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Web3 crash course: The essentials | If you have been wondering what Web3 is and how you might harness its power as a UX or Product Designer, then you have come to the right place. Let’s start with some background information.
Web2 vs Web3
Web2 (early 2000s — present) is the era of tech giants and social platforms. Users create and consume content in increasing quantities, and mega-powerful tech companies supply the platforms. These companies act as the middleman between the consumer and the content.
Web3 (2020+) is the era of ownership. Users have the ability not only to create and consume content but to own their content as well. This ownership comes in the form of tokens. Web3 is built on peer-to-peer networks of computers that communicate with each other, which avoids the need for a middleman.
What is blockchain?
In simple terms — “Blockchains store a history of transactions between parties on a forum that can be accessible by anybody.” (web3.university)
Every block consists of a list of transactions, a hash (long string of random characters) for that particular block, and the previous block’s hash. Blocks are linked to the previous block, which forms a chain (aka blockchain). The only way a block can be added to the blockchain is if the other nodes agree.
In order for the nodes to process transactions, they must reach consensus. Consensus algorithms are a core component of the architecture that makes it possible to process transactions without a middleman. The consensus is a decision-making process for the group of nodes active on the network.
There are a couple of popular mechanisms for how nodes reach consensus:
Proof of Work (Bitcoin uses this) Proof of Stake (requires less energy, Ethereum is transitioning to this)
This post won’t dive into the details of these, but I recommend checking out this article if you want to learn more.
What makes blockchain valuable?
Bitcoin was the first widespread use of blockchain technology. The blockchain concept introduced in the design of Bitcoin has since been used to build general-purpose smart contract platforms, which enable applications like DeFi, NFTs, etc.
What makes a blockchain so powerful are these key properties:
1. Decentralized — no governing authority over transactions. The network is maintained by a group of nodes.
2. Immutable — once the transaction is committed, it cannot be changed or altered.
3. Open — anyone can view a transaction.
These three qualities are what make something built on a blockchain, such as Bitcoin, qualitatively different from a traditional bank or centralized system to store money. Blockchain technology allows for enhanced security and faster settlements.
More importantly, it minimizes the need for trust — The idea is that you don’t have to rely on trusting someone/something because you can verify it yourself via the blockchain.
Bitcoin vs. Ethereum
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum are built using blockchain technology. However, they have fundamental differences that make each of them distinctly valuable.
Bitcoin’s sole purpose was to be a decentralized network that allowed people to transfer and exchange value. It was created to be an alternative to traditional fiat money backed by a central authority (aka the government). Its primary use case today is a store of value.
Whereas Bitcoin has a single purpose, Ethereum has several purposes. It was built in 2015, after Bitcoin, and its main intention is to be an open-ended decentralized software platform. Ethereum is flexible and allows developers to create decentralized applications (dapps) via smart contracts.
It’s important to be aware that Bitcoin and Ethereum are inherently different ideas. Ethereum takes blockchain one step further than Bitcoin does. Ethereum can be thought of as an economy and Ether can be thought of as the currency that fuels that economy.
The purpose of the Ethereum ecosystem has multiple use cases, which we will dive into below:
#1 Dapps
Dapps stand for decentralized applications and are similar to the normal apps we use every day. The main difference is in the back-end. Dapps run on a blockchain and can be thought of as a business that is built using blockchain technology via the Ethereum platform.
The backend of these apps is different than an app we might use, such as Spotify, however, to the user the UI essentially looks the same.
Similar to when you are browsing the app store and see a variety of apps for different uses, Dapps can also take on different forms, such as games, social media, trading platforms, etc.
Check out dapp.com if you are interested in browsing what Dapps are out there.
#2 DAOs
A DAO stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. As the name implies, this just means it is an entity with no central authority, aka no CEO or individual. They are effectively a new method for how businesses can be run.
So who is running the DAO? The members of the DAO are the ones who collectively run and manage the organization.
DAOs have a similar back-end to Dapps, and can be built on top of Ethereum. DAOs operate via smart contracts that define the rules of the organization. Decisions get made by members of the DAO through the submission of proposals and a group voting system using tokens. The majority of stakeholders must approve a proposal for it to pass. The majority is defined differently depending on the DAO’s rules.
The advantage of DAOs vs. a traditional organization is the level of trustworthiness. Instead of needing to trust the people running the business, you only have to trust the code. The code is publicly available and verifiable to all members. Any action that the DAO takes has to be approved by the community. This allows everyone to contribute to decision-making. The voting system and instated rules provide an environment to more easily settle disputes. Additionally, since there is no hierarchy, people can feel comfortable voicing more innovative ideas.
#3 DeFi
DeFi stands for decentralized finance and it is essentially another type of application built via the blockchain. The goal is to provide a new financial system, one that does not rely on banks or exchanges. Instead, these financial services run on smart contracts and are typically built on the Ethereum network.
Similar to DAOs, DeFi relies on programmed rules in the code and therefore provides an element of trust and transparency. DeFi lending platforms are highly efficient and due to a lack of a middleman, such as a bank managing the system, you avoid the costs of traditional banks. This means DeFi lending platforms can offer much higher interest.
Some examples of what you can do with DeFi are: exchange tokens, crowdfund projects, and earn yield. Read more about DeFi here.
#4 NFTs
Web3 is run on tokens and there are two types of tokens:
Fungible tokens: interchangeable, divisible (e.g. US dollar, bitcoin) Non-fungible tokens (NFT): unique, non-replicable (e.g. artwork, domain name)
In case you haven’t noticed a pattern above, NFTs are also powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Since these are run via smart contracts, it’s easy to tell who is the owner(s) of a particular NFT.
One popular use case of NFTs is digital artwork. This has allowed artists a means to create scarcity around their work. Digital artwork has historically been much easier to replicate than physical pieces of art, due to the fact people can copy and paste images on the internet. If an artist created a piece of digital art and released it on the internet, subsequently, an infinite number of versions could be floating around. NFTs provide a way for ownership of the artwork to be permanent and transparent.
Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 10,000 algorithmically generated unique avatars.
NFTs can also expand to sports, music, and many other industries. Aside from the potential for NFT owners to make huge profits or own items that appreciate, there are other non-monetary motivated advantages to NFTs. For example, you can buy an NFT to support a cause, as funds from NFTs can be donated to charities. The Bored Ape community was able to raise $1 million for animal shelters through sales of their digital artwork.
Another huge aspect of NFTs and Web3 is the power of community. Common interests and co-creation bring people together, and NFTs have the power to propel this innately human motivation at higher rates than ever before.
Why is Web3 important for Designers?
In this era of Web3, users are empowered more than ever to take control and ownership over their digital lives. With this ownership comes newfound responsibility for users. Given there are inevitable faults within any system, it is our responsibility to ensure that the experience is met with a level of ease and trustworthiness.
Blockchain technology is fueling this creator economy. Those creators and consumers are our users, and most likely many of us will be designing for these aforementioned applications one day. More and more tools are being built to give users the environment to take back control of the content they interact with.
As Designers and architects of the front-end UI, we must understand where the future of technology is headed, so that we can create evermore secure, efficient, and intuitive front-end systems that align with this unprecedented ownership. | https://uxdesign.cc/web3-crash-course-the-essentials-7b5f47cfa3c1 | ['Taylor Green'] | 2021-12-30 23:04:04.720000+00:00 | ['Web3', 'Blockchain', 'User Experience', 'Web Development', 'Product Design'] |
Using Open Geo Data to Strengthen Urban Resilience in Nepal | This blog is about the SURE programme which the GIS team has been supporting since 2017.
Following the 2015 Nepal Earthquake, preparedness and response activities highlighted the benefits of the use of open data to prepare for crises and lead to an effective response (freely available for all to access, use, share and derive outputs) — one of the most valuable sources proved to be OpenStreetMap (OSM).
OpenStreetMap (OSM) is an open source, editable map of the world, sometimes described as the Wikipedia of maps, that anyone can add, contribute to and use.
During the earthquake response, maps with data derived from OSM were used by a variety of actors for a number of different purposes, from providing a basis of maps to show locations of damaged homes to guiding locations of relief distributions.
The GIS team supports the Nepal Red Cross Society GIS and IM team as part of the Strengthening Urban Resilience and Engagement (SURE) programme implemented by the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS), in partnership with the British Red Cross (BRC). The programme focusses on seven municipalities over five districts of Nepal with high urban growth rates and aims to improve the urban disaster resilience of citizens, including specific vulnerable groups, the NRCS and municipal governments.
Building on the previous use and benefits of open geographic data in Nepal, the SURE programme incorporates the use of open geographic data as part of urban assessments and specifically Hazard Mapping.
Taking place annually Hazard Mapping engages NRCS, municipal governments, and communities to identify and map locations of community capacities (e.g. schools, health centres), hazards, and vulnerable groups. The data is collected on mobile phones or large printed maps using OpenSteetMap as a basis. Data collected on mobile devices used OSM Tracker and Kobo. The British Red Cross GIS team and Nepal Red Cross use these mobile data collection tools and others in other programmes and during emergencies. Any non-sensitive/non-personal geographic data collected is added back to OpenStreetMap, whereupon it can be used both elsewhere in the programme and by any other OpenStreetMap user or organisation. For SURE, data collected is enhanced with other geographical data and inputs from community representatives and is then used to create maps of municipalities where the programme works, to inform resilience planning for the community, NRCS branches and municipal government.
Nepal Red Cross, Kathmandu
Building geospatial data for resilience
The Hazard Mapping tool (Tool 7) within the Urban Assessment toolkit was piloted.
The Urban Assessment Toolkit was developed by NRCS and BRC after existing tools such as the Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA) proved to be too difficult to use in large urban centres. In the past, assessment tools like VCA were used to identify vulnerabilities and capacities within communities which are often geographically well-defined and homogeneous in many geographic characteristics, and whose population live within a geographic area. For smaller, often more rural communities, these tools function well, however urban environments are fundamentally different in both their physical and their social structure. The Urban Assessment was created to address this.
One of the tools in the Urban Assessment is Hazard Mapping. This aims to gain an overview of the hazards which citizens are aware of, subject to and the community perception of these risks. This tool is used at a variety of stages throughout the programme and allows for the identification of trends and analysis of hazard perceptions.
Nepal Red Cross Society Information Session and Training
Missing Maps Project and workflows
The British Red Cross is a founding member of the Missing Maps Project, with the GIS Team serving as the focal point for it in the organisation. Hazard Mapping for an Urban Assessment closely follows the multi-step approach that Missing Maps uses:
Step 1
Firstly, remote volunteers add basic information, such as buildings and roads, from satellite imagery into OSM, coordinated using the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Tasking Manager.
In the case of SURE, some of the municipalities in the programme had already been mapped remotely for preparedness programmes prior to the 2015 Earthquake. Any municipalities that had not been remotely mapped were made available for mapping by the global remote volunteer community or were mapped as part of a field mapping exercises. These field mapping exercises were designed to build the capacity and knowledge of NCRS staff and volunteers of Missing Maps, Hazard Mapping and to emphasise, through first-hand experience, why having good geographic data is fundamental to effective programmes.
Step 2
Next, in-country volunteers collect local detail via in-field data collection.
For SURE, two methods were used to collect location information of hazards, vulnerable groups and capacities:
Using mobile data collection tools (OSM Tracker and Kobo), with volunteers walking throughout the municipality. Large printed copies of OSM were used by community members in focus groups to manually draw and add information about community hazards.
Data from both sources were collated, digitised, and uploaded to OSM (if appropriate) if non-sensitive and publicly available.
Step 3
Printed maps, aerial imagery and web maps are created using data collated from various sources. Data, information and analyses is then disseminated to the community, NRCS, schools and municipal government in order to inform the programme, and resilience planning.
As this Hazard Mapping exercise is conducted annually, any updates to the data collected are added to OSM and in turn any map products that use OSM as a basis can be kept up to date.
Activities to resilience planning
Starting in 2017, NRCS led activities, supported by BRC GIS team included:
Remote and in-field tasking and tracing of SURE programme targeted municipal areas;
Training NRCS and municipal government of the Hazard Mapping tool of the Urban Assessment and Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments (VCAs);
OpenStreetMap (OSM) training with the NRCS branch, volunteers and municipal government;
In-field data collection of vulnerable groups, hazards and capacities using both digital and paper-based tools;
Co-creation of paper and web maps then distributed to NRCS branches, schools and municipal government.
These are just a small selection of the activities that the NRCS team conducted! There were many successes too during the activities: the first use of the Hazard Mapping Tool in 2017 included over 215 participants across the municipalities, the majority of whom were women.
For one of the municipalities, Dhangadi, over 200 remote volunteers mapped 26,947 buildings and 481km of roads.
Throughout the programme, the Hazard Mapping activities included the NRCS branch and municipal government at all stages — the reasoning behind this was to ensure long term sustainability for the objectives of the programme and to build capacity, understanding and investment in the use of mapping as an effective tool for resilience planning. In this way, communities became stakeholders in their own development and reduce their vulnerability to hazards should an emergency occur again in the future.
Past experiences build future activities and outcomes
Whenever working in a new project or in different places, you always take away learning, and cement past experiences. This was no exception, and a few are listed below!
We found the process of remote mapping to field data collection successful. The participants working on OSM and the new toolkit improved their knowledge of the rationale, process and future use of the data collected. By working though practical examples participants were able to update OSM in a respectful manner considering individual’s privacy.
As the Hazard Mapping tool and use of VCA in urban environments was new to participants and NRCS, there was a lot of learning by doing. Key aspects of data collection like how to use and work with mobile data collection tools or tailoring collection methods to suit the audience (e.g. through focus groups) were learnt first-hand, incorporated, refined and used to improve the programme in real-time.
The Hazard Mapping tool and VCA could be used in a complementary manner. Participants who had taken part in or had knowledge of VCAs were encouraged to join the hazard Mapping activity to build on existing knowledge.
Mobile data collection and OpenStreetMap (OSM) are new tools for many. Building in time to go through the collection and editing process was factored into subsequent rounds of mapping, as was ensuring that data collection was inclusive, by having a diverse range of participants taking part.
Implementing a ‘Buddy’ system, pulled together the diverse nature of the participants and meant that everyone could still be involved. For example, putting together those more computer or data literate with those less so, or pairing participants who grasped the Hazard Mapping tool process quicker, with those less confident. This meant that a greater diversity of participants was included in the mapping, thereby better representing the communities being mapped.
As a team, the things we learned whilst supporting projects and programmes we take forward into our next support. Our support to SURE was no exception, and we took forward these key learnings:
Bring together the diverse skill sets of participants enables greater engagement within the activity and inclusive data collection. Remember to account for additional time needed for participants to become confident with new tools. Ensure any learning is documented if the activity is repeated throughout the programme.
Final words
This case study blog was aimed to provide a flavour of some of the support we’ve provided as a team.
When the Nepal Earthquake hit in 2015, the use of OpenStreetMap (OSM) for preparedness and resilience planning played a pivotal role in responding to the disaster.
Utilising OSM, the Nepal Red Cross supported by British Red Cross, designed the SURE programme, which included Hazard Mapping within the Urban Assessment toolkit. This tool utilised the Missing Maps framework within the programme and focused on collecting data points annually of locations of vulnerable groups, hazards and capacities, to inform resilience planning with the local branches and municipal governments, highlighting at-risk communities. NRCS led training, collecting, developing and disseminating map products for this purpose.
In areas which are rapidly changing, and growing, the ways communities interact and form change, they also vary from more rural settings. Adapting existing tools for urban areas and mapping for areas for resilience planning build resilience against, and preparedness for, a range of disasters and puts the citizens and at-risk groups at its centre. | https://medium.com/digital-and-innovation-at-british-red-cross/using-open-geo-data-to-strengthen-urban-resilience-in-nepal-8e5f5b14a0f1 | ['Paul Knight'] | 2020-11-10 09:56:26.960000+00:00 | ['Humanitarian', 'Maps', 'Nepal', 'Open Data', 'Data'] |
Why Most People Never Achieve What They Want? | Here are some of the reasons that stop people from achieving what they want:
Lack of motivation
It’s the motivation behind what someone wants to achieve that forces us to strive for it. You work hard, you take your time out, you manage different things side-by-side.
Whatever we do to reach our milestones, there’s the motivation behind that.
Generally, motivation comes from wants or desires that develop by the influence of many factors like lifestyle, society, culture, etc. These are the real forces that motivate us to do something to achieve and force us towards action.
Not organizing life
It’s well-known that businesses, companies, and startups have complete plans, strategies, and drafts for the projects they want to work on.
Why is that? Because organizing things helps us to focus, prioritize, and work on our goals in a clear way.
Similarly, keeping yourself organized increases productivity. By organizing your life and goals, one can quantify that what they worked on, where they are stuck and what they have achieved so far.
It helps us to remain disciplined which is really important to chase our dreams in life.
Overdependence on something
As human beings, we need support and help from people around us to achieve something. A child needs the support of his parents to grow. A student needs the help of their teachers to excel in education. On a similar note, everywhere we are dependent to some extent on certain people in our life.
Getting help is good and there’s nothing bad in it. But sometimes, overdependence on situations, people, and certain things hinders our progress and stops the journey towards success.
You might have heard stories of numerous successful people in the world who started with uncertain conditions in life.
What if they’d have excused themselves due to their situation? It’d have stopped them from working on their goals and achieving everything they later did. | https://medium.com/illumination/why-most-people-never-achieve-what-they-want-ac55dee01539 | ['Saeed Ahmad'] | 2020-12-28 06:16:09.267000+00:00 | ['Success', 'Life', 'Motivation', 'Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons'] |
Eight cutting-edge technologies that capture carbon | Eight new technologies that could lead to negative carbon emissions
Combating climate change effectively will take more than simply reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We are going to need to enable negative emissions. Here are eight cutting-edge technologies that are aiming to do that.
1 More forests
The world’s forests have absorbed as much as 30% of annual global human-generated CO₂ emissions over the last few decades.
Regenerating depleted forests (reforestation), planting new forests (afforestation), and protecting and helping existing forests thrive through active management can all contribute to forest growth.
A recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that reforestation and afforestation could potentially capture 0.5 and 3.6 billion tonnes of CO₂ a year at a cost of USD $5 to $50 (£3.90 to £39) per metric tonne.
2 More bioenergy with carbon capture and storage
Biomass can also help industries including power generation lower emissions. During its lifetime it absorbs carbon from the atmosphere (often enough to offset emissions from transportation and combustion).
Combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS or CCUS) technology, biomass becomes a negative carbon emissions process, known as BECCS.
Europe’s first BECCS pilot project at Drax Power Station.
Drax Power Station is partnering with carbon capture company C-Capture to develop BECCS technology. This could help turn Drax into the world’s first negative emissions power station.
The IPCC estimates that between 0.5 and 5 billion metric tonnes of carbon could be captured globally this way at a cost of $100 to $200 (£80–160) per metric tonne.
3 Increased ‘blue carbon’
Coastal vegetation such as mangroves, salt marshes and sea grasses sucks in and store carbon in soil at a greater rate than plants on land– known as ‘blue carbon’.
Efforts are underway to turn these ecosystems into carbon sinks that can remove more emissions from the atmosphere. For example, Apple is currently supporting a mangrove expansion project in Colombia.
4 Boosting ocean plants’ productivity
The oceans are already believed to be one of our planet’s biggest carbon sinks — full of plants that use CO₂ to photosynthesise. Now projects are attempting to make them even more efficient.
One approach involves injecting iron nutrients into the oceanto prompt a bloom in microscopic plants called phytoplankton, which float in the upper part of the ocean absorbing the CO₂ absorbed from the atmosphere. When the plants die they trap the absorbed carbon on the seabed.
5 Enhanced rock weathering | https://medium.com/drax/eight-cutting-edge-technologies-that-capture-carbon-76cadcae9089 | [] | 2019-06-11 16:07:34.395000+00:00 | ['Carbon Emissions', 'Carbon Capture', 'Sustainability', 'Climate Change', 'Zero Carbon'] |
Jon Crawford drops Jersey’s best rap album with “For What It’s Worth” | Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
In an industry focused on looking good on a surface level, it’s always refreshing to hear an artist willing to paint a picture that captures the true human experience. Jon Crawford, one of Jersey’s hungriest & most promising artists, has come back to notch a second chapter in his saga. His second full album, For What It’s Worth, provides an in-depth look at the trials and tribulations that he has faced and conquered, all the while remaining true to himself and his craft.
Three years of blood, tears, and sacrifices have culminated into one of the most ambitious projects to come out of Camden, with the bulk of the production handled by Denzel Stone, as well as Crawford himself. The album was also A&R’d by Shane Pope & executively produced by Melanie Bonilla. The vlogs that covered the 3 year recording process, as well as the Godfather-esque album cover were both shot by one of NJ’s brightest directors & filmmakers, Jamyr “Filmsbyjtg” Greene & digitally imprinted by Adrian Armstrong. Amir “Fierce” Sims, prodigy of OVO’s Boi1da, was also tapped for the production of “14 Racks,” the lead single off the album. Engineered entirely in-house by GTS’s own Amir “Ca$hmere” Corsey, For What It’s Worth has the sound and steez of a magnum opus; even more impressive is the fact that this is only his second album. He says it himself on “November 21”: “My rookie season dog, but i’m leading the league in numbers” — Crawford’s ready to let the world know that he’s just getting started.
Jon Crawford, shot by @filmsbyjtg
Perhaps one of the most notable qualities of Crawford’s work on this album is his openness and honesty, his successes and triumphs getting as much screen time as his faults and low points. Trauma, anxiety, and depression serve as the stones that Crawford has sharpened his flow and delivery on. That’s why the pain in his voice is almost palpable on “November 21,” when he mentions how his woman has stuck with him through the roller coaster lifestyle that comes with chasing a dream: “Not a dollar to my name, and she been holding me down / For all the nights that we cried, I promise I’ll make you proud” — a true testament to her loyalty and love.
The music video for “November 21”, shot by @filmsbyjtg
Off the first few listens, Jon Crawford comes off as someone well aware that chaos is a natural byproduct of change. When you focus on your dreams and the money starts coming in, your priorities change just as much as the people around you. Intentions get revealed and circles get smaller as you realize who’s really on your side. Crawford remains mindful of the changes that occur around him, all the while making sure that he remains the same person he was before the success and notoriety, hence the lyrics on “Dreams Come True”: “Having an identity crisis / Trying to figure out this life shit / For this game, dog, you gotta sacrifice / Integrity, but at what point do you figure out what the price is?” — what’s the purpose of success if you lose everything, including yourself, in the process?
Crawford’s deeper cuts allow him to let raw emotions flow effortlessly over the spaced-out, slower cuts on the album. On “Weather the Storm (Interlude)”, he spills his heart to the woman by his side through the good times and the bad, his promises to give her his whole heart absolutely floating over a skeletal sample of Boyz II Men’s “Can You Stand the Rain”. From this track, to “For What It’s Worth (All Things Shall Fall in Place),” “Karma,” “Anxiety,” “Dreams Come True,” and “November 21,” this album is full of deep cuts that Crawford treats as confessionals, going into the booth and spilling the thoughts weighing him down for the ultimate feeling of catharsis.
Jon Crawford
For What It’s Worth plays like a victory lap of a driver whose career is just getting started. From the gritty, hard hitting tracks, such as “Hustle,” featuring New York rapper CasperTheFuture, to the infectious bounce of tracks like “14 Racks” and “Bad,” featuring Glassboro artist Hyme, to the slower, substance-saturated songs like “For What It’s Worth (All Things Shall Fall in Place)” with Dead Poet Society artist & vocalist Eric Skye, this album has a little bit of everything for everybody.
Crawford ends this album in the same manner that Kobe ended his last game: by dropping 60 points and giving one final wave to the crowd. In Crawford’s case, however, For What It’s Worth is just the beginning of his legacy.
Stream Jon Crawford’s For What It’s Worth, out now on Spotify, Apple Music, and more!
Follow Jon Crawford on:
Twitter: @jncrwfd
Instagram: @jncrwfd
Soundcloud: JON CRAWFORD | https://medium.com/@nikasi-doorn/jon-crawford-makes-a-run-for-jerseys-best-rap-album-with-for-what-it-s-worth-84388c8d162 | ['Nikasi Doorn'] | 2021-02-19 18:31:34.029000+00:00 | ['Rap', 'Album Review', 'New Jersey', 'Hip Hop', 'Music'] |
K.I.S.S. | In game development, as in life, we often overly complicate our problems. In a game development sense, I especially did this today. Welcome back a particularly successful mantra: Keep It Simple “Silly”
I’ve been developing various enemy types to be spawned during game play, and these differing types will have different movements, weapons, behaviors, and appearances. One in particular — the shielded enemy — was proving to be a sticking point for me.
I was confident that I had arranged everything properly: the visuals, the boolean operators to turn the shield on and off, the game object variable to store the sprite for the shield, and the code to disarm the shield when contacted by player laser. However, upon being hit by a laser, the enemy craft still showed its shield. In terms of the variables, the code was working properly. I confirmed this with various debug comments through the logic, but the visual shield was still present.
code looking fine…
from OnTriggerEnter2D(Collider) method
I banged my head against the wall a few times because the enemy would take two shots to destroy (as intended), but again the shield would not disappear. I pondered several ways to “cheat” around the issue, like swapping the enemy prefab for one with no shield, but I felt it more important to figure out a more proper way to get the task done. After all, debugging, researching, and thoughtful planning have gotten me this far — nearly completing a game in just a few short weeks (starting from ground zero!). As an aside, though a relevant reference, I once backpacked through Central America beginning with a Spanish language proficiency of relatively zero. About the same as my game development proficiency at the start of my internship with GDHQ. I’m certainly more fluent in game development now than I was at conversing in Spanish at the same ~four week mark!
I made a few temporary changes to game play to help me debug the issue more efficiently: spawn only the enemy type I was working on, and initiate a break/game pause when the enemy was spawned to make it easier to inspect in Unity. Super useful!
It was here that I finally discovered my issue. The shielded enemy type (clone) had its serialized field for the shield visual assigned to the enemy shield prefab in the project hierarchy. I needed to have that serialized field assigned to the child object of the enemy prefab instead, from the game hierarchy. Granted, they are the same image file — however, in order to activate/deactivate, Unity needs to be looking at the game object’s particular child.
K.I.S.S.
Problem solved — moving on to three more enemy types. And perhaps a boss enemy later! While I did feel frustrated throughout a good portion of the day, being able to solve the problem gives me relief and confidence that I will indeed continue to grow as a developer. The speed will come from repetition. | https://medium.com/@programmin-benjamin/k-i-s-s-4bd2dccde39d | ['Benjamin Lihn'] | 2020-12-16 21:42:10.823000+00:00 | ['Game Development', 'Software Development', 'Learning To Code', 'Unity', 'C Sharp Programming'] |
The Fire at Bahria Town Karachi | A vandalism event that took years to culminate
Bahria Town and Malik Riaz’s names are one of the most curious ones in Pakistan. They are curious because no one take these names publicly unless it is to praise them. The incident on June 6 2021, where a sit-in protest was taking place in front of Bahria Town Gate by various groups, resulted in vandalism that included burning of the iconic gate, torching of commercial avenues, vehicles, offices, and one or more buildings. The criminal silence of media on the entire saga was clearly felt by everyone, as distorted stories came through different social media pipelines.
The day started as Sundays do … slow and sleepy. With the difference that thousands of people were gathering in front of Bahria Town gate from all over Sindh province for protest. Within a 3km stretch, people were packed with a strong squad of police between the protestors and the gate. Additional blockades were placed to keep people from entering the premises. The protest leaders, many of them from Sindhi nationalist parties, had assured police they only want to protest and not enter the premises or cause any violence.
Suddenly, when speeches began, a group of protestors managed to break through the blockade and enter Bahria Town, initiating vandalism. Scattered videos emerge within one hour of the incident, recorded by people involved in vandalism, how they were destroying property.
For me, these were horrible sights. As a Sindhi myself, and familiar with some of the history of nationalist parties and their followers, I felt angry at them for resorting to violence despite assurance nothing of this sort would be done.
It wasn’t until I saw this protest video that I felt something was not right.
Protest in Bahria Town Karachi gone wrong — YouTube
Looking at the recent Israel and Palestinian conflict via social media, I discovered first hand that the videos made by third parties are first to reach and propagate to masses than from those actually involved. An incident in Canada where Palestinian protesting group was seen beating an old man and allegedly sexually assaulting a Jewish girl (as claimed by a Twitter handle). Later another video emerged of that incident where the Palestinians were seen to be getting surrounded by baton wielding group of men (of all ages) and provoking the unarmed Palestinians. The fight that followed saw the Palestinian youth fighting with their buckles against sticks and batons. The same old man that was seen beaten in the first video, not only had a baton that he lost during the fight but apparently had pulled a knife before fleeing. With the emergence of the incident video up close, the twitter handle claiming sexual assault went private to hide all its tweets.
With this fresh in mind, when I saw this protest video on Facebook, it made no sense. Apart from scattered bricks, there was no damage to the structure. The protestors are beating a metallic flap repeatedly and throwing bricks on the roof half-heartedly. No one is hitting Bahria Town symbols that are all around. No bricks appear dislodged from walkway. No ceramic damage on the walls. The protestors were clearly seen carrying hammering tools with which they broke offices, then why weren’t they used here?
These weren’t protestors … they were just there enjoying themselves.
Then videos began to emerge of nationalist parties where they said they don’t know who the people were that entered the premises, the protestors have nothing to do with them, and those who are entering the premises should be stopped.
https://twitter.com/MushkIllahi/status/1401962801388830727?s=19
In the above video, main organizer of Sindh Action Committee is clearly announcing the people entering the premises and getting involved in vandalism has nothing to do with the protestors or the organizers of the protest.
This is another video where the same question is being repeated, that how these unknown people that no one had any affiliation with, easily entered and started vandalism despite heavy police contingent blocking the gate and Bahria’s own security on standby.
When no one has affiliation with these people, the organizers kept saying please stop these people they are not from us, the refusal of police to get involved to stop vandalism is perplexing.
https://twitter.com/SajjadA79300086/status/1401544540087930886?s=19
Here, one participant is pointing out that miscreants came from huts nearby on motorbikes, set things on fire and went back without any action taken by law enforcements in the area, while all organizers were on the other side of the this area.
https://twitter.com/Sangrisaeed/status/1401534738486157316?s=19
Videos like these are available online, mostly in native Sindhi, where participants are pointing out those engaged in vandalism.
The vandalizing group, numbering to 100 or so from the looks of it, torched vehicles, offices, broke property, and senselessly strolled the underpass beating metal flaps and throwing bricks with no visible target. They were allowed to do that without any problem.
What changed was fire on the gate.
Bahria Town Karachi gate on fire (picture taken from Twitter)
This is very odd fire. This is a metallic structure with fiber sheet. There is no way a group of protestors can torch it without significant quantity of chemicals to start and maintain the fire. What is even more confusing is how the fire is traveling vertically rather than horizontally, as if it is being guided. How did a group of protestors carried such a chemical through police blockade is completely unknown. There is no video of them actually torching the structure, and no footage released by Bahria Town (if there were any CCTV cameras installed at the gate) of how the fire was set. It was this fire that finally brought police to action …
But it took action against the people that were sitting in front of the gate. Tear Gas was shelled, protestors were baton charged … while those vandalizing in BTK remained untouched and unconcerned.
Interestingly enough, all the property that was destroyed (vehicles, commercial shops/eateries, office furniture) pretty much falls into insured category. If any of the destroyed stuff was not insured by the owner, that’s a different story, but this was a curious pattern that mostly those items were being destroyed where damages could be claimed via insurance (if they were insured).
All of this, and the fact that these property damages videos emerged and spread within an hour of it happening, with no clear source of origin, set off red flags. It is highly irregular that someone who is breaking and entering an office in Bahria Town Karachi, hammering away, plundering, torching and completely destroying it, would immediately viral the video. Facebook Groups like Halaat Updates had several members post these videos, leading to racial slurs against the protestors (several members twisted this into Muhajir vs Sindhi narrative that is completely untrue and total bullcrap). But none of those posted videos have origin, rather they were shared by those members by uploading it themselves.
How did they get their hands on these videos when there is no original uploader on Facebook or Twitter? What is the source of the spread? This appears to be completely unknown (without any forensic investigation to trace the origin of these videos) and even surprisingly, the on-ground video is first to spread and go viral instead of third party videos that are usually recording from afar.
At no point do I support this vandalism, and at no point I am accusing any entity of fraud or deception. All I am doing is pointing out patterns based on information from existing sources. Bahria Town has a dark past, whether one likes to acknowledge it or not, that’s a different story. Due to influence on media, Bahria Town’s antics are largely hidden from the masses, but social media is a different beast. Here is a small preview of the time when this Bahria Town Karachi project was announced (Hint: It was announced and millions were collected even before Bahria Town had a location)
Following is a short read of the some of the disturbing scams Bahria Town has been involved in. The above image is taken from the same source.
Greed Unlimited: Bahria Town Karachi — Hot takes, Served cold (substack.com)
Following is Dawn’s coverage of Bahria Town’s greed.
Bahria Town Karachi: Greed unlimited — Pakistan — DAWN.COM
Following is the recent incident that eventually led to this protest.
‘They fired at everyone’: peril of Pakistani villagers protesting giant luxury estate | Global development | The Guardian
Here is an analysis of Bahria Town’s control over media and how/why media remained silent on the protests (including this incident).
Even though Malik Riaz cannot influence social media the way it does mainstream media, but there is always a way to influence it through paid people. We kept seeing that on Facebook and Twitter where ‘outraged’ individuals spoke about how some people were ‘anti-development’ and how the ‘terrorists’ ended up ‘terrorizing’ folks in the name of peaceful protests (one look at their profile and it was confirmed that they were either trolls, ideologues, or just those who get paid by taking part in campaigns). There were paid Twitter campaigns going on as well.
Received from WhatsApp (source and veracity unknown)
I will not be covering the ethnic slurs and angles that many people spun for anti-Sindhi and pro-Matruka Sindh narrative. I find them despicable to spread such blatantly toxic narrative when people protesting for their right to live are being silenced.
To conclude, what was announced as peaceful sit-in has been turned controversial with vandalism incident (which is not only highly irregular in nature, but its virality and publicity is extremely unusual). If Bahria Town’s history is any indicative, pretty soon there were be something like ‘Bahria Defense Force’ to save the settlement against those who wish to destroy it … the indigenous people whose land was illegally encroached upon and continued to be encroached despite Supreme Court’s orders. | https://medium.com/@wasioabbasi/the-fire-at-bahria-town-karachi-ea98af4db42e | ['Wasio Ali Khan Abbasi'] | 2021-06-08 13:23:47.388000+00:00 | ['Sindhi Nationalist', 'Pakistan', 'Bahria Town', 'Fire', 'Protest'] |
A noun, a verb and John McCain | Meghan McCain is John McCain’s Daughter
If you read What You Know, then you probably know that I hate mean girl, Meghan McCain. I know hate is a strong word but it’s true. I really, really hate her. Not just me a lot of people hate her. I’m pretty sure that includes her stylists who I believe are signaling their disdain by dressing Meghan in clothes no sane person would ever wear.
So when the stories broke that little children were being held in cages most of the people in the country were horrified. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rightly called these facilities housing the children as concentration camps. People who were held captive by the Taliban tweeted that the Taliban gave them soap and a toothbrush. People who were held captive by Somali pirates concurred. Pundit after pundit said these kids were being tortured. And then there was Meghan McCain.
Did you know that Meghan McCain’s father is former Senator John McCain? Yep. In case people had not heard, Meghan goes out of her way to remind people. Every single day! And look, I’m all about name dropping but at some point you get too old to tell people who your daddy is. Frankly, Meghan’s habit of mentioning her father no matter the topic also reminds people that she would never have that job without being John McCain’s daughter. Sure, she’s a conservative but The View could pick up anyone of the Fox News rejects for that role. Megyn Kelly needs a new gig. They could call her and she would summersault to answer the phone. So why do they put up with Meghan McCain?
Meghan seems to be a subject matter expert in nothing, not fashion (God no), not music, not movies, not women’s issues, not politics, not the law, not education, not anything. As a matter of fact, Meghan, John McCain’s daughter, has demonstrated on a daily basis that she knows absolutely nothing.
On Monday’s Hot Topics, Whoopi Goldberg and the rest of the hosts were discussing the children at the border after a CNN clip of a doctor crying while describing the border conditions. First, Meghan confuses this woman with the attorney who argued for the Trump administration that toothpaste and soap wasn’t necessary for sanitary conditions because as you know all White women look alike. Then being the Mean Girl that Meghan is, she blamed the crew for not preparing her. And because that wasn’t embarrassing enough, she decided to jump into the debate on whether or not these facilities should be called torture. Meghan said “I know what a torture facility looks like, I’ve been to one.” Wait what. I get that Meghan is John McCain’s daughter and all but was she also tortured at the Hanoi Hilton? If not, she doesn’t really know what a torture facility looks like. She might think she knows. She might have even seen the cell her father was held in. But she did not experience what he went through and she damn sure isn’t experiencing what these little children are going through now.
Meghan says that the specific purpose of these facilities at the border is not to torture people. And again, she clearly isn’t an expert on this topic either. All we have to do is look at the list of what is going on at these facilities:
• Denied access to healthcare
• Denied access to legal representation
• Denied access to education
• Denied access to recreation
• Babies do not have diapers
• Children are taking care of the babies because no one else is
• Children are sleeping on concrete floors without blankets or bedding
• Rampant cases of lice and flu
• Children are not given soap and are not allowed to shower for days at a time
• Lights are kept on all day and night
• Children are fed the exact same meal every single day
• Portions of food are the same size no matter the size of the child
• Children are subjected to physical abuse
• Children are subjected to sexual abuse
I know I’m not John McCain’s daughter like Meghan but this is torture.
Meghan went on to tell the story that her dad couldn’t lift her in the air because of the abuse he received while he was a prisoner of war. Well, let’s catch back up with these children in a few years and see what type of physical and emotional scars there will have based on their treatment in this country.
Sonny Hostin finally told Meghan, I’m John McCain’s daughter, that we should be less concerned about what we are calling these facilities and more concerned about what is going on them. But I don’t agree with her. We need to call these places what they are. They are torturing little children as a deterrent. They are torturing little children as punishment. They are treating these little children worst than they would treat dogs because they don’t see these little brown children as human beings. This isn’t about lack of resources or money. We know there is money for things this administration wants to spend it on. These are deliberate choices to treat these children worst than animals. They are torturing these little children because like so many policies in the Trump administration, cruelty is point. And we need to call it out every single day until something is done.
Like I said, I hate Meghan McCain and people who think like her. People who can’t or won’t feel empathy for others because their lives aren’t affected. People who take every situation and make it about themselves.
I think about that 2008 town hall when the woman said she didn’t trust Obama because he was an Arab and John McCain said “No, he is a family man” as if Arabs aren’t family men. And I’m reminded Meghan is John McCain’s daughter. | https://medium.com/we-know-what-we-know/a-noun-a-verb-and-john-mccain-e240b477197c | ['W. Island'] | 2019-06-26 22:39:00.299000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Immigration'] |
An Introduction to the Falcon Framework | Building a RESTful API With Falcon
In this example, you will build a bucket list API. A bucket list is simply a list of things you’d like to do before you die. Let’s get started. Create the project directory and set up a virtual environment.
mkdir bucketlist
cd bucketlist
virtualenv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
Install Falcon
Installing Falcon is as simple as:
pip install falcon
Create another folder app inside the bucketlist directory and mark it as a Python module by creating an empty __init__.py file in it:
mkdir app
touch app/__init__.py
Inside the app folder, create a file main.py and add the following code.
Falcon framework uses the concept of a resource. Resources are things that can be accessed by a URL. We will discuss this further when we start building the views for our application.
Edit main.py file to look something like this:
Falcon speaks WSGI, and so to serve a Falcon app, you will need a WSGI server. In this tutorial, we will be using Gunicorn to serve our app, so let’s install Gunicorn.
pip install gunicorn
Now run your application by issuing gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:8000 — reload main:application . Navigate to http://127.0.0.1 , and you should see your representation of the IndexResource .
Let’s now get started on creating the blocks for our application:
Configure database
We will use the PostgreSQL database because it’s robust and stable.
PostgreSQL should be installed on your machine. Install the psycopg2 driver library in our application
pip install psycopg2
Create database and user
Create a database “bucketlist” and assign a user.
Switch over to the Postgres account on your machine by typing:
sudo su postgres
Access a Postgres prompt:
psql
Create bucketlist database:
CREATE DATABASE bucketlist;
Create role:
CREATE ROLE pat WITH LOGIN PASSWORD ‘my_password’;
Grant access to the user:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE bucketlist TO pat;
We will use the SQLAlchemy extension to manage our application. This extension provides an ORM wrapper for the SQLAlchemy project.
Create a file config.py in the app directory and add the configurations you set up for the database above. The config file should look something like this.
Create models
Create a file models.py in the app directory and write the following code.
Here we declare a base class that all schema objects will inherit from. The to_dict function will manage our queries by returning results in dictionary form.
The declarative_base() returns a new base class from which all mapped classes should inherit.
In config.py , update the file to use our models. Here we use the base class from our models to declare metadata that will be used to issue CREATE statements for all tables in our models.
Requests and responses
Each responder in a resource receives a Request object that can be used to read the headers, query parameters, and body of the request.
HTTP request and HTTP response are represented by req and resp , respectively.
Create middleware for managing requests and responses
A middleware is a Python class that hooks into the request/response lifecycle.
Create a new file middleware.py in the app directory and add the following middleware class:
The class above demonstrates how to read headers and query parameters, handle errors, and how to work with request and response bodies.
Configure WSGI server to load the middleware and initialize the database
Edit the main.py file to include the middleware, and initialize the database as shown below.
Create resources
As we mentioned at the beginning of this tutorial, Falcon uses the concept of a resource, and Python classes usually represent these resources. They convert the incoming response into an action and deliver a response back to the client.
For a resource to provide support for any HTTP method, you add an on_*() method to the class, where * is any one of the common HTTP methods, in lowercase, i.e., on_get() , on_put() , etc.
Although resources are just regular classes, we are going to create a custom base class, BaseResource , from which we will inherit when we start creating our resources.
Let’s start by creating a tasks resource. In app/views.py add the following code to:
The TaskResource defines two methods, on_get() for obtaining all the recorded tasks and on_post() for adding a new task.
Create URLs
URLs provide a way for the client to identify resources uniquely.
Edit the main.py file to include the URL for the TaskResource as follows:
from app import views
application.add_route(‘/tasks/’, views.TaskResource())
Now, when a request comes in for /tasks , Falcon will call the responder on the task’s resource that corresponds to the requested HTTP method.
The project’s structure should now look like this:
Navigate to http://localhost:8000/tasks and see your resource in action.
Add a task
View tasks
Hooks
Hooks in Falcon are similar to Python decorators.
Suppose our application required the user to be logged in before they could add or view tasks. We would implement this with a before hook.
Let’s create a hook that will run before each request to view or add a task.
Next, we attach the hook to the on_post() responder and on_get() responders, as shown below.
Now, before every call to that responder, Falcon will first invoke login_required , giving the following response.
{
“title”: “401 Unauthorized”
}
Error handling
Falcon provides a set of error classes you can raise when something goes wrong, hence making it easier to detect and log errors.
These error classes include:
falcon.HTTPBadRequest
falcon.HTTPInvalidHeader
HTTPMissingHeader
HTTPInvalidParam | https://medium.com/better-programming/an-introduction-to-the-falcon-framework-a787ceea098 | ['Esther Vaati'] | 2020-08-21 18:10:12.123000+00:00 | ['Python3', 'Data Science', 'Programming', 'Python', 'API'] |
Go: Stringer Command, Efficiency Through Code Generation | Illustration created for “A Journey With Go”, made from the original Go Gopher, created by Renee French.
ℹ️ This article is based on Go 1.13.
The stringer command aims to automate the creation of methods that satisfy the fmt.Stringer . It generates String() for specified types that describe them as a string.
Case
The documentation of the command provides an example I will use to study the command. Here is the case:
Here is the output:
1
Generating logs with the value of the constants can be a bit confusing.
Let’s generate the String() method with the command stringer -type=Pill :
A new function String() has been generated. Here is the new output when running the previous code:
Aspirin
The type now describes itself as string rather than its inner value.
stringer also works perfectly with the command go generate , making it even more powerful. It is as easy as adding the following instruction in the code:
Then, running go generate command will automatically generate the new functions for all your types.
Efficiency
stringer generates one string that contains the list of the values as a string, and one array containing the index of each string. In our example, reading Aspirin will consist of reading the string from the index seven to thirteen:
But how fast and efficient is it? Let’s compare with two other solutions:
the String() function is generated with hard coded value:
Here is a benchmark with a list of twenty values:
name time/op
Stringer-4 4.16ns ± 2%
StringerWithSwitch-4 3.81ns ± 1%
Here is the same benchmark with a hundred values:
name time/op
Stringer-4 4.96ns ± 0%
StringerWithSwitch-4 4.99ns ± 1%
The more constants you have, the more efficient it is. It actually makes sense. Loading a value from memory is more expansive than going through some jump instructions (assembly instructions that represents a if condition).
However, the bigger the switch, the higher the number of jump instructions are. From a certain point, loading from the memory will become more effective.
the String() function generates a map:
Here is a benchmark with a list of twenty constants:
name time/op
Stringer-4 4.16ns ± 2%
StringerWithMap-4 28.60ns ± 2%
Using a map is much slower since it has to make a function call, and the lookup in the bucket is not as simple as accessing an index of a slice.
For more information about the map and its internal structure, I suggest you read my article “Go: Map Design by Code.”
Self-checker
Among the generated instructions, some are created purely for the purpose of validation. Here are those instructions:
stringer writes the name of the constant on each line along with this value. In this example, Aspirin has the value 2 . Updating the name of the constant or its value would generate an error:
updating the name without re-generating the String() function:
./pill_string.go:12:8: undefined: Aspirin
updating the value without re-generating the String() function:
./pill_string.go:12:7: invalid array index Aspirin - 1 (out of bounds for 1-element array) ./pill_string.go:13:7: invalid array index Ibuprofen - 2 (index must be non-negative
However, in case we add a new constant — here the next key is the number 3 — and do not update the generated file, stringer has a default value:
Pill(3)
Adding this self-check will not have any impact since it is removed at the compilation time. It can be confirmed by looking at the generated asm code for the program:
➜ go tool compile -S main.go pill_string.go | grep "\"\".Pill\.[^\s]* STEXT" "".Pill.String STEXT size=275 args=0x18 locals=0x50 | https://medium.com/a-journey-with-go/go-stringer-command-efficiency-through-code-generation-df49f97f3954 | ['Vincent Blanchon'] | 2020-06-05 13:58:01.806000+00:00 | ['Go', 'Golang'] |
That Time I Sanctified Myself | _________________________________________
From: Kerr, Jim (FanMail @ SimpleMinds.com)
To: Dee, Jim( Jim @ ArrayWebDevelopment.com )
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2008 12:01 AM
Subject: RE: Clarifying Questions — “Sanctify Yourself”
Dear Jim,
I can tell from your urgent email that you’re a troubled young lad. As such, let me put your concerns to rest once and for all. You wrote to me:
“Dear Simple Minds: After many years of listening to your music, I finally took your advice and … well … (wow, this is tough to admit publicly) … well, I went ahead and sanctified myself. During the process, it was naturally quite exhilarating. However, afterward, I felt a little dirty, self-indulgent, and ashamed. Plus — and, this is the worst part — I think maybe my neighbor may have seen me sanctifying myself through the livingroom window. What should I do?”
Jim … To begin, it’s important for you to understand that sanctifying oneself is a natural thing. As my friend George Michael says, “Not everybody does it, but everybody should!” It’s certainly nothing to be embarrassed about. However, sanctifying yourself should ALWAYS be done in private (or, I suppose, in the company of one or more consenting adults). One should NEVER sanctify oneself, as you’ve said, in front of a living room window. (Ironically, you’ve created the proverbial “elephant in the living room.” While I’m all for openness, I suggest you simply go on with your life as though nothing happened. Sooner or later, your neighbor will repress the visual.)
I hope this advice helps clear the matter up for you. Please feel free to write back if you have additional questions.
And hey … Don’t you forget about me,
-Jim Kerr
Lead singer, Simple Minds | https://medium.com/hawthorne-crow/that-time-i-sanctified-myself-2f681101ccb2 | ['Jim Dee'] | 2019-11-11 00:04:36.887000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Sex', 'Fake', 'Music', 'Letters'] |
My Country Normalized Racism So Much, I Stopped Thinking It Was Hurtful | My Country Normalized Racism So Much, I Stopped Thinking It Was Hurtful
People from the Northeast are as much Indians as the people from the rest of the country
I was born in Assam — a state in the northeastern part of India. Aside from Assam, there are six other states in this region — Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Tripura — that are collectively known as “the Seven Sisters.”
Ethnically, the people from the northeastern part of the country have different features from the people in the mainland. We have fairer skin, straight hair, more slender build, and epicanthic folds in our eyes. As the book North-East India: Land, People and Economy makes clear:
“While the original settlers were the Mongoloids, the Indo-Aryan and other groups arrived later. There is undoubtedly a dominance of Mongoloid element in the population of Northeast India.”
Our language, culture, and food habits are unique. Most people don’t grow up speaking Hindi, the most widely spoken language in the country.
More than ethnic and cultural influences, the differences could be attributed to the fact that while a large part of South Asia was ruled by the mighty Mughal dynasty for over 300 years, they were never able to extend their rule to this region. Until the British colonizers annexed Assam to mainland India in 1833, the region was cut off from the rest of the country. This is probably a major reason why the people of this region developed customs and rituals so different from the rest of the country.
Aside from that, when India gained independence in 1947, Assam and the rest of the northeastern states had no direct access to mainland India. There was no rail, road, or river transport to let one travel from this region to the rest of the country without crossing East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Journalist Mrinal Talukdar writes in the book Post Colonial Assam:
“As the entire surface transport was through East Pakistan, there was only air link and only a handful could afford that. The truth remains that for almost three years, 1947–1950, Assam and Northeast India was literally cut off.”
Because of these historical influences, the people from the region are treated as immigrants in their own country. Maybe it’s because we live geographically close to our immediate neighboring country, China, or because of our Mongoloid heritage, the people from the rest of India tend to think of us Northeasterners as “Chinese.”
Add to that a lack of sufficient knowledge about the rituals and culture of the place, and we are made to feel like aliens within our own country.
Why should my looks decide who I identify as?
My country has normalized this casual racism so much, I stopped thinking it was anything to take offense over. Until a few months ago when a conversation with a friend opened my eyes.
I was in New Delhi — the capital of India. This was in January 2020, a few weeks before the coronavirus hit India and shut down normal life as we know it. A female friend and I were walking around one of the poshest malls in the area, admiring the sparkling display clothes and makeup in the shops. A group of five men walked toward us, and from the distance, I could see the flirtatious looks in their eyes.
I ignored them, but when they walked past us, I heard one of them mutter “chinky maal.” Chinky is a racial slur for a Chinese person, named as one of TV’s most offensive words in a 2005 report by The Guardian. Maal translates to “item” in Hindi. It is a common derogatory term used for women in India, loosely referring to her as a sexual object.
I rolled my eyes and walked on, only to realize my friend had stopped in her tracks. She was staring in shock after the men, who had now moved ahead. I walked back to her, grabbed her arm, and led her on.
She asked me how I could tolerate such blatant racism.
For a moment, I’d thought she was offended by the way these men believed they had the right to comment on our bodies. Only later did I understand she was referring to the casual sexism thrown into their remark.
I calmed my friend down and we continued with our day, but her reaction stuck with me.
Why did it take a woman from the southern part of the country to make me realize the racism directed at me?
To be honest, I was so used to being called chinky or Chinese that I never really considered it could be something hurtful. But then again, I am not Chinese. I was born and raised in India. Why should my looks decide who I identify as? | https://zora.medium.com/my-country-normalised-racism-so-much-i-stopped-thinking-it-was-hurtful-f82a1c66f5e | ['Anangsha Alammyan'] | 2020-11-12 15:13:04.904000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'India', 'Feminism', 'Race', 'South Asia'] |
Angular Costa Rica inició hace 7 meses | in Both Sides of the Table | https://medium.com/angularcostarica/angular-costa-rica-inici%C3%B3-hac%C3%A9-7meses-539b6ab6ee50 | ['Mariano Alvarez'] | 2019-08-06 00:54:42.925000+00:00 | ['Community', 'Meetup', 'Angular'] |
Joan Clarke, English Cryptanalyst during WWII | Joan Clarke was born on June 24, 1917 in London, England to parents William and Dorothy Clarke, and she grew up with three brothers and a sister. Joan had an average childhood and studied maths in Newnham College, Cambridge; however, Cambridge didn’t admit women to full membership of the body academic until post-Second World War, so she was only given the title of Wrangler. Joan was also awarded the Phillippa Fawcett prize (1937) and the Helen Gladstone scholarship (1939–40) for her works in the field of mathematics.
At the start of World War II, mathematicians were recruited from all over the United Kingdom to decypher Nazi messages, which were sent out on radios. The Nazis used encryption devices called Enigma machines, where the chance of decoding the message was an astonishing 150 trillion to one.
‘codebreaking’
Gordon Welchman, one of Joan’s tutors, and four other students set up a project at Bletchley Park to start decoding these Nazi messages. Welchman recruited his old students, and Clarke stood out as a female in the group. She began studying at GCCS (Government Code and Cypher School), which was set up for the main purpose of trying to decipher these messages, as part of Hut 8. The British government wanted to create a method where there was less need for bombes (an electromechanical device as used by British cryptologists).
Hut 8 Team
Despite her reputation as a strong feminist figure today, she was quite traditional, shy, and quiet but nevertheless persistent because she was doing the work that she loved. It was only when she went to work at Bletchley Park that she felt comfortable and was treated as equal. The team of men at GCCS who she worked closely with were progressive in their views surrounding gender roles, and some of them helped her to get her a pay raise equal to theirs. A promotion to the position of Linguist Grade was created and given to Joan, so she could get a raise even though she did not actually speak any other language.
