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Predators Gotta Pre-Date — or Dave Gass and the sordid saga | Dave Gass erstwhile pastor, cheater and ‘Daddy’ BDSM “trainer” to apparent “teens”
Update: Recovering From Religion has banned Dave Gass from their spaces and leadership roles with their organization.
[You can find Relief Belief on twitter here. Thanks for reading.]
This is meant to be a thumbnail sketch, updated to the end of 2020, of the events surrounding Dave Gass the pastor-turned-atheist-turned-cheater-turned-therapist-wannabe-turned-… you get the idea. All judgements here the considered opinion of the author, and some or all may be wrong in some way or all ways. Make up your own mind. For more in depth reporting, check the bottom of this article for references.
April 30th, 2019: Dave, using a twitter account with his real name and drawn portrait of his face, comes out as a sometime “mega church” pastor that has left the church and the faith.
And this is important: he gives the impression that he leaves — and he tells you he was kind of an important guy — as a matter of his choice, a matter of conscience and health. This is the difference between an atheist hero walking out with his head held high, and a despised pathetic figure kicked out of his hiding place into the light. Dave gets invited to and goes on some podcasts, enjoying adulation. He’s building a following pretty fast.
A short while later, more information emerges. People in the church let it be known that Dave isn’t known to be a mega church anything, that he was having an ongoing affair with a woman who belonged to the church he pastored, and that his exit was precipitated by being caught and confronted as a cheater. Dave protects his account, goes silent, ignores questions, including from the author.
Oh, there were also some claims the gist of which is that he ran up credit card debt his wife didn’t know about, ran off leaving her without support — including the kids. How much of that is true and to what degree is hard to ascertain. At some point, Dave deletes his account and retreats back into the shadows, refusing to substantively address anything. It’s worth noting that reportedly Dave was telling people he did this “because he was doxxed” but this seems like an awfully thin excuse considering he used his real name and likeness and was trying to build a following, going on podcasts? I believe at this point in history Dave had deleted his account, but further accusations come to light:
So ends Chapter 1 of the liar pastor who lies.
Chapter 2 begins almost exactly a year later, in April of 2020. The author encounters a new account that talks like the old one. As it turns out another intrepid citizen unbeknownst to the author [Anna, from No Eden Elsewhere, cited below] had noted his re-emergence and asked him about it, only to be ignored. Under the impression this is the first time he’ll be questioned, I put the question to Dave [having yet not admitted who he is, but nevertheless doing his atheist-anthem build-a-following schtick.] He ignores the question, but 2 minutes later starts a new ‘Story time’ thread admitting he’s come out before. Then seemingly lies quite baldfacedly that the questioning tweet was not the prompting factor. This likely dishonesty — and such a pointless, reflexive dishonesty — was food for much thought on the part of the author.
It should be noted here that Dave was now operating under his apparently legally changed name, of which the author will only provide the first: “Jack”. Although this attempt at anonymity seems a little incongruous with the fact he starts up a YouTube channel talking about dating. A theme that runs through Dave’s interactions is that he is as thirsty as a man can be. If your profile picture is that of a pretty woman, all the better if you’re showing yourself to be vulnerable, you can expect Dave to pop up in your DM’s.
Some time after this point, Dave is waxing eloquent about how relationships end and I confront him with the fact that he is giving the impression he is speaking about his own relationship, which as we have seen, he’s previously lied about. He claims these are the lies of his ex-wife. When confronted with the youth group impropriety instead of addressing the accusation, he blocks me. This seems like it is probably an admission of guilt, following Dave’s pattern of ignoring, blocking, then re-imagining and massaging a new truth to be presented later. If true, this would be another serious breach of using his authority to sexually or romantically take advantage of women under his care.
Dave continues to seek out positions of authority, with the spine-tingling addition of it being vulnerable women in therapy-ish contexts. Does this seem like a good idea, with someone who has never owned up or dealt with the fact that he uses authority to manipulate and take advantage of those under his care?
Some weeks later, Dave deletes his account for the 2nd time and retreats into the shadows. Too many questions, not enough answers. So ends Chapter 2.
Chapter 3: Everything that happens, happens again.
In going around up and down on the earth (bonus points if you get the reference) the author encounters this disturbing — yet familiar visage and schtick. Here’s Dave inserting himself into religious-trauma therapy-ish circles, again, with the vestiges of some authority. He is listed as “Co-organizer” for Recovering From Religion support group meetings as you can see:
In the opinion of the author — knowing really nothing about therapists except that they are unregulated in many places this seems like putting the Wolf in charge of the Sheep. Spoiler, for the moment at least, Dave is not listed as a “co-organizer” anymore, however there’s been no statement unofficial or official on this topic. There is, however the evidence that seems to have precipitated that change. Enter, Dave’s BDSM tumblr blog where he speaks about having sex with teenagers, “18 year olds”, approaching “blushing college girls”, “brainwashing” and “forcing” teenagers to endure painful anal sex whether they “fight” or not. Sorry for what is not fantastic formatting here. Note the archive links, they blend in.
Dave Gass BDSM tumblr blog where he muses about forcing teenagers into painful anal sex
It should be noted that contemporaneously with these events, Dave was changing the name and URL of his blog, and creating a backup since he had blogs removed from Tumblr at least twice before. This is an archive of the newly renamed blog: [Of which there is quite a few other urls stored if one is conversant with archive.is, the Wayback Machine, and uses the included URL’s in the images up above. An exercise left to the technical reader.]
Now, it’s a complicated line to draw between what’s kink and what’s kink mixed with abuse. That is an exercise left to the reader. However what is clear here is an established pattern of dishonesty and abuse of authority, to which this seeming penchant for very young women seems to fit like a glove. And, by the way, it’s apparently encouraged for them to keep their sexual escapades with Dave a secret:
What has the atheist community done about this? Virtually nothing. The author has contacted several atheist organizations and many prominent atheists and most or all have remained silent. Is this a case of a community always has a difficult time taking out it’s own trash? A case where professionals in seeming authority-ish positions don’t want to be embarrassed? There is only so much one can do, it would seem. But this is the right thing.
Thank you for reading.
Update: Literally at press time, this came through from Recovering From Religion. I commend them for taking action:
Recovering From Religion bans Dave Gass
Catching you up on the details:
For a past overview of Dave Gass’ first twitter coming-out from the Christian Post. An article detailing much of what transpired at Dave’s second repackaging and coming-out from Anna at No Eden Elsewhere. A twitter thread by Relief Belief, your author, detailing further err details not covered in this article: here.
Taking the lonely road less traveled. | https://medium.com/@reliefbelief/predators-gotta-pre-date-or-dave-gass-and-the-sordid-saga-54ae11b237af | ['Relief Belief'] | 2020-12-10 23:50:01.862000+00:00 | ['Betrayal', 'Pastor', 'Dave Gass', 'Abuse', 'Atheism'] |
I Regret My Awkward Threesome With a Married Couple | The day of her wedding anniversary, Vanessa got me to wait in her bedroom as Liam was returning from work. I was wearing a crotchless bodysuit she’d picked out for me, and I’d be lying if I claimed it was comfortable. The fabric was itchy and I didn’t feel right waiting to flash my genitals at a man who didn’t even know I was in his house yet. Still, it was Vanessa’s special day, so I let her run the show as she saw fit.
“You won’t believe the surprise I’ve planned for you, sweetie!” Vanessa’s sing-song voice drifted upstairs. “Close your eyes and take my hand. I’ll lead you to the bedroom. No peeking!”
Liam’s response was indiscernible, but footsteps began to sound on the stairs. I sat upright, nauseous with nerves, and crossed my legs awkwardly to hide my crotch area. My breathing grew shallow and rapid. Stop worrying, Angie, I told myself. He’s obviously going to love this. I repeated the thought like a mantra, but it failed to settle my hammering heart.
By now, the couple had reached the landing. The bedroom door creaked open. Liam shuffled in with a smile on his lips, Vanessa’s manicured hand blocking his vision. She was on tiptoe behind him, grinning at me over his shoulder. Was I imagining the maniacal gleam in her eyes?
“You can look now, sweetie!” She retracted her hand with a flourish, seemingly oblivious to Liam’s vanishing smile. “Look who’s come to play with us! Isn’t she beautiful?”
The silence that followed made my stomach sink. Liam’s face blanched. He stayed rooted to the spot, his eyes darting around the room, as if he’d rather look anywhere but at me. Swinging his arms back and forth, he opened and closed his mouth, spluttering faintly.
“Darling?” Vanessa prompted.
At last, Liam twisted his face into a pained smile and choked out: “How… unexpected.”
Vanessa clapped her hands like an excited child. “Well? Aren’t you going to kiss her?”
“I’d rather… start with you.” Looking confused, Liam drew Vanessa into his arms. I felt my cheeks sear.
“Oh, don’t mind him.” Vanessa winked at me. “He’s such a hopeless romantic. Only has eyes for his wife. Don’t you, honey?”
That seemed like an odd thing to say at the start of a threesome, but I nodded, pretending it was cute. Turning her face to Liam’s, Vanessa kissed him long and hard as she started to unbutton his shirt. Liam’s hands were shaking, but he disguised his anxiety by stroking her hips and the small of her back.
Continuing their smooching, caressing, and mutual undressing, they gradually reached the bed. Now wearing only her lilac bra and panties, Vanessa extended a lithe, golden arm to me and pulled me in for a kiss. Was this really happening? Was I going to join in? Sexual tension rippled through me as our mouths met. Vanessa’s lips tasted vaguely of pineapple.
Over her shoulder, I caught Liam’s gaze for a second. I gulped, trying to avoid staring at his bare chest and boxers. With an almost imperceptible frown, he shook his head and looked away.
I had no idea what was going on, but it was obvious he didn’t want me there. I considered apologizing to the couple and making an exit. But before I could say anything, Vanessa turned away from me back to Liam. I no longer had the pair’s attention; they were heavy petting again.
For the next 30 minutes or so, I didn’t know what to do with myself. The couple spent most of our “threesome” focused on each other, canoodling as if I were invisible. The whole time, Liam barely looked at me and he didn’t touch me once. It also seemed like he was struggling to get hard. Vanessa occasionally glanced in my direction, as if to check I was still enjoying the show. Unwilling to cause a scene, I acted relaxed — but I’d never felt like more of a third wheel.
Eventually, Liam’s erection surfaced, so the pair progressed to intercourse. Closing her eyes, Vanessa wrapped her legs around him, trailing her fingers down his back as she moaned. At this point, I quietly slipped out the room. Neither of them called out to ask me where I was going. Liam’s grunting faded to silence as I headed downstairs and collected my clothes. | https://medium.com/sexography/i-regret-my-awkward-threesome-with-a-married-couple-f8c380c73e2d | ['Evangeline Grace'] | 2020-12-21 22:11:56.864000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Unicorns', 'Threesome', 'Sex', 'Group Sex'] |
CI/CD with Azure Pipelines | If you use Azure DevOps one of their related CI/CD offerings within this service is Azure Pipelines. I’ve been doing prototyping of various CI/CD offerings on the market and Azure Pipelines was one of them.
If you look out into the world of CI/CD it can be a vast, intimidating and confusing array of platforms and offerings that are a mix of open-source, closed-source, self-hosted and cloud based. However in my experience you can generally categorize them into two difference camps. The first camp being what I’ll call a “modern architecture” whereby the orchestration, scheduling and execution environment is highly portable and leverages underlying first class constructs provided by an underlying platform like Kubernetes to do the bulk of the scheduling and orchestration work.
The second camp would be what I’ll call the “traditional architecture” which has more battle tested history but is based on older execution environment concepts such as masters/schedulers and worker roles that are fulfilled by a wide variety of physical things such as VMs/containers etc, however the software that manages the scheduling and orchestration is highly proprietary and custom in nature. Azure Pipelines falls into the latter camp of what I’d call a traditional architecture.
The basics
First off if you are using Azure DevOps you will have access to Azure Pipelines. To be clear here, this article is talking about using the Azure hosted, Azure DevOps based cloud offering service. Not Azure DevOps Server.
Azure Pipelines can be hooked up to any Git repository and is not limited to just Azure Git repos. Unfortunately Azure Pipelines can be a bit confusing right off the bat as there are two “flavors” of pipelines in Azure:
Classic mode:
When using this mode, you actually craft pipelines using a visual editor within the Azure Devops web interface via the “classic editor”. You can select task types, fill out form fields for their inputs/outputs etc. This then configures you a pipeline that can react to things that happen in a Git repo or on demand/scheduled etc. From what I can tell this is an older mode that Azure appears to be on the way to deprecating in favor of the YAML mode and appears to be functionality ported into Azure from other products like Azure DevOps Server and Team Foundation Server. Note that within the “Classic Mode” there are yet two different sub modes, one for “build” (CI) and the other for “release” (CD), which have different levels of support for the overall “pipeline” feature set. I would avoid using “classic” mode for new pipelines.
YAML mode:
The YAML mode is likely much more familiar to you from the get go. In YAML mode, each configured Git repository can declare a azure-pipelines.yml file to declare a pipeline, its steps, tasks etc and all of the behaviors. Anyone who has used Travis or Jenkins by declaring CI/CD pipeline behavior in configuration files should feel right at home here. The YAML based way of configuring Azure Pipelines appears to be Azure’s preferred way for starting new CI/CD in Azure. You can hook up Azure Pipelines to any Git repository (not just Azure Git repositories) and if it finds an “azure-pipelines.yaml” file in it, it will auto manage an associated pipeline as you have it configured. I would start all new Azure Pipeline projects by using “YAML” mode.
Pricing
With Azure Pipelines you are pretty much paying for the costs to run your jobs. Pipeline executions are run with “agents”, and each “agent” can run at most, one (1) invocation of a pipeline at any one time. The more agents you have, the more parallelism you can get for concurrent jobs. Out of the box you get either one free Microsoft hosted agent (run on demand capped at 1800 minutes per month) or one free “self hosted” agent (that you would run as a container or VM in your Azure cloud and pay for) with no limit to the number of minutes per month.
If you want more than that its an additional $40/m for each additional hosted MS agent, or $15/m for each additional self hosted agent. So… at the end of the day you are basically trading the overhead of managing agent installs for cost savings, while you pay for the cost of the underlying hardware if you self host.
If you need an artifact repository that your CI steps can push to (i.e. something to store Docker images, maven artifacts, NPM etc etc packages), they also have an offering for that.
The meat: Pipelines
Ok great, so what is it like to actually use it?
Simple example showing an azure-pipelines.yml file that triggers builds that require an approval before deploying to a target “environment”.
Well honestly, there is nothing too remarkable about this platform. You create a YAML file to declare your stages, steps and tasks, check it into Git, then let Azure Pipelines execute it and upon completion you can view the STDOUT/STDERR that the job emitted. You can define “environments” which are basically arbitrarily named constructs that your pipelines interact with, and you can “gate” these environment with approvals/checks, functions, gates etc which automatically trigger prior to certain stages that reference the named environment.
Your pipeline YAML can utilize a wide variety of different pre-defined tasks for invoking things like Git, calling Docker, or Helm etc; and if there isn’t a pre-defined task plugin for what you need… well just use the good old bash task and you can do just about anything you want.
Just like any other CI/CD system, there are certain things that you generally do NOT define within the pipeline configuration that lives alongside your code. Examples of these things are pipeline resources such as sensitive secrets (passwords etc) and the definition of well known resources that are part of your build system (think databases, artifact repositories or target clusters etc). In Azure Pipelines you can define these things in various ways such as:
Secure Files: Secure Files are just that, named references to files w/ sensitive data that can be referenced and automatically mounted and made available to your tasks.
Service Connections: Service Connections are just named “connections” to things like Kubernetes (AKS) clusters (think predefined kube config settings/certs), artifact repositories, docker registries, SSH connection info etc.
These kinds of pipeline resources must be defined outside of the YAML and inside of the Azure DevOps web UI, you manage them there, but then reference them by name from your pipeline YAML. For example if you want to deploy via Helm to an AKS cluster, you can use the Helm task to reference a Kubernetes service connection.
There is also a concept of Secure Variables which are variables that contain secrets etc. Similar to the resources previously described, you have to declare/manage these variables outside of the pipeline YAML and within the web-interface. See the screenshot below:
“Secure variables” can be used like any other defined variable in YAML…. but they are NOT declared there in the YAML, you have to manage the variables and their names in a GUI dialog in the git repo where the pipeline YAML file resides. It’s easy to forget about these or a newcomer to the project to be completely unaware they even exist.
Interesting features
One of the more useful and interesting features I encountered in this platform is Logging Commands which gives the YAML author a way to make their pipeline a bit more dynamic across various stages by enabling them to emit specifically crafted strings to STDOUT, which will be parsed and acted upon by the Azure Pipelines execution engine. With logging commands you can do things like setting dynamic variables, modify service connections on the fly, attach files to the build, manage artifacts etc. It’s actually a pretty useful feature and I used it while prototyping.
[EDIT:] Recently I wrote another article on this specific feature and how I found it useful as a way to permit developers to customize the pipeline behavior through “arguments” embedded in Git commit messages. Definitely check out the logging commands feature, its unique and may prove useful for certain situations.
Slack integration
If you would like to have your pipeline executions notify you when pipelines are triggered, their result outcome, as well as basic approval capability, you can use the Azure Pipelines Slack App but don’t expect too much in regards to interaction. Its pretty much limited to notifying you of a build being started, the result, and a very basic “yes” or “no” kind of interactive button for approvals. Also note that if you have many different repositories, the relation of the slack integration to your Azure DevOps organization may lead to one channel being flooded with hard to follow message/build lineage due to the lack of threads usage by the slack app. All of the information can be easily lost or hard to follow.
Final thoughts
Overall Azure Pipelines works fine and may be an attractive option to you if you’re team is already heavily embedded into the Azure ecosystem, and in particular makes use of other Azure DevOps related services such as their Git repositories, Container registry, Artifact stores etc. Azure Pipelines has a ton of task plugins and enough features to handle most common CI to CD flows and will likely work for most situations. As a downside, there is some confusion and lack of clarity in the documentation with regards to the YAML vs “classic” mode of operation. The references to these two different modes is seamlessly and often confusingly weaved throughout the documentation, sometimes leaving you wonder whether the current feature they are talking about is available or not in your “mode”.
Keep in mind, that the YAML syntax for Azure Pipelines is proprietary and not portable to other CI/CD platforms etc. This is not unique per-say, just be aware of it. You will most definitely have some level of vendor lock-in by using this product. Want to move to Jenkins, Team City or [insert other CICD product here]? You will have to port your azure-pipelines.yml content to each respective format, as well as the equivalents of service connections, secrets and other resources. This is certainly not unheard of as most CI/CD platforms each have their own proprietary non-portable configuration format, however the difference is that unlike open-source/self-hosted options who’s execution engine can be deployed anywhere (any cloud), cloud specific solutions like Azure Pipelines, can never run anywhere else… your execution environment is non-portable as well as the configuration of it.
Final word? If you are fully committed to Azure as your platform and don’t see that changing anytime soon, go with it. Otherwise, I’d take a look at less cloud vendor coupled options. | https://medium.com/devops-dudes/ci-cd-with-azure-pipelines-bca978b68e9e | [] | 2020-05-27 00:13:10.558000+00:00 | ['Azure Pipelines', 'Azure Devops', 'Continuous Delivery', 'Continuous Integration', 'DevOps'] |
Life at Home | Here I sit one single silent source of rabid catch you on the subway station lights up on for the lonely bust out this cell must have grown out to a hole in the wall gripping surface area you live in a squalor that’s your life miserable darling I am forever silent source of rabid catch up..see you on the other side
Note: punctuation intended | https://medium.com/wordsmith-library/life-at-home-a83e1264a5e9 | ['Mimi Bordeaux'] | 2020-12-24 13:18:51.874000+00:00 | ['Prose', 'Love', 'Wordsmith Library', 'Life Lessons', 'Creative Writing'] |
How to craft good-looking plots with Excel | How to craft good-looking plots with Excel
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash
For most visualizations, I use tools like Datawrapper or Tableau. They offer a more or less simple way to visualize data nicely. But occasionally, you cannot use an external tool, maybe because of compliance guidelines, or you want to reuse your charts in complex reports. Excel is a standard in most companies and many financial reports are created with more or less beautiful visualizations. This gave me the idea to bring a visualization in Excel to the design level of a Datawrapper default theme. And to be honest, it’s easier than I thought. Excel is capable to create clutter-free and nice-looking charts.
Disclaimer: The purpose of the example plot is to show that actual numbers are not higher than before. It is not about the exact numbers, but to quickly see the progression. The question it should answer is:
Does Germany actual test more for COVID-19 infections than the weeks before?
First, let’s take a look at the desired result. It’s a line chart I’ve created with Datawrapper and saved it as PNG.
Image by author
When I use the same data with Excel and create a line chart I get this default result:
Image by author
It’s not bad at all. However, it lacks elegance and clarity. The axis labels are not beautiful and the heading is rather loveless.
Let’s dive into the steps I’ve taken to transform a default Excel chart into a well-designed clutter-free chart.
Clean up and format axes
The first step is cleaning the x- and y-axis and simplify the labeling. I’ve reformatted the labels and the goal is to show a large number in an abbreviated form.
Double-click on the y-axis shows every formatting option. Set Bounds minimum to 0 and maximum to 2000000. Since I don’t need any detailed steps I’m configuring Units major and minor to 1000000. Now we’ve got just 0, 10000000, and 2000000 for our y-axis labels.
Format Axis in Excel
Honestly, the labels are bulky, we need to reformat them. That’s a bit more tricky — maybe the most tricky part at all. For abbreviations, the numbers must be formatted. Go to the number section in Format Axis and add a new format code. I’ve used [>0]#.."M";"" .
What happens there? It’s conditional formatting with two parts separated by ; . Let's break it down:
[>0]#.."M" means “For every Number greater than 0 abbreviate millions with M. "" says just add nothing at all. I’m using this to omit 0 for our base axis.
As you can see, I don’t care for negative numbers. Add the formatting by clicking “add”, and the y-axis labeling is clean and nice.
Add Format Code in Excel
Now we get our hands dirty at the x-axis. In our final plot, we don’t need all the labels. As before, double-click on the x-axis to open the formatting options. To have labels like Datawrapper generated, it’s necessary to set Specific interval Unit for labels to 6. This means only every sixth value is used.
Set Specific interval unit in Excel
That’s it for now. We’ll get back to both axes later when we are adjusting colors, fonts, and line width.
Adding annotation
My visualization should include the most recent number at the end of the line. Select the most recent data point, right-click and select Add Data Label.
Add Data Label in Excel
The position of the label isn’t perfect. There isn’t enough space at the right. We need to decrease the size of the chart. It’s important to select the plot area, not the chart area!
Decreasing the size, our label is right beside the data point. If not, just move it where you want to see it. We are formatting the font and color later.
A beautiful header
Default headers are ugly in Excel. You cannot format them properly. There is no chance to align, nor to add a sub-line. That’s why I’ve just removed the header and added two new text-areas with a headline and sub-line. To have enough space for your headlines you may need to resize the plot area again. Now just add a text box using Insert -> Text Box in your Excel ribbon bar.
Insert Ribbon in Excel
Add some beautiful typo
As we are adding our headlines, let’s talk about font sizes. For proper font sizes, I am using Type-Scale.com to get an idea of how the sizes affect users. I’m using Roboto as font and the following sizes.
Headline: 22
Sub-line: 14
Axis labels: 12
Footer: 9
To set and resize fonts just click on the label, axis, or text box and set your values using the font-selector at the Start ribbon in Excel.
Set font, font-size and color in Excel
The same applies to the colors. I’m using #888888 for axis labels and #000000 for headline and sub-line.
Fine-tuning
Finally, let’s fine-tune the visualization. The First step is to have a slightly wider baseline. Double-click the x-axis, select Fill & Line and set Width to 1pt and color to #000000 .
Format plot lines in Excel
Thereafter, we lighten the lines for y-labels. Double-click at the line at 1M and set color to #D9D9D9 and Width to 0,75pt.
If you like, you can round off the curve and adjust the color. Once again double-click the line of your chart and select Fill & Line → Line and activate Smoothed line. I’ve set the line width to 2pt and color to #B92717
Format line color and smoothed line in Excel
Don’t forget to add a footer. You can insert your name and links to your sources for this chart. Just add another text box and move it to the bottom of your chart. You may have to decrease the plot area again to be able to maintain reasonable distances.
That’s all. Here’s a comparison of the chart plotted with Datawrapper and my chart created using Excel
Left: Original from Datawrapper | Right: Plot directly exported from Excel
Save it as a template
There are many steps to get a good-looking visualization. And to be honest, I don’t want to go through every step again and again. Fortunately, Excel allows us to save a template with all our settings. Right-click on the chart and select Save as Template.
Save as Template
With a template, we can apply our new styles on a chart. Just plot a default diagram, right-click it, select Change Chart Type and choose from Templates
Apply Template
Conclusion
You see it isn’t really difficult to create nice-looking visualizations using Excel. You don’t need to live with default plots. That doesn’t mean they are useless. If you want to visualize contexts to gain insights, defaults are good enough. But for some reports, it’s worth spending some time to create clutter-free and nice-looking charts, without using some other tool.
If you want to create good-looking diagrams, you may invest some time into customizing and save them as a template using your CI and with good-looking typography. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-craft-good-looking-plots-with-excel-2f9006a28b7f | ['Carsten Sandtner'] | 2021-03-31 19:20:47.513000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Excel', 'Dataviz', 'Data Science'] |
Benebit rated in the top 3% for all upcoming token sales — ICObench | In preparation of our upcoming pre-sale on January 22, 2018, top ICO ratings site ICObench has placed us in the upper echelon of ICOs.
Earn money back with every purchase and benefit from Cashback and Loyalty Points every time you shop. Start using and redeeming your customer points right away. An all-in-one platform that creates added value for customers as they shop at their favourite companies as well as increases brand exposure via targeted Loyalty and Cashback Programs. Transact in your choice of currency — fiat or crypto — on the Benebit platform. The Bene Card replaces all loyalty cards for fast, easy and secure participation in different brand loyalty programs. C2C transactions are easy, instant and secure with Benebit. Send BNEs or your choice of currency to any user on the platform.
ICObench uses a rating system that combines an assessment algorithm (which uses more than 20 different criteria to measure) and independent ICO experts. An ICO’s rating is monitored daily and fluctuate as more experts provide additional ratings.
At the time of publishing, Benebit’s decentralized all-in-one platform received an overall score of 4.3 out of 5, putting us at #19 out of 670 ICOs rated on ICObench. Other highlights include a score of 4.9 for Benebit’s ICO profile and 4.6 for our team. Nearly all ICO advisors granted us with a perfect score for our team and vision as well.
ICObench’s trusty little companion bot Benchy scored us 4.9 out of 5.
Read our ratings on ICObench here. For more ratings, be sure to check out our post on Track ICO.
Join the upcoming Benebit token sale on January 22, 2018. | https://medium.com/benebit/benebit-rated-in-the-top-3-for-all-upcoming-token-sales-icobench-1c60da114776 | [] | 2018-01-16 09:13:39.655000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Benebit Ico', 'ICO'] |
The Concept of Stem Cells. Have you ever wondered what causes and… | The Concept of Stem Cells
Embryonic stem cells, observe the parts!
Introduction
Have you ever wondered what causes and cures depression?
Stem cells, the blueprint cells of our body, are the cause of this.
Definition
What are stem cells?
Stem cells are essentially cell blueprints that sit at various places in the body and copy themselves to make sure we have a good supply of fresh, young cells.
They can turn into many types of cells, which I will write about below, as our body needs it. Stem cells are additionally able to provide a supplement for cells that need healing.
Types
There are five types of stem cells :
Embryonic stem cells, that come after the sperm fertilizes an egg. About 3 to 5 days after the pregnancy is initiated, a blastocyst/ball of cells forms from the embryo. After this, in about 4 to 5 days, the stem cells arise and this is how they’re formed.
Adult or tissue-specific stem cells, which are found in small numbers in most of our bodies’ tissues. These stem cells are found in many places such as your bone marrow, your bloodstream, your brain, the muscles in your skeleton, your liver, and your skin!
Induced pluripotent stem cells, which are regular cells that scientists have altered to act like embryonic stem cells. Scientists extract cells from tissue-specific cells.
Mesenchymal stem cells, cells found in the stroma/connective tissue around the body’s tissues. They are being used to create new bone tissues, and have hope for the future.
Amniotic fluid + Cord blood stem cells. Cord blood stem cells are found in the umbilical cord after birth, and are able to be frozen to be used in the future. These cells can treat people with blood problems. There are also some cells found in amniotic fluid, which is the liquid around the developing baby in a mother’s womb, but there is not enough research done on this.
Contrary to what you might believe, these cells do have a very large medical benefit. There have been several studies that involve stem cells being used to treat certain diseases and sicknesses.
Studies
In a study with mice, scientists observed that as the stem cells in their brain disappeared, they began to become more prone to diseases. They decided to take stem cells from baby mice brains and inject them into the brains (hypothalamus) of middle-aged/old-aged mice.
A hypothalamus is a polyp that helps regulate a ton of the body’s functions. The new, nice stem cells reinvigorated older ones by secreting Micro RNAs that stabilized their metabolism.
After 4 months, the treated mice’ brains and muscles worked much better than those of the untreated mice. On average, the treated mice lived 10% longer.
In 2016, stem cells injected into the brains of stroke patients helped them walk! Before the surgery, one of the patients’ right arm was numb, but the surgery ‘woke it up’.
There are so many studies involving stem cells going on at the moment, these are just a few! It’s really a concept that’s broadening because of all of this attention, which is amazing.
Curing several sicknesses
Looking at one specific sickness, cancer, it’s generally caused by stem cells that are mutated. Statistically, cancer in kids is ‘90% curable’. Yet, cancer in adults is almost incurable, it becomes less curable as you age!
This is because the supply of stem cells declines as we age. Adding a new supply of stem cells frequently to regions of the body like the hypothalamus could slow down, or reverse the aging process. An analogy frequently used to describe this (I’m also pretty sure I used this in my other senescent cell article, or not), is that the body is a machine, and our parts rust and deteriorate as we get older. This is essentially what happens to our stem cells!
Celularity is a biotechnology company looking to cure several sicknesses + diseases with the use of stem cells. They distribute products that regenerate stem cells and eradicate the mutated cells.
They produce allogeneic cells + tissues found in the postpartum placenta. These are able to increase our bodies’ abilities to fight disease, to heal, and to regenerate, and improve our longevity + immunity.
A San Diego based company, ViaCyte, is working on curing diabetes with stem cells. They’ve spent many years trying to figure out how to turn human embryonic stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells.
The Stanford University of Medicine is currently working on clinical trials with stem cells, and the results so far are that stem cells could benefit stroke patients. These findings are revolutionary considering the fact that we haven’t previously cured any of this.
When you ponder all of this, theoretically, with a constant supply of fresh stem cells, you could lead a generally youthful life with fewer diseases.
The Stem Cell Policy (Obama)
“Research involving human embryonic stem cells and human non-embryonic stem cells has the potential to lead to better understanding and treatment of many disabling diseases and conditions. Advances over the past decade in this promising scientific field have been encouraging, leading to broad agreement in the scientific community that the research should be supported by Federal funds. For the past 8 years, the authority of the Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to fund and conduct human embryonic stem cell research has been limited by Presidential actions. The purpose of this order is to remove these limitations on scientific inquiry, to expand NIH support for the exploration of human stem cell research, and in so doing to enhance the contribution of America’s scientists to important new discoveries and new therapies for the benefit of humankind.” “The Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary), through the Director of NIH, may support and conduct responsible, scientifically worthy human stem cell research, including human embryonic stem cell research, to the extent permitted by law.” “Within 120 days from the date of this order, the Secretary, through the Director of NIH, shall review existing NIH guidance and other widely recognized guidelines on human stem cell research, including provisions establishing appropriate safeguards, and issue new NIH guidance on such research that is consistent with this order. The Secretary, through NIH, shall review and update such guidance periodically, as appropriate.” “(a) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. © This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.”
Above, these are Obama’s new statements opening and removing the limits of stem cell research. The purpose of this is to learn further about the laws involving stem cells, in case you’re considering it as a field. What he’s saying is that stem cell research is promising and that he will remove many of the limits such as actually conducting human stem cell research!
What you can do
Visit lifespan.io for more information, and if you’re interested in this topic, then research further about this. Remember never to take mental illnesses or any of the conditions mentioned above lightly. Also, make sure to keep your ‘machine’ well-oiled!
If you enjoy this or the concept of this, do further research at the website in the ‘More Information’ section and reach out to a scientist!
Key takeaways
Stem cells are cell blueprints that give us a constant supply of fresh cells.
Stem cells can become any cell, and have 5 types (Mesenchymal, Cord Blood + Amniotic, Induced Pluripotent, Adult, and Embryotic).
Stem cells could cure diabetes, depression, cancer, and more!
Celularity + ViaCyte are companies you can look into; they’re researching this topic.
Obama has increased the amount of resources and freedom available for stem cell research.
For more information, visit the links below!
More information
https://www.lifespan.io/ | https://medium.com/@kheni/stem-cells-4f1926161a5d | ['Nina Khera'] | 2018-11-27 11:50:35.449000+00:00 | ['Stem Cell Research', 'Longevity', 'Depression', 'Diabetes', 'Health'] |
How We End Up with Trump in 2024 | How We End Up with Trump in 2024
Why we need to stop labeling right now
(Photo by Josh Hild from Pexels)
My Instagram feed over the last couple of days has been filled with jubilant celebrations reminiscent of some of my favorite late 90s hip hop videos: Champagne bottles popped over crowds, booty-shaking on the streets, and joints passed in cars.
Taglines read:
Democracy beat fascism.
Love beat hate.
Kamala broke the glass ceiling.
Biden broke the age ceiling.
How much change will come when Biden officially takes office is yet to be determined but, if history is any indication we will soon return to our regular programming of COVID blues, retail therapy, selfies, and disparaging the other side.
The truth is, the real tragedy of the U.S. was never Trump.
It’s that we’ve convinced ourselves to believe that if something is deemed wrong, calling it out as such will make its opposite true.
But calling Trump supporters racist won’t bring us any closer to racial equality. Calling wealthy people greedy won’t help the economy. Calling Ivanka a fake feminist won’t help advance women’s rights. And calling Biden our savior sure as hell won’t save our souls.
We need to save ourselves from the desire to label everything. Red or blue. Gay or straight. Normal or freak. Philanthropist or criminal. We aren’t helping the cause, we are merely accommodating it.
Let’s take the subtle wrinkles I noticed creeping up on my skinny thighs the other day. Within 24 hours of the discovery, I purchased a $95 bottle of magical potion to erase it all away.
Instead of drinking more water, exercising more, and asking the tough questions of why I’m bothered by it in the first place, I’d rather give it a name and slap on some “anti-cellulite” cream.
So simple. Such brilliant marketing. A nice way to confirm and perfectly package the answer for me. By giving in, I’ve merely limited my options to “rubbing once daily.”
The current situation in history isn’t much different. A quick look at Twitter and the following insults are used to describe Biden and Trump and their supporters: A fraud. A liar. A cheater. A fascist. A socialist. A cry baby. A snowflake. A dumbass. Unamerican. Low-life. Evil.
Labeling theory states that the “behavior of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them.” By labeling Trump supporters, we’ve alienated and pushed people further in an extreme direction.
Some groups are based on science. Others are based on beliefs. Here’s the thing: neither should solely define us.
In the book, On Becoming Deviant, sociologist David Matza summarizes the effects, “To be cast as a thief, as a prostitute, or more generally, a deviant, is to further compound and hasten the process of becoming that very thing.”
Our two-party system forces people to choose 1 or 2 issues of the hundreds on the table to align the way we view ourselves and our values.
Does a Black person voting for Trump make them a selfish hypocrite or did they just so happen to prioritize another issue above race and vote along those lines?
Looking at early exit polling data cited by the Washington Post, Biden gained support amongst white men from 2016 to 2020. More surprisingly perhaps, Trump gained support among college-educated white women, and Black and Latino voters (even though Biden still won the minority vote by a large margin).
It appears that whether we identify as red or blue plays a more powerful role in defining a group than, say, women or men. But does someone who cheated on a significant other define someone anymore than say, someone who does yoga?
Does red or blue really tell us who someone is? Some groups are based on science. Others are based on beliefs.
Here’s the thing: neither should solely define us.
But the media loves sensationalizing everything into neat labels. Today Melania Trump is a poor, manipulated woman. Tomorrow she is conniving and evil.
With that rhetoric, how will we make the tough decisions to deal with a heavily indebted, divided, and sick America with that mindset?
To stop the cellulite, we need to do a lot more work than rubbing it in once a day. It’s going to require stepping outside of Republican or Democrat “values” and right and wrong thinking.
It’s time we let go of simple, rigidly held views of “one thing defining us” and realize that duality is what it means to be human. That seemingly opposing ideas — a philanthropist Trump supporter who recycles— can be true. We just need to open our minds for people who look, act, and behave differently from us. And frankly, grew up in a different environment.
The idea that we’ve taken to disowning friends and family members based on politics terrifies me more than Trump did himself.
That doesn’t mean we can’t stand up for racism, sexism, and hate but rather than jumping on the anti-Trump or anti-Biden cream, let’s acknowledge how the other side feels. Over the next week, call up someone who voted for Trump and listened to their frustrations or tell someone who voted for Biden congrats and find out why it matters to them. You don’t add gasoline to a fire.
In Dave Chappelle’s somber SNL address after the election, he perfectly sums up what happens when we label and offers a resolution:
“Everyone knows how that feels. But here’s the difference between me and you: You guys hate each other for that, and I don’t hate anybody. I just hate that feeling. That’s what I fight through. That’s what I suggest you fight through. You’ve got a find a way to live your life. You’ve got to find a way to forgive each other. You’ve got to find a way to find joy in your existence in spite of that feeling.”
Because the opposite of what he is describing, the current “with us or against us” mentality, will bury progress and leave resentment and hate in its wake. And that’s precisely how we may as well end up with Trump again in 2024. | https://medium.com/bigger-picture/how-we-end-up-with-trump-in-2024-e48d3c427cc8 | ['Zoe Naz'] | 2020-11-13 02:56:12.663000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Philosophy', 'Culture', 'Love', 'Elections'] |
What’s Company Culture? | “Fear is like fire — if you let it control you, it’ll burn you up … but if you control it, it’ll make you red hot” — Mickey to Rocky in Rocky V
Being controllable as a manager, CEO or a strategic thinker is the ultimate way to create culture.
By ensuring trust in other people’s ideas you create a culture where leaders and C-level executives envision strategy and products. Then they pass those ideas on to lower layer managers and the whole organization. Those lower level managers need to synthesize their knowledge and envision a more defined version of the product or a service. Then they pass their knowledge further to yet lower level managers who further enrich the concept and add layers of compexity. This complexity is necessary to avoid blunt concepts which may be too rigorously implemented therefore limiting growth of concepts on all levels of organization.
At any point of concepts and strategy’s drip towards implementation level employees any ideas, suggestions and decisions which may be strategic should be informed up-towards managers to ensure alignment between teams and avoidance of development of conflicting technologies.
Creating synergies is crucial to create a product which is competitive on scope and cost levels it is also crucial for essential operations.
Concepts created at any levels define a product which is created and envisioned by all levels of the organization in a structure where lower /regional / operational managers inform C-level executives of opportunities and make decisions themselves due to higher ability to define what is the correct strategic decision due to higher knowledge in a given aspect or field. Sometimes decisions made on lower levels may in fact change knowledge of C-level executives to change the strategy once new information is available.
The whole company is informed of C-level executives and strategic thinkers’ ideas of what it means to create the product or a service and what the product or service is but they dont inform them how to do it. Finally, concepts which enrich original intention of C-level executives close the knowledge gap as Stephen Bungay explained in his book “The Art of Action..”. As well as the effects gap which is the misalignment of initial concept with actual outcome.
In the end it is board members and C-level executives who must be most flexible in terms of how the product or a service will be implemented and the most vigorous in ensuring the right strategy and vision for the product..
To be continued.. | https://medium.com/@adamzasada/whats-company-culture-36f7f72e24d7 | ['Adam Zasada'] | 2020-12-19 19:40:34.790000+00:00 | ['Operations', 'Software Architecture', 'Product', 'Company Culture', 'Strategy'] |
Empaths: Are you turbulent, assertive or variable? | Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
After working with intuitive empaths for eight years, I’ve observed different energetic states that sensitive people experience. One is turbulence, which could also be called drama, chaos or complete overwhelm. This generally happens before a person realizes they are empathic and before they discover tools and daily practices to manage and improve their life.
An empath in the turbulent stage feels buffeted by all the energy around them, with no power to make it stop. They often take on other people’s pain, thinking it’s their responsibility to do so. A turbulent empath will contract their energy, withdraw, and isolate to try to keep themselves safe.
An empath in the turbulent stage merges with everything and everyone around them and has difficulty knowing where they end, and others begin. Saying no is not a part of their vocabulary, it brings up too much guilt. They secretly feel resentful because they’re always giving, and everyone seems to be taking.
Generally, there comes a watershed moment when a turbulent empath can’t take it any longer. They must make the shift from turbulent to assertive.
An assertive empath finds their voice, walks away from the drama, and learns to set healthy boundaries. They realize being self-focused is not the same as being selfish.
An assertive empath views self-care not as that annoying extra thing they have to do, but instead as a pathway to a vital life. They understand how precious their energy system is and treat it accordingly. An assertive empath listens to their inner knowing and hones their sense of discernment.
They consciously choose people, environments and activities which nurture their soul. They leave behind anything that does not.
An assertive empath actively engages in their own healing process. They face their shadow, seek forgiveness for self/others and appreciate their strengths.
They embrace their unique gifts and use them to be in service, while also asking for and receiving what they need. An assertive empath asks for help and support because they are no longer a lone wolf, but instead a crucial nodal point in a global grid of millions of lightworkers and sensitives.
Sounds wonderful, right?
Let’s talk about the most common empathic state: variable.
Because even if you’ve done all the work I just described, it’s still challenging as an extremely sensitive person to navigate an energetically intense planet. We’re impacted by collective energy and personal circumstances. We might be going along, super assertive when suddenly, turbulence returns.
The loss of a loved one, a relationship break-up, moving to a new place, replaying an old cycle with a family member, downsizing at work or perhaps a global pandemic, for example.
While it might seem ideal once you arrive at assertive to always remain there, life happens. You become a variable empath. Mostly confidence, sometimes people-pleasing. Managing your energy well on some days, feeling a bit trashed on others.
It doesn’t matter how much spiritual and personal growth you’ve done or even if you’re in service to others — you are going to be variable.
The question is not if something will come along to knock you off your game, but when. How will you respond when it happens?
I have great news. All the shadow work, meditation, healing and practices you’ve developed never go away. Like a trusted friend, when you hit a bit of turbulence, they’ll be there to help you return to balance and assertiveness.
So, if you consider these three empath states: turbulent, assertive, or variable, which are you most strongly expressing right now?
Wherever you are, is just fine.
Simply hold on and breathe through the ups and downs, knowing you will come out on the other side.
Because truthfully, I believe most empaths are variable… | https://medium.com/@perceptivesouls/empaths-are-you-turbulent-assertive-or-variable-fc04e73f1c29 | ['Bevin Niemann'] | 2020-12-16 22:03:41.858000+00:00 | ['Highly Sensitive Person', 'Emotional Intelligence', 'Highly Sensitive People', 'Empath', 'Highly Sensitive'] |
AyEm making big moves in the DMV producer scene | Everything AyEm makes is from his home studio set up in his house. Complete with a online mixing/mastering board, a mic for recording and padding for sound proof. Just shows that you don’t need an expensive fancy studio to chase your dreams, you just need the dedication. And AyEm definitely has plenty of that. Stay on the look out for him because he most definitely has a bright bright future ahead of him. Look out for Prod. AyEm in your next favorite hit song. Follow all his links down below
YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCcC8EsjRelT1Kl1X8qIqvhg
Instagram: https://instagram.com/ayem_prodd?igshid=103uyh9n28s6wdid
Like what you just read? Follow my page on here for more stories like this!! | https://medium.com/@zainsahmed/ayem-making-big-moves-in-the-dmv-producer-scene-563b37ad7d79 | ['Zain Ahmed'] | 2020-12-17 19:46:29.389000+00:00 | ['Daily Blog', 'News', 'Producer', 'Rap', 'Music'] |
Best Open Source Tools For Developing IoT Applications | Internet of things are being embraced by more and more companies. Today we can see that it is growing at a fast pace. For developing IoT applications, availability of open source tools in the market is plenty. A Developer needs the right tools and well-connected infrastructures to use the technology. In this article, you’ll be able to read and compare between the best IoT tools available for developers.
