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As Sure as the Moon | As Sure as the Moon
as the moon rises every night without fail
as it shows me it’s face
and bathes me in it’s light
my love so too stays constant
sometimes hidden
by clouds of deception
but it’s re-appearance
is always vouched for
as i do not believe a first love
can ever be truly forgotten | https://medium.com/@jaraholloway/as-sure-as-the-moon-a55e628ef186 | [] | 2020-12-25 02:34:00.831000+00:00 | ['Poet', 'Poetry Writing', 'Relationships', 'Poetry', 'W'] |
The Internet is Multilingual But You Need To Learn Mandarin | The Internet is Multilingual But You Need To Learn Mandarin
Geopolitics and the global adoption of the internet are creating an East vs West language divide.
Photo by Cherry Lin on Unsplash
The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow. — Bill Gates.
The language of the internet has shifted from predominantly English to multilingual. But the internet seemingly reinforces a few main languages, putting the majority of others at risk of exclusion. Chinese Mandarin is quickly becoming one of the dominant languages of the internet at the expense of others.
If as Bill Gates says, the internet is a town square, then you need to learn Mandarin in order to have a voice in the digital village of the future.
The Internet’s Multilinguism is Contracting
There are 8 billion people, 195 countries, and over 6,500 languages spoken on the planet. Of the 8 billion, nearly half the people on the planet don’t have regular internet access. And a significant portion of these individuals without access reside in the least developed countries.
Given these stats, it’s fascinating to see the distribution of global languages on the internet.
There are 10 languages that represent 75% of all web traffic. English and Mandarin are neck and neck as the most common languages with the most web traffic. Nearly 50% of global traffic.
The primary English speaking nations (US and UK) have a combined population of about 400 million well below China’s 1.2 billion people. Of the Chinese population, 480 million are not online yet.
Put plainly, populations that represent 15% of the global population see their local languages dominate 50% of web traffic.
Based on these data points, it appears that the internet is leading to a contraction of the languages in use.
Why The Internet’s Language Options are Contracting
Why do English and Chinese dominate as the language of the internet when there are so many other languages?
Because in the 20-year span of 2000 to 2020, the US, China and other more developed nations have experienced significant internet user growth. Unlike less developed locations, these languages have experienced a first-mover and early adoption advantage allowing them to dominate 75% of global web traffic.
With this early advantage, a lot of useful content has been developed and added to the global network in these languages.
As new and often poorly developed nations gain access to the internet, they are forced to choose between building useful content from scratch or opting for a dominant language with well-established content and network effects.
Late adopters are left to adapt to pre-existing technology and their pre-established use cases.
“The famous engine [Google] that recognises 30 European languages recognises only one African language and no indigenous American or Pacific languages.” Daniel Prado Wikipedia is just one site, but even this small pool suggests the universe of information on the internet looks very different from one language to the next. The Digital Language Divide
Because language is often so intertwined with culture, the contracting of available languages online raises a question of equity on the internet. Ie: If languages are not represented equally on webpages does that mean that cultural representation on the web also contracts?
This may indicate that its likely new users coming online have to choose an alternative language to navigate the web and subsequently assimilate into that global culture.
Chinese Geopolitical Strategy Amplifies Language Contraction & Creates A Paradigm Shift
China’s ongoing investments in Africa creates an interesting potential shift in the language makeup of the internet. Africa represents a significant number of the global populace without internet access. Nearly 70% of the Africans representing 800 million people don’t have access.
As initiatives like Starlink and other infrastructure investments unfold, Africa will increasingly join the global internet network in the next decade. Whether they join because of Chinese or US investment, these new users are likely to use one of the 2 dominant languages because of the pre-established network effects.
Research has suggested (pdf) that speakers of smaller languages online will often opt to use the internet in a larger language, even if they don’t speak it well. The Digital Language Divide
But Starlink is an unproven technology and has a slow implementation process. The Chinese investment, on the other hand, is already underway on the African continent. And it also appears that as African’s join the internet their preference is for mobile access.
Mobile internet is an area Chinese companies like Huawei have shown an ability to implement infrastructure quickly. As a consequence, it may be that pre-existing infrastructure investments create a scenario where many of the 800 million African’s default to Chinese web content. This would shift Mandarin to the most dominant language on the web.
Image Created by Author
The Divergent Internet of the East and the West
The Chinese style of the internet is different from the Western style of the internet. The Chinese standard is a notoriously state-controlled economy, with authoritarian controls on media and other types of content. It’s a communally oriented internet, ie: the good of the state comes before the good of the individual. This is often contrary to the western ideals of individual freedoms, privacy-oriented regulations, and freedoms of expression.
The divergent aspects of these respective networks have created different technologies and companies that support their respective network ideologies.
Examples of Divergence:
Like WeChat, an all in one P2P chat, social networking service, and payments platform. Many western individuals would balk at the privacy-related issues of having all their data wrapped into one app. In the west, there are privacy and security-oriented technologies like Bitcoin, Signal, and Facebook.
China and the Mandarin language are more likely than English speaking countries to become the dominant force in the entire Asia region (with the exception of India). This makes it likely that Mandarin could become the dominant language of the web.
Regardless of whether or not the language balance tips one way or the other, Mandarin oriented web content will still make up significant portions of the internet. The diverging policies and subsequent technologies that form from them will be interesting to follow. They represent an opportunity for aspiring digital workers to bridge the gap in diverging tech.
Why You Need to Learn Mandarin
Capital, like energy, is a dormant value. Bringing it to life requires us to go beyond looking at our assets as they are to actively thinking about them as they could be. It requires a process for fixing an asset’s economic potential into a form that can be used to initiate additional production. The Mystery of Capital
In the digital age, information is capital and influence is power.
The ability to create and curate unique digital information assets is like creating and accumulating potential power. As the languages of the internet contract to be dominated by a few, the cultural ideas reinforced by these dominant languages will be evangelized in developing communities.
Influence is gained by leveraging the network effects of the internet to connect large groups of people. As more people join the network, it’s value grows and the internet converges on a few languages and the east/west divide.
Moving forward, being a monolinguist will prove to be a significant opportunity cost as it represents a disadvantage in controlling the global ideological narrative.
As China’s geopolitical strategy plays out over the coming decades the adoption of Mandarin can be expected to continuously grow in Africa and the developing world. Therefore, it makes sense for individuals that want to be relevant in an increasingly connected world to speak the 2 most dominant languages.
Learning Mandarin will empower internet users to tap into a large and growing body of unique internet content. An amalgamation of divergent processes, unique thoughts, and ideologies.
The future of the internet will be characteristic of a multilingual global society where the utility of polyglots becomes significant. By learning Mandarin, you open yourself up to a wider world of opportunities, positioning yourself to maximize the value of the internet's network effects. | https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/the-internet-is-multilingual-but-you-need-to-learn-mandarin-558c15ab5158 | ['Doug Antin'] | 2020-07-26 16:18:02.794000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Technology', 'Future', 'Language', 'Internet'] |
Hierophant’s Advice: After Losing Everything What Did You Gain? | The Hierophant
A priest in ancient Greece who interprets sacred mysteries or esoteric principles.
The Fool, having created a solid foundation, is struck with sudden fear. What if everything he’s worked for is taken away, stolen, lost, destroyed, or vanishes?
In a panic, he heads to find the Hierophant and receive his teachings.
He tells the Hierophant of his fears and asks how he can be free of them.
“There are only two ways,” says the Hierophant:
“Either give up that, which you fear to lose, so it no longer holds any power over you,” or “Consider what you will still have if your fear comes to pass.”
“After all,” the Hierophant continues, “if you did lose all you’d built, you would still keep the experience and knowledge that you’ve gained up to this point, wouldn’t you?”
Fear Comes to Pass
The fear of the Fool, actually, came to pass for me in December 2013. On the seventh anniversary of my loss, I am now getting the courage to talk about it.
I had a sterling record of growth and success in Corporate America, impeccable educational qualifications, including a Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship, and a successful sale of a startup venture. The latest startup, in which I had put a substantial portion of the previous gain, was in the Inc. magazine’s 500/5000 fastest growing companies in America and the Top 20 companies in its industry for 5 years in a row. I had confidently stepped aside to devote time to a foundation for underprivileged children. It was all rock solid. What could go wrong?
Everything!
Image: 123rf.com
The company survived the steep downturn of 2008, as planned, but got caught up in the totally unexpected Federal Government shut-down. It was a big setback for an organization, with two-thirds of its’ business in that segment.
The subsequent political solution was ‘continuing resolution.’ Our business model of doing new and innovative things, our biggest asset, became our killer liability. No detailed strategic or contingency plans, we regularly made, had ever contemplated such a body blow.
Meanwhile, we were betrayed by the ‘irregularities’ of a few senior members, an arrogant early investor partner who refused to make any concessions, and another investor who turned out to be a ‘loan-to-own’ shop.
The rising success had previously covered up the hidden fault lines that were laid bare. I was forced to step back into the company to salvage it. But, despite sleepless nights and tireless efforts, the hurt was too deep.
Alas! The company itself survived and continues on today as part of another. But after a lifetime of success after success under my belt, this was a stunning personal blow!
Themes similar in nature, but different in details, play out today with many ventures. The Covid19 pandemic will generate numerous similar stories. In hindsight, many of us will second guess the specific decisions, judgments, and actions taken. That is not the story.
This story is about the pragmatic advice of the Hierophant!
The Downward Spiral
Power is the Ultimate Loss, like Death.
As a founder entrepreneur of a fast-growing company, I had raw power. This was a jolt. I tried to push forward only to find that I no longer had that power.
Revenge is Counterproductive
I dreamt of all kinds of ways to get back, be manipulative, and seek revenge! This obsessive desire, generated by the loss of power, only cost me lost time and energy.
Emotional Load of Thrashing Around
I confronted this loss again and again with friends, relatives, colleagues, etc. Many shareholders were friends and colleagues, and they had lost a lot of money. While not legally responsible, the emotional load was significant. I fought against new restrictions and thrashed around in panic as the walls closed in, getting nowhere.
Loss Begets Other Losses: Life out of Control
Professionally I had a place in society, my responsibilities, and my social standing.
Image: 123rf.com
Now all of it had become topsy turvy. How did I fit in with people, groups, and peers who were so important before?
I had to redefine, understand, and crystallize my own real relationships with others. People who were at my side slinked away. Employees had work to do. Friends did not know what to say. As the person in charge, shareholders laid the blame on me.
Things have to come to a near-stall before the direction reverses. This is agonizing when we are impatient for instant results.
Meanwhile, we stew!
Personal Circle Evolves
The previous personal circle faded away. While I met some new people, I was reluctant to establish new serious friendships or join a new group. Over time the satisfaction and quality of the various relationships revealed themselves.
Transitions: The Ending and Neutral Zone
Regaining Power through Acceptance and Self Transformation
After a long stewing in these juices, a time comes for weeding out, letting go of lost causes, making clear choices, taking responsibility, and leaving the past behind. With time I have learned to accept the new limits.
Transitions
In 1979 William Bridges wrote a landmark book: Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes. I have given that book to dozens of people who were going through life’s Changes. It was time to re-read the 25th edition book for the umpteenth time. The step by step of any Transition has three stages: The Ending, The Neutral Zone, and then, The New Beginning. I had reached The Ending and was in the Neutral Zone.
Becoming Authentic
Image: 123rf.com
Health issues that were neglected, while not serious, had come to the forefront. I was attracted to alternative ways of eating, self-study, and mindfulness. Dr. Daniel Cohen, a neurologist, an expert of the brain, had done path-breaking work on understanding the brain and mind in his quest to understand himself. His revolutionary therapeutic technology is described in Addicted to My Ego. Dr. Cohen was a great personal guide.
Spring Cleaning
I was forced to face my own demons and haunting fears that were undermining me. The crisis forced me to clean up what was hiding in the closet of my mind. It was uncomfortable but ultimately a huge relief.
New Partnerships and Associations
I weeded out many superfluous social associations and joined new ones that are consistent with my new direction. Many people have faded away, and at the same time, true supporters have come forth. I am also clear on what I could realistically offer in return.
Think Less, Feel More
As an engineer, I am a thinker and weak in feelings (MBTI: ENTP). I am learning to feel more and think less. Experiencing intense feelings can actually lead us toward healing and eventual empowerment.
New Learning
I am a digital immigrant. In my previous life, I could rely on experts in the company for digital tools. Alas! No more. I had to learn new methods, technologies, and tools. The ending became an impetus for new learning.
Conference on Failure
I co-convened a conference, The Phoenix Rising: Learning from failure to create success, designed to help people navigate through the rough waters after a failure. Presenters, who are practitioners — came together to share their stories and strengthen the resolve that failure need not be debilitating or stop someone from becoming successful. The greatest beneficiary was me!
… and New Beginnings
My Purpose
The purposeful Universe had a clear reason to send me here. So what is it? I had preached that the best way to find your purpose is to review accomplishments and failures. It was time to apply it to myself.
Historical Source of Joy: Mentoring Young Entrepreneurs
My greatest sense of accomplishment was when helping my entrepreneurial students with knotty problems. I reconnected with various entrepreneurial organizations and offered my services to rediscover the fun and satisfaction of mentoring emerging entrepreneurs. It provides me with the thrill of helping them see farther and over the walls. The reality is, I am the one getting more benefits out of mentoring young entrepreneurs.
Rebuilding: Reorganizing the Existing Components
The pieces were all there: Engineering background, theoretical underpinnings in entrepreneurship, Higher ed teaching, consulting in innovation, corporate experience, experience with rapid growth, and deep knowledge of predatory practices to watch out against.
Image: 123rf.com
I had to break apart my previous model and reassemble the component pieces to fit my new revised purpose.
Hierophant knew it all along, “if you did lose everything, you still had all the experience and knowledge.”
The knowledge and experience are still intact. They had to be reassembled into the different mosaic — Mentoring.
Next Journey
One of the strategies that have served me well over time is that a market leader, in its wake, leaves many lucrative niches. Following it again, I narrowed my specific niche in the broad spectrum of mentoring.
The Institute for Innovators and Entrepreneurs (IIE)
Minnesota has 50 incubators, many angel groups/individuals, hundreds of meetups, numerous events, and several universities. All of these incubators are willing to work with quality seedlings and grow them into trees. But, someone else has to be the nursery that sprouts those quality seedlings from the many, many seeds.
We are all familiar with a person approaching us with a raw idea and asking for investors' help. We shake our heads but have no place to send them for preparation. Not at scale anyway.
The biggest impediments to the entrepreneurial ecosystem development are:
Many aspiring entrepreneurs, uninitiated in the complex process of building a successful business from scratch, believe having an idea deserves the investment to grow it into a successful business.
They expect any nurturing to be at little or no cost to them.
Economic development requires the capacity to screen a massive number of ideas to find and nurture the few promising ideas that are opportunities now.
Moreover, based upon Kauffman Foundation reports, Minnesota ranks poorly even compared to other states in the nation in terms of creating New Ventures.
The first step of screening and polishing raw ideas into quality ideas through formal pre-incubation is broadly missing today. It leads to an inordinate number of needless failures.
At scale, a pre-incubation intervention can dramatically impact the quality, success rates, and the consequent number of entrepreneurial ventures.
Also, businesses of all sizes were already facing major disruptions due to several emerging technologies. On top, the shock from COVID19 has created a profound shift in the economy. Many successful startups were born during a past crisis and will do so again, as things may never return to 2019 normal.
Minnesota Institute for Innovators and Entrepreneurs (IIE), an NGO with a mission to increase entrepreneurial potential in Minnesota, was formed to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs with an idea, a web-based pre-incubation curriculum. Ideagist (www.ideagist.com) is the largest global digital incubation platform in the world that uses lean practices and is followed by a pre-incubator, offering ten tools. This platform has been user-tested by 350,000+ globally, spanning over 450+ communities in 195 countries.
My purpose is now clear: “I help aspiring entrepreneurs focus, prepare and develop their mojo.”
But first, I had to regain my own!
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Dr. Rajiv Tandon is an Entrepreneur, Educator, and Mentor. He is executive director of the Institute for Innovators and Entrepreneurs and an advocate for the future of entrepreneurship in Minnesota. He can be reached at [email protected]. | https://medium.com/@rajivtandon/hierophants-advice-after-losing-everything-what-did-you-gain-487546f8067e | ['Dr. Rajiv Tandon'] | 2020-12-11 19:33:41.221000+00:00 | ['Failure', 'Rejuvenation', 'Learning From Failure', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Entrepreneur'] |
How Tokopedia’s Data Team Spent Their Day Off | “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” — Michael Jordan.
As jobbers, busy working hours are not only the ones that create story in our professional lives, but building a family at office is also one big factor which makes our daily routine colourful. FINALLY! For a moment, Tokopedia’s Data Team took a break and went outing together as one team. 29–30 November 2018 was a time for Tokopedia’s lovely Data Team to get lost. We spent our time to refresh our mind and bond with other teams within Data.
We arrived at Jambuluwuk around 10 AM. The place was beautiful, all greens, same as Tokopedia’s office (*wink*), but much more fresher, because there were real trees (haha!). After all our team gathered, outing committee gave an opening speech and handed over all outing events to the Event Organizer.
Tokopedia’s Data Team
PIC of Outing Committee Giving Speech
Outing Committee & Mr. EO
For the sake of our body, we did ice breaking, starting from creating a chain pattern with our hands to hold each others, until creating groups by counting numbers that were called out by Mr. EO.
We did laugh a lot during ice-breaking session. Then, we had a great lunch and a short break. In the afternoon, we were broken down into 4 groups which consisted of 13–15 people to play outbound games. The rule for this games was that each group had to go to four stations and was challenged to solve problem from each station.
At Station 1, we played “Empathy Ball”, in which we stood in circle and had to throw one ball to the left, and the person on our left should catch the ball. If any person failed to catch the ball, then the whole team failed. Pretty challenging, huh?
At Station 2, we played “Get the Ball”. Here, we had to play with water! We needed to cover all holes in one pipe while one person poured water into the pipe to get the ball inside the pipe out. Yippie, time to play wet!
At Station 3, we played “Move the ball”. This game showed impossible things can be done with a TEAM! We needed to move a table-tennis ball with just threads from start point to end point!
Last station was “Puzzle”. Here, we had to form a square by using pre-cut shapes. Seems easy, but it was actually harder than querying data.
Empathy Ball
Get the Ball
Move the ball
Puzzle
And, finally we had last challenge to save the candle. In this game, there were no groups. We, as a whole team, had to keep the candle lit while Mr EO was happily throwing bags of water at us. Time to get wetter :D
Save the candle
In the evening, we had a talk show with all team leads. Please welcome all the leads, Mr. Nathan, Mr. Sonny and Mr. Charlie. We shared information about how Tokopedia works now and what will be going on next year. To finish this night, we played “Guess the Word”. It was an easy game where all team members had to guess what word that was created from several pictures in the powerpoint. Thank you Qlea and Erika for bringing this games more absurd. :D. The winners of afternoon games were also announced by Mr. EO. Good job, guys!!
Mr. Charlie, Mr. Sonny, Mr. Nathan & Ms. Erika
Sharing Session
Sharing Session
Games
Games
1st Winner
2nd Winner
3rd Winner
On our last day at Jambuluwuk, we went trekking. We walked out of Jambuluwuk and breathed the fresh air around the village. After walking for a while, we took a rest and tried a game, called “Egrang”. It was quite difficult because we had to balance our legs and body while moving forward. But, we made it !!! And we also played Angklung. Each of us had to hold one part of the Angklung which represented one note to play “Burung kakak tua”. I guess, Data Team can also be a musician.
Trekking Time
Trekking Time
Snack Time
Team played egrang
Team played egrang
Team played angklung
Time flies so fast, we had a lot of stories in this outing, but we had to go back to Jakarta. We are grateful of the time we spent together. Can’t wait for next data team outing! Not only it refreshes our mood, but also it helps building our team to be stronger.
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much” — Helen Keller | https://medium.com/tokopedia-data/how-tokopedias-data-team-spent-their-day-off-6dc18cb7136b | ['Dwi Lucia Arfani'] | 2018-12-12 08:43:44.553000+00:00 | ['Tokopedia', 'Data Scientist', 'Data Analyst', 'Life At Tokopedia', 'Data Engineering'] |
Anti-Trans ‘Feminists’ Are More Dangerous Than Religious Zealots | Rebecca Reilly-Cooper, according to her website, is a political philosopher in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. She describes herself as “a once liberal, now increasingly radical, feminist.” She is authoring a book about sex, gender, and identity; recently gave a talk at a crowded pub entitled “Critically Examining the Doctrine of Gender Identity”; and has a sold-out speaking engagement on the same topic taking place this May. Reilly-Cooper opens this talk by stating, “I raise these questions, not out of prejudice or bigotry, but out of a sincere belief that this doctrine about the nature of gender is false and damaging to everybody.”
Like many other avowed feminists, Reilly-Cooper is bent on “proving” the absurdity of trans identity. More than that, she seeks to reveal how cis, white women like herself are actively harmed by policies and laws which aim to protect transgender individuals from discrimination and ensure their equal access to services.
Never mind that this view is completely ignorant of the facts. Never mind the damage this narrative does.
In 2014, Transgender Europe (TGEU) contributed to the OSCE Hate Crime Report, which stated that there were 69 recorded hate crimes and incidents from 10 different countries. According to a report by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Trans People of Color Coalition (TPOCC), in 2015 “at least 21 transgender people have been victims of fatal violence in the United States, more killings of transgender people than any other year on record. More transgender people were killed in the first six months of [2015] than in all of 2014.”
This year, HRC released a report stating that there are 44 anti-transgender bills filed in 16 states so far, 23 of which target children. Currently, there are nine states with active bills that aim to prevent transgender individuals from using public restrooms that match their gender identity. It is difficult to pin down the exact numbers due to irregular reporting, inaccurate police reports, and an apathetic media, but as of the writing of this piece, there have been at least seven reported murders of trans individuals in the U.S. so far this year.
As these statistics show, trans individuals, especially trans women of color, are being targeted simply for existing and living their truths. Their suffering is real; the idea that cis women are being harmed by their identity is not.
Cis women aren’t being murdered because trans and gender non-conforming individuals exist and, in some locations, receive protection under the law. Cis women are not being denied entrance or access to restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms because trans and gender non-conforming people exist and need access to those same spaces for the same reason cis women need them. Cis women aren’t being thrown into the streets because trans and gender non-conforming people need shelters, too. Trans inclusion does not, has not, and will not result in the exclusion of cis women.
People are in need, and an awfully vocal group of white cis women has decided that they come first — no matter what. Binary transgender, the lack of gender, the fluidity of gender, and the rejection of the binary has existed for centuries. Then Western culture manufactured and inculcated the gender binary. For example, the indigenous peoples of North America now use the term, Two Spirit, to identify individuals who “cross social gender roles, gender expression, and sexual orientation.” Mae Louise Campbell, an Ojibwa/Métis from Kississing Lake in northern Manitoba and the elder in residence at Red River College in Winnipeg, told CBC News that it was “an honor to have a child that was two-spirited to be born in the community. . . . Because they carry both [energies], many of them became leaders in the community, leaders in the elder capacity. People went to them because they were revered.”
As more people come out and express to the world their true selves, despite the psychological, emotional, and physical danger this openness invites, women like Reilly-Cooper believe it must be some kind of conspiracy to further oppress “real” women.
Why are the lived experiences of trans and gender non-conforming people not held as high as the opinions of cis women on trans people? Why do their feelings trump our actual lives?
Ophelia Benson is a feminist author, blogger, editor, and columnist at the Freethinker and Free Inquiry. In an interview with Vanessa Urquhart for Slate last summer, she said she considers herself to be an ally to the trans community. She later expanded on this by saying, “That means being aware of what it means to be trans, it means taking [trans people] at their word when they talk about their experience, and it means standing up for them if you hear someone attack them.” But Benson’s actions do not support these hollow sentiments. She regularly ridicules transgender individuals and promotes anti-trans voices.
My essay, published here last December — “Trans-Exclusionary Feminists Cannot Exclude My Humanity” — was reposted on her website for the purpose of derision. She concluded, “It’s as painful to read as tearing off a strip of skin would be.” She took a very real, very honest depiction of what gender dysphoria sometimes feels like, and mocked it.
In March, Benson caught wind of Katie Klabusich’s piece — “Inside The ‘Fetal Assault Law’ Sending Pregnant People To Prison” — and complained about Klabusich’s trans-inclusive language. Benson later wrote in a separate piece:
“Why does it matter, saying ‘women’ instead of ‘people’ when we talk about abortion or contraception or pregnancy? It matters for the same reason we have the word ‘feminist’ at all — because it picks out the fact that women are treated as an inferior caste, whose bodies don’t fully belong to them.”
What such rhetoric fails to acknowledge is that the inclusion of another marginalized group does not make your marginalization any less important or real. Cisgender women are not the only people who can become pregnant, and acknowledging this indisputable fact doesn’t erase anyone; it includes those who were previously erased. Moreover, trans and gender non-conforming people, as well as cis women, are “treated as an inferior caste, whose bodies don’t fully belong to them.” Why play a game of oppression Olympics, rather than advocating for inclusivity?
Journalist Michelle Goldberg also repeatedly and voluntarily puts herself in the middle of trans debates. She’s given credence to damaging purity tests where trans people are measured by the extent of their surgeries, and pontificated over what makes a woman a woman. Then there’s bioethicist and author, Alice Dreger, who often positions herself as a trans ally, but who is quoted by the The Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group, the Family Research Council (FRC), in the extremely transphobic and damaging report, “Understanding and Responding to the Transgender Movement.” According to writer, performer, and biologist, Julia Serano, “[Dreger] has a vendetta against transgender activism,” stating:
“She repeatedly positions herself as an ‘expert on’ or ‘friend of’ trans people, while at the same time completely ignoring or undermining the perspectives of the trans community at large. As someone who is both a scientist and knowledgeable about transgender people and issues, I feel compelled to set the record straight on these matters.”
Women like feminist writer and speaker, Germaine Greer, or poet, essayist and critic, Katha Pollitt, cry persecution the minute someone disagrees with their assessment of gender identity. Yet last I checked, they still write, speak, and get booked on television or published in prominent outlets. And their persistent views contribute to the needless death of so many trans individuals across the globe — suicide, neglect, and murder.
It is chilling to recognize that the two groups working most fiercely to strip gender-identity protection from the books, and to stop new legislation from passing, are conservative religious men — and progressive, feminist, cisgender women. These women are not literally pointing a weapon at transgender individuals, but they are plastering the airwaves with bigotry and transantagonism; they are contributing to their deaths, while crying, “I’m the real victim!”
This is where we go back to Rebecca Reilly-Cooper’s talk, where she is dismayed that she cannot experience gender identity in the way so many trans individuals do. “I don’t think I have this thing,” she states 29 minutes into her lecture. “I don’t have a deep, internal, personal sense of myself as a woman. I call myself a woman. It’s true. I think I’m a woman, but it’s not because in some sense, deep down, I feel like one. I call myself a woman because I am female. I have a body that has female sex characteristics. I have a uterus and ovaries; I have breasts and a vagina.” She goes on to say, “I am told that my biology and my physiology are irrelevant to the fact that I am a woman whether or not that I accept that. It’s an act of cisgender privilege, an act of oppression, for me to deny that I do.”
In a beautiful essay for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts entitled, “Fighting Against Ghosthood,” Gabrielle Bellot wrote, “But trans women remain marginal. To many people, we not only aren’t women; we are abominations, too, something that is wrong. Ugly, the thought of it, across many literatures, many minds.” Trans-exclusionary feminists often say trans women cannot know what it’s like to be a “real” woman. But here we have a cis woman complaining about the supposed “doctrine” of gender identity and how she can’t experience it or know what it feels like. Her entire talk is based around the premise that her inability to know what it feels like must mean it’s not real. If it’s not real for her, then it’s not real enough to be inscribed into laws and policies.
Rebecca Reilly-Cooper may not be holding the gun, but she is espousing ignorance and bigotry — it just looks nicer, sounds prettier. What struck me most while watching her lecture was how calm, friendly, and personable she was. How with such ease, one could spend an hour vilifying people like myself with a smile on her face.
Progressive, socially liberal women who increasingly and persistently attack, dehumanize, and slander trans and gender non-conforming people, are — in my eyes — more dangerous than religious zealots who do the same. The zealots’ views are harmful and put people in danger, there is no question there, but they can be spotted a mile away. They stand tall, proud, and anchored in their religious conviction; there is no deceit or mask. Their views are unabashedly conservative as they answer to a higher power.
These zealots don’t claim to be progressive; they are not fighting for progress and justice. They want to limit the rights and ignore the autonomy of large swaths of the population because of differences they refuse to accept. These women, on the other hand, claim progressive and feminist values. They fight for the autonomy and agency of individuals, and they vehemently oppose any and all restrictions placed upon women because of their gender. These so-called progressive feminists, who know precisely how reprehensible it is to vilify, attack, and discriminate against a person based on their gender, are doing exactly what has been done to them, all the while claiming to be the victim.
These women have a range of titles and backgrounds: journalist, author, activist, lecturer, scientist, feminist. They are all cisgender, and they all want to debate the identity of transgender people. If you’re like Reilly-Cooper, it’s because our myriad of identities are somehow harming her own. If you’re like Pollitt, it’s in the name of fairness. If you’re like Greer, it’s in the name of dismantling patriarchy. If you’re like Benson, it’s in the name of truth. If you’re like Dreger, it’s in the name of science. If you’re like Goldberg, it’s because all sides are valid in the name of true objectivity. In each case, the terms of the debate are not set by trans people, but by cisgender white women.
Reilly-Cooper concludes her talk by stating:
“If we take gender identity entirely subjectively, there becomes no way, either in principle or practice, to determine men from women. So, you could find yourself, say, in a room with all the people that are here today and be absolutely incapable of knowing who in this room is a man and who is a woman. There would be no way in determining it. . . . As soon as that happens men and women as a political class disappear; men and women can no longer exist if you define gender entirely subjectively.”
Her fearmongering about the elimination of cisgender men and cisgender women is identical to the fearmongering religious zealots use against gay marriage — if marriage isn’t confined to one man and one woman, then the word becomes irrelevant. Ryan T. Anderson, a research fellow at the conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, wrote last summer after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling:
“Redefining marriage to make it a genderless institution fundamentally changes marriage: It makes the relationship more about the desires of adults than about the needs — or rights — of children. It teaches the lie that mothers and fathers are interchangeable. Indeed, the judicial redefinition of marriage to exclude the marital norm of male-female sexual complementarity raises the question of what other marital norms may be excluded.”
In the Q&A after her lecture, Reilly-Cooper expressed how troubling she finds it that there are “very young, vulnerable, distressed people going online and find[ing] this [gender identity] doctrine.” You see, it’s about the children, the poor, vulnerable children. The same children Anderson is concerned about; the same children supporters of Prop 8 were concerned about. These tactics are the same: make the claim that inclusion and equality will somehow lead to the complete and utter breakdown of society. If the social norms we invented are changed in any way, society will suffer. And if that doesn’t convince you — think about the children.
Reilly-Cooper, and others like her, are worried that if you cannot determine a person’s gender by observation, then “men and women can no longer exist.” In case you didn’t know, you already can’t go into a room full of people and determine their gender by looking at them; this has always been true.
This is important, because what she did was erase my existence, and the existence of many others who are neither man nor woman. Her fear is our lived existence, yet our realities aren’t real enough for her to grasp. | https://medium.com/the-establishment/anti-trans-feminists-are-more-dangerous-than-religious-zealots-a4b955f3290f | ['Aaden Friday'] | 2017-11-15 16:45:25.532000+00:00 | ['Gender', 'LGBTQ', 'Society Politics', 'Transgender', 'Identity'] |
Kickback & Passive Income. A Detailed Description | We all know what cashbacks are. This is a cool one-time story, but this is not for a lifetime.
Kickback and KICKS are a different thing.
If you make a purchase with cashbacks, you receive a portion of the percentage back. One day, you will save enough money to receive a significant discount. But all your financial privileges with cashbacks will be limited with your own purchases. The only rule for you to get any bonus will be to buy something yourself.
How does it work with kickbacks? They do not depend on your personal expenses at all. You can proceed to buy only once. Afterwards, you will be rewarded for purchases made by your friends. You may not have money but you will be motivated to share Sessia with anyone who will become your source of income.
So why do you need cashbacks if their lives are so short? There is no answer.
That is why KICKS are worthy. An asset backed with a real idea, tool, or business is bound to rock. The idea behind KICKS is great for many people, both random users and businessmen.
Kickback is the viral cashback. Cashback 2.0. The tool of passive income and eternal promotion that will be working forever.
Follow us on Medium, Reddit, or Instagram to stay updated about the news! | https://medium.com/@sessia/kickback-passive-income-a-detailed-description-92d5852604e7 | [] | 2020-12-18 10:15:51.028000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Cryptotrading', 'Btc', 'Investments Opportunity'] |
Why Cadoo | Hello world!
We are the co-founders of Cadoo, an app that makes it easy to incentivize and reward the use of apps and services that promote health, learning, focus, and well-being.
Our mission is to grow the Gross National Happiness of the Internet.
In this introductory blog post we want to tell you why we built Cadoo and how we plan on making Cadoo a leader in a new market for online incentives and rewards that will be bigger than the global remittance market ($500BN in 2018).
If used mindfully, smartphones can be tools of personal growth. There are hundreds of cool learning, health, and mediation apps. And self-motivated learning has never been easier. Any book or subject matter can be accessed and absorbed thanks to the internet. All you need to do is search, click, and focus. It’s also never been easier to use the internet to create personal wealth if you have the discipline to use your networked devices productively.
But that’s a big if.
Cadoo makes that if more likely.
We are a technology company that makes it easy and fun to challenge and reward people to be their best selves by using apps and online services that improve their lives.
And the Cadoo API makes it easy and effective for any online service to add user-funded digital cash incentives to their products, which amounts to a viral user-funded referral program, something every Head of Growth can get behind.
Want to motivate a friend to get in shape? Send her a Fitbit Cadoo that rewards her with digital cash for every mile she walks or runs. Or for getting a good night’s sleep. Or for losing weight.
The truth is that even the most disciplined among us sometimes need a little motivation to be our best selves. And the greater truth is that our smartphones have become huge distractions from reaching our full potential, when they should be making it easier.
That’s why we built Cadoo.
For most of us, our networked devices are a source of distraction and dysphoria.
Gossip, news, porn, social media- our smartphones tempt us to indulge at the cost of our health, peace, and focus.
Instead of learning Chinese with Duolingo or how to code with Mimo, we indulge in the shallow thrills and meaningless status games of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more.
Instead of using Fitbit or Strava or iOS health to improve our physical health, we dedicate countless hours to destroying imaginary people in imaginary worlds while our real-life body gets soft and flabby from lack of movement.
Instead of learning Chinese with Duolingo or how to code with Mimo, we indulge in the shallow thrills and meaningless status games of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more.
One of Cadoo’s inspirations is tech entrepreneur, Angel List founder, and Twitter sage Naval Ravikant, who has written & spoken often about the importance of adopting strategies to mitigate the impact of a world of surplus on the human algorithm evolved to survive scarcity.
Cadoo doesn’t have a fasting or meditation app in our integration pipeline just yet, but it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be able to send a Headspace Cadoo or a Calm Cadoo to incentivize someone to learn how to observe their monkey mind and get in touch with a deeper, more serene, and less anxious sense of self.
As a small startup that has raised a little money, we need to prove that Cadoo can increase the National Happiness Index with every app with which we integrate. Our initial focus is tween/teen wellness, and we’re proud to announce that Fitbit is our first integration partner (via the awesome API of APIs IFTTT)
Our near-term goal is to help 100 overweight kids be happier and healthier and have better relationship with the parents.
Being an inactive kid makes everything harder, including learning and resisting digital addiction.
We know from interviewing child wellness experts and Fitbit users that there is a desperate need for Fitbit Cadoos as a way to motivate and reward overweight kids to be healthier.
Our near-term goal is to help 100 overweight kids be happier and healthier and have better relationship with the parents.
Parent-to-child payments is huge market and we think its the smartest place to start.
There are $41 Bn in parent/child allowance paid in the U.S. every year. Every one of those dollars has analog strings attached.
Cadoo replaces those strings with API calls to popular learning and health apps that trigger digital cash rewards.
If you want your kid to learn French, send him a Duolingo Cadoo.
If your kid wants to learn to code, he can request a Mimo Cadoo that rewards him or her to advance through coding courses.
We think the potential global market for digital cash incentives is way bigger than the $40bn US allowance market. Or even the $325bn online education market.
Cadoo replaces those strings with API calls to popular learning and health apps that trigger digital cash rewards.
We think it could become as big a payment category as the $500bn + global remittance market.
Instead of immigrants sending money back home so that the loved ones they left behind can live a better life, Cadoo enables people to send money to people they love and see every day for the same reason.
Cadoo’s social feed makes it easy to follow, share, and celebrate as rewards are earned through hard work and perseverance.
It’s been a long and winding two-year journey for us to build the Cadoo app, which we’ll be launching in beta in November with our Fitbit integration (Strava and iOS Health to follow in December).
We think it could become as big a payment category as the $500bn + global remittance market.
We look forward to sharing our journey with weekly updates from both of us as we work to raise the NHI of the Internet one Cadoo user and Cadoo integration partner at a time.
Contact us to learn more.
Wishing you to be your best selves,
Colm & Tim
[email protected] [email protected] | https://medium.com/@timzparsa/why-cadoo-1f1b726a8210 | ['Tim Parsa'] | 2020-05-29 16:19:24.122000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Health', 'Fitness', 'Startup', 'Money'] |
Look Who’s In The Bag for China! | Look Who’s In The Bag for China!
Wall Street Bankers Put China First
According to recent reports in the Wall Street Journal, a group of American bankers were enticed to take China’s side against the U.S. in trade negotiations two years ago. According to the news reports, the deals were made in a Washington DC meeting in February of 2018 with the head of China’s trade delegation. In exchange for their support, the bankers were given access to China’s growing financial market.
Jaimie Dimon who helms Chase Morgan and chairs the Business Roundtable was there at the meeting. For his support, Chase Morgan got full control of a futures venture in which it had held only a minority stake.
David Solomon was there too. He’s the second in command at Goldman Sachs, who with Morgan Stanley, received controlling interests in a Chinese securities firm they’re involved with.
Citigroup was licensed to serve as managers of securities held by various Chinese funds.
Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock, got the best deal of all. Blackrock became the first foreign firm to get permission for a wholly owned mutual fund in China.
These executives were overjoyed to make the deals. China is the fastest growing market for financial services in the world.
Sadly, it’s not surprising these men would cut such deals against U.S. interests. Big businesses and big governments have always been prone to become big buddies in their shared goals of standardizing economies and consolidating power in their respective arenas.
Larry Fink of Blackrock is fond of saying his company is a German company in Germany, a Mexican company in Mexico, etc… By that logic, Blackrock becomes a Communist company in China. That makes them an anti-American company.
I’m sure each of these executives originally rationalized their associations with the Chinese Communist government by telling themselves their involvement would move China toward a more enlightened western attitude. They comforted their consciences by believing they could cause China’s communists to suddenly express new respect for individual freedom and personal dignity.
That, of course, is idiotic. Any parent knows if their child hangs out with bullies and near-do-wells their child is more likely to become one. A barrel of good apples doesn’t turn the one rotten apple good. Instead, the one rotten apple poisons the rest.
That’s how it’s worked out with Wall Street. China hasn’t become more enlightened. The bankers have become more socialist. They’ve imported their new regard for big government control to their free market home. They’ve stepped up efforts to use government to subjugate their neighbors, inhibit their competitors, and further dominate their markets.
They’ve done it by applying pressure to their peers, leveraging their political friends, and giving generously to progressive candidates. By last count they’d contributed over $50 million in the third quarter of this year to Biden’s campaign. Their largesse has been spread far and wide to other Democrat candidates as well.
No wonder, Biden and Democrats have long nurtured China’s economic and military rise. Biden famously traveled the world advocating for a “strong” China, claiming it would lead to Chinese reform, moderation, and human rights.
Exactly the reverse has happened.
According to John Ratcliffe, Director of U.S. National Intelligence, “China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II.”
He reminds us that China’s main route to economic strength has been to “rob, replicate, and replace.” China’s government and industry steals information and technology from western companies, replicates those innovations, then replaces the victimized companies in global commerce.
It worked spectacularly well when U.S. presidents were willing to look the other way.
But Trump’s isn’t and hasn’t. The Justice Department has aggressively publicized cases of China gaining access to classified research by buying off American scientists.
Trump’s Defense Department has stepped up efforts to block China from illegally obtaining U.S. military technology.
Trump has gone after Chinese companies with ties to the Communist government that want to infiltrate and dominate sensitive markets — companies like Huawei in telecommunications.
And America’s intelligence community is uncovering China’s clever use of American interest groups to manipulate public opinion and even our elected representatives.
One of those manipulation schemes is unfolding this very moment. China is pushing the rumor that Trump will declare martial law in advance of the electoral college on December 14th. They claim it’s the only way he can effectively extend his legal challenge of election results.
Despite the damage such rumor-mongering can do to peace and stability, the press are happy to pass such rumors along. Like Larry Fink, Jamie Dimon, and the other bankers doing business with Beijing, the American media have no problem taking China’s side. At least the bankers are getting a pay day out of it. The media only get the benefit of knowing they’ve stuck another thumb in Donald Trump’s eye — apparently, compensation enough.
John Ratcliffe, the national intelligence director, wrote recently that American intelligence clearly shows, “Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily, and technologically.” Sadly, some of our biggest Wall Street bankers, along with many in the American media, are in the bag to help them do so. | https://medium.com/@tonymarsh755/look-whos-in-the-bag-for-china-2d9779cb06db | ['Tony Marsh'] | 2020-12-07 17:49:54.211000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Trump', 'Business', 'Republican Party', 'China'] |
The Illusion Of Job Security | The Illusion Of Job Security
What made me realise that nothing in this world is guaranteed.
Unless you become a midwife, undertaker or a tax collector anyway.
I’ve been in retail my entire working life. My first experience of work was at a supermarket when I was sixteen. Before long I’d moved on to bigger and better things, becoming a Barista at one of the largest coffee chains in the world, the name of which could also be used to describe the currency used in outer space. Get it?
I made overpriced coffee part-time for around three years while studying before being offered the chance at a promotion. I was successful, on the caveat that I worked full-time, and after another year I was appointed Store Manager. I loved my job. I loved my store, I loved the people I worked with and I loved (most of ) the customers I interacted with every day. But one day I realised that I’d reached my ceiling of what I could achieve, and I was sick of going home smelling like old coffee. Enough was enough.
I knew that I wanted to stay within retail, as that’s where my experience lies. But the world of retail can be a fickle mistress in this current economic climate. As I’ve grown up, I’ve seen several successful retailers disappear. Businesses which were at one point or another a key part of the UK high street have closed their doors, left hundreds of staff unemployed due to poor sales, following the rise of online shopping and the financial recession.
Nobody wants to ever be in that situation, so I decided that whatever company I applied to had to be something big, something well-established that could weather the storm of high-street struggles and make it through to live another day. I wanted job security.
This Isn’t Just Any Job
In May 2017 I submitted an application for a management position at one of the UK’s most prestigious retailers. This company started out in the late 1800s, and since then has become a cornerstone of the British shopping landscape. My parents and grandparents shopped there, and probably their parents, and their parents before them as well. The hours were less, the pay and benefits were better than my old position. There would be opportunities to progress. A few weeks later I got a call saying my application was successful. I’d hit the job security jackpot.
Or so I thought.
My Worst Day At Work
One day, probably about a year after I’d started, a text message came through on the internal work phones:
“All managers to the training room.”, it read.
Now, a message like that means one of two things. It’s either somebody’s birthday and we get to eat cake for fifteen minutes, or something has happened which is less a reason to celebrate, more reason to worry.
This time, there was no cake in sight.
We were told that the business had made the decision to cut costs. As the biggest cost in most businesses is the labour, they had reviewed the figures and deemed we had too many managers employed. We were told that we would be put through a consultation process, which essentially meant that we had to reapply for our jobs, providing evidence as to why we thought we should be kept. We would be given a score by our line managers, which would then be submitted to our regional team, who would then decide who would stay, and who would be made redundant.
My heart and those of my colleagues sank through the floor.
I felt completely deflated. The job I loved was in jeopardy. I had been so sure that this career move would mean that my job would be secure, that I could spend the next 30 years working my way up the ladder, maybe even retire early. If this company isn’t safe from the perils of the economic downturn, what is?
I had many concerns, just like the rest of my colleagues. But the two at the top of my list were as follows:
As one of the most recently recruited managers in our region, would they operate a ‘last in, first out’ policy? Was I at more risk of being let go because my short length of service meant any redundancy paid to me would be the absolute minimum?
As I was hired externally, I negotiated my salary. Which means I’m paid slightly higher than some of the other managers in the business. Would they use this as an opportunity to do a bit of extra cost-saving, get rid of someone who costs the company a little bit extra to employ?
I raised these two concerns and was assured that the process would be done anonymously. Those choosing the candidates for redundancy would not be aware of any names, as a way of eliminating any potential bias based on prior knowledge of the individual. It would be based purely upon the scores we were given, and only after potential candidates for redundancy had been selected would their names be revealed.
I remained unconvinced and was extremely worried about my position.
What happened next?
We weren’t told how long the process could take until it got started. The process of making redundancies isn’t simple, so the business had to dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s. Basically, it would take as long as it takes. You can imagine how motivated we all felt leaving that room, going back to do our jobs with a dark cloud of worry over our heads.
I went home that day and immediately updated my CV. I needed some sort of back up plan, as I don’t have the luxury of being able to afford to be out of work. I have two children and as I’ve already alluded to, my short length of service meant any redundancy I’d get would be absolutely minimal. Despite the assurances I’d been given, I was convinced that I was at higher risk than some of my other colleagues.
The next few weeks of work were unbearable. We were left in a state of limbo, trying to find the motivation to carry on with our day jobs, whilst also trying not to think about the looming prospect of unemployment. We waited for weeks to finally hear some more news of what was going on:
“All managers to the training room.” the text read.
For the first time in my life, I was glad there was no cake in sight. This must be some sort of news about the redundancy program, finally telling us when the process would begin.
I was half right.
I sat down in the training room, braced for the worst. What I heard instead was a team brief, stating that due to staff turnover in our region, we had dropped below our required number of managers, and as a result, managers at my level were no longer being considered for redundancy.
You can imagine the reaction from my colleagues and I.
I left that room feeling elated, but also with the feeling I’d learned an important lesson.
No matter how big the company you work for, how many clients you have, or how skilled your job role is, your job is never guaranteed.
I joined this company because I wanted to work for a huge brand, somewhere I never thought I’d have to deal with the prospect of redundancy. But I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter if you’re a Barista or a Business Consultant, whether you work for McDonald’s or Microsoft. Look at the number of businesses worldwide that have declared bankruptcy in the past twenty years. Kodak, Blockbuster, Compaq, Enron were all huge brands that didn’t keep up with the changing business landscape, and have subsequently closed their doors.
So while there may be days when your boss irritates the hell out of you, or a customer pushes you over the edge after complaining because they specifically asked for no foam on their grande one-shot, non-fat, sugar-free vanilla latte. There will be days when your workplace is the last place on Earth you want to be. Don’t allow yourself to become complacent because of the size or the success of the company you work for. I used to. But now I realise how wrong I was.
Nothing is guaranteed in life. Apart from births, deaths, and taxes. But even then, we are all replaceable. Don’t take your job for granted.
Welcome to the bottom of the page, good to see you. If you enjoyed this piece and would like to read more of what I have to say, you can reach my profile super quickly by clicking here. | https://medium.com/swlh/the-illusion-of-job-security-355bbcd70ef8 | ['Jon Peters'] | 2019-08-19 11:12:15.189000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Worst Day', 'Careers', 'Advice', 'Career Advice'] |
What is K-means Clustering and it’s use cases ? | ✏️ What is Clustering ?
Clustering is the task of grouping a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group are more similar to each other than to those in other groups.
✏️ What is K Means Clustering ?
K-means Clustering is a method of vector quantization, originally from signal processing, that aims to partition n observations into k clusters in which each observation belongs to the cluster with the nearest , serving as a prototype of the cluster.
In simple words k-means clustering tries to group similar kinds of items in form of clusters. From a dataset it finds the similarity between the items and groups them into the clusters.
❄️ The main objective of the K-Means algorithm is to minimize the sum of distances between the points and their respective cluster centroid.
✏️ Types of Clustering:
Clustering is a type of unsupervised learning wherein data points are grouped into different sets based on their degree of similarity.
The various types of clustering are:
Hierarchical clustering
Partitioning clustering
Hierarchical clustering is further subdivided into:
Agglomerative clustering
Divisive clustering
Partitioning clustering is further subdivided into:
K-Means clustering
Fuzzy C-Means clustering
✏️ How exactly Clustering is formed / K Means Clustering Works ?
First we have to choose number of cluster we want that is k. For example we want 2 clusters then value k is 2.
Then we randomly select a centroid for each cluster. Let’s have 2 cluster that means value of k is 2.
In the above image red and green circles represent centroid for their cluster.
Then assign all the points near to centroid as single cluster
We can now clearly see that points close to red colored centroid are under red cluster and same with green colored centroid.
Now let’s make the centroid as normal points.
In above image cross is the centroid of their respective cluster.
Now again run the same process of making the closest point to centroid as a part of cluster. Then we get the below image:
By this process we can assign all points to specific cluster. This is called single iteration.
🤔 But when should we stop the process to get final clusters ?
❄️ Stopping Criteria of K Means Clustering :
There are three stopping criteria that can be adopted to stop the K-means algorithm:
Centroids of newly formed clusters do not change Points remain in the same cluster Maximum number of iterations are reached
We can also stop the forming of cluster when the changes made are very small. or when the points are remaining in same cluster after many iterations.
Finally, we can stop the training if the maximum number of iterations is reached.
✏️ Application of K Means Clustering :
K Means Clustering is used in many business related use cases, few are as follows :
Academic performance
Search engines
Diagnostic systems
Wireless sensor networks
Academic Performance :
Based on the scores, students are categorized into grades like A, B, or C.
Diagnostic systems :
The medical profession uses k-means in creating smarter medical decision support systems, especially in the treatment of liver ailments.
Search engines :
Clustering forms a backbone of search engines. When a search is performed, the search results need to be grouped, and the search engines very often use clustering to do this.
Wireless sensor networks :
The clustering algorithm plays the role of finding the cluster heads, which collect all the data in its respective cluster.
✏️ K Means Clustering in Security Domain :
The k-Means clustering algorithm partition a dataset into meaningful patterns. Intrusion Detection System detects malicious attacks which generally include theft information. It can be found from the studies that clustering based intrusion detection methods may be helpful in detecting unknown attack patterns compared to traditional intrusion detection systems. This paper presents modified k-Means by applying preprocessing and normalization steps. As a result the effectiveness is improved and it overcomes the shortcomings of k-Means. This approach is proposed to work on network intrusion data and the algorithm is experimented with KDD99 dataset and found satisfactory results. | https://medium.com/@avijit-das/what-is-k-means-clustering-579e04df66f0 | ['Avijit Das'] | 2021-09-09 04:22:59.929000+00:00 | ['K Means', 'Deeplearing', 'Machine Learning', 'Mlops'] |
Bringing advanced Visual Re-localization pipeline using scene coordinate regression with deep learning in ARwayKit | Scene Coordinate Regression Localization method
It is a fundamental problem in computer vision and robotics, and it refers to estimating camera pose from an image. Recent state-of-the-art approaches use learning-based methods, such as Random Forests (RFs) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), to regress for each pixel in the image its corresponding position in the scene’s world coordinate frame, and solve the final pose via a RANSAC-based optimization scheme using the predicted correspondences.
The framework consists of a deep neural network and fully differentiable pose optimization. The neural network predicts scene coordinates, i.e. dense correspondences between the environment's input image and 3D scene space created at the time of Mapping. The pose optimization implements robust fitting of pose parameters using differentiable RANSAC (RAndom SAmple Consensus).
The system consists of two stages: Scene coordinate regression using a CNN (top) and differentiable pose estimation (bottom).
Mapping Process for the new method
Compared to the traditional SLAM-based method (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping), the on-device experience will be different as tracking across frames won’t be required in real-time. Hence mapping will be much easy for beginners. The underlying AR Service, such as ARKit or ARCore, will be running in the background and will be required for mapping.
During the mapping process, the device will collect visual data, Camera Poses, and other metadata that will be processed in the cloud consisting of state of the art GPU’s such as Nvidia A-100. Once the map data is successfully uploaded, it can take from 6–24 hours of Training time on each map, depending on the map size and complexity of the environment.
Dynamically updating the Maps over time
This new method will enable the dynamic updating of maps in the cloud, given the map is used in production localization. The retraining will happen once successful localization request counts reach the threshold. An updated DL model will be applied to all next localization requests, enabling height accuracy in continuously changing environments. | https://medium.com/arway/bringing-advanced-visual-re-localization-pipeline-using-scene-coordinate-regression-with-deep-db9d95c2a0e5 | [] | 2021-06-01 15:29:06.238000+00:00 | ['Localization', 'Augmented Reality', 'Spatial Computing', 'Mapping', 'Computer Vision'] |
About Me — Tyler Zimmerman. “I love a success story, but even more… | About Me — Tyler Zimmerman
“I love a success story, but even more than a success story, I like a dude who f#*$ks up his life and gets his life together again story.” -Joe Rogan Tyler Zimmerman Follow Dec 25, 2020 · 4 min read
About me is an interesting topic. I have never been good for self promotion or even explaining myself. I guess that is why my interviews have never gone that well. I still got the job though. We can definitely start with a self improvement junkie. This has only begun in the last 5 years or so. Prior to that I have always been a head down, get it done at whatever cost kind of guy. The harder you work , the luckier you get. I like order and tasks. Left to my own devices I will usually steer off course. If I have milestones or tasks in front of me I love knocking them off one by one, gives me a sense of accomplishment.