During the beginning stages of the training process, she was the first member of the small group “The Girls” in GCCS, who mainly did routine clerical work. Joan said that there was only one other female member in that team that was also a cryptanalyst.
Clarke soon became skilled with the Banburismus method, created by Alan Turing in the mid-1940s to help decode German messages, and she was said to have stayed over time just to see the results of the different tests she worked on. Her work was vital in driving progress with Banburismus and was in breaking the main Naval Enigma Cipher, which she devoted a lot of her time and effort to. There were many levels and processes involved in what they were working on at Bletchley Park, and after spending a long time on Banburismus, Joan invented the second stage to speed up this routine decryption method. However, her name was never attached to it, and it was not until decades later when Leslie Yoxall claimed that he only created the first stage that Joan was finally given credit for her work.
There were controversies surrouding Clarke’s relationship with Turing, which detracted from their accomplishments, because he had ‘homosexual tendencies.’ They were first engaged in 1941 before mutually breaking off the engagement later on and staying close friends until he passed.
At the end of the war, bombes were more widely available, and so the Banburismus attack was officially cancelled. The team disbanded, and the members all walk different paths in life. Clarke was the successor of both the GCCS and the GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), where she met her husband, Lieutenant-Colonel Murray, who she later moved to Scotland with. In 1947, she was appointed the title of ‘a Member of the British Empire’ for her code-breaking work, also known as an MBE. Clarke lived the rest of her life peacefully with her husband until she passed in 1996 from natural causes.
by Ha Nguyen
References
Lord, Lindsay. Joan Elisabeth Lowther Clarke Murray. Mac Tutor. Jul. 2008, https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Clarke_Joan/
Flapan, Erica. “100 years ago: Joan Clarke”. Notices of the AMS, vol. 64, no. 3, 2017, pp. 252–55, https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/201703/rnoti-p252.pdf
Joan Clarke. School History. https://schoolhistory.co.uk/notes/joan-clarke/
Joan Clarke. History of Scientific Women. https://scientificwomen.net/women/clarke-joan-158
Women Codebreakers. Bletchley Park Research https://www.bletchleyparkresearch.co.uk/research-notes/women-codebreakers/
Joan Clarke. Spartacus education.https://spartacus-educational.com/Joan_Clarke.htm
Joan Clarke: Mathematics is Not Just a Matter for Men. Vicentia. https://wearevicentia.com/pages/joan-clarke | https://medium.com/rediscover-steam/joan-clarke-english-cryptanalyst-at-bletchley-park-during-wwii-3fb6172c9a5b | ['Rs Staff'] | 2020-11-21 16:26:53.366000+00:00 | ['Women in STEM', 'History', 'Cryptography', 'World War II', 'Empowerment'] |
How my Daily Life Changed by Putting my Phone on Silent Mode | How my Daily Life Changed by Putting my Phone on Silent Mode
Photo by Zan on Unsplash
A couple of months ago I decided to put my phone on silent mode, indefinitely. Since then, my daily life has changed significantly in three ways.
First of all, my attention span has increased.
This is why I decided to turn my phone on silent mode in the first place. To be honest, I get distracted very easily. So, when I started working remotely, I had to find a way to stop, or at least minimize distractions.
As you can imagine, or even experience yourself, my smartphone was a major distraction for me. Now, after having it mostly on silent mode — and vibration— I can stay focused on the tasks at hand for longer periods.
Secondly, I feel less anxious.
Before I changed the notification settings of my phone, I used to feel mildly anxious all the time. I used to study, work, and do whatever needed me to sit down in front of my computer and concentrate while having my phone at my side. But not only that, the internet connection was on, too. Thus, the notifications that I received from people texting, calling, and emailing me, or even from the apps on my phone, made me feel I had to do even more work and consequently increased my anxiety.
Thirdly, my productivity increased.
After following this tactic for at least a couple of months now, I can say confidently that I am more productive than before. It’s a result of both being more focused and less anxious, which made me realize practically what I have to work on more to start achieving the results I want in every aspect of my life.
Additional notes
I also want to mention that besides putting my phone on silent/ vibration mode, I turned on focus assist on my laptop, too. What is focus assist? It’s a setting that Windows 10 have that lets you set which hours of the day you won’t receive notifications. That also helps me a lot, as I have apps on my laptop such as Viber, Skype, etc., and receiving notifications from them alongside multiple email notifications during a single day, not only distracts me but makes me feel overwhelmed, too.
If you want to learn how to turn on focus assist on your computer, watch this short video. | https://medium.com/afwp/how-my-daily-life-changed-by-putting-my-phone-on-silent-mode-c2b6cbafc144 | ['Athina Kontolati'] | 2020-12-07 15:32:48.686000+00:00 | ['Smartphones', 'Attention Span', 'Daily Life', 'Distraction', 'Notifications'] |
Deploy a VNET & NSG & UDR — Apostolidis Cloud Corner | Infrastructure as Code | Deploy a VNET with NSG and UDRs
Infrastructure as Code, or just IaC, provides three three main advantages: cost reduction, faster execution and risk reduction, the attributes of the DevOps culture.
Microsoft Azure Resource Manager allows the managing and provisioning of Azure Resources, that can be Virtual Machines, Virtual Networks, Storage Accounts, Apps, SQL Databases and everything that a computer data center includes, through machine-readable definition files, known as JSON templates, without the need of physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools.
I am starting a series of posts about building infrastructure with JSON templates.
The tool I use to build my Azure Json templates is the Visual Studio Code. You can download it from https://code.visualstudio.com/ for every platform.
To work with Azure Resource Manager you need the Azure Resource Manager Tools extension. Open the VS Code, go to the Extensions Section, search and install the Azure Resource Manager Tools extension.
The extension is very helpful since it highlights the code, it provides references and intellisense.
At this post I am sharing & explaining my Azure json template for deploying a Virtual Network, a Network Security Group and a Route Table.
You can find and download my working template at my Git account :
https://github.com/proximagr/ARMTemplates/tree/master/VNET-2sub-NSG-UDR
Json Template Guide
Below you can find my template with comments, for better understanding.
{ "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentTemplate.json#", "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0", "parameters": { //** Define the Virtual Network Name */ "vnetName": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "Cloud-Corner-VNET", "metadata": { "description": "Cloud Corner VNET" } //** Define the Address Space of the Virtual Network */ }, "vnetAddressPrefix": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "10.0.0.0/24", "metadata": { "description": "Address prefix" } //** Define the Address Space of the the First Subnet */ }, "subnet1Prefix": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "10.0.0.0/27", "metadata": { "description": "Subnet 1 Prefix" } //** Define the Name of the the First Subnet */ }, "subnet1Name": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "Subnet1", "metadata": { "description": "Subnet 1 Name" } //** Define the Address Space of the the Second Subnet */ }, "subnet2Prefix": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "10.0.0.32/27", "metadata": { "description": "Subnet 2 Prefix" } //** Define the Name of the the First Subnet */ }, "subnet2Name": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "Subnet2", "metadata": { "description": "Subnet 2 Name" } }, //** Define the Name of the the Network Security Group */ "networkSecurityGroup01Name": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "Cloud-Corner-NSG-01", "metadata": { "description": "This is the name of the network security group" } }, //** Define the Name of the the First Route Table */ "RouteTable01Name": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "Cloud-Corner-UDR-01", "metadata": { "description": "Route Table 01 Name." } }, //** Define the Name of the the First Route of the First Route Table */ "Route01Name": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "To-internet", "metadata": { "description": "Route 01 Name." } }, //** Define the Next Hop Type of the the First Route of the First Route Table */ "Route01NextHopType": { "type": "string", "allowedValues": [ "VirtualNetworkGateway", "VnetLocal", "Internet", "VirtualAppliance", "None" ], "defaultValue": "VirtualAppliance", "metadata": { "description": "Route 01 Next Hop Type." } }, //** Define the Address Prefix of the First Route of the First Route Table */ "Route01AddressPrefix": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "0.0.0.0/0", "metadata": { "description": "Route 01 Address Prefix." } }, //** If you set "Virtyal Appliance for Next Hop Type, then you need to define the Next Hop IP Address, */ //** meaning the appliance's IP address. Here you define it for the First Route of the First Route Table */ "RT01Route01NextHopIPAddress": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "10.0.0.40", "metadata": { "description": "Next Hop IP Addess." } }, //** Define the Name of the Second Route Table */ "RouteTable02Name": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "Cloud-Corner-UDR-02", "metadata": { "description": "Route Table 02 Name." } }, //** Define the Name of the the First Route of the Second Route Table */ "RT02Route01Name": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "Local-Subnet", "metadata": { "description": "Route Table 02 Route 01 Name." } }, //** Define the Next Hop Type of the the First Route of the Second Route Table */ "RT02Route01NextHopType": { "type": "string", "allowedValues": [ "VirtualNetworkGateway", "VnetLocal", "Internet", "VirtualAppliance", "None" ], "defaultValue": "VnetLocal", "metadata": { "description": "Route 02 Next Hop Type." } }, //** Define the Address Prefix of the the First Route of the Second Route Table */ "RT02Route01AddressPrefix": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "10.0.0.0/27", "metadata": { "description": "Route Table 02 Route 01 Address Prefix." } }, //** Define the Name of the the Second Route of the Second Route Table */ "RT02Route02Name": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "To-subnet-1", "metadata": { "description": "Route Table 02 Route 01 Name." } }, //** Define the Next Hop Type of the the Second Route of the Second Route Table */ "RT02Route02NextHopType": { "type": "string", "allowedValues": [ "VirtualNetworkGateway", "VnetLocal", "Internet", "VirtualAppliance", "None" ], "defaultValue": "VirtualAppliance", "metadata": { "description": "Route 02 Next Hop Type." } }, //** Define the address prefix of the the Second Route of the Second Route Table */ "RT02Route02AddressPrefix": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "10.0.0.32/27", "metadata": { "description": "Route Table 02 Route 01 Address Prefix." } }, //** Define the next hop IP address (the virtual appliance's address) of the the Second Route of the Second Route Table */ "RT02Route02NextHopIPAddress": { "type": "string", "defaultValue": "10.0.0.40", "metadata": { "description": "Next Hop IP Addess." } } }, //** I dont use any variables, you can exclude this section*/ "variables": {}, "resources": [ //* create the First Route Table & Route*/ { "apiVersion": "2017-10-01", "type": "Microsoft.Network/routeTables", "name": "[parameters('RouteTable01Name')]", "location": "[resourceGroup().location]", "properties": { "disableBgpRoutePropagation": true, "routes": [ { "name": "[parameters('Route01Name')]", "properties": { "addressPrefix": "[parameters('Route01AddressPrefix')]", "nextHopType": "[parameters('Route01NextHopType')]", "nextHopIpAddress": "[parameters('RT01Route01NextHopIPAddress')]" } } ] } }, //* create the Second Route Table & Routes*/ { "apiVersion": "2017-10-01", "type": "Microsoft.Network/routeTables", "name": "[parameters('RouteTable02Name')]", "location": "[resourceGroup().location]", "properties": { "disableBgpRoutePropagation": true, "routes": [ { "name": "[parameters('RT02Route01Name')]", "properties": { "addressPrefix": "[parameters('RT02Route01AddressPrefix')]", "nextHopType": "[parameters('RT02Route01NextHopType')]" } }, { "name": "[parameters('RT02Route02Name')]", "properties": { "addressPrefix": "[parameters('RT02Route02AddressPrefix')]", "nextHopType": "[parameters('RT02Route02NextHopType')]", "nextHopIpAddress": "[parameters('RT02Route02NextHopIPAddress')]" } } ] } }, //* create teh Network Security Group */ { "apiVersion": "2019-02-01", "type": "Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups", "name": "[parameters('networkSecurityGroup01Name')]", "location": "[resourceGroup().location]", "properties": { "securityRules": [ { "name": "HTTPS", "properties": { "description": "Open HTTPS to Public", "protocol": "Tcp", "sourcePortRange": "443", "destinationPortRange": "443", "sourceAddressPrefix": "*", "destinationAddressPrefix": "*", "access": "Allow", "priority": 101, "direction": "Inbound" } } ] } }, //* create the Virtual Network */ { "apiVersion": "2018-10-01", "type": "Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks", "name": "[parameters('vnetName')]", "location": "[resourceGroup().location]", //*add a dependency in order to ensure that the NSG is created before the VNET, in order to be able to attach it*/ "dependsOn": [ "[parameters('networkSecurityGroup01Name')]" ], "properties": { "AddressSpace": { "AddressPrefixes": [ "[parameters('vnetAddressPrefix')]" ] } }, "resources": [ //* create the first subnet */ { "apiVersion": "2018-10-01", "type": "subnets", "location": "[resourceGroup().location]", "name": "[parameters('subnet1Name')]", //* add dependencies to create the resources with an order, because you need to ensure that the VNET is ready before creating the Subnet and also the Route Table*/ "dependsOn": [ "[parameters('vnetName')]", "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/routeTables', parameters('RouteTable01Name'))]" ], "properties": { "AddressPrefix": "[parameters('subnet1Prefix')]", //*attach the Newtork Securoty Group to the Subnet*/ "networkSecurityGroup": { "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups', parameters('networkSecurityGroup01Name'))]"}, //*attacht the First route table to the Subnet*/ "routeTable": { "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/routeTables', parameters('RouteTable01Name'))]" } } }, //*create the second subnet*/ { "apiVersion": "2018-10-01", "type": "subnets", "location": "[resourceGroup().location]", "name": "[parameters('subnet2Name')]", "dependsOn": [ "[parameters('vnetName')]", "[parameters('subnet1Name')]", "[parameters('RouteTable02Name')]" ], "properties": { "AddressPrefix": "[parameters('subnet2Prefix')]", //*attach the Newtork Securoty Group to the Subnet*/ "networkSecurityGroup": { "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/networkSecurityGroups', parameters('networkSecurityGroup01Name'))]"}, //*attacht the second route table to the Subnet*/ "routeTable": { "id": "[resourceId('Microsoft.Network/routeTables', parameters('RouteTable02Name'))]" } } } ] } ] }
Deploy the template
Deploy the template directly from here:
More Azure Resource Manager Templates: https://www.e-apostolidis.gr/microsoft/azure/create-azure-file-shares-using-arm-template-powershell/ | https://medium.com/@papostolidis/infrastructure-as-code-deploy-a-vnet-nsg-udr-apostolidis-cloud-corner-f4eb3623619d | ['Pantelis Apostolidis'] | 2020-03-12 15:57:29.551000+00:00 | ['Iac', 'Vscode', 'Mvpbuzz', 'Azure'] |
Our latest featured creator hubs are with Carnage Gaming! | Our latest featured creator hubs are with Carnage Gaming!
We’re excited to announce that our latest featured creator hubs are going to feature Carnage Gaming! Carnage is a gaming and esports organization that has fielded rosters for video games and tournaments such as Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty, and more! Carnage has also competed in competitions such as the Ishoni Esports competition, where their team has earned $5,000 for their first place tournament result! We’re also working internally with Carna Refereum Follow Jan 14, 2020 · 2 min read
We’re excited to announce that our latest featured creator hubs are going to feature Carnage Gaming! Carnage is a gaming and esports organization that has fielded rosters for video games and tournaments such as Fortnite, Rainbow Six Siege, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty, and more! Carnage has also competed in competitions such as the Ishoni Esports competition, where their team has earned $5,000 for their first place tournament result!
We’re also working internally with Carnage Gaming by creating private hubs to test out new Refereum features that will allow multi-team or multi-streamer organizations to reward their streamers for achieving milestones — by doing so, streamers can be rewarded for various milestones such as streaming for 5 hours, hitting follower goals, and more.
Why is this so important to the industry? This opens up a whole new opportunity of growth and measurement for teams and organizations, who traditionally have to manage all of this by hand. Plus it drives competition and engagement within the ranks on a smaller scale, allowing goals to be set and rewarded properly.
Learn more about the Carnage streamers and their favorite games!
Our latest hubs with Carnage Gaming will feature SEVEN hubs from Carnage creators: Kiingzcg, Chubbi, Alphaa, Nemxsis, Pryzaam, Willybemissin, and Pandamoniumsss. Whether you like watching Call of Duty or competitive FPS style games, the Carnage roster is stacked with veterans and competitive players who provide high levels of game play!
What is Refereum?
Refereum is a games rewards platform that rewards you for doing what you love — playing and engaging with your favorite games. By joining a hub on Refereum, you can earn prizes for completing quests — whether it’s streaming a specific game or referring your friends, you’ll accumulate points that can be redeemed for rewards.
If you’ve got any questions about getting started with Refereum or you’re looking for a new group of friends to game with, hop into our Discord — we’re super excited to have you join the Refereum community. We can’t wait to reward even more gamers for doing what they love. | https://medium.com/refereum/our-latest-featured-creator-hubs-are-with-carnage-gaming-4b057f6356fc | [] | 2020-01-14 23:05:31.928000+00:00 | ['Company'] |
IKEA Democratic Design: 3 design takeaways | A few weeks ago, I was walking in IKEA when I came up with a little book over a piece of unpronounceable Swedish furniture, pretty cool by the way.
In the beginning, it looked like a cardboard book, so I thought that it was just another decorative element in the infinite IKEA exhibition full of fake TV’s, Laptops… and so on.
The book cover had a really flashy title that said: “IKEA DEMOCRATIC DESIGN”.
¿¡How many of you would have ignored this title!?
As you can imagine, the book is certainly real and it turned out to be interesting reading about IKEA’s culture, design process and successful (and not so successful)cases.
My takeaways about the book are below:
0. DESIGN CULTURE
I did not know almost anything about IKEA’s culture and this book gave me a clear vision about their principles and values. In their own words :
“Our mission is the almost impossible idea of combining formal beauty with a great functionality and lasting quality. All of this produced in a sustainable value chain and affordable for the client.”
Nike Karlsson, a Designer, summarizes this vision into an user-centred approach:
“Design is not a way of expression, but a way to solve a problem. That’s what makes us different from artists.” Nike Karlsson, Designer
Design as a way of solving user needs, ¿Does it ring a bell for you, UXer?
1. DESIGN PRINCIPLES FIRST AND FOREMOST
Every single product in IKEA, from a chair to a kitchen utensil has to comply with the main 5 design principles :
Form, function, quality, price and sustainability:
IKEA’s Design Principles
Form: as a furniture brand, IKEA works to provide bright and beauty experiences through their products.
Function: every product has to respond to a user need, to facilitate daily life.
Quality: products are designed to last.
Price: democratic design means to design for everyone, with prices for everyone.
Sustainability: reusing instead of wasting. Take care of our planet is a top 5 value for IKEA as I explain later in SUSTAINABLE DESIGN: KITCHENS FROM PLASTIC BOTTLES section.
If a new product doesn’t comply with one of the principles, it can’t go to production. This is a difficult task that makes everyone in IKEA to give the best they have, in order to offer relevant products for the user daily life.
Not every principle is equally distributed across the products, of course. Products are all different and there will be products more focused on some principles than others.
Thus, a really cool thing is that every year all products are reviewed to check if they still comply with the 5 principles in a continuous improving purpose.
If they don’t, the product is reviewed or removed from the catalogue.
2. ERRORS AS PART OF THE CULTURE: A.I.R. SOFA
If you ever thought that IKEA doesn’t make mistakes… here it is an [huge and funny] example.
Back to mid-80s, Marcus Engman (latest Head of Design who is currently leaving the company) ran into a crazy idea: FURNITURE FILLED WITH AIR.
Raw a.i.r. sofa
At first glance, it was supposed to be a revolutionary and new way to see furniture and interior design. Some of the products included in the air-catalogue were sofas, armchairs, daybeds or footstools.
The process was in principle quite simple. Let’s see it with the a.i.r. sofa:
Buy your sofa. Go home and fill it using a hairdryer. Cover it with a stunning cover to make it look like a proper sofa. Enjoy the experience of a weightless sofa.
There were also many benefits:
Cost Materials: reducing 85% of raw materials. Maintenance: (think about the pleasure of lifting an air-sofa and vacuum) Logistics: reducing transport volume by 90%.
This is not a really strong IKEA shop assistant, ¡it’s stunning a.i.r. sofa!
So, ¿what happened?
Well, the thing is that despite the idea was good, the experience was really poor:
1. In IKEA stores and homes, the static of the material turned the pieces into dust collectors.
2. Users realized that sitting on an a.i.r sofa was actually uncomfortable and they prefered an ordinary sofa.
3. Users used warm air instead of fresh melting the material sometimes.
And on top of this, because of the weight, the furniture was moving around stores and homes, so it looked like a furniture flying dance.
Best quote I’ve ever found about this situation comes from IKEA’s employees:
The collection as a gathering of swollen hippos.
It’s true that this was a huge mistake and they should have tested many things before launching. But, the thing is that they had the courage to explore a crazy idea that they believed in and learnt from it. Errors are part of the design process, also an opportunity, and they accept them:
+1 IKEA
3. SUSTAINABLE DESIGN: KITCHENS FROM PLASTIC BOTTLES
Every year, we waste 100.000mill of plastic bottles over the world, just to drink water. Above 30% of this production is recycled.
And IKEA knows.
That’s why they launched KUNSGBACKA as an example of making things different, caring about resources through recycling instead of wasting.
For each front, 25 half-litre recycled bottles are used. This means that 10.000mill oil litres can be saved, just in kitchen fronts !!
If you want to know more about it, check this video:
That’s why they take sustainability as a key principle in the design process and for 2020 they aim to use recycled plastic only.
Besides, sustainable design shouldn’t be an anecdote but a commodity for everyone, so they are also thinking in Circular Economy by recycling their own products to build new ones.
So remember, don’t stop your curiosity and open every single Design book. Even if it looks like cardboard !!
Don’t forget to give your feedback and clap clap clap!
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 | https://uxdesign.cc/ikea-democratic-design-3-design-takeaways-83143a51bfce | ['Jc.Díez'] | 2019-05-28 23:43:53.655000+00:00 | ['IKEA', 'Interior Design', 'Design', 'UX Design', 'UX'] |
How to Integrate Solar Power in Your New Construction Project | Focused men with documents in hardhats at solar energy station
Solar energy is becoming increasingly mainstream in homes and buildings as the world continues to patronize net-zero-energy, low carbon footprint, high-performance structures. And thanks to technological advancements, builders and developers can now install them anywhere in their projects from the rooftop to facades, windows, and nearby unused space at the site.
However, installing solar systems in construction projects isn’t as easy as shopping for panels and setting them where the sun can hit them. Thoughtful consideration of how you can make the most photovoltaic technology has long-term implications for client and occupant satisfaction. Hence, installing solar modules in your construction project should be done by a qualified team.
It may help a lot if the decision to install solar modules would come from the project’s start or the planning phase. Architects, contractors, specifiers, and construction project managers play a vital role in ensuring new buildings use quality photovoltaic products. The top priority of building owners and contractors when they decide to go solar should be selecting affordable yet efficient PV technology. And this is what we’re going to talk about here today.
How Can Construction Project Managers Prepare Buildings for Solar Installation
Construction professionals are quickly switching to building sustainable projects. Structures with its power plant using clean and renewable energy are the new trend. That said, solar module suppliers and electrical contractors are on the rise to help integrate solar technology in a new design or build.
Setting up your solar system before or during construction is more beneficial than installing it after the building is done. Mainly, construction work requires a lot of electricity, with most tasks now supported by power tools, machines, and equipment. But more than that, planning where to install the solar modules in a new building can help designers and the builder find the best location and select the best type of system that can best benefit the structure.
In a study conducted recently by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, experts concluded that installing solar modules during the new construction can significantly cut costs in operations as much as it can save on bills when the building is already opened for occupancy. But there are some design guidelines to consider to make your solar integration during construction successful.
Here are some design considerations to make things easier:
Note the steepness and orientation of the building’s roof — if you are going to install a roof, making it face the south and angled between 30 and 45 degrees is ideal for solar installation. Otherwise, have a stand designed with the same specs.
If you are going to install roof vents, dormers, or chimneys, check if any of these will cause shading on your solar panels. Shading the panels will negatively impact energy production.
Set the roof load-bearing specifications to a value that can accommodate additional weight from a solar system.
Designate mounting points for a solar system to avoid the likelihood of damage to the roof and save time and money during installation.
Apart from these, there are also crucial electrical considerations you should take into account for a successful solar system installation, including:
An electrical conduit should be run between the solar panels and the electrical panel. That said, you need to take note of the electrical conduit installation point from the primary electrical panel location and the roof.
Ensure that the circuit breakers and main service panel specifications support a solar panel array.
Make enough room near the main electrical panel to accommodate some solar components that need to be installed near the panel.
Following these considerations, it is important to include solar system planning in the new construction project’s design stage. Find electrical contractors qualified to do the installation during this stage and work closely with the design team. The installation and electrical requirements can be satisfied and prevent revisions and rework when the construction activities are ongoing.
The timing of PV installation is also essential. You’ll want to install the PV system during the day to test whether the panels can collect sufficient sun energy from your chosen installation point. It is also nice to try it during a season when the amount of sunshine is low to know whether it can sustain the building’s electrical needs. Also, as we mentioned earlier, installing the panels during the construction phase can help you stay within budget. You know very well that power is a crucial resource in building and managing construction.
Types And Costs Of Solar Technology
Now that you know when solar systems installation should be inserted into your construction schedule, it’s time to decide on the right PV module to utilize. Generally, the type may depend on the purpose of your building. The PV tech and rating required by house consumption are much simpler and lower than that of a commercial building. Qualified PV electrical contractors can advise you on the type, but here’s a simple idea of what your options may be:
1. Crystalline Silicon Modules
Traditional solar systems have cells made from silicon crystals. They are wired together to form a solar module with flat-plate panels and can be used alone or with others. Today, crystalline silicon modules use mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline silicon materials.
Generally, this type of module is the most commonly used as it is the most efficient solar technology available yet. However, it is also the most expensive among the solar module types despite silicon being relatively abundant. Its non-toxic trait makes it a truly clean energy generator. Finally, the crystalline-type PV module has a successful track record of more than 45 years of being used in different construction projects and existing buildings.
One of its strongest advantages of the crystalline-type module is its ability to produce 80% of its original power capacity after 25 years of operation. It has a lifespan that can last up to 30 years but can continue to produce energy beyond it. Moreover, it has an overall efficiency of 12% to 15%, making it the best choice for big and commercial buildings, but also a preferred system by homeowners and other applications.
The crystalline silicon module is considered expensive. The cost may also be dependent on the capacity and other factors, including mounting and geographic location and mounting. The typical installed cost of a roof-mounted crystalline silicon solar system is $6.5 to $8 per watt.
2. Thin-Film Solar Modules
Thin-film solar cells or second-generation solar cells are made from non-silicon materials or amorphous silicon. Cadmium telluride is a common material used to build this type of solar system. It also incorporates layers of semiconductor materials that are few micrometers thick.
This type of system is quite flexible, it has become a preferred module for building-integrated photovoltaic or BIPV applications. They are installed directly on roof shingles, building facades, or glazing for skylights to be installed towards the end of the construction. But you also have the option to mount them on the ground. This is ideal for construction sites with broader space.
One of the advantages of this type of module is that it can be well blended into the structure’s architecture. So, if you are preserving the aesthetic of your building, this will be the best option. Apart from that, the materials used in this module are cheaper, so the system’s overall cost is also reduced.
Overall, the installed cost of a large-scale thin-film solar module mounted on the ground is $3 to $4 per watt. However, the efficiency is much lower at 6% to 8% range.
3. Concentrating Photovoltaic Modules
This solar module uses plastic lenses or mirrors as materials for its panel. Sunlight is concentrated on a small piece of highly efficient PV material, and as a result, only a small portion of the costly PV cells is used but can reach cell efficiency that’s much higher than a flat-plate solar system.
Concentrating PV systems are becoming increasingly popular in utilities and industrial sectors as they can produce an overall efficiency as high as 30%. However, the challenge in using this kind of solar system is to use direct sunbeams only, so the panels should be positioned directly at the sun. This means that the mounting should be movable so that the module can be pointed towards the sun’s varying direction. This condition also limits the use of the concentrating PV to the sunniest parts of the country.
4. Emerging Solar Technologies
More advanced or third-generation PV cells are created from various new materials, including sola dyes, solar inks, and conductive plastics. The possibilities are abundant and the new options are attractive because of their low-cost materials. Manufacturing them could also be less expensive. However, these technologies’ overall efficiency is expected to be lower than the typical PV cells.
Getting Started with Solar for New Construction Projects
Unlike what most people imagine that solar systems are installed on buildings only when they are already finished, the decision to build a solar-powered structure should start during the design stage. That is, if you plan to rely on solar energy completely. Before all the planning and writing of the construction schedule, a qualified electrical contractor to install the module should already be chosen. The builder should then provide the PV installers with the plan, design, and construction schedule. Working with the roofing contractor may also be required if you go for roof-mounted solar modules. Meeting with them before starting will make managing the construction of solar-powered buildings smoother. And to complete the project more efficiently, it should be a good idea to employ construction crew scheduling software for the collaboration of both contractors.
Overall, the successful integration of solar power in your new construction project will require you to hire a required solar module installer. Find one that has already experienced working on new construction. Finally, decide whether you’ll prioritize low-cost installation or high efficiency. Most likely, startups and small projects will go for low-cost modules, but bigger ones with more occupancy and power consumption will prefer the module with higher efficiency. | https://medium.com/@procrewsoftware/how-to-integrate-solar-power-in-your-new-construction-project-e91141dbd9be | ['Garrick Revels'] | 2020-12-11 12:12:33.712000+00:00 | ['Solar Power', 'Construction Management', 'Solar Energy', 'Construction'] |
Swipe Leverages Chainlink to Bring Decentralized Pricing into the Swipe Network | Swipe recently collaborated with Chainlink, a reliable decentralized oracle network provider that offers high-security data solutions to smart contracts on any blockchain. The new integration will enable the Swipe platform to access Chainlink’s decentralized price feed oracles, particularly their ETH-USD Price Reference Contract and a custom-built decentralized price reference network for SXP-USD, representing Swipe’s native token.
Chainlink’s oracle solution will allow Swipe to create a stable, yet decentralized bridge between reliable off-chain prices and Swipe’s on-chain transactions. This is accomplished by having multiple Chainlink oracles evaluate the same data point, thus eliminating one oracle being a single point of failure or absolute truth.
Decentralized applications are only as strong as their weakest component. Hence, why highly secure blockchain-based smart contracts are insecure if being triggered by data about price conversions from a single, centralized oracle. By decentralizing the data sourcing around token price conversions for point of sale transactions, such as through the SXP-USD decentralized price feed, Swipe users get more secure, reliable, and accurate pricing when buying, selling, and spending SXP.
Additionally, Swipe is using Chainlink’s ETH-USD price feed to cross-reference against the SXP-USD price feed to allow users to spend SXP directly on Ethereum Dapps. By knowing the SXP and ETH price in USD, The Swipe platform could easily convert it using Swipe’s point of sale conversion technology.
Swipe’s CEO Joselito Lizarondo stated, “I believe this relationship is vital for Swipe users who need access to Chainlink’s trusted oracle services. By collaborating with Chainlink, Swipe will effectively address the security problems for off-chain connections that currently exist for users of the Swipe Network Wallet-Contacts.”
About Swipe
Swipe is a wallet application and card platform that grants users access to buy, sell, and pay with 20+ digital currencies. Through its proprietary Swipe Network, users are enabled to convert digital currencies to fiat currencies on-demand. Swipe is headquartered in London with additional locations in the United States, Estonia, and the Philippines. Its mission is to enable users around the world access to financial services tied into digital currencies. The Swipe Wallet is available both on the Apple iOS and Google Play app stores. Learn more about Swipe by visiting Swipe.io, Twitter or Facebook.
About Chainlink
Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that enables smart contracts to securely access off-chain data feeds, web APIs, and traditional bank payments. Chainlink is consistently selected as one of the top blockchain technologies by leading independent research firms such as Gartner. It is well known for providing highly secure and reliable oracles to great companies like Google, Oracle, SWIFT, and many other large enterprises, as well as many of the world’s best smart contract projects/teams such as Web3/Polkadot, Synthetix, Loopring, Aave, Kaleido, OpenLaw, Reserve, and many more.
Learn more by visiting the Chainlink website, Twitter or Reddit. If you’re a developer, visit the developer documentation or join the technical discussion on Discord. | https://blog.swipe.io/swipe-leverages-chainlink-to-bring-decentralized-pricing-into-the-swipe-network-a0a8d1f603be | ['Swipe Marketing'] | 2020-02-12 01:03:50.036000+00:00 | ['Oracle', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Swipe', 'Smart Contracts', 'Decentralized'] |
Step-By-Step Classification Modeling | 4. Model Check
Model prediction and residuals
The .predict method will provide model predictors:
y_hat_train = pipeline.predict(X_train) y_hat_test = pipeline.predict(X_test)
Residuals can be calculated by subtracting predictions from the original values, which are y_train and y_test .
Confusion matrix
To plot a confusion matrix, use the plot_confusion_matrix function from sklearn.metrics :
plot_confusion_matrix(pipeline, X_test, y_test, cmap=plt.cm.Blues)
It is a great way to visualize Actual Labels versus Predicted Labels.
Confusion matrix
Above, you can see a confusion matrix plot. By your classification model, the y-axis is True Labels and the x-axis is Predicted Labels. The target has 708 (673+35) values in 0-class and 126 (101+25) values in 1-class.
The box on the top left corner(673) represents the 0 values that are predicted correctly by the classification model. The box on the top right corner (35) represents the 0 values that are predicted incorrectly by the classification model. Your aim is to lower the number of incorrectly predicted values.
Classification report
Use the classification_report function from sklearn.metrics to create an evaluation metrics table. This table represents the quality of a model:
classification_report(y_test, y_test_pred)
Classification matrix
Precision measures how precise the predictors are:
Precision = Number of True Positives / Number of Predicted Positives
Recall indicates what percentage of the class is captured by the model:
Recall = Number of True Positives / Number of Actual Total Positives
F1-Score is the weighted average of Precision and Recall :
F1-Score = 2 * (Precision * Recall) / (Precision + Recall)
When checking for the quality of a model, it is imperative to decide which are evaluation metrics are more important for your dataset.
AUC Score and ROC Curve
AUC Score and ROC Curve are other evaluation metrics that provide information on the quality of the model:
If your model doesn’t have the decision_function property, you may try using the model.predict_proba function.
For the perfect ROC Curve, the area under the curve should be 1.0. The AUC value lies between 0.5 to 1, where 0.5 denotes a bad classifier and 1 denotes an excellent classifier.
ROC Curve
The graph above represents the ROC Curve for a classification model. It is obvious that the model is not doing very well. The goal is to get the AUC Score close to 1 and a ROC Curve with the max area (1.0) under the curve. An AUC Score around 0.5 is no better than predicting a random coin toss.
Feature importance
This evaluates the importance of the features in the classification model: | https://medium.com/better-programming/step-by-step-classification-modeling-6d820c5bea2 | ['Ulku Guneysu'] | 2020-12-14 18:39:17.185000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Machine Learning', 'Classification', 'Data Science', 'Python'] |
What Reason Are PPC Procedures Valuable To Advance An Organization? | Pay Per Click advertisements, in like manner known as cost-per-click promotions, is a quick course for driving web traffic to your website. As an organization proprietor, you can make commercials around specific watchwords just as offered to have them shown to clients searching for those terms. The promotion organization, online web search tool, or site creator then, at that point, charges an expense when a singular snaps an advertisement that prompts your webpage. PPC is given significance for internet advertising by digital marketing agency in chennai.
Natural site traffic–the heavenly vessel of SEO–turns out to be ever before extra equivocal with each Google calculation redesign. The principal page position for your search queries sets aside time just as incorporates 200 factors: an assortment of backlinks, area name authority, high material quality, and so on Likewise, if you come to the heaven, a contender can swipe your spot. Digital marketing organizations assist you with arranging your PPC crusades successfully.
READ MORE: How beneficial PPC Marketing is for your Online Business?
The advantages are –
1. Supplies prompt results
Contingent on your ad spending plan and the degree of contenders for the key expressions you’re focusing on, your advertisements could appear on top of the underlying page of Google query items, sending traffic to your site right now.
2. Targets reasonable clients effectively
Facebook advertisements, for Seo Company in Chennai, appear just to individuals that stay in a given area and utilize different other segment prerequisites to focus on the likely leads.
3. Quantifiable vital productivity signs
The average active clicking factor for Google Ads is around 2% in the inquiry network just as 0.35 percent on the presentation screen organization, as indicated by WordStream. And furthermore as ppc services, the three postings at the highest point of the page for given catchphrases normally notices take two-fifths of the snaps.
4. It’s expense effective
You possibly need to pay when someone includes with your advertisement by clicking it to discover more.
5. Permits you unlimited oversight
You choose where your notices appear, that sees them, exactly the amount you need to spend, just as how long they run. Digital marketing agency control them for you in the event that you think that it is confounding to deal with.
Pay Per Click functions admirably with thing dispatches, catch site pages, Certified Public Accountant marketing, and partner advertising including extraordinary changing offers, joint endeavor (JV) projects, occasional advancements, occasion centered marketing and Seo Services in Bangalore, and furthermore comparable to online business crusades. Best digital marketing furthermore supplies an expense free promotion execution that uncovers whether your notice bucks are being contributed cautiously. For more appealing updates visit our Instagram, Facebook page, twitter, LinkedIn. | https://medium.com/@pihusingh1322/what-reason-are-ppc-procedures-valuable-to-advance-an-organization-72193a854080 | ['Pihu Singh'] | 2021-11-19 07:21:29.786000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing', 'Internet Marketing', 'Social Media', 'Seo Services', 'PPC Marketing'] |
Dealing with life after university… | Life after university can be pretty daunting, especially, if you are unsure about what to do next. After being a student for most of your life and having timetables telling you what to do and where to go, it’s hard to be suddenly left alone without a proper plan.
For me, September 2018 brought big changes and proved particularly difficult. I had just graduated in July and also made a huge move with my family from London to Leeds. I was missing everything about my life at university, working on getting settled into a new city and trying to readjust to life at home as an adult.
So, if you are a recent graduate or someone going through major changes in your life, I really do sympathise with the uncertainty and fears that come with it. Here are some words of encouragement and advice which I hope you will find helpful. You are not alone.
1) Being positive and having gratitude
Gratitude has helped me heal from so much and adopt a fresh perspective in so many situations. It’s so important to reflect on all the things you have, rather than focus on what you don’t have. I understand that sometimes the situations in front of us seem overwhelming but you must remind yourself of the tough situations you’ve overcome in the past. I would urge you to make lists, meditate about the things you’re grateful for and remind yourself of the things you’ve achieved. It certainly helped me balance my thoughts and approach every problem with a positive attitude.
2) Figuring out what you want to do
Remember: It is okay to be unsure about what you want to do next.
Make a mind map or do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis on yourself. Go over things that you are good at, what you can improve on and for the opportunities section, you can note down the things that you’ve done and achieved in your previous professional experiences and how they might help you in the future. For threats, think of the things that hold you back, your fears and your practical limitations (money, location, etc). This will help you get a better picture of where you are currently and help you set yourself some personal goals and decide what you want to do next.
You could simply start by volunteering, working part-time (if you can), doing online courses and attending various free workshops/ events. Not only does this help you navigate your options but it also helps you stay proactive, recognise your interests and add to your experience.
Also, if you have many interests — it is not a bad thing. It doesn’t make you less focused or less ambitious. It is all the more reason to explore a range of things and indulge your curiosities.
3) Stop comparing yourself to others
This is something we all fall victim to at some point. It can be quite scary seeing people your age look like they have their lives figured out with ‘proper’ grad jobs and flashy five-year plans. However, you must remember that we all struggle with something and what ‘looks like’ is not often the same as ‘what is’. So, don’t become consumed by what others are doing. Also, if and when you do see people doing what they love and achieving things they’ve worked hard for, be inspired and wish them well! Seeing all my friends at different stages in their lives over the past year has taught me that there is no ‘right’ way of doing life and that it is normal to aspire to different things. It is entirely dependent on prioritising what matters to you and being led by instinct. So, go forth and live yours.
4) Habits and hobbies
When you suddenly go from routine to none at all, it is easy to become lazy or feel unmotivated. So, try to build some sort of a routine;
· Volunteering helps — gets you out of the house and do something meaningful with your time.
· Keeping fit is vital, so in whichever way you do this — make sure you get that heart rate pumping! I must confess, I am still working on doing this consistently and I’ve recently been dedicating ninety minutes every day to dancing in my room and honestly, it’s lit!
· Listen to podcasts, read and learn about what’s going on in the world — stay woke.
· MEDITATE — whether it’s prayer, silence or however you do it, it has definitely brought me peace and saved me from so much restlessness.
· Build hobbies — I’ve always loved to write, whether it’s poetry, spoken word or just a long rant about my day– so I decided to take it further and start blogging.
These may feel like small things but it all adds up and it has certainly helped me keep busy, avoid depressive episodes and just be myself.
Just keep calm and keep going ❤
These are just a few suggestions based on what has worked and is working for me. I hope that some of these tips help you on your journey. I would like to hear your stories and experiences about life after university, feel free to share. | https://medium.com/@sarahchebrolu/dealing-with-life-after-university-34e7db7a3328 | ['Sarah Chebrolu'] | 2019-09-14 00:46:12.852000+00:00 | ['Lifehacks', 'Change', 'University', 'Graduation', 'Adulting'] |
How to Fight Imposter Syndrome | Dig back into the archives of your memory as a child. Do you remember the first time you pretended to be someone or something you weren’t?
A superhero. A dinosaur.
A majority of children learn from an early age how to take on a fictional role. Regular weekends playing with friends or the holy grail of make-believe, Halloween.
Now tap that forward arrow on the video player in your mind. Skip ahead to the early years of adulthood; in the workplace, college or otherwise.
Do you remember the first time you said or thought, “I am _____”?
That blank could have been anything from a graphic designer to a rock climber. You believed in both your desire and self-identified as what you wanted to be, regardless of how the outside world defined you.
Humans are life-long learners, even if we don’t always recognize it. Anyone who identifies by a title is more than likely still learning and improving. Nobody is born with the skills to be an architect, only the building blocks of interest and desire. On day one of educating oneself, I’d argue we’re already what we aim to be — albeit untested. | https://medium.com/mind-cafe/how-to-fight-imposter-syndrome-with-logic-and-resilience-ee9b8adf24be | ['Michael Lanasa'] | 2020-07-22 00:02:55.756000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Mental Health', 'Learning', 'Self', 'Life'] |
3 Ways to Attract the Next Generation of Employees to Your Company | A widening skills gap is affecting a number of worldwide industries, with manufacturing and construction both near the top of that list. In the case of construction, 80% of residential contractors and over 50% of commercial contractors said that skill positions were increasingly difficult to fill, according to separate surveys from 2018. It hasn’t gotten better since then — eight out of 10 construction companies still can’t find the workers they need.
Some of it is out of their control, and in long-tailed sectors like these, composed of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses, it’s almost impossible to muster an industry-wide response. That means it’s up to those individual companies to figure out what tools can be used to attract workers during a time when unemployment is low and the job market is incredibly competitive.
If there’s one thing that can consistently aid employers in that process, it’s the obvious fact that millennials are the demographic that must be targeted almost exclusively. The next piece of the puzzle, then, is learning what they want out of a job. For companies on this path, here are three research-backed “perks” that top the list of what appeals to younger workers.
1. Technology-forward experience
Millennials are used to using digital technology in almost every aspect of their day-to-day life — and that extends to work. One Microsoft report found that 93% of millennials rate technology as being among a workplace’s most important aspects.
But even before they even consider going to work for an organization, modern workers turn to the internet to see what it’s all about. A website is a good start, but social media activity is even better, as it gives prospective employees an opportunity to engage with a business before committing to it.
Google, Yelp, and Glassdoor reviews are equally important — what are customers and past employees saying about the business, and how does leadership tend to handle it? We mostly think of a brand as the connection between company and consumer, but increasingly, it’s also between employer and employee. This is the first area where construction companies can benefit by being tech-forward, but it’s definitely not the last (more on that below).
2. Open communication lines
Millennials are also accustomed to near-constant communication with the people they have close ties to, which includes colleagues and employers. Wanting to communicate can take different forms, but the setting of expectations is definitely one of them, as is the desire for regular feedback. In one report, 42% of millennial workers wanted some form of weekly, on-the-job evaluation (double what any other generation wanted).
In both cases — expectations and feedback — technology ties back in: modern apps and services make it possible to communicate quickly, easily, and efficiently. A sit-down between an employee and supervisor or employer, for instance, can happen anywhere and anytime. How important is communication? Over 80% of millennials claim they’d rather work somewhere where “open communication” is valued than somewhere with excellent benefits.
3. Ethical work
In one survey, 60% of millennials listed “a sense of purpose” among the reasons they chose a place of employment, and three out of four would take a pay cut to work somewhere more sustainable. In another (this one trans-generational), 42% of the workforce expressed a desire to work within an organization that positively impacts the world. In that same report, 44% said that how much they were paid mattered less than whether or not the work was meaningful. Corporate social responsibility may be a mouthful, but it’s on the tip of the workforce’s collective tongue.
This trend should prompt companies to consider the impact they have — not only that of their products but of their entire operations from start to finish. As of 2020, we can add global pandemics and broken supply chains to the list of reasons that corporate transparency has become a necessity, and while getting that transparency might be difficult in the short term, it’s also a critical factor in attracting tomorrow’s talent.
Applying the knowledge
It’s easy to read and write about things like transparency and ethics, but it’s much harder to concretely incorporate them into a company’s ethos and practices. In other words, adjusting legacy business practices in order to attract a new generation of employees will, in many cases, be a very bumpy road. And yet, it must be done. Not only because it’s what those employees want, but because digital transformation, radical transparency, and social responsibility are what the industry will require going forward. | https://medium.com/@nicolasdebonis/3-ways-to-attract-the-next-generation-of-employees-to-your-company-ab2462755332 | ['Nic De Bonis'] | 2020-12-17 19:15:50.118000+00:00 | ['Talent', 'Hiring', 'Technology', 'Next Generation', 'Millennials'] |
Treasure at 3.9 | What comes to your mind the moment I say Jewelry. I am sure most of you would have thought about GOLD.
Yes, GOLD is a dense lustrous yellow precious metal of Group 11, Period 6, of the periodic table. Gold has several qualities that have made it exceptionally valuable throughout history. It is attractive in color and brightness, durable to the point of virtual indestructibility, highly malleable, and usually found in nature in a comparatively pure form. The history of Gold is unequaled by that of any other metal because of its perceived value from earliest times.
Why has Gold always been valuable?
Gold is visually pleasing and workable and does not tarnish or corrode; it was one of the first metals to attract human attention. Examples of elaborate gold workmanship, many in nearly perfect condition, survive from ancient Egyptian, Minoan, Assyrian, and Etruscan artisans. Gold continues to be a highly favored material out of which to craft Jewelry and other decorative objects.
Because of its unique qualities, Gold has been the one material that is universally accepted in exchange for goods and services.
When was GOLD Discovered?
Even though it was unclear about the exact discovery, the first solid evidence archeologists have of human interaction with Gold comes from the ancient Egyptians in roughly 3,000 BC. The metal was not only a status of wealth. Still, it was also an essential part of Egyptian mythology and daily life.
Everything from Jewelry to the capstones of the Great Pyramids to King Tut’s funeral mask was crafted from Gold. The Egyptians also created detailed maps providing information on where to find gold mines and the best gold deposits from around the kingdom.
Interesting Facts about GOLD
11.2 -If all of the existing Gold in the world was pulled into a 5-micron thick wire, it could wrap around the world 11.2 million times. he
2808 — The boiling point of Gold is 2808 degrees centigrade.
37- The temperature of the human body is 37 degrees centigrade. Gold’s conductivity of heat means that it rapidly reaches body temperature — one of the reasons it has become valued for Jewelry.
187200 — Roughly, Around 187,200 tons of Gold has been mined since the beginning of civilization
Gold is inside us -On average, a human weighing 70 kg will have over 0.2 mg of Gold inside them. Trace amounts of Gold are found near the heart and in nail beds.
Earthquakes can create Gold -Scientists have discovered that water inside fault lines vaporizes during earthquakes, creating gold crystals embedded with quartz.
Gold is rare — Only 50,000 tons below-ground reserves of Gold remain in the world. In comparison, around 190,000 tons of Gold have already been mined.
Who produces the most Gold -China is currently the world’s biggest producer of Gold, with nearly 370 tons of annual production. It’s a good thing as China is also the largest consumer of Gold.
Oceans should be glittering -Ocean waters are full of Gold. There are about 20 million tons of precious metal, worth around $771 trillion, in oceans. But Gold in the ocean is so dilute that it cannot be extracted.
At what depth Gold was lying — Gold is usually found at a depth of 3.9 meters, and South Africa has the most number of Gold mines.
Conclusion
Gold is also said to have the below health benefits.
Regulating body temperature to avoid chills and hot flashes. Arthritis symptom relief. Reduction of stress and anxiety and healing the nervous and endocrine systems. Immunity boosting with extra protection against infections. Improving the health of the skin. In addition to gold jewelry, Gold has been used in many skin creams and skin treatment products throughout history. Gold gives the wearer a feeling of general well-being and better energy levels with positive energy. Wearing 24-Karat Gold against one’s skin may reduce arthritis symptoms and have a soothing effect on painful areas. Gold used on the tips of acupuncture needles makes them more effective in alleviating pain and releasing the energy flow in the body.
Even though Gold has many benefits, one should learn to control the desire of having Gold versus the obsession with having GOLD. All our Life has a purpose, and the primary goal is to live a stress-free life and help others. | https://medium.com/@shiva.subramaniam85/treasure-at-3-9-8fe994c5f866 | ['Shiva Subramaniam'] | 2021-11-29 04:35:06.241000+00:00 | ['Craftsmanship', 'Jewelry', 'Jewellery', 'Gold Benefits', 'Gold'] |
Unacademy Group welcomes Tiger Global and Dragoneer in new investment round | Transaction values Unacademy Group at $2 Billion
Latest funding follows a round in Sept. when SoftBank Vision Fund 2 invested in the company, along with existing investors General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Facebook, and Blume Ventures
Bengaluru, November 25, 2020 — Unacademy, India’s leading learning platform, today announced it has raised a fresh investment round from Tiger Global Management and Dragoneer Investment Group. The funding round values Unacademy Group at $2 Billion.
The latest fund raise follows a round in Sept. 2020 when the company raised an investment of $150 Million in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. At that time, Unacademy was valued at $1.45 Billion.
“Our mission from Day One has been to democratise education and make it more affordable and accessible. We have consistently built the most iconic products that deliver high quality education to everyone. Today, I’m delighted to welcome Tiger Global and Dragoneer as our partners in the journey. They are both marquee global investors with a history of partnering with innovative companies that are making an impact on people’s lives,” said Gaurav Munjal, Co-Founder and CEO, Unacademy.
Unacademy Co-founders from L-R : Roman Saini, Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh
“The opportunity to improve lives through online education is enormous because of its sheer accessibility. The Unacademy team has innovated rapidly to build a leading platform that is taking education to the farthest corners of India. We are very excited to partner with Unacademy and look forward to seeing it scale further,” said Scott Shleifer, Partner at Tiger Global.
Unacademy Group is India’s largest learning platform with 47,000+ Educators, teaching in over 14 Indian languages, and Leaners spread across 5,000 cities. Over 150,000 Live Classes are conducted on the platform each month and the collective watch time across platforms is over 2 billion minutes per month.
This investment further strengthens our mission to democratise knowledge. We have just begun, and we are here to stir a revolution. | https://blog.unacademy.com/unacademy-group-welcomes-tiger-global-and-dragoneer-in-new-investment-round-8deb4ee8751d | ['Unacademy Hq'] | 2020-11-25 14:00:19.341000+00:00 | ['News', 'Edtech', 'Unacademy', 'Funding', 'Education'] |
A Spiritual Autobiography | A Spiritual Autobiography
Today I started to be a trifle more forthcoming
I have never been one who speaks much about “worldly” experiences I’ve had
But now there is occasion.
My goal is resurgence
Reach
Turning heads
Not to me but to the truth
A tweet posted yesterday expresses it
+
WE DO NOT NEED MOVEMENTS
Individuals are movements
Individuals who know we are I-We-All
Movements can be suppressed
Individuals are eternal like grass and trees
Chop us down we grow back
We come back
Time after time
We are inveterate
We win
Finally we are love
4:34 PM · Oct 25, 2019
+
Here is this morning’s mini-story.
When I met Nixon he advised me to forget print journalism and move to TV. I laughed inside, remembering he had fallen to JFK largely due to Kennedy’s overcoming him in the TV debates.
Nixon had faults but he was candid.
7:26 AM · Oct 26, 2019
+
The mission I am on is not to become a near-death experiencer
My ambition is not speak with utter clarity about time spent fully conscious while flatlined
Candid near death experience is not the hallucinatory product of neurons and such in individual brains
There is enough proof out there
Consciousness is non-local
Heavenly accounts are real
I need not try to ride that train
+
My mission is to write to an ever widening public
I am a dense sort who happens to be exactly who I am
A spectrum of always-on consciousness
From Dostoevsky denial
To Swedenborg certainty
I have three essential ideas to spread
1.
Philosophy is is universal practice
Reality is all
Ethics and aesthetics are the prime elements in acts and expressions leading to progress
Individuals are the source of divine mission
2.