Arduino
This development kit offers both hardware and software to the developers. It is an open-source prototyping platform, which is one of the best platforms. Using the integrated development environment (IDE), the Arduino language has to be coded in by the developers. The biggest advantage of Arduino is that it can be learned and used by the beginners in a short period of time and then they can keep upgrading themselves.
Home Assistant
Google home and Amazon play are slowly becoming a part of our everyday lives. If ou are a developer trying to bring about the next life-changing home assistant product here is all that you need to know. The python-based coding system makes this open source platform work. It can also run on Raspberry Pi and Python 3. Best for developers, who seeks increased connectivity between internet and people. Home assistant can be controlled with desktop browser and mobiles as well. It gets updated after every 2 weeks and easy to setup.
Eclipse IoT Project
Eclipse is a blessing in disguise for the java developes.It allows you to promote and develop the IoT technologies. It helps to manage and connect devices in IoT solution. Many different projects, that revolve around the IoT, has been sponsored by Eclipse such as the projects,Paho, Mihini and Koneki.
Thing Speak
Internet of Things wouldn’t have been where it is today if not for the thing speak tool which is considered as the oldest cloud platform. It is operated by the renowned MathWorks team. It is considered one of the best and the most effective tools for crating magnificent IoT applications. All you need to do to access this great tool is just sign into MathWorks and/or login to start working on your non-commercial projects. If you are also doing a project related to locations, then also thing speak can be of great help. It can work with most of the other open source tools. Like the icing on top of the cake, thing speak also has web services which lets it collect and store data. The data can be stored in the cloud. Thus, making it easier to create IoT applications.
From the above discussion, it is evident that developers who are looking for open source tools for creating IoT applications have a good number of choice. They can choose the one that best suits their need and starts their applications with ease.
Originally published at yugasa.com on October 10, 2018. | https://medium.com/yugasa/best-open-source-tools-for-developing-iot-applications-6332fee383c | ['Yugasa Software Labs'] | 2018-10-10 13:41:06.653000+00:00 | ['IoT', 'Smart Home', 'Internet of Things', 'Android App Development', 'Mobile App Development'] |
(Subtítulos en Español) The Stand (2020) {Capitulo 2} | Pocket Savior
Episode 2 | Pocket Savior | Musician Larry Underwood is on the cusp of his big break when “Captain Trips” strikes New York. Alone and wandering an empty city, he meets an alluring new acquaintance also desperate to escape. Meanwhile, an incarcerated Lloyd Henreid comes face-to-face with Randall Flagg, The Dark Man himself, who makes him an enticing offer.
Watch On ►► http://dadangkoprol.dplaytv.net/series/359583/1/2
In a world decimated by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil, the fate of mankind rests on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail and a handful of survivors. Their worst nightmares are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the Dark Man.
Show Info
Web channel: United States CBS All Access (2020 — now)
Schedule: Thursdays (60 min)
Status: Running
Show Type: Scripted
Genres: Drama Horror Supernatural
TELEVISION 👾
(TV), in some cases abbreviated to tele or television, is a media transmission medium utilized for sending moving pictures in monochrome (high contrast), or in shading, and in a few measurements and sound. The term can allude to a TV, a TV program, or the vehicle of TV transmission. TV is a mass mode for promoting, amusement, news, and sports.
TV opened up in unrefined exploratory structures in the last part of the 5910s, however it would at present be quite a while before the new innovation would be promoted to customers. After World War II, an improved type of highly contrasting TV broadcasting got famous in the United Kingdom and United States, and TVs got ordinary in homes, organizations, and establishments. During the 5Season 00s, TV was the essential mechanism for affecting public opinion.[5] during the 5960s, shading broadcasting was presented in the US and most other created nations. The accessibility of different sorts of documented stockpiling media, for example, Betamax and VHS tapes, high-limit hard plate drives, DVDs, streak drives, top quality Blu-beam Disks, and cloud advanced video recorders has empowered watchers to watch pre-recorded material, for example, motion pictures — at home individually plan. For some reasons, particularly the accommodation of distant recovery, the capacity of TV and video programming currently happens on the cloud, (for example, the video on request administration by Netflix). Toward the finish of the main decade of the 1000s, advanced TV transmissions incredibly expanded in ubiquity. Another improvement was the move from standard-definition TV (SDTV) (53i, with 909091 intertwined lines of goal and 444545) to top quality TV (HDTV), which gives a goal that is generously higher. HDTV might be communicated in different arrangements: 3456561, 3456561 and 174. Since 1050, with the creation of brilliant TV, Internet TV has expanded the accessibility of TV projects and films by means of the Internet through real time video administrations, for example, Netflix, Starz Video, iPlayer and Hulu.
In 1053, 19% of the world’s family units possessed a TV set.[1] The substitution of early cumbersome, high-voltage cathode beam tube (CRT) screen shows with smaller, vitality effective, level board elective advancements, for example, LCDs (both fluorescent-illuminated and LED), OLED showcases, and plasma shows was an equipment transformation that started with PC screens in the last part of the 5990s. Most TV sets sold during the 1000s were level board, primarily LEDs. Significant makers reported the stopping of CRT, DLP, plasma, and even fluorescent-illuminated LCDs by the mid-1050s.[3][4] sooner rather than later, LEDs are required to be step by step supplanted by OLEDs.[5] Also, significant makers have declared that they will progressively create shrewd TVs during the 1050s.[6][1][5] Smart TVs with incorporated Internet and Web 1.0 capacities turned into the prevailing type of TV by the late 1050s.[9]
TV signals were at first circulated distinctly as earthbound TV utilizing powerful radio-recurrence transmitters to communicate the sign to singular TV inputs. Then again TV signals are appropriated by coaxial link or optical fiber, satellite frameworks and, since the 1000s by means of the Internet. Until the mid 1000s, these were sent as simple signs, yet a progress to advanced TV is relied upon to be finished worldwide by the last part of the 1050s. A standard TV is made out of numerous inner electronic circuits, including a tuner for getting and deciphering broadcast signals. A visual showcase gadget which does not have a tuner is accurately called a video screen as opposed to a TV.
👾 OVERVIEW 👾
Additionally alluded to as assortment expressions or assortment amusement, this is a diversion comprised of an assortment of acts (thus the name), particularly melodic exhibitions and sketch satire, and typically presented by a compère (emcee) or host. Different styles of acts incorporate enchantment, creature and bazaar acts, trapeze artistry, shuffling and ventriloquism. Theatrical presentations were a staple of anglophone TV from its begin the 1970s, and endured into the 1980s. In a few components of the world, assortment TV stays famous and broad.
The adventures (from Icelandic adventure, plural sögur) are tales about old Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking journeys, about relocation to Iceland, and of fights between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse language, for the most part in Iceland. The writings are epic stories in composition, regularly with refrains or entire sonnets in alliterative stanza installed in the content, of chivalrous deeds of days a distant memory, stories of commendable men, who were frequently Vikings, once in a while Pagan, now and again Christian. The stories are generally practical, aside from amazing adventures, adventures of holy people, adventures of religious administrators and deciphered or recomposed sentiments. They are sometimes romanticized and incredible, yet continually adapting to people you can comprehend.
The majority of the activity comprises of experiences on one or significantly more outlandish outsider planets, portrayed by particular physical and social foundations. Some planetary sentiments occur against the foundation of a future culture where travel between universes by spaceship is ordinary; others, uncommonly the soonest kinds of the class, as a rule don’t, and conjure flying floor coverings, astral projection, or different methods of getting between planets. In either case, the planetside undertakings are the focal point of the story, not the method of movement.
Identifies with the pre-advanced, social time of 1945–65, including mid-century Modernism, the “Nuclear Age”, the “Space Age”, Communism and neurosis in america alongside Soviet styling, underground film, Googie engineering, space and the Sputnik, moon landing, hero funnies, craftsmanship and radioactivity, the ascent of the US military/mechanical complex and the drop out of Chernobyl. Socialist simple atompunk can be an extreme lost world. The Fallout arrangement of PC games is a fabulous case of atompunk. | https://medium.com/pocket-savior-capitulo-2-the-stand-2020-subt%C3%ADtulos/subt%C3%ADtulos-en-espa%C3%B1ol-the-stand-2020-capitulo-2-9a136895721d | ['Lois G. Whalen'] | 2020-12-25 02:25:22.226000+00:00 | ['Drama', 'Horror'] |
Pool and algae solution. | Though we as people tend to believe there will always be enough of a scarce resource for future generations, we as people have been able to secure a technology, known as fuel cells, that allow us room to breathe. In this sense we then employ water, thermodynamic exchange, and existing fossil fuel based transportation technology as a part of an ever growing portfolio of green technology, earth friendly reduction of carbon footprint, and total reuse within a fossil fuel industry. This potential must be carried through, and via a means that people might not see as applicable quite yet; the harvesting of salient, or otherwise “left to algae” pool and water tanks within a known market. Demographically speaking, refreshing our water supply is important, and real estate or county records of property can automatically define the market import and export of a total in volume. The fact that we have massive records, and fuel, or rather water, pumping stations built into the actual local water-scape or water garden is a little daunting, technologically; but in a sense, if we can harvest the water, the pumps, and the refined, but existing science creations. (There is hope to turn a profit.) The actual pumps, as a part of the system, boilers, and other obvious physical technology can be shipped, processed, and reviewed as total working volume of machinery and functions. (A necessary statement is recycled and refined pumping technology can be distributed, used for charity, or possibly incorporated into other methods of reclaimed materials as a part of total infrastructure shift.)
This seems completely simple in stated language, but it in turn requires people who have knowledge of heating processes, deconstruction for salvage, and other reuse training. The one question that comes to mind is; when is the last time we updated the way a pool is heated, kept clean, and otherwise how the water is processed. (We have newer technology that is probably quality stamped with those efficiency stickers, older technology that can be used for almost industrial purposes, and tons of pipe with known diameters that can be concentrated for water technology. A majority of this can be unhooked, unbolted, and lifted then set into a different more applicable location.) The processing of this equipment might not meet standards of pumping pure water, or petroleum, but in other less urban areas the ageing equipment is useful. Locations with fewer ordinances for pumping, that require waste water processing, and even undeveloped countries that have no pumping equipment to begin with can be provided with at least hands on training within an industry required for future development.
The true and basic method for profit would be harvesting only water that has been left to turn to algae ponds, this would be free aside from the energy it takes to do the pumping, and locally, ordinance can be found to see if a utility vehicle can use a low flow pump to remove the liquid in total into a tanker vehicle over the equivalent of a business week instead of a single day pump out. (For sale signs from realtors can be hung, pool service advertising is possible, expert drainage and septic repair sponsors, and the like can be highly visible during this process.) The water itself would then be sent along the way to any number of places, such as the physical municipality, local water board processing plant, farm, or other type of sanitation processing station. The fact that in a desert climate the water can be instantly reused makes sense. Even if the resource is deployed as “grey water” for watering of greenery, or as landscape watering it is also useful and essential.
The advantage of having tankards of water rolling through the streets is less risky than fossil fuel, and if the trucks themselves have internalized generators that “create” hydrogen within a fuel cell from reprocessed water, that then this, can be an almost cash solution to a wasted resource. (Not to mention the method of studying these technologies in bulk and within a highly controlled environment, like inside a tanker truck.) The abundance option and market analysis is key, but in the real world, a single property that has a location with 11,000 plus gallons of water to use has a technically securable and basic but valuable resource. Although there need to be incentive options, such as a house loan that includes pool pump out, we have to consider the technical long term municipal option to make use of the water, as a fuel cell commodity and the advantage of having literally thousands of gallons at a time to flush drainage systems, physical pumps, and even process waste within lines. (This mentions nothing of the value it might have when pumped directly back into old wells, or other lines such as fossil fuel wells with older and shorter derrick pumps.)
As the fuel cell technology advantage is obvious, the low flow solution is applicable. When harvesting said water, converting it via normal solar panel technology through a process that then conveniently creates hydrogen is a form of reduction of overhead expense. When you can use existing technology, with a resource that is going to waste, to apply economic advantage, this is then when a break point for profit can be made through advancements, and productivity can be obtained from an otherwise unused essential necessity. The act of delivery to a farming area, a place of disposal, or an alternate location of higher use is always a part of known processing. Doing so in an organized way is better than one man and a truck in almost all situations.
A number of options exist to create the path toward optimal profit.
In a basic linear sense:
Algae filled pool, used for irrigation, which is processed into green waste, into a compost or other green technology, which becomes a growery of shrubs, herbs, or other medicinals, then finally into a form of green technology commons based upon the use of fuel cell technology run via old pool water. (This does not mean all the water needs to be wasted, but some is recovered using normal methods, and the algae is green waste for environment, as well as the water that has to be shed.)
In the most profitable sense:
Singular tanker trucks equipped with fuel cell technology use low flow, and stirling, or solar powered technology assist to pump and process.
Tanker then delivers water to clients needing flush outs, and liquid processing.
Tanker is run from only processed pool water and technical chemistry and solar/fuel cell.
Excess algae and other muck is used for biomass engine or other decay state engines.
This then powers either a flow generator for backup fuel cell to enable a charge and recharge station.
Recharge station runs backup cells for consumer technology such as fuel cell powered vehicles, or CNG.
Urban sprawl and pool water then powers any number of green technology innovation through chemistry rich pool, algae recovery, biomass itself, or hydrogen.
Should the process of selling a house itself become a problem, such as pool maintenance, then just take the pool with you. The fossil fuel industry has hundreds of tanker trucks that might slowly become less employed because of fuel cell technology, solar cars, CNG vehicles, and even the occasional Prius. The advantage is obvious, as the liquid is not highly caustic, and technically environmentally friendly. The actual markings and driving of said vehicle do not require extra insurance or other form of carrier necessity as it is mostly water, which may or may not include salinity and chlorine. There is also the hippie commune option; which becomes a processing of old pools obtained from “economic downturn” as a process of normal market problems within housing locations. (The baby boomer generation is set to retire, but in the process, what do we do with the “small backyard with a pool” housing boom that was fashionable?) The normal reduction of carbon footprint is obvious, application of water to farming essentials as food is simply a known outcome, and the reuse of a pool into a “natural stasis” of biology is implied, but what do we in fact do with all that water that is chemically processed? That is the basic and pivotal point we as a necessity have to contend with and process through.
The actual pool water itself is water, but it is treated, in any number of ways, as with chlorine, with other salts, or even other forms of physical chemistry. This goes on to ignore that the whole thing has probably hosted people and any number of things that happen within a pool as a part of normal processes. The use of water within a dry state, or desert climates is completely obvious, but what of the grown algae? This is almost exportable if the vessel is light enough and portable enough to enable the container itself to be sent to a different port. As a resource, pool algae is obviously low on the scale, but if you have a biomass engine, that transports algae to a crop poor area then it might apply. This includes a transportation option, which might have some science value, but is technically only a way to reduce the processing itself, while shipping a basic life substance to an area without the item. The chemistry itself is by itself a highly unknown element, it contains normal factors, and possibly other factors which might need to be checked, though in essence it is a pool test kit away from being known and processed.
This begs the question of expedited processing, versus profit, or in turn, core and functional carbon footprint; because if we are saving, and reusing the water instead of generic dumping, then we have fulfilled a cycle that reduces the environmental waste. Ways to increase basic ideals are concentration and evaporation of the algae, because it is biomass. Watering it into crops is obvious, but water saving crops or deployed into drought resistant storage tanks that flow irrigate a landscape with water over weeks instead of minutes, and months instead of hours seems more conservative. We have vegetation that is drought resistant, why not a cistern or two that is just reclaimed water to keep a hillside a little more green and productive?
Though we may be tempted to dump it into the street, and flush it down the drain, the reuse of even algae filled water can keep fish fed, crustaceans alive, and possibly keep a bird or a dog from dehydration. This sounds like a small thing, but in turn, what is water itself but a single molecule connected to another? While we might not be trying to reduce the actual acid rain by one drop at a time, the processing of a pool gone wrong keeps us working towards a water goal that is already on the horizon.
Conclusively this covers technology that needs to be reused, any number of physical pool stations, pumps, and boilers that have been designed to have a technical lifetime use of over 20 years. (Do not forget that municipal pools and other areas are large pumping locations.) The factual water itself, which might have algae which is employable biomass. The physical tankers as trucks, which likely can fit an entire pool or two. The understanding that these older technologies can be replaced, such as the pumps and physical boilers again can be considered for more efficient technology which itself employs solar shingles, or any number of newly advanced urban technologies. Then the highly advantageous potential of having multiple thousands of increments to work with, within a known environment, all of which is only marginally toxic, caustic, or can otherwise be employed for landscaping. Think about how many places can have “starter” vegetation or crops introduced with the liquid water otherwise left to waste. (In other words support your farmer, your “pool guy”, your chemist, your urban planner, and your landscaper with the water you normally just drain into the street when you’re done with it.)
Addendum:
This essay and general discourse is a series in a composition of essays to describe how a single individual, with cooperation, can use a process describe(d) as: Reverse Acquisitions: Leverage buyout employing logistics, analytics, and distribution of novel technological development. A debt remediation and insurance (assurance) solution. | https://medium.com/@alechardy87/pool-and-algae-solution-f9a64bd0550e | ['Alec Scott Hardy Ii'] | 2019-08-01 19:06:01.265000+00:00 | ['Conservation', 'Water', 'Recycling', 'Ecology', 'Climate Change'] |
Self-Care vs Selfishness | Have you ever felt guilty for the times where you have put yourself first? Do you sometimes wonder if putting yourself first is being selfish? Well, today I want to talk about whether or not self-care is being selfish.
Self-care is defined as the action of preserving or improving one’s own health. On the flip side, being selfish is defined as someone who lacks consideration for others and their actions and motives are for their own personal profit or pleasure.
At first glance, self-care may seem related to selfishness or the intent may have been derived from selfishness. However, they are two completely different things. The main difference lies within the motive.
Selfishness is rooted in one’s personal gain or pleasure, whereas self-care is about preserving or improving your health. The approach to self-care is different because you are seeing a need in yourself that needs to be improved or maintained.
There may be times where you may feel selfish because you are focusing on yourself, but the reality is, you are taking care of yourself. Do not feel guilty for caring for your needs. You are not selfish for taking the time to take care of yourself.
Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape. Bell Hooks
The Importance of Self-care
When you are practicing self-care, you are looking to take care of yourself so that you can care for others. I’m sure you have heard the saying, “How can you expect to love others if you can’t learn to love yourself?” Well, this is the same for self-care. How can you expect to care for others if you can’t learn to care for yourself?
Self-care is about maintaining a balance in your life. There are many parts that create a person, the body, mind, heart, and soul. There is a delicate balance between all of them. If one part begins to deteriorate, the rest will begin to deteriorate as well. In order to stay healthy, we need to take the time to put ourselves first. We need to learn how to nurture ourselves so that we can thrive and help others along the way.
If you want to learn more about self-care habits, please take a look at this article: 5 Simple Ways You Can Practice Self-Care Today
Selfishness is not living as one withes to live, it is asking others to live as one withes to live Oscar Wilde
Stop Feeling Guilty
You might still be wondering, “How is this different from being selfish?” Well, selfishness is doing something for your own gain without worrying about the consequences of those around you. The mindset of a selfish person is trying to fill a need with the expectation of others bending to your will. Oscar Wilde states, “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” Selfishness lack empathy, compassion, and love for others, whereas self-care does not.
When we choose to take care of ourselves and to put ourselves first, we may feel like we’re being selfish. That’s okay. It is okay for you to feel selfish, but do not get caught up in that feeling because, eventually, you need to put your needs first. Take care of yourself before you can take care of others.
You are not being selfish for putting things aside so that you can feel better. You are not selfish for canceling plans after a long and arduous day. You are not selfish for unplugging yourself from technology so that you can destress after a stressful day. It is okay for you to put yourself first every once in a while. Your wellbeing is more valuable than how others might perceive you. Do not cast aside your wellbeing, instead, find a balance in your life where you can take care of others and, most importantly, yourself.
Don’t forget, you are loved, cared for, and significant. Take care and I hope to see you next week. | https://medium.com/sweaters-and-blankets/self-care-vs-selfishness-5a36e8dfe875 | ['Tiffany Hsu'] | 2020-12-14 17:35:30.629000+00:00 | ['Guilt', 'Self Care', 'Self Improvement', 'Health', 'Wellness'] |
Design Thinking vs Systems Thinking | It’s story time.
One day, a truck driver tried to pass under a low bridge, but miscalculated the height and wedged the truck underneath the bridge, unable to move.
When emergency services, firefighters, and engineers arrived on the spot to find a solution to the traffic jam being caused, they debated — should they dismantle the truck? Knock off parts of the bridge?
When a young man passing by saw the commotion, he said — why not just let air out of the tires?
This is what we call out-of-the-box thinking, or design thinking.
But how is this relevant to digital marketing?
These two thinking processes (or paradigms) in marketing can help your business capture the mindset and needs of your target audience while allowing you to come up with innovative solutions to immediate issues.
So what exactly is design thinking?
Creative problem-solving.
With a human-centric core, design thinking is a non-linear, solution-based approach that looks to understand the people one is creating for, challenge assumptions, and create solutions that lead to better products and services. The question is always: what is the human need behind this?
Design thinking means combining an economically viable + technologically feasible perspective that inspires empathy and understanding for your target users. Its five (not necessarily sequential) principles — as first defined by Nobel Prize laureate Herbert Simon in 1969 — are:
Empathise — with your audience
— with your audience Define — your insights and your audiences’ needs
— your insights and your audiences’ needs Ideate — by challenging assumptions and developing solutions
— by challenging assumptions and developing solutions Prototype — to create these solutions
— to create these solutions Test
Why is it important to businesses?
With empathy, ideation and experimentation, design thinking can help your business figure out the unmet needs of customers, reduce risks and create revolutionary, not incremental, solutions when launching new programs (because of multiple testing phases). Besides this, design thinking can help an organisation learn about itself and its target audiences more quickly and efficiently.
And what is systems thinking?
Systems thinking means a holistic approach of seeing things from a broad perspective of overall patterns and cycles, rather than just specific events in a system. It works against traditional analyses that seek to study systems and organisations by breaking them down into separate elements. It asks:
How are elements in a system interconnected?
How do these elements act and relate in complex systems?
Originating in 1956 by MIT professor Jay Forrester, one of the most important components of systems thinking is attention to feedback. It involves not only looking at customer feedback, but also feedback in management to make sure you don’t take actions that have been counterproductive in the past, for example, adding more workers to a lagging project even though this tactic didn’t work in the past.
Cause-and-effect are a common theme everywhere, but in systems thinking it can help you build a better perspective on connections and relationships, and feedback loops.
Design vs Systems thinking.
There isn’t much of a relationship between the two. They aren’t mutually exclusive, opposites, or even have much in common. Design thinking focuses on synthesis, and systems thinking on analysis.
Building up vs Breaking down — Focusing on synthesis, design thinking is about creating and building. Systems thinking is about breaking systems down to their components to understand the bigger picture.
Narrow vs Wide — Systems thinking looks thoroughly at strategies for potential unintended consequences; what is the impact of a product on competition, your business finances, brand, and performance?
Design thinking’s focus is more narrow; it’s on creating things customers will like without thinking about secondary impacts.
Why should these paradigms matter to digital marketers?
As digital marketers, we see technology evolve every day before our eyes. With automation, machine learning and robotics inspiring transformations in healthcare, medicine, communication, and transportation, we now need human-centered marketing strategies more than ever. Strategies that tackle real problems faced by real people — not just metrics for success and failure.
Design and systems thinking processes can help us do that.
Marketing might have a bias that systems and design thinking are two completely different strategies, and marketers neglect that the two processes can complement one another. However, as we said, the two paradigms aren’t mutually exclusive.
As marketers, we don’t just choose models to follow, but also try and recognise limitations in that model and learn how to shift fluidly between systems and design thinking while working.
As the story in the beginning illustrated, the most obvious solutions are not only the ones hardest to come to because of self-imposed constraints, but also the easiest to train into yourself with a little self-awareness and practice.
Originally written for and published on Digital Odyssey. | https://medium.com/swlh/design-thinking-vs-systems-thinking-ca13caa17557 | ['Anannya Sharma'] | 2020-11-15 15:08:32.884000+00:00 | ['Marketing Strategies', 'Systems Thinking', 'Digital Marketing', 'Design Thinking', 'Technology'] |
I will be your virtual assistant and will make your life easier | I understand that managing a business or social media can become very stressful and complicated if you have other commitments!
Hiring a virtual assistant is a brilliant investment for any business. How brilliant would it be if you could continue with the important and enjoyable elements of your job whilst knowing aspects of the business are being handled simultaneously?
A virtual assistant can widen your business, whilst assistant you with achieving your short-term and long-term goals in a hassle-free and efficient manner.
I provide the following services:
Social media management — dealing with analytics and expanding the business. Organisation — scheduling appointments, managing your calendar and diary. Handling emails and direct messages — whilst your business/brand is growing, so is your inbox!
I also offer much more! This gives you more flexibility and time for you to delegate to personal commitments, family and friends.
If this service is something you’re interested in, please do not hesitate to contact me or try out my one day trial! | https://medium.com/@wandacook017/i-will-be-your-virtual-assistant-and-will-make-your-life-easier-b3bd21cfc711 | [] | 2020-12-26 03:27:55.107000+00:00 | ['Virtual', 'Management And Leadership', 'Socialmedia', 'Virtualassistant'] |
Pangolin Rescue Center Reminds Us That the Animals Are Not to Blame | Pangolin Rescue Center Reminds Us That the Animals Are Not to Blame
It is the exploitation of threatened animals like Polly which likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic; advocates hope it will be a wake-up call
Polly, a pangolin at Save Vietnam’s Wildlife. Photos provided by SVW
To those of us in the Western world, the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it an introduction to an animal many had never before heard of: the pangolin. “Some western countries, even South American, they do not know about the pangolins,” says Dung Nguyen, communications officer at Save Vietnam’s Wildlife (SVW). “When we talk about the pangolin, some people say: ‘Penguin?,’” she laughs.
Recently, however, pangolins are making headline news around the world, due to their possible connection to the origins of the novel coronavirus. But Nguyen wants the world to understand that pangolins are not the ones at fault. Rather, she says, it is the trafficking of pangolins by humans, that is at the real root of this pandemic.
Due to their shy and timid nature, pangolins are especially easy to catch. “When they are threatened, they just curl as a ball, a very little one, and they don’t run away.”
SVW is a non-government organization working to rescue, rehabilitate and protect endangered wildlife in Vietnam. The group works with a number of small carnivores, including civets and otters, but focuses especially on pangolins. “Why the pangolins,” Nguyen explains, “is because pangolins are critically endangered in Vietnam. They are the most trafficked mammal on earth — not only in Vietnam — on earth.”
About 15 years ago, pangolins were abundant in the forests of Vietnam, but now, says Nguyen, “they are already gone.” Due to their shy and timid nature, pangolins are especially easy to catch. “When they are threatened, they just curl as a ball, a very little one,” she describes, “and they don’t run away.” Though their hard scales work as armor to protect them from predators such as lions and tigers, says Nguyen, “they cannot protect them from humans.”
Polly, curled up.
Pangolins have long been hunted, captured and sold in various parts of China and Vietnam, “not only for the meat, but also the scales,” says Nguyen. “And now, all the parts of the pangolin [are sold]; even the snout is used for jewelry,” she says, adding the animals are also used in winemaking, and some traditional medicines, often for male virility. “So now the price of the pangolin is very expensive.”
It is this financial motivation driving the market for pangolins. “For the local people, if they catch a pangolin, the money they can get can set them for a year,” Nguyen explains. And for the buyers, there is a level of status associated with consuming the animal. “They want to spend their money to try something new, different,” she says, “before others try it, or before it goes extinct. They don’t care how it is affecting the environment.”
Those working with Save Vietnam Wildlife certainly care, and at their two rescue centers in Vietnam, they are working hard to rehabilitate rescued pangolins, and releasing them back into the ecosystem that so relies on them. “We have no power to catch the traders or hunters,” says Nguyen, “so after we receive a call from the police, we will come and rescue the animals and bring them back to our center.” There, she says, the vet and care teams are the first point of contact for each animal. Then, when the animal is well enough, they are sent to a semi-wild area, a mix of natural environment and continued human care, “to make sure the animals can live by themselves in the wild,” she says. The animals that make it, are then released.
Baby Kim.
Some rescued pangolins don’t make it back into the wild though, either due to permanent conditions that make them unable to be released, like Polly (symbolically adoptable here) who arrived missing a front paw, or because they do not survive, like baby Kim. Kim was rescued from traffickers at only a few days old, and though SVW worked tirelessly to rehabilitate her, Nguyen reports, “she died after more than one year in captivity.” Compared with other species, she says, “the survival rate of baby pangolins [in captivity] is too low, especially for ones losing their mom.”
“If we put a lot of animals together at the same time, especially wild animals, some viruses will transfer to different animals.
Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Nguyen wants people to understand that the pangolin’s connection to the virus is not about the animal at all, but rather, “about the humans’ behavior.” Transporting and confining pangolins with other animals is the real concern. “If we put a lot of animals together at the same time, especially wild animals, some viruses will transfer to different animals. So the [pangolin] wine [for example], when people consume it, it’s really risky.”
Not only is consumption of wildlife risky for humans, Nguyen adds, but also for the environment, as it negatively impacts biodiversity, and throws off ecological balance. “Pangolins are ant eaters and termite eaters. If it wasn’t for the pangolins, the ants would be much more [abundant],” she says.
Polly at the rescue center.
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, China has now banned the trade and consumption of wild animals. Nguyen calls the ban “really helpful,” and says SVW has not received any reports of illegal trafficking since it was put in place. However, she says, “We need time to ensure [real change in the culture of eating wild animals] happens.”
For now, she describes her perspective as cautiously optimistic. | https://medium.com/tenderlymag/pangolin-rescue-center-reminds-us-that-the-animals-are-not-to-blame-1908dcbe1080 | ['Jessica Scott-Reid'] | 2020-09-23 23:10:45.589000+00:00 | ['Animals', 'Pangolin', 'Sanctuary Stories', 'Wildlife', 'Coronavirus'] |
A Christmas Carol (2018) | Sessions was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Trump signed it. And Trump’s name was good upon ‘Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Sessions was as dead as a doornail. But Cohen knew that Flynn was also dead, and Tillerson and Priebus and McMaster and the Mooch and Pruitt and Price and Gary Cohn and even Bannon, although he may be among the undead. Manafort, too. So many, so dead.
But Stormy was alive, and Karen McDougal. Cohen shuddered when he thought of them. He thought he had bought them off, as he had bought off so many others from the boss’ past. And when David Pecker used his National Enquirer empire to bury the stories, Cohen thought that Trump was home free. He was now President of the United States, and Cohen pictured himself in a big office in the West Wing. “No more taxi cabs for me,” Cohen gloated.
Cohen left for home after a long day of lying to Congress, forming shell companies to launder the hush money and setting up visits with some Putin pals to discuss a Moscow Trump Tower. He rubbed his eyes twice when the door knocker on his old townhouse in Queens seemed to morph into the face of Avenatti. When the specter moaned his name, “Miiiiiiichael,” Cohen rushed in the door and cowered in front of the fireplace. But the sound of dangling handcuffs startled Cohen as the figure of a tanned L.A. hustler, fresh out on bail from a charge of domestic abuse, burst through the locked door.
“You will be visited by three spirits tonight, Michael,” the bald-headed barrister bellowed. “You will soon see the error of your ways.” He rattled his handcuffs as he slithered into his Porsche and sped off.
Cohen tried to sleep, but at the hour of one, he was awakened by the rush of the wind through an open window and faced a frightening figure that bore a striking resemblance to Bernie Sanders. “I am the ghost of Christmas Present,” the Spirit said in a hoarse mumble. “You do know I’m Jewish, right?” Cohen managed to stammer. “Nobody’s poifect, boychick,” the Spirit replied.
Soon they were zooming on the F train, racing past those displaced from their rent-controlled apartments to make way for new Trump condos. “How does anyone live like this?” Cohen pondered, as he watched them devour holiday meals of Spam and candied yams. Cohen fell back into his bed, exhausted. “Man, I haven’t ridden the subways for years,” he muttered.
But, at the stroke of two, Cohen was startled by a blinding light and a vaguely familiar figure appeared in a white pants suit. “Is that you, Hillary?” Cohen inquired. “I am the Ghost of Christmas Past,” the woman proclaimed. “Whose past?” Cohen queried. “Your past,” she stated with the smug look of the school marm she was frequently mistaken for.
They roared on an uptown bus through a New York of the not too distant vintage, with the Spirit pointing out sites of Cohen’s inglorious deeds. A tear came to Cohen’s eye as he recalled the days when he threatened those who dared question His Greatness or suggested that the boss raped his lawfully wedded wife, Ivana, or when he ousted members of condo boards who proposed removing the Trump name from their buildings. “Maybe I wasn’t such a good guy after all,” Cohen lamented. “No shit,” taunted the Spirit as she shoved him into an Uber, a cruel reminder that his taxi medallions really were now worthless.
Cohen fell back into his bed, but, as the clock struck three, he was jolted awake by a very tall man in a very grey pinstriped suit. “Comey?” Cohen exclaimed. “For the record, the Ghost of Christmas Future,” the man with the Robert Stack smile retorted. The Spirit whisked Cohen away in a black Plymouth and they were soon on a whirlwind tour of upstate penitentiaries populated by large black men and not a hint of gourmet food. Cohen shivered at the sight and wished he had taken up trusts and estates. As tears ran down his cheeks, he thought of his family and country, or maybe the sound of a cell door slamming, and he fell asleep to the sound of the Spirit repeating “15 years to life” over and over.
When Cohen awoke to the first light of dawn, he thrust open the window and cried out to the first person he saw, a kid of about 16 who was smoking weed on the corner: “what day is it, lad?” Cohen hopefully cried. “Is it Christmas?” “No, you dumb ass,” the kid replied, “but for twenty bucks I will tell you that it is.”
Cohen wasted no time and picked up his cell. “U.S. Attorney’s office” said the voice on the phone. “I want to come clean,” Cohen blurted. “No more darkness for me.” “Can you hold for a minute?” the voice replied.
Well, you all know the rest. He copped his plea, and His Trumpness scorned his weakness and lies. A pardon’s unlikely, the judge said “three years,” but Cohen fell back on his new found redemption. But the nightmares continued and as the New Year approached, he dreamed of a cellmate with an orange-hued complexion and the strangest of hair. Cohen was pretty sure he wasn’t Father Christmas.
Happy Holidays to All! | https://medium.com/@gnallornothing/a-christmas-carol-2018-64eae3f4362a | ['Greg Gnall'] | 2018-12-14 21:51:51.052000+00:00 | ['Hillary Clinton', 'Bernie Sanders', 'Charles Dickens', 'Donald Trump', 'Fiction'] |
Visit from Mom | Visit from Mom
Every killer has a story
Photo by Nick Grappone on Unsplash
It was that time again: This time Frank had met her in the supermarket, in the vegetable section, where it smelled most strongly of chanterelles.
Now she was standing under his shower.
She had smelled like chanterelles before, too. When she was hiding in the closet when Dad wasn’t home, and they had played “Make a little peep.”
Frank had always known that Mom would be hiding in the closet at some point, but he never knew exactly how many rounds they had to play before that happened.
Most of the time, he found her quite quickly, but when the shrill “ beep “ came out of the closet, he had always tried to turn a deaf ear, shouting that he couldn’t find her because Frank didn’t dare say that he didn’t want to find her at all — not there.
Soon, however, she had always called out in a squeaky voice, “look for the little mouse in the closet, my darling, look for it quickly in the closet!”. It’s so afraid, all by itself.”
Then, of course, he had no choice but to go into the bedroom and look in the closet.
Mom was then sitting in there, wearing nothing and pointing at the fur stuff between her spread legs. There was a sour smell in the closet, like a musty forest floor. Later he had read in a book that women down there sometimes smelled like chanterelles. In his memory, that was exactly the smell that had emanated from the closet mixed with that of cheap cognac whenever he had found Mama in there.
“Look, there’s the little mouse,” Mama had always said then, pointing to the spot. “Look, it’ s already sweating from fear, and it’s hot all over. You have to pet it to calm it down, my darling.”
Frank had never seen a little mouse there. He knew what mice looked like in real life because the teacher had once brought one in a glass box at school.
Frank had then sneaked back to class after that lesson at the big break, taken the mouse out of the jar by the tail with pointed fingers, and then flushed it down the school toilet. He hated ALL mice.
The real ones he hated and the fake ones he even feared. The real ones smelled bad too, but not THAT bad. They didn’t feel as slippery as Mom’s, but he hated them because they reminded him of his fear and the closet.
Mom had been dead for five years now. But sometimes she came back. Occasionally she would visit her little darling to show him once again the poor little mouse who was scared and sweating.
Mama always pretended then that she didn’t know him. And dressed up, she was different every time, but Frank was not fooled by that. The dead could be whoever they wanted to be, and they could visit their loved ones whenever they felt like it.
So today she had approached him at the supermarket.
The sound of the shower suddenly stopped. In a moment, she would come and hope that maybe this time, he would play her old game with her again.
If she tried that, Frank would send her away again. Back to where she had come from. When he met her in the supermarket, in a bar, or in the park, he was always happy about it. She was his mother, after all.
But he always hoped that he could invite her for a cognac, just to show her his bungalow and talk to her. So far, however, she had always wanted to play the game at some point and usually wanted to shower first.
He then always made her stop very quickly and took her to the garden afterward.
Maybe she had finally realized last time that he didn’t want to play anymore. Frank was fumbling for the scarf under the bed when he heard the bathroom door open. He hoped she would be wearing something when she joined him in the room now.
Sure enough, she was naked, and Frank was disappointed. She stood there in the doorway, tantalizingly ajar, dimming the light with the dimmer switch (she always did. He would have to replace it with a regular switch) and then, smiling and emphatically slow, began to walk over to the bed.
Before Frank joined her, he glanced thoughtfully through the window into the garden once more. Soon he would have no more room for new raised beds. He resolved that next time he would better invite Mama to a café. | https://medium.com/illumination/visit-from-mom-b186bab5fd84 | ['René Junge'] | 2020-12-23 08:02:04.778000+00:00 | ['Psychopath', 'Fiction', 'Short Fiction', 'Flash Fiction', 'Serial Killers'] |
What are the best Air hostess training schools in India? | Overview
In the world of fast-growing industries, there are few industries there that create a much-worthy image in the eyes of the candidates who want to grab different career options. The industries are aviation, beauty and much more, these industries have created a much worthy image in the eyes of the candidates to grab different career options through various parameters. The aviation industry considers a well-developed industry that offers few aviation posts but has a high image in the eyes of the candidates. These posts consider highly profiled ones that offer high-paid jobs in concern with modern aspects. If we look upon certain factors then we would observe that the aviation industry is known for its well-profiled career option which the students are not aware of. Basically, the air hostess post considers one of the highly specialized posts where candidates have to out their 100% of becoming air hostesses. For becoming air hostesses, candidates have to clear training parameters that are included in this post. The air hostess job is not easy to grab because of advanced training parameters where students find difficulties in cleaning different aspects. There are various parameters included in this post like weight, height, physical posture, positive nature, and so on. Moreover, air hostess training includes all these aspects where candidates have to go through different training parameters that would be beneficial for you. In this way, candidates have to join an academy of getting effective training classes in concern with modern training parameters.
Air hostess
An air hostess course is one that has the main responsibilities of taking care of the passengers and checking the comfort of the passengers. These are the biggest responsibilities where no exception would be included in this post. For this, candidates who want to become air hostesses must join an academy that would provide you effective training aspects for the post of the pilot and make your life effective that would be beneficial for you.
The academy
In India, candidates would have multiple options of selecting the aviation training academy for your air hostess training academy. In this way, selection should be wise that would be beneficial for you and focus on modern training parameters. The candidates who are preparing for the post of air hostess must join an academy which would provide you with all essential training parameters in respect to modern training classes.
AI hostess training course
The air hostess course training course us designed in concern with modern parameters where candidates have to give their 100% effort in clearing training parameters efficiently. The course has duration between 3–6 months in which candidates would receive real aspect training parameters efficiently. | https://medium.com/@mahi.inteligenes/what-are-the-best-air-hostess-training-schools-in-india-98957560357e | ['Mahi Inteligenes'] | 2021-12-11 10:40:44.876000+00:00 | ['Airlines', 'Air Hostess Course', 'Aviation', 'Air Hostess', 'Air Hostess Institute'] |
The journey with Maboyz | One of the side streets off Ngong Road, Nairobi
Jamboni marafiki wangu! Hello my friends. It is interesting how my language changes when I am overseas. Certain nuances in the way we talk in the states are different than the English spoken here, and it takes a few days to get acculturated to these differences, but its great when I return, and I throw in a few Swahili words by accident when I talk to people ☺ If I speak to you in the week after, expect an accidental “sawa” or “sindyo” thrown in the conversation. I’ll tell you right now sawa means “OK”, and sindyo means “Yes, No?” or the best equivalent is “Ya know?”
Sawa, let me continue this journal of my time overseas. Sawa? Sawa!
Quick recap: meeting with Maboyz again here in Nairobi has made a huge change in my plans here. I basically talked a lot of smack before I left. Many of you heard me say “Yea, I’m gonna climb mount Kenya!” or “Hey! Gonna climb the highest mountain in Kenya” but really — things change when you get here. And being here and seeing Maboyz again, I realize I’d rather spend more time with them, so, instead of taking a 4 day trek into the wilderness, I’m gonna be spending one night in Nakuru, which is a lake town and game park, north of Nairobi. I hope to see some Rhinos and Leopards, sindiyo?
Sawa.
As I wrote before, I have felt kinda torn being here. I have so much attachment to the guys I’ve been working with since my last visit, earlier this year, and seeing how much they’ve changed and how much their group has grown in numbers, maturity, and consistency, makes me want to be a part of it so much more, but it is sad because I know I have to leave.
But it’s been both difficult, wonderful, painful, and rewarding. Last night they had at the church , what they call, a Kesha, or an all night vigil of prayer, singing, skits, games, movie, etc. As for me, I’m not one who can pray for 8 hours straight, most of my prayer, I like to spend alone, I guess. But its good with the masses every so often. A few of the guys showed up, and as they were arriving, I was upstairs in my flat, getting ready to play some guitar and leading the group in some songs. It’s been a long (very long) time since I’ve done that sorta thing, and so I was nervous. Plus the guitar I was to use, had a broken string. And I get very particular about sound, and if I’m missing a string, I get worked up. So I was lucky to have a friend downstairs named Tim who had a guitar and was generous enough to let me borrow it for the evening.
Once the gathering started, one of the guys walked in, and let’s just say he wasn’t doing too well. We told him he should go home, get sobered up and then come back. I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, but it did make sense at the time. Maybe it’s about building discipline, if he can control himself one day a week? I dunno, I have no idea how these things work, but as far as addiction goes, I can sympathize. I think we all can. There’s always something that has us kinda bound: big things, small things. It’s all the same at the end, just some have bigger consequences than others.
He ended up leaving and the night continued. But with a sort of bittersweet note, for me. I was spending most of the time worried about this kid. As I started playing Tim’s guitar… the most amazing thing happened, the strap broke. Then, a string popped, then another string snapped! And my one hour gig, turned into 15 minutes of clumsy, yet very musical, playing and singing, and for those 15 minutes, everyone was feeling it. Well, at least I was for sure ☺
It was also special because it was the first time Nadia and I sang and played together in such a long time and it was kick-ass for sure.