I have taken a new and introspective approach to my life over the last 5 years. I was an alcoholic for years prior, and never really realized it until after my divorce from my sons mom. Out of loneliness and boredom my drinking accelerated until it became an everyday thing and I realized I had to quit. I quit through mental toughness and desire to try and make my life better.
I realized the other day that I have been a father for a majority of my life now. At 42 and with a daughter at 22 that means, through simple math, that I have been responsible more often than not. This life has put a lot of pressure on me to perform and make money to support my children. I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world. I grew up right a long side of them. The open discussion I am able to have with my 22, and 19 year old daughters gives me insight in to what I can do better to be the father that they always wanted for my 13, and 3 year old.
Through constant self improvment I am able to think of the areas of my life where I want to be better and the things that really matter to me. The goals in my life today are radically different than the goals I had when I was 25 as I am sure most peoples are. I have made steady progress towards working on my goals over the last couple of years. I am in development of a news letter for gear junkies. I love outdoor sports and don’t participate nearly enough. The last year and better health have definitely accelerated that love. Also in order to be a gear junkie guy and to write about it I must get out there and begin living the experience. The last thing I want to be is phony.
I have developed a love for writing, I am so thankful for this platform and to be able to learn to write as I practice. I began a journal about 1.5 years ago and I write every single day. I currently have over 500 pages of journal entries in over three notebooks and I have never read a single page.
I began that journey after listening to a podcast with Brian Koppelman and his explanation of daily pages. That started my journey, and here I am writing about myself for you fine folks. It is very cool to be able to learn about people and to have examples of good writing form novice to expert in almost any field possible. I guess that is a little about me, and as much as I would love to have you take a look at my newsletter or give you some link to where you can find me, this is it.
Oh yeah, I used to build homes for about 14 years until the great recession of 2008–09, and now I fix airplanes all over the world for a very large Aerospace company, you know, the one that builds airplanes in the USA. You will eventually find a link to my newsletter in my profile, or you can just keep it in the back of your mind. IndustriousGuy.com that is where you will be able to find me next year. Thank you to everyone for all your support and encouragement these first few months of my writing journey. Thank you Quy Ma for inviting me to write. | https://medium.com/about-me-stories/about-me-tyler-zimmerman-e7cd9788b4af | ['Tyler Zimmerman'] | 2021-02-23 09:52:21.109000+00:00 | ['Writer', 'Life', 'About Me', 'Change', 'Improvement'] |
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Micheline Calmy-Rey: How AI could become the new frontier in conflict resolution | By Kasmira Jefford. Published 26 September 2020 on GS News.
Twelve years ago, a brief but violent war broke out between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway territory South Ossetia, cutting off diplomatic relations between the countries and escalating tensions over the border between them.
Talks brokered by Switzerland were launched and in 2011, and after intense negotiations, the two sides signed a historic deal over its customs border — even if a definitive border is still long from being agreed. It also helped Russia clear the last hurdle for joining the World Trade Organization (WTO).
What’s less known is that behind the scenes, a team of computer scientists came up with a way around the problem of a physical border by creating digital checkpoints for the control of goods. This so-called science diplomacy was key to the deal’s success, said Micheline Calmy-Rey, former Swiss President and then minister of foreign affairs who led the negotiations.
This still fledgling field of international relations, which explores how scientific instruments can play their part in conflict resolution, has been gaining momentum in diplomatic circles. And now it’s the focus of a new academic centre developed jointly by the University of Geneva (UNIGE), ETH Zurich, and accompanied by the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA).
In an exclusive interview with Geneva Solutions, Calmy-Rey, a board member of GESDA and professor at UNIGE, reveals more about the launch of the Geneva-Zurich Center for Science Diplomacy — and how artificial intelligence could soon be playing a bigger role in conflict resolution.
Geneva Solutions: What was the idea behind the launch of the Center for Science and Diplomacy?
The Center is part of GESDA’s aims to address the future of global governance and multilateralism, and to do so by identifying fields of scientific research. The centre has two main goals. The first is the “scientification” of diplomacy. We try to find solutions using scientific tools. We do this by integrating science in the search for solutions to international problems.
The second goal is to promote the science of negotiation itself, or what we call “diplomatic engineering”. The Center will appoint a chair of negotiation engineering, which will be established at the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zurich, and will be one of the centre’s core pillars. The aim is to develop new tools of negotiation to allow us to spread scientific knowledge among professional diplomats.
GS: How is the University of Geneva involved?
MCR: There will be a second chair in computation and diplomacy at the University of Geneva. The role of the chair will be to develop a new approach combining artificial intelligence, machine learning, and agent-based modelling with other scientific data. And this could be used on one hand to monitor the accuracy of the information and on the other to identify numerical models or patterns in relation to particular problems. These could then be applied in the context of certain negotiations.
There will also be a certain number of joint activities and projects between Zurich and Geneva, such as case studies via seminars, negotiation simulation, and advanced training on cases of science diplomacy. There is also a further projet on automatic negotiation.
GS: Can you explain what you mean by automatic negotiation?
MCR: We are planning one project on automation negotiation, which will look at what parts of a negotiation process could be completed or partly entrusted to machines to design and concretize models of solutions. Or to support negotiators in their search for a solution.
GS: And simulated negotiation?
This is a seminar which we have been conducting at Geneva University in collaboration with ETH Zurich and a university in Moscow for the last four years. These case studies allow us to test the concept of “diplomatic engineering”. For example, this semester we are studying the case of the division of Cyprus [in 1974]. We will reenact it as though it is a real negotiation and explore solutions, with students, experts and diplomats taking part. It also allows us to demonstrate the importance of Geneva in this setting and the access we have here to different actors. It is an important place for diplomacy. But it is also an important scientific space, with the Campus Biotech, CERN and other technical institutions located here.
“In Geneva, we are at the crossroads between science and diplomacy. These are two worlds that barely talk to one another and what we [at the Science and Diplomacy Centre] would like to do is to spark that conversation.”
GS: How can science diplomacy play a role in today’s negotiations?
MCR: [Scientific diplomacy] is important in today’s world where international conflicts are becoming more and more complex and technical, and new scientific breakthroughs could facilitate diplomacy and multilateral solutions. And currently, research is not sufficiently coordinated and disseminated, and ministers, people who make decisions, are not sufficiently informed about new technologies. But not only that. They are also very reluctant to bring science into mainstream diplomacy. To take the example of Russia and Georgia once again: when I brought up the idea of involving scientists in the discussion of possible solutions, there was a great deal of reluctance on the part of diplomats. This is what makes it important to set up and facilitate this intervention — this “scientification” — of diplomacy.
There is also reticence on the side of scientists who consider sciences and international relations, diplomacy, being different things, and not really a science. They are quite perplexed by this. So, resistance exists on both sides.
GS: Where are your plans now for the centre?
MCR: This partnership is at the stage of the discussion of a legal plan; what type of partnership [will exist] between the University of Geneva and ETH Zurich. We have prepared an agreement between these institutions which is under review and then we are discussing with GESDA to see how GESDA could contribute to this project.
GS: How does our work here on science diplomacy compared with activities in other countries and do other science diplomacy centers exist out there?
MCR: I cannot speak for other projects. What I can tell you is that the method of diplomatic engineering was developed inside the Swiss Federal Department of International Affairs, with different negotiations and bilateral negotiations that are overseen by Switzerland. After this, it was a method that was theorized and developed in Zurich and in Geneva.
GS: Could you give other examples of how conflict modelling and AI will be explored?
MCR: In a negotiation, you always have the general and global analysis of the situation and the environment in which the negotiation takes place. And that today is done by individuals researching documents etc. Here we could automate this analysis of the situation or of an international issue. It would be much more objective, much more refined, it would take less time, and it could be used by diplomats, by negotiators, for their negotiations. We could make ideal models of agreement where each party would be a winner, for example.
It would not eliminate the role of the diplomat of course, because each party in a conflict has its interests; it is never the ideal win-win solution and we could therefore try to bring the parties as close as possible. Having gone through different negotiations, I can tell you that it would be really useful.
GS: You are a board member of GESDA, which is accompanying the project. Tell us about GESDA’s role in all of this.
MCR: GESDA is based on an idea from stems from science. What will impact technological developments in the next 10,15, or 25 years? What are the main technological advances that will shake up our society and how — for GESDA — how can we anticipate these technological advances? And the goal is to accelerate their availability for the benefit of all and for the benefit of relations between states. And then the purpose of GESDA is then to set out possible solutions and assist in financing them.
Currently GESDA is at the stage of identifying advanced technological sciences in dozens of areas, from geoengineering to gene editing, which raises all kinds of ethical questions… The second stage is the development of solutions, collaborating with different actors, NGOs, associations, and international organizations. That deadline is July 2021. The project of the Science and Diplomacy Center is a little ahead of schedule because we are already at the stage of realizing the project and searching for funding. | https://medium.com/geneva-solutions/micheline-calmy-rey-how-ai-could-become-the-new-frontier-in-conflict-resolution-4f44fa66a9a8 | ['Gs News'] | 2020-11-27 10:03:43.216000+00:00 | ['Diplomacy', 'International Relations', 'Negotiation', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'International Geneva'] |
How To Know What Resolutions To Make In The New Year? SWOT It Out! | How To Know What Resolutions To Make In The New Year? SWOT It Out!
Photo by Isaac Smith on Unsplash
It’s almost that time of year again. The new year, when everyone around you makes resolutions, promises themselves to start good habits (or banish bad ones) in the coming year. Maybe you want to be one of those people, but you don’t know what you want to do. Or you might have a vague idea what you want to do but no idea how to get there.
While most resolutions are about personal growth, there a lot of skills and habits for you to develop that can help you in just about any part of your life.
If you are a sales professional, for instance, you might want to develop stronger relationships with your clients. Or maybe you are a supervisor who would like to learn to lead instead of just managing people. Realize that the skills needed to improve your work life can spill over into your personal life. If you learn how to communicate better with your colleagues, your enhanced communication skills can also improve your personal relationships.
So, once you have resolved to learn new skills, the next step is to determine what skills you want to learn. You can also think in terms of what good habits do you want to develop. Maybe one objective would be to get in the habit of learning something new every day. Or practicing the skills you are learning every day.
In any case, the first step is to determine what these skills and habits are. And to do that, you first need to take inventory. One way to do that is with a personal SWOT analysis.
What’s SWOT?
When organizations, big or small, want to make strategic changes, they first need to know where they already stand. What many of them use is a process called SWOT. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This has been used at many levels — corporations, departments, small non-profit organizations, even clubs and recreational associations — but, most importantly, can be used for individeuals. Individuals like, say, you. A good SWOT analysis of where you are now in terms of what you are already good at (strengths), what you’re not so good at (weaknesses), possibilities for growth (opportunities), and potential road blocks to continued growth (threats) will help you determine exactly what you need to know and be able to do, what personal improvements are necessary and practical. Your analysis will possibly hint at the scope of the impact what you desire to learn will have on your life.
Your first step in this process is to take a piece of 8” X 11” paper (or a Word document), turn it sideways (landscape orientation in Word), and write SWOT across the top. Put at least a couple inches between each letter and then write vertical lines so that there are columns under each letter. (If doing this in Word, you can build a table). Then, fill in the chart.
Sample SWOT chart by the author
So what do the four parts of the SWOT analysis look like in action? Let’s take a look.
Strengths
It’s important to start with the strengths. What do you already do well? Think of the skills and abilities at which you feel you are advanced or expert level. For me these have traditionally been writing, reading, speaking, and a habit of learning, among other things. Learning is a habit I developed, just like any skill or habit. I’m constantly looking for something new to learn, and I feel that it keeps me young. At 55, I recently learned how to make cigar box guitars and ukulele’s and am learning how to play them. I have not reached mastery at either of them yet, but I practice playing every day and never pass up a chance to play (my wife and I have recently been playing and singing Christmas and Yule songs together).
Consider what strengths you have. Are you good at persuading people to do something? Are you a good listener? Do people often come to you for advice? Do you have the ability to break down difficult concepts so others can easily understand them? Do you easily get along well with others? Consider what they are and write them down in your “S” column.
Weaknesses
This probably speaks for itself. What are you not so good at? Especially think of the things you would like to be better at. For a long time, I had convinced myself that I couldn’t sing. Then I started singing in a choir and taking lessons. I realized these negative scripts in my head most of my life were wrong. But the most important part was that I learned to practice and try to sing better. My teacher/choir director gave me the tools, but I was the one who had to use them. If I were making out a SWOT analysis years ago, I might have included not being able to sing or not knowing how to sing as one of my weaknesses. In a sense, that’s what happened. I was not exactly in love with the sound of my voice and wanted to strengthen it while also making it sound less deep and scratchy. My voice was one of my weaknesses in terms of working one on one with people and in terms of speaking, which I often would do for my job. The singing helped me learn to project and to hit the high notes. Practicing and then performing in front of others also provided the confidence I would need to speak to a crowd or at least a bunch of coworkers.
In a sense, this is one of the hardest of the steps in this process, because no one likes to think about their weaknesses. If you get stuck, think of the kinds of things you do or want to do and the skills or abilities you don’t have that would be useful to do those things. My voice was in the way of successful speaking and interacting verbally with others. Another one that I am perpetually working on is time management. As someone with ADHD, I am constantly on the lookout for ways to structure my time so that I will be more productive. I can’t learn anything about time management, though, until I identify that as an ability I need to develop.
Think now about your weaknesses. If “weaknesses” sounds harsh, think specifically about what you want to be able to do and currently do not do well. Put these in the “W” column.
Opportunities
This column is all about possibilities. What is happening that provides opportunities? Maybe one of the items you placed in the Weaknesses column was public speaking. What if you were in an occupation that provided chances to speak frequently? For instance, I used to work as a teacher. Later, I helped with seminars in curriculum development at the college where I worked. My workplace also had a Toastmasters chapter. I took advantage of the various opportunities to practice my speaking. At the time, I was not as proficient at speaking as I am now, but I recognized the opportunities to improve.
Consider what you have in your Weaknesses column. What opportunities do you have in terms of them? What possibilities for improvement are out there for you? Write them in your Opportunities column.
Threats
This is also a difficult one because it is often hard to know what we don’t know. Very few people can predict the future with even a small measure of accuracy. About a year ago, my professional goals at my day job included several things that would not turn out to be doable in the environment of 2020. I couldn’t very well attend conferences that weren’t held or take courses that weren’t offered. However, because change is a constant at my job (as it is with just about everyone), I would definitely have put “changing circumstances” as a possible threat to those goals. And that would have been right, even if those circumstances changed in ways I never would have predicted.
You do not need to be an expert fortune teller, then, to determine your threats. Identify just the roadblocks to learning and developing these new skills and abilities that you are able to see. If I am honest with myself, I would always start a Threats column with my attention deficit and my tendency to procrastinate. Because I have a job that keeps me busy, I would also include limited time in that list.
Think about your roadblocks and write them in the Threats column.
OK, Now What?
Now that you have your SWOT analysis, you might be wondering what to do next. Before we talk about what to do with the analysis, I want to point out what (hopefully) has already happened. Just doing this exercise can be useful the process prompts you to think analytically about who you are, where you are at in terms of your skills and abilities, at this point in time. It is a snapshot, but one that probably stimulated deeper thinking about yourself in the process. This is a good form of self-discovery. I might discover something new in my weaknesses column after first placing something more obvious there.
Now that you have discovered these things about yourself, once you’ve taken this snapshot, where should you go from here? The eventual goal of all this is to identify and make a plan for developing new skills, abilities, and habits, so this is a good start for identifying what you will work on. In an upcoming article, I will talk about how to refine these goals into something more specific.
Feel free to share the results of your personal SWOT analysis in the comments below. What did you learn about yourself from doing it? What do you want to work on? What opportunities are there to work on them? What roadblocks do you foresee? I look forward to hearing from you! | https://medium.com/@janelleannemarieheideman/how-to-know-what-resolutions-to-make-in-the-new-year-swot-it-out-677b71904e76 | ['Janelle Annemarie Heideman'] | 2020-12-27 17:52:16.691000+00:00 | ['Life Hacking', 'Self Improvement', 'How To', 'New Year Resolution', 'Goal Setting'] |
Dev + Sec + Ops ! = DevSecOps. Security vendors and code scientists… | DevSecOps formula
Historically, security vendors and code scientists around the world have been looking for a single universal formula to represent the notion of DevSecOps.
In my previous posts, I had introduced ShiftLeft Scan and written about the cultural and process changes involved in transitioning from DevOps to DevSecOps (For an intro to Scan please join our webinar on April 30th). This post is about implementing application security correctly so that your DevSecOps doesn’t incorrectly look like three independent things that are weakly glued up (Dev + Sec + Ops is not DevSecOps). What do I mean by this?
A common flaw with AppSec implementations
Let us assume a product team that consists of three people — a developer (Dev), a sysadmin (Ops), and a security analyst (Sec). This team like any would go through the 4 stages of team formation. Over time, the behavior of the team might resemble this:
Developer: This person would be considered the doer because they develop and do the things required by the business.
Ops: If anything doesn’t work it is the Ops’ fault!
Ops problem — meme
Security: If this person does their job well, then the developer, ops, and the business would wrongly tag them as the only person in the team who always delays or blocks the delivery or the release. People are never fans of testing especially testing that takes time and resources. Over time, this person would be so detached that they would either stop contributing ideas or work in an isolated fashion doing the bare minimum required.
No time for security — meme
What will happen if we now replace the security personnel with a tool? Nothing would change really. The tool would be considered as a blocker. Whatever the tool finds will be pushed to the backlog with an exceptionally low priority. If the tool gets mandated by the CISO, then friction would develop between the product and security teams.
When security gets bolted onto the development process instead of getting embedded into it, then DevSecOps starts to fail.
So, the real question is how do you embed security entirely into the development workflow?
Embedding security into the development workflow
Before talking about workflow, it is important to understand the various cognitive processes and activities that constitute a development phase.
Break down of a development process
As shown, the development process can be fundamentally broken down as:
Plan phase: This is the phase where the developer/team thinks and researches about the upcoming work. They could be investigating libraries and packages, or the logic required to satisfy the requirements. A security tool could help them from this process onwards — by checking the library for known vulnerabilities and by assessing the business logic for known security flaws.
Code phase: This is the phase that is usually considered as development although this is only a small part. Security tools can help developers write secure code during this phase by being integrated with their IDE of choice. Git branching model requires a discussion on its own (following section) and is usually an area where the security tools do an average job, unfortunately.
Review phase: In this last but the most important phase, security tools should co-exist and review the work as a skilled developer would do. The tools should obey the same laws and rules regarding productivity, quality, and commitment. For example, the tools cannot take ages to review a PR. The quality of the findings should help rather than hinder the development work.
Even the language used by the tool is important. It should encourage a positive response from the developer and not blame them for the issues found. A great automated PR experience would resemble the helpful prompts provided by JARVIS to Tony in Iron Man movies. Useful and timely feedback that doesn’t block Tony from performing his work.
Security with Git Branching models
Development teams adopt a git branching model that suits their style and needs. Even within the same organization, a range of models would exist across teams and even within the same team but across applications. If you are new to the branching models on git, a good place to start is the Atlassian article here. Read on once you are comfortable with the models to understand the ideal anchor points for application security tools.
Trunk-based development
Scanning every commit is the easiest form of starting with any application security tool.
Scan every commit for trunk-based workflow
Commits can be scanned either via a git hook in the laptop or as a build step in the CI pipeline. Automatic build failures along with a repo badge can be used as an indicator of the quality of the master branch at any point.
Feature-branch development
This workflow is quite popular among established teams where each feature gets developed independently in its branch.
Scan every PR with feature branch-based development
The best integration point for security in this model is the pull request (or merge request) flow. For teams that constantly suffer from issues related to long-running branches — the first advice would be to try to rectify the problem obviously. But as an intermediate workaround, additional scanning can be introduced as part of certain activities such as rebase from the master branch. This would ensure that vulnerabilities that already exist in the master branch are identified sooner and appropriate steps are taken to address them without affecting the development work happening in the specific branch.
Gitflow-based development
Gitflow model is quite popular among enterprise teams with an outsourced/supplier driven development.
Scan every PR and release with gitflow-based development
Due to the additional branching requirements involved in this model, there is often a delay between a pull request getting merged into a development branch to an actual release and synchronization with the master branch. It is therefore essential to perform the scan during both the pull request and release process. To reduce the chances of building security debt over time such teams should also consider mandating an IDE-based security scanner.
Embedding security into the ops workflow
Work performed by the operations (ops or DevOps) can be categorized into:
Configuration Automation Optimization
Security tools can also get embedded into this process by scanning the configuration and automation scripts for credential leaks, improper configuration of cloud resources (public s3 buckets or firewall), and security best practices in general. A next-generation tool could also help mandate security as code by providing libraries and hooks for popular infrastructure automation languages. Even operations and DevOps team would benefit from an IDE-based security scanner since fixing infrastructure vulnerabilities during development are cheaper and better. A good SAST tool can help you here too. It is better to detect infrastructure vulnerabilities during development. Otherwise, detection and remediation of insecure and vulnerable deployments would require expensive penetration testing and cloud-endpoint protections which are expensive to procure and even rollout.
Fixing infrastructure vulnerabilities during development is cheaper and better. A good SAST tool can help you here too
Closing thoughts
A good DevSecOps implementation would embed security into both dev and ops to such an extent that security would no longer be separable. A good security platform such as ShiftLeft is built specifically for this purpose and battle-tested in the real world across several organizations — large and small.
To learn more about how we help multiple Fortune 100 organizations implement and adopt DevSecOps tools and process, do not hesitate to contact us. | https://blog.shiftleft.io/dev-sec-ops-devsecops-5d05e3516e00 | ['Prabhu Subramanian'] | 2020-04-23 19:56:30.376000+00:00 | ['Shiftleft', 'Git', 'Devsecops', 'Workflow', 'Appsec'] |
The Rebel Wisdom Summit | A New Type of Conversation, The Rebel Wisdom Summit
In these polarised, fractured times, what does a real conversation look like? One where people feel free to speak their minds, change their minds, and to create the possibility of something genuinely new emerging. How do we discuss ideas and disagree with one another in a way that leads somewhere new, rather than forcing us deeper into tribalism?
These are questions we’ve been wrestling with since we started Rebel Wisdom. Our sense is that at least part of the answer is for us all to start having conversations that go beyond the purely intellectual, and which integrate the latest neuroscience and psychology. As we’ve interviewed some of the best minds in the world, and run retreats of our own, we’ve increasingly felt that this works best face to face, and looks very different to a debate.
About five months ago, we committed to seeing what it might actually look like. And so, after months of planning, 150 people from around the world gathered in London for the first Rebel Wisdom Summit on Sunday, 12th of May.
Featuring four of the most brilliant speakers we’ve interviewed on the channel — Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying, Iain McGilchrist and Jordan Greenhall — the Summit was unlike anything we’ve tried before; an experiment in having an immersive, participatory and evolutionary conversation.
We brought these thinkers together as they all have a fascinating take on why we’re experiencing a breakdown in real conversation in our culture — and how this relates to what’s been called the crisis in meaning. Many feel that we’re losing trust in one another, and that the centralised institutions we used to rely on — from academia and media to government — are no longer helping us to make sense of the world.
The more people we’ve interviewed on the channel, the more we’ve become interested in the idea that the responsibility now falls on us individually and collectively to find new ways to come together — forming our own decentralised ‘collective intelligence’ networks in the process. If we can, we might be able to find a new way to make sense of the world, have conversations that are more than the sum of their parts, and find direction through the chaotic times we live in.
To experiment with this, we assembled a 10 person strong facilitation team and designed the Summit so that twice during the day, we broke off into 15 groups of 10. These facilitated groups didn’t just discuss what the speakers were talking about, but also explored how to have a conversation.
We believe that generative conversations require us to move beyond the purely intellectual. We’re human beings in human bodies, which means we’re all subject to nervous systems that act very specifically when we feel our position, ideology or beliefs are being attacked. This often happens in a discussion with someone we disagree with, or who disagrees with us — particularly on social media.
Many of the people we’ve interviewed have pointed out how important it is to have these conversations in person, and how crucial it is to integrate research from psychology and techniques from the world of personal development if we want to move beyond the polarised conversations of social media. So what does a conversation like that look like? That’s still an open question, but we believe the first step is to approach one another from a place of genuine curiosity and openness — knowing how to step back from our entrenched position and staying open and willing to have our minds changed. We’ve been running smaller events like the Summit for about a year, and we’ve noticed that when we approach conversations with this attitude, novel ideas and perspectives often emerge in unexpected ways.
What happened on the day
We began the day by sharing a handful of the many myths we share across cultures; of a time long ago when we all lost a common language and stopped being able to understand one another. This myth is most famously told in the Tower of Babel, but the fragmentation and tribalism that comes about when we can’t communicate properly is a universal wisdom — and one that feels increasingly relevant today.
Alexander Beiner during the opening talk
We talked as well about the wider conversation Rebel Wisdom has been following for the last year and a half, including the breakdown of old forms of media, and the sense that there’s a direction to the conversation that our interviews are covering. We had a sense that many of the people who came to the Summit feel this as well, and also see the necessity for all of us to come together to see what we can bring to it personally.
The speakers then came up on stage to give their take on why conversations break down, and what an emergent, generative conversation looks like. The idea of individual sovereignty came up as an important factor — the ability to stay aware of ourselves, and to have agency over our own responses by understanding our own biochemistry and emotional states while we’re discussing controversial or complex ideas.
Bret Weinstein and David Fuller
Heather Heying
Iain McGilchrist
Jordan Greenhall
The first breakout group explored this concept, looking at the question ‘what takes me out of my sovereignty’? No matter who we are, there are situations that will activate our amygdala, kick our sympathetic nervous system into a ‘fight, flight or freeze’ response and change the way we both take in and communicate information. Polyvagal theory suggests that when we feel under threat, our nervous system switches to a defensive mode where it’s almost impossible to listen carefully, take in conflicting viewpoints. This can be a subtle response, in which we become guarded and fall into survival mode, or a more energetic response in which we’re aggressively amped up and trying to figure out how to fight or get away. Conversely, when we activate our parasympathetic nervous system it’s easier to enter a relaxed, exploratory mode. We come at situations with a curiosity, relaxation, creativity and open-mindedness that can lead to novel ideas emerging.
After lunch, we introduced the second half of the day — taking the skills from the morning, and applying them to having a conversation with one another in the small groups. The question we introduced was ‘what do I feel I can’t talk about in public?’
To allow everyone, speakers included, to feel free to do this, we turned the cameras off at this point. We (Alexander and David) shared our own personal topics, the speakers participated in a panel discussion in which they shared theirs. As we all agreed to confidentiality on the day, we won’t say here what those topics were.
The small groups of then reformed and held dozens of conversations around this, practicing ‘thinking in public’ and sinking our teeth into subjects and perspectives we might not usually discuss with others in person. The speakers joined these small groups, and facilitators recorded key questions, points and observations which we then fed back to the four speakers to discuss on the final panel.
The Summit was an experiment in a new kind of sensemaking and a new way of coming together to discuss the most important and difficult challenges we face. Thank you to everyone who participated — dozens have already written to us saying what a unique and powerful experience it was. We’ve also asked for and received feedback around where it could improve, to help us decide where this experiment should go next. Wherever that is, one thing we’re sure of is that the next Rebel Wisdom Summit isn’t far around the corner. We believe this has the potential to be the beginning of a new type of conversation, and we’re excited to respond to it as it emerges. | https://medium.com/rebel-wisdom/the-rebel-wisdom-summit-663f5c242b0d | ['Alexander Beiner'] | 2019-05-16 19:49:44.594000+00:00 | ['Conversations', 'Rebel Wisdom', 'Philosophy', 'Free Speech', 'Science'] |
Java: Pass By Value or Pass By Reference | Java: Pass By Value or Pass By Reference
A simple guide to Java’s parameter passing approach
Many programmers often confuse between Java being Passed By Value or Pass By Reference. If only we could visualize our code, this won’t seem too big a problem.
Let’s start with the basics.
Data is shared between functions by passing parameters. Now, there are 2 ways of passing parameters:
Pass By Value: The pass by value method copies the value of actual parameters. The called function creates its own copy of argument values and then uses them. Since the work is done on a copy, the original parameter does not see the changes. Pass By Reference: The pass by reference method passes the parameters as a reference(address) of the original variable. The called function does not create its own copy, rather, it refers to the original values only. Hence, the changes made in the called function will be reflected in the original parameter as well.
Java follows the following rules in storing variables:
Local variables like primitives and object references are created on Stack memory. Objects are created on Heap memory.
Now coming to the main question: Is Java Pass by Value or Pass by Reference?
Java Always follows Pass by Value
Let’s see an example to understand the same:
Primitive Pass By Value Example
Explanation:
As java follows pass by value mechanism, the processData function worked on the copy of data. Hence, no change in data was there in the original calling function
Let's see another example:
Object Passing
What happened up there? If Java is passed by Value then why did my original List got updated? 😮 Looks like java is not passed by value after all? 🤔Wrong. Repeat after me
Java Always follows Pass by Value
Explanation:
Consider the following diagram to understand it better.
Stack & Heap Memory Representation
In the above program, “fruits” is passed to the processData function. “fruitsRef” is a copy of the “fruits” param. Both fruits and fruitsRef are created on Stack. They are two different references. But the interesting point is, it points to the same underlying object in Heap. So any change that you make using one reference is going to impact the common object.
Let’s see one more example:
Object Pass By Reference
Explanation:
Stack & Heap Memory Representation
In this case, we used the “new” operator to change the reference of the fruitsRef variable. fruitsRef now points to a new object and hence any change that you make in this object is not going to impact the original fruits list object.
In conclusion, Java always follows Pass by Value. However, we should be careful while passing object references between methods. | https://medium.com/swlh/java-passing-by-value-or-passing-by-reference-c75e312069ed | ['Ananya Sen'] | 2020-11-18 12:18:02.429000+00:00 | ['Singly Linked List', 'Java Object', 'Java', 'Data Structure Algorithm', 'Pass By Value'] |
“Quarantine Dreams and Jacob’s Ladder”: from the studio of Amie Oliver. | “Quarantine Dreams and Jacob’s Ladder”: from the studio of Amie Oliver.
Painting her way through a pandemic.
April 14, 2020
I am more grateful than ever to have the time and space in which to escape the current situation. The Art Lab in Richmond, Virginia, is the best medicine for me. Everything is as I leave it there. A continuum exists in that space where I can psychically pick up where I left off easily. The only things that change are the quality of light and the impact of the weather. Bertha, our terrier, goes with me so she can run the grounds and bark to her content. She is excellent company.
That said, the art I feel best represents the impact of our isolation nation is this series of small works on paper — all created at home when I can’t sleep. Insomnia is usually something I experience when traveling — now it’s a sign of the times. It’s an excellent excuse to paint into the early-morning hours and to wake up late and hope the ink or watercolor has dried. I usually work on two to four surfaces at once, as the waiting game (evaporation) is part of the process.
The theme in this body of work is one I’ve referenced since working on “The Moving Cultures Project” in Tibet during 2009. Ladders surfaced in the work I made there… a reference to the Tibetans’ desire to escape oppression and/or attain enlightenment. Since then the ladders have become a running motif for me at times, particularly personal and relevant when I lost my parents in 2011.
As my sleep patterns are so out of whack right now, I dream about these images and have realized my ladders walk the line between a DNA sequence and Jacob’s Ladder. Perhaps we all do, whether or not we see ladders.
This series will continue to evolve. What began as part of my “Dharma Diaries” in 2009 currently reflects the anxiety of an unknown unlike any other in our lifetime. I’m okay with the unknown part. Nature and science rock. It’s the Idiocracy that scares me.
At home I will continue to paint and draw on archival rag paper. Most of these are between ten and eighteen inches in size. I use ink, watercolor, gouache, oil pastel, wax and whatever else fits the bill. Larger work appears on my website and at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Virginia.
I’m also participating in “The Arc of the Viral Universe,” a journaling group that can be found on FB and IG (#arcoftheviraluniverse).
— Amie Oliver
*******************************************
You can find more of Amie’s work featured in our interview with her here, and in conversation with Patricia Smith’s “Holy War” (where you will see some early ladder work). Be sure to visit her website: http://www.amieoliver.info.
************************** | https://medium.com/broad-street-blog-pandemic-2020/quarantine-dreams-and-jacobs-ladder-from-the-studio-of-amie-oliver-5b376caed2f7 | ['Broad Street Magazine'] | 2020-04-19 12:51:14.417000+00:00 | ['Quarantine', 'Artist', 'Memoir', 'Art', 'Creativity'] |
Are Brazilian Men Incapable of Love? | I’d lived and loved in eight different countries and I’d never doubted that among (and often inside) assholes, players, and womanizers there was a loving man seeking a deep connection with a woman. And then I came to Brazil.
Having spent 1,5 year in the behemoth of São Paulo and half a year in the more provincial Northeast Region, I’ve ridden the emotional rollercoaster of Brazilian dating long enough to start pondering — are Brazilian guys incapable of love?
To put some light on the matter, let’s have a look at the three case studies from my own psychotic love life.
Case Study #1 Michael
Michael was a teacher in one of the best dance schools in São Paulo, where I happened to be doing salsa & zouk. I saw him for the first time dancing on the stage at the annual Dancing With the Stars event. The stars were the students themselves who’d practiced with their teachers for weeks for that one moment of glory.
I was amazed by Michael’s intimidating manliness and unforgiving sexiness. I complimented his moves, he complimented my curves. One dance with him left me dizzy and high on endorphins.
Then I saw him kiss a girl. I checked his FB. Yes, he was taken. “Oh well, that’s that. Plenty fish in the sea,” I thought.
But it was not over for him.
Suddenly, he would appear at the school canteen every Thursday after my class. “Why don’t you practice with me for the next event? Why don’t you come to my intensive bachata course on Saturday? Why don’t you give me your phone number?” And then I got that dick pic from him (surprisingly unimpressive, though).
“Enough!” I said. “It’s not right, Michael. You have someone.”
“No one has to know…” he calmed me down.
I stopped replying to his messages.
On the next ball at the school his hand “accidentally” slid across my butt during a spin. His girlfriend was in the room, I knew she was watching. I went to the bathroom to cool my body and mind down. “Why should I be the one to be a grown-up here?” I thought staring in the mirror. “I’m single, I want him, and I don’t even know his GF.”
“Would you want someone to do that to you?” I heard an annoying voice of wisdom in my head. I sighed.
When I opened the door, Michael was already there, waiting in the corridor. He kissed me before I could say a word. I released myself from his arms, both shocked and excited.
“Your girlfriend is here. Aren’t you afraid?” I asked.
“No,” he replied with a cocky smile. “We can’t fight it anymore, babe. We have to do it…”
I felt his strong arm around my waist and testosterone exploding from every pore on his brown skin.
“No,” I squealed with pretend confidence. A painful roar of the hungry animal in my womb pierced through my brain. Oh, how I desired that man! But not like that.
I left the party. His girlfriend’s big dead eyes drilled a hole in my neck.
Case Study #2 Valter
Going out with Valter was an act of desperation. The heartless São Paulo way of living, entrapping the young (and the not-that-young) in the endless loop of the single lifestyle, was already getting on my nerve. I’d just closed a long chapter of solo soul-searching across Southeast Asia. I wasn’t ready to lose it again! I wanted depth and meaning and connection with another human being… Not the bullshit of empty sex with no strings attached. A friend convinced me to search for my twin flame on Tinder (how appropriate). Legend has it that there are real couples who have met there. So I did something I’d promised myself to never ever do in my life — I swiped right.
What I loved the most about Valter’s profile was the total absence of shirtless shots. Quite the opposite, there was a green sweatshirt, a scruffy beard, dark Middle Eastern eyes, and a book in his hand (!). A few witty messages later he offered to be my guide at the bohemian Rua Augusta Street on Friday night. We crawled from one pub to another, sharing our thoughts on liquid love and our Ayahuasca visions. He put me in touch with the Ayahuasca people in São Paulo. He wouldn’t be able to go with me for the next ceremony, though. He was still on Prozac.
We smoked weed in his car and went to Jazz B, the coolest jazz place in town. Relaxed by the green magic, with an intriguing man leaning against my shoulder, I let the musicians play on the strings of my mind, on the keys of my heart. When he drove me back home I thanked him for the awesome date and kissed his cheek for goodbye. It took maybe a second too long but that was enough for his lips to find mine. We exploded into an uncontrollable vortex of lust, his hands everywhere, my face red and stinging from his beard. “Woah, woah, woah…” I gasped. “Now I reeeally have to go home. Good night!”
On the next morning I woke up like a little bird from the Snow White, a bird on cocaine, singing and dancing throughout her day. So love existed! Intelligent men with great taste in music and killer kissing skills existed! Hope was back and the best way to celebrate it was to treat myself to a falafel burger in my favorite veggie place. It was not on my way but who cares! What a beautiful day…
It was.
As I glided into the restaurant on the flying carpet of my delusion, guess who was already there queuing for the salad bar? Yes, Valter. Yes, with his girlfriend. Paralyzed, I stopped tweeting for a moment. But he kept a cool head and… invited me to eat with them. He was a true gentleman in the end.
So we ate that damn falafel dinner together and he told the story of how they met (no mention of the story how we met). He even suggested I could go out with his girlfriend to dance forro since both of us loved it so much. I nodded my head like a maniac, “Definitely, we should schedule something,” Brazilian way of saying, we will never EVER meet again.
I bought a big bottle of beer and strolled along the Paulista Avenue, not sure if I should cry or laugh. So I just drank. As always, millions of couples were making out on the benches and bus stops — young, old, gay, straight… I used to be envious of their love. Not anymore. It was nothing but an illusion. Sooner or later, maybe even in a few hours, all of them would cheat on each other. Hope was gone.
Case Study #3 Kleyton
Our eyes met across the sultry dance floor and it felt as if an electric spark flew across the room. In a split second my mouth was dry and some other parts of my body — wet. God, was he gorgeous! Tall, black, slim, with a storm of thick locks, but foremost — he was an amazing dancer. He was spinning a girl but staring at me, his eyes narrowed. I blushed. He extended his hand towards me for the next song and entrapped me in his arms for the whole night. Brazilian strategy — surround your prey and don’t let go of her until you get a taste of her flesh. With the Universe as my witness, I resisted as much as I could. I was new in town, just arrived to Recife, I didn’t want complications right at the beginning. And hot men were such a trouble! But he was charming, convincing, and persistent. My defenses were down. OK, let’s go outside “tomar um ventinho” (get a breath of fresh air). All right, the air will taste better served in each others’ mouths.
What came next was the usual. Kleyton texted me almost every day. Far from his hotness, in the safety of my room, I was doing my best to reject his advances. No, I didn’t want to meet him. No, I wouldn’t send him my nudes. No, I wouldn’t come next Sunday to the Cuban place again.
But I did.
Unable to focus, turning my head left and right, I looked for the familiar storm of Afro hair tamed by a headband. He wasn’t there.
He apologized promptly. He’d been giving classes at the dance school for the whole weekend and was too tired to come. I was aloof but he caught my attention by offering to me samba de gafieira lessons, in my living room, in exchange for English classes. Yeah, sure, why not, it’s such a difficult dance in the end.… Some extra help won’t hurt.
When I opened the door on the next day and saw his beautiful face, I knew the afternoon wouldn’t finish on a class exchange. When all the introductions had been made and the th sound practiced till his tongue got numb, it was time for me to step down from the teacher’s pedestal and become a dumb-ass for a change. He played “Pé na Areia” and pulled me to himself, just to push me away three seconds later. We turned our backs on each other, we made a jumpy walk back and forth, he spun me around and I laughed, having lost my balance. He caught me right on time, hot, sweaty, melting… He tilted my head back and sucked on my lip. We floated on the waves of samba all the way to my room.
I disappeared.
We continued our classes with benefits for a few weeks, chatted on whatsapp every day, got jealous, had our first fight when he slapped me in my face in bed and I slapped him back. I would lose my focus whenever I smelled his perfume on other men. He fed me with the same crap he served all girls, just to get me addicted to him — we’re going to be together forever, we’ll get married, it’s too soon to hold hands in public but one day… I told him off, I didn’t want to hear any of that shit but somehow it stuck. The mixture of his smell and bullshit blinded my mind. Maybe we could be something more than just ficantes (fuck buddies)?
And would I even want that? The dude lived in a dance school, flirted with every girl around, and had kids with two different women. Certainly not the kind of man my mom would like to meet. I got the taste of reality when I introduced him to my brother who was visiting for the carnival. How lovely, on that specific day Kleyton showed up completely drunk, with a broken front tooth after opening a beer can the night before, and as per glorious Brazilian carnival tradition — wearing a skimpy dress. My brother wasn’t impressed.
You know how sometimes a small snack only triggers your appetite instead of satisfying it? That’s what happened to me. Weekly fuck meetings with Kleyton and then pretending as if we barely knew each other on the parties was not enough. I wanted something deeper, realer, lovelier… I tried to get distance, I suggested a break, but I ran back to him within a week. The dance started all over again.
But it was becoming intense not only for me. I saw it in his eyes, he was terrified. Suddenly I was everywhere, invading his territory with my high heels and swirling skirts. Wherever he turned his head, I was there, dancing with another man. I studied his face. What was the meaning of that sadness? Was he jealous or was he tired of my presence? Whatever it was, it was too much. His smell vanished into thin air. No more whatsapp messages, no more “how was your day.” I didn’t ask what happened. I didn’t try to keep him. I knew the drill very well.
He disappeared.
I sucked it up, just as I always do. He’s probably already fucking another girl. That’s how you keep it safe — bang as much as you can and run away before the first unpleasant fluttering of your macho heart. I took a risk with Kleyton and I lost but not everything. It was infinite when it lasted.
Que seja infinito enquanto dure…
The Rant
Those were just three of many bitter-sweet romantic (?) adventures I’ve had in Brazil and they’re nothing in comparison with what I’ve been told by my girlfriends. Every woman I meet has a few tragic stories of unfaithfulness up her sleeve, ready to pull them out on caipirinha-soaked girls’ nights out. The worst ones are those of their mothers, cheated by their fathers and left alone, with nothing to live on, and often with debts to pay.
My heart sinks. Is that really what you get when you fall for a Brazilian man? You love him? You want him? There you have, take him, together with all the crap that comes with the package — cheating, machismo, and the inability to love you.
However, the thirty- and twenty-somethings won’t tolerate the shit their moms used to turn a blind eye to. They’re hardworking, ambitious, and self-sufficient. They do sports, travel, and develop their passions. They are the best and deserve the best. So how does that work out for them? They’re alone. Because Brazilian men can’t handle the new reality. They can’t find their place in that new relationship model where they don’t need to be a provider. Rodrigo, a male colleague of mine, admits that he’s single because he’s afraid. If he dates a woman, sooner or later she will discover that he’s a fraud. He has nothing to offer to her what she can’t get by herself. So he prefers to run away before she notices and leaves him for someone better.
The story of Mariana confirms that strange logic. She was a beautiful and successful app developer at Google. She’d been trying for a child with her husband for over a year when she discovered that he was already expecting one, just that not with her. A nineteen-year-old street vender from a favela he patrolled turned out to be a more attractive love interest. And a less threatening one, for sure. Two weeks later Mariana was a beautiful and successful… divorcee.
The Reasoning
I’ve always been more of a man-lover than a man-hater so I’m trying to find sense in that misery. Everyone desires to be considered a decent person but what if the definition of decent differs across cultures? What if you’ve been imprinted by your father and your society from an early age that to be a man means to be able to get as many females as possible and outsmart them all? Wouldn’t Brazilian men behave differently, had they been raised in a place were fathers don’t bring their 14-year-old sons to whore houses to lose their virginity, where they don’t pat them on the back for cheating on their teenage girlfriends, and where love and fierce loyalty to one woman isn’t seen as weakness but as strength?
I’ve watched an amazing video by Matthew Boggs where he explains why some men are unable to commit. Imagine that you have 16 oz of love in your hand, all pretty, fragrant, and ready to be gifted to that one special man. But he only has 4 oz to give you back in exchange. You’re getting upset that he doesn’t want to give you more but the truth is — that’s all he’s got. And that seems true for the guys in Brazil. They are emotionally handicapped, incapable of developing depth that would make them attached to one person only. It’s always the same superficial, sex-based relationship, just the bodies are different. That’s why it’s so easy to exchange one woman for another.
The Words of Wisdom
I would probably break into pieces and turn into despair, if I weren’t aware of the laws of the Universe: everything that surrounds you is the reflection of your own soul, everything you experience is brought to you by the Law of Attraction to match the vibration you project. We’re not victims of our circumstances but the captains of our lives.
I sit in quiet meditation and ask my Inner Being, “Are all Brazilian men indeed emotionally-unavailable cheaters? Or do I attract only those types (and the women complaining about them)? And if so… Why?”
The answer is pretty annoying, as always. It seems that it’s me who is emotionally unavailable and men I choose simply mirror my attitude. On the surface I crave intimacy and depth but truth be told… It scares the shit out of me. To fall so deep, to lose control, to surrender myself completely to another person… Ain’t nobody got time for that! I need to focus on my writing, find an agent, publish my novel, go for a run and dance classes, meditate on the beach, meet my girlfriends… A man now? He would just ruin everything! Thus, a part of me sabotages every chance for a relationship, picks from the crowd the worst kind, the players, the womanizers, the assholes… So I don’t have to take the responsibility for the failure in dating. It’s always going to be their fault.
That realization is painful and hopeful at the same time. There are awesome and honest men out there, maybe sipping coconut water on the beach I don’t know, maybe dancing kizomba in a club I haven’t been to yet, maybe walking their dogs in the park in the other part of town… I haven’t met them because my vibration doesn’t match with theirs. I’m not ready. So I should just chill out, enjoy a bowl of açaí, and publish my first post on Medium. ;)
It’s much easier to blame your surroundings than to see the “reality” as the mirror of your soul. But that’s the only way to stop “being lived” and start living instead, without asking silly questions, such as, “Are Brazilian Men Incapable of Love?”
If you’ve liked my first post on Medium, click the heart ❤️️ so more people can see it, and share your thoughts in the comment section below (esssspecially if you happen to be a Brazilian or you’ve lived and dated in Brazil). Can’t wait to read your opinions! | https://medium.com/@elena_leman/are-brazilian-men-incapable-of-love-476dcd14ece4 | ['Elena Leman'] | 2019-08-15 18:05:32.676000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Sex', 'Travel', 'Brazil', 'Spirituality'] |
What is Ketosis? | Image originally published on the sugar-free-zone.com
What is Ketosis?
Turn Your Body Into A Fat Burning Machine
Ketosis is a normal metabolic process. When the body does not have enough glucose for energy, it burns stored fats instead; this results in a build-up of acids called ketones within the body. — MedicalNewsToday.com
Your body gets its fuel from protein, fat and carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates include starchy foods such as grains (bread, pasta, rice and beans as well as fruit, vegetables and sugars. Basically if it is not protein (meat, fish, eggs) and it is not fat (butter, oils, fat) it is a carbohydrate.
When carbohydrates enter the body, they are broken down into glucose, and used for energy. The hormone insulin removes glucose from the bloodstream and the body either immediately uses it for energy or stores it in the liver for later use.
Any glucose that is not immediately used as fuel is stored in the form of glycogen, and any excess glycogen turns into stored body fat.
High carb diet = high glucose in the blood = excess levels of glycogen (sugar) = BODY FAT
Lipolysis and Ketosis
When your intake of carbs is limited, and the glycogen stored in the liver is used up, the body enters a state called lipolysis. It starts converting its fat stores to create energy. This is the most efficient biochemical pathway to weight loss and a scientifically proven alternative to the body using or needing glucose for energy.
Lipolysis occurs as the body begins to burn the body’s own fat stores for energy instead of dietary carbohydrates. The by-products of this fat burning process are ketones and ketosis is the secondary process of lipolysis.
When you eliminate carbs, the body is forced to use its fat stores for energy, and the body is literally turned into a fat burning machine.
Ketones not only provide adequate energy for the cells within the body, they also fuel the brain and other organs just as glucose from carbs does. Instead of using sugar (glucose) for energy you are now using stored fat.
This is the reason that extremely low carb diets are so popular and have allowed thousands of people to lose weight and keep it off.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock
On a Ketogenic Diet your body uses stored fat for energy and your fat literally melts away!
Ketogenic Diets
Ketogenic Diets are at the extreme low end of low carb diets. The recommended carb intake to get into state of ketosis is anywhere from 20 to 50 NET carbs. The amount of carbs needed, varies from person to person.
Net carbs equal the carb rating for a food minus the fiber content.
For example:
There are 12 grams of carbs in one cup of fresh shredded coconut.
Minus 7.2 grams of fiber
= 4.8 grams (net) carbs.
The Ketogenic diet, the Dr. Bernstein diet and the Atkins diet are three popular strict carb intake diets.
One of the greatest benefits of ketogenic diets and using fat for fuel is that once you get into a state of ketosis, your appetite naturally reduces within a few days. There are NO sensations of out-of-control hunger, and erratic cravings become a thing of the past.
Fat and excess weight simply seems to melt off!
Carbohydrate Cravings and Hunger Fades Away
The first few days of a Ketogenic Diet can be a challenge, especially if you have been eating a carb rich diet filled with sugar and wheat products. Many people who go straight into a Keto diet experience the Keto Flu. You can avoid the Keto Flu by gradually transitioning to a low carb diet and then to the Keto Diet.
It may take 2 to 4 days to get into Ketosis, but once you are, your hunger will diminish, and so will your carb cravings. Many people report being satisfied by the variety the diet has to offer and can easily stay on the diet for months if not longer. Many people adopt a Keto lifestyle because they feel better and enjoy the health benefits of the diet.
For even faster weight loss and to get diabetes under control, and to even reverse diabetes — medical pioneers including Dr. Jason Fung and Dr. Berstein use a combination of the Keto Diet and fasting.
The Keto Diet by itself and in conjunction with a fasting protocol reduce insulin resistance, reducing the need for drugs and helping normalize blood glucose levels.
If you have metabolic syndrome, pre-diabetes or diabetes be sure to check out these great ground breaking books:
Dr. Bernstein’s Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars
Dr. Janson Fung — The Obesity Code
This article was originally published on the sugar-free-zone.com
Melanie Rockett has been a freelance writer for over 40 years. About 15 years ago she was diagnosed with Diabetes — and began a long journey of discovery. Today she lives a sugar-free life and has lost 120 pounds. Her website Sugar-Free-Zone.com is all about living sugar-free and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Do YOU want to live sugar-free? Get regular story updates as well as fabulous sugar-free recipes by joining the Sugar Free Zone on Medium newsletter. https://medium.com/sugar-free-zone | https://medium.com/sugar-free-zone/what-is-ketosis-35a0d218ca52 | ['Melanie Rockett'] | 2019-11-26 23:08:27.689000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Food', 'Cooking', 'Diet', 'Weight Loss'] |
The Power of Positive Habits: 8 Ways To Boost Productivity | We all have goals. We all have ambitions. We all have things that we’d like to have happen in our lives. The good news is that all of those goals, ambitions and aspirations are possible. All that’s needed to achieve them is to start doing the work that needs to be done in order to make them real.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “carpe diem”. That’s Latin for “seize the day”. If you want to move your life in a different direction, one that produces positive changes, then make carpe diem your motto. You need to begin seizing the day and using your time productively so that you can begin building the future you want.
“You’ll never change your life until you change something that you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” — John Maxwell
This article is all about helping you to establish “power habits” in your daily routine that will allow you to crank your productivity to eleven. Adopting some or all of these habits and incorporating them into your day-to-day schedule will boost your overall productivity significantly. You’ll not only begin reaching your goals, you’ll also begin reaching them sooner than you ever thought possible.
1. Rise and Shine
When you get up earlier than normal two things happen. First, you have more time in you day to get more things done. Productivity is all about accomplishing tasks. The more hours you have, the more likely it becomes that you’re going to initiate and complete projects.
Second, let’s talk about energy. Now, maybe you’re already are a morning person. In which case, you already know what I’m talking about. However, if you’re not naturally a morning person, it may be time to think about becoming one. Study after study has shown that the most personally productive hours in the day occur before noon. It all has to do with natural body rhythms and cycles. So, when you get up earlier you not only have more time to get stuff done, you also have more energy. It’s a productivity win-win.
2. Be Punctual
You should have a schedule of what you want to accomplish on any given day. (If you don’t, then start using one.) In order to make this schedule as effective as possible, you need to be places, take phone calls and generally do things on time, as you scheduled them. When you’re not on time, you begin to fall behind on your schedule. That means that you have to start rushing to catch up, and rushing usually means that you aren’t doing your best work. Make an effort to be punctual. Get to appointments, meeting and phone calls on time. The more punctual you are, the more you’ll get done.
5. Have a Plan
One of the major drains on productivity is simply not knowing where to direct your attention. Let’s face it, each day we are faced with information overload. We get phone calls, e-mails, text messages and more. We use apps that are supposedly designed to make our lives easier, but instead start to compete for our attention by adding their reminders to the mix of information that is already bombarding us. What can happen is that we spend our time and energy dealing with situations that do not promote our goals and best interests.
3. Sleep and Move
Besides food and water, your body only has two other absolute needs — sleep and exercise. When you don’t get enough rest, you cannot maintain the mental energy levels that are required for you to be optimally productive. Likewise, when you don’t get enough exercise you don’t have the stamina it takes to remain productive over the course of a long day. Make sure that you put enough time aside for adequate amounts of both sleep and exercise. If you do, you’ll find that you have more energy and more energy equals greater productivity.