Religions are fading
A common spirituality emerges
We are all part of the Same Source
Our common goal is manifesting unconditional love
3
We will achieve no progress based on negation
Feeling is consciousness
Egoistic beliefs are common and can be bypassed
We can and must create new communities based on positive values
Safe
Secure
Car free
Fair
Available to all
+
I do not assume when my eyes close for good these beliefs will be universal
But they will no longer be dormant
I will be happy to be seen as one who helped develop these approaches
We are beyond the ages we have come through
I work with countless others here and there
Evolution is our goal
The future is the individual
I
WE
ALL
+
Tolerance, helpfulness and democracy are ways unconditional love can become incarnate | https://medium.com/everything-comes/esto-8-697dd659b70e | ['Stephen C. Rose'] | 2019-10-26 15:21:07.861000+00:00 | ['Values', 'Esto', 'Autobiography', 'Life'] |
20+ Best Bitcoin Wallets to Store Bitcoins | Without a Bitcoin wallet, you can’t send or receive Bitcoin payments. So before you get bitcoins, you’ll need to buy, download, or create a bitcoin wallet.
Are you a new Bitcoin user ?
Or have you been proving bitcoin for a at the same time and want to upgrade your surveillance practices? later enjoy reading!.
Types of Wallets
Responsible are crowded different ways to use bitcoin and so responsible are crowded different types of wallets:.
Wallets so can be accessed on the web against any internet connected device.
Bitcoin hardware wallets. Physical devices designed to secure bitcoins.
Software wallets. Wallet applications downloaded to your phone, computer or tablet.
Paper wallets. Bitcoin private keys printed from an offline computer.
By the end of this article you’ll understand Bitcoin wallets and have a better idea about which type is right for you. Here are some factors to consider:
On the go? If you are making payments in person and not online at that moment a mobile wallet like copay ios & android.
Frequency of payments.If you power commitment to form frequent payments formerly it power be best to manage your funds in wallet so that is easy to use and accessible.
Amount.If you are dealing near large amounts of bitcoins you intention duty a secure wallet.
Use combinations. Mix and match to find a combination in order that contribute both preservation and accessibility.
Universal Wallets
Copay Download
It’s easy to use the same wallet or accounts transversely multiple devices.
Copay is over and above a good option for businesses due to a shared account feature. Whatever requires a certain number of users to sign all transaction. Keep create a 2 of 2 wallet where both desire be required to sign all transaction.
Hardware Wallets
Hardware wallets are limited computers or smartcards built alongside the sole purpose of generating bitcoin private skeleton offline. Hardware wallets securely sign transactions in the same offline domain.
Ledger Nano Learn More
Buy
Private skeleton are generated and signed offline in the smartcard’s secure climate. The nano is setup proving the ledger chrome application. The entire wallet can be recreated near the seed. A user selected pin code is again assigned to the device to protect across physical theft or hacking.
The ledger nano may be recycled on any calculator. Or android phones among mycelium or greenbits.
TREZOR Buy
The trezor differs taken away the ledger nano in so that it’s a bare tiny adding machine rather than a smartcard. Private skeleton are hushed generated offline.
Trezor conjointly generates a 24-word seed upon setup. The trezor has its own built in screen where the seed is displayed and copied down mid backup. Since the trezor is an offline device it offers extra bond since the seed isn’t displayed on an online adding machine.
An on the side passphrase can be added to the 24-word seed. Aforementioned administer extra protection. Since anyone who finds notability else’s 24-word seed is free to access the funds. An attacker stock-still wouldn’t be apt to access funds outdoors both the seed and the passphrase.
OPENDIME Buy
The pristine bitcoin bearer bond or called a bitcoin stick. Opendime is a limited usb stick in order that allows you to spend bitcoin like a dollar bill. Pass it on multiple times. Unseal every-time to spend online.
Acts like a read-only USB flash drive. Works with any computer, laptop, and phone.
A QR Picture and Text file inside contain Bitcoin address and support.
The private key is generated indoors the device. And is never hackneyed to any hominal.
The bitcoin universe changes fast but opendime is built on the fundamental bitcoin features so that have not changed in five years.
Give an opendime to anyone and they don’t use to worry so you can take back the funds later.
You have got the private screw in the device. The present is physical bitcoin as it was meant to be to dispassionate hand it to notable and they have got it.
Pass it on multiple times! Simple as a handshake. No miner fees, no confirmation delays.
Normal non hd bitcoin payment addresses and private screw in wif format.
Ledger HW.1 Buy
The Ledger HW.1 is a more affordable version of the Ledger Nano.
Ledger Unplugged Buy
The Ledger Unplugged is a credit card-size wireless hardware wallet. Private keys are generated offline. Transactions are signed on the device and sent to a mobile phone via NFC.Private passkey are generated offline.
Since the device fits perfectly toward wallets and no otg cable is required.
Software wallets engender it easy to securely spend and receive bitcoins to a hardware wallet. The image above splash how ledger’s desktop wallet cater the interface to receive payments to a ledger nano or hw.
Usb stick style software can makes it easy to load bitcoin within hardware wallets beyond having to install any software or apps.
Online Bitcoin Wallets
Store your private passkey online. Wallets can only be accessed alongside a user-set password.
GreenAddress Create
GreenAddress is a multisig web wallet, with apps available for Chrome, iOS, and Android.
SpectroCoin Create
Services put forth include a wide range of bitcoin solutions. Taken away exchange to bitcoin e-wallet.
Mobile Wallets for Android
Cobo is a leading producer of hardware and software blockchain products. As a company, we emphasize long-term security, reliability, and convenience. Our key products and services reflect that vision. Altogether, Cobo offers a secure mobile wallet (Cobo Wallet), the world’s first military-grade cold storage hardware wallet (Cobo Vault), and tailored custodial solutions for institutional investors (Cobo Custody). With support for over thirty different coins, 500 tokens, and an integrated DApp store along the way, we aim to be a one-stop shop for everything crypto.
Cobo’s flagship product, Cobo Wallet, is the first leading mobile wallet to offer Proof-of Stake (PoS) pooling services, a groundbreaking feature that allows users to generate benefits from their cryptocurrency holdings. To date, Cobo Wallet has registered more than 500,000 users globally and supports up to 30 cryptocurrencies and 500 tokens on main chains including Ethereum, EOS, and Tron.
iOS Download
Android Download
Official Website
breadwallet (Android) Learn More
Download
And now it is additionally available for adroid devices running android 6. The simplicity and easy-to-use pawn makes it a vast apartment to start for users who are new to bitcoin.
Mycelium (Android) Download
Mycelium is an hd wallet for frequent advanced features.
Bitcoin Wallet Download
Bitcoin wallet was the antecedent bitcoin wallet for android. And connects directly to the bitcoin network amidst spv.
Airbitz Learn More
Download
Airbitz is a different person bitcoin wallet that’s enormous for everyday use. It’s integrated by fold. Meaning you can get 20% discounts at starbucks against inner the wallet.
Airbitz manages accounts including usernames and passwords. The indicated type of account creation is easier for less technical users who may have trouble backing up or understanding hd seeds.
GreenBits Download
GreenBits is the native version of GreenAddress. It’s fast, simple, and supports hardware wallets TREZOR and Ledger Nano/HW.1.
Mobile Wallets for iOS
Cobo is a leading producer of hardware and software blockchain products. As a company, we emphasize long-term security, reliability, and convenience. Our key products and services reflect that vision. Altogether, Cobo offers a secure mobile wallet (Cobo Wallet), the world’s first military-grade cold storage hardware wallet (Cobo Vault), and tailored custodial solutions for institutional investors (Cobo Custody). With support for over thirty different coins, 500 tokens, and an integrated DApp store along the way, we aim to be a one-stop shop for everything crypto.
Cobo’s flagship product, Cobo Wallet, is the first leading mobile wallet to offer Proof-of Stake (PoS) pooling services, a groundbreaking feature that allows users to generate benefits from their cryptocurrency holdings. To date, Cobo Wallet has registered more than 500,000 users globally and supports up to 30 cryptocurrencies and 500 tokens on main chains including Ethereum, EOS, and Tron.
iOS Download
Android Download
Official Website
breadwallet (iOS) Learn More
Download
Breadwallet’s combination of simplicity and surety has made it the most popular ios wallet. Iphone users in search of their least bitcoin wallet should find breadwallet easy to understand.
Copay Download
Copay is available in the App Store.
Airbitz Learn More
Download
AirBitz is also available in the App Store.
Desktop Wallets
Desktop wallets are software wallets so are downloaded and installed on your clone.
Armory Learn More
Download
Armory is the most secure option available. Users are in complete government all bitcoin private passkey and can setup a secure offline-signing course in armory.
Bitcoin Core Download
Though isn’t passed down by frequent due to slow speeds and a lack of features. Meaning it helps verify and transmit extra bitcoin transactions crossed the network and stores a copy of the entire blockchain. Here offers better privacy since core doesn’t have to rely on picture against external servers or new peers on the network.
Electrum Download
Electrum can too be recycled as cold storage if you have an extra calculator in that can be recycled offline. Electrum offers auxiliary features like connecting through tor. Integration along hardware wallets. And extended.
MultiBit HD Download
Multibit hd is a fast and straightforward desktop wallet beside support for hardware wallets trezor and keepkey.
Wasabi Learn More
Download
Wasabi is an open-source, non-custodial, privacy focused Bitcoin wallet for Windows, Linux and Mac. Built-in Tor anonymity network, CoinJoin and coin control features..
Paper Wallets
Paper wallets inhabit the stock method of cold storage afore hardware wallets inhabit built. Paper wallets are private passkey printed out on a piece of paper. If generated and printed by a secure. Offline thinking machine. The main issue including paper wallets is it can be inconvenient to create and print a new wallet personal time you send funds to cold storage.
Best Practices
Bitcoin lets you check your coin. Meaning you are responsible for both your money’s collateral and your financial privacy. Here are part of steps you can take to ensure your privacy and security:.
Control your private keys
But in reality restriction your private skeleton. It’s best to use a wallet where you management your private opener. The present is the only way to have full jurisdiction of your funds and not have to rely on third parties for care.
Protect your privacy
All time you request blockchain picture against a wallet. The server may be competent to view your ip address and connect previously mentioned to the address evidence requested. Separate wallet handles scoop requests differently. If privacy is earnest to you. Use a wallet in order that downloads the whole blockchain like bitcoin core or armory. Tor can be hand-me-down alongside alternative wallets to shield your ip address. But that doesn’t prevent a server in distinction to tying a group of addresses to one identity. For farther information. Check out the open bitcoin privacy assignment for wallet rankings based on privacy.
Don’t reuse addresses
Most bitcoin wallets newfangled automatically create a new address for piece by piece transaction. Address reuse makes it easy for others to group transactions and understand whichever payments are connected to one identity.
Use different wallets for different sums of money
Aloof like you don’t walk everywhere alongside your savings account as cash. Efficient are different bitcoin wallets so that should be nearly new depending on how much pay is being stored or transferred. Secure wallets like paper wallets or hardware wallets can be nearly new as “savings” wallets. Although mobile.
Create multiple secure backups
Backups should be kept in separate physical locations in the case of fire or Adam’s ale damage.
How to Store Bitcoins
Earlier it was mentioned in that capable are four types of bitcoin wallets: online wallets. The particular four categories can be broken down further within different kinds of storage and security:.
Hot Wallets
Hot wallets refer to bitcoin wallets pre-owned on internet connected devices like phones. Because hot wallets run on internet connected devices ingenious is always a risk of theft. Take of hot wallets like your wallet au courant. Conscientious as you intend not walk any which way beside your savings account as cash.
If only used with small amounts, hot wallets should be used for your everyday Bitcoin needs. One may, for example, want to keep $200 worth of bitcoins in a hot wallet for spending, with $10,000 locked away in cold storage.
Custodial Services
Customers private skeleton are held by the particular third party services. Meaning users don’t really have limitation of their loot.
As bitcoiners often say: “if you don’t government the passkey. You don’t ropes the coins”. Gox is an top example. But one in that illustrates the importance of holding private opener. Gox was the pioneer and largest bitcoin exchange up until 2013. Thousands of users stored heavier than 800.
During the time true at the time. As short as mt. Gox claimed to have been victim of theft users including bitcoins in their accounts rest left empty handed.
Services like coinbase and circle may in fact use good ward practices and there’s a chance your bitcoins are safe. But by storing bitcoins amidst a third party you are always taking on spare risk.
Cold Storage
Cold storage is achieved at bitcoin private opener are created and stored offline. Private skeleton stored offline are also secure since effective is no risk in order that a hacker or malware bottle steal your coins.
Powerful are three ways to create cold storage: paper wallets. Envisage of cold storage as your savings account. Use it to securely store bitcoins so you don’t plan to spend.
Multisignature Wallets
Multisignature wallets like copay form it easier to share force of bitcoins in multiple parties. Multisig can together with effect cold storage amassed secure.
Multisignature wallets require multiple parties to sign transactions in order for funds to be spent. In a 2–2 wallet, for example, both parties must sign a transaction. In a 2–3 multisig wallet, two of the three co-signers must sign each transaction. | https://medium.com/@arucebron/20-best-bitcoin-wallets-to-store-bitcoins-bbb75d8751ab | ['Yasin Brown'] | 2019-04-10 08:29:51.653000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Copay Wallet', 'Bitcoin Wallet', 'Poswallet', 'Cobo'] |
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Why Proof of Stake Is The Future: Part 4 | Why Proof of Stake Is The Future: Part 4
This article series titled “Why Proof of Stake Is The Future” is exploring blockchain solutions and evaluating their sustainability. Since Proof of Work was the first and most common method of consensus, the first three articles in the series have detailed some of the most relevant concerns with work-based algorithms, including: the extreme waste of electricity, vulnerability to 51% attacks, and scalability.
Now we will take a “bird’s-eye” view on a different blockchain architecture, and discuss how it solves some of the aforementioned issues.
Proof of Work Recap:
Proof of Work blockchains use a work-based algorithm to verify blocks. The term “work” refers to the amount of computing power required to solve the complex algorithm. The term “hash” refers to all of the work being done on the network at any given time. As block difficulty increases, the network hash continues to climb. In an attempt to maximize mining profitability, a hash arms race has ensued, exponentially increasing the waste and carbon footprint of Bitcoin mining. In 2019, Proof of Work blockchain mining will account for nearly half of a percent of global energy consumption — a number larger than many countries.
Proof of Work blockchains are also inherently limited in the number of transactions that can be supported on the network. This scalability issue has undoubtedly slowed the adoption of cryptocurrency into the mainstream, largely because of its inability to support institutional demand.
These types of blockchains are more vulnerable to attacks as well, now made possible through “rentable hash.” If someone really wanted to, they could rent the computing power necessary to conduct 51% attacks and rewrite the blockchain’s history.
How Proof of Stake Solves These Issues
Proof of Stake does not require miners to solve complex algorithms in order to mint new blocks. Instead, a staking mechanism is employed through the implementation of economic incentives in order to ensure chain security. Removing electricity guzzling miners makes this method of consensus far more efficient, and much more eco-friendly.
Energy Waste:
For most Proof of Stake coins, the only electricity requirement is that your wallet must be open to receive stakes. This means that the only power consumption comes from your computer running (or in some cases, your VPS). However, there are some blockchains that support cold-staking, which would allow mining even from hardware wallets.
The result of this is that PoS blockchains are several thousand times more power efficient.
51% Attacks:
To mine a PoW chain, no investment specific to that chain is required. One simply has to contribute some hash to the network, and they are rewarded with coins. In PoS, the only way to receive rewards is to actually hold a stake in the currency. This stake must be held in an open wallet. The result creates a two fold economic benefit: it creates a natural demand for coins and holds coins out of circulation.
When it comes to security, this is a much more stable solution. The only way for a 51% attack to be carried out on a PoS chain is for one wallet to possess more than 51% of the coins in circulation. The amount of capital required to purchase 51% of coins (if that many are even available on exchanges) would be astronomical. And spending this amount of capital on acquiring this many coins would automatically disincentivize any attack — because carrying out such an attack would harm the value of the attacker’s holding! Therefore, while 51% attacks are theoretically possible on PoS chains, they are extremely difficult, costly, and pointless.
Scalability:
By not requiring a complex computational process to produce blocks, the speed at which new blocks can be minted is greatly accelerated. For PoS chains to propogate, it simply requires ⅔ of nodes to sign a block — thus verifying its authenticity. While this is a slight limitation, block times can be scaled to massive sizes and incredible speeds. For example, the EOS blockchain (which runs on PoS) boasts a block time of three seconds. This is lightspeed compared to Bitcoin’s 10 minute blocktime.
PoS also makes new blockchain technologies (such as sharding) possible, which increase the theoretical network throughput to a whopping 27,000,000 tx/s. This architecture would provide the basis for global adoption once perfected.
Conclusion
In order for global adoption to occur, the issues of energy waste, chain security, and scalability must be addressed. With the inherent limitations and inefficiencies of PoW technology, the blockchain industry must evolve. The necessity of this evolution is already being pursued, with Ethereum planning a transition to PoS in 2019–20. While not perfect, PoS technology is a much better solution for these issues and opens the door for new innovation. PoS truly is the future. | https://medium.com/@midasinvestments/why-proof-of-stake-is-the-future-part-4-57e518807652 | [] | 2019-12-22 20:48:25.746000+00:00 | ['Investing', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Proof Of Stake', 'Midas Investments', 'Passive Income'] |
10 Pitfalls and 11 Best-Practices for the Design Phase of a Machine Learning Application Project | We concentrate on pitfalls you may encounter in the beginning design phase of a Machine Learning project. We detail our best-practices to avoid these pitfalls.
Figure 1. Iterative Lifecycle of a Machine Learning Application (MLA).
Have you successfully designed, trained, and tested a machine learning application (MLA)? Despite a vetting in the lab, did the MLA not behave acceptably, maybe even fail in production?
If so, read on, and I shall detail, pitfalls my colleagues and I encountered. I then detail best-practices, some of which are solutions we developed to avoid these pitfalls.
Our Approach
Lowering the high cost and burden of machine learning application design, development, and deployment is the methodology domain of DataOps, DevOps, MLOps, GitOps, CloudOps… xOps, where Ops stands for Operations [1].
We believe that you should learn how to crawl, then walk, then run and then maybe fly, in that order.
We think xOps is the walking, running, and flying in the MLA lifecycle.
We start with crawling.
We focus primarily on the pitfalls and best-practices at the launch of a project — a machine learning application (MLA) design phase.
Project management is described as pitfalls and best practices.
Project management can be laid out as a graph (edges and nodes) of steps. Tasks that are sequentially accomplished in a specific order is the Waterfall project management methodology. An example would be the sequential ordering of design, development, test, and finally, deployment.
Note: We have had two project successes and many more project failures, doing these tasks sequentially with the waterfall project methodology. For the failed projects, we either ran out of time or money. All projects were painful and required burning up many of our weekends.
MLA Project management is imagined as a continuous cyclical graph of tasks (see Figure1). We also think of an application project as a checklist of tasks, where each task is partially completed. Some of these tasks can be performed in parallel, some are dependent on other tasks, and some are repeated until the application is dust bin.
Note: We suggest that you accomplish tasks iteratively and asynchronously,
Hopefully, the above is the entirety of what we need to discuss about MLA project management methodology. From now on, we focus on some of the more frequent pitfalls that we encountered in the MLA design phase. These pitfalls were derived from about four decades of combined years of experience and about eighteen MLA projects.
For any pitfall listed, one or more best-practice workarounds or solutions are detailed. Each best-practice is usually a component task, which has few prior inputs as possible. You will notice that some tasks have unavoidable starting dependencies.
We also fell into development and production pitfalls further down the MLA project lifecycle. We dug ourselves out (usually) with best-practices.
Pitfalls and Best Practices
Pitfall 1: A machine learning solution looking for a problem.
We put this pitfall at position #1 because, as a consulting group, mostly in 2016 and earlier, we often put in a machine learning solution when the business problem did not require it.
What was expected of all these clients is that they wanted to say they were using Machine Learning (ML) applications, whether they needed ML or were not ready for ML.
Pitfall 2: No Data, No Problem Identified
Do not laugh, but in the early days before 2017, we were engaged by the client with no data identified or no problem identified.
We have found that both Pitfall #1 and Pitfall #2 need resolution before proceeding.
Best Practice 1: Understand the Business Problem, Define the MLA Solution.
Do not engage with firms that do not have or will not let you define a viable machine learning solution.
Best Practice 2: Low Cost Means Low Hanging Fruit.
Your first projects should add capabilities, not replace and improve existing capabilities.
Until you have proven the value-add of machine learning, avoid adding machine learning applications to an organization’s legacy (existing) system. Easier said than done!
Note: You may end up understanding an organizational or department business process and the system implementation of that process. The system implementation will have little or no insight into the business case you want to solve using machine learning.
Best Practice 3: Find and identify business case, process flow, or /and dataflow diagrams.
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are a great indicator of what the organization thinks is important. The organization may measure an assortment of department, process, and project health metrics.
Also, poll the stakeholders and find out what frustrates them the most.
For example, a hotel chain measures room availability, or a restaurant measures table availability. ML can predict future booking based on past booking. However, more valuable ML is decreasing availability.
Best Practice 4: Work on one MLA at a Time.
Once you identify a business case(s) problem, propose one MLA solution. You can launch other MLA projects after the first MLA is a measurable success.
Best Practice 5: When the first MLA is successful, increase investment by launching more MLA projects.
This best practice is prominent. What is not so obvious is that your sponsors may want to start more MLA projects before the first MLA project is rolled out to production.
Your sponsor (or you) may be very excited by the beautiful results on train, test, and validation in the lab. Warn yourself and them about rollout disasters of the past [2].
Pitfall 3. Design a Monolithic Architecture.
Creating monolithic applications causes the waterfall development process. Different steps and parts of an application are very dependent on each other.
Best Practice 6: Design a component pipeline or micro-services architecture.
Design your MLA as a pipeline of components or microservices. In this case, each component is a separable machine learning microservice. Each component is entirely executable independent of each other, requiring well-defined inputs and outputs.
Tip: A component-based architecture allows your team to develop different parts of the MLA asynchronously.
Best Practice 7: Design an MLA blueprint.
The first part of your design specifies the functional and non-functional requirements of your MLA. The requirements identified flesh out the architecture design of your MLA. Also, requirements will dictate production tactics and should give specific testing of the MLA.
Tip: Develop and share widely MLA architecture blueprints that show the end-to-end integration of each logical component in the MLA pipeline.
Best Practice 8: Use your Software Engineering Best-Practices.
Apply your software development project experience to your machine learning application.
ML is different as incoming data and tuning parameters disproportionately affect a stochastic MLA more than a deterministic application. However, you will find that most of your past software engineering methodology and best-practices apply to your ML projects.
Pitfall 4. Re-invent the Wheel.
We have seen many examples of projects that had to be restarted because the research of prior work was not done.
Good artists borrow, great artists steal — Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881–8 April 1973)
Tip: Spend some time googling on GitHub at the beginning and then continue through the project. Tip: Our experience that good papers on arvix.org are implemented in code and placed at GitHub. Code snippets help launch your project.
Pitfall 5: Too Simple a Solution.
For smaller-scale projects, an out-of-the-box solution may be enough. Unfortunately, custom functionality or multiple ML models in tandem may be necessary to ensure a lead on the competition.
Best Practice 9: A Natural Language Processing (NLP) Application Architecture Requires a Transformer.
We decided to include an outlier best practice in this blog because there has been a significant shift in NLP applications in the past two years.
We had deployed a GLOVE-based NLP application in 2017[ 3]. The BERT transformer appeared in 2018 [4]. BERT resulted in a large jump in NLP performance with two key improvements:
BERT was pre-trained on a corpus size at least four orders of magnitude (10,000x) more immense than our GLOVE-based ML model; BERT had a model parameter count of about two orders of magnitude (100x) more immense than our GLOVE-based ML model.
“[…] scaling to extreme model sizes also leads to large improvements […]” (Devlin et al., 2018)
Pitfall 6. Do not Communicate Progress
No matter how successful the MLA, there will be project hiccups along the way. We have found a 1–2 page weekly status report to the client project sponsor and manager, even though they did not ask for it, eliminating most miscommunication problems in the project.
Battle story: Once, we were fired, but luckily, we got rehired two days later when several misunderstandings were cleared up. Ever since weekly status reports are a required best practice.
Pitfall 7. You got the Business Case wrong.
No matter where you are in the project, your requirements are wrong, and you need to stop and reassess. Be prepared to start over or be fired. Document your new proposed solution. Life is too short to continue on and rollout an MLA solution that needs a problem.
Pitfall 8. ML app does not satisfy the need.
Pitfall 8 is similar to Pitfall 7. We list it here because you got the business case right, but the business need is now of low priority or went away. The only thing you can do in this case is proposed to answer a different need. Be prepared to walk away.
Pitfall 9. The client has no Previous Experience or Knowledge about ML.
In earlier times, we held classes on “How to benefit from Machine Learning?’. Now we have we point them to Awesome-X URLs on Github, Coursera, and Medium blogs.
We have not thrown out the slide-deck as we still use it time-to-time.
Tip: Mentor the client’s development staff in ML practices.
Pitfall 10. No ML deployment infrastructure
We have only one answer (viable solution) to “We do not have ML deployment infrastructure.” — get a cloud account.
Rolling out your own infrastructure can be done. Apple, Amazon, Goggle, IBM, Zillow, and other multi-billion (or trillion) companies have done it. Our answer — get a cloud account.
Best Practice 10: Deployment in the Cloud
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is one of the primary options for cloud-based deployment of ML models. Other choices are AWS, Microsoft Azure, Paperspace, etc.
Tip: Our favorite is the free GCP Colab [5].
Best Practice 11: Periodic Audits of Solution
Machine learning state-of-the-art (SOTA) change is happening and speeding up. You don’t want to be blind-sided by another BERT-type occurrence.
Keep up with the literature. You may also evangelize your new great ML projects with your clients. | https://towardsdatascience.com/10-pitfalls-and-11-best-practices-for-the-design-phase-of-a-machine-learning-application-project-66c3d599f87 | ['Bruce H. Cottman'] | 2020-12-10 18:48:28.745000+00:00 | ['Cloud Computing', 'Data Science', 'DevOps', 'Best Practices', 'Machine Learning'] |
How To Change Birthday In Gmail | How To Change Birthday In Gmail
How to change birthday in Gmail — If you want to change your own personal date of birth on your Google account and don’t know how to change this, then read this post completely I will show step by step guide to change your date of birth in Gmail.
Why did you need to add your birthdate to your Google account? the answer is very simple but there are many benefits to its’ like when you forgot your password or you are trying to recover your Google account then if you already added birthday in security questions you can easily recover your account by answering the security questions.
Another benefit like Google assistant will remind your birthday, very small but very cool stuff you will get by adding the date of birth on your Gmail account.
The main reason to use of date of birth is ensuring you are 13 years old to create an account on Google and many other websites using this rule to accept new accounts on their platform.
These are the main reason behind demanding a date of birth while creating an account on Google or anywhere, and let’s talk about how you can change your birthday in Gmail or Google account.
How To Change Birthday In Gmail Within A Few Minutes
To change your birthday in Gmail the first step is login to your Google account firstly, If you are using Chrome browser then you no need to log in with your Gmail id and password, you already logged in, if you did not log in with your Google account then just type on your browsers search bar “ https://myaccount.google.com/" or directly visit the website,
and login to your Google account by entering your Gmail id and password and when you inside your account then follow the next steps below -
1. Click on the personal info option
The next step is to click on the personal info option in your Google account
personal info option in Google account
personal info option in Google account
2. Click on your birthday option
When you click on the personal info you can see your name, birthday, and password options below, the next step is to go to the birthday option
a birthday option in Google account
The final and last step is to update your new birth date on your Google account by entering the date, month, and year on the given boxes and click confirm, that’s it your date is now changed on your Google account.
update the date of birth
Date of birth option in Google account
How To Change Date Of Birth In Gmail From Phone
On your phone just open your browser and search for a Google account then click on the first results, sign in with your Gmail id and password and, go to the personal information option and now you can see your old date of birth, just change it to a new one.
update the date of birth
Conclusion
Changing birthday in Gmail account is very easy and you can change your birth date by following the step that I already share in this post, If you think this post helps you then give me feedback through the comment section and if you have any suggestions or queries then mail me at [email protected] | https://medium.com/techotn/how-to-change-birthday-in-gmail-6b93d1c29d7a | [] | 2020-12-10 11:26:53.854000+00:00 | ['Tips And Tricks', 'Google Account', 'Gmail', 'Google', 'Account Settings'] |
Judicial Succession in View of the 2022 Elections and Chief Justice Peralta’s Early Retirement | Disclaimer: The views and opinions of this Author do not reflect the views and opinions of the Institutions with whom he is affiliated.
Earlier today, Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta announced that he is set to retire early from his post on 27 March 2021. Under the Philippine Constitution, he has a term until 27 March 2022 or his 70th birthday.
As March 2022 falls within the presidential election season, this early retirement would offer a situation that could avoid the controversy surrounding the appointment of the next Chief Justice.
We remember in 2010 when the late Chief Justice Renato C. Corona was appointed to the top post in the Judiciary, people, especially, those who are working under the Aquino administration, questioned whether that appointment is in violation of the prohibition on midnight appointments.
The Supreme Court already ruled that the appointment of a Justice to the Supreme Court is not covered by the prohibition on midnight appoints, yet the Aquino administration was keen to unseat the late Chief Justice. Hence, it resorted to the impeachment process. In other words, the “midnight” appointments of a Chief Justice is legally allowed, but it may be politically unacceptable, especially when the next administration belongs to the opposition of the current administration.
The move of Chief Justice Peralta will avoid that controversy.
But who is in line with the succession? For this purpose, the Author will only look into the five most senior associate justices.
First is Justice Estella Perlas-Bernabe. She is the most senior associate Justice at the Court. She is set to retire on 14 May 2022 — the Saturday after the 2022 elections. If she gets appointed, President Rodrigo Duterte has two options, i.e., (1) not to appoint anyone as Chief Justice because the next President could appoint the next Chief Justice as the last day of the 90-day Constitutional requirement to fill in the vacancy would fall in the next term of the next President or (2) appoint the next Chief Justice at the risk of exposing the same Justice to what had happened to the late Chief Justice Corona. In terms of experience in the Court and in the Judiciary and her “swing votes” that sometimes favor the moves of the current administration, she is the frontrunner in the next appointment.
Second is Justice Marvic Leonen. He is one of the youngest Justices and the second most senior associate Justice. His retirement is set in 2032. With the difference of his world view from the President, the chances of him being appointed by the President are lower compared to Justice Perlas-Bernabe’s.
Third is Justice Benjamin Caguioa. He is the third most senior associate Justice and is set to retire in 2029. He and Justice Leonen share similar judicial philosophy, which would mean that Justice Caguioa’s odds of being appointed are lower.
Both Justices Leonen and Caguioa started their careers as judges when they were appointed as Associate Justices.
Fourth is Justice Alexander Gesmundo. The most senior Duterte-appointee and fourth most senior associate Justice. Most (if not all) of his votes tend to agree with the administration’s actions, which could mean that he has a similar world view and judicial philosophy with the President. Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, he served as an Associate Justice of the Sandiganbayan. His chances of being appointed are higher than Justices Leonen and Caguioa.
The last is Justice Ramon Paul Hernando. He is set to retire in 2036. He is the second most senior Duterte-appointee in the Supreme Court and the fifth most senior associate Justice. He has a rich experience in the Judiciary, e.g., he served as a Presiding Judge at trial courts and as an Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals. His odds of being appointed are higher, and might be similar to Justice Gesmundo’s.
Subject, of course, to their application to the vacancy, these most senior Justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines are good choices as the next Chief Justice. All of them have good academic and professional records fit for the position. | https://medium.com/@jsbpangilinan/judicial-succession-in-view-of-the-2022-elections-and-chief-justice-peraltas-early-retir-99f79e1aff9a | [] | 2020-12-01 12:55:26.361000+00:00 | ['2022 Elections', 'Supreme Court', 'Justice', 'Philippines', 'Law'] |
E-Sign, secure document processing | E-Sign raised over $500k and we talk with its team.
PetaCrunch: How would you describe E-Sign in a single tweet?
E-Sign: A brilliant solution that makes life easier for businesses and their document management processes
PC: How did it all start and why?
E-Sign: Our CEO, Tom Taylor, had the idea back in 2012 when he became frustrated with several documents being lost in the mail, with no accountability. He realised that the technology was available to be developed, upon which a platform could be built that would allow for secure document processing, that incorporated a full audit trail which provided accountability and security to those involved in the document workflow, as well as Identity validation of all those involved in the document signing process, and complete document transactional management. This was developed to create what E-Sign is today.
PC: What have you achieved so far?
E-Sign: The product has evolved significantly over the years to include a whole host of features that allow users to have complete control and management of their document workflow. Some of these include Veri-me (real world ID validation, linked to each signer, two factor authentication and interoperability between the E-Sign platform and any other software via out S-Sign/Zapier app.
PC: How will you use your recent funding round?
E-Sign: We will continue to dedicate resource to our ongoing marketing campaigns as well as looking to improve and increase functionality in line with the consumption requirements of the larger electronic signature market.
PC: What do you plan to achieve in the next 2–3 years?
E-Sign: We aim to expand our market reach into more industries that are now investing in digital technologies to improve business processes, and increase our presence and market share. | https://medium.com/petacrunch/e-sign-secure-document-processing-1602f99ccb12 | ['Kevin Hart'] | 2019-08-24 21:01:01.057000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Document Processing', 'Security', 'Document Management'] |
Letting go to free yourself | Holding onto your past or pain is not going to fix anything. Repeating those memories again and again in your head will not put you in a positive mental space. It will only make you cry, bitter and resentful and that is not the person you want to be. It’s time you move and work on letting go.
Letting go of the past is not easy, it hurts and you did not deserve it. Moving on seems like an impossible task looking from where you are standing. But you need to clear your mind and think about who you are and who you want to be. Hiding your pain in the dark memories of the past and tricking yourself that you have let go, will not take you to who you need to be.
It is time to stop hiding in the dark. the time to live the life you were meant to live. It is time for you to feel the fresh air again. Here are some essential tips on letting go to free yourself.
Don’t live by limitations you are the key:
“I cannot do this” or “I can never do that” are phrases we use a lot of times in our life. Either it is about letting go of a relationship or overcoming your biggest fears. Many people in your life will tell you what you can or cannot do. Don’t be held back by the limitations people put on you. Remember only you can set yourself free. “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”- Napoleon Hill.
Letting go of the idea that you can control others:
You cannot control another person’s feelings, emotions or actions no matter how hard you try. The one person you can control is you. If you think that you can make someone happy by doing everything right; you are wrong. You will never know how a person will feel or react. Just try to be positive in your thoughts and actions towards others.
Start your journey without expectations:
It is one of the main tips you need to remember in order to move on and let go. “ A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.”-Lao Tzu. When you start your journey without any expectation, you will be more motivated to make progress, than becoming discouraged for not meeting an expectation that you made for yourself.
Understand that every relationship will not be the same:
You need to understand that there are different types and depth of relationships. It is ok to have a relationship with someone that is different from the norm. The most important thing is that it is positive and builds who you want to be. However, if the time should come when it is no longer a positive place for you letting go and moving on does not mean that you have failed. It means you know who you are and who you want to be. Clinging to the past will only keep you stuck in one place and breathes negative energy in your life.
Letting go of past mistakes while Making room for new ones:
Made a mistake or said something stupid? Don’t blame yourself as we all do these kinds of things in our life. Let go of past mistakes and start appreciating yourself. Make room for mistake. “To err is human,” — Alexander Pope. If you feel bad, just learn from your bad experience, stop punishing your heart and yourself.
These are some of the important tips on letting go and make yourself free and alive again. Start following them one by one and see a positive and beautiful change in your life.
Send me a message to let me know how your journey is going | https://medium.com/@shawnakaymillstrepair/letting-go-to-free-yourself-9d5503ec14f5 | ['Shawna-Kay Mills-Trepair'] | 2021-03-11 15:18:24.520000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Forgiveness'] |
In the end, we all want a little kindness | I’ve been doing a series of video interviews for an event called Gather that I’m hosting — all about brave, honest conversations. In reflecting on what people are telling me when I ask them about brave, honest conversations I’m struck that at our core we are all seeking connection. That is why we come together — in friendships, families, community. To be connected.
Its easy to get lost in our busy lives and our to do lists, goals and some days just getting through the day — but there is so much more. If you peel away the layers and just sit with someone else in conversation there is this magic that happens — being seen, seeing others, allowing yourself to talk about what matters most. It’s like when you slow enough to sit with someone else you can dip into your own gentle heart to see what it has to tell you. These are the moments our lives are made up of, and for so many people these moments are few and far between.
In these video interviews I’ve been asking the same general series of questions about brave, honest conversations along these lines:
What are you committed to personally? What do you believe or what motivates you?
What needs to be present to have brave, honest conversations?
Where have you struggled or been challenged?
What are your insights or advice to others?
What is your hope for the future?
The wisdom and honest insight people are sharing gives me hope and strikes me to my core. I have found over the last year that when I use the 3 words “brave, honest conversations” they create a resonance and a yearning in people that is powerful. We all want more of what happens when we have those kind of conversations — we are all drawn to the possibility they can create in our lives. At the same time most of us are hesitant, afraid, and uncertain about stepping into these kinds of conversations, in all parts of our lives. They feel big, uncertain, scary.
I think we’ve normalized all the not talking we do each day, all the ways in which we don’t bring our whole selves to others, the ways we avoid or distract ourselves from being with the heart of things. Although I’m in the business of brave, honest conversations even I don’t want to have them all the time, every day! They can be heavy and exhausting and wear you out. But if we don’t have them, we also don’t have connection, belonging or a sense of what matters most.
I always say that brave, honest conversations are how we solve the problems in our worlds, together. That’s true but its the outcome or result of brave, honest conversations. Before you get there you get all these other beautiful things that create the most important moments in our lives; you get curiosity, kindness, opening hearts, listening, deeper understanding, connection…and then perhaps solutions co-created together.
Outrage is our new norm. We live in times of polarization, blame, shame and vitriol where the sides between people are getting further and further apart and yet at the same time there is this deep yearning and desire for conversation and connection, for peeling back the layers to find kindness and to sit and talk with someone else about things that matter. That yearning is widespread — in organizations, in communities, in families, within yourself.
So here is some random wisdom I’m gathering from these interviews. If you want more brave, honest conversations in your life think about these insights and apply to yourself. There are simple and also deeply profound — as if we all learned them in kindergarten and then forgot them over time. Now we need to re-learn them.
Be kind. In a time when people are so quick to shout their opinions and demean others who don’t agree with them, people are yearning for a little kindness. If you want this for yourself, try giving it to others.
Get curious. Curiosity requires you to be open, to let go of judgment, to explore and see what is out there in the world. Curiosity is required for creativity, and is the path to understanding. Choose a mindset of wonder and surprise.
Be humble. The world is full of people shouting their answers and expertise loudly and stridently. None of us have all the answers (because we wouldn’t have any problems if we had all the answers and were all right). Lighten up a little, accept that you make mistakes and step into the humanity of who you are. When you do that your heart unfolds and sometimes it allows other people to do it too.
Have brave, honest conversations with yourself. The first and most important relationship you will ever have is with yourself. Self-awareness and self-knowledge are crucial to leadership and to your ability to create strong relationships. Most people spend very little time having tough conversations with themselves, and instead focus on other’s wrongdoings, mistakes, errors, difficulties and missteps. I like to say that leadership is an inside job-if you can look deeply into yourself, it will allow you to look deeply into others.
Come home to yourself. Find out what matters most to you, what you are committed to, what you believe in and bring your whole authentic self to the world. When you live from a place of deep authenticity anything is possible. When you put on a mask — your professional mask, your parent mask, your wanting to be liked mask etc. — you create a barrier and a disconnect from others. Just be you, at home in your own skin, and live from there.
Take responsibility. You are at choice every day, in every moment of your life. In your relationships, in your conversations — you are the architect of your own life. When you choose to avoid the conversation or to put something else as more important, you are also choosing the consequences of the state of that relationship or issue. Choose thoughtfully — not every day has to be full of deep, heartfelt conversations but some days should have them.
Get messy. Brave, honest conversations are hard, uncertain and messy. There is no straight line and they aren’t for the faint of heart. Not all your conversations are going to go well or the way you hope. Try to let go of expectations and just step forward. These conversations can reap the biggest rewards of your life and they require you to be OK with being scared, uncomfortable and uncertain.
Be there for someone else. When I asked one interviewee what he hopes for the future he said, “I hope that we can be there for these human beings who are entrusted to us for the time we are with them so they know they can talk to us, that we are there for them, that we care. I hope we can realize that the humans in front of us are far more important than anything else we do today.” That about sums up what it’s all about. Let go of the rest of it and be there for someone else today.
Photo credit: Nick Fewings, Unsplash
I want for all of us to have the connection that comes from having brave, honest conversations.
I want for all of us to find our courage and compassion to talk together about what matters most.
It starts with you, with a first step. Let go of all the things you have to do, and just take a moment for a conversation with someone else, about something that matters. You will be surprised at what happens. | https://medium.com/@RedheadSteph/in-the-end-we-all-want-a-little-kindness-5e1c7ed2cb91 | ['Steph Roy Mccallum'] | 2019-04-12 13:47:45.757000+00:00 | ['Courage', 'Life Lessons', 'Kindness', 'Leadership', 'Conversations'] |
Tips For UX/UI Designer | Tip 1: During the design process is very important to keep a good order and give to every element a name. Before copiying working tables, it is mandatory to have every element named and set up the elements as a group or master component. | https://medium.com/@dailosione/tips-for-ux-ui-designer-9524f0471c80 | ['Dailos Ione García Afonso'] | 2020-12-23 10:28:28.922000+00:00 | ['UX Design', 'UI Design'] |
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http://insurancebestrates.xyz/INSURANCE6933.html | https://medium.com/@ifeliepe.malakha/look-at-it-at-another-perspective-see-448cda676eb1 | ['Ifeliepe Malakha'] | 2019-09-01 23:12:36.744000+00:00 | ['Startup'] |
Counting | Photo by Crissy Jarvis on Unsplash
Counting votes.
A country’s choice.
Blinded by motes.
So hear their voice.
Denial of loss.
Count them some more.
You once were boss.
But see who they’re for.
If you won’t give up.
You must give in.
Drink from your cup.
Then atone for your sin.
Move on now.
Recounting won’t help.
Why cause a row?
We’ve heard your yelp.
Go home you.
To your Sunshine State.
They all turned blue.
Numbers say, it’s too late. | https://medium.com/resistance-poetry/counting-1de62488fab1 | ['Patsy Starke'] | 2020-11-10 11:36:12.033000+00:00 | ['Resistance Poetry', 'LGBTQ', 'Election 2020', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Poetry'] |
Ethereum | Starting of with a brief history of the conception of ethereum, this was the time when people started understanding the true abilities of blockchain however wanted to move beyond cryptocurrency applications. For that they either had to start on top of blockchain which had its own constraints like limited data types or start a new blockchain which was in itself very difficult. Vitalik Buterin, a young programmer by the end of 2013 published a white paper about Ethereum which was a Turing complete general purpose blockchain through which basically developers could program their particular application without having to create or design the underlying elements like peer to peer networks, consensus algorithms of blockchain itself. It served as a platform for the creation of decentralized apps.
In essence, Ethereum is an open source, globally decentralized network that essentially executes smart contracts. It uses the blockchain tech to sync and group the data together, along with its own digital currency called ether to meter and constrain execution costs. Even though the blockchain elements of Ethereum and Bitcoin are comparable, but Ethereum’s aim is not to become a global digital payment network and unlike the former, Ethereum’s programming language Solidity can execute complex code and is Turing complete. Ethereum’s blockchain components include P2P network, consensus rules, transactions via ether, state machine which basically are responsible for the execution of smart contracts made in Solidity, data structures which basically contain all the transactions of the network in a serialized hashed data structure called the Merkle tree and economic security using PoW algorithm like Ethash. Ethereum’s main developmental stages are codenamed as Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis and Serenity. Intermediate hard folks which in essence can be seen as software upgrades for the network are codenamed as Ice Age, DAO, Tangerine Whistle, Spurious Dragon, Byzantium, Constantinople later named as St. Petersburg, Istanbul and Muir Glacier.
To understand the concept of gas in Ethereum, we need to first analyze the implication of Ethereum being Turing complete. Turing complete means that the particular system can theoretically solve any computational problems given the limitations of finite memory. However, this creates the possibility of programs running in infinite loops after being executed which is called a DoS attack which can then effect memory, over heating problems etc. This is where gas comes in which can basically be seen as a limiter for the smart contract. There is a predetermined cost of gas associated with each smart contract and thus when the smart contract is validated by a node, it can run only until the there are gas units available and the system would stop the contract when these gas units are used up. These gas units can be purchased through ether which are to be send with the contract and their purpose which in this case is to buy gas, should be explicitly mentioned. With time, Ethereum has moved from being a general purpose blockchain to become a programmable platform for decentralized apps which fundamentally are smart contracts (using solidity) with a web user interface (using JavaScript). However, one needs to understand that the platform is still developing and given the feature of immutability, developers need to be flexible to make smart contracts from scratch with time as one can simply not just update a smart contract. | https://medium.com/@rafayshah5151/ethereum-e1b99ba6d8d2 | [] | 2021-09-08 08:09:29.587000+00:00 | ['Ethereum Blockchain', 'Smart Contracts', 'Ethereum'] |
Rizon in the Shave-a-Balloon Challenge | Curious about Rizon’s performance in the #Shave-a-Balloon Challenge? Check the video to have a look.
By the way, Rizon has also prepared a small surprise for you :) | https://medium.com/@flexivtech/rizon-in-the-shave-a-balloon-challenge-f4a108b40a6c | ['Flexiv - Dexterous'] | 2020-12-16 07:51:03.920000+00:00 | ['Lab', 'Robotics', 'Challenge', 'Force Control'] |
my smart environment to get started with deep network and SAR images | 1) A smart operating system
Among the gnu / linux distribution that exists, the one we will use to build our environment is called UMI. UMI pronounced “You Am I” is nowadays an operating system that offers technology through a philosophy of “know-how” and “know-how”, identifying with the needs of the user. Ideologically, UMI stands for “I am you” and stands out as the solution that exists because of who we are.
Install UMI
Download UMI here
Create a bootable USB stick
Install UMI OS
2) A smart environment installation
Install Anaconda
Designed for data science and machine learning workflows, Anaconda is an open-source package manager, environment manager, and distribution of the Python and R programming languages. the digital ocean community has a good guide on how to install it on a linux OS. below some regular basic commands that you will use, at least I strongly recommend that you always refer to the conda documentation in case of difficulty:
Basic commands
Using with shell: Don’t forget to first use this command in your terminal (moon-terminal in umi-os) after installing conda in order to initialize it.
$ conda init
Create Anaconda environments: For example, a Python 3 environment named smartSAR_env
$ conda create --name smartSAR_env python=3
Activate Anaconda environments: For example, environment named smartSAR_env
$ conda activate smartSAR_env
Deactivate Anaconda environments: For example, environment named smartSAR_env
$ conda deactivate
install package on my smartSAR_env: For example, a sentinelsat API.
$ conda install -n smartSAR_env sentinelsat
Install Docker
Docker is a container or is a standard unit of software that packages up code and all its dependencies so the application runs quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another. A Docker container image is a lightweight, standalone, executable package of software that includes everything needed to run an application: code, runtime, system tools, system libraries and settings.
3) A smart tools installations
Project Jupyter exists to develop open-source software, open-standards, and services for interactive computing across dozens of programming languages. | https://medium.com/@adriendev/my-smart-environment-to-get-started-with-deep-network-and-sar-images-528f5e9d12fa | ['Ghomsi Adrien Arnaud'] | 2020-12-17 13:28:35.443000+00:00 | ['Sentinel Hub', 'Distributed Systems', 'Radar', 'Machine Learning Ai', 'Geospatial Intelligence'] |
Biohacking Is a Bitch | Biohacking Is a Bitch
Dog breeder David Ishee thinks gene editing can spare purebreds from debilitating disorders. But getting the tech to work is just the start.
O n a stage in Oakland, California, David Ishee is talking about glow-in-the-dark puppies.
The dog breeder has come all the way from Mississippi for this conversation. Dressed in a maroon t-shirt that reads “Stand back, I’m going to try science,” his long hair tied back in its customary ponytail, Ishee explains to a rapt audience that it’s time for an update to traditional breeding practices. “We started doing this before agriculture, and we haven’t really changed much,” he says.
What he means is: 40,000 years of breeding and inbreeding have created an obsession with a purebred ideal — and riddled dogs with health problems that shorten their lifespans and diminish their hearing, digestion, or other basic abilities. Now that many of these disorders could at least theoretically be repaired using gene-editing techniques like CRISPR, Ishee wants to help breeders do exactly that, creating healthier dogs that can still be considered purebred.
That’s where the bioluminescent puppies come in. If he can edit dog genes to make the animals glow, he reasons, perhaps he can convince breeders that the technique could be used for more practical purposes. First on his list would be to eliminate a bladder disorder in Dalmatians called hyperuricemia. That’s a painful buildup of uric acid crystals that is caused by a mutation in a gene associated with the dogs’ black spots and often requires surgery. It could be an excellent candidate for a CRISPR fix.
Ishee gathers materials from a homemade incubator in a shed behind his house.
Ishee’s talk in Oakland was part of an event last weekend called Biohack the Planet, a conference celebrating efforts to augment biology outside conventional academic environments. And Ishee is, in many ways, the quintessential biohacker. He lives outside the coastal biotech hubs, was homeschooled from fifth grade, and does his research in a shed in his backyard. He has already gotten in trouble with the Food and Drug Administration, which has declared every intentional genomic edit — and therefore every individual edited animal — to be an “experimental drug” that requires extensive testing. The agency informed Ishee in 2016 that he could neither give away nor sell any edited dogs without its approval.
There’s no question that Ishee’s ideas are inspired, but he’s still a long way from successfully editing dogs, even after several attempts at glowing puppies. And even if he can pull that off, his most significant obstacle may still be ahead: convincing breeders obsessed with creating the best show dogs that gene editing could help them. All this makes Ishee’s story — his struggle to do innovative research while navigating bioethical tensions and regulators trying to monitor a fast-developing technology — a telling case study in the gap between what biohackers can imagine and what they can achieve.
Inspiration from jellyfish
“I love dogs,” Ishee tells me before his presentation in Oakland. “It’s really just as simple as that. I want to fix them.” He grew up around dogs; his great-grandfather and grandfather were breeders, and his brother is too. He balances his own work breeding mastiffs with a job in Mississippi’s oil industry.
What frustrates him about traditional dog breeding is its reliance on trial and error. He describes it as a “very, very blunt tool, like trying to carve stone with an anvil on a stick.” It’s also slow. Dogs’ heat cycles are months apart, and it takes years for successive generations of puppies to mature. | https://medium.com/neodotlife/david-ishee-crispr-dogs-dalmatians-d24a48d5d874 | [] | 2020-08-06 23:14:54.274000+00:00 | ['Pets', 'Dogs', 'Gene Editing', 'CRISPR', 'Dog Breeding'] |
A whole new world — St. Mary of the Lakes School presents Aladdin Jr. | A whole new world — St. Mary of the Lakes School presents Aladdin Jr.
The musical will take place on April 5, 6 and 7.
Noelle O’Hara, Erin Bailey, Kayla Kalinowski, Lily Marinello and Grace Martin rehearse their roles in Aladdin Jr. premiering on April 5.
An adventure into a whole new world will take place at St. Mary of the Lakes School as students take the audience on a magic carpet ride for the “Aladdin Jr.” musical.
The musical premieres at the school on April 5 at 7 p.m., followed by performances on April 6 at 7 p.m. and April 7 at 2 p.m. at the school located at 196 Route 70 in Medford.
Producer Kim Martin explained the musical as a journey of following both Jasmine, princess of Agrabah, and “street rat” Aladdin through their endeavors. Jasmine longs to leave her palace to explore the world outside, while Aladdin longs to have the life of those in the palace, and, when the two meet, the audience will be taken on the ride of their lives.
Director Emily Cheney said the musical skews closer to the original script of “Aladdin,” and in this unique version the audience hears both Jasmine and Aladdin’s inner conflicts, with both of them having groups of friends to guide them along the way.
When motivating the students, Cheney encourages them to fully get into character while realizing that Agrabah is “a world that’s different, but it’s not unlike ours.”
She recommends each student discover what drives their character. She said each character goes through a shift of growth throughout the performance, and the students need to ask questions on how and why their character got there.
“A lot of these kids, their enthusiasm is so wonderful, it’s so huge it’s bubbling over. And to watch them go through some of these scenes, as a director you’re thinking ‘they’re really getting it,’” Cheney said.
Sixth-grader Grace Martin, who plays Jasmine, described the character as very independent and strong, refusing to marry for any reason other than love.
“She breaks the idea that the princess has to be rescued by the prince, she’s just so strong. For a lot of princess characters, they wait to be rescued by the prince, and Jasmine doesn’t do that, she goes out into the world and sees what she’s missing,” Grace said.
Aladdin, played by seventh-grader Tyler Baird, was described by Baird as someone who “means well, but has trouble executing that.”
There to assist him in finding a “better life” is the magical creature, Genie, played by seventh-grader Gianna Giegerich, who will grant Aladdin three wishes.
Throughout the process of preparing for this musical, Giegerich said she has learned valuable skills she can take with her throughout life and in future performances.
“I’ve learned stage presence, how to really express myself through my character and build my personal character through my theoretical character,” Giegerich said. “I’ve had so much fun doing this so far, and I really look forward to it every year.”
Tickets to the musical can be purchased online at smlschool.org/theater.
In addition, a character breakfast will be held at SML on March 16 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Kids are welcome to dress up for a character meet and greet, photo opportunities, storytime and more. Contact Millie Daverso at [email protected] to purchase tickets. | https://medium.com/the-medford-sun/a-whole-new-world-st-mary-of-the-lakes-school-presents-aladdin-jr-dd1da21d3303 | ['Melissa Riker'] | 2019-03-08 15:31:00.992000+00:00 | ['Musicals', 'New Jersey', 'Disney'] |
Logistic Regression Algorithm using Data Mining WEKA TOOL | Working Principle
Logistic Regression is a classification algorithm. It is a predictive modeling algorithm that is used when the dependent variable(target) is categorical in nature.
