Availability, Evangelism, SEO and Management. These skills would be in the “is desirable for you to have” section of a job offer.
Many profiles on just one definition
Peggy Rayzis believes that “Front-End developer is such a broad term… has many specialties”, that is difficult to define. In fact, it’s an ongoing discussion that will hardly come to an end soon. That’s for sure. Consider two types of developers:
1: someone who has knowledge of React/Next.js, Apollo GraphQL, styled-components, WebPack, JS architecture, and perf focused.
2: someone who has knowledge of Interaction Design & SVG, CSS/Sass architecture, Wordpress Themes, Light JQuery, UX and A11Y focused.
Shouldn’t both be included in the definition of “Front-End Developer”? For me, the answer is yes.
Conclusion
Discussions to define “Front-End developer” have been plentiful, but there will be plenty more before we reach an agreement on what it is. I think a professional who is recognized as a “Front-End developer” should meet the core skills mentioned in the previous paragraph. However, the definition should focus on a profile that meets not just the technical capabilities, but also the personal ones: good communication, creative problem solving, empathy, being eager to constantly be learning, and have a willingness to give and accept opinions from others.
Sources: | https://medium.com/ricardo-granda/what-is-a-front-end-developer-31d61efe01d3 | ['Ricardo Granda Vásquez'] | 2019-08-23 07:19:28.711000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Software Development', 'Front End Development', 'Web Development', 'Front End Developer'] |
Creating A DCA bot with Python | Building the bot
Tip! Unfortunately, the python-binance doesn’t have support for the demo API. However, you can connect by manually changing the API endpoint URL in the library like so, I used this in almost every function to test the code
client.API_URL = 'https://testnet.binance.vision/api'
Setup
Set up is fairly easy, I saved my API keys in my OS environment but feel free to copy and paste yours in.
import time
import math
import tweepy
import os
from binance.client import Client
from binance.enums import *
from binance.exceptions import BinanceAPIException, BinanceOrderException
#real API
api_key = os.environ.get('binance_api') # OR add your API KEY here secretKey = os.environ.get('binance_secret') # OR add your API SecretKey here
#Test API keys#
api_key = testKey
#secretKey = sTestKey # client.API_URL = 'https://testnet.binance.vision/api'
client = Client(api_key, secretKey)
Helper functions
First we need to create some Binance API helper functions, we are going to use these to get some useful data from the Binance exchange. I will include the ones that this bot will use down below, if you check the Github you will find more helper functions that were used for testing, you might want to use them in your testing.
Get Balance
Makes a request to Binance API for the account balance of what ever you are trading, EUR in my case, Note the test API does not have Euro so change to USDT or another stable currency.
def getBalances():
#client.API_URL = 'https://testnet.binance.vision/api'
balance = client.get_asset_balance(asset='EUR') # or asset = 'USDT' for test
return balance
Get Market price
This will get the current price for your chosen trading pair.
def getMarketPrice(tradingPair):
#client.API_URL = 'https://testnet.binance.vision/api'
price = client.get_symbol_ticker(symbol=tradingPair) return price
Twitter Bot
This is a twitter bot that will tweet out the price you buy your Crypto at plus any errors that occur when making a transaction.
def tweet(Order):
# Authenticate to Twitter
auth = tweepy.OAuthHandler("CONSUMER_KEY", "CONSUMER_SECRET")
auth.set_access_token("ACCESS_TOKEN", "ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET") api = tweepy.API(auth) api.update_status(order)
Place a Buy order
This function places a market buy order, it will then tweet the piece and trading pair using, or an error if the buy order does not go through.
def placeBuyOrder(quantity, tradingPair):
#client.API_URL = 'https://testnet.binance.vision/api'
try:
order = client.create_order(symbol=tradingPair, side='BUY', type='MARKET', quantity=quantity)
#order = client.create_test_order(symbol=tradingPair, side='BUY', type='MARKET', quantity=quantity)
toTweet = "Bought " + order["symbol"] + " at "+ order["fills"][0]['price']
tweet(toTweet)
except BinanceAPIException as e:
tweet(e)
print(e)
except BinanceOrderException as e:
tweet(e)
print(e)
return
Main Function
This is the main function where you will use the other functions discussed previously.
First of all this gets the current price for your chosen trading pair, then it gets the balance in our account for whatever our fiat value is, Euro for me but what ever you want. You then need to get the step size which is basically gives you how many decimal places you should go to when buying at the current price. (Note you may not need this, but I couldn’t get it working without it).
After that check your balance and make sure you have enough money to actually buy some crypto (minimum spend in euro is €10). If the balance is more than the minimum buy amount, then a buy order will calculate and the “placeBuyOrder” function to execute that buy.
If the there isn’t enough fait in the account, then we are assuming the standing order hasn’t gone through and we are waiting an hour to see if the money has been lodged.
If for some reason there is an error in any of this, the Bot will tweet the error so I know something is up.
def dcaBot(tradingPair, dcaAmount):
#client.API_URL = 'https://testnet.binance.vision/api'
try:
currentPrice = float(getMarketPrice(tradingPair)['price']) print("The current price is for the ", tradingPair, "pair is ", currentPrice) getBalance = float(getBalances()['free']) print("The current balance for EUR is ", getBalance) symbol_info = client.get_symbol_info(tradingPair)
step_size = 0.0
for f in symbol_info['filters']:
if f['filterType'] == 'LOT_SIZE':
step_size = float(f['stepSize']) precision = int(round(-math.log(step_size, 10), 0)) quantity = float(round(quantity, precision)) if getBalance > 10:
print("buy amount ", quantity)
placeBuyOrder(quantity, tradingPair)
else:
print("Inceficent funds, bot will try again in an hour")
time.sleep(3600)
dcaBot(tradingPair, dcaAmount)
except BinanceAPIException as e:
tweet(e)
print(e)
The Bells and Whistles
I added this section to automate the DCAing process, the majority of this isn’t really required and you can just hardcode most of it, which is what I did with the trading pair.
First the script will ask the user the time frame they wish to DCA at, I have added daily weekly and monthly, but feel free to add your own. Then you will need to add how much you wish to DCA.
The bot will then run using and then wait the selected time frame. | https://medium.com/@totesthegoats92/creating-a-dca-bot-with-python-b9b16e32c1b4 | [] | 2021-08-19 23:19:41.589000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Trading Bot', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Binance'] |
Sober October: Can A Month Off From Alcohol Really Improve Your Life? | By Molly Longman
In a world where some are calling sobriety a “ wellness trend,” and people buy into food and fitness 30-day challenges, it shouldn’t be surprising that folks are using the month of October as an excuse to get sober. These days, people don’t just cut out alcohol because of addiction or for religious reasons. Many are abstaining for their health. But it can be harder to commit to swearing off pinot noir if you’re not quitting for a specific reason with a duration in mind. Enter: Sober October
What is sober October?
Sober October is the new and more poetic Dry January. It involves cutting out alcohol for 31 days, often for charity. Ten years ago, the Australian youth health organisation Life Education raised money by creating the fundraiser “ Ocsober.” Similarly, Go Sober For October is a charity from this country that raised £5m for Macmillan Cancer Support in 2017, The Guardian reported. Anyone can sign up and participate.
What are the rules for doing sober October?
The rules are pretty simple. First, and most obvious, you don’t drink alcohol. Many people raise money for charity as they do it, and can pay to take a day off from sobriety. For special occasions such as a wedding or Halloween, Go Sober For October offers “golden ticket” that lets you skip a day for a minimum £15 donation.
Some people who are doing sober October just for fun, and not for charity, create their own rules. For example, Jay Huffman wrote this year on Twitter that he’ll give up vices such as marijuana, alcohol, soda, and betting for the “holiday.”
Are there health benefits to going sober for a month?
Hillary Cecere, MS, RDN at Eat Clean Bro, says two of the biggest benefits of abstaining are improved sleep and healthier food choices. “Drinking alcohol results in a low quality sleep,” she says. “Without adequate sleep, decision making, memory, and learning abilities are impaired.”