I’m writing this in MS Word (for Mac) (since I have no net connection right now), and I’m surprised to find that “kickass” is not recognized by the spell checker, and is telling me that I’ve misspelled it. I guess it’s time to add “kickass” to the correct spelling list ☺
OBAMA 2008!
Sawa.
At around 1:30am, in the middle of an intense game of Bible trivia, boys vs. girls, I’m told that the boy from earlier, was passed out on the street right outside the gate, and had been sleeping there in the cold for bout 2 hours.
Mena and I tried to wake him up, but he would not budge, so the guards kept an eye on him and we went back at 2:30 to get him.
Mena and Junae and Kimani, three brothers who are living here in Kenya. I’m just so amazed by them, and their love for the guys, and how much work they’ve put into their group in the last 7 months. I’m happy to know that they are here as I don’t think anyone else could do the job, sindiyo?
We brought him in, and spent until 4:30 with him keeping him company, trying to get him to stay alert. We got him food and tea, it was hard. This guy was a really amazing person, yet, covered by so much crap. You see the potential, yet you know he doesn’t really want help, or maybe he doesn’t think there’s a way out. At the end of the day, it’s a challenge in letting go, but loving and pursuing, and staying dedicated unconditionally. But how that balance is achieved is very hard.
He couldn’t even hold the tea, because he was shaking so much.
At the end, I feel just so inadequate. Inadequate to help, and inadequate to have any answers to why this is the way it is. But you have to keep on going, because it isn’t about me. But you can’t do this kinda work without seeing yourself in these guys. You have to relate to your own struggles, and your own challenges. These guys serve me, I think more than I serve them.
Couldn’t sleep at all, but finally passed out around 6am, waking up at 10. Not much sleep.
We had the Maboyz meeting a few hours ago, and we tried a few new exercises with them, challenging them to go deeper. What a lovely time it was though. To see these guys open up, and learn to trust each other more. It is really something magical to just witness.
One of the guys in particular, told me how sad he was that I was gonna leave in a week.
“What have you decided about Maboyz, Paul? Will you come stay with us?”
How do you answer such a question?
It feels good to be loved. It humbles me. I know for sure that for now I am supposed to be in New York. What the future has, I have no idea, but one thing is for sure, being in Kenya is part of my yearly plan.
Earlier that day,I was thinking about how the new guys I really don’t connect as well as the older ones because we didn’t have time to spend one on one like I had with the others.
But fate has it, that today, the new guys all showed up earlier, and the rest showed up an hour later, and it really gave us a good chance to bond.
We had fun though, one of the guys taught me some Kempo Karate. I told some of the guys the story of Che Guevarra, Che’s image is an icon all over Kenya, yet no one really knows who he is, where he came from, or what he did. Matatu vehicles all over the country have his icon branded on the rear window, and as they drive by, and you hear the muffled sound of what is to the passengers, piercing Ragga (not reggae) music, vibrating down the sometimes rocky, sometimes smooth roads of Nairobi.
But I digress.
I am here now at the Java house, unwinding with a cup of coffee, and writing these things out. I’m an introvert, actually, and I need these times every day in order to stay sane ☺
I have a lot to think about, but I look forward to a few relaxing days in the countryside amongst the rivers, the mountains, hyenas and flamingos.
More to come, and more photos as well — Give my best to my city, and my country, and I miss you all so much. Chau locos! | https://medium.com/master-of-some/the-journey-with-maboyz-c9bdbd1d5997 | ['Paul Kist'] | 2018-09-23 00:26:11.675000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Rehabilitation', 'Healing', 'Nairobi', 'Spirituality'] |
Incel terrorist attacks appear to be a growing threat | Incel terrorist attacks appear to be a growing threat
This appeared in The Millennial Source
On Wednesday, May 20, a man named Armando Hernandez Jr. entered the Westgate Entertainment District in Glendale, Arizona and fired on the crowd, injuring three.
It is an unfortunate reality in the United States that such mass shootings are common enough that the attack only briefly garnered media attention.
Yet, as more information has come out about the shooter, it’s become clear that Hernandez’s connection to a misogynistic group known as “incels” links him to a series of other attacks by unstable men.
Last week, Canadian authorities took the unprecedented action of charging a 17-year-old boy with terrorism based on the incel philosophy that led to a February attack in Toronto. While that represents the first official incel terrorism charge, it is not the first attack to have been directly inspired by the philosophy.
Who are incels?
The term “incel” is a shortening of “involuntary celibate.” The effects of involuntary celibacy — not being able to have sex as a result of perceived external forces instead of one’s personal choices — has been an area of psychological study for decades.
A 2001 study of involuntary celibates linked it to depression, stating, “Participants reported suffering from depression, and many celibates were dissatisfied, frustrated or angry about not having sexual relationships.”
In the last few years, the focus has increasingly turned to the violence associated with the philosophy.
The reason for this focus is the growing number of incel communities online where men discuss their frustrations with not being able to find sexual partners, often in violent terms. These forums, many of which began on anonymous posting sites like 4Chan and Reddit, also include violent fantasies of raping and humiliating women.
Within the incel philosophy, men and women are grouped into specific categories, which are then labeled with stereotypical names, “Becky” and “Stacy” for women, “Chad” for men.
Beckys are “average” women who incels believe should be grateful to be pursued by them. Stacys are considered unattainable for their beauty and “hyperfeminine” sexual traits.
Chads are the ultra-masculine “alpha males” who end up marrying (or at least bedding) Staceys. They are also the focus of the Beckys’ attraction, undeservedly so in the view of incels.
Incels see themselves as being left out of this sexual pecking order altogether.
One common view, propagated on “ TheRedPill “ subreddit, is that 20% of men are having sex with 80% of women, leaving the remaining 80% of the male population to fight it out for the remaining 20% of females.
The use of “the red pill” analogy — taken from the 1999 film, “The Matrix” — is also common among Men’s Rights Activists and QAnon adherents. The analogy is meant to suggest that members of these respective in-groups have been awakened to the reality of the world and now understand a greater truth about the world that regular people do not.
The Westgate attack
Prosecutors have said that when Hernandez entered the Westgate shopping center on May 20, he was looking to specifically target couples. The 20-year-old male shot and injured three people — a 19-year-old man, a 30-year-old woman, and a 16-year-old girl — but did not kill anyone. It isn’t yet clear if any of the three victims were part of a couple present that day at Westgate.
According to Edward Leiter, a prosecutor with Maricopa County who spoke at Hernandez’s first court hearing, the purpose behind Hernandez’s attack was “taking out his expressed anger at society, the feeling that he has been bullied, the feeling that women didn’t want him.”
Hernandez must pay a US$1 million bail to be released from jail. He awaits trial for over a dozen charges, including three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and three counts of aggravated assault with serious physical injury.
Canada’s first incel terrorist
The timing of the Westgate attack is notable because only a day later, Canadian authorities officially charged a 17-year-old boy with terrorism for a February attack on a Toronto erotic massage parlor. The terrorism charge was added last week because the boy had allegedly been inspired by the incel philosophy and online culture.
The boy, who has not been named due to his age, used a machete to attack the Crown Spa massage parlor, killing one woman, 24-year-old Ashley Noell Arzaga. The owner of the parlor was injured in the attack after she attempted to grab the weapon from the attacker.
The attacker appears to have been motivated by his hatred of women. Though the parlor attack is the first in history to be officially charged as an incel-inspired terrorist attack, Canada has experienced another similar attack.
In 2018, Alek Minassian drove a van into pedestrians in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16 others. Minassian later claimed he attacked the crowd because he was “radicalized” by incels online. Minassian’s trial has been postponed multiple times, most recently because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elliot Rodger: hero of incels
Minassian is among the many incels who have expressed admiration for Elliot Rodger, the first known mass shooter whose motivations were directly tied to the incel community.
In a Facebook post prior to the van attack, Minassian said, “The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”
On May 23, 2014, Rodger used an assortment of guns and knives in Isla Vista, California to kill six people and injure 13 others. Prior to the attack, Rodger had recorded a video and written a manifesto that, among other things, discussed his hatred for women and his failure to find a girlfriend.
Rodger’s victims were both men and women. According to the video he recorded prior to the attack, he intended to enter “the hottest sorority house” at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He did not succeed in that effort. After taking fire from police officers responding to the attack, Rodger was found dead in his car as the result of a self-inflicted gunshot.
An entry in Rodger’s personal journal said of sex, “I would always covet it, I would always fantasize about it. But I would never get it.” Other entries expressed frustration with girls who preferred “the wrong kind of guy” to him. | https://themillennialsource.medium.com/incel-terrorist-attacks-appear-to-be-a-growing-threat-b27376c5a260 | ['The Millennial Source'] | 2020-05-28 12:43:53.625000+00:00 | ['Canada', 'USA', 'News', 'Government', 'World'] |
Noël | This poem was published as part of the Christmas 2020 writing challenge. Discover the three winning poems and the gifts that were distributed for the occasion. Subscribe to The Story Box just below to make sure you don’t miss the next writing prompt. Thanks for your reading! | https://medium.com/scribe/no%C3%ABl-be84126aacc9 | ['Connie Song'] | 2020-12-27 11:42:22.539000+00:00 | ['Noël', 'Prompt', 'Poetry', 'Xmas', 'Scribe'] |
Angular — A Beginner’s Guide to Design and Implementation of an Angular App | Angular — A Beginner’s Guide to Design and Implementation of an Angular App
A Step by Step guide with an example project
If you are a beginner for Angular and wonder how to start, This article is for you and we focus only on basic Angular App with one page. Once finished our app looks like below where we can add items, edit, delete items.
Home screen of the completed project
Prerequisites
Initialize the project with Angular/cli
Understand the Basic structure of the app
Understand the Starting point of the app
Design ToDoList App
Implement ToDoList App
Prerequisites
Install Nodejs
Install Angular cli
Install Typescript globally
Basic understanding of typescript/javascript
Basic knowledge about Angular
once you install nodejs and we need to install Angular cli and typescript globally with the following commands
npm install -g @angular/cli npm install -g typescript
Initialize your project with Angular/cli
Angular cli makes it easy to start the working angular project right out of the box and it follows all the best practices of the Angular.
// it will create the working project. ng new todoApp // cd to todoApp
cd todoApp // start the project and app runs on 4200
npm start
creating todoApp with angular cli
starting your project with npm command
App running on port 4200
Understand the Basic structure of the app
Once the Basic/default app is running, we can just take a moment and take a look at the project structure that Angular CLI created for us.
top-level structure
e2e: All the automation tests go into this folder.
node_modules: This folder includes all the dependencies.
src: all the app source code will be in this folder. it has all index.html, environments, unit tests, assets etc.
.editorconfig: Editor configuration
.gitignore: This contains all the info that we don’t want to check into git
angular.json: This json file contains all the info about the project like how to build, configure, environment, e2e etc..
package.json: This is the package manager which contains all the scripts and dependencies of the project.
tsconfig.json: Since angular is written in typescript, this file has all the typescript configuration.
tslint.json: This is linting file has all the rules which maintain the same standards across all the files.
Understand the Starting Point of the app
If you open the src folder and we can see a lot of files But, we need to understand these following files
main.ts
app.module.ts
app.component.ts
app.component.html
index.html
src directory
main.ts
This is the main file which bootstraps the Angular. AppModule is the first module it invokes at line 11.
main.ts
app.module.ts
Angular follows the component design pattern in which App is divided into modules and each module is divided into components. So, This is the starting Module of the App which imports other modules and we need to declare the components that we use in this module. Since we are using AppComponent and add that to declarations array.
app.module.ts
app.component.ts
In Angular, Each component has styleUrl, template, and selector. A template is the html file and styleurl is the CSS file to be applied for this component.
app.component.ts
app.component.html
If we look at the above app.component.ts file it uses this html file as the template. This is the html file that we see when app loads in the browser.
app.component.html
index.html
This is the index.html which loads in the browser first. If we look at line number 12, we are using <app-root></app-root> selector which is declared in the app.component.ts above.
Now, we have seen all the important files of the app. Since app.comonent.ts is the starting component, Let’s replace the default HTML with this line “Welcome <your name>” and then load the page.
changed app.component.html
Home screen after our changes
Design ToDoList App
Let’s design the app. We have one screen where we add items and list those items. Angular follows the component design pattern where the entire app can be divided into multiple modules and each module can be divided into reusable components. With this approach, we can lazy load the modules which can increase the app’s performance significantly and reuse the components.
Design of the App
We have header and footer for the screen, Let’s put those in the shared module. It is customary to create a shared module for any shared components across modules. So, we have two modules in App Module and a bunch of components. The benefits of creating modules are that we can lazy load those modules whenever necessary which increases app’s performance significantly.
Different Modules of the App
Implement ToDoList App
Let’s implement these modules in this particular order.
Shared Module
Items Module
Shared Module
This Shared module has two components Header and Footer component which are present across all screens.
Let’s use angular CLI to generate these modules and components and we can see those created in the screenshot.
// go to the root folder and this will created shared folder and
// shared.module.ts
ng g m shared // generate Header component under shared module
ng g c shared/header // generate Footer component under shared module
ng g c shared/footer
created header, footer component in the shared module
The one thing we need to change here is that we need to declare Header and footer components in the exports array of share module. This is because we will be using this shared module in app.module.ts and these components have to be imported for use.
export HeaderComponent and FooterComponent from shared module
Let’s import the Shared module into the App module and use those components in the App component. Notice selectors <app-header> and <app-footer> remember every component has a selector which can be used as a HTML tag.
using header and footer components in the app component
If we start and load the app and we can see header and footer appear on the page.
Notice header and footer on the home page
It’s time to add some CSS and code to these header and footer components. Let’s install bootstrap for our project.
// install ngx-bootstrap
npm install ngx-bootstrap --save // add the bootstrap css to the index.html in the head section <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
Add the below code for the header component
CSS, ts and html files of Header component
Add the below code for the footer component
CSS, ts and html files of Footer component
Let’s add global styles for our project to give some padding for the body. If you add any CSS to styles.css file that would apply across the app.
styles.css
Now load the page and make sure you see below page in the browser.
App with Header and Footer Components
Items Module
Let’s create all the components for Items Module with the following commands. With these commands, all the components are updated in items.module.ts file.
// generate the items Module
ng g m items // generate the display components --flat doesn't create folder
ng g c items/display/display-list --flat
ng g c items/display/display-card --flat // generate the add-item component
ng g c items/add-item
Creation of all components in the items Module
Once we created Items Module, the first thing we need to do is include this module in app.module.ts
Import ItemsModule and add that to imports array
Since we are using components from the ItemModule in the Home screen, export all the components from the Items module and include those in the app.component.html.
export components and use those in app.component.html
if we load the page at this moment, we can see this.
add-item and display list component work!
Implement Add-item Component
Let’s add the below code in the respective files and add FormsModule and ReactiveFormsModule to ItemsModule.
add-item component files
after adding add-item component
Implement display-list Component
For this, we need to implement the following
app.service.ts: to hold the data for the entire app and provide add items and delete items array. display-card component: this is a single row in the list of items. display-list component: this component has display-card component as a child component and it holds all the items added so far communication between components: we need to establish communication between across all the components
First, we need to add service to the app in which we hold the data. Let’s create service with the ng command and add the below content in the file. In this file, We maintain the array to hold the items and add and delete methods.
// generate the service
ng g s app
app.service.ts
display-card component
This is a single row in the list which has some inputs and outputs for this component.
Display card component
display-list component
This is a list component which displays all the added items and it has display-card component as a child component and it has a modal which is shown when clicking on the edit button of each item.
display-list component
communication between components
Ok, we created all the necessary components and we should establish communication between these components. Most of the communication happens with Input and Output elements in the Angular. Since we used all these components in app.component.html, Let’s update that.
added input and output for all the components
At this moment, we can actually add an item and see the list as we add items and delete items as well
Now we can add an item, edit and delete items
Error Handling
There is no error handling for the add-item form right now. For example, if we try to add an item without filling out the form it doesn’t display any error. Let’s implement the error.
Let’s add components with ng command and will add in the shared module and add these components in the exports array.
// generate error component
ng g c shared/error // generate error-message component
ng g c shared/error/error-message --flat
You can download all error components from here
Once you add the components we need to add these components in appropriate places like below
app.component.html and add-item.component.html
There are two places that we need to add error as shown below.
when you add an item without filling the form when you delete all the items
Error messages in two places
Conclusion
This is the starting point for your angular journey. Once you are comfortable with this then you can explore other features of angular like routing, NGRX store, etc. | https://medium.com/bb-tutorials-and-thoughts/angular-a-beginners-guide-to-design-and-implementation-of-an-angular-app-b0c5118a2f61 | ['Bhargav Bachina'] | 2019-05-20 02:48:32.017000+00:00 | ['Angular', 'Programming', 'Software Development', 'Web Development', 'JavaScript'] |
- Oase | in The Next Web | https://medium.com/@oase263/coventree-wellness-a315da79d9a | [] | 2020-12-19 15:42:03.023000+00:00 | ['Beauty', 'Skin Care Products', 'Gummies', 'Health Foods', 'Wellbeing'] |
How to Find Remote Legitimate Work from Home Jobs Online | Coronavirus global threat increased the need for information on how to find legitimate work from home jobs (telecommute).
We are staying at home and not going out as suggested by the government and medical scientists, due to the global threat of Coronavirus (“Covid-19) we all deal with.
In times like these where enterprises shut down their offices and everyone is directed towards working from home (wherever this is applicable), there is a big increase in Google for searches like “work from home“.
Query: “work from home” search demand breakout after Coronavirus
You may see the Google trend for the query below.
According to Google Trends, this is the increase in demand for the search query “work from home” worldwide after the Coronavirus (covid_19) threat appeared.
So I decided to research and prepare an article with you with resources on how to find legitimate work from home jobs online and how to claim the right telecommuting (remote) employment according to your:
Current skillset Niche Employment preference Location worldwide (Europe, USA, etc)
According to Skill Crush (quoted next) are some real and legitimate options to find remote, online, telecommuting or work-at-home jobs that you can dive into and do your research which ones fit your situation best.
1. FLEXJOBS
FlexJobs has over 50 remote jobs categories, with positions ranging from freelance gigs, to part-time work, to full-time jobs, with remote careers varying from entry-level to executive.
The best part?
FlexJobs screens their jobs before posting, so you don’t have to dig through any less than reputable opportunities.
The virtual job board currently hosts more than 20,000 work-at-home and digital nomad job postings.
2. REMOTE.CO
Remote.co hand-curates their list of remote jobs.
These listings include customer service positions, design opportunities, developer jobs, recruiter and HR roles, sales jobs, and other remote work (including writers, managers, and marketers).
Remote.co’s virtual job board also has the handy feature of allowing you to search or browse by job type.
3. JUSTREMOTE
JustRemote is dedicated to building a better remote job platform, allowing job seekers to find their perfect role quickly and easily.
JustRemote covers many job verticals including Development, Marketing and Design, HR, and Customer Success positions.
You can filter roles by location, and their virtual job board clearly highlights whether positions have specific country or time overlap requirements.
4. VIRTUAL VOCATIONS
Virtual Vocations’ jobs board features telecommuting positions in job fields like technical writing and paralegal.
The site was started by a stay-at-home mom who was frustrated with a lack of legitimate remote job listings online, and today the company is run by an entirely remote team.
In addition to their jobs board, the site’s blog has great tips, including this article on how to pick up a seasonal remote gig during the holidays.
5. PANGIAN
Pangian is on a mission to unite all five continents by connecting remote-minded companies with remote employees.
Their virtual job board provides a robust list of open, remote positions including web development, UX design, content creation, and digital marketing.
Pangian also gives users the option to start an account and participate in their online community, where employers have a chance to learn more about potential employees’ specific skills, interests, and backgrounds.
6. WE WORK REMOTELY
With a simple, straightforward layout, this virtual job board is a catch-all of remote, work from home jobs from customer service, to web design, to programming.
Living up to their stated goal of ”finding the most qualified people in the most unexpected place,” the We Work Remotely site connects over 130,000 monthly users with telecommuting opportunities.
It’s your ticket to remote employment in no time.
7. REMOTIVE
Remotive is a bi-monthly newsletter for job seekers interested in working remotely.
In addition to news about how to get hired at remote jobs and tips on life as a digital nomad, the newsletter also has a robust listing of remote positions.
Remotive’s job listings are broken down by job type — sales, support, product engineering, marketing, etc. — making it easy to find the specific kind of job you’re looking for.
8. SKIP THE DRIVE
With a catchy (and appropriate) name, a handy resources tab that lists authors to follow and sites to check for advice in the world of working remotely, and a reliable list of remote jobs, this virtual job board is true to its eponymous mission.
If you use the resources Skip the Drive provides, you can truly swap your ugly morning gridlock for a leisurely telecommute.
9. REMOTE OK
Remote OK is a remote job site that tags all of their job listings, making it simple and easy to set filters for the specific listings you want.
You can choose to filter jobs posted by recruiters, by experience level (junior, senior, etc.), by job type (sales, marketing, design, dev, and more), and even whether they’re tech or non-tech related jobs (of course even the “non-tech” jobs — things like analysts and marketers — will benefit from some basic tech skills).
10. WORKING NOMADS
Working Nomads is a newsletter serviced dedicated to busy digital nomads.
When you sign up for the service, Working Nomads will then deliver a curated list of remote jobs directly to your inbox.
You can choose daily or weekly emails, then keep moving to the next city while the telecommuting job search comes to you.
11. JOBSPRESSO
Jobspresso features a wide range of curated jobs in tech, marketing, customer support, and more.
You can search their virtual job board for openings and post your resume to be searched and seen by potential employers.
12. EUROPEREMOTELY
If you’re a job seeker looking to work remotely in European time zones (whether you’re from Europe or not), you’ll want to check out EuropeRemotely.
This virtual job board is full of job listings from companies that are happy to work with at-home and remote employees who are interesting in doing work based on European time zones.
13. JOBSCRIBE
Jobscribe is a site that sends out daily emails to job seekers with remote job listings at tech startups.
Web designers, web developers, mobile app designers, and digital marketers can specify their focus and receive listings for corresponding remote and work-from-home positions.
14. WFH.IO
Wfh.io focuses exclusively on remote digital and tech jobs.
They include remote jobs in product management, software engineering, web engineering, customer support, marketing, and more.
15. OUTSOURCELY
Outsourcely pairs up remote workers with employers seeking both full and part-time employees.
You can browse for jobs by category: design & multimedia, web development, writing & content, customer service, sales & marketing, and more. | https://medium.com/@joannavaiou/legitimate-remote-work-from-home-job-opportunities-online-guide-70f5ab4330cb | ['Joanna Vaiou'] | 2020-12-28 18:53:41.741000+00:00 | ['Remote Working', 'Online Jobs', 'Work From Home', 'Work At Home', 'Remote Work'] |
Our oceans are in deep trouble, can technology save them? | Written by Aleksandra Smelianska, Product Marketing Manager at The Gradient
If you have yet to freak out over the devastating UN report on climate change, we got you covered. The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders, describes a world of worsening food shortages, wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040 — a period well within the lifetime of much of the world population! Is that your anxiety level rising? Join the club!
But in times of despair, there is always hope; on a more positive note, this week has brought nations together in agreement to help clean up and preserve our marine life, a daunting task at hand, is there hope for our oceans?
Following the news on a huge victory for Arctic marine ecosystems, nine nations along with the EU signed an international agreement that will prevent commercial fishing in the fragile region for at least 16 years. The agreement will protect nearly three million square kilometers of the Central Arctic Oceanfrom unregulated fishing while scientific research is conducted to learn more about its marine life and resources.
Overfishing is one of the three major challenges that our oceans currently face. Plastic pollution is another major issue that technology can help solve.
By 2050, the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by weight.
Technological innovation used on land has helped us immeasurably to clean up polluting industries and now it’s time to use it towards the preservation and healing of our oceans. So how can technology help clean up and prevent plastic pollution?
Rapid progress in the development of robotics, AI, low-cost sensors, satellite systems, and big-data are opening up whole new sectors of ocean use and research. Some of these disruptive marine technologies could mean a cleaner and safer future for our oceans.
One of the most interesting companies working on this field is The Ocean Cleanup, developing advanced technologies that are expected to be able to remove 90% of ocean plastic by 2040.
After 5 years of research, engineering and testing, in May 2018, the company launched its beta cleanup system, a 600-meter long floater that can collect about five tons of ocean plastic per month. Their floating boom system is estimated to clean up half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch within the first five years.
The Ocean Cleanup has raised $31 million since 2013, with Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel among its major investors.
Although a cleanup will have a profound effect, it’s just part of the solution. We also need to close the tap, to prevent any more plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place.
We can’t put all our hopes on ‘silver bullets’ of new technology. With trillions of pieces of trash floating in our oceans, it is important for everyone to start making changes today in order to protect our oceans for generations to come.
These days, a number of brands are starting to incorporate post-consumer materials into their product lines. But some companies are going even further, looking to up-cycle harmful waste from the ocean.
One of the most famous examples is Adidas’ collaboration with the environmental initiative Parley for the Oceans. On World Oceans’ Day, back in 2016, the company released its first batch of running shoes with uppers made using recycled plastic recovered from the sea.
In 2017, Adidas teamed up with Parley again to create a collection of swimwear that is made from up-cycled fishing nets and debris. The ocean plastic was converted into a fibre named Econyl, which has the same properties as regular nylon which is used to make swimwear. According to Adidas Director of Design, it’s possible to make over 1,000 swimsuits from a large fishing net.
Parley also worked with Stella McCartney on The Ocean Legends collection, where each piece in the collection was made from up-cycled marine plastic and is dedicated to pioneers of the ocean movement. The first product of the collection is a special limited edition Falabella GO backpack honouring Captain Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd — an international non-profit ocean conservation organisation.
Another great project created in collaboration with Parley is Clean Waves aimed at boosting the use of eco-innovative materials in fashion and industrial design. Their first collection of limited-edition sunglasses looks pretty neat.
Each pair of eyewear carries individual geographical coordinates of a specific place impacted by marine plastic pollution.
If you’re feeling the trend, we recommend trying out these bikinis made from fishing nets or these yoga pants made from plastic bottles.
Another interesting brand in this space is Ecoalf, an urban minimalist brand from Spain aiming to create garments and accessories with the same properties and design as the best articles on the market. The company has been creating using recycled fabrics from decommissioned fishing nets, plastic bottles from the bottom of the ocean, cotton waste, and used tires. They went as far as to turn discarded coffee grounds into a high-quality raw material used in jackets, shoes, and bags. With this approach, ECOALF contributes to reducing environmental impact and creating low resource consumption.
This article is co-written with Andrea Hernandez, Founder @Prettyeats
Originally posted here | https://medium.com/digitalagenda/our-oceans-are-in-deep-trouble-can-technology-save-them-7745fea18b0e | [] | 2019-03-27 10:47:24.347000+00:00 | ['Oceans', 'Sustainability', 'Tech For Good', 'Environment', 'Plastic'] |
Slobodna škola Pionir — Novi projekti | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/omnes-group/slobodna-%C5%A1kola-pionir-novi-projekti-f5679a1c25b2 | ['Kristina Keljevic'] | 2020-12-11 12:47:12.768000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Projects', 'Programming', 'Srbija', 'JavaScript'] |
Why I Joined Tegus | In April, like many others this year, I found myself in a new and unexpected situation. I had been laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic and was suddenly searching for my next opportunity. Eager to land a new job, I started to spend all my time scouring listings, hunting for the right fit.
Enter Tegus, a Chicago-based fintech startup. I stumbled across their listing for a product designer position on LinkedIn and could tell right away it was a company to keep an eye on. From my first interview, I felt challenged. I was impressed not only by the caliber of people at the company but also the product they were building and the problems they were tackling. There were so many reasons to join the team. Ultimately, here’s what led me to choose Tegus over other options:
Impressive company culture
Opportunities for personal growth and development
A young, innovative product with interesting challenges
Company Culture
Honestly, I thought I failed my first interview with Tegus. The design manager and I disagreed on a design philosophy and I thought it would keep me from getting a second interview. As I progressed through the interview process, I realized that challenging each other was part of the culture at Tegus. Tegus leadership encourages everyone on the team to push the organization toward greatness. This takes debate, discussion, and working together to establish best practices for the entire team.
I also learned that the design team focuses on frequent collaboration. In my last position, I was the sole product designer and realized I missed working closely with other designers, so it was important for me to join a company with a growing team that I could collaborate with often. One of the interview stages at Tegus involves a review of the current state of the product. During this session, I collaborated with Joe, the design manager, and Craig, a senior product designer. Even as an outsider, I was encouraged to share my thoughts and give feedback. It was clear that designers at Tegus are expected to frequently share what they’re working on, get feedback, and pair together to solve problems and drive the product forward.
What the Tegus Platform looked like when I interviewed. It has undergone some major updates since!
The last culture piece that swayed me toward Tegus was the opportunity to help build and grow a mature design team. Though small in numbers, Tegus was focused on establishing mature design practices and each designer to join would have a major impact on the team. I would be the third designer to join the team, but I knew more designers would be coming on board soon. And the team has grown quickly, in fact, we’ve nearly doubled in size in the last 6 months.
Personal Development
It was vital for me to find a company where I could grow and become a better designer. At Tegus, I knew I would be pushed outside my comfort zone, while also being supported by a team of strong designers, product managers, engineers, and leaders.
Specifically, Tegus had two great designers I was excited to learn from. I was looking for mentorship and saw an opportunity to develop my skills by working with other talented people. Tegus focuses on hiring highly passionate and driven individuals and it shows. The team is truly the best of the best, and I wanted to be a part of it.
Innovative Product
The final piece of the puzzle was the product itself. As a product designer, this was critical. I wanted to work on something innovative and challenging. Tegus was building a product unlike any other; a smart research platform that enables investors to extract proprietary insights gathered from industry experts. The unique user needs and business opportunities of the product really resonated with me.
The team was also starting work on an iOS app. I hadn’t worked on a mobile product for a while and knew this would present me with more chances to learn and influence a new product.
Some wireframes for the mobile app I’ve worked on since joining Tegus.
Tegus was also growing quickly. Job security can be hard to find in the startup world, and it’s never a sure thing, but the high rate of growth amid a global pandemic and economic downturn helped reassure me that Tegus would be a great place to be in 2020 and beyond. | https://medium.com/tegus-product-design/why-i-joined-tegus-7cb140c2d83d | ['Katie Stakland'] | 2020-12-15 17:27:11.279000+00:00 | ['Company Culture', 'Hiring', 'Product Design', 'Tegus', 'Startup'] |
Introducing the Milestone Coin Offering (MCO) | Behind the alluring shimmer of the world of entrepreneurship is a sobering reality: nine out of ten startups will fail. They will fail for all number of reasons (here’s the top 20 reasons), but their demise always takes the form of the money drying up. Startups are businesses too, and money is the lifeblood they need for survival, but which startups should receive it?
Here’s the typical procedure: an experienced team of investors and professionals with industry expertise find promising projects to invest in, taking a slice of the pie which reflects a rational valuation and adequately compensates for risk. This method has a track record of success, and out of it has emerged a standardized procedure called Series A, B, C Funding, a system used to produce many of the most recognizable companies in the marketplace. This approach, through carefully controlled cash infusions, enables startups to hit certain milestones, such as the creation of a prototype, or a proof of concept for an idea. Projects hit targets and accelerate, acquiring more funding to continue their project having executed their last objectives successfully.
In the world of blockchain, ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) upended this model. Since 2017, ICOs have delivered 3.5X more capital to startups than traditional VC fundraising.
With a whitepaper and a dream, a team can raise millions from retail investors, accessing a world of capital that the VC system cannot tap into. However, startups who raised through ICOs have proven to be unaccountable to token holders and lack incentives to build great products.
In such an irresponsible market, the number of unsuccessful projects have increased dramatically, with unscrupulous individuals and lackluster ideas crowding legitimate projects out. As a result, the blockchain market is stagnating.
The Milestone Coin Offering
Bizkey is pioneering a new model that we are calling the “Milestone Coin Offering”. Instead of offering the entire supply of tokens at once to hit all our funding targets, offerings are strictly tied to milestones, reflecting what a traditional VC structure would demand for investment.
Just as with seed funding, an MCO starts off with support from expert investors who believe in the vision of the team and their ability to execute on it, raising funds through a private token sale. Considered a high risk investment, the private sale is restricted to seasoned investors who may be accredited and have the risk tolerance that retail investors don’t. The amount raised through private sales should be just enough for a team to comfortably hit their first targets, and set themselves up for the Series A round, or the first public Milestone Coin Offering.
Only after having hit each milestone does the subsequent offering begin.
In the traditional Venture Capital fundraising framework, investors rightfully wonder how much money is required to finish the project as each future fundraising rounds will dilute their share of the pie. However, they are happy so long as the value of their share increases between rounds.
Similarly, token investors may have concerns about token dilution, as each round of the MCO increases the pool of unlocked tokens. Our MCO addresses investor concerns of token dilution by calibrating the amount of tokens sold to be less than the anticipated share of tokens needed by new users, preventing newly sold tokens from flooding the market and causing dilution of value.
Venture Capitalists are willing to take a smaller share of a larger pie as long as their overall value keeps increasing. As results are demonstrated by a project through the successful completion additional milestones, early token holders are compensated for their investment and are free to hold position or cash out.
By taking a leaf from the traditional VC seed->Series A-> Series B model, we aim to achieve three objectives:
Demonstrate our results and build community engagement Manage risk for our investors Hold ourselves accountable and incentivize disciplined use of funds raised
We hope that by altering the ICO model, the blockchain space can find a more accountable fundraising model and move out of the bear market, unlocking capital from retail investors for promising entrepreneurs while keeping the upsides of the traditional VC funding system.
Bizkey’s first milestone
We have completed our seed round, or private token sale, with over 16 funds involved, raising over 3.5 mil and have results to share. Token listing can be an expensive and difficult hurdle to clear, and we are proud to say that the BZKY token is currently listed on DigiFinex (see link), one of the top 10 exchanges on Coinmarketcap as of September 11th, ensuring that our low hardcap does not deter investors worried about token liquidity. We have launched our Biz-POS terminal and DAPP (read article here), and have formed strategic partnerships with the following 3rd party acquirers and big brands for deployment:
Mr Koalac
China: 400,000 merchants
China: 400,000 merchants Xbed
China: 20,000 houses and 700,000 users (see here)
China: 20,000 houses and 700,000 users (see here) Surehigh International Group
Taiwan: largest ticket and travel booking platform (see here)
Taiwan: largest ticket and travel booking platform (see here) Yukk
Indonesia: largest retail loyalty platform (see here)
Indonesia: largest retail loyalty platform (see here) and more (see here)
Currently we are gearing up for an important proof-of-concept, demonstrating successful offline crypto payment with our Biz-POS device and DAPPs at more than 30 merchants in Singapore during Token Day, a 12-day event in collaboration with successful post ICO projects.(article link)
Our MCO details are as follows:
Next Milestone Targets:
Serving 10,000 merchants on board
Monthly transaction value of over USD 10 million
Additional value-added services besides payment (such as digital advertising and business intelligence tools) to be provided to merchants through open API.
With a successful track record of milestones, we will aim to create steady profits for token holders and raise funds in piecemeal to propel our project forward, building engagement, excitement, and trust. | https://medium.com/bizkeyofficial/introducing-the-milestone-coin-offering-mco-1d4722fd6c82 | [] | 2018-11-26 07:42:28.846000+00:00 | ['Featured', 'Announcements', 'here'] |
Where business and philanthropy intersect | Where business and philanthropy intersect
In order to overcome stagnation/neglect/inertia from government agencies, communities often have to collaborate to solve serious problems.
If the next generation of startup businesses integrate philanthropic agendas into their financial forecasting from day 1, they can contribute meaningfully to solving modern challenges.
We all want to live in a perfect world. We can’t wait for governments to fix everything. Opportunity exists in unusual places.
By allocating a percentage of the company to an organisation on VirtaQ, businesses can rest assured their money is being managed and utilized wisely.
VirtaQ Accounts can be configured for unlimited sub-accounts, allowing comprehensive control over your equity. In addition to this, VirtaQ allows simple equity to cash conversion, providing liquidity for those that need it. An organisations relationship with the platform will determine its financial buffer for withdrawals.
VirtaQ Managed Philanthropy allows companies to focus on innovation, satisfied their social responsibility budget is being used for ( measurable) good.
Email : [email protected] | https://medium.com/@gra-hurrell/where-business-and-philanthropy-intersect-5f9303bbf5ed | ['Christopher Graham Hurrell'] | 2020-12-26 21:53:49.735000+00:00 | ['Philanthropy', 'Development', 'Business', 'Charity', 'Corporate Social Advocacy'] |
5 ACCUSATIONS THAT PROVE MOON LANDINGS WARE THE BIGGEST LIE OF THE 20th CENTURY | A HOAX TO UNCOVER AND DISCOVER
1. TO WIN THE COLD WAR
USA and USSR were in between the cold war for world dominance which lasted for a significant amount of time, they were very tough competitors and had many things that made them better than the other. But in some cases or we can say most of the cases USSR was edging ahead in the superiority race. They even launched the first man into space and the first satellite in space and the only thing that remained was putting a man on the moon. To this, the Americans knew one thing, if they want to win this war the only way was to win the space race by putting a man on the moon.
Now, when we look at the different side of the story we can see if the USA goes to the moon by hook or by crook it will basically it will become what it intended to, so here a possible reason arises that they might have made all the requirements of landing a spacecraft on the moon for simply edging ahead of USSR to win the war. | https://medium.com/@sanujraj/5-accusations-that-prove-moon-landings-ware-the-biggest-lie-of-the-20th-century-aa79e17edd79 | ['Sanuj Raj'] | 2020-12-20 21:33:15.002000+00:00 | ['Cold War', 'Moon Landing', 'Moon', 'Astronauts', 'Hoax'] |
Diving into Ethereum’s Virtual Machine(EVM): the future of Ewasm | Ethereum is a blockchain with a built-in Turing-complete programming language. It allows anyone to create a decentralised application, by making use of Ethereum smart contracts.
“The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the part of Ethereum that handles smart contract deployment and execution” (Antonopoulos and Wood, 2018).
The EVM consists of a stack-based architecture. In order for a smart contract to be deployed, all high level Ethereum smart contract code must first be compiled into machine-readable code (called bytecode). This bytecode code (a series of single-byte opcodes and optional arguments) is then processed by the EVM via a last-in-first-out stack arrangement. This operation is similar to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) whereby every instruction begins with a single-byte opcode and arguments, if any, occupy subsequent (unaligned) bytes, with values given in big-endian order (Scott, 2009).
The first goal of this article is to explain the inner workings of Ethereum’s stack-based EVM. Once these EVM fundamentals are explained we will begin to see that Ethereum’s organic conformity to the binary instruction format for a stack-based virtual machine has it poised to transition into the bright future of web assembly.
Let’s start with the end in mind by taking a look at web assembly.
Web Assembly (abbreviated Wasm)
WebAssembly (abbreviated Wasm) is a new type of code that can be run in modern web browsers. It provides new features and major gains in performance. Wasm is designed to be an effective compilation target for low-level source languages like C, C++ and Rust etc (MDN Web Docs, 2019).
Ethereum Web Assembly (abbreviated Ewasm)
Ethereum Web Assembly (abbreviated Ewasm) is a deterministic smart contract execution engine built on the modern, standard WebAssembly virtual machine. Ewasm is the primary candidate to replace the EVM as part of the Ethereum 2.0 “Serenity” roadmap. Ewasm is also proposed for adoption on the Ethereum mainnet (ewasm, 2019).
Why Ewasm?
The current architecture of the EVM is one of the greatest blockers to raw performance (GitHub EIP48, 2019). For example, whilst the 256-bit word size facilitates native hashing and elliptic curve operations (Antonopoulos and Wood, 2018), it also makes translation from EVM opcodes to hardware instructions more difficult than needed; an architecture that provides a closer mapping to hardware will considerably enhance Ethereum’s performance (GitHub EIP48, 2019).
Aside from the performance enhancement aspect, one of the design goals of the Ewasm project is to also support smart contract development across a wider range of languages and tooling i.e. incorporating LLVM, C, C++, Rust, JavaScript into the development cycle.
In theory any language, that can be compiled to Wasm, can be used to write a smart contract. As long as it implements the Ewasm Contract Interface(ECI) and Ethereum Environment Interface(EEI) (ewasm, 2019).
Smart Contracts
Let’s take a minute to understand the fundamentals of the EVM by walking through the creation, compilation and deployment of an Ethereum smart contract, using the original EVM architecture.
Ethereum smart contracts are like “autonomous agents” that live inside of the Ethereum execution environment, always executing a specific piece of code when “poked” by a message or transaction, and having direct control over their own ether balance and their own key/value store to keep track of persistent variables (Buterin, 2013).
Each of the higher level smart contract source programming languages such as Solidity, Vyper and Lity maintain their own compiler. A smart contract’s source code can be compiled into a variety of outputs. Including, but not limited to the application binary interface (ABI), bytecode stream and opcode.
Compiling
Before installing a compiler on your local machine, I would urge you to check out new web-based compilers such as SecondState’s BUIDL environment. This will save you an incredible amount of time.
Let’s take the simple storage source code and compile it using SecondState’s BUIDL environment, as pictured below.
Clicking the compile button will immediately produce the smart contract’s ABI and bytecode, as shown below.
If you would like to see how this compilation is performed in the command line (with a locally installed compiler), please see Appendix A, at the end of this article.
Analysing the deployment bytecode
If we look at the first 4 instructions in the bytecode we see the following.
608060405234
If we view the Mnemonic representations of these values, as referenced on page 30 of the Ethereum Yellow Paper, we will see that the first instruction (60) is PUSH1.
δ
The column labelled δ to the right of Mnemonic, represents the number of items to be removed from the stack by the PUSH1 instruction (in this case 0).
α
The next column over, labelled α, represents the number of additional items to be placed on the stack, by the PUSH1 instruction. In this case 1; a single byte 0x80.
In the example below we can now see that the first instruction (0x60) PUSH1, has pushed the value of 0x80 to the stack and that the second instruction (0x60) called PUSH1, has pushed the value of 0x40 to the stack.
60806040…
PUSH1 0x80 PUSH1 0x40…
If we move along the bytecode, we then encounter the instruction with a value of 0x52. As you can see in the Yellow Paper below, this instruction has the Mnemonic representation of MSTORE.
608060405234
If we again look at the column labelled δ to the right of Mnemonic we can see that MSTORE is going to consume two items from the top of the stack. In total, MSTORE will consume the top 2 items from the stack but place 0 items back on the stack.
It is important to point out, at this stage, that MSTORE is a Memory Operation which is tasked with saving a word to memory. Please don’t get confused about the use of the term “word”.
The EVM works with a word size of 256 bit (Antonopoulos and Wood, 2018).
This “word” is not a word per se. For example, it can be an account address etc.
MSTORE starts its operation by first consuming the current item from the top of the stack; namely an address which specifies where the word will be stored in memory. In this case the address location of 0x60. MSTORE then consumes the next item from the stack and saves it (0x80) to the pre-specified address(0x60). At this stage there are no items left on the stack.
The next instruction is (0x34). It has the Mnemonic representation of CALLVALUE.
608060405234
If we pay close attention to the column labelled α, we see that CALLVALUE will be placing one item on the stack, as part of its standard operation. However, we did just mentioned that the stack is currently empty and so this raises the following question. How does CALLVALUE obtain the data which it intends to place on the stack?
As you can see from the Yellow Paper, all instructions which have values in the 30s (0x30 to 0x3e) relate to Environmental Information. In this case CALLVALUE obtains its required data from the message call responsible for executing this bytecode. Another example relating to Environmental Information is the instruction 0x33 which has the Mnemonic representation of CALLER. The CALLER instruction is able to automatically get the address of the Ethereum account which initiated the bytecode’s execution.
Deployment vs Runtime bytecode
It is important to differentiate between the deployment and runtime bytecode at this juncture. If you look at Appendix A.1 (obtaining deployment bytecode) and Appendix A.2 (obtaining runtime bytecode) you will notice that the bytecode results, which are returned, are not identical.
The runtime bytecode is the bytecode that is executed when functions of the deployed smart contract are called.
The deployment bytecode contains additional instructions, relating specifically to deployment only.
