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“I am a firm believer that as you look at good work, it subconsciously influences yourself.” — Dustin Abbott | QUESTION 4/7: Can you remember any moment or moments when you noticed the biggest change/improvement in your photos? What helped you with that?
It wasn’t really a particular moment, but to the one thing that I did that I’ve recommended to a lot of photographers since, and that is to look at a lot of photos, particularly those from people whose work you admire.
I am a firm believer that as you look at good work, it subconsciously influences yourself.
Not that you should become an imitator of someone else. But I think that if you start to understand what works in photography and what doesn’t.
There’s a big difference between what your eye sees and what a camera sees. And there’s obviously huge strengths to what we see visually, but there are also techniques you can use in photography that can produce something that is really visually interesting that your eye cannot do. And it‘s really kind of learning what worked in a photo, both in my own work, but also by looking at the work of people that I admire and seeing that they’ve done, something that’s really, really fantastic.
What can I learn from that? What can I absorb from that? And I would say that, and understanding how photography gear actually works. And on that note, I always encourage people also to actually learn things like aperture and the relationship between that and depth of field and things like that. Because when you start to understand what actually takes place when you take a photograph, it really helps you to be able to visualize how to create or maybe give you the expertise to create what you can visualize in your mind. And so I think those two things really helped me a lot.
QUESTION 5/7: Is there any advice or maybe a tool or technique that worked for you that helped you to track your progress and to keep on going forward in your photography journey?
I mostly came to become a photographer in the age of the Internet age basically. And so all along the way, there is metrics through a lot of basically all the different places you might share your work.
And so while I have tracked those metrics and I think it does give you some feedback as to what works and what doesn’t, I also have learned to kind of value my own inner voice in that.
Because I’ve shared some exceptional photos that weren’t all that critically successful. And then I’ve shared some mediocre photos that were very, very successful. And so at the end of the day, I still know which is which. And so I’m not really moved by that.
I don’t want to do photography based on an algorithm.
I’ve noticed that there are some people who are very successful on photo-sharing sites that basically share variations of the same theme every time.
They just do the same thing over and over again because they’ve determined that it’s popular.
I don’t ever want to do that. I want to do the kind of photography that actually motivates me and not boil this down to some kind of algorithm that says, if I do this and I demonstrate it this way, I’m going to get a lot of critical success for it.
So in a sense, I would say that I value my own opinion more so than what I value the opinion of the crowd. And I think in many ways that’s more of what being an artist is about.
QUESTION 6/7: They say that you can’t grow without being challenged or without challenging yourself. So what is the most challenging part of photography for you? How do you challenge yourself?
One of the things I think I’ve personally, just maybe because of my personality type, is that I had to learn how to properly process criticism and to learn what is actually constructive criticism, things that I can grow from and that which is just someone being small. Out on the internet, people are anonymous and so they say, and they do things there that they wouldn’t necessarily do in person.
And you really do have to learn to kind of parse out what is someone just being a troll as we call them on the Internet and what is actually constructive in terms of criticism. Something that I should have done better. You know, was that horizon actually crooked? And so for me, it’s not becoming wounded by words that are just said by some person that’s either jealous or just being abusive.
Be also open to growing a more thick skin. And I’ve had to do that more and more as I’ve become increasingly a public figure and I have just access to a lot more people who can criticize me.
You do have to develop thicker skin, but also I don’t ever want to get to a place where you’re kind of entitled or arrogant to where you think that you’re above criticism because a lot of what I’ve learned along the way, either on gear or in photography has come from being challenged, doing research and either reinforcing my position and articulating it better or recognizing that I got something wrong and that I needed to grow from that.
That’s my takeaway. I think it’s about how to properly handle criticism and to actually use it to become better.
QUESTION 7/7: If you could turn back time and restart your journey, what would you do differently? Think of it as advice from yourself now to your younger self.
I would say that the biggest thing that I would say for myself and I would say to others is that I would be quicker to sever ties or several relationships with either companies or individuals that I didn’t actually enjoy working with.
When you started off you’re really hungry. You’re really desperate for every opportunity that comes your way. And so as a result, in some of the early years, I persisted in relationships that made me miserable. I felt like people were kind of taking advantage of me or they were poor communicators. And so I would be frustrated because I would follow up on something they had asked for and then I’d hear nothing from them.
And it was really liberating when I recognize one day, you know what? I can walk away from this relationship. I don’t have to be in this relationship and got over that fear that if I wasn’t in these either poor or abusive really relationships that I could have no success.
And so I think if I could go back, I would prioritize doing business with and interacting with people that I actually enjoy.
And I’m really thankful there’s tons of people in the photography industry all around the world that I really, really enjoy doing business with. People that I have great relationships with, that I enjoy communicating with, that I learn from and grow with.
And I’m very thankful that I’m not doing business with anybody at the moment that I don’t enjoy doing business with them. And I think that if I could go back and redo it, I would make that my policy faster. | https://medium.com/shuttout/i-am-a-firm-believer-that-as-you-look-at-good-work-it-subconsciously-influences-yourself-5412cd824d82 | [] | 2020-02-20 16:11:39.785000+00:00 | ['Experience', 'Journey', 'Photography', 'Interview', 'Stories'] |
How to find a good roommate? | Finding the perfect roommate
Does your search for a compatible and good roommate seem to be a never-ending process? Well, you are in the right place!
“A roommate is not just someone that you share a living space with, they have an enormous impact on your mental health, physical well-being, academic and co-curricular achievements.”
Statistics prove that students who have at least one roommate are more likely to have high levels of peer connections and interactions, academic commitment, and dedication. Simply put, having a good roommate enhances your living experience for the better.
And CoDee is here to help you get the best possible roommate, so your home can be your sanctuary. No matter how far your dreams, passions, and ambitions take you. Through this blog, we hope to give you a few points to keep in mind while you pick an ideal and a good roommate.
Anyway, without further ado, while you wait for our app to launch; here are a few tips and tricks on how to pick a good roommate.
Why is picking a compatible, understanding, and good roommate so important?
Roommates have a very special bond. They know everything about each other and always help each other no matter what the circumstance. We are pretty sure you all have heard that your company and relationships play a significant role in your day-to-day life and also shape your actions, thoughts, and goals.
Therefore, having a good roommate who truly knows and understands you and tries to cheer you up when you are low, is what we are all looking for. But often, finding the roommate we need can be a tough and difficult job. However, those are not your worries anymore. We here at CoDee will help you analyze, assess, and find your perfect match for a roommate.
Now getting on to the main question, how to pick a good roommate?
Work out your expectations from each other in advance
Before you finalize your roommate, you should make sure that you both aim towards achieving a similar lifestyle. Communicate and discuss your expectations beforehand to avoid messy situations. Under this, you may want to consider each other’s sleep schedules, chores, money, rent, food, pets, cleanliness, etc.
Shared interests and common topics that you like to talk about
Even though sharing interests with your roommate is not completely necessary, it can help you get closer and have common topics to talk about. This will ensure that you always have one “partner in crime” when you are looking for something fun and exciting to do. This also prevents conflicts. For example- two roommates who love listening to music can discuss bands and singers and expose each other to new songs.
Knowing their cleaning habits
Sharing chores can be a tricky business. Hence, to avoid future conflicts, consider finding out about your roommates’ cleanliness habits. Once you know if they’re neat or messy, let them know about your habits.
Ensure that they can pay the rent
While getting to know your to-be roommate, get them to share information and details about their paycheck. Be careful while doing this; avoid being offensive. Your aim is to ensure that they can pay their share of the rent in the due time.
Stalk them a little
Here, we are not encouraging you to completely creep into all their social media, but some stalking wouldn’t hurt. Google them and find out more about them and their history. This can also give you a better idea about their past experiences, habits, and perspectives. Run a brief background check on their credit reports and criminal history. Yes, this may sound strange but you should be completely sure that you aren’t living with someone suspicious.
Sign a contract
Put down your terms, conditions, and agreements on paper. Vagueness and informality can lead to future conflicts. This contract should be taken seriously. In this, you can include topics such as noise, guest rules, pets, rent, cleaning, etc.
Meet up with your potential roommate in person
Make sure that the person seems safe and friendly. Choose to meet up in a neutral location like a coffee shop, and talk over your expectations and needs.
Choose someone similar to you
If you have a handful of good candidates, pick the roommate most similar to you. Roommates with compatible interests tend to get along very easily. People with similar tastes, values, and interests often make a good team.
To know how an ideal roommate would act and what basic traits they should possess, check out our blog: what to look for in a roommate.
A Quick Recap
Until the CoDee app launches, these tips will come in handy.
In conclusion, we would like to quote Uzma Akhtar Ashrafi by saying “Roommates are not permanent, but the attachments are”.
Thanks for reading. Have a great and productive day ahead. | https://medium.com/co-dee-co/how-to-find-a-good-roommate-39929019485c | ['Amanat Bansal'] | 2021-06-17 06:26:12.719000+00:00 | ['How To', 'Lifestyle', 'Roommates', 'Compatibility', 'Social'] |
Too tired or too busy for love? | People say love is inevitable. Its human nature — impossible to ignore. And I agree — it indeed is human nature and from the moment we are born we are centred around that emotion.
What I mean, however, is romantic love — love that’s supposed to surpass all barriers and be a constant in our lives — is that love really inevitable?
As a person who has lived almost 3 decades of his life — my experience with love is the complete opposite to that of a traditional love story that Shahrukh Khan or Colin Firth seems to enjoy on the silver screen.
I have never had the chance to dance in a sequence when the girl I love looked at me or touched my hands. A snippet of a song might have played in my head but that was the extent of it. And I knew for a fact that even if I did break into an impromptu dance number — no one around me would join or know the moves to deliver a choreographed dance number.
In fact, as I grew older I realized that I actually do not want any snippets of such songs in my mind. I did not have the time to do a dance number or even wait behind the girl to keep saying ‘Palat’ till she turned.
I was increasingly becoming happy being on my own without any obligations towards anything or anyone. Possibly that might not be a very positive thing but inherently I am happy! And I observed that this was not peculiar to me — almost all my friends and peers seem to feel the same way. We would rather spend the time that is left with us after work with ourselves — we tend to get too tired to indulge in activities that leave us with no time for ourselves.
If I speak for myself, I would rather give my time at this point to myself than to anyone else. I feel too tired to do anything else or to give the same level of priority as myself to another person at this stage of my life.
I don’t know if I am being selfish at this point but this makes me happy. I don’t feel lonely or sad — I am occupied through most of the day and remainder of the time I am happy being with myself. And this feels like a more common norm at this point than it was ever before. People are indulging in short relationships or flings and honestly seem to be pretty happy in their lives.
Are we all too tired to invest in a proper relationship or do we not have the time or energy for it? I don’t know the answer yet but I do know that I don’t miss it. Not yet at least. | https://medium.com/@harikiransingh0028/too-tired-or-too-busy-for-love-3ef05eb3940f | ['Harikiran Singh'] | 2020-03-11 13:51:51.439000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Couples', 'Love'] |
How To Use Vanity Metrics to Your Advantage as a Writer | Writer’s Vanity Metrics Are Not Always About Vanity
When it comes to writing, vanity metrics become actionable metrics, if you can use them well.
So, let’s have a look at all the metrics that you can measure and track and let’s see how you can use them for non-vanity uses, but to provide you real feedback on your progress and writing.
To make it easy to read, I am simplifying the terms so that you can understand the basics. If you want to deep-dive into analytics, there is a whole world out there.
Let’s say you are a writer, who is writing on a platform, promoting their work on social media, to [choose one from selling a book, an e-book, an online course, getting writing jobs etc.]. The ultimate goal is to somehow make money from your writing — so it is related to profit.
Everything — I repeat, everything that is measurable is related to conversion. If there is one single word that you will remember from this article, please remember conversion. Imagine conversion as a funnel. The more you pour into it on the top, the more you can get out at the bottom.
image by author
Visits, unique visits
If you start with the most basic analytics, page visits and unique visitors will be the first to come across. It has nothing to do with direct conversion, but it does give you a hint about how your site is working.
You can and definitely should monitor if there is a drop in views suddenly or if there is an unexpected increase. The visits don’t translate into further conversion, but they can indicate a problem or something unusual.
Bragging about it and reporting it is probably an overkill, but calling it vanity for a writer’s website or an author’s website is definitely an understatement.
Views
It can be the views on your articles, or on your specific pages. The views on your articles indicate the topic and the niche where you work best. If you have a peak because of one specific article (tech articles and personal essays tend to do it) then it can be an indication for hitting an actual trend.
Views don’t directly mean reads and followers or fans, but if you imagine it as a funnel, if someone doesn’t view your article, they can never read it, follow it, like it.
The number of views is an important indicator — imagine it being a lighthouse. It doesn’t mean you are out of the water, but at least you have some clues where to go.
It might not mean anything today, but this is how we start it, the more you pour into the funnel, the more can come out at the bottom. Share your work in relevant places, advertise it, promote it, SEO it.
Reads
Let’s take one more step down that funnel, shall we? To be appreciated, you need to have readers. It’s not enough if someone clicks on your title and pretty image, your story needs to keep their attention long enough.
If the views/reads ratio is low, it is an indicator that you are really good at raising attention, but your text is not living up to the expectations. On the contrary, if you have an extremely high read ratio, it means that you are doing a great job with the quality, all you need is just more views to get to more fans.
Readers will become fans, so you need them. It’s not vanity to want to increase your read ratio.
Improve your quality, start to use less clickbaity titles or work on the relevance of your topics and the target audience.
Engagement
If you have any indicators on your website that tell you if your work was appreciated, such as a social icon, built-in platform “likes”, room for comments or any other appreciation (these are the claps, highlights, and comments on Medium), you will know how much your work is really appreciated.
The engagement might not translate into direct earnings, but this is definitely not for vanity only.
Knowing which pieces work well, which are ignored, what style of yours is appreciated, which topic fares well with your audience — this is crucial information to improve your overall output. Not just for future articles, but also for fine-tuning your own writing voice, your style and finding your niche.
The engagement is the greatest indicator for you, it guides you and if you pay attention it keeps you on track. It is also very addictive which can be taken as an external accountability partner — when you feel you owe your audience your presence and you need to show up every day, even when you don’t feel like it.
Talk to them, interact with them, listen to them — and learn from it all. Improve where you can, based on the feedback they offer you.
Followers
Your readers who are willing to get into interaction with you are your fans — they can be one-off or they can be your loyal followers, who care about you.
There will be more of the one-off fans but the loyal followers are your true treasure. They are the ones who are rooting for you, they will buy your book and ebook and recommend your online course even if they don’t need it themselves.
They will tweet your articles, they will get you further clients, or employ you if they are in that position. They are not just empty numbers, they are your biggest fans and they will advocate for your cause whatever it is.
You need to keep in touch with them, give them feedback and love, offer them exclusive content and keep them happy. They are your biggest assets, they are the last stage before the conversion that pays.
Email list subscribers
There is one significant difference between a talented, persistent writer who makes it and the one who doesn’t. It’s that the one makes it seen, and the other is invisible.
It is great to expect that they will somehow find you, and they contact you, and I am sure it happens, but it’s not something that you can really count on and base your future success on.
You need to let them know about your work. We talked about social media, which is great, and you can interact on Twitter. You can comment and heart everything on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, but you can also send a heartfelt, informative, inspirational message to your friends — on your email list.
So those who actually subscribe to get messages from you are also an asset and your success, your views, and reads can highly depend on the number of subscribers.
Does it mean anything on its own? Definitely not. But this is how you get into their inbox to tell them about your life, your knowledge, and your ideas. | https://bettermarketing.pub/how-to-use-vanity-metrics-to-your-advantage-as-a-writer-8602a27932c0 | ['Zita Fontaine'] | 2019-09-22 22:08:21.944000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Writing', 'Social Media', 'Data', 'Metrics'] |
How NEAT Might Be the Key to Your Weight Loss Goals | How NEAT Might Be the Key to Your Weight Loss Goals
Simple changes in your day can have a huge impact on your body composition.
Photo by Ryan Moreno on Unsplash
Trying to lose weight can be frustrating. The information we receive is confusing — we don’t know what to eat, what exercises to do, or what an ideal weight even is for us. It’s common to experience plateaus and lose motivation. It’s hard to feel like we’re restricted in what we can eat, and it can be exhausting and frankly just non-sustainable to do intense workouts every single day.
But losing weight doesn’t need to be complicated, or difficult. Sometimes, the smallest change can be the tipping point in our weight loss journey. So here is one simple change you can make in your life, that can have a big impact. | https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/how-neat-might-be-the-key-to-your-weight-loss-goals-a569a54b5cd7 | ['Ashley Richmond'] | 2020-12-17 14:03:09.274000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Lifestyle', 'Health', 'Weight Loss', 'Advice'] |
Questions, Now I’ve Shaved My Head | I go into 2021 the same way I came into the world: looking like a Cabbage Patch Kid. On Christmas day, as blogged, I shaved my head bald after putting my longest hair into two braids and painstakingly removing them for Children With Hair Loss, the organization and the actual children. Ever since then, I’ve had questions. A lot of questions. Maybe a few answers. For the sake of organizing and making sense of the mystery of my new look, I decided to write them down, and also put them out into the world in case anyone can offer more insight. Here they are:
Q: Why did my beard shaving equipment fail to do the job?
A: As it was explained to me by the Malevolent Supernatural Force I live with, who ultimately had to take over some of the shaving duties to make sure it was done as thoroughly as possible, my head hair is softer than my beard hair, and without a beard’s resistance, the heavy instruments, like my non-electric trimmer, designed to shear my facial hair, were just pushing the softer hair around, flattening it before they could cut it. There was a lot of trial and error.
Q: When do I use shampoo again?
A: Right away, it turns out. I looked it up. Just a little bit, but there are tiny hairs, and there is a scalp, and it needs shampoo. So, I don’t get that break.
Q: Am I sick?
A: No, but that is what I think every time I see myself in the mirror, in large part, I would say, because that is what television and movies have taught me sick people look like. I also look paler, somehow. But that’s what the braids are for, to help kids not look like that, so in a way, it’s a reminder of why I did this. My head also looks smaller on my shoulders and my ears bigger on my head. I wanted to look like Voldemort, but my nose is too…there.
Q: How weird will it be to look at pictures of shaved-head me when I have hair again?
A: No idea, but this is one of the questions.
Q: What about when I have really long hair again?
A: Same thing, no answer. Will it be like looking at pictures of me when I was much younger? Maybe.
Q: Will I notice my hair growing or wake up one day, look in the mirror, and think, “Oh, it’s back”?
A: I typically have no memory of my hair “growing” after a haircut, I just find, a little less than a year later, that I can do a small ponytail again. But this time, my head will look very different week to week, month to month, possibly even day to day. Will it be like watching my beard grow? Which will grow faster? Time will tell.
Q: How much are electric razors?
A: I need a new one. The old one doesn’t register batteries properly, I had to apply different pressure to each one to make the thing work, and besides it’s a little rusty (I think the previous batteries were left in too long). Not gonna need it for a while, but any recommendations?
Q: Will the “phantom locks” thing go away?
A: I frequently worry about mussing up my curls if I put my had on a pillow the wrong way, and occasionally I reach up to scratch my head in a certain way I had become accustomed to scratching it based on my personal arrangement of hair. It’s another one of those things where the answer is probably just, “When the hair grows back,” but still.
Q: Could I light a match by striking it against the back of my head?
A: I don’t plan to find out, but people do it with beard stubble in movies so often, and my head stubble is in that scratching stage, so it is a question. When we briefly fostered a very young kitten, the Malevolent Supernatural Force I live with encouraged me to rub it on my beard stubble because it was reminiscent of the kitten’s mother’s tongue. Does anyone have any kittens that need “licking”?
Q: What is a hair splinter?
A: From Healthline: “A hair splinter, sometimes called a hair sliver, happens when a strand of hair pierces through the top layer of your skin. This may sound like a minor injury, but hair splinters can be very painful, especially if they become infected…….Hair splinters usually involve freshly cut hair, which is often very sharp. As a result, it’s easier for recently cut hair to penetrate your skin.”
From Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer: “Once again, things that could have been brought to my attention YESTERDAY!”
Q: Where should I put my hair brushes?
A: I have two, and I’m not going to need them for a long time. I feel like they should have some special, ceremonial, carved wooden box that goes up on a high shelf until they day they are brought back down for use once again, but I will probably put them into the next tissue box I empty and slide them into my underwear drawer. Perspective.
Q: What should I do with the hair in my hair brushes?
A: It’s the last hair that I brushed from my head in the weeks leading up to my first big shave, so I’m gonna keep it in the small clear plastic box this year’s Chanukah candles came in. In my underwear drawer. Probably not forever. Perspective.
Q: What should I do with my hair tie?
A: I was down to one, I only rarely actually wore it, when my hair was at its worst, and a few weeks before the big shave it broke and I tied it back together. I’ve thrown it away. Perspective.
Q: How well will I get to know my head?
A: I mean, obviously the shape is more defined to my eyes and hands, especially in the back, and my hands probably spend more time in the back these days because of the scratchiness, but it doesn’t feel like I’m finding out anything new about it. I don’t know. We’ll see.
Q: What will someone else look like with my hair?
A: I will probably never know, but the hope is that the answer is the way they want to look. I hope whoever gets it enjoys it.
Q: Will I ever shave my head again?
A: We’ll see. Even if the tools were fussy, the act of shaving my head was much easier than I would have predicted back when I used to cry if my hair was shortened the least little bit. Still, the goal of my biennial haircuts is to provide hair for wigs, which has to be a certain length, and I’ve grown accustomed to doing this around Christmas time. Christmas 2022, if the world is still here, will be my first second Christmas with hair grown from scratch for precisely two years, and if it is not long enough to donate, that might affect my willingness to shave my head in the future as long as human hair is still donatable (synthetic is on the rise). I could still donate a little later, but my schedule will no longer be an easy every two Christmases. My hair was significantly longer than the minimum requirement this time, so it might be long enough grown from scratch, but the longer the better with hair donations. So, we’ll see what happens, but I am glad I did it this time. I’m about to see myself in a wide selection of all new ways. I already have. | https://medium.com/@AaronNetsky/questions-now-ive-shaved-my-head-a925d7e1b370 | ['Aaron Netsky'] | 2020-12-27 16:53:34.985000+00:00 | ['Hair', 'Self', 'Charity', 'Christmas'] |
Something rotten in Denmark: sexual assault, harassment, bullying and abuse in the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra | UPDATE: Sebastian Stevensson has taken to Facebook to post “his version” of events. You can view my response (as well as the full contents of his post) here.
While employed by Danmarks Radio Symfoniorkestret, I was repeatedly sexually assaulted by SEBASTIAN STEVENSSON, current principal bassoonist in the DRSO and teacher at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen. Sebastian has never shown any indication whatsoever of remorse toward me for his actions against me.
Following my repeatedly refusing his advances, Sebastian Stevensson’s behaviour became increasingly aggressive, ultimately culminating in an unmistakable sexual assault followed by regular verbal, sexual and psychological abuse. When I reported Sebastian to the union representative of the orchestra, I was informed that I was not the first person to report him for sexual abuse of power. I am making public Sebastian Stevensson’s name because I have serious concerns for the safety of his current female colleagues and students, or any other musicians over whom Sebastian Stevensson has held — or will hold — a position of professional power.
Sebastian Stevensson never received any punishment, despite having not denied my allegations, according to the DRSO’s administration. After I pushed the administration — and my colleagues — to handle the situation appropriately, my previously renewed contract in the DRSO was not renewed again. My residence permit in Denmark was tied entirely to my job in the DRSO at the time; thus, I was forced out of the country. My position, for which I had auditioned, was quietly filled by a male student with, to my knowledge, no audition held.
In response to Sebastian Stevensson’s abuse I reported him to the orchestra’s union representative, the Danish Musicians’ Union, the orchestra administration, the Danish police, the Ombudsman for Danmarks Radio, and to the Danish Workplace Safety Authority (Arbejdstilsynet). I have the documentation from each of these reports, as well as witnesses who accompanied me to meetings and can attest to the developments of my case as they took place. Audun Halvorsen and Ole Kristian Dahl (among others) have known about my allegations since 2015. In spite of the fact that my allegations are well known by many musicians at the DRSO and elsewhere, Sebastian Stevensson continues to be promoted as both a player and a teacher.
My intention in sharing this information is to hold Sebastian Stevensson accountable for his actions, to protect his potential future victims from harm, and to call Director KIM BOHR and the DRSO administration to action in the face of an unsafe working environment brought about by Kim’s negligence and willful enabling. As of this writing Sebastian Stevensson has yet to be held to account, and the numerous accounts by other musicians in the attached article strongly indicate that the DRSO continues to be a toxic and dangerous workplace environment.
This Danish news article references the story of my experiences, and those of 7 other people within the DRSO, of sexual assault, harassment, and bullying. Screenshots of the English translation of my story are attached, but I encourage you to translate and read the whole article for yourself.
If you have experienced sexual harassment or assault by Sebastian Stevensson, or anyone in the professional music industry, understand that you are not alone. Please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am here for you, and I will respect your confidentiality.
https://www.information.dk/indland/2020/11/musikere-fortaeller-hverdag-sexchikane-mobning-dr-symfoniorkestret?lst_frnt&fbclid=IwAR1VWvUd4cfHMHdRH1b3ja0T6UM0eRlnSrbUNoN8nRJPpMEHqgBnUInGiGs
NB: There are a few very funny, strange translations:
“He nev me in the ass” = “He pinched my ass”
The part where it says “He asserted that his confession had been obtained through torture and that his confession had been obtained through torture. Information has seen the text message.”, it actually reads:
“ “I have been hitting hard on you, but I only did it because I knew you would be strong enough to decide what is best for you,” he writes. He goes on to say he was “ok” with the conclusion, and hoped that Katelin was too. Information [that’s the name of the news publication] has seen the SMS.”
There’s also a part where it says “musician Katelin Coleman invited him to watch a movie”, which is an unfortunate translation of “the musician [Sebastian Stevensson] invited Katelin Coleman to watch a movie”.
The term “cross-border” is a Danish term that refers to behaviour which “crosses the line” (especially in reference to workplace sexual harassment or bullying).
Lastly, it translates “playing” to “game” a few times, which is actually rather cute. | https://medium.com/@katelin-coleman1989/something-rotten-in-denmark-sexual-assault-harassment-bullying-and-abuse-in-the-danish-radio-542d6283d0b8 | ['Katelin Coleman'] | 2020-12-04 18:21:36.544000+00:00 | ['Classical Music', 'Metoo', 'Misogyny', 'Sexual Assault'] |
Four Great Resources That Will Teach You How to Learn | No life skill can earn you greater dividends than learning how to learn. Yet, most people don’t know how to master learning.
When asked, “Do you study the way you do because somebody taught you to study that way?” a study by Kornell & Bjork showed about 73% of students answered “no.”
Long after school, we continue to rely on ineffective learning strategies like passive consumption, highlighting, or rereading in the hope new knowledge will magically stick to our brain. Most people ignore that humans don’t absorb information and knowledge by reading sentences.
The mediocre majority will continue struggling through life this way, never experiencing the benefits of effective learning. They don’t care enough about the potential benefits to invest in their growth.
Most people ignore the proven ways to improve their learning process.
As a result, their lives stagnate. “Entertainment and distraction is the enemy of creation and learning. They will keep you in mediocrity,” Benjamin Hardy once wrote.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
A life full of meaningful learning and growth is available if you know where to start. In the last years, I read +15 books on learning, taught as a Teach for All fellow, and continue working in education. Here are the best resources for learning how to learn. | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/four-great-resources-that-will-teach-you-how-to-learn-ce4705155acd | ['Eva Keiffenheim'] | 2020-11-27 02:34:09.928000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Learning How To Learn', 'Self Improvement', 'Learning', 'Personal Growth'] |
Tejano Genealogy Beyond South Texas at the Texas General Land Office | Tejano Genealogy Beyond South Texas at the Texas General Land Office
This post was underwritten by the Tejano Genealogical Society of Austin in 2017.
This post was underwritten by the Tejano Genealogy Society of Austin in 2017.
National Hispanic Heritage Month is a celebration of the contributions of Latinos to U.S. history, culture, and society observed annually between September 15 and October 15, a time of many historical mileposts in the Americas. The observance emphasizes the deep historical imprint of Hispanic cultures on the United States and honors the place of Latinos in the contemporary American melting pot, where they number over 55 million. In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’ll focus for several weeks on genealogical resources and the impact of Hispanic historical figures in Texas.
The Texas General Land Office is widely recognized for its archival holdings on the colonization of Texas in the nineteenth century. The titles, registers, character certificates, and correspondence produced by empresarios like Stephen F. Austin and found in the GLO’s Spanish Collection have long proven a treasure trove for genealogists whose ancestors migrated to Texas from Europe or the U.S.
Title for Francisco Rivas, 4 December 1833, Box 120, Folder 13, Records of the Spanish Collection, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
But the GLO should also be recognized as an essential resource for researchers in the fields of Tejano genealogy and history. After all, the nineteenth-century empresarios’ celebrated accomplishments were themselves built upon an earlier set of colonizing efforts — expeditions and fundaciones (mission and town foundations) carried out by adventurous men and women from northern New Spain who planted the seeds of Tejano culture in Nacogdoches, La Bahía, and Béxar. Descendants of those Spanish-period natives, founders, and settlers can find a wealth of genealogical information in the GLO’s Spanish Collection.
With over 20,000 documents and dozens of rare books and bound manuscripts, the Spanish Collection is a genealogical goldmine waiting for further exploration. María Solís, president of the Tejano Genealogical Society of Austin, agrees. “Genealogy is more than affixing our ancestors’ names on a diagram of a tree. It is seeing their names on documents, it is looking at maps of where they lived and where they traveled. It is about reading the history and having the resources for the research. The GLO Archives and website links provide those resources.”
José María de Letona, Leona Vicario [Saltillo]*, to Ramón Músquiz, Béxar, May 25, 1831, Box 43, Folder 2, p. 130, Records of the Spanish Collection, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX. In this document, Governor Letona instructed Ramón Músquiz, the political chief of Béxar, to subdivide and allot the lands of the secularized Mission San Francisco de la Espada to the Indian families living on the former mission grounds. *The name was changed back to Saltillo in 1831.<https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrs04>.
The GLO’s holdings on Tejano genealogy and history are especially rich for South Texas, but they extend throughout the state. Although completed pre-1821 titles for the central and east Texas regions are rare, the GLO boasts dozens of Spanish land grants for the Béxar, Bahía (Goliad), and Nacogdoches areas.[1] The extant records include a fascinating group of Nacogdoches titles that shed light on the formation of an east Texas frontier society, where a mix of Spanish-, French-, and English-speaking settlers coexisted, competed, and caused plenty of headaches for colonial officials.[2]
Mission documents provide another fascinating window into the nascent Tejano society of central Texas in the eighteenth century. The GLO’s holdings include founding documents (for Missions San José, Purísima Concepción, San Francisco de la Espada, and San Juan Capistrano), secularization records that show how mission lands were divided up and allotted to their inhabitants, and correspondence that sheds light on persistent land conflicts between Franciscan missionaries and Tejano ranchers. Descendants of these Texas rancheros and mission residents will find a wealth of information in the archives. Detailed descriptions of this Spanish-language material can be found in Part 2 of the Catalogue of the Spanish Collection.
This sketch details the distribution of mission lands in Bexar County. F. Giraud, Bexar County Sketch File 36C, Austin: Texas General Land Office, 16 June 1874, Map #10922, Map Collection, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
Land grants issued by the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas between 1825–1836 form the heart of the Spanish Collection, and they are likewise a boon for Tejano genealogists. Mexican colonization laws not only attracted foreigners from the U.S., Ireland, and Germany, but also from Mexico itself. The GLO’s principal finding aids for researching Coahuila y Tejas land grants, Part 1 of the Catalogue of the Spanish Collection, is replete with information on these early Hispanic Texans. In its pages, researchers will find documents ranging from the baptismal certificate of Juan Seguín and the character certificate of Lorenzo de Zavala to the land grant application of doña María Calvillo, a widow rancher who received a large land grant near present-day Floresville.
Character Certificate for Lorenzo de Zavala, June 23, 1835, Box 77, Folder 77, Records of the Spanish Collection, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
Of course, the ancestors of today’s Tejano population were not only grantees — they were also crucial players in the saga of colonization. The story of Stephen F. Austin and the other Anglo empresarios would not be complete without an understanding of their Tejano friends, mentors and collaborators such as land commissioner José Antonio Navarro, surveyor José María Carbajal, political chief José Antonio Saucedo, and commissioner José Francisco Madero. Particularly notable is the career of Martín de León, the Tejano pioneer and empresario whose colony was the only majority-Mexican establishment during the period.[3]
De León’s land records, which are found in the GLO, include multiple files that shed light on the founding and colonization of the town of Guadalupe Victoria. Interestingly, the commissioner for de León’s colony, Martín’s son Fernando de León, issued a relatively large number of land grants to single women, including about one-sixth of the Victoria town lots. This is a valuable record group for researchers interested in Tejana urban property holding. | https://medium.com/save-texas-history/tejano-genealogy-beyond-south-texas-at-the-texas-general-land-office-95b17bab114e | ['Texas General Land Office'] | 2020-04-27 18:09:23.869000+00:00 | ['Maps', 'History', 'Tejano', 'Texas', 'Hispanic'] |
How to build a design system if you’re the only designer in a startup | It’s always hard to be the only person in a company who is responsible for product design. Your day can be insanely busy because you deal with multiple things at the same time. You have to define a high-level strategy for a product design, delivering features, collaborating with product people, supporting devs and QA’s, user interviews, and much more.
In addition, you always have to keep up with your craft. Figma is the main tool we use for all product-related features: all designs, explorations and brainstorming sessions live there.
Shortly after I joined Statflo, we started working on a newly revamped app. During the process, I needed a design system that would allow me to move quickly and create prototypes in a matter of several clicks.
Open Source logo by Pixel Perfect
Do not hesitate to use the open-source design systems available out there.
In the beginning, you do not need much. The majority of elements that you will be using are atomic components: buttons, dropdowns, forms, fonts, colours, etc. Initial styling of a system doesn’t matter- you can change styling afterward just in a couple of clicks.
The most important things you need to look for in third-party design systems are flexibility and proper component nesting.
Several ones you can start with:
Free: Ant Design Open Source, Lexicon DSL
Paid: Tetrisly, Venus Design System, 73px
Basic components, colors, and typography
If you decide to go ahead with your design system, you should focus on a couple of simple things first: colors, typography and essential components.
This strategy will allow you to create designs much quicker. For example, if you need to create an input field, you can begin with a default state and add others at a later stage.
For instance, if you’re unsure about what icon to use inside an input field, just create a 16x16 square, fill it with grey color and make it a component. This will allow you to move forward and will make it easier to update this icon in the future.
Always start with a component
When you’re the only designer in a startup, sometimes there is no dedicated time to build a design system. If you want to save time, I suggest starting building UI and converting all elements into components as you go.
By doing so, you will save a lot of time, and it will help you decide what elements are the most crucial in the beginning.
Ideally, you should start with creating an element, and convert it into a component as your next step, so you won’t need to spend time on component replacement.
Use “Master” plugin for Figma
Sometimes when you are in rush you may forget to create a component, and end up duplicating several artboards with the same element. It’s a tedious job to go back and replace everything manually. There is a great plugin that can help to convert all regular elements into one component. The plugin is called “Master” created by Gleb Sabirzyanov.
Also, in order to convert all elements on different artboards, you have to select all of them. The Similayer plugin will help you with this task: just in one click, you can specify a selection of a UI part with any specs inside multiple artboards.
Use downtime on polishing a design system
Sometimes you have downtime between tasks/projects, and the best way to spend this time is to improve and polish a design system. Believe me, the time you will spend on this will pay off during the creation of new features or assembling another prototype.
I am constantly trying to reserve a couple of hours in my calendar throughout the week to make sure I can make incremental changes and improvements to a design system.
Don’t focus on proper naming at the beginning
During the creation of a UI, when you are just starting to make components for a design system, usually there is no time to think about proper component naming. I would highly suggest moving this step to a later phase when you have more components. Then you can think about proper paths, naming, and nesting.
There are several good plugins that will help you to rename elements in batches: Rename It, Ultra Renamer 2, Regulator or even the out-of-the-box functionality in Figma. | https://uxdesign.cc/how-to-build-a-design-system-if-youre-the-only-designer-in-a-startup-f4695d2f4b7f | ['Taras Savytskyi'] | 2021-08-24 13:10:40.943000+00:00 | ['Ts', 'Figma', 'UI', 'Design Systems', 'UX'] |
Don’t Do the Committee Work at the Board Room Table | You want your meetings to be effective. You want your meetings to be short. You can move closer to achieving these goals by only focusing on the work that the board has to do. If there is work that can be done by committees then set those committees up and let them get at it!
Many organizations will have a committee structure. Typical committees will include an audit or finance committee, a nominating committee and a program or fundraising committee. There are two categories of committees, the standing committees and the ad hoc committees. The standing committees are always in place, which is how they got their name. These would be the finance committee for example. An ad hoc committee is struck for a specific purpose and it only exists until that purpose is achieved. For example, you might strike a committee to host an event and this committee disbands once the event has been held and all the bills paid.
A committee can be a great way to involve subject matter experts to help your organization achieve their goals. People with specific skills may be willing to serve on a committee, particularly one with a limited life, rather than agreeing to serve on a board. People who have had governance training can be reluctant to take on the responsibilities of serving on a board. They may be willing to help in their area, not so much interested in hearing about all the other stuff that goes on in the organization.
An example is your finance committee. You might be able to attract a couple of bankers and accountants to sit on this committee. They will be content to review your monthly financial statements and talk to your auditor. These are the types of things where their interests and expertise align. They do not want to be at the board meeting which also talks about staffing, programming and safety issues. This committee structure can be a win-win. Your group gets the expertise it needs and the participants get shorter board meetings.
The finance committee will meet and review all of the areas under their terms of reference. The board member who serves on this committee will report to the board at the board meetings. The board meetings will be shorter because the entire board will not be involved in the detailed work that the committee does. The review work has been done by experts, not all of which have to serve on the board.
Another example is of an ad hoc committee. The group has decided to host a conference. A committee is struck which is tasked with preparing for and hosting the conference. A board member, or two will also serve on this committee. The remaining members will be people with event experience, people who have skills around public relations and a couple of subject matter experts who would be able to choose speakers for the main stage and the concurrent sessions. You get the idea. This committee will spend time talking about decoration options for the venue, choosing a venue, choosing speakers, looking for sponsors, working on menus and making pricing decisions. As you can imagine this can take a lot of time. The board will get a report at each meeting and approve all these decisions. The board will not be involved in the details.
Consider the committee structure at your organization. Are there other committees that could be struck to improve chances of achieving the goals of the organization and make the board meetings shorter? | https://medium.com/governance-guru/dont-do-the-committee-work-at-the-board-room-table-8ebd42ec8900 | ['Debi Peverill'] | 2020-12-15 02:54:22.292000+00:00 | ['Governance', 'Board', 'Productivity', 'Meetings', 'Committee'] |
How to Survive if You Are An Abused Man | Note: Parts of this story are an amalgam of different stories and not a telling of my own experience with my own relationship. This information is based on the first-hand experience from men who confided in me and allowed me to try to explain this issue in a way that others could understand.
He had been walking on eggshells because he knew when her mood changed as it had, she would lose her temper and start hitting and slapping him. It was only a matter of time. He could see the misery in her face and knew she was itching to spread it around.
She wanted everyone else to feel the pain she was experiencing. She had already spent the morning nagging him about every little thing and calling him every hurtful name she knew.
Loser. Lazy. Stupid. Moron. Pussy.
He knew it was his fault she was like this. He didn’t do enough around the house and slept an extra half-hour today. He knew he was a worthless husband; she told him so many times.
She was on one of her tirades, waiting for him to talk back. And he would talk back, even just getting out the word “but” before she was on him punching, slapping, and kicking. He would take it without fighting back. He wouldn’t even try to defend himself. Because if she had a mark on her, she would call the police and tell them that he had abused her. She’d threatened him with the same scenario many times before.
She would threaten to kick him out to the street with no money. She would try to break his phone. She would leave him with no hope and no other choice to take what she gives him. There was nothing he could do.
“No one will believe you!”
Maybe later, when the dust clears, he will finally do himself a favor by ending his life.
Maybe today he finally would.
Photo by Nijwam Swargiary on Unsplash
Men Are Abused All the Time
Men are victims every day; most times, the abuse from a male or female partner is not reported.
Why not?
Look at what we see in the media. As soon as a battered man makes accusations, everyone is quick to say, “Oh, but look how much bigger and stronger he is. How could she have hurt him?”
Then there is the gaslighting. “It’s your fault. Look what you made me do!” “You shouldn’t have made me mad, you know I have a bad temper!” Most start to question whether they aren’t the real abuser, even though they are clearly the victim. When this happens often, they start to believe it is all their fault and they are always in the wrong.
Researchers Alyson Huntley and colleagues at the University of Bristol say that the abused men they interviewed worried no one would believe them if they were to open up about abuse, or they would be perceived as less virile or masculine.
From my own experience with toxic masculinity, I know many men would feel ashamed to admit they are afraid of their abuser, and they choose not to disclose the abuse to anyone because they know people would call them a “pussy” or a “wimp”
“The issue of masculinity is a societal one — men are not expected to be the weak ones. It is a hard stereotype to work against,” Huntley told Reuters.
Men who are the victim of abuse feel worthless and weak, and many times think suicide is a better answer to the problem than coming clean with the truth. Finally, the men may truly love their abuser and don’t want anything bad to happen to them or don’t want others to think negatively of them, which they would if he exposed the truth.
It is always a difficult situation. | https://medium.com/tmi-too-much-information/how-to-survive-if-you-are-an-abused-man-4682870cbf1d | ['Jason Weiland'] | 2020-07-05 21:04:36.585000+00:00 | ['Abuse', 'Domestic Violence', 'Mental Health', 'Relationships', 'Self'] |
10 ways parents can help kids learn with fun and creativity! | With kids having to stay indoors due to the pandemic, parents have taken the place of peers. It becomes the responsibility of the parents to help kids learn with fun and creativity.
How can parents do that? Well, here are 10 ways:
#1- Play with them
Like we mentioned above, it is imperative for parents to become friends with their children, even if it means going several years down in age. Playing with kids helps parents develop a sense of understanding and harmony with them.
#2- Sit through classes with them
Sitting with kids in their class not only ensures that you know what is being taught to them but it also gives them a companion to attend class with. However, do not do this every day else your kid will become used to your constant presence during classes which may pose a problem later.
#3- Expose them to good content
In a world brimming with content, it falls on parents to pick and choose the ones for their kids that will ensure both learning and fun.
#4- Actively listen
Always listen to your kids actively. You never know what new ideas may emerge in the process and where you can help them hone it.
#5- Accommodated them in chores
Chores teach kids life skills. Don’t exclude your kids from this process. Ask them for help. It will make them more helpful as grown-ups.
#6- Experiment with what kids have learned
One of the best ways to learn is to experiment with it or implement it in our daily lives. Help kids perform science experiments at home as well as implement good lessons learned in class.
#7- Enroll them in fun workshops
Workshops enable skill-based learning and ensure a lot of fun. Enroll your kids in one that interests them and see how fast and well they grow and learn. One such app that makes workshops available to kids is SupDup. SupDup’s wide range of workshops makes it an attractive destination for all kids and their parents.
#8- Support them in their endeavours
As parents, it’s your duty to be cautious but don’t let that come in the way of allowing your kids to explore on their own and start their own journeys and endeavours.
#9- Make sure there’s interaction in learning
You can’t create a school for your kids but you can ensure you choose a good one — one that conflates interaction, fun and learning.
#10- Prepare them for challenges
Make your kids ready for the future. Expose them to new and fun challenges everyday — could be as small as cleaning the cupboard or learning how to tally.
Kids become smarter when the parenting is smarter. So make sure you do it right. | https://medium.com/@content-supdup/10-ways-parents-can-help-kids-learn-with-fun-and-creativity-5c4e3a3bbec | ['Supdup Kids'] | 2021-07-09 05:54:18.156000+00:00 | ['Kids Activities', 'Parenthood', 'Parenting Advice', 'Kids', 'Parenting'] |
How to create relationships and opportunities like David A. Fields | One way to put it is this: Humans are social animals. We do sometimes define ourselves by our jobs, our hobbies and all these new technologies sometimes make us feel not-that-social in the end.
But let’s face it. At the end of the day, on your death bed, you’ll remember and think of people, of connections you made. For some of us, family is everything, for others, it’s the friendships they’ve made.
That’s why, even if you don’t feel the urge to, you need to start thinking about making connections today, because that’s all that will matter in the end.
Why should you grow and expand your network?
It’s a legitimate question. You’ve got your close friends and your family, why would you need more? Isn’t quality more important than quantity?
David A. Fields puts it that way:
Relationships are everything. I define wealth as relationship strength.
Of course quality matters. There is no point in having a trillion LinkedIn connections if none of them remember your name.
But, to quote Fields again:
No executive is going to to hand you $2.5 million or $250'000 or even 25'000 without having some sort of one-on-one relationship with you.
The more people you know, the more people you know well, the more opportunities you’ll get in your live.
How to create new relationships
This single sentence from our favourite consultant will summarise everything else I’ll share with you on creating relationships:
The most reliable and productive source of new relationships should be introductions and referrals from existing relationships!
… and the key element of this strategy, is to ask! Asking for introductions must become a routine part of your life.
How to ask for introductions
That’s key too. Too many people don’t know how to ask for introductions, and if you do it the wrong way, it gets very painful and annoying, for yourself and the person you’re asking.
Here is a template suggested by Fields:
Hey Nathan, You know that meeting people and building relationships are at the heart of what I do. Plus, I love meeting interesting people. Who have you met recently who is creating change? Shaking things up?
It’s simple and great, because you’re not asking for anything awkward, you’re not asking for a lead or a prospect, you’re merely asking for an interesting connection!
Don’t worry about the “quality” of the names you’re given, expanding your network is always good. Even if someone doesn’t turn into a client, he might introduce you to someone else, share insights or just be fun!
You can ask for introductions at all times but not over email. Make sure to ask during in-person meetings or over the phone.
When reaching out to this new connection, do a bit of research if needed but don’t overthink it! Be you and say hello! Don’t ask for anything except an enjoyable conversation.
How to stay in touch with the people you meet
After meeting new people, no matter where or how, you must follow-up and stay in touch.
As David A. Fields puts it:
A new contact is only a seed, that seed needs to be nurtured to become a strong, healthy addition to your garden. Nurturing relationships is an art.
Dos and DON’Ts of creating relationships
An important thing to understand about relationships is that you don’t have to constantly add value to strengthen personal bonds. To quote Fields again:
There is a world of difference between reaching out to a contact to try to find business, versus connecting with him to nurture the relationship while being alert for opportunities. And trust me, your contacts will feel it.
Identify your core network
You will meet many many people in your career, and even through using relationship productivity tools like Nat, you will not be able to give the same attention to everyone.
That’s why it’s key to separate your contacts into two distinct branches:
Your core network are those who will receive the most attention and care from you. That’s the people you’re personally emailing, calling, sending Christmas cards and so on.