Logistic Regression is most commonly used when the data in question has binary output, so when it belongs to one class or another, or is either a 0 or 1. These types of problems are known as Binary Classification problems. When using logistic regression, a threshold is usually specified that indicates at what value the example will be put into one class vs. the other class.
Although, sometime we come across more than 2 classes and still it is a classification problem. These types of problems are known as Multi class classification problems. We can accomplish this by applying a “one vs rest” strategy.
Why not use Linear Regression?
Suppose we have a data of tumor size vs its malignancy. As it is a classification problem, if we plot, we can see, all the values will lie on 0 and 1. And if we fit best found regression line, by assuming the threshold at 0.5, we can do line pretty reasonable job.
We can decide the point on the x axis from where all the values lie to its left side are considered as negative class and all the values lie to its right side are positive class.
But what if there is an outlier in the data. Things would get pretty messy. For example, for 0.5 threshold,
If we fit best found regression line, it still won’t be enough to decide any point by which we can differentiate classes. It will put some positive class examples into negative class. The green dotted line (Decision Boundary) is dividing malignant tumors from benign tumors but the line should have been at a yellow line which is clearly dividing the positive and negative examples. So just a single outlier is disturbing the whole linear regression predictions. And that is where logistic regression comes into a picture.
Sigmoid Function
To deal with outliers, Logistic Regression uses Sigmoid function.
The Sigmoid function/Logistic function, it is an S-shaped when plotted on a graph, that gets closer to 1 as the value of input variable increases above 0 and gets closer to 0 as the input variable decreases below 0. The output of the sigmoid function is 0.5 when the input variable is 0.
Thus, if the output is more than 0.5, we can classify the outcome as 1 (or positive) and if it is less than or equal to 0.5, we can classify it as 0 (or negative).
It is defined as:
And if we plot it, the graph will be S curve,
Let’s consider t as linear function in a univariate regression model.
So the Logistic Equation will become
Now, when logistic regression model come across an outlier, it will take care of it.
But sometime it will shift its y axis to left or right depending on outliers positions.
What is Decision Boundary?
Decision boundary helps to differentiate probabilities into positive class and negative class.
Linear Decision Boundary
Non Linear Decision Boundary
One vs Rest Strategy for Multiclass Classification
Let’s say you have three different classes that instances in your dataset could fall into, and if you had these three classes you could treat them as three different binary classification problems.
For instance, you would train a classifier on just the examples belonging to Class A vs. all the examples belonging to all other classes. You would then do the same thing for Class B, and finally for Class C.
After the classifiers have learned to distinguish their chosen class from other classes, you just run the three classifiers on the inputs and whichever classifier is most confident it has chosen the correct class for that example that is what class you put the example in.
Implementation in Weka
Parameters:
Step 1 Click on Classification Tab.
Step 2 Click on choose button.
Step 3 Open function folder and select Logistic.
Step 4 Click on percentage spit and change it to 80% and click start.
Result :- | https://medium.com/@singhsiddharth.1998/logistic-regression-algorithm-using-data-mining-weka-tool-d1c88cad7c97 | ['Siddharth Singh'] | 2020-10-16 18:07:36.130000+00:00 | ['Weka', 'Machine Learning', 'Logistic Regression'] |
2 Ways to Recover Permanently Deleted Word Documents on Mac | Imagine, you have spent hours of typing a Word document on Mac, but simply by a mistake or accident, the Word document got deleted permanently (you could not even find the document in your Trash Bin), wasn’t this a disaster? If you are facing such a disaster, calm down first, then follow our guide to retrieve your permanently deleted Word document on Mac.
First, Stop Writing to Your Mac
This is a crucial step to restore your word documents.
Why? The reason why we are still able to recover a permanently deleted Word document is because that the file is still saved on your Mac, we just cannot find the portal to access to your Word document, as long as there is no new data or files added to your Mac, we still have the chance to get them back, the faster we take actions to do the recovery, the higher success rate for us to retrieve the document.
Therefore, stop writing or run any programs on your Mac immediately after losing your Word documents permanently, then follow the guide below to get them back. | https://medium.com/@rosar200901/2-ways-to-recover-permanently-deleted-word-documents-on-mac-859f88af96d0 | ['Rosa Kaman'] | 2020-12-21 02:04:22.358000+00:00 | ['Data Recovery', 'Data Recovery Software', 'Recover Word Document', 'Recovery'] |
Project Euler — Problem 12 Solution | Project Euler — Problem 12 Solution
Problem
The sequence of triangle numbers is generated by adding the natural numbers. So the 7th triangle number would be 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 28. The first ten terms would be: 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, 36, 45, 55, … Let us list the factors of the first seven triangle numbers: 1: 1 3: 1,3 6: 1,2,3,6 10: 1,2,5,10 15: 1,3,5,15 21: 1,3,7,21 28: 1,2,4,7,14,28 We can see that 28 is the first triangle number to have over five divisors. What is the value of the first triangle number to have over five hundred divisors?
Solution
[code lang=”fsharp”]
open System
let triangleNumber(n:int64) = [1L..n] |> Seq.sum
let findFactorsOf(n:int64) =
let upperBound = int64(Math.Sqrt(double(n)))
[1L..upperBound]
|> Seq.filter (fun x -> n % x = 0L)
|> Seq.collect (fun x -> [x; n/x])
let naturalNumbers = Seq.unfold (fun x -> Some(x, x+1L)) 1L
let answer =
naturalNumbers
|> Seq.map (fun x -> triangleNumber(x))
|> Seq.filter (fun x -> Seq.length(findFactorsOf(x)) >= 500)
|> Seq.head
[/code]
My solution here is simple, first create the triangleNumber function that calculates the triangle number for a given natural number.
I then created a modified version of the findFactorsOf function I first used in the problem 3 solution to find ALL the factors of a number including 1 and itself.
Again I used Seq.unfold to build up a sequence of natural numbers and to find the answer I iterate through the natural numbers and for each get its triangle number; find the factors of the triangle number; and check if the number of factors is at least 500. | https://medium.com/theburningmonk-com/project-euler-problem-12-solution-e57667139ea2 | ['Yan Cui'] | 2017-07-03 20:55:39.979000+00:00 | ['Project Euler Solutions', 'Programming', 'Functional Programming'] |
21 Things I’ve Learned As I Enter My 21st Year | Love Letters To My 20s: A Fortnightly Column On The Stigma Surrounding Our Twenties
“Suddenly, you’re 21 and you’re screaming along in the car to all the songs you listened to when you were sad in middle school, and everything is different- but everything is good.” — Unknown.
On Wednesday, I turned the big 21.
I spent the day eating Ferrero Rochers, and enough vegetarian biryani to convince anyone that I was soon to be entering my third trimester. I also took the time to revel in prancing around my Dad’s house in my pants (tinny of Kronenburg in hand) to ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ by The Smiths.
As is to be expected when humming along to the graduate-appropriate lyrics “I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and heaven knows I’m miserable now”, I did quite a bit of reflecting. Twenty-one seemed to have crept up on me unlike any of my previous birthdays, where I had counted down to the 9th of December from six months in advance. I was convinced that this would just be how it goes now. The years were going to start whizzing by, giving me no chance to stop for breath, or — indeed — grab another handful of Ferrero Rochers. I shook my head of the thought, and instead started to count out twenty-one things that I have learned, mundane, profound, or otherwise, during my time on Earth. I started to realise just how much I’d evolved and matured — especially during the last three years.
You don’t always have to be so available.
Whether that’s in the form of texting back, accepting work that you don’t really have time to complete, or being emotionally present — don’t disrespect yourself by agreeing to something when, deep down, you want to say no.
The secret to all good cooking is simply: add paprika.
Pasta, curry, chips, or eggs; that sexy, smoky little spice will uplift anything and everything.
It’s okay to get your energy from solitude, rather than social situations.
I remember thinking that there was something wrong with me when I would get home after a day at university or work, and wanted to spend a few hours in my own company, instead of chatting to my family or friends. Realising that solitude was where I got my energy from, and allowing myself to revel in my own space instead of forcing something different onto myself, is one of the biggest acts of self-love I learned to gift to myself.
Drink more water.
I ignore this most days, and then wonder why I get such bad headaches, so I’m popping this in here as a reminder to myself, more than anything else!
If you be who you needed when you were younger, you can never, ever disappoint yourself.
This applies when speaking to young people, too. If I perpetuate the harmful ideas and stereotypes that I was subjected to when I was younger, then I am hurting my younger-self. I try my absolute best to keep this in my mind when speaking to my sisters, especially!
A backpack is way better than a handbag.
Yes, the shoulder bag might look cuter, but an un-slouched back and a fuller bag wins every time.
Always check your privilege.
This is really difficult to start doing, especially because (due to my privilege) I am so used to speaking and doing things without taking into consideration if my words and actions are underpinned by my privilege as a white, middle-class woman. It’s an ongoing process, but undoubtedly one of the biggest lessons of my twenty-one years.
Stop doing things to impress other people, and do them to challenge and better myself instead.
It took a horrific break-up to understand that the majority of what I did and said was to impress others, or to make myself ‘easier to consume’. I realised that I used to feel as though doing something for myself was selfish, rather than an act of self-love. Now, I’ll never go back.
A good card will always make me smile.
My favourite thing to give, and receive, is a card! I love every element of it, from picking a beautiful design, opening one with a good gag inside, writing a nice message with my favourite pen, buying stamps, and the excitement when one is delivered through my door with my name on it. No matter what, I know that a card will always cheer me up.
Take your vitamins!
Like my issue with drinking enough water, I leave taking my vitamin D tablets until early January, and then wonder why I spent the entirety of Winter feeling dizzy and sick…
Just be a nice human.
It’s not hard… Just be nice to people! Without sounding cheesy and re-hashing every Instagram quote ever, everyone is fighting their own battles that you have no idea about, so why make it harder by being unnecessarily mean?
Most people are not responding to you. They are responding to their assumptions about you and their beliefs about themselves, and that’s very different.
Despite a good rule of thumb being “just be a nice human”, there is always going to be someone who makes it their mission to be a dick to you, and that’s okay. They’re projecting their past lived experiences onto you, and there’s nothing you can do to change that.
Baths aren’t always as relaxing as people make out. Sometimes it just feels like you’re sweating into a broth made up of your own dead skin.
Every time that someone tells me to de-stress by having a bath, it makes me want to hurl.
A journal is a vital cog in the machine of your own wellbeing.
Write, reflect, evolve. Keeping a journal has been at the forefront of looking after myself, and I’d recommend it to everyone. Even if it’s just a line a day, being able to look back and understand a tiny part of what you were feeling that day is invaluable.
Beer is the best alcoholic drink out there. Sorry, wine-lovers!
If university has taught me one thing, it’s that beer is delicious, friendlier on your pocket than a glass of wine, and that the group’s conversation reaches its peak when everyone is ready to order their second pint.
Finding joy in the little things, and acknowledging the things that truly make me happy and peaceful, is never a waste of time.
Whether it’s looking forward to Christmas in September, like me, or singing in the shower really badly, like my sister, do more of what makes you happy!
Stop buying meal deals and just make a packed lunch.
Seriously, you self-entitled student, you do not need to spend £20 a week on meal deals when you just spent that amount on a week’s worth of food shopping. Get your shit together and make the cheese butty the night before.
Don’t wear dungarees/jumpsuits/playsuits to festivals.
As someone who has worn playsuits (without a bra) to Glastonbury and Kendal Calling, and who also finds herself needing a wee every hour (like clockwork), save yourself the embarrassment, the wee-covered outfits, and the chilly boobs by sticking to denim shorts and a top.
The answer is in how they treat you, not what they say.
Repeat that to yourself every time that a boy gives you any kind of excuse, or whenever a girl asks you for relationship advice in club toilets.
Don’t ever stop reading. Ever.
As Matt Haig says, “How to travel in time: read”. No matter how old (or young) you are, and however fast you think time is going, a good book will always help you to escape that.
People will tell you that you’re too emotionally involved, angry, or sensitive. That’s your superpower. You care with everything in you.
In fact, anyone that tells you that you’re “too” anything can jog on.
Words by Morgan Hartley.
Support The Indiependent
We’re trying to raise £200 a month to help cover our operational costs. This includes our ‘Writer of the Month’ awards, where we recognise the amazing work produced by our contributor team. If you’ve enjoyed reading our site, we’d really appreciate it if you could donate to The Indiependent . Whether you can give £1 or £10, you’d be making a huge difference to our small team. | https://medium.com/the-indiependent/21-things-ive-learned-as-i-enter-my-21st-year-9ef83672f0ff | ['Morgan Hartley'] | 2020-12-17 10:32:19.325000+00:00 | ['Lifestyle', 'Love', 'Twenty Something', 'Agony Aunt', 'Life Lessons'] |
How Does the Systemic Charity Change the World | How to Choose the Projects You Donate to?
Since there are a lot of charity projects that you can donate to, it is important to know how to select the best ones. Of course, all of them are good, but there are certain factors that you should consider when you are about to choose the project you want to donate to. Some signals may help you to find the perfect match for your donation. When I want to donate, I always have in mind 3 things:
· The name of a project
· Look for modest projects
· Possibility for trading.
Just ask yourself would you rather donate to a project that has a highly unique and attention-grabbing name or to some project that is named by default, without anything catchy in its name? The first one, right? Yes — when you have a good and resonant name that catches your attention, it is very likely you will get more donors and cause the systemic change eventually. It is simply a principle that hasn’t failed for me yet and I recommend it to everyone.
It is much harder to collect 10 iPads than 2 of them, so look for modesty in the projects. These kinds of projects that do not require a lot of resources often swim up to the surface and get most of the attention later on. Therefore, looking for the “golden middle” project is essential, especially if you are considering getting more engaged later on. Avoid big-time projects that are just starting out as it is much harder to get these noticed quickly.
In the end, look for the trading possibility in a project as not all donors will be able to donate money. For example, voluntarily teachers might not be able to receive enough money for their charity work, but they will be happy to have books and materials bough so they don’t have to spend money. This is, again, a point when the systemic change can step in — why don’t they have all the books and materials ready? Therefore, another problem could be solved. | https://medium.com/@drmariastern/how-does-the-systemic-charity-change-the-world-b269defb9ab7 | ['Dr. Maria Stern'] | 2020-12-11 14:19:27.768000+00:00 | ['Charity', 'Philanthropy'] |
An Introvert’s Guide to Public Speaking | How to grow confidence and increase your visibility at work
Photo by Product School on Unsplash
If you usually avoid public speaking, but wish you had the confidence not to, then you’re in the right place.
Seven years ago, I found myself in a new job, surrounded by confident people, who didn’t think twice about speaking up in meetings or presenting. At the time, I found both of these prospects seriously uncomfortable and so did everything I could to keep a low profile.
I realised soon enough that these avoidance tactics weren’t going to cut it if I wanted to be successful at my job.
The fact is, if you want to progress your career and be visible to your team and beyond, you need to be able to speak up and let your voice be heard.
I decided to face my fear of public speaking and as a result my confidence and career blossomed. In this article I’m going to share 3 simple steps to help you become an effective speaker.
Find your voice
It takes effort and grit to actually do this, but I promise you, it’s worth it.
My early career did nothing to help my confidence. Being in a junior position, most of my ideas were ignored. If I did try and speak in group situations — usually very quietly — in a few seconds, someone else would be talking over me.
Years later, I started a job at Google, joining a large global team. I noticed how naturally my colleagues shared opinions and talked through slides in meetings, even the ones I considered shy. It just seemed the norm. So, I decided to start speaking up more in ‘safe spaces’ like team meetings, and the more I did so, the easier it became.
Be honest with your manager about how you feel. At team meetings they can be your ally, making sure you have an opportunity to speak and share your thoughts and ideas.
I guarantee, the more you practice speaking up in a safe environment, the more your confidence will grow. The more visible you become to your peers, the more they’ll value your insights and will look to you for input during meetings.
Speak louder
You’ve found your voice, now you need to speak a little louder and more often.
It’s really important you feel empowered to express yourself, however intimidating it might be.
At Google, I was occasionally the sole content person in a room full of technical folks, which could be very intimidating. Before each meeting, I would remind myself that I was included in the project for a good reason — to share my expertise — and I was going to do just that.
It can also be tricky when you’re on a video call and the only person calling in remotely. It helps if everyone is mindful of this, but if they’re not, you need to be proactive and remind them you’re part of the meeting.
In my experience, the less you worry about what other people are going to think about your opinion or ideas, the more you’ll speak up. The more you speak up, the less significant and worrying it all becomes.
Put yourself forward to present at more meetings, and as your confidence grows, set your sights on bigger arenas, such as offsite events and seminars.
Step onto the podium
This could be a whole article to itself as there are so many tips on presenting, whether you are fearful of it or not.
At Google, I took advantage of the many presentation-focussed training courses available. After getting a grip of the basics, I progressed onto sessions on body language, how to prepare slides, and the art of storytelling.
The most important lesson I learned throughout all of these sessions, was that to be a good presenter, you must practice, practice and then practice some more.
The more you know your stuff, the easier it’ll be when you’re in the spotlight.
The first time I stepped up on stage in front of around 100 or so folks, was to do a talk on a personal subject I had chosen. I had ten minutes to tell everyone about my love of cephalopods.
I was incredibly nervous during the lead up to my spotlight moment, but once I stepped onto the stage and got into my stride, I actually started to enjoy myself up there.
It’s definitely easier to present something you really know about, but you don’t always have that luxury in a work environment, which is why practicing is even more important.
Also, it’s worth remembering that the people sat before you have intentionally gathered to listen to you speak, and they want you to be a success.
After you’ve done your first talk, get some honest feedback from your peers. If possible, ask someone to video you, so you can watch yourself back later. It can be helpful for checking your body language.
The first time I saw a video of myself, I noticed I was doing a kind of 80s sidestep dance! It was just nerves and I had no idea I was doing it at the time, but at least now I am aware of this habit.
Recap of the 3 steps
Your opinions and ideas are worth sharing, so get started by speaking up regularly in a safe space. Find opportunities to present and put yourself forward. This doesn’t have to be to a big audience, it could just be your trusted colleagues. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. Practice longer presentations over and over. It’s very important. Make sure you get feedback so you can keep improving.
To increase inclusivity during meetings and make sure you are making space for quieter voices — read Five Ways to Ensure a Successful Meeting.
Thank you for reading, I hope you found it useful. | https://medium.com/swlh/an-introverts-guide-to-public-speaking-10a6a6567bd2 | ['Jill Emeny'] | 2020-02-29 10:32:22.086000+00:00 | ['Presenting', 'Presentations', 'Presentation Tips', 'Introvert', 'Public Speaking'] |
Let’s Talk About Mental Health | This one’s not really about HealthTech. We’ll talk a bit about Calm, Headspace and some other mental health apps and fitness equipment that have recently received venture funding, but you’d probably file this one under the ‘LOHAS & Wellness’ (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability & Wellness) or ‘general speculation from a blogger’ section in your digital filing cabinet.
Mental health issues are by no means a new development, but I do think there has been a recent uptick in both prevalence and recognition. In a KFF Tracking Poll conducted in mid-July, 53% of adults in the United States reported that their mental health had been negatively impacted due to worry and stress over the coronavirus. Yale Medicine psychiatrist Ariadna Forray MD agrees; “Disasters and public health emergencies, such as the one we are living through right now, can lead to significant disruptions and stress.” That worry and stress can be manifested in many ways like hours at home alone with just your thoughts, fading forward slash in your work/life balance and an overall feeling that your life is kind of in a wait-and-see mode. I’d like to explore the effects of COVID on the erosion of the employer/employee relationship. More specifically, I want to understand how younger people are dealing with the loss of seriously formative years in their short professional careers.
As an MBA student I don’t have an employer at the moment so I’m probably not the best person to write about how working folk are feeling, but I get the impression that the ‘new work normal’ features increased employee burnout, frustration and overall discontent these days. At the lowest rung on the corporate ladder, young professionals already felt like they were somewhat expendable pre-COVID. Now, that feeling of expendability is exasperated and young people feel like they have to go way above and beyond their usual mandate just to make sure they remain ‘essential’ to their employers. I read an interesting article from Australia that contextualizes the issue from a different, equally stressing perspective. Basically it says that the youngest professionals (1–10 years out of college) are in the part of their careers that determines their economic wellbeing for the rest of their lives. To be unemployed or even just burnt out at this stage could have serious detrimental effects to the overall global economy down the road. Like I said in my first post, the first few years out of college are skill-accumulation years. Usually you’re not going to be in love with your first job and if you are being run into the ground at all hours of the day, chances are you aren’t really accumulating skills. More likely, you’re building a growing disinterest in work entirely and, I’m speculating here, less likely to chase the necessary experience with the fervor required of upward mobility. So when the Australians are worried about the loss of those formative professional years, so am I. If you’re still unmoved by people’s mental health concerns, Harvard Business Review quantified the loss of employee productivity as a result of mental health issues to equal over $16.8 billion annually.
So, what can employers do to help their young employees stay motivated and quell their anxiety and stress? Four-day work week! Not really, but that would be pretty awesome. In reality, many companies are training supervisors to identify emotional distress and implement strategies to assist employees who may be struggling, offering additional resources like good insurance coverage for mental health conditions, and partnering with different health and wellness services to provide young employees a healthy outlet for all their pent-up woes. Starbucks was early to the party on this topic, unrolling an app for its workforce (generally younger people) to improve their mental health and deal with anxiety and stress in the workplace. Employees interviewed about the initiatives said much of their stress came from the company cutting back on hours and relying on employees to work longer shifts with fewer people and no pay increase. That study was done in January of last year. I imagine the responses would be much more colorful this year.
Similar, more universally applicable technologies have emerged in the mental health space, often with quite a bit of venture capital funding, including Lyra Health (raised $110m in a Series D round in August for post-money valuation of $1.1bn), Calm (raised $75m in a Series C round this month for post-money valuation of $2.0bn), Headspace (raised $48m in a Series C round in June for post-money valuation of $317m) and Ginger (raised $50m in a Series D round for post-money valuation of $200m). If you look at each company’s website, they’ll provide a list of corporate partners that have already begun offering their on-demand mental health resources to employees. The main point is that the HealthTech ecosystem is actively introducing new, innovative ways to increase access to mental health resources and employers should be actively looking to partner with them to further aid their stressed and anxious employees during COVID and beyond. If you want to do some further reading, Ginger published a 38-page research report titled “Workforce Attitudes Towards Mental Health” that is worth perusing.
Another avenue that has grown in popularity recently is physical exercise to combat mental health issues. Studies have shown that exercise or lack thereof can have a meaningful impact on one’s overall mental health. While some companies have focused on the Lyra Health, Calm and Ginger’s of the world, others have partnered with fitness studios and other exercise-related companies to help their employees get through COVID with their mental health intact. My previous Company provided discounted gym membership (I think) but that’s about it. Nowadays, large employers are offering in-house gyms, membership discounts and in some rarer cases, even providing discounts on at-home fitness equipment like Pelotons. Either way, the trends are pointing towards an increased corporate focus on employees’ overall health.
Though there’s so much more that can be done to promote mental health in the workplace, I’m at least glad to see that many companies are admitting that there is an issue and actively searching for ways to help their employees. My hope is that more companies like the ones described above will sprout in the coming years and provide additional ways for the workforce to decompress and heal from all the damage done during the pandemic. | https://medium.com/@matthewlkillian/lets-talk-about-mental-health-89ac82ce7d35 | [] | 2020-12-14 22:54:52.037000+00:00 | ['Mental Health Services', 'Stress Management', 'Venture Capital', 'Blog', 'Healthtech'] |
Soft Skills in Entrepreneurship & the Future of Work | We’re often told of the importance of soft skills. More importantly, how they are equally as important to one’s life and career as their more technical counterparts. Soft skills are often more generalised, transferable and are thus more difficult to codify and substantiate. Whereas hard skills are often more technical in nature with better defined and more tangible value. These qualities lead many to wonder how they could be equally important. We find ASEAN youths to be the same.
Our research done in collaboration with the World Economic Forum in 2019 found that while ASEAN youth tend to value soft skills more highly than hard skills, soft skills are still relatively undervalued. We surveyed 56,000 youths and asked them what the three most important skills for the future of work are. Their top choices were creativity and innovation, languages, and the ability to use technology, while their least valued skills were data analytics and maths and science. However, other soft skills like resilience, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence ranked mid to low in importance, with less than 1 in 3 youths believing that they were among the most important skills.
Despite the perceptions of ASEAN youths, the importance of soft skills is often heralded by experts as undeniable. This belief was thoroughly echoed in a recent webinar between YCAB, an Indonesian NGO, and Garena, Sea’s games publisher and development unit, to celebrate the launch of their new initiative. The collaboration aims to upskill 1,000 teachers with 21st-century digital skills, so they, in turn, can pass down these valuable learnings to 100,000 thousand students across Indonesia. They emphasized that these 21st-century digital skills not only included technical skills, such as software programming, but also the soft skills necessary for the future of work, such as critical thinking.
A panel discussion between Andini Effendi, Metro TV News Anchor (Moderator, Left); Vera Colondam, YCAB’s Founder and CEO (Top Left); Rosarita Widiastuti, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Top Right); Imron Rosadi, secretary-general of the Federation of ICT Teacher (Bottom Left); and Pandu Sjahrir, Chairman of Sea Indonesia (Bottom Right).
What was particularly interesting about the webinar was the panellists’ unanimous and emphatic agreement of the importance of soft skills during their discussion. Despite their very different backgrounds, leaders from the private, public and third sector all emphasised the necessity of nurturing soft skills in youths, especially in light of the pandemic. While they agree that hard skills are also undeniably useful, in a world that is becoming increasingly unpredictable there is an even stronger need to develop softer skills, which are durable and transferable. In particular, they mention three core soft skills, namely resilience, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence.
During our research into on how COVID-19 has impacted youths around the region, one recurring theme we discovered was how important these aforementioned soft skills were to their adaptability and survival. In particular, I wanted to draw attention to the practical application of soft skills by entrepreneurs, who despite having been one of the hardest hit, display remarkable perseverance. By examining these skills, which have countless applications, through a single perspective their importance becomes more salient.
Resilience & Critical Thinking
Resilience is often described as the “ability to bounce back”. It is not necessarily the ability to endure adversity, but instead, it is the capacity and willingness to try again despite it. In an uncertain world, resilience is an essential tool to adapt and overcome ever-changing challenges.
Critical thinking is not about intelligence or knowledge, but about the process of analysis and understanding. It isn’t about what you know, but how you know it. It combines analysis, problem-solving, creativity, open-mindedness and communication, to allow you to digest information and make informed decisions.
In the context of COVID-19 entrepreneurship, the two are used in concert by entrepreneurs to retool their businesses and to explore new and different avenues of growth. Entrepreneurs applied resilience to get back up after being hit by pandemic related disruptions, meanwhile, they used critical thinking to decide how best they should do it. In fact, we found that entrepreneurs were the most likely to report having used COVID-19 as an opportunity to find new business models and improve their income (45% of entrepreneurs).
One interesting example we found through Shopee, Sea’s e-commerce platform, was of this fashion and clothing entrepreneur in Indonesia. During social distancing measures, where everyone had to remain indoors, the seller realised he had to quickly pivot his business away from producing outerwear (e.g. hoodies). He instead shifted his product mix and started broadening his children’s clothing line. He also started producing and selling fabric masks to help support the local knitting factories. By doing so, his revenue increased by 35% during the Ramadan period, despite the pandemic.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the awareness and control of one’s emotion, and understanding of others’. Since emotional intelligence is so multi-faceted, we’ll only focus on one aspect, namely empathy. Empathy is often described as “putting yourself in another person’s position”. While there are actually three types, the one we most commonly associate with empathy is known as compassion empathy. Compassion empathy is the ability to understand a person’s situation and context, feel with them, and move to help them.
Empathy is particularly important given how challenging the pandemic has been on both a professional and personal level. On one hand, fear of the pandemic has been found to increase stress levels, and on the other remote working has made team communication more difficult. We found that over 1 in 5 youths found difficulties managing and working with their team, and said that this was a constraint to remote working. Entrepreneurs must exercise empathy to communicate effectively, and help ensure the welfare and productivity of their teams and business.
It’s a Journey
The most important part of soft skills is that, like any other skill, it’s something that can be developed. While genetics can predisposition some people to be more naturally empathetic or resilient, it doesn’ preclude the rest of us from learning these skills. By nurturing these soft skills we can be better equipped to face the future of work and to thrive in a world full of trials and tribulations. While soft skills might be the hardest to prove you have, it is in the crucible of COVID, a time of crisis and hardship, it becomes clear to see who has them. | https://medium.com/seainsights/soft-skills-in-entrepreneurship-the-future-of-work-ff5131147d99 | ['Nathan Amanusa Chaniago'] | 2020-10-07 07:42:53.876000+00:00 | ['Youth', 'Soft Skills', 'Asean', 'Social Impact', 'Entrepreurship'] |
Become a better designer quickly. Tips on how to improve your designs… | Tips on how to improve your design fast
How do I become a better designer? And fast!!! This question has been typed into my google search box many many times over the past 15 years. Even though I have been in this industry for a long time now and have been practicing for a decade and a half, I still find myself asking this question. I’m pretty sure every designer on the planet (even the masters) ask themselves this from time to time.
We as designers, we love beauty, we enjoy elegance, find perfection in small details and get satisfaction from type scales and the golden ratio.
Being surrounded by amazing apps and beautiful sites 24/7 gives us endless opportunities to compare our work with other designers’ projects and lets that niggling little voice in your head keep whispering in your ear ‘you’ll never be that good!’
Why bother to become better at design?
We became designers because we felt inspired by the amazing designs we saw, used, and loved. We felt the need to create our own. How many times have you looked on a website, opened an app, or seen a layout and felt the desire to turn on the laptop, break out the Wacom and start mocking up something awesome? It happens to me on a daily basis!
But how often have you looked at your finished masterpiece and felt unhappy with the result? How many clients or art directors have asked for big changes or not been happy when you handed over that design you have lovingly slaved over all day? You go away to make your changes, or close your Sketch file and put it in the ‘I’ll come back to it another day folder’ and leave it to die with all the other designs you didn’t feel were working and ask yourself that same question: “How do I become a better designer?” | https://medium.com/@rob-from-dds/become-a-better-designer-really-quickly-82465c42d1f7 | ['R P'] | 2020-11-07 17:11:59.617000+00:00 | ['Design', 'UI Design', 'Learn Design', 'Ui Ux Design', 'Courses And Training'] |
Vite Bi-weekly Report | Development Achievements
Vite App
The latest version 3.7.5 was released.
New features and enhancements
Added “Transaction Status” to the ETH transfer page. Currently, three transaction statuses are supported: Unconfirmed, Pending, and Confirmed.
Support unconfirmed transactions on the ETH transaction details page.
For ETH transactions sent to oneself, the amount is changed to gray color for users to recognize.
New token-switch dropbox on the asset transfer page, simplifies the steps of switching tokens.
Bug fixes
Removed the two redundant “-” in candlestick charts.
Fixed mnemonic phrase restore error when using uppercase letters.
ViteX Exchange
The new feature of “friction-less stablecoin conversion” is in progress and will be launched in early September.
The eligible trading pairs will be identified with a label of “0 Fee” on both the Vite App and the web wallet. Tradings on these pairs do not charge any fees. In the meantime, users can even mine VX by providing liquidity.
ViteX is the first DEX to provide decentralized stablecoin conversion with zero fees. Three stablecoin pairs are expected to be present in September, stay tuned.
Desktop Wallet
New desktop wallet version 1.3.27 was released.
New features and enhancements
Improved user experience of Vite Connect. In the case of reloading the wallet by a user, the connection will be auto re-established if the Vite App is still connected.
The cumulative depth is displayed when user moves the cursor over a placed order.
Recent Milestones
ViteX Exchange
Operator VGATE listed Robonomics Network（XRT）
On Aug 3, ViteX Operator VGATE listed XRT Robonomics Network, and opened trading pair XRT/BTC.
Robonomics Network is a set of open-source packages for Robotics, Smart Cities and Industry 4.0 developers.
Operator VGATE listed Flama (FMA)
On Aug 7, ViteX Operator VGATE listed FMA Flama, and opened trading pair FMA/ETH.
Flama is the first deflationary token on the market which is ready right now to build decentralized applications with enhanced features such as staking.
Operator Vite Labs listed Handshake (HNS)
On Aug 13, ViteX Operator Vite Labs listed HNS Handshake, and opened trading pair HNS/USDT. The trading pair is eligible for market-making as mining on ViteX.
Handshake is a decentralized, permissionless naming protocol compatible with DNS where every peer is validating and in charge of managing the root zone with the goal of creating an alternative to existing certificate authorities.
Technology Series
On August 7, we published the 7th article of the Tech series which explains how ViteX achieves decentralization.
Read here:
Vite Ecosystem Incentive Plan
In order to further motivate and incentivize participation of both existing and new capable teams from our community to build together a more decentralized Vite ecosystem, Vite Labs is releasing Ecosystem Incentive Plan 2.0. The plan is designed to support developers in various ways such as staking for SBPs, voting, and allocating VITE rewards. We are currently finalizing details of Plan 2.0 and designing specific tasks, suggestions and opinions are encouraged and much appreciated.
Data on VITE and VX
As of August 14, 21,543,910.32 VITE have been burned through ViteX, accounting for 2.15% of total issuance.
113,836,785.95 VITE are staked on ViteX, accounting for 11.38% of total issuance.
10,076,046.26 VX have been mined, of which 9,056,767.81 VX (about 89.88%) are being staked for dividends.
To-date, 95.5 BTC worth of dividends has been distributed. The pool of undistributed dividends stands at 31.8 BTC.
Events
Chinese Community AMA
On August 5, Vite CPO Blackey Hou held a live video AMA with the Chinese community, where he discussed Vite’s fifth hard fork, the future positioning of Vite in the area of Open Finance, and comparison with other projects in the DeFi space.
You may watch the replay here:
International Community AMA
Vite COO Richard ran a new Telegram based AMA for the international community. Members of the community asked questions regarding our marketing strategy, plans for coin listings on ViteX, and development of dApp on Vite. Detailed responses to all these questions can be found here: https://forum.vite.net/topic/4110/vite-labs-leadership-ama-august-13-2020-review
ViteX Ambassador Selection
All candidates for the ViteX ambassador contest have submitted their videos where they each interviewed a project listed on ViteX. The community voting is now underway. You may vote here:
The three videos may be watched here:
Interview with EpicCash by Alex (https://twitter.com/AlexandreRaffin)
Interview with PegNet by Sichen (https://twitter.com/SichenHuo):
Interview with TurtleCoin by Amec (https://twitter.com/amec_nation):
The Blockchain Debate Podcast
Vite COO Richard recorded a new episode of the Blockchain Debate Podcast. The theme of the debate is: “Blockchain analysis firms are bad for Bitcoin.” The guests this time include Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer of Human Rights Foundation, and Dave Jevans, CEO of CipherTrace, a blockchain analysis firm.
Blockchain analysis firms assist the government in tracing on-chain money flows of criminals, and help financial institutions such as digital asset exchanges build out internal management systems that are compliant with local laws.
This podcast helps Vite Labs export its brand to the world, and provides fruit for thought for the industry.
All podcasts can be found here: https://blockdebate.buzzsprout.com
You’re also welcome to follow Richard’s Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/gentso09 | https://medium.com/vitelabs/vite-bi-weekly-report-4a59409bd6b2 | ['Vite Editor'] | 2020-08-21 18:43:22.686000+00:00 | ['Vitex', 'Project Updates', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Vite'] |
Trump, Evangelicals, & the Seven Mountain Mandate | The fastest-growing faith sect in both the United States and the Global South (Asia, Africa, and South America) is called Independent Network Charismatic (INC) Christianity, as detailed in a recent book by Brad Christerson and Richard Flory — sociologists from Biola and USC, respectively. INC Christianity combines Pentecostalism with the Fundamentalist-Evangelicalism that currently pervades much of the American faith landscape and enjoys outsized global influence due to operational and financial innovations.
One of the major draws of INC churches in the United States is the music; they very often produce and/or perform contemporary Christian worship songs that heavily influence believers around the world. Many of these INC celebrities recently attended a White House gathering (pictured above). The Christian Post reports that,
“The musicians and ministry leaders participated in a worship service and visited the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room, where they prayed for the president and took part in a policy briefing on what the administration is doing to help the faith community and religious freedom.”
I identify as a pentecostal — but a self-critical one who finds large swaths of this branch of Christianity deeply offensive. As a happily-married lesbian pastor, I find the homophobic aspects of Pentecostalism personally diminishing of both my humanity and my calling. In the book I co-wrote with Ken Wilson, Solus Jesus: A Theology of Resistance, I spend an entire chapter explaining how Pentecostalism veered from its initial impulses of radical inclusion and pacifism toward 1) the power-seeking path of Evangelicalism and 2) the biblical literalism of Fundamentalism.
This might be confusing if you’re not familiar with the territory. Fundamentalism was a reaction against modernism (read: evolutionary theory and historical inquiry) and is especially marked by 1) an understanding of the Bible as literal and inerrant, and 2) hostility toward other faith traditions, science, and academia. Early evangelicals did not identify as fundamentalists (Billy Graham among them), just as early pentecostals did not idenify as evangelicals. But, through a tangled history I unfurl in Solus Jesus, at this stage in history most pentecostals in the United States are both evangelical and fundamentalist, even if some evangelicals are not pentecostals.
My largest critique of INC Christianity and Pentecostalism in general is its tendency to seek power, and then abuse it when they have it.
The misuse of power is so pervasive in most American Pentecostal circles that it has become theologically justified. Over my years of pastoring I’ve become acquainted with two such charismatic theologies called “The Seven Mountain Mandate” and “Dominion Theology.”
The “seven mountains mandate” is sometimes called “seven pillars” or “seven spheres.” It was originally called “seven spheres,” based on a shared vision between Loren Cunningham (founder of Youth With a Mission), Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade for Christ), and Francis Schaeffer. Dominion theology is part of C. Peter Wagner’s Kingdom Now Theology and informs those who are part of the New Apostolic Reformation movement.
Understanding these ideas will help make sense of the American evangelical embrace of Donald Trump.
Dominion Theology is a belief claiming that, since God gave Adam dominion over the earth in Genesis, Christians should seek to dominate the world in the name of establishing the kingdom of God. “Seven mountains” refers to the thinking that seven major areas of human life need such Christian influence: education, religion, family, business, government/military, arts/entertainment, and media.
Brad Christerson and Richard Flory write, “This model of social transformation is clearly top-down or ‘trickle down’ model.” In other words, the more powerful and influential one becomes, the more social transformation one affects. It follows then that God blesses the pursuit of power in followers willing to use their authority to further an often-narrow interpretation of godliness in whatever given field.
The objective of influencing one or more of these “mountains” caused many Evangelicals and Pentecostals to turn their heads away from the distasteful behavior of a number of top politicians in the last few years. The pursuit of power and influence trumped protecting the human dignity of the vulnerable: undocumented immigrants, Dreamers (DACA recipients), women, the poor and uninsured, those who are differently-abled, African-Americans, the LGBTQ+ community (especially transgender persons), among others. The alarm bells were drowned out because power has become a sacred entitlement in this religious sub-culture.
The Jesus of the Bible didn’t pursue political power — he eschewed it. It was through the laying down of power for the sake of the vulnerable and oppressed that he taught us the unending power of LOVE —and love, the Apostle Paul tells us, is not self-seeking.
So, counter-intuitively, Christians believe that spiritual influence comes through the laying down of power. The pursuit of power, influence, and dominance hinders the work of God and continues tempting people to misuse their gifts to gain the praise and acquiescence of others. This is how we end up with Evangelical worship celebrities surrounding a President who, quite likely, will soon be inpeached for crimes against the United States — a President who just shelled out $2 million for misusing charity funds. And, by the way, many of the leaders pictured above are associated with Bethel Church in Redding, CA — a church that’s reiginited the entirely discredited conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ people.
I still claim to be pentecostal because I still hold to personal experiences and find it difficult to dismiss the numerous occasions it seems God — or something, someone — helped, comforted, healed, and/or navigated me or someone I know. And dismissing charismatic expressions of faith entirely would disregard the daily encounters experienced by some of the poorest and least powerful people in the world — that feels patronizing. But I’m shouting into the Interwebs with all my might that American Christianity is distorted, corrupt, and anti-Jesus … and this picture in the Oval Office is emblematic of all the reasons why the American church continues to shrink. For all our sake, I hope this “peak” in INC government influence is also the beginning of its undoing as it manifests its power-seeking demons. | https://medium.com/solus-jesus/trump-evangelicals-the-seven-mountain-mandate-af660291f537 | ['Emily Swan'] | 2019-12-13 03:32:18.788000+00:00 | ['Jesus', 'Christianity', 'Politics', 'Equality', 'Culture'] |
Covid Observations: My Take | I’ve been a pastor for 15 years. I’ve conducted funerals for teens who have committed suicide, and young moms who have died of breast cancer. I’ve navigated thorny church issues with varying degrees of success. I’ve dealt with difficult people, and I’ve parsed tricky theological questions that have more relevance to daily life than one might think.
Covid has been, hands-down, the most difficult leadership challenge during my time in ministry. There is not even a close second. There are a few reasons why — but in my judgment, one of the underlying problems is that people tend to absolutize their convictions and beliefs on all things Covid. This means that rather than viewing the question of whether or not to wear a mask, get a vaccine, gather for worship, stay home, follow government mandates, resist undue government authority, or any of a number of other questions, many of us tend to elevate our personal convictions into “The” right position — perhaps even the one approved by God. And to the extent that we elevate our convictions into near-biblical absolutes, we’ll find that humility in our own beliefs is sorely lacking. As a pastor, I see my official role as non-partisan. I have tried to lead in a way that doesn’t take needless partisan sides, but rather gives clear direction on what our church ought to be doing without stepping too far outside of my area of expertise. In other words, I have tried to avoid giving too much of my opinion in my role as pastor, instead trying to lay out the course of action that our church needs to follow.
But in this non-official platform, let me offer my opinions on some Covid matters, and then (in a separate article) make some observations regarding what I see as spiritual issues that have surfaced.
First of all — masks. My sense is that they are probably not effective at preventing the wearer from getting the virus, but there is probably a more than 50% chance that it reduces the spread of the virus to others. There seems to be credible evidence that mask mandates, when put in place, lead to a corresponding reduction in the spread of the virus, even if this decline is slight. The implication of this is that wearing a mask when in crowded spaces seems to be a reasonable step to take in preventing harm to others. So, I’m willing to wear a mask even if I find it bothersome, because it’s a relatively simple step that may cut down on the chances that someone else will get ill.
Second, vaccines. I’m surprised at the the extent of resistance to vaccinations that we have seen in our culture. Social media has made it easy for misinformation to spread, and with the click of a mouse, or the tap of a finger, we can pass along information that is wildly inaccurate. mRNA vaccine technology has been around for 20 years or more, and while this particular adaptation was tailored to combat the Covid virus, the actual science is not new. behind this type of vaccine has been around for awhile. Essentially, microbiologists and virologists create vaccine “attachments” that are customized to the basic vaccine. It’s a simplified explanation, but my point is that the vaccine isn’t a start-from-scratch therapeutic that was never properly tested. I have intelligent and thoughtful friends on the other side of this issue, so I’ve come to respect those who would prefer to refrain from getting the vaccine. But, I view this medical science as a means by which God has provided for our collective health, and thus a gift to be received.
That said, I also believe that personal liberties are important and that the government has no right to mandate a vaccine. This is, in my judgment, government overreach. Here in Oregon, the state has mandated that school districts (and local and state governments) require their employees to be vaccinated; I disagree with this on the grounds of undue government intrusion. At the same time, I believe that businesses should have the freedom to make their own choices about whether employees (and customers) should be vaccinated (or masked) or not. But personal freedom also entails personal responsibility, and those who choose not to be vaccinated should accept responsibility for those choices. Given that something like 85% of hospitalized Covid patients are unvaccinated, and given that this in turn spreads the cost of such decisions to others (by, for example, reducing the availability of hospital beds for others in need of care), the question becomes who should shoulder that burden? The simplest answer in my judgment is the one responsible for causing it. Delta Airlines recently announced that while they will not require vaccinations of their employees, those who choose not to be vaccinated will pay an additional $200.00 per month for their health care premiums. This approach seems to me to be the appropriate balance between personal freedom and personal responsibility.
Enacting and enforcing mandates is also a subject of much debate. Around my state, local law enforcement officials have publicly stated that they will not enforce the state’s mask mandate. And, increasingly it seems that the public is willing to defy the state’s mask mandate (which applies to both indoor, and outdoor gatherings). This is more complex than it might seem at first glance, and my opinions run in several directions on this. First, I think any criminal (!) enforcement borders on the absurd, as it gets us uncomfortably close to a police state. But then, what about private organizations? What about businesses? This, to me, is where a mask mandate should be enacted, and enforcement then could be up to businesses. Restaurants, schools, grocery stores, shopping centers and the like should have the option to require masks or not. In other words, I would prefer to see mask mandates left to the discretion of the private sector — especially now that vaccinations are widely and freely available to anyone that wants them.
But that too isn’t as easy as it might seem. One of the jobs of government is to enact basic safety measures for the protection of its citizens. Again — fine line, but requiring masks can be argued to be a measure that (potentially — see above) protects others from adverse health effects, by creating an environment where the spread of illness is mitigated. It’s a little like laws that ban smoking in public places — I don’t go to Denny’s expecting to breathe in someone else’s cigarette smoke (well, I actually don’t got to Denny’s at all, but I digress…) because the laws here in Oregon (and many other places) have outlawed smoking in restaurants.
At the church I serve, we’ve walked a fine, if imperfect line on this. We’ve complied with the state mandate on this, asking our members to mask up, because that is required of us , and because submission to the government is a part of what God requires of us (see Romans 13). But we’ve also struggled with how to enforce this — should we turn away people who won’t wear a mask? Create a “mask” and “non-masked” seating section? Both of these options only create more problems. I’m not prepared to divide a church, literally, over the question of mask wearing, and neither am I prepared to turn people away from worship. If there was no vaccine available, that might be different, since we’d not have the other resources to prevent the spread of the virus, and more strict enforcement might be needed. But we do, and that means that those who attend do so knowing that there may be some who choose not to wear masks, even if it is asked of them.
Keep in mind, these are all my opinions — there are cases to be made for differing viewpoints. But all this said, I’d suggest that there are other, more critical issues, which I’ll address in a separate article. | https://medium.com/@robtoornstra/covid-observations-my-take-9eeede0471c2 | ['Rob Toornstra'] | 2021-09-15 17:23:07.782000+00:00 | ['Covid Diaries', 'Theology', 'Covid 19', 'Masks', 'Vaccines'] |
Multiport USB-C Chargers and Hubs | Multi-port USB-C Charger
USB 3 Type C, or simple USB-C, was introduced many years ago. The first device was a tablet by Nokia closely followed by Apple with Mac Book. This single-port ultra-light laptop was truly adorable but under-powered and had only a single port for both charging and accessories. Not a very convenient limitation, you might notice.
Then it was also expanded, and another standard adapted the port — Thunderbolt 3. Great promise, single compact, a symmetrical port for all the needs: Power up to 100W, Video, data, etc. But as we all know, in a way, it’s a failure. Because it all looks the same, yet not all devices, cables, and accessories support all possible features of USB-C, it’s hard to know what is supported. I am surprised that at least a simple color scheme was not introduced, like black for Thunderbolt 3 speeds, USB 3.2 speeds, Video, and 100w power delivery, then gray for just 100W power, dark green for only Thunderbolt, navy blue for USB 3.2, blue for USB 3.0, light blue for 2.0, etc. In other words, the complete lack of common sense, pretty much like lots of missed opportunities for a good UX. Fast forward to 2020, Apple finally providing Lightning to USB-C cable for all new iPhones, but I can’t really go and buy a simple multiport charger that would let me plug a bunch of USB-C cables and charge my devices using only one electrical outlet.
There is a huge demand, the market is ready. But we see a complete failure of supply. This happens left and right. Invisible hand fixes things when there is enough commotion, but markets stay empty for years or even decades when it is too little. Usually, it manifests in a lack of design. When all heads of manufacturing parties would say that “in our particular case design is not that important and customers are looking for lower prices and new features,” what usually means that they have no taste themselves and too greedy and shortsighted to pay for a decent designer, and ready to add dark pattern features that would help them extract more money from customers that have few alternatives.
Basically, Apple is one of the guilty parties. They decided to push hard, removed quite used and useful ports from all new portables, and totally failed to provide some essential accessories. I understand that their plan was to expect that third parties would do that. But I, as a user, do not care. If small vendors do not make it, the first party should make it long enough for the market to mature. I understand that there could be some technical difficulties, but come on, fix it.
And actually, I really think that it’s difficult or just expensive to make an outstanding all-powerful and convenient multiport hub that can charge many devices and provide excellent data throughput. But a simple, compact 5 port charger can power a couple of smartphones, and maybe a smartwatch, headphones, and a power bank that should be totally doable. I simply can do it now, in a very inelegant way, but taking my 5-year-old 5 port USB-A charger and plugging 5 little USB-A Male to USB-C Female adapters. It’s just idiotic that it’s so easy and yet so hard to buy something that has it done right. | https://medium.com/@dimka/multiport-usb-c-chargers-and-hubs-3a0fd041c41b | ['Dmitri Zdorov'] | 2020-10-18 17:02:32.621000+00:00 | ['Usb C', 'Market Failure', 'USB Type C', 'Charger'] |
CryptoKara Wallet — A Decentralized Crypto Wallet By Eagle Mining Network! | Eagle Mining Network — A BlockChain Network!
Eagle Mining Network started in February 2021 with a vision to develop a unique blockchain network in the crypto space; Eagle Network has released its own decentralized wallet app within the 6 months of project start!
Eagle Mining Network is a mobile crypto mining program where users who mining coins called “Eagle” coins through their mobile called miners through the miner app launched by the Eagle Network. The miner app is available to download on app stores like Android Playstore and Apple iOS store. The miner app of Eagle Network is on the live BETA testing version.
In September 2021, Eagle Network released Beta Testing Decentralized Wallet App named “CryptoKara Wallet,” owned By Eagle Mining Network.
CryptoKara Wallet App — By Eagle Network
A decentralized wallet means a wallet that has full control of the user without any third-party involvement. The users have to secure the wallet app using the 12 words password phrase, which they need to use for wallet restoration in case of a mobile device change. This is very important to note down the 12 words password phrase that needs to be used during wallet restoration. If a user forgets this 12 words phrase, then Core Team can not help restore the user’s wallet.
The Frequently Asked Questions by “CryptoKara Wallet App” users can be:
How To Download CryptoKara Wallet? How To Create Wallet on CryptoKara Wallet? How To Restore Wallet on CryptoKara Wallet? How To Withdraw EagleToken From Miner App To CryptoKara Wallet? How To Use CryptoKara Wallet To Swap Crypto?
For General Queries users can join our official Telegram Channel Eagle Network and Eagle Mining Network Telegram Group.
To Download CryptoKara Wallet App on your mobile, search “CryptoKara Wallet By Eagle Network” or you can download all Eagle Network Apps, Games, Wallet through the given app store links below,
Download and Play Eagle Network Games and earn free EagleToken which you can withdraw to CryptoKara Wallet!
Eagle Network on Android Playstore: https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=7118716833269537458
Eagle Network on Apple iOS Appstore: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/eagle-network-phone-currency/id1559202777 | https://medium.com/@eaglenetwork/cryptokara-wallet-a-decentralized-crypto-wallet-by-eagle-mining-network-dc16587e21aa | ['Eagle Network'] | 2021-09-11 16:39:10.781000+00:00 | ['Mobile Mining', 'Decentralized', 'Decentralized Apps', 'Eagle Mining Network', 'Crypto'] |
right now, I’m looking at my foot… | He dosent move. The only mouvement my body is making is caused by my respiration. The air comes in, and goes out. I am still. It seems like the time has stopped. I look around me. I have the feeling that I’m in a bubble. Nothing can affect me. I feel compresed. A force is restraining me from moving. Each movement is slow. Like a turtle walk. I look the little lights in the tree. They’re pink, my favorite color. I hear a tinkle. It’s the sound of the heating system. At the bottom of the street, I hear an alarm. Not the ones we can ear in the sea but the one of an ambulance or a police car. Did you ask yourself what others think about every time that sound ring? Me, yes. I “suffer” from anxiety. My brain is always searching for the worst situation that could possibly happen. Non stop. So much that sometimes, I would like to be another person. But after awhile, I remember that I like the way that I work and my capacity of always trying to find solutions. The simple fact that I’m writing this text shows how I work.
Melidipsie
Thank you for reading me!
December 23rd 2020 | https://medium.com/@melidipsiethoughts/right-now-im-looking-at-my-foot-c0baebf40d21 | [] | 2020-12-24 01:03:43.576000+00:00 | ['Thoughts', 'Emotions', 'Anxiety'] |
Sonos announces new artists contributing to its Sonos Radio services | Sonos announces new artists contributing to its Sonos Radio services Angie Jan 14·1 min read
Sonos has announced new offerings in its Sonos Radio music-streaming services. The ad-free Sonos Sound System will launch three new shows: Object of Sound, a weekly music and culture podcast; Black is Black, a monthly radio show “examining the black diaspora’s impact on modern music;” and Unsung, a biweekly show hosted by the independent British music publication Crack Magazine.
[ Further reading: The best smart speakers and digital assistants ]Subscribers to Sonos Radio HD ($7.99 per month) will gain access to new stations curated by Icelandic singer Björk, British electronica duo The Chemical Brothers, American singer and producer, D’Angelo, and English singer/songwriter FKA Twigs. These same artists will contribute one-hour segments to the Sonos Radio Hour on the free version of Sonos Radio.