4. Develop Keystone Habits
All positive behavior is nothing more than habit. When you perform a positive action over and over it becomes habitual. You continue making the positive action without even thinking about it. In addition, one positive habit will lead to other positive behaviors which, over time, will also become habitual. That’s why developing keystone habits are so important to increased productivity.
Keystone habits are nothing more than simple acts that you routinely perform throughout your day. For example, if you make your bed every morning after you get up, no matter what, you establish a tone of positive production that will stay with you as you go about your business. This effect can be enhanced by layering one keystone habit on top of another. So, you not only make your bed every day, you also make it a habit to rinse and stack your breakfast dishes in the sink or put them in the dishwasher. The point is that when you routinely do what needs to be done, you start to develop a habit of treating everything that you do in a similar way. The end result is that your productivity soars.
5. Have a Plan
One of the major drains on productivity is simply not knowing where to direct your attention. Let’s face it, each day we are faced with information overload. We get phone calls, e-mails, text messages and more. We use apps that are supposedly designed to make our lives easier, but instead start to compete for our attention by adding their reminders to the mix of information that is already bombarding us. What can happen is that we spend our time and energy dealing with situations that do not promote our goals and best interests.
One of the best ways to combat this problem is with a daily plan. When it comes to any task, ask yourself “What is this?”, “Why am I doing it” and “What do I want to get out of it?” Simply posing these questions to yourself prior to doing anything will allow you to begin to prioritize what truly needs to be done and eliminate what truly is a time waster. Again, the end result is greatly increased productivity
6. Make Room for Down Time
There is a tendency to want to remain plugged in and on top of all communications simply because we can. However, to do so is a major mistake. One of the key ways to remain optimally productive is to know when to take it easy and allow your mind to rest.
Think of your productivity like a well. You lower down a bucket and pull up a drink of cold, clear water. However, if you lower down that bucket too many times in a row, you’re bound to come up empty because you’ve drained all the water.
You need to give yourself enough time to recharge and rejuvenate. You cannot be fully productive when your batteries are drained and you have nothing left to give. Remember to take a break on a regular basis. This means no checking your phone for messages, no answering e-mails, and no quick phone calls. Your time away is sacred. It is key to you being truly effective at what you do. Treat it as such.
7. Eliminate Distractions
In order to be fully productive, you have to be focused on the task at hand. However, in today’s always connected, modern world maintaining focus is increasingly difficult. Studies have shown that, on average, we are only able to concentrate on a given task for three to five minutes before being distracted by social media, e-mails or other things that interfere with concentration. Obviously, you are not going to be very productive and task oriented when you are only able to focus in three to five minute intervals.
The secret to staying focused on what you’re doing is by removing the sources of those distractions. Because social media is one of the biggest culprits, it’s important to install safeguards that allow you to resist the allure of checking for updates on social media sites. There are now apps that will completely block your ability to access certain sites for specific periods of time. The less distracted you are, the more you can maintain your focus and the more productive you become.
8. Make Your Workspace Inviting
Each of us spends a great deal of time in the space where we work. Now, that might be a physical office at a remote location or it might be a room or corner in your residence that has been reserved for that purpose. No matter where your “office” is located, it needs to be inviting, comfortable and welcoming. It has to reflect your personality and your style.
There’s absolutely no reason for your workspace to be spartan, cold or off-putting. You are not an anchorite and your office is not your cell. You are not literally or figuratively chained to your desk. Work should be rewarding, not a punishment and your office should reflect that fact.
Make sure that the furnishings are comfortable. A desk may be a necessity, but it doesn’t have to be uncomfortable. The same thing goes for a chair. Use a chair that makes you feel that your glad you sat down in it. Lighting, art, music and color all have an appropriate place in your office. Imagine how your productivity will skyrocket when you actually enjoy being in your workspace.
Start incorporating these, and other, positive habits into your daily routine and you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve. | https://medium.com/@betterselfdaily/the-power-of-positive-habits-8-ways-to-boost-productivity-f7311db66a97 | [] | 2020-01-24 11:32:41.506000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Positivity', 'Habit Building', 'Habits'] |
Puffin 全雲端上網隔離：應用篇 | CloudMosa’s mission is to empower the world’s phones through cloud computing and make them universally powerful and useful.
Follow | https://medium.com/cloudmosa-tw/puffin-%E5%85%A8%E9%9B%B2%E7%AB%AF%E4%B8%8A%E7%B6%B2%E9%9A%94%E9%9B%A2-%E6%87%89%E7%94%A8%E7%AF%87-1fa07371559a | ['Cloudmosa'] | 2020-11-10 03:31:00.269000+00:00 | ['Cloud Computing', 'Cybersecurity', 'Remote', 'Web Development', 'Cloud'] |
Earn real money writing slogan for free You may not know this, but there is a virtually invisible, multi-million dollar industry built around the creation and distribution of simple words, phrases… | Earn real money writing slogan for free
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You may not know this, but there is a virtually invisible, multi-million dollar industry built around the creation and distribution of simple words, phrases, and symbols (commonly known as “slogans”). You’re also probably not aware that there are countless companies who are willing to pay ordinary people BIG money to write them. Slogan Seller shows you the inside knowledge and tools you need to break into this industry and start earning money… even if you have never done anything like it before.
You don’t need to be creative, and you don’t need to be a good writer. All you need is a computer. Ready to find out how it works? | https://medium.com/@justinsmith079404/its-as-easy-as-1-2-3-8dcbdde4c6fe | ['Justin Smith'] | 2020-12-20 01:04:29.270000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Job Hunting', 'Make Money', 'Making Money Online', 'Make Money Online'] |
Text Summarization on COVID-19 research data | Summarize massive text data into a short, precise, and fluent summary that help us consume relevant information faster.
Photo by Susan Yin on Unsplash
The entire world is currently experiencing COVID-19 virus. Ever wondered what researchers have been finding of this virus? White House, in collaboration with other leading research groups, prepared COVID-19 research data set for the global research community to help in understanding more about the disease by applying AI and Natural Language Processing Techniques(NLP). This dataset also includes publications on SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses.
Going through each of the research paper from the dataset is not practically feasible as there are more than 130,000 articles and 60K+ of full texts. To overcome the challenge to go through each paper in detail, I have developed NLP based Text Summarization model that gives a summary of the text out of entire document so that reader can get a decent understanding of what article is about and what topic author had focused in the research paper.
Let us begin with the steps involved in the summarization of text from the corpus of the data, and then step by step to accomplish text summarization on COVID-19 dataset. One can use this approach on any text document to create shorter and meaningful summaries.
Text Summarization:
Text summarization is one of the statistical methods to produce summaries from vast chunks of texts. Text summarization can be achieved using Natural Language Processing techniques and using deep learning algorithms. This article covers the NLP technique for text summarization.
Five necessary steps for text summarization using NLP approach:
Tokenize the sentences in the text. Pre-process the text. Create sentence frequency matrix. Determine weighted matrix for each sentence. Rank the sentence based on highest weight.
Now, let’s jump into COVID-19 dataset and perform required steps for summarizing the text.
Import all necessary libraries
# Start with loading all necessary libraries
import re
import nltk
import heapq
import numpy as np
from os import path
from PIL import Image
from wordcloud import WordCloud, STOPWORDS, ImageColorGenerator
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
% matplotlib inline
### load stopwords
nltk.download('stopwords')
Before we get into summarizing the text, let’s us create some descriptive analytics and distribution of the data on critical fields in the dataset.
### read the file
df_text = pd.read_csv(‘covid.csv’)
Create a list of custom keywords and add to the keywords from NLTK.
stopwords_custom = nltk.corpus.stopwords.words('english') customize_stop_words = ['common','review','describes','abstract','retrospective','chart','patients','study','may','associated','results','including','high' 'found','one','well','among','Abstract','provide','objective','objective:','background','range','features','participates','doi', 'preprint', 'copyright', 'org', 'https', 'et ','et' 'al', 'author', 'figure', 'table', 'rights', 'reserved', 'permission', 'use', 'used', 'using', 'biorxiv', 'medrxiv', 'license', 'fig', 'fig.', 'al.', 'Elsevier', 'PMC', 'CZI',
]
### append custom stopwords to default stopwords from NLTK
for i in customize_stop_words:
stopwords_custom.append(i)
Let’s see which words are frequently used in all 50K+ papers from the data set are. It looks like some of the most commonly used words are ‘respiratory’, ‘epidemiology’ which are relevant in the current COVID-19 situation.
Can we find any interesting critical words in publication titles from all the 50K+ research papers? Once again, there are some common words in larger text and the title of the papers.
From the below word cloud, we can also observe that some authors submitted multiple publications.
Also, ‘paper published year’ is one of the variables in the dataset. There are publications from the mid 20th century to till date. 2021 as Published year must be incorrect entry because this paper published in April 2020.
Distribution of publication year in entire dataset:
Pre-process the data:
Clean the text by replacing special characters, extra spaces etc..
def clean_text(text): '''Clean the text with special characters, extra spaces etc..'''
clean_abstract = []
clean_abstract = re.sub(r’\d’,’ ‘,text)
clean_abstract = re.sub(r’\W’, ‘ ‘,clean_abstract)
clean_abstract = re.sub(r’\s+’, ‘ ‘,text)
text = re.sub(r’\[[0–9]*\]’,’ ‘,text)
return text ### select any text from abstract for summarization'
text= str(df_text['abstract'][9999])
print(text)
Code in above cell performs pre-processing steps and generates clean text to feed into the model and full text after pre-processing shown below.
Tokenize and Remove Stop words from text.
Now, input the preprocessed text to next steps to exclude stopwords and tokenize the sentences. Code in the following cell also creates a frequency matrix for each sentence. Function(tokenise_text) returns tokenized sentences and frequency matrix
def tokenise_text(text):
'''remove stop words, tokenize the text and create word count with scores''' wordcnt = {} for word in nltk.word_tokenize(text):
if word not in stopwords_custom:
if word not in wordcnt.keys():
wordcnt[word] = 1
else:
wordcnt[word] += 1
## Tokenize the text
sentenses = nltk.sent_tokenize(text)
for key in wordcnt.keys():
wordcnt[key] = wordcnt[key]/max(wordcnt.values())
return wordcnt,sentenses wordcnt,sentenses = tokenise_text(text)
Create sentence frequency matrix, weighted sentence matrix and rank the sentence based on the weights.
Create a frequency matrix of all those words mapped to the number of times those words appeared in the whole paragraph and weighted sentence matrix as well. The weighted matrix created by all values corresponding to a word divided by the maximum value of among all words. Length of the desired sentence is one of the hyperparameters. One has to be mindful in choosing this because sometimes longer sentences are not essential but have high weights, and that may cause choosing the wrong sentence as top rank. Determining the number of best sentences as well is our choice. I went with picking the top 2 sentences as best sentences.
def summrize_text(wordcnt,sentenses):
'''summarize the text!! choose desired number of words in sentence and number of sentense'''
sent_score = {} for sentense in sentenses:
for word in nltk.word_tokenize(sentense.lower()):
if word in wordcnt.keys():
if len(sentense.split(‘ ‘)) < 25:
if sentense not in sent_score.keys():
sent_score[sentense] = wordcnt[word]
else:
sent_score[sentense] += wordcnt[word]
### Pick best sentence for summarized text
best_sent = heapq.nlargest(2,sent_score,key = sent_score.get)
return best_sent best_sent = summrize_text(wordcnt,sentenses)
Finally, print the summarized text for the text that I considered from the dataset.
for sentense in best_sent:
print(sentense)
As we can see, long text that we passed as input to the model, converted to a short and meaningful summary.
Here is the full code in readable format:
GitHub link to the code:
References:
Please comment or provide feedback :) | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/text-summarization-on-covid-19-research-data-a5ab28695e11 | ['Vamsi Krishna'] | 2020-06-02 15:53:47.336000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Python', 'Naturallanguageprocessing', 'Covid 19'] |
Creatures of Habit | One raves about how they would like to break the “monotony of everyday life” by doing something out of their daily routine, if that makes sense. On the contrary, when we have time to spare we scutter to finish our task instead of being idle. Most of us do not have the patience to relax because we aren’t really accustomed to it.
What we ought is pretty much defined, for a good dozen years since birth. Those bricks have long been laid and nobody really thinks about it anymore. We are molded into a certain habitual life since a young age. And like most people, I too am a creature of habit. I often try to “go-with-the-flow”, but in vain. I thrive when I have a schedule to follow. I sleep better when I set out the tasks I want to achieve for tomorrow. Otherwise, it feels chaotic and my productivity and motivation swoops down. As much I am hesitant to admit it, I am comfortable with certainty per se, and so are most people. | https://medium.com/@June23/creatures-of-habit-18b8b6627290 | [] | 2020-12-23 16:48:59.785000+00:00 | ['Thoughts', 'Schedule', 'Everyday Life', 'Habits'] |
US vs. France: Speak Different Languages in More Ways than One | US vs. France: Speak Different Languages in More Ways than One
Creating engaging content in a foreign language is one thing as a content creator, especially when you are not native to that language. But, recreating content in your own language, whilst trying to engage with a market culture different to its original, is another. This can be particularly challenging when you are creating content for cultures that speak and relate to their customer base, almost like opposites. For clarity, I am speaking about creating content from French, into English, to be appealing and comprehensible to markets that reach beyond the Municipality of France and other French States’ borders, particularly to the US. The challenge has little to do with translating French into English; but to translate what would be interesting to a French audience, into what would be interesting to an American one. What I learned are some hard and fast rules that may help founders, entrepreneurs, and content creators who are either French or American create their brand content that would appeal to either, or, and both.
How to Refer to Your Customers
The US is very informal when referring to their customer base. There is no differentiation between the formal vs. informal way of speaking to someone; it just isn’t a part of the English language. Of course there are always prefixes one can use, but when referring to your customers, it is unlikely you will refer to them by “Mr.” or “Ms.”, especially in a startup environment. Plus, when you are speaking to your customer, you are speaking to them in a relatable way to ensure they feel comfortable with you and your brand. In the US, you want to connect with your customers, befriend them, get to know them. It is hard to do that when your brand refers to its customer base using prefixes that may create a bit of distance between your customers and your brand. You may end up sounding less friendly, and more anonymous “salesy”. Also, as an aside, prefixes are generally hard to maintain in this more inclusive world we live in, with people who neither refer to themselves as a mister or a missus.
In French there is a difference between the formal “vous” vs. informal “tu”. Both refer to “you”; however, in France, you would refer to your customers more formally. This isn’t seen as being distant with your customer base, but being more polite.
It’s About the Words You Use and How You Use Them
In the US, the way in which you speak to your customers is pretty straight to the point and short. You do not tend to communicate your brand story and/or write your brand content like you would if you were writing a novel. You want to hook your customer base with who are, what you can do to solve your customers’ problems, and let them know how they can stay engaged with your brand. Of course, in the US, you want your customers to feel like you are positive, upbeat, excited to sell to them, and exciting to buy from. The language you use is always inviting, and generally optimistic. When communicating your brand, you can invoke an emotional connection with your customers; but your connection must go beyond that. You can tell your story; but also tell them how you are going to solve their problem.
In France, if you spoke like that to a French audience, your content would:
Not make much sense, given in French you would have to use more words and create longer sentences than in English; and, You will likely not connect with your customer base.
Let me explain the latter…the French language is artistic and poetic in of itself. Plus the way French is written is more abstract than English. French content must invoke a feeling, emotion, and/or experience within your customer base. Your brand story can be more theatrical and emotional. Your brand story can provide more detail and can be longer; so that it leaves a true impression on your customer. What I noticed from French founders, is that their brand can speak from their heart directly to the hearts of their customers; cultivating deeper meaning and connection. There is less language around how to solve their customers’ problems; but more how their customer should feel when engaging with their brand.
In addition, it is very important in France to create content that is completely without error and/or mistakes. It invokes trust and reliability in your brand. (Audrey Maffre March 2020)
What is the Bottom Line?
In the US, one cannot leave your customers without a call to action. Once you have your customer based hooked, there needs to be further information as to how your customers can stay engaged with your brand; and/or how they can support your brand. There is simply a stronger focus on convenience and directness when communicating with your customer base in the US. Leave them understanding how you can help them, and then reciprocally, how they can help you.
In France, call to actions resonate a bit less. However, in my experience I see this changing. Particularly, with early stage startup founders who have a younger culture, and have likely been influenced by other markets. I see them including call to actions in English, whilst maintaining the rest of their content in French. As previously mentioned, there are differences in the way English and French are written. Therefore, it would be harder to write a call to action in French that would resonate in the same way an English one could; because it would be longer, more poetic, and would likely be less “punchy”. | https://medium.com/@thoughtfulthorough/us-vs-france-speak-different-languages-in-more-ways-than-one-da9a16b1b2a4 | ['Thoughtful Thorough'] | 2020-12-08 14:29:47.491000+00:00 | ['French Startup', 'Content Creation', 'Content Writing', 'Startups In Us', 'Startup Lessons'] |
4 Important Strategies to Develop a Mobile Application | What is a Mobile Application?
The Mobile App Development Services is a software application which is designed to work on mobile devices such as smartphones, tablet or watch, unlike desktop applications which are totally run on computers. Generally, Apps are small and individual software units.
Benefits of Mobile Apps:
Faster: Usually Mobile applications are much faster than mobile websites. They also store their data on your mobile devices.
Usually Mobile applications are much faster than mobile websites. They also store their data on your mobile devices. Instant online and offline features: Some of the apps can work on both online as well as offline mode. All the mobile devices facilitate online as well as offline access by a tap.
Some of the apps can work on both online as well as offline mode. All the mobile devices facilitate online as well as offline access by a tap. Designing and Branding: You can design your app in a way without depending on your mobile device. Application is designed according to your company’s branding.
You can design your app in a way without depending on your mobile device. Application is designed according to your company’s branding. Personalized content: users love personalized content for an immersive experience.
users love personalized content for an immersive experience. The device features: once you download an app into your phone, they can utilize various features like a camera that can scan QR and bar code, PFDs, NFC i.e. used for payments. Different platforms have distinct features that mobile application developers use to improve a user experience.
once you download an app into your phone, they can utilize various features like a camera that can scan QR and bar code, PFDs, NFC i.e. used for payments. Different platforms have distinct features that mobile application developers use to improve a user experience. Improvement in productivity and cost reduction: mobile apps play an important role in connecting your customers with employees which helps in increasing productivity. Mobile apps directly connect customers with employees in a very short time by reducing marketing costs.
How mobile Apps help in developing business?
Mobile apps aid in promoting your business and provide support to your business.
Helps in making a better connection with the customers.
Maintaining a high level of engagement with customers/users.
Offers value addition through rewards or loyalty programs.
Strategies to scale up your business
Use of social media
Use new and latest technologies
Connect with customers
Make changes in your marketing activities
Graphic designing
Enhances productivity
Commit to regular learning
4 Important strategies to develop a Mobile Application
Here are 4 steps to develop a Strategy for a Mobile Application. These are:
To understand the company strategy as well as competitor strategy
Here are some key questions that will help you to develop a mobile strategy:
What is the mission of your company?
What is the scope of your strategy?
What is the outcome of your strategy that you want to apply in developing a mobile app?
What is your competitor strategy?
What are the goals behind your mobile app development?
2. Define your new mobile app strategy
Below are some important components of a great mobile strategy:
Your idea must suit your company’s overall strategy for the next few years.
The idea must be within budget.
You must have contingency plans i.e. plan B.
Your mobile strategy will focus on that what’s the idea behind it and how this idea will benefit the mobile user.
Most of the things that you need to look for are:
Data access points
Overall security solution network load balance
Support and maintenance costs
Content delivery network
Network readiness
Monitoring tools
3. Create and Evaluate your product/app strategy
These are the points that you should keep in creating and evaluating your app strategy:
Define your target audiences — who are going to use your app.
Define your data points and determine the effectiveness of your app strategy against your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
Once you have defined your Key Performance Indicators now you need to determine if you are going to developing a native or a hybrid application.
Determine the first platform whether it is iOS or Android for which you want to develop the app.
Decide whether you are going to use your app as an in-house or external agency.
Before you build your app, start your marketing strategy.
4. Define the app/product management implementation strategy
In the above points, you defined what, why, and how the strategy is used to build a mobile app. The last step in this process is defining your product management implementation strategy.
In short, under implementation strategy you need to define these things:
Define your Minimum Viable Product
Define your non-functional requirement
For measuring bugs define your testing strategy
Define the tools and techniques that you will utilize to manage your apps successfully
Conclusion
As we have seen in this article that a good mobile strategy requires a lot of ideas, to understand your competitor’s strategy, use of social media, managing moving pieces, going for the right budget, resources, and many more.
Other than strategies we get to know about various benefits of mobile applications such as they are faster to use, provides online and offline access, facilitates branding and designing, interactive user engagement, etc.
Phontinent Technologies helps you develop one of the best mobile applications. As we have developed and design various Apps such as car wash apps, dating apps, grocery app, laundry apps, healthcare app, food delivery apps, etc. we would love to hear about your doubts or queries so please fill the below form to contact us. We will reach you as soon as possible. | https://medium.com/@phontinentbusiness/4-important-strategies-to-develop-a-mobile-application-cb0b2d153397 | ['Phontinent Technologies'] | 2021-01-29 12:30:52.524000+00:00 | ['App Development', 'Mobile App Development', 'Mobile App Developers', 'Mobile Apps'] |
Are you supporting the right politician? | TerminusDB graph visualisation of Dublin Council voting data
Do you ever check to see the actual voting record of your preferred politician before you vote? Or, do you just vote for them because of their party affiliation? Do you think your local representative speaks for you on the issues that you care about?
Politics can be complicated, my friend, but data never lies. In this tutorial, we will use TerminusDB to show you how to analyse the voting behavior of politicians. For demonstration purposes we’ll use a dataset describing the voting records of Councillors in Dublin City Council, the birthplace of TerminusDB, retrieved from https://counciltracker.ie/, the cleaned data used in the tutorial can be downloaded here. (Thanks Dublin Inquirer for the great work — have to keep the politicians on their toes)
We’ll use WOQL, the web object query language, a powerful and highly composable graph query language, throughout the tutorial.
(We’re assuming you already have TerminusDB installed, but if you haven’t go to our quick start installation guide. It’s very easy to get started.)
Create a Database and a Schema
Create a Database in the +Create Database link on the left hand side of the terminus-console. You could call it dublin_council
Once it is created, go to the Query link on the left, and enter the following query:
WOQL.when(true).and(
WOQL.doctype("Party")
.label("Party")
.description("Political Party"),
WOQL.doctype("Representative")
.label("Representative")
.description("An elected member of the Dublin Council")
.property("member_of", "Party")
.label("Member of").cardinality(1),
WOQL.doctype("Similarity")
.label("Similarity")
.property("similarity", "decimal")
.label("Similarity")
.property("similar_to", "Representative")
.label("Similar To").max(2)
);
and click Submit
Have a quick check to make sure the schema is there. Click Schema in the left hand navigation bar and you should have:
And if you click the graph view button (circled in red), you should see:
In the query above, we created 3 doctype : Party , Representative , Similarity . Regarding the property, Representative is the member of 1 Party , Similarity will consist of a decimal number and linking up 2 Representative. We created the schema using when() .
Load in the Political Voting Data
As always, we need csv , wrangles and inserts to load in the data. We’re going to use the query to import the data, clean it and match it. As you might have seen in other TerminusDB tutorials, WOQL is a highly composable language, you can combine queries arbitrarily using logical ANDs and ORs.
Make a new WOQL query as follow:
WOQL.as("councillor_a","v:Rep_A")
.as("councillor_b", "v:Rep_B")
.as("party_a", "v:Party_A")
.as("party_b", "v:Party_B")
.as("distance", "v:Distance")
).remote(" const csv = WOQL.get(WOQL.as("councillor_a","v:Rep_A").as("councillor_b", "v:Rep_B").as("party_a", "v:Party_A").as("party_b", "v:Party_B").as("distance", "v:Distance")).remote(" https://terminusdb.com/t/data/council/weighted_similarity.csv "); const wrangles = [
WOQL.idgen("doc:Party", ["v:Party_A"], "v:Party_A_ID"),
WOQL.idgen("doc:Party", ["v:Party_B"], "v:Party_B_ID"),
WOQL.idgen("doc:Representative", ["v:Rep_A"], "v:Rep_A_ID"),
WOQL.idgen("doc:Representative", ["v:Rep_B"], "v:Rep_B_ID"),
WOQL.typecast("v:Distance", "xsd:decimal", "v:Similarity"),
WOQL.idgen("doc:Similarity", ["v:Rep_A", "v:Rep_B"], "v:Rel_ID"),
WOQL.concat("v:Distance Overall Similarity","v:Rel_Label"),
WOQL.concat("v:Distance Overall Similarity between v:Rep_A and v:Rep_B", "v:Rel_Description")
]; const inserts = WOQL.and(
WOQL.insert("v:Party_A_ID", "Party")
.label("v:Party_A"),
WOQL.insert("v:Party_B_ID", "Party")
.label("v:Party_B"),
WOQL.insert("v:Rep_A_ID", "Representative")
.label("v:Rep_A")
.property("member_of", "v:Party_A_ID"),
WOQL.insert("v:Rep_B_ID", "Representative")
.label("v:Rep_B")
.property("member_of", "v:Party_B_ID"),
WOQL.insert("v:Rel_ID", "Similarity")
.label("v:Rel_Label")
.description("v:Rel_Description")
.property("similar_to", "v:Rep_A_ID")
.property("similar_to", "v:Rep_B_ID")
.property("similarity", "v:Similarity")
)
const inputs = WOQL.and(csv, ...wrangles); WOQL.when(inputs, inserts);
and click Submit
In the csv we load in all the relevant columns of the csv and link them with a variable identified with v: using as() In the wrangles we have to do data wrangling operations, idgen() for creating id for fields and typecast() to cast the Distance column in to a decimal objects as Similarity Our inputs are now ready (created by csv and wrangles ) In the inserts, we actually slot the objects in, the variables created in the wrangles will be insert() with an id. We can also add label() , descriptions() and property() Load the data using another when()
With the data in TerminusDB, you can now click on the documents and explore. It should look like this:
You can then click on a party to explore further — click on the Green Party for example and you can see their members:
Then click on Patrick Costello and you get his similarity scoring with the other members of the council:
You can quickly see the similarities across the Councillors. Substituting products for people, it’s easy to see how a similar process could build a recommendation engine for e-commerce or another service. We’ll put those additional steps in the next TerminusDB tutorial.
Click on one of the others at random and you get this:
That is a high similarity score (0.854) for Councillors from different parties (Rebecca Moynihan is in the Labour Party).
Extra: Check out how to Load your local files in TerminusDB
Query and Visualisation
Now with the schema and data in place, we can build some queries and visualise the outputs as a graph. First we have to create a query (of course):
WOQL.limit(1000).and(
WOQL.triple("v:Subject","similar_to","v:Value"),
WOQL.triple("v:Subject","similar_to","v:Value2"),
WOQL.triple("v:Subject","similarity","v:Similarity"),
WOQL.triple("v:Value","member_of","v:Party"),
WOQL.triple("v:Value2","member_of","v:Party2"),
WOQL.not().eq("v:Value","v:Value2"),
WOQL.opt().triple("v:Value2","label","v:Lab2"),
WOQL.opt().triple("v:Value","label","v:Lab1"),
WOQL.eval(WOQL.divide(1, WOQL.exp("v:Similarity", 4)), "v:Distance")
)
and click Submit
We use WOQL.limiti(1000).and to limit the result set and shorten the query time (we’ll show the full scaled up results later) This query only uses triple() not quad() we are only extracting data from a single database (including quad() allows you to specify which databases you want to extract data from) Use opt() to ignore the missing objects (instead of returning an error) Use eval() to execute arithmetic calculation ( divide() and exp() ) and store it to variable Distance , this variable is calculated from Similarty .
You will now have results in a tabular form below the query:
It is hard to make sense out of the result! But at least we see we have results from our query.
To make a graph visualisation, click on the graph button (the right most of the 3 at the top right of the table):
Wow! What is this madness! As we have show everything from the query: every object, every property, label, description… things are a little too busy to make visual sense.
We need to customize the view of the graph. Click on the left most button of the 3 at the top right, you will see an extra input field for the view:
Replace everything with our customised view script:
view = View.graph();
view.node("v:Subject", "v:Lab2", "v:Lab1", "v:Party2", "v:Party", "v:Similarity", "v:Distance").hidden(true)
view.node("v:Similarity").hidden(true)
view.edge("v:Value", "v:Value2").distance("v:Distance").text("v:Distance").weight(0.04)
view.node("v:Value").text("v:Lab1").icon({ label: true})
view.node("v:Value2").text("v:Lab2").icon({ label: true})
view.node("v:Value", "v:Value2").charge(-999).collisionRadius(10)
Click Update view
We hidden() some node() Customize the edge() to have the distance() equal to the variable Distance and have a equal weight() of 0.04. It will also show the value of Distance when mouse on Replace the icon() with the label() of Lab , which is the name of the politicians. charge() and collisionRadius() makes the nodes have a natual seperation with each other (avoid clustering) for easier viewing.
💥now we have a much nicer graph:
But wait, are we missing something? Oh, the party of the politicians, let’s colour code the politicians to their party so we can make easy sense of the graph. Let’s edit the view again with this script:
view = View.graph();
view.node("v:Subject", "v:Lab2", "v:Lab1", "v:Party2", "v:Party", "v:Similarity", "v:Distance").hidden(true)
view.node("v:Similarity").hidden(true)
view.edge("v:Value", "v:Value2").distance("v:Distance").text("v:Distance").weight(0.04)
view.node("v:Value").text("v:Lab1").icon({ label: true})
view.node("v:Value2").text("v:Lab2").icon({ label: true})
view.node("v:Value", "v:Value2").charge(-999).collisionRadius(10)
view.node("v:Value").v("v:Party").in("doc:PartySolidarity").color([5, 25, 22])
view.node("v:Value2").v("v:Party2").in("doc:PartySolidarity").color([5, 25, 22])
view.node("v:Value").v("v:Party").in("doc:PartySocial%20Democrats").color([25, 25, 225])
view.node("v:Value2").v("v:Party2").in("doc:PartySocial%20Democrats").color([25, 25, 225])
view.node("v:Value").v("v:Party").in("doc:PartySinn%20F%C3%A9in").color([25, 225, 25])
view.node("v:Value2").v("v:Party2").in("doc:PartySinn%20F%C3%A9in").color([25, 225, 25])
view.node("v:Value").v("v:Party").in("doc:PartyLabour%20Party").color([255, 0, 0])
view.node("v:Value2").v("v:Party2").in("doc:PartyLabour%20Party").color([255, 0, 0])
view.node("v:Value2").v("v:Party2").in("doc:PartyFine%20Gael").color([0, 0, 255])
view.node("v:Value").v("v:Party").in("doc:PartyFine%20Gael").color([0, 0, 255])
view.node("v:Value").v("v:Party").in("doc:PartyFianna%20F%C3%A1il").color([100, 200, 100])
view.node("v:Value2").v("v:Party2").in("doc:PartyFianna%20F%C3%A1il").color([100, 200, 100])
view.node("v:Value").v("v:Party").in("doc:PartyGreen%20Party").color([25, 225, 125])
view.node("v:Value2").v("v:Party2").in("doc:PartyGreen%20Party").color([225, 225, 125])
view.node("v:Value").v("v:Party").in("doc:PartyIndependent").color([25, 25, 25])
view.node("v:Value2").v("v:Party2").in("doc:PartyIndependent").color([25, 25, 25])
view.node("v:Value").v("v:Party").in("doc:PartyPeople%20Before%20Profit").color([225, 25, 25])
view.node("v:Value2").v("v:Party2").in("doc:PartyPeople%20Before%20Profit").color([225, 25, 25])
view.node("v:Value").v("v:Party").in("doc:PartyWorkers'%20Party").color([225, 225, 225])
view.node("v:Value2").v("v:Party2").in("doc:PartyWorkers'%20Party").color([225, 225, 225])
Click Update view
Now the script is a bit long, but it is not complicated. For example, if the politician has Party equal to PartyGreen Party (%20 for white space), colour the node [225, 225, 125] which is light green (matching the colour code from the source website):
from counciltracker.ie
The same also apply to Lab2 and Party2 (and they are just the parallel image of Lab and Party ).
Now let’s try to see the whole picture by removing the limit(1000) from our query and click submit . (Warning: you need memory for handling the graphics and it might take a few seconds to load).
There are some really interesting conclusions we can quickly draw from viewing the data in this way. Specifically, the data allows us to draw the following conclusions:
Political parties do tend to vote in a reasonably homogeneous fashion (the distribution is not random, or anything close to it)
Sinn Fein enjoy the strongest disciplinary record in terms of council votes, with all Councillors clustered closely together
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are heavily inter-mingled, to the extent that they could almost be considered a single party
The same could be said for the Green Party and Labour Party, who present as a single block in this analysis
These results are interesting in and of themselves. But in addition, the visualisation of data in this way enables us to see a continuum across the political spectrum, and accurately place parties on that spectrum based on real data rather than perception or prejudice.
Lastly this data shows clearly the politics of any given independent just by looking which parties they are situated with. A few independents seem to occupy an equivalent status to Sinn Féin or Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael. A few hover around the Solidarity-People-Before Profit-Workers’ Party nexus. However, the voting positions of the Greens and Labour are not apparently so popular with the unaffiliated.
Now it is your turn. Change the parameters in the view script to play around and mix things up.
One more thing to do is to analyse different dataset. Here is some open data from the US Congress that you can play around, and a quick WOQL query to build the schema:
WOQL.when(true).and(
WOQL.doctype("Party")
.label("Party")
.description("Political Party"),
WOQL.doctype("Representative")
.label("Representative")
.description("An elected member of the US congress")
.property("member_of", "Party")
.label("Member of").cardinality(1),
WOQL.doctype("Similarity")
.label("Similarity")
.property("similarity", "decimal")
.label("Similarity")
.property("similar_to", "Representative")
.label("Similar To").max(2),
WOQL.add_class("ArmedForcesSimilarity")
.label("Armed Forces")
.parent("Similarity"),
WOQL.add_class("CivilRightsSimilarity")
.label("Civil Rights")
.parent("Similarity"),
WOQL.add_class("HealthSimilarity")
.label("Health")
.parent("Similarity"),
WOQL.add_class("ImmigrationSimilarity")
.label("Immigration")
.parent("Similarity"),
WOQL.add_class("InternationalAffairsSimilarity")
.label("International Affairs")
.parent("Similarity"),
WOQL.add_class("TaxationSimilarity")
.label("Taxation")
.parent("Similarity"),
WOQL.add_class("OverallSimilarity")
.label("Overall")
.parent("Similarity")
)
And a WOQL to get some of that data into your database (this is a larger data set so it’ll take a little longer to return — took a little over 400 seconds last time I ran it):
WOQL.as("politician_a","v:Rep_A")
.as("politician_b", "v:Rep_B")
.as("party_a", "v:Party_A")
.as("party_b", "v:Party_B")
.as("distance", "v:Distance")
).remote(" const csv = WOQL.get(WOQL.as("politician_a","v:Rep_A").as("politician_b", "v:Rep_B").as("party_a", "v:Party_A").as("party_b", "v:Party_B").as("distance", "v:Distance")).remote(" https://terminusdb.com/t/data/congress/armed_forces_weighted_similarity.csv "); const wrangles = [
WOQL.idgen("doc:Party", ["v:Party_A"], "v:Party_A_ID"),
WOQL.idgen("doc:Party", ["v:Party_B"], "v:Party_B_ID"),
WOQL.idgen("doc:Representative", ["v:Rep_A"], "v:Rep_A_ID"),
WOQL.idgen("doc:Representative", ["v:Rep_B"], "v:Rep_B_ID"),
WOQL.typecast("v:Distance", "xsd:decimal", "v:Similarity"),
WOQL.idgen("doc:ArmedForcesSimilarity", ["v:Rep_A", "v:Rep_B"], "v:Rel_ID"),
WOQL.concat("v:Distance Armed Forces Similarity","v:Rel_Label"),
WOQL.concat("v:Distance Armed Forces Similarity between v:Rep_A and v:Rep_B", "v:Rel_Description")
]; const inserts = WOQL.and(
WOQL.insert("v:Party_A_ID", "Party")
.label("v:Party_A"),
WOQL.insert("v:Party_B_ID", "Party")
.label("v:Party_B"),
WOQL.insert("v:Rep_A_ID", "Representative")
.label("v:Rep_A")
.property("member_of", "v:Party_A_ID"),
WOQL.insert("v:Rep_B_ID", "Representative")
.label("v:Rep_B")
.property("member_of", "v:Party_B_ID"),
WOQL.insert("v:Rel_ID", "ArmedForcesSimilarity")
.label("v:Rel_Label")
.description("v:Rel_Description")
.property("similar_to", "v:Rep_A_ID")
.property("similar_to", "v:Rep_B_ID")
.property("similarity", "v:Similarity")
)
const inputs = WOQL.and(csv, ...wrangles); WOQL.when(inputs, inserts);
Feel free to use any open data to do the same analysis — we’d love to see the results. In fact, TerminusDB is running a competition on UK political data. Check it out over on twitter: | https://medium.com/terminusdb/are-you-supporting-the-right-politician-b742debbc8d9 | ['Cheukting Ho'] | 2020-07-09 17:44:19.446000+00:00 | ['Database', 'Data Science', 'Data', 'Graph', 'Data Visualization'] |
Tutorial on How to Merge Django ORM with SQLAlchemy for Easier Data Analysis | Development of products with Django framework is usually easy and straightforward; great documentation, many tools out of the box, plenty of open source libraries and big community. Django ORM takes full control about SQL layer protecting you from mistakes, and underlying details of queries so you can spend more time on designing and building your application structure in Python code. However, sometimes such behavior may hurt — for example, when you’re building a project related to data analysis. Building advanced queries with Django is not very easy; it’s hard to read (in Python) and hard to understand what’s going on in SQL-level without logging or printing generated SQL queries somewhere. Moreover, such queries could not be efficient enough, so this will hit you back when you load more data into DB to play with. In one moment, you can find yourself doing too much raw SQL through Django cursor, and this is the moment when you should do a break and take a look on another interesting tool, which is placed right between ORM layer and the layer of raw SQL queries.
As you can see from the title of the article, we successfully mixed Django ORM and SQLAlchemy Core together, and we’re very satisfied with results. We built an application which helps to analyze data produced by EMR systems by aggregating data into charts and tables, scoring by throughput/efficiency/staff cost, and highlighting outliers which allows to optimize business processes for clinics and save money.
Note: the code samples may be displayed improperly because of markdown. We recommend to continue reading the original article on our blog to make sure all the examples are displayed properly.
What is the point of mixing Django ORM with SQLAlchemy?
There are a few reasons why we stepped out from Django ORM for this task:
For ORM world, one object is one record in the database, but here we deal only with aggregated data.
Some aggregations are very tricky, and Django ORM functionality is not enough to fulfill the needs. To be honest, sometimes in some simple cases it’s hard (or even impossible) to make ORM produce the SQL query exactly the way you want, and when you’re dealing with a big data , it will affect performance a lot.
, it will affect performance a lot. If you’re building advanced queries via Django ORM, it’s hard to read and understand such queries in Python, and hard to predict which SQL query will be generated and treated to the database.
It’s worth saying that we also set up a second database, which is handled by Django ORM to cover other web application related tasks and business-logic needs, which it perfectly does. Django ORM is evolving from version to version, giving more and more features. For example, in recent releases, a bunch of neat features were added like support of Subquery expressions or Window functions and many others, which you should definitely try before doing raw SQL or looking at the tools like SQLAlchemy if your problem is more complex than fixing a few queries.
So that’s why we decided to take a look at SQLAlchemy. It consists of two parts — ORM and Core. SQLAlchemy ORM is similar to Django ORM, but at the same time, they differ. SQLAlchemy ORM uses a different concept, Data Mapper, compared to Django’s Active Record approach. As far as you’re building projects on Django, you definitely should not switch ORM (if you don’t have very special reasons to do so), as you want to use Django REST framework, Django-admin, and other neat stuff which is tied to Django models.
The second part of SQLAlchemy is called Core. It’s placed right between high-level ORM and low-level SQL. The Core is very powerful and flexible; it gives you the ability to build any SQL-queries you wish, and when you see such queries in Python, it’s easy to understand what’s going on. For example, take a look into a sample query from the documentation:
q = session.query(User).filter(User.name.like('e%')).\
limit(5).from_self().\
join(User.addresses).filter(Address.email.like('q%')).\
order_by(User.name)
Which will result into
SELECT anon_1.user_id AS anon_1_user_id,
anon_1.user_name AS anon_1_user_name
FROM (SELECT "user".id AS user_id, "user".name AS user_name
FROM "user"
WHERE "user".name LIKE :name_1
LIMIT :param_1) AS anon_1
JOIN address ON anon_1.user_id = address.user_id
WHERE address.email LIKE :email_1 ORDER BY anon_1.user_name
Note: with such tricks, we don’t fall into N+1 problem : from_select makes an additional SELECT wrapper around the query, so we reduce the amount of rows at first (via LIKE and LIMIT ) and only then we join the address information.
How to mix Django application and SQLALchemy
So if you’re interested and want to try to mix SQLAlchemy with Django application, here are some hints which could help you.
First of all, you need to create a global variable with Engine, but the actual connection with DB will be established on first connect or execute call.
sa_engine = create_engine(settings.DB_CONNECTION_URL, pool_recycle=settings.POOL_RECYCLE)
Createengine accepts additional configuration for connection. MySQL/MariaDB/AWS Aurora(MySQL compatible) have an interactive timeout setting which is 8h by default, so without pool_recycle extra parameter you will get annoying SQLError: (OperationalError) (2006, ‘MySQL server has gone away’) . So the POOL_RECYCLE should be smaller than interactive_timeout . For example a half of it: POOL_RECYCLE = 4 * 60 * 60
Next step is to build your queries. Depending on your application architecture, you can declare tables and fields using Table and Column classes (which also can be used with ORM), or if your application already stores tables and columns names in another way, you can do it in place, via table ( table_name ) and column ( col_name ) functions (as shown here).
In our app, we picked the second option, as we stored information about aggregations, formulas, and formatting in our own declarative syntax. Then we built a layer which read such structures and executed queries based on the provided instructions.
When your query is ready, simply call sa_engine.execute(query) . The cursor would be opened until you read all the data or if you close it explicitly.
There is one very annoying thing worth mentioning. As a documentation says, SQLAlchemy has limited ability to do query stringification, so it’s not so easy to get a final query which will be executed. You can print query by itself:
print(query) SELECT
role_group_id, role_group_name, nr_patients
FROM "StaffSummary"
WHERE day >= :day_1 AND day <= :day_2 AND location_id = :location_id_1 AND service_id = :service_id_1
(This one looks not so scary, but with more complex queries it could be about 20+ placeholders, which are very annoying and time-expensive to fill manually to play later in SQL console.)
If you have only strings and numbers to be inserted into query, this will work for you
print(s.compile(compile_kwargs={"literal_binds": True}))
For dates, such a trick will not work. There is a discussion on StackOverflow on how to achieve the desired results, but solutions look unattractive.
Another option is to enable queries logging into the file via database configuration, but in this case, you could face another issue; it becomes hard to find a query you want to debug if Django ORM connected to this database too.
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Testing
Note: Pytest multidb note says “Currently pytest-django does not specifically support Django’s multi-database support. You can however use normal Django TestCase instances to use it’s multi_db support.”
So what does it mean — not support? By default, Django will create and remove (at the end of all tests) a test-database for each db listed in DATABASES definition. This feature works perfectly with pytests also.
Django TestCase and TransactionTestCase with multi_db=True enables erasing of data in multiple databases between tests. Also it enables data loading into second database via django-fixtures , but it’s much better to use modelmommy or factoryboy instead, which are not affected by this attribute.
There are a few hacks suggested in pytest-django discussion how to work around the issue and enable multi_db to continue pytesting.
There is one important advice — for tables that have Django-models, you should save data to DB via Django-ORM. Otherwise, you will face issues during writing tests. TestCase will not be able to rollback other transactions which happened outside from Django DB connection. If you have such a situation, you may use TransactionalTestCase with multi_db=True for tests which trigger functionality, which produces DB writes through SQLAlchemy connection, but remember that such tests are slower than regular TestCase .
Also, another scenario is possible — you have Django-models only in one database and you’re working with the second database via SQLAlchemy. In this case, multi_db doesn’t affect you at all. In such cases, you need to write a pytest-fixture (or do it as a mixin and trigger logic in setUp if you’re using unittests) which will create DB structure from SQL file. Such a file should contain DROP TABLE IF EXISTS statements before CREATE TABLE . This fixture should be applied to each test case which manipulates with this database. Other fixture could load data into created tables.
Note: Such tests will be slower as tables will be recreated for each test. Ideally, tables should be created once (declared as @pytest.fixture(scope='session', autouse=True) ), and each transaction should rollback data for each test. It’s not easy to achieve because of different connections: Django & SQLAlchemy or different connections of SQLAlchemy connection-pool, e.g in your tests you start the transaction, fill DB with test data, then run test and rollback transaction (it wasn’t committed). But during the test, your application code may do queries to DB like connection.execute(query) which performed outside of transaction which created test data. So with default transaction isolation level, the application will not see any data, only empty tables. It’s possible to change transaction isolation level to READ UNCOMMITTED for SQLAlchemy connection, and everything will work as expected, but it’s definitely not a solution at all.
Conclusion
To sum up everything above, SQLAlchemy Core is a great tool which brings you closer to SQL and gives you understanding and full control over the queries. If you’re building the application (or a part of it) which requires advanced aggregations, it is worth it to check out SQLAlchemy Core capabilities as an alternative to Django ORM tools.
Read on to learn how to make building advanced queries for data analysis projects easier. Find out how we managed to mix Django ORM and SQLAlchemy Core and what we got from it.
This article about Merging Django ORM is written by Gleb Pushkov — Senior Software Developer at Django Stars | https://medium.com/hackernoon/merging-django-orm-with-sqlalchemy-for-easier-data-analysis-75b85e2cc0b9 | ['Django Stars'] | 2019-11-07 14:06:43.978000+00:00 | ['Data Analysis', 'Orm With Sqlalchemy', 'Python', 'Sqlalchemy', 'Programming'] |
My humble takeaways from Interaction 19 | Designers can no longer live in “design-land.” They must strive to create impact by understanding business needs, helping define success metrics, and working with coworkers in other disciplines to help them visualize their problems, and gather perspectives from outside their purview.
While not related to the conference, I recommend designers check out the book Hacking Growth for more actionable context on this.
Change occurs when enough people believe the change will occur
John Maeda gave a poignant keynote about reinventing yourself. And how it’s okay to be a “Maker/Talker” as he calls it; someone who is good at making things, but is transitioning into a someone who leads, sells, or otherwise supports the craftsmen — a talker. We all need people to help us on our journey; to help us grow and get up after we fall.
People aren’t working for you or against you, just for themselves. When you look at it that way, it’s much less personal.
— John Maeda
No is NOT an answer
Thank you Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun 😉
Her explosive presentation was a meta form of her “hammering technique,” which she employs to turn every no into a yes. This means for example, using multiple email addresses when asking for a bid on an outlandish project. If at first you don’t succeed, try asking another way.
To act is to begin something new in the world.
— Nelly Ben Hayoun
Don’t reach for the “Pickle Jar”
Jon Bell talked about his team’s pickle jar analogy. When you’re in the kitchen and someone is struggling to open up this jar that’s sealed so tight, your first instinct is to go in and offer to help. Obviously you’re much stronger than this other person, right? “Give it to me!”
Well this happens in the workplace all the time. We see a team or company struggling to make a product successful, and we think, “they’re so stupid, if they would only do this!” or “they should let me handle that.” In reality, we weren’t there from the beginning, understanding the complexities of the problem. There’s probably a lot of underlying challenges, whether political, usability, ethical, or timeline-based, that you’re simply not aware of. To avoid wasted resources, and stepping on toes, Jon’s team at Twitter instituted an approval process before anything goes into design production.
Convenience is the commodity
This is a tough one. Companies like Amazon are striving to make our lives so easy that before we even think about what we want, it shows up on our doorstep. But as we take more and more, we give more and more of our privacy. The ethical questions linger on.
I think there’s a positive light here in that if we can design products and services that improve the human condition and free up time and mental space, we will all have more time to devote to the things we really care about. The things that make us happy; like our friends, our art, hobbies, etc. I think we’ll be grappling with the ethical considerations of data privacy and AI forever, but the more proactive design and business leaders are in facing these issues head on, the greater chance we have to thrive as a species.
I did learn some things about ethics. Namely that no one can really summarize a toolkit for ethics. Well, except for one dude — Gabriel White. Here’s his solid list of heuristics for an otherwise complicated topic, which I found to be very practical. | https://medium.com/@michaelcaporale/my-humble-takeaways-from-interaction-19-28aca7133836 | ['Michael Caporale'] | 2019-02-15 03:40:24.288000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Design', 'Ixda', 'UX Design', 'Interaction Design'] |
Houston Texans get teens moving | The Houston Texans Teen Club is stepping up to alleviate adolescent illnesses brought on by physical inactivity and stress. The teen club, located on 1520 Airline Drive, is launching a new after-school fitness program this spring with the support of the Houston Texans and “Boys and Girls Club.” The program is extremely important as it helps adolescents reach 60 minutes of daily physical activity recommended by the Center for Diesease Control (CDC). This program is needed more than ever with many schools cutting physical education classes and after-school activities because of budget constraints.
The Trump administration is continuing to propose cutting funds to the 21st Century Community Learning Centers. This program provides the funding for most after-school programs across the nation which serve about 1.7 million children. Eliminating these funds is hurting many after-school programs because they cannot provide enough money to the numerous after-school programs they serve.
Many may wonder the reason that after-school programs are so important. Research shows these programs can “boost academic performance, reduce risky behaviors, promote physical health, and provide a safe, structured environment for the children of working parents.” (Youth.gov) These benefits demonstrate how important, beneficial and effective after-school activity programs are to a community.
The time after-school until the time parents get home from work has been called the “witching hours” because many students are left unsupervised and get into trouble. AfterSchool Alliance found that the most at risk teens are also statistically the most uninvolved in after-school activities. This is believed to be because of financial constraints.
Therefore, creating a place for students to attend for free that is safe, inviting and known as “the place to be” by teens is beneficial to the community, and it is exactly what the Houston Texans have done with the Houston Texans Teen Club. The Texans donated $750,000 to the teen club which this is the largest donation and first type of program of this kind by any NFL team.
To get the teens moving after-school the Houston Texans Teens Club has hired fitness instructors and is excited to start offering personal training, yoga, and Zumba classes for the teens to participate. Their goal for the new fitness program is to “get kids active, healthy and more in-tune with their mind, body, and soul” says instructor Sierra Quiroga. She brought yoga to the teen club this spring and in just a few shorts weeks, she is amazed at the benefits the classes have brought to the teens. The teens come in worn out and stressed from a long day at school and their mood noticeably shifts after they finish class. Jliyah Butler, who is a teen at the teen club, says she “has never done yoga with anyone ever in my life, so when Ms. Sierra came, she gave me the opportunity to do yoga.” | https://medium.com/@taylorarenz/houston-texans-get-teens-moving-792f2f30b680 | ['Taylor Arenz'] | 2020-02-20 20:16:39.577000+00:00 | ['Exercise', 'Yoga', 'Healthy', 'Workout', 'Health'] |
Angry Employees of an iPhone Manufacturing Plant Attack the Facility | Angry Employees of an iPhone Manufacturing Plant Attack the Facility
What happened: Complaining of reduced wages, employees of an iPhone manufacturing plant near Bengaluru damaged the plant’s furniture, assembly lines and even tried to set fire on parked cars.
Wistron Corporation, a Taiwan-based tech company had set up this plant, and many others, early this year to make iPhone SE.
Talking to Times Of India, an engineering grad who works there said he was promised a salary of ₹21k a month but it was reduced to ₹16k and then to ₹12k.
Behind the scenes: Karnataka’s labour minister says Wistron has ~1200 permanent employees and 8900 contract employees. And Wistron seems to have handed down the salary to contract companies, who haven’t handed it down to the employees for 3 months.
After effects: | https://medium.com/right-click/angry-employees-of-an-iphone-manufacturing-plant-attack-the-facility-459b3d80815c | ['Kunal Mishra'] | 2020-12-16 04:22:24.123000+00:00 | ['iPhone', 'Bengaluru', 'Employees'] |
My CRTE Experience | The red team lab!
So recently I acquired my CRTE. My resolution this year was to acquire my personal big 3 i.e. OSCP,CRTP and CRTE. I am happy to share that in a span of 7 months I have all three supposedly considered top level certifications. It has come at the back of lot of hard work and dedication and I am proud that I was able to clear all these and learn so much quickly all in my final year of bachelor’s degree of college . You can find my reviews for the other certs in my blog list if you want :)
Before this, I want to clear one thing with most. Most people ask me why do I go for these certifications and not internships and why do I ‘waste’ so much money on these certs. Here are my reasons why I go for certs:-
-I do not go for the theoretical certs like udemy and coursera, the certs in cyber security are extremely practical. It gives me a hands on experience even before entering the industry.
-Do you honestly think I have not tried for internships? Of course I have tried for internships, but in most cases, people from linkedin have not responded to my messages or I have not got shortlisted for reasons unknown. Seems like most folks are not willing to hire a fresher unless you have good references. Being from a realatively remote area of Odisha and not having the luxury of references (No engineers in our family and extended family as such) has put me a little behind competitors.