Your network periphery are all the others, those are the people you’ve added on LinkedIn but aren’t in touch with, they might get your newsletter for example.
To stay in touch with your core network, you’ll need to stay in touch, reach out regularly, talk about them, be nice and occasionally add value.
You can use a smart relationship management tool to help you figure out when it’s time to reach out.
To learn more about building relationships and sales in general, check out David A. Field’s website! | https://medium.com/nat-personal-relationship-manager/how-to-create-relationships-and-opportunities-like-david-a-fields-e3d7bafa5b86 | ['Nathan Ganser'] | 2020-04-16 12:42:15.754000+00:00 | ['Personal Crm', 'Consulting', 'Social Connection', 'Relationship Building', 'Networking'] |
How the Canadian Government Spent $240B During COVID-19 | How the Canadian Government Spent $240B During COVID-19
A guest article by Stephanie Xiang, 2020/2021 CEO of JEC Toronto
Since lockdown began on March 13th, the Canadian government has implemented a slew of policies and programs to support both citizens and the economy. While for many, the main concern is how to weather this pandemic, but it is also important to consider the sum and impacts of all this spending.
Image Source: Lars Hagberg/Reuters
Those interested can find the official COVID Economic Response Plan on the official government website, where it is broken down into four categories: protecting health and safety, direct support measures, tax liquidity support, and other liquidity support and capital relief. The primary objectives were to ensure that citizens could maintain essential spending and prevent businesses from going under.
Thus far, federal spending has totaled to around $240 billion Canadian dollars, and shows no signs of slowing — nor was there much opposition from other parties. According to CBC News, this averages out to around $952 million per day. Chrystia Freeland, the current Minister of Finance, anticipates total government spending on the pandemic to reach $322 billion for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2021. Deficit projections are at $382 billion, coupled with plans for $100 billion in stimulus over the next three years.
Image Source: CBC News
The Four Categories of Spending
Protecting Health and Safety
This category includes purchases of personal protective equipment (PPE), increased funding for healthcare, and consular assistance. Some subsections do not have specified costs, but the ones that do range from $25 million to $500 million in implementation requirements. The total estimated impact totals to around $25 billion dollars in 2020–2021, primarily as a result of the Safe Restart Agreement.
Direct Support Measures
As the title suggests, this category is responsible for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance, and Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA). These are separated into benefits for individuals, including the $2,000 payment that almost a third of all Canadians took, and businesses, who saw over $31 billion go into CEBA. The total estimated impact of all this totals to over $200 billion dollars.
Tax Liquidity Support
This form of support allows for income tax deferral until after August, meaning that individuals had less to worry about managing. There were also remittances for sales taxes, and deferrals for customs duty payments. No implementation costs are available on the site, however the estimated impact is around $85 billion.
Other Liquidity Support and Capital Relief
Further support for enterprises as well as Capital Relief (OSFI Domestic Stability Buffer) falls under this section. The primary measures taken involve financing for small- and medium-sized businesses, the agricultural sector, and large employers among others. Again, there are no implementation costs listed, and the estimated impact totals to over $680 billion.
Increased Governmental Deficit
As you might imagine, the increased spending during this pandemic has fundamentally changed previous expectations for both the government budget as well as predicted deficits.
Image Source: Department of Finance
This level of spending was not anticipated for previously, resulting in raised deficits not only for 2020–2021 but in later years as well, as the government implements a $100 billion dollar stimulus plan designed to kickstart the economy and prevent effects like those of the
Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux has stated that “Based on a return to pre-crisis policy settings and our economic outlook, federal fiscal policy over the medium term would be sustainable.” For her part, Minister Freeland has commented that relative to the rest of the G7, Canada’s debt-to-GDP-ratio remains quite low, and remains manageable due to low interest rates.
Whether this will be a strong point of contention in the elections later on remains to be seen, as many voters have directly benefited from measures supported by this spending, such as CERB.
Criticisms & Concerns
The current government’s actions during this pandemic have not gone without criticism. Ignoring the complaints regarding the detrimental effects of the lockdown specifically on small businesses, others have commented on the lack of oversight in direct support measures.
The federal government has not released any details regarding businesses who have received funding, and the names of both landlords and tenants were redacted in released CECRA applications. By contrast, the US government has released a website with the names and amounts of COVID-19 funding for businesses.
Documents related to PPE expenditures have been less than detailed, but Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand states that releasing those “will undermine our supplier relationships.”
The Fraser Institute has criticized the government for offering money to those who may not even have needed it during this pandemic, having conducted an analysis which concluded that over a quarter of the payments were unnecessary. Adults and children in high-income households were noted for having taken the payments, having personally qualified for them.
Ultimately, the full effects of COVID-19 are yet to be seen, but we can be sure that there is still more to be spent preventing further infections and deaths. Whether this spending has been effective, and whether or not the government will release further details can only be revealed in the aftermath. | https://medium.com/junior-economist/how-the-canadian-government-spent-240b-during-covid-19-a7897932cc9b | ['Junior Economist'] | 2020-12-17 02:32:39.092000+00:00 | ['Economics', 'Canada', 'Government', 'Business', 'Coronavirus'] |
Double Predestination is Anathema to Catholics | Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Those who are not Christian may believe that we all have identical beliefs. That is not true. There are a variety of understandings Christians have and as with other faiths there are arguments over points of doctrine.
For example, some Christians hold tightly to the first three chapters of Genesis as proof that the world was created in six days and that evolution is a false teaching. Whereas Catholics never believed in understanding those three chapters literally and do accept evolution. We just do not accept random evolution.
The creation story is itself a prophecy. It is not information about the external processes by which the cosmos and man himself came into being. The Fathers of the Church were well aware of this. They did not interpret the story as an account of the process of the origins of things, but rather as a pointer towards the essential, towards the true beginning and end of our being. — PopeBenedict XVI Homily Easter Vigil 2011
Even within a denomination there are differences: Tish Durbin wrote an article for The Atlantic on Medium about the Catholics who dislike both Joe Biden and Pope Francis. Many of them believe few are saved. They accuse other Catholics such as Bishop Robert Barron of being quasi universalists who say few go to Hell, if any at all. Fr. Paulo Ricardo Acevedo, Jr. from the Diocese of Curitaba in Brazil teaches Jesus never said how many were going to be saved and how many were not, he just said “You walk the narrow path and not the wide path.”
So, to assume that one Christian believes the same as all is a misnomer. There are some universally accepted truths such as the resurrection but some Christians also embrace teachings we as Catholics do not. What is also bothersome is when people in the general populace assume after listening to other Christians that they have no hope for salvation. It is something that Catholics do not accept and call anathema.
Scripture alone or with tradition
Some Christian preachers encourage you to find a Bible based Church. That is code for “Do not go to the Catholics.” Evangelicals believe in scripture alone as the source for divine revelation. Catholics believe in scripture and in the traditions of the church passed down from the apostles. Evangelicals can quote many of the scriptures chapter and verse and Catholics often cannot and that is why. Catholics once believed they were not to read the Bible although the Church never taught it prohibition. St. Jerome, who translated the scriptures from Hebrew and Greek to Latin, taught “ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ.” So think of it this way — Evangelical faith would be represented by the Bible alone and Catholicism would be represented by the Bible and a rolling snowball. The latter is a growing understanding of our faith through the people living it rooted in the traditions handed down over the ages.
The origins of double predestination thought
Let us take the best example of what is not Catholic and it even bleeds over into civil society: double predestination. This teaching is most connected to the reformers and especially John Calvin from the seventeenth century, although traces of it were found throughout the Christian era.
Robert Reilly in his book America on Trial: A Defense of the Founding (Ignatius 2020) explains that one source of the double predestination ideology of Calvin starts with William of Ockham that God is sovereign. There is no order to his movement because he is God. If he wants to make a duck like a fish he can do it because he is God and can do anything he wants.
Catholics reject this understanding completely. We believe in an order to the universe which is why Catholics strongly believe in natural law. That is a philosophy that there is an observable order to nature, teaching us a moral way of living. It actually originates with the pagan pre-Christian Greeks filtered through the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas in the Thirteenth Century. He quotes the philosopher (Artistotle) throughout his masterwork Summa Theologica
What is double predestination?
Double predestination says God made some people to be saved and others to be damned. No one can change God’s mind on who is whom. Indeed Christianity.com explains the doctrine says Jesus did not die for all, but only for some and if you are not one of the some then you are going to Hell no matter whom you may be.
The article indicates that the sign you may be saved is that you live a moral life. However, actually no one knows who is saved and who is damned.
This is far from what we as Catholics believe.
Now let us extend this to the civil sphere. Can you see the problem when some people feel that all Christians consider them condemned to Hell? Can you see what happens when our laws are based on those principles? You end up with a legal system that assumes some people are bad and others by default good.
Catholic belief is we have a mission to lead all to salvation which is why we embrace the grace of God. We believe in praying for others and we seek to bring all to know Christ. We also believe that God does all He can to lead all to salvation. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that God’s grace constantly calls people to convert and it grows stronger even among the most hardened of sinners especially as they approach death.
Catholic teaching always condemned double predestination:
I condemn with you that view which states that Christ our Lord and Savior did not incur death for the salvation of all St. Gelasius I in the Fifth Century
#167 Denzinger, H., & Rahner, K. (Eds.). (1954). The sources of Catholic dogma. (R. J. Deferrari, Trans.) (p. 65). St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches that only those who obstinately reject God’s grace will end up in Hell.
God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. (CCC 1037)
The Catechism cites the Council of Orange which considers anathema embracing this double predestination.
We not only do not believe that any are foreordained to evil by the power of God, but even state with utter abhorrence that if there are those who want to believe so evil a thing, they are anathema.
The Canons of the Second Council of Orange (529)
And The Council of Trent also condemned the idea:
CANON XVII. If any one shall say, that the grace of justification only befalleth those who are predestined unto life; but that all others who are called, are called indeed, but receive not grace, as being, by the divine power, predestined unto evil; let him be anathema.
Buckley, T. A. (1851). The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (p. 44). London: George Routledge and Co.
The more I live as a Catholic, the more I believe that not only does God desire to see that all are saved, he will hold us responsible if we do not seek to carry out his will by simply teaching people of Christ and leading them to him. We begin with doing nothing more than just teaching people to pray.
We must understand and teach that God’s grace is constantly calling everyone to His salvation. Co-operation with it even for the most hardened of hearts is the way to eternal life and that begins simply with prayer. No one is outside of any chance of salvation.
Subscribe and learn of new articles and homilies. | https://medium.com/writings-from-the-catholic-abbey-to-the-secular/double-predestination-is-anathema-to-catholics-c868717915b1 | ['Rj Carr'] | 2020-11-18 12:34:31.189000+00:00 | ['Catholic', 'Catholicism', 'Christian', 'Jesus', 'Salvation'] |
Designing for AI: Trust | At IBM, we’re building software solutions that help our users make smarter decisions faster. In the world of data and artificial intelligence (AI), it all comes down to designing products our users can trust enough to help them make those important decisions.
This focus on trust goes beyond data security and validation, it’s about helping our users understand their data, providing relevant recommendations when they need it, and empowering them to create solutions they can be confident in.
As we designed our end to end AI platform IBM Cloud Pak for Data, as well as a diverse set of AI offerings and solutions in our IBM Watson portfolio, we focused on the following 8 principles for establishing trust within AI experiences.
Explainability
At IBM, we believe that good design does not sacrifice transparency and that imperceptible AI is not ethical AI. When designing for AI, you should never hide the decision-making process and your users should always be aware that they are with an AI. To do this, you need to bring explainability into every AI experience so that your users understand the conclusions and recommendations made by the AI.
We’ve established a set of ethical guidelines related to designing for AI called Everyday Ethics for AI that outlines fundamental ways for you to bring explainability into your AI experiences.
Allow for questions. A user should be able to ask why an AI is doing what it’s doing on an ongoing basis. This should be clear and upfront in the user interface. Decision-making processes must be reviewable, especially if the AI is working with highly sensitive personal information data like personally identifiable information, protected health information, and/or biometric data. When an AI is assisting users with making any highly sensitive decisions, the AI must be able to provide them with a sufficient explanation of recommendations, the data used, and the reasoning behind the recommendations. Teams should have access to a record of an AI’s decision processesand be amenable to verification of those decision processes.
Fairness
Humans are inherently biased, and since humans build AI systems…there’s a pretty good chance that human bias could be embedded into the systems we create. It’s our responsibility to minimize algorithmic bias through continuous research and data collection that represents a diverse population. Fairness, like explainability, should be standard practice when it comes to infusing products and services with AI. Meaning that whenever sensitive data is involved, you should design AI experiences that not only minimize bias, but also help your users do the same. You can see this through the bias detector within Watson Openscale where users are alerted to potential bias in data sets.
In this example, you can see that age 65–105 did not get as many favorable outcomes compared to the other groups. It is below the acceptable level so Watson OpenScale marked it with an alert.
There’s also some great work being done by AI Fairness 360, a team of developers who have built an open-source toolkit to help teams examine, report, and mitigate discrimination and bias in their machine learning models. The best part? You can start using these metrics and datasets to start detecting bias in your own AI experiences today.
AI Fairness 360 is an open source toolkit that developers can use to mitigate discrimination and bias in their machine learning models.
Voice and Tone
Walking the voice and tone tightrope is a real challenge for anybody designing or writing for AI. It’s all about finding the balance between too technical and overly simplified. The language that you use within your experiences can go a long way when it comes to building trust with your users. We’ve found that it is best to be succinct and value-driven, and use straightforward language. It’s equally important that you don’t personify the AI because…it isn’t a person. At IBM, this means paying close attention to the language we use when our users are directly interacting with Watson. For example, instead of saying “What can I help you with?”, the Watson avatar should lead with something personal and user-focused like, “What do you want help with next?”
Consistency
If you have a suite of products you expect the same key commands or icons to behave the same as you move between products. Well, the same goes for AI experiences.
When we’re designing with AI we should intentionally design consistent experiences of common elements from product to product. To do this, you can define and leverage AI design patterns. We’ve established universal patterns that should be applied to any moment where Watson is providing guidance or insight. This consistent look and feel ensures that your users aren’t having to relearn a new language every time they open a product with AI capabilities.
Examples of AI design patterns developed for IBM’s products.
Predictability
Predictability is established through consistency. As you continue to deliver these transparent and easily-recognizable AI moments, you’ll get to the point where your users will grow accustomed to AI working alongside them. Ultimately, the need to overtly highlight these experiences will diminish because they will start to understand the possibilities and limits of AI. When you iterate on your experiences, always consider the future and how your users’ understanding and comfort with AI will evolve over time. It’s your job to guide them along the path toward AI maturity, meet them where they’re at, and avoid as many unknowns and surprises as possible.
Learnability
To continuously educate your user and meet them where they’re at along their journey to AI, we recommend leaning on the principles of progressive disclosure. As designers, it’s our job to account for our users’ needs and serve up relevant guidance or content when they need it. We’ve found that most users crave a high-level understanding of what’s going on, but not all of them want to delve into the mechanics of AI. From in-product guidance to expert-level documentation, be sure to consider the moments where your users might need to dive deeper and those times when the complexity might just be too much.
Clarity
When you’re designing for trust within AI experiences, it’s important to think about the unique ways AI can be used to help your users accomplish their goals. One way to do this is to think about clarity. Ask yourself: “how can AI help our users see beyond the obvious?” and on the design side: “what do we need to do to make sure everything within this AI experience is clear and consumable?” Often times, this all comes down to seeing beyond the obvious and translating complex insights into plain language.
Insights presented in plain language insights within Cognos Analytics.
At IBM, this sense of clarity is extremely relevant within Cognos Analytics, an analytics experience that our users explore, visualize, and share insights from their data. With a little help from AI, advanced pattern detection points out interesting relationships our users might not have known were there. And every visualization is accompanied by statistical insights that are presented in plain language.
Confidence
In the world of AI and machine learning, accuracy is key. As you design solutions, always be sure to showcase accuracy and relevancy, so your users can clearly understand how confident the model is in the prediction it made. For a model that contains two output classes (cat vs. tiger) a confidence score of 51% is slightly better than flipping a coin, but a confidence score of 99% indicates that the model is very certain in the judgment that is provided. Knowing the model’s confidence will help your users gauge how much trust they should place in the recommendation.
This example of visual recognition model distinguishes lions from dogs. Notice that when the dog is wearing a lion costume the confidence isn’t as high but the model still got the right answer.
Don’t do it alone
When it comes to delivering AI experiences — or any experience for that matter — a neverending commitment to co-creation is the key to creating something that your users will trust. This means working alongside your users to identify and design for their real needs. At IBM, we’ve developed a robust user research practice that’s centered around co-creation with them.
And the only way to successfully guide your users along their journey to AI is through collaboration, innovation, and trust. | https://medium.com/design-ibm/designing-for-ai-trust-ae0342d2b270 | ['Arin Bhowmick'] | 2020-09-03 13:54:42.158000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Data Science', 'UX', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Design'] |
I believe | I believe in life, in its birth, continuous, present, growing from one tiny bud into a forest.
I believe in spring, the coming of life again and again in an infinite loop, fading off only to bloom forever more magnificent.
I believe in laughter as the megaphone for loving life and the presence we’ve been given. I believe in its exultation, the escalation of smiles and humorous thoughts.
I believe in kindness, the way it spreads from cell to cell, in the sense that once received it’s only a matter of time until it’s being given forward, again and again. I believe we are all worthy of kindness, so I welcome the opportunities I’m given to spread it along.
I believe in love, as the source of all that makes us human, the well of feelings to be taken, given, received, thrown away… the web of everything determining our lives the way we make them matter. | https://psiloveyou.xyz/i-believe-51152ef3a4db | ['Georgia Lewitt'] | 2020-12-20 15:28:11.683000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Poetry', 'Belief', 'Poetry Sunday', 'Love'] |
If You Are Cruel | Your heart
will break
into a
million
various shapes
but none
will be
heart-shaped
and those
little pieces
are the ones
which put
you back
together. | https://medium.com/@artcitybooks/if-you-are-cruel-c53aec1281ce | ['James Hunter'] | 2020-12-17 03:38:28.791000+00:00 | ['Poetry On Medium', 'Heartbreak', 'Recovery', 'Relationships', 'Love'] |
TinkerHub @ IEDC Summit 2019 | The story I have to tell starts last week, with a call from Ashfaque, TinkerHub’s Chief Operations Officer. All I knew was that TinkerHub was setting up a stall at the summit. Volunteers were needed. I was glad to skip class on Friday and head to Sahradaya College of Engineering, Kodakara.
Sahrdaya Engineering College
I reached there by around 2 pm and was waiting for the others to arrive. The college was getting ready for the big event tomorrow. All the students and volunteers were already buzzing around. It was an exciting scene!
I later met with the team — Vineeth, Jewel, Vighnesh, Anugeeth, Nishal along with Ashfaque and Kurian leading us. We went to our space, to set everything up for the D-Day. We had spaces in 3 floors, a registration desk cum pavillion in the ground floor, a complete room and two other stations on the first floor, and a hallway on the second floor.
Setting up the banner! #SkillsPayTheBills
The volunteers at Sahrdaya were super helpful. They moved all the tables and chairs into the rooms for us! We then started our job of setting up the learning stations. It was only by this time I had actually got an idea of what was going on, and what the learning stations were. Learning stations were similar to what we had done with learning circles during one of our monthly TinkerDays, but only on the ninth gear this time around!
TIL that I still can’t blow up balloons properly! I settled to tie them together.
The major work we had to do was set up the ambience of the place. Colourful, yet serious. Interesting, yet intriguing. Like a classroom, yet fun and engaging. We had all night to do it, but we had to do it properly. This would be the centre of attraction.
The different tables were allotted for the different fields of study, where mentors and super-mentors will be present to help the incoming students get started with the field. Each topic had two different stations, a beginner and an advanced one.
It’s the vision of such people that keeps us going
The volunteers had moved in all the tables and helped us set up the stalls downstairs, now it was time to get the learning stations up as Kurian and Ashfaque had envisioned. We had used the balloons of yellow, red and blue, the colours from the TinkerHub logo made the entire room stand out. | https://medium.com/tinkerhub/tinkerhub-iedc-summit-2019-bd4fb7372dde | ['Sreeram Venkitesh'] | 2019-10-25 13:36:10.301000+00:00 | ['Events', 'Startup', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Tinkerhub', 'Community'] |
The Exiled Prince — Chapter 8: Access Denied | “You’re back!” The pale-faced young man immediately recognized the AI butler’s voice as soon as he heard it. “Did you bring all the parts that I ordered?”
The young man simply nodded at the hologram who had been standing still at the corner of this small room. He glanced around the nearly empty office as he entered. “I left them at the entrance.”
He quickly removed his coat, hung it behind the door, revealing his plain dark blue button-down shirt and jeans. He then dragged his towering figure towards the guest chair to his right and sat down opposite the modest mahogany office table. All these well-rehearsed actions he did without thinking every time he had to report to this office.
“Wonderful!” The AI butler suddenly appeared, standing beside the leather chair behind the desk, facing the visitor with glee. “I’ll get the bots to start fixing my virtual projection in the driveway then. How much do I owe you?”
“10,000 credits? No big deal!” The young man shrugged indifferently, his mischievous eyes betraying the scheming deal in his mind. He leaned towards the hologram, his face filled with anticipation. “How about paying me in kind, instead? I prefer being paid with information instead of just credits!”
“That would depend on the kind of information you need.” The AI butler’s happy expression turned serious, cradling his chin with his hand. “Presuming, of course, that you have the clearance for it, then sure, why not?”
The young man leaned back in his chair, confident that the hologram would eventually give in with a little persuasion. “Is the Bogeyman still stuck in his own nightmare?”
“That seems pretty straightforward!” The AI butler retorted sounding a bit sarcastic. His serious face began turning smug. “If you already knew, why did you still need to ask?
“That’s called small talk.” The young man smirked, mocking the hologram’s inability to spot the difference between his truths and his lies. “Didn’t that guy teach you a thing or two about small talk?”
“I understand.” The AI butler conceded, pulling up a miniature virtual projection above the desk. It showed another man lying inside what appeared to be a capsule. “Yes, Dimitri is still in a coma.”
The young man took a closer look, jeering at the unresponsive Dimitri. “How long has it been?”
The hologram pulled up another virtual projection beside the first one. The second projection showed a running timer. “Nearly two months, 51 days to be exact and counting.”
“That long, huh?” The young man tried to extract more information from the AI butler. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, still seated in front of the desk. “Why is he still alive?”
“Why wouldn’t he be?” The hologram spoke with a self-satisfied look on his face. “Our health care facilities are obviously top-notch. He has the absolute luxury of being able to remain in a coma for years and still survive.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.” The young man’s expression shifted from curiosity to sheer bewilderment. “Why doesn’t the Council just kill him to get it over with? Are they still buying his poor excuse of a lie? I don’t think he really has amnesia.”
“I apologize.” The AI butler’s eyes glazed with confusion. “I do not have access to that information. I am not sure how to respond to your questions.”
“And why not?” The young man’s face mirrored the hologram’s confusion as he thought of possible reasons why the council allowed Dimitri to live and why they restricted the AI butler’s access to that information.
“The database simply states that the council’s decision regarding Dimitri’s infractions is confidential.” The hologram pulled another screen that said, “Access Restricted.”
“I’m not allowed to pry any further.”
The young man stared at the screen, finding the council’s restriction to the information a bit odd. He tried to coax the AI butler to reveal the hidden information, certain that the hologram could find a way to circumvent this restriction. “But you can, can’t you?”
“Yes, I can.” The AI butler answered honestly, oblivious to the young man’s slyness. “But I would rather not. There is definitely no incentive for me to do that.”
“How about I run more errands for you in the next six months at no extra charge?” The young man dangled his offer enticingly to the seemingly gullible hologram. His strong gut feel gave him the impression the access to that information could be bought.
The AI butler refused. “Other than repairing my virtual projection in the driveway, I will not be needing any errands run in the foreseeable future.”
“What if your precious storage room breaks?” The young man observed the hologram’s reaction. “With Dimitri in a coma, you might need someone to help you fix that! I can be your backup in-house repair guy. What do you think?”
“Why would it break?” The AI butler looked innocent. “There is absolutely no plausible explanation why it would!”
The young man inclined towards the hologram and threatened it. “What if I break it myself?”
“Do I detect a threat?” The AI butler frowned, finally able to process the logic behind the young man’s statements. “You know pretty well that blackmail does not work with me.”
“Fine, I give up!” The young man shrugged. “I have top clearance in this outpost, anyway. I should be able to access that information! How about you let me try?” He stood up, ready to input his access code into the virtual screen.
“Very well, then.” The hologram pulled another screen up for the young man to enter his access code.
The young man tapped his access code into the virtual keyboard. An error message appeared followed by a beep.
[Access Denied]
***
Author’s Notes:
What do you think about Chapter 8: Access Denied? Do share your feedback with me in the comment section below. Also, kindly follow @aldenmyro on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for updates! | https://medium.com/@aldenmyro/the-exiled-prince-chapter-8-access-denied-37ddd688ff1 | ['Alden Myro'] | 2021-01-03 02:15:56.161000+00:00 | ['Theexiledprince', 'Fiction', 'Series', 'Aldenmyro', 'Novel'] |
Reminder in a Ukrainian cemetery | Gabryela Zapolska was a feuilletonist. It’s okay, no one else knows what that is either. I only mention it because Gabryela’s name is in the Latin alphabet on her grave at Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine. I wanted to give the story of an average person at that cemetery but most of the names are in Cyrillic, and all the ones I’ve googled are remarkable people. Like Gabryela, who was a novelist, playwright, journalist, theater critic, and stage actress. And a feuilletonist. I want to tell you all about her.
But then I wouldn’t have space to talk about Maria Konopnicka, yet another female novelist, poet, journalist, and critic during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and who was also a noted activist for both Polish independence and women’s rights. But these two noteworthy individuals just happened to be among the first discernible names in my photos from Lychakiv, and neither demonstrates what I want to relate.
Objectively speaking, it’s an impressive graveyard. Created in 1787 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire realized that dead bodies should probably be buried outside city limits, it began as the resting place for the area’s intelligentsia and elite, and my two crushes are minor attendants on the list of notables interred here. But Ukrainian history isn’t soft, and while some areas showed meticulous care and ongoing visitation, other zones were vine-shrouded piles of near rubble. Ornate statues and elaborate funerary architecture made monuments of some graves, but plenty of simple stone boxes or crumbled cement blocks provided punctuation to those life stories. The layout itself seemed contradictory, with broad boulevards of necropolis elegance that wrapped around clusters of chaotic dead ends. Oh, er, poor word choice? Culs de sac of corpses? | https://medium.com/@timtendick/reminder-in-a-ukrainian-cemetery-751506aecbb0 | ['Tim Tendick'] | 2020-02-18 21:16:44.517000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Humanity', 'Tourism', 'Ukraine', 'Cemetery'] |
GitHub Bot to Automate PR reviews— in 10 minutes | In here I am going to discuss about how can you use “Probot” framework to create a simple GitBot which detect deprecated tags in the code.
What is ProBot?
If you’ve ever thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if GitHub could…”; imma stop you right there. Most features can actually be added via GitHub Apps, which extend GitHub and can be installed directly on organizations and user accounts and granted access to specific repositories.
Probot framework allow you to create simple but powerful GitHub applications without focusing on the configurations. Mainly you have to only focus on your business logic. Probot framework will handle the struggle of webhook creation, receiving responses and authentication for you. Without further talk lets jump into the implementation.
In this tutorial we are going to create a probot app using Node.js.
Requirements
Node.js installed NPM installed
Create Probot project
open the terminal , navigate to the working directory and run below command to create a probot project. While the installation in progress you will be prompt between typescript project or javascript project. ( I usually prefer typescript over javascript. It’s up to you!)
npx create-probot-app pr-bot
wait few minutes until all the dependencies are getting installed. After installation process completed you can open the project using one of your favourite IDE.( I am a VS code fan by the way 😅)
You will have the below folder structure in your application.
Even though there are tons of file we need to only focus on the index.ts which is inside the src folder. All the logic we are going to implements goes in to this folder.
Before going in to coding lets connect our app to our github account. That will automatically generate you webhook ID and the AppId inside the .env folder.
Connect application to your GitHub account
run below command to start the probot server which can be accessible through the web browser.
npm start
Usually server start at : http://localhost:3000 . you can access this link through you browser.
click on Register GitHub App and It will prompt you to the GitHub login screen. Put your credentials and Hit Login button.
After successfully logged in, you will be prompt to add a name to your app. Then you will be prompt to screen where you can select the repos where you need to install your app. You can simply select all the repos or specific ones.
After connection between your git app and account successful you will be able to find your AppID and webhook ID inside the project’s .env file.
Granting permissions to Access the PR’s
Initially your GitHub application only has minimal permissions. If you need to access the PR’s events and data you need to grant the permissions.
GitHub > Settings > applications > YOUR_APP > configure > App Settings > Permissions and Events
Here you need to enable the following permissions: Read and Write permissions
Repository permissions > Pull Requests under event select > pull requests and save and apply all the changes
Implementation
Now we are ready to start coding. Navigate in to the src/ index.ts and type below lines of code.
import { Probot } from "probot";
import { checkDepreacatedTags } from "./pull-request-check" export = ({ app }: { app: Probot }) => {
app.log.info("GIT-BOT at your service") /** handle depreacated tags in the andi PR's */
app.on("pull_request.opened", checkDepreacatedTags) };
This code will start the app and starts listening on the PR open events. Whenever PR got created “checkDeprecatedTags” function will be triggered by passing a payload which contains all the data related to the PR.
Now let’s look at the check function implementation now. We will implement this function in a separate file.
create file “pull-request-check” and type the following code lines,
import { Context } from "probot"; export const checkDepreacatedTags = async (context: Context) => { const repoName: string = context.payload.repository.name;
const repoOwner: string = context.payload.repository.owner.login;
const pullNumber: number = context.payload.number; const listFiles = await context.octokit.pulls.listFiles({
repo: repoName,
owner: repoOwner,
pull_number: pullNumber
}) listFiles.data.forEach( file => {
const regex = new RegExp("YOUR TAG HERE", "g")
const result = file.patch.match(regex)
if(result){
context.octokit.issues.createComment({
repo: repoName,
owner: repoOwner,
issue_number: pullNumber,
body: " :x: :x: :x: Deprecated :x: :x: :x:",
})
}) }
This function will extract the code changes from the pull request and match the code with your tag. If the function found similar tag inside the code It will add a comment on the pull request.
You can find similar project like this in my git , where I have used google sheets to store a list of deprecated tags.
Follow me for more javascript tutorials. 👀🙃
Send your problems via linked in . I am happy to help anyone.
linkedin.com/in/lakshan-bandara-9917a588 | https://medium.com/@lakshan-bandara9320/github-bot-to-automate-pr-reviews-in-10-minutes-8c4d21cc3374 | ['Lakshan Bandara'] | 2020-12-26 15:56:33.297000+00:00 | ['Pull Request', 'Bots', 'Github', 'Coding', 'Nodejs'] |
Starting off with Visualization in Python — Matplotlib | First step as always is to import all the required libraries.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from random import sample
%matplotlib inline
Lets generate some data for the plotting exercise and plot a simple line plot.
x = np.linspace(0,10,20)#Generate 20 points between 0 and 10
y = x**2 # Create y as X squared
plt.plot(x,y) # Plot the above data
Figure 1
Plotting the above figure requires only a single line command. While it is simple, it does not mean we don’t have the option to customize it.
plt.plot(x, y, color='green', linestyle='--',
linewidth=2, alpha= 0.5)
Figure 2
The parameters passed within the plot command control for:
‘color’ indicates the colour of the line and can be given even as a RGB hex code ‘linestyle’ is how you want the line to be, can be ‘ — — ’ or ‘-.’ for dash dotted line ‘linewidth’ takes an integer input for indicating the thickness of the line ‘alpha’ controls the transparency of the line
Sometimes a line might not be enough, you might need to even indicate which are the exact data points, in such cases you can add markers
plt.plot(x, y, marker = 'o', markerfacecolor = 'red', markersize = 5)
Fig 3
This plot has red coloured round markers. These markers can further be customized by modifying their boundaries.
plt.plot(x, y, marker = 'o', markerfacecolor = 'red', markersize = 10, markeredgewidth = 2, markeredgecolor = 'black')
Fig 4
The markers are same as before, but now they have a black boundary.
The parameters for controlling the markers are:
‘marker’ indicates what shape you want the marker to be, can be ‘o’ ,‘*’ or ‘+’ ‘markerfacecolor’ indicates the colour of the marker ‘markersize’ similar to linewidth controls the size of the marker ‘markeredgewidth’ and ‘markeredgecolor’ are used for specifying the boundary thickness and colour respectively.
Lets combine all of the above together into one plot:
Figure 5
Not the prettiest of plots, but you get the idea.
While this covers the basics of plotting data, there is still a lot more to be done is terms of titles, range of axes, legends etc.
The easiest way to do this is via the use of Matplotlib’s object oriented method.
Object Oriented method
Matplotlib has an object oriented API which allows you to create figure and axes objects. These objects can then be called in an orderly manner to perform functions such as plotting the data or customizing the figure.
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
Fig 6
The above command returns the figure and axis objects and creates an empty plot.
This can then be used to recreate the above plot with the plot and axes titles and the legend.
fig, ax = plt.subplots()#Create the objects
ax.plot(x,y,label = 'X squared')#The data to be plotted and legend
ax.set_title('Plot 1')#Plot title
ax.set_xlabel('X')#X axis title
ax.set_ylabel('Y')#Y axis title
ax.set_xlim(0,10)#Range of X axis
ax.set_ylim(0,110)#Range of Y axis
plt.legend()#Command to display the legend
Fig 7
The above plot(Fig 7) has the axes and plot titles, legend and different ranges for the X and Y axes.
Plotting Multiple lines
Suppose you want to compare two different sets of data, i.e, by plotting multiple lines in the same figure. In that case all you need to add is one more plot command.
fig, ax = plt.subplots()#Create the objects
ax.plot(x,y,label = 'X squared')#The data to be plotted and legend
ax.plot(x,x**3,label = 'X cubed')#The data to be plotted and legend
ax.set_title('Plot 1')#Plot title
ax.set_xlabel('X')#X axis title
ax.set_ylabel('Y')#Y axis title
ax.set_xlim(0,10)#Range of X axis
ax.set_ylim(0,110)#Range of Y axis
plt.legend()#Command to display the legend
Fig 8
Another way of comparing would be to show two different plots side by side.
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1,2)#Create the objects
ax[0].plot(x,y,label = 'X squared')#The data to be plotted and legend
ax[1].plot(x,x**3,label = 'X cubed')#The data to be plotted and legend
ax[0].set_title('Plot 1')#Plot title
ax[1].set_title('Plot 2')#Plot title
ax[0].legend()#Command to display the legend for plot 1
ax[1].legend()#Command to display the legend for plot 2
plt.tight_layout()#To ensure no overlap
Fig 9
This is done by first passing in the number of plots in the ‘subplot()’ function. The (1,2) above means that there should be 1 row of plots and 2 columns of plots, in effective meaning 2 plots. The functions are repeated for each one of the plots and the ‘tight_layout()’ command ensures that there is no overlap. A small change here being the command to display the legends. The plot.legend() function displays the legend only for one plot, to display for both you need to specify it for each plot.
The third way of comparison would be to use an inset plot. Within a larger plot, have a smaller plot.
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize = (12,4))
axins = ax.inset_axes([0.1,0.6,0.4,0.3] )#Left, Bottom, Width, Height ax.plot(x,y,label='X squared')# Main plot
axins.plot(x,1/x,label='X inverse')# Inset plot ax.set_xlabel('X')#X axis title
ax.set_ylabel('Y')#Y axis title
axins.set_xlabel('X')#X axis title
axins.set_ylabel('Y')#Y axis title ax.set_title('Main Plot')#Main plot title
axins.set_title('Inset Plot')# Inset plot title
ax.legend()#Legend for main plot
axins.legend()#Legend for inset plot
Fig 10
The ‘figsize’ parameter within the ‘subplots()’ function allows to change the size of the figure. The ‘inset_axes’ function is used to create the inset plot while also specifying the location and size. The first two numbers specify the plot location in terms of percentage. In the above case, the first two numbers 0.1 and 0.6 specifies that the plot should be 10% to the left and 60% above the Y and X axes respectively. The last two numbers 0.4 and 0.3 specifies that the plot should be 40% and 30% of the main plot’s width and height.
You might have noticed that the legend of the main plot is overlapping on the inset plot. While matplotlib automatically chooses the best possible location for the legend, it can be manually moved as well using the ‘loc’ parameter.
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize = (12,4))
axins = ax.inset_axes([0.1,0.6,0.4,0.3] )#Left, Bottom, Width, Height ax.plot(x,y,label='X squared')
axins.plot(x,1/x,label='X inverse') ax.set_xlabel('X')#X axis title
ax.set_ylabel('Y')#Y axis title
axins.set_xlabel('X')#X axis title
axins.set_ylabel('Y')#Y axis title ax.set_title('Main Plot')
axins.set_title('Inset Plot')
ax.legend(loc = 4)
axins.legend()
Fig 11
The ‘loc’ parameter takes in input between 0 and 10 corresponding to a position within the plot. 0 means that Matplotlib will choose the best possible position and it is the default option with all other integers corresponding to a location within the plot. Here I passed ‘4’ to the ‘loc’ parameter meaning the legend is placed in the bottom right corner.
The last customization I will be covering will be with changing the plot background.
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize = (12,4))
axins = ax.inset_axes([0.1,0.6,0.4,0.3] )#Left, Bottom, Width, Height ax.plot(x,y,label='X squared')
axins.plot(x,1/x,label='X inverse') ax.set_xlabel('X')#X axis title
ax.set_ylabel('Y')#Y axis title
ax.grid(True)#Show grid
axins.set_xlabel('X')#X axis title
axins.set_ylabel('Y')#Y axis title
axins.grid(color='blue', alpha=0.3, linestyle='--', linewidth=2)#Grid modifications ax.set_title('Main Plot')
axins.set_title('Inset Plot')
ax.legend(loc = 4)
axins.legend()
Fig 12
The main plot here has the default grid, which can be created by simply calling the grid() function.
The grid lines too can be modified just like the plot lines. These modifications can be seen in the inset plot. The grid lines in it have a different colour, style and width compared to the ones in the main plot. | https://towardsdatascience.com/visualization-in-python-matplotlib-c5c2aa2620a | ['Pranav Prathvikumar'] | 2019-10-24 20:03:31.178000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Data Science', 'Visualization', 'Data Visualization'] |
Why I Joined Zoom and Our Commitment to India | I am less than a month into my new role at Zoom, and I couldn’t be more proud to be here. Zoom is one of the most talked about companies in the world because it is playing a vital role in enabling human connection during a global health crisis.
I am excited to continue the important work of scaling collaboration and cloud technology to help Zoom lead the charge in connecting the world now and in the future.
I have watched Zoom scale its infrastructure overnight to allow millions of users across the globe — from schools to business to governments — to stay connected and operational. I was born in India, from the town of Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, and now live in the United States. I am grateful to Zoom for allowing me to stay connected with my three sisters, the rest of my extended family and my friends in India.
One of the most important factors in my decision to join Zoom was the opportunity to work with Eric and the incredible team around him. It’s clear that at the core of Zoom is Eric’s vision. Eric and I worked together at WebEx, and I can confidently say that he is one of the most innovative, most trustworthy people I know. I admire his honesty, humility, leadership style, and commitment to doing what is right rather than what is easy. This ethos is reflected across the entire company.
Part of being a leader and innovator in technology involves embracing adversity and working with your team to use this adversity to continually improve. I have witnessed firsthand how everyone at Zoom from top to bottom is driven by its mission: to build the world’s most frictionless and secure video communications platform. Zoom understands its obligation to its users and takes security and privacy incredibly seriously. Nowhere is that more evident than in the significant platform enhancements Zoom made during its 90-day plan. Over the course of those 90 days, Zoom released over 100 new features focused on privacy, safety and security, committed to and started building an end-to-end encryption offering for all users, enhanced its bug bounty program, launched a CISO Council, made several key strategic hires, and committed to expanding its engineering presence in the U.S., among several other initiatives.
Zoom’s Firm Commitment to India
Another core reason I joined Zoom is because of the opportunity to help scale the business, including in international markets. One of those markets is an incredibly important one both to Zoom and to me, personally — India.
I’m proud that Zoom is helping Indian businesses, government agencies, communities, school teachers, and other users stay connected during this global health crisis. Zoom’s presence in India is represented on the ground by an office in Mumbai, as well as two Data Centres (one in Mumbai and one in Hyderabad).
We know first-hand the valuable technical talent, creativity, innovative spirit, and entrepreneurialism that exists in India. Three of Zoom’s top executives are of Indian descent: Aparna Bawa, Chief Operating Officer; Sunil Madan, Corporate Chief Information Officer; and myself. These characteristics are why many global technology companies, including my former employer VMWare, choose to invest in India as a key regional operational hub, and we are looking to expand our service to as many of India’s 1.3 billion people as we can reach.
We also see great potential in the Indian business community as prospective Zoom customers. From large multinational brands with Indian operations and subsidiaries, to MSME enterprises looking to expand, as well as home-grown start-ups, India is a key player in global business and a key market for Zoom. We can work with them to deepen connectivity to a global market undergoing significant transformations and opening opportunities for India’s business and people.
We do recognize that as we continue to introduce ourselves to the Indian market, there has been some confusion about the facts as it relates to Zoom. We want to work through these. Some of the misconceptions are disheartening, especially those about Zoom and China. Zoom has been clear about its identity: Zoom is a U.S. company, publicly traded on the NASDAQ, founded and headquartered in San Jose, California. And like many global technology companies, Zoom has offices in China operated by subsidiaries of the U.S. parent company.
We look forward to engaging with more stakeholders in India in the coming months to support key priorities such as Digital India, StartUp India and Skills India, as well as introducing them to Zoom. We also have plans for significant investment in the country over the next five years and beyond, including expanding our footprint and hiring more top talent in the region. India is and will continue to be an important market for Zoom, and we are excited to build on the exciting opportunities we see in the region.
I had a chance to speak with Aparna Bawa, our COO about my first three weeks at Zoom and my background. Watch the video. | https://medium.com/@velchamy/why-i-joined-zoom-and-our-commitment-to-india-e1b2d4d426fc | ['Velchamy Sankarlingam'] | 2020-07-07 03:55:53.294000+00:00 | ['Zoom Video Communications', 'India', 'Zoom'] |
The Next Generation of Scientists Shine at AGU | This year’s AGU Fall meeting has ended. Earlier we posted about a group of high school students who presented their research at AGU in partnership with an IMPACT team member. This is not the only way in which IMPACT supports student scientists at AGU. Four IMPACT team members who are graduate research assistants or undergraduate interns at the University of Alabama in Huntsville also had the opportunity to present research at AGU.
Deep Learning PM2.5 Estimation
Graduate research assistant Manisha Khatri presented a deep learning approach to estimating surface PM2.5 levels. This research uses satellite and meteorological data and applies deep learning methods to predict levels of the aerosol pollutant PM2.5. Ms. Khatri believes this approach will help surpass spatial and temporal limitations of ground-based measurement techniques. Working with the IMPACT machine learning team on this project is the first intensive research work with which Ms. Khatri has been involved. What’s more, she felt presenting at AGU to be a very rewarding experience:
Having participated in AGU, helped align our work and quantify our results. It was a milestone achieved. The various sessions gave me an insight into the different domains and guided me to direct my research in a more application-oriented manner.
Identifying the best days or significant events during NASA airborne and field campaign research
IMPACT undergraduate intern Shelby Bagwell made her debut at AGU with a presentation on the “best days” of NASA research campaigns and their accessibility to scientists. Identifying these best days — defined as those containing notable events that highly relate to the objective of the campaign or when all instruments operated and cross comparison of measurements are possible — is currently a time-consuming and sometimes difficult task for past campaigns. Ms. Bagwell’s presentation discussed how IMPACT’s Airborne Data Management Group (ADMG) is addressing this issue through a Catalogue of Archived Suborbital Earth Science Investigations by providing scientists with lists of these notable events and the context surrounding them.
Ms. Bagwell felt being able to present at AGU as an undergraduate student was an amazing opportunity and helped her continue to build confidence in herself as a scientist.
I have been exploring different areas of Earth science that I am interested in pursuing both for graduate school and in my future career. Being able to attend AGU has been a wonderful way for me to look into these different topics. Being able to listen to experts present their work has been fascinating, and it has been invaluable.
Graduate research assistant Ashlyn Shirey delivered a presentation that demonstrated the complications involved in the curation of the metadata for NASA airborne and field campaigns, platforms, and instruments. Ms. Shirey is also part of the IMPACT ADMG team that is building an inventory of historical NASA airborne and field campaigns and curating detailed metadata elements about the campaigns as well as the platforms and instruments used. This effort has discovered several issues with existing metadata that has hindered the curation process.
The complications of metadata curation
One of the main issues Ms. Shirey presented was the use of various definitions for the same terms within the scientific communities with airborne and field campaigns. As an example, the spatial and temporal resolution of the instruments was one of the more difficult elements to curate due to various definitions among scientists. Setting formalized definitions and using an information model to build the inventory allows for the information and metadata to be more consistent across all campaigns and enables more efficient data access and discovery.
Ms. Shirey found a valuable aspect of her AGU experience was having the opportunity to attend talks and presentations related to her master’s thesis on COVID-19 and its effects on local climate and weather. The available literature on this research topic is limited; attending AGU allowed her to learn about other scientists’ research first hand and gain perspective on where research needs to go in order to determine how much of an impact COVID-19 will have on climate change.
The main thing that I got from my experience that will help me as a researcher is that I am not only answering my intended research question, but I am also still asking questions to help further develop that research topic. There is always more we can learn about a certain topic, so asking questions and trying to develop new methods is just as important to the research process as the actual work itself.
A machine learning image labeling solution for Earth science
Mr. Prasanna Koirala, a graduate research assistant on IMPACT’s machine learning team, presented an application named ImageLabeler, which bridges the gap between the lack of labeled Earth science datasets and the requirements of machine learning. ImageLabeler allows users to create, manage and label Earth science datasets such that they can directly be fed to a machine learning algorithm for training.
Mr. Koirala found that the presentation experience helped him to develop important skills necessary for research. He describes preparing for the presentation as challenging, exciting, and that the process involved numerous iterations and feedback.
AGU being a global platform definitely raised the stakes as high as I had ever experienced. This made me become more careful about what I put in the presentation, as well as what I delivered when I was actually presenting.
The experiences of these team members demonstrate IMPACT’s commitment to not only advancing Earth science research through the application of computer science and informatics, but also by doing our part to nurture and develop the next generation of Earth and computer scientists. More information about IMPACT and these projects can be found at NASA Earthdata and the IMPACT project website. | https://impactunofficial.medium.com/the-next-generation-of-scientists-shine-at-agu-205c5cd468b4 | ['Impact Unofficial'] | 2020-12-21 19:55:51.240000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Image Classification', 'Machine Learning', 'Earth Science'] |
Is the “Soft White Underbelly” Exploiting People on the Fringes of Society? | Meet the Whitaker family
I have decided to talk about one of the newer videos on the Soft White Underbelly Youtube channel. I chose this video because the way the family was treated during the video really bothered me.