Back on the paid side, subscribers will also gain a new hip-hop and R&B station, Blacksmith Radio, hosted by artist manager Corey Smyth.
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/@angie12183186/sonos-announces-new-artists-contributing-to-its-sonos-radio-services-cff32d0a87d1 | [] | 2021-01-14 23:20:14.705000+00:00 | ['Home Theater', 'Chargers', 'Home Tech'] |
Getting started with Visualizations in Python | Visualizing anything gives us a better understanding, a holistic picture of things, be it the monthly turn over of your company, the increasing temperature, or even tensed situations where you could have outrun everyone else, believe me, the later one works.
The aim of art is to represent, not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
— Aristotle
Visualization is an art, it does not just represent the data better, but it actually pictures the trends, the patterns and other signs that are hidden deep within the data, and can’t be figured out just staring at the data.
It’s one of the crucial arts’ that need to be mastered by anyone who wants to pursue Data Science, without which you’ll be incomplete, your assignments, your tasks will be incomplete especially when you turn up to someone to explain, Why did this Happen?
Let’s have a look at some of the most common plots;
Hold your Horses First.
Shouldn't we first look into what will it take here to plot?
There are so many open source libraries available at your disposal, and what it actually takes to do is the will to do.
Don’t kid me now!
Obviously, you need a laptop and Jupyter Notebook, maybe some of Python basics too.
Let’s get started now. | https://towardsdatascience.com/getting-started-with-visualizations-in-python-945d92b85823 | ['Pranjal Gupta'] | 2019-05-06 13:34:54.562000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Python3', 'Data Science', 'Plotly'] |
Learn to say NO to almost every vulnerability (intro to vPrioritizer) | As reflected, on a daily basis, approximately 50 new vulnerabilities become known to industry and even if an organization considers the impact rate of 10%, it’s still very challenging to manage it effectively. So we have a huge number of vulnerabilities to assess and remediate and it’s safe to assume that count is going to increase furthermore. So with this amount organization is focusing (or should focus) on reducing the risk rather than eliminating it.
In today’s time, vulnerability management is (almost) equal to risk prioritisation because
Resources (skillset and time) is limited in every organisation Environment is changing too fast and too frequently (there is no point of doing analysis and remediation of a vulnerability if affected asset is not going to be active for a longer time — small attack surface) Attack surface is increasing exponentially (which again comes down to prioritisation) Remember the 80/20 rule — 20% of vulnerabilities bring 80% of risk
So what is risk? How do we calculate it? What are the factors contributing to risk?
CVSS (historically used) — No
Asset Criticality — No
Asset Accessibility — No
Exploit Availability — No
Ease of Exploitation — No
Threat/Attack Surface (am I target now) — No
All of the Above — Yes
This list is not exhaustive, consider it as living list, which I will keep updating.
Theoretically, the above approach looks appropriate to adopt but it’s not practically possible to do it manually for every vulnerability affecting every asset by every organisation.
To overcome the above challenges I have developed an open-source framework — vPrioritizer, with primary objectives as below:
Centralized — must serve as single-pane-of-glass for vulnerability management Automated — any and every task which can be automated, must be automated Community Analytics — utilization of community analytics to mature the prioritization algorithm over the period of time
vPrioritizer (demo) gives us ability to assess the risk on different layers such as (and hence comprehensive control on granularity of each of risk as described above in risk calculation section):
We can assign significance on per asset basis
We can assess severity on per vulnerability basis
At the same time, we can adjust both factors at asset & vulnerability relationship level
On top of that, community analytics provides insights as suggested risk
Conclusion
vPrioritizer enables us to understand the contextualized risk pertaining to each asset by each vulnerability across organization. It’s community based analytics provides a suggested risk for each vulnerability identified by vulnerability scanners and further strengthens risk prioritization process. So at any point of time teams can make an effective and more informed decision, based on unified and standardize data, about what (vulnerability/ties) they should remediate (or can afford not to) on which (asset/s).
Takeaways
1. Risk is a variable, function of multiple parameters
2. Prioritize correctly — Fix first, what matters most
3. Share with community — that’s the only way to scale
4. Fix fast, test fast, fail fast, adjust fast | https://medium.com/@rana.miet/learn-to-say-no-to-almost-every-vulnerability-intro-to-vprioritizer-9b2aa15369a1 | ['Pramod Rana', 'Iamvarchashva'] | 2020-09-03 09:34:50.688000+00:00 | ['Vulnerability Management', 'Information Security', 'Risk Management', 'Infosec', 'Open Source'] |
Post Covid19: Consumer Electronics Market To Reach USD 1,230.2 Billion By 2027 | CAGR 7.1% — Forencis Research | Global Consumer Electronics Market: Key Highlights
According to the new market research report “Consumer Electronics Market by Product Type (Audio & Video Equipment, Digital Photo Equipment, Consumer Electronics Devices, Smart Home Devices and Wearable Electronic Devices), by Application (Personal, Professional), by Region (North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, South America) — Global Forecast (2020 to 2027)”, the global Consumer Electronics Market is estimated to reach USD 1,230.2 Billion by 2027 at a CAGR of around 7.1% during the review period.
the global Consumer Electronics Market is estimated to reach USD 1,230.2 Billion by 2027 at a CAGR of around 7.1% during the review period. The consumer electronics is the electronic equipment, which includes television sets, MP3 players, video recorders, DVD players, radio receivers, and various other products.
Moreover, it includes a large set of electronic devices which provides one or more functionalities in home as well as for the individuals. Also, it can incorporate in smartphone and computing devices which helps the individual to enhance its services outdoor with the cell phone or a tablet PC.
Global Consumer Electronics Market: Key Market Dynamics
With the increasing growth in digital platform is witness to boost the growth of the market in the projected period. Whereas, it helps to boost and develop the customer experience as well as enhance the business perspectives for the company growth.
One of the major key concern of the consumer electronics market is the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemics which may restraining factor for the growth of the market. Whereas, various factors including disruptions in restrictions on trade, supply chain & logistics as well as shortage of raw materials has create a hamper the production capacity for the consumer electronics manufacturers.
Growing adoption of Internet of Things (IoT), lead to enhance the device efficiency as well as boost the customer experiences which will lead to fuel the growth of the consumer electronics market in the forecast period.
High availability of spurious products will create a negative impact for the growth of consumer electronics market in the forecast period.
Request Sample PDF of Global Consumer Electronics Market:
https://www.forencisresearch.com/consumer-electronics-market-sample-pdf/
Global Consumer Electronics Market: Regional Overview
North America:
The North America is witness to be one of the major player for the adoption of advance technologies. Whereas, the region consumer electronics market is projected to emerge as the dominant regional industry with the high penetration. However, the countries in the region are anticipated to grow the demand for improve consumer electronics in personal as well as professional applications.
Hence, the increasing trends of smart office buildings and smart homes is also contributing the market size of smart consumer electronics in the forecast period.
Asia-Pacific:
The region is witness to increase significant market growth during the forecast period. Whereas the emerging economies which includes China, South Korea, and India have emerged to be largest revenue generate for APAC consumer electronics market share. However, the region consumer electronics market are growing demand for smartphones from countries such as India, China and Japan which is presence of main consumer electronic goods manufacturers in countries.
Hence, with the growing industries and penetrations of smartphone in the region will lead to increase the market growth in the forecast period.
Global Consumer Electronics Market: Key Players Overview
IBM Corporation:
The company is a multinational company, which engages in provision of cloud platforms and cognitive solution. Also, it produces and sells computer hardware, middleware and software. In 2020, the company had announced the launch of advertising accelerator with Watson, which is first to market offering which lead to support artificial intelligence for predicting the optimal combination of creative elements. These will helps to boost the high engagement and conversion for a consumers.
Hence, it also helps to drive faster predictive platform, improve the creative performance, as well as enhance the audience.
Panasonic Corporation:
The Panasonic Corporation is a global leader for the growth of diverse electronics technologies and solutions for user in the consumer electronics. Whereas, the company is developing a large range of consumer products, such as audio visual, communication products and different home appliances such as such as refrigerating, air conditioning and washing equipment. In 2020, the company and Blue Yonder has extend strategic partnership to accelerate the autonomous supply chain.
About Forencis Research
Forencis Research is a B2B market research, intelligence and advisory firm engaging in market research and consulting services across leading industries, globally. Our robust and meticulous research team provides high growth and niche syndicated reports, customized reports and consulting reports to the diverse global fortune clientele and intellectual institutions. Forencis Research database is a constantly evolving pool of market research reports and white paper studies which helps companies to foster accelerated revenue growth in global and regional markets.
Our robust research methodology is designed to constantly map the high growth markets in various industries. This facilitates enhanced decision-making capabilities to our clients. Our robust research methodology is designed to constantly map the high growth markets in various industries. This facilitates enhanced decision-making capabilities to our clients. We strive to help our clients to foray into uncharted space to attain increased revenue growth for the present as well as the future.
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Website: www.forencisresearch.com | https://medium.com/@databridgemarketresearch/post-covid19-consumer-electronics-market-to-reach-usd-1-230-2-e5428e0207b6 | ['Databridge Market Research'] | 2020-11-18 13:32:08.165000+00:00 | ['Consumer Electronics'] |
Social Listening or Tea Leaf Reading: What’s a Better Determinant of Brand Success? | Agencies and brands have been tempted to use social mentions/social share of voice as some kind of proxy for business success. The problem is, this methodology is completely unfounded.
The following evaluation shows why tea-leaf reading — an ancient fortune-telling method, is essentially as useful as social listening tools for measuring success for your brand.
Method 1: Social listening tools
SOV is an effective measure, social SOV is not
For the last 16 years, it has been statistically proven by three independent academic studies (1/2/3) that in order to grow a brand share of market, you need to grow your share of voice (media spend) beyond your SOM percentage. For instance, if you’re a tea brand that owns 20% of the tea market, then you need to own a share of voice (media spend) beyond 20% of that market.
However, in the eight years that have followed, no social listening tool has proven that there is any linkage between social share of voice and share of market. Crimson Hexagon — a leading social listening tool, has even gone as far to say,
‘For us, it’s not about counting mentions or SOV — it’s about gaining consumer insights from social data, that can help improve everything from sales to product development to ad spend to planning.’ 1 2
Social listening can’t accurately capture all category buyers
One of the biggest drawbacks of social listening is the limited access to conversations. The large volume of results come from Twitter. However social listening fails to track a number of the other big social platforms including Facebook (with limited access), Snapchat, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp which all have larger number of daily users than Twitter.
What’s more, Pew Research has found that social platforms are not universal, aside from Facebook. Twitter and other smaller platforms have big variances in who uses the social platform based on ethnicity and demographics. On top of that, Twitter lacks demographic data about their users, so you cannot cut the data into figuring out who is in your target and who is outside your target. This raises massive red flags for any brand who is looking to get a representative sample of category buyers as you are going to get a lot of noise.
Method 2: Tea Leaf Reading
The historical art of reading tea leaves, or ‘Tasseography’ has not historically been considered an accepted technique to measure brand performance. However, the mystical interpretation method does have some advantages. Especially, when you consider it has been a practiced art form for the last 400 years.
‘The first inklings of Western tasseography can be traced to medieval European fortune tellers who developed their readings from splatters of wax, lead, and other molten substances. This evolved into tea-leaf reading in the seventeenth century, a short time after Dutch merchants introduced tea to Europe via trade routes to China.’
Firstly, It is universally accepted and practiced method around the world, which makes it an attractive candidate for global brands.
‘Many interpretations for symbols exist, but readers commonly focus on the color of the symbols. Since most cups used are white or ivory and the grounds are dark, symbols are formed from the strong, contrasting colors. White is considered a “good” symbol foretelling of generally positive things for the querent, while the grounds themselves are considered to form “bad” symbols.’
With this, it’s safe to assume that more white in the cup would suggest that your campaign is a success and big market share gains are in the works. If you are seeing more tea leaves, you can easily conclude that consumers don’t know a good branded hashtag when they see one, and potential market share losses are on the horizon.
What’s the verdict: social mentions or tea leaves?
Both measures hold about the same amount of weight in helping to predict a brand’s performance. A safe bet would be to do both methods if you want a cheap gamble for measuring marketing success.
If you are a BBDO client, find some time to speak with your Comms Planner about the right measures of success, we will continue to cover better methods to measure your brand on our Medium page in the upcoming months so stay tuned. | https://medium.com/comms-planning/social-listening-or-tea-leaf-reading-whats-a-better-determinant-of-brand-success-1bbe9e972a3f | ['Julian Cole'] | 2016-06-24 17:08:50.534000+00:00 | ['Measurement', 'Social Listening', 'Advertising'] |
Evolution of Human-Computer Interaction and where spatial computing is taking us to | Human-Computer Interaction has been a buzzing field right from its beginning from the days of command-line interface (CLI) to the current natural user interface (NUI). Though we call it Human-Computer Interaction, Computers have been put first ignoring human abilities for a long time. When we say Human-Computer Interaction, there is a flow of information between the human and the computer, and it is defined as the loop of Interaction.
This loop is currently maintained with the help of a keyboard or direct manipulation devices like mouse, touch screens, stylus, etc. Although the direct manipulation devices offer us a natural representation of actions, it has its limitations. These interactions are performed with the help of intermediary devices which doesn’t let human abilities to be used at its full potential. The current interactions are more catered towards the visual and auditory senses.
The future where we are heading to with the rise in Ubiquitous Computing (Pervasive Computing), Artificial Intelligence, Ambient Intelligence, and IoT devices are blurring the lines between us humans and technology. To interact with these machines to its full potential, the Interaction needs to be implicit and as natural as possible, which requires enhancing or augmenting our senses. The hardware needs to fade into the background and become a part of the environment, leaving only the software for users to interact with, so we interact with these machines as naturally as possible.
One such technology that helps us to partner with these machines is Spatial Computing, in which the device retains and manipulates real objects and spaces around us as a medium to interact with technology. Using the 3D space which we humans are familiar with helps us to utilize the underused capabilities of our senses in understanding the complex information in the world.
Spatial Computing will make the computer’s user interface a seamless part of the three-dimensional world in which we live, work, and play.
In any interaction, generally, there is a way to perceive the information and a way to interact with it. In Spatial Computing, it is a display technology like AR, VR primarily, and spatial sounds. For interactions, voice control, eye tracking, hand/body tracking(gestures), and haptics are used.
A human with the potential to understand complex information and a machine that could process complex data would be the better partners of the future.
Where has spatial Computing taken us so far?
Spatial computing is broadly synonymous with extended reality (XR).
XR is an umbrella term that includes any technology that helps us to merge the physical and digital worlds. It blends the worlds by digitally enhancing the human senses.
Extended reality is either used to provide more information about our actual environment to enhance our senses, or else to create completely artificial experiences.
Enhanced Senses
XR is helping us to look beyond our abilities, it’s helping firefighters and first responders to see through smoke and darkness. It is also guiding people with vision impairment to better navigate through the world. Solutions are also utilizing other senses to augment vision and vice versa.
Increased Efficiency
Spatial Computing has increased efficiency in multiple fields of work. Several studies have reported a significant increase in motivation, attention, confidence, and satisfaction of learners using this spatial technology when compared to traditional ones. XR solutions are also being used from factory floors to health care units to augment the right information to assist staff in making their work efficient and safe.
3D Visualization
60% of the human brain is involved in processing what we see, and most of the products we live in the 3D space in the real world, but we were limited with the 2D rectangular screens for designing, prototyping, and developing these products. Spatial Computing has opened immense opportunities in envisioning outcomes, prototyping them with the least resources and but experiencing them in their genuine sense in the real world. Not just that, they also let consumers experience these products in the real world before making a purchase. So 3D visualization has made an impact right from how a product is thought to how it is being consumed.
Credit: Microsoft
Telepresence
Telepresence is one of the rapidly growing use cases in spatial Computing. With COVID and remote working being the new standard, multiple solutions are emerging to help in remote collaboration from expert guidance in the service industry, virtual collaboration rooms, virtual conferences, product launches, and virtual tours in real estate agencies. Not just for work, even if the job can be done from home, spending time at the same place day in, day out will be challenging. Entertainment, personal lifestyles like shopping, traveling will also be envisioned using spatial computing technologies.
The era of Augmented World
Spatial Computing is the natural evolution of interactions for the era of invisible computers, just not COVID accelerating its needs now. Reduction of cost and improvement in 3D pipelines, new tools for developers and designers to co-create rapidly test and deploy solutions, hardware capabilities, display technologies, and the introduction of 5G network connectivity will further accelerate the adoption. Spatial Computing will become ubiquitous in the new normal. | https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/evolution-of-human-computer-interaction-and-where-spatial-computing-is-taking-us-to-91fc5e0083b3 | ['Siddarth Kengadaran'] | 2020-11-18 01:34:32.301000+00:00 | ['Xr', 'User Experience', 'Hci', 'AR', 'Human Comuter Interaction'] |
The tactics, routines and habits of billionaires, icons and world-class performers | Book review : TOOLS OF TITANS | The tactics, routines and habits of billionaires, icons and world-class performers Olivier Roland Sep 7·24 min read
Summary of “Tool of Titans: the tactics, routines and habits of billionaires, icons and world-class performers” by Timothy Ferriss: Through a series of interviews with the biggest “winners” on the planet in a variety of fields, Timothy Ferriss reveals the keys to their success. What are their routines and daily habits, their favourite film or book or their biggest investment. What inspires them, what helps them to stay focussed, etc.
By Timothy Ferriss, 2017, 601 pages
Summary and book review of “Tools of Titans” :
Introduction
The origin behind this book was the Tim Ferriss Show
The author, Timothy Ferriss, is best known for his books “The 4-hour workweek” (over 2 million copies sold in 36 countries) and “Tribe of mentors”. He wrote this book after interviewing 200 major international figures.
In fact, Timothy Ferriss began interviewing these worldwide personalities as part of a series of podcasts called the Tim Ferriss Show (it is one of the most downloaded podcasts in the USA).
One day, he decided to bring his archives together to extract the most interesting information, compile it, and turn it into a book. And that is how the book “Tools of Titans” was born.
According to Timothy Ferriss:
This book is much more than an anthology. It is a genuine toolbox that can change your life.
A variety of profiles, all of the icons!
The profiles of the “Titans” that Timothy Ferriss met with are extremely diverse. Among his guests, you will find for example the founder of Twitter, the co-founder of Pixar studios, the superstars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Foxx or Kevin Costner, a genius employee at Google, professional athletes, several successful entrepreneurs, researchers, philosophers, film directors, officers in the marine, investment managers, lecturers, writers, engineers, doctors, neuroscientists, musicians, internet influencers, psychologists, coaches, etc.
This diverse range of profiles makes the book quite an eclectic collection. However, a common point acts as the guiding line. All of these global personalities at the top of their field are leaders, billionaires, icons, talented creatives or world champions. They have all, one way or another, been successful.
The keys to success
In “Tools of Titans”, Timothy Ferriss takes us backstage to meet these “Titans”. As part of the interviews, the personalities will all share the “little secrets” that have led them to success and many other secrets about personal development. In particular, we discover:
Their routines and why they have put them in place,
What, in their mind, is the key to success,
What they consider to be the biggest waste of their time,
The way they spend the first 60 minutes and the last 60 minutes of their day,
What they consider to be their best investment,
Their favorite book and /or the one they often give as a gift,
What inspires them and what they believe in,
Their tips on how to manage their company, stay fit and healthy…
By offering you practical advice that has been tried and tested by the greatest, this book will allow you to revolutionize your daily life to become a Titan yourself.
Note: It is very difficult to summarise this book, because the interviews reveal an enormous quantity of interesting ideas, which are very specific and personal to each of the people interviewed. I have however managed to bring together a certain number of points to make a summary. Despite this, to really get the most out of this book, I highly advise reading it. Then you can fish out what can inspire you personally from among all these tips, advice, and experience.
Part 1 — How to get the most out of this book by Timothy Ferriss
1.1 — Read and reflect in a new state of mind
If you have a project that takes 10 years to achieve, ask yourself why you can’t do it in 6 months.
This is the question that the multi-billionaire Peter Thiel likes to ask himself and other people. Timothy Ferriss puts it in the following way:
What would you do to achieve your 10-year objectives within the next 6 months if there was a gun pointing at your head?
According to Timothy Ferriss, we have to get rid of the “normal” systems that we have put in place in order to answer this question. We have to eliminate all the social norms and rules that we impose upon our lives. In fact, it is truly essential to realize that we can define our own reality from the very start.
The author believes that reading “Tools of Titans” should be the opportunity to reflect upon a number of questions in this new state of mind. He adds:
The world is a goldmine; delve into the minds of other people to unearth hidden treasures. […] This book will offer you an entire arsenal. […] This book is an all-you-can-eat buffet.
To fully appreciate “Tools of Titans”, Timothy Ferriss invites us to skip any passages that do not spark our interest. He insists that the book should be an enjoyable read. He invites us to consider this book like “a guide to choose your own adventure”.
In fact, Timothy Ferriss has one objective: he wants the reader to like 50 %, love 25 % and never forget 10 % of the book.
1.2 — The two principles to keep in mind
In “Tools of Titans”, Timothy Ferriss wants to pass on the following two messages:
Success, whatever definition we give it, is possible if we adopt convictions and good habits that prove to work. According to Timothy Ferriss, there is a shared book of recipes and DNA that we can borrow.
The superheroes that you can think of (your idols, icons, titans, billionaires, etc.) are all imperfect beings who have turned their weaknesses into an advantage. The author says that we are all engaged in a battle but nobody knows it, and the heroes in this book are no different.
We don’t “succeed” because we have no weaknesses; we succeed because we find our strengths and we commit to developing our habits around these strengths.
1.3 — Three concepts that this book will help us to develop
Timothy Ferriss gives us three 3 key tools which, according to him, will open the door to everything else. He mentions an excerpt from the book “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse (recommended reading for many of the personalities interviewed). The protagonist, Siddhartha, is a monk who looks like a beggar and who has no possessions. When he is asked what he has learned and what he can give, he answers: “I can think, be patient and fast.”
So, says Timothy Ferriss, “Tools of Titans” will help us to develop these three concepts:
Think: know the right rules to make a decision and know the right questions to ask yourself and others.
Be patient: be capable of long-term planning. Show endurance and distribute your resources well.
Fast: be capable of resisting difficulty and disaster. Train to become resilient and develop tolerance to suffering.
Part 2 — Who are these “Titans” and what do they tell us?
2.1 — The three major groups of guests, as sorted by Timothy Ferriss
The chapters in the book “Tools of Titans” are inter-dependent, which means that reading the book is not necessarily linear.
The book is split into three main parts. These parts correspond to three “categories” into which the author has grouped his guests:
The Healthy: athletes, high-level sportsmen and women, explorers of the extreme
The Wealthy: billionaires, celebrities, successful entrepreneurs
The Wise (or Smart): artists, stars, teachers, producers, influencers who have created their own success
The author suggests the following in terms of the three categories:
Imagine the three parts like a tripod on which life is balanced. You need to have all three to guarantee success or lasting happiness.
Timothy Ferriss once again insists that none of the talented people he interviewed have “superpowers”. They have simply established rules that allow them to (slightly) deform reality. These “rules” represent the “tools” mentioned in the title. They are generally habits, often original habits, and deep thought processes:
these “tools” have a vast definition in the book. They can be habits, reading material, self-persuasion, food supplements, questions that come up regularly, and much more.
2.2 — The list of people interviewed by Timothy Ferriss
Below is the list of guests of Timothy Ferriss mentions in his book “Tools of Titans”. Each personality appears in the category that he or she represents.
Most of the personalities have more than one hat. Sometimes it is difficult to boil them down to just a few disciplines.
The healthy
Amelia Boone — top athlete (obstacle course)
Dr. Rhonda Perciavalle Patrick — doctor
Christopher Sommer — gymnastics coach
Dr. Dominic D’Agostino — lecturer in pharmacology and molecular physics, scientific researcher
Joe De Sena — extreme sportsman, CEO, entrepreneur
Wim Hof, the “Ice Man” — extreme sportsman (temperatures, altitudes)
Jason Nemer — high-level sportsman (acrobatics)
Dr. Peter Attia — surgeon, researcher, athlete
Pavel Tsatsouline — trainer in the special forces, entrepreneur
Laird Hamilton — professional surfer
Gabrielle Reece — high-level sportswoman (volley-ball), model
Brian MacKenzie — entrepreneur (sport)
Kelly Starrett — high-level athlete
Paul Levesque (Triple H) — wrestler, entrepreneur
Jane McGonigal — researcher, innovator
Adam Gazzaley — doctor in cognitive neuroscience, laboratory director, scientific advisor
Chade-Meng “Meng” Tan — engineer, trainer (full consciousness, emotional intelligence), best-selling author
The wealthy
Chris Sacca — investor
Marc Andreessen — entrepreneur
Arnold Schwarzenegger — bodybuilder, actor, politician
Derek Sivers — lecturer, entrepreneur, professional musician
Alexis Ohanian — entrepreneur, investor, advisor to start-ups
Matt Mullenweg — internet influencer, developer
Nicholas McCarthy — pianist
Tony Robbins — performance coach, essay writer, author in professional development
— performance coach, essay writer, author in professional development Morgan Spurlock — documentary filmmaker, director, producer
Reid Hoffman — entrepreneur, investor
Seth Godin — author of best-sellers
— author of best-sellers James Altucher — American capital-risk investor, entrepreneur and best selling author.
Shaun White — snowboarder and professional skater.
Chase Jarvis — CEO and photographer
Dan Carlin — podcaster and political commentator
Ramit Sethi — blogger and entrepreneur
Ed Catmull — entrepreneur, CEO, computer engineer
Tracy DiNunzio — entrepreneur
Chris Young — handyman, inventor, experimental chef, CEO
Daymond John — CEO, entrepreneur, author, TV personality
Luis von Ahn — computer professor, CEO
Ryan Holiday — marketing strategist, author
Kevin Rose — shareholder (start-ups)
Neil Strauss — writer, editor, journalist
Mike Shinoda — rapper, songwriter, synthesizer and rhythmic guitar musician, singer
Justin Boreta — artist (music)
Dr. Peter H. Diamandis — entrepreneur (field of space)
Sophia Amoruso — entrepreneur in distribution
B.J. Novak — actor, screenwriter, director, producer, author, entrepreneur
The wise
B.J. Miller — doctor in palliative care and consultant/expert (on the subject of end of life)
Maria Popova — author
Jocko Willink — US Navy SEAL officer
Sebastian Junger — author
Marc Goodman — advisor and police and technology agent (FBI, Interpol, Institute of Future Crimes)
Samy Kamkar — hacker
General Stanley McChrystal — 4 star general in the American army
Chris Fussell — US Navy SEAL officer
Shay Carl — internet personality and entrepreneur
Will MacAskill — lecturer
Kevin Costner — filmmaker
Sam Harris — philosopher, doctor in neuroscience, author
Caroline Paul — author and high-level athlete
Kevin Kelly — maverick
Whitney Cummings — comedian, actor, author, producer
Alain de Botton — philosopher
Tim Kreider — essayist, cartoonist
Cal Fussman — author, chronicler
Rick Rubin — music producer
Jack Dorsey — entrepreneur, CEO
Paulo Coelho — writer
Cheryl Strayed — author
Ed Cooke — CEO, a specialist in memory
Seth Rogen — actor, screenwriter, producer, director
Evan Goldberg — director, screenwriter, producer
Andrew Zimmern — TV personality, chef, writer, teacher
Rainn Wilson — actor
Naval Ravikant — CEO, entrepreneur, investor
Glenn Beck — internet personality and entrepreneur
Tara Brach — clinical psychologist, teacher of Buddhism
Sam Kass — chef, advisor in nutrition
Richard Betts — wine steward
Mike Birbiglia — comedian, screenwriter, actor, director
Malcolm Gladwell — best-selling author, podcaster
Stephan J. Dubner — author, journalist, radio and TV presenter
Josh Waitzkin — professional chess player
Brené Brown — professor and researcher in human science
Jon Favreau — actor, screenwriter, director, producer
Jamie Foxx — actor, musician, comedian
Sekou Andrews — poet, slammer, singer
2.3 — The questions that Timothy Ferriss asked the “Titans”
Timothy Ferriss has a list of questions that he likes to ask his guests without giving them time to prepare. The answers to all these questions is what we can find in “Tools of Titans”.
The most frequent questions are the following:
If you were sitting next to a Nobel prize-winner or a billionaire, what questions would you ask them?
If they only had five minutes to give you, how would you make the most of them?
According to you, who best embodies the word “success” and why?
Are you convinced of something that everyone else considers to be crazy?
What books do you like to give?
Which one is your favorite film or documentary?
The best investment under $100 that changed your life in the last 6 months?
What are your morning rituals? How do you spend the first 60 minutes of the day?
The obsessions do you analyze in the evening or at the weekend?
The subject would you like to tackle that is outside your area of expertise if you had to give a TED talk?
What is your best investment (time, money, effort, or other)?
Is there a maxim that governs your life or that you think of often?
The worst advice that you ever heard in your area of business?
What would you put on a poster?
Thr advice would you give your 20, 25 or 30-year-old self? What were you doing back then?
How did a failure set you on the path to success? What is your favorite failure?
Does anything strange or uncomfortable happen to you regularly?
Over the last few years, have you changed your mind about anything and why?
Is there something that you are convinced about, even if you have no proof?
2.4 — The books of the “Titans”
In his interviews, Timothy Ferriss asks his guests about what books they would recommend or give to someone. In fact, several of his guests gave him books as gifts. Other books also came up in their discussions.
Below is the list of the top 17 books — all were mentioned at least three times — by decreasing order of frequency:
“Tao Te King”, by Lao-Tseu (5 mentions) Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand (4 mentions) Sapiens: a brief history of humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari (4 mentions) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (4 mentions) The 4 Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss (4 mentions) The checklist manifesto by Atul Gawande (4 mentions) Dune by Frank Herbert (3 mentions) Influence: science and practice by Robert Cialdini (3 mentions) Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert (3 mentions) Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom (3 mentions) “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman (3 mentions) The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss (3 mentions) The Bible (3 mentions) The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz (3 mentions) The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (3 mentions) Watchmen by Alan Moore (3 mentions) Zero to One by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters (3 mentions)
Part 3 — The tips that Timothy Ferriss borrowed from the Titans
Borrow copiously, combine this with originality and create your own master plan.
3.1 — Eight recurrent forms of behavior among winners
Timothy Ferriss lists eight practices that he repeatedly found among the major personalities he interviewed.
Most of those interviewed:
Practice a form of full consciousness or meditation on a daily basis (more than 80%);
Never take breakfast or only eat a small portion (especially the men over 45);
Sleep on a cooling mattress topper;
Love books, among others: Sapiens, Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Influence and Man’s Search for Meaning:
Are in the habit of listening to a song on a loop in order to focus;
Have carried out some form of “speculative work” (completed a project in their spare time at their own expense before putting it to an eventual buyer);
Are convinced that “failure doesn’t last”;
Have succeeded in turning a “weakness” into a great advantage.
3.2 — Five tools for better and faster sleep
Among all the habits of the “Titans”, below are the ones that Timothy Ferriss adopted to help him to sleep better.
They form a ritual that you need to put into place before bed. It lasts between 1 hour and 90 minutes.
Perform some AcroYoga movements to stretch the spinal column;
Sleep on a cooling mattress topper. It must be thin and barely perceptible under the sheet. There should be water inside it at a precise temperature selected using a device located near the bed;
Drink cider vinegar with honey (add 1 tablespoon of honey to 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar mixed with 250 ml of water) or caramel herbal tea or herbal tea with Californian poppy seed extract;
Perform visual rewriting or play a game of Tetris for ten minutes or watch a short program on tv that puts you in a good mood;
Wear a sleep mask and earplugs or use a white noise therapeutic device.
3.3 — Five morning rituals that help you win the day
Timothy Ferriss was inspired by the “Titans” not only to implement his evening ritual, but also a morning ritual. Below are five things that he tries to do every morning to set his day on the right track to succeed. This morning routine takes between 1 hour and 90 minutes.
Timothy Ferriss explains:
You may think that these are just details, but remember that the details are what matters.
Make your bed (< 3 minutes)
Meditate (10 to 20 minutes)
At least 80 % of the personalities interviewed for “Tools of Titans” practice some form of daily meditation. Timothy Ferriss also reads a few pages from the Stoics, such as “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius.
Do 5 to 10 sets of exercises (< 1 minute)
Prepare and drink a “titanium tea” (2 to 3 minutes): the author recommends aged pu-erh black tea or green tea, turmeric and ginger shavings, and 1 or 2 tablespoons of coconut oil.
Write your morning journal (5 to 10 minutes): the morning pages are mainly to unblock a situation or resolve a problem (what should I do?); the journal is to prioritize and express recognition (what should I focus on and how should I do it?).
3.4 — Five steps for mind training
More than 80 % of the big talents that Timothy Ferriss met practice a form of meditation or full consciousness every day. It involves “cultivating a state of consciousness that helps you to be non-reactive”. This is the most common practice that can be noted among the “Titans”.
To get into the habit of meditation, Timothy Ferriss advises:
Using an application such as Headspace or Calm;
Listening to a guided meditation by Sam Harris, Tara Brach or Maria Popova;
Taking classes in transcendental meditation.
If you prefer to try meditation with a mantra without taking a class, try this. Sit and silently repeat a word of two syllables (Timothy Ferriss chose the word “nature”) for 10 to 20 minutes as soon as you wake up.
Try one or several of the exercises suggested by Chade-Meng Tan.
You need to practice meditation for at least 7 days for it to be effective. According to the Dalai Lama, you need to meditate for “approximately 50 hours” to get results. According to several studies, simply “sitting” for a cumulative period of 100 minutes is sufficient.
For Timothy Ferriss, meditating improves productivity and reduces stress:
When I meditate regularly, my reward is that I do 30 to 50% more with my day and feel 50% less stress.
If you encounter difficulties sticking with meditation, Timothy Ferriss proposes three tips that make it easy to do on a daily basis over the long term. These tips are in fact from Chade-Meng Tan, the man who introduced Full Consciousness to Google:
Find a companion;
Do less than you can;
Do not practice for too long, so it does not feel like an obligation;
Commit to just one conscious breath per day.
3.5 — Eight productivity tips
Timothy Ferriss confesses that he is “useless at efficiency”
So, he took some lessons from the “Titans” he interviewed to create an 8-step method. The goal is to optimize efficiency (= do things right):
Get up one hour before you sit down in front of a computer screen.
Make a cup of tea and sit down with a pen and a sheet of paper.
Write down three to five things (no more) that make you anxious or uncomfortable. These are the things that we put off day after day on the list of things to do. In general, the most painful task is also the most important.
For each point, ask yourself:
“If I only do this today, will I be satisfied with my day?”,
“And If I begin with this, does it minimize the importance of other tasks or facilitate performing them?”,
“And If I do this, will everything else be easier or meaningless?”
Only consider the points to which the answer was “yes” to at least one of these questions.
Devote two or three hours to just one of these tasks. Put the other urgent things that are less important to one side. You will get to them tomorrow.
If you get distracted or start procrastinating, do not let your thoughts wander. Focus on the one task ahead of you.
Finally, if despite your best efforts you feel that you are losing your footing in life, it is good to remember that this happens even to the best of the best:
Do not overestimate other people and do not underestimate yourself. You are better than you think. Above all, you are not alone in this.
3.6 — Eight tactics for dealing with haters
Life is a combat sport, especially on the Internet. If you decide to climb into the arena, be prepared to get a bloody nose and scratches.
Over the course of his meetings with the “Titans”, Timothy Ferriss gathered their ideas about how to deal with haters.
Here they are:
It doesn’t matter how many people do not understand us. What counts is how many people understand us.
10% of people always find a way to feel like they are being targeted. We need to be conscious of this and take it on board in our calculations.
When you face the critics, it is important to be in control of yourself. The best thing is to cut off their oxygen, in other words, to ignore them. Tim Ferriss explains that in some cases, although they are rare, it can be useful to throw some oil on the fire, to promote them.
If you do confront them, do not be apologetic.
It is impossible to make somebody who has launched an unreasonable attack see reason.
Finally, Timothy Ferriss shares three other thoughts using three quotations:
“Wanting to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity. You’ll avoid the tough decisions and confronting the people who need to be confronted.” Colin Powell
“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.” Epictetus
“Living well is the best revenge.” George Herbert
3.7 — Keep a journal
History is teeming with examples of people, whether successful or not, who kept a journal. From Marcus Aurelius to Benjamin Franklin, from Mark Twain to George Lucas.
Timothy Ferriss tells us that he writes in a journal every morning. He does not keep the journal to be “productive”, nor is it to jot down big ideas or prose to publish later. No, the pages are just for him.
The morning pages are, as Julia Cameron said, “spiritual windscreen wipers”. It is the most profitable form of therapy I know. She adds: Once you have jotted down all these muddy, infuriating, confusing thoughts [vague worries, irritations, concerns] down on paper, you can face the day under better circumstances.
As Timothy Ferriss learned, it is not about writing well, it is about considering writing to be a tool. He finds that there are big benefits in writing things down, even if nobody is ever going to read them again. In fact, the morning pages are not about solving problems but about getting them out of our heads. Otherwise, they turn on a loop all day like bullets ricocheting around our skull.”
In other words, the process [of writing] is more important than the result.
To end this topic, Timothy Ferriss writes:
Will all this grumbling and complaining on paper for five minutes every morning change your life? As strange as it may seem, I think that the answer is yes.
Part 4 — The best tools we can learn from the “Titans”
I have mentioned here some of the tools that we can take from the mentors in “Tools of Titans.” The pages of the book are brimming with ideas waiting to be discovered and put into practice to develop personally and professionally. The author highlights lots of tips and concepts, such as the ice bath or the slow carb diet and nutritional ketosis. You could also choose two people a day at random and wish them happiness or make your emails more human, etc.
However, the strategies described below are the ones that Timothy Ferriss took one step further.
4.1 — The law of categories
Lots of computer companies have become rich and famous by following a very simple principle:
If you cannot be number one in a category, create a new category where you will be number one.
That is why, when you launch a new product, the first question to ask is not: “How is this new product better than the competition?”. The real question is: “First in what?”, or in other words: “In what category will this new product be number one?”
The author also stresses that if we are number one in a category, we need to promote that category because then there will be no competition.
4.2 — The strategy of the 1,000 True Fans
“Success” is not necessarily complicated. Simply begin by making 1,000 people really happy.” “1,000 true fans”, by Kevin Kelly
1,000 fans is feasible!
By definition, a true fan is an unconditional who buys everything you bring out. That is why there are two criteria to fulfill for this strategy:
First of all, create enough, each year, to be able to make an average profit of $100 per true fan. It is always easier and more beneficial to offer more to the customers you already have than to find new fans.
Then, maintain a direct relationship with your fans. In other words, when you make a sale, they must pay you directly.
Having 1,000 customers (more or less, it is a guideline that can be adapted on a case by case basis) is an easy to achieve goal:
1,000 fans is feasible! You could even manage to remember 1,000 names. If you win over one true fan per day, it will only take you a few years to get 1,000. Satisfying a true fan is both enjoyable and motivating. Artists can remain faithful to themselves and can focus more on the original side of their work, the qualities that fans appreciate.
Your fans: the biggest marketing force
By focusing on the unconditional in priority, their enthusiasm can increase our regular clientele. True fans are not our only direct source of income. They are also our strongest marketing force for our ordinary customers.
The principle of the “long tail”
The 1,000 fans strategy meets what Chris Anderson called “the long tail”. He found that the total sales of all products which had the poorest sales could match and sometimes exceed the sales of the products which sold best. Basically, the sales volume of the “tail” was identical to that of the “head”.
Crowdfunding
This is one of the many innovations that work for creatives because it is a win-win situation.
There are around 2,000 crowdfunding platforms in the world and many of them specialize. The most well-known crowdfunding platform is Kickstarter. When you consider that the average number of contributors to the success of a Kickstarter project is 290 (therefore much less than 1,000), it is very wise, as you have 1,000 diehard fans, to launch a crowdfunding campaign. By definition, a true fan will become a Kickstarter contributor.
4.3 — The Dickens process
The Dickens process is so-called because it relates to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. In the Dickens process, we are led to examine our strong convictions (two or three convictions that are holding us back) in the past, present, and future. After feeling the pain of the convictions that hold us back, the idea is to create two or three replacement convictions to move forward.
4.4 — Dramatise fear in 4 steps
Here Timothy Ferriss promises an antidote to anyone anxious at the idea of making the big leap or anyone who keeps putting things off for fear of the unknown.
This antidote involves the following 4 steps, namely:
Define the worst thing that can happen:
Imagine your worst nightmare. Imagine the worst thing that could happen if you do what you intend to do, and then ask:
Will it be the end of my life?
What will be the permanent impact, if the worst happens, on a scale of 1 to 10?
What measures can I take to repair the damage or set things right, even on a temporary basis?
Assess all the probabilities:
What are the results or benefits, both temporary and permanent, of the most likely scenarios?
Which are the most probable or positive results, whether inside us (self-confidence, self-esteem, etc.) or outside us?
What would be the impact of these likely results on a scale of 1 to 10?
How much is the probability of getting the correct result?
Have less intelligent people tried this already and succeeded?
If I got fired today, what would I do to get by financially?
If I leave my job to take a new path, how could I pick up the thread of my career if this became necessary?
What do we put off out of fear?
Accept the worst-case scenarios and answer the following questions:
What does it cost me financially, emotionally, and physically to procrastinate?
If I do not do what I want (inaction), where will I be in 1 year, in 5 years, in 10 years? What will it feel like if I let 10 years go by allowing circumstances to decide my fate and doing something that does not let me thrive?
What am I waiting for? If you have a hard time answering that question without bringing up the phrase “It’s not a good time”, the answer is obvious. You are afraid, like everyone else.
Act:
Finally, you need to evaluate the cost of inaction, to get it into your head that most of these wrong steps are unlikely, and no doubt repairable. Get into the essential habit of successful people and TAKE ACTION!
4.5 — Test the ‘impossible’ with 17 life-changing questions
What if I did the opposite for 48 hours?
What do I spend a ridiculous amount of money on? How do I scratch that itch?
What would I do/have/be if I had 10 million dollars? How much money is my target monthly income?
What is the worst that can happen? Could I turn back?
If I only worked 2 hours a week, what would be my priorities?
What if I let my staff take decisions by themselves if it is about $100? $500? $1,000?
What is the least overloaded network?
And what if I couldn’t make a pitch for my product?
And what if I created my own MBA in the real world?
Do I always have to fall on my feet?
What if I can only solve a problem by subtracting?
What can I put into place to be able to disappear for 4 to 8 weeks without telephone or email?
Do I hunt antelope or field mouse?
Is it possible that everything will turn out all right?
How would things be if they were easy?
How can I “waste” money to improve my quality of life?
No rush, no breaks.
4.6 — On the usefulness of “de-loading”
For Timothy Ferriss, de-loading periods must be planned and defended even more strongly than any job commitment. According to him, de-loading can strengthen and guide your work, but this does not work both ways.
You must create your own “quiet time”. Nobody is going to give it to you. It is the only way to move forward with the current without getting exhausted.
4.7 — The jar of awesome
Look for the positive. Train yourself to see the bright side of things and you will see them more often.
Put a Jar of Awesome label on a jar. The author invites us to write down anything nice that happens during the day, something exciting or that makes us happy. Put the paper in the jar.
The jar of awesome keeps a record of all the nice things that genuinely happened. We tend to forget them when we are feeling down or have a case of the blues.
4.8 — Films, documentaries and series to watch
Timothy Ferriss compiles a long list of documentaries and series recommended during his discussions with the “Titans”.
He also mentions the 25 most popular episodes of the Tim Ferriss Show.
Book critique of “Tools of Titans” by Timothy Ferriss
A goldmine of information
“Tools of Titans” is a veritable gold mine if you want to make a change in your life!
Among all the books on personal development, I find it special because it brings together an enormous amount of information. That is why you should not really read it straight through, but consult it regularly, opening random pages.
A very comprehensive book
The book is a compilation of interviews conducted by Tim Ferriss which:
Tackle many areas: personal development, health, starting a business, investments, etc.
Bring together the visions of extremely diverse and inspiring profiles. It is interesting but also rare to be able to get an insight into the minds of so many successful people in a single book. In the end, we realise that their strength lies in general in one little detail, but a detail that changes everything. The detail that will really make the difference: a habit, a way of life, a state of mind.
Is full of inspiring quotes, websites, and references of all kinds that we can use to take things further.
You may be interested to know that I was lucky enough to write the preface to “Les outils des géants”, the French translation of the book. The link is to my article about that.
It goes without saying that I highly recommend this book!
Strong Points:
The originality and the relevance of the questions that the author asks his guests. The idea, throughout the book, that it is vital to change your mindset to succeed.
The depth, the diversity and the relevance of the information;
Discovering inspiring personalities and the rare opportunity to benefit from the vision of so many incredibly successful individuals from various fields in a single book;
Weak point:
The structure of the book sometimes lacks coherence and we cannot always tell whether the author is speaking or whether it is one of his guests.
My rating :
Have you read “Tools of Titans”? How do you rate it?
Read more reviews on Amazon about “Tools of Titans”
Buy on Amazon “Tools of Titans” | https://medium.com/@olivierrolanden/book-review-tools-of-titans-the-tactics-routines-and-habits-of-billionaires-icons-and-813bad79e96e | ['Olivier Roland'] | 2021-09-07 15:01:20.653000+00:00 | ['Timothy Ferriss', 'Tools Of Titans', 'Habits', 'Book Review', 'Routine'] |
The key to managing operational change in marketing | “Most people don’t like change,” according to leadership guru John Maxwell. “They revolt against it unless they can clearly see the advantage it brings”.
“For that reason, when good leaders prepare to take action or make changes, they take people through a process to get them ready for it.”
Change is a constant in marketing today, according to Norma Abeyasekera, co-founder and principal of transformation consultancy Abey & Abey Consulting, who quoted Maxwell in a presentation about managing operational transformation in marketing at Simple’s panel discussion, “Delivering Value in a Disrupted Marketing World”.
She warned that organisations need to have a roadmap for managing that change, and for helping their community to accept, understand and adapt to the new environment.
“Technology is driving so much [change] inside our organisations, in particular around the way we can be efficient and effective,” Ms Abeyasekera said.
But she said organisations needed to be sure they were undergoing change for the right reasons, and then set realistic goals with the affected community for implementation and management of that change.
“We see a lot of people that are changing for the sake of changing, rather than changing in accordance with the need,” Ms Abeyasekera said.
In complex marketing organisations, she said, moves to centralise services or consolidate decentralised marketing teams into one shared service “creates a lot of anxiety”.
“We’re trying to standardise and simplify [a service],” she said.
“I liken it to moving house. It’s an incredibly stressful thing to do. What do you keep? What do you get rid of? This is really difficult for a lot of people.”
“It’s very much about taking people through a process,” Ms Abeyasekera said.
“You’re going to get resistance — that’s just a given. It’s how we manage that as we move along the delivery.”
She said organisations who were managing operational and transformational change often failed to communicate the benefits and advantages of making the change, failed to share the strategy, and didn’t communicate the roadmap — if they had one.
“I find it fascinating when I go into organisations and there is no plan,” Ms Abeyasekera said.
She said organisations shouldn’t treat organisational change management like a game of chess, in which the strategy was kept quiet.
“We really do need to share that information,” Ms Abeyasekera said. “It’s different to chess. We bring the community along with us.”
She said a roadmap for change should “clearly articulate the journey”.
“This is the part where you’re managing the expectations of your community. They need to understand what will they get from you… [at what juncture of the journey].”
“If you don’t stick to this roadmap that’s the area that they will hold you to account.”
Ms Abeyasekera said aligning “systems, structures and technology” with your roadmap of objectives were essential factors for managing operational transformations well in marketing.
“You need to make sure people are really across what is possible,” she said. | https://medium.com/@powerofsimple/the-key-to-managing-operational-change-in-marketing-f255aa79d05f | ['Simple Marketing Hub'] | 2020-12-11 02:16:26.134000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Mrm', 'Transformational Change', 'Marketing Technology', 'Change Management'] |
BitCoin’s Gone Green. BitCoin will be the most… | BitCoin’s Gone Green
Dedicated to:
Jerry Chan, CPO of TAAL, who’s knowledge of BitCoin Node interworkings is only eclipsed by his modesty (and who contributed a nifty idea of saving a lil’ bit of power via NONCE-reuse as well as better explaining BitCoin Network relay fees)
You’ve seen the complaints and criticisms:
“generating Bitcoin requires a truly staggering amount of energy. The electricity used in a single Bitcoin transaction, for instance, could power a house for a month.” — Adam Jezard, World Economic Forum “it’s impossible for 98 percent of the devices during their lifetime to make the calculation that actually results in a reward. So, the rest are just running pointlessly for a few years, using up energy, and producing heat, and then they will just get trashed because they can’t be repurposed. It’s insane.” — Alex DeVries, Blockchain ‘expert’ “the amount of energy needed to run the Bitcoin network annually has surged to a record-breaking 77.78 terawatt-hours. Roughly the same as the entire electrical consumption of the nation of Chile” — Digiconmist
These statements are both true and false, depending on the property values you assign to two seperate aspects of BitCoin:
Age: Young “baby” BitCoin (2020) is much different from older BitCoin at scale (2030, 2040, beyond), and this article’s purpose is to spend time on the one we talk about less: BitCoin at scale, or old-man BitCoin Fork: The answer on power consumption is different for each fork of bitcoin, which today is mainly comprised of (in order of market cap) btc (“bitCorn”[0]), bch (“abc”), and BitCoin (original protocol, or BSV).
BitCoin will be the most power-efficient computation AND payment network in the world — bar none.
BitCoin is truly an intricately-engineered information commodity, and this article aims to show you just one aspect of this beauty — the part of it’s design which will conserve energy. While explaining BitCoin’s masterful qualities which allow it to save energy, this article will shed a little more light on why today’s highly-speculative “digital gold” punters (regardless of their namebrand popularity) have missed the mark by choosing the wrong bitcoin fork. If you read “3 Wrights don’t make a Wrong” [1] you’ll understand this theme: how so many saavy well-known successful folks can be so wrong for so long.
“The power of BitCoin is a curious thing; make segwit fork weep, make a visionary fork sing. Remove some OP_CODES, kill the fruit of the loin; more than a hash-rate, that’s the power of BitCoin.” — Huey Lewis & the News (Power of Love)
“Doc” is also a nickname Ken Shishido refers to Dr. Craig Wright — a theme we’ve seen before in London. The “flux capacitor” in BitCoin is transaction-verification; the DeLorean’s flaming tire-tracks is just the “PROOF of work”
It’s worth nothing a system which creates the most efficient worldwide computing network — for information, art, and progress — is a gift Satoshi Nakamoto gave us all back in 2009. It’s about time we understand BitCoin’s elegance with respect to conserving valuable energy.
For awhile Americans couldn’t “traverse the plains like a man” (see Aaron Freeman video below), using dirt roads & mountain passes, then railroads added orders of magnitude improvement in transportational efficiency with speed security and tunnelling thru mountains. This historical precedent is much like what the BitCoin Network will do for our current world wide web (WWW) internet network.
Before we talk about how BitCoin saves energy, like railroads saved energy vs the horse-and-buggy wagon trains of Lewis & Clark, it’s best we start by narrowing our focus via process of elimination. First we’ll dismiss “cryptocurrencies” which will NOT save any energy and are inefficient NETWORKS (networks is a distinct sub-topic of technology vs CODE) as they are scaled. In other words, we’ll start with “Fork” first, and then we’ll analyze the only scalable fork of BitCoin to discuss why “Age-ism” has blinded the “bitcoin wastes energy” critics.
Finally, we’ll describe BitCoin’s “Proof-of-Work” in the most clear way possible.
The mission of this article is two-fold:
Show the reader how BitCoin Satoshi Vision will be the most energy-efficient computation network ever. Leave you with unparalleled understanding of “Proof of Work” as it pertains to BitCoin. After reading this article you’ll never think of “PetaHashing”, “Hashpower”, or “POW” the same way again, and if you currently think of btc as bitcoin, you’ll begin to understand why it has no hope of such a vaunted title.
BitCoin SV is a baby, but that doesn’t mean we can’t analyze it’s young knowable traits to predict an accurate fortelling of it’s energy efficiency as an older man. The kid’s future is bright!
btc “POW” [2] is a waste of energy
btc (otherwise known as “bitCorn”[0] — the one breaching $20,000 per bitcoin on “digital gold” dreams) does not have a proof-of-work because ASIC-hashing isn’t work. Work’s definition even mentions what outcome from the energy spent is required… “USEFUL” [1]. Let’s say that again, ASICs hashing, despite the “proof of work” moniker, isn’t work. This is actually the main point of this entire article, but we’ll get to that in finer detail later.
btc still doesn’t play its POW guitar like a man — but BSV does with both big blocks AND scale. Playing amazing guitar is the work, the proof is selling sold-out concert seats.
btc’s mistakes (plural) began way back in 2010 when Satoshi Nakamoto made what ended up being a poor choice of steward when handing over the code repository “keys” of BitCoin to Gavin Andreson. You can sympathize with the man, he was under the wrong impressions that:
Everyone understood his vision His protocol would not be changed.
When the Wright brothers, or Karl Benz, or Thomas Edison revealed their WORKING inventions to the world, they could be taken apart and examined to understand the specific functions each part had in the whole. This is MUCH easier in physical inventions of things like phonographs, moving picture projectors, and even invisible electricty (especially Edison’s DC power). But the most amazing parts of Satoshi’s invention weren’t the code or the cryptology or the math — it was the incentive system, the understanding of networking topography, and most of all the vision for how his system would GROW. Satoshi’s vision was akin to God creating DNA for a species before ever SEEING the adult version of the species! The point here is, sometimes a man is so many steps ahead of the herd in his thinking that he doesn’t realize how hard it is for people to catch up without explaining everything. He explained a little bit for sure, but not enough. So a coders-only mono-culture took over a contraption that required more than just keen coding knowledge. You might be a whiz with internal combustion engines, but that doesn’t mean you know how to fly the airplane it propels — or even understand how the flight controls work!
