title
stringlengths 1
200
⌀ | text
stringlengths 10
100k
| url
stringlengths 32
885
| authors
stringlengths 2
392
| timestamp
stringlengths 19
32
⌀ | tags
stringlengths 6
263
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The End Of The World? Capitalism’s Existential Crisis | Capitalism has generated massive wealth for some (the bourgeoisie), but it’s devastated the planet and has failed to improve human well-being en masse. We as the proletarian and peasant classes of the world are in a race against the clock. The current economic system is heading towards total destruction of life on the planet. This is not a joke.
Just to rattle your feathers , I’ll give you an overview of how capitalist production has and is destroying our livelihood:
The failure of capitalism in the vast majority of the Third World became apparent in the 1960s through the 1970s because during this time countries with high growth rates experienced a myriad of problems, including an increase in inequality and poverty (Sen, 1985; Cornia, 1974), from the 1980s to the present day, poor countries have faced economic stagnation and crises. In the 2000s, capitalism has failed in developed countries. On the one hand, some of these countries, including the United States, have experienced economic stagnation and poverty levels are higher than those that prevailed during the 1970s. On the other hand, other countries, such as those in Europe, have undergone stagnation and minimal poverty reduction during the 2000s. Today, the world is in the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression.
One in seven of the world’s population live in poverty in urban areas, and the vast majority of these live in the Global South — mostly in overcrowded informal settlements with inadequate water, sanitation, health care and schools provision.
At the very top of the capitalist economy, there are trillions of dollars of wealth in the hands of a very small group of people, predominantly men, whose fortune and power grow exponentially. Billionaires have now more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60% of the planet’s population. Meanwhile, around 735 million people are still living in extreme poverty. Many others are just one hospital bill or failed harvest away from slipping into it.
1.3 billion people in 107 developing countries, which account for 22% of the world’s population, live in multidimensional poverty.
of the world’s population, live in multidimensional poverty. Seventeen firms collectively manage more than $US41.1 trillion in a self-invested network of interlocking capital that spans the globe.
1.6 billion people, more than 20% of the world’s population, may lack adequate housing. Obtaining an accurate picture of homelessness globally is challenging for many reasons. Habitat for Humanity has shown that 1.6 billion people lived in “inadequate shelter”.
Extreme inequality is out of control. Hundreds of millions of people are living in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top. There are more billionaires than ever before, and their fortunes have grown to record levels. Meanwhile, the world’s poorest got even poorer.
Inequality is growing for more than 70 per cent of the global population, exacerbating the risks of divisions and hampering economic and social development
Around 9 million people die every year of hunger and hunger-related diseases. ( https://www.theworldcounts.co)
Poor nutrition and hunger are responsible for the death of 3.1 million children a year. That’s nearly half of all deaths in children under the age of 5. The children die because their bodies lack basic nutrients.
Globally, 822 million people suffer from undernourishment.
Species are going extinct at a rate 1,000 times faster than that of the natural rate over the previous 65 million years (see Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School).
Since 2000, 6 million hectares of primary forest have been lost each year. That’s 14,826,322 acres, or just less than the entire state of West Virginia (see the 2010 assessment by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN).
Two-thirds of people in India live in poverty: 68.8% of the Indian population lives on less than $2 a day. Over 30% even have less than $1.25 per day available — they are considered extremely poor.
Contrast capitalist India to that of communist China which have relatively the same population size as well as colonial and independence history.
— These statistics are pre COVID 19
In the capitalist mode of production the poorest are the people who produce all goods and service but cannot enjoy it themselves. Farmers in Africa produce cocoa for the chocolate but will never be able to buy a Hershey’s chocolate bar. Is this your great system?
The passivity of our community and international organization in this generation (Millenials and Gen Z) is something that needs to be addressed. The aversion to socialism and communism is no longer just an ideological stance but rather a stance with humanity. Any theory that puts arbitrary concepts such as money over labour is doomed.
Capitalism is killing itself and the poor are the victims
There is, in the origins of classical political economy, a concern about the downward trend in the rate of profit. Adam Smith and David Ricardo (Foundational Capitalist Economists), among others, have argued in their own way the existence of this trend. The systemic tendency to crisis and insufficient profit generation has also been reflected by other exponents of different economic schools, expressing, on one hand, the eminently real character of the trend, and on the other, the theoretical particularities of these economic schools.
Marx established, as the most important law of political economy, the law of the falling tendency of the rate of profit. Ricardo sustained this trend on the increase of labour costs due to decreasing agricultural productivity, recognizing the necessity to expand production on badlands. However, the Ricardian assumption of diminishing marginal productivity in agriculture (that neoclassical extrapolated to all productive activity) has proved unreal. The rate of profit shows a downward trend, not because productivity decreases, but precisely because it increases in historical terms.
The downward trend of the rate of profit, its empirical confirmation, highlights the historically limited nature of capitalist production. If the rate of profit marks the vitality of the system, the logical conclusion is that it approaches further to an endpoint. In 1870 the global rate of profit was 43%, since the 2000s it is 17%. Essentially, profits are drying up. Which then leads to a consolidation of capital. Once it collapses guess who feels it the most?
Do you think student loans are bad? Wait till you find out how much debt capitalist economies have racked up. We might not even have to pay back our debts given how the world will go into ruin.
The United States on its own has 1.3 trillion dollars of debt owed to China. By 2030 China’s GDP will surpass that of the US. Within that context , use it to analyze anti China rhetoric in major news cycles.
The debt crisis now engulfing poor countries is just one manifestation of the profound structural crisis of the global economic system, a crisis from which there is no capitalist way out. One person’s — or one country’s — debt is another person’s asset. Cancellation of debts owed by the many to the few is the only possible solution, and this is necessarily a revolutionary solution since the cancellation of debts owed by the poor majority means cancellation of wealth owned by the super-rich minority (which they’ll never allow).
Global debt loads surged during the second quarter as households seized on low mortgage rates and governments continued borrowing heavily to revive pandemic-battered economies.
The amount of the world’s outstanding debt swelled during the three months by about $4.8 trillion to a record $296 trillion, according to a report by the Institute of International Finance. — all while lockdowns ease in 2021.
The economic crisis -which has been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic- is expected to contribute to the global unemployment of more than 200 million people next year. Compared to 2019, an additional 108 million workers worldwide are now categorized as “poor” or “extremely poor”. Let's not even mention the relatively poor who are just about able to sustain themselves.
Homelessness and eviction is a staple in capitalist societies.
In the home of the free and the land of the brave, homelessness is as prevalent as there are police departments. The United States is facing the most severe housing crisis in its history. According to the latest analysis of weekly US Census data, as federal, state, and local protections and resources expire and in the absence of robust and swift intervention, an estimated 30–40 million people in America could be at risk of eviction in the next several months. Many property owners, who lack the credit or financial ability to cover rental payment arrears, will struggle to pay their mortgages and property taxes and maintain properties. The COVID-19 housing crisis has sharply increased the risk of foreclosure and bankruptcy, especially among small property owners; long-term harm to renter families and individuals; disruption of the affordable housing market; and destabilization of communities across the United States.
Eviction isn’t just a condition of poverty; it’s a cause of poverty. Eviction is a direct cause of homelessness, but it also is a cause of residential instability, school instability [and] community instability. In capitalist societies, your local police department will drag you out by your teeth if they have to, in order to fulfil their duty to the state or private owners.
Fun Fact: By the 1930s, the USSR declared the abolition of homelessness and every citizen was obliged to have a propiska — a place of permanent residency. Nobody could be stripped of propiska without substitution or refuse it without confirmed permission (called “order”) to register in another place. If someone wanted to move to another city or expand their living area, he had to find a partner who wanted to mutually exchange the flats. The right to shelter was secured in the Soviet constitution. Not having permanent residency was legally considered a crime.
But hey what do I know I’m just a 20-year-old brainwashed socialist who wants an economy centred around humanity.
Have you ever wondered what the chances are of becoming rich? Well, for a start, it depends rather on what you mean by “rich”. If you’re talking Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates level of wealth, then I’ve got some bad news for you: according to Investopedia, you’re about as likely to be hit by lightning as you are to become a millionaire or billionaire. Reject capitalist myths of meritocracy and luxury. It's unstable and unsustainable. Keynesianism has failed to regulate capitalism and allows it to continue its needs for infinite growth on a finite planet. IT CANNOT BE REFORMED.
Hopefully, this brief article has been able to show you just the surface of the internal and external contradictions facing capitalism in its current state. It is fascistic in nature and respects no God, no religion or any human relation except that of capital regeneration. Take an anti-capitalist stance at worst but at best read the revolutionary theory and use praxis. We are the torch carriers for a humane world. A world where homelessness is abolished, hunger is eradicated and the greatness of the human spirit can flourish. This is not utopian idealism but rather scientific realism.
AGITATE, ORGANIZE AND MOBILIZE TOWARDS LIBERATION. | https://medium.com/@tristangraham300/the-end-of-the-world-capitalisms-existential-crisis-ae7fb545e94a | ['Tristan Graham'] | 2021-09-17 18:06:27.913000+00:00 | ['Capitalism', 'Poverty', 'Socialism', 'Debt', 'Homelessness'] |
Best Process? | So what is my best process when I need to write something for class, or have a deadline, and I have absolutely no idea, motivation, or focus? Nothing folks. Okay, I lied, I may have a mental breakdown, maybe jump around my room, or sometimes sit in the scolding hot water when I shower, and hope something magically comes to me. You may think I am joking, and trust me I wish I was because that is pathetic. Unfortunately I am not…yes I know it is sad, but it’s the truth.
There are times where you brain is just like, Uhm no, and you deal with it. Then, there are times where your brain is like, I am ready baby! I mean to each their own. I feel my process is best for me because it works. It may not seem like the most efficient, but it works. I also just go through my week in hopes something will happen and I can write about it. It reminds me of those family members who don’t have lives so they basically watch yours as if it were a tv show, and gossip about your decision's to the whole family. That’s what I do, well sort of. All I know is that my process for writing is kind of fuzzy, and uncertain. Yet, I still make it work, so all in all I feel that is all that matters. I cannot argue it is the best because it’s not, so do not try to take my head off about other processes that are better okay? I think that it is best for me. Thank you have a wonderfully chaotic day like me, or night. Either way see ya. | https://medium.com/@madech1029/best-process-4aac84c43abd | [] | 2020-02-07 08:27:51.009000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Practice', 'Whatever Goes', 'Process', 'Best'] |
Reasons to not install Hadoop on Windows | A few years ago, I was hearing from my colleagues, “don’t ever think about installing Hadoop on Windows operating system!”. I was not convinced of this saying because I am a big fan of Microsoft products, especially Windows.
In the past few years, I worked on several projects where we were asked to build a Big Data ecosystem using Hadoop and related technologies on Ubuntu. It was not so easy to work with these technologies, especially since there is a lack of online resources. Last month, I was asked to build a Big data ecosystem on Windows. Three technologies must be installed: Hadoop, Hive, and Pig.
At the end of the project, the only consequence I have is that “Think 1000 times before installing Hadoop and related technologies on Windows!”.
In this article, I will briefly describe the main reasons for this consequence.
Are these technologies developed to run on Windows?
The first releases of Hadoop were demonstrated and tested on GNU\Linux, while it was not tested under the Win32 operating system. For Hadoop 2.x and newer releases, Windows support was added, and a step-by-step guide was provided within the official documentation.
This should be ok if you are going only to install Hadoop. But when it comes to other related technologies such as Apache Hive, not all releases are supported (For apache Hive only 2.x releases supports Windows). You will need to do some hacks and workaround to install these technologies, such as using Cygwin utility to execute GNU/Linux shell commands or to copy cmd scripts from other releases.
Besides, some services may not work correctly. As an example, we installed Apache Hive and Apache Pig. We tried to connect with those technologies through the WebHCat Rest API or using the Microsoft Hive ODBC driver. The connection was made successfully, but we couldn’t execute any command since any simple command was throwing time out exceptions.
In brief, Windows is not as stable or as supported as Linux.
Other Reasons
Cost
One other reason is the licensing cost. Linux is a free and open-source operating system. It will be costly if you need to deploy a multi-node Hadoop cluster on Windows machines.
Lack of resources
In general, Big Data technologies don’t have many online resources. But, most of those resources are related to Linux while you may struggle in a small issue related to a Windows environment. Even if you ask for support on an online community like Stack Overflow, most experts work with Cloud-based Hadoop clusters or a Linux on-premise installation.
What to do if you are using Windows?
If you are using Windows, and need to use Hadoop and related technologies, you may:
Use Linux virtual machines to install Hadoop, note that your machine must have sufficient resources. Use a cloud-based Hadoop service such as Microsoft Azure Hadoop cluster. If you cannot go with any of those suggestions and you have to install Hadoop, you need first to search for the supported releases of all required technologies (Hadoop, Hive, Spark …). Then, you must choose the compatible ones. As an example, Hive 2.x releases only supports Windows while 3.x needs some hacks, and not all its features may work properly. So, if you need to install Apache Hive, you have to use Hadoop 2.x releases since newer releases are not compatible with Hive 2.x releases.
References | https://medium.com/munchy-bytes/reasons-to-not-install-hadoop-on-windows-5bf22f3f0005 | ['Hadi Fadlallah'] | 2020-08-27 10:35:08.877000+00:00 | ['Hadoop', 'Windows', 'Big Data'] |
Are we really Aryans?Did Aryan Invasion really happened? | 6 July 2021 From the times when we were asked about our origins we were taught in our childhood that we were Aryans , The word “Aryan” usually means the noble one which cane from Indo Iranian languages . Now according to the history who really Aryans were? Aryans were said to be the people from parts of central europe or eastern europe namely (Ukraine ,Eastern Prussia,Poland) And people of central asia who invaded India from the north western part and the western part where Indus Valley civilization took place after wards in (1800BCE -1500BCE) . It is said that defeated the people here and pushed them to the Deccan Region which is now known as south India and then adopted and were Civilized here . But from where this theory came from ,that is how we were found to be central asians and eastern europeans? Now here comes the so called “proof” of genetic code , The genetic codes are different in different areas of the world and hence it is said they once shared the same background.
In researches it was found that the genetic code R1a1 also known as the hablo group was similar between the people pf eurasia which is the scandinavia , siberia , and people of southern asia ,and hence this aryan theory was proposed .This lineage is the most widespread and successful lineage in the world with more than 1B people having it.But there are many questions that contradict the theory .
First contradiction is that there is no historic proof of Aryan invasion in India , every part of history has at least some hiatorical impressions ,but in these there are not , where wars were fought ? Between whom were fought ? There is no proof
It was also said that people called Aryans were fair in colour , and the indians were dark skinned people who are currently living in south india,but there are people in parts of up ,bihar, rajasthan ,punjab who are naturally not fair skinned ? Its a complete mix
If Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world then did Aryans came and adopted our religion ? | https://medium.com/@thapliyaladit1726/are-we-really-aryans-did-aryan-invasion-really-happened-631023b068cc | ['Adit Thapliyal'] | 2021-07-06 09:36:00.945000+00:00 | ['Genetics', 'History Of Culture', 'History', 'Aryans', 'Indian History'] |
SimCam 1S AI Home Camera Review | *This post may have affiliate links. For example As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which means if you purchase something after clicking a link I may receive commission (don’t worry, there’s no extra cost to you). This helps support the work I put into the site.
There’s no shortage of internet connected home security cameras available to you and they usually require an ongoing subscription fee to make the most of them. SimCam is approaching things a little differently, giving you lots of features for a single one off cost.
It’s available via Amazon: https://geni.us/SimCam1sAmazon
SimCam 1S Overview
The 1S is pitched as an AI indoor home security camera. The box gives you an overview of the key features:
1080p HD recording
Night vision
Live stream
Two-way audio
360 degree pan & tracking
AI Vision for identification of people, pets and cars
Push alert
AI event recording
AI activity zone
Duel-band WiFi (2.4G & 5G)
Works with:
Google Assistant
Alexa
IFTTT
Many cameras have similar features, but often there is an additional charge to make use of things such as AI functions.
SimCam 1S Design
Available in black or white the 1S looks like most cameras on the market, it’s a camera on a base with a motor in to allow the camera to be rotated around.
The base has the power connector and a square mounting hole for those who want to wall or ceiling mount it.
Around the back of the camera is a removable section, secured by a screw, which contains the camera reset button and the microSD card slot up to 128GB). An Allan key is included to give you access, careful when removing the screw, it’s tiny!
If you decide to mount it the camera’s vertical position can only be adjusted manually, use can remotely rotate the camera 360 degrees, but you can’t remotely adjust the vertical position. One thing to note is the motor is rather noisy, if anyone is nearby they’ll be sure to hear the camera turning.
It’s a clean, simple, design that looks nice enough, and is small enough to pop on a bookshelf without taking up loads of room.
The power cable is a very generous length, presumably to cater for those who want to mount the camera high up and need to plug in to a floor level power outlet. You’ll find a bracket and screws included in the box.
SimCam S1 Specifications
Dimentions: 4.7in x 2.8in x 2.8in / 121mm x 72mm x 72mm
Weight: (0.5lbs 245g)
Cable length: 9.8ft / 3m
Ai Processor: Ambarella CV25 SOC
Video resolution: 108P 30FPS
Field of view: 120°
Focal length: 3.6mm
Weather resistance: IP54
Storage: MicroSD up to 128GB
SMB-based NAS
Setup
To get started you’ll need to download the SimCam app, recently updated to be called SimHome, which is free on iOS and Android.
After setting up an account, the app uses a smart QR code to add your new device to your SimHome account. The app gets the camera connected to your WiFi network (either 2.4G or 5G thanks to it being duel band) and allows you to give it a friendly name (usually the location).
The app manages all your SimHome products, which includes:
SimCam series
SimCam Ango (doorbell)
SimCam Baby
SimCam Alloy (outdoor cameras)
Once the 1S has been added you can put it into position and remotely access the live feed, even when you’re not on the same WiFi network.
The camera automatically switches night vision when it detects there isn’t enough light to see clearly and both normal and night vision footage was very good quality.
If you spot something you want to keep you can us the app to either record video footage or take a photo. When reviewing footage you can quickly download it to your mobile for later review or sharing with others.
Remote Control
The app gives you complete control over the camera without needing to be near it. You can watch a live HD video stream, trigger the inbuilt siren, listen in via the on board mic, speak out of the camera via it’s on board speaker, rotate the camera, pinch to zoom in on the image.
The app has a daily report dashboard which shows the number of times it’s detected people, pets and vehicles.
You also use the app to playback footage, ether based on an event or by scrubbing through the camera’s timeline.
The app also allows you to control the cameras settings, changing its name, picture orientation, recording schedule to name but a few.
There are so many options it’s worth taking your time to look through them all and familiarize yourself with the breadth of functionality the camera has.
Storage Options
SimCam have taken the unusual approach of not offering any cloud storage. You can record to the local SD card but there’s no option to record to the cloud. This creates a couple of potential issues:
1) The microSD card can quickly fill up
2) If the camera is taken so is the camera footage
Interesting the 1S offers an alternative storage solution I’ve never seen before, you can record to your NAS drive. In the apps settings you’re able to add a Network Attached Storage folder location that the camera will record to, giving you your own personal cloud without any subscription fee.
I initially had a problem setting this up and realized it was due to my NAS being set up to use a VPN, when that was turned off the camera had no issue saving files to the drive.
If you’re unsure what a NAS is this probably isn’t the storage option for you. Most people will be better suited to either just using an SD card or having a cloud subscription offer. For those with network storage to spare this offer an interesting option unseen on other cameras.
You can use this without any storage, it just means any playback functions aren’t available.
AI Home Camera
Ever wonder what time the family came home? SimCam pitch the 1S as an AI Home Camera, and with good reason, it has onboard AI capabilities that allows it to recognize people, pets and vehicles.
This goes beyond the usual motion detection on security cameras. Yes the 1S can detect motion, but it goes way beyond that. In the settings menu you’ll find a Face Recognition tab. This allows you to teach the camera about different people via photos. This feature can be especially useful if you want to keep tabs on the comings and goings of your home, for example you might want to know your child has returned home from school.
Detection can trigger a push alert or you can check out the recorded events in the playback menu. As it’s possible to link your SimHome account with your Google Assistant, Alexa or IFTTT account this recognition could be used to trigger some additional action (not something I’ve tried).
I found facial recognition to be surprisingly effective, correctly identifying those I’d added to the cameras face recognition library. Be warned that if you place the camera in a heavy traffic area and have notifications enabled you can end up with a LOT of push notifications on your mobile.
The SimCam 1S is a great option if you’re after a feature rich camera without an ongoing subscription cost. It’s not for you if you want a camera with simple cloud backup option.
Available from Amazon: https://geni.us/SimCam1sAmazon | https://medium.com/@markjdraper/simcam-1s-ai-home-camera-review-e000b2b27797 | ['Mark Draper'] | 2020-10-26 12:53:19.830000+00:00 | ['Securitycamera', 'Smarthome', 'Simcam'] |
The Lookout: Five Guides For Not Being Blocked While Scraping The Web | 1. Usage of Headless Browsers
Photo by Richard Pennystan on Unsplash
In order to decide whether or not the question came from an actual person, the trickiest websites to scrape will find subtle details like the Internet font, extension, browser cookies and execution of JavaScript. You may need your own headless browser to scrape these web sites (or have your own Scraper API!).
Tools such as Selenium and Puppeteer allow you to write a program to manipulate a real web browser which is exactly the same as a true user, in order to remove detection entirely. While this is a little bit of work rendering Selenium undetectable or Puppeteer undetectable, the easiest way to scrape websites is to make this easy.
Please note, these programming controllable browsers are highly cpu and memory intensive, and will crash occasionally, only for web scraping use where appropriate. You don’t have to use this platform for certain sites (where a quick GET request is done) so just hit certain tools if you’re blocked or you don’t have a real browser!
2. IP Rotation
Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash
The number one way that websites detect web scrapers is by analyzing their IP address, so most web scraping without being blocked uses a number of separate IP addresses to prevent any one IP address from being barred. To stop routing all your requests through the same IP address, you can use an IP rotation service such as the Scraper API or other proxy services to route your requests through a variety of separate IP addresses. This will cause you to scrap the majority of websites without any problems.
For places that use more sophisticated proxy blacklists, you may need to consider using residential or smartphone proxies if you are unfamiliar with what this entails you can find out our post on various forms of proxies here. At the end of the day the number of IP addresses in the world is set, and the vast majority of people surfing the Internet only get 1 (the IP address given to them by their Internet service provider for their home internet), so having said that 1 million IP addresses would allow you to surf as many as 1 million ordinary Internet users without giving rise to suspicion. This is by far the most popular method for websites to block web crawlers, so if you get blocked having more IP addresses is the first thing you can do.
3. Set Other Request Headers
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
A whole host of headers would be set on actual web browsers, all of which can be tested by diligent websites to obstruct the web scraper. You should navigate to https:/httpbin.org/anything to make your scraper appear to be a real browser, then simply copy the headers you see there they are the headers the new web browser is using). Stuff like “Accept”, “Accept-Encoding”, “Accept-Language”, and “Upgrade-Insecure-Requests” being set would make your requests look like they are coming from a real server so you won’t have your web crawling interrupted.
For example, the headers from the latest Google Chrome is:
“Accept”: “text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/webp,
image/apng,*/*;q=0.8,application/signed-exchange;v=b3″,
“Accept-Encoding”: “gzip”,
“Accept-Language”: “en-US,en;q=0.9,es;q=0.8”,
“Upgrade-Insecure-Requests”: “1”,
“User-Agent”: “Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_12_6) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/76.0.3809.132 Safari/537.36”
You should be able to avoid being detected by 99 percent of websites by rotating through a series of IP addresses and setting proper HTTP request headers (especially User Agents).
4. Set A Real Agent
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
User Agents are a special form of HTTP header that tells the website exactly what browser you are using while visiting. Any websites can review user agents and block user agent requests that are not part of a main browser. Many web scrapers do not try to customize the User Agent and are thus quickly found when looking for disabled User Agents.
Don’t be one of the makers of this! Remember to set your web crawler to be a popular user agent (you can find a list of popular user agents here). For advanced users, as most websites choose to be mentioned on Google and thus allow Googlebot in, you can even set your User Agent to the Googlebot User Agent.
Any new upgrade to Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc. has a totally different user agent, but if you go years without updating the user agent on your crawlers, they can get more and more suspect. It’s crucial to note to keep the user agents you use somewhat up to date.
5. Avoid Traps by Honeypot
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Through bringing in invisible connections that only a robot can pursue, a lot of sites will attempt to find web crawlers. You need to detect when a link has the “display: zero” or “visibility: secret” CSS properties package, and else a site will be able to recognize you correctly as a programmatic scraper, fingerprint the properties of your requests and block you very quickly if they do not obey the link.
Honeypots are one of the simplest ways for smart webmasters to identify crawlers, so make sure that on each page you scrape, you conduct this search. Often, advanced webmasters may only set the color to white (or whatever color the page’s background color is), so you might want to verify whether the link has anything like “color: #fff;” or “color: #ffffff” set, as the link can also be essentially invisible.
6. Detect Website Changes
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
For various purposes, many websites modify templates and this can also cause scrapers to crack. In comparison, certain websites may have different templates (page 1 of the search results may have a different interface than page 4) in unusual areas.
This is true also for surprisingly big, less tech-savvy firms, such as large department stores that are now making the online transition. When building your scraper, you need to properly detect these changes and create constant tracking so that you know your crawler is still running (usually only counting the amount of active requests per crawl should do the trick).
Another simple way to set up testing is to write a unit test on the web on a single URL (or one URL of each kind, for example, you would want to write a unit test on the search results page on a review site, another unit test on the review page, another unit test on the main product page, etc.).
This way, using just a few requests every 24 hours or so, you can search for breaking site modifications without having to go through a complete crawl to find errors. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/the-lookout-five-guides-for-not-being-blocked-while-scraping-the-web-e1d553dee5ea | ['Abideen Opeyemi Bello Bideen'] | 2021-02-23 02:52:19.492000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Web Scraping', 'Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Web Scrapers'] |
Creative Ways to Navigate the 2020 Holidays | I think we can all agree, 2020 has been tough. The seasonal “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” wishes seem to ring hollow, and for many the sentiments are difficult to embrace. Instead of a month of nonstop parties with friends and family, this year the holidays feel slower, filled with time to reflect on past Christmases and opportunities to create alternative ways to connect. The season is about sharing love with one another, and no matter who you have to share yours with this year, remember to share it with yourself. Take these quiet moments to be kind to you. It will be the best present you will receive-guaranteed.
Do the next best right thing — Kathy LeMay, founder, president, and CEO of Raising Change says that we should take one task on our to-do list and focus on it. Don’t rush. Don’t speed through it. Breathe. Write that personal email to someone you haven’t connected with in awhile. Take a few minutes to cut the article out of the paper. Slow down. Don’t speed up. Take your time with each correspondence, activity, and phone call. You will be more creative. You’ll feel more relaxed, and suddenly you’ll find yourself enjoying year-end activities.
Keep it simple — Stress levels can increase dramatically this time of year, especially if you have too much on your plate. Make sure you’re not setting unrealistic expectations for yourself. Remember, everything doesn’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to do everything yourself.
Get plenty of sleep — Adequate sleep is beneficial in so many ways, and this time of year it can help you strengthen your resolve, improve your sanity and maintain your weight. Some studies also show that when you routinely clock a good night’s sleep, you’ll be more likely to make better food choices. Science also shows that sleep deprivation can lead to higher levels of the appetite-stimulating hormone, ghrelin, likely leading to a case of next-day munchies and a holiday of sugary sweet bad decisions.
Get some fresh air — Go into your calendar and schedule yourself 10 minutes of fresh air 3 days this week. Whether it’s going outside and feeling the cold air or the warm sun, going for a walk with no destination, or finding a favorite tree to look at, take 30 minutes this week. You won’t miss the time by taking three 10-minute breaks. You will get a fresh, energized perspective. Blood will flow better to your brain. You’ll return calmer and more refreshed. You’ll look at the list, do the next best right thing and say to yourself, “Oh, I have got this.”
Even though COVID has cancelled many gatherings, with some thought and proper planning we can still connect with our extended family and friends this year — from a distance — and honor holiday traditions in different, more creative and satisfying ways.
Do some holiday baking — Sure you can connect by video and just talk, but if there are cookies you usually bake with your daughter, or sweet breads with your mom — do it — virtually. You can order ingredients for delivery for yourself and the others, set a start time, and connect via video. The chatter, the laughter and the moments will still happen, it’s just the hugs you’ll need to postpone.
Have a meal — Whether it’s typical holiday fare or pizza in pajamas, you can still have a family meal. You can connect virtually with those you usually enjoy the day with, have your own choice of food and still enjoy the familiar conversations and laughter between family and friends.
Open gifts — Chances are even though you’re not together, gifts have been purchased, sent, and placed under the tree. Set a time and connect virtually so you can share the love behind each moment, and further connect during this unprecedented time.
Ultimately this season you need to take a break, take a breath, and nurture yourself and your loved ones. Crisis, such as the one we’re currently dealing with, brings out the best in us. It reminds us to stop and think about what truly matters. While the holidays look different this year, if we take time to take care of ourselves and safely connect with one another, we can still find plenty of ways and plenty of reasons to celebrate. | https://medium.com/@drnancyoreilly/creative-ways-to-navigate-the-2020-holidays-e9bb24cf7d81 | ["Dr. Nancy O'Reilly"] | 2020-12-21 17:14:19.859000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'Self Care', '2020', 'Holidays', 'Family'] |
Instructions to Create Infographic Videos Online | Making infographic recordings online is presently excessively simple and quick, when you discover the format you like. In any case, why make infographic recordings?
Since we live in an unpredictable world, with complex thoughts, ideas, and issues, infographic recordings are made to make everything basic and simple to process.
Other than being an incredible method to clarify things, they can likewise build the commitment of your site and assist you with advancing your application, administration, or item.
You may believe that top notch infographic recordings are a consequence of long stretches of difficult work and extraordinary ability, however don’t overthink this, ordinarily, they are definitely not. You needn’t bother with any excellent abilities and troublesome programming to make it.
With Renderforest, making an infographic video can be brisk, energizing, and successful. Here’s a basic case of what you can make with us.
It is safe to say that you are prepared to begin making your infographic video? We should begin immediately.
To make an infographic video with Renderforest, you will initially need to Sign in to your record. In the event that you don’t as of now have one, you can Sign up on our foundation for nothing. When you’re in, go to the “Make video” area on the menu. Next, push on the “Introductions” sub-area, and pick the “Infographic recordings” choice.
Infographic recordings — layouts
Here you will confront a developing assortment of infographic video layouts, to begin working with. For this instructional exercise, we’ll utilize the “Infographics Animation Pack” format, with in excess of 200 adaptable scenes.
When you pick your preferred format, click on the “Make currently” button, to begin.
Infographic recordings — movement
The subsequent stage is picking the manner in which you need to make your video.
Infographic recordings — make
The “Heap a preset” alternative offers an assortment of presets to browse. They are prepared stories that can be altered and customized. When you pick a preset, click on the “Utilization prepared story” to begin.
Infographic recordings — presets
Furthermore, when working with the “Include scene” choice, you will have the option to pick the scenes you need, all alone. The scenes here are isolated into a few classes for you to effortlessly discover what you need. There are infographic scenes for themes, for example, sexual orientation, climate and nature, medical services and medication, fund and cash, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
The “Bar diagrams and infographics” area will assist you with picking numerous sorts of outlines, including segment, vertical, pie, doughnut, and so forth, graphs. Here you can likewise pick time symbols with text holders, just as numerous sorts of graphs.
Infographic recordings — graphs
In the “Checkmarks and X-marks” area you will discover a few scenes to assist you with rattling off the focuses you need, or record a lot of customs about your subject.
Infographic recordings — pick scenes
The “Logo activitys” classification will assist you with picking a scene with a logo holder, in the event that you have one. What’s more, in the event that you don’t, you’re free to make one on spot.
Infographic recordings — logos
In the “Account and cash” classification, there is a rundown of scenes sitting tight for you to show the expansion and abatement of specific things with bars, cash money symbols, and then some.
Infographic recordings — symbols
The “Symbol livelinesss” area is brimming with various types of scenes with symbols, to use in your infographic video. Here you can discover arbitrary helpful symbols, that you can’t discover in different classes, for example, music, visit, photograph and video, email, thought light, and different symbols.
Infographic recordings — pick symbols
With the assistance of the “Online media symbols” class, you will have the option to acquaint a few insights associated with them or show your outcomes on those stages.
Infographic recordings — social media
Once you select the scenes, you need, click on the “Supplement” button, to begin chipping away at them. Change the arrangement of the scenes, by holding the mouse on a scene and hauling it to where you need it to be. To include some new ones, click on the in addition to sign close to the scenes. In the event that you need to “Copy” or “Supplant” them, click on the three-dab menu on each scene. Likewise, drift your mouse cursor over the scenes and snap on the reuse canister sign, on the off chance that you need to erase them.
Infographic recordings — alter scenes
To change the default text data in your scenes, add your writings and numbers to their proper fields. Snap on the content holders you need to alter and type in your information. Change the size of the content too, by tapping on the “100%” choice under the content field.
Infographic recordings — include text
Alter the situation of the content as per your preferring in the “Text position” field from the altering devices.
Infographic recordings — text position
Include your logo too, by tapping on the logo holder field. On the off chance that you don’t have a logo yet, you can make one on spot utilizing Renderforest. To do as such, click on the “Make logo” choice.
Infographic recordings — include logo
Add media documents to the scenes utilizing video and photograph holders. For that, click on the picture or video holder scenes and pick “Transfer.” If you need to pick a document from your past transfers, you can tap on the “Media library” alternative. On the off chance that the media records are on the web, pick the “Video URL” or “Picture URL” choice, and the “Stock film” or “Stock picture” alternative, to pick some from our assortment.
Infographic recordings — include media
In the “Style” area, you can pick the progress style for the scenes, to make your infographic video more unique.
Infographic recordings — progress
Select the content text styles of your video at that point click “Produce” to see the adjustments in your scenes.
Infographic recordings — textual style
The “Shading” area will assist you with changing the shading plan of your video. Pick a plan and snap on the “Create” button, to assist you with seeing the shading changes, before sparing it. In the event that you don’t care for the offered shading plans, you can make your own blend in the “Custom tones” alternative.
Infographic recordings — change tone
In the “Music” segment, there is a possibility for you to add a voice-over to your video to clarify your data in a superior manner. You can transfer it from your gadget, or record it on the spot. There are simple ways for you to cut it, bring down the sound of the account, supplant it, or quiet it totally. Note that for every one of the scenes the voice-over can be unique.
Infographic recordings — voiceover
In the event that you needn’t bother with a voice-over, there is a possibility for you to pick a track from our library, “Transfer” music from your gadget, pick one from your past transfers, or leave it without a sound.
Infographic recordings — music track
At that point, go to the “See” segment, to watch your infographic video before sending out it.
There are two different ways for you to send out your video. The first is the free choice, offering SD360 quality recordings with the Renderforest watermark. You will have the option to alter, download, and distribute your recordings any time you need by heading off to the “My recordings” page of your record. The other, “HD send out” alternative, offers you to pick one of our paid memberships, and download your video with high-caliber and no watermark. See the insights regarding our valuing here.
Infographic recordings — see
Your infographic video is fit to be shared and remembered for your introductions. Eager to make more with us? Here are a few layouts you may like working with.
Current Infographics Pack
Be a stride ahead in the market, by acquainting your information with your supporters with present day infographics. More than 500 energized symbols, bar graphs, map scenes, and then some, are holding back to reestablish your infographic desires. Ideal for business introductions, explainer recordings, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
Organization Presentation Toolkit
Advance your organization or independent venture with the assistance of more than 80 scenes, graphs, diagrams, and that’s just the beginning. Appropriate for organization presentations, introductions, and different undertakings.
Advanced Media Agency Pack
In the event that you need to transform your site into a stage with numerous guests, at that point this pack is for you. Advance your business with recordings brimming with visual depiction, online media, application, installment related scenes, and this is only the start.
Extreme Icon Animation Pack
Convey your message and advance your image utilizing this enormous pack of just about 200 energized symbols. Ideal for promotions, sites, advertisements, showcasing and organization introduction, and different activities.
Create Your First Ad Now
Disclaimer
Links above are an affiliate links which means if a purchase is made I would receive some certain commission with no additional cost on your side.. I won’t put anything here I haven’t verified myself… | https://medium.com/@moneyonlinemake940/instructions-to-create-infographic-videos-online-22127e3e0047 | [] | 2020-10-15 06:16:36.258000+00:00 | ['Online Advertising', 'Video Marketing', 'Infographics', 'Infographic Video', 'Infographic Marketing'] |
A Unique Form of Innovation for CBD Industry | Sponsored Post:
Cannabis and CBD legalization has been a controversial subject for a long time. And recent victories, such as the Farm Bill, seem to pave the way for it to finally happen. But while the rest of the world is starting to support cannabis, Latin America already has one example of successful legalization. Therefore, the South American cannabis scene might have the potential to become one of the best-thriving markets in the world. But how exactly does the future look for the pro-legalization movement in South America?
What might shock some people is that Uruguay was, in fact, the first country that legalized cannabis for recreational use. They did it all the way back in 2013 when other countries were even arresting people for possession . Further developments into the CBD part of the cannabis industry have sped up the legalization process. It seems that a single spark from Uruguay created the fire that many cannabis and CBD lovers alike were looking for. According to reports, legal cannabis production was worth nearly $125 million in 2018 and might emerge to almost $12.7 billion by 2028. But the regulations play a big role in that huge development, as most Latin American countries have a different approach to legalization. There are two types of approval when it comes to cannabis, one being for medicinal use and the other for recreational. Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, and Peru allow the medicinal use of cannabis.
Possession of marijuana for personal use is also decriminalized in many Latin American countries, with Colombia allowing up to over 20 plants. Furthermore, Colombia is poised to become a global low-cost leader in cannabis production. These other realms’ core division is Cosechemos, a cannabis cultivation and extraction facility located in Bucaramanga, Colombia. (1) The world is starting to embrace cannabis once again after a tremendous prohibition. If you clearly have no idea in this flourishing industry, stop beating around the bush and let this page brighten your baffling apprehensions!
Colombia issued a decree in 2017 that officially formalized its medicinal cannabis industry. The country has used that chance to export cannabis to countries in potential demand, making it an industry giant. In the following years, Colombia has seen developing revenues and thanks to its export capabilities. Right now, local cultivators are trying to improve the quality in order to meet industry standards. Following EU Novel Foods Regulations is also a big focus of the Colombian cannabis industry. And while it might take some time for them to surpass other country’s cannabis quality, their dedication is noticeable. Moreover, sectors are also looking toward Colombia for their next big ventures. That is acknowledging low labor costs and the perfect fostering conditions that the country has. According to Johnny Green, Weed News’s founder, it’s easy to assume that Colombia is shaping up to take the world by storm in the following years. For now, everybody is keeping their eyes on this evolving South American country.
Drawing on the innovative approach for cultivation and extraction, these additional categories announced they have developed into the United Kingdom and Costa Rica, fulfilling initial orders from two new distributors. With possible cannabis legalization on the horizon in the United States, a potential of approximately $40 billion TAM cannabis possible supply and demand gap could be created. Rooting for credible scopes who might prioritize organic ingredients and value-chain sustainability to create products that help consumers restore and thrive? You’re probably on the right lines!
Overall, it’s obvious that Latin America is a rapidly developing cannabis sector. The interest and the speculation that divisions pay to the LATAM region might only help it to evolve faster. And with more and more countries legalizing cannabis and CBD, the area might soon become a haven for users and producers alike. Colombia is a shiny example of overcoming the difficulties of entering the cannabis market. And once other countries in the area follow its example, the whole industry might become more diverse and flourish as a result. If you are a venture capitalist, you could definitely keep your eyes on South America. Not taking advantage of the ripe region now might likely make any sector regret it later on. Set the ball rolling, navigate further ideas and nuzzle the potentials of cannabis before it’s too late!
Check the disclaimer on my profile and landing page.
Source 1: https://latinamericanpost.com/37296-the-evolution-of-cannabis-and-cbd-in-south-america | https://medium.com/@smehotoo/a-unique-form-of-innovation-for-cbd-industry-e694f7ae028a | ['Smeho Too'] | 2021-07-23 11:47:41.338000+00:00 | ['Cannabis', 'Stock Market', 'Cbd', 'Finance'] |
Guitar Meditation | Guitar Meditation
My shortcut into a meditative state
Like lots of people, over the course of the pandemic, I’ve revisited old hobbies. One thing I’ve gotten back into is playing guitar.
I used to play a ton back when I was a teenager, working my way through all the classical grades, but stopped after going to uni and in the subsequent years. It’s been really fun to pick back up, and try playing all the old sheet music I could find.
Another thing I’ve tried to do more of this year is meditate. At the start of the year I was using Headspace pretty religiously, but I now just sit with a timer app for seven minutes each day.
(I’m also exercising more regularly and voice journaling (‘Sounding Off’) each day, both with the aim of investing in my wellbeing and ‘being more mindful.’)
If you’ve done any meditation at all, you already know that the goal isn’t to actively clear all the thoughts from your mind and think about nothing. Instead, it’s just about sitting and watching thoughts go by. That’s why breath control is so important — it gives you something to focus on, instead of getting caught up in a thought and following it down its rabbit hole.
This is also why audiological forms of meditation are so powerful: Vedic chanting and kirtan from Hindu and Eastern traditions; Compline services and Taizé chants from different Christian traiditons; and I’m sure many others I’ve not heard of.
A few weeeks ago, while sitting on the floor in my room with my guitar, in the spot where I usually sit to meditate, I found a really pleasing simple series of notes to play, which alternated between two chords, that could be played in time with my breathing. It’s complex enough that I can’t tune out and do it without thinking (like, say, strumming might be) — but simple enough that my fingers can play it without my mind having to be fully engaged, without having to consciously think through finger positions and timings and shifts.
When playing this passage, closing my eyes, and focussing on my breathing, I can reach a meditative state a lot quicker than just by sitting in silence.
(Most days when I meditate, I don’t hit that state. On a good day, I might hit that point seven minutes into a ten minute meditation. With guitar meditation, if I’m in the right mindset, it’s almost immediate.)
With this form of meditation, there’s no space for other thoughts to butt in. If thoughts do interrupt, your fingers jolt and stop playing and the sound reaches your ear and you instantly hear that it’s happened — leading you to quickly adjust back into the flow, so that you’re still playing the notes in time and going back to focussing on your breathing and thinking nothing at all.
If you’re a guitar player, here’s the passage if you want to try it: | https://medium.com/mindfulness-and-meditation/guitar-meditation-b00ae20e7464 | [] | 2020-11-01 17:59:21.936000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Flow State', 'Guitar', 'Chanting', 'Meditation'] |
Deadlift For Beginners: How Does It Benefit Your Body | What exactly is a deadlift?
Deadlifting has the same basic principle as weightlifting: you pick something up and put it down again. This is a shortened and oversimplified definition of exercise that supports muscle growth and strength building.
The deadlift is a controversial exercise. Many so-called *experts* believe it is bad for your back and can cause extreme damage. This misinformation is spread to this day, but this case can only occur if the exercise is not carried out correctly. Otherwise, deadlifts have a very positive effect on your back, legs, and overall health. Also, it is very popular in rehab sports and is often used there.
When done correctly, deadlifts will strengthen every bone in your body and train your back and glutes. It will put you to the test and show you how much you need to optimize your training to be able to lift heavier. For this reason, you should always start with light weights and only increase them when the lifting technique is perfect.
Deadlifts are also beneficial for anyone who exercises regularly. For example, the hamstrings, glutes, and quadriceps are heavily used and trained, which is useful for all sports that require strong footwork. These include football or athletics. These muscles are also indispensable in endurance sports such as swimming or cycling. The deadlift will keep you strong and in shape, which means a significant improvement in strength while also helping to prevent serious injuries. It should also not be forgotten that our body releases growth hormones and testosterone, which has a positive effect on bone density.
Is Deadlifting Dangerous?
Deadlifting exercise itself isn’t dangerous, but it’s also not good for your health if the technique isn’t right. Errors in execution, which then lead to injuries, can easily creep in. As a result, many are almost afraid of the deadlift and don’t even want to try it.
As long as you follow the professional descriptions and tutorials carefully and do not stress your body too much, the chance is very small that you will make gross mistakes and thereby damage your health. If in doubt, however, you should always have a professional take a look at the execution for valuable tips.
Which Muscles Are Used During The deadlift?
Almost every muscle is used. Arms, forearms, and hands hold the barbell firmly and ensure that it remains stable in its position and during the entire lifting process. The shoulders and trapezius muscles hold the weight. The back and torso tense the entire body to protect the spine. The back and gluteal muscles, as well as the legs, act as levers that lift the weight.
Even if it doesn’t seem like it at first glance, the deadlift is a variant of a movement that accompanies us all the time. Regardless of whether you take something from the bottom shelf when shopping or carry heavy packages, the exercise is more present in our lives than you might think. In turn, this means that if you master the deadlift properly, you will be in better shape with these everyday tasks and be better able to use and move your body. The result is fewer injuries, even at an advanced age.
This Is How To Correct Execution Works
First of all, it is imperative to warm up adequately before the deadlift. Then you can get into position. Ideally, your feet should be at hip width and point very slightly outwards.
Without moving the bar or your hips, you lean forward and reach for the bar. Your legs should still be straight at this point. Now you can move your hips down, your shins will touch the bar. The back should be flattened and brought into a neutral spinal position, which should be maintained during the entire lifting process.
Now is the time to start lifting the weights. After you’ve tensed your back and core and pushed your chest forward, you can lift the barbell. It is very important that the weight is on your heels and metatarsus. Now your body should move up at the same speed. So your butt cannot be faster than your chest. The latter should lead while the heels carry the weight.
In the deadlift, the arms are only there to hold on to the bar. They do not bend over or help lift. The bar should stay in contact with your body all the time, don’t let it drift forward. Tighten your glutes as you lift them.
At the end of the movement, you should be in a straight posture. Now it is very important not to over-stretch and lean back. As mentioned earlier, you want your spine to remain in a neutral position when you deadlift. In addition, body tension must not be lost.
To put the weights off properly, the entire body should sink at the same time. The hips and knees are unlocked while the barbell is slowly being put down. Be careful not to let go of tension too soon, or if you are careless, you could injure yourself on this section of the deadlift as well.
Bottom Line:
If you observe this process and listen to the signals from your body, the risk of injury is very low. But you have to do a lot more for building muscles. After a while of training, heavier weights can then be used. So if you are interested or just want to try something new, you should start deadlifting from now on. | https://medium.com/overtime-hustler/deadlift-for-beginners-how-does-it-benefit-your-body-1f4ef843ca84 | ['Mirza Hamza Baig'] | 2021-01-04 05:42:34.244000+00:00 | ['Strength Training', 'Training', 'Beginners Guide', 'Deadlifts', 'Muscle Growth'] |
What I’ve Learned: Microsoft Malware Prediction Competition on Kaggle | Since many of the integers/floats could be converted further into unsigned integers (uint), the memory footprint could be reduced even further. (unsigned integers can hold 2x the positive value than that of signed integers, i.e. -128 to 127 versus 0 to 255 for int8, and uint8 respectively.) However, some consideration was taken for feature engineering and several numerical features retained floating point 32(float32) dtype because most hardware and software do not natively support below float32. In almost all scenarios float64/int64 was avoided since the features are not inherently large and scientific computation was unnecessary. All binary features (0,1) were converted either to int8 or uint8. To put these numbers into perspective, if a single cell of data has a dtype int8, then it takes 8bits, or 1Byte of storage capacity. If we load a training dataset with 9,000,000 rows and and assume that the entire database is stored using a int8 dtype, then it would take 9 MB (9,000,000 * 1Byte) per feature, or 729 MB memory in the RAM. However, that calculation is the absolute minimum.
The next challenge was exporting the optimized Pandas dataframe object for fast retrieval. Pickle was out of the option since it cannot handle large file sizes. So I did some research and I found Feather:
Feather is a fast, lightweight, and easy-to-use binary file format for storing data frames. It has a few specific design goals: Lightweight, minimal API: make pushing data frames in and out of memory as simple as possible Language agnostic: Feather files are the same whether written by Python or R code. Other languages can read and write Feather files, too. High read and write performance. When possible, Feather operations should be bound by local disk performance.
How fast is Feather compared to using pandas to read the dataframe? Using a Solid State Drive (SSD), I reduced loading time from about 1 minute per train/test dataset to under 2–3 seconds per train/test dataset on average. I can now load large datasets into working memory and execute code with minimal downtime. That is the difference between reading a .csv file using Pandas and reading a .ft file using feather. Don’t believe me? Try it out yourself.
# Loading the dataframe object using feather
train = feather.read_dataframe('train.ft') # Saving the dataframe object using feather
train.to_feather('train.ft')
Missing Values
Often times datasets contain missing values due to a variety of reasons. An example would be — a company was not actively collecting information until a certain business unit pointed out that it may be a good piece of information to collect, study and perhaps use it to improve or build a ML model. Or it could be — information just does not exist for that particular data point. An example may be not filling in optional information in a fill-able form.
First how do we figure out how to determine which rows are missing? A simple way to summarize all missing values is using .isnull() within the Pandas library.
# a simple way to summarize all missing values along the column
train[train.isnull().any(axis=1)] # summarize all missing values along the row/index
train[train.isnull().any(axis=0)]
So now that we know which values are missing, we have a couple of options to in our toolkit to handle missing values.
Drop missing values — depending on the percentage of data points that are missing in a feature (column), we may or may not want to drop that entire column. Impute missing values — this is when you replace the missing value with a systematic method. Options include: mean, median, mode, or model based.
Mean Imputation — replace the missing values with the mean of the non-missing values in the feature if it is a numerical feature.
Median Imputation — replace the missing values with the median of the non-missing values in that feature if it is a numerical feature.
Mode Imputation — replace the missing value with the mode of the non-missing values for both numerical and categorical features.
Model Based Imputation — build a model to predict (classification/regression) the missing values.
I should mention that some common ways to represent a missing value outside of the fact that Pandas internally handles missing values by representing them as np.nan, is that you may have a feature that internally identifies missing values. They can be “unknown” or “none” for a categorical, or -1 for a numerical. Each dataset is different and understanding the different ways a missing value can be represented can be helpful. In the real world, you may be working with a database engineer that may know the inner workings of how the data was stored and understand the intricacies. For this dataset, I had to discover everything myself.
Of course anytime you impute a missing value, it may be a good idea to also indicate whether you imputed that value through an additional binary feature[0,1]. Sometimes it is beneficial and can help improve a machine learning model a tiny bit.
Categorical Features
The next major hurdle was to plug and chug the dataset into any machine learning model. However, categorical features represented a major problem to overcome given that I had not yet worked on categorical features in my ML course. My initial response was just to one-hot-encode all the categorical features. I quickly realized that this would present more problems than it solves, namely I was dealing with categorical features with high cardinality. High cardinality is when a categorical feature contains highly unique values. For example ‘AvSigVersion’ is a feature representing anti-virus definition versions, which may be updated daily. Such a categorical feature contains tens of thousands of unique features. All One-Hot-Encoding will do is create 10k or more dummy features encoded in binary format — for that feature alone. This is no small issue. Imagine 9 million rows multiplied by 10k features times 1Byte. That is performing one-hot-encoding on this one feature alone will turn 9MB of data into 90GB. There is, of course, a way around using dense representation of a sparsely encoded feature, namely using sparse matrices. A sparse matrix stores only the non-zero values into three arrays. One stores the non-zero data value, another stores the row index and another stores column index. So, while we can one-hot-encode the entire train and test into sparse int8 dtypes, not all ML models will perform well. Moreover, time complexity may very well be unmanageable, despite solving space complexity with the sparse format. Really, the only options were mean target encoding, ordinal encoding, or frequency encoding.
The pros and cons are as follows:
Frequency Encoding : replaces the unique category with the frequency at which that unique value occurs throughout training data.
: replaces the unique category with the frequency at which that unique value occurs throughout training data. Ordinal Encoding : replaces the unique category with integer encoding, i.e. 1, 2, 3, … A downside would be, there is no ordinal relationship between categories, for example — SSD has no ordinal relationship with HDD and thus we are telling the machine learning algorithm that there is a natural relationship between the two categories.
: replaces the unique category with integer encoding, i.e. 1, 2, 3, … A downside would be, there is no ordinal relationship between categories, for example — SSD has no ordinal relationship with HDD and thus we are telling the machine learning algorithm that there is a natural relationship between the two categories. Mean Target Encoding: replaces the unique category with the mean response of that particular category. The mean response of a particular anti-virus signature version could be 0.50 with 0 being minimum and 1 being maximum. In this scenario, if there are an equal number of Detections (1) as there are no Detections (0), say 500 and 500 respectively, the mean response would come out to 500/1000 or 0.5. This is the mean response or target. The major drawback with using such an encoding method is that, while it can work well, it can over-fit the model to training data and perform worse in out of sample data. Precautions may be taken to prevent over-fitting to training data by calculating mean-response of a category using out-of-sample data or a cross-validation k-fold like approach. In other words, we only use a portion of the training data to calculate a different portion of training data, in the case the mean response/target.