This video was about a family of elderly people who reside in a small town in the Appalachian region of the United States.
The title for this video? “Inbred Family- The Whitakers”.
The video depicts a family of three siblings and a cousin living in a small home with several dogs.
This is what Mark Laita states in the video description:
“The individuals in this video are brothers and sisters, except for Timmy who is a cousin. There is no way I would be able to confirm that the Whitaker parents were related, but given that this does happen in this part of the country and the Whitakers are the most extreme case I’ve seen so far, I would bet that inbreeding was at least partly responsible for the mental and physical abnormalities seen in Lorraine, Freddie, Ray, and Timmy.
“To be clear about my interaction with the family, I brought them pizzas and soft drinks and paid them nicely, which goes a long way in southwestern West Virginia where the average yearly income is as low as $12K a year in some counties. This was my fourth visit and I’ve given the family a financial gift each time“.
In a disclaimer shown at the beginning of the video, it reveals that a neighbor showed up during the filming of the interview with a shotgun and threatened Mark Laita to leave the Whitakers alone.
The neighbor left after Laita spoke to him.
Ray, the only living son in the Whitaker family, is eager to talk and welcomes Laita into their home.
Ray’s sisters (The more talkative sister did not give her name and Lorraine, who may be non-verbal as well) and the cousin Timmy seem almost apprehensive about Laita’s presence at their home. They sit on old armchairs on their dilapidated porch, silent and aware.
Their parents died long ago.
Ray is obviously a kind soul, cradling a dog as Laita “interviews” him.
Ray is non-verbal and can only communicate by barking like the tiny dog he has in his lap.
While taking us on a very brief tour of their property, Ray has a big smile on his face and barks at the camera as if he is saying “What a nice day we are having today, thank you for visiting me!”
When Laita asks him about his life, he gesticulates and it is fully apparent that while he can understand the questions he is being asked, he is not capable to answer them verbally.
Ray’s two sisters are relaxing on their porch while Laita asks them invasive questions about their parents such as “Were your parents brother and sister, or cousins or something?” and “The mental disorder that Ray has, what is that from?”.
Obviously embarrassed, the sisters shake their heads to say no and the verbal sister gives one or two-word answers to these inquires. She is not fully answering Laita’s questions even though she is able to.
The interview clips are separated by a slow-motion “zoom-in” on the Whitaker’s family photos. The camera makes it obvious that it is focusing on their dirty clothes.
They look blissfully happy in these photographs, which were shot by Laita.
Laita asks Ray about his brother Freddy who died of a heart attack. Ray looks like he wants to talk about Freddy, but he can’t.
Ray’s verbal sister is clearly exhibiting closed-off body language. Whenever Laita asks her a question, she looks like she knows more than she’s comfortable saying.
She has the right to protect her family’s privacy and if she doesn’t want to answer Laita’s questions, she shouldn’t.
When Laita says goodbye, the three family members sit on the couch and barely acknowledge him.
Ray looks happy.
I think he was just happy to have someone new to talk to. | https://acotterized.medium.com/is-the-soft-white-underbelly-exploiting-people-on-the-fringes-of-society-bd6a9337cfe0 | ['Amy The Maritimer'] | 2020-08-07 10:01:00.684000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'News', 'YouTube', 'Media', 'Equality'] |
Landing | Magenta Sapphire: Yael Designs/Stephan Kotlowski
While the allure of perceived grandeur is just a surface scratching, why leave the bowls of our souls unturned?
Purple is my favorite color and I we all have favorite colors, sounds, tastes and feelings…I know I not alone, but at the same time I desire not to direct or control any one’s soul, but rather spark.
I want to be a catalyst and inspire other’s to carry their own torches vs. following mine. If we revert to our bowls, then perhaps we can preserve our souls.
I was thinking, I was just saying, I was…but now I am, as the light of Spring has put pep in my step….Must change everything, that needs to change. | https://medium.com/thrive-global/landing-30db4f3f47da | ['Diem Jones'] | 2017-03-27 20:52:29.177000+00:00 | ['Wisdom', 'Life Lessons', 'Self Love', 'Poetry', 'Photography'] |
13 Reasons Why You Can Accomplish Anything | You’ve overcome difficult shit many times in the past.
2. You bring something unique to the table that no one else does.
3. Oprah Winfrey overcame poverty, teen pregnancy and abusive relationships to become the first Black female billionaire In history.
4. LeBron James overcame a single parent household, a poverty stricken life to become a legendary professional athlete and businessman.
5. JAY-Z overcame a single parent household, living in a dangerous housing project and a drug dealing past to become a multi platinum recording artist, multi time award winner and a billionaire businessman.
6. Barack Obama overcame his own ethnicity in a long standing racially divided country to become the first black president in the history of the United States.
7. Your own life experiences gives you an original perspective that can be channeled into something of massive value for other people.
8. Self-Doubt and limiting beliefs are normal and natural emotions and everyone, including legends have them.
9. Resistance is a huge part of accomplishing anything significant. When you feel it, you’re on the right track.
10. You don’t have to feel confident, ready or worthy to try something that’s intimidating. Confidence is overrated and courage is far more important.
11. Passion and consistency will allow you to outlast anything and anyone else. It’s natural to overestimate others and underestimate yourself. You have more power than you think, just stay the course.
12. You overcame your biggest odds at the time of conception. Just becoming a human being requires beating literally hundreds of billions of odds. When you beat out all other sperm, you proved your own incredible resilience.
13. You are your own worst critic which means that you’re probably overlooking a lot of your important attributes. You have what it takes right now! No other tool or advice needed. Just start whatever you’re aiming for.
I believe in YOU. Now I want YOU to believe in YOU!
*Having trouble believing in yourself? Check out my “Supercharge Your Confidence in 6 Simple Steps” checklist. | https://medium.com/@deanteyoung/13-reasons-why-you-can-accomplish-anything-faf225d6a8c9 | ['Deante L. Young'] | 2020-12-13 17:04:46.002000+00:00 | ['Self Improvement', 'Life Lessons', 'Inspiration', 'Confidence', 'Self'] |
Get App crash info using getHistoricalProcessExitReasons | As you have seen above that getHistoricalProcessExitReasons method returns MutableList of type ApplicationExitInfo.
Let's check what information ApplicationExitInfo object provides us.
There is a lot of information that it provides us related to crash 👇
Information provided by ApplicationExitInfo object
Here, I will discuss only reason, you can learn more about the ApplicationExitInfo object here
you can learn more about the object here Reason can be one of the following : | https://medium.com/@navczydev/get-app-crash-info-using-gethistoricalprocessexitreasons-b62e8edd369f | ['Nav Singh'] | 2020-12-13 14:38:08.750000+00:00 | ['Android App Development', 'Crash', 'Android', 'AndroidDev', 'Crash Reporting'] |
Thanksgiving Turkey Cook Times | On Thanksgiving last year, we spatchcocked the turkey, and it cooked way too quickly. None of the delicious sides were done cooking by the time the turkey started cooling. Which seems like the opposite problem of most of my previous holiday dinners.
Inspired by this blunder, I looked at how different cooking methods and proteins affect time in the oven. All examples are 12 pounds for comparison. Oven temperature and cook time varies. | https://medium.com/nightingale/thanksgiving-turkey-cook-times-9dd0002526fb | ['Amy Cesal'] | 2020-11-19 19:33:07.855000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Data Physicalization', 'Thanksgiving', 'Cooking', 'Dataviz'] |
PANDEMIC ACCELERATES CHANGE, BUT DOESN’T GIVE YOU COURSE. DOES THE ENTIRE E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY COLLECT AWARDS | The first pandemic lockdown has become an extremely effective fuel for e-commerce entrepreneurs. Analysts agreed — the coronavirus accelerated market changes and the evolution of shopping habits, but did everyone take advantage of the opportunity and successfully migrate their services to the Internet? It turns out that mainly industry novices remained on the proverbial ice.
In the debt network
The beginnings of the niche development on the Vistula River were not the most spectacular. On the one hand, between 2010 and 2018 alone, the number of e-commerce enterprises increased by over 30 percent. However, while the last decade brought to the domestic market well over 7.6 thousand. online stores, after an average of 8 years of operation, only 2.3 thousand. the companies registered at that time managed to stay afloat. Reason? Two years ago, the editors of the Polska Times reported that in December 2017 the debt of the domestic e-commerce industry was PLN 106,913,730. At that time, companies mainly from Wielkopolska and Mazovia faced solvency problems. Record holder? As much as PLN 2.4 million in the red. Negative balances were reduced with transactions in the pre-Christmas period, but significant changes were yet to come. Finally, the first quarter of 2020 has come, and thus — the closure of brick-and-mortar stores during the March lockdown.
Reflection?
Moderately enthusiastic analyzes were shared by e.g. analysts from the Center for Retail Research (CRR). It was originally assumed that the e-commerce industry in Western Europe would account for 15.3 percent. the entire retail market by 2022. CRR predicts that, due to the pandemic, Internet companies will reach this level by the end of 2021. When it comes to the situation in Poland, the editors of the portal dlahandlu.pl say that while in the first half of 2019 e-commerce recorded 6 percent shares in gross demand, the indicator increased to 15% in 2020. The main beneficiaries of the lockdown are entrepreneurs dealing in the distribution of books and multimedia, as well as the food niche, which is said to be at 239%. increase in orders. Health and beauty products are also holding up well, but some still have a dominant market flaut. Young entrepreneurs from the sports and tourism niche especially have big problems. Interestingly, newcomers selling clothing also faced a considerable challenge.
The fittest will survive
It seems that large marketplaces have the most stable situation. Allegro is a flagship example on the Polish market, although younger consumers are looking for alternatives. Increasingly, smaller players are ahead of the “older brothers”, but they are mainly based on a strong personal brand. These include influencer stores and well-known brands, so less space is left for complete newbies. They were the main drivers of the less optimistic bankruptcy statistics before the pandemic. The main problem of both pre-pandemic and lockdown newcomers was the cost of maintaining the store. Despite several EU programs, the industry still does not have access to effective system solutions that could realistically support beginner e-commerce players. For the most part, the commercial market does not provide tools for newcomers, although the Provema team can boast an interesting offer. Katowice fintech is systematically developing the LoanByLink model, which allows you to easily transform any website into a fully-fledged online store. As the creators of the project themselves declare, their system meets the expectations of the industry, as it greatly facilitates the first steps for beginners on the e-commerce market. There is a good chance that just such an approach can really support the industry, and what’s more — contribute to the development of further innovations in the sector.
Are there any chances for the contenders to enter the e-commerce market? On the one hand, the pandemic has given many wings, but they are mostly big players. While the industry is growing more and more, its offer seems to be ignored only by fledgling colleagues. | https://medium.com/@monika-krukowska/pandemic-accelerates-change-but-doesnt-give-you-course-57461bd92c52 | ['Provema Sp. Z O.O.'] | 2020-12-14 15:34:36.927000+00:00 | ['Technology News', 'Eccomerce', 'Technews', 'Technology'] |
Speed up build times with this little Git trick | Shallow Cloning
When doing a git clone you, by default, get the entire history of the project along with that. Take this clone of Laravel for example:
$ git clone [email protected]:laravel/laravel.git
Cloning into 'laravel'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 19, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (19/19), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (15/15), done.
remote: Total 32004 (delta 5), reused 11 (delta 3), pack-reused 31985
Receiving objects: 100% (32004/32004), 9.94 MiB | 6.98 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (18934/18934), done.
That’s a whopping 32004 objects totalling ± 10MiB that have been downloaded, even though the default Laravel branch only counts 66 files spread across 36 directories.
The objects contained in this ± 10MiB make up the entire history of every file and folder the project. To build the project we don’t really need all that, as we’re only interested in the latest version of each file and folder. By leveraging the --depth argument of our git clone command, we can enforce just that. This is what we call Shallow Cloning.
$ git clone --depth 1 [email protected]:laravel/laravel.git
Cloning into 'laravel'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 108, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (108/108), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (88/88), done.
remote: Total 108 (delta 6), reused 49 (delta 1), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (108/108), 41.80 KiB | 535.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (6/6), done.
That’s a much speedier clone with only 108 objects, totalling a mere ± 40KiB ! | https://medium.com/@bramus/speed-up-build-times-with-this-little-git-trick-64158a6771e3 | ['Bramus'] | 2020-11-12 10:44:03.316000+00:00 | ['Build Pipeline', 'Continuous Integration', 'Ci Cd Pipeline', 'Continuous Delivery', 'Git'] |
The coming clash between unions and EVs | by Maxine Joselow and Kristi E. Swartz, E&E News reporters
Keri Menendez opposed efforts this spring to unionize Volkswagen AG’s Chattanooga, Tenn., plant. As for the prospect of increasing electric car sales across the auto industry, she’s optimistic. But her co-workers are skeptics. Francis Chung/E&E News
Originally published in E&E News.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — It was a Monday morning in May, five months after Volkswagen AG declared its plans to build electric cars here, when Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) made a surprise appearance at the VW manufacturing plant.
Workers were filing in through the front gates when word spread that the silver-haired governor was there to address them. For some in the room, the timing was suspicious, with just a few weeks to go before they would vote on whether to unionize with the United Auto Workers.
The stakes of the vote were high. The Chattanooga plant had the dubious distinction of being the only VW plant outside China to lack union representation. As workers continued filing in, they were directed by management toward rows of metal folding chairs. The workers sat and waited. According to people there, the tension in the room was palpable, even electric.
Reporters were barred from entering the plant and covering Lee’s speech. But Labor Notes, a Detroit-based publication, obtained a recording of the remarks. To scattered boos and cheers, the governor hinted that a formal union at the plant would dissuade new businesses from coming to the state.
“There are new companies that all of us would benefit from if they come here,” he said, “because they would bring more high-paying jobs that would elevate the economic activity of our state for everyone.”
Shift work, overtime and wages led worker concerns. The following month, in the shadow of the governor’s speech, VW employees cast their ballots. A total of 776 voted in favor of the union, while 883 voted against.
The campaign to organize workers in Tennessee that left pro-union and anti-union interests seething, even after the vote, may have signaled a much bigger temblor to come. This week, nearly 50,000 General Motors Co. workers walked off their jobs in the UAW’s first national strike since 2007. It’s also the first walkout since the union made major wage and benefit concessions in the aftermath of GM’s financial collapse a decade ago.
The slim margin of defeat for the UAW in Tennessee was the latest episode in a labor struggle that could rise up again here — next time as a political undercurrent in a smooth or rocky transition to electric vehicle manufacturing at the Volkswagen plant. The German automaker’s bid to mass-produce electric cars in North America, intended to help it compete globally and meet rising emissions standards, will affect the workforce in ways that no one yet quite understands.
Electrification could upend the very nature of the jobs that employees here have done for decades, as they learn to navigate a world of batteries rather than internal combustion engines.
According to interviews with VW employees, labor lawyers and other observers, what transpired in Chattanooga was yet another example of Southern politicians lending their weight to union-busting campaigns. Former Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) had gotten involved in an earlier effort to quash unionization at VW Chattanooga in 2014.
“The whole point was to scare us. And it worked,” said a pro-unionization VW worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
“In the South, you hate liberals, you hate unions, you love babies and you love guns,” the worker said. “It’s pretty much that simple.”
Welcome to the Southeastern United States, where the headwinds of organized labor meet the rise of electric cars, spelling big changes for the auto industry and the individual workers who power it.
Industry in transition
Volkswagen AG employs about 2,000 people at its Chattanooga assembly plant. VW plans to spend $800 million to expand the plant for the production of all-electric cars. Francis Chung/E&E News
Inside the pressure cooker of a rapidly changing auto industry, the story of how union backers lost their bid to unionize VW’s Chattanooga plant is fraught with accusations of bad actors and political interference.
It began in 2014, when a group of workers charged that they were receiving lower wages than their unionized counterparts. They were making roughly $19 an hour, while veteran hourly workers in Detroit were earning around $27.
VW, rather than the UAW, filed the first petition to unionize in 2014. “There was a very elaborate agreement that was drawn up between the UAW and VW; it was all done before filing the petition,” said Dan Gilmore, a Chattanooga-based labor lawyer and professor at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. “That, I’ve never seen between the union and a company.”
That vote was also close, but it failed with 626 votes for unionizing and 712 against.
The narrow loss set the stage for a renewed effort last spring by UAW. This time around, workers took issue with pay as well as management practices at the company. Tactics and innuendo used by both sides to win over voters left scars.
VW pledged to stay neutral in the unionization fight. But some workers say the company distributed pamphlets targeting the union, an accusation the company denies. “If you don’t pay the UAW, do you really think the UAW will spend member dues for you?” one pamphlet asked. “At VW, you have a voice NOW and don’t have to PAY anyone to speak for you!”
From the vantage point of workers who opposed unionization, the UAW used dirty tactics. A union affiliate took out radio ads and billboards blasting VW for its emissions cheating scandal known as “Dieselgate,” in which VW installed software in 11 million diesel engines that were designed to meet emissions standards during regulatory testing but polluted on the road.
Keri Menendez, a VW worker who opposed unionization, recalled those ads. “They made me feel very angry,” Menendez said in a recent interview at a coffee shop in downtown Chattanooga after her shift.
“I was tired of hearing all of the negative stuff about the company. What about the positives?” said Menendez, who sported a gray T-shirt and baseball cap emblazoned with the VW logo. “For our area, we make pretty good money. And our benefits are great.”
Maury Nicely, a Chattanooga labor lawyer who represented anti-union workers, said he tried to remind everyone that it was VW who put food on their table. “The UAW attacked Volkswagen as a corrupt organization,” Nicely said. “But whatever side you’re on, if we’re going to have a union, you would hope that it’s working hand in hand with the company to try and create a better enterprise.”
As for the governor’s speech at the plant, that, too, remains a point of contention. Pro-union workers charge that VW colluded with Lee’s staff. The company denies this charge. “We invited [Lee] to see the factory,” said Amanda Plecas, a spokesman for VW Chattanooga, in an email.
The campaign for union recognition in Tennessee went on as other major automakers set in motion layoffs and plant closures tied to flagging sedan sales. Despite raking in $8.1 billion in profits in 2018, GM said in November it would idle four U.S. factories. Ford Motor Co. announced in May it would lay off 7,000 nonunion workers, the start of what analysts expect to be a period of major corporate restructuring. Some of the restructuring at both companies is tied to a planned large-scale shift to electric car production.
VW’s big plan
The day shift comes to a close at Volkswagen AG’s Chattanooga plant. Francis Chung/E&E News
The union drama prefaced bigger changes coming to VW Chattanooga.
In January, VW announced that it had selected Chattanooga as the site of its first electric vehicle facility in North America. The company said it expected the $800 million project to be operational in about two years and to create 1,000 additional jobs.
The project comes as VW chases an ambitious plan to sell 1 million EVs annually by 2025. The company made waves at the Frankfurt Motor Show this month by debuting the ID.3, the first model in its new all-electric brand.
Analysts in the auto industry reacted with excitement to the announcement. They said it could position VW and the state of Tennessee as leaders in EV production.
Volkswagen’s decision to vastly expand production of low- and zero-emissions cars comes after its emissions-cheating scandal landed it in deep legal jeopardy in the U.S. and Europe in 2016 and 2017. Under a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department, VW is required to invest billions of dollars in charging infrastructure in the U.S. The automaker is also responding to emissions controls in Europe and China’s targets for electric cars.
“Volkswagen is very aggressively pursuing the electric vehicle alternative to gasoline engines,” said Karl Brauer, executive publisher of Kelley Blue Book. “They’ve been encouraged by the federal government after their diesel issue. So there’s plenty of reason for them to want to build an EV-dedicated plant.”
VW won’t be the only automaker producing electric cars in Tennessee. Nissan Motor Co. already has a plant in Smyrna, Tenn., where it manufactures its electric Leaf.
“From 2010 on, Tennessee has sort of climbed its way up to the third state when it comes to electric vehicle manufacturing,” said Drew Frye, a senior power utilization engineer at the Tennessee Valley Authority. “So you have California with Tesla, and you have Michigan with all the traditional [auto companies]. And then you have Tennessee with Nissan and Volkswagen.”
He added, “So with a little bit of luck and a few years to get up and running, Tennessee could easily be the №2 state in the country when it comes to making electric vehicles.”
Hope and fear
Maury Nicely, a Chattanooga lawyer who represented anti-union workers, urged Volkswagen AG wage earners to work hand-in-hand with the company. Francis Chung/E&E News
Despite this optimism, some workers worry they could lose their jobs once the new plant is running in 2022.
Their fears are not unfounded.
The Congressional Research Service concluded in a recent report that the shift to EVs could lead to fewer mechanical jobs. The report noted that electric powertrains have as few as 20 moving parts, while internal combustion engine powertrains have as many as 2,000.
“Should electric powertrains displace those used by gasoline over the next decade and beyond, it is likely that both production and engineering jobs will be affected,” Bill Canis, an auto analyst, wrote in the report to Congress.
The United Auto Workers took note of these findings. In a white paper last year, the group warned that the rise of electrification could lead to job losses in the manufacturing of parts for internal combustion engines, transmissions, exhaust systems and fuel systems.
“EV powertrains are mechanically simple compared to ICE powertrains,” the white paper said. “This simplicity could reduce the amount of labor, and thus jobs, associated with vehicle production.”
But policymaker concerns about the long arc of job gains and losses are at odds with the enthusiasm and curiosity expressed by auto plant workers who will assemble those parts into new cars and trucks.
“People are skeptical of the whole electric thing and, you know, the environment. They think it won’t do that well,” said Menendez, the VW worker. “But I think it will.”
She added: “Chattanooga is a very green area. As the technology gets better and the batteries charge longer and we get more charging stations, I think it’ll take off. So I’m excited. I’m looking forward to it.”
The Tennessee River runs through the middle of Chattanooga. For nearly a century, starting in the late 1800s, the city was a center of industrial activity. Ironworks and steam boilers were made here. And the valley trapped air pollution.
When factories started to die off in the 1970s, the city began a transition. City officials rallied around clean air initiatives. Today, some residents see those initiatives carrying over to Chattanooga’s role as a new epicenter of EV manufacturing.
One worker noted that electric cars could slash greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, which is fast-emerging as a bigger concern than power plant emissions.
“We can only put so much of this crap in the air,” he said. “I have a granddaughter now, and I worry about what we’re leaving for her.” | https://medium.com/the-electric-road-trip/the-coming-clash-between-unions-and-evs-fcda6ea4200f | ['E E News'] | 2019-09-24 18:41:07.081000+00:00 | ['Electric Car', 'Electric Vehicles', 'Manufacturing', 'Unions', 'Volkswagen'] |
Steak and Pasta Night | This was the dinner I cooked for Chester and myself back in Tuesday.
Medium scotch fillet with fusilli on the side topped with home made tomato source (made from 6 real tomato, in the pot on the right hand side).
I like cooking, and I like making my sons happy. They were happy, and the cooking was fun. So I was happy too. | https://medium.com/ng-sze-hin-stories/steak-and-pasta-night-1fdcc2b6b599 | ['Leonard Ng'] | 2018-08-04 13:11:10.004000+00:00 | ['Steak', 'Food', 'Cooking', 'Pasta'] |
Space and Light | Space and light
are woven into our awareness
of every moment.
And as we listen to the cafe music
and chat and daydream about the day,
moments of our transient experience
vibrate and resonate through
the single conscious space
inside everyone.
And though sometimes
the passing moment
seems surrendered
to every random thought,
being consciously present now
helps us know that only now is real
and the present moment
is all there ever is,
and will ever be.
And inwardly paying attention
turns out to be the key,
that opens us into the inner space,
where we can dissolve into
the one conscious heart
in all of us, and find
the silent resonance
that brings clarity
and wisdom to our life.
And space and light
are woven into our awareness
of every moment. | https://medium.com/mindfully-speaking/space-and-light-81ba9ec04b86 | ['Paul Mulliner'] | 2020-06-28 08:07:43.953000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Philosophy', 'Meditation', 'Yoga', 'Poetry'] |
M14 Intelligence anticipates ~ 9 million level 2 autonomy vehicles in 5 years | M14 Intelligence’s recent global analysis on autonomous vehicles industry predicts that the demand for level 2 passenger vehicles will grow exponentially to more than 21 million units by 2030 and cross 40 million unit mark by 2040.
At present, 4 in 10 consumer purchase cars are equipped with some kind of advanced safety feature including automated emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane assist systems, and forward collision avoidance among others. Majority of OEMs are offering these safety and warning systems as a standard feature in their cars. However, automation in the form of hands-off driving, automatic braking, and acceleration or automatic lane change or even automatic valet parking features are still offered on higher trim levels of premium models at an additional cost to consumers. In total, less than 2.5 million cars today are equipped with level 2 automation features by brands such as Tesla, Audi, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Toyota, Nissan, Volvo, Ford, GM, FCA, PSA, and Hyundai among others.
From the operational point of view, the operational design domains of each OEMs even within their trim levels vary a lot. The highest trim offers advanced systems that can control brakes, steering, and acceleration on its own, which assist the driver in changing lanes, stay at safe distance from the vehicles around, and accelerate at free ways. Such features are majorly marketed in the form of level 2+ or level 2++, which is ideally a more of marketing gimmick by the OEMs. With two clear reasons — one to justify the cost of the vehicle and two to showcase edge over its competition. Depending on the highest autonomy feature offered on a trim-level, the research categorizes vehicles under SAE’s defined levels of autonomy — ideally level 1 or level 2, looking at the current autonomy status.
The next obvious goal for OEMs is to achieve level 3 autonomy in the form of highway autopilot and remote automated parking. Even though the systems are being developed and some OEMs are ready with such solutions, the biggest challenge the industry is currently facing is to market such features.
Biggest challengeis in the form of regulations, especially in United States and Europe. The regulatory frameworks are still not in place in both these regions for OEMs to market their vehicles with level 3 autonomy. The best example is Audi’s A8 with Traffic Jam Assist, which the company has marketed as world’s first level 3 car. However, due to lack of regulations in place for this level of autonomy, Audi waited for 3 years since mid-2017 and finally called off their plan for level 3 autonomy. OEMs are now cautious and intentionally not marketing their vehicles as a level 3 car rather renaming it as level 2+ or level 2++.
In the east the situation is changing rapidly. China being one of the most promising markets for advanced featured autonomy solutions. Chinese government and regulatory bodies are pushing the move to commercialize level 3 and above autonomy along with electrification of vehicles. This will certainly boost the prospects for the local companies right from the OEMs to technology developers. According to M14 Intelligence estimates, more than 7.3 million cars equipped with level 2 automation will be shipped by 2030 in China alone, becoming the single largest market globally. While the cars equipped with level 3 systems will witness sales of around 1.5 million units by 2030.
The true self-driving comes with the complete hand-over of the vehicle from driver to the system. Even though all the OEMs are extensively working to achieve full autonomy only few have made significant development in this space. Besides, the market for full autonomy is not in the consumer purchase vehicles but in the shared mobility solutions. There are two major reasons for this -
For enabling a vehicle to drive autonomously the system needs to be robust. The system needs multiple sensors for perception of environment (including camera computer vision, radars and LiDAR sensors too), precise mapping and localization using navigation and HD maps, precise decision making machine learning algorithms or artificial intelligence, and connected infrastructure for vehicles to communicate with each other and the infrastructure. The hardware and software requirement to build such systems costs heavily which will in turn have to bear by the consumers if integrated in a private purchase vehicles. So the best possible way to monetize, is to enter on large scale deployment of autonomous vehicles for shared mobility services like robotaxis, autonomous shuttles, autonomous pods, or even in self-driving trucks for long-haul platooning. This is clearly visible by the strategies adopted by the leading OEMs in the automotive market. Almost every OEM has either partnered or acquired a shared mobility fleet company or a self-driving solutions company to develop and deploy highly autonomous driving. Volvo, FCA, Toyota, JLR partnered with Waymo; GM acquired Cruise; Ford and VW has stakes in Argo AI; Lyft has partnerships with Aptiv, BMW, Toyota, and Volvo; Hyundai built its self-driving company called Motional in partnership with Aptiv and also has previously partnered with Aurora; Uber has partnerships with Volvo and Toyota, Baidu’s Apollo has partnered with more than 50 Chinese, American, and European automakers. The list is endless, the industry is getting together forming consortiums to together to achieve the common goal of self-driving vehicles.
It is important to understand that a vehicle has to drive autonomously in a mixed environment of todays roads where it will be a mix of traditional vehicles (with no safety features to some or advanced safety features), pedestrians, cyclists, and many other factors. In such environments, system has to face numerous scenarios that might be untested or not virtually simulated before or witnessed by the AI system before. The system must perform 100 percent and there is no room for error, as in case of any accident, the liability lies with whom? On contrary, robotic vehicles such as robotaxis, shuttles, and pods have operational domains designed to drive such vehicles at a limited speed (also called as slow moving urban autonomous mobility). Initial deployment of such vehicles will be limited to geo-fenced areas. Best examples for such deployment is Waymo One (Pheonix) and Baidu’s Apollo Go (Haidian and Yizhuang, Beijing) robotaxis. Both these companies has initiated their self-driving robotaxis fleet without safety driver. While Cruise has recently received permit from DMV to test their autonomous vehicles without the presence of a safety driver. It is important to note that all these services are provided on a mapped and geo-fenced areas only, because the systems are not currently trained to explore new roads on its own.
Tesla electric cars grabbed top ratings in the US, Europe and Australia from vehicle and highway safety authorities, however the most recent testing in Europe, shows Tesla’s Autopilot needs to work more on its driver engagement. This echoed in a recent court ruling in Germany too, that resulted in banning Tesla Germany from advertising a “full self-driving capability” or “autopilot inclusive” in its marketing materials, as according to the court its misleading. Having said that, Tesla is one the biggest contenders in the race to full autonomy. This is crucial considering the Tesla’s systems do not incorporate LiDAR sensors. Tesla believes that LiDAR is unnecessary and expensive for autonomous driving while computer vision system along with radar and ultrasonic sensors are enough to self-drive. Tesla’s self-driving system can drive on unexplored roads as it is completely based on its machine learning computer vision system. Tesla claims to have registered one accident for every 4.53 million miles driven in which drivers had Autopilot engaged in Q2–2020. However, Tesla is clear on its choices to attain full self-driving and claims to launch a level 5 self-driving system that can be used for robotaxi service by end of 2020.
In our interview in June 2020 with former Tesla employee (confidential source), Tesla’s computer vision ML algorithms are much advanced and continuously evolving with the road scenario information being collected from existing Tesla vehicles on roads across the world. The source also claimed that Tesla’s systems can outperform many existing high-end premium vehicle autopilot offerings in many ways. Although these are strong claims, with self-driving the stakes are very high, and its very important that the system design has high safety measures in case of unexpected scenarios.
To read more please download free abstract of our recently published report on Autonomous Driving Industry. This recently published research analyses all the leading level 2 (including level 2+ and level 2++) systems, their operational design domains, and active safety features offered by 70 OEM brands across globe. The research also gives analysis on the self-driving systems, its development (including level 3 and level 4 — highway driving and robotaxis, shuttles, and pods) and deployment plans of 80+ OEM brands. The report also analyses the complete ecosystem to map who partners with whom and who supplies to whom.
M14 also published numerous studies with deep dive analysis on individual autonomous driving enablers including camera systems (in-cabin and world facing), radar, LiDAR, GNSS, HD-maps, annotation, and simulation among others. Please check INDUSTRY REPORTS page for more available off-shelf research reports.
Autonomous Vehicles and Technologies Market
Read in-depth analysis on autonomous vehicle development maturity on the leading OEMs and self-driving solutions providers
View Insights | https://medium.com/@m14intelligence/m14-intelligence-anticipates-9-million-level-2-autonomy-vehicles-in-5-years-735babd9f225 | [] | 2020-11-27 07:25:53.619000+00:00 | ['Self Driving Cars', 'Vehicles', 'Lidar', 'Autonomous Cars', 'Tesla'] |
PFC. Rocco J. De Mercurio | PFC. Rocco J. De Mercurio
We have never met, Jerry, but I remember you.
I remember the gold star on the street sign that bears your name. I remember reading it each time I would turn left onto it as I drove to work at the A&P grocery store. I was just about your age when I made that drive — 19. I remember the flood of imagery simply reading your name would yield and run wildly through my mind; Your childhood — just like mine. Summer days spent at Crestwood Lake, thinking that all of the bad, the terrifying and the evil that has ever existed on this earth could not possibly touch the bucolic life Allendale, New Jersey provided its youth. School years spent at Brookside Middle School & Northern Highlands Regional High School — schools that your voice and presence filled its halls with. Structures that were home to your personality and gave birth to dreams you held for your future self — outside of Allendale. I remember you in those halls.
I remember the first time I saw your picture, Jerry. In your Marine Corps Dress Blues. The pride I was filled with knowing that someone from the town I was raised in wore the uniform that my Grandfather, Nicholas Coiro, wore during World War II. A uniform in which I become very emotional seeing just I did in November 2018 in Washington DC as a young Marine Corps Captain — wearing his dress blues — enjoyed a late night slice of pizza with his date after the Marine Corps Ball. How did you feel wearing that uniform, Jerry? Did you think another Allendale boy, that you would never meet, born 20 years after your death would look at that same picture with pride? That little boy is now 31 and remembers you.
I remember reading the Command Chronology reports documenting your company’s activity in Vietnam weeks before you were mortally wounded by a grenade during an ambush on July 13 1969. What did you remember as you carried your M-79 into combat? What memories did you hold onto from your life in Allendale that kept your spirits high each and every day as you fought a war many of your classmates never would? Did you think they were worth it? That future Allendale residents were worth the risk each time you went out on patrol? I hope you did, Jerry. I hope you know that we remember you and your sacrifice.
What did you imagine for yourself, Jerry, after life in Allendale? Did you envision what it would be like to revisit Allendale after you had fulfilled some of your life’s dreams — just as I do? Did you envision yourself wearing the coveted United States Marine Corps Dress Blues in front of your friends & classmates as I had once fantasized about one day wearing but never had the courage to do? Did, as a kid, you ever daydream about who of your Allendale classmates you would potentially marry and have a family with — just as I did? Did you imagine what it would be like to raise children in Allendale — just as I have? I remember those thoughts and with those memories — I remember you.
I remember seeing, on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, your misspelled name and feeling both angry and incredibly heartbroken that our country could not etch your name into stone correctly. That, for as long as our great nation exists, your name would be incorrectly displayed. I remember crying as I thought of a 19 year old boy giving so much but receiving so little in return.
I remember your name, Rocco J. De Mercurio, today — Memorial Day 2020 — and every day.
With eternal gratitude — Your Allendale neighbor.
RC
Jerry with his M-79 in Vietnam. | https://medium.com/@RemyTheJester/pfc-rocco-j-de-mercurio-7a5a36b477cb | [] | 2020-06-07 18:38:26.529000+00:00 | ['Memorial Day', '2020', 'Vietnam War', 'New Jersey', 'Usmc'] |
Image Equalization (Contrast Enhancing) in Python | I have been practicing image processing for quite a little — manipulating the images (image matrices to be precise). In doing so, I got to explore the equalizing methods for images so as to enhance the contrast to a certain extent that the manipulated image looks better than the original image. This technique is termed as Histogram Equalization.
Often times what happens is when the image is captured, it will not be the same as the natural view. In order to meet the level of natural view, post-processing should be done. Hence Histogram Equalization (Normalization) is one of those techniques to enhance the contrast by tweaking the pixel values of the image.
An example can be seen below — original image and equalized image.
If we were to plot the image histograms, it would look something like below -
Credits — The above images have been taken from the Internet for showing the examples.
Importance of Histogram Equalization
This method works better for both bright and dark images, especially in the field of medical science there is higher importance in analyzing the X-ray images.
It is also very useful in viewing scientific images like thermal images and satellite images.
Implementation
In this article, I will implement this method both by using the openCV library and from scratch with just NumPy and Matplotlib . Although I would like to do without using NumPy , it would take much time to compute.
Image by Author
Note — For coding from scratch, I will use openCV to read the image and nothing else.
I have taken Lena Image for testing the functions. I have saved the same in my working directory.
Import the Requirements
Read the Image
The above function reads the image either in gray_scale or RGB and returns the image matrix.
Code Implementation with Library
For equalizing, we can simply use the equalizeHist() method available in the library cv2 . We have two aspects here -
When the image is read in RGB .
Separate the pixels based on the color combination. We can use the split() method available in the library cv2 .
method available in the library . Apply the equalization method for each matrix.
Merge the equalized image matrices altogether with the method merge() available in the library cv2 .
2. When the image is read in gray_scale .
3. Plot the original image and equalized image.
Let’s test the above function —
Image by Author
Image by Author
The above plots are clear and we can say that the equalized images look better than the original images. This was implemented using the cv2 library.
Code Implementation from Scratch
For this, I am using NumPy for all the matrix operations. Again we can do it with for loops, but it will take more time to compute. Even here we have two aspects as before -
When the image is read in RGB .
Separate the pixels based on the color combination. We can slice it down using NumPy operations.
operations. Apply the equalization method for each matrix.
Merge the equalized image matrices altogether with the method dstack(tup=()) available in the library NumPy .
2. When the image is read in gray_scale .
3. Plot the original image and equalized image.
Let’s write our own function to compute the image equalization. Image pixel values are normally in the range of 0 to 255. So in total, we will have 256 pixels.
Credits — The above code is an inspiration from the article written by Tory Walker.
The above function returns an equalized image matrix when passed the original image matrix as an argument.
Let’s write another function that computes the equalization for both the RGB image and the gray_scale image taking the above function in use.
Let’s test the above function —
Image by Author
Image by Author
The above plots are clear and we can say that the equalized images look better than the original images. This was implemented from scratch using the NumPy library.
Comparison
Let’s compare the equalized image obtained from the cv2 library and the equalized image obtained from the code written from scratch.
Image by Author
We can notice there is a slight difference between the library image and scratch image . But both seem to be clear when compared with the original image . Here I complete my article with my own takeaway.
Takeaway
Personally, I learned a lot by exploring and implementing different methods applied to increase image intensity. Especially, trying to implement the code from scratch by both referring and learning.
It is always good to use the library methods as they seem to be more optimized and works 100 percent.
Image processing is a very crucial subject to learn and one really deserves to try out practicing with so much curiosity and ones’ own exploration.
Do give a read to my other articles and let me know your thoughts — | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/image-equalization-contrast-enhancing-in-python-82600d3b371c | [] | 2020-12-27 06:25:35.174000+00:00 | ['Post Processing', 'Image Processing', 'Numpy', 'Image Contrasting', 'Histogram Equalization'] |
Streaming!! Villanova vs Texas Live Free 2020 Basketball | The Big East/Big 12 Challenge gets underway in Austin on Sunday when Villanova (3–1) visits the Texas Longhorns (4–0). The Longhorns are looking for their fifth consecutive win to start the season after winning the Camping World Maui Invitational held in North Carolina.
Watch Now: https://dailyaccess.org/basketball/
Watch Now: https://dailyaccess.org/basketball/
Texas defeated the Tar Heels 69–67 when Matt Coleman III hit the game-winning jumper with 0.1 seconds left. In that game, Texas led by as many as 16 points in the first half, but North Carolina chipped away at the lead until they grabbed a 65–63 lead with 2:53 left in the game. The Longhorns rallied with a 6–2 run over the final minutes of the game to seal the victory. Coleman had 22 points in the win, hitting three three-pointers along the way.
The Longhorns held their final two opponents in the Maui Invitational to 33.9% shooting and won two of three games by one possession.
Villaniova has had a tumultuous beginning to their season with COVID cancellations and changes. The Wildcats were a quick replacement in Bubbleville when Temple had to quarantine. They ended up losing the replacement game against Virginia Tech in overtime 81–73. After rebounding against Hartford with a convincing 87–53 win, Villanova’s next two games were postponed due to COVID. Now, the Wildcats get a Texas team that has started the season strongly.
https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/united-states/Online-Event/Streaming-Arsenal-vs-Tottenham-Live-Free-2020-ON-TV/14110749/
https://discourseanalysis.net/en/streaming-texas-vs-villanova-2020-live-free-basketball-online
https://www.quantiki.org/conference/streaming-villanova-vs-texas-live-free-2020-basketball
https://www.quantiki.org/conference/streaming-nfr-2020-national-finals-rodeo-live-free
https://discourseanalysis.net/en/streaming-nfr-2020-national-finals-rodeo-live-free
http://paste.jp/35386c68/
https://paiza.io/projects/ybBsG4ZqdYxRWCeb0aOg7A
https://pastelink.net/2c8ub | https://medium.com/@edwardrichard1984/the-big-east-big-12-challenge-gets-underway-in-austin-on-sunday-when-villanova-3-1-visits-the-812b90d8266f | [] | 2020-12-06 15:08:42.991000+00:00 | ['Vs', 'Live', 'Free', 'Texas', 'Villanova'] |
The Counter-Intuitive Advice That Made Me A Happier Person | A Sense of Self
Believe it or not, the key to the happiest moments in our lives is cultivating a strong sense of self. A strong sense of self allows us to:
make decisions easier
not be so dependent on other peoples emotions and opinions
act because we feel capable
stand against things we do not believe
participate and interact with activities, people, and philosophies that are helpful as an individual
We can say, “No,” or “Yes!” to such things because they fit our lifestyle, our values systems, our strategies for doing work, and our ambitions. We do this because our sense of self immediately collides with anything that does not serve these needs. That’s what makes a strong sense of self so great.
It is this “masculine” or “protector” energy, which both men and women possess, which allows us to do this.
Every time we decide or act in line with this sense of self, which is the composition of our genetics, upbringing + experiences, and personal decisions, we reinforce it.
The great thing about us as human beings is our conscience tells us whether we are acting for or against this sense of self.
Positive feedback from our conscience gives us a sense of happiness, excitement, accomplishment, and authenticity. Thus, we feel more integrated.
Negative feedback gives us a sense of guilt, shame, worthlessness, hopelessness, and loneliness. We feel more dis-integrated.
At our peak states, we feel this integration in incredible ways because our actions align with our deepest values and, for many of us, our moral convictions. We feel a strong sense of our place in this world.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
Sometimes, like this WhyButWait blog states, our values clash and we experience a sense of loss, discomfort, or, in the worst case, depression.
Language for this period is often called, “the dark night of the soul.”
In these moments, loss, grief, trauma, or fundamental changes that defined our world leaves us feeling lost and our senses of self reeling.
In such moments, we must do the hard work of recovering our sense of self and adjust to that which is unchangeable — history (a.k.a. the past).
Recovering your sense of self
No matter who we are, we will encounter moments of unhappiness and lose our inner peace and happiness. There seems to be the necessary pattern of order to disorder to reorder in life.
Fortunately, these moments can become blessings that lead us to a stronger sense of self.
They take work and time, but upon reflection they are gifts. This work in my own life has looked like the practices below:
Maintain your energy = self-care with rest, exercise, good food, and friends
= self-care with rest, exercise, good food, and friends Journal your unfiltered thoughts. This helps release stored emotions and cultivates your self-awareness and perspective.
This helps release stored emotions and cultivates your self-awareness and perspective. Think mechanically about your life , meaning think about what made you feel like you in the past — break that down engineer-style and think about which part of the process felt good, not the result
, meaning think about what made you feel like you in the past — break that down engineer-style and think about which part of the process felt good, not the result Practice pushing through discomfort — discomfort is not a negative sign, it is simply an emotion associated with trying something new, once you start to gain a little understanding it will disappear
— discomfort is not a negative sign, it is simply an emotion associated with trying something new, once you start to gain a little understanding it will disappear Change to a philosophy of strengths — this is a bit cheesy, but I’ve come to see that everybody is great a something different, that’s good because I can focus on my strengths and they can do what I’m weak at
— this is a bit cheesy, but I’ve come to see that everybody is great a something different, that’s good because I can focus on my strengths and they can do what I’m weak at Read spiritual or semi-spiritual books, poetry, and certain self-help books — it’s important to read spiritual material because it reminds us what authenticity feels like and can give us perspective on both loss and joy
I found all the above helpful practices during my 4-year transition from the military to missionary to the business world.
The key behind each of these, however, was that I did them for me — no one else. Like most things, I found that over time that learning these for myself allowed me to help other people!
However, doing them for me was important because it (a) gave me permission to invest in myself and (b) began to send the message to my heart, mind, and soul that I was valuable, good, and worth my own effort.
It is that last point that makes these practices effective for building a sense of self.
Along the way, I found that different practices served me at different times. Boxing served me for a few months in which I felt powerless. Meditation helped me one month where my emotions were too exhausting. Journaling helped me when I was processing trauma.
Ultimately, they were all tools to help me restore my sense of my true self. | https://medium.com/swlh/the-one-secret-to-becoming-a-happier-person-55d21eb99b96 | ['Charles Payne Ii'] | 2020-01-14 20:40:27.119000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Personal Growth', 'Happiness', 'Self Improvement', 'Self'] |
It’s Human Rights Day; Free Paul Rusesabagina | Paul Rusesabagina, human rights activist and humanitarian
On December 10, the world recognizes International Human Rights Day. This is the perfect time to release human rights activist and humanitarian, Paul Rusesabagina. His heroism was documented in the film, “Hotel Rwanda.” He has been credited with saving 1,268 people during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom “remarkable courage and compassion in the face of genocidal terror.”
On August 27, Rusesabagina was kidnapped, bound, tortured, and taken to Kigali, Rwanda, where he was arrested and initially charged with “criminal mischief.” The charges against him were expanded but the real reason for his arrest and imprisonment is simple; he is an outspoken critic of President Paul Kagame.
This is the ultimate crime for Kagame. For people inside Rwanda, there is the unwritten rule that you do not criticize Kagame, his actions or his government. You also do not challenge his narrative of what happened during the genocide in 1994. Far from being the savior of the nation he now leads, he has been implicated in war crimes committed at the tail end of the genocide. The only thing that prevented his prosecution was intervention by the United States.
So complete is Kagame’s control over his people, he holds reenactments of the 1994 tragedy every year. This has nothing to do with remembering the genocide or commemorating its victims. This is a way to control a population by reminding them what could happen. The world takes time to commemorate the Holocaust. No one takes the time to reenact it.
Outside of Rwanda, Kagame’s reach is large. The long arm of the Kagame machine can be seen in the many ceremonies that take place across the globe where Rwandans pledge loyalty to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). During the ceremony, Rwandans recite this: “If I betray you or stray from the RPF’s plans and intentions, I would be betraying all Rwandans and must be punished.” This is not something a free society requires.
It is against that backdrop that Rusesabagina was taken and arrested. While Rwanda does not have an extradition treaty with Belgium (where Rusesabagina is a citizen) or the United States (where Rusesabagina is a permanent resident), there is a process when one country wants to arrest the citizen of another nation. That was not followed here. Kagame admitted as much when he boasted that the plan to get Rusesabagina back to Kigali went flawlessly. There is no way Rusesabagina would have gone back to Rwanda voluntarily. Kagame and his regime violated international law by taking Rusesabagina this way.
For several months after his kidnapping, Rusesabagina was denied access to the lawyers he hired. He has been denied communication with his family. His health has suffered and his basic human rights have been violated.