Interestingly, the runtime bytecode can always be seen as a subset of code, which resides verbatim inside the deployment bytecode. This is illustrated in the image below.
Analysing the runtime bytecode
Each of the smart contract functions can be identified (inside the runtime bytecode) as a 4 byte function signature. To calculate the function signature we first take the function’s name. In our case, let’s start with our function “set”.
Along with the function name “set”, we also take the function’s input argument data types (separated by comma and wrapped in parentheses). For example, in our simple case we end up with the text set(uint256).
Note: Do not use any spaces when creating the function selector text.
Once we have this information we then create the hexadecimal representation of a sha3 hash and truncate it to only 4 bytes. Here are examples in both web3.js and web3.py
selectorHash = "0x" + str(web3.toHex(web3.sha3(text="set(uint256)")))[2:10] var selectorHash = web3.sha3("set(uint256)").substring(0,10)
Both of the above commands will return the following signature 0x60fe47b1 which we can easily locate in both the deployment and runtime bytecode data.
At this stage we have an understanding of how each instruction in the bytecode is carried out (giving and taking information from the stack, then calling environment and memory etc). We could continue to analyse each instruction in the bytecode and reference the Yellow Paper. However, we now have a good understanding of how calling code can execute state transition functions using environmental information and so forth so let’s now move on to Ethereum’s specific Ewasm implementation nuances.
Ewasm implementation
We mentioned a little while ago that a smart contract’s source code can be compiled into a variety of outputs. Of course the path from high level smart contract code to Ewasm is a complex task which can take on many and varied compilation paths through different toolchains.
SecondState developers recently built a Solidity to Ewasm compiler called Soll.
This challenging task was completed (as a prototype for demonstration purposes) prior to both:
Crosslink — a conference for the world’s leading blockchain researchers and developers, held in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei)
— a conference for the world’s leading blockchain researchers and developers, held in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei) Devcon5 — an international conference for Ethereum developers, held in Osaka Japan)
Crosslink (October 2019)
Picture: SecondState’s Hung-Ying Tai receiving an Ethereum Foundation Grant for the Soll compiler project (pictured with Vitalik Buterin at the Crosslink Taipei event).
Devcon5 (October 2019)
For those who were not at Devcon5, the following video provides an overview of Soll’s operation. Namely deploying and interacting with an Ethereum ERC20 Solidity smart contract on the new Ethereum Ewasm testnet.
Devcon5 was the perfect conference to share the latest Ewasm developments from the SecondState team. After formally presenting on the first day of the conference, an additional informal and open demonstration & discussion took place.
The post-demo discussion with Solidity maintainer Christian Reitwiessner, and others, revealed SecondState’s best path forward in terms of optimal collaboration and reduction of duplication of effort amongst different developers and software projects in the future Ewasm space.
Having succeeded in prototyping compilation from Solidity to LLVM to Ewasm, SecondState, in response to valuable peer input, is looking forward to making extensive use of Yul in a bid to perform Yul to llvm to Ewasm compilation path.
Yul
Yul is an Ethereum specific intermediate language. Future versions of the Ethereum Solidity compiler (and possibly the Ethreum Vyper compiler) will comprehensively support Yul as an intermediate language.
Yul is designed to be a usable common denominator of EVM 1.0, EVM 1.5 and Ewasm. The core components of Yul are functions, blocks, variables, literals, for-loops, if-statements, switch-statements, expressions and assignments to variables (Solidity — Yul, 2019).
Backends or targets are the translators from Yul to a specific bytecode. Each of the backends can expose functions prefixed with the name of the backend. Yul reserves evm_ and ewasm_ prefixes for the two proposed backends (Solidity — Yul, 2019).
A lot of work has already been done in this space, so let’s take a brief look at what we already know about the path from Solidity to Yul to Ewasm.
Compiling Solidity for Yul
The solidity compiler has a special flag which can be used to compile Solidity source code into an intermediate representation (IR) of Yul.
In order to provide an example of this feature, let’s use Ethereum’s Solidity compiler in the command line to compile our simple storage example from above into this YUL IR format.
You will see from the code below that we can perform this task using the ir flag.
Compiling Yul for Ewasm
A simple overview of the path from Yul includes the following steps.
Starting with the EVM-Yul code, we need to:
Split each 256 bit (32 byte) variable into 4 individual 64 bit (8 byte) variablesTake care of endian differencesCreate a library that implements each EVM opcode as user a defined function, using the equivalent Ewasm built in functionUtilise the regular optimiser
Further Solidity compilation examples
If fed the above Yul IR, Solidity can also produce pretty printed source, binary representation and text representation.
This is achieved with the following command
solc/solc --strict-assembly --optimize ~/simple_storage/simple_storage_yul_ir.txt
The individual outputs are as follows
Pretty printed source
Binary representation
Text representation
An example of the inner workings
Christian’s Devcon5 presentation code example, revealed the inner workings of the Ewasm flavoured compilation process. More specifically, as shown here, the work required to produce the equivalent of the MSTORE function. As we demonstrated above, using the original EVM, MSTORE accepts 2 arguments (firstly a standard 32 byte address, and secondly a 256 bit (32 byte) word). However, as you can see, the code below shows the original Solidity smart contract 256 bit variables being split into separate 64 bit variables. You will also notice that endian swaps are occurring.
function mstore(x1, x2, x3, x4, y1, y2, y3, y4) {
let pos := u256_to_i32ptr(x1, x2, x3, x4)
i64.store(pos, endian_swap(x1))
i64.store(i64.add(pos, 8), endian_swap(x2))
i64.store(i64.add(pos, 16), endian_swap(x3))
i64.store(i64.add(pos, 24), endian_swap(x4))
}
Available at: http://chriseth.github.io/notes/talks/yul_devcon5/#/11
Endianness
The swapping of endianness (the byte order for storing and retrieving bytes from memory) when compiling for Ewasm is crucial for the following reasons. The Ethereum Virtual Machine Specification employs big-endian byte ordering (Wood, 2014). However, the Web Assembly specification requires that all values are read and written in little endian (webassembly.github.io, 2019).
As not to undersell any of the other required design efforts and hard work ahead, there are additional details which are currently undergoing consideration/discussion as this important work progresses. A few of these have been outlined in Appendix B below for brevity.
Conclusion
Whilst there are many potential paths between smart contract code and Ewasm. The use of Yul will provide a targeted endpoint for the current Ethereum compilers as well as an entry point for the llvm to Ewasm compiler. The Yul to llvm to Ewasm compiler will bring about the fundamental advantages of Wasm/Ewasm to any of the Yul compliant smart contract languages like Solidity and Vyper.
Using Yul is a big win, because it can re-use almost all optimiser components (Reitwiessner, 2019).
Further to this, given that other languages like Rust use LLVM as their primary codegen backend (Rust-lang.github.io, 2019), the above toolchain path will open the door for other programming languages to become part of Ethereum’s Ewasm smart contract ecosystem.
CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)
References
Antonopoulos, A. and Wood, G. (2018). Mastering Ethereum. 1st ed. O’Reilly Media.
Buterin, V., 2013. Ethereum white paper.(2013). URL https://github. com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper.
Docs.ethhub.io. (2019). Ethereum 1.x — EthHub. [online] Available at: https://docs.ethhub.io/ethereum-roadmap/ethereum-1.x/ [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019].
Ewasm. (2019). ewasm/testnet. [online] Available at: https://github.com/ewasm/testnet [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019].
GitHub EIP48. (2019). ethereum EIP48. [online] Available at: https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues/48 [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019].
MDN Web Docs. (2019). WebAssembly Concepts. [online] Available at: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAssembly/Concepts [Accessed 18 Oct. 2019].
Reitwiessner, C. (2019). Yul, eWasm, Solidity: Progress and Future Plans. Available at: http://chriseth.github.io/notes/talks/yul_devcon5/#/
Rust-lang.github.io. (2019). Updating LLVM — Guide to Rustc Development. [online] Available at: https://rust-lang.github.io/rustc-guide/codegen/updating-llvm.html [Accessed 20 Oct. 2019].
Scott, M. (2009). Programming language pragmatics. 3rd ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann Pub.
Solidity — Yul. (2019). Yul — Solidity 0.5.12 documentation. [online] Available at: https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/v0.5.12/yul.html [Accessed 19 Oct. 2019].
Webassembly.github.io. (2019). WebAssembly Specification. [online] Available at: https://webassembly.github.io/spec/core/_download/WebAssembly.pdf [Accessed 20 Oct. 2019].
Wood, G., 2014. Ethereum: A secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. Ethereum project yellow paper, 151(2014), pp.1–32.
Appendix ACompiling the simple storage smart contract in the command line
As mentioned in the above article, compilation can be performed manually in the command line. For example after installing Solidity, Vyper or Lity you will have access to the appropriate local compilation environment.
Here is an example of how we would compile the simple storage smart contract, to obtain a variety of different outputs, using SecondState’s Lity compiler.
A.1 Obtaining deployment bytecode
tpmccallum$ lityc/lityc --bin ~/simple_storage/simple_storage.sol 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
A.2 Obtaining runtime bytecode
tpmccallum$ lityc/lityc --bin-runtime ~/simple_storage/simple_storage.sol 6080604052600436106049576000357c0100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000900463ffffffff16806360fe47b114604e5780636d4ce63c146085575b600080fd5b348015605957600080fd5b50608360048036036020811015606e57600080fd5b810190808035906020019092919050505060ad565b005b348015609057600080fd5b50609760b7565b6040518082815260200191505060405180910390f35b8060008190555050565b6000805490509056fea165627a7a7230582037a6182517eb7335095ca48cb7b895cbcbbdb824f48911f3f69fdc1869c7263e0029
A.3 Obtaining opcodes
tpmccallum$ lityc/lityc --opcodes ~/simple_storage/simple_storage.sol PUSH1 0x80 PUSH1 0x40 MSTORE CALLVALUE DUP1 ISZERO PUSH2 0x10 JUMPI PUSH1 0x0 DUP1 REVERT JUMPDEST POP PUSH1 0xec DUP1 PUSH2 0x1f PUSH1 0x0 CODECOPY PUSH1 0x0 RETURN INVALID PUSH1 0x80 PUSH1 0x40 MSTORE PUSH1 0x4 CALLDATASIZE LT PUSH1 0x49 JUMPI PUSH1 0x0 CALLDATALOAD PUSH29 0x100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 SWAP1 DIV PUSH4 0xffffffff AND DUP1 PUSH4 0x60fe47b1 EQ PUSH1 0x4e JUMPI DUP1 PUSH4 0x6d4ce63c EQ PUSH1 0x85 JUMPI JUMPDEST PUSH1 0x0 DUP1 REVERT JUMPDEST CALLVALUE DUP1 ISZERO PUSH1 0x59 JUMPI PUSH1 0x0 DUP1 REVERT JUMPDEST POP PUSH1 0x83 PUSH1 0x4 DUP1 CALLDATASIZE SUB PUSH1 0x20 DUP2 LT ISZERO PUSH1 0x6e JUMPI PUSH1 0x0 DUP1 REVERT JUMPDEST DUP2 ADD SWAP1 DUP1 DUP1 CALLDATALOAD SWAP1 PUSH1 0x20 ADD SWAP1 SWAP3 SWAP2 SWAP1 POP POP POP PUSH1 0xad JUMP JUMPDEST STOP JUMPDEST CALLVALUE DUP1 ISZERO PUSH1 0x90 JUMPI PUSH1 0x0 DUP1 REVERT JUMPDEST POP PUSH1 0x97 PUSH1 0xb7 JUMP JUMPDEST PUSH1 0x40 MLOAD DUP1 DUP3 DUP2 MSTORE PUSH1 0x20 ADD SWAP2 POP POP PUSH1 0x40 MLOAD DUP1 SWAP2 SUB SWAP1 RETURN JUMPDEST DUP1 PUSH1 0x0 DUP2 SWAP1 SSTORE POP POP JUMP JUMPDEST PUSH1 0x0 DUP1 SLOAD SWAP1 POP SWAP1 JUMP INVALID LOG1 PUSH6 0x627a7a723058 KECCAK256 CALLDATACOPY 0xa6 XOR 0x25 OR 0xeb PUSH20 0x35095ca48cb7b895cbcbbdb824f48911f3f69fdc XOR PUSH10 0xc7263e00290000000000
A.4 Obtaining ABI
tpmccallum$ lityc/lityc --abi ~/simple_storage/simple_storage.sol [{"constant":false,"inputs":[{"name":"x","type":"uint256"}],"name":"set","outputs":[],"payable":false,"stateMutability":"nonpayable","type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[],"name":"get","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint256"}],"payable":false,"stateMutability":"view","type":"function"}]
Appendix B
Topics for future consideration/discussion
Interacting with the rest of the 1.x EVM
In addition to the typical bytecode operations, i.e. stack, memory, and storage access, the original EVM also has access to account information, i.e. addresses and balances as well as block information and current gas price (Antonopoulos and Wood, 2018). Storage access is instrumental for correct operation. For example, the execution of a valid transaction begins with an irrevocable change made to the state: the nonce of the account of the sender (Wood, 2014).
The Ethereum 1.x roadmap indicates that there are unresolved questions about how Ewasm will interact with the rest of the EVM state i.e. contract storage, ether balances and so forth. One approach is to exclude Ewasm code from directly accessing EVM state, but allow it to exchange input/output when called (Docs.ethhub.io, 2019).
Deterministic behaviour
As we know, Ewasm is a subset of Wasm, and Wasm has a couple of features which are non-deterministic. As Ewasm moves forward there will need to be a way to reject any contracts which have non-deterministic features (Docs.ethhub.io, 2019). At present it appears that this can be achieved by a single sentinel contract. The sentinel is a system contract (part of the genesis or hardfork Ewasm is enabled on). The sentinel contract has a raw interface which is used for contract validation during deployment. It works by deliberately issuing an invalid operation (invoking a regular failure) when an unexpected issue occurs or deliberately issuing the revert operation if invalid input is ever detected.
Gas metering
The calculation of gas for Ewasm contract deployment and interactions requires some future work. It is presently proposed that automatic upper bound estimations are used. Static analysis can be performed on the bytecode and, for a subset of codes, the upper bounds for executed instructions (virtual gas) can also be calculated (Docs.ethhub.io, 2019). | https://medium.com/wasm/diving-into-ethereums-virtual-machine-evm-the-future-of-ewasm-722239bf5b18 | ['Timothy Mccallum'] | 2019-11-11 04:17:01.537000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Vyper', 'Ewasm', 'Second State', 'Solidity'] |
Serializing Ecto Changeset errors to JSONAPI in Phoenix | It took me a good while to figure out ecto’s format for changeset errors. It turns out that if you have certain types of validations, each error message returned is in the format %{"should be at least %{count} characters", [count: 8]} . Unfortunately, you have to do string replacement to make it human readable.
The view below is enough to render errors properly in Ember but could be improved to provide more of the fields available in the spec.
defmodule App.ChangesetView do
use App.Web, :view
def render("error.json", %{changeset: changeset}) do
errors = Enum.map(changeset.errors, fn {field, detail} ->
%{
source: %{ pointer: "/data/attributes/#{field}" },
title: "Invalid Attribute",
detail: render_detail(detail)
}
end)
%{errors: errors}
end
def render_detail({message, values}) do
Enum.reduce values, message, fn {k, v}, acc ->
String.replace(acc, "%{#{k}}", to_string(v))
end
end
def render_detail(message) do
message
end
end
Thanks to Jose Valim for pointing out to me that a templating language is not needed to solve this problem | https://medium.com/kurt-nelson/serializing-ecto-changeset-errors-to-jsonapi-in-phoenix-abe146990ccb | ['Kurt Nelson'] | 2017-12-28 01:19:45.276000+00:00 | ['Phoenix', 'Ecto', 'Elixir', 'Jsonapi', 'Ember'] |
This Holiday Season, CasaOne is going to make your dreams come true! | This Holiday Season, CasaOne is going to make your dreams come true!
The Holiday season is well and truly upon us, and at CasaOne we’re celebrating by giving you some of the best offers on renting furniture for the Holidays!
We’ve launched the Mega Holiday Sale from the 20th of December 2017, all the way to the 20th of January 2018. For an entire month, all orders with a minimum term of six months, will come with one month absolutely FREE, on us!
Looking for some state-of-the-art furniture for your Living Room to entertain guests during the Holidays? We have everything from Coffee Tables and Chairs, to Sofas and Storage. And if you’re looking for additional furniture for your Bedroom, we’ve got you covered there as well — CasaOne has everything from Beds to Benches, Lamps to Mattresses, Storage to Mirrors, and everything in between! And if that Dining Room needs a little sprucing up for the Holidays, we have everything from Tables and Chairs, to Barstools and Buffets.
Whatever your furniture needs are, CasaOne has you covered! We’ve even got your back, if you’re looking to build out your very own Home Office in the comfort of your home, to work on the next big idea that might come your way. After all, you never know when inspiration is likely to strike!
And there’s even more reason to celebrate! Not only are we giving away some excellent deals to give your home a touch of festivity for the season, but we’re also giving you access to some of our prime inventory in the CasaOne store, so that your home can stay as trendy as the season.
There’s absolutely nothing you need to do to avail of our Mega Holiday Sale! Simply place your order between the 20th of December 2017 and the 20th of January 2018, and the kind folk in our team will add an extra month to your order, absolutely free! It’s just that simple!
As always, if you have any queries, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].
Go to the CasaOne site to start renting right away!
Happy Holidays! | https://medium.com/casaone/this-holiday-season-casaone-is-going-to-make-your-dreams-come-true-4cba454a476a | ['Dean Fernandes'] | 2017-12-21 03:58:43.121000+00:00 | ['Holidays', 'San Francisco', 'Rental', 'Furniture', 'Sales'] |
QILIMANJARO | Quantum Computing Use Cases:
Cryptography And Security
A full-fledged quantum computer puts in jeopardy all cryptographic algorithms such as RSA, DSA and EEC.
Security must be improved by the use of quantum cryptography, which is robust against the attack of a quantum computer. ( https://qilimanjaro.io )
2. Optimization Problems
Optimization any type of problems as optimization routines and scheduling. Quantum algorithms study all the possible solutions to a problem at the same time and present the correct solution more quickly. ( https://qilimanjaro.io )
3. Training Of Neural Networks
An advantage may be obtained by using a quantum processor to train a neural network of a certain size, making it learn from its mistakes and self-correcting more quickly and efficiently.
4. Quantum Chemistry
Deal with and solve problems related to the understanding of molecules and the design of new drugs, fertilizers, gases to capture atmospheric carbon, etc
5. Finances
Finding new ways to perform financial data modelling and in this way isolate risk factors | https://medium.com/cryptocurrency-beyond-limits/qilimanjaro-8386273998d2 | ['Gecko Trader'] | 2018-06-21 10:51:44.195000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain', 'Quantum Computing', 'ICO', 'Bitcoin'] |
Apple AirPods Pro vs Bose QuietComfort 25 Noise Cancellation Test on a flight | Where i am coming from?
Having owned a Bose QC 25 set of headphones for about 2 years now, i was posed with a choice whether i should go for the ultra-cool, ultra-trendy 2019 Apple AirPods Pro. I eventually did buy the Apple AirPods Pro, and the reason I made this post is because this is the information I was looking for but couldn’t find. If you have any questions that you want answered or any tests done but can’t find, I’ll be happy to try my best and contribute what knowledge and experience I can bring back out to the internet.
The Flight Test
So I took a 2 hour flight few days back and was excited to try the AirPods Pro active noise cancellation. I am used to my wonderful Bose QC 25’s that I have had for years on flights. I know they aren’t the newest model, but they were the newest model when I got them couple of years ago. They are still going strong and have been my go to for flights ever since. If you haven’t tried them, they block out everything while you have music playing. Anyways, I took both on my flight today to compare them back to back. I have always had to wear around ear headphones because those are the only ones I have found comfortable. I have never, ever, been able to wear in ear earbuds. I have even tried high end audiophile headphones with custom foam tips and still couldn’t wear them for more than 15 minutes because of the discomfort. The original AirPods fit me so I decided to give the pro’s a shot. To my surprise, the large eartips that came in the box (not the ones that came preinstalled though) fit me comfortably and provided a good seal in both ears per the test in the app.
And the Results
Anyways, on to the noise cancellation. With my choice of the large tips for the AirPods Pro, I wore them for about an hour on the flight with no issues or complaints. I listen to my music about 50–75% volume and could not hear the engine (I was sitting window seat 3 rows behind the under wing mounted engine. So if there was a loud place on the plane, I was sitting in it). I also tried some audiobooks and movies and they were great. The only exception is when the audio gets very quiet or pauses for a bit, a low rumble can sneak in. Transparency mode worked great with hearing the people next to me and the flight attendants announcements. After that hour was up and I was satisfied with them, I gave my QC25’s a test. To my surprise, with NO music playing and ANC turned on for both headphones, the AirPods pro blocked out more noise. As said before, neither blocked out 100% when there was no audio playing, but the AirPods Pro did a better job. With music playing it was about equal for me. The Bose may have had a slight edge but nothing noteworthy for sure. After my test, I continued to use the AirPods pro for the remainder of the flight.
Final thoughts
I would feel comfortable, and probably will, leave my Bose at home next time and just use the AirPods Pro simply because of the portability factor. I know Bose battery last longer, but for a 2 hour flight both will last no issues. Even for a cross country flight (India here) it should be fine. They recharge quick enough in the case.
TL;DR:
Bose QC25 vs AirPods Pro for noise cancellation-it’s a tie (maybe slight edge to Bose…maybe). But I will be leaving the Bose at home because of the size next time. AirPods Pro are more portable, comparable ANC that worked perfectly on a 2 hour flight. And comfortable for a person who has previously never been able to wear in ear headphones. Next flight, AirPods Pro will be with me and Bose will be at home.
Hope this helps! | https://medium.com/@jain.ayush.94/apple-airpods-pro-vs-bose-quietcomfort-25-noise-cancellation-test-on-a-flight-5f34282acea4 | ['Ayush Jain'] | 2020-01-24 13:48:57.848000+00:00 | ['Headphones', 'Qc25', 'Bose', 'Airpods', 'Earphones'] |
Getting started with Kafka and Rust: Part 1 | Producer callback
We are flying blind right now! Unless we explicitly create a consumer to look at our messages, we have no clue whether they are being sent to Kafka. Let’s fix that by implementing a ProducerContext (trait) to hook into the produce event — it’s like a callback.
Start by creating a struct and an empty implementation for the ClientContext trait (this is mandatory).
Now comes the main part where we implement the delivery function in the ProducerContext trait.
We match against the DeliveryResult (which is a Result after all) to account for success ( Ok ) and failure ( Err ) scenarios. All we do is simply log the message in both cases, since this is just an example. You could do pretty much anything you wanted to here (don't go crazy though!)
We’ve ignored DeliveryOpaque which is an associated type of the ProducerContext trait
We need to make sure that we plug in our ProducerContext implementation. We do this by using the create_with_context method (instead of create) and make sure by providing the correct type for BaseProducer as well.
let producer: BaseProducer<ProduceCallbackLogger> = ClientConfig::new().set(....)
...
.create_with_context(ProduceCallbackLogger {})
...
How does the “callback get called”?
Ok, we have the implementation, but we need a way to trigger it! One of the ways is to call flush on the producer. So, we could write our producer as such:
add producer.flush(Duration::from_secs(3)); , and
, and comment the sleep (just for now)
Hold on, we can do better!
The send method is non-blocking (be default) but by calling flush after each send , we have now converted this into a synchronous invocation - not recommended from a performance perspective.
We can improve the situation by using a ThreadedProducer. It takes care of invoking the poll method in a background thread to ensure that the delivery callback notifications are delivered. Doing this is very simple — just change the type from BaseProducer to ThreadedProducer !
# before: BaseProducer<ProduceCallbackLogger>
# after: ThreadedProducer<ProduceCallbackLogger>
Also, we don’t need the call to flush anymore.
...
//producer.flush(Duration::from_secs(3));
//println!("flushed message");
thread::sleep(Duration::from_secs(3));
...
The code is available in src/2_threaded_producer.rs
Run the program again
Rename the file src/2_threaded_producer.rs to main.rs and
to and execute cargo run
Output:
sending message
sending message
produced message with key key-1 in offset 6 of partition 2
produced message with key key-2 in offset 3 of partition 0
sending message
produced message with key key-3 in offset 7 of partition
As expected, you should be able to see the producer event callback, denoting that the messages were indeed sent to the Kafka topic. Of course, you can connect to the topic directly and double-check, just like before:
&KAFKA_HOME/bin/kafka-console-consumer.sh --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --topic rust --from-beginning | https://itnext.io/getting-started-with-kafka-and-rust-part-1-e0074961ec6b | ['Abhishek Gupta'] | 2021-04-14 16:12:42.664000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Kafka', 'Rust'] |
How Machine Learning is Beneficial to the Business in 2020 | Are you thinking to move faster with ML in your Business?
How Machine Learning is Beneficial to the Business in 2020
Here you can easily get a clear idea about where and how machine Learning helps to grow faster in the market.
In simple terms, Machine learning (ML) means the ability of computers to learn without directly programmed. It is the emergence of advanced computing technologies. Machine learning is a kind of AI that allows the machine to learn and think on their own.
Most business people know about AI and ML but they may not know where and how ML is beneficial in their business. Machine learning helps the business to grow advanced across the globe.
Where the ML Used?
In day to day life, we used to interact with Machine learning that we are unaware of it. Machine Learning is the most powerful technology in today’s scenario. It is the most influential technology in all businesses. We live in an era where problems solved through the ML algorithms to develop analytical models with min human interaction or without.
ML has been used in various things from healthcare to self-driving cars. ML used anywhere. In daily life we use ML, but we are unaware that they are driven by ML-like; Social Media Services(Face Recognition), Email Spam and Malware Filtering, Online Customer Support, Traffic Predictions — GPS navigation service.
Without ML it is difficult for companies to survive in the market in the long term. With the help of the ML text analysis, statistical algorithms, time series analysis, etc. easily done in businesses.
Here, I provide you a list of industries where ML applications are used, almost in all types of industries.
Financial Services industry — To predict the future values, Risk analysis and regulations. It helps to analyze the number of future opportunities for investment.
Government industry — Mostly for transparent results, the government has lots of data so by using ML the can easily recognize the useful insight data. It leads to less cost and more efficient work.
Healthcare industry — Ml is fast growing in the healthcare industry. It helps to analyze the health condition of patients and also for better treatments. It helps to recognize the disease, to predict the health risk.
Oil and Gas industry — To predict the operational outcomes and helps to make decisions. To search for new minerals and energy sources in Oil.
Transportation industry — Helps to decrease the chances of accidents and make smooth traffic flow by using different routes.
Marketing and Sales industry — For future predictions and to analyze the promotions.
— For future predictions and to analyze the promotions. Retail industry — To analyze the sale data mostly.
What are the Benefits of Machine Learning in Business?
Most business people know about AI and ML but they may not know where and how ML is beneficial in their business.
Let’s look at some important benefits of ML which is helpful in your business and widely applied.
So here I am going to explain why Machine learning is important for any business.
Fast Analysis Prediction
It helps to predict the values for the right decision. For example, in financial services to predict the value of the investment, Rist, Portfolio management, etc. at the right time. It saves time for businesses to analyze data insights and more accurately.
2. Boost Efficiency
ML is the automates process. Improve work efficiency and more speedily in business with minimum error. It creates an easy workflow in any business that leads to high efficiency in the work. For example, in manufacturing firms, ML helps to reduce the cost and save money and leads to high efficiency in production and Operations for predictive maintenance.
3. Improve Precision
It provides the fact of being exact and accurate data. For better analysis and detecting problems, ML is the only solution in every business. In the financial industry, the precision of financial rules and improve the models.
4. Real-Time Decision Making
With accurate data, Ml used to improve the business decisions timely also to achieve objectives quickly. It leads to further growth in your business with advanced analytical technologies.
5. Deeper Understanding
As a business owner, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the data. Today’s businesses deal with the Big data so for them it is difficult to understand the data and information deeply. ML provides the all required information and data which are hidden behind the huge volume of data.
6. Get a Competitive Advantage
By adopting ML in business you can more focus on your core business and grow faster in the competitive market.
Successful companies of Machine Learning.
A lot of companies can grow in the market by developing and adopting the machine Learning their business. Every company now more focused on innovation and interesting ideas in business because it helps to grow faster in the market than the competitors.
Here you look at some companies which use best Machine Learning in their business;
Facebook –
Facebook is the largest social media platform. People strongly like Facebook’s Messenger service- a chatbot that is generated by Machine Learning algorithms. So now company researching and working on computer vision algorithms that can read the images.
Yelp –
Image Curation at Scale, the weekly recommendations which feed into a collection informed by machine learning which helps business listing of users has viewed and recommendations received in the previous week. To enhances the users’ experience by adopting Machine learning.
Edgecase — Improving Ecommerce Conversion Rates
The online shopping trend is very high and now it is killing the traditional shopping. Edgecase attracts online customers and more closed to the experience of traditional retail that will further help to generate users’ experience in eCommerce retailers.
Conclusion | https://medium.com/devtechtoday/how-machine-learning-is-beneficial-to-the-business-in-2020-9653b8c279a7 | ['Binal Prajapati'] | 2020-02-26 04:07:35.834000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Marketing', 'Business', 'Technology', 'Benefits'] |
10 More Painless Ways to Live Below Your Means | 10 More Painless Ways to Live Below Your Means
Meadow versus Lawn. Photos by Photo by Freddie Ramm from Pexels (l) and Photo by Gibbon FitzGibbon on Unsplash (r)
You can live non-materialistically, richly, and generously by focusing on your core values and modifying your lifestyle to match. In the prequel to this article, I focused on some subjective biggies of living below one’s means, like inhabiting a small house/apartment with a small or nonexistent yard.
Surprisingly, many people responded, expressing similar sensibilities and adding their own $.02. I thought my wife and I were cultural outliers when it turns out we have plenty of company among people who embrace the real world while rejecting the trappings of opulence.
Here are some additional ideas that my wife and I espouse for living below our means. We didn’t fall into this by design or ideology — these ideas and habits emerged organically over the years. We may practice, but we do not preach. Not even our friends or family follow most of these. | https://themakingofamillionaire.com/10-more-painless-ways-to-live-below-your-means-7d714c6287a7 | ['David Asch'] | 2021-09-01 16:02:59.437000+00:00 | ['Frugal Lifestyle', 'Mindfulness', 'Consumerism', 'Health', 'Money'] |
Custom Logo Signs — Key Factors That You Must Consider | Nowadays almost everything under the sun has gone digital, especially with the advent of digital marketing and advertising technology. This revolutionary business strategy has opened up myriads of opportunities for both small and large businesses. However, this doesn’t mean that the old tried and tested marketing elements like signage has gone extinct.
Custom Signs
Some research tells that more than half of small business owners still believe in the capability of custom signs for attracting new customers. They opine that new customers relate to a brand through creative signs that may even have a rippling effect in their minds.
However, they’re also close to highlight that signage or logo must have ingenuity & capability to attract a consumer rather than confusing or outdoing the original idea of the business. Therefore, one must take several factors into account before choosing the same.
Some tips for choosing custom logo signs
Price: it’s always a factor in every purchase but let’s faces it and set up your mind with the budget that you are comfortable to invest.
Light: It’s a great factor and extra light is always attracting new customers to engage with your brand. Poor lighting can ruin even the best outdoor signs. So light should be perfectly and visible to the customers.
Visibility: You should measure the perfect place to sign otherwise it may be unnoticed.
Bigger in Size: when it comes to outdoor sign or logo of a brand size always matters. The large size signs or Custom Logo Signs are always help to read properly.
If you are looking for a way to advertise your business and brand, then custom logo or outdoor sign are one of the most affordable methods of delivering your business. | https://medium.com/@toplinesignco/custom-logo-signs-key-factors-that-you-must-consider-c50dafe2fad0 | ['Topline Signco'] | 2020-02-20 07:03:00.242000+00:00 | ['Business Signs', 'Custom Signs', 'Signs', 'Logo Design', 'Art Design'] |
The Distinction Between Military and Civilian Firearms | It’s a common trope of American political discourse: a politician will emphatically declare his respect for the Second Amendment. He will deny that he’s “coming for your guns.” (After all, he knows that gun-grabbing is unpalatable to many Americans.)
But, in his very next breath, he’ll backpedal a bit — surely, civilians don’t need and ought not possess “military” firearms, those notorious “weapons of war.” And…well, yes, he will come for those guns.
Clearly, the politician believes that there is a real, categorical distinction between military and civilian firearms. Many American voters do, too. Moreover, they think this distinction matters.
There are two problems with that perspective.
In all of American history, there has never been any substantial distinction between military and civilian firearms. Rather, there has always been tremendous overlap of guns used by the military and guns used by civilians. Civilian weapons are routinely adopted by the military and vice-versa. Firearm features and characteristics are neither intrinsically “military” nor “civilian.” Consider the iconic photograph of Malcolm X with his M1 carbine — is that a military firearm or a civilian firearm? Obviously, it’s both, and many of the same characteristics that made the carbine militarily useful also made it useful to civilians. Of course, an artificial distinction can be constructed by legislatively defining certain weapons or particular features/characteristics as “military.” That’s what assault weapons bans and similar laws attempt to do. But such a constructed distinction ought not matter anyway: American civilians have a right to own military arms. Existing and proposed laws to the contrary are blatantly unconstitutional — the Second Amendment isn’t about duck hunting or target shooting.
Please keep both points in mind whenever you hear a politician speak of this distinction as if it’s real or meaningful. At best, it’s ignorant. At worst, it’s deliberate obfuscation or deception for the sake of political gain. | https://medium.com/@marklivesthings/the-distinction-between-military-and-civilian-firearms-53087f2c606a | ['Mark Houser'] | 2020-11-20 01:28:49.116000+00:00 | ['Policy', 'Civil Rights', 'Politics', 'Gun Control', 'Guns'] |
Christmas Rugs 2019 Sale that you’ll love | Christmas is the Season to be merry and there is festivity all around. It is the most wonderful time of the year when all friends and family get together and cherish moments while making new memories. It is at this time, when guests are expected at home and dinners are prepared. However, before all the arrangements are made, it is important to plan out everything. From decorating your home to cooking scrumptious meals, one should have it all covered before the big day. Before we begin with other things, lets discuss the best ways to decorate your home this Christmas 2019 using fine handmade rugs and other decorating items.
Christmas Rugs and Carpets Sale 2019: Decorating a home can be cumbersome. However, it doesn’t really seem like a burden when one enjoys decorating and there are great rug offers and carpet sales to grab on. One such platform that we highly recommend is Rugs and Beyond. They are a pioneer in handmade rugs and carpets and have an excellent collection of fine kashmir silk rugs and also modern rugs in contemporary designs which are perfect to accentuate your space this festive Season.
Rugs and Beyond also has an on-going Christmas Sale where you can easily choose a fine handmade rug of your choice and apply coupon code RNBXMAS19 for upto 50% off. Moreover, they are also offering 1 free rug with any order along with free shipping worldwide, which is incredible since rugs are bulky items and it does cost a lot to ship anywhere in the world. Their venerable list of clients from around the world are primarily through word of mouth or via satisfied customers who appreciate exclusive carpets and excellent customer service offered by Rugs and Beyond.
Apart from using fine, handmade rugs and carpets, other pointers to use this Christmas Season are:
Tidy up your Space
Tidying up your space simply means de-cluttering your home and removing all unwanted things. For example, wrap up the clothes, shoes etc. that you are not currently using. Make space for other items and remember, less is more.
2. Accessorize all things Christmas
Apart from using a traditional Christmas Tree, hang stockings, prepare the dinner table as per Christmas traditions and play Christmas carols. The season is to be merry and bright. Rugs and Beyond also undertakes custom order rugs, for example you can get a Christmas spirit rug made and have it all ready for the big day and use it in your living room or bedroom.
3. Cook Scrumptious Meals
If cooking is too much of a hassle for you, one can always order food or simply get catering done. Many people enjoy cooking Christmas meals during this season and put on their best chef hats.
Hence, follow the above mentioned decorating ideas and get into that Christmas spirit to enjoy and cherish the moments while making more memories. After all, its the season and reason to be merry and cheerful. | https://medium.com/@interiordesignmaven/christmas-rugs-2019-sale-that-youll-love-9c0ccb4f20ab | ['Interior Design Maven'] | 2020-04-08 16:44:47.948000+00:00 | ['Christmas Rugs Sale 2019', 'Carpets', 'Christmas', 'Christmas Gifts', 'Rugs'] |
Dreams of Young Digital Marketer by Martina Motwani : Basic Concepts of Digital Marketing Ebook on Kindle | Dreams of Young Digital Marketer by Martina Motwani : Basic Concepts of Digital Marketing Ebook on Kindle Martinamotwanidigitalworld Dec 11, 2020·3 min read
Finally , the wait is over. The E-book is now available for reading on Amazon . It is currently available in 13 countries. We had an amazing experience writing this book and are super excited to announce it’s launch.
The interactive and engaging content explains all major concepts of Digital Marketing in a very interesting manner which will draw your attention till the end of the e-book. It is a wholesome book with detailed information on important topics such as Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Management, Content Marketing, E- Mail Marketing and everything else you need to know to start or grow yourself in Digital Marketing industry.
The e-book shares insights on insider tips and best practices used in the industry. This informative book delivers viable and practical methods with easy to understand language. This e-book will answer all your questions. You will find everything from basic knowledge for students to building strategies for businesses.
Students can benefit by having an overview of what Digital Marketing is all about. This will help them build a strong foundation for their career in the industry. It is also very helpful for businesses planning to expand and improve their digital presence.
Digital Marketing is the future. It is the need of the hour. Almost everything is going digital from education, businesses to customers. People, now have begun to realize the power of internet. The advantages of going digital are immense. Businesses have seen real growth in sales by improving their digital presence. This has led to the enormous amount of growth of the digital marketing industry.
According to research, Google gets more than 77,000 searches every second. These statistics are proof of the future growth of the industry. The growth benefits are eventually passed on to everyone.
The statistics provides us the motivation to learn digital marketing. In today’s era, everything in business is dependent on digital marketing. From designing the company’s marketing strategies, sales, customer relationship to creating brand awareness. This also opens up huge opportunities for people wanting to build a career in digital marketing. Statistics reveal that digital marketing industry is expected to create more than 20 Lakh jobs as the internet will be the new medium of doing business in future.
This e-book will prepare you for your future in Digital Marketing.
The author has been in the digital marketing business for over a decade and shares deep understanding on all the concepts. This e-book is, therefore, the squeeze of all the expertise gained over the years by helping many companies and businesses to achieve their goals.
Hope you will love the book as much as we loved writing it.
Get ready for some real enriching experience.
Grab your e-book copy now by using your country’s links given below:
India- https://www.amazon.in/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
Australia- https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
Mexico- https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
Canada- https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
Brazil- https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
Japan- https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
Nl -https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
Italy — https://www.amazon.it/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
Fr- https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
USA- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
ES — https://www.amazon.es/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
Germany De- https://www.amazon.de/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS
UK- https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08Q3XJ5YS | https://medium.com/@martinamotwanidigitalworld/dreams-of-young-digital-marketer-by-martina-motwani-basic-concepts-of-digital-marketing-ebook-on-4881458136e2 | [] | 2020-12-11 15:55:19.174000+00:00 | ['eBook', 'Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency', 'Digital Marketing Basics'] |
How to Live a Simpler Life Today: 7 Things You Can Do to See Immediate Results | I wrote this because it is much needed during these interesting times.
We are dealing with a virus that’s affecting the entire globe. We see media outlets’ constant onslaught of fear-mongering tactics that have been giving rise to conspiracy theories and have overwhelmingly created separation and distrust in many arenas.
We are a nation that is divided and each side is absolutely sure they are right.
While the world feels smaller because almost everything is real-time, it also does seem a bit more chaotic.
Peace and joy are within everyone’s reach, but the onus is on us to do the work and the path is a solo journey.
Below are a few tactics that have helped me turn down the noise of negativity and division:
1. See the bigger picture
It’s easy to get caught in our little fragmented life. Our lives can sometimes skew our vision and inhibit us from seeing the broader world we live in. Our problems are important and we must deal with them, but what has given me a little peace while dealing with personal issues is that we are temporary time travelers, spinning on a giant rock, and floating in the vast universe.
I might come across as a bit grandiose with a touch of tie-dye hippiedom, but seeing the bigger picture can bring a sense of peace.
In our world, there are loved ones dying, new babies taking their first steps, people making positive change, and others committing crimes that they’ll probably regret once their consciousness catches up to them.
Sometimes it helps to take a step back and find gratitude in the fact that you are one of the 7.5 billion people on this planet trying to find a little piece of joy and comfort.
Many people probably have similar problems and I’ll go as far as saying the same problems, and even worse problems. Understanding that everyone has to deal with some shit sometimes, can make our shit a bit more bearable.
Advice — Take each day as it comes. Welcome it. The good, bad, and the ugly. They are all important in the sculpting of our soul.
2. Unfollow Facebook “friends”
I started the exercise of unfollowing friends and family this week. I don’t necessarily have the desire to unfriend anyone, but at the same time I only really care to keep in contact with a small group of people. That circle is getting smaller as I get older.
I just wanted to cut the noise if you feel me.
I was finding it tedious to scroll through my feed and see the lives of people that I will probably never see again.
Of the 1000+ “friends,” I only consider a handful to be meaningful relationships. This digital cleanup helps me remove the clutter. If you are my friend, you may find that I am part of your clutter, and you may want to unfollow me.
Not that it matters, but no offense taken.
Advice — Life is about learning as much as it is about unlearning
3. Live with more urgency
Life is shorter than we think.
Let’s break out a typical 24-hour day.
8 hours of sleeping
8 hours of working
8 hours of free time
The average person dies at about 73 years of age, but for the sake of this section, let’s assume that we are all at our optimum health and will live until 90.
If we break out our life in thirds or 30-year increments, then our lives are broken down into the following segments
30 years of sleeping
30 years of work
30 years of free time
When you divide the 30 years of free time into even smaller increments, you realize it’s not really free. Our 30 years are dedicated to our spouses, family, friends, and hobbies. It can look something like this:
10 years with extended family/friends
10 years to be the best version of you (hobbies, creative pursuits)
10 years with spouse/children
What I am trying to convey is that we don’t have that much time to pursue our dreams, to forgive others, to try to be better, and to love more. We must give our lives urgency. Seize the day.
Advice — We die a little every day. Go after what you love, and love those you cherish with conviction.
4. Make peace with broken relationships
Unfortunately, time is the only allowed prerequisite to usher in wisdom. Even wisdom is something rarely attained and probably even less so in our fast-paced world where instant gratification is paramount.
I had strong ties with members of my immediate family, but things changed.
The reasons are not nearly as important as the underlying deeper meaning and that is that all relationships are temporary.
Sometimes what hurts and is usually responsible for our pain is the wanting of the memory of yesterday to be today.
We have to enjoy the good times when we are in them and find solace that yesterday could never be tomorrow.
Everyone that you will meet, will go away.
Some stay for a little longer, others a little shorter, but all will teach you something deep and beautiful about yourself that you never knew existed.
Find gratitude and love in the fact that you would not be who you are today without all the people that have graced your life.
Advice — Everyone stops at our train station of life. Some stay for a while. But eventually, everyone has to go on. It’s the most beautiful tragic mystery of life. Forgive as much as you can because tomorrow never comes.
5. You are not as important as you think you are
Most people don’t care about your life. I hope this isn’t a shock. If it is, I hope the reality check hits you hard.
You mean a lot to those in your close circles, but other than that, most of the world will continue drinking lattes and tik-toking their lives away if anything tragic were to happen to you.
I might sound like I am crossing the line of nihilism, but it’s quite the opposite.
Knowing that I am not that important has helped me embrace fear and uncertainty.
It’s helped cultivate love because what I think about myself is way more important than what others think of me.
My character is more authentic. I give less fucks about what others think because I have a limited amount of fucks to give.
The people that value me love me because of who I am.
It’s brought out the childlike innocence that renders, “it doesn’t matter, so go for it,” (as long as I don’t hurt anyone in the process).
Advice — When we are in our youth we have an innocence that sees the world as new and with possibility. We care less about what others think. Try to be in that space more and do you.