# source: https://www.kaggle.com/artgor/is-this-malware-eda-fe-and-lgb-updated def frequency_encoding(variable):
t = pd.concat([train[variable], test[variable]]).value_counts().reset_index()
t = t.reset_index()
t.loc[t[variable] == 1, 'level_0'] = np.nan
t.set_index('index', inplace=True)
max_label = t['level_0'].max() + 1
t.fillna(max_label, inplace=True)
return t.to_dict()['level_0'] for col in tqdm(categorical):
freq_enc_dict = frequency_encoding(col)
train[col] = train[col].map(lambda x: freq_enc_dict.get(x, np.nan)).astype('float32')
test[col] = test[col].map(lambda x: freq_enc_dict.get(x, np.nan)).astype('float32')
Important Note: the code I have shared above combines train and test to utilize data leakage for competition purposes only. In the real world, such an approach cannot and should not be used. Data leakage is a real concern for every machine learning engineer and data scientist. It is when information from a testing set that has yet to be seen become available at training time. With the foresight of information that training data should not be aware of at the time of building the model, it can lead to bias, or worse, leading a practitioner to believe that their machine learning model generalization is better than it actually is. Such a practice can be dangerous and should be avoided in real world applications.
Thankfully, LightGBM handles categorical features internally by integer (ordinal) encoding¹, which is not a major issue with tree-based models. CatBoost on the other hand, also handles categorical features internally, except using a variation of the Mean Target Encoding method described above, with a smoothing constant.²
In the Jupyter notebook, it is shown that Frequency Encoding was performed, followed by sorting the frequencies of each category in descending order. On top of sorted frequencies, label encoding was performed. First of all, what benefit does frequency encoding offer? Nothing, or perhaps negative performance if used blindly/incorrectly. If used correctly, sorted frequency encoding may offer the benefit of improving model performance.
How can sorted frequency encoding offers the benefit of improving model performance? If sorted frequency correlates with the target which we are trying to predict (Malware detection rate), then sorted frequency encoding will be a smarter form of encoding.
Note: based on the problems of One-Hot-Encoding I just mentioned, during the competition, a competitor, Vladislav Bogorod published a Kaggle kernel that showed how to perform LightGBM using One-Hot Encoding. His elegant solution runs entirely within the Kaggle kernel using only 17GB of RAM. Please follow the link below if you would like to see his brilliant solution. https://www.kaggle.com/bogorodvo/lightgbm-baseline-model-using-sparse-matrix#L209
Feature Engineering
We can theoretically plug and chug the entire training data into LightGBM once we account for missing values (NaN). However, a primary factor in improving model performance is handcrafting new features that a machine learning model can extract meaning from. To give you an idea of newly crafted features, I took numerical features such as CPU core count and divided by the RAM capacity.
# create a new feature that combines the interaction between RAM and CPU
train['cpu_ram_ratio'] = train['Census_TotalPhysicalRAM'] / train['Census_ProcessorCoreCount']
Another numerical feature displays aspect ratio.
# Horizontal Resolution/ Vertical Resolution
train['aspect_ratio'] = train['Census_InternalPrimaryDisplayResolutionHorizontal'] / train['Census_InternalPrimaryDisplayResolutionVertical']
Finally, an example of feature engineering for the categorical feature is splitting a string containing a version: AvSigVersion — ‘1.273.1144.0’ into four separate features. Since a decimal separates the numbers, we can use the .split() method.
# this extracts the numerical value before the first decimal place train['AvSigVersion1'] = train['AvSigVersion].apply(lambda x: x.split('.')[0]
Feature engineering is a difficult topic to discuss in length since it is part art-form and part science. In order to fully appreciate feature engineering and how to best perform it, it would require detailed analysis of specific features including charts breaking down feature-feature interactions, and trial and error measurements on whether the engineered feature provided additional benefit to a model. I have opted to skip the discussion of this step since I am by no means an expert in this area nor does my experience allow much room for detailed discussions.
Because I was still learning and did not understand how to properly create feature-feature interactions during the competition, I will link to a top competitor discussing their solution post-competition. Because they are best able to explain the intricate details that I cannot. full write-up and code block
Non-Stationary (Unstable) Features
Perhaps one of the most important considerations in this competition is that the dataset contained at minimum 5 features that have non-stationary or unstable values across time. AvSigVersion (Anti-Virus Signature Version), EngineVersion, AppVersion, Census_OSVersion (Operating System Version), and Census_OSBuildRevision contained values in a test that was unseen in training data. So much so, that a simple Adversarial Validation could find a strong separation between train and test data using those 5 features alone. Adversarial Validation is a technique that combines training and testing datasets into a single dataset and applies a pseudo label of 0 to train and 1 to test. If a simple classifier can achieve high AUC for example, then it can be said that train and test datasets are not from the same distribution. In order to achieve reliable cross-validation (CV) that can generalize performance well on unseen (test) data, the training and testing datasets should not be separable by a simple machine learning classifier.
# Create Pseudo-Label
train['label'] = 1
test['label'] = 0
train['label'] = train['label'].astype('uint8')
test['label'] = test['label'].astype('uint8') # combine train and test
total = pd.concat([train, test], axis=0)
psuedo_label = total['label']
total.drop(['label'], inplace=True, axis=1)
total.reset_index(drop=True, inplace=True)
By using LightGBM on all 17 million data points between train and test, LightGBM was able to achieve well over 0.9 AUC, which indicates that some or all features are contributing to the differences between train and test data. In order to investigate which features contributed to the high degree of train/test separability as indicated by the high AUC metric, I performed forward feature selection by dropping the top feature by importance and re-ran LightGBM using default parameters.
Based on my Adversarial Validation, combined with forwarding feature selection, and further EDA on the matter. I decided that there were five unstable features. In theory, there should be no way a model can take advantage of a feature containing unseen values.
Real life problems are rarely without these non-stationary problems. Learning to detect unstable features by adding Adversarial Validation to my ML arsenal has given me confidence that I will know how to tackle future problems with non-stationarity.
Adversarial Validation alone, however, is not enough to uncover the nature of differences between training and testing (out of sample) data. To illustrate, we will look to AvSigVersion dates scraped from Microsoft’s website. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/what-ive-learned-microsoft-malware-prediction-competition-on-kaggle-3c8189dcc850 | ['Tim Yee'] | 2019-05-04 12:02:36.717000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Kaggle'] |
The Challenge: Double Agents S36/E03 [Series 36] Episode 3 “Enemy of the State” (Full — Episodes) On MTV | ❏ 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 identifies the process of delivering or obtaining media in this manner.[clarification needed] Streaming refers to the delivery method of the medium, instead of the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies particularly to telecommunications networks, as almost all of the delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, music CDs). There are challenges with streaming content on the Internet. For instance, users whose Internet connection lacks satisfactory bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of the content. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain content.
Live streaming is the delivery of Internet content in real-time much as live television broadcasts content over the airwaves with a television signal. Live internet streaming takes a form of source media (e.g. a video camera, an audio tracks interface, screen capture software), an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, although it frequently is.
Streaming is an option to file datvloading, a process where the end-user obtains the entire file for this content before watching or listening to it. Through streaming, an end-user can use their media player to get started on playing digital video or digital sound content before the complete file has been transmitted. The word “streaming media” can connect with media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are considered “streaming text”.
❏ COPYRIGHT CONTENT ❏
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its atver the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time.[36][36][36][3][3] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[6][3][36] 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 often 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][3][360][3636][3636] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.[36]
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 extend 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 inconsistent.[363]
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 30 to 3600 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities[3] 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.[363]
❏ 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.[36] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and extensible 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.[36] Credit is extended by a creditor, also knatv as a lender, to a debtor, also knatv as a borrower.
FIND US:
✓ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
✓ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
✓ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ | https://medium.com/@thechallengedoubleagents/the-challenge-double-agents-s36-e03-series-36-episode-3-enemy-of-the-state-full-episodes-cfe85747ca40 | ['Michele P Asmus'] | 2020-12-24 00:42:38.208000+00:00 | ['Reality', 'Adventure', 'Game Show'] |
29 days and you are able to write this. | 29 days and you are able to write this. Bravo. Thank you for the insight. I don’t have a specific trauma…aside from a divorce that knocked me on my arse,..but years of high stress work capped by the divorce was the catalyst for a change — and while I was able to identify anxiety etc…as typical post trauma symptoms….I also launched a life as a nomad, began writing (I was never — and anyone who reads me will get this- creative, but it’s an outlet) and never made the connection to the divorce and the life that preceded it. This essay put some pieces together for me. Thanks for the strength and the insight. | https://medium.com/@stephenchamberlin/29-days-and-you-are-able-to-write-this-132c1f0e5b99 | ['Stephen Chamberlin'] | 2020-12-18 04:31:57.662000+00:00 | ['PTSD', 'Trauma', 'Anxiety', 'Growth', 'Trauma Recovery'] |
LIMOS & BLACK CARS” | 24/7 Guaranteed on-time service VIP experience hassle-free service
“Chicago Limousine & Black Car Service”
If you’ve just stepped off a plane, after a long flight, there can be no better antidote than your chauffeur waiting for your arrival with Limopedia airport transportation direct to your destination.
Our fleet of vehicles, which includes Black cars, SUVs, Vans, Buses, and limousines Chauffeured by experienced, professional will ensure that you reach your destination securely.
Limopedia Personal Driver Service you can find a driver to act as your personal driver for the day or evening, no matter how many stops you need to make for any event. Our driver arrives at your home/Hotel/office place etc at the requested time, dressed in professional attire, ready to verified licensed chauffeurs you in your or our vehicle wherever you want to go. Whenever you’re ready, you and your car will be returned back safely as you wish.
AIRPORT TRANSPORTATION
If you’ve just stepped off a plane, after a long flight, there can be no better antidote than your chauffeur waiting for your arrival with Limopedia airport transportation direct to your destination.
Our fleet of vehicles, which includes Black cars, SUVs, Vans, Buses, and limousines Chauffeured by experienced, professional will ensure that you reach your destination securely.
GROUP TRANSPORTATION
Traveling in a large group? Our luxury fleet can accommodate you and your group in comfort, and our expert customer service representatives will help you organize and execute your itinerary. We offer minibusses, Mercedes sprinter vans, and luxury motor coaches. Our fleet will be able to accommodate you according to your specific needs. We offer minivans for small-sized groups as well as passenger vans that seat up to 13 guests.
FAMILY TRANSPORTATION
Car Service with Car Seat Made Easy Car Seats arrive installed saving you valuable time
Your family is important and you demand the best in safety quality assurance. That’s why Limopedia Limousine offers Free car seats designed specifically for small children to guarantee their transportation security. We understand the needs of growing families, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have the opportunity to travel with even the youngest members of your family.
SPECIAL OCCASIONS
You can choose from a standard black car sedan to a Mercedes S550, all the way up to a Stretch Limousine. We offer more than just that, you can choose from an executive bus for 24 or 36 passengers, a party bus for 30 or 50 passengers, even a bus for 56 passengers for the larger groups to make a bold statement. Enjoy your night out and keep focused on the fun rather than how you are going to get from point A to point B. Want to keep things flexible? We offer hourly services for our limousines that keep your night spontaneous and spectacular. You can be sure that your occasion is treated with a personal touch.
CORPORATE BUSINESS TRAVEL
Our corporate accounts are a seamless resource for your business to avoid worrying about payments and planning. We service airports, hotels, and residential areas so you can expect executive service from point A to point B. We also offer exclusive concierge services and client entertainment for your corporate travel needs. Book with a company you can trust to get you to your convention, conference, corporate meeting, or airport drop-off and pick-up.Polite and Hospitable 5-star Chauffeur Service, Personalized Corporate Account Managers
WEDDINGS LIMOUSINE
As one of the leading wedding transportation services, you can be sure that your wedding will make memories that last a lifetime. We cater to your particular ceremony and are available wherever and whenever you need us.
We offer more than just the standard limousines. You can choose a Rolls-Royce or a Cadillac Escalade to make a bold statement. Travel from the ceremony to the venue, hotel, or airport. We can plan the perfect route for you. Personalized and reliable transportation, Experienced chauffeurs to ensure the top-notch service | https://medium.com/@transportationlimopedia/limos-black-cars-bfef85ae7d06 | ['Limopedia Transportation'] | 2021-12-29 11:49:50.922000+00:00 | ['Chauffeur Services', 'Transportation', 'Cars', 'Chicago', 'Services'] |
6 Ways to Get Comfortable During The Third Trimester | With your bump getting larger by the day, you’re probably starting to find it challenging to get comfortable. Your back aches, none of your clothes fit you, you can’t sleep, and your baby loves kicking you in the ribs!. Oh, the joys!
After having two of my own, I know how exhausting the third trimester can be, especially in the final weeks. It’s definitely a period of two halves, its at once exciting and joyous as your busy prepping for the imminent arrival of your newborn. But that colossal bump, constipation, the water retention and the rest don’t half cause you some agro.
While I can’t take away the aches and pains, I can offer some tried and tested advice about how to stay comfortable during the third trimester.
USE PILLOWS FOR SUPPORT
Pillows are a must for comfort and support in the third trimester. Without my big pregnancy pillow, I wouldn’t have a gotten a wink of sleep! I used to sleep hugging my pregnancy pillow with a regular pillow supporting my back. My poor other half had hardly any room in our bed!
Pregnancy Pillow
The big pregnancy pillows are fantastic, but regular pillows and cushions are just as good and a lot easier to transport. It’s worth keeping a small pillow or cushion with you in your car at all times. As the further you go into the third trimester, the harder it becomes to get comfortable. Having a cushion with you — whether you sat at your work desk or going out for a meal with friends — will ensure you’ve always got support for your back.
EXERCISE TO SOOTHE ACHES AND PAINS
Low impact exercises such as swimming and yoga are brilliant for soothing pregnancy aches and pains. I suffered from sciatica during both my pregnancies and doing yoga stretches daily helped ease and virtually stop the sciatica pain completely. If you head to youtube, there are lots of pregnancy yoga tutorials and ones specifically for easing sciatica and other pregnancy issues.
Swimming is particularly good during the third trimester, as the water helps to support your extra weight. Giving relief to your back and joints. And unlike some other forms of aerobic exercise, swimming helps you to feel cool.
EAT SMALL HEALTHY MEALS THROUGHOUT THE DAY
Pregnancy heartburn is the worst! Heartburn isn’t something I suffer with when I’m not pregnant, but during both my pregnancies it was terrible. The best way to keep heartburn under control when pregnant is to eat small healthy meals throughout the day and avoid consuming foods that are known to make heartburn worse. Such as coffee, coca-cola, citrus foods and fatty foods.
You’re more likely to get heartburn if you overeat and are very full. It is very tempting to overeat when you’re pregnant, but it’s best to eat little and often and have the odd treat here and there.
Keeping upright can also help with heartburn. Sitting up straight when you eat will take the pressure off your stomach. And propping your head and shoulders up when you go to bed can stop stomach acid coming up while you sleep.
EAT HIGH FIBRE FOODS AND DRINK PLENTY OF WATER
Constipation and haemorrhoids are a problem for a lot of women throughout their pregancy and especially during the third trimester. It’s because the increase in progesterone levels causes your muscles, including your intestines to relax, which slows the passage of food through your intestines. Eating a diet rich in high-fibre foods; fruits, vegetables and whole grains and drinking plenty of water will help prevent constipation. This, in turn, should stop you from straining when you go to the loo and hopefully prevent haemorrhoids.
TRY MASSAGE AND WATER THERAPY
Pregnancy massage is a wonderful way to relax and ease aches and pains. You can book yourself in for a massage at your local clinic or ask your partner to massage you. Massaging your belly is also a great way to bond with your baby, and it can help calm them when they are having an aerobics session in your tummy!
Water Therapy
I have never been a person who enjoys baths, but during pregnancy, a nice warm bath can be very soothing and relaxing. A warm bath is also a great way to prepare for a restful nights sleep. If there is such a thing in the third trimester!
AVOID STANDING FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME
During pregnancy, your body holds on to extra fluid, which is why most pregnant women experience swelling in their hands, feet and face. Swollen feet and legs can be extremely uncomfortable. To ease the swelling try to limit standing for long periods of time if possible and in the evening, elevate your feet and legs to promote blood flow. You could also try wearing compression stockings to decrease the swelling. | https://medium.com/@info_73965/6-ways-to-get-comfortable-during-the-third-trimester-9a48ea88169 | ['First Time Mama'] | 2020-02-21 11:01:01.485000+00:00 | ['Third Trimester', 'Pregnant Women', 'Motherhood', 'Pregnancy', 'Baby'] |
Netflix Slammed for Movie “Sexualizing” Adolescent Girls | While Netflix has apologized for the provocative promotional material, serious questions about the film’s content and marketing remain.
On the left, a still from the upcoming movie, “Cuties.” On the right, the movie scene featured on the Netflix promotional poster.
Netflix is facing heavy backlash and drawing fierce criticism this week after releasing promotional materials for their new film, “Cuties”. Critics say the film sexualizes underage girls.
Netflix has issued an apology on Twitter for releasing an ‘inappropriate’ poster for the upcoming movie. But over 500,000 petitioners have signed to have the movie removed from the popular streaming platform entirely.
On September 9, Netflix plans to release “Cuties,” a French film about a young girl who joins a dancing group, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Official Netflix trailer for “Cuties”.
The Netflix poster for “Cuties” and the artwork used to promote the movie at Sundance differ greatly. In the newer Netflix advertising, the child actresses are shown posing provocatively in cropped dance costumes.
This is the poster used last week for the Netflix release:
Netflix promotional poster for new movie, “Cuties.”
Here is the promotional poster used for the Sundance Film Festival:
“Mignonnes” promotional poster.
The description for the film on Netflix reads, “Eleven-year-old Amy starts to rebel against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a free-spirited dance crew.”
Metro reported that the original description of the movie was significantly more inappropriate. “Amy, 11, becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew. Hoping to join them, she starts to explore her femininity, defying her family’s traditions,” the original description read.
After the extreme backlash, Netflix claimed the changes were made to ensure accuracy. Netflix has also apologized for the, “inappropriate artwork,” used to promote the film and removed it.
“We’re deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for ‘Cuties.’ It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film, which premiered at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description,” the statement read on Twitter.
The French film, shown in France as, “Mignonnes,” was written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré. Doucouré says her inspiration for the film came after she saw an amateur talent show while in Paris. She claims the point of making the film was to highlight and understand why the kids wanted to act in this manner.
“There were these girls onstage dressed in a really sexy fashion in short, transparent clothes,” the director told ScreenDaily. “They danced in a very sexually suggestive manner. There also happened to be a number of African mothers in the audience. I was transfixed, watching with a mixture of shock and admiration. I asked myself if these young girls understood what they were doing.”
For this reason, many are still defending the film and its message, highlighting the fact that it covers the danger of sexualizing young girls and the dangers of social media. Petitioners say the film exploits its child stars and have called for the entirety of the film to be removed from Netflix.
“The movie ‘Cuties’ shows children dressed provocatively, dancing sexually and is rated only for adult viewers,” reads the post on Change.org. “As we are becoming more aware of the horror of child sex trafficking, and child sexual abuse we need to come together to end ALL forms. One way we can achieve this, is to cancel shows and movies that exploit our children! Please sign the petition to protect our children from exploitation in movies.”
Even more concerning to many users was a viral screenshot of a conversation between a Netflix user and Netflix’s customer service team. PragerU reposted the screenshot of a user who asked, “How does a movie sexualizing children get approved? Who signed off on this?”
The customer service answer response was, “We understand that not all stories may appeal to all our viewers, which is why we always invest in a diverse range of content from all over the world. We also provide ratings, synopses, trailers and controls to help our members make the right viewing choices for themselves and their families.”
The user then asks, “Do you support pedophilia? A simple yes or no will suffice.”
To which the customer service team replies, “We cannot really comment on that but while we believe in creative freedom, at Netflix we respect all religions and their cultures, traditions and values.”
The film has a TV-MA rating on Netflix, meaning it was designed for mature audiences only. Using this rating, TVPG warns potential viewers that the content of the show or movie might contains foul language, graphic violence, graphic sexual activity or any combination of these elements and that, “these programs are intended to be viewed by mature, adult audiences and may be unsuitable for children under 17,” according to the FCC.
Why would a film of 11-year old girls “twerking”, that is apparently not sexualizing children, be specifically targeted for adults and mature audiences? It is also concerning that the “Cuties” poster made it past Netflix’s corporate leadership and marketing departments.
As indeed, it is very concerning that 11-year old actresses are being cast in a movie that shouldn’t even be viewed by anyone under 17.
This is not the first time Netflix has been criticized for inappropriate content. In June 2018, Netflix came under fire for releasing a movie critics say contained child pornography. Whether “Cuties” sexualizes children or simply brings attention to the sexualization of children, Netflix has left many questions unanswered.
(Contributing journalist, Allegra Nokaj) (Contributing writer, Brooke Bell) | https://munrkazmir.medium.com/netflix-slammed-for-movie-sexualizing-adolescent-girls-7ea8e937980e | ['Dr. Munr Kazmir'] | 2020-08-24 20:05:22.173000+00:00 | ['Metoo', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Media Criticism', 'Politics', 'Feminism'] |
Applying to College? Ask These Questions to Increase Your Chances of a Positive Experience, Part 3. | Photo by Parker Gibbons on Unsplash
Do you want to maximize the return on the investment of time and money you plan to put into your education?
If so, my final set of questions focuses on helping you try to do this in the way you and your family hope it will.
College Search Consultants, your high-school college counselor and others can help you answer some of these questions. Ultimately, you must make informed choices based on who you are and what you want from your college experience if you are to answer the questions I’ve posed so far — and the ones below — as best you can. Generally speaking, seeking outside help of some kind whether from consultants or respected members of your community is likely to give you clearer answers than you’ll get if you “go it alone.”
These questions focus on matters such as time from matriculation to graduation, financial aid, and determining the likelihood you’ll be employed or in advanced training once you graduate — all things you should ask if you want to get your money’s worth.
1. What percentage of admitted students never complete degrees/complete them in more than six years? Finding this information out about the schools you’re looking at is important because the more people who don’t finish or take a very long time to graduate, the greater the chance you’ll be one of them. Many student dropouts or slow degree earners can indicate the campus has relatively poor advising, financial aid, wellness etc., resources to support you in getting your education and going on to bigger and better things.
2. What percentage of students graduate in less than six years? You need this answered because in many cases colleges don’t give financial aid for terms longer than six years. People eligible for government aid must be aware of this because the Federal Government rarely gives loans or grants for more than six undergraduate years. As the average student needed more than five years to graduate, before the Coronavirus struck, and will probably need even more time today, paying attention to how long it takes people to earn their degrees can help you decide if one campus or another is the right one for you.
For example, if the average student is graduating in more than five years, there is a greater chance you could lose your aid eligibility if you don’t progress toward your degree at a satisfactory pace than on campuses where the average student is done in less than five years.
3. How much do people with socioeconomic circumstances like mine pay to attend here? Be clear in asking this question and as thorough as possible in using some of the tools out there that people use to calculate their potential aid packages. After all, almost everyone can qualify for some kind of aid either from the government or via private scholarships. The key thing is what kind and whether it has to be paid back.
You want to try to determine what you can reasonably expect the final cost to you of getting your degree will be assuming your time to degree is about average. Estimated costs for tuition, fees, housing, transportation and course supplies can be very deceptive before figuring in financial aid. Nearly all campuses have tools called net price calculators. These can help you figure out what the cost to you of going there may be. They can be particularly helpful right now as the FAFSA uses your family’s tax information to calculate your aid. The net price calculators can give you estimates based on what your family is making right now. As all too many people are aware after the economic disruptions caused by Covid-19, financial aid can make a big difference. Using campus net price calculators may help you figure out what your aid might look like after you negotiate with any college that chooses to admit you based on your family’s current economic situation.
Don’t avoid applying to a school because its pre-financial aid costs seem high. At least one private liberal arts college claims up to ninety percent of families will pay less for someone to go there than they would pay if their child studied on a public four-year campus in their home state. Others make similar claims. Keep time enrolled in mind when you’re asking about total cost since added time actually enrolled on campus to complete your degree, or taking too many classes to get there, may significantly raise the total cost to you of earning your degree. You may even risk running out of some kinds of financial aid if earning your degree takes too long.
Make it a very high priority to apply for Federal Financial Aid via the FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid. There are convenient desktop and mobile tools to do so. Nearly half of people who could benefit from applying for Federal financial support don’t, meaning they miss out on billions in public and private loans and grants every year. Missing out on that money makes going to college an even bigger problem for many than it should be. Don’t be one of those people who doesn’t get the money you qualify for because you didn’t submit your FAFSA!
4. What percentage of this campus’ and major’s graduates are in full time jobs or advanced training six months after they complete their degrees? This is a key question given the amount of time and money you are investing in your education. There is some variation as schools have different mixes of majors and concentrations. In many ways it will be your final major, not the campus you attend, that shapes your likelihood of having full time employment (i.e. a job with “benefits” like health insurance and retirement accounts) after you graduate. This does not mean you can’t or shouldn’t compare the colleges you’re interested in even though your final major may well not be decided. Ask how successful young alumni of the campus and of the major are at getting jobs or slots in graduate or professional school. Depending on where you go, you may invest close to 300,000 dollars in an education that needs to lead to a job…or more training. Make sure you have the best chance to get return on your investment.
You have to do well in your classes, but if you’re not advised well, or if you’re not in a program that tends to send students onto jobs or advanced training in your area of interest, your time and money may not pay off for reasons you can only partially control. It is particularly important to be aware of external factors like advising at a time when schools are cutting back on investment in career services.
Paying attention to historical tendencies in getting graduates into jobs is important because although people had been hired in great numbers until recently, recovery from the shock to the economy caused by the Coronavirus will take a long time. Given what is happening in our world right now, I don’t need to tell most of you that the chance of getting a good job out of college is likely to rise or fall sharply at least once while you’re getting your degree. It is an unfortunate reality that most prospective students need to balance thoughts about where they’re going to school and what they’ll major in with profound awareness of likely career or training outcomes after they graduate.
5. What percentage of students applying to advanced training actually get in? Learning this is important because many schools will say: We have “x” students who apply to graduate/medical/law/business/etc., school each year. They may make it hard to learn what percentage of these students actually get in. If you ask, they should tell you because they usually know.
For example, raw data from the American Association of Medical Colleges has information on medical school applicants by state, college, ethnicity and more for applicants in 2019–20. If every applicant from the top thirty colleges by number of applications was admitted to medical school, only about a fourth of the places in U.S. MD training programs would have been available for students from the thousands of other colleges and universities in the United States. In reality, sixty percent of medical school applicants each year don’t get in. Logically, therefore, many people from these “large applicant pool” schools aren’t admitted. So, ask what percentage of students who apply for specific kinds of advanced training have actually gotten in over the last five years. The percentage of applicants who get into the kinds of advanced training they applied to indicates whether students get honest, useful advice throughout their time on campus that actually helps them understand whether applying is likely to work out for them or will simply be a matter of giving money to admissions offices in places where there’s no chance they’ll be offered a spot.
Honest, direct, advice can help students get into schools. It can keep you from spending years and money studying for degrees that aren’t a good fit for you. It can also help you avoid applying to programs you have little chance of being admitted to because of relatively low grades or test scores. Keep any data you find in mind as you apply and decide where you want to go.
6. Am I applying here because I think I can be happy or because I (or my parents) want the school’s name? This question has a lot of levels but it’s an important one to answer. If you apply to big name schools only because they have big names, you may find you’re not as happy or successful there as you will be at a less well-known school (or at some subset of the big-name schools), that fits your personality, interests, views, goals, and needs best. Applying on reputation alone may be extremely tempting… and equally risky. Applying because you know the school has the people, resources, opportunities, activities and environment that fit you best is always the smart move.
A thought for parents: if you’re pushing your child to apply to a place because you want them there for your purposes, not theirs, you risk not acknowledging the gifts and talents of the amazing person you’ve brought up.
If you choose not to recognize who your amazing child is and what campus may fit them best because of who they are and what they’re interested in, they may well not graduate or they may badly underperform because they’re not where your hard-earned dollars will give them the best chance to succeed based on who they are, not who you want them to be.
IN SUMMARY, some colleges are better at helping their students complete their degrees than others. It’s important to find out how many students don’t complete their degrees on campuses you’re considering. Ask how long it takes the average student to complete their training as this, too, can affect the cost of your education. The cost of going to college can be, and usually is, ameliorated by financial aid. Use the FAFSA Forecaster and “net price calculators” available on most campuses you are considering to figure out how much people in socioeconomic circumstances similar to yours are paying for college. You will often find that, once financial aid is figured in, colleges that appear to be too expensive will cost you less than you (and the people around you) thought.
Remember that campuses are trying to account for the economic disruptions around Covid-19, so if you are admitted somewhere you want to go but can’t afford it based on the financial aid package you are offered, appeal the award, give them the information they ask for, tell them you really want to go there, and cross your fingers — you may get the money you need to go.
Find out what percentage of alums are in jobs that pay them well, or have been admitted to advanced training six months after they graduate. Colleges have a sense for this. It’s worth asking as relatively low success rates may be an indicator that you should apply elsewhere.
Dr. Matthew Weed is an educational search consultant, motivational and topical speaker, and more. Learn more about him on his website at www.drmatthewweed.com or follow him @drmatthewweed on Instagram and Twitter. | https://medium.com/@matthewweed/applying-to-college-ask-these-questions-to-increase-your-chances-of-a-positive-experience-part-3-a40ccb333c27 | ['Matthew Weed'] | 2020-12-02 00:15:13.170000+00:00 | ['Questions', 'Campus', 'College'] |
My Body Will Never Look Like Hers | My Body Will Never Look Like Hers
But it will always be mine.
Photo by Scott Webb via Pexels
She was a gymnast. You can tell. She’s compact with muscles built over years of training as an athlete. Her physique is amazing. Every time I see her training someone at the gym I always wonder why I can’t just look like that.
The answer’s pretty obvious. It’s because I’m not her. I will never look like her. I’m me. Simple.
I’m not built like a gymnast. I remember when I was a kid taking classes with my sister. I also remember someone saying I was too tall to be a gynmast. I, however, was not too tall to be a swimmer. Long and lanky works to your advantage in that arena.
While she looks like a gynmast, I look like a swimmer. My muscles are stretched tight. I have zero flexability. Me doing yoga looks like an injured flamingo has recently ingest crack cocaine in one way or another. I have the wingspan of a condor. But, my arms and back show the strength of my years.
There is no way I am ever going to have that super athletic build about me. I have become the middle aged version of willowy.
I workout with a group of women, all of us in our 40s. We’re at an age where our level of body acceptance should off the charts. We should understand that we’re not perfect and love our bodies anyway.
Photo by Scott Webb via Pexels
But, we don’t.
Instead, we look at each other and envy what we see in someone else without understanding the fact that someone else is look at us the same way.
We joke around that if you took us and sliced us up and put us together, we would make one hell of a fine looking woman. Like that Fashion Plates thing we had as girls where you had a bunch of models and you could fit them together however you please.
My arms, Shila’s legs, Cherokee’s abs, Theresa’s butt… One fine looking woman.
It’s actually ridiculous. In a way, it’s us honoring each other. None of us would stand up and declare a part of our body the best of the group but we certainly like to do it for someone else.
I have been shocked at the amount of body positivity that comes out of a group of women pushing themselves as hard as they can until they just can’t anymore. It’s glorious.
You strip down the judgment of your own body to celebrate that of another. It’s a rare form of community. We snap pictures of each other when the subject is not looking and then show them, with pride, that they’re doing an amazing job.
Photo by Leon Martinez via Pexels
In all of us, there is something that someone else wishes they had.
I struggle to find that part of myself and celebrate it without someone having to point it out. It turns from a physical growth into a mental one.
We can’t compare ourselves to others. Ever. In any way. It serves us no good. My body will never look like that young woman’s. It’s been a long time since I was under the age of thirty. Working out isn’t my job. I like wine far too much and my Italian ancestors would rise out of their graves and haunt me until my death if I stopped eating pasta.
But, my body is mine. If I don’t love it as it is, I can’t ask anyone else to. It’s theonly one I have and the only one I’m going to get. I might as well be as kind to it as I can. | https://vanessatorre.medium.com/my-body-will-never-look-like-hers-b9052c1bbb25 | ['Vanessa Torre'] | 2019-08-16 23:39:46.553000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Body Image', 'Self', 'Health', 'Fitness'] |
How To Salt Away Those Stains | Simple tips to make everyday living a breeze and stain freer
While salt is a staple in your recipes and flavors your food, there are other ways to use salt that won’t affect your health and/or your recipes. Salt is a preservative in almost all foods, check out what else salt came do outside of the body. Salt can check freshness, make things refreshed, remove stains, balance color and so much more.
Photo by Jason Tuinstra on Unsplash
Light bulb moments can be as simple as looking into your kitchen cabinets for everyday solutions and revelations. Seek and you will find, open and it will be given unto you.
Photo by Matias Wong on Unsplash
Photo by EPMcKnight
Got fresh or non-fresh eggs? Make sure your eggs are fresh before cooking them in your favorite recipe or frying them and discover a smell that turns your stomach or the yolk is too thick to fry. You can test their freshness, by adding two tablespoons of salt to a cup of water and pop your eggs in. The fresher the eggs, the lower it will be in the water. The fresh eggs will sink right to the bottom while the older eggs or less fresh eggs will float on the top. If the egg floats in the middle, it is halfway between. Eat up!!
Photo by Terry Vlisidis on Unsplash
Got red wine on your carpet? While white wine will dilute the red wine from your carpet but not entirely. To totally eliminate the residual stain of red wine from your carpet, add salt and banish the red wine from your carpet. After the white wine application, wipe down the area with a sponge and cold water. Next sprinkle some salt and wait around 10–15 minutes. Finally, vacuum the area and see the stain disappear right before your eyes. This salt application may be applied to fabric, clothes and couch cushions, also.
Photo by Duncan Sanchez on Unsplash
Got stings and bites pains? Relieve those pains easily with a little salt. Stung by a bee, relieve the sting by covering the areas in salt to reduce the swelling and stop or minimize the pain. For insect bite, soak the entire areas in saltwater and then finish off with a coating of vegetable oil.
Photo by Uwe Jelting on Unsplash
Got frost on your windows? Salt has always been the greatest enemy of ice. i.e. put salt on ice and watch it dissolve the ice. Ice cream makers of yesterday used salt on ice during the ice cream making process. Notice when roads are covered with ice, what do they use to melt the ice? Salt! Frost on windows, gone with salt.
Photo by Salmen Bejaoui on Unsplash
Got ants annoying you around the house? Salt is kryptonite to ants. They run for life to get away from it. Ant battle? Win it with salt. Sprinkle the salt directly on their path or create a barrier that diverts their route, around your door frames and skirting boards.
Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash
Got lipstick stains on your glasses or cups? Rub the edges of your glasses with salt before placing them into the dishwasher or washing them. The stains remove effortlessly.
Photo by Sonny Ravesteijn on Unsplash
Got smelly overcooked coffee? Banish that bitter taste with a little bit of salt to combat that awful taste. Adding a pinch of salt to your cup of coffee, makes it less bitter. Bitter coffee from an overused percolator, use four tablespoons of salt, fill with water then percolate as normal. Rinse and no more bitter coffee.
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
Got slow cooking pot of water or food? Throw in a pinch of salt and the boiling process speeds up, just that simply. Salt allows the water to boil at a higher temperature.
Photo by Dave Lastovskiy on Unsplash
Got warm drinks for a party? Fill a bucket with water and some ice, adding salt will make the drinks cool faster. Pour in some salt, stir the drinks around and they will turn icy cold in minutes.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Got dishwasher soap? Make your own! Take three or four drops of dish soap, add large tablespoon of baking soda and then add salt. Take this mixture and pour into dishwasher powder container. You get sparkling dishes and saved a few dollars.
Photo by Lucas George Wendt on Unsplash
Go grease on your dishes, pot and/or pans? Salt dissolves grease. Sprinkle the pan with salt until it soaks up all the grease and then wash it. As a preventive grease splattering remedy, sprinkle salt in your pan before you fry. This will help prevent grease from splattering all over the stove and kitchen worktops.
Photo by Artem Makarov on Unsplash
Go grimy sponges? Restore the sponge and remove that grime by soaking the sponge overnight. Add a 1/4 cup of salt per quart of water. Stubborn grime will be removed.
Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash
Got clogged drains? Take white vinegar, baking soda and salt and wash your drains clean as a whistle. One cup of baking soda and salt (each) added to a cup of vinegar and let the bubbling begin and allow it too remain for ten minutes before pouring some boiling water down the drain.
Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash
Got wimpy salad? Give your salad a makeover with salt. Make it crisp with a little salt. Sprinkle a little salt on the top of the salad and the freshness will last for a few hours.
Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash
Got brown fruit? Saltwater is a preservative. Soak fruit in saltwater for a short period of time, this will help to retain their color. Great for fruit salad or platter.
Photo by Steve Long on Unsplash
Got melted particles on your iron’s metal soleplate? No more ruining your clothes. Sprinkle salt all over a newspaper on your ironing board. Turn iron onto high and run it over your salty newspaper. This will help remove all that residue on your iron.
Photo by Mel Poole on Unsplash
Got faded towels after a few washes? When washing new towels, add a cup of salt to the load. This will help set the colors on your towels and help them to look brighter longer.
Photo by Gene Pensiero on Unsplash
Got slugs and snails? As a kid, I learned this trick from my mother. We sprinkled the salt directly on the snail and it just dissolved or exploded. Ugly!! If on your plant, sprinkle salt around the plant to stop them from adhering to your plants.
Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash
There are so many other uses of salt and not enough time to convey all but have a listed enough to give you the benefits of using salt and how you can save dollars by doing so. There are tons more usage such as salting out weeds from pavement or cracks, salting out that stinky sneakers smell, salting out eggs spills from your floor or counter, salting out mildew from clothes and bathroom walls, salt to the rescue to keep cut flowers fresh longer, salting out poison ivy, salting out fire in fireplace quicker and cleaner, salting out candles dripping, got bad breath, congestion, muscle pain, bee and wasp stings, nail biting, bruises, pestering insects, and many many more.
In conclusion, just a few lessons to convey the importance of salt and how it can make a significance difference in many household chores and is within your reach within your kitchen cabinets.
For additional reads: | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/how-to-salt-away-those-stains-4fa8cbbf0883 | ['Ep Mcknight'] | 2020-12-27 18:13:21.388000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Startup', 'Life Lessons', 'Education', 'Life'] |
DAILY SOI: On Brain, Thoughts, and Beliefs | DAILY SOI: On Brain, Thoughts, and Beliefs
What’s going on in your mind is pre-programmed software. But like every software, it needs updates, and sometimes more effective software replaces the old one. Some of us still run on the old software. This can cause the software not to be in alignment with other parts of the computer. Mateo Melichar Follow Dec 15, 2020 · 2 min read
Your brain
Your physical make-up, your brain, it’s the computer that runs the daily operations without you even noticing. It’s great because it saves you loads of time not having to pay attention to everything. It’s also advantageous when we make decisions. Is it safe for us or dangerous?
That’s why we have the amygdala part of the brain built-in to protect us from harm. When a car is speeding by, we stop on time and don’t jump under the wheels. This mechanism also can stand in the way of us when we try to change a career, move to a new city, take on a new challenge.
A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist. Louis Nizer
Our thoughts
Our thoughts run daily in the background. They bounce back and forth and dictate our day's quality. It’s thoughts about food, desires, beliefs, world, spouse, kids, where we live, our boss. It’s endless.
Many of these thoughts repeat, and it’s up to us to refresh them once in a while.
A new study has found the average person has more than 6000 thoughts every day. Researchers have developed a new way to determine the beginning and end of each thought. Identifying this moment as a “thought worm” has allowed scientists to calculate exactly how many we have a day — and the average was a staggering 6200.
Our believes
Our thoughts make us feel good or bad. Is that simple? If we think about negative events, that’s what the brain will try to focus more on. Therefore, we have to be careful about what we pay attention to. That’s not always easy, as we are constantly begged for attention from commercials, people that try to sell to us.
Your reality is reflection of your strongest beliefs. — Unknown
So, go out and stay safe! Seek constantly how to upgrade your brain, thoughts, and beliefs. Read, speak to friends, be interested in your wellbeing, and prioritize your personal development. Make psychology and neuroscience your best friends! | https://medium.com/fit-fun-lifestyle-magazine/daily-soi-on-brain-thoughts-and-beliefs-b12fa2213e98 | ['Mateo Melichar'] | 2020-12-15 08:04:35.482000+00:00 | ['Belief', 'Positive Thinking', 'Brain', 'Thoughts', 'Positivity'] |
Answers To Your Questions On Dismantling And Defunding Maroon 5 | Maroon 5 via Wikimedia Commons
I’ve heard about this movement, but won’t defunding Maroon 5 lead to chaos in our streets?
No one says we are going to get rid of Maroon 5 instantaneously. They’ve been around since 1994, they have SEVEN members, and we’re used to their cultural presence. The movement to dismantle them is more about a slow progression to a Maroon 5 free world. It could start with limiting how many albums they can release or how often their songs are allowed to be used as filler on the radio when a DJ is just sort of uninspired. It’s about small steps in order to achieve big, positive change. It’s about understanding who is actually listening to their music and how we can hit that low sonic bar in other, more beneficial ways.
But what will happen to moms who want to “cut loose,” car commercials that need music, or drunk girls who are going through a moment?
The people and Toyotas who crave their music are not born, they are made. We need to look at the root of the problem in order to find new solutions. Why does Mrs. Johnson have saved photos of Adam Levine on her Samsung Galaxy in a folder called “Tax docs”? Why do rom-coms use “Moves Like Jagger” in scenes that take place at trendy nightclubs? Each instance needs a difficult, musically monotonous examination, but it ultimately comes down to a void that can be filled in other ways. The Nile River of money previously flowing to their Spotify can be diverted into both researching and fixing these problems with culturally enriching solutions.
Why not just keep Maroon 5 and fund other bands?
The argument is not just that they are overfunded, it’s that they are actively harmful to the culture at large. Maroon 5 is taking up the Billboard space that could be occupied by acts that aren’t human equivalents of overpriced whiskey. No one is doubting that the original intention of Maroon 5 wasn’t honorable: some of us even bought “Songs About Jane.” But now, after over 15 years, we know that no band should occupy the pop-funk-rock space. When a band is given too many genres, there is bound to be abuse.
What about moving record labels, employing new band members, or a new name? Maybe we just give them softer instruments?
We’ve tried this all before! They originally were a different name, they’ve self-released, they’ve been represented by seven different record labels (one even owned by Levine himself, which highlights the lack of outside oversight), and members have left and then returned with no questions asked. Look — we could bring this to politicians and maybe they’d present something that sounds exciting and new, like Chartreuse 6, but ultimately it would be seven different versions of the same guy who once told you he cried during Shawshank Redemption. We cannot risk the danger of subjecting future generations to falsetto.
This sounds good, in theory, but wouldn’t it be impossible to do?
History has proven that impossible is not a mindset we can afford to entertain when faced with threats to humanity. Creed was once behind The Beatles in terms of best-selling international musical artists, Train has two Grammys, Matchbox Twenty has three platinum albums and Limp Bizkit was allowed to exist, and yet we prevailed and our children will never know nor hear of these bands.
If you believe in a future devoid of Maroon 5, then have those tough conversations with your friends, family, and wedding DJs. Write to those in charge, like Ryan Seacrest. Reassure skeptics that a world without Maroon 5 in the Top 40 is not only achievable but an even more harmonious one. | https://medium.com/slackjaw/answers-to-your-questions-on-dismantling-and-defunding-maroon-5-bf478fd5fd32 | ['Rodney Uhler'] | 2020-06-19 16:16:00.935000+00:00 | ['Satire', 'Comedy', 'Humor', 'Activism', 'Police Reform'] |
Dear 19-year-old self | Photo by Søren Astrup Jørgensen on Unsplash
The first thing you need to do when you read this is to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself why you’re wearing clothes three times your size. I know hiphop and gangsta rap is big during this time but really?
Second thing you need to do is to turn off that computer, get out of the house, and explore the world. There’s beauty in it although I know it’ll be hard for you to understand this right now.
Third thing I need you to do is pick up a book and commit to reading it. After you finish that book, pick up another and do the same. Believe me, these will help you a lot down the road.
You have a great family. You don’t have a troubled life like the rappers you idolize — don’t try to live theirs. It’s okay to talk to other people. You don’t have to be in front of the computer all the time living your virtual life. If you’re still using HeLLpHyRe as your handle, please know that it is tacky and you’re better off using your real name and conversing in the real world.
By now you’re probably thinking of dropping out of college, bored because you’re not learning anything new. You’re probably thinking computer science was the wrong choice and lean towards shifting to a different course. Don’t do it. Soldier on and graduate in a year or two. And if you’ve done the three things I’ve mentioned above, you probably know by now that you don’t have to get a job right away.
Try entrepreneurship. Try starting something. You might not be successful right away but by now you should know that failure is okay. Try this for a year or two and if by then you haven’t found success — whatever your definition of it is — that’s okay. Try getting a job to get some experience. It’s going to be pretty exciting getting that first paycheck but do know that it’s more about the experience than the money.
Learn as much as you can but please don’t mess it all up by doing stupid shit — things that you’ll consider to be cool, things you think will get you in. Don’t bother. These are all superficial and you’ll realize later on that it’s all a waste of time.
By your early twenties, you should’ve gathered enough experience to make you realize you can do great things. I also hope you’ve found God and is thinking about accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior by this time. Again, this might seem a little arbitrary to you, but believe me this will help you greatly later in life.
Do things. Experiment. Learn. Then do it all over again. This is the best time to do such things since you don’t have anything else to think of but yourself. Try to wait a little longer before starting a family as this will complicate things a lot.
If by your mid-twenties you’re still doing the three things I’ve mentioned above, you’re on a path to become successful. You can settle down by your thirties. Find a beautiful woman, start a family, and buy that huge house. By now, you’re probably a millionaire already. You made it! Congratulations, kid. | https://medium.com/mike/dear-19-year-old-self-e66b5d6688f8 | ['Mike Sanchez'] | 2020-06-18 02:40:51.017000+00:00 | ['Personal', 'Life Lessons', 'Random', 'Self Expression', 'Growing Up'] |
Sentiment Classification using Feed Forward Neural Network in PyTorch | Implementing Sentiment Classification For Restaurant Reviews Taken From Yelp using Feed Forward Neural Network in PyTorch
Sentiment Classification using Feed Forward Neural Network in PyTorch by Dipika Baad
In this article, I will explain how the Feed forward neural network can be used for text classification problems and how to define the neural network using PyTorch. You will understand how to build a custom feed forward neural network in PyTorch for a sentiment classification problem.
In my previous post, I introduced the basics of PyTorch and how to implement Logistic Regression for Sentiment Classification. You can refer to that if you are new to PyTorch. I have explained in the previous posts other methods for Sentiment Classification using BOW, TF-IDF, Word2Vec and Doc2Vec vectors using Decision Tree Classifier, which will be compared at the end as well. Let’s start with loading the data now!
Restaurant Reviews by Sentiment Example by Dipika Baad
Load the data
Yelp restaurant review dataset can be downloaded from their site and the format of the data present there is JSON. The data provided is actually not in correct json format readable for python. Each row is dictionary but for it to be a valid json format, a square bracket should be at the start and end of the file with , being added at end of each row. Define the INPUT_FOLDER as folder path in your local directory where yelp review.json file is present. Declare OUTPUT_FOLDER as a path where you want to write the output from the following function. Loading of json data and writing the top 100,000 rows is done in the following function:
Once the above function has been run, you are ready to load it in pandas dataframe for the next steps. For the experiment, only small amount of data is taken so that it can be run faster to see the results.
Exploring data
After the data is loaded, new column for sentiment indication is created. It is not always the situation that some column with the prediction label you want to do is present in the original dataset. This can be a derived column in most of the cases. For this case, stars column in the data is used to derive sentiment.
Output:
After the data is available, mapping from stars to sentiment is done and distribution for each sentiment is plotted.
Output:
Once that is done, number of rows for each sentiment is checked. Sentiment Classes are as follows:
Positive : 1 Negative: -1 Neutral: 0
Number of rows are not equally distributed across these three sentiments. In this post, problem of imbalanced classes won’t be dealt that is why, simple function to retrieve the top few records for each sentiment is written. In this example, top_n is 10000 which means total of 30,000 records will be taken.
Output:
How to preprocess text data?
Preprocessing involves many steps like tokenization, removing stop words, stemming/lemmatization etc. These commonly used techniques were explained in detail in my previous post of BOW. Here, only the necessary steps are explained in the next phase.
Why do you need to preprocess this text? — Not all the information is useful in making predictions or doing classifications. Reducing the number of words will reduce the input dimension to your model. The way the language is written, it contains lot of information which is grammar specific. Thus when converting to numeric format, word specific characteristics like capitalisation, punctuations, suffixes/prefixes etc. are redundant. Cleaning the data in a way that similar words map to single word and removing the grammar relevant information from text can tremendously reduce the vocabulary. Which methods to apply and which ones to skip depends on the problem at hand.
1. Removal of Stop Words
Stop words are the words which are commonly used and removed from the sentence as pre-step in different Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. Example of stop words are: ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’, ‘this’, ‘not’ etc. Every tool uses a bit different set of stop words list that it removes but this technique is avoided in cases where phrase structure matters like in this case of Sentiment Analysis.
Example of removing stop words:
Output:
As it can be seen from the output, removal of stop words removes necessary words required to get the sentiment and sometimes it can totally change the meaning of the sentence. In the examples printed by above piece of code, it is clear that it can convert a negative statement into positive sentence. Thus, this step is skipped for Sentiment Classification.
2. Tokenization
Tokenization is the process in which the sentence/text is split into array of words called tokens. This helps to do transformations on each words separately and this is also required to transform words to numbers. There are different ways of performing tokenization. I have explained these ways in my previous post under Tokenization section, so if you are interested you can check it out.
Gensim’s simple_preprocess allows you to convert text to lower case and remove punctuations. It has min and max length parameters as well which help to filter out rare words and most commonly words which will fall in that range of lengths.
Here, simple_preprocess is used to get the tokens for the dataframe as it does most of the preprocessing already for us. Let’s apply this method to get the tokens for the dataframe:
Output:
3. Stemming
Stemming process reduces the words to its’ root word. Unlike Lemmatization which uses grammar rules and dictionary for mapping words to root form, stemming simply removes suffixes/prefixes. Stemming is widely used in the application of SEOs, Web search results, and information retrieval since as long as the root matches in the text somewhere it helps to retrieve all the related documents in the search.
There are different algorithms used to do the stemming. PorterStammer(1979), LancasterStammer (1990), and SnowballStemmer ( can add custom rules). NLTK or Gensim package can be used for implementing these algorithms for stemming. Lancaster is bit slower than Porter so we can use it according to size and response time required. Snowball stemmer is a slightly improved version of the Porter stemmer and is usually preferred over the latter. It is not very clear which one will produce accurate results, so one has to experiment different methods and choose the one that gives better results. In this example, Porter Stemmer is used which is simple and speedy. Following code shows how to implement stemming on dataframe and new column stemmed_tokens is created:
Output:
Splitting into Train and Test Sets:
Train data would be used to train the model and test data is the data on which the model would predict the classes and it will be compared with original labels to check the accuracy or other model test metrics.
Train data ( Subset of data for training ML Model) ~70%
Test data (Subset of data for testing ML Model trained from the train data) ~30%
Try to balance the number of classes in both the sets so that the results are not biased or one of the reasons for insufficient model training. This is a crucial part of machine learning model. In real-world problems, there are cases of imbalanced classes which needs using techniques like oversampling minority class, undersampling majority class (Resample function from scikit-learn packaged or generating synthetic samples using SMOTE functionality in Imblearn package .
For this case, the data is split into two parts, train and test with 70% in train and 30% in test. While making the splitting, it is better to have equal distribution of classes in both train and test data. Here, function train_test_split from scikit-learn package is used.
Output:
As it can be seen from the above output, data is distributed for each classes proportionately. Number of rows for each sentiment in train and test are printed.
Getting Started with PyTorch
Basics of PyTorch and different functions in PyTorch are explained in my previous post, so I will keep it short here but you can refer to my previous article of Logistic Regression with PyTorch if you are new to PyTorch.
We will start with importing the necessary libraries and setting the torch.device to whichever processor is available i.e. wither cpu or gpu . Main advantage of using PyTorch is that you can run the computations on gpu for faster speed.
Main libraries needed to be included and how the current device is identified is shown in the following code. Where to load the tensor and do the computation is decided with a device parameter in different functions used in neural network layers. I have used Google Colab for the experiment and set the runtime to have GPU in hardware accelerator, that is why I can see that torch.cuda.is_available is true in my case.
Output:
It is hard to go into detail about how neural network works in a short article. In order to get basic information needed to understand the training process, you can read it here. In short, the neural network (NN) definition and training process is as follows for PyTorch.
Steps in PyTorch for NN Model
Define the NN model
Override the forward function
Initialise Optimisation and loss function for training
Iterate over dataset of inputs
Compute the loss
Propagate gradients back into the network’s parameters
Update the weights and biases
Defining Feed Forward Neural Network (FFNN) Model
FFNN model is the simplest form of artificial neural network. Information flows in one direction from first input layer to hidden layer to output layer. You can have any number of hidden layers with different sizes. Output layer in case of classification will be the same size as that of number of classes (for this case 3). Here, I have chosen 2 hidden layers with size 500. You can use different activation functions, here nn.Relu is used. Softmax is used for the last layer. You can create a custom network with different functions and different hidden layers to see which one fits the given input data. Let’s start with defining the network.
Feed Forward Neural Network architecture for Sentiment Classification by Dipika Baad
Above code shows, how to define the FFNN. Non-linear activation function is used on each hidden layer. Softmax layer is the output layer to get the probabilities for each class and the maximum of that will be the predicted class. As one can see, the class needs to be inherited from nn.module and constructor has to be initialised. In the next steps, we will see how to use this and train it.