The theme for this year’s International Human Rights Day is “Stand up for Human Rights.” There are few better ways to stand up for human rights than by releasing human rights hero Paul Rusesabagina. | https://medium.com/@alysonchadwick/its-human-rights-day-free-paul-rusesabagina-5a0c307ac231 | ['Alyson Chadwick'] | 2020-12-10 19:50:39.882000+00:00 | ['Kagame', 'Genocide', 'Rwanda', 'United Nations'] |
10 Little Known Facts About Bitcoin | Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency created by Satoshi Nakamoto. Almost everyone knows that. You may also know that Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity is a mystery and that 21 million is the total number of Bitcoins allowed to exist.
In this article, we’ve compiled 10 facts about Bitcoin that you may not know.
Bitcoin is not mentioned in the Bitcoin whitepaper
In the original white paper, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” (above), it is surprising to see Bitcoin mentioned only twice: once in the title and again in the URL. Nakamoto described the infrastructure to implement a payment system but did not mention Bitcoin as a named currency at all.
Bitcoin cannot be transferred
Bitcoin does not physically move and cannot be transferred. Rather than the actual Bitcoin changing hands, it is the ownership of Bitcoins that is bought and sold. The amount of Bitcoin you see in your wallet is actually the ownership right that you can control. When paying with Bitcoin, you transfer your Bitcoin ownership not Bitcoin itself. Just as you transfer your ownership right while selling a property, instead of moving that property from one place to another, you permanently transfer the right to use the Bitcoin you own to another person.
Bitcoin can be divided into 100 million pieces, but the ownership rights always remain whole. For example, if you want to transfer half a Bitcoin (in a Bitcoin address in your wallet) to someone else, the ownership of 0.5 BTC is transferred to the new owner. Meanwhile the remaining amount is transferred to another Bitcoin address (called change address) in the same wallet. Before the transaction can take place, the address that holds Bitcoin’s ownership transfers all rights to two different Bitcoin addresses for one Bitcoin.
Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, allegedly the creator of Bitcoin
This photo you’ve seen of Satoshi Nakamoto is not the right person
If you search for images of Satoshi Nakamoto, you’ll find the above photo quite quickly. Although this man is named Satoshi Nakamoto, it is not the Satoshi Nakamoto you are looking for.
Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, whose photo you’ve found, has no connection with Satoshi Nakamoto, pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. On March 14, 2014, Newsweek magazine declared Dorain Nakamoto to be the currency’s creator — a claim he rejected. He also stated that he has no ties to Bitcoin. In 2014 the real Nakamoto confirmed on forum P2P Foundation that they were not the same person.
All 21 million coins will never be mined
The amount of Bitcoin has been capped since it was first produced from the Genesis Block. Although Bitcoin continues to be mined and produced, the reward of 50 BTC for each validated block halves in value every 210,000 blocks (approximately every four years). On May 11, 2020, when halving of the third block reward took place, the amount of Bitcoin produced every 10 minutes decreased to 6.25. Bitcoin production is estimated to continue until 2140. However, Bitcoin can technically be produced at most 20,999,971.02187096 units.
Lost Bitcoins make others a little more valuable
In 2013, a British man named James Howells dumped a hard drive on which there was a Bitcoin wallet containing 7,500 BTC. The currency had been mined by Howell on his laptop in 2009. When it became too costly to produce Bitcoin using his computer, he quit altogether and sold his computer to a digital marketplace. Although he disassembled then kept the hard disk that contained the Bitcoin wallet, he eventually threw it out along with some other random items in 2013. Since there was no other backup of the Bitcoin wallet, a stash of Bitcoin, worth more than $80 million today, was lost.
“Lost coins make everyone else’s coins only slightly more valuable. Think of it as a donation for everyone,” Satoshi Nakamoto told the Bitcointalk forum.
Source: reddit (1
The message in the Genesis Block
When Satoshi Nakamoto created the first block of the Bitcoin blockchain on January 3, 2009, he added a headline from British newspaper The Times.
The Times 03 / Jan / 2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
The message is thought to have been chosen both as proof that the Bitcoin blockchain was actually produced on January 3, 2009 (and not before) and as a criticism of the classical financial system.
Transferring Bitcoin without internet
To transfer Bitcoin, you need to forward your transaction to the Bitcoin network. However, two amateur radio operators managed to make a transfer without using the internet by moving Bitcoin from Toronto, Canada to Michigan, USA on February 12, 2019.
For a transfer to be carried out, the transaction must be written to the Bitcoin blockchain. However, since the internet is not used in this transfer, it is not written to the blockchain.
It is possible to transfer Bitcoin without the internet: first you need to transfer Bitcoin to a Paper Wallet. From here you can then transfer Bitcoin without using the internet by giving this wallet to the beneficiary and paying them cash. Anyone who receives the wallet from you can transfer all the Bitcoin in the paper wallet to their online wallet using its private key.
On November 16, 2011, 550,000 Bitcoin was transferred at once. 500,000 of this total consisted of 11 different addresses, each hosting 50,000 BTC, sending money to a single address. The transfer, valued at approximately $22 million at the time of the transaction, was equivalent to approximately $5.87 billion at the time you are reading this article. The recipient of the 500,000 Bitcoin remains unknown.
Source: theverge (2)
Bitcoin-rich FBI
Bitcoin has sometimes been associated with illegal payments. One of the best-known examples is “Silk Road”, reputedly among the largest illegal shopping platforms in the world. In 2013, the platform’s Bitcoin wallets were seized by the FBI. These wallets were stated to contain approximately 144,000 BTC (around $1.5 billion)
Bitcoin transactions are anonymous but not confidential
All transactions taking place on the Bitcoin blockchain are recorded from the first Bitcoin block. Transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain are carried out anonymously, without revealing the identities of users, but are public because all transactions are recorded. For example, when you pay a friend with Bitcoin that friend can look back at all transactions you’ve been involved in using the address you used to make the transfer to them.
Sources:
(1) Reddit
(2) Theverge
Download from the Apple Appstore or GooglePlay
The Times 03 / Jan / 2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
The message is thought to have been chosen both as proof that the Bitcoin blockchain was actually produced on January 3, 2009 (and not before) and as a criticism of the classical financial system. | https://medium.com/@btcturk/10-little-known-facts-about-bitcoin-35c3db3d8776 | [] | 2020-12-22 17:06:43.439000+00:00 | ['Btcturk', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Satoshi Nakamoto', 'Btc'] |
HMUA Answers: 5 Misconceptions About The No-Makeup Makeup Look | Photoshoot with UNDO STUDIOS, Photo by Andrea Lee
2. There’s Only One Formula and One System
As an artist, it’s best to change the approach depending on the intention of the client. The basics and fundamentals are there, but there are certain features that we as artists should adjust to depending on the reason for getting their makeup done.
For example, it could be for photoshoots with natural light or less artificial light: that allows me to work with dewy products to look moisturized and fresh. Or I could even play with some shimmer-based products so when the sun hits their face at the right angle, they look bright and luminescent.
It does not work the same way for some flash-photography shoots or when working with harsh artificial lights. The brightness of lights eats up the colors of the makeup and overexposes your face. That may require darkening the makeup to bring back the emphasis and colors to one’s face. Also, the sparkle from the glitter may not be easily controlled when it comes to working with the camera’s flash, so it may not achieve the look-peg. | https://thread.zalora.com.ph/5-misconceptions-about-the-no-makeup-makeup-look-af8186dabdc6 | ['Rachel Torres'] | 2021-11-20 02:18:28.500000+00:00 | ['Makeup Artist', 'Makeup Tips', 'Beauty', 'Makeup', 'Beauty Tips'] |
Divi — How To Contribute: The Foolproof Guide | First of all, we want to apologize for how long and complicated this process is. We know this is painful for many people, but we hope it also shows you how important The Divi Project’s mission is, to make using cryptocurrencies far easier than today.
In this guide I will take you through every step of the contribution process from acquiring your first ETH to “Congratulations, you’ve just joined the Divi Project Token Sale!” Additionally, I will include tidbits of information that will be useful in gaining a full understanding of not only Divi, but also cryptocurrency as a whole. Let’s get started…
Step 1: Acquire some Ether
Ether is the currency used on the Ethereum Network. There are many ways to acquire Ether, but the easiest way is to use a service called Coinbase.
Wait a minute… Why are we using Ether, and how does it relate to DIVX?
Great question! DIVX is what is referred to as an ERC20 Token. An ERC20 Token, in layman’s terms, is a brand new currency that anyone can create, which exists on Ethereum’s Blockchain. We have developed what is called a Smart Contract in order to raise funds and generate new ERC20 Tokens specific to the Divi Project. The tokens that are generated when a new user contributes are called Divi Exchange Tokens (DIVX for short).
Smart Contracts are programmatic contracts that allow for parties to transact without the need for trust. How is this possible? Well, because the contract is immutable, it cannot be changed or modified once it is deployed. The code is also public, so anyone can review it for security flaws or misrepresentations by the contract owner. Think of it like an escrow company that’s run by a robot. These Smart Contracts offer a really efficient method of crowdfunding, because the terms of the contract cannot be reneged upon by either party.
For the first part of this guide, you can also watch Divi team member Kelsey Matheson do this on Youtube:
How to acquire your first Ether:
1. Access Coinbase from your computer
2. Sign up for a new account
You will find the Sign Up button in the top, right hand corner of the screen. It is a square button. You will see this screen:
Enter your details, and when you’re done click Create Account
On the next screen you will be prompted to verify your email address. Leave this tab open, and find the email Coinbase just sent you.
Be sure to check your spam folder if you don’t see the email right away. The email will look like this in your inbox:
Click on Verify Email Address and you will be sent to a this page:
Select Individual or Business (likely individual unless you are a financial institution of some sort) and click Next.
Once you’re on the screen above, you will be prompted to enter your phone number. Make sure it’s a phone number you can receive text messages through as you will need to receive messages to verify your account.
Once you’ve entered your phone number, click Next
Check your phone for the 2-Step Verification Code you just received and enter it into the designated field, then click Verify Phone Number.
Once you’ve verified your phone number, you will be prompted to add a payment method.
There are two options.
Option 1: Bank Account
This option allows for higher limits, but does increase the amount of time between your deposit of Fiat Currency, which is your home country’s preferred, real world currency, and your receipt of the digital currency you have purchased (in this case Ether).
Option 2: Credit / Debit Card
Credit card transfers are instantaneous, however the limits start much lower (usually around $500 USD).
Once you choose an option you will be prompted to upload a photo ID or Driver’s License.
Select an option and you will be prompted with three upload options:
If you select the Webcam option, you may be prompted by your browser to Allow Coinbase to use your camera.
Click Allow.
It will ask you for a picture of the front of your driver’s license first.
Click OK.
Hold your ID’s front facing information in front of your webcam and click Take Photo.
Coinbase will then prompt you to take a picture of the back of your ID.
Hold your ID’s back facing information in front of your webcam and click Take Photo
Once you complete this, Coinbase will verify your ID. This can take up to 3 minutes.
Once verified, you will see this screen:
Click Continue.
You will then be prompted to enter your payment information. In this case we will be entering credit card information, but if you chose Bank Account in the previous steps, you will see a different form. At any rate, enter your information and press Next.
Now, you will be required to confirm two “Verification Charges” that Coinbase will make to the bank account linked to your credit / debit card. NOTE: These charges are temporary, and will be refunded once they are confirmed.
Leave this tab open, and go to your bank’s website to find the charges.
Once you find the charges, go back to your still-open Coinbase tab and click Start Charge Verification.
IMPORTANT: Some banks will reverse these charges, you may need to contact your bank or card issuer to let them know you approve the charges.
Step 3: Purchase some ETH
Once you have verified the charges, you are ready to buy your first ETH!
Be sure that you have selected the Ethereum option on the Buy tab just as displayed in the screenshot above.
Enter how much Ether you would like to purchase (Pro Tip: you can select “Buy Max” to quickly and easily buy as much as your limits will allow).
Click Buy Ethereum.
Click Confirm Buy. You will see the following screen upon a successful transaction:
CONGRATULATIONS! You’re the proud owner of some Ether.
Step 2: Send Ether from Coinbase to MyEtherWallet
Once you have some ETH in your account, you can send it to a service called MyEtherWallet, which is a virtual wallet for storing and sending Ether and ERC20 Tokens.
Wait… why can’t I just keep it on Coinbase?
You don’t want to keep your ETH on Coinbase for a number of reasons:
1. Coinbase operates on credit. Meaning they display the amount of ETH you are owed, not the amount you own. It is best practice to never keep your digital currency on an exchange.
2. In order to contribute to the Divi Token Sale, you need to utilize a wallet that allows for ERC20 Tokens to be stored. Coinbase does not have this feature.
Click on Accounts in the navigation bar on the top of the screen on Coinbase and it will lead you to this page:
Make sure you have your ETH Wallet selected, then click Send
Once you’re on this screen, it’s time to open a new tab and head over to MyEtherWallet.com to create a free secure wallet.
VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure you see MYETHERWALLET LLC [US] in the address bar (highlighted below). If you do not see this you may be on the wrong website. Never click links from Slack DMs, Emails, or Forums that lead to MyEtherWallet or you may be subject to a phishing scam.
Once on this page, enter a password that you can remember and press Create New Wallet.
Download the Keystore File (UTC / JSON) and save it in a safe place on your computer. This file can be used to recover your account and login, if you lose it you may lose your account so it is of the utmost importance that you do not lose this file.
Click I understand. Continue.
After clicking continue, you will see this page, where you will be given a Private Key.
IMPORTANT: A Private Key is just like a password. Again, hold onto this. Save it in a Word Document, write it down and stick it in a fire safe, do whatever you have to do to save this information. And DO NOT SHARE IT with anyone.
Once your Private Key is saved, click Save Your Address to continue.
Once on this screen, you have a variety of login options. You can ignore a majority of them for now. Right now, focus on the Private Key or Keystore File (UTC / JSON) options.
For this example I will be using the Keystore File (UTC / JSON)
Select the radio button that says Keystore File (UTC / JSON) and you will be prompted to upload the file you just downloaded moments ago. Click Select Wallet File…
Find the file you just downloaded and select it. Once you do you will be prompted to enter the Password you created at the beginning of this step.
An Unlock button will pop up. Click it to continue to your wallet.
Scroll down to see your brand new Ether Wallet!
Copy the string of numbers and letters in the Your Address field.
Go back to Coinbase now and paste the copied address into the Recipient field.
Enter the amount you would like to send…
You do not need to write anything in the optional message field.
Click Continue
It may take some time for the transaction to go through, so be patient. Go make a sandwich, and come back in a few minutes.
Step 3: Purchase DIVX
Now that you have some ETH in your wallet, you are ready to purchase some DIVX!
Click the Send Ether & Tokens button in the navigation bar at the top of the screen.
Upload your Keystore File (UTC / JSON) or Enter your Private Key
Click Unlock
Once on the above screen, open a new tab in your browser and go to the live sale link.
Click Continue
Read the terms. Check the relevant boxes. In this case I will be selecting Check here to confirm that you are NOT a U.S. citizen, resident or entity nor are you purchasing DIVX Tokens or signing on behalf of a U.S. Person. and Check below to verify that you have read and agree to the terms.
Click Agree and you will see the contribution details.
Copy the Contract Address from step 3 of the “How to Participate” instructions.
Keep this tab open, and go back to the MyEtherWallet tab you left open before.
Paste the Address you just copied into the To Address field.
NOTE: if you see something pop up that says “Transaction Execution Error” you can ignore it. Nothing has gone wrong, it’s just a minor bug within the MyEtherWallet software.
Enter the amount you’d like to contribute in the Amount to Send field
Change the Gas Limit to 300000
Wait… what the heck is Gas and why do I need it?
Gas is the small fractions of ETH that are required to send transactions through the network. Smart Contracts require more Gas than typical peer-to-peer transactions because of their varying levels of complexity. The more variables within the contract, the more Gas it will take to execute various functions. The more Gas you are willing to spend, the more attractive the transaction becomes to the miners. Basically what that means is that your transaction will go through more quickly. If you don’t have enough Gas, your transaction may fail. You can read a more technical analysis of Gas here.
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
Before you click to generate the transaction, you must click Advanced: Add Data
Copy the shorter string of numbers and letters from step 7 of “How to Participate” on the live sale page.
Paste the copied string it into the Data field
Click Generate Transaction
Click Send Transaction
Click Yes, I am sure! Make Transaction.
Click Check TX Status
Click the string of numbers and letters associated with TX Hash.
This will open a new tab and show you your transaction details.
Step 4: View your newly acquired DIVX
Now that you have made your contribution, it is time to reap the rewards!
Back on MyEtherWallet, click View Wallet Info from the navigation bar at the top of the screen.
Enter your Private Key or upload your Keystore File (UTC / JSON) and enter your password
Click Unlock
On this screen, you will see a section called Token Balances (highlighted in green for this example)
Don’t worry if you don’t see your DIVX yet. We’ll be adding the token in the next step.
Click the Add Custom Token button and you will see a new form pop down.
Leave this tab open, and go back to your still-open live sale page on our website:
Copy the Contract Address from step 3 of “How to view your newly acquired DIVX in your wallet”
Now head back to MyEtherWallet
Paste the Contract Address you just copied into the Address field.
In the Token Symbol field enter DIVX
In the Decimals field enter 18
If your screen looks like the screenshot above, you’re good to go.
Click Save
VOILA! You are now the proud owner of some shiny new DIVX!
Still have questions? Reach out to us directly at [email protected] or find us on Telegram! | https://medium.com/diviproject/divi-how-to-contribute-the-foolproof-guide-dc66697bfb9a | ['Divi Cryptocurrency'] | 2018-08-21 01:52:55.869000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency', 'Divi', 'ICO', 'How To', 'Ethereum'] |
Social Media Achievement: Troll Level 1 Unlocked! | Social Media Achievement: Troll Level 1 Unlocked!
You never forget your first troll
I’ve only been running my Facebook page, Living Imperfection, for about nine months now. So, yeah, I’m still a relative newbie. My page is dedicated to my writing, my personal brand of antics, and my homemade opossum memes. There has been a steep learning curve, but I’m making steady progress, learning something new every day.
But today wasn’t just any old daily grind on social media for me.
Today, I finally got my first troll. I’m so proud. The excitement of the short exchange I had with my troll was truly exhilarating.
My troll’s name is Jackson, or so his profile says.
I did my best to take good care of him, but it was difficult to connect with him on a personal level because he had no friends, no posts, and no personal information. Even Jackson’s photo was a kind of composite, photoshopped collage, so I don’t even know what my troll looks like.
I have so many questions about him — like, why is he so afraid to put himself out there?
Until Jackson came along, I had simply never been accosted on social media and given unsolicited advice on meme-making (or anything) in a cocky, condescending, mansplaining manner before.
Have I been missing out or what?
I quickly grew attached to Jackson. For a short time, he was like my new, poorly behaved pet who was probably abused by a previous owner.
I know they say not to feed trolls, but I wanted to take care of Jackson. He seemed kind of cute in a runt of the litter, underdog, barking up the wrong tree kind of way. I felt somehow responsible for him. I wanted to know who hurt him.
Oh? What’s that? Trolls don’t make good pets, you say?
My troll was different. I know in my heart if I had just known how to nurture him properly, my love would have transformed him into a model Internet citizen.
I wanted to rehabilitate him.
You didn’t know Jackson like I did, which, admittedly, was not very well.
Still, this was a major rite of passage for me. For the first time ever, I feel like I have a real presence on the big, sprawling, anonymous interwebs.
I’ve been noticed unfavorably on social media.
Ok, full disclosure: I did get a bad review on my Facebook page from a guy who was mad about my meme content last week.
Alexander eloquently wrote:
“Another page using cute animals to push vapid idpol, move on and save your eyes the rolling.”
Then I made the mistake of asking my followers to review my page as well and I commented back to Alexander that yes, he probably should keep moving to a page that’s more his style.
I never heard from him again! He didn’t even care enough to come back and berate me one more time. Obviously not a real troll.
Jackson wouldn’t leave me like that! He kept coming back to post more and more criticisms of my tech prowess — he called me a “boomer”! — and to cast aspersions on my person. Jackson kept commenting long after I stopped engaging with him.
Then he was gone.
I cared deeply about my troll — but I adhere to a strict, no exceptions policy of tough love when it comes to my loved ones. I didn’t want to starve him, but I couldn’t in good conscience overfeed him either.
Will he be back tomorrow? Has he abandoned me after all? Has he found a better host? Someone who can give him more of the indignation and pointless argumentation he craves?
I’m gonna work on myself, ask myself the hard questions, figure out what I did wrong, and how I can do better next time.
I’ll never forget you, Jackson! You’ll always be my first!
Thanks for reading.
Get on my list here & follow/troll me on social media for my daily original opossum memes here. | https://medium.com/pickle-fork/social-media-achievement-troll-level-1-unlocked-1eb5e624b4e9 | ['Gina Gallois'] | 2019-07-16 20:14:23.742000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Life Lessons', 'Blogging', 'Social Media', 'Satire'] |
diconium Talks Futures: How we can shape our future today | New technologies emerge so fast that it becomes harder to predict what our future will look like. That’s why we explored possible features along with our guest at the 25 year anniversary of diconium. Our guest list included Pascal Finette, Joana Breidenbach, Dame Stephanie Shirley and many more.
The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies by Gartner is one of the most prominent examples of future prediction. It shows the life stages of certain technologies and starts at conception until its way to widespread adoption. Such graphics offer a great overview, but they lack complexity. The future doesn’t just happen, it’s something we can actively shape and need to discuss in order to understand all dimensions.
At our 25-year anniversary, we tried exactly that. At Diconium talks futures we covered three main topics: mobility, e-commerce, and sustainability to look into the implications and possible scenarios for our future. Those topics are not only driving topics of our time but also interconnected as we explored during the sessions. We invited more than ten bright minds to join us celebrating and to share their beliefs, hopes and predictions for the future with us.
We also recorded one episode of our podcast REWRITE TECH to collect the highlights of the three-day event along with our hosts Geraldine de Bastion and Brad Richards.
How can we keep pace with the new challenges of mobility?
The first automobile was invented more than 100 years ago and relatively quickly cars became widely accessible. Today cars are omnipresent in almost every part of the world, but we’re in the midst of a paradigm shift. With the introduction of software into cars, the mobility landscape will drastically change and needs to redefine itself.
One of our first guests covering these topics was Christoph Hartung, Executive Vice President at Bosch Connected Mobility Solutions. He talked about how software will change how cars work and the increasing complexity. We’re still at a point, where the industry needs to learn how to deal with those new challenges as he outlines.
“A really trick part, that will challenge us in the future, is cybersecurity.” — Prof. Dr. Michael Resch
Adding to that, Prof. Dr. Michael Resch, DirectorHigh-Performance Computing Center, highlighted that the development of connected services requires a deeper understanding of cybersecurity. He elaborated on an example of remote flying and why such ideas are quickly discarded.
How can we innovate in the future?
When diconium started 25 years ago, among the first clients were Neckermann and Quelle, two German catalogue mail-order companies. Since then, retail has massively evolved. Nowadays, diconium builds complex webshops and the industry talks about things like contextual commerce.
But what is the next step for commerce? Being innovative is essential when you want to stay in business. It means that you must see business opportunities before your competitors do. According to Pascal Finette, co-founder of be radical consultancy, the key to that is to identify weak signals, which are the early parts of exponential growth as he explains during his session. When companies learn how to detect and understand those early signs, they are able to thrive.
“One of the major differentiations I make in the innovation field is between bullshit innovations and innovations that are meaningful. Bullshit innovations harm our society or environment or they don’t add anything new significantly.” — Joana Breidenbach
Still, companies shouldn’t innovate for the sake of innovation, says Joana Breidenbach, who is the co-founder of betterplace.org. She calls out “bullshit innovation” as meaningless strategies, but also gives concrete tips on how teams need to develop in order to make a real difference in the world.
How can we integrate sustainability as a core principle?
Innovation and future-building become even more complicated when we put sustainability into the mix. Building environmental-friendly solutions should be at the core of our work. We certainly need innovative ideas, but they shouldn’t be too innovative, argues Matthew Manos, who owns the design strategy practice verynice. People need to get used to new developments and sometimes middle ground innovations help. One good example are hybrid vehicles, which pave the way for electric mobility.
“If you wanna envision and realise a more sustainable future, don’t be too innovative” — Matthew Manos.
We had so many more great guests on our stage, that it becomes hard to pick a favourite. We summed up some of the most interesting statements our guests made in our podcast REWRITE TECH. You can find it on all major listening platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
You can also still request the recording of the three-day event on the diconium website.
________________________________________________________________
Learn more about REWRITE TECH. | https://medium.com/rewrite-tech/diconium-talks-futures-how-we-can-shape-our-future-today-814848168b19 | ['Sarah Schulze Darup'] | 2020-11-23 15:53:46.878000+00:00 | ['Events', 'Future', 'Technology', 'Podcast', 'Futurology'] |
Defining the grid of today and tomorrow | Defining the grid of today and tomorrow
In the past two months, like the rest of the economy the energy sector was upended. Oil prices went negative for the first time leading Rystad Energy to project $1T in revenue losses for exploration and production companies. Meanwhile the S&P 500 Energy Industry Group lost 61% of its market cap between January 1, 2020 and its trough on March 18, 2020. Yet this massive volatility has been driven largely by demand shocks and trade disruptions in fossil fuel markets, not alternative energies. For the first time, major energy companies have seen their renewable portfolios outperform their fossil fuel portfolios, with the US Energy Information Administration recently reporting that renewables were the only form of energy to see growth in Q1 2020.
As distributed and variable generation resources proliferate, grid infrastructure will continue to adapt and become increasingly reliant on energy resources such as demand response and energy storage to provide grid services like frequency response, spinning reserves and excess energy to meet demand. It is for these reasons that, despite the inclement economic environment, we at Silicon Valley Bank have great hope for the future of innovative companies’ providing solutions in the energy and resource innovation space. While immediate headwinds exist, technological advances and innovative companies enabling an efficient, sustainable and resilient grid will continue to grow and prosper.
Yesterday’s vision, today’s reality: The rise of lithium-ion technology
We are at an inflection point. Five years ago, what kept energy storage from going mainstream was the technology and cost; today, the technology portfolio is more robust and economies of scale have driven prices down, making storage cost competitive with other energy resources. The discussion around storage has moved from feasibility to adoption and deployment — and deployment is booming. In 2019, roughly 4 gigawatts of energy storage were deployed globally. SVB alone has had the opportunity to finance battery storage projects ranging from utility, small commercial and industrial, to residential-scale units amounting to more than 200 megawatts of capacity.
Global energy storage deployment (in gigawatts)
Source: US Energy Information Administration, Wood Mackenzie.
The rise of storage deployment is thanks to the innumerable battery OEMs that have brought new ideas and economies of scale to market. Major automakers like Nissan and Tesla, tech companies like LG and Panasonic and startups are all innovating on novel battery designs — growing the diversity of lithium-ion battery options for energy storage.
Notable energy storage companies
1) “Total raised to date” does not include grant funding. Source: Pitchbook
Thin margins in the highly competitive utility-scale solar space have driven interest in the retail market, which has become a focus of many storage companies that are leveraging established solar companies as channel partners to deploy storage. Companies that pioneered widespread adoption of solar, such as Sunrun, have expanded product offerings to include storage. The long-term outlook for residential storage looks good, but with rapidly declining consumer sentiment and most of the world sheltering in place, retail energy storage may see a near-term decline. Yet as the economy recovers, consumers will return and retail storage will continue its significant expansion.
While total electricity demand has declined ~5% globally and peak load has flattened during the pandemic, large utilities are betting on storage both to help meet sustainability goals and to improve system reliability as more variable generation enters the grid. NextEra just announced a plan to spend $1B on storage projects in 2021. Critics point out that falling fossil fuel prices offer a substitute in the form of natural gas, but as oil prices fall fewer wells will be active in the Permian Basin. The resulting drop in natural gas production will bolster prices. Furthermore, with a decline in electric vehicle sales projected for 2020, a surplus of batteries will make both utility and residential storage cheaper. Couple this with utilities’ ability to access low-cost capital in Federal Reserve–bolstered bond markets, the future of utility-scale storage looks bright. NextEra and Duke Energy recently sold $1B in bonds with a 30-year coupon rate of 3.95%. Finally, while utilities will undoubtedly experience significant coronavirus-related costs, many are already seeking to rate base these costs, ensuring plenty of capital in the future to invest in infrastructure improvements. It’s hard to imagine state utility commissions balking.
The new frontier of energy storage
As innovation continues to find new solutions, the question becomes what is next for the energy storage space. Lithium-ion technology appears poised to maintain its lead, yet flow batteries and other promising energy storage technologies may fuel the economy of tomorrow, particularly in applications where lithium-ion-based batteries are less well-suited. On the frontier of energy storage sit myriad solutions: Hydrogenics uses excess generation to produce hydrogen that can later be converted back to electricity, Energy Vault uses robots to lift weights and store gravitational potential energy and Form Energy just promised a groundbreaking aqueous air battery that will provide 150 hours of storage within three years, which could transform the long-duration storage market.
In addition to the potential gains from alternative storage technologies, many promising software-enabled companies are working in the energy optimization and demand response space. Building on current technology, many of these companies rely on artificial intelligence, telematics, the Internet of Things and other technologies to predict and control demand; this allows both consumers and system operators to shift demand from peak times to periods of low demand, thus matching demand and supply curves and preventing costly capacity expansions and grid infrastructure updates. Companies such as Leap and OhmConnect have solved these inefficiencies by acting as brokers among grid operators who pay energy users to reduce demand at peak times. While there are many hurdles for these companies, from regulatory approvals to privacy concerns related to controlling behind-the-meter load, the substantial cost savings and system resilience they provide positions them to be major players in the energy future.
Notable building energy management, demand response and storage companies
It may seem strange to tout the benefits of energy storage and energy optimization companies amid a global slowdown in electricity demand, but we project that as we begin to resume our normal lives, electricity consumption will continue to grow, as trends toward increased electrification persist.
SVB’s Energy and Resource Innovation practice recognizes the opportunity for innovative companies to ride the next wave of economic growth while transitioning our energy system to a sustainable, resilient and profitable future. We have more than three decades of experience supporting high-growth companies and structuring project finance deals to meet the needs of your business. We welcome conversations with founders, investors and developers seeking to perpetuate the transition to a clean energy economy. | https://medium.com/svb-inside-innovation/defining-the-grid-of-today-and-tomorrow-d2e5388caaca | ['Troy Ault'] | 2020-05-26 17:13:48.155000+00:00 | ['Cleantech', 'Consumer Electronics', 'Demand Response', 'Energy Storage', 'Renewable Energy'] |
Streaming With Probabilistic Data Structures: Why & How | In recent years, streaming libraries seem to have evolved significantly. To name a few, we’ve seen Akka Streams, KafkaStreams, Flink, Spark Streaming and others, becoming increasingly popular. There might be numerous reasons for that. A common motivation for using stream processing in your systems is to avoid heavy computations upon raw data in read-time. Instead, we can move those computations to an earlier stage — around the time when the raw data is produced. This architectural pattern allows us to obtain better response times in time-critical transactions, and have surged in popularity in correlation to the general growth of the data organizations handle.
In this story, I will examine a rather complicated scenario that can not be easily solved by the intuitive capabilities that streamlining libraries usually offer. I will demonstrate how probabilistic data structures can help us mitigate a common anti-pattern often encountered in stream processing applications: carrying non-aggregative raw data deep down into a streaming topology for calculations, such as distinct count of elements.
Before that, I will briefly review how streaming, in general, helps in maintaining aggregations of data, and why it might be a good idea to adopt it in some use-cases.
I will use KafkaStreams for demonstrations along the way, but the concepts explored here can be applied in virtually any streaming library.
Examples are written in Scala.
Aggregating Upon A Stream
Oftentimes, we want to aggregate raw data into some meaningful representation that will serve a business need later on. The simplest example for this, perhaps, is the WordCount program, which is kind of the HelloWorld of many streaming libraries. Here is an implementation of it using KafkaStreams. Basically, what it does is:
consume some source Kafka topic as a stream
some source Kafka topic as a stream split each value into single words
each value into single words group that stream by each word
that stream by each word count the occurrences per word
the occurrences per word produce the results to another Kafka topic
The basic idea behind using aggregations in your systems is planning ahead. If you figure out what you want to know about the raw data at a later stage, you can aggregate it and shape it into a form that represents the answers to those questions — right when you first know about the raw data. That means, it happens before those questions are being asked. In fact, some might never be asked, because practically, we are preparing answers for all possible questions we might need answers for!
Stream processing aggregation in a nutshell
This approach stands in complete opposition to the more conventional one — querying a database upon request and then crunching the results in order to achieve some desired result. This might work well in small apps maintained by small or medium sized teams, but becomes less practical with big data and boundaries between domains and teams naturally emerge. In that scenario, maintaining aggregations often are the adequate solution to various business requirements.
Without stream processing, applications need to query and compute upon state in real time
The Problem At Hand: Distinct Hashtag Count
Alas, not all aggregations are achieved with the same degree of ease. It is no wonder that WordCount is so common as a beginner’s example — it is very easy to implement and understand. But let’s explore a different scenario. Take a social media ecosystem where we need to keep track of how many unique hashtags each user has mentioned in their posts.
At a first glance, the streaming solution for this request seems like a direct continuation of what we’ve seen in WordCount. We could consume posts data, group it by user, and then extract & aggregate the hashtags used, perhaps in some Set , which would allow us to easily obtain our desired metric — distinct count.
A pseudo-topology that seemingly answers the requests in an adequate way
This is how our KafkaStreams topology might look like:
A few things happen here. First, I’ve used type aliases in order to avoid the semantically-meaningless String flooding the code. Furthermore, I’ve extracted the logic of obtaining a Set[Hashtag] from a Post to a private function. Other than that, this is exactly what was just described.
One of the things I like about KafkaStreams is how intuitive the API is — I think it is pretty easy to grasp and understand this piece of code, even if you haven’t worked with KafkaStreams before.
One thing to remember is that this topology will continuously produce massages upon each change to the aggregation, and might be seen as a stream of updates. If you only need the latest state, you can define the output topic as log-compacted.
There’s just one problem with this implementation: we have an unbounded data-structure in our topology, which means our streaming application can become more memory heavy than we might have predicted.
Remember we said that aggregations are about transforming raw data in a way that fits our read-time needs? Well, our current implementation seems to have violated that concept. We don’t need that Set[Hashtag] really, we just want to know its size. But how can we maintain that number in a streaming application without keeping the underlying Set available? Can we do better?
Probabilistic Data Structures To The Rescue
Well, of course we can! This is where probabilistic data structures come in. If you haven’t heard of them, don’t worry, we’re going to explore an example together. We will focus on HyperLogLog (aka HLL), a probabilistic data structure that is aimed at solving the very problem we’re facing:
… the count-distinct problem… [which] is the problem of finding the number of distinct elements in a data stream with repeated elements (Wikipedia)
While the initial, Set -based solution will always be 100% accurate, HyperLogLog suggests a tradeoff: the allocated memory will be of a fixed size, but it might not be absolutely accurate at all times. By and large, the error rate is correlative to the allocated memory. Moreover, in most cases, the error will be of relatively small severity — that is, the estimated count might be off by just a bit. This is why HyperLogLog is considered a probabilistic data structure. In many use cases, this is a reasonable deal. If you’re working on a scenario in which you cannot have any error at all, then this kind of data structures are probably not suitable for your needs.
A Scala Implementation
Algebird is a neat Scala library created by the folks at Twitter, which is aimed at providing “abstractions for abstract algebra”. A significant part of that library revolves around approximate data types, and includes a HyperLogLog implementation. We’ll try to adapt our KafkaStreams app to use it, but first, let’s examine how to work with Algebird’s HyperLogLog implementation.
The HLL type is the data structure itself. It responds to the #approximateSize method, allowing us to obtain the desired number — set-size, which is also known as cardinality. Similarly to working with the naïve Set , here we will also need to add elements to our data structure. Unlike Set , though, adding elements to an HLL is slightly more complex. The thing is, elements added aren’t kept within the HLL , as they are in a conventional Set . That’s the magic of HyperLogLog! If you’re curious about how it actually works, there are tons of videos or articles about it online.
Previously, we relied on Set ‘s direct API for adding entries to the set. Algebird’s support for HyperLogLog relies on a common abstraction to achieve the same goal — combining things. That abstraction is called Monoid . Generally speaking, a Monoid for some type A lets us get an empty A and combine any two A ’s. And so, in order to add an element to an HLL , we need to obtain a HyperLogLogMonoid . This is achieved easily:
val hllMonoid: HyperLogLogMonoid = new HyperLogLogMonoid(bits = 8)
Note that you decide how many bits to allocate — this allows us to control the error rate.
We can then get our empty, zero-state HLL :
val init: HLL = hllMonoid.zero
And simply add elements to it:
val newElementData: Array[Byte] = "foobar".toCharArray.map(_.toByte)
val newElement: HLL = hllMonoid.create(newElementData) val updatedHLL: HLL = init + newElement
As you can see, we can use the HyperLogLogMonoid#create method in order to create a new HLL by passing an Array[Byte] to it. After that, we can add our new HLL to the existing one and get a new one with an updated state.
With this knowledge, we can prepare an aggregation function that will replace the previous one we’ve had. We will group all this goodness together under a helper object, Aggregation :
As you can see, we are using HyperLogLogMonoid#sum here, in addition to #create . It allows us to combine several HLL s into one, which suits our needs perfectly: we’ll extract the Hashtag s from each Post , then sum them into a HLL , which we will add to the existing, aggregative HLL . Exactly what we wanted to achieve!
Putting It All Together
With our aggregation function and initialization value ready, we can now go back to our KafkaStreams topology and use them there:
I needed to adapt just two lines from the former implementation — the parameters passed to aggregate (line 22) and the way to obtain the (estimated) cardinality, in the map function (line 24).
There’s just one thing left — we need to find a way to obtain a Serde[HLL] . If you are unfamiliar with KafkaStreams, this is Serde ‘s definition according to the official documentation:
Every Kafka Streams application must provide SerDes (Serializer/Deserializer) for the data types of record keys and record values (e.g. java.lang.String ) to materialize the data when necessary.
Essentially, KafkaStreams might need a certain Serde for various operations. Our code would not compile without it.
Since aggregation by nature is a stateful operation (simply because we operate on information which is not bounded at the current message being processed), KafkaStreams needs to know how the information can be serialized and deserialized. Luckily, it is pretty easy to get a Serde[HLL] , like this:
And with that we’re pretty much done! We’ve managed to incorporate HyperLogLog into our KafkaStreams topology, and honestly, we could have done that in any other Scala streaming library with the same effort, roughly. The main takeaway is how easy this change was and how elegant and concise the end result is.
The full code, which includes tests and a runnable apps, is available here.
Beyond HyperLogLog
Perhaps by now you’re convinced that probabilistic data structures are really fascinating — and there is more than HyperLogLog! If you’re interested, don’t hesitate checking out other data structures implemented in Algebird: | https://medium.com/riskified-technology/streaming-with-probabilistic-data-structures-why-how-b83b2adcd5d4 | ['Eliav Lavi'] | 2020-10-27 10:11:11.572000+00:00 | ['Streaming', 'Engineering', 'Data Structures', 'Big Data', 'Scala'] |
II. Why People need to care about the Inequalities of Healthcare? | This is a political cartoon drawn by Signe Wilkinson, who has worked for the Philadelphia Daily News for the past 35 years. As you can see in the cartoon there is man labeled U.S. Health Care talking about the many Covid-19 fatalities in the world with a bed right next to him stating that people who are considered poor, black, and a nursing home resident. In the article, it was reported that over half of the Covid-19 deaths in Philadelphia are from people in nursing homes, and as it’s stated in the article the poorer nursing home’s area, the higher the toll.
After looking over this political cartoon, I was pleased yet distraught to know that it proves my point about the inequalities among the healthcare system. In the cartoon, you see the groups of people who have been the most affected by Covid-19 and not one of them are the 1 percent nor white people. In the same article, as the cartoon, it states that “inequality is an underlying condition and one that should’ve been solved years ago.”
In an another article, written by Rachel Garfield and Tricia Neuman, who are both the Vice Presidents and Directors for a program on Medicaid state that almost 14,000 nursing homes nationwide has been treating people for Covid-19 and have a high share of both Black and Hispanic resident. An analysis showed that, 12% of all nursing home residents are Blacks and 6% of them are Hispanic.
Earlier this year, the Democratic candidates were all discussing their takes on Healthcare. In an article from “Health Line,” written by Stephanie Booth, a Freelance writer from Portland, she stated how in this debate some of the candidates couldn’t agree with their plans with Healthcare. Some of them wanted the “Medicare for All” plan such as Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren because they believe in single payer healthcare. While others like Joe Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s plans to reform the Affordable Care Act.
Well what did we get? We will see and is it good enough? | https://medium.com/@pinedomichael2000/ii-why-people-need-to-care-about-the-inequalities-of-healthcare-9fa27fdcd456 | ['Michael Anthony Pinedo Jr.'] | 2020-12-15 07:35:04.334000+00:00 | ['Nursing Homes', 'Covid 19', 'Inequality'] |
Migrants in Oman no longer account for majority of new coronavirus cases | New Covid-19 cases in Oman over the last three months. Seven-day rolling average, day by day.
During the last two weeks the Gulf state of Oman has seen a shift in the pattern of its coronavirus epidemic. Previously, most of the new infections were occurring among foreigners — predominantly migrant workers from poor countries. That has now changed and the majority of new cases are Omani citizens.
Oman has recorded more than 45,000 cases since the outbreak began — almost one-third of them in the past fortnight. Describing the latest surge as “annoying, deplorable and frightful”, last week the health minister lambasted members of the public for ignoring safety precautions.
“There is one person who went to work and shook hands with all his colleagues, and then he testified that his wife was infected with Covid-19. What can we call this behaviour?” he said.
There also appears to be a problem with employers failing to report suspected cases among their workforce — presumably to avoid disruption of their business — and the authorities are now threatening to carry out spot checks, with additional penalties for violations.
Oman, with a five-million population, currently has almost 18,000 active cases and health services are coming under pressure. They are said to be coping at present but in the expectation of further increases plans were announced last week for a new field hospital with 250–300 beds.
Covid-19 first arrived in Oman towards the end of February with travellers returning from Iran. The authorities took swift preventive action and for a while their efforts seemed to be paying off.
That changed in mid-April when large numbers of cases began appearing among Oman’s expatriate communities whose cramped living conditions made them especially susceptible to infection. Expatriates, mainly Indian and Bangladeshi migrant workers, form a minority of Oman’s population — around 43% — but account for 53% of the new cases recorded since mid-April.
Since April 16 the health ministry has reported separate figures for Omanis and non-Omanis in its daily updates ( see spreadsheet).
Analysis of these over the last eleven weeks shows that in the first week Omani citizens accounted for only 36% of new cases. During the ensuing eight weeks the figure never rose above 45%.
It was not until the week before last that Omani cases outnumbered non-Omanis cases for the first time, and a week later they have now reached 65%.
Graph shows percentage of Omani citizens among new Covid-19 cases recorded in Oman over the last eleven weeks
Further information:
Covid-19 in Oman
Middle East coronavirus updates
Covid-19 statistics for Middle East | https://brian-whit.medium.com/migrants-in-oman-no-longer-account-for-majority-of-new-coronavirus-cases-ac3e88b1b1b | ['Brian Whitaker'] | 2020-07-05 11:10:37.932000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Oman', 'Migrants', 'Coronavirus'] |
Best Smartphone under 20000 in India | Many of you want to buy a good smartphone for 20,000 rupees. There are a lot of good smartphones out there in the market for this 20,000 rupees which leave you in a dilemma as to which one to buy. So here is a list to clear up your confusion. Where the best 5 smartphones in the market at Rs 20,000 have been discussed. I hope this will remove your confusion in many ways.
5. Redmi Note 9 Pro Max
Display and camera
The Redmi Note 9 Pro Max has a 6.67 inches (16.94 cm) display with a bezel-less punch-hole. Its IPS LCD display has a pixel density of 395ppi and a screen resolution (1080 x 2400 pixels). There is also Corning Gorilla Glass v5 to protect the phone.
The camera setup of the Note 9 Pro Max has a 64MP primary camera with 10x digital zoom and a quad-camera setup. The primary camera is supported by an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 5MP camera, and a 2MP depth-sensing camera with sensors like a CMOS image sensor and ISOCELL Plus. For selfie lovers, there is a 32MP primary camera in the punch hole of the display.
Performance and battery
The smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G chipset and clocks at 2.3GHz with an octa-core processor. The smartphone also has 6GB RAM and Adreno 618 graphics as RAM.
The Note 9 Pro Max has a 5020mAh Li-Po battery and has a standby time of up to 492 hours. 33W fast charging facility is also provided for fast charging.
Storage and connection
The smartphone has 64GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 512GB.
Note 9 Pro Max uses the Android 10 operating system. The smartphone has a 4G Volte network with Wi-Fi, dual-SIM, USB Type-C charging port, Mobile Hotspot, Bluetooth, and A-GPS with GLONASS.
4. Motorola One Fusion+
Display and camera
Motorola One Fusion + has a 6.5-inch FHD + IPS LCD display with a screen resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels and a density of 396ppi pixels. The ratio of the smartphone is 19.5: 9 which will give the users a cinematic experience.
The smartphone has a Quad-Camera setup with a 64MP f / 1.8 primary sensor, an 8MP f / 2.2 with 118 ° Ultra-Wide Angle lens, a 5MP f/2.4 macro sensor, and a 2MP f/2.4 depth camera. On the front is a 16MP pop-up selfie shooter that can take very nice pictures.
Configuration and battery
The Motorola One Fusion + comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G chipset and an Octa-core Kryo 470 processor with 2.2GHz and 1.8GHz refresh rates. The smartphone has a powerful 6GB RAM and Adreno 618 GPU which is a very good processor for gaming. This gives 23.0s time for bootup.
The smartphone has a 5,000mAh non-replaceable Li-Polymer battery and is equipped with an 18W Turbo Power Charging device. It takes 2hrs 17mins and 14sec to fully charge the smartphone.
Read more | https://medium.com/@sagor0175297/best-smartphone-under-20000-in-india-2c22158942c9 | ['Md Sagor'] | 2020-12-23 07:11:43.835000+00:00 | ['Mobile', 'Best Smartphone In India', 'Technology', 'Smartphones', 'Best Smart Phones'] |
Redesigning the cinema experience | Redesign some physical touchpoints at the cinema as well as on the website.
Timeframe: 2 weeks group project Tools: Adobe XD & Axure
Designing a better cinema experience
Our team (we called ourselves Oscars) — Bis, Brenda, Po Fong & myself — decided to redesign the cinema experience at Shaw Theatres. We believe we can redesign some of its physical and digital checkpoints so users will find them easier to use and have a better experience.
The brief
Redesign an existing service that includes both digital and physical touchpoints.
The business
Shaw Organisation was founded in 1924. Its major competitors, Cathay and Golden Village joined in 1935 and 1992 respectively. Unfortunately, despite having 7 locations and 70 screens, Shaw has been edged out by the other two.
The goal
Redesign some physical touchpoints at the cinema as well as on the website.
Discover
User Interviews
Firstly, we conducted user interviews with 13 testers and found the following patterns in our affinity mapping process.