Nutritionally, she writes that drinking may activate a part of the brain that controls hunger. “Drunk eating is for real!” she says. “You’re more likely to feel hungrier during or after drinking and make unhealthy food choices.”
She notes that alcohol also impacts the brain’s communication pathways, as well as the digestive system and liver. “The liver is responsible for detoxifying and removing alcohol from the blood,” Cecere says. “Over time, this process can lead to a condition known as fatty liver.”
Is it worth trying sober October?
Cecere says yes, if only as an experiment to see what your body can do without booze. “I think in one sober month, there can be long term effects,” Cecere says. “One of the biggest effects is a better awareness of a person’s relationship with alcohol. There’s also a sense of accomplishment that [can lead to] lasting changes. More moderate or heavy drinkers may notice higher energy levels, weight loss, and even a stronger immune system.”
One study out of the University of Sussex found that eliminating alcohol for a month had long-lasting effects. Based on data from people who completed Dry January, researchers found that giving up alcohol for a month reduced their number of days they drank later in the year.
With that said, one month of detoxing won’t be a total body reset. A 2018 study published in the BMJ looked into how taking a month off alcohol could positively impact health. The results were generally encouraging. At the end of the month, the study found that their subjects’ blood pressure and weight went down, and their insulin resistance (which can be a marker for diabetes) improved by 25%. However, the research, which looked at moderate to heavy drinkers, found that the benefits would be undone if the person returned to drinking as usual after their month off.
Still, even if you follow sober October with Negroni November, you’re likely raising money for a good cause, and giving your bodyabreak. There are few downsides, however — you might have to be a designated driver for Halloween. | https://medium.com/refinery29/sober-october-can-a-month-off-from-alcohol-really-improve-your-life-7631adfba9fb | [] | 2020-10-03 14:23:08.163000+00:00 | ['Sober October', 'Alcohol', 'Health', 'Life', 'Drinking'] |
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Film, also called movie, motion picture or moving picture, is a visual art-form used to simulate experiences that communicate ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound, and more rarely, other sensory stimulations.[1] The word “cinema”, short for cinematography, is ofITV used to refer to filmmaking and the film The Masked Singer UK, and to the art form that is the result of it.
❏ STREAMING MEDIA ❏
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb to stream refers to the process of delivering or obtaining media in this manner.[clarification needed] Streaming refers to the delivery method of the medium, rather than the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies specifically to telecommunications networks, as most of the delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, audio CDs). There are challenges with streaming conITVt on the Internet. For example, users whose Internet connection lacks sufficient bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of the conITVt. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain conITVt.
Live streaming is the delivery of Internet conITVt in real-time much as live television broadcasts conITVt over the airwaves via a television signal. Live internet streaming requires a form of source media (e.g. a video camera, an audio interface, screen capture software), an encoder to digitize the conITVt, a media publisher, and a conITVt delivery network to distribute and deliver the conITVt. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, although it frequently is.
Streaming is an alternative to file downloading, a process in which the end-user obtains the entire file for the conITVt before watching or lisITVing to it. Through streaming, an end-user can use their media player to start playing digital video or digital audio conITVt before the entire file has been transmitted. The term “streaming media” can apply to media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are all considered “streaming text”.
❏ COPYRIGHT CONITVT ❏
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time.[1][1][1][1][1] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is inITVded to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[1][1][1] A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
Some jurisdictions require “fixing” copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is ofITV shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders.[citation needed][1][2][2][2] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.[2]
Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered “territorial rights”. This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not exITVd beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works “cross” national borders or national rights are inconsisITVt.[2]
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 2 to 1 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities[1] to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration.
It is widely believed that copyrights are a must to foster cultural diversity and creativity. However, Parc argues that contrary to prevailing beliefs, imitation and copying do not restrict cultural creativity or diversity but in fact support them further. This argument has been supported by many examples such as Millet and Van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, and Monet, etc.[2]
❏ GOODS OF SERVICES ❏
Credit (from Latin credit, “(he/she/it) believes”) is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[1] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and exITVsible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[1] Credit is exITVded by a creditor, also known as a lender, to a debtor, also known as a borrower.
‘The Masked Singer UK’ Challenges Asian Americans in Hollywood to Overcome ‘Impossible Duality’ ITVween China, U.S.
ITV’s live-action “The Masked Singer UK” was supposed to be a huge win for under-represented groups in Hollywood. The $1 million-budgeted film is among the most expensive ever directed by a woman, and it features an all-Asian cast — a first for productions of such scale.
Despite well-inITVtioned ambitions, however, the film has exposed the difficulties of representation in a world of complex geopolitics. ITV primarily cast Asian rather than Asian American stars in lead roles to appeal to Chinese consumers, yet Chinese viewers rejected the movie as inauthentic and American. Then, politics ensnared the production as stars Liu Yifei, who plays The Masked Singer UK, and Donnie Yen professed support for Hong Kong police during the brutal crackdown on protesters in 211. Later, ITV issued “special thanks” in the credits to government bodies in China’s Xinjiang region that are directly involved in perpetrating major human rights abuses against the minority Uighur population.
“The Masked Singer UK” inadverITVtly reveals why it’s so difficult to create multicultural conITVt with global appeal in 2020. It highlights the vast disconnect ITVween Asian Americans in Hollywood and Chinese nationals in China, as well as the exITVt to which Hollywood fails to acknowledge the difference ITVween their aesthetics, tastes and politics. It also underscores the limits of the American conversation on representation in a global world.
In conversations with seThe Masked Singer UKl Asian-American creatives, Variety found that many feel caught ITVween fighting against underrepresentation in Hollywood and being accidentally complicit in China’s authoritarian politics, with no easy answers for how to deal with the moral questions “The Masked Singer UK” poses.
“When do we care about representation versus fundamental civil rights? This is not a simple question,” says Bing Chen, co-founder of Gold House, a collective that mobilizes the Asian American community to help diverse films, including “The Masked Singer UK,” achieve opening weekend box office success via its #GoldOpen movement. “An impossible duality faces us. We absolutely acknowledge the terrible and unacceptable nature of what’s going on over there [in China] politically, but we also understand what’s at stake on the The Masked Singer UK side.”
The film leaves the Asian American community at “the intersection of choosing ITVween surface-level representation — faces that look like ours — versus values and other cultural nuances that don’t reflect ours,” says Lulu Wang, director of “The Farewell.”
In a business in which past box office success determines what future projects are bankrolled, those with their eyes squarely on the prize of increasing opportunities for Asian Americans say they feel a responsibility to support “The Masked Singer UK” no matter what. That support is ofITV very personal amid the The Masked Singer UK’s close-knit community of Asian Americans, where people don’t want to tear down the hard work of peers and The Masked Singer UK.
Others say they wouldn’t have given ITV their $2 if they’d known about the controversial end credits.
“‘The Masked Singer UK’ is actually the first film where the Asian American community is really split,” says sociologist Nancy Wang Yuen, who examines racism in Hollywood. “For people who are more global and consume more global news, maybe they’re thinking, ‘We shouldn’t sell our soul in order to get affirmation from Hollywood.’ But we have this scarcity mentality.
“I felt like I couldn’t completely lambast ‘The Masked Singer UK’ because I personally felt solidarity with the Asian American actors,” Yuen continues. “I wanted to see them do well. But at what cost?”
This scarcity mentality is particularly acute for Asian American actors, who find roles few and far ITVween. Lulu Wang notes that many “have built their career on a film like ‘The Masked Singer UK’ and other crossovers, because they might not speak the native language — Japanese, Chinese, Korean or Hindi — to actually do a role overseas, but there’s no role being writITV for them in America.”
Certainly, the actors in “The Masked Singer UK,” who have seen major career breakthroughs tainted by the film’s political backlash, feel this acutely. “You have to understand the tough position that we are in here as the cast, and that ITV is in too,” says actor Chen Tang, who plays The Masked Singer UK’s army buddy Yao.