-Lack of classmates and seniors in the cyber security industry to talk to about cyber security. I agree that mentorship is important in all aspects of life, but you can practice a lot of hackerrank and land your dev job from college . In cyber security, there are very few companies who take on basis of merit(as far as I know) and even less companies who are willing to hire and mentor freshers.
-Look CTF’s are great and even I play a lot of htb, vulnhub and some assembly CTF’s , but remember , it’s great if you do it with a group of people ,preferably with people better than you in the initial stages. Missing that experience means that I have to entirely rely on publicly available writeups and a lot of head scratching to solve active htb machines which takes up a lot of time and honestly at this point , I spend a lot of time scratching my head and learning less. Overall, return of investment is less for me at this point.
-It is at this point certs are great. If you look at the els ,offsec and red team lab, yes the material does provide almost all things to pass(not offsec or even red team lab) , but the exam is a real test of application of concepts. Consequently , I know a lot of htb gurus who have failed or have a tough time passing it. Consequently, I have learnt a few tricks in the exams itself :)
-Money wise? Well I had a part time job in second year of college where I was overpaid which covered 80% of my cert costs . If you’re still gonna judge me for taking the 20% money of money from my parents, then what are you doing with your gaming consoles , video games , overpriced laptops , netflix subscriptions and fancy dine ins?
Again , these are all my opinions, I am not pointing out any particular individual, but please know that if you can dedicate yourself completely , then anything is possible.
Now for the review in hand, I purchased one month lab from pen acad in Sept 1st. I used to message some people in linkedin and discord . The few who responded said that it’s a step above and advised me to take 60 day lab. I was confident that i could complete it in 30 days and hence i went with my gut and took the 30 day lab.
Needless to say, I completed the lab and owned all machines in 6 days. Here are a few tips for the labs:-
-Ignore people who try to scare you. If I ever listened to them then I would not have even cleared an els course.
-I kind of took it overboard and set up my own lab with mssql servers of various misconfigurations(Not required , but gives a confidence boost) and double hop methods.
-Most important thing for me was that the hours spent on research in CRTP lab and material really paid off. If you’re the kind of guy who is having a hard time debugging issues in CRTP, CRTE would be rough on you. That being said, my time with CRTP was definitely very rough for me because I was new to AD and had no one to clear my basic doubts. So my google was filled with a lot of useless queries .If I think back, that skill of helping myself has helped a lot in CRTE.
-Make use of support. I must have riddled with them with a lot of useless queries. They were patient with me quite a lot and answered each and every query quite swiftly . They are enough to guide you to be honest.
-If you’ve done crtp, the guide is still very useful ,keep it with you . Also make personalised cheatsheets with you , I can’t tell you how much time it saved for me :)
You’ll enjoy the lab if you enjoy giving yourself challenges . While in no way I am a red team expert, I firmly believe that technical skills are easy to gain if you’re sincere and self reliant. If you need hand holding all the time then best look for strong mentors who have the time to guide you.
The exam is a tad bit more challenging from the lab to be honest atleast for me. Little bit of creative thinking and analysis is needed from your side to get over a block .Once you get over the block though it’s a piece of cake.
Once again I thank Pentester Academy and Nikhil Mittal for presenting this wonderful course . I will definitely take GCB lab after I get a job because I have stopped pursuing certifications for now and rather completely focusing to get a job .
What next? I have an objective to complete offshore and rastalabs from HTB before I graduate in June 2021 . I don’t have any experience with a c2 hence I think it might be a nice challenge for me :) Meanwhile , I am trying to increase my knowledge in cloud security and threat hunting as well. Hope this small review helps y’all!
P.S. :- Will post links for reference if needed from a lot of you. | https://medium.com/@arnavtripathy98/my-crte-experience-7d9285856e66 | ['Arnav Tripathy'] | 2020-10-13 06:54:05.310000+00:00 | ['Red Teaming', 'Active Directory', 'Ctf', 'Certification', 'Cybersecurity'] |
Troubled Rail Requesting Billions More Despite Missing Key Deadline for Business Plan | Prime areas in Fresno have been torn up for the building of the rail.
The ambitious bullet train that was sold to voters in 2008 as a needed mega transportation project has become a gigantic mess. In fact, it no longer resembles what was presented at all, and has been plagued with continuous cost overruns and wasted tax dollars. Twelve years later, the High-Speed Rail Authority has little to show for the billions spent other than a textbook example of Sacramento Democrats’ managerial and fiscal failures.
The High-Speed Rail is currently projected to cost taxpayers $80-$100 billion, which is three times higher than the Authority’s initial $33 billion cost estimate. This $50 billion discrepancy is a direct result of the Authority’s mismanagement and the Newsom Administration’s competence crisis.
Brian Kelly, the CEO of California’s High-Speed Rail Authority (CAHSRA), recently announced that the Authority has reached a deal with Democrat legislative leadership to postpone the release of the project’s business plan for a second time. Not only was the December 15th deadline for the business plan required by law, but it revealed the Authority’s lack of direction, accountability, and ability to meet basic deadlines. Even worse, this has become an unacceptable habit of the CAHSRA.
Despite the Authority’s lack of transparency, recent reports on the project’s construction have shined light on a series of disturbing safety concerns including incorrect alignment and steel corrosion as a result of design errors and neglect of the structure itself.
Now, despite failing to meet an already-delayed deadline for the project’s business plan review, the Authority will be requesting another $4 billion in the upcoming 2021–2022 budget. The High-Speed Rail is a pillage of taxpayers who have been consistently over-promised and under-served by this floundering project.
The Legislature cannot continue funding this boondoggle in good faith while millions of Californians are unemployed and homeless, our children are falling behind in school, and small businesses are closing their doors for good. A thorough review of an accurate business plan is critical to hold this agency accountable. The public rightfully demands full transparency with what is being done with their money.
As our state faces a $54 billion budget deficit and a pandemic, we must address the troubling fashion in which Sacramento carelessly mismanages taxpayer dollars. Each year, Sacramento Democrats have the opportunity to put money where their mouth is and make critical investments in wildfire prevention, water infrastructure, public safety, K-12 education, and small business and disaster relief. Now more than ever, we need a new direction that prioritizes the everyday needs of our families, which is why I have proposed legislation to redirect existing funds from this failing project to address our immediate needs.
The bullet train needs to be stopped in its tracks. The Authority has continually neglected the will of the voters, any notion of fiscal responsibility, and the letter of the law in their obligation to advance this project. As the newly-appointed Vice Chair of the Budget Committee, I strongly urge my colleagues to reject any further spending on the disastrous High-Speed Rail, and redirect the spending to where Californians need it most. | https://medium.com/@asmvincefong/troubled-rail-requesting-billions-more-despite-missing-key-deadline-for-business-plan-519073b0dbbd | ['Assemblyman Vince Fong'] | 2020-12-17 17:26:35.654000+00:00 | ['Budget', 'Sacramento', 'High Speed Rail', 'Policy'] |
Customer Service Thinking for Graphic Designers | TIP 1: Focus on providing an unparalleled customer service experience to everyone you work with.
So many designers don’t have experience corresponding directly with clients. I was in this same boat before my current role. And what I learned to do was approach every email, conversation, meeting by looking through the lens of “service the client”. It will frame what you say. It will frame how you speak. It will frame your actions and reactions. If you’ve never tried it before, give it a try. See what you do differently. And try not to forget it as you start your day tomorrow.
Photo by henry perks on Unsplash
TIP 2: Live your life “solution-based”.
I’m a person who is considered HSP or Highly Sensitive Person. And for me, it’s hard to not be overcome with emotion. One of the best pieces of advice I received over the last three years was to approach every day as a solution-based employee. If you spend a few minutes thinking about what that means, you will hopefully notice that it eliminates negative reactions. It forces you to be proactive in the face of adversity. This is paramount to developing personal and professional maturity. How? You need to figure out a solution to any scenario that comes your way. There’s no time to react with emotion whether it be to vent or complain because you need to spend your time connecting the dots that nobody else has. And for a person like me who experiences intense emotions, being able to avoid the bad ones completely is really quite liberating.
Photo by CoWomen on Unsplash
TIP 3: Send your creative review emails pretending the recipient has no clue what you’re talking about.
That sounds weird but here it is written a different way: you can provide incredible customer service if you send design edits back to clients by recapping everything you did or explaining what’s going on. I do this simply by pretending that I’m emailing people that have no idea what I’m talking about. It allows me to simplify my language, recap, and provide an overview of what’s what. Why is this good customer service? In the industry I work in, brand managers and other functional and technical team leads are overly busy and pulled in a hundred different directions on a given day.
Think about the user experience from their shoes if they just had 4 back-to-back meetings then check their email for a couple minutes late in the afternoon to see you sent them updated banner ad designs with the simple text of “Please let me know if anything needs to be changed. Thanks.”
How long will it take this person to 1) know the job they’re looking at, 2) remember where it left off and 3) know what they are supposed to be looking at that’s different?
Now press rewind to that same opening of your email in their inbox but instead seeing “Hey John. Here’s the next round of the banner ads with a darker background and larger CTA button. There’s better contrast now between the background and the body copy. And the wider button really stands out as a nice, loud call to action. Are there any other changes you would like to make? Thanks.”
Do you see the difference? In the second example, I put all the work into bringing your attention to the exact spots I would like you to review and setting the stage by refreshing your memory for you. And if I’ve done my job well enough, I also setup the situation of mutual agreement by describing how my design changes created a positive effect. | https://medium.com/@anneracioppi/customer-service-thinking-for-graphic-designers-d1f4c5851e00 | ['Anne Racioppi'] | 2020-12-21 16:47:30.640000+00:00 | ['Process Improvement', 'Designer', 'Customer Service', 'Communication Strategy'] |
How to Build Your Kid’s Sports Instinct | How to Build Your Kid’s Sports Instinct
Sports Instinct is a form of in-game reflex. How does a professional running back know to stiff-arm a defender instead of trying to out-maneuver them or plant his foot and spin away? It’s an innate instinct developed and perfected over hundreds of games and years or experience. They have built up this instinct by making thousands of subconscious reactions to the thousands of times that they are in a similar situation. They have consciously discovered their strengths and their best abilities to use in nearly every circumstance.
How does this all relate to your child? Simple, we need to let out children figure out for themselves how their actions effect the game and what is happening on the field. It sounds simple enough, but many parents and even a lot of coaches find themselves coaching from the sidelines during a game.
Imagine this scenario:
Your daughter is 8 years old and is a forward on her youth sports soccer team. Her teammate passes her the ball when she is near the goal, but there is a defender and the goalie in her way. Now she has two choices: She can take the shot and likely be blocked, or she can pass to her teammate on the other side of the goal with a wide-open shot to score. From the sidelines, this seems like a no-brainer, so you yell, “Pass it to Lexi!” She does, and Lexi scores a goal. You may even think to yourself, “Whew, good thing I was there to tell her what to do!” But let’s examine that real quick.
What did your daughter learn or develop in that scenario? She makes the right decision because a voice from the sidelines told her what to do. Now the only instinct that she develops is to listen to be told what to do when she is faced with an on-field decision.
Now let’s look at the alternative. Either a) she takes the shot and it gets blocked. She learns that she shouldn’t be so quick to shoot when there are defenders blocking her way and realizes that next time, she needs to pass the ball. Or b) she passes the ball to her teammate who scores the goal and she feels good that she made the right decision. She knows to repeat that behavior if a similar situation presents itself in the next game.
Sure, there was a chance that her team would miss a chance to score, but you would have made your daughter a worst soccer player, one that can’t make decisions for themselves on the field. Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t one single instance that will ruin your daughter’s soccer career, but her learning and developing will be a combination of all the experiences she has on the field. Let her make the most of them! | https://medium.com/@kjhanson68/how-to-build-your-childs-sports-instinct-5244407da054 | ['Kj Hanson'] | 2021-01-29 00:12:18.118000+00:00 | ['Practice', 'Parenting', 'Performance', 'Reflex', 'Youth Sports'] |
JavaScript Tips, Tricks and Best Practices | JavaScript Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices
I always used to prefer something like a newspaper which give enough information in a shorter span of time. Here, I create tips for day to day Frontend development.
You might be doing angular development for a long time but sometimes you might be not updated with the newest features which can solve your issues without doing or writing some extra codes. This can cover some frequently asked Angular topics in interviews.
Here I am coming with a new series to cover some tips which helped me in my day-to-day coding.
How to merge two arrays in JavaScript and remove duplicate items?
We do play with arrays in day to day life and there are a lot of requirements where we need to combine arrays as well as need to remove duplicates.
Below are some approaches to achieve this.
1. Using Lodash
console.log(_.union([1, 2, 3], [101, 2, 1, 10], [2, 1]));
2. Using Filter and Concat
var a = [1, 2, 3], b = [101, 2, 1, 10]
var c = a.concat(b)
var d = c.filter((item, pos) => c.indexOf(item) === pos)
3. Using Set
[...new Set([...array1 ,...array2])]; // => remove duplication
How do you clear the focus in javascript?
Focus… Focus… Yeah, this time we want to clear the focus from the specific element in the HTML. This can be achieved by the blur method.
if (document.activeElement instanceof HTMLElement)
document.activeElement.blur();
Binary to String in JavaScript
What if we have some binary code and we want to convert it into a string before using it in our code? It can be achieved using the fromCharCode method.
et binary = `1010011 1110100 1100001 1100011 1101011
1001111 1110110 1100101 1110010 1100110
1101100 1101111 1110111`;
let outputStr = binary.split(' ') //Split string in array of binary chars
.map(bin => String.fromCharCode(parseInt(bin, 2))) //Map every binary char to real char
.join(''); //Join the array back to a string
console.log(outputStr);
Shift strings Circular left and right in JavaScript
When we start practicing for the bigger companies this kind of javascript coding questions are common. Here is an example of shifting the string based on given values. It can be achieved using array slice methods.
function getShiftedString(s, leftShifts, rightShifts) {
// using `split('')` will result in certain unicode characters being separated incorrectly
// use Array.from instead:
const arr = Array.from(s);
const netLeftShifts = (leftShifts - rightShifts) % arr.length;
return [...arr.slice(netLeftShifts), ...arr.slice(0, netLeftShifts)]
.join('');
}
console.log([
getShiftedString('abc', 0, 0),
getShiftedString('abc', 1, 0),
getShiftedString('abc', 0, 1),
getShiftedString('abc', 1, 1),
getShiftedString('123456789', 0, 0),
getShiftedString('123456789', 1, 5),
getShiftedString('123456789', 5, 1),
'----',
getShiftedString('123456789', 9, 0),
getShiftedString('123456789', 10, 0),
getShiftedString('123456789', 0, 9),
getShiftedString('123456789', 0, 10),
getShiftedString("🐎👱❤", 0, 0),
getShiftedString("🐎👱❤", 1, 0),
]);
Regular expression to check for IP addresses JavaScript
Regex help us to check any specific string and validate for us? What if we want regex for the IP address.
Here is the cleanest way to validate an IP Address, Let’s break it down:
Fact: a valid IP Address is has 4 octets , each octet can be a number between 0 - 255
Breakdown of Regex that matches any value between 0 - 255
25[0-5] matches 250 - 255
matches 2[0-4][0-9] matches 200 - 249
matches 1[0-9][0-9] matches 100 - 199
matches [1-9][0-9]? matches 1 - 99
matches 0 matches 0
const octet = '(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|[1-9][0-9]?|0)';
Notes: When using new RegExp you should use \\. instead of \. since string will get escaped twice.
function isValidIP(str) {
const octet = '(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|[1-9][0-9]?|0)';
const regex = new RegExp(`^${octet}\\.${octet}\\.${octet}\\.${octet}$`);
return regex.test(str);
}
How to JSON stringify a JavaScript Date and preserve timezone
When we want to store any specific date formatted value to the JSON. It can be achieved using this function.
var replacer = function(key, value) {
if (this[key] instanceof Date) {
return this[key].toUTCString();
}
return value;
}
console.log(JSON.stringify(new Date(), replacer));
console.log(JSON.stringify({ myProperty: new Date()}, replacer));
JavaScript to check if a string is a valid number
We have seen a lot of solution to check the number is valid or not but What if want to check if a string is a valid number or not?
Here is the best approach.
function isNumeric(n) {
return !isNaN(parseFloat(n)) && isFinite(n);
}
Below are some good test cases:
console.log(isNumeric(12345678912345678912)); // true
console.log(isNumeric('2 ')); // true
console.log(isNumeric('-32.2 ')); // true
console.log(isNumeric(-32.2)); // true
console.log(isNumeric(undefined)); // false // the accepted answer fails at these tests:
console.log(isNumeric('')); // false
console.log(isNumeric(null)); // false
console.log(isNumeric([])); // false
Export a JSON Object to a text file
When we want to export the JSON Object to a text file, below is the cleanest approach I found till this date.
const filename = 'data.json';
const jsonStr = JSON.stringify(JsonExport);
let element = document.createElement('a');
element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(jsonStr));
element.setAttribute('download', filename);
element.style.display = 'none';
document.body.appendChild(element);
element.click();
document.body.removeChild(element);
Wrap long template literal line to multiline without creating a new line in the string
If you introduce a line continuation ( \ ) at the point of the new line in the literal, it won't create a new line on output:
const text = `a very long string that just continues\
and continues and continues`;
console.log(text);
How to copy text from a div to clipboard
When we want to copy text from a div to clipboard below is the simplest approach I found during my development.
function CopyToClipboard(containerid) {
if (window.getSelection) {
if (window.getSelection().empty) { // Chrome
window.getSelection().empty();
} else if (window.getSelection().removeAllRanges) { // Firefox
window.getSelection().removeAllRanges();
}
} else if (document.selection) { // IE?
document.selection.empty();
} if (document.selection) {
var range = document.body.createTextRange();
range.moveToElementText(document.getElementById(containerid));
range.select().createTextRange();
document.execCommand("copy");
} else if (window.getSelection) {
var range = document.createRange();
range.selectNode(document.getElementById(containerid));
window.getSelection().addRange(range);
document.execCommand("copy");
}
}
References:
Are you preparing for interviews? Here are frequently asked interview questions in Angular. It covers the Latest interview questions for Angular and Frontend development. Let’s check how many of these questions you can answer? | https://javascript.plainenglish.io/common-hacks-in-javascript-5d72a6fcdac | [] | 2020-12-16 19:41:33.648000+00:00 | ['Web Development', 'Javascript Development', 'Javascript Tips', 'JavaScript', 'Front End Development'] |
The First Signs of Alcoholic Liver Damage Are Not in the Liver | The First Signs of Alcoholic Liver Damage Are Not in the Liver
Myfather died of alcoholic liver cirrhosis four years ago. It came as a surprise to all of us, even though it was clear he had a severe drinking problem for decades. It was especially surprising to me, as a former nurse and a recovering alcoholic. You would think I’d know more about liver problems and alcohol use than the average person. But the truth is, in the months before his death, I had no idea my father’s liver was struggling at all. Most people know about cirrhosis, but few people know how a liver goes from early damage to end-stage liver cirrhosis.
The combination of my father’s death and my personal background lit a fire in me to know more. He was admitted to the hospital on June 24, 2016, and he died on July 18. Only 24 days passed between the first sign there was a problem and his subsequent death.
Now, hearing that he was in end-stage cirrhosis didn’t surprise me, given his heavy drinking. What did surprise me was that he’d visited several doctors and specialists in the months before his death, and no one knew his liver was struggling either.
So what happened? Does end-stage liver cirrhosis really sneak up that fast? Were there other signs that would have alerted someone to his failing liver?
As for why the doctors and specialists didn’t know what was happening, that mystery resolved reasonably quickly. The plain truth is that alcoholics rarely divulge the amount and frequency of their drinking to their doctors. This was the case for my dad. He had many health issues that he was trying to solve, but he protected his drinking habit fiercely. So he refused to spill the beans, even when it mattered.
The problem is that liver damage has numerous multifaceted symptoms that are confusing and associated with many other illnesses. Unless a doctor knows that the patient is an alcoholic, they may not know how to interpret what’s happening until it’s too late.
As he was dying, my father told me that he didn’t think to tell the doctors how much he was drinking. He said it was as if he blanked out and “forgot” to mention it. As crazy as that sounds, this strange “forgetting” is a common part of the alcoholic mindset. It may also be due to the metabolic and physical changes of cirrhosis itself.
There are many signs of liver problems, but oddly, none seem to point to the liver at first. And in fact, many of the first signs of liver damage occur in other parts of the body. Knowing these signs may help educate alcoholics and their families if they want to understand their risk of developing liver cirrhosis.
Liver damage has numerous multifaceted symptoms that are confusing and associated with many other illnesses. Unless a doctor knows that the patient is an alcoholic, they may not know how to interpret what’s happening until it’s too late.
Digestive signs
The liver plays a huge part in our digestive process. It filters out all toxins from food as well as helping to break down fats and glucose.
When a liver starts to slow down due to significant damage, it will reduce its digestive work. Instead, it will divert its energy toward vital functions like metabolizing medications and filtering toxins.
This means that symptoms like bloating, nausea, vomiting, gas, and diarrhea will start to increase. Over time, eating becomes more challenging. In the later stages of liver cirrhosis, toxins that can’t be filtered out begin to build in the bloodstream, which causes more nausea.
Cognitive signs
Although confusion and brain fog happen in end-stage liver cirrhosis, they can also be early signs.
The liver is responsible for filtering dangerous substances in the blood. It also helps regulate hormones, blood glucose, and vitamin absorption. In the early stages of liver damage, these processes can be interrupted. Inevitably, this affects our brain and nervous system.
This means that early liver problems can make you feel tired, confused, slow, and foggy. You may have some memory issues as well.
Neuromuscular signs
The liver stores vitamins required for the functioning of many organs and systems in the body — one of them is vitamin B1 or thiamine. A deficiency in this particular vitamin has been documented in many alcoholics with or without liver damage.
Unfortunately, alcohol inhibits the absorption of thiamine in the intestine. Over time, as the liver becomes damaged, it can no longer store thiamine in enough quantities. Thiamine deficiency is responsible for many neurological issues in people with alcoholism.
Symptoms of thiamine deficiency range from mild to severe and include things like: confusion, mental fog, lack of balance, pain and numbness in hands and feet, muscle weakness, rapid heart rate, digestive problems, flushing, and involuntary eye movements.
Thiamine deficiency happens in almost every alcoholic who consumes frequent and large amounts of alcohol. And if thiamine deficiency due to alcoholism is discovered, you can be sure the liver is suffering damage at the same time.
Many of the first signs of liver damage occur in other parts of the body.
Vascular signs
All alcohol consumption can lead to blood vessel dilation, causing flushing in the face and hands. Over time, this can cause damage leading to permanent redness in the face. Although many alcoholics have rosacea or spider-like veins on their faces, this is often benign.
However, spider angiomas are different from rosacea or spiderlike veins. They’re circular and have a central point called a spider nevus that is darker than the rest of the lesion. Spider angiomas are a sign of liver disease and can be present in the early stages. They often progress to more extensive and more numerous lesions.
Spider angiomas are caused by increased estrogen levels in the blood. When the liver becomes damaged, it can’t properly metabolize estrogens, which causes them to build up in the body.
Many women who are pregnant or taking birth control pills may have a few spider angiomas. However, in alcoholic liver disease, these lesions are often more frequent and accompanied by red palms and varicose veins in the esophagus.
These are a few of the main signs of alcoholic liver damage that happen outside of the liver. It’s important to know this because most of us have no idea how the liver functions and how it communicates distress.
The liver itself doesn’t show signs like pain or swelling in the early stages of liver damage. This contrasts with other organs like the heart or stomach, where any damage will emit pain or symptoms directly from these organs.
What happens with liver damage is that its many diverse functions become interrupted, causing symptoms in other parts of the body. This may explain why most people never think they have a problem with their liver.
Unfortunately, patients with alcoholism are rarely educated about these issues. This is because they often don’t reveal their drinking, to begin with. And even if they do, the symptoms are widespread and complex, which makes patient education challenging.
My goal in writing articles like this is to help educate regular people about alcoholic liver disease to understand their health and make better decisions.
It’s hard to say if my father would have changed his drinking habits if he knew more about his vague and complicated symptoms. But I think having proper education would have certainly helped him understand his risks and health problems better. | https://medium.com/@jossbuttler83783276/the-first-signs-of-alcoholic-liver-damage-are-not-in-the-liver-e90f881c277e | [] | 2020-12-17 19:32:26.169000+00:00 | ['Addiction', 'Health', 'Body', 'Alcohol', 'Mental Health'] |
Aukey EP-B80 KeySeries Headphones REVIEW | I’ve never been a huge fan of in-ear headphones. They don’t seem to fit my ear very well and I just don’t have a pleasant experience with them because of that. That said, I end up testing out many, many different styles of Bluetooth earphones because it’s what is most popular these days since mobile phones are how most of us listen to music. Ever since the Apple removed the headphones jack from the iPhone and that is my mobile device of choice, I’ve been searching for the best options for headphones. While I like my on-ear and over-the-ear headphones, they aren’t always the most convenient to take from place to place. When I learned that one of my favorite accessory companies, AUKEY, was releasing a new set of earphones, I had to try them out.
DETAILS
The Aukey EP-B80 Key Series Headphones offer the user high-resolution audio. The EP-B80 headphones provide high-fidelity sound for users and with its hybrid driver system, audiophiles will surely fall quickly for these premium listening devices. These Key Series headphones feature Bluetooth 5, aptX-low latency, USB-C charging, water resistance, and voice assistant support. Thanks to the dual driver design, the EP-B80 headphones generate a richer, purer sound with a wide 10Hz-22kHz frequency range. You can expect to get up to 8 hours of listening time with a full charge. The headphones are also designed to provide users with a stable, comfortable fit thanks to its over-ear ear-hooks. Three sizes of memory foam and soft silicone ear tips are provided along with the headphones as well as a soft silicone case for storage.
Package Contents
AUKEY EP-B80 Bluetooth Earbuds
3 Pairs of Foam and 3 Pairs of Silicone Ear-Tips (SML)
USB-A to C Cable
Carrying Pouch
User Manual
45-Day Money Back and 24-Month Product Replacement Warranty Card
USER EXPERIENCE
The first thing I noticed about the Key Series headphones was their packaging. The box is light grey — like the headphones themselves — and features an image of the product on the cover along with the Aukey logo. The back is blank and no details are printed on the box. I find this rather refreshing because some accessory designers add so many details that it clutters the packaging. When you open the box, you will find the headphones careful lain into precut protective foam. You will also immediately notice the replacement foam ear tips and a silicone carrying case. To me, the presentation out of the box was quite impressive. In addition to the pieces already described, you will also find a quick start guide, user manual and silicone ear tips beneath the protective foam.
Getting started with the EP-B80s is simple. The multipurpose button in the center of the inline controls on the headphones’ cable also serves as the power button for the unit. The first time you power the headphones on, they will go into pairing mode. Within a few seconds, you should see AUKEY EP-B80 appear in your mobile device’s Bluetooth device menu. Even though it was still a quick pairing for me, the process took a bit longer than some other Bluetooth headphones.
After I successfully paired the headphones to my iPhone XS, it was time to try them out. The headphones arrive with a set of the foam ear cushions installed. I’m not a big fan of the foam ear tips so I decided to remove them and replace them with a set of silicone tips. The foam tips were a little difficult to remove from the headphones without tearing them. The set that is pre-installed is also covered with a thin plastic wrap. The wrap made it hard to grip the foam and because of that, some of the foam started wearing as I pulled them off the headphones. I also want to point out here that the ear tips, in general, were harder to install and remove than other earphones I’ve used. I want tips to be secure, but I can usually roll my finger across the base of an earphone and have the tip gently come off. The tips on the Aukey headphones had to be pulled off.
Because I typically have issues with in-ear headphones fitting me properly, I installed the smallest ear tips possible. I placed the earphones inside my ear canal and then wound the loop around my ear to keep them secure during activities. I actually found the earphones to be quite comfortable and they also felt secure. I moved my head around quite a bit while I was listening to music and I never had any problems with the headphones moving while I was wearing them. I did, however, have a ‘fit’ issue with the earphone itself not resting far enough into my ear canal. Therefore, the sound I was getting was clear, but a bit hollow sounding. I did manually press the earphones into my ear canal a bit and hold it in place for a few seconds to see if that made a difference with the sound quality — it did. The sound was very rich and the bass was deep. It was actually the sound quality I hope for with on-ear/over-the-ear headphones. I was left disappointed when I removed my hands from my ears and the sound quality became tinny and lifeless again.
CONCLUSION
While I love the style of these particular earphones, they aren’t the right ones for me. They are built very well, have a unique style to them and provide a wonderful sound, but since they aren’t a great physical fit for me, I’m not getting a great experience with them and will probably look back to my other headphones as my main listening devices. Even though I had some problems with these headphones, that doesn’t mean that everyone will. In fact, I think someone who uses in-ear headphones on a regular basis will find these to be quite wonderful.
For more information, visit aukey.com
Find Aukey on Facebook and Twitter.
Related | https://medium.com/@macsources/aukey-ep-b80-keyseries-headphones-review-f62354702a31 | [] | 2019-01-11 19:33:52.651000+00:00 | ['Headphones'] |
How to Put Your Baby to Sleep? | As parents the biggest challenge you face is getting your baby to nap. This might not seem a mammoth task to you when your baby is sleepy, but when the baby gets into a cranky mood you will understand the difficulty level of the challenge., Nothing you do would work and the baby would continue to throw a tantrum completely refusing to go to sleep and in the process you also stay up, or, put all your work schedule on hold, depending upon the time of the day.
But, how do you manage this situation? You need to understand that you both want the nap time to work, so, before you wrap your baby in baby sleep swaddle, you must keep certain things in mind so, that this battle does not turn into a fully fledged war in future.
What should be done?
· You must follow a routine here, you follow a routine for feeding and cleaning, so why napping be an exception? What you must be doing here is fixing a routine for getting your baby to sleep and make sure that you maintain that every single day. If that routine gets disrupted, then that might create problems again for you. So, stick to your routine and do not allow your baby to fall asleep at odd hours something that might clash with regular sleep cycle.
· You must not always coax the baby to go to sleep, as you hold your baby wrapped in a blanket. No as you start maintaining the routine the baby will start getting used to it and finally they will eventually fall asleep on their own, this is a habit they must develop, otherwise you will always have to coax.
· You must be careful regarding your baby’s safety, if you are aware of SIDS, then you have to take every precaution possible. Before you put the baby to sleep you must ensure that there is no pillow, or, stuffed toy or, any kind of object including blankets. Make the place safer.
What you shouldn’t do?
· There is something that parents do, every time the baby makes any noise like crying, or, whimpering or, sneezing anything they immediately rush to the baby crib and wake up the baby. This is not going to work and would wake up the baby, it is ok to be concerned and it is important to check on the baby. The baby is taking time to fall asleep, so wait before you go and wake up the baby.
· If you are taking your baby out in a car, do not let them sleep in the car for a long time. It is best to place them properly on a mattress, or you could hold them in carry nest sleeping bag.
Just follow the rules and maintain the routine and in no time both of you will get used it and enjoy a peaceful nap time. | https://medium.com/@kicksandcrawl/how-to-put-your-baby-to-sleep-8ebb6b1a6c28 | ['Kicks'] | 2020-12-22 12:01:42.554000+00:00 | ['Baby Products', 'Baby', 'Newborn', 'Baby Clothes', 'Baby Care'] |
Transfer learning: the dos and don’ts | If you have recently started doing work in deep learning, especially image recognition, you might have seen the abundance of blog posts all over the internet, promising to teach you how to build a world-class image classifier in a dozen or fewer lines and just a few minutes on a modern GPU. What’s shocking is not the promise but the fact that most of these tutorials end up delivering on it. How is that possible? To those trained in ‘conventional’ machine learning techniques, the very idea that a model developed for one data set could simply be applied to a different one sounds absurd.
The answer is, of course, transfer learning, one of the most fascinating features of deep neural networks. In this post, we’ll first look at what transfer learning is, when it will work, when it might work, and why it won’t work in some cases, finally concluding with some pointers at best practices for transfer learning.
What is transfer learning?
Think of transfer learning like a container ship that takes the weights from one model and deploys them in your use case.
In their seminal paper on the subject, Pan and Yang (2010) give an elegant mathematical definition (see Subsection 2.2) of transfer learning. For our purposes, however, a much simpler definition will suffice: transfer learning uses what was learned for a particular task (sometimes called the source task) to solve a different task (the destination task). The assumption there is, of course, that the source and the destination task are sufficiently similar. That assumption is at the heart of transfer learning. We must therefore first understand why transfer learning works in the first place.
You might recall that your typical contemporary neural network — say, a multi-layer convolutional deep neural network (cDNN)–– consists of layers of neurons, each feeding forward its result according to the weights and biases of the network that were calculated as a result of training. This architecture was patterned after a particular process in the human brain that is rather similar to this, namely the Ventral Visual Stream.
An outline of the Ventral Visual Stream. The optic nerve (dark purple) carries information from both sides of the retina to the optic chiasm (OX), where they are separated depending on whether they came from the left or right part of the visual field. The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) separates the type of input. The projections from the LGN each side go into the corresponding primary visual area (V1). From there, it traverses the Ventral Visual Stream in increasing complexity and semanticity. Author’s figure.
The ventral stream begins in the primary visual cortex or V1, a part of the occipital lobe. V1 receives visual information from the lateral geniculate nucleus, a part of the thalamus that sends optical information to the occipital lobe while segmenting it into two types of information — inputs that are more useful for determining what you’re looking at (parvocellular layer of the LGN) and inputs more useful for determining where something is (magnocellular layer of the LGN). Both end up in the primary visual cortex, but the ventral visual stream is fed by the ‘what’ information, from the parvocellular layer of the LGN: slow, but sustained and detailed information about objects, originating from retinal ganglion cells called P cells.
The outputs (sometimes called projections) of P cells are then processed as they traverse the ventral visual stream, from V1 through V2, V4 and eventually the inferior temporal (IT) lobe. It was found using excitation experiments that while cells in V1 respond to pretty simple patterns (primarily, edges, their orientation, colours and spatial frequencies), V2 responds to more complex notions, including certain Gestalt phenomena such as ‘subjective contours’. Eventually, proceeding gradually to the inferior temporal lobe, neurons respond to increasingly complex patterns.
CaffeNet’s cat recogniser, reverse engineered by DeconvNet. Note the increasing semanticity as the layer number increases, from simple geometries in convolutional layer (CL) 1 to geometries in context (CL 2), composite geometries (CL 3 and 4) to semantically meaningful and specific filters for the class of objects (CL 5). Image from Qin et al. (2018).
We see this replicated in deep neural networks. A technique called a Zeiler-Fergus deconvolutional network allows us to see what patterns a particular layer (often referred to as a ‘filter’ in this context) would most respond to (activation maximisation)— that is, the ‘kinds’ of structures that excite that particular neuron the most (you might be familiar with some of these shapes from Google’s DeepDream algorithms). As the layers increase, the complexity of shapes increases. While we see simple edges or even blocks of colours in the first layers, later layers reveal more complex patterns and final layers’ activations are often recognisable as the intended class. They also become increasingly semantic — a combination of lines are together weighted as a filter that recognises a triangle, combinations of triangle filters recognise two ears, in combination with other filters, it begins to recognise a dog’s face as distinct from a cat’s.
The idea of transfer learning is inherent in the fact that neural networks are layer-wise self-contained — that is, you can remove all layers after a particular layer, bolt on a fully connected layer with a different number of neurons and random weights, and get a working neural network. This is the basis of transfer learning. In transfer learning, we use what well-trained, well-constructed networks have learned over large sets, and apply them to boost the performance of a detector on a smaller (usually by several orders of magnitude!) data set.
To transfer or not to transfer
From the above, some facts emerge about the utility (and disutility) of transfer learning. The biggest benefit of transfer learning shows when the target data set is relatively small. In many of these cases, the model may be prone to overfitting, and data augmentation may not always solve the overall problem. Therefore, transfer learning is best applied where the source task’s model has been trained on a vastly bigger training set than could be acquired for the destination task. This may be the case because instances for a particular thing are hard to come by (e.g. when working on the synthesis or recognition of a voice of which only few samples exist), or where labelled instances are difficult to obtain (e.g. in the context of diagnostic radiology, labelled images are often hard to get, especially for rare conditions).
A model where there are approximately the same amount of data for each task might still benefit from transfer learning if there is a risk of overfitting, as it often occurs when the destination task is highly domain-specific. In fact, in training a large domain specific dCNN might be counterproductive, as it might overfit to the particular domain. It is overall then sometimes advisable to use transfer learning where the source and destination task’s training sets are of the same size.
In practice, in computer vision, it is very common to use gold standard networks, trained on massive image data sets––such as ImageNet’s 1.2 million images over 1,000 categories––as the point of departure for even quite domain-specific tasks, such as evaluating chest radiographs. A number of modern machine-learning packages, especially high-level packages like Caffe , fastai and keras , come with their own built-in model zoo, allowing easy access to a pre-trained dCNN. It is, then, only a question of removing the topmost layers, adding one or more new layers and retraining (fine-tuning) the model. The new model will immediately benefit for the weeks of laborious training that go into creating a model like ResNet50 , NASNet or Inceptionv3 . Overall, when used appropriately, transfer learning will give you a trifecta of benefits: a higher starting accuracy, faster convergence and higher asymptotic accuracy (the accuracy level to which the training converges). Recently, some fairly promising sites have sprung up that catalogue various pre-trained models––my favourites are ModelDepot and ModelZoo, the latter having a vast database filterable by framework and solution, including many pre-trained GANs.
Some best practices | https://medium.com/starschema-blog/transfer-learning-the-dos-and-donts-165729d66625 | ['Chris Von Csefalvay'] | 2019-03-18 08:45:29.418000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Neural Networks', 'AI', 'Deep Learning', 'Machine Learning'] |
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✌ THE STORY ✌
Its and Jeremy Camp (K.J. Apa) is a and aspiring musician who like only to honor his God through the energy of music. Leaving his Indiana home for the warmer climate of California and a college or university education, Jeremy soon comes Bookmark this site across one Melissa Heing (Britt Robertson), a fellow university student that he takes notices in the audience at an area concert. Bookmark this site Falling for cupid’s arrow immediately, he introduces himself to her and quickly discovers that she is drawn to him too. However, Melissa holds back from forming a budding relationship as she fears it`ll create an awkward situation between Jeremy and their mutual friend, Jean-Luc (Nathan Parson), a fellow musician and who also has feeling for Melissa. Still, Jeremy is relentless in his quest for her until they eventually end up in a loving dating relationship. However, their youthful courtship Bookmark this sitewith the other person comes to a halt when life-threating news of Melissa having cancer takes center stage. The diagnosis does nothing to deter Jeremey’s love on her behalf and the couple eventually marries shortly thereafter. Howsoever, they soon find themselves walking an excellent line between a life together and suffering by her Bookmark this siteillness; with Jeremy questioning his faith in music, himself, and with God himself.
✌ STREAMING MEDIA ✌
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb to stream refers to the procedure of delivering or obtaining media this way.[clarification needed] Streaming identifies the delivery approach to the medium, rather than the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies especially 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, audio tracks CDs). There are challenges with streaming content on the web. For instance, users whose Internet connection lacks sufficient bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of this content. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain content.
Streaming is an alternative to file downloading, an activity in which the end-user obtains the entire file for the content before watching or listening to it. Through streaming, an end-user may use their media player to get started on playing digital video or digital sound content before the complete file has been transmitted. The term “streaming media” can connect with media other than video and audio, such as for example live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are considered “streaming text”.
This brings me around to discussing us, a film release of the Christian religio us faith-based . As almost customary, Hollywood usually generates two (maybe three) films of this variety movies within their yearly theatrical release lineup, with the releases usually being around spring us and / or fall respectfully. I didn’t hear much when this movie was initially aounced (probably got buried underneath all of the popular movies news on the newsfeed). My first actual glimpse of the movie was when the film’s movie trailer premiered, which looked somewhat interesting if you ask me. Yes, it looked the movie was goa be the typical “faith-based” vibe, but it was going to be directed by the Erwin Brothers, who directed I COULD Only Imagine (a film that I did so like). Plus, the trailer for I Still Believe premiered for quite some us, so I continued seeing it most of us when I visited my local cinema. You can sort of say that it was a bit “engrained in my brain”. Thus, I was a lttle bit keen on seeing it. Fortunately, I was able to see it before the COVID-9 outbreak closed the movie theaters down (saw it during its opening night), but, because of work scheduling, I haven’t had the us to do my review for it…. as yet. And what did I think of it? Well, it was pretty “meh”. While its heart is certainly in the proper place and quite sincere, us is a little too preachy and unbalanced within its narrative execution and character developments. The religious message is plainly there, but takes way too many detours and not focusing on certain aspects that weigh the feature’s presentation.
✌ TELEVISION SHOW AND HISTORY ✌
A tv set show (often simply Television show) is any content prBookmark this siteoduced for broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, cable, or internet and typically viewed on a television set set, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are usually placed between shows. Tv shows are most often scheduled well ahead of The War with Grandpa and appearance on electronic guides or other TV listings.
A television show may also be called a tv set program (British EnBookmark this siteglish: programme), especially if it lacks a narrative structure. A tv set Movies is The War with Grandpaually released in episodes that follow a narrative, and so are The War with Grandpaually split into seasons (The War with Grandpa and Canada) or Movies (UK) — yearly or semiaual sets of new episodes. A show with a restricted number of episodes could be called a miniMBookmark this siteovies, serial, or limited Movies. A one-The War with Grandpa show may be called a “special”. A television film (“made-for-TV movie” or “televisioBookmark this siten movie”) is a film that is initially broadcast on television set rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video.
Television shows may very well be Bookmark this sitehey are broadcast in real The War with Grandpa (live), be recorded on home video or an electronic video recorder for later viewing, or be looked at on demand via a set-top box or streameBookmark this sited on the internet.
The first television set shows were experimental, sporadic broadcasts viewable only within an extremely short range from the broadcast tower starting in the. Televised events such as the 944 Summer OlyBookmark this sitempics in Germany, the 944 coronation of King George VI in the UK, and David Sarnoff’s famoThe War with Grandpa introduction at the 9 New York World’s Fair in the The War with Grandpa spurreBookmark this sited a rise in the medium, but World War II put a halt to development until after the war. The 944 World Movies inspired many Americans to buy their first tv set and in 94, the favorite radio show Texaco Star Theater made the move and became the first weekly televised variety show, earning host Milton Berle the name “Mr Television” and demonstrating that the medium was a well balanced, modern form of entertainment which could attract advertisers. The firsBookmBookmark this siteark this sitet national live tv broadcast in the The War with Grandpa took place on September 4, 94 when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in SAN FRAThe Good Doctor CO BAY AREA was transmitted over AT&T’s transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system to broadcast stations in local markets.
✌ FINAL THOUGHTS ✌
The power of faith, love, and affinity for take center stage in Jeremy Camp’s life story in the movie I Still Believe. Directors Andrew and Jon Erwin (the Erwin Brothers) examine the life span and The War with Grandpas of Jeremy Camp’s life story; pin-pointing his early life along with his relationship Melissa Heing because they battle hardships and their enduring love for one another through difficult. While the movie’s intent and thematic message of a person’s faith through troublen is indeed palpable plus the likeable mThe War with Grandpaical performances, the film certainly strules to look for a cinematic footing in its execution, including a sluish pace, fragmented pieces, predicable plot beats, too preachy / cheesy dialogue moments, over utilized religion overtones, and mismanagement of many of its secondary /supporting characters. If you ask me, this movie was somewhere between okay and “meh”. It had been definitely a Christian faith-based movie endeavor Bookmark this web site (from begin to finish) and definitely had its moments, nonetheless it failed to resonate with me; struling to locate a proper balance in its undertaking. Personally, regardless of the story, it could’ve been better. My recommendation for this movie is an “iffy choice” at best as some should (nothing wrong with that), while others will not and dismiss it altogether. Whatever your stance on religion faith-based flicks, stands as more of a cautionary tale of sorts; demonstrating how a poignant and heartfelt story of real-life drama could be problematic when translating it to a cinematic endeavor. For me personally, I believe in Jeremy Camp’s story / message, but not so much the feature.
FIND US:
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✔️ Instagram: https://instagram.com
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✔️ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com | https://medium.com/star-trek-discovery-2020-s3-e11-episode-11-sukal/3x11-star-trek-discovery-series-3-episode-11-online-ac699be519fd | ['Maxine Freeman'] | 2020-12-25 16:37:52.684000+00:00 | ['Illumination', 'Start', 'Covid 19', 'Life'] |
In the Grip of Colonialism | In the Grip of Colonialism
As the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, President Trump and his allies are calling plays from an old playbook
A report from the 1866 International Sanitary Conference regarding “Asiatic Cholera,” also known as regular old “cholera.” Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University
Wong Chut King couldn’t have known why he felt so warm. His billowing black shirt and pant stuck to him like tar, and he was grateful for the damp coolness that trickled into his room from the sidewalk above.
Dreams didn’t come easy that night. Burning incense mixed with the scent of his vomit and feces, creating a putrid miasma that made it even harder for his fluid-filled lungs to breathe. His body ached to the bone, every inch of skin prickling with heat. The wooden slab he used as a bed was slick with sweat and grime, and his desperate cries for help went unheard.
Wong moved to America sometime in the 1880s, sending the bulk of what paltry income he earned in San Francisco’s lumber yards to his wife and family in China. He lived in a building crammed with nearly three hundred other Chinese immigrants. Turn of the century California was a hostile place for Asian immigrants. The mayor of San Francisco pledged to “Keep California White,” and the state’s Sinophobic legislature nudged Congress toward passing the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Wong spent his last hours in a dizzying frenzy of fever, delirium, and pain. It’s impossible to know what he felt before slipping into a coma. Perhaps shame or guilt (he initially sought treatment for a sexually transmitted disease). Maybe relief that his suffering was at an end. Or was he proud of the sacrifices he made to give his family a better life?
On March 6th, 1900, Wong Chut King died, becoming the first-ever case of plague in the United States.
A not-so-subtle magazine cover targeting Chinatown as the source of three ghastly diseases. Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
Once alerted to a potential case of plague, city officials forcefully responded. Residents of Chinatown awoke to ropes and police officers. Nearly twenty thousand people, confined to a space of less than one square mile, trapped. If any attempted to flee, police beat them with a baton. After two terrifying days, the city lifted the quarantine, but the Asian community became lepers in a city that hardly knew they existed.
White residents had a very different experience. In its March 9th edition, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote:
The general public, having nothing at stake but its health, laughed and demonstrated its lack of fear for the Health Board’s bubonic bogy by crowding every avenue into Chinatown.
Plague? What plague? It’s nothing more than a ruse to drain the city’s coffers! Even the U.S. Surgeon General says the disease is “peculiar to the Orient, and seldom, if ever, attacks Europeans.”
One would be hard-pressed to spot the differences between those who paraded around Chinatown amid an outbreak of plague and the anti-lockdown protesters who cry tyranny when asked to go without a haircut for a month or two. Both are examples of white privilege and America’s obsession with individual liberty. Acting in one’s self-interest is as American as apple pie, but San Francisco’s racially motivated quarantine and the simmering Sinophobia we see today have their roots in something deeper and more immutable. | https://vincewritesok.medium.com/the-colonial-roots-of-international-disease-management-d4aaae70c8ff | ['Vincent Labarca'] | 2020-09-08 22:24:50.794000+00:00 | ['History', 'Medicine', 'Covid 19', 'Trump', 'Coronavirus'] |
Integrating Vue with Spring Boot | In this tutorial, I will show you step by step to integrate Vue.js with Spring Boot so that Spring Boot project can serve Vue App. You will also know how to configure Vue SPA Routing to avoid Whitelabel Error Page.
Vue & Spring Boot application Overview
Assume that we have 2 projects: Vue & Spring Boot:
For example, if we run them separately:
Spring Boot Server exports Rest Apis at Url: http://localhost:8080/
Vue.js Client runs at url: http://localhost:8081/
Using Vue to call Spring Rest API:
Otherwise, when deploying Vue production-build with Spring Boot project, we only need to run Spring Boot Project for the fullstack (Vue.js + Spring Boot) system.
In this example, we access http://localhost:8080/ .
Technology Stack
Node.js
Vue 2.6
Vue Router 3
Vue Cli Service 4
Spring Boot 2
Spring Tool Suite
Maven 3.6.1
Setup Vue Client
You can use your own Vue.js Project, or just download the source code on Github, or follow these steps to create a new one.
Open cmd at the folder you want to save Project folder, run command:
vue create vue-js-crud
You will see some options, choose default (babel, eslint).
After the process is done. We create new folders and files like the following tree:
public
— index.html
src
— components
— — AddTutorial.vue
— — Tutorial.vue
— — TutorialsList.vue
— services
— — TutorialDataService.js
— App.vue
— main.js
package.json
Because I want to keep this tutorial simple and brief, please continue to develop this App with instruction in the post:
Vue.js 2 CRUD Application with Vue Router & Axios
Import Vue Project to Spring Tool Suite
Open Spring Tool Suite, right click on Package Explorer and choose Import -> General -> Projects from Folder or Archieve, press Next.
Find the Vue.js Project that we’ve just created above and press Finish, vue-js-crud is imported like this:
To clean the source code in STS, we need to remove node_modules folder by following the steps:
Right click on vue-js-crud project, choose Properties , then Resource -> Resource Filter .
project, choose , then -> . Press Add Filter…, choose Filter Type: Exclude all, Applies to: Files and folders, and check All children (recursive), with ‘File and Folder Atributes’, we specify node_modules:
Press OK, then Apply, the result will be like this:
Setup Spring Boot Server
You can use your own Spring Boot Project, or just download the source code on Github, or follow these steps to create a new one.
Use Spring web tool or your development tool (Spring Tool Suite, Eclipse, Intellij) to create a Spring Boot project.
Then open pom.xml and add these dependencies:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
</dependency> <dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency> <dependency>
<groupId>mysql</groupId>
<artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
The instruction can be found in the post:
Spring Boot, Spring Data JPA — Rest CRUD API example
Now we have 2 projects together in Spring Tool Suite:
Let’s continue to the most important part.
Integrating Vue.js with Spring Boot
Build Vue App
Currently Vue Client and Express server work independently on ports 8081 and 8080 .
The first thing we need to do is to build Vue App for production.
Open package.json file, modify the scripts so that output files and folders will be stored in build folder:
{
...
"scripts": {
"serve": "vue-cli-service serve",
"build": "vue-cli-service build --dest build",
"lint": "vue-cli-service lint"
},
...
}
Run command: npm run build
E:\STS\WorkPlace\vue-js-crud>npm run build > [email protected] build E:\STS\WorkPlace\vue-js-crud
> vue-cli-service build --dest build
| Building for production...Browserslist: caniuse-lite is outdated. Please run next command `npm update
`
/ Building for production...Browserslist: caniuse-lite is outdated. Please run next command `npm update
`
| Building for production... DONE Compiled successfully in 19202ms 6:50:36 PM File Size Gzipped build\js\chunk-vendors.6a5b8348.js 115.12 KiB 40.60 KiB
build\js\chunk-1b8a9a30.48200924.js 17.45 KiB 6.13 KiB
build\js\chunk-24926a39.dbd26b18.js 8.95 KiB 3.51 KiB
build\js\chunk-7d82c670.cf3aa735.js 7.73 KiB 3.25 KiB
build\js\app.7e2a4494.js 4.81 KiB 2.07 KiB
build\js\chunk-29724baf.89c3a7e4.js 2.98 KiB 1.10 KiB
build\css\chunk-29724baf.1ae50cfb.css 0.05 KiB 0.07 KiB
build\css\chunk-7d82c670.465f69d9.css 0.04 KiB 0.06 KiB
build\css\chunk-24926a39.2d561e0d.css 0.04 KiB 0.06 KiB Images and other types of assets omitted.
INFO Check out deployment instructions at DONE Build complete. The build directory is ready to be deployed.INFO Check out deployment instructions at https://cli.vuejs.org/guide/deployment.html
Now you can see new build folder with content as following:
Integrate Vue production into Spring Boot Project
Now we need to copy all files from Vue build folder to src/target/classes/static folder of Spring Boot project.
There are 2 way to do this:
Manually copy/paste Using maven-resources-plugin
Open pom.xml, add following plugin:
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin> <plugin>
<artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>copy-resources</id>
<phase>validate</phase>
<goals>
<goal>copy-resources</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<outputDirectory>${basedir}/target/classes/static/</outputDirectory>
<resources>
<resource>
<directory>${basedir}/../vue-js-crud/build</directory>
</resource>
</resources>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
In the code above, we specify outputDirectory for the destination folder, and resource>directory for the source folder.
Serve Vue App on Spring Boot
Build and run the Spring Boot server with commands:
– mvn clean install
– mvn spring-boot:run
Open browser with url: http://localhost:8080/ .
The result:
Spring Boot + Vue: Whitelabel Error Page
Oh yeah! Everything looks good.
But wait, let’s try to refresh the page.
What happened?
To handle this error, we’re gonna re-enable hash(#) in Vue App Routing. It will keep the UI route in hash part of the URL, which should not make the server return 404.
The default mode for Vue Router is hash mode. It uses a URL hash to simulate a full URL so that the page won’t be reloaded when the URL changes. In the source code, we already set Vue Router to history mode to get rid of the hash.
So, in Vue Project, let’s open router.js file and comment or remove mode: "history" :
import Vue from "vue";
import Router from "vue-router"; Vue.use(Router); export default new Router({
// mode: "history",
routes: [
{
..
}
]
});
Don’t forget to rebuild the Vue App and copy all files and folders in build directory (Vue project) into views (Node.js Express project).
Now Our Url is hashed(#) after port number: http://localhost:8080/#/tutorials
Now you can refresh the page without worrying about Whitelabel Error.