Generating input and label tensor
First step would be to have functions that can create input tensor and corresponding label that is output tensor which are fed to network for training. For Feed Forward neural network, we will be using BOW vector as the input which is nothing but array with size of vocabulary in the corpus and values are the frequencies of words in corpus with index being the unique id of the word. We will get unique id from the dictionary built using corpora.Dictionary of Gensim package. This is similar to what I did in BOW post but I am adding another parameter called padding which will be used in other tasks like CNN where you want to use word embeddings for each words in document. For this example, padding is turned off.
After that you are ready to create bow vector function as follows. Vocab size is 30056 . You can see how I have assigned the device while creating tensor:
For creating the output tensor, mapping of label to positive values has to be done. Currently we had -1 for negative, this is not possible in neural network. Three neurons in the output layer will give probabilities for each label so we just need mapping to positive numbers. Function is as follows:
Training FFNN Model
Now we are ready to start training, before that we will initialize the model. Here I have shown the best result got from different learning rates I experimented. At the end, I will compare the results.
Now, we can start the training. It will run for 100 epochs. The loss at each step will be recorded and written to a file. Loss plot will give us better idea of how well the model is learning and if we need to do early stopping. This graph can give us a better idea of number of epochs to run. You can plot training loss along with validation loss to find if the model is overfitting as well. Let’s understand the training loss graph in this article.
Output:
Testing the model
Testing the model code is shown as follows. Loss graph is also plotted and code for saving the plot. This is useful when you are doing multiple experiments and wan to compare results after all combinations of different hyper-parameters.
Output:
Average accuracy of 0.74 is really good and it is the best accuracy that I obtained compared to other methods done in my previous posts of Sentiment classification. Accuracy of positive and negative sentiments is higher than the neutral sentiment but that is possible since it doesn’t have specific words that can distinguishably used while expressing neutral emotions. Loss graph as you can see that it is steadily decreasing which is a good sign and it is smooth as well. As one can see that almost 40–50 is not reducing drastically and is smoothening out. You can choose the number of epochs based on resources you are willing to spend and how often you are training the models.
I had run this with learning rate 0.01 which is more than the one above, during which I got plot as shown below when ran for 100 epochs and average accuracy was 0.40 so you can see if the learning rate is more, it is overshooting the local minima and loss is not decreasing. This is when you decide to lower the rate and see the loss graph to see how the model is behaving.
I ran the training for only 45 considering that as the cut point with learning rate 0.001 and the training accuracy was same as 100 epochs. But you can choose according to your preferences of tradeoffs between accuracy and training resources.
This accuracy is better than the methods implemented in my previous posts where using Decision Tree classifier was used to classify based on BOW, TF-IDF, Word2Vec and Doc2Vec vectors as input. This shows that neural networks implementing simple feed forward neural network can perform better with simple BOW vectors trained for many epochs. It can pick up the relations between words and sentiments and classify better.
So now you can easily experiment for your own dataset with this method! I hope this helped you to understand how to use PyTorch to build neural network model to do the sentiment analysis on restaurant reviews data. Feel free to extend this code! This is applicable to any other text classification problems where multiple classes are there. If I can think about improving this model, I would use different learning rate, epochs, other non-linear activation functions like tanh , sigmoid etc. , other optimization algorithms like Adam , RMSProp etc. and try using different input types other than just BOW. You can try TFIDF, Word2Vec, Doc2Vec and see what results you get. Preprocessing can be changed to use lemmatization or other stemming algorithms to see how the results change. There is lot of room for experimenting for your project.
As always — Happy experimenting and learning :) | https://medium.com/swlh/sentiment-classification-using-feed-forward-neural-network-in-pytorch-655811a0913f | ['Dipika Baad'] | 2020-04-06 17:01:02.152000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Restaurant Review', 'Pytorch', 'NLP', 'Sentiment Classification'] |
10 tips for improving your weight loss journey | 1. Eat varied and Nutritionally dense food.
Healthful meals and snacks should form the foundation of the human diet. A simple way to create a meal plan is to make sure that each meal consists of 50 percent fruit and vegetables, 25 percent whole grains, and 25 percent protein. Total fiber intake should be 25–30 grams (g) daily. ( to get the guide book click here ) Eliminate trans fats from the diet, and minimize the intake of saturated fats, which has a strong link with the incidence of coronary heart disease. Instead, people can consume monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) or polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), which are types of unsaturated fat. The following foods are healthful and often rich in nutrients:
fresh fruits and vegetables
fish
legumes
nuts
seeds
whole grains, such as brown rice and oatmeal
Foods to avoid eating include:
foods with added oils, butter, and sugar
fatty red or processed meats
baked goods
bagels
white bread
processed foods
In some cases, removing certain foods from the diet might cause a person to become deficient in some necessary vitamins and minerals. A nutritionist, dietitian, or another healthcare professional can advise a person how to get enough nutrients while they are following a weight loss program. 2. Keep a food and weight diary Self-monitoring is a critical factor in successfully losing weight. People can use a paper diary, mobile app, or dedicated website to record every item of food that they consume each day. They can also measure their progress by recording their weight on a weekly basis. Best gadget for tracking the activity and setting goals. Those who can track their success in small increments and identify physical changes are much more likely to stick to a weight loss regimen. People can also keep track of their body mass index (BMI) using a BMI calculator. 3. Engage in regular physical activity and exercise Share on Pinterest Regular physical activity can help a person lose weight. Regular exercise is vital for both physical and mental health. Increasing the frequency of physical activity in a disciplined and purposeful way is often crucial for successful weight loss. One hour of moderate-intensity activity per day, such as brisk walking, is ideal. If one hour per day is not possible, the Mayo Clinic suggests that a person should aim for a minimum of 150 minutes every week. People who are not usually physically active should slowly increase the amount of exercise that they do and gradually increase its intensity. This approach is the most sustainable way to ensure that regular exercise becomes a part of their lifestyle. In the same way that recording meals can psychologically help with weight loss, people may also benefit from keeping track of their physical activity. Many free mobile apps are available that track a person’s calorie balance after they log their food intake and exercise. If the thought of a full workout seems intimidating to someone who is new to exercise, they can begin by doing the following activities to increase their exercise levels:
taking the stairs
raking leaves
walking a dog
gardening
dancing
playing outdoor games
parking farther away from a building entrance
Individuals who have a low risk of coronary heart disease are unlikely to require medical assessment ahead of starting an exercise regimen. However, prior medical evaluation may be advisable for some people, including those with diabetes. Anyone who is unsure about safe levels of exercise should speak to a healthcare professional. 4. Eliminate liquid calories It is possible to consume hundreds of calories a day by drinking sugar-sweetened soda, tea, juice, or alcohol. These are known as “empty calories” because they provide extra energy content without offering any nutritional benefits. Unless a person is consuming a smoothie to replace a meal, they should aim to stick to water or unsweetened tea and coffee. Adding a splash of fresh lemon or orange to water can provide flavour. Avoid mistaking dehydration for hunger. An individual can often satisfy feelings of hunger between scheduled meal times with a drink of water. 5. Measure servings and control portions Eating too much of any food, even low-calorie vegetables, can result in weight gain. Therefore, people should avoid estimating a serving size or eating food directly from the packet. It is better to use measuring cups and serving size guides. Guessing leads to overestimating and the likelihood of eating a larger-than-necessary portion. The following size comparisons can be useful for monitoring food intake when dining out:
three-fourths of a cup is a golf ball
one-half of a cup is a tennis ball
1 cup is a baseball
1 ounce (oz) of nuts is a loose handful
1 teaspoon is 1 playing die
1 tablespoon is a thumb tip
3 oz of meat is a deck of cards
1 slice is a DVD
These sizes are not exact, but they can help a person moderate their food intake when the correct tools are not available. 6. Eat mindfully Many people benefit from mindful eating, which involves being fully aware of why, how, when, where, and what they eat. Making more healthful food choices is a direct outcome of becoming more in tune with the body. People who practice mindful eating also try to eat more slowly and savor their food, concentrating on the taste. Making a meal last for 20 minutes allows the body to register all of the signals for satiety. It is important to focus on being satisfied after a meal rather than full and to bear in mind that many “all natural” or low-fat foods are not necessarily a healthful choice. People can also consider the following questions regarding their meal choice:
Is it good “value” for the calorie cost?
Will it provide satiety?
Are the ingredients healthful?
If it has a label, how much fat and sodium does it contain?
7. Stimulus and cue control Many social and environmental cues might encourage unnecessary eating. For example, some people are more likely to overeat while watching television. Others have trouble passing a bowl of candy to someone else without taking a piece. By being aware of what may trigger the desire to snack on empty calories, people can think of ways to adjust their routine to limit these triggers. 8. Plan ahead Stocking a kitchen with diet-friendly foods and creating structured meal plans will result in more significant weight loss. People looking to lose weight or keep it off should clear their kitchen of processed or junk foods and ensure that they have the ingredients on hand to make simple, healthful meals. Doing this can prevent quick, unplanned, and careless eating. Planning food choices before getting to social events or restaurants might also make the process easier. 9. Seek social support Share on Pinterest Having social support is a great way to stay motivated. Embracing the support of loved ones is an integral part of a successful weight loss journey. Some people may wish to invite friends or family members to join them, while others might prefer to use social media to share their progress. Other avenues of support may include:
a positive social network
group or individual counseling
exercise clubs or partners
employee-assistance programs at work
10. Stay positive Weight loss is a gradual process, and a person may feel discouraged if the pounds do not drop off at quite the rate that they had anticipated. Some days will be harder than others when sticking to a weight loss or maintenance program. A successful weight-loss program requires the individual to persevere and not give up when self-change seems too difficult. Some people might need to reset their goals, potentially by adjusting the total number of calories they are aiming to eat or changing their exercise patterns. The important thing is to keep a positive outlook and be persistent in working toward overcoming the barriers to successful weight loss.
Losing weight Successful weight loss does not require people to follow a specific diet plan, such as Slimming World or Atkins. Instead, they should focus on eating fewer calories and moving more to achieve a negative energy balance. Weight loss is primarily dependent on reducing the total intake of calories, not adjusting the proportions of carbohydrate, fat, and protein in the diet. A reasonable weight loss goal to start seeing health benefits is a 5–10 percent reduction in body weight over a 6-month time frame. Most people can achieve this goal by reducing their total calorie intake to somewhere in the range of 1,000–1,600 calories per day. A diet of fewer than 1,000 calories per day will not provide sufficient daily nutrition. After 6 months of dieting, the rate of weight loss usually declines, and body weight tends to plateau because people use less energy at a lower body weight. Following a weight maintenance program of healthful eating habits and regular physical activity is the best way to avoid regaining lost weight. People who have a BMI equal to or higher than 30 with no obesity-related health problems may benefit from taking prescription weight-loss medications. These might also be suitable for people with a BMI equal to or higher than 27 with obesity-related diseases. However, a person should only use medications to support the above lifestyle modifications. If attempts to lose weight are unsuccessful and a person’s BMI reaches 40 or over, surgical therapy is an option. | https://medium.com/@jhonpaul1315/10-tips-for-improving-your-weight-loss-journey-bdb75617c01e | ['Jhon Paul'] | 2021-06-08 20:58:21.480000+00:00 | ['Weight Loss Tips', 'Health', 'Weight Loss', 'Weight Loss Supplements', 'Weightloss Foods'] |
Answering our Tokenholders: Why Choose “Velocity”? | Currency is the building block of “economy”. Without currency, there is no economy. The only true measure of the value of anything is people’s decisions. It is the interaction between people, their willingness to trade at a certain price, that is the only senseful way of determining “value”.
Nothing has inherent value. No goods, no services and no currency. Any value derives from the human free will. From interaction between people.
Based on these views, velocity is not only an objective expression of human interaction. Velocity is humans’ free will at play.
Any intervention from a single entity on what the “value” of a currency is, ignores this innate gift of human nature. In the “real economy”, Central Banks do this all of the time. They increase total currency supply, decreasing the value of that currency, removing purchasing power of the currency holders.
The VELO protocol is designed to operate in complete opposite manner. The increase in the VELO token’s circulation has an inverse relationship with the token’s supply. The rebase enforces the free tokenholder decisions upon token supply. Tokenholder interaction leads to surge in token scarcity, increasing it’s value.
VELO does not rebase token supply based off price. Rather, it rebases based off the behavior of tokenholders. VELO token’s value is therefore what it’s holders deem freely. This can be considered as the most accurate expression of the human free decisions on value.
“Only the free market decides on the value of VLO” — Super Mises
Blockchain has offered us the possibility to apply new rules to the game of economy. As the VELO protocol has never been done before, the outcome is likely to be unique. I have simply supplied a testing tool to the free market. The definite outcome will result from our community.
Our Governance is now set up! | https://medium.com/@supermises/answering-our-tokenholders-why-choose-velocity-787117494ab1 | [] | 2020-11-19 12:55:17.564000+00:00 | ['Sushiswap', 'Defi', 'Yield Farming', 'Yearn Finance', 'Uniswap'] |
VISA, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Offline Ödeme Sistemi | Mastercard Launches Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) Testing Platform, Enabling Central…
Innovative virtual and custom testing platform allows central banks to evaluate use cases and test roll-out strategies… | https://medium.com/@mustafa-aktas/visa-central-bank-digital-currency-cbdc-offline-%C3%B6deme-sistemi-daf676e90149 | ['Mustafa Aktaş'] | 2020-12-26 20:00:20.094000+00:00 | ['Payments', 'Bkm Express', 'Cbdc', 'Troy', 'Visa'] |
A Practical Approach to Cloud Functions for Firebase: Setup | Cloud Functions for Firebase is a lightweight tool that allows you to run code snippets written in JavaScript or TypeScript for the Node environment directly on Google‘s scalable infrastructure. Cloud Functions are also able to tie directly into your Firebase projects without requiring you to set up a typical, cumbersome, backend infrastructure.
These snippets can access other Google APIs, external APIs, other Firebase products within your project, or simply perform some logical operations that return a result to a user. Some example use-cases where you may want to use Cloud Functions include:
Adding data to a Firestore database from an IoT device using Google Cloud IoT Core and Pub/Sub.
Accessing an external API to perform an action, like Google’s reverse geocoding to return an address for a latitude and longitude.
Sending a notification to a user when they authenticate against Firebase for the first time.
Handling any sensitive operations that you wouldn’t want to run locally on a user’s device.
Since my background is mainly in Android development without a lot of backend knowledge, I’ve grown to appreciate Cloud Functions as a product for when I need to create a backend for a project, even with some struggling along the way. Given this, I want to share what I’ve learned from using Cloud Functions for Firebase so that you can have more information about the tool the next time you need to decide what you want to use for a project. This series will attempt to share these lessons through practical applications and examples to highlight Cloud Functions in a more realistic environment, and hopefully provide you with some useful ideas for functionality in your own projects.
For this first article I plan to keep things simple and just introduce how to set up a Firebase project to use Cloud Functions, as well as how to deploy a basic “Hello World” function. While this might not be the most exciting example, it does provide the foundation for later articles where I will go into the various ways you can access Cloud Functions, as well as into more depth on specific features of Cloud Functions. If you’ve already used Cloud Functions for Firebase before, then you can safely skim this article and keep an eye out for the next.
With that, let’s get started.
Getting Setup and Deploying a Function
The first thing we will need to do to use Cloud Functions for Firebase is create a Firebase project. If you don’t already have one, you can go to the Firebase Console and add a project there.
Next, after continuing into the Firebase project, we will need to go down to the Functions item in the side navigation panel.
In order to use Cloud Functions for Firebase, we will need to enable billing in our project by clicking on the Upgrade project button on the screen. If you already have billing enabled on your project, then you can skip this step.
But wait, you might be thinking to yourself “isn’t there a free tier with Functions?” and you’d be right. Cloud Functions for Firebase does have a free tier for usage up to a certain point, as outlined on our pricing page. However, because Cloud Functions uses some aspects of Google Cloud’s paid infrastructure, we need to enable billing to use Cloud Functions. In general you shouldn’t be charged more than a few cents per month for basic functions.
That said, I will recommend that you enable budget alerts. Cloud Functions can access other parts of Firebase and use up your free quota if you make a coding mistake, like an infinite loop, and you will want to catch those issues early.
For a really detailed explanation on this, I highly recommend this video from the Firebase YouTube channel.
After continuing through the billing dialog box, you should end up on a screen where you can see a button that says Get started .
Let’s click that button, and then click through the prompts. When that’s all done, you should end up at a screen with the message Waiting for your first deploy. We’ll work on that next.
With Functions enabled, we will need to do some work locally. Because Cloud Functions for Firebase use a Node environment, we will need to get Node installed on our development machine. This process is going to vary by OS and is a bit out of scope for this article, but you can get started by downloading the tools here. Once you’ve finished with that install, you should be able to see what version of Node you’re running with the command node -v from a command line.
Next we will need to install the Firebase command line interface tool. You can do this on Mac by running the Node command npm install -g firebase-tools
If you’re on Windows or Linux, you can find the instructions for your OS here.
After the Firebase CLI has finished installing, let’s navigate to a new folder through our CLI that will contain our Functions code. Once we’re there, we can run the command firebase login to log in to whichever account is associated with our Firebase project, and then approve its access to the project through the CLI.
For our next step, let’s return to the CLI and run the command firebase init . This will prompt us to select whichever functionality we want to support from our CLI, as well as set some general confirmation information. For this article we’ll only need the Functions feature turned on.
We will also be prompted to select a project that we want to link to this directory. Since we’ve already created one, we can select Use an existing project and then select our new project.
Once that’s set, we’ll be asked if we want to use JavaScript or TypeScript for writing our Functions. I’m told that TypeScript offers some additional functionality over JavaScript, but like I mentioned earlier, my background is in mobile development, and JavaScript is easier to search for when I need to fill in the (many) gaps in my knowledge, so I’ll stick to using that for this series. If you’re comfortable with TypeScript, or are just looking for a challenge, a lot of what I talk about in this series should be straightforward enough to convert, so feel free to give it a try :) Other than language selection, I would recommend just sticking to the default options during the setup script.
If we look in our directory now, we should see a firebase.json file and a functions folder.
Let’s go ahead and navigate into that functions folder. In there we should see a few files and another directory.
The one we’re interested in is index.js. This is where we’ll add all of our code for Cloud Functions. Let’s go ahead and see what’s in there now:
Kind of boring, isn’t it? While this isn’t the most exciting code in the world, we’ll do some more interesting things with Cloud Functions later. For now, let’s go ahead and uncomment the last four lines.
This code will instantiate the functions library in the first line, and then it exports a new function called helloWorld . This function listens for an https request, and when it gets one it’ll write to the Cloud Functions logger and respond with the message “Hello from Firebase!” .
So now that we have a Cloud Function, let’s actually deploy it. From the CLI, we can run the command firebase deploy to deploy all of our functions at once, as well as some other Firebase features we might have implemented from the Firebase tool (such as Hosting). If we only want to deploy functions, then we can run the command firebase deploy --only functions, and if we had more than one function we could use deploy --only functions:helloWorld to only deploy that named function. Let’s go ahead and use the first option for now.
One thing that’s important to note here is that you need to be under the functions folder in order to deploy your Cloud Functions. If you’re in the directory above it, you’ll end up getting a 403 error when you try to deploy.
After the command finishes running, you should see a Deploy complete! message at the bottom, as well as some URLs.
The one we’re really interested in right now is the third line from the bottom that starts with Function URL (helloWorld): . This is the endpoint for that new Function. If we go to it in our browser, we should see our response message.
And if we return to the Firebase Console, we should see our new Function in the dashboard.
More importantly, you may remember that we used one of Cloud Function’s logging methods. This ended up populating our logs under the logs tab in the Firebase console, which is also where we’ll find other important debugging information, like crash logs.
Conclusion
In this article we were introduced to Cloud Functions for Firebase. We learned how to set up the Firebase Console, and how to deploy our first Function. In the next few articles we will learn about multiple ways that we can access a Cloud Function, such as directly with a POST request, Firebase’s various SDKs, and Firebase product triggers, as well as how to use multiple product features with Cloud Functions. See you there!
Update: More has been added to this series! :)
Resources | https://medium.com/firebase-developers/a-practical-approach-to-cloud-functions-for-firebase-an-introduction-d3b5ae2114e7 | ['Paul Ruiz'] | 2021-03-23 02:43:35.593000+00:00 | ['Firebase Functions', 'Firebase Cloud Functions', 'Firebase'] |
Crypto Funds Stopped Growing Like Trees As The Bulls Are Not Grazing There Anymore | Does it remind you anyone? Oh, yes, it’s Michael Novogratz, who tries to guess the bottom every week. We’ll return to him a bit later.
It was 2017, crypto funds, showing extraordinary profits, were growing like trees in the forest. After a while, seasoned professionals also decided to join the party. Officially, in the summer of 2017 there were only 57 crypto funds, a year later, in the summer, there were a lot more — 225 funds. Some of them were founded by successful hedge funds with their own analysts and a lot of resources. Still, they show that they don’t know anything special about crypto, showing the same losses, as the whole market in general. They followed this buy’n’hold strategy that works well in a bull market when you can buy anything and you’ll get a profit eventually. Currently, the problem is in the market. The bulls are gone.
Pantera Capital are the smart guys. When we gossip about their 40% losses, we should not forget that we talk only about the new fund, that buys altcoins. Their oldest fund, founded 6 years ago, gave a 10,000% return on investments to its investors. That’s a pretty good result. Also, let’s point out that they started to invest before the hype when the bubble was relatively small. Now the bubble burst, but it doesn’t mean that it can’t grow even bigger after that. Most altcoins will die — many of them don’t have any inner value, their token economy doesn’t work and these projects were created only to grab some money by slapping ‘blockchain’ on them. However, some of these coins can have a bright future, the problem is to guess the right ones. Pantera Capital buys for a long hold, so they shouldn’t care about paper losses. Eventually, all coins that won’t die until the next bull will surge again, so let’s not draw conclusions until the next year.
Many other funds show the similar dynamic. I’ve already mentioned Mike Novogratz. He’s a billionaire, that’s enough to describe him. However, we should not ignore the fact that for some reason he continues to make ridiculous statements, calling bottom at all possible levels, talking about $100,000 per Bitcoin by the end of the next year, when he feels extra bullish, and changing his prediction a week later after one-two big red candles (I think somebody should draw a chart of his predictions at the end of 2018, it’s a pity I’m too lazy for this). Anyway, his Galaxy Digital Assets fund reported a loss of $134 million, showing that even billionaires can be wrong sometimes. Or many times.
The year 2017 was a magnificent year for pretty much everyone, except for the most greedy ones. But the blessed times of brainless growth seem to be over. It’s very unlikely that big guys with bottomless pockets will take all this crowd up to the moon. Everyone has to choose wisely from now on — the next bull run will top the previous heights, and increase the capitalization of the crypto market, but not for all coins, and it will also end, nothing can grow endlessly. The good fund should know how to make money in good market conditions and also in bad market conditions. If it shows the same dynamic as an ordinary retail investor, it’s pointless to invest in this fund. So let’s suppose this is the point where everyone starts to realize that crypto market has two directions and starts to apply risk management to his investment portfolio — and then we’ll never see such news again. | https://medium.com/finrazorcom/crypto-funds-stopped-growing-like-trees-as-the-bulls-are-not-grazing-there-anymore-84bda1639b2e | ['Finrazor Team'] | 2018-10-19 10:53:35.634000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Fintech', 'Blockchain', 'Finance'] |
TV Picks: 7–13 January 2019 | — MONDAY 7th —
✭ BREXIT: THE UNCIVIL WAR — CHANNEL 4, 9PM.
Single drama about a strategist for Vote Leave, determined to ensure the British people vote to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Kinnear, John Heffernan, Kyle Soller & Simon Paisley Day.
Also watch:
Judge Rinder’s Crime Stories — ITV, 2pm . Series 4 of the show examining real-life crimes. Presented by Robert Rinder. (1/10)
. Series 4 of the show examining real-life crimes. Presented by Robert Rinder. (1/10) Father Brown — BBC1, 2.15pm . Series 7 of the murder-mystery drama about a crime-fighting priest. Starring Mark Williams, Sorcha Cusack, Nancy Carroll & John Burton. (1/10)
. Series 7 of the murder-mystery drama about a crime-fighting priest. Starring Mark Williams, Sorcha Cusack, Nancy Carroll & John Burton. (1/10) Getting the Builders In — ITV, 2.15pm . New renovation series. (1/15)
. New renovation series. (1/15) I Escaped to the Country — ITV, 3pm . Series 2 of the show catching up with people once featured on Escape to the Country. (1/10)
. Series 2 of the show catching up with people once featured on Escape to the Country. (1/10) The £100K Drop — Channel 4, 4pm . Series 2 of the quiz show where contestants begin with £100,000 and lose money by answering questions incorrectly. Hosted by Davina MccCall. (1/60)
. Series 2 of the quiz show where contestants begin with £100,000 and lose money by answering questions incorrectly. Hosted by Davina MccCall. (1/60) Antiques Road Trip — BBC1, 4.30pm . Series 18 of the antiques hunting gameshow. (1/25)
. Series 18 of the antiques hunting gameshow. (1/25) The Wonder of Animals — BBC2, 4.40pm . New wildlife documentary series about anatomy and how it can help animals survive in various habitats. (1/12)
. New wildlife documentary series about anatomy and how it can help animals survive in various habitats. (1/12) How to Lose Weight Well — Channel 4, 8pm . Series 4 of the dieting advice show. Hosted by Dr Xand van Tulleken & Helen Lawal. (1/5)
. Series 4 of the dieting advice show. Hosted by Dr Xand van Tulleken & Helen Lawal. (1/5) Drug Wars — Dave, 8pm . Series 3 of the show following Border Patrol agents in Arizona. (1 & 2/18)
. Series 3 of the show following Border Patrol agents in Arizona. (1 & 2/18) Inside the Ambulance — W, 8pm . Series 7 of the observational documentary about frontline paramedics. (1/10)
. Series 7 of the observational documentary about frontline paramedics. (1/10) Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railway Journeys — Channel 5, 9pm . Series 5 of the celebrity travelogue. (1/4)
. Series 5 of the celebrity travelogue. (1/4) Spencer, Vogue and Baby Too — E4, 9pm . New reality show following new parents Spencer Matthews and Vogue Williams.
. New reality show following new parents Spencer Matthews and Vogue Williams. Car SOS — More4, 9pm . Series 6 of the car restoration show. Presented by Tim Shaw (not the Doctor Who villain). (1/10)
. Series 6 of the car restoration show. Presented by Tim Shaw (not the Doctor Who villain). (1/10) Two Doors Downs — BBC2, 10pm . Series 4 of the suburban sitcom. Starring Arabella Weir, Alex Norton, Doon Mackickan, Jonathan Watson & Elaine C. Smith. (1/6)
. Series 4 of the suburban sitcom. Starring Arabella Weir, Alex Norton, Doon Mackickan, Jonathan Watson & Elaine C. Smith. (1/6) Raw Recruits: Squaddies at 16 — Channel 5, 10pm. Series 2 of the observational documentary following teenagers as they go through Army basic training. (1/3)
— TUESDAY 8th —
✭ CATASTROPHE — CHANNEL 4, 10PM.
Fourth and final series of the relationship sitcom. Starring Sharon Horgan, Rob Delaney, Ashley Jensen, Mark Bonnar & Julie Hesmondhalgh. (1/6)
Also watch:
My Million Pound Menu — BBC2, 8pm . Series 2 of the restaurant startup business reality gameshow. Hosted by Fred Sirieix. (1/6)
. Series 2 of the restaurant startup business reality gameshow. Hosted by Fred Sirieix. (1/6) Silent Witness — BBC1, 9pm . Series 22 of the crime drama. Starring Amelia Fox, David Caves, Richard Lintern, Liz Carr & Lauren Drummond. Continues tomorrow. (1/10)
. Series 22 of the crime drama. Starring Amelia Fox, David Caves, Richard Lintern, Liz Carr & Lauren Drummond. Continues tomorrow. (1/10) Icons — BBC2, 9pm . New series about the achievements and legacies of many notable figures of the 20th-century. Presented by Trevor McDonald. Continues tomorrow. (1/8)
. New series about the achievements and legacies of many notable figures of the 20th-century. Presented by Trevor McDonald. Continues tomorrow. (1/8) Charmed — E4, 9pm . New US remake of the supernatural drama about three magical sisters. Starring Melonie Diaz, Sarah Jeffery, Madeleine Mantock, Rupert Evans & Ser’Darius Blain. (1/22)
. New US remake of the supernatural drama about three magical sisters. Starring Melonie Diaz, Sarah Jeffery, Madeleine Mantock, Rupert Evans & Ser’Darius Blain. (1/22) Animal Airport — More4, 9pm . New observational documentary about Heathrow airport’s Animal Reception Centre. (1/14)
. New observational documentary about Heathrow airport’s Animal Reception Centre. (1/14) Living the Dream — Sky1, 9pm . Series 2 of the comedy-drama about a British couple moved to Florida, USA. Starring Lesley Sharp, Philip Glenister, Kevin Nash, Rosie Day & Brenock O’Connor.
. Series 2 of the comedy-drama about a British couple moved to Florida, USA. Starring Lesley Sharp, Philip Glenister, Kevin Nash, Rosie Day & Brenock O’Connor. 999 Rescue Squad — W, 10pm . Series 2 of the observational documentary about paramedics. (1/10)
. Series 2 of the observational documentary about paramedics. (1/10) The Hotel Inspector Returns — Channel 5, 11.05pm. Series 6 of the show catching up with those featured on The Hotel Inspector. Starring Alex Polizzi.
— WEDNESDAY 9th —
✭ CLEANING UP — ITV, 9PM.
New drama about a recovering gambler (Sheridan Smith) who takes a cleaning job and finds illegal but lucrative stock market information. Co-starring Jade Anouka, Matthew McNulty, Branka Katic & Kristy Philipps. (1/6)
Also watch:
The Undateables — Channel 4, 9pm . Series 10 of the dating show for unconventional people.
. Series 10 of the dating show for unconventional people. Red Arrows: Kings of the Sky — Channel 5, 9pm . Documentary series about the famous aerobatics team in the year of the RAF’s 100th anniversary. (1/6)
. Documentary series about the famous aerobatics team in the year of the RAF’s 100th anniversary. (1/6) Shut-Ins: Britain’s Fattest People — Channel 4, 10pm. Documentary about morbidly obese people trying to change their lives. (1/3)
— THURSDAY 10th —
✭ DEATH IN PARADISE — BBC1, 9PM.
Series 8 of the tropical island murder-mystery drama. Starring Ardal O’Hanlon, Don Warrington, Josephine Jobert, Tobi Bakare, Chizzy Akudolu & Ewen Cummins. (1/8)
Also watch:
The Secret Life of 4-Year-Olds — Channel 4, 8pm . Series 4 of the observational documentary looking at the emotional and cognitive development of four-year-old children. (1/4)
. Series 4 of the observational documentary looking at the emotional and cognitive development of four-year-old children. (1/4) Bargain Loving Brits in the Sun — Channel 5, 8pm . Series 4 of the documentary about Brits living in Benidorm. (1/8)
. Series 4 of the documentary about Brits living in Benidorm. (1/8) Hospital — BBC2, 9pm . Series 4 of the observational documentary about NHS staff in Liverpool. (1/6)
. Series 4 of the observational documentary about NHS staff in Liverpool. (1/6) The Parras: Men of War — ITV, 9pm . New observational documentary following the 28-week training of the parachute regiment. (1/3)
. New observational documentary following the 28-week training of the parachute regiment. (1/3) Hunted — Channel 4, 9pm . Series 4 of the reality challenge where people have to survive ‘off the grid’ while being hunted, to win £100,000 if they evade capture for 25 days.
. Series 4 of the reality challenge where people have to survive ‘off the grid’ while being hunted, to win £100,000 if they evade capture for 25 days. A League of their Own: European Roadtrip — Sky1, 9pm . Spin-off to the panel show A League of their Own with Jamie Redknapp and Andrew Flintoff set challenges by James Corden. (1/4)
. Spin-off to the panel show A League of their Own with Jamie Redknapp and Andrew Flintoff set challenges by James Corden. (1/4) The Orville — Fox, 9pm . Season 2 of the US sci-fi comedy. Starring Seth MacFarlane, Adrianne Palicki, Peter Macon, Halston Sage, Scott Grimes & Penny Johnson Jerald.
. Season 2 of the US sci-fi comedy. Starring Seth MacFarlane, Adrianne Palicki, Peter Macon, Halston Sage, Scott Grimes & Penny Johnson Jerald. Better Things — BBC2, 10pm . New comedy-drama about an actress struggling to raise three daughters alone. Starring Pamela Adlon, Mikey Madison, Hannah Alligood, Olivia Edward & Celia Imrie. (1/10)
. New comedy-drama about an actress struggling to raise three daughters alone. Starring Pamela Adlon, Mikey Madison, Hannah Alligood, Olivia Edward & Celia Imrie. (1/10) Flirty Dancing — Channel 4, 10pm . New dance and dating show. Hosted by Ashley Banjo. (1/5)
. New dance and dating show. Hosted by Ashley Banjo. (1/5) Question Time — BBC1, 10.45pm. Return of the long-running political discussion series, now hosted by Fiona Bruce.
— FRIDAY 11th —
✭ TITANS — NETFLIX.
New US comic-book drama where Dick Grayson/Robin and Rachel Roth/Raven join forces with Koriand’r/Starfire and Gar Logan/Beast Boy to form the Titans superhero team. (All 11 episodes released.)
Also watch:
Viking Invasion: Digging Up Britain’s Past — Channel 5, 8pm . New series excavating areas of the UK to explain historical moments. Presented by Helen Skelton & Alex Langlands. (1/6)
. New series excavating areas of the UK to explain historical moments. Presented by Helen Skelton & Alex Langlands. (1/6) Grantchester — ITV, 9pm . Series 4 of the period crime drama. Starring James Norton, Robson Green, Tom Brittney, Al Weaver & Tessa Peake-Jones. (1/6)
. Series 4 of the period crime drama. Starring James Norton, Robson Green, Tom Brittney, Al Weaver & Tessa Peake-Jones. (1/6) The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts — BBC2, 9pm . New series where a 19th-century arts and crafts commune in the Welsh hills is revived for modern people. Hosted by Anita Rani. (1/4)
. New series where a 19th-century arts and crafts commune in the Welsh hills is revived for modern people. Hosted by Anita Rani. (1/4) The Crimson Rivers — More4, 9pm . New French drama about detectives specialising in brutal crimes. (1/8)
. New French drama about detectives specialising in brutal crimes. (1/8) 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown — Channel 4, 9pm . Series 17 of the comedy quiz show mashup. Hosted by Jimmy Carr with Sean Lock, Johnny Vegas, Alan Carr & Lou Sanders.
. Series 17 of the comedy quiz show mashup. Hosted by Jimmy Carr with Sean Lock, Johnny Vegas, Alan Carr & Lou Sanders. The Good Place — Netflix. Season 4 of the US fantasy comedy resumes.
— SATURDAY 12th —
✭ HIDDEN BRITAIN BY DRONE — CHANNEL 4, 8PM.
Series 2 of the show where aerial drones capture footage of the UK off-limits to the public. Presented by Tony Robinson. (1/4)
— SUNDAY 13th —
✭ VERA — ITV, 8PM.
Series 9 of the detective drama. Starring Brenda Blethyn.
Also watch: | https://dansmediadigest.co.uk/tv-picks-7-13-january-2019-d272ab8ae3d3 | ['Dan Owen'] | 2019-01-08 18:48:30.730000+00:00 | ['Listings', 'Television', 'UK', 'Tv Picks', 'TV'] |
NFL Film Breakdown: Why Stefanski Could Save Baker Mayfield’s Career | When the Cleveland Browns took Baker Mayfield #1 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft he gave Cleveland fans reason to hope that this quarterback would finally be the one to take the Browns back to the playoffs. Three seasons later, he’s on his 4th head coach and has had stretches of play that look like he deserves that #1 selection but he’s also paired that with times where you wonder if he’s just another guy in the long line of failed Browns quarterbacks.
Note: If you prefer to watch a video breakdown, scroll to the bottom of this article.
On play action, Baker’s completion percentage jumped up 5% versus normal drop-backs, he had a positive touchdown to interception ratio, and his passer rating was a whole 24.7 points higher. Despite Baker’s success on play-action, Freddie Kitchens only called it 23.4% of the time. When he throws in rhythm in the short game and on RPOs he has a 67.24% completion percentage, he has good mechanics, can fit balls in small windows, and shows great decisiveness.
David Richard/AP
When he’s not throwing the ball in rhythm, well… he shows none of that. His mechanics and footwork go out the window, he has trouble with getting consistent hip rotation, he panics in the pocket and quickly pulls his eyes from looking downfield. When plays are 2.5+ seconds, his completion percentage drops all the way to 50.7%. His pure arm talent is great but his fundamentals are desperately lacking. The scheme and receivers did him no favors either. Despite having maybe one of the best skill groups on paper with Jarvis Landry, O’dell Bekham, David Njoku, and Nick Chubb, the Browns ranked 20th in separation gained on routes. Guys were rarely schemed open and there was a distinct lack of play-calls that let Baker do what he does best — rollout on play-action or run RPO concepts in the quick pass game — concepts the Browns only ran a combined 34% of the time in 2019. Without those concepts, the Browns struggled to get separation downfield and Baker experienced a sophomore slump. We’ll touch on it more later but with a more experienced offensive mind and play-caller in Stefanski, Baker should be primed for a bounce-back year.
Chris Williams/Icon Sportswire
The Browns have the skill players to attack horizontally and still be an explosive and effective offense. Baker did a ton of damage with RPOs at Oklahoma and is just as much at home doing it in the NFL as he was in college. They give simple and quick reads for Baker and help him align his feet and base to give him good mechanics.
Most RPOs read the outside linebacker or apex defender. If they come in to fit into the run game, the ball goes outside to the pass concept. If the defender stays outside to guard the pass, then Baker will hand the ball off. The mesh with the running back also has the added benefit of helping Baker align his feet to the throw. He consistently brings his hips all the way through, has a quick release, a solid base just outside of his shoulders, and delivers accurate balls.
When you simplify reads for Mayfield, it’s like night and day with his accuracy. Here all he has to do is locate the strong safety who should be passing the dig off to the middle linebacker. When he diagnoses that that safety isn’t passing it off and has vacated his deep zone, he throws the post for a touchdown. While heel clicks are a constant issue, you can see the accuracy downfield here as Baker comes out of the run fake, hitches, and delivers a perfect ball downfield.
He can read the leverage of defenders quickly and deliver decisive balls to really small windows like here on a back-shoulder off play action.
Whether it’s an intermediate throw, a deep shot, or a touch pass, his mechanics are way better on play-action and these half field reads. He is aware of defenders zones and responsibilities and can fit the balls into the weak areas of the defense.
He excels at throwing off his last step of his drop or off one hitch. Look at his footwork here and see how consistent and clean it is. You can see he has a solid base, his feet are apart, he’s following through on all of his throws — and that leads to more consistent and accurate passing.
Where he struggles though, is when things get off schedule or his first read or two are taken away. He can get frazzled in the pocket, bring his eyes down and look to run, and struggles a lot with consistent mechanics. He lacks trust in the protection and quickly tries to bail at any sign of pressure. This causes him to lock onto one receiver or abandon passing all together. He tends to make big movements in the pocket that end up getting him into more trouble and as a result he misses potential huge gains on busted coverages downfield.
Outside of the pocket issues, my biggest concerns are his heel click and his hips. He has a huge issue of opening his leg and hips horizontally rather than leading with his off leg towards the receiver. When he opens his hips parallel to the line of scrimmage he loses all consistency throwing the ball. It’s hard to get consistent hip rotation and accuracy out of this throwing position and forces him to rely purely on arm strength and talent rather than sound and consistent fundamentals at his base.
He also has a big issue with heel click on his hitch steps. When the feet come together as a quarterback you get some vertical bounce which is one more thing for your arm to compensate for and makes you less consistent over time. In both these scenarios he has huge heel click and then sky mails the balls way over the receivers head.
The mechanical issues can all easily be fixed with Stefanski coming in who helped make Case Keenum look like a viable starting quarterback and has helped Kirk Cousins rack up the stats and yards. More concerning for me is Baker’s lack of understanding of defender location combined with those poor mechanics. Earlier, we saw that he’s definitely capable of reading zones but a few times he completely left his receivers out to dry and got them hurt by throwing them into a defender, being inaccurate with his ball placement, and setting them up for big collisions.
Baker isn’t as polished as you might hope for a number 1 overall pick going into his 3rd year, but there’s reason for optimism with Stefanski’s system coming to Cleveland. While the Vikings didn’t blow the Browns out of the water with how much more play-action they ran, they did run play-action 4% more. The Vikings also ran a lot more under-center action and while Baker didn’t get a ton of that in Cleveland last year, he had a 104.3 QB rating when they did.
Some of the stuff the Baker does best, the Vikings do a lot of. They attacked the seams with their tight ends and slot receivers, created a lot of rhythm passes, schemed guys open, and ran efficient play-action that stressed defenses vertically and horizontally. Baker thrives when he’s on rhythm and can drive the ball which is the type of throws asked for in Stefanski’s system.
Slants and sit routes are a staple of the Stefanski offense and are something the Browns just didn’t do enough of especially with weapons that can take a short pass to the house. These give Baker those clear, simple reads that he can read and hit by the top of his drop.
The power of that play-action also opened up huge holes in the run game despite Minnesota’s struggles on the offensive line.
Stefanski also likes to take shots in rhythm outside and stretch the field vertically when they get a matchup they like and those top-of-drop deep throws are when Baker is most accurate.
Baker Mayfield definitely has some things to work on with his footwork and lower body mechanics but he clearly has the ability to play at an elite level when those things are clean. The lack of field awareness and keeping his receivers clean gives concern and he had trouble with adjusting beyond his first or second read. With Stefanski’s system coming in that emphasizes throwing in rhythm, play-action shots, and quick reads, Baker’s skillset should be reaching its full potential. As he becomes more familiar, the whole offense should open up. There are too many weapons in the backfield, outside, and at tight end for defenses to be able to shut everything down. If Baker can operate within the system and clean up some mechanical issues, the Browns will give the Ravens all they can handle on offense and could finally get what looks like a top 10 roster to perform on the field and steal away the AFC North.
If you liked this post make sure to subscribe below and let us know what you think. If you feel like donating and want access to some early blog releases and exclusive breakdown content or to help us keep things running, you can visit our Patreon page here. Make sure to follow us on YouTube for video breakdowns and Instagram @weekly_spiral and twitter @weeklyspiral for updates when we post and release our podcasts. You can find the Weekly Spiral podcast on Spotify or anywhere you listen. | https://medium.com/the-sports-scientist/nfl-film-breakdown-why-stefanski-could-save-baker-mayfields-career-1f50e6ad2447 | ['Casey Sully'] | 2020-06-09 17:47:11.681000+00:00 | ['American Football', 'NFL', 'Cleveland Browns', 'Baker Mayfield', 'Quarterbacks'] |
The Truth About Wealth | Sometimes It Is A Lot Less Flashy Than You Think
Kristina Flour — Unsplash
What’s your idea of wealth? Is it a big house, fast cars, or a certain amount of money sitting in a bank account?
I suppose we each have our own idea of what true wealth looks like. For me, when I think of wealth, I think about people like Warren Buffett, business titans like Rockefeller and Carnegie, as well as the old European families quietly passing down their fortunes from one generation to the next.
The ultra wealthy of today don’t exactly fit my mental image of true and lasting wealth. I fully realize their bank accounts say otherwise, but I’ve always been fascinated more by the stories of old money. There is just something about it.
But there is also something called secret wealth, which I find the most fascinating of all. This is wealth held by those you would least suspect. They may be your colleagues, neighbors, friends, or even family. You and I just don’t know it. Actually we may never know it until we read about their passing in the paper and their wills and estates are finally revealed.
These are people who have chosen to live a normal life and fly under the radar. Maybe it’s a conscious choice on their part or it is just in their nature to remain private. They don’t live flashy lifestyles, drive fancy cars, or have any desire to swim with the big fish in their community.
These are most definitely my type people.
Take Jack MacDonald for example. He was a frugal attorney who passed away and left behind a $188 million fortune. According to a Seattle Times article
“He clipped coupons, wore sweaters with holes in them to make people think he was poor and took a bus — not a cab — to the University of Washington when he attended an alumni luncheon in his later years. Only a tight circle of family and friends knew that MacDonald was nurturing a secret fortune. When he died in September at the age of 98, he left in his will a $187.6 million charitable trust to Seattle Children’s Research Institute, the University of Washington School of Law and the Salvation Army.” A quote in the article said “Jack went out of his way to look poor, partly because he didn’t want to be badgered by people who wanted money.” (1)
Or how about Curt Degerman? He basically came across as a homeless man that collected cans and recyclables in the town where he lived in Sweden. After he died it was found that he had quietly spent his time studying the stock market and investing the small amount of money he made from cans and bottles into stocks and mutual funds which grew to a $1.4 million fortune upon his passing at age 60. (2)
There were also the twins Robert and Kathleen Magowan. According to a Hartford Courant article, Robert was an insurance agent for Prudential and Kathleen a first grade teacher. Both lived a simple, unassuming lifestyle that resulted in investment assets between the two of them worth over $10 million. (3)
I can only imagine the number of similar stories that will never be told. Stories of thrift, humility, and deep privacy that so goes against the modern world of today.
To me, these are the stories I personally find most fascinating and that perhaps best capture a side of wealth rarely ever studied. | https://medium.com/an-idea/the-truth-about-wealth-33d1e5a69794 | ['A Simple Writer'] | 2020-12-22 16:59:47.347000+00:00 | ['Wealth', 'Life Lessons', 'Secrets', 'Life'] |
Cumulations Adopts Swift for iOS App Development | Developing iOS apps is so different from developing Android apps. Cumulations has always been popular for the delivery of consistent and smooth running iOS applications. Apple’s benchmarks are tougher to live up to and apps that can excel these would be the ones that can perform well in the long run.
The secret behind the great iOS apps developed by the company is the dedicated team that strives to incorporate the latest tools and technology in creating the best user-centric apps. And one other benefit with Cumulations is the use of Swift for the development of iOS apps.
Benefits of using Swift for iOS app development:
Be it for OSX or for iOS apps, Objective C is one of the main choices for app development. But then once Apple introduced Swift compensating all the limitations of Objective C it was an instant hit among the developers. Though Objective C is great for iOS apps, Swift has been found to add some more benefits and extra features. These benefits include enhanced safety and memory management. Apps developed with Swift would also be future-ready as this is a platform that is quickly gaining momentum.
1. Lower dependencies
2. Easier syntax
3. Lower chances of app crashes
4. Incorporates app security
5. Better Chance to Be Featured in the App Store
6. MVP development
7. Enterprise Apps
8. Apps with cross-device support
for more information visit @ http://www.cumulations.com/blogs/81/cumulations-adopts-swift-for-ios-app-development | https://medium.com/mobile-app-development-company/cumulations-adopts-swift-for-ios-app-development-3e3faa2027c5 | ['Shaistha Farheen'] | 2017-07-05 09:12:03.453000+00:00 | ['Mobile App Development', 'Company', 'iOS App Development', 'Business', 'iOS'] |
7 Great Writing Conferences in January 2021 | Pixabay
The new year kicks off with seven great conferences for writers. These conferences offer everything from intensive workshops and panels, to pitch sessions with agents and one-on-one tutorials. There is something for everyone.
For a full list of conferences held throughout the year see Writing Conferences. During the pandemic most of these are being held virtually at reduced rates. Quite a few offer scholarships, so apply early.
(Photo credit: Pixabay)
_____________________________
Pacific University Master of Fine Arts in Writing Residency Writers Conference. January 7–17, 2021: Forest Grove, Oregon. Writers seeking to deepen their craft and expand their professional community are invited to attend the Residency Writers Conference together with MFA students, faculty and guest speakers. Join us for 10 full days of craft talks, workshops, panels, classes, readings and more featuring some of the best minds of the literary world. This residency is a rare opportunity to engage in sustained and meaningful conversation with others who share your passion for the art of writing. Because of ongoing concerns due to COVID-19, this will be a virtual residency.
TMW January Jumpstart. January 9, 2021. “Fresh Slate/Fresh Page in 2021: This Zoom workshop will address the writer as beginner, even when we are experienced, even when we’ve already started or written most of a project. We will explore tools and exercises to help begin a project or begin a project again, generate or develop a new idea, or return to an old idea that for some reason stalled and see that project with new eyes. These tools and exercises can be used for fiction or nonfiction, prose or poetry, and be beneficial to writers of all levels from novice to seasoned author.”
Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway. January 14–18, 2021, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as craft talks, one-on-one tutorials, featured readings, and open mics. Tuition, which includes some meals, ranges from $490 to $690, depending on the workshop. Will be held online.
Writing By Writers DRAFT. Application deadline: January 15, 2021: Lake Tahoe and Boulder, CO. DRAFT is an intensive program for 15 writers who are committed to completing a novel, memoir, short story, or essay collection over the course of two years. Whether starting a first draft, or working through a new revision, this program is appropriate for writers who want a rigorous and supportive community throughout their process.
Eckerd College Writers’ Conference. January 16–23, 2021, St. Petersburg, FL. Workshops, roundtables, panel discussions, Q&As, readings book signings, and receptions. The faculty includes poets Billy Collins, Gregory Pardlo; fiction writers Michael Koryta, John Dufresne; creative nonfiction writers Stephanie Elizondo Griest and Dani Shapiro; editor George Gibson (Grove/Atlantic); and agent Ann Rittenberg (Ann Rittenberg Lit Agency) and many more. Canceled for 2020, but a 2-day virtual event for applicants, will take place on Sunday and Monday, January 17 and 18.
Palm Beach Poetry Festival. January 18–23, 2021 , Delray Beach, Florida. Workshop Faculty Poets: David Baker, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Traci Brimhall, Eduardo C. Corral, Vievee Francis, Kevin Prufer, Martha Rhodes, and Tim Seibles. Special Guest is Gregory Orr accompanied by The Parkington Sisters; Poet-at-Large Brian Turner; and Conference Faculty: Lorna Knowles Blake, Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Nickole Brown, Jessica Jacobs, and Angela Narciso Torres. Will be held online.
Breakout Novel Graduate Learning Retreat. January 25 — February 31, 2021: Tampa, Florida. An intensive week of critiques, one-on-one sessions, query clinics, brainstorming and writing. Limited to 16 students. Will be held virtually. | https://curiosityneverkilledthewriter.com/7-great-writing-conferences-in-january-2021-81505bf0e78a | ['Erica Verrillo'] | 2020-12-24 00:09:46.991000+00:00 | ['Publishing', 'Creative Writing', 'Erica Verrillo', 'Conference', 'Writing'] |
Say Hello to Finch — The Universal API for Payroll and HR | APIs are changing many industries and taking advantage of the paradigm shift from closed systems to open data access. My co-founder, Ansel, and I have witnessed this first-hand while working at our previous companies: I was an early engineer and led Product at Smartcar (a16z and NEA), an API for connected vehicles; Ansel was previously an investor at Bond and Kleiner, making investments in API companies like Plaid.
Ansel and I initially teamed up to build an embedded lending infrastructure platform, Extend, and allow vendors to easily offer lending products to their customers. This process involved everything from pulling data from multiple sources to creating A/B tests for credit models. We had several funding sources and partners lined up until COVID hit. Suddenly, customers dropped left and right. I guess no one wanted to launch a lending product during a global pandemic? 🤷
As luck would have it, during that time one of our partners approached us to talk about offering PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loans to the SMBs on their platform. We started reaching out to legacy and tech-enabled payroll and HR providers to discuss integrations and support the businesses that were in need. Most did not reply and those that did wanted us to present a PowerPoint proposal to different teams within the org. As a developer, we were looking for a Segment, Plaid, or Stripe-like developer experience, but we woefully discovered that such an API infrastructure did not exist. | https://medium.com/tryfinch/say-hello-to-finch-the-universal-api-for-payroll-and-hr-cfde0fc39b7f | ['Jeremy Zhang'] | 2020-12-08 11:49:23.292000+00:00 | ['API', 'Developer', 'Fintech', 'Startup', 'Human Resources'] |
“AI is the most powerful and accurate tool to monitor companies’ ESG”. Interview with Olivier Khatib, CTO at Sensefolio | How can asset managers benefit from Sensefolio ESG data?
Olivier Khatib
Asset managers can benefit from 4 main points:
Firstly, investing in ESG companies have generally a true and profitable impact over the medium to long-term performance of the company (*see disclaimer).
performance of the company (*see disclaimer). Secondly, as ESG is becoming more and more significant in today’s world of investing, it is essential to rely on scores that are updated as soon as new information are coming in .
. Thirdly, Sensefolio ESG data can provide a great tool kit for portfolio risk management . It allows managers to assess and monitor not only the risk of investing in a certain company, but also to position and locate this latter in the region it operates in or it is mainly dealing with.
. It allows managers to assess and monitor not only the risk of investing in a certain company, but also to position and locate this latter in the region it operates in or it is mainly dealing with. Finally, Sensefolio utilises sophisticated Machine learning and NLP techniques that allow machines to read more than 10,000 different sources of information (which means around 1 billion of data points when covering 20,000 companies) and interpret them as good as humans. You can’t read all of it, let the advanced machines do the hard work!
How strong is the relation between AI and ESG?