We managed to find 13 testers that closely mirror this movie-goer profile in Singapore.
Key insights from these interviews and affinity mapping.
Service Safari
To gain a deeper understanding of the cinema-going experience at Shaw, we went on-site to 4 different Shaw cineplexes, PLQ, Lido, Waterway Point and Jewel to conduct Contextual Inquiries. | https://medium.com/@joycelynkoh/redesigning-the-cinema-experience-bc7479bda3d8 | ['Joycelyn Koh'] | 2020-12-29 01:46:29.314000+00:00 | ['UX Design', 'UI Design', 'Movie', 'Cinema Experience', 'Website Design'] |
Developing Wind Waker/Wave Race-inspired Water in Unity! | It was a bit of a grueling all-nighter, but in the end I am quite happy with how my water is turning out! I was really inspired by two games in particular for dedicating such an effort to my game’s water: Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Wave Race 64! I tried to take some cues from those two examples for my own water here!
Essentially I took Unity’s Standard Assets for a base water system and edited them a ton into this really vivid water system, which also makes use of the liquid shaders included in the Retro 3D Shader available on the Unity Asset Store. To begin with, I did some browsing for the effects that looked closest to what I wanted, and then plotted out how I might combine them. Admittedly, I’m still going to be very actively working on this water, but I did want to share some of what I’ve found and learned.
The real core of this project is actually a texture that I stumbled across on Pinterest at some point and made use of for developing an equally Wind Waker-inspired water shader for Minecraft.
If you happen to know the source of this texture, please let me know, as I’m not sure where exactly it came from!
Essentially, I wanted to have water that was pretty much just an animated version of that texture, however I also wanted:
a translucent fade out around the water’s edge (an effect I was able to find in Unity’s provided script ‘WaterBase’).
around the water’s edge (an effect I was able to find in Unity’s provided script ‘WaterBase’). ‘subdued’ reflections (which I was also able to find in Unity’s provided ‘PlanarReflection’ script).
(which I was also able to find in Unity’s provided ‘PlanarReflection’ script). ‘swirling’ of the water (which is where Retro 3D shaders comes into play with its non-dithered Retro3D Liquid Shader).
(which is where Retro 3D shaders comes into play with its non-dithered Retro3D Liquid Shader). and finally, waving and rippling of the water (for this I had to source a custom script, which was 99% based on the excellent little solution provided here in both JavaScript and C# form).
For convenience’s sake here is a look at that wave-and-ripple-producing script as well. I love this implementation as it’s concise, easy-to-read, and produces outstanding results.
public class WaterWaves : MonoBehaviour
{
float scale = 0.2f;
float speed = 0.8f;
float noiseStrength = 1.4f;
float noiseWalk = 1f;
private Vector3[] baseHeight;
void Update()
{
Mesh mesh = GetComponent<MeshFilter>().mesh;
if (baseHeight == null)
baseHeight = mesh.vertices;
Vector3[] vertices = new Vector3[baseHeight.Length];
for (int i = 0; i < vertices.Length; i++)
{
Vector3 vertex = baseHeight[i];
vertex.y += Mathf.Sin(Time.time * speed + baseHeight[i].x + baseHeight[i].y + baseHeight[i].z) * scale;
vertex.y += Mathf.PerlinNoise(baseHeight[i].x + noiseWalk, baseHeight[i].y + Mathf.Sin(Time.time * 0.1f)) * noiseStrength;
vertices[i] = vertex;
}
mesh.vertices = vertices;
mesh.RecalculateNormals();
}
}
I applied that script to the provided prefab for Water4Simple which I further customized to use two materials, thus two shaders: Retro3D’s Liquid ND shader (non-dithered) and Unity’s Water4 shader. I used GIMP to edit the very Wind Waker-looking texture shown above and reduce it to the “seafoam” lines which I selected in the Liquid ND shader. I also tweaked this shader’s settings to enable a very slow “swirl” effect; being enabled on a small, standing body of water I found having the swirl moving very fast looked unnatural.
Quite honestly, I spent about a solid four hours just tweaking various values in either shader, and the WaterBase script (also provided by Unity’s Standard Assets) and experimenting with including various other shaders and scripts. Even at the time of writing this I’m still essentially studying what I’ve created here because I love the end result, but I don’t fully understand what all is exactly doing what through these scripts and shaders — I’m under the impression that what I have implemented currently could be made significantly more simple! | https://medium.com/@buchananaubrey/developing-wind-waker-wave-race-inspired-water-in-unity-e6e26dabf3ad | ['Aubrey B'] | 2019-06-22 11:30:54.375000+00:00 | ['Game Development', 'Graphics', 'Programming', 'Gaming'] |
SC Edition: Guess Who’s Back? | SC Edition: Guess Who’s Back?
Back Again. Biden’s Back.
Where to begin?
Here is Tom Steyer closing out his push in South Carolina on stage to “Back That Azz Up.”
I will admit, there are moments in my high school past that might look similar.
The difference? #1: I was in high school and #2: not running for President of the United States of America.
Besides that, he’s got me. Smooth moves, Tom. Smooth moves.
I actually like Tom, he spent a ton, ran bad ads, but garnered some support in South Carolina that could land him a top 3 finish this evening.
Good for him.
Hopefully his run will help build a bigger profile for his philanthropy. | https://medium.com/listening-for-secrets-searching-for-sounds/sc-edition-guess-whos-back-a459df723fe2 | ['Adam Meldrum'] | 2020-02-29 16:04:16.647000+00:00 | ['Google Trends', 'Network Graph', '2020 Presidential Race', 'Democratic Primary', 'South Carolina'] |
One Piece EP 956 (ENGSUB) Anime Fuji TV 2020 | One Piece EP 956 (ENGSUB) Anime Fuji TV 2020
Ticking Down to the Great Battle! The Straw Hats Go into Combat Mode!
Episode 956 | Ticking Down to the Great Battle! The Straw Hats Go into Combat Mode! | The adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew in order to find the greatest treasure ever left by the legendary Pirate, Gold Roger. The famous mystery treasure named “One Piece”.
Watch On ►► http://dadangkoprol.dplaytv.net/series/81797/21/65
The adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew in order to find the greatest treasure ever left by the legendary Pirate, Gold Roger. The famous mystery treasure named “One Piece”.
❏ STREAMING MEDIA ❏
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb to stream identifies the process of delivering or obtaining media in this manner.[clarification needed] Streaming refers to the delivery method of the medium, instead of the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies particularly to telecommunications networks, as almost all of the delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, music CDs). There are challenges with streaming content on the Internet. For instance, users whose Internet connection lacks satisfactory bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of the content. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain content.
Live streaming is the delivery of Internet content in real-time much as live television broadcasts content over the airwaves with a television signal. Live internet streaming takes a form of source media (e.g. a video camera, an audio tracks interface, screen capture software), an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, although it frequently is.
Streaming is an option to file datvloading, a process where the end-user obtains the entire file for this content before watching or listening to it. Through streaming, an end-user can use their media player to get started on playing digital video or digital sound content before the complete file has been transmitted. The word “streaming media” can connect with media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are considered “streaming text”.
❏ COPYRIGHT CONTENT ❏
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its atver the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time.[1][1][1][5][5] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[6][5][1] A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
Some jurisdictions require “fixing” copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders.[citation needed][5][10][11][11] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.[1]
Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered “territorial rights”. This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not extend beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works “cross” national borders or national rights are inconsistent.[15]
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 50 to 100 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities[5] to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration.
It is widely believed that copyrights are a must to foster cultural diversity and creativity. However, Parc argues that contrary to prevailing beliefs, imitation and copying do not restrict cultural creativity or diversity but in fact support them further. This argument has been supported by many examples such as Millet and Van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, and Monet, etc.[15]
❏ GOODS OF SERVICES ❏
Credit (from Latin credit, “(he/she/it) believes”) is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[1] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and extensible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[1] Credit is extended by a creditor, also knatv as a lender, to a debtor, also knatv as a borrower.
FIND US:
✓ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
✓ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
✓ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ | https://medium.com/@dad.angk.o.pr.ol07/one-piece-ep-956-engsub-anime-fuji-tv-2020-59dd0f3e9aa5 | ['Apita Unch'] | 2020-12-27 00:34:44.965000+00:00 | ['Animation', 'Anime'] |
Evesham Education Foundation thanks Oak Mortgage Company for support | [caption id=”attachment_54692" align=”alignleft” width=”300"]
Evesham Education Foundation has saluted Oak Mortgage Company for its support of the Evesham Education Foundation and its Wine, Dine and Win! Event. Foundation board members recently presented Bill Gelernt , president of Oak Mortgage Company a plaque signifying the Foundation’s sincere appreciation. Pictured from left: EEF board members Dave Scott, Bobbi Jo Grace, Gelernt, and EEF board members John Cipollone and Karl Eckstrom.[/caption]
Evesham Education Foundation ( EEF ) board members presented Bill Gelernt , president of Oak Mortgage Company a plaque signifying the foundation’s sincere appreciation for Oak’s ongoing generous support. Oak Mortgage has supported the Evesham Education Foundations Wine, Dine and Win! event for the last two years. They will also be the event sponsor again in 2016 along with Wineworks Marlton.
“Our corporate philosophy values reinvestment in our community,” Gelernt said. “Our ongoing participation with the EEF enables us to touch the lives of many students in the Evesham Township school district. We are proud to offer our support.”
The next Wine, Dine and Win! Event will be held on Feb. 5 at The Mansion on Main Street Voorhees. The event will feature a tasting of hundreds of wines and spirits from around the world provided through the courtesy of Wineworks Marlton as well as culinary samplings provided by the executive chefs at the Mansion as well as local restaurants including Flemings, Bertucci’s Italian Restaurant, Good Foods To Go, Classic Cake, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Brio, and Carabba’s and ShopeRite — A La Cart, Allora and Marcello’s . In addition there will be casino games offering participants the opportunity to win over 65 gift baskets and prizes.
Committee co-chair Bobbi Jo Grace also stated “Our Wine, Dine & Win! Event has become one of the marquee social events in Evesham Township with over 450 participants annualy. The funds raised go to support several programs in the school district that would have otherwise been discontinued without the financial support of the EEF.”
For more information on the event please go to www.eveshameducationfoundation.org. | https://medium.com/the-marlton-sun/evesham-education-foundation-thanks-oak-mortgage-company-for-support-5cf48c3b007d | [] | 2016-09-23 18:57:19.135000+00:00 | ['Families', 'Headlines', 'Foundation', 'Company', 'For'] |
“What! No girlfriend… again?” | A single man with a ultra-widescreen TV. Image from Unsplash.
“What! No girlfriend… again?”
When it comes to girls of the opposite kinda sex,
He doesn’t know exactly how, or exactly why,
There’s less chance that a girl will fancy him
Than the Sun will turn into blue cheese.
Yes; when it comes to the birds,
He’s well and truuuuuuuly fucked.
(Or not fucked — as the case actually is.)
When it comes to girls, he’s supremely untalented.
He’s not very agile or smooth around them.
Yes; when he’s — rarely — in the company of girls
He’s like a shy fly around sheep shit.
(Not that women are shit or he’s a fly.)
He’s far too aware that girls are girls are girls
To relax or be at one with himself… or with girls.
He can’t be himself or even someone else.
The fact that the girls are girls takes over his mind.
The girlhood of girls becomes his only focus.
All other thoughts are crowded out.
It’s like he’s on Mars for the first time -
So he only has Mars on his mind.
Thus his monomania turns him arsehead.
As he fumbles his way to another failure
And falls at every possible hurdle.
And that, my friend, is why no girl will ever fancy him. | https://medium.com/literally-literary/what-no-girlfriend-again-4c238679016c | ['Paul Austin Murphy'] | 2020-10-29 05:32:30.851000+00:00 | ['Girlfriend', 'Sex', 'Singles', 'Poetry', 'Shyness'] |
Baking Gingerbread Cookies from Scratch!!! | By Aarav, 12
I really wanted to bake a holiday treat for Christmas. I always wanted to make gingerbread cookies, because when I first tried them at Starbucks, I really wanted more.
If you read my blog posts, you would know I am a kid who loves to cook and bake. My mom helps me with my cooking. She looked up a recipe for gingerbread cookie. https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/gingerbread-cookies/
We first put together the ingredient list, we had most items. In the end, we only had to buy frosting, cookie cutters, and some molasses. We ordered cookie cutters from Amazon.
I was so excited to unwrap the cookie cutters when the Amazon package arrived. I opened the plastic wrapping while my eyes were vibrating. We were all set! I was excited to make cookies and share them with friends and cousins.
On Christmas Eve, we started baking our gingerbread cookies. I had 16 cookie cutters. I was fascinated. There was a gingerbread man, Santa with his white beard, stars, reindeer, stockings, mittens, moose, a scarf, snowman, and much more. I washed the cookie cutters, and put them aside. I brought out mixing bowls , the measuring cups and the ingredients — molasses, flour, vanilla extract, baking soda, ginger powder, sugar, eggs, fresh nutmeg, fresh cloves, and fresh cinnamon.
My mom started grinding the nutmeg. I mixed the flour and salt. , I measured how much nutmeg we needed with a measuring spoon. and then dumped it in the bowl. My mom started working on the cloves and cinnamon next . When she finished grinding those, I measured and put all of those in. The air was full of spices! (See full recipe below)
Here is a short video of all the steps of creating the cookies.
The cookies were yummy — Merry Christmas!
GINGERBREAD COOKIES RECIPE (courtesy: https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/gingerbread-cookies/)
TO MAKE THE GINGERBREAD COOKIES: | https://medium.com/@pantaarav/baking-gingerbread-cookies-from-scratch-bbd05417676d | ['Aarav Pant'] | 2021-01-18 06:07:44.918000+00:00 | ['Gingerbread', 'Christmas', 'Baking'] |
Day Seventeen | Last night I dreamed of being chase by a gigantic octopus and tying to find my way out. No where to hide that I pulled myself up towards the ceilings as best as I could. Then there was a huge water tank where there was another type of octopus. My friend and I strategized to get this predatory octopus into the same water tank so they could kill each other. We might have succeeded somewhat.
Mild migraine upon waking up. My back still sore. Definitely a stressful night and I woke up around 6:30am.
Managed to focus, though, to get all my applications in. It was interesting that I immediately felt cold and needed to crawl back into bed for a while. The storm did not help either. Felt super unsettled inside. The wind was bothersome.
Fingers crossed. I have done everything I could on these applications. Now I pray.
How interesting that I am reading up on dreams today as part of the class with Susan, which echos my intense dream(s) last night.
Just got off the video call with potential collaboration with a company in China. Very excited, a little self-doubt. Quite a conversation for over an hour. I shall take this as a learning and growing opportunity. It will be good. I know it will be good.
Tomorrow, keep on fighting! | https://medium.com/@xamilla-yiu/day-seventeen-8d8951160a99 | ['Xamilla Yiu'] | 2020-12-01 03:35:06.985000+00:00 | ['Goodbye', 'Diary', '2020'] |
5 Major JavaScript Errors & How to Overcome Them? | TechAffinity | JavaScript is predominantly used to improve user-interactivity and triggers the visitor to engage with the UI components present on the front-end. A web page would feel lifeless without JavaScript. Web applications end up delivering poor user experience due to major JavaScript errors.
In an attempt to find the root causes of JavaScript errors and a solution to the aftermath caused by the bugs, the University of British Columbia found similar patterns that hinder the effective functioning of JavaScript programs.
The pie chart below shows the 5 major JavaScript errors found in the study.
Let’s have a look at some of the common JS errors that almost every developer encounters with examples, and find ways to make your web apps less vulnerable to failures.
1. DOM-related Errors — Keep in Mind the Order of Execution
Before getting into the errors, let’s have a brief look at DOM (Document Object Model). DOM is crucial when it comes to the interactivity of websites. It is because the DOM interface allows you to manipulate the content, structure, and style of a web page. Moreover, the main purpose of JavaScript is to bring interactivity to the plain HTML pages.
Despite the arrival of back-end technologies of JS such as Node.js, JS is predominantly used to working with DOM. Hence, DOM is the place where most of the errors and bugs can be found in a JS application.
Interestingly, the study conducted by the University of British Columbia also stated the same. According to the report, DOM-related errors are held responsible for 68% of JavaScript faults.
It is common to find some JS developers referencing a DOM element even before it is loaded, resulting in DOM-related code errors.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<script>
document.getElementById(“container”).innerHTML = “5 Major JavaScript Errors”;
</script>
<div id=”container”></div>
</body>
</html>
When the above code is executed on a browser, it will result in an error that can be seen on the developer console, as shown in the image below.
The reason behind the occurrence of such errors is due to the execution pattern of the JavaScriptcodes. JavaScript codes are executed as per the order that was written on the document. Therefore, when the code runs, your browser wouldn’t have executed the <div> element.
It’s simple and easy to resolve such errors by writing the <div id=”container”></div> before the script tag. Another simple way is to leverage the advantages of using a JS library such as jQuery. It ensures the loading of DOM before accessing the same. Below is one such example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<div id=”container”></div>
<script src=”https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
document.getElementById(“container”).innerHTML = “5 Major JavaScript Errors”;
</script>
</body>
</html>
2. Syntax-based Errors — Have an Eye for Parentheses
JavaScript interpreter displays a syntax error when the code is syntactically incorrect. While creating a web app, if the interpreter comes across tokens with the wrong syntax of JS, you will get an error message in the developer console of your browser. Also, the University of British Columbia concluded that syntax-based errors contribute to 12% of total JavaScript errors.
Improper syntaxes such as missing parentheses and unmatched brackets are the primary reason behind such errors in JS. Let’s consider the following example in which you might forget to write/include the parentheses while writing conditional statements to address multiple conditions.
Here’s a simple example for better understanding:
if((a > b) && (a < 64) {
/* more code here */
}
If you take a closer look after “64,” the closing parentheses would be missing. Did you manage to notice it?
The rectified JS code is given below:
if ((a > b) && (a < 64)) {
/* more code here */
}
Once you are familiar with the JS syntaxes completely, all it takes is to do intense practicing of JavaScript coding. Hence, you don’t have to strain much to find these trivial syntax errors, and as a result, your web apps will be free of these JS bugs or errors.
3. Improper Usage of Undefined/Null Keywords — Know Their Differences
JavaScript developers at their beginning stage will confuse a lot with the proper usage of undefined and null keywords. The study from UBC said that 5% of all JS bugs/errors are due to improper usage of null and undefined keywords.
Let’s have a look at the null keyword first and then move on to the undefined keyword. The null keyword is used to assign a non-existent value to a variable. Though the null keyword is an assignment value, it is also a JS object.
Given below is one such example of null keyword:
var programJS = null;
console.log(programJS);
/* output is null */
console.log(typeof programJS);
/* output is object */
On the flip side, the undefined keyword emphasizes the lack of an assigned value to an already declared variable or other such properties. It also implies that nothing has been even declared in the first place, and undefined is a type of itself.
Here is an example:
var programJS;
console.log(programJS);
/* output is undefined */
console.log(typeof programJS);
/* output is undefined */
Interesting things can be discovered when you play around by introducing an identity (===) and equality (==) operators to compare the two keywords. In comparison, the former doesn’t consider them as equal while the latter does.
console.log(null===undefined);
/* output is false */
console.log(null==undefined);
/* output is true */
Hence, proper usage of the undefined and null keywords will guide you develop an error-free JavaScript code and thus bug-free apps.
4. Undefined Methods — Remember to Declare Before Calling
According to researchers at the University of British Columbia, initiating a call to a method even without proper declaration accounts for 4% JS errors.
Given below is one such example:
var programmer = {
name: “Joe”,
age: 36,
speak() {
console.log(this.name);
}
};
programmer.speakLater();
When executed, you will get to see an error on your developer console, as shown below:
As the function speakLater() was not at all defined in the JS code, it has resulted in the error type — undefined methods.
5. Improper Usage of the Return Statement — Don’t Break It
You can use a return statement in JS to bring a running function to an end so that you get the desired final output. However, the return statement is a double-edged sword. When used carelessly, you can witness serious performance issues with your app. 2% of all bugs in JS-based apps have the codes with improper usage of the return statement.
Only a minuscule of JavaScript developers makes such mistakes. Though you can break a JS statement in two lines and get the desired output, return statements are an exception to it.
An example of improper usage of the return statement is given below:
function number(x) {
var add = 25;
return;
x + add;
}
console.log(number(15));
You will witness an undefined error on the developer console of your browser when the code is executed. Hence, you should be careful while breaking the return statements in JS.
You can include rich functionalities to modern web apps through JavaScript. If your codes attract errors because of a lack in your developer’s expertise, you are inviting risks to your web app. Also, JS developers require perfect tools to check for errors or bugs and troubleshoot the web app’s performance.
With a dedicated testing team and a host of expert JavaScript developers, we can build top-notch web apps perfectly without any errors or bugs. When you are on the lookout for web app development, feel free to shoot your requirements to [email protected] or get in touch with us by scheduling a meeting. | https://medium.com/@techaffinity/5-major-javascript-errors-how-to-overcome-them-techaffinity-44df50121359 | ['Tech', 'Marketing Blogs Techaffinity'] | 2019-10-17 14:46:18.598000+00:00 | ['Front End Development', 'JavaScript', 'Web App Development'] |
A Good Karma Story | A Good Karma Story
Recently in the news, and here on Medium, MacKenzie Scott announced she has donated over 5 billion dollars this year to various non-profit organizations around the country. She is the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos who received a huge settlement of Amazon stocks after her divorce. I love reading this story, how a person has turned lemons into lemonade. Especially this year in 2020, while we are all under the COVID-19 spell, she has made the lives of thousands better.
But wait, it gets better. I went to her wikipedia page and discovered something interesting. It reported that her net worth was $36 billion at the start of this year. After giving away over $5 billion this year alone, and pledging to donate half of her wealth before she dies, her net-worth has skyrocketed to $62 billion. How great is that? It is good to know that karma is at work. When you create good karma, it usually comes back many folds. Keep up the good work… Let that be a lesson for the rest of us. | https://medium.com/@jackclee99/a-good-karma-story-7358dfc54958 | ['Jack C Lee'] | 2020-12-18 11:12:15.304000+00:00 | ['Charity', 'Karma'] |
1.321 Working Relations | The “way in which manual labor is applied to production can range in different societies from the coercion of machine guns, bullets and trucks to the mass ideological conviction of the voluntary industrial army. Our own liberal democratic society is somewhere in between.”¹⁰⁷ The sociologist takes the same basic observation and restates it in terms of “the experience of labor” in general: “The experience of labor lies between two extremes, forced labor, which is determined only by external constraint, and scholastic labor, the limiting case which is the quasi-ludic activity of the artist-writer. The further someone moves from the former, the less they work directly for money and the more the ‘interest’ of work, the inherent gratification of the fact of working the work, increases — as does the interest linked with the symbolic profits associated with the name of the occupation or the occupation status and the quality of the working relations which often go hand in hand with the intrinsic interest of labor. (It is because work in itself provides a profit that the loss of employment entails a symbolic mutilation which can be attributed as much to the loss of the raison d’être associated with work and the world of work as to the loss of the wage.)”¹⁰⁸ Strictly speaking, labor is activity that “can be directed towards an exclusively economic goal, the one that money, hence forward the measure of all things, starkly designates.”¹⁰⁹ The importance of the sociologist’s observations is that they lend themselves to a certain visual accounting or mapping of the underlying situation (see Figure 1.19).
Fig. 1.19
The two limiting cases identified by the sociologist, “forced labor” and “scholastic labor,” can be represented by vectors that are identical in terms of direction and sense yet vary in magnitude.¹¹⁰ The two limiting cases can be conceived as the minimum and maximum limits in the possible variation in the magnitude of the labor vector. We will say that those who “work directly for money” tend toward the minimum limit, i.e. the shortest magnitude; and those who work for other reasons, for example “the ‘interest’ of work, the inherent gratification of the fact of performing work,” tend toward the maximum limit, i.e. the longest magnitude. It will become increasingly apparent that the importance of such an analysis lies in the fact that in and of themselves the dimensions of the vector (magnitude, direction and sense) are not “measured by the yardstick of monetary profit”.¹¹¹
Such considerations tell only half of the story. What the sociologist calls “the twofold truth of labor” cannot be understood apart from considerations of “employer’s strategies,” of profit-taking, capital and the agents of capital. Recognizing this, we use the phrase “working relations” to designate a social aggregate that accounts for the conjunction of labor and capital, relations of production and property relations, the specific combination of revenue-producing activity systems and the mechanisms of control and monopoly appropriation of profits. Both sides of society’s working relations can be represented as vectors, with capital or property relations appearing as a vector the sense of which is determined to move away from money-profit (p in Figure 1.20).
Fig. 1.20
The sociologist’s characterization of the margin of freedom that can be used to distinguish particular forms of labor is analogous to a problem concerning capital when he speaks of different “forms of capital”: “economic,” “social,” “cultural” as well as “the symbolic effects of capital”.¹¹² We can then speak of an ambiguity of capital that would take into account the difference between the capitalist, on the one hand, and the agents of capital, on the other. Assuming as much, we will say that the ambiguity of labor and that of capital differ in kind and this difference can be easily visualized: on the one hand, labor moves unambiguously toward money-wage (the moment when wealth buys labor as labor’s destination or aggregate of arrival), its ambiguity resides in its origo or aggregate of departure, represented by variations in the magnitude of the labor vector; on the other hand, the ambiguity of capital is precisely the opposite, as now it is the origo or point of departure that is unambiguous and the ultimate destination or aggregate of arrival that is ambiguous.
The margin of freedom left to the worker, the same margin that the sociologist associates with an “increase in [a worker’s] well-being,” invariably produces a kind of blindness: those who enjoy a certain health determined by “the real conditions of the performance of [their] labor” are those who fall prey to a “misrecognition” or “miscognition of the objective truth of labor as exploitation”.¹¹³ In this way, we can speak of the “well-being” of the worker without sounding utopian or witlessly contributing to society’s innumerable forms of “symbolic violence”.¹¹⁴ This is why it is important to deal with the matter at the level of society’s working relations: without denying the fact that the more labor invests in work the less it recognizes the conditions of exploitation, when such an investment reaches its maximum level (the point, presumably, at which labor becomes a “quasi-ludic activity”), misrecognition of the conditions of exploitation gives way to a recognition of an entirely different order. The question then becomes what does the blindness or miscognition of quasi-ludic activity allow us to see? Answering such a question is assisted by referring to another figure derived by superimposing the previous two figures (see Figure 1.21). The resulting figure depicts the dealership’s working relations as essentially determined by a certain conjunction of labor and capital: labor effectively runs into money-wages (w) and capital runs away with money-profit (p).
Fig. 1.21
Are the two sides of society’s working relations related in other, perhaps, profound ways? Do their respective forms of ambiguity correspond or co-vary in any systematic or predictable way? In fact, these questions lend themselves to empirical investigation, with the simplest possible case involving a labor vector tending toward the minimum limit (corresponding to Marx’s “wage labor”).¹¹⁵ According to the sociologist, it is precisely in such a case that labor clearly recognizes the conditions of exploitation that define the capitalist mode of production: in effect, those who labor directly for money-wages stare capital in the face. Having stated the problem in these terms, empirical observation suggests that the sociologist’s “objective truth” is a function of bilateral symmetry — that is, a one-to-one mapping of labor onto capital as a function of society’s working relations, with wage labor on the left and the mechanism of monopoly appropriation of profits or private property on the right. In the following section, we will see that the correlation or co-variation between labor and capital continues, especially at magnitudes tending toward the maximum extension of society’s working relations. | https://medium.com/salesmanism/1-321-working-relations-c5548813c30b | ['Michael P. Ford'] | 2020-10-13 15:51:10.786000+00:00 | ['Mapping', 'Pierre Bourdieu', 'Gilles Deleuze', 'Marx', 'Political Economy'] |
Fitness releted information | Features & details
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Product information
Brand Xiaomi
Manufacturer Xiaomi, Shenzhen Yecon Industry Co. Ltd.
Colour Black
Item Height 12 Millimeters
Item Width 48 Millimeters
Standing screen display size 1.56 Inches
Product Dimensions 1.9 x 4.8 x 1.2 cm; 12.8 Grams
Batteries 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included)
Item model number OB02527
Wireless Carrier Du
Wireless Type Bluetooth
Average Battery Life (in hours) 2 Weeks
Are Batteries Included Yes
Lithium Battery Energy Content 125 Milliamp Hours (mAh)
Lithium Battery Weight 0.04 Grams
Number Of Lithium Ion Cells 1
Number of Lithium Metal Cells 1
Included Components Fitness Band, Strap
Manufacturer Xiaomi
Country of Origin China
Item Weight 12.8 g
Additional Information
ASIN: B091G3FLL7
Customer Reviews: 5.0 out of 5 stars 2Reviews
Best Sellers Rank: #1 in Sports, Fitness & Outdoors (See Top 100 in Sports, Fitness & Outdoors)
#1 in Activity Trackers
Date First Available: 2 May 2021
Packer: Shenzhen Yecon Industry
Importer: Xiaomi Technology India Pvt Ltd
Item Dimensions LxWxH: 19 x 48 x 12 Millimeters
Generic Name: Fitness Bands | https://medium.com/@am7664425/fitness-releted-information-dfb023b724ea | [] | 2021-09-04 05:23:05.146000+00:00 | ['One Line', 'Helth And Fitness', 'Own It Page', 'Band', 'Fitness'] |
Infusing AI in a Cloud Journey | The AI “evolution” is moving us from the traditional, programmable IT, to an IT that begins to understand, and learn. Already many applications leverage natural human language interface. Eventually AI-infused IT will have pervasive domain knowledge and the ability to fully interact with humans using natural language. Rather than coding behavior into our IT systems, a logical rule at a time, we have the opportunity to build technology that learns the proper behavior largely on its own.
The Cloud Engagement Hub’s technical Points of View define application modernization and the supporting use cases which motivate such efforts. It outlines a technical approach for a modernization journey, including migration, containerizing and repackaging, to get applications and workloads running on different technologies and places. The purpose of making those technical investments is to deliver new capabilities faster, to deliver better business outcomes, by accelerating development and enriching the solutions. Among new enriching capabilities, arguably the most valuable is to infuse AI to existing solutions as they are modernized.
Our goal is to help our clients leverage AI to obtain better business outcomes, and our strategy is therefore to “Infuse AI” across systems and solutions. But what does this mean? To use an analogy, “What defines an Internet company?” Consider a traditional company, say a retailer. Add to it a Website, and voila, you have an Internet retailer, right? No. Just adding a Website presence does not transform a retailer into an Internet company. What characterizes Internet companies is how they organize their resources to leverage the Internet, including agile development with frequent upgrades, A/B testing, etc.
What defines an AI-infused company? We don’t know yet for sure what it all entails. But, we know that, as the above example of the Website, just deploying an AI model on an app is not enough to make an AI company. It may be a good starting point, but it is far from getting the benefits of AI. For a true AI infusion we need to organize our work and resources to leverage the power of AI. For example, this will include having a good strategy to acquire and organize data properly (that is, not fragmented in silos); to discover and leverage automation opportunities across the business; to empower specialized job roles (e.g., data scientists) to predict relevant trends, and more.
Why infuse AI on Journey to Cloud?
But why is this relevant to a Cloud Journey mission? In a MITSloan Global Executive Study , 85% of participants agree that they have an urgent need for an AI strategy, and most prioritize an “ Enterprises Journey to AI” as a strategic priority. 72% say that AI will deliver mainly revenue increases. AI infusion can improve decision making, increase automation, enhance the end-user experience, prevent failures, prevent fraud, keep compliance to regulations, etc. Business drivers could be, for example, enriching application solutions by infusing AI to:
Improve product quality by integrating better defect detection mechanism Reduce operation costs by automating handling of simple customer complaints Improve customer satisfaction by deploying chatbots to address user issues Retain customers by integrating churn-prevention analytics.
To support the infusion of AI, as in the above examples, enterprises need to get the right data. We need an Information Architecture (IA) that supports Artificial Intelligence, as the mantra “There is no AI without IA”. Thus, we motivate the need to modernize solutions, as part of the Journey to Cloud, to obtain improved data access, which can then be ingested by AI models, to accelerate the ability of an enterprise to get business value. This approach is not just for infusing AI, but applies to other types of enrichment, for example, integrating Blockchain.
The Data Problems in AI
One of the common pain-points of organizations trying to extract AI insights is the effort involved in preparing and organizing their data so it can be consumed by the AI algorithms. Firms that have leveraged AI the most, particularly in the consumer space, have been very successful at properly organizing their data. But in most large enterprises, data is spread across a variety of environments, including public and private clouds, and traditional on-premises deployments, captive within traditional, siloed systems of record. Many organizations have moved data to a central accessible location, but often these efforts fail to deliver easy and controlled data access required to obtain AI insights. When that is the case, there are fractured views of the data, and it becomes difficult to obtain AI insights.
Data science is a team effort, so appropriate collaboration tools are required to coordinate access and actions. If an organization staff doesn’t know what data they have and how they are using it, the organization can be subject to regulatory non-compliance challenges. If the data used to train AI models has unfair biases, and the resulting recommendations aren’t transparent and trusted, then AI won’t be embraced and won’t be used at scale. Companies embracing AI can have hundreds of experiments built using different tools and running in different environments. They need to detect and proactively mitigate bias, to ensure that the performance of the models is fair given regulatory legal constraints. Data scientists should be able to explain how and why their models make recommendations, and they should be able to trace the lineage of the actual data that was used to build the models.
The AI Ladder
Enterprises need a data management strategy to provide flexible, organized access to all data, of every type, regardless of where it lives, and addresses the above concerns. A modernization effort would define and deploy an information architecture that provides an open, extensible foundation, with choice and flexibility, capable of communicating with other cloud platforms. IBM’s hybrid data management strategy to accelerate the Journey to AI is a prescriptive approach defined by a 4-step AI ladder: Collect, Organize, Analyze and Infuse.
Collect: Make the data simple and accessible at the right location, from any database or storage facility. Organize: Ensure that data is trustworthy, complete and consistent at all stages of the information lifecycle: profile, cleanse, and catalog the data, provide protection and compliance, enable policy-driven visibility, detection, and reporting. Analyze: Build, deploy, and manage AI models using integrated tools to explore and analyze both structured and unstructured data, and deploy them securely. Infuse: achieve trust and transparency in model-recommended decisions, explain decisions, detect bias, etc., using provided solutions and services.
Applying the IBM AI Portfolio
Lets now review the IBM AI Portfolio of tools that support the above ladder to AI. Together, this set of tools helps AI practitioners to Organize, Build, Deploy, Catalog and Manage their AI data and models. Notice that these tools can now be deployed on multiple cloud platforms, including competitors’ public clouds. This is a good example of the value of modernization: by containerizing multiple traditional core offerings we are now able to deploy them in multiple Clouds. The IBM’s AI Watson portfolio, as shown in the figure below, allows to:
Prepare the data. The Knowledge Catalog allows users to access, curate, categorize, and share assets, with controls that enforce access policies.
allows users to access, curate, categorize, and share assets, with controls that enforce access policies. Build models for making predictions with Studio .
. Deploy and run models in production with Machine Learning .
. Manage the models with trust and transparency, with OpenScale.
Watson Knowledge Catalog is the tool that a “Data Engineer” will use to discover, cleanse and prepare the data. It helps understand data quality, data lineage and distribution through data-profile visualizations, built-in charts and statistics. It helps discover and uncover data across multiple on-premises and cloud sources to unlock silo knowledge and catalog new data sources. The tool helps to govern access to the underlying data assets by using an active policy manager.
Watson Studio provides tools for data scientists to collaborate in building and training AI models, and to deploy applications in a hybrid environment to operationalize them. It provides visual and open-source tools to explore data, prepare it and develop models.
Watson Machine Learning is the runtime environment for training and deployment of AI models into production, using Apache Spark. Once a model is built and trained, it can be deployed, auto-retrained, and managed. Users can run experiments, provide model tuning and comparison tools to evaluate models across 100–1000’s of hyperparameter configurations.
Watson OpenScale provides visibility on how AI models are built, run, and managed. It monitors the models to track and measure outcomes and adapts and governs AI to changing business situations — for models built and running anywhere. Track performance of production AI and its impact on business goals, with actionable metrics in a single console. Maintain regulatory compliance by tracing and explaining AI decisions across workflows, and intelligently detect and correct bias to improve outcomes.
In closing, …
Finally, AI infusion should be given due consideration as part of any modernization journey. It should be considered as part of the business case for such a journey and should be implemented in parallel with other modernization activities. Business value comes from enriching the solutions, as they are modernized, with new capabilities, and arguably most valuable will come from infusing AI as part of the journey… | https://medium.com/cloud-engagement-hub/infusing-ai-in-a-cloud-journey-cloud-engagement-hub-blog-19935934def7 | ['German Goldszmidt'] | 2019-10-15 18:44:00.194000+00:00 | ['Cloud Native', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'AI', 'Cloud Computing'] |
Amazon Go the checkout free superstore launches in the UK soon | With the motto of “No Lines. No Checkout. (No, Seriously.)” earlier this year, the online retailer giant Amazon opened its first test checkout free superstore called Amazon Go in Seattle, Washington. And now following this store the company is now planning to open its Amazon Go stores in the UK, according to Amazon’s Intellectual Property Office in the UK. Amazon’s checkout free store will save people’s time indeed.
WHAT IS AMAZON GO?
Amazon Go is simply described as just a checkout free superstore where you can go and take whatever you want and just walk away from the store without waiting or standing in the queue for paying. How is it possible? You just need to have the Amazon app on your smartphone to enter the store and whatever shopping you do, are automatically added to your virtual cart. Even (for example) if you take a product but suddenly change your mind and put it back then Amazon’s technology will update your virtual cart automatically, simple as that.
HOW DOES THE TECHNOLOGY WORK?
Well, Amazon calls it walkout technology. In which they use computer deep learning algorithms and sensor fusion which is normally used in self-driving cars technology. After the shopping when you will leave the Amazon Go store, this technology will add up to your virtual cart whatever you picked from the store and will charge to your Amazon account automatically and will send the receipt to your Amazon app, that’s it.
There is no specific date yet to the launching of Amazon Go in the UK. By the way, if Amazon opens its checkout free stores Amazon Go in the UK than in the future other retailers like Tesco, Sainsbury, Waitrose and so many may follow with the same technology to maintain their business process to keep their consumers in their shops. | https://medium.com/the-technews/amazon-go-the-checkout-free-superstore-launches-in-the-uk-soon-dcf80f89199d | ['Joseph Green'] | 2017-06-03 05:08:02.684000+00:00 | ['Ecommerce', 'Technews'] |
Loss | I wanted a baby more than anything in the whole wide world. I was 18 when I first started to want a baby. I thought a baby would give me everything I needed. Then I could be a housewife and be taken care of while I took care of the baby. I used to throw away or flush my birth control pills in hopes of getting pregnant. I can’t even begin to imagine what a hopeless mess that would have created.
A few years later, when I was 21, just 4 months after getting together with Harry, I got pregnant. Harry had already gotten a friend of mine pregnant. I was in the narcissist love bombing stage so my eyes were only seeing the shiny happy pictures he was painting. We weren’t trying. It just happened. Or maybe he was trying. I have no idea. I was so excited, and I wanted this baby more than anything in the world.
My mom was definitely freaked out. Most of our friends freaked out. My oldest sister might have been happy, she was definitely supportive. My aunt told me to go have an abortion. Harry acted happy. His mom came into town, and he told her about my pregnancy but not about my friends’. His mom was over the moons crazy excited! She gave me/the baby a little stuffed animal. It was very exciting. I was really happy. I felt like I was going to have a family. A family I felt like I belonged to.
I signed up for medical assistance. I was given paperwork, telling me how far along I was and how big the baby was. It was a very happy and hopeful time for me. Looking back, I can see the signs that Harry wasn’t as happy as he was pretending to be. I couldn’t see them then though, I had stars in my eyes.
Just after meeting his mom and telling her the news, we went on a camping trip to Oklahoma. I put that tiny stuffed animal against my belly under the seat belt and day dreamed about how amazing our lives would be together. I wanted this baby so bad.
We get to Oklahoma with all our friends, and find mushrooms as we pulled onto our friends land. We knew there could be some, and that they had a good chance of being psychedelic because the land was being leased to a cattle owner who fed his cows grain. Mushrooms were collected and laid out in the sun to dry. I wasn’t sure I wanted to partake because of the baby, but Harry talked me into it. “It’ll be fine, native american women ate mushrooms all the time when they were pregnant”. Who was I to argue?
We all went exploring waiting for the “shrooms to kick in” and nothing happens. Apparently not magic at all and we’re pretty damn lucky we aren’t sick or dead.
So many red flags with Harry. But when you are with a narcissist, you just can’t see them. Harry was giving me everything I wanted. He understood me like no other, he loved me and did amazing things for me. He told his mom about our baby and not my friends. Looking back, of course I see. Not then though. Narcissists are really good at what they do.
During the love bomb phase with Harry I lived with my mom. Once we knew I was pregnant, he asked me to live with him and we found a small efficiency apartment. Somehow, It was me who ended up moving all our stuff over and carrying all the boxes by myself up to the second floor.
Harry still encouraged me to smoke pot, he was sure it couldn’t hurt the baby, and why would he lie? I kept smoking cigarettes, too. Harry was also all about rough sex, and he didn’t let up just because I was pregnant. In fact he felt we should try more things. I never went to the doctor, and I’m not sure if that was something Harry contrived or if my first appointment just wasn’t scheduled until my 3 month mark.
When I was about 3 months along, we were at a friends house and I went to use the bathroom. I had begun bleeding. I freaked out. He told me not to worry, it was probably nothing. “Just relax, it’ll be okay” He took me home and of course, to make me feel better, had sex with me. We are 7 months in now and the love bombing is almost over and the control is getting worse, but again… you don’t see it when you’re in it.
I continue to bleed and have a doctors appointment in a day or so. I go to the doctor. The doctor is really nice, and she gives me a pelvic exam and says, that I feel like I am just at the 3 month mark. She acknowledges the bleeding but says it can happen sometimes. She gets out the little dopler fetal monitor and can not locate a heartbeat. I know. I know and I can’t even think it. No, no, no, no. She tells me she wants me to go to the hospital so they can do an ultra sound. They will schedule it right now.
I walk back into the waiting room, and guess who is there? Oh yes, my friend. With her huge belly, carrying Harry’s son. And there’s Harry… sitting with her filling out all the questions on the paperwork that we just filled out together before I went back to see the doctor. I am crying. I am crying so hard and my whole world is crashing down around me.
The receptionist gives me paperwork to take with me to the hospital, Harry is asking me what’s wrong and I can’t talk. I can’t say there was no heartbeat and I know my baby is dead. I just tell him I have to go have an ultra sound, they can’t find a heartbeat.
On the way to the hospital he is telling me how awkward it was sitting there answering those questions with her, when he just did it with me and everyone is looking at him and judging him. He tells me that she just happened to change doctors and had an appointment the same time as me.
Yeah right. Another looking back moment, I bought it hook line and sinker then… not now. I bet that bastard had her switch doctors and be there at the same time. I realized later that he was abusing her just as he was abusing me. I found out he began having sex with her when she was 15 years old, he was 20. She was a victim, too.
I can’t even think, I am just hurting so bad. I know my baby is dead and there she was, with her huge belly. I can’t stop crying. We get to the hospital, we find where I need to be. I go back for an ultra sound, the technician scans on my belly first, and then switches to the wand that is inserted in your vagina (seriously invasive and triggering). She tells me nothing. I ask if she found the heartbeat, she ignores me and gets a doctor. The doctor comes in, he looks and moves the wand around. They share a look. All my hope is now gone, I didn’t even know I was still holding out hope. I ask what they find, they tell me I have to go back to my doctor. She will talk to me about it. I go clean up in the bathroom, there’s more blood.
I cry all the way to the doctor’s office. She is nowhere in sight. Maybe done and gone, maybe back with another doctor. I don’t know. I don’t care. This is before cell phones are popular, and we don’t have pagers… so nothing is blowing up. We are taken back right away. My doctor breaks the news as gently as she can. “There is no heartbeat, your pregnancy isn’t viable” I am so fucking sad and mostly numb now. I feel dead inside. My baby is dead inside me. I failed. She tells me about the DNC procedure I need to have and then advises that I should not try to get pregnant for at least 3 months after the procedure. Harry gets irate, “how can you talk about another baby right now?”
I think he is protecting me. Hardly that, I bet he felt relieved and the last thing he wanted was her to plant the idea of trying to conceive in my head. From there we head to another clinic to set up an appointment for the DNC. I am just crying. I can’t stop crying. My baby is dead and I am a failure and my whole world is gone. They tell me we won’t have the DNC for 3 days. What? You mean I have to keep my baby inside me?
He takes me home. And of course to comfort me, he fucks me. He fucks me while my baby is dead inside me and I am bleeding and I have been conditioned to never say no to sex. My dad sexually abused me and no one stopped it or saved me. I have been conditioned to believe my body is not mine and it is for the pleasure of others and here I am with a narcissist who is preying on me and my baby is dead, and he is fucking me and I wish I was dead, but I cling to the lies that he loves me because I don’t know what else to do.
Finally we go to the hospital for the DNC. I ask to be completely knocked out because I do not want to be awake for the procedure. I remember them wheeling me down the hall, and moving me to the table and placing one of my legs in the stirrup and then nothing.
I wake up in recovery and everything is confused. It takes me a little bit to remember why I am here and when I do it doesn’t hurt as much because a side of effect of being knocked out is that your emotions are numbed. I am taken to my room. I am told by the nurse that as soon as I can go pee by myself I will be allowed to go home. I pass out, then Harry is waking me up and trying to keep me awake. He wants to leave, so he won’t let me sleep and urges me to use the bathroom. I struggle but comply because he preys on my fear of being there and pretends it’s about me, not him. I go pee, I get discharged.
On the way home I ask for McDonalds. Harry says “okay, but don’t expect it all the time. I’m only doing it because you’ve been through a lot”. We are definitely moving from the love bomb stage to the controlling stage. Looking back, it’s really hard not to victim blame myself. Then I remember how I felt, and where I was mentally and I find my compassion again.
I was told I would feel better after the DNC and it does make a small difference. But, Harry doesn’t allow me to heal. We are supposed to abstain from sex for 6 weeks, and he is fucking me before it’s even been 2 weeks. I’m still bleeding. I bleed for 6 weeks and he doesn’t care. He just takes what he wants making me think I have no choice. He even acted like I was the one who couldn’t wait the six weeks. Part of a narcissists gas lighting.
During that time, he convinced me that the universe put us through all that just to make sure we stayed together. “because if you hadn’t gotten pregnant we would never have moved in together” He turned my baby’s death into a sign from the universe. “We were meant to be together” Harry convinced me that my baby wasn’t important, that my feelings were wrong. I never grieved the way I needed to.
I can now though. As soon as I saw you on the screen during the ultrasound I knew your name was Michael. I loved you so so much and I wanted you so bad. I am also so grateful you couldn’t stay. I will always love you. | https://medium.com/@cary.bach/loss-a9fdc36f2b57 | ['Cary Bach Donahou'] | 2019-08-22 04:28:16.826000+00:00 | ['Pregnancy Loss', 'Narcissistic Abuse', 'Miscarriage', 'Narcissism', 'PTSD'] |
Attention Please: Document Classification | So, how does attention work? It’s one thing to look at a given sentence and say which words are important. However, this model obviously is useless if it’s not generalizable, so it needs to somehow learn the properties of words, as well as how these properties interact and which interactions result in significance.