Conclusion
Today we’ve learned how to integrate Vue.js with Spring Boot Application. We also handle “Whitelabel Error Page” case for Spring Boot + Vue Project. Now you can use Spring Boot to serve Vue App easily on the same server/port.
There are many fullstack Spring Boot + Vue examples that you can apply this approach to integrate:
– Vue.js + Spring Boot + MySQL/PostgreSQL example
– Vue.js + Spring Boot + MongoDB example
– Spring Boot + Vue.js: Authentication with JWT & Spring Security Example
Serverless:
– Vue Firebase Realtime Database: CRUD example
– Vue Firestore: Build a CRUD App example
Further Reading
Source Code
You can find the complete source code for this tutorial at Github. | https://medium.com/@bezkoder/integrating-vue-with-spring-boot-489573caccbf | [] | 2020-12-14 04:43:40.192000+00:00 | ['Integration', 'Spring Boot', 'Vue', 'Vuejs', 'Spring Boot 2'] |
10 Pitfalls In Reactive Programming | 10 Pitfalls In Reactive Programming
with Pivotal’s Reactor
I’ve been doing Scala projects with Akka Streams for quite a few years now and I have a reasonably good feeling of things to watch out for. At my current project we are doing Java and we are using a different implementation of the Reactive Streams Specification: Reactor. While learning the library I stumbled upon many common mistakes and bad practices which I’ll be listing here. Credits to Enric Sala for pointing out these bad practices.
Reactive Streams
Firstly, let’s have a look at the Reactive Streams Specification and see how Reactor maps to that. The spec is pretty straight forward
There’s a Publisher that is a potential source of data. One can subscribe to a Publisher with a Subscriber . One passes a Subscription to a Subscriber . The Subscription is used to demand elements from the Publisher . This is the core principle of Reactive Streams. The demand controls whether data can flow through.
With Reactor roughly there’s two basic types that you are dealing with:
Mono , a Publisher containing 0 or 1 element Flux , a Publisher container 0..N elements
There’s a type called CoreSubscriber which implements the Subscriber interface, but this is more like an internal API. As a user of the library you don’t really have to use this directly. One can “subscribe” to a Mono or Flux in a blocking way by using one of the block method variants. One can also use the subscribe method to for instance register a lambda. This will return a Disposable type which can be used to cancel the subscription.
10 pitfalls
Alright, enough theory. Let’s dive into some code. Below I’ll list 10 potentially problematic code snippets. Some will be plain wrong, others are more like a bad practice or a smell. Can you spot them?
#1: Whoop Whoop Reactive!
Let’s start simple and try to use a Mono type.
So what’s going on here? In our problem method we are calling an update method which returns a Mono<Void> . It’s a void, because we don’t really care about the result, so what could be wrong here?
Well, the update method actually won’t be executed at all. Remember that the demand determines whether data can flow through? And that the demand is controlled by the subscription. In this snippet we didn’t subscribe at all to the Mono , hence it won’t be executed.
The fix is pretty simple. We just have to use a terminal operation, like one of the block or subscribe variants.
Alternatively, we could propagate the Mono to the caller of the problem method.
#2: Reactive + Reactive = Reactive
Now we know how to deal with reactive methods, let’s try to compose them.
First we are calling create and then we use doOnNext to make a call to the update method. The then() call ensures we are returning a Mono<Void> type. Should be fine, right?
It might surprise you that also in this case the update method won’t be executed. Using doOnNext or any of the doOn* methods are NOT subscribing to publishers.
#3: Subscribe all the Publishers!
Cool, we know how to fix this! Just subscribe the inner publisher, right?
This might actually work, however the inner subscription won’t be nicely propagated. That means we don’t have any control of it as a subscriber to the publisher returned by the problem method.
The take away here is to only use doOn* methods for side-effects, e.g. logging, uploading metrics.
To fix this code properly and propagate the inner subscription we need to use one of the map flavours. Let’s use flatMap since we want to flatten the inner Mono and compose a single stream. We can also drop the then() call, because flatMap will already return the type of the inner publisher; Mono<Void> .
Just flatMap that sh*t! Sweet :)
#4: I didn’t quite catch that…
Are you ready for another one?
This time we do subscribe to the Mono returned by the update method. It could potentially throw an Exception so we apply defensive programming and wrap the call in a try-catch block.
However, as the subscribe method doesn’t necessarily block, we might not catch the exception at all. A simple try-catch structure doesn’t help with (potentially) asynchronous code.
To fix it we can either use block() again instead of subscribe() or we can use one of the built-in error handling mechanisms.
You can use any of the onError* methods to register an “on-error hook” and return a fallback publisher.
#5: Watch me
Let’s have a look at the following snippet
What we are trying to achieve here is to subscribe to the update and transform the result to a Mono<Integer> . Hence, we use the map operation to get the length of the string foo.
Although the update will be executed at some point, we are again not propagating the inner subscription, similar to pitfall #3. The inner subscription is detached and we have no control over it.
A better way would be to once again use flatMap and transform the result using the thenReturn operator.
Should you bother to use subscribe at all? Most of the time not. There are a few potential use cases:
Short-lived fire-and-forget tasks (e.g. telemetry, uploading logs). Please be mindful about concurrency and execution context. Long-running background jobs. Remember the Disposable that is being returned. Use it for lifecycle control.
#6: Don’t count on it…
The next one might be a tricky one
Here we are simply accumulating all numbers flowing through our stream using a doOnNext operator and print out the resulting sum when the stream completes using the doOnComplete operator. We are using an AtomicInteger to guarantee thread-safe increments.
This might seem to work when calling problem().block() once or even multiple times. However, we will a completely different outcome if we subscribe to the result of problem() multiple times. Moreover, if for whatever reason downstream a subscription gets renewed the count will be off too. This happens due to the fact that we are collecting state outside of the publisher. There is shared mutable state amongst all subscribers, which is a pretty bad smell.
The proper way would be to defer the initialisation of the state to the publisher, for instance by wrapping it in a Mono as well. That way every subscriber keeps its own count.
#7: Close, but no Cigar
The next one has a similar issue. Can you spot it?
Here we are trying to upload an input stream and our UploadService is nice enough to close it for us when we are done using the doFinally operator. To ensure we finish the upload successfully we want to retry five times on any failure using the retry operator.
When a retry kicks in we will notice that the input stream is already closed and all our retries will be exhausted with an IOException . Similar to the previous case we are dealing with state outside of the publisher here, namely the input stream. We are closing it, hence changing its state, by using the doFinally operator. This is a side-effect which we should avoid.
The solution once again is to defer the creation of the input stream to the publisher.
#8: Trick or Thread
The following issue is likely the most subtle one out of the ten, but nevertheless good to be aware of
Here we are doing everything right on first glance. We are once again composing two publisher, this time by using flatMap .
This code will probably work, but it’s worthwhile realising what’s going on behind the scenes. While flatMap looks like a simple mutator similar to the ones on a collection like API, in Reactor it’s an asynchronous operator. The inner publisher will be subscribed to asynchronously. This leads to uncontrolled parallelism. Depending on how many elements our Flux<String> findAll() will emit we are potentially starting 100’s of concurrent sub streams. This is probably not what you want and I think the Reactor API should be more explicit about this if not disallow this.
With Akka Streams for instance this wouldn’t even be possible. The corresponding operator is explicitly called mapAsync , which gives you a clear indication that you are dealing with concurrent execution here. Moreover, it strictly requires you to explicitly limit the concurrency by passing a parallelism integer parameter.
Luckily there’s an overload for flatMap in Reactor that allows you to configure the parallelism as well.
Often you wouldn’t even need parallelism at all. If you just want to compose two streams synchronously you can use the concatMap operator.
#9: My Stream is Leaking
Almost there. When writing reactive code you sometimes have to integrate with non-reactive code. This is what the following snippet is about.
This code is almost too simple. We are dealing with a Flux<String>, but we don’t want our API to expose reactive types. Therefore, we are converting our stream to an Iterable<String> using the built-in toIterable method.
While this will probably lead to the expected result, transforming a Reactor stream to an Iterable in this way is a smell. An Iterable does not support closing so the publisher will never know when it’s done. Frankly, I don’t understand why toIterable is even part of the stream API. I think we should avoid it!
The alternative is to convert to the newer java.util.Stream API using the toStream method. This does support closing of the resources neatly.
#10: I don’t want this to end
If you came this far, congrats! You might not want this to end, like in the code snippet below
Here we continuously want to observe a stream and save each element as it flows through. This will be a potentially endless stream so we don’t want to block the main thread. Therefore, we are subscribing to the elastic Scheduler using the subscribeOn operator. This scheduler dynamically creates ExecutorService -based workers and caches the thread pools for reuse. Finally, we call subscribe() to make sure the stream will be executed.
The issue here is that any failure in either the observe upstream or the inner publisher created by save will result in termination of the stream. We are lacking error handlers or a retry mechanism.
One can for instance
register an error handler using one of the onError* operators use any of the retry operator variants on either the inner or outer publisher use the doOnTerminate hook to restart the complete stream.
Conclusion
So, lessons learned. If you can take away a few things from this it would be the following
Don’t make any assumptions about other publishers
The upstream can fail, so you need to handle potential errors and think about retries and fallbacks Control concurrency and execution context. Keep things simple and prefer concatMap over flatMap if you don’t strictly need parallel execution. If you do need parallelism, be explicit about its limits using the flatMap(lambda, parallelism) overload. Also, in those cases use subscribeOn to use an appropriate Scheduler .
Don’t make any assumptions about other subscribers
Avoid side-effects and closing over mutable state outside the publisher It should be always safe to (re)subscribe
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and learned some things, like I did :) | https://medium.com/jeroen-rosenberg/10-pitfalls-in-reactive-programming-de5fe042dfc6 | ['Jeroen Rosenberg'] | 2019-11-28 19:16:17.495000+00:00 | ['Java', 'Streaming', 'Reactive Streams', 'Reactor', 'Reactive Programming'] |
“What Happened to the Civil Rights Movement After 1965? Don’t Ask Your Textbook” | “It’s no accident my students learn a narrative that stops in 1965. Most history textbooks end their chapter on the Civil Rights Movement with a short one- or two-page section on “Black Power” that covers Malcolm X and a few post-1965 events…
Textbooks reinforce the Voting Rights Act-as-the-end-of-the-movement narrative when they draw a line between the Civil Rights Movement and the call for Black Power. One example is Teachers Curriculum Institute’s widely used History Alive! The United States. One page after extolling the virtues of the Voting Rights Act, the authors write in their “Black Power” section:
By the time King died, many African Americans had lost faith in his vision of a society in which the color of a person’s skin didn’t matter. Angry young African Americans looked instead to new leaders who talked about black pride and black power.
Missing from this passage is the angry young King, who reminded us after 1965 that his dream had “turned into a nightmare,” who attacked segregation in the North, who opposed the Vietnam War, who advocated for a massive redistribution of wealth, who called for Black pride, and who worked closely with Black Power proponents…
The broader curricular crime is that History Alive! teaches students to accept the turn to Black Power as the end of the successful Civil Rights Movement, and therefore not worth spending class time exploring” | https://medium.com/on-race-isms/what-happened-to-the-civil-rights-movement-after-1965-dont-ask-your-textbook-4f257193cb1f | ['Jess Brooks'] | 2017-12-28 11:31:01.988000+00:00 | ['Civil Rights', 'History', 'Activism'] |
4 Ideas to Save Money in a Simple Way | 4 Ideas to Save Money in a Simple Way
Photo by Morgan Vander Hart on Unsplash
When you think of wealth, things usually come to your mind like starting a big company or living a very frugal life. So if you don’t want to start the next big thing, it seems like you can only build long-term wealth with absolute renunciation.
Both are certainly justified, but saving can also be easier and that is mainly due to the unnecessary expenses you have. Many people do not realize that in their everyday life they spend money on things that either do not represent any value in their lives or can be obtained through simple and cheaper alternatives.
Those who take these ideas to the heart can save some money, which can be reinvested later. Because one thing is clear, those who only save and no longer earn or invest make it unnecessarily difficult to build wealth. So this advice always goes hand in hand with an increased supply of money.
Use your legs
Everyone imagines that wealth means having a big car. However, before you can buy a big car, you have to earn the money for it.
The easiest way to do this is simply not to own a car.
Since many young people, in particular, are moving to cities these days, this is not a problem at all, because actually, all cities have a well-developed local transport network. The tickets are much cheaper than if you had a car.
The car has, on the one hand, the acquisition costs and on the other hand the everyday costs such as insurance and refueling. This makes a car more of a burden than a convenience, especially for young people.
Of course, this is a different situation for people who live in the suburbs or villages and many are therefore dependent on their cars. However, if you have the chance to replace the car, do it.
It’s one of the fastest ways to save thousands of dollars a year. Besides, the more people use public transport, the more public transport will be expanded. It is a win-win situation. If your workplace is of course close enough, you can also walk.
Because walking doesn’t cost a penny.
Use what you have
In many western countries, the quality of the tap water is so good that you can drink it without any health risks. Far too many people today still drink soft drinks that are not only bad for their health but also cost a lot of money.
So if you have the option to drink tap water, do it. Fill it up, take it to work, and drink a few cups throughout the day. If you always have your bottle with you, then you don’t have to be afraid that you grab a soft drink.
The same applies of course to your coffee consumption. If you have a coffee machine at home, buy a reusable cup and fill your coffee in your cup in the morning. Coffee is extremely expensive in stores if you take a closer look and they often make a huge profit with it.
So you will be robbed with every purchase without knowing it. A cup of coffee at home therefore only costs a few cents and if you buy it from a bakery, it will quickly cost around three dollars.
Do you want to be robbed? I do not think so. So be smart and save with the things you already have.
Food, Food, Food
I’m not suggesting that you eat the same thing every day like all the Instagram gurus are saying. Rather, that when you shop, you decide what you want to eat in a week.
This has to do with the fact that you want to keep your purchase as cheap as possible, but also that you don’t want to waste food. Because groceries can be expensive and since you want to save every penny, it doesn’t make sense to throw anything away.
So make a list before each purchase and only buy what is on the list. Then you take one day a week to cook for the next few days and divide everything into small boxes. You will see that you waste less and pay more attention to your diet.
When you stand in front of the shelf
It is often the case that we are in a shop and we are attracted to an object. It quickly happens that we also buy it. You have to prevent that.
When you go to a store, always think before you buy anything. With every purchase, always ask yourself whether you still like it in a year. Compare that to your experience. If it has happened many times that you didn’t like a thing after buying it, then you should stay away from similar things. But if you are completely convinced of it, then buy it.
To save money you have to learn to appreciate things and to know your consumption. If you know yourself, you can save a lot of money.
As you can see, these potential savings are fairly easy to track and don’t require much effort. If you want to build wealth, you have to learn that even the smallest sum has value. Because if you think that you would invest this amount and make more money out of it, every little amount is an opportunity for your long-term wealth. | https://themakingofamillionaire.com/4-ideas-to-save-money-in-a-simple-way-1860dd3d5f22 | [] | 2020-04-04 15:21:00.820000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'Money', 'Wealth', 'Advice', 'Saving Money'] |
10 Interview Questions for a JavaScript developer | Truthy and Falsy:
‘Which terms are truthy and which are falsy’ is a common interview question for a JavaScript developer. Let’s try to clear the concept of truthy and falsy.
When the value of a declared variable is a number, then the numbers greater than 0 are truthy and if the number is smaller than 0 or equal to 0 then it would be falsy. But if we get 0 as a string then it is truthy.
In the case of string if anything assigned to a variable it is truthy even there is a whitespace between the double quote, that is also truthy. We can see some examples for better visualization.
//When value is number and grater than 0
const number = 5; if (number > 0) {
console.log("Truthy");
}
else{
console.log("Falsy");
} console.log(number); // Truthy // when value is 0 const number = 0;
if (number) {
console.log("Truthy");
}
else{
console.log("Falsy");
} console.log(number); // Falsy //When value is string
const name = "Mahveer"; if (name) {
console.log("Truthy");
}
else
{
console.log("Falsy");
} console.log(name);//Truthy //when value is whitespace
const name = " ";//whitespace
if (name) {
console.log("Truthy");
}
else
{
console.log("Falsy");
}
console.log(name); //when value is empty
const name = "";
if (name) {
console.log("Truthy");
}
else
{
console.log("Falsy");
} console.log(name);//Falsy //when value is undefined
let name;//undefined
if (name) {
console.log("Truthy");
}
else
{
console.log("Falsy");
} console.log(name);//Falsy //when value is null
let name = null;
if (name) {
console.log("Truthy");
}
else
{
console.log("Falsy");
} console.log(name);//Falsy
If the assigned value is false then the result is falsy but the value ‘false’ comes with a quotation then it is truthy because that time ‘false’ is a string and any string is truthy.
const name = false;
if (name) {
console.log("Truthy");
}
else
{
console.log("Falsy");
} console.log(name);//Falsy
//false as a string
const name = 'false';
if (name) {
console.log("Truthy");
}
else
{
console.log("Falsy");
} console.log(name);//Truthy
Empty array []; and empty object {}; are also truthy.
Undefined vs Null:
Undefined: ‘What is the difference between undefined and null?’ Sometimes interviewers ask this question to a JavaScript developer candidate.
First, I want to explain a bit in which cases we get the value ‘undefined’.
//when value is undefined let name; console.log(name);//undefined
We can see another example:
function sum(num1, num2){
console.log(num1 + num2)
}
const result = sum(15, 20);
console.log(result);//undefined
As there is nothing returned in this function the result got undefined.
When the function parameter is not defined, by default the value would be undefined.
function sum(x, y) { console.log(x, y); } const result = sum(10); console.log(result);// undefined
Here, the value of ‘x’ is 10 but the value of ‘y’ is not defined so we got the result undefined.
Null: Null means it does not exist. If we want a value null we have to set it explicitly.
Double equal(==) vs Triple equal(===):
To describe the difference between double equal and triple equal, first, we can take help from an example:
const first = 1; const second = true; if (fast == second) {
console.log("True");
}
else{
console.log("False");
} Result: True const first = 0;
const second = false; if (fast == second) {
console.log("True");
}
else{
console.log("False");
} Result: True
Now what occurs if we check the condition through (===)
const first = 1; const second = true; if (fast === second) {
console.log("True");
}
else{
console.log("False");
} Result: False const first = 0;
const second = false; if (fast == second) {
console.log("True");
}
else{
console.log("False");
} Result: False
We can see the results are different. So what is the reason behind this? well, the reason is when we check a condition through (==), it doesn’t check the type but in triple (===), the data type also checked. By default in JavaScript the 1 is considered as true and 0 is false. So when we checked by (==), we got the result true. But 1 and 0 are numbers and ‘true’, ‘false ’ are booleans so in (===) types are not matched.
Scope:
Let’s describe what is scope and how it is used.
function add(num1, num2) { let outpt = num1 + num2; return output; } console.log(output); //error console.log(add(20, 30));//50
Here, the result of output is showing an error because the output is declared into a function, so it is a block scope. And a block scope couldn’t be called from outside. Let’s see another example to understand the global scope.
let bonus = 10;
function add(num1, num2) { let outpt = num1 + num2 + bonus;
console.log(bonus);// 10 return output; } console.log(bonus); //10 console.log(add(20, 30));//60
Here we can access the value of bonus inside the function and as well as outside. Because the bonus variable is declared outside the function. So it is called global scope and global scope is accessible from anywhere.
Find the largest element of an array:
At the interview board, a candidate not only has to give the theoretical question’s answer but also has to solve the given problems. Amongst them ‘Find the largest element of an array’ is one of the common questions.
Here I am giving an example to find the largest element of an array:
const number = [55, 35, 65, 95, 25]; let max = number[0]; for (let i = 0; i < number.length; i++) { const element = number[i]; if(element > max){ max = element } } console.log(max);//95
Here, the first element of the array is assigned as the max number and through the for loop, we have got all the elements then one by one the element is checked through an if statement. If the element is greater than the max number then the max variable value would bt the element.
Sum of all numbers in an array:
In JavaScript there are several methods to get the sum of all numbers in an array. Here I am showing you how can we get the sum of numbers.
const number = [55, 35, 65, 95, 25]; let sum = 0; for (let i = 0; i < number.length; i++) { const element = number[i]; sum = sum + element } console.log(sum);//275
Here, the initial value of the sum variable is assigned as 0. Then through the for loop method of JavaScript when we get a number, that is added with the previous value of sum. Thus we can get the sum of the numbers in an array.
Remove duplicate item from an array:
Removing duplicate items can be another problem-solving question.
We can see this through an example:
const number = [55, 35, 65, 95, 25, 35, 55]; let newNumber = []; for (let i = 0; i < number.length; i++) { const element = number[i]; let index = newNumber.indexOf(element); if(index === -1){ newNumber.push(element) } } console.log(newNumber);//[ 55, 35, 65, 95, 25 ]
First, we have got the elements of the array through JavaScript for loop method. Then checked the index number of the element and if the index number hasn’t found in the new array then the number will be pushed into the new array. This way we can remove the duplicate numbers from an array.
Count the number of words in a string:
I am trying to explain how to count the number of words in a string with the example given below:
const myself = "I am a front end web developer" let count = 0; for (let i = 0; i < myself.length; i++) { const char = myself[i]; if(char === " " && myself[i-1] !== " "){ count++; } } count++; console.log(count);//7
Here, the method is working by counting the number of whitespaces. By mistake or intentionally one can give two whitespaces at a time. To fix it, this is checked through ‘myself[i-1]’ condition. Generally, no one gives whitespace at the end of a sentence. To count the last word ‘count++’ is used after the for loop.
Reverse a string:
If the given problem is how to reverse a string, my solution would be this:
function reverseText(string) { let reverse = ""; for (let i = 0; i < string.length; i++) { const char = string[i]; reverse = char + reverse; } return reverse; } const proverb = "Man is mortal"; const output = reverseText(proverb); console.log(output);//latrom si naM
First, I have made a function named ‘reverseText’. In this function, through for loop I have got the characters and they are added to the declared variable ‘reverse’. With the method ‘reverse = char + reverse’, every character added to the new string, before the previous character.
Check whether a number is a Prime Number or not:
In JavaScript we can check if a number is a prime number or not. Let’s see how we can check this:
function isPrime(n) { for (i = 2; i < n; i++) { if (n % i === 0) { return "Not a prime number"; } } return "A prime number" } const result = isPrime(7);//A prime number const result = isPrime(8);//Not a prime number console.log(result);
If a number is dividable only by ‘1’ and that given number, the number would be a prime number. The function ‘isPrime’ checked all the conditions and give the proper answer of the question. | https://nipa-farzana87.medium.com/10-interview-questions-for-a-javascript-developer-3cf9baf54974 | ['Farzana Nipa'] | 2020-11-05 14:57:17.643000+00:00 | ['Interview', 'JavaScript'] |
Submit Your Story to Transform the Pain | People need to hear your story. Share your experience, tell us what you are going through, how you are coping, what makes it hard, and what helps.
It’s through sharing our stories that we connect, learn, and help each other. Sharing your thoughts and feeling related to loss can be a healing experience that can also help others relate and better understand the process of grieving.
Click here to submit for the first time: https://transformthepain.typeform.com/to/QDLDn4
If you have Medium account, we’ll add you as a writer when your story gets published. From then on, you will be able to submit your stories directly through the Medium interface — for those of you who are not familiar with the process, here is how that goes: | https://medium.com/transform-the-pain/submit-your-story-to-transform-the-pain-56bedbd0440 | ['Mateja Klaric'] | 2020-09-19 07:53:57.225000+00:00 | ['Transformation', 'Medium', 'Writing', 'Grief And Loss', 'Call For Submissions'] |
My Son Went To School Today | My son went to school today.
He left his shoes in the breezeway again. I tripped over them as I was taking out the garbage. He forgot to do that too. I texted him and said, Child, You are triggering me.
He responded, Lol. Mom, did I tell you how much I love you yet?
My son went to school today.
I’ve been a little frustrated with him lately. His ACT’s were off the wall, so why aren’t his grades better? We sat him down and told him he needed to think of his future. He rolled his eyes. Now, is important too, guys.
He’s so young. He just doesn’t get it.
My son went to school today.
He’s been in such a great mood. He finally asked that Sia to prom and she said yes. I knew she would. Too bad they are both leaving for college in the fall.
My son went to school today.
He wants to major in English. I warned him that it was not a good major for getting a job. My husband said It’s a good background for law school. But my son doesn’t want to be a lawyer. He want to be a writer.
My son went to school today.
He left a copy of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road open on the coffee table. I saw the yellow highlighted passage.
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.
I teased him and told him Kerouac needed to learn to edit. He kissed me and whispered the Rolling Stones to me. What a drag it is getting old…
My son went to school today.
I’m sentimental about him leaving for college in the fall. It’s bittersweet. I don’t want him to leave but I’m proud of who he is. He hasn’t even left yet and I’m anxious for him to come back home.
My son went to school today.
I’m washing to the dishes and making a mental checklist of things I need to get from the grocery store. He still eats like a five-year-old. CNN is on in the background. Oh God. Another school shooting. We really need to get our shit together with that gun thing.
My son went to school today.
As I focus on the news, my knees suddenly feel weak. I sit down with a thump, Water still running.
My son went to school today.
My son went to school.
My son went.
My son. | https://medium.com/the-junction/my-son-went-to-school-today-a4c5cab5f007 | ['Emma Poe'] | 2018-05-18 23:46:03.572000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Gun Control', 'Short Story'] |
Baby Steps are the Key to Success | Whenever I was looking to make a change or start a new project, I became overwhelmed when I thought about all that needed to be done to get to the end.
For months I was considering starting a podcast. With a podcast comes: picking a name, creating a logo, buying equipment, reaching out to guests, recording the intro, choosing music, recording episodes, editing, marketing, etc. The list goes on and on.
Seeing that list, that seems intimidating, right?
That’s why I put it off for months.
I made it my New Year’s goal to get the podcast going. I started telling people so I could be held accountable.
I took it one step at a time.
Soon enough, the intimidating aspects of the podcasts weren’t as scary. I completed them relatively seamlessly. I even enjoyed the process.
Had I kept focusing on the bigger picture of the completed podcast, I might have let fear rule my ability to create it.
That is why it’s important to focus on baby steps. Here’s the way that I found works for me.
Write down a game-plan
Knowing the end goal is still important; just don’t let it hold you back. You want to see what you’re working towards and how to get there.
An outline of that is excellent.
Let’s say you’re looking to change careers. An example of an outline is:
Research certification courses needed for a new career Contact programs for information Plan when you’ll have free time to work on the course Start the course Complete your certification Begin looking for new jobs Quit your old job
Making a career change can be one of the most daunting, yet rewarding, events in your life. Quitting your job is frightening. The idea of researching some courses that could lead you to a new career path is not.
The end goal can seem unrealistic, but the baby steps are possible.
Reward Yourself for Each Completed Baby Step
If all you celebrate is when you reach the end goal, you could easily fall back into the trap of feeling overwhelmed. Your goal may take a bit of time to accomplish.
Baby steps are conducive to organization
Are you the type of person that tends to be all over the place? Hi! That’s me as well.
Before I put a solid game-plan into action, I was always jumping around different tasks for my podcast. I would find some people to contact, listen to songs for the intro, read some articles about podcasts — but I never saw any of those tasks to fruition.
Some baby steps can be taken at the same time or in no specific order. Once you create a plan of action, you become more deliberate with what needs to get done.
Searching for a new job is something you can do throughout the entire process of getting into a new field.
That will distract you from what needs to get done though. Also, in my experience, it can add to the pressure of feeling like you may never be able to break into the field. Nothing is more intimidating than seeing a job post requiring X amount of experience when you’re still learning about the field.
Celebrating along the way is a significant motivational factor.
Let’s take someone who is going through an Alcohol Anonymous course. They’re not out there trying to aim for this sober-forever life. They celebrate on-month, six-months, a year. AA participants focus on each step and cheer on each other because they know that one-month is just as big of a milestone as one-year.
I’m not saying you should plan a Vegas trip with your buddies just for signing up for a course. Going out for a great dinner or, giving yourself some self-care in the form of a bubble bath or manicure are great ways to show yourself you’re doing a great job.
Hold Yourself Accountable Through Others
I mentioned this in my podcast anecdote but telling people about my dreams was a game-changer. I no-longer secretly harbored my desires. Everyone that was close to me knew about my podcast dreams.
Whenever I would meet up with a friend, I would fill them in on the step I was in for creating my podcast. This way, when I saw them again or they would check-in with me, they would know the specific part of the podcast that I wanted to complete instead of asking “How’s the podcast going?”
That last part is key. You don’t need pressure from your friends and family because they’re only focused on the end goal too.
It’s also nice to have the people closest to you clued in on the process towards your goal. If you’re at the point where you’re deciding on a course to take, a friend may offer to help you make a pros and cons list.
Accomplishing goals with the people closest when they’re in support of your dreams can make them even easier to complete. | https://kirstietaylor.medium.com/baby-steps-are-the-key-to-success-e12cfb13917 | ['Kirstie Taylor'] | 2019-01-13 19:50:59.634000+00:00 | ['Work', 'Self Improvement', 'Self', 'Career Advice', 'Success'] |
Ridotto All-Star Ambassadors | Having recruited the most vocal and passionate community members in perhaps all of Crypto Telegram, Ridotto is honored to shine a spotlight on them and to share in their words a little bit about why they have each chosen to join the cause and change gambling forever.
Dingdong Palma — “It all started when I was exploring some upcoming projects on Cardano and it was there I found Ridotto. Afterwards, I researched the team and their vision for a decentralized gambling ecosystem and was blown away. Now is the community’s time to be the winner inside a casino! So looking forward to everything that comes!!”
₭reeptu ₳ — “I found out about Ridotto when Dingdong, my fellow ambassador, introduced me to Ridotto for being highlighted by IOHK as the first project under the games/gambling section. While normally, I’m not a huge fan of casinos given my bad luck, as I read more and more about Ridotto (through the whitepaper and Medium page,) I realized how revolutionary the project is. It’s way more than just a Casino! The market is saturated by redundant projects and Ridotto found a way to excel through their Play, Build, Bankroll. The main factor that sold me to the project is how community-centric the project is. I still can’t believe I became part of this amazing team and vibrant community! So honoured to be here. Cheers!”
Steamtyme — “I just got lucky. Similar to finding Cardano, I was in the right place at the right time when Ridotto was brought to my attention. After a brief DYOR, I’d heard/read enough and couldn’t wait to be early and involved with such a game changing concept.”
Green Tornado — “Through research on early stage blockchain projects I thankfully came across Ridotto. I was immediately drawn in because of the disruptive technology that Ridotto is bringing to the casino and gambling industry. After doing a further dive into the team, I met Fayrouz and had a zoom meeting with her. Her background in marketing was impressive and Mohammed’s resume spoke for itself. As a researcher and early stage investor I look for projects that will change people’s lives, and Ridotto will do just that. Joining the Ridotto team as the first moderator was a special moment for me because I knew I was surrounded by great and accomplished people, with their eyes fixed on a goal to deliver the best gaming platform in the industry. I’m excited about our future together. ”
Adam Evans — “The lack of transparency and disparity with investing in traditional markets over the past 8 years led me to blockchain technologies. I found Ridotto in August, 2021 when investing in GeroWallet, Charlie3 and Cardstarter, a few of Ridotto’s many promising partners. Halfway through the whitepaper I realized I had to find a way to become a part of this project. I’m extremely pleased to be an Ambassador for such a ground breaking project and take part in blockchain history alongside Ridotto’s strong community; Play, Build, Bankroll — it’s all here.”
Crypto_Jamie — “I found out about Ridotto after investing in Cardstarter. After reading RDT’s whitepaper I was amazed at the token’s utility, and loved how the token holders would become the house. The third point that attracted me was how Ridotto was building a casino in the VR metaverse. I am so pleased to be an ambassador for RDT and I cannot wait to see what the future holds.”
If you’re new to Ridotto, please join the community telegram linked here. Dingdong, Kreeptu, Steamtyme, Green Tornado, Adam, and Crypto_Jamie, will be here to greet you, and bring you into the fold.
🎰 Play — Build — Bankroll 🎰
About Ridotto
Ridotto is the very first cross-chain gambling and lottery protocol based on complete transparency, anonymity, security, and fairness. Built on Multi-Chain, our approach is to provide an open protocol driven by the community, where users can play, build, and even bankroll casino games, thus earning generous liquidity. Ridotto’s overarching goal is to elevate the user to the role of “house,” thereby offering a fully scalable alternative to centralized online gambling.
Beyond our vibrant flagship casino, we will unleash retail ingenuity by giving users the decentralized infrastructure to experiment and evolve the gambling ecosystem, much like the App Store did for mobile gaming.
Website | Discord | Twitter | Telegram Community | Telegram Announcements | https://medium.com/@ridotto-io/ridotto-all-star-ambassadors-68f14c2f2f65 | [] | 2021-11-30 19:01:14.432000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Gambling', 'Blockchain', 'Dao', 'Bitcoin'] |
Pastoral Support in (Social Work) Education | Introduction
I joined the academic workforce as a Lecturer in Social Work in September 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, straight from a busy children and families social work setting. I plan to write a more about this transition in another ‘story’. In the meantime, I thought I would reflect on my role as a Personal Tutor in providing pastoral support to university students during the global crisis.
Specifically, this story will outline some of the ways I tend to structure what I term ‘supportive discussions’ with students in times of difficulty.
Who is this for?
Educators- as a means of connecting my experience to yours, whether this resonates, or diverges from your own Students (all academic programmes)- for those who haven’t reached out for support, or who feel unsupported at a time of significant challenge Myself and anyone else- as a personal artefact of the pandemic, highlighting the often unseen role of university lecturers and challenges students face
Context
The majority of students enrolled on the social work programme that I support did not sign up for learning in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather, they have been forced to adapt (with vastly varying levels of ‘success’) to learning in an online environment. Additionally, the pandemic has been synonymous with loss of life and general detriment to human wellbeing. Many students have experienced mental health crises, deaths of loved ones, physical health issues (including contracting coronavirus), financial issues (due to loss of part-time work), and increased responsibilities in caring capacities, particularly as schools and childcare provisions have closed. Some further specific challenges faced by students during the pandemic have been:
Lack of immediate support from peers and educators due to working remotely Loss of spaces (e.g. classrooms; library; cafes etc) that have traditionally hosted student learning experiences, particularly promoting participative learning Procrastination due to loss of accountability (e.g. to attending lectures in person; to groups/peers) Struggling with work-life balance (e.g. paid employment; caring responsibilities) General anxiety about COVID-19 and restrictions on activities promoting wellbeing
As a result of such challenges, some students have contacted me to ask for a discussion about their studies, or have taken up offers of such when I have emailed them (as I do periodically in my role as a Personal Tutor to many students across all undergraduate year groups).
What does a supportive discussion entail?
This story does not profess to provide a model or framework for how such encounters should be structured, but rather to outline how I tend to do so.
It important to me to reflect that every encounter feels (and is) unique, and I respect each as such. I feel privileged to be in a position to support students, particularly in times of crisis. However, I find having a framework in my mind helps me to most effectively balance the need to provide students with a calm, safe and supportive space, while guiding discussions towards support planning.
Here is what I try to ensure happens during a supportive discussion:
Ask and listen: Most students are understandably nervous at the beginning of supportive discussions, and I find it’s important to allow them time to articulate what they are feeling and avoid the temptation to correct, or help the students form words. For many students, particularly given the dilution of support networks over the past year, this might be the first time they have expressed their feelings, frustration, stress and anxiety aloud. Start by asking an open-question (similar to Motivational Interviewing) to kick things off e.g. “So what has brought you here?” or “What were you hoping to discuss today?”. It is often on students hearing their words for the first time that they experience a flooding of emotion. I try to avoid ‘fixing’ or shutting down these emotions- while remaining empathetic, I am keen for students to work through what they’ve been holding on to, to the point that they can name what they are feeling, and (if possible) why. Sometimes this takes a number of questions to clarify. Reflect and imagine: After the student has established the cause(s) of difficulty or challenge, it’s tempting to jump into devising a plan to mitigate against the barriers they face. I try to avoid this and instead ask the student to reflect upon why they entered the programme in the first place, and what they hope to do in the future with their degree. (Re)connecting students with their motivation for starting a degree and then situating them in their future lives hopefully provides a cathartic context to their current difficulties. Social workers often enter the profession for altruistic reasons and it’s easy for students to lose sight of what motivated them in as they started out, as the uncertain nature of the pandemic has resulted in many of us living day-by-day with a sense of inescapability from the smothering restrictions placed on us. Self-care check: I then ask students to reflect on the extent to which they are being kind to themselves and who they identify as being in their support network. I frame this by asking “How do you show yourself that you care about you, and who is in your life telling you that you’re awesome?”. Through this discussion, students and I explore issues in respect of healthy sleep, work-life balance, sources of relaxation (walking; naps; mindfulness and suchlike), caring responsibilities and the importance of self-care, both in social work practice and in academia. Students are often good at identifying where they could take practical steps to be more kind to themselves, and utilise their support networks more effectively. Acknowledging the impact of COVID-19: Many students have high expectations of themselves. In my experience, social workers, and social work students have an almost inherent trait whereby they find it easier to be self-critical than give themselves credit for a job well done in difficult circumstances. At some point in supportive discussions with students, I ensure that we reflect upon just how disruptive and traumatic the COVID-19 pandemic has been on us all, and ask students to consider whether they should, in fact, be a little more proud of themselves for progressing under such terrible conditions. It is obvious, yet understated that undertaking a degree during this global crisis is hugely difficult and presents often insurmountable challenges, and I try to support students to acknowledge this as a means of encouraging them to give themselves a break. Plan, summarise, check-out and check-in: Once students have been able to make some sense of their experiences and identify factors impacting on these, I ask if we can move the discussion towards planning. Through the course of the discussion, I take mental notes of areas where I feel the student might benefit from support, and in acknowledging limitations in my own expertise, also note who might be best placed to help. I start the planning discussion by outlining the availability of services, such as the Student Wellbeing Service (for health and wellbeing), the Library service (for accessing learning materials), the Learning and Development Centre (for practical academic support), in addition to external services (such as GP and therapeutic support services). From there, I ask students to recap what they feel would be most of use to them and who could support them with this. I find that students are remarkably efficient at this, and often I do not have to offer suggestions in this regard. To finish, I summarise what we discussed, check how the student felt the supportive discussion went for them (the check-out), before advising them to take some time (the rest of the day if possible) to practise self-care. I finish the supportive discussion some 2–3 days later by sending students an email to check-in with how they are doing. In most cases, students have been proactive in following their plan, including making referrals to support services where appropriate for them.
Conclusion
COVID-19 has had a significantly detrimental impact on student wellbeing and confidence. This has required educators to respond through the provision of enhanced pastoral care. This story reflects on how I tend to guide supportive discussions with students through providing a safe and supportive space to share their experiences, reflect on the reasons for entering the qualifying degree programme and aspirations for the future, and encouraging students to draw upon their strengths and sources of support as a means of managing stress and anxiety.
This story hopefully helps to connect with other educators’ experiences of providing support to students, or with students who may be provoked to think about some of their own wellbeing needs, or at the very least prompted to reflect on the scale of their success in progressing in academia under very difficult circumstances.
To finish
If you need immediate therapeutic support, please contact Samaritans on 116 123 for free, any time of day or night. | https://medium.com/@dcswer/pastoral-support-in-social-work-education-f97ae3c683f8 | ['David Clarke'] | 2021-04-13 10:13:47.001000+00:00 | ['Support', 'Covid 19', 'Students', 'Social Work', 'Education'] |
Daring to Face Your Blank Page — Daily Quote | It appears innocent and unassuming, fragile, thin, and benign. The blank page is a pop culture icon, and it is formidable. It induces anxiety, fear, panic, and feelings of inadequacy. The blank page reduces creatives to blithering idiots, incapable of action. Alaa Al-Aswany says writing is the “conflict between what you want to say and what you could say.”
Perhaps we should shift our thinking, channeling Michelangelo when he said, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block before I start my work. It is already there; I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” Maybe our story is already there, written, and waiting for us to release it.
Staring into 2021, with its unlimited possibilities, we can find ourselves frozen, afraid to move. The train wreck of 2020 has increased our level of hesitation, adding threats of impending chaos, the sensation of lacking control, and the feeling of standing at the edge of a cliff overlooking a sea of the unknown.
Yearlong goals seem too optimistic, yet I can’t abandon my goal-setting practice. Targets are like a story outline that serves as the structure for our lives as we take bold strides forward. So, this year, I plan to create bite-sized goals, and I am adopting a 13-week strategy. Step by step, we advance, aware of an ephemeral dream, an imagined destination, and an image of what we want to become.
What path will your goals create in the new year?
_________________________________________
Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer | https://medium.com/@johawkthewriter/daring-to-face-your-blank-page-daily-quote-1b4774f6616 | ['Jo Hawk'] | 2020-12-27 06:02:31.774000+00:00 | ['Quotes', 'Blank Page', 'Motivation', 'Goals', 'Writer'] |
A few months ago, we took over a major project with about 35+ microservices. | A few months ago, we took over a major project with about 35+ microservices. Most of the REST API (micro-)services consist of 2–5 endpoints and a relatively small codebase; others are bulkier.
Maintaining a single microservice is definitely better than dealing with one extensive application. On the other hand, the deployment and maintenance of dependencies amongst the services is a nightmare and generates ofc. higher deployment costs.
For instance, releasing a new version of service A with significant changes also means updating the codebase and tests for services B, C, D, E, F, etc. To be fair, this doesn’t happen to us often, but in case it does, it’s definitely a lot of work. Especially with all the unit and functional tests.
Besides the issues with changes to the codebase above, sometimes third-party library versions need to be bumped up, as happened the other day, which means that we had to do that for almost all services at once.
Another issue with so many microservices is related to our local development. Most of the time, we can use dependent services from the deployed staging or development environment, and sometimes we have to run all services needed locally for development and testing purposes. To do so, Docker is our first choice. With only a few make commands, we get all containers needed locally build, up, and running.
Even though working with microservices has its downsides, I would always opt-in for microservices unless the application is way too simple and doesn’t do much.
Cheers | https://medium.com/@bulletinmybeard/a-few-months-ago-i-took-over-a-major-project-with-about-35-microservices-1270aee2a960 | ['Robin Schulz'] | 2021-09-10 23:42:10.590000+00:00 | ['Kubernetes', 'Deployment', 'Architecture', 'Microservices', 'Servers'] |
ILLUSION | The life on earth is filled with distractions and illusions as no living-thing exists forever on earth; it’s all attachment with the illusions making us crave for it and forget our true self. The journey of illusions is mystical as it comes with awareness of surroundings and acceptance of change.
In reality, it’s difficult to overcome these illusions as they deal with emotions and temporary comfort with deep traps set within that make us feel lost and anxious where we forget to live and cherish the moments of life. Thus, it’s very important to identify and strongly stand against its impact as we start thinking that we can’t live without it by being excessively attached to it and are scared to lose it. However, the journey of life teaches us to evolve and believe in ourselves rather than others as we all have our own journey of life to live and experience it to the fullest.
5 simple ways to tackle the trap of illusion 1.Before asking or buying something check if we really need or it’s just a greed. 2.Believe in yourself and follow your heart rather than being possessive about objects or people. 3.Accept that nothing lasts forever and strive to let go the ego and pride by being polite. 4.Seek for higher purpose in life by contributing towards well-being of society. 5.Spread love and joy while tracking on cravings of expectations.
P.S : Let’s turn inward than outward to find true happiness in life ; rather than getting stuck in deadly trap of illusions , strive to be satisfied with what we have as true success lies in contentment. Thanks for reading until end! | https://medium.com/@kindledbykejal/illusion-4ac0f3c4d3b0 | [] | 2020-12-19 17:59:35.572000+00:00 | ['Illusion', 'Self Improvement', 'Distraction', 'Life Hacking', 'Lessons Learned'] |
Five Things to Do After 6 P.M: Evening Habits for an Additional Income | Five Things to Do After 6 P.M: Evening Habits for an Additional Income
Try these simple habits and transform yourself into the next version.
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Every journey starts with a single step. Every dollar you earn in your life need your effort & time. Above all, you should have a passion for achieving your goal. If you have all these three, then the money is a by-product.
A few years back, when I realized how much time I have been wasting after office hours made me think this:
“You are responsible for your success or failure.”
I felt ashamed of myself and started looking for various ways to increase my income streams. I adopted a few daily evening habits that have helped me achieve my dream of having more than one income stream.
In this article, I share a few evening habits, and I cannot guarantee this will bring 100% success for you. However, you will find a way to reach your dream if you are consistent with your daily habits. | https://medium.com/illumination/five-things-to-do-after-6-p-m-evening-habits-for-an-additional-income-8ca25737c724 | ['Rajesh Vairapandian'] | 2020-11-11 23:23:51.347000+00:00 | ['Inspiration', 'Growth', 'Self Improvement', 'Habits', 'Goals'] |
How to develop technical empathy — and why it’s worth your time | Tech teams can work better together with other teams
If only it was as easy as A,B,C..
Imagine this. You have a queue of important tasks to tackle when someone approaches you with yet one more issue they just discovered and doesn’t understand why it can’t get tackled instantly. After all, it “just” involves changing one thing. It’s a “small ask”. The same person has more to say, but all you hear are a string of marketing buzzwords.
How it can feel like when you’re not speaking the same language
The solution isn’t to scream into the wall. Instead, ask: is there something we can do to overcome this disconnect between tech teams and the rest of the company? The answer is yes, and it begins with us.
We need technical empathy: an understanding of where people are in terms of their technical knowledge and the ability to see through their eyes. For those whose interaction with tech or data is mainly as end-users, they see the solutions but not the challenges that tech teams face.
Empathy is a trainable skill, and you get more mileage when practising it instead of expecting others to do it. Here are some actionable steps to develop technical empathy.
Think Beyond Your Role
The best way to help yourself is to stop waiting for others to relate to you. Instead, meet your colleagues and other internal stakeholders where they are. It’s helpful to ask probing questions, especially if the requests are vaguely-worded.
To identify the broader objective: “Is the aim to prompt further discussions, persuade them to seize an opportunity, or something else all together?” To find out the scale of effort required: “Are we looking at using a simple heuristic to arrive at this metric?” To gauge the task’s importance: “Is this an immediate priority or more of a nice-to-have?”
Understanding the context or priorities that are driving their requests can make the difference between time well-spent and toiling over tasks in vain. It’ll help you better appreciate how your contribution fits into the bigger picture and hone your strategic thinking skills.
The bottom line is to avoid letting your official job title dictate what you can offer to the team. At Synthesis, we are a melting pot of brand strategists, data scientists, designers, and developers. While we have our own areas of expertise, I love that our open culture makes it possible to explore cross-domain ideas in team discussions without the risk of a turf war. For instance, a data scientist can recommend layering the market insights in a certain way for better storytelling. Likewise, a brand strategist can suggest new data features that would be useful for analysis.
Note: This is not the same as telling others how to do their job, which is as counterproductive as it is annoying. Instead, it’s about adopting a collaborative approach on how we can deliver better as a team.
Find a Bridging Language
Think back to some of your earliest technical ‘aha’ moments. Perhaps it’s something as fundamental as grasping the difference between print and return statements when coding. Or when you understood what the Document Object Model had to do with the webpage. You’re a different person from who you were prior to those moments.
In some ways, talking to colleagues outside the tech team about what you’re working on is like empathising with your past self. Take reference from something they are familiar with. Our product team frequently uses food analogies during a tech demo to make it easier and more appealing for everyone to follow the discussion. Think using smoothie-making to explain how a hash function works: it’s fairly easy to blend fruits (input values) into a smoothie (values returned by the function) but it’s difficult to reverse-engineer
Smoothie: A delicious analogy to make hash functions more relatable (Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash)
The same principle applies when you’re trying to raise concerns from your end. Ideally, because you have thought beyond your role, you’re aware of the business team’s priority and you can use that as an anchor to explain. If they have a “small ask” or a “quick one”, and you know it would be anything but that, help them understand in terms of how much time that leaves for the other important things.
So what you might think is a “small ask” to update may involve 15 people, 125 hours and five different development tools. — Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
Encourage everyone to be tech-curious 🎉
Communication is a two-way street. This doesn’t mean that everyone needs to be a coder, but it’ll go a long way if they appreciate the fundamentals. In other words, if data science is not seen as “magic” but the application of science. It helps if there’s a general understanding that machines are not going to read inputs the way humans do.
Every discussion with the business team or company-wide showcase is an opportunity to spark some curiosity about what’s “under the hood”. At our weekly Synthesis showcase meeting, we highlight the work that we are doing and it’s where we share some cool tech inroads too.
Feel free to think outside formal office settings. If you feel passionate about tech or data, and you wish to share that joy, consider organising casual fun events like brown bag lunches to explore and exchange ideas. There are plenty of resources out there to support you: The Data Literacy Project, The Data Culture Project, and a Data Literacy video series by Arizona State University are just a few examples.
ASU’s Data Literacy series provides a crash course for anyone anyone interested in learning how to understand and interpret data
What else can be done?
If you’re also a leader, co-founder, or someone with the influence to effect change across the company, there are a few other steps you can consider:
Begin with the onboarding of new staff : We have a standard Synthesis onboarding timetable that covers all aspects of the business and data science work (at a high level), regardless of how technical one’s role is. It’s a great way to bring new starters up to a common baseline on the technical work that goes into our consultancy and product.
: We have a standard Synthesis onboarding timetable that covers all aspects of the business and data science work (at a high level), regardless of how technical one’s role is. It’s a great way to bring new starters up to a common baseline on the technical work that goes into our consultancy and product. Be intentional about creating an inclusive culture: Strip sentences of jargon, including business jargon, as it puts up barriers. There’s a lot you can do here. Remember, the higher up you are in your organisation, the more likely your suggestions are going to be perceived as orders and your actions as a behavioural norm.
Strip sentences of jargon, including business jargon, as it puts up barriers. There’s a lot you can do here. Remember, the higher up you are in your organisation, the more likely your suggestions are going to be perceived as orders and your actions as a behavioural norm. Find your bridge-builders and empower them: Recognise and encourage those who take the effort to foster better understanding between tech and business teams. There might even be scope to introduce hybrid job roles. We’re exploring the data scientist-strategist skills as a continuum in our training plans, and with that, the new roles of Data Science Strategists.
It’s time to rethink our role as tech professionals. The 1930s American humorist Will Rogers summed it up best: “Everybody’s ignorant — just on different subjects.” | https://medium.com/synthesis-partners/how-to-develop-technical-empathy-and-why-its-worth-your-time-470ee4d89d6 | ['Alexandra Khoo'] | 2020-10-22 06:13:44.944000+00:00 | ['Data Literacy', 'Data Science', 'Teamwork', 'Communication Skills'] |
The Lie | Popular wisdom decrees that you ought to never ever lie.
It also states you mustn’t trust a liar.
Basically, lies are evil and anyone who uses them should burn in hell.
I don’t believe that.
I am not encouraging you to go on a lying binge but I am not condemning lying.
If I am here, writing to you is because of a lie, a lie I believed with all my heart.
A lie that was so powerful that by the time I discovered it was a lie I couldn’t do anything but to chuckle and admire the mastery of the so-called liar.
My teacher was that liar.
After months of carefully observing and measuring my teacher, I joined a program in which I’d have a time-slot to meet her on my own.
No onlookers who could judge me, just the two of us.
Hesitantly, I told her my ‘dirty’ little secret.
I told her how much I loved a dude who basically hated me.
I described a torrid love story that involved a variety of altered states of consciousness.
I told her how much work it had taken me to discover the spark he hid under many layers of identities. I told her how I was mesmerised by that spark, how devoted I was to remove those mountains covering it. He was trapped and I was devoured by the hunger to free him.
I begged her to help me help him out of the prison he had built around his soul.
Yes, I used my one-on-one time to request her help on a rescue enterprise I was running for a dude who didn’t even like me.
And she agreed to do it.
Very calmly, she said she’d help me out on my quest.
I can very vividly evoke the relief I felt in my heart, my shoulders and my jaw when I heard those words. Finally, my prayers had been answered.
But it was all a lie.
Of course.
She, very perceptively, knew I couldn’t ask for help for myself.
She could see that the soul trapped under obscuring heaps, begging to be released, was my soul, not his.
She could smell the mirrormask and sniff the one who walked behind the rows.
So she lied, she promised a fistful of help that would never materialise. Then, she proceeded to energetically destabilise the bind my soul had with a few words.
She took a risk and it paid off.
The first domino was pushed and months later I was desperately seeking to release myself from the enmeshment I had with this dude and she was calmly saying it was totally doable.
She said it would take a lot of work, probably years of work.
She didn’t lie this time. It indeed took years but one day, I was free.
Free of the bind, of him, but also free of resentment or hatred towards him. Free.
All because I believed a very deliberate lie. | https://bernadette.life/the-lie-1a1cc9aa217d | [] | 2020-12-16 05:29:19.636000+00:00 | ['Lying', 'Love', 'Promises', 'Enmeshment', 'Vulnerability'] |
Is it difficult to find true love? | Hello readers!
Happy to see you back reading seventh article in this series under the banner, “We explore and you learn”.
Article 7/10: Is it difficult to find true love?
Disclaimer : The article is based on the research done by me and my team. It is not meant to hurt the sentiments of anyone. It is completely based on our personal interpretation of the research work we did. Any constructive criticism is welcomed.
Great, now let us start with this article.
“I am 25+, Still I am not able to settle with the right person” “Will I ever find anyone in my childhood days?” “True love exist?”
If these thoughts ever come across your mind, then you are in the right place. Then, this article is just for you. Each one of us have some past stories, because of which you are terrified with a thought to again fall in love or to trust a particular person again.