Gavin, under some not-so-innocent pressure from early bitcoiners with hidden agendas, subsequently was duped into giving copies of repository keys to Gregory Maxwell and other members of “Core” who then quickly rigged bitcoin for the sole purpose of increasing it’s price. This “digital gold” narrative isn’t surprising; rigging an entity for near-term price increase actually happens often in the stock world! It’s why GE and GM are drains on citizen-taxpayers via To-Big-To-Fail (2B2F) bailouts. [2]
Jack Welch and several GM CEOs ran those great brands (ie: GE was Thomas Edison’s baby — a guy in the running for America’s greatest man) into the ground in order to pad their own pockets in the NEAR term, instead of thinking about the long term. Similarly, the $25,000 price of bitcoin is unfortunately a perfect indicator of how bitcoin is being run into the ground, just as AOL’s record-breaking acquisition by giant Time Warner in 2000 was a perfect indicator for why “walled garden” internet protocols would not reign, and the real winner was going to be Tim Berners-Lee’s world-wide-web (WWW) internet protocol born in 1990. Notice the similarity of the timeline as well! Big Wall Street and corporate bigwigs bet on AOL, the wrong horse, and the peak of that mal-investment curve occured just as a still young 10-year-old WWW was about “run the table” on internet protocols.
In 1994, Prodigy, CompuServe, and AOL were a big deal, and AOL emerged the winner of that group of losers by 2000. Then the worldwide web (WWW) took over for good. AOL’s meteoric rise and fall is great historical precedent for the mistakes of btc’s core team who mis-interpreted the 1990 protocol in the same way “Core” misinterpreted Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2009 protocol. Voila! Currently it’s 10 years after the invention of the protocol (2009–2020) and the same thing is about to occur where all the Wall Street and Silicon Valley glitterati are missing the REAL BitCoin TRAIN — AGAIN. Ain’t historical precedent fun?
https://sym.re/Gd9JA2o (read for more fun historical precedent going back even further than AOL+Time Warner)
The “Corn” team removed the functionality of the scripting language (akin to removing the wings from the plane), solidfied the 1 MB block limit, then began taking away signatures (SEGWIT) and setting up virtual money-laundering machines with “Lightning Network”. They created a rocket which could soar, but couldn’t land the people riding it safely.
bitCORN removed the scripting language functionality from bitcoin- similar to removing the wings and landing gear from an airplane. The jet engines can take you up into the heavens, but it’s the downswings when we find out what an asset is REALLY worth.
btc is a one-trick pony, all it does is run ASICs competitions in which Miners fight for the ever-halvening subsidies. 50, 25, 12.5, 6.25. These are the block subsidies which took approximately 12 years to get to the 6.25 point. There’s only three “outs” for btc miners to continue to process transactions profitably as time goes by:
the price of btc must double before or immediately after the next halvening drops the subsidy. A miner with a fixed amount of ASICs miners burning $125,000 of energy a month will be break-even at btc price = $10,000 and block subsidy = 12.5, winning 1 block per month. After the halvening, the miner will have a negative 50% profit margin, as the payout will be 6.25 x $10,000 = $62,500 — not enough to cover his $125,000 energy cost. BUT, if btc’s price doubles to $20,000, the ponzi scheme can continue! btc’s mining fees could make up for 100% of the lost subsidy from the halvening. In our example above, and using 1 MB blocks at about 7 transaction per second (7 txns/sec * 60 sec/min * 10 min = 420 transactions per block), if mining fees were $148 per transaction then btc price could remain at $10,000 & the miner will be fine! This is considered a “feature” of btc — “digital gold” but only for rich people who can afford massive fees! These exhorbitant fees would need to climb again each halvening: $300, $600, $1,200 per transaction as subsidy reduces to 3, 1.5, and lower! The final solution is the most energy efficient: let everyone throw half of their energy-burning ASICs mining rigs in the trash! The puzzle difficulty will adjust, and miners would actually reduce their energy consumption in our example from $125,000 to $62,500 per month to maintain profitability consistency. Who wants to throw their capital into the volcano first?
ASIC miners not only waste energy, but then they are WASTED when disposed; Gordon Moore planned for disposable chips but after 18 months??
The btc core team have embraded 1 and 2 above, as 3 seems a bit silly for anyone investing capital. So lets review the logical outcomes for each of their “solutions”:
Every halvening, btc will need to double in price. $20,000 is good for 6.25 subsidy, then $40,000 at 3.125, $80,000 at 1.50625, $160,000 at 0.753125, $320,000 at 0.35250625, $640,000 at 0.1526…., $1.2mm at 0.075…, $2.4mm at 0.03525…, $4.8mm at 0.0152….. At $4.8mm btc price we’re at $100 trillion (US monetary base is only $5 trillion). Eventually this number gets absurd, and miners will be forced to adopt one of the other choices Forever-doubling per-transaction fees is even more absurd, but this choice is exactly the one btc core team would have you believe. What they’ll allude is that “digital gold” will eventually just become tradable between nations for very large sums, thus these nations will have no problem paying $10,000 and higher per transaction for a simple movement of 200 Bytes which costs a computer a tiny tiny fraction of a penny to transmit and recieve. Remember, less participants, less transactions, and less transactions means an even HIGHER fee is needed! Core-lovers really don’t like to do math or think too far into the future. DIGITAL GOLD NUMBER GO UP SOON! All roads lead to just shutting down unprofitable ASICs mining rigs, when you examine the options above. This would work, and price could stabilize. There’s just ONE big problem with this solution, what happens when btc price takes a swing downward similar to what oil did in March (negative $40 per barrel in West Texas) or gold did from 1980 to 2001 ($800 to $200)?
Oil can run cars and provide heat, and gold can be used as excellent circuits, non-oxidizing artwork, bigger wedding rings, or anti-bacterial paint. What do you do with cheap btc to eat up some supply and make the price stop dropping once a price drop occurs? Please watch this video on this very topic: https://streamanity.com/video/E0IXSKs2hrUK
To evaluate energy conservation in btc is easy tho, all energy goes to ASICs hashing which is solving a puzzle with no value to society. Regardless of how btc solves its halvening problem, it is ALWAYS just burning energy doing a pointless task. Think about ASICs hashing when blocks are stuck at 7 txns/second (~0.5% of average Visa levels) which a single personal computer can handle easily and the mining subsidy is 0.001 bitcoins per block? What is the energy getting the miner at that point? It’s not a “proof of work” for the newly minted coinbase coins, because there just aren’t much of those. The ASICs aren’t processing transactions, because just ONE of them could handle the whole network. The energy is COMPLETELY WASTED no matter how you think about it.
Ethereum cares only about how much shit you have stacked, not how much shit you’re going to compost in the future!
ethereum 2.0’s “POS” will prevent the ether network from scaling
ONE of the flaws in proof-of-stake [POS] cryptocurrencies is its inability to scale. Scale requires investment in networking equipment which can process transactions. No one just DONATES equipment while not getting paid for it proportionally to the transaction expense! VISA and Mastercard both invest billions in processing-machines, to handle all the traffic on their payment network; but, they are paid PER transaction to ensure all runs smoothly. However, this natural incentive for Visa/MC doesn’t exist for the largest block-reward earner on Ethereum, due to the very definition of Proof-of-Stake! The spoils of ethereum’s inflationary coin payouts go to the guy who already owns the most, not the guy who processes the most transactions correctly!
Visa’s NET “property & equiptment” investment is almost $3 billion in 2020; how much will the biggest POS ethereum processor spend on processing equipment?
Consider a hypothetical example involving Visa. Instead of investing in their own network equipment to make sure your Xmas presents arrive securely and on time before the holidays, Visa instead pays TWO third-party suppliers to do transaction processing FOR them. They choose to outsource to EtherFat Processing LLC (EFPL) and NoEtherFastTxn Inc (NEFTI). Instead of Visa paying each based on how fast, cheap and secure a company processes Black Friday transactions, they pay based on which company has more dollars in the bank.
EtherFat has $9.999 billion in the bank, and NEFTI has $1 million in the bank. SELLC is a very responsible forward-looking Node who prepares well for the Xmas transactional rush, so it’s CEO spent $9.999 billion on processing equipment to be able to handle 80,000 transactions per second. Meanwhile, EFP “prepared” for the holiday rush by spending $1 million on some Rasberry Pis which can handle 50 transaction per second. NEFTI will be able to process all the transactions no problem, but EFPL will be hamstrung and begin raising prices on transaction fees not because they aren’t making tons of money, but because they will be incentivized to LOWER the number of transactions on the network so their tiny Raspberry hobby-computers can handle it.
If only the great coder-geniuses of Ethereum figure out how to route ALL transactions above 50/second to NEFTI, Xmas will be fine this year! But that’s now how POS works!
Proof of Stake pays the processor based on what’s in the DOLLAR bank, not in the SERVER bank. So Vitalie Byutes routes all the traffic to the responsible poor node who does all the work, and then routes all the fee-rewards to the rich node who’s loafing on the sideline while counting his ethereum HODL-coins [2]!
One guy has stacked sats; the other guy has stacked transaction processing machines
There’s no real reason to go any further with Ethereum, because even when they were Proof-of-Stake they proved many times over from 2016–2020 that scale was not occuring. In Physics there’s theoretical and experimental, and experimental ALWAYS trumps theoretical. We’ll leave it to the reader (or the comments) to collect all the mishaps in Ethereum’s ignominious history of not being able to scale.
There’s simply not time to go thru the thousands of forks and/or copycats original BitCoin; the main POW and POS cryptocurrencies covered above will be sufficient. The boring part of our article is covered, it’s time to inspect the DNA of original BitCoin — BitCoin Satoshi Vision — to see if it will indeed be the most energy-efficient computer network ever built!?
Satoshi Nakamoto set the BitCoin DNA (protocol), but the organism which is the BitCoin NETWORK builds itself according to input from the surrounding environment. Satoshi knows not exactly what will be built finally, but has a better idea than anyone for what qualities it might have.
A whole season championship won every 10 minutes
Crash and burn. All the stars explode tonight. How’d you get so desperate? How’d you stay alive? Oh, come on be alive again; don’t lay down and die. Oh baby drive away, to Malibu — Hole (Courtney Cobain)
It was the biggest day I’d ever seen; the east coast had its nor’easters with all it’s chop and some rare clean big days after those storms, but California-Pacific waves had a LOT more wieght to them for the same height. A 2 foot high wave in Ocean City, Maryland, Manasquan Jetty, or even way “out east” on Long Island at Ditch Plains wasn’t enough to propel a grown man down the beach on even a 9 foot longboard. But a 2 footer in front of the Surfer Motor Lodge in Pacific Beach, if mishandled, could break your neck in the shallow water if you weren’t aware of the extra UMPHH it had. But this was no 2 foot day, it was “8 to 10” at the surf report. On a point break like Malibu, 8–10 feet is actually handlable. You can get outside by staying way left of the incoming sets, and then later traverse northwards into the drop zone. But Malibu peer is a point break, and I was looking at a beach break with waves everywhere. There was no easy avenue to get out to a safer deeper area beyond the break of the incoming sets — you had to WORK for it. I was still a novice surfer in the fall of 1994, but I was also 23 years old in peak shape. Swimming & crew were my main sports growing up, and I had some experience rowing surf boats in New Jersey, and this made me highly overconfident in the water. I was ignorant.
In surfing, rides are the block rewards, and paddling is your capital investment.
So young, strong and overconfident back then, I didn’t even stop to consider that paddling a 9'10" longboard into 8–10 feet of OCEAN break was a tall task. I just jumped in and aimed straight out. 15 long minutes later, I’d gained about 6 yards. 30 minutes later, I had finally made it out beyond the constant break of whitewater, and only because I wasn’t taking no for an answer. I screamed at the waves, never stopped paddling, and used every trick I’d learned reading old-school surfing books from the 50s and 60s in the local library. Failed duck dives (on a long board? yeah right!), roll-overs, and I even tried the “stand up ride-over” method I noticed Hynson and August used in Endless Summer (at Ins & Outs). I only remember two things from that day.
I almost drowned on the first wave I took. I was exhausted and didn’t respect it, so after finally getting out there, took the first sexy 8 foot wave and was held under longer than ever in my life. I vividly remember giving up trying to get to the surface and breathing in anyway. I sucked in foam luckily, instead of water, which is probably the only reason I didn’t die. After spending another 30 minutes getting back out (yep, so young and ignorant, I didn’t even respect the conditions were far above my abilities) against never-ending set waves, I saw a lull behind me. For about 5 minutes the water between me (outside in the drop zone, exhausted) and the beach was completely placid — you could skip a stone a dozen times without hitting a ripple. What the hell was that I thought?
Hop over this last wall of whitewater, bc behind it is a “lull in the action”, a doldrum which allows old guys to conserve energy.
Over the next several years or so, I noticed this “break in the action” phenomena over and over again, and one day in my late thirties when tired and out of shape, I had no choice but to use my WIT against the ocean to get “outside”. By then I was a decent surfer who’d handled 15–18' California waves (which means like 6 to 10 feet in Hawaii!), with lots of wave-watching experience. So like any experienced surfer, I waxed my board with my eyes open looking for that break while I watched a young 23 year old use muscle and determination to battle countless walls of whitewater. I only smiled wisely, examining youth and ignorance, and then I saw the break in the action. I wasted no time, going into full sprint mode, paddling crisply thru flat water at a nice clip. In 2 minutes I was outside, sitting on my board, a bit winded but not exhausted and sapped. the 23 year old beat me to the drop zone by maybe a few seconds. While he took a quick breather, I was on the first wave. Mind over muscle; experience over a wealth of health.
Wisdom is an asset in surfing. After the learning experience described above, I tended to use probability, topograpy, game-theory, and sociology in the water at Malibu on crowded days. At one point my surfing was almost auto-pilot — I didn’t think I just reacted to every person, wave, and current around me. You’d have to pay me good money to reveal the secrets of how to get a wave at the “Bu” — it took 2 years of constant attention and failure to learn tiny little tricks — in surfing we call it “getting a break wired”. Before I moved back to the east coast from Pacific Palisades California, I could net a wave every 10 or 15 minutes at the Bu with 80 people in the water on a Saturday with Pamela Anderson on the beach watching her teenage son in the water without even cracking the 50th percentile in paddling speed. These are surf allegories to highlight how the age of BitCoin Node Network changes it’s behavior.
Pretty normal day at the ‘Bu. This is the first wave of a set & the smart old guy on the right goes right past this wave AND the next one to get wave #3. Here we see a level of competition similar to BitCoin Nodes fighting for a big block of public transactions!
BitCoin right now is just a baby. It only seems old in 2020 because BitCoin was born in 2009. But realistically BitCoin kinda drowned young in 2011 or so, and was revived from a coma in late 2018 by Calvin & Craig as BitCoin Satoshi Vision. That repair-work is still ongoing as we wait for Chronicle to solidify the protocol once and for all, but we’re about to take the diapers off as Nodes shift from fighting for 6.25 or 3.125 bitcoin block subsidies to 0.2 satoshis per Byte transaction fees. You see, BSV isn’t going to need the price to go up, or fee prices to climb, or turn off servers to save energy. BSV is built on BIG BLOCKS, the bigger they are, the more money the block-producer earns.
The energy cost of competing is paid for by SCALE, and scale makes the physical network bigger by increasing the annual block reward pool. While the halvenings take away the block subsidy, bigger blocks increase the amount of revenues one can win inside 10 minutes, or 1 year. Blocks are the same in number every year, governed to be 10 minutes apart; but, there’s nothing in the protocol which says they can’t get amass more and more transactions which increase the total fees per block. Forget “Moore’s Law”, Gordon Moore’s TRUE genius was realizing that Intel could lower price and sell more chips at small margin but increase the market for chips by making personal computers cheaper! He wielded this little bit of wisdom like a club over his competitors in the early days of CPUs. The 8086 and other early Intel CPUs weren’t the best architecture — the architecture was “good enough” and instead Intel focused on lowering price and winning via SCALE!
BitCoin Nodes are like young surfers now, relying on all muscle and ignorant grit; but, as they gain experience, and overcome a few near-death experiences, they’ll accumulate little “tricks” to exploit. Energy-saving tricks!
ASICs mining is ignorant, it’s just a matter of money and maybe getting a good price on energy costs. Transaction processing is hard, it has complex nuances — customers for data transactions and microtransactions will have specific needs based on their business. Some Node customers need speed, some will need precise time-stamping, and still others will need cheap prices. Depending on what happens with battery technology and renewables innovation, electricity/energy costs may not even remain the dominant concern in Node profitability. Just like the young surfer no matter how strong cannot possibly see all the conservation tricks, the current subsidy-centric bitcoin Nodes cannot see what they will need to win blocks as the contest shifts from a contest of strength to one of guile. What we can bet on with certainty, is that running a contest every 10 minutes ensures that all Node players will use every trick they can conjure to lower energy costs. This is the incentive system Satoshi gave us with his protocol; forget the code or r-puzzles, built-in incentives are the sexiest thing in BitCoin!
What we’ve just shown is not a concrete current evidence why BitCoin will be more energy efficient than say Amazon or Google Cloud; we’ve simply shown that BitCoin’s protocol creates an incentive system which rewards efficiency with power when processing transactions. We’ve more talked about what makes BitCoin energy efficient via it’s DNA, or protocol. It’s centered on big blocks for sure. But what about some BETTER analysis which can show us that wasteful ASICs mining will be a low percentage of cost for Nodes in the future — at scale?
The AGE-ism of BitCoin
Old man take a look at my life; I’m a lot like you were. Give me things that don’t get lost, like a coin that won’t get tossed. I’ve been first and last; look at how the time goes past. — Neil Young, Old Man
Predicting low energy waste via profit margin analysis
Margins will always be low in commodity businesses [see the book Gorilla Game “monsters” not gorillas], so if we assume this is true of BitCoin Nodes, we can make an assumption about what percentage of capital expenditures Nodes will need to spend on processing vs what percentage they’ll need to spend on puzzle solutions (ASICs). Energy-wasting puzzle-hashing should be a VERY low percentage of cost at scale, if BitCoin is to be the most efficient computer network in human history. Let’s do another hypothetical example of two competing nodes.
Atlantis Asics POW (“AAP”) is a BitCoin miner in 2019 with a huge investment in fast ASICs mining rigs. They cut their teeth on 12.5 bitcoin block rewards, while transactions were maybe worth $1 in extra “tip” revenue. Let’s say BSV was trading for about $200 all year in ‘19. AAP made 12.5 bitcoin/block * $200 / bitcoin + 1 MB x 1 sat/Byte = $2,501 per block revenues. AAP was making less than 0.1% of it’s revenues from transactions, and over 99.9% of “coinbase minting” revenues from block subsidies. Thanks Satoshi!
Old Guy Osiris Transactions (“AGOT”) is a BitCoin transaction processor from the future — 2040 — with a huge investment in transaction processing equiptment. Why so much investment in txn processing AGOT? Well, in 2021 Apple started using all their cloud-prowess and server innovations to compete for BSV blocks. So they entered by putting up a huge chunk of cash into transaction equiptment. AGOT reacted by specializing in a certain niche of data transactions, starting in 2021 with SLictionary definition (information) tokens which traded as if on a stock exchange. Other information-on-coin companies copied SLictionary’s exchange model and AGOT ran away with the niche even against Apple who was busy figuring out the new sector by bullying its way around. Crafty AGOT even sold all their ASICs and outsourced that function to others who specialized in it. When AGOT accumulated a lot of private localized (to them, in North America) transactions, they’d simply send their block to an ASICs specialist to get a winning hash and send the whole thing in for a splitting of the revenues. No one could beat AGOT’s cheap secure fast transaction processing in the information-token niche.
Remember Visa spending $3 billion on CURRENCY-TRANSACTION equipment? Google has a net investment of over $80 billion as of 2019 in DATA-TRANSACTIONS equipment & property. Data is still growing faster than payments and is already >25x bigger. BitCoin should look like a similar ratio by 2040.
Home Court Advantage: ASIC-miner, early 2020
The something amazing happened, old AGOT of 2040 travelled back in time to 2020 to compete with young AAP for blocks. How would this go? In early 2020 block subsidies were 12.5 and block sizes were 1 MB which generated an extra dollar of fees. AAP won every block handily, while AGOT got none. AGOT simply didn’t have any hashpower; whereas, that’s all AAP had. AGOT looked around and saw no BSV app companies using data tokens, so there was no business to get; they just powered down their servers and spent zero on energy costs. Whereas AAP had a big power bill, from running hashing-rigs. Even tho AAP easily beat AGOT, in 2020 they found ASICs-mining to be quite competitive and eeked out a 1% profit margin. It looked like this.
Block revenues = $100
ASIC Electricity cost = ($73.99)
ASIC Equipment depreciation =($25)
Transaction processing/verification depreciation & electricity = $0.01
Profit = $1 or 1%
In this contest, AAP eeked out a small profit while AGOT could only minimize losses by turning all their transaction processing equipment off. If BSV had gone up in price, AAP probably would have made the same 1% as many other Nodes would’ve invested in equipment to chase the price. But every dollar was spent on ASICs which perform an expensive but meaningless task. All expense dollars are effectively wasted bc solving meaningless puzzles is not an assset which benefits anyone or anything. THIS example, is why we can claim that even BSV is energy-inefficient today. But this battle was fought on AAP’s “home court advantage” of early 2020. Now we’ll turn the tables!
Home Court Advantage: Transaction-Processor Node, 2040
In 2040 the information-token-exchange business is ginormous, it seems like everyone is doing it. It even eclipses commodity-bitcoin monetary transactions by 30:1 ratio. AGOT has all the right equipment to do this business, but still has no ASICs. AAP, on the other hand, was able to upgrade its ASICs for 2040 to top-of-the-line equipment, to make the contest fair. They spent ALL their money on ASICs chips. So how did it go?
AAP kept winning blocks like crazy! They even won 10 in a row at one point with each win taking only 30 seconds! They were destroying the difficulty algo. Just one problem tho: In 30 seconds the transaction amounts were scant. Why? Well for one thing 30 seconds is only 5% of a normal block time, and secondly no customers were giving AAP any private transactions so AAP was only. getting some generic no-data monetary transactions. So actually their revenues looked more like they were getting 1% of average block rewards in 2040. What about AGOT?
Well, AGOT immediately made low-margin deals with all their old customers to gain back market share they lost when they took a time-warp sabbatical to 2019 to please John Pitts’ wacky time-machine Node experiments. They accumulated PLENTY of “SLA” transaction volumes to build big healthy blocks chock full o’ revenues. There was just one problem, they spent all this money on transaction processing and the corresponding energy costs for such, but couldn’t win blocks to enter their private transactions without ASICs. So what could they do?
Did you ever see the Gonk and Geefle on Sesame Street’s Planet of Snu?
Geefle could reach the nectarines, but his arms don’t bend so he couldn’t eat them. Gonk couldn’t reach the nectarines because he was too short, but he could eat them. They formed a partnership and both ate their fill.
Old AGOT and young AAP did the same. AAP couldn’t generate revenues without transaction processing, because in 2040 block rewards were effectively nothing after 5 more halvenings since 2020. (3, 1.5, 0.75, 0.375.., 0.18…). With BSV at $200 AAP was winning small revenue rewards of about $36. It didn’t matter they won a lot of blocks quickly, as they didn’t have any transactions in the blocks. AGOT couldn’t win ANY blocks, despite amassing what would have been 2 TeraByte blocks (2x10¹² Bytes) at 0.2 sats/Byte => 4x10¹¹ sats => 4,000 bitcoin * $200 => $800,000 blocks! AGOT’s transaction fees were so big, they said “keep the change” on the 0.18… block subsidy worth only about $36. So obviously a Gonk-Geefle deal was worked out between AGOT of 2040 and AAP from 2020. But what were the splits?
AGOT was like Google + Visa, they had $100 billion in processing equipment running just to be able to handle the gargantuan size of the network. They had no choice. If AGOT couldn’t handle every transaction given to them by application partners, their blocks wouldn’t have any transctions and it wouldn’t have been worth it to win them anyway. Processing transactions was were ALL the money was! $800,000 vs $36. Since ALL Node businesses, no matter if they were processing transactions or hashing with ASICs, were low margin, we can imagine that energy use was proportional to each company’s task. AGOT needed tens of billions of dollars of equipment to grab revenues worth $800,000 and AAP needed a few sharp ASICs hasher-rigs to nab those $36 blocks! Ok, so maybe we forgot to add the 0.5% generic transactions to AAP’s total, so maybe $4,036 was their average revenues per block? Either way, the ASICs-hashing just doesn’t win any real money, so why would a large transaction processor spend a lot of money on it?
If you don’t believe the ratios above, just think about it from Satoshi’s standpoint of “signal”. In the early days of BitCoin there were no transacions and no bitcoin price either. Thus no transaction processing expense was needed beyond a standard PC CPU to handle a few transactions per hour. Satoshi set up the system to prevent evil parties from taking over, so he created the hash puzzles to GAURANTEE each Miner had to outlay SOME capital.
SLictionary does the same thing now. Most all of SLictionary revenues come from knoweldge seekers looking up a word for 1 penny fee. So why does SLictionary charge 1 penny to WRITE a definition, aren’t Word$miths doing the platform a favor? Yes and no. The “favor” is returned by SLicionary paying off Word$miths for all future transactions on that definition, but also charging a penny to define a word prevents spamming the database with nonsense and crap. Word$miths are outlaying capital, it’s small, but it’s a signal they won’t be wasteful. Twetch is the same deal — they charge 2¢ per texty Twetch to make sure no one spams their feed with nonsense without losing capital. It’s a costly signal, but in Twetch and SLictionary’s case a profitable one. In BitCoin Craig Wright decided to make the signal meaningless, because if he used something useful then gerrymandering and pandering to the benefactors could gum up the fairness of the contest. So he made it as closely reliant on just money as he could, and money BURNT or wasted. But was Satoshi interested in torching $100 bills?
We’re guessing Satoshi Nakamoto hates burning money as much as we do. So maybe his system AT SCALE tends to SAVE energy rather than waste it?
So if “signal” is important, what’s a bigger signal than willingness to invest $100 billion in processing equipment to compete with the 8 continental Nodes of 2040? Are the ASIC-hashers really important at that point? Sure, they signify a game which must be played, but that game will only be played for common transactions which are time-sensitive. Most transactions in 2040 won’t be so time sensitive. If there ended up being 8 giant Nodes in the world in 2040, that means each Node is winning a block about once every hour-twenty if we assume homogenous size amongst them. Furthermore, if many transactions were buying coffee or goods and needed confirmation by the merchants, would a single confirmation from an honest node, with $100 billion on the line if they cheat, be enough? I certainly wouldn’t want to ruin my reputation as a Node so I’d probably have some deals in place to have access to competing Nodes transactions without actually having revenue upside from them. By the same logic, the peasant USER also wouldn’t want to cheat, or else be thrown off the BitCoin network forever and be an Alduous Huxley-style outcast from society!
Investing the billions in 2040 to even be a competitive Node IS the signal, it’s the risk outlay which ensures honesty! It’s going to be MUCH bigger than outlays for ASICs which don’t really have any great revenue-generating power on their own.
Stressing a point: The higher ASICs costs are in 2040, vs transaction processing costs, then the lower profit margins will be. Since transaction processing will most likely be a commodity game with very low margins, we must conclude that all large Nodes will do anything in their power to reduce energy consumption on ASIC hashing, and CERTAINLY they will all compete on low energy costs for transaction processing.
Thus, wasteful ASICs hashing will be VERY small percentage of overall Node expenditures; AND, Nodes will compete in a championship every 10 minutes based on their power consumption as one of the biggest drags. This is a MUCH harsher competition than AWS, iCloud and Google Drive fight!
FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS for Nodes
It’s always my intent to look forward, and not just dwell on how BitCoin works today. In fact, I’d say if you’re not always thinking of BitCoin at scale, rather than how everything looks today, you’re likely to miss things like how BitCoin Network will be the ultimate data and monetary network with respect to power conservation. It’s here I’d like to go more out on a limb and venture some guesses about what topography & localism, and private transactions will mean to Nodes in the future. This is the part of the article you should be more critical, and challenge my predictions.
Private Transactions:
We already saw these in late 2019, with Mempool making a private “SLA” deal with WeatherSV. BSV went from a default of 1 sat/byte to 0.5 sats/Byte in early 2020 BECAUSE of this deal’s implications. Private transactions require time insensitivity — this was described perfectly to me in Korea, by the way, by Craig himself, in a single sentence. He described perfectly how the fee marketplace would be dynamic, a month or two BEFORE it actually became dynamic thanks to Mempool + WeatherSV! As if we needed any MORE reasons (see 3 Wrights link) to verify CSW = SN. But if you think of private transactions which can confirm in 2 hours or more, there’s a LOT in that box, and those transactions will want to be as cheap as possible. So I’m expecting a LOT of private transaction agreements, and I think we’re already getting a feel for those courtesy of TAAL’s dealings with EHR Data and UNISOT among others. Why won’t private transactions be far bigger than general broadcast-able time-sensitive ones? How many patent filings come down to hours?
Localism considerations:
We’ll talk more about speed and localism in a coming NEED FOR SPEED article. The answer in the back of the book, I’d guess, is Nodes will specialize by geography. Apps in North America will trust a North American Node slightly more than one in China — and vice versa. This won’t likely be as drastic as geographical splits for wallet companies, which to me seem very much like banks (also highly geographic), but there should be some trust element to Nodes choices for apps anyway. Topographically tho, geography should play a much higher role in speed of transactions. If you think about MMORPG games combined with eSports prizes & wagering for instance, latency will become a HUGE issue. But that topic will be shelved until next time. But here’s some fun snippets lately…
TAAL intends to use the acquired blockchain computing devices to support its ongoing operations and power BitcoinSV (BSV) blockchain transaction processing solutions for enterprise clients. TAAL expects to begin operating the devices by Q1 2021, establishing a significant operational footprint for TAAL in North America. The blockchain computing devices will enable TAAL to offer specialized services to enterprises that require large volumes of transactions processed in North America on an ongoing basis on the reliable BitcoinSV blockchain. TAAL believes that BitcoinSV provides the best blockchain network to support such specialized services to enterprises, supporting large transaction volumes due to BSV’s scaling and microtransaction capabilities.
Notice TAAL’s mention of “North America” twice; it alludes to the importance of geography in BitCoin Node transaction processing. In other words, proximity matters — TAAL is expecting to dominate North American transactions by offering private “SLA” [ref #] terms to it’s customers. We don’t know MUCH about what the future holds as far as the BitCoin Network and its members Nodes are concerned, but we DO know that localism will have it’s place. This only makes sense, as localism important to network structure and always has been (are you old enough to remember that AT&T used to CHARGE a higher rate for a long-distance call vs a short-distance call?). There was once a time in the early days of the internet when ISPs (internet service providers) charged per Byte (usage), before one-size-fits-all took over. We will return to per Byte charging again, and when we do localism will matter.
Major worldwide Nodes guess:
Topagraphically, I’d go with 8 in the very long term (beyond even 2040). BitCoin really only needs 3 to work, 1 for a tie breaker and have higher robustness. 8 is derived from splitting the globe into planar sections using each plane (xy, xz, yz). 4 sections in the Northern Hemisphere, and 4 in the South. It won’t work out that way for a long time, but eventually people will fill up both the continents AND the seas (Thiel’s floating cities are much easier concept than living on Mars Elon!) and everyone will need BSV Nodes nearby!
Technical dive into Proof-of-Work:
In the beginning, bitcoind v0.1.0 did it fairly simply. Once a second or so, it would take an in memory map of all the transactions it had received, check any new ones to ensure they met the minimum fee requirement and if so, add them to the block template which was basically an ordered list of valid transactions. It would then calculate a merkle tree from that set of transactions and build a block header to start doing proof of work upon. — Steve “Shadders”, nChain, on BSV “Dynastic” release (1.0.7)
I’ve deliberately, in this article so far, sold short the proof-of-work pertaining to hash-puzzles. It was deliberate for emphasis, to command your attention to TRANSACTION VERIFICATION as the true moneymaking mechanism for BitCoin Nodes. Here is where I clarify.
In reality, the “leading zeroes” hash puzzle is in fact a “Proof of Transaction Processing” directly. How? It has to do with the INPUT to hashing, which includes the block of transactions itself. If you think about this logically, a transaction-processing Node in 2040 won’t be able to make any revenues without including MANY transactions into a block, thus the winning hash-puzzle solution will NEED to include all the transactions (a TeraByte for instance). So what the hash-solution POW represents is the fact that the Node has done all the work of processing the transactions in the network!
THE LEADING-ZERO HASH PUZZLE SOLUTION IS THE PROOF — NOT THE WORK!
A hash-puzzle solution is the PROOF of BitCoin transaction processing — not the WORK
Traditional “proof-of-work” of BitCoin, the hashing-puzzle which is a hash with the proper amount of leading zeroes (based on difficulty-factor), is actually just the cherry on top of a sundae — it’s a proof, not the work.
The cherry acts as PROOF the ice cream parlor proprietor has built an ice cream sundae, because she doesn’t get to drop it on top until AFTER the sundae is built. The WORK is building the sundae itself. The cherry is supposed to be RELATIVELY easy if all the previous work has been done. If a competing Node doesn’t include all the fee-generating transactions in the ingredient-precondition for this “cherry”, it simply won’t make any money!
Cherry = Leading-zeroes hash-puzzle solution which cannot generate revenue unless it includes the verified transaction list inside!
Sundae = A block of verified-good BitCoin transactions — someday a TeraByte or more in size.
“Cloudia” the ice cream parlor proprietor = A BitCoin Transaction Processing Node, like TAALor Mempool or Unbounded Enterprise or MatterCloud.
This understanding of the ORDER of operations for “petahashes” of energy spent on a seemingly mindless task, allows us to see another small energy-saving contribution only BSV will have due to it’s ability to scale:
The nonce which is part of BitCoin hash-puzzle ingredients, is just a goofy random input which allows a Node to make another guess and hope the resulting hash meets the leading-zeroes determined by the difficulty factor. Here’s the thing tho, it only needs to be changed to something different if the block of transactions hasn’t changed since the last guess! Changing it to something different requires a little bit of work by the Node, so it uses electricity, especially if you consider how many puzzle guesses a Node makes per second. If a new transaction comes into the Node for verifying, that alone will change the output hash, so no new nonce will need to be calculated. In other words, every new transaction allows a Node to recieve what the nonce provides FOR FREE! Let’s compare btc to BSV one more time using this knowledge:
PetaHash defined courtesy of: https://sym.re/N8mgTum
bitCORN/”btc” is limited by it’s dictatorial developers to 1 MB “small block” size, and since standard monetary transactions are, say, 200–500 Bytes, this translates directly to about 5–8 transactions per second. For every 100 quadrillion nonces potentially needed, btc could skip generating a new nonce about (8 txns/sec * 60 sec/min * 10 min/block) 4,800 times, whereas…
BSV can skip the change-of-nonce 4 billion times when processing 1 TeraByte blocks!
The more transactions per second BitCoin SV can scale, the more incremental energy it will save!
btc’s “POW” is like amassing the tallest structure in the world using nothing but spire — a worthless tower. BSV is like building the tallest building in the world where every bit of verticality contributes to USEFUL office or living space for people. Is it any surprise that even the large block transactions of BSV contribute its success, while btc’s proof of work is actually a huge negative drain on human ingenuity?
CONCLUSION:
This quote just seems silly now, doesn’t it?
“Bitcoin mining’s energy use is reportedly growing at a rate of 25% per month. At that rate of growth, it will consume as much electricity as the US in 2019, and by 2020 bitcoin mining could be consuming the same amount of electricity every year as is currently used by the entire world.”
The BitCoin Network of Nodes isn’t going to be any “Electric Avenue”, sorry Eddie. BitCoin’s protocol was set from the beginning to make its computation network the most energy efficient in the world at scale. The protocol uses premeditated code thoughtfulness, but most of all profit margin incentive to guarantee it’s light energy footprint as it grows bigger and more useful to humanity.
Craig Wright’s vision on power consumption was likely considered decades ago and we will all benefit in the decades to come.
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REFERENCES:
[0] BitCorn
Courtesy of BitCoin SV app www.SLictionary.com
[1] 3 Wrights Don’t Make a Wrong
https://equitydiamonds.medium.com/three-wrights-dont-make-a-wrong-a37ea19ed636
[1] Work
The definition of “Work” courtesy of www.SLictionary.com
[2] HODL
[2] “The Power of Love” (official video) by Huey Lewis & the News | https://medium.com/@equitydiamonds/bitcoin-will-massively-reduce-the-computational-grids-electric-power-consumption-b88b0f52d33a | ['John Pitts'] | 2021-03-23 18:07:02.611000+00:00 | ['Bsv', 'Energy', 'Ethereum', 'Information Technology', 'Bitcoin'] |
Does your sex life leave you happy … or hungry? | I’m about to bring up a subject matter that is still considered taboo in this day and age, even to audiences of 18 and over. Ready? Here it is. I want to talk to you about your SEX LIFE and how to make it better.
It starts with opening your mouth. I’m talking about communication.
Are you in a committed relationship right now? How is the sex? Good? Bad? Blah? If you were going to rate your sex life on a scale of 1 to 10 to include frequency, intimacy, passion and just overall satisfaction and freedom, how would you rate you and your partner? Do you feel safe to talk about it? Has it become better over time or more boring? If you asked your partner the same questions, what would they say? Do you even want to know their answer?
By not sharing your real thoughts about your sex life with your partner, you may get stuck in a pattern of resenting, lying, or concealing the truth to your partner. This can negatively impact a person’s emotional well-being as well as slowly erode a couple’s relationship over time. You don’t want that.
Let me help you create a better sex life between you and your partner.
Do I have your attention yet? Come on, don’t be embarrassed. I mean, people ask for exactly how they want their Starbucks coffee every day. Grande nonfat, triple shot, no foam latte with a Splenda. You can order that from a stranger but won’t say a word to your partner about what you want in the bedroom. Let’s change that right now.
This is what I want you to do: You and your partner are going to sit down together and rate your sex life. Don’t worry, I’m not talking about criticizing each other or passing judgment. It’s about seeing where you both are on a scale. You have to know where you are before you can figure out where you want to go. And it is my intention to help you immediately get your rating up on that sex scale.
There is a rating scale from 1 to 10: one equals poor and 10 equals mind-blowing. You and your partner will rate three major aspects of your sex life, one at a time. After rating each area, you will write down a brief explanation of why you rated that area the way you did. Once you’re both done with the three areas, you sit down and discuss them together.
SEX RATING SCALE
1) How well do we talk about sex with each other?
Many people are uncomfortable talking about sex with a partner, specifically if it involves discussing what they like or don’t like. By rating this area, you and your partner will see where you both are on the scale and can explain why. “I rate this a 3. I’m embarrassed to talk to you about sex so I always joke about it or go mute.” When you both know where you stand and why, it will help you understand each other better, allowing you to be more open when communicating about sex.
2) How do you feel about how frequently we have sex?
This rating is an objective way to look at a subjective issue. You are rating how you feel about how often you and your partner engage in sexual activity. You are not rating the actual frequency itself. For example, you might rate it low because you believe once a week isn’t enough when your partner rates it high because they think it’s the right amount. Again, after reading your responses aloud to each other, discuss how you feel about what you have revealed and what you have learned. Then move toward what may work for both of you.
3) How is the quality of our sex?
This area is rated last because it’s the most sensitive area. Although, you and your partner are probably better at communicating about sex at this point and should be open to discussing this area, this conversation can lead to some real revelations. For instance, you might discover that there’s something you do with your partner, which you thought they enjoyed, but they don’t. Also, you may discover that you and your partner agree on what isn’t working but have never discussed it (i.e., getting bored with the same sexual position). Often, after discussing the quality of the sex, couples start to become more excited and creative. Knowledge is the key to progress and success. When you know what’s working or not working, you can fix it.
After rating the areas and discussing everything with your partner, look at your ratings as a tool for you and your partner to talk about making positive changes in your sex life. It’s your job to be creative and figure out a way to boost your ratings in the three areas.
This part should be fun. It’s like you are creating a new game. What do you want it to look like? How often do you want to have sex? Make a weekly sex promise. Come up with ideas to have sex in other areas of the house other than the bedroom or throw some romance into the mix.
Keep an open mind about your partner’s ideas. If you’re open, then they will be open as well. This allows you both to feel safe when talking about sex. Also, remember a healthy relationship involves an element of compromise. Ultimately, you may not end up with exactly what you want but I bet it will be more than what you have right now.
Lastly, make sure you both keep track of your ratings. This isn’t just one conversation. It’s ongoing. As your ratings go up, you’ll want to come up with new ideas to improve your scores even more.
Having a rating of 10 in each of the three major areas of your sex life would be something worth striving for, riiiiiiight?
Love,
Lauren | https://medium.com/@LaurenZander/does-your-sex-life-leave-you-happy-or-hungry-67a6684eaa2e | ['Handel Group'] | 2018-02-07 14:38:56.932000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Life Coaching', 'Love', 'Sex', 'Valentines Day'] |
On Jean-Jacques Rousseau | Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1766) by Allan Ramsay
“Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made” -Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
Few thinkers managed to preserve an authentic sense of self-identity to the same degree as the Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). Rousseau was a man of many contradictions, deep introspection (often leaving too little to the imagination), and genius. He would have been a terrible person to know, as his contemporary David Hume found out (I will return to this later). He wrote a book about the ideal way to raise children despite the fact that he sent his own five children to foundling hospitals. He addressed the problem of inequality with a greater deal of realism than bitter, old Marx would nearly a century later. He was a philosopher, writer, composer, advocate of simple living, political exile, republican, religious pragmatist, and one of the most genuine human beings to ever walk the Earth. He was also a little bonkers. Rousseau’s ideas were used and abused by French Revolutionaries in their calamitous idealism in the decade between 1789–1799. The Jacobins, a gang of murderous thugs, read his work and had his body interred in the Panthéon in Paris.
On a personal note, I find Rousseau both wonderful and troubling. He was a thinker who challenged the superficiality of the French Enlightenment. He was increasingly dissatisfied with the sanctimonious condescension of men like Voltaire. He was proud to have been a citizen of Geneva. He was not a Frenchman and seemed to have a fondness for being an outsider. He thought about the world around him in a deep way, engaging with the conflicting elements of human nature. His work has a depth not reached by the likes of Voltaire. Reading the works of Voltaire, I an increasingly convinced that the English historian Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) was right when he wrote “in his way, Voltaire was a bigot, an intolerant bigot.”[1] Voltaire was a critic of organized religion. He also had the habit of criticizing religious people as backward. He himself was a Deist, not an atheist. Voltaire was also quite the diva. When the testament of Jean Meslier, a closet atheist priest was discovered, Voltaire heavily edited it to make Meslier appear to be a mild Deist rather than the radical atheist and proto-communist that he was.[2] [3] I find in Rousseau a man for whom I deep respect and deep disagreements. I have found it an exciting challenge to find a thinker with ideas I could strongly oppose yet also appreciate. In this article I will argue that Rousseau was right or usefully wrong in many different areas. Indeed, I will argue that he easily ranks among the top 25 most important Western philosophers.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that society has a corrupting influence on humanity. This is present in his earliest philosophical work, Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (1750). Rousseau wrote this as a response to an essay prompt from the Academy of Dijon “Has the restoration of the sciences and arts contributed to the purification of morals?” His response was a resounding ‘no.’ His response won the prize on offer and his answer ran counter to what Rousseau’s friend Denis Diderot thought would be the common response. Diderot was in prison at the time but Rousseau was able to visit him. In this first work, Rousseau was able to begin developing his novel approach to scientific and technological progress, a perspective which has offered valuable insight into the inquisitive, contrarian mind. “I foresee that I shall not readily be forgiven for having taken up the position I have adopted. Setting myself up against all that is nowadays most admired, I can expect no less than a universal outcry against me: nor is the approbation of a few sensible men enough to make me count on that of the public. But I have taken my stand, and I shall be at no pains to please either intellectuals or men of the world.”[4]
Rousseau shows an appreciation for the nascent, the simple, before the development of baroque ornamentation. Perhaps he was, at least in part, romanticizing the simplicity of his native Calvinist Geneva. “Before art had moulded our behaviour, and taught our passions to speak an artificial language, our morals were rude but natural; and the different ways in which we behaved proclaimed at the first glance the difference of our dispositions. Human nature was not at bottom better then than now; but men found their security in the ease with which they could see through one another, and this advantage, of which we no longer feel the value, prevented their having many vices.”[5]
Rousseau also expressed a skepticism toward the abstract musings of philosophers. “The Romans were satisfied with the practice of virtue; they were undone when they began to study it.”[6] This is not to say he was wholly against philosophy (obviously, as he was a prominent philosopher). But he was aware of the shortcomings of his own outlook and abstract reasoning in general. The Age of Enlightenment allowed for many great innovations but human nature remains essentially the same. Human nature is not rational, though rationality is a tool people can use to make improvements in their lives. Rousseau was the ‘based’ skeptic of Enlightenment triumphalism. In this respect, one can imagine Rousseau as the eighteenth-century’s equivalent of anti-social justice warrior and anti-postmodernist. He tended toward the traditional (though NOT uncritically) and expressed a deep understanding that rationality is a tool and should not become an idol. He understood the excesses of abstractions for the sake of abstractions. Voltaire, by contrast, wanted to be the celebrity philosopher. He had a talent for writing but also a huge ego, equaled only by his inability to develop a sense of creative exploration.[7] Voltaire was an ideologue first. His histories were little more than vehicles to advance his own political agenda. Rather than consult historical texts the way historians would (such as quoting people and making extensive use of primary sources), Voltaire’s use of the past of political purposes left little room for genuine historical inquiry or engagement with great men and women of the past.
Voltaire by
Nicolas de Largillière
Voltaire expressed his disagreement with Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality (1754 the ‘second discourse’), suggesting it promoted regression. “No one has ever employed so much intellect to persuade men to be beasts. In reading your work one is seized with a desire to walk on four paws. However, as it is more than sixty years since I lost that habit, I feel, unfortunately, that it is impossible for me to resume it.”[8] My sympathetic reading of Rousseau would have me defending, in part, his critique as engaging with human nature at a more primal level upon which a sound philosophic framework can be built. Admittedly, I am not altogether satisfied with this response but do not think a better defense of Rousseau in this particular situation is currently out there. There is much one should reject in Rousseau’s second discourse, in my opinion, because it undermines the basic human need for hierarchy as well as ignores or marginalizes the overwhelming good that has come from civilized society in general (and the West in particular).
Rousseau’s legacy suffered because several of his twentieth-century admirers used elements of his philosophy (often combined with Marxism) to do horrendous things. A key example here is that of Pol Pot. One can and should blame the French universities for their part in the ideological terrors of the twentieth century. From the Jacobins to Foucault and Derrida, French intellectuals have manufactured deadly ideologies while the philosophers themselves became increasingly pampered celebrities rather like the most superficial Hollywood actors. The American philosopher Noam Chomsky (b.1928) has called out French intellectual circles for their superficiality and dedication to pseudo-intellectual obscurantism. ““French intellectual life has, in my opinion, been turned into something cheap and meretricious by the ‘star’ system. It is like Hollywood. Thus we go from one absurdity to another — Stalinism, existentialism. Lacan, Derrida — some of them obscene (Stalinism), some simply infantile and ridiculous (Lacan, Derrida). What is striking, however, is the pomposity and self-importance, at each stage.”[9]
Rousseau, like the seventeenth-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, began his inquiry with a hypothetical state of nature. Rousseau’s state of nature was the polar opposite, however. Whereas Hobbes argued that life in the state of nature was terrible, to say the least. “In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation nor the use of commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”[10] Rousseau took a more optimistic view. Here I would not defend Rousseau as I think Thomas Hobbes got it right. Rousseau’s insight is valuable as a critique, though. Hobbes got the picture largely right but not necessarily completely right. Whereas Hobbes presented the philosophical foundation for a stable society in which individual rights can come to be recognized and respected, Rousseau focused on the extremes of inequality present in society. “The first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, “This is mine,” and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. How many crimes, how many wars, how many murders, how many misfortunes and horrors, would that man have saved the human species, who pulling up the stakes or filling up the ditches should have cried to his fellows: Be sure not to listen to this imposter; you are lost, if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong equally to us all, and the earth itself to nobody!”[11] Rousseau went too far. His ideals blinded him from basic realities which would undermine many of the more extreme attempts to eliminate inequalities by those influenced by Rousseau.
Rousseau was a genius but a mad genius. He fell out with the philosophes in Paris and accepted an invitation by David Hume to come to Britain. Rousseau eventually fell out with Hume and suspected that Hume was part of a conspiracy against him. This erupted into a quarrel of letters between the two, eventually involving many intellectuals on the continent as well. Rousseau returned to France and finished his Confessions, an autobiographical work. Rousseau spent the last years of his life at his chateau in Ermenonville. In response to a visitor who said ‘men are wicked, Rousseau responded “men are wicked, yes, but man is good.” As someone who has been deeply influenced by the works of Jordan Peterson, I cannot help but read into this remark an understanding of individualism and skepticism toward collectivism. While many of Rousseau’s conclusions were questionable to say the least, he identified and tried to solve notable problems in society. His works offer valuable insights into the human condition. Of all of the thinkers I have ever read, Rousseau is the one whose conclusions I often strongly disagree with but whose works are among the most engaging.
Extra: An interesting coincidence of history — In his On the Social Contract (1762), Jean-Jacques Rousseau mentions Corsica as that island had recently freed itself from the Republic of Genoa. “There is still one country in Europe open to the Lawgiver. It is the island of Corsica. The valor and firmness with which this brave people has shown itself able to regain and defend its freedom richly deserve the aid of some wise man who will teach them how to preserve it. I have a premonition that some day this little island will astonish Europe.”[12] History proved Rousseau right in ways he would have never imagined. Seven years after On the Social Contract was published a boy was born on this island (which had been conquered by France in 1768): Napoleon Bonaparte.
__________________________________________________________________
[1] http://authorscalendar.info/egibbon.htm
[2] It was Jean Meslier who proclaimed that he “wished that all the great men in the world and all the nobility could be hanged, and strangled with the guts of the priests.” He kept this hidden during his life and it was discovered only after his death in 1729.
[3] Historian Philipp Blom covers this in great detail in his book A Wicked Company.
[4] Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discourse on the Arts and Sciences.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] I should mention that one can detect a sense of this in his masterwork Candide but not so much beyond that work.
[8] Durant, Will. The Story of Civilization Volume 10: Rousseau and Revolution.p.31
[9] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/695462-french-intellectual-life-has-in-my-opinion-been-turned-into
[10] Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan.
[11] Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discourse on Inequality.
[12] Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. On the Social Contract. | https://medium.com/digital-republic-of-letters/on-jean-jacques-rousseau-d8cdd7891025 | ['Kevin Shau'] | 2018-11-07 12:37:26.749000+00:00 | ['Enlightenment', 'History', 'Rousseau', 'Politics', 'Philosophy'] |
3 Character Tropes to Avoid in Your Writing | The benevolent homeless person
This was something that a playwriting professor of mine frequently stressed. A story where a character speaks to a person going through a hard time and lionizes them, perhaps depicting them as a sage, wise person or an undiscovered genius is more often than not, in poor taste.
Firstly, it reeks of privilege.
Secondly, if you have not actually spoken to a homeless person at length or gone through homelessness yourself — there is no way to guess what their situation feels like. We shouldn’t be guessing, anyway. We should be direct and deliberate with the stories we want to tell; let them share their own.
You are well-intentioned, I get it, but regardless it without fail screams savior complex. It also hints at the fact that caring about those struggling with homelessness should only be done because they are “good” or “intelligent” people. At the core of it, we don’t have to relate to homeless people to care about them. They can be awful, positively evil individuals and we can still care.
Don’t make a caricature out of the thousands and thousands of humans who are suffering.
A brief personal anecdote, I once beat out a fellow classmate’s play in a playwriting competition. Mine was based in a grocery store since that had been my first job. His play was based in a tent city. Do you know what I mean? It’s the most basic and strongest advice: Write what you know.
It’s good to invent — but don’t speculate.
What aspects of homelessness did you intend to portray? Hopelessness? Feeling abandoned? A nomadic lifestyle? Optimism? Unexpected beauty in a horrible time? If you dig deeper into what you were trying to say, that will become a more startling and shining heart for your story.
An example of this working is Nick Flynn’s memoir about his time working at a homeless shelter where he would occasionally run into his father.
Nick Flynn, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City | https://medium.com/the-brave-writer/3-character-tropes-to-avoid-febc8105f97e | ['Alicia Banaszewski'] | 2020-11-11 06:16:03.283000+00:00 | ['Writing Advice', 'Writing', 'Fiction Writing', 'Creativity', 'Writing Tips'] |
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Source URL:- Click Here | https://medium.com/@fleekyou702/what-gives-fleekyou-the-edge-over-other-salons-offering-the-same-services-31becbe5f726 | [] | 2021-12-23 11:23:43.924000+00:00 | ['Makeup Artist', 'Bridal Makeup', 'Makeup Artist In Delhi', 'Makeup', 'Best Makeup Artist'] |
Weather forecasting using different Classification Model | Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere at a given place and using meteorology to project how the weather conditions will be. Once calculated by hand based mainly upon changes in barometric pressure, current weather conditions, and sky condition or cloud cover, weather forecasting now relies on computer-based models that take many atmospheric factors into account. Human input is still required to pick the best possible forecast model (machine learning model ) to base the forecast upon, which involves pattern recognition using the model, knowledge of model performance, and knowledge of model biases. This is the main aim of our project ; to compare various machine learning models and try to find which model gives the best performance for weather forecasting.
We have taken our dataset from Kaggle. The data contains hourly weather data of Delhi. It has actually been collected by using the API of the website “Weather Underground”.