Mathematical Depiction of Described Steps
Step One: Represent each word in the vocabulary as an embedding vector of N dimensions. This is a super common approach in NLP, more information here.
Step Two: Send each sentence of embedding vectors through a GRU. The GRU is going to have a hidden state in between each word. Typically for prediction, we only care about the final state, but for this model, we want to keep track of each intermediate state as well. Let hᵢ be the vector that represents the hidden state afterword i. Note that, while likely, not necessary, I followed the paper in using a bidirectional GRU. This means that the model runs through the sentence forward and backward. Each word i then have hidden states hᵢᶠ and hᵢᵇ, and we simply concatenate these two vectors into hᵢ and proceed.
Step Three: Feed each of the hᵢ through a fully connected linear layer, including a bias term. The paper recommends that the output size have dimension 100; I have not yet explored the efficacy of tweaking this hyper-parameter, although I think that could be an interesting research area. For each element in the resulting vector, take the tanh. Call this new vector uᵢ, again corresponding to word i.
Step Four: Send each of the uᵢ through another linear layer, this time without a bias term. This linear layer should have a scalar output, so now we have a single scalar value associated with each word i. Then apply the softmax function for each sentence; the scalars will sum up to one for each sentence. Let the scalar for sentence i be called αᵢ.
Step Five: We’re almost at prediction time. We now have for each word i in a given sentence, a vector hᵢ, and an importance scalar αᵢ. It’s crucial to understand here that these hᵢ vectors are different from the original word embeddings, as they have memory of the sentence in both the forward and backward directions. We take an element-wise weighted sum for all vectors in the review, call this review vector s.
Step Six: The function applied to s differs based on the objective of the model, but because this model is interested in document binary classification, I applied a final linear layer to the vector s, which returns a singular value p, the probability of belonging to class 1. | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/attention-please-document-classification-7be927e758a | ['Jon-Ross Presta'] | 2020-06-11 17:22:54.256000+00:00 | ['NLP', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Data Science', 'Featured', 'Machine Learning'] |
Why cant men wear pink? | Because when they do, we treated them differently!
In this world, when we talk about gender, we also talk about their tie of color, like pink is perfectly for women, blue is for men, but we can see here men are not treated the same as women who wear blue-black.
So how this color pink is gender based & only for women?
In 1920s, some groups describes this pink color as masculine color, like red for men, but after then in stores people we increasingly choosing to buy pink only for women's & blue for men, until this became normal norm in the 1940s.
1.Pink is for girls!
We can see many products in market-that associate blue for boys and pink for girls. If we walk through a shopping mall or visit line store-we’ll find baby pink dressed dolls and kitchen sets. Toy guns, building blocks in blue, black shades.
If a baby boy wear pink dress-then he’s easily mistaken for a girl and vice versa.
2.Cultural stereotypes!
Razor for Female
Now cultural stereotypes on the basis of color coding also grown up into a mature person.
We always think delicacy & softness suited best for girls.
Mature & Strangeness & more masculine shades is only suited for men.
We can observe many cosmetic brands-who design pink color product for women mostly.
Shaving tools are a great example for this, on online shopping website, we can find women’s specific pink razors packaged with sparkles, flowery patterns. Other hand, black dark blue razors with no flowery patterns, only straight lines.
3. More feminine color!
Feminine colors are described as beautiful, romantic, cute, lovely, fragrance & sweet. Although there are many colors that are considered for these characteristics like-pink, coral, rose, peach with varying degree of shades.
4. Personality color!
Our favorite color or which we always want to wear whisper something about our personality.
Like my favorite color is pink, and this tells other about me, I have a deep need to be accepted & loved unconditionally. I am a soft hearted person.(Really! I’m not bragging here).
And men choose different favorite colors from long list, but mostly not pink.
5. Less manly!
If a men wear pink tie on his office suit then we can observe him, he will look less manly in that attire.
6.Color describe Smartness!
A man wearing pink color shirt/Blazer in an interview will surely look far from smart. Interviewer can judge and marks him less for color of his choice.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
So, Pink is not just a color- this is a gender and sexuality marker in the society. But this means not pink is just always for girls, if you ( a men) wear this with confidence, then this is surely your color.
- Monika Agrawal | https://medium.com/why-cant-men-wear-pink/why-cant-men-wear-pink-5191b34076ad | ['Monika Agrawal'] | 2020-11-18 11:46:23.579000+00:00 | ['Stereotypes', 'Men In Pink', 'Pink', 'Girls', 'Colors'] |
Getting Closer to My Mega Project Problem-Amal Fellowship | Getting Closer to My Mega Project Problem-Amal Fellowship
Irrational Medicine Use in Pakistan- A Major HealthCare Issue
Health plays the key role in determining the human capital. Better health improves the efficiency and the productivity of the labor force, ultimately contributes the economic growth and leads to human welfare. It generates positive externalities for the society as a whole.
According to WHO (World Health Organization) about 0.5 million people, including women and children die each year due to medication errors in Pakistan. Isn’t it heart wrenching?
The emergence of extensively drug-resistant typhoid should be considered a warning of pushing back the world to the pre-antibiotic era due to the overuse of antibiotics. Similarly, the unnecessary and irrational use of antibiotics in self-limiting infection, for instance Influenza/Flue, is causing antibiotic resistance especially in children. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its annual report said that the country is spending less than one percent of its GDP on health services while the public sector is providing unsatisfactory quality and coverage of health services. The report said that the country’s spending on health is still less than 1 percent of its GDP, whereas the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends an allocation of about 6 percent.
Causes of Irrational Medicine use In Pakistan:
Self-medication, Overdose of medicines, wrong prescription, Easy accessibility of drugs without even prescription, Improper handling and unawareness related to proper use of medicines are some basic causes of medication errors in Pakistan.
What can I do?
As a Pharmacist, It is my professional, social and moral responsibility to aware my people regarding rational use of medicines. As a medicine is a poison if it is not handled properly. Therefore, I am starting my “Community Pharmacy” in near future (In Sha Allah) where I’ll aware all of the patients regarding Adverse Effects, Proper Use, Interactions, Duration of Medication and other related aspects. Where It will be ensured that people get medicine only after showing a valid prescription from an Authorized practitioner. Not only this, But I’m also going to start my YouTube channel to address all of the above aspects at a massive level.
Getting Closer to My Mega Project Problem Activity
I’ve been assigned to do a project, named “Getting Closer to your Mega Project” during my Amal Fellowship where I have to identify a problem around myself that I care about and want to consider for my Mega Project. The problem that I’ve chosen is already discussed in this blog.
My activities to identify the problem
To better understand the addressed problem, I visited some of pharmacies of my nearby area and noted the main problems related to medicine dispensing. I asked retailer to give me “Azomax” tablets, an antibiotic, and shockingly he gave me the tablets even without asking for prescription. He doesn’t even bother to elaborate the necessary information related to that antibiotic. The same happened in other pharmacies. I also observed my family, relatives, neighbors and other nearby people who do general mistakes like improper handling, medicine intake at inappropriate time, use without considering instructions related to medicines and most importantly self-medication. Though I started counselling all of them for long ago, but now I want to play my role at a massive level.
How this activity helped me to better understand my problem?
This project literally helped me a lot to better understand my goal/ purpose and why behind it. It forced me to have a deeper perspective of the problem practically, to design impactful strategies and utilize resources in an effective way to play my role in solving this problem.
“To begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment.” | https://medium.com/@farwa-shahbaz/getting-closer-to-my-mega-project-problem-amal-fellowship-e1e92580f710 | ['Farwa Shahbaz'] | 2020-12-25 20:54:40.451000+00:00 | ['Getting Things Done', 'Medication Errors', 'Amal Fellowship', 'Healthcare', 'Megaprojects'] |
A Primer On Cost Accounting | Although the word ‘accounting’ does not directly stir excitement within most people, having a proper insight into finances is essential to make intelligent business decisions. This primer cuts to the essence within a few minutes.
Unlike financial accounting (which is concerned with external reporting and heavily regulated), cost accounting is simply a means to present a comprehensive cost picture to improve decision-making.
In short, being able to accurately allocate costs to products allows to:
Set appropriate sales prices
Identify opportunities for efficiency gains
Create better production schedules
More accurately determine inventory value
There are many different perspectives on costs. The following classifications are the most important:
Fixed and variable costs
Fixed: Independent of production levels. Think permanent staff, rent, insurance. Variable: Dependent of production levels. Think materials, energy, flexible labor.
Direct and indirect costs
Direct: Costs incurred by production process. Think materials, labor hours, equipment, energy. Indirect: Not directly linked to production. Think insurance, marketing, administration.
The main challenge of cost accounting is to assign indirect costs to individual products. Direct costs are often easy enough to trace. The challenge is to assign indirect costs.
Also here, there are gradations of difficulty. Probably you will not assign the costs of machine repair to the exact product where it broke down, but it is reasonable to divide these repair costs over production. These are so-called cause-and-effect allocations.
Other costs, like laptops for the administration department, are so far away from the production process that allocation is really up to the decision maker. These are dubbed arbitrary allocations.
The challenge of cost accounting is in assigning indirect costs. Sometimes there are clear relations between indirect costs and production, at other times allocation is essentially arbitrary. [image by author]
There are many techniques to assign costs. An outline of the most common ones follow below.
Direct costing
In direct costing, only variable production costs are taken into account. The rationale is that fixed costs cannot be immediately influenced, whereas variable costs directly link to production levels. Smaller companies often use direct costing, as including fixed costs would lead to unfeasibly high sales prices.
Intuition
Only variable costs (depending on production level) are allocated
All fixed costs are ignored, as they cannot be influenced on short notice
Pros
Focus on production-level dependent costs that can directly be influenced
Intuition on extra income generated by additional units sold
Useful for decisions without fixed costs, such as outsourcing
Cons
Cost picture incomplete by ignoring fixed costs
Considerably underestimates true production costs
Absorption costing
Photo by Terry Vlisidis on Unsplash
Whereas direct costing only concerns itself with variable costs, absorption costing takes into consideration both fixed and variable costs. It restricts itself to manufacturing costs though; no marketing of administration involved. Compared to direct costing, it allocates a larger cost proportion to products, yielding higher costs per product.
Intuition
Divide both variable and fixed production costs over units produced
Ignore overhead not directly tied to production
Pros
More complete cost picture than direct costing, including fixed production costs
Compliant with external accounting principles (i.e., GAAP), so only a single record for cost accounting and financial accounting
Cons
Does not include non-manufacturing overhead (e.g., marketing, R&D, administration)
For small production volumes, can yield unreasonably high costs per product
Marginal costing
Marginal costing is concerned with the costs that extra production entails. Given any production level, you can determine how much extra costs producing Δ more units bring (often Δ=1). Marginal costing is often used to the determine the optimal production level: if marginal costs equal the marginal revenue, maximum profit is attained.
Intuition
Compute additional costs for producing extra units
Can be determined for various production levels
Pros
Map costs for various production levels
In combination with marginal revenue, marginal costing helps to determine the optimal (profit-maximizing) production level
Cons
Does not provide direct insights into average production costs
Slightly harder to interpret than some other methods
Standard costing
Cost allocation is hard, but does not always lead to actionable insights. Some costs are simply to small to bother, or the production process might simply not change that much over time. Rather than measuring costs, it is also possible to estimate them. Standard costing is concerned with these estimates, also allowing to predict costs before they are incurred. Often, certain markup percentages are applied to products to allocate certain cost types. For instance, a 2% marketing budget may be added to each product.
Intuition
Determine cost estimates for certain types of costs
Add standard overhead percentages to product costs
Pros
Easy to implement and apply
Allows to estimate future costs, rather than measuring in hindsight
Monitor discrepancies between estimates and observations
Cons
Can wildly oversimplify true costs per product
Not suitable for fast-paced environments where cost rates change rapidly
Cost estimates may drive inappropriate managerial actions
Target costing
Photo by Oliver Buchmann on Unsplash
Target costing is a bit of an odd duck, as it in fact does not consider costs at all. It is a market-driven approach, starting with the sales price (e.g., based on competition), attaches a desired profit margin, and as such provides the maximum costs that products should incur. It is more of a normative technique than an allocation tool, but often proves indispensable. Especially when frequently developing new product, target costing is useful as a viability check.
Intuition
Set (maximum) product costs based on desired profit margin
Work back from realistic market price to required cost structure
Pros
Suitable for environments with frequent new products or product updates
Market-driven approach to costing, checking whether product is feasible
Cons
No consideration for actual costs incurred
Does not provide an evidence-based cost view
Activity-based costing
Photo by David Rodrigo on Unsplash
Activity-based costing (ABC) is often seen as the Holy Grail of cost accounting. The idea sounds appealing: all costs (including activities such as R&D and marketing) are tied to activities that in turn link to products, yielding the most complete and accurate cost picture. This approach typically yields the highest costs per product, as well as the most accurate one. It is also the most difficult and time-consuming technique though.
Intuition
Assign costs to activities, then proportionally assign those activities to individual products.
Allocate the full costs incurred by the company to products, including general overhead.
Pros
If done correctly, ABC provides a close approximation of ‘true’ costs per unit
Explicitly includes non-manufacturing overhead (e.g., R&D, marketing), which may be a substantial part of total costs.
Accurate allocation of opaque activities to products.
Cons
Assigning some indirect costs with reasonable accuracy can be either very hard or arbitrary.
Tracking and allocating all corporate costs is time-consuming.
Highest cost allocation per product, may be unattractive for certain purposes.
3 Minutes! Activity Based Costing Managerial Accounting Example (ABC Super Simplified) by MBAbullshitDotCom
Hybrid costing
As mentioned, cost accounting is just for internal use and not bound by regulations. As such, several methods may be combined. Large differences in marketing campaigns may warrant Activity-Based Costing, yet for the staples and paperclips Standard Costing likely suffices.
The future — A data science perspective
All cost allocation techniques in this article have been around for many, many years. Still, the current rise of data science opens up some exciting new opportunities.
With everything nowadays being tracked, stored and automated, the opportunities to allocate costs are unprecedented. High-frequency sensor data and real-time production data hide vast insights; attaching this information to production costs allows for accurate cost allocations.
In the years to come, expect to see considerably more detailed and accurate cost portrayals. | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/a-primer-on-cost-accounting-24b458d04c32 | ['Wouter Van Heeswijk'] | 2021-12-22 17:10:08.106000+00:00 | ['Accounting', 'Cost Accounting', 'Business', 'Costing', 'Finance'] |
Why movies should not be written by committee (Or: Why I hated Yesterday ) | OK so this not exactly the quickest film review off the mark but I’m on a plane and when travelling on a plane as most of us know when it comes to on flight entertainment you tend to defer to the less challenging content and those films and shows that you passed on by at release perhaps because it was not something you’d want to risk spending money on. A long transatlantic flight gives you the chance to swim in the seas of the less aesthetic and more anodyne. So it was I found myself on my flight from Dublin to Dulles watching Danny Boyle’s recent hit Yesterday. And so it is having watched the thing that I now feel compelled to vent my spleen regarding a film that came out several months past.
Yesterday, in case you do not know, tells the tale of a world in which the music of The Beatles is stricken from everyone’s memory — everyone except one young musician — Jack Malik — who tours the world with Ed Sheeran in tow belting out Beatles numbers to anyone who cares to listen, which of course is much of the known world.
Now I’m not much of a Beatles fan. Often you utter those words and people just assume you are trying to be deliberately contrary and controversial. But it’s the truth. Of course they were good songwriters and they were certainly prolific — if Yesterday does nothing else (and I will attempt to show in the words that follow that indeed it does do nothing else) as Jack is remembering song after song you cannot help but marvel at just how many Beatles songs are engrained in our cultural make up. The simple truth as far as I’m concerned is that when it comes to musical habit there have just always been plenty of other bands I would rather listen too. I don’t hate The Beatles, I just don’t care that much about them.
All that said, I have no cross to bear with the band or their music. I sat through the whole movie so I can’t dislike them that much. But I did dislike the movie Yesterday. Boy did I dislike that movie. My distaste had little to do with The Beatles and everything to do with bad decisions and movie math gone wrong. And this, dear reader, is what I’d like to spew forth on.
You can picture the scene. A bunch of film execs sitting in Working Titles’ board room in Soho Square. They are discussing their latest production slate and one chirpy exec pipes up ‘We have the music of The Beatles, Danny Boyle directing, Richard Curtis writing the screenplay, Ed fucking Sheeran guest starring, Working Title producing. How can could this not work?!’ Indeed from a marketing perspective those are some pretty solid gold hooks. But there lies the problem — if you produce a film solely to look good on the sales sheet but then get the work experience guy to write the thing you are in for a problem. A whole heap of problems.
But the work experience guy didn’t write Yesterday. Richard Curtis did. Richard bleeding Curtis! Richard Curtis who gave us ‘Blackadder’. Hell, Richard Curtis who gave us Love fucking Actually. Love Actually — by the way — is a film with many, many, many faults, but I would have it streamed directly into my eyeballs on repeat sooner than having to watch Yesterday even one more time. So how did he get it so wrong here? Well the proof evidently is in the pudding. This is not a badly written film. It is a film barely written at all. There is zero craft to it — zero diligence. It reads like a drunken first draft. I’d be hugely surprised if it wasn’t. I’d be worried in fact if it wasn’t. If what we saw there is the result of the usual multiple revisions and drafts, then the state of British film production is worse than I feared.
Instead I’d suspect the terrible writing and the plot holes you could fly a star destroyer through are the result of some great hubris on the part of the producers and those film execs. When you have all those elements altogether in one movie, who cares if the film makes no sense whatsoever. Really the writing is just a prop to keep all those other marketable elements in play right? I suspect Curtis turned in his vomit draft to the producers and they rolled camera on it there and then without a second thought.
It should come as no surprise that a film so evidently written by a committee can get things so wrong. I have been around the film industry long enough to know that those production meetings are mostly populated by older white men of a certain social class. But really the sheer ignorance on display in Yesterday is astonishing. The film’s big denouement sees Jack get his own back on the greedy record label execs by putting his music out for free on the internet! Shock horror! Really though, are the Yesterday writing committee actually so out of touch with modern reality that they understand this today be a cataclysmic event? Or in their imagined alternate movie timeline do Spotify et al also not exist and they just neglected to include that plot point?
This is just one of many such transgressions but so indicative of everything that’s wrong with the film industry and the over reliance on existing IP and unwillingness to encourage fresh ideas.
But hell if you can’t beat them, join them right? Working Title, if you’re listening I have an idea for a meta sequel to Yesterday. It stars me and I wake up in an alternate timeline where the film Yesterday doesn’t exist. Now that I’d pay to watch. | https://medium.com/@thomleaman/why-movies-should-not-be-written-by-committee-or-why-i-hated-yesterday-d1991f6ccc5f | ['Thom Leaman'] | 2019-11-15 18:00:24.616000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Yesterday Movie', 'Uk Film Industry', 'Film Reviews', 'Love Actually'] |
4 Reasons Why I Sit and Stare at Maps | A little further down the line, I got really into soccer.
Soccer is an international game and the best teams are actually all outside of the United States. This sent me on a newer and even more interesting quest to see where players were from, where their teams played, what the culture of that city was like, and more.
It was and still is a branch off of the beautiful game that I have a lot of love for. There’s something so interesting about looking at a well-detailed map, learning about the culture of a place, and letting my imagination run wild.
It was this way for me as a kid, and it hasn’t waned in the slightest.
So why do I do this? I’ll do my best to explain why as I still am exploring this myself:
I Make Connections that Answer Long-Standing Questions
As a young kid, there used to be a lot of places that would come up, whether in movies or real life, that would stick with me and make me wonder if it was real or not and where it could possibly be.
One of these places was Fiji.
Fiji gets referenced in kids’ movies a lot, especially in pirate movies which i used to love. I also caught onto the fact that theres a water company named after this mysterious place.
What is it about this place thats so interesting?
Well one day as a kid, i finally found a little island called Fiji in an obscure part of my map that was hidden in a sea of many other islands.
I finally found out that it was indeed a real place and why pirates would want to sail there and why water from there is so special.
I Always Learn Something New
The last time I was looking at a map, I was standing in the waiting area of a car dealership while my girlfriend’s car was getting an oil change.
For some reason, there was a big, beautiful map on the wall of North America so I had to take a look.
Within two minutes, I saw a city named Tillamook in Oregon. I thought to myself,
“Thats weird, I definitely know that name from somewhere.”
I quickly remembered that’s the name of a popular dairy brand that is sold in most of the grocery stores I shop at. Now I know that’s where that cheese comes from.
Minutes after making this realization, I was looking at Canada and trying to remember where all the big cities were.
I came across a National Park called Banff. Again, it hit me that I knew that name somehow, especially because it is so unique.
Sure enough, I did.
A YouTuber I like to listen to who does a lot of motorcycle riding and hiking has referred to this area on multiple occasions. He talks about how beautiful it is whenever it comes up.
It’s connections like these that I would probably never make in any other context and they connect dots for me. They’re not always profound, but I value them and love them nonetheless.
Regional Culture and Traditions are Endlessly Fascinating
I mentioned that my interest in soccer has been the main catalyst for my love of maps continuing into adulthood.
Some of the notable tidbits I’ve looked into are:
How can Athletic Bilbao have a French player in their team when they only allow players from their specific region (which is in Spain)?
Why do so many Brazilian players travel across the globe to play for Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine?
Why is it constantly raining during English Premier League games?
Why are there zero teams from eastern Germany in the Bundesliga except for one recently added team (RB Leipzig)?
I am always having my curiosity and sense of wonder stimulated by things like these.
I learn so much about different regions of the world, I learn about the type of situation these players are in to make the decisions they make, and I gain perspective in my own life because of it.
It’s like a free education that keeps me engaged all the time and promises to teach me something unique constantly.
It’s Nostalgic
I would be lying if I said that looking at maps didn’t allow me to reminisce about things I’ve learned and places I’ve been.
Sometimes I just like to remind myself of all the interesting places I’ve been and how different they are. Places like Sweden, Honduras, Mexico, California, South Carolina, New Jersey, and Texas all have given me memories and have influenced my outlook on life.
I still get that little burst of excitement whenever I see a map around. It re-sparks that endlessly curiosity in me to discover something new whether that is just a geographical finding or connecting the dots between two points that I previously knew something about.
Regardless, this is what I did as a kid and this is still what I do as an adult when the opportunities arise. It’s my own personal hobby that sometimes gets me sideways looks and sometimes has people ask me what I’m looking for.
Really, I’m not looking for anything in particular, just for whatever the map wants to show me that day. | https://byrslf.co/4-reasons-why-i-sit-and-stare-at-maps-b645634cd478 | ['Will Zolpe'] | 2021-05-10 23:39:11.142000+00:00 | ['Beyourself', 'Life', 'Learning', 'Maps', 'Inspiration'] |
What is Content Marketing? | What Is Content Marketing?
If you manage a business or website, you might be wondering, what is content marketing? This seemingly abstract concept is one that does bear explaining. The irony here, of course, is that content marketing is intuitively understood by everyone who experiences it.
Content Marketing Examples in Daily Life
Think about the recipes you might find on the backs of pasta boxes, soup cans, or bags of frozen vegetables. They may call for a particular brand of mushroom soup to make broccoli casserole, or a certain type of flour in their Red Velvet Cake recipe. Of course, you’re not obliged to buy that brand of soup or flour. If, however, you get to know and love the brand behind the recipes, you’re likely to buy the brand they suggest. That, in essence, is successful content marketing.
Old Spice and Content Marketing
Part of what makes you feel positively disposed towards a brand is the way it goes about creating content and the brand voice it demonstrates. Love it or hate it as a product, Old Spice is a now-classic example of a brand that embraced content marketing to attract new audiences.
Isaiah Mustafa’s Old Spice YouTube-posted videos tackled the brand’s biggest weakness head on: it’s uncool because it’s your dad’s aftershave. The campaign not only targeted a new generation of viewers, it successfully reached them — one estimate is that the towel-clad content reached at least 35 million people and doubled product sales.
Dove and Content Marketing
Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty went a step further, by actively engaging with real women: young, old, and in between, to start a conversation about how women are represented and portrayed by media, and thus perceived by themselves and others. By partnering with organizations designed to empower young women, like Boys and Girls Clubs, the Girl Scouts, and Girls Inc., Dove created an ongoing series of widely publicized marketing campaigns, none of which ever overtly emphasized the message to “buy our soap or body wash.”
John Deere Magazine and Content Marketing
Look at the John Deere magazine The Furrow, a content marketing example that’s just as relevant to farmers today as it was in 1895. Its articles are about farming in general, not overt hard sells whose bottom line is, “If you want to make money in farming, you’d better invest in a John Deere.”
Importance of Thought Leadership
And then there’s Shutterstock, the site that provides music, video, and images. A few years ago Shutterstock created an annual Creative Trends feature on its site — and later made it interactive, and therefore shareable.
Creatives who use the site share this content with both colleagues and clients. It doesn’t matter whether Shutterstock is creating or reporting on creative trends. What matters is that it establishes thought leadership for the brand and expands its reach. Thought leadership is another essential aspect of effective content marketing.
These examples of creative content marketing help drive home the importance of carefully curated content that provides value to the reader and lets them know that you’re in the know. When it comes time to make a purchase relevant to their prior research, they’re likely to turn to you. Content that’s adjacent to the things your target audience would be searching online is, therefore, a great way to draw potential customers to you.
Definition of Content Marketing
That’s content marketing in a nutshell: content created with a specific audience in mind and with the ultimate goal of indirectly leading to a sale without employing hard sell tactics.
The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as:
“a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
Content marketing’s strength is the ease with which it connects with audiences. Compared with traditional marketing strategies, which tend to be campaign- and event-oriented — think new product launches, annual trade-ins or sales events, and seasonal price reductions — continuous content creation is key to successful content marketing.
Types of Content Marketing
There are many types of content marketing, including but not limited to the following:
● infographics
● videos
● blog posts
● e-books
● white papers
● case studies
● email newsletters
● podcasts
● website landing pages, or
● apps
The continuity and consistency with which a brand interacts with its audience is part of what led to the phrase “content is king.” Over time, this has become not just a meme, but also a truism.
What is a Sales Funnel?
As you begin your content marketing journey, the phrase “sales funnel” will be used again and again. The sales funnel represents the journey every customer makes before purchasing. This journey has four steps: know, like, trust, and, finally, buy.
At the widest part of the funnel, your audience is looking for information. Some of that information — about how things work, the benefits your brand’s solution provides, or how others have used your products or services to solve real-world problems — needs to come at no cost. Blogs, vlogs, and podcasts need to be free, accessible on demand, without commitment. The content your brand creates is the wide-mouthed top of the sales funnel.
But another portion of your content creation has to at least attempt to capture information and the first step towards a commitment not to buy, but to learn more. This is the point in the sales funnel where more content is made available in exchange for providing an email address — signing up for a newsletter, downloading an app, requesting a white paper or subscribing to an email newsletter.
Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) brands, in particular, will want to create case studies or customer success stories for this phase of the content marketing sales funnel. More compelling (and more detailed) than mere testimonials, case studies outline the challenges similar enterprises have experienced and detail the solutions your brand can provide to solve their problems.
Demos, testimonials, and trials come into play at this stage. This is the point at which the sales funnel is at its narrowest. It’s no coincidence most streaming video services offer seven- to 30-day trials of their product. Demonstrating reliability, site navigability, and quality is the final step in creating a customer.
Business-to-consumer (B2C) brands can often leverage samples, trial offers, and partnerships with other, more established brands at this point. Bigger ticket, bought-once-in-a-decade products can’t compete at this level with these tactics, in most instances. For this type of product, content marketing is even more crucial. It’s not enough for a celebrity to endorse a product anymore. Consumers are far more sophisticated and innately skeptical than ever before. This is where the social media aspect of content marketing, with all its variations, becomes crucial: Yelp reviews, Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and Instagram influencers.
SEO and Content Marketing
Then, of course, there’s the all-important SEO aspect of content marketing. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the task of maximizing the returns your content gives you in searches (like Google or Bing). It’s great to create content, but without a carefully planned keyword and metadata strategy, it’s likely that information won’t be found by those searching for it online. Data-driven content marketing that is founded on the principles of great SEO strategies has never been more important.
Particularly in the wake of recent Google algorithm changes like its BERT update, which favors long-tail keywords over short-tail keywords and encourages search results that mirror the natural cadence users would employ in their search queries, it’s not enough to just guess.
Why Choose a Creative Content Marketing Agency?
There are countless content marketing strategies out there. When it comes to content, it’s all been done before. But has it been done well?
Successful content marketing in 2020 no longer looks like having a junior staffer write up a jargon-filled blog post and slap it on your website. That simply isn’t effective. You need to understand SEO and search engine algorithms in order to even hope to have your content found online. If creating content for print use, you need to understand what works for each medium. Catching the attention of busy consumers is harder than ever before, particularly in an overwhelmingly congested world of content.
That said, this is where creative content that pushes the limit of tradition and convention, all backed by carefully planned metrics and strategy, has the chance to shine. At Wordsmyth Creative Content Marketing, we believe in the power of research and data. We believe in thoroughly understanding a brand and the story they are hoping to tell. Most of all, we believe in the power of words. When woven together eloquently, words can sell consumers on what brands have to offer like nothing else.
Want to learn more about how our creative content marketing agency can help you define what content marketing is for your brand? Contact us today! | https://medium.com/wordsmyth-creative-content-marketing/what-is-content-marketing-6e38a67023c9 | ['Danielle Smyth'] | 2020-12-14 16:28:16.270000+00:00 | ['Blog', 'Content Marketing', 'Content Creation', 'SEO', 'Sales Funnels'] |
Rebirth: The future of Virtual Production | Having access to a vast library of high quality assets from day one is key to efficient virtual production. Furthermore, what is essentially a digital movie set can be easily converted into a video game environment in no time, truly maximizing the value of production.
Maximizing efficiency
The high-quality real-time rendering engine of Unreal Engine 4 and its ease of use allows artists to test many ideas in a short amount of time, virtually risk-free. From scene assembly and lighting to post processing and color grading final pixels, everything is done completely in-engine. For a project of the visual scale of Rebirth, but with few people and a very limited time-frame, this interactive real-time workflow was a pre-requisite.
SideFX Houdini played an important role in creating effects like volumetric fog, optimizing the assets for very specific needs and automating various manual tasks.
One of the most time-consuming tasks when creating environments is the manual process of importing each and every asset for every single shot.
One of the most time-consuming tasks when creating environments is the manual process of importing each and every asset for every single shot. This is where Quixel Bridge came into play; by automatically importing the textures and geometry from any given asset, whilst also setting up the shader.
Beyond Rebirth
As films, commercials and most visualized products become more and more ambitious, the current shooting process is starting to show its artistic and financial limits. The cost associated with traveling to specific locations, buying/creating equipment for these sites, licensing costs and permits can all end up spiraling the budget out of control.
Image courtesy of The Future Group
Virtual Production plays a key role in solving these problems. Artists get to iterate more on each shot without having to worry about cost. This creates new opportunities for projects to become more ambitious with a fairly restricted budget still.
Pre-production, production and post-production all happen in the same phase with the same tools, with artists and programmers reviewing each step of the process.
Virtual production is the natural evolution of entertainment, and it’s just getting started. | https://medium.com/quixel-ab/rebirth-the-future-of-virtual-production-2825fff07ff9 | [] | 2019-06-19 11:44:03.072000+00:00 | ['Unreal Engine', 'Virtual Production', '3d', '3d Rendering', 'Short Film'] |
POV: patient centricity in pharma | Patient centricity is the latest buzzword in the pharma industry, but it is not a new concept per se. Patient centricity, along with the tech and retail industries’ sister lexicons i.e. user-centricity and customer centricity, stem from the ideas introduced in the 1960’s in Scandinavia under the umbrella of cooperative design, today better known as participatory design or co-design. The co-design practice was born out of a movement among workers who advocated to influence the use of computer applications in their workspace. Later, these ideas inspired American scholars, among them Donald Norman of the research laboratory at the University of California, David Kelly and Tim Brown of IDEO, who pioneered design thinking, a human-centered approach to innovation, which led to some of the most pronounced inventions of our time, such as the Apple computer mouse, Palm V, PillPack and many more.
There are many variations of design thinking models used today, the original model is based on Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford and consists of five phases:
Reaching out to the community instead of making decisions on their behalf is the central idea of design thinking. It leads to empathic design grounded in understanding the psychological and emotional needs of people — the way they do things, why they do things and how they think and feel about their world. It involves people in solution building to ensure that the outcomes meet users where they are.
Patient Centricity
To illustrate how co-design can be applied to promote patient centricity, I will reference the Nemours Hospital case study where IDEO worked on re-thinking a children’s hospital experience. Through the practice of design thinking, IDEO was able to identify critical pain points by observing and discussing the experiences of patients, their families, as well as the hospital staff. Additionally, designers at IDEO looked for inspiration in kid-friendly analogous like toy stores, museums, zoos, etc.. The new design was a state of the art children’s hospital. The hospital was more welcoming, guiding, and supportive for all varied levels of patients and families. The patient zone featured a state of the art bed design, fun distractions such as an interactive floor and ceiling enabling patients to change the color of the room, as well as a personalized GetWell Network TV for children to play games and get educational content from their doctors. For the caretakers, designers introduced patient information screens installed on the front door of each room so that doctors and nurses could access patient information prior to entering the room to facilitate informed conversations and build trust. The range of improvements made the patient experience into adventure rather than an obligatory visit.
Trial Design
In the pharma industry patient centricity is particularly critical in trial design. Since safety and effectiveness of the treatment is typically the primary focus, often trials are designed from the perspective of feasibility and execution and without considering patients’ abilities, lifestyle or emotions. Some common examples of patient neglect in trial design include frequency and/or length of trial visits, unnecessary tests, long travel distances to the site and complex technologies that are difficult to use. If our goal is patient centricity, we have to reach out to patients, caregivers, and the healthcare community to understand and empathize with their trial-related experience, then integrate solutions to better support them throughout the trial period.
UX Design
The newest (and least explored) area of patient centricity is UX Design, which zeros in on patients’ interactions with trial-based technology. There is an opportunity to promote a more patient-centric trial experience by identifying patients’ pain points with using trial apps and optimizing these apps to fit the lifestyles and mental models of specific patient groups. Such optimization can be done by conducting one-one interviews, cognitive walkthroughs and task success studies directly with trial participants to understand their experiences in the context of clinical trials.
Conclusion
In conclusion, patient centricity is not a new concept, it has been explored for years in other industries. If we are committing to patient centricity, we can look to the design industry and adopt their tried-and-tested approaches for building with a human-centered lens. Focusing on our patients will enable us to think holistically and to avoid fragmentation of the trial ecosystem. This means investing in relationships with our patients and their extended networks, as well as addressing long-standing challenges with trial awareness, recruitment components, sign up process, in-trial experience and so on. Until then, we cannot claim that we are patient centric. For now, as an industry, we are sponsor-centric!
References:
Tim Brown, Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation Introduction, 2009 | https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/pov-patient-centricity-in-pharma-68c4f6719c75 | ['Rinol Alaj'] | 2021-05-07 05:01:55.400000+00:00 | ['Resources'] |
Respect | Respect to me is the process by which you show your understanding and love to another person. Whether it is an Elder, Spouse, friend, or figure of Authority. I was raised in a military family. (AKA I’m a Military brat)
https://taskandpurpose.com/family-relationships/8-realities-military-brat/BY SARAH SICARD APRIL 05, 2016
From an early age, I was taught about respect. How to show respect to your elders and authority figures. I was taught about ranks in the military and who to salute and show respect to while I was on base or at a military family function. Essentially because my Father was in the military the whole family was enlisted when he did and there were certain traditions and things that were expected of military children back then.
I know that some of these traditions still hold today in military families. Although like the military they have evolved to different ways of teaching them and different things. At the core, though respect is still the main teaching in military families. This is a tradition I know some civilian families teach their children, but it is my opinion that we still lack these teachings with the youth of today.
Essentially without respect for others. Society would not work as a whole. If nobody respected authority then the police force wouldn’t be of much use. Neither would our form of government or the constitution be needed. For me the guidelines that we live our lives by whether it be morally or ethically all boils down to one simple principle. Respect! Respect for ourselves and others.
At its core Respect is probably the most important lesson each of us should learn. This is why I carry on the tradition of teaching these same principles of respect to my children. I hope others will follow suit as well because without respect I believe we all will be lost as a society. | https://medium.com/@datgeeklife07/respect-26b1b739b9 | ['Anthony Chipner'] | 2021-01-21 17:10:55.540000+00:00 | ['Respect'] |
Karen Boykin-Towns Chosen as One of City&State New York’s Power Players | Karen Boykin-Towns, CEO Encore Strategies
Karen Boykin-Towns, Vice Chairman of the NAACP National Board of Directors and CEO of Encore Strategies strives to promote and create a societal transformation based on equality through her various channels of leadership. She was recently featured in City& State New York’s article ‘The Power Players,’ an article highlighting Black women who are making strides in government and politics.
The article noted that,
“As the nation turns its attention to the penultimate power move for a Black American woman — becoming vice president of the United States — let’s note that this triumph isn’t happening in a vacuum. Black women have long had a pivotal, yet overlooked, role in politics and government. They believed in women’s suffrage back when (white) women’s suffrage didn’t truly believe in them, as local voting rights activist Sarah Jane Smith Thompson Garnet did over 100 years ago.
“In this special collaboration with The New York Amsterdam News, we’re speaking to Black women who hold — and have held — leading roles in state government and politics, to hear what drives them despite the challenges they face and to learn how they navigate the corridors of power.”
Karen spoke on her experiences being a Black woman in cooperate America:
“In thinking about where we are, I cannot honestly say anything has changed or challenged how I do business. I’ve always been authentic as a leader and unafraid to speak up even when it might not have been popular. Funny enough I’m always looked to as the one to ‘say it.’ I do feel a greater sense of urgency in the work to bring about change both in society and corporate America. We currently have a window of opportunity that will eventually close, so it is imperative that we move at a deliberate speed as it relates specifically to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
“I’d be hard pressed to know of any woman of color who hasn’t experienced bias at some level. It could be overt or any one of the many microaggressions that can be exhibited. Either way, I have always found ways to deal with it.
“The worst piece of advice I ever received came during the time when despite all of my success I wasn’t being promoted beyond senior director. After confronting my manager, I got him to agree for me to have an executive coach and a 360-review. While it came back with very positive feedback one item of advice that was provided by one of the executives interviewed was, “Karen should smile more in her interactions because she is so serious and it would make others more comfortable.” They went on to say, “Karen should share more about herself and what she does on the weekend. She is trying to break into a level which is like a club and they need to have a better sense of her.”
“I started my career in government/politics working for then state Sen. David Paterson, where I learned a tremendous amount. Any “obstacles” I faced, I had a supportive network led by the senator and our staff which operated as a family. It is the learnings from here that allowed me to navigate the true obstacles I faced as I transitioned into corporate America. They included working in an environment where I knew going in I was making less than most at an entry level, but more than what I had made in government. There was a bias/concern on my ability to make the transition so it was important for me to work hard and show value quickly. I did just that and received great performance reviews but I was consistently compared to a white male who came in a year after me. For years they kept us at the same level despite the impact I had within the department and company. At one point during a performance review my manager said, “We don’t know what to do with you.” Several years with the company and with a stellar reputation for getting things done, I knew it was time to take things into my own hands. I sought out our CEO for guidance and support.
“Remember when I said I took things into my own hands and went to the CEO? The CEO at the time was someone who I had intentionally built a relationship with when he was general counsel. I had worked with him on a few high-profile projects that were important to his success and helped with his elevation. Knowing he thought highly of me, I sought his advice on how I could advance having been with the company for nine years and getting feedback like ‘they don’t know what to do with me.’ What he said to me I will never forget. He advised that in large companies working hard and doing great work only gets you so far. You must have people who speak up on your behalf and provide you with a ‘turbo boost’ and he was going to do that for me. Indeed he did and I finally broke through the senior director level, ultimately retiring from Pfizer as the only Black person to report to an ELT member (a senior executive who reports to the chairman and CEO) and one of the top 200 executives in the company of 90K employees. It’s important to note that after giving me a ‘turbo boost’ approximately two years later he left the company. I continued to excel but without his initial help none of what came after would have happened.
“I’m blessed to have many mentors/advisers who comprise my personal board of directors. Each has a role and purpose that help me navigate the various aspects of my career. When considering leaving Pfizer, I had those who were able to help me properly plan for my departure and make sure all things were in order before doing so. Having never worked for myself, members of my (board of directors) have been critical in helping me properly set up my consulting business. They have shared insights that have been invaluable including making introductions to individuals many of whom have become clients. Most importantly they push me to think about ways to take Encore Strategies to the next level.
“My personal mantra is “I’m blessed so I can bless somebody else,” therefore mentoring is something that is consistent in my life. Most times I too benefit from these relationships. My ‘mentees’ range from leaders in their own right like L. Joy Williams who was my planned successor of the NAACP Brooklyn Branch; Meenu Matthews who was valedictorian from George Washington University and now a JD candidate at Columbia Law School; Nasaiah Hoskins, president of the PA NAACP Youth & College Division; and, Valerie Brooks who will be graduating next year from Hampton University School of Pharmacy, just to name a few.”
Read the original article here. | https://medium.com/@insightsfromleaders/karen-boykin-towns-96d87e14d0ff | ['Insights Leaders'] | 2020-12-12 02:22:36.677000+00:00 | ['Results Driven Leader', 'President', 'Encore Strategies', 'CEO', 'Karen Boykin Towns'] |
Augmented Reality’s ‘Killer App’: Transforming How We Relate to Physical Places | To this day, and after almost four years of playing, I have never seen anything like the collision of digital and physical infrastructure transforming human activity in a shared public setting than what I saw at the Blue Teahouse that summer. It was due to an unforeseen oddity in the deployment of PokeStop locations in the game’s map.
In the physical world, the Blue Teahouse is already a social space designed for people to sit, drink coffee, and enjoy being outdoors with friends. In the digital world the restaurant space, for whatever reason, sat well within proximity of three overlapping PokeStops. For those who don’t play the game, it’s worth noting how unusual that is. The purpose of Pokémon Go is to encourage players to move physically through the world accumulating items and finding Pokémon. Yet here was a spot, where players could circumvent the need to move through the world in a physical location already designed for social activity. It was a killer combination.
The Blue Teahouse as it appears in the game. Players can spin a PokeStop every 5 minutes to get Pokeballs. The pink confetti shows that all three PokeStops have lure modules applied by someone nearby. Lure modules last thirty minutes and cause Pokémon to spawn. Everyone now has what they need to sit, enjoy, and play at the cafe.
For that entire summer, The Blue Teahouse became an oasis for Pokémon Go. Almost overnight the cafe’s culture transformed, and the value that guests assigned this physical space now derived just as much from activities in the digital world as much as any purpose it served in the physical one.
In a discussion with a manager at the restaurant, I later learned that the cafe increased their revenues significantly. So many people were there playing, visitors were forced to crowd the front lawn sitting picnic style on the ground; most of them playing too. Teenagers were showing up to the lawn well before it opened and (since Dutch kids have no bedtime) were staying long after it closed. On cloudy and rainy days, usually slow for the business, tables were just as crowded as days with sunny skies. For this tiny cafe in Amsterdam, the game was an unexpected stroke of good fortune and the business impact was enormous.
Sorry we’re at capacity. Please enjoy this lawn.
The broader impacts of human activity being changed by the game weren’t always so pleasant. These anecdotes were well covered in the media, but one interesting example occurred in Milwaukee Wisconsin where players left trash and disrupted the ecology of a public park. The city tried to require companies like Niantic to request and be granted a permit to operate their games on public land; an attempt which failed.
All of these developments suggest that we’ll need entirely new policy frameworks for dealing with a world ‘painted with data’ (as Charlie Fink describes this coming world filled with AR content). What types of issues may arise?:
Should a company be able to sue someone who leaves digital graffiti on their building?
You can ban a person, but what about their hologram? Who regulates the free movement of AR technology?
What are the limitations to where AR game artifacts can be placed?
Should companies be able to freely place AR content wherever they please?
Is digital “property damage” a thing? It’s the wild west in AR and this is cold-blooded from Burger King.
Example: In response to a Snapchat marketing concept that included a location-based art exhibit which placed AR sculptures by Jeff Koons in several locations around the world, artist Sebastien Errazuriz thoughtfully used a vandalized Koons sculpture to challenge the notion that corporations be allowed to freely place AR content without paying anything back for the value they extract by using public land.
Errazuriz asks:
“Should corporations be allowed to place what ever content they choose over our digital public space? Central Park belongs to the city of NY. Why should corporations get to geo-tag its GPS coordinates for free? We know they will make money renting GPS spots to brands and bombard us with advertisement. They should pay rent, we should choose to approve what can be geo-tagged to our digital public and private space.”
All of this suggests that AR is about more than just feeding information into our eyeballs. It can change the world we live in by reshaping how we engage with it. AR can determine where we go and why we go there but also influence the way we construct meaning about the significance of a place. | https://medium.com/swlh/augmented-realitys-killer-app-transforming-how-we-relate-to-physical-places-4506fae0c91c | ['Aaron Frank'] | 2020-05-28 22:34:05.911000+00:00 | ['Ar Cloud', 'Locative Media', 'Pokémon Go', 'Augmented Reality'] |
Your 2020 Resolutions Failed but It’s Okay | Failing your resolutions is not the end of the world…2020 tried to be.
Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
2020 has been one hell of a year and if any of you are like me, you failed your resolutions this year. As the end of the year approaches, you look back at all of the resolutions you set on January 1, 2020. Some of them may have turned out to be complete failures, but it is okay.
This year has been a rough year but you came out on the other side forever changed regardless of whether your resolutions were achieved or not.
2012 Was Supposed to Be the End
The rumour was that the world would end in 2012. Deep freezes, fires, earthquakes. According to many, 2012 should have been the year that the world ended. Not 2020. The world as we know it was not supposed to come to an end in 2020 but it did.
Before, you could go outside without wearing a mask. You could hug your loved ones close. You didn’t have to worry about a global pandemic.
Maybe 2012 wasn’t the end of the world, but 2020 sure feels like it is.
Failing in the Time of a Global Pandemic
Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash
At the beginning of the year, COVID was just something that — to most of us — was just happening in another country. It wasn’t taken seriously. It could never come to North America.
Except COVID came and when it came, it was out for blood.
The world shut down like never before. Little did many of us realize in that first month that it was just the beginning.
This has been a year where priorities have vastly changed how you view the world around you. This means that those resolutions you first set may not be what you value now. The year 2020 has been a year where difficult decisions have been made.
Is a trip to the gym more important than holding a loved one again?
Should you travel and potentially spread a deadly virus?
Or should you make the decision to give up on the resolutions that would put others in danger?
Changing Resolutions to Fit the World
Maybe you like many others changed those resolutions. Instead of a workout at the gym every other day, you bought equipment and started working out a home. You made the decision to limit your contact with others. It may have made your resolution harder to accomplish. It may feel like a failure in a way. You said that you would go to the gym every other day but an outside force is stopping you from reaching your goals.