Though, it is quite easy to fall in love, but it’s quite difficult to stay in love with the same person over years. That indirectly states that “Yes, it is difficult to find true love!”
Staying in love with the same person, over years is extremely difficult — here’s why and what are the potential solutions one can come up with.
Fear of commitment
The first thing that joggles up in your mind is: Finding true love & then commuting a story in which you are solely dedicated to the other person. Though we know, Modern dating is a tough task as it’s puzzled up with thoughts of people around us. Some couples don’t want to give commitment thereby never declaring their relationship officially. The hook-up culture is in trend now days, which makes you not trust anyone that easily. Don’t fall easily into hook-ups, first prefer building up emotional sensitivity with the people around you.
Fear of Failed Relationships
We all have some past stories. Stories on, “How people screw up with relations is so common & in-trend nowadays?” that most of us fear to try our luck out. Most of our friends would have been a part of a cheating scandal which makes us not trust anyone anymore around us. But ever we treat such a situation with empathy, Do we?
What I advice you is: “To get to the gist of the problem!” because as every person is not same. How can you expect the same old story in every relationship?
Be patient in every relationship and try to understand each other. If you to know, why understanding is a key of a successful bond checkout facts here.
Reality Check: The real you
In this world of the internet, finding a real person is a tough task. People’s identity is filtered with several layer of masks thereby I advise you to personally meet & judge people. Don’t fall into the loop of love, before you trust someone completely.
If you want to share a life with someone, first make them a part of your life.
If you want to live a life with someone, first try to make them a part of it. And, How that can happen? Share your work, your future goals, things that stress you out, things that make you happy, that make you cry, most probably every important thing with your partner.
Sharing everything would help you to build a bond with them, helping you know that can you in-cure a trust in your partner that is required to form a life-long bond.
Have guts to live a fairy tale
If you want your love story shine like a fairy tale you should have guts to trust your partner in every aspect of his/her life. This will test your accountability with your partner. We wish that you get your love super soon. Though finding the right person takes time but when you get one, you will have that particular person for your entire life.
“True love will find its path with time”
So, Relationships are a part of life. They can be beautiful, creative, romantic, ugly, crooked, and anything that can’t be describe with words. It’s all about how magical you make out of it. With this I am signing from this article, if you love this article do share it with your friends who are having hard time in relationship.
Try to solve your problem with people (friends, girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, husband, kids, parents). Life is small, you would never no when is your last day!!
Spread positivity & happiness all-around. An approach towards creating a better world.
Connect with me: Dhruv Trehan
Link to Previous Articles in the list:
Article 1: “9 questions that you should ask yourself, if you want to go for entrepreneurship”
Article 2: “5 Tips on: How to develop Negotiation Skills?”
Article 3: “How to predict your mindset with the help of memes?”
Article 4: “Why Indian Startups fail (Part 1)?”
Article 5: “Why Indian Startup fail (Last Part)?”
Article 6: Everything about Community Service in Technical World | What Community is? | https://medium.com/@dhruvtrehan45/is-it-difficult-to-find-true-love-c1ce64930488 | ['Dhruv Trehan'] | 2020-12-20 07:31:32.197000+00:00 | ['Friends', 'Relationships', 'Family', 'Happiness', 'Positivity'] |
Serenity announces new partner: brokerage house MaxiMarkets | We are pleased to announce our new partner — Maxi Services Ltd.
Maxi Services Ltd. is an emerging global market leader in financial trading. The company was established in 2008 and is now a rapidly growing brokerage house that enables retail and institutional investors (banks, hedge funds, high-frequency traders, brokerage companies) to trade Indices, Commodities and Forex. In order to provide the most favorable trading conditions and the best customer service, the Maxi Services Ltd. strategy is to partner with the leading financial institutions in each region the company operates in. Low spreads and the absence of any hidden commissions make MaxiMarkets an advantageous partner for traders.
According to MaxiMarkets, “Serenity is a new and different mechanism for the brokers and more importantly, for traders. We support Serenity efforts to build an environment that will ensure trading is being done at fair market prices. Also, transparency and safety that Serenity wishes to bring to the financial markets is the approach that we support here at MaxiMarkets”
Alexander Stanovoy, the CBDO of Serenity added “Serenity is thrilled to welcome onboard Maxi Services Ltd., a very popular brokerage house worldwide. Maxi Services Ltd. is a broker with spotless reputation. This is great that such technologically sophisticated brokers as MaxiMarkets partner with Serenity.” | https://medium.com/serenity-project/serenity-announces-new-partner-brokerage-house-maximarkets-7e0e5bf95f62 | ['Serenity Financial'] | 2018-05-03 15:49:44.027000+00:00 | ['Ethereum Blockchain', 'Forex Brokers', 'Forex Trading', 'Forex', 'Finance'] |
One step opens a wide road to Learnings! | I strongly believe that you are always a step away from your success but that single step pushes you to the verge of everything to assess how much risk you can indeed take, then its either All or nothing.
Image source: ResearchGate
Likewise, I had taken this one step to enroll to contentvidhya.com to polish my blunt skills of writing. No matter in what age bracket you fall, learning is ageless, what keeps you going is your strong Will to not to be complacent and open the wide window of learnings.
One-week workshop assisted me to have a bird’s eye view of the magnanimous horizon writing offers to the young buds to open their wings and soar high.
Everyday we were given knowledge and guidance about a new leaf on writing and how we can inculcate these numerous techniques to make our readers pleased and overwhelmed by the platter of contents served to them. A gift may be beautiful but the wrapping is quintessential.
Besides knowledge, it is of utmost importance to implement your learnings and cherry picks from the lesson by working on the assignments given. In the midst of job and family, you might struggle with time to complete the tasks but until knowledge gained is not applied, it is in vain.
The assignments gave me another opportunity to showcase my hidden writer and visualize my dream to be a content writer and being reviewed by the Mentor Uma Madhavi is a gateway towards further improvements in your work.
I strongly recommend all the young buds who wish to be a full-time or freelancer content writer to once sign-up for the workshop and learn the nitty gritties of writing before you set to sail in the ocean. | https://medium.com/@proficientpratika/one-step-opens-a-wide-road-to-learnings-4b35bdd2398e | [] | 2020-12-23 16:38:31.890000+00:00 | ['Learning', 'Content', 'Success', 'Struggle', 'Change'] |
Argos KYC Develops Contactless Face Authentication Visitor Management System For The Seoul Blockchain Center | Argos KYC Develops Contactless Face Authentication Visitor Management System For The Seoul Blockchain Center ARGOS ·Dec 23, 2020
Argos KYC develops contactless face authentication visitor management system for the Seoul Blockchain Center
Argos KYC is proud to announce that we have recently signed an agreement with the Seoul Blockchain Center, ICONLOOP, and Empti Corporation to jointly develop a blockchain-based visitor management system.
Argos KYC CEO Wonkyu Lee at the agreement signing ceremony
The blockchain-based visitor management system, which will be developed based on Argos’s contactless face authentication technology, will verify visitor’s biometric information and all data will be recorded and managed in blockchain. The new visitor management system will strengthen the security of the Seoul Blockchain Center with transparent and efficient management of the access records.
ARGOS
“Create A World Where Good People Transact Safely and Keep The Bad People Out.”
[email protected] | https://medium.com/@argoskyc/argos-kyc-develops-contactless-face-authentication-visitor-management-system-for-the-seoul-6d58ffbccacd | [] | 2020-12-23 05:37:29.153000+00:00 | ['Seoul Blockchain Center', 'Know Your Customer', 'Authentication', 'Kyc', 'Aml'] |
O’Brady’s Antarctic Exploration: Why I’m Not Convinced | Less Than 1,000 Miles?
Several articles have been written to praise the seemingly major feat of O’Brady, as well as the other explorers who have recently (some are on their personal solo voyage as this article is written) embarked on similar journey’s stating that O’Brady trekked over 900 miles. His starting point was the Ronnie Ice Shelf and his ending point was the Ross Ice Shelf. His path, which also encompassed the South Pole, was fewer that 1,000 miles. That doesn’t sound right.
An outline of Colin O’Brady’s supposed trip from one end of Antarctica to the other end. Some sources say that his trek was 921 miles while others state that it was 932 miles.
The Other 59,000 Miles
Captain Cook was a well-known and well-respected navigator during his time. He was determined to find the southern most continent that many speculated would be at the South Pole and prematurely — or cunningly — named Antarctica prior to its discovery. So, if Cook was a renowned and respected circumnavigator and he traveled 60,000 miles around Antarctica, shouldn’t O’Brady’s journey have spanned a distance far greater than 1,000 miles? I’m no mathematician but I know something isn’t adding up. What happened to the other 59,000 miles that Captain Cook accounted for? Was he wrong?
Many people argue that Captain Cook was a drunken sailor who incorrectly circled around Antarctica, convincing himself and others that it was an ice wall that encircled Earth. If Cook was correct, he would have essentially proven that the Earth is flat instead of a globe. In an attempt to preserve pseudoscience’s heliocentric model of the solar system, many people baselessly argue that Captain Cook proved nothing at all. But these are the same people who believe that the artist-rendered depictions of the globe-shaped Earth, which are said to be real images from the Hubble telescope, are real and justify the absence of stars in the background of those images by arguing that they are so far apart from one another and the planets, leaving them invisible. Yeah, that makes sense.
The Antarctic Treaty
An image of the Antarctic Treaty. This map shows the depiction of Antarctica as a continent, as well as the countries who have territories and military occupations throughout Antarctica.
On December 1, 1959, the United Nations (U.N.) proposed the Antarctic Treaty. This treaty ensures that the area referred to as Antarctica remains an unclaimed territory with the exception of several claims that various countries have. The treaty also prevents commercial flights to Antarctica with some exceptions and allows the UN to decide who can conduct research on or around Antarctica. 12 countries whose scientists were studying Antarctica and/or the immediate area signed the treaty and by 1961, the treaty was enforced.
The following year, in 1962, the American government began Operation Fishbowl. According to Jerry Emanuelson, B.S.E.E., founder of Futurescience, LLC., Operation Fishbowl was a series of high altitude nuclear tests. Operation Fishbowl was a subset of the nuclear test program, Operation Dominic. Many conspiracy theorists and Flat Earthers believe that the “Fishbowl” in Operation Fishbowl refers to the dome firmament that covers the Earth much like an upside-down fishbowl. It is believed that the nuclear testing was not testing but was, in fact, the U.S. government attempting to nuke the dome firmament. This coupled with the fact that many countries have military installations on Antarctica suggest that there is more to Antarctica than the governments of the world — or the one world government of the new world order — is not sharing with the general public.
An image of the seal for Operation Fishbowl.
Antarctica is all over the news. Companies are constantly drilling for oil and other minerals and scientists have claimed to find a subglacial lake that hosts microbial lifeforms. Some may argue that their mining is the reason the general public is not allowed to travel to Antarctica. However, not all tourism is banned, supposedly. For the low, low price of just $9,999.00, you can take a brief trip to Antarctica. That’s the lowest price which is out of reach for most people. If you want to actually explore Antarctica as a tourist as opposed to a scientist or an athlete like O’Brady, you’d have to spend well over $10,000.00. And once you get to Antarctica, don’t expect to explore by yourself or with a group of friends. You will have a mandatory guide to escort you. Why is there so much red tape to visit the South Pole? Is the U.N. hiding something? | https://medium.com/@nikodemusthewriter/obrady-s-antarctic-exploration-why-i-m-not-convinced-378bdf8f57ea | ['Nikodemus Writes'] | 2019-01-10 13:01:00.848000+00:00 | ['Ice Wall', 'Colin Obrady', 'Conspiracy Theories', 'Antarctica', 'Operation Fishbowl'] |
Smart Cities In Japan: Practical Innovations For Conscious Future Living | By Emma Regan
Here, we take a look at how smart cities in Japan are building a better economical, ecological, and social future, and which companies are behind the production of these smart cities.
A smart city is a framework composed of ICT to develop, deploy, and promote sustainable development practices to address urbanisation challenges. It works through a network of connected machinery and objects that transmit data using wireless technology, where cloud-based IoT applications receive, analyse and manage data to help local governments, enterprises and citizens make better decisions that will improve quality of life. Companies around the world are investing in more and more smart cities to achieve this, with around 443 smart city projects in 286 cities currently worldwide.
Why are Smart Cities in Japan so Important?
Smart cities in Japan are gradually increasing in number across various prefectures, with progressively more companies joining the Smart City Institute Japan, a non-profit organisation that connects sectors engaged in the development of smart cities in Japan. Smart cities started to come into the picture after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 when the government recognised that the finite nature of electrical power and modern civilisation was built on fragile foundations. 2020 saw more than fifty project proposals from local governments, but only five will get the go-ahead by the end of the year.
Contrary to smart cities in the US, where the main focus is making technology upgrades for efficiency and ecologically awareness, smart cities in Japan focus on social cohesion and addressing social issues, such as the country’s ageing population. Japan’s national vision is for a data-driven, human-centric, next-generation society that uses AI, big data, and IoT is known as Society 5.0, that will provide appropriate solutions using such technology.
Smart cities such as Kashiwa-no-ha and Fujisawa are already showing fundamental results of how smart is the way forward, and are encouraging other investors from Japan and the rest of the world to understand why it is important to build a smarter future.
Companies Building Smart Cities in Japan
Panasonic: Fujisawa City, Kanagawa
Known for manufacturing electronic appliances, Panasonic was one of the first companies that successfully built a smart city in Japan in Kanagawa Prefecture. With the increase of production moving out of Japan and power plants being left untouched, Panasonic wanted to give back to the community by producing an urban development that would be sustainable enough to last for 100 years.
Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town (FSST) was backed by 18 different businesses, universities, local governments and residential organisations, and opened in 2014 to 100 families. It has now transformed into a community of 2000 people. It is still being built, with completion predicted for 2022. Panasonic targeted five areas to focus on within its smart city; energy, security, mobility, wellness, and community. The aim was to reduce CO2 emissions by 70%, reduce water consumption by 30%, have renewable energy account for 30% of the total energy used. The homes were also tested against a magnitude 1.8 times stronger than the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The smart city’s energy system has also been generated to store enough energy for up to 3 days in case of a natural disaster-related emergency. 30,000 people have taken tours of FSST from governments and businesses residing in over 50 countries across the world and it became the stepping stone for Panasonic ‘s other venture, Tsunashima Sustainable Smart Town (TSST), which opened in Yokohama Prefecture in 2018.
Accenture: Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima
Another smart city currently being built in Japan is in Fukushima Prefecture. The professional service firm Accenture and the University of Aizu have been working with the samurai town Aizuwakamatsu since 2011, but it recently announced they would work together to build an API marketplace for smart cities in Japan, using the town as a case study.
The aim is to help local government, companies, and other stakeholders develop and benefit from new data linkages between the smart city and industry initiatives using the API marketplace in a cloud environment. Smart city projects have already begun in Aizuwakamatsu, incorporating sectors such as mobility, education, healthcare, childcare, agriculture, and tourism. Citizens can log in and engage with their students’ progress in school, receive real-time updates regarding snowplough activity for those in the snowbound region, and Takeda General Hospital allows patients to pay using their smartphones.
Yet one of the main concerns regarding smart cities in Japan and the rest of the world is the risk that personal data could be hacked and used unfairly. Therefore, residents of Aizuwakamatsu can choose to opt-in to the smart services provided. So far, more than 20% of residents have done this and only 30% is needed for to make a greater impact on the community and achieve Sampo Yoshi (三方よし); three-way satisfaction for citizens, industry, and community.
Toyota: Woven City, Mount Fuji
At the beginning of 2020, Toyota announced its plans to build a ‘city of the future’ at the base of Mt. Fuji. It is set to be a fully connected ecosystem powered by hydrogen fuel cells, home to 2000 full-time residents and researchers who will test and develop technologies such as autonomy, robotics, mobility, smart homes, and AI on site.
The smart city is planned to be fully sustainable, with buildings constructed of neutral wood using a combination of traditional Japanese joinery and robotic production methods, rooftops covered with photo-voltaic panels to generate extra solar power, native vegetation integrated throughout the city, and street usage designated three ways: fast vehicles, low speed vehicles and personal mobility, and pedestrians only. Toyota is working with the Danish company BIG to do this, founded by Bjarke Ingels, whose architectural prowess includes 2 World Trade Centre in New York and Lego House in Denmark.
“With the breadth of technologies and industries that we have been able to access and collaborate with from the Toyota ecosystem of companies, we believe we have a unique opportunity to explore new forms of urbanity with the Woven City that could pave new paths for other cities to explore.” — Bjarke Ingels, Founder of BIG
Plug and Play: Osaka City, Osaka
Like many prefectures, Osaka faces social issues such as their demographic structure, revitalising buildings, and natural disasters. Plug and Play, a global venture accelerator that partners with leading companies to support startups with innovative technologies and ideas, revealed it would be expanding to Osaka by the end of 2020 and will help challenge these issues.
Plug and Play plans to launch an accelerator programme focused on smart cities in Japan and aims to make the Keihanshin metropolitan area one of the world’s leading startup ecosystems. The firm has already implemented five programmes in Japan so far, along with accelerating over 400 domestic and international startups together with 43 corporate partners.
Osaka’s first programme will focus on smart life and construction, travel and experiences, urban mobility and cleantech, hospitality and health and will be carried out at Knowledge Capital in Grand Front Osaka in cooperation with Osaka Prefecture, Osaka City.
Startups already selected for other Plug and Play programmes in Japan reside from overseas. With their network spanning across 30 locations in 16 different countries, the company will hold their Osaka accelerator programme with domestic and international companies who want to incorporate new urban solutions that utilize advanced technology.
LINE: Fukuoka City, Fukuoka
Unlike the other companies building infrastructures and focusing on the future of smart cities in Japan, the popular messaging app LINE has been working with Fukuoka City to resolve current issues. Since 2018, the company has been collaborating to improve services such as residential tax payment, large garbage collection, natural disaster notifications, infrastructure reports, and more recently they introduced LINE Pay’s QR code into public facilities and even an umbrella sharing scheme.
Smart cities in Japan are expected to be powered by 5G technology, however, Fukuoka is currently running on 3G and 4G, meaning everyone can use LINE’s services at the moment. However, if a service required 5G to be used, they would instigate it, such as using drone technology to deliver seafood from remote islands. LINE has also expanded its smart city services to Taipei in Taiwan, but the company is focusing on a more sustainable approach.
The Future of Smart Cities in Japan
Smart cities in Japan have been regarded as efficient solutions to current and future problems and have never been as vital as they are now. More than 200 companies, local governments, universities and public sectors have joined the Smart City Institute Japan, with more international companies looking to Japan for its advanced technology and world-leading services, the industry has a lot of opportunities to invest in. | https://medium.com/@tokyoesque/smart-cities-in-japan-practical-innovations-for-conscious-future-living-c0819ab5d870 | [] | 2021-01-05 11:44:30.819000+00:00 | ['Japan', 'Connected Home', 'Smart Cities', 'Innovation', 'Future Technology'] |
Vectornator X.2 Update | Vectornator X.2 Update
Design with extreme precision
With Vectornator, we wanted to build an all in one graphic design software that brings a unique and intuitive design experience to your iPad, iPhone, and Mac. Today, with Vectornator X.2, our graphic design software takes a major upgrade in the precision department.
We listened to all your feedback and we are excited to announce all the great features that are coming in today’s update.
The Precision Update
We always cared about bringing accuracy to the design process. We implemented a lot of precision-oriented features in the past to ensure that the design experience on the iPad matches its desktop counterpart. Features like a joystick that lets you move objects more accurately, our keypad that lets you input values quickly and many other features like guides, magnifier and snapping.
With this update, we are adding more features in the precision department that are highly requested by our users! We are excited to announce isometric grids, individual layer export, the return of rulers and much more in this major, feature-packed update that we cannot wait for you to try.
On top of all the precision features, This update includes a large number of bug fixes and major improvements that our team has worked tremendously on that really elevate and improve the user experience.
🔍 New Features:
Rulers —
Accurately place objects in Vectornator easily in the exact position you want as shown by the Rulers. Building upon our design-leading Levitation based User Interface, the Rulers will come attached to each Artboard. Turn the Rulers On/Off by going to Settings and then Canvas Tab.
Now it’s easier than ever to create incredible designs with precise dimensions, proportions, and leverage that 3D feel in your work without feeling burdened! Choose the type of Grid you would like to use by going to Settings and then Canvas Tab. To adjust Grid Spacing or Angle, insert the values that suit you and start making path-perfect vector designs much faster.
Achievements —
Our new achievements system is our latest way to interact with our community. Now, you can go to the new Achievements Tab in the Vectornator home screen and check out all the cool challenges that you can take on!
The Achievements also help our users to explore and learn about all the cool features that Vectornator packs and rewards you with our shiny new medals that you can collect and share with your friends on social media. We will update and add exciting achievements with every update, and we are working on some cool rewards to share with you soon! We’re excited to see who comes first in collecting all X.2 medals!
Individual Layer Export —
Leverage seamless and hasslefree export of individual layers from your design work. Be able to isolate any particular layer and use it wherever you please individually. The export options for this game-changer are available in JPG, PNG, SVG, PDF.
💯 Fixes & Improvements:
Rewritten Layer Interface — Thanks to this improvement, you will have an easier time designing with paths. With this enhancement, your paths can now even be added to empty layers marking the first time this will be possible! Now, you will also be able to see all the sub-layer elements just by looking at the thumbnails, making it easier to work with complex designs.
— Thanks to this improvement, you will have an easier time designing with paths. With this enhancement, your paths can now even be added to empty layers marking the first time this will be possible! Now, you will also be able to see all the sub-layer elements just by looking at the thumbnails, making it easier to work with complex designs. Increased Undo History — Now there’s no need to panic when you want to backtrack on changes to your design. You will be able to go twice as far back in your undo history compared to before. Retrace up to 600 steps on the iPad Pro and 400 steps on other iOS devices to recover older versions of your work.
— Now there’s no need to panic when you want to backtrack on changes to your design. You will be able to go twice as far back in your undo history compared to before. Retrace up to 600 steps on the iPad Pro and 400 steps on other iOS devices to recover older versions of your work. Guides — Guides are now separated per artboard. They will finally be displayed on the second artboard as well in order to help facilitate your design journey. Plus, you can now double-tap on the Rulers to add new horizontal/vertical Guides.
— Guides are now separated per artboard. They will finally be displayed on the second artboard as well in order to help facilitate your design journey. Plus, you can now double-tap on the Rulers to add new horizontal/vertical Guides. Unified iOS and macOS codebase — Improved iOS and macOS compatibility leads to an even more seamless and integrated way to work across Apple’s platforms. You will not face any issues when opening your files on the iPhone, iPad or Mac or all three together!
— Improved iOS and macOS compatibility leads to an even more seamless and integrated way to work across Apple’s platforms. You will not face any issues when opening your files on the iPhone, iPad or Mac or all three together! General localization fixes — Good riddance of issues associated with the localization of your files.
— Good riddance of issues associated with the localization of your files. Improved Figma Import Support — A quicker and more efficient importing experience without any lags is now, here. This simple yet crucial functionality has gotten even better.
— A quicker and more efficient importing experience without any lags is now, here. This simple yet crucial functionality has gotten even better. General Performance Improvements — Vectornator as a whole will just work better overall on any of your devices. It’s more reliable and powerful than ever before.
Additionally for iOS:
Swap fill and Stroke — This is now available on iOS as well!
Additionally for macOS:
Support For User Fonts — Spice up your work by importing your favorite fonts and start designing with amazing typefaces.
— Spice up your work by importing your favorite fonts and start designing with amazing typefaces. Updated TouchBar Support — Use the improved shortcuts straight from the TouchBar and experience a new way of designing on Mac.
— Use the improved shortcuts straight from the TouchBar and experience a new way of designing on Mac. Improved Context Menus — With more options in the Context Menus, it’s much easier to find exactly what you’re looking to do without needing to look anything up.
🛠 Bug Fixes: | https://medium.com/vectornator/vectornator-x-2-update-3f822a2e01b6 | ['Vectornator Team'] | 2020-03-23 10:38:26.616000+00:00 | ['Software Development', 'Apple', 'Updates', 'Vector', 'Articles'] |
Sweetee: A Memoir of a Nigerian Child | It was a windy Sunday afternoon in April 2003.
I stood agitated at our apartment veranda with Arinze, Fejiro, Dare, Ogechi — my playmates, and my little sister, Abigail, in our small compound in Onitsha — the commercial powerhouse of West Africa in southeastern Nigeria where I grew up.
We were playing “Suwe” at the play area inside the compound before the rain began to drizzle and ruined our fun.
The thunderous noise emerging from our flat that afternoon made me sick to my stomach.
Nna Ogechi, Papa Emeka who is popularly known as Onye isi who resides in the next compound and my father converged in our parlour discussing the aftermath of the Nigerian Presidential election which had held the previous day.
My dad in a soothing voice defended, “ Jiri ya nwayọọ, take it easy. We will surely get there and you know this is the first time in 15 years an election is being conducted by a civilian government.”
“Ola, don’t worry. The rain would soon stop so we can resume our play.” Ogechi said to me sympathetically.
I was four years old at that time, an adventurous boy full of life with plenty of energy to waste, jumping and flying around the whole compound like Tarzan — bare-chested, with my favourite oversized brown underwear.
As we argued “who mess the mess”, the drizzle stopped. We jumped excitedly to continue our play.
“Maybe the elephant has finished giving birth. A boy or girl elephant? I pondered.
The sky was cloudless and vibrant as the late afternoon sun descended on the commercial city.
No, No, No… “ we chorused with excitement.
The evening came too quickly.
It was now dusk, time to retire to our various home. But somehow we stayed back because the game “Who stole the meat from the cooking pot?” had reached cloud nine.
“Why did you scratch it? ọla edo m “ my mother quizzed with pity. “I will tell you a story,” she said as she began bathing me.
I remember it was on a particular Eke market day.
My mother took ill, so I had to take the vegetables to the market myself.
I sold all the vegetables in no record time but decided to wait for Ozioma, my friend, so we’d go back home together.
A few minutes later, I observed a group of people hovering around a table in the market.
Chanting and laughing with reckless abandon.
Well, I decided to check out what the amusement was all about.
“Hey! ezigbo nwanyi, fine girl. Come and play a card game and make quick money.”
A man beckoned on me as I arrived at the table. It was a three-card game. All you have to do is pick the “King card” after being shuffled by the handler.
Pretty easy, I said to myself as I dropped three kobos for a bet. Without any hassle, I picked the king card and got double my money.
I continued to play the game and won every market day.
One faithful day, I told to myself.
“Hey! why not play this game with something big and win big and save my parents the stress of selling their properties just to raise my school fees. But where will I get the money?”
On the next market day, I took all of the seventy Naira savings and placed a bet. “I was going to inform my father after the win.”
I was very confident. Astonishingly, I picked the wrong card.
How? I couldn’t believe what had happened because something must have gone wrong.
I wept bitterly as I walked home to inform my parents of my foolishness.
My parents were so disappointed in me.
The gamblers were nowhere to be found.
Two months later, my father died. My mother sent me off to Lagos to stay with my Aunt where I got enlisted as an apprentice in a fashion school.
It was during my training I met your father, a dashing young Captain of the Nigerian Army from Ogun state.
You see my son, life will present you with lots of sweetee, you must be very cautious not to scratch them or else you will end up with blisters.
“All that glitter is not gold.” As you grow to become a man, never make decisions while you are overly excited.
Always analyse situations and make adequate consultations before deciding.
If you must make a mistake, it must be a calculated error. Never gamble with your goals. Stay focused, God will help you.
We joined the rest of the family at the dinner table.
A mountain of pounded yam and Ofe Oha laid helplessly in front of my father. Two separate plates of Spaghetti Jollof for me and my sister.
My father already impatient began to pray “Lord, we thank you for the provision of this food. Bless us and sanctify this food… Amen”
© Olarewaju Blessing
(Lion O.B.O)
#Onitsha #Parenting #Nigeria #Okigwe #UNN #Story
Related | https://medium.com/@olarewajublessing/sweetee-a-memoir-of-a-nigerian-child-diary-of-a-lion-9420c2ad983 | ['Blessing Olarewaju'] | 2021-04-04 12:43:44.440000+00:00 | ['Childhood', 'Nigeria', 'Memoir', 'Writers Life', 'Storytelling'] |
Tesla’s FSD: taking the concept of beta to the max | IMAGE: Tesla
The carefully controlled release of a beta version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (or FSD) feature for a small group of users has people sharing their experiences on the social networks and talking about how amazing, scary or insane it is to entrust driving to a vehicle even if the driver is ready at the wheel, and whether it makes sense to put the technology in the hands of users at an early stage of development.
The launch brings the company closer to fulfilling the words of its highly visible boss, Elon Musk, who promised that FSD would be ready before the end of the year, and makes clear the difficulties that its competitors, still light years away from such a feature, face.
This is not the first time Tesla has provided its users with services that are barely off the drawing board. We, the owners of its vehicles, are already perfectly accustomed to finding ourselves, during frequent software updates, with new beta features, and which we must first approve. These types of issues, when you are enjoying an extremely safe vehicle whose performance improves over time thanks to software updates, or participating in the testing of a functionality are things that customers of traditional car brands are simply unable to understand.
In practice, users are not only willing to try out these updates, but we take special care in doing so, primarily because it is our responsibility, but above all, ultimately, our vehicle and our lives if something goes wrong. I have little doubt that when drivers test a feature like this, they pay more attention and take more care than if the person testing it does not have to answer for a failure: in practice, any Tesla owner will drive much more competently than Rafaela Vasquez, the reckless Uber test driver in Arizona with no qualifications (or common sense), who was watching an episode of The Voice on her smartphone when her vehicle ran over a person.
In addition to this greater responsibility derived from what is at stake, it is worth noting that Tesla users, in addition to showing unwavering loyalty to the brand and an extremely high level of satisfaction with its products, are more attached to the company precisely because of what these frequent updates and the possibility of trying out new features mean, compared to the usual experience of acquiring a vehicle and having it never evolve again, or even talk to the person who sold it to you, and at most to the workshop that maintains or repairs it.
Obviously, Tesla’s inclination to allow its users to beta test a product has a lot to do with a software company mentality versus that of the automotive industry: no traditional car manufacturer would dare to do something like this, and if they did, they would be faced with hundreds of lawsuits from their users if something went wrong. In the case of Tesla, not only does this not happen, but those users are happy to share their experiences so as to improve the product.
Does it make sense for a company to leave a beta product such as FSD to its users, which could ultimately cause problems if it malfunctioned? Sure, this is a highly evolved beta, launched by a manufacturer with a lot of experience: I have been driving autonomously for a long time now and with users that have already gone through this phase before. The first time I trusted my Tesla to take a corner, brake, deal with a traffic jam or to stop at a traffic light, I was very attentive and prepared to take control immediately in case of malfunction, and that experience has not only been repeated several times with other features and functionality, but has always been completely satisfying. In addition, the company has launched the beta version by carefully choosing who to offer it to, considering that it knows perfectly well their driving habits and behavior at the wheel, because the vast majority of Tesla users share our driving data with the brand. And finally, it is clear that trusting users to test a beta version or, as we have already seen, to feed the driving algorithms, greatly accelerates the launch of these types of features.
In the end, the balance is clear: instead of simply being a company that launches a product, it is the company and the enormous laboratory consisting of its customers who incorporate millions of kilometers of driving into the algorithm: we test new features, we report problems. The result is an extremely competitive brand whose products improve much faster than those of its competitors, and above all, that enjoys a completely unassailable position because it can do things that no other traditional brand would even dare to consider. And that, as the evidence and the market show, is very valuable. | https://medium.com/enrique-dans/teslas-fsd-taking-the-concept-of-beta-to-the-max-dec21493fd0e | ['Enrique Dans'] | 2020-11-01 10:31:10.960000+00:00 | ['Automotive', 'Autonomous Cars', 'Beta', 'Self Driving Cars', 'Tesla'] |
Flutter Widgets (Grid View) The Whole Picture | I would like to take this opportunity to thank Flutter Community for adding me as a writer to their publication, I posted my last article on TabBar & TabBarView under Flutter Community publication and I received a lot more exposure to this article than previous ones that I had posted earlier. Now I feel the next step is that we Indian writers should be able to join the Medium Partner program soon, I read a lot about it in past few days that Medium uses Stripe as their payment method and Stripe is now available in India but still, for some reason, the Partner Program has not opened for Indian writers, hope that happens soon.
What is Grid View?
It is a 2-Dimensional array which places its children into rows and column displaying the items in a tabular form. As the name suggests it is a Grid which is very similar to what we see in Android programming or any other programming language. The best place to see an example of Grid View is on Google Play Store or Apple App Store where we can see a list of applications in a vertical and horizontal scroll view. Similarly, if you see any marketplace application such as Amazon or Flipkart you will get to see Grid View format.
With the Grid View itself as an individual widget, there are 4 more options along with it which are…
GridView.count GridView.builder GridView.custom GridView.extent
Let us first look at the GridView widget in itself in as much detail as possible then it will be easier to understand the other 4 options because where almost all the properties remain the same, only the required property differs in each one.
Grid View Widget
The constructor of the GridView is as follows…
GridView(
scrollDirection: Axis.vertical, //default
reverse: false, //default
controller: ScrollController(),
primary: false,
physics: ,
shrinkWrap: true,
padding: EdgeInsets.all(5.0), @required
gridDelegate: SliverGridDelegateWithFixedCrossAxisCount(
crossAxisCount: 3,
mainAxisSpacing: 5.0,
crossAxisSpacing: 5.0,
), OR
/* gridDelegate: SliverGridDelegateWithMaxCrossAxisExtent(
maxCrossAxisExtent: 125,
mainAxisSpacing: 5.0,
crossAxisSpacing: 5.0),*/ addAutomaticKeepAlives: true, //default
addRepaintBoundaries: true, //default
addSemanticIndexes: true, //default
semanticChildCount: 0,
cacheExtent: 0.0,
dragStartBehavior: DragStartBehavior.start,
clipBehavior: Clip.hardEdge,
keyboardDismissBehavior: ScrollViewKeyboardDismissBehavior.manual,
children: [] // List of Widgets
),
The following properties are important to understand while implementing the GridView.
scrollDirection: Axis.Vertical or Axis.Horizontal. Changes the direction of the scroll either up down or left to right. reverse: false. If it is set to true the whole list will be reversed and scroll position will start the bottom. primary: false. It determines whether the primary scroll is associated with the parent or not. physics: It is used to determine the scrolling behaviour when a user is scrolling and has reached the start or the end of the list. shrinkWrap: false. By default, the value is false. The scrollable list takes as much as space for scrolling in the scroll direction, which may cause a memory leak and reducing the performance of the application. If it is set to true then the scrollable list will be as big as its children widgets allows it to be. padding(EdgeInsets): It is used to specify space around the whole list of widgets. crossAxisSpacing: To add space between the children on its crossAxis, mainly meaning the horizontal spacing between the widgets. mainAxisSpacing: To add space between the children on its mainAxis, mainly meaning the vertical spacing between the widgets. gridDelegate: This is a required property for GridView widget. I have already mentioned in the above constructor two widgets that are associated with gridDelegate property. The main difference between the two is: SliverGridDelegateWithFixedCrossAxis has a property crossAxisCount , which takes in a number according to which GridView will draw the number of columns. If it is 2 it will show 2 columns, if it is 4 it will show 4 columns. Now SliverGridDelegateWithMaxCrossAxisExtent has a property maxCrossAxisExtent which takes in double pixels. What it really means is that it divides the available space between the widgets and forms the columns accordingly. For example, if the width of the screen is 500 pixels, and maxCrossAxisExtent is set to 150 pixels, each child widget will get a max of 150 pixels or less and so the delegate will draw 4 columns giving each child 125 pixels of space.
gridDelegate: SliverGridDelegateWithFixedCrossAxisCount
gridDelegate: SliverGridDelegateWithFixedCrossAxisCount(
crossAxisCount: 3,
mainAxisSpacing: 5.0,
crossAxisSpacing: 5.0,
),
gridDelegate: SliverGridDelegateWithMaxCrossAxisExtent
gridDelegate: SliverGridDelegateWithMaxCrossAxisExtent(
maxCrossAxisExtent: 200,
mainAxisSpacing: 5.0,
crossAxisSpacing: 5.0),
10. keyboardDismissBehavior: ScrollViewKeyboardDismissBehavior.Manual. The user will have to manually hide or dismiss the keyboard, and if it is set on onDrag the as soon as the user starts scrolling the keyboard will be dismissed automatically. | https://medium.com/flutter-community/flutter-widgets-grid-view-the-whole-picture-34d2dd6dff9f | ['Murtaza Sulaihi'] | 2020-11-09 22:01:02.791000+00:00 | ['Flutter App Development', 'Flutter Widget', 'Programming', 'Flutter', 'Flutter Ui'] |
What is a Blog | Categories of Blog | Purpose of Blog | afaq ahmad
what is a blog? blogging, blog and blogger definition
what is a blog?
the definition of blog and blogger.
Do you know what blogs are? If you don’t know, then you’ve come to the right place. In the beginning, a blog was more of a personal diary that people shared online, and it goes back to 1994. In this online journal, you could talk about your daily life or share things you do and your ideas alot. But, people saw an opportunity to communicate any information in a new way. So began the beautiful world of blogging.
what is a blogger?
Definition of blog
A blog is an online journal or informational website displaying information in the reverse chronological order, with the latest posts appearing first. It is a platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their views and ideas on an individual subject or topic.
What is the purpose of a blog?
There are many reasons to start a blog for personal use and only a handful of strong ones for business blogging. Blogging for business, blogging for projects, or blogging for anything else that might bring you money has a very straightforward purpose.
As a business, you rely on consumers to keep buying your products and services through your blog or website. As a new business, you rely on blogging to help you get to these consumers and grab their attention. Without blogging, your website would remain invisible, whereas running a blog makes you searchable and competitive and make you visible on the search engines.
So, the main purpose of a blog is to connect you to the relevant audience or to connect to the world. Another one is to boost your traffic and send quality leads to your website and your business.
The more frequent and better your blog posts are, the higher the chances for your website to get discovered and visited by your target audience. Which means, a blog is an effective lead generation tool. Add a great call to action, and it will convert your website traffic into high-quality leads. But a blog also allows you to showcase your authority and build a brand.
When you use your niche knowledge for creating informative and engaging posts, it builds trust with your audience or people who visit your blog. Great blogging makes your business looks more credible, which is especially important if your brand is still young and fairly unknown. It ensures presence and authority at the same time.
Who is a blogger?
In recent times, bloggers have become famous for various reasons. An alternative career or job to many people, more people are choosing to join the ranks. So who are bloggers? These are individuals who love sharing parts of their lives with you and with the world. They post various topics from arts, home designs, carpentry, and finance articles. Bloggers are mobile and don’t need to be in one place. They live on the internet!
Definition of blogger
A blogger is someone who runs and controls a blog on any topic. He or she shares his or her opinion on different topics for a target audience.
Why are so many people blogging today?
Would you want to have a blog of your own? Yes! Most people today are creating a blog for various reasons. Every human being has its story to tell it to the world. Hence, through the internet, bloggers can communicate to a larger group of people.
Why is blogging so popular? Blogs allow you to talk about any topics and express your opinion. You’ll find some bloggers writing on every activity that took place during the day. These may range from small issues such as waking up, to major issues like human rights and climate changes! Remember that as a blogger running your own blog, you need to rely on the topics that you love and strive to become one of the best blogs on the web(internet).
Are bloggers getting paid?
Bloggers can earn money, but this is not a get-rich-quick kind of profession.
Before you can start monetizing your blog, you need to build both your Google SERPs ranking and your niche influence. And that takes plenty of time and quality content. Money-making opportunities won’t present themselves until you’ve gained some credibility in the field. So, get down to business.
Here’s how you can make good money as a top-ranked niche blogger:
Selling ad space on your blog privately or via Google AdSense.
Becoming an affiliate partner privately or through ad networks.
Selling digital products such as eBooks and tutorials.
Selling memberships for access to exclusive content or advice.
Using your blog as a content marketing tool for your business.
If you’re starting a blog as a way to market and boost your existing business, you probably won’t be selling ad space or memberships. But you can create and start offering exclusive digital products such as eBooks, guides, or online courses as a lead capturing tool in exchange for visitors’ email addresses. That way, you’ll nudge them one step further down your sales funnel. | https://medium.com/@afaq.1553/what-is-a-blog-categories-of-blog-purpose-of-blog-bf15012dae31 | ['Afaq Ahmad'] | 2020-04-04 11:14:41.811000+00:00 | ['Earn Money Online', 'Marketing', 'SEO', 'Blogging', 'Writing'] |
Android Guild Week: Modularizing our App | The Android team at Strava tries to maintain a healthy level of refactoring in conjunction with feature development throughout the year. However, earlier this month, all Android engineers had the opportunity to focus solely on platform health for an entire week (see our post about Guild Weeks for the history). After reviewing potential areas on which to focus, we decided to spend the week dividing our codebase into functional modules. This post reviews our reasoning, approach and outcomes.
Why create more modules?
The Android codebase is approximately 6.5 years old and started, as most projects do, with a single module (now named handset ). Over the years we added a few new modules, but the majority of our code was still concentrated in handset . With improvements to the Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) such as build caching by module and parallel compilation, we set out to modularize our codebase with the following goals:
make the project more readable and less tightly coupled
increase build speed
enable more efficient development iterations (explained later)
Prerequisites
Leading up to Guild Week, we agreed it was important to establish some benchmarks and build tools to track our progress. To address this, we added 2 items to our gradle configuration:
time-based tracking of build tasks — we used Netflix’s Nebula plugin to achieve this simple code distribution counts — we wrote a basic gradle task that runs cloc locally to give a snapshot of distribution across modules
Defining the work
We follow a Scrum process at Strava, so we wrote stories to extract different pieces of our app into new modules. Some examples include:
Create a Challenges module — the Challenges feature is fairly self-contained and seemingly easy to extract
Create a Test Utilities module — we had some test code duplicated across modules and it made sense to move it to a common location that was reusable by all
Create an Authorization module — if we extract the login flow to a separate module, engineers can assemble mini-apps during feature development that allow focused iteration. For example, an engineer building new views for our Clubs module could deploy a “Clubs” app that consists of the authorization, clubs and core modules. This should build and deploy in a fraction of the total handset build.
With our benchmarks established and a week ahead of us, we divvied up the stories and charged forward.
One step at a time
We all started by creating new, empty modules and then proceeded to extract code out of handset into the new modules. This is also when we really started to shine a light on years of accumulated complexities. Two examples highlight the challenges we faced:
Authorization
As mentioned earlier, we knew creating an authorization module would be a big win. The path to extract that code unfolded with the following steps:
getAthlete() — In our codebase, the authorization process revolves around the Athlete class. In the past year, we had already moved a lot of Athlete code from our handset module to an athlete module, but had not yet extracted the fundamental getAthlete() method that queries our API, which is a key step in the authorization flow.
— In our codebase, the authorization process revolves around the Athlete class. In the past year, we had already moved a lot of Athlete code from our module to an module, but had not yet extracted the fundamental method that queries our API, which is a key step in the authorization flow. Push notification settings coupling — When we tried to extract getAthlete() , we saw that the completion callback method syncs push notification settings to our API. Unfortunately, our notification settings code resided in handset and was tightly coupled with several classes there. So we set out to create a notifications module and extract that.
, we saw that the completion callback method syncs push notification settings to our API. Unfortunately, our notification settings code resided in and was tightly coupled with several classes there. So we set out to create a module and extract that. Pencils down — the week ended while we were in the midst of extracting the notification code to a new module. As of this writing, we are finally ready to land those changes.
While we slowly moved the authorization code following the process above, we also built an interim solution to achieve mini-apps:
We added an option to our development menu (not shipped in production builds) that exports preferences and authorization information.
We introduced a new launcher module that consumes the exported preferences and runs a given starting Activity.
module that consumes the exported preferences and runs a given starting Activity. This allows engineers to deploy a local development app with a subset of the desired modules and authorized access to our test servers.
View complexities
Another issue we encountered during the week was untangling legacy Activity and Fragment implementations. Long ago, we added StravaBaseActivity and StravaBaseFragment classes. They started as simple ways to provide things like lifecycle method performance tracking and basic injection of commonly used interfaces. Over time, these classes grew well beyond their scope and violated the OOP principle of Composition over Inheritance. We have been gradually migrating our view implementations to an MVVM pattern, but during Guild Week we discovered many of the legacy Activities and Fragments were effectively trapped in the handset module due to the extensive dependencies on Base classes. To address this, we migrated what Views we could and made plans to provide much lighter Base classes in a common-ui module which will ease the transition out of handset.
Moving forward
Aforementioned complexities aside, we continued our work toward a more modular codebase and made solid progress throughout the week. The team banded together, reviewing Pull Requests and socializing our process to determine how, when and why we introduce a new module. We also ensured a README file accompanied every module that describes its function and assigns ownership to engineers with expertise.
In addition, we improved our code on several other fronts:
Since we recently increased our minSdkVersion , we were able to move our images to webp and reduce our APK footprint.
, we were able to move our images to and reduce our APK footprint. We deleted a lot of unused build configurations and code from app flavors we had deprecated, simplifying our overall gradle structure.
We consolidated all of our string content to a single module. This drastically reduced the complexity in our translation process and simplified the steps necessary to create a new module.
We successfully created a test-utils Java library module. This consolidated all of our shared test classes to a single module that we can now include with a simple testImplementation project(':test-utils') line in any gradle file.
On Monday, we re-ran our tracking tools to measure the efforts and assess our week.
Drawing Conclusions
We arrived at the following conclusions when the week was over:
Modules and code distribution
We introduced 8 new modules and reduced the percentage of the codebase in handset from 77% to 74%. 3% does not seem like a large amount, but in one week we established momentum behind modularization and arrived at the following general process: move things, see what breaks, untangle, repeat.
Subset of code distribution metrics by module before & after Guild Week
Build Speed
Continuous Integration (CI) build times actually increased by 23%. At first this was alarming, as one of the main reasons we began this process was to decrease time spent waiting for our code to build. However, we dug into the numbers further and discovered that due to the changes in the codebase throughout the week, our CI image was spending a lot of time downloading newly-added dependencies. To address this, we increased the frequency at which we rebuild our CI image and continue to monitor build speed closely. We are also investigating a process to automatically rebuild the image every time new dependencies are introduced, eliminating noise from the speed measurements.
Elapsed build times (pink line) during Guild Week
In addition, our interim solution for mini-apps yielded great results regarding build speed. While not tracked in our CI environment, tests on development machines showed a 4x reduction in build time when deploying a mini-app vs deploying the complete handset APK. This will dramatically speed up the development iterations engineers encounter on a daily basis.
Overall, the team had a great time working together towards a cleaner codebase. We’re actively tracking our progress and are eager to see how much we can achieve before our next Guild Week. | https://medium.com/strava-engineering/android-guild-week-924ed49b668c | ['Todd Santaniello'] | 2018-04-30 23:13:54.709000+00:00 | ['Mobile', 'Android'] |
Release: Proton Version 1.3.4 | We are excited to announce the release of version 1.3.4 of the Proton API, as part of Hydrogen’s Atom offering. Check the details below to find out what’s new!
Version 1.3.4 patches bugs and institutes minor changes, as described below: | https://medium.com/hydrogen-api/release-proton-version-1-3-4-3497160a32bb | ['Shane Hampton'] | 2018-11-06 22:45:51.362000+00:00 | ['API', 'Announcements', 'Atom', 'Tech', 'Fintech'] |
7 Positive Mindsets That Can Help You Succeed | Definite Psychology To Attain Good Outcomes In A Digital World…
Image Courtesy Of Unsplash
If you were to poll many successful people about positive mindsets, I’m sure most will give you a lot of similarities and a few golden nuggets that you probably never heard of as well. Getting to the mountain top in the game of life is a goal for most people. Success depends on how you define it has many peaks and valleys to go through in order to get to a positive outcome.
With many entrepreneurs and successful people, there are different mindsets that you must have in order to achieve success. Different mindset types whether being positive or negative may or may not work for you personally but they can be a reference point in order to get to your ultimate goal.
Let’s discuss a few positive mindsets that can help you succeed and leave a comment to let me know if any of these work for you.
1. Focused On Self Development
Self development should be a focal point and a very important stage of your success journey. You can’t reach a positive outcome doing the exact same things that you were doing before you got on the course of achievement.
For example, a lot of successful people discuss getting up early in the morning, meditating, exercising, eating healthy, and a few other things. But if you’re a person that has never done any of those things, then success will probably be more of a difficult quest.
Image Courtesy Of Unsplash
On the other hand, it still can work for you but very few people are going to achieve the type of success that they’ve envisioned without doing a morning routine. One of the best people who I personally read and heard talk about this is a guy named Hal Elrod. He wrote a book called The Miracle Morning which discusses the foundation of self-development through a morning routine.
2. Taking Action Is Key
Taking action is the first step to success and without it, progression isn’t remotely possible. You can talk about accomplishing goals along with other things but without action, there isn’t a path to follow.
How do you take action and attempt to create a successful future?
You have to get up and commit to your end goal and be prepared for obstacles. That doesn’t mean you’re gonna be an immediate success story but sitting on the sidelines or consuming content all day every day without action will get very little accomplished.
Image Courtesy Of Unsplash
Think about some of the great people that we have today that took massive taking action to attain great achievements. People such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Arianna Huffington, Mark Cuban, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and countless others will likely tell you that having a positive mindset through taking action is a key to success.
3. Adaptability to Change
Learning how to adapt to change is not as easy as you think. If you’re a person that’s married to their ideas and believe them even if you are proven wrong, then changing your behavior will be very difficult.
Being adaptive and having the ability to change is a positive mindset for anyone who wants to achieve something greater. Just think about how many people that are stuck in their ways but you wonder do they really believe that a positive mindset can arrive from their own tainted belief systems.
Image Courtesy Of Unsplash
I truly believe the people that can’t adapt to change will lose in the long term because there are certain things in life that will pass them up such as awesome opportunities. Sometimes the resistance of change will ultimately hurt you and possibly people that are connected to you as well.
4. Help Others Succeed
Spreading knowledge to help others is a key to success and one of the best habits that you can have for a positive mindset. Deepak Chopra discussed the law of giving in his New York Times bestseller, “The Seven Spiritual Laws Of Success.”
He says, “…your body and your mind and the universe are in constant and dynamic exchange, stopping the circulation of energy is like stopping the flow of blood. That is why you must give and receive…”
For most people, helping others succeed is natural and there’s much more that can be accomplished by understanding how it can reciprocate in the proper way or setting. One of the things that can happen is giving value and in the process building a community that can also help one another.
Image Courtesy Of Unsplash
Almost everybody that reached a level of success had help from someone that guided them whether it was a mentor or coach. An experienced person that has given great advice about situations or a business sector to put you on a viable course to get to your promise land with fewer mishaps as possible.
Helping others succeed via building an amazing product or service for the greater good of a targeted group is amazing too. There’s a lot of different variations to helping other people succeed but to develop a positive mindset in doing so will benefit you in the long term.
5. Excited About Now And The Future
Excitement breeds positivity and when that occurs so does positive energy and the culmination of hard work. Get excited about now and for the future! There are a lot of things that you can be happy about including life itself and what it may look like for you when attaining your dreams.
I think most people believe somehow that they’re going to live a hundred more years on top of what they already lived. Do yourself a favor and look around and see what’s going on around you.
Image Courtesy Of Unsplash
Look at how miserable some people are for one reason or another. Do it for your own knowledge and understanding to show gratitude for your life in general.
Also, notice how excited some people are no matter what their reason might be whether their life is great or whatever internal thing that makes them appreciate life and regurgitate positive energy. Give thanks and get excited now because the future will hold your results.
6. Solving Problems And Finding Solutions
Having the mindset of solving problems and finding solutions is key not only in productivity but something you can take as a lesson throughout the journey of life. When you find solutions to someone’s problem you are the most important person to them because of the intrinsic benefit that you brought to the relationship.
If you switch your mindset to helping others solve problems and finding solutions, then you can get whatever you want in life. I’ll give an example: when a homeowner is in a bind such as losing their job, low on funds to make repairs to the home and NEED to sell their home, that creates an opportunity.
Image Courtesy Of Unsplash
To solve the problem you can work out a contractual deal with the homeowner to purchase the home and find an investor to sell it to for a profit. You just solved a problem and found a solution for the struggling homeowner by unloading what they perceived as a headache and you just met an investor friend who will very likely buy from you again when you get another deal.
Sounds far-fetched but people do this every day in the real estate industry. The previous homeowner is happy because the problem has been solved and the new homeowner or investor is equally ecstatic because they purchased a bargain (assuming it was below market value).
7. Continuous Learning Is A Must
In order to succeed you must continue to learn as often as possible. Learning should be an essential positive mindset filled with positivity and you should embrace it very quickly.
Why wouldn’t you want to learn as often as possible when there are a multitude of free resources that you can learn different things from?
One place to find audio content to learn from is listening to podcasts. Almost all of you know what a podcast is but just in case it’s a internet radio show.
Image Courtesy Of Unsplash
You can usually find a pre-installed podcast app on your phone or in the app store such as iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, SoundCloud, or several other directories as well.
Another free resource where you can continue learning almost daily are YouTube videos. It’s a huge how to resource to learn just about anything.
There is so much information not only on YouTube but all over the internet but podcasts and YouTube videos you can learn a lot from and its FREE content to consume.
What Other Positive Mindsets To Help People Succeed Can You Add?
Leave A Comment, A Clap and/or A shout out on Twitter!