6. Spend 5 minutes meditating on gratitude
There are lots of schools of thought on how to meditate, and while many of these different techniques are valid, a simple 5-minute meditation of gratitude is pretty powerful for the novice or seasoned meditator.
When was the last time you were grateful for what you have?
I’ve made it a point to start my mornings and end my evenings with gratitude.
However, you want to start your gratitude meditation is up to you.
For me, it’s a silent meditation where I list out everything I am thankful for in my mind.
Towards the end of the meditation, I start sending good thoughts and love to all those near and dear to my heart, and then the good thoughts and love spread to those that I haven’t talked to in some time, and eventually, my good thoughts and love cover the world.
This small but powerful exercise has the ability to change your frame of mind into a powerfully positive and peaceful one, and with the current times, we can all use more good.
Advice — Gratitude is one of the most important prayers anyone can perform. It’s simply thanking life for what’s in front of you.
7. Listen without judgment
I used to think it was my responsibility as a friend, brother, son, husband, and trusted advisor to give advice and console those that come to me for guidance, but I was wrong.
Sometimes people just need to be heard.
If you have the patience and mental capacity, listening to another is healing them from their mental wounds.
Giving others a trusted space where you can listen without judgment is one of the best ways to contribute to the healing of a loved one.
Advice — With the current times, we all need each other. If you are reading this, and you need a friend, I got you.
With Love,
Anand Swamy
Blogger/Writer @ findingswamy.com | https://medium.com/findingswamy/how-to-live-a-simpler-life-today-7-things-you-can-do-to-see-immediate-results-d1807512be60 | ['Anand Swamy'] | 2020-12-04 20:44:28.899000+00:00 | ['Personal Growth', 'Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Personal Development', 'Self Development'] |
Coronavirus: Yes, Culture Matters | Living in Taiwan since mid-January has made me suspect that cultural factors may be as significant in this Coronavirus fight as policy factors are.
When I first arrived in Taiwan mid-January there were 0 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan, and yet health checks had been set up at the airport and people were already wearing masks in public. Honestly, I thought the level of caution that the Taiwanese were displaying against Coronavirus was an extreme overreaction. Soon, restaurants began checking temperatures before allowing guests to be seated, and almost every public building had hand sanitizer stations at every entrance. Ridiculous, I thought, when my own chance of getting infected was next to nothing.
But I think the data has shown that my way of thinking was wrong and their way of thinking was right. The rate of growth in Western countries continues to grow almost perfectly exponentially (meaning that efforts to contain the virus have yet to make an impact), while many Asian countries with much closer proximity to China have been much more successful at containment, or mitigation when initial containment efforts failed.
My observation is that this is due to both public health policy choices, but also cultural mindsets within the populations. I scoffed initially at the Taiwanese individuals who were taking such precautions against the virus, judging them for being overly fearful and paranoid. Meanwhile, many Western expats and tourists in my new home in Vietnam have been complaining incessantly on Facebook about measures Vietnamese officials are taking to prevent a Coronavirus outbreak in Da Nang, including the enforcement of public mask-wearing.
Two months ago, the enlightened American in me bristled at the idea of wearing a mask in public because I had read that the masks were ineffective at preventing me from getting infected, so I ignored the repeated requests of my wife’s family. But I have come to see that it’s not just fear of individual harm that drives mask-wearing and other kinds of caution, but a concern for the collective well-being of society that motivates these actions. This is something that my Western mindset was slow to recognize. I always saw mask-wearing in Asia as an expression of fear of individual infection. I now see it as a way of protecting those around me, especially the vulnerable. This is especially significant because Coronavirus is capable of asymptomatic transmission and transmission from individuals who don’t know they have the virus.
Wearing a mask doesn’t just protect me from others, it protects others from me.
This thing spreads so quickly that even a delay of 3–4 days can be the difference between 1000 cases and 10,000 cases, which is why I’m glad the governor of my home state of California issued a statewide stay-at-home mandate, even though the numbers aren’t at Italy levels yet. My time in Asia has convinced me that preventative action is the far better course of action, even if it feels unnecessary or paranoid at the time. This isn’t an individual health crisis, it’s a public health crisis. Let’s each do our part. | https://medium.com/@stevenchoi.86/coronavirus-yes-culture-matters-f9ead3243a6e | ['Steven Choi'] | 2020-03-23 09:49:39.687000+00:00 | ['Taiwan', 'Culture', 'Coronavirus', 'Masks'] |
Bitcoin Halving & the Step to Maturation | It’s about a week to the long-expected Bitcoin halving.
You can easily find a counting down page by visiting the website of any exchange, online magazine or data aggregator. Yes — everybody is waiting for it.
Source: Bitcoin Block Half
It’s an event that brings both predictability and uncertainty.
What is Predictable?
Bitcoin was designed as a deflationary currency with a 21 million fixed supply, like gold. Over time, the issuance of bitcoins will decrease and thus become scarcer.
When it was first created, 50 Bitcoins per block were given as a reward to the miners. After every 210,000 blocks are mined (approximately every 4 years), the block reward halves and will keep on halving until the block reward per block becomes 0 (approximately by year 2140).
At about 06:18 UTC on May 12, 2020 (as of writing), the block rewards of Bitcoin will drop from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.
What is Uncertain?
As is shown in this chart, we can note a significant price jump after each halving.
But will this time turn out to be a different story when both the stock market and the crypto market are much more volatile than usual due to the global COVID-19 pandemic?
The past few months saw a big shakeout in the crypto market due to the coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath. On March 12, the Bitcoin price dumped 40% touching $3,800 within the day, marking a Black Thursday of the year.
The stock market went through a severe crash too. The US stock market triggered the “circuit breaker” four times within 10 days.
Just recently, the Bitcoin price soared above $9,000 and has now retraced to $8,864 at the time of writing, according to the statistics on CoinMarketCap.
Nobody knows for sure how things will be when the halving happens. Will the Bitcoin price be even more volatile or will it stabilize?
2020 Bitcoin Maturity Test
According to the Bloomberg Crypto Outlook (April 2020 Edition), the increasing futures open interest, declining volatility and relative outperformance despite the stock-market shakeout this year indicates Bitcoin is maturing from a speculative crypto asset toward a digital version of gold.
Increasing futures open interest
Source: skew
The number of Bitcoin futures contracts outstanding listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has recovered significantly from the March lows, indicating a resurgence in institutions that want to buy the cryptocurrency. The high volume also represents taming of the highly speculative bull market.
Declining Volatility
Source: Bloomberg
This graphic shows that the correlation between Bitcoin and gold has jumped to the highest since 2010, twice that of equities, suggesting that Bitcoin is now divorcing equities and joining gold.
Bitcoin Outperformed Stock Market
Apart from that, Bitcoin is becoming less of a risk-on asset. In the first quarter of 2020, Bitcoin remained up about 9% when the S&P 500 showed a correction of 20%.
To Sum Up
2020 marks a key test for Bitcoin’s transition from speculative asset to the crypto market’s version of gold. We believe that the first-born crypto will pass the test to move towards a mature gold-like asset.
At Leverj, we are working actively on the decentralized derivatives market including Bitcoin perpetuals which is expected to be launched in a couple of months.
Visit live.leverj.io to enjoy our zero-fee trading for a limited period of time as of now. Follow us on Twitter or join our Telegram group to stay tuned for our updates.
Please keep in mind
US Persons are not allowed to trade on Leverj. Users from sanctioned countries or Specially Designated National (SDN) as per OFAC are also not allowed to use the system.
Before you trade, please make sure you are legally permitted to trade cryptocurrencies, derivatives, and any other instruments offered on this platform from your home jurisdiction.
Nothing in this article constitutes an offer, solicitation, or investment advise. | https://medium.com/coinmonks/bitcoin-halving-the-step-to-maturation-1cbf2aa3c64b | ['Xiaoqing Liu'] | 2020-08-21 16:52:10.949000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Bitcoin Mining', 'Bitcoin Halving'] |
Benefits of jumping rope | I have tested running, cycling, and HITT. I love Crossfit, so I do work out using freeletics app (now 50% cheaper due to Black Friday)! But the older I get the harder it is not to pull a muscle or get any other small injury even though I do a warm-up before exercising. So I got myself a rope as I do want to try jumping rope and to eat more microgreens in the coming months.
Is jumping rope good for you?
Jumping rope is a fantastic fitness improvement exercise.It has plenty of benefits from weight loss, heart rate boost, lung capacity improvements, bones density strengthening to endurance increase. Top athletes jump a rope to stay fit and toned.
Did you know –> that jumping a rope just for 10 minutes = 30 mins run?
How many calories do you burn jumping rope ?
It depends on your weight and rope jumping intensity.
Skipping rope might burn more than 10 calories a minute for an average-sized person.
‘Most people burn 140–190 calories for every 1,000 skips of a jump rope jumping at a moderate pace.’ Most people will also burn 315–580 calories in 30 minutes of jump rope. Captaincalculator
Visit the above quoted site to get tailored to your weight numbers.
“It burns more calories than any steady-state cardio — from rowing or jogging to cycling and swimming,” Jillian Michaels, celebrity trainer& creator of The Jillian Michaels Fitness App.
How to prevent shin splints after rope jumping start?
Shin splints is a common symptom showing up when you start jumping or running. They pass by as strength and endurance develop further. Do your warm up (improve the blood flow in your legs and feet) before rope jumping to minimise the discomfort of shin splints. As with any exercise you start, plan the workouts every other day to have some recovery time in between. Try different surfaces ( I prefer non asphalt ones). Furthermore the soft surface used at the playground or mats will prevent your joints from injuries.
How to avoid tripping when rope jumping?
Ensure your elbows are close to your body to prevent tripping. The rope gets shorter the wider you keep your elbows. Most ropes are adjustable so ensure you get the length suitable for you. For checking the rope length stand on the center of the rope with both feet. Hold the rope tight against your body.The end of the rope, not the handles, should come up to your armpit. When trimming remember the rope can always be shortened but extended..
Is rope good HIIT replacement?
Rope jumping is perfect to replace your HIIT routine or enhance it. The key is to do high intensity interval training with resting one after the other the same way when you do non rope HIIT.
Example of jump rope HIIT workout could look like this:
20 sec jumping - 10 sec rest & 20 sec jumping - repeat 10 x or 30 sec jumping - 60 secrest & 30 sec jumping - repeat 10 x
Once ready you can also mix rope jumping with jumping jacks, burpees, mountain climbers, and push-ups or planks.
I will try to come up with a workout I like and will share with you soon.
Does jumping rope build muscle?
30 minutes of rope jumping help build strengths and tone muscles. Depending on intensity it is either a warm-up or regular exercise and does wonder for your arms and legs.
Rope jumping works on
the gastrocnemius,
quadriceps
hamstrings,
glutes,
abdominals,
forearms,
and deltoids
Benefits of jumping rope
It activates the cardiovascular system Burns fat quickly It lowers insulin resistance Helps fight cellulite as you move the problematic parts like the bottom & thighs Helps make you smarter*
*according to the Jump Rope Institute, jump rope helps with the development of both hemispheres of your brain, which enhances spatial perception, improves reading ability, enhances memory and makes you more mentally alert)
Weighted jump rope benefits
As seen on the image above weighted rope engages different muscle sets so the more resistance(weight) the more muscles work when you do weighted rope jumps. Surprisingly jumping may be easier when starting with weighted rope, especially if you’re not naturally co-ordinated.
How long to jump rope?
It depends on your goals and stamina. When you start, go slowly and gradually increase the reps and length of the training.
Start by jumping for 30 seconds, rest for 15 seconds. Rinse and repeat 5 times. Take a full 60 seconds off. Do this 3 -5 times. This could be a perfect 20 minute mini-workout.
Is jump rope a good cardio?
Yes, it is, jumping helps to distribute blood across your whole body so it’s perfect for people with poor blood circulation. Jumping rope helps to raise your heart rate two to three times faster than any other exercise. It also offers the same aerobic toning benefits as running but with much less impact on your joints.
Good rope for beginners
I started jumping on this very basic rope (US, UK) . I love this jump rope as it has a timer & a counter built-in.
It allows me to jump for a fixed length of time without having to check my phone or count!
I jump for two minutes every set and stop when I hear the beep as it indicates the set time is up. I rest briefly and repeat
I am obsessed with counting any reps but because this rope has a built-in counter I don’t have to stress about that which is pretty cool as I can focus on exercising. Ah it also has a burnt calorie counter so its pretty awesome too.
It’s an amazing little rope which is absolutely amazing, I did go for it deliberately as I didn’t want any rope connected to an app. My phone memory is already exhausted with the apps I have so no space for more. Furthermore, I use Bluetooth to connect my fitness tracker to my phone so don’t want to switch between devices for data update. Finally, when I exercise it’s a bonus if I can stay off-screen so that simplicity & off-screen build in the rope handle functionality won! Highly recommended. Ensure you check CamelCamelCamel or Camelizer to check its historical prices and ideally get it when the price is not inflated or maybe check it around Black Friday week hoping for some deal | https://medium.com/@myhealthyaddictions/benefits-of-jumping-rope-92bb850c5601 | ['Martyna Sroka'] | 2020-11-23 11:28:26.773000+00:00 | ['Workout', 'Rope', 'Exercise', 'Fitness', 'Rope Jumping'] |
Hi, I’m Lauren. | Hi, I’m Lauren. You are probably wondering who I am or why I’m here. I am sixteen years old and currently a junior in high school. My passions include playing volleyball, singing, painting, and hanging out with the people I love. I have always kept diaries ever since I was a young girl, documenting every single up and down throughout my life. Why not start writing on medium like it is my diary? I have learned so much about myself in the past years and would love to look back in ten years to see how much I have grown. I can’t wait to share fun stories or maybe just random things I am thinking about on here. I am so glad to have found a perfect outlet to write about my life journey. 😋 | https://medium.com/@lauren.briggs/hi-im-lauren-eaafcda0a333 | ['Lauren Briggs'] | 2020-12-18 03:10:49.313000+00:00 | ['First Post', 'Introduction', 'Get To Know Me', 'About Me'] |
Christmas Crisis! | First and foremost, I must make it abundantly clear that there are a million ways to open a present, just like there are a million ways to solve this project. If you come up with a better / more efficient way to solve these steps (especially the GeoPandas section) please leave a comment below to help out your fellow scientists!
With that out of the way, let’s dive in!
You can view the entire GITHUB REPO with code
Step 1: This step is pretty straight forward, access the ReadMe file and you will find Santa’s coordinates
Photo by Author
Step 2: You will find the list of Starbucks addresses in the file labeled ‘Santas Starbucks List’. In order to check the data, simply read it into Pandas and check for Nan or Null values. If any rows have Nan or Null, you can decide to drop them or keep them after looking over them.
Step 3: For step 3, there are quite a few ways to go about it. You can just read the data from the zipped file, you can extract the data and read in the shapefile, or you can use the parquet file and convert it as needed. I chose to use the parquet because it read in and processed much quicker than just the shapefile.
Photo by Author
Step 4: You will need to get an API key from Placekey.io (don’t worry it is free and possibly one of the most useful tools you will invest in learning). Once you have your key, you can plug your address in to assign a Placekey to each address that will allow you to merge to other datasets without having to worry about correcting for things like Street, St, st, street, str, etc. You will want to get a Placekey for both your Starbucks data and SafeGraph POI data to then merge on Placekey. This will allow you to get the Lat, Lng of each Starbucks.
Photo by Author
Step 5: This step will probably be the most challenging for most users. You will need to convert your newly created POI merge file to a shapefile in order to check for Lat, Lng within the polygons of the Ookla dataset. You can find the full code HERE. Once you have the master Dataframe with Starbucks addresses and their respective Upload and Download speeds, you can choose the one with the fastest Upload speed for Santa to go to
Photo by Author
Step 6: Comment below with your optimal Starbucks location for Santa to go to
Photo by Author
Step 7 (BONUS): For this one, you will need to go into the bonus folder and find the patterns file that will give you all of NYC’s foot-traffic data for the past week — courtesy of SafeGraph. Merge the data to your master DF on SafeGraph Place ID to find the lowest foot-traffic that still meets your requirement for over 80mbps download speed. | https://towardsdatascience.com/christmas-crisis-63dadd7e9dc2 | ['Jack Lindsay'] | 2020-12-22 23:12:09.694000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'GIS', 'Pandas', 'Data Science', 'Projects'] |
Escape the Rat Race Radio EP008: Digital Marketing Expert Brad Hart Discusses The Foundations Of Online Success | Listen & Download this #ETRR episode: https://www.etrr.online/bradhartpodcast
Would you like to transfer your unique knowledge into an online course that serves and teaches people all around the world, allowing you to generate an income 24/7 whilst you sleep? Brad Hart has the answer in today’s show!
Brad Hard [ Market Your Course]
On this week’s episode, Christian Rodwell invites online business expert and Founder of Market Your Course, Brad Hart, to share his story.
During the conversation, Brad reveals the processes that all successful business people follow in order to leverage what they already know to reach more people online.
Brad’s number one value add has always been learning how to serve people, and realising that the better you serve, the more you get paid. By applying this philosophy to the online world, Brad has managed to build highly successful businesses for himself, and his business partner Miguel Hernandez who is one of the best-selling course instructors on the online learning platform Udemy.
As with any entrepreneur’s journey, the road is seldom a straight line, and you’ll hear some truly inspirational stories which Brad shares along the way, including hanging out with some of the biggest names in the personal development & business world.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN:
That all successful online businesses still revolve around people, and why when you are launching a new business you must focus on getting good at serving one person first, before you think about leveraging your business to reach more people online
Why so many people get caught up in the daily grind and settle for a life that is just good, rather than pushing themselves to achieve a life that is truly great
How childhood challenges led to Brad hanging out in Malibu with New York Times Bestselling Author of ‘The Game’, Neil Strauss.
Why you shouldn’t have a fear about failure, and why not every one thing needs to work out in order for you to have an exceptional life
The chance meeting between Brad and his business partner, Miguel Hernandez, top selling course instructor on Udemy
Why authenticity & bespoke solution is key to standing out from the crowd online
GUEST DETAILS
Market Your Course — Website
Make More Marbles — Website
Twitter
LINKS & RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Wealth Dynamics — Which Entrepreneur Profile Are you?
Evernote
Make More Marbles
Listen & Download this #ETRR episode: https://www.etrr.online/bradhartpodcast | https://medium.com/@escaperatraceuk/escape-the-rat-race-radio-ep008-digital-marketing-expert-brad-hart-discusses-the-foundations-of-d39b3d93e58b | ['Escape The Rat Race'] | 2019-05-17 10:36:00.813000+00:00 | ['Digital Nomads', 'Online Marketing', 'Brad Hart', 'Online', 'Digital Marketing'] |
言葉 — Words. The word is something complex that’s… | Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash
Word (言葉 /kotoba/) is something complex that’s made or intended to understand someone for something. Words can take many forms. It can be in the form of a noun, adjective, verb, adverb, or anything else. Words when coupled with siblings can change into a sentence. The sentences that are arranged can be understood and digested by the mind. We can do an experiment in terms of composing words.
We can also determine a person’s character by looking at the behavior and the words that come out of his mouth, even though this technique is not totally absolute. We can influence someone by using words. Because sometimes, the word can contain a meaning that cannot be reflected in the life of the world.
Words are quite urgent & have a quite crucial role in terms of media. The choice of words or what we call “diction” is can be customized or adjusted according to and according to the creator’s heart. However, if the word is misused (especially in media publications), the whole world feels the same negative impact.
The word also is very important in the digital world. It because most & most computers, be it server computers, or computers that we currently hold in our hands. The word is often used as a syntax/command as an instruction to execute a command. Besides that, it is also used as an identity to represent a group of other codes.
The word itself consists of 4 letters, which actually have a deep and memorable meaning. We can all interpret it however we want. Some serve as “keywords”, by which it can remind a person of both good and bad memories of his life. Whether it’s when he gets hundreds of pieces of precious metal, when he becomes king or queen on his wedding day, or when he loses someone who means something in his life.
Sometimes words seem to have no meaning that sticks in the chest. It was as if nonsense was brought up to just say the word. I don’t really mean it, but sometimes I may get worried because I’m worried that those words will become less valuable, even a source of disaster.
The word is not something abstract, but that does not mean it cannot be sensed. The resulting impact also varies according to the level/index of one’s understanding of it. But I’ve never been afraid of a word. A word contains happiness, serenity. As if the world was nothing. Everything I want is there.
Yes, you are right. It is heaven, a place of death for His servants who believe, provided by Allah Azza Wa Jalla. Hopefully, we can gather together again there. See you … | https://medium.com/@nooradn/%E8%A8%80%E8%91%89-words-18aaacfd0e23 | ['Noor Adn'] | 2020-12-14 03:59:32.108000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Words', 'Philosophy', 'Goals', 'Japanese'] |
Super Affiliates Generating Big Commissions With Online Casino Affiliate Programs | Super Affiliates Generating Big Commissions With Online Casino Affiliate Programs
Club have consistently been related with style and allure, big name and fervor. It has for quite some time been a pursuit for the rich and celebrated, the hot shots marking huge fortunes against the gambling club. They have likewise regularly been utilized to prop up hailing networks everywhere on the world, because of the enormous incomes produced and the organizations and business that is created by their sheer presence. Yet at this point in the 21st century, the club have had a huge electronic facelift. The Internet has been utilized as a gathering for a wide range of makeovers and facelifts. Due to its huge size and overall crowd, the Internet has become a jungle gym for new and old plans to be reproduced. Online sell-offs have gotten gigantic, as has the internet business industry, however few can match the tremendous monetary and market gains created by the online club. Whatever amount of like their genuine partners, the online form of the club has rushed to help other people benefit from their prosperity.
Get free program http://bit.ly/2KQOsjV
The most noticeable auxiliary business originating from the online club industry is that of associate promoting. The partner market is enormously essential to organizations of all size in view of the require to contact an immense crowd. Associates permit gambling clubs to contact immense crowds from around the globe, the more members that a site can use the more prominent their perceivability becomes. From the gambling clubs perspective this showcasing resource is made all the better by the way that they don’t need to pay a penny in advance for the joy of this publicizing space. Their image can be spread all through the biggest commercial center on the planet and it is free. In contrast to the somewhat more costly quest for publicizing on bulletins, magazines or supporting occasions, there is no straightforward installment important. This is on the grounds that the partner program chips away at a prize premise; the member supplies the clients the gambling clubs supply the prizes.
Anyway this arrangement of promoting doesn’t just work in the kindness of the colossal club. The offshoots are sufficiently compensated as far as it matters for them in the business condition, with club offering anyplace up to 35% for the advantage. Dissimilar to in other subsidiary projects, a large portion of the gambling clubs will offer the level of a player’s income for their whole lifetime, instead of basically for an irregular exchange or several months. Accordingly the program works adroitly at giving the two players what they require. The associates bring in their cash by providing clients, while the club benefit from the new custom and all the potential pay that brings. The onus is put soundly on each partner to draw in the same number of individuals as is conceivable, to create more income for themselves. In any case, thus this likewise favors the gambling clubs, which makes the subsidiary program quite possibly the most beneficial and promoting frameworks around.
Get free program http://bit.ly/2KQOsjV | https://medium.com/@dipakuikey175/super-affiliates-generating-big-commissions-with-online-casino-affiliate-programs-721893fa3d9a | [] | 2020-12-24 17:27:08.929000+00:00 | ['Affiliate', 'Affiliate Marketing'] |
I Found a Magical Treehouse in the Brazilian Jungle! | Araras Treehouse @ Mariri Jungle Lodge in Brazil
I have always dreamed of living in a treehouse. So this past Thanksgiving, while sitting in my apartment in Brasilia, I did a little googling and stumbled on Araras, a 26 meter high treehouse situated in the Brazilian jungles of the Chapada dos Veadeiros Park.
So I rented the last available automatic car in the city — which happened to be an elite full-sized SUV — and set off on a 4 hour road trip through the Brazilian countryside in a far too large vehicle, far too late in the day. To reach my destination in the jungle, I navigated for miles in the darkness over bumpy dirt roads where there was no cell reception and over little bridges with no guardrails, where Google maps at a certain point wanted me to drive into a tree 😂.
I had made the whole journey with the simple goal of being able to one day just wake up on a tree branch. I never really thought about why I wanted that — I just knew that I did, so I decided to make it happen. I also never put much thought into what the treehouse itself would look like, other than it being a wooden box-shaped structure of some sort. So this place, with its beautifully decorated walls and glass windows that opened out to a balcony overlooking the entire Chapada, took me by surprise. While gazing out at the incredible view of endless jungle terrain and mountains, I had an odd feeling, like I found something I didn’t realize was missing.
Here, surrounded by only the sounds of birds and buzzing insects and green palm trees (and no WiFi connection), I wanted nothing more than to pick up a pencil and write or draw something. Or just do absolutely nothing and simply stare off into the distance and think. Here, in this place with nothing but trees and clouds and colorful throw pillows to keep me company, I felt inspired to be more reflective and creative. And it was this feeling that I realized I had missed.
In the concrete jungle where I usually live, I spend most of my time endlessly consuming content — but never thinking too deeply about anything, or using my imagination to create something of my own. It takes far less energy and originality to consume someone else’s thoughts and ideas than it does to formulate and express my own; and it’s certainly much easier to judge other people’s words than it is to put my own out into the world. Anyone can read a book, but very few will ever sit down to write one.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that a jar of pens & a notebook had been placed neatly on a small decorative shelf in one corner of the treehouse. Clearly, the creator of this space knew I might having this feeling here!
All the food is vegetarian here!
Assuming I can keep up this creativity streak, follow me (Lakshmi Parthasarathy) for more content like this! And please comment with any thoughts or criticism :) | https://medium.com/@lunchmeat/i-found-a-magical-tree-house-in-the-brazilian-jungle-a1428c583c51 | ['Lakshmi Parthasarathy'] | 2020-12-01 06:28:45.202000+00:00 | ['Jungle', 'Adventure', 'Creativity', 'Travel', 'Trees'] |
6 Ways to earn passive income with cryptocurrency | 6 Ways to earn passive income with cryptocurrency
“If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” — — — Warren Buffett
There are ways in traditional capital markets to earn passive incomes. For a new asset market like cryptocurrency, the path of earning profit is still not notable by the public. It is more than doing day-trade in the market or investing in ICO. Mastering the art of earning passive income with cryptocurrency is a complex lesson. Here are six ways to do it
JUST HODL!
“HODL” is the most famous term to use in the crypto world and it is the most easiest way to invest in crypto. If you are a bad trader and you have no time to manage your crypto portfolio. “HODL” will be a good fit for you. Bitcoin and other altcoins are well known as their volatility nature. They can be 10x or even 1000x in return. The preference of earning such a huge reward is patience and not everyone can HOLD ON for DEAR LIFE.
Crypto Mining
Mining is the core mechanism to maintain the system in cryptocurrency. The proof of work system plays as a major role for many mechanisms of cryptocurrency. As a miner, you are reward with certain amount of cryptocurrency as contribution of mining. Each time a cryptocurrency transaction is made, a cryptocurrency miner is responsible for ensuring the authenticity of information and updating the blockchain network. The mining process itself involves competing with other miners to solve complicated mathematical problems with cryptographic hash functions that are associated with a block containing the transaction data. The reward of mining is fluctuate with the price of the cryptocurrency and the difficulty in mining.
Staking
Proof of stake is a special way in cryptocurrency. Instead of mining, staking is a way that new blocks in the blockchain is created by holding the cryptocurrency in a staking wallet. The case is just like rewarding the biggest stakeholders in the listing company, storing more cryptocurrency in the stake wallet will reward more. Some coins require a 24/7 connection and power-source, while others require holding coins in a staking wallet. For example, NEO has a low barrier to entry, you can literally hold NEO in a specify wallet and earn gas. Meanwhile, proof-of-stake provides liquidity for the investor. The cryptocurrency you buy to stake can be sold at any time.
Masternodes
Masternode runs in a similar way to proof of stake. You store the cryptocurrency in your wallet and you run your own server to support the network. You will be reward by that type of cryptocurrency for running the masternode. However, the downside of running masternodes are often very expensive to get started. For example, a Dash masternode will require 1000 DASH as an entry price. At today’s prices, that’s close to 200k USD. It is obviously not an affordable price for everyone.
Airdrop
Airdrop is the crypto giveaway. Projects or ICO will give away a small amount of free tokens to the early holders. The purpose is to is to spread the word about their project. Typically, new projects will provide free tokens upon community involvement or signing-up and providing some basic personal information. The other channel for airdrop is done by the exchange. The ICO will take a partnership with the exchange and the giveaway will distribute to the exchange users. Usually the giveaway of free token is always small in value but if you hold for an extend period of time, the giveaway token may worth a significant amount of money.
Referral program
The referral program is another form of Airdrops. Many popular exchanges such as Bitinfi, offer referral programs that pay you to draw new customers or rewarding existing users in their exchanges. Users are given a referral code and they can invite their friends to join the exchange. Every trade they made will give a referral commission to the existing users.
The above methods are only a slack in the crypto world. As the technology of blockchain and cryptocurrency are still evolving, new ideas come up every day. There are many ways for passive income waiting for explore! | https://medium.com/bitinfi/6-ways-to-earn-passive-income-with-cryptocurrency-4f22b8a68faa | [] | 2018-10-08 03:21:03.886000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto', 'Bitcoin', 'Investing'] |
Cost to Develop the website like ShutterStock | vibidsoft provides clone of shutter stock
Shutterstock offer bloggers, media agencies and businesses of any size to access low-cost images.
This website is available in 14 different languages and has 35,000 contributors from 100 countries. The company was the first in a now-crowded industry to achieve 250 million downloads–at last count; two Shutterstock images were sold every second.
So having these much amount of potential market many wants to develop this kind of website. Let me tell you it’s not an easy task to get all features in first phase of website development. One needs to do continuous development and need to add new feature to enrich the user experience.
Here is the least of basic functionality one need, based on each page when he wants to launch a website like shutterstock:
Home Page:
Header will have Logo in Left with the link to home page, 3–5 menu link for Category, Subscription, Contact, Sign In, Become a Contributor
Full Screen Banner Image with Text and Search Functionality.
Search Functionality will have 2 types of filtration on home page.
Royalty fee
Rights Managed
Below this area there will be section for Browse Image which will have link to different categories images horizontally.
In Footer area there will be a copy right in left end side and Social Media links in Right end side.
Image Search Page:
In Header there will be search functionality with an option to do advance search. In Advance Search user can filter the images based on
Keyword
Category
Photographer
License Type
Orientation
Apart from this user can see the search result below the search area. User can choose different views to see the images.
Image Thumbnail drop down: once user click on the image thumbnail he/she can see below things:
Image Id
Copyright
Keywords
Download by Price: User can ask for the quote by filling information on Usage, Size, Duration, and Territory.
Download by Plan: User can download the images as per his subscribed plan.
Add to Light box Option. (This functionality will work once user is registered and sign in at that time)
User can add images as per different categories in his dashboard.
User can Add/Edit/Delete the categories and can share the images from the light box.
User can add images as per different categories in his dashboard. User can Add/Edit/Delete the categories and can share the images from the light box. Below this there will be similar Images or Images of same model will be shared.
Zoomify™ feature
Detailed Image Page:
Image Preview for Big Size Image
Image share to Social Media
Image Id
Copyright
Keywords
Download by Price: User can ask for the quote by filling information on Usage, Size, Duration, and Territory.
Download by Plan: User can download the images as per his subscribed plan.
Add to Light box Option
Detailed keyword list of Image
Similar images
Pricing Page:
In this page there will be different subscription plans for users and a link to sign up and by plan options.
Create Account Page:
User Name/ E-mail
E-mail
Password
Terms and Condition Validation and link to Terms and Condition Page
Create Account Plan Subscription Process Pages:
In this page will have Pricing of different plans (Pricing Page) and user can select any plan from that and will have below screens:
Order Summary: This will have plans details with option to turn on/off Auto Renewal Process and will have option to do modification in the order.
Below this there will be a payment details form needs to be filled by user to make payment.
After successful payment there will be a Thank You screen which will have Detail of the Purchase.
User Dashboard:
User will have below things in their dashboard main page:
Plans Summary(If user have subscribed the plan if not than there will be a link to subscription)
Time Left for the plan(If user have subscribed the plan if not than there will be a link to subscription)
Download Images Showcase
User will have below option in his dashboard:
Light Box: User can add images as per different categories in his dashboard.
User can Add/Edit/Delete the categories and can share the images from the light box.
Add to cart Button
Account Details: Account Details will have two things to develop.
Profile: This will have below details which can be edited by user
User Name
E-mail
Change Password
First Name and Last Name
Phone
Address
Company
City
Country
Plan: This will have below details:
Subscription Details
Auto renewal Option
Purchase History
Download by History: Download History will showcase the downloaded images and user can filter that based on License Type and a Year of Download
Sign Out
Contact Support Page:
Contact us page where two different forms will be designed to contact. Below the forms there will be a Google map which will display the address of the Company.
Contributor Landing Page
Image banner with text and button which will lead that to create account for contributor.
Below the banner there will be 3 vertical sections to show how it’s beneficial to join as a contributor.
Get Started button to Create Account Page for Contributor.
Create Account Page for Contributor:
Username/E-mail
First name and Last Name
Password
Address
City
Country
Preferred Payment Details
Identification Page:
User need to submit Passport photo or Driving License for Identification.
User can submit maximum 5 images during this process:
User need to provide below details for each image
Description (up to 200 Letter)
Keywords (up to 50 Keywords)
Category
Nudity/R-rated
License
After filling all this he need to submit it for the review.
Once the user submits that there will be a thank you page for the submission.
Contributor’s Dash Board Page:
Contributor will have Below things in their dashboard main page:
Daily/Weekly/Monthly visits
Daily/Weekly/Monthly Earning
Total Active Images
Total Pending Images for Review
Contributor will have below options in Dashboard:
Download History: Download History will showcase the downloaded images and user can filter that based on License and Date.
Account Details: This will showcase all the information provided at the point of registration and user can change it.
Earning: This will showcase earning of the contributor per image he uploaded.
Help: Contact us form
Other Pages:
Blog Page
FAQ Page
Terms and Condition Page
Admin Side Feature:
Menu Hierarchy Management
Banner Management
Content Article Management
User Management
Contributor Management
Category Management
Image Management
Video Management
Order/Sales Management
Static Page Management
Blog Management
Contact Us
Image sitemap export feature
Global product type price update
Product type discount pricing feature
Online users & visitor logs
Media & category stats feature
Black List IP Management
Pricing Management
Vibidsoft has expertise to develop this kind of website in the timeline of 2–3 months. The cost will totally depend on the features you are selecting. So don’t wait if you want to design and develop a clone of shutter stock mail us on [email protected]. | https://medium.com/@chirag-dave/cost-to-develop-the-website-like-shutterstock-8dd7509b03d | ['Chirag Dave'] | 2020-12-18 10:41:19.181000+00:00 | ['Shutterstock', 'Website Like Shutterstock', 'Clone Of Shutter Stock', 'Website', 'WordPress'] |
Mike Pence has women problems | Photo by History in HD on Unsplash
An unexpected “tell” about the depths of Vice President Mike Pence’s anti-woman decay came about an hour into the debate.
Before then, Pence interrupted his opponent, Sen. Kamala Harris, multiple times and filibustered the debate moderator, USA Today’s Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page, by ignoring time limit rules. Every woman watching this behavior recognized their own experiences with men interrupting and talking over them, which is why Sen. Harris’ firm, no nonsense “I’m speaking” comeback resonated widely.
While this display of “mansplaining” was beyond frustrating, (I yelled at the television twice and tweeted multiple times my thoughts about Pence’s disrespect) it was somewhat par for the Republican course. His crime-boss partner, Donald Trump, did much worse to Vice President Joe Biden and moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News.
What surprised me, in addition to The Fly, was his statement about Judge Amy Coney Barrett:
“[S]he’s a brilliant woman, and she will bring a lifetime of experience and a sizeable American family to the Supreme Court of the United States…”
I immediately wondered, “Is there no childcare for justices? Why does she have to bring her “sizeable American family” to the Supreme Court? Comedian Sarah Cooper tweeted, “I guess one of Pence’s criteria for female Supreme Court judges is fertility.” Yet, I don’t think this remark has come under a lot of scrutiny.
What did he mean? It was an odd remark, and he said it oddly. With gusto and a touch of glee. Considering he comes across as a pretty placid guy, the way in which he said it made an impression. It gave me pause about Pence and the entire Trump-Republican establishment’s deep-seated retrograde attitudes towards women. The comment seemed pregnant with meaning, especially with Pence’s backward attitudes toward working mothers and child care. Pence’s record as radio personality, congressman, governor of Indiana and vice president is full of statements, votes, policies and actions that target women and LGBTQ people for disenfranchisement, attempting to make us second-class citizens.
Pence’s debate comment on Coney Barrett and her family came in the context of a very pointed question about abortion and overturning Roe v Wade, which he dodged answering. Pence, who grew up Catholic and became “born-again” as a young adult, seemed, in his smarmy way, referring to a Catholic trope by emphasizing Coney Barrett’s “sizeable” family. Coney Barrett is Catholic, and reportedly, a member of an ultra-conservative Catholic community called People of Praise. Was this a cynical ploy to appeal to Catholic voters? Trump won the Catholic vote in 2016, but there is much dissatisfaction with Trump in 2020 among Catholics. Joe Biden, who is Catholic, appears to have peeled away that support.
But the comment also came in a bigger context of the 2020 elections, the massive gender gap between Trump and Biden among women, and Pence’s dodge on overturning Roe v. Wade and implementing a ban on abortion. It also came just a week or so before Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s and his gruesome GOP zombie cohort’s brazen attempts to force down the throats of the American people a Trump nominee for a lifetime appointment on the highest court of the land. By not answering the question, and instead placing an emphasis on Coney Barrett, Pence just followed the Republican playbook: evade, deny, lie and stonewall. Trump did the same in his debate with Biden when he said, “Roe is not on the ballot.”
Like Pence, Coney Barrett holds widely-known conservative views on birth control and the Affordable Care Act, Roe v. Wade and abortion, same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights. Many are also concerned about her out-of-the-mainstream views and legal opinions may also extend to putting limits on in vitro fertilization (IVF), stem cell research, potentially elevating embryos and fetuses to personhood with the same rights as born people.
She also held a clerkship with one of SCOTUS’ most conservative justices, Antonin Scalia, and says she shares the same “judicial philosophy” as he. That could also put the Obergefell v. Hodges same-sex marriage decision in danger of being overturned. Pence’s comment brought to mind the administration’s promises to ultra-conservative billionaires and evangelicals to overturn the ACA, Roe v. Wade and same-sex marriage, by reifying the image of the family as Coney Barrett’s: white, heterosexual, with many children and the mother fully in charge of them all.
Pence’s comment seemed to signal that Roe v Wade is a linchpin in the decades-long attempt, by the Republican-led coalition of far-right, extremist groups and billionaires, to roll back democratic rights and gains women have made. First they come for abortion, then they come for birth control, then they come for science-based health care, family planning and research. They also come for women’s personhood, roles and the definition of family, all in the name of theocracy not democracy.
(And if that’s not enough, as Harris said at the debate, “If you have a preexisting condition — heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer — they’re coming for you…”)
If Pence is proud to be “pro- [fetus] life,” why not come clean and say they want to ban abortion? Why bury it in a pivot? Maybe it’s because the majority of Americans, Catholic voters included, support Roe v. Wade and other hard-won rights that conservatives want to do away with, such as access to birth control, same-sex marriage, and the Affordable Care Act. U.S. Catholics are racially and ethnically diverse, and politically split fairly evenly between Democrat and Republican. Yet, a majority, especially Catholic women, support keeping abortion legal.
The day after the debate, news broke that 13 men were arrested for plotting to kidnap and possibly kill the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. Misogyny and terrorism, unleashed by the Trump administration, on frightening display. Between the president’s tweets and speeches there is enough evidence to show his disdain for living up to America’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
But with Pence, his contempt is quieter. Under the radar. It’s in comments like bringing “a sizeable American family” to the Supreme Court. Pence is the sheen guy. He gives this administration the patina of respectability. Or as NY Times columnist Timothy Egan said, “Pence is not just the great enabler of Trump’s awfulness, but the man who puts a godly sheen on it. In that sense, he’s more dangerous, and arguably more evil, than Trump.” | https://medium.com/engendered/mike-pence-has-women-problems-8f19339e9f0a | ['Teresa Albano'] | 2020-10-14 00:50:42.798000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Society', 'Women', 'Womens Rights', 'Election 2020'] |
5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Was Strict Paleo | 5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Was Strict Paleo
By: Stefani Ruper
For a few years, I ate a very “strict paleo” diet.
It consisted of fish, eggs, meats, vegetables, and coconut oil.
I rarely ate fruits or starches. I never ate out at restaurants or at friends’ homes. I never touched a processed snack like a handful of potato chips. I never drank alcohol.
I most certainly never ate bread.
Now, it isn’t to say that that was entirely a bad thing. My diet was perfectly healthy…. in a way.
Nowadays, however, I eat much more flexibly. I’ll have a handful of chips. I’ll drink a glass of wine. I’ll have a Halloween candy or two. If a particularly tasty looking cake is being served in the dining hall, I’ll have a bite of my friend’s. I don’t go overboard and I certainly don’t stock my pantry with these sorts of foods, but when they come my way, I let them.
And it works for me.
Back when I ate strict paleo, I wasn’t doing particularly well, physically or mentally. If only I knew some things I do now, I might have saved myself a lot heartache and pain. Here’s a list of 5 crucial things I wish I knew when I ate strict paleo:
1. You don’t have to be Paleo 100% of the time to get the nutrients you need
Paleo is an incredibly nutrient-dense diet. If you eat the awesome paleo staples like pasture-raised eggs, grass-fed beef, organ meats, wild-caught fish, leafy greens, a rainbow of other vegetables, and starches and fruits on a regular basis, you are most likely supremely well-nourished.
Having a meal that is less densely-packed with nutrients, such as some sort of mac-n-cheese or chicken-fried rice, will not make you nutrient deficient, I promise. Most nutrients last in the body for quite some time, and the most important ones, like vitamin A and D, can be stored in the liver for several months.
2. If you don’t have leaky gut or an autoimmune disease, you can eat grains occasionally without the world ending
The whole paleo diet world is a bit doomsday-esque about grains.
One experience of mine demonstrates this quite vividly: I was at a “famous” paleo person’s house during a paleo event, and the home was full of big-time paleo names. Just about everyone there was drinking tequila and “paleo margarita’s”, and some were even smoking cigars. During the after-dinner conversation I casually mentioned that I had had a bowl of Raisin Bran cereal the week before. Everyone gasped in horror.
Grains I believe need to be handled with care. For people who struggle with gut issues, who have an autoimmune disease, or who are trying to manage systemic inflammation, I think avoiding grains 100% is a must. I really, truly do. Many people need to eliminate grains altogether.
For the rest of us, I think it may be wise to err on the side of caution. I personally am not sure how I feel about the “toxicity” level of grains. To that end, I like to play is safe, and to generally avoid grains.
I also know that grains are not high quality food. They don’t really have all that much nutrition in them, and the nutrients that they do have can quite easily be cancelled out by their high phytonutrient content. Phytonutrients bind with “real” nutrients and flush them out of the body, such that they can actually be said to “steal” your nutrients from you.
However: grains can also be eaten by people without particular grain-sensitive issues without the world ending. If you don’t have an autoimmune disease, a cracker here or there, or a piece of cake at your friend’s wedding, probably won’t destroy your health.
Grains are not optimal but they are not poison.
(For most people.)
If I had recognized this back in the day, I wouldn’t have been so fearful about food. I lived in fear so much of the time, because I thought any food that I hadn’t personally prepared might poison me and cause all these extreme gut and health disasters.
Turns out, they probably won’t, and I personally at least am not burdened with having to avoid grains 100% of the time in order to feel healthy and good.
3. Following diet “rules” can make you eat even worse
When I ate strict paleo, I followed strict diet rules: no booze, no carbs, no grains, no sweets, no treats.
Following these rules made me feel like I was deprived. I couldn’t help it: try as I might, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the foods I couldn’t have. I obsessed over them. I dreamt about sweet foods like it was my job.