There’s not much he can do except keep trying to nail the roles he lands in hopes of paving the way for others. “The more I can do great work, the more likely there’s going to be somebody like me [for kids to look at and say], ‘Maybe someday that could be me.’”
Part of the problem is that what’s happening in China feels very distant to Americans. “The Chinese-speaking market is impenetrable to people in the West; they don’t know what’s going on or what those people are saying,” says Daniel York Loh of British East Asians and South East Asians in Theatre and Screen (BEATS), a U.K. nonprofit seeking greater on-screen Asian representation.
York Loh offers a provocative comparison to illustrate the West’s milquetoast reaction to “The Masked Singer UK” principal Liu’s pro-police comments. “The equivalent would be, say, someone like Emma Roberts going, ‘Yeah, the cops in Portland should beat those protesters.’ That would be huge — there’d be no getting around that.”
Some of the disconnect is understandable: With information overload at home, it’s hard to muster the energy to care about faraway problems. But part of it is a broader failure to grasp the real lack of overlap ITVween issues that matter to the mainland’s majority Han Chinese versus minority Chinese Americans. They may look similar, but they have been shaped in diametrically different political and social contexts.
“China’s nationalist pride is very different from the Asian American pride, which is one of overcoming racism and inequality. It’s hard for Chinese to relate to that,” Yuen says.
Beijing-born Wang points out she ofITV has more in common with first-generation Muslim Americans, Jamaican Americans or other immigrants than with Chinese nationals who’ve always lived in China and never left.
If the “The Masked Singer UK” debacle has taught us anything, in a world where we’re still too quick to equate “American” with “white,” it’s that “we definitely have to separate out the Asian American perspective from the Asian one,” says Wang. “We have to separate race, nationality and culture. We have to talk about these things separately. True representation is about capturing specificities.”
She ran up against the The Masked Singer UK’s inability to make these distinctions while creating “The Farewell.” Americans felt it was a Chinese film because of its subtitles, Chinese cast and location, while Chinese producers considered it an American film because it wasn’t fully Chinese. The endeavor to simply tell a personal family story became a “political fight to claim a space that doesn’t yet exist.”
In the search for authentic storytelling, “the key is to lean into the in-ITVweenness,” she said. “More and more, people won’t fit into these neat boxes, so in-ITVweenness is exactly what we need.”
However, it may prove harder for Chinese Americans to carve out a space for their “in-ITVweenness” than for other minority groups, given China’s growing economic clout.
Notes author and writer-producer Charles Yu, whose latest novel about Asian representation in Hollywood, “Interior Chinatown,” is a National Book Award finalist, “As Asian Americans continue on what I feel is a little bit of an island over here, the world is changing over in Asia; in some ways the center of gravity is shifting over there and away from here, economically and culturally.”
With the Chinese film market set to surpass the US as the world’s largest this year, the question thus arises: “Will the cumulative impact of Asian American audiences be such a small drop in the bucket compared to the China market that it’ll just be overwhelmed, in terms of what gets made or financed?”
As with “The Masked Singer UK,” more parochial, American conversations on race will inevitably run up against other global issues as U.S. studios continue to target China. Some say Asian American creators should be prepared to meet The Masked Singer UK by broadening their outlook.
“Most people in this The Masked Singer UK think, ‘I’d love for there to be Hollywood-China co-productions if it meant a job for me. I believe in free speech, and censorship is terrible, but it’s not my battle. I just want to get my pilot sold,’” says actor-producer Brian Yang (“Hawaii Five-0,” “Linsanity”), who’s worked for more than a decade ITVween the two countries. “But the world’s getting smaller. Streamers make shows for the world now. For anyone that works in this business, it would behoove them to study and understand The Masked Singer UKs that are happening in and [among] other countries.”
Gold House’s Chen agrees. “We need to speak even more thoughtfully and try to understand how the world does not function as it does in our zip code,” he says. “We still have so much soft power coming from the U.S. What we say matters. This is not the problem and burden any of us as Asian Americans asked for, but this is on us, unfortunately. We just have to fight harder. And every step we take, we’re going to be right and we’re going to be wrong.”
☆ ALL ABOUT THE SERIES ☆
is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[1] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and exITVsible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[1] Credit is exITVded by a creditor, also known as a lender, to a debtor, also known as a borrower.
‘Hausen’ Challenges Asian Americans in Hollywood to Overcome ‘Impossible Duality’ ITVween China, U.S. | https://medium.com/the-masked-singer-uk-series-2-episode-1-4khd/s2-e1-the-masked-singer-uk-series-2-episode-1-online-1080p-hd-aa2adc5c1de9 | ['Natasha Hayes'] | 2020-12-25 19:43:36.714000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Lifestyle', 'Coronavirus', 'TV Series'] |
Agile Marketing in the Age of the Customer | Marketing never sleeps.
At any given moment, marketers have multiple channels and campaigns open alongside the daily grind of deliverables they need to get done within a day. On top of all that, why does everyone else seem to want to sit around and discuss Schitt’s Creek?
But it isn’t just marketers who are always connected — customers are too. They’re switching from screen to screen and device to device, with ever-decreasing attention spans. We can no longer afford to take three weeks to develop an emailing strategy, approve it, test run it, and finally put it out.
Now, businesses have to run with opportunities as they present themselves.
In a world where the hare now beats the tortoise, today’s marketers are agile. They’re reaching their audiences with the right message at the right time, on the most relevant platform.
In the constantly-changing digital scenario, a single Google update can pull the carpet out from under your feet and leave your traditional marketing methodology struggling with its focus on producers and sales cycles. Agile marketing helps businesses consider customers and their buying behaviour, in addition to traditional routes.
Image by Author
Put simply, agile marketing is the use of data gathered to constantly improve your marketing campaigns throughout the process. In 2012, a group of marketers came together to create the Agile Manifesto, an agreed-upon set of values to guide marketers towards a more “agile” way of working.
It isn’t on-the-fly marketing. It means customer focus, constant change and collaboration, and continuous iteration, and focuses on these values:
Testing + data instead of assumption + opinions
Responding to change rather than just following a plan
Collaboration + transparency over hierarchy
Many smaller experiments rather than standalone bets
In agile marketing, teams apply collective efforts to complete projects under short and definitive time periods. Check out this great article to bust the common agile marketing myths.
Image Source AgileSherpa
Agile marketing as a part of business strategy
In B2B and B2C industries, successful marketing means increased customer satisfaction and sales. When marketers need to move quickly due to customer dissatisfaction, product recall or poor response on a social contest, agile marketing comes to the rescue. This is why you should use it.
Better Internal Communication
Sometimes, a business’s marketing and IT teams feel like oil and water. Adopting agile marketing improves communication not only within the marketing team, but between different departments. With regular, target-focused meetings, any challenge is immediately resolved and everyone knows what the other is doing.
Save On Cost
Companies can effectively save and get long-term results at the same time by reaching out to a larger audience through great work ethics and organisation, all without the extra cost of scrambling to find multiple alternative solutions.
Happier Employees
80.9 percent of agile marketers are satisfied with their work, as compared to 27 percent of ad hoc marketers, and 44.2 percent of traditional marketers. When your employees are better able to prioritise tasks, improve coordination and delivery, it boosts morale. Colleagues’ project visibility is another factor that helps quality of work shoot up.
Transparency
When marketers have a clear insight into the course of a project, sprint review meetings, and better feedback, this brings better results. Transparency isn’t just limited to the team, but means that a company’s marketing team can acknowledge the work of management, or work closely with customers to offer genuine services.
Life as a marketer is a series of sprints, where they need to constantly reinvent themselves and embrace new tactics that allow them to stay up-to-date with trends and what customers really want.
It’s time to sprint, because the time for walking is over.