If you liked this article, please check out the rest of my articles on Medium, Thrive Global, Good Men Project and for tips on Blogging and Marketing. | https://medium.com/thrive-global/7-positive-mindsets-that-can-help-you-succeed-718567915866 | ['Andre L. Vaughn'] | 2019-03-05 20:42:01.673000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Positive Thinking', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Success'] |
The charm of Apache Pig | The charm of Apache Pig
A big data tool not to miss
Apache Pig is a core piece of technology in the Hadoop eco-system. The objective of this article is to discuss how Apache Pig becomes prominent among rest of the Hadoop tech tools and why and when someone should utilize Pig for their big data tasks.
Anyone with a reasonable understanding of Hadoop knows that it is capable of handling large volumes of data in a distributed manner. Hadoop’s programming model called MapReduce enables processing large datasets in parallel by splitting a job into a set of map tasks and reduce tasks. MapReduce is the underlying low-level programming model and these jobs can be implemented using languages like Java and Python.
Consider a simple word count task that we want to achieve via Hadoop. The intention of this job is to count the number of occurrences of each word in a given input set. Following code snippet shows how this can be achieved using a mapper class and a reducer class written using Java. This is an example provided in https://hadoop.apache.org/docs/current/hadoop-mapreduce-client/hadoop-mapreduce-client-core/MapReduceTutorial.html#Source_Code
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.StringTokenizer; import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
import org.apache.hadoop.fs.Path;
import org.apache.hadoop.io.IntWritable;
import org.apache.hadoop.io.Text;
import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.Job;
import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.Mapper;
import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.Reducer;
import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.input.FileInputFormat;
import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.output.FileOutputFormat; public class WordCount { public static class TokenizerMapper
extends Mapper<Object, Text, Text, IntWritable>{ private final static IntWritable one = new IntWritable(1);
private Text word = new Text(); public void map(Object key, Text value, Context context
) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
StringTokenizer itr = new StringTokenizer(value.toString());
while (itr.hasMoreTokens()) {
word.set(itr.nextToken());
context.write(word, one);
}
}
} public static class IntSumReducer
extends Reducer<Text,IntWritable,Text,IntWritable> {
private IntWritable result = new IntWritable(); public void reduce(Text key, Iterable<IntWritable> values,
Context context
) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
int sum = 0;
for (IntWritable val : values) {
sum += val.get();
}
result.set(sum);
context.write(key, result);
}
} public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
Configuration conf = new Configuration();
Job job = Job.getInstance(conf, "word count");
job.setJarByClass(WordCount.class);
job.setMapperClass(TokenizerMapper.class);
job.setCombinerClass(IntSumReducer.class);
job.setReducerClass(IntSumReducer.class);
job.setOutputKeyClass(Text.class);
job.setOutputValueClass(IntWritable.class);
FileInputFormat.addInputPath(job, new Path(args[0]));
FileOutputFormat.setOutputPath(job, new Path(args[1]));
System.exit(job.waitForCompletion(true) ? 0 : 1);
}
}
OK, so this code snippet consists of 61 lines of code. To write something like this, you must clearly understand the fundamental concepts and theories of MapReduce. And, you should know the set of libraries or packages provided in your preferred language and how they should be put together. Mappers, reducers, and other utility methods must be called or combined explicitly into a pipeline to achieve the overall outcome (main method in this example) Out of all, this piece of code has to be compiled and deployed. Sounds a little complex right, especially if you do not have a MapReduce or Java background?
When I wrote my first MapReduce program using Java, I asked this question myself — ‘isn’t there any easier way of achieving this?’. The answer is ‘Yes, there is, and that is with Apache Pig’.
Apache Pig is a high-level platform for creating programs that run on Hadoop. The language for this platform is called Pig Latin.
Pig Latin is a SQL like scripting language, that abstracts the programming concepts of MapReduce. If you are familiar with basic concepts of SQL, putting a MapReduce job in place using Pig Latin is a task of just a few minutes. It converts the underlying complex concepts of MapReduce into a very high-level programming model.
Now let’s see how the above word count task we did with Java MapReduce can be achieved using Pig Latin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Pig).
input_lines = LOAD '/tmp/word.txt' AS (line:chararray);
words = FOREACH input_lines GENERATE FLATTEN(TOKENIZE(line)) AS word;
filtered_words = FILTER words BY word MATCHES '\\w+';
word_groups = GROUP filtered_words BY word;
word_count = FOREACH word_groups GENERATE COUNT(filtered_words) AS count, group AS word; ordered_word_count = ORDER word_count BY count DESC; STORE ordered_word_count INTO '/tmp/results.txt';
With Pig Latin, we have reduced the previous 61 lines to 7 lines. And the same task is achieved by manipulating a couple of keywords. And a piece of code like this is easy to implement as well as it is easy to be understood by someone else. So, it is obvious that Apache Pig reduces the learning and development curve of MapReduce. Understanding the above 7 lines of code is the challenge I am going to leave for you. If you are interested, you can start learning basics of Pig Latin here: https://pig.apache.org/docs/r0.17.0/basic.html
Following table provides a summarized comparison of Apache Pig and MapReduce based on the above example. | https://towardsdatascience.com/the-charm-of-apache-pig-fdc92b5cc3b4 | ['Prasadi Abeywardana'] | 2020-06-05 15:23:38.438000+00:00 | ['Hadoop', 'Big Data', 'Mapreduce', 'Apache Pig', 'Scripting'] |
An overview of Peak @ ASOS | An ASOS Black Friday weekend
In this series of blog posts, we’re going to talk through how we prepare for the Black Friday weekend or ‘Peak’ at ASOS, to ensure we’re set up to deliver the best experience possible for our customers over what is our busiest weekend.
In this first post, we’ll take you through how we got to where we are today. For round two, we’ll talk about the importance of performance testing and being confidently ready to run at scale. Finally, we’ll wrap up the series by looking at how we prepare and run peak internally, alongside the lessons we learnt as we pivoted to remote working during the COVID pandemic.
Overview
Black Friday is one our busiest periods of the year, where we experience extraordinary customer demand, which, in turn, places huge demand on the business, and critically on our tech. 2020 was another record-breaking year, which saw us handling:
Up to 1921 orders per minute, and 67 per second, at peak
orders per minute, and 67 per second, at peak 11.92 billion requests to Akamai with a success rate of 99.96%
requests to with a success rate of And on the Friday alone, sending 3.5 million emails and 692K app notifications
So yes, Peak is very busy. But it’s also fun and rewarding, with all our teams pulling together in pursuit of that same common goal — delivering for our fashion-loving 20-something customers.
Over the Black Friday weekend, Engineers from our various platform teams sit alongside their colleagues in Service Delivery, App Support, Reliability Engineering, Infrastructure and Networks, and Data — everyone studiously monitoring and making sure our systems are running smoothly so that our customers can grab those deals. Of course, for 2020 most of that collaboration had to be done remotely, with a core skeleton team on-site, but we all shared that common experience and the satisfaction of a job well-done.
To get ready for the weekend itself however, the work starts well in advance — so we’re going to take you through the build-up, how we prepare, and how we make it all happen.
Re-platforming
Firstly, let’s cover a little bit of background on our re-platforming efforts and how we’re organised.
One of the key enablers of our future growth will be the ability of our tech to hold up at even greater scale. To help us achieve this, we’ve been migrating our technology from its original architecture to being fully hosted in the cloud. Although we still have a few systems currently residing in our on-premise data centre, we’ve made great progress on this and are already benefiting from the increased scale limits that cloud provides, which far exceed the capability provided by our on-premise systems alone.
Our first-generation order processing system was based upon a database that grew to gigantic proportions, alongside older Windows Services and messaging systems. Replacing that legacy estate is very much part of BAU, but in 2016 we accelerated a programme to re-platform that architecture.
We’ve replaced our previous compute strategy with Kubernetes and Serverless, and our databases with Cosmos Db and SQL Azure. Much of our order processing system workflow now uses Azure Functions to operate, and we’ve had great success with them. Cosmos DB also gives us much more elastic scalability so we can increase our throughput during the busy periods and turn it back down afterwards.
Service Ownership
As a business, ASOS runs on its technology. We are a pure-play online retailer — and we, of course, require many hundreds of services to deliver the capabilities we need to operate.
But how do we manage that breadth of services and ensure they are maintained and supported, especially during a busy sales period?
The answer is in our organisation. Our tech teams are broken down into Platform teams, with each platform owning one or more logical services. Here is a picture that shows how we currently organise in a platform.
The ASOS Platform Model
A Platform Team’s goal is to own the code from inception to decommissioning: the product strategy, the build, execution, and the support. With this model we have seen our teams really show innovation and entrepreneurship in taking full ownership and accountability to enhance their service capability and run their services in Production.
Throughout the year, teams are performance testing their systems and re-platforming services where necessary to get the scale we need.
They work in conjunction with the Performance Team who test the end-to-end customer journey in a Production like environment, ensuring we are confident that we’ll maintain an awesome customer experience under very high loads.
It’s all about getting the customer order from the website to the warehouse as quickly as possible because we have cut off times that we need to achieve. We might have a next day delivery offer for example, in which case we need to get the orders to the warehouse in time to ship them next day.
Our website is made up of a number of different logical services. Each one may have an API, database, cache or message bus and these components make up that logical service. We monitor the activity, performance and utilisation of each of these components within each of our core services.
With any complex operation it’s inevitable that issues arise — that’s life! We’ve had our share of bugs to power cuts and so it’s essential we have a Plan B should something happen.
When running at very high loads, it’s vital we react to issues quickly. Retry loops can apply even more load and errors can propagate to downstream systems. To counter this, we build in circuit breakers and procedures to help us fail quickly and gracefully, and prevent knock-on effects. It’s essential that our mitigation works and so we review and test these safety valves and procedures throughout the year.
Why peak at ASOS works so well
Before we deep dive in later articles, we thought it would be good to share a few thoughts on what makes Peak at ASOS successful.
ASOSers all recognise how important Peak is — it’s at the forefront of everyone’s mind which means our people are working together towards a common goal.
Peak is extremely important to us as a business, not only for our sales but also for increasing our customer base globally. During this period, we attract a lot of new customers who are then retained throughout the year. There is great appreciation of this at leadership level, hence being given the time to focus on it year-round. If we tried to do this two months before, it would be difficult to hit our target to give our customer a great experience during peak traffic.
It’s a tough weekend with long hours, however, it always finishes with that high of a job well done and great teamwork. At ASOS, our purpose is to give our customers the confidence to be whoever they want to be, and the same goes for our people too. By planning effectively, and working together, our teams are able to have the confidence they need –in our tech, our systems and our delivery, time and time again. | https://medium.com/asos-techblog/an-overview-of-peak-asos-8cc9265827fb | ['Paul Taylor'] | 2021-06-24 16:06:56.826000+00:00 | ['Black Friday', 'Business Agility', 'Collaboration', 'Scale', 'Peak'] |
The Gofrendly magic trick, or how to rewrite a live backend without users noticing it | About Gofrendly and justifying a mad journey of technical debt cleansing
This article describes the process of rewriting Gofrendly's backend from a monolithic architecture based on PHP and mysql running on single virtual machines, to a dockerized Flask application with no-SQL databases and autoscaling in a GKE kubernetes cluster. Without a single user noticing it (almost).
Gofrendly, a friendship app for women
Gofrendly is a Swedish friendship app for women. Its goal is to help you find friends and get you out of your couch and into a real life full of social interactions and new experiences.
Ever moved to a new town and found yourself totally alone at home one evening? Moved to a new country where you didn’t know anyone? Or went through a separation to realise you needed new friends? That’s when you use Gofrendly.
And why girls only? Because a mixed-gender friendship app would immediately turn into a dating app.
Why did Gofrendly need a new backend?
As Gofrendly reached its first hundred thousand users, the team took a couple of steps back and contemplated their tech stack: 2 mobile apps (ios and android) and a PHP backend with a mysql database, both running on heavily muscled instances in Google Cloud. All outsourced to 2 different companies, one in charge of mobile development, the other in charge of the backend API and its implementation. Would that scale up? How would this setup behave with ten times more users? A hundred times? How fast can new features be rolled out? How fast can we start a/b testing new features? Can we keep outsourcing and still move fast enough?
Some answers were clear: to scale up, Gofrendly needed a more modern stack, needed to own its APIs and to develop its backend in-house.
Mission Impossible
With about 10.000 daily active users, the backend rewrite needed to happen with little or no downtime, and without loosing a single user. Oh, and fast too: 2 months to rewrite the core API on a brand new tech stack. Anyone up for it?
Sounds mad? I loved it. That’s when I joined the team, as its first in-house developer.
Choosing a new tech stack
After long discussions, we agreed on the following tech stack for the new Gofrendly backend:
A python Flask app, running behind gunicorn and using swagger/OpenAPI to spawn its endpoints and data models. Because I had spent the last 4 years battle-testing that stack with my Pymacaron project.
Deployed as a Docker container
In a Google GKE Kubernetes cluster with multi-zone support and node and pod autoscaling for high-availability and fault tolerance
Using Google Firestore in Datastore mode as its no-SQL database, partly replicated to an Elasticsearch cluster for advanced querying. Switching from SQL to no-SQL, easy, right?
What matters and what does not
The legacy backend exposes a REST API, documented via swagger, so we have a relatively clear description of what requests and responses look like. The new backend’s first requirement is to implement that exact same API.
One important strategic decision we took early on was to NOT do a one-time flip-the-switch shut-your-eyes-and-pray apocalyptic rollout. Instead, we would rollout the new backend progressively and as often as possible. Why? To minimise deployment risk and increase failure traceability at every release.
Another vital decision was to not let the backend rewrite stand in the way of developing new features. In a startup like Gofrendly, where the product is the main motor of growth, we just cannot afford delaying the rollout of new features.
And to have any chance at succeeding in this endeavour, we needed a reliable and well covering set of tests validating the API.
The master plan: little proxy becomes big boss
So how can this be achieved in practice? In short: by hijacking all traffic between mobile apps and backend. In fact, the new backend started out as just a proxy, which grew more and more self-sufficient until effectively handling all traffic by itself.
The Gofrendly legacy backend can be divided into 5 main logic areas: authentication, user profile, user matching, user activities and live chat. The idea was to re-implement each in turn into the proxy, and somehow let live users seamlessly use a mix of locally re-implemented logic and older logic handled by the legacy backend. That meant having a split-brain situation where some user data (the user’s profile for example) was hosted in the new no-SQL database while some (ex: the user’s activities) was hosted in the legacy backend’s mysql database. Exactly how we performed this progressive rollout while maintaining data consistency is hard to explain without going into very verbose and potentially staggeringly boring implementation details. So we simply won’t dig into it.
Here is what the roadmap looked like:
Step 1: a proxy with API tests
Write a proxy that serves the same API as the legacy backend, but actually calls the legacy backend on each request it gets. Implement that proxy using the new tech stack: Flask, gunicorn, docker. Write automated tests targeting the backend API, one test suite for every endpoint, as well as test suites covering all major user stories. Those tests must pass against both the proxy and the legacy backend, hence validating that they implement the same API and follow the same business logic.
Write a proxy that serves the same API as the legacy backend, but actually calls the legacy backend on each request it gets. Implement that proxy using the new tech stack: Flask, gunicorn, docker. Write automated tests targeting the backend API, one test suite for every endpoint, as well as test suites covering all major user stories. Those tests must pass against both the proxy and the legacy backend, hence validating that they implement the same API and follow the same business logic. Step 2: GKE clusters
Setup two Google Kubernetes Engine clusters, a staging and a live one, both with the same setup. Write a deployment pipeline releasing the proxy on the staging, then the live cluster, using only kubectl and the gcloud command. Stresstest the proxy in the clusters to validate the GKE setup’s stability and autoscaling configuration. Make sure to have reasonable monitoring on the GKE clusters with Google Stackdriver Monitoring, and optionally a Prometheus/Grafana setup.
Setup two Google Kubernetes Engine clusters, a staging and a live one, both with the same setup. Write a deployment pipeline releasing the proxy on the staging, then the live cluster, using only kubectl and the gcloud command. Stresstest the proxy in the clusters to validate the GKE setup’s stability and autoscaling configuration. Make sure to have reasonable monitoring on the GKE clusters with Google Stackdriver Monitoring, and optionally a Prometheus/Grafana setup. Step 3: Swap the legacy backend with the proxy
Remember when I wrote ‘no flip-the-switch’ rollout? I was lying. At some point we need to redirect all live traffic from the legacy backend to the new proxy. To make it worse, this is an all-or-nothing situation: we cannot let a load balancer enforce a gradual split of the traffic between legacy backend and proxy, since user data is split between both on a per user basis. So at some point, preferably in the middle of the night when traffic is low, we need to edit the DNS and point ‘api.gofrendly.com’ to the live cluster’s public IP instead of the legacy server’s IP. And have all live traffic start flowing through the new proxy, which in itself is a crucial validation step for the whole endeavour, one that we want early on in the rewrite process.
Remember when I wrote ‘no flip-the-switch’ rollout? I was lying. At some point we need to redirect all live traffic from the legacy backend to the new proxy. To make it worse, this is an all-or-nothing situation: we cannot let a load balancer enforce a gradual split of the traffic between legacy backend and proxy, since user data is split between both on a per user basis. So at some point, preferably in the middle of the night when traffic is low, we need to edit the DNS and point ‘api.gofrendly.com’ to the live cluster’s public IP instead of the legacy server’s IP. And have all live traffic start flowing through the new proxy, which in itself is a crucial validation step for the whole endeavour, one that we want early on in the rewrite process. Step 4: Rewrite the authentication logic
The legacy backend uses session tokens, making it necessary to do a database lookup for every request requiring access control. The new implementation relies instead on JWT tokens to identify the caller and its access rights.
The legacy backend uses session tokens, making it necessary to do a database lookup for every request requiring access control. The new implementation relies instead on JWT tokens to identify the caller and its access rights. Step 5: Rewrite the user profile functionality
User registration and all endpoints that update the user’s personal data. To start with, only a few users will be using the new profile code, then more and more, as the code gets stable and complete. This is enforced by letting the proxy look at the user’s JWT token upon each API call and decide whether that particular user should use the new implementation or be proxied to the legacy one. When a user gets green-lighted to use the new implementation, its data gets imported from the legacy database upon the first API request from this user. Data migration therefore happens gradually, and can be restarted when needed, until stability is achieved and the code is ready to handle all users, at which point all the remaining data gets imported in a long batch run. To enforce data consistency, the new implementation keeps importing user data on each request for a while, until the data of all users is properly imported and no legacy code may alter the legacy data. This transition period impacts the endpoint’s response times and must therefore kept short, though in practice it can last for days.
User registration and all endpoints that update the user’s personal data. To start with, only a few users will be using the new profile code, then more and more, as the code gets stable and complete. This is enforced by letting the proxy look at the user’s JWT token upon each API call and decide whether that particular user should use the new implementation or be proxied to the legacy one. When a user gets green-lighted to use the new implementation, its data gets imported from the legacy database upon the first API request from this user. Data migration therefore happens gradually, and can be restarted when needed, until stability is achieved and the code is ready to handle all users, at which point all the remaining data gets imported in a long batch run. To enforce data consistency, the new implementation keeps importing user data on each request for a while, until the data of all users is properly imported and no legacy code may alter the legacy data. This transition period impacts the endpoint’s response times and must therefore kept short, though in practice it can last for days. Step 6: Rewrite the user matching logic
Gofrendly lets users find friends based on an extensive list of criteria, so we need a flexible search API to query user profiles. Each time a user edits her profile, the updated profile gets stored into Firestore and, asynchronously, into an Elasticsearch index. The matching logic must therefore be rewritten from SQL to Elasticsearch queries: a completely different approach!
Gofrendly lets users find friends based on an extensive list of criteria, so we need a flexible search API to query user profiles. Each time a user edits her profile, the updated profile gets stored into Firestore and, asynchronously, into an Elasticsearch index. The matching logic must therefore be rewritten from SQL to Elasticsearch queries: a completely different approach! Step 7: Rewrite the user activity logic
All the endpoints letting users create and update activities, join them, invite people to them and so on. Using the same progressive data migration strategy explained above
All the endpoints letting users create and update activities, join them, invite people to them and so on. Using the same progressive data migration strategy explained above Step 8: And the journey goes on…
The new backend is now in place and completely backward-compatible with the legacy backend. All traffic is flowing through and users didn’t notice a thing. Time to build for the future and start rolling out new features!
Reality check
Sounds like a reasonable roadmap? Well to some extent, it does, since it mostly worked. Reality, though, is always full of surprise, especially in a startup and under time-pressure: the roadmap of the actual real-life rollout ended up looking more like a mishmash of the clean list above, with many of its steps happening in parallel or out of order. In fact, we started implementing the next version of the backend API (step 8) already while building the initial proxy (step 1 and 2), before we even started rewriting the legacy endpoints (steps 5 to 7). When that happened, there really was no turning back…
It took about 1 month to get a dummy proxy in place, running on the new stack, and redirecting live traffic through it. That included building a deployment pipeline against GKE, committing all infrastructure to code and stress testing the cluster to figure out its optimal size.
It took another two months to rewrite the authentication layer and user profile functionality, together with API tests covering all affected endpoints and ensuring backward compatibility for all user scenarios in the app.
Then we had to look forward and start implementing a few new features, such as email registration, AI-based selfie verification and in-app video calls.
All in all, it took a year to completely shutdown the legacy backend, but by that time the mobile apps were running against a completely redesigned API, optimised for performance at scale, and boasting loads of new functionality.
And for the fun facts on the new backend, have a look here. Thanks for reading this far! | https://medium.com/gofrendly-engineering/the-gofrendly-magic-trick-or-how-to-rewrite-a-live-backend-without-users-noticing-it-7e39ce2d21e2 | ['Erwan Lemonnier'] | 2021-02-25 19:05:04.275000+00:00 | ['Gofrendly', 'Pymacaron', 'Flask', 'Docker', 'Gke'] |
10 things I learned from Covid-19 with D3.js | 10 things I learned from Covid-19 with D3.js
A Guidebook to making an OpenSource project
Global Timeline of Covid19 by Stacy S. Cho
Overview
Global Covid19 Timeline has earned a lot of 💌 👏 😍from many people. I really appreciate for everyone’s support
As of now April 16, 2020, Global Covid19 Timeline has earned - 9K+ User Traffic - 58 Likes & 15 Comments from LinkedIn Post - 100+ Visits & 25+ Clone from Github repository
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
Douglas Noel Adams, an author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy once said,
Programming gets things done
I was actively looking for software engineer jobs in NYC before the Corona Virus swept New York & New Jersey. I had many interviews scheduled and I was very hopeful and motivated to start my career as a software engineer.
The virus swept the U.S., especially New York and I received many emails and messages about interview process being pended and rejected due to the the virus. New Yorkers were asked to Stay at Home and my job hunting period stopped until further notice.
For the first few days of my status being changed from Job seeker to the unemployed, John Hopkins’s Covid Website & Google’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) map became my Netflix. I was checking the graphs and the world map every hours hoping that the trend goes down and everything comes back to the normal, but the trend goes an opposite of what I hope so. | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/combining-what-i-learned-from-covid-19-with-d3-js-2c03d9df521e | ['Stacy Cho'] | 2020-04-17 19:15:28.940000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'JavaScript', 'Programming', 'D3js', 'Web Development'] |
Silly Ideas 1 v0.1 | Silly Ideas 1 v0.1
Every now and then i come up with silly ideas in my mind which just passes through. But recently i am thinking of at least making some note of them.
From the above picture you might not know what i have made because it's just a rough sketch. So, i will try to explain as much as possible.
Micro-bots:
So, they are the small robots that can run in the trails after being triggered by the user. They will fill the trails making a tight bond.
Stock:
Stock will be a slim bag that will hold the micro-bots in it with slots system and wireless charging capabilities to charge the micro-bots
Trails:
Trails will be more of a flexible but yet strong trail where the bots can travel and make a strong bond.
Note: The trail is a strong yet flexible part of the system. Micro bots are the ones which joins to make a strong bond. | https://medium.com/@rameshdura/silly-ideas-1-v0-1-4959e14c6599 | ['Ramesh Dura'] | 2020-12-16 02:04:16.896000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Robotics', 'Apple'] |
AI Diagnoses Alzheimer’s With More Than 95% Accuracy | AI Diagnoses Alzheimer’s With More Than 95% Accuracy
Alzheimer’s is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States.
All the illustrations were edited by the author via Canva
A little 30-second video. By Science for Real.
Subscribe to my newsletter to receive articles about science, healthcare, technology, and happiness! | https://medium.com/technology-hits/ai-diagnoses-alzheimers-with-more-than-95-accuracy-1bb70a5f1f3e | ['Eshan Samaranayake'] | 2020-12-17 12:06:48.677000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Health', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Neuroscience', 'Science'] |
The Secret to Stop Fighting: A Simple Science-Backed Formula | Step 1. I feel ________
Make statements that start with “I” instead of “You” to avoid blame.
Do this: I feel very nervous and abandoned when I’m home alone not knowing where my family is. Not this: You’re always late for dinner and you never think about anyone but yourself.
Step2. …about _____________
Describe what is happening objectively and non-judgmentally. Don’t offer your evaluation of what you think is going on for the other person
Do this: I’m the only one in the house and it’s 6:30, the time we usually have dinner. Not this: You are selfish and careless, so wrapped up in your own world that it doesn’t even matter to you what time you come home…it could be midnight as far as you’re concerned.
Step 3. I appreciate ________________
Give appreciations. Noticing what people are doing right is always the best way to go. Take the time to search your brain for a time when the person did or is doing something right related to this issue
Do this: I know how hard they’ve been pushing you at work and I really appreciate all you put up with to provide for the family. Not this: You don’t get a gold star for having a job.
Step 4. I need (or request) ___________________
Talk clearly about what you need in positive terms. Express what you want specifically and explicitly, clarifying what you do want rather than what you don’t want
Do this: I’d really appreciate it if you could try to remember to call me by 5:00 to let me know what time you’ll be home Not this: I do not want to be married to someone who thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to leave me home alone waiting while dinner gets cold without even a phone call
Put it all together and it sounds like this:
I feel very nervous and abandoned when I’m home alone not knowing where my family is. I’m the only one in the house and it’s 6:30, the time we usually have dinner. I know how hard they’ve been pushing you at work and I really appreciate all you put up with to provide for the family. I’d really appreciate it if you could try to remember to call me by 5:00 to let me know what time you’ll be home.
Remember to be polite. Treat the person you are talking to as someone worthy of basic manners, using phrases such as “please” and “I would appreciate it if…” Challenge your belief that this person “always or never” does the thing in question.
Here are some other examples that can show you how to tailor this formula into your own words. It works with children and bosses too:
I feel frustrated when I see the caulking in the bathroom hasn’t been finished yet. I know you have a bunch of projects on your to-do list and it’s a really messy, annoying job. I need to come up with a plan for when and how it is going to be finished.
(to a child) Buddy, that drumming on the table is giving me a headache, I know it’s fun to whack things with spoons but can you do it in the playroom, please?
I was a little annoyed that there wasn’t any milk for my coffee this morning. I know how fast it disappears in our house. Can you please text me when you finish the milk so I can pick it up on my way home from work?
5 Common Mistakes You Might Be Making While Using this Formula
1. Don’t sound like a robot. Remember it is called “gentle startup” for a reason. Find the softness in your voice, show it on your face and maybe grab a hand or rub a shoulder if appropriate. If there has been a lot of fighting between you, neutrality can be interpreted as sarcasm even if you don’t mean it to be.
2. Do not pause after step 2, or your partner will jump in and respond before you get a chance to express your appreciations which are the most important part of this formula.
3. Nasty prepositions: As soon as we say I feel like…, or I feel as if…, I feel that…, we are no longer talking about our feelings. We pretend we are talking about our feelings when they are actually opinions or judgments.
4. Don’t go global. People respond better to a discussion about a single episode than to a personality critique. “I’m worried that you are an alcoholic.” will be harder to hear than “I was really worried about you last night when I saw how sick you were from drinking…”
5. Edit all caveats. “I appreciate that you’re a great dad” is perfect with a period at the end of the sentence. The appreciation becomes lost if you say, “I appreciate that you’re a great dad when you’re actually home”.
The Four Predictors of Divorce
Congratulations on your commitment to improving your communication skills by reading this article. According to Dr. John Gottman’s research, criticism is one of the four predictors of divorce and relationship unhappiness, so mastering this formula could significantly impact your life.
The other 3 are Defensiveness, Stonewalling, and Contempt. Improving these 4 core communication skills will help you manage your conflict effectively so that you spend less time arguing and more time having fun!.
Thanks for reading my article,
Laura
*Resources
All of the advice and research referenced in this article is based on the evidence-based Gottman Method of Couples Therapy which is grounded in 40 years of researching over 3,000 couples. | https://medium.com/writers-blokke/the-secret-to-stop-fighting-lies-in-this-simple-science-backed-formula-48aeaf1f2b58 | ['Laura Silverstein'] | 2020-12-21 20:34:51.670000+00:00 | ['Relationships Love Dating', 'Communication', 'Relationships', 'Life', 'Conflict Resolution'] |
[Internship Review] Business Development ที่ Artisan Digital! | We are a full-scale digital agency based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, specializing in software development, design, and digital marketing consulting.
Follow | https://medium.com/artisan-digital-agency/internship-review-business-development-%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%88-artisan-digital-c131a8a07969 | ['Aki Pi'] | 2020-03-04 10:03:23.413000+00:00 | ['Artisan', 'Internships', 'Business Development', 'Intern', 'Review'] |
#ModernFatherhood: Supporting Women, Pandemic Addictions, and Growing in Isolation | SUPPORTING WOMEN
Just like that, the inauguration of our 46th President, Joseph R Biden, came and went with scaled-back fanfare, some fireworks, a coatless Tom Hanks, a perspective-shifting poem by 23-year-old Amanda Gorman, and a giant sigh of relief (shared by little more than half the country). Out of all the speeches, performances, and hope-inducing content presented throughout the course of the day, the moment that made me actually fight back tears was when our new Vice President spoke the following words:
I, Kamala Devi Harris, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
This moment induced, quite literally, the most emotional response I have had to a political event in my lifetime, which says something considering the emotional roller coaster ride the past two decades of politics in America have taken us on. Regardless of your politics, I'm sure we can all agree that life has felt like a total shit-show lately.
Yet, somewhere balancing on the thin line that runs between stability and total-clusterfuck-level-insanity, continued the steady and unrelenting march of the women's movement. A measured tread that continued, step-by-precise-step, over decades. One shaped by legends like Susan B Anthony, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Margaret Sanger, and Angela Davis and modern-era activists like Malala Yousafzai, Michelle Obama, and Gloria Steinem, women who survived an onslaught of violence and vitriol lasting well over a century from more sources of conflict than I can reasonably document here. Despite every obstacle hurled at them, they marched on.
And last week, as a direct result of the relentless effort put in by millions of women spanning decades, then-Senator Kamala Harris became Vice President of the United States of America before our very eyes.
Hearing her name and title spoken together for the first time was an intensely emotional moment for me. My reaction was triggered by several different images I collected in my mind over the years… My four-month-old daughter rocking gently in the arms of her mother, one who will certainly serve as Coco's first and most profound source of continued inspiration. My sister, who continues to fight a raging pandemic, on the front lines, as an ER physician in Chicago. My mother and aunt, both of whom fought their way through medical school in a third-world country to then launch their careers in a totally unfamiliar country where racism and sexism battled for the top rank as society's most prevalent social issue. Memories of them and the countless women who, through the years, played critical roles in my development, both personally and professionally, flashed in my mind and filled me with hope for the future.
My wife said it most succinctly: "Our daughter will never know a time in her life where a woman has not served as Vice President of the United States."
So I wanted to focus this first section on how we, as modern fathers, can strive to better support the women in our lives, starting with those in our home.
I shouldn't surprise anyone when I say that men have developed an absolutely-fucking-awful track record over the course of modern history when it comes to supporting women. We've been a nightmare, really. At the very least, we all have a few cringe-worthy experiences in our past that we would like completely wiped from history. Beyond shitty behavior, men get the luxury of being celebrated for simply showing up as fathers, even when doing the absolute bare minimum required of us. Think about how many times we've been praised for doing something as simple as soothing our mid-tantrum children in public, where mothers rarely get a fraction of the same acknowledgment for doing 100x that daily.
I am definitely not an expert in this arena, but I have committed myself to getting better, asking more questions, continuing to learn, becoming a better partner to my wife, father to my daughter, and supporter of the women in my life. I believe that being the best version of a father means supporting everyone around us, even if our support involves doing nothing more than getting out of the way.
With that said, I've pulled some articles for those of you interested in going down the rabbit hole with me. Our mission should be singular — show up for the women in our lives (our spouses, children, family, neighbors, colleagues, and total strangers). We should do so as the very best versions of ourselves. Support them where they are and where they need us to be. We are not meant to be experts; we are meant to be a support system, one that strengthens over time as we continue to learn-- doing so by actively listening and understanding. We owe it to our wives/partners/spouses and to the daughters we are raising. As a secondary benefit, the greater the leaps in progress we make in this arena, the better our sons will be as they learn from and model themselves after our behaviors.
Article Recommendations
Book Recommendations: | https://medium.com/@rehanchoudhry/modernfatherhood-supporting-women-pandemic-addictions-and-growing-in-isolation-c4c49d40c948 | ['Rehan Choudhry'] | 2021-01-27 19:41:23.857000+00:00 | ['Toddlers', 'Dads', 'Fatherhood', 'Parenting', 'Moms'] |
Impeaching Whiteness | Rarely does a career criminal’s signature crime or proven modus operandi finally trip him up. After all, it is one’s continuing “success” over time which defines the criminal as a careerist. No, it’s the hardly noticed, ever so gradual settling in of complacency and simple carelessness, the quiet nonchalance and disregard for details over which one once sweated and parsed to the nth degree that inexorably, subconsciously, causes one to lower his or her guard and leaves one open to silly, even stupid — but costly — mistakes.
The career criminal eventually is caught, then, because he begins to take success for granted. He takes success for granted precisely because he has succeeded so many — all — other times in the past. His routine is firmly established and proceeds virtually on autopilot — successfully….until it doesn’t.
Such has been the case with our career criminal president Donald Trump. This 73-year-old white male, born to privilege, has laid down a long and documented history of all manner of crime and no punishment.
Because of his to-the-manor-born status, Trump has always been shielded from any serious consequences of his misdeeds. Whether as a youngster in an “exclusive” military academy, or as a pampered student frolicking on an Ivy League campus, shielded from real military service and a raging war in Vietnam thanks to his father’s “doctor;” or whether helping and learning from Dear Old Dad how to keep “the ‘c’s’” out of their New York City lily white properties, Trump was relentlessly socialized to accept as an article faith that he and his “kind” were physically, morally, obviously, simply, “better” than everybody else.
This means that Trump’s racism runs far deeper, is more insular, and always top of mind, than even those poorer but fellow “white” New Yorkers whose money and status does not allow them to keep “the blacks” at bay. Donald Trump’s racism is the most important thing about him.
And with that racial (he calls it “genetic”) superiority complex also came license to treat us lesser beings as just that — less than. Crimes against “them” (anyone who is not white, male and rich) do not compare or count or matter nearly as much as “real” crime — crime against those few folks who do match his upbringing’s standards.
And so he stiffs contractors and employees just because he can. He can hire the legal experts who specialize in slow-dragging cases through the courts until the other side runs out of money. He can use bankruptcy as a business tool and model for building ever higher buildings and even higher profits. And, he can buy the silence of just about anyone who would expose him and the gilded house of cards in which he really resides.
Lately, of course, Trump has brought this jaded and degenerate “lifestyle” into the once again lily-white White House. Here his shamelessness is on full display. Here he commits world class even cosmic crimes in full and open daylight, knowing that by the time the shock of his behavior, of his intemperate words, of him, subsides, we and the “news cycle” will have moved on to his next scandal.
Writing in The Atlantic, David Frum probably described this aspect of Trump best:
“Trump has never been furtive. He commits his wrongs in the full glare of publicity. Bribes to Trump are not delivered by shadowy men in underground garages. They are collected right on Pennsylvania Avenue, in a garish hotel with Trump’s name right on the door. Trump does not stealthily embezzle Republican donations. The party simply books its events on his premises, every misappropriated dollar counted and disclosed. When Trump invited Russia to hack his opponent and deliver her emails to him, he did it on live television.”
The notorious Chicago mobster and all-round gangster of the “Roaring ‘20s” and ’30s, Al Capone, was eventually, finally, ensnared not for any of his many known or suspected murders, nor for running an industrial-scaled illicit alcohol manufacturing and bootlegging operation, complete with speakeasies, casinos, brothels and bordellos. He was never charged with making political and police payoffs or corporate bribes, nor for extortion of competitors, or for orchestrating outright gangland warfare on the streets of Chicago. No, “Scar Face” got caught up for what at that time, and at first seemed a silly or at least minor infraction (not even a real crime): violation of the tax code.
Likewise, Trump has finally been called to account — not directly, however, for his racism, nor for his misogyny; not for the brazen self-dealings of his far-flung real estate holdings; not for consorting with murderous dictators or bribing actual consorts; and certainly not for separating desperate brown and black migrant parents from their children and then throwing the lot of them into also separate and “private” concentration camps.
On the surface, Nancy Pelosi’s declaration that Trump will be held to account for political self-dealing with Ukraine’s freshly minted president has little to do with white supremacy/white racism. After all, all of the major players in this curious vignette are white, right?
Wrong. Trump is facing impeachment in the House of Representatives because he finally re-crossed a line that he had crossed earlier and had, essentially, gotten away with — enlisting foreigners in skewing the American election process to his personal political benefit.
That previous skewing deeply impacted and involved disenfranchising black and brown voters nationwide. That is to say that all of the methods and means of voter suppression and voter intimidation were deployed against black people and brown people with a fierce vengeance not seen since the height of Ole Jim Crow; and which allowed this man to eek out a razor-thin Electoral College victory, even as he lost the “popular” election by an astounding three million votes.
The ham-handed attempt to extort and blackmail the rookie Ukrainian president into producing political “dirt” on Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and doing so openly and repeatedly only one day after Special Counsel Robert Mueller supposedly “exonerated” him for the exact same conduct with respect to Russia, well…as my late mother liked to say, “that’s just too much sugar for a dime.”
And, Trump finally stiffed the wrong person — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the interest of full disclosure, I was against Pelosi’s regaining the House Speakership following the Democrats’ resounding victory in 2018. I had long ago decided that she was too “corporate,” too “traditional” and, yes, too “conservative” for the desperate times in which we live.
Her prolonged procrastination and overly cautious approach in deciding to at least “inquire” as to the feasibility of impeaching Trump, appeared, on the surface anyway, as timidity, even cowardice, and was certainly too politically calculated given the five-alarm fire Trump has ignited throughout the land.
But Pelosi’s final acquiescence to the demands of a fast-growing number of House Democrats and the general voting public has redeemed her personally, and positions her to be written down as a true heroine, if not the savior of this republic’s faltering “democracy.”
As my Medium colleague, Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez, has written, Trump and his legions of supporters are pulling out all of the racist stops in order to “re-elect” this man.
Make no mistake: As all serious observers agree by now, it was Trump’s appeal to white supremacy/white racism which “won” him the White House in ’16 — not “economic anxiety,” and not a generalized, ephemeral dissatisfaction with the political system, per se.
Racism worked in ’16, and the plan is to double-down, triple-down, quadruple-down on race-baiting his vaunted “base.” The ultimate, and yes, achievable, objective is to continually feed and grow that white angst, that white fear and absolute white terror at the reality of a not-too-distant black-brown-red-and-yellow majority.
Notice that most of the demon Democrats in this Trump retweet are “people of color.” It doesn’t take a degree in political science to figure out why.
Writer Ezra Klein put it this way: “As reams of research show, when white Americans believe themselves losing demographic and political control of the country, they become far more conservative.”
And David French agrees, writing in the conservative National Review:
“The near-total silence (at least so far) [in the face of Trump’s ongoing perfidy] from GOP leaders is deeply dispiriting. Do they not understand the message the leader of their party is sending — especially to America’s nonwhite citizens? Do they not understand that racial malice as a political strategy isn’t just an ultimately losing proposition but also deeply divisive, picking at the scabs of America’s deepest political, cultural, and spiritual wounds?”
The answer to French’s question is this: Of course Republicans and their leaders understand exactly what they are doing and why.
Getting rid of Trump and his whole crew, however, will send the signal that this nation-state is finally beginning to “get over” its 500-year-old obsession with skin color. | https://medium.com/breakthrough/impeaching-whiteness-69bb077ddff3 | ['Herbert Dyer'] | 2020-07-17 22:06:57.714000+00:00 | ['Race', 'Voter Suppression Laws', 'Impeachment', 'Politics', 'Nancy Pelosi'] |
“I Remember Wishing Abortion Wasn’t Legal” | A collection of stories from women who have experienced abortion called Empty Arms: More Than 60 Life-Giving Stories of Hope from the Devastation of Abortion features the story of one woman who was pressured into an abortion at age 16.
When the young woman became pregnant, she wanted to keep her baby.
I decided to keep my baby from the start. For weeks, I followed her development with medical books and pictures.… My hand was never far from my stomach.
Her parents, however, were horrified when she told them about her pregnancy. They told her to have an abortion, and when she wouldn’t, they kicked her out of the house. She said:
When I finally told my parents of my pregnancy, they were devastated. They pleaded with me to have an abortion, but I felt I’d rather die than hurt my baby. When I didn’t change my mind, they asked me to leave.
The young girl turned to the religious people around her for advice, but they also encouraged her to abort.
Well-meaning people told me that God understood my need for an abortion. It was the responsible thing to do. Having a baby at my age would be unfair to so many people, they said.
Both her parents and the doctor she contacted claimed her baby wasn’t a person yet. The teenager was confused at what all the adults in her life were telling her and wondered how abortion could be wrong if so many people accepted it. “I let my feelings cloud my judgment,” she said, “and I closed my heart completely.”
The fact that abortion was legal and readily available made it possible for adults to coerce the teenager into having an abortion. In retrospect, the woman writes:
I remember wishing that abortion wasn’t legal. People say it gives women a choice, but I felt I didn’t have one. Since abortion was available, it was my duty to choose it.
After the abortion, she said, “There was a pit inside me that I dared not go near.” She also described the way she felt after the abortion as “indescribable emptiness.”
One day at a movie, she saw an advertisement on the screen that said, “Hurting after an abortion?” She memorized the number and called it. At first, she told the woman who picked up the phone that she didn’t regret her abortion. She explained:
I argued that I didn’t regret my decision, and I did not have feelings to deal with. But I couldn’t say the word baby or look at pregnant women or hold a teddy bear or buy a goldfish or touch my stomach or be reminded that I had a heartbeat.
In the course of her conversation with the woman, who was from a pro-life pregnancy resource center, she realized that she did regret the abortion — very much. She began counseling at the center. Through the pro-life ministry of the pregnancy resource center, she began to heal. And though she says she has come to a place of healing, she will always regret her abortion.
This young woman is not alone in being pressured into an abortion by her parents. There are countless other examples. One study found that among minors whose parents found out they were pregnant without being told by the minors, 18% of the parents forced their daughters to have abortions. Six percent of the minors reported that their parents resorted to physical violence to force them to abort. | https://medium.com/the-pro-life-rose/i-remember-wishing-abortion-wasnt-legal-d96c6b63f5e8 | ['Sarah Terzo'] | 2020-12-09 02:35:15.497000+00:00 | ['Abortion', 'Pro Life', 'Pro Choice', 'Teens', 'Post Abortion'] |
Why You Need to Use the First Word that Comes to Mind When You Write | When you’re writing your fiction, you make hundreds and hundreds of word choices every day, oftentimes without realizing it.
And that’s how you should be putting your first draft on the page. Without overthinking things, especially when it comes to the words you choose to put in any given scene.
Revisions down the road come in small shapes and big shapes. Sometimes you have to cut long chapters. Other times you have to re-write a sentence and give it a better word at the end. Yes, there will be times in revision when you have to start looking at specific words that may need changing.
But when you’re writing the first draft of your novel, you should always, always, always pick the first word that comes to mind.
Do not, under any circumstances, stop the process of writing to look up a word in the dictionary or thesaurus.
If you’re really stuck on what the best word should be in the sentence, write the best one that comes to mind, and move on. | https://medium.com/read-watch-write-repeat/why-you-need-to-use-the-first-word-that-comes-to-mind-when-you-write-95bbfa740b97 | ['Brian Rowe'] | 2019-10-07 15:01:19.034000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Words', 'Creativity', 'Language', 'Writing Tips'] |
Day 0 | Overview
Onboarding is tough! We partner with companies and students to bridge the Academic-Professional Gap by leading a week-long boot camp that emulates a work environment to teach essential professional and technical skills.
Key Takeaways:
My homie Quinn and I noticed that there’s a gap between what CS students learn in the classroom and what employers expect professionally and technically of interns.. and we tried to do something about it!
From personal experience, we often felt like we wasted so much time being onboarded and wish we could’ve hit the ground running. Architecting this Bootcamp prepared us to hit the ground running with our own remote jobs.
Soft skills are hard to learn from reading a self-help book or blog post and must be practiced.
Due to corona, we weren’t able to run the week-long boot camp at the end of the semester. However, in a world where new employees and interns are being onboarded virtually, might there be an even bigger need for something like this?
Motivation:
There’s a gap between what CS students learn in the classroom and what employers expect professionally and technically of interns. Specifically, we noticed a professional/academic divide in technical know-how, use of tools, as well as soft skills.
The gap in the TECHNICAL KNOW-HOW between the classroom and industry
… and there’s no piazza in the workplace :(
The gap in the familiarity of TOOLS between the classroom and industry
sorry … pushing to the company repo? I just googled “repo” and am more confused🤷♀️ 😐 … I thought I worked in tech, not finance
The gap in SOFT SKILLS between the classroom and industry
Interns are similarly expected to master a professional skill set they have had few opportunities (if any) to practice and refine.
Who do I email versus DM on Slack? What can I wear to work? How do I ask a senior employee to a coffee chat … without making it weird?
We’ve been there and know the anxieties and concerns around onboarding toooooo well. Intern pain points can be broken down into 3 big things:
Let us know if we missed one!
But don’t take our word for it… research agrees!
source: random research on the WWW that kind of supports what we are saying
There’s a real cost to companies
Proposal
Target Personas: Who are we building this for?
All technical interns, but especially underrepresented groups, will benefit
How does Day 0 work?
We bridge the gap between academia and industry by:
Inserting ourselves between the gap between the end of school year + start of summer
Effortlessly integrating into current recruiting and onboarding systems
Hosting Boot camps on college campuses
The Day 0 Philosophy
How do we make our lessons stick?
Our Curriculum
From our experience interning at tech companies, we flagged four main topics
Technical Education: Example topics
key to the use of symbols in previous graphic
A Day in the Life
Here’s an example schedule of a day in the life of one our bootcamp participants
Business ~Stuffffff~
Why we were convinced this approach works? Proven Model, Unique Positioning
So what’s our value proposition?
Is it crazy to think that companies pay us to improve intern outcomes?
We had big plans! And we believed there was a huge market opportunity to grow this. We estimated that summer expenditures for an engineering intern at major tech companies would be $35,000+.
I know what you’re thinking — aren’t people doing this already? Thanks for that seamless transition — let’s talk competition
Competitive Moat
What do we understand about the space that other organizations just don’t get?
OK Yush, we believe you! But who else is even out there?
Competitive Landscape
How do we compare to Competitors + Current Alternatives?
Let us know if we missed anyone … or if a new played popped up in the space between us proposing Day 0 and now!
Next Steps
We had a three-pronged marketing approach
Our big goal was to bring education to the Software world ….
By capturing the recruitment market in the next 5 years
Blockers | https://medium.com/retrospectare/day-0-1d84e9eced9d | ['Ayushi Sinha'] | 2020-12-06 23:15:02.601000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Recruiting', 'Onboarding', 'Internships'] |
“Happiness” | Photo by Neroli Wesley on Unsplash
I want to talk about my favorite song of 2020, a small beacon of light in this terrible year, but before I do that, let me start by acknowledging that it took me far too long to recognize the obvious: Taylor Swift is one of the great songwriters of our time. That’s not a sentence I would have written even six months ago, but I get it now, I have the zealotry of a converted skeptic, I burn to evangelize my newfound faith. Her stature is comparable to that of Bruce Springsteen in the mid-’80s, a mainstream pop music giant who writes lyrics of unusual wisdom and depth, a crowd-pleaser who broadens her audience by cutting her own individual path. She transcends genre by crafting songs that can work as pop anthems, country heart-wringers, singer-songwriter confessionals, or emo folk songs, depending on her choice of producer. Outside the music world, she is as consequential a figure in our culture today as Bob Dylan was in 1966, or Kurt Cobain was in 1993. Her example has changed lives.
None of these assertions should be remotely controversial. Yet for all that, Taylor Swift is underrated. She rarely has been mentioned in the same breath as icons like Dylan or Joni Mitchell; more often, she’ll be compared with generational peers like her erstwhile rival Katy Perry. Reviews will spend as much time talking about her public spats with other celebrities as her music. Even positive assessments can’t resist a bit of snark about how her careerism undercuts her legitimacy, as if rock stars haven’t always cozied up to music journalists or engaged in promotional cheesiness to sell more records.
Some of the double standard here comes from everyday misogyny of the type that punished Hilary Clinton for coming across as too cold and ambitious. But Swift gets doubly docked for having built her success largely by appealing to the passions and sensibilities of teen girls. Our culture doesn’t take girls seriously. We pat them on the head and indulge their enthusiasms and feed them slogans like “Girl Power!” and “The Force Is Female!” while taking their money. Swift herself was a teen girl when she launched her career; she first learned her craft by writing songs that mirrored and magnified the complexities of her own teen-girlness. She took seriously what so many girls like her cared about and turned it into serious art. In return, millions of girls became devoted to and inspired by her, which was enough for too many people to dismiss her music as superficial pop trifles. In the early days of her success, she couldn’t even win an award without someone barging in to challenge her legitimacy. As Swift, her fans, and her semi-autobiographical subject matter moved into adulthood, as she became a bona fide superstar, she never quite shook off the condescension that greeted her every move.
Here is where I need to eat crow. I wasn’t a hater, but I didn’t take Taylor Swift seriously, and I didn’t give her music the attention it merited. Our elder child recently confessed that when they were younger, they kept their love of Swift’s music under wraps because they thought I’d make fun of them. This is difficult for me to accept about myself because I like to think I’m a perceptive and broad-minded music lover. I should have learned a thing or two since the days when I sneered at Madonna, expressed disappointment at Bjork’s Debut, and tuned out One Direction, only to be proven snobbish, thick-headed, and wrong every time. Yet here I am, having to take the blinders off again.
What brought me to my senses was the release of folklore in July. I think I must have been the target audience for folklore: an indie rock devotee with a melancholy streak who loves narratives told in brilliant language with sterling, precise detail. It didn’t hurt that the album was largely produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, one of my favorite bands of the past two decades, which prompted me to listen more closely than I had to anything Swift had released before. Dessner’s production is in many ways the opposite of the glossy, glittery, maximalist sound that characterized many of Swift’s earlier recordings (and which at times I’d found a barrier). It allows the songs to breathe and pushes the lyrics up to the front of the listener’s consciousness; and the lyrics are extraordinary, the work of a master operating at the peak of her powers. After folklore came out, Swift kept on writing and recording new songs, and in December she surprise-released another 15-song album, evermore, which is at least the equal of its predecessor.
Which brings me, finally, to my favorite song of 2020: “Happiness”, the centerpiece of evermore and the song that convinced me Swift belongs in the company of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and other poets laureate of the rock era.
Like most Taylor Swift songs, “Happiness” is about love. Like many, it is about the end of a relationship: “All the years I’ve given / Is just shit we’re dividing up.” But it is not quite like any other breakup song I can think of, although it has antecedents in parts of Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks and Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love. There are plenty of songs about feeling heartbreak, and there are plenty of songs about picking yourself up and moving on from heartbreak. Swift herself has written more than a few of them. “Happiness” captures the moment of transition between the two, the point when everything feels ruined but maybe no longer hopeless. Swift’s narrator is “right down in it,” the wound still fresh and raw, and yet she can also sit “above the trees/ [And] see this for what it is.” Singing over a funereal organ, she is both grieving and observing her own grief, both deranged and clear-headed, and she knows exactly how hard it will be to get to a better place: “And in the disbelief / I can’t face reinvention / I haven’t met the new me yet.”
The word “yet” does a lot of work in that line. This is, after all, a song called “Happiness”, and despite its dark emotions and mournful tone it is in the end an expression of optimism. The singer’s hurt is changing her, and through her changing she will heal. In the next few lines, Swift tells us what healing looks like. “There’ll be happiness after you,” she sings, then adds, “But there was happiness because of you / Both of these things can be true.” Even if now she nurses her rage (“Sorry, I can’t see facts through all of my fury”) and cries “acid rain / On the pillow where you used to lay your head,” she knows that the way forward is not by “making you a villain.” Her future happiness is bound up with the happiness she used to feel with the “good man” who hurt her. She can’t give him “the green light of forgiveness,” but she knows that the “new me” will. “Across our great divide / There is a glorious sunrise.”
“Happiness” gave me literal goose bumps the first time I heard it, and every time I’ve heard it since I feel somewhat breathless. Most of my favorite songs are ones I want to sing along with when I’m in the car driving by myself; this one makes me want to pull over and close my eyes and live for a few minutes in its embrace. It’s hard to say why it struck such a deep chord in me, but I think it has something to do with this traumatic pandemic year, our hate-poisoned culture, and the anger and grief so many of us have been carrying for so long. Swift’s lyrics have a meaning specific to the story they tell, and they also carry a larger meaning. Like a psalm, the song is a balm for our broken selves and our broken world. “There is happiness / Beyond the blood and bruise … There is happiness / In our history.”