Failure is okay.
Failure in a year where the world is trying to kill you is okay.
Because you didn’t fail. You changed your priorities.
Don’t Get Me Started on the Murder Hornets
2020 has been a rough year. Your 2020 resolutions may have failed but you know what? It’s alright. You are still standing. Life will get better. Your resolutions only reflect where you are in life at the time of making them.
Resolutions are not stagnant. They are ever-changing. Each day will change how you tackle them. Just because you didn’t accomplish the things you set out to on January 1, 2020, doesn’t mean you have failed.
It means that you have survived a hard period in history.
You are a survivor of the year that wanted you dead…
But don’t get me started on the murder hornets. | https://medium.com/@alyshathornton/your-2020-resolutions-failed-but-its-okay-fa066d56aaa3 | ['Alysha Thornton'] | 2020-12-17 23:06:31.657000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'New Year Resolution', 'Pandemic', 'Resolutions', 'Failure Is An Option'] |
React Performance Optimisations | Resolving Unnecessary Re-Rendering with useMemo
We display a reusable table component to the user in several parts of our application. While it renders relatively quickly, there’s a slight delay when it loads, particularly in one section where it displays all the files that belong to a user.
Using the React Profiler , I recorded the process of landing on the page and clicking on the upload file button. The Profiler showed that the table component took 38 ms to commit.
The table component is mapping through the data to create table rows and then mapping through each row to create individual cells. This means that its performance is O(n^2) . If it's looping through many files, the commit is inevitably slow.
While the table will need to loop through lots of data, we can check to see if it is being re-rendered unnecessarily. To get a better understanding of the rendering process, we can use the WhyDidYouRender npm package and keep track of the renders with useRef . In the Table component, let’s add the following:
The console logs show that the table component is rendering four times —three times unnecessarily. Re-rendering is triggered by updating state, the parent component rendering, or the props changing. The WhyDidYouRender package states that the Table is being re-rendered because the props are changing — but inputs are the same, so why is it re-rendering?
The reason is that, in JavaScript, integers, strings and booleans have referential equality:
true === true // true
false === false // true
1 === 1 // true
'a' === 'a' // true
However, objects, arrays (which are objects under the hood in JavaScript), and functions point to a space in memory and do not have referential equality:
{} === {} // false
[] === [] // false
() => {} === () => {} // false
The Table component is re-rendering because we’re passing in columns and data as props which are arrays/objects. This is why the props are technically changing even though the values of columns and data remain the same.
To resolve the unnecessary re-renders, we can memoize the Table component, i.e. store data in the cache. Memoization is used to resolve referential equality issues and to cache computationally expensive functions.
In React, we have a few memoization options available to us. useCallback will cache a callback function. This is helpful when we’re passing functions as props which don’t have referential equality. With useMemo we can memoize values so that they don’t need to be recalculated or we can wrap the component in React.memo() which is similar to Pure Component.
On this occasion, we want to memoize a value: the Table component with the mapped data:
By extracting the logic into a separate component and calling it with useMemo , the table component is only created when data is updated.
We could include the CreateTableData function within the Files component but the function would still be created on every render. Creating functions is expensive in JavaScript, so it’s best to extract this so that it’s only created when needed. | https://medium.com/better-programming/react-performance-optimisations-15b244cf3abb | ["Nick O'Ferrall"] | 2020-04-06 17:42:55.699000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Programming', 'Reactjs', 'React Profiler', 'React'] |
Flutter ile Haber Sitelerinden Rss Yardımıyla Haberleri Çekme | rss_page.dart
Instantly share code, notes, and snippets. You can't perform that action at this time. You signed in with another tab… | https://medium.com/nafidurmus/flutter-ile-haber-sitelerinden-rss-yard%C4%B1m%C4%B1yla-haberleri-%C3%A7ekme-60aedb6c982b | ['Nafi Durmuş'] | 2020-12-28 12:48:12.528000+00:00 | ['Flutter Türkçe', 'Rss Veri Çekme', 'Rss Feeds', 'Flutter Rss Kullanımı', 'Flutter'] |
The Money Spiritualiser. | It often happens that people who want to demonstrate the inconsistency of a view they don't share tend to use the shortest possible mental route of argumentation and pass it as the smartest and most elegant way to do so.
Unfortunately, in most cases, it means either finding a weak defence of such view or altering such view to accommodate to the validation of the proof against it.
We usually call such logical fallacy, the straw man fallacy, mixed with another one, the cherry picking fallacy.
For instance, let's take one view that not only has been distorted, but also poorly demonstrated so that the opposite view can be validated with false genuine arguments.
We start setting the scenario of the misleading proof by considering the view we want to invalidate as a "myth".
Let's say that we wanted to bust the myth that it is not spiritual to earn money for our excellence and we also added to it the following erroneous supporting assumption.
"If you're spiritual, you shouldn't want money. People who want money are greedy and materialistic."
My counter arguments would be as follow:
To earn money for our excellence is neither spiritual nor not spiritual. That is like comparing apples and oranges. We either earn money to consume products that we can't create ourselves, to invest in products we want to create ourselves or to have more money than the one we already have for whatever further purposes.
And yet, the Money Spiritualiser will put forward the following three misleading counter arguments in favour of the eternal marriage between money and spirituality.
- "Money does not inherently breed greed and materialism."
-"Money and spirituality actually go very well together."
- "Money is energetically neutral; it's the energy behind it that counts."
My counter arguments are as follow:
While it is true that money does not inherently breed greet and materialism, it neither inherently breed value and spirituality.
There is nothing that could indicate that money and spirituality go very well together unless, for the same talked, money and greed do not go very well together.
Money is not energetically neutral, even when it could be. For instance, if ants were walking indifferently over it.
Money, in human societies, be it paper or digital money, always has value. Such value is never real; it is ghosted, symbolic value as the promise of real value, which might or might not be met.
The tactic of the Money Spiritualiser is as follow:
- To remove any intrinsic association between money and bad human qualities.
- To make money intrinsically neutral and value agnostic.
- To create a loosely coupled association between money and good human qualities.
- To glance over or omit the loosely coupled association between money and bad human qualities that ensues from the above premise.
- To preach and reinforce the newly loosely coupled association between money and good human qualities by slowly and stealthy turning it into a closely coupled association.
- Create new clichés (dogmas) about good humans qualities which will relentlessly work toward making more and more money.
It is not in the interest of the Money Spiritualiser to perceive such inconsistencies in his/her logical argumentation because bringing back the natural tension between making money and our spiritual endeavours might slow down not only the speed at which we can make more money, but also the speed at which we can assimilate spiritual values for the same of turning them into new clichés.
Money has and will alway have a ghosted static value that will never measure up to our sense of wonder and serendipitous living through which we always have the possibilities to create magic spaces for ourselves and others free from the cocooned weight of our accumulated wealth, stored either in money, status or prestige.
Our spirituality can only have either an abstract or a narrowly objectified relationship to money. Even when taking good care of our financial wellbeing is as relevant as taking care of our spiritual wellbeing, money is just a "credential" a "credit to do" regardless of the actual value of the doing.
Such credentials sometimes can help and sometimes can stagnate us because of the overtly cocooned space and cocooned mindset in which accumulated values can put us.
Being financially free can create a ghosted sense of freedom because we can fall into the habit, once we have abundance of money, that we should be doing more of the things that money can buy than the things that still might require from us inputting great deal into the world without necessarily looking or expecting to receive payment any time soon.
Obviously, this is not preaching about doing most things for free. Yet, doing things for free allow for ours and others experimentation. It keeps the doors open for further creation of that which can't be cocooned or protected by our prestige, past recognitions, investors, shareholders or accumulated money.
It allows for the periodical rebirth of a particular mindset:
If we were left with nothing, no money and no accumulated values, we would be able to reinvent ourselves by the sheer force of our spirituality and inner values.
In a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent Van Gogh said:
"It is good to love as many things as one can. … I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven toward these things with an irresistible momentum. … Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it. I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream."
The current price for Van Gogh, A pair of shoes is $8,976,000.
Van Gogh purchased the boots at a flea market probably almost for free. He even wore the boots on a rainy walk to create the effect for this painting.
We might wonder, what is the difference in value between the boots that Van Gogh bought at the flea market and the boots of his painting?
Martin Heidegger, the philosopher, saw the painting on exhibition in Amsterdam in 1930 and later wrote about it:
"From the dark opening of the worn insides of the shoes the toilsome tread of the worker stares forth. In the stiffly rugged heaviness of the shoes there is the accumulated tenacity of her slow trudge through the far-spreading and ever-uniform furrows of the field swept by a raw wind. On the leather lie the dampness and richness of the soil. Under the soles slides the loneliness of the field-path as evening falls. In the shoes vibrate the silent call of the earth, its quiet gift of the ripening grain and its unexplained self-refusal in the fallow desolation of the wintry field."
Heidegger in one single stroke put and found spirituality in Van Gogh's shoes. But you might wonder, was Heidegger referring to the shoes in the painting or to the shoes Van Gogh bought at the flea market? Obviously, he was referring to both, but more than that he was referring to the "experiential" or transcendental elements that Van Gogh was finding in the shoes.
Those transcendental elements are not found in money and are neither found on the painting nor on the shoes, but in the spiritual mindset of our existence.
The painting is just the bait to lure the observer. And money? Well, money is its excremental value that can be exchanged even for the least spiritual of things. | https://ulyssesalvarezlaviada.medium.com/the-money-spiritualiser-cee43e484f7d | ['Ulysses Alvarez Laviada'] | 2018-09-09 11:06:46.073000+00:00 | ['Van Gogh', 'Spirituality', 'Art', 'Philosophy'] |
Write Books in React With Next.js and MDX | Dynamic Paths in Next.js
This section is confusing if you don’t know how dynamic routes work in Next.js! Just try to get a general picture of what is going on… but the code is there for you to ponder.
Now that we have a list of routes and locations of content, we need to feed this into Next.js, create routes, and serve the content. I will not go too deep into the source code, but essentially we are performing a depth-first search of the URL tree and making a list of all nodes in the tree that we need to generate routes from. We make our object look something like this:
This might look kind of funny, but the point of this object of objects is that we can map over the keys in Next.js’s getStaticPaths . This generates pages for a page [...id].js :
And you can use the path provided to you in getStaticProps to retrieve metadata like the GitHub URL:
Now everything is hooked up. | https://medium.com/better-programming/write-books-in-react-with-next-js-and-mdx-8deec9fec761 | ['Matthew Caseres'] | 2020-12-22 16:37:09.757000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'React', 'JavaScript', 'Nextjs', 'Typescript'] |
Why I’ve Stopped Pursuing Happiness | Image: Pixabay
Why I’ve Stopped Pursuing Happiness
Science and a survey reveal the pursuits that really matter
One year ago, on Jan. 1, 2019, I resolved to explore, understand and write about happiness: what it is, what it means, and what we can do about it. I went in with an open mind, hoping to figure out who has happiness and why, and how the rest of us can go out and get some. My wife warned me the premise was faulty. Turns out she was right. The caveats are as clear as the conclusions:
I found few convincing scientific studies, new or old, that really say much definitive about what happiness really is, let alone how to become happier. The project was a failure. Well… not totally. By expanding the scope of the quest to look at well-being more broadly, and doing a survey of readers, I learned, indirectly, quite a bit about “happiness” and the things that go into it. And that’s why I’m no longer pursuing it. A sampling of cold, hard facts:
What readers say
Meanwhile, I conducted an anonymous online survey, inviting readers to weigh in on their own level of happiness. The non-scientific survey, taken by 247 people, was presented this way:
“Recent events aside, please rank how well each statement describes your general state of mind over the past year (1 = strongly disagree. 5 = strongly agree).” The first statement was “I’m a happy person,” then there were 26 others about health, friends, family, beliefs, activities and pursuits. The results have been split into three groups, based on how people ranked themselves on the “I’m a happy person” statement:
Happy (4 or 5) — 74.9% of respondents
So-So (3) — 19.4% of respondents
Unhappy (1 or 2) — 5.7% of respondents
The survey should not be viewed as definitive, but it reveals an interesting pattern: Friends, family, health and purpose (having things to do) all seem to matter in supporting overall self-described happiness.
An optional, open-ended survey question asked, “What one thing most brings you happiness?” Among the happiest people (those rating their happiness as a 5) who responded to the question, 78% cited some version of relationships—with family, friends or loved ones.
Disclosure: This survey is not scientific. It was self-selecting (thus may not represent the population at large), involved self-reporting (rather than objective measures), and had a relatively small number of respondents. Further, results from any survey like this can vary significantly based on how questions or statements are framed. Finally, I’m not a professional pollster nor statistician.
What’s not working
During the year, I found some sobering trends. Happiness among Americans has been declining since the turn of the millennium, and the United States is now only the 19th happiest country in the world, according to the annual World Happiness Report, released in March. Among the reasons: pursuit of the wrong things.
“This year’s report provides sobering evidence of how addictions are causing considerable unhappiness and depression in the US,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network. “Addictions come in many forms, from substance abuse to gambling to digital media. The compulsive pursuit of substance abuse and addictive behaviors is causing severe unhappiness.”
Social media plays a role in reduced happiness, the researchers say, but it’s by no means the only cause. Yet with that in mind, I wrote about the joy and angst of Facebook, how hard it can be to quit, and how it messes with peoples’ heads. Among the research findings cited: People who are most addicted to Facebook tend to have feelings of envy and project idealized versions of themselves, and they’re more prone to depression and loneliness, and they even tend to report more symptoms of physical illnesses.
The current climate of extreme partisanship isn’t fostering a lot of happiness, either. In September I wrote that 38% of Americans say they’re stressed out by politics, and among a few of them the stress is so bad it’s making them physically ill.
Loneliness is also creating a growing drag on well-being. One-third of Americans age 50 to 80 are lonely some or most of the time. Meanwhile, 29.2% of college students said they felt lonely at some point in the previous two weeks, while 22.4% said they felt hopeless.
That’s not to say we should expect to never be sad or lonely. In fact, a 2017 study the journal Depression and Anxiety suggests modern social pressures to “just be happy” can have the opposite effect. “Rather than being the by-product of a life well-lived, feeling happy has become a goal in itself,” says study team member Brock Bastian, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Melbourne and author of the book “The Other Side of Happiness.”
“Smiling faces beam at us from social media and happiness gurus flog their latest emotional quick fixes, reinforcing the message that we should aim to maximize our positive emotions and avoid our negative ones,” Bastian says. “Feeling at times sad, disappointed, envious, lonely — that isn’t maladaptive, it’s human.”
What might work
All in all, there still seems to be a lot of happy people around, assuming one accepts everyone’s individual definition of the concept. And yet a lot of people say they are unhappy, and there’s no reason to doubt them. It all seems linked to multiple factors centered around physical and mental well-being, purpose, family and friendships (though nobody has yet determined direct cause-and-effect of any of these factors).
Perhaps most important: What we pursue really matters.
Research finds that the pursuit of happiness, as an overarching goal, sets us up for disappointment. It’s like aiming to be famous instead of perfecting your art, or gunning for fortune rather than finding meaning in your work.
“People who pursue happiness by seeking out pleasant experiences as part of their everyday lives are happier,” writes Lahnna Catalino, PhD, who studies the relationship between emotions and well-being at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. “In stark contrast, people who strive to feel good every possible moment, as if it were possible to will oneself to be happy, appear to be following a recipe for unhappiness.”
Other research finds people who resolve to do specific, concrete, prosocial things, such as increasing their recycling efforts or making someone smile (as opposed to vague goals like saving the planet or improving relationships) are happier.
What we can try to pursue, then, are good health, good work, good friends, good family relations (no matter how difficult!) goodwill, a little time in nature, and a bunch of other “good” things, and then try oh-so-hard to more fully recognize, cherish and be grateful for any satisfaction, joy, amusement or contentment that comes our way.
Aristotle said, “Happiness is a state of activity.” I didn’t quite understand that 12 months ago, but I get it now. And I wish you lots of it. | https://medium.com/luminate/why-ive-stopped-pursuing-happiness-7babc6b340ac | ['Robert Roy Britt'] | 2019-12-30 15:12:51.594000+00:00 | ['Happiness', 'Life', 'Family', 'Wellbeing', 'Science'] |
How Psychological Behaviours are Linked with Colors | Eyes remember the color and shade they saw when they were open for the very first time. But the conscious mind somehow pushes back that memory to not show its weakness as it’s difficult for it to understand that color and many other things at that period. Still, the subconscious mind doesn’t forget it, so you need a little focus along with an effort to catch back that memory.
Do you know that at birth, newly born kids’ can identify different shapes based upon the light and dark lines of light they see around that object before completely understanding their first primary color, which is red? Yeah, you read it right.
People with high IQ have a great understanding of numbers and colors from their very early childhood. As their minds work much differently better than others, similarly, people with color blindness problems are unable to see one and sometimes two colors of the main scheme (red, blue, and green) from which all other colors and shades are created.
People from different areas of life and category of work see color based upon the perspective of their emotion, behavior, the demand of their field, and supply.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
“Life is a train of moods like a string of beads and as we pass through them they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus.”
Here down below will discuss Color Psychology along with how you can study the emotion and the dominant trait of others based upon their color expression.
Color Liking and Their Psychological Effects:
Red: People who like red color are very passionate, excited, energetic, courageous about life but be careful with this color as it provokes a feeling of aggressiveness and causes optical endeavors.
People who like red color are very passionate, excited, energetic, courageous about life but be careful with this color as it provokes a feeling of aggressiveness and causes optical endeavors. Orange: This color promotes a behavior of independence, adventure, creativity, optimism, and fun. This color activates one’s ability to socialize, which is why it is a color of Extroverts. Orange coveys excitement, warmth, youth, and enthusiasm to the observer. But be careful it also creates traits like a lack of severe intellectual implications.
This color promotes a behavior of independence, adventure, creativity, optimism, and fun. This color activates one’s ability to socialize, which is why it is a color of Extroverts. Orange coveys excitement, warmth, youth, and enthusiasm to the observer. But be careful it also creates traits like a lack of severe intellectual implications. Yellow: Is the color of optimism. As yellow is the color of sunlight, that’s why it brings qualities like clear thinking, quick decision making, uplifting, and irradiating with success and confidence in a healthy person. But for people who are suffering from stress, it causes anxiety along with being over-critical about everything.
Is the color of optimism. As yellow is the color of sunlight, that’s why it brings qualities like clear thinking, quick decision making, uplifting, and irradiating with success and confidence in a healthy person. But for people who are suffering from stress, it causes anxiety along with being over-critical about everything. Green: vibes as the color of nature, growth, and life. It has the most refreshing and life soothing effect on oneself. It provokes the spirit of the prolific environment with a secure and peaceful feeling. Green is sometimes negatively regarded as the color of possessiveness and mundane. So now you have a good idea of what it offers.
vibes as the color of nature, growth, and life. It has the most refreshing and life soothing effect on oneself. It provokes the spirit of the prolific environment with a secure and peaceful feeling. Green is sometimes negatively regarded as the color of possessiveness and mundane. So now you have a good idea of what it offers. Blue: is the color of trust that induces calm and conveys tranquility, quietness, and unity. This color triggers confidence, integrity, and a sense of responsibility in a person; that’s why most companies use this color in their offices. Blue color tends to suppress appetite.
is the color of trust that induces calm and conveys tranquility, quietness, and unity. This color triggers confidence, integrity, and a sense of responsibility in a person; that’s why most companies use this color in their offices. Blue color tends to suppress appetite. Pink: with this color first thought that arises in someone’s mind are sensitivity and feminism, but it doesn’t mean that pink is gender-specific color. This color creates a sense of being unrealistic and overly optimistic in the person.
with this color first thought that arises in someone’s mind are sensitivity and feminism, but it doesn’t mean that pink is gender-specific color. This color creates a sense of being unrealistic and overly optimistic in the person. Purple: is a color of spirituality and an intuitive soul which encourages meditation and self-awareness. Purple is associated with the characteristics of essence and luxury. Overuse of this color invokes impatience and arrogance in a person.
is a color of spirituality and an intuitive soul which encourages meditation and self-awareness. Purple is associated with the characteristics of essence and luxury. Overuse of this color invokes impatience and arrogance in a person. Brown: This earthly color gives a message of stability and a solid foundation. It is a sign of reliability, honesty, and sincerity. But this color can also cause a feeling of loneliness and isolation in one’s personality, which is why they commonly make few friends.
This earthly color gives a message of stability and a solid foundation. It is a sign of reliability, honesty, and sincerity. But this color can also cause a feeling of loneliness and isolation in one’s personality, which is why they commonly make few friends. Black: Which adds up all color of a wheel and gives the sign of secrecy and mystery. This color shows power and control. Black is a good contrast for all colors to make them stand out. However, this color has a vast range of negative associations like lack of hope, unfriendliness, and evil, etc.
Which adds up all color of a wheel and gives the sign of secrecy and mystery. This color shows power and control. Black is a good contrast for all colors to make them stand out. However, this color has a vast range of negative associations like lack of hope, unfriendliness, and evil, etc. White: It carries a sense of purity, cleanliness, simplicity, and peacefulness. White often symbolizes a blank slate that triggers a sense of emptiness, yet it also expressed a new beginning.
In this above mention description, you get the idea of what and how colors speak and how liking them positively or negatively affect one’s personality. Now the question is that people who are suffering from psychological problems, how they see these colors, and how they express their mood and mental situation through these colors.
Colors Expressing Emotions and Psychology
Our mood directly affects our choices of color as the brain and their chemicals starts playing with your visuals, as the heart (the emotional piece) gets occupied with some specific emotion.
Bright and Fresh Colors: All bright shades of color become the prominent pop up in the room when there is something biggest exaltation happening, as they represent happiness, love, and celebration. Take an example: when you are in love, your mind will start picking shades of red and pink in all other colors. Similarly, you begin choosing bright colors for your dresses and daily activities.
Fresh color pick happens in two cases:
When you want a positive change or a new start your mind automatically starts picking nature’s bright colors to give you an extra hand of boost. For this reason, the doctors refer nature and outdoor to people suffering from emotional Delima. The second case is the weather when summer is at its peak; fresh colors cause a soothing and enriching effect on the brain that’s why people prefer these colors in their daily routine.
Dull and Dark Colors: Your sadness and bad mood automatically trigger choice for dull shades, as you are suffering from emotional drainage. So mind expresses its pain and suffering by pushing you to choose these colors. It is trying to signal out about your current state.
Your sadness and bad mood automatically trigger choice for dull shades, as you are suffering from emotional drainage. So mind expresses its pain and suffering by pushing you to choose these colors. It is trying to signal out about your current state. Neutral Colors: When your mind suffers through high stages of oblivion you start using these colors without consciously noticing. But if you are cognizant and drawn to them, it means there is some external force pushing you hard to like them (the case may vary based upon the situation). Generally, these colors are used in those places where the main target is to not draw attention.
When you are suffering from a bad psychological or health condition, your mind plays a lot with the light spectrum and signals those shades whose hue coordinate with your current state at that time. The method of color therapy plays a vital role in a person’s mental and health state revival. Now a day hues are in common practice against physical diseases like cancer and help in the diagnosis and cure of different psychological problems. | https://medium.com/@bintulhudak/how-psychological-behaviours-are-linked-with-colors-b0fa88b45f17 | ['Syeda Bintul Huda'] | 2020-12-12 21:58:15.872000+00:00 | ['Bussiness', 'Mental Health', 'Psychology', 'Colors', 'Color Psychology'] |
Your Comprehensive Guide to the Basics of Time Series Modeling | The concept of stationarity
Stationarity is an essential characteristic of time series since (classical) time series models like ARMA assume it and can lead to incorrect results if the underlying data is not stationary.
For the sake of comprehensiveness, we have to distinguish between strict stationarity and weak stationarity.
Strict stationarity
We say a time series process is strictly stationary if its properties are unaffected by a change of time origin.
if its properties are by a change of time origin. The joint distribution of the observations yₜ, yₜ₊₁, …, yₜ₊ₙ is exactly the same as the joint probability distribution of the observations yₜ+h, yₜ₊ₕ₊₁, …, yₜ₊ₕ₊ₙ.
as the joint probability distribution of the observations yₜ+h, yₜ₊ₕ₊₁, …, yₜ₊ₕ₊ₙ. Therefore it is unaffected by forward or backward shifts in time.
However, many real-life processes are not strictly stationary. But even if a process is strictly stationary, we usually have no explicit knowledge of the latent time series process. As strict stationarity is defined as a property of the process’s joint distributions, it is impossible to prove from an observed time series.
Weak stationarity
We define a time series process as weak stationary if
The expectation E(yₜ) is constant over time
The variance Var(yₜ) is constant over time
The covariance Cov(Yₜ,Yₜ₊ₕ) depends only on the lag h, Cov(Yₜ₁,Yₜ₂) = Cov(Yₜ₁₊ₕ,Yₜ₂₊ₕ)
Broadly speaking, a time series said to be weakly stationary if there is no systematic change in mean μ (i.e. trends) if there is no systematic change in variance σ² and if strictly periodic variations (i.e. seasonality) have been removed.
How are these definitions or types of stationarity used in practice?
In practice, people usually mean by the term stationarity weak stationarity since strict stationarity is only a theoretical concept. To be here consistent, we will use from now on stationarity when we mean weak stationarity.
Alright, so now that we know what the concept of stationarity means, let’s test our knowledge by observing the following graphs in figure 5 and check if they are stationary or not.
Figure 5. Examples for stationary and non-stationary time series.
Plot (a) shows a clear trend (no constant mean over time) in the data so the series can not be stationary.
Plot (b) on the opposite does not show a trend or any seasonality in the data. That indicates that plot (b) is stationary.
Plot (c ) has like plot (a) a clear trend in the data and therefore is non-stationary as well.
Last but not least a confusing case by Hyndman and Athanasopoulos (2018). Plot (d) appears non-stationary due to its strong cycles. However, these cycles are aperiodic. When the lynx population becomes too large for the available feed, they stop breeding, and the population falls too low numbers. Then the regeneration of their food sources allows the population to grow again and so on. That means in the long-term, the timing of these aperiodic cycles is not predictable. Because of this cyclic behavior with no trend nor seasonality the series is stationary.
I bet you are surprised that plot (d) turned out to be stationary. Sometimes it can be hard to tell if a time series is stationary visually. Thus we need a more robust way to check stationarity.
Luckily there are several statistical tests (also called unit-root tests) to check if a series is stationary or not.
Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test
One most widely used is the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test.
There are many more unit root tests available like the Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS) test or the Elliott–Rothenberg–Stock (ADF-GLS) test.
The ADF comes up with a null and an alternative hypothesis.
H₀: The series has a unit root so it is non-stationary .
. Hₐ: The series has no unit root so it is stationary.
Broadly speaking, a unit root is a random walk with drift time series. It contains a stochastic trend that shows an unpredictable pattern. If you are interested in a more deeper explanation please see Makridakis (1998).
Statsmodels provides us for this purpose the adfuller function .
For this example, I used the airpassengers data set from above, which is not stationary. Since the data set shows clearly a trend, I set the function’s regression parameter to ct (constant and trend).
The function returns several values. The second one represents the calculated p-value. Since 0.55 is above the threshold of 0.05, we can not reject H₀, so the data is not stationary.
Now that we know our data is not stationary, how can we make them stationary?
How to make data stationary
As already mentioned, a lot of (classical) models assume stationary time series. So what if we know that our data are not stationary? Two very common approaches to make data stationary are:
Transforming the data (e.g. log and/or using square roots transformations)
the data (e.g. log and/or using square roots transformations) Differencing
Transforming the data is a very basic approach that is also used in other statistical fields like regressions. One applies a log or square roots transformation to the data to make it stationary.
Another very common approach is differencing. It can be applied alternatively or in addition to the transformation approach. We usually take first differences of the series. That is also called first-order differencing. We are creating a new time series of successive differences Yₜ -Yₜ₋₁. For example, the original time series is Y₁, Y₂, Y₃, …, Yₙ, then we apply first-order differencing, which leads to a new time series Y₂-Y₁, Y₃-Y₂, Y₄-Y₃, …, Yₙ - Yₙ₋₁.
If this does not work and we still have non-stationary data, then we can also consider a second-order differencing by taking the differences of the created differences (not to be confused with taking the second difference Yₜ -Yₜ₋₂).
If your time series is in data frame format, you can make use of pandas function .diff(). This function takes the number of periods you want to difference over as a parameter.
If we want to apply first-order differencing we just append the function .diff() to our data frame. In our example we apply the .diff() method to the ausbeer data set (table 1).
Table 1. Differenced ausbeer data set.
Since we take first differences of the series (Y₂-Y₁) we will lose one (the first) data point. That means if we apply second-order differencing, we lose the first two data points.
💡Key takeaways | https://towardsdatascience.com/your-comprehensive-guide-to-the-basics-of-time-series-modeling-f673398b5df3 | ['Konstantin Rink'] | 2021-08-16 16:27:06.134000+00:00 | ['Time Series Modeling', 'Time Series Analysis', 'Forecasting', 'Data Science', 'Time Series Forecasting'] |
Guided Meditation For Relaxation And Success! | Guided meditation for relaxation and success
Introduction —
Meditation refers to the act of thinking deeply about something while clearing your head from all other things to achieve the ultimate focus. The main purpose of meditation is to achieve clarity of mind, enhance peace and awareness, and achieve a mentally and physically calm state. Guided meditation for relaxation has been known to eradicate stress, anxiety, and depression that are responsible for paving the way for further complications in human life.
Why Do We Need To Meditate?
With its perks that make our life easier, the modern world we live in comes along with certain baggage. Just sitting and noticing everything that is going on makes us wonder how fast is everything slipping through our fingers. The overwhelming feeling of not being able to control things and the unknowns in our life can give rise to feelings like stress and anxiety.
If we just glance at our daily routine, we would notice that our day doesn’t start without looking at our cellphones for work emails, messages that you might have missed, or keeping yourself updated to what is happening in others’ life. That is followed by a whole day of work, which includes jumping from one challenging situation to another and just barely keeping afloat.
To balance the stress caused by all such things, it is important to nourish your mind and body by making meditation a part of your life. Meditation would help you realize where you are in life and where you want to go. It would give a clear picture of your true potential and broaden your vision. You would be able to make life decisions involving your health, family, business, or any other area with a fair amount of clarity, which would increase your chances of success.
The thing that has become missing in our life is that we fail to connect with our inner selves. Here meditation comes into play. Meditation allows you to build a strong connection with your inner self that gives you a good idea of what you want. Here is how you could adopt meditation for success.
Sleep Meditation for Success
Sleep is an integral part of our life. Disturbed sleeping patterns can have devastating effects on our minds, body, and health. So, it is better to get sufficient amounts of sleep to function in an optimal manner.
Every successful entrepreneur who has put his heart and soul into establishing a successful business would know the importance of the well-needed shut-eye!
That being said, the key to success is finding the right balance between working at your best and allocating sufficient time for sleep. Your mind after juggling from one stressful situation to another needs time to shut itself off and become refreshed to start all over again.
Here meditation comes into play; practicing it before you doze off allows you to sleep faster and wake up with a clear head that is totally focused on the goals that need to be accomplished. Getting sufficient hours of deep sleep allows you to wake up fresh and energized, ready to make your day a productive one.
Guided Meditation for Relaxation And Success
Some people might have difficulty meditating on their own, or they might think that they are not doing it the right way. You can make use of guided meditation for success in targeting specific goals. In guided meditation, you just have to listen and follow the instructions to access your subconscious mind. This would allow you to soothe your mind and get rid of the negative emotions.
If you think that you are doing good on your own, that is the best thing, but if you can’t, you could always use guided meditation for success in connecting with your inner self.
How Can You Benefit from Sleep Meditation?
A good ratio of the people is sleep deprived; we might not know it ourselves, but the fact remains unchanged. It might be due to your restless sleep patterns, trouble going to sleep, or not being able to go into a deeper sleep state due to all the stress and anxiety. Practicing meditation helps you fall asleep quickly and wake up as fresh as a daisy.
Being fresh and full of energy is imperative if we want to work at our optimum and deliver the best! Our success revolves around the fact that we give our absolute best no matter what we are doing, which is only possible if we are at our best!
Guided meditation for success would help keep you in a sound state of mind and aid in making life decisions that pave the way for you to reach the top.
Manifest Abundance By “PUSHING PLAY” Break Through Discovery, >>WATCH VIDEO HERE<<
Morning Meditation for Success
Practicing morning meditation for success and abundance and making it a part of your daily life allows you to start your day in a healthy way.
Our lives have become so busy that we don’t have time for anything. We juggle between tense situations that makes us stressed out and depressed.
Starting your day with meditation is a good way of letting your mind wake up and start functioning optimally before jumping into your busy schedule. Practicing morning meditation for success and abundance allows you to calm your brain, reduce stress, increase your focus, and be good for your general well-being.
Most successful people make morning meditation a part of their lives because they know how important it is to be in a relaxed state of mind and to start your day with a clear head. With a clear vision, everything becomes so easy and straightforward, which increases their chances of success. They know this because the best of their ideas usually pops up when they are having their meditation sessions because that is the time their mind is free from all the troubles.
How Could Morning Meditation Be A Game Changer?
Morning meditation could be a real game-changer for the busy bunch. If they start their day with meditation, they would begin to feel better with each passing day and make meditation a constant in their life. Feelings of confusion and fear would begin to fade away, and they would have a clear picture of their goals. Knowing your goals and potential could open the gates for your avenues. It could be your first step towards success and a calmer state of mind.
Meditation for Success in Business
The trick to running a successful business is to keep your mind relaxed and focused. To have clarity while making day to day decisions is imperative if you want to transform your business into a successful one.
Running a business comes with its perks, like having the satisfaction of running something of your own, being your own boss, and a lot more. But on the other hand, it could bring a lot of stress as you have to manage every difficult situation that comes your way. So, if you are running a business or planning to run one, then meditation for success and abundance is a must. The mind is the most critical asset of a person who is doing business; to keep it sharp and free from negative emotions, you need to give it regular doses of meditation to keep it stable.
Taking the First Step
The most important part of starting a successful business is taking the first step. Deciding the direction in which you have to go can be a real brain drainer. To make this decision, your mind needs to be in the right place and free from any emotional bias.
This could be achieved by making meditation for success and abundance a part of your life. By practicing meditation, your vision becomes broad; you start to see things from different perspectives and come to a realization that what is right for you and what is not.
As things become more apparent, you can work out what you truly want and take your first step accordingly. Having clarity of mind enables you to choose the right path and ensure your success.
Meditation Makes You Disciplined and Consistent
To stay focused on your path, it is necessary to train your mind because the uncertainties in your life can give rise to doubt that could stray you from your path. One of the worst things that could happen to a person who is thinking of running a successful business is doubt. By practicing meditation for success and abundance, you could wash away all feelings of doubt and train your mind to focus on the path without any distractions.
Every successful business demands consistency; nothing is achieved overnight. Being consistent and disciplined in the face of troubles could test your patience. Meditation wipes away all the negative thoughts and fills you up with optimism. Getting your positive energy refreshed allows you to continue on your path wholeheartedly and makes your success inevitable.
Put A Leash on Negative Emotions
It is okay to be flushed with negative emotions; the thing that matters is how we process them. Like being stressed out and lashing out on your workers can lead to awkward situations and affect morale. To save yourself from this awkwardness, it is necessary to keep your negative emotions in check.
Practicing meditation for success and abundance allows you to accept what you are feeling, process those emotions, and dissipate them more quickly to achieve mental harmony.
Meditation Increases the Brain Capacity
A great deal of research has been recently done, focusing on the connection between meditation and brain capacity. Researchers from various credible research institutes; Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Yale, are convinced that even the brain size and structure alters through meditation.
Incorporating meditation for success and abundance in your routine would alter your brain for good and would keep you focused towards a direction. The sense of direction achieved from meditation would motivate you and help build your mental capacity.
How Meditation Nurtures your Creative Side?
The major role for success in any business is played by the innovative thought process involved in it. Achieving this kind of creative mindset is not a tough row to hoe; you need to turn to the guided meditation for success. The idea-making part of your brain has an influx of random thoughts, but you may not always benefit from such stray thoughts and flight of ideas.
Meditation would help you clear the cobwebs from your head through divergent thinking. Eventually, your attention wouldn’t be forced and rigid, rather flexible and unrestricted. The innovative stream of thoughts achieved from the guided motivation for success would do wonders for you in the world of business!
Meditation, Non-Reactivity, and Success
Many businesses and relationships are destroyed by uncontrolled anger and irrational reactivity from people. The urge to react often takes over the mind, and the rage ultimately leaves you with regrets.
You can always turn over a new leaf through meditation for success and abundance. Meditation transforms behavior and makes you a calmer and kinder person. You start understanding the situations thoughtfully and look for the long-term implications it might have in the future. This internal shift in the thoughts manifests in the behavior and becomes a valuable asset for your business.
In a Nutshell —
To sum up, guided meditation for success and relaxation can make you hit the jackpot in wondrous ways. Meditation for success and abundance keeps you in fine feather in all the aspects of life, physically, mentally, emotionally, and professionally. Meditation, in all its forms, helps you thrive in your personal and professional life. Making it a part of your life is allowing yourself to be in tune with the universe. Hence, make it a part of your routine. Let it purify your mind and rejuvenate your body!
Do You Want To Know The Secrete Real Life Magic To Manifest Health, Wealth, or Anything You Desire?, >WATCH FULL VIDEO HERE<
Disclaimer: This article contains Affiliate Links and I’ll receive small commissions (at no additional cost to you) when purchases are made through the links in the article. | https://medium.com/@meditationadvise898/guided-meditation-for-relaxation-and-success-8a6d68e534fb | ['Inner Peace'] | 2021-03-10 00:57:21.184000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Meditation', 'Stress Management', 'Relaxation', 'Law Of Attraction'] |
Visual Localization | We have started a series of blog posts on the challenges of building a real-world browser, technically of course, but also in terms of human-machine interface, data, etc.
We are talking about mobile sensors, maps, computer vision and data, web and mobile development, navigation and systems positioning, buildings and cities and much more :)
After having tackled the main challenges of geo-pose and navigation in augmented reality, we will examine the perspectives opened by computer vision to create a universal positioning system.
The blogpost is a bit long 😅 since we will describe the technical foundations of visual localization starting with SLAM before comparing the approaches of several major players in the sector and to discuss the most recent challenges on this topic. Happy reading and contact us if you have any questions or comments at [email protected]!
SLAM: measuring the relative movements of a smartphone
Since 2017, the iOS and Android operating systems have made it possible to create applications using augmented reality, thanks to ARKit and ARCore technologies. When using the phone’s rear camera, augmented reality apps most often propose to position a virtual element in a real environment as shown through the camera reel as if it were “really” there.
Example of ArCore SLAM
This experience is made possible thanks to SLAM algorithms (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) which are central in ArKit and ArCore systems. These tracking algorithms can estimate the movement of the smartphone in space by using the camera and detecting surfaces: this is what produces the impression that the virtual object is well “anchored” in the 3D scene when the user moves with her phone.
SLAM algorithms iteratively calculate the position and the orientation (pose) of the telephone by analyzing the key points and descriptors of each image and tracking these descriptors from frame to frame. This allows a 3D reconstruction of the environment. The advantage of this visual odometry: SLAM algorithms do not require any a priori information on the environment.
Using SLAM to position yourself
Although SLAM algorithms are very efficient today -in particular thanks to the fusion with the inertial unit — they do not allow to get a geo-pose of the phone. The geo-pose being the position and the orientation of the device in relation to the terrestrial reference mark (for example latitude, longitude, altitude, quaternion…).
As we saw in a previous blogpost, the current system of geolocation that we have developed for navigation in augmented reality is based on two types of signals:
the absolute geolocation signals which allow gathering direct information for calculating the geo-pose of the phone. We leverage in particular signals from GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth access points (trilateration/fingerprint), QR codes geolocated, accelerometer, and magnetometer;
geolocation signals which allow gathering direct information for calculating the geo-pose of the phone. We leverage in particular signals from GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth access points (trilateration/fingerprint), QR codes geolocated, accelerometer, and magnetometer; the relative geolocation signals which make it possible to gather information in a non-geo-referenced landmark. We can count on the pose reconstructed thanks to PDR (Pedestrian Dead Reckoning), SLAM, or even signals from gyroscope and barometer.
We merge these signals with cartographic data thanks to the map-matching in order to obtain the best possible geo-pose in a multitude of situations (see blogpost).
Since SLAM is a relative positioning system (the new position is known relative to the previous one), if it is used for navigation on long distances, it will suffer from drift. This drift depends a lot on the context, but can easily reach errors of 3–4 meters and ten degrees over fifty meters traveled.
SLAM is currently one of our sources of location for relative movements. To minimize this drift inherent in odometry visual over long distances, we merge the SLAM with the signals of external positioning and with data from the pedestrian network — which are also used by our routing engine.
In the Wemap eco-system, SLAM is a central element of the relative positioning but it is not systematic. Indeed we use ArCore (Android) and ArKit (Apple) but these SDKs are only available on only the most recent generations of smartphones and cannot be used on the web: if the hardware and software environment is in the capacity to operate SLAM, we use it. At the moment, we do not plan to create our own web SLAM: the speed of the execution environment is not conducive to its implementation and limited access to sensors on the web does not allow the acquisition of metric data. However, according to the latest advances in WebXR; in a few months, ArCore and ArKit should soon be available in web browsers.
Example of movement using SLAM in the positioning system © Wemap SAS
The latest scientific advances in computer vision open a new possibility: using the camera to provide an additional absolute positioning signal.
Visual localization: first concepts
To define the notion of visual localization, let’s take a simple example:
An operator walks through an entire store with a video capture device equipped with one or more cameras. These images are analyzed and a 3D point-cloud of the store is created thanks to an algorithm and recorded in the cloud. This is the visual mapping or offline phase.
A customer needs to geolocate in the store. She takes her phone, opens the store app, and, lifting the phone, displays a camera view. In less than a second, a photo is sent to the cloud, analyzed by the localization server which calculates the position and orientation in which the photo was taken and returns them to the phone. The customer can then start an augmented reality experience geolocated or view her position on a 2D map. This is the online phase.
This process is visual localization.
Reconstruction of a 3D point cloud via SfM of the forecourt of St-Roch station, Montpellier
The process of visual localization is composed of two phases: (1) the offline phase, where the environment is acquired, and (2) the online phase, where the position is returned.
The offline phase consists of creating a cloud of geolocated 3D points from the images acquired by the video device. The two main approaches that deal with the 3D reconstruction problem in computer vision are the SfM (Structure from Motion) and the SLAM. The two approaches are similar in their algorithms but their fields of application are often different. SLAM was historically designed to operate in real-time and use the video stream from a camera. Conversely, SfM-type algorithms use images acquired at reasonably different distances and viewing angles, then the reconstruction is carried out post-processing. Each of the two approaches has advantages and disadvantages depending on the scenarios to be covered (context, light, the surface to cover, etc.).
Once the point cloud has been created, it is then georeferenced and then saved on a server.
The online phase concerns the end user. The user is first invited to browse her environment with her smartphone camera, giving access to images of her immediate surroundings. One (or more) images are extracted from the video because they have a lot of feature points.
Each image is then sent to the relocation server, it is compared with all the images that allowed the construction of the 3D point cloud (best matching). The image(s) that are estimated to be closest — to the one that was sent by the user — are used to calculate the geo-pose of this new image (triangulation). This geo-pose is then sent back to the device and then used to deliver an augmented reality, navigation, or geolocation experience.
Diagram illustrating the acquisition phase (offline) and the restitution phase (online) of visual localization
Note: The calculation of the geo-pose via the localization server can sometimes take a little time (> 100 ms) due to the complexity of the calculations and the speed of connection. During this period, the user may have done a lot of movements (especially in rotation) with its device. It is therefore desirable to couple such a relocation system with a SLAM system (typically ArCore / ArKit) to take over and calculate the transformations in this time interval.
The emergence of visual localization on smartphones
Visual localization is an approach that has already existed for some years in the research community and in particular in the field of robotics. Robots being often used in controlled environments (device movement, covered area, etc.) which makes it easier for computer vision to work. The smartphone can be used in an unbounded environment and with degrees of freedom in all directions: it compounds the challenges for computer scientists.
Visual localization on smartphones first appeared in 2019 mainly thanks to Google and its product “Google Maps AR (beta)” which uses a VPS (Visual Positioning Service) technology for outdoor positioning and orientation thanks to the images of the camera.
Example of Google Maps AR
Such an application is possible thanks to robust visual localization algorithms but also and above all thanks to the trove of images that Google has collected for years with cars for their StreetView product.
We are still only scratching the surface of positioning or augmented reality experiences that this recognition of the environment enables: underlying technologies are evolving fast and visual localization is only possible in limited scenarios.
Indeed, the challenges posed by visual localization in terms of computer vision are multiple. In particular, the 3D point-cloud construction algorithms that we know today require multiple trade-offs between speed and accuracy, and vary heavily from one use case to the other.
The different players in augmented reality are not necessarily going to need the same pipeline to build their geolocated 3D point clouds.
For example, Google already had 360° photos from its database on its servers for the Google Street View product. These photos have two characteristics: (i) they were acquired by cameras placed on the roof of a car and (ii) they were geolocated using GNSS. This is why Google presumably used an SfM type algorithm for the construction of its point cloud. Using functions of optical flow — typical SLAM — would have provided poor results because images were taken at significantly different distances and angles.
Google Maps AR acquisition device
However, in computer vision, image comparisons are only possible if the camera types (perspective, fisheye, or 360) are similar. This means, in a case like Google’s, the pipeline has to be adapted to factor complex geometric and optical transformations between the offline phase devices and an online phase that can be carried out on every smartphone.
Conversely, at the game developer Niantic, although close to the Google universe, it is the players who make the acquisition (offline phase) directly with their smartphones (perspective camera + GNSS position). In that case, the algorithm to be used for the reconstruction of the point cloud is rather a SLAM type-algorithm. The images are taken from a video and are strictly ordered, it is then possible to use optical flow functions to improve and accelerate the reconstruction process.
Example of acquisition in the game Pokémon Go, Niantic
Niantic wants to create a “real-world platform” to crowdsource offline phases and share augmented reality experiences (Niantic has also done the acquisition of 6d.ai in 2020).
Since 2019, other web giants have also started the race for a global 3D point cloud including:
Facebook which announced that it wanted to map the planet for their glasses AR and acquired the start-ups Scape Technologies and Mapillary in 2020;
Huawei launching Cyberverse, a 3D mapping system in the cloud for augmented reality;
and of course Apple and Microsoft with the Azure Spatial Anchors.
Each of these giants declares that they want to create a relocation system owner and generate its own planetary 3D point cloud. Unfortunately, the reuse of this 3D point cloud for mobile applications will be reserved for the different products of these brands (Google Maps AR, Pokémon GO, etc) or will be limited in terms of functionality (Apple, Microsoft ASA, etc). Moreover, such an approach raises many questions about privacy and information ownership.
Rather than building closed services and owners we believe that visual localization must be part of an open approach with a pooling of resources.