Regarding the relation between AI and ESG, it is fair to say that this relationship is reciprocal. Both side affects each other in a certain way, and they are actually contributing to one another. AI impacts ESG as more and more information become available online — coming from both internal and external stakeholders.
Businesses have to become more transparent as they evolve. However, some things they hide can sometimes be disclosed with AI, and it is really not businesses’ interest for it to happen as it can lead to a “Streisand effect”- impacting companies’ reputations significantly. Moreover, with Millennials and the Generation Z, a new category of investors is arriving to the investment space. They are more ESG demanding, more ethical and friendlier to the environment. Companies will have to adapt and cope with this growing demand throughout their whole value chain as AI will be able to capture most of entities’ relationships and acts.
On the other side, it is fair to say that ESG impacts AI. At Sensefolio, the more data we retrieve, the more accurate our algorithms become, and thus our ESG Ratings. By adding more and more information, our artificial intelligence algorithms are better trained and better able to distinguish a good information from a bad one.
What are the prospects for ESG and ESG data in general?
ESG is still in its development phase. No framework is yet widely recognized and no standard is widely adopted. The complexity is thus on the metrics used to fully monitor a certain company and their acts.
I believe ESG is becoming extremely popular and will be ubiquitous very soon in the world of investing. ESG data and metrics will be only one half of the ESG portfolio integration. A true ESG portfolio will also require actual involvement in the enterprises with their management and boards. Sensefolio allows managers to assess and monitor companies’ materiality and environmental, social and governance impact, both internally and externally. However, some decisions are made internally and not even employees and investors are aware of them. That is why monitoring a company on a regular basis with frequent meetings with the management will grant investors full insights for their portfolio construction.
In regards to ESG data in general, I strongly believe that ESG data based on A.I. will become extremely popular as they are the only ones able to monitor properly the materiality of companies. There is too much information out there, even if you hire a team of 200 people, you won’t get as much insight as sophisticated algorithms. This goes from reading each text to find the (hidden) links and relations between them.
Moreover, the big challenge is on the disclosures and reports from companies. Even though large companies in Western Europe tend to disclose most of their acts, it is still far from being the case in most of the other regions. That is why we believe, at Sensefolio, that alternative data are key to endeavour to capture more information from those “black-box” companies. As you cannot rely on those companies for their disclosures, we have to rely on alternative data and this is what we, at Sensefolio, are focusing on.
Would you have any recommendations for companies to attract more “ESG” investors?
Investors are fully aware that AI can contribute a lot to ESG investing — however, they are also aware that AI can be dangerous if we rely too much on it. As AI is not human, there are and will always be gaps in terms of analysing new information. However, if you assess the amount of information about a company that your machine can retrieve and integrate compared to what a human can do, I truly believe the accuracy tends to lie more onto the AI side.
Therefore a way that investors can engage to address AI concerns is to force companies to disclose further and deliver more information about their acts and behaviours.
Find out more about Sensefolio on: www.sensefolio.com | https://medium.com/@altdata.insights/its-now-time-for-portfolios-to-make-sense-both-ethically-and-sustainably-c587153dcac6 | ['Altdata Insights'] | 2019-12-29 18:25:34.549000+00:00 | ['Portfolio', 'Esg', 'NLP', 'Investing', 'Machine Learning'] |
My Final Reflection | Throughout this course, I have learned a lot, I have been able to challenge and question things I thought I knew while at the same time being able to grasp knowledge from various points-of-view on the subject of violence.
I began the course with the notion that violence is a topic which teeters on the line, falling inside the grey area rather than being a definite black or white on the spectrum. Even with the amount of grounds we have covered in this class I still believe that violence is a somewhat complicated topic to discuss, there is always a “well it depends on the circumstances” moment instead of a universal agreement on the term in every given situation. What we label as violent may differ based on who you ask, when you ask, and how you ask.
At the beginning of this course, I thought that I had a pretty good idea about what violence was and the different types of violence but I didn’t realize how frequently violence actually occurs around me while I unintentionally turn a blind eye. Now I realize that, at the time, I did not understand whether or not it was my place to consider that an act of violence and call it out as well as I did not notice or consider some of the acts I have witnessed as violent ones.
Throughout this course we observed many different examples that made me re-examine what I thought I knew. The movie that stood out to me the most was the Stanford Prison Experiment. This experiment dealt with how people take on specific roles in society, such as authoritative and working class. Participants in the experiment were assigned different roles, one being prison guards and the other being prisoners. After a couple of hours the participants in the experiment took their roles to a whole new level. Eventually the “pretend” guards got rid of any sympathy they had for the “fake” prisoners and treated them so poorly that some of the prisoners wanted to quit the experiment. The participants who took on the prison guard roles became so self-absorbed in their position they turned into a completely different individual. Taking on a alter-ego. After watching this movie I was able to see how a title can take over how an individual acts. Not only did the jail guards take their roles too far but the prisoners went into a completely different mental state. If you look at the experiment from a social perspective, you can see that not all of the guards were for the inappropriate treatment but they continued to go along with it. Ultimately succumbing to social conformity. They did not always participate in the mistreatment but they did not do anything to stop it. This shows how individuals step down when it comes to authority because we grow up to see authority as the power in society.
What was also brought to my attention in this course was about sexual violence. I knew it was an issue but when we had the last discussion of the course and there was a timer that went off very frequently reminding us[students] about the sexual assaults that happen around us while we are carrying on with our lives, it was a eye-opener and actually very sad to think about. Presentations that occurred in class regarding the subject did a great job to inform and bring attention to the subject.
After taking this class, I have learned numerous things about violence and it has really broadened my perspective. I can now apply what I have learned in this class with everyday situations that happen not only in the media but also in my everyday life. Violence, power and psychology connect in ways that people can not always fully comprehend. People will do anything they can to have the power in society and if that concludes in violence, then they will do whatever they can. That’s not say that there are people who do not believe in this way of thought but when put into certain situations where you can have all this power by stepping over people it is evident, like in the prison experiment, that some people will conform to society’s roles. Having taken this class, I have been questioning more situations with evidence of violence, and why we do the things we do while excusing other instances. I have become more aware of my surroundings when it comes to the topics discussed in class. | https://medium.com/intd-1010/my-final-reflection-9b1942cb7399 | ['Chauntelle Palmer'] | 2016-04-10 23:02:06.624000+00:00 | ['ParisAttacks', 'Leadership', 'Violence'] |
Does It Matter What Other People Think Of You? | Today, let’s speak some truth.
.
To survive in this world and achieve great things, it is important that you have a good self esteem -- so as to be able to get that necessary first-push from within. You've got to believe in yourself and trust your abilities, because that internal validation is what would push you to dare. And to dare is to do. And to do is to be.
As the internal validation and belief in yourself is important, so also is what people think about you, as both are necessary for your greatness to become a reality; because even though greatness might start from within, it doesn’t end there, ever.
The way the world works is that what other people think about you matters; a lot. Your potential employers wouldn’t employ you if they do not see you worthy, even if you believe within yourself that you’re worthy of the position. It also doesn’t matter how much leadership qualities you (think you) possess, or how well you (think you) can govern a country, state or organisation, if the people who possess the right to vote for you don’t see you as you see yourself -- or something close at least -- then you’ll never get to lead them.
As you work on yourself and read internal validation blog posts every day, it’s important that you don’t get carried away. Don’t invest all your energy in believing in yourself that you don’t care if other people believe in you. If greatness is what you want, you’ll only attain that status when other people endorse you.
Ask Messi, Adichie, Soyinka, Ronaldo, Hamilton, Williams, or any other great person you know -- and they’ll tell you they’re great, not just because they think they are, but because people think so (too).
You’re -- largely -- a great wife because your husband thinks so, a great father because your kids feel so, and a great man because people believe so.
.
Away from validation, ability, and greatness, what people think about you also matter in other vital aspects of your life. It is a more objective metric to measure how good, or effective, or efficient, or successful you are -- as a person, or an employee, or a public officer -- by what people think of you, rather than by what you think of yourself.
It is how your policies affect the people you govern that makes you a good governor, not what you think of those policies in your own mind.
Also, look at brands and see how crazy they are about what people think of them. A multi-million dollar business cares about your opinion -- someone who buys just a 15 dollar product monthly -- because your opinion of them matter. They care because your feedback can help them improve. Because you can refer them to other people. Because even though you’re one person, you possess a lot of power; which can ultimately better them as a brand.
If very big brands can be like this, then maybe you should learn this simple thing from them.
.
I know there are some useless people who no matter how good you are, will never endorse you, and will always try to trivialize your efforts or bring you down. This is not about them or what they think. This whole thing is about you and what the people who matter think of you.
.
It is never a bad thing to care about what other people think of you. However, it is also very important that you don’t overemphasize their opinions, as that is dangerous for you. But it matters. What they think of you, matters. | https://medium.com/@kkawesome/does-it-matter-what-other-people-think-of-you-e3473187f0da | ['Koyum Kolade Afolabi'] | 2020-12-22 21:41:04.272000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Validation', 'Opinion'] |
The Fallibility Of Certainty. When I was going through cancer… | ammentorp©123RF.com
When I was going through cancer treatments and had no hair, a young girl of about 19 approached me in the hallway by the doctor’s office.
She asked me, “how do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Walk around without a wig, without a hat, without a care? You’re so brave.” There was genuine admiration on her face and, I’m ashamed to admit it, I basked in it.
I chuckled. “No. Not brave, just lazy.”
“But you don’t seem to care everyone will know you’re sick. It doesn’t bother you what others think.” She said, shyly. Then continued. “How do you do it? I’d like to be that brave.”
“You simply can’t give a shit what anyone thinks. It’s your life.”
“I want to do that; to not care. But I don’t want my neighbors to look at me differently, to know that I’m sick.”
“You can do it. You’re living in your skin, not theirs.” I said.
I felt proud, and a little smug in my certainty. I had a year left of chemo, every three weeks, a year already behind me. I was arrogant and sure in my knowledge. A pro. Yes, I dispensed brilliant advice. The regulars in the waiting room all knew this. Calm and confident. Yessiree, that was me.
“How often do you get chemo?” I asked.
“Weekly.”
“For how long?”
“For the rest of my life.”
And just like that, I deflated, instantly ashamed of my hollow boast.
This girl had mistaken my laziness for bravery, when she was the brave one. She would get those rotten treatments, weekly, for the rest of her life.
I am grateful to her. She reminded me of something I should not have ever forgotten: whatever your situation or your certainty is, remain humble and don’t make assumptions.
That young woman, her strength and her lesson, are engraved on my soul.
I hope she is well — wherever she is. | https://medium.com/@alpbeck/the-fallability-of-certainty-c86f5d4f047d | ['Alp Beck'] | 2020-12-13 15:00:04.083000+00:00 | ['Cancer', 'Living', 'Life Lessons', 'Anecdotes', 'Chemotherapy'] |
Manage Holiday Stress in the Name of Beauty | The holiday season often comes with stress and sleepless nights. It’s the perfect time to focus on a little rest and relaxation in the name of beauty.
It’s supposed to be “the most wonderful time of the year.” It’s a time to give back to the community, exchange gifts and prepare our favorite family meals. It sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, this particular time also comes with stress and sleepless nights. There is so much to do and never enough time to do it. Jam-packed parking lots and stores, endless holiday cards to send and searching for gifts for the ones you love can take a toll. And with all of the holiday parties we have to attend, looking our best can be a challenge.
It’s time to focus on a little R&R in the name of healthy looking skin. Can it be done? Absolutely. Do stress and lack of sleep really affect our appearance? You bet it does. Unfortunately, when we’re feeling stressed or tired on the inside, it also shows on the outside. And trust me, it’s not a good look. A good night’s sleep and a bit of relaxation can truly affect your inner and outer beauty.
Here are a few ways to unwind during the holidays so you can look and feel your absolute best.
Relax
I know it seems impossible to relax during the hectic holiday season, but it’s a must in the name of beauty. Stress can wreak havoc on both your appearance and your overall wellness, including your heart, digestion, weight, memory and sleep. When it comes to your skin, stress can bring on breakouts and cause dehydration, which can lead to fine lines and wrinkles. Stress can cause hormonal imbalances and affect your skin’s barrier function, which could potentially affect your immune system. And don’t get me started on the effects of stress on the hair. If you aren’t interested in turning gray or experiencing hair loss over the holidays, then it’s time to unwind.
To help you relax, it’s important to find a little “me” time even during the busiest time of the year. If you can find just five minutes a day to do a little meditation, it will serve you and your appearance well. Just by entering into a relaxed, peaceful state you can release chemicals into your body that will help to counter the stress hormones you are creating. It’s so simple.
A Few Tips to Try
Find your “happy place.” Look for a place that’s quiet and removed from the holiday chaos. A comfy little spot just for you will do.
Close your eyes, sit up straight and tall, and place your hands in your lap.
Slowly begin to breathe. Inhale through your nose until your lungs are filled, and then slowly exhale through your mouth. Deep breathing will help to slow your heart rate and inspire a feeling of calm. It will also help to lower your blood pressure.
If you can dedicate even more than five minutes, do it. A few extra minutes out of your crazy day will only help you to further alleviate your stress levels.
Managing stress can be difficult. We need to take advantage of every opportunity to get our stress levels under wraps.
Here Are a Few of My Favorite Stress Reducers
Soaking in a bubble bath
Practicing yoga to help train the mind and body to better deal with daily chaos
Listening to music (preferably while soaking in the tub)
Shopping online, which is a huge time and stress reducer during the hectic holidays
Watching TV or a movie
Reading a book or the latest fashion magazine
Taking a brisk walk around the neighborhood
Once you’ve mastered the art of relaxing, you’ll likely notice a change in your appearance, as well as your demeanor. In addition to relaxing, you also need to get a good night’s sleep or it’s all for nothing. Many people admit to losing sleep at night due to stress. And others admit to being even more stressed out because they’re too tired to deal with holiday activities. It’s a vicious cycle.
Get Some Sleep
Remember, as crazy as it sounds, we call it “beauty sleep” for a reason. I often say a good night’s sleep should be everyone’s number one, go-to beauty tip. There is nothing like that youthful, healthy-looking glow you get after a good sleep. Couple a good night’s sleep with your favorite nighttime skin care products and you’ll look fantastic and refreshed.
During the holidays we tend to stay up later celebrating, wrapping presents or putting the finishing touches on our favorite DIY holiday project. Whatever the case, this is not the time to skimp on sleep. When we don’t get enough sleep, our bodies release more cortisol than usual. Cortisol is a stress hormone, which in excess can have us looking tired and stressed out in no time. Our skin can become a bit inflamed and it can affect our collagen. Over time you’ll begin to notice less firmness in your skin and compromised elasticity. The result: fine lines, wrinkles and dry skin.
A restless night also shows under our eyes. There’s no amount of concealer that will cover those dark under-eye circles when we’re exhausted. When we don’t sleep, the blood vessels found directly under the skin around the eyes become dilated and we end up looking like a raccoon.
When we’re sleeping, our body goes into repair mode. This is when the repairing and renewing of our cells occurs. This is vital for our entire body — but when it comes to our skin, it also helps to fend off early aging. Think of sleep as your most important beauty aid, and do your best to get a good eight hours every night. A good night’s sleep will make it easier to face the daily stresses this season. After all, we want to look our best during the holidays.
Tips for a Good Night’s Sleep During the Holidays
Keep your bedroom cool, under 70 degrees if possible
Make sure your room is dark — black-out shades will definitely help
Turn off the TV, computer, phone, etc. before crawling into bed
Invest in a nice, comfy pair of PJ’s while doing your holiday shopping — a special treat to help you survive the season
The holidays are what we make of them. This really is a wonderful time of year that we all should be able to enjoy to its fullest. And everyone wants to look their best, rested and relaxed. After all, we have a brand new year to look forward to. So, let’s look our best in the name of reduced stress.
For more on healthy nutrition and other topics, visit Herbalife Nutrition. | https://medium.com/herbalife-nutrition/manage-holiday-stress-in-the-name-of-beauty-7c0cae79e212 | ['Herbalife Nutrition'] | 2020-12-18 17:02:52.854000+00:00 | ['Stress Management', 'Science', 'Nutrition', 'Holidays', 'Stress'] |
Top 10 JavaScript Frameworks to Learn in 2020 | The StackOverflow developer Survey 2019 has ranked React as the second most used framework in Web development:
It was also the most loved front-end framework in 2019:
2. Node.js
Although there were several attempts to use JavaScript in Server-side development, they were not very popular. In 2009, Ryan Dahl created the asynchronous, event-driven Server-Side JavaScript runtime Node.js and brought JavaScript in the uncharted territory of Back-end development. Ryan Dahl has used the popular JavaScript Engine V8 and C++ libraries. Since then, the popularity of both Node.js and JavaScript has skyrocketed. With Node Package Manager NPM and countless numbers of frameworks/libraries, Node.js has surpassed many other established Server-side frameworks. Because of its Asynchronous Event-Driven nature and lightweight, fast runtime, Node.js is especially suited for I/O heavy applications like Web, IoT, Serverless.
Today, Node.js is not a framework rather than an entire Eco-system of Server-Side JavaScript development. With many innovations (like NPM, Module Systems), Node.js is one of the primary driving force to improve JavaScript as a programming language and to increase the popularity of JavaScript.
5 Key Features:
Node.js is an asynchronous, event-Driven JavaScript framework to build scalable network applications.
JavaScript framework to build scalable network applications. Node.js is a cross-platform and took Java’s “write once, run everywhere” to the next level. It runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, and many other platforms.
and took Java’s “write once, run everywhere” to the next level. It runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, and many other platforms. With its relatively smaller size and faster startup, Node.js heavily used in Serverless computing .
. Run by the OpenJS Foundation , Node.js is an open-source framework and not controlled by one tech corporation. Today, almost all tech giants (IBM, Microsoft, Netflix) use and support Node.js.
, Node.js is an open-source framework and not controlled by one tech corporation. Today, almost all tech giants (IBM, Microsoft, Netflix) use and support Node.js. It supports JavaScript natively and all other “Compile to JS” languages like TypeScript, CoffeeScript, Dart. Node.js also supports the next enormous thing of the Web: WebAssembly.
Popularity:
Although Node.js is the third most starred JavaScript project, it has the highest number of contributors in GitHub:
StackOverflow Developer Survey 2019 has put Node.js in the top position in other framework categories:
Also, Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2019 has placed Node.js as the 6th most loved framework:
From the last ten years of Google Trends data, it is evident that Node.js has surpassed and overtaken other popular Server Side frameworks like PHP Laravel, Django, and ASP.NET.
3. Vue.js
In modern days where Web frameworks are backed by Giant Tech companies, Vue.js is an exception. In 2014, an ex-Google Engineer Evan You decided to combine the good parts of AngularJS (View Layer) and the good parts of React (Virtual DOM) and created Vue.js. Today, Vue.js is one of the most popular JavaScript-based Web frameworks. One of the key design goals of Evan You was to lower the barrier into JavaScript-based front-end development. Vue.js is one of the easiest Front-end frameworks where developers can write SPA applications with minor effort.
Developers can use Vue.js as an End-to-End framework with Routing, State management like Angular, or as only a view layer like React. It also offers Angular like two-way data-binding with additional Reactivity and React like rendering using Virtual DOM.
5 Key Features:
Vue.js offers progressive app development and best in the class documentation. If you have a large legacy JavaScript code-base, then you can progressively modernize your code-base with Vue.js.
app development and best in the class documentation. If you have a large legacy JavaScript code-base, then you can progressively modernize your code-base with Vue.js. Vue.js works both as an opinionated end-to-end framework and a View layer with state management .
. It offers reactive two-way data binding (like Angular) and Virtual DOM, Event Sourcing (like React) .
. Vue.js has equal support for JavaScript and TypeScript .
. Vue.js is going through a major overhaul and improvement in the upcoming Vue.js 3.0.
Popularity:
Vue.js is the most starred GitHub project, as shown below:
Vue.js is experiencing high adoption in the industry of late, which is evident from the high number of downloads in NPM and caught up Angular: | https://towardsdatascience.com/top-10-javascript-frameworks-to-learn-in-2020-a0b83ed3211b | ['Md Kamaruzzaman'] | 2020-12-09 05:11:47.161000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Backend Development', 'Front End Development', 'Nodejs'] |
五小時攻略微軟雲端證照 // AZ-900 準備秘笈 | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/kevindailylife/%E4%BA%94%E5%B0%8F%E6%99%82%E6%94%BB%E7%95%A5-az-900-%E5%BE%AE%E8%BB%9F%E9%9B%B2%E7%AB%AF%E8%AD%89%E7%85%A7%E6%BA%96%E5%82%99%E4%B9%8B%E8%B7%AF-6a29d83db21e | ['楊智堯', 'Kevin Yang'] | 2020-12-31 15:03:38.993000+00:00 | ['Microsoft', 'Az 900 考古題', 'Certification', 'Azure Fundamentals', 'Azure'] |
From $80,000 to $800 To $8,000 Per Annum | From $80,000 to $800 To $8,000 Per Annum
My Work Story — The Fall and The Rise of My Income Graph
In Picture: Author, Captured By: Author
It is easy to go from making $80K per year to $800 per year. Leave your high-paying job, hunt for something more satisfying, struggle to make ends meet, and you’ve got yourself a perfect way to transition from a well-to-do life to a not so much well-to-do one.
Right after college in 2014, I started working as a software engineer at the tech giant, Amazon. I moved to a big city, earned good money, and lived independently — everything was perfect, as I always dreamt. I stayed at Amazon for about four years. During this time, I switched teams, changed cities, got promoted, moved internationally, and overall matured professionally.
The Highest Point of the Graph
Before I left Amazon in 2018, I had moved to Seattle and was earning about $80K per annum — the dream of comfort and luxury living had become true in all essence. While the things looked perfect from the outside, I was craving professional satisfaction. And before the perfect dreamy life of America could swallow me in, I quit my job.
The free air of America had freed me from fear of societal judgment, fear of failure, and fear of trying.
The Fall of the Graph
There are many people of all ages who are concerned about the inability to find their passion. Many think they have already crossed the age of trying. This thought, fortunately, did not cross my mind. I was so full of excitement about the upcoming adventure that I forgot I was 27, the age at which most people in India are already settled or planning to settle: decent job and loving family. In fact, I did not think about my age at all when I decided to leave my job: I was just a regular person who wanted a change, who wanted to try, who wanted to experiment.
When I left my job, I had no idea about the next steps — I had to figure those out along the way. I spent the first six months after leaving Amazon traveling, when one day, it struck me that I can’t keep spending without earning. That’s when the “figuring out phase started.” I spent the next year creating travel content for my social media channels and working on freelance writing and marketing assignments. There was no single channel where I concentrated my efforts and energy — it was everywhere, on all sorts of small and big opportunities. A few of the jobs that I did during this time include:
A couple of brand marketing jobs that I got through TagMango (a brand-influencer collaboration platform)
Writing jobs that I got through writers.academy
Worked as a brand ambassador for European Summer School
Did distribution and marketing for an independent film
Did influencer marketing for properties I stayed at during my travels
Got my travel videos featured on the MakeMyTrip India app
This wide range of jobs helped me make about $800(or INR 50–60K) by the end of the year 2019, of which I was extremely proud. I am, in fact, still proud: of the faith that I had in my work, of the experiments I did, of the risks I took, and of the people who supported me through this journey.
The Rise of the Graph
The year 2020 started with a hit:
I started charging a decent amount for marketing and photography assignments that I got through the properties I stayed at during my travels (the year before, I took very little payment, or most of the times, I did not charge the clients at all). This year I had a dedicated list of services that I provide along with their prices.
I almost entered into a business partnership with a hotel owner (PS: owning a travel lodge has been one of my dreams, and it was one of the most exciting opportunities of 2020). However, I had to let this opportunity go because of some unsolvable issues.
I became an online travel guide for Tripoto
I got more collaboration offers from MakeMyTrip
I got a reliable freelance writing job through Twago
Things, as you see, started well in 2020: I had a reliable travel job, big companies were reaching out to me for my travel knowledge and content. However, when the COVID pandemic broke out, my travel-related work opportunities took a downturn. But I got lucky with the freelance writing work that I got through Twago, which I must admit had been a huge source of survival during these days: it kept me busy, it helped me earn. On good days, I am able to make approximately $700(or ~INR 50K) per month. It roughly amounts to $8000 per year, which the hardships and frugal lifestyle of 2019 has taught me is more than sufficient for a single person.
The Future of the Graph
I have no idea what professional expectations to keep in 2021, but I did learn one thing over the course of the last two years: There are times when the graph goes up and times when it comes down, but all you need is a little hope and a lot of hard work and persistence.
Keep Going 💪 | https://medium.com/illumination/from-80-000-to-800-to-8-000-per-annum-68fc2894b603 | [] | 2020-12-10 09:57:59.227000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Life Lessons', 'Freelancing', 'Money', 'Creativity'] |
NATIONAL SPORTS DAY 2020 | -Speech
I extend my greetings to everyone. I am Xyz of — — and I’ll be delivering a speech on today’s occasion, National Sports Day.
It’s celebrated every year on 29th Aug with the prime motto of developing thoughts on how people perceive sports education.
A few decades ago, the notion that Sports would not add any extra benefit to a person’s life was crowd-pleasing. But that is not the case now. As the new generation starts to take over, one of their prime concerns is Sports and that should be because sports serve a lot more objectives than just giving us pleasure.
You might have already heard the phrase which I am going to tell you now-
'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’.
But why is it so popular? Why do we need to learn about physical activities? The reason is that it helps us build a healthier and happier life. Sports teaches us how to interact with people, communicate with them, collaborate as a team. Besides, it relieves stress and improves the quality of life.
With all those talking about why sports play an important part in our lives, let us now hear why 29th Aug is chosen to be celebrated as National Sports Day. It is done so to honor the birth anniversary of the legendary hockey player Major Dhyan Chand who is regarded as the nation’s greatest hockey player of all time.
On this day, every year, various sporting events such as marathons, competitions, championships are held across the country. Many schools organize tournaments at an intramural level to help bring out the hidden talents of students.
Practically and essentially we shouldn’t step out of the house right now. So what we can do is engage in some sort of sports activity with our family to make them and ourselves feel a little better in these times.
To sum up, National Sports Day is a fun and exciting day for everyone and I hope that you’re celebrating this day with a great deal of joy as we are. On that note, I’ll take your leave.
Stay home, stay safe.
Thank you | https://medium.com/@tanishajain1108/national-sports-day-2020-a82120d306b | ['Tanisha Jain'] | 2020-09-03 20:06:10.021000+00:00 | ['Fitness', 'Sports', 'Health', 'Nationals', 'Social'] |
Weekly Pentina Prompt: Dialogue Only | Weekly Pentina Prompt: Dialogue Only
Write a 50-word story using only dialogue
Photo by Dima Pechurin on Unsplash
New to fiction? Consider this your chance to participate in a short dialogue-only challenge.
Dialogue is critical to story. If no one talks, the narrative naturally devolves into telling, and the reader falls asleep. Dialogue puts us in the conversation, thrusting us into the emotion of the characters.
“Are you certain, Jim?”
“I couldn’t be more certain of anything in life.”
“Anything?”
“Excluding death and taxes, of course.”
Even though dialogue works best with subtext, your prompt this week doesn’t give you that opportunity. For this Pentina prompt, you must write 50 words that are ONLY dialogue.
If you are new to writing dialogue, here are a few tips:
All text and punctuation go inside the quotation marks.
Each time the speaker changes, you start a new paragraph.
You can include names in the dialogue, but put it at a place that feels natural. Don’t just drop names to identify the speakers. Instead, add a unique persona to each character by using slang or peculiar phrases.
For this challenge, I suggest you have only two people speaking (because one person speaking isn’t dialogue, it’s monologue). And since each of these 50 words must be only dialogue, no tags or subtext is allowed. You can’t use “he said” or “she said” or show any actions outside of what is being said. This means using more than two characters would likely confuse the reader. You can, however, get creative and show actions within the dialogue:
“What did you just write on that damned notepad?”
“Sit back down! Or did you already forget you’re the one who stormed into my office, red-faced and huffing, demanding I take notes?”
What would a Pentina composed of only dialogue look like? I’m not sure, but it means you better make your characters’ voices distinct:
“Distinct? How?”
“You compose in unique, easily recognizable voices.”
“Voices?”
“The tenor, the tone. Smooth words flowing like clear water over river rock.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“That’s very unrefined of you.”
“My poppa worked at a refinery.”
“I can see this is not going to work.”
Now go have fun with this dialogue-only challenge. We can’t wait to read your conversations! | https://medium.com/centina-pentina/weekly-pentina-prompt-dialogue-only-aa92b807b873 | ['J.A. Taylor'] | 2020-12-04 14:03:00.320000+00:00 | ['Writing Prompts', '50 Word Stories', 'Dialogue', 'Pubprompt', 'Prompt'] |
In The News: Americans Are More Stressed Out Than Ever | Recently, survey company Gallup conducted a poll which revealed something surprising: on average, Americans are more stressed out than anyone else in the world. Keep reading to find out more.
What?
This past year, Americans reported feeling extremely high levels of stress, worry, and anger. Created in 2005, Gallup’s poll is conducted annually and surveys over 150,000 people around the world. In the poll, Gallup asks individuals if they had experienced mostly positive or negative feelings the previous day.
The Data
In the U.S., 55% of adults said they experienced stress the previous day, compared to the global average of just 35%. This puts the country on par with Greece, which has held the top ranking in stress since 2012.
49% of Americans reported feeling “a lot” of stress, compared with the international average of 39%.
Why?
Gallup examined the responses more closely, and discovered that statistically, being under 50, having a low income, and being dissatisfied with President Trump’s job performance were all linked to feelings of extreme stress. There is still not enough data to prove that these things are behind increased anger and worry.
It’s Not All Bad
Though Americans reported feeling more stressed out than ever before, it’s not all bad news. 64% of adults in the U.S. reported that they had learned something new or done something interesting the day before, compared to just 49% on the global scale. The surveys of positive and negative experiences are unrelated.
This article is for informational purposes only.
To browse psychiatrists, click here. | https://medium.com/@goqwell/in-the-news-americans-are-more-stressed-out-than-ever-3244512075df | ['Go Qwell'] | 2019-12-23 17:44:44.623000+00:00 | ['Wellness', 'Mental Health', 'Healthcare', 'Qwell', '2016 Election'] |
Dad | photo by Aaron O’Neill
Growing up was fun except when it wasn’t. I used to be “daddy’s little girl” before siblings happened. I lost my title before I could milk it for all it was worth.
My earliest memories of my dad are my fondest. Two year old me, waking up at night to the sound of his voice praying in the living room, crawling out of bed and making my way to him surrounded by darkness just so he could carry me and walk around while I continued my sleep.
The sound of his voice singing me to sleep. I’ll forever have Edelweiss engrained in my memory. I knew the lyrics before I knew what lyrics were. One time I literally kicked my mum out of a conversation with him so he could sing me to sleep. Perks of being “daddy’s little girl”. Of course my mother wanted to hang me from the ceiling but oh well.
I could go on, the list is endless however I won’t instead I’ll just share a few of my best memories in no particular order of favoriteness (Yes that’s a word, not convinced? Argue with autocorrect.)
Bullied at 4
I was as cute as a button (still am) and small to boot (I’ve grown). My mum taught me to be nice and to turn the other cheek, the only challenge was 4 year old me took that to mean I should let people walk all over me because I was nice. At school, there was this one kid who was always mean to me, it got so bad that I started dreading going to school. I was tired of getting picked on and knocked down physically and otherwise.
One Sunday, my dad was about to leave on a journey and as part of his goodbye he wished me a “great week at school”. I had just about had it and I blatantly told him I didn’t want to go to school anymore. He stopped what he was doing, took me in his arms and asked what was wrong. I happily spilled the beans thinking it would save me from school the next day. It didn’t, but it did change my view entirely. He said, the next time someone bullied me I should give them two tight slaps. The first one to retaliate and the second one to clear their doubts and then he added
“Never throw the first punch. We don’t go around looking for trouble but if someone troubles us, we let them have it double fold”.
I was super excited, my dad just gave me backing to beat someone up, his only condition “don’t go looking for trouble” and that was easy I was always getting picked on for minding my business. Monday couldn’t come soon enough, I could literally see myself up on a desk slapping my bully (this actually happened a few days later, the desk was so I could reach his face and yes it was satisfying). I was 4 years old when he said those words to me and now, a few decades later they still ring clear in my ears.
My First Failure
I was 9 years old and I had just gotten my first poor grade. I had a 30/60 and other people in class had scores in the high 50’s, this one kid got the full 60 marks. I was devastated. I walked home from school with tears rolling own my cheeks freely. I was so sure my dad would be disappointed and possibly angry with me when he called later that evening. As soon as I got home I walked into my mother’s room and told her all that happened (at least one person might sympathize with me) and begged her not to tell my dad, at least not yet.
Barely fifteen minutes later my mother handed me the phone, my dad was on the other end of the line. I put the phone to my ear and whispered a “hello” as another wave of silent tears began. I was mentally prepared for everything except what happened next. My dad asked why I was crying, I softly explained how I got a 30/60 and his next words shocked the tears from my eyes. He said,
“That’s okay, now you understand how other people feel when they get bad grades because you’ve been in their shoes.”
And that was it. We spoke about some random topics and said our goodbyes. I learnt a valuable life lesson that day and it has stayed with me since then. Never look down on anyone, we all have our bad days.
My First Job
I had just finished school and gotten my first job and I was nervous and excited. My dad called me on the phone to chat and while we were talking, he gave me a few tips on surviving the world of work.
“Always leave a legacy. Identify a challenge, provide a solution before you walk away.” “Always under-promise and over-deliver. Never put pressure on yourself and don’t let anyone put pressure on you.” “Always remember, on the table of life only two things matter, what you think and what you decide.”
It’s been a few years since he said these words to me but they and a billion others he has told me over the years have shaped me into the person I am. I’m still a work in progress because by the time you read this, I would have gotten more nuggets to add to my memory chest.
Dads are underrated (I love you too mum). I read that most females want to marry a man like their father, I might be part of the few exceptions because I want to become just like my father and every time my mother in exasperation says “you think and act just like your dad!” I smile because I know I’m one step closer.
Signed: Your Chiefmate. | https://thecreative.cafe/dad-6db962dbbc3 | ['Aurora Chérie'] | 2020-08-20 12:29:51.263000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Life', 'Parenting', 'Dads'] |
Volunteer educators to help India overcome its Learning Crisis | Source: bengaluru.citizenmatters.in
India’s education system is severely crippled. If remedial steps are not taken immediately then sustenance and employment in the 21st century will become very difficult for our Generation Alpha (children born after 2010). And the problem is too vast for the state (at least with its current capacity) to deal with by itself. To avert a major learning crisis in India, it is vital for educated members of our society to step in as volunteers.
Take the current pandemic times for example. As members of the civil society, haven’t we all given our time and effort to help out by making verification calls on leads, organizing logistics around plasma donation, and running up to deliver essentials to an elderly couple in the neighbourhood? Even the NITI Aayog is exploring possibilities to involve civil volunteers in ‘non-specialized’ tasks to assist with COVID relief measures. Similar involvement is required from society to help with the learning crisis.
But before we talk about the solution, we must understand the problem first.
The Problem
If you’re reading this, then it is safe to assume that you had the privilege of getting a good foundational education in your early years. If you didn’t and can still read this text, then you probably are someone who has had to work hard to develop foundational literacy skills later on; in which case, you would understand the challenges of pursuing education when you don’t acquire foundational literacy skills in your early years.
Foundational Learning in simple terms is the gateway skills that a child needs to acquire in their initial years to make the best of the education that they receive through the rest of their lives. For example: What is going on with you at this very moment? You are learning new facts as you read this text with comprehension. In our initial years, we were able to ‘Learn to Read’ so that we could ‘Read to Learn’. (Check out this video by Central Square Foundation to find out what is Foundational Literacy and Numeracy and why it matters).
Therefore, Foundational Learning becomes indispensable in a child’s education. Even before the pandemic, our education system grossly failed at delivering meaningful learnings to our children. This is despite having put them through years of formal education. This was widely attributed to the lack of focus on learning outcomes in our schools. While the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan managed to get most of our children into schools, it did little to help them learn.
If we continue to teach our children without a focus on Foundational Learning, we will end up with nothing but high dropout rates and crores of unemployable youth. This is the reason why the nation (and all stakeholders in the education system) needs to work in a ‘mission mode’ to achieve Foundational Learning for all our children by 2030. However, we are far from achieving this objective and the pandemic has set us back even further.
The Solution
With an already skewed teacher-student ratio, time crunch and the issue of multi-grade classrooms, it is not easy to develop a system with our existing human resource that will help India achieve UN’s Sustainable Development Goal — 4 of universal Foundational Learning (also highlighted in the NEP).
However, there is a method that, if contextualized for education, can serve as the solution. A method that has been used every time our populous nation has faced a shortage of trained professionals — mobilizing and using part-time volunteers to do the job.
The idea may seem intuitive and a good solution to the above problem. But some critical aspects of the vision and implementation principles need to be considered first.
Degree of Responsibility and Duration
Are volunteers reliable? Yes, if their responsibilities are designed to not get too burdensome.
Doesn’t it take the focus away from building the state’s capacity to attend to the Foundational Learning needs of our children? No. Simultaneous efforts to build state capacity need to be taken up while ensuring that millions of children in today’s date do not suffer.
Helping with foundational learning requires the teacher to pay individual attention to students. Therefore, if volunteers are to replace teachers at this task, it will be advisable that a volunteer be responsible for not more than 3–4 children. This will allow the volunteer to pay proper attention to each child and develop a bond with the student, which is a crucial factor in the learning process of children. A small number of assigned children will make for better monitoring of performance and ensure high learning levels in the children. Further, the volunteer will not feel as burdened and therefore show continued commitment towards the role.
It is also important that any such program to involve volunteers must not come at the cost of the state’s long-term solution. The volunteer program must be put in place to address only immediate concerns around Foundational Learning. The impact of such a volunteer program has to be evaluated and compared with the impact that permanent state appointed teachers have on a child’s learning level. Insights from such an evaluation can later be used to determine the continuance of such a program for long-term. However, simultaneous efforts towards finding a long-term solution cannot be abandoned.
Training
One may ask, can an untrained volunteer deliver learning in the same way that a teacher does? Foundational Learning requires personalized support in order to help improve comprehension skills in children and our teachers are unable to provide the same due to the high volume of students per class and the vast curriculum that each teacher is supposed to attend to. Volunteers shall not be responsible for delivering the entire curriculum but only provide this extra personalized support to every child.
Nonetheless, even the volunteers will have to undergo a brief weeklong training and continued mentoring. This will train them in using the tools/methods that they have to use with children and monitoring learning levels. The District Institution of Education Training and SCERT, with the help of NGOs can further develop region specific tutoring handbooks to guide the volunteers. The Prarambhik Bhasha Shikshan Evam Akadmik Sahyog module developed by Learning and Language Foundation can serve as a good template for such training after contextualizing it to the program.
Motivation
While many who are eligible to volunteer would agree that the cause is noble and the crisis pretty severe, it will be a task to mobilize talent that is willing to volunteer. A 2017 report on the State of Youth Volunteering in India, highlighted that volunteer work is considered as ‘unimportant’ in India and therefore finds low engagement. Developing skills, building leadership qualities, inculcating values etc. sound great but unfortunately do not serve as enough incentive for the youth to take up volunteering. If we need civil volunteers to help with our children’s education, we need to directly link it with better opportunities in higher-education, careers and business.
Adding clear incentives like academic credits with the UGC’s mandate must be introduced for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Additionally, ‘Education-for-Education’ model like the one run by Pratham Education Foundation for its Anganwadi Support Program and other programs can be explored. Here the volunteers can access English and Computer Courses free of cost for the duration of their engagement with Pratham. Likewise, many such incentives should be added to add a strong ‘motivation’ factor for those committing to this.
Accountability
With training and motivation as inputs, accountability becomes an expected output in any case. For something as fundamental as education, an accountability mechanism for those responsible for delivering it, becomes a must. Even for the civil-volunteers, there must be a clear way to monitor performance of the students they teach. An in-process evaluation system (formative assessments) that is easy to conduct will have to be devised. Results of these assessments need to be constantly shared with regional coordinators and with those in-charge of training and content to inform future development of tools/methods used by volunteers. Being able to see their students perform should also act as additional motivation for the volunteers.
If you agree with the idea in spirit but are a little skeptical about the practicality of such a model, then there’s evidence to draw inspiration from too! In the past, Educate Girls, a Mumbai based NGO has successfully run a community volunteer program to improve learning outcomes in children. E-vidyaloka is another initiative that uses volunteers to enable quality education in India. Pratham has seen very positive results by getting village volunteers for its Read India Program too.
With a focus on training, motivation and accountability, a program can be designed to be delivered at scale. It is time that the educated individuals focus their volunteer efforts towards saving the future of crores of our children. Because only a strong foundational learning will enable the future generations to get 21st century skills. Consequently, leading to national development, equity and alleviation of poverty. And this can be achieved with your participation! | https://medium.com/@mustafarasheed09/volunteer-educators-to-help-india-overcome-its-learning-crisis-e4fca4eb706c | ['Mustafa Rasheed'] | 2021-09-09 13:15:44.654000+00:00 | ['Learning Crisis', 'Education', 'Foundational Learning', 'National Education Policy', 'Volunteering'] |
This week we chat with US music producer Victor Merritt | The bands were; (“The All-Female Band “Klymaxx”, who had 2 Top 10 Hits and a Platinum Debut Album, and “The Deele” an all-male band featuring a then-unknown Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and “LA Reid” {Now Chairman at Epic Records}, the band also had a debut album that had a Top 10 Hit.
Victor's band impressed the promoter, so much, they were booked to be the “Local Opening Act” for the National Bands.
After the show, Babyface introduced himself and told Victor how much everyone enjoyed the performance and he couldn’t believe that he was only (17) with such mastery of the keyboards.
Babyface gave Victor his number and the jounrney begain!
Victor then went on to gain a music scholarship to Contra Costa College in Richmond California. Where he attended college for 5 months and just wanted to try music full time.
Victor then left college in early 1986 and with the help of my 3 mentors Babyface, Teddy Riley & Charlie Wilson were Victor learned how to stay “Appreciative and Ambitions”.
Music producer and Composer Victor Merritt
Victor also taught himself how to perfect other instruments, Drums, Lead & Bass Guitar, plus learned how to be a studio engineer & mixer.
With so many ups and downs but managed to still be relevant 40+ years later.
With all this experience at a young age, Victor went on to build a music career working with some music great’s over many years, starting with MCA Chairman in 1997, Doug Morris, Ms. Abby Konowitch, EVP and Ms. Nancy Levin, SVP, made it a very enjoyable for Victor and Gerald, (“The Grand Jury’’, their production name.) to build and perfect their craft!
Going onto work with and produce — K-CI and Jo Jo’s 4x Platinum album,”(All My Life)[Billboard position #6 top 100, and,1 R&B &1 in (4) Foreign Countries] Grammy Nominated.
Working with Doug Morris, and his staff was first class for Victor and his production team. At [R’CA Records in 1997], these executives provided a positive environment of continuity, President of RCA, Bob Jamieson, and Vice President of A&R, Brain Malouf.
Gerald and Victor Produced many“ Debut Albums”.
Victor's nephew Dee then introduced him to a dynamic R&B singer, called Rome at that time.
They then went on to get signed to “RCA”. His debut album, called ‘Romeo’[ Billboard #6 in top 100 and top ten in Billboard’s R&B charts].
With (2) singles and both placed high on Billboard, certified’ “Gold’(Half-Million Copies Sold,) it exceeded over 1 million copies sold since 1997.
The 2nd debut for RCA,(1997.) Produced, Sylk-E-Fyne’s, huge single, “Romeo and Juliet”[Billboard #6 in top 100 & #1 in Rap Category] The “album was certified” Gold 7 times.
Placed a song on the Album’, which included, Superstar, Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds (Wrote 26, #1 Billboard Hits for Whitney Houston, Eric Clapton, TLC and his partner, LA Reid.
The album is called:, (Shot Caller Big Baller”,1997 on the label “ BMG).
Later that year Victor had the opportunity to do a remix for, The Greatest Band On The Planet, (“U2”):,[If God Will Send His Angels] {The Grand Jury Mix, Victor aka “Vito “ Merritt], on ‘Island Records’.
Hanging with “,U2” was a memorable experience.
Victor then went on to work with the legend himself Michael Jackson where he produced and play keyboards from the trio “Brownstone,” (MJJ Records)/Michael Joe Jackson’s label.
Michael was Executive Producer. Victor “When Michael grooves to my music, I was speechless”. “Michael was so humble I really wish I could have spent more time with him”.
To listen more to the chat with Victor click on the link below;
Victor has been blessed to have worked with some of the Legendary Stars over the years.
Victor is currently working with some very talented unsigned artists, helping them just like he got helped by his mentors.
This is what makes him very happy but he’s got just as much enjoyment working with unsigned acts as he did working with global acts like Michael Jackson Babyface and U2.
If you put the work in over the years it does pay off…
By Peter Moore | https://medium.com/the-entertainment-engine/this-week-we-chat-with-us-music-producer-victor-merritt-whos-worked-with-charlie-wilson-michael-b75f9fd319f9 | ['Peter Moore'] | 2020-12-03 16:35:59.863000+00:00 | ['Podcast', 'USA', 'Music', 'Producer', 'Energy'] |
Global map of access to cities published by Nature. | “We’ve made huge technological advancements since 2008,” said David González, Vizzuality’s founder and Chief Technology Officer. “We have more information than ever before from satellites, and crowdsourcing via projects like OpenStreetMap has allowed us to tap into our ‘collective intelligence’. Cloud computing and big data allow us to process all this data in greater resolution and put it at the fingertips of anyone who wants to use.”
Mapping accessibility data allows us to understand a number of factors associated with human wellbeing and development, such as the likelihood that people will seek medical care when they are ill, or what level of education they are likely to attain. It can also help us predict food security and inform decisions that contribute to the worldwide effort to eliminate malaria.
For example, the University of Oxford uses access to cities as a variable in its estimates of the impact of malaria on national economies, mortality and morbidity. This information, together with maps of the spatial distribution of malaria, is relied upon by the World Health Organisation and other institutions to identify areas where bed nets and antimalarial drugs need to be distributed.
“Design too has had an important role in the evolution of data visualisations since the original accessibility map was created,” said Sergio Estella, Vizzuality’s founder and Chief Design Officer. “Infographics are now interactive and users can customise what they see. Design helps people do this by making information more digestible and prioritising the data that will draw users in. Cartography is more accessible than ever before and you no longer need to be GIS specialist or software engineer to access tools that help you visualise data in engaging ways.”
Developments in design and technology have helped us put unmapped places on the map. Roads that were ‘missing’ from the 2008 map are now included, which means the people who use them are also accounted for. Advances in satellite technology and data processing means we can spot roads as they appear, and monitor deforestation, in almost real-time.
With each improvement we make to the collection, analysis and visualisation of data, we open up new opportunities to use our resources more efficiently. This map of global access to cities could help us ensure economic development balances the environmental costs it often occurs, and help direct us to a future that is equitable for all.
Explore the map for yourself here. | https://medium.com/vizzuality-blog/global-map-of-access-to-cities-published-by-nature-c391ee2dc66f | ['Camellia Williams'] | 2018-09-14 13:24:59.003000+00:00 | ['Big Data', 'Sustainable Development', 'Maps', 'Design', 'Data Visualization'] |
Logistics Insurance Market Size Worth $61.55 Billion By 2025 | The global logistics insurance market is anticipated to reach USD 61.55 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The increasing foreign direct investment, establishment of free trade zones, and increasing globalization has resulted in the rapid growth of the transportation industry in the emerging countries. The logistics hubs and trade routes are gradually shifting toward the emerging market. Privatization of the transportation industry has further spurred the industry growth in China, Turkey, and India.
The adoption of digital technologies enables the company to tap new opportunities for additional premiums, better risk selection, increasing governance, and improved customer experience. Insurers across the globe are implementing newer technologies and adopting cloud- and mobile-based technologies to tap the growing demand in the emerging markets. Through various distribution channels, the insurance companies are modernizing the legacy applications.
The insurance companies are implementing mobility as a part of the business strategy, owing to the increasing usage of smartphones in both developed and emerging markets. Customers can easily request a policy quote, calculate premium, locate insurance agent, and store the policy data with the advent of the mobile apps.
The insurance industry comprises of structured and unstructured data. Big data analytics plays a vital role in the insurance industry that delivers significant Return on Investment (ROI) and cost savings. The rise in digital integration and digital customer relationship management is likely to spur the market demand over the forecast period.
Click the link below:
http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/logistics-insurance-market
Further key findings from the report suggest: | https://medium.com/@marketnewsreports/logistics-insurance-market-b1004aee21d7 | ['Gaurav Shah'] | 2020-12-15 11:21:31.077000+00:00 | ['China', 'Transportation', 'Aviation', 'Turkey', 'Marine'] |
The Do’s and Don’ts of In-Home UX Research | The Do’s and Don’ts of In-Home UX Research
Lessons from the field
So the product you’re researching is in home, and now you get to go inside a strangers house. Recently at Marketade, we worked with a cutting edge in home fitness product with several of their users. We traveled across the US and visited homes across a wide variety of demographics. Here are some things we learned along the way.
DO give users notice, but not too much.
Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash
Recruiting is tricky when you don’t live in the geographic area in which you are trying to recruit. You don’t want to burn through your clients budget by extending hotel stays or rescheduling flights. During our recruiting process, we figured out a window that worked for us to be in the area. Then, we scheduled users for that time.
We began our recruiting process by using a CRM list provided by the client. Then we launched right in to screening. We figured that trying to recruit could be challenging, so we wanted ample time to prepare.
Throughout our process, we found that scheduling out by 2–3 weeks was a pretty safe bet. Any longer and we noticed users tended to deprioritize our visits. Shorter time frames can work, but they put a lot of pressure on you as the researcher if you have a target sample size. We found that 2–3 weeks gave us and our users ample notice and time to plan, without too much time that they would forget or it would be disruptive to other plans.
DON’T recruit around major events or holidays
Photo by Anna Dziubinska on Unsplash
This may seem obvious, but check your calendar before you recruit. Holidays mean busy travel seasons. This not only makes it difficult to schedule users, but it is also expensive and time consuming to travel at this time. The airports are crowded and travel is much more stressful. Additionally, people tend to be quite preoccupied during the holiday season. For this project, we wanted to observe how users interact with their fitness product in home. Most users lamented that they were out of their typical fitness routines owing to the stress of the holidays. The data was still extraordinarily valuable, but it was a reminder that holidays introduce a new variable into the sample, and it’s important to remember that when analyzing your data.
DO have backups … of everything!
Photo by Hanson Lu on Unsplash
Our target goal was 12 users total. Predictably, we had last minute cancellations. One thing we made sure to do was have alternates. During recruiting, we took the first 12 users who fit the profile, but we kept additional people on hand in case of cancellations.
Additionally, if you have high quality video cameras, make sure you also have a high quality back up. My primary camera failed me in one visit and I had to use my laptop in a pinch. It worked well enough, but the video quality was poor. Make sure you always have at least two options for recording.
DON’T go alone
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator on Unsplash
At Marketade, we have a policy that researchers do not go alone into users homes. This is for obvious safety reasons, but from a practical standpoint, it can help having someone take notes and help troubleshoot any technical problems. In our case, stakeholders joined us for each session! I recommend this strategy wholeheartedly. It helps them see firsthand some of the pain points users experience, and they delivered presentations at the collaborative workshop we run after we collect data.
DO prepare yourself and your users
Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash
Always send reminders leading up to the day you’ll be visiting them in home. We used a combination of calling and sending text reminders so there were no surprises. Additionally, we told users exactly what to expect and how many people would be going. We tried not to overstay our sessions, although some ran over with the users permission!
Our project included watching users do an actual workout on their machine. Obviously, this is no small ask — it’s hard enough to work out without someone watching you! Most users didn’t think this was a big deal, but it’s our responsibility as researchers to put them at ease. Make sure to talk with users about who they are before you ask them to perform. It’s important to remember that users will have a broad range of emotions and reactions to our present in the home. As a result, we made sure to ask questions about motivation, their typical fitness routine and their life in general before we launched in to the fitness session.
Moreover, we assured them that we would not correct their form, that we weren’t there to judge their routine but to watch how they interact with the machine. They were free to start and stop as they feel necessary. We made it a point to put them in the drivers seat during the session. As always, some users will be friendly and talkative, and some will be more withholding. Prepare yourself for all types of users, and be ready to engage as they lead you.
DON’T wait until the last minute to find directions to your destination
Photo by henry perks on Unsplash
If you’re researching in a city where you don’t live, try searching for directions to your users house at various times throughout the days leading up to your visit or use the map feature that allows you to pick a departure time. Figure out where the hot spots are and if you’ll be going in the direction of traffic or against it whenever you plan to leave. Be aware of traffic delays, construction or any major event happening in that area. Doing this will give you an idea of when you need to leave to arrive at the home visit on time.
If you are using Uber or Lyft, leave at least 10–15 minutes earlier than you think you should. Inevitably, the driver sometimes cancels the request, they get lost or they hit traffic. When I was in Miami, my drivers could never find my hotel. One driver missed an exit and took an additional 20 minutes to get to our destination.
DO pack a bag
Photo by Luis Quintero on Unsplash
Your bag should have:
Camera, if you’re using it
Back up camera (x2 if you can)
Batteries, if necessary
Chargers
Pen
Paper
Laptop
Cell phone
Snacks!
If you’re anything like me, it’s really hard to do research on an empty stomach! We packed 3 sessions in a day and I didn’t have time to eat until late that evening. Fortunately, I packed a protein bar and fruit with me. Without it, I think the session would have been much less productive.