DATA ANALYSIS
In the data, there are 100990 instances and 20 features. The dates range from 01–11–1996 to 24–04–2017 and weather is recorded at regular intervals. Hence this dataset can be used as time series data as well as a normal classification problem. The column “_conds” has categorical values and represents the weather conditions of Delhi so we will take the dependent variable/ target variable as “_conds” that has been renamed as Conditions”. Rest all the features are independent variables and will be used to predict the weather condition. When we found the percentage of null values. Features with percentage >60% are as follows:
HeatIndex 71.13%
precipitationType 100.00%
Wgustm 98.93%
WindChillm 99.42%
From this we conclude:-
We will drop columns with a high percentage of null values.
We will have to handle the null values.
The different types of values in the column and their respective counts are:
Examples:-
Name: Fog, dtype: int64
0 80791
1 5382
Name: WindDirection, dtype: int64
North 19034
West 11888
WNW 7464
East 7233
NW 7117
There are two features- “Conditions” and “WindDirection” that have categorical values like smoke, Haze etc and North, south etc respectively. We will have to replace them with unique numerical values. We get the description of the data:-In “temperature” mean value is 25.451 and max value is 90, in humidity mean value is 57.9 and max value is 243. Here we see that the max value of temperature and humidity is unrealistic and hence some outliers are detected.
DATA PREPROCESSING
i) Importing Libraries and loading the data
The libraries imported are pandas, numpy, matplotlib.pyplot, seaborn. The raw data is loaded into pandas dataframe.
ii) Time Series
Weather data is from 01–11–1996 to 24–04–2017 and also for each day, it has hourly data, So it is basically data of a specified period of time with data points recorded at regular intervals and can be considered as time-series data.Format of ‘datetime_utc’ is changed to strftime(‘%Y-%m-%d %H’)and the index of the data frame is set to ‘datetime_utc’. It shows ‘index’ as an “object” type which needs to be converted to datetime otherwise we won’t be able to work during time series analysis.
ii) Data Cleaning
Removing Outliers: In the data description, we discovered that the Maximum Value of Temperature is 90 and Humidity is 243, which is unrealistic (we can see that using the basic domain knowledge), so we need to remove the outliers. The data points with Temperature value <50 and Humidity value<=100 are only kept, and the unrealistic outliers are dropped. Treating Null values: The data has null values as we found during analysis so we will replace them with the mean of the corresponding columns. We again found that some features had null values:
Condition 72
WindDirection 14755
These two features have categorical values so drop the rows with null values.
iii) Feature Engineering
Renaming the features to meaningful names like:-’ _conds’ to ‘’Condition’ and ‘ _tempm’ to ‘Temperature’. We will drop the features that have null percentage > 60% .Four features namely, “HeatIndex”, “precipitationType”, “Wgustm” and “WindChill” are dropped. The features “Condition” and “WindDirection” have categorical values So we replace them by unique numerical values .For example Smoke is replaced with 0, Haze is replaced with 1 and so on
Data Visualization and effect of preprocessing
Having a look on the weather conditions of Delhi from the original data itself:-
We can clearly see that Most of the time Delhi is either hazy or filled with smoke
Let us consider a single attribute say “Temperature” and see the effect of preprocessing on it:
Raw Data:-
We can see a seasonal pattern in the timeseries. It is not continuous as it is having some missing data (ex: between 2000 and 2001).The long shoots that we can see in the graph are the outliers. After preprocessing:-
We can see that the outliers(long shoots) are removed. The missing data is filled in such a way that the seasonal pattern is maintained and data is useful and continuous
We can also see same for Humidity feature:
Before preprocessing:-
After preprocessing:-
Data Analysis after preprocessing:-
Shape of the data: 86177 rows and 15 features with no null values in any feature.
Goal: Classification based on weather conditions using different classification model.
Preprocessing: We have visualized the data using TSNE of 2 dimension, the data is not linearly separable. In the plot we can visualize the ’Condition’ column has 39 different classes.
We have chosen different target values like ’Temperature’ and ’Condition’ on which we have applied different models. We have chosen different columns as target variable because some columns are correlated with other columns. We have splitted the data into 70:30 ratio where 70 is for train set and 30 is for test set. We have used train test split from Sklearn to split the dataset.
Models and their Implementations:
(1.) Logistic Regression:
Model: Logistic Regression is one of the classification model to predict the probability of a target class. Logistic regression is used for binary classification. But If the data is Multiclass we will use the same idea of binary classification for the Multiclass Classification. This model will predict the class of dependent variable based on independent variable.
Implementation: We have used sklearn library for applying LogisticRegression model on our dataset. In our Model, The target columns we have chosen has multiple classes. So we have to apply ’ovr’ or ’multinomial’ as multi_class parameter in logistic regression model. We have set max iter=10000 so that solver may converge easily. This model is not very good for classification as we observed that the data is not separable using these features.
(2.) Support Vector Machine:
Model: Support Vector Machine can be used in classification. SVM is a supervised learning algorithm. The basic idea of using the SVM on our dataset is to create a decision boundary in n dimensional space of classes. The best decision boundary will be called as hyperplane. As we have visualized the data using TSNE, the data is not linearly separable so we will use Kernel Tricks for the classification. SVM will map our datapoints into the space and increase the distance between features present in the dataset.
Implementation: We have used sklearn library for applying SVC model on our dataset. In our Model, We have applied Grid search CV on the dataset and got the best parameters. We have got kernel as ’rbf’, C=1 and gamma=0.1. Then we have applied best parameter obtained from the GridSearchCV to our Model
(3.) K Nearest Neighbour:
Model: K- Nearest Neighbor can be used for Classification. An object will be classified using the majority voting of it’s k nearest neighbor. Here K is hyperparameter. This is a non parametric method. It is also an instance based learning algorithm. Here we have not use any underlying function while training. After visualizing data using TSNE we can visualize that there is some region where datapoints of a particular class are present. So we will be using the K nearest Neighbor on our Dataset.
Implementation: We have used sklearn library for applying KNeighborsClassifier on our dataset. We applied GridSearchCV for obtaining best hyperparameter. GridSearchCv returned n_neighbors=9 for the dataset. Then we have applied the best parameters on the KNN model using our dataset.
(4.) Decision Tree:
Model: Decision Tree is one of the classification algorithm used to predict the class of unknown datapoint by sorting them down into a Tree based structure from root to leaf. Leaf Node will decide the value of the class for the prediction. As there are 14 features remained after applying preprocessing on the dataset. So the decision tree will be a good option. We can predict the class of a unknown datapoint on the basis of traversal in a tree like structure. The tree is created using the most important features in the dataset. Decision making will be done on the basis of the leaf of the tree.
Implementation: We have used sklearn library for applying on our dataset. We have set the parameters in the classifier as Criterion =’entropy’. We obtained the Decision Tree using sklearn library.
(5.) Random Forest:
Model: The Random forest is also one the classification algorithm. This will be constructed using different structures of randomly selected Decision Tree, The ensemble method is applied on these trees. All the tree present in the Random Forest will predict the class for an instance individual tree. The class which will have highest number of votes will be known as the class of the instance. As there are 14 features remained after applying preprocessing on the dataset. So the random forest will be a good option. It will predict the class for the instance on the basis of the majority voting. Our goal is to predict the most accurate class for the datapoint.
Implementation: We have used sklearn library for applying RandomForestClassifier on our dataset. We have set the parameters in the classifier as n estimators=250, max depth=30 and Criterion as ’entropy’. We obtain the Random Forest Tree using sklearn library.
Results: | https://medium.com/@vandana20019/weather-forecasting-using-different-classification-model-30564df88992 | ['Vandana Gupta'] | 2020-12-19 19:14:04.518000+00:00 | ['Decision Tree', 'Logistic Regression', 'Machine Learning', 'Classification', 'Weather Forecasts'] |
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Le jeune Nestrian Finny et sa meilleure compagne Leah, une Grymp, tombent accidentellement de l’Arche et sont sont séparés par une tempête… De nouvelles aventures périlleuses les attendent, mais aussi plein de rencontres extraordinaires… et inattendues!
Sortie: 2020–09–24
Durée: 81 minutes
Genre: Aventure, Animation, Comédie, Familial
Etoiles: Max Carolan, Dermot Magennis, Ava Connolly, Tara Flynn, Mary Murray
Directeur: Toby Genkel, Richie Conroy, Mark Hodkinson, Sean McCormack
Année de production 2020
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La Two by Two: Overboard! se déroule quatre ans après Train to Busan, alors que les personnages se battent pour fuir un pays en ruine à la suite d’un désastre sans précédent.
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Le film est une œuvre d’art sous la forme d’une série d’images en direct qui sont tournées pour produire une illusion d’images en mouvement qui sont présentées comme une forme de divertissement. L’illusion d’une série d’images produit un mouvement continu sous forme de vidéo. Le film est souvent appelé film ou image animée. Le film est une forme d’art moderne et populaire créée à des fins commerciales et de divertissement. Le cinéma est devenu une industrie populaire dans le monde entier, où les longs métrages sont toujours attendus par les cinémas.
Les films sont réalisés de film manières principales. La première consiste à utiliser des techniques de prise de vue et d’enregistrement à l’aide de caméras argentiques. Cette méthode se fait en photographiant des images ou des objets. Le second utilise des techniques d’animation traditionnelles. Cette méthode est effectuée grâce à des techniques d’animation graphique ou CGI. Les film peuvent également être combinés avec d’autres techniques et effets visuels. Le tournage prend généralement un temps relativement long. Cela nécessite également un pupitre de travail chacun, à partir du réalisateur, producteur, monteur, garde-robe, effets visuels et autres.
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On Friday, four days before the US presidential election, the United States recorded 100,000 new cases of Covid-19. This figure recorded the highest increase in cases of corona virus in a day worldwide.
In total, the United States has suffered 9 million cases of Covid-19 as of Friday, or nearly 3% of the population with nearly 229,000 deaths since the pandemic outbreak earlier this year, according to a Reuters report, October 31, 2020.
US health authorities on Friday confirmed that 100,233 people have tested positive for Covid-19 over the past 24 hours.
Friday’s tally set the highest daily Covid-19 record in the US for the fifth time in 10 days, surpassing the previous day’s highest daily spike of 91,248 new cases.
The report also represents the world’s highest national daily casualty toll during the pandemic, surpassing India’s record 24-hour spike in daily cases of 97,894 recorded in September.
On Friday dozens of states individually reported a record number of new daily cases.
Serious cases of Covid-19 are also on the rise, as hospitals in six states report having the most patients with the disease since the pandemic began. The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalized has increased by more than 50% in October to 46,000, the highest since mid-August.
Among the states hardest hit were the states most contested in the campaign between Republican President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, namely Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
More than 1,000 people died from the virus on Thursday, the third time the daily death toll has exceeded that this month, and the death rate is expected to continue rising. Covid-19 claimed at least 926 more deaths as of Friday.
The University of Washington’s latest prediction model projects the death toll, which had held at a monthly pace of more than 22,000 for most of October, will start climbing next month towards a new record of more than 72,000 in January.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s January projection would surpass the nearly 61,000 deaths in April when the pandemic first exploded in the United States and flooded New York City hospitals.
Joe Biden and his Democrats in Congress have criticized President Trump for handling his health crisis.
In the US House of Representatives, Democrats released a report on Friday condemning the Trump administration’s pandemic response as “one of the worst leadership failures in American history”.
“At least 6 million Americans have fallen into poverty and millions more are unemployed,” the report said.
The 71-page interim report by Democrat staff from the House Election Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis also said investigators identified more than 60 instances in which Trump administration officials rejected or overruled top scientist advice to advance the president’s political interests.
“The government’s response to this economic crisis has benefited large corporations and wealthy Americans, while leaving behind many disadvantaged communities and struggling small businesses,” the report said.
After being hospitalized for Covid-19 in early October, Trump continued a massive campaign that drew thousands of supporters who gathered and many were not wearing masks. The Trump campaign says rallies are safe and that masks and social distancing are respected.
A CNN investigation found that 14 of the 17 states surveyed showed an increase in the rate of Covid-19 cases only one month after hosting a Donald Trump campaign event. | https://medium.com/@muhabenoyt/regarder-two-by-two-overboard-film-complet-2020-streaming-vf-en-e0b882995c40 | [] | 2020-12-17 20:07:25.106000+00:00 | ['France', 'Online', 'Germany', 'Canada'] |
Testing Event-Driven systems | Testing
There are multiple levels of tests you will typically write for your system. In the most canonical case, you will write unit tests, service tests, and end-to-end tests. In each of these cases, your System Under Test (SUT, what is actually being tested) comprises a different part of your application.
Unit Tests
Unit tests are the most basic tests you will write. The SUT in this case is typically an individual class. Let’s say, the Payment Service needs to apply a sales tax, based on the customer’s location. You would likely have a TaxCalculator class with a calculate() method, that accepts an Order argument and returns a double value representing the tax that needs to be applied to the total. Your unit test will interact with this class directly, passing various Order values to it, and verifying the tax has been calculated properly. At the unit level, the differences between a point-to-point and an event-driven system are insignificant, so we will not go deeper into it.
In Unit Tests, SUT is one of the classes of a service
Here’s what this could look like in Java, regardless of the architectural style:
Service Tests
Service tests, as the name suggests, treat the entire service as the SUT, and increasingly, in microservice architectures this is where the bulk of automated testing occurs. These tests verify the contract of services, that is — given certain inputs, the service produces a certain output. These tests execute in-memory (not a deployed service), prior to deployments and are mostly ‘cheap’ to run. Here is also where we begin to see substantial differences in test implementation between point-to-point and event-driven systems. The reason for these differences is a radically different collaboration style between services and hence — different contracts, that these tests need to cover.
We’ll start with a point-to-point system. The Payment System’s contract describes the HTTP request and response with its only consumer — the Order Service.
In Java, this could look like this:
In an event-driven system, Payment Service’s contract is different. Rather than HTTP messages, it operates on events. In this case, the service “promises” to process a payment and emit a Payment Successful event on the Payments topic, when there is a new order placed on the Orders topic.
The important thing is, that due to the decoupled nature of this architecture, the service doesn’t need to have the knowledge of the origin of the ‘input’ message and consequently, doesn’t need to know about the consumers of the ‘output’ message. Orchestrating such a test is a bit more involved, than with a point-to-point service test, as this time there is a message broker in the picture. In the case of a mature tech stack like Kafka and Spring Boot, we have access to an embedded message broker, specifically for this use case. With other frameworks or messaging platforms, we would be forced to resort to mocking abstractions over the broker interactions and verifying SUT’s interactions with them. This is much less desirable, as it results in a more ‘white box’ test than we would want at a service level.
In Java with Spring Boot, the test could look like this:
Comparing the two implementations above, the impact of the different communication styles on the test code should be apparent. These service tests operate only on message topics. In short — service tests for event-driven systems operate on events for inputs and events for outputs. Another by-product of a decoupled architecture is often an absence of mocks and stubs in the service test code, which stems from inherent ‘unawareness’ the service has of other services.
Service tests for event-driven systems operate on events for inputs and events for outputs and are unaware of other services.
End-to-end Tests
The final level of tests we will discuss here is the end-to-end tests. This is the ultimate ‘it works’ validation, that ensures that the contracts covered in the service tests ‘meet’. In other words — these tests connect the dots between individual services and ensure that what service A needs, is in fact what service B is delivering. These tests typically execute post-deployment, against a test environment. They take longer to run and provide less focus in case of a failure, so they should be treated as the last bastion of defense.
These tests operate from a standpoint resembling that of a real user. In these tests, individual services and the specifics of a messaging platform are abstracted, meaning that rarely, at this level, will be interacting with Kafka directly. Here is what the System Under Test looks like:
Does it mean that at the end-to-end level of testing, the architecture of our system will not impact our test code? Well, it depends. Often, event-driven systems have entirely different semantics from synchronous, point-to-point systems. Let’s take our order processing system for example. In the case of the point-to-point system, the Order Service which orchestrates all the underlying operations may keep the original HTTP request open and return a response only when the order is processed through all of the components. A Java test could look like this:
As you can see, every aspect of an order getting processed hinges on the original request, and as soon as it is complete, the processing has finished. This might look quite different in an event-driven system, where processing happens asynchronously:
You will notice the asynchronous nature of the system manifests itself in the intermediary QUEUED status of the Order, as well as the necessity to check for its updates. This is often a desirable characteristic in a system, increasing its responsiveness, especially if downstream processes may take a longer time to complete, as in an external payment gateway transaction. | https://medium.com/dan-on-coding/testing-event-driven-systems-63c6b0c57517 | ['Dan Siwiec'] | 2020-10-27 17:33:55.447000+00:00 | ['Kafka', 'Testing', 'Spring Boot', 'Event Driven Architecture', 'Event Driven Systems'] |
How to delete a Git branch locally and remotely? | layman’s terms of delete branch
$ git push -d <remote_name> <branch_name>
$ git branch -d <branch_name>
Note that in most cases the remote name is origin . In such a case you'll have to use the command like so.
$ git push -d origin <branch_name>
Deleting a remote branch
git push origin --delete <branch> # Git version 1.7.0 or newer
git push origin -d <branch> # Shorter version (Git 1.7.0 or newer)
git push origin :<branch> # Git versions older than 1.7.0
Deleting a local branch
git branch --delete <branch>
git branch -d <branch> # Shorter version
git branch -D <branch> # Force-delete un-merged branches
The -d option is an alias for --delete , which only deletes the branch if it has already been fully merged in its upstream branch. You could also use -D , which is an alias for --delete --force , which deletes the branch "irrespective of its merged status." [Source: man git-branch ]
Also note that git branch -d branch_name will fail if you are currently in the branch you want to remove. The message starts with error: Cannot delete the branch 'branch_name' . If so, first switch to some other branch, for example: git checkout master .
Deleting a local remote-tracking branch
git branch --delete --remotes <remote>/<branch>
git branch -dr <remote>/<branch> # Shorter git fetch <remote> --prune # Delete multiple obsolete remote-tracking branches
git fetch <remote> -p # Shorter
There are three different branches to delete!
When you’re dealing with deleting branches both locally and remotely, keep in mind that there are three different branches involved:
The local branch X . The remote origin branch X . The local remote-tracking branch origin/X that tracks the remote branch X .
The original poster used:
git branch -rd origin/bugfix
Which only deleted his local remote-tracking branch origin/bugfix , and not the actual remote branch bugfix on origin .
To delete that actual remote branch, you need
git push origin --delete bugfix
Additional details
The following sections describe additional details to consider when deleting your remote and remote-tracking branches.
Pushing to delete remote branches also removes remote-tracking branches
Note that deleting the remote branch X from the command line using a git push will also remove the local remote-tracking branch origin/X , so it is not necessary to prune the obsolete remote-tracking branch with git fetch --prune or git fetch -p . However, it wouldn't hurt if you did it anyway.
You can verify that the remote-tracking branch origin/X was also deleted by running the following:
# View just remote-tracking branches
git branch --remotes
git branch -r # View both strictly local as well as remote-tracking branches
git branch --all
git branch -a
Pruning the obsolete local remote-tracking branch origin/X
If you didn’t delete your remote branch X from the command line (like above), then your local repository will still contain (a now obsolete) remote-tracking branch origin/X . This can happen if you deleted a remote branch directly through GitHub's web interface, for example.
A typical way to remove these obsolete remote-tracking branches (since Git version 1.6.6) is to simply run git fetch with the --prune or shorter -p . Note that this removes all obsolete local remote-tracking branches for any remote branches that no longer exist on the remote:
git fetch origin --prune
git fetch origin -p # Shorter
Here is the relevant quote from the 1.6.6 release notes (emphasis mine):
“git fetch” learned --all and --multiple options, to run fetch from many repositories, and --prune option to remove remote tracking branches that went stale. These make "git remote update" and "git remote prune" less necessary (there is no plan to remove "remote update" nor "remote prune", though).
Alternative to above automatic pruning for obsolete remote-tracking branches
Alternatively, instead of pruning your obsolete local remote-tracking branches through git fetch -p , you can avoid making the extra network operation by just manually removing the branch(es) with the --remote or -r flags:
git branch --delete --remotes origin/X
git branch -dr origin/X # Shorter
Reference | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/how-to-delete-a-git-branch-locally-and-remotely-40ccea01900a | ['Steven Hough'] | 2020-12-28 16:37:09.722000+00:00 | ['Version Control', 'Github', 'Git Branch', 'Git', 'Delete All Data'] |
10 Best Birthday Gifts for Indian Moms | Moms are always special and if it comes to making your mom feel special or gifting your mom something it’s difficult to decide.
There are so many things to gift for an Indian mom and so many ways to make your mom feel special. So here we have made it easy for you by searching top 10 best gifts for Indian moms. You can choose any one and your mom will definitely feel special and happy. So get it going for your mom.
https://thereadtoday.com/10-best-birthday-gifts-for-indian-moms/ | https://medium.com/@thereadtoday/10-best-birthday-gifts-for-indian-moms-b51b454230db | [] | 2020-12-24 12:37:30.899000+00:00 | ['Mothers', 'Gifts For Indian Moms', 'Gift Ideas', 'Gifts', 'Gifts For Her'] |
The role of cultivated meat in tackling environmental degradation | Contributed by Sreeram Murugaiyen, Gen-Z Advisor at Aleph Farms. This blog is a copy of Sreeram’s class speech at the Francis Douglas Memorial College in March 2020.
(Illustration)
12 years…..According to the United Nations, 12 years is all the time we have left to change to avoid the worst consequences of Global Warming. The news and media have been filled with stories of extreme storms and devastating wildfires. Now the countries and companies around the world are being encouraged to make changes to be more Sustainable. Recently NZ has passed a Zero Carbon Bill. The purpose of this bill is to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions. One of the chief contributors to Climate Change and Environmental Degradation is Meat Production.
Industrial Meat production is responsible for 70% of the meat today. It uses over 80% of the worlds habitable land and 30% of the freshwater supply. In total, meat production demands more than 2,000 trillion tonnes of water every year, that is 63 million litres every second. The Amazon jungle is being cleared to make grazing space, this can release approximately 50 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. Our current meat industry contributes to 18% of the human-made greenhouse gasses, which is more than all of the transportation industry combined.
The meat that causes the greatest problem is beef. 30kgs of Greenhouse Gases are released for every 100 grams of meat. This is mainly due to methane gas. Methane has 25 times the global warming potential than the equivalent amount of CO2. Greenhouse gases are major contributors to climate change. Some observable effects are loss of sea ice in the Arctic, Sea level rise and more intense heat waves. We are soon going to reach a breaking point, where if we continue to consume meat the way we are, we won’t have enough natural resources to keep up with the demand. By 2050, the Earth’s population is set to pass 9 billion, and the meat demand is predicted to be 70% higher. Feeding that number with the current form of meat production is vastly inefficient.
One solution to this problem is to reduce the amount of meat we consume. Many people won’t like this, as Meat is an important part of their social lives. However, there is another more socially acceptable solution, in the form of Cultivated Meat. According to a study published by the American Chemical Society, Cultivated Meat uses around 45% less energy, releases 96% less Greenhouse Gases, uses 99% less land and consumes 96% less water. But it has 100% of the same nutritional value. Rather than changing our lifestyle, Cultivated meat allows people to consume all the meat they want, without the environmental consequences, slaughtered meat brings.
Approximately one month ago, I started getting involved in a project launched by one of the most discussed companies today. I joined a global advisory board which is solely constituted by Generation-Z kids. The ‘Z-Board’ as we call it, was launched by an Israeli food company named Aleph Farms. The purpose of the “Z-Board” is to make sure that the vision of the company aligns with future consumers. Aleph has received many headlines through the past 1.5 years, was the first company to grow steaks directly from the cells of a single cow, and recently was the first to produce meat on the international space station. The cells were harvested on Earth and then grown into muscle by a 3D Bioprinter. This experiment proves Slaughter-free or Cultivated meat can be produced anywhere, in any conditions and without depending on the availability of land.
Our changing planet enforces us, as individuals and as economies, to remove the silos we have built over time and be part of a movement that leads a thoughtful debate around climate change, around food security and around the health of our beings. Cultivated meat represents an integrated solution, to one of the most impactful industries worldwide on those very subjects. This solution is promised to overcome some of the most fundamental challenges we are facing as a society today.
We have the right to be provided with food that is delicious, but at the same time, we share the responsibility to our planet, to the well-being of our society and to the animals welfare. | https://medium.com/@alephfarms/the-role-of-cultivated-meat-in-tackling-environmental-degradation-493022acfbba | ['Aleph Farms'] | 2020-05-20 10:08:08.897000+00:00 | ['Envrionment', 'Cultivated Meat', 'Responsibility', 'Climate Change', 'Environmental Issues'] |
Google Ads for Home Service Businesses: 4 Key to Success! | If you are a home service business owner that wants to grow your business beyond just you and maybe another person or two to have a business that dominates your niche then you probably know that you can’t rely completely on referrals to be able to grow. You need to market yourself.
And one of the best places to market yourself to consistently get new leads is Google ads (formerly Google Adwords). However, you need to have the right strategy before you build a campaign. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up to fail and the campaign will never get you the results that are possible.
To be successful withGoogle Ads, you need to think about a few things and use them to craft a planned out and intentional campaign rather than the half put together ones that I so often see fail.
To make sure that you are set up for success and have an exact roadmap to be able to do this, I have listed out what you need to have below!
You Need a Unique Offer. Stop with the free estimates.
Instead of a free estimate, think about who your perfect customer is, why they are reaching out to you and why they are looking for the services you provide.
Are you a luxury service (home/kitchen/bathroom remodels, ornamental iron, cabinetry installation, landscapers, etc…) or are you a reactive/preventative service (plumbers, wood fences, electrician, lawn care, carpet cleaning, etc..)?
Depending on which of these you are will dictate what kind of offer you should use instead of a free estimate.
If you are a luxury service:
You should offer a consultation of some sort (this still allows you the ability to talk price with them but comes with a higher perceived value and is less of a perceived sales pitch for the consumer.) The most used and applicable example is a design consultation, where you sit down and talk through their design with them.
If you have a reactive/preventative service:
You should offer an inspection based on your prospects fears and that is a problem that your services can solve. Some examples of this are dog escape inspections, carpet inspections/audits, black mold inspections, etc…
You need to know your audience, their pain point and why they are working with you and craft an offer around that.
This will differentiate you from your competition, intrigue people to click on your ad and will sound like less of a sales pitch to your prospects, making them more likely to take action.
2. Don’t direct people to your home page, use service-specific landing pages
Instead of just putting an ad up, sending people to your home page and expecting them to want to work with you, you need to be sending people to a page that is as specific to the exact service they are after as possible.
These pages need to talk about the specific service they are looking for, address their fears, work to build trust, give an awesome offer and have a number for them to call AND a form for them to fill out so that they can get in contact with you whichever way they would like.
3. Make your campaign as specific as possible.
Your ads, keyword choices, landing pages, and offers need to be service specific, and product type specific.
Instead of “general contractor” you should make campaigns around the specific services you offer such as “bathroom remodel” or “kitchen remodels” and create ads, pages and offers around those specific services.
If you have a number of services and don’t have the time, money or energy to put together campaigns for each then choose just 1–3 services you offer that are the most profitable and enjoyable for you and then create campaigns around those.
These will be your most effective and lucrative campaigns and once you have those setup and ready to roll, then you can build campaigns around the other services you offer if you even still want to to do that at that point!
4. Address your customers pain points/effective copy
Lastly, before writing a single ad or creating any landing pages, really think about why people are looking for your services, what questions they may have, what things they may fear and how you can build trust with them.
Talk about everything from the perspective of how this service and your business can take them from where they are to where they want to be.
A couple of questions to ask yourself before writing anything out are:
What are your perfect prospects biggest fears? What is a dream come true result for them? What is motivating them to take action? What are their top 3 burning questions that you can answer? What first step would be most interesting to them? That would serve their self interests the most and allow them to ultimately make a decision more confidently? (Remember: a confident, educated decision is made quickly.)
I hope this helps with your overall campaign strategy and sets you up for success with Google Ads!
Want to have a campaign custom built for you and run for a week for FREE to see the results you could be getting?
Just email [email protected] to get the details! | https://medium.com/@clay_6714/google-ads-for-home-service-businesses-4-key-to-success-9ac8e2237ba2 | ['Clay Stevens'] | 2019-05-25 03:58:35.690000+00:00 | ['Construction Industry', 'Home Services', 'Marketing', 'Marketing Strategies', 'Home Improvement'] |
Are These Similar Enough? | — Anything less than being identical subjects to interpretation.
We as a human have a complex system to interpret similarity. The concept of similarity, regardless of how it must be measured, varies across contexts and problems. If two objects are completely similar, there is no room for interpretation. However, anything less than being identical subjects to interpretation. An object can be anything such as a time series, a document, or an image.
A human can do a lot of processing tasks such as rotation or translation according to the problem requirements if needed. However, this can not be performed by an AI solution without a series of programming and training. For example, how much you think the below images are similar if they are. If the similarity means having similar elements, they are identical; otherwise, they are completely different.
Both images contain similar elements. Are they similar though? Source.
The rabbit and duck illusion is another interesting example. An identical shape with a different angle can be interpreted differently. This shows the significance of angle or rotation in the human interpretation from an image. Therefore, you must always be aware of the sensitivity of an algorithm to the angles of the input data. You sometimes need a rotation-invariant algorithm and sometimes a rotation-variant algorithm.
The duck or rabbit illusion
— We compare objects based on different characteristics.
As said above, anything less than being identical subjects to interpretation. Now, the question is “what are the main characteristics for the similarity?”. If we can properly elaborate on the similarity aspects that we want to measure, it becomes much easier to formulate. Since the first section was explained using image data, I explain this section based on text data to show the high-level concepts are applied to any type of data regardless of its type.
In text-processing, we have three main types of similarity measures including lexical (or form-related), syntactical (or structure-related), and semantical (or meaning-related). Using either of these measures does not disregard the significance of other measures. Two sentences can be similar according to their form but very different according to their meaning.
The most simple textual data is a series of letters or a string that may or may not have meaning. The similarity between two strings can be measured by different methodologies such as edit distance-based or token-based. I do not want to explain how you must implement these methodologies. What I want to emphasize is even the simplest form of similarity can be measured differently. The larger the data length, the more complex the similarity concept. Therefore, you must be prepared to encounter a complex concept of similarity with a larger length in data such as document similarity.
In text-processing, we have three main types of similarity measures including lexical (or form-related), syntactical (or structure-related), and semantical (or meaning-related). Using either of these measures does not disregard the significance of other measures.
— The behavior of the similarity metric must be analyzed properly.
The complexity arises when you want to measure similarity using a mathematical equation. There are various methods to calculate similarity or distance between two objects that I briefly explained in the previous section. In this section, I want to describe the significance of analyzing the behavior of the similarity metric regardless of the calculation method.
In general, we can use similarity and distance interchangeably with some consideration. For example, similarity and distance are opposite of each other so if two objects are very similar it means there is a small distance between them. That is why in many cases similarity(x,y)=1 - distance(x,y) or similarity(x,y)= 1 / distance(x,y). Either of these methods imposes different sensitivity to the similarity metric that becomes crucial while you want to use it in a machine learning algorithm.
A small change in each dimension of the data point that is represented by a vector may significantly skew the vector in high-dimensional space in contrary to two-dimensional space where the vector does not relatively skew.
A similarity metric works differently based on the dimension of space where objects are represented at. For example, if the cosine similarity between two objects in a two-dimensional space is 0.9 you may call those points similar. However, you may not be able to drive the same conclusion in a high-dimensional space with that threshold. Plus, if cos(x, y) = cos(x, z) = 0.9 you barely can make any useful conclusion on the relationship of y and z in a high-dimensional space. On the contrary, you can draw useful conclusions in a two-dimensional space based on spatial geometry. These observations show that you must use the cosine similarity differently based on the space dimension.
The Last Word
In machine learning, especially in clustering techniques, you must constantly work with similarity or distance metrics. For example, one of the main steps in the clustering techniques is to determine the cluster that a new point belongs to. In this scenario, you must calculate the similarity between the new data point and, for example, the cluster centroid and compare it with a threshold.
You can simply use Euclidean distance or cosine distance in many applications. However, it is highly suggested to deeply learn the similarity concept if you want to become an expert in the data science field. I can not say this will solely solve all of your problems but it is an important tool in your toolbox. | https://towardsdatascience.com/are-these-similar-enough-a7466d4a745c | ['Pedram Ataee'] | 2020-10-08 20:55:08.380000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Technology', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Innovation', 'Data Science'] |
A Periodical for the Psychologically Curious | These days most people in the psychology world scoff at the idea of setting New Year’s resolutions. That’s because the research shows that you’ve only got around a 20% chance of meeting them. A second argument is that January 1st is an arbitrary date and that people could (and should) resolve to make changes on any day they choose. Well, in theory that is totally correct, but it is simply a human universal that when when the odometer hits 100,000 it’s much more satisfying than, say 86,942. Similarly, the first day of the year is a particularly good marker to start a new set of habits.
One of the major obstacles is that people often come up with their resolutions on January first under the influence of a hangover and after a week of over-indulgence. Hence they are usually made more out of regret and feeling crap than a deep and profound will for personal change. In order for resolutions to stick, start working on them NOW so that by the first you are ready to roll.
Here are my seven top tips to make 2021 the year you want it to be, and the start of a life more aligned with your principles and goals.
1. Brainstorm: make sure it’s what you really want.
We all want to eat healthier and exercise more — but these are really just habits that reflect a deeper desire — to be the best expression of our selves we can. While we should all practice self-acceptance, wanting to be better is not a bad motivation so long as you really understand what that means to you.
For example, if the goal of “losing weight” is more of a punishment than a motivation —coming from a place of body shame— it’s not a good start. Make your goals advocate for a better you, not beat you into submission.
Who do you want to be in the world? How do you want your life to look? What would it be like if you had alignment between your values, your work, and relationships? The goals you might have (getting out of debt, drinking less, starting a side hustle) are markers of something deeper with you. Find out what that is first. Take some time before New Year’s Day to brainstorm about your best life. Visualise how you’d look after having achieved your goals:
What does it look like?
What are you doing?
How does it feel?
What would you see around you that indicates you’ve got there?
Do this in any way you like, write it down, draw it, create a vision board with images cut from magazines, whatever works. It’s your life, it’s your year, make sure your motivations come from the right place. Find out what’s right for you.
2. Get specific
Once you’re clear about your motivations, get specific about them. Everybody’s heard about “SMART” goals — goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. The thing is that most people are great at coming up with ideas but much worse at plugging those ideas into system that works to help them achieve them.
Personally there’s no better way to throw a wet blanket on an enthusiastic idea than to SMART-goal them.
Even so, great ideas are just not enough. They need to be implemented into a system.
Find a system, any system that works and that you can depend on. If you have a goal to go to the gym three times a week, put it in your calendar as you would an essential meeting with someone else.
If you want to save up a certain sum of money, make dates in your calendar to check your bank accounts and keep yourself honest. Different systems work for different people but you must find a system if you are going to implement the habits you need to achieve your goals. One of my favourite systems for managing tasks (and goals) is called GTD, or Getting Things Done a workable system from the eponymous book. Another reason why you need to start now, so you can learn and implement your system from the 1st with a good plan.
3. Lose old habits
We think our resolutions are about starting something new, but they are actually more about giving up something old: habits. Habits are hard to break because they are programmed into us over time and become automated. People are creatures of habit which are like rolling programmes in our brains that do the thinking for us. That’s why we can mindlessly brush our teeth in the morning without even thinking.
While we often think about habits as behaviours like that, they can also be thought patterns. For example, if you are habituated to thinking you’re not good enough for something, or associate fear with some kind of behaviour (like giving presentations), they will get in the way of achieving your goals just like smoking will get in the way of a healthy heart and lungs. And just like giving up smoking it will feel weird and uncomfortable (see tip 5) when you try to stop.
Habitual thinking, not habitual behaviour, is one of the great unrecognised aspects of personal change.
What thought habits are getting in your way? These often look like:
I’m not the kind of person who has a job like that.
I never see anything through and always quit halfway through.
If I let myself be vulnerable with someone they’ll let me down.
If you can identify those habits of thought, and let them go, you open the door to being different and better in the world. It’s easier said than done — but the sooner you identify the blocking inhibiting habit, the quicker you can find your way to a better expression of you.
4. Create new habits
Because habits are like automatic behaviours, the more we can automate better ones the easier our goals are achieved.
Achieved goals are the lagging indicator of good habits.
While it’s great to get those SMART goals written down — it’s the habits you engage in every day that matter the most. In order to make new habits you have to replace old ones with better ones. You do that by making the new habits as easy as possible to keep — that means no Pringles in the house and packing your gym back the night before so it’s at the foot of your bed when you wake up in the morning.
There’s a lot of science about habits, so don’t reinvent it on your own — get as much help as you can. Check out Charles Duhigg’s Power of Habit for some great research and suggestions about how to change your habits.
5. Prepare to feel uncomfortable
New habits and a better life do not come for free. Whenever you choose something new it feels weird and uncomfortable. The reason why most people don’t achieve their resolutions is because they don’t like the uncomfortable feeling they get when they give up an old habit and start a new one. If you sort your day’s stress with a nightcap, and then give up alcohol on weekdays, you’re going to feel uncomfortable dealing with your day’s stress over a mug of tea. The thing is, you’ll get used to it and after some time you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner.
If your goal is to be more vocal in the workplace or more assertive with your spouse, it will feel odd, you won’t want to do it. You’ll want to avoid it. The thing is, discomfort from change only goes away if you face it, not if you avoid it.
The bad news is that you simply have to feel uncomfortable to implement change in your life otherwise change ain’t gonna happen. The good news is tolerating discomfort is a great life skill, and the more you face it, the better you become at it.
For some help in stopping avoiding things because of fear check out Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway or Daring Greatly.
6. You might have to lose the person you know to find the potential inside.
Everybody has different aspects of themselves living inside them. There is the person that says, “no more Pringles” and the other person that buys a tube of them on impulse the very next day.
In order to achieve your goals you have to build trust in Person One, and that can take some time. The reason why you were unable to stick to goals in the past is that you never believe that Person One was real. Until you really believe in them, you won’t be able to become them. This doesn’t mean you should neglect Person Two — they should have their Pringles every now and then. Person One all the time makes Jack a dull boy — Person Two should shine and play, but in moderation.
Many of us simply don’t recognise ourselves as person one. We imagine that person waking up early, working out, doing the right thing and think, “well, that’s just not me!” (see tip 3). If Person One wants a side hustle, a meditation practice, or a promotion, Person Two is going to have to give up those hours of Netflix, waking up a the last possible moment, and those cylinders of Pringles.
When you become habituated to Person One, Person Two simply won’t fit so much anymore.
7. Track change, forgive yourself, and reward yourself.
Achieving your goals is a marathon, not a race. You will have good moments and bad ones. You will have wins and failures. By tracking your changes you can see the cumulative effect of your small gradual changes. One tube of Pringles next to a week and a half of healthy meals is not a failure, it’s a treat. But by being honest with yourself you can see that in effect, the balance is in your favour. If it starts to fall out of favour, don’t freak out, don’t berate yourself, just gently redress the balance.
We’re all human, even your Person Two isn’t a bad person, and they need their time in the sun too. Treat yourself, enjoy life, don’t become a Person One fascist! If you fall off the wagon, forgive yourself. If you’re doing really well, reward yourself. In achieving your goals you send a message to yourself that you care, so it shouldn’t feel like going to military camp.
It can feel uncomfortable, it can feel hard, but it can also feel gratifying, satisfying, and like you’re finally growing up into who you always wanted to be.
Ultimately, setting goals and achieving them, if done right, is a signal of self love.
Okay, “loving yourself” is a tired old trope of the self-help industry, but all the same, it’s important. The whole point of preparing your resolutions ahead of time is to really identify your goals so that you are in alignment with yourself and the world in which you inhabit. You will be doing yourself a favour.
Typical resolutions like “I’m gonna loose twenty pounds so I can fit into my old swimsuit in July” can be an act of self-hate, not self love. It’s also ineffective because you’re at war with your body and you’re at war with your body it will fight back.
You want to get healthy as a way of loving your body not fighting it
If you have trouble loving yourself — this is exactly where you should start — developing that habit. Every goal and resolution you set on top of that will then be motivated by seeking the best alignment between yourself and the world going forward, which is a marvellous place to start.
Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash
Book recommendations are listed on my Amazon shop as a matter of universality and convenience. Please support your local independent bookstores if you can. I am not a Pringles sales rep (but they are very treacherously attractive to my Person Two). | https://medium.com/stillpointspaces/want-your-new-years-resolutions-to-stick-start-planning-now-3285350a11dd | ['Aaron Balick'] | 2021-01-28 13:22:02.252000+00:00 | ['Goals', 'Lifehacks', 'New Year Resolution', 'Self Help', 'Psychology'] |
Concerned about health? Know it from the experts not the forwarded messages | Just like all that glitters is not gold, not all you see on the internet holds true. With the rise in technology and easy access to the internet, information on anything and everything has climbed a cliff. Though this is a good side for mankind, there is another sad side to it too- The wild spread of misleading information!
Fake news or erratic forwarded messages is not just about politics. Health is the most trapped segment with such spurious information. Advices on well-being are widely dispensed via social media, especially whatsapp; unfortunately people tend to follow these without cross-checking and thus putting their health at risk.
Being concerned about health is the best thing but believing on forwarded messages & not the experts can turn out to be life threatening for your well-being. HealthCare professionals are experts because of the knowledge & experience in their respective domains. If everything you get online via social media and messages would be so authentic, then there wouldn’t be students studying so hard for years in the medical courses & holding an authentic degree to practice medicine.
Why is asking the experts advice important for health?
Whenever you are in a big mix-up or a problem and the issue is important to solve immediately, be it in your workplace, or family or friends; where do you seek the solution? You obviously go to people who are either experienced in the same topic or hold profound knowledge about it, right? That’s called expert advice! In fact the best example of expert advice being so crucial is seen in ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, the Indian Television Show where they provide expert advice as ‘lifeline’ to the contestants to save themselves when in doubt.
If a quiz like show apprehends the importance of expert advice, why to compromise over it when it comes to health? There are several quotes and sayings about health already. What is required is to implement those in our living. Stating one of them here-
‘Every human being is the author of his own health or disease’~ Buddha.
What does forwarded messages do to your health?
When it is about health, it becomes utmost crucial that whatever information is passed remains genuine and from the experts. Forwarded messages hardly hold any reliability as they are just spread on a click of a button without any fact-check. In fact, some people find it fun to create their own messages and watch them getting forwarded to so many.
In such a scenario, not only you put your health in danger but keeping this information in mind you might share it with others and bring them under risk too.
In recent times, the hazards of such forwarded messages were seen creating a panic during the early months of COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these are still under the same roof. As the coronavirus was new to science itself, people got a chance to invent their own way of cure to it and social media was flooded with such unchecked messages adding to the existing anxiety.
How to find a solution to this chaos?
Simple, ask the experts.
Nth Sense is a patient engagement platform which understands that communicating with the Healthcare professionals can become tough at times. Thus to bridge this gap and strengthen the healthcare system of the society, productive efforts are taken by Nth Sense.
Stay connected with us on our social media handles where we regularly bring to you health tips & wellness advice; oh not from forwarded messages, but the experts themselves!
Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/theNthSense/
Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/nth_sense_/
Twitter — https://twitter.com/The_NthSense
LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-nth-sense/ | https://medium.com/nth-sense/concerned-about-health-know-it-from-the-experts-not-the-forwarded-messages-d126b35f72 | ['Yogesh Kumar'] | 2020-12-14 08:53:55.727000+00:00 | ['Healthcare', 'Patient Engagement', 'Fake News', 'Healthcare Professionals', 'Patient Experience'] |
Entrepreneur’s life | Being an Entrepreneur can be very lonely. You usually work everywhere, in the office, in the coffee shop, airplane, train, airport etc…Entrepreneur’s working hours are never defined or over. If you don’t like that, well, you should get back to working 9–5 and that’s it. If you want to party on the weekends, go ahead but don’t say that you want to be an Entrepreneur. Because real Entrepreneurs never stop working. To them, that’s not work, it’s a dream, calling.
I think that the work-life balance is overrated. If you integrate your work with your life, then you don’t need to balance anything. Your work is your life. That’s who you are. Yes, you should rest, relax, unplug sometimes but just to charge your batteries and go harder toward your dreams this time.
An Entrepreneur is willing to do what others won’t. An entrepreneur will sacrifice 5 years of partying and going out so he can build the business, his dream. You always have to sacrifice something. You can’t have everything in life. What are you willing to sacrifice for your dream?
Everybody’s taking an easy-way-out these days. It’s easy to party, drink or sleep all day. It’s easy to work at the same company for years. It’s easy to be average, just like everybody else. But Entrepreneurs are not like everybody else. They are uncommon. They are unique. They are striving for excellence.
Many people want to start their company but they don’t understand how much effort you need to put in building a successful business. I am still learning this principle as I am building my start-up THE CROFIT group. When I say to people that I worked over the weekend, those same people who expressed a desire to start their business, ask me “work over the weekend, are you crazy?” Those people will never build a successful business with that attitude.
True Entrepreneur sacrifices the short term pleasure ( gain) for the long term sustainable life. Long term sustainable life is the goal. You are building a business for the long term, the successful business that can sustain your future lifestyle.
So, to all my wannabe Entrepreneurs, this is how it is. At the beginning of building your business, you work 16–18 hours a day, 7 days a week. The hard work is the only variable that you can control in building your business. So, please make sure you put the hard work if you want to build a successful business.
Until next time,
Damir Pervan | https://medium.com/@damirpervan/entrepreneurs-life-e8e8396f5181 | ['Damir Pervan'] | 2019-03-27 20:48:16.967000+00:00 | ['Company', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup', 'Vision', 'Business'] |
Greek elections: do Syriza want to win? | Alexis Tsipras’ final election rally had the usual soundtrack and familiar props but a different cast. After more than a fifth of his MPs split to form a new left party, the inner core of party activists behind the stage were nervous. Would anybody more than the party faithful come?
Tsipras in July signed a third austerity memorandum with Greece’s lenders. Committed to massive privatisation, spending cuts and handing the Eurozone a veto over future legislation, a significant number of the party’s activists have quit.
Some have joined Popular Unity, led by veteran Syriza leftwinger Panyotis Lafazanis. Others have just chosen to sit outside the official structures.
Though Tsipras has been mobbed on his election tour, and is even now neck and neck with the conservative party New Democracy, both on 31% in the last poll, its clear some of the magic has gone from the Syriza phenomenon.
The first far left government in modern Europe lasted just six months: bludgeoned into submision by the closure of its banking system, and plagued by tactical mistakes with a single source — Tsipras’ refusal to believe the Europeans would themselves refuse a compromise.
The crisis of June-July 2015 revealed two things we didn’t previously understand about the Euro: first that the major powers of Western Europe have less say in its running than Germany in alliance with Slovakia, Latvia, Finland and Estonia. Many people in those countries feel that the Eurozone could become a bottomless pit for profligate nations in the periphery. They would in turn argue that the Eurozone has transformed into a machine for creating jobs in Germany and destroying them across southern Europe, and for shrinking the Eurozone’s GDP. Still, the second revelation is that the majority of Greeks would rather have the Euro plus austerity than leave the single currency.
It was trapped inside these two new realities that Tsipras had to make a choice in July, and he chose first to sign the memorandum; second to impose tough party discipline on those who were trying to mobilise resistance to his strategy.
Though it was certain he would lose the hard left of his party, it was the imposition of discipline — and alleged negative briefing — that drove parts of his own support group in the party away: half of Syriza’s youth organistion left, together with charismatic parliamentary speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou.
Ms Konstantopoulou told me: “The conclusion that could be drawn from Tsipras’ decisions is that the left cannot do anything. Tsipras has grave responsibility making people believe that. The lesson of Greece is that you should never, ever stop struggling. There was a huge group of people across the world saying ‘This Is A Coup’.”
Ms Konstantopoulou is standing for the new Popular Unity party, which opposes the terms of the bailout, and told me she was looking forward to leaving the office of speaker which has “been like a prison”.
For the wider left — not just in Greece but across Europe — the task is to work out how to pursue an anti-austerity strategy within the Eurozone. Their answer is to democratise its institutions, placing the ECB under the control of, and subordinate to, governments and using the poverty and human rights principles written into the EU’s treaties to set limits to the austerity countries can be forced to do.
Most of the people who will lead that anti-austerity movement in Europe were on stage with Tsipras last night. Pablo Iglesias, leader of the Spanish Podemos party, gave a rousing speech; Grigor Gysi, veteran leader of the German Left Party was cheered wildly as he slammed Merkel — whose image in Greece remains unchanged by the recent refugee crisis. Ska Keller, figurehead of the Greens in the European parliament also made a speech. Sinn Fein sent greetings.
For Tsipras these gestures were critical. Many among the European left have been highly critical of his climbdown in June — and critical in detail of the way Syriza ran the government: too slow to attack the oligarchs, too ready to “play the game” of power, and with too few democratic checks on the decisions of Tsipras and his inner circle.
Tsipras has promised to do more, and faster, if he is given a new mandate. But if the polls are right it will be a different coalition. Even if Syriza becomes the largest party on Sunday night, the ebbing of support for its former right wing coalition partner ANEL means Tsipras would have to seek a coalition with pro-austerity parties of the centre: the rump of Pasok (the Greek Labour Party) and the Blairite group Potami.
Tsipras is struggling to win tomorrow not just because his own party has fractured but because the conservative ND party has installed a softer, more liberal leadership. All it will take for Syriza to lose is probably that its own supporters don’t bother voting (many Greeks have to travel to their place of origin to vote), or a few key Athenian middle class districts switch back to ND, as they did in June 2012.
One question always on the minds of Syriza watchers is: do they want to win. It’s never admitted publically but insiders say they tactically threw the election of 2012 because Tsipras thought they were not ready.
Last night I managed to catch a few brief words with Mr Tsipras as he came off stage, visibly exhilarated and surrounded by a rolling scrum of security guards and wellwishers. He said:
“I feel vindicated by this event.” I wondered for a moment what he was referring to and then George Kiritsis, the editor in chief of the party’s newspaper, got his cellphone out and showed me the top-shot of the rally.
It had been huge. Syriza’s voters had easily filled the square.
— Paul Mason
Originally published at Blogs Channel 4.
Paul Mason is Economics Editor of Channel 4 News and author of PostCapitalism. | https://medium.com/dark-mountain/greek-elections-do-syriza-want-to-win-4983ab174e99 | ['Keith Parkins'] | 2015-09-20 22:30:12.639000+00:00 | ['Euro', 'Greece', 'Syriza'] |
Javascript call() Method. | The call() function is a predefined JavaScript function. The call() allows for a function belonging to object can use a method belonging to another object.
var person = {
fullName: function() {
return this.firstName + " " + this.lastName;
}
}
var person1 = {
firstName:"rahul",
lastName: "gupta"
}
var person2 = {
firstName:"ajay",
lastName: "sharma"
}
person.fullName.call(person1); // Will return "rahul gupta"
This example calls the fullName function of person.
call() method provides a new value of this. Through call() method, you can write a function once and then inherit it in another object, without having to rewrite the function for the new object. | https://medium.com/@fitnessandhealths/javascript-call-method-2329cbf0fdbd | ['Deepak Chandra'] | 2020-11-19 05:22:17.793000+00:00 | ['Javascript Tips', 'Javascript30', 'JavaScript', 'Javascript Development'] |
If Nothing is Working Out For You, Just Do One Thing | How can we overcome this situation?
The only thing we can do in such a situation is just to do what needs to be done. Nothing more, nothing less. Do one thing that you know you should do, then do the next thing, and so on. That’s it. That’s the solution.
Sounds like something idealistic, aggressively optimistic, and useless thing to say? In that case, I just want to ask what else can we do? We are in the middle of an ocean with no compass. What else can we do other than rowing?
But the rationale behind this solution is not that we are doing this because there is nothing else we can do. Quite the contrary. We are doing this because that’s exactly what needs to be done. Most of the time, we get so obsessed with controlling the cause and the effect that we forget our limitations. Let’s remind ourselves again that we are nothing more than our past experiences. We think that if something is not done before, it is either impossible or highly unlikely, and this thinking limits our options. We think that there is only some finite number of ways to go from A to B based on our experiences and ignore every other way which we haven’t encounter before.
Another problem is that sometimes we manipulate ourselves into thinking that we are doing something meaningful, but in fact, we are just wasting time. This has become a kind of coping mechanism for procrastination. We know that we should be doing something, but we don’t feel like doing it. In such cases, we choose a middle path, we start doing something less important but not meaningless. In this way, we trick ourselves in thinking that we are doing something productive.
So, by doing something which needs to be done, and something which truly needs to be done, rather than a placeholder task, we are effectively creating a little order from the chaos around us. If we kept doing this for some time, things around us will get a lot clearer and we might be able to find new ways to move towards our goals. This is not over-optimism, this is what always happens. No solution can be found by staying in one place. That’s why it is always better to at least do something, and if that something is something which you know you should do, then there is nothing better than that. | https://medium.com/change-your-mind/if-nothing-is-working-out-for-you-just-do-one-thing-6264db891c89 | ['The Franc Blanc'] | 2020-12-21 10:57:50.882000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Self Improvement', 'Advice', 'Inspiration', 'Self Help'] |
Want to end Homelessness? Here’s How | Without dwelling on how homelessness became epidemic, and what is short term vs. long term, I feel that the following suggestions applied together would eliminate homelessness. Not that any of them are easy, not that they aren’t immediately even possible, but we need to ask those in power to consider them. Not just once, but repeatedly, until the specter of homelessness is gone.
1. We have to get serious about affordable housing.
The average rent in Salt Lake City, where I live, is $1,235 for an apartment of just over 800 square feet. That’s more than what a person earning minimum wage makes all month. In order to afford that rent under the 30% rule, a single renter must earn more than $23 an hour, or $47,840. That’s a nearly unheard-of wage in Utah, even for college graduates. The median per capita income in Utah is only $29,775. So, people are routinely spending more than 30% of their income on rent alone, this puts them at risk for homelessness. This was before the pandemic, which has of course made everything much worse.