In the last week of 2020, we’re huddled in our homes, crouched in fear and fury, not just unwilling but unable to forgive those we blame for getting us to this place. We aren’t ready yet, can’t even bear to think about moving on. Yet we know, eventually, we will leave this dark era of suffering behind. We have to, or it will break us. Our hurt is changing us, and through our changing we must heal.
We haven’t met the new us yet. | https://medium.com/@stephenfifeadams/happiness-bd1b5e98a1d | ['Stephen Fife-Adams'] | 2020-12-26 21:52:42.544000+00:00 | ['2020', 'Healing', 'Happiness', 'Taylor Swift', 'Grief'] |
The Fear of Travelling Solo | I’ve used to be scared of travelling alone.
Aren’t holidays supposed to be enjoyed with friends, family and partners?
Countries where you have friends that you can meet up with don’t count — I’m talking about places where you have no social connections to rely on.
I think fear of being alone is what stops a lot of people from doing it. Will I be able to spend days on end in my own company? Will I be embarrassed requesting a table for one? Who will validate my choices on the trip?
Luckily, I’m fortunate to be able to challenge some of these fears while living in Europe, where long weekends away to a foreign country isn’t such a big commitment in terms of time and money.
My favourite solo travel moments so far in Europe:
- Savouring each bite of a bread roll while sitting on a park bench in in Pisa, Italy. It was like fireworks in my mouth — how could something so delicious, be so simple? It was a perfect concoction of seasoned raw pork on one layer, and truffle spread on the other, sandwiching in fragrant slices of pecorino cheese. Absolutely divine!
- Enjoying live classical music in Prague, Leipzig and Vienna — sometimes while watching a street busker, other times sitting in a church, where the high ceilings allows for the perfect acoustics and reverb, making you feel like the music is flowing through you.
- Hiking in Vienna and Dresden. There’s something very spiritual about going on hiking trail by yourself, like you’re making inroads into climbing your own proverbial mountain. It also made me very appreciative that I was in good health to be able to do this.
- Exploring Budapest at night. It was eerie walking around Buda Castle alone with tourists around because of COVID, but I persevered and was rewarded with gorgeous views of the evening skyline across the Danube River.
Travelling alone has been very liberating, as it forces you out of your head and into the present moment, as you actively process the overwhelming sights, sounds, smells and tastes of your unfamiliar surroundings.
What better way to truly experience your own Eat, Pray, Love journey and realise the depths of your own strength and resilience?
Don’t get me wrong — I have many fond travel memories of travelling with friends or with my ex, but there’s something special about going down the rabbit hole and being open to where it leads you. Where getting lost is an adventure, and plans not working out is an opportunity to learn how to be flexible and think on your feet. With no one to account for and no itinerary to commit to, the possibilities are endless, and if you don’t like it — change it! | https://medium.com/@raymondhoau/the-fear-of-travelling-solo-ada8dd969ce6 | ['Raymond Ho'] | 2020-12-06 15:49:10.563000+00:00 | ['Resilience', 'Travel', 'Solo Travel', 'Journey'] |
Look, I’m on Elon’s side, but… | So what was Joe’s excuse for not knowing the above before Elon decided to do the podcast? Any comparison shopping at all before dropping $190,000 on a “sooo slow” Porsche, Joe? Rely on media flash or public commentary did ya?
No offense, man. A lot of people build their mind palaces with dogshit.
Just look at all the other people who could be buying a quicker, cleaner, smarter, safer, all-around superior (and often less expensive) car — but are instead buying yet another tired old Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, etc. etc. etc.
Because they don’t know any better? Because it’s more ‘luxurious’?
Uh huh. Marginally more luxurious while it stinks up the neighborhood and continues to kick a planet already starting to look like it’s down for the count. I wouldn’t step foot in one and neither would anyone else who knows any better. There’s a time and a place for things, isn’t there? Do you let your dog crap all over the place? Why do it with your car? Why now, especially?
So now Joe knows better. People might actually listen to Joe Rogan. That Elon Musk guy? Too controversial. Too hard to believe.
I know, right? Wild times we live in.
Elon took a chance. In fact, it was a chance I’m glad he took. (It made illustrating this puzzle a lot easier, for one.)
He weighed the negatives of a single puff on a joint against the positives of presenting himself as a relatable human being. As an approachable, affable, “bro” of a guy. In all likelihood because people too frequently treat him like he’s a machine. And he correctly reasoned that it’s more important to be accepted as human than to pretend you’re perfect. Does he need to dance within the hastily chalked boundaries of the insufferably uptight? I don’t think so. Does he need to be regarded as a human being? Yeah, I think he does. The latter is helpful, anyway. The former? Not so much.
Pragmatism, nothing more. With all the other things he’s doing, the guy can still find the right time, place, and way to pragmatically smoke a joint.
As if that’s especially difficult.
By all means though, keep right on trying to interpret that sort of thing as showing bad judgment rather than good. Keep acting like straw polls are tangible evidence of what’s right.
Keep right on pretending:
“There’s just never a reason for that! For doing drugs? You say it’s LEGAL? Are you kidding me? That shouldn’t be legal ANYWHERE. Why should it be legal?
I mean, I never tried it or anything, but it can’t provide any useful function. After all, look at me. It does nothing for me. I’m perfectly fine without it.
And if I can get along fine without it, so. can. you. I’m doing just fine, obviously. [The Xanax is tucked away in my non-obvious medicine cabinet.] Drugs are for druggies [and for special people who have health insurance.] My self-assurance is natural. I’m exactly the way I’m supposed to be [Fox News tells me so!] I’m not uptight, either. Who are you calling uptight, anyway?”
Uptight? No.
Insufferably uptight is what I said.
…
So what about those thumb-sucking, still-crawling-on-the-floor infants who had a conniption fit when Elon took that symbolic puff? Don’t they matter?
Not unless they significantly delay us from getting here they sure don’t:
The tipping point to sustainability will be reached soon after we reach the tipping point to electric vehicle adoption. In that order.
And no one is bringing us to either point faster than Elon is, period. Which is a fat lot of responsibility and a fat lot of pressure, and so if the guy wants to smoke a joint once in a while, if we know what’s good for us, WE LET HIM. {Note: we certainly do not know what’s good for us, but that’s another post.}
You Tesla shareholders with your nails gnawed to the bone worried because the stock might dip 10 or 15%? You make me laugh. As if we’re not ALL Tesla stakeholders. As if you don’t know the difference between a pull and a habit, and as if you have even the foggiest idea of the way he spends his spare time. As if he needs to account for every minute of it.
Liberal spare time that it is.
<stammering> “But it’s not his spare time. He’s on…he’s on…YouTube! And drugs. I saw him! That’s MY money he’s playing with!”
Then pull it out. While you’re at it, pull your head out of wherever you have it crammed. You think Tesla is going to fail because Elon Musk relaxes too much? You can actually see him making a habit out of that? Why not do a smidgen of research and stop being so irredeemably gullible?
The truth is, you only see what the FUD-pushing media allows you to see, and that ain’t a whole lot.
Work hard, play hard. Wasn’t that the rule?
The truth is, it’s a lot more likely that Tesla fails because he finally gets fed up with the arbitrarily constructed boundaries of the know-nothings than because he smokes a joint once in a while. It’s more likely to fail because the peanut gallery finally succeeds in wearing him out than because he learns how to relax for an hour or two a week. Ultimately, the thing most likely to cause the company to implode is for Elon to decide it just isn’t fun anymore.
And though it’s partly my fault — because I really didn’t write this for you — the plain truth is that most of you probably missed the key point even here. Even after I just got through explaining it:
Elon relishes the role of rockstar.
He relishes it and he’s not going to quit relishing it. More importantly, he shouldn’t even consider doing so. It’s one of the carrots that makes HIM hop. He might manage it a little better, sure, but that’s for HIM to decide, and no one with any kind of sense is going to begrudge him his fun.
He loves to watch the rabbits hop, and it *almost* doesn’t matter why they’re hopping. It’s amusing to him, and that’s a crucial part of the limbic system which initiates — though it does not exactly drive — the more rational thoughts HE is capable of kicking around. It’s about as smart to screw with that as it is to change the diet of the goose laying the golden eggs.
Read: not very fucking smart.
It’s something for him to look forward to; something which gives him a reason other than responsibility to get up in the morning. It puts a smile on his face. Kind of an “I wonder what this button will do” sort of thing.
“Hmm…how many rabbits will hop when they see a wolf?” Only 339,000, Elon.
The guy loves to wonder.
He enjoys wondering, and he balances it out just fine with a desire to know. Which, in essence, is curiosity. That’s what he’s preserved a seven year old’s sense of for the last forty years, and we ought to be glad about it — not excessively nervous that he’s going to take it too far.
After all, it’s not like he’s talking to the Russians about buying rockets or planning to nuke Mars or something…
Can you even doubt that some of his tweets are sent specifically with the objective of trying to determine how many retweets/likes he can get from something which is objectively pointless?
Pointless aside from the hopping, anyway.
Is it less than obvious that he values both the capacity to be serious and the ability to lighten up once in a while? Don’t you? More importantly, wouldn’t you if you were him? The guy is constantly under a microscope. And thousands of people are going to lose millions — even billions — when he succeeds.
Their priority has become stopping him from doing so.
Which means DECELERATING the world’s transition to sustainable energy. [Reminder: this is not good for you, for your kids, for anyone else’s kids, for anyone else who might want to live here once we get done, or for any other species aside from maybe the cockroaches or something.]
Why?
Because the loudest of the toddlers are the fossil fuel (and the Big Auto) pushers — and they’re not especially keen on having their rattles taken away. Some of them are just bad people, though most probably aren’t.
Either way, they hardly want you to get used to cars you can fill up with your roof built by companies which are not them. Is that really very complicated?
Your objective — that is, if you have any sense at all — should be to stop them from stopping him advance sustainability. Even if you’re not an Elon Musk fan. (That’s where we can stop conflating Elon with the company, BTW. Don’t like Elon? Fine. Don’t like Tesla? Take a good look around, buddy. Take a good, long, hard look around.)
Incidentally, you don’t have to like someone to respect them. To wish they’d be treated fairly. All you have to know is the difference between right and wrong.
If that’s too terribly complicated for you, let’s just start by being accurate.
Let’s just begin with getting our fucking facts straight, shall we? How about we refrain from blatantly cheating people regardless of who they are or whether we think they can afford it.
You know, like kids. Like marginalizing a future they OWN in an effort to make it easier on ourselves for just a wee bit longer. Not because it’s the right thing to do, of course. Just because we can.
Let’s stop short of jilting, cheating, defrauding, misleading, or conniving one another, eh? Let’s try this ugly and terribly boring thing called ‘honesty’ on for size, hmm? How about we see if it’s possible to avoid straight up lying about people regardless of whether or not it’s profitable for us to do so.
Regardless of whether we have concrete, recent proof they can’t fight back.
While we’re at it? Let’s remember that a few minutes can easily erase years of established trust.
60 Minutes is FAR more than enough.
Oh, yeah. Bet you thought I’d leave that one out, didn’t you CBS?
About as likely as forgetting that moronic Ray Liotta commercial you had playing on an infinite loop.
Not. A. CHANCE.
The guy trusts you enough to waive his obvious right to review (or at least have someone at Tesla review) the edited tape of the interview he was so generous as to grant you — you know, the one dumbass Pfizer paid you God knows what for the commercial rights to — and you seize that chance to deliberately paint him as a pompous jerk?
Even worse, you take an audience you’ve cultivated over the span of more than half a century — an audience at least mildly interested in getting to the truth of the matter — and you feed them full of misleading crap.
Way to buy some clicks by flushing your credibility down the toilet, schmucks. What, was the real story seriously not dramatic enough for you? Even after he wasted an hour of his time trying to explain it to you?
You know what? I’ll tell you what:
You can stick a fork in Old Glory if we can’t get something that simple right.
We’re more than cooked if an immigrant can come here, build an almost impossibly unlikely success story like that one, and then have one of the most well-respected news programs we once had traipse it before John and Jane Q. Citizen as if to say,
“There’s controversy here. We’re still not sure where he’s going with this whole ‘electric car’ thing. Wait there poised on the edge of your seats while tough guy Ray explains to you how THIS OTHER COMPANY can help you kick your habit of puffing noxious smoke into the air…we’ll get to truth in just a few minutes more.”
Sell outs, one and all. Highest bidder and stuff. Makes it more valuable right? No matter what sort of cheap shots you’re taking. Just like the National Parks. Like native lands. Because oil. | https://medium.com/@briankent/look-im-on-elon-s-side-but-f6d6b76e0ac | ['Brian Kent'] | 2019-02-25 05:21:01.803000+00:00 | ['Tesla', 'Sustainability', 'Electric Car', 'Elon Musk', 'America'] |
If you don’t own your traffic, you don’t own your business | “If you don’t own your traffic, you don’t own your business”
Simple Truth.
Social Media are great, Youtube too, but in the end if you don’t OWN a source
of traffic to direct people onto your offers, or affiliate’ offers one, you don’t have a business.
Facebook can shut you down without any previous notice, and they do it. Look at how many “business managers” were banned during the last months.
And it’s hard to recover it, even if you’ve done everything fine.
Same on Youtube: once you’re banned, you cannot open another youtube account, you are banned for life.
So if your business rely only on these channels, you could run out in a matter of hours, suddenly.
So, you NEED A SOURCE OF TRAFFIC reliable, stable, and predictive.
And nowadays, the only source of traffic you can really own, that noone can take you out of your hands, is YOUR EMAIL LIST.
So grab this gem of Complete Course on how to build your list and make money with it, while acquiring traffic also from other social media and so on, exploting them for what they truly are: only channels.
Grab the Course for free CLICK HERE | https://medium.com/@johnvianny/if-you-dont-own-your-traffic-you-don-t-own-your-business-218eb27a22f8 | ['John Vianny'] | 2020-12-26 16:23:36.496000+00:00 | ['Email Marketing', 'Email Marketing Easy', 'Make Money Online'] |
The First Signs of Alcoholic Liver Damage Are Not in the Liver | The First Signs of Alcoholic Liver Damage Are Not in the Liver
Myfather died of alcoholic liver cirrhosis four years ago. It came as a surprise to all of us, even though it was clear he had a severe drinking problem for decades. It was especially surprising to me, as a former nurse and a recovering alcoholic. You would think I’d know more about liver problems and alcohol use than the average person. But the truth is, in the months before his death, I had no idea my father’s liver was struggling at all. Most people know about cirrhosis, but few people know how a liver goes from early damage to end-stage liver cirrhosis.
https://kegg.tech/wp-content/tech/video-avu-v-bbv-00.html
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The combination of my father’s death and my personal background lit a fire in me to know more. He was admitted to the hospital on June 24, 2016, and he died on July 18. Only 24 days passed between the first sign there was a problem and his subsequent death.
Now, hearing that he was in end-stage cirrhosis didn’t surprise me, given his heavy drinking. What did surprise me was that he’d visited several doctors and specialists in the months before his death, and no one knew his liver was struggling either.
So what happened? Does end-stage liver cirrhosis really sneak up that fast? Were there other signs that would have alerted someone to his failing liver?
As for why the doctors and specialists didn’t know what was happening, that mystery resolved reasonably quickly. The plain truth is that alcoholics rarely divulge the amount and frequency of their drinking to their doctors. This was the case for my dad. He had many health issues that he was trying to solve, but he protected his drinking habit fiercely. So he refused to spill the beans, even when it mattered.
The problem is that liver damage has numerous multifaceted symptoms that are confusing and associated with many other illnesses. Unless a doctor knows that the patient is an alcoholic, they may not know how to interpret what’s happening until it’s too late.
As he was dying, my father told me that he didn’t think to tell the doctors how much he was drinking. He said it was as if he blanked out and “forgot” to mention it. As crazy as that sounds, this strange “forgetting” is a common part of the alcoholic mindset. It may also be due to the metabolic and physical changes of cirrhosis itself.
There are many signs of liver problems, but oddly, none seem to point to the liver at first. And in fact, many of the first signs of liver damage occur in other parts of the body. Knowing these signs may help educate alcoholics and their families if they want to understand their risk of developing liver cirrhosis.
Liver damage has numerous multifaceted symptoms that are confusing and associated with many other illnesses. Unless a doctor knows that the patient is an alcoholic, they may not know how to interpret what’s happening until it’s too late.
Digestive signs
The liver plays a huge part in our digestive process. It filters out all toxins from food as well as helping to break down fats and glucose.
When a liver starts to slow down due to significant damage, it will reduce its digestive work. Instead, it will divert its energy toward vital functions like metabolizing medications and filtering toxins.
This means that symptoms like bloating, nausea, vomiting, gas, and diarrhea will start to increase. Over time, eating becomes more challenging. In the later stages of liver cirrhosis, toxins that can’t be filtered out begin to build in the bloodstream, which causes more nausea.
Cognitive signs
Although confusion and brain fog happen in end-stage liver cirrhosis, they can also be early signs.
The liver is responsible for filtering dangerous substances in the blood. It also helps regulate hormones, blood glucose, and vitamin absorption. In the early stages of liver damage, these processes can be interrupted. Inevitably, this affects our brain and nervous system.
This means that early liver problems can make you feel tired, confused, slow, and foggy. You may have some memory issues as well.
Neuromuscular signs
The liver stores vitamins required for the functioning of many organs and systems in the body — one of them is vitamin B1 or thiamine. A deficiency in this particular vitamin has been documented in many alcoholics with or without liver damage.
Unfortunately, alcohol inhibits the absorption of thiamine in the intestine. Over time, as the liver becomes damaged, it can no longer store thiamine in enough quantities. Thiamine deficiency is responsible for many neurological issues in people with alcoholism.
Symptoms of thiamine deficiency range from mild to severe and include things like: confusion, mental fog, lack of balance, pain and numbness in hands and feet, muscle weakness, rapid heart rate, digestive problems, flushing, and involuntary eye movements.
Thiamine deficiency happens in almost every alcoholic who consumes frequent and large amounts of alcohol. And if thiamine deficiency due to alcoholism is discovered, you can be sure the liver is suffering damage at the same time.
Many of the first signs of liver damage occur in other parts of the body.
Vascular signs
All alcohol consumption can lead to blood vessel dilation, causing flushing in the face and hands. Over time, this can cause damage leading to permanent redness in the face. Although many alcoholics have rosacea or spider-like veins on their faces, this is often benign.
However, spider angiomas are different from rosacea or spiderlike veins. They’re circular and have a central point called a spider nevus that is darker than the rest of the lesion. Spider angiomas are a sign of liver disease and can be present in the early stages. They often progress to more extensive and more numerous lesions.
Spider angiomas are caused by increased estrogen levels in the blood. When the liver becomes damaged, it can’t properly metabolize estrogens, which causes them to build up in the body.
Many women who are pregnant or taking birth control pills may have a few spider angiomas. However, in alcoholic liver disease, these lesions are often more frequent and accompanied by red palms and varicose veins in the esophagus.
These are a few of the main signs of alcoholic liver damage that happen outside of the liver. It’s important to know this because most of us have no idea how the liver functions and how it communicates distress.
The liver itself doesn’t show signs like pain or swelling in the early stages of liver damage. This contrasts with other organs like the heart or stomach, where any damage will emit pain or symptoms directly from these organs.
What happens with liver damage is that its many diverse functions become interrupted, causing symptoms in other parts of the body. This may explain why most people never think they have a problem with their liver.
Unfortunately, patients with alcoholism are rarely educated about these issues. This is because they often don’t reveal their drinking, to begin with. And even if they do, the symptoms are widespread and complex, which makes patient education challenging.
My goal in writing articles like this is to help educate regular people about alcoholic liver disease to understand their health and make better decisions.
It’s hard to say if my father would have changed his drinking habits if he knew more about his vague and complicated symptoms. But I think having proper education would have certainly helped him understand his risks and health problems better. | https://medium.com/@sattiyasanju8282jdjh/the-first-signs-of-alcoholic-liver-damage-are-not-in-the-liver-1327badee833 | [] | 2020-12-17 20:23:43.980000+00:00 | ['Addiction', 'Health', 'Body', 'Alcohol', 'Mental Health'] |
Put Your Mouth On It | Life is not supposed to be easy. If it were easy, it would be your mom. {Forgive the old childhood joke. But it’s funny though. Right?} Decades working in mental health, I see the struggle day in and day out. And over the past ten years, I’ve had more bad days than good. So how do I stay sane? Appreciation. I appreciate it all. The good, the bad and the in between. I realized that life is just life. It’s happening. And how we respond, is going to determine the level of happiness that we have. Don’t get me wrong. There are truly tragic days in front of each one of us. But it is what we do with them, that makes the difference.
I know what you’re thinking. Vance, what do you know about hardship? Well, in the last 10 years, I’ve lost everything. All my money, my houses, and my wife became severely disabled. Chronic pain, and fights to walk every day. When we turned the corner and we started to get back into the rhythm of life again, our only daughter passed away. Trust me, I know hardship. But if you ask anyone who knows me or my wife on a personal level, they would tell you that we are the most laid back, and probably generous people they know. {Some may not, you would be hard pressed to find them.} And the reason that is, because life is life. And life is happening regardless of what you think.
Life is intimate and sexy. Both hard and brash. Open your mouth and take a bite out of it. I think for the most part, it is a beautiful experience. Take a sunset for an example. A drink in your hand or a moment of meditation, it is a wonderful experience. Take that same sunset, and look at it through a different set of eyes, going through a tough day. You’re probably thinking, I am so glad this day is over. Two very different experiences. Both equally beautiful, and both serve a purpose.
I have not done a lecture in quite a while. I would often be asked to speak, because of the way I approach a topic. I would speak on an issue, and 30 minutes into it, you would realize that I am speaking about something completely different. With my very busy schedule, I don’t have time for lectures anymore. So, I turned to writing. And today I write about life. There will be some messed up days in your future. There will be some great days too. Regardless of what the day brings, chose love, hope and compassion. Don’t wait for everything to be perfect to be grateful. You’ll be waiting forever. Because life is rarely perfect. And you deserve to be happy today.
So life, yeah…put your mouth on it. Take a bite and enjoy. Because without it, there is no journey. | https://medium.com/@vancelarson/put-your-mouth-on-it-ce6f53821ed | ['Vance Larson'] | 2020-12-05 15:24:23.107000+00:00 | ['Meditation', 'Journey', 'Sunset', 'Problems', 'Life'] |
Workforce Planning during COVID crisis | The current global market conditions have left many businesses wondering what to do. Is the timing right to scale down my operations? Will the previous market conditions ever return or will I need to adapt now instead of waiting?
Economics and mathematics may help with the answer. As you can see on our mathematical proofs there are 4 optimal options:
1) Indefinitely reduce production, employees and capital investment;
2) Reducing production scale to the current demand and plan to increase afterwards;
3) Keep the same workforce but leave employees idle;
4) Close the business
Having to choose one of the options can be very difficult. It’s one thing to make a decision if you know how long the crisis is going to last but it’s quite another if you don’t. We prepared a google sheets doc that can be downloaded for businesses to run their simulations and have some idea. We used a very simple model to try to help as many businesses as possible.
In this article I’ll show why these are the four possible solutions and which solution is best depending on the economic situation the company is in as well as discuss the example in the google sheets shared.
The hypothesis
We’re considering situations where business are impacted by the current crisis have experienced reduced demand and face severance costs associated with firing employees as well as hiring costs associated with increasing their workforce.
We’re also considering “fixed proportions production functions” — meaning each unit of product needs a fixed number of people and capital to be produced. In our example each unit of product needs 5 people and 1000 dollars.
Product prices, wages, productivity, hiring and severance costs, during normal and crisis demand cycles, and interest rates are all considered fixed and known. We’re trying to keep it simple and applicable to the majority of business operations.
Evaluating the options
We assume companies want to maximize profits and to do so we need to analyze our previous options in two different market states: crisis and no crisis. We drop the “Close the business” solution as it not an interesting option to consider. This multiple period problem is the one on the google sheet provided.
The first main evaluation is the “Present Value of capital needs”, i.e. how much money the business is going to need to pay for extraordinary costs and losses during the crisis. If the business does not have this much credit or reserve then the given option is not feasible unless short term profits can pay for them.
The second main evaluation is “Present value of all profits”, this is the amount of all future profits brought to the present considering the base scenario, in our example a 4 months crisis. It’s a good evaluation for how much a company is worth and if we knew with certainty how long the crisis would take it would be the best way to consider which choice to make.
Unfortunately we’re not sure how long the crisis will last and if we don’t even know the probabilities of each possibility we might turn to decision theory instead. It has many ways to consider a choice, the two I like the most is picking the best worst case scenario and minimizing the maximum regret.
Picking the best worst case scenario means that given a choice made and the possibilities of what can happen, evaluate what is the worst it can happen. From each of the worst case scenarios pick the best one.
In our example Option 1’s worst case scenario involves a profit of 254k and a 45k capital requirement. Option 2 provides 1.113k profit and 52k capital requirement. Finally Option 3 provides 1033k profit and 123k capital requirement. This means that Option 2 would be the best choice if you can afford the 52k capital need.
On the other hand minimizing maximum regret is a little more complex and interesting. Let us begin by talking about the idea of regret, it’s measured by the amount of profit foregone due to a suboptimal decision. For example, if the crisis has a long duration and you picked choice 3 on our example then you missed out on 80k extra profits if you had picked option 2 instead.
The idea is that nature is going to evaluate your choice and make you regret choosing it as much as possible, that is the “Maximum regret — Profits” value. To make you regret your choice nature is going to pick a scenario where you are either overreacting or underreacting.
If you picked options 1 or 2 you would be most prepared for a long crisis and so nature can make you regret it by making it a short crisis. The opposite would be true for option 3. This is the result shown in the “Maximum regret — Duration” value.
Finally, “Maximum regret — Choice” is what would be the best option given the maximum regret nature is trying to inflict to you. Notice it’s always a different choice in our example, that is because nature is doing exactly what you don’t hope it to do and therefore making a different option being optimal.
In our example considering regret the best option would be option 2, the one that leads to the least regret. Notice that many economists dismiss the regret minimization rationale since it’s considered irrational, still I think people are irrational and to me this is actually the evaluation rule that makes the most sense as it doesn’t look only at worst case scenarios but involves all scenarios meaning decision makers wouldn’t be looking only at the worst things that can happen but would also consider possible good scenarios being unexplored.
The four possible options
1 — Reduce company scale permanently
Although it would be hard to find any business person willing to have a smaller company indefinitely this solution is probably the safest one. And even though it has a scary “permanently” it’s pretty much a overstatement since we’re just considering a very simplified model.
The rationale is based on the fact that reducing the workforce to meet the crisis demand leads to savings in terms of wages and not rehiring means saving on hiring costs. As you can see in our example this solution does not depend on the duration of the crisis so at least it leads to a high degree of certainty.
The company only would have to pay for the severance of the extra workers it’s shedding but afterwards it’s good to go. Another added benefit is that it leaves open the chance to pivot to option 2, i.e., the company can still change it’s mind and rehire people after the crisis.
In our example this option had the lowest capital needs but still the fact that normal profits are so much higher it does not make it a compelling option. It shows a classic safety versus reward trade-off.
This option also leads to a massive regret in our example which would be attained if the crisis were actually very short meaning that it would have been better to just keep everyone on payroll normally.
2 — Adapt the Scale to the Demand
This option involves reducing production to meet the exact demand during the crisis and then raising production back to normal afterwards. This means firing and rehiring people as well as reducing purchases of inputs and then increasing it after rehiring everyone. The losses will come from paying severances and incurring rehiring costs.
One appealing characteristic of this solution is that the costs are distributed through time. The company will take an initial hit and then will only have to think about rehiring costs after things go back to normal. It also keeps option 1 open depending on how the market evolves and hiring costs develops.
This solution will be better then keeping the same workforce idle if salaries are higher than the cost of firing and rehiring people. It will be better than reducing the workforce permanently if the profit margin is larger than the hiring cost, so hiring back people makes sense.
In our example this option had similar capital needs to option 1, the difference being the hiring costs that would only have to be paid in the future. Another interesting result is that the duration of the crisis has a small effect on capital needs and profits (in our example).
As a matter of fact the longer the crisis the smaller the capital needs as rehiring costs would have to take longer to be paid. In terms of profits this choice still would rather have a short crisis then a long one.
Finally notice that this option has the best worst case scenario and gives the least regret, meaning it’s actually the most balanced option across all possible scenarios, i.e., the crisis may be long or short this option does not lead to missing out on much.
3 — Keep the same workforce but leave (some) employees idle
This certainly would be the most decent option but unfortunately not every company can afford it. The good news is that it can also be the best option since it precludes from paying severances and hiring costs. If employees even agree to work on reduced salaries then this option becomes even more appealing to businesses.
The problem is that this is probably the riskiest option. If the crisis lingers too long or if demand is hit too strongly the money to pay for those idle workers might end up being gone and the company may go bankrupt. On the other hand this option makes companies the most ready for retaking opportunities after things go back to normal so it’s definitely a high stakes option.
We already compared this solution to the previous one, compared to the option of permanently reducing the scale of production this option is better if the extra profits of operating at a larger scale once things get back to normal covers the extra loss of paying for idle workers instead of firing them.
The interesting thing about this option in our example is that although it had no extraordinary costs in terms of severance and hiring it leads to a monthly loss as long as the crisis lasts due to payroll.
In our base scenario of a 4 months crisis this option would be the one leading to the highest capital needs. It’s also the one that varies more wildly depending on how long the crisis may last. This option also can lead to a rather large regret if the crisis ends up being long meaning that option 2 would have been the best choice.
Conclusion
The Coronavirus is a huge threat to humanity, not only a health threat but also an economic threat. So many people are at a loss in terms of how to protect themselves from the virus and many businesses are also confused about what to.
In this article we used a very simple model to devise possible strategies and which would be the best depending on the company situation. It’s obvious that such a simple model has limitations and it also requires forecasts and risk analysis due to uncertainty but hopefully it’s a useful starting point for discussion.
In a crisis there may also arise huge opportunities. Technology can help soften the blow and even bring huge rewards once normalcy returns. Businesses that get ahead now may not be caught up by their competitors in the future.
We’re hoping to contribute by offering a massive discount on our AIs to help businesses go through these somber times, contact us if you think we can help. What did you think of this post? And how is your company doing? What strategy is it following? Let me know on the comments. | https://medium.com/@magmenecopuc/workforce-planning-during-covid-crisis-160576da88fb | ['Magno M S Da Silva'] | 2020-06-23 22:13:32.492000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Risk Management', 'Workforce Management'] |
Favorite Reads of 2020* | Around this time of year, I publish my favorite reads of the year. This year, a good book for me is one that I gave a 5 star in a review, made me think, and made me feel. Last year’s favorites two Powerful and insightful business books were: Two Great Biographies of a phenomenal woman leader were: Two Books on Leadership and how it transforms countries Fiction Favorites Top 5 Books on the Reading List for 2021 included more fiction than usual. This year’s favorites include more biographies, African, and American history.
My “top feeling” book was Caste; literally, the book made me cry with its storytelling of history yet hopeful strength of a people for the future. The books below are all linked to my Amazon reviews.
Two Powerful and insightful business books were:
Two Great Biographies of a phenomenal woman leader were:
Two Books on Leadership and how it transforms countries
Fiction Favorites
1 So You Want to Talk about Race
2. Compassionate Conversations
3 Seven Ways to Say No Thanks
4. Thank you for being late
5. The Storytellers Secrets
*A Full list of the 2020 Book Recommendations are on Thrive Global
#book #bookreviews #bookrecommendation | https://medium.com/@jdrolle/favorite-reads-of-2020-b0afe943fb69 | ['Joann Rolle'] | 2020-12-26 19:32:55.038000+00:00 | ['Book Recommendations', 'Books', 'Books And Authors', 'Book Review'] |
Session 3: Chequa’s Report. Chequa drafts a report for the crime… | The following is an excerpt from a report drafted by Chequa Nomi, addressed to Phoenix:
…As for the group’s investigation of the Scurrybuck, they didn’t tell us much over the comlink. It seems that the ship was destroyed but still heavily guarded by droids. Kirsk Va’Rel is dead, but they were able to recover the Black Box flight recorder. It’s likely that between Y-459 and your technicians, we can glean some information from it that would help us confirm who attacked the Scurrybuck. Va’Rel’s log was a valuable find, it seems that we underestimated Mr. Geth’s investigative abilities.
The ship has picked up ore and minerals at some place called “Salvation’s Hand” on Iridonia, along with an unknown cargo that we now know to be slaves. The purveyor is listed as “The Saviors.” The ore and minerals were to be delivered to the Guild of Dust as expected, but the slaves were scheduled for delivery to a “Project Beacon.”
Both the slaves and Va’Rel died before he could change course and reach you, except one survivor. She is a Twi’lek girl around age 10 with one missing lekku, replaced by a wooden prosthetic. Sunshine told Y-4 that the kid is in good health. She is in the care of the Bothan tracker Yim Natach, as of 0600 on the 12th day of the Month of Wind, 3rd Year of the Empire. | https://medium.com/@johansolo/session-3-chequa-nomi-755034239417 | ['Johan Solo'] | 2020-12-21 21:05:40.619000+00:00 | ['Chequa Nomi', 'Star Wars', 'The Hunted Campaign', 'Session Intro', 'Sunrise On Ord Mantell'] |
Magnesium for skin: why it’s the best acne and wrinkle fighting supplement | Most supplements out in the marketplace are unnecessary and don’t offer the powerful benefits they promise. Why? Because they’ve been well documented to offer nothing of value as a long-term health solution. Majority of the minerals and vitamins your body needs are typically received from a well balanced diet. Apart from what you should eat, what you shouldn’t eat is also just as important in maintaining a healthily lifestyle and managing healthy acne-free skin.
Still, our diets can sometimes get off track and that’s when we must consider taking necessary supplements. In this case, we’re talking about magnesium. Much of the research on magnesium to date suggests it does a great job when it comes to battling the root causes of acne and most other skin disorders.
Nearly 80% of the population is deficient in magnesium. This is an astounding fact when you consider that magnesium is responsible for a over 300 biochemical reactions in the body, some of which include helping your body digest food, promote a healthy heart, and even ease migraines. The mineral also helps the body regulate blood pressure, lower the risk of cardio-vascular disease, and even reduce menstrual cramps.
How stress can cause acne and wrinkles
Have you noticed that when you’re stressed, acne almost always tends to make an appearance? This is not coincidental. Under a flight or fight situation, your body releases hormones known as adrenaline and cortisol that cause us to take action in the presence of danger. Unfortunately, the type of stress we deal with on a day to day basis these days is not temporary. Work, kids, late nights, gym, all sorts of things lead to stress unless we learn to manage them. This is also the start of our long term battle against acne. This state of chronic stress leads to a build of cortisol, causing the skin to get clogged with a build-up of excreted oil also known as sebum.
Magnesium is also necessary for the enzymes that manage DNA repair and replication. Without the mineral, the skin would also be subject to a variety of harmful free radical damage and inflammation that would ultimately lead to wrinkling and skin damage.
How magnesium can help battle acne causing stress
Magnesium helps to support your adrenal system and function. Your kidneys release magnesium when cortisol is present in released in to your system, suppressing the effects of the hormone. By increasing your magnesium intake by supplementation, your body is better able to manage anxiety and stress, ultimately helping to clear your skin of acne. But make sure to self manage your stress levels because chewing a bunch of magnesium pills alone will not solve your skin woes.
Nutritionist and author of The Magnesium Miracle Carolyn Dean links the shortage of magnesium to the shortage of minerals found in our dirt, stating “Magnesium has been farmed out of the soil, so it’s not in vegetables, and animals don’t get it from the plants that they eat.”
While we’ll go over topical methods of supplementing magnesium into your routine, try to include the below foods into your diet for gaining the most benefits.
Magnesium-rich foods that are great for the skin:
Dark green leafy vegetables such as kale, spinach, collard greens and swiss chard
Spirulina, kelp, and seaweed
Fish: sardines, mackerel, tuna
Avocados
Figs, prunes, raisins, apricots
Bananas
Chocolate, preferably higher cocoa content
Nuts and seeds
Beans and lentils
Whole grains
While most oral magnesium products have a laxative effect and people are sensitive to that, try applying magnesium to your skin. According to the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institute of Health, the recommended about of magnesium is 310 to 320 milligrams per day. While topical application may not deliver the most potent amount, creams and lotions with magnesium can help.
Transdermal magnesium for dramatic results
Other benefits include improving your skin’s overall appearance by inhibiting the over production of sebum that leads to acne and other disorders of the skin. To get a clear and even skin tone with the highest level of magnesium absorption, transdermal magnesium may be for you. People with redness or rosacea tend to rely on it because of its calming agent on sensitive skin.
Below are some transdermal magnesium gels you can try to achieve the most benefits or scroll down below to see DIY solutions with basic ingredients.
Our favorite recommendations:
Raw Releations Magnesium Gel ($18)
BetterYou Magnesium Body Lotion ($12.93)
Natural Vitality Natural Calm Cream ($28)
First you get a deep face cleanse followed by exfoliation. Then extracts are administered before a magnesium gel is applied to ensure the most effective absorption. Applying it as a leave-on treatment allows it enough time to absorb. It absorbs almost immediately upon contact so I recommend leaving it on the skin for a minimum of 25 minutes to ensure the body gets a chance to utilize as much of it as possible. Also, massaging it into your skin will speed up the rate of absorption. Best of all, the fact that magnesium has no odor is a great plus.
DIY magnesium oil
Here are some simple at home magnesium oils and creams you can make:
You Will Need
½ cup Distilled Water
½ cup Magnesium Chloride Flakes
A Glass Spray Bottle
A Glass Bowl or Glass Measuring Cup
Directions
Boil the distilled water.
Add magnesium chloride flakes to the glass bowl. Next, pour the boiling water over the flakes.
Stir mixture until completely dissolved.
Let it cool. Next place in the spray bottle.
Store in a dark room for unto six months of use.
Usage
Spray the mixture over your arms and legs and stomach daily or as desired. You may notice some tingling at first. This is normal as the skin is getting use to the new topical solution. If after a few applications the tingling persists, you can dilute the with more water. Leave the areas that you spray for 20–30 minutes to fully absorb. You can leave it on or wipe off afterwards.
DIY Magnesium Body Cream
You Will Need
1/2 c. Magnesium oil (use the above recipe for your own)
1/2 c. Avocado oil. NOTE: For a harder texture, use oils such as coconut, almond, olive, or jojoba.
1/2 c. Unrefined Shea butter.
2 tbsp. Beeswax.
4–6 Drops of any essential oil (we like Frankincense)
Directions
Melt shea butter and beeswax in a saucepan over low heat. Add avocado oil.
Bring to room temperature (or same as magnesium oil). Add to a blender.
Add magnesium oil to the blender. Pulse on low for the first few intervals. Then turn it up so the lotion turn thick and opaque.
Pour into a glass jar.
The lotion/cream mixture should lasts for 3–6 months in a dark storage space.
Uses
Rub it all over your body to let absorb completely for instant pain relief and also as a long-term skin treatment.
Use it as a massage oil, using almond oil as a carrier/base oil.
Alleviate headaches by rubbing a small dime size along the side and back of your head.
Hopefully by now you’ve learned a little bit more about magnesium and the great benefits it has. Proven not just for your joints and muscles but also your skin complextion. As always, nothing works over night. Seeing results will require some patience. I would say that at least 1 to 3 month of increasing your magnesium intake should show results. If you found this useful, share this post with a friend or simply comment with your thoughts below. | https://medium.com/@dghayal1/magnesium-for-skin-why-its-the-best-acne-and-wrinkle-fighting-supplement-465eb54e8bbe | ['Denish Ghayal'] | 2016-12-13 19:42:44.256000+00:00 | ['Health Foods', 'Skincare', 'Health', 'Nutrition', 'Skin'] |
A Holiday Miracle Part III | My name is Sunny Alexander, and I’m Henry James, and we’re writers for Dark Sides of the Truth magazine.
Part I, Part II
Never is such a long time. When the words came out of Damen’s mouth, we both gazed at each other and shared acknowledgment of a single emotion.
Things weren’t looking too good for Jericho at the moment.
“Damen, is there anything you can do?”
“We’ve already done everything, Sunny. Now it’s up to him and fate.”
“Don’t know if I like those odds, Damen.”
“I’m sorry, Henry, I really am, but there’s nothing we can do now but wait. Look, I’ve got rounds. But I’ll come back and check on him and Ruth. Are you guys planning on sticking around a bit?”
“Not for long. We really need to get back. I guess Ruth will need to come with us.”
“How about this, Sunny? I’ve got some friends here at the hospital she can stay with. They can make sure she’s taken care of and ferry her back and forth to be with her brother.”
“You sure?”
“Positive Sis. She’ll be fine. Besides, you’re going to want to get out ahead of the snowfall anyway.”
“Snow? It never snows in Houston.”
“Not true, Henry. Two years ago, we had snow in November. I haven’t taken a look outside lately, but I’m willing to bet we’re already starting to get a light dusting.”
“Could this year get any weirder?”
“Any year spent with you, Henry is guaranteed to be weird.”
“Yeah, I’ve always said he’s a magnet for this kind of crazy.”
“Ya know what you two? You can..”
“We know Henry. We can bite your ass. Okay, let me go give Ruth the plan. Damen, we can’t thank you enough for all your help.”
“No problem Shaundrika. She’ll be fine.”
We all stood, and after a handshake and a hug, Damen nodded, then turned and walked away.
“Sit tight, Henry. This will only take a minute.”
“No problem. Hey, if Damen’s right about the weather, you need to make it snappy.”
“Chill old man. This won’t take long.”
And it didn’t. That’s because we discovered Ruth was no longer there beside Jericho’s bed in the ICU area.
“Where the hell did she go?”
“Bathroom, maybe?”
“Okay, go take a look.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Alexander. I’m not about to go poking my head into a lady’s bathroom.”
“Fine, I’ll go look. You start scouting around. We don’t leave until we’ve filled her in, got it?”
“Yes, mon Capitan.”
“Stop joking around James and start looking.”
After parting company and when left to my own devices, I began to think about Ruth, try to put myself in her place. Sunny may have been right. Maybe she did just have to go pee, but she’d hardly eaten anything when we stopped for lunch.
As one who marches on his stomach, I guessed maybe she’d gone down to the cafeteria on the ground floor, to shag something. When my intestines began to rub against themselves with a shrill whine, I told myself maybe I needed to find something for me as well.
When I stepped out of the elevator and gazed at the signs on the wall, I took the suggested path toward the chow hall, passing a vast expanse of glass doors on my left.
I caught a glimpse of her, then backed up and stopped.
She was sitting in an outside dining area centered in the middle of the hospital wings. Her eyes closed, her hands clasped together, and tucked against her chest.
Damen had been right about the snowfall.
Gazing at Ruth, I saw tiny white flakes drift down against her hair and shoulders, instantly disappearing as the heat of her body melted them. Aside from a gentle outward, then an inward motion of her hands against her chest, she seemed content to sit there beneath the snowfall.
Although I didn’t want to disturb her, I knew I had to at least let her know what we planned. Besides, in her frail condition, sitting in the cold, eventually becoming drenched, the chilled night air would probably make her ill.
At this point, half of her entire family was already in the hospital. This didn’t need to become a complete family affair.
As I neared the glass doors, an actuator opened the doors inward. I was met with a chilling rush of air, and thrust my hands into my jean pockets, stopping near her, not saying a word. Although she kept her eyes closed, a slight turn of her head acknowledged she was aware of someone standing nearby.
“Ruth, honey. You need to come inside.”
She continued to clutch her hands together at her chest.
“Mr. Henry?”
“Yes, dear.”
“Do you believe in God?”
“Yes, I suppose I do.”
“So do I, And I believe God brought you and Miss Sunny into me and Jericho’s lives for a reason.”
“I think it had more to do with dumb luck, Ruth.”
“No, dumb luck don’t exist. Although my brother did a stupid thing, Jericho could have tried robbing any bank. There was a ton of ’em between your bank and our house. But he chose your bank, Mr. Henry. Yours. And not only did God help Jericho find your bank, but he timed you going inside at the exact same time. God wanted Jericho to meet you and Miss Sunny. He sent you and Miss Sunny to help us when I was dying, and we didn’t have no money. And now, we’re together again, ain’t we, Mr. Henry?”
“Yes, hon, I believe we are.”
“What do you suppose God’s trying to tell us, Mr. Henry?”
“I honestly don’t know, Ruth. Honey, please let me take you inside. This cold and damp isn’t good for you. You need to stay fit for Jericho right now. Like he did for you. You need to take care of him.”
Ruth sighed, a prolonged release of breath, clouds of condensation from her lips billowing into the night air, then she unclasped her hands and grasped the wheels of her chair.
“Suppose you’re right. I need to be there when Jericho wakes up, huh?”
I paused, not really sure if my comment would assure her with any amount of sincerity then said, “yes, sweetheart, you do. Come on. Let’s get you inside where it’s warm.”
Let’s keep in touch: [email protected]
© P.G. Barnett, 2019. All Rights Reserved. | https://medium.com/dark-sides-of-the-truth/a-holiday-miracle-part-iii-73ff474d0a1a | ['P.G. Barnett'] | 2019-12-14 13:31:02.451000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Fiction', 'Stories', 'Henry And Sunny', 'Storytelling'] |
Book Review: China’s Asia | Book Review: China’s Asia
Triangular Dynamics Since The Cold War
This book review was written on 15th October 2019, for a course on China, as part of college
Modelling global power transitions across centuries, and its regional and global implications, in itself is no mean feat. When combined with the mind-numbing complexities of an ethnically and socio-economically diverse region, like that of Asia, this task becomes near impossible. Yet, by attempting to create a single comprehensive framework of analysis, through this methodology of triangulation, it is precisely this near impossibility that Prof. Dittmer aims to tackle in his book “China’s Asia.”
To achieve this, the author leverages a nuanced variant of the triangulation method – by analysing the different geometric possibilities of a two-tone relationship between all actors in the Triangle. By simplifying all international relationships between states as either that of amity or enmity, and super-posing this on his triangulation framework, the author arrives at four possible outcomes – where all actors have negative relations with each other; where two actors have positive relations with the third and negative relations with each other (romantic relationship), where two actors have negative relations with the third and positive relations with each other (stable marriage relationship); and where all three actors have positive relations with each other (ménage a trois). Within this model, all actors are rational and fully cognisant of the implications of their actions on other actors.
It is important to note the many implicit assumptions made in this model – some are important simplifying ones, but others are simply unrealistic. These shall be discussed later, in the context of evaluating model effectiveness.
After establishing this methodology, the author then permanently fixes China and the United States as two of the actors in the triangle, and analyses all other Asian actors systematically through their interactions with these two powers. He explains his reasoning for choosing the two great powers in his chapter “Contesting Hegemony” in which he elaborates the threat posed by Chinese economic and military growth on United States hegemony. This can be clearly seen in the author’s description of the state of the South China Sea. It is not direct American interests at threat here, but instead its perceived power and pro-activeness towards its regional allies. This threat may lead to several sovereigns moving away from America and balancing towards China. It is this form of triangular dynamics that the author attempts to portray.
The author then clubs the rest of Asia as the third actor – a methodological move up for tremendous scrutiny. In each chapter henceforth, the author takes a particular State, or sometimes an IGO, and analyses its triangular dynamic with China and the United States. The nations and IGOs he reviews, including Russia, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, ASEAN, India and Australia, are predominantly South and South-East Asian actors – a move that signifies the geographical region he is pursuing. Again, such a decision can be critiqued, as shall be done later in this review.
Two chapters particularly worth mentioning are those on Russia and Japan, where Dittmer’s methodological approach resulted in a nuanced and carefully crafted analysis. It is here where the triangular dynamics truly provide a unique perspective. In his chapter on Japan called the “Unsettled Sun,” Dittmer explains the rationale behind Japan’s initial behaviour towards Russia and China through the ‘arranged marriage’ model and then proceeds to show how such a balance altered economically after trading commenced between China and Japan. Further, accelerating Chinese economic and military growth altered the dynamics between Japan and the US.
In “The Great Strategic Triangle,” Dittmer analyses the detrimental impact of the Sino-Soviet marriage on the United States, and the latter’s attempts to dismantle the amity between the two. It further analyses the various attempts made by the United States in different administrations to improve ties with one of the two ideologically similar nations.
Yet as much as it succeeded in some arenas, the book’s insights on matters like of Korea proved less novel. In fact, the author had to re-adjust the very question from balancing triangulation to that of creating triangulation in the context of Korea in his chapter “Divided Identities”. Korea, traditionally explained through the polarity of the South Korea-United States block and the Sino-North Korean block was now force-fitted with the triangular model. In the same chapter, the author analyses Taiwan through the same triangular metric – even though the same is still only semi-sovereign State at best, and does not precisely fit the requirements of the model.
The author then analyses ASEAN in the triangular model, portraying the post-cold war era as a ‘Ménage a Trois,’ and thereby justifying ASEAN’s peaceful expansion in the ensuing power vacuum. The author further analyses how this amicable relationship slowly deteriorated as Chinese strategic interests and aspirations grew.
In his analysis of India, Dittmer further broadens his triangular method to encapsulate two distinct triangles of varying importance and capacity. The smaller triangle involves a marriage between China and Pakistan, with India being the Pariah, whilst the bigger triangle involves an Indo-US marriage, with China being the pariah. The author states that the disadvantages India faces in the smaller triangle can be outweighed by the benefits in the larger one. In methodological terms, this triangle-within-triangle analysis is perhaps his most sophisticated augmentation of the basic triangular model.
As mentioned at the onset of this review, creating a model to analyse all inter-state dynamics present in Asia is far from straightforward. To this regard, Prof. Dittmer’s case-study analysis in each chapter is rigorous and holistic, in that it goes above and beyond traditional conceptions of State power and decision-making. By deeply analysing the historical, cultural and economic backdrop of each region, the rationales provided for decisions made by nations are thus ethnically and culturally integrative. However, as mentioned earlier, given the geographies of the nations analysed, one cannot claim to have modelled or holistically understood the entire international system of Asia.
The core critique many would pose to Dittmer’s broader argument is that of his triangular methodology, and the simplification it ensues. To be clear, a model by definition is used to simplify inherent complexities and is designed more as a tool of analysis, then as a tool for accuracy. Thus, much of the methodological critique stands unsubstantiated unless a credible alternative is provided. One example is a critique of the author clubbing the rest of Asia into a single actor, and considering relations only with the two great powers. By simply stating such a critique, one is not indicating any alternative method forward and is merely being sceptical – for most other existing models are even more simplified as they provide analysis through simple two-nation polarity or great power rivalry.
Thus, instead of critiquing the very nature of the triangulation methodology as over-simplistic for Asia, this review attempts to assess certain assumptions within the model, and provide alternatives that could perhaps make the model more robust.
One simplifying assumption made deals with how inter-state relationships are evaluated. Country A may have good relations with B and C, but are they equally good? One would be unable to evaluate any trade-offs in such a model, as the act of balancing is restricted solely to positive or negative relations. An alternative, perhaps more rigorous approach would be to utilise the game theory method – that of evaluating relative trade-offs instead of solely zero-sum relationships. Even in a stable marriage, some enmities are far worse than others, and cannot be equated. This can be clearly seen in the relationships between Japan, US and China, in the context of the Sino-Soviet alliance.
The second assumption is about cementing the United States as the second actor. The book, being oriented towards Chinese worldview, necessitates only China as a fixed actor – not the United States. Unlike the first assumption, this is not a simplifying one – the triangulation model still holds strong if one were to replace the US with other, more regionally relevant powers. There are various nations in Asia, like that of, say, Nepal, that do not consider the United States as the second most important international actor apart from China. In such a circumstance, India would be a better fit. Thus although the triangulation model itself remains a powerful tool for analysis across Asia, forcing the United States as fixed makes the analysis only one of Great Powers, and not of all the international dynamics Asia – which is the book’s aim. This assumption makes the broad claimed scope of the book seem unrealistic.
Overall, although the book’s rigour and detail remain tremendous, the proclaimed scope of the book – that of analysing the international ecosystem of all of Asia, remains questionable at best. Given the book’s methodological approach and its geographical considerations, perhaps a narrower scope would be more appropriate. Yet the sheer detail and modelling complexities achieved by this book makes it a worthy and deeply insightful read for any student of International Relations.
***
Bibliography
Dittmer, Lowell. China’s Asia Triangular Dynamics since the Cold War. 2018. Rowman and Littlefield. Maryland. Print. | https://medium.com/@Pranav.Valmeekanathan/book-review-chinas-asia-1081685ad7e4 | ['Pranav Valmeekanathan'] | 2020-03-14 07:30:21.051000+00:00 | ['China', 'Modelling And Simulation', 'Great Power', 'Book Review', 'International Relations'] |
Good News For Gmail Users | The world’s most popular email service “GMAIL”, and Google has made it even better.
In a blog post that users will now be able to make changes to Gmail without having to save Microsoft Office files to Google Drive.
Earlier, Google had provided the facility of editing Microsoft Office files, but it had to resort to Google Drive.
But with this new update, users will be able to edit documents within Gmail without having to save them to Google Drive.
Whenever user receives a Word or Excel file in an email, they will be able to do any custom editing.
Users will also be able to reply to the original email thread with the update file.
Google introducing mixed page support in Google Docs and editable Word or Excel files.
Soon will also introduce support for inserting images behind text and watermarks into Google Docs next year.
Google also said that it will introduce another feature for users that will make it easier for them to switch from Excel to Sheets. | https://medium.com/@tehnologijaviews/good-news-for-gmail-users-242b9c238913 | [] | 2020-12-13 14:49:28.567000+00:00 | ['Google', 'Gmail', 'Technology', 'News', 'Email'] |
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