DON’T forget to follow up
Photo by Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash
Make sure to give the incentive you offer to your users right away, and always send a thank you note. Allowing a stranger into your home is not a small ask. Thank users profusely, send a personalized note and make sure to pay them as soon as you can. These details build trust and respect with your user, and ultimately your business!
DO have fun!
Right now, in home research seems like a distant memory and a dismal prospect. But one day, this pandemic will lift and it’s likely you’ll get the opportunity to do in home research. When the day comes, I hope this list helps and I hope you enjoy the unique opportunity to see your users in their homes, whatever form that takes! | https://medium.com/marketade/the-dos-and-don-ts-of-in-home-ux-research-c15b2fddcb58 | ['Emily Williams'] | 2020-06-05 15:38:53.218000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'UX Research', 'UX Design', 'Product Management', 'UX'] |
Try changing your thinking habits and solve problems effortlessly | Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way. Edward de Bono
My middle school teacher’s favourite teaching tool in the world was Edward de Bono’s 6 thinking hats. Every day I donned a new figurative hat. It was so repetitive at the time, but looking back I can see it taught me valuable skills.
I learned to view a problem from all perspectives — positively, negatively, using facts as well as emotion.
I want to focus on the most under-utilised hat, the green hat, which represents creative thinking. Because as adults we forget creativity is always a tool in our toolkit.
The proof that we’re not utilising our creativity is when our thoughts become obsessive. Mulling over a problem often feels like getting stuck in mud, the wheels are spinning, and you’re not even inching forward. It’s stressful, and so distracting from everything else going on in your life.
The reason why we get stuck is because we’re looking for a novel answer while using the same old established patterns.
But we can’t force answers to flow on demand, right?
Well creative thinking is about deciding what you want, setting up the space for a solution, and then trusting the answer to come to you, without micromanaging the thought process. We all have difficulty letting go of control, but if you trust yourself, you can, and will find the answer you need.
How to set yourself up for creative problem solving:
Define your ideal outcome.
Rather than focusing on the problem, what would your ideal situation look like if the problem was already solved? You don’t know how to get there at the moment, but do you know where you want to go? That’s really important. And if you don’t know right now? Just make it up.
Believe that this outcome is possible.
Mindset matters. Ideas never come to me until I have committed to reaching the end result. Wishing for an outcome is not the same. It has to be a done deal in your mind. The way to get into this mindset is to use your imagination and visualise it. And really go into the details. What does the scene look like, sound like, feel like? The more details you have in a visualisation the more real it will become, and the more it will stimulate the brain to develop new neural connections. Now you have a conflicting mental image and current reality. Perfect. It’s time to resolve this conflict.
Do a non-judgmental brainstorming session
The aim is to come up with way more solutions than you need. Take 10 minutes and write down every single idea that comes up, no matter how ridiculous. You’re not looking for the RIGHT answer here, you’re looking to expand your mind. The results may spark inspiration to take action, but they may not. It doesn’t matter, you’re getting the ball rolling.
Make space in your day for the solution
Which means, walk away. You didn’t create a visualisation to obsess over it, that will take you back to your habit of overthinking. There’s a reason why people say “sleep on it”. This works for any situation that you feel stuck in, the best thing you can do is take a break from it. Don’t beat yourself up or try and push through it. | https://medium.com/@esthercooke/try-changing-your-thinking-habits-and-solve-problems-effortlessly-2b96aa13e43f | ['Esther Cooke'] | 2021-01-07 12:33:43.175000+00:00 | ['Creative Thinking', 'Positive Thinking', 'Creativity', 'Problem Solving', 'Overthinking'] |
Mobility as a Service Market Size | Mobility as a Service Market Size | Share | Analysis | Trends — Global Forecast to 2027 | MarketResearchFuture Ketan Wagh May 5·4 min read
Overview
The mobility as a service market is anticipated to grow by US$484.20 Billion by 2024 rapidly growing at a CAGR of 38.9% during the forecast period. The global mobility as a service market is driven by rapid expansion of public infrastructure and favorable government policies. These factors have helped shape the Mobility as a Service Market and are expected to boost the growth. Companies in the mobility as a service market could also face challenges such as concerns regarding the safety of MaaS systems. The details covered in the mobility as a service market report cover all the aspects of the industry. Mobility as a service market analysts have also shared growth projections in the report and have suggested mobility as a service market player to plan growth strategies accordingly.
Market Segmentation
The global mobility as a service market has been segmented based on type, service type, business model, and application platform. On the basis of type, the market for mobility as a service is segmented based on public and private. Additionally, the market on the basis of service type, is segmented into car, bus, ride. The global market for mobility as a service is also covered based on business model segment which is further split into business to business, business to customer and peer to peer. On the basis of application platforms, the market for mobility as a service is segmented based on android, ios and others.
Factors like growing demand for mobile applications and low development cost support the mobility as a service market growth. The performance of mobility as a service market has also been studied for the past and current years. Additionally, the mobility as a service market report provides analysis of these segments. The mobility as a service market segmental analysis provided in the report offers major details about the mobility as a service market performance and future.
Get a Free Sample @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/3109
Regional Overview
Companies in the mobility as a service market are spread across the world. The mobility as a service market report provides major information about regional markets of North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), and the rest of the world. The North American mobility as a service market has many companies across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Europe has companies in the mobility as a service market across Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom. A detailed analysis of the mobility as a service market across India, China, and Japan in the Asia-Pacific region is also presented in the report. The mobility as a service market of the Middle East, Africa, and other regions has also been studied by analysts. The regional analysis of mobility as a service market can be found in the market research report.
Competitive Landscape
The mobility as a service market is supported by widespread use of social media and easy availability of funds. The population growth around the world and increasing demand of mobility as a service market based services and products also support the market growth. However, the mobility as a service market growth can be affected due to a poor operational environment. The report covers all such details which will help companies in the mobility as a service market to strengthen their business plan and improve their product portfolio. The mobility as a service market research report also provides company profiles of major companies. The company profile of organizations operating in the mobility as a service market discusses strategies, growth plans, size, revenue, and mergers and acquisition details of top companies in the mobility as a service market. New entrants and established players can plan their strategies based on this data provided in the mobility as a service market research report.
Industry News
The purchase of the leading mobile vehicle repairs and servicing company extends Cox Automobile Mobility Fleet Optimization and marketplace services capabilities and global scope. The mobile repair services specialist at Dickinson will be the gateway to the future success direction of Pivet. Dickinson Fleet Services’ technical learning can be extended to benefit Cox Automotive partners and consumers learning, growing and implementing in the space of mobile fleet services.
Browse Complete Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/mobility-as-a-service-market-3109
About Market Research Future:
At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.
MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.
Contact:
Market Research Future
+1 646 845 9312
Email: [email protected] | https://medium.com/@ketan-wagh121/mobility-as-a-service-market-size-share-analysis-trends-global-forecast-to-2027-a67744e49a8e | ['Ketan Wagh'] | 2021-05-05 14:05:34.531000+00:00 | ['Mobility As A Service', 'Mobility', 'Services', 'Tec', 'Technology'] |
Life After a Breakup — Get Active Again! | How to deal with life after a Breakup, Finding the strength to move forward and not look back.
It’s perfectly understandable if your recent break up is really taking an emotional toll on you. So much negative energy takes center stage in our lives after a break up and it can be very difficult to overcome it.
However, the good news is there are ways to use your inner strength to help in the healing process so you can move on. Of course, it sounds much easier than it is, but what’s important is taking the healing process in stages and only move on to the next stage when you’re absolutely ready.
Try these helpful strategies to reconnect with your inner self and identify the path that will lead you to full recovery and closure:
Find a spiritual connection. One of the most effective ways to develop the strength to heal after a break up is to develop your spirituality. Being spiritual involves becoming in tune with the true desires and needs of your soul. Once you’ve made that connection, you’ll likely realize that the relationship was hurting you instead of helping you.
• Turn to your church to help you find the true meaning of your existence.
• Read books that help you get in touch with your inner self.
• Spend time meditating on what’s really important to you.
Get motivated. A really bad break up can make anybody feel down in the dumps, and that’s probably how you feel right now. However, you must do what you can to motivate yourself to move on. What really motivates you?
• Do you feel motivated when you achieve goals that are important to you?
• Will successful completions of projects at work or school get your enthusiasm going?
• Are you inspired by the success of those closest to you?
Don’t compromise your happiness after a breakup. If any aspects of your past relationship compromised your happiness, then it wasn’t the right relationship for you. Remember that you’re a beautiful creation and you’re supposed to be happy. Strive for relationships that fill you with joy. Accept support from your friends and family. Relying on those who are most important to you is a great way to gain the strength to heal. They can bring you words and deeds of comfort and kind reassurance. And that reassurance will help to convince you that you deserve the chance to move on from this break up and find happiness. Review what went wrong. Often times, both parties in a relationship are just not compatible. If you spend some time reviewing what went wrong in your relationship, such insights may help you in future relationships. Plus, identifying the flaws will definitely motivate you to move on to something and someone better!
Searching within yourself after a breakup for the strength to move on after a break up essentially means identifying what you stand for and what makes you truly happy. It also means getting to know yourself better so nobody else can tell you who to be.
Admittedly, break ups are very hard to deal with, but coming to terms with the fact that the relationship is over is the first hurdle to clear. After that, gathering your inner strength and reflecting on your true desires can make it possible to confidently take the next step of moving on.
Try ActiveMingle.com | https://medium.com/@hazenwilson/life-after-a-breakup-get-active-again-a439370077ef | ['Hazen Wilson'] | 2019-06-17 11:37:45.735000+00:00 | ['Dating Advice', 'Relationships', 'Dating', 'Breakup Problem Solution'] |
Create sense of Leadership via fixing stuff around yourself | Hello Guys, I am back again with another exciting blog about Fixing Stuff around yourself. Basically, it is an activity that make us to examine our immediate surrounding and find areas that you can improve or fix right away.
To be very honest, I was sitting in the kitchen of my house when I was reading this project guideline or instructions. So, the area was the “Kitchen” :) of my house when I was doing this activity.
Surrounding (Before)
As you can see in the picture that the area was little bit messy and had dust all around the slab so I decided to clean that mess and make it better for me. I took initiative by pick up laptops and every stuff that was on the slab and then I started cleaning the slab with the dry dusting cloth and after it, i clean the slab by the wet towel and put the things back on the slab. After cleaning it, I feel really very good because I really wanted to do this but never had the time and opportunity to do this J so that’s really make me feel happy from inside. To be very honest, I can’t think of doing this task if you hadn’t asked me to do because I never put my effort this. Rather than putting effort on this, I would prefer to do my work but I am wrong and thank you “Amal Academy” to change my perspective. In my personal opinion, I feel that this activity related to leadership by making me realize that “Whatever You want to do just do it right now, No matter wherever you are. Just take the initiative as a ‘Leader’.First we need to change ourselves. It also make me realize that I must to adapt the changing growth mindset in order to be a good leader and respect everyone perspective. ” | https://medium.com/@saddamrafiq90/create-sense-of-leadership-via-fixing-stuff-around-yourself-2d77d630353a | ['Saddam Rafiq'] | 2020-12-18 09:11:53.854000+00:00 | ['Leadership Development', 'Self Improvement', 'Life Changers', 'Leadership Skills', 'Change Your Life'] |
15 Facts That Nobody Told You About Belly Fat Reduce | ERROR: type should be string, got "https://bingotan.blogspot.com/\n\nWant to get rid of belly fat ?\n\nLEMON WATER\n\nTake a lemon and squeeze it in one glass of warm water, stir well. Consume this drink every morning on an empty stomach. Lemon helping burning fat.\n\nFAT BURNER TEA\n\nInto a pan add some water and leave it for boil then add some cinnamon, chopped ginger , add crushed black paper , some turmeric powder . allow it to boil for 3 minutes then add green tea leaves for 1 minutes. lastly strain into a cup.\n\nCHILI PEPPER\n\nEat chili pepper with your every meal. chilis are rich in antioxidants and have zero calories. eating chilis can boost your metabolism 50%. when you eat any kind of spicy things body reduced heat which is provided by capsaicin, body fat turn into heat and helps to burning fat.\n\nAPPLE\n\nApple are great fat burning fruit because apple packed with fiber. the pectin in apples keeps cells from absorbing fat and also encourages water absorption which helps remove fat.\n\nAVOCADO\n\nAvocados are high in fat and calories also avocados are high in soluble fiber which helps you to reduce belly fat.\n\nEGGS\n\nEggs are rich in vitamin- D minerals and high quality proteins. one of the healthy food, eating eggs in the morning diet boost your metabolism up to 100 calories.\n\nPINEAPPLE\n\nPineapple is rich in fiber, low in calories high water content with vitamins and minerals. pineapple help you burn fat by cutting calories and affecting your metabolism.\n\nYOGURT\n\nYogurt is rich in calcium, can keep you felling fuller longer and control appetite. 2 cups of yogurt counts calcium and protein servings of the day.\n\nGRAPE FRUIT\n\nGrape fruit contain vitamin-C, vitamin-C is great for burning belly fat low in calories very rich in nutrients. eat a grape fruit after having your meal.\n\nWALNUTS\n\nWalnuts are high in unsaturated fat and calories and high energy food. one walnut everyday could help to burn fat.\n\nPOPCORN\n\nPopcorn is high in fiber, low in calories and refined carbs. help to reduce belly fat.\n\nSPINACH\n\nSpinach are high in fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. helps to maintain an optimal calorie control this calorie keeps you felling full a long time.\n\nBEANS\n\nBeans are rich in soluble fiber, fights inflammation help to reduce bely fat.\n\nSWEET POTATO\n\nSweet potatoes are considered as fat burner rich in important nutrients instant spike in blood sugar levels.\n\nNEEM AND TURMERIC\n\nIn to a pan add some water then add neem leaves and some turmeric powder leave it to boil for 5 minutes strain all the things and keep the liquid in a glass eat it everyday before you go to sleep.\n\nHere some exercise to burn your belly fat.\n\nFOLLOW FOR MORE UPDATES\n\nhttps://bingotan.blogspot.com/\n\nhttps://bingotan.blogspot.com/" | https://medium.com/@debangshu-saha-ds22/15-facts-that-nobody-told-you-about-belly-fat-reduce-f707edc9caba | ['Mini Shree'] | 2021-04-09 13:36:47.081000+00:00 | ['Skincare', 'Fitness Tips', 'Health', 'Diabetes', 'Hygiene'] |
Practical ProGuard rules examples | In my previous article I explained why everyone should use ProGuard for their Android apps, how to enable it and what kind of errors you might encounter when doing so. There was a lot of theory involved, as I think it’s important to understand the underlying principles in order to be prepared to deal with any potential problems.
I also talked in a separate article about the very specific problem of configuring ProGuard for an Instant App build.
In this part, I’d like to talk about the practical examples of ProGuard rules on a medium sized sample app: Plaid by Nick Butcher.
Lessons learned from Plaid
Plaid actually turned out to be a great subject for researching ProGuard problems, as it contains a mix of 3rd party libraries that use things like annotation processing and code generation, reflection, java resource loading and native code (JNI). I extracted and jotted down some practical advice that should apply to other apps in general:
Data classes
public class User {
String name;
int age;
...
}
Probably every app has some kind of data class (also known as DMOs, models, etc. depending on context and where they sit in your app’s architecture). The thing about data objects is that usually at some point they will be loaded or saved (serialized) into some other medium, such as network (an HTTP request), a database (through an ORM), a JSON file on disk or in a Firebase data store.
Many of the tools that simplify serializing and deserializing these fields rely on reflection. GSON, Retrofit, Firebase — they all inspect field names in data classes and turn them into another representation (for example: {“name”: “Sue”, “age”: 28} ), either for transport or storage. The same thing happens when they read data into a Java object — they see a key-value pair “name”:”John” and try to apply it to a Java object by looking up a String name field.
Conclusion: We cannot let ProGuard rename or remove any fields on these data classes, as they have to match the serialized format. It’s a safe bet to add a @Keep annotation on the whole class or a wildcard rule on all your models:
-keep class io.plaidapp.data.api.dribbble.model.** { *; }
Warning: It’s possible to make a mistake when testing if your app is susceptible to this issue. For example, if you serialize an object to JSON and save it to disk in version N of your app without the proper keep rules, the saved data might look like this: {“a”: “Sue”, “b”: 28} . Because ProGuard renamed your fields to a and b , everything will seem to work, data will be saved and loaded correctly. However, when you build your app again and release version N+1 of your app, ProGuard might decide to rename your fields to something different, such as c and d . As a result, data saved previously will fail to load. You must ensure you have the proper keep rules in the first place.
Java code called from native side (JNI)
Android’s default ProGuard files (you should always include them, they have some really useful rules) already contain a rule for methods that are implemented on the native side ( -keepclasseswithmembernames class * { native <methods>; } ). Unfortunately there is no catch-all way to keep code invoked in the opposite direction: from JNI into Java.
With JNI it’s entirely possible to construct a JVM object or find and call a method on a JVM handle from C/C++ code and in fact, one of the libraries used in Plaid does that.
Conclusion: Because ProGuard can only inspect Java classes, it will not know about any usages that happen in native code. We must explicitly retain such usages of classes and members via a @Keep annotation or -keep rule.
-keep, includedescriptorclasses
class in.uncod.android.bypass.Document { *; }
-keep, includedescriptorclasses
class in.uncod.android.bypass.Element { *; }
Opening resources from JAR/APK
Android has its own resources and assets system that normally shouldn’t be a problem for ProGuard. However, in plain Java there is another mechanism for loading resources straight from a JAR file and some third-party libraries might be using it even when compiled in Android apps (in that case they will try to load from the APK).
The problem is that usually these classes will look for resources under their own package name (which translates to a file path in the JAR or APK). ProGuard can rename package names when obfuscating, so after compilation it might happen that the class and its resource file are no longer in the same package in the final APK.
To identify loading resources in this way, you can look for calls to Class.getResourceAsStream / getResource and ClassLoader.getResourceAsStream / getResource in your code and in any third party libraries you depend on.
Conclusion: We should keep the name of any class that loads resources from the APK using this mechanism.
In Plaid, there are actually two — one in the OkHttp library and one in Jsoup:
-keepnames class okhttp3.internal.publicsuffix.PublicSuffixDatabase
-keepnames class org.jsoup.nodes.Entities
How to come up with rules for third party libraries
In an ideal world, every dependency you use would supply their required ProGuard rules in the AAR. Sometimes they forget to do this or only publish JARs, which don’t have a standardized way to supply ProGuard rules.
In that case, before you start debugging your app and coming up with rules, remember to check the documentation. Some library authors supply recommended ProGuard rules (such as Retrofit used in Plaid) which can save you a lot of time and frustration. Unfortunately, many libraries don’t (such as is the case with Jsoup and Bypass mentioned in this article). Also be aware that in some cases the config supplied with the library will only work with optimizations disabled, so if you are turning them on you might be in uncharted territory.
So how to come up with rules when the library doesn’t supply them?
I can only give you some pointers:
Read the build output and logcat! Build warnings will tell you which -dontwarn rules to add ClassNotFoundException , MethodNotFoundException and FieldNotFoundException will tell you which -keep rules to add
You should be glad when your app crashes with ProGuard enabled — you’ll have somewhere to start your investigation :) The worst class of problems to debug are when you app works, but for example doesn’t show a screen or doesn’t load data from the network. That’s where you need to consider some of the scenarios I described in this article and get your hands dirty, even diving into the third party code and understanding why it might fail, such as when it uses reflection, introspection or JNI.
Debugging and stack traces
ProGuard will by default remove many code attributes and hidden metadata that are not required for program execution . Some of those are actually useful to the developer — for example, you might want to retain source file names and line numbers for stack traces to make debugging easier:
-keepattributes SourceFile, LineNumberTable
You should also remember to save the ProGuard mappings files produced when you build a release version and upload them to Play to get de-obfuscated stack traces from any crashes experienced by your users.
If you are going to attach a debugger to step through method code in a ProGuarded build of your app, you should also keep the following attributes to retain some debug information about local variables (you only need this line in your debug build type):
-keepattributes LocalVariableTable, LocalVariableTypeTable
Minified debug build type
The default build types are configured such that debug doesn’t run ProGuard. That makes sense, because we want to iterate and compile fast when developing, but still want the release build to use ProGuard to be as small and optimized as possible.
But in order to fully test and debug any ProGuard problems, it’s good to set up a separate, minified debug build like this:
buildTypes {
debugMini {
initWith debug
minifyEnabled true
shrinkResources true
proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'),
'proguard-rules.pro'
matchingFallbacks = ['debug']
}
}
With this build type, you’ll be able to connect the debugger, run UI tests (also on a CI server) or monkey test your app for possible problems on a build that’s as close to your release build as possible.
Conclusion: When you use ProGuard you should always QA your release builds thoroughly, either by having end-to-end tests or manually going through all screens in your app to see if anything is missing or crashing.
Runtime annotations, type introspection
ProGuard will by default remove all annotations and even some surplus type information from your code. For some libraries that’s not a problem — those that process annotations and generate code at compile time (such as Dagger 2 or Glide and many more) might not need these annotations later on when the program runs.
There is another class of tools that actually inspect annotations or look at type information of parameters and exceptions at runtime. Retrofit for example does this by intercepting your method calls by using a Proxy object, then looking at annotations and type information to decide what to put or read from the HTTP request.
Conclusion: Sometimes it’s required to retain type information and annotations that are read at runtime, as opposed to compile time. You can check out the attributes list in the ProGuard manual.
-keepattributes *Annotation*, Signature, Exception
If you’re using the default Android ProGuard configuration file ( getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt') ), the first two options — Annotations and Signature — are specified for you. If you’re not using the default you have to make sure to add them yourself (it also doesn’t hurt to just duplicate them if you know they’re a requirement for your app).
Moving everything to the default package
The -repackageclasses option is not added by default in the ProGuard config. If you are already obfuscating your code and have fixed any problems with proper keep rules, you can add this option to further reduce DEX size. It works by moving all classes to the default (root) package, essentially freeing up the space taken up by strings like “com.example.myapp.somepackage”.
-repackageclasses
ProGuard optimizations
As I mentioned before, ProGuard can do 3 things for you:
it gets rid of unused code, renames identifiers to make the code smaller, performs whole program optimizations.
The way I see it, everyone should try and configure their build to get 1. and 2. working.
To unlock 3. (additional optimizations), you have to use a different default ProGuard configuration file. Change the proguard-android.txt parameter to proguard-android-optimize.txt in your build.gradle :
release {
minifyEnabled true
proguardFiles
getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'),
'proguard-rules.pro'
}
This will make your release build slower, but will potentially make your app run faster and reduce code size even further, thanks to optimizations such as method inlining, class merging and more aggressive code removal. Be prepared however, that it might introduce new and difficult to diagnose bugs, so use it with caution and if anything isn’t working, be sure to disable certain optimizations or disable the use of the optimizing config altogether.
In the case of Plaid, ProGuard optimizations interfered with how Retrofit uses Proxy objects without concrete implementations, and stripped away some method parameters that were actually required. I had to add this line to my config:
-optimizations !method/removal/parameter
You can find a list of possible optimizations and how to disable them in the ProGuard manual.
When to use @Keep and -keep
@Keep support is actually implemented as a bunch of -keep rules in the default Android ProGuard rules file, so they’re essentially equivalent. Specifying -keep rules is more flexible as it offers wildcards, you can also use different variants which do slightly different things ( -keepnames , -keepclasseswithmembers and more).
Whenever a simple “keep this class” or “keep this method” rule is needed though, I actually prefer the simplicity of adding a @Keep annotation on the class or member, as it stays close to the code, almost like documentation.
If some other developer coming after me wants to refactor the code, they will know immediately that a class/member marked with @Keep requires special handling, without having to remember to consult the ProGuard configuration and risking breaking something. Also most code refactorings in the IDE should retain the @Keep annotation with the class automatically.
Plaid stats
Here are some stats from Plaid, which show how much code I managed to remove using ProGuard. On a more complex app with more dependencies and a larger DEX the savings can be even more substantial. | https://medium.com/androiddevelopers/practical-proguard-rules-examples-5640a3907dc9 | ['Wojtek Kaliciński'] | 2018-02-20 23:44:14.235000+00:00 | ['Apk Size', 'Android', 'Performance', 'Proguard'] |
splice() mutable JavaScript. Continuing the last lesson, splice() is… | Continuing the last lesson, splice() is the method to remove and add elements from array.
1. splice(): mutable
splice() method removes elements from array.
array.splice(start, deleteCount, item1, item2, …)
start: index number of element that will be removed.
deleteCount: the number of element that will be removed from start.
item1, 2, …: those items will be added in the index where original elements are removed already.
So, deleteCount number of element will be removed from start index.
array.splice(start)
array.splice(start, deleteCount)
array.splice(start, deleteCount, item1, item2, ...)
splice() returns a new array of removed elements and mutates original array.
2. splice() removes 1 original element at the index [2].
var arr = ["인덱스0", "인덱스1", "인덱스2", "인덱스3"]; var spliced = arr.splice(2, 1); console.log(spliced); // ["인덱스2"] console.log(arr); // (3) ["인덱스0", "인덱스1", "인덱스3"]
3. splice() removes 1 original element at the index [2] and adds 3 elements at the index [2].
var arr = ["인덱스0", "인덱스1", "인덱스2", "인덱스3"]; var spliced = arr.splice(1, 2, "새로운 원소1", "새로운 원소2", "새로운 원소3"); console.log(spliced); // (2) ["인덱스1", "인덱스2"] console.log(arr); // (5) ["인덱스0", "새로운 원소1", "새로운 원소2", "새로운 원소3", "인덱스3"]
Reference | https://medium.com/@soyoung823/splice-mutable-javascript-27d6ef959b42 | ['Soyoung Chung'] | 2020-04-22 17:22:43.594000+00:00 | ['Splice', 'JavaScript', 'Array'] |
Catalytic Converter Thefts ongoing issue in Jefferson Park | By John Williams and Xavier Redditt
Within the past several months, the 16th police district of Jefferson Park in Chicago has released three community alerts regarding a spree of catalytic converter thefts. However, this is nothing new to Jefferson Park residents as the theft of catalytic converters has been an ongoing issue throughout the years.
Jefferson Park resident Donald Faliszek is one of the unlucky Chicagoans that had not one, but two catalytic converters stolen right out from under his vehicles. Parked in his driveway located on the 5300 block of Leland Ave, Faliszek’s 2000 Pontiac Sunfire and 2002 Pontiac Aztek were both vandalized for their catalytic converters.
“I could not tell you the exact year, could have been 2013, but you know,” Faliszek said. “They were not stolen at the same time. They were like a couple of months apart, but I know it was during the summer months.”
Faliszek is just one of many Jefferson Park residents that have been affected by these thefts. Since June of this year, there have been over 30 converter thefts reported in community alerts released by the 16th district police. 2018 saw a similar spree of thefts, also resulting in the release of multiple alerts.
At 5:30 a.m. one summer morning in 2013, former Ald. John Arena (45th ward) was getting ready to go for a bike ride when he witnessed two thieves in the act of stealing a catalytic converter.
“I was in the parkway prepping myself to ride and see maybe a quarter of the way down the block, I saw somebody roll out from underneath my neighbor’s minivan,” Arena said. “I could see clearly that he had, you know, something in his hand in one hand and in the other hand, I could make out the profile of a battery-powered Sawzall.”
“And they just, one guy came from one side of the car. The other guy came, you know, started walking right towards me. And it wasn’t like they couldn’t see me. I was standing right next to the sidewalk and they just walked by me with the tools in their hand and the cat and when he came by, I could see it was a catalytic converter, and I said ‘Did you just take that catalytic converter off?’”
Arena took down the license plate number of the van the suspects drove off in and called 911. Two months later, he received a call back from police notifying him that the suspects had been apprehended and charged in connection with a ring of catalytic converter thefts.
Former Ald. John Arena (45th ward) speaks about converter thefts .
Although Arena’s vigilance was successful, it is not recommended that anyone confront thieves in or after the act in case they are armed and dangerous.
Ongoing thefts Nationwide:
Catalytic converter thefts have been ongoing for the past few years. A study conducted by the National Insurance Crime Bureau found that 108 converter thefts occurred in the U.S per month in 2018. This number skyrocketed to about 1,200 per month in 2020.
The study suggests that the state of affairs due to the coronavirus have largely contributed to these increasing numbers. Closed facilities, lack of public safety resources, and unemployment have all stemmed from the pandemic, increasing crime around the nation.
According to data analyzed by BeenVerified, Illinois saw 470 converter thefts in 2020. There have been 1,191 thefts so far this year to date, marking an increase of 153.6%.
What is a catalytic converter?
A catalytic converter is an emissions device that alters a car’s exhaust gasses, including carbon monoxide, turning them into less harmful gases like carbon dioxide and water vapor before theyare released into the atmosphere. Within a catalytic converter lies valuable substances such as palladium and platinum which act as a catalyst, creating the cleansing reaction that deals with the harmful exhaust chemicals. The catalytic converters are often found underneath the vehicle near the exhaust outlet, making them easily susceptible to theft.
A look inside of a catalytic converter. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
There are several kinds of catalytic converters. A ‘two-way’ oxidation converter converts carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons while a ‘three-way’ catalytic converter is used on more modern cars, expanding on the ‘two-way’ converter. These reduce nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions which are harmful to both humans and the environment. Diesel cars have different types of converters as well.
Why do people steal them?
Catalytic converters are most often stolen because of the precious metals they contain. Individuals can resell the converters to recycling scrap yards or on the internet for quick cash. These recyclers will pay anywhere from $50 to $250 for one converter.
Because there isn’t a tracking system on converters in many states and counties, people can continuously steal the component with little fear of punishment. Scrap yards in the state of Ohio have combatted this issue by incorporating criminal background checks of sellers. They also maintain a shared database with their local police department.
According to one National Insurance Crime Bureau study, larger vehicles like pick up trucks and delivery trucks are targeted more often. These vehicles have a higher ground clearance which makes the process of cutting a converter out much easier.
Tim Chrisobi, a Jefferson Park resident and technician at Pete’s Automotive Inc., confirmed that vehicles with a higher suspension are frequent targets in the area.
Pete’s Automotive Inc. in Jefferson Park on Nov. 29. Photo by Xavier Redditt.
“You know, your CRVs, your Jeeps, cars that are a little bit more elevated, you know,” Chisobi said. “Right underneath like the passenger side or, you know, right towards the center of the vehicle, they’re easy to get to.”
As someone who has replaced these converters often, including one stolen from his own Jeep, Tim Chrisobi warns of potentially costly repairs.
“To replace a cat could be, you know, for original equipment, it could be seven, eight hundred, one thousand dollars,” he said. “Repairing a Toyota Prius could be $3,000, you know?”
What can be done to prevent these thefts?
Due to the speed at which trained thieves can remove a converter and flee the scene, which in some cases takes two minutes or less, preventing these thefts remains a challenging task.
Police departments recommend parking in garages, using motion sensor security lighting, cameras, or installing anti theft devices. Some police departments have also worked with scrap yards, painting tag numbers on converters sold to them and putting them in a shared database to catch thieves.
Having a catalytic converter stolen may be expensive to replace so it is recommended that you report thefts to your local authorities as soon as possible. As for other solutions, it may take some time to come up with a plan.
“There’s very little ways that we could identify to preempt too much of this stuff because you just never know where they’re going to show up,” Arena said. | https://medium.com/@xreddi2/catalytic-converter-thefts-ongoing-issue-in-jefferson-park-7906ec39846f | ['Xavier Redditt'] | 2021-12-02 15:59:57.121000+00:00 | ['Catalytic Converter', 'Jefferson Park', 'Cars', 'Chicago', 'Theft'] |
Can we change our sexual fantasies? | Can we change our sexual fantasies?
And why should we?
Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay
I once hooked up with a guy who wanted me to call him Daddy, and enjoyed role-playing scenarios of rape. At first, he didn’t tell me this, but I worked it out because it very much affected the way he had sex — he would want to spank me, be rough, pin me down. I’m into that stuff too — apart from the Daddy part because seriously where the fuck did that come from? — so it was alright for me, but I feel like he didn’t sufficiently seek to find out whether I was into it before doing quite rough things, which definitely need a check-in. He couldn’t talk about it, because he was too embarrassed by it. He didn’t want to own up to his own fantasies. The way he performed his fantasies in bed felt almost compulsive, his guilt reverberated out of him and gave a violence to his desire.
It got me thinking about sexual fantasies, and whether we have to learn to accept them, even when they make us uncomfortable. Even when our fantasies are things we don’t like about ourselves.
When I go on porn sites, I’m always amazed by the long list of “categories”. People have such incredibly diverse sexual fantasies, it is quite beautiful really. From mundane threesomes to sci-fi tentacle erotica. No fantasy is a bad fantasy. The actual issue is how we feel about them on the one hand, and how we act on the other. There is no fantasy which can compel someone to ignore consent — what compels someone to ignore consent is their lack of respect and dehumanisation of the person in front of them. That said, what pisses me off about porn categories is how stereotypical they are — and how they divide women up into sexist and racist tropes: MILFs, teens, Latina etc. It is frustrating to feel like your arousal is dependent on stereotypes which you are fighting against. Our fantasies aren’t born in a vacuum — they are the result of our society, and since our society is built on structures of oppression, that means that they carry these with them. When you are trying to question your own privilege, you might not feel comfortable carrying on with these fantasies.
That is one good reason to wish to change your sexual fantasies. Another is when you feel like they are preventing you from having a fulfilling sex life, rather than helping you to do so. In King Kong Theory, Virginie Despentes writes about her ambiguous relation to her rape fantasies, following her actual rape at the age of seventeen. What had, before, been an innocent source of arousal, became a trigger.
Of course, rape fantasies have nothing to do with rape — no more than watching a horror movie means you want to live in an old hotel, see some creepy twins, and be chased down by your father wielding an axe. Plus, the “rapes” we fantasise about are the socially scripted form of rape, which is more about violence than consent. People fantasise about rough sex. Not so much about being stone cold unconscious and raped, or badgered for hours before they eventually say yes just because they feel harassed. Regardless of the fact that rape and rape fantasies are two very distinct things, still, rape fantasies can become a trigger for survivors of sexual assault.
From my experience, I can say that it can create feelings of guilt around the sexual assault itself — a little voice saying “You don’t get to be mad or sad about your assault. You always fantasised about being raped. This is your fault. You wanted it really.” And it makes having a normal sex life after assault even harder, because your very desire becomes a trigger.
There are plenty of reasons for wanting to change your sexual fantasies — for feeling like they are a burden more than a turn-on. Which is why, all across the internet, people ask forums about how to change what arouses them:
I have been suffering from low self confidence, self esteem and a lack of self worth for quite some time now. It was when I tried finding its source that I realized my sexual fantasies are proving detrimental to my personality. They always include the woman being abandoned or mistreated. I want to change them since I am certain they are linked to my confidence issues. Is this even possible?
- A Quora Question It’s embarrassing to raise this question, but how do I change what turns me on? When I was younger I was involved in some things that were not good, but they were very erotic. Now when I have sex, these scenarios play in my head, even if I’m trying not to think of them. It’s the only way I can have an orgasm, but afterwards I’m left feeling like I have sinned in my mind. I feel dirty and bad. I want to feel good about my sexuality and be able to enjoy sex, so is it possible to change my arousal fantasies? Question from Stuff.co.nz
So is it possible?
According to sex therapists, yes.
Erotic fantasies are to a large extent a learned response — when discovering your sexuality, you might imagine certain scenarios to masturbate, and that reinforces the erotic appeal of these scenarios by linking them in your brain to orgasm. To undo this, it is important to achieve a period of not reinforcing your old fantasy by not having an orgasm with it on your mind, so as to make space for other options.
In The Elusive Orgasm, Vivienne Cass suggests two exercises to try and change your sexual fantasies:
The Cold-turkey method
1. With this strategy, you immediately stop using the old fantasy. The new replacement fantasies should be used, keeping in mind that your body will need time to adjust to the change.
2. If possible, you should masturbate two or three times a week for at least six weeks (but take as long as you need), using the new fantasies. If you can’t do the exercise this often, be prepared for a longer adjustment time.
3. Remember to stay positive about the new fantasies. If you find yourself thinking negatively during the exercise, immediately switch your thinking to the positive statements you identified earlier in this section (Positive statements about my new fantasies.) Remind yourself why you’re making these changes.
The Fantasy-swapping method
1. Begin masturbating with the old fantasy for about one minute. Then switch to the new fantasy for at least three minutes. The longer you can go with the new fantasy, the better.
2. If you feel your arousal die away, return to the old fantasy for another minute. Then, once again, switch to the new one. Stay with this for another three minutes. Keep this pattern going until you wish to finish.
3. Always, always end your masturbation session with the new fantasy.
4. Do this two or three times a week for at least eight weeks (but take as long as you need.) As in the “cold-turkey” method, keep your thoughts positive.
You can combine this with exposing yourself to different forms of erotica — novels for example, or feminist porn. Try to focus on the sensations and energy in your body when you are aroused, so as to build a deep connection with your sexual energy.
The important thing to remember is that your sexual fantasies are supposed to be contributing to a fulfilling sex-life — whether on your own or with other people. If they are not doing so, you have the power to control them. | https://starkraving.medium.com/can-we-change-our-sexual-fantasies-e257595b3634 | ['Stark Raving'] | 2019-05-01 05:55:54.790000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Equality', 'Rape', 'Sex', 'Self Improvement'] |
Just 15 Photographs of Majestic Horses in Iceland | Liga Liepina is a photographer with a unique specialty: Beautiful horses roaming majestically around stunning Icelandic landscapes. Her love of photography began as a teenager, when she and her family would travel to Iceland and she was given the responsibility of taking family photos with a small digital camera. “I’ve always had a special place for photos in my heart,” she told Tenderly. “I’ve always thought how important it is to capture memories and to be able to look back at them.” | https://medium.com/tenderlymag/just-15-photographs-of-majestic-horses-in-iceland-d28e9f9bee04 | ['Jack Shepherd'] | 2020-05-07 14:57:22.256000+00:00 | ['Photography', 'Horses', 'Outdoors', 'Animals', 'Nature'] |
Setting entrepreneurial ambition on fire! | Setting entrepreneurial ambition on fire!
I come from Macedonia, a little country in the Balkans. It can sometimes feel a bit like an amusement park. We even have a pirate ship (for reasons nobody understands, the river isn’t deep enough to float a kayak down it 😜)
Skopje’s city center, which was rebuilt around 2014 to create what one could think of as the new Las Vegas 🤪
There are less than 2M people living there, so the rule is that if you don’t know somebody, one of your friends probably does, which made it pretty hard to hide what we were up to from our parents during our teenage years… 😉
So as you can imagine, the tech ecosystem in Macedonia, while surprisingly existent, is about as big as a peanut. And if you’re like a lot of other Europeans who grew up in that kind of ecosystem, where there wasn’t much education, resources or proper mindsets, you know how difficult it is to build a startup there. And even if you grew up in a bigger places like Ukraine, Poland, Croatia, or even France or Germany, you know that it feels like you’re starting from scratch every time you want to scale to another country.
The biggest reason for that is that there is no network effect that can help you fight a collective battle.
That’s why at The Family part of our mission is to help startups become truly European.
And the first step for some (maybe you?) is The Family Begins — a bootcamp to welcome ambitious entrepreneurs from all around Europe for a 3-day adventure in Berlin.
We just hosted the first session. This is how it went:
19 European founding teams, all with a working product and some traction
13 countries (Germany, France, Belgium, Romania, Croatia, Finland, Spain, Italy, etc.)
8 people from The Family
8 high-level external mentors
During the 3 days founders had the opportunity to (1) experience high-level ambition (2) get honest feedback and (3) build valuable new friendships.
At The Family we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all programs. We cringe at the thought of standard curriculums, supervised lectures and generalised talks. Our focus is on encouraging singularities and maintaining the importance of freedom in entrepreneurship. That is why the program of The Family Begins is highly focused on individuality.
Founders defined their own priorities and questions, which were then addressed during intense workshops and office hours.
Each team met with one of The Family’s Directors and got challenged on their next milestones and KPIs. It was all about pushing their mindsets and ambitions through the roof.
The workshops were kept small so that mentors could give individualised feedback to each startup. Nishant, Director of Product at Zalando, gave our startups valuable input on defining their product strategy. Karolina, Director of Product Design at Delivery Hero, kept pushing beautifully in that same direction.
Lisette, interim CEO of 8Fit, talked both about product and leadership. Sarah, COO at ultimate.ai, shared input on recruiting and ops, while Melinda, Head of Brand at 8Fit, helped the founders establish their brand strategy and taught them how to most successfully communicate it to the world.
Artem, CTO & Co-Founder at Billie, gave the founders valuable technical input. Edoardo, Head of Marketing and Sales, Habyt, revamped everybody’s sales strategies.
And then Mathew, CEO & Founder of unu, talked about growth and helped the startups revamp their next milestones while Valentin, CEO of Koudetat, helped with their UX/UI and also how to learn proactively and elevate their personal growth.
Our Family team was on fire as well. Blondy, our growth machine, shared his SEO secrets and took a look at everybody’s SEO strategies. Balthazar talked about fundraising, Alice explained to everyone what it means to discover your true startup identity…
And we got to meet amazing, inspiring teams like:
Nordic Oceanfruit, who are building the future of plant-based seafood by making eating seaweed just as normal as eating bananas — a habit that’s extremely delicious and full-on eco-friendly 😉. Founders Deniz & Jacob are launching their product in 650 supermarkets across Germany next month, so keep an eye out.
Companyon provide the best legal support for founding teams so they can focus their time and money on building awesome projects.
Soplaya is building a marketplace for high-quality restaurant suppliers, direct from farmer to chef.
AdScanner is bringing the data-driven approaches that are standard in digital advertising into TV advertising.
The objective of the bootcamp was to bring a diverse group together, strengthen intercultural bonds and promote a pay-it-forward mindset. And that’s exactly what happened.😍 People shared so much love:
As good as it was, it’s just the start! The Family Begins returns on Jan. 17–19. You can apply to join the adventure HERE! 💗
Thanks a lot team for the support: Alice Zagury, Hugo Amsellem, Balthazar, Mathias Pastor, Maxime Blondel, Valentin Richard, Gagan Bhatia & Alak 😍
And thanks Kyle Hall for the feedback 😘 | https://salon.thefamily.co/setting-entrepreneurial-ambition-on-fire-3e85b247e7d9 | ['Irina Nikolovska'] | 2019-11-21 10:20:36.709000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Founders', 'Startup Life', 'Bootcamp', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
Big data: The next frontier for food safety risk assessment | China is considered as the superpowers of global food production, having undergone instrumental changes over the past 50 years in the food safety regulatory system. The economic importance of the Chinese food sector globally and domestically has put food safety as a national priority for China, as stated in the Healthy China 2030 plan.
The trip towards intelligent risk prediction starts from China (photo by Li Yang)
Since the identification of food safety as a national priority, China has become one of the key players in modernized food safety approaches. This is evident not only by the update of food safety legislative framework along with organizational change, but also by the increasing number of public and private initiatives fostering food safety modernization. China’s National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) established the National Food Safety Standards (NFSS) Framework with a clear focus on risk analysis principles and in particular on risk assessment based on scientific information and data collection that reflects China’s context (food production practices and consumer patterns).
But the modernization of food safety and regulatory systems doesn’t end up with having a robust risk assessment framework. The continuously evolving supply chains need adaptive frameworks that allow for timely response to food safety problems and moving from reaction to prevention.
What if we could perform live risk assessment and predict what will be the next critical incident in the supply chain?
A wide variety of tools is used today by Food Safety and Quality Assurance professionals to assess risk ranging from literature-based classification of risks to Excel files and software tools such as the JIFSAN’s iRisk Tool and the University of Tasmania and USDA-ARS Combase. Ingredients and raw materials are analyzed against biological, chemical and physical hazards based on historical data and literature.
What if we could predict risk in a food supply chain? (photo by Franki Chamaki)
One of the main limitations of these approaches is that the estimated risk remains static. It is reviewed on an annual basis or every time that there is a significant change in the supply chain of each company. In our global and complex supply chain, emerging risks and increasing hazards are identified in most cases after the quality or food safety incidents have already affected consumers. This is far too late if we want to prevent risk and not just to react to incidents.
The two key steps that our team considers as the next era of risk assessment are the live risk assessment based on live data streams and the risk prediction using supply chain data and machine learning (computational) models.
Thus far, a large number of computational models have been developed by the research community and can be found in catalogues such as OpenFSMR. The majority of models are hazard- and product-specific and can predict the growth of bacteria in specific conditions. Such models could be fed with incredible amounts of data and (most of the time) live data so they can support real-time risk prediction.
Besides live data stemming from sensors installed in different steps of the supply chain, there is a vast amount of data available from official national and international sources. The plethora of data that is available on a daily basis about food recalls and border rejections can be used to estimate the frequency of hazards and fraud cases in different types of food and beverages. This enables the live risk assessment allowing early highlighting of the increasing and the emerging risks. In that way, a food company can have a live risk for its ingredients, incoming raw materials and product recipes. Moreover, any change in the risk trends can be tracked and all responsible departments are notified so as to deploy corrective actions.
Our team will present details about these new approaches specifically focusing on how live risk can be estimated based on real-time data for food recalls and border rejections from more than 45 data sources.
Come and join us in Beijing at the China International Food Safety & Quality Conference (Stand B27) along with 700 regulators, scientists, industry executives, and academics.
FOODAKAI, is an intelligent data service that employs intelligent scanning services to collect all the available relevant data and provide support to food safety and quality assurance professionals. With its intelligent assessment services it can perform live risk estimation for a food company’s raw materials, ingredients and finished products. | https://medium.com/@AgroKnow/big-data-the-next-generation-of-food-safety-risk-assessment-656dbb74a845 | [] | 2019-10-25 14:10:40.728000+00:00 | ['Food Safety', 'Predictive Analytics', 'Risk Assessment', 'China', 'Big Data'] |
You Can Never Get Back Your Time | You Can Never Get Back Your Time
The staggering amount of dumb shit I have wasted my time on is almost unfathomable to me now. If you told me that in another life I would sit and binge watch shows that had 5 seasons or leave my house way too early and sit in an empty parking lot for 30 minutes, I would not believe you.
You can waste your own time, other people can waste your time, work can drain your time, friends and family want your time, and mindlessly walking into a room three times can be a big time-buster! Our time is our currency, it’s the only thing we have to freely give that is of any consequence to ourselves and to people who we care about. Once you spend your time, it’s gone! An account that cannot be replenished.
Last night, I walked into a room three times before I said to myself, “Okay, pendeja why did you come in here?” It was small, I wanted to bring my speaker into another room. That wouldn’t have happened if I had walked into the room with intention the first time.
It started with a morning routine.
When I was married, we had a routine, as any married couple does. Our routine oftentimes included each other. This year I found myself lost without the support of my old routine. It was excruciatingly difficult to establish a new one. Read that back: it took months. It’s still not where I want it to be. But I have worked hard to establish my boundaries with myself!
When I first wake up, I scroll through my notifications but I don’t open them until I’ve brushed my teeth. It’s something so simple, something that can so easily be overlooked as a conscious effort to establish the mood for the day: I am in control of how I spend my time. No one else! Not the people on my tiny screen, not obligations I’ve made promises to, not nothing! I am in control.
I started recording myself doing yoga, at first to marker where I was lacking and how I could improve. I started sharing them on Instagram Stories every morning. The response I got was wild! So many happy, wonderful folx responded to my videos. It was so nice, both rewarding myself by taking my practice seriously enough to actually post about it and I was holding myself accountable for those posts, man! It became a routine. And I liked it!
Lately, I get up and go to a coffee shop to work. I used to do that almost every day, pre-pandemic. It feels amazing to sit and work in a public space after have gotten some fresh air, and flaunt cute outfits. I am loving my routine. I want to take better care of my skin and make that I priority, but for right now, making it to the coffee shop is enough for me.
And it continues with a healthy balance of free time.
I have always liked to work. I got my first job when I was 17. I loved it! I would come home with the funniest stories. I learned so much about myself and I learned how to interact with “co-workers” — a previously foreign concept to me (shoutout Rob). As I’ve worked my way through to a more creative field, it’s harder to know when I should be working and when I should be resting.
When I was working on a big campaign or a big presentation, I would wake up at 5:30–6 am to double-check my work. I brought my computer into my bed that early in the morning! What I failed to realize that even the fact that I set the intention the night before to spend my time that way, didn’t make it okay. I was giving too much of my me time away.
It hasn’t been easy to establish boundaries around different areas of my life, but it was totally necessary for the sake of my wellbeing and for my creativity. I’ve been able to spend time on full thoughts. I’m able to explore different projects that pique my interest that I want to invest my time in. I’m doing what I always said I wanted to —
whatever I want.
Be peaceful. Take your time back, babes. xo carsen | https://medium.com/@blujeanbabie/you-can-never-get-back-your-time-dca1206a54a0 | ['Carsen Greene'] | 2020-12-02 20:16:54.589000+00:00 | ['Creative Process', 'Time Management'] |
Animal cognition research offers outreach opportunity | The children are having a great time. But this game of “losing space” also has a serious message. With human populations growing and wildlife habitat shrinking, there’s less room for people and animals. In Thailand, that’s led to increasing conflicts between crop-raiding elephants and farmers. These clashes go beyond the research realm, involving a complex interplay of conservation, economics, and societal concerns. So the scientist behind the exercise, Hunter College psychologist and elephant researcher Joshua Plotnik, figured he needed to branch out beyond his fieldwork on elephant cognition and find ways to use his research to help reduce those conflicts. “The fight to protect elephants and other endangered species needed a new focus — classrooms,” he says.
Plotnik has taken the unusual steps of setting up his own conservation and education nonprofit, Think Elephants International, and working with schools in the United States and Thailand. One project resulted in his coauthoring a journal article with middle school kids. “It is imperative as scientists that we use our unique skills and knowledge to do conservation on the ground and to educate people,” says Plotnik.
Of course, researchers have long worked tirelessly to save the animals they study. Think Jane Goodall with chimpanzees, Dian Fossey with gorillas, or Iain Douglas-Hamilton, who founded Save the Elephants. Conservation is virtually part of the job description for these field scientists, says Emory University primatologist Frans de Waal, who is Plotnik’s former advisor. “If they are not there to take care of the animals and educate the local people, who will do it? They don’t even look at it as a choice.”
What’s different now, though, is that the conservation and education mantle is being increasingly assumed by a new type of researcher — those, like Plotnik, who probe the cognitive abilities of animals — and driven by startling new discoveries of animal intelligence. “We’re learning that we humans are not alone in our cognitive complexity,” says Plotnik. Such insights not only fascinate students but could potentially help them form a stronger connection with elephants and other animals that appear to have cognitive capacities once reserved for humans.
Thought Experiment
The last several years have brought an array of intriguing new insights into animals’ cognitive capacities, across several different species. Both elephants and an endangered New Zealand parrot called a kea, for example, will cooperate on a task to get food, and they do so as well as or better than chimps do. In the experiment, which Plotnik did with elephants in Thailand and Alexander Taylor, a psychologist at the University of Auckland, and colleagues did with kea, the animals must simultaneously pull on both ends of a rope looped through two pulleys on a platform to move the platform and the food toward them. Pulling on just one end will simply yank out the rope, leaving the food out of reach.
In one of many recent studies on crow species, Taylor has shown that New Caledonian crows can figure out an eight-step puzzle that requires dropping a series of stones into a box. That adds enough weight to release a long stick that the bird can use as a tool to snare a tasty morsel. “They are amazingly good at solving problems,” says Taylor. Other recent work has shown that creatures as disparate as dolphins and magpies have some degree of self-awareness based on their ability to recognize themselves in a mirror.
The discoveries raise fascinating, if still unanswered, questions about the evolution of intelligence and whether various animals “think” in similar or different ways. “The questions go to the heart of who we are as humans and the nature of life around us,” says Taylor.
“The questions go to the heart of who we are as humans and the nature of life around us.” — Alexander Taylor
At the same time, they offer new avenues for conservation efforts. One key notion is that teaching people about animals’ surprising intelligence and emotions might lead to a stronger moral concern to protect, even cherish, the creatures. Taylor and Plotnik are now trying to figure out how to rigorously test this possible connection, which does seem to be supported by anecdotal evidence. Studying New Caledonian crows on the Pacific island of Maré, Taylor recalls how “a farmer proudly came up to me and said: ‘I shot 15 crows today.’” But after Taylor described the crow’s remarkable abilities, which include being the only nonhuman creature known to make tools, the farmer’s attitudes changed. “’You showed me crows are intelligent and not just pests; I won’t shoot them anymore,’” Taylor recalls him saying.
For Plotnik, the light bulb went off after a landmark experiment in 2005 proving that elephants are self-aware — a sign of intelligence. The standard experiment is to mark an animal’s face with a dot or X, then put the animal in front of a mirror to see if it recognizes that the mark is on its own face. Chimps can do it, but monkeys and dogs can’t. “Many species continue to treat the image as if represents a stranger, indefinitely,” Plotnik explains.
Few cognitive tests had been done on elephants, “partly because they are hard to work with,” says de Waal. So when Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Diana Reiss, now a psychology professor at Hunter, and de Waal took up a plan to have a PhD student to come to the Bronx Zoo (which the Society manages) and do the mirror test on an Asian elephant named Happy, Plotnik jumped at the chance. Reiss and Plotnik knew that, years earlier, an elephant had flunked the test. They believed the previous experiment was flawed, though. Elephants seem to rely more on touch and smell than on sight to understand their world, yet the test had used a small, out-of-reach mirror.