Originally written for and published on Digital Odyssey. | https://medium.com/swlh/agile-marketing-in-the-age-of-the-customer-58aa9cdca3a4 | ['Anannya Sharma'] | 2020-11-28 19:14:41.170000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Social Media Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Customer Experience', 'Business Strategy'] |
We’re Craving Access to Culture During COVID-19 and Museums Can Help | Though isolation and a lack of context can result in a vortex, virtual access to culture provides connection and hope, serving as a beacon in lieu of reference points.
“It will mean a different rhythm of life.”
— UK Mental Health Foundation
Museums are especially primed to support the pressing human challenges during this time, shed light on this moment in a historical context, and provide the levity and perspective we collectively need. At the same time, museums face a challenge in fulfilling this role: staying relevant so we have them around for the future.
This connection isn’t being lost on museums. In light of mass closures prompted by COVID-19, museums and institutions likely see and feel the value of a fully integrated experience, including digital exhibitions. Though it’s a challenge to react nimbly and meet these changing needs under the current circumstances, museums persist in their missions. Outcomes of this effort will impact virtual and in-person museum-goers and would-be museum-goers well into the future.
How Museums Are Responding
Museums, institutions, educators, and individuals alike are leveraging museum content that can be experienced online in order to add value to their learning processes and supplement their new realities of people all over the world. Over three-quarters of the country’s museums have temporarily closed since the spread of COVID-19 in the states, according to Laura Lott, the president and chief executive of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).
One-third of temporarily closed museums may face permanent closure if the virus-imposed shutdown, however necessary, persists.
— American Alliance of Museums (AAM)
The AAM has provided museums with closed physical locations guidance on leveraging their digital assets to continue to serve and connect the community during this time. These recommendations include the use of live streaming, virtual tours, and special social media campaigns. They recommend taking the physical contents of museums and making expedient efforts to move them to where people are — online.
Though the need for remote access has been made apparent by the current public health crisis, make no mistake, it’s been a pressing need for some time. This moment serves to highlight the ongoing and increasing need for comprehensive museum content to be accessible to all — educators, students, researchers, tourists, and the broader public — across platforms and without travel to a physical location whether we’re in a crisis or not.
7.7 billion people in the world, with 3.5 billion of us online.
— Our World in Data
Today, the physical health risks associated with being in proximity to others coupled withthe mental health risks associated with physical isolation stress the necessity of digitally integrated museum solutions. While we wouldn’t wish this international health crisis on anyone, ever, it underlines the value of digital exhibition undertakings, such as the one proposed by the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), which aims to take their Slavery and Freedom exhibition online.
Benefits Beyond the Pandemic
Creating a dynamic, comprehensive, and integrated online exhibition serves the public not only in times of crisis — but all the time, and from anywhere. Additional benefits to an online exhibit include:
Opening content to global audiences, beyond local community Extending accessibility during peak seasons Extending brand relevance and value to unplanned benefactors Providing greater accessibility and increased methods of interaction and exploration digitally Fostering positive change through education, empathy, and connection Allowing for remote staffing and curation of content; extended employment and collaboration opportunity
We strive to build inclusive digital products and services, including those like the one proposed by NMAAHC. If your organization wishes to prioritize digitally integrating museum content, contact us to set up time to talk. | https://medium.com/coformaco/museums-give-access-to-culture-during-covid-19-85b4e23dbc2c | ['Ashleigh Axios'] | 2020-05-05 22:27:39.546000+00:00 | ['Virtual Museum', 'Covid 19', 'Culture', 'Design', 'Museums'] |
A Beginner’s Guide to Big O Notation (Part 1) | O(n) Linear Time
To start preparing ratatouille, you first have to chop the ingredients:
let ingredients = ["zucchini", "eggplant", "squash", "tomato", "redPepper", "onion", "garlic", "herbesDeProvence"] function chop(ingredients) {
for (let i = 0; i < ingredients.length; i++) {
console.log(`${ingredients[i]} has been chopped!`)
}
}
How long should our chop function take to complete? Better yet, how many operations need to take place? 🤔
Since there are seven elements in our ingredients array and the function iterates through each one once (chopping as we go), we could say that seven operations need to take place (O(7)). If we added additional n ingredients to our array, this function would take n operations since it needs to touch upon each one of those elements once, otherwise known as O(n).
O(n) time complexity is also known as linear time and is generally considered an efficient solution. It isn’t as good or as fast as O(1) or O(log n), which we’ll get to later, but usually this time complexity is considered acceptable.
What would happen if we added another iteration? After all, those ratatouille ingredients need to roast in the oven!
Image credit: Pixar
let ingredients = ["zucchini", "eggplant", "squash", "tomato", "redPepper", "onion", "garlic", "herbesDeProvence"] function chop(ingredients) {
for (let i = 0; i < ingredients.length; i++) {
console.log(`${ingredients[i]} has been chopped!`)
}
} function roast(ingredients) {
for (let i = 0; i < ingredients.length; i++) {
console.log(`${ingredients[i]} has been roasted!`)
}
} function makeRatatouille(ingredients) {
chop(ingredients)
roast(ingredients)
}
Our makeRatatouille function needs to iterate through all of the ingredients twice: First, in the chop function, then again in the roast function. We could say this function takes O(2n) time, since it will iterate through the ingredients array exactly twice. | https://medium.com/better-programming/a-beginners-guide-to-big-o-notation-pt-1-19ec031b698b | ['Alison Quaglia'] | 2020-12-08 03:15:38.204000+00:00 | ['Algorithms', 'Big O Notation', 'Software Development', 'Computer Science', 'Programming'] |
Roman to Integer | Leetcode #13 | Easy | Problem:
Roman numerals are represented by seven different symbols: I , V , X , L , C , D and M .
Symbol Value
I 1
V 5
X 10
L 50
C 100
D 500
M 1000
For example, 2 is written as II in Roman numeral, just two one's added together. 12 is written as XII , which is simply X + II . The number 27 is written as XXVII , which is XX + V + II .
Roman numerals are usually written largest to smallest from left to right. However, the numeral for four is not IIII . Instead, the number four is written as IV . Because the one is before the five we subtract it making four. The same principle applies to the number nine, which is written as IX . There are six instances where subtraction is used:
I can be placed before V (5) and X (10) to make 4 and 9.
can be placed before (5) and (10) to make 4 and 9. X can be placed before L (50) and C (100) to make 40 and 90.
can be placed before (50) and (100) to make 40 and 90. C can be placed before D (500) and M (1000) to make 400 and 900.
Given a roman numeral, convert it to an integer.
Example 1:
Input: s = "III"
Output: 3
Example 2:
Input: s = "IV"
Output: 4
Example 3:
Input: s = "IX"
Output: 9
Example 4:
Input: s = "LVIII"
Output: 58
Explanation: L = 50, V= 5, III = 3.
Example 5:
Input: s = "MCMXCIV"
Output: 1994
Explanation: M = 1000, CM = 900, XC = 90 and IV = 4.
Constraints: | https://medium.com/@rishikesh-dhokare/roman-to-integer-leetcode-13-easy-dce302dc7ae6 | ['Rishikesh Dhokare'] | 2020-12-24 17:38:07.554000+00:00 | ['Leetcode', 'Data Structures', 'Leetcode Solution', 'Programming', 'Algorithms'] |
The River as Spiritual Teacher | “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.” Norman Maclean
Once, when I was a boy in the backseat of a big car, we crossed a road where the river had burst its banks. We were the last car to get through that night.
My mother in the passenger seat and my brother beside me were in a panic as the rushing water rose up to the windows. I must have been 12 maybe, but instead of fear, trusted the river to let us pass when it could so easily have swept us away.
I have loved rivers ever since, although perhaps respect is a better word. Strange things happen by them and in them. Communities spring up, needing the river’s life-giving qualities and people suffer and sometimes drown.
I was 16 when my first love told me she had a secret. She looked nervous in the telling and I knew this was something important, something worthy of my full attention.
She had recently moved down south following a tragedy.
On the banks of the River Clyde, transport artery for Glasgow and its shipping yards, before the days of mobile phones, her mother had left the car to use a phone box.