Feeling so deprived and obsessive in the end was terrible for me, because it not only made me feel unhappy in the moment, but it also made me go off the rails in the long run. Then all of my “perfect paleo” would come crumbling down. I would eat a whole dessert tray full of pastries in an evening, for example. Or, on one particularly unhappy occasion, I ate several full loaves of dessert cake by myself.
Then I would feel terrible about myself and starve myself back in feeling moral, perfect, and “paleo” again.
Then I would feel deprived, and the whole cycle would start all over again.
If I had known then that it was the diet rules that were the problem in the first place, I would have been liberated. I would have been free. I would have been able to relax my grip on my life, and no longer swing between these violent extremes of perfect and disastrous eating.
The way that I now manage my eating is by thinking of paleo as a guideline. I eat paleo because I choose to. It isn’t a rule I have shackled around my diet. It is a healthy, life-giving and life-enhancing choice I make. I don’t have to eat paleo all of the time in order to be physically healthy and fit. I only have to choose it most of the time.
And choose it I can and I do, because now I have the power over food, instead of food having the power over me.
4. Wellness is about both physical and mental health
Sure, a handful (or, screw it, a whole bag) of potato chips isn’t the most awesome choice for my health.
But true wellness is about combining physical and mental health to make a happy whole.
Sometimes after a particularly rough day, some dessert really does hit the spot in a way that makes me feel better.
Or, if I am feeling homesick, I may be able to sooth my longing by baking that Irish soda bread my mother used to always make.
Back when I was strict paleo I never allowed my mental needs to weigh in with my physical needs. That was a mistake. It only ever made my emotional state worse, and never let me relax into myself.
If I had allowed myself to let my emotional self make some decisions around food, I wouldn’t have drowned in self-condemnation and harsh judgment. I wouldn’t have had to feel like I was at war. I would have been able to feel at peace with food, and to be able to eat more intuitively and lovingly.
5. Eating paleo won’t make you immortal
This is an important point that I still need help with.
Somewhere, deep inside of me, I am terrified of eating the wrong foods, because I am terrified of dying.
Some part of me thinks that if I eat the perfect foods all of the time, I won’t die.
Or I at least won’t have to die as soon.
Now of course there is some truth to this. Eating well is an important factor in a healthy life. Eating well can save you from Alzheimer’s disease, from autoimmune disease, from heart disease, and perhaps even from cancer.
But it will never make you live forever.
And it will never make you invincible against the invariable forces of chance and fate.
My terror around death drives a lot of my decisions. It drives a lot of the fear I sit with on a daily basis. It drives the choices I make, both big and small.
Fortunately, it is no longer such a big part of my relationship with food. I no longer obsessively control my diet. I no longer fear every tiny morsel of food because of the effect it may have on me. I am always careful to be good, but I am no longer a strict perfectionist about it.
And to be honest with you, in the long run, I think this is even better for me, because being purposeful and happy is just as much a part of a rich, long life as eating well, if not even more so.
Paleo won’t make me immortal. It may help me life well and happy, but I have to remember that it is only one of many factors, and perfectionism about it — at least for me — does more harm than good.
And with dying, I bring my list of the 5 most important things I wish I knew back when I was so strict paleo. Now I am curious about your experience. How strict are you with your diet? Why? Why not? What has your relationship with paleo been like, and are you happy with it? | https://medium.com/the-paleo-post/5-things-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-was-strict-paleo-3056871071a | [] | 2016-10-11 08:51:41.425000+00:00 | ['Republished', 'Nutrition', 'Mental Health', 'Health', 'Paleo'] |
*HEALTY COACH* | *HEALTY COACH*
Train Smart 4 ways
When it comes to smart, effective training, going all out isn’t always the best option. One of my sports directors said it best: “It’s easy to train hard, but it’s much more challenging to train hard the right way.” It might sound simple, but year after year, I still see athletes overtraining and losing out on their best possible results because of it. What they don’t realize is that it’s import to train smart.
1.Take A Scientific Approach
The approach to training itself has come a long way from my beginnings as a young rider. As a child, I remember the coach telling me “If it hurt today, then it was good training.” As I got older, training became more scientific and structured. When I partook in sports school in Belgium, we measured our resting heart rate first thing in the morning and wrote it into our official journals.We’d check our heart rates on the bike too, but in an old-fashioned way — our coach would actually drive behind us as we rode, honking his horn at a rhythm that allowed us to calculate our heartbeats.
2.Add Variety To Your Workouts Variety is the spice of life, so mix it up a little. When I was training, I often scheduled my workouts in three-day blocks. On the first day, my muscles were the freshest and most rested, which made that the day to do high powered, short and intensive workouts. The second day would consist of longer but less-intense workouts. After creating damage to muscle cells for two days, I would finish with a long-and-slow day, something like 6 hours on the bike and no intervals at all. The first day was to build up max power and increase heart rate, the second day was to build stamina, and the third day of that block was to build up endurance and basic miles.
3.Slowly Build Up Your Momentum In the ideal scenario, your season build-up looks like a pyramid: there’s tons of long-and-slow base miles and rides on the bottom as a foundation. Little by little, you reduce the quantity and increase the quality of your training — that means less hours and more intervals. The most successful cyclist ever, Eddy Merckx, once said you must experience pain when training to make races become easy. From my own experience, I can tell you that your body is only able to do things it has gone through in training. If you want to push 500 watts for 5 minutes, then you cannot train with only 250 watts all year long. You need to slowly train your body to this level, using interval pushes to get closer to your goal. | https://medium.com/@stefandimitriev03/healty-coach-e49def65f239 | [] | 2020-12-18 04:06:16.387000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Workout', 'Training', 'Smart', 'Cycling'] |
Kindness | “Kindness is the ability to know what the right thing to do is and having the courage to do it.”
Kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.
Kindness has been shown to increase self-esteem, empathy and compassion, and improve mood. … Kindness can increase your sense of connectivity with others, which can directly impact loneliness, improve low mood and enhance relationships in general. It also can be contagious.
Source: Google.com
A task was assigned to me by Amal Academy that I had to do 5 acts of kindness within 24 hours. So here is the list of those 5 tasks I have done in a day.
I gave water to everyone.
Source: google.com
2. I respected my Elders and waited till they took the food first.
Source: google.com
3. I Ironed my clothes to help my mother.
Source: google.com
4. I appreciated my friend for helping me always by a Facebook Post.
5. I gave my mobile charger to be used by my family.
Source: google.com
We all should do such small noble acts of kindness for the people around us. We should try to be the first to help others and one day Allah Almighty will help us in our problems and will reward us for this.
Thanks. | https://medium.com/@muhammad-faisal167/kindness-4f29b39eacb3 | ['Muhammad Faisal Shahid'] | 2020-12-11 20:48:13.823000+00:00 | ['Facebook', 'Kindness', 'Water', 'News', 'Clothes'] |
Mapping the Intersection of Journalism and Civic Technology | Is Journalism Itself A Civic Technology?
Jennifer Brandel:
I came away feeling excited that the work I’ve been doing with Curious Nation and Curious City does fit squarely in Laurenellen’s definition of civic tech, as well as community organizing, as those were both terms that never occurred to me to employ. One of the participants, Whitney May, shared a formula that got stuck in my craw: information + invitation = participation. It felt like the gathering was proof positive of that in action — by learning more about what civic tech means and can include, and being invited to identify with it and use that term, I feel far more likely to pay attention to and participate in other convenings / dialogues labeled as such.
information + invitation = participation
Jeremy Hay:
I was always turned off by the term civic journalism because contributing to and being a part of the civic fabric should already be a key thread in conscientious journalism practice. On the other hand, it’s exciting and seems particularly relevant these days — when technology has so revised journalism’s possibilities while at the same time disrupted its models — to think about civic tech being a strategy or approach used to further good journalism in a way that might also help stabilize and revitalize journalism as an institution.
So, as I came to think about it in Chicago, civic tech (in the context of journalism) is:
First an approach that can be used to effectively develop the framework and landscape of a journalistic endeavor — by using tech methods and tools to engage usefully with a community.
an approach that can be used to effectively develop the framework and landscape of a journalistic endeavor — by using tech methods and tools to engage usefully with a community. Second , civic tech can be the framework for a news outlet to engage with and remain usefully entwined with a community, both as an operating system and a beacon that helps maintain its purpose (just as truth and fairness and verification are). Basically, if a media organization consistently engages with the community, works with it to the extent that the community helps define the news and information needs it has that it needs the media organization to meet, that creates a value. That value is one that the media organization holds onto, that it strives to uphold, and then you’ve got a infrastructure of and for civic engagement that is built on an equal footing. That leads to the next:
, civic tech can be the framework for a news outlet to engage with and remain usefully entwined with a community, both as an operating system and a beacon that helps maintain its purpose (just as truth and fairness and verification are). Basically, That value is one that the media organization holds onto, that it strives to uphold, and then you’ve got a infrastructure of and for civic engagement that is built on an equal footing. That leads to the next: Third, it is a result, one in which a journalistic entity becomes self-consciously a part of the technological infrastructure serving a community.
Thinking about journalism as part of the civic infrastructure’s technology could be a useful way to conceive in contemporary terms of journalism’s actual role. Also, it would be more useful, I now believe, to think about civic tech as an approach to getting to where journalism is an organic aspect of a community’s technological civic infrastructure, rather than appending civic tech to journalism (i.e. as a new form or model of journalism called civic tech journalism or something like that, which just seems faddish and dilutes actual civic tech).
In other, plainer words, civic tech is not journalism, civic tech is an approach/method/set of practices that journalism should make good use of as it strives to situate itself civically and find viable and sustainable models. One good approach might be to come up with a set of principles influenced by civic tech that could be applied to journalism. | https://medium.com/the-engaged-journalism-lab/mapping-the-intersection-of-journalism-and-civic-technology-d5472c5c9cc9 | ['Josh Stearns'] | 2015-04-29 17:05:09.731000+00:00 | ['Opengov', 'Journalism', 'Civictech', 'building journalism with communities'] |
Moving On From Civil Disobedience | cannabis!
We’re almost 4 months from the coming into force day of the cannabis legalization bill, C-45. There are some persistent issues, the most notable being the lack of supply many Canadians are facing. On the plus side however, the sky didn’t fall, and we didn't enter a constitutional crisis (one of the many dire predictions made by the Senate Conservative caucus).
There remain many battles to be fought, but it’s likely a large part of those will be in the court system for the next decade or so. So, what now? That probably depends whether you lean towards civil disobedience or creative compliance. For a long time the cannabis legalization movement has had much of the former and far less of the latter.
The two terms share something in common, opposing the orthodoxy of following rules and regulations to the letter. Civil disobedience would have you outright break a law, the magnitude of defiance is almost more important than the act itself. Creative compliance is the inverse, the service or product you’re offering is the focus, not focusing on the apparatus of the state but what you’re actually achieving.
Your particular position on that spectrum is probably decided by whether you feel more change can be wrought from the inside or the outside. We’re the first G7 country to have our system of government decide that enough constituents favour the end of the drug war when it comes to cannabis, and that’s pretty big. On a national scale, ignoring machinations such as global UN drug treaties, even proponents of laissez-faire regulatory systems would agree with ‘it should be legal to consume and possess cannabis’ as the end goal.
The details, of course, are where things go sideways. Our advertising restrictions are best described as draconian, and public consumption issues exist all across the country. The problems with public consumption warrant their own piece, and the ridiculousness of policies such as banning edibles in public places illustrate the issue quite well. So why would you ever want to try and comply with this current system?
The answer lies in how legalization spread in Canada. Beginning with Section 56 Exemptions, essentially permission from the government for you to break one of their laws, medical access is how cannabis started to be normalized in Canada. Many former prohibitionists have been swayed to at least support medical cannabis usage by seeing its impact on a seriously ill family member or friend.
The root of this support, and the issue advocated for is the legality of cannabis for a specific audience. Recreational legalization just means that your audience has grown exponentially bigger to be just about everyone. When your audience changes you have to adapt to them just as a public speaker does.
Recreational cannabis will be normalized as it becomes more ubiquitous, and that generally means as it becomes more legal. You can look to the way CBD products are treated, there’s misconceptions both that it’s legal to buy and legal to sell non-regulated products from consumers and retailers. Different from the concept of civil disobedience popularized by April 20th celebrations, the idea isn't that it’s illegal to do, but that the natural assumptions of a portion of the population is that it would be legal.
Arguments for legalization from advocates can be powerful, but nothing makes an impact quite like feedback from constituents who have never spoken about cannabis before for more legality. How do we get there with the rest of the plant? How about taking a cannabis plant on a plane trip?
Amanda Siebert, prolific cannabis journalist and best-selling author recently took a hemp plant through airport security on the way to Calgary. Not what a majority of cannabis connoisseurs would go for, but the fan leaves on the plant are the same as its THC-rich sibling. To the average person, it’s what was forbidden until October 17th, 2018.
When society at large sees as cannabis in more places like airport security, that normalization process will expand beyond the current social graphs it occupies. More people will start questioning why a substance closer to coffee than alcohol has draconian restrictions placed on it in many different ways.
I’m not sure the era of civil disobedience is completely over when it comes to cannabis, the first challenges against what amounts to a complete prohibition on regular cannabis usage for some drivers are already underway in the court system. It does seem like we should now be considering creative compliance as the first place to go. Not because our regime of legalization is perfect, but because in the broadest possible terms the most radical cannabis activist agrees with the government’s position.
Once you get over the fundamental disagreement over legality, the work is in redefining what the details of legal cannabis look like. Reinforcing George Santayana’s famous bit of philosophy, we have chosen to forget the past of alcohol prohibition and condemned ourselves to repeat the draconian restrictions of that time.
The good news is that things eventually got better, and today at least in British Columbia you can buy a bottle of wine along with your dinner preparations at the grocery store. Things will eventually get better with cannabis, and we can make eventually come a lot sooner when our primary association with cannabis is not the novelty of it being legal but it being something that you would be likely to encounter in your travels. | https://medium.com/@JungleStrike/moving-on-from-civil-disobedience-9febefa9c5f6 | ['Grant', 'Faceman'] | 2019-02-05 06:12:29.344000+00:00 | ['Plant', 'Airports', 'Canada', 'Hemp', 'Cannabis'] |
Making The Right Arrangement For Birthday Gifting — Send Flower To Nagoya | Flowers are something other than a wellspring of sharing bliss and warmth. It may pivot along the hub as a customary gesture of broadening the delight or compassion, depending upon the event or occurrence or life occasion, however in the genuine sense it is an image of fortifying a wide range of holding between at least two individuals.
Give it a chance to be a night out on the town with your partner, let it be your first Anniversary or your kid’s birthday, flowers are in an approved interest and make each encompass a bit increasingly delightful with its essence and aroma. It is with everything taken into account the best feeling to send flower to Nagoya.
It is completely obvious when we state that need is the mother all things considered. Perhaps such an enthusiastic and required innovation was the start of online flower delivery organizations. Individuals, being a habitual slouch as they seem to be, were and are charmed to discover access to flower shops, sitting in that spot on their couch, appreciating the solace of home. Really, innovation has crossed that extraordinary level, past which human eyes couldn’t think or see.
The advantages of requesting flowers online are:
You don’t need to take the situation of going out, in the event that you are one apathetic individual.
The choices aren’t restricted.
Price reaches differ as indicated by your preferences and what you need, when you need.
Be it day time delivery, or midnight birthday surprise party, you can be guaranteed that you would get the flowers delivered to your doorstep or your cherished one’s doorstep.
Flower classifications are:
Compassion Flowers: Offering compassion and backing through the flowers at significant circumstances such as when somebody from your family or companion is doing combating with life at the clinic, is the least you can do to make that individual feel adored and thought about.
Wedding Flowers: Have you been to a sea shore where you discovered no sand? No, isn’t that so? This is actually what happens when there is a wedding setting enrichment without flowers. Be it an anniversary or the wedding day, flowers are must and henceforth you need flower vendors. What is more superior to an online flower specialist where your choices are satisfied, however the delivery is on schedule and you won’t need to put a foot out of the house!
For what reason are flowers so one of a kind?
It has the ability to turn down all negativities with energetic vibes and can put a grin on the substance of that unique individual who is furious, or is annoyed with you. Accomplished something incorrectly, attempting to express sorry to learn sister? They have the daringness to make any minute significant without being separated. Online conveyances of flowers are just about your convenience as you can opt for making the right birthday gifts arrangement to Japan online without having go out anywhere. | https://medium.com/@florajapan/making-the-right-arrangement-for-birthday-gifting-send-flower-to-nagoya-350593488f83 | ['Flora Japan'] | 2019-11-28 05:46:21.920000+00:00 | ['Flowers', 'Florist'] |
BACK PAIN IN PREGNANCY AND POST-DELIVERY-ROLE OF POSTURE AND EXERCISES | Back pain during pregnancy
Backache is one of the most common pregnancy problems, especially in the later months. The pain usually goes away after the baby is born. But for many women, back pain lingers for months after giving birth.
Why back pain during pregnancy?
Hormones: Progesterone and Relaxin are responsible for the laxity in the joints leading to imbalance and back pain. Changed Uterus Size: Uterus enlarges during pregnancy and recoils back post-delivery. This enlarged uterus puts pressure over the abdominal muscles and lower back leading to back pain. Changed Posture: There is increased lordosis leading to abnormal weight bearing on the spinal and pelvic joints leading to back pain.
Back Pain Post pregnancy/delivery:
These myriads of changes along with Stressed out muscles during delivery(muscles which have been stagnant throughout the life are stressed out in normal delivery, whereas a major stabilizer to the pelvis and lower back is cut leading to pelvic instability thereby back pain in caesarian section) are responsible for back pain post-pregnancy which may last till 6–8 weeks post-delivery.
Studies state that 30 % of women experience back pain during the first year after vaginal delivery and 56.67% suffer after cesarean section. Typically, back pain after delivery should subside within 6 to 8 weeks, although, in case of a C-section, back pain could last a little longer. This pain is highly treatable, but with the one thing, many new mothers don’t have time or energy for exercise.
Posture, too, plays a significant role in back pain after delivery. Certain breastfeeding postures, posture changes from holding the baby, and everyday bending and twisting can cause micro-tears in the muscles and ligaments that support the spine, resulting in a chronic cycle of inflammation, pain, and instability.
Hence it is important to understand the right postures to be maintained during pregnancy, post-delivery, in handling the baby and the right exercises to be done during and after delivery to prevent Back pain.
Credits: Dr. Mandakini Chopra, Women Health Specialist
Follow Dr. Mandakini Chopra on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/chopramandakini/ | https://medium.com/@info.progno/back-pain-in-pregnancy-and-post-delivery-role-of-posture-and-exercises-95516fc4246c | ['Progno Healthcare'] | 2020-08-24 08:20:33.098000+00:00 | ['Womanhood', 'Back Pain', 'Pregnancy', 'Motherhood', 'Baby'] |
renCrv LP Strategy Guide | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/nuts-foundation/rencrv-lp-strategy-guide-22e89c3e9799 | ['Define Defi'] | 2021-01-18 07:18:02.203000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Guides And Tutorials', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum'] |
After Losing My Dog, Neighbors on Nextdoor Loaned Me Their Own Pups to Grieve | After Losing My Dog, Neighbors on Nextdoor Loaned Me Their Own Pups to Grieve
Photo courtesy of Paul Gilbert
We recently lost our beloved golden retriever, Layla. Her departure left an enormous hole in the house and in our hearts at a time when we needed her never-ending joyfulness, compassion, and affection more than ever. Losing a pet might seem like a small tragedy compared to the ongoing pandemic, but it devastated us nonetheless. There’s simply no way to prepare yourself for one of the worst times of your life.
Because of Covid guidelines and restrictions, our family has been mourning alone at home. As I floundered around in my grief, desperately missing the intimate physical, emotional, and spiritual relationship with this innately loving creature, an idea came to me. On some levels, it was a little strange, but I decided to step outside my comfort zone.
I put an ad up on Nextdoor Sorich Park, our neighborhood online bulletin board in Marin County, with the headline “Grieving Family Needs Canine Healing.” Attaching a picture of Layla, I said I’d love to take a neighbor’s dog for a walk or just play in the yard, assuring readers that I’ve been practicing strict safety measures. I also mentioned that I would be particularly interested in meeting other golden retrievers; I like almost all dogs, but once you’ve had a golden, you gain lifetime membership to a club where you naturally gravitate to fellow devotees.
Within minutes of posting, the likes, emojis, and comments started rolling in — a stream that soon turned into a flood. There were expressions of sympathy, stories of people’s own losses, and recommendations for local golden retriever adoptions. Many included photos of their own pets; two sent beautiful poems; and one included a link to an online pet grief support group. I even got a message from the San Rafael Police Department to visit with their official comfort dog. Best summons I’ve ever received.
Over the following week, I received 420 responses, including 140 comments. I was simply overwhelmed by this outpouring of empathy. The most surprising part was the number of invitations to walk and play with other people’s dogs. Messages from 25 previously unknown neighbors welcomed me to come meet their pups, 15 of them golden retrievers. How could complete strangers be so generous during a health crisis, when we’re so focused on our own well-being?
Photo courtesy of Paul Gilbert
As the offers kept rolling in, I realized I’d struck a rich vein of humanity at a time when we genuinely need more personal connection. While all of us want to feel loved, I believe we have an equally primal need to give love, and dogs bless us with abundant opportunities to express our devotion. Every dog owner knows the rewards of this endless gift.
I work from home, so I saw Layla all day, every day, and I rarely passed her without stopping to rub her soft head, neck, back, or belly, feeling a gentle jolt of loving energy move up my arm and into my heart and brain. Over our 12 years together, I can honestly say that I relished every single stroke.
People always talk about the tenderness, lack of judgment, and unconditional love they receive from their dogs, but I also know that Layla continually called forth these same qualities in me. I think the reason people responded so viscerally to my ad was that it enabled them to share their best friends and best selves.
Two weeks after my post ran, I began arranging play times. It was almost like Tinder, where I kept swiping right for my next candidate. I’m now up to six dates, ages 10 weeks to 11 years. It turns out there’s a sweet little golden right down the block who became an instant friend.
And talk about magic — after a few minutes of sitting together with the police dog, Blue, he suddenly put his front legs on my shoulders to give me a hug. I would have started crying if I weren’t smiling so hard underneath my mask. Somehow, he just knew.
Photo courtesy of Paul Gilbert
Under the Bay Area’s stay-at-home orders, we’re only supposed to go out for groceries, prescriptions, and outdoor exercise. The get-togethers with my new furry buddies fit all these criteria: food for my soul, strong medicine for my grief, and fresh air for me and my canine companion. Although my heart still aches, I’m also filled with gratitude — both for my cherished friendship with Layla, and the unexpected kindness of so many strangers. And the bonus lesson from this wondrous experience: They were right next door all this time. | https://thebolditalic.com/the-kindness-of-strangers-was-right-next-door-fd4a36775ab6 | ['Paul Gilbert'] | 2021-01-14 19:55:43.372000+00:00 | ['Grief', 'Pets', 'Nextdoor', 'Dogs', 'Digital Life'] |
Troubled 2020, Optimistic 2021 | Troubled 2020, Optimistic 2021
2020 was a very difficult year for all of us. We had to reset our basics, our working styles, our living styles, and. our relationship styles. We had to learn to survive in a world where it would be days before we would see anything beyond our homes, where we learnt how to live with our loved ones 24 hrs a day (ofcourse we loved it, but it was a learning exercise), and where we built and kept relationships virtually (be it professional or personal).
Many companies insisted on “work life harmony” during this time but it’s easier said than done. I mean when you are spending 24 hrs with your loved ones, what else is left to harmonize?!?! Trust me, A LOT!! For the first time, I realized the power of commute. The space and time it used to give me to flush out my mind before starting my work. At home, I just need to move from my bedroom to my home office. There is no space (albeit there is time) to flush out my mind and start afresh.
As a professional whose job is to solve problems, I understand the need for a fresh mind. I was working on the future strategy for my product and I felt that I needed to change approach but the alternative wasn’t coming to me. Thought of many things to flush my mind, sleeping, exercising, watching Netflix, nothing worked. Back in the day, I used to paint. I remembered that I had my paints and canvases somewhere in my garage. I went straight to those and started painting. My sketching was poor, my colors were wrong, but suddenly I wasn’t thinking about anything but this visual I had in mind that I wanted to replicate on canvas.
Without realizing, I spent 3 hrs the first day, and the next day when I woke up, I had many new approaches that I could consider at work. I realized that the only thing that changed between these two days was the fact that my mind was clear. Colors/Painting helped me get there. Essentially, creativity flushed out all stale thoughts and made room for new thoughts to grow. Side benefits -
Till date I have made many paintings (some samples below)
I enjoy my job more than ever before
It makes me happy as it is me time with colors
And it has encouraged my son to pick up the brush.
So if you are looking for 2021 resolutions, please make one — carve out a few hours every week into doing something you love, something that makes you forget everything else around you, something that can help you flush your mind. A room stuffed with boxes can not really be used for anything else. Similarly a mind full of stale ideas can not create innovative solutions. | https://medium.com/@nehamaheshwari123/troubled-2020-optimistic-2021-e05e5249c751 | ['Neha Maheshwari'] | 2020-12-27 11:04:01.306000+00:00 | ['Work Life Harmony', 'Creativity', '2021 Resolutions', 'Time Management', 'Work Life Balance'] |
Nothing | Doing nothing is the art,
of going into the deepest part of yourself.
And simply let it go.
It is the achievement of depth,
and desires.
In flux, rotating through the microcosm
of the 21st century.
Middling eyes and trembling hands,
co-exist in futures;
not yet explored.
Nor conquered,
merely contemplated
in Darkness.
Scribbling with air pencils,
random thoughts screaming
like arrows through night skies.
Within and without.
Clinging onto false idols,
of fame, greed and larceny.
We sit on hillsides
with our dreams and hopes,
crumbling as the sun goes down.
Holding hands
in Disbelief. | https://medium.com/@junjie10/nothing-e3adfce19231 | [] | 2020-12-24 11:20:54.122000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'English'] |
The True Story of the Watts Family Murders | The True Story of the Watts Family Murders
Christopher Watts was a Wolf in Sheep’s clothing
(left) Christopher Watts mugshot, (right) Watts family photo. Image Source: Heavy.com
In 2018, Chris Watts murdered his three months pregnant wife and his two daughters of four and three years, Bella and Celeste. The 33-year-old had decided to murder his family to stay with another woman.
The story of the Watts family murders
It all starts in Frederick, Colorado on August 13, 2018. In front of a charming wooden and brick house at 2825 Saratoga Trail, there is a police officer with a woman. She is Nikole Atkinson and she has reported the disappearance of the woman who lives in that house, her friend Shanann Watts, a 34-year-old mother of two, who’s fifteen weeks pregnant.
Shanann’s car is parked in the driveway, but in the house where she lives with her husband and daughters, there are no signs of life. After a few moments, Chris watts arrives, Shanann’s husband, after being called by Nickole while at work. Chris is calm, even seraphic, under the suspicious eyes of the neighbors. He and the agents enter the two-story house with a sloping roof. Inside, between clean and tidy rooms, there is a bag and Shanann’s mobile phone, but the wife and daughters are no were to be found.
Suspicions about her husband
Chris Watts, who works for a company that extracts oil, says he has no idea where his wife and the two daughters are. Neither the detectives nor the public, to which Watts has made an appeal, believe he is sincere.
The Colorado Bureau immediately starts an investigation ‘which the FBI joins the next day. Watts agrees to undergo the ‘lie detector’.
The investigators ask Chris: “Do you know what happened to your wife and your daughters? Do you know where they are now? “‘
No’ is Chris’s answer to all questions. Chris stutters and breathes hard.
Investigators: “Mr. Watts, you didn’t pass the test, do you want to tell us the truth now? “
Chris urges them: “I told you everything, I don’t know what to add …”.
Chris Watts becomes the prime suspect.
An almost perfect family
The Watts family lived an idyllic existence, immortalized on a regular basis. Shanann, who with her mobile phone has methodically told her everyday life before her demise. Christmas photos, kids in costumes, lunches, games, parties, the first times of the girls, and even the announcement of the third pregnancy to Chris are cataloged in albums on Facebook for the benefit of fans.
The shadows in the life of the Watts
While Shanann got busy at work, Chris was at the gym, working out. From the wedding day, Chris underwent a slow and impressive physical transformation, forging muscles, and losing weight. Beautiful, fit, and happy, the Watts had become the TV commercial family that America scrutinized with curiosity and suspicion, imagining a very different face behind the smiling one of the perfect family.
THE economic problems, first of all. Old student loans, medical expenses, mortgage, credit card debts profoundly affected the well-being of the family.
It was not only economic problems. Even the couple, despite the arrival of the third child, was in crisis. Shanann had been complaining to him for weeks. Chris’s friends described him as being cold, and distant.
“He also refuses to hug me,” Shanann said with tears in her eyes, to her friends, before disappearing. Chris wanted a divorce, Shanann hoped to solve the marriage problems with couples therapy.
Chris Watts’ lover, admissions, and the arrest
To permanently undermine the perfect family image, a testimony arrives. A young woman, Nichol Kessinger, tells the investigators that he has been Chris Watts’ lover.
By now investigators know Chris murdered his family, there’s video footage of him on the night the mother and daughters went missing, spending about 50 minutes loading their bodies in his car and then, the next day, the school called Watts and announced that the girls didn’t show up, investigators recorded the call.
The only thing they still don’t know is where Chris Watts hid the bodies of his wife and children. To find out they choose to aggressively interrogate him. When Chris’s father, who had flown to Colorado, is in front of him in the interrogation room, Watts lets himself go and admits to killing his family. “They are dead, they won’t come back.”
Then, finally, he gets to the point, pointing to the place where he has hidden the bodies. Buried face down in a pit excavated in the property where Chris worked, Shanann”s lifeless body is found. At the bottom of two oil tanks, Bella and Celeste’s little bodies are recovered. The baby that grew in Shanann’s belly also lost its life, they would have called him Nico.
Chris was arrested on August 15, 2018.
On August 21, 2018, Watts was charged with five counts of first-degree murder.
The sentence
Chris tries to blame his wife for everything.
“I caught her strangling the girls, so I have done the same to her,” However, to avoid the death penalty, Watts confesses to all the murders. “I strangled my wife and my daughters with my bare hands. Then I loaded them into the car, I buried her and threw the girls in a tank of oil, “he admitted
On November 6, 2018, Judge Marcelo Kopcow sentenced Christopher watts to five life sentences for the murder of his wife, two daughters, and of the little son, Shanann carried in her womb. He was sent to Dodge Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, to serve his life sentences. | https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/the-true-story-of-the-watts-family-murders-a1b5ac7db967 | ['Max Ngamla'] | 2020-12-27 19:56:20.564000+00:00 | ['History', 'True Crime', 'Crime', 'Murder', 'Justice'] |
This is homelessness | An Insight | There is an abundance of chairs. So much so that they are hung with thick plastic ribbons from the ceiling, where they swing motionless and limp like empty child swings.
The shop window is open and fake confetti has been plastered to the walls in a freeze frame-esque celebration of the event of overpriced furniture and consumerism.
Flags adorn the walls. Heals, it says. A clock costs £50. A vase: £70.
Across the street, there is a standalone Cafe Nero. Perhaps a relict from times past where bombs destroyed the surrounding shops. In the crevice between that and the American International Church — a brown brick building with steps arching to the middle like the Natural History Museum — a park. It looks cold and damp. The sunlight doesn’t hit it the way it hits other parts around here. It is scared. A place like this is devoid of happiness and, one would assume, devoid of life.
But, in a section of muddy peat, open enough for birds to build their nests but closed off enough to afford protection, 2 feet in navy and orange socks appear. Over the edge of that wall, where a head is blanketed by a pigeon poo stained sleeping bag, is ‘Eden’. Vantra Eden is a restaurant and it sells juices and salad-boxed food — all vegan. Eden. Away from the safety of that little cafe, there doesn’t seem to be much paradise here.
The man with the socks is curled up on a piece of cardboard to keep him off the floor. Everything apart from those little crossed over feet are covered. A form of shelter has been attempted where tarpaulin is strung between the trees. There is a plastic bowl on the wall and there isn’t much else. His sleep is deep and the gravity of his situation seems to be even deeper. We nearly miss him for his perfect camouflage, hidden like he is esconded from any form of compassion left in the government’s eye.
On the other side of the road from where the man with the flag of Armenia on his socks is, marks the other 2 points of this Bermuda triangle of poverty. 3 makeshift shelters under the cover of Heals. There are more people than tents. One man sits on the cold tiled concrete with his world bandaged into overflowing black bags. He stretches his legs against a pillar and looks at us, a group of 6 twenty-somethings armed with teas and coffees, with suspicion. His beard is tame in comparison to the wilderness in his eyes. They seem to choke on the sight of our approaching gang.
His name is Jeffery, we find out. He is bruised from a previous experience he had with a group like ours. A group lacking basic necessities for him. He is quick to judge, easy to anger but fast to trust one of the girls in our group. She talks to him as we make tea and slowly begins to chip away at the hardening concrete forming around his edges. He was a chef. He had his own burger joint. He now has ulcers and a transparent sandwich bag of pills to heal him.
Further along, a man adjusts himself. A deep bumcrack escapes from his jogging bottoms, which are grey; that classic grey.
Even further, 2 men: one who will speak and one who will not. They decline tea. It doesn’t feel as though they should, but some people are happy in their own company. Others are embarrassed. And others still, quite simply, don’t like hot drinks. Not everyone wants to be our friends, we must remember. Some people don’t want free hugs and time-dependent compaderie.
This is Sunday morning. This is the state of our country — an oxymoron of object placement. We are trying to fix and unseen and seemingly unmanageable problem by opening wounds before we bandage them. We don’t just want to give them hot drinks, we want to show them a way out. We want to be the green pastures outside the tunnel. The end of the tarmac. The freedom.
And so we will continue to come each week. We see different faces and we see the same ones. We will continue to give them what we can because not only is it their problem, but it should also be ours. | https://medium.com/@lauraash54/this-is-homelessness-an-insight-a6569862e7a1 | ['Laura Ash'] | 2019-02-18 14:47:23.464000+00:00 | ['London', 'Homelessness', 'Suffering', 'Hope'] |
Pseudo-Jesus | Cover by Douglass Digital Services
The following is an excerpt from my book, Razed Evangelical: Losing My Faith and Finding Myself, a memoir arranged by theme. In this excerpt, I discuss the Jesus white evangelicals have cobbled together out of their fears and bigotry, and how this Jesus impacts their political endeavors.
Since 2016, I have watched the white evangelical community I was once a part of adopt an ever more exclusionary gospel. I have watched as Trump has emboldened racists, xenophobes, homophobes, transphobes, misogynists, and just about any other vile substrata of American society, with white evangelicals applauding him all the while. They have chosen to believe in a Jesus who prizes white evangelical American Christians above all others, and they believe Donald Trump has been sent by God exclusively to protect their interests.
What I see playing out in the United States today is textbook white evangelicalism on a scale that is as grotesque as it is grand. The white evangelical community believes itself to be the victim of relentless persecution, and they need someone to protect them. Donald Trump serves as the strongman to stand between the mass of white evangelicals, cowering in fear as liberals “threaten their religious freedom” by suggesting that separation between church and state needs to be respected, and LGBTQ and POC people deserve the same rights white evangelical Christians have. Their strongman will see to it that their interests are protected, and will also tell them what to think and who to believe, which is classic white evangelicalism. White evangelicals have long relied on the likes of Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell Jr., Franklin Graham, and others, to tell them what to think. The groupthink phenomenon is strong in this community, so nothing about this seems off or questionable to them.
I am more concerned about white evangelicals than I am about Donald Trump, because even after Donald Trump leaves office, the base that elected him will still be here. They will still be here, with their persecution complex, their insistence that equality is oppressive to their community, and their exclusionary gospel. They will still believe that their greatest power lies in political prowess, not in a gospel that builds longer tables instead of taller fences.
It is the last part that I have the biggest problem with.
It has been years since I set foot in church. I long ago stopped believing in substitutionary atonement, original sin, or that humans are inherently and inescapably corrupt from the time they are born. Yet, even at that, the teachings of Jesus have provided a measure of guidance for my life. I believe the teachings of Jesus are welcoming and affirming, and show remarkably little interest in being politicized, or used to ostracize people.
When I look at this community that I was once a part of, I look for Jesus, and have trouble finding him. I see a community that has shed itself of the cumbersome burdens placed on them by identifying with the way taught by an itinerant rabbi, and instead embracing a Jesus they have cobbled together out of political ambition and moral relativity. They have sacrificed the Jesus of the Bible on the cross of their ego, and made themselves the gatekeepers of heaven. They preach a bastardized gospel that excludes as many people as possible in the name of their newly formed Pseudo-Jesus, while the Jesus they claim to serve, the Jesus of the Bible, is nowhere to be found.
Their most beloved leaders have become obscenely rich doing this, and have no qualms about asking for more.
I do not wear the label of “Christian,” but when I see this, I am nonetheless grieved. It sickens me in a deep part of my soul that, honestly, has me somewhat confused, but pain demands to be recognized. Seeing the community I was once a part of behave in a way that is so harmful to so many, hurts me in the strangest and most exquisite way. I am glad for it. This pain has compelled me toward greater understanding of my own responsibility to do my part, small though it may be, to balance the relentless damage that is coming from the white evangelical community and being unleashed on a world that has done nothing to deserve the pain they are doling out in the name of their Pseudo-Jesus.
If we are to find Jesus, he will not be with Jerry Falwell Jr., or Franklin Graham, or Paula White, or any other member of evangelical royalty that are spewing their Pseudo-Jesus deception. He will be at the US concentration camps, the cages with the immigrants, the crying children, the dying children, the weary mothers who are missing their children and don’t know when they will see them again. He will be on the cold cement floors, covered in a foil blanket, a week’s worth of sweat and oil and the smell of his own body surrounding him like a cloud, because he hasn’t been allowed to shower. He will be with the marginalized, the forgotten, the abused, the people the evangelical community says should not exist, because their gender identity or sexuality is an abomination in their eyes. He will be with the strangers who seek to be welcomed, the sick, the imprisoned, the naked who need to be clothed, the hungry, the widow, the orphan… “the least of these.”
I don’t know who or what Jesus is, in terms of the historic Jesus or the eternal Jesus, but everything I know of him from the halcyon days before the guilt, shame, and terror of hell became so deeply entwined with his name, tells me that his name was never meant to be used as a reason for denying someone a seat at his table. I really believe with everything in me that the best policy is to love people, without qualifiers or conditions, and if there is a God who is involved with this sort of thing, let her sort them out.
As a single mother, a disabled person, a recovering addict, a nonbinary bisexual, a person who well qualifies as “the least of these,” I am concerned with how the white evangelical community is responding to the world around them, and how that response is affecting people from the most marginalized communities. I am not in the position of speaking to white evangelicals from within their domain, but I have a responsibility to share what I have learned from my own background in their community, and to use that knowledge to counteract their efforts. I may not be able to change the world for everyone, but if I can make the world a better place for even one person who has been affected by the toxicity of white evangelicalism, it is worth the effort to do so.
Razed Evangelical: Losing My Faith and Finding Myself is available in Kindle and paperback here. | https://medium.com/@stephanie.mick.36/pseudo-jesus-a9dac935689a | ['Stephanie Mccown'] | 2019-12-20 19:52:06.660000+00:00 | ['2016 Election', 'White Evangelicals', 'Religious Freedom', 'White Jesus'] |
How Probability Thinking Can Change Your Life | “Doubt kills more dreams than failure” Suzy Kassem
One morning I’ve opened my eyes and the world was different. Or rather, I was different.
At night something amazing happened — I have decided that today I am starting a blog. I was elated. And as I imagined my future, I loved the new me that I envisioned.
Being recognized for my writing has been on my bucket list since I learned how to read. The idea that I can touch the lives of others through writing makes the introvert in me tingle.
But as soon as I typed the first word on the screen, the excitement has started to evaporate and the feeling of dread crept in.
“What am I going to write about?” “What if I suck?” “I don’t think I have anything important to say” “I will never be good enough” “There are tons of amazing writers, and I will be average at best.”
And that was the end of it.
This has been a recurring theme in my life. So far the fear of failure has cost me among other things:
An e-commerce business
A novel
A blog
Becoming an entrepreneur
Sounds familiar?
For the next two years, I kept entertaining the idea of starting a blog, but I took no action upon it. Until today. Here is what changed:
Why “Just do it” approach doesn’t work
When you first get an idea, it’s like a spark has been lit and you feel the tingling of excitement all over your body. Everything feels possible. The world is amazing and you are powerful.
But the moment you start thinking about going for it — you start to see every difficulty and obstacle that stands in your way. And the doubt starts to chip away at your dreams. Until you’ve convinced yourself to give up.
In the last two years, I’ve read every possible resource about starting a blog. And the advice I often saw was — stop thinking, just go for it.
While good advice that works for some people, it didn’t work for me for years. The dread of finding out that I am not good enough was too strong. I was simply too scared.
It was only after I stopped seeing the future as a binary “yes or no” value and instead started thinking in terms of probabilities that I was able to get over the action paralysis that was ruling over my life.
How seeing the future as a collection of probability streams makes fear of failure irrelevant
According to Elon Musk, our lives can take many different paths, each with their own probability.
I look at the future from the standpoint of probabilities. It’s like a branching stream of probabilities, and there are actions that we can take that affect those probabilities or that accelerate one thing or slow down another thing. I may introduce something new to the probability stream.
Our future is not made of “yes or no” flowcharts— it is made up of endless possible futures. Every action or inaction changes probabilities of certain futures becoming a reality.
For example, if you never buy a lottery ticket — the probability of you winning a jackpot is zero. If you do — the probability is 1 in 14 million. While in practical terms, these chances are not much different, this principle holds true for anything you do or don’t do in your life.
If I don't’ write — the probability of me becoming a successful writer is zero. The moment I started writing my chances improved. I have a long way to go, but one thing is certain — the more I will practice my craft, the probability of success will grow. With every word the future of “I am a writer” becomes more probable.
And here is the advantage of probability thinking — it makes the fear of failure completely irrelevant.
We are all scared of uncertainty. But if you look at your actions from the standpoint of probable futures, there is no uncertainty. Every action or inaction will affect the probability of certain outcomes without fail.
So if you are still holding off from starting something new for the fear of failure — start looking at your actions through the lens of probability thinking.
What action do you need to do today to increase the probability of the future you want becoming a reality? | https://medium.com/@vera_smirnoff/how-probability-thinking-can-change-your-life-86a0bb3d5005 | ['Vera Nova'] | 2019-02-27 09:18:14.308000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Self Improvement', 'Getting Started', 'Awareness', 'Life Lessons'] |
Dunbar’s Number and The Rise of The Rhizomatous Organisation Part Two | Image by Engraven https://www.deviantart.com/engraven/about
“What will become compellingly important is absolute clarity of shared purpose and set of principles of conduct sort of institutional genetic code that every member of the organisation understands in a common way, and with deep conviction.” Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus, VISA
A rhizome (from Ancient Greek: rhízōma “mass of roots”), is an underground plant stem that sends out roots from its nodes. The rhizome also retains the ability to allow new shoots to grow upwards, so they appear like new separate plants.
Some tree species (cottonwoods, aspens, poplars, huon pines) are rhizomatous, so that each new tree is actually part of the other trees. They seem like separate entities but they are part of the whole.
In part one of this Thursday Thought, I introduced what I call a Rhizomatous organisation, where departments within an organisation are connected by a unifying vision, a North Star, while they expand on the strength of the whole. In part two, we look at successful organisations that have behaved just like rhizomatous plants and sprouted new entities in some cases right beside an existing one. More importantly, we explore why.
Dunbar’s Number
Erik McLean https://unsplash.com/@introspectivedsgn
“There is no question that the dynamics of organisations change once they exceed about 150 or so. The Hutterites deliberately split their communities at this size in order to avoid having to have both hierarchies and a police force. Keeping things below 150 means you can manage the system by peer pressure, whereas above 150 you need some kind of top down, discipline-based management system.” Robin Dunbar
Our guest on Innovation Show EP 248 is Robin Dunbar, the world-renowned psychologist and author who famously discovered Dunbar’s number: how our capacity for friendship is limited to around 150 people. Dunbar found a correlation between primate brain size and average social group size. By using the average human brain size and extrapolating from the results of primates, he proposed that humans can comfortably maintain only 150 stable relationships (including past colleagues, such as high school friends, with whom a person would want to reacquaint himself or herself if they met again.) Dunbar explained it informally as “the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar”.