Plotnik set up a jumbo-sized 8- by 8-foot mirror that Happy could touch and reach behind. She quickly realized she was seeing herself, and reached up to touch the mark on her face. “It was thrilling,” Plotnik says.
New Caledonian crows can quickly figure out what length stick to use to retrieve food. Image courtesy of Amalia Bastos (University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand).
Elephant Inspiration
The breakthrough put Plotnik on a path to studying elephant cognition in the field; he has now been working in Thailand for more than a decade. The mirror experiment also received widespread press coverage. Soon Plotnik was getting a flood of emails from fascinated children, and he realized the power of elephant research to inspire new generations. Working with a school principal in Manhattan and Jennifer Pokorny, another former student of de Waal’s, he hatched a plan for an afterschool program to teach middle-school kids about conservation and animal behavior.
In the 2-year program, the students acted out clashes between elephants and farmers, and learned how the animals react to threats. And in one experiment that the students themselves helped design, Plotnik tested his elephants in Thailand to see if the animals followed their handlers’ hand signals to find a bucket with food. The elephants did not, as the students reported in an article in PLoS One. Instead elephants went to the correct bucket only when Plotnik or the handlers used voice commands as well, demonstrating again how much the animals rely on sound for social cues rather than sight.
The experience convinced Plotnik of the value of education in raising awareness about the plight of elephants. So for his next act, before moving to the University of Cambridge for postdoctoral work comparing elephant and crow cognition, he launched Think Elephants International in 2011. The nonprofit is still taking shape, but the idea is to both expand teaching efforts in schools — they’ve piloted curricula that include activities such as the “losing space” habitat game — and translate research findings into innovative conservation efforts. “I thought developing a nonprofit would help me learn new skills and also could be a vehicle for raising funds,” he explains. Yes, on both counts. “It was an incredible experience getting that off the ground,” he says.
Plotnik and others are now contemplating another application for animal cognition findings: Perhaps the results can point to better strategies for protecting endangered animals. Many approaches for keeping elephants away from people and crops involve scaring the animals with firecrackers or electric fences. To be more successful, however, strategies “need to better account for why the elephants are crop raiding in first place and deal with the underlying issue that the animals want something,” Plotnik explains.
For instance, there might be forested corridors across plantations that allow elephants to travel without trampling crops, de Waal suggests. Or perhaps smells or sounds, such as the buzz of bees, might successfully steer an animal that relies so heavily on auditory and olfactory cues away from conflicts with humans.
The prospects for such measures are still unclear. But the fact that they are being considered at all is bringing new hope and enthusiasm to conservation, says de Waal. Plotnik is optimistic that some of those Thai children who played the “losing space” game with him and learned about elephant intelligence will help devise new solutions. “The task is desperate for many animals,” de Waal says. But he sees “a great future for the mix of scientific curiosity and conservation orientation” that Plotnik and others are pursuing.
Published under the PNAS license. Original article, with full references, at PNAS.org. | https://medium.com/proceedings-of-the-national-academy-of-sciences/animal-cognition-research-offers-outreach-opportunity-2a4d2c463cb3 | ['Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences'] | 2019-04-19 14:31:00.839000+00:00 | ['Cognition', 'Problem Solving', 'Conservation', 'Animals', 'Elephants'] |
Why corporate finance, shareholder personal funds and capital protection are inseparable components of business strategy | How often do we puzzle over tasks, the solution of which in the end turns out to be obvious. All that had to be done was to step aside from the question and try to look at it in a comprehensive manner or use external expertise. Financial challenges are no exception.
When communicating with clients, I note a repeating story: people focus on either personal or corporate finance, not always realizing the effectiveness of the synergy of these two components. In financial practice, I recommend linking three areas: wealth management, corporate finance and capital protection.
Let's consider each of them separately.
If we talk about corporate finance, turning to external expertise, business owners receive complete and clear information regarding their assets. These are both growth triggers, opportunities to maximize the company's value, and the optimal financing structure, taking into account the current phase of the credit cycle.
In-depth analysis of the credit cycle and financial market conditions to determine the optimal time to buy / sell a private business or part of it. An experienced financial advisor will advise in which markets and in what period of time it is appropriate for the client to implement his business plans, in accordance with which strategy to develop the company.
At the same time, not only to develop a strategy, but also to take a direct part in its implementation, which involves supporting M&A transactions, implementing an investment strategy, investing in different asset classes, calculating the optimal result between the profitability of a business and the financial risks that this business assumes. ...
Suppose, within the framework of the chosen strategy, you want to buy a business or part of it from a foreign partner. In order to exclude unpleasant surprises later, you need to have a clear understanding of the history of the origin of this business and the funds put on its foundation and development.
Your foreign partners, in turn, want to make sure of the legality and purity of the origin of the money invested in their business on your part. This is an example of the actualization of capital protection issues. It is very important that in the framework of due diligence, not only liquid assets are taken into account, but also the money that we place in our accounts. Many people overlook this aspect as one of the main criteria for a successful transaction.
The capital protection function also involves the development of a tax strategy and a strategy for creating legal structures, optimization in the legal field of taxation using holding structures and trusts. Now this issue has become much more complicated: it is not enough just to open a company in Cyprus. Regulators and banks require the presence of a real office and confirmation of the actual activities of the company in the country of registration.
Very often, the personal finances of the main shareholders, business owners, are completely divided and do not correlate with corporate finances. The management of the company is unaware of the owner's personal finances and the opportunities that their presence opens up for attracting borrowed funds to the business. He uses expensive overdrafts, while for the strategy of shares and bonds on personal non-resident accounts of shareholders, you can take out a loan at 0.75% -0.5% in euros.
It is important to build a chain where the owner of the company and capital also earns on money in a non-resident field, and supports his business with liquidity when he needs short-term loans. With a dividend yield of 5-6% on a portfolio of stocks abroad, he receives virtually free money to lend to his business. Often this opportunity is not used by Ukrainian entrepreneurs, and the task of a financial advisor is to make it obvious to them and help them to use it effectively.
The investment process should be a closed loop in which one asset class could feed liquidity to another asset class
I am deeply convinced that an entrepreneur should look at his resource comprehensively and without reference to the investment object. The investment process should become a closed loop in which one asset class could feed liquidity to another asset class. In this process, it is necessary to build competent financial flows, excluding cash transfers and loans within the group, but using the funds and trusts of the owner, in which he keeps money, and the accounts of his private business structures.
With a well-designed investment return strategy, the stage of the economic and credit cycle is taken into account. You clearly understand when it is advisable to invest in stocks of companies in developed markets, and when - in your own private business.
The modern financial world is a world of unlimited opportunities, which you can take advantage of by learning to look comprehensively at personal finance and private business and reinforcing this with experience of working in different markets. | https://medium.com/@patalikiszilard/why-corporate-finance-shareholder-personal-funds-and-capital-protection-are-inseparable-components-4c5557f6a5a8 | [] | 2020-12-21 15:07:34.737000+00:00 | ['Personal', 'Bussiness', 'Strategy', 'Capital', 'Corporate Finance'] |
Wild Mind | As I grow older I feel like I become, on average, more balanced over time. Eventhough, some old patterns seems to be engraved very deep into my brain.
After a long and intense day I walked through the supermarket. Visualizing different meals in my head, I was trying to figure out what I needed. Unintended and unconsciously, my attention found itself pulled toward a fine dressed lady on my right side.
She had short brown hair and was wearing a white t-shirt under a demin jacket with a short black skirt underneath. As she was bending over towards the shelves her demin jacket was sliding a bit backwards and her round breasts revealed itself to me. While she was bending further I could see how her hard nipples penatrated her shirt. Her skirt moved up a little.
Overwhelmed I naively followed my wild mind for about a second. The next moment I found myself pulling down her t-shirt and grabbing her breasts from behind with both my hands. I felt how her warm breast filled my hands, and I pinched her nipples in between my fingertips. Then I pushed her little ass against myself with my left hand, while my right hand was sliding down her belly, moving in between her skinny legs.
Clearly I could hear her sigh heavily and then moan deeply when I moved my fingers inside her. I felt my fingers soaking. Now my other hand was moving up through her hair, grabbing it tightly and pulling her head slowly back. She looked me my eyes; vulnerable, but longing for more. “Please, fuck me!”, she whispered hoarsely.
“Put yourself together!” I told myself, while my vision shattered into pieces. Awkwardly I pulled my gaze away from her, and while a feeling of guilt filled my body, I followed my way towards the vegatables. “Brocolli” I said to myself. “Tonight I will eat brocolli!”. | https://medium.com/@wildwildmind/wild-mind-fe7817e99fd9 | ['Wild Wild Mind'] | 2020-12-12 16:15:18.374000+00:00 | ['Erotic', 'Wild', 'Thoughts', 'Fantasy', 'Mind'] |
Dear Derek Chauvin, | Photo by BP Miller on Unsplash
Dear Derek Chauvin,
In only 9 minutes you went from an unknown Minnesota police officer to an infamous world villain. You went from protect and serve to harm and neglect. In only 9 minutes, you took the life of another human being, changing your life for the worst.
Currently you are in jail for the murder of George Floyd. I watched as you killed another human being. I watched as you showed little remorse, making excuses for yourself. I watched you refuse to take the stand while people spoke on your behalf. I listened to phrases like, “Chauvin’s knee was not the cause of death”. I wanted to throw something at the TV, naively thinking the results of this trial would increase my faith in humanity or change my perspective in some sort of undeniable way. But it didn’t. Hearing the verdict did put a smile on my face, I won’t lie to you. Getting it right this one time isn’t enough.
You know more than any of us that police officers rarely get held accountable in our current legal system. You have experienced it first-hand. As a country, we got it right this time. I doubt we would have if it weren’t for camera phones or the fact that your actions started a whole movement. It’s ironic really that a racist police officer like you, whose actions were meant to harm a person of color, ended up spreading awareness. An awareness that started a movement in favor of the people you wish to harm. An awareness that landed you in jail. An awareness of privilege.
Privilege. A triggering word for many people. I would bet anything it would be triggering for you. It must be nice being the man behind the gun. It must be nice living without fear. It must be relaxing not being held accountable for your actions. I have no reason to be afraid of cops because I am a middle-class, white, female. I am grateful for this, but I feel guilty. I wish I could have changed Mr. Floyd’s fate. It wasn’t up to me though. It was up to you.
I feel your privilege as I read the news articles about how you will likely receive less time than you deserve for being charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. I wonder if you feel your privilege too. I hope you learned something, but I won’t hold my breath.
You turned 9 minutes into a minimum sentence of 40 years. I hope you use that time wisely. I hope you reflect.
From a white person who hopes to be nothing like you,
RSL | https://medium.com/@rslwriting/dear-derek-chauvin-2599d04d34a9 | [] | 2021-06-08 15:49:56.179000+00:00 | ['Blm', 'Chauvin Trial', '2020', 'George Floyd'] |
(Data) Sanitation Engineering | (Data) Sanitation Engineering
Exploring methods to merge disparate data sources
Photo by Mak on Unsplash
Introduction
In general terms, this article is going to be about data cleansing. Specifically, the process I would like to explore is actually a small subset of the cleansing process: Merging disparate data sources on common categories.
A quick primer on data cleansing (you can skip this if you are familiar)
Data cleansing is a highly important task that you should take absolutely seriously. I’ve seen countless data specialists joke that their jobs essentially boil down to being a glorified data janitor, doomed to mop the floors in the Hall of Records of the Hopper School of Data after perpetual problem children spill every sticky thing they can get their hands on. Okay, I may have some liberties with the metaphor; The point is that data cleansing is important and you are within your rights to call yourself a data janitor if the shoe fits.
Data cleansing is often the crux of the analytic process. All downstream processes are contingent on the output of this step. There are varying degrees of how much cleansing is necessary, but you should be at least comfortable with the process. Data cleaning is the process of fixing or removing incorrect, corrupted, incorrectly formatted, duplicate, or incomplete data within a dataset (source: https://www.tableau.com/learn/articles/what-is-data-cleaning).
Merging data sources
When combining data from multiple sources there is often a lot of issues to correct for. Different sources will often have different naming conventions than your main source, different ways of grouping data, etc. Most of the time the additional data source was created at a much different point in time, by different engineers and stakeholders, and (almost) always with different goals and use-cases. In light of this, it shouldn’t be surprising to encounter a wide array of differences between multiple sources.
Here I would like to explore various ways of simplifying (hopefully) the merging process in a way that delivers concrete value to downstream users. There are many use cases where this could be of value. For example: If you have two systems that operate in parallel to each other and you need to perform some analysis of the relationship, you have a legacy system with poorly formatted data that needs to be integrated into a crisp new system, etc. The example I would like to dive into is the analysis of parallel systems.
Analysis of parallel systems
This is a surprisingly common problem with organizations that use dated systems and software. What often happens is that additional needs arise that are not being met by the legacy system, and the organization will commission a new tool or subscribe to a service that only provides a solution to the gap left by the legacy system. Eventually this leads to the organization using a system from the early 90’s, supplemented by additional systems from each subsequent decade. While some of these systems are likely independent of each other, there are potentially valuable insights that could be earned from analyzing the data as a whole.
When approached by stakeholders to solve this problem, a common solution that is proposed is the creation of some type of mapping table that can be used to perform the joins. This is not a bad solution granted there is a clearly defined and close-ended mapping. More often, however, there will be mappings that were not foreseen when the mapping is created, and potentially compounded by fields that are user-generated (yikes, I know). This makes a mapping table feasible when the stakeholders or end-users (read: people who don’t want more work) are responsible for the maintenance of this mapping, and they may try to pass this responsibility to you. The last thing you want is to be in charge of updating some obscure domain-specific mapping table; It’s not a good end result for anybody involved.
With this in mind, let’s try to explore some solutions. For the purposes of this exploration, I am going to consider anything that could potentially assist this process as a solution, even if it doesn’t solve the problem completely.
First, some data
I will create two distinct lists of names. One will be a clean set of standardized names, representing your main data source. The other will be a messy, jumbled, and inconsistent list representing the proverbial child spilling soda on the floor.
from random import random as rd
from random import randint as ri
from string import ascii_letters,ascii_lowercase
key_set = ['Terran','Protoss','Zerg']
idx = lambda X: ri(0,X)
mr_clean = [key_set[idx(2)] for x in range(5000)]
bad_child = [
X + ''.join(
[ascii_letters[idx(len(ascii_letters)-1)] for x in range(idx(15))]
) for X in mr_clean
]
print(mr_clean[:3])
print(bad_child[:3]) ['Zerg', 'Terran', 'Terran']
['ZergIeLZV', 'Terran', 'TerranszyvrRoxKGgzV']
To create the messy dataset, I’ve added a random number of random ascii characters to the end of each element from the clean list.
Candidate 1: Clustering
The first step here is to transform the letters for each element into a more useful representation. To accomplish this, we’ll use sklearn’s CountVectorizer to transform the words into a matrix of character counts.
from sklearn.feature_extraction.text import CountVectorizer as CV
corpus = list(ascii_lowercase)
vec = CV(vocabulary=corpus,analyzer='char')
mr_clean_vec = [x.lower() for x in mr_clean]
bad_child_vec = [x.lower() for x in bad_child]
mr_clean_vec = vec.fit_transform(mr_clean_vec).toarray()
bad_child_vec = vec.fit_transform(bad_child_vec).toarray()
print(mr_clean_vec[:3])
print(bad_child_vec[:3]) [[0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1]
[1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0]
[1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0]]
[[0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2]
[1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0]
[1 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 4 1 1 0 2 0 1 1 2]]
Now that the data is in an appropriate format, we can try clustering the output. In this case, because we are working with categorical variables we will use kmodes as opposed to kmeans. Kmeans uses Euclidean distance, which is not meaningful for categorical variables. First, I will test out kmodes using the clean data as a control to see how well it works for our purpose.
from kmodes.kmodes import KModes
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
kmodes = KModes(
n_clusters=3, init = "Cao", n_init = 1, verbose=1
)
results = kmodes.fit_predict(mr_clean_vec) Init: initializing centroids
Init: initializing clusters
Starting iterations...
Run 1, iteration: 1/0, moves: 0, cost: 0.0 import pandas as pd
clean_df = pd.DataFrame()
clean_df['labels'] = mr_clean
clean_df['kmodes'] = results plt.subplots(figsize = (5,5))
sns.countplot(
x=clean_df['labels'],
order=clean_df['labels'].value_counts().index,
hue=clean_df['kmodes']
)
plt.show()
Based on the results chart, we can create a quick lookup dictionary to label and check the output.
lkup = {0:'Terran',1:'Zerg',2:'Protoss'}
clean_df['km_res'] = [lkup[x] for x in results]
clean_df['km_eval'] = clean_df['labels'] == clean_df['km_res']
clean_df.head()
clean_df['km_eval'].describe() count 5000
unique 1
top True
freq 5000
Name: km_eval, dtype: object
For the clean dataset, kmodes selected the appropriate cluster 5000 of 5000 times. The control test appears to have been successful, so lets try it on the soda-soaked list.
results = kmodes.fit_predict(bad_child_vec)
messy_df = pd.DataFrame()
messy_df['labels'] = mr_clean
messy_df['kmodes'] = results
plt.subplots(figsize = (5,5))
sns.countplot(
x=messy_df['labels'],
order=messy_df['labels'].value_counts().index,
hue=messy_df['kmodes']
)
plt.show() Init: initializing centroids
Init: initializing clusters
Starting iterations...
Run 1, iteration: 1/100, moves: 1861, cost: 31942.0
Run 1, iteration: 2/100, moves: 1376, cost: 31050.0
Run 1, iteration: 3/100, moves: 2, cost: 31050.0
Okay so there’s a little more variety here, but overall it looks like there’s a solid mapping to draw from.
lkup = {0:'Zerg',1:'Protoss',2:'Terran'}
messy_df['km_res'] = [lkup[x] for x in results]
messy_df['km_eval'] = messy_df['labels'] == messy_df['km_res']
messy_df.head()
messy_df['km_eval'].describe() count 5000
unique 2
top True
freq 4828
Name: km_eval, dtype: object
It looks like kmodes correctly grouped the categories in 4828/5000 tries, for a success rate of 96.56%. Not bad overall. One note of caution here is that this artificially messy data I created is not all that realistic. Since I simply tacked on a bunch of random garbage to the end of the category, at this point you could simply do this:
cleanup = [y for x in bad_child for y in key_set if y in x]
from collections import Counter
Counter([a==b for a,b in zip(mr_clean,cleanup)])[True] 5000
Simply checking if the key string is found within the messy data solves the problem completely. In reality, this is not likely to be true. Let’s see if we can come up with something a bit more realistic.
from math import ceil
def css(word):
noise = ceil(.3 * len(word)) # introduce a reasonable threshold of noise for the word
mx = len(word)-1
for _ in range(idx(noise)): # randomly add n characters
pt = idx(mx)
word = word[:pt] + ascii_letters[idx(len(ascii_letters)-1)] + word[pt:]
return word
bad_child = [css(x) for x in mr_clean]
print(bad_child[:5]) ['YZNerg', 'dTebrran', 'Terran', 'Zervg', 'Protoss']
This introduces more realistic spelling and key errors into the messy dataset, so now let’s try kmodes again with our new noise.
bad_child_vec = [x.lower() for x in bad_child]
bad_child_vec = vec.fit_transform(bad_child_vec).toarray()
results = kmodes.fit_predict(bad_child_vec)
messy_df = pd.DataFrame()
messy_df['labels'] = mr_clean
messy_df['kmodes'] = results
plt.subplots(figsize = (5,5))
sns.countplot(
x=messy_df['labels'],
order=messy_df['labels'].value_counts().index,
hue=messy_df['kmodes']
)
plt.show() Init: initializing centroids
Init: initializing clusters
Starting iterations...
Run 1, iteration: 1/100, moves: 130, cost: 5686.0
Run 1, iteration: 2/100, moves: 0, cost: 5686.0
The output here actually looks very promising.
lkup = {0:'Zerg',1:'Protoss',2:'Terran'}
messy_df['km_res'] = [lkup[x] for x in results]
messy_df['km_eval'] = messy_df['labels'] == messy_df['km_res']
messy_df.head()
messy_df['km_eval'].describe() count 5000
unique 1
top True
freq 5000
Name: km_eval, dtype: object
So this actually worked rather well; Each of the items in this case were classified correctly.
One of the drawbacks of a manual entry system, where you have humans inserting records, is that you are going to have human mistakes. There will be inconsistencies, misspellings, conflated terms, etc.; We will have to be able to account for these issues. Let’s introduce a little more complexity and add some inconsistencies.
junk = ['Industries','Ind','Inc','Co','Corp','Llc','Company']
bad_child = [css(x) for x in mr_clean]
bad_child = [x + ' ' + junk[idx(len(junk)-1)] for x in bad_child]
bad_child_vec = [x.lower() for x in bad_child]
bad_child_vec = vec.fit_transform(bad_child_vec).toarray()
results = kmodes.fit_predict(bad_child_vec)
messy_df = pd.DataFrame()
messy_df['labels'] = mr_clean
messy_df['kmodes'] = results
plt.subplots(figsize = (5,5))
sns.countplot(
x=messy_df['labels'],
order=messy_df['labels'].value_counts().index,
hue=messy_df['kmodes']
)
plt.show() Init: initializing centroids
Init: initializing clusters
Starting iterations...
Run 1, iteration: 1/100, moves: 451, cost: 23933.0
Run 1, iteration: 2/100, moves: 0, cost: 23933.0
That’s more like it. Now we appear to have a real problem on our hands. Two of the categories were handled reasonably well, but the third category seems to be close to a near coin-flip result.
lkup = {0:'Terran',1:'Protoss',2:'Zerg'}
messy_df['km_res'] = [lkup[x] for x in results]
messy_df['km_eval'] = messy_df['labels'] == messy_df['km_res']
messy_df.head()
messy_df['km_eval'].describe() count 5000
unique 2
top True
freq 3616
Name: km_eval, dtype: object
Clearly the results are less favorable now; 27.68% of the records are now mislabeled. The issue here is now we have a consistent set of characters that transcend categories. This becomes especially problematic because one of the categories is only four characters long. So now if that category has the junk label ‘Industries’, that record has more characters in common with other records with the same junk label than it has differentiating it. In a real-world situation, if you have the means, definitely try to clean that up prior to attempting to group these records. Let’s continue our exploration.
Candidate 2: Edit Distance
Edit Distance, or Levenshtein Distance, is a metric that measures the minimum numbers of single-character edits needed to change one word into another.
from editdistance import distance as dist
dist('test','test1') 1
Looks promising, right? We can take minimum edit distance between of each of our keys and the record in question to relabel our messy data.
results = []
for rec in bad_child:
ldist = [dist(rec,x) for x in key_set]
results.append(key_set[ldist.index(min(ldist))])
messy_df['lev_dist'] = results
messy_df['lev_eval'] = [a == b for a,b in zip(messy_df['lev_dist'],messy_df['labels'])]
messy_df['lev_eval'].describe() count 5000
unique 2
top True
freq 4785
Name: lev_eval, dtype: object plt.subplots(figsize = (5,5))
sns.countplot(
x=messy_df['labels'],
order=messy_df['labels'].value_counts().index,
hue=messy_df['lev_dist']
)
plt.show()
Edit Distance is clearly the better option over kmodes in this case; 4785/5000 (95.7%) of the records were matched correctly. It is also very simple to implement as an added bonus. One issue that you should be aware of when using edit distance, is that it can have a tendency to overweight noise. What I mean by this is that since Edit distance simply counts additions, subtractions, and deletions required to transform a word into another, for shorter words even moderate levels of noise can overload the metric. You can see a glimpse of this when looking at the middle category in the above chart. The same also holds true for distinguishing between words that are similar. For example:
print(dist('Terran','Terran Incorporated'))
print(dist('Terran','Tread Incorporated')) 13
13
In the above example, Edit Distance does not provide any guidance at all. This is in the best case where there are no misspellings to muddy the waters even further. The more categories you have, the more difficult the situation becomes. While Edit Distance performed well here, across a large volume of data with diverse issues don’t expect it to give you the best answer. Let’s continue our exploration.
Candidate 3: Cosine Similarity
Cosine similarity measures the angle between two vectors. Since we’ve already transformed the words into vectors this should be a relatively easy transition and should provide some interesting results. We’ll calculate the cosine similarity of each element in the messy list to each of our keys and return the highest value.
from sklearn.metrics.pairwise import cosine_similarity
key_vec = [x.lower() for x in key_set]
key_vec = vec.fit_transform(key_vec).toarray()
results = []
for rec in bad_child_vec:
cosim = [cosine_similarity([rec],[x]) for x in key_vec]
results.append(key_set[cosim.index(max(cosim))])
messy_df['cosim'] = results
messy_df['cos_eval'] = [a == b for a,b in zip(messy_df['cosim'],messy_df['labels'])]
messy_df['cos_eval'].describe() count 5000
unique 2
top True
freq 4935
Name: cos_eval, dtype: object plt.subplots(figsize = (5,5))
sns.countplot(
x=messy_df['labels'],
order=messy_df['labels'].value_counts().index,
hue=messy_df['cosim']
)
plt.show()
This method performed slightly better than Edit Distance; 4935/5000 (98.7%) of the records were matched correctly. The main issue to watch out for with cosine similarity has more to do with the preparation of the data itself. The vectorizer used here tokenizes the letters of each word; The actual order of letters is not taken into account. This leads to a similar issue that can plague edit distance in that shorter words are easier to miscategorize. You can see this in the above chart as well. Here is another classic example:
cosine_similarity(
vec.fit_transform(['read']).toarray(),
vec.fit_transform(['dear']).toarray()
)[0][0] 1.0
Due to the way the words are vectorized, cosine similarity returns a perfect match for these two words with very different meanings. Let’s continue exploring.
Candidate 4: Neural Network
The last approach I wanted to explore here is a neural network with an embedding matrix. An embedding layer in a neural network tries to provide a meaningful representation of a categorical variable in space while learning relationships between the categorical variables. I’m hopeful of this approach because it should have the ability to correct for the issues presented by cosine similarity and edit distance.
from keras import layers
from keras.models import Sequential
from keras.utils import to_categorical
embedding_dim = 50
model = Sequential()
model.add(layers.Embedding(
input_dim=26,
output_dim=embedding_dim,
input_length=26)
)
model.add(layers.Flatten())
model.add(layers.Dense(3, activation='softmax'))
model.compile(
optimizer='adam',
loss='categorical_crossentropy',
metrics=['accuracy']
)
model.summary() Model: "sequential_4"
_________________________________________________________________
Layer (type) Output Shape Param #
=================================================================
embedding_4 (Embedding) (None, 26, 50) 1300
_________________________________________________________________
flatten_4 (Flatten) (None, 1300) 0
_________________________________________________________________
dense_5 (Dense) (None, 3) 3903
=================================================================
Total params: 5,203
Trainable params: 5,203
Non-trainable params: 0
_________________________________________________________________ answers = {x:i for i,x in enumerate(key_set)}
rev_answers = {i:x for i,x in enumerate(key_set)}
labels = [answers[x] for x in mr_clean]
y_binary = to_categorical(labels)
print(labels[:3])
print(y_binary[:3]) [2, 0, 0]
[[0. 0. 1.]
[1. 0. 0.]
[1. 0. 0.]] import numpy as np
history = model.fit(
np.array(mr_clean_vec),y_binary,
epochs=10,
batch_size=50,
validation_data=(np.array(mr_clean_vec),y_binary),
verbose=False
) x = model.predict(np.array(bad_child_vec))
results = [rev_answers[X.argmax()] for X in x] messy_df['embedding'] = results
messy_df['emb_eval'] = [a == b for a,b in zip(messy_df['embedding'],messy_df['labels'])]
messy_df['emb_eval'].describe() count 5000
unique 2
top True
freq 4728
Name: emb_eval, dtype: object plt.subplots(figsize = (5,5))
sns.countplot(
x=messy_df['labels'],
order=messy_df['labels'].value_counts().index,
hue=messy_df['embedding']
)
plt.show()
The model performed fairly well; 4728/5000 (94.56%) of the records were matched correctly. However, I think training on some messy data will improve the outcome.
training,tr_lbl = [css(x) for x in mr_clean], mr_clean*2
training.extend(mr_clean)
training_vec = [x.lower() for x in training]
training_vec = vec.fit_transform(training_vec).toarray()
labels = [answers[x] for x in tr_lbl]
y_binary = to_categorical(labels)
history = model.fit(
np.array(training_vec),y_binary,
epochs=10,
batch_size=50,
validation_data=(np.array(training_vec),y_binary),
verbose=False
)
x = model.predict(np.array(bad_child_vec))
results = [rev_answers[X.argmax()] for X in x]
messy_df['embedding2'] = results
messy_df['emb_eval2'] = [a == b for a,b in zip(messy_df['embedding2'],messy_df['labels'])]
messy_df['emb_eval2'].describe() count 5000
unique 2
top True
freq 4923
Name: emb_eval2, dtype: object plt.subplots(figsize = (5,5))
sns.countplot(
x=messy_df['labels'],
order=messy_df['labels'].value_counts().index,
hue=messy_df['embedding2']
)
plt.show()
The new model performed very well; 4923/5000 (98.46%) of the records were matched correctly.
Conclusion
I think that the neural network is the most robust solution to the problem of merging disparate data sources. While some of the other solutions are simpler to implement, I think long-term the neural network will perform the best. There is some room for improvement left in the model as well, which should solidify the outcome even more. It also may be interesting to incorporate the Edit distance and cosine similarity as inputs into the neural network and see how the performance is affected. Thanks for taking the time to explore this problem with me.
You can see the notebook with the accompanying code for reference here: | https://mark-styx.medium.com/data-sanitation-engineering-95d22808545f | ['Mark Styx'] | 2020-10-29 22:20:17.879000+00:00 | ['Data Cleansing', 'Data Engineering', 'Data Wrangling', 'Data Science', 'Analytics'] |
Experiencing New Math. Social Distancing Provides Freedom | Experiencing New Math
Social Distancing Provides New Ways to Learn
Girls with a Drill
Our granddaughters moved in with us at our cabin in the woods. The walls on their house were closing in, and since we had all been isolated for enough weeks with no possible contact with infectious diseases, we loaded them in the car and headed to the mountains.
The oldest is thirteen and her sister is nine. We promised to have them do their online homework, read the required minutes and do chores. In other words, we promised not to spoil them rotten and send them home. (My toes were crossed, but I figured we would try.)
When we arrived at the cabin, the driveway was covered in snow which lured them outside for sledding and snowballs. However, the cold pushed them inside before long. It didn’t take long for them to learn that life at the cabin requires different skills and moves at a more relaxed pace. Thus, finding time for reading wasn’t a problem. Old people (grandpa and grandma) retire about eight o’clock to read, leaving the kids few options, so they read. I would like to say we were simply modeling good practices but at that time of the night there wasn’t enough energy for anything else.
The second morning, when hunger announced its presence, the new math began. We shared tasks in the kitchen as we prepared breakfast: measuring ingredients for waffles (nothing taken from the freezer and popped in the toaster), warmed up the huckleberries from the freezer and mixed in the correct amount of sweetener.
Before getting to play, we mixed the bread dough so it could rise on the fireplace mantle, made the jello, and prepared the soup in the crock pot. Each task required more measurements, especially important when doubling the recipe for cookies.
Spring came practically overnight. Grandpa ventured outside first, with a plan in his head to disassemble the deck so that he could cut down the pine trees that had outgrown their space. To our astonishment, the girls wanted to help and to their surprise, they were handed drills and instructed on how to remove the screws that held the boards in place. Who knew a teenage girl would find so much pleasure in a power tool!
Before long they had determined each board contained 48 screws, calculated how many boards in total, multiplied the number and estimated there to be approximately 1250 screws. They didn’t tackle the task as a job or a math problem but as a puzzle to solve. With excitement they worked as a team and made it into a game.
By the end of the day, they had completed a day’s work feeling satisfied with a job completed. That evening, both girls were excited because grandpa told them he would fell the tree in the morning. With their heads together, he explained how to calculate where the tree would land. They discussed angles, how the tension on the rope pulled the trunk and how to cut the base so to accurately predict the placement of the massive pine on the ground.
“Timber!”
We all stood by and yelled, “Timber!” when the tree swayed, then heard the final crack of wood splintering. With excitement, we worked the rest of the day to cut the limbs, pile the debris, and burn the slash. At one point we wove a science lesson into the day by explaining to the youngest granddaughter how to determine the age of a tree. She meticulously counted and announced we had just killed an 80 year old tree in 30 minutes.
As retired school teacher, my husband and I both understand the importance of formal school. However, we also recognized the value of real life experiences and the teachable moment. During this time with our grandchildren, we have been working hard but also enjoying our time as we make memories and absorb positive energy of the kids.
I am reminded of the power of nature coupled with a positive attitude and hard work. Love being a grandparent! | https://medium.com/crows-feet/learning-new-math-64521e73581c | ['Brenda Mahler'] | 2020-04-12 14:42:26.580000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Nature', 'Grandparents', 'Children', 'Math'] |
Evaluating Players & Performances Judiciously — T20 | The little bit of additional complexity isn’t in vain
Here is how this model performs compared to a naive model that uses the average runs scored per ball at each batting position to estimate expected runs per delivery. Each data point here is an average across match situations for a batting position, competition and venue. We can clearly see the benefit that additional contextual information brings.
Comparison w/ a more naive model
The survival probability model also works well. Here, it is shown in aggregate for different batting positions.
Model vs actual — survival probability
Still not quite there
Now, that we have context adjusted expected runs per delivery, we can calculate the average difference in RPO per batsman/bowler from the average batsman/bowler under the same context. However, the sample size issue rears its head again here. If we just use the raw output of the model at this stage, the top 5 batsmen based on RPO are as shown below.
Sorted model output — top 5
This is clearly not useful. We need to adjust our confidence in the relative RPO numbers based on the number of balls faced by a batsman. The more data we have for a particular player, the more confident we can be in the estimates. If a batsman has played fewer balls, we conservatively say that they are likely to be closer to the average and need more noteworthy performances in either direction before we can be confident that they are really better or worse than the average.
Accounting for sample size
And, voila!
After applying this model, batsmen with more evidence, for whose numbers we can associate higher confidence, bubble up in the top 5.
Final sorted model results — top 5
We use a similar approach to aggregate the probability of survival across multiple innings as well. There, the volume is in terms of number of innings instead of number of balls.
The Metrics
We have two (Edit: Three. I added Evidence Weighted Relative Wickets Per Over to this.) metrics that we have developed here:
Evidence Weighted Relative RPO (EWR-RPO): This is a measure of how many runs more or less a batsman scores in one over relative to the average batsman coming in at the same position, in the same competition, on a similar ground, under similar circumstances. For bowlers, this translates to runs conceded in one over relative to the average bowler bowling to batsmen coming in at the same position, in the same competition, on a similar ground, under similar circumstances. For batsmen, a higher value of EWR-RPO is better, while for bowlers a lower value is better. For bowlers, it might also make sense to multiply this by 4 to get a more intuitive measure, but I am not doing that here. 0 is a par value for both and represents the average bowler/batsman. Evidence Weighted Cumulative survival probability of average batsman or Evidence Weighted Survival Factor (EWSF): This is a measure of how likely it is for an average batsman coming in at the same position, in the same competition, on a similar ground and facing deliveries under similar circumstances to have gotten out by this time (the ball before he loses his wicket, if he gets out in that innings, or the last ball that he plays, for innings were he remains unbeaten). EWSF ranges from 0 to 1, although 1 is almost unattainable. A higher EWSF is indicative of the extent to which batsmen play longer than average innings. Using this for bowlers is tricky because although higher EWSF indicates a well set batsman, it also indicates a batsman who has played longer than others and hence, may be more likely to get out. I also didn’t see the value of using this for bowlers at this time, given that I plan to introduce match impact related metrics in a follow up.
Let’s take a look at what these metrics look like in tandem for batting:
Batting metrics
We are clearly able to see the value of some of the usual suspects here in the top right periphery of the chart, where players that play longer innings and score at a fast rate, reside. However there are some interesting insights that emerge as well. We see that some of the bigger names in openers that show up here play more of an anchoring role than a short blaze. This is somewhat in line with my findings on how teams that slowly ramp up without losing wickets in the power play, and that use this platform in the middle overs do better. L Ronchi wasn’t one of these openers. Munsey isn’t either. Both Ronchi & Munsey are ahead of their peer openers in their respective leagues in both scoring rate and longevity of innings, consistently. Another interesting player for me was Rahkeem Cornwall, who doesn’t quite play the long innings that some of the top openers play, but he consistently scores fast and has an above average time spent at the crease. His bowling EWR-RPO is at -0.135 which is only at the 30th percentile level. The top bowlers based on EWR-RPO are as follows:
Bottomless Usage Potential
The basic approach that I have described here can be extended in a variety of ways. Since our original model is built for expectations per delivery, we can build a whole set of these follow up models adjusting for confidence based on sample size. We can have additional models per batsman against bowler type (spin/pace), bowler against batsman type (LHB/RHB), player per competition , player per position etc. (even matchups, although I am a little more cautious there because of small sample sizes) The list is almost endless and depends on the analyses that we want this to power.
Naive averages are sufficient for use overall splits due to larger sample sizes
For some cases, where there are enough samples that can be aggregated for fairly confident estimates e.g. bowler type, simple aggregations can work.
But most cases where we are comparing players need the additional step to account for the sample sizes. The below table illustrates this using the case of evaluating batsmen’s RPO against spin.
Evidence weighting is needed at the player level & leveraging higher level signals is helpful
The evidence weighted estimates of Relative-RPO are more robust than the naive average. Moreover, if we use only the performance data of each batsmen against spin, we have fewer sample sizes and so our evidence weighted algorithm is less confident about attributing a larger Relative-RPO number. Using additional signal from the batsmen’s overall perf (for the same sample size, we can be more confident in a batsman’s numbers against spin if they have also done well against pace) lets us be confident about the naive average numbers for larger sample sizes while being pessimistic about the estimates with smaller sample sizes. Finally, adding the signal from overall performances against spin lets us reign in over-aggressive estimates a bit more by requiring more evidence for a batsman’s score to be farther away from the overall Relative-RPO for spin.
No free lunch
Before parting, let’s briefly acknowledge a couple of loopholes that we have left or created here and how I plan to address them.
I’ve introduced metrics to address how fast batsmen score runs, the longevity of their stay and bowler economy rates here. However, we haven’t arrived at a similar evidence weighted relative metric for measuring the wicket taking ability of a bowler (Edit: I have, since writing this, added EWR-WPO which is the evidence weighted relative wickets per over metric for bowlers. The relative aspect of this comes from a comparison against the probability of a wicket falling in a given scenario. This probability is based on the above explained scenario/context only, and doesn’t take into account ball outcome history). While relative RPO (emphasis on relative) for batsmen and bowlers generally shouldn’t be a bad proxy for impact on the match result, wickets taken or lost in different contexts have different impact on the match result. I’ve shown before how boundary rate in different phases of the game impacts match outcomes. It is likely that relative RPO may not provide the complete picture of player contribution towards the result of a game. To address these, I will be working on a complementary match impact model to evaluate players based on how outcomes influence the outcome of matches.
Secondly, by taking into account available evidence for the metrics here, we’ve made it hard to evaluate players for whom we have less evidence because of smaller sample sizes. This could apply to new players, but also to players who may have played fewer deliveries in a particular context e.g. against left arm bowlers, across competitions, in a specific position etc. Moreover, since our metrics evaluate relative to the expectations in a given context, players performances get evaluated for that specific context. This doesn’t say much directly about how a player would fare in other contexts. A player like Munsey who has done exceedingly well in associate T20Is shows up on the top, but there is still a question mark on how he would fare in the IPL.
For these cases, my approach would be to find other similar players in the context where a given player has a non-trivial sample size of evidence and who have played a non-trivial sample size of evidence in the desired context, and use their metrics to do a projection for the player of interest. For e.g. if player X has played in the CPL & PSL, but not in the IPL and we want to evaluate how this player might do in the IPL, I’d take players from the CPL & PSL that have similar numbers to player X within some threshold of similarity. Of these players Y1, Y2…Yn, I’d take those who’ve also played in the IPL and take a similarity weighted average of how they have done in the IPL to estimate how player X might do. A similar approach could also be applied in time to evaluate how new players would fare in upcoming years.
p.s. I specifically use “he” here because the data that I used was from men’s T20s. The approach applies to women’s cricket as well and I will be prioritizing looking at women’s data in the future. | https://medium.com/boundary-line/evaluating-players-performances-judiciously-t20-dd3ba01a02eb | ['Amol Desai'] | 2020-08-18 18:22:46.311000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Cricket', 'Sport Analytics'] |
Server Sent Events with Kotlin + Redis | In this article I will show you one simple approach to understand SSE using the programming language Kotlin and Redis channels
Some foundation first:
SSE is a standard describing how servers can initiate data transmission towards clients once an initial client connection has been established. They are commonly used to send message updates or continuous data streams to a browser client and designed to enhance native, cross-browser streaming through a JavaScript API called EventSource, through which a client requests a particular URL in order to receive an event stream.
The Server-Sent Events EventSource API is standardized as part of HTML5 by the W3C
Polling is when you want some specific data or state from the server and it isn’t available yet so you have to request over and over until it is available.
Cons of polling
– Overcharges the server load
– Overload networks with useless data because the polling will send data even if they didn’t change
– Consumes 75% to 95% more of the end-user battery than pushing
– Requires 3 round-trips (TCP SYN, SSL and Data)
Use cases
Server/product availability
Prices
Social
Chat
Game scores
Trading
Dashboards
How about Web Sockets?
Web Sockets has many advantages but in some use cases the use of SSE is advised.
When not to use Web Sockets
When you don’t need bi direction
When you need to automatically recover from disconnections: SSE has built-in support for re connection and event-id
When you need error handling at protocol level: SSE are mono directional from server to client with http protocol with error handling standards, Web Sockets use https protocol
When performance is an issue: SSE provides better performance
When you are behind a corporate firewall: SSE has no trouble with corporate firewalls doing packet inspection
How does SSE works ?
A client subscribes to a stream from a server and the server will send messages (“event-stream”) to the client until the server or the client closes the stream. It is up to the server to decide when and what to send the client.
The event-stream is a simple stream of text data which must be encoded using UTF-8. Messages in the event-stream are separated by a pair of newline characters (“
”).
The following field names are defined in the specification:
Event: The event’s type. It will allow you to use the same stream for different content. A client can decide to “listen” only to one type of event or to interpret differently each event type.
Data: The data field for the message. You can put consecutive “data” lines.
ID: ID for each event-stream. Useful to track lost messages.
Retry: The time to use before the browser attempts a new connection after all connections are lost (in milliseconds).
Browser Support | https://medium.com/@jofigueredo/server-sent-events-with-kotlin-redis-14426b855600 | ['Jose Figueredo'] | 2020-11-16 18:00:10.907000+00:00 | ['Redis', 'Sse', 'Server Sent Events', 'Spring', 'Kotlin'] |
I’m Trying To Write | I’m trying to write,
but nothing is there.
It’s like flying a kite
where there’s not any air.
I first tried a poem,
but that didn’t work.
The words made me feel
like an overgrown berk.
I found a nice picture
of a path and a tree.
And wrote about a man
who was talking to me.
It seemed really awkward,
the man and the tree.
What was he doing there?
Just waiting for me?
Sometimes my stories
don’t make any sense.
But I keep trying.
I must be quite dense.
I had another picture
of colorful stones.
I thought that they might be
pet rocks seeking homes.
These ideas are way out,
way out in the blue.
It doesn’t give credit
to the reader. That’s you.
Sometimes when I think
it’s a good time to write,
I find I’m mistaken.
I’m tired. Good night! | https://medium.com/unlocked-words/im-trying-to-write-7f453887fead | ['Kevin Keeney'] | 2020-06-27 03:03:44.812000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Unlocked Words', 'Poetry', 'Writers On Writing', 'Writing'] |
COVID-19 Vaccine Impact on Artificial Tendons and Ligaments Market Size To Reach $39.7 Million By 2025 | COVID-19 Vaccine Impact on Artificial Tendons and Ligaments Market Size To Reach $39.7 Million By 2025 Rajesh Varma Follow Jun 17 · 3 min read
Artificial Tendons & Ligaments Market Growth & Trends
The global artificial tendons and ligaments market size is anticipated to reach USD 39.7 million by 2025 at an 11.3% CAGR during the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Adoption of artificial grafts is on a rise owing to several benefits over autologous and allogenic grafts, such as high tensile strength, no immune reaction, and abrasion resistance. Increase in number of sports injuries, coupled with rising government efforts to create awareness about sports injuries and available medical reimbursements, is anticipated to fuel market growth.
For instance, the Government of Finland in collaboration with UKK Institute has been conducting a ‘LiVE-program’ since 2016 to improve safety in sports increase awareness about injury risks, sports training, and content of physical activity sessions. Over the past several decades, increase in participation of children and adolescents has been observed in various sports such as football, soccer, bicycles, handball, basketball, and volleyball. Moreover, increase in awareness about physical fitness among people will contribute to market growth.
Other factors likely to contribute to market growth include rising preference for minimally invasive surgery, continuous advancements in surgical procedures, and growing funding and research activities to develop novel materials for synthetic tendons and ligaments. Moreover, positive outcomes reported through various clinical trials pertinent to usage of artificial ligaments will accelerate growth in the near future. For instance, according to a study published in 2017 in NCBI, patients treated with artificial ligament after femoral tumor resection and reconstruction procedures exhibited a more stable hip joint and more active range of movement as compared to patients who did not received a synthetic ligament.
Request a free sample copy or view report summary:
Artificial Tendons & Ligaments Market Report
Artificial Tendons & Ligaments Market Report Highlights | https://medium.com/healthcare-market-research/covid-19-vaccine-impact-on-artificial-tendons-and-ligaments-market-size-to-reach-39-7-d1c3ee69cb3d | ['Rajesh Varma'] | 2021-06-17 06:47:40.406000+00:00 | ['Healthcare', 'Artificial Tendons', 'Ligament', 'Medical Devices', 'Medical'] |
Invisible girl, the one you can't see, | Invisible girl, the one you can't see,
Even when she's desperately sending a plea.
She longs to be loved, remembered, adored.
She longs for someone to think she's the world.
To look into her eyes and to see her soul,
To think that she is a prize and a goal.
She may be the quietest girl in the room,
An abundance of thoughts in her head does loom.
She desires to give and to love and to serve,
But forgotten is what she feels she deserves.
Few people see her and think there must be,
More to this girl who sits quietly.
Most often she's the one who nobody sees,
Forgotten faster than she cares to be.
She's the one whose words get cut off in a crowd,
The one you wouldn't invite to come around.
She's the one who's message you forgot to respond,
The one you would never think to build a bond.
She's the one you don't give a thought during the day,
The one you'll forget once you've walked away.
She convinced herself that it is better this way,
Than to invest in those who don't see or don't stay.
There's so much inside her worth getting to know,
Even the parts that she's afraid to show.
She wonders if any will ever look and really see,
The kind of person that she's trying to be.
Can any see inside; can they see her soul?
Does anyone really want to know?
It is hard to invest her time and her soul,
To people who forget she exists and so.....
Who is that forgotten girl, standing there?
Trying to act like she just doesn't care?
I look in the mirror and all that I see,
Is the invisible girl staring back at me.
Mary L. Queen 2/24/2016 | https://medium.com/@marylqueen74/invisible-girl-the-one-you-cant-see-d7b12abac80e | ['Mary Queen'] | 2021-06-08 02:25:55.711000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Lonely', 'Feelings', 'Words', 'Honesty'] |
Prediction 2020 | Harmony CTO Rongjian Lan: Public blockchains trending towards PoS & privacy technology | Our CTO Rongjian Lan was interviewed by Chinese media Huoxing24 arguing that 2020 will be the year of fruition for Harmony, while the interest for public blockchains will be focused on PoS & Privacy by Design.
As always with our interviews, the transcription has been tidied up for readability and the questions may be rearranged to keep certain topics together.
What is the next step for blockchain technology? Mars Finance invited 8 blockchain technology leaders to write down predictions and judgments on technology trends.
2020 has arrived and a new decade has begun. The Chinese government puts blockchain technology at a strategic height of “a breakthrough point for independent innovation of core technologies”, but we still see that the technology itself still has unsolved problems and may need to integrate with 5G, AI, big data and other technology frontiers. What is the next step for blockchain technology? Mars Finance APP (WeChat: hxcj24h) invited 8 blockchain technology leaders to write down predictions and judgments on technology trends.
This article is Part 3 of “Predicting 2020: Technology Megatrends in the Eyes of 8 Blockchain Technology Leaders”. We are honored to have invited Harmony co-founder and CTO Rongjian Lan.
Rongjian Lan was a search infrastructure engineer for Play Store at Google and he is a co-chair of ABC Blockchain Foundation, with more than 100 engineers from Google, Facebook, LinkedIn as members. Harmony is a high-performance public blockchain project based on state sharding and PoS. The founder Stephen Tse founded the mobile search Spotsetter with institutional venture capital(Apple later acquired the startup). Harmony’s goal is to provide the most secure and efficient infrastructure for global decentralized economies.
2019 can be regarded as the first year of public blockchain PoS and Staking economy. Many PoS projects have launched their mainnet, and Eth2.0 is also preparing to upgrade to PoS.
The public often mistakes PoS as a consensus mechanism, but in fact, both PoS or PoW are just node election mechanism used to prevent malicious sybil attacks. PoS or PoW has nothing to do with how to achieve the final consensus. They determines how the network participant’s interests are bounded to the network. PoS is to bind validator’s assets directly on the blockchain. Through the incentives and slashing mechanism of Staking, the interest of nodes is directly tied to the security of the blockchain . On the other hand, miners in PoW needs computing power to participate in the network, but the sunk cost of buying mining machines is not directly tied to the specific blockchain they are mining because they usually can use the same machine to mine for other chains. The fact that hashing power can be rented simply makes the connection between the miner’s interest and the well-being of the chain even weaker.
Because miner and blockchain are not strongly coupled, people with a large amount of computing power are motivated to attack the network without losing their assets. From this point of view, it’s good to see more and more public blockchain adopt PoS for better security of the chains. Looking forward, PoS and Staking will continue to be the dominant technologies in blockchain in 2020.
In this decade from 2010 to 2019, blockchain technology has made great progress, especially since the advent of Ethereum, it has attracted more attention and resources to blockchain industry. So far, many aspects of the blockchain technology has been explored and researched, including network, consensus, virtual machine, state structure, sharding, side-chain, cross-chain, state channel, rollups.
The whole industry is very focused on the underlining technology on the infrastructure level of blockchain, but I think more resources should be invested in technologies to enhance user experience in the future, including more convenient wallet experience, private key management, privacy etc.
In 2020, privacy will be the biggest topic in the industry. The issue with public blockchain performance has been mostly solved with new technology such as sharding and layer 2 solutions. However, user privacy have always been the important problem in the internet era. Due to the technological limitation, privacy and data ownership is still left unsolved and undefined in legal and regulatory aspects. But with zero-knowledge proof technology (ZK — SNARKs), it’s very promising to solve the privacy problem by achieving the separation of data ownership and data usage.
Zero-knowledge research has made a big breakthrough in 2019, including many research results such as Marlin, Sonic, Plonk etc, making the technology finally reach the stage of practicality and production-readiness. I believe in 2020, we will see more use case of zero-knowledge to improve the performance of public blockchain, enable new features to protect user privacy.
Finally, let me talk about my views on a consortium blockchain. The advantages of consortium blockchain are high performance, faster deployment, and easier compliance with regulatory requirements. It is a suitable solution for information circulation and value exchange between enterprises or between enterprise and government. Consortium blockchain may be the first blockchain technology to be implemented in actual business. After the Chinese government announced the focus on blockchain, the popularity and application of consortium blockchain in China will far exceed public blockchain.
Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, the information provided on Mars Finance does not represent any investment suggestion. The articles published on Mars Finance only represent personal opinions and have nothing to do with the official position of Mars Finance. As China has not yet issued any relevant policies and regulations on digital assets, users in mainland China are requested to be cautious in investing cryptocurrencies. | https://medium.com/harmony-one/prediction-2020-harmony-cto-rongjian-lan-public-blockchains-trending-towards-pos-privacy-bc81c8b8891c | ['Nikolaos Kostopoulos'] | 2020-01-09 08:03:52.829000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Proof Of Stake', 'Blockchain', 'Research'] |
Shedding light on Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs) | The beauty of ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) is that investors across the globe can be gathered virtually and the project is given a fair chance to be evaluated. Unfortunately, the current ecosystem and beauty of ICO is being severely violated by many.
With our IEO (Initial Exchange Offerings) platform at Tokenize Xchange, we believe that we are the gatekeepers of new projects for our investors. The current expectation in the crypto world is that projects expect to have an easy and effortless way raising of capital while investors want their investments to moon in a short period of time.
This brings about the question — why do most ICOs fail even though they raise a lot of money? This is because the current expectations are without a doubt, not sustainable in the long run. All projects regardless of the potential they possess needs to be done in stages and they do not become a major success overnight. If new budding projects are expected to achieve colossal tasks and goals with the inadequate infrastructure or experience and scarce resources they have, the entire ICO would eventually collapse.
This leads to our next issue of why many projects are unable to raise money nowadays. The main issue is the lack of confidence that an ICO that is not yet proven would be able succeed without any fundamentals or incubators and advisers to ease them through this complicated uphill task.