The old girl was a talker and was on the phone for a long time, leaving her son in the backseat with the dog.
She had left the window open. Out climbed the dog followed by the boy, down to the river rushing by, not to be seen for a very long time.
The frogmen took four weeks to find a child’s body some way downstream; the river had claimed another victim, tore her family apart. So, they came south to leave the past, not forget it. They never would.
But what takes life can also give it. The mother birthed a second boy, now her only living son, years after most women have children.
It was heralded a miracle; I always thought the river had a hand in Alasdair’s arrival, its mysterious life-giving power carrying into life a newborn like Moses on the Nile.
In my own life, a therapy client who came to me saying he knew he was going to die, slipped in the shower and fulfilled the fate he was expecting just weeks after we started talking.
Two years later, I was walking the River Thames and heard a voice telling me to turn off my music and pay attention. I turned around and there was a bench with his name on. It felt like the river was speaking to me.
In Siddhartha, Herman Hesse’s wonderful novella, we see the river as protagonist, a funnel around which the plot weaves, returning to its imagery again and again.
It acts as marker for the different seasons of the eponymous hero’s life as he pursues his own truth, for many years becoming lost and unconscious, embroiled in the world, until the river rescues him once more.
The book begins ‘in the sunshine of the river bank’ as if the river is the sun itself shining its beacon on the young man, a wayshower for sure.
Most of us like our mentors to be more human, less enigmatic, but here the river is the perfect accompaniment to the hero as he peers into its unending depths on his quest for enlightenment.
There is always more to be learned from it and as he grows and matures he sees more and more, until finally he sees the whole of life itself reflected in its waters.
In mythology, the Self is often symbolized as a complementary pair of opposites, a king and queen for instance, reflecting the polarities of our own nature.
In Siddhartha, the river represents the unity of selves, the perfect synthesis of all our warring personalities and the wholeness that underlies all.
Toward the end of the book when he meets the ferryman Vasudeva, Siddhartha is told that by looking into the river he can learn everything worth knowing.
But at that point he remains too divided within himself to see this truth, yet gradually a change, guided by the ferryman, begins to take place.
Carl Jung, the great psychiatrist described the human task as to wake up to the primordial unity that joins the divided and conflicted parts of ourselves.
The river symbolizes that unity and the soul’s eternity.
When Siddhartha listened attentively to this river to the song of a thousand voices ; when he did not listen to the sorrow or laughter , when he did not bind his soul to any one particular voice and absorb it in his Self, but heard them all, the whole, the unity; then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om perfection.
At another time, under instruction from the old sage masquerading as a simple ferryman, he is shown how to listen to the river and learn from it.
They listened. Softly sounded the river, singing in many voices. Siddhartha looked into the water, and images appeared to him in the moving water: his father appeared, lonely, mourning for his son; he himself appeared, lonely, he also being tied with the bondage of yearning to his distant son; his son appeared, lonely as well, the boy, greedily rushing along the burning course of his young wishes, each one heading for his goal, each one obsessed by the goal, each one suffering. The river sang with a voice of suffering, longingly it sang, longingly, it flowed towards its goal, lamentingly its voice sang.
He finally finds the correct understanding of life embracing both pain and pleasure, seeking nothing, as the oneness of life supersedes the notion of being a separate self.
In the end, the river is seen as the soul itself, both the individual soul and the world soul:
“Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?” That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.”
As Norman Maclean, who spent a lifetime ripening before writing his classic A River Runs Through It says, all things merge into one and a river runs through it.
The river is seen as distinct from life as we know it, timeless and always present, but is ultimately life itself, creator and destroyer, like a mountain-top Shiva resting at the head of the Ganges.
In Sufism, the divine is often referred to as a river of loving; this is not the stop and start of love in the physical world, but a constant flow that ultimately heals us all.
The waters of life contain both our beginning and our end.
© simon heathcote
https://medium.com/soul-sea/this-is-the-holy-grail-you-seek-1281ced94c2b | https://medium.com/interfaith-now/the-river-as-spiritual-teacher-7f22c4dccff5 | ['Simon Heathcote'] | 2019-10-14 12:51:01.344000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Spirituality', 'Life Lessons', 'Buddhism', 'Books'] |
Why Smart Contract Matters | in Both Sides of the Table | https://medium.com/overnodes/why-smart-contract-matters-574fde857785 | [] | 2018-03-22 07:52:54.260000+00:00 | ['Smart Contracts', 'Blockchain', 'Sharing Economy', 'P2p', 'Blockchain Education'] |
How to Get Started with the Modern Data Management Approach | Modern Data Management Approach: Things to Know
For an enterprise to get started with the modern database management approach, it needs to set up the basics and has a clear idea of the following-
1. Data Architecture Blueprinting
The data management architecture used by many enterprises is a traditional model that’s decades old. Instead of replacing the entire setup, businesses have been adding new tools to the existing setup. This has created a complex mix of old and new that doesn’t deliver the kind of results an enterprise needs.
The traditional architecture doesn’t support big data analytics. And without big data technologies, SMEs cannot get predictive insights to make better decisions. Modern data architecture supports vast volumes of data and can deliver the results while being a cost-effective solution. It can handle diverse data types and process them with ease.
It empowers the enterprises with reliable and accurate insights to make the right decisions. The first step to follow the modern data management approach is to understand the data storage and processing requirements. Today’s data storage needs to accept unstructured, semi-structured, and structured data and allow diverse data analytical tools to be used on the data.
It’s important to know if the enterprise needs to invest in a data warehouse or opt for data lakes. The overall data architecture needs to be flexible, scalable, accept vast volumes of data, offer low latency, and be a cost-effective solution for the business.
2. Manage Data Quality
If the traditional data architecture methods don’t work with big data, it’s natural that they won’t help with managing big data quality either. That’s because the traditional systems have been designed for structured data. Big data contains all and formats with lots of real-time data, none of which is organized. While the data cleaning processes used in business intelligence are effective, they still don’t work the same for big data.
In fact, it’s not easy to define quality for big data. How do we say what’s good and what’s not? The level of quality required in data is determined by the purpose for which it is used. For example, financial data analytics needs higher accuracy. Marketing analytics relies on behavioral data. Predictive analytics uses data on the ends of the spectrum to make future predictions. Enterprises need to assign their own parameters to define and manage data quality.
3. Data Modeling Practices
Modeling data from traditional warehouses is based on creating structures that work with relational databases. But the same doesn’t work for big data. There is no need to follow the pattern of conceptual modeling to logical design to developing a physical database.
Modern database management services work on the attributes and relationships between various aspects of data. Since data is already present in its different formats and structures, the focus here is on identifying the relationship between the entities and understanding how one affects the other. The modern NoSQL database supports many-to-many relationships, attributes with multiple values, embedded arrays, and a lot more than relational databases can handle.
4. Curating and Cataloguing Data
One of the major differences between traditional systems and modern systems is the source of data. Previously, data was generated by the business and stored within the enterprise. But big data comes from multiple sources at a greater velocity. It has more variety than past data. Datasets need to be a combination of internal and external data.
Data curation is the process of collecting data and making it available for data analysts and data scientists to derive insights. Cataloging is an integral part of data curation that enables enterprises to identify different data sets using data tags and meta tags. Without this step, setting up a modern data management system is not complete.
5. Identify a Team Leader and Business Capabilities
Do you know why data-based projects don’t deliver expected results? Not having an efficient leader and/ or not having the necessary business capabilities are the most common reasons for big data analytics to fail.
It is essential to have a data science team that works in sync with the management and other teams. The teams should share a common goal and have a comprehensive strategy involving people, processes, technology, and data.
Enterprises should start by working with the stakeholders to identify and make a list of business capabilities that rely on data. Itemizing these capabilities will give everyone a clear picture of what needs to be done to follow the modern data management approach. These can belong to any industry and can either be small enterprises or multinational organizations.