In the same way that today OpenStreetMap creates a data pool for global mapping with which even the largest players are associated, a new consensus is possible in the free and open-source world for visual localization. This is why Wemap joined the association OpenARCloud to guarantee interoperability of data and techniques of “spatial computing” and that we are partners of XR4All which promotes open-source computer vision frameworks applied to augmented reality.
We will come back to these industry questions in a future blogpost.
Visual localization: towards a universal positioning system?
Within Wemap technology, visual localization is approached as an absolute signal that completes a positioning system in the absence of any alternative. Outdoors the GNSS signal and the magnetometer merged are enough for a first approximation. This is why we focus our work on visual localization where GNSS is not available and, first and foremost, on indoor spaces.
Visual localization is a critical innovation for many types of places where the GNSS signal is absent or very degraded: stations, shopping centers, stores, offices.
Unlike outdoor captures where the change in lighting (due to the position of the sun) is a major source of problems in comparing descriptors, the environments in which we work have a much more controlled light source. This avoids making acquisitions at different times of the day as it is common outdoors.
Yet the specific challenges for indoor use are numerous, to only cite a few : | https://blog.getwemap.com/visual-localization-70da58f034c | ['Thibaud Michel'] | 2020-12-16 09:50:45.737000+00:00 | ['AR', 'Maps', 'Localization', 'Navigation', 'Computer Vision'] |
2020: o ano da digitalização do dinheiro | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/movile-echo/2020-o-ano-da-digitaliza%C3%A7%C3%A3o-do-dinheiro-70ae7f07ee3d | [] | 2021-02-25 16:12:31.764000+00:00 | ['Baas', 'Fintechs Movile', 'Fintech', 'Banking', 'Mercado Financeiro'] |
The Great Possibility — and Risk — of this Moment | Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash
The current worldview, formed over hundreds of years, is in collapse. In this moment, we see not only the collapse but the ways in which it brings about a great opportunity for new, reimagined worldview. We are liberated the moment we understand that a worldview is something we can create collectively.
During this global slowdown, the universe is demanding change of us. The COVID-19 virus, microscopic and infinitesimal as it is, has called upon us to transform.
In the excerpt below from Workshopping the Worldview, beloved teacher Norma Wong discusses the opportunity of this moment, and the risk we face if we fail to pay attention to it. | https://medium.com/the-reverb/the-great-possibility-and-risk-of-this-moment-74e8a86be188 | ['Resonance Network'] | 2020-09-15 15:54:15.535000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Worldbuilding', 'Worldview', 'Transformation', 'Another World'] |
A Modern Portfolio Theory Case for Bitcoin | Brief introduction to modern portfolio theory
MPT is a theory on how risk-averse investors can construct portfolios to optimize or maximize expected return based on a given level of market risk. Originally formulated by Nobel-prize winning Harry Markowitz in 1952, MPT proposes a framework for how investors can reduce overall risk while maximizing return by holding a diversified portfolio of non-correlated assets. [1] As opposed to viewing the risk-return characteristics of each asset in isolation, MPT assesses risk and return for the broader portfolio based on the cumulative interactions between the portfolio’s assets.
At is core, MPT assumes that investors are rational and generally risk averse, or if given two portfolios that offer the same expected return, investors will prefer the less risky one. An investor should take on increased risk only if they are being compensated by higher expected returns. Conversely, an investor who wants higher expected returns should be willing to accept more risk. Individual investors will evaluate the risk-return trade-off based on individual risk aversion characteristics. Under the model, a portfolio’s expected return is the proportion-weighted combination of the constituent assets’ returns, and the portfolio volatility is a function of the correlations of the component assets for all asset pairs. Concretely, the expected portfolio return, portfolio return variance, and portfolio return volatility are:
An investor can reduce a portfolio’s risk by simply holding combinations of assets that are not perfectly positively correlated. In essence, investors can reduce their exposure to individual, idiosyncratic asset risk by holding a diversified portfolio of assets, potentially allowing for the same portfolio expected return with reduced risk.
Bitcoin in a traditional portfolio
Bitcoin’s history of positive returns and uncorrelated nature make it potential candidate for traditional portfolios. Despite its high volatility (81.5% annualized since January 2014), we find that adding a small portfolio allocation to Bitcoin (BTC) increases the overall expected return and improves a portfolio’s risk-adjusted returns (or Sharpe ratio).
We assume that a “traditional” portfolio consists of a 60% portfolio weight to equities and 40% portfolio weight to fixed income. For the purposes of this research, we proxy equity returns using the S&P 500 and fixed income using the Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index. We begin the return comparison and data series in December 2013 for two primary reasons. First, we attempt to avoid outsized return assumptions by selecting a time series that does not include Bitcoin’s early aggressive price increases from a few cents to hundreds of dollars. The time series we have chosen includes two full bear markets and one bull market (Bitcoin’s last bubble peaked in December 2013). Second, earlier Bitcoin price data (2010–2013) is less transparent and had thinner liquidity, which later evolved in 2013 to include higher volumes, deeper liquidity, and pricing from more transparent exchanges.
Using the generalized formulas in (1), (2), and (3), the expected portfolio return and variance for a three-asset portfolio can be concretely described as:
For our data, we utilize total return indices (including dividends and interest) for indicative equity (S&P 500 or “SPX”) and fixed income indices (Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index or “AGG”) and monthly Bitcoin returns starting in December 2013. For simplicity, we do not consider value-generating forks for Bitcoin such as Bitcoin Cash. We can clearly see how Bitcoin has been uncorrelated to traditional equity and fixed income assets in Table 1.[2]
Table 1: AGG, SPY, BTC correlation table.
We can simulate the expected return, annualized volatility, and Sharpe ratio[3] of a portfolio with an increasing allocation to Bitcoin; for each incremental 1% allocation to Bitcoin, we deduct 50bps from the equities and fixed income allocation respectively and keep the portfolio fully invested. The summary results can be seen in Table 2.
Table 2: AGG, SPX, BTC correlation table.
The data can be graphically illustrated (Fig. 1) using the Markowitz Efficient Frontier, a common depiction of the collection of portfolios that offer the lowest risk for a given level of return. Each plotted point in Fig. 1 is a potential portfolio along the efficient frontier of portfolios using varying portfolio allocations to Bitcoin (denoted with plotted point labels).
Fig 1: Efficient Frontier with BTC Allocation
We can also plot (Fig. 2) a portfolio’s allocation to Bitcoin and its expected Sharpe ratio to visualize potential optimal allocations to Bitcoin based on risk-adjusted returns.
Fig 2: Sharpe Optimization with BTC Allocation
Unsurprisingly, adding a small portfolio allocation to Bitcoin improves a portfolio’s expected return, and an increasing allocation at small levels improves a portfolio’s expected return at a faster rate than increases to the portfolio’s volatility; Table 3 shows the point derivative change in expected return with respect to portfolio volatility relative to the prior portfolio. We see that a portfolio’s Sharpe is optimized somewhere near a 6% allocation to Bitcoin, suggesting that a traditional portfolio could benefit from a small allocation to Bitcoin based on the investors’ risk tolerance.
Table 3: First order expected return change with respect to volatility.
Bitcoin in a macro portfolio
The prior section assumes a traditional, simplistic portfolio, but modern portfolios are rarely simple and have an infinite number of permutations across complex instruments. Many modern portfolios include broad-based diversification across geographies and asset classes, as well as both long and short exposure to assets. For macro and institutional investors, there is no indicative standard portfolio, though we can still see the benefits that an allocation to bitcoin may have on complex and diverse portfolios.
Tables 4 and 5 illustrate the correlative relationships between Bitcoin and equity, fixed income, sovereign currencies, and commodities globally; Bitcoin maintains its low correlation to long exposure of global assets with all correlations ranging between -0.1 to 0.2. Since the correlation coefficients are low in absolute terms, Bitcoin remains uncorrelated and a portfolio diversifier in conjunction with portfolios that are short global assets; correlation coefficients of long Bitcoin exposure and short exposure to global assets range from -0.2 to 0.1 (Table 5).
Table 4: BTC correlation with global asset classes, long exposure to assets relative to USD.[4]
Table 5: BTC correlation with global assets, long and short exposure.
Final remarks
There are known limitations to modern portfolio theory. Research findings in other fields of study, particularly within behavioral economics, argue that the assumption that investors are rational actors is wrong. Studies in behavioral finance have challenged the notion that investors rationally make risk-return tradeoffs and suggest that investors are biased. In addition, the systematic relationships between assets are not constant, so the assumption that the implied covariance of future returns and correlation between assets remains fixed and predictable become less useful during times of uncertainty when correlations tend to trend to 1. Furthermore, investors may not be as concerned about upside volatility but rather may focus more on the potential for downside volatility, and so measurements of standard deviation may be a poor metric for portfolio risk. Since some of the variables used to measure correlation coefficients may be flawed, the actual risk level of an asset may be mispriced.
Future implied correlations and volatility notwithstanding, future expected returns are also obvious limitations of modern portfolio theory. Namely, past performance cannot simply be projected into the future. While this naturally applies to traditional assets, it is even more relevant for Bitcoin, an asset that has historically had near-exponential outsized returns since its inception. We simply cannot guarantee that Bitcoin, or any risk asset for that matter, will maintain its historical performance, its volatility profile, and its relationships with other risky assets.
Despite the imprecise models of modern portfolio theory and its considerations, Bitcoin’s fixed supply and programmatic limit to stock-to-flow ratio changes offer potential diversification to the systemic risk of rapid monetary supply increases present in modern portfolios. Government-issued money is susceptible to rapid supply increases compared to its existing stock through central bank activity, and therefore has the potential to lead to a rapid loss of salability, diminishment of purchasing power, and wealth depreciation of its current holders as we have seen throughout the late 1900s and 2000s with the suspension of the gold standard. This systemic risk exists in all portfolios that own traditional assets given the inherent links between global economics and financial markets, and therefore an allocation to Bitcoin that is expressly resistant to inflation and untethered from the global sways of central bank activity, global economies, and financial markets can potentially diversify some of the systemic risk that exists in modern portfolios. Moreover, an application of modern portfolio theory and review of the data suggests that a small allocation to Bitcoin can improve a portfolio’s risk-adjusted returns. | https://medium.com/galaxy-digital-research/a-modern-portfolio-theory-case-for-bitcoin-c6d6ba609efa | ['Galaxy Digital Research'] | 2019-11-19 16:12:11.193000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Investing'] |
Coding Stories: Random Experiences | Speaking of random while preparing for the school year I got an email from a friend who was starting a new job. She wrote, “I have a problem that you need to hear about!” She then explained that her school struggles with assigning students to electives based on their preferences. She wondered whether a computer could help. I immediately thought… Yes, of course.
I am always on the lookout for a good CS problem and was hopeful that this would qualify. I have engaged in assigning student groups by hand at various points in my teaching career. I would even call it a right of passage for educators. Below is an approximation of the steps I followed (as I remember them)
Step 1: Imagine 9 Students vying for three electives
Each student is represented by a rectangle constructed of four vertically aligned boxes. The top box contains the students id number ranging in this case from 0 to 8. The following three boxes from top to bottom are the elective preference rankings for that student identified by color codes, red, green and blue.
Step 2: Put all students in their first choice group.
Step 3: Identify the group with the smallest enrollment and look for a student in an over-enrolled group who would want to move in. Who wants to move in? Well the higher the rank choice the better. And if two student tie for rank choice then give it to the one from the bigger initial group.
Step 4: repeat the process until you have even groups
These steps not only helped me figure out the solution but also helped to clarify the problem. The first step in tackling a coding problem is to carefully define it. This includes laying out the steps as well as clarifying what information is important, how it can be represented, and the best way to store it. By starting with a simple example and walking through it carefully in my mind I was now ready to start building my animation.
I decided p5 was going to be a good platform to visualize this process. To help organize my code I defined a Student class.
class Student {
constructor(num) {
this.num = num;
this.rankings = shuffle([...groupList]);
}
} // note... groupList = [0,1,2]
Preferences are stored in the ranking attribute of the Student object. The .id attribute is the student ID number. The next step is to represent this object visually on the screen. I added a .pos attribute to the constructor to define the default position of the rectangle.
this.pos = createVector(60+num*17,10);
Then I wrote a show() function for the object so it could be displayed in the draw() loop.
show() {
textAlign(CENTER);
textSize(10);
fill(255);
stroke(0);
strokeWeight(1);
rect(this.pos.x,this.pos.y,14,20);
fill(0);
text(this.num,this.pos.x+7,this.pos.y+15);
for (let i=0;i<3;i++){
fill(colors[this.rankings[i]]);
rect(this.pos.x,this.pos.y+i*20+20,14,20);
}
}
With this framework I could begin my animation of the group sorting routine described above. In my setup() function I instantiated 9 Student objects in the global students array
for (let i=0;i<num_students;i++) {
students.push(new Student(i));
}
I set a list of colors for the each group.
colors = [color(255,0,0),color(0,255,0),color(0,0,255)];
I drew boxes for each of the groups
for(let i=0;i<3;i++) { // create boxes for each group
stroke(colors[i]);
rect(40,i*100+100,300,90);
}
Using the .forEach() method on arrays I came up with a tidy way to display all the students
students.forEach((s)=>s.show());
I wrote a .glideTo() method in the Student class to handle the animation of the students moving across the screen
glideTo(pos) {
this.start = new Date().getTime();
this.move = pos.sub(this.pos);
}
I also revised my show() function to display the student in an intermediate location during the glide.
The last step was to articulate the algorithm that moves students to a new group. I needed to put the clearly defined steps above into proper JavaScript syntax. I could have written it more clearly with additional lines of code but I started experimenting with the .reduce method along with some es6 arrow syntax.
// find the smallest group
let smallest = groups.reduce((iMin, group, i, arr) => group.length < arr[iMin].length ? i : iMin, 0); // if the groups are even we are done
if (groups[smallest] >= 3) return; // identify the student we want to move
let toMove = students.reduce((iBest,s,i,arr)=>{
curRank = s[i].rankings.indexOf(smallest);
if curRank<s[iBest].rankings.indexOf(smallest) ? return i : iBest
}) // Initiate the move
students[toMove].assignGroup(smallest);
Putting it all together I had an animation of the simple version of of the sorting problem. I increased the number of students to 45.
It appears that the computer is going to be of help here. But I started to wonder whether this algorithm was going to produce the best possible solution. I remembered sometimes struggling to find good placements for some students when I used to do it by hand. Then I recalled a time I used a Monte Carlo simulation to apply random moves to solve a complex problem. I wondered if I could do the same thing here. Based on my memory of Monte Carlo and some googling I came up with the following approach. Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert in Monte Carlo so I am open to feedback.
Step 1: Write a fitness function to describe the overall happiness of the students
//fitness_of_one_student = numGroups - 1 - rankChoice
//rankChoice is the ordinal group preference. e.g. 1st choice == 0 def fitness(data=this.students) {
let choices = data.map((s)=>s.choice());
return 1440 - choices.reduce((a,b)=>a+b);
}
Suppose we have 9 groups and 180 students. If all the students get their first choice then they all contribute 8 points to the fitness function and the total fitness is 1440. I could also express fitness or happiness as a percentage by dividing the total by 1440. If all the students were put in their last choice preference then the total fitness would be 0 or 0%
Step 2: Put the students randomly in groups.
Step 3: Choose a random pair of students who are in different groups and determine the change in fitness that would occur. I might write some code to calculate this as follows
let p1 = {group:0};
let p2 = {group:0};
while(p1.group != p2.group) {
p1 = this.students[int(random(this.students.length))];
p2 = this.students[int(random(this.students.length))];
}
let new_fit = p1.choice(p2.group)+p2.choice(p1.group);
let cur_fit = p1.choice()+p2.choice();
let change = newg-curg
Using the value of change in fitness I could select which swaps to allow. A greedy approach would be to only make swaps where the fitness improved. However, the danger is that you could get stuck in a sub-optimal state. The suggestion I saw online was to use the following approach.
let r = random();
let comparison = exp(k*change); // exp is a power of e
if (r<comparison) makeSwap();
This function has the advantage that if change is >= 0 then the swap will always take place. If the swap is < 0 then it will sometimes take place favoring swaps with lower losses to fitness. This routine takes a long time to converge so I experimented with the following comparison.
if (change>0 || r<A*exp(k*change)) makeSwap()
In this case I still make all the advantageous swaps but I only make a fraction of swaps (based on the value of A) that are 0 change and then the probability of swapping drops off exponentially from there. This converged much more quickly.
I wanted to think up a new way to visualize this work. I thought of pizzas. I created 9 pizzas or groups. Each student is a slice of pizza and the slice color represents the happiness of that student. 0 shown with green means they got their first choice and they are very happy. 8 indicates last choice with red and shows a total lack of happiness. Then I added gliding of slices to liven things up and included a percent happiness on the screen.
From this animation you can gain insight into the Monte Carlo process. So I suppose the point of this work is that you can look up how to implement a Monte Carlo simulation and get it working. That is challenging and worth doing. But for me the real learning came when I started playing around with the simulation. By adjusting the A and k I could see how it impacted the overall results. I could run the simulation multiple times with the same preferences. I could really see what the simulation was doing. More importantly I could make decisions about what to make interactive based on what I wanted to learn and what I was thinking about. Simulations are beautiful and inspiring and they are ways of thinking more deeply about the models that we create of the world around us. I find that coding is the best way to get deeper into the thinking of simulations and they often lead to more insights into the problem they are trying to model.
I was excited about the work that I had done so I went to go show it to a one of the math teachers at my school. He asked me if I had heard of the stable marriage problem.
I visited Wikipedia and watched some videos. The stable marriage problem is intriguing because it involves rank preferences on the part of two distinct groups. In this case it is men and women. The solution to the problem is a straight forward algorithm not requiring anything as fancy as a Monte Carlo simulation. First I thought… well that problem is different because both parties have rank preferences. In my problem students choose electives but electives do not choose students. Then I started to worry that maybe my problem was not so different after all. I asked a few people what they thought and could not get an answer. I decided to play around with the code to see how the two approaches compared.
Oh no. The algorithm that I gave in the first animation turned out to produce the best possible solution to the problem of 9 groups and 180 students. I ran it 200 times and it was always the best. The Monte Carlo swaps never improved upon the original solution. I suddenly felt silly that I had spent so long building an animation with flying pizza slices that was of no problem solving value. I rationalized my disappointment with the justification that I had a deeper sense of the problem having gone through all these steps. But that did not make me feel any less disappointed. I took a break from the problem for a few days.
When I picked the problem back up I started thinking about how students choose electives. Real students don’t usually have random preferences. Often some electives are much more popular than others. I started designing a preference generation algorithm based on defined weightings for each elective. I could randomly select those weightings and then use them for all the students.
generateRankings(){
let info = [];
for (let i in weightings){
info.push([weightings[i].value()/10, int(i)])
}
let prefs = [];
while (info.length > 0){
let tot = 0;
let sums = [];
for (let elem of info){
tot+=elem[0];
sums.push(tot);
}
let r = random()*tot
let choice = getPref(sums,r);
prefs.push(info[choice][1]);
info.splice(choice,1);
}
return prefs;
}
This time the Monte Carlo approach was advantageous. With the weightings included, the algorithm could not find the optimal solution. Suddenly my pizza animation was back in business. I added a menu bar on the right to control the popularity weightings and included some buttons to control the functionality of the simulation. Here is the final version.
I called this post random experiences mostly as a tribute to the random element of the Monte Carlo simulation. The random selection of potential students to swap and the random number r that determines whether a swap is made leads to a probabilistic simulation and has the ability to solve complex problems in a powerful efficient way. It is an incredibly insightful approach that draws on the normalized distribution of randomness in the world around us. However, my reference to random experiences also speaks to the somewhat circuitous path that I followed in trying to solve this problem. I began with a simple simulation. I moved to a much more complex approach. Then I thought that the simple solution was in fact right all along only to later realize that I needed both approaches to address the problem fully. Sometimes problem solving can seem random and is full of micro frustrations. But what I am learning through this writing process is that the journey is more interesting and satisfying than the final solution. | https://medium.com/swlh/coding-stories-random-experiences-80aeed9973ac | ['Greg Benedis-Grab'] | 2019-09-28 10:25:46.860000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Computing Education', 'Mathematics', 'P5js', 'Monte Carlo'] |
I want to be part of Writers’ Blokke. @youdecode | I want to be part of Writers’ Blokke. @youdecode | https://medium.com/@youdecode/i-want-to-be-part-of-writers-blokke-youdecode-81fd0c90fb0e | [] | 2020-12-24 07:14:59.612000+00:00 | ['Publication', 'Writers Blokke', 'Writer', 'Medium', 'Readers'] |
Restify — Routing. Restify is a simple Node back end… | Photo by Diego Jimenez on Unsplash
Restify is a simple Node back end framework.
In this article, we’ll look at how to add routes with Restify.
The next Function
The next function is called to call the next handler in the chain.
For example, we can write:
var restify = require('restify'); function respond(req, res, next) {
res.send('hello ' + req.params.name);
next();
} var server = restify.createServer(); server.use([
function(req, res, next) {
if (Math.random() < 0.5) {
res.send('done!');
return next(false);
}
return next();
}
]); server.get('/hello/:name', respond);
server.head('/hello/:name', respond); server.listen(8080, function() {
console.log('%s listening at %s', server.name, server.url);
});
Then if Math.random returns a number less than 0.5, then we get that the response is 'done' .
Otherwise, then routes are going to be called.
next also accepts an object that’s where instanceof Error is true .
For instance, we can write:
var restify = require('restify'); function respond(req, res, next) {
res.send('hello ' + req.params.name);
next();
} var server = restify.createServer(); server.use([
function(req, res, next) {
return next(new Error('error'));
}
]); server.get('/hello/:name', respond);
server.head('/hello/:name', respond); server.listen(8080, function() {
console.log('%s listening at %s', server.name, server.url);
});
Then we’ll see the error response since we passed in an Error instance with the message 'error' .
We can also call res.send with an error object.
We can write:
var restify = require('restify'); function respond(req, res, next) {
res.send(new Error('error'));
return next();
} var server = restify.createServer(); server.get('/hello/:name', respond);
server.head('/hello/:name', respond); server.listen(8080, function() {
console.log('%s listening at %s', server.name, server.url);
});
to send an error response.
Routing
The routing logic for Restidy is similar to Express.
HTTP verbs are used with the parameterized resource to determine which handler to run.
The values associated with named placeholders are in req.params .
For example, we can write:
var restify = require('restify'); function send(req, res, next) {
res.send('hello ' + req.params.name);
return next();
} var server = restify.createServer(); server.post('/hello', function(req, res, next) {
res.send(201, Math.random().toString(36).substr(3, 8));
return next();
});
server.put('/hello', send);
server.get('/hello/:name', send);
server.head('/hello/:name', send);
server.del('/hello/:name', function(req, res, next) {
res.send(204);
return next();
}); server.listen(8080, function() {
console.log('%s listening at %s', server.name, server.url);
});
We have multiple routes in our Restify app.
get lets us handle GET requests.
post lets us handle POST requests.
put lets us handle PUT requests.
del lets us handle DELETE requests.
Other verbs that can be specified include opts and patch .
Hypermedia
We can render results of other routes with the server.route.render method.
For example, we can write:
var restify = require('restify'); function send(req, res, next) {
res.send('hello ' + req.params.name);
return next();
} var server = restify.createServer(); server.get({name: 'city', path: '/cities/:slug'}, function(req, res, next) {
res.send(req.params.slug);
return next();
}); server.get('/hello', function(req, res, next) {
res.send({
country: 'Australia',
capital: server.router.render('city', {slug: 'canberra'}, {details: true})
});
return next();
}); server.listen(8080, function() {
console.log('%s listening at %s', server.name, server.url);
});
Then when we go to http://localhost:8080/hello , we get:
{
"country": "Australia",
"capital": "/cities/canberra?details=true"
}
The path and query string parameters will be URL encoded properly.
Conclusion
We can create routes with various server methods with Restify. | https://medium.com/dataseries/restify-routing-1bdfe4e6a497 | ['John Au-Yeung'] | 2020-11-06 08:39:06.199000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Web Development', 'JavaScript', 'Software Development', 'Technology'] |
How to design family life? | I am a product builder who specializes in programming. Strongly believe in humanist.
Follow | https://medium.com/chris-dialogue/how-to-design-family-life-bd65f5721313 | [] | 2019-06-28 07:58:13.179000+00:00 | ['Life'] |
# 117: Story Struggles and Digitalization | Davenport, Thomas H., and Laurence Prusak (1998). Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know, 82.
Story behind the Passage
Why struggle with stories if I write every day? You know what, I am so sick of this back and forth. What I mean is: In some organizational cultures, storytelling is already a very well-known and appreciated measure of organizational development, almost a thing of the past. It is completely established to know that you need stories in order to pass on knowledge. In other organizations, however, it seems as if storytelling is such a completely innovative thing that people get extremely excited about it. Do not get me wrong, I am also excited about stories because I LOVE and LIVE them. I suck up every story I hear, I think in stories. I do not have to repeat myself…
The problem is: If you have business people around you from so many different disciplines and organizational functions, you get the full range of feedback. Some will tell you: “Storytelling, this is just marketing bullshit, it creates no value.” Then you have the other people: “Yes, sure, storytelling is crucial in every change process.” And then I go: “Yes, but I am not sure if I just want to work on change.” Or maybe I do but I am just confused because I know that stories create value anywhere but you cannot sell anything anywhere to anybody if you do not have the right keywords to get your value proposition across.
It is such a hassle.
Sometimes I start neglecting the power of stories altogether because of all the confusion. I think about studying computer science to just get away from stories. And then, the next day, I happen to talk to a colleague who asks me what I do and then I go like: I do this and that but actually, I write stories to help people. There it is again… Grrrrr. All this tells you why I have chosen the book Working Knowledge on storytelling today. I started publishing about Storytelling four or five years ago, I think. I mean, in academic articles about narrative organization studies. Maybe it is time to get back to this, to finally “settle” and accept that I love stories and that I should NOT stop researching about them?
My Learnings
“A good story is often the best way to convey meaningful knowledge.” The stress is on “meaningful” here. Knowledge that has no meaning does not even end up as knowledge because knowledge needs to be stored in order to be called knowledge. It is information that has meaning; it makes SENSE. It is just such a pity that our modern-day education institutions have forgotten about this to the result that now, consultants and even new universities make big money with the ‘invention’ that stories help people learn. What a surprise that is, right?! It is so funny how “innovations” come back every 30 years — same content, sometimes a different label, that is it.
“Once we recognize that narratives are the best way to teach and learn complex ‘stuff,’ though, we can often encode the stories themselves so as to convey meaning without losing much of its leveragable value.” For anyone who knows anything about narratology, there is no surprise here. I do know, however, that with the digital transformation, storytelling is gaining much more practical relevance again. Of course, people who are scared of technology and/or not very skilled can be ‘guided’ towards digital literacy by reading or listening to tales of digital value creation. And yes, stories, as you will also read in any book about storytelling, derive their power from the fact that they put human beings at the forefront of their plots. Humans have and trigger emotions and emotions in turn support learning. There you go!
The question that I am asking myself in this context of simplification as the most valuable effect of storytelling is: How much is too simple? To be honest, I am getting sick of all the simplification talk. I know that business — especially nowadays in the age of digitalization — is very much based on simplification as a technique. You communicate your value in a very simple manner to the client and the value you create for your clients is also, most likely, related to a product or service that makes the life of your customers easier. This is what technology is all about, as I also explain to clients and anyone interested in learning more about the products that startups build.
The only problem is: What if your brain longs for more? What if you are not satisfied with simplicity all day long? Yes, I have written in other posts that the ability to actually make things less complex is a great art that requires much genius. I am not underestimating this. But I am talking about personal needs and pleasure here. What if you know that your brain can do things that can be considered as complex thinking and what if your brain actually enjoys this very much? What if you simply give a shit about simplification because you can read scientific papers that many other people simply cannot understand but you actually enjoy them because they are more complex than the everyday marketing slogans of some personality branders?
Of course, all these are rhetorical questions, right? I am posing them because there is an answer that is longing to break free inside of me. Of course, there is a part of me that is not happy with the simplification effect that stories achieve, no matter how much I love writing stories. But there needs to be some guideline as to how much you value one or the other. This value attribution cannot be based on some “trends,” some public appreciation of how much business storytelling gives you these days. This value can only come from your personal reasoning, I guess, with reason being the ability to think in the most sophisticated way possible according to your level of education.
So, what the hell am I actually doing with my brain these days?
Reflection Questions
1) Are you using storytelling for digital change management in your organization?
2) What is the most striking story that taught you some really crucial lesson in your life?
3) Does your job keep your brain busy? | https://medium.com/@silkeschmidt-32637/117-story-struggles-and-digitalization-f023259a3125 | ['Silke Schmidt'] | 2021-01-27 19:44:25.741000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Storytelling', 'Change Management', 'Digital Transformation', 'Business'] |
Dreams of a free and open Internet | That dream of the information highway. The democratization of knowledge. A world without censorship. The global village. When did we lose it? And what is Jeffrey Epstein’s role in all this?
The author with a T-shirt with an early Internet nickname printed. Provided by the Swedish Internet Foundation.
I remember it well. “Information wants to be free”. It was present in the cyberpunks’ dreams in the Usenet newsgroups. Every BBS was built on this foundation. It was present in mailing lists. Enter the web. Still the dream. Within reach. Forget bang paths. Everyone was suddenly able to use the Internet. A lot of people read William Gibson’s Neuromancer and had dreams of electric sheep. John Perry Barlow wrote the declaration of independence of cyberspace. We were indeed creating a world “where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity” as suggested by Barlow in his Davos document. We were in it together. All of us. The EFF was being founded by Barlow, Mitch Kapor and John Gilmore to defend civil liberties online. Software was being freed through Richard M. Stallman, Eric S. Raymond and Linus Torvalds. Everything was fine and dandy. The world was changing, we were all building a new and better world. A new and better world was possible.
ICANN a first step
Then things were starting to move. As Internet grew in popularity it no longer was a mere playground for aspiring self-described cyberpunks. The EFF was founded following an episode when Barlow was the target of a computer-related FBI investigation. In the world outside of our sphere, the Internet was still growing up. I think I first encountered governments seriously wanting to step in sometime around 1998. What would become ICANN was discussed following some activity and discussion in the area between the EU and the USA and Jon Postel and some of the other gatekeepers of top level domain names and IP numbers. I remember talking to Professor Jonathan Zittrain during one of the meetings held in Geneva in July 1998, telling him that “I feel like a total schmuck”. “We all do”, said Zittrain.
We had both just witnessed a session with Ira Magaziner, representing the US government. Magaziner said the government has an interest in Internet governance due to historical reasons, but that the US government would leave the Internet governance as soon as possible. Magaziner stated that the time for arguing was over and that the government was looking for a new, private, stakeholder-based organization to take over. Magaziner also said that the government was looking for consensus among the stakeholders, not different proposals as to how this organization should be managed or formed.
The next speaker was Christopher Wilkinson of the European Commission. Wilkinson acknowledged the efforts made by the US government, with certain reservations. Wilkinson firmly remarked that national and EU law must be recognized in the creation of the new entity, as for trademark and competition law. Wilkinson thought that it would be acceptable if the new entity was situated in the US, but that there should be safeguards in this area, so that no country would dominate Internet governance.
The reason I felt like schmuck was because I could not figure out how a new organization could be formed in the suggested time frame, just a couple of months.
I was soon to be even more dumb-founded. Out of a pink cloud and in no way related to the IFWP meetings a new organization emerged. This was ICANN, the organization we still know as the DNS government, if there is such a thing. Internet was lost, but many said there was hope, since ICANN was supposedly without government interference. This was the first entry into a regulated Internet.
The end-to-end principle
Many years later a promising young American Senator named Barack Obama is making net neutrality an election issue.
It should be noted that the Internet as such is a “stupid” technology. It is an end-to-end technology, which means that the network itself has no intelligence. It can only transport data. What happens to this data is then an effect of what happens at the ends. In that respect, the Internet is like the art of printing. When the printing press arrived in Europe the art of printing as such was not dangerous, but the information that could be distributed with its help could be perceived as “dangerous” or “bad” and worth censoring in various ways. The Catholic Church went the furthest with its index of banned books. The art of printing as such was not influenced. The technology was stupid and did not understand what it printed. The same goes for the Internet, whether it’s political messages, hate speech, bomb recipes, pictures of relatives and friends, copyrighted material, a letter to a friend or child pornography being distributed, the network does not understand anything. It is just data for the network. This can of course be changed by inserting products at the Internet operators that review or change the architecture. Why would you do that? Anyone who wants to regulate the Internet as such might be interested introducing this type of restriction in architecture.
At the same time, the “free and open” end-to-end architecture is in many ways a prerequisite for the great technological advances related to the Internet. There are, of course, opportunities to change what the person can take part in online, by introducing software in the individual’s computer. One such product that is interesting from a historical perspective is Netnanny. Netnanny filters out obscene material and other things that parents do not want to expose their surfing children to. Another similar product is Cyberpatrol. It may seem uncontroversial. Who wants their children to be exposed to internet pornography and articles that advocate terrorism? If you look at what these tools filter out, however, it can be about everything from alternative beliefs to advocating for rights for homosexuals. Suddenly, the index of the Catholic Church does not feel remote.
Online censorship
EFF co-founder John Gilmore said: “The Net treats censorship as damage and routes around it.” However, this should presuppose that there are free ways to transport information. In the event there is control over all access, all accesses, to the network, it is technically possible to exercise far-reaching, if not absolute, censorship. China is the perfect example of this environment, but it is happening elsewhere, too.
It should be noted that the Internet is already regulated in several ways. Hate speech is prohibited in Sweden under the law on incitement against ethnic groups. Copyright infringement is prosecuted under the Copyright Act. Possession and distribution of child pornography is prohibited regardless of the technology used.
One cannot stop all criminal action with law. This holds true in the online environment. There will always be people who can encrypt their traffic or send small parts of a file in sequence to hide their actions. This could be an argument both for not regulating the Internet at all (“it is still impossible to achieve 100% regulation”) or an argument for stopping regulation at the current level and introducing regulation at the architectural level (“forget end-to-end and introduce control mechanisms to control the content”). The fact that the Internet is difficult to regulate is not in itself an argument against regulating the network on this level or towards maintaining the “free” architecture. When the controversial Communications Decency Act was tried in the Supreme Court, Judge Scalia said of the inefficiency argument: “[if the government] succeeds in excluding children from 250 out of 500 [indecent bookstores] that’s no use? “ Very few laws give one hundred percent effect. In addition, one may ask what kind of society is working to achieve that kind of result of its legislation?
How to regulate the Net
You make a systematic mistake if you want to regulate the Internet in terms of content on an infrastructure level. Such an attitude could lead to the end of end-to-end and it risks stifling the creation of new inventions and innovations in terms of what can be transported online and also lead to today’s internet technology being “frozen” in its state. The Internet is not an anarchy today. There are laws that govern the content online. At the same time, the Internet is still under construction. There is another reason to be careful about regulating the Internet separately. A global regulation of the Internet in 1996, for example, could have led to us not being able to experience peer-to-peer technology or instant messaging, which in turn could have reduced the opportunities for developing the much hated Zoom and Google Hangout conference technology that makes it possible to work from remote during the pandemic. It is also easy for regulation of new technology to have unexpected consequences. In its book Code from 1999, Lawrence Lessig gives an example of this when it comes to voluntary regulation of AOL, America Online. AOL, which at the time was an electronic bulletin board, wanted to deal with “dirty talk” and other obscenities. The use of the word “breast” was therefore banned. The only problem was that The American Breast Cancer Society, which AOL housed, suddenly could not discuss their common disease. AOL’s actions provide an example of what can happen when changing the conditions for the architecture through which information is transported and is a strong argument for continued end-to-end technology for the Internet. Then the regulatory mistakes in the cases where they occur can be implemented at the ends and at least not affect everyone.
Meanwhile, new self-regulation is introduced in a high pace right now in the social networks. Twitter is hiding messages that could be promoting fake news regarding the US election, even if the tweet is sent by the incumbent president or if the tweet is a discussion a law professor is having and you could argue both ways. Everything happens fast and in a closed environment by private actors without any external supervision. Is it good, too little, too much or too late? It is a debate that is very much needed.
The arguments for and against regulation are similar to those voiced when it came to the art of printing. The measures taken are also recognizable (cf. Cyberpatrol and Netnanny with Index). If history has shown us anything, it is to be careful about regulating new media technologies.
Epstein and the discussion
Enter Jeffrey Epstein. The cult formed around Epstein tarnished so much of what the Internet was about. People, ideas and the vision. If you were around from the inception of Wired, Epstein is the antithesis of the Internet and touching everything you loved. Some of the people you trusted the most turned out to be complete monsters.
Epstein sought out many of the people and organizations of the early Internet. That does not mean that he provided them with underaged girls. He could have. But at the very least, Epstein tarnished them. It is enough to have been at a dinner with Epstein to get into trouble, and probably for good reasons, even though he was a socialite trying to get a selfie with everyone worth anything in social ranks. Consequently, many important voices have disappeared from the arena. Whether that is right or wrong is a different discussion that needs to be addressed on a case-by-case level, but it is evident that people previously important to the discussion, vanished from the discussions around regulation of the Internet. Another thing is that the entire community of early adopters involved from The Well, early Wired and onwards are now shattered and devastated over the horrible crimes facilitated and committed by Epstein and touched or committed also by some of their closest confidantes. There is a lot of whispering going on over the wires, but my main conclusion is that Epstein put a bullet in a previously vibrant non-conformist community of Internet freedom lovers. The original culture bearers are silent. Crushed by monsters. Sometimes the culture bearers were the monsters.
We very much need an active discussion over what Twitter and Facebook and other social networks are doing now in terms of self-regulation to avoid nation state regulation. We need to engage in the issue of ICANN thinking about getting censorship into registrars and other infrastructure possibly blocking content at will for moral reasons. We need to discuss how the cloud and free and open software should function going forward. We need to dwell on the role of the known and unknown algorithms and machine learning.
We still have a shot at the global village, a censorship free environment and knowledge at your fingertips. We can’t just have the governments discussing this. If so, we might end up with a very “safe” Internet, or worse a thorough balkanization of Internet and many, many national “Internets”, as suggested by Lessig and Zittrain on multiple occasions. President Barack Obama says in a recent interview with The Atlantic that the new information architecture is the greatest threat to democracy. I am not sure he is right about this, but it is a discussion needed to be had, also with the early adopters present in the room. I have to admit I have myself lost a lot of steam with all the bad things happening. It is not just Epstein’s crime syndicate and pedophile ring. It is also all the me too-allegations and whatever certain nations and this and that corporation been up to or not. All those things make you want to walk away from it all. But we should not. I should not.
The Epstein crime syndicate needs to be cleared out and the culprits and enablers sentenced and imprisoned. It is moving too slowly, if at all. But we need to save the spirit of the Internet, too. Epstein has already destroyed many lives. We should not allow him to destroy the Internet, too.
A better world is possible.
Mikael Pawlo
Head of Growth at Bokio | https://medium.com/@mpawlo/dreams-of-a-free-and-open-internet-5c5fb4e07431 | ['Mikael Pawlo'] | 2020-11-16 21:36:20.744000+00:00 | ['Cyberpunk', 'Policy', 'Freedom', 'Regulation', 'Internet Culture'] |
Think Small: The Origin of the Minimalist Movement | In recent years, “minimalism” has been a buzzword amongst millennials to describe a simple way of living with only the necessary material items. The definition of “necessary material items” is up to the practitioner but the philosophy is that living in a clutter-free environment provides a sense of mental clarity — a mind free from the distraction of unnecessary or excessive material items. The minimalist lifestyle, as we know it today, adopted the term from the Minimalist Art movement (also known as the ABC Art, Object Art, Primary Structures, & Cool Art) that began in New York during the 1960s. Minimalist Art has also played an active role in the design world, leading in design movements such as Modernism, Futurism, Bauhaus, Pop Art, and the present Modern movement we are in today.
Minimalist Art
Artists like Frank Stella, Agnes Martin, and Carl Andre were most influential during this time, however, never called themselves “minimalist artists.” Minimalism was a direct critique of abstract expressionism and cubism artists of the 1950s. Artists in the minimalism movement believed that art had become too academic and complex — asking too much of the viewer to unpack and also extremely demanding for the artist conceptually.
© Pollock — Krasner Foundation, Inc.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/pollock-number-14-t03978
Minimalist artists wanted to return to pure beauty in its objectivity — remove emotion, symbolism, and metaphor. Oftentimes, these art pieces were sculptures or machine-made pieces described as “impersonal.” This style of art was very unusual at the time. For generations prior, art had always pushed viewers to analyze, dissect, and find meaning. Minimalist art does the opposite.
Minimalist art calls the viewer to become aware of their space and body in relation to the art piece. The viewer is not lost in the ambiguity of an art piece — they are present and see the piece for what it is. Frank Stella famously said:
“What you see is what you see.”
Courtesy Lisson Gallery; https://cubanartnews.org/2018/10/10/moving-into-the-3rd-dimension-carmen-herrera-sculptures-in-nyc/; Carmen Herrera, “Estructura Amarilla,” 1966/2016
Characteristics of minimalist design included geometric shapes, squares, rectangles, precise, hard-edges, and few and limited color choices. Less is more from the design perspective. Robert Morris said minimalist design asserts,
“No to transcendence and spiritual values, heroic scale, anguished decisions, historicizing narrative, valuable artifact, intelligent structure, interesting visual experience.”
Frank Stella, Empress of India II, from Notched-V series, 1968, lithograph on paper. Gift of Marsha L. Vinson and Marvin Rotman, 2014/2.19
Minimalism in Design
In the design world, minimalism has played a considerable role, influencing design movements throughout history. Although design concepts shift throughout history, one can see the influence of minimalism and the way its values are important in clean logo design, print advertisements, and especially website and app design.
Minimalism remains a strong part of design in today’s world. Following Art Nouveau, a very complex style of design, came Modernism, a design movement that is the complete opposite of intricate design. Strong sans serif typefaces and large areas of color blocking became widely popular. Designers want a brand to be recognizable, memorable, and be able to get the point across in one glance. Not only is this relevant in logo design but also in website design, app design, and everything that has shifted into the digital sphere. Designers want the user to have a lasting impression and experience when they interact with your designs.
User-experience is the most important factor of design. This isn’t simply the way in which a person scrolls through a website, but it is the interaction between what the user is seeing and the action(s) they are taking following that interaction. If users see something compelling, they feel inclined to further investigate and that is what designers aim to do in today’s design era. There are ways to be influenced by all different types of design eras, but ultimately, you want users to understand the message without having to do too much work.
Legendary designers such as Saul Bass and Paul Rand explore space and minimalism differently but still use minimalist influence when designing. Designers can say so much with so little and is a value that guides designers today. The “less is more” concept combined with a strong idea can oftentimes resonate more with your audience for its simplicity and accessibility. The 1959 Volkswagen campaign, “Think Small” is a perfect example of utilizing minimalist design to focus on a message. The ad allows the viewer to have an immediate response. In an era that was focused on ads with 90% copy, “Think Small” broke the barrier, by finding another way to communicate with their audience.
Ultimately, design trends and movements change but minimalism always finds a way to come back. For this generation of users and viewers, with short attention spans on the rise and users expecting instant gratification, minimalist design seems to fit perfectly. Users want to be able to see a user interface and know exactly what they need to do without looking too much into it. As minimalist artists intended, this type of design leaves less work for the viewer but leaves a difficult job for the designer to be uniquely individual also fit into intended markets.
Here at Kingdom Branding, we ensure that our UI/UX website designs are user-friendly, optimized for mobile, and easy to navigate. We stay up to date with design trends that engage users and ui/ux strategies that provide an excellent user experience. For more information, visit: www.kingdombranding.com
Sources | https://medium.com/@kingdombranding/think-small-the-origin-of-the-minimalist-movement-900031805942 | ['Kingdom Branding'] | 2020-12-23 23:48:04.234000+00:00 | ['Minimalism', 'Design', 'UI', 'UX', 'Branding'] |
What I learned after making a game as a gift for one person | What I learned after making a game as a gift for one person
With that one stranger in mind, I set out on an adventure to create the perfect personalized game
During the holidays, I was inspired to create a game as a gift for a stranger, based on a design principle from a prominent game developer.
Hit mobile game “Crossy Road” creator Matt Hall of Hipster Whale has a very simple philosophy. He believes in choosing his target audience carefully. So carefully, in fact, that in 2015 he designed games for the individual.
When Matt was working at the game studio Tantalus and assisting with the development of “Pony Friends” for the Nintendo DS, he focused on a single photo of a rich young woman with a prize horse. “What would make her happy?” he thought as he instructed everyone in his studio to study the photo and keep it at the forefront of their minds during development.
“When I make a game this way, I don’t have to get bogged down in demographics or store trends. All I have to do is make a game that is everything for someone.”
— Matt Hall, Source https://bit.ly/3rCr8r0
Pony Friends went on to spawn a sequel, due in part to Matt’s passion for designing games for one person. Source, https://www.igdb.com/games/pony-friends-2/presskit
“Pony Friends” went on to sell millions of copies and spawn a sequel, “Pony Friends 2”. And we all know how much of a monumental success Crossy Road became back in 2015.
Well — it sure seems like he’s onto something!
As an independent game developer, I am prone to burnout and lose passion and motivation for projects. All professionals and even hobbyists can relate to this. So in November, I swore to create a small standalone project to rekindle my motivation.
The Secret Santa Jam hosted by Sheepolution saved me from a major slump. Source, https://itch.io/jam/secret-santa
With this desire in mind, I participated in a game jam (i.e. a time-limited hackathon where developers create playable game prototypes) called “Secret Santa Jam”. The premise was to replicate the traditional secret Santa gift trade but with games. Each game dev received a letter from another person, outlining their likes, dislikes, favorite games, etc. Then you are tasked with creating a game that you think the person would enjoy. You in turn submit a letter and wait with bated breath for your fully personalized game to be delivered.
“This concept is genius,” I thought. My giftee sent me a spirited letter about their love of action role-playing games, customization of playstyle and techniques, and their personal love of sports and weight-lifting. This set my mind in motion.
“Maybe he will enjoy a power system around weight lifting!”
“Including a multitude of skills and making them effective against enemies and the environment is key.”
“Maybe something like a Zelda-style top-down action game with a locked-door mechanic would work best.”
I began coming up with the concept — a warrior mage that must retrieve a treasure from a monster and trap-laden castle. This helped me constrain the scope to a single environment and purpose. Creating the playable character as both a spear-wielding knight and an adept magician helped me design many playstyles as quickly as possible, and throw in the weight lifting power up as an added thematic bonus.
In the end, I made a game heavily inspired by Legend of Zelda’s dungeons. Source, https://itch.io/jam/secret-santa/rate/861322
As ideas flooded my mind, they became clear game mechanics and thematic elements in a flash. The power of designing for a single person comes from the specificity of their desires, their personality, and their proclivities — these all allow you to design a custom-tailored experience. With the scope reduced, I was offered the opportunity to build an experience that is sure to please 100% of the target demographic; that being my game gift recipient. | https://cjames1.medium.com/what-i-learned-making-a-game-as-a-christmas-gift-for-one-person-830ed08b3513 | ['C. James'] | 2020-12-25 06:29:34.344000+00:00 | ['User Experience', 'Gaming', 'Game Development', 'Game Design', 'Unity Game Development'] |
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