Tokenize Xchange wants to be that exchange that steps up and make a radical change to how ICOs are done. In the private equities’ world, where phases and stages (Angel round, Seed round, Series A and the list goes on) exist to test and validate ideas and projects, we would want to apply the same structure to the crypto world whereby there would be phases our projects to evolve and develop.
We will move away from the norm of ICOs raising $5Million to $50Million and create accessibility for projects with market capitalisation starting from $100K. We thereby introduce a new feature where the community will be able to see what phase or stage the IEO is currently in.
Projects will be categorised based on their revenue track record and market capitalisation and where they will only be allowed to raise a certain amount of capital for each individual category.
There is a huge void in the IEO ecosystem which we have seen numerous flaws and weaknesses, so let us take a bold yet necessary step towards a more comprehensive and secure IEO platform!
Exciting new features that are coming soon!
We have shortlisted a few interesting and innovative projects that involves breakthrough patents from Japan as well as an Augmented Reality company dealing with IoT (Internet of Things) from Thailand that will be available on our IEO platform in the near future!
In addition, we are also in the progress of introducing a “Project Tag” feature which allows our users to know what phase (Seed, Series-A, Series-B) the project is currently in.
Click here to see the successful IEOs and the ongoing IEOs! | https://medium.com/tokenize-xchange/shedding-light-on-initial-exchange-offerings-ieos-c22803986ab8 | ['Travis Teo'] | 2020-05-01 01:37:38.198000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'ICO', 'Ieo', 'Bitcoin'] |
Tribal Breakthroughs Inspiring Active People | By Angie Gallagher
Early in our adoption phase, a power couple from Texas contacted BurstIQ to join our community. They remain one of our most dedicated partners today, and their unmatched motivation pushes their rapid success.
Their Story
Travis and Tracey James are a husband and wife team who launched their business in 2017. A few years before, Travis’s mother contracted breast cancer. His mother passed away two years after being diagnosed due to the cancer metastasizing and spreading to her spinal fluid.
In his mother’s case, every single day mattered. Half of those with her diagnosis die in 90 days but, if a person survives that, they have a great chance to live for a full year. Unfortunately, no one endures the past two years. Fortunately, Travis’ brother is a spine surgeon, and he caught it very early, allowing her to live longer. He treasured every extra minute he had with her.
This difficult journey made Travis aware of the critical need to connect health data so patients, like his mom, can get immediate, personalized care to extend their lifetime. Separately, as an engineering consultant, Travis worked on a database with 30,000 cancer patients at Montgomery Cancer Center to create an app called “Factotem.” What is remarkable about this project is his experience with connecting large amounts of data.
Tracey’s healthcare expertise in management and product development brought her and Travis together. At the time, Travis was the CTO for a Circle Love, a social caregiving app for cancer patients. Their shared passion for helping cancer patients built an inseparable bond.
During this time, Tracey was also operating a CISCO program called CHILL “Cisco Hyper Innovation Living Lab,” where she organized hackathons utilized to inspire corporate participants to invest in startups. This experience provided a foundation for launching Tribe, where she serves as Tribe’s Co-Founder and COO diligently operating business development, design strategy, and innovation processes.
Tribe is on a mission to give the power of an individual’s data back to the individual and create true inoperability for health care data.
One division of Tribe is “Tribe Global Services,” which supports startups. ‘Tribe’ applies their concept of accessing decentralizing data for a specific demographic area to combine resources in an ecosystem to advocate for things that matter in that demographic.
Tribe Health Solutions
Travis James, CEO of Tribe Health Solutions
After working on these two apps and later launching Tribe Health, they worked on a PHR, which evolved into an application for people who are competitive in sports. Travis is an earnest basketball player, and Tribe’s focus provides professional, former pro- and semi-professional athletes to manage their health, medical, and fitness records to optimize performance and lifestyle.
They are working with the NFL and NBA, and the driver for wider adoption defines the behavior of everyone else. Travis and Tracey will demo Tribe Health at the Google IP Conference in May.
Love Lives On
One last thing about Travis, while his mother was enduring her illness, every day, he would find an inspiring quote and add it to a powerful photo and text it to her each morning. Now, he habitually sends this to people in his circle. It is incredible to wake up with positive power words to greet your new day. A man compelled to inspire the world, Travis is working on an app to spread these inspiring words.
Vehement to raise the bar on health and wellness, both Tracey and Travis are incredibly knowledgeable about startups, database management, and the strength behind connectivity. The BurstIQ platform positions both companies on a mission to thrive and serve the people of the world. | https://medium.com/@burstiq/tribal-breakthroughs-inspiring-active-people-4c16d38a3248 | [] | 2020-10-26 17:10:07.049000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Blockchain', 'Blockchain Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Data'] |
10 Financial Predictions for 2021 to Protect Your Wealth | 10 Financial Predictions for 2021 to Protect Your Wealth
Preparing for the future gives you incredible confidence. Now more than ever, you need a sense of clarity.
Preparing for the future gives you incredible confidence.
Now more than ever, you need a sense of clarity. Everywhere you turn, there is uncertainty ready to ruin your day. But the future is more predictable than you think.
So, here are my ten outcomes that seem likely in 2021.
1. Lockdowns will not end next year.
Eight months ago, our politicians told us that the restrictions would last just a couple of weeks, and then we return to normal. Well, here we are at the end of the year, entering the second more severe wave. Most likely, our freedom of movement and assembly will continue to get restricted. Governments will still forbid most of us to work and earn the money we need to survive. In short, the lockdowns won’t end next year, and the aftermath of the second wave will be the third, fourth, or fifth wave.
2. Climate change will be back on the agenda.
Joe Biden has named climate as one of the top priorities. The president-elect campaigned on a $1.7 trillion plan to transition to 100% clean energy sources by 2050. Those who invest in carbon emissions assets, such as European Emission Allowances (EUAs), should get ready to see a new all-time high in 2021.
3. The home office will become the norm.
You will still have an option to go to the office if you’d like. But it will be different. The office will be a place to have crucial meetings, not do work. All other conversations you’ll have to manage via Zoom from your home office. Using Slack or Trello for work-related communication will be the norm. For better or worse, work from home will be the standard. The result? That will cause damage to commercial real estate and business travel. Also, trigger the second wave of the exodus of white-collar workers from big cities.
4. Crypto will attack banks.
Let’s just state the obvious here. Banks are so screwed. They are about to be attacked by central banks, fintech, and crypto companies. An open, more inclusive alternative to a broken financial system will get closer to reality. Every financial service like savings, loans, investing, or insurance will get disrupted. First, central banks will circumvent the entire banking system, thanks to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Second, the fintech giants like Alphabet, Apple, Alibaba, and Tencent will increase their focus on the banking space. And then, crypto exchanges, together with DeFi, will expand their services to lending and borrowing. As Anthony Pompliano, the co-founder at Morgan Creek Digital likes to say, “Long Bitcoin, short the bankers.”
5. S&P 500 will breach 4,000
With interest rates at zero till 2023 and unlimited money printing, you can be long equities with your eyes closed. Likewise, fiscal stimulus and positive developments related to trade wars under a Biden administration lead to a more bullish outlook. Morgan Stanley projected that the S&P 500 would rise to 3,900 by December 2021. And JPMorgan Chase has an even more optimistic view. They set a target of nearly 4,200 for the S&P 500. Sure, making optimistic predictions about the stock market is usually a safe bet because stocks generally rise more often than they fall. But, that doesn’t mean that the gains will be smooth. Volatility will keep pervading the market.
6. Bond prices will decline.
With interest rates at zero for the next two years, you have the massive asset class such as fixed income almost worthless. For example, the US pension liabilities and 401K alone have over $60 trillion assets under management. That is an incredible buying power that has to be productive. No reasonable portfolio manager desires to put to work 70% of the funds to an underperformer. Some of these funds will start moving to stocks, gold of Bitcoin.
7. Crude oil will surge above $50 per barrel.
Given the advancing opening of the global economy, OPEC production cuts, and the U.S. shale production phased out under the Biden administration; the oil markets look to be pretty balanced. I believe that the oil price will breach above $50 per barrel and stay there for the foreseeable future.
8. Inflation will be much higher than 2%
The cost of global lockdowns is estimated at $30 trillion. That’s an awful lot of money. Unfortunately, governments, to mitigate the economic carnage, will simply borrow it. They borrow it from central banks, which will just print more money. That means higher prices for goods and services and lower purchasing power of your currency. People can debate if this is moral. But, the system is as it is. Also, it’s heavily dependent on the people who don’t understand it. As Henry Ford said, “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
9. Gold will rise to an all-time high.
In the last ten months alone, there has been a 35% increase in total dollars printed. It is no secret that investors tend to switch from the US dollar to gold during monetary easing as the hedge against inflation. Despite the phenomenal 24% gains in 2020, the safe-haven asset aims for another lustrous year. Gold reached its peak back in August when prices hit a new record high of $2,075 an ounce. But in 2021, we will see another record high.
10. Bitcoin’s price will skyrocket to $50,000
My 2020 Bitcoin prediction was 100% fulfilled. And I hope my 2021 will be accurate as well. This year we saw large hedge funds, such as Guggenheim, Renaissance Technologies, Paul Tudor Jones, or Stanley Druckenmiller, made headlines by talking up Bitcoin as a store of value. Wall Street simply fell in love with Bitcoin. The large institutions such as JPMorgan, Standard Chartered, Citi, or Deutsche Bank continue to build solutions for clients and begin regular asset class coverage. In a similar fashion, retail investors will start buying Bitcoin in 2021. The reality is that it has never been easier to purchase crypto. These events will likely create a supply crunch and a bull run, lifting the price well above $50,000.
Final thought
Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, said, “Change is the only constant in life.”
2020 has been a year of change. And 2021 will be a chance to get adapt to it.
When you become resilient in 2021, you’ll make a tremendous amount of progress.
Also, if you believe 2021 will be a good year, then you’ll see it that way. Good years and bad years are all a matter of perception.
Here’s to a great 2021! | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/10-financial-predictions-for-2021-to-protect-your-wealth-ce259a512c12 | ['Ras Vasilisin'] | 2020-12-29 16:55:23.747000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'Predictions', 'Bitcoin', 'Economics', 'Investing'] |
Candy Apple or Cherry Red? | Photo by Ryan De Hamer on Unsplash
The story of their meeting changes every 10 years when I ask her to tell me how it happened.
“I liked his car.”
Meeting each other doesn’t change, but the story variations get more detailed.
“This again? Alright, so the car was red.”
It feels like a new story instead of a broken record.
“We’re cruising down the boulevard when this bright red convertible zooms past us — ”
He got rid of the bright red British convertible sometime after they started dating.
“Of course, he got a boring car after that. Some sedan — I can’t remember the color.”
Then they bought a car together.
“You were born a few years after we got married, and we bought a Jeep.”
Honestly, I was really young when that happened — but I remember that car.
It was a red Jeep.
Photo by Derrick Brooks on Unsplash
Aloha e kuʻu mau meli,
Writing Prompt: The car your father drove.
I've heard a lot of family and friends' stories about first dates or weekly car-pooling — a lot of car related bonding time when their parents met or got to know each other. You know what I want though? I want a bus or train ride love story lol — there's no trains where I grew up, but you'd see them on T.V. or when I went to college… So it's very possible.
He mea pokole kēia, the next one will also be up soon so —
Until next time honey bbeess (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*✲ﾟ*｡⋆ | https://medium.com/@ulumi/candy-apple-or-cherry-red-178f5a054ffc | ['Ulu Mi'] | 2020-12-25 05:12:01.605000+00:00 | ['Writing Practice', 'Free Style Poetry', 'Writing Prompts'] |
Bangkok: A truly terrifying egg | I know it’s been a while since I’ve written a blog (oh, how I still dislike that word) when I have to read through my last blog in order to remember what I have and what I haven’t written about…
So, it’s been over a month since I last posted something… Well, I’ve posted stuff, obviously… We live in the world of social media after all… I’ve just not posted anything worth reading… Here’s to hoping THIS is worth reading eh?
We’ve been living in the new apartment for a while now, and dear friends, I am loving it… I honestly wish we could have found this place when we first arrived in Thailand, a little under two years ago.
Two years.
In a few days time, I will have been living in Thailand for two years.
It feels so unreal… Had you asked me three years ago where I would be living in the future, I would have given you one straight answer “I’ll be living in Dudley” I had no realistic option of moving away, I honestly believed I would live all of my life there and that one day I would be buried there… I did have a fantasy of one day living in the English seaside town of Great Yarmouth but as I say, it was a fantasy… I even had a beachfront house that I used to look at every time I visited… I’d look at it and say “One day I’ll live in that house”… Well, it looks like I will never live in that house in Great Yarmouth… I do however live in Bangkok, a city I love… Not a bad trade-off eh?
For the record, we visited Great Yarmouth one night just before we left for Bangkok… Place out of season is, in fact, a bit of a shit hole… Sorry citizens of Great Yarmouth!
I still find myself driving through town in a taxi (Jesus Christ, you will never find me driving a car here, it’d be too scary) looking out of the window when suddenly it will hit me “YOU LIVE IN BANGKOK!” A city I knew of, but a city I never dreamed of visiting, never mind living here… And yet here I am… I don’t know if I will ever truly get over this “pinch me, am I dreaming” state… Maybe I don’t really want to… I don’t want to be someone who takes this city, and what I have here for granted.
*Squeal of brakes*
I paused for a while and found myself looking back at previous blogs… My very FIRST blogs to be exact… I only intended on looking at the first one, but found myself reading the first six…. Bloody hell, I’d forgotten most of the stuff I’d written about! (shameless plug for my previous blogs)
Where was I?….. Oh yeah… I live in Bangkok!
We love our new apartment, our last place was great, but I have to say I love living here so much more…
I may have mentioned it before but our new place is right in the middle of one of Bangkok’s red-light districts, we have beer bars, massage parlours and freelancers walking the streets… Our local bar (a great place by the way) is a beer bar, we’re pretty sure all the girls “work” there but that does not take away from the fact that it’s a great bar, the drinks are reasonably priced and we get amazing service there… Being a “regular” drinker at the bar, you do get to know the girls… “Jaeb” is friendly and seems to have built a strong friendship with Jo… Amy is friendly and outgoing, but is a terribly moody drunk… She will be the life and soul of the party one minute, then she’s slumped over the bar looking angry the next… There’s a younger girl who works in the bar who after a few weeks of drinking there, I have noted she has three facial expressions that she pulls when she is with “customers”…
Smiley face — She has a huge smile when she is face to face with “customers” (for customer read, a man who has bought her a drink and therefore has bought her company)
The grimace — This is when the customer is not looking in her direction or is otherwise occupied… It’s when the fake smile just can’t be held anymore.
Misery — I’ve seen her pull this face as she wanders to the rear of the bar and collects her bag just before heading off into the night with her “customer”
I don’t like it when she’s with customers… I hate to see her face change, I hate to see how uncomfortable she looks… Mostly I hate the men I’ve seen her sitting with… They all look the same… Slimy looking Europeans, old enough to be her dad… But… It’s the line of work she (and thousands of girls like her) is in… It pays the bills… I do however silently breathe a sigh of relief when I walk into the bar and see she’s ok.
Other drawbacks…. Beggars.
We have two “regular” beggars near our apartment, we have “one-legged Joe”, a beggar who as his name would suggest has only one leg… He sits near to the BTS station and politely raises his hand as you pass, if you give him 20 baht, he’ll smile politely… Don’t hand him cash and he’ll also smile… Just maybe not as much as if you had given him money.
And then we have “Captain Jack”.
I hate Captain Jack with a passion… I first encountered “Jack” a week or so after moving into our apartment… I was walking back from our old apartment when I walked past him, “Money! Money! Hungry!” He shouted while waving his plastic cup in the air… Now, I don’t take kindly to having people shout at me… Especially when they proclaim to be hungry while having a half-full bottle of Hong Thong whiskey with them… “Mai Dai” (cannot) I said but still he continued “Hungry! Hungry”… A short time later both Me and Jo walked past him… “You! Give me money!”… Fuck you, Captain Jack… Fuck you.
This week Me and Jo were walking toward our apartment and we encountered a woman who seemed…. How shall I put this…. Off her tits on drugs.
She walked past us then turned and ran toward the BTS station, straight to Captain Jack… They exchanged words as we passed… Bickering like an old married couple… Maybe the good captain is funding her habit… Fuck you once more Captain Jack… Fuck you.
Our friends’ group here in Bangkok means a lot to us both… The COVID lockdown would have been a much darker experience if it hadn’t been for our weekly online meetups… Thankfully now Thailand is pretty much COVID free our meetups are now in person and usually alcohol-fueled…
Our friend Nicola’s murder mystery birthday night out was an absolute delight… a group of us all sat in a bar playing characters, trying to solve a mystery… Great fun… Even if I did find that solving mysteries really isn’t my strong point… I am currently trying to write my own murder mystery tho… Let’s see how that turns out, shall we?
*Squeal of brakes*
I wrote a bit about a night out that didn’t go according to plan… A night that promised so much but actually turned out to be boring and complete letdown… However, I decided to delete it, businesses are struggling here and they don’t need people like me slagging them off via keyboard… I will be making my feelings known tho as soon as the elusive “feedback” form appears in my email inbox.
From a night that didn’t go according to plan… To a night that far exceeded everything we could have hoped for…
Mine and Jo’s Halloween/Housewarming/Birthday party for our friend Xaviera.
We invited people, they turned up in varying styles of fancy dress… Vampires, candy skulls, various movie characters… And my friend Henry dressed as a truly terrifying egg.
Our maids (you would have never thought you’d use that phrase before you came here) mom cooked food for our party (delicious by the way… The food… Not her mom… A lovely woman but I’m pretty sure eating her would be frowned upon) I think we decorated the apartment “just enough”… Halloween is a weird one, it’s so easy to overdo it when it comes to decorations… I had one of those strange occurrences when a throwaway idea I had happened to work perfectly… Yes, you CAN hide a projector in the head of a Grim Reaper and project images of ghosts onto a wall! And an even better level of success when we hid a speaker in the bathroom randomly playing spooky sounds throughout the night… Everyone seemed to have a great time, so much so that in the early hours of Sunday morning Jo suggested we all move to our local bar (the noise levels in the apartment didn’t seem to be going down)… At 5 am Me and Jo left the bar… I think we can call that a good night… Right?
I suppose I wouldn’t be writing these things correctly if I didn’t approach the subject that has dominated Bangkok for the past few weeks… Amazingly it’s not COVID… It is, however, something I have to tread carefully around…. I’ll explain… Or get arrested while attempting to explain.
There are things we cannot do here in Thailand that we can do quite freely in the UK.
Back in England, I can freely proclaim that I feel that the British Royal family is a waste of time, a waste of money and should be gotten rid of.
IF I had those same sentiments here, about the Thai royals… I couldn’t do that.
The king holds a level of respect and everyone here is expected to respond accordingly… The king’s anthem plays in public? You stop what you’re doing, stand up and wait for it to finish.
The king does something that you don’t agree with? You sure as shit don’t go on Facebook and slag him off.
We have witnessed news programmes being blacked out if they are running a story that sheds a less favourable light on the monarchy…
A bit like the classic 90’s dance track by SNAP!… They’ve got the power.
There has been an uprising of late… Younger Thais have taken to the streets to show how they feel… They have issues with the government and with certain aspects of the monarchy, one protest… A PEACEFUL protest was met with a level of force that I feel was unacceptable, police used water cannons against these protesters, most of them being high school kids… It made for unpleasant viewing… Will there be change? I really don’t know… Do I think there should be change? As an ex-pat here I honestly feel it’s not my place to say… But the kids taking to the streets seem passionate about change and after all, it will be those kids taking this country into the future.
See? It’s not all beers and gogo bars here in “The land of smiles”…
So, until next time… | https://medium.com/@adecox/bangkok-a-truly-terrifying-egg-bf9e5536d2bf | ['Ade Cox'] | 2020-11-05 02:53:33.334000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Bangkok', 'Halloween'] |
A Guide To The Wine Region of Three Lakes In Switzerland | Interlude
Welcome to this post about the region of Three Lakes in Switzerland. A region built up by some others that we will shortly cover. For me Three Lakes is always associated with a very high quality of the wine. In the last post we discussed the region of German-Speaking Switzerland. The largest region in the country.
We are doing all this to learn more about the world of wine and feel more confident navigating it. You can expect to learn about the history of the region, the style of wine that is made here, climate and geography and of course some recommendations as to where you should buy if quality is important. So without further ado, let’s get started!
History of the region
So if you want to learn about the history of the region then you should rather learn about the country’s history. This is because it will be similar and apply to every region here. The country is one of the oldest ones in Europe. Maybe not to the same extent that Geogrien is as they have history dating back more than 5000 years. In Switzerland there has been evidence found that wine was made as early as 200 years BC in the region today known as Valais.
It was a small bottle made in ceramic found in a celtic tomb and text on the ceramic suggested that it once upon a time contained wine. The people of the country had a history of offering wine to the dead, but it can be assumed that they themselves als had traditions of consuming it. This was around 150 years BC. After a century or so, the Romans appeared and established more and more vineyards drastically and the whole industry flourished. They got the chance to export a huge amount as the Roman empire grew and grew more.
The actual production wine in the country has to be one of the best kept secrets in the entire world. There is a very small amount of wine that ever sees sites outside of Switzerland. The Swiss just love their own wine too much. The entire country holds about 15,000 hectares of cultivated vineyards and there are about 1,500 different producers. The country was like many others in Europe the victim of the Phylloxera disaster that happened during the 19th century. Botanists from England traveled to North America to do research on the native vines growing there.
They brought some back with them not knowing that they carried diseases not experienced by the European native varieties. This resulted in many bones having to be cut down and the winemakers were faced with a very hard decision. Either they could continue with the native ones and riske the infection ones again or they could try and create hybrid ones that could withstand the disease. This was a major influence for the diversified grape varieties that now make up the country’s vineyards.
The style of wine
So what is the style of wine that is made here then? We said that the region is built up with other smaller regions that will also get their own posts. So in the region of Neuchatel and Bern the only red grape that is actually grown here is Pinot Noir. It is also the only red one that is allowed to be grown. For me the style of wine made here always screams quality and elegance. A perfect balance that is very hard to achieve properly.
You might think they are the same, but not necessarily. Maybe they go hand in hand a lot but they can be the difference between something great and something divine. As for white grapes grown here, the most famous one is with Chassele. Basically the signature white grape for the country too. The region might be more interesting though for some of the sparkling wine. Some producers and bottles even fetched some great claims and awards. The sparkling wine selection is for the most part only made from Chardonnay, or at least the very best is with that grape.
Climate and geography
So what kind of climate is most prevalent here then. I have often read about the great conditions it holds for growing vegetables and managing agriculture. Does this mean that vines grow good here too? Well, it depends a lot on the types of grape that the winemakers want. Thankfully they often choose the ones that are best fitted for cooler climates and balanced temperature. Here Pinot Noir shines with the opportunity of showing great elegance.
The prolonged ripening season makes the wines concentrate more and gives the winemakers a greater time frame for harvest. They can almost pinpoint the best time to start and the consequences do not become as severe. Often with these cooler climates the red wines will be more tannic and structured. Cool winds from the alps and the tempering element of the lakes helps the wineries in keeping a clean and balanced climate throughout the growing season.
Recommendations
So what kind of wine do I like the most from here? For me I tend to go for the Pinot Noir wines. Although I have to admit that there are not a lot of times that I have had the chance to try wines from here. The few ones have for sure left a mark though. Elegance and structure with great tannic elements are what I look for. These qualities are usually only found with the wines made from vineyards in close proximity to the lakes.
Last words
That’s a wrap for this post about the region of Finger Lakes in Switzerland. A region maybe best known for really good Pinot Noir. Something everyone can appreciate. I hope that you have enjoyed reading this and feel more confident navigating the world of wine now. Stay tuned for the next post where the region of Neuchatel will be covered.
Follow Me!
https://winesofmine.com
https://www.pinterest.se/samuelpetersson01 | https://medium.com/@samuel.petersson01/a-guide-to-the-wine-region-of-three-lakes-in-switzerland-69a05f1c885a | ['Samuel Petersson'] | 2021-12-25 14:02:58.350000+00:00 | ['Guide', 'Winemaking', 'Wine', 'Switzerland', 'White Wine'] |
Following the Lakers win last night, I was all set to write a post about how it felt like the… | Following the Lakers win last night, I was all set to write a post about how it felt like the LeBron v. Jordan debate was now over. Not because either was clearly on top, but because well, two roads had clearly diverged.
Their careers are just so different now. 6–0 in the Finals versus championships with 3 very different teams. But there are like a thousand other differences; some big and some small.
I’m glad I didn’t end up writing that post because Zach Lowe wrote it about 1000x better than I could have:
Look, I’m clearly biased being that I’m from Cleveland. Not only once and future home to LeBron James, but the victims of Jordan’s “The Shot”, which I watched as a kid. The Cavs had some great teams in the late 80's/early 90s, but they didn’t have Jordan so they’re lost in time. Still, I feel like this debate is now only a debate in the way that peanut butter versus jelly is a debate. Sure, some people like one and not the other. But they’re just entirely different. And that’s why they go well together. As do Jordan and LeBron in the history of basketball. Sort of a boring, nuanced take, I know.
As Lowe puts it: | https://mgs.medium.com/following-the-lakers-win-last-night-i-was-all-set-to-write-a-post-about-how-it-felt-like-the-a826e2d41bcd | ['M.G. Siegler'] | 2020-10-13 04:26:02.710000+00:00 | ['Goat', 'Michael Jordan', 'LeBron James', 'NBA', 'Sports'] |
How a Data Scientist Buys Extended Warranties | How a Data Scientist Buys Extended Warranties
A Deep-Dive look at the Math of “Extended Warranties”
This is a “sort-of-second-part” to my post about using data to buy a car.
If you have not read it, check it out here.
Intro
We have all been there. We have just committed to buying that new shiny car and we are about to make it out of the building fairly unscathed.
But wait, before we can sign on the dotted line and ride off into the sunset we have one more meeting with the “finance” guy (a.k.a. last line of a long line of sales pitches).
They will offer you a whole slew of extended warranty options to protect your new pseudo-asset.
These are some of the biggest moneymakers for car dealerships and surprisingly there is a lot of math to back it up and that is what we intend to explore.
A Simple Case
Let’s say you are sitting in the finance office of your local car dealership about to close on a deal.
You are offered an extended warranty on you tires that will only cost you $7/month.
It covers everything from you running over a nail in your driveway and needing a patch to a complete blowout that requires a brand new tire.
Should you take the deal? Is it worth it? Whats in it for the dealership?
This is a game of probabilities and for the sake of simplicity, we will use some fairly reasonable expected probabilities that I made up after seconds and seconds of thinking about it.
Let’s say that in a year there is a 5% chance of having a total blowout and a 30% chance of just needing a patch.
And let’s say that the average cost of replacing a tire is $200 and the average cost of a patch is $20.
What is in it for the dealership?
To answer the question of why the dealership would offer this deal and how much money they expect to make from this we can start formulating this into mathematical equations.
Let’s say the dealership sells 1000 extended warranties in a year.
In order to figure out how much cost the dealership will incur we can use the following basic probability concept where E(x) will be the expected number of vehicles the dealership will need to repair.
With some basic arithmetic we can now get the following table:
So in one year, the dealership is expecting to make a profit of $68,000 from 1000 of these deals (no wonder the salesman are so pushy).
But so far this isn’t very interesting and looks more like accounting than data science.
This is where a data scientist would start to think about probability distributions, variances around the means, simulations, extreme cases, mathematical relationships, inflection points and on and on and on. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-a-data-scientist-buys-extended-warranties-fac4ad3ea8de | ['Will Casey'] | 2019-12-11 04:58:21.092000+00:00 | ['Extended Auto Warranties', 'Python', 'Data Science', 'Statistics', 'Poisson'] |
Cracking Upwork Interview | My Upwork Adventures
First Attempt
I registered on Upwork in spring of 2017.
Most of my mates more or less involved in freelance and outsource development were saying that the time had already gone and there was no way to start on Upwork due to incredible competitiveness there.
It seemed to be true. Furthermore, I was scrolling through the jobs posted there and most of them looked like bullshit for meaningless amounts of money.
I’ve spent about a month, sending proposals without any success. Profile with an empty job history was a real barrier and I gave in.
Second Attempt
After about three month I decided to give a second try.
I’ve spoken to a couple of my friends who were rather successful at Upwork those days. Advice was not something I needed actually. A living example, a proof that it was doable and worth doing. That was something I really lacked.
Star Trek: First Contract
This time I was bidding and sending proposals as usual but surprisingly landed the contract rather quickly.
Suddenly on the bidding screen I saw a message saying something like: “Freelancers with skills similar to yours usually bid higher. Recommended amount is X”.
I called it “an invisible hand of the Upwork market”. I bid that exact amount and immediately got the interview. Then we had a call, discussed the details and I got the contract.
Coincidence or unbelievable match?
Top Rated
It took me about half a year to achieve 100% success score and Top Rated status.
Top rated perks
For me personally, there isn’t much profit from it, except the fact that the account becomes a little bit more attractive.
At also allows to bring non-Upwork clients to Upwork with zero commission and use Upwork as an automated invoicing tool.
One more feature is an ability to delete one client’s feedback per year. That may be useful in case of your sudden freelance failure.
Accidentally, I’ve come across one more feature that Upwork provides for top rated freelancers. It’s advertising.
Yeah, it turns out that Upwork puts top rated freelancers everywhere and that’s a rather pleasant thing.
How I lost my top rated status
I haven’t worked through Upwork for the whole 2019 and haven’t been active there at all. As the result I’ve lost top rated status. Unfortunately that will probably cause difficulties with landing jobs in future.
Good news is that I’m going to get it back soon.
Is Upwork worthy?
Continue reading at my blog: “Cracking Upwork Interview” | https://medium.com/@kazaimazai/cracking-upwork-interview-64a681108bca | ['Kazai Storyboard'] | 2020-11-24 12:44:35.634000+00:00 | ['Upwork', 'Freelancing', 'Freelancers', 'Freelance', 'iOS App Development'] |
Why is Tech Hiring So User-Unfriendly? | I have to admit before we go any further into this article: I’m tired of how we try to select candidates in tech. All hiring processes look the same, they are too long, sometimes they don’t even provide solid information about the candidate and about their capacity to provide something new to your company.
The idea here is really to share the point of view of a tech guy about what we can optimize and improve in our way of hiring talented people. Otherwise, you are just another company in the long list of spam … huh sorry, in the long list of interesting companies that will never get any answers.
HR and Tech are two highly related worlds that should learn to speak the same language ;)
Promote Git repositories
This is the best way to get to know a programmer and to show them you are interested in their work.
No more basic messages like “after perusing your Linkedin profile”!
A Linkedin profile is just an “entry point” and not a skills list, and even less proof of any skill.
A lot of programmers have, at least, some private repositories that they can share with you. Projects can be split into two categories:
1) Personal projects
Personal projects are a good source of information if you want to judge:
ownership: how candidate manages a repository, how he/she organizes project structure.
deliverability: just look at how commit messages are written, how they are distributed in time, but not commit frequency (number of commits per month for instance), it’s really useless and it largely depends on the professional context, etc.
code quality: Is the code dirty? Or is it well architectured, commented, tested, etc.
Most of the time this kind of project is quick and dirty and they are not “production-ready” of course. But it’s a very good start to gain insight into candidates' technical mindset.
Of course, you should integrate such a step in your process. It’s not just asking for a repository link and inspecting the code. You should ask the candidate for some explanation about this project and why they are showing you this project and not another one.
2) Open-source projects
Here we are, probably one of the best ways to gauge candidates:
technical skills: How they code, how they implement features, their problem-solving approach, technological choices, algorithm implementation, etc.
communication skills: How they interact with other people in their team and external contributors (you can do this simply by reading messages on Pull Request/ Feature request)
work organization: How they distribute the work between them and their teams, do they give deadlines, roadmaps, etc?
candidate leadership: Do they take the lead on some topics? Are they recognized in their team as a referent on some subjects?
Open-source logo
Most Open-source projects are well organized, follow a pattern for commit messages, have a CI/CD, force you to think before you code. If a candidate helps this kind of project it means they work with many different personalities over the world in a challenging agile environment, in other words, this person probably has a very good team spirit.
Technical tests
Official definition => Technical tests are basic exercises that are written in a way to demonstrate candidates' abilities and technical skills.
Reality => bullshit
First of all, a technical test can be entirely replaced by a personal project demonstration, a git repository, or an Open-source project.
A technical test shows you nothing more than what you want to see. If you ask for a little program that should do basic operations. Then you will receive it, most of the time with an explanation that will show you nothing more than the candidate just understands your exercise! What a great result for your hiring process and what a waste of time for the candidate.
Developers don’t like to spend 10 minutes of their time doing a simple HelloWorld …. or worse than that: spend 3 days working on a full project that will never be in production.
The question of the duration/deadline?
If you choose the first approach (to let the candidate give you some personal projects) you will completely remove this question and speed-up your entire process.
If you choose to give homework, then no deadline is probably the best option. I never saw a better result in a test because you allowed more or less time to do it. Here we should take into account the candidate experience about your hiring process. If you let them the time to give the test then they will have a better perception of your company. The test is the reflection of your own mindset, if you put some pressure on candidates, they will identify your company as a stressful place to work.
Fun fact: I finished a HackerRank test after the deadline, I remembered the last exercise so I did it blindly without having access to the platform any longer. I sent my work by email and the company was able to run the result to see if it passed the tests …. and it was good, and I joined Voodoo. The most important is the quality of the result, not some arbitrary deadline ;)
The most valuable part of a technical test: open questions!
If you want to extract the best from a candidate then you should ask good questions. Open questions give candidates the opportunity to express their point of view, to explain their approach, their way of thinking, and their way of working. That’s exactly what we want to learn about each person we meet during an interview.
Knowing where a candidate has previously worked is a mere detail, but knowing how he/she goes about solving a problem is fundamental.
Process duration
The question without any (decent) answer. What is the best process duration?
If it’s too short => how we can be sure that the candidate is the one? The candidate will also find it very suspicious.
If it’s too long => the best candidates will accept an offer from another company or they will just give up midway.
The problem is not the duration of the whole process but the number of steps and the duration of each one. When I see big companies which have 7, 8 or 9 steps, each of them for at least 1 hour, with exercises, questions, etc. We’re not in therapy here, we’re just trying to interview someone for a job: let’s calm down!
The only signal you will send is that of a company where everything is complicated, takes time, and is weighed down by immense inertia. This is probably not the best image you can give of your business.
Fun fact: I gave up a hiring process because it took too much time and they just repeated “we only hire talented people” during each interview. Seriously, do you know any company who says they hire weak-minded people? Everyone wants the best, no need to say it.
Experience vs studies
Another classical mistake: ask for X+ years of experience on a specific technology. I think we all know very talented people with only a few months of experience and on the other hand, we all have met someone with many years of experience and who is not able to write a single line of code without bugs or who is not able to structure a project or a simple thought!
Fun fact: During an interview, someone told me they were looking for a developer with 5 years of experience with Node.js, …. this technology was 4 years old at the time.
If years of experience are not important, some companies decide to specify which qualifications you should have. Well, that will just prevent you from meeting all the autodidacts (or people who are changing careers), which are often the most interesting profiles.
And I will finish with the best: to look for someone from a specific university or engineering school. As if someone is automatically good, just because of the school reputation.
Fun fact: I graduated from one of the most prestigious French universities, and one of my friends has the exact same training but from another university (less known). Most of my professors worked with both universities, so we had almost the same university education. But my diploma is more highly valued only because the name of my university is better known. Does that make any sense?
Avoid the Standard Job Interview
We should put an end to “traditional questions” like:
What are your 5 strengths?
What are your 5 weaknesses?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
…
This doesn’t provide valuable information about candidates, and everyone is prepared for these questions. So there is no spontaneity and no real truth in the answers: do you know someone who answered: “I have to be honest, I’m lazy”?
The following questions are more open and you will know the candidate better:
What makes you unique?
What motivates you?
What are you most proud of (in your professional or personal life)
A specific question for tech people that I like so much is: What’s the strangest bug you’ve ever had to debug? (Thanks to Nedim, one of my colleagues, for this one).
Another point, try to provide an innovative technical test. If you ask the candidate to do yet another binary tree exercise it is unlikely to create an amazing experience between you and the person you want to know.
All these exercises can be prepared for, so what is the purpose of asking questions that can be anticipated?
During an interview, you are looking for the truth about a candidate, and the truth doesn’t need to be prepared in advance.
Getting candidates out of a room
How many colleagues did you get to know outside of work? In the context of work, everything is formatted, even interviews. The best way to really know who you are interviewing is to get outside of a cold meeting room.
Bring the person in a more comfortable zone (relaxation area, bar, etc). You will learn much more, in a few minutes, about your future collaborator than in one hour of classical interview.
Voodoo’s office rooftop
To hire someone is not only about technical skills and abilities.
Don’t forget the “human” in Human Resources, even a programmer is a human (or at least we are very good at pretending to be :)).
Personify what you’re asking from candidates
If you ask candidates to be innovative, unique, convincing, precise, …. then be so, yourself!
First approach
The first approach is very important in the final decision of a candidate. Some of us receive dozens of messages per week. If you are really interested in the candidate, maybe it’s time to look at his/her work (personal repo/contributions), hobbies, etc. The most pleasant approach I had was the one where I was contacted following one of my talks to find out more.
Avoid sending a test just after a first phone call, it will clearly demotivate a lot of candidates. And try to put the candidate in contact with his/her future team as soon as possible (avoid HR interview as the first step of your hiring process).
Job offers
Avoid formatted job offers. Nobody wants to read a cold and meaningless description. The job offer is the first impression you will give to the candidate.
And please, avoid the “endless list of required skills” syndrome. In addition to being counterproductive, it will harm diversity and inclusion. As a study shows, women only apply if they satisfy 100% of what’s asked.
Insist on perks rather than the job’s prerequisite skills.
Hiring process
Same for the hiring process, you should be different and avoid certain mistakes (see previous chapters).
Be transparent
One of the most important points: try to not hide the drawbacks of your company. Always be sharp and honest. Candidates prefer to know where they will land and in what kind of mess they got into :)
The best is probably to tell why you need their help and so what are you looking for.
Some good articles about the subject | https://medium.com/voodoo-engineering/why-is-tech-hiring-so-user-unfriendly-8cd98f284539 | ['Vincent Vallet'] | 2020-12-15 08:27:00.460000+00:00 | ['Tech', 'Interview', 'Hiring', 'Hiring Process', 'Technical Test'] |
Some Republicans Choose to Live in Fear and Die for Ignorance | I know Republicans get tired of everyone else in the world calling them dumb, but dang people, quit doing and saying so many dumb things!
This week, the Arizona Republican party, yes, the whole state’s representation of Republicans, encouraged it’s membership to die for Trump’s reelection.
Sheesh, the votes have been counted, recounted, triple counted. No one’s making it up. Your boy lost. Get over it.
You cannot make this stuff up!
Sending your people out, or even simply suggesting your people become martyrs for an election is completely wacky. No, I’m sorry, it’s dumb.
But I’m not calling any names.
On a related note, have any of my non-dumb friends had an opportunity to engage in what you think is an intelligent conversation with one of these “republicans?”
I am putting them in quotation marks like that, because I don’t really understand what issues they stand for. It just seems like a team jersey they feel fits.
Have you ever had a conversation with one of them and they talk in favor about programs that are Democrat led issues!
My favorite part is when you call them out on this, and they look at you, with a bit of fear in their eyes and somehow manage to blame it on the media.
What?
Where did that come from?
Look I’m not a fan of the “media” either. Whether it’s on ABC, Fox, cable land or the multiple news sources on the internet, they all have ulterior motivations. It’s either ratings or clicks. It’s just that simple.
Here’s a non-political example: Tuesday morning I’m watching Good Morning America and one of the hosts is segueing into a report. It’s about Christopher Nolan’s remarks regarding Warner Brothers streaming all movie releases on the same day of the theatrical release.
The host says Nolan called Warner Brother’s streaming service “failing.” Then they play the clip.
He actually said fledgling. These are two very separate words with very different meanings.
Was it purposeful or was it a mistake?
I don’t know, but it was wrong. And it did make me hold on to listen to the report. Which is also wrong!
Republicans these days, seemingly believe nothing!
So I understand “Republicans” reticence to trust the media. But you are lying if you say you don’t rely on this media for information. You do! You have to, or otherwise you wouldn’t have so much incorrect information!
The latest thing came from a friend of mine, who honestly, I didn’t even realize had political leanings. Boy was I wrong. His statement, after I incredulously asked him if he believed the statements made by a particularly wacky local politician, was this, “all politicians lie.”
Now that folks tells you a lot. Not only do “Republicans” not believe the media, but they don’t believe their own politicians.
What do “Republicans” of this age believe in?
I feel for them. They are lost souls. They wander around in this sense of angst because they are in a world they don’t understand, don’t believe and cannot control.
I don’t understand how all these white people got to this point. Is it because they were raised with a sense of entitlement?
I’m going to tell you, I was born white, really white! I cannot tan! And I’ve never felt like something was handed to me. I always knew I had to work for it. I have always been taught you must work for it. And owning a small business for 20 plus years I can tell you every day is a challenge and every day you must be ready for change.
Are these white people so dumb, they just think everything will be okay? All you need to do is sit back and wait for the money truck!
And when that doesn’t happen, it’s somehow whose fault?
The media? The lying politicians? Or all of us Democrats?
And now you need to die for this cause? You want to die in the name of ignorance?
I do not understand you people, but unlike you, I will continue to try. And sadly, yet rightfully, until you quit whining and crying about everyone else, you will continue to fail. | https://medium.com/@dankjackson/some-republicans-choose-to-live-in-fear-and-die-for-ignorance-fd5774529ba1 | ['Dan K Jackson'] | 2020-12-08 15:54:36.103000+00:00 | ['Religion', 'Election 2020', 'Media Criticism'] |
Want to Debug Latency? | In the recent decade, our systems got complex. Our average production environments consist of many different services (many microservices, storage systems and more) with different deployment and production-maintenance cycles. In most cases, each service is built and maintained by a different team — sometimes by a different company. Teams don’t have much insight into others’ services. The final glue that puts everything together is often a staging environment or sometimes the production itself!
Measuring latency and being able to react to latency issues are getting equally complex as our systems got more complex. This article will help you how to navigate yourself at a latency problem and what you need to put in place to effectively do so.
Latency
So, what is latency? Latency is how long it takes to do something. How long does it take to have a response back? How long does it take to process a message in a queue?
We use latency as one of the core measures to tell whether a system is working as intended end-to-end. On the critical path (in the lifetime of a user request), latency is the core element that contributes to the overall user experience. It also allows us whether we are utilizing our resources as expected or our throughput is less than our trajectory.
Even if you are not engaging with latency measurement, you might be already familiar with various tools on a daily basis that reports latency results. As a daily example, various browser developer tools report the time it takes to make all the requests that make up a web page and report the total time:
Latency is a critical element in the SLOs we set between services. Each team set an SLO for their service (e.g. 50th percentile latency can be 20ms, 90th percentile latency can be 80ms, 99th percentile can be 300ms) and monitor their latency to see if there are any SLO violations. (Watch “SLIs, SLOs, SLAs, oh my!” to learn more about SLOs.)
But how do we systematically collect and analyze request latency in today’s production systems?
We measure latency for each request and primarily use metric collection systems to visualize and trigger auto alerts. Latency collection is unsampled (we collect a latency metric for every request) and is aggregated as a histogram distribution to provide visibility to the higher percentiles.
You can use your choice of collection libraries to collect latency metrics. If you are already planning to use Prometheus as a backend, check out their client libraries. Or you can export from OpenCensus if you are using gRPC.
Is there unexpected latency?
In order to detect anomalies in latency, we need to first answer what would be considered as expected latency. Every service has different requirements what unexpected latency can be. It is almost impossible to have services with 100% reliability, hence we need to first determine what latency range would give user an experience that they wouldn’t recognize there is a problem.
“For inbox.GetEmails call, 99th percentile request latency should be less than 300ms.” is an example SLO where we set the 99th percentile upper bound for latency for the inbox service’s GetEmails method. There might be requests that took more than 300ms but would not violate the SLO if there are not making to the 99th percentile. You can define your SLOs in a lower or higher percentile. (Watch How NOT to Measure Latency to understand why percentiles matter.)
When an SLO violation occurs, we can automatically trigger alerts and ping the on-call person to take a look. Or you can hear from a customer that they are expecting poor latency and ask you to resolve the issue.
What is the source of latency?
When an alert is triggered or a customer is reaching out to you, an on-call person is expected to take a look. At this point, they know that there is a latency violation or poor experience. We often know what specific service/method it is but no idea the underlying cause. At this point, we can look at the latency distribution heat map for the service/method.
Heat maps visualize latency distribution over time; x-axes is the time and y-axes is the latency bucket the measurement fell into.
We recently started to correlate latency distribution buckets with exemplar traces that fits into that bucket. This allows us to find a trace from a particular latency bucket when debugging latency issues. (Watch Resolving Outages Faster With Better Debugging Strategies for more details.)
(1) Each green star represents an exemplar for the bucket. When you click on it, it takes you to the trace exemplar and you can see the distributed trace for one of the calls that fell into that bucket.
A click on a star is taking you to the trace where you can see what has happened in the lifetime of that request more granularly. Traces can navigate us to the underlying issue. It will be possible to identify the case if there is an unexpected outage in one of the services we depend on, or a networking problem or an unlikely latency issue.
Once we examine the trace related to the latency bucket at (1), we see Spanner.Apply call took longer than it should from for this particular trace and there are an additional 40ms spent in the doond.GetDocs for a non-RPC job we don’t have additional information about.
Addressing the latency problem
Metrics and traces can navigate you where the latency is rooted but might not be the primary tool understand the underlying cause of the latency. Poor scheduling, networking problems, bad virtualization, language runtime, computationally expensive code and similar problems might be the possible reasons.
Once we narrowed down the source of the latency to a service and sometimes to a specific process, in order to understand the underlying cause, we look at the host-specific and in-process reasons why latency occurred in the first place. For example, a host-specific signal to look at is the utilization and memory metrics.
If the host is behaving normally and networking is not impacted, we may go and further analyze the in-process sources of latency.
Often, servers are handling a large number of requests and there is no easy way to isolate events happened in the lifetime of a request. Some language runtimes like Go allows us to internally trace runtime events in the lifetime of a request. Tools like runtime tracers are often very expensive and we momentarily enable them in production if we are trying to diagnose a problem. We momentarily enable collection, try to replicate the latency issue. We can see if latency is caused by I/O, blocking or stopping-the-world events triggered by the runtime. If not, we can rule out those possibilities.
And sometimes latency is caused by computationally expensive code. For example, if you roll out a new version that is depending on a new compression library, you may experience higher latency than the usual. Being able to label profiler samples with an RPC name is critical to understand the cost of a particular RPC on your server.
Conclusion
Latency is a critical measure to determine whether our systems are running normally or not. Even though metrics can tell whether there is a latency issue, we need additional signals and tools to analyze the situation further. Being able to correlate diagnostics signals with RPC names, host identifiers and environmental metadata allows us to look at various different signals from a particular problem site. | https://rakyll.medium.com/want-to-debug-latency-7aa48ecbe8f7 | ['Jaana Dogan'] | 2020-06-05 17:26:14.139000+00:00 | ['Monitoring', 'Microservices', 'Observability'] |
Tesla Model 3 Booking starts in India from January 2021 — Deliveries from the end of the first quarter of 2021–22. | Tesla Model 3 Booking starts in India from January 2021 — Deliveries from the end of the first quarter of 2021–22. Techberg Dec 27, 2020·2 min read
Tesla Model 3 Booking starts in India from January 2021 — Deliveries from the end of the first quarter of 2021–22.
Tesla have been in great discussion with their cars, and this year it was a hot topic as the CEO Elon Musk had a talk with Transport Minister of India Nitin Gadkari….
But Now as Elon Musk promised to launch Tesla in India in 2021, He has done it. Tesla Model 3 bookings will be start soon next year in January 2021, and the reports suggest that the vehicles will be delivered from the end of the first quarter of 2021–22, which is about June, and the prices are assumed to be around 55lacs INR, which is decent….
Talking about the Tesla Model 3 its a nice 5 seater, Four door Sedan and has a range of 568km (353mi) which is claimed by Tesla, and yes it does 0–100km/hr in 3.1secs which is ludicrous as defined by Tesla, and will accelerate till 260km/hr which is more than enough….
Other features include AWD ( all wheel drive) Dual Motor and tons of infotainment displays all over… And the super charger will give you 273km in just 15mins of charge….
If you’re thinking of the Auto Pilot, I don’t think so it’ll be equipped in the Indian Variant, and you know why….Stay tuned in for more tech news…..
For more details about Tesla Model 3 head to the link below | https://medium.com/@techberg/tesla-model-3-booking-starts-in-india-from-january-2021-deliveries-from-the-end-of-the-first-3670f751ebaa | [] | 2020-12-27 17:29:41.037000+00:00 | ['Tesla Motors', 'Tesla Model 3', 'Tesla', 'Tesla Model S', 'India'] |
Learning To Challenge Self-Defeating Beliefs | Before we get into anything deep and reflective, let me just tell you something — You are COMPETENT, you are CAPABLE, you are CONFIDENT, and most importantly you are COMPLETE. Now that you have been affirmed with positive affirmations, let’s be honest, it has not always been easy to feel all of those uplifting adjectives. If you are someone that has never questioned your abilities please teach us others a few things.
No, seriously, it has taken me some intense reflection and self work to truly accept that I am capable of big things and what is in store for me is already prepared and planned. I found myself as a therapist in training truly questioning “am I competent?” “Is this the right field for me?” “Maybe I should consider doing something else” and the big one that I am sure you can relate to, “am I good enough?” Listen, let’s just stop right there! You are more than good. You are more than great. You are COMPETENT, CAPABLE, CONFIDENT, and COMPLETE and do not let anyone ever make you feel any different — not even yourself.
There were so many aspects not just in my career that I felt inadequate or incompetent. As a mother, fiancé, and friend, I always decided I fell short in every role but that was further from the truth. I had to talk to God, my therapist (yes, you can do both), my support system, and truly self-reflect. I really had to take a back seat and not allow my negative thoughts to consume me. I decided to take control of my passion, dreams, and goals. I was no longer in a headspace that others opinions were able to decide if I was competent, capable, confident or complete.
Now just for a moment, reflect on a time where you felt inadequate or at your lowest point that nothing you could say or do would change your mind. It’s hard to believe people have moments where they lack extreme competence or confidence because we’re all supposed to be born “perfect, right?” WRONG! So far from the truth. It happens to the best of us and you are not alone in the way that you feel. The reflection is “how long do you choose to hold on to those negative thoughts of yourself.”
When I began to write the words, COMPETENT, CAPABLE, CONFIDENT, AND COMPLETE, I remember how often I felt those words did not describe me and it hurt. I did not like the fact that I thought of myself as incompetent. I would watch others succeed at the very things I believed I worked hard for or display the poise that I believe to possess. I would sulk in those negative cognitions and believe maybe I did not deserve a seat at the table of courage. I played myself so small that my family and friends would have to shake me out of my thoughts or my therapist would have to help me shift my faulty cognitive patterns that would once consume me.
As you are reading this, my hope is not that you snap out of those pessimistic beliefs immediately, because it takes practice, a lot of practice. My hope is that you honor the human and real feelings that we all experience at some point in life. These very reasonings increases your self-awareness and honor what other people push away. It gives you the courage to say “I’ve been down in the dumps before but I know how to get myself out.” Having these thoughts of myself did not make me weak but it allowed me the space to say “if you feel this way, what are you going to do to change it?” “How will you use this moment to encourage others?” “What can you do to make a difference?”
Now here I am a private practice therapist recognizing the capabilities I once believed I did not have. I gave myself a few moments to be scared but I did not stay there forever. I learned the skills to challenge those negative thoughts and feelings that made me believe I was not capable. Once you achieve the belief that you are CONFIDENT, CAPABLE, COMPETENT, and COMPLETE it will feel like a weight is lifted off your shoulder. You will be able to look at yourself, be proud of the strides and bravery it took to believe in who you are.
I challenge you to be honest with yourself when times get tough, strength falls weak, and remember you are not alone. Feeling incomplete does not have one target, so the next time you think you are not capable of big things look at yourself and applaud how far you have come because I am certain it is further than where you have been before. Remember to stay CONFIDENT, CAPABLE, COMPETENT, AND COMPLETE.
If you have any questions or want to learn more, please click here. | https://medium.com/@workscounselingcenter/learning-to-challenge-self-defeating-beliefs-b2dd6dd91f90 | ['Works Counseling Center'] | 2020-12-24 12:43:16.053000+00:00 | ['Confidence'] |
If Trump Wins… | Democrats scoff at the notion of a “law and order” president, but as the country enters its fourth month of sporadic unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s tragic death, more Americans in the middle are quietly observing the fallout from violent protests and rioting. More recently, they’re taking note of two lives claimed by unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. These politically-unaffiliated voters are paying attention to what’s happening around them, and they don’t like what they see. It’s making them very nervous.
They’re disturbed when they see Seattle’s Democratic mayor allow hundreds of people to commandeer several city blocks and declare it a “police free” zone with no visible sign of leadership. They’re unsettled when they watch Democratic leaders inspire protests that have turned violent, unleashing opportunistic looters who ravage small businesses and set cars aflame. They’re confused when they’re told groups of ten people or more threaten lives while Democratic governors encourage millions of Americans to take to the streets in the midst of a pandemic.
And most of all, they’re terrified by the cries to defund and abolish the police in the early stages of what may be the Greatest Depression this country has seen.