6. Select Data Principles for People and Processes
We’ve mentioned people and processes in the previous point. Let’s focus a little more on these aspects. When we think about it, management needs to make decisions about investing in data-driven approaches to facilitate better decision-making. To put it simply, unless we decide to empower our decision-makers, we cannot guarantee that they will make the right decisions. And it’s also important to convey the worth of the decision to stakeholders and make them understand. The whole thing sounds complex but is quite simple.
Data principles are a set of predefined rules that help enterprises align their decisions with the short-term and long-term goals of the business. The decision-makers will be equipped to do the right thing and convey the same to the stakeholders who have meager knowledge about the backend working of the data-driven approach.
7. Risk Mitigation and Data Security
Establishing a reliable data management system where data is collected, cleaned, validated, processed, and protected is essential to provide the necessary infrastructure to data analysts. Amazon Web Service (AWS) is a data management services example that offers a flexible cloud data management setup with access to countless tools. Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are other famous cloud-based providers for data management tools.
The modern data management approach helps businesses create a balance between being ready to grab market opportunities and mitigating risk. Risk isn’t limited to market conditions or customer behavior only. It is also related to data security. Even a small mistake could lead to losses of millions. The last thing any enterprise would want is to end up in the news for being a victim of a data breach.
It is highly crucial to create and establish a comprehensive strategy for data security and risk mitigation before choosing the tools and service providers for modern database management. It’s necessary to know how to store, manage, and protect big data to gain reliable insights. | https://medium.com/datatobiz/how-to-get-started-with-the-modern-data-management-approach-89ebcc30d677 | ['Kavika Roy'] | 2021-09-03 09:46:14.761000+00:00 | ['Big Data Analytics', 'Big Data', 'Data Management', 'Business Intelligence', 'Data Analytics'] |
Object Detection With Deep Learning: RCNN, Anchors, Non-Maximum-Suppression | The input to a classification network is assumed to contain a single object. The classifier, except its last two layers, is comprised of a structure called Feature Extractor (F.E.). There are many variations for the F.E. architecture (e.g. ResNet, DenseNet, Mobilenet etc.) but basically a F.E. is a sequence of convolution layers with activation functions producing multiple feature maps that flow down the network, and occasionally a spatial compression operation called maxpooling (for the purpose of keeping the amount of computation reasonable during the feature expansion). During training the F.E. learns to represent significant attributes in different feature maps. While the first layers are limited to representing only simple attributes like borders and simple shapes, the network learns to combine them in complex ways so that the final features of the F.E. can represent high-level attributes such as ‘this area has metallic texture’, ‘this area has wheels’, ‘this area has pointy ears’, ‘this area has furry texture’ etc.
The output of the feature extractor still preserves some spatial information, although at low resolution. The final segment of the classifier takes the final feature maps and replaces each map with its spatial-average value (an operation called global average-pool). This operation destroys the spatial information and gives the average intensity of each attribute in the original image, regardless of location. The last layer is a fully-connected (F.C.) layer that learns the best coefficients for linearly combining the attribute intensities in a way that predicts the object class. For example, the coefficients the classifier will learn for combining the ‘metallic texture’ and ‘this area has wheels’ features will be such that a strong intensity in both features will result in the class prediction: ‘car’.
Detection Networks
RCNN
One of the earliest models that addressed object detection using deep learning is the RCNN. Introduced in 2014 by Girshick et al., RCNN (Regions with CNN features) divides this task into several modules, each in charge of a simpler sub-task:
The first module, which is non-neural, is a Selective Search algorithm (presented by Uijlings et al. in 2012). This non-trainable algorithm scans the image and generates crops which are likely to contain an object, based on multiple hand-crafted attributes. The algorithm assigns each of these Regions of Interest (RoI’s) with an “objectness score”, corresponding to the confidence that this patch indeed contains an object with a high enough IoU. These RoIs already localize the object by definition. A feature extractor (which was harvested from an already trained classification network) is then fed with the resized RoI patches to generate classification information for each patch separately. A classification head predicts the class probabilities for the object in the RoI.
RCNN (Regression head not shown). Source: Rich feature hierarchies for accurate object detection and semantic segmentation
At the time of its publication, RCNN was state-of-the-art in object detection metrics and scored higher than any existing (non-CNN-based) method for object detection. However, it had several drawbacks:
The region proposal mechanism was non-trainable. The selective search produced thousands of RoI’s with high overlapping for each image. This means that each pixel passed through the feature extractor performing the same computations thousands of times per image. The result was a very long processing time: a single image took 47 seconds to process.
Girshick went on to improve the model with the Fast-RCNN and later collaborated with more researchers to develop the Faster-RCNN.
Fast-RCNN
Fast-RCNN also starts with a non-trainable algorithm that generates proposals for objects. But the main achievement is that the image only passes once through the feature extractor. The patches corresponding to the RoI’s are cropped from the F.E. output and fed into two parallel branches: the first one is a classifier head, containing several convolutions followed by a global average pool and a fully connected layer, and the second branch is a small network trained with a regression loss — that predicts the scale and center of the object contained in that RoI. In a sense — this branch finetunes the coordinates proposed by the original selective search. The clever way to avoid multiple passes through the F.E. gained a speedup of x150 (0.32 seconds per image) compared with RCNN. Note that there is still some inefficiency, since the overlapping pixels in the F.E. output are processed from scratch for each RoI, but it’s nevertheless a major improvement.
We won’t elaborate on loss mechanisms, but I would like to note that the box regression process is philosophically different from classification, in at least one sense: While in classification training we feed the model with 1-hot GT vectors and it learns to reproduce this vector as best it can, in the box regression task, where the object size is, let’s say, (30, 55) pixels, the values (30, 55) appear nowhere in the ground truth, and yet the network learns to produce them in order to achieve a high IoU with the ground truth object.
Faster-RCNN
At the heart of the Faster-RCNN is the understanding that the representation power of the feature extractor is strong enough, so that an exterior RoI generator is not required. The entire image is fed once to a feature extractor and its output diverges to a classification head and a Region Proposal Network (RPN) which generates proposals and objectness scores. This time the box regression head receives the F.E. output for the entire image, and not crops corresponding to RoI’s. A non-neural code loops over the proposals — for each proposal the F.E. output corresponding with that patch is sent to a classifier.
Comparing results of different architectures is a tricky business: Many test sets have been developed and updated over the years for detection challenges, and different researchers may quote their model’s results on different datasets. We can fairly compare models by using an up-to-date framework that supports the training and testing of various models. Once such framework is GluonCV (developed by Amazon). In their Detection Model Zoo, are many models that were trained and tested in comparable conditions.
Detector performance chart. Source: GluonCV
As one can see, Faster RCNN models (with varying feature extractors) achieves the highest mean Average Precision. However, these architectures are extremely slow. Other architectures, like YOLO and CenterNet also achieve high accuracy but are much faster. The SSD model family (using VGG and Mobilenet feature extractors) are superseded by these model.
Anchors
Now we are ready to discuss the mechanism that actually performs the bounding box prediction. The most commonly used method uses anchors, which are priors, or predefined basic box predictions.
Each output cell in the box-regression head of a detector is assigned with several (usually 3 or 5) anchors differing in shape. An anchor is a (W, H) box (W, H are different for the 5 anchors) centered at the center of the output cell.
The model learns the necessary transformations (offset from pixel center, width and height scaling relative to anchor) for those anchors in order to capture objects successfully.
Illustration of anchors. Each anchor has a different shape and results in a separate set of output activations for the bounding box and the class distribution. In the feature map, the 3 colors indicate 3 anchors. Each containing 4 features — 2 for offsets, and 2 for scales. A separate output layer (not shown here) gives the class confidence distribution associated with each of the anchors.
The exact sizes and aspect ratios of the anchors are hyper parameters of the model, and can be determined after a statistical research of the object shape distribution in the training data (via a k-means analysis, for example).