I met a lot of people during my time in the shelter who were only homeless because they became disabled, or they were on social security. The average income from disability is only $1,258. Social security provides an average of only $1,503 a month, depending on the lifetime earnings of the recipient. My wife, a registered nurse who was disabled through no fault of her own receives $1,173 a month. These are people who worked all their lives, only to find that Social Security or disability doesn’t provide anywhere near enough to live on, and housing assistance of any kind means spending at least 5–6 years on a waiting list. What can one do for 5–6 years?
It isn’t just Salt Lake City that income inequality and lack of affordable housing have become critical, it’s true of every metropolis in America.
2. The Minimum Wage must be raised.
President Franklin Roosevelt was campaigning for reelection in Massachusetts when a young girl rushed forward and tried to pass him an envelope, prompting a policeman to throw her back into the crowd.
Roosevelt saw this, however, and he told an aide to get the note from the girl. Her note read as follows:
“I wish you could do something to help us girls….We have been working in a sewing factory,… and up to a few months ago we were getting our minimum pay of $11 a week… Today the 200 of us girls have been cut down to $4 and $5 a week.”
At the time, children were working from 10 to 14 hours a day, sometimes for zero wages, their only compensation being food and shelter for their families. Sweatshops and textile factories actually preferred women and children laborers at the time because they were cheaper.
That note lead to the establishment of the minimum wage, albeit over the fierce opposition of conservatives. Roosevelt later said on his radio program, “Do not let any calamity-howling executive with an income of $1,000 a day tell you that a wage of $11 a week is going to have a disastrous effect on all American industry.”
The minimum wage right now is $7.25 an hour, the same thing it’s been for almost 14 years, and conservatives still rage against any consideration of an increase. It should be noted that a full-time job on minimum wage provides for rent on a one-bedroom apartment in exactly ZERO cities in the United States.
When any person or family is paying more than 30% of their income on rent, they are at risk of becoming homeless. From that perspective, a person earning minimum wage can safely afford an apartment rent of around $345. Apartments that rent for $345 simply don’t exist, here in Salt Lake or in any other large American City. Millions of Americans face an untenable situation where up to 60–80% of their income goes toward rent, leaving precious little for food, transportation, medicine, and especially, emergencies.
Lower-income jobs very rarely provide adequate healthcare, and with so much income dedicated to rent, a single illness or injury can mean the difference between being housed or being homeless. I know, I’ve seen it firsthand.
3. The “War on Drugs” must be ended.
Why? Because it never worked. All the ‘war on drugs’ ever accomplished was to give the ‘land of the free’ the black eye of having more people in prisons than any other nation on earth. The war on drugs has turned us into the imprisonment capital of the world.
We need a war on addiction, not a war on drugs. At one time during the drug war, we were beginning construction on a new jail or prison somewhere in America every 2 months. Imagine if we had built new addiction treatment centers instead! What if we had made compassion a valid approach to the problem instead of brutality? What if we had focused on perfecting the science of healing addictions instead of simply tossing people into giant concrete bunkers full of cages?
Treatment centers are often derided for having a low rate of success, which is patently ridiculous when compared to the success of jails and prisons. Throwing someone in a cage and psychologically beating the humanity out of them very rarely, if ever, returns a better human being to society. Instead, we have built a class of people who can no longer get by because of the ubiquitous background checks required for a good job or an apartment.
We live in a nation so backward that we’ve largely legalized marijuana but provided no remedy for marijuana convictions! Far too many people are consigned to live on the streets for felony drug convictions related to marijuana.
4. We must help the mentally ill.
It’s incomprehensible to me the cruelty of today’s society with regard to the mentally ill. Since Ronald Reagan emptied the mental hospitals in the 80s, it has apparently become OK to just let people with mental disabilities languish on the streets. I really don’t understand this one. Most of the mentally ill that I saw while homeless seemed to be schizophrenic, as they were detached from reality. There are good medications to treat schizophrenia, but the streets and homeless shelters aren’t well suited to the management of those kinds of medications.
There were also autistics like me, our various communication difficulties contributing to our situation. Many if not most of the mentally ill among the homeless are perfectly treatable. American society must be more humane in this regard.
5.We’ve got to find help for foster children “aging out” of their homes.
When unfit (or imprisoned) parents lose their children to the foster system, those children often wind up homeless when they turn 18. I was actually surprised to learn that. All over the country, over 6,000 children a year have a birthday and instantly become homeless.
This is often an especially tragic result of the ‘war on drugs,’ as parents with addictions are imprisoned instead of treated, a tactic that destroys both lives and families at the same time.
The child welfare system is badly underfunded and poorly managed, and it shows. By the last year of high school, only 20% of foster children are proficient in English, just 5% are proficient with math and only 1.2% ever earn a college degree. More than half will experience homelessness or incarceration before their 26th birthday, and for far too many, that will become their permanent way of life.
6. We need more supportive housing.
Many among the homeless are not ready, for one reason or another, for their own apartment. This is where supportive housing has been extremely successful. Placing these people in supportive housing with on-site case managers can get them recovered enough to move out on their own. Retired hotels can work well for this purpose. This approach to the eradication of homelessness is actually more economical than letting people languish on the streets.
7. We need low-barrier apartments.
Anybody who has rented an apartment recently knows how many invasive examinations of their life are necessary before they can move in. Credit checks, background checks, income verifications, prior eviction checks, and whatever else the property managers want to know about you. It’s as if you applied for a job at the CIA. The problem is, many people are blemished enough even without this kind of scrutiny, and they still have to live somewhere. Giving them nowhere to go ensures that they will, in fact, go nowhere, and the next stop is either a shelter, a park, or a prison. Building a crueler society only ensures crueler people, and we’ve got to get past this. There have got to be carefully managed low-barrier places where people can live while doing what they need to in order to improve their lives. Low barrier apartments can be managed like supportive housing for some, just not as intensively.
Before the pandemic comes to an end, America will face the greatest housing crisis in its history, as 30 to 40 million people are facing imminent eviction. As it is right now, in almost every big city in America, there is already shock and dismay at the ever-growing number of homeless. Now just imagine the reaction when the number of unhoused in our streets people double, triple, or even worse in the coming months as millions upon millions of leases come due and there is no money to pay the rent. I’m not saying that it might happen, I’m saying that it will. It’s inevitable.
How many of the 30–40 million of those evicted will wind up homeless is unclear. But it will hit hard and last for quite some time.
Dealing with this will take money, there’s no way around that. We just might have to tax a few billionaires. | https://medium.com/@kmarloyost/want-to-end-homelessness-heres-how-1224b616477b | ['K Marlo Yost'] | 2020-12-23 23:41:17.981000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Poverty', 'Social Justice', 'Homeless', 'Love'] |
Why I Love My Calendar. We’d probably go insane without them | Why I Love My Calendar
Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash
There is nothing as optimistic as a calendar — it takes the endlessly unfolding nature of time and gives it structure and circularity, offering us a sense of fresh starts and soft endings. Calendars (and clocks and all devices that mark time) help us manage the very unmanageable notion of time itself. We’d be literally lost without them.
Take 2020 (please). What an awful year this has been, right? Seeing it as “an awful year” holds out the notion that 2020 is a fixed period of time that will come to an end. No one thinks the pandemic or the economy or national divisiveness will disappear, poof!, at midnight on December 31, but still, it feels like… maybe it will be the beginning of a better year. I have never cared much about celebrating New Year’s Day, but this year I can’t wait. I know it’s not rational, but it feels like January 1, 2021 will be a new beginning, a chance to shed the ugly, wrinkled skin of 2020 and be reborn, sleek and silky and full of promise.
Calendars, of course, are an invention. In truth, time is a linear thing, marked only by the recurring seasons and the arc of lifetimes. Otherwise, time is a long march, ever forward. Calendars are comforting; it’s reassuring to feel that time exists in predictable, familiar units rather than in an undifferentiated existential sprawl. In my first book, Saturday Night, I wrote about how a score of different communities around the country spend Saturday night. What intrigued me was how urgently we all — rich, poor, young, old, married, single, and in every region of the country — yearn for a marker in time. We need to believe time forms an arc that has a beginning, a hump in the middle, a celebratory end. This urge is universal and eternal (hello, Biblical tale of six days on/one day off!). We need to feel that time is a narrative that unspools and renews frequently. In particular, we want to be able to package a bad stretch and be able to tie it up and believe that it ends. I can barely count the times I’ve declared that I’m having a bad week, as if it’s a predetermined stretch that will end magically Sunday night.
One thing about the pandemic has been the strange, smooth nothingness of time. Every day seems the same as the next, a muddied blur. We’ve lost the narrative — our narrative of how time has texture, the narrative that we aren’t on an endless, shapeless journey but are traveling through a series of manageable, distinct periods that have highs and lows, entries and exits, in a cycle that is human-sized, that is comforting and concrete rather than stretching without end into eternity.
This has been a bad year. I can’t wait to start a new, fresh one. | https://medium.com/@susanorlean/why-i-love-calendars-9a757e1872d7 | ['Susan Orlean'] | 2020-12-23 07:16:03.371000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Time', 'Calendar', 'First Person'] |
I’m a Professional Cuddler: this is how it works | I’m a professional cuddler.
That’s exactly what it sounds like. I’m paid to cuddle.
It’s definitely not a mainstream job, but I’ve found that it works really well for me.
When I first heard about cuddling and a specific site that could be used to connect with clients, I was intrigued and signed up immediately.
Although I had some initial apprehension about how it would work, I very quickly found myself navigating the cuddle community with relative ease (especially compared to most jobs I had in the past).
*Please note that although I relay my experiences as truthfully as possible, I do change minor details to protect the identity and privacy of my clients.*
What exactly cuddling entails
Cuddling refers to sharing intimate but platonic touch.
Holding hands, hugging, and curling up together are all things that might happen during a cuddle session.
Kissing and sexual touches are strictly off-limits.
While the particular comfort area may vary depending on the cuddler, I personally choose to enforce that my clients may not touch me in any place where my bra or underwear touches me, other than my back. I also have a preference that they do not touch my face.
There are many cuddle positions to choose from, and it depends what the client’s preference and comfort level is.
Often, I will offer to give my clients back, shoulder, and neck massages, and sometimes they reciprocate!
Photo by Clayton Robbins on Unsplash
Cuddling is much more than physical touch, though. The conversation is usually just as important.
Many clients want to be able to make an emotional connection, especially the clients who will be seeing me on a regular basis. They want somebody who knows enough about them that they can share their struggles and triumphs during each of our sessions.
In this way, I serve as somewhat of a therapist. At the end of the session, many of my clients express that I have helped them get through some really tough times.
More than a therapist, though, I think I fill the role of friend and companion for a lot of my clients, as evidenced by the fact that I’ve had cuddle sessions where clients request that we watch movies and shows, eat meals together, listen to music, do couples yoga, and play chess.
I’ve even had several clients fall asleep and take a nap during their session as we’re curled up together! It not only makes things easy for me, but it makes me feel like I’m doing a good job if they were so relaxed that they nod off!
Why cuddle
Physical touch is really important for most humans.
For some people, physical touch is their specific love language. If they don’t receive it, they don’t feel like they are valued. It truly is a basic human need for them.
For others, the need for physical touch may not be quite as urgent and vital, but it is still a basic need that needs to be satisfied at least occasionally for most of us.
A lot of people are able to satisfy their need for physical touch with a romantic partner or even a friend, but some people do not have that privilege. For this reason, cuddling sessions have arisen to help satisfy that need.
Photo by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash
In addition to the sense of wellbeing and comfort that many people get from cuddling, there are definitive chemical reactions that take place in the brain when cuddling.
A cuddle session can activate the part of the brain that is involved in learning, decision-making, emotions, and social behaviors. It can relieve pain, reduce stress, soothe depression, and give the immune system a boost.
Hugging can even reduce someone’s susceptibility to a respiratory infection!
Another study highlighted the ability of physical touch to soothe fears about mortality and help people with low self-esteem.
One of my clients actually told me that his therapist recommended that he try meeting with a professional cuddler!
How to find clients
There are several different websites that connect cuddlers with each other. I signed up for a few when I first started. The benefit of those sites are that many of them have safety measures, and they make it very easy for clients to book with you. The downside is that different sites take different percentages of your pay, but in every case, I have still ended up making significantly more money per hour than I ever did in the food service industry or even as a teacher!
By chance, I’ve managed to also find several recurring clients outside of those sites, either through social media or through real-life acquaintances who know that I am a cuddler and want to book a session with me.
What a session looks like
A little prep work goes into setting up the first session. After the client makes their first contact with me, I spend a little time communicating with them to establish expectations and boundaries.
Once we start to establish a rapport, we schedule a session.
Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash
On the day of the cuddle session, I make sure that I shower and brush my teeth close to the session so that I am as clean and fresh as possible.
If I am hosting, then I also make sure to change my sheets and pillowcases. If my client is hosting, then I make sure to leave home with plenty of time to arrive at their location.
When we greet, I usually read the client’s body language to gauge whether I should initiate a hug right away or first warm them up with some friendly conversation before exchanging touch.
As we climb into bed or onto a couch, I make sure to reinforce my boundaries and ask if they have any specific requests or additional boundaries. I’ve had some clients who are very timid about touch at first and are not comfortable with jumping right into things, but most clients are eager to get straight to cuddling.
First-time cuddlers are usually pretty shy and might have questions or want to talk a bit more, but usually the cuddling begins within the first 5 minutes.
The rest of the session is up to the client. A standard session will involve at least some conversation as we cycle between different cuddle positions. I mentioned in the first section some of the other activities clients have requested.
Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash
My average session length is two hours. I have a lot of clients who book me for one hour, and I have several who like to see me for two or three hours. Occasionally I will get a longer session than that and have done a few overnight sessions, which proceed as a normal session but with some sleeping mixed in with the cuddling.
At the end of the session, I collect payment from the client and we go our separate ways.
If the client has hosted the session at a hotel, they may first need to accompany me to the parking garage and pay my parking fee.
If I hosted, then I immediately change my sheets and pillowcases again and take a quick shower.
Assuming that all went well and the client is local, then I will probably hear from them again soon to schedule the next session! | https://medium.com/@professional-cuddler/im-a-professional-cuddler-this-is-how-it-works-d2a874ad8140 | ['Betty Willow'] | 2020-12-22 21:09:16.227000+00:00 | ['Cuddle Therapy', 'Professional Cuddling', 'Cuddling', 'Therapy', 'Professional Cuddler'] |
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Revisionist History | Hamilton An American Musical
The thrill and the joy of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “Hamilton” cannot really be overstated. I had been waiting, basically since it opened, to see it. New York wasn’t possible nor was Chicago, but, once it landed in Toronto, I was not throwing away my shot. Tickets were bought, hotel rooms arranged and an outfit worthy of the occasion selected. And then: Covid hit. Yet, thanks to the wonder of Disney+ I was really not throwing away my shot as I ended up watching “Hamilton” in my mothers house, in a comfy chair; wearing shorts and a pyjama t-shirt, double fisting free cocktails and feasting on charcuterie all while having a front row seat and the ability to rewind should there have been anything I missed. Needless to say, it was awesome, and, also unlikely, I will ever buy a ticket to go to the actual theatre again.
It wasn’t just the setting, the snacks or the seating though that made the “Hamilton” experience exceptional. Those things gilded the lily for sure, but, it was the experience of “Hamilton” itself that was magic and lived, incredibly, up to all of its hype as things rarely, if ever, do. It should be stated upfront that while “Hamilton” was nearly universally praised it was also, fairly and rightly, criticized as ignoring altogether Alexander Hamilton’s role in slave trading and Native American genocide and those are, obviously, not small things and, again, obviously, rightful criticisms. While Lin-Manuel Miranda tackles Hamilton’s shortcomings through his character flaws including loquaciousness and arrogance, as well as his extramarital affair, there were glaring omissions that are better encompassed in Ron Chernow’s book on which the musical was based.
While the revision of history through its omission is problematic, Miranda’s ability to divine the future through the lens of the past, thereby revising both, is pure and unadulterated magic. There is no other word for a play and a playwright who manage to foresee a future while portraying the past and this is where “Hamilton” gets so, so, so much right. The cast is full of black and brown bodies inhabiting a landscape that, in 1776, belonged almost exclusively to white men. It tells the story of these white men through rap, hip hop, reggae and R&B; forms and styles appropriated now being reclaimed by those who created them. And, it’s not that these forms and styles can’t be shared, on the contrary, as white bodies inhabit the landscape of “Hamilton” too. What those white bodies don’t do in this play though is dominate or subjugate.
Moreover, it is the women of “Hamilton”, the Schuyler sisters: Anjelica, Peggy and the future Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, Eliza, who claim centre stage. In fact, spoiler alert: Eliza lives to tell her own story, as much, and perhaps even more, than her husband Alexander’s. It was she who lived long enough to work to establish the Washington monument, move toward abolishing slavery, enshrine her husbands legacy and open an orphanage in New York City. It is astounding to see women as more than figments of others imaginations and, instead, having rich, full and complex lives all their own.
While Eliza lived, Alexander did not having been killed by a man as ambitious, as driven, as arrogant, loquacious and domineering as himself: Aaron Burr. Toxic masculinity man; it’ll get you every time. In all seriousness though (which toxic masculinity, toxic anything really, most certainly is), these men were portrayed as thoughtful, idealistic, scholarly and, like the play itself, flawed. Yet, in an incredibly refreshing turn, it was their flaws that, yes, broke them, but, also, that fuelled the engines of profound and lasting change. It was their belief in their ability to create a world not yet imagined that drove them and that drove America to become more than previously imagined.
Isn’t that what always fuels change? Dark as much as light. Insanity as much as soberness. Recklessness as much as deliberation. It is always in the middle, at the tensest point between opposites, where growth and change can most fully happen. Burr’s caution in the face of Hamilton’s relentless tirelessness. Lafayette and Laurens’ willingness to die on the altar of change versus Seabury’s allegiance to the status quo. We always need everything and we always need everyone; sometimes and especially those who annoy us and push our buttons the most. These men, and women, as written by Miranda, were driven by creativity to create and creation is messy. As Hamilton says, “every action’s an act of creation” and these were people willing and determined to create at all costs.
The creation of a new world is often a disaster; full of bloodshed, war, harm and the potential for destruction of self and others. It can be devastating and yet there is no other way to do it. Hamilton knew it then and Miranda knows it now. Black Lives Matter and every single protester know it too. As Laurens sings in “Hamilton”, it is those forced to live on their knees who, ultimately, rise up and we are witnessing such a rising right now. If the protesters didn’t understand that some sacrifices are worthy of risk, they would not be marching in a global pandemic. They would not risk their health or their lives. Heather Heyer and Summer Taylor would not have left their homes to, ultimately, make the ultimate sacrifice, without knowing the possibility of grave risk. No revolutionary should have to risk their lives, but, no revolution has ever come without often painful sacrifice.
True revolutionaries make a decision that it is worth sacrificing and fighting for a future that will be better for those that will follow because, on earth as it was in “Hamilton” they know that “tomorrow there will be more of us”. And who is the “more of us” who will rise up? It’s men, and women, like Hamilton and his crew: immigrants, poor, sons of whores; sons without fathers who become founding fathers. Because, as they astutely note in Hamilton, “immigrants get the job done”. Take that Stephen Miller. No great nation or great society was ever built by sameness. It was created by difference and forged by strife; the only ways to ever arrive at a more perfect union.
Hamilton did not create a perfect world or a perfect economic system but he created one that was better than what had been there before. Miranda through his play also did not create a perfect world but he created a world more perfect and representative than the one which came before it. If either of these men, Hamilton or Miranda, had been cancelled by the culture at large, the change they envisioned could not have happened. A world more just, equal and fair would be nothing more than a pipe dream.
We cannot cancel people or things when they are not perfect. It is thoughtless and careless and will never get us to where we need and want to go. The only way we can ever get where we need and want to go is through resistance and revolution. Lin-Manuel has said, “History is entirely created by the person who tells the story”. Well, he told a story that will one day be relegated to the history books and, while that story may be imperfect, it was more perfect than its origin story. It is more perfect because it divines, through the lens of the eighteenth century, the world of the twenty-first. It revises history as it embodies and represents the world that revolutionaries — imperfect and flawed as they may have been — envisioned and were willing to work and fight and strive for. Hamilton is referred to as “An American Musical” and that is accurate as it is a very American story. It would also have been accurate to call it “Hamilton: A Human Story” as it is like humanity itself. It is messy, flawed, striving, imperfect and, in the end, beautiful, amazing, wondrous, perfect in its imperfectness and just absolutely stunning in its gloriousness. | https://quagchri.medium.com/lin-manuel-mirandas-revisionist-history-13c9f2e20967 | ['Christine Quaglia'] | 2020-07-11 19:20:55.175000+00:00 | ['Hamilton', 'Society', 'Equality', 'Justice', 'Race'] |
Day 022: Where I Finally Get My Headphones! | Also, Trump now rules America…
Anyways..
So, after more than almost 2 months of purchasing the headphones from Massdrop, I finally receive them 2 days back! And the best part is, even though I was charged customs for it, it was way less than what I had expected. Basically I got the headphones at almost 50% than the original price. That’s a steal!
About the sound.. they are amazing! The instruments are so clear and everything sounds so natural that I actually forgot what my previous earphones sound like. These headphones actually need a DAC/AMP combo to play them at their full potential but even without them they sound phenomenal.
The only concern is the fit on my head. It’s a little tighter than what I was expecting but more than that, it’s the earpads that surround the ears completely are causing a little discomfort. Now, I have always used earphones, the in-ear types, all my life, so I am not at all used to big headphones. So, it may be either after using them for a few weeks I may get used to them and they feel comfortable or I may be wearing them wrong. I don’t know but I guess time will tell.
Other updates:
Things are going fine. Really fine. I just finished my new portrait sketch today finally, which I started almost 6 days back. Thanks to me being sleepy and lazy and also my headphones, which I spent whole day listening to, my work got delayed. But it’s ok, I finished it and now I can move forward. Moving forward is the key.
The only thing to work on now is my sleep cycle. It’s really messed up.
I slept till 5pm today.. Yeah..
It is really difficult for me get up in the morning and no, not because I am sleepy. I mean, I am sleepy but I still can get up, always have, but it’s I think it’s because I know my mornings will not be peaceful.
You know how peaceful mornings are really important? It is really important to get up and organize your thoughts before you start work. It is really important to spend some time with yourself before you even have breakfast. This is the kind of morning I would love to have but it’s almost impossible because the day in my house starts early and there’s disturbance everywhere. And that makes me to not get up. I know that’s bad but I’m working on it.
There are many more things I want to talk about and write about. There are many more things that are running inside my head but whenever I think of coming out with them, something stops me. I don’t know what. Maybe the idea that they are too personal and sad? There are many things happening around me I want to complain about, sometimes even scream, but I can’t. Things about how people are, how they treat others, how their thought process is and how people prioritize the wrong people. Everything is related to the people in my family and relatives and talking about them is like giving away family secrets. But I want to talk, I want to say that they are wrong. I guess I’ll have to wait for when the time is right.
Till then, hoping for the best preparing for the worst.
This is Nad, signing off. Have a great day.
Goodnight. | https://medium.com/nadeemabd/day-022-where-i-finally-get-my-headphones-a3abf449802c | ['Nadeem Abdulla'] | 2017-02-04 14:53:54.711000+00:00 | ['Headphones', 'Music', 'Daily Blog'] |
The politically incorrect commencement speech | Dear 2020 graduates:
You already have gotten one slap in the face with all ceremonies and the following parties being canceled. Have your second cheek ready for further blows of reality. There will be a shortage of jobs for those of you who will seek them, and there will be fewer advanced education opportunities if you choose that path. But do not feel sorry for yourself; feel blessed. Why? Because hardships give you the benefit of experiencing life at its worst. On day one, you will face challenges that, reaching decades back, your predecessors did not need to fear.
For those of you who just graduated from high school, welcome to adulthood as it is, not as you wish it would be, or not as someone might promise it to you. In my native country of Poland, a high school diploma is called a certificate of maturity. The high school ends with a — considered harsh — maturity exam. When handing high school diplomas to their former pupils, instead of using first names as they might have done minutes before, teachers, for the first time, call them as Ms. Kowalska or Mr. Nowak. That little spectacle is to emphasize that you entered high school as kids but are leaving it as adults. Regardless of whether there is a formal maturity exam or not, the actual maturity test starts the first day after graduation.
You may look in the mirror, doubting who you are, and wondering what you want to do with your life. All of us had those moments, and it usually takes a few years to get some meaningful answers. You are lucky because stark reality will make your choices clearer. You will mature faster, which might be a daunting experience. But, if you overcome that hurdle, you will be like hardened steel when facing the next challenges.
As the old saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. You are fortunate that you are being forced to look for that silver lining in your very first adult decisions. The secret of becoming happy and prosperous is in finding something positive in whatever bad is happening to us. Try to see that silver lining in every obstacle you will ever encounter until your last day.
In your early teens, when entering high school, you already felt like almost adults and impatiently counted the days separating you from the formal recognition of your adulthood. Now, once you have achieved it, I have bad news for you: The next counting is to your last day. I hope all of you will be among the first, apparently already born, who will live until the age of 150. But we know that most of you will be gone much sooner — many too soon. Have this in mind when making your life choices. As none of us knows in advance how many days we have been given, do not waste any of them. Do not waste even one minute of your life. Every one of them is precious. Even in the smallest tasks, engage merely if you can see a superior purpose behind them. Whatever you do, do it the best you can. Life is too short to waste even one minute of it.
Do not get lured by today’s doubtful pleasures or conveniences that can be corrected tomorrow or next year. That next day or next year might not be there for you. Like many of us before, you soon will realize that with every year, birthdays seem to come more often than before. Do not get caught with regrets when because of age, illness, or economic conditions, it will be too late to mend your earlier mistakes. Live every minute of your life as if it is the one before your last. This way, when the final moment comes, you will be at peace with yourself. You will know that whatever you got, you lived it to its fullest. If you live your life this way, happiness will happen to you without you even trying.
If you graduated from college, just by selecting the course of your education, you have some primary life decisions already behind you. What you have learned in your specialization will work for you. The additional few years you spent in school will work against you. Schools by design tell you how things should be in real life. Professors are like Catholic priests (those obeying the canonical law) teaching sex education. As the ones not practicing, they might have a valuable perspective. As the ones who read all the relevant books, they know about things that are better to learn in the classroom than in life’s school of hard knocks. But whatever you learned in school is like sex; you cannot master it unless you practice it. Also, usually, it is much more complicated than as seen in the movies.
Regardless of whether you have a diploma from high school or one with a doctorate title on it, do not get overwhelmed by what you know. It only defines the borders of what you still do not know. What you do not know is much more than you ever can learn. Knowledge is like an endless universe. You cannot conquer it all; the name of the game is in exploring it as much as you can endure.
Some may tell you that if you want to specialize in art history, you do not need math or biology; if you study math, you need not learn geography or literature; and so on. This approach assumes that you will be a tiny cog in the machine, the complexity of which you would never comprehend. If you want to be a fully developed human, you need to have a broad basic knowledge. You need to make sure your old-fashioned human intelligence is well advanced to survive in a world where artificial intelligence takes over many tasks that, until recently, had been done by humans. You will be fine if you follow the old rule that an intelligent person “ tries to learn something about everything and everything about something. “
COVID-19 reminds you that we live in the global world now. Embrace it. We are all connected. Data tells us that education in the United States is not as good as in many other countries. You might be a part of this statistic. Do not be soothed that some might receive an even weaker education than you did. If you fall into complacency that some are still not as good as you are, one day there will be no one there; you will be the worst one. If you measure up to those who are better than you are, one day there will be no one there; you will be the best.
If you are an American, I have to confirm what you might already know, that now is not the best time for the United States for America. Foreigners have many jokes about Americans. In one of them, they ask what we call someone who fluently speaks one foreign language. It is a bilingual person. What do we call someone fluent in multiple foreign languages? It is a multilingual individual. What do we call someone speaking only one language? He or she is an American. Do not be an American who fits this joke. Learn at least one foreign language to the degree that you can connect with the culture behind it. The old saying is that one lives as many lives as the number of languages he or she masters. Also, knowing at least one distinct culture, you will always have one more perspective on whatever problems you tackle.
Riots on the streets reveal that the United States has fundamental problems. The bad news is that there is no vision anywhere on how to get out of it. The good news for you is that there is no vision anywhere on how to get out of it. You need to get America out of the current trouble. No one will do it for you. This is a challenge and an opportunity for your generation.
Your ability to act will be limited because, within the last few decades, we experienced an accumulation of wealth. As you heard it, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. If you are among the 99.99% financially, you are likely in a worse position than your parents or grandparents were at your age. Your only way of correcting this is by getting rich. Yes, you have heard that there are more important things in life than money. You probably heard that when chasing a dollar, many lose their moral compass. They did not tell you that money demoralizes people, equally those who have it as those who do not. The looting we see everywhere confirms this.
Many of the billionaires were talked into signing a so-called “giving pledge.” They committed to give away most of their wealth to philanthropic causes. The giving pledge illustrates the crux of our problem: making money is morally dubious, living off charity is acceptable. In a healthy society, most people earn enough to support themselves. Only a few live off charity. In the United States, too many Americans do not earn enough to support a decent life. Instead of finding ways for Americans to make more by diligence, skills improvement, and entrepreneurship, our leaders went an easy way by giving alms to low-income people. Regardless of how generous that food stamps, housing support, tax income credits, and all other handouts are, they cannot make your life dignified. Dignity, like satisfaction and happiness in life, cannot be given; they have to be earned. The easiest way to get satisfaction in life is from the job well done; happiness comes from the paycheck earned, even if it is not much higher than the check handed out.
The giving pledge is just one more idea of making even more Americans dependent on charity. Behind the giving pledge is an unexpressed assumption that even if given the same opportunity that many of our self-made billionaires were fortunate to have, other Americans are not capable of succeeding. Reject this handout as contemptuous and ask for that money to be invested in start-ups. With the diminishing middle class, your chances that between you, your family, and friends, you can find the seed money needed to start a business have shrunk. The only way of rebuilding the middle class is by giving money to industrious people, with ideas and entrepreneurial drive. If only a tiny percent of them succeed, it will be enough to reverse the weakening of America. Only the billionaires have the money needed to do it. Many of them have already agreed to give their money just to keep more Americans dependent on charities. Convince them that instead, this money should go to Americans who have ideas and the drive to enrich themselves and others. That seed money should make many of you into millionaires and billionaires. I do not know how you will convince billionaires, but if you do not ask for that money, you certainly will not get it.
For the generation of your grandparents, John Wayne was an icon portraying the romanticized characters of American frontiers. The idols were people of a strong personality, with a firm sense of right and wrong. Hard work, family, and respect for others were in high esteem. Those were values that young people were taught to follow; despite that, in real life, things were not much different from now. About 30 years ago, Homer Simpson came into existence, showing the satire of that idealized America. Critics claim that after the first 10 seasons, declined in quality. Perhaps it is a matter of perception. After enjoying the value of a good parody, gradually, Americans embraced the Simpsons, not as their caricatures but as their authentic portraits. There is nothing laughable when Homer Simpson is our boss, a politician, or a media personality.
Those of you who already have an account at LinkedIn may receive emails with the subject line: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” In the world, as portrayed by John Wayne characters, it is about who you are and what you know. It is the same in every respectable organization. In the world of Homer Simpson, it is about whom you know. LinkedIn is just one example; you will face that “simpsonization” all over America. Do not accept it. Do not become a caricature of yourself.
When seeking solutions to problems that America is facing, do not listen to people who have answers, listen to people who have questions. You can figure out the answers. Do not listen to doomsayers that nothing can be done because of this or that. Everything we can do better than before. But the first step is in understanding that any deficiency can be corrected by clearly defining its essence. Focus on that one and dismiss ideologues pushing their solutions in abstraction from the facts. Because, if you define the problem properly, you are already halfway to the right solution.
Dear graduates, you have a rough start. But you are blessed with challenges of epic proportions. Start working on them today. The future is yours to enjoy. Live your life in a way that, at the moment of your last breath, your last thought will be that you contributed to making the world around you better than it was when you started. | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/the-politically-incorrect-commencement-speech-72d5e1076341 | ['Henryk A. Kowalczyk'] | 2020-06-05 01:23:58.179000+00:00 | ['Graduation Speech', 'Graduation 2020', 'Simpsons', 'Intelligence', 'Giving Pledge'] |
UI/UX Design: The Biggest Mistake Designers Make About Usability | Understanding Usability
So what exactly is usability?
Essentially, usability is a user’s ability to use the solution that you have designed for them in a way that delivers the desired results for that user.
Great. What’s there to misunderstand?
The issue here is that usability often becomes synonymous with the word “good,” in our minds. Run usability test, pass? Good, solution is good.
Here’s the rub though:
“Usable” does NOT mean “good.”
A shovel is a usable solution that will pass a usability test for helping a user dig a hole.
The problem is that while it makes digging a hole easier, digging that hole is still incredibly painful for the user, especially as it gets wider and deeper.
The same thing happens with your solution. The user will use it, derive results, tell you it works, and that they “liked,” it and think it will “work,” but I guarantee if you’re getting those answers, you’re more than likely asking the wrong question. | https://uxplanet.org/ui-ux-design-the-biggest-mistake-designers-make-about-usability-9e12b3da521f | ['Nick Lawrence'] | 2020-12-23 21:48:20.920000+00:00 | ['Ui Ux Design'] |
The next government must give telecoms consumers a seat at the table | As we approach a general election, it’s difficult to make firm predictions about the policy agenda over the next few years. But with a number of parties making bold proposals on broadband, it is clear that the future of telecoms infrastructure is up for grabs.
We also know that loyal mobile and broadband customers are overpaying by £1.2 billion a year. This is just one example of the harmful practices telecoms consumers fall victim to.
The customer voice is almost entirely missing when important decisions are made
In other essential markets, independent consumer advocates fight to ensure the consumer voice is heard. These are strong, well-resourced bodies with powers and responsibilities set out in legislation. They work to put people’s interests, not profits, at the heart of decision making.
Citizens Advice is the statutory consumer advocate in the energy market. We found that people are overpaying for energy infrastructure by £7.5 billion over the course of the current 8-year price control. As a direct result of our work, so far 3 networks have agreed to return a total of £287 million to consumers. Ofgem has also publicly committed to make the next price control much tougher — saving customers £6 billion off their bills from 2021.
No comparable body exists for telecoms consumers. While industry can and should be part of these debates, consumers shouldn’t be left without a seat at the table.
It’s time telecoms consumers had a strong champion to fight their corner.
Consumer advocates can also shine a spotlight on unfair practices
We found loyal customers are being ripped off across a range of essential markets. In total these customers were overpaying by £4.1 billion per year, so we made a super complaint to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The CMA upheld our complaint and put forward a series of recommendations to Ofcom and other regulators.
Since then, Ofcom have completed their own analysis. They found a £1.2 billion loyalty penalty across mobile and broadband. So far they have set out proposals which would address some, but not all of this harm. For example, we estimate that the current proposals for the mobile market would address around 80% of the total harm. This progress is welcome but insufficient to get rid of the loyalty penalty altogether. We look forward to further announcements in the coming months.
The existing proposals are mostly based on voluntary agreements reached with industry. An independent advocate could scrutinise these commitments and hold industry to their word.
The loyalty penalty isn’t the only problem faced by telecoms customers. Our 2016 research found UK consumers experience 27.6 million problems per year. This is more than in any other essential service. A strong consumer advocate would shine a spotlight on these problems and push government, Ofcom and industry to address them.
Establishing a telecoms consumer advocate should be a priority for the next government
Many parties have come out with bold proposals for the broadband market during this election campaign. Any new policies will sit alongside a number of existing major market developments.
Next year Ofcom will auction off extra 5G network capacity. This will help shape who will have access to this technology and at what price for years to come.
Ofcom has also approved plans to move towards switching off the traditional fixed phone network. Customers still using these services will be switched to newer digital technology. This should lead to better services for those affected. But it also carries risks for those who are unwilling or unable to make the switch.
Whoever the next government is, they need to bring forward legislation to create a telecoms consumer advocate, and give consumers a seat at the table as soon as possible. | https://wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/the-next-government-must-give-telecoms-consumers-a-seat-at-the-table-43885a7576a3 | ['Anne Pardoe'] | 2019-12-09 09:30:19.109000+00:00 | ['General Election', 'Consumer', 'Policy', 'Telecommunication', 'Advocacy'] |
Seneca on how to study philosophy | In Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic, Letter 2 is from beginning to end about how best to study philosophy. In discussing the subject he first writes of study in terms of limiting “changing abode” and then as travel (including “foreign travel”) which should also be limited, then in terms of food and deriving nourishment, and then he discusses the study of philosophy as acquiring wealth because we study philosophy with the intent to acquire ‘spiritual wealth’ which is also known as ‘wisdom’. Seneca also suggests choosing one thought from each day’s study and memorizing it so as to always have it ready at hand.
…..
Letter 2. On how to study philosophy
1. Judging by what you write me, and by what I hear, I am forming a good opinion regarding your future. You do not run hither and thither and distract yourself by changing your abode; for such restlessness is the sign of a disordered spirit. The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man’s ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company. 2. Be careful, however, lest this reading of many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady. You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends. And the same thing must hold true of men who seek intimate acquaintance with no single author, but visit them all in a hasty and hurried manner. 3. Food does no good and is not assimilated into the body if it leaves the stomach as soon as it is eaten; nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent change of medicine; no wound will heal when one salve is tried after another; a plant which is often moved can never grow strong. There is nothing so efficacious that it can be helpful while it is being shifted about. And in reading of many books is distraction.
Accordingly, since you cannot read all the books which you may possess, it is enough to possess only as many books as you can read. 4. “But,” you reply, “I wish to dip first into one book and then into another.” I tell you that it is the sign of an overnice appetite to toy with many dishes; for when they are manifold and varied, they cloy but do not nourish. So you should always read standard authors; and when you crave a change, fall back upon those whom you read before. Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day. 5. This is my own custom; from the many things which I have read, I claim some one part for myself.
The thought for today is one which I discovered in Epicurus; for I am wont to cross over even into the enemy’s camp, — not as a deserter, but as a scout. 6. He says: “Contented poverty is an honorable estate.” Indeed, if it be contented, it is not poverty at all. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. What does it matter how much a man has laid up in his safe, or in his warehouse, how large are his flocks and how fat his dividends, if he covets his neighbor’s property, and reckons, not his past gains, but his hopes of gains to come? Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough. Farewell | https://medium.com/@malcolmschosha/seneca-on-how-to-study-philosophy-30e9713cafa8 | ['Malcolm Schosha'] | 2020-12-27 17:59:00.778000+00:00 | ['Philosophy', 'Stoicism'] |
Litcham School’s spring production is reinvented amid new Covid-19 safety measures | News Story & accompanying 2min Video
Published: 1:30 PM November, 16 2020
Litcham School is planning a COVID-safe production. Credit: Sophia Simoes
Litcham School, in Norfolk is reinventing its annual spring production after Ofsted reports showed that many secondary schools had restricted the provision of ‘arts’ subjects to follow tighter Covid-19 safety measures.
Head of the Music Department, Ian McEvansoneya, has directed and composed Litcham’s productions every year.
He said: “At the minute, our plan is to create something that we can rehearse and produce in sections, with each year group doing one section. That way they can be isolated from each other. “But at the same time, I don’t want something which is going to be so restricted that actually the children get fed up with it or disheartened by it.”
Practical subjects like music are being taught differently across secondary schools in the UK. Credit: Sophia Simoes
The reports published last week found that some schools had suspended singing and instrumental work in music lessons.
Others had limited access to specialist teaching areas so that pupils in key stage 4 and 5 ‘bubbles’ had priority.
Following the recent controversy over career prospects in the arts, Litcham’s Headteacher, Robert Martlew, said the school has deliberately kept these subjects in the curriculum.
He said: “We want children to be able to look back at their time at school with a fondness and have a real affinity to the school, and part of that is about being involved with key extra-curricular activities throughout the year such as the production.”
Litcham hopes the production will make school life feel more ‘normal’.
The show is a tradition that pupils at Litcham look forward to each year and around 60 of them get involved both on and off-stage
Parent Governor, Sarah White, said the school values the academic and social benefits that extracurricular productions have on schoolchildren.
Litcham School leaders say the production will help increase social interaction among students. Credit: Sophia Simoes
She added: “These activities allow students to develop a wider range of skills, both practical and personal that build on, and are additional to, those learnt in lessons. “Not being in the school environment and having access to these extracurriculars slows development of real social interaction, confidence and associated skills.”
Litcham staff are still exploring ways to continue teaching the ‘arts’ subjects safely and are hopeful that the show will go ahead in the new year. | https://medium.com/@sophiasimoes98/litcham-schools-spring-production-is-reinvented-amid-new-covid-19-safety-measures-addd5924ee0e | ['Sophia Simoes'] | 2021-03-14 16:24:51.304000+00:00 | ['Restrictions', 'Arts And Culture', 'Covid 19', 'Schools', 'Safety'] |
minerstat mining tutorial #29: Spondoolies monitoring | One of the latest ASIC manufacturers that is now fully supported on ASIC Hub is the Spondoolies. We currently offer support for the following Spondoolies models:
If you have any other model and want us to add support for it, don’t hesitate to get in touch via live chat on the website or find us on our Discord. If you own other ASICs, the following tutorials might be useful: Antminer monitoring, Innosilicon monitoring, and Baikal monitoring.
Before you start
Before you start, you will have to register a new account on minerstat and add a new worker with type ASIC and the system Spondoolies .
You will also need to know your ASIC’s IP and secure shell (SSH) username and password, which are not the same as the username and password for the web login. Default SSH username/password for Spondoolies machines is usually root/root .
ASIC Hub setup
To set up the ASIC Hub you will need to have a secure shell (SSH) access to your ASIC. Like mentioned above, the SSH access is not the same as web access and also doesn’t use the same default username/password . To establish SSH access you will need special software that allows it - one such free software for Windows is PuTTY. For other systems, you can check Termius.
Download PuTTY and run it. Enter your ASIC’s local IP address, leave the port on 22, and click Open . Enter your SSH username. Enter your SSH password. If your SSH username and password are not correct, you will somehow need to find what are the correct credentials for your Spondoolies ASIC. If root/root doesn’t work, try Googling your Spondoolies' model along with “SSH login” (for example “Spondoolies SPX36 SSH login”). When you are successfully logged in through the SSH, you can install ASIC Hub.
Enter the following command to install ASIC Hub on your ASIC.
cd /tmp && curl --insecure -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache' -O -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/minerstat/minerstat-asic-hub/master/install.sh && chmod 777 *.sh && sh install.sh ACCESS_KEY WORKER_NAME
ACCESS_KEY needs to be replaced with your minerstat’s access key. You can find it by hovering your mouse over your avatar in the top right corner on your minerstat dashboard.
WORKER_NAME needs to be replaced with your worker’s name.
Please make sure to double check everything as the access key and worker’s name are both case-sensitive.
When you press Enter the script for loading ASIC Hub to your ASIC will be run and after it has successfully finished you will see the output DONE . Within a few minutes, you should see your ASIC online, the configuration will be loaded from the ASIC to the minerstat dashboard and your worker will be successfully mining. If this is not the case, we suggest you check your firmware and make sure that you are using official firmware on your ASIC. After you have upgraded the firmware, you will need to repeat the procedure.
If you have any additional questions, you can find us on Discord or join us on your minerstat dashboard for the live chat.
Happy mining!
—
More from this series: | https://medium.com/minerstat/minerstat-mining-tutorial-29-spondoolies-monitoring-aec76f6f97a0 | [] | 2019-05-23 07:25:06.414000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Cryptocurrency Mining', 'Crypto', 'Tutorial', 'Mining'] |
You Don’t Get to Have an Opinion About My Body | You Don’t Get to Have an Opinion About My Body
I spent a decade gaining and losing the same 20 pounds
From the time I was 12, someone has had something to say about my body. When I was in 8th grade, I was 5'7" and 100 pounds soaking wet. Now, in 2018, this may seem like what every 8th grade girls aspires to. In 1986, I can assure you it was not.
Ruling the thigh gap was not a thing back then. We had curvier ideals we were trying to live up to. We had Madonna.
My first real taste of body judgment came when we had that dreaded class in 8th grade where they sit all the young girls down and have that frank, if not horribly uncomfortable, discussion about anorexia. Oh joy. Side long glances. Whispers.
One girl, who was not the sharpest tool in the shed as I recall, was the one who finally came up to me a day or so later in the gym locker room. Exactly where every pre-teen girl wants to be confronted about her body.
“Are you anorexia?” she asked. She used the noun. She didn’t make it an adjective. I was an intellectual snob even at 12 and I remember how much the syntax of the question bothered me.
Nope, shithead. I’m just insufferably skinny.
It was the first time I was really and truly aware of my body and annoyed with it. It wouldn’t be the last. Growing up the skinny girl had its benefits. I had the metabolism of a hummingbird on crack cocaine. I could eat an entire pizza by myself. I frequently did in an effort to not be the skinny girl anymore. I just wanted to look like all the normal girls in the school.
This stayed with me into my teen years and into my 20s where I then became the object of bar bathroom disdain. Bitchy, half drunk women would literally poke me in the ribs in bathrooms. I wish I was kidding.
Then something happened to me in my 30s. My body revolted.
I had my daughter at 29. There was post-partum depression. By 31, I was in the middle of full blown depression and my hormones went along for the ride. My body said, “Fuck it. We’re out.”
When I left my first husband at 32, I was a size 12 and growing. Let’s be clear. There is nothing wrong with being a size 12. I am not shaming anyone who is. I mention it because when you grow up a size 2 your whole life, it screws with your psyche. It had become my normal.
I had grown accustomed to being the skinny girl. It had become part of my identity. It came with expectations other people had for how I was going to look. When you gain 30 pounds as the skinny girl, people notice. They ask you if you’re pregnant. You’re not. They make recommendations for gyms. They invite you to bullshit Jazzercise classes. They are just as uncomfortable with you being plump as you are.
In effort to find myself again post-divorce, I practically starved myself and ran miles and miles and miles. In three months time, I was back to a size 2. It wasn’t healthy.
This began a ten year cycle of me gaining 20 pounds back and then struggling to diet it away. Succeeding and then falling to pot again. Over and over.
It poked myself. I hated myself. I ran. I binged. I starved. I cried. I sought acceptance but never from myself. I took diet pills. I fad dieted. I bought clothes over and over again. My closet spanned six dress sizes.
Three years ago, I made a New Year’s resolution to once again lose the 20 or so pounds. Of course I made this decision at a bar, watching football while drinking margaritas and eating nachos. I had posted on Facebook a margarita induced rant about the fat shaming of Carrie Fisher as the new Star Wars movie had come out. I had had enough.
I got an inbox message from a old friend who was a trainer who asked me not to be offended but that he specialized in training women in their 40s who were not happy with how they looked. I contemplated his offer as I sat at the Mexican restaurant.
My jeans were awkwardly buttoned using a hair tie to extend the space between the button and the button hole. You know, like you do when you’re pregnant and not ready for maternity clothes…
I took him up on the offer. Over the course of two years, I went to the gym four times a week. I stopped starving myself. I stopped trying to like running. I just went and picked up heavy shit and put it down. Again and again and again.
For the first time in my life, I felt healthy. I ate well but not too strictly. Pounds never came off but body fat did. My clothes fit. My body took shape. I began to embrace strong as the new sexy. I gave up wanting to be skinny again. I pushed my body to see what it was capable of. I pulled a 315 pound deadlift. I went from 155 pounds and 28% body fat to 145 pounds and 15% body fat. I felt more confident than I ever had.
One thing never changed. People still felt the need to comment on my body. I was too muscular. I was too strong.
I actually had a date that reached out and touched my shoulder and said maybe I should stop now. Maybe I should just focus on doing more cardio. Do you even lift, bro?
It was in that moment that I stopped caring. I told him he didn’t get to have an opinion about my body. It wasn’t his. It was mine and I loved it. It’s not perfect. I have stretchmarks from having an enormous baby. Things are no longer in the same place. There are places that have never and will never change. I’m okay with it.
It took me 44 years to learn how to take body commentary with a grain of salt. And every now and then I still put that salt on the rim of a margarita glass. | https://vanessatorre.medium.com/you-dont-get-to-have-an-opinion-about-my-body-72209846cb34 | ['Vanessa Torre'] | 2018-11-15 16:05:23.535000+00:00 | ['Women', 'Body Image', 'Life Lessons', 'Self', 'Health'] |
How to Develop a Daily Writing Habit | Stephen King
Stephen King doesn’t need an introduction. His books have sold over 350 million copies. Some of his work has also been adapted into feature films, television series, and even comic books. Stephen talked about his writing routine in a biography by Lisa Rogak, Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King. You can also learn a lot about King’s approach to writing in his book, On Writing.
“There are certain things I do if I sit down to write…I have a glass of water or a cup of tea. There’s a certain time I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half-hour every morning. I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places. The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you’re going to be dreaming soon. It’s not any different than a bedtime routine.”
The king of horror writing compares his writing routine to a bedtime routine. This goes to say that your writing routine is all about developing a habit of writing. Whether you are working on a book or a blog post, making and following a routine will ensure that you always have/make time to work on your writing project.
Quick Tip: When you are developing or tweaking your writing routine, take the time to determine when you feel most productive. For instance, some people enjoy writing early in the morning while night owls are likely to produce better copy at night. There is not one fixed routine for writing, so make sure you follow one that works best for you .
3. Make a Dedicated Writing Space
This is a small but crucial step that can help you make sure you achieve your daily writing goals. Creating a dedicated space for writing eliminates most of the distractions that may hamper your progress. It will also help you establish your writing routine.
A writing space can be anything from a home office to a desk in the corner of your room. Some people also like to work in the library or a coffee shop. Regardless of the place you choose, it is important to make sure that it is comfortable and free from distractions. You don’t want to be disturbed every few minutes while writing. Distractions break your rhythm and can make it difficult to come up with the right words.
Now, when you are in your dedicated writing space and are ready to work, staying focused is of utmost importance. So, remove all distractions, starting by switching off your mobile phone or turning down the volume. If you like working with music in the background, put in your headphones to drown the noise. You can also disconnect the internet if notifications and emails keep coming in and taking your mind off the task at hand. I also suggest that you limit the number of browser tabs that you have open if you write in an online editor like Google Docs.
Maya Angelou
Take a look at Maya Angelou’s writing routine to understand the importance of creating a dedicated writing space when working on a project.
“I keep a hotel room in my hometown and pay for it by the month. I go around 6:30 in the morning. I have a bedroom with a bed, a table, and a bath. I have Roget’s Thesaurus, a dictionary, and the Bible. Usually, a deck of cards and some crossword puzzles. Something to occupy my little mind…I have all the paintings and any decoration taken out of the room.
I ask the management and housekeeping not to enter the room, just in case I’ve thrown a piece of paper on the floor, I don’t want it discarded. About every two months I get a note slipped under the door: “Dear Ms. Angelou, please let us change the linen. We think it may be moldy!”
But I’ve never slept there. I’m usually out of there by 2. And then I go home, and I read what I’ve written that morning, and I try to edit then. Clean it up.”
4. Try Different Writing Methods
Writing is an art form like other creative forms of expression, there are no hard and fast rules of writing. So, before you settle for a writing technique, take the time to try different writing methods and see which one helps you produce the best work. Let’s take a few different writing methods that you can try.
Write in Chunks
For some people, writing in chunks works best. If you have created an outline for your book or blog, you may keep going back-and-forth to cover all topics. For instance, some bloggers prefer writing the introduction of the blog at the end. This helps them make sure that it gives a good idea of what the blog entails before writing an intro. Try this method if you think that writing in chunks can help you avoid a writer’s block.
Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, follows a similar approach. He talks about the importance of letting your writing guide you instead of the other way round.
“My passions drive me to the typewriter every day of my life, and they have driven me there since I was twelve. So I never have to worry about schedules. Some new thing is always exploding in me, and it schedules me, I don’t schedule it. It says: Get to the typewriter right now and finish this.”
Word Sprints
Word sprints is another popular method when it comes to writing. It involves setting a timer, for let’s say, thirty minutes, and writing continuously for the period without paying a lot of attention to the quality of the writing. You will come back to that once your thirty minutes are over. The aim of going on a word sprint is to get your ideas on paper. You can always take the time to polish it later.
Jodi Picoult, the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, takes a similar approach. In an interview with Noah Charney, she talked about her writing method,
“I don’t believe in writer’s block. Think about it — when you were blocked in college and had to write a paper, didn’t it always manage to fix itself the night before the paper was due? Writer’s block is having too much time on your hands. If you have a limited amount of time to write, you just sit down and do it. You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”
Writing Prompts
A writing prompt is simply a topic on which you base your piece. A prompt can be anything from a single word or phrase to a paragraph or even an image. If you have difficulty diving into writing every day, try starting with writing a prompt. Take a few minutes to reflect on what you want to say and how you want to say it. You can even create a mind map to help you get started. Keep in mind that while most writers use this technique to write essays, it can also work for books and blogs.
These are just three writing methods that you can try. Your goal is to find the method that works best for you. This will require you to measure your own performance. You may want to keep a writing logbook to track your performance and see which methods help you unlock your full potential.
Now you know how to make writing a habit! Keep in mind that there are no hard and fast rules. Every writer has a different writing style and method. However, you can always follow the tips mentioned above and take inspiration from the writing habits of great writers to find your calling and reach your writing goals with a bonafide writing process.
Happy writing! | https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-develop-a-daily-writing-habit-a-guide-for-authors-bloggers-a57d94981b7c | ['Chris Craft'] | 2020-04-01 01:04:42.303000+00:00 | ['Blogger', 'Book Writing', 'Blogging', 'Writing', 'Writing Tips'] |
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