More than half of all small businesses that closed during the COVID-19 lockdown will not reopen, more than 51 million Americans are unemployed, and millions face eviction in the coming weeks. In other words, it’s becoming clear to anyone paying attention that a whole lot of people are about to become more desperate than they already are.
Reasonable people in the middle know it’s a mistake to reduce the presence of law enforcement in this climate. These aren’t people who think black lives don’t matter or who tolerate police brutality. But they suspect the alternative —a rising tide of assaults and homicides committed by civilians — is even worse.
Between January 1 and August 2, New York City saw an “unprecedented” 39% rise in crime as arrest numbers plummeted in the face of epic backlash against law enforcement. From June 29 to July 6, the number of police officers filing for retirement soared 411% as men and women in blue realized they’ve “been abandoned by the NYPD and elected officials.”
In the wake of a de-funding initiative that redirected $1.1 million from the police salary budget, Minneapolis has seen the departure of 80 officers, leading to a “summer crime spree.” In some areas, burglary is up 82%, auto theft up 105%, robbery up 43%, and aggravated assault up 39%.
The story is the same around the country. When police become targets and persona non grata, they lose their incentive to serve their communities. And Americans in the middle are taking note of this.
Cries to defund and abolish the police may placate those on the fringe Left, but they’re alienating voices that are far more important in the coming election. An August 13 Pew poll found that 59% of voters consider violent crime to be “very important” to their vote — only three points less than the Coronavirus pandemic.
Those in the middle are speaking, but the hard Left isn’t listening. They don’t understand average Americans of all colors — white soccer moms in the suburbs, working and middle class black families in cities, and people of color in poverty-ridden communities— aren’t on board with demonizing and reducing police ranks because they need these people to protect them, now more than ever.
And the polls are beginning to reflect this sentiment.
Biden’s advantage in key battleground states has slimmed dramatically over the summer. In June, shortly after the nationwide protests sparked by Floyd’s death, he led Trump by 16 points in Minnesota; today, the state is in a statistical dead heat. From Michigan to Pennsylvania, from North Carolina to Arizona, Biden’s once comfortable lead has been whittled to low single digits. By contrast, an August 24 CBS poll found Trump’s lead among independents has now surged to 10 points.
We could blame Biden’s deterioration on emboldened racists or people who don’t take the Coronavirus pandemic seriously.
Or we could pull focus and realize that Trump’s appeal has now seeped beyond racists and no-maskers.
Trump’s standing is even increasing among a very surprising group of people: blacks. A Zogby poll in April found that 36% of blacks approve or somewhat approve of Trump’s job performance while Democrats are underperforming with disillusioned black voters. On August 26, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd observed that both the Biden and Trump campaigns think “there is a chance that Donald Trump could overperform with African American men…it’s a concern of the Biden campaign and it’s a focus of the Trump campaign.”
Does this mean black people have lost their minds or they’re turning a blind eye to a racist? I don’t think so.
I think it’s happening because as bad as Trump is, a growing number of black people may feel the Democrats have nothing better to offer — and in some respects, what they’re offering may even be worse for them. Because when you’re trapped in poverty and living in conditions that lend themselves to crime, you’re not encouraged by the thought of police leaving your neighborhoods, even if you know some of them are bad seeds. It’s a risk you’re simply not willing to take.
I’m not the only one picking up on what’s happening. CNN’s Don Lemon is coming to the same conclusion. Please take two minutes to watch this clip:
Lemon is seeing what Democrats on the fringes are missing: their party has gone too far — and it may pay a steep price. “The rioting has to stop,” Lemon said in a CNN segment with Chris Cuomo. “It’s showing up in the polling. It’s showing up in focus groups. It is the only thing — it is the only thing right now that is sticking.” | https://medium.com/discourse/if-trump-wins-a499f55f0eca | ['Monica Harris'] | 2020-09-03 22:02:26.755000+00:00 | ['Trump', 'Cancel Culture', 'Racism', 'Election 2020', 'Voting'] |
How to create a concise image representation using machine learning | How to create a concise image representation using machine learning
Designing and training an autoencoder on HRRR images in Keras
Autoencoder examples on the internet seem to be either about toy examples (MNIST, 28x28 images) or take advantage of transfer learning from ImageNet bottleneck layers. I will show you how to train an autoencoder from scratch, something that you will do if you have enough data and data that is completely unlike the photographs that ImageNet consists of.
In an earlier article, I showed how to take weather forecast images and create TensorFlow records out of them to make them ready for machine learning.
In this article, I will show how to do one machine learning task on these images: create concise representations of the radar reflectivity “analysis” fields from the High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model using autoencoders. The HRRR images are 1059x1799 and look like this:
Designing an autoencoder in Keras
An autoencoder consists of an architecture that typically looks like this:
Autoencoder architecture. Source: Chervinskii on Wikipedia (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Autoencoder_structure.png)
The encoder tries to represent the input image as a much smaller array of numbers. The decoder reconstructs the image from the code. The entire model is trained to minimize the difference from the input and the output.
There are a couple of gotchas to watch out for:
The code (or embedding) needs to be much smaller than the input. Otherwise, the ML model can simply copy input pixels to the code. There will be no generalization. The number of parameters with an input that has 1 million pixels can get out of hand. Traditionally, the way to reduce the number of parameters is to use convolutional layers. However, convolutional layers preserve locality information. So, essentially, all that the layers are doing is to blur the image more and more. To get beyond mere blurring, you should increase the number of “channels” in the convolution filters at each stage. This way, you get to preserve information between layers. Also, you need at least one dense connection that brings in “teleconnections” between different parts of the image. I chose to do this when creating the embedding. Consider carefully whether you will need short-circuit layers, attention, etc. This depends on the type of image you are processing, and the number of layers. In my case, these are geographic images with a strong locality constraint. So, I decided to not use these tricks. The way to reduce the size of a convolutional filter is to use pooling layers. In the decoder, the inverse operation will be to do upsampling.
This was my final architecture:
Let’s walk through it in code (the full code is on GitHub). The first layer is the input layer:
input_img = tf.keras.Input(shape=(1059, 1799, 1), name='refc_input')
I’d prefer that the size is a power of 2 to make it easy to keep getting smaller layers. I could pad 1059 all the way to 2048, but it seems more rational to crop it to 1024 — the edges of the HRRR image are poorly resolved in any case. So, the second layer is a cropping layer:
x = tf.keras.layers.Cropping2D(cropping=((17, 18),(4, 3)), name='cropped')(input_img)
We don’t know how many convolutional layers we need, so let’s make the number of layers (nlayers) a hyperparameter. In addition, we will make the number of filters (or number of channels) a hyperparameter since this controls how much information is passed from one layer to the next. Finally, the poolsize will also be a hyperparameter since this controls how much reduction in image size happens from one layer to the next:
last_pool_layer = None
for layerno in range(nlayers):
x = tf.keras.layers.Conv2D(2**(layerno + numfilters), poolsize, activation='relu', padding='same', name='encoder_conv_{}'.format(layerno))(x)
last_pool_layer = tf.keras.layers.MaxPooling2D(poolsize, padding='same', name='encoder_pool_{}'.format(layerno))
x = last_pool_layer(x)
output_shape = last_pool_layer.output_shape[1:]
I also make sure to capture the last layer so as to get the output shape before the embedding layer (for reasons that will become evident).
Once the convolutional layers are done, we can pass it through a dense layer. I made the number of dense nodes (essentially the length of the embedding) a hyperparameter as well:
# flatten, send through dense layer to create the embedding
x = tf.keras.layers.Flatten(name='encoder_flatten')(x)
x = tf.keras.layers.Dense(num_dense, name='refc_embedding')(x)
x = tf.keras.layers.Dense(output_shape[0] * output_shape[1] * output_shape[2], name='decoder_dense')(x)
embed_size = num_dense
Note how I’m using the output shape pre-embedding to get the back the original flattened length in the first layer of the decoder.
Then, we reverse the operations one-by-one. First is to reshape the decoder to get to the last conv-pool block’s output shape:
x = tf.keras.layers.Reshape(output_shape, name='decoder_reshape')(x)
Then, create a decoder block that consists of convolution of the opposite length followed by upsampling:
for layerno in range(nlayers):
x = tf.keras.layers.Conv2D(2**(nlayers-layerno-1 + numfilters), poolsize, activation='relu', padding='same', name='decoder_conv_{}'.format(layerno))(x)
x = tf.keras.layers.UpSampling2D(poolsize, name='decoder_upsamp_{}'.format(layerno))(x)
before_padding_layer = tf.keras.layers.Conv2D(1, 3, activation='relu', padding='same', name='before_padding')
x = before_padding_layer(x)
htdiff = 1059 - before_padding_layer.output_shape[1]
wddiff = 1799 - before_padding_layer.output_shape[2]
Where we did the cropping in the encoder, we now need to do zero-padding:
before_padding_layer = tf.keras.layers.Conv2D(1, 3, activation='relu', padding='same', name='before_padding')
x = before_padding_layer(x)
htdiff = 1059 - before_padding_layer.output_shape[1]
wddiff = 1799 - before_padding_layer.output_shape[2]
decoded = tf.keras.layers.ZeroPadding2D(padding=((htdiff//2,htdiff - htdiff//2),
(wddiff//2,wddiff - wddiff//2)), name='refc_reconstructed')(x)
And now, create the autoencoder:
autoencoder = tf.keras.Model(input_img, decoded, name='autoencoder')
autoencoder.compile(optimizer='adam',loss=tf.keras.losses.LogCosh())
Why LogCosh? Because we are doing regression, and LogCosh is more tolerant of outliers than Mean Squared Error.
Writing the trainer
Once the model is written, the trainer (full code: check it out) is quite boilerplate. All our images are TFRecords, so we create a TFRecord Dataset, create the model and call model.fit.
To create a TFRecord Dataset:
def parse_tfrecord(example_data):
parsed = tf.io.parse_single_example(example_data, {
'size': tf.io.VarLenFeature(tf.int64),
'ref': tf.io.VarLenFeature(tf.float32),
'time': tf.io.FixedLenFeature([], tf.string),
'valid_time': tf.io.FixedLenFeature([], tf.string)
})
parsed['size'] = tf.sparse.to_dense(parsed['size'])
parsed['ref'] = tf.reshape(tf.sparse.to_dense(parsed['ref']), (1059, 1799))/60. # 0 to 1
return parsed def read_dataset(pattern):
filenames = tf.io.gfile.glob(pattern)
ds = tf.data.TFRecordDataset(filenames, compression_type=None, buffer_size=None, num_parallel_reads=None)
return ds.prefetch(tf.data.experimental.AUTOTUNE).map(parse_tfrecord)
To create the model and train it:
def run_job(opts):
def input_and_label(rec):
return rec['ref'], rec['ref']
ds = read_dataset(opts['input']).map(input_and_label).batch(opts['batch_size']).repeat()
checkpoint = tf.keras.callbacks.ModelCheckpoint(os.path.join(opts['job_dir'], 'checkpoints'))
strategy = tf.distribute.MirroredStrategy()
with strategy.scope():
autoencoder, error = create_model(opts['num_layers'], opts['pool_size'], opts['num_filters'], opts['num_dense'])
history = autoencoder.fit(ds, steps_per_epoch=opts['num_steps']//opts['num_checkpoints'],
epochs=opts['num_checkpoints'], shuffle=True, callbacks=[checkpoint, HptCallback()])
autoencoder.save(os.path.join(opts['job_dir'], 'savedmodel'))
A couple of points here:
I take the TFRecord and return the same reflectivity image data as both the input and the label. This is because we are doing autoencoding. The MirroredStrategy will allow me to create a machine with multiple GPUs and get fast distributed training. I create model checkpoint (Checkpoints is one of the design patterns in the Machine Learning Design Patterns book; it helps to make distributed training more resilient) In the fit() method, I mess around with steps_per_epoch and number of epochs. This is the Virtual Epochs variant of the Checkpoints pattern. Again, read the book for why this is important. Because we are doing autoencoding, I won’t bother with a validation dataset. The more closely we can represent the input, the better.
Overfitting a batch
A best practice when designing a model architecture like I did is to make sure that the resulting architecture is powerful enough to learn what we need it to learn. The way to do this is Useful Overfitting (another pattern in our book). Basically, take a really small dataset (I used 4 images) and overfit the model on this dataset. If you can get the error to go really small, then the model is powerful enough.
So, here’s what I did. I wrote my ML model and then I did a grid search over the hyperparameter space, and chose the smallest embedding size that allowed me to learn the 4 images as perfectly as possible (it won’t be perfect because the image representations will be blurry).
Because of this, there is a Hyperparameter callback as well:
class HptCallback(tf.keras.callbacks.Callback):
def __init__(self):
self.hpt = hypertune.HyperTune()
def on_epoch_end(self, epoch, logs):
self.hpt.report_hyperparameter_tuning_metric(
hyperparameter_metric_tag='final_loss',
metric_value=logs['loss'], #history.history['loss'][-1],
global_step=epoch
)
I can now do the training on Google Cloud AI Platform:
gcloud ai-platform jobs submit training $JOB_NAME \
--package-path $PACKAGE_PATH \
--module-name $MODULE_NAME \
--job-dir gs://${BUCKET}/wxsearch/trained \
--region $REGION \
--config hyperparam.yaml \
--input gs://${BUCKET}/wxsearch/data/2019/tfrecord-00000-* \
--project ${PROJECT} \
--batch_size 4 --num_steps 1000 --num_checkpoints 4
And as a result, I found that this architecture was enough:
--num_layers 4 --pool_size 4 --num_filters 4 --num_dense 50
Just 50 numbers to represent the 1m pixels!
Train the autoencoder
Once we have decided on the hyperparameters on the small, overfit batch, we can take the model and train it on the entire HRRR 2019 dataset:
gcloud ai-platform jobs submit training $JOB_NAME \
--package-path $PACKAGE_PATH \
--module-name $MODULE_NAME \
--job-dir gs://${BUCKET}/wxsearch/trained \
--region $REGION \
--config train.yaml -- \
--input gs://${BUCKET}/wxsearch/data/2019/tfrecord-* \
--project ${PROJECT} \
--batch_size 4 --num_steps 50000 --num_checkpoints 10
where the train.yaml is:
trainingInput:
scaleTier: CUSTOM
masterType: n1-highmem-2
masterConfig:
acceleratorConfig:
count: 2
type: NVIDIA_TESLA_K80
runtimeVersion: '2.2'
pythonVersion: '3.7'
scheduling:
maxWaitTime: 3600s
This ended with a final loss of 0.0023, actually even better than the overfit loss on the tiny dataset.
Next steps:
Try it out (all links to GitHub) | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-create-a-concise-image-representation-using-machine-learning-20156c1e0c19 | ['Lak Lakshmanan'] | 2020-10-28 03:33:21.703000+00:00 | ['Keras', 'TensorFlow', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Weather Forecasts', 'Autoencoder'] |
10 Games That Ensured Nintendo Switch’s Massive Success | Splatoon 2 solidified a budding IP as a bonafide heavy hitter. Splatoon was a great game with huge sales potential, but its fate was tied to a total flop of a console in the Wii U. All of that potential has been realized with Splatoon 2. It’s a fun online competitive 3rd person shooter with family-friendly mechanics and graphics. It’s very Nintendo, and it’s very fun. For people who played the first Splatoon, Splatoon 2 probably feels a bit more iterative than a new 3D Mario or Zelda might, but there is a heaping helping of quality of life upgrades that improve the online experience exponentially.
Splatoon 2 proved Nintendo can successfully pull off a game on the Switch that depends on its online competitive component. While they haven’t lived up to that promise at the launch of many games, Super Mario Maker 2 and Super Smash Brothers Ultimate’s shaky and choppy online launches come to mind, both of those games have stabilized considerably over the past year-plus.
Some people reading this may be thinking, this guy is crazy. The online infrastructure for Nintendo Switch is a generation behind what the Xbox One and PS4 offer and those consoles are more than three years older than the Switch. That is true, but Nintendo has been so bad at online in the past that games like Splatoon 2 have proven Nintendo is on the right track after two decades of falling behind.
Another strength of Splatoon 2, is how coherent the art style and attitude of the game are. It has an anime-skate culture attitude that is truly one of a kind, and one that I imagine appeals to kids in the age range of 8–13. Fashion and customization play a large part in both appearance and playstyle, and the game has as much Nintendo charm in it as Animal Crossing or Mario Kart.
Splatoon 2 currently sits as the ninth best selling game on Nintendo Switch at 10.71 million copies. Not bad for the second offering in a franchise (Nintendo Life)
8. Doom
When Doom launched on Switch in November of 2017 it was a revelation to developers and consumers everywhere. Doom is a high powered game that runs on the PS4 and Xbox One. It features top of the line graphics, glorifies in your face violence, and has a heavy metal over the top attitude. Basically, Doom is everything Nintendon’t. Bethesda and Id Software showed people two things. One, current-gen PS4 and Xbox One games can run on Switch if the developers are willing to make visual fidelity sacrifices. Two, a Nintendo platform can sell M rated software aimed at older gaming demographics.
Doom did two things for the Switch: first, it solidified The Switch as a serious third party platform, something Nintendo hasn’t had for its home console space in a long time. Second, it showed developers and publishers that people would buy competent ports of games they already played or owned if they could take it on the go. A lot of the third-party offerings on Switch are titles that were released five to ten years ago but never on a Nintendo console and never portably. Titles like Skyrim, The Witcher 3, Borderlands Collection, L.A. Noire, Bioshock Collection, Dragon Quest XI, and Overwatch all popped up in the first three and half years of the Switch’s lifespan, and many of them have seen new life because of their re-releases.
Doom’s sales data is hard to speculate on because Bethesda historically keeps their numbers close to their chest, but a few months after Doom was released on the Switch, Panic Button, the team behind the Switch port of Doom, used the hashtag DOOMillion on Twitter. Add that to some of the raw data the public can see on sites like VGChartz and it seems very likely Doom cleared the million mark on Switch. (VGChartz)
7. Super Mario Odyssey
Mario and Peach are looking very fashion forward.
Nintendo sometimes seems like they don’t understand what people want. It would have been so easy to simply make a Super Mario 64 2 for the Gamecube, call it Super Mario 128, and call it a day as they watched the cash flow. But not Nintendo. Super Mario Sunshine’s weird F.L.U.D.D. mechanics gave way to the spherical gravity-defying gameplay of Super Mario Galaxy which jumped to a more multiplayer-focused entry in Super Mario 3D World. All told, Nintendo fans would have to wait 21 years for a follow-up to the kind of explorative and untethered athletic gameplay Super Mario 64 offered. It was worth the wait.
Nintendo’s mascot goes back to his 3D roots, but Mario learned a little something from each of the 3D adventures he was in along the way. Universal praise is nothing new for 3D Mario platformers, but a 97 on Metacritic gets everyone in the gaming medium’s attention. Super Mario Odyssey launched during the launch year of the Switch to help flesh out its early lineup of bangers that included Splatoon 2, Arms, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Doom, Skyrim, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Stardew Valley, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Every Nintendo system needs a Mario game that gets things right. Odyssey gets everything right.
Super Mario Odyssey is the sixth best selling Nintendo Switch game with 18.06 copies sold (Nintendo Life).
6. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
The gang is all here.
Super Smash Brothers is a brilliant fighting game. If you’ve ever played a Smash game you know that they are easy to pick up and play, especially, if you play with the right people. Some people love to show off their chops with no items, others enjoy the zany and fun chaos that permeates matches when the items are on. Items are definitely more friendly to the casual crowd, but whether you play with items on or items off Smash Brothers is plain fun. Now that the Smash series has officially exited the Nintendo bubble to select fighters from a plethora of classic gaming franchises, the series has become a must-play for any serious gamer. I believe the inclusion of characters like Hero, Cloud, Joker, Banjo Kazooie, and Steve tipped the scale for certain people to finally take the plunge and purchase a Switch.
Sakurai, the creator of the Smash series and Ultimate’s director, isn’t the type of director to let a character into the game without equipping them with unique moves that honor the history of their franchise, and that is what this series is to me. A history exhibit of the medium's
finest moments with a special focus on Nintendo’s own beloved history.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has sold 19.99 million copies as of June 30, 2020. It is the 3rd best selling title on the Nintendo Switch (Nintendo Life).
5. Stardew Valley
Even if you didn’t come up in the 16 bit era, this game oozes charm.
Stardew Valley released for Switch on October 5, 2017, and became the most downloaded game on Switch that year in only three months. Stardew Valley is an example of another game that was released in 2016 but found its full sales potential as a portable title on Switch. Hard sales data for the Switch version of the game is another toughy, but we do know at the end of 2017 Stardew Valley had sold roughly 3.5 million units across all platforms according to SuperData. By April 2018, Stardew Valley crossed 1 million units on Switch alone (comicbook.com). As of 2020, Stardew Valley has sold 10 million units across all platforms (Nintendo Life). Now I’m not concluding that the Switch port is responsible for the majority of the sales. Ports to iOS and Android in 2019 probably had a large amount to do with the huge boost in sales between 2017 and 2020. What I am saying is that Stardew Valley was one of the huge Indie titles in 2017 and early 2018 that garnered Switch a reputation as being the “Indie Machine”.
Games like Golf Story (2017), Steamworld Dig 2 (2017), Stardew Valley (2017), Celeste (2018), Hollow Knight (2018), Dead Cells (2018), The Messenger (2018), and Undertale (2018) are all indies, and they helped flesh out Switch’s incredible software lineup in the first two years of its life. In 2018, Switch 1st party releases were on life support until late summer, their offerings consisted of niche ports like Bayonetta 1 + 2, a port of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, the novel but underwhelming Nintendo Labo, and the ho-hum Kirby Star Allies. But the game of the year contenders Celeste, Dead Cells and Hollow Knight (even though its initial PC release was in 2017) were talking points in the industry that carried through the year.
Indies are a large part of Nintendo’s business strategy now. Every so often we get a Nintendo Indie World Event that highlights some of the best indies coming to the system, and even in 2020, it looks like Hades, an indie from Supergiant games, will be a Game of the Year contender.
Stardew Valley was in early on Switch, and it paid off huge. It has become a darling indie title and a must-play for fans of the farm sim genre, but really anyone can fall in love with it. I had never played a farm sim in my life until Stardew Valley. I sunk 60 hours into it, and I can easily see myself going back to it at some point to see how my farm is fairing in its third year.
4. Pokemon Sword and Sheild | https://medium.com/@landrysmith/10-games-that-ensured-nintendo-switchs-massive-success-3239cfbc3e0e | ['Landry Smith'] | 2020-12-16 21:15:29.331000+00:00 | ['Nintendo', 'Videogames', 'Nintendo Switch', 'Lists', 'Gaming'] |
Meus primeiros passos em UX | Developing my skills to generate creative solutions in an empathetic and holistic way through UX Design. www.linkedin.com/in/juliana-penna/ | https://medium.com/@ju-penna/meus-primeiros-passos-em-ux-45b999d5e3e1 | ['Juliana Penna'] | 2020-12-27 17:18:23.049000+00:00 | ['Career Change', 'Ironhack', 'Ux Design Thinking'] |
Faces of data science 3 | For the third in our “Faces of Data Science” series, I’ve interviewed three colleagues working in data science: Rose Nyameke, Kirk Li, and Yael Brumer. All are currently members of the Customer Growth Analytics team in Microsoft’s Cloud+AI division.
Rose Nyameke
Data & Applied Scientist II
What’s your educational background, Rose? I have a bachelor’s in neurobiology from Harvard University and a master’s in analytics from North Carolina State University. When I came to this country to further my education I intended to go into medicine, and because Harvard doesn’t have an undergraduate pre-med program, I had to choose another that would fulfill pre-med requirements. I decided on neurobiology because it seemed super cool when I was exploring majors. For my graduate work, it was Microsoft that influenced my decision.
Interesting. How so? I interned at Microsoft in 2013 in marketing during the summer between my junior and senior years. That came about because the prior summer I’d interned as part of a study abroad program at a pharmaceutical company in Switzerland, and I was accidentally placed in the marketing department instead of in the research internship that was more aligned with my background. But I rolled with it and really enjoyed it, though I wasn’t sure if what I enjoyed was the healthcare aspect or the marketing aspect. I did another marketing internship outside of healthcare to confirm, and that was at Microsoft in the Server and Tools group. My mentor was trained as a data scientist and I was explaining to him that I wanted a more scientific basis for the marketing recommendations I was making, and he told me about data science. I started thinking about data science for graduate school, and when considering programs, North Carolina State appealed to me because of its reputation, student placement record, and that they compress what is essentially a two-year graduate program into one year.
In addition to your mentor, were there any other factors that led you to consider data science as a career? Yes. My favorite part of neurobiology was looking into human behavior and memory, and so when I first started exploring data science, it was another way for me to understand human behavior. Except instead of trying to raise zebrafish or slice into brains, I could approach it from a data perspective in trying to figure out what are people doing. The underlying motivations are the same between neurobiology and data science.
What do you like most about your work in data science? I like that the possibilities are endless regarding the questions that can be explored — it’s really just a matter of figuring out whether the data exists or what it takes to generate that data. And it feels very objective, which I like. For a lot of other things I’ve been interested in, much of it has had to do with having an instinct or just being able to think and speak the language naturally. With data science, I feel that even though there are some elements such as having good business intuition, at the end of the day it’s writing code and it’s math. If someone asks me why I enjoy it, I can objectively say that’s why.
What has surprised you the most about your work in data science? I’d say the frequency with which the answer is that nothing is there. Let me explain. When I was in graduate school, we laughed in our time series forecasting class when we had super low error rates and our instructor would remind us we were working with manufactured data and not with data in the real world. In reality things are often not as predictable because everything is blurry; sometimes the data is erratic and sometimes the answer to the question being asked is that it’s not significant, even if you expect it to be. Sometimes it’s inconclusive, but sometimes the conclusion is that, in looking for the factors that lead to X, Y, and Z, sometimes the answer is that there are no factors. The factors you’re exploring aren’t there or are not significant.
How do you continue to learn? My primary learning comes from my co-workers. I like to talk to people about what they’re working on and I ask myself, could I do that? And if the answer is no, I ask myself, why can I not do that? In the beginning when I joined the team and the answer was no, it was because I didn’t yet know a certain tool or it was because I didn’t have a particular context. I would then take the relevant internal course for knowledge or context. I also use Reddit, where I primarily spend time in the comments of a data visualization subreddit. I get to see how people think about data and interpret it, and what they find confusing or misleading. I also look for online courses that are relevant or will help me sharpen my skills. I’ve also used online courses such as Coursera, where I particularly liked the content from instructors at Johns Hopkins University, and I’ve used Pluralsight and DataCamp.
How would you advise someone to get started in data science? I think it depends on what your background is. I had to ease into it a bit because by the time I realized what data science was, it was my senior year of college. Luckily, I had already taken a programming course, but not statistics, so I took it my senior year. I worked for two years between college and grad school, and during that time I started to look for more responsibilities that would give me a feel for what I could do in data science such as learning from the DevOps team and sharpening my data, querying, and architecting skills, and also taking the Coursera courses I mentioned earlier. All in all I would say to be sure you want to get started in data science by getting your hands dirty and taking advantage of free resources or looking at your current work to see if you can incorporate elements of data science into it. I also think it’s important to think about what kind of data scientist you want to be, because I think that shapes what you learn and what you think about exploring. So, if you want to be a model builder you have a different path from doing something that’s more stats heavy. I think it’s important to explore job postings and look at the types of roles out there and what they require. Figure out which one appeals to you the most and tailor your education that way.
Anything else you’d like to add? One thing I’d add is that there is no single definition of a data scientist, and so it’s OK to want to be a specific sort of data scientist. I think a lot of people get caught up in things like the glamour and shininess of building something like a very complicated neural network without understanding some of the questions involved, such as what does it mean if I’m tuning this parameter, or if I see this type of result? Statistics can really help with that, as can matrix algebra and other concepts we don’t often confront — they’re useful for troubleshooting when things don’t make sense. So I’d say that having a solid foundation and understanding it’s OK to not seek the most shiny part of data science are key things it’s important for everyone to know who wants to be a data scientist.
Kirk Li
Senior Data Scientist
What’s your educational background, Kirk? I studied applied math and statistics at Stony Brook University in New York for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and statistics at the University of Washington for my Ph.D. I also had a second major in economics for my undergraduate studies and earned a graduate certificate in computational finance during my doctoral studies. Most of my education has focused on quantitative analysis. I always had a lot of interest in math since high school and did pretty well in it, but I also wanted my knowledge to be applicable to real world scenarios. I like using numbers and doing hypothesis testing to justify my understanding, including calculating the significance of one statement versus another. The economics second major was a good complement to statistics, because economics is also very quantitative, but it’s also focusing on real world problems. Computational finance was also very quantitative and had a lot of programming.
What led you to work in data science? For me it was a natural direction given my educational background. Statistics is the closest field of study to data science and everything I learned during my Ph.D. was very applicable to data science problems.
What do you like most about your work in data science? I like everything, but I really enjoy coming up with conclusions and decisions based on data-driven approaches. I trust data more than I trust the information I collect from what people are saying (laughs). If you handle data correctly, it doesn’t create much bias and provides a foundation for decisions. I also like to see my ideas realized in actual business scenarios. In this way data science is one of the areas in which people can translate their creativity and channel their passion into influencing decision making around actual products.
What is surprised you the most about your work in data science? How other backgrounds also contribute to the data science world. People come from different educational backgrounds. They can also do very good work in data science and provide unique contributions and perspectives. For example, I see how data visualization or design helps make data science more intelligent and more interpretable, increasing impact and the ability to explain or communicate the ideas behind the data. It’s surprised and excited me to see how data science can merge and blend with other backgrounds to make everyone more successful.
How do you continue to learn? Within my team we have a weekly continuous learning study group. We study research papers and ideas in academia and see how we can adapt those ideas to be more applicable to our business. We participate in online courses like Coursera and DataCamp to study common practices in data science. We also attend academic conferences to stay updated with the latest developments in our research areas so that the models and algorithms we’re developing are world class.
How would you advise someone who wanted to get started in data science? What steps do you think they should take? I think it’s useful to have education in a related field. Many schools and programs are offering learning materials on data science and there are also good ones online. Course providers like Coursera provide an entry-level data science curriculum. Practice is also very important. For those with no educational background in data science, participating in Kaggle competitions, joining study groups, and keeping track of the latest developments are good ways learn from a DIY perspective. For everyone, data science is a fast-changing area, and knowledge can easily get outdated, and so you always need to refresh yourself and re-invest your time to learn the latest knowledge, technology, models, and algorithms. But one thing I also say to my students when teaching is that you don’t have to be very sophisticated in math or programming to be a good data scientist. Data science is a broad area, and so you can make your interest your expertise. You don’t have to be the best programmer or the best in math. If you’re a problem solver you can make yourself successful in data science. For example, if you can make sense of data and explain it so that more people can understand the problem and the solution, that’s a great achievement. Likewise, if you are a UI designer or writer. I have seen people who develop awesome UI apps for mobile or desktop applications that explain everything very well, and those who write articles to explain concepts and help readers avoid data science fallacies — that’s all very useful too.
Yael Brumer
Senior Data & Applied Scientist
What’s your educational background, Yael? I have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in software engineering from Ben-Gurion University in Israel. My graduate degree includes a focus in machine learning. I have always loved coding and math, and I love the challenge of figuring out and solving problems. In Israel, where I grew up, it’s very common for people to pursue these areas of study. They’re very popular, and there are many jobs in these areas. And Israel is a start-up nation, and so there’s lots of software engineering everywhere, even in school. I started my master’s degree while working at Microsoft with two small children at home, but I was excited about being a data scientist and so I told myself, despite all the difficulties, I’m going to do this. I define myself as a person who always tries to stretch herself as much as possible. Sometimes it’s hard, and sometimes I say, OK, that’s too much for me, but I’m always trying to reach the upper limit as much as possible.
What made you want to work in data science? I didn’t know at first that I wanted to be a data scientist. But I always knew I loved working with data and customers. I worked as an intern at Intel in business analytics and it helped me understand that was the direction I wanted to go. This was six years ago and the data science discipline didn’t exist yet, and so I thought being a program manager would be the best fit for me because it involves working with customers and data. But in Israel, there was a requirement to be a software engineer before being a program manager, and so I started with that and then began to navigate myself to roles involving more data and customers. When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the data discipline in 2014, I had the opportunity I’d been preparing for.
What has surprised you the most about your work in data science? The transformation over the last few years across many disciplines about making decisions based on data. When I was getting started, it was more common to add features without looking at customer data. I remember working on a project and the data indicated customer drop off at a certain point, and so I started to investigate. It turned out there was a problem in the installation process. I convinced the team to make sure that customers were using the product as we expected and if not, to approach them directly to see if we could help them and learn about their experience. It was a mind shift for everyone at the time. Today I think it’s much more clear to everyone that we should base all our decisions on data.
How do you continue to learn in your role in data science? I’m always trying to stay updated on the most recent papers in the field, and I take online courses, such as Coursera. There are also conferences, and I submit papers to them. For me, the papers provide a lot to learn from. What are the advanced technologies out there and what is the state of the art for all the algorithms we’re working with? I’m trying every year to pick the top four or five papers to focus on. I also keep up with blogs, particularly Medium and Stack Overflow.
How would you advise someone who wanted to get started in data science? Everyone’s case differs, but I think it was beneficial for me to start as a software engineer. It gave me a basic understanding of how to design a solution and write code, which is still helping me every day. It has helped me push things much faster, without having to wait for someone to implement my code into production. It’s also helped me talk with software engineers about the problems I’m facing as a data scientist. Besides my own experience, someone can take online courses, which are helpful. Because sometimes online courses can be overwhelming, it helps to be focused on what you’re looking for, and persevere over the long term, because there is so much to learn. If you are already working in a company, try to talk with people who are working as data scientists. Ask them for ideas about where to focus. I think the combination of doing online courses in areas that are interesting to you along with a couple years working as a software engineer, even if it’s not your passion, is very important for the long-term journey. | https://medium.com/data-science-at-microsoft/faces-of-data-science-3-b79444735a0a | ['Casey Doyle'] | 2020-04-01 15:38:27.125000+00:00 | ['Data Science Experience', 'Data Science', 'Data Science Professional', 'Data Science Education', 'Azure'] |
Men, Your Aggressive Energy Is A Gift. Own It And Hone It | I was facilitating my first men’s therapy group when I came across a book called The Warrior Within: Accessing The Knight In The Male Psyche. It was available to borrow from the small library in the building we used, and I took it home and read it feverishly. It was the first time my inner life had made sense to me in its entirety. After some awkward conversations about masculinity with my colleagues and, before that, my teachers and fellow students during my training, this book was deeply reassuring to me. It was published in 1992, at the height of the men’s movement in which men tried to understand themselves outside the context of modernity. The authors, Jungian psychoanalyst Robert Moore and mythologist Douglas Gillette, look at the aggressive energy of the male psyche’s inner warrior in a non-judgemental way.
Here is an excerpt: “In the warrior’s aggressive energy, men discover their drive for daily life, career, and social contact. Perseverance and fidelity are products of the warrior’s determination. With a growing sense of what masculinity entails, many men are today recovering their birthright warrior energy, empowering themselves, and offering a plan for personal empowerment to others. Today’s male warriors are pledging their loyalty to metapersonal concerns: their workplaces, communities, and families.”
Yet a look at male suicide rates would suggest that sadly many men have not connected with these inner resources. Since the 90s, mainstream culture has problematised archetypal masculine qualities like assertiveness, to the point where boys and men are routinely criticised for not being more like females. Instead of understanding and nurturing the potentially pro-social force of the archetypal masculine warrior we often dismiss as ‘toxic’ anything that looks too masculine.
Ironically, this misunderstanding produces more destructive behaviour, not less. The male initiation rites that were universal in indigenous cultures were a way of harnessing the potentially destructive energy of the masculine psyche for the good of the group. If we want to try and do that today, or at least catch the men who are getting close to the edge, a good starting point is a chapter in the Palgrave Handbook of Male Psychology and Mental Health (2019) called From Stereotypes to Archetypes: An Evolutionary Perspective on Male Help-Seeking and Suicide. By coincidence I happened to be reading this at the same time as the book I mentioned above.
Here are the author Martin Seager’s credentials, before I go on:
• consultant clinical psychologist and adult psychotherapist
• former head of psychological services in two National Health Service trusts (UK)
• former branch consultant to the Central London Samaritans and adviser to the National Samaritans
• formed a national advisory group for the Health Secretary
• adviser on mental health and psychology to the College of Medicine
• co-founder of the Male Psychology Network and the annual Male Psychology Conference at University College London
• inaugural chair of the new Male Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society (which he fought for 10 years to establish and half of the member psychologists voted against)
Seager believes it’s hard to change the biological drivers of masculine archetypes but much easier to change our judgemental attitudes to them if we want to help men. Those with what is currently a mainstream view of men, who take a social constructionist view of gender and downplay or deny biological drivers, won’t like this. Seager spells it out:
Within human beings perhaps the most obvious universal patterns of sexual difference are:
Female
(1) Beauty, attraction and glamour (including body adornment)
(2) Bearing and nurturance of new-born infants and young children
Male
(1) Physical protection (strength)
(2) Risk-taking
These universal patterns can be seen in the way males take risks in order to protect and provide for their families and communities, right up to today, says Seager, when 96% of workplace deaths in Great Britain are male — “it makes obvious sense in evolutionary terms to prioritise the survival of the female gender that physically carries the precious and vulnerable offspring”.
He goes on: “Across all cultures and throughout all known history, women and children have received the collective protection of men. These differences cannot be random. When individual men hide their own personal vulnerability, therefore, they are in effect only conforming to a male archetype that is reflected in collective and unchanging societal expectations of men.”
Society takes this for granted and is therefore less empathic towards male death and injury (examples abound — he gives rough sleepers: 85% were male in 2016/17 in the UK, yet the charity Crisis doesn’t highlight gender in any of its five key principles for tackling rough sleeping. Ditto male suicide: given that the biggest risk factor is being male, you’d expect research to be dominated by studies of male psychology and behaviour, whereas the opposite is true — studies focus instead on other factors).
If there is an empathy gap, argues Seager, it follows that men will be more driven than females to kill themselves because of:
a. A greater instinct to ignore personal safety and confront danger
b. A greater instinct to protect others (and greater shame at failing to do so)
c. A lower sense of entitlement to receive help or protection from others
This also means that by understanding archetypal gender differences we can develop gender-specific solutions to male suicide. His team uses three elements of the masculine archetype:
a. Fighting and winning
b. Providing and protecting
c. Maintaining mastery and self-control
His research has found that the more people felt they needed to be a fighter and winner and have control over their feelings the more suicidal they felt, whereas higher scores on family harmony (an element of the feminine archetype) predicted decreased suicidality.
The elements above are about honour and strength, and when a man feels these are missing, says Seager, he experiences the opposite states of masculine shame and failure. So trying to encourage a man to open up could risk violating deep rooted masculine instincts, possibly increasing his sense of shame and failure.
Saying to a man that strength does not matter is like saying beauty does not matter to a woman, which would violate equivalent female instincts. But we can reframe the message to fit the archetype for better clinical efficacy — here is his suggestion:
1. “By seeking help you are taking action, taking control and fighting your problems”
2. “It takes strength and courage to confront and master your problems”
or 3. “Looking after yourself means protecting your family”.
We can also listen better. Seager helped deliver training at Central London Samaritans that exposed volunteers to male culture and male issues such as blues music and female actors performing roles of power and responsibility in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (80% of Samaritans volunteers are female, around the same proportion as counsellors and psychotherapists in the UK). After a year the number of male callers abandoning calls in under five minutes had fallen from one in three to one in four. The number of women callers dropping out remained constant at one in six.
Do we have the foundations of a new approach to helping men here? It feels like it. Thank you for your work Martin Seager, let’s bring this practical knowledge about archetypes into the mainstream for the benefit of men, women and children. | https://medium.com/@zacfine/men-your-aggressive-energy-is-a-gift-own-it-and-hone-it-9c4962eddec5 | ['Zac Fine'] | 2020-12-14 20:28:16.281000+00:00 | ['Suicide', 'Masculinity', 'Therapy', 'Mental Health', 'Wellbeing'] |
Easiest Numpy Guide For Beginners Part-2 | This part is the continuation of the part-1 of my blog. I appeal to you to please go through part-1 for a better understanding of this blog.
Where function in Numpy Array
Where function in NumPy array is used for finding a group of values that satisfy the mentioned condition. This method returns the index of the values and not the values themselves.
Input:
import numpy as np
arr=np.array([8,94,8,56,7,3,2,1,0])
print(np.where(arr>10)) Output: #Returns the index not values
(array([1, 3], dtype=int64),) Input:
val1= np.where(arr>10)
print(arr[val1]) Output: #After passing index to array we can get values
[94 56]
2. min(),max(),argmin(),argmax()
min() -Finds the minimum value in Numpy array. max()-Finds the maximum value in Numpy array. argmin()-Finds the index of minimum value in Numpy array. argmax()-Finds the index of maximum value in Numpy array.
Input:
print(arr.min())
print(arr.max())
print(arr.argmax())
print(arr.argmin()) Output:
0 #Min Value
94 #Max Value
1 #Index of Min Value
8 #Index of Max Value
3. Read and Write a File using Numpy
savetxt() and loadtxt()
savetxt()- Used for writing some text content into a file. We can use the savetxt() for the creation and writing of text files or CSV files.
CSV file is a file that has comma-separated values in it. This type of file can be made by using the delimiter keyword in savetxt().
Input:
import numpy as np
arr=np.array([8,94,8,56,7,3,2,1,0])
np.savetxt('arr_file.csv',arr,delimiter=',') Output:
Input:
np.loadtxt('arr_file.csv',delimiter=',') Output:
array([ 8., 94., 8., 56., 7., 3., 2., 1., 0.])
2. save(),load(),savez()
.npy - It is a binary file in NumPy array which can hold only a single array in it.
.npz -It works like a zip file that contains the multiple numbers of .npy files in it.
save()- Saves file with .npy extension
load()- Loads file with .npy and .npz extension
savez()- Saves file with .npz extension
Input:
arr_1=np.array([8,94,8,56,7,3,2,1,0])
arr_2=np.array([2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9])
np.save(‘data1.npy’,arr_1) #creation of .npy
np.save(‘data2.npy’,arr_2) #creation of .npy
np.savez(‘both.npz’,arr_1,arr_2) #creation of .npz
d=np.load(‘both.npz’)
print(d.files) #Arrays in zip folder
print(d[d.files[0]]) #First Array
print(d[d.files[1]]) #Second Array Output:
['arr_0', 'arr_1']
[ 8 94 8 56 7 3 2 1 0]
[2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9]
4. Concatenation and Sorting in Numpy Array
Concatenate method
axis=0 -Concatenation row-wise
axis=1 -Concatenation column-wise
Input:
arr_3=np.array([[1,2],[5,6],[7,8]])
np.concatenate([arr_3,arr_3],axis=0) Output:
array([[1, 2],
[5, 6],
[7, 8],
[1, 2],
[5, 6],
[7, 8]]) Input:
np.concatenate([arr_3,arr_3],axis=1) Output:
array([[1, 2, 1, 2],
[5, 6, 5, 6],
[7, 8, 7, 8]]) For concatenation the dimensions of two arrays should be exactly the same otherwise it will give valueError. Input:
np.concatenate([arr_1,arr_3],axis=0) Output: ValueError Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-17-c9ceb2b572e7> in <module>
----> 1 np.concatenate([arr_1,arr_3],axis=0)
<__array_function__ internals> in concatenate(*args, **kwargs)
ValueError: all the input arrays must have same number of dimensions, but the array at index 0 has 1 dimension(s) and the array at index 1 has 2 dimension(s)
2. vstack() and hstack() methods
vstack() — Stacks the elements vertically.
hstack() — Stacks the elements horizontally.
Input:
np.vstack([arr_3,arr_3]) Output:
array([[1, 2],
[5, 6],
[7, 8],
[1, 2],
[5, 6],
[7, 8]]) Input:
np.hstack([arr_3,arr_3]) Output:
array([[1, 2, 1, 2],
[5, 6, 5, 6],
[7, 8, 7, 8]])
Sorting-
Sorting is by default done row-wise
Input:
npa=np.hstack([arr_3,arr_3])
print(npa)
npa.sort()
print(npa) Output:
[[1 2 1 2] #Before sorting
[5 6 5 6]
[7 8 7 8]] [[1 1 2 2] #Sorted Rowwise
[5 5 6 6]
[7 7 8 8]]
5. Date and time in Numpy
Creation of a particular date and time
Input:
import numpy as np
d = np.datetime64(‘2020–12–01 23:34:56’)
print(d) Output:
2020-12-01T23:34:56 Input:
print(d+1) #Extra second gets added Output:
2020-12-01T23:34:57 Adding a day into the date Input:
oneday = np.timedelta64(1,'D')
print(oneday)
print(oneday+d) Output:
1 days
2020-12-02T23:34:56 Adding minute into time Input:
tenminutes = np.timedelta64(10,'m')
print(tenminutes)
print(tenminutes+d) Output:
10 minutes
2020-12-01T23:44:56
6. Broadcasting in Numpy
Many of the times when we are performing arithmetic operations we face a problem with dimensionality but with the special property of NumPy, it is possible to have an automatic solution to this problem.
In broadcasting what it does is expands the array of smaller dimensions into the similar dimension of a larger array. So that now it can perform arithmetic operations easily as both arrays have a similar size.
For broadcasting the array there is one condition that we need to follow.
At least one of the dimensions of the smaller array should be the same as the larger array.
The array b expands itself for getting a size similar to array a.
Input:
a = np.array([[10.0,10.0,10.0],[20.0,20.0,20.0],[20.0,20.0,20.0],[40.0,40.0,40.0]])
b = np.array([1.0,2.0,3.0])
print(a)
print(b)
print(a+b) Output:
[[10. 10. 10.]
[20. 20. 20.]
[20. 20. 20.]
[40. 40. 40.]] [1. 2. 3.] [[11. 12. 13.] #10+1,10+2,10+3
[21. 22. 23.] #20+1,20+2,20+3
[21. 22. 23.] #20+1,20+2,20+3
[41. 42. 43.]] #40+1,40+2,40+3
If you really like this blog please give it a clap and Follow.
Thank You. | https://pub.towardsai.net/easiest-numpy-guide-for-beginners-part-2-6b94c1466b6d | ['Prajakta Mogare'] | 2021-01-21 13:03:10.814000+00:00 | ['Numpy', 'Data Science', 'Deep Learning', 'Beginners Guide', 'Python'] |
How BCIs Can Be Used To Help People With Physical Disabilities | How BCIs Can Be Used To Help People With Physical Disabilities
Can we finally live in a world where people with physical disabilities are no longer limited due to their condition? Mir Ali Zain Feb 2·5 min read
Jan Scheuermann guiding a BCI robotic arm with her thoughts to eat chocolate!
Note: If you haven’t already checked out my article on how Brain-Computer Interfaces work, read it here. It’ll help you understand this article better!
15% of the global population experience some form of disability. So statistically speaking, we all know someone or at least have seen someone challenged with some form of physical disability, whether it’s a form of mobility impairment, visual impairment, or even a loss of hearing.
But, why is it that these disabilities exist? Why may someone not be able to see, not have an arm, or not get out of bed? Well, it can be because of two things:
Hereditary disorder: A result of inheriting specific genes from a parent which has led to a physical disability
from a parent which has led to a physical disability Acquired throughout lifetime: This can be due to environmental factors or as a result of severe injuries/diseases
People with such challenges often feel a lack of independence and feel as if they are unable to live their life fully. Additionally, these people may suffer from depression or social isolation as a result of their physical limitations, and even financial instability because of it. And we can start to imagine the ‘by-products’ which come with these disabilities and how difficult it can be to be one of those 110–190 million people who may go through this on a daily basis.
So what can we do to make their lives easier? Make them feel more independent rather than dependent? Help them feel like they can ‘fully’ live their lives?
Well, thanks to recent advancements in Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology, BCIs are diminishing the limitations of the physically disabled, enabling them to feel as if they now can ‘fully’ live their life. And this is being done currently being done to restore vision, communicate with friends and family, improve and enhance motor function and skill, as well as controlling prosthetic limbs just like a regular one.
Restoring Senses
Believe it or not, but it’s possible to restore vision using BCIs, this is known as Visual Neural Prostheses, and works is by recreating and directly stimulating the visual pathway of neurons in the brain, in accordance to what would’ve been seen with perfect vision. Usually, when light is reflected onto the retina of your eye, what you see is converted to neural electrical activity through the photoreceptor cells, which is then sent to the visual cortex of the brain.
Visual Neural Prostheses is based on this process and aims to mimic the electric neural activity which is delivered to the visual cortex. This is done by capturing visual data from a camera, translating it to electrical signals, and using that to stimulate the visual cortex accordingly, thus allowing for the ability to see again.
“Although he is blind, Jason Esterhuizen is able to follow the sidewalk, thanks to an experimental brain implant that enables him to distinguish light areas from dark” — UCLA Health
Visual Neural Prostheses is quite a unique way of treating blindness, as instead of targetting the eye, it is focused on stimulating the brain. And research has gone to show that this method of stimulation has a variety of applications; not limited to restoring vision. As for, Nathan Copeland, a Brazilian man who was paralyzed following a severe car accident, this form of stimulation has helped him regain his sense of touch.
Researcher Rob Gaunt preparing Nathan Copeland for a BCI sensory test. Photograph: UPMC/Pitt Health Sciences
Although so far we’ve only been able to restore vision partially, results have proved that restoring vision with the help of BCIs is possible and that the further development of BCIs can hopefully enable full vision restoration.
Prosthetic Limbs (Neuroprosthesis)
Current bionic prosthetics work by using myoelectric control signals, these are motor action potentials, which are electrical impulses in the muscles that lead to the contraction of muscle fibres in the body, however this method is only limited to only those with enough control points so that they can interface with the electromyogram (EMG) electrodes, for example, in the case of trying to use a bionic arm, if the patient has a high-level of amputation, such as shoulder disarticulation, it does not provide enough control points to interface with the EMG electrodes, so there won’t be sufficient signals to control the movement of the bionic arm, or require the use of unwieldy cables and switch-operated systems to control their bionic arm.
How an electromyogram (EMG) bionic hand works
By using BCIs, we can overcome the limitations of EMG based prosthetics and achieve a much more natural way to operate them as it takes signals from the brain directly rather than the muscles leading the prosthetic itself.
This can be done invasively (ECoG) or non-invasively (EEG), depending on the patient’s needs. Using electrodes, electrical signals are picked up from the differences in voltage between the placement of a minimum of two electrodes.
This data is processed and often passed through a trained machine learning model to accurately predict the patient’s desired action - which is then relayed to the feedback device (in our case, the prosthetic limb) to carry out the action.
So, can we finally live in a world where people with physical disabilities are no longer limited due to their condition?
Yes, I’d like to believe so. The world of Brain-Computer Interfaces is still quite young, and with accelerated research and development, we can only expect things to get better from here, to the point where the difference between people with physical disabilities, and those without, will be indistinguishable. | https://medium.com/@miralizain/how-bcis-are-being-used-to-help-people-with-physical-disabilities-60c678661b88 | ['Mir Ali Zain'] | 2021-08-03 04:27:42.084000+00:00 | ['Help', 'Disability', 'Brain', 'Science', 'Neuroscience'] |
5 Considerations While Availing Loan for a Child-care Business | Applying for a childcare center in a particular region poses great challenges from multiple regulations. One cannot escape these elements of initiating a startup. Especially, when it comes to early child development and care, the sensitivity of these services never allows you to be careless.
What do you think is needed to start a child-care business? Human resources, marketing strategies, finance? Do you think, without finance, you can ever assemble all the other factors of input? No chance!
So, here’s a list of considerations you need to keep in mind before availing loans from a vendor.
Points to be Considered
Educational Curriculum
The curriculum of a childcare center provides services not only for caring but also for education for the children. Accordingly, this requires investment in an extra set of resources to cater to the different age groups admitted.
Human Resource Qualification and Experience
It’s up to the preferences of a childcare center if they need a highly qualified and experienced human resource. The financial requirements of the business are directly proportional put the number and qualifications of the people operating.
Licenses and Regulations
Here we are talking about the start-up cost of all the points mentioned here. Other than human resource, physical equipment, the overall premise features, material are marketing expenses, the start-up cost include licensing from the state and the country. Every country poses some regulations for every industry. As a parent, no one would want to send their children to non-licensed forms and put them at risk even if it is of the utmost quality.
Location
The location of a business has a great influence on startup costs. Every location can have different prices even if it belongs to the same region. For example, buying a piece of land in the US can cost differently.
It’s not only the availability of space to operate but also the quality of employees residing in a certain radius of the business. As we accumulate the factors of input from the society, location plays a huge role.
Interest Rate
One cannot neglect the rate of interest on the loan. The decision to borrow can be shaped differently if the lender is asking for too much. So, if the interest rate is low, the childcare center can afford to stretch its budget a bit as the amount to pay at the end will be lower.
Marketing Techniques to be Applied
If the marketing techniques require huge money, the loan required would be of a higher amount and vice versa. It’s as simple as that. However, the expenditure on marketing is not directly proportional to its effectiveness. Remember, you can always engage in economical marketing and still obtain immense results.
With all these factors influencing the decision for borrowing, a childcare service near me is a balance of all these expenditures. | https://medium.com/@eva16martin/5-considerations-while-availing-loan-for-a-child-care-business-628fb81f626a | ['Eva Martin'] | 2019-12-02 06:23:21.915000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Child Care Center', 'Childcare', 'Education', 'Baby'] |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.