In his research, Dunbar breaks the 150 people down as follows:
5 intimate friends
15 good friends (including the 5 intimate friends)
50 friends (including the 5 intimate friends and 15 good friends)
150 acquaintances
Proponents of Dunbar’s number contend that numbers larger than 150 require more restrictive rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group, team or organisation of any kind.
You may be familiar with the name “Gore-Tex”, a waterproof, breathable fabric often used in outdoor and adventure apparel (think Timberland boots or Patagonia Jackets).
On episode 248, Robin tells us years before Dunbar’s number was revealed to the world, W. L. Gore & Associates proactively and effectively managed the growing pains of the organisation.
Today, the enterprise employs over 9,500 employees (who are known as associates within the organisation) in over 25 countries. Despite huge growth, the company still maintains a golden rule, it doesn’t allow the number of associates in any of the factories (or sites) exceed 150–200 people! Once it becomes necessary to exceed the 150 number, they build a new self-contained factory next to an existing one. One of Bill Gore’s core beliefs was that once a factory reached a certain size, “we decided” became “they decided.”
This not only obeys Dunbar’s number, but follows the pattern of a rhizome. Robin Dunbar told us, when W.L. Are feels one factory reaches its 150 threshold, they will start building another one, in some cases right next door or in the car park. Like the rhizome it sprouts from the main organisation, but contains the same DNA and follows the same principles.
Dunbar’s number partially explains why large organisations often struggle with corporate culture. It may suggest why some organisations split into silos and those silos begin to compete with one another rather than their competitors. In today’s turbulent business environment, spending precious energy on internal politics, power struggles or silo battles means you will eventually lose your war.
We are experiencing a great revolution in the today’s workplace, a workplace built on the outdated mental foundations of the industrial revolution, the church and the military. That workplace is disintegrating.
In this new world of work, the need for a unifying purpose is more important than ever before.
THANKS FOR READING
If you like this post, you may like my forthcoming book which contains a stunning foreword by Dee Hock, founder of VISA.
Undisruptable: A Mindset of Permanent Reinvention for Individuals, Organisations and Life is available at the following links…
IRELAND: https://www.waterstones.com/book/undisruptable/aidan-mccullen/9781119770480 | https://medium.com/thethursdaythought/dunbars-number-and-the-rise-of-the-rhizomatous-organisation-part-two-e7f12a94048c | ['Aidan Mccullen'] | 2020-11-26 11:09:10.704000+00:00 | ['Rhizome', 'Innovation', 'Corporate Culture', 'Goretex', 'Dunbars Number'] |
Best Bluetooth speakers: Reviews and buying advice | There was a time when Bluetooth speakers were like jelly beans: They were cheap, they all looked the same, and they were invariably of dubious quality. Times have changed. Every major audio manufacturer has at least one model on the market today, and most have several.
If you haven’t listened to a Bluetooth speaker lately, you’re in for a very pleasant surprise.
Bluetooth speaker cheat sheet Best budget Bluetooth speaker: Tronsmart Element Force SoundPulse Bluetooth speaker Best mid-priced Bluetooth speaker: Fluance Ai60 Best high-end Bluetooth speaker: Bluesound Pulse Mini 2i Best bookshelf Bluetooth speaker: Edifier S2000 Pro Best outdoor Bluetooth speaker: Soundcast VG7 Best price-is-no-barrier Bluetooth speaker: Naim Mu-so 2nd Generation The industry’s progress doesn’t mean that every Bluetooth speaker justifies its price tag, no matter how inexpensive it might be. There’s still plenty of dreck floating around. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you steer clear of the junk and point you to the best speakers at the price range that fits your budget.
To that end, we’ve picked the best Bluetooth speakers (and runners-up in some cases) in six categories: budget, mid-range (up to $300), outdoor, bookshelf, high-end (up to $750), and—yes, there are ultra-high-end Bluetooth speakers—price is no object. Some of our picks can be used indoors and out, but we’ve also named our favorites that are designed primarily as outdoor speakers.
Updated January 1, 2021 to add our iLive Bluetooth Tailgate Party speaker. This is not one of the greatest-sounding speakers on the market, but it's light, easy to move around, includes PA capabilities, and it sounds better than you'd think a $50 speaker would.
Best budget Bluetooth speaker Tronsmart Element Force SoundPulse Bluetooth speaker Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $59.99See itThis mighty mite produces shockingly good sound for its size and price—but only in its Extra Bass EQ mode—and it's water resistant to boot.
The Bluetooth speaker market is a cutthroat business when you get to this price range. The good news for music lovers is that you can find some very good products here. If $60 is too much for your budget, consider our runner-up, the Aukey SK-S1 (see below). Otherwise, we can’t say enough good things about the Tronsmart Element Force SoundPulse, which features IPX7 weatherization, support for True Wireless Stereo (so you can operate two of them as a stereo pair), and absolutely fantastic sound (in Extra Bass EQ mode, that is). That’s a lot of speaker for just 60 bucks.
Runner-up Aukey SK-S1 Bluetooth speaker Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $39.99See itThis Bluetooth speaker is meant to look good on your desktop, not the pool. It also sounds quite nice at low volumes. Given the price, and speaker phone functionality, it's pretty much the perfect workplace audio accoutrement.
The Aukey SK-S1 doesn’t have all the features—or audio power—of our top pick in this category, but it is an attractively designed near-field speaker that’s fabricated mostly from metal, where you might expect to find ABS plastic. And it sounds very good—at least until you push it to the edge. It’s not the right choice to fill a room, and it’s not at all protected from the weather, but it is a great deal for the money,
Best mid-priced Bluetooth speaker Fluance Ai60 Read TechHive's reviewSee itThe Fluance Ai60 offers spectacular sound quality with amazingly deep bass for far less than I would have expected. They're large, but definitely in charge!
These Bluetooth bookshelf speakers blew us away with their impeccable performance for the price, comparing favorably with a competing pair that cost nearly four times as much. We were particularly impressed with their frequency range and their ability to dig deep into the low-frequency realm, all the way down to 35Hz. Highly recommended if you’re looking for high-fidelity audio on a budget.
Best high-end Bluetooth speaker Bluesound Pulse Mini 2i Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $499.00See itBetter sounding than the original, the Pulse Mini 2i can also now be controlled via Alexa and it supports AirPlay 2. For the price you can't do better.
In addition to Bluetooth, you can control this speaker over Wi-Fi with Bluesound’s apps for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows; it can be part of a multi-room audio system with other Bluesound speakers or other speakers that support Apple’s AirPlay 2 technology; you can configure two of them as a stereo pair; it supports the aptX HD codec for streaming high-resolution audio; and it features a bi-directional Bluetooth radio, so you can stream music to it and listen to music from it using Bluetooth headphones. It goes without saying this speaker sounds absolutely divine. Highly recommended.
Best outdoor Bluetooth speaker Soundcast VG7 Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $799.99See itYes, you'll experience sticker shock. But it's been nearly 10 years since we've heard a powered, portable, outdoor speaker as good as this one,
This is the best powered outdoor speaker we’ve heard since Soundcast introduced its Outcast speaker nearly 10 years ago. It’s built like a tank; splash resistant, so you can use it poolside or at the beach; and it delivers outstanding battery life. Most importantly, however, it sounds fantastic. Expensive, but worth it.
Runner-up Sonos Move Read TechHive's review$399.00MSRP $399.00See iton SonosThe Sonos Move is a fantastic portable speaker and a rugged, weatherized component of one of the world’s preeminent multi-room audio systems.
The Soundcast VG7 won’t fit everyone’s budget, and while the Sonos Move isn’t exactly inexpensive, it’s engineered to withstand the elements, it sounds fantastic, and it’s supremely flexible, being able to stream music via either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Highly recommended.
Best price-is-no-limit Bluetooth speaker Naim Mu-so 2nd Generation Read TechHive's reviewMSRP $1,599.00See itThe Naim Audio Mu-so 2nd Generation is a pricey all-in-home home audio solution, but it’s supremely capable, incredibly flexible, and it sounds like heaven.
The Naim Mu-so 2nd Generation is, of course, much more than a Bluetooth speaker.It has a dual-band Wi-Fi adapter onboard, so you can use it in a multi-room audio system with other Naim components, any speaker that supports Apple’s AirPlay 2 technology, or anything that’s Chromecast compatible. It can play music on any connected USB storage device, and it can connect to any UPnP server on your network. It’s Roon Ready, too. Finally, it supports Spotify Connect and you can stream music from Tidal without leaving the Naim app. Oh, and it’s capable of decoding high-resolution music encoded at up to 32-bit resolution and at sampling rates as high as 384kHz. All that and it sounds amazing.
Runner-up Shinola Bookshelf Speakers Read TechHive's review$1,500.00MSRP $1,500.00See iton ShinolaShinola’s compact, minimalist self-powered speakers offer big, bright, and bold performances from almost any source, analog or digital, hardwired or via Bluetooth.
The soundbar-like design of Naim’s Mu-so Bluetooth speaker isn’t for everyone. If you want elegantly designed high-end speakers you can connect to via Bluetooth (and lots of wired ways, too), Shinola (and its design partner, studio-monitor builder Barefoot Sound) have what you’re looking for. Named simply Shinola Bookshelf Speakers, these loudspeakers sound every bit as beautiful as they look.
Features to look for in a Bluetooth speakerNot convinced the picks we’ve listed above are exactly right for you? This guide will help you sort through the facts, figures, and specs to determine which speaker will best meet your needs. Your first decision will be to choose between mobile and stationary form factors. The majority of Bluetooth speakers are portable because they get paired with mobile phones, but more and more manufacturers are introducing models designed to remain inside the home.
Choosing a portable model gives you the best of both worlds in some respects, but a stationary speaker is more apt to blend into your home’s decor. And while we’ve heard some pretty spectacular portable Bluetooth speakers, a plug-in model is more likely to produce the sound you’re looking for if fidelity is priority one in your book.
Here are the features you’ll want to evaluate in a Bluetooth speaker:
Theo NicolakisApp support: Companion apps can provide lots of additional features to a speaker that wouldn’t be possible with just physical buttons on the speaker itself. The app might enable more than one person to be the DJ, queuing up songs to play on the speaker. An app might enable you to create customized EQ curves for different styles of music, create wake-up alarms, or power the speaker on and off remotely.
aptX support: Bluetooth audio must be squeezed down in order to stream over the airwaves, and the default codec use lossy compression that throws some of the musical data away. Qualcomm’s aptX codec is lossless, so none of the musical detail is lost in the process. But aptX must be present at both ends of the stream, in the playback device and in the speaker. Most Android devices support aptX, but Apple devices do not.
aptX HD support: This version of Qualcomm’s codec supports high-resolution audio files, but it’s hard to find even in the highest-end Bluetooth speakers right now. As with its sibling, the codec must be supported on both the audio source and the speaker in order to work.
Battery: Next to fidelity, a portable speaker’s most important feature is how long it can operate when it’s not plugged into the wall. You should expect a battery to last 10 to 20 hours, but remember that the bigger the battery, the heavier the speaker will be.
Michael BrownCharging options: If your speaker has a battery, it will need to be charged. Speakers that charge their batteries via a USB port are more convenient than models that require an AC adapter, but larger batteries might not offer that option. Some speakers also let you plug in a USB cable to tap their battery to charge your smartphone.
DSP: An onboard digital signal processor (DSP) lets you electronically change how the speaker is driven in order to compensate for speaker placement or the acoustical properties of your room, among other things.
Mounting options and accessories: A portable speaker should be easy to take with you. While some Bluetooth speakers count on their size to make them easy to grip, others provide a lanyard, carabiner clip, or a shoulder strap. It’s even more handy when the manufacturer provides standardized sockets and accessories for mounting the speaker to an object, such as your bike’s handlebars.
Altec LansingSome portable Bluetooth speakers are small enough that you can grip them in your hand, but it provide thread mounts so you can attach them
Speakerphone: Some Bluetooth speakers have built-in microphones that enable you to use the speaker as a speakerphone in concert with your smartphone. The sound quality will be much better than what you’ll get from your phone, and you’ll be able to turn the volume up much higher. This can be very handy for conference calls.
Stereo pairing: Some speakers let you create a left/right stereo pair with two speakers (this works best, of course, when the two speakers are identical).
Weatherization: Portable Bluetooth speakers can be used indoors and out, so the best models provide some protection from the elements. Ideally, the manufacturer will let you know just how much protection you can expect by providing an IP (International Protection) marking. The first digit rates the enclosure’s protection from particulate matter (e.g., dust) and the second digit rates its protection against liquids.
An IP64 code, for instance, indicates that the speaker is completely protected from dust (6) and from water splashed onto it (4). The higher the numbers, the more protection you can expert If either digit is replaced by an X—IPX4, for example—the code indicates that the speaker isn’t rated for protection from particles (this doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not protected from things like dust, just that the manufacturer doesn’t rate its protection).
Wi-Fi: Higher-priced Bluetooth speakers also provide the option of connecting to your Wi-Fi network, so that you can stream music from a NAS box. Wi-Fi streams will offer higher fidelity than Bluetooth, even if the speaker supports the aptX codec. A speaker that provides for a hardwired network connection is all the more versatile.
Wireless range: A Bluetooth speaker’s range depends on the power class of its radio, and it can vary widely and is impacted by the environment that it’s operating in. A Class 1 radio offers range of approximately 100 meters, but the number of walls between the Bluetooth source and the speaker and the type of materials in those walls will have a significant impact on range. It’s much easier for radio waves to pass through drywall than masonry, for instance. Objects in the signal path, such as large metal appliances, will reduce that range even further.
Our latest Bluetooth speaker reviews Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@erik92005244/best-bluetooth-speakers-reviews-and-buying-advice-9b51c18f1c93 | [] | 2021-01-16 06:59:10.604000+00:00 | ['Chromecast', 'Gear', 'Mobile Accessories', 'Services'] |
The Consigliere | The Consigliere
The job is almost done.
Photo by mahdi rezaei on Unsplash
“Are you a fucking idiot?” I screamed at Louis. He looked at me as if I had lost my mind, his finger played with the trigger of the gun in his lap. We both knew there was no way that he was going to do anything. It was the tango that we danced all the time, this was no different. “Billy, Al, and Kathleen are all part of an undercover FBI sting, looking to bring you down.”
“Are you sure about Billy and Al? I just hired them in, they passed all the background checks that I put them through.” Louis set his gun on the table and moved over to the window, next to his dead houseplant. “Tell me Sharp, how could the FBI have fooled me? I should kill the lot of them, send a strong message to the damn government that I will not be bullied or harassed.”
My temples throbbed. I punched the bridge of my nose as I tried to find a way to explain to my boss why his plan was the dumbest thing he had ever come up with. “Louis, if you kill any of them then you will be charged with at least Felony Murder. Who knows what the feds will cook up to prosecute you with.”
“What the hell do you suggest I do then?” His eyes narrowed, which gave him a menacing look. “Please tell me what you think I should do. Sit on my hands and let the other families think that I’m a pussy, that I’m about to be taken down? I don’t think so.”
“Send Billy and Al to the coffee plant, that’s what you told them they would be doing anyway. And dump Kathleen.” It was the same thing I had been pleading with him to do since Kathleen had cozied up to him at a charity dinner. But Louis thought with a different part of his body when it came to women.
“I have a better idea. I’ll blow up the coffee plant, get rid of them and frame the DeLucci family for it.” He punched the air in victory as if this was the best plan ever. After he was back at his desk, he lifted the receiver. “Send Kathleen in.”
“You have 15 million dollars invested in the plant, is it wise to just blow it up? Why are you hell-bent on killing these people?”
“I don’t take well to betrayal.”
Before more could be said, Kathleen entered the room. Today she was draped in a white Calvin Klein wrap dress. Accented with diamond earrings and a chunky diamond necklace. “Hello, Darling.”
Her voice was like that of a 1950’s movie star. Louis said nothing, he only lifted the gun and pulled the trigger. The bullet blasted through her head and into the doorframe. Everything started moving as if it were in slow motion. Louis left his desk and went over to the corpse. He methodically took the jewelry off and went back to his desk. “We’ll give her some obscure name and dump the body in the woods.
“You realize that she has some sort of tracking device on her body or something. No matter what we do, this is not going to end up well. You might as well put the body in the factory, at least then you would have plausible deniability.”
He only nodded his head. That was my sign to leave. Something about the scene bothered me, it wasn’t the violence. That trauma had ended long ago after I witnessed the murder of a young father and a young child.
Once in my office, a little room in the mansion, I inhaled. The scent of fresh pencil shavings filled my nostrils. Before I could sit in my chair, Louis was pounding on my door. “Come on, Sharp. We need to get down to the coffee factory.”
Shit, he had already put the plan in motion. Everything hit me at once, Louis had already known about them being FBI agents. The background checks had turned up something that tipped him off, but he hadn’t told me.
The ride was silent until It was broken when the driver pulled over, about three blocks from the factory. Louis and I both got out and started to walk over to the building. We crossed the street and inched closer to it. “Duck your head.”
As if by his command, the building exploded. The sound of glass crunching and the smell of sulfur filled the air. A fire truck and police car sirens took the place of the broken glass.
The flying debris had cut Louis. I wrapped my hand around him and walked him back to the limo. There was no way I could take him to the hospital, there would be too many questions. Like any good mob boss, Louis had a doctor on hand to take care of things.
“It smells like rotting meat.” There was no weakness in his voice.
“Well human flesh is burning, what do you expect.”
“Traitors have to learn their lessons. Maybe I made a mistake in killing them, but I had to do it. You were right though; I should have moved Kathleen’s body.”
“No use in worrying about that now. We have to get you taken care of.”
“One more thing?”
“Of course, Louis. What is it?”
“How long have you been working with The Feds? Don’t tell me you aren’t and don’t tell me that you were double-crossing them. I know the truth, I know everything.”
“They approached me and showed me evidence, enough to get us both sent away for a long time. They cut me a deal, so I gave them everything I had on you.”
“You son of a — “
Just as he gave Kathleen no chance to finish or fight for her life, I gave him no chance. With a gloved hand, I took his gun and shot him in the temple.
My time as a mob consigliere had come to an end. | https://medium.com/cloaks-clues-cliffhangers/the-consigliere-229398dc1fbb | ['Edward Anderson'] | 2019-11-16 01:54:28.497000+00:00 | ['Action', 'Flash Fiction', 'Violence', 'Fiction', 'Mafia'] |
Many Paths Home | By Catherine Crystal Foster, CEO and Co-founder
Photo: San José Spotlight/Ramona Giwargis
As the year draws to a close, pinpricks of light and hope are starting to emerge, with the first waves of vaccination underway and the possibility of recovery visible on the distant horizon. At the same time, it will truly be darkest before the dawn for too many of our neighbors. With savings depleted and an eviction moratorium scheduled to terminate at the end of next month, more than 43,000 people in Santa Clara County alone could lose their homes — just as COVID infection levels are reaching new peaks. And, perhaps most important, a recovery that maintains the deep inequity and crippling housing crisis that defined our pre-pandemic “normal” is a loss for all of us.
But we are not powerless in the face of this pain. We each can take action on short-term relief and long-term structural change to keep our community sheltered and safe today and in the months and years ahead. Magnify Community has just produced a roadmap to help local donors find the way: Housing Justice in Silicon Valley: An Action Plan for Donors. Combining high-level guidance on interlocking strategies with well-documented analysis of the problem and its solutions, it offers every donor an entry point to make a meaningful impact in the near-term, mid-term, and long-term.
As the Action Plan lays out, the most urgent need today is rent relief. “Rent eats first,” as we often hear, and it has a voracious appetite in Silicon Valley, where a person needs to earn $132,000 just to rent an average two-bedroom apartment in San Jose. Vulnerable renters need cash, pure and simple, so they can remain in their homes and our community can avoid a massive wave of evictions. Destination: Home and Sacred Heart Community Service in Santa Clara County, and Samaritan House and the San Mateo County Immigrant Relief Fund in San Mateo County are effectively and compassionately providing rental assistance on a large scale, but the need far outstrips what they can supply. Local donors can help fill the gap and leverage additional governmental and corporate funding through their gifts.
It is far more cost-effective to families and to society — as well as more humane — to keep people housed than to shelter people once they become homeless. This is why smart short-term strategies also include funding the nonprofit legal assistance that low-income renters need to stave off eviction. Stand-out organizations like Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, and the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley are among those who are keeping our neighbors housed, as laid out in the Housing Justice Action Plan.
Longer-term, the solutions include housing, housing, and more housing. This requires producing more affordable housing, preserving land and existing housing stock for housing, and engaging in the policy advocacy and organizing that makes all that possible and addresses the persistent inequities that deepen our housing crisis.
Local philanthropy plays an absolutely vital role in funding those solutions. Philanthropic capital can move fast, and serves as flexible risk capital, which is well-suited to fill gaps or provide up-front runway to accelerate affordable housing development. It also helps fuel the robust ecosystem of effective nonprofits throughout Silicon Valley that tirelessly work to protect renters, shelter and support people experiencing homelessness so they become stably housed, develop innovative financing models to build affordable housing, advocate for policy change, and more. Together, these strategies provide mutually-reinforcing investment opportunities.
The public health crisis we are all experiencing together underscores the need to shift from the “you or me” mindset that has characterized our region’s approach to housing, to a “you and me” mindset that is necessary to create a thriving, vibrant, and diverse community that works for all. Local giving is a powerful way to translate that mindset into action.
What we do today will not only provide shelter and hope in this dark time, it will change the course of our Valley’s future. Our housing crisis can seem like a labyrinth, but there are many doors in and many paths out, powered by generous philanthropy working in partnership with government investment. As we look expectantly to the flickers of light on the horizon, we can all take steps now to create a brighter present and a more promising future for everyone who calls Silicon Valley home. | https://medium.com/@magnifysv/many-paths-home-16af64390264 | ['Magnify Community'] | 2020-12-16 21:53:17.589000+00:00 | ['Nonprofit', 'Homelessness', 'Philanthropy', 'Housing Crisis', 'Silicon Valley'] |
Un recado | Mom working on writing, Spanish and growing. Impromptu family dance parties make me happy. | https://medium.com/@impromptudancing/un-recado-64f8da7883ca | ['Impromptu Dancing'] | 2020-10-09 21:44:30.306000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Self Improvement', 'Español', 'Skateboarding', 'Life'] |
The Ego | Photo by Yong Chuan on Unsplash
The ego bridges all the gaps
So the mind won’t collapse
In that pillarless cavern
Each thought become a lantern
Thoughts are not sufficient
Even if they are beneficent
To defend against the darkness
The ego and mind find harmless
As the sun rises, we dive
In the mind, as if a succulent hive
Teeming with thought-filled baits
The mind throws open its gates
Its structure is kept intact
Despite being completely packed
Around it, entire lives are built
The prosperous ego will not wilt | https://dr-niranjanseshadri.medium.com/the-ego-f1456c3e6604 | ['Dr. Niranjan Seshadri'] | 2019-10-08 17:31:25.845000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Mind', 'Poetry', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Ego'] |
Stop Seeking Approval | Stop Seeking Approval
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
Solve challenge here: https://www.bookcademy.com/home/show_daily_challenges/stop-seeking-approval
As we’ve seen, compliments are dangerous and sneaky. So if we can nip them in the bud before they bloom, so much the better. The main source of compliment-creation is seeking approval, either intentionally or inadvertently.
Doing it intentionally is fishing for compliments. You aren’t looking for contradictory information. You’ve already made up your mind, but need someone’s blessing take the leap.
Symptoms of Fishing For Compliments:
“I’m thinking of starting a business… so, do you think it will work?”
“I had an awesome idea for an app — do you like it?”
Accidental approval-seeking is what I call “The Pathos Problem.” It happens when you expose your ego, leading people to feel they ought to protect you by saying nice things.
This comes up when you tell someone about an idea you obviously care about (which is pretty much always, since otherwise you wouldn’t be asking). Even if you give folks permission to be honest and ask for criticism, they’re still going to pull their punches. | https://medium.com/bookcademy/the-mom-test-by-rob-fitzpatrick-stop-seeking-approval-1269031049a | ['Daniel Morales'] | 2019-11-01 11:52:25.669000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'The Mom Test', 'Bookcademy', 'Daily Challenge', 'Book Summary'] |
Query optimization in django using select_related() and prefetch_related() | As our app grows and the dataset gets larger and larger, we need to make sure that the serializer or the view sets that we wrote should be well optimized and should not have any N+1 query problem.
Now let’s take an example to understand what I meant by the N+1 query problem. Let's say we have the below models in our models.py
And we have our serializers and api_views structured as below
Now you might be wondering what’s an issue with the code we just saw?
So let me show you the problem we have here. In our serializers, we have nested PackagesListSerializer within the StudentPackagesListSerializer which will eventually be executing separate queries for each foreign key related object.
Suppose we have 1000 objects in our studentpackage table and 1000 objects in our package table. Then here 1 query will be executed to get all items from studentpackage and while iterating through each object of studentpackage a separate query is executed to get the package details which results in 1001 queries (N+1).
To avoid the above problem we can make use of either select_related() or prefetch_related() which is provided by the Django framework.
select_related
We can use select_related on any ForeignKey or OneToOne relation fields in our models. It will return a single but more complex query by performing SQL join operation between the two tables which follow the foreign-key or onetoone relations.
Let's use the select_related on our queryset to fetch the package details upfront, which will join the studentpackage and package tables and remove separate lookup for each package, which means we reduced the number of queries from 1001 to 1.
class StudentPackageListView(ModelViewSet):
serializer_class = StudentPackagesListSerializer
def get_queryset(self):
queryset = StudentPackage.objects.all() \
.select_related('package')
return queryset
prefetch_related
It also works similar to select_related(), but the strategy is quite different here.
The main difference in both the method is select_related() returns a larger result set that contains all the related objects in the single database query whereas prefetch_related() does a separate lookup for each relationship, and does the ‘joining’ in Python.
Let's use prefetch_related() and see what it does behind the scene
class StudentPackageListView(ModelViewSet):
serializer_class = StudentPackagesListSerializer
def get_queryset(self):
queryset = StudentPackage.objects.all() \
.prefetch_related('package')
return queryset
As shown in the above image, now we are fetching all the related package objects in a separate database query, which removed that 1000 separate lookups for the package table from the serializer.
We can also use reverse lookup with prefetch_related(). In our example, if we want to fetch the group details in the same API response wher we don't have a direct relationship with the group table, but it has foreign-key relationship with studentpackage table.
In this case, we can pass related_name of the field from the group table for a related object which has a foreign key relationship with studentpackage table to prefetch_related().
class StudentPackageListView(ModelViewSet):
serializer_class = StudentPackagesListSerializer
def get_queryset(self):
queryset = StudentPackage.objects.all() \
.prefetch_related(
'package',
'group_studentpackages'
)
return queryset
Now we will get the queryset which will fetch the related objects for package and group tables in separate lookups. | https://medium.com/@sachingadhari98/query-optimization-in-django-using-select-related-and-prefetch-related-a9bbccb51fe1 | ['Sachin Gadhari'] | 2020-12-20 07:58:13.886000+00:00 | ['Django', 'Django Rest Framework', 'Optimization', 'Backend'] |
Are “Conservative Values” Trump Defectors Idealize Really Distinct from Trumpism? | flickr.com
While Americans have by and large done a horrible and irresponsible job of practicing social distancing during this pandemic, a group of anti-Trump Republicans have been strategically and deceptively practicing a political distancing from Trump and the Republican Party.
Let’s be clear, though, that this political distancing is just that — a matter of political strategy, not one of ideological difference.
These anti-Trumpers, re-constituting themselves as members of the Lincoln Project, are simply trying to save conservative ideology from Trump’s sinking ship. While Trump has, for all intents and purposes, pulled back the curtain on traditional Republican “ideals,” revealing the small-man retrograde politics of racism, mass redistribution of wealth to wealthiest, sexism, anti-unionism, resistance to LGBTQ civil rights, and more, these defectors from Trump and the GOP are trying to create a life raft for conservatism by speciously peddling the story that the values of traditional conservatism and Trump’s Republican Party are somehow distinct.
Just last Thursday, Jennifer Horn, former chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party, announced her departure from the Republican Party in the pages of USA Today, waxing nobly about conservative principles and lamenting Trump’s supposed departure from them: “Those ideals that I have spent so many years fighting for — liberty, conservatism, constitutional leadership — are no longer the principles of the Republican Party,” she asserts with brave face. “I remain committed to the fight for conservatism, constitutionalism and individual liberty. My belief in the promise that is America remains strong. America must remain a beacon of hope for freedom and liberty for all.”
Her resignation followed that of former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who actually joined the Democratic Party, declaring himself a single-issue voter, that issue being democracy.
Both are members of the Lincoln Project, and both toe its political mantra we see the likes of Michael Steele, Rick Wilson, and other former high-level Republican operatives seeking to salvage the coded anti-democracy politics of conservatism from Trump’s exposure.
The founders of the Lincoln Project spell out this party line, writing, “We have been, and remain, broadly conservative (or classically liberal) in our politics and outlooks. Our many policy differences with national Democrats remain, but our shared fidelity to the Constitution dictates a common effort.”
They insistently distinguish their Republican values from Trump’s: “Mr. Trump and his enablers have abandoned conservatism and longstanding Republican principles and replaced them with Trumpism, an empty faith led by a bogus prophet.”
But how distinct is this conservatism these figures ennoble?
For example, do they really value democracy?
Did we hear these folks crying out when Pennsylvania Republican House leader Mike Turzai declared back in the 2012 that Voter ID laws would help Mitt Romney win the presidency by suppressing the vote?
Did they rail about the gerrymandering their once beloved Republican Party fought so hard for in order to undermine free and fair elections?
The GOP back then and for some time has been no fan of democracy. Just remember Karl Rove’s fantasy of a “permanent Republican majority” back when he was serving as George W. Bush’s brain. Voter suppression and gerrymandering were the order of the day. These “longstanding Republican principles” did not value democracy in any way shape or form and thus disgraced the Constitution as well.
Did we hear the loud and sanctimonious voices of Steve Schmidt and Jennifer Horn speak out against the Tea Party and its rampant racism?
When Tea Party protesters carried signs demanding “Take Your Government Hands Off My Medicare,” did we hear these conservative pundits trying to inform the public that Medicare is a government program? Or, did they go along with the manipulation of these folks to exploit them in the service of their agenda for tax cuts, the shrinking of government (meaning the elimination of services), the elimination of the Affordable care Act, and more?
Did we hear them disagree with Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell when, after Trump’s huge tax cuts for the wealthy, they insisted Social Security would need to be cut to manage the deficit? Did they decry the tx cuts themselves, which simply redistributed wealth to the richest?
They went along with it. Just as they went along with the oft-repeated lies of trickle-down economics that tax cuts for the wealthy would pay for themselves and eventually this wealth would work its way down the ladder. The International Monetary Fund has since confirmed the big lie of the traditional economic policies of conservatism.
So, while these suddenly holier-than-thou seek desperately dismiss Trump as a liar, “a bogus prophet,” who has “abandoned conservatism,” we need to call this lie.
Back in 2004, Al Franken penned a book titled Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced View of the Right, highlighting just the rampage of lying that, in the age of Trump, is repeatedly identified as “unprecedented.” Paul Krugman recently traced the Republican aversion to fact and reality to the beloved icon of conservatism Ronald Reagan.
How quickly we forget. Does the acronym “WMD” jar your memory at all? Remember when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, along with their entourage, sold Americans a bill of goods in order to invade Iraq, costing the U.S. thousands of lives and trillions of dollars? As Rachel Maddow since exposed in her 2014 documentary Why We Did It, the regime of Bush and Cheney, both with personal ties to big oil, were working hand in hand with oil companies
These people have not been about democracy and the Constitution, and neither has conservatism.
The Republican Party has long worked to deny women the right to an abortion, seeking to control their bodies. How does this conservative principle support individual liberty for women? It doesn’t. Conservative ideology is nastily sexist.
And let’s not forget Lee Atwater’s 1981 interview in which he made clear the conservative agenda embodied in the Southern Strategy, which involved replacing the “n-word” with coded terms like “state’s rights,” “small government, “ and “tax cuts.”
We can expect these Lincoln Project folks to do all they can to distinguish themselves from Trump in an effort to re-assert his anti-democratic politics in a “kinder and gentler” code so they can continue bamboozling Americans as they serve the wealthiest at the expense of the rest of us and continue the assault on civil rights.
Don’t be fooled. | https://timlittlebooks.medium.com/are-conservative-values-trump-defectors-idealize-really-distinct-from-trumpism-7a71caf29c20 | ['Tim Libretti'] | 2020-12-23 22:00:23.512000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Conservatives', 'Republican Party', 'Democracy', 'Trump'] |
Qweetgis — QGIS 3 plugin for Twitter | Plugin logo designed by Alessia Nawell credits: QGIS — Twitter
The idea of developing a QGIS plugin came from my willingness to refresh my knowledge after having collaborated to the development of a plugin a few years ago. At that time, rather inexperienced, I developed features for a plugin called Roadnet having a very detailed scope, the spatial data management of the Local Street Gazetter according to the British Standard. Back then in 2015, the latest QGIS version was 2.8, plugins were in Python 2 and Qt/PyQt latest version was 4.x. Within that project I deepened my Python knowledge, I learnt how to create Qt UI objects and its processing threading classes QThreadPool and QThread.
Fast Forward 2019, Python 3 is now the standard, QGIS supporting this Python version is now at 3.4 and Qt/PyQt last version is now 5.x, I am a less inexperienced GIS developer and I felt ready to contribute to the QGIS community with a plugin built entirely by myself. My first intention was to write a story on how to implement a general multi-purpose threaded process in QGIS, I eventually ended up building a QGIS plugin which is using a threaded process but is doing something a bit more interesting than geometry validation/reporting. Qweetgis uses the Twitter streaming API with concurrent processing in Python to download and display on a map real time tweets without locking the resources in the main QGIS UI thread. You can watch tweets pop up as points in your map while they are created without having to wait for the download process to finish. If this seems interesting enough for you, please download the plugin, use it in QGIS and keep reading this story. Here is the link for the the GitHub repository. Qweetgis is based on the work of Riccardo Klinger - Geolicious- who developed Geotweet, a twitter plugin for QGIS 2.x.
Prerequisites
Qweetgis uses a Python package called Tweepy that makes the requests to the Twitter streaming API. Standard QGIS Python does not come with Tweepy and it has to be installed separately. There are a lot of guides online that teach you how to do it and there is not a single method that works for every user since operating systems and Python configurations may differ. I installed it on both a Windows 10 and Linux (Ubuntu 18.04) machine. On Ubuntu (where I also have Anaconda) I simply did a $ pip3 install tweepy from the terminal and Tweepy installed into the global environment Python 3 which is the same used in QGIS. On Windows, the solution that worked for me is here.🔴 I did it on a standalone QGIS install, if you have QGIS installed within OSGEO4W this method may brake you Python2 environment 🔴. For QGIS in OSGEO4W I also managed to install Tweepy following this example to set up the OSGEO4W Python to point to Python 3, the command is py3_env . After that, I downloaded the tar.gz Tweepy module from PyPi, extracted it and from the OSGEO4W shell, cd-ing into the extracted Tweepy folder tweepy-3.7.0, I ran the python3 setup.py install .
The other prerequisite is having the four authentication tokens to access the Twitter API, the two Twitter API developer keys and the two user tokens used by OAuth to authorise Qweetgis to use your account. To get the first two keys you will have to sign-up for a developer Twitter API account and create an application, instructions are here. Once you get these two keys you will be able to generate your OAuth access tokens, instructions are here. I know it’s awkward, you install an application and you’d like to use it straight away, without having to subscribe to a Twitter Dev account that you probably will never use if it wasn’t for this plugin. I tried to make the authentication process as seamless as possible, creating an authentication web service providing the OAuth tokens based on my personal DEV keys, stored in a secure server. The problem is that the Twitter API requires DEV keys in every request, these keys must be stored secretly and I couldn’t distribute mine for you to use. The risk is that someone with malicious intents could use these keys to read the tokens of the users subscribed to the plugin and potentially hack plugin users’ Twitter accounts.
Login
Once obtained your four items for authentication, the first time you’ll start Qweetgis after it is installed you will be presented with the following login dialog.
Note: If you are behind a proxy server, Qweetgis could be set to point to it, it has to be configured before logging in, see instructions here.
Qweetgis Login Dialog — testing user credentials
Every time a new session is started the plugin looks into the config/config.json file in the plugin root directory. If credentials are not found you will be prompted to input them. When you click on OK, the inserted tokens are written and stored in the config file and you won’t need to supply them again. You can also test the credentials once inserted before proceeding. Qweetgis will ping Twitter and search for 10 random tweets to check if the connection is up and the API is responsive.
Main Dialog | https://medium.com/@compatt/qweetgis-qgis-3-plugin-for-twitter-93005f2e5ec8 | ['Alessandro Cristofori'] | 2019-01-23 12:30:37.527000+00:00 | ['Qgis', 'GIS', 'Maps', 'Twitter', 'Python'] |
This Single Investing Rule Made Peter Thiel Billions | This Single Investing Rule Made Peter Thiel Billions
Seek Monopolies, Avoid Competition
Photo by BP Miller on Unsplash
Peter Thiel, who turned into an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist after he succesfully co-founded and sold PayPal, has just seen his net worth jump to over $5 billion dollars in recent months. This is quite an achievement having started with ‘only’ $10 millions after Paypal was sold to eBay in 2002. He developed his investing strategies in a controversial book called Zero to One where he states that competition is for losers. In this article, we look into how Peter Thiel used this statement as a key investing mantra which helped him score big in Airbnb, Palantir, Facebook and SpaceX amongst other successful investments.
Avoid markets where there is perfect competition
Perfect competition is considered the default state of any market. Here, companies compete against each other with products that are barely differentiated. Market price is determined by the interaction of supply and demand. The higher the margins in any given market, the higher the incentive for any new company to enter the market. When a market becomes too competitive, both prices and margins drop. Peter Thiel states that, under perfect competition, in the long run, no company makes an economic profit.
Peter Thiel states that, under perfect competition, in the long run, no company makes an economic profit.
Seek monopolies
Peter Thiel defines a monopoly as the opposite of perfect competition. A monopoly dominates a given market and controls prices. Given customers have no alternatives, monopolies face inelastic demand, meaning they can increase prices without significantly impacting demand.
A good example of such business model is Google. The US tech company holds more than 70% market share in the web search market. It has such strong dominance that the word ‘google’ has made it in the Oxford English dictionary as a verb. However, to downplay its dominance, the company labels itself as an advertising company or more broadly a technology company. In fact, within these industries, Google only owns a small market. These tactics help the company downplay its monopoly in web search given economists and the media typically give monopolies a bad press. Peter Thiel stresses that one should seek creative monopolies which are corporates that continue to innovate to make their dominance long-lasting.
Big wins in Palantir, Facebook, Space X and Airbnb
Acquiring stakes in monopolies has been a key investing mantra for Peter Thiel over the years and has helped him achieve spectacular returns. In the early 2000s, he invested $500,000 in a Harvard drop-out kid’s business called Facebook which turned out to be the largest social media platforms out there. Peter made most of his wealth from investing in Palantir which labels itself as a big data analytics company but is in reality a counter-terrorism and fraud investigation data company. Other investments include SpaceX, the dominant space company in the US and Airbnb, the largest rental online marketplace globally.
Yes, Peter Thiel has a big advantage of being able to take positions in monopolies at an early stage. But, for the rest of us who don’t have access to these deals in the private market, we can use his investing mantra to invest monopolies as soon as they become listed.
Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/this-single-investing-rule-made-peter-thiel-billions-deb912c1973b | ['Adam Aya'] | 2020-11-25 15:18:02.973000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Investing', 'Finance', 'Stock Market', 'Technology'] |
Golden Gate — Trustless-Bridging Ethereum (EVM) Blockchains — Part 2: Transaction Replay | Read it on Github with syntax highlighting.
In Trustless-Bridging Ethereum (EVM) Blockchains — Part 1: Basics you saw that we have the tools to prove any momentary state change that happened on chain A, on another chain B, assuming that chain B has access to trustworthy chain A block hashes.
Today we will explore a mechanism for keeping smart contract state in sync between two EVM-based chains, as demoed in the following video:
Protocols usually implement replay protections to make sure malicious actors cannot execute state-changing transaction crafted on another chain. But purposefully implementing a mechanism for replaying state changes or syncing state snapshots directly, can be a useful pattern for keeping assets on multiple chains or migrating from one chain to another.
What does it mean for a state change to be replayed? Using the same signed transaction on chain B, that a user sent on chain A.
struct Transaction {
uint256 nonce;
uint256 gasPrice;
uint256 gasLimit;
address to;
uint256 value;
bytes data;
uint8 v;
bytes32 r;
bytes32 s;
}
A successful replay requires the same setup on both chains:
same contract address (transaction’s to field) same account address (transaction’s from field) same account nonce (number of transactions sent for EOAs / number of contracts created for contracts), checked by miners with EIP-155, same chain id, which is included in the signed transaction data
Therefore, to create a protocol that allows replaying transactions for the purpose of having a correctly synced state between chains, we need a Proxy contract that fulfills the role of the miner: validates the transaction and runs it.
The above rules, allow us to reuse the exact same calldata on all chains where we want to have synced state changes. The Proxy contract will keep track of the account nonce per each chain ID that it supports and will forward the call to the appropriate contract address ( to field), with some caveats for this receiving contract:
it will need to know how to interface with the Proxy
msg.sender will now be the Proxy address, so the original msg.sender must be additionally provided by the Proxy
will now be the Proxy address, so the original must be additionally provided by the Proxy the Proxy will be given administrative rights to change state and it will be the only mechanism through which state is changed
What are the steps for replaying a transaction on another chain?
get the transaction and receipt proofs, along with the header of the block in which the transaction was mined.
send the proofs to the Proxy-Prover smart contract. You can see the entire logic of the forwardAndVerify function here.
function forwardAndVerify (
EthereumDecoder.BlockHeader memory header,
MPT.MerkleProof memory accountdata,
MPT.MerkleProof memory txdata,
MPT.MerkleProof memory receiptdata,
uint256 chainId
) public returns (bytes memory);
check the block header & hash validity as shown in Part 1
(bool valid, string memory reason) = verifyHeader(header);
if (!valid) revert(reason);
check the transaction proof as shown in Part 1
(valid, reason) = verifyTransaction(header, txdata);
if (!valid) revert(reason);
check the receipt proof as shown in Part 1
(valid, reason) = verifyReceipt(header, receiptdata);
if (!valid) revert(reason);
check the account proof as shown in Part 1
(valid, reason) = verifyAccount(header, accountdata);
if (!valid) revert(reason);
check transaction and receipt have the same index (the key used for each of the proofs) and therefore are directly correlated.
require(
keccak256(txdata.key) == keccak256(receiptdata.key),
"Transaction & receipt index must be the same."
);
Decode RLP-encoded transaction, receipt, and account data. The transaction data is needed for retrieving the to field — the address of the contract to which we forward the transaction. The receipt contains the status field, which tells us if the transaction must be successful or not. The account data contains the account nonce .