During training the detector learns that several features that are spatially close to each other should result in a box that encompasses them (rewarding the network with a low loss). Several anchor geometries are used simultaneously to help the network capture objects with different aspect ratios, e.g. a short and wide anchor will likely learn to capture a car more easily than a toll and slim anchor.
Using N anchors enables the network to predict up to N objects centered in the same pixel (e.g. a cat napping on a couch) without having to compromise and predict a cat-couch class mix.
Cat and Couch objects centered at the same pixel. Original photo by Steve Mitchell on Unsplash
One drawback of using anchors is that each object gives rise to multiple bounding boxes from which we need to pick the best-fitting one.
An even more severe drawback is that since each spatial output cell is forced to predict bounding boxes even if the confidence is extremely low, we end up with hundreds or thousands of bounding boxes per image, by design.
For example — Assume an 80-class detector with input shape 224x224 and output shape 7x7 cells, each having 3 anchors. Then each image will result in 7x7x3x80=11,760 bounding boxes (there is a bounding box copy per class. See the next section for the reason).
The commonly used method to sift through the bounding boxes and pick only the interesting ones is called NMS.
NMS — Non-Maximum Suppression
Object detection with multiple proposals per object. Only the green boxes are desired as actual detections. Source: Learning non-maximum suppression, Hosang, Benenson and Schiele, 2017
This process is considered a part of the post processing.
NMS is a greedy algorithm that loops over all the classes, and for each class it checks for overlaps (IoU — Intersection over Union) between all the bounding boxes. If the IoU between two boxes of the same class is above a certain threshold (usually 0.7), the algorithm concludes that they refer to the same object, and discards the box with the lower confidence score (which is a product of the objectness score and the conditional class probability).
The loop is performed over the classes, since we want to keep the ability to detect classes that aren’t with the highest score, in case the highest-scoring class copy will be discarded due to its high overlap with another box.
High overlap with different classes. We don’t want to drop the lower class scores. Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash
NMS is very expensive computationally: If there are n boxes then the algorithm performs O(n²) comparisons and quickly becomes a serious bottleneck, especially if the input image is large and the processor is weak.
Several ways have been invented to mitigate this NMS bottleneck. One is to sift through the boxes and remove the ones with very low confidence level even before the NMS. This helps get rid of about 90% of the boxes on VOC-Pascal dataset, for example. While this method is useful, it still requires O(n) operations and the remaining high confidence boxes still require the NMS.
Another approach is to abandon the anchor methodology and use a prediction architecture that inherently generates less proposals. CenterNet is such an architecture (which I’m personally fond of) and I will elaborate on it in a future post. | https://medium.com/swlh/object-detection-with-deep-learning-rcnn-anchors-non-maximum-suppression-ce5a83c7c62b | ['Uri Almog'] | 2020-10-08 06:15:03.609000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Computer Vision', 'Object Detection', 'Neural Networks', 'Deep Learning'] |
How to Get Your Books Ready for Tax Season | The tax season can be daunting for some people. All the rush of hunting documents without an idea can be a lot to deal with.
Bookkeeping is a lot of work where one needs to save all the documents for last minute checking and calculation. Starting with tax preparation before the deadline only makes work-life stressful especially when you are the owner.
If you want to take Tax services Canada seriously by avoiding stress factors, here is our guide to getting your business ready for the tax season.
Keep the bookkeeping in an orderly manner
Updated books help in filing taxes. You can easily screw them up by losing some file or document, but avoiding these mistakes can be simple.
Make sure to keep records and transactions in a general ledger categorized as consistently and accurately as you can.
● Balance the books
If you are using double-entry accounting, be sure to balance the books. The sum of all the debts must be equal to the sum of all the credits.
In case you are using Small Business Bookkeeping program or application, the task becomes pretty simple. Everything will be done automatically in a small time. If you are doing anything by hand in an Excel sheet, do it with patience and a lot of dedication.
● Reconcile the bank accounts
Reconcile means that your book must match with the bank records. You save a lot of your time by doing this. Your bookkeeping is not done until the bank agrees to the records of your company.
● Separating business with personal expenses
Compartmentalization is very important for businesses. Otherwise in the tax season you may be facing the consequences. Sorting out the personal and business expenses is time-consuming if the account and the transaction is the same for both. It is advised to keep a business account separately to record the business transaction easily at the end of the fiscal year.
● Talk to professionals
Having a one-man army is commendable! You save money but the time and stress cannot be tracked. Therefore, take professional help from an Accounting Partner. The person must have experience in Bookkeeping services and the finance world. A tax professional or a CPA can easily look after your books.
Organize the paperwork and deductions
Tax is all about receipts, payments, loans, and money. When money is involved, only words are never a justification. You must have written documents as valid proof of your argument.
Once you find a solution to the above problems, it is better to keep track of the expenses.
● Say ‘NO’ to papers
Business records for the last three years cannot be kept on written papers. You will be having a huge number of receipts, payroll records, and invoices in the long span. The papers might catch dust, wear off with damage too.
It is better to use applications for Small Business Accounting Services. They usually have no storage limitations or if they do it is abundant to store .exe files over three years. Go for cloud storage. You can also use a receipt app to make the task easier.
Keep the Tax Money separate
Whatever money you owe in taxes, keeping it separated will relieve you from the pain at the end of the year.
● The 30% Rule
Whenever you will be unsure about the amount of money you owe in federal taxes, keep a total of 30% money separated from the net amount. The middle-large scale businesses work in that manner. 30% is a fair amount as per experts’ recommendation.
● Choose a feasible method to save money
Other than these three methods, you can hire a professional Part Time Controller to take note of bookkeeping during Tax season.
⮚ The Monthly Method
Make a sum of the total profit money of the year and divide it by the number of months. This is the average monthly income amount you have, now, find 30% of that amount. The result you get is the amount you will be separating for the taxes.
⮚ The per-payment method
Here, you separate 30% of the payment into the business account every time you receive a payment from the customer. If you are a beginner in business, it is a great way to save money. By the end of the year, you will count the total sum and save a lot from tax money too.
⮚ The Yearly Method
Here, you calculate the previous year’s business income and divide it by four (Usually, the yearly method is broken down into four halves at a three-month interval). Now, 30% of this amount is what you will be saving for estimated payments.
● Separate the tax money into another account
The dip in tax savings can easily be avoided by preparing in advance. Keep your everyday finances in a separate business account. Firstly, make two accounts for personal and business purposes. Now, make another account to separate the taxation stuff.
If the multiple account thing gets too hectic for you, appoint the Part Time CFO Services in Canada. CFOs are the financial backbone of a business. Having a CFO in your finance team will always benefit you.
Wrapping Up
These were some of the basic tips to maintain updated bookkeeping in Tax Season. You can either follow our advice genuinely or hire a Contract CFO to get the job done! | https://medium.com/@accontpartcanada/how-to-get-your-books-ready-for-tax-season-c9ff4b865743 | ['Accounting Partner'] | 2020-12-10 17:55:33.772000+00:00 | ['Contract Cfo', 'Taxes', 'Small Business', 'Finance', 'Accounting'] |
11th Arrondissement neighborhood guide — where to live in Paris | The 11th arrondissement is the perfect district if you want to get a real insight of a proper Parisian lifestyle.
This arrondissement in itself could be divided into several districts: from one street to another, you find yourself in a wealthy area or in a very modest zone with a strong ethnic minority presence (such as Ménilmontant and Belleville, where Chinese, Arabic and African communities coexists). Some corners of the 11th have a bad reputation in terms of safety, but the district is being taken over by hipsters and wealthier social classes at a high pace, which makes it one of the most dynamic and innovative areas of Paris.
La Bastille
La Bastille is the 11th arrondissement’s most famous area. This crucial square to French history is nowadays known for its multiple bars and restaurants, and more generally for being one of the coolest districts to hang out with some friends at the weekend and at night. Many big Parisian events take place here: from popular protests to shows and concerts.