Account memory account = toAccount(
accountdata.expectedValue
);
Transaction memory transaction = toTransaction(
txdata.expectedValue
);
TransactionReceipt memory receipt = toReceipt(
receiptdata.expectedValue
);
recover the sender address and account nonce from the signed transaction data and verify that the nonce is what we expect. We are effectively synchronizing the account nonce from chain A, with chain B in order to protect from replaying the same transaction multiple times. This nonce can be kept per each account, per each chain we are synchronizing with. It is updated regardless of the success/fail status of the transaction.
address sender = getTransactionSender(txdata, chainId);
if (accountNonces[sender] > 0) {
require(
account.nonce == accountNonces[sender] + 1,
"Account nonce out of sync"
);
}
accountNonces[sender] = account.nonce;
We can even check that the receiving contract has the same code on chain B as it has on chain A, by comparing the account’s codeHash with the target contract codeHash
bytes32 codeHash;
address target = transaction.to;
assembly {
codeHash := extcodehash(target)
}
require(account.codeHash == codeHash);
execute the call and check that it has the same status as the receipt
(bool success, bytes memory data) = transaction.to.call{
value: transaction.value,
gas: transaction.gasLimit
}(transaction.data);
uint8 _success = success ? uint8(1) : uint8(0);
require(
_success == receipt.status,
"Diverged transaction status"
);
return data;
Transaction hygiene
For this system to work properly, it requires transaction hygiene. Nonces need to be kept in sync across chains and this means that cross-chain accounts need to use an account manager to send transactions and make sure they are not sent out of order.
Cross-chain synced contracts need to be deployed with the same address, which can easily be achieved by deploying them from the same account address, at the same nonce.
The EVM does not give access to transaction data (e.g. transaction hash) or the value of the account’s nonce for that transaction. If there was such access, the need for storing the nonce on-chain (yet again) would not exist.
Shadow payments
This transaction replay pattern can be used for shadow payments.
lower value chain payment precedes higher value chain payment. One can pay on a testnet as a promise to buy a product.
One can pay on a testnet as a promise to buy a product. lower value chain payment postcedes higher value chain payment. One can send a payment on the mainnet, use the proof for that payment on a testnet, and process further logic.
Projects can maintain their own rich-interaction chains, only for their users, shadowing the contracts on the high-value chains that handle more important payments or transactions.
For a bridge between something that does not have an EVM-like execution environment and something that has, this could add additional behavior to a purchase/transaction.
This bridge may be extended to Bitcoin, so this becomes especially relevant — you could do something on Ethereum dependent upon buying something with Bitcoin.
Other mechanisms
We can do a mechanism for syncing state changes without these restrictions of using the same sender account. But it does not get easier, we would just need other rules to ensure the protocol cannot be gamed: a pattern of executing correlated actions, which we will discuss in the next articles. You might be familiar with this pattern because it is widely used for locking tokens on one chain and minting them on another chain.
We can also keep the storage state in sync — entirely or sparsely, depending on what storage keys we need for each contract. Then, we do not replay state changes, but sync snapshots of data at certain points in time. We will talk about the rules of this mechanism in the next articles. | https://medium.com/@loredanacirstea/golden-gate-trustless-bridging-ethereum-evm-blockchains-part-2-transaction-replay-b021786d3c59 | ['Loredana Cirstea'] | 2020-12-05 11:38:57.403000+00:00 | ['Distributed Systems', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum', 'Decentralization', 'Blockchain'] |
How to Establish Trust Using the Paid, Owned, and Earned Framework | Paid Media: We Pay People to Say We’re Innovative
In this model, trust comes at a price.
How much are we willing to pay to say we are the most innovative company selling whatever we sell?
Brands can plaster the message on billboards and digital ads, add it to their radio and Pandora scripts, but it’s all the same.
The same way advertisers told the public that butter was healthy, they also claimed there were no risks associated with smoking cigarettes. Paid media is bullshit unless it has substance.
Heineken understood that drunk driving was an issue they wanted to tackle head-on, so they launched a series of anti-drunk driving campaigns in a creative, and dare I say innovative, way.
They worked with behavioral designers to normalize the idea of being a designated driver at local bars and pubs in the UK. These bars were called nudge bars and were designed to reward and celebrate designated drivers by removing the stigma attached to not drinking in a social setting.
According to Edelman.com, the newly designed nudge bar experiences resulted in an overall reduction in drunk driving behavior upwards of 50%. 80% of people said the program would encourage them to support their friends not to drink alcohol if driving, with 60% of people claiming it made them think about changing their behavior. They also aligned themselves with Formula 1 racing champions to communicate the message of not drinking while driving.
Redesigning the bar experience to keep customers and the community safe is an excellent example of innovation. Instead of concentrating on the message of innovation itself, Heineken doubled down on its mission to reduce drunk driving behavior by changing the customer experience where customers spend their time — at the pub.
Heineken then turned this social experiment into their advertising campaigns by running paid TV and digital video ads about the experiment.
According to Statista:
Heineken beer generated approximately 800 million U.S. dollars in sales in the United States in 2018, making it one of the leading brands on the country’s imported beer brand sales rankings.
Social good and innovation are a winning combination. Trust was established with customers, and all they had to do was tell their story on paid channels. | https://medium.com/better-marketing/how-to-establish-trust-using-the-paid-owned-and-earned-framework-1336f92eb4a0 | ['Joe Wilson'] | 2020-11-24 14:02:15.704000+00:00 | ['Paid Owned Earned', 'Marketing', 'Trust', 'Innovation', 'Customer'] |
How to Deploy a Nuxt.js Project to the Server? | From Nuxt.js Official Website
What is Nuxt.JS
Nuxt.js is a lightweight application framework based on Vue.js. It can be used to create server-side rendering (Server Side Rendering, SSR) applications. It can also act as a static site generator (Static Site Generator, SSG) to generate static applications with features such as elegant code structure layering and hot loading
21YunBox provides a very simple Nuxt.js deployment method. You can deploy with 21YunBox in a static site environment or a Node environment.
How to Deploy Nuxt.js in China?
Register as 21YunBox member Fork Nuxt.js example on Gitee Create a cloud service on 21YunBox, and allow 21YunBox to access your code base Create with the following configuration:
If you’d like a step by step example, please refer to this example video.
Why 21YunBox
21YunBox is a Cloud Service Platform based out of Beijing, China. Our services provides you with an easy and budget friendly, end-to-end web platform deployment service within China for all applications. No matter your stack, we have a flexible solution to assist. If needed, we also offer full support in obtaining your ICP license which allows you to legally host online content within Mainland China.
To learn about the differences between 21YunBox and these foreign (outside of China) Cloud Service Platforms? You can refer to: | https://medium.com/@21yunbox/how-to-deploy-a-nuxt-js-project-to-the-server-f3f6307120 | [] | 2021-03-12 00:09:38.012000+00:00 | ['Vuejs', 'Nuxtjs', 'How To', 'Web Development', 'China'] |
DotNet Core Threadpool | If you are reading this chances are that your Dotnet core app is experiencing some performance issues while scaling. And you think thread starvation could be one of the reasons behind it. Let’s take a look into how the Dotnet threadpool works.
Threadpool is the native software level thread management system for Dotnet runtime. It is also the queuing mechanism for all the incoming requests. There is no separate request queuing mechanism in Dotnet core besides the threadpool.
On the hardware level we typically have 1 thread per core of the CPU. So in most cases of our applications and in the context of this post we will consider 16 threads available, assuming we have a 16 core processor. Ideally we want our spawned threads to be at or around the same number. This may be a little confusing but stay with me.
In a fully asynchronous environment, the way Dotnet Threadpool works is :- for an incoming request it spawns a new thread — that thread runs it’s current operation (before async call), saves the current context and adds itself to the global pool as an available thread. When the remaining async call completes or if a new request comes in at this point, the Dotnet threadpool checks if all the 16 threads are already in operation, if yes it spawns up a new thread, if not it takes up one of the available threads from the pool.
Synchronous vs Asynchronous request processing
However if some of the calls in the application are blocking or are not asynchronous, the thread which had run part of the operation can neither add itself to the global pool nor destruct itself. It’s blocked till the entire operation is complete. And if all the current 16 threads are stuck at a given point in a similar fashion, the threadpool will have to spawn a new thread for every incoming request.
If at this point there is a burst of 1000 incoming request , dotnet threadpool will have to spawn a thread for every single one of those request which would result in a lot of threads being spun up. But the CPU can still only process 16 threads at any single point of time. Thread creation, destruction, context switching and their existence itself is very expensive , they eat up a lot of memory and can bring a system to a halt. We do not want so many threads running.
To avoid this Dotnet threadpool has a throttling mechanism. It throttles the incoming request and spawns a new thread at 0.5 second per request. So that means in worst cases if application has a lot of blocking calls and all threads get stuck on the blocking calls, in worst cases when there is a burst of 1000 incoming request a new incoming request/half processed request can wait up to 1000*0.5 = 500 seconds. So in some cases this means that an operation which has to retrieve data from the database, even though the first part of request has retrieved the data from the database — it might have to wait upto 500 seconds to send that data back to the application, which on the application level will show up as a slow query when in reality even though the query execution was pretty fast, it was the thread availability which was the issue. This problem is commonly referred as Thread Starvation.
ThreadPool Default behavior
Thread Pool with Custom Minimum Value
Dotnet threadpool provides 2 settings — MinimumValue and MaximumValue
MaximumValue — total number of threads that can be spawned , which is typically 32,767 (default)
Minimum Value — does not mean the minimum number of threads always present. The application does not boot with the minimum value of threads. The application will still boot with the threads equal to the number of CPU cores. It only means — the minimum number of threads that can be spawned before dotnet start the thread throttling process. We can think of it more in terms of the threshold limit. By default Dotnet sets this value as the number of hardware threads available based on the CPU setting — 16. This means after all 16 threads are in use and 5 new requests come in. Dotnet thread pool will wait 0.5 second for each request then check if a thread becomes free, if yes allots that to the request. If not spawns a new thread. If all the threads are blocked because of some blocking operation — the 5th request with current setting might have to wait 5 * 0.5 = 2.5 seconds to be processed.
If we increase the minimum value to 100. This means that if there is a sudden burst of 100+ request and all the current threads are busy. It will instantly spawn 100 threads for each of those requests and only then start the throttling process. This means there will now be at least 116 threads fighting for the resources on the machine (memory/CPU) which is ideally only designed to handle 16 threads. If the request burst is bigger or if it continues for a longer time, our system can soon become unresponsive and will need a reboot.
We can use minimum value as a patch for sometime, but it is not recommended by Microsoft. However minimum value of 100 should be relatively safe provided our burst of incoming requests is not constant or long lasting. And their recommendation was if the blocking calls cannot be avoided then to use it with some sort of a concurrency limiter which would not take incoming request (return 503) past a certain limit so the system doesn’t become unresponsive.
To Setup custom values for the minimum Value thresholds of Threadpool, we only need to make a small change. For example to set minimum value as 100 for both WorkerThread and IOCP thread, in the ConfigServices of your Startup.cs add this line of code.
ThreadPool.SetMinThreads(100, 100);
The real problem is all the blocking calls (non-async) across our applications. We should clean up on all the instances where we are using blocking calls like .Wait() / .Result() / .GetResult() and try using use await instead.
Use ReadFormAsync instead of .Form()
If running on Dotnet 3.0 + use IAsyncEnumerable<T> instead of IEnumerable<T> if returning from action results( because the latter results in synchronous serialization).
Before setting custom values for the thread we should try to measure the current metrics of the app like the current number of threads in the threadpool. This can be done by using a package like AppMetrics DotnetRuntime. (I will try to cover setting that up in another post). We should play with different values of minimum value of threadpool untill we find that sweep spot. Also look at these recommendations.
However it’s best to leave the threadpool alone and as soon as the expected burst of request is gone, the first step should be to remove all the blocking calls from your apps and to make it all asynchronous as soon as possible. | https://medium.com/@jaiadityarathore/dotnet-core-threadpool-bef2f5a37888 | ['Jai Rathore'] | 2021-04-01 16:37:55.866000+00:00 | ['Thread Pool', 'Scalability', 'Dotnet', 'Dotnet Core'] |
Outshine the rest by being a relatable and relevant freelancer. Here’s how | Pixabay from Pexels
If there is anything we have learnt from the rise of influencer culture, it’s that being relevant and relatable can pay the bills. And this doesn’t only apply to digital content creators, but to freelancers (and most working people, TBH) as well.
So how do you make sure that you stay in the know and on top of your game? Here are four ways to stay relevant and relatable as a freelancer.
1. Stay in the know
You don’t have to be one of the cool kids, but you do need to stay on top of trends, especially ones that fall into your specific niche. Knowing what’s cooking in your industry is crucial if you want to stay on top of your game, and on top of every client’s freelancer list. Follow some social media pages related to your industry and sign up to PR mailing lists so that you are the first to know of breaking news or innovations in your field.
2. Hone your skills
Technology changes at such a crazy-fast pace that it can be hard to keep up. But if you want to stay on top of your game as an independent professional, it’s advisable that you not only keep abreast of these updates but to also hone and freshen-up your skillset — regularly. Using outdated software or implementing old-school methods when creating work for clients could have them doubting your abilities and strategies, so keep your finger on the pulse of what’s hip-and-happening in your field.
3. Get social
We all know the power of networking and, whether you do it online or face-to-face at events and meet-ups, it gives you the opportunity to build connections and forge relationships in your field with prospective clients and peers alike. Whether you join an online freelancing community or attend the occasional industry launch, getting your name out there (for all the right reasons) can keep you front-of-mind when someone is looking to hire or collaborate.
4. Seek out opportunities
Good things might come to those who wait, but not those who lie in their beds binging series and not being proactive. There are always opportunities out there, and it’s up to you to be able to identify them and reach out to the right people to let them know what you could do for their business. It might take more guts and more effort than watching every season of Friends for the millionth time, but the reward could be a lot more lucrative. | https://medium.com/guildapp/outshine-the-rest-by-being-a-relatable-and-relevant-freelancer-heres-how-5b36c79428b6 | ['Helen Wallace'] | 2020-09-22 07:32:05.881000+00:00 | ['Freelancing', 'Freelancers', 'Solopreneur', 'Freelance Tips', 'Freelance'] |
And I was There | by Dwayne Phillips
We tend to inflate events when we participate in them. We do this at our peril in professional as well as personal situations.
The 2020 election was one of the most important in history. And I voted in it. The pandemic was one of the biggest events in the history of mankind. And I lived through it. The experimental results last week were more important than anything preceding them. And I conducted the experiments.
Hmmm. See a pattern? The truly big and important and wonderful things all have one thing in common: and I was there.
The Presidential election of 1900 — the first of the century — a pittance. McKinley and Bryan? Really? Nothing there. It ushered in the American century: the Wright brothers, Coca Cola, Elvis, Disney, Hollywood. Small stuff, huh? And I didn’t vote in it.
Well, maybe we exaggerate our presence in some of these things. But that isn’t important.
Go back to item #3 in the list above. This “And I was There” concept applies to professional situations. Conferences I attended, experiments I conducted, books I read, books I wrote, conversations involving me: do these professional events overshadow ones where I wasn’t present? Do all significant ideas involve me? Does someone else’s idea pale in comparison?
Ego. Self. All that psychological stuff. Meaningless. I mean sure, those folks are nice, but they aren’t, I mean they don’t, oh, and I wasn’t there. I wasn’t one of T H E M so their ideas aren’t. Hmmm. Maybe there is something to this.
And it must be important because I was there. | https://medium.com/@dwayne-phillips/and-i-was-there-98ba93f55a4b | ['Dwayne Phillips'] | 2020-12-21 10:54:15.354000+00:00 | ['Judgement', 'Ego', 'Self', 'Importance', 'Events'] |
On Cognitive Diversity | Imagine a weekend dinner party. Dinner has been in the making for hours. Maybe some special attention paid to attire. Personalized invitations have been sent to an intimate few. Who did you invite?
Who is sitting at the table has been central to the diversity conversation for years, and companies have rushed to respond by pushing more diverse and inclusive workplaces. However, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement more scrutiny is directed at how diverse employees are treated, not merely on their presence at the table. This is where diverse employees remain less than included in the workplace.
Companies endeavoring to increase demographic diversity have shifted the statistics: Deliotte’s 2019 State of Inclusion found 77% of workers feel they work in a more inclusive environment. Yet the same study found 61% of all workers still experience bias from colleagues, 17% considered direct bias. 31% of respondents cited bias based on race or ethnicity. The number of black and brown people at the table has increased, but have you changed the way you treat them when they come to dinner?
The lack of attention on the treatment of BIPOC workers has resulted in high company attrition rates and an inability to recruit diverse talent. Diverse employees are skeptical to believe demographic representation translates to equitable treatment. The rush to increase demographic diversity has left the root of intersectional bias untouched. Before demographic diversity can be prioritized, particularly in the workplace, the lack of cognitive diversity must first be addressed.
Demographic diversity is the focus on filling the table with the correct number of diverse people, prioritizing physical representation rather than individual complexities. “By cognitive diversity, we are referring to educational and functional diversity, as well as diversity in the mental frameworks that people use to solve problems… In reality, no one is equally good at all [frameworks]; hence, the need for complementary team members” (Deloitte Review).
As a society, it has been easier to focus on demographic diversity — and assume the result will be cognitive diversity. However, the reality is that development of cognitive diversity from demographic diversity is often a mirage. In fact, it can be argued that cognitive diversity is perceived as a threat to an organizations’ status quo- a cause of dissent, arguments and a lack of productivity rather than a catalyst for creativity and innovation. Therefore, we see those seated at the head of the table surrounding themselves with individuals possessing similar backgrounds, political views, and economic statuses.
The importance of grounding diversity approaches in cognitive training is not borne of a preference of cognitive diversity over demographic diversity (both are critically important). Rather, cognitive diversity is the prerequisite to an inclusive (and effective) demographically diverse community. For this reason, the bedrock of Meseekna’s Diversity & Inclusion programming is improving metacognitive skills foundational to decision-making, through the lens of cognitive diversity.
Through awareness and training, improvement to an individual’s cognitive measures enhances their decision-making skills both personally and to benefit their team. Improvement to an employee’s Breadth of Approach, for example, would result in a higher capability to look at problems and solutions through multiple perspectives. High competency in the metacognitive measure of Initiative translates to passion-driven connection with others, and remaining open-minded and inquisitive in the face of incongruent viewpoints.
Through our lens of cognitive diversity, the Meseekna measures go beyond better business. Breadth of Approach carries the promise of every perspective given equal weight in the workplace — not valued despite it’s difference, valued for its difference. The drive to find diverse solutions to increasingly complex workplace issues, and bring underrepresented and undervalued voices to the table demonstrates high Initiative competency in leaders.
The value of these diversity-triggered outcomes for companies is no longer up for debate, indicated by the ferocity at which employers responded to public upset at the “diversity oversight.” Yet in our rush to get the invitations out, get more people of color to the table and tell our other friends about it, we’ve allowed demographic diversity to become enough.
Our cognitive diversity competencies determine how we treat diverse individuals, in and out of the workplace. If attracting diversity and inclusion is the goal, it is time to move beyond the question “who’s coming to dinner?” and the outdated hope that more invitations will change what the privileged think of diverse peoples.
Instead, ask “How does the way I think determine my treatment of others?” | https://medium.com/meseekna-insights/on-cognitive-diversity-3adc3bdcf851 | ['Jazzi Mason-Groce'] | 2020-12-11 18:48:20.342000+00:00 | ['Cognition', 'Workplace Culture', 'Diversity And Inclusion', 'Cognitive Science', 'Diversity'] |
Eli Mashieh — President of a Real Estate Firm | Eli Mashieh views real estate as more than a transaction. To Eli, buying and selling a home signifies a change in the lives of a person. Renovating distressed properties, helps give New York communities a new and better life. He aspires to increase his charity involvements to help make New York a better place. | https://medium.com/@elimashieh/eli-mashieh-president-of-a-real-estate-firm-449ac673bbe7 | ['Eli Mashieh'] | 2020-12-24 05:34:52.012000+00:00 | ['CEO', 'Real Estate Developer', 'Eli Mashieh'] |
What Products Should You Keep in Skincare Fridge? | A designated skincare fridge is a great way to keep your products active for a longer period of time after opening. Other beauty products that can benefit from being stored in a fridge include vitamin C serums, retinoid, face masks (except clay-based ones), and basically anything with aloe vera as an ingredient.
Having a skincare fridge just accelerates that feeling even more. I swear, there is nothing better than taking a warm shower and then putting on some cold serum and moisturizer before bed. Try it, I swear!Moving further into this year I think every girl needs a pink skincare fridge, don’t you?
With that, I have to tell you what I keep in my beauty fridge!!
Facial Tools
Face rollers are touted as an effective tool for achieving clear skin that’s not puffy. Plus, advocates say that rolling the stones across the skin can drain excess fluids from the face, help skincare products better absorb into the skin, and even combat wrinkles. Facial massage can improve the appearance of your skin in myriad ways. It improves circulation, relaxes muscles, and tones. “First,” Engelman says, “massaging the facial skin helps to relax the muscles that tend to cause stress lines”
Sheet Masks
Sheet masks are face-shaped fiber masks soaked in a moisturizing serum. The solution keeps the mask in place while the serum goes to work on your skin. After about 15 minutes, remove your mask and throw it out, as masks are one-use only product. You may be left with some excess serum on skin’s surface.
The right face mask can help hydrate skin, remove excess oils and help improve the appearance of your pores. They’re also an excellent way to help pull out impurities. Another advantage of wearing a face mask: the feeling of being pampered like you’re at a spa from the comfort of your own home.
Day Creams
The difference between day and night creams is that day creams tend to contain SPF and have a lighter consistency in order to apply before makeup. Our skin works to restore and repair while we sleep so that night creams focus on moisture and recovery, hence why they are heavier. They contain SPF to prevent burning and photo-aging, antioxidants to fight free radicals, and ingredients like caffeine to make skin look energized and firm. Day creams are usually designed to be worn under cosmetics, so they have light, nongreasy formulas that are absorbed quickly and allow pores to breathe.
Face Mists
A good facial mist can keep your makeup looking glowy throughout the day and helps to keep your skin hydrated. If you have oily skin, facial mists can help balance out your oil production and keep your skin feeling fresh. The moisturizing qualities of mists help improve dry, flaky skin.
“This is one of my favorite skin care supporter!” says Alisa Ligato, famous bridal makeup artist. You can use facial mists first thing in the morning — before and/or after applying your makeup. Unlike a moisturizer, facial mists won’t mess up your makeup during the day, but it can leave your skin feeling just as hydrated.
Probiotic Skincare
Probiotics include various strains of uniquely helpful bacteria that occur naturally on skin and that can be applied via probiotic skincare products. Probiotics work with prebiotics, carbohydrates that serve as a food source so the probiotics can optimally do their job of protecting and nurturing your skin. Probiotics, the “good” live bacteria that helps keep your gut healthy, has been shown to support a healthy immune system, boost weight management and even improve your mental health. They can target things like acne, rosacea, eczema, premature aging, and skin cancer.
Nail polish
Nail polish is a lacquer that may be carried out to the human fingernail or toenails to enhance and defend the nail plates. The system has been revised again and again to decorate its ornamental effects, and to suppress cracking or flaking. Nail polish includes a mixture of an organic polymer and several different components, relying at the emblem. Chemical Composition of Nail Polish — A basic clear nail polish might be crafted from nitrocellulose dissolved in butyl acetate or ethyl acetate. The nitrocellulose forms a glittery movie as the acetate solvent evaporates. But, maximum polishes include an extensive listing of components.
Store your beauty essentials the right way and improve the lifetime of your products. Our most popular 4 Liter cosmetic fridge with both cooling and warming functionality. A cute & compact mini fridge just for your cosmetic products. Not only will chilling your skincare extend the life of your beautiful beauty products and stop puffiness, but skincare fridges can store your serums, masks, and creams at lower temperatures which can also prevent bacteria.
You may also like: Mobile Makeup Artist, Sydney — Alisa Ligato,
How to Look Gorgeous at a Party? Makeup Artist — Alisa Ligato | https://medium.com/anns-blog/what-products-should-you-keep-in-skincare-fridge-6b35adc71ca3 | ['Kane Williamson'] | 2019-05-06 09:32:34.448000+00:00 | ['Beauty', 'Makeup Fridge', 'Skincare', 'Cosmetic Fridge', 'Skincare Fridge'] |
I’m a Stay-At-Home Mum in a World of Stay-At-Home Parents | An odd feeling was washing over me, like a strange déja vu from the past and I had a hard time putting a finger on it. I was trying to figure out what bugs me about being on lockdown; when my daily routine is not much different now than it was a month ago; when I am still working from home just like I had been doing it in the past two years; when because of my kids my social life is next to nothing anyway.
Then it hit me! I realised that I just time-travelled back to the time when I was a stay-at-home mum with two toddlers — two years apart from each other. And I recalled how much I hated it.
When I exchanged my high-paying fancy job to become a full-time mother — even if it was just for a short time — I felt that the world just turned upside down. I loved my daughter (and then both of them) and I loved spending time with her, I enjoyed being a mother, but I hated everything else around it.
I hated that I wasn’t useful anymore as a colleague. I hated that I was supposed to cook for myself. I hated to do the laundry. I hated ironing baby-clothes the most. I didn’t think these activities were useful — I believed they were a waste of time and I could have been doing so many other things instead. I was caught in a constant frustration loop of not enjoying anything and wanting something else. | https://zitafontaine.medium.com/im-a-stay-at-home-mum-in-a-world-of-stay-at-home-parents-cb6b03a3e9c6 | ['Zita Fontaine'] | 2020-04-01 17:51:57.072000+00:00 | ['Family', 'Relationships', 'Parenting', 'Love', 'Self Improvement'] |
Create-react-appでAirbnbのESLintを使う方法 | airbnb/javascript
This package provides Airbnb's .eslintrc as an extensible shared config. We export three ESLint configurations for your… | https://medium.com/@ayumitk/create-react-app-with-airbnb-eslint-55072023710 | ['Ayumi Takahashi'] | 2020-12-25 03:51:02.067000+00:00 | ['Reactjs', 'Create React App', 'Airbnb Style Guide', 'React', 'Eslint'] |
How to Host A Virtual Games Night | Picking a platform
First off I recommend finding the platform that you are comfortable with: whether it’s Skype, Discord, Zoom or Google Meet. The most important is for you the organizer is to be able to share your screen. It was also very important to play test everything before the big event. In our group, we disliked Zoom because the lack of security at the time and due to numerous articles that surfaced at the time warning against its use. I took a gamble on Discord not knowing what to expect. I knew very little about Discord: the interface was clean, concise and appealing to me.. Prior to that, the only thing that I knew about Discord was that gamers used it. The use of Discord evolved to embrace community elements in keeping folks together, whether it was to learn a skill or to play games.
There was nothing to lose and besides nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Selecting the Games
Pictionary
Words by RandomWordGenerator
The words were generated using a Random word generator and participants used a virtual whiteboard. I shared my screen showing the whiteboard for everyone to see. One person drew and everyone had to guess what it was. When I had to communicate with the drawer, I used a combination of private messaging and a voice channel where the number of users were limited to 2.
Laughs and fun were had by everyone as I set the difficulty of words to hard.
Quiplash 2 and Guesspionage (Jackbox Party Pack 3)
Originally I penciled in an online version of Cards Against Humanity, a crowd favourite. When I play-tested it, it worked fine. However when I invited everyone to join the game stipulated that at least one player had to pay for the game. We quickly found another online version called playcards.io and it was very confusing to play. Strike that off the record.
Luckily I had Jackbox Party Pack 3 in my library and Guesspionage was the next game. It’s similar to Family Feud, another crowd favourite. Only this time you had to guess the percentage of people identify with a posed question as it pertained to a topic. The closer the guess, the higher amount of points that you would receive. In later rounds, you can double up or down on your guesses. If you are way off, you get zero points added. Game was ideal for 3–8 players.
E.g. Topic: Bologna; What percentage of people say baloney instead of bologna?
Then we also played Quiplash 2. Quiplash invited more creativity and quick thinking. Players were giving prompts to complete jokes or comics to win the affection of the audience. A more light-hearted and family-oriented Cards Against Humanity would be an apt description of the game. It seemed to me that the majority preferred Quiplash over Guesspionage. Humor and shock value were the order of the day.
Curve Fever Pro
This was not slated on the agenda but the Jackbox Party Pack stopped working unexpectedly. An attendee found this game online and the limit was 6 players. It was a multiple round game of survival where you dared to cross paths and destroy your enemies — pretty fun once you got the hang of it.
Creating the Agenda
In Microsoft Word, I used a template for schedule to be simple and easy to understand. People were excited for the agenda. That was all well and good but in my opinion it needed more colour. For April’s agenda I used Canva to create the agenda for colour and creativity to shine rather than the one-page tabular design I used in March.
Draft of Activities Planned using Canva
Anticipating Technical Challenges
As with any new technology, education and awareness are powerful tools for understanding. I created a PowerPoint to step through the evening’s proceedings so everyone would have a clear indicator of what was happened. With what I knew about navigating Discord, I included a section called Crash Course in Discord highlighting the channel categories and their purpose: Main, Pictionary, Steam and PS4.
Below I highlighted what was the difference between mute and deafen with the voice channels. Simply put: to speak no evil press mute and when you did not want to hear everyone talking press deafen.
After this debrief, the audio challenges experienced by users were found to be minimal.
A snippet from my Games Night PowerPoint
Bonus: Lessons Learned — Live Stream Limits
You know what they say about hindsight. I should have researched how many people could be on a live stream before my first virtual game night session. I had around 12 people on the server and some on multiple devices. At the point in time, the limit was only 10 and people were saying that they were unable to see the live-stream of my additional monitor. Recently Discord dropped an update where the limit was increased to 50 in light of COVID-19.
Stay safe and at home. Happy handwashing for at least 20 seconds! | https://medium.com/@alyssaolivia-j/how-to-host-a-virtual-games-night-5c3ee0f8a166 | ['Alyssa Olivia L.'] | 2020-10-22 20:28:23.249000+00:00 | ['Games Night', 'Fun', 'Tutorial', 'Covid 19'] |
Live Stream : Tokyo International Film Festival 2021 | ❂ Artist Event : Tokyo International Film Festival
❂ Venue : Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, Tokyo, Japan
❂ Live Streaming Tokyo International Film Festival 2021
Conversation Series at Asia Lounge
The Japan Foundation Asia Center & Tokyo International Film Festival
Marking its second installment since 2020, this year’s Conversation Series will again be advised by the committee members led by filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu. Directors and actors from various countries and regions including Asia will gather at the Asia Lounge to engage in discussion with their Japanese counterparts.
This year’s theme will be “Crossing Borders”. Guests will share their thoughts and sentiments about film and filmmaking in terms of efforts and attempts to transcend borders. The festival will strive to invite as many international guests as possible to Japan so that they can engage in physical conversation and interaction at the Asia Lounge.
The sessions will be broadcast live from the festival venue in Tokyo Midtown Hibiya every day for eight days from October 31st to November 7th. Stay tuned! | https://medium.com/@b.i.m.sa.la.bi.m.pro.k/live-stream-tokyo-international-film-festival-2021-full-stream-ea9d42946f09 | [] | 2021-10-30 14:03:32.616000+00:00 | ['Festivals', 'Film'] |
Subtle Biased Traits | Hello, it’s been a while. Today, I want to talk a little about some recent experiences of mine.
We all know about how instances of hate crimes towards Asian-Americans spiked during COVID and it’s not hard to figure out why. Whether it was because the heightened strain of losing a job or the fear of getting sick, or an excuse for racists who now felt justified in their attacks, I suspect that both are major contributors.
However, this means that while the pandemic has worsened violent and public displays of prejudice, this prejudice is still very much alive in mainstream American society.
I had a recent experience where I was assigned a project in my Human Geography class and the goal was to analyze some of the ways that “Western” society differed from “Eastern” society. The project was more detailed than that but that was the gist. This was an introductory course so I didn’t really expect much from it so I wasn’t really surprised by the scope of this project.
However, throughout the two week period where we prepared our presentations, the professor kept mentioning the “individualistic West” vs “collectivist East” as a possible avenue that we could base our project on. At first, I didn’t think much about it because I’ve heard it before and while it is superficially true, it’s not one of the worst things I’ve heard and it didn’t seem like the professor mean that much by it. But as he kept mentioning, I got increasingly annoyed.
Of course, now, classes are over and we’re in final season now and I didn’t bring it up with him at all but this is another of those instances when something felt racist but I couldn’t say if it really was.
So, what does it really mean when people bring up the “individualistic vs collectivist” comparision? And more importantly, what are they implying that they might not even be aware of?
One thing to keep in mind is the inherent power difference in America between races. This is the basis of white privilege and is seen in how institutions treat people of different races (systemic racism). I won’t talk about how white privilege doesn’t afford all white people the same leg-up in life due to differences in class, education, gender, etc. since that should be common knowledge and common sense. But back to main point: this means that whenever someone (white or not) with authority or influence suggests that there is something different about a person or a group of people, this automatically “others” them.
Another thing to keep in mind is the pervasive ethnocentric views that most Americans hold. It is not necessarily the individual’s fault because our media and school systems condition us to be that way but as grown adults, we should be able to take a step back and take a critical look. This ethnocentrism combined with the othering of the group makes for racist alphabet soup which says:
“We are the normal and we are right. If they are different, then they must be abnormal and wrong.”
While I doubt my professor meant all that when he kept emphasizing this difference, it is the result. Ignorance does not excuse the outcome. Almost everyone has some form of this bias. After all, we are accustomed to the experiences and cultures we grew up around and therefore, we view them as the norm and if a foreign culture were to do something differently or even go against your culture’s norms, then most would see it as wrong. However, there’s a difference between that initial conditioned response and then the secondary conscious response where a decent person will stop and say, “Not everyone lives the way I do. Just like how I wouldn’t like to be judged by a stranger who doesn’t know anything about me, I shouldn’t judge others either.”
There are real consequences when this sentiment has been conditioned into someone their entire life and they never gain the awareness to step back and realise that . Some of those people will continue and go on to become radicalised be the overt racists you see stabbing Asian grandmothers on the street, yelling racial slurs at schoolchildren and corporate managers deciding to who to promote.
What a lot of people ask me when I bring up a lot of these little microexpressions and microaggressions is how they can be sure to not commit any of them at all. I think that that mindset is stressful and counterproductive. It also doesn’t help that the skeptics and some people in power, when faced with any hint of criticism towards potentially racist past actions respond with, “Everything is so politically correct nowadays. As a white person, anything I say can be racist. I can’t even talk anymore.”
That is an extreme position to take. If you say something and someone of that race brings up that they might be uncomfortable, then stop. It’s simple. Moreover, due to social pressures, many POC won’t actually speak up if something makes them uncomfortable; in fact, for most POC who don’t specifically look for information and study this, they might be as unaware as those making the jokes and assumptions at our expense. Therefore, it is not only imperative that a true ally be able to take criticism without being defensive and objectively evaluate the criticism but also to actively seek out resources and learn about the people they interact with. It’s kind of the same with any normal relationship; it’s an act of love to want to learn about the other person.
Recently, I have come to a startling realisation that I may not be as open-minded as I thought I was. This was kickstarted by D’Angelo’s video on Blair White: https://youtu.be/S4qvPouh1gE?t=1881.
To give a very brief rundown, he talks about how Blair White, a prominent trans YouTuber who talks about trans topic on her channel, uses our biases and subconscious sense of disgust or disdain towards those who clearly don’t “fit” as how we culturally view how a man or a woman should be to attack those people and spread misinformation about them, confident that her viewers wouldn’t fact-check her. She also has a disturbing history of putting herself as an authority or an ambassador for the trans community and basically saying that she, as a trans woman who fits the cultural expectation of a woman, is one of the normal trans people and everyone else who doesn’t transition or perform gender the same way are the weird trans people. In other words, she a Pick Me trans person who tries to lift herself up by bashing others.
The crux of whole thing though, is that people believe her because she looks “normal” and speaks fairly articulately and therefore someone to be trusted on these matters. Watching this video was a shock to me too because I had also fallen in this trap many times before. I wasn’t totally aware of all my biases and prejudice and was inclined to believe Blair and didn’t think much about it afterwards.
While I was aware that these biases existed and could see it in other people when they expressed them, I had missed it in myself. I wasn’t holding myself accountable. The world is complex and there’s also more to learn and experiences to be had and people to meet. It makes no sense to give up and complain about how everything is politically correct, because then you stop learning and growing as a person and your actions and words may continue to harm others. We would all like to believe that we’re good people but that is a constant work-in-progress. Being “good” isn’t an achievement or a one-time thing, it’s a constant state of being.
We would all like to believe that we’re good people but that is a constant work-in-progress. Being “good” isn’t an achievement or a one-time thing, it’s a constant state of being.
This is where it ties back to what that professor was implying and pushing for. It may not really be his intention because it sounded like he was just fielding a lot of questions on what our project should be on and he just picked an easy topic but he should have done better. As an adult and especially as a person who has influence over how others think, he should have taken the time to look at himself and his biases and read up on these issues and try to understand the nuances of the history and dynamics of race in America.
There’s one last thing I want to mention. It’s that since race is a social construct, it manifests differently in different cultures. Race as a concept is fluid and highly susceptible to cultural change. Italians and the Irish weren’t originally considered white when they first immigrated to America. In America, children with parents of different races, especially when one of the parents are white, are considered under the “one drop” rule. The “blood” of a minority race in you makes you one of the minority race. There are exceptions if someone is “white-passing” but just looking at some famous people like Zendaya or Obama, it’s their blackness that people see.
In Central and South America where the separation of races are more blurred, and not as recently enforced (think Jim Crow), proximity to whiteness is still sought after but it is judged in “degrees” where a person can “dilute” their blackness or indigeneity. Of course, this is a broad statement across a huge geographic region with millions of people so there are many more nuances.
But the point I’m trying to get across is that in addition to being aware of race relations in America (if you live here), keep in mind that it’s different elsewhere so don’t try to push what you understand about race in America (or wherever you live) onto people from other places.
Well, that’s all I had to say today. Lemme know your thoughts in the comments.
I’ll talk to y’all next time! | https://medium.com/@xingyucreates/subtle-biased-traits-11db4af824e1 | ['Ellen Zhang'] | 2020-12-20 17:19:26.767000+00:00 | ['Racism', 'Bias', 'Asian', 'America', 'Race'] |
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7. PhonePe
PhonePe,a computerized wallet is an online installment application, which is settled in Bengaluru. It was set up in 2015 however began its tasks in 2016.
It is accessible in 11 dialects and permits you to cover all bills, shopping, gold, pay for rides, book flight tickets, and then some. The application permits you to get Rs. 100 cashback to new clients. Best app for Make Money Online.
8. Paytm
Paytm is set up in Noida in Uttar Pradesh India. It is accessible in 11 Indian dialects and permits you to make installments for all movement, motion pictures, versatile re-energizes, take care of bills, supermarkets, cafés, stopping, natural products, shopping, and that’s just the beginning.
To benefit the cashback by means of Paytm, clients need to initially introduce the application through Google Play Store and Apple Store. I suggest paytm is best app Make Money Online.
You Also Like This : Take Advantage Of 7 Best Money Making Applications For Fast Money In 2021
https://www.techscos.com/8-best-make-money-online-apps-earn-money-online-2021/ | https://medium.com/@gayatrinipampatel/8-best-make-money-online-apps-earn-money-online-2021-8b771f37e0ed | ['Gayatri Patel'] | 2021-02-22 07:21:02.617000+00:00 | ['Earn Money Online', 'Loco', 'Make Money Online', 'Datagenie App', 'Amazon Pay'] |
How to Make Your Web Design Unique | Take a look around and you’ll see a wealth of cookie-cutter design. Everyone is copying everyone else’s ideas, changing the visuals to the best of their abilities or arrogance. They change the colors and shapes, they shift some blocks around. Upon clients’ request, designers are willing to steal the entire layout of a top-rate website. The digital world is one of imitation. We are not talking about whether it’s good or bad. We are just saying that if you want to create a unique project, this is not the path you should take.
How do you create a design that is on-trend and at the same time special?
Your task will be much easier if you understand the meaning of uniqueness in web design. Being unique in design terms is not the same as being unique in common parlance. It’s not about being creative, possessing mad skills, or having a spark of divine talent.
In design, uniqueness is achieved by following some rather non-unique rules.
1. Uniqueness is drawing attention
You’re walking down the street and see a pair of sneakers on display. You slow down and start eying them with growing interest. Just an ordinary pair of sneakers… But something caught your eye. Whether it’s their shape, color, or fabric, it’s not something you think about in the first few moments. All you want is to take a closer look.
Unique design triggers similar feelings. Something catches our eye, grabs our attention — that’s the first reaction.
The paragraphs below will show how this reaction is achieved.
2. Uniqueness is love at first sight
At a closer look, the sneakers look even better, even though the manufacturer is unfamiliar to you. They look as good as famous brands! You feel the need to try them on right here and now.
This is how unique design works: by making the user fall in love with the product.
3. Uniqueness is the face of your brand
If the brand is familiar, it further boosts your resolve to purchase the product. If it’s not, the product’s appearance must be trustworthy, signaling quality and beauty (see 2 above).
Uniqueness shapes the brand, making it stand out among similar brands and lifting it higher. Being unique helps your product become memorable. You see one face in a crowd of thousands and cannot forget it.
So what you need is a memorable design, not just a trendy one.
Forward-thinking companies tend to emphasize their difference from the competition at the earliest stages of creating the website and developing their visual identity. And you can’t do that without being at least somewhat unique!
4. Uniqueness is positive emotions
Love at first sight is an exciting feeling. This kind of love is not accidental: it is born of esthetic gratification that we feel when we look at an item. It also means we are assured of its quality and indispensability. The item’s uniqueness engages our imagination, so we envision ourselves the happy owners of a special thing. Yes, it’s just like everyone else’s except better!
5. Uniqueness is highlighting the best
The mole on Marilyn Monroe’s face drove millions of viewers crazy. It was her unique feature and part of her image. A lot of ladies would draw “Marylin moles” on their faces, but none of them became stars. (The same happens with mindless copying of designs.) The actress’s mole was a highlight that drew attention to her beautiful lips. Let’s apply it to design: we need to draw attention to cool things instead of simply using highlights to liven up the visuals. If Marilyn Monroe were a bad actress or ugly as sin, would the mole have helped her?
6. Uniqueness is special convenience
Special convenience means predictability (however paradoxical that may sound). This is the difference between digital and common uniqueness. We want to take special care about the users’ convenience. And to do that, the interface has to be comprehensible, not intimidatingly unique.
Uniqueness is special care about navigation, functions, and the visual logic of the content.
7. Uniqueness is special quality
This means a careful, functional, and good-looking design, in which every pixel expresses care about the users’ needs, the brand’s image and advancement. Special quality can only be achieved after thoroughly researching the project’s requirements and finding the optimum design concept.
Unique design is created for a specific audience, a concrete product, an individual company. Reusing someone else’s good solutions is normal practice if we know for sure it’s going to work in our case.
Uniqueness is an especially successful solution to a problem.
8. Uniqueness is special emotions
Each project has its own goals and audience, so it must trigger specific emotions. This is why using someone else’s visual ideas or templates will end in failure.
9. Uniqueness is special humanity
Whichever visualization tool you choose to use — photos, illustrations, animations — it must be likable to the audience, appeal to its tastes, satisfy their expectations.
Drawings deserve a separate mention. Users like them because they look nice and trustworthy. Drawings are created by human beings as opposed to soulless software. It’s one of the best tools of unique design — touching, beautiful, and memorable. It sends a clear message to the users: “We love you and are willing to put in the effort.”
10. Uniqueness is special responsiveness
The user wants to feel the interface interacting with them in a nice and non-intrusive way. Microinteractions must both be predictable and at the same time feel personalized to the user. There are also things that can’t be mindlessly copied.
11. Uniqueness is a special style
No, this isn’t about special techniques or design tricks, that’s secondary. A unique style is first and foremost a concept. The conceptual approach creates its own style, one that is manifest in any project regardless of specific requirements. For example, our team strives to make our clients special (which is why we are so passionate about this subject). We achieve it through our concept of design, which prioritizes comprehensibility, clarity, simplicity and minimalism, logic, esthetics, and functionality.
In conclusion
You can make your own conclusion. Uniqueness means closely following the rules of good design. No one is saying it’s easy. Work, love, care, and attention have never been easy, have they?
The secret of uniqueness is thoroughly solving the project’s tasks one after another. Then uniqueness will evolve naturally, because the very task dictates it. | https://medium.com/outcrowd/how-to-make-your-web-design-unique-fca8e2a6418a | ['Erik Messaki'] | 2021-05-07 12:37:07.174000+00:00 | ['Uniqueness', 'Visual Design', 'Visual Content Marketing', 'Ui Ux Design', 'Web Design'] |
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