The ideal district for students
The 11th arrondissement is perfect for students, for various reasons. Firstly, the rental prices are reasonable compared to most other arrondissements, but it remains a safe zone. Second, it is a very practical area in terms of transportation. République is one of the biggest Parisian metro station as it serves 5 different lines, in addition to being a great spot to hang out. It has recently been fully renovated to make it a leisure-oriented place with limited car access. More generally, the whole 11th is full of trendy bars and small alternative clubs, especially in the very hype district of Oberkampf.
FACT SHEET : 11ème arrondissement
One place to visit: Le cimetière du Père Lachaise, the largest Parisian cemetery — where several legends such as Molière, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison are buried.
One place to study: the Bibliothèque Parmentier, a calm municipal library. Or if you prefer to work in a café, Le Comptoir Parmentier, a nice French brasserie with a cosy terrace. They are only a few metres away from each other.
One place to drink: Rue de Lappe, a small pedestrian street near Bastille that is full of bars and where things often get a bit crazy after midnight.
One place to party (hard): Le Nouveau Casino, a top-rated indie/urban club located on Rue Oberkampf, the most dynamic area for a night out in the 11th. | https://blog.uniplaces.com/11th-arrondissement-neighborhood-guide-where-to-live-in-paris-b36dd0be52cc | ['Uniplaces Team'] | 2021-11-22 16:36:02.899000+00:00 | ['Studying', 'Neighboring', 'Living', 'Paris'] |
Deep blue sea(food): How Indonesian marine fisheries startup Aruna being recognized at the international level | Deep blue sea(food): How Indonesian marine fisheries startup Aruna being recognized at the international level
The business and impact story of Farid Aslam, CEO & Co-Founder of Aruna, The Largest Integrated Fisheries Commerce in Indonesia, attracts the attention of six global business leaders during a three-day virtual international selection panel; resulting in further and continuous support for scale-up. Endeavor Indonesia May 22·5 min read
Image source: Aruna website
Jakarta, 21 May 2021 — With over 17,000 islands, Indonesia becomes the largest archipelago in the world and the second-largest coastline span around 54,720 km — yet the traditional fishing industry is still facing poverty and underdevelopment. There are over 2.7M fishermen in Indonesia (1% of the population), that make up an outsized percentage (25%) of the people below the poverty line, typically due to a lack of access to the market and market knowledge, resulting in 1000% markups on produce prior to landing on the consumer’s plate.
The idea to empower the fishing community through technology is a risk worth taking.
Comes from a Sanskrit word that means “Sunrise” / “The light from the east”, Aruna has a noble mission to making the sea a better livelihood for all, through technology innovation.
Aruna makes the sea a better livelihood for all by offering efficiency in trading seafood, providing wider access to local and overseas markets, and empowering the local fishermen community by employing the surrounding communities to work at Aruna’s fish-processing miniplants. Aruna is currently operating all over Indonesia, from Sumatera to Papua, empowering more than 20,000+ fisherman partners in 32 spots and opening more job opportunities in the coastal villages.
Aruna’s managed marketplace offers efficiency in trading seafood and provides value to a variety of stakeholders. For fishermen, it provides wider access to local and overseas markets, empowers local fishermen community, and helps train people on sustainable fishing practices and ensuring traceability. Aruna also offers access to the necessities fishermen rely on in collaboration with various parties, such as through providing capital, insurance, fishing needs, fishing gear, etc. Its efforts lead to a 3–10X average increase in fisherman’s incomes (from $80 to $600+), making the average Aruna fisherman earn 2–3X the average monthly wage in Indonesia, and providing hundreds of other jobs for people in the community. For buyers, such as B2C platforms (Grab, Go, etc), and B2B wholesalers, it represents a trusted and convenient way to purchase sustainably-sourced, seafood products traceable down to the fisherman’s profile and location where it was caught.
Since day one, Aruna has trained its fishermen with sustainable fishing practices based on WWF standards. With its IoT and technology, Aruna is also able to provide traceability for its produce, which is not only aligned with sustainable fishing but a great value-add to the company and suppliers. With the global seafood market estimated to reach $155B by 2023, Aruna is targeting a $12B seafood market in Asia, North America, Europe, and the Middle East for the high-value fish commodities, aiming to become the largest marine fisheries platform in the world.
A strong support system to turbocharge growth
Farid was one of Forbes 30 under 30 Asia Class of 2020, together with Indraka and Utari, the co-founders of Aruna. He graduated from Telkom University in Management of ICT Business in 2016 and partook in executive education at the University of California Berkeley and Massachusets Institute of Technology. The three co-founders initially ideated the concept in 2015, when they won a prestigious hackathon competition held by the Indonesian Government, called “Hackathon Merdeka”.
Soon after establishing Aruna in 2016, the team quickly created their first miniplant and fishermen community in Balikpapan, Borneo Island, and they expanded to east Indonesia in 2018. The business started to take off in 2019 and launching its first foreign exports to China. It has been able to sustain the sales growth momentum, ending the year 2020 with significantly high growth in revenue, despite the pandemic where air freight was unpredictable and limited.
Aruna attracts attention and recognition in Indonesia and beyond through numerous awards namely the grand winner of Alipay-NUS Enterprise Social Innovation Challenges, Startup of The Year 2019 for Social Impact category from Tempo, The Most Social Impact Startup 2019 by The Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education, as well as being featured in notable media such as Forbes, DealStreetAsia, CNN, TechCrunch, Reuters, The Strait Times, and many more.
Following that, Farid’s vision through Aruna took him to a bigger and deeper level. A global community of, by, and for entrepreneurs, Endeavor, decided to take a plunge in his business and himself as a high-impact entrepreneur. Farid was recommended by Endeavor Indonesia Board Member, Pandu Sjahrir, who recognized Aruna as one of a few fastest-growing companies that he invested in through Agaeti Ventures. And ever since, Endeavor make sure he and them team never walk alone.
After a rigorous process filled with multiple mentoring sessions since early 2020, Farid is among 13 entrepreneurs from 9 markets around the world who got selected into the global Endeavor network by a panel of global business leaders including Steve Kessel, Former Senior Vice President, Amazon.com; Veronica Allende Serra, Founding Partner, Pacific Investments & Innova Capital Fund (Endeavor Global Board Member); Dan Green, Corporate Partner, Gunderson Dettmer LLP; Cesar Carvalho, Co-Founder & CEO, GymPass; Dr. Raoul Oberman, Co-Founder & CEO, Artemis Impact Pte Ltd (Endeavor Indonesia Board Member); Monica Mandelli, Global Head of High Net Worth Group, KKR (Endeavor Italy Board Member); at the 15th Virtual Endeavor International Selection Panel held on May 17–19, 2021.
“Behind this extremely young entrepreneur, there’s someone that is incredibly humble and has a bright vision on the business,” said one of the panelists, Monica Mandelli (left).
“As a first-time entrepreneur myself, being selected as an Endeavor High-Impact Entrepreneur means I can turbocharge our impact through a lot of mentoring sessions and peer-to-peer connections from local, regional, and global network of Endeavor in order to support Aruna’s ambition to be the center of the world economic maritime commerce”, said Farid.
All panelists at the International Selection Panel unanimously agreed to vote for Farid Aslam and welcome them to the Endeavor network as an Endeavor Entrepreneur
“We’re proud to welcome a brilliant and innovative entrepreneur to the Endeavor Indonesia network”, said Wayah Wiroto, the Managing Director of Endeavor Indonesia. “Aruna is creating both economic and social impact in the local coastal communities, which has been underserved and often marginalized. Endeavor could help Aruna in strengthening supply capabilities while maintaining the sustainability of the seafood commodities in order to support the sustainability of fishing and our sea ecosystem.”
The journey of Farid and Aruna can create great stories and examples for future generations of entrepreneurs. | https://medium.com/@endeavorindonesia/deep-blue-sea-food-how-indonesian-marine-fisheries-startup-aruna-being-recognized-at-the-147cef866780 | ['Endeavor Indonesia'] | 2021-05-22 03:35:57.059000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Indonesia', 'Impact', 'Seafood